UNDERSTANDING EDUCATION AND

EXCLUSION AMONG GIRLS IN BIHAR

Dissertation Submitted to Central University of South Bihar in partial fulfillment for the
degree of MA in Social Work

SURAJ KUMAR
CUSB2001322021
SESSION: 2020-22

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGICAL STUDIES

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND POLICY
CENTRAL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH BIHAR
GAYA
2022
 DECLARATION

I, Suraj Kumar, hereby declare that this dissertation entitled ‘UNDERSTANDING

EDUCATION AND EXCLUSION AMONG GIRLS IN BIHAR’ is the outcome of my
own study undertaken under the Supervision of Dr. Jitendra Ram, Assistant Professor,
Department of Sociological Studies, Central University of South Bihar, Gaya. It has not
previously formed the basis for the award of any degree, diploma, or certificate of this
Institute or of any other institute or university. I have duly acknowledged all the sources used
by me in the preparation of this dissertation.

---------------------
Date: 31th May 2022 Signature

Suraj Kumar

i
 Date: 31th May 2022

CERTIFICATE

This is to cert ify t hat t he dissertat ion ent it led ‘UNDERSTANDING

EDUCATION AND EXCLUSION AMONG GIRLS IN BIHAR ’ Submit ted
by Suraj Kumar Enrollment No. CUSB2001322021 in part ial fulfillment of
t he requirement for t he award of M.A. Degree in Social Work of Central
Universit y of Sout h Bihar has not been previously submitt ed for t he award of
any degree/diploma of t his or any ot her universit y and it is his original work.

Head of the Department Supervisor

Dr. Anil Kumar Singh Jha Dr. Jitendra Ram
Associate professor Assistant Professor
Department of Sociological Studies Department of Sociological Studies

ii
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I have great pleasure to express my deepest gratitude and obligat ion to my

supervisor Dr. Jitendra Ram (Asst. Prof.), Depart ment of Sociological Studies,
Central Universit y of South Bihar, For his expert guidance and support
throughout the period of this work without which I could not even have
imagined this research in its current form, his strength somehow transfer to me
and I was able to do it the way I did. My Family members are my pillar of a
strength and I would like to thank them for all this blessing support and wishes .
This journey would not have been possible without the support of you people .
And My friends are the biggest asset I have I would like to thank each one of
you who have been t here for me and have contributed direct ly or indirect ly
encouraged and helped me to continue on this project unt il it came to a finish .

Date: 31th May 2022 SURAJ KUMAR

iii
 DEDICATED TO

MY PARENTS, SHRI ASHOK KUMAR MEHTA AND SHRIMATI ALKA DEVI, WHO

HAVE BEEN CONSTANT SOURCE OF INSPIRATION AND STRENGTH THROUGHOUT

MY LIFE.

iv
 CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE NO.

Declaration… .......................................................................................................... i
Certificate .............................................................................................................. ii
Acknowledgment ................................................................................................... iii
Contents ................................................................................................................. v
List of figures………………………………………………………………………..vi
List of tables ………………………………………………………………………..vii
Abstract ................................................................................................................. viii

Chapters

Chapter 1- Introduction
Statement of the Problem
Objective of the Study,
Research Questions
Review of Literature
Research Methodology
Rationale
Limitation of the Study
Ethical Concerns and,
Chapterization………………………......................…………………..1

Chapter 2- Historical Understanding of Education and Exclusion in Bihar............21

Chapter 3- Education and Exclusion among Girls in Bihar……………………….38

Chapter 4- Summary and Conclusion……………………………………………..60

References.................................................................................................................64

Appendix…………………………………………………………………………...65

v
 LIST OF FIGURES

Title of figure

Page No.
Figure No.

Figure 1. Tehsil Map of Gaya 39

Figure 2. Primary school of Dariyapur 41

Figure 3. Boys playing just outside school 42

Figure 4. Children sitting in the veranda of the building-1 43

Figure 5. Children sitting in the veranda of the building-2 43

Figure 6. Drawing by class 6thstudents 44

Figure 7. Girls and boys sitting inside the classroom-1 45

Figure 8. Girls sitting in the classroom-2 45

Figure 9. Students sitting inside the classroom on carpet 46
Figure 10. Children standing outside of the community toilet 46

vi
 LIST OF TABLES

Table No. Title PageNo.

1. Literacy rate and Sex ratio, 2011. 5
2. Indicators, Selected Districts 32
3. Gaya district (one of the 38 districts of Bihar) 33
4. Literacy rate of Gaya district and of bihar, in 2011 34
5. Demographic profile of Gaya 34
6. Gaya: Marginal Workers, and Population under Poverty 35
7. Rural/Urban Population, Bihar 35
8. Working population of Gaya District 35
9. Tekari: Population Statistics,Census-2011 36
10. Gaya: Literates (Number of Male and Females) 36
11. Number of illiterates in Tekari Block ( in males & females) 36
12. Tekari Statistics: (in terms of children (0-6 years), literacy
& Sex-ratio 37
13. Working Population of Tekari block 37

vii
 ABSTRACT

This study looks at girls participation in the primary education in Bihar and how
girl children are excluded from it. It examines the factors responsible for it from
secondary data, interviews of girls, teachers, parents and the resource persons
who work with the education sector. Based on the primary and secondary data,
this study analyses the situation of primary education in Bihar looking at the
“picture from below”.

viii
 CHAPTER-1
Introduction
In a general sense, it means that education is the process that begins at birth and
continues until the end of life. Education is a significant tool that provides knowledge,
skill, technique, information and enables people to know their rights and duties
towards their family, society and the nation. It can expand our vision and outlook to
see the world around us. It changes our perception of life. Education builds up the
ability to explore new things to enhance creativity of an individual. This creativity is a
tool to develop the nation. Through Education we can bring social change among
societies. Education is understanding about life.

Nelson Mandela1 rightly said, “Education is the most important weapon to change the
world.” Education plays an important role in the development of an individual and
making him a knowledgeable citizen. It is the education that makes an individual self-
reliant, helps to suppress the social evils and contribute towards the development of
the society and nation as a whole. Education helps in unravelling the mystery of
nature. It enables us to understand and improve the working of our society. It creates
conditions for a better life. Education brings out the capabilities to fight injustice
happening in society. Every individual has the right to education.

