Photospeak: Life in Sunabeda

Making rope from cement bags
Threatening letter by Maoist in Sunabede, Nuapada, Orissa

Forest Houses damaged by Maoists in Sunabeda









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When they're forced for distressed migration Wednesday, 27 May 2020 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA

  Eight-year-old Dipti, daughter of a migrant worker, living with her parents in a brick kiln in Thiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu received a phone call of this correspondent on Sunday evening and without waiting for any conversation from the site, she hurriedly said, "We are leaving the kiln now; father is packing our things." She was elated because the family's long wait for returning to their village had ended due to intervention by some activists and an NGO called the International Justice Mission (IJM).  Dipti along with her parents Gobardhan and Jema and two younger siblings Tripti (4) and Udit (1) was in a brick kiln of Tamil Nadu. The family had left the village six months ago to work in the kiln named Vinod Chamber located in Athur village of Solabharam block in Thiruvallur district. The couple had taken an advance payment of Rs 60,000 from a Sardar (labour contractor) in November to work in the kiln for about five months. Dipti was in class II in a village scho...
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Migrants return in droves, trigger infection scare Wednesday, 01 April 2020 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA

  Hundreds of migrant workers of Nuapada district have returned from their work places in the wake of the Coronavirus outbreak triggering apprehensions about infection among the villagers. They demanded health checkup of the migrants. Over 50 migrant workers belonging to Liad village of Sinapali block returned home on Sunday and Monday. 38 of them reported their arrival in GP office at Makhapadar, but the rest did not inform. According to the Sarpanch, eight of the workers were suffering from cough and cold. Tension prevailed inside the village for sometimes. The Sarpanch wanted to shelter them in the school building, but the people of a Dalit basti located near the school opposed. The workers had to stay near the river overnight until the health check up of eight persons was conducted in the Sinapali CHC the following day. The workers are now living in their houses. Most of these workers returned from Mumbai. Others returned from Chennai and Telengana. Two of the workers were work...
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‘INCOME OPPORTUNITIES AT HOME CAN PREVENT DISTRESS MIGRATION’

the pioneer STATE EDITION ‘INCOME OPPORTUNITIES AT HOME CAN PREVENT DISTRESS MIGRATION’ Thursday, 28 November 2013 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in  Bhubaneswar About 60,000 poor people of Nuapada district, constituting about 10 per cent of its total population, are migrant labourers. The hapless lot resorts to distress migration as a coping mechanism to escape poverty and marginalisation at home. The migrants neither have any objection to the unfavourable terms of engagement of the employer, nor can challenge the living conditions in the workplace. Gradually, increasing migration in the district represents many social and economic processes, including a degree of social and political mobilisation of the poor, who want to escape from the cycle of poverty and inhumanisation. But, migration does not provide them any respite from the vicious cycle of poverty. These were the observations made by the participants of a consultation on livelihood planning for the migrant and bo...
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