Rather than the soul of India, Orissa is more known for many wrong reasons. Whether it is starvation death or selling of small kids, Orissa has always sited at the front page of any regional, national or international newspaper. This needy state becomes a laboratory for the international organizations to experiment with poverty, hunger and deprivations. When we are rich in our resources, minerals and manpower, then why are we pointed out only for shameful reasons? Again winter season entered the state with the migration storm. Every newspaper and electronic channel got an issue to arise. Again the major headline in the 491 visa occupation list primetime news of every electronic channel is covered from Orissa with this sensational issue. Do you think only Oriya people are migrated from their state to other state for job? If not, why do we get so much unwanted publicity. What are the main reasons of migration? We have made an effort to carve some facts about labour migration in Orissa.
How can we define migration? Migration denotes any movement of groups of people from one locality to another. But there is considerable conceptual difficulty in defining a migrant. Migration of labourer takes different forms. In one end, the place of working and residence of the labourer may be different, and the distance covered by daily commuting. At the other end, the worker’s may move permanently from their places of birth or usual place of residence, maintaining little or no contact with their places of origin. Between these two ends, people move away for differing periods of time. Based on how long they are away from their place of origin, the migrants are distinguished as ‘permanent’, ‘semi-permanent’ and ‘temporary’. Labour migration belongs to temporary migration, which is likely to stay away from their places of origin for more than a few months in a year. The temporary migrants are also known as ‘short duration’ migrants, ‘seasonal’ migrants or ‘circulatory’ migrants.