Dewey (1897)2 believes that education functions properly when there is a relationship
between the individual and the environment, and that the purpose of education is to
live for today, not to prepare students for future living. Thus, firstly moral training
should be offered and schools should serve "as a form of community". Additionally,
education is not a part of life and it should be regarded as "a continuing reconstruction
of experience". If children gain experiences at school, then they may be able to learn
about real life and become prepared for the future. Therefore, "what kind of
experiences will they gain?" and "how should we help them acquire these
experiences?" are the questions that should be answered. Specialists study curricula in
terms of grades and subjects in order to help children develop the expected behaviours
to have a better society.

1
https://aplustopper.com
2
Dewey, J. (1897). My pedagogic creed. Franklin Classics Trade Press. United States

1
Education empowers everyone. It is an important aspect that shapes the modern and
industrialised world. People need education to be able to cope up with the
advancements in this competitive world. Following are some areas where education is
needed:- (a)Removing Poverty: Education helps in eradicating poverty from our
society. An educated person can secure a good job and take care of all the basic needs
and requirements of his family. (b)Safety and Security against Crime: A well-
educated person cannot be easily duped or become a victim of any crime. They can
develop the ability to stand against injustice. (c)Increases Productivity: Educated
people are more productive. With the help of knowledge and skills, they can explore
new ideas. (d)Confidence: A good education doesn’t mean to go to schools and
colleges only. Education helps to become self-dependent and build great confidence
within them so that they are able to accomplish difficult tasks. (e)Improved Standard
of Life: On getting an education, quality of life gets improved. Education helps you to
secure good jobs by which you can fulfil your dreams of buying a house or car or
other luxury things. (f)Women Empowerment: Education helps in empowering
women. Women can voice out themselves in the society against the injustice done to
them. They can be self-reliant and need not be dependent on anyone. Women
empowerment will bring a lot of development in society as well as in the nation.
(g)Upliftment of the Economically Weaker Section: Education is the most significant
ingredient to change the world. Illiterate people suffer the hardships of discrimination,
untouchability and injustice prevailing in the society. With the advancement of
education, the weaker section can improve their quality of life. (h)Communication:
Communication is related to education. Good education helps to communicate better
with others. It also improves our skills such as speech, body language,
etc. (i)Development of a nation: The countries that focus on educating their citizens
and have a higher education level are considered more developed nations in every
aspect of their lives. (j)Individual growth: An educated individual always stands out
in a crowd of uneducated people. They will be able to make better life decisions
because with education comes knowledge. When an individual knows something,
they will be able to understand things in a better manner. (k)Independent: Education
acts as a catalyst for a human being to be independent. If an individual is educated
enough, they can manage their own life without being dependent on anybody.
(l) Success: Education helps in framing our mindset in a positive direction, and with
this mindset, people can make their lives better. With education comes a degree, and
2
 with a degree comes a lot of opportunities. You just have to make a better choice for
yourself, and everything will fall in place. Talking particularly about India, education
is a constitutional right of every citizen irrespective of caste, creed, race, religion,
gender, etc. That’s the status given to education in India because educated people are
always treated well and are well respected everywhere in the world. 3

Social Exclusion has been interpreted differently in different contexts at different

times. The term was initially coined in 1974 in France, where it was defined as a
rupture of social bonds. Nowadays, the term “Social Exclusion” is used for the
population which is excluded in community life. Such populations are discriminated
in providing basic services, amenities and equal opportunities necessary for their
development. Not only this, they are deprived of social life. Thus social exclusion is a
process of limiting social relations and the denial of providing equal and living
opportunities imposed by certain groups of society upon others which leads to
inability of an individual to participate actively in the basic political, economic and
social functioning of the society.

Social Exclusion is way of segregating group of people in terms of socially,

politically, economically and culturally. In other word we can say that Social
Exclusion talk about denial of equal opportunity imposed by certain group of society
upon others. Social Exclusion is a multidimensional concept because it happens in
terms of social, political, and economical domain. Like livelihood, education,
employment etc.

According to Arjan De Haan4, “Social Exclusion is a process by which individuals,

groups are wholly or partially excluded from full participation in society, where they
live”.

It involves both the act of restricting access to resources and the consequences that
follow. In brief, social exclusion refers to the process through which groups are,
wholly or partially, excluded from full participation in the society in which they are
live. These main processes include discrimination, deprivation, isolation, shame, etc.
And social exclusion which is based on discrimination, may be active or passive.

3
https://aplustopper.com
4
Arjan De Haan,1999, Social Exclusion: Towards An Holistic Understanding of Deprivation, Department for
International Development: London.

3
 This study is aimed to see the state of primary education in Bihar, keeping girls at the
centre. It tries to see where girls stand in primary education, and why and how it is
happening. It uses Secondary data for the study, and the qualitative insights from
students, teachers, person working with the schools and parents from Dariyapur, Tepa
and Nepa village of Tekari block of Gaya district. This study focuses on the present
state of girls' elementary education in Bihar. My study focuses on the present state of
girls' elementary education in Bihar. It aims to study the enrolment rate, Retention
rate and Drop-out rate of girls in the primary level in Bihar. The research will look at
the Census data, DISE (District Information System for Education) data, NSSO
(National Sample Survey Organisation) data and other such material stood the
findings.

The Constitution of India guarantees free and compulsory education to all children
between the age of 6 to 14. The Literacy rate in India after independence was 18.33%
in 1951. For women literacy rate was 9%, and for men it was 27 %. Framers of
constitution envisaged that by the year 1960, they will come up with universal literacy
for all children in India up to the age 14. This goal has remained elusive till now.

At present, literacy rate of India is 74.04%, of which, 82.14 % are males and 65.46%
are females.5 To achieve universal literacy, Indian government as take number of
steps from time to time. The latest was the introduction of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
(SSA, 2001).Annual Status Of Education Report, 2006 (ASER), an annual survey that
provides estimates of children’s involvement and basic learning levels for each
district and state in India since 2005, has come up with the finding that 93.4% of all
children aged between 6 to 14 were enrolled in the schools across India. Among 15-
16 years old, the out-of-school-children were 22.7 % for girls and 20.2 % for boys.

Even after 67 years of independence, India has not achieved the goal of Universal
Elementary Education (UEE). There are states like Kerala which has achieved very
high levels of Elementary education for its children. There are states like Bihar,
which lag way below from the national average in this area. National average of

5
https://www.census2011.co.in/literacy.php

4
 literacy is 74.04% and Bihar’s literacy rate is 63.82% in 2011.6

Now, we shall try to briefly explain about education status of girls in Bihar in
particular.
In Bihar, the state of girls' education falls below that of average of boys'. Gender
Parity Index (GPI), which is ratio of number of girls’ enrolment to the number of
boys’ enrolment, was 0.930 for secondary education in 2011. The elementary
education in Bihar is still below the national average and this demands immediate
attention. While the sex ratio at the national level was 940 in 2011, the sex ratio of
Bihar was 916.
According Census, 2011. The number of schools in Bihar was 71, 484 according to
DISE, 2012-13.

