The inaugural session of the seminar was held on 24th February 2017 at C.V Raman Auditorium, the University of Hyderabad which was chaired by the Prof. P Venkata Rao, Dean, School of Social Sciences, University of Hyderabad and welcome address was delivered by one of the top most distinguished Social Scientist Prof. Vasanti Srinivasan current Head of the Political Science Department University of Hyderabad. Prof. during her welcome address told that Students should always go beyond the Teachers.
Dr. Ramdas Rupavath an eminent Social Reformer and Tribal Studies expert working day and night for the upliftment of oppressed and disadvantaged ones in the Society who was also the Coordinator of this two day National Seminar throwed light on the scope of the seminar during the inaugural session in which the chief guest was Dr. V.N.V.K Sastry a Former Director of Tribal Cultural Research and Training Institute, Government of Andhra Pradesh. The coordinator of the two-day national seminar stresses and expressed his willingness of publishing the selected articles of all the participants in the Oxford University Press and Routledge which is making the two-day national seminar a distinct one. The keynote address was delivered by the Prof. Shanta Sinha (Padma Shree) and Former Chairperson National commission for Protection of Child Rights, New Delhi & the Former Head, Department of Political Science.
At the end of the inaugural Session Vote of thanks was given by Dr. Tapan Kumar Bihari who is working as Assistant Professor at the Central University of Jharkhand.
The Coordinator of the seminar said that more than 100 abstracts were received by the coordinator of the seminar and the seminar organizing committee had a tough time in selecting the most brilliant abstracts in which the selected participants were totally based on the strength and scope of their research topics.
A Total of 60 participants across the nation from Kashmir to Kanyakumari were selected on the basis of the strength of their strong abstracts that were concentrating the major and sub-themes of the National Seminar. The National Seminar which was multi-disciplinary in nature has attracted various sub-themes in addition to major themes that were focusing the Education and Political Perspectives in India.
The seminar proceedings were held at three Different Venues namely C.V Raman Auditorium, Seminar Hall and New Conference Hall of Political Science Department. Two parallel sessions were held continuously from 9 AM onwards to 5:30 in the evening which were chaired and Co-chaired by Distinguished Social Scientists and experts of the field. All the session were open for discussion, Debates, Interactions and Clarifications if any. The seminar consisted of thirteen parallel sessions exclusive of Inaugural, Panel Discussion and Valedictory session.
National Seminar on Education and Politics in India: A Perspective from Below organised by the Department of the Political Science, School of Social Science in collaboration with the ICSSR and University of Hyderabad organized the multi-disciplinary national seminar which covered various interesting themes of research interest. From the concept note of the seminar to the valedictory and certificate distribution sessions of the seminar, the two days national seminar was immensely useful on the issues pertaining to the Tribal issues, education and politics of tribals, New Education Policy, Socio-economic upliftment of the tribals communities particularly for the below were some of the main aspects of the seminar that were being focused during the seminar. From the understanding of the contemporary tribal societies which require the basic appreciation of the historical process and which were determined by the courses of successive languages at socio, cultural, economic, ideological and political life of the various tribes. Education is the backbone of the development not only of one particular community but it is the backbone of the developments happening in the society and it is the tool through which we can remove all the social evils and contradictions in the society.
Session I of the National Seminar Titled Education and Politics and in India: A Perspective from Below was chaired by Professor Arun Kumar Patnaik titled the theme ‘Tribal Education: Achievements and Challenges-I’ in which deliberations were held on the major and minor aspects of Educational Status of Tribal Women and Governmental Measures: A study of Mayurbhanj Districts of Odisha by the Participant namely Prachimadhumita Mohanty. The participants threw light on the various aspects and challenges that the common people in the district face from equality to education and to the representation of the underprivileged in various governmental and non-governmental sectors. The main reason behind the dropouts from the schools was discussed and reasons behind the school dropouts were discussed during the session. The quality of the education and the improvement of the quality of education among the tribal people were highlighted. The paper attempts to summarise some of the significant findings of the tribal studies in general and the tribal women of the Mayurbanj District in particular. The research paper had claimed that the total literacy rate of the Mayurbhanj district is 63.17 as compared to the State literacy rate of 73.45 as per the 2011 census. Focused areas were tribal education, challenges and the achievements made in the attainment of tribal education. The parallel session on the said theme was chaired by the Prof. Sudharshanam which highlighted and focused on the accesses of education by the tribal people, community participation and educational development of schedule tribe children and in addition to this the session thrown light on the educational backwardness of Muslim subjects in the state of Telangana: A case of Sudheer Commission report.
