Author: Chhandabani Chakraborty
DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.70798/Bijmrd/03110043
Abstract: For a girl child to attend and remain in school depends on a whole bunch of decisions that are not hers to make when she is born in Uttar Dinajpur’s Scheduled Caste community. It’s determined by her family’s finances, by the values of her community, and by her parents’ experience: Years of practice have made them cautious about systems that are not necessarily benevolent. This study attempts to come to terms with that reality more honestly and intimately. The District of Uttar Dinajpur in the north corner of West Bengal is a district where large numbers of its SC population, as much as one in four, live in socio-economic marginality, which is not just a statistical fact but a problem in their day-to-day existence. Poor socioeconomic conditions, low levels of parental education, reliance on irregular wage employment and strong social norms regarding gender roles persist in influencing the socio-emotional factors that affect family attitudes and feelings regarding the education of daughters in this region. The barriers are not always visible on the exterior, but they are very visible on the interior. In the present study, the author has used secondary sources of information such as published research, government reports, academic literature, etc., which covers the attitude of Scheduled Caste parents towards Girl education in the specific socio-economic scenario. Instead of just examining what is happening in numbers, it attempts to get to know the attitudes, anxieties and real-life limitations that underlie the numbers—and play an important but obscure role in parental behaviour choices. From this review comes a multi-layered picture of how economic disadvantage and cultural worldviews do not necessarily work in isolation, but how they work together to make it more difficult for girls to obtain and finish their schooling. The study puts forth the view that with non-ignoring both the dimensions and without taking actions accordingly, the improvement of female education among the Scheduled Castes community in this district would not be a full and effective process.
Keywords: Scheduled Caste Parents, Female Education, Parental Attitude, Socio-Economic Marginalization, Barriers to Education, Cultural Beliefs
Page No: 345-351