Aide et Action South Asia has initiated 20 schools in Andhra Pradesh
and Tamilnadu covering more than 1000 children. In Gujarat Aide et Action is in
the process of initiating 15 schools for children of migrant labour of
Chattisgarh. As per the Aide et Action study, in Western Orissa around 47
percent belong to scheduled tribes and over 30 percent work force constitute
children. AEA has initiated five schools today covering 278 children who are
out of school. Teachers drawn from Orissa will teach students in Oriya language
and teaching material is procured from Sarva Siksha Abhiyan Orissa. The
locations include Kazipet,
Doli thanda, Malyala, Solipet, Chikatimamidi road side, Chikatimamidi, Lakka
Thanda and Laxmi Thanda to begin with.
While inaugurating the Bridge Schools,
Mr.Madhu Sudhan State Project Coordinator for Rajiv Vidya Mission (SSA) Andhra
Pradesh said, “it is time that all marginalized children go to school and there
are efforts to set up State level task force to address issues related to
Migrant labor communities”. SS Jaideep, the Regional Manager Aide et Action
said that migrant labour children are completely invisible and children in
particular miss out on education. In a telephonic conversation, Umi Daniel,
Thematic Head Migration expressed surprise at the non inclusion of brick kiln
workers in Building and other Construction Workers Act 1996 as they hugely
contribute to economy. For example an estimated Rs. 50000 Crore worth of
construction activity takes place in the city like Hyderabad and it is
unfortunate that the Government of AP is only able to collect Rs.150 Crore as 1% cess
for the welfare of construction workers.
Kesunath Patel a migrant labor from Jharia
village from Bolangir district said, “though there are job cards provided under
NREGA but we never got work in last three years, so we came this year to work
in Kilns”. Jharani, who is pregnant said, that local anganwadis should provide
support to migrant communities in addressing nutritional needs of lactating
mothers and young infants.
As part of current intervention Aide et
Action will mobilize mid day meal scheme for children, profile database of
migrants in the area, link with various
local government schemes meant for poorer sections and reduce occupational
related vulnerabilities through proactive engagement of kiln owners. The
intervention envisages enrolling children in regular schools in source area
once they go back after seasonal work.
Migrant Brick kiln workers who are usually semi-skilled are one of
most exploited, un-organised and un-regulated labour forces in India. According
to few studies, there are around 50,000 brick kilns operating in the country,
employing around five lakh workers (the figures may be much higher then what
has been indicated). The National Commission on Rural Labour (1991) estimates
that more than 10 million rural migrants work in brick kilns. The brick kilns
of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Tamilnadu employ thousands of seasonally
migrating laborers numbering more than 10,00,000, mostly drawn particularly
from western Orissa and Chattisgarh. Majority of the them are landless and
small farmers who depend on the daily wages and agricultural work which finds
them work only for six months during the rainy season once a year.