Odisha: CM Patnaik Likely to Represent Huge Migrant Labour Force in Kantabanji as MLA

Kantabanji, a hub of thousands of migrant labourers from Odisha, a district where people struggle for a day’s wage, where on every face there is a quest for bare survival, are now pinning hopes on Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) supremo has decided to contest for the Assembly seat of Kantabanji in Bolangir district, a place that still reels under the stigma of poverty and hunger deaths.

Why has the Chief Minister decided to contest from this seat in Western Odisha, apart from his home Assembly seat, Hinjli, in Ganjam district, which has remained his bastion since 2000?  Observers would have us believe that this could be a balancing act by Patnaik between Coastal and Western Odisha.

But there is an air of euphoria in Kantabanji, where people feel that at least someone of the stature of the Chief Minister has chosen the seat for fighting the election and will be their next MLA. They feel this would help redress some of their major problems.

Although it is not clear how many people from Kantabanji work in the brick kilns, but one figure by the Bolangir district administration said that it is anywhere between 100,000 to 125,000, while human rights activists peg it at 200,000.

The issue of employment remains paramount in the area, igniting hopes for a check on migration into neighbouring states, where labourers are allegedly face untold miseries and frustration.

Unequal access to employment rights, remuneration, social security, trade union rights, employment taxes or access to legal proceedings and redressal are several workplace issues, as also racism or discrimination.

As such, Bolangir district faces huge employment-related issues and the people of Kantabanji have more or less accepted migration as the only recourse for survival.

What is worse is that the majority of such migrant labourers work in brick kilns in other states even in hot summer, bonded by contracts that cannot be challenged. The local administration does little about this.

So far, senior Congress leader Santosh Singh Saluja has been holding Kantabanji as his bastion but the woes of the people continue.  

The pandemic had worsened the problems of the people of Kantabanji, and the scenes late at night at the Kantabanji railway station speak volumes about the dire situation.

However, Patnaik’s entry into the scene as a candidate has raised a lot of hopes among people there.

Although Western Odisha has so far remained the most favourable playground for the Bharatiya Janata Party, from where, in 2019, it won five Lok Sabha seats.

But, being the Chief Minister, it would not be such a big task for the BJD supremo to win from there. However, it remains to be seen what respite he offers to over two lakh migrant labourers rushing to kilns each year.

The writer is a freelance journalist based in Odisha.