Coronavirus Lockdown: Online classes, nutrition, a far cry for migrants' children

Kanhaiya Lal, 29, a Gorakhpur native, has been working as a carpenter in Bengaluru for a couple of years now. Father of a 10-year-old son and a six-year-old daughter, he used to earn a daily wage of around Rs 500 although most of the earnings used to go as rent and for household expenditure.

When COVID-19 broke out, he decided to stay back in the city although the lockdown has left him jobless. His children study at a government school but their future looks fogged.

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“There has been no work since the last two months following the lockdown and we are facing tough times,” Kanhaiya Lal said.

“Earlier, we used to get ration, now that is also not there,” he said.

As the pandemic rages, the most vulnerable section of the society, the children of migrant workers -- in the city and those who have left for their villages -- are staring at an uncertain future.

From nutrition to education and security to mental and physical trauma, the repercussions of the pandemic and the lockdown on these children cannot be masked any more.

“The parents are not earning and even if we anticipate the best-case scenario, the children with extended families may be getting basic food but sooner or later they face discrimination and adversities,’’ Puja Marwaha, CEO, Child Rights and You (CRY) said.

The present situation, she said, may affect their education, nutrition and may increase their stress and lower self-esteem.

‘Give me some more’

Asim, 35, who lives in Ashwath Nagar, hails from Jharkhand. He used to work as a cook in a hotel here but has no work now. His children are aged 10, 8 and 7.

“The future looks very bleak for me and my family,” he said.

“We are finding it difficult to make ends meet. Our food comes from people we know. That’s how we are surviving,” he said.

The present situation, Puja informed, may affect the education, nutrition and increase the stress and lower the self-esteem of these children. “Children who are ‘on the move’ are currently deprived of immunisation, basic health and education needs,” she said.

Even the basic amenities are now a luxury for these migrant workers and their children face the perils of a dark life ahead. With no access to computers and smartphones, remote schooling is not an option for them.

“My children’s schools are closed for now. But people are talking about online classes. We don’t have the money to buy a computer, we don’t even have a television. I am not sure how my children’s education is going to be. I am not sure whether my children will be getting their books for this year,” Kanhaiya said.

Children of migrant or construction workers have always faced issues in continuity in education. The pandemic has come as a double whammy.

Learning the hard way

“They are not only missing on online classes per se but are missing on learning itself, even if we assume that digital access can somehow be enabled,” Rizwan Ahmed, co-founder of Gubbachi Learning Community, said.

“In a country with a huge digital divide, it is not possible to rely on sustainable digital or online solutions for government school children,” he said.

Rizwan goes on to add that even if a family does have a smartphone, it will most likely be in the possession of the father or the main member of the family who is out on work and the window of interaction with the teacher is reduced to evening hours.

The reverse migration too is undoubtedly taking a huge toll on these children, especially when it comes to education. “In the current scenario even those who were receiving any kind of formal or non-formal education will face a lag,” informed Puja. She said that with children's education at stake, they would be exposed to crime and other abuses, besides being homeless and prone to trafficking, especially to larger cities, where small and medium-sized businesses thrive.

Images of migrant workers’ children walking miles and miles to their hometown with no public transport to access have clearly thrown light on their grim condition. “The recent traumatic experiences may affect their learning outcome and eventually affect their retention in school,” the CRY India CEO said.

“School administration will need to provide special attention and counselling services to these children,” she added.

Enrollment drive and community radios

Clearly, with no television, smartphones or computers, the underprivileged children have no access to education, in whatever form it may be.

“The availability of WhatsApp and the capacity to handle it for receiving and transmitting academic work will be an issue with many families,” Rizwan said, adding that bandwidth for conducting prolonged video sessions will be a challenge and access to charging facilities might be limited.

The Gubbachi Learning Community is engaging with their teachers who go to the homes of these children and give them worksheets. The staff visit them twice a week to give and collect back the completed worksheet while following all the COVID-19 related precautionary guidelines.

“And we are seeing excellent responses from the children,” Rizwan said. He pointed out how a child cannot be an independent self-learner using resources on the internet that privileged children are able to do.

“For a first-generation learner – the lack of social contact for learning (face-to-face) will be a huge hindrance since the ‘rules’ of long-distance communication is alien and not fully understood by this child,” Preethy Rao, also a co-founder of Gubbachi said.

Children of migrant workers are also missing out on the meals provided by the schools. To say that hunger and malnutrition is haunting them would not be a hyperbole.

Nutrition, need of the moment

“In addition to academics, the government school system will have to focus heavily on public health and nutrition for effective learning by its children,” Rizwan said.

During a survey for the distribution of relief materials in Mumbai, recollected Puja, Asha (name changed), a seven-year-old girl, was found alone with her four-year-old sibling, waiting for her parents to return home.

Her parents had been visiting families in the nearby area, seeking support for food. Asha, along with her family, had come from Bihar and now staying at Sirathu in Kaushambi district, Uttar Pradesh. Her parents had been working as road construction workers and owing to the lockdown, the family had been helpless.

Asha’s parents had also visited the nearby village to get some work on the farm but returned without any work. They had nothing to eat and could not go back to the village as all the little savings had been used for survival during the lockdown.

“The distribution team provided a packet of nutritional relief material,” said Puja, adding how the smile on their faces said it all.

“Government benefits must be done on a war footing,” according to Preethy, who suggested families will have to be supported with food grains and rations in cases where jobs have been lost.

“Access to good primary health care, free COVID-19 testing facilities and free treatment will have to be done for all families. Food given in schools will have to be increased in nutritive value and also be extended to breakfast and evening snacks,” she said.

Children are growing up in an environment where daily struggles for basic amenities have become the order of the day. “This may lead to deeper insecurities and extreme psychological pressure,” Puja said.

Vulnerable to trafficking

Children who migrate on their own for jobs especially those in the age group of 15 to 18 years also deserves attention.

“Their condition is even more deplorable; employers either are hiding or deserting them without giving any financial dues,” Puja added.

“The children working under hazardous conditions are at extreme risk as employers, due to the illegal nature of the act, cannot disclose their identities. It’s impossible to rescue them or feed them in the current lockdown situation,” she said.

She pointed out that all these children are at even higher risk of physical, emotional and sexual abuse and that they could, at a later stage, be vulnerable to trafficking. There is also the possibility of migrant workers with girl children sending their children to work instead of schools or getting them married.

“A vigil needs to be maintained about girl children – that they are not left behind or married off,” Puja informed.

Education post-COVID-19

“The idea of education, post-COVID-19 will have to expand -- become broader to include health and nutrition as well,” Rizwan said.

He feels the system has to come up with creative solutions and be willing to invest more in the underprivileged child to ensure continuity in learning.

“Teachers have to rethink on the idea of regular, ‘factory-type’ classrooms,” he said.

Rizwan opined that community-based learning, where smaller clusters of children can be taught at various locations in the community, might work for hyper-local schools in rural areas where the community has also invested in the child’s education.

The migrants are also facing difficulties in accessing basic healthcare.

“When we go to government hospitals for us and our children, there is such a long queue that they ask us to come back later,” Kanhaiya lamented.

As the migrants try to get back in the saddle, they are not sure whether they can take the reins of their life even after the lockdown is relaxed completely.

“My dream is that my children are well educated,” Kanhaiya Lal said. “But I am not quite sure about that.”