Tribal Education System: are we doing enough?
In the Indian Education System, education has limited connotation. It is largely concerned with the existing formal structure of education and the institutionalized methodology of imparting knowledge to individuals. Within this very system exist many sub-groups of individuals with specific needs and tribals are one of them. In fact tribals form a large group of individuals in the Indian society. For several historical, economic and social reasons the scheduled groups have remained economically backward and socially retarded even to this day. This is true with respect to their educational levels and they are the most illiterate lot of Indian society.
Their illiteracy has shaped the people perception in such a way that they are thought to be a primitive, uncultured group whose youth are not worthy of being student. I can still remember an incident when I was studying in a coaching institute for my civil services preparation. In one of my general studies class we were taught about different tribal cultures, and the teacher mentioned munda culture in passing. One of the students in the class asked the lecturer who the Mundas were. The lecturer showed contempt and said, "a kind of jungly people." The students had a good laugh. One of the students in the class, who knew that my friend kiku mahto belonged to that tribe, turned and pointed towards him, saying, "One of them is here." They all laughed louder. On another occasion in our Anthropology class when the teacher was teaching about the different marriage practices prevalent among Munda tribes, one of the girls sitting close to me said insultingly “now we have to study with these junglees”, pointing towards kiku. Kiku heard that statement and walked out of the lecture hall and for next ten days he did not appear in the coaching institute. These incidents really shake me and made me think why people behave to them in such inhuman way. I came to conclusion that it’s their illiteracy which is the biggest impediment in their assimilation to the mainstream and until and unless these people are brought into the mainstream these slur will continue. Now the most important question arises here is why these people remained educationally backward when on one hand government report indicate that there is no scarcity of schools, other facilities or scholarship for the implementation of tribal education scheme.
These questions were answered when I visited kiku’s village in chaibasa district of jharkhand. There was a small school building with thatched roof which could hardly accommodate 20 students. When I inquired about the number of student in the school the teacher replied “though there are 72 students from this and the neighbouring village but most of them remain absent”. When I inquired about the reason of their absence one of the students said,” our village is 3 km from here and many student come from even more far areas so its not possible for many of us to come to school daily”. Kiku told me that this is the only school in 5km periphery.
Among the various important factors of tribal education that influence integration into the national mainstream of life are the students and their teachers. Most of the time Tribal students have different backgrounds from their non-tribal teachers, who are normally outsiders and do not understand the tribal students. To the teachers, tribal students appear untidy, reinforcing their biases against tribals. These biases are expressed in various forms of discrimination. One of theTribal youth told me that teachers did not teach them in the schools because they believed that if they did, the tribal students would no longer be dependent on them.
One of the important grudge which I found among the student of this school was their educational schedule - the school year, daily classes and holidays which is organized with little understanding of tribal cultures. One of the student said” we have to come to school even in our festivals and celebrations.” The seasonal pursuit of agriculture and gathering are not taken into consideration in planning educational timetables. All too often teachers hold classes as they would in cities or towns, ignoring the daily or seasonal habits of tribal pupils.
The village I visited was of munda tribes and the dialect spoken by the villagers was mundari. While adult males were often bilingual, the women and children spoke tribal dialects almost exclusively. Yet, a tribal child, on entering school, is suddenly expected to understand the state language. Children cannot understand the teacher, let alone answer questions. Many teachers assume that tribal students are slow; even if the teachers are sympathetic, overcoming this language barrier requires a great deal of effort. It would help considerably if tribal pupils were taught, during their first years in school, in their tribal language. They could then be gradually encouraged to learn the regional language.
The Constitution of India, under Article 350A, affirms that every state must provide adequate facilities for instruction of pupils in their mother tongues. Decades have passed and state governments have ignored this prescription for tribal people. Since initial instruction to the tribals is given in a foreign language, they understand and assimilate very little. Consequently, their response to education is poor. Had the instruction at the primary stage been in their own tongue, the progress of tribal students would have been better, and today there would be awareness of the importance of literacy among the tribal populations. Some attempts are being made to educate Gonds, Bhils, Santals, and other groups in their own tongues. According to recent reports, tribal children are responding well to such programs but I could not find any text in mundari dialect there.
My visit to that small village in chaibasa made me realize why despite various effort of the government, education is not making much headway among the remote tribal population. A fresh look in the government policy is badly needed. The content and the method of tribal education must be objectively evaluated. Tribal youth have unique historical and social backgrounds but need special attention and orientation in their attempts to bridge two cultures. Many school and college curricula which tribal youths encounter are either irrelevant to them and/or offer only negative views of tribal societies. While national and state governments, in theory, offer many benefits, concessions and facilities to tribal students, few of them reach the intended recipients. Tribal youth, even while they Study at the secondary and college levels, should, be encouraged not to jettison their own cultures and to remain integrated in their own societies but try to join the mainstream of Indian society. Then only the fruits of development can be evenly harnessed by every tribal and the non tribals perception of tribals as junglee is going to change.
