Confronting Social Exclusion: a Critical Review of the CREST Experience D

Caste Quotas and Formal Inclusion x 251

9 d Confronting Social Exclusion: A Critical Review of the CREST Experience D. D. Nampoothiri*

While the gates of higher education in Kerala were significantly opened for candidates hailing from scheduled communities from 1950s onwards, the affirmative processes have yielded, at best, only partial results till date. This was, by and large, due to the relative lack of social, economic, cultural, and symbolic capital that these historically excluded communities had always to contend with, even while progressive social reform and class movements had begun to address their overall conditions of civic disabilities during the 1930s onwards. In other words, positive discrimination such as reservation only scratched the surface and benefited merely a tiny section in obtaining access to high-end jobs in public/private sectors. While admission to institutions of higher education in Kerala was somewhat assured through reservation, successful completion, for instance, of the professional courses within the stipulated time was, it appears, a rare occurrence. The ensuing study attempts to delineate the various issues and processes that have, over the post- independence decades, tried to reproduce the deep social exclusion of these communities especially in the spheres of professional education in the state. The paper describes Kerala’s social and educational development with special reference to Dalit and Adivasi communities, provides a critical overview of the professional higher education scenario in the state, and finally, describes the Centre for Research and Education for Social Transformation (CREST), experience in bridging the gap. The first section deals with the unique historical and social development of Kerala which led to 252 x D. D. Nampoothiri progressive citizenship as well as empowerment of the under classes cutting across caste and religion. At the same time, the arrival of a radical/vibrant public sphere with the ushering in of universal literacy/access to schooling/spread of print media/healthcare for all in the state seems to have unleashed several inclusive policies and trends. The second section provides a detailed analysis of how casteist educational gaps have indeed been deepened by the contradictions of development particularly during the last decade. Vasavi, in her wide-ranging and incisive study, has outlined what it means to be a Dalit in contemporary India. She shows how, in crucial ways, caste indignities or its violence and inequities mark individuals and groups of scheduled communities, leaving them with subjected personhoods.

If groups, communities and societies play a significant role in defining the personhoods of individuals, then furthering this, by subjected personhoods I refer to personalities and orientations in which there is an erosion of agency, and the sense of self-worth of individuals or groups is not individually defined or directed but is marked by the violence of persistent and pervasive humiliation, deprivation and indignities (Vasavi 2004).

While the section attempts to position today’s Dalit student/ aspirant for Kerala’s professional courses, the study carried out by CREST tends to reveal the subjected personhoods of these students who are confronted with caste indignities, albeit of a covert and subtle kind, that inform the academic and extra-curricular processes in the engineering colleges of the state today. This may, however, be contrasted with the brutally frontal humiliation and shaming that the Dalit students of Hyderabad Central University experienced which was poignantly summed up in the following words:

the sense of self-worth is the ﬁrst casualty of university life. Dalit students are embittered by the way they are perpetually on probation at a university that at best suffers their presence. . . . They are ignored in the classroom, invisible in the curriculum. Try as they might, their grades never improve. They are regarded as ‘unteachable’. They are watched while they eat, mocked at by teachers and students, suspected for their corruption, hounded for their misuse of hostel rooms for guests from the village, chastised for their inability to pay bills on time, condemned for their violence (Anveshi Report 2002: 101). Confronting Social Exclusion x 253

The final section deals with a brief albeit critical appraisal of CREST’s interventions, on behalf of students hailing from scheduled communities, particularly through its five months’ flagship programme titled Post Graduate Certificate Course for Professional Development (PGCCPD) as well as the short-duration orientation programmes for BTech entry students, that have attempted to obviate, compensate and supplement the deficits in their social, cultural and learning skills. No engineering/technology institution in India, to the best of my knowledge, presently offers any knowledge/ skill-enhancing programme to its disadvantaged students before she actually starts attending the BTech/MTech courses, except the initial probational year’s course conducted at Indian Institution of Technology (IITs). All the same, most IITs still do not provide any orientation/skill enhancement programme to its Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) BTech entry students in the campus. However, many developed countries have been conducting such programmes to benefit the socially disadvantaged candidates in their universities so that their entry-level knowledge, motivation and skill-sets are enhanced to a reasonable extent to match with those of their peers. While CREST’s work has to be viewed in this wider context, it is also evident that these programmes fine-tuned at CREST need further refining at pedagogical and substantive levels. In other words, CREST programmes should not be envisaged as a panacea for addressing the entrenched caste indignities that have survived even in Kerala despite the state’s singular achievements in evolving a mass democratic consciousness. Section I Scheduled Communities and Kerala’s Educational Departures: A Review It is a truism to state that Kerala’s distinctive educational departures are offshoots of its tryst with democratisation. The coming of age of the mass democratisation

was a protracted journey in the face of tenacious negotiations/resistance/ consensus from among both dominant and subaltern social forces, with a constellation of movement initiatives that emerged from within and outside the region, culminating in the creation of modern state of Kerala (Raman 2010: 2). 254 x D. D. Nampoothiri

While the Brahmanical castes dominated the democratisation in most other states in India, Kerala’s renaissance was launched by the subaltern castes. The populous backward caste of Ezhavas, along with Christian and Muslim communities, who together formed almost two-thirds of the population asserted their rights for access to education, citizenship, jobs and, socio-economic mobility through a host of varied mobilisations covering the whole range from community-based collective actions to nationalist/communist movements. While Dalit community also participated in these mobilisations, theirs was a lesser presence due to the fact that they had been historically the most impoverished, ostracised and oppressed community in the region. More significantly, they were mostly concentrated in the paddy-cultivation areas where they were directly under the sway of traditional upper caste domination. An Overview of Transformations in Caste/Class Relations in Post-Independence Kerala The success achieved in Kerala’s early efforts towards equity and access to quality education is embedded in the wider transformations in social, political, economic, and cultural processes that became accentuated with the arrival of the first-ever Left government soon after the formation of the unified Kerala state in 1956. Working class and peasant movements especially since 1947 had a tremendous impact on inter-caste relations and caste awareness in the state. Secular, egalitarian and radical worldviews, thus, came to dominate the consciousness of the under-classes, thereby weak- ening the hold of communal and caste consciousness among them. K. C. Alexander brings out these transformations by comparing the rural Kerala scene with that of rural Karnataka, where radical/ communist mobilisation was conspicuous by its absence. He portrays the altered worldviews of the subaltern groups in Kerala, while in rural Karnataka the feudal-casteist domination had remained firm with hardly any change. The exposure of the peasantry to radical ideas through the intensive activities of the communist parties and its (Sic) Frontline organizations — the labor unions and tenants organizations — created the conditions for a change in consciousness. To understand this, in 1973 some aspects of the ideological and normative orientations of the peasantry(including cultivators and agricultural laborers), were studied . . . In Mandya taluk in Karnataka, communist activities were Confronting Social Exclusion x 255 absent; . . . and in Kuttanad Taluk in Alleppey district, Communist activities have been both prolonged and extensive (Frankel and Rao 1989: 392–93). The following table has been culled from Alexander’s essay ‘Caste mobilization and Class Consciousness (ibid.) that show the changing ideological positions of peasants and agricultural workers in Kerala, which stood in sharp contrast to the responses from Karnataka.

