Study Done By : National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights Copy Right:National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights

1. (1)
Gujarat is one of the leading state in industrial development but when
it comes to education sector, the state fairs poorly and is ranked 15th
among all the major states in the country. Out of 5 crores population
of the state, nearly 30% (i.e. 1½ crores) population is still illiterate,
and among these, 90 lakh are women. With respect to Human
Development Index (HDI), the status of Gujarat is matter of serious
concern. In 2008, the HDI for Gujarat, was 0.527 and it ranked 10th
among major states. With respect to three HDI components — income,
health and education — Gujarat does not present a shining story. In
this respect, states like Kerala took the lead in every sector, while
Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and
West Bengal did better than Gujarat. The state ranks 9th on the
Education Development Index (EDI) prepared by the National
University of Educational Administration (NUEPA) , this index measures
the performance of states on the Universalization of Elementary
Education programme. Though it is a significant leap from its 14th
position not very long ago, it still points to a compelling need for
making intensive efforts to bring about a change in the status of
education in the state.
The literacy rate in the State (excluding children in the age-group 0-6
years) has increased from 61.29 percent in 1991 to 69.14 percent
in 2001. Among males, it has increased from 73.13 percent in 1991
to 79.66 percent, where as among females, it has increased from
48.64 percent in 1991 to 57.86 percent during the same period. The
literacy rate for rural areas is 61.29 percent, while it is 81.84 percent
in urban areas. Out of the 24 districts where population enumeration
was conducted, Ahmedabad has the highest literacy rate of 79.89
percent, while Dahod has the lowest literacy rate of 45.65 percent.
Educationally Backward Districts (EBD) in Gujarat include Kutch,
Dahod, Narmada, Banaskantha, Patan, Porbandar, Panchmahal,
Amreli, Surendranagar, Surat, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar, Kheda,
Sabarkantha, Bharuch, Junagadh, Rajkot, Mehsana, Dang and Valsad.
Among this, eight are tribal districts. Banaskantha with 4.1 per cent
GER is at the bottom of the list closely followed by Dang (4.3) and
Surendranagar (4.4), while Mehsana scores the highest in the list
with 11.4 per cent GER.

2. (2) (3)
Gujarat has comparatively a small population of Scheduled castes.
According to the 2001 Census, the population of the Scheduled caste
in Gujarat is 35.93 lakhs, which comes to 7.09% of the total population
of the State of 5.07 Crores. The Scheduled caste is scattered all the
District of the State unlike the Scheduled Tribes the bulk of whom live
in eight District in the Eastern part of the State. SCs population is
found in all the districts of the state, the larger concentration of them
in Ahmedabad, Banaskaha, Junagadh, Mehesana and Vododara
districts.
In the field of Education among the Scheduled caste, there has been
a gradual improvement in the condition of the SCs during the last two
decades. According to 1961 census, the literacy rate among them
was 22.46% against the rate of 30.45% for the general population.
By 2001, the literacy rate among the SCs went up to 70.50% which
is slightly higher than the general literacy rate of the state which is
69.14%. And Female literacy rate of 57.58% is at par with general
literacy rate of 57.80. There is remarkable increase in male literacy
rate which is 82.56% and higher than the general literacy rate of
79.66%.
Similarly, Scheduled Tribes (STs) constitute 14.8 per cent of the total
population of the State. The state has registered 21.4 per cent decadal
growth of the Scheduled Tribe population in 1991-2001. There are
twenty nine (29) notified Scheduled Tribes in the state. The literacy
rate among the tribal population has reported wide variation across
the States, exceptionally literacy rate almost reaching up to 60 to 80
Percentage.
