The International Migrants Day is observed on December 18 in accordance with the Resolution 55/93 of the United Nations General Assembly adopting a resolution on the international convention on the protection of the rights of all migrant workers and members of their families.
Odisha is known as one of the key migration source States. As per the State Department of Labour, close to 1.3 lakh inter-State workers migrate to other States to work as migrant labourers. However, unofficially, there are two million migrants working in various States in India as migrant workers.
Majority of the migrant workers are from coastal region which accounts for 50 per cent of the total migrants working in textile, cotton ginning, carpet, diamond polishing, and construction sectors.
Labour migration from tribal north, southern and western Odisha is mostly considered as distress family migration to work in brick kiln, construction, stone crusher, domestic work, plantation and agriculture sector within and outside of the State.
On the other hand, young and adolescent groups from tribal and rural region migrate to various inter-State and intra-State destinations to work in hotel, restaurant, construction manufacturing and various service sectors. The State also has been reporting large numbers of workers who are migrating to the Gulf and other international destinations as construction workers.
The Odisha Government has formulated a State action plan to reduce vulnerability of migrant workers in western Odisha and is trying to set up help desks in key destination States. The Department of Education has been working on setting up seasonal hostels for migrant children in the western districts of Odisha. Whereas the civil society organisations have been actively working on migrant children’s education at destination, awareness generation of safe migration and advocating for better and meaningful policy for the migrant workers.
The Inter State Migrant Workers Act of 1979 has not been helping the migrant workers and needs amendment. The Government of India is going to discuss and pass a new law, “Trafficking of Person (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill 2017” which is under debate. While the act has are some progressive provisions to curb all forms of trafficking, but still there are gaps to address the issues of labour trafficking and laws to protect the migrant labour.
The UN Sustainable Development Goal also focuses its attention on reducing vulnerability of men, women and child migrants and creating an inclusive policy. The inclusive policies for migrants in cities are a key urban policy which needs to be undertaken by the Government.
