INDIA Many lower-caste children are regularly beaten and humilated at school by teachers who regard them as polluting the class, according to a new national report.
Caste discrimination is also preventing millions of these children from attending school, despite government claims that education is open to all.
The caste definition of “untouchable” was abolished in 1950, but the country’s 200 million Dalits - now referred to as “scheduled castes” or “scheduled tribes” - still routinely suffer discrimination.
Dalit children lag behind other social groups in terms of their schooling. While discrimination by caste is illegal and school places have to be reserved for lower-caste children, in reality education remains only a dream for millions of them.
The India Education Report compiled by the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration noted that these lower-caste pupils were verbally and physically abused, and were victims of a hidden agenda of discrimination in the classroom.
Quoting children’s individual experiences, the report said that teachers in schools often refused to touch them and made them targets of their anger and abuse. They were punished at the slightest pretext and often humiliated.
They were made to sit and eat separately. Their exercise books or writing slates were not touched by the higher-caste teachers.
In parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan, where enrolment of “scheduled caste” students is the lowest - 23 per cent in Bihar and 22 per cent in Rajasthan - teachers regard them as “polluting” the class. They often make them sit on their own mats outside the classroom or at the door. In many cases they are beaten up by children from higher castes.
Many lower-caste children are not allowed to walk through the village on their way to school, according to the report. They are also denied their right to free textbooks, uniforms and a midday meal.
In rural Karnataka, children from the lower castes are referred to as “kadu-jana”(forest people) by teachers who claim that they would not learn anything unless they were given a severe beating. Many make them perform menial tasks like washing school utensils.
Nationally, 64.3 per cent of lower-caste rural boys attend school compared with 74.9 per cent of boys from other social groups, according to a 1993-94 survey. At least 40.5 per cent of “scheduled caste” children in rural areas and 24 per cent in urban areas drop out of school; 11 million girls in the 6-11 age group are not enrolled.