Table 9.1: Selected Statements and Responses by Peasants and Agricultural Workers of Kerala and Karnataka Indicating their Ideological and Normative Stances

Percentage of Percentage Response: Mandya– of Response: Sl No Statements Karnataka Alappuzha Kerala 1 While eating food at the village hotel, 25 96 one should try as far as possible not to sit near lower caste persons (Disagree) 2 It is better if Harijans are not allowed 31 98 to enter village temples (Disagree). 3 If a man is poor, it is due to his fate 31 95 (Disagree) 4 The practice of giving food to Harijans 32 90 outside the house is a bad practice (Agree) 5 All landed property should be owned 21 91 by the Government. (Agree) Sources: Condensed from Tables 5 and 6 in Alexander 1989. ‘Caste Mobilization and Class Consciousness: The Emergence of Agrarian Movements in Kerala and

Table 8.1 vividly portrays how in Alleppey district respondents seldom held traditional ideas about inter-caste and property relations, unlike Mandya, where there was little change in these beliefs and traditional ideas and most of the people were fatalistic. Alexander shows how politicisation of agricultural labourers and peasants, and their active participation in class-based movements, were responsible for their heightened class consciousness and secular worldviews. Alexander also observed that landless labourers held relatively more radical and secular views than the cultivating peasantry. The non-existence of a Communist movement and the absence of working class participation in class-based organisations 256 x D. D. Nampoothiri in rural Karnataka even in post-independence decades might, in all likelihood, account for the survival of upper-caste domination over the subordinate classes and castes.

The most fundamental change in attitude occurred in Alleppey . . . The prolonged activities of the Communist Parties and labour unions in Alleppey . . . brought about a change in the paramount values of all sections of society making them perceive traditional relations as illegiti- mate and exploitative. It should be emphasized that it was the activity of radical political parties which brought about such a transformation in the consciousness of the rural community. Once such a transformation in ‘paramount values’ occurred, attempts to reorganize social relations in accordance with those values become inevitable. In the absence of such a change, exploitative working conditions and humiliating and de- grading practices have created little apparent dissatisfaction or desire for change among the agricultural labourers in Mandya . . . Communist activities which gave priority to achieving economic goals contributed to an accelerated secularization of beliefs and values (ibid.: 399).

Dalit castes in post-independence years have witnessed considerable social mobility in Kerala. Violence on lower castes has been a rarity in the state possibly because these castes have been active in democratic and working class movements. Issues of Quality and Access in Kerala’s Higher Education Debates on the declining quality of higher education in Kerala have become more focused and critical during the last decade, and engineering education has not been exempted from the scrutiny. Prabhat Patnaik, present Vice-Chairperson of the Kerala State Planning Board, remarked that, ‘[u]nfortunately, even in the public education system, the quality has gone down greatly’ (The Hindu, 15 April 2008). The arrival of self-ﬁnancing colleges in the scene since 2000 was in response to the opening up of higher education to global forces/private players. The underlying policy also reﬂected the widespread anxiety that Kerala will lag behind other states in tapping the opportunities in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and other emerging service sectors. This, then, involved considerable revamping of technical and other higher education sectors as well as imparting fresh social skills to students so that they qualify for migrant jobs in the country and abroad. Confronting Social Exclusion x 257

Studies pointed out that Kerala fell behind many states on several dimensions of access, but especially on educational opportunities within the state vis-à-vis population and the number of students enrolled in these institutions (Tilak 2001). Meanwhile, pass percentages of SSLC went up from 62 per cent in 2005 to 94 per cent in 2008 and that of Higher Secondary students also climbed from 61 per cent in 2006 to 73 per cent in 2008, which let loose many more students into higher education. Despite considerable differences on specificities, both the CPM- and Congress-led political alliances seem to have agreed on the inevitable participation of the self-financing sectors in professional education in the state as the demand had far out-stripped the existing public educational facilities. Poor quality is implicated also in the public comments on the limited expansion of the IT-industry in the state (Praveena 2010). For instance, a constant refrain has been the widespread portrayal of Kerala graduates as ‘unemployable’ especially in IT sectors, largely due to their poor English language skills. ‘It (Kerala) should stop producing unemployable graduates and learn to impart the kinds of skills modern industry and business require. It should realize that its education system is obsolete and unsuited for the Knowledge Era’ (Indiresan, The Hindu Business Line, 30 October 2005). The expansion of self-financing engineering colleges has been partly traced to the emergence of a new middle class in the state. Equity and financial issues have often got enmeshed with the working of these colleges. However, studies show that the pass percentage in these colleges run by the University of Kerala is only 35.6 per cent as against the 67.3 per cent of some government and its aided colleges. Some private self-financing colleges could only get a pass percentage of 10–15 per cent (Kumar and George 2009). Meanwhile, Cochin University of Science and Technology runs self-financing BTech courses where the pass percentage was just 33 per cent. Out of the 3,100 students who appeared for the examinations, 2077 failed (Kulavelil, 2008). Equity, Quality and Access in School Education: A Brief Overview The history of educational development in colonial/post- independence Kerala, though notable and dramatic, has revealed some paradoxical trends. Though the Dalit community, like others, 258 x D. D. Nampoothiri evinced interest in accessing education as early as the first decades of 20th century or even earlier, this was limited to certain sporadic efforts by missionaries and later by the erstwhile princely states of Thiruvithamkoor and Kochi, which occupy the central and southern districts of Kerala today. Thus in 1891, the literacy rate of Pulayas (the largest Dalit caste in Thiruvithamkoor) was a mere 0.09 per cent which, thanks to the concerted efforts of various agencies including Sadhu Jana Paripalana Sangham (launched by Ayyankali, the renowned Pulaya social reformer/activist), went up to 17 per cent in 1941. Meanwhile, the literacy rate of Ezhavas went up from 1.57 per cent in 1891 to 46.5 per cent in 1941 (Chandramohan in Cherian 1999). While intermediate communities of Christians, Ezhavas and Muslims had enjoyed considerable structural marginal- ity in colonial Kerala whereby they could seize the new economic opportunities for upward mobility unencumbered by feudal social ties, Dalits/Adivasis had remained tied to extremely exploitative and poverty-ridden structures, particularly in areas of paddy cultivation dominated by the landed upper castes of Kerala, until the land reforms of early 1970s provided them ownership of 10 cents of land and access to reasonable wages, civic rights and autonomy (Nampoothiri in Cherian 1999). This is reflected in their relega- tion to largely uneconomic occupations such as agriculture/allied labour and unskilled work in post-independence Kerala (Kannan 1988: 63). Meanwhile, all the Millennium Development Goals set for education have been achieved by Kerala much ahead of time. Being the first state to attain universal literacy, Kerala has also achieved near- total school enrolment with very low dropout rate in schools. More than 94 per cent of the rural population obtains primary education through schools or sections within a distance of one kilometre, while 96 per cent is served by upper primary schools within 3 km. Nearly 98 per cent of the rural population has the facility for secondary education within 8 km. Facilities for higher/technical education are also accessible to the rural students along with extensive trans- port arrangements at subsidised rates. School education could be availed through a vast chain of government and aided private schools. Gender equity also has been achieved extensively and the proportion of girls is higher in Arts and Science colleges. 70 per cent of school teachers are females as against 50 per cent in the country as a whole. The literacy rates of SC and ST population, Confronting Social Exclusion x 259 though lower than those of the general population of the state, are higher than the literacy rates of the general population in India. Their share in enrolment (SC students 10.7 per cent & ST students 1.2 per cent) is commensurate with their share in the school-going population, which is 10.4 per cent for SCs and 1.2 per cent for STs. In the same vein, enrolment of SC and ST students in higher education remains commensurate at 9.8 per cent and 1.1 per cent respectively. Several studies have, however, shown how recent transformations have tended to reproduce the weak access of Dalit/Adivasi candidates to higher education opportunities, while at the same time emphasising how Kerala has done more than any other state to meet the basic needs of its poorest people including the scheduled communities. Thus Dalits/Adivasis seem to be fixed in a mould of poverty and menial labour (Mendelsohn and Vicziany 2000: 35). Pulayas, for instance, constitute the vast majority of the landless, the poor and the less literate sections of Kerala today . No doubt, the human development indices of these communities are higher in comparison with Dalits elsewhere in India. According to a Government of Kerala survey, completed in 2010, there are 26,535 segregated colonies/habitats of the poorest Dalits across the state that formed almost 60 per cent of the Dalit population in Kerala. An ethnographic study of school education in one such colony in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala, probes into the ‘exclusive’ educational experiences of Dalit children. Hardly any worthwhile knowledge transfer takes place in the schools where these children study. More shockingly, even basic literacy and numeracy that they are supposed to imbibe at the primary level remain alien to students who had reached the middle school level (Padmanabhan 2010). Another matter of deep concern is the high social distance between teachers and students in aided schools where during 2002–03 57.33 per cent of all Dalit students in Kerala studied and only 0.28 per cent of the teachers hailed from the Dalit community. Meanwhile, though only 41.2 per cent of Dalit students were in government schools during the year, Dalit teachers (7.9 per cent) were better represented among the teaching staff (ibid.). Enrolment and attendance in Kerala’s schools has certainly gone up, and as such education has become universal. However, inequality in education has deepened and broadened substantially. 260 x D. D. Nampoothiri

