Despite the Odisha government’s tall claims of various welfare schemes, there seems to be no end to the plight of migrant workers in the State. With reports of rampant migration of workers to other states in search of work, the much-touted welfare schemes seem to be limited to pen and paper only.
After being denied their share of pay and exhausting their savings in Bengaluru, three migrant workers who were working at Bengaluru walked almost 1000 kilometers distance to their hometown in Odisha, after they were denied their pay share, reported news agency PTI. The migrant workers reportedly exhausted their savings and did not have money to spend on the transport.
According to PTI, the three migrant workers started their journey from Bengaluru around a month ago and reached Odisha’s Koraput on April 2 with a pair of water bottles. When locals enquired, they shared the details and some people at Koratput helped them to reach their homes in Kalahandi. The report also claimed that they had no option to reach home as they were not paid as promised and the employer denied providing any work in Bengaluru.
Seeing the suffering of the labourers, some Samaritans offered them some food and money on their way back to home.
According to the migrant labourers, they were forced to move to Bengaluru to work as daily labourers after they did not get any work under MGNREGA.