Lack of proper implementation of programmes and policies by the government in the tribal area of the study were the main cause of low-level tribal education. The researcher had highlighted that the poor level of the infrastructure and facilities in educational institutions is there. In addition to this ratio of the male teacher’s verses, female teachers in the Mayurbhanj district was very low as per the research. Also, the lack of community participation in educational programmes and low rate of enrolment and more dropouts among the tribal girls was another cause of concern in the mentioned district.
Session third titled Politics of Tribal education: Intervention of State and Non-state actors that was chaired by the Prof. I Rambrahaman focused and discussed the exclusion of tribal women rights in Andhra Pradesh, Universal Primary Education policies and perspectives of the new education Policy were discussed. During the parallel session which was chaired by Dr. Shaji highlighted on the issues of tribal education, the role of the state, civil society, missionaries role of governance, Right to education act were discussed.
In addition to this tribal education attainments and challenges- A study of Telangana State was also discussed by the Participant namely L. Reddapa (Associate Professor) who throwed light on the various tribal issues pertaining to tribal education and in which the participant highlighted on how the fulfilment of the country’s development objectives depends on the improvement of the income and livelihood of the people living in poverty. The participant stated that the proportion of such people is relatively high in the case of SCs and STs than that of the other social groups in the country and the focused areas were focusing the Dr. B.R Amedkar and democratisation of education in India. Other aspects were issues of educational governance in fifth schedule and education system for the tribes in India. The parallel session titled Social and cultural issues; atrocities on the tribe, tribal women, Gender inequality and education under the chair of Dr. K Y Ratnam was held.
Education among Tribals: A Far Fetched Reality discussed and highlighted the issues and challenges being faced in the implementing of the right to education. The research article focused on the issues that are making the right to free education by the children a hopeless in the proper implementation and the challenges and obstacles being faced in its implementation at the grass root level. Achievement of the literacy rate among the tribals requires emphasis on various factors which affect their daily livings. The goals can be perceived only when the policies are formulated and contemplating the local realities of the marginalised people and highlighted the issues like problems of tribal education, the education from the perspective of Adivasi’s, educational dropout from Telangana and Plans and Policies for the socio-economic development of the Schedule tribes in India.
The research paper titled Dalit’s Education in Kerala and the role of the Ayyankali presented by the Greeshma Greeshman and Godwin Fernandez throwed light on the issues being faced by the Dalit communities in the State of Kerala while coming at par with the other sections of the society. The downtrodden communities of the Kerala don’t have a written history. They have inherited an oral tradition of history. The authors were of the view that many of the works lack an academic research and historical consciousness.
Access to education, a study of the Educational status of the tribals in Odisha was presented by Dr. Geetanjali Dash before the audience in which the researcher highlighted the various issues being faced by the tribal people of the Odisha. It was disclosed by the researcher that there are about sixty-two types of tribes and has 22.81 percent tribal population which is one of the highest in the country. The mineral rich tribal areas of the Odisha have not taken care of the education or have not developed the educational infrastructure in the society up to a remarkable position. The high dropout rates among the tribal people in the state of the Odisha is also the cause of concern which according to the researcher needs to be addressed at the earliest. The dropout rate of the girls is higher than the boys as was claimed by the researcher. In the upper primary level of the school education, the dropout rate as claimed by the researcher was too high at 60.6 % for girl students as compared with the 44.4%. The right to education act can also be a huge opportunity for pushing an agenda of tribal across the State. Education should also be inclusive for the all-round development of a state.
Community Participation in School education in the Framework of the Decentralisation, a move towards local self-governance in the context of the Changing face of Indian schools and educational systematics within the framework of decentralisation of educational management has ever since emphasised the enhanced role of community in improving the school progress. The post-independence period has witnessed an altogether different phenomenon on the ground. With the virtual control of the primary education by the state, schools became totally alienated from the community they served. The community participation has been viewed as a vehicle for universalization of education and brings reforms in the school system. It also accounts experiences in various states with a shift a shift in educational governance.
