Forced Migration Increases Educational Vulnerability And Trafficking In Sunderbans

The Sunderbans, which is the largest delta in the world, is formed at the confluence of the mighty Ganga, Hooghly, Padma and Brahmaputra rivers.

- Saptarshi Deb

This deltaic region stretches from the Hooghly River on the west to the Meghna River on the east and is shared by India (West Bengal) and Bangladesh. Known for its amazing variety of flora and fauna, the area is also one of the most deprived due to it inaccessibility and ecological fragility.

Educational vulnerability after Aila

The region was devastated in 2009 when the cyclonic storm Aila caused severe flooding and destruction. The region, which practises seasonal agriculture in the absence of adequate irrigation facilities, was submerged by the brackish river water. When the flood water receded, the excessive amount of salinity left in the soil made most of the agricultural land unsuitable for agriculture. This environmental disaster has greatly increased educational vulnerability for the children of these island villages.

Himalaya Santra, the Headmaster of Charakhali Shiskha Bhavan in the Hingalgunj Block of North 24 Parganas, told BE, “Dropouts increased after Aila but it has been controlled to a certain extent by focused policy interventions. Economic marginalisation caused by poor agricultural production has forced many of the men and women of these villages to migrate to different states in search of livelihood. They often leave their children with aging relatives and that has often led to a rise in dropouts as they are left unsupervised.” Santra’s school overlooks the narrow Kaikhali River and he informed, “The river bank on other side is Bangladeshi territory.”