Telangana: Poverty hinders education

The study was conducted on school dropouts in two of the most backward districts in Telangana in terms of literacy — Mahabubnagar, which has 55.04 per cent literacy, and Adilabad, with 61.01 per cent.

The study revealed that nearly 24 per cent of out of school students had dropped out because of moving with their parents who migrated in search of better jobs.

Shockingly, another 21 per cent of children were out of school so that they could generate income for their families.

Other reasons for not attending school was the necessity to be home to take care of younger siblings or because they simply did not have interest in studying, which was about 14 per cent of the sample size.

None of the children in the sample cited poor health condition as the reason behind dropping out of school.

The researchers also found that a large number of students listed as enrolled in schools by the government were actually dropouts, creating a large disparity between the data claimed by the government and the actual picture.

Researchers observed that nearly half of the students, 46.4 per cent, had enrolled in school but had dropped out.

“These findings are in tune with the research studies conducted both in India and abroad that vulnerable households tend to withdraw children from school as part of their coping strategy to deal with shocks to income, often in order to work, save on costs or to free other household members up to work,” said the researchers. The research was conducted by Dr L. Umadevi and Dr V Kavitha Kiran.