MIGRANT LABOUR ISSUES (3 STORIES)

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THE PIONEER


3. YET ANOTHER N’PADA MIGRANT LABOURER DIES

Monday, 11 May 2015 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in Bhubaneswar
    
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Within a span of 15 days, a second case of death of a bonded labour of Nuapada district working in the brick kiln of Telangana has been reported. Debendra Chhatria of Saradhapur village had died 15 days ago in Hatepeta while he was going in a loaded tractor to deliver bricks. The second unfortunate man was Babulal Khadia, a tribal landless labourer of Duajhar village working in a brick kiln of Angoli in Telangna. He died on April 30 last due to prolonged illness.
Babulal is one of the 20 labourers of Duajhar who left the village in January to work in Kalakunda in Telangana. “He fell sick after three months of hard work but continued to work as the employer did not allow leave,” said his widow Kuntula Khadia. “He was not even allowed to inform us about his illness till he was immobile due to swelling of body,” she added.
Kuntula, after being informed that her husband was seriously ill, had requested the local labour Sardar Joge Meher for help. “I requested him to tell the employer to leave my husband, but the Sardar did not respond,” said Kuntula.
Finally she sent one Bhaskar Kadia to Angoli to bring Babulal back. Reaching the workplace, Bhaskar saw that Babula was in need of immediate treatment. But as he was not familiar to the new place, he decided to bring Babulal to a hospital nearer to the village. “Thus, we came to Bhawanipatna, but he died in the platform before we could have started for the hospital,” said Bhaskar. Babulal has three small children, wife and old mother. With the support her clan people, his wife managed to complete his last rites. But she now is unable to think how to manage the family.

2. N’PADA MIGRANT LABOURER DIES IN CHENNAI

Monday, 04 May 2015 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in Bhubaneswar
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Pune Chattria (35) of Sardhapur village of Khariar block in Nuapada district is speechless. Her husband Debendra died on Friday last in a hospital in Chennai. She was informed that Debendra died on the way while going in a brick loaded tractor to deliver brick. Pune was taken to the hospital to see the dead body. “I do not know what happened. I was not in a state to ask about the cause of death. I saw his face only,” said Pune. The body was burnt in Chennai on the same day by employer Sampat Seth.
Pune and her 5-year-old daughter were put into a train to return to their village. Debendra was paid Rs30,000 by a labour contractor to work in a brick kiln in Chennai.  He went there with his wife and younger daughter Triveni in January. 12- year- old daughter Kanti was left in the village alone to look after the house.  “We have been going to Chennai for last five years, but I never knew the location of the kilns. This time we were in a place called Hatipeta,” said Pune. She also added that her husband was healthy and there was no illness.
Debendra was a marginal farmer with one acre of agriculture land in the village. “We had no employment after the harvesting of paddy; so my husband decided to migrate. Now, we do not know how we shall lead our lives,” Pune said. “More than half of our villagers have migrated to Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai. Employment is not available in the village, so they are forced to migrate,” said Jogeswar Chhatria of the village. He has sent his daughters — Tankeswari and Khageswari to Chennai to work in the brick kiln. “There is no other way,” he added.
Most of the households in Sardhapur are under BPL who need regular employment to earn their livelihood. But unfortunately, job is not available. A private cement pipe making factory located at a distance of 5 km provides employment to a few people. A few women collect and sell firewood and the rest of the villagers either migrate or sit idle,” said the villagers.
“Six persons of our village have died in their workplaces in unnatural conditions in the past. Still others are migrating,” said the villagers. As per information of people, three deaths have occurred in last four years due to migration. “Tekaram Sabar was electrocuted in a brick kiln three years back; Pustam Sabar also died there. Gagan Sabar arrived here having illness and died a day after his arrival,” they added.
It is evident in the village as well as from Government records that there is no employment generation work in the village in the current year. An irrigation dam, now under construction through Minor Irrigation department, employs machines to dig earth. There prevails a feeling of hopelessness within the people. The villagers are now worried that Pune would not be getting the benefit under National Family Benefit Scheme (NFBS) because she has not obtained any death certificate from the authorities in her work place. Her daughter Kanti, who is now reading in class VII, said she might have to leave her schooling to help her mother to manage the house.

1) 4,008 ODISHA KIDS WORKING OUTSIDE IN BRICK KILNS

Wednesday, 08 April 2015 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in Bhubaneswar

Despite the Odisha Government's claim of having launched several welfare schemes for poor people, an estimate by the State Labour Department has revealed that a total of 4,008 children of 12 districts of the State are working as labourers in different brick kilns outside the State. The State Labour Commissioner has instructed the Collectors of the 12 districts to rescue the children working in different brick kilns of Telangana State.
In Nuapada district, out of 635 children, the highest number has migrated from Komna block (214), followed by Sinapali (126), Boden (94), Khariar block (85) and Nuapada (13). All these children are working in the brick kilns of Telengana. Apart from those, a total of 37 children of Nuapada have migrated to some other districts of Odisha. The whereabouts of another 68 children out of the 635 are yet to be ascertained.
Through his letter on February 15, the Labour Commissioner has stated that a total of 4,008 child labourers are working in different brick kilns. Out of this number, the highest number of child labourers are from Balangir district (2,967) followed by Nuapada with 635 child labourers.
The Nuapada district administration has formed a rescue team consisting of the District Programme Coordinator of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the District Labour Officer, NGO Lokadrustri, the Sarpanch of Lakhna, the CRCC of Makhapadar Cluster of schools and SMC member of Khairbhadi. The team will move to Telangana to rescue the child labourers.
It is interesting to note that a number of Rehabilitation Centres for the care of children of migrating parents are running in the district, but instead of staying there the children are migrating with their parents.

The other districts form where the child labourers have migrated to  Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are Kalahandi with 110 children, Bargarh (120), Nabarangpur (30), Angul (4), Sundargarh (18), Sambalpur (40), Subarnapur (60), Jharsuguda (8), Baudh (15) and Raigada (4)

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