In Odisha’s ‘plumber capital’, anti-incumbency, pro-BJP sentiments strong among migrants

Around 100,000 young women and men in Odisha’s Kendrapara district work in other states or countries, mostly as plumbers, and many of them have come home to cast their vote in the simultaneous assembly and general elections on June 1, 2024. 

The migrant workers of the district known as the ‘capital of plumbers’ are an important vote bank for all the three major parties in the state – the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Indian National Congress – as well as the independent candidates. Party members of all ranks have reached out to this populace personally to urge them to return home to vote, recognising their potential to help them clinch a majority, said Pramod Nayak from Mandapada village under Rajnagar assembly segment.

Labourers from the district, especially plumbers, have contributed to the construction of the new parliament building and convention centre in New Delhi as well as the stadiums and other public infrastructures in Qatar ahead of the Football World Cup in 2022, among other works. “The local youth is interested in plumbing as it commands great respect and good money,” said Alekha Jena, a senior BJP leader and former MLA of Rajnagar. 

The plumbers contribute to creating structures to ensure proper sanitation and safe drinking water in their villages, said Jagannath Acharya of Nimapur under Pattamundai block. “The picturesque villages of plumbers have good roads and a serene and clean environment.” 

But in their hometowns, they find it difficult to earn a living or the wages are low. So, they seek work elsewhere. “A plumber in a West Asian country earns about Rs 50,000- 1 lakh a month. In big Indian cities, too, they earn Rs 30,000 to a lakh monthly,” said 60-year-old Saroj Rout of Patrapur village, a plumber who worked in Iraq for a decade.

Each year, at least 2,000 young people from this coastal district cross the sea to work in many countries in west and south Asia, said Jagajiban  Das, a trade union leader from Kendrapara. 

“In the 1990s, some plumbers also went to European countries to work in construction companies as plumbers. Some plumbers from our area are working in Spain, Poland and other European countries,” said  Samar Sahoo, a travel and immigration consultant at Pattamundai.

Ranjan Panda, a climate crusader popularly known as the ‘water man of Odisha’, said, “I met a plumber from Kendrapara district in a hotel in Washington 15 years ago.”

Around 8,000 persons, including many girls from the coastal pockets of the district, work in plywood and garment factories in Kerala. Male workers work in plywood units, whereas girls work in garment factories. Four years ago during the first nationwide pandemic lockdown, Bollywood actor Sonu Sood airlifted 167 girls and 22 boys from Kendrapara who were stuck in a garment factory in Kerala and help them return home. But almost all the workers returned to Kerala after the pandemic. “Now, most of them have returned to their villages to cast their votes,” said Sudrashan Rout from Bagapatia village under Rajnagar Assembly segment.

Hemant Kumar Malla, 32, of Gupti village from Kerala, said, “I have been working in a plywood unit in Ernakulam for the last six years and earn Rs 18,000 per month. I have no scope to earn money in our village. The bus service from our village to Kerala is our lifeline.” He returned to his village on 26 May to cast his vote, he added.

Amit Parida, a bus owner from Bagapatia, said many workers had booked advance tickets costing Rs 1,500 each to make the 72-hour trip from Kerala to exercise their voting right.

A bus that takes migrants from the coastal villages of Kendrapara to their workplaces in Kerala. Photo: Author provided

The demands of this politically active voter-base is, thus, important for the politicians in the fray. “We are sparing no effort to woo the migrant workers. Many BJD leaders are also in touch with migrant workers of New Delhi and other places over mobile phones,” said Dhiren Sahoo, president of the district unit of BJD. 

BJP is also not lagging behind to win the heart of migrant workers. “We prepared a list of migrant workers and urged many of them to return to their houses to cast their vote in the favour of BJP candidates,” said Kishor Panda, a senior BJP leader and president of the district unit of the saffron party. 

The major parties are also pumping money to bring home the migrants, said Debashis Sahoo a travel agent of Pattamundai, adding that there is hardly any village in Aul, Rajnagar, Mahakalapada, Patkura and Kendrapara Assembly segments within Kendrapara Lok Sabha seat without its share of migrant workers, mostly plumbers.

The state government has not done anything for the welfare of the migrant workers, according to a section of the labourers who have left the state. The BJD government has failed to set up big industries in the state as a result many educated youths work in other states. This has turned them against the state government, they added. 

The Baladevjew power loom in Kendrapara shut down twenty years ago and around 5,000 weavers lost their jobs, rued Manas Behera, who used to work in the power loom. Like him, many of these workers were forced to move to Surat to find a job. “The migrant weaver population will vote for BJP and Congress candidates to teach BJD a lesson.”

But some initiatives by the BJD government in power has also left a mark among the migrant population, pointed out members of the party. Most of the migrant workers are plumbers in the district. Five years ago, Susant Singh, the minister for labour and employees, state insurance and rural development inaugurated the Migration Support and Resource Center (MSRC) at Kendrapara town to provide help to the plumbers and other migrant workers  of the district who work in many states and countries.

Moreover, in 2006, the state government established the State Institute of Plumbing and Technology (SIPT) at Pattamundai in 2006 to help the youths of the district learn more about the modern plumbing technology and compete with plumbers from other states. “Many trained plumbers of SIPT have found employment in construction and water-sanitation companies. Most of the migrant workers will vote in favour of BJD candidates,” said Dhruba Sahoo, a senior BJD leader and MLA candidate of Rajnagar.