Around 80 per cent of seasonal migrant children in seven Indian cities lack access to education near worksites, and 40 per cent of children from these households are likely to end up in work rather than school, facing exploitation and abuse, according to the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report 2019 launched by UNESCO.

The report titled ‘Building bridges not walls’ said 10.7 million children aged 6 to 14 in 2013 lived in rural households with a family member who was a seasonal worker and about 28 per cent of youth — aged 15 to 19 — in these households were illiterate.

The GEM report focuses on India’s initiatives on a national and local level, aimed at educating the children of seasonal workers and combating the negative effects of seasonal migration on education. It highlighted that the country has seen an improvement in providing education for migrants, but there are still some challenges which need to be addressed.

It further added that children left behind by migrating parents and seasonal migrants face fewer educational opportunities overall, and projects the growth of children living in slums by 2030 as a result of migration to cities

“As the number of people living in and around cities continues to grow, we need to respond to the education needs of those in slums. Without the data, governments will be able to continue ignoring the problem,” said Manos Antoninis, Director of the GEM Report.

A survey conducted in Punjab said of the 3,000 brick kiln workers in 2015-16, 60 per cent were inter-state migrants. Between 65 per cent and 80 per cent of all children aged 5 to 14 living at the kilns, worked there seven to nine hours per day. Also, the construction sector absorbs the majority of short-term migrants.

About 77 per cent of kiln workers reported lack of access to early childhood or primary education for their children.

The report added that inter-state migration rates in India doubled between 2001 and 2011. An estimated 9 million migrated between states annually from 2011 to 2016

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