Kosal Discussion and Development Forum

Migration has increased by 83 per cent in KBK district

April 27, 2012 at 1:23 pm sanjibkarmee 1 comment

Following is a report from the Hindu:

It has increased by 83 per cent in the last three years, says study

A massive job guarantee programme in form of NREGA, government’s claimed strict monitoring of migration and employment generation within the State due to industrialisation have failed to check migration from poverty stricken KBK region to other States.

A latest study that covered 100 villagers of Kalahandi, Bolangir and Nuapada district finds migration has risen in all three districts.

The disturbing factor, which is common among villagers in all three districts, is that they are ‘forced’ to migrate.

In Kalahandi, the study covered 1,872 population of 401 migrant households. Out of which 51 per cent were men and 49 per cent were women . About 84 per cent of the educated population have been migrating while 16 per cent stayed back in the villages. About 97 per cent villagers interviewed said they were migrating due to reasons those were beyond their control – forced migration.

In Nuapada district the study covered 581 households with a total population of 2,500, out of which 1,244 were male and 1,256 were female. It was found that 88 per cent of people of the total households were migrating for livelihood.

Migration increased by 20 per cent in the villages from 2009-10 to 2011-12, the finding says.

Similarly in Balangir district, the study was carried out among 4,311 villagers in 981 households out of which 90 per cent of the population were migrants and rest 10 per cent stayed back at the villages.

According to the study, migration increased 83 per cent in last three years. From 2009-10 to 2010-11 it witnessed an increase of 37 per cent but last year the migration shot up vertically.

Aide et Action, a non-government organisation, in collaboration with International Labour Organisation and the State government had carried out a micro-level study on vulnerability and migration in 100 villages of Bolangir, Kalahandi and Nuapada to assess the aspects, processes, factors, incidence and impact of migration.

Objective

The objective of the assessment was to conduct an in-depth analysis of the distress as well as to capture the process of labour migration and suggest ways and means for reducing distress and devise strategies for smooth, safe and protected migration of the migrant labourers going particularly to Andhra Pradesh and other parts of India.

“The findings are disturbing. Almost all migrant labourers were small and marginal farmers.

Children constitute about 23 to 30 per cent of migrant labourers. NREGA did not achieve its desired goal of providing jobs to rural folks.

We found distress migration in almost all villages,” said Umi Daniel of Migration information of Resources Centre (MiRC) of Aide et Action.

Factors those contributed in migration were no work in villages, failure to repay loan and crop failure.

Very few (2 per cent) said they were migrating for better earning.

“We invariably found that people had no works in monsoon season starting from June to September. If MGNREGS could be redesigned for creating jobs during this lean period, people would not go for taking loans. And majority of migration could be checked,” said Mr. Daniel.

He said the State government had very weak registration mechanism to document how many labourers were migrating to other States.

At many places anti-migration cells were not even working.

• Almost all migrant labourers were small and marginal farmers

• The reasons for migration were no work in villages, failure to repay loans and crop failure

Entry filed under: Balangir, Dadan Sramik Migration, Kalahandi, Kalahandi Balangir Koraput (KBK) region, Nuapada, Poverty and Hunger in Koshal region, Region watch, State and Central govt. and KBK.