'Atithi devo bhava': Odisha plays generous host to migrant labourers, names them 'guest workers'

These slovenly men and women cram every inch of space in unreserved coaches of hundreds of trains that chug out of stations in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar each day, headed for big cities like Delhi and Mumbai.

Some of the trains snake through several states to reach cities and towns in Kerala in the south and Kashmir in the north. There they build giant structures whose rooftops appear kissing the sky, roads that gleam in sunlight. They supply milk and also clean sewers standing neck-deep in filth as people pass by, their nose covered in handkerchief and eyebrows knitted with disdain.

Sweated labour is easy to forget. These migrant workers get walloped by goons patronised by political parties pandering to regional sentiments in Mumbai and are felled by terrorists bullets in Kashmir.

To their pleasant surprise, the Odisha government has given them a new nameguest workersto give labour the dignity it deserves. Arrangements have been made to give shelter and food to these people who belong neither here nor there. In all 56,926 guest workers are living in 1,882 camps where they are not only getting food and other basic amenities but are also regularly examined by doctors, said Odisha governments COVID-19 spokesman Subroto Bagchi.

Little children accompanying them are also given milk and fruits. The Odisha government has opened a call centre (Shramik Sahayata)- 18003456703- for guest workers in need, Bagchi said.

Apart from food and accommodation, the state government is also providing psycho-social counselling to them through mobile health units. These migrants workers are mostly from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, and Maharashtra.

With over two lakh Odia workers stranded in other states following the nationwide lockdown, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had requested his counterparts to take care of them and promised his government will bear the expenses incurred by those states. Back home, he takes care of the "guest workers", walking the talk. 

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