A survey on migrant children in Chennai, Tiruvallur, Chengalpattu and four other districts revealed that 75% of them were from within the state and moved to cities along with their parents in search of work. The remaining 25% of the children were from various states includingAndhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Karnataka, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh andRajasthan.
Centre for Child Rights and Development (CCRD) has conducted a survey on status of children on the move inTamil Nadufrom July 2022 to February 2023. As part of the survey, 210 migrant children from Chennai, Tiruvallur, Chengalpet, Nagapattinam, Villupuram and Kallakurichi districts were interviewed.
A majority of children (66%) are in the age group of 15 to 18 years and 29% of them are in the age group of 12 to 14 years. Except for one child, all other children were school dropouts. While 46% of them studied only up to Class VIII, 31% dropped out in Classes IX and X. About 8% of these children did not have any formal schooling.
Only 7% of the children ran away from Home and most of them moved with their family members in search of work.