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Updated: Aug 22, 2019 09:16 IST

To check distress migration in two of its most migration-prone districts, Odisha plans to give assured employment of 200 days under MGNREGS and ration for migrant families in advance for three months, besides other measures.

A meeting of several departments, including labour, panchayati raj, food supplies and consumer welfare, fisheries and animal husbandry, held last week decided to focus on two of the four districts that sees rampant migration every year. Bolangir and Nuapada, the western Odisha districts, saw almost half of the total migration of 1.28 lakh people last year.

A survey by NGO Tata Trusts in 30 gram panchayats of Bolangir and Nuapada last year found that around 38,000-odd people from 11,000 families unable to find work had migrated to neighbouring states. It is now undertaking a study in 100 gram panchayats in western Odisha to find out the families that are being forced to migrate due to lack of financial resources and work.

Odisha labour commissioner Niranjan Sahu said that to arrest distress migration, at least 200 days of assured employment will be given in those two districts starting from September when people start leaving for Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to work in brick kilns and construction sites there.

“Instead of assured employment of 100 days under MGNREGS, we will be giving 200 days and pay the workers at the minimum wage of Odisha, which is higher than minimum wage of MGNREGS. A corpus fund for MGNREGA for timely payment to the workers has already been started by panchayati raj department,” said Sahu.

The workers in the two districts will also be registered under Odisha Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board where they would get at least 17 benefits, including financial aid of Rs 50,000 to marry off their daughters. Mission Shakti that looks after the women self help groups of the state and Odisha Livelihood Mission will work together to provide seed money for the SHGs in which the womenfolk of the migrating families are members.

As most of the migrating families would start leaving from September, officials said ration for migrant families will be given in advance for three months beginning from next month. Special steps for ensuring pucca houses for migrant households will be expedited through central government housing scheme Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and state government housing scheme Nirman Shramik Pucca Ghar Yojana.

Other measures in the offing are holding Army recruitment rallies in Bolangir and Nuapada to lure the youths. Also skilling the youths under Deen Dayal Upadhyay Grameen Kaushalya Yojana and sending them to various Industrial Technical Institutes is being worked out.

The migrant workers are supposed to be registered under the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979. The same applies to any contractor who employs five or more inter-state migrant workmen. As per the Act an inter-state migrant worker can’t be paid less than the wages fixed under the Minimum Wages Act. A contractor has to ensure regular payment and provide residential quarters, free creches, and protective clothes for workmen.

NGOs working in distress migration sector said the state government’s efforts though admirable, was hardly a step in the right direction. Jyoti Prakash of Aide Et Action, an NGO working in distress migration in western Odisha districts, said government would not be able to stop migration. “The officials need to ensure there is no exploitation of migrating workers and all migrants should be compulsorily registered under ISMW Act. Over the last two decades there have numerous instances of migrant workers getting killed, tortured and sexually assaulted by the contractors. That should stop,” he said.