The ST population of Gujarat has recorded 47.7 per cent literacy
rate, which is at par with the national average for STs (47.1%). The
male and female literacy at 59.2 per cent and 36 per cent respectively
indicate that women are lagging behind male counterparts by 23.2
percentage points. Of the twelve major STs, Dhodia with 75.9 per
cent literacy are ahead of others. Their female literacy rate is 66.5
per cent and male (85.3%). Literacy position is dismal among Koli as
only 26.3 per cent of their population has been returned as literate;
the picture is more depressing for females (12.8%) among them, Merely
2.5 per cent of total literates in the ST population have educational
level graduation and above. The Chaudhri and Dhodia are well ahead,
among the twelve major STs, to register high of 5.3 per cent of their
literates as graduate or above. On contrary, Koli, Varli, Dubla, and
Naikda are at the bottom, each having less than one per cent.
The government of Gujarat has implemented certain policies for the
upliftment of those belonging to Scheduled castes and Scheduled
Tribes into higher positions. The most important thing is that the
Reservation system, where certain seats in the in the Government are
set aside only for SCs and STs. In Gujarat 7% of seats in the Govt.
and education sectors are reserved for the SC’s and 14% set aside
on the National Level and 7.5% seats are reserved for ST’s. Even with
such promise of upliftment through the reservation, SCs and STs People
continue to be excluded throughout Gujarat.
NCDHR Findings of Survey among Dalit Adivasi Students
in Higher Education in Gujrat:
It has been observed in survey that majority of SC and ST students
feel that condition of higher education is indicator of good status.
Only few believe that the status of higher education is better but
none of them described it as either average or bad. But when we
asked them regarding governmental schemes in higher education, all
of them responded that the schemes are very important for them, also
majority of them have agreed that they have been benefited from the
schemes like pre-metric and post metric scholarship, still it has been
observed that none of them has ever availed the benefits from award
of prizes to students securing higher rank in competitive examination.
There are so many issues in educational sector especially in higher
education when we talk about the availing scholarship, non
accessibility of scholarship; Discrimination during the persuasion of
their education, delay in processing of the facilities and so on, majority
of them responded that the most important among all these issues is
that they are facing the delay in the processing of these schemes and
facilities some of them has replied that they couldn’t access these

3. (4) (5)
schemes without any reason which itself describes that majority of
SC/ST students are facing the discrimination indirectly which they
themselves doesn’t know very much.
As per UGC guidelines, there is provision of equal opportunity cell
under which selected university are getting the fund for the upliftment
of the deprived section of the society, in which many of central
universities has its own grievance mechanism cell or equal opportunity
cell for the SC/ST students, but when we asked students about these
cells it appears that majority of them doesn’t even know about these
cells and it seems that they were very much confused about the
grievance mechanism cell.
In terms of their family background and source of the finance for their
education it has been observed that most of them belong to agricultural
background where some of them are associated with their own
business, governmental and private jobs also there are responses
which were talking about taking loan as their source of finance for
education. When we asked them about the monthly expenditure on
the education, majority of students have replied that they are spending
around 5 to 10 thousand rupees per month on their education.
Discrimination in the Education level
The forms of structural discrimination, alienation, and abuse which
Adivasi and Dalit children face in schools and Higher education levels
are so stigmatizing that they are oftentimes tortured by physical,
socially neglected, politically etc at the institution therefore the students
do not concentrate on study. One of the main issues is the
discriminatory practice conducted by teachers. In 2006, the Special
Rapporteur on the right to education noted that “teachers have been
known to declare that Dalit pupils cannot learn unless they are beaten”
(HRW, 2007). Discriminatory practices against Dalit children exercised
by teachers may include corporal punishment, denial of access to
school water supplies, segregation in class rooms, and forcing Dalit
children to perform manual scavenging on and around school premises
(IDSN and Navsarjan briefing note, 2010).
Intolerance, prejudice and harassment towards Dalits are not only
found at the elementary school level. Several incidents have occurred
in institutions of higher education where discrimination is practiced
by senior upper-caste students, teachers, faculties, and administrations.
