Why do children stay absent from school? A study of causes in Bargarh cluster, Chitrakoot district, Uttar Pradesh

A study of factors affecting school absenteeism in a group of village schools in Chitrakoot district of the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh (UP) shows that the main cause for children not going to school regularly in a drought year (2016) was that the children were either accompanying parents to work or staying at home to take care of younger siblings when parents went to work. Viewed in the context of other studies done to understand causes for school absenteeism in rural India, the present study highlights the fact that while there are some general predictors of absenteeism, specific causes would have to be investigated in particular contexts