Discourses and counter-discourses on learning poverty through NEP-2020 and Indian judiciary for the Indigenous/Tribal/Minority child

Abstract

ABSTRACT Learning Poverty (LP), the inability to read at age of 10 years has been the cynosure of concern and trigger for policy reform. Specifically, in India, the National Education Policy (NEP-2020) advocates several recommendations for epistemic justice and to thwart learning poorness. This paper exposes that the proposals advocated by the NEP-2020 are neither unknown nor unattempted nor have they gone unlitigated in the High Courts/the Supreme Court. Based on an analysis of how the NEP-2020 aspires to deal with LP and an evaluation of how the same were addressed by the Indian Judiciary, we find that the state’s executive construes discourses that at least profess to advantage the Indigenous/Tribal/Minority/Minoritized (ITM) child in particular. However, counter-discourses by the Judiciary overturn the projected advantage albeit its engagement with ‘allied legal concerns’ every time the state’s executive proposes changes. In doing so, the courts espouse an inconsistent jurisprudence and perpetuate a status-quo that can potentially accrue LP and thus are counterproductive for the ITM child’s rights.