Beyond Access and Inclusion: Dalit Experiences of Participation in Higher Education in Rural Punjab

Abstract

Keeping constitutional egalitarianism and social justice as primary goals, Indian state has emphasized on making education more inclusive by improving accessibility of socially marginalized sections. When the exclusion has multi-prone dimensions with social, economic and cultural overlapping factors, the present study attempts to observe how much inclusion the process of formal accessibility has provided in a real sense. In this context, the article aims to interrogate the journey of higher education of Dalit in rural Punjab. On the basis of a case study of a government institute, an attempt is made to understand the challenges of Dalit students’ participation in higher education by looking at their day-to-day struggle in terms of social inclusion, financial constraints and sharing of institutional spaces. Based on the qualitative data, collected by semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions, the article primarily endeavours to explore what happens after reaching inside the walls of a higher education institute by looking inside processes such as classroom participation; peer interactions; and intersectionality of class, caste and gender. Underlining the significant role of caste in defining the educational experiences of Dalit students and hidden culture of silence in higher education, the findings underscore that emergence of class along caste lines, different face of patriarchy for Dalit females, inaccessibility of affirmative action with daily financial challenges, make the process of inclusion still a distant dream.

Casteism and Education: Institutional Experiences of Muslim Marginalised Students in the Higher Education Academia

“…The findings of the study further revealed that Muslim OBC students like Hajam, Turkham, Lohar, Tali, Kumar etc experience caste discrimination inside the classroom. Narwana and Gill (2020) argued that girl SCs struggle a lot to assert their honour and dignity as female, whereas upper caste girls socially inherit it. One should not assume that because discrimination is no longer overt, it has been eliminated.…”

“…One day she asked her mother why is she doing all this, her mother replied that '…we are Lohar (Ahanger) by caste and as such belong to the lower caste, people will never accept us and will never miss a chance to insult us and show us that we don't fit in the social taboos and criteria'. Narwana and Gill (2020) argued that female SCs struggle a lot to assert their honour and dignity, whereas upper caste girls socially inherit it. One should not assume that because discrimination is no longer overt, it has been eliminated.…”

Beyond Enrolment and Appropriation Politics in Dalit Girls’ Education: Caste and Patriarchy Among Scavenging Communities of Urban Haryana, India

“…In line with this, with an aim to improve inclusivity and to challenge the common beliefs around Dalit girls' education, recently, a growing body of literature highlighted several socio-economic barriers and stigmatized educational experiences of Dalit girls in the Indian education system (Anand & Yadav, 2006;Balagopalan & Subrahmanian, 2003;Bhagavatheeswaran et al, 2016;Jha & Jhingran, 2005;Kabeer, 2006;Kamat, 2008;Kaul, 2015;Majumdar, 2021;Morarji, 2014;Narwana & Gill, 2020;Pappu & Vasanta, 2010;Saxena et al, 2009;Shah, 2015;Subramanian, 2016;Vacha Kishori Project Team, 2016). Research illustrates how Dalit girls are victims of double discrimination, Dalit girls are not allowed to go to school due to early marriage practices, girls remain engaged in household chores and miss school, security issues, lack of economic resources, etc.…”

“…In between this blaming process, patriarchal structures are often considered a separate subject/variable (e.g., Narwana & Gill, 2020), thereby taking away the spotlight from the primary root cause (the intersection of caste and patriarchy) and its deep embedded networks within the socio-economic difficulties in Dalit girls' education. Such a common-sensical approach to Dalit girls' education conveniently detaches itself from the gendered experiences and the geopolitics of patriarchal and marginal histories that have shaped the educational experiences of Dalit girls today (Yunus, 2021).…”

“…The notions of 'double discrimination' are often interpreted in an either/or framework that locates the educational experiences of Dalit girls as a sole repercussion of upper-caste patriarchy only. For instance, while theorizing gender among Dalit girls' education in India, Yunus (2021), Arur and DeJaeghere (2019), and Narwana and Gill (2020) do not explicitly recognize and question the attacks by the internal Dalit patriarchy on Dalit girls' education and again fall into the vicious cycle of appropriation politics around abuse on SC women carried out by upper castes only.…”