International Journal of
Educational Administration and Policy Studies

  • Abbreviation: Int. J. Educ. Admin. Pol. Stud.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 2141-6656
  • DOI: 10.5897/IJEAPS
  • Start Year: 2009
  • Published Articles: 245

Full Length Research Paper

Right to education of Scheduled Tribe: An Indian perspective

Madhurima Chowdhury* and Atrayee Banerjee
Department of Anthropology, Calcutta University, India.
Email: [email protected]

  •  Accepted: 18 October 2013
  •  Published: 30 November 2013

Abstract

Education seeks to unfold the latent qualities of a person, thereby giving full development to the individual. As such, it has been described as the act or art of developing, or creating,  cultivating the various physical intellectual, aesthetic and moral faculties of the individual. Scheduled Tribe has a history of social and economic deprivation, and the underlying causes of their educational marginalization are also strikingly distinct.  About 87 percent of the main workers from these communities were engaged in primary sector activities. The literacy rate of Scheduled Tribes is around 47 percent, as against the national average of 74.04 percent. More than three-quarters of Scheduled Tribes women are non-literate. Not surprisingly, the cumulative effect has been that the proportion of Scheduled Tribes below the poverty line is substantially higher than the national average. The study intends to explore the state of education and the awareness of the disadvantaged groups towards right to education as a fundamental human right with special reference to Right to Education Act,2010.

Key words: Scheduled Tribe, Right to Education Act, 2010, marginalization.