India being a home of a various number of ethnic, caste and religious groups. This being a strength for the country and also possess a big challenge. Education is one tool that can only help in developing all the sections of the society. Indian constitution has provisions that enable the policy makers to ensure that the resources are redistributed and the weaker sections are taken care of by the state. Professional Education and the scheduled Tribes, a study of the two Indian states while studying would like to study the educational status of the Scheduled tribes at different levels like primary, secondary, and at higher educational level.
Educational backwardness of the Muslims in Telangana and the findings of the Sudheer Commission report presented by Dr. Mohammed Ghouse highlighted and throwed light on the various aspects related to the Muslim subjects of the Telangana State. As we already know that India is a land of many languages, religions, cultures and ethnic groups. Due to this distinct character, India is very often described as a multicultural society. Among the Various groups that exist in India Muslims constitute about 14.23 percent of the total Indian population as per the census studies of the India in 2011. The exclusion of the tribal women rights in Andhra Pradesh enlightens the scope of the forgotten tribal women rights in the state of the Andhra Pradesh. The current trend in the forest tenure reforms promotes identity bases categories such as indigenous people on the assumption that this provides better access to forest resources for marginalised groups. India’s historic act of 2006 recognises the traditional rights of the scheduled tribes and other forest-dependent people dwelling in and around forest lands. The findings indicated that the new identity-based forest tenure reform is mere tokenism and hinders rather than promotes tribal women political empowerment and access to forest-based resources.
Universal Primary Education Policies in Agency Areas of Telangana State by Dr. Sunkari Satyam focused on the achievements of the universal primary education and its achievements have got considerable attention since the early 1950s. The concept of the education is however not well defined and is applied in many ways in different settings. New Education Policy and Girl Child Education in India- A case of Kasturiba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas presented by the G. Varalakshmi had thrown light on the various issues being faced by these schools. The said scheme as was already flagged by the central government of India. The important objective of the study were presented by the presenter before the participants were to study the status of girl child education, to examine the interventions of the state for the girl child education, to highlight the key features of the kasturiba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas and to analyse the interventions through kasturiba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas and enhancing the capabilities of girl children.
Reservation and the Politics of the misinterpretation at Manipur University presented by the Andrew Lathuipou Kamei a special article highlighted the various challenges in addition to the prospects and the retrospects of the reservation policies in the higher educational institutions of India. The agenda of securing social justice for the marginalised communities especially in institutes of higher education remains a distant reality despite the mandate of reservations. This is most clearly reflected in the repeated attempts at stuffing and misinterpreting the government reservation provisions with regard to admissions and employment in institutions of the higher education in Manipur State in which the Manipur University being the latest institute to employ such nefarious practices as was disclosed by the presenter during his presentation. The issues in the higher education and mostly the burning issue of the reservation policy is one of the hot and burning issues.
Politics of the Tribal education and the role of the State, Civil Society and missionaries: A case of the Odisha State was presented by Akhaya Kumar Nayak in which the issues like Education as the parameter of civilisation was thrown light. As per the paper presenter Odisha has a tribal population of 81,45, 081 as per 2011 census of the government of India which is inhibited in the districts of the Mayurbhanj, Malkangiri, Rayagada, Nabrangpur, Kalahandi, Koraput, Sundargarh etc. the role of the State, Civil Society, Missionaries and NGO’s have been stressed. If they receive basic education they may use the historical right to information act to protect themselves from the exploitation and may come to the mainstream of the Indian society.
Governance reforms and Implementation of the right to education and Act: A study on Nilambur Tribal Region presented by the Salman A.K threw light on the issues of the governance. Changing circumstances necessitates reforms in the governance process to achieve social political and economic development. The study aimed at the finding out of the State-Society partnership, accountability and transparency in the functioning of these MGLCs in the context of Participatory Governance.
Religion, Rationality and Secular Education: An analysis of reforms by Nirmala V.U throwed light on the importance of the educational process in sustaining or changing the existing socio-political structure had been discussed by many political philosophers belonging to different schools of thought. One of the most important points of contestation in such reform is that of religion and culture. The research paper intends to understand the approach of the communist parties of Kerala towards the question of religion by analysing the curriculum reforms introduced by them while in government. Public Polices and tribal education focused the role of the education in the upliftment of an individual. In article 46 of the Indian Constitution it States that the State shall promote the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people with special care, particularly the SC and STs. The attempts were analyzed in order to examine the challenges and attainments of educational goals for the ST people and to find out the role of the State in the provision of education of tribal people.