Monday, March 26, 2007
SAFFRONIZATION OR DESAFFRONIZATON:WHO IS GOING TO SUFFER?
SAFFRONISATION OR DESAFFRONISATION: WHO IS GOING TO SUFFER?
The recent debate on NCERT books among the political parties and the academicians has been covered by the media in a big way. But has any one spared a piece of thought for those who are the worst sufferer, for those who are still confused which fact to rely upon? These sufferers are the students who study these books to pass their school examination or the unemployed youth who toil hard, going through these books, to crack government services examination.
As a civil services aspirant, I use to read the NCERT books, but my dilemma began when the NDA government changed the whole structure of the books. Having history as my optional subject, I found that many of the facts that I have been reading had been altered. I would highlight some of the historical facts which were deleted in the new NDA sponsored NCERT.
“For special guests beef was served as a mark of honour” (Class VI, Romila Thapar),
“Cattle wealth slowly decimated because cows and bullocks were killed in numerous Vedic sacrifices … the brahmanical reaction began as a result of the policy of Ashoka. He... derided superfluous rituals performed by women. This naturally affected the income of the Brahmanas.” (Class XI, R S Sharma)
“Archaeological evidence should be considered far more important than long family trees given in the Puranas. The Puranic tradition could be used to date Rama of Ayodhya around 2000 BC, but extensive excavations in Ayodhya do not show any settlements around that date.” (R.S Sharma)
“Jats founded their state at Bharatpur from where they conducted plundering raids in the regions around.” (Class VIII, Arjun Dev and Indira Arjun Dev)
“In 1675, Guru Tegh Bahadur was arrested and executed. The official explanation for this... is that after his return from Assam, the Guru, in association with one Hafiz Adam, resorted to plundering and raping, laying waste the whole province of Punjab.” (Class XI, Satish Chandra)
The problem with these passages is that they attack a sanctified image of Hinduism. Hindus are known to worship the cow. Reference to beef-eating and cow slaughter for Vedic rituals amounts to sacrilege. A pro-Hindu government lead by the BJP and guided by Hindu organisations like the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangha expressed fury over such writingd. The last two passages referring to Jaats being marauders and the Sikh guru plundering and raping too is highly objectionable to the respective communities. respec But my question is why were the facts not challenged, and imparted to school students for almost thirty years?
The new book was replete of evidences which glorified Hinduism and not only it changed the facts but also gave much wrong information like:
Madagascar, an Indian Ocean island off the southeastern coast of Africa, has been stated to be located in the Arabian Sea.
In the social science textbook for standard VI, human beings are said to have appeared on earth only hundreds of thousands of years ago (It has been established humans appeared some four million years ago).Only a few pages later, the texts say that "for millions of years, humans lived by hunting and gathering food."
The Vedic age has been clubbed with the Harappan civilization and the
Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Chinese, Greek, Roman and Iranian civilizations have been classified as "early non-Indian civilizations."
The Harappan civilization is replete with references to Hindu symbols in order to show the antiquity of Hinduism. A female figurine in terracotta dating back to that age has been shown with vermilion in her hair parting, a practice among contemporary Hindu married women.
I was in a complete fix over which book to choose for my answers. Let’s assume that I consider the facts of the new edition to be correct, but it would always remain mystery to me which version of ‘truth’ the examiner deemed to be correct. I had to nervously live with this dilemma.
My woes deepened as the government changed and UPA came back to power. All the history books that were published under NDA’s regime books were scrapped and again the old books came in circulation. Recently, the UPA government came out with new set of NCERT books. These books are neither free of biases. It is written to promote Congress as well as left ideology, as both are allies in the UPA government. I found a number of references in class IX and XI Political science book which will prove my point.The class IX Political science book for example, is unapologetically anti American. In its one sided approach, it blames American involvement in Chile’s coup in 1970s; makes it solely responsible for Iraq war and the incident of Guantanamo Bay. This type of content though may be partially correct but it can induce anti American sentiments in the young students. It will prejudice young mind rather than developing a balanced view.
What is amazing in both these IX and XI books, there is no mention about Vajpayee or Narasimha Rao governments, which in reality transformed India on the economic front. The only point where the textbooks make a reference to Vajpayee led NDA Government is when it talks about Yashwant Sinha’s budget rollbacks. The political biasness of the textbook writers is apparent in its one page reference to Gujarat Riots vis-a vis National Human Rights Commission (NHRC); while it is silent about Anti-Sikh riots in Delhi following Indira Gandhi’s assassination. The text books also gloss over the murder of Indian Democracy in the form of emergency with just a one sentence oblique reference to the Janata Party with no reference to the fact that it was the Congress that imposed emergency. Another glaring example of this one sidedness is when the narrative abstains from referring to the Congress Party by name in the context of emergency and corruption case against PV Narasimha Rao as a sitting prime minister.
