The Government of Orissa developed number of ways to reduce the poverty in the state but there is no single best way to approach this task. All the strategies will require widespread discussion and consultation within the government and more broadly with the civil society. Though the major portion of Orissa’s population depends on agriculture and migration labourers are generally farmers, it will require increasing in the growth of incomes generated in agriculture. If you concentrate on agriculture, the most urgent requirements are road and irrigation. The implementation of the national Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, which is a centrally funded scheme designed to achieve connectivity. Rural connectivity needs to be improved. Orissa has about 40% villages, which have all weather connectivity as compared to 60% all weather connectivity at national level. All weather connectivity is required for rural roads to produce significant benefits for the farmers in terms of transport infrastructure. At the other side, nearly 60% of the cultivable land is rain fed and exposed to the vagaries of monsoons. Due to the absence of adequate irrigation facilities, agriculture is pathetically dependent upon the monsoons. As a result of the erratic behaviour of the monsoon, agricultural production fluctuates widely from year to year. If we improve our irrigation facility then the farmers will get over the year employment in their cultivation land. No need to migrate to other states. We can use our strength, our labour and our manpower on our soil to develop our Orissa.

The Food for Work Programmes (FFWP) was started in 2000 as part of the Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) in Orissa. Later this programme was expanded to form a part of any wage employment scheme of the State Government. It was being implemented in the notified districts during periods of natural calamities, such as drought, flood or cyclone. This programme also helps for generation of wage employment for BPL and APL families. The wage is paid to the labourers in the form of foodgrain and partly in cash. Out of 30 districts, 28 districts of Orissa are covered under Food for Work Programme, but the state’s food for work programe is still badly timed, beginning only when work on the fields has started. For communities who have no concept of savings, this is useless. Work on government projects for few months is never enough for the farmers of Orissa. They want round the year employment. It is the responsibility of Orissa government to create different job sources for the jobless farmers who are migrated in the winter just like Siberian birds to Chilka Lake.

Conclusion

Life of labourers is extremely grim, and they are forced to live on a shoestring budget, consuming substandard food to save up to enough money to return home with. Being largely illegal, labour migration remains an unaccounted activity. So it becomes next to impossible to ensure minimum wages or labour rights for a migrant. In case of accident, sickness or death of a migrant, there is virtually no way to ensure compensation. The very next responsibility of media is to awake the labourer, the Sardars and at last the government. But unfortunately our local media has adopted a style of negative reporting, largely controlled by politicians with their own agenda. The culture of cynicism has grown rapidly infecting the psyche of the entire population of Orissa. The farmers are struggling for maintaining their daily life, as there is no work for anybody in the state. Our political leaders thought of to make Orissa prosperous through mega projects sponsored by central government. But the labourers have benefited very little.