Literacy rate and Sex ratio,2011.

India Bihar
Literacy rate (2011) 74.04% 63.82%
Sex ratio ( 2011) 940 916

The overall literacy rate of Bihar was 63.8% in 2011, that of males was 73.4% and
53.3 % for females. 7

The position of Bihar, in terms of primary and elementary education, till 1991 was
very poor. In 2011-12, the Net Enrolment Rate in Bihar was 91.4 percent at primary
level. 8 DISE data says, the retention rate in Bihar in 2012 was 62.26 percent at
primary level.

AS per DISE (District Information System for Education) data of 2006-07, among all
the government schools in Bihar, 95.15 % of it is situated in rural Bihar. The ASER
(Annual Status of Education Report) findings about the poor learning outcomes of the
government schools also are impediments to the UEE (Universal Elementary
Education).

6
http://www.census2011.co.in/literacy.php
7
http://www.dise.in/Downloads/Publications/Publications%202011-12/Flash%202011-12.pdf
8
Secondary Education in in India, Flash Statistics
5
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

After introducing the theme in the previous, now we will attempt to discuss about the
statement of the problem related to girls in India in general and in Bihar in particular.
Historically, it has been evidence that education has been restricted for females in
Indian Society. Even social structures such as Family, Community, Society, Class,
Caste, Gender, Class, Religion do not provide equal sense of opportunity and support
to girls in society. Due to patriarchal structure of the society, girls are being
discriminated, isolated, segregated and even excluded from the society at a large scale.
In this regard, it has also seen that most of girls in contemporary time face educational
discrimination in the schools. On the other hand economy also plays crucial role in
deciding role of girls in a society.

In this connection, this study will focuses on Education and Exclusion in Bihar and
looks at how the caste, class, gender, religion and other social structure decide
education., It also attempts to look at the educational status of Scheduled castes. The
study includes the educational status of Scheduled Caste population in compared to
other caste/social groups. And it has also seen that girls are doubling discriminated as
excluded compared to other caste groups. where does the girl child of SC population
stand in terms of receiving the most basic education compared to boys? We can see
her situation from this study. How does the intersectionality of a SC/ST girl, being a
girl, coming from poor background, coming from a rural/remote area, belonging to an
oppressed social group complicate their position and affect their educational
standards? Bihar is one of the most backward states in India. It is one of the BIMARU
states (Namely, the states Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, which
lag behind in the Human Development Index, (HDI) compared to other states in India)
and its performance in elementary and primary education is the worst. This study
aims to study the structural reasons of backwardness of girls in education and find out
the reasons behind facing exclusion from elementary education. It also aims to look at
the decadal change in the enrolment rate, Retention rates and Drop-out rates in the
districts of Bihar. In this regard, as we know that education plays very significant role
to bring social, cultural, political, and economical change among individuals. It
provides a sense of understanding, awareness, a light into issues and moreover a sense
of liberty.
In contrary to that, according to “Arjan De Haan”, Social Exclusion is a process by

6
 which individuals, groups are wholly or partially excluded from full participation in
society, where they live. In view of the above, we will examines education and
exclusion and how girls are being affected, isolated, segregated or excluded by many
social evil practices like early marriage, dowry etc. in the society.

Now, we will formulate Objectives based on the Statement of the Problem, which are
follows:

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

 To study education and exclusion among girls in Bihar.

 To analyze the rate of enrolment, the drop-out rate and retention rate of girls in
the rural districts of Bihar.

 To enquire into different dimensions of exclusion in the context of education

among girls in Bihar.

 Finally, to examine how caste affects and excludes girls for attaining
education in Bihar.

The study also aims to look at the structural basis of the lack of access of girl child
from primary education, to see how the lack of basic amenities like toilets, water,
prospects of further education, proper building, separate girl's toilets, perception of
parents of the girls’ safety outside the home affect her continuance of education. The
study also looks at the rise of privatization and correlation of fall in enrolment in
government schools and rise in the enrolment in the private schools.

It also aims to establish a correlation between fall in the enrolment, or rise in drop-
out rates with the rise/increase in the work-force engagement of girl child in house-
hold work or in the informal work as an addition to family income.

7
RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. How do structural elements and class-caste inequalities correlate with

exclusion/ inclusion of the girl-child from primary education in Bihar in the
last decade?

2. What has been the impact/outcomes of SSA's push for making primary
education accessible / available to all on the girl-child of the marginalized
sections?

3. How do the girls of the Scheduled Caste communities face societal hurdle in
getting the primary education?

4. What are the educational conditions of girls in Bihar?

5. Finally, what are the consequences of education & its exclusion among girls
in Bihar?

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

K Duffy talked about Exclusion in the following words: ‘inability to participate

effectively in economic, social, and cultural life and, in some characteristics, alienation
and distance from mainstream society. 9 Education aims for inclusion, but all the same, it
could be a source of exclusion for a child and therefore may carry with it some inherent
problems. This might be a case, if for some children it fails to meet the standards
mentioned in the Convention of the Rights of Children. ‘Development of the child’s
personality, talents, and mental and physical abilities to their fullest potential.’ It can
also be exclusionary if the process of education fails to promote equal participation and
access.10

According to Smith et al. (1997), and also Klasen, (1998) Education policies will have
to be very different if it has to prevent social exclusion that takes place in the classrooms

9
Duffy, 1995.
10
Klasen, Stephen, 1999, Social Exclusion, Children, And Education: Conceptual And Measurement Issues Or
website- https://www.oecd.org.
8
and in schools. Favouritism towards the topper formers of a classroom or of a school
becomes the central point for guiding policies that exclude the average performers and
poorest per formers. In order to prevent it, the importance of average performers and
poorest performers will assume greater significance in this design. In some cases, such
as the recent policy to publish league tables in the UK to ‘name and shame’ poorly
performing schools, it generates incentives to permanently exclude poorly performing
students who drag down the average performance of the school through their own low
performance and the effects they may have on others. 11 This example is about one
aspect of exclusion, namely, performance.