The caste bias manifests itself in the way teachers ignore Dalit students
and unjustly fail them in exams, in social exclusion and physical abuse,
and in the unwillingness of the university administration to assist Dalits
and support them. As a grave consequence of this harassment, a
disproportionate number of Dalit students have committed suicide
(The Death of Merit, 2011: A). Indeed, in India alone, 18 Dalit students
have committed suicide in one of the country’s premier institutions
between 2008-2011, and this number only represents the official
cases. Counting all the Dalit students whose families did not protest
against the incessant discrimination that eventually led to suicide, the
number is likely to be much higher (The Death of Merit, 2011: ).
Education and Occupation of SCs and Tribal Students
Parents:
An important and significant aspect of education for the students is
that influences of the parents and their educational level. In the context
of Scheduled caste and Tribal students, the educational level of parents
may assume special importance because of its ability to provide the
right inspiration and guidance for their children in higher education
in the absence of many other positive factors.
According to an observation made by NGO Navsarjan, many of the
SCs and STs students’ parents are illiterate or can just read and write
with no formal education, and very small population of them has
gone for higher education studies like post graduation or professional
studies. This shows that very few of them are the second generation
pursuing higher studies.
Review of related literature on access to education for Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Gujrat can be viewed and perceived
differently related to their socio-economic necessity. Evidence shows
that for Scheduled Castes, access to education has been a major

4. (6) (7)
thrust for equity and social justice. Attempts to abandon the caste
system and end the social discrimination have always proposed
education as the primary means to overcome caste discrimination.
While for Scheduled Tribes, access to education remained a secondary
issue until recently. It was only in the past couple of decades that lot
of stress has been laid on education among tribal communities in
order to access the fruits of development.
Despite special provisions in the constitution to meet the educational
requirements of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the likelihood
of exclusion is compounded if the children live in rural areas and are
females. Several studies reveal that there is a wide gender and social
disparity in enrolment, retention and learning achievement at the
primary stage. Both the demand and supply factors combine to restrict
educational access for children from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes. While Scheduled Castes’ students have much greater access
to elementary education than Scheduled Tribes’ children, they
frequently encounter overt and covert acts of discrimination, prejudice
and rejection from teachers and fellow students. In other words, while
public schools may appear to the places in which integration can
take place, prejudices against Scheduled Castes persist in the
classroom, playground and in the micro-practices of schooling. The
likelihood of exclusion is further accentuated for the Scheduled Castes
and Scheduled Tribes’ girls. Most of the studies on them indicate a
severe education disadvantage from multiple sources of exclusion:
girls from impoverished families, girls from tribal, ethnic, or linguistic
“minority” communities, girls living in remote settings, and girls from
lower castes are less likely to participate in education and more likely
to stay in school if they enroll at all.
Keeping in view the social and economic locations of both scheduled
castes and scheduled tribes, we now proceed to evaluate the key
challenges faced by them in the field of school and higher education
in Gujrat:
(a) Key challenges faced by scheduled caste students
in school education in Gujrat:
1. Caste, tribe, class and gender based discrimination continues to
haunt educational institutions from pre-school to centres of
excellence and SC communities and children who aspire for
equality and equal treatment often pay heavy price including
paying the price with their lives as reported from schools and
professional colleges. They are also barriers to parent’s
engagement with the education system. Exclusion within the school
system needs recognition.
2. The negative impacts of increasing poverty and inequality, reduced
employment opportunities and livelihoods of Dalit and Adivasi
parents on the education and development of their children. These
make it extremely difficult for Dalit and Adivasi children to meet
even ‘minimum costs’ leave alone access support systems or private
education.
3. Our analysis points out that a significant proportion of Scheduled
Caste and an even greater proportion of Scheduled Tribe children
continue to remain out of school. This is so even in the younger
age group, indicating that accessing basic school is still a problem,
especially in certain states and regions which have suffered gross
neglect by the polity and State.
4. The distance to schools is also considered a huge barrier for SC
children, and a significant part of the explanation for the low
enrolment rate and the high dropout rate. Scheduled Caste families
often live in remote areas, away from the main villages and schools.
