Rural-urban Migration and Education of Children: Studying the Left Behind and Migrant Children in India Archana K. Roy Assistant Professor & Pappu Singh Ex-student Department of Geography BHU, Varanasi, India
Labour Migration in Developing World Migration (both) for economic reason is distress-led one dominated by single males as family as family strategy. Another form when whole family is compelled to migrate for the survival. Majority moves from opportunity lacking areas to leading areas The temporary or circular migration of subsistence farmers from rural to urban areas
Migration Pattern in India Composition of male and female migrants in India, 2001 Male migrnats 29% Female migrants 71%
Migration Pattern in India State-wise sex ratio of inter-state out-migrants (Male /000 Female), 2001 Source: Roy, 2011
Migration Pattern in India Male net-migration in major states of India, 2001
Impact of Children s Education in Different Spatial contexts Remittances from international migration positively affects household outcomes including outcomes for children s education (Taylor 1987; Jones 1995) In a Mexican context where fathers are popularly seen as the family disciplinarians, mothers the care-givers in charge of the children s upbringing and education. When fathers are absent, mothers find themselves in unfamiliar roles, and teachers note that children s misbehavior often increases (Kandel, 1996) In Caribbean context children who have been left behind as well as migrant children are placed in a particular vulnerable situation affecting their psycho-social well-being and educational performance. They are at a higher risk and more vulnerable to abuse, neglect and exploitation including sexual abuse, child labour and trafficking (Bakker et al., 2009).
In Philippines, children of migrants were significantly better off in socio-economic terms than children of non-migrants and more likely to attend private schools and engage in extracurricular activities (Scalabrini Migration Center 2003-04). India: remittances and income may not necessary cause a positive development effect on children left behind (de Haan, 2005). Studying the distress seasonal migration in different parts of India raises that children accompany their parents, and as a result drop-out rates go up, most of them belong to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe groups (Smita, 2008).
The problem in the context of India UN second Millennium Development Goal to achieve universal Primary Education by 2015 to all boys and girls alike as the. As per the MDG States of India Report 2010 (GOI 2010), a trend based on DISE (District Information System on Education) data shows the country now well set to achieve cent percent primary education for children in the primary schooling age of 6-10 years ahead of 2015. Primary enrolment of 6-10 year old children by their NER measure has improved from 75 percent, 83 percent to 98 percent from the year 1990 to 2000 to 2009-10 respectively. However, 84 percent of children who enrolled in class I-V were attending school/classes. About 9.36 percent children who got enrolled in Grade I to Grade V dropped out of the system before completing the primary schooling during 2007-08.
The problem in the context of India The position of education is improving in India, however, progress is not uniform: Inter and intra states and caste and class disparities persist Country Programme Action Plan 2008 2012): the poor quality of education, especially in rural areas result in high dropout rates for primary and secondary school education Strategies are needed to reach out-of-school adolescents/youths. Education is critical to the issue of distress seasonal migration because the window of opportunity for children of migrants is limited. In such circumstances children, whether they move with the parents or left-behind in villages, they are the most affected ones. Their rights to health and education, as well as the right to be free from exploitation, and abuse are less likely to be ensured. In order to achieve the MDG goal #2, migrant's children should also be given special attention and treated as a special need group.
Figure 1: Conceptual Framework linking Migration and its Impact on Education of Children Types of Migration Male migration without family Male migration with family Children left behind in rural area Children migrate to urban areas Distress migration adopted as family survival strategy Migration for prosperity and better opportunity Distress migration for survival of family Father absent and split in family Remittances from migrant father become additional source of income Majority in joint family in rural areas Settlement permanent ID proof/voter card/bank account Can avail government facilities Educated/skilled migrant Permanent job and settlement Can avail all facilities Majority in nuclear/extended family ID proof/voter card/bank account Can avail benefit of government schemes Poor and uneducated unskilled migrant Temporary job and settlement Family together and both parents work Nuclear /extended family No ID/ voter card/ bank account Cannot avail government facilities Children as family support figure Being in rural areas Better education More school attendance Children enjoy urbanity Positive impact on Education and Health of children Being in urban area remain poor Less school attendance More drop out Violation of basic rights of children
Aim of the paper To understand the impact of distress-led labour migration on education of migrant s children by analyzing two situations in Indian context When father migrates and children are left behind with mother and grandparents in the villages. (The first condition is very common in developing world) When children also migrate with their parents, who work as construction labourers in the cities. (among those rural families who have very meager or no resource base in the villages particularly among tribes)
Methodology Left behind children 9 villages (2 districts) of Bihar Economy: Agro and remittances based 354 migrant and 192 non migrant households Sampling: systematic random Migrant Children 16 construction sites in the city of Varanasi, UP Construction sector: attracts maximum unskilled labourers in urban area. Of total 377 migrant labourers, 102 were with spouse which comprised 49 families. Data collection: Both qualitative and quantitative methods Data collection: Both qualitative and quantitative methods 2001 2011.
