Interstate Migration in India and Its Influence on Children

Labor migration is the movement of people from one place to another for the purpose of employment. Migrants are usually viewed as aliens in the place where they move into, contributing to their hurdles and challenges. Several factors induce or influence migration. Kerala has witnessed both in-migration and out-migration, mainly related to employment. There is a replacement of labor resources in Kerala in almost every sector of employment by interstate migrant laborers (IMLs). Kerala has been witnessing a large inflow of migrant laborers, not only from states such as West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Assam, and Manipur, but also from neighboring countries like Nepal and Bangladesh. This is a natural mechanism to meet the labor shortage occurring due to the large-scale emigration to the Gulf Corporation Council (GCC) countries in the Middle East, migration to other states, and most importantly the reluctance among a large number of the native population to take up manual jobs (GIFT, 2013). Children are shoddily affected by migration as moving from one location to another they are deprived of their rights, especially with regard to education. Close to one-tenth of the IMLs live with their children in Kerala which is a very significant aspect of migration. These groups have migrated or brought their family along with them. It is a matter of concern that children of school-going age are not sent to schools due to different reasons. Malnutrition, contagious diseases, anemia, poverty, illiteracy, etc. severely affect these children which may result in their deplorable conditions later in life. Children being a vulnerable group during migration need special attention and care. This chapter uses primary data using Sequential Explanatory Design (Creswell, 2003), in which the quantitative part is cross-sectional and the qualitative part is case study. The outcome of the study emphasizes the need for comprehensive policies and programs for the children of migrants who are the victims of child right exploitation as part of the migration process.