Empowering SC/ST children: are we doing enough?

The millennia-old story of the low-caste Ekalavya sacrificing his thumb to upper-caste forces for having dared to educate himself continues to haunt the collective conscience of this country. Have we done enough for the SC/ST community to atone for this guilt?

An attempt was made in this direction by former prime minister Indira Gandhi to empower all SC/STs educationally and economically by earmarking a portion of plan outlay for them in proportion to their population through a Sub-Plan. This mere scheme was given statutory status in Karnataka by replacing it with the Karnataka Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan & Tribal Sub-Plan (Planning, Allocation and Utilisation of Financial Resources) Act in 2013. Since then Rs 60,691 crore has been allocated under the Act and a substantial sum, Rs 55,331.82 crore, spent.

But have these helped bridge "gaps in educational and economic development" of SC/ST children when compared to the state averages? Is there a reliable database on the “gaps in development” -- for instance, on how many SC/ST children are reaching tertiary levels of education? Are there impact assessment reports, for example, on how successful the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) has been in overcoming malnourishment and preparing SC/ST children for schooling?

And if outcomes were not reached, what were the impediments and what are the corrections necessary in the schemes? Although such analyses are not annexed to the detailed action plan developed in June 2017, one hopes that they formed the basis for it.

The United Nations and India’s own Law Commission have called for making Early Childhood Care & Development (ECCD) a right. Given the deficient number and pathetic state of anganwadis, one notes sadly that in the action plan of the Women & Child Development Department, there is no strategy for making ECCD a right. There is no allocation of money for acquiring land to set up anganwadis, especially in urban areas, or a plan to locate them in existing schools. Nor is there any plan to upgrade anganwadis to crèches/day-care centres, though the NITI Aayog has recommended the same in its three-year action plan.

So, has an assessment been made of how many working SC/ST women take their 0-6 year-old children along when they go to work and how many girls miss school while they mind younger siblings at home and at construction sites due to lack of crèches?

While the recent Bengaluru Declaration speaks grandiosely of reserving posts in the judiciary, etc., for Dalits, a Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) survey in 2016 revealed that roughly 50% of school drop-outs belonged to the SC/ST communities, indicating that even compulsory education of eight years continues to elude many of them. Their chances of ever seeking reservation in the judiciary, etc., are a far cry indeed. So, what have been the impediments to SC/ST children reaching tertiary levels of education?

Meagre scholarships of Rs 750 to Rs 1,100 per year are being given to SC/ST children of poor parents or manual scavengers. This, despite the social welfare minister promising on the floor of the Legislative Council that he would harmonise scholarships. Is it any wonder if such children are sent to labour instead to earn Rs 1,000 per month? The action plan of the NITI Aayog also says, “It is crucial that the impact of these scholarships on improving school retention and completion rates is evaluated”. 

Further, the latest Child Labour (Amendment) Act allows children to enter the workforce at 14 years, after a mere eight years of education, before they have undergone any skill training.  But the Skill Development Department has the ambitious target of skilling five lakh adult workers.  But should not skilling children before letting them out into the labour market be a simultaneous requirement?

The Bengaluru Declaration speaks of making secondary education ‘universal’ and of providing universal hostel facilities. But unless secondary education is also made ‘compulsory’ for 15 to 18 year-olds and a vocational stream provided for those without an aptitude for academics, generations of SC/ST children will continue to enter the workforce, perform unskilled jobs and never be able to come out of poverty. They can also earn a stipend if they are appointed as apprentices under the Apprenticeship Act during secondary education.

If we are truly committed to empowering all SC/ST children educationally and economically, we could extend a conditional cash transfer scheme like “Bhagyalakshmi” to all vulnerable SC/ST children, both boys and girls. A bond of Rs 10,000 could be placed in each vulnerable SC/ST child’s name at birth and a lumpsum of Rs 1 lakh given to the child when s/he turns 18, on condition that s/he completes 12 years of education.

This will provide the necessary incentive to ensure that the child does not drop out midway. They will be able to start their own enterprises, or take up skilled work, or go for further study/training and stand on their own feet at 18 years. Are we willing to recompense these Ekalavyas for the historical injustice of educational deprivation, and the relegation to caste-based occupations they have been subjected to for millennia?

(The writer is Executive Trustee of CIVIC, Bengaluru)