Demographic Structure 50+ 45-49 40-44 MALE FEMALE MALE FEMALE 49+ 45-49 40-44 35-39 35-39 30-34 30-34 25-29 25-29 20-24 20-24 15-19 15-19 10-14 10-14 5-9 5-9 0-4 0-4 -40-20 0 20-20 -10 0 10 Figure 2a: Age-sex Structure of Migrant Families at the Place of Origin in Bihar Figure 2b: Age-sex Structure of Migrants at the Place of Destination in Varanasi Source: Fieldwork, 2001 Source: Fieldwork, 2011
Characteristics and Destinations of Migrants Bihar is the poorest state of India Register highest male net out-migration of 3.03 million from the state, Census 2001. 60% of were migrant households 50% Migrants without family (Muslims, BC, poor & landless) 33% with family (well-off family, better landholding) The mean age at first move : 22 years 60% moved after their marriage 25% - were illiterates About all of them in low-paid jobs in informal sector Approx. 12% were in construction industry Destinations: (1) The north-western region (2) Western states (3) West Bengal and Jharkhand Majority of the migrants make quantum jump to three metropolitan cities namely Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata
Condition of Left behind Families 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 37 35 16 16 23 Agricultur e Food Health Clothing Main push force: poverty, Poverty, landlessness, indebtedness and large family size The family factor as catalyst in decision and type of migration. 76% migrant HH: joint families. Mean family size of the HH: 7 persons. 34% households were women headed 30% 20% 10% 0% 12 30 Migrant Households 3 2 22 Non-migrant Households Education Other 9 /10 households: Socio-economically very poor as were either from BC/SC/Muslims. Agriculture is predominant occupation but ironically 8 /10 migrant HH possessed less than an acre of land The average remittance: approx. 10,000/ year, but 92% HH receive remittances from migrants. Figure 3: Expenditure pattern in migrant and non migrant households The amount was so meager that 1/3rd of left behind families were also supplementing their kitty by working as casual laborer. 70% migrant households use remittances for educating their children. However, share of income on education was minimal in Migrant and non-migrant households (3% and 2% of income respectively)
84% 68% 80% 70% 76% Impact of Migration on Education of Left Behind Children 52% Male Female Total Male Female Total Male Female Total Children of Non Migrnats in Village Left-behind Children in Village 14% 25% 20% Migrant' Children in City Migration of father affects negatively for school attendance of boys and positively for girl s school attendance. Figure 4: Children in School: A comparative Picture
Children in School in Villages
Impact of migration of behaviour on left behind children 33 Left behind children 15 41 Non migrnat children 23 2 0 In group discussions and study of left behind women the general opinion emerged that remittances received from the out-migrants enabled them to send their children to school but, on the other hand, children tended to become undisciplined and disobedient due to absence of the father. They do not listen to the mothers. Not performing well in education Donot obey mothers Bad habit Figure 5: Impact of Migration of Education and Behaviour of Children However, behavior like isolation and depression was not reported by mothers in the study area probably because of joint family system and larger family size which absorbs shock of separation of father. Source-Fieldwork, 2001
Children out-of-school in villages Table 2: Model of Linear regfression showing factors affecting the Children-out-of- School (Coefficients a ) Unstandardized Coefficients Standard ized Coefficie nts B Std. Error Beta t Sig. (Constant) 2.291.238 9.640.000 Mother alone in family -.089.098 -.054 -.908.365 Mother work for Wages Total Number Surviving Children -.197.063 -.214-3.143.002 -.111.018 -.398-6.288.000 Caste -.019.029 -.040 -.644.520 Average Remittances.013.064.013.202.840 District -.042.057 -.045 -.734.464 SLI.011.006.133 1.843.067 Source: Fieldwork, 2001 a. a. Dependent Variable: All children go to school; b.predictors: (Constant), SLI, District, Mother alone in family, Total Number Surviving Children, Caste, Average Remittances, Mother work for Wages Adjusted R Square: 0.291; Std. Error of the Estimate: 0.37962 Though migration showed a positive impact on the school attendance of left behind children but still one-fourth of the children were out of school. Likelihood of children being out of school is higher in the families where: 1. standard of living is low, 2. mother has large number of surviving children and 3. has to work for wages.
Children out of School Children has a big role to play in poor families in villages
Pattern of Migration All the 377 migrants were from the rural background and 2/3 rd of them have come from other states. About 40 percent of the migrants were from neighbouring districts of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh (within the state), 20 percent from West Bengal and 18 percent from Jharkhand. Out of total of 377 migrant labourers, 275 were without family and remaining 102 labourers with family migrants (49 migrant households). Family migrants: 75 % West Bengal, UP and Jharkhand and only 8% were from Bihar. Male only migrants: 40% of them were from neighboring districts of Varanasi in UP and nearly equal proportion of the migrants were from Bihar, Jharkhand West Bengal (nearly 20% each).