With government schools being replaced by more and more private — aided and unaided — schools, equity and access have become critical issues. Even in Kerala, like the rest of India, child’s caste/community, gender and class now determine which school is to be attended; a new hierarchy of access is in place (Ramachandran 2004). Because of the advent of neo-liberal trends, the exclusionary processes have, from 1990s onwards, seriously impacted on the educational performance of SC and ST students especially in higher education sectors. Thus, increase in private costs to be incurred by students, growth of student-financed institutions, deepening of non-financial entry barriers, and inadequate attention to problems of the disadvantaged groups have all tilted the scales hurting the interests of Dalit/Adivasi students in the state (Kumar and George 2009). All this goes a long way to show that the social exclusion experienced by Dalit/Adivasi students in Kerala’s engineering colleges is embedded in the structural and cultural processes that characterise the state’s emerging scenario of educational development. Section II A Study on Changing Trajectories of Engineering Education Exclusionary Trends in Engineering Education and the Profles of SC/ST Students: A Review Recent empirical studies have shown that severe entry barriers exist for SC/ST candidates to avail themselves of BTech admissions in Kerala. They also highlight the dismal performance levels of these students which are an offshoot of a host of social, economic, cultural, and political factors impinging on the educational scenario of the neo-liberal society of the state. Abdul A. Salim, in his study, outlines how residential location of candidates (95 per cent of students joining BTech programme hail from urban/semi-urban areas), poverty, low caste status, lack of higher education/high level occupation of parents, and recourse to poor coaching for entrance tests contributed substantially to the widespread failure of most rural students (73.6 per cent) in securing admission to professional courses (A. A. Salim in Nair and Nair: 2008 49–88) Salim shows that 84 per cent of the admitted students Confronting Social Exclusion x 261 belonged to middle/upper classes of the society while the rest had parents with annual incomes less than `50,000.The average annual expenditure at plus-2 stage incurred by parents of candidates who passed the entrance tests was `36,385 as against `13,476 spent by the parents of failed students. Professional education in Kerala is biased against the rural population as well as backward and scheduled communities, since most of the regular low fee seats in good colleges were appropriated by the candidates from forward/intermediate castes/communities. Salim also points out that studying in English medium schools, quality of entrance test coaching availed, as well as the money spent for the same also determined the entry into professional education. The bulk of the students from SC, ST and backward communities who were admitted to professional courses were found to be atypical of the general population of these communities as they come from the cream of these communities (Salim 2008). Another study by Sivasankaran and Suresh Babu examined the widespread occurrence of back papers, particularly among SC/ST and other reserved category BTech students in Kerala, and the result- ant ‘educational wastage’ involved leading sometimes to dropping out of the course at enormous social and psychological costs to the students/families involved (Sivasankaran and Suresh Babu in Nair and Nair 2008: 89–101). The study shows that the situation among the Dalit/Adivasi students is indeed alarming with more than 50 per cent having back papers and this calls for urgent and holistic steps to equip the BTech aspirants from these communities with requisite academic and other skills right from the school level onwards. Studies by Centre for Socio-Economic and Environmental Studies (CSES 1997), Ajith Kumar (2004) and Ajith Kumar and George (2009) bring to light several non-financial barriers to enter professional courses: rural/government schooling experience, Malayalam as medium of instruction, self-employed and agriculturist parents, and lack of proximity to better entrance coaching centres are all significant hurdles for accessing BTech admission. Rural poor, especially SC/ST candidates cannot simply afford the heavy expenses to be incurred by enrolling into prestigious urban entrance training centres where they also have to bear expenses for lodging. Ann George (2001) shows how the enrolment ratio of the Below Poverty Line (BPL) families reduces to 25 per cent when the 262 x D. D. Nampoothiri children reach higher secondary education. This ratio among the poor at the higher education level (age 18 and above) is very low at 1.9. The Human Development Report for Kerala (2005) con- firms that the scheduled and backward communities lag behind the others in this basic functioning. Ajithkumar (2009) outlines how exclusionary trends had become stronger from the 1990s. Increase in private costs to be incurred by students, growth of student-financed institutions, strengthen- ing of non-financial entry barriers, and inadequate attention to the problems of the disadvantaged contributed to these trends. The foregoing discussion seems to raise a set of pivotal issues concern- ing the nature of deepening social and educational exclusion of disadvantaged communities in today’s globalised scenario. It is possible to argue that access and performance levels of Dalit/ Adivasi candidates in higher education are passing through a crisis situation in the 21st century. Overview of Debates on Educational Mobility and Kerala’s Excluded Communities While there is some recognition of the relatively low performance levels of reserved category students in Kerala’s higher education scenario, the debates, by and large, limit the discussion to the interplay of a few significant socio-economic and political factors. One possible reason for such a state of affairs might be the relative absence of interdisciplinary social science practices in current researches on education. Thus, for instance, studies of social, cultural and symbolic capital have not yet percolated into the research agenda of scholars working on the changing educational mobility in the state. For example, the acutely low levels of emigration of Dalits and Adivasis to the Gulf countries, etc., as well as their abysmally meagre remittances sent to their families in Kerala can be, possibly, better explained by delving into their overall educational backwardness thanks largely to their relative weak access to social/ cultural capital. Meanwhile, Vasavi has shown how

it is important to identify the ways and contexts in which the identities and personhoods of Dalits are subjected to and marked by caste indignities, and how these subjected personhoods are manifested in the contexts of educational institutions and in the larger public sphere. Confronting Social Exclusion x 263

In such a context, the roles and contributions of educational institutions become signiﬁcant as there is an urgent need to address and remove the sense of inadequacy and the deep socio-cultural and psychological marking to which many Dalits have been subject (2004).

