Faces Of Discrimination In Higher Education In India

This book illuminates the experiences of a set of students and faculty who are members of the Dalit caste – commonly known as the ‘untouchables’ – and are relatively ‘successful’ in that they attend or are academics at a prestigious university. The book provides a background to the study, exploring the role of caste and its enduring influence on social relations in all aspects of life. The book also contains a critical account of the current experiences of Dalit students and faculty in one elite university setting – the University of Shah Jahan (pseudonym). Drawing on a set of in-depth semi-structured interviews, the empirical study that is at the centre of this book explores the perceptions of staff and students in relation to the Quota policy and their experiences of living, working and studying in this elite setting. The data chapters are organised in such a way as to first explore the faculty views. The experiences of students are then examined with a focus on the way in which their caste is still an everyday part of how they are sometimes ‘othered’. Also, a focus on female Dalit experiences attempts to capture the interconnecting aspects of abject discrimination in their university life. Faces of Discrimination in Higher Education in India explores: critical exploration of the Quota System policy and related social justice issues; faculty voices: Quota, caste and discrimination; students’ perceptions and experiences of the Quota policy; being a ‘female Dalit’ student; positioning caste relations and the Quota policy: a critical analysis. This study will be of interest to educational sociologists examining policies in education and analysts of multicultural and South Asian studies. It will also steer pertinent discussions on equality and human rights issues.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the academic journeys of Dalit students and their lived experiences of systemic exclusion in Indian higher education. It explains their educational journeys beyond caste-based discrimination, specifically analyzing the power dynamics, resilience, and resistance in their institutional life. The volume — Describes institutional culture, practices and contexts that contribute to a negative environment for Dalit students, and what changes would be required to create a positive campus climate for them; — Provides a comparative analysis with the U.S. higher education contexts while drawing theoretical frameworks from critical race theory in educational settings, social reproduction theory, and diversity research; — Discusses the significance of developing anti-casteist, democratic, and inclusive university spaces in India, with an emphasis on how Indian university campuses can be transformed through diversity, equity, inclusion initiatives, and indispensable support programs to assist Dalit and other vulnerable students Nuanced and accessible, this book will be of interest to students, teachers, and researchers of education, higher education, sociology, exclusion studies, and Dalit studies. It will also be useful for policymakers; social activists; NGOs; research centres; and those working in the areas of higher education, reservations, public policy, caste, anti-caste, and exclusion studies.

This book establishes gender issues as a major focus within developments shaping higher education in the Asia Pacific region. The discussion is framed as a response to various dedicated efforts, such as that of the United Nations, to foreground gender as a site for political discourse throughout the region. Throughout the volume, authors confront issues that continue to gain prominence in higher education as a policy arena, including the degree to which higher education operates within a framework of gender equity and how higher education appointments—even promotions—are sensitive to gender. By touching specific instances throughout Korea, Japan, China, Australia, India, Malaysia, Thailand, and Taiwan, authors offer an unprecedented big-picture view of gender-relevant policy issues.

This book studies the exclusion and discrimination that is meted out to Scheduled Caste (SC) students in the Indian Higher Education system, and the psychosocial consequences of such practices. It foregrounds the conceptual debates around caste, exclusion, and reservations in Indian academia, discussing the social dominance and the roots of prejudices in the university spaces. The volume reflects upon the fragile social world in which students from the margins struggle for survival in the academic space. It reveals that these students navigate the various facets of academia – like classrooms, pedagogy, scholarships, hostels, peer groups, and teachers – only to find the academic space a dystopian universe. The book also sheds light on suicide cases committed by the marginalized groups as a testimony of protest. Based on in-depth ethnographic research, this book will be of interest to teachers, students and researchers of education, sociology, political science, psychology, and exclusion studies. It will also be useful for policymakers, social activists, NGOs, research centers, and those working in higher education, reservations, public policy, caste, and exclusion studies.

Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2014 in the subject Law - Public Law / Constitutional Law / Basic Rights, grade: NA, Bangalore University / Central College (National Law School of India University Bangalore), course: Ph.D., language: English, abstract: The Indian constitution provided the state to make special provisions for the upliftment of backward classes. Since then, the topic has become debatable. These special provisions promulgated at different space and time have evolved as a preferential policy. The constitutional objective behind this policy is to ensure social justice for disadvantaged sections of people. Unfortunately the political motif has overshadowed the constitutional intent. The notion of justice is essentially apolitical; however, there has been criticism, oppositions and prolonged protests in this regard. These development are not conducive to Indian polity. The preferential policy should contribute to overcome the backwardness rather to create backwardness or hamper advancements of other classes of citizens. This work attempts to perform a cost –benefit, what if analysis in the light of preceding chapters. It also explores complementarities of legal doctrines in India and US. The common area of concerns were identified through covering and addressing questions before law and ideas worth accommodating from US part. Some doctrines are also developed in this regard.

This book discusses the issues of inequality and marginalization in India. The first section of the book contextualizes sociological traditions for the scrutiny of subaltern discourse on discrimination. The chapters in the section explore self-identity, ‘margins’ in sociological traditions, subalternity and exclusion, citizenship issues of de-notified tribes, the role of religion for scheduled tribe Dalits and Ambedkar’s ideas on tribes. The second section deals with the political economy of higher education, health and employment. The efforts of BR Ambedkar and the consequences of those efforts, his critique of education policies during British time and its alteration for independent India have been meticulously dealt with. The third section illustrates an application of theoretical understanding through narratives of labour bondage in Varanasi, sanitation workers in Mumbai and rickshaw pullers in Delhi. The last section establishes that unequal access to resources is a consequence of discrimination and marginalization induced by social identities. The book argues for equitable access to resources and opportunities to ensure health equity. The audience for this publication includes academics, researchers, health professionals, policymakers engaged with discrimination, exclusion, marginalization and inequity in health.

In India, two critical aspects of public policy — social justice and higher education — have witnessed unprecedented expansion in recent years. While several programmes have been designed by the State to equalise access to higher education and implement formal inclusion, discrimination based on caste, tribe, gender, and rural location continues to exist. Focusing on the concrete experiences of these programmes, this book explores the difficulties and dilemmas that follow formal inclusion, and seeks to redress the disproportionate emphasis on principles rather than practice in the quest for equal access to higher education in India. Offering new perspectives on the debates on social mobility and merit, this volume examines a broad spectrum of educational courses, ranging from engineering, medicine and sciences to social work, humanities and the social sciences that cover all levels of higher education from undergraduate degrees to post-doctoral research. It points to various sources of social exclusion by studying a cross-section of national, elite, subaltern, and sub-regional institutions across the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. Closely involved with the implementation and evaluation of affirmative action programmes, the contributors to the volume highlight the paradoxical ‘sectionalisation’ of reserved candidates, the daunting challenge of combating discrimination. Understanding the need to look beyond formal inclusion to enable substantive change, this important volume will be essential reading for scholars and teachers of sociology, education, social work, economics, public administration, and political science, besides being of great interest to policymakers and organisations concerned with education and discrimination.