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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Sordid tale of Odisha migrants-Suresh Krishnamoorthy

Sordid tale of Odisha migrants-Suresh Krishnamoorthy

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published Published on Apr 12, 2013   modified Modified on Apr 12, 2013
-The Hindu


About two lakh from Odisha working in brick kilns live in sub-human conditions

Ranga Reddy district: Birubak and his wife Varanasi, together with their five-year-old daughter Seema are paid just Rs. 600 to Rs. 800 a week.

Hailing from Odisha, they have a 14-hour work-day that starts at 4 a.m. They just have time to eat the little food that Varanasi can prepare, wash utensils and grab just two to four hours of sleep.

This has been their routine for the past four months, all because they have taken an advance of about Rs. 15,000 per ‘working person' back home and boarded a train to Hyderabad to work in scorching temperatures at brick kilns located in the districts surrounding the State capital.

Similar is the case with literally hundreds of families who are seasonal migrants to Andhra Pradesh. Sunita (25), daughter of Upender, works here with her father, while her husband is fortunate enough to have steady employment back home.

Pinky from Khariyal in Odisha is here too, along with her brother and his wife, all part of the hundreds of people who are categorised as ‘seasonal migrants'.

These migrant labourers live in tiny dwellings that have for walls, just one brick placed over the other without cement to keep them together. The height of the roof is, in some cases, less than six feet. The entrance to these to these ‘kutcha' houses is so small that one has to virtually bend at the waist to get inside.

About two lakh men and women from Odisha work in the brick kilns located in the districts surrounding the State Capital. A cursory look at their lives is enough to indicate the near sub-human conditions in which they live and work. In Ranga Reddy district alone, there are 265 kilns with an average of 30 families working in each of them. On Wednesday, Biju Janata Dal MP from Kendrapara Lok Sabha constituency, Baijayant ‘Jay' Panda, who is a Member of the Consultative Committee for the Ministry of HRD, went around brick kilns located in Tukkuguda and Raviryal villages of Maheshwaram mandal in Ranga Reddy district.

In a visit that lasted about six hours, he visited five kilns and inspected their surroundings in the two villages, with senior officials of the Labour Department here in tow. After the visit, Mr. Panda interacted with Joint Commissioner-Labour Ravi Bhushan, Deputy Commissioner V. Samrat Ashok Kumar, other officials and activists from Prayas and Action Aid.

He told presspersons that he would write his observations to the National Human Rights Commission, the National Commission for Women, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and all concerned to ensure that minimum wages were paid by the kiln owners/contractors and that access to basic education and health was provided.

Living in penury

The brick kiln workers have 14-hour work-day that starts at 4 a.m.

In Ranga Reddy district alone, there are 265 kilns with an average of 30 families working in each of them

BJD MP Baijayant ‘Jay' Panda, who inspected the brick kilns in two villages, to write about his observation to NHRC, NCW and A.P. Chief Minister


The Hindu, 11 April, 2013, http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/sordid-tale-of-odisha-migrants/article4604702.ece


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