Real Story

The life of seasonal labourers is miserable in every respect. Here we got an opportunity to present the real problems faced by the laboureres. Most of the Oriya labourers are migrated to Andhra Pradesh usually from November to May to work in brick kiln. In regional language, the labourer is known as Pathuria. Starting from the home to reach at the destination, in every step they struggle to survive. Due to suffocation, dehydration and sheer exhaustion in general compartment with overcrowded passengers, their train journey towards the destination place become more disgusting. When they get down at the in brick kiln, the owners showed them an open place to build their hovel. This is the duty of these pathurias to build their hovels as early as possible else the life under the open sky may be extended to weeks. The owner provides the thatch or polythene for the roof and show them place where they get the materials (raw bricks and clay). As far as drinking water is concerned, the same water, which is used to prepare the clay, is used for every other purpose. These pathurias are working in brick kilns with a rate of payment about Rs 80 for 1,000 bricks made. They work for 12 to 15 hours, sometimes 18 hours a day to get the wage (around Rs. 70 per day) more than the home state. The minimum wage for daily labour in Orissa is little more than Rs 50.

Additional to that amount, the owner pays the to and fro tickets from their house to kiln. The final settlement is made only when they are ready to leave that place. The final settlement means deduction of all the payment whether it may have taken for food or any other purpose. The pahturias actually put all their effort to repay the debt what he has borrowed from the sardar. But at the going-home time, the calculation shows a shortfall, which they must pay back in next season. Illness is a normal phenomenon and the expense is first borne by the owner. Very ill people are sent home. Sometimes return journey becomes the last journey for many labourers. They do bring back some money most of which goes treating illness, or just to eat.

Causes of Migration

Migration in Orissa occurs when workers do not get suitable options for livelihood in the home state. So there is some expectation of improvement in circumstances through migration. The improvement sought is not only for better opportunity or higher wages but also maximization of family employment or smoothing of income or consumption over the year.

Particularly in Orissa, labour migration occurs due to wage differences between the home and destination place. The major reason of migration spectrum, the workers could be locked into a debt-migration cycle, where earning from migration are used to repay debts incurred at home. The second reason is purely voluntary in nature because of their limited choices for subsistence. Moreover, absence of non-farm employment, and low agricultural production due to natural calamities has resulted in a growth of seasonal migration.

Poverty Eradication