Film in Hyderabad unravels KBK migrant workers’ woes

The Pioneer, March 24, 2010
PNS, Bhubaneswar

Wealth amidst Dust was screened at the Tathya National Livelihoods Festival at Hyderabad on Saturday. The short video enlarges on the precarious living conditions of the migrant labourers from western Odisha’s Balangir and Nuapada districts who migrate every year to eke out a living in the brick kilns in and around Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh.

The video was earlier screened at Hyderabad International Film Festival (2007) and at various International and National workshops on Human Rights.

“There are about 1000 kilns in and around Hyderabad that support Rs 50,000 crore construction industry, but it hardly alleviates sufferings of the poor tribals and Dalits from western Odisha,” Vishy, the film maker rues quipping unfortunately, the Centre did not recognise them under the recently passed Building and Construction Workers Act that makes the film more relevant in understanding the livelihoods of one of the most invisible working group.

On one hand, if India’s claim to exclusive economic growth has hugely contributed to the nation’s wealth, on the other side, it has created very difficult conditions for large number of unskilled labour and women in particular, Vishy observed with a curt comment “Wealth Amidst Dust is a contemporary commentary on failure of governance.”

The video has raised many public debates on implementation of Acts like the Inter State Migrant Workmen Act, Right to Education of Migrant Children, Human Rights of Working Women in Unorganised Labour.

An estimated 30 million people are in inter-state migration and 6 million constitute children and the film focuses on the invisible nature of their existence in a foreign land where rule of law is far from their realms of existence.

The film also brings out the hardships faced by the citizens in their own country raising various Acts and Laws that come into conflict with illegal nature of kilns operation which is parallel to any other unorganised work in the country.

More than 4 lakh people seasonally flow from western Odisha to Hyderabad alone to work in the brick kilns out of which about 42 per cent are women and 36 per cent are children.

The film gets close to these people and captures the exploitative working conditions, unsafe shelters, wages, working hours, health problems, and status of the children, women and adolescent girls.

With little or no assets, skills or education, these migrant labourers end up losing even the meagre privileges of being in their own village and do not belong to any land.

Children drop out of school to accompany their parents only to be sucked into the vortex of hard labour, lack of education and a future.

Failure of monsoons and more so abject failure of the State Government, in providing them with support in source areas, force them to migrate in semi-bonded conditions.

The direct impact of such circumstances contributes to immense suffering of children and women. Women in particular are deprived of safe shelter, protection against abuse and access to health and hygiene.

The film attempts to capture oppressive nature of brick kiln operations that results in abuse and exploitation of woman and children, lack of enough food and various health hazards.

In particular adolescent girls are forced into work even during menstrual cycle as they are part of the unit which is exclusively designed to meet work requirements of brick making.