aaina organised a Programme on 1st May 2014 to celebrate the International Shramika Sangha and convention of shramika sangha at District Watershed & Soil Conservation Development office, Phulbani. In that programme total 90 participants from different blocks of project area participated for celebration.
As per agenda an awareness rally started from District Watershed & Soil Conservation Development office at 9.30 AM with placards. Through the placards they spread the message on rights of Shramika, rights to live with dignity for person with disability and the rights of PWDS under MGNREA and on rights of Shramika under MGNREGA.
The Chief Guest for the program was Mr. Sailendra Dewedi (PD,DRDA, Kandhamal), chief Speaker Mr. Maheswar Nayak, (District Labour Officer, Kandhamal), Ms. Rasmita Kumari Patra ( Labour Inspector, Kandhamal), and other guests were Ms. Swaha Das, Programme Manager, aaina, Kandhamal
Ms. Swaha spoke about the back ground of aaina, Operational Area of Kandhmal and objective of the day. After that she requested Mr Sailendra to say a few lines about the importance of that day. First Mr. Dewedi shared about journey of his career and he told that before getting the PD post he had been working as an assistant labour officer since 1985. On 7th May 1986 he joined as Project Director.
Mr. Dewedi expressed his concern about destruction of forests. He told that now people are depending on forest wood for their income and also use firewood to meet their family needs. Mr.Dewedi told that near about 1500 sq km forests have already been destroyed by our society. He also informed the project director of watershed that replanting in 800sq km land has started.
There after Mr. Dewedi discussed about MGNREGA work. During the discussion participants from community questioned regarding delay of payment under MGNREGA and their queries were answered. Then he discussed about the different types of work under MGNREGA like Road Construction, Plantation, Watershed, pond recovery, Check Dam, assets creation etc. The chief speaker of the programme Ms.Rasmita Kumari Patra addressed to all and told about the objective of the day. Then she shared about the rights, minimum wages, and work site facilities of labours and also she informed to all about the minimum wages of Rs.150 per labourer except in MGNREGA. A painting competition was conducted by Ms.Swaha Das, Programme Manager, aaina on the subject of 2 yrs journey of Shramika Sangha and their Mission & vision of Shramika Sangha.
After lunch some movies from We Care film fest were played on the issues of People with Disability and their ability. The objective of this session was to reduce the negative mentality towards PWDS and also to strengthen the way of thinking of the PWDs. The program ended at 5.00 p.m. Mr. Gadadhar Behera (Block Coordinator, Phulbani) gave Vote of thanks to all the guests & Participants for coming.