Over 41 Lakh Children Not Attending Schools in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: Over 41 lakh children are not attending school in Odisha while over two lakh children are forced to earn a livelihood and attend school.

According to the freshly released Census 2011 data, a large number of children in their formative stages of life in the state are still out of school or college.

The data which pertains to children between 5 and 19 years of age revealed that a total of 41,65,330 children are not attending educational institutions (schools and colleges). Importantly, a number of these children who are out of educational institutions are deprived of education because of their engagement in work as 32 percent of the out of school/college are engaged in some kind of work.

The section of children not attending schools include 4,90,868 kids who are currently engaged as full-time workers and a total of 6,59,845 kids work for more than three months but less than six months a year, while a total of 1,93,777 kids work less than three months a year.

According to the Census data, there are also many children attending classes and simultaneously working in different sectors. The findings claimed that a total of 2,15,900 children in Odisha are managing classes as well as work in different sectors.

Out of the total number of children, who are engaged in both study and work, 56.7 percent are boys while the rest are girls, said the data.

In the category of children attending classes as well as engaged in work include 54,261 kids engaged as full-time workers, 101985 as marginal workers who work less than six but more than three months a year, while 59,654 kids in this age group work less than three months a year.