Postcards help track migrant Odisha kids' school enrollment

Chennai: The humble 50 paise postcards may seem outdated against the hugely popular social networking trend currently on. Yet, it is holding its importance as it helps track migrant children’s enrollment into the mainstream schools in their native places.

Some 50 migrant labourers’ children from the Balangir and Kalahandi districts in Odisha have been enrolled in regular schools and their school headmasters have sent the postcards confirming their admission into the schools.

Tejaram Kata, son of Bharati Kata in Temara village in Kalahandi district in Odisha who has been promoted to 3rd standard was enrolled in government primary school in Siriliguda and another student Gopal Rama from Balangir distric enrolled in government primary school in Putuli and promoted to 5th standard.

Their headmasters have confirmed this and sent postcards to Aide et Action, a developmental organisation which runs special centres for the children of migrant labourers.  “This year we have given 515 postcards to migrant labourers asking them to post them when they go their native places in Odisha. The academic year starts in July and we have just started to receive the postcards confirming their admissions,” said G. Prakash Raj, Programme Officer, Chennai region, Aide et Action.

“We expect 450 more cards this year. Last year, of 547 students who were given postcards, we received 515 postcards, which had the local headmasters’ seal confirming their admission to the mainstream schools,” he said.

“We find it as one of the cost-effective ways to track the out-of-school children and their reintegration into the mainstream,” he explained

The brick kiln chambers in Tiruvallur district mostly have workers from Odisha, who generally come in the month of December and leave by the end of May.
 
“Migrant workers bring the entire family with them. So we started the education programme for children of migrant workers to help them reintegrate with the mainstream schools,” he said.
 
In collaboration with SSA and ICDS, seven centres have been set up in Ellapuram, Villivakkam and Tiruvallur blocks. Special training was given to them in their native languages by instructors from Odisha. The students will also write the exam and get their transfer certificates along with the postcards.