The CREST study detailed further in the discussion attempts to go beyond the socio-economic profiles of Dalit students by providing a deeper understanding of the multiple indignities in today’s professional institutions in Kerala. Social/Cultural Capital, Subjected Personhoods and Exclusion in Engineering Education The preliminary study undertaken by CREST consisted of two com- ponents: qualitative/quantitative data collected through Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) from SC/ST BTech students of three government engineering colleges and second, data gathered through FGDs from CREST students over the years who had successfully completed BTech courses. Parents of some of these students were also interviewed. Major objectives of the study were: (a) Under- standing the life-worlds and subjected personhoods of Dalit/Adivasi BTech graduates/students both in campuses as well as in their families (b) Documenting the entry barriers, learning problems and skill deficits vis-à-vis students from mainstream communities (c) Examining differential access to social and cultural capital of all BTech students both within and outside campuses (d ) Designing effective academic interventions to remove, as far as possible, social and psychological inadequacies and enhance social/learning skills of SC/ST BTech students/graduates to enable them to adequately confront their social exclusion. The recent debates in social capital research seem to emphasise the need to combine various theoretical/methodological initiatives in sociology, economics and political science (Svendsen and Svendsen 2009). The synergy obtained from this, it is argued, will help to overcome the artificial demarcation between economic and non- economic areas of research. In other words, intangible forms of capital, for instance, cultural and social capital, should be accounted for alongside the more traditional visible capitals, such as physical and economic. In such an approach cultural is to be viewed as equally economic and vice versa. More importantly, various forms of intangible, normative resources such as trust, cooperative skills, 264 x D. D. Nampoothiri tolerance, and optimism are included in the equation so as to avoid what economist John F. Tomer (2002: 421) has termed ‘mainstream theory’s most notable failure’ (Svendsen and Svendsen 2009: 1). It seems possible to identify and deploy a set of sensitising con- cepts from the pioneering researches undertaken on social capital of three renowned scholars, i.e., Pierre Bourdieu (sociology), James Coleman (economics) and Robert Putnam (political science). They, of course, differ considerably in their disciplinary grounding and articulations while at the same time largely agreeing on aspects of social relations, namely, norms, values and networks — or social capital — and the role they play in social cohesion (Christensen and Levinson, 2003: 1287). Norms, values and networks produce and reproduce communities, be they geographical, neighbourhood, informational networks or civic communities of social/political engagement. Social capital is related to specific types of social bonds that sustain a sense of connection among individuals. While Putnam privileges social norms of trust and reciprocity, networks and civic engagement in characterising the success of social institutions, Coleman identifies successful educational outcomes in schools with the powerful set of mutually reinforcing networks of parent–child relations, home–school ties and a strong community sense reflected in shared norms and values that valorised educational achievement. Meanwhile, Bourdieu, concerned with class inequalities, points out how, in the context of education, economic inequalities are repro- duced as cultural and educational inequalities. Thus different socio- economic groups possess different forms of cultural capital and the groups whose cultural capital mirrors that represented in education are those who are educationally successful. To put it differently, the educational curriculum is a highly selective form of knowledge and its effect is to privilege higher social groups whose cultural and symbolic representations are the stuff of education. Interestingly, Bourdieu argues that social capital is developed not in social networks themselves but in an overall system of networks. Thus social networks may be there everywhere, but the social capital resources they generate will be unequal in their social effects. Also, according to Bourdieu, social capital, in the form of networks, is essentially related to the cultural and financial capital possessed by other people in the network. He says that the value of any capital lies in its convertibility. Social capital becomes valuable because it offers access to other forms of capital (Bourdieu 1997). While Coleman Confronting Social Exclusion x 265 and Putnam, by and large, draw from a consensual, functionalist framework, Bourdieu’s emphasis is on how networks reproduce unequal social relations. As Alejandro Portes argues, all social groups have networks, but not all networks provide equal access to resources. Socially bounded and stratified networks reproduce those unequal social relationships (ibid.). From this discussion as well as the studies detailed later, the Dalit/Adivasi social networks in Kerala not only appear as weak and peripheral but they also seem to reproduce unequal social relationships especially vis-à-vis access to educational resources/mobility. Exclusion, Networks and Social Capital: Concerns and Processes in Engineering Education The subsequent section examines how an overall system of social networks vis-à-vis secondary schooling and admission to professional education has evolved in the state, consisting of several players and stakeholders including the highly commercialised/successful entrance training institutes, expensive private tutors and their middle and upper class/community patrons (parents of students studying in 11th and 12th classes) at the top of the hierarchy of networks. The networks spiraling down the line include a host of lower class/ caste parents and their sons/daughters who are only vaguely in sync with accessing the complex knowledge, skills and strategies that should ensure their entry into a preferred BTech seat in the state. A series of FGDs were held at both engineering colleges and at CREST involving BTech students and graduates to delve deeply into problems confronted by students, and the major findings are presented as follows. Focus Group Discussions: A Review Profle of the Respondents Several FGDs were held BTech graduates and BTech students hailing from SC/ST communities during August 2010. Respondents represented government, aided as well as self-financing colleges and they were from varied engineering disciplines. As the participants were from colleges spread across Kerala, the focus groups could be considered as a fairly adequate sample population representing the reserved category engineering graduates/students of the state. The discussions were moderated by CREST faculty and research 266 x D. D. Nampoothiri associates of the project. In one of the colleges, a faculty member also participated in the discussions. Almost 50 per cent of the respondents hailed from semi-urban areas of the state and the rest from rural areas. The respondents’ ranks in the entrance test for engineering admission ranged from 7,000–27,000. Topics Covered in FGDs Various issues pertaining to Dalit/Adivasi students with reference to their pre-college years, family network as social capital, campus life, peer-level adaptation, co-curricular and curricular processes, and their overall academic performance were discussed.

Joining BTech: Problems and Predicaments The almost unanimous view among the respondents was that they had never received any worthwhile guidance/help from anybody whosoever since they themselves lacked knowledge about the choice of the appropriate branches/colleges and also about the processes and contents of the four-year professional course. (Among the respondents, one girl enrolled in a government engineering college alone had undergone an 18-day Orientation Course conducted by CREST where, she said, she was provided with relevant information about the structuring of the course/branches of study as well as selection of colleges). For the vast majority of the students, fathers alone provided whatever advisory/mentoring support they ever received. The fathers either dreamed about their children becoming engineers or wanted them to get secure high-end jobs after the course. But whatever guidance they could provide stopped the moment their sons/daughters joined the BTech course since most SC/ST parents lacked the educational, economic, social and cultural capital which parents hailing from mainstream communities held in ample measure. Also, the quality of schooling and entrance test coaching they received was of a poorer level. Most respondents said that neither their fathers nor they knew much about the course contents, requirements and prospects. Often they decided on which branch to opt for in accordance with the directions given by those people who helped them with the process. For a student hailing from a remote village, friends from other communities, who were well-informed according to him, were the only resort: he just knew that he should join the BTech course. According to one respondent, Confronting Social Exclusion x 267 wealth creates knowledge and the wealthy alone have greater access to relevant information and resources in our society. Family/Community Networks as Social Capital The 73 FGD participants from the three urban government engineering colleges had the following proﬁles vis-à-vis parental occupation, entrance rank, family size, etc.

l Parental occupation: seven engineers, four doctors, 45 government/public sector (mostly fourth grade) jobs, three private jobs, four business/Gulf jobs, four small farmers and seven wage labourers. l Entrance test rank: For SC students 5,000–27,000 and for ST students 30,000 onwards. l Place of birth/family: For SC 50 per cent semi-urban and 50 per cent rural; For ST 25 per cent semi-urban and 75 per cent rural. l Educational proﬁle of parents: 15 professional graduates/ postgraduates, 58 pre-degree/matriculation. l Income: Almost 80 per cent parents belong to low-income/ BPL households. l Family size: All nuclear households with average size of four– ﬁve having only a single earning member.

