BALANGIR: The seasonal hostels under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA), meant for the children of migrants labourers here, will come under the purview of child welfare committee (CWC).
CWC members will visit these hostels and suggest the district administration about measures that need to be taken for minimising the dropout rate of children when their parents migrate for work.
As of today, Balangir has 91 such hostels where, 2928 children are being accommodated. Earlier, some of the hostels were closed down due to scarcity of funds. These hostels are opened from November to April or May, the period when families migrate for work, in migration prone areas of the district every year.
Apparently, members of Odisha State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (OSCPCR) had visited a few seasonal hostels last year and expressed their concern over gross irregularities. They had found that children were not being provided proper food, warm clothes during winter and there was no electricity in some hostels that posed problem during summer. Sources said this is why, many students dropped out of the hostels after staying for a few days.
Later, OSCPCR suggested some guidelines to State Government for smooth functioning of the hostels.
District Project Coordinator of SSA, Dhananjaya Mohapatra, from this year onwards, CWC will take necessary steps and monitor the functioning of these hostels to ensure that these children are properly educated and provided basic amenities.
He added that the district administration will be opening 135 seasonal hostels here this year to accommodate 5000 children.
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Balangir has 91 seasonal hostels where, 2928 children are being accommodated
These hostels are not even able to provide proper food to children due to funds shortage
Despite the shortcomings, district admn plans to open 135 more such hostels this year