The overarching principle of universal free compulsory education is enshrined in Article 45 and Article 46 of the Constitution of India enjoins upon the Indian State the responsibility of taking ‘special care’ of educational interests of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. At the time of Independence, these governing provisions ensured that the educational needs of the tribals were met with. Living in remote terrains and on the periphery of other social groups, the tribals were culturally exclusive. As compared with non-tribal population, tribals were considered most backward sections of the society. Except for a few pockets in the Northeast and central India, tribal societies were hardly influenced by the modern education system. Available statistics of the time show that the tribal participation in formal schooling was marginal. In fact, the literacy rate of the tribals was only 3.46 per cent in 1951. The insignificant presence of tribal people owed to the British colonial educational policy, which did not care for the education of the tribal population. Under the well- known colonial ‘filtration’ theory, education had to trickle down to the masses through the upper classes, who would be the first to be educated at centrally located
61 Planning Commission, Government of India, Twelfth Five Year Plan, Volume II, p. 19. While taking literacy as a rough
indicator of education, it must be made clear that education is far broader than literacy, which is only one of the skills acquired from learning.
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model institutions. In certain cases, the Government bypassed the filtration route and opened schools in the interior tribal areas, in order to pacify the tribal population, who were protesting against oppression, by teaching them the colonial idea of rule by law. The opening of schools in the difficult areas of tribal habitation involved extra investment. It also demanded special effort by committed staff, since the tribal people were not used to any organized system of education and did not appreciate the value of colonial Western education. The colonial government depended upon the Christian missionaries to induce and educate the tribals since 1854.62 A few government schools and schools run by missionaries, confined to small areas, were all that existed for educating the tribals. Lack of sufficient educational avenues left the tribal people lagging behind other social groups.
Against the background of neglect under British colonialism, the nation’s move to reach out to the tribal people educationally through an aggressive program of mass education was a bold move. The epoch was momentous and the spirit came from the urge of democracy and socialism, seeking to empower and shape the backward masses as equal citizens of the country. The mandate of the Constitution captured the nation’s resolve. This was clearly visible in the deliberations of the apex national body, the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE), which devised the National Education Policy. The opening sentence of the Board’s blueprint for national education titled Post-War Educational Reconstruction in India – ‘upon the education of the people of this country the fate of this country depends’ – reflected the importance assigned to education in nation-building.63 The national government aimed to achieve universal compulsory education in ten years, by 1960, while CABE drew up a 40-year timeline. The provision under Article 45 of the Constitution binding the state to fulfil the goal of universal compulsory education was not accomplished.
Two Commissions of the Government, namely the Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes Commission (1960-61), chaired by Shri. U.N. Dhebar, and the Indian Education Commission (1964-66) closely examined the low educational level of the tribals, with a view to address the disparity. The Dhebar Commission studied the difficulties of and barriers to tribal education in detail. It found that the problem of absenteeism, stagnation and drop-outs among the tribals were far greater than among other social groups.
6.2.1 Policy Review by Dhebar Commission, 1960
The early years of independence were the age of a predominant nationalist view that the Indian tribes were ‘backward Hindus’, as propounded by sociologist, G.S. Ghurye.
62 ‘Despatch from the Court of the Directors of the East India Company to the Governor General of India in Council no. 49
dated 19 July 1854, para 41, in Richey, J.A. ed. Selections from Educational Records, Part II, New Delhi: National Archives of India,1965, p. 376.
63 Bureau of Education, Post-War Educational Development in India: Report by the Central Advisory Board of Education, Delhi:
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Called ‘vanavasi’ or ‘adimjati’, the tribals were believed to be primitive savages, in dire need of ‘civilization’ by the agency of the advanced plainsmen. Just before the institution of the Dhebar Commission, the then Prime Minister, Shri. Jawaharlal Nehru enunciated a set of tenets on the tribal question and development in a foreword to the second edition of Verrier Elwin’s book, A Philosophy for NEFA, which reversed the established view. Nehru pleaded that development of the tribals should be ‘along the lines of their own genius’ and effort should be made not to impose anything on them from outside. Further, he suggested encouragement to tribal traditional arts and culture. Nehru also disapproved of the paternalism of outsiders and wanted to train and build the tribals’ capacity to carry out the work of administration and development.
The tone set by Nehru impacted the Dhebar Commission. Thus, in the field of education, the Commission distinctly departed from the earlier approach and policies. The Commission recognized pedagogical ingredients in tribal culture and wanted to make use of tribal language and cultural resources, such as folklore, songs and history in teaching. The Commission was aware that such far-reaching intervention required re-orientation of teachers, revision of curriculum and development of instructional materials. Recognizing the crucial role of teachers in the whole educational process, the Commission suggested their complete familiarity with tribal life, culture and language, and appealed to the teachers to be the tribals’ friend, philosopher and guide. To remove the existing cultural gulf between teachers and students, the Commission recommended appointment of teachers from the tribal community, opening teacher training centres in the tribal heartlands and raising a separate cadre of teachers for a period of twenty years.64
The Dhebar Commission went on to establish the appropriateness of Mahatma Gandhi’s concept of ‘basic education’ to the tribal societies. Gandhi’s concept centred on craft as the means of teaching and learning, and using the vernacular language as the medium of instruction. Conceived to educate the rural population, the idea was an alternative to formal, literary and colonial Western system of education. But, detailed pedagogy along the lines of what Gandhi suggested was not formulated, especially in the context of the tribal societies.
