Closure of seasonal hostels forces migrant children to work as daily wage laborers, education takes backstage

The closure of seasonal hostels due to the pandemic has forced the children of migrant workers to work as daily wage labourers and education has now been taken backstage.

The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the education system in a big way, and while we were already reeling from last year’s Covid crisis, the second wave has dealt a deadly blow to the thousands of children of migrant workers, who are now forced to work as daily wage earners in brick kilns at Andhra Pradesh and other states due to the closure of seasonal hostels in Odisha. The migrant children were the worst sufferers with classes shifting online during the lockdown. With schools closed, classes going virtual and the simultaneous closure of seasonal hostels since the coronavirus outbreak, their education progress has come to a stand-still.