KOCHI: Rahul (name changed) felt helpless as he left with his parents to their hometown in Murshidabad, Kolkata, amid the sudden spurt in Covid-19 cases in the state. Rahul had left the city with his parents in July last year and returned in January.“I was happy to be back in the city as there are no facilities in my village to continue online classes,” shares Rahul who is a Class VI student in a government school in Thiruvananthapuram.
With the sudden spurt in the Covid-19 cases, many like Rahul are being forced to leave the state again. In response to a petition which was recently filed by a Bengaluru-based NGO Child Rights Trust, the Supreme Court has asked for data from all the states and Union Territories regarding the children of migrant workers, who are one of the most vulnerable groups being caught in the Covid wave.
The petition read, “Children of migrants and migrating children remain invisible and are the most vulnerable and are denied access to health and proper nutrition, quality education and skills and knowledge they need to thrive and spend their lives in makeshift, unfriendly, unhygienic and testing conditions.”
Based on the order of the Supreme Court, the state government has already sought information from NGOs and other organisations on the number of migrant children in each district. The Kerala State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights has also come out with recommendations to ensure the welfare of migrant children in the state.
“Though migrant workers are scattered across many parts of the state, Perumbavoor has the highest population of migrant workers with children studying in various government schools. However, most often many don’t have the necessary documents to get their kids admission to the schools.
So, we have recommended to the government to issue a special card to these children,” says Nazeer K, commission member. Besides this, migrant workers have been allowed to pay school fees in instalments and provide recorded versions of online classes preferably in their respective mother language, which is mostly Hindi.
KISMAT to extend help
KISMAT ( Kerala Interstate Migrants Alliance for Transformation), a project by Don Bosco Veedu Society in Thiruvananthapuram, has been working for the welfare of guest workers and their families for more than three years now.
Fr Tony Varghese, director of the Don Bosco Veedu Society said there are about two lakh migrant workers in the state. However, 80 per cent of them have left the state after the lockdown. “We had set up about 38 residential camps in the state during the lockdown period for the welfare of the migrant workers,” he said.