Nagpur: Following Maharashtra govt’s campaign to bring back out-of-school kids into classrooms, Bhandara district collector Sanjay Kolte on Monday flagged off a survey after holding a meeting with all stakeholders. Section 4 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 provides for issuing education guarantee cards to migrant children to ensure their continued schooling. The campaign plans to cover all children aged between 3 and 18 years. The survey will continue till July 15. In Maharashtra, many families from various districts migrate for different occupations. These families, mostly from economically weaker sections, are landless or have minimal land holdings. This migration disrupts primary and secondary education of children, with girls particularly affected the most. Additionally, job uncertainty, social insecurity and parental fears lead to increased child labour and child marriages.A large number of families migrate to western Maharashtra for sugar cane cutting season and to neighbouring states Karnataka and Gujarat in search of work. These families typically migrate from September to May. Many also migrate to work at brick kilns, stone quarries, coal mines, agricultural, construction, public works department projects, roads, drains, ginning mills, etc.Keeping these realities in mind, Bhandara collector has directed all concerned officials to conduct effective search campaigns in every hamlet, settlement, sugar factory, brick kiln and other locations to ensure no child is deprived of education. The officials have been instructed to strictly implement standard operating procedures regarding survey methodology, guidelines and general preventive measures.The Objectives 1. Bring out-of-school, irregular and migrant children into the education system2. Prevent migration of children with parents3. Keep migrant children in the education stream in their vicinity4. Provide education guarantee cards to migrating childrenCategories of children to be surveyed:– Out-of-school and irregular children: E1 (never enrolled) and E2 (enrolled but dropped out, absent for more than one month continuously)– Migrant children: Those migrating with families and those coming with migrant families