The Schedule Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 an act of the Parliament of India enacted to prevent atrocities against scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. The Act is popularly known as POA, the SC/ST Act, the Prevention of Atrocities Act, or simply the Atrocities Act. Objectives of the Act clearly emphasise the intention of the Government to deliver justice to these communities through proactive efforts to enable them to live in the society with dignity and self-esteem and without fear or violence or suppression from the dominant castes. The practice of untouchability, in its overt and covert form was made a cognizable and non-compoundable offence, and strict punishment is provided for any such offence.
Social justice in a popular sense, perhaps in a narrow sense, is understood as caste based justice movement. Caste injustice is alleged to be deeply rooted invisibly inside our modern institution and there is also resistance. Interestingly, the area of caste oppression, where it is high, is never reported. However, where resistance is there, it is being reported.
National education policy 2016: issues and concerns discussed the challenges of increasing the reach of education and providing the equality education and on the other hand linking of the education with the deprived ones in the society is of immense use and scope. Issues of quality, equality and efficiency in the education sector are some of the challenges that were discussed and highlighted during the session. The papers analysed the measure based on the past experiences of similar institutional mechanisms in other sectors as well as the ground reality of education in tribal and rural areas. Problems like dropouts accessibility of quality education and caste discrimination based free environments were some of the challenges that were highlighted. In the process of the educational movement and development, Dr. Ambedkar started several educational movements and institutions meant for the development and the upliftment of the tribal people. The research paper focused on the specific objective of studying the role of the Dr. Ambedkar in strengthening the educational setup and democratisation of the educational value space in India.
Feminine Socialisation, Tribal girls and dropping out: the Politics of the girl’s schooling presented by the Pankaj Das highlighted the issues of the school dropouts particularly by the girl Childs as the major challenge which hampers the smooth schooling and educational development of the tribals in India.
Education, cultural issues and Politics: Some reflections from the Todas of the Nilgiris presented by Dr. Jakkaparthasarathy examined the education process, cultural issues and politics among the Toda, a particularly vulnerable tribal group, inhibiting exclusively on the Nilgiri hills. Issues of the Educational governance in fifth Schedule areas are the distinct places with the majority of the population belong to Adivasis. Issues beginning from the attainment of the education to the political participation are some of the key issues that the Adivasi people are badly suffering from.
The tribal people in the India hold a debatable position and the educational status of the tribal people ids of immense value and scope. It is always needy commodity which is crucial for the development of the society. In our national perception education is essential for all. The tribal people are treated to be the original inhabitants of the country. The tribal societies are closely and extremely isolated. Poverty, the changing economy, lack of awareness about the value of education, disinterestedness towards the formal type of education, the content of the textbooks, the attitude of parents and teachers are the factors responsible for the position of tribal education today. In addition to this education, politics and language is also one of the drawbacks which are also responsible for the least development of the tribal people in the society. The tribals not only to this also suffer a lot from the changes happening in the societies on day by day basis like Globalization and changing Socio-cultural context on the education. The effects of the globalization on the socio-culture and educational system are the main concerns. Education inclusions of the marginal communities are also one of the biggest challenges in the overall development of the tribal people.
Challenges and misrepresentations faced by the tribal women and the social and political awakening of the various groups among the society for the welfare of the downtrodden ones are of an immense scope and need. The women for the tribal heartland of India face a systematic type of phenomenon of sexual violence. It is always difficult to imagine the type of violence against the tribal women. The tribal women are immersed in water and raped. They suffer from various sorts of atrocities inside and outside.
