SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN INDIA

ACTIVITY

PRESENTED BY:
DHARAN RAJ
20E0402
Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states
that everyone has the right to education and it shall be
compulsory. It also states that education shall be directed to the
full development of the human personality and to the
strengthening of human rights and fundamental freedoms which
include freedom of thought and expression and freedom of
conscience alongside others. The article also notes that education
shall promote understanding and tolerance among all nations,
religions or racial groups. The above are noble pursuits and
nations all across the world have been taking measures in realising
the same. Policies in India have been aiming at achieving equity in
education. What one has to understand is that equity does not only
mean creating equal opportunities, it means creating the enabling
conditions in which marginalised children can access the
opportunities on an equal footing. It also has to ensure that the
school environments create spaces for the inclusion of
communities which were historically and unfairly disadvantaged
making sure the system caters to the diverse needs of all the
children.
Educational accessibility is important. But the downtrodden mass
pushed to a state of chronic poverty and are unable to access free
and compulsory education for their children as part of public
welfare. Various barriers exclude these children from schooling.
There are problems in terms of physical distance from scheduled
caste hamlets to school locations, severe poverty of families, lack
of motivation from schools and parents, caste-based
discrimination from the teachers. More than 20.8 per cent of the
scheduled caste students in rural India are never got to attend
schools; only 67.7 per cent of the scheduled caste students are
able to attend school as compared to 81.3 per cent of other non-SC
students. However, the quantum of educational growth of the
scheduled caste students has been higher from the last decade in
India, but there is no quality of education being provided to these
students (Sedwal & Kamat, 2008).

The number of educated people has increased, but the question is

to what extent these lower strata people have been able to access
professional courses such as engineering, agriculture, B.
Pharmacy and medical education, and so on are debatable. Dalit
students’ participation in higher education is less as compared to
other social categories; graduates were 1 per cent and above in the
age group between 20 and 24; 0.6 per cent in 24 years age group,
whereas they were 1.4 per cent and 1.24 per cent in the respective
age groups in non-Dalits. In the same period, the total technical or
professional male and female graduates were 7.4 per cent and 7.5
per cent, respectively, whereas rural graduates were just 1.2 per
cent against general category who were 5.3 per cent. Therefore,
the magnitude of variations in accessing higher education in
terms of professional and other technical education in graduate
level remains significant.

In addition to education, children need a lot of support systems

while growing up. Schools should be able to provide the
environment for young minds to flourish. The role of teachers and
peers become very important factors in the psychological
development of a person. Thousands have benefitted by education
and have ended the cycle of poverty and exclusion but it is a far cry
to say our country is free from discrimination at all levels. If things
have to change at a massive scale, it has to start with schools.
While the need for systematic research is great, we can be certain
that there are huge costs to the mental development of children
from marginalised communities due to the combination of social
and school processes.