Understanding child migration in India
Research report
- English
- हिंदी
Highlights
Across India, every fifth migrant is a child. According to the latest data available from Census 2011, there were 92.95 million internal child migrants dispersed across the country, with present day figures likely to be much higher. However, child migrants are far from a homogenous group. For some children, migration may open horizons and is associated with expanding social and economic spheres, but for many others it brings serious risks, including abuse and exploitation. While the most common reason children migrate is to move with their household, marriage is a significant driver of migration for adolescent girls. Boys are twice as likely than girls to migrate for education and almost 20 million child migrants under the age of 14 are engaged in work. Using national data sets – including Census 1991, 2001 and 2011, NSSO-64th round (2007-08), NFHS-4 (2015-16) and IHDS-II (2011-12) – this report provides a comprehensive snapshot of the situation of child migrants in India, including statistics by state, trends across time, reasons for migration, and the influence migration has on their lives in relation to education, health and well-being.