As the political distortion and tampering of historical facts continues with the change of subsequent governments, it is unlikely that this trend will cease in the foreseeable future. As for the civil aspirants are concerned they might as well continue to ride on the horns of dilemma in search of truth.
The recent debate on NCERT books among the political parties and the academicians has been covered by the media in a big way. But has any one spared a piece of thought for those who are the worst sufferer, for those who are still confused which fact to rely upon? These sufferers are the students who study these books to pass their school examination or the unemployed youth who toil hard, going through these books, to crack government services examination.
As a civil services aspirant, I use to read the NCERT books, but my dilemma began when the NDA government changed the whole structure of the books. Having history as my optional subject, I found that many of the facts that I have been reading had been altered. I would highlight some of the historical facts which were deleted in the new NDA sponsored NCERT.
“For special guests beef was served as a mark of honour” (Class VI, Romila Thapar),
“Cattle wealth slowly decimated because cows and bullocks were killed in numerous Vedic sacrifices … the brahmanical reaction began as a result of the policy of Ashoka. He... derided superfluous rituals performed by women. This naturally affected the income of the Brahmanas.” (Class XI, R S Sharma)
“Archaeological evidence should be considered far more important than long family trees given in the Puranas. The Puranic tradition could be used to date Rama of Ayodhya around 2000 BC, but extensive excavations in Ayodhya do not show any settlements around that date.” (R.S Sharma)
“Jats founded their state at Bharatpur from where they conducted plundering raids in the regions around.” (Class VIII, Arjun Dev and Indira Arjun Dev)
“In 1675, Guru Tegh Bahadur was arrested and executed. The official explanation for this... is that after his return from Assam, the Guru, in association with one Hafiz Adam, resorted to plundering and raping, laying waste the whole province of Punjab.” (Class XI, Satish Chandra)
The problem with these passages is that they attack a sanctified image of Hinduism. Hindus are known to worship the cow. Reference to beef-eating and cow slaughter for Vedic rituals amounts to sacrilege. A pro-Hindu government lead by the BJP and guided by Hindu organisations like the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangha expressed fury over such writingd. The last two passages referring to Jaats being marauders and the Sikh guru plundering and raping too is highly objectionable to the respective communities. respec But my question is why were the facts not challenged, and imparted to school students for almost thirty years?
The new book was replete of evidences which glorified Hinduism and not only it changed the facts but also gave much wrong information like:
Madagascar, an Indian Ocean island off the southeastern coast of Africa, has been stated to be located in the Arabian Sea.
In the social science textbook for standard VI, human beings are said to have appeared on earth only hundreds of thousands of years ago (It has been established humans appeared some four million years ago).Only a few pages later, the texts say that "for millions of years, humans lived by hunting and gathering food."
The Vedic age has been clubbed with the Harappan civilization and the
Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Chinese, Greek, Roman and Iranian civilizations have been classified as "early non-Indian civilizations."
The Harappan civilization is replete with references to Hindu symbols in order to show the antiquity of Hinduism. A female figurine in terracotta dating back to that age has been shown with vermilion in her hair parting, a practice among contemporary Hindu married women.
I was in a complete fix over which book to choose for my answers. Let’s assume that I consider the facts of the new edition to be correct, but it would always remain mystery to me which version of ‘truth’ the examiner deemed to be correct. I had to nervously live with this dilemma.
My woes deepened as the government changed and UPA came back to power. All the history books that were published under NDA’s regime books were scrapped and again the old books came in circulation. Recently, the UPA government came out with new set of NCERT books. These books are neither free of biases. It is written to promote Congress as well as left ideology, as both are allies in the UPA government. I found a number of references in class IX and XI Political science book which will prove my point.The class IX Political science book for example, is unapologetically anti American. In its one sided approach, it blames American involvement in Chile’s coup in 1970s; makes it solely responsible for Iraq war and the incident of Guantanamo Bay. This type of content though may be partially correct but it can induce anti American sentiments in the young students. It will prejudice young mind rather than developing a balanced view.
What is amazing in both these IX and XI books, there is no mention about Vajpayee or Narasimha Rao governments, which in reality transformed India on the economic front. The only point where the textbooks make a reference to Vajpayee led NDA Government is when it talks about Yashwant Sinha’s budget rollbacks. The political biasness of the textbook writers is apparent in its one page reference to Gujarat Riots vis-a vis National Human Rights Commission (NHRC); while it is silent about Anti-Sikh riots in Delhi following Indira Gandhi’s assassination. The text books also gloss over the murder of Indian Democracy in the form of emergency with just a one sentence oblique reference to the Janata Party with no reference to the fact that it was the Congress that imposed emergency. Another glaring example of this one sidedness is when the narrative abstains from referring to the Congress Party by name in the context of emergency and corruption case against PV Narasimha Rao as a sitting prime minister.
