Abstract

Children of inter-state migrant workers in India who accompany their parents to destination states face an uncertain future regarding their educational prospects. This article aims to analyze the education status of inter-state migrant children in India through a thorough and critical evaluation of the existing body of research literature. Articles that were published from 2000 to 2024 were considered for the study. Prominent digital research databases like Google Scholar, Research Gate, Scopus, JSTOR, Academia.edu, and publishing houses like Sage, Taylor and Francis, Springer, and Routledge were relied on for finding relevant studies. This study employs the new mobilities paradigm, developed by John Urry and Mimi Sheller, alongside Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of forms of capital as its theoretical framework. Besides examining their current education status, this study also explores the factors that hinder their access to education. The contradiction between the fixed nature of the schooling system in India and the mobile nature of the lives of migrant children is found to be the major reason behind the low education status of migrant children compared to non-migrant and left-behind children. Child labor, issues in schools, poverty, and lack of resources in migrant households are the other major reasons. The article also tries to put forward some suggestions for future policy formulation.