Who are Dalits
🔸The word Dalit‘ has been adopted from Sanskrit word Dal which means the oppressed, broken or
downtrodden. Dalit have been known by different names like untouchable, depressed classes or Harijans etc. during a course of time. As per traditional Hindu caste system, there were four castes Brahmins, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra, Atishdura, Avarnas etc. Dalits were the outcastes who were considered as impure and they were socially excluded from the rest of the society.
🔸Due to the traditional fallacy of caste system, Dalits faced discrimination and violence all across the country for centuries. Two important leaders of India, Gandhi Ji & Ambedkar showed great concern about the status of Dalits in our society. Gandhi ji raised awareness among people about the widespread discrimination and tried to raise Dalit‘s status to shudras by calling them Harizans, while Ambedkar worked towards seeking constitutional and legal rights for the Dalits.
🔸Caste malady is so much ingrained in the Indian society that despite being Independent for last 67 years, a large section of Dalits in India have been denied even the basic human rights as promised in the constitution. Dalits represents nearly 17 % of the Indian population but their participation in India growth story has been far from satisfactory. Years of hostility has put the majority of Dalits among most backward and poor class of Indian society
Provisions for up-liftment of Dalits
🔸Constitution of India abolished untouchability 3 years after the independence. Since independence government of India has passed numerals acts like protection of civil rights act 1955 , Prevention to atrocities act1989 to protect the basic rights of Dalits. Apart from constitutional & legal rights, Government of India has taken several measures like reservation in government jobs, sub-plans for SC to ensure budget allocation in proportion to their population, access to education, promoting entrepreneurship etc. to empower the Dalits. Education is one aspect of empowerment which has tremendous capability to bridge the wide gap between status of Dalits and non-Dalits in a relatively short span of time.
Education is key to empowerment
🔸Education is key aspect in Dalit empowerment. Most of the Dalits are dependent on nonDalits for occupations that make them vulnerable to exploitation despite the provisions of constitutional rights. Education has the potential to enhance the avenues for employment and cut the rope of dependency. All steps to curb the social exploitation will not succeed till the time, economic exploitation persists in the society. Primary education can provide the majority of illiterates the basic read and write skills. Government of India has implemented several scheme for the up-liftment of Dalits. But in the absence of basic literacy rights they are deprived of the benefits provided under schemes due to unawarenes and make the vulnerable to the exploitation of implementation officers.Dalits participation in design and implementation of such schemes can significantly improve the outcome of these schemes.
🔸Poverty is one of the reason that majority of Dalits students dropped out of schools after primary education. Vocation education can play a bigger role to improve the income and instill confidence & entrepreneurial spirit among this segment. In talk of empowerment we often ignore the women who are the most vulnerable among vulnerable. No policy of empowerment can be called successful until it touches the life of most vulnerable. "If you educate a man, you educate an individual; if you educate a woman, you educate a family" said Mahatma Gandhi. Education among women will empower to demand their basic rights and take care of their & family health in better way Quality higher Education can provide Dalits the new skills and opportunities to enter the new high paid job market that has opened up post globalization.
Dalit education status & government measures to improve their participation
🔸Over last few decades, education level among the Dalits has improved a lot from 49 % in 1991 to 68 % among males and from 23 % to 49% among females in 2011.But the literacy rate among Dalits are still below national averages and is case of Dalit women, data is much more skewed. Drop out rate in primary education is nearly 35 %. Post-secondary school dropout ratio is as high as 70 %.Dalit enrolment in higher education is nearly 8 % below the national average of 15 % .
Government has sponsored several schemes and program to accelerate the education development among Dalits. Some of the current schemes are discussed as under:
• Government provides free supply of textbooks and stationary at all stages of school education
• Government provides pre-metric scholarship to children‘s whose parents are involved in unclean occupations
• Government also provides reservation in Kendriya vidyalayas • Government has constructed several hostels for SC girls as well boys under Babu Jagjivan Ram Chhatraws Yojna to impart the quality education to these students. • Apart from targeted schemes, the universal schemes like mid-day meal & SSA have been successful to improve the enrollment of children in schools.
• Post metric scholarship scheme has been launched to provide the support to parents of SC children so that drop out from primary to secondary education can be minimized.
Hurdles to Dalit’s education
🔸Existing schooling condition available for Dalits is alarming. Quality of Schooling system is organized in terms of hierarchical pattern of social composition. Majority of upper class students are able to join the top school in respective urban & rural areas, while Dalits do join the schools inferior in quality due to the financial constraints. Primary schooling suffers from inadequate teachers, physical infrastructure, poor teaching material & availability of schools itself. At times they face discrimination from teachers and other students in the classroom.
Conclusion
🔸Despite the continuous government support, Dalit community has not been successful to reap the full benefit of educational development due to un-availability of schools and poor quality of education if schools are available for them. Despite the , 25 per cent seats at the entry level which are to be reserved for underprivileged children, very few schools are following the rule & many of them with dangerous discrimination practices. Rising literacy rates shows some rays of hope but Dalit‘s satisfactory participation in post metric & higher education still remains a distant dream. Prevalent discrimination, abusive behavior of teacher and fellow students is forcing them to drop out of the education. On papers we have removed the untouchability but in reality majority of Indian population practice this hidden apartheid in their daily life. Government & civil society is yet to do a lot to eradicate the caste based discrimination in schools, colleges by raising awareness among government official, dropping caste demeaning section from curriculum & imparting sensitivity training to teachers & public at large so that education can play its critical role in Dalit empowerment.
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