Family/community support has been widely accepted as a powerful factor for educational attainment in the sociology of education. The linkages between family/community support (social capital) and students’ educational outcomes have been widely recognised. The FGDs clearly indicated the existence of sharp deficits in family/ community support accounting for poor educational performance among most of the respondents aspiring for BTech admissions. Inadequate parental support/mentoring/career guidance from the respondents’ parents or community are in sharp contrast with the positive holistic support provided to peers from general communities by their parents, relatives, friends and community. Low levels of parents’ education and income make it difficult for their children to obtain competent special tuitions both during the +2 stage and the BTech course. In addition to these factors, a majority of the respondents mentioned that their educational performance was severely curbed also by the barriers/deficits listed as follows: 268 x D. D. Nampoothiri

l Non-availability of books/space for study in the home. l Weak preparation/performance in engineering entrance test — conclusions emanating from Salim’s study (discussed earlier), the elitist nature of the entrance tests, by and large, stand corroborated by the FGD ﬁndings. l Lack of guidance from relatives/community elders in planning higher studies. l Weak parent–school linkages whereby SC/ST parents feel, by and large, estranged and distanced from school authorities. l Locations and cost of well-run entrance coaching institutes. l Relative lack of peer-level support from bright/hardworking entrance-oriented classmates. l Poor English communication skills.

All this shows how most respondents start the BTech course with a perceived sense of inadequacy and the superior skill-sets and demeanours of mainstream students create an ideal backdrop for symbolic domination. In other words, most respondents felt that they lacked the requisite knowledge and skill-sets to excel in the engineering college which their peers held in ample measure. This gave their peers an edge over them not only in curricular activities, but also in co- and extra-curricular functioning in the campus. Peer-level Adaptation Issues in the Campus and Pressures on Curricular Life Most respondents indicated that since they lacked counselling/ mentoring support from parents, relatives and community, unlike their peers in the college, they lacked knowledge on what to be expected from the course. Meanwhile, the general category students not only had a clearer idea on the syllabi, curriculum and prospects of the course but they also had developed an aptitude for technical subjects. Further, the intense training they received during the entrance coaching years coupled with better exposure they received at the school level now stood them in good stead to meet all contingencies in passing the BTech course within the stipulated time. FGDs and other studies indicate that the SC/ST students often ﬁnd it difﬁcult to adapt to an academic milieu where the larger peer group had the following advantages:

l better schooling at various levels. l superior social and communication skills. Confronting Social Exclusion x 269

l high aspiration levels. l relatively privileged economic backgrounds. l mentoring support from parents who are, by and large, well- educated and/or professionals. l better social/cultural capital which enables them to lead more engaged on-campus lives.

From the discussions, it was quite evident that Dalit/Adivasi students, due to lack of social/cultural capital, could neither select the right courses nor meet with the academic challenges of engineering education. Meanwhile, the mainstream students start their courses on a high note in terms of general awareness and acquired skills on technical subjects. The fact that teachers stick to the academic standards of these students makes it difficult for most respondents to cope with the demands of the engineering course. Subjects such as mathematics, graphics, mechanics, and other ‘problem’ oriented ones are generally tough for the reserved category students and back papers are quite common in these subjects. This in turn gets reflected in the overall results at the end of the course. This observation is reiterated by the fact that most of the dropouts in engineering colleges hail from scheduled communities. The teachers casually referring to the poor performance history of Dalit students also contribute to the propagation of a myth that the BTech subjects are intrinsically tough nuts to crack for students from the reserved category. It was observed by the focus group that in certain engineering colleges, Dalit students were evidently cornered. Peer-level adaptation was found to be a serious problem among these students. Although the direct reason for this was stated to be academic performance, on further discussion it was found that aspects such as dress, appearance and etiquettes played vital role in discriminat- ing against Dalit/Adivasi students. However, a section of students pointed out that they could obtain ample support at peer-level regardless of caste. Without adequate soft skills, they find it difficult to adapt with their classmates. This gradually creates closed Dalit groups within the campus. Participation in Co-curricular Activities and Problems in Campus Life When asked on the participation of the Dalit/Adivasi students in co-curricular activities, the focus groups pointed out that they were generally as active or even more active in co-curricular activities 270 x D. D. Nampoothiri in comparison with other students. However, a very interesting fact was revealed when this subject was discussed further in depth. Every participant could recall that the participation of the Dalit/ Adivasi students was restricted to labour-intensive and sidelined activities, and their presence was very limited when it came to coveted on-stage co-curricular activities. The same was applicable in case of campus politics as well. In comparison with the general category students these activities evidently affect the academic performance of the Dalit/Adivasi students. The reason for this is that the other students withdraw from such activities in times of academic importance whereas the reserved category students continue engaging in the activities hugely compromising on their academic performance. This however has reference to lack of proper mentoring and also to certain social and cultural factors historically associated with them. The focus groups unanimously agreed to the point that continuous mentoring is required to bridge this gap in social and cultural capital. Almost all participants experienced discrimination of varying intensity from the administrative staff of the colleges in connection with the tortuous clerical procedures especially while dis- bursing their stipends. Deliberate delays and hassles were generally observed. However, there was also an opinion that these were just traditional ‘red-tapism’ and also applicable to other students who received various scholarships. An important grievance of Dalit/ Adivasi students was with regard to the mode of distribution of stipends. Many of the students liked to receive their stipends in privacy and felt that public receipt and announcements of stipends were generally taken as an insult. In general, the Dalit engineering students preferred not to reveal their caste identity. During the discussion, a particular case of severe discrimination was reported. A participant shared her personal experience of having been allotted a hugely damaged room which for years had been exclusively set aside for Dalit students in one college hostel. Another participant remarked that the stipends received by the Dalit students in self- financing colleges led to a lack of commitment which proved to be detrimental in passing the course. However, other graduates from self-financed colleges ruled out this possibility. Academic Performance: An Overview The discussion concluded that mentoring support and capacity- building in terms of learning and soft skills would help the Dalit/ Confronting Social Exclusion x 271

Adivasi students to perform better in their engineering courses. English language and communication skills play an important role in influencing a student’s overall performance. As it has been generally seen that the reservation category students owing to their lack of social, economic and cultural capital lag behind other students in these skills, support in this line is also needed. Confidence-building and self-actualisation interventions should be made to help them perform at par with other students who are already equipped in terms of relevant skills. Entry Barriers and Performance in Kerala BTech Entrance Tests The ensuing table vividly portrays the deep educational exclusion of the candidates hailing from scheduled communities. The lack of social and cultural capital of these students gets deeply reflected in their failure to compete with others coming from the upwardly mobile sections of the more globalised middle classes. Two findings are strikingly significant here. There are only 524 Dalit/Adivasi candidates among the first 30,000 rank holders in the 2009 list, while the number merely inches forward to 534 in the 2010 list. Second, boys have outdone the girls somewhat consist- ently in the case of the first 30,000 positions, where rank matters in getting admitted to better colleges/courses. Also, when it comes to the latter 30,000 ranks, girls seem to steal the show from the boys. However, by then, the chances of completing the course successfully recede considerably. Not only do the colleges/courses become unattractive, but the levels of preparation needed for coping with the BTech curriculum/syllabi also go much higher. Though entrance tests themselves are, possibly, an offshoot of the system of categorical inequality, where opportunity hoarding and exploita- tion are the prime movers, the disadvantaged get automatically edged out of the rat race also by a host of debilitating circumstances ranging from rural schooling to scarce social/cultural capital. Academic Performance in Selected Engineering Colleges Though efforts were made to obtain BTech results of final year students from various engineering colleges, only two government engineering colleges — one urban and the other rural — provided the relevant data for five and three academic years respectively. Even here, data for SC/ST students alone could be obtained from 272 x Satish Deshpande

0.6 1.4 1.7 2.6 2.8 % 11.4 Total 32 70 169 263 Total 1140 1,674 % 34 26 43 49 46 45 Female

2010 66 18 72 % 128 523 752 Male 11 74 57 51 54 55 Female 21 52 97 135 617 922 Male

% 0.5 1.1 2.1 2.3 7.9 13.9 Total 27 55 209 233 Total 4186 4,710

% 41 33 42 54 60 59 Female 2009 11 18 88 126 2534 2,777 Female

% 59 67 58 46 40 41 Male 16 37 121 107 Male 1652 1,933 BTech Entrance Ranks and Male/Female Percentage of SC/ST Candidates in Kerala 2009–10

Kerala State Entrance Commission. Government of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram.

