Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in India and their Higher Education

Abstract

Scheduled Castes are those castes named in the Scheduled Castes order of the

Full text

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Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in India and their Higher Education
Dr. Baiju.K.Nath
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Education
University of Calicut, Kerala
baijueducation@gmail.com
and
Ruvega.P.K.Parakandathil.
M.Ed. Student (2014 - 15)
Dept. of Education, University of Calicut, Kerala
Key Terms : Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Higher Education

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Abstract
Scheduled Castes are those castes named in the Scheduled Castes order of the
Government of India, promulgated in August 1950. Hence, a person is considered to be a
member of a Scheduled Caste, if he or she belongs to a caste which, under the constitution,
has been declared to be a Scheduled Caste for the area, for which he or she is a resident.
India’s higher education system is the third largest in the world, next to the United States
and China. According to all India survey on Higher Education conducted by MHRD, the
enrolment of OBC students in Higher Educational Institutions in India during 2010-11 has
gone up to 27 percent (male 27.3% and female 26.8%) but in case of Scheduled Caste and
Scheduled Tribe students, it continues to be low.
Introduction
The word ‘Caste’ comes from the Portuguese word, ‘casta’, signifying ‘breed, race,
or kind’. The Portuguese of the eleventh century applied the term indiscriminately to the
various social and occupational groups found in the subcontinent and it has since continued.
On the one hand the term is used to describe in the broadest sense, the total system of
stratification of society in India; on the other hand it is used to denote three or four more or
less distinct aspects of this system of stratification, that is varna, jati and gotra.
Scheduled Castes are those castes named in the Scheduled Castes order of the
Government of India, promulgated in August 1950. Hence, a person is considered to be a
member of a Scheduled Caste, if he or she belongs to a caste which, under the constitution,
has been declared to be a Scheduled Caste for the area, for which he or she is a resident. A
caste can be specified as a Scheduled Caste only by the President of India; once specified,
any inclusion or exclusion to the list can be made only through an act of the parliament.

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Thus, “Scheduled Caste’ is a constitutional and not a sociological concept.
Scheduled Castes are the ex-untouchables, who continue to follow the Hindu faith.
The term, “Scheduled Castes” was first incorporated into the Government of India Act of
1935. The purpose of classification of castes as Scheduled Castes is to safeguard the
interest of those who suffer from caste discrimination and to provide for them special
concessions to help them catch up with the rest of the population in the process of
development. The criteria to bring a caste under Scheduled Castes are that 1) they occupy a
low position in Hindu social structure, 2) they are backward in education, 3) they have
inadequate representation in government service and 4) in the fields of trade, commerce and
industry, and that 5) they suffer from social and physical isolation from the rest of the
population.
The Scheduled Castes constitute distinct caste groups with specific cultural,
occupational and religious characteristics. They are divided into more than 900 sub-castes
and are thinly distributed in 600,000 villages of India. About 90% of the Scheduled Castes
live in rural areas and they constitute 15% of the population of India.
The Scheduled Castes are backward, it is due to their preponderantly rural nature,
illiteracy, dependence on agricultural labour, or other occupations with low earnings, and
due to injustice, exploitation, and oppression they have been suffering from others for
centuries. The Scheduled Castes have been suffering from three social disabilities: 1)
untouchability; 2) atrocity, which is an act of extreme cruelty committed against them; and
3) bonded labour.
In 1932, the nomenclature ‘Scheduled Castes’ was proposed before the Indian
Franchise Committee by the then provincial government of Bengal. Accordingly, in the

