Migrant Father and Consequences on Children's Education:A Study of Rural Punjab

The decision to migrate is often influenced by multiple reasons and motives, which is not taken by an individual rather, is a collective decision of family members, based upon overall welfare of the home and especially of those left behind. Transitional changes among sending and receiving communities have also influenced social scientists, economists, psychologists and others to study such changes, and since long back, many studies have been done on them. What impact does parental migration leaves on their left behind children, who remain under transnational household in the countries of origin; still remains under-studied (Rajan & Nair, 2103). The absence of parents, subsequently leading to economic advantage back home, bring a lot of changes on social and psychological environment of left behind children. The aim of this paper is to study the dropout rates amongst those youngsters whose parents have migrated to Gulf countries. Data was collected through purpose sampling from migrant's houses. 6 case studies were done with left behind children to understand the phenomenon of dropout and charm of migration, as perceived by their young minds. During study, it was seen that dropout rates among children specially among boys was more, not because they were not getting good education rather, surprisingly, all the children were pass outs of private school affiliated with C.B.S.E and they also took extra tuition classes which was made possible by easy access to inflow of remittances. But for them, a high standard of living, earning money has replaced their will to learn and gain knowledge. Igniting their minds with the light of education has taken a backseat, easy access to hard-earned money of their parents abroad has diluted their passion to strive for a bright future and instead, has paved way for inclination towards materialistic goods over enrichment of their minds and hence, lives.