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by Avehi Abacus
Caste system is the system of social stratification based on birth. The ascribed status dominates life and aspirations of traditionally marginalised groups in our society - ‘closing-in’, stifling possibilities of any social movement. But since Independence, the structure of Constitutional Democracy has opened-up avenues making it possible to move-up the socio-economic ladder. In this context, formal education has a strategic place. At the same time we know, from much glorified and less debated Puranic examples of Karna, Eklavya and Shambuka that the system of caste also can have overbearing control on formal education. Through the fifty years of constitutional rule and the so called harsh, partisan measures of Reservations in education and employment the picture has only partially changed. See Boxes
The Figures Speak For Themselves
- According to the 1991 census, 77 percent of the Dalit workforce is in the primary (agricultural) sector of the economy. Most of them are landless laborers.
- An estimated 400-lakh people in India, among them 150 lakh children, are bonded labourers, working in slave-like conditions in order to pay off a debt. A majority of them are Dalits. 66 per cent of bonded labourers are Dalits.
- According to government statistics, an estimated ten lakh Dalits are manual scavengers who clear human excreta from public and private latrines and dispose of dead animals; unofficial estimates are much higher.
- A recent survey in Marathwada revealed that 50% of rural Dalits do not have access to drinking water facilities, in 85% of the villages, entry was not allowed to Dalits into upper caste houses, 80 % prohibited Dalits from entering temples and in most villages Dalits were forced to act as scavengers.
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Literacy rates
- Total literacy: 52.21%
- Dalits: 37.41%
- Literacy among men: 64.13%
- Literacy among Dalit men: 49.91%
- Literacy among women: 39.29%
- Literacy among Dalit women: 23.76%
What is it like to be a dalit child in school today?
What does it really mean to be a dalit child in school today? Is social opposition to dalit schooling an aberration of the past? In the absence of systematic research we do not have definite answers to these questions. Still, available studies provide clear evidence that schooling can be quite a traumatic experience for a dalit child.
School textbooks are, by and large, silent about the dalit experience of social oppression. A study of textbooks for classes 4,5 and 6 of government schools in Madhya Pradesh, for example, shows that not a single character can be identified as coming from a scheduled-caste background. Yet a large proportion of students in these schools are from erstwhile untouchable communities.
Dalit students, however, find the silence about dalit experience in the official school curriculum less threatening than the power of the ‘hidden’ curriculum of norms, values, attitudes and expectations. Some dalit students who went to school just three decades ago quoted several examples of blatant discrimination, including being made to sit or eat separately. Eighty per cent of the 1,030 dalit students at a college in Aurangabad, (Maharashtra) said they were made to sit outside the classroom in primary school. In another study, a Harijan schoolteacher from Azamgarh (U.P.) painfully recalls his school days: ‘We were asked to sit separately. Our copy or slates were not touched by the teachers’.
There are still other forms of discrimination, which are less tangible, but equally damaging. Teacher behaviour is one important source of humiliation. Upper-caste teachers have low expectations of dalit pupils and often consider them as ‘dull’ and ‘uneducable’. A significant proportion of scheduled-caste professionals recall being made to feel ‘unintelligent’ and ‘inferior’ by their teachers, and also feeling ‘ignored’ by them. Interpersonal relationships among students are also a problem. An ICSSR study conducted in the seventies concludes that ‘at least as far as Scheduled Castes are concerned, schools and college have not functioned effectively as melting pots for caste boundaries in the matter of friendships’.
The adverse learning environment experienced by scheduled-caste pupils cannot but affect their educational aspirations and achievements. The high drop-out rate among scheduled-caste students has to be read in this light. - Geetha Nambissan, From : Public Report On Basic Education In India (PROBE), October 1998.
Are the cities better than the villages?
The problem is not confined to rural areas and it is disturbing to find that caste prejudices die hard even in a ‘modern’ setting. A recent study highlights continuing caste discrimination in the heart of Delhi, where some teachers go so far as to criticize the accessibility of government schools to dalit children. As one of them bluntly put it: ‘Scheduled-caste bacchon ko padha ke kya faida hai, unko band baja sikha do… bas utna hi thik hai’. (What is the point of teaching scheduled-caste children? Let them learn how to beat drums, that’s good enough.)’ - PROBE 1998
Can my child hope for a future better than mine?
‘The teachers only teach upper-caste children. They use our children to do odd jobs in the school. They don’t teach them anything. ‘Padhai sabke liye barabar honi chaiye’ (all pupils should be taught equally) - Ramsree, a Jatav mother in Surothi (Dholpur, Rajasthan). - PROBE 1998
It is not only enough to strengthen mechanisms of ensuring entry of oppressed in education system. It is also equally vital to have fair, representation of oppressed castes and their life experiences in educational texts.
Are our text books fair?
A study of Marathi medium textbooks under progress by Avehi-Abacus Project revels that even in a Marathi language text-books; a language, which is replete with rich Dalit literature especially since past 40 years or so, the representation of Dalits is merely about 12%. Dalit characters are not only far and few but even those which find space in the pages of the text-books feature as a poor, ignorant people; who need to be ‘elevated’ and endowed with (our) ‘culture’.
Study of Marathi Medium Textbooks (Std. I to V) by Mr. Prakash Burte supported by Eklavya, M.P. and published by Avehi-Abacus Project also shows absence of any reference of the existence of caste system and thereby the recognition and analysis of plight of the lower castes. Moreover, there is a clear bias in favour of fair as against dark complexion. This is especially disturbing oversight on part of the text-book bureau in a place where caste and racial characteristics are synonymously used.
Our Experiences While Using The Sessions On Caste
When the Avehi Abacus Curriculum was used in 25 Mumbai Municipal Corporation schools we were worried that teachers will vehemently resist talking about caste. The resistance did come from a small section and was not too aggressive. Common grounds could be negotiated. Since we used an already existing story of respected writer like Premchand it was not perceived as exaggerations, interpretations, biases on our part. Most children were thrilled with the sessions. These are some of the sessions they may never forget.
Feed-back from children, revealed …(Although the sessions on caste were done in Std. VI these are some of the sessions they remembered. Just 2 of children’s comments are fluidly translated below: )
- “We are studying ‘Avehi’ curriculum from class III. Avehi has given knowledge to us more than our ‘studies’. We learnt that there should be not caste inequalities. So I like Avehi a lot”. - Mahendra Jaitafer, 7th Sd. Kawlemath Marathi School, Bombay 19.
- “ We get so much ‘other’ knowledge. We learnt that one should not have ‘us’ and ‘other’ feeling (‘Bhed - Bhav’- that one should not discriminate). We learnt that caste discrimination was very bad and actually happens even today. We now know that one should not fight with others. In Avehi they teach us so many other things. What happens in society we know because of Avehi.” - Sharmila Ghosalkar, 7th Std. Kavlemath Banganga School 1996.