Education

Various studies and scholastic arguments have now established the link between modern education and alienation. These studies range across disciplines like psychology, sociology, and political science as well as subjects that provide a critical analysis of the normative global shape shifting that affects local politics. More or less, in most of the contentions, one does observe a pertinent emphasis on the dominating force of the market. Market as a driving force in present-day education systems is also deciding their future. In the following article, an attempt has been made to conceptualise the complex picture of modern-day education, the global politics that decides if it is a right or a commodity and its relational dynamics with the individual in the society—all this through the perspective of “alienation.” This article tries to propose if education is reproducing detachment of the individual from their inherent consciousness by making their relationship with education as that of between an alienated labourer and their labour in a capitalist society.

Children from low-income migrant households are invisible in migration discourses. Despite existing provisions under various policies and schemes, access to social protection for migrant children has been fragile. Disruptions in education and inconsistent access to nutrition and primary healthcare sets them back further than non-migrant children from similarly disadvantaged backgrounds. COVID-19 has underscored that groups like migrants who face specific vulnerabilities are in acute need of tailored social protection programmes/measures. Functional portability measures that make opportune use of existing provisions in schemes are the first step towards this. Building on existing initiatives, policy frameworks must support adaptive social protection responses for this important segment of India’s population.