Barely two days after the palms of two migrant labourers were chopped off by labour contractors in Balangir exposed the shocking plight of workers in the backward Kalahandi-Balangir-Koraput region of Odisha, 619 migrant workers, including women and children, were rescued from Khariar Road railway station in Nuapada on Thursday (December 19).

Incidentally, fresh attempts were made to lure 315 labourers from among the rescued ones but the attempt was foiled by the police, who sent them home on Friday.  

This is the first reported case of such a large number of migrant labourers leaving the state in search of work.

Police sources said after the workers were rescued they had gone back to their village, but they were not aware that they were being trailed by labour agents. The agents managed to lure 315 rescued workers and housed them in a high school about 4 km from Khariar Road. Hey had allegedly planned to take the labourers to Raipur (Chhatisgarh) before sending them to Faizabad (Uttar Pradesh).  

The workers belong to Beltukri area under Jonk police station in Nuapada block, Jharbandh in Bargarh district and Bagbahara area in neighbouring Chhattisgarh. They were supposed to board the Vishakhapatnam-Nizamuddin Samata Express to be taken to Faizabad.

Earlier, Inspector General of Police (South-Western Range) Yashwant Kumar Jethwa said, inspector of Jonk police station Jaikumar Pattnaik received information about the sudden rush at the railway station. When he reached the station he found out that they were migrant labourers waiting to board the train. The inspector immediately informed Nuapada sub divisional police officer (SDPO) Asish Singh, who rushed to the railway station with police force and prevented them from boarding the train. They were brought to Jonk police station, he said.

Later, during investigation it was found that the migrant workers were being taken by a labour agent, who managed to flee before the police could nab him. The labourers were reportedly paid advance ranging between Rs 20,000 and Rs 1 lakh.

District Labour Officer Niranjan Kumda, who reached the spot, said seven agents have been identified and will be arrested. He said cases will be registered under labour laws besides various section of the IPC. Kumda said 28 labour licences were issued and the contractors are legally allowed to take 2,500 labourers with them with prior information details.

None of the labour contractors had informed the DLO’s office of the exodus, he said, though it is a trifle far-fetched to believe that the DLO had no knowledge of human trafficking, an age old practice in the region. It is also no surprise that the raid and action to curb subsequent migration took place only after the incident hit the national media.   

Why migration takes place

Sources said that the large migration of labourers to other states is due to non-availability of work under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

Sources said this is due to distress and hunger migration that continue unabated in the backward KBK region and the failure of the authorities to curb it. This has exposed the failure of welfare schemes rolled out by the government in stopping migration by ensuring food and work for the poorest of the poor.
Over 2 million people from western Odisha go out of the state in search of work despite rolling out populist schemes like giving rice at Rs 1 per kg. The accountant general of Odisha, Amar Patnaik, said as per their findings the schemes do not reach the poorest of poor and the wages paid under different schemes is far less than they get outside.

Congress MLA and leader of the opposition Bhupinder Singh said migration from the state is primarily debt-inducted and has a cycle that starts before October when labourers are paid lump sum amounts in advance by middlemen during the Nuakhai festival and they leave as bonded labourers after Dussehra. They return only to fall back on the moneylenders to scrape through the rainy season as they do not find any work at home. During this period the employment guarantee schemes comes as a cropper as most work under MGNREGS are stopped during monsoon, he added.  

The comptroller and auditor general (CAG) has also come down strongly on the poor implementation of MGNREGS in Odisha. In its report covering the performance audit of the scheme in Odisha it revealed several shortcomings and stated that the basic thrust of the Act to foster inclusive growth ranging from basic wage security to recharging rural economy remained unfulfilled. Arrangement of structural mechanism with adequate capacity building was not made in terms of the provisions of the Act. Timely enunciation and effecting the perspective and annual plans prioritising the genuine and basic needs of the rural people was not made.

The report said effective, efficient and economical utilisation of funds under the scheme ensuring the financial ethics and canon was not ensured which resulted in gross financial irregularities of diversion of scheme fund, misappropriation, tampering of muster rolls, non-rendering accounts in respect of advances for years.

 There were gross irregularities in the execution of works with poor maintenance of work records, use of machines in the execution of the works etc., which made the scheme skeptical in providing the intended benefits.

Audit found MIS data not in conformity with the original records maintained by gram panchayats. Social audit meetings were seen in many cases ineffective, not in line with the scheme guidelines. Lack of monitoring and supervision in implementation had also significant contribution to the failure of the scheme in the state.

In fact the CAG in its report recommended that the Odisha government should take steps to stop large scale migration of labourers to other states for work. The CAG report has asked the state government to fill up vacant post of GRSs, EOS, GPTAs and take effective measures to strengthen the monitoring mechanism ensuring regular field visit by the state district project coordinator and project officer.

The CAG also recommended for awareness generation campaign to make the rural households conscious of their right to work with active involvement in successful implementation of the scheme and the department should undertake another mass drive for registration of households. The department should ensure appropriate measures for execution of works and avoid misutilisation or misappropriation of scheme fund.

It stated that timely holding of gram sabha should be ensured with participation of adequate number of villagers for decision making on issues concerning MGNREGS with strengthening of monitoring mechanism for ensuring 100 days annual employment to the registered households.

Timely and impactful social audits of the scheme should be conducted to ensure accountability of the implementing agencies. Timely action by the District Programme Coordinator (DPC) right from according approval for the shelf of projects to effective implementation of the works should be ensured.

The state government has also failed to coordinate with other states for effective implementation of the Inter-State Workmen Act,1979, to ensure conducive service conditions for migrant workers. Obviously, in spite of tom-toming its success in implementation of pro-poor schemes, the latter’s approach has been populist rather than sincere in providing access to livelihood to the BPL category in the backward regions of the state.