Inequality of School Enrolment and Literacy Status Between Scheduled Tribe and Non-Scheduled Tribe Community: A Critical Study in West Bengal

Abstract

Historically, the Scheduled Tribe (ST) community is deprived of primary education and suffers from a lower literacy rate in India, particularly in West Bengal. From this perspective, the study aims to find the trend of the primary gross-enrolment ratio (PGER) of 7–14 years aged children and the overall literacy rate in the ST community as compared to its non-ST counterpart. The study also focuses on gendered literacy disparity in ST and non-ST communities. Gendered literacy disparity is measured using modified Sopher’s disparity index of Kundu and Rao ( Educational planning: A long term perspective, 1986 [pp. 435–466], NIEPA). Besides, paired sample t-test is applied for the empirical result. Apart from this, a comparative analysis of rural and urban Bengal is made. The study reveals that in India as a whole and particularly in West Bengal, the literacy rate and PGER have yet not achieved its desired goal. The condition was worse in the ST community in the previous census and has created a wide PGER and literacy gap with the non-ST community. Gendered literacy disparity exists in both the communities, though the level is very high in the ST community.