Speaker: Prof. Sukhadeo Thorat
The main focus of the lecture was the unequal access to higher education in India. The presence of graded inequality in educational attainment is a unique feature of the caste system in India. The persistence of the traditional inter-caste inequality in higher educational attainment is the root cause of the poor enrolment rate among the low castes in India. The low educational attainment among the lower caste in India can be attributed to unequal ownership of wealth and income and the persisting caste discrimination among the lower caste untouchable people in India. In that case, the educational attainment of the middle-low-caste is also lower than the higher caste but much better than the low-caste untouchables. The speaker also highlighted the discrimination based on gender and ethnicity, which escalates the dropout rates based on empirical evidence drawn from recent data of 2017- 18. The speaker also mentioned the NEP 2020’s limitations and how it will fit into the current education scenario. As policy interventions, legal safeguards and sensitization programs will de-escalate these concerns to an extent.