Patnaik's candidature sows seeds of hope in arid, migration-hit Kantabanji

Last November, Bibhu Suna, 27, chose not to join his uncle on the annual migration to Hyderabad. He stayed back in Turekela, part of the Kantabanji Assembly constituency, and now works as a salesman at the Balangir district headquarters.

- RAMANI RANJAN MOHAPATRA

"Working at a brick kiln in Hyderabad in the Covid-19 pandemic year was a hellish experience," Suna recounted.

A sleepy town 80 km from Balangir, Kantabanji comes alive after Nuakhai, a harvest festival in western Odisha in September-October. That's when thousands of families from three blocks in Kantabanji leave for Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, etc to work at brick kilns and construction sites. But this year, the buzz came early and for a different reason.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is contesting from the seat, in addition to his traditional Hinjili constituency in Ganjam, which too suffers from migration. This has raised hopes among residents for a positive change in their fortunes.

Decades-old issue While people from Ganjam migrate to Surat in Gujarat and Maharashtra due to lack of jobs in the area, poverty, poor irrigation, and natural disasters force those from western Odisha to seek work in southern states, reasons Umi Daniel, head of the migration unit of Aide et Action.

Activist Sanjay Mishra says migration dates back to the Odisha famine of 1866, with frequent famines since then compelling people to mortgage and sell their land and valuables.

In November last year, the Odisha government told the Assembly over 40,000 workers migrated from the state last year, with the highest number-of 26,151-from Balangir. In the past three years, 153 workers died while working outside the state.