This residential pattern has two major implications. Firstly, the
location of schools within the main villages, and hence within
higher caste areas, makes it difficult for SC children to gain access
to schools, due to caste tensions. Secondly, the great physical
distance to schools often result in SC children dropping out, as
the distance is simply too far to walk on an everyday basis.
5. While enrolment rates continue to grow, drop-out rates both
reported and unreported are on the rise with a substantive

5. (8) (9)
proportion of young people, not accessing education that can
spur them to participation, skill enhancement or employment. While
the gross enrolment ratio (GER) in upper primary stage was 72.8
% it dropped to 5% for SC/ST when it comes to higher education.
Quality of education in government schools and colleges needs
serious attention.
6. One of the key challenges is that attendance rates at both primary
and middle school and completion rates are far from satisfactory.
This indicates that dropout, failure are problems that afflict SC/ST
children to a far greater degree than the rest and they thus continue
to lag behind them in terms of educational attainment.
7. Inadequate and insensitive implementation of entitlements and
provisions hurt the dignity and negatively impact the personal
development of Dalit and Adivasi youth. Further, curriculum is
silent on recognizing SC contribution and leadership in social
and cultural life, national growth and productivity to promote the
self image, dignity.
8. Lack of information, guidance and support on available resources
and accessing them also limit Dalit and Adivasi students’ choices
and opportunities. Reduced employment opportunities in the
government without adding measures to promote their employment
in the private sector or entrepreneurship has also become a
dampener to families for higher investment in education.
9. A large proportion of the allocations in SCSP and TSP are being
spent on the civil construction and negligible amounts on direct
entitlements to the to SCs and STs which is denying the necessary
support to them.
10.Migratory labour is another factor that adds to the high dropout
rates. Many SC’s are landless and are forced into migrant labour,
as this is often the only way to ensure the economical survival of
their families. The continuous migration in search for labour implies
a frequent disruption of the Dalit children’s education and makes
them incapable of keeping up with the academic advancement
of other children.
11.SC children face discriminatory attitudes from fellow students and
the community as a whole, in particular from higher caste members
who perceive education for SC’s as a waste and a threat. This is
linked to a perception among some higher caste people that
educated SC’s pose a threat to village hierarchies and power
relations, and that SC’s are generally incapable of being educated.
12. There have been several reports of indirect discrimination by
teachers, such as neglect, repeated blaming, and labeling of
SC students as weak performers, lead to social exclusion of SC
students in schools. The consequence was irregular attendance
in classroom, less concentration in studies, less participation in
school activities, lower performance, failure, and school drop-
outs.
(b) Key challenges faced by scheduled caste students
in higher education:
1. Intolerance, prejudice and harassment towards SC students are
not only found at the elementary school level. Several incidents
have occurred in institutions of higher education where
discrimination is practiced by senior upper-caste students, teachers,
faculties, and administrations. The caste bias manifests itself in
the way teachers ignore SC students and unjustly fail them in
exams, in social exclusion and physical abuse, and in the
unwillingness of the university administration to assist SC students
and support them. As a grave consequence of this harassment, a
disproportionate number of SC students have committed suicide
(The Death of Merit, 2011: A).
2. In higher educational institutions 15% of seats are reserved for
Scheduled Castes. This is also the case in technical educational
institutions. However, in technical and professional courses in
higher education, some reserved seats remain unfilled.
3. Universities often fail to follow the guidelines set up for Dalit students
by the University Grant Commission (UGC) (Government of India).

6. (10) (11)
(c) Key challenges faced by scheduled tribe students
in school education:
1. A majority of schools in tribal areas are without basic infrastructure
facilities. Normally, school buildings in tribal areas have thatched
roofs, dilapidated walls, and non-plastered floors. Research
evidence shows that a large number of tribal schools do not have
teaching-learning materials, or even blackboards.
