Poverty is one of the reason that majority of Dalits students | Essay Model Answers
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.
