The migrant children make one of the most marginalized categories of children in India, who are constantly on the move and under vulnerability of missing out on important developmental aspects, including education. As per Census 2011, every fifth migrant in India is a child, totalling a population of 92.95 million children. These children between the age group of 6-14 years have higher probabilities of falling prey to child labour and discontinued educational opportunities (Pandey, 2021).

Due to diminishing family income and erratic monsoon leading to frequent droughts, the trend of migration has increased dramatically in Western Odisha. The poor labourers migrate to neighbouring states like Andhra Pradesh or migrate to work sites in other districts of Odisha. Most of them work at construction sites and brick kilns, while some work as agricultural labourers. Some labourers take their children along with them as helping hands to increase their income and also because they may not have the alternative of leaving them with their grandparents or relatives. On the other hand, others leave behind their children with their relatives, in order to ensure continuity of their education. Such a situation creates several challenges for such children.

Girls are often left behind to take care of their grandparents by engaging in chores like cooking and cleaning and end up encountering negligence in their studies. The aged relatives are not capable enough to earn and to provide a good life to such children. They are themselves poor and have constraints like taking care of their own families. Also, the elder child left behind has the additional responsibility of taking care of his younger siblings. Due to the irregular nature of remittances sent by their parents, these children often engage in petty economic activities to make a living. All these factors hamper their educational and health outcomes. They often drop out of schools and hence become another generation unlettered and unskilled.

To check school drop out of such children, and to provide a secure place of residence for children during the months of their parents’ migration, the Odisha government, under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, runs seasonal hostels for them in source districts i.e. Bolangir, Nuapada, Baragarh, Kalahandi, Mayurbhanj and destination districts i.e. Balasore, Cuttack, Khordha. Odisha has over 200 seasonal hostels in such high migration prone districts. (Odisha Primary Education Programme Authority, 2016). The seasonal migration starts after ‘Nuakhai’ festival which falls in September and extends for 6 to 9 months. The classrooms of schools are converted into residential spaces in the post-school hours, where the identified children in the age group of 6 to 14 years reside, study and spend the rest of the day.

These hostels were established with the vision of providing an alternative to the migrating parents to leave behind their children in secure hostels where they could continue their education, without having to depend on their relatives. Such hostels could provide them regular meals and meet their basic requirements, thereby a step forward to reduce child labour and school drop pout.

The closure of these seasonal hostels due to the outbreak of the pandemic has not only halted the education of such children but there is also a fear that it may overturn the achievements of decades to increase student enrolment and improve educational outcomes. In the long term, it has the potential to shatter their dreams of coming out of the vicious cycle of informal manual labour such as construction work, that their parents are trapped in.

Following the first wave of Covid19, over 8000 children were moved to their relatives’ places as these hostels had to be shut down (The New Indian Express, 2021). There have been no signs of their re-opening since then. Schools began imparting education online, without having any record of how many children had or could afford a smartphone to access education.

According to 2017-18 NSSO data, only 10.7 percent of Indians have laptops and computers and only 23.4 percent have internet access. In rural areas, only 4 percent of the population has laptops, computers and internet access (Rozario, 2020). A recent study conducted by Aide et Action, a not–for–profit private limited company, among 52 parents who migrated for seasonal work within Odisha and in neighbouring states, found that although some parents owned smartphones and were aware of online education, they could not afford to buy internet data packs to ensure continuous access to online classes.  Moreover, the migrant labourers are themselves barely literate, therefore lacking the ability and time to assist their children. For such children, schools of brick and mortar can never be dispensed with as places of learning (Aide et Action, 2021).

After the first wave abated and the migrant labourers migrated for work, this time they took their children along, as the seasonal hostels were still closed. The same study (by Aide et Action) found a whopping 69% increase in the number of migrant children at the brick kilns and construction sites in 2020, as compared to the previous year. Most of these children have started working as manual labourers to help their parents or to get paid for their own labour. Out of the parents who were interviewed, only 26% said that their elder child is engaged in taking care of the siblings while another four per cent said they only roam around the work sites.

With schools still shut, these children who have migrated with their parents can’t even get enrolled in schools in the destination states. Their precarious condition makes them even more vulnerable to abuse and poor health (Iype and Rajamohan, 2020). They might end up being part of a generation unlettered and unskilled, doomed to follow the steps of their parents.

While the Odisha Government gave a statement that these hostels couldn’t be kept functional due to the pandemic, the larger question is who is to take responsibility for these children in times of such crisis? Can an unprecedented crisis be a reason substantial enough for the government to wash its hands off from meeting the basic needs of such children? If the Constitutional vision of the state is to uplift the life chances of the most deprived sections of the society, then how can it leave them to fend for themselves at a time when they need the assistance of the state the most?

There are examples of governments across the world which ensured limited physical educational services for the most vulnerable children in their countries, e.g. “In Portugal, approximately 800 schools across the country hosted children whose parents worked in essential services, as well as provided food support to students from disadvantaged economic backgrounds. In Norway, schools remained open for a variety of students who were identified as vulnerable students with particular socio-economic needs, students with parents working in essential activities and students who could not be at home for other reasons, such as violent settings” (OECD, 2020).

