No Educational Loans for SCs

The participation of Scheduled Castes (SCs) or socially backward students in higher education (professional/technical in government or private colleges) is perhaps far below expectations. The reasons behind this are rightly analysed by Govardhan Wankhede in his article, “Higher Education and the Scheduled Castes in Maharashtra” (EPW, 6 February 2016). In West Bengal, it was found that higher education along with professional/technical education in government or private colleges depended on parental education and occupation. That is why a section of such students were much more established in their career. Even their merits or results were not so much better than those who were not socially well-established. But a majority of them (SC students) were lagging far behind, even after obtaining good results or praiseworthy merits. So, these students had to enter their traditional caste-based occupation, or worked as daily-wage labourers. Government facilities (that is, amount of scholarship and process of selection and disbursement) were not enough to access higher education. Further, educational loan facilities did not extend to the poor SCs because of the absence of sufficient securities (collateral). Bankers or financial institutions were only doing business for the rich—“to carry coal to new castle.”

Harasankar Adhikari