John Bynner, talked about Exclusion in his paper “RISKS AND OUTCOMES OF
SOCIAL EXCLUSION IN SIGHTS FROM LONGITUDINAL DATA, 2000”, says the
various outcomes of the social exclusion process include:
 Poor acquisition of the basic skills of literacy and numeracy
 Poor educational attainment through school
 Early leaving from education without qualifications
 Early labour market entry problems, including jobs without training
 Casual work and unemployment
 Trouble with the police
 Alcohol abuse
 Criminal convictions
 Poor physical and especially mental health
 Lack of engagement with the social and political functions of citizenship.

The report on India, “Educational Access in India”, 2009 (NEUPA), and “Access To
Elementary Education in India: Country Analytical Review”, 2008 by R Govinda and
M. Bandhopadhyay, point out that the major causes of exclusion include:- (i)Gender,
(ii)Belongs from Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe community, (iii)Location of
schools, and (iv)Poverty. And other factors include First generation Learners, Health,
Quality of Provisions provided (Like, Poor Infrastructure of schools, untrained
teachers, Learning Inputs).12

11
Klasen, Strphen. 1999, Social Exclusion, Children, And Education: Conceptual And Measurement Issues or
website- https://www.oecd.org
12
Educational Access in India,2009 (NEUPA)

9
According to the DISE papers and District Report Cards of recent years (2005-06,
2006-07, 2007-08, 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11 & 2011-12) on the state of elementary
education, UNICEF paper of child education in India, the state of primary education
in Bihar and it’s level below national average, the recent improvements in the
enrolment levels in Bihar etc. all have provided important inputs for the present study.
The analysis of DISE data of year 2011-12 by UNICEF shows that there has been a
marked rise in the percentage of private schools in Bihar which is an indicator of a
tendency to enroll in the private schools by parents. Also, there has been arise in the
governments schools in all districts of Bihar. The total enrolment rates have gone up,
as well as the enrolment rates of girls (DISE reports of last decades). The drop-out
rates have gone down, but the mere presence of drop outs at the primary level itself
indicates that the dream of achieving hundred percent literacy is far off.

Annemie Maertens argues in “Does education pay off- a subjective expectation of

payoff in rural India”, and “UN girls’ educational initiative & EFA fast track
initiative, 2010”, talks about equity and inclusion in education worldwide. She also
talks about the condition of education in India. The subjective expectation of parents
in their investment on education of children, and how this expectation leads to
different investment sandal so how it varies with gender is talked about in it. In
“Dropout rate at primary level – a study from DISE data in the years 2003-04 and
2004-05” the author Arun Mehta talks about the goals of SSA to achieve Universal
Primary Education by 2007, and Universal Elementary Education by 2010. It talks
about the enrolment rates, drop-out rates, and retention rates in the years 2003-04, and
2004-05 state-wise.

According to Vimla Ramachandran in her paper “Towards Gender Equality In

Education”,2009 where author talks about GPI (Gender Parity Index) and its
criticism. She says that GPI is like a snapshot of a moment in time; it doesn’t capture
the fluidity of the transitions happening. It is to be noted here that GPI is the girls to
boys’ ratio in a given educational setting. She also talks about the access to education
for boys and girls and shows that there is clearly a gender gap even at the primary
level across India. It talks about how the availability of higher education institutions
(like availability of secondary and higher secondary educational facilities in the same
locality where the primary educational facilities are there) in a given setting/locality
propels the parents to go for the higher education for their children, for both girls and

10
 boys. Presence of higher education facilities act as suction pumps that pull children
from the elementary education cycle. The challenges lies in the dropout rates which
still ranges from 28% to 50% in the year 2003-04 for primary schools while it was
much higher in the year 1990. In the Elementary level, it is a much higher rate.
Poverty, hunger and work are the primary reasons for drop outs even at the primary
and elementary education across India. Besides, there is a huge difference in the
learning levels achieved by the primary and elementary education in terms of
educational goals achieved. A high percentage of children fell short of the goals that
elementary education seeks to achieve as per ASER (Annual Status of Education
Report) data of recent years. ASER data also shows that boys to girls ratio in the
private schools is 60:40 which is disturbing. According to 16 ASER Report 2021 78.2
percent boys (6-14 years age group) and 82.9 percent girls (6-14 years age group) are
enrolled in government schools in Bihar, while at the national level only 67.9 percent
boys and 73 percent girls are enrolled in government schools, the rest Enrollment in
private schools. At post-primary level, the problem of access to education of higher
levels is consistent. ‘UN girls’ educational initiative and EFA fast track initiative,
2010’ about equity and inclusion in education worldwide. The ‘11 Th five-year plan,
2007-12’ focused on inclusive growth as a key to ensuring that all Indian citizens
enjoy socio-economic development as part of nation’s growth. The ‘12 th five year
plan (2012-17)’ emphasises on education: it lays stress on the four key elements of
education, namely, Access, Equity, Quality and Governance. It also lays stress on the
learning outcomes at all level of education. It agrees that SC/ST students continue to
be more likely to drop out of education than other social groups. It consequently
agrees that SC/ST children need greater and focussed attention. Article 46 of the
constitution directs the state of India to take special measures to ensure the
educational development of SC/ST. It also demands that special needs of the SC/ST
children be assessed and adequately addressed.

According to Government of India programme “Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan” 13, 2001

(SSA) gives a framework for exclusion of SC children, so that it can be
prevented.SSA framework for implementation has given broad listing of reasons of
exclusion of SC children:

13
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan,2001. Government of India

11
 a. Exclusion by teachers: Derogatory remarks, asking the SC students to do
menial jobs, excluding the SC students from public functions, segregated
seating arrangements, undue harshness for SC students and not giving time
to the SC students.
b. Exclusion by peer group: Calling SC classmates by their caste names,
exclusion of SC students from the games and plays, and not sitting with
them.
c. Exclusion by system: Lack of full implementation of incentives / schemes,
not acknowledging SC role models in curriculum or teachings, reinforcing
the caste character in syllabi and text books, lack of sensitization of the
teachers and lack of SC teachers.

According to 11th five year plan, ST candidates come from remote, hilly areas, and
their accessibility to schools is difficult. Teachers don’t share the language/culture of
the ST candidates and it leads to alienation of the ST children. The biggest problem of
the ST students is the language barrier. They have difficulty in understanding the
language of the teachers and that of the text books. The language alienates them the
most. The focus of the curriculum and text books is on the dominant language and
culture. Thus the ST students fail to connect and identify with the teaching material.
Similar difficulties assail the SC (more commonly known as Dalit) students.

