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Current Topic Dalits in West Bengal are More Marginalized Poverty
is one curse but illiteracy is another bigger curse to act upon the Dalits of
West Bengal and India as a whole. After sixty years of national independence
what has happened, about two-third of the dalit women are victims to this curse
of illiteracy in West Bengal. The sarva shiksha abhiyan which was introduced by
the government of India in 2001 was with a purpose to remove the illiteracy of
the poor. The article published in the daily ‘Times of India’ on 18.06.07 in
this respect under title 'Get it right on education' is suppressing the fact
that it has failed to get success both quantitatively and qualitatively. It has
met with a great failure in both the cases. A huge amount of money has been
spent in West Bengal and the result whatever has come out of this enormous
expenditure is poor. I am a dalit writer of Bengali Literature working as an
activist under Bangla Dalit Sahitya Sanstha and I am extremely unhappy with the
performance of this regard. I fail to digest the incident that at present in
West Bengal out–of-school children is 9.61 lakhs. In West Bengal the
percentage of dalits is about 29.2 and anybody else can understand that these
out-of-school children are none but exclusively the dalits as well as religious
Muslim Minorities who are also about one–fourth of the total population of
West Bengal. Nobody
is willing to admit and visualize this incidence of marginalization of dalits in
West Bengal. Anything whatever you think bad, anything whatever you talk of
more devastating to the marginal it occurs in the state like Bihar and
not in West Bengal. The misrule of government machinery? Yes, it is in Bihar.
The corruption? Yes, it is in Bihar. This is what I am talking is the common
impression of the Babulok of Bengal. It is not my aim to cry down Bengal and
praise Bihar. What I want to do is to make self-assessment. It is the writing to
count on how much we people are doing good or bad. It is known to all that the
population of Bihar is higher than that of West Bengal. As per 2001 census the
population of Bihar is 82,878,796 whereas that of West Bengal is 80,221,178. At
present the average literacy of
West Bengal is 57.72%, on the other hand, the male literacy of Bihar is 60.32%
and female literacy of Bihar is 33.57% which is almost same with the Dalit women
of rural Bengal. At the time of independence Bengal was far more advanced in all
respect than Bihar But what about today? The population of Bihar is more by 2.65
lakhs, whereas their out-of-school children is less by about 2.7 lakhs than that
of West Bengal. The
out-of-school children of West Bengal is topping all the states. Whereas it is
seen in the neighbouring state as I
mention of the case of Bihar stands
in the second with 6.96 lakh of its out-of-school children. In West Bengal there
are some districts where the out-of-school children are more than a lakh. In
Malda it is 159,592, in South 24 Parganas it is 140,147, in Burdwan it
is107,512, in Uttar Dinajpur it is 106,086 and in Murshidabad it is184,103. Even
there are some districts are having the out-of-school children with number more
than 50,000 and the case as is seen of the North 24 Parganas with 72,611,
Purulia with 70,971 and Bankura with 62,671. West
Bengal is a state where government is run without maintaining the proportionate
representation from scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, other backward
communities and religious minorities in its functionaries. It is not very easy
to find out relation between the
two but the fact speaks out that the districts mentioned are the districts of
majority population of scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and muslim-minorities.
The proportionate representation is always welcome and provides justice to all.
