Moving Lives: Investigating Patterns of Migration, Labour and Education in Kerala

Aiswarya Thykkandi | pp 50-70

Abstract :
The state of Kerala has been experiencing large-scale internal labour migration in the past three decades. Among the many migration corridors connecting Kerala to other parts of India, the Murshidabad–Ernakulam corridor is particularly significant, with a considerable number of migrant families and their children on the move. While much of the research on internal labour migration to Kerala has focused on vulnerable working conditions, the nature of migrant work, labour rights violations, and the educational experiences of migrant labourers’ children remain relatively unexplored. This paper aims to investigate how children’s education is affected by internal migration, specifically among families migrating from West Bengal to Ernakulam in Kerala. The central objective is to understand the educational challenges these children face due to family mobility and to examine the strategies families use to address these disruptions. The study presents insights from fieldwork conducted in Ernakulam with families who migrated from Murshidabad and currently reside in the city and its adjacent areas. It also analyses how the Right to Education Act applies to these migrant children.

Keywords: Migration, education, schooling decisions, migrant families