A poignant struggle to fit in

The children of migrant workers in Kerala face numerous struggles, including crime, punishment sometimes simply for being ‘outsiders’, and the lack of stability. Through it various initiatives, the State government has been trying its best to help them feel at home.

When eight-year-old Diya (name changed) stopped coming to school a week before the Christmas vacation, her teachers noticed. Originally from Kolkata, and the child of a migrant worker, Diya had been enrolled in Government LP School, in Eloor, Ernakulam district, Kerala, a couple of months before. She was a lively child, fluent in Malayalam. Her Standard III class teacher Simi Joseph reported her absence to the school authorities, who chose to wait since many from the migrant community frequently went back to their hometowns for brief durations.    

“When she didn’t turn up even after school reopened in the New Year, we alerted the councillor of her division in Eloor municipality. We lodged a petition with the Eloor police as well,” said Siby Augustine, headmaster, Government LP School, Eloor, an industrial township about 12 kilometres away from Kochi city.

It emerged that she, along with her father who worked in a scrap shop, was allegedly beaten up and scared away from their accommodation by the shop manager on the night of December 30. She was also allegedly locked up in a room during the melee.

Thanks to the insistence of the school authorities and the councillors of Eloor municipality, they were tracked down from another scrap shop near Edappally on January 4.

“My school bag was thrown out of the room. My father was beaten up. We weren’t allowed to stay back in the room at least till the next morning. We spent the night on the veranda of a liquor shop,” the child recollected later to the police.

The Eloor police have since then registered a case against the manager under IPC Section 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and relevant provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.  

“She was with us till April 2023 when her father was imprisoned for some petty theft. He then took her away saying that they were returning to West Bengal. We never knew they had come back to Kerala,” said Sreekumar C., director, SOS Children’s Village, Aluva. The not-for-profit organisation runs homes for the holistic development of uncared for children, and among its current girl residents, seven are migrants below 18 years.