The coastal state, infamous for exodus of skilled and unskilled labourers to other parts of the country in quest of bread and butter, witnessed homeward influx of over 10 lakh people post-pandemic outbreak.

Despite the mind-boggling magnitude of migration, Odisha government’s claim that little over 40,000 migrated to other parts lends credence to the belief that authorities have resorted to gross under-reporting to hide the grim ground realities of lack of employment avenues in the coastal State.

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Labour rights activists spoke on the same line saying that the inter-state labour migration is much more on a larger scale than what the Government reels out the statistics.

If Labour Minister Sarada Prasad Nayak’s written statement in the Assembly is to be believed, 40,088 labourers from the State have migrated to other States in search of employment through the network of 626 licensed labour contractors.

It is nothing but eyewash. The inter-state migration is all pervasive in each of the 30 districts while it is more pronounced in Bolangir, Nuapada and Ganjam districts. Putting the migration figure at an abysmally lower side defies logic, they said.

In fact, the Government had put the interstate migrant workers’ figure at 1.35 lakh sometime back. There was an official count of 10 lakh migrants housed in temporary medical centres after they arrived en-masse in the wake of Covid outbreak. Thus trimming the migrants’ figure at 40,000 is a deliberate attempt to under-report, they felt.

With abysmal lack of employment opportunities and absence of irrigation network for agrarian activities, people from these backward belts of the State migrate to different States in search of bread and butter. In the process, these defenceless people are ensnared in bondage labour system and fall prey to exploitative practices of tyrannical employers, said activist Umi Daniel.

Every year, around one thousand cases of torture and exploitation of migrant Odia labourers are being reported, he said.

While the government puts the migration figure at 40,088, the actual figure could go up by twenty-fold, Daniel added.

The State Government is making consistent endeavor through the Field Departments and field functionaries to secure the livelihood of those who are the most vulnerable of the society, said officials.

Odisha government has initiated a slew of measures like initiatives like providing care and education of the migrating workmen families, rescuing the workmen caught in difficult conditions and setting up the help desks for migrant Odia workmen in the destination states like Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Delhi, they further informed.