Geetha Nambissan, in her paper, ‘Equity In Education: Schooling of Dalit children in

India’,1996, writes that besides the poor infrastructure facilities, lack of efficient
pedagogic support to acquire linguistic, numerical and cognitive competence is
adversely affect the schooling of the Dalit children. Apathetic treatment by teachers
and also by the school administration shape the learning experiences of the Dalit
children Until now, the factors affecting the education of Dalit children were cited to
be ‘outside’ the school system. The recent findings, she argues, point to the internal
schooling and education system, as systemic faults to be responsible for the poor
performance of the Dalit children compared to the other castes. Caste system, she
further argues, is the historical reason for the exclusion of the Dalits from the
education

12
Geeta Gandhi Kingdon (2007) in her paper ‘The progress of school education in India’
examines the school access in terms of enrolment and school attendance rates. She
examines schooling quality in terms of literacy rates, learning achievement levels,
school resources and teacher inputs. She says that the good news in spite of all the
negatives is that the enrolment rates at the primary level have come quite close to
universal rates in India. But the attendance and retention rates are not close to universal.
Also, the secondary enrolment rates are low, learning achievements are seriously low
and teacher absenteeism very high. Her paper also examines the role of private
schooling in India. The rise in private schools has raised the concerns of growing
inequality in educational opportunities as evidence suggest that private schools are both
more effective in imparting learning levels and also, they are much more cost effective
as they pay competitive market wages to the teachers as against the government schools
where the wages are as per the bureaucratically set minimum standards. The scenario is
somewhat as follows: government teachers receive about one fifth of what teachers in
private schools get. She argues that India’s position in terms of education is at par with
most backward nations in the world, including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sub-Saharan
African countries, while its performance is much below even Sri Lanka and China. India
has, she says, 22% of world’s population but it has world’s 46 % of the world’s
illiterate. And Lack of supply of the nearby secondary schools also plays a big role in
the high drop-out rates after primary level of education. There is likely to be a rise in
demand for secondary schools as the private schools are rising in number, which the
author says is a grave concern, and also because of the perceived benefits of higher
education in the minds of the parents. The position of Bihar is much worse than most of
the states in India in terms of educational achievements. A girl in Bihar is half as likely
to enroll in the secondary school as a boy, as the author points out. She also says that
one reason of gender inequality is to be found within the household. The attendance
rates, rather than the enrolment rates, are more accurate measure of the schooling
participation of the students. Attendance rates show that the student is participating in
the educational process, while enrolment rate may be misleading as a student may not be
coming to school, or coming to school only a few times per month. Any major
improvement in the literacy rates of this nation, according to her, is possible only when
the BIMARU States named as Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh
improve their literacy and educational performance at primary and secondary levels.

13
Many studies suggest that the number of years and learning achievements have a
direct link with the returns in terms of employment and enumerations. Absenteeism
by teachers also affects the learning outcomes of the children. She also argues that the
emergence of a large number of private primary schools are an indicator to the fact
that the children and parents both take government schools to be of low in quality or
below par. Also, she reveals that the true size of the private sector in schooling is
three times more than that shown officially. The growth of private schooling has
accelerated recently, more so in the urban areas. Nearly 96 % of the increase in the
enrolment at primary level in the rural areas has been due to the private schools.

According to the study of ‘India Institute and Newcastle University’, “Private School
Revolution In Bihar” , which focused on privates schools in Patna, clearly showed
that 65 % of the school children in the town were attending private schools which are
unpaided schools and are unorganised. Only 34% of the city children attend the
government schools in the city. DISE report2008-09 says that there are no privates
schools in Patna or Bihar. While the above study says that private schools amount for
78% of all the schools in this town. District Information System for Education (DISE)
data for 2008-2009 showed there were 93 private schools in Bihar. As per DISE
reports, that number of private unaided schools are insignificant, while many girls,
teachers and NGOs that I interviewed said that there were private schools in the
vicinity of their homes even in the rural areas. As per this study, 56 % of the parents
who sent their children to the government schools also sent their children to privates
schools.

As per the study “Elementary education in Bihar: progresses and challenges”, by Prabhat P
Ghosh and Kumar Rana, 2006, it discusses the following reasons for the weak performance of
Bihar in primary and secondary education:

i. Education level of parents: It is one of the most challenging problems. As the

first generation learners, the expectation of their parents is low for girls.

ii. Availability of kits at home: One of the important factors for learning for
children are educational help at home and it is unavailable to 40 percent of the
children.
14
 iii. Gender discrimination by parents because of attitude towards girls: The
parents show considerable gender discrimination in favour of their sons
in terms of the desired level of education.
iv. Lack of school buildings and other facilities:

a. Without drinking water facility within the premises,

b. Without toilet,
c. Without separate toilet for girls,
d. Without blackboards in all classrooms and
e. Without adequate teaching kit.

v. Insufficient Number of teachers: The average number of teachers in a

primary school is only 3.6, against the average number of sanctioned
posts of 5.4 teachers.
vi. The prevalence of private tuition: A vital aspect of the disfunctioning of
the schools is the insufficient inspection system.

Finally, government of India’s programme i.e. SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan) has done a
commendable job, the task is far from being complete. We are still away from the dream of
universal education. The girl child is farther away from this dream of getting universal
education. The caste/class nature of society, rural-urban divide, gender, region, and systemic
failures of the schools / institutions all add up to make the education of a girl child, her
continuance in studies a difficult task. Bihar being one of the underdeveloped states, the
rural Bihar being more antagonistic to the idea of education of girls, and then coming
down to an SC/ST caste girl, makes her perhaps at the lower most step of the ladder. She
seems to me the last one in the queue to whom the education seems to be a luxury. The
state of Bihar, a rural area in it, and looking at the SC girl will make me see the ‘picture
from below’. This ‘picture from below’ is what I intend to do in my study.

15
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This study is descriptive and exploratory in nature. This study is based on primary and
secondary sources of data or informations which are collected from three villages i.e.,
Dariyapur, Tepa and Nepa.

The descriptive research design is used to describe a phenomenon and its different
characteristics. It is concerned with gaining a deeper understanding of what the phenomenon
is rather than why or how it takes place. It, therefore, describes the subject of the research
without addressing why it happens. whereas, Exploratory research is a research design that is
used to investigate a research problem that is not clearly defined or understood. It provides
researchers with a deeper understanding of a research problem and its context before further
research can be carried out. This research design is also referred to as interpretive research,
and helps answer questions like “what”, “where”, and “how”.

Primary data is a type of data researchers directly collect from main sources. It is a fresh, first
hand data. It includes real time data. Data collection tools of Primary data are observation,
survey, questionnaire, and personal interview etc. While Secondary Data refers to already
existing data produced by the previous researchers. Data collection tools of Secondary data
are Journal Articles, websites, books, government publications, records etc.

