BHUBANESWAR : Deputy chief minister Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo on Wednesday called for strengthening cross-border cooperation and sharing of best practices for helping migrant workers.
Addressing the South Asia Labour Mobility Conference held under the joint auspices of the Bhutan government and World Bank at Thimphu, Singh Deo representing India, said, Migration is a multifaceted reality that greatly affects the quality of life and economic growth of the people. In India, about 10 crore workers migrate to other places every year, usually for one to six months.
Singh Deo, also the chairman of the Task Force for Migrant Workers, highlighted the problems faced by the migrant workers in India with specific reference to Odisha and the major steps that have been taken by the state government to combat exploitative advance payment system and regulating informal recruitment chain.
Creating awareness for informed migration, strengthening skill development linkages and the steps taken for working towards inter-state portability of services are the other initiatives of Odisha to protect the interest of the migrant workers. Migrant labour help desks in multiple states and creation of district-level emergency relief fund of Rs 15 lakh each are the other measures to help the workers, he said.
Leading economists of the World Bank from South Asia, Middle East and North Africa, and representatives from Maldives, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, UAE, Canada, Australia, Italy and Philippines attended the conference.