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Census of migrant workers sought

BERHAMPUR: There is a need for taking proper census of people who migrate in search of work from Ganjam district, felt the representatives of migrant labourers who attended a convention on migration organised in the city on Thursday.

This convention was organised by Aruna with the support of CRS and LEPRA Society as these migrant labourers of Ganjam district are the most HIV-prone persons in Orissa. HIV is making inflow into the district even to women living in remote areas through these migrant labourers. Chief District Medical Officer (CDMO) of Ganjam district, Rasbehari Gochayat, chairman of the youth hostel association in Orissa, P.N.Dave, and over a hundred representatives of migrant labourers and NGO activists participated in this convention.

It was said though every year thousands of youths from rural areas of Ganjam district migrate to Mumbai and Gujarat in search of work they never get recorded in the records of labour department.

Most of them migrate on their own without mediation of any labour contractor. Although there is no concrete data available as per a rough estimate there are around five lakh migrant labourers from Ganjam district who are mostly youth. Director of Aruna, Loknath Mishra, said migration had to be accepted as a source of survival of rural youth in Ganjam district.

The tradition had continued since 1866 when Orissa faced severe famine ‘Nanka Durbhikhya’. The experts attending this convention also added that this migrating workforce also remitted Rs. 300 –Rs. 500 crores to the district every year.

Most of the migrant labourers said they favoured a system of their own at their village which would record the details of migrating labourers as officials had failed to keep track of them.

They alleged that without any record their rights were never protected at the workplace. Members of the Ganjam Network of Positive People (GNPP), an organisation of HIV positive persons of the district, were also present at the convention to reveal the the precautions they need to take to keep off HIV.

The GNPP members were themselves migrant workers in the past and had got infected by HIV.

Most migrant labourers are in their youth.

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