Odisha govt bridges schooling gap for children of migrant workers at brick kilns

Bhubaneswar: A special drive by the Odisha State School and Mass Education department in collaboration with 'Aide et Action' is helping children of migrant workers working at various brick kilns to continue their education at remote locations across the state and preventing child labour. 

"Odisha Government has taken steps for the education of migrant workers. The School & Mass Education Department has been mainstreaming the education of these children through around 200 centres (schools), these children get Midday meals and other facilities like regular children." Samir Ranjan Das, School & Mass Education Minister Odisha said. 

"The seasonal migrants come to work for 6 to 8 months in Brick Kilns and another construction sector, many of them come with their families and during this period the childrens loos out on their education, the smaller and infant they aren't able to get the services like integrated child development services (ICDS), basic immunization, so we have started small modal here in collaboration with State Government to reach out them, We identified the schools and requested them to pursued all the children in and provide the education although they are from another district," Umi Daniel, Director-Migration & Education, Aide et Action, said while speaking to ANI.

As per the Umi Daniel, Khurdha, Cuttack and Balasore Districts are major destination districts for Brick kiln workers in Odiaha and these migrant workers are from different districts of Odisha and outside the state mostly from Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. 

"Today we have around 200 children near Bhubaneswar (at Balianta Project) attending the school and 300 to 400 children are getting ICDS services," Umi Daniel further said. 

Bhubanpur Brick Kiln Project in Balianta of Khurdha District is one such project where children below 5 years are taken care of at Brick Kiln Child Care & Learning Center and early childhood education is provided when their parents are at work.

These kids are also provided with ICDS material including take-home ration etc and the children from class 1 to 8th are taking their education at Bhubanpur Government UP School as per the Right to Education (RTE) Act mandate under the initiative. 

"October to June Is a very crucial time for these children in the cycle of education they also give their examination here, and when they go back to School give them a certificate and the child is re-admitted in the Source area. The whole idea is that if one's child is acquainted with education the child may think something beyond Brick Kilns," Umi Daniel added. 

Rajlaxmi Mohapatra, one of the teachers at Government UP School Bhubanpur said, "We are teaching these migrant children here, the state Government is providing Rs 1800 per child for their Uniforms, Shoes and all kind of Study materials, those children are from outside the state they are being taught in India and get books in Hindi medium." 

Priyanka, who is a migrant worker from Ganjam and Coming to work at Bhubanpur Brick Kiln for the last 2 years, said, "Wherever we go for work we need to take our child with us and to look after they use to be a big challenge for us, but here are facilities for our children, there is a child care centre as well as a school for them." (ANI)