By Sujata Jena –
Bhubaneswar: The Regional Diocese of the eastern Indian state, of Odisha recently conducted a day-long program to strengthen its labor commission in the state.
As many as 30 priests, religious, social work directors, lay leaders, and representatives from various companies participated in the 26th July program at St. Vincent Pro-cathedral, Bhubaneswar.
Archbishop John Barwa, in his opening remark, said, “A laborer is someone who works hard. The people of Odisha are hard-working. Therefore Odisha remains a source state to send numerous workers of all kinds to other states.”
Hard work for years didn’t empower us, the prelate regretted. “We need to combine hard work with smart work. The seminar should help us to rethink, plan and work smartly for the sustainable empowerment of our people”, he concluded.
The main speaker of the seminar was Joy Gothuruth, the National President, of the Workers India Federation (WIF) which is an initiative of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference in India (CBCI)
Gothuruth elaborated on the Socio-Economic background of Unorganized Workers in India and oriented the gathering for an urgent plan.
Father George Thomas, Secretary to CBCI Office for Labour and Director of Workers India Federation, enumerated the structures of WIF, its roles, and responsibilities. He also shared some of the initiatives taken by WIF as the official national organization of the CBCI office for labor.
Their input session helped the group to understand the gravity of the issue and the emergency in dealing with those issues. The most common issues were trafficking,
The assembly proposed the following plan of action to make the labor commission effective in the diocese:
- The commission will ensure a diocesan pastoral plan for the pastoral care of the migrants and unorganized workers
- Every Parish to maintain a database compiling the address of the migrant workers in the source and destination state.
- The commission resolved to set up a Help Desk to assist the workers when faced with problems and connect them to available government schemes
- The assembly agreed to come together often and have a concrete plan of action to reach out to the workers regularly
- The group wished to make a WhatsApp group to stay connected with all the workers.
- The Ensure just wages for the employees in church-run institutes.
Advocate Father, Dibakar Paricha was the main organizer of the seminar. Paricha, the Secretary of the Cuttack- Bhubaneswar Archdiocesan labor commission announced that he would be ready to mobilize funds for the labor commission.