It is democratically emphatic and builds the nationhood. The recent election in
Uttar Pradesh has established the
fact that proportionate representation is a desirable one and capable of winning
the game. The
pioneer of this thought is Kumari Mayawati who is now the chief minister of
Uttar Pradesh. At this moment the different media persons are forecasting that
she will govern India in the days to come if she can properly utilize the
present political philosophy of her party. In the second half of discussion in a
national convention held in the month of June at Bhubaneswar the most of the
participants gave their opinion in the way the media persons tell. The
thing what I like to focus is the dalits in West Bengal who are becoming
more marginalized day after day. These are the things happening due to
politicization of every thing in West Bengal. The politicization of politics is
more favourably done than the betterment of the people. Every one understands
the policy of implication of the industrialization through SEZ
will not provide any easy livelihood to the dalits. The industry is
necessary for the people who have got their proper education and particularly
the people who have got the professional education. The out-of-school children
are mostly dalits. These people have 100% dependence to earn their daily bread
by putting their toils in the soils only. The industrialization through SEZ will
be needed the knowledge of Microsoft-engineering of the micro-minority people of
the country. The farmers in West Bengal, by and large, are fighting tooth and
nail to save their cultivating soils. They are on the movement for their own
cause and the upper castes through their political parties are adding different
sense to this movement in order to utilize the same in their favour. The
teaching of English at primary level of education in West Bengal was stopped by
the government of West Bengal which has caused a damage in respect of getting
job by the dalits. In the second phase, after thirty years of continuous rule,
another damage to marginalize the dalits in another form is planned to be
introduced by the primary education minister. He wants to hand over the charge
of running primary education from class-I to V in the hands of Gram Panchayat
and the charge from class VI to VIII in the hands of Panchayat Samity. It is
nothing but the decentralization of responsibility and definitely at the cost of
rural dalit students. The Bengal dalits have seen an irreparable damage of
education of their one generation and now they may prepare themselves to see of
another generation. The Annual Status of Education Report in respect of sarva
shiksha abhiyan ,as the survey is conducted by an NGO, has revealed that at
least 50 per cent of these children cannot read a simple two-line passage. It
further says that a greater portion of about 65 per cent of the targeted
population cannot do a simple two-digit division. Is it too much to expect of a
child in class- II standard? There is no doubt that this type of literacy will
help for the better record of the census report only but this shall not do serve
any purpose of education. The point is to be noted that the dalits are marginal
and shall remain in the marginal. We
know that the government endeavors to do something. The problem is not a very
easy one to surmount. The central government increased its allocation for the
Abhiyan from about Rs1600 crore in 2001 to close to Rs 7000 crore in 2005. To
ensure smooth funding, it even levied a 2 per cent education cess from 2004. In
spite of this positive thinking, as there is the Central-State sharing ratio of
50:50, the fund sanctioned by the state plays a major roll for the spread of
education in the state. The
phenomenon of converting the reserved posts into unreserved category happens at
any time without facing obstruction from the scheduled caste and scheduled
tribe. In West Bengal the reserve quota ministers are always voiceless. They
work as tail of the political party. Any government, committed to providing
basic needs and enhancing standards of living to its people requires continuous
monitoring on education, health-care, security and above all the livelihood of
the poor masses. It sincerely looks after the genuine socio-economic progress in
state. In
the state like West Bengal land reforms and decentralized governance have been
considered as two main pillars of development. Both gave some fruitful result at
the initial and now after about three decades of Left rule both have become
under debate from the dalit-perspective. According to the Planning Commission,
the incidence of poverty in West Bengal in1999-2000 is at 27 per cent of the
population out of which stated that 84 per cent of the absolute poor population
of West Bengal lived in the rural areas and they were none but the dalits. In
terms of basic household amenities, West Bengal’s performance tends to be
lower than the national average. In the late 1990’s, 68 per cent of urban
households and only 16 per cent of rural households had pukka houses, compared
to 71 per cent and 29 per cent respectively for all-India. The land reforms have
had some effect in terms of improving the basic conditions for expansion of
literacy, education and health, but it must be admitted that this is one area in
which the expectations have not been adequately fulfilled and the state has
lagged behind others. In
one recent news it is seen that the reality of starvation death in North Bengal
tea estates has left Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi shocked. He visited Ramjhora
tea estates where in a very short period of time over 100 people faced
starvation death and he told to newsmen, ‘ It is shocking to find people dying
of starvation in a progressive country like India. It has left me
disheartened.’ People are there suffering from scarce drinking water, medical
relief etc Dalits who are mostly workers in tea gardens and in small factories
are now in a severe hardship. Just yesterday (01.07.07) Sanjib Biswas, a dalit-fellow
who was a petty worker in Kusum Company has committed suicide without getting
any food for successive three days for lockout of his factory. And today it has
been a news in the electronic media that a man Sankar Das by name has died of
starvation in the SEZ-area of Singur. He was a small farmer and he lost his land
in the Tata SEZ project and thereafter he was passing the days in hardship
without a job. Physical
violence on dalits in West Bengal is definitely less than the states like Bihar,
Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan because of the fact that they remain silent in case of
their deprivation in employment, education etc. But day-to-day social oppression
and harassment and exploitation of the dalits are still common in West Bengal
like many other parts of rural India. In
1973, the West Bengal Panchayat Act was passed, annulling the previous laws and
the decentralized governance was progressed through it. The composition of
various tiers of decentralized government had shown a significant representation
of occupational categories that were traditionally from amongst the oppressed,
such as agricultural labourers and marginal farmers, and the social groups that
were earlier politically marginalized, such as women, scheduled castes and
scheduled tribes. Under the decentralization, the dalits had been put into the
net of party politics and the decision of the party headed by mostly Brahmins
became their subjects to carry out. The day-to-day social oppression and
harassment of the lower castes and poor groups, which are still common in many
parts of rural India, are found to work in the form of discrimination and
deprivation of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in West Bengal. It
mainly tells upon the dalits in regard of their education and employment. According
to the NSS, in 1999-2000, 27 per cent households in rural areas and 12 per cent
of all households in urban areas did not have any literate adults(15 years and
above). The proportion of households without any female adult literate was
substantially higher, at 51 per cent and 31 per cent in the rural and urban
areas of West Bengal respectively. Further, the literacy status of scheduled
castes and schedules tribes and religious minority households is significantly
worse in rural West Bengal. To be poor is one thing, and to seem condemned to
one’s fate is a quite something other. A Dalit, if he is poor , is one thing,
and a Brahmin, if he is poor, is another thing. The Marxist fellow, with
class-view does coincide caste-view unless he is born in the untouchable castes.