Besides examining the central problem of approach of tribal education and role of teachers in the system, the Commission attended to other problems such as poverty- related issues and children engaged in household work. This paved the way for the making of a broader policy of tribal education. The Commission, thus, stressed the need for mid-day meals, clothing, free books, reading and writing materials to all tribal children in educationally backward areas. The Commission further considered the children’s difficulties on account of topographical factors and recommended
64 Government of India, Report of the Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes Commission, Volume I 1960-61, Delhi:
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opening schools in a locality where there were at least 30 school-going children, though the general norm should be a school within one mile. The Commission then suggested adjustment of timing, vacations and holidays of schools to suit the tribal social and cultural life. It even proposed creation of an ambience of tribal culture in the schools.
The Indian Education Commission endorsed the suggestions and recommendations of the Dhebar Commission, adding a note of urgency that ‘intensive efforts’ need to be made to provide five years of early education to all tribal children by 1975-76.65 In order to achieve this, the Commission wanted the support of simultaneous intensive parental education.
6.2.2 Sluggish Trend of Growth
The Education Commission’s plea remained unfulfilled. Literacy rate increased from 8.54 in 1961 to 11.3 per cent in 1971, rising marginally to 16.35 per cent in 1981. Within this, tribal female literacy rate was much lower, at 4.85 per cent in 1971 and 8.04 in 1981. Three decades of experience of tribal education (1951-81) indicated clear trends at the primary level: first, the tribals’ educational status grew at a slow pace; second, there was a wide gap between the literacy rate of the tribals and the general population (Table 6.1); and third, there was a high dropout rate, especially at the primary level; the drop-out was of chronic nature as the country-wide data portrays (Table 6.2 and 6.3).
Table 6.1: Scheduled Tribe Literacy Rate and Gap, 1961-1981
Year ST SC GEN Gap between
ST and SC Gap between ST and GEN 1961 8.54 10.27 27.86 1.73 19.32 1971 11.29 14.67 33.80 3.37 22.5 1981 16.35 21.38 41.30 5.03 24.95
Source: Census of India, authors’ calculation from census of India, various years
Table 6.2: Scheduled Tribe Drop-out Rate in Comparison, 1980-81
Year ST SC GEN
I-V I-VIII I-X I-V I-VIII I-X I-V I-VIII I-X 1980-
81 75.66 86.71 91.18 60.16 76.85 86.91 58.70 72.70 82.46
Source: MHRD, GOI, Educational Development of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribe, Status and Programs, August-2005
65 National Council of Educational Research and Training, Education and National Development: Report of the Education
158
Table 6.3: State-wise Scheduled Tribe Drop-out Rate from Class I-X, 1981-82
Level of Education Primary Stage (Class I-V)
Middle Stage (Class I-VIII)
Secondary Stage (I- X)
State Boys Girls Total Total Total
Andhra Pradesh 64.83 73.81 68.1 85.4 91.01 Assam 73.53 79.83 76.22 88.37 71.34 Bihar 78.89 83.91 80.58 86.06 92.66 Gujarat 69.35 78.27 72.94 77.11 85.79 Haryana - - - - - Himachal Pradesh 39.97 49.28 43.05 61.99 80.45
Jammu & Kashmir - - - - -
Karnataka 48.14 48.09 48.12 26.98 45.53 Kerala 39.04 34.64 37.16 45.1 69.5 Madhya Pradesh 66.46 80.39 70.65 84.53 97.13 Maharashtra 70.41 80.18 74.22 85.08 90.55 Manipur 85.69 84.89 85.36 90.84 91.82 Meghalaya 76.86 76.62 76.74 84.75 89.81 Nagaland 75.09 76.59 75.75 87.84 91.04 Odisha 75.39 83.36 77.99 91.23 94.04 Punjab - - - - - Rajasthan 69.35 84.9 71.48 82.8 86.07 Sikkim - - - - - Tamil Nadu 34.68 41.68 37.59 72.01 85.43 Tripura 67.61 73.8 69.76 87.97 93.93 Uttar Pradesh 0 5.62 0 53.69 82.02 West Bengal 70.84 65.64 69.27 87.04 93.33 Union Territories A&N Islands 50.1 39.17 45.74 43.64 74.91 Arunachal Pradesh 77.22 78.18 77.53 87.91 92.93 Chandigarh - - - - -
Dadra and Nagar Haveli 73.6 81.65 76.43 93.64 98.17
Delhi - - - - -
Goa, Daman and Diu 63.19 73.33 66.38 87.31 91.8
Lakshadweep 1.03 16.25 8.01 51.2 66.39
Mizoram 61.61 64.13 62.83 67.86 80.63
Pondicherry - - - - -
India 71.57 78.43 74 84.99 91.65
Source: Ministry of Human Resource Development (Department of Education), reproduced in Report of the Commissioner for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe 1986-87 (28th Report).
With 91.65 per cent of the tribal students dropping out by Class X, their higher education also suffered. Table 6.4 below shows that the tribals’ overall participation in higher education was just 1.62 per cent compared to 91.3 of the general population and 7.08 per cent of the Scheduled Castes. Discipline-wise presence at different levels of higher education shows that in science and technical subjects, the Scheduled Tribes were below one per cent.
159 Table 6.4: Discipline and Level-wise Scheduled Tribe Presence in Higher Education,
1978-79