India is home to more than 200 million Dalit individuals. While the living conditions of this community deteriorates by the day, India has been a witness to some of the inhumane marginalisation of this underserved population. This essay will analyse the politics of educational accessibility for Dalit learners in India.
Dalits, a term for the ‘untouchable’ community, make up approximately 16% of the Indian population has been persistently vilified till date. Through systematic patterns evident socially, economically, culturally and politically the community remains stripped off of humanity by the socially dominant. Consistent caste based violence, discrimination in schools, workplaces and in society has pushed the Dalit community to the fringes of humanity, starving for equal opportunities, skill- training and wages.
In the 1950s Kaka Kalelkar and Mandal Commissions were set up in order to recognize vulnerable communities in India in need of special attention from the government to ensure upliftment and growth of such classes. The Kaka Kalelkar Committee had prepared a list of 2,399 backward castes or communities for the entire country and of which 837 had been classified as the ‘most backward’. In addition to classification, they also provided recommendations to uplift such communities. One of the many recommendations was reservation for depressed classes. It is crucial to note that the government implemented reservation without taking into account other suggestions by the committee, leaving the state of the vulnerable and backward communities unchanged (if not worse). This is to root the argument that reservation is an unhelpful tool stemming from negligence. To contextualize the argument further, it can be asserted by extension that reservation in contemporary India is a flimsy bandaid over a much deeper, historical wound. This systemic failure is a perpetuation of generational violence and marginalization of Dalits in India.
In his essay Manish Kumar Rao asserts “The literacy rate among Dalits is 73.5%, which is lower than the national average of 80.9% (Census of India, 2020).
This is a direct result of the aforementioned systemic failure, regardless of any political party. Poor occupational opportunities, lack of vocational training and consistent discrimination directly affects the literacy rates in Dalits, therefore creating a vicious loop of illiteracy and negligible financial independence. This circle ensures that the violated remains at the very bottom of every hierarchy, constantly stomped upon by the socially and economically dominant.
The disposition of Dalits keeps them unwillingly dependent on the superstructure for livelihood creating a closely knit pattern, often rigorous to break.
Rohith Vemula, a researcher and activist in University of Hyderabad, hailing from a Dalit community committed suicide in 2016. Suspended by the university and victim of “social boycott”, Vemula is one of many countless victims of campus atrocities in India.
In his study, Bagesh Kumar asserts:
With changing politics in the country, growing social assertion from the Dalits and Adivasis in socio-political sphere, the continuance of discriminatory practices in higher education has taken centre-stage in academia along with print, electronic and social media. Although the Education Policy, 1986 explains the principles and purpose of National System of Education ‘…to remove prejudices and complexes transmitted through the social environment and the accident of birth.’), students in the institutions of higher learning continue to experience discrimination precisely on account of their accidental birth into socially marginalized communities.
While India has witnessed a general growth in economy, western education and literacy on might assume that these factors would play a role in stemming the issue of caste discrimination out, which in fact is untrue. Instead, incidents of unimaginable tactics of suppression surface news every other day facing systemic ignorance and apathy. A study conducted by the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front revealed that approximately 30% of the schools surveyed in Tamil Nadu practiced caste based discrimination. 156 out of 441 schools showed some form of discrimination against dalit students, while some schools had more than one form. As many as 25 schools in Ramanathapuram, Cuddalore, Tenkasi and more, reported caste clashes amongst students. 15 schools had employed Dalit students to clean the toilets. Students from 33 schools said students wear wrist bands and dollar chains to explicitly show their caste identity.
Surinder Jodhak in his book Caste in Contemporary India notes:
Though caste prejudice is likely to be more pronounced in the private sphere and the traditional social/economic life, the so called modern institutions are also not free from it. The modern educational systems are a good example of this. Perhaps the most critical of these institutions are the local-level schools. The rural schools did not seem to directly discriminate against Dalit children. In most places they were not made to sit separately and could drink water from the common source. However, not everything was fine with these institutions. There were more than 20 per cent cases where caste distinctions were observed, overtly or subtly. Dalit teachers in the schools too felt that they were not completely accepted by their upper-caste colleagues. They therefore tended to interact more with other Dalit teachers.
What undeniably ties these experiences of marginalisation faced by Dalits is a thread of Brahminical legacy of generational ostracization of the Other. Fed by religious elitism, Brahminical forces manufactured a villain out of the unidentical, born to be exiled, the server and ultimately the lesser. Despite tremendous efforts, the society has failed to recognize the Dalit community as an equal, perpetuating stagnated social position.
Article 46 of the Indian Constitution calls for “Promotion of educational and economic interests of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other weaker sections. The State shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people, and, in particular, of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation.” Over the past decade, the BJP government has veered away from the principles enshrined in this article. Despite constitutional obligations, there has been a noticeable absence of prioritization for SCs and STs in crucial areas such as education, health and budgetary allocations. With the NDA government neglecting budget allocations and expenditures targeted for welfare and development of SCs and STs, the CDS report has called for necessary budgetary allocations.
Telangana Today, quoting the Centre for Dalit Study puts forth two measure from state governments for upliftment of Dalit students:
The Telangana Model
The report further stated that some State governments, such as Telangana, took proactive measures to safeguard interests of SCs and STs. Enactment of SC and ST Special Development Fund Act by the Telangana government exemplified such efforts. This legislation aimed to ensure funds allocated for development of SCs and STs were appropriately utilized, despite absence of a separate planned budget. The CDS report further stated that Telangana’s initiative served as a model for all States.
The Gujarat Model
The persistence of the Gujarat model narrative by Modi and the NDA government over the last decade belies the harsh reality faced by SCs in the State. The model has proven disastrous for Dalits during the BJP’s 25-year regime in the State, the report notes. Inadequate budget allocations for Dalits exacerbated their suffering and perpetuate socio-economic disparities.
The CDS has demanded incorporating life and technical skills into curriculum, enhancement of agricultural reforms, assessing land reforms and allocating feasible extents, ensuring land rights for farmers, Monitor introduction of entrepreneurship support schemes akin to the Telangana Dalit Bandhu initiative and offering grants and financial assistance to aspiring entrepreneurs, particularly from marginalized communities.
In the 2025 budget allocation, according to the Hindu, there has been a decline in the allocation for strengthening the machinery to enforce laws like the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1995 and the Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989 – from ₹500 crore (RE) last year to ₹463 crore this year. This is a blatant give away of the right-wing Hindutva government’s priorities. Complicit in the rising anti-Dalit mobilisations, the far right party actively misses to support the vulnerable.
India celebrates April as Dalit Visibility Month, but it comes with a duty of conscious resistance towards oppression, violence and discrimination towards the marginalized. It has been the tell tale of history that resistance roots from the economically vulnerable against the societal elites. Mass mobilisation against capitalistic dominance becomes crucial to the caste struggle. In India, no movement is entirely complete without resistance to the caste system, as all oppressions intertwine. One must scrutinize the dominant for attainment of autonomy, independence and freedom from the multiple echo chambers formed by individualistic vessels. Reproduction of caste based identity is by extension perpetuation of caste based violence.
