The returnee migrant workers of western and southern Odisha districts are now all set to remigrate to their previous work places as their hope of getting wage work for a living at home looks shattered.
A study by Aide et action has brought the fact to the fore and shared the status of returnee migrant workers in nine districts of Odisha on the occasion of the International Migrants Day on Friday through a webinar.
The assessment covered 831 returnee migrant workers out of which 28 per cent were female. It was observed that migrants from western Odisha are between 25 years and 44 years of age while in south Odisha the migrants are in the age group of 15 to 34 years. South Odisha migration is young and adults dominated one, while western Odisha is middle age dominated.
In southern Odisha districts, most of the migrants were engaged in construction works. They were basically people from Gajapati (52 percent) and Koraput (43 percent) districts. Also there is good number of people from Ganjam (26 percent). These were engaged in garment factories.
While in western Odisha districts migration sector spread over brick kilns and house construction, the favoured destinations are Andhra Pradesh Telengana, Tamilnadu and Gujarat.
Migrants said they faced several kinds of problems like food, transportation, health facility, shelter homes and wage payment etc while coming back to their villages during the height of Corona. The south Odisha migrants mostly faced social discrimination. Around 75 per cent of the returnee migrants received PDS items under TPDS, and 31per cent were engaged in MGNREGS work in their locality.
Around 9.52 per cent returnee migrants reported that their children were enrolled ICDS and 4.76 per cent in MDM. Also 22 per cent got financial support from the Government where as in total 23.55 per cent of returnee migrants had not received any support from the Government. Currently most of the migrants are engaged in agriculture.
Around 53 per cent said that they were planning for remigration in western Odisha while in south Odisha it is 60 per cent. 75 per cent of the workers will remigrate as there is no sustainable livelihood opportunity at their villages or nearby areas. The migrant workers are in touch with their previous employers and fellow workers for remigration. Most of the migration is happening for short period which can be seasonal (6-8 months only).
Migrant workers Dhaneswar Podh, Ombla, Bargarh, Samira Bagarti, Tureikela, Balangir, Parthaba Nag, Komna, Nuapada, Bhagabana Jena, Talasara, Ganjam, Rajesh Pradhan, Purtamaha, Kandhamal, Padma Bhoi, Gurunda, Muribahal, Balangir, shared their experiences of migration and their present condition. They also shared that due to non availability of wage employment and delay of payment in MGNREGA, they are forced to remigrate outside of the State to earn their bread.
Among the representatives of civil society organisations who were part of the study include Ananga Negi from RARE, Ashok Pattanaik from Kartabya, Satya Pattanaik from Sebajagat, Kailash Dandpata from JAGRUTI, Lokanath Mishra from ARUNA, Prasant Nayak from PAP and Rudra Pattanaik from PARDA. They shared their experience and status of migrant workers in their respective districts.
Facilitating the webinar, Umi Daniel, director (Migration and Education) of Aide et Action South Asia opined that looking at the migration and issues of migrant workers, the Government should think of setting up a new department to handle the migration issue. He also emphasised on the inter-State collaboration and coordination for safe and informed migration.
Participating in the webinar, 55 representatives from civil society organisations, academic researchers, media and UN agencies shared the way forward.