Aimed at raising the living standards of the children of poor migrant labourers in the city, the Corporation will launch an exclusive campaign to study their socio-health aspects from January 15.
The month-long survey will focus on the needs of the children of the migrant families who stay in Kochi.
“Our survey is aimed at finding out the exact conditions of the children who live here along with their migrant families. We aim to find out whether they have access to good food, health and education. Apart from the children, their mothers will also be part of our study as they play crucial role in the child’s life,” said Corporation health standing committee chairman T K Ashraf.
He said the study would focus on the possible sexual and labour exploitation faced by the children.
V T Antony, director, Rajagiri Outreach, the institute entrusted with the task of preparing the statistics of the survey, says many families were not sending their children to school.
“Besides, the children of the migrant labourers are not exposed to good vaccination programmes which is a big threat to both the migrants as well as the inherent population. Our first main concern is their health,” Antony said. A special study will also be held to find out whether the wages earned by the families are adequate to lead a healthy life. The survey will extend to areas such as Vathuruthy, Vaduthala, Gandhinagar and Kakkanad. Labour camps as well as family settlements will be the focus of the study.
“As per the recent data prepared on the migrants in the city, it has been concluded that a majority of the migrants are from Tamil Nadu. Most of the North Indian labourers do not arrive with their families and reside in the labour camps,” Ashraf said.
Once the details are collected, the completed draft will be sent to the UNESCO headquarters in Chennai.
“The UNESCO has taken a special interest in this project which has enormous scope in a place like Kochi. It has released a fund of `2 lakh which can be utilised as per the suggestions of the Kochi Corporation.”