Education of Dalit Women

Education of Dalit Women

by Moses Seenarine

October 29, 1996

Literacy Among Dalit Females

Dalit females have one of the lowest levels of literacy of all groups in India (in rural areas, only ten percent are literate). Their low level of literacy is due to three interrelated factors: (a) continued monopolization of state, economic, cultural and other resources by middle and upper class groups; (b) the stronger influence of casteism in rural areas on dalit females; and (c) the control of dalit males over dalit women and girls. As a consequence, dalit females' access to even basic literacy education is limited. This paper briefly explores some of the above factors and issues facing dalit women in regards to education.

Close to ninety percent of dalit women are rural; most are landless or marginal farmers who live in abject poverty with grinding labor. Many work as coolies, or day-to-day manual workers, at less wages than men. Their economic situation has worsened due to the overall deteriorating rural economic conditions over the last five years as a result of the New Economic Policy. So too, the deterioration and privatization of common forest resources on which many rural dalit women depend for survival. Water and fuel scarcity have a direct influence on dalit girls's access to education.

Dalit women are the target of government population programs, and female literacy is viewed as part of this strategy. In other government programs and schemes for rural and urban women, it is Other Backward Castes (OBCs), middle and upper hindu caste women who derive most of the benefit; dalit women are left out, with few exceptions.

In all cases of caste conflict, dalit women are the first victims. They are raped and gang-raped in order to terrorize a whole caste and community. Even though these incidents of violence against women are extreme, nevertheless, some of these caste biases exist in schools among caste hindu teachers. In addition, dalit females are invisible in school curricula and text books.

Poverty compels most rural dalit parents to send their children to work rather than to school. Many dalit parents view education for girls as a luxury, pointing out that it is expensive and there is a lack of gainful employment opportunities after graduation. For example, dalit women's participation in the organized sector is negligible. However, many parents also feel that education beyond the primary level for girls will affect their household management.

Controls by men over women starts as a girl child where infant mortality due to neglect and malnutrition is very high. Many dalit girls and women are used and abused by drunken male relatives. The sexual division of labor, child marriage, and restricted mobility also limit dalit females' access to education.

These factors contribute to a high dropout rate among dalit female children, especially at the secondary school level and higher. Dropout and non-enrollment is also due to several other factors, including the lack of childcare facilities in villages; cooking, cleaning and other domestic chores; employment as child laborers to help support the family, education and marriage of siblings; and the attitudes of parents and the dalit community.

Problems of Educated Dalit Women

Educated dalit women encounter discrimination as well, for example in employment and wages, appointments and promotions, in political representation, demands made for dowry, and in personal relations. The major beneficiaries of education and employment reservations for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are men from the 'forward' castes among the dalits. This fact reveals at least two issues: (a) that not all dalits have equal access to reservations, and (b) that dalit women, especially do not have equal access as men to benefits reserved for SC/ST.

Further, as a result of persistent casteism and corruption, many seats in college and positions in government reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes go unfilled, though qualified dalit candidates do apply. Thus, if a qualified dalit woman applies for a job or college seat reserved for an SC/ST, she is told to apply as a woman; if she applies for a job or college seat reserved for women, she is told to apply as an SC/ST.

Given these trends, it is doubtful whether the recent debate over granting reservation for women in parliament would have much benefit for dalit women in general. Even though 25 per cent of the seats in local assemblies, like the panchayat raj, are reserved for women in Karnataka, the reservation for dalit women only amounts to twenty percent of the women's quota. Those dalit women who are elected are restricted by their lack of education and ownership of land. Even if educated, their power as landless, female representatives in a body comprised of powerful landed, caste hindu groups is still limited.

With diminished marriage prospects due to lack of dowry, many educated dalit women become educated unemployed and underemployed single women. In marriage, educated dalit women are still subordinated within the family; educated dalit males are refuters of Manuism, but followers in regards to women.

Empowerment of Dalit Women

Due to triple oppression of class, caste and gender, dalit females have the least access to education and other opportunities for social and economic mobility. Their liberation does not lie purely in economic or political terms, but social and cultural liberation must also be taken into account.

Education of dalit girls and women is necessary for their full participation in all aspects of society. Despite multiple obstacles and oppression, many dalit females are struggling daily to gain access to educational opportunities. Their resistance and determination to obtain access to information is but one aspect of their agency and power.

The results of such actions are the independent anti-alcohol movements in several states spawned in part by the government's Total Literacy Campaign. These results were not what literacy planners expected, but serves to show the power of dalit and other women's learning and cooperation.

Literacy can be empowering, however, it must be done at a pace and level determined by women themselves. And most importantly, it must address issues important to dalit women and be accompanied by other social and economic reforms such as the following: sanitation, health, childcare; credit and loans, land reform; water and fuel supply and conservation; and reservation and scholarships for dalit women.

Home Page | Join Saxakali | Education Center
Saxakali Publications