Study on The Impact of Migration on Education

Aims & Objectives: The study aimed at examining how migration impacts education and identifying the policy options and measures to protect the children and the community against any adverse impact of the same. It endeavoured to promote their educational attainments in enrolment, attendance, retention, years of schooling and learning levels.

Methodology: It was based on literature review and subsequent survey of 18 villages, 6 each from three blocks of Khunti district namely Torpa, Murhu and Khunti. The survey included local NGOs, government functionaries and researchers and most importantly households in these villages.

Findings: The outcome of the study revealed that:

• Migration adversely impacts the education of children, both when they migrate with parents or are left behind at the source in the care of relatives/friends;
• The villagers, though aware of the importance of education for their children are helpless in the face of poverty and
• They choose to meet their subsistence requirements over their children’s education due to their low expected returns from the contemporary system of education. This perpetuates the cycle of migration putting the future of children at stake.