FAMILY SEX *** Socio-economic and demographic characteristics Table 2 : Characteristics of Migrants at the Place of Destination % of Without Family Migrants % of With Family Migrants Total No (%) Mean Age In Years Mean wage In Rs. Single migrant - - - 29 169 With family migrant - - - 30 140 Male 95 54 316 (84) 30 170 Female 5 46 60 (16) 29 113 CASTE/COMMUNITY*** SCs 51 18 158 (42.1) 31 166 STs 14 27 65 (17.4) 26 123 BCs 17 12 59 (15.8) 31 174 General 1 3 5 (1.3) 38 179 MUSLIMS 17 39 87 (23.3) 28 173 EDUCATIONAL LEVEL Illiterate 56 62 199 (58) 31 156 Primary 19 18 65 (19) 28 170 Middle 12 16 44 (13) 28 174 High School 9 4 27 (8) 30 194 Intermediate 4 0 10 (3) 28 205 Graduate 0 0 1 (0.3) 28 150 OCUPATION TYPE*** Meson 23 23 157 (23) 32 232 Labour 59 75 65 (63) 29 126 Painter 2 0 59 (2) 29 250 Carpenter 6 1 87 (5) 33 176 Fitter 9 1 5 (7) 29 197 Water proofing 1 0 1 (1) 21 300 PLACE OF ORIGIN*** Nepal 0 2 2 (1) 27 120 Uttar Pradesh 47 24 152 (40) 31 175 Bihar 18 8 58 (15) 30 150 Jharkhand 16 23 67 (18) 28 146 West Bengal 18 26 76 (20) 29 152 Madhya Pradesh 1 11 13 (3) 27 175 Chhatisgarh 0 7 8 (2) 33 133 TOTAL 275 (73) 101 (27) 376 (100) 30 162 Source: Fieldwork, 2011
Process of Migration When migrant come themselves Case 1: An old experienced migrant Shankar is 60 years old and still works as a labourer at construction site of Varanasi with his two sons and two daughter in-laws. He has five daughters and four sons. He started working as a labourer right from his childhood. In past 50 years he worked as auto driver, helper in truck, porter and so on and visited many places like Mumbai, Delhi, Lucknow, Surat etc. He spent all his earning in nurturing of his children and arranging dowry for their marriage. Although he worked for long period of time but could not save any penny. Moreover, none of his children get educated. The old man says he has experience of a life of labourer very closely. In every moment of his life he did not get supportive man who could guided him. He always had desire to progress ahead as skilled worker but due to lack of support and guidance ho could succeed so far. Now at the end of his life he said there is no hope and still he is working. He was very critical about old education system where he did not find any place a lower caste people in the schools. But he thinks that present education system is better because poor are also getting chance for getting education. Shankar (60), SC, Uttar Pradesh, wage Rs. 110 Migrant come through Meth Case 2: Widow tribal woman Sureshmani, a tribal widow from Gumla, Jhanrhand is working as construction labourer. Her daughter Paltu Soren 14 years also works with her. Her husband expired two years back and that s why has to migrate with her children. Although she had 12 bighas (8 acre) agricultural land but that is not cultivated due to lack of irrigation facility. She is unable to send her six year old son, Bantu to school. She was thinking to bring slate and pencil for her son. But she was unaware about school nearby. They have their own food habit. They usually cook rice and rice water and potato dish chokha. Her daughter Paltu is quite unaware about the difficulties and she was happy in spite of such problems. She reported an incident that initially they were working with a small contractor who fled away by taking the two month salaries of 10 labourers. A Widow Tribal Migrant (35), Jharkhand, wage Rs 110
Living Arrangements At the place of origin 44 out of 49 families had a house (hut) in village At the place of destination (arranged by contractor) single room temporary shelter built by bricks laying at the construction sites provided with one electric connection for light. There had a common tap and common toilets Use firewood as cooking fuel which is arranged locally (collection of firewood is mainly done by children of the migrants).
