Let Kerala flood-hit Odias be rehabilitated

The recent unprecedented flood in Kerala has mostly hit the poor migrant workers from backward States who have gone there to earn their bread. Many of them in hundreds are coming back to their own States in most distressed condition. A sizable number of migrant workers from Odisha is not being rescued and the exact number of casualties has not been assessed due to lack of data about them. The State Government has been proactive in bringing back the workers safe, with arrangement of special trains, but the most important point is their rehabilitation after the flood-hit return home.

The Labour Department of the Government of Kerala has opened a coordination centre with helpline for migrant workers and made appeal to the respective States to take care of the migrant workers. Now, the demand is the Government of Odisha must address the issue of the vulnerable sections in the trouble-torn State.

It is good that the Government of Odisha has contributed to the relief fund and sent a 240- member rescue operation team and many political parties and social organisations from Odisha have raised contribution from public to support the flood victims. But the State Government must use this as an opportunity to rehabilitate the homecoming workers under its current schemes and make all efforts to minimize the migration in coming days with all economic, social, legal and administrative aid.

Studies have found that the migrant workers from about 22 districts of Odisha are working there in textile, seafood export, port, construction and other domestic jobs. The major districts include Ganjam, Puri, Nayagada, Khordha, Rayagada, Malkangiri, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Sundargarh, Korapurt, Nabarangapur, Balangir, Baleswar, Bhadrak, Jajpur and Kendrapada, etc., with a sizeable presence of tribal, Dalit, women, Muslim and Christian populations.

Not just Odisha, but inter-State migration has been emerging as a national issue which needs inter-State coordination too in handling labour exploitation, as the Economic Survey report in 2016-2017 says that inter-State migration of workers in India has increased to about 90 lakh annually.

It is said that the workers of poor States and also backward pockets are migrating to rich metropolis and hubs of States with export ports, manufacturing, industry, mining, SEZ, textile , construction , and infrastructural work. The States of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Delhi, Kolkata, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Kerala are major a destination of migrant workers. Kerala manages to pay   comparatively better wage and social security benefits to migrant workers and also has a relatively better living condition because of its policy, so higher migration of workers from outside there.

With lowest population growth, most Keralities prefer higher wage skilled jobs outside and a sizable number is placed in the Gulf. The unskilled domestic jobs are filled with lakhs of migrant workers from backward regions of India like Odisha, Bihar, UP, WB, Chhatisgarh, Assam, besides from Nepal and Bangladesh of South Asia. Kerala is known for its good governance, land reform, social development, health and education, and relatively better inclusive social environment that allow people from different religions to live peacefully.

Studies have found that along with economic reasons such as illiteracy, landlessness, low wage and lack of self-employment and locally unemployment situation, the social discrimination, practices of untouchability, caste and communal violence have perpetuated distress migration. The Dalit and Adivasi Christian people in Kandhamal, Gajapati and other parts of the State have migrated in more numbers after the Kandhamal violence and the migration of Dalit population of the State also has strong link with continued practices of untouchability and caste-based social oppression in rural villages of the State.

The Government of Odisha has not yet properly identified the migrant workers in the State though there has been a plan to go for registration at panchayat level but the Panchayats are not doing it seriously. The root cause of distress migration is not being addressed.

Many horrible cases of labour trafficking, harassment, cheating, chopping of hands, rape, murder, missing, underpayment and exploitation in many inhuman forms have been reported in Odisha. The Labour Minister in the Assembly reported about death of 112 migrant workers during the last three years from 2014 to 2017. It is told that more than half of the deaths have occurred in southern States of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, but it is a fact that many such death cases have gone unreported.

The number of inter-State migrant workers as estimated by the Government was about 92,000 in 2011 and it has increased to 1.5 lakh in 2015.  The number has been increasing every year without control.

There are about 3,000 registered labour contractors who are officially engaged in this business. Informal sources estimate that around 20 lakh migrant workers from Odisha are outside the State.

The minimum wage rate in Odisha is one of the lowest in the country and employment in agriculture sector is seasonally in nature.

The non-implementation of land reform has helped the traditionally land owning communities to avail all kinds of Government facilities, but the condition of agricultural workers and sharecroppers remain unchanged. The MGNRGS, the biggest rural employment scheme, is ineffective in ensuring 100 days wage work.

Though there is the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Service Condition) Act, 1979, but it is very poorly implemented in the State thanks to a corrupt bureaucracy and lack of political will. Lakhs of migrant workers are out of fold of trade unionism.

Labour officials, police, labour contractors and local elected people’s representatives have nexus that facilitates lawlessness and accentuates poverty, rather than development of the migrant people who remain at the edge. It is expected that these agencies should collectively monitor the situation, but unfortunately, there is no action at ground level to rehabilitate the migrant workers.