Who Killed Savita (11), Kavita Motiram (13), Rita (11) and Saraswati (9)
By subhash gatade
05 October, 2009
Countercurrents.org
NEW DELHI , NOVEMBER 9: Higher caste teachers in India have physically and verbally abused lower caste students and India will not be able to achieve the literacy goals set for 2015, says a UNESCO-commissioned report on the Education For All (EFA) programme. Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) is the Indian version of EFA.
India is among 30 countries that the UNESCO feels will not make the target.
( Caste abuse in Indian schools: UNESCO
Education for all: Report lists India among 30 countries that will miss 2015 goals, VARGHESE K GEORGE
Posted online: Indian Express, Thursday, November 10, 2005 at 0018 hours IST)
I
Few years back a study commissioned by Ken Livingstone, the then Mayor of London had discovered how ‘Black teachers face bullying and racism' in the school and had linked the plight of the black teachers to the ‘continuing problem of underachievement among black pupils'. The landmark report had called for a formal investigation - akin to the Stephen Lawrence inquiry into policing - to address concerns that black teachers are isolated, maligned and robbed of proper pay and status. (Hugh Muir, Friday September 8, 2006 , The Guardian). There were also calls for a public inquiry into racism in schools.
One is yet to come across a comprehensive study of a similar nature to know how ‘apartheid of different kinds' unfolds itself in schools in this part of the earth and whether teachers coming from - socially oppressed communities- are similarly ‘.isloated, maligned and robbed of proper pay and status..' and how does it impact the performance of the students coming from similar sections of society. Of course, one does get an inkling of the state of affairs through related studies, reports and investigations.
As of now we have before us plethora of sample studies/enquiry reports occasioned by specific complaints lodged mainly by students to protest discrimination faced inside particular institutions. It is widely known that in recent times, a few premier institutions of the country reached headlines for following policies, adopting mechanisms, continuing processes which put students coming from socially oppressed communities in disadvantageous position and denying them their constitutional rights.
The treatment meted out the scheduled category students in the premier institute reminds one of a three year old report of the Parliamentary committee wherein it had expressed concern over the ‘abysmally low' participation of SC and ST students, ‘as compared to their percentage in total population.' It divulged that ‘ the enrollment of SCs in higher education has ranged between 8.6 per cent in 1990-91 to 11.3 percent in 2002-2003.' (Parliament of India , 172 nd Report on Higher Education, presented on 22 nd May 2006)
If students from socially oppressed communities going for higher education find it difficult to wage a consistent struggle against exclusions, discriminations and are condemned to face it, one can just imagine the plight of students coming from similar background who go for school education.
There is no doubt that the most vulnerable among the lot seems to be those who are admitted in the scores of ‘Ashram Schools' - residential schools - where they are at the completemercy of teachers and non-teaching staff.
Perhaps few recent news clippings from such residential schools can give an idea about the gravity of the situation
II
Nobody would have imagined in their wildest dreams that 66 girls studying in N Jhalarsingh Kanyashram, a government-run school for SC/ST girls in Gajapati district, (Orissa) would walk a distance of 25 kms from their hostel unannounced, to protest the behaviour of three teachers who allegedly made casteist taunts to them.Altogether there are 250 girls studying in the institution. Of them 238 live in the hostel.
It is learnt that the triad would "always keep telling" them that "You all belong to lower castes,"
"They have inflicted unbearable torture and trauma on us. Even over a trifle thing, they make fun and remind us of our so-called low-caste background. It's very very cruel. For long, we put up with the trauma, hoping things will improve someday. But nothing of that sort happened," one of the girls said on condition of anonymity,
Of course, it was not for the first time that SC/ST students studying in Gajapati district had undertaken such an action. Earlier, a group of students of Ekalabya Abasika Bidyalaya at Chandragiri and Laxmipur Abasika Bidyalaya near Koinpur in Gajapati district walked out to protest against alleged mismanagement and misbehaviour of teaching staff.
(Caste taunts by teachers drive 66 SC/ST girls run away from Orissa school, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/
city/bhubaneswar/articleshow/4874588.cms, Sunil Mohan Patnaik, TNN 9 August 2009, 11:31pm IST)
Another news report which appeared in ‘The Statesman' which covered the incident tells us : More than 70 residential schools are run by SC/ST welfare department, ITDA and the mass education department in Gajapati. The students are given stipend ranging between Rs 400 and Rs 500 per month for their education and this is utilised for their food and accommodation.
It is difficult to imagine the situation in which large number grown-up girls from underpriveledged backgrounds, studying in various government schools, are condemned to live where they have limited protection in their own premises. Male teachers are put in charge of the girls and outsiders have free access to the girls' hostels. They stay in badly maintained accommodations and are prone to diseases due to congestion.
While the students of Gajapati could unitedly protest the humiliation heaped on them, for students of Kasturba Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram in Barwani district, (MP), where around 1,071 girls are studying at present, things unfolded themselves in such a rapid manner that they could not even get a chance to say anything.
For Savita Gangaram Barela (11), Kavita Motiram (13), Rita Hawaldar (11) and Saraswati (9) the ‘Khichdi' and ‘Halwa' they consumed a day before independence day (14 August) - when they were getting ready to participate in the celebrations - proved fatal. They died within few hours after consuming this contaminated food in a hostel at the tribal dominated Niwali village in Madhya Pradesh.
Around 92 girls had to be admitted to different hospitals after they developed symptoms of food poisioning.
