EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR SCHEDULED CASTES: NEEDS AND CHALLENGES

Abstract

Education is an important parameter of socio- economic development. However, several factors act as impediments in realizing the goal of education. Caste is one of them. There have been continuous efforts by the state and non state actors to bring the disadvantaged castes closer to schooling and learning. But the results are far from satisfactory. There’s a gamut of factors that determines their access and motivation to learning. The paper tries to explore the situation. It looks at the everyday struggle of Dom and Musahar caste within the context of rural setup where caste identities dominate the social structure. It tries to examine the articulations of the caste members towards the available educational facilities as well as their everyday instantiations and negotiations. The objective of the paper is not to discuss the availability of school or teachers but the lacunae that fail to develop knowledge and learning in them through education. In order to bring about a change, the need is to transform the approach towards education of these most marginalized castes. The data and discussion of this paper is based on the ICSSR sponsored research entitled “Social Psychology of Marginalization and Exclusion: A Study of Dom and Musahar Communities of Bihar” (2016-18).