Left with nothing to support families, migrants from Odisha return to workplaces

ROURKELA: Faced with the challenge of finding a job to feed their families, migrant workers from Sundargarh have started returning to their workplaces. 

The workers, most of them tribals, had returned home after losing their jobs due to the pandemic a few months back.

Several of them had walked hundreds of kilometres to reach home. But with little or no opportunities at their villages, the workers are now returning in hordes to other states. 

Binita Tirkey of Tiklipada in Bargaon block along 35 others from nearby areas left for Goa in a bus organised by a fishing company. Binita said she carries the responsibility of feeding her poor family and with no money and job back home she has no option but to migrate for survival. 

On Sunday and Monday, several workers from Tasladihi and Mohulpali panchayats in Tangarpali block left for Goa in buses organised by their employers, said Sundargarh MLA Kusum Tete. The legislator said the beleaguered workers after returning home had been sitting idle for months with no jobs.  

She said under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employed Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), a registered family is entitled to a maximum of 100 days of work. However, the number of members in a family is not taken into consideration under the scheme.

With the administration not able to generate adequate jobs for people from interior pockets of Sundargarh and Talsara Assembly constituencies, migration at a time when the pandemic seems at its peak has become a daily affair. 

As per the District Rural Development Agency, around 33,000 migrant workers had returned to the district.

However, Collector Nikhil Pawan Kalyan claimed 12,000 migrants including around 4,000 workers had returned to Sundargarh and many of them were given jobs under MGNREGS and as per 28 skill sets.

He said the administration is committed to the welfare of the workers.