Rayagada: Out of the six labourers from Odisha who were charred to death July 30 at a prawn factory at Lankabhanidiba village in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, four were minors from Gunupur block in Rayagada district alone. Since the tragedy, 33 labourers were brought back from the same village August 1 after the intervention of Gunpur MLA Raghunath Gamang. Among those who have come back, 15 are minors. This incident demonstrates how minors are being forced to work as migrant labourers putting their lives on the line.
According to those in the know of things, acute financial problems in their families have forced these minors to work instead of going to school as others of their age do.
There are many poverty alleviation programmes launched by the central and the state governments. However, it seems that the benefits of these programmes are not reaching those who deserve the most. The intellectuals in Rayagada district said that officials of the district administration are responsible for such a situation. They alleged that the district Labour department doesn’t have information regarding how many labourers and minors have gone out of the district to seek jobs elsewhere.
As per the information shared by NGO ‘Childline’, it has succeeded in rescuing 108 adults and 57 minors who were being trafficked to other states as labourers between April 2019 and July 2021. However, officials of the organisation said that many more have been trafficked to other states without their knowledge. The organisation is aware only of those cases where it manages to trace and save the youngsters from doing tedious jobs with meagre salaries.
Officials of the NGO also said that they have tried to develop awareness among the parents of the minors on this issue. They have even provided education opportunities for the youngsters. However, due to financial crunch, the minors have been forced to seek work to support their families.
It has been found that people mainly from Bairagi Halua and Alubadi areas in Rayagada block and some areas in Gunupur, Kasipur, Bisamkatak, Kalayansinghpur and Kolnara blocks are migrating to Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in search of work. Eminent localities opined that the Labour department should take steps to prevent people from migrating to other states in search of work.
Educationist Dushmant Kumar Mohanty opined that the migrant labour problem has its genesis in the failure of the government to provide such people with work to them. If the villagers are encouraged to take up work like rearing chicken, goats, cattle and fish farming then it will go a long way in solving the problem of migration.
“In order to ensure safety of labourers in other states, the licenses of the middlemen should be checked and the living conditions of labourers should be investigated at regular intervals,” Mohanty observed.
PNN