As the political distortion and tampering of historical facts continues with the change of subsequent governments, it is unlikely that this trend will cease in the foreseeable future. As for the civil aspirants are concerned they might as well continue to ride on the horns of dilemma in search of truth.
DEMOCRACY IN COUNTRY LIQUOR POUCH
DEMOCRACY: IN A COUNTRY LIQUOR POUCH!
Recently, the election commission has announced for seven phase polls in Uttar Pradesh. The announcement brought back the memories last legislative assembly election in 2003, when I was at my friend’s place in Badayun (UP).
My friend’s brother, who was an active member of a political party, took me to different remote areas, where he was campaigning for his party. In the evenings, he would hold meetings, in which many party supporters would assemble to discuss the campaigning strategies.
While the campaign was going on, I noticed that huge amount of country liquor pouches were freely distributed among the people. I was curious to know the reason. “We have to buy enough country liquor pouches so that we don’t fall sort of it on the voting day”, Ramnanth, party worker later told me
“Look we have to give country liquor pouches to our voters because if we don’t give them the other parties would give them and then they will vote for them not for us. Caste is not a factor here because it’s a yadava dominated area and nearly all the contestants are yadava. It’s your power to lure the voters that decide the result.” explained my friend’s brother.
Free distribution of liquor and money continued in exchange of guaranteed votes for the party until the polling day. The most surprising thing about this episode was that though dry day-a temporary ban on selling of hard drinks to prevent and untoward incidents - was declared two days before the election date; the pouches were available in abundance even on the Election Day. On the Election Day I was surprised to find that people were standing in queue in front of the candidate’s camp to take two pouch of liquor and a sum of fifty rupees, after casting their votes.
Appalled by whatever I saw, I approached Ramavatar, a local farmer and asked his opinion about what was apparently a ‘liquor for votes’ strategy. “Election is like a festival for us. We know that none of the candidate we elect will do anything for us so why not we bargain our votes for liquor pouches and money” said Ramavatar. His unapologetic answer made me question the true sense of democracy and freedom in Uttar Pradesh.
India has an abysmally low rural literacy rate. The political parties find it conveniently easy to mislead and woo ignorant population. The voters too realize the futility of their franchise as they have been deprived of the basic civil amenities for years despite tall promises by the politicians. So it no wonder why every election is seen as a ‘festival’ and every vote bartered for a pouch of liquor. Introducing efficient management and technology like Electronic Voting Machines may make the election process smoother but unless we educate our voters democracy in India would always be for ‘sale’.
Recently, the election commission has announced for seven phase polls in Uttar Pradesh. The announcement brought back the memories last legislative assembly election in 2003, when I was at my friend’s place in Badayun (UP).
My friend’s brother, who was an active member of a political party, took me to different remote areas, where he was campaigning for his party. In the evenings, he would hold meetings, in which many party supporters would assemble to discuss the campaigning strategies.
While the campaign was going on, I noticed that huge amount of country liquor pouches were freely distributed among the people. I was curious to know the reason. “We have to buy enough country liquor pouches so that we don’t fall sort of it on the voting day”, Ramnanth, party worker later told me
“Look we have to give country liquor pouches to our voters because if we don’t give them the other parties would give them and then they will vote for them not for us. Caste is not a factor here because it’s a yadava dominated area and nearly all the contestants are yadava. It’s your power to lure the voters that decide the result.” explained my friend’s brother.
Free distribution of liquor and money continued in exchange of guaranteed votes for the party until the polling day. The most surprising thing about this episode was that though dry day-a temporary ban on selling of hard drinks to prevent and untoward incidents - was declared two days before the election date; the pouches were available in abundance even on the Election Day. On the Election Day I was surprised to find that people were standing in queue in front of the candidate’s camp to take two pouch of liquor and a sum of fifty rupees, after casting their votes.
Appalled by whatever I saw, I approached Ramavatar, a local farmer and asked his opinion about what was apparently a ‘liquor for votes’ strategy. “Election is like a festival for us. We know that none of the candidate we elect will do anything for us so why not we bargain our votes for liquor pouches and money” said Ramavatar. His unapologetic answer made me question the true sense of democracy and freedom in Uttar Pradesh.
India has an abysmally low rural literacy rate. The political parties find it conveniently easy to mislead and woo ignorant population. The voters too realize the futility of their franchise as they have been deprived of the basic civil amenities for years despite tall promises by the politicians. So it no wonder why every election is seen as a ‘festival’ and every vote bartered for a pouch of liquor. Introducing efficient management and technology like Electronic Voting Machines may make the election process smoother but unless we educate our voters democracy in India would always be for ‘sale’.
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