Distress Migration Among Ultra-poor Households in Western Odisha

Abstract

Consequent upon loss of employment and income due to frequent incidence of droughts, the marginal farmers, land less agricultural labourers and the poverty-stricken weaker sections of population migrate to developed regions in search of employment as a survival strategy. Trickle Up, as a part of its commitment towards reduction of extreme poverty, has been implementing the ‘graduation model’ 1 in many countries in Asia. In Odisha, since the year 2015, TU, in collaboration with Odisha Livelihood Mission (OLM), has been operating the graduation model at Bangomunda block in Balangir district (Odisha) to mitigate distress migration among the ultra-poor households. 2 An attempt has been made in this study to analyse the socio-economic impact of TU–OLM intervention of programmes on distress migrants in western Odisha.

Distress Labour Migration from Western Odisha - An Overview

“…Since the native employment is prone to the natural disaster especially frequent drought time to time, and the opportunities are very few and confined to agricultural peak seasons, the out-migration acts as a coping strategy for a large number of households in this KBK region during periods of agricultural scarcity when employment opportunities are hardly available at the place of origin. This livelihood strategy is primarily adopted by the underprivileged and marginalized segments of the region who face multiple disadvantages due to their caste, persistent poverty, lack of land ownership, low levels of literacy and skills, heightened reliance on forest and agriculture, and overwhelming debt Mishra, 2011;Tripathy, 2015Tripathy, , 2021. The number of factors such as the environmental catastrophes, economic destitution, gender or social subjugation, limited alternative job prospects, and the inability to sustain a dignified existence contributes the distress nature of labour migration from these areas.…”