NCSC Report : Problems Faced by Scheduled Caste Students in Obtaining Scholarships - 2016
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NCSC Report : Problems faced by Scheduled Caste students in obtaining Scholarships - 2016 GOVERNMENT OF INDIA NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR SCHEDULED CASTES 5th Floor, Loknayak Bhawan, Khan Market, New Delhi 110 003 Telefax: 011-2463 2298, Website: www.ncsc.nic.in NCSC Report : Problems faced by Scheduled Caste students in obtaining Scholarships - 2016 Index S. No. Contents Name Page No. 1 Foreword i 2 Introduction 1 3 Education indices of Scheduled Castes 2 4 Why the Study 4 5 Role of Central & State Governments 5 6 Budgetary and beneficiary data 6 7 System of release of scholarships in 8 States 8 Findings 21 9 Outcome of the cases taken up by NCSC 27 10 Recommendations 27 11 Annexure-I 32 12 Annexure-II 90 NCSC Report : Problems faced by Scheduled Caste students in obtaining Scholarships - 2016 Foreword Education is the main tool for the development of the society especially for the children of the Scheduled Castes who also suffer from educational and social backwardness arising out of age-old practice of untouchability and social isolation. The commitment of our country to the education of SC/ST children is laid down in Articles 15(4), 45 and 46 of the Indian Constitution. Since independence several strategies have been formulated for sustainable educational development and many programmes and schemes have been implemented with a view to bridge the educational backwardness of Scheduled Castes and others. This Commission and its 12 State Offices have been receiving a large number of grievances regarding non-payment of tuition fee & post matric scholarships to the Scheduled Caste students. While the Commission has taken up all such cases with the concerned departments of the State Governments and Union Territories, we decided to conduct a comprehensive study of all such cases so that the problems are clearly identified and recommendations can be made for their resolution. It was seen that either the scholarships are not received or received very late by the students, the students had to initially deposit the fees and then wait for reimbursement, which was either delayed or not received at all. Differences in the fee reimbursed and fee actually paid by the students, lead to the students being burdened by the differential amounts. There are problems associated by the online systems of scholarship disbursements. We have given detailed recommendations on these aspects and also indicated best practices of some State Governments. Ms. Sandhya Gaur and Ms Sangeeta Jhakar, interns at NCSC, worked with the NCSC Secretariat on the compiling of the voluminous data and finalizing of this report. P.L Punia Chairman National Commission of Scheduled Castes i NCSC Report : Problems faced by Scheduled Caste students in obtaining Scholarships - 2016 NCSC Report : Problems faced by Scheduled Caste students in obtaining Scholarships - 2016 1. Introduction Education is the main tool for the development of the society and the children belonging to Scheduled Caste & Scheduled Tribe Community have been historically excluded from formal education – the former due to their oppression under caste feudal society and the latter due to their spatial isolation and cultural difference between and subsequent marginalization by dominant society. The framers of our Constitution took note of the fact that certain castes in the country were suffering from educational as well as social backwardness arising out of age-old practice of untouchability and social isolation. Education is a must for their overall empowerment including economic upliftment. The commitment to the education of SC/ST children is laid down in Articles 15(4) 45 and 46 of the Indian Constitution. Article 15(4) underscores the State’s basic commitment to positive discrimination in favour of the socially and educationally backward classes and/or the SC and ST. Article 45 declares the State’s endeavour to provide free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of 14 years. Article 46 expresses the specific aim to promote with special care the educational and economic interests of SC/ST. In its effort to offset educational and socio-historical disadvantage, the Indian State conceived a range of enabling provisions that would facilitate access to and ensure retention of SC and ST children in school. The focus was on making available basic educational facilities such as schools especially in remote areas and providing scholarships for a society that had lives for a millennium by a value system based on division and hierarchy. Since independence several strategies have been formulated for sustainable educational development and many programmes and schemes have been implemented with a view to bridge the educational backwardness of Scheduled Castes and others. 