Distress Migration Among Ultra-poor Households in Western Odisha

Consequent upon loss of employment and income due to frequent incidence of droughts, the marginal farmers, land less agricultural labourers and the poverty-stricken weaker sections of population migrate to developed regions in search of employment as a survival strategy. Trickle Up, as a part of its commitment towards reduction of extreme poverty, has been implementing the ‘graduation model’ 1 in many countries in Asia. In Odisha, since the year 2015, TU, in collaboration with Odisha Livelihood Mission (OLM), has been operating the graduation model at Bangomunda block in Balangir district (Odisha) to mitigate distress migration among the ultra-poor households. 2 An attempt has been made in this study to analyse the socio-economic impact of TU–OLM intervention of programmes on distress migrants in western Odisha.