: 1 to 5000 5,001 to 10,000 10,001 to 20,000 20,001 to 30,000 30,001 to 60,000 Table 9.2: 1 2 3 4 5 Source Confronting Social Exclusion x 273 the rural college, while the urban college gave details for five years including degree results and placement details of both reserved and non-reserved category students. Final Year BTech Results of SC/ST Students in Selected Engineering Colleges Though several colleges were requested to provide the final year BTech results of SC/ST as well as mainstream community students to CREST, only two colleges gave them. The following table summarises the results obtained from the two colleges — for five years (from 2005–9) from the urban college and for 3 years (from 2007 to 2009) from the rural college. The table reveals two clear trends: first, the unambiguous gap between the success rates of mainstream community students’ vis-à-vis that of the reserved category students and second, the drastic differences in the success rates of SC/ST students themselves in the urban and the rural colleges. The latter trend is equally serious since the institutional practices as well as the quality of teaching in the rural college, among other factors, contribute to such abysmally poor results. The FGD reviews detailed in the foregoing pages have shown how the pedagogy, curriculum and academic practices of the better organised urban college remained tilted in favour of the mainstream students. The lack of social and cultural capital of the reserved category students adds to this overall exclusionary scenario and as such the Table 9.1 graphically brings out the appalling performance of these hapless students. From the table it is clear that during the five years (2005–9), only 25.7 per cent of SC students in the urban engineering college passed the final BTech examinations and just 11.8 per cent secured placement from the college. Equally significant, only one ST student out of 5 (20 per cent) passed from that college during 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. None (0 per cent) of the ST students obtained placement during this time. Meanwhile, 87.9 per cent of the non- reserved category students had passed the course and 50.5 per cent among them had obtained placement. The success rate of SC/ST students is abysmally poor in the rural college, where only 10 per cent of the SC candidates and none of the ST candidates passed the BTech final examinations during 2007, 2008 and 2009. All this goes a long way in confirming the severe exclusionary tendencies in engineering colleges of Kerala. 274 x Satish Deshpande – – 0 0 0 0 of Percentage Placements ST

– – 0 0 0 0 of Pass Percentage – – 2 1 1 0 No – – 0 0 0 0 of Percentage Placements SC

– – 4 1 1 2 Rural Government Engineering College (10%) No and (5.88%) (6.66%) (18.2%) of Passed Percentage – – 9 40 15 16 No

av.50.5 of (%) 36.24 54.48 54.08 63.1 44.75 Placement

(%) av.87.9 Passed 77.18 95.86 91.19 93.1 82.52 General 0 0 0 0 0 0 No and Placements Percentage of

1 0 0 1 0 0 (20%) ST No and (100%) of Passed Percentage 5 2 2 1 0 0 No

9 1 0 2 3 3 of Urban Government Engineering College (20%) (6.6%) (11.8%) (16.6%) (14.2%) Percentage Placements

3 4 5 7 19 Nil (0%) (20%) of Pass No and (25.7%) (36.8%) (33.33%) (33.33%) Percentage Performance of SC/ST Students Enrolled for BTech Degree Courses

76 15 15 12 15 19 No Total 2009 2008 Table 9.3: Year 2007 2006 2005 Confronting Social Exclusion x 275

Parents/Students’ Perspectives on Entry Barriers A recent study reported that the following factors remained significant in Kerala as far as entry into professional courses was concerned. They included: private/parental cost of higher education, education and occupation of parents, school quality (reflected by location, type of school, medium of instruction, and syllabi) and percentage of marks at the SSLC and +2 levels, support from parents/teachers, motivation and intensity of preparation, community and location — all of which either helped or hindered entry into professional education. When asked to report which factors acted as barriers, unsuc- cessful students listed the following: lack of hard work (45 per cent), quality of entrance coaching (21 per cent), and poverty (9 per cent). Successful students said that the following factors were crucial for entry: hard work (35 per cent), quality of coaching (19 per cent), finance (13 per cent), and quality of school (12.5 per cent). Meanwhile, for the parents of failed candidates the main barrier was lack of motivation/hard work (45 per cent). Table 9.4 gives a detailed picture of the contrasting views of the parents and students on the one hand and the differing assessments of the winners and losers on the other. However, one could discern some amount of consensus among all concerned in that systematic and motivated preparation and quality of coaching/schooling went a long way in assuring entry into professional college (Salim 2008). The foregoing discussion outlines how deficits in social/cultural capital as well as other socio-economic factors have gone a long way in reproducing poor access/performance of SC/ST students in the engineering colleges of Kerala. The 1990s saw the deepening of these exclusionary trends. Thus, very few disadvantaged students scored well in entrance tests, still fewer got admitted to good courses/colleges and only a minuscule number, finally, graduated as engineers. The arrival of student-financed engineering colleges at the turn of the new millennium along with sharp increases in parental costs for entrance coaching tilted the scales irrevocably against the candidates from the reserved category in the state. Section III Towards Viable Options: Assessing CREST Experience Recent studies point out how new and urgent interventions at various levels are indispensable to enable excluded communities gain 276 x Satish Deshpande 7 7 6 6 3 63 13 11 10 IV 9 9 7 9 90 10 11 23 12 III 5 7 7 8 II 22 21 12 20 102 Order of Importance Non-Surmounted the Barriers 2 2 8 I 13 20 11 12 36 104 8 4 9 3 76 15 13 14 10 IV ents 5 7 16 17 21 13 12 12 III 103 8 II 21 13 27 19 11 16 28 143 Order of Importance Non-Surmounted the Barriers 8 8 7 I 11 35 10 10 74 163 Factors Causing Entry Barriers as Identifed by the Parents/Stud

Others include absence of adequate number of institutions, non-availability of educational loans and incentives, high level of fees including capitation fees, absence of father from house, etc.

