This book is based on the insights gathered through an empirical study undertaken by the Indian Social Institute between 2014 to 2019 to gather evidence of discrimination in education and their causes and consequences on the attainment of education of the children from households engaged in a range of occupations considered ‘unclean’. Over more than six years, the Author was in direct contact with the scavenging and allied communities across the states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh and indirectly associated with communities in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh through field investigators and research partners.

This book is written by combining the methodology of sociology and history. As discussed above, the primary information was collected through the sociological method of data collection. In the secondary piece of information, historical writings along with contemporary literature on this subject are being used. In a brief but coherent form, the role of dominant religious and social ideologies in the systemic marginalisation and exclusion of Dalits in ancient India and a critique of the British education system that was initially inclined towards sustaining Brahmanic hegemony have also been discussed.

This book attempts to understand the life of a poor Dalit in educational institutes and in the broader society and to expose the practices and socio-cultural pre-conditions of society that keep scavenging and allied communities in the trap of occupational immobility. The problem of contemporary scavenging communities and their poor educational attainment is not a present-day problem. This unclean practice is deep-rooted in our socio-political system that systematically denies rights and excludes entire communities. It compels ordinary people and celebrities to use casteist slurs against the Dalits.

This book explores the processes that have created and fostered vulnerability and marginality for a section of society. This book also discusses the issue of caste and sub-caste conflict at a larger level, its observance among Dalits and also within the scavenger community, and tries to understand the difference in the intensity of casteism in inter-caste and intra-caste conflicts. Another aspect that makes this book different is that, unlike in research papers, this book does not study the scavenging community in isolation, but attempts to understand its problems as situated in the wider caste system. The focus of one chapter is exclusively on the problems of women and girls, who face triple discrimination due to their caste, class as well as gender. And the last part of book critiques the existing policies and programs of the government and suggests an alternative approach. The focus of the book is on exclusion in education, yet education is not looked at in isolation but in conjunction with larger systemic factors that are beyond the control of students but nonetheless affect their educational prospects greatly.

Specific Description of the book

Title: Outcasts on the Margins: Exclusion and Discrimination of Scavenging Communities in Education

Author: Ratnesh Katulkar

Publisher ‏ : ‎ GenNext Publication
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9356631883
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-9356631885
Available on:

Amazon

Gyanbooks

Book Code 1111033164725

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr Ratnesh Katulkar is well known name in the field of Dr Ambedkar Thought & Philosophy and Dalit Studies. He earned his PhD from Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar National Institute of Social Sciences, Dr Ambedkar Nagar Mhow. He has served Indian Social Institute, New Delhi as a Social Scientist and is currently engaged in full-time writing and advocacy.  He participated in many national and international conferences including two conferences at Thailand and one in Korea. His areas of interest include Dalit studies, Dr Ambedkar Thought & Philosophy and Buddhist Studies. His famous books are ‘Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and Aadivasi Prashn?’ and ‘Prefaces and Forewords of Dr Ambedkar’. His forthcoming books is on Navayana Philosophy.