Activists urge parties to take up migrant workers issue

In the light of the large scale exodus of people from south Orissa’s Ganjam district to other states of the country, several activists have urged the political parties to take up the issue of the welfare of the migrant workers ahead of the ensuing Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

About five lakh people from the district are migrating to other states every year, mainly to Surat and Mumbai. The migrants and their families constitute two thirds of the total population in the district, claimed Aruna, a non-government organisation (NGO), working on HIV/AIDS.

The migrant population is considered to be responsible for bringing the HIV/AIDS virus to Ganjam district.

“We cannot prevent the migration, which contributes about Rs 1,500 crore every year to the district, apart from providing job opportunities to about five lakh rural youth. We need to take steps to ensure the welfare of the migrant workers as well as safety of the district” said Lokanath Mishra, director Aruna.

Ganjam is the home district of the state chief minister Naveen Patnaik and also of Chandra Sekhar Sahu, the Union minister of state for rural development.

“The political parties contesting in the elections in the district should promise to issue the identity cards to all people migrating people from the district. Moreover, these workers need to be given insurance coverage”, suggested Mishra and Brundaban Panda, an activist.

They also urged the party leaders to negotiate with their counterpart governments for providing different facilities like shelter, security, health and hygiene, ration cards, drinking water, education and protection of rights and above all the implementation of labour laws at the work places of these migrant workers.

The activists pointed out that the migrant workers from Ganjam were mainly responsible for bringing the HIV virus to the district which ranked top 10 HIV prevalent districts in the country.