2. The modern education system makes the least attempt to address
cultural specificities in designing education policies for tribal
populations. Naturally, the tribal students feel immensely alienated
in such an inflexible system. The highly competitive modern world
which measures success by individual achievement completely
diverges from the tribal system where sharing and community gets
the utmost priority. Learning in the tribal context is a slow and
cautious process, where less emphasis is placed on speed and
more on learning correctly.
3. It is found that in most of ashram schools which are residential in
nature, there is no space for the children to sleep. Consequently,
the classroom turns into the dormitory and vice versa. Due to lack
of minimum sanitary provisions, it is not uncommon to find that
many children studying in ashram schools are afflicted with
contagious diseases like scabies and diarrhoea, leading to high
drop-out rates. Schools in tribal areas just function with bare
minimum facilities.
4. The major constraint of tribal education at planning level is the
adoption of a dual system of administration. The tribal welfare
department deals with tribal life and culture and administers
development work at the local level, including education. But the
tribal welfare department lacks expertise in educational planning
and administration in general, and academic supervision and
monitoring in particular. On the other hand, the education
department is the sole authority for planning of educational
development at state level. It formulates implementation guidelines
and instructions regarding curriculum, textbooks, teacher
recruitment, transfer policies, and so on. In this the department
tends to formulate uniform policies for the entire state. The school
calendar is a case in point, where vacations and holidays cater
to the needs of the formal school set up in a non-tribal context,
with little consideration for local context and tribals festivals. This
lack of sensitivity to their problems and failure in understanding
tribal social reality, coupled with faulty selection and appointment
of teachers in tribal areas, have resulted in poor performance
and teacher absenteeism in tribal schools.
5. Though the demand for changing the content and curriculum to
suit the tribal context has been an old one, no serious effort has
been made in this direction in any state, except for some sporadic
pilot projects. The uniform structure and transaction of curriculum
has put tribal children at a disadvantage. In respect of pedagogy,
it has been found that the rigid systems of formal schooling, which
emphasize discipline, routine norms, teacher-centred instruction,
etc. have made the children wary of school.
6. Even though elementary education is deemed free and additional
incentives are given to children, in practice, it is not free due to
several reasons. First, the incentive schemes do not have full
coverage, and thus, have limited value at community level. Second,
many of the benefits do not reach the beneficiaries. Third, even
though incentives like slates and uniforms are given, they are of
poor quality and do not reach in time, thus nullifying the entire
purpose.
7. Poor health is another major hindrance in the promotion and
participation of tribal children in education. Contagious diseases
like scabies, eye infection, malaria, and diarrhoea are common
in tribal areas, and also affect children’s attendance at school.
Further, some tribal communities are seasonal migrants and this
leads to absenteeism among their children and makes it difficult
for them to effectively benefit from schooling.
8. Apart from posing a barrier in access to education, the widespread
illiteracy also results in lack of gainful employment options for

7. (12) (13)
tribal students (HRW, 2007). A UNICEF report from 2006 points
to the fact that the quality of education is often so low that children
“mechanically go through five years of primary education and
emerge barely literate” (UNICEF, 2006: A). The same study
concludes that the poor quality of education is a significant factor
in explaining the low level of completion rates in primary
education.
9. Majority of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in India are
employed in agricultural and non-agricultural labour activities in
the rural sector. The content of basic education are not attuned to
this reality and do not incorporate examples and life situations
that relate to it, whether in the teaching of mathematics, science,
social sciences or languages. Aligning the curriculum to rural and
agrarian realities should not be carried out in an instrumentalist
manner, but as part of developing the cognitive, social and cultural
capabilities of SC and ST students.
10.The absence of a comprehensive research agenda precludes
evidence-based policy making that could radically alter the
educational futures of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
11.The textbooks and primers used in primary education do not
provide positive representations of Scheduled Caste’s and
Scheduled Tribe’s cultures and histories, and do not sensitize school
children about both the prevalence of caste and tribal inequity
and the need to abolish it.
12. Using the native language as the medium of instruction has also
long been recognized as an important factor for successful
learning. This is as especially important for ST children who often
speak dialects that are different from the regional or state language.