In this proposed study Interview schedule has been used to collect data from respondents.
The interviews were conducted between 9th January and 19th February 2022. During my field
work of M.A. Social Work 4th Semester in Central University of South Bihar, Gaya, My
field-visit areas Dariyapur, Tepa, and Nepa comes within 8km from our Central University of
South Bihar, Gaya. I prepared questionnaires for interview schedule, which was different for
teachers, children and their parents.

I visited these three villages named as Dariyapur, Tepa, and Nepa on every Sunday, each
Sunday visiting the these villages which comes under Tekari block whether in morning or
evening for two to three hours. I conducted 9 interviews of girls from primary section, 5
interviews with teachers, one interview with the Shiksha Savita Sadasya, and five interview
with a father of a girl at primary school.

16
All the interviews were explorative, and I took notes while interviewing. With tape, they
might have become uncomfortable, and teachers would be unwilling to say anything on
tape. Some interviews went for as long as 30-40 minutes, and some were shorter.

The findings of the study have been conducted on the basis of the data as mentioned above.
This study will try to correlate the performance of the districts from the infrastructural
facilities of the schools, and the socio-economic factors of the districts. The infrastructural
facilities will include the number of classrooms in the school, the secondary education
facility), availability of drinking water in the school, Blackboards availability of toilets in
the school, the availability of separate toilets for girls in the school, availability of higher
levels of educational facilities (whether the school has secondary and higher, whether it is
single teacher school, whether school has female teachers and whether it has kitchen-shed.
To look at the socio-economic factors, This study will look at the child labour data in the
district, the SC/ST population, Muslim population and their economic status through NSSO
and Census data. To support the findings from data and to add qualitative input, I will
conduct some interviews from the poorly performing districts like Gaya. My interviews will
be conducted in the month of January 2022. I will concentrate on the girls’ participation in
the primary education and their experiences through these interviews. I will also interview
parents, teachers, and individuals who were education specialist and those who have been
working with schools.

RATIONALE

There is no dearth of data available about the state of education of girl child in India,
particularly on Bihar, but there is lack of the analysis of data to see how the caste, gender
and class intersectionalities play a big role in the way the even primary and elementary
education reaches to the rural girl child who belongs to SC/ST category or is a poor child.
The study aims to look at the accessibility of girl child to education in rural Bihar. The study
of how gender affects the accessibility of girl child to the basic education is important also
because Bihar lags behind the national average of enrolment rate, retention rate or and is
high in the dropout rate. The girl child of rural bihar is worse than that average. As such, this
study will help us see how the goal of UEE is not possible unless such disparities exist and it
may propel the policy makers to look more closely at what is causing this, and what more

17
could be done to make primary and elementary education more accessible to all children and
specially to the rural girl child. It may be a precursor to new studies on why this is happening
and what more could be done to prevent this from happening. Unless such disparities are
done away with, the Millennium Development Goals (Its target is 2015) 14 won’t be
achieved.

The 100% elementary education can be achieved only when a girl child of an interior village
of Bihar belonging to a tribe or a Scheduled caste category and who is extremely poor is able
to access the primary and elementary education successfully, and is able to continue her
further studies. But that seems a far fetched idea, given the state of primary and elementary
education in India and Particularly in Bihar.

LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The limitation of this study is that it is not able keep all its promises. Some of the research
questions it aimed to answer or look into will remain unanswered. Also, the scope of the
study and its promised criteria will remain limited in the light of the limitation of the time,
reach and access.

I also realized during my study that it may not be able to address all the questions that it tried
to address, and also the objectives stated, thus, would not be fulfilled completely. This is one
of the biggest limitations of this study. The limitation of time, the limited availability of
secondary and primary data, lack of mathematical and statistical tools and lack of time in the
hands of the researcher will make the scope of this study short, but it also gives way for
further studies to be made in this regard.

In the limited time that I had, I was able to interview 9 girls. Also, as a man, outside their
rural set-up, girls were not very comfortable in narrating their learning experiences. Also, the
girls’ parents were not be educated enough and may not fully understand why I am doing this
research. This resulted in difficulty in interviewing girls as parents were unwilling to consent
for the interviews.

14
https://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

18
Ethical Concerns

As a researcher, the asymmetric power relations between me and the interviewees was
always be a reminder to me to be concerned of it. I could not fully avoid it, but by
being aware of it, I have prevented some of the elements of flagrant misuse of the
power-relations. The young age of the participants prevented them from fully
understanding the scope and ‘use’ of the research, and therefore, I always had this
problem of informed consent. Same applied to the parents as they have little say in
this regard if a ‘researcher’ like me approaches them through an university or a person
who is working with them. They don’t have much choice and on the contrast, it’s
always difficult, in comparison, to interview the girls of Lower-middle class, middle
class or upper-middle class.

19
Chapterization

The first chapter deals with the introductory part of the study. It also includes statement of
the problem, review of literature, objective of the study, research problem, rationale,
research methodology of the study, limitation of the study and ethical concern of the study. It
also reveals the subject matters of the study which has been studied in the dissertation.

The second chapter talks about the historical understanding of education and exclusion
among girls in Bihar, where we discuss historical background of girls education, importance
of girls education, social exclusion & its origin, social exclusion in indian context, social
exclusion and education, social structure & education, gendered educational preference,
present status of girls education in India in general Bihar in particular Gaya, which is based
on the secondary data as well as primary data. This chapter deals with the enrollment ratio,
drop-out rate, and retention rate of girls, dalits, and tribals. It also deals with the
demographic profile of Dariyapur, Tepa, and Nepa under Tekari block of Gaya district.

The third chapter is totally based on the primary data that deals with the status of girls in
primary school of Dariyapur, Tepa, Nepa and what is the reason behind the exclusion of girls
from elementary education & what is the condition of government school’s infrastructure
and interviews of girls, teachers, parents and those persons who work with the schools in
terms of education and their analysis.

Finally the fourth chapter for summarizes the discussion made in the previous chapter and
suggestions, and certain ways for empowerment of women in Bihar.

