Refugee Children’s Right to Education in India: Legal Obligations and Implementation Realities

Abstract

The right to education assumes primary significance for refugees as it’s crucial to preserving human rights and a clear link to their social and economic empowerment. In this context, the article analyses the international and domestic legal standards in India in protecting the education rights of refugees. Primary data has been collected using interview schedules. Personal interviews and participant observation are the other tools used to provide a thematic analysis of the qualitative data gathered from 200 refugees living in India. Through the analysis and interpretation of the data collected, some of the extensive barriers to education that refugees living in India face have been identified, and ground realities in terms of accessibility of universally recognised educational rights of refugees have also been highlighted. The findings from this study augment the limited empirical knowledge related to the area and expand understanding of the experiences of refugee children in accessing educational rights in India.