(Hindustan Times, 19 th August 2009, Fourth victim dies of food poisoining in MP School)
If the girls from Barwani had to pay with their lives for the acts of omission and commission on part of the management, an altogether different story unfolded itself in Gulabrao Ukey Adivasi Ashramshala in Wardha district, 150 km from Nagpur, which was started with the ‘noble aim of providing quality education to the tribal population.' The Maharashtra government also promptly provided aid for its work. Little could have anyone the premonition that the Ashramshala would metamorphose into a torture chamber for the tribal children and a day would arrive when the proprietor and peon of this residential school would be sent behind bars for allegedly raping minor girl students over the past three years. It is learnt that at least five minor girls were found to be sexually exploited by the duo.
( Aug 20, 2009 , Hindustan Times).
It is ‘normal' to find staff working in similar Ashramshalas wanting on many occasions, the management also seems to condone caste apartheid getting practised before their own eyes, but the apathy on part of the government seems to be the key factor in worsening the situation. The manner in which a fifty year old school established with the purpose to rehabilitate children of “denotified criminal tribes”, Vikas Vidyalaya — the oldest boarding school for Dalits in Allahabad — finds itself lying in shambles just goes to vindicate this. It happens to be the only school in eastern UP where Dalit children belonging to the denotified tribes category from Azamgarh, Jaunpur, Allahabad , Pratapgarh, Mirzapur, Fatehpur, Kaushambi, Ghazipur and Sant Ravidas Nagar are admitted and can study upto class X.
One of the two hostels has not been used for long after its roof had collapsed. “In the space meant for two students, eight students live in each room in the hostel,” said Joshi.
“The school gets Rs 18 per day per child for food as opposed to Rs 40 given to other government-aided schools. Only Rs 150 per year per student is given for books and Rs 300 annually for clothes,” added Joshi.
There are no teachers for maths and science,” added Joshi. The teachers and staff are yet to receive the benefits of the Fifth Pay Commission. (School for Dalits running on its ruins, Vijay Pratap Singh, Posted: Aug 21, 2009 at 0246 hrs IST, INDIAN EXPRESS)
III.
Definitely one can go on narrating instances of institutionalized discrimination getting practiced at various levels inside these schools.
Any close watcher of the situation would vouch that there is nothing ‘surprising' about the situation. Few years back hundreds of students from a Ashram School in Thane ( Maharashtra ) had undertaken similar ‘long march' a la the students of Gajapati district, to protest the inhuman treatment meted out to them inside the school where they were even not properly fed.
It was only last year that few students from a government run residential school for tribal students in Jharkhand died when they supposedly consumed contaminated milk.
Madhya Pradesh, which tops the list of states in ‘atrocities on tribals' witnessed deaths of few students in a Ashram Shala because of snakebites last year. The school which had been built in marshy area had no provisions for protection from such poisonous reptiles.
Last year a two member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice Aftab Alam had issued a notice to the central and state governments ( 24 th Oct 2008) over a petition filed by a students organisation about the inhuman conditions existing in 1,130 hostels meant for SC-ST students spread in 240 districts of the country. The said organisation had undertaken a study in 2006-2007 of such hostels and made it a basis of their petition. Their survey had pointed out that many such hostels have been built in jungles where students have to study in candlelight and are compelled to consume impure water.
IV.
The plight of the SC-ST students inside such Ashram Schools is a marker of the situation, which exists at the grassroot level. One can see it as a deeper malaise of our society where we are ready to protest the ‘racial attacks on Indian students in Australia ' but are not ready to look inward and see for ourselves what we are doing to our own people.
Looking at the overall situation it does not appear surprising that despite 60 plus years of independence and all talk of affirmative action programmes, till today for majority of SC-ST boys and girls, getting education still happens to be a game of hurdles.
A close look at the recent changes in economy and polity in our country makes it clear that the situation is getting worse for them. Unless urgent steps are not taken to ameliorate the situation there is going to be further shrinkage of avenues of education as well as employment within educational institutions. First and foremost, the economic reforms of the 90s and the consequent process of privatisation and commercialisation of education and the abandonment of affirmative action in these sectors, has further marginalised these sections. Secondly, the technological changes signified by the ‘information technology' revolution has given birth to a new ‘digital divide' wherein the dalits and tribals are finding themselves at the receiving end.
Question naturally arises about apportioning the blame for the state of affairs, as it exists today.
It is true that the state itself comes out in rather unflattering terms when one takes up the issue. But the key point worth emphasising is that caste discrimination much like gender discrimination or racial discrimination has a specificity which transcends the binary of ‘state as perpetrator' and ‘people as victims' . In fact it implicates the partisan role played by the people themselves.
In fact in this case a section of civil society itself becomes a distinct beneficiary of caste based order and it helps perpetuate the existing unequal social reactions and frustrates attempts to democratize the society because through the customary arrangements the dominant classes are assured of social control over people who can continue to abide by their commands without any protest.
The founding fathers of the Constitution had solemnly resolved to secure to all citizens Justice: Social, Economic and Political, Liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship. And equality of status and of opportunity, and to promote among them all fraternity, assuring the dignity of individual and unity. It also emphasised that : The state shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds of religion, race, caste, place and birth or any form. The Directive Principles of the Constitution underlined The State shall promote with special care the educational and economic interest of the scheduled castes/tribes and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation.
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-SUBHASH GATADE, H 4 Pusa Apts, Rohini Sector 15, Delhi 110089 Ph : 011-27876523
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