BHUBANESWAR: Deputy chief minister KV Singh Deo on Monday called for long-term measures within the existing development initiatives to create livelihood opportunities with better wage employment to check migration from the state.
Chairing the first meeting of the task force on distress migration here, Singh Deo said while lack of local employment alternatives is cited as the primary reason behind migration, most of the migrant workers belong to the marginalised communities and are illiterate. They fall prey to false promises of higher wages by labour contractors.
Exploitation of migrant workers could be checked to a great extent if they registered themselves with the district labour offices and the labour contractors who send them outside the state have valid licence. For this, there is an urgent need to strengthen the institutional mechanism to stop the unethical labour practices by unauthorised labour contractors, he said.
According to the Labour department, 1,036 contractors have been issued licences, the validity of which has been verified 96 times. Survey of migrant workers have been completed in 29 gram panchayats of 20 blocks of Balangir, Bargarh, Kalahandi and Nuapada districts.
“The task force in its first meeting discussed relevant issues before the formulation of an institutional framework to be put in place at block, district and state level to tackle the problem in a holistic manner. The meeting discussed about the possibility of developing a mobile application for registration and streamlining of various benefits for migrant workers. Introduction of a special health card for them was also discussed,” said Singh Deo.
It has been decided to implement the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act, 1979 strictly for regulation of employment and service conditions of the migrant workers. The state government has provided a toll free number 18003456703 for the workers to seek any assistance.
The state government has constituted a 20-member task force headed by Singh Deo to examine the region-wise nature of migration and find effective solutions to the problem.
Among others, deputy chief minister Pravati Parida, Panchayati Raj minister Rabi Naik, Forest minister Ganesh Ram Singhkhuntia, Fisheries and Animal Resources Development minister Gokulananda Mallik and Industries minister Sampad Swain participated in the meeting.