: Note All Others* Community and Social Background School Education Entrance Coaching Encouragement Reservation Economic Background Table 9.4: Factors Intensity of Effort Confronting Social Exclusion x 277 genuine access to higher education/upward social mobility. It has also been widely recognised that quality schooling fine-tuned to address their deficits should be provided to disadvantaged students. Unfortunately, the engineering institutes in India have seldom attempted to conceive/provide relevant support programmes to both BTech entry/senior students from reserved category to help them catch up with their peers in their study as well as work spaces. All the same, it will be presumptuous to claim that even the most carefully formulated/designed support programmes can entirely bridge the gaps between the performance level of SC/ST students and that of their peers from dominant communities. In other words, new initiatives and movements have to arise so that there is a discernible boost in the economic, social and cultural capital of the disadvantaged. As Vasavi points out, ultimately the challenge remains as to how the disadvantaged can craft identities and personhoods which will draw on their own defiance of inequality, retain the strength and advantages of their own culture and mould this with the ideals of modernity so as to generate a culture that is oppositional to caste system (2004). CREST’s vision is expressed as follows: to move towards new horizons of creating a just, equitable and caring society through empowerment of the marginalised and underprivileged sections based on the principles of humanism, equality and social justice. The Centre also works with the following mission: to facilitate the marginalised and the underprivileged to gain confidence, build competence and achieve excellence in all spheres of human endeavour, for their social, cultural and economic development through education, training, and research and consulting. Its specific objectives included helping SC/ST candidates to compete in the open market for admission, jobs in institutions/organisations of repute as well as assisting them to compete as research and development scholars. It also provides training to improve the competence of members of scheduled communities while working in the organised sector. Kerala’s post-independence decades witnessed the state govern- ments introducing a series of reforms whereby changes in land relations along with expansion of education, healthcare, labour wel- fare, and public distribution led to ushering in an era of progressive and democratic transformation. Equity, justice and care were the hallmark of these processes whereby the excluded communities in the outliers were gradually incorporated into the wider network of 278 x D. D. Nampoothiri social development. However, the economic reforms since 1990s marked a sharp turning point in the destinies of the marginalised with deepening commercialisation engulfing education, healthcare and other arenas of collective living. The new social inequalities ranged from growing disparities in consumption among SC/ST communities vis-à-vis others to the coming of age of a persistent caste gap in schooling and higher education. Today, self-financing professional colleges have come to flourish in Kerala, with 82 per cent of engineering seats in the unaided sector. Affordability and accessibility are no longer bywords of educational development. The discussion in the foregoing pages attempted to delve into the persistent inequalities that have turned many a Dalit and Adivasi engineering student into loners and misfits in the flourishing market-savvy campuses of today. Very often they either fail or lag behind with a heavy baggage of back papers. Those few who pass the course, again, lack important social and managerial skills which alone can catapult them into high-end jobs especially in the corporate sector. Since the engineering college faculty is, often, neither equipped nor very keen to address the specific educational/professional needs of these disadvantaged candidates, it is essential that new and innovative programmes are launched for empowering and enhancing their knowledge and skills. The inability of many Dalit/Adivasi students to enroll into as well as successfully complete the BTech course in four years is now attracting wide public attention in the country. Corporate agencies such as Infosys also have come up with new training and skill- enhancing programmes for the candidates hailing from disadvantaged communities so that they are enabled to perform well in various organisations, though an in-depth evaluation of these programmes is yet to be made. In this section, the pedagogy and curricula of training/ support programs launched by CREST to enhance the learning and employment potentials of the reserved category students will be detailed. Efforts also will be made to critically evaluate both their pedagogic consequences as well as transformative impact on the trainees. Social Skill Model and Management of Social Relationships The CREST endeavour was, primarily, to launch a holistic and multi- dimensional training programme which imaginatively drew in from Confronting Social Exclusion x 279 humanities, managerial and behavioural sciences, Information Tech- nology as well as social sciences. The modules of the five-month professional development course were designed to provide social/ learning skills to enable the students to succeed especially in competitive environments. Many sequences of interaction are apparently rule-following, since they seem so predictable in their formats. Thus greetings, farewells, structures of conversation in terms of adjacent pairs of terms such as question–answer, complaint–commiseration, statement–agreement/disagreement are sequences that cause no trouble whatsoever for candidates hailing from mainstream communities. However, for the shy candidates from disadvantaged communities, these elements are no more automated than swim- ming in the pool for a non-swimmer. Failure to perform such low- order skills clearly impedes the development of high-order ones such as group discussions, winning arguments, making friends, and so on. Training in social skills is based on action-training that enhances self management and self actualisation so that clients can use their improved skills in real life situations of work in larger organisations. Two things are crucial here: first, an awareness of the common, usually, unnoticed sequences of interaction and second, some feedback about where their behaviour omits or distorts such sequences (Judy Gahagan 1984). For the former, we record sequences of interaction on film, through digital cameras. The students then benefit from viewing this material and introspecting self-reflexively. Seeing is much more effective than oral communication. Much was gained through refining a series of pedagogic strategies and tools including the use of theatre which went a long way in enhancing the critical understanding of the self. With faculty support, it seems that candidates could plan a programme of change, the goals of which included the following: enhancing one’s capacity to act autonomously and as individuals rather than collectively, asserting oneself rather than being submissive, expressing one’s feelings openly instead of hiding them, and so on. The modules on Self Enrichment, Communication Skills, Analytical and Quantitative Skills, IT Skills, and Entrepreneurship Skills were thus fine-tuned to prepare the candidates to face all contingencies from appearing for competitive tests, interviews, group discussions, etc., to achieve of managerial and leadership skills in order to obtain high-end jobs in private/public sectors, and to introspect oneself. 280 x D. D. Nampoothiri

