Education of Formerly Bonded Children and Youth An Exploration of the Arunthathiyar Caste in Southern India André Celeti Department of Education - Faculty of Educational Sciences UNIVERSITY OF OSLO April 2015 ii Education of Formerly Bonded Children and Youth: An Exploration of the Arunthathiyar Caste in Southern India iii © André Celeti 2015 Education of Formerly Bonded Children and Youth: An Exploration of the Arunthathiyar Caste in Southern India http://www.duo.uio.no/ Print: Universitetet i Oslo iv Abstract This thesis engages with the issue of debt bondage and analyses the role education can have in integrating formerly bonded child labourers into society. By exploring a particular scheduled caste prone to debt bondage in Tamil Nadu, a state of southern India, the thesis highlights the potentials and limitations education can have for those who are released from debt bondage. During a two-month fieldwork period, in addition to village visits, observations, informal conversations and visits with government officials, qualitative interviews were held with staff from a local grass-root organization and formerly bonded child labourers who mostly attended colleges. The key findings that emerged pinpoint the way debt bondage is tied to a broader social system that reproduces itself by maintaining the Arunthathiyar within a low social-cultural position by, amongst other things, undercutting their education. The findings also highlight the role education can have in integrating formerly bonded labourers, by assisting them to gradually move out of their low caste position. This includes changing their mentalities, teaching them the official state language and providing skills to engage in the broader labour market. v vi Acknowledgements The undertaking of this thesis and its completion has only been possible thanks to a number of people. I am extremely grateful to my colleagues and friends at CIE for all their support, feedback and companionship. I am also truly indebted to all those who helped with my stay and fieldwork in India. Special thanks are due in particular to Gladstone for facilitating my stay, Shaun O’Brien and Frank Dan for their relentless work as translators and Reynolds for his kind hospitality. I cannot but express my gratitude to and admiration for the Rural Women’s Development Trust and its founder for the work they do with the formerly bonded labourers and for having opened their doors to me. Above all, I am truly grateful for the support, critiques and insightful feedbacks provided by my co-supervisor Kees van den Bosch and my supervisor, professor Lene Buchert who has, in addition, motivated me to strive for my best at all times. Lastly, I am thankful for my family’s support and patience with me over the past years, to my girlfriend during the final stretch and to God who sustains through successes and failures and is invested in the cause of justice for the vulnerable. vii viii Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... vii Table of Contents .......................................................................................................... ix List of Abbreviations .................................................................................................... xii List of Figures, Maps and Tables ................................................................................ xiii 1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 1.1 The Reality of Debt Bondage ........................................................................... 1 1.2 Rationale ........................................................................................................... 2 1.3 Overall Research Purpose ................................................................................. 5 1.4 Conceptual Clarifications ................................................................................. 6 1.4.1 Bonded Child Labour .................................................................................. 6 1.4.2 Definition of Scheduled Caste .................................................................... 6 1.5 Specific Research Questions ............................................................................ 8 1.6 Outline of the Thesis......................................................................................... 8 2 Situating Bondage and Education in Rural South India ........................................ 10 2.1 Transformation of Rural Tamil Nadu and New Forms of Bondage .............. 10 2.1.1 The Arunthathiyar in Western Tamil Nadu .............................................. 12 2.2 Increasing Educational Opportunities for Rural Scheduled Castes ................ 18 2.2.1 Education for Scheduled Castes ............................................................... 19 2.2.2 Education for Scheduled Castes in Tamil Nadu ....................................... 22 2.3 Limitations to Increased Participation ............................................................ 23 2.4 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 25 3 Research Design and Methods ............................................................................... 26 3.1 Understanding Social Reality ......................................................................... 26 ix 3.2 Research Strategy ........................................................................................... 27 3.3 Sampling Strategy........................................................................................... 27 3.3.1 Research Site ............................................................................................. 28 3.3.2 Selected Case Study Organization ............................................................ 30 3.3.3 Participant Selection ................................................................................. 31 3.4 Data Collection and Analysis ......................................................................... 34 3.4.1 Data Collection ......................................................................................... 34 3.4.2 The Process of Transcribing and Coding .................................................. 36 3.4.3 Data Analysis ............................................................................................ 36 3.5 Reliability and Validity .................................................................................. 38 3.6 Limitations ...................................................................................................... 40 3.7 Ethical Considerations .................................................................................... 41 4 Analytical Framework: Structuration Theory ........................................................ 42 4.1.1 Unpacking Structuration: Understanding Social Reproduction ................ 42 4.1.2 The Relevance of Structuration Theory for the Thesis ............................ 44 5 Community Conditions: Bondage and Educational Deprivation ........................... 46 5.1 Views on Debt Bondage in the Community ................................................... 46 5.2 Social Positioning: Resources, Meaning and Bondage ................................. 48 5.2.1 Accessing Resources at the Expense of Education ................................... 48 5.2.2 Accepting Resources at the Expense of Education ................................... 51 5.3 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 54 6 The Role of the Ngo: Mediating Resources and Opportunities for Education ...... 55 6.1 The NGO’s Perceptions of Government Limitations ..................................... 55 6.2 The NGO’s Post Bondage Strategy: Sustaining Education ........................... 59 6.3 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 63 7 Breaking Bondage through Education ................................................................... 64 7.1 Educating for Changed Social Positioning ..................................................... 64 x 7.2 Being Educated: Transforming Engagement .................................................. 67 7.2.1 Framing for Engagement in the World ..................................................... 67 7.2.2 Enabling Engagement in the World .......................................................... 68 7.2.3 Legitimizing Engagement in the World .................................................... 71 7.3 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 75 8 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 77 8.1 Structuration: Dependency at the Cost of Education ...................................... 78 8.2 Education and Structural Changes .................................................................. 79 8.3 Change as Potential or Real? .......................................................................... 81 References .................................................................................................................... 83 Annex I: Interview Guides ..........................................................................................