HRD Ministry issues guidelines regarding admissions for migrant workers’ children

The HRD Ministry on Tuesday issued guidelines to states and union territories for the education of migrant workers’ children. According to the guidelines, the state government was strictly asked to ensure that names of children who have migrated to other areas during the pandemic are not struck-off from the school rolls.

“While all care must be taken to ensure that their names are not struck off the rolls (as the possibility of their return anytime is always there), their numbers may be reported class-wise to the Directorate of Education to compensate for any input costs to be incurred by the school such as mid-day meals, distribution of textbooks and uniforms if not already completed,” the HRD Ministry said in its guidelines.

The HRD Ministry further said that a database of children who have left the local area for their homes in other states or other parts of the same state may be maintained.

The ministry has instructed the state government to direct all schools to give admission to the children without documents of transfer certificates or proof of class attended earlier.

The Central government had imposed a nationwide lockdown on March 24 to control the outbreak of Coronavirus. This sudden lockdown made lakhs of poor migrants homeless and penniless forcing them to return to their native villages.