"Caste, Gender and Education among the Harijans of Guwahati City"

Abstract

Caste system along with gender-based discrimination in education has deep-rooted disparities in society. Modern Indian Education system has focused on making education reach to every door of Indians. It not an easy task to make education reach to every person in a caste based society of India. Harijan, now being called as Dalits and are now under the Scheduled caste category of India’s population and caste system remains as barrier or hindrance for them in pursuing higher education. The Harijan community has been facing discrimination, torture and humiliation from several decades and prevalence of untouchability system remains a major barrier for them in the path of development. Harijans were considered as impure for their work related to cleaning, washing clothes, skinning of animals etc. The condition of Harijan women is even worst in comparison to their male counterpart and non-Harijan women. Education is such a ladder through which one can change his or her life but access to education is not an easy task for them. Government has try their level best for the Harijan /Dalit community  by providing various benefits through welfare schemes but it has not able to make a satisfactory result . Gender discrimination is well evident in Harijan community. Parents in their society are more interested in educating their sons rather than in their daughter. Early marriage, domestic chores, traditional and conservative thinking remains as a major barrier for Harijan women. Harijan girls in many cases have to limit her education up to school level. After schooling there are only a few fortunate one who could pursue higher education, after crossing all the hurdles. Education bring about social and economic change and acts as a powerful weapon to enforce justice, equality and fraternity among all sections including the scheduled caste in India. The paper attempts to study the changes that have occurred among the Harijans of Guwahati city in six selected colonies under the light of education and its impact on caste and gender.