Every year millions of impoverished families living in the rainfed parts of India leave their homes in search of work. Forced to migrate due to a livelihoods collapse in the villages, these distress seasonal migrants shut up their Spartan homes, take a few meagre belongings and move, often across long distances. The large numbers of children who accompany their parents are forced to drop out of school, and in most instances, do not find schooling in the areas they move to. As a result, at work sites these children are put to work from young ages. The numbers of such children under the age of 14 years is estimated to be in the region of 9 million. This study, commissioned by the American India foundation, draws on the work of four NGOs in different parts of India, and in different sectors: sugarcane harvesting in Maharashtra, salt pan, roof tile and charcoal making in Gujarat, and brick kiln migrations from Orissa to Andhra Pradesh. It looks at the exploitative conditions within which these migrant workers are forced to function, and also examines what kinds of interventions are needed for them to be able to escape from the vicious annual cycle of distress seasonal migration. Both macro and micro aspects of distress seasonal migration are covered, including the spread and scale of the occurrence, the seasonality factor, the differing contexts, employer-labour relations, working and living conditions of migrant families, and children, and the links of such migration with child labour. The work of the four NGOs is centred around the education of migrant children. The strategies evolved by them to deal with the mobility of these children, and to ensure they do not drop out but continue with their schooling, as well as the need for relevant policy changes are also examined.
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