Right to education

Siliguri, April 24: More than 4,600 children below 15 years are out of school in the Siliguri education district and 90 per cent of them have migrated elsewhere to work, a recent survey of the Sarva Siksha Mission (SSM) has revealed.

The survey preceded the annual enrolment drive that begins in May-end.

“We found that 4,674 children in the 5-14 age-group do not go to school at present. The cause of worry is that 90 per cent of them are migrant workers who have left home and gone to places outside Siliguri in search of livelihood,” said Ananya Roy, the coordinator for community mobilisation and alternative schooling.

The children are employed in tea stalls, shops, factories and even brick kilns, Roy said.

“Since these children are breadwinners for their families, it is very difficult to wean them away from their trade,” Roy added. According to figures, 65 per cent of the out-of school children had been enrolled in institutions before they dropped out.

Mrinal Ghosh, a member of the recently formed Child Welfare Committee, said: “A large number of children migrate to neighbouring Bihar in the peak agriculture season for odd seasonal jobs. When they come back, they do not resume education even if they were enrolled earlier.”

“It is also possible that many of these children have been trafficked,” said Tamali Dutta, the in-charge of the Kharibari centre of Bhoruka, an NGO working in prevention of trafficking (mainly women). “We come across many underage girls working as domestic helps in abject conditions in far-off places like Delhi. We get to know that they were trafficked only after they are rescued.”

Dutta added: “Recently, a Delhi-based NGO handed over to us six children (all boys) from this region. All of them were between 10-14 years old and worked in shops under conditions banned by the law.”

Currently, there are about 56,000 children studying in primary and 52,000 in upper-primary schools in Siliguri education district.

“For those still out of school, we have the Deprived Urban Children scheme in towns and bridge-courses in rural areas,” Roy said.