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Government of India Act, 1935, a schedule containing a list of these classes was added for
the first time. Prior to this, they had been classified as the ‘Depressed Classes’. The
Constitution of India, through Article 341, authorizes the President of India to specify castes
to be notified as SC’s. The President of India in consultation with the Governor of the
concerned state notifies a particular caste as a Scheduled Caste and this inclusion of the
caste in the schedule is promulgated by the Parliament. Various Presidential orders from
1950 to 1978 notified, modified and amended statutory lists of the SC's in various part
several of the country (at present, 1,231 castes are appended in the Schedule as SC’s).
The Constitution’s attempts to classify the SC's had its genesis in the Draft
Constitution of India in the article relating to interpretations, definitions, and so on. In the
Constitution, the following expressions have particular meanings assigned to them, unless
the context requires otherwise. ‘Schedule’ means a Schedule to the Constitution. ‘Scheduled
Castes’ means such castes, races or tribes or parts of or groups within castes, races, or tribes
as are deemed under Article 341 of the Constitution to be the Scheduled Castes for the
purposes of the Constitution.
It is apparent that this provision does not give a clear definition in terms of the
characteristic features of the scheduled group. However, this exercise was done in the
Government of India Act, 1935. The criteria for consideration and inclusion of a particular
caste into the Schedule were based on its social, educational and economic backwardness
arising out of the traditional customs related to the practice of untouchability. The
Government of India Act, 1935, determined these forms of deprivation, particularly social
and economic, on the bases that
They occupy a low position in the Hindu social structure

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Their representation in government services is inadequate
They are inadequately represented in the fields of trade, commerce and industry
They suffer from social and physical isolation from the rest of the community and
There is a general lack of educational development amongst the major section of this
community.
Constitutional definition of SCs/STs
The "Scheduled Castes" and "Scheduled Tribes" shall have the meanings respectively
assigned to them in clauses (24) and (25) of Article 366 of the Constitution of India."
The Article 366 (24) of the Constitution of India defines Scheduled Castes as under: -
"Scheduled Castes" means such castes, races or tribes or parts of or groups within such
castes, races or tribes as are deemed under article 341 to be Scheduled Castes for the
purpose of this Constitution.
The Article 366 (25) of the Constitution of India defines Scheduled Tribes as under:
- "Scheduled Tribes" means such tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within
such tribes or tribal communities as are deemed under article 342 to be Scheduled Tribes for
the purpose of this Constitution.
Article 341 and 342 of Indian Constitution
Article-341. Scheduled Castes: - " (1) The President may with respect to any State or
Union Territory, and where it is a State, after consultation with the Governor thereof, by
public notification, specify the castes, races or tribes or parts of or groups within castes,
races, or tribes which shall for the purposes of this Constitution be deemed to be Scheduled
Castes in relation to that State or Union Territory, as the case may be. (2) Parliament may by

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law include in or exclude from the list of Scheduled Castes specified in a notification issued
under clause (1) any caste, race or tribe or parts of or group within any caste, race or tribe,
but save as aforesaid a notification issued under the said clause shall not be varied by any
subsequent notification."
Article-342. Scheduled Tribe: - " (1) The President may with respect to any State or
Union Territory, and where it is a State, after consultation with the Governor thereof, by
public notification, specify the tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within
tribes or tribal communities which shall for the purposes of this Constitution be deemed to
be Scheduled Tribes in relation to that State or Union Territory, as the case may be. (2)
Parliament may by law include in or exclude from the list of Scheduled Tribes specified in a
notification issued under clause (1) any tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups
within tribes or tribal communities, but save as aforesaid a notification issued under the said
clause shall not be varied by any subsequent notification."
The Scheduled Castes in India
In Indian social hierarchy the SCs have been considered one of the weakest
constituents. They have been attributed so many nomenclatures such as untouchables,
harijans, dalits, panchamans, atisudras, avarnas and antyajas. The term depressed classes
refers to those caste which belong to the lowest rung of the Hindu caste hierarchy and
whose touch or proximity, is considered polluting by the caste Hindus. The word Dalits
denotes poverty and their oppressed condition. The ‘servile classes’ phrase was used to
denote the servile nature of their working relations with the higher castes and the degraded
nature of work with which they were involved like scavenging, sweeping, etc. The
Scheduled Castes were named as Harijans by Saint Narsimha Mehta and Mahatma Ghandhi

