Indus Valley Times

Family mortgages bike for RS 35K bring back body home

By A K Sahoo

Daringibadi (Kandhamal), May 8: In a shocking incident, a 34-year-old migrant worker hailing from Odisha’s Kandhamal district died in Andhra Pradesh while he was on his way to Kerala in search of livelihood opportunities.

The deceased was identified as Chittaranjan Nayak of Ladapanka village under Daringibadi block.

Chittaranjan is survived by his wife and two little children.

According to reports, the youth was on his way to Kerala with his two friends in search of work. On the way, he got sick near Vijayawada. He then got down from the train and got admitted to Government General Hospital, Vijayawada.

After struggling for life for two days, Chittaranjan breathed his last on Friday.

The family members and relatives of Chittaranjan had a harrowing time to get his body back. They had to mortgage his motorbike for Rs 35,000 to hire a hearse to carry the body home.  

The deceased was the only breadwinner of the family.

This is not the only case. Daringbadi has received several bodies of migrant workers in the past one and half decade and many dead bodies have been buried at the workplace.

In fact, migration in Daringabadi and other parts of Kandhamal is in a rising trend.

“Recently, we had a study with 6,731 families in 10 gram panchayats of Daringbadi block. The study shows 21.08 per cent families are currently in migration and another 14.44 per cent families are waiting for this. The current migration situation has changed a lot after Covid pandemic. At least 59.5 per cent prefer to go Kerala, 14 per cent to Tamil Nadu, 8 per cent in Odisha, 4.1 per cent Karnataka, 3.8 per cent to Andhra Pradesh, 3.2 per cent to Maharashtra,” said Kailash Chandra Dandapat, secretary of Jagruti, a leading development organization of Daringibadi.

As many as 54.19 per cent tribal, 37.42 per cent scheduled tribe (SC), 7.82% other backward community (OBC) people have migrated.

Kandhamal does not have a very long history of migration. It  began two and half decades ago. In the late nineties, few sisters took a few destitute ladies for work in their convents with payment, which afterwards paved the way.

“Many people think that there would be good remittances. But I do not think so. We see very few migrants have come with a good amount and invested in productive assets. But in most of the cases it is just for their survival. Secondly we found around 60 per cent is spent for them and the rest for the market. Thirdly, many social issues came with migration. Family bondage gets loose and sometimes ends with a second marriage with the lady from the workplace. The entire family suffers like anything,” says Mr Dandapat.

Here, the question is why is – Why do the people of these regions migrate? The answer is very simple:  There are not enough employment opportunities here. Then why is this Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)?

“Actually poor people do not trust on it because of delay payment and also corruption.  Two weeks before, one senior officer told me that, people prefer to go for collections of Mahua flowers, amounting to Rs 100 per day, rather than that of government work at a daily wage of Rs 250 or a little more. We have to understand why this is happening.  Poor people need money at the end of the day to purchase their ration and essential commodities; otherwise their family members have to sleep without food,” adds Mr Dandapat.

Here, the question arises – Can we stop migration?

“At this point it is very difficult to stop. But we can reduce it to the maximum possible limit in Kandhamal. We have vast natural resources like forests with us with varieties of minor forest produces like Siali and Sal leaf, tamarind, mahua flower, Tendu leaf, Harida, Bahada, Amala, different herbs and so on and so forth. We have turmeric, ginger, mango, jackfruit in plenty in our district. I believe small scale industries of value addition may be an answer to it. Secondly, Kandhamal drivers have a great demand in the market for their sincerity and hard work. Can we not think of having a special academy of vehicle managers, not simply a driver, with a special course design” asks the Jagruti secretary.

In fact, before the Covid-19 pandemic, the Government of Odisha was not agreeing upon existence migration in the state. However, the pandemic has opened the eye of many that so much of labouers are working outside.

“We know the current labor department structure cannot help it out. Now time has come to think for a comprehensive labor policy and strengthen our labor departmental structure to streamline for a safe and dignified migration,” said Dandapat.