But except in some rare instances, there has been no real attempt
to develop primers using words and phrases from the local
language or dialect. Even in cases where there is clear justification
for developing bilingual primers – such as in the case of the Gond
tribal language, which is spoken by an estimated 3 million people
in the central Indian belt – such efforts have been lacking.
13.The problem of insufficient number of teachers has been
compounded by the problem of unmotivated teachers, which is
reflected in the phenomenon of teacher absenteeism. Teachers
for SC and ST children primarily belong to non-SC or non tribal
backgrounds. They are highly irregular in attending since they
live outside the villages. This is a common feature in schools located
in remote areas. There are reports of ‘paper schools’ which remain
closed during the year and yet others for years on end especially
in remote tribal areas. This is the situation particularly in remote
tribal areas.
14.Dysfunctional and poorly organized school environments,
inadequate number of teachers, inadequate teaching quantum
ranging from absence of teaching to the adoption of most
conventional and uninteresting teaching methods together makes
for a situation where the teaching transaction is poor and
inadequate. Poor teacher competence is also a critical negative
factor.
15.The inefficiency, mismanagement, nepotism and corruption
besetting the Ashram Schools are well documented by B.K. Roy
Burman years ago and B.D. Sharma more recently. They have
commented upon the shortcomings of the voluntary agencies who
run Ashram schools, pointing out the sub-standard level of
education given in these institutions, poor hostel facilities, the use
of inmates as unpaid, forced labour, etc. (Roy Burman cited in
Kamat, 1985; Govt. of India, 1990). Other observers have also
noted evils rampant in the system.
16.Elementary education, although claimed to be free by the
government involve hidden expenses in the form of: (a) Subsidiary
expenditures like books, pencils, papers; and (b) Private tution.
Teachers do not teach when in schools and compel the students
to seek paid assistance from them after the school hours. When
survival is a struggle for the majority of the tribal population, such
paid assistance is out of reach. The result is that downtrodden
tribals drop-out of the system due to increasing cost of education.

8. (14) (15)
(d) Key challenges faced by scheduled tribe students
in higher education:
1. Intolerance, prejudice and harassment towards SC students are
not only found at the elementary school level. Several incidents
have occurred in institutions of higher education where
discrimination is practiced by senior upper-caste students, teachers,
faculties, and administrations. The caste bias manifests itself in
the way teachers ignore SC students and unjustly fail them in
exams, in social exclusion and physical abuse, and in the
unwillingness of the university administration to assist SC students
and support them. As a grave consequence of this harassment, a
disproportionate number of SC students have committed suicide
(The Death of Merit, 2011: A).
2. In higher educational institutions 15% of seats are reserved for
Scheduled Castes. This is also the case in technical educational
institutions. However, in technical and professional courses in
higher education, some reserved seats remain unfilled.
3. Universities often fail to follow the guidelines set up for Dalit students
by the University Grant Commission (UGC) (Government of India).
As we have already noted, the SC and ST are disproportionately
affected by poverty and exploitation, displacement and forced
migration in search of livelihood which polarizes class formation and
expansion of informal economy. Socio-cultural practices of exclusion
and discrimination continue to define the existence of the poor
Scheduled Castes. Scheduled Tribes are increasingly sucked into the
vortex of rural and urban exploitation and inequality. Several studies
have affirmed that educational inequality (of access and achievement)
has multiple bases in the contemporary structures of caste, class, gender
and ethnicity evolving in interaction with political economy. They show
that caste-class relations and values of cultural oppression are crucial
to denial of education. There is a lack of basic material condition
including situations of acute poverty. It has been quite emphatically
established that a sizeable section of the population is too poor to
avail of education which is far from free and entails unaffordable
costs (Tilak, 1996, 2000). Importantly, the phenomenon of labouring
children exists and so do situations of hunger, under/malnourishment
and ill health among low caste/class and tribes. Casteism breeds
low self-esteem and skills associated with cultural capital are lacking
among the SC/ST. Their own cultural capital is deemed valueless. For
the SC and ST students, caste, tribal ethnicity and class are reproduced
in a variety of ways in relation to school. Traditional systems have
undergone tremendous change and assumed complex forms deriving
out of the ascendance of capitalist economies and labour markets
and of systems of political patronage which thrive in the name of
democracy. New socio-political forces combine with the old and
mediate through community, family, culture and ideology to adversely
affect dalit and Adivasi communities and influence educational access
and participation of their children.
