Bhubaneswar: Sabita Sahoo, 35, a migrant labourer, works in a brick kiln unit near Balianta in Khurda district of Odisha. Severe poverty and debt, brought on by landlessness, force her family of five, including her children, to move out of their village in Bolangir district in search of suitable livelihood opportunities.
Year after year, Sahoo’s top concern, as always, is about being able to earn enough in order to provide two square meals daily to her children.
Remarks this dejected woman, “Nothing ever seems to change in our lives; we will be as impoverished as we are today and our children will continue to be illiterate and without a future.”
Gurubari Banchor, 43, who works in a brick kiln at Trisulia in Cuttack district, is also facing similar challenges in life. She shares, “I am working at this unit along with 18 other families. There are another 30 families, around 120 people, employed in a kiln nearby. Most of us are contracted to work for around three to four months and we cannot leave during this period.”
Like Sahoo and Banchor, millions of poor Dalit and tribal people across Odisha pack their bags and step out of their homes each year in the hope of gaining some decent wage work.
Official data reveals that every year 1,18,451 lakh people, engaged by recognised labour contractors, migrate from the Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput (KBK) region. The government has given licences to 3,046 contractors.
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