Kasturi Majhi left Tentulikhunti, her village, in Odisha’sBalangir district, to work in a brick kiln along with her parents in AndhraPradesh. She was 11, old enough for work that could supplement her householdincome. But Majhi was also of an age when she should have been in school. Ayear later, her parents and she are a little consoled by the fact that she gotto attend classes at a ‘worksite’ school run on the premises of the Dundigalprimary school in Quthbullapur mandal of Rangareddy district in Andhra Pradesh.However, Majhi’s case is an exception, not the norm. Such luck eludes almost25,000-30,000 children from districts in western Odisha (Balangir, Nuapada,Kalahandi, Bargarh) who migrate seasonally with their parents for work.
Distress migration, in search of work, is common in westernOdisha districts. The ILO-AeAI study shows that about 26 percent of the totalhouseholds in these three districts migrate out for work. Among these, as manyas 24 percent are children in the age group of 0-17 years. The children in theage group of 6-14 constitute about 11 percent of the total migrant population.This is the age group that is now entitled to get compulsory primary educationunder the much-hyped Right to Education Act.
Two models have been experimentally implemented to try andstem the dropout phenomenon caused by migration. One is the model of ‘seasonalhostels’ at source areas to stop children of migrants from leaving with theparents during the migration season. And the other is ‘work site schools’ runin the destination areas, at the work sites, where the children can learn in amedium of instruction that they are familiar with.
The challenge, however, remains ensuring the Right toEducation for all the migrant children. The current coverage is a very smallpart of the total number of children in need of such education. Besides, boththe models of education are now running on an ad hoc arrangement.Institutionalisation of the same and ensuring quality education are areas whichneed to be seriously looked into by the policy makers of the concerned stategovernments.
