P. Susama Kukumistays at Kandasar village of Ganjam district with her family. Being the eldest daughter of the family, the responsibility of providing income rested on her. After her marriage to a person of nearby village, conditions where hoped to improve. With a family of her own now and her husband without work, she started to search for work.
After some days, her husband deserted for another woman and took employment in Surat. Without any source of livelihood, Susama decided to go outside her village leaving her child with her younger widow sister and arrived at Bhubaneswar. There, she used to work as construction labour.
She was earning 200 per day working 20 to 21 days a month. Without any access to financial services (no bank account, no savings), she used to send money to her father back home. After having accumulated certain amount of savings, she decided to build a house of her own. However, her father refused to have any money and denied outright to help her. When she asked about her savings amount her father told all the money was spent on her child. She was driven away from her home, beaten and tortured. Then she decided to go outside to earn the livelihood with her widow sister as well as her child. Here she worked under various Thikadar (Contractor) and manage her family. One day, she injured herself at the construction site while carrying heaving bricks. The contractor refused to offer any monetary help.
In this situation, she came to PRATIKAR centre and narrated her story. The centre co-ordinator contacted the contractor for providing monetary resources and medical help. The centre co-ordinator demanded the contractor to procure his labour license which he was unable to provide. The centre co-ordinator helped Susama to lodge a complaint case at District Labour Office against the contractor for not having a labour license. After a series of counselling he agreed to provide 2000 Rs. Susama has been able to continue to earn a livelihood and support her family due to timely intervention of Pratikar, Shramik Sahayata-o- Soochana Kendra.
The establishment of Shramik Sahayat-O-Soochana Kendra has been particularly helpful towards the migrant community and while it was initially considered a minor incident but it proves to be an important factor behind the success story of the project.
Aritra Chakrabarty
As a social researcher, I believe in knowledge-based policy action. With a postgraduate degree in Development Studies, I've been associated with social issues in my professional space. As a part of SHRAMIC initiative, was involved with data creation, sourcing of resources that will become the knowledge bank of this project.
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