Gender, the oldest basic category of subordination militates against
women and girls of SC and increasingly ST communities. Today
Scheduled castes and tribal communities, some of whom have had
histories of egalitarianism, are patriarchal. Women hold largely
subordinated positions in the modern organisation of public and
private labour. The role for girls in such communities is to rear children
and carry out domestic labour, i.e. engagement in the reproduction
of reproductive order. Girl’s education this is not divorced from
patriarchal structures of early marriage and motherhood and
compulsory productive labour. Education is considered a male cultural
resource. Informal labour market is also caste/gender segmented.
Dalit women and girls are located in the dual labour market – in
agricultural and caste labour in rural areas and informal low paying
sector in urban areas. Combined together, the realities of reproductive
(domestic) /productive (wage) labour, shape education choices of
girls, which are actually choices of their families and communities.
Even if the cultural atmosphere is changing now there are real limits.
For women, changing caste relations have meant a bleak class reality
in which there is no guarantee hence no motivation for education.
Despite this we find that girls aspire to an education. Parents also

9. (16) (17)
increasingly want them to, with the cultural ideal of a ‘better marriage’
being the driving force. Thus, larger structures intervene to maintain
serious caste / class gender differences in education.
These challenges can only be overcome with innovative
approaches and community mobilisation around the principle
of educating, mobilizing and organising these communities
to help themselves with the support of the Government. In this
context, and based on the benefit and budgetary analysis,
we recommend certain innovative measures to achieve the
educational goals envisaged for the Dalit and Adivasi
communities in SCSP and TSP plan.

10. (18) (19)

11. (20) (21)
Charter of Demands:
1) Enact and implement a strong legislation to counter
discrimination and violence against Dalit and Adivasi Students.
2) Introduce a strong law for ensuring effective implementation of
SCSP and TSP in educational development schemes for Dalits
and Adivasis.
3) Special Budgetary allocations for new hostel facilities, adequate
scholarships, fee wavier in private institutions, coaching schemes,
improving quality of education in government colleges, and
other relevant schemes.
1) High quality hostels must be provided for SC & ST students in
higher education.
2) Opportunity must be provided to study in private education
institutions of choice including hostels must be provided. Costs
must be borne by state.
3) Reservation in private educational institutions must be made
mandatory.
4) The funds under the schemes meant for specific purposes and
having no bearing on educational development of SCs/STs
should not be allowed to earmark under SCSP/TSP.
5) The funds under SCSP/TSP may be made non-divertible and
non-lapsable.
6) SCSP and TSP should not be allocated notionally for non-divisible
schemes.
7) To address above mentioned educational problems ,the measure
will include building more residential hostel for SC/ST girls and
1. Allocation has continously decreased in General Education Head.
In 2011-12, allocation was 100.79 Cr. (9.21%), while in 2012-
13 it has decreased to 7.36% of the total plan outlay and stands
at 174 Cr. And now in 2013-14, it is merely 176.79 Cr. Which is
about 5.33% allocated, so the allocation percentage decreased
in this head. Issue of SCs education access is away from
Privatization process of state govt. still stands in Gujarat.
2. Lack of implementation of RTE and other way the govt away to
accountable for the implementation of constitutional fundamental
rights of SCs & STs in Gujarat.
3. In Technical Education, year 2012-13 allocation was 6.7 Cr
(3.59%) while in the year 2011-12 it was 7.5 Cr (5.9 %) and this
year 2013-14 Rs. 12.59 Cr. With 4.03% as the Data of last 3
years shows that the allocation for this head is decreasing trend.