Food and Nutrition Get token money (Khuraki): Rs 300-400 per week from their salary. Table1: Food item consumed by Labourers by frequency of intake Milk (500 ml) Fruits (250g m) Rice Whea t bread Pulses Green Vegeta bles Everyday 6 1 47 45 14 45 0 Twice a week 1 1 1 2 15 1 12 Meat/ Fish/ Egg Food contains mainly carbohydrates and vegetables and very rarely they take fruits, milk and milk products. Staple food: Boiled rice and boiled potato Trapped in cycle of malnutrition Once a week 0 4 1 1 9 2 21 Once in 15 days 0 2 0 1 3 1 8 Never 0 0 0 0 3 0 8 Total 7 8 49 49 44 49 47 Low earning Source: Fieldwork, 2011 Low productivity Low purchasing power Poor nutrition
Educational status of Migrant children 91 children 84% 52% 68% 80% 70% 76% 55 in primary school age-group 14% 25% 20% 34 eligible ever been to school Male Female Total Children of Non Migrnats in Village Male Female Total Left-behind Children in Village Male Female Total Migrant' Children in City 11 were in school Figure 4: Children in School: A comparative Picture 4 in city Those who were studying were in primary classes and majority going to government schools in villages. They were actually living in the villages with their grandparents or relatives for their studies. There were a few who were also going to convent school. As one of the parents (mother of four children whose sons were in middle school in a convent school) said, If your (urban) children are going to private school then why cannot mine? I send them to convent school because I do not want my children to lag behind than the urban children.
Case Studies Case 5: Attend school at the place of destination There was Muslim group from West Bengal who were sending their children in a government school in proximity of the construction site. In answer to the question how did they admit their children, they replied that a local youth, who was coming for tuition to some other children, helped them in getting admission to local government school. Now their children are getting education and benefits of stipends from the government as they belong to minority community. Case 4: Children left behind in villages by migrant parents Kumar and his wife work as construction labourers at on one of the construction sites in Varanasi. He has two sons and two daughters who are 14, 12, 9 and 6 year respectively, studying in a private school in their native village. Kumar has no faith in government school. He spends Rs 600/month for their study. Once his sons denied of study and expressed his wish to work with his parents. In order to show his son the reality he took him to brick kiln and made him engaged in moulding of bricks day and night. After realizing the hard work his son once again made his mind to take his studies seriously. Now he is putting more attention to his studies. Kumar (40), SC, labourer from Mirzapur, UP, Wage Rs. 120/day
Why Children are Dropped Out or Out of School? 32% 28 27 17 8% 8% 3 0 4 2 2 0 5 6 5 Children of non migrnts Left behind children Migrant children Figure 6 :School Drop Out Rate among Migrant Children and Children Left Beind Reason for not attending school in Eastern UP and Bihar, DLHS-3
Why Children are Dropped Out or Out of School? But when they were asked about the level, their expectation was very simple and clearly defined that the level of education as per them is enough which enables them to do their signature, write and read address and phone numbers or to do some job (apana kaam bhar ka padh le). The following reasons emerged as important factors responsible for non-attendance or drop out of children in case of studies and group discussions: Many lack information about the school and its location at the place of destination schools are far and children are very small to go to school alone. Lack of time for pick up and drop out. They said We have to see our work first. No support in the villages and children move with their parents Failure in any class and health related problem also de-motivates some of the children. If the earning member of a family dies then the responsibility goes to the widow or the eldest child Language and ethnicity also becomes a barrier in primary education of children Fail to provide basic documents like birth certificate, ration card, BPL card, voter ID card as most of these migrants are mobile and illiterate, Children involvement in household activities where both parents have to work for wages is also important factor for keeping these children out of school. They work as little parents and home manager in absence of their parents. They collect firewood, water, take care of younger siblings and many times cooks food for parents.
CONCLUSIONS The commonalities Distress seasonal migration is becoming the last coping strategy in the precarious lives of the rural poor Migrants are illiterate/ semi-literate, unskilled, engaged in informal sector and earn very low wages. They migrate mainly due to economic distress in the villages. migrant s jobs are not permanent and fixed and they oscillate from one place to another. Their wages are lower than the local labourers. They are deprived of basic human rights like, benefits of ration card, identity card, bank account number etc.
CONCLUSIONS The differences Network plays very significant in both cases but is former it is relatives/friend/co-villagers who help them not only in initiating migration but also provide support at the place of destination. While in another case majority of the migrant labourers come through the middleman called meth. The migrants who leave their families behind in the villages are younger than who migrate with family. The source of income in former case is diversified like remittances from migrants and earning from agricultural activities (own or shared) in the villages. While in later case, whole family of the migrant is engaged and work under the banner of one contractor. Migration has a positive impact on school attendance of left behind children in general and girls in particular. However, it plays negative role on the education of children as more than four-fifth of the children were out of school due to migration of their parents.
CONCLUSIONS Nowifwecomparetherelativeconditionofthesetwogroups of children, impact of migration seem to be positive on school attendance of left behind children. On the other hand the education of the children who are migrating with their parents suffers as they are hardly admitted to formal or any nonformal school. The parents remain busy in their work and the children either look after their siblings or they spend whole day in playing near to work sites. In conclusion it can be said that the status of children who migrate along with their parents is poor in terms of education and health in comparison to children staying back in the villages with left behind families. Thus, there is an urgent need to mainstream them through formal or non-formal education system.