Odisha girl’s woes paint a shocking saga of rural poverty
15-yr-old was held in captivity to repay loan her mom had taken from brick-kiln owner ■
Sagarika Panigrahi, a 15year-old girl from Odisha’s Nowrangpur district, now spending her quarantine period in a state government’s institutional centre, has a pathetic story to tell the world.
She discontinued her studies due to abject poverty and went to Hyderabad with her widowed mother Anadi to work as labourer in a brick-kiln.
In Hyderabad, Sagarika’s mother fell sick and she was sent back home just before the nationwide lockdown was announced on March 24 night. At home, Anadi’s condition worsened and she died allegedly due to improper medical care at the local hospital.
When Sagarika wanted to return home to join the last rites of her mother, the brick-kiln owner did not allow her and held her hostage saying she would be released only after her family repaid the advance money her mother had taken from him for work.
Sagarika assured the brick-kiln owner that she would return to the workplace after her mother’s last rites and repay the advance money. However, it cut no ice with the latter. She was held in captivity until June 1 when former Lok Sabha member Pradeep Majhi took the matter with the Telangana government and facilitated her release.
“After completion of my matriculation, I wanted to pursue college education. However, poverty forced me to discontinue my studies. I went to Hyderabad with my mother to work in the brickkiln with a hope that I can at least support my sister who had just entered into
college to pursue her intermediate course. But, all my hopes dashed against despair. With our parents no longer with us, we both the sisters are now looking at an uncertain future,” Sagarika said.
The ex-lawmaker Pradeep Majhi said nearly a thousand unmarried girls from Nowrangpur district were working as guest workers in brickkilns and other inhospitable sectors in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and other states as the local administration failed to look after them.
“Nowrangpur is a tribal dominated district with more than half of its people living below the poverty line. Since the district has not industries here and lacks major economic activities, people are forced to migrate to other states in search of livelihood. The story of
Sagarika and her sister clearly exposes how the local administration has failed to take care of their educational needs and ensure food security,” said the lawmaker.
State scheduled tribe and scheduled caste development minister Jagannath Saraka said he would order a probe into the present matter and undertake a departmental study why the girls were forced to migrate.
“I will ask the Nowrangpour district labour officer (DLO) why he failed to rescue the girl in time. Besides, I will seek an explanation from the district welfare officer (DWO) under which circumstances this minor girl was deprived of higher studies,” said the minister.
Bollywood actor Sonu Sood had recently rescued 169 girls from Kerala’s Ernakulam and sent them back home by a special flight.
The girls, most who have completed intermediate and graduation studies, said more than 900 other Odia girls from Kendrapara were working in Ernakulam as guest workers for a monthly income of `7,000 to `9,000 to support their family.