By Purushottam Nayak

Bhubaneswar: The Church in India with its extensive network can resolve the problems facing laborers and migrant workers, an official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), has told a seminar.

The Catholic Church will address distress internal labor migration through its links with dioceses,” Father Jaison Vadassery, secretary to CBCI Office for Labour, a resource person, said on October 30, the opening of the two-day seminar on labor and safe migration held in the Odisha capital of Bhubaneswar.

The Church’s network, he says, could effectively address the workers’ problem as it can easily trace various corridors of labor migration. As steps for the Church intervention, he suggested setting up facilitation centers in all 173 dioceses in the country, creation of a database on labor migrants, formation of associations them and enrolling them for welfare schemes.

The CBCI Office for Labour has created a migrant data manager (www.wifmdm.com) as its initiative of to facilitate the safe labor migration through effective coordination between different dioceses, said Father Vadassery, who is the director of Workers India Federation and national chaplain for Christian Workers Movement.

In Odisha, labor migration has severely affected 22 districts as 2.5 million unorganized workers are on move to different destinations. They are unprotected and underprivileged in many respects, the Church official lamented.

The seminar was organized by the CBCI office and Workers India Federation in collaboration with Odisha Forum for Social Action (OROSA). About 80 grassroots leaders, representatives from six dioceses of Odisha attended the seminar.

Bishop Sarat Chandra Nayak of Berhampur, vice president of the Odisha Catholic Bishops’ Council, in his inaugural address noted work as “intrinsically” good. “There should be dignity of labor. Let no one discriminate and devalue the different category of workers. Work has equal value. Preparation for safety measure is a need of the hour for migrants,” the prelate added.

Sister Rani Punnaserril, Programme Manager CBCI Office for Labour, noted that people’s awareness about the Interstate Migrant Workman (ISMW) Act of 1979 “is very poor. The migrant men and women do not have any insurance or registration, and hence on death, the employer or the government gives no compensation to the kith and kin left behind,” the Holy Cross nun said.

She also pointed out that the medical remittances are unorganized, sporadic and informal and case to case basis. “A political will is required to tackle the problem of migration of the unorganized worker. A stringent action against trafficking agents and individuals is a need of the hour.” She added.

The nun also said that the scale of commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking is steadily increasing in India, despite the existence of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act of 1956. “In the language of trafficking, India constitutes a country of origin, transit and destination for trafficked persons.”

Pushpa Tirkey, a participant from Sundargarh, said the seminar was “a great source of knowledge and information” for her.

Oliva Kerketta, another participant, said the seminar taught her rules, regulations and policy of labor and safe migration.

The participants had group discussions of different issues like unemployment, sexual exploitation of women and unjust wage.

Father Ajay Singh, OROSA director thanked CBCI Office and Workers’ India Federation for their support.