Tribal education not only at the primary level has been focused but also at the central level governmental level and has been a hot debatable topic in many societies and states of the world. The tribals have been the victims of the atrocities inflicted on them and various mechanisms and laws have been there from time to time to tackle them. The central governmental and the state governments have been from time to time focussing on various policies, programmes and schemes for the upliftment of the tribal communities. Imparting of the modern education and bringing the tribal people as per with the other state subjects has been the priority of the policy makers, governmental institution and bureaucrats. Education is the only available commodity which can remove the all social evils from the society. A problem of the Tribal Education in India has been a concern and this problem is having many issues. School dropouts and lack of the modern facilities in the schools has become core issue. As we all are aware that India is a land of the large variety of indigenous people. The scheduled tribe population represents one of the most economically improvised and marginalised groups in India. Education is an input not only for the economic development of tribes but also for the inner strength of the tribal communities which help them in meeting the new challenges of the life. Heavy migration and mobility of tribal women in urban areas are seen while we look upon the tribal upliftment. Teenage girls and young women belonging to marginalised communities always tend to migrate from their villages to cities in search of employment and other opportunities through placement agencies and religious Institutions. The right to Education is one of the latest tools meant for the upliftment of all the sections of the society and in it, free compulsory education is being provided to the children.
The land has been acquired for development projects as per the requirement of the project concerned, including land in Tribal Areas. State-wise details are not maintained at the Central level. Studies show that tribal people who account for 8.6% of population (Census 2011) experience much higher displacement burden. On the one hand, tribal communities in India have always been subject to marginalisation and exclusion from their private and common lands.
The paper concludes with policy implications for reshaping the future resettlement policy of the country to protect affected persons from becoming impoverished, which is often caused by land acquisition for development projects.
For thousands of years, primitive tribes persisted in forests and hills without having more than casual contacts with the population of the open plains and the centers of the civilization. Now and then, a military campaign extending for a short spell into the remoteness of the tribal areas brought the inhabitants temporarily to the notice of ruling class and to the interest of the anthropologists and ethnographers, but for long period there was frictionless coexistence between the tribal folks and their urban counterparts.
The modern education policies initiated by the Indian government have contributed to the transformation of the tribal communities in India. The literacy level has increased from 3.46 percent in 1950 to 59.0 percent in 2011 at all India level. But the literacy gap between tribes and non-tribes has been declined from 14.54 percent to 14.00 percent during the post-independence period (1951 and 2011) which is very insignificant compared to the period of time around 66 years. Many studies have focused on finding the reasons for lower educational attainment among the tribal communities compared to others. But still, there is a need to focus to find the reasons for the gap between theory, policy and methods of implementation or practice.
Tribals are the ones who are at a lower round of development and are geographically located away from the mainstream society for quite some time. They are the ones living in and around the forests. The central objective of the research paper is to examine the forest rights of the tribals. Since the fact that tribal people had been living in the forests for almost ages and developed a symbiotic relationship with the natural resource.
Panel Discussion was held on the concluding day of the national Seminar from 2:00 to 3:30 PM which was chaired by the Professor Sudhkar Reddy at Conference Hall, School of Social Sciences, University of Hyderabad. The Panel Discussion had discussed all the challenges and research gaps that exist there in the areas of Politics and education. In addition to this New Education Policy as already flagged by the government of India, Ministry of HRD was also discussed.
At the final of the concluding day, a Valedictory Session for the two Day National Seminar was held at the conference hall. In Valedictory Session distinguished social scientist and experts of their field were available there for thanking the Coordinator of the Seminar. Dr. Ramdas Rupavath introduced all the chief Guests and experts before the Audience and participants. The welcome address was delivered by Dr. Ramdas Rupavath. The valedictory session began with the Rapporteur Report which was compiled and presented to the Chief Guests, Participants and Audience by Nasir Ahmad Ganaie, Ph.D Research Scholar, Department of Political Science, School of Social Sciences, University of Hyderabad. After that other chief guests Prof.Sudeer Jacob George, Special Invite Prof .I.Rama Brammam also throwed light on different perspectives of the seminar. Prof. G. Sudharshanam the former head of the Political Science Department was honoured with the Guest of Honour followed by the Valedictory Address by Prof. P. Venkata Rao and Vote of thanks by Greeshma.
Report submitted by Ramdas Rupavath, Coordinator of the seminar, Department of Political Science, School of Social Sciences in association with the UoH has successfully concluded the Two Day National Seminar titled “Education and Politics in India: a Perspective from Below” sponsored by the ICSSR New Delhi and the University of Hyderabad which was held on 24th and 25th February 2017.