KOCHI: If everything goes to plan, you won’t see any children of migrant workers wandering the streets or engaged in work in the state from the new academic year. This follows the launch of a comprehensive initiative by the state government on Wednesday to bring the children of migrant workers here to the schools to support their progress and welfare.
The programme ‘Jyoti’, which will be implemented by the local bodies along with the schools in the respective regions, will see an aggressive door-to-door campaign by the officials to ensure that no children of school-going age wander in the streets of the state, said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
It is estimated that around 35 lakh migrants are working across various sectors in the state, and they have become integral part of Kerala. “This initiative marks a significant step towards cultural and educational integration, reaffirming Kerala’s commitment to inclusive development,” said the chief minister. ‘Jyoti’ was launched at the ‘face-to-face’ programme with the chief minister held at Kinfra Convention Centre at Kakkanad, as part of the fourth anniversary of the Pinarayi 2.0 government.
“The local bodies need to play an important role in ensuring the success of the programme. The teachers of the schools in an area, along with the local bodies need to visit the families of the migrant workers to convince them of the importance of sending their children to the schools,” said the chief minister.
The launch of ‘Jyoti’ programme follows the success of similar initiatives by the Left government in recent years. While the ‘Roshni’ scheme is assisting the children of migrant workers to overcome the language barrier and learn Malayalam, English and Hindi, the ‘Changathi’ project launched by Kerala Literacy Mission aims to help migrant labourers with enough knowledge of Malayalam. Both projects have seen tremendous response, especially in Ernakulam, which is a key hub for migrant workers in Kerala.
Benoy Peter, executive director at Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development (CMID), which is working closely with migrant workers at grassroots, welcomed the initiative, pointing out that this opens up multiple benefits for the children of migrant families.
“When the migrant workers go out from their homes for jobs, the schools are the most safest place for their children,” he said. But, it’s not an easy task to bring the children of migrant workers to school.
“Under Right to Education Act, there is no need for any document for a child to be enrolled into a school. But, our schools insist of Aadhaar, birth certificate, to enrol a child, to upload into the software,” Benoy said. “In their native states, the births happen at homes, and they don’t have the birth certificates as these are not registered. So enrolment in primary schools and their retention is a big task,” he said.
There is also the issue of out-of-pocket expenses even for free schooling. “Stitching a pair of uniforms will cost around Rs 1,500. Then there is the expenses for school bag, umbrella, books etc. We find that children from families with multiple children, single parent families, particularly women-headed, struggle,” said Benoy.