1 NCSC Report : Problems faced by Scheduled Caste students in obtaining Scholarships - 2016 2. Education indices1 of Scheduled Castes: While the literacy rate of Scheduled Castes has risen from 54.70 to 66.102 it is still low when compared to that of the total population, which has risen from 64.8 to 73 between 2001 to 2011. The literacy rate of Scheduled Caste Women is even lower. The empowerment of the scheduled castes through education seems to have so far not resulted in any significant change since the gap has remained almost constant. This is shown in the graph below: Graph 1 Literacy rate among persons of age 5 years and above for different social groups Literacy rate among persons of age 5 years and above for different social groups 61st round (2004-05) 66th round (2009-10) 68th round (2011-12) 821 832 780 716 728 728 741 674 663 631 648 654 645 573 524 ST SC OBC others all (incl. n.r.) Further, as per the NSSO data, there is a substantial reduction in the proportion of scheduled caste population opting for diploma certificates between 1999-2000 and 2011-12 as the number 1 Source: NSSO 61,66,68 round 2 Census 2011 data 2 NCSC Report : Problems faced by Scheduled Caste students in obtaining Scholarships - 2016 corresponding to this has reduced by 75% in the concerned period (29/1000 to 7/1000). Also, the number of SC graduates and above(per 1000 SC population) have also seen a decline between 2009-10 and 2011-12 (54/1000 to 37/1000). With such a low proportion of Scheduled Caste graduates and diploma holders, the rise of the Scheduled Castes to a higher Socio –economic level in the society does not appear feasible as access to the higher and better paying jobs to majority of the SC population will not be possible. The details are shown below3 : Graph 2 Per 1000 Scheduled Caste person by level of education(2011-12) Per 1000 Scheduled Caste person by level of education (2011-12) 390 232 164 108 61 37 7 Non-literate Literate upto Middle Secondary Higher Diploma Graduate & primary Secondary Certificate above The above graph clearly shows that the proportion of scheduled caste population graduating with professional degrees or higher academic qualifications that provides them opportunity to increase their socio-economic level is very low. Therefore, one may argue that • there is very small stable well educated / professionally qualified layer in the scheduled caste population; • the large percentage of SC population is either illiterate ( 390 out of every 1000 SC) or primary level literate ( 232 out of every 1000 SC). Hence more than 50 5 of the SC population can have access to only the most menial and low paid jobs. 3 Source: NSSO 68th Round 3 NCSC Report : Problems faced by Scheduled Caste students in obtaining Scholarships - 2016 • Only 44 out of every 1000 SC can have access to the skilled and comparative higher paying jobs as they have either degrees or diplomas. 3. Why the study This Commission and its 12 State offices have been receiving a large number of grievances regarding non-payment of tuition fee & post matric scholarships to the Scheduled Caste students. The Commission and its State Offices has taken up all such cases with the concerned departments of the State Governments and Union Territories. The details of the number of complaints received in the Commission are given at Annexure - 1. It was seen that either the scholarships are not received or received very late by the students. The students had to initially deposit the fees and then wait for reimbursement, which was either delayed or not received at all. The Commission noted the high number of such cases and decided to conduct a comprehensive study of all 551such cases in the Commission so that the problems are clearly identified and detailed recommendations can be made to the Governments so that SC students do not suffer. 4 NCSC Report : Problems faced by Scheduled Caste students in obtaining Scholarships - 2016 3.1 State/UT wise details of the studied cases of Scholarship dealt in the NCSC. S.No. State State Head Total Number of affected Office Quarters Students 1. Andhra Pradesh Nil Nil Nil Nil 2. Assam 2 - 2 5 3. Bihar 16 2 18 220 4. Chhattisgarh - 1 1 1 5. Delhi - 25 25 84 6. Gujarat 6 2 8 8 7. Haryana - 12 12 13 8. Jharkhand 4 1 5 5 9. Karnataka - 2 2 2 10. Kerala 6 - 6 8 11. Maharashtra - 3 3 3 12. Madhya Pradesh 1 1 1 13. Odisha 2 - 2 2 14. Punjab 11 - 11 11 15. Rajasthan 2 3 5 5 16. Tamil Nadu 6 2 8 551 17. Telangana Nil Nil Nil - 18. Tripura 3 - 3 1646 19 Uttarakhand - 1 1 - 20. West Bengal 12 - 12 39 21. Uttar Pradesh 274 152 426 15015 Grand Total 344 207 551 17619 4. Role of Central and State Governments The Government has taken up a number of measures to improve educational status in the country like Right To Education Act, 2009, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Institutions like University Grant Commission (UGC), NCERT and CBSE have been constituted to take measures to promote the education of the Scheduled Caste students .