20
 CHAPTER-2

Historical Understanding of Education and Exclusion in Bihar

The term “Education” has been derived from two Latin words ‘Educare’ (Educere) and
‘Educatum’. “Educare” means to train or mould. It simply means to bring up or lead out or
to draw out, propulsion from inward to outward. The term “Educatum” denotes the act of
teaching that primarily throws light on the principles and practices of teaching. It is the
educator or teacher who can know these and take appropriate methods to develop those
powers.15

On the other hand, in Hindi, the term “Shiksha” has come from the Sanskrit word “Shash”.
‘Shash’ means to discipline, to control, to order, to direct, to rule etc. Educational in the
traditional sense means controlling or disciplining the behaviour of an Individual. In
Sanskrit “Shiksha” is a popular branch of Sutra literature, which has six branches named
as Shiksha, Chhanda, Vyakarana, Niruktya, Jyotisha, and Kalpa. The Sutra literature was
designed to learn the Vedas. Shiksha denotes rules of pronunciation. There is another term
in Sanskrit, which throws light on the nature of Education. It is “Vidya”, which means
Knowledge. The term “Vidya” has originates from “Bid” meaning Knowledge. 16

In this way, the purpose of education is to liberate human being from ignorance and lead
them towards light. It helps to realize our potentiality and make the maximum use of them.
A Sanskrit quote says: “Saa Vidya Yaa Vimuktyaye”. It roughly means, ‘Education is
that which liberates’. Education does liberate us from darkness, superstitions, bondages of
slavery, and social evils like gender and caste oppression.

Women in ancient India were entitled to the very important rite of Upanayana, which
would give them the right to study the Vedas just like men. In later ages, they were
unfortunately barred from it and thereby from Vedic education. Later, the access of
women to Buddhist and Jain orders gave an impetus to their education. During the Muslim
period, female education still deteriorated due to the evil practice of purdah. However,
during the Buddhism and Jainism movement, certain lady saint-scholars flourished.
15
www.actionaid.org
16
Ibid.

21
 During the British period female education got only lip service from the Government. It
was private bodies and missionaries who took more initiative for the qualitative and
quantitative development of female education. During this period, female education was
concentrated in urban areas and there was hardly any schools for women in rural areas.
Consequently, in pre-independent India the level of education in general and of female
education in particular was very low.17

After independence, there has been spectacular progress of education due to

universalisation of primary education. Various five-year plans implemented after
Independence gave priority to female education. In fact, a number of committees and
commissions recommended measures such as midday meals, free supply of text-books and
uniforms etc., to encourage female education. As a result of these measures, female
education rose to 39 percent in 1991. However, compared to male literacy, female literacy
lags behind, in 1991 male literacy was 64 percent. As per the last census the literacy rate
of women rose to 65 percent as compared to male literacy of 82 percent. 18

Historical background of Girls Education

For over 300 years ago, there was practically no education for women in India. Only a few
girls of the upper castes and upper classes got some education. Literacy of women at that
point was looked upon as a disgrace. The notion of providing education to girl children
never entered into the minds of oldsters. A superstitious feeling was speculated to exist
within the majority of the Hindu families that a woman taught to read and write will soon
become a widow after marriage. In keeping with the report of National Committee on
Women’s Education (1959), “It cannot be denied that the final picture of the education of
women was the foremost unsatisfactory and girls received practically no formal instruction
whatever, aside from the insufficient domestic instruction that was available to the
daughter of the class families.” It was the ‘American Mission’ which first started a college
for women in Bombay (Now Mumbai) in 1824. By 1829 within five years as many as 400
girls were enrolled in this school. Then the primary decade of 19th century with efforts of
missionaries moreover because the Indian voluntary organizations, some girls’ primary
schools particularly in Bombay, Bengal and Madras states, started (Mondal, 2015).19

17
www.lokogandhar.com
18
Ibid.
19
Mondal, P. (2015) Education in India: An Essay,pp,1-8. Website- https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com

22
 The government also took the responsibility to market primary education generally and
that of the women particularly. However, government efforts couldn’t go an extended way
because of the Indian War of Independence of 1857. After the war municipal committees
and other local bodies were encouraged to direct primary schools. Within the year 1870,
training colleges for girls were established for the primary time and girls were trained to
become teachers in girls’ schools.

As a result of these efforts, significant progress in girls' education has been made in the
last quarter of the the nineteenth century (Mondal, 2015). Despite this, there was a
significant disparity in the education of boys and girls. It was estimated that there were
only 46 women in schools for every 1,000 boys. On the Except for one literate woman at
the beginning of the nineteenth century, the country had few literate women. few members
of the aristocratic houses It's incredible that by the turn of the century, hundreds of girls
were enrolled in newly opened institutions across the country. Despite significant
educational gains in recent years, girls and women still have a long way to go before their
historical educational disadvantage is eliminated. The Indian education system, like many
other social institutions, has long been biassed against girls. In 1916, the SNDT Women
University in Bombay became the first higher education institution to admit female
students (Mondal, 2015).20

The proportion of female students has steadily increased since independence, most notably
in the last decade. Girls' literacy rates have increased from 8.86 percent in 1951 to 29.75
percent in 1981, 39.29 percent in 1991 to 54 percent today. In 2001, it was 16.5%; now,
according to the 2011 census report, it is 65.5 percent (Census Report, 1951-2011).
Since 1995, the number of girls enrolled in higher education has also increased. The
primary hindrance to girls' education in India is rural residence, low caste, and low
economic standing, combined with a traditional attitude toward girls' education in general.
These factors tend to deprive girls of educational opportunities. While education for
female students has progressed in general, it is not surprising that today, more girls than
boys are seen in many faculties and departments of universities and colleges.

20
Mondal, P. (2015) Education in India: An Essay,pp,1-8,website: https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com

23
Importance of girls education

Education for girls is one of the most effective means of eradicating poverty in developing
countries. Individuals, their families, and society as a whole benefit from their education.
These advantages include: reducing infant and child mortality rates; reducing maternal
mortality rates; protecting against HIV/AIDS infection (Latha, P.S.-2014); and increasing
the number of women with jobs and higher earnings. Education for girls aids in the
abolition of illiteracy and the development of self-esteem and self-confidence (Nanda, P;
Das, P; Singh, A. & Negi, R. 2013). Education for girls has the potential to delaying
marriage and pregnancy for young girls. Girls who attend primary and secondary school
are more likely to have a say in who they marry, as opposed to getting married before the
age of 20 and often being abused by her husband.
Girls who attend school are also more likely to use more effective methods of family
planning, resulting in fewer and healthier babies. An educated girl or woman will have
learned about HIV/AIDS and will be aware of numerous ways to protect herself from
contracting the disease. Every year of education allows a woman to make better decisions
for herself and her family (King, E. & Winthrop, R.-2015). Women who go to school tend
to have healthier families. These women are more likely than others to seek medical
attention from clinics or doctors. Literate girls can understand a doctor’s detailed
instructions and follow up for assistance if necessary because they can read. These women
can also read nutrition labels and prepare healthy meals for their families that promote
growth and lower cholesterol. Education teaches children the value of keeping themselves
and their homes clean and safe (World Bank Report, 2008).