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popularized this concept. The Harijans are those who are entangled in subhuman social
existence, abject poverty, economic exploitation, and a sub- culture of submission and
political powerlessness.
The SCs were the former untouchable castes of Hinduism. Besides the four traditional
castes there was another group of persons even during the early days of Chaturvarnya, who
came to be described as untouchables because they were of darker skin and were engaged in
unclean occupations. These people were the outcastes and as such were socially ostracized
by caste Hindus. As the lowest strata in the society, the untouchables formed the fifth Varna
Panchamas/ Chandals or the 5th caste. They were assigned a position very much lower than
that of the Sudras. Their hereditary occupations were street sweeping, scavenging, weaving,
tanning, flaying and the like. They were expected to do all the dirty jobs in society, which
others were restrained from doing. And this group was denied the right to enter the temples
and worship with other Hindus, schooling, use dress and ornaments which will mark them
off as upper caste people, to draw water from public wells and to improve their economic
and educational conditions.
They were compelled to live segregate on the outskirts of villages and towns under most
filthy and miserable conditions and were ill clad and half starved. Even now, in many places
they could not at all enter the streets or lanes used by caste Hindus. In the southern regions
of India besides touch pollution, distance pollution also was observed. Distances were
prescribed for untouchables to keep away from the different levels of upper caste people.
It was, however, the British Government’s programme of education and social reforms,
much more than the work of missionaries that paved the way for the mitigation of the social
misery of SCs. The British were not so much interested in the radical reform of Hindu

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society. But their educational system created a new generation of intellectuals and
reformers who were imbibed with liberal ideas. The foundation of the Brahma Samaj and
Arya Samaj and the teachings of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Kesav Chandra Sen,
Sreeramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, Vagbhadananda and Aagamananda and the social
works of Thanthei Periyor, Sri Narayana Guru, and Ayyankali all had one common aim to
purify Hinduism from the evils of caste and to raise the status of the lower caste
communities. Moreover, Indian National Congress which crystallized the social thinking of
the time officially took up the work of uplifting the depressed classes on a national scale.
Constitutional provisions for Scheduled Caste (SC)
Article 46 of the Constitution states: ‘‘The State shall promote, with special care, the
education and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people, and, in particular of
the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and shall protect them from social injustice and
all forms of social exploitation’’. Articles 330, 332, 335, 338 to 342 and the entire Fifth and
Sixth Schedules of the Constitution deal with special provisions for implementation of the
objectives set forth in Article 46. These provisions need to be fully utilized for the benefit of
weaker sections in our society.
Higher Education System in India
India’s higher education system is the third largest in the world, next to the United
States and China. The main governing body at the tertiary level is the University Grants
Commission. According to UGC (2012) there are 42 central universities, 275 state
universities, 130 deemed universities, 90 private universities, 5 institutions established and
functioning under the State Act, and 33 Institutes of National Importance. Other institutions
include 33,000 colleges including 1800 exclusive women’s colleges, functioning under

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these universities and institutions.
Enrolment of SC and STs in Higher Education
However, owing to a number of constraints, and socio-economic factors, the benefits
of expansion of educational facilities have not fully reached to all the communities
specifically among the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST). According to all
India survey on Higher Education conducted by MHRD, the enrolment of OBC students in
Higher Educational Institutions in India during 2010-11 has gone up to 27 percent (male
27.3% and female 26.8%) but in case of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students, it
continues to be low. The Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students’ enrolment ratio
during 2009-10 was 15 percent and it was 18.8 percent in 2010-11. Whereas the Scheduled
Caste and Scheduled Tribe women students’ enrolment ratio during 2009-10 was 12.7
percent (men students’ enrolment ratio was 17.1%) and it was 16.5 percent during 2010-
11(men students enrolment ratio was 20.9%). During 2010-11 out of 100 students getting
into Higher Educational Institutions, less than eleven are from Scheduled Caste and less
than five are from Scheduled Tribe. Scheduled Caste students’ enrolment was 10.2 percent
and Scheduled Tribe students’ enrolment was 4.4 percent including enrolment through
Distance Mode.
Exclusionary trends in education particularly in higher education and professional
education are the result of not only factors like increase in private costs to be incurred by
students, growth of self-financing or student financed institutions, the poor quality of
education in government and aided schools but also due to strengthening of non financial
entry barriers and inadequate attention to the problems of disadvantaged groups.