Fetters in advancement of education and employment: a case study of SC/ST population in India

Vini Sivanandan, Gokhale Institute of Politics & Economics, India
Sajikumar S, University of Kerala, India

For centuries caste in India has been a determining factor in acquisition of education and distribution of employment and is still quite evident. The Scheduled caste and tribes constituting twenty five per cent of population have been suffering the prejudice of a caste system, which kept them out of education and decent employment. The present study focuses on the present educational and employment situation of SC/ST population in the background of privatization and modernization of education and employment, it also focuses on the factors relating to achievement of an individual belonging to different social groups. The measure of disparity given by Kulkarni and Krishnamoorthy in 1992 is used to determine the gap in education and employment of SC/ST with others. To study the difference between two social groups of students we use a slightly modified version of achievement function given by Duraisamy and Subramaniam 1999. Preliminary analysis of the data from NSSO 55th round and census 2001 shows that there exists a gap of 70 percent in all levels of higher general and technical education of SC/ST population as compared with others. The situation is grim in household with casual labourer both in rural and urban sectors, and is more prominent among household with first generation learners. Even in a household self-employed in agriculture and non-agriculture there exist a gap of 57 per cent. Even the caste representation in the formal sector of employment is dismal with high representation at lower ends of the job whereas the representation at higher level is not even close to the reservation given to them here the measure of disparity is 0.67 as compared with others. The achievement function indicates that even with the same economic background the SC/ST students are far behind others in terms of higher education and more prominently in technical education.