The Communication Skills module comprised four segments, viz., skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. This module aimed to impart skills to understand spoken English, to improve the ability of students to listen for specific information and details. The module covered a wide range of exercises for improving these skills. Through developing their narrating skills and sharing their experiences, students were trained to speak clearly during academic debates, etc. They were sensitised to techniques of intonation, stress and rhythm to increase their confidence in public speaking and academic discussions. Also, students were trained to develop fluency and accuracy in reading and were exposed to different uses of formal and informal writing. The Self-Enrichment module covered segments which included SWOT analysis (a self-reflexive exercise through which one’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats are docu- mented), Goal Setting and Motivation, Time Management, Effect- ive Public Speaking, Body Language, Leadership and Creativity, and Team work. Through small group discussions, presentations and questionnaires, SWOT analysis enables the students to have a thorough analysis of their personal strengths and weaknesses. It aimed to sharpen their self-awareness and promote introspection. Goal Setting and Motivation helped the students to identify their long- and short-term personal, professional and academic goals. Time Management helped them manage personal and social activities and commitments efficiently. Public Speaking exercises, through presentations, discussions, mock speeches and videos, improved the students’ self-confidence and helped them overcome ‘stage fright’ and nervousness. They were trained to speak clearly before an audience to give effective presentations. The Body Language ses- sions helped the students to have a deeper introspection on the efficiency with which they deploy their bodies for communication. Appropriate observations and corrections were made through role- plays and presentations so that the students could present themselves effectively in peer and academic groups and further develop their social and learning skills. In Leadership and Creativity ses- sions, students were given opportunities to explore their own creativity which brought forth their leadership qualities. Through presentations, handouts, situational and reflexive learning, students could gain knowledge to lead themselves and others effectively. Teamwork through group dynamics taught them to be a ‘team Confronting Social Exclusion x 281 player’ with the skill of delegation and group organisation. Students worked in teams and took part in presentations and activities which taught them to be good team members. The modules on Analytical and Quantitative Skills provided the students varied skills in problem solving and logical reasoning. Requisite Information Technology and Entrepreneur Skills were also imparted on them as part of the five-month-course. Students were also trained to collect life histories of senior citizens from their communities which helped them to imbibe a deep sensitivity to the trials and tribulations as well as the struggles the older generations undertook in colonial and postcolonial Kerala. The self actualisation module also consisted of special lectures by scholars, viewing of documentary films such as Stalin K. India Untouched as well as discussions on caste inequalities. CREST Processes: Negatives and Positives CREST was conceived by the Government of Kerala and the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode (IIMK) in the backdrop of the new global scenario with which India is integrating, the debates on affirmative action, and the need to enhance professional development of graduates from SCs and STs to seek new/emerging opportunities. At the very outset, it must be made clear that CREST programmes are not to be viewed as a substitute for genuine socio-political, cultural and economic interventions by state as well as civil society, whereby a level-playing ground is created for Dalit/Adivasi communities for accessing quality education in the country. The glaring deficits in social and cultural capital observed among the candidates from scheduled communities brought out by CREST studies point to the importance of imaginatively designed developmental support programmes to empower them to become competitive players in the college and outside. CREST’s recent experience in training SC/ST BTech students outside the state (for instance, in IITs at Delhi and Bombay) shows that such programmes are relevant and fruitful even in elite national institutes since they address the felt needs of the students there. However, what is crucial is that the engineering institutes in Kerala and outside should themselves provide their students such self-enrichment programmes. While CREST programmes for BTech entry students are successful in initially motivating and providing the requird skills, relevant follow-up 282 x D. D. Nampoothiri measures have to be undertaken by the institutes so that continuous monitoring, mentoring and counselling are made available to these students. Another difficulty experienced at CREST is the enormous complexity of the interventional work that has to cater to students from varied academic backgrounds as well as to deal with at least a section of students who face serious problems in transforming themselves into skilled and self-confident players. On rare occasions, services of specialist counsellors had to be availed because these students came from extremely poor and disorganised family and community backgrounds. Early education in mother tongue creates barriers for mastering English communication skills. As such, a one-to-one approach becomes essential for building such skills and the presence of international interns at CREST helps considerably. CREST has set up a knowledge/tool bank for imparting English skills borrowing liberally from national/international sources; it also uses state-of-the-art digital tools/methods for effective learning and competence building. It has been very hard to get the candidates to involve themselves in creative spaces since they could not adequately express themselves earlier. Through fine-tuned programmes, our faculty could also expose the candidates to high-tech industry standards. Faculty from IIMK also occasionally conducted workshops or delivered special lectures at CREST. One of the crucial limitations of the CREST programmes has been their short ‘durations’, and several CREST alumni had suggested that the five-month-programme should be extended by at least one more month. In a similar vein, the participants of the orientation workshops for BTech entry students have also demanded extension of their programmes. All this goes a long way to show that the CREST courses and workshops are indeed relevant and they meet the felt needs of both entry students and BTech graduates. Concluding Observations It seems the modalities in which marginalisation/exclusion of scheduled communities in the engineering education arena has been taking place have escaped systematic analysis till date. Drawing in from recent work and data collected afresh, the present paper attempts to bring to light the dismal side of Kerala’s educational experience. Amartya Sen, though highly appreciative of what Kerala has done in the field of education and what it has achieved in social, Confronting Social Exclusion x 283 economic and political fields through its remarkable educational departures, has pointed out that ‘Kerala’s educational experience has serious enough problems, which have to be investigated and addressed’ (Sen 2001). While detailed studies have recently reviewed the complex educational scenario in arts and science colleges of the state (for instance, Praveena 2010), similar attempts are yet to be made in the case of engineering education. The present paper, due to time constraints as well as the enormous difficulty in accessing vital information such as pass percentages of reserved category students, has limited itself to examining the obstacles, deficits and problems SC/ST students face while entering and pursuing BTech programmes in Kerala’s engineering colleges. For instance, crucial issues such as the nature of the college admin- istration and management, the differing approaches and practices in government, aided and unaided engineering colleges, gender issues, etc., have not been examined thoroughly, though references to them might appear incidentally in the text. However, the CREST studies point out that a lot could be achieved in the engineering colleges in Kerala by introducing well-designed developmental support programmes to disadvantaged candidates. From entrance tests to the successful completion of the BTech programme, the academic careers of these students are marred by hassles, roadblocks and failures of all kinds. Though the SC/ST population forms 11 per cent of Kerala society, only 102 (1 per cent) candidates were found among the first 10,000 BTech entrance rank holders in the 2010 Kerala state rank list. The available information shows that only a minuscule section successfully completes the course in four years. The wide-ranging and enormous transformations ushered in Kerala’s engineering education during the last two decades highlight the severe challenges that confront most SC/ST students in the campus. Burdened with deficits in social and cultural capital, a majority of them find that they are facing heavy odds in successfully completing the course within the stipulated four years. The studies detailed in the foregoing sections point out how the poor educational outcomes of SC/ST students in engineering education are a byproduct of their continued social exclusion in the larger society starting with school education. The arrival of several private and government self-financing engineering colleges without adequate faculty and other resources has had deleterious effect on the wellbeing of engineering education in the state. Interestingly, 284 x D. D. Nampoothiri these institutions admit many SC/ST students irrespective of their entrance ranks since the state government has been subsidising all their expenses including fee, hostel charges, etc. This completes the vicious circle which ends up with Dalit/Adivasi students, almost always, getting admitted to low-quality institutions with evident mercenary inclinations. Finally, it seems possible to argue that a situation akin to ‘durable inequality’ à la Charles Tilly (1998) seems to have emerged in Kerala social ensemble especially during the last two decades. It has been pointed out that affirmative policies in US, for instance, were relatively more effective because they involved greater sensitivity of admission procedures and greater developmental support for the beneficiaries (Weisskopf 2004: 245). What is particularly striking in the Indian instance is the widespread institutional indifference and insensitivity to the plight of reserved category students since most engineering institutes seem to be elitist in their orientation. Thus in Kerala also, well-designed developmental support programmes for SC/ST BTech students are conspicuous by their absence. Meanwhile studies show that the social composition of the IT workforce in India is, by and large, urban middle class and high/middle caste (Upadhya 2007: 1863). In other words, SC/ST engineers/graduates are seldom employed in this crucial sector which, among other things, shows that they lacked the cutting- edge skills these organisations require. The fact that several CREST alumni now work in the IT sector in most Indian metros, that too with multinational agencies, is revealing enough. In this connection, it is possible to show that the deep forms of inadequacy and hesitation found among the SC/ST BTech students/graduates can be addressed by fine-tuned educational processes/programmes that are informed by ‘social transformative learning’. All this raises a pertinent question. Are the constitutional, moral and social responsibilities of the authorities overseeing the engineering colleges in Kerala limited to providing BTech admission to SC/ST aspirants? In other words, it is important to note that much more can be offered to these hapless boys and girls who enter the portals of engineering education with lots of hope for a bright career. CREST experiences in conducting relevant interventions for knowledge and skill enhancement among SC/ST BTech students have clearly shown that urgent policy-level discussions are needed both in Kerala and rest of India to chalk out holistic skill-enhancement programmes for these Confronting Social Exclusion x 285 disadvantaged students as well as to improve the quality of engineering education in the country. Also, it may be argued that the ‘reforms’ in professional higher education indicated by the CREST programmes are crucial both from historical and existential perspectives in confronting the exclusionary tendencies implicit in today’s neo-liberal scenario. However, to obtain utmost efficiency, conduct of such programmes should be preceded by expanding access of these disadvantaged candidates to quality education in primary and secondary schools, which alone can, in the long run, assure them equity with peer communities in India’s Professional Higher Education.

v Note * I am extremely grateful to Dr. Satish Deshpande and Dr. Usha Zacharias for their detailed critical comments and suggestions which helped me to revise the paper in a substantial way. I also thank Dr A. R.Vasavi for her helpful remarks; my colleagues Prof. Ashley Paul, Vinod Krishnan and Nirmal Joy for conducting various Focus Group Discussions and collecting other relevant data; and Charles Varghese, Research Scholar, Kerala University for conducting FGDs among engineering students.

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