There have been several attempts by civil society to raise such questions as to why, unlike these countries, the government in India abdicated its responsibility towards such vulnerable children? Recently, 106 academics and social activists wrote to the Prime Minister regarding a lack of access to the internet for education for these children. The Right to Education Forum, on behalf of the signatories, has also sent a letter to the government to protect the rights of children, especially those hailing from vulnerable socio-economic backgrounds (Rozario, 2020). More such collective efforts need to be made by all stakeholders to move the migrant children from margins to the marrow.

 Steps need to be taken to ensure a continuous access to good quality education. While the Right to Education Act, 2009 has provisions mandating the source states to ensure easy enrolment of these migrant children even in the middle of the year, these children face many challenges like the medium of language in which education is imparted, lack of proper remedial classes to cope with the loss, insensitive attitude of the teachers, and a de- motivation which ultimately discourages such children and their parents. This is reflected in a survey conducted by Sankalp, a voluntary organisation, in five villages of the Belpada block of Balangir district, according to which education became the lowest priority among children of brick workers during the pandemic (Barik, 2021).

The foremost problem is a lack of a comprehensive definition of who exactly are migrant children? Different national surveys like the Census, the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), National Family Health Survey (NFHS) etc. define them differently and we still lack a comprehensive policy definition of who a ‘migrant children’ is (Pandey, 2021). There is also a dire need for better data collection and sharing among the source and destination states, e.g. this will help the latter to arrange for the required teachers who can teach in the language of these migrant children and integrate them in the state’s medium of education eventually (Iype and Rajamohan, 2020). The lack of refined data and its related analytics often hamper the efficient design and delivery of services for migrants in India (Pandey, 2021).

While the creation is the result of an innovative policy, these hostels remain deplorably under-funded and lacking in sound infrastructure. A lack of resources has constrained their ability to provide regular care and attention to children. In many places, children prefer to stay with their relatives, rather than these hostels (Biswal, 2020).

The Odisha State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has given recommendations for revamping these seasonal hostels like ensuring proper identification of migrant children in active collaboration with the School Management Committees, selection of seasonal hostel sites, ensuring safety and security, child friendly practices, capacity building of the functionaries engaging with the children, etc. These recommendations must be acted upon with active involvement of the civil society. Further research is needed to guide practical interventions to improve child protection mechanisms for these children.

As the migration season is fast approaching, the Odisha government must take immediate steps to re-open these hostels with adequate precautions, so that another year is not lost for these children. According to Umi Daniel, an expert on migration, “the government has to come up with a special drive to prevent mass drop-outs in schools as children are more susceptible than before due to longer absences from classrooms” (Birak, 2021). A worsening age-class mismatch can discourage children from enrolling back to schools. Also, large-scale awareness programs and targeted home visits should be organised to inform the parents of the returns from education and teachers should be trained for diverse classes (Iype and Rajamohan, 2020). The government should quickly take steps to vaccinate both the young and old, as online education is a sham for such children.  If economic activities can be kick-started after taking due precautions, so can be these schools which comprise a public good, the provision of which is the primary duty of a welfare state.

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References:

1. Barik, S. (2021, February 28). Children of migrant labourers in Odisha face an uncertain future. The Hindu. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/children-of-migrant-labourers-in-odisha-face-an-uncertain-future/article33951850.ece
2. Biswal, M. (2020). Impact of seasonal migration on children of a Scheduled Caste community in western Odisha. EPRA International Journal of Economic and Business Review, 8(2). https://doi.org/10.36713/epra3055
3. The impact of COVID-19 on student equity and inclusion: Supporting vulnerable students during school closures and school re-openings. (2020, November 19). OECD. https://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/the-impact-of-covid-19-on-student-equity-and-inclusion-supporting-vulnerable-students-during-school-closures-and-school-re-openings-d593b5c8/#contactinfo-d7e3363
4. India: COVID-19 subjecting children of seasonal migrants to child labour. (2021,June12). Aide et Action. https://seac.aide-et-action.org/india-covid-19-subjecting-children-of-seasonal-migrants-to-child-labour/
5. Iype, S., & Rajamohan, S. (2020, July 22). Ensuring education for migrant children. The New Indian Express. https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/2020/jul/22/ensuring-education-for-migrant-children-2173081.html
6. Out of seasonal hostels, children of migrants turn labourers: Study (2021, July 19). The New Indian Express. Out of seasonal hostels, children of migrants turn labourers: Study- The New Indian Express
7. Pandey, P. (2021, April 19). Always on the move: The troubling landscape of the right to education for migrant children in India. The Times of  India. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/voices/always-on-the-move-the-     troubling-landscape-of-the-right-to-education-for-migrant-children-in-india/
8. Rozario, A. S. (2020, May 15). How India Can Send Children of Migrant Workers Back to School. TheQuint. https://www.thequint.com/news/education/coronavirus-how-india-can-send-children-of-migrant-workers-back-to-school
9. Seasonal Hostel for the children of migrant families. (2016). Odisha Primary Education Programme Authority. Welcome to OPEPA :: (odisha.gov.in)