4. Under the Nutrition Head, only 13.29 Cr has been allocated
which is only in 1 % for the SCP. This amount is grossly insufficient
to deal with the undernourishment and malnourishment of dalit
infants and children. As per the guidelines at least 7% allocation
is desirable.
Source: Budget Publication No.2 Receipt under Consolidated Fund
& Transaction under Contingency Fund & Accounts 2013-14 of
Gujarat State

12. (22) (23)
boys in middle school ,high school and higher secondary school
level in small towns, district places ,study centers in the school
,scheme for additional coaching or remedial coaching at pre-
higher secondary level ,supply of free books, uniforms, freeship
and scholarship , particularly those who drop out at high school
and high secondary level to join vocational courses ,best
practices in school which will ensure non discriminatory behavior
by teachers and students towards SC/ST students in school life
and in mid day meal.
8) In these schools, support systems for competitive examinations,
remedial coaching if required, career guidance and vocational
courses must be introduced.
9) Fee waivers may be put in place for all SC/ST students in
secondary and higher secondary schools, to make education
free for these children. The fees should be paid to each school
by the state government and accounted for under SCSP/TSP.
10) There may be a separate drive launched to recruit and train ST
teachers from the local areas, who know the local ST languages,
for all schools in ST populated blocks.
11) In the higher education the SC/ST student faced specific problem
which need attention, which should be used for scaling up and
new schemes These include low enrolment rate of SC/ST in
rural area ,low enrolment among SC/ST girls , poor families,
particularly wage labor households both in rural and urban are
,financial difficulties , lack of hostel facilities, poor knowledge
of English and some subjects, high drop rate particularly in
professional subjects, discrimination in higher educational
institutions in some spheres.
12) For all SC/ST girls admitted and low SC/ST female literacy
levels. For all SC/ST girls admitted into these hostels, the
boarding/lodging expenses will be met under the SCSP/TSP.
13) Innovative schemes for these hostels may include ICT; remedial
courses; coaching for the competitive examinations for higher
education; personality development and soft skills; sports, music
and art.
14) 100% fee waiver for all courses including self-financed courses
in all centrally funded educational institutions.
15) Special scholarship schemes for SC & ST girls in colleges for
their hostels and libraries. Along with this there needs to be
scaling up of existing schemes focussing on SC & ST girls.
16) The overseas scholarship scheme for SCs and STs candidates
must be introduced by Gujrat Govt. on the lines of scheme run
by Maharashtra Govt.
17) Special hostel complexes need to be built with the help of SCSP
/ TSP funds in all major cities of Gujarat for SC, ST and students
from other marginalised groups who want to benefit from the
educational services located in cities for facilities such as
professional coaching, research degrees etc. 50 % of such hostel
capacities must be reserved for SC and ST girls.
18) Remedial coaching for improvement of social skill and
communication.
19) The remedial coaching in English language, in some subject
where the students need support in personalized manner and
support in developing social skill and confident building will
improve their academic performance, reduce failure rate, drop
out rate and improve success rate.
20) Hostel facilities with tuition and other fee waiver, supply of books,
equipment. computer through funds from SCSP/TSP should help
them to improve performance.
21) Implementation of the regulation against discrimination and also
positive steps for social coercion and confidential building should
be another component of the scheme.

13. (24)
22) The teachers belonging to SC/ST community need to be
empowered by providing them grants to do research, attend
conferences, get an additional capacity development and
training in pedagogy and subject matter.
23) Similar facilities for capacity enhancement be developed for
non teaching staff belonging to SC/ST category.
24) Laptop shall be provided to all SC/ST students subject to a limit
of Rs.40,000/- on need basis with the expenditure ratio of
90% from the SCSP grant and 10% by the candidate (to ensure
genuine requirement). In addition, Internet access facility using
data cards can be extended to all such students subject to a
limit of Rs.300/- per student per month during the course of
studies.