Distress Migration and Trafficking Workshop

With May Day right round the corner, a workshop on policy and data was organised by Antodaya and Action Group on Bonded Labour. It was held at the Presidency Hotel in Bhubaneshwar on April 26, 2017.

The panel consisted of Dillip Das, Chairman of Antodaya, Umi Daniel, Regional Head – Migration, Aide-et-Action and AnujaNaik, International Justice Mission.

Mr Das introduced the concept of distress migration and bonded labour and the challenges faced by those working on the issue. Bonded labour survivor Dialu shared his experience, talking about the abuse that he faced in 2013, including how his right hand was chopped off by traffickers.

“The grievance redressal mechanism of NREGA has failed in Odisha as there is no ombudsman in 24 districts for the last five years. This is affecting the employment opportunities leading to distress migration,” said Mr Das. He added, “The rehabilitation of identified bonded labour in the state of Odisha is not yet addressed despite the direction of the NHRC.”

It is extremely important that the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2016, that was supposed to be introduced in Parliament in the winter session, is passed in Parliament so that there are systems in place to safeguard migration and prevent labour trafficking. The Bill includes critical aspects of time bound and effective procedures for identification, rehabilitation and repatriation of victims and prosecution of offenders.

It was also stressed that the new rehabilitation scheme for bonded labourers that came into effect in May 2016 needs to implement effectively. There are certain gaps in the scheme that require effective and strongly monitored implementation. Linking of rehabilitation money to the prosecution of the offender will put the victim in a very vulnerable position. Therefore, there is a need to delink these components, create corpus funds and more.

She added that the rehabilitation scheme for bonded labourers that came into effect in May 2016 needs to implement effectively.

Mr Daniel stressed on the need for rehabilitation.  ‘The number of migrants is increasing and so this is vulnerability. The system needs to be a bit more proactive in providing them more support on the issue of rehabilitation. Bonded labourers are really suffering, as they are not getting the rehabilitation money due to them within the stipulated time period. There should be more livelihood options provided to the labourers during the lean period, which is when most of the distress migration occurs,” he said.