The relatively most deprived occupation group appears to be that of agricultural
labour households, of whom more than half of all such population, and nearly
two-thirds of the females, are non-literate. It is known that the casual labour
households are in the worst condition in respect of literacy. The
West Bengal DPEP was formally launched in 1997-98. The main objectives of the
DPEP project were to support the public education system through interventions
designed to enhance student enrolment, reduce dropout rate, provide enhanced
access and better facilities for primary education. This project was initially
launched in five districts such as Bankura, Birbhum, Koch Behar, Murshidabad and
South 24 Parganas with a project cost of Rs.200 crores. Subsequently the project
was extended for another five districts such as Dakshin Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri,
Malda, Purulia and Urttar Dinajpur. Ultimately all these attempts could not do
serve the purpose properly and the out-of-school children as well as the
dropouts cut a sorry figure even at the present time. Though currently there are
around 54000 primary schools in West Bengal, with more than 1.5 lakh teachers
and enrolment rate about 92.1 per cent from the children of age group 5-8 years,
however, government enrolment data are notoriously prone to inaccuracy for
variety of reasons. Official data based on school records tend to inflate
enrolment, because of the pressure upon school authorities to indicate high
level of enrolment, because enrolment figures, especially for class I, are
typically taken as the relevant indicator for assessing the performance of the
school authority as well as resource requirement for that school. The
Human Development Index (HDI), as indicated by UNDP in respect of West Bengal is
pointing to its land reforms and decentralized governance. The public
intervention for social and economic change needs be designed in strengthening
the public health conditions and increasing the access of education and
employment opportunities to the poor and disadvantaged dalit masses for totality
of national prosperity. Though
marginalization of dalits is an inherent one on one hand in India, on the other
hand the face of India shining is also there. A group of people are becoming
from rich to richer. As per the recent World Wealth Report by Merrill Lynch and
Capgemini, fact is revealed that over 100,000 Indians are millionaires in dollar
terms. A steadily rising number of high net worth individuals ( HNWIs) is a sign
of economic well-being which in tern enhance business and investor confidence.
It is true that their consumption of goods and services generates employment and
helps in sustaining the national growth. This type of growth has also happened
in case of China where it is seen that the high net worth individuals have gone
to 345,000 in faster rate. However, they are not suffering from illiteracy as it
is herein found as Leftists’ Bengal, particularly India also, as a whole.
India has recorded the second highest increase of the high net worth individuals
but it has not put any good effect to improve the condition of the dalits. The
reason of it is very much clear. In Bengali there is a very nice proverb to
tell: Bell pakley kaker kee. It
says that a crow cannot get at the food of a hard shell ripe apple. The dalits
were marginal and remain marginal. It is on account of its low base and facing a
serious perception problem. The individual wealth tends to be judged in term of
morality, especially in a society where poverty is the stark fact. The rise of
individual wealth and the expectation of the poor to have a share of it
never meet any point. Rather it widens the gulf of inequality by promoting the
more and more causes of marginalization. Now, perhaps the marginal are on to an
extreme point and perhaps unable to come back. (
This article is written by Manohar Mouli Biswas, a Dalit writer and activist. It
is prepared taking most of the information from West Bengal Human Development
Report, 2004) Author : Manohar Biswas Mail Id: manoharbiswas@yahoo.co.in |