Social Exclusion and it’s Origin

Social Exclusion is a term that is frequently used by policy makers in European Union
countries. The idea of social exclusion is derived from French social and economic policy
debates on the central importance of solidarity, integration, and inclusion as a guiding
principal for their social security system. The outbursts use of term “exclusion” in
academics has come to hold a significant place in a political discourse of all governments
in the European Union and in the European Commission itself. The term was emerged in
Europe to address the large scale unemployment that provoked criticisms of welfare
systems for failing to prevent poverty and for hindering economic development.

24
 The term social exclusion was first used by Rene Lenoir in 1974, in his book Les Exclus:
Un Francais sur dix, as a means of referring to people who had been failed by existing
state and social network such as the poor, disabled poor, suicidal people, abused children,
drug addicts etc. Social exclusion is multi-dimensional approach towards addressing
unemployment, multi-dimensional approach towards addressing unemployment, low
income, poor jobs, homelessness, poor health, low qualifications and leaving school early,
gender inequalities, discrimination and racism, handicaps, old age, divorce, drug abuse
and alcoholism and to be living in a deprived socio-economic area.21

Social Exclusion is way of segregating group of people in terms of socially, politically,

economically and culturally. In other words, we can say that Social Exclusion talk about
denial of equal opportunity imposed by certain group of society upon others. Social
Exclusion is a multidimensional concept because it happens in terms of social, political,
and economical domain. Like livelihood, education, employment etc.

According to “Arjan De Haan”, Social Exclusion is a process by which individuals, groups

are wholly or partially excluded from full participation in society, where they live.

According to “Hilary Silver”, ‘Social Exclusion is rupture of social bonds between the
individuals and society’. Silver also said that social exclusion embedded in three
paradigms, which are Solidarity, Specialization, and Monopoly paradigm. (Paradigm is a
kind of pattern, theory and perspective or a model)

Social Exclusion in Indian Context

Social exclusion in India is deeply embedded in the gender and caste structure which
orients relationship between different social institutions & communities and recreates
institutions that reproduce exclusion, discrimination, isolation, and deprivation among
specific groups on the basis of their gender and caste status.

Historically, women has been deprived and marginalized community, facing many forms
of exclusion.

21
Lenoir, Rene. 1974, Les Exclus: Un Francais sur dix.

25
 Thorat and Sabharwal22 (2010) and Louis23 (2003) point out that In India, exclusion
revolves around the societal inter-relations and institutions that exclude, discriminate,
isolate and deprive some groups on the basis of their group identity like gender, caste,
ethnicity and religion (ibid:7-163). For Thorat, the concept of social exclusion is
essentially a group concept. In case of “group exclusion”, all persons belonging to a
particular socio-cultural group are excluded based on their group identity and not
necessarily due to their individual attributes. Exclusion of an “individual” is
fundamentally different from that of exclusion of a “social group”. Individuals (both from
excluded and non-excluded group) often get excluded from access to economic and social
opportunities for various reasons specific to them (and not merely because of their group
social/ cultural identity). The group characteristics of exclusion are based on social and
cultural identity, irrespective of individual attributes.

The concept of Social exclusion in India has multiple dimensions: a structural feature, a
dynamic process and a normative institutional practice (Judge 2014:1).24 These three
dimensions may or may not function simultaneously, but it could be distinguished in a
separate empirical situation. The structural feature deals with the structures of society as
caste, ethnicity and gender etc. In India caste could be replace race as the structural feature
of exclusion since caste is something that cannot be change, it could be understand as
immutable characteristic of individuals, gender also, because gender is a social construct.
Social Exclusion as a structural element encompasses narrow boundaries of structures
which are understood in certain exclusive terms by using a single criterion on which
inequality is constructed. Verma (2011)25 writes that social exclusion offers a perspective
to analyse various aspects of inequality existed in the different sorts of societies (ibid:93).
The other one is dynamic process-since it is a multidimensional process includes
economic (poverty, low class situation), social (caste, gender and spatial boundaries) and
political (power and dominance) aspects of society. The last one is normative practice
which literally means it is recurrent. In other words most of the linguistic expressions used
to signify exclusion such as discrimination, denial, exploitation, deprivation etc. are
normative practices under the umbrella of social exclusion. Indeed, in Indian context

22
Thorat, S. and Sabharwal, N.S. (2010). Caste and Social Exclusion: Issues Related to Concept, Indicators and
Measurement, Working Paper Series, Indian Institute of Dalit Studies: New Delhi.
23
Louis, P. (2003). Social Exclusion of Dalits Agony and Assertion of an Outcasted Community in Lal, A.K.
Social Exclusion: Essays in Honour of Dr, Bindeshwar Pathak. Concept Publication: New Delhi.
24
Judge, P.S. (2014). Introduction, In Judge, P.S. (eds.) Mapping Social Exclusion in India: Caste, Religion
and Borderlands Cambridge University Press: New Delhi.
25
Verma, V. (2011). Conceptualising Social Exclusion: New Rhetoric or Transformative Politics?,. Economic
and Political Weekly. Vol.46 No.50
26
 social exclusion is entrenched into caste system so it is imperative to understand social
exclusion in terms of caste system.

Historically, the scheduled castes or the Dalits have been educationally deprived for
centuries. The general condition of education among them in India as well as in Bihar is
pitiable after the 56 years of Independence. It is a matter of common knowledge that the
Scheduled Castes have lagged behind in the field of education not only in Bihar but all
over the country. During the British period, education was only for the upper sections of
the society. They were only allowed to take education in society and, the Scheduled
Castes, on the other hand, were totally deprived of such facility in the traditional Hindu
society. But after Independence in 1997, it bought a little change among the domain of
Dalit education in India along with that in Bihar. 26

Social exclusion and education

The concept of social exclusion emanated from European dissatisfaction with perceived
failures of the welfare system in the face of persistent poverty and slow economic growth
in the early 1990s. It mirrors concern in the late 1970s in the United States regarding the
emergence of an underclass that appeared unable to climb out of poverty. The socially
excluded are those who receive inadequate support from public institutions and whose
opportunities remain constrained due to structural and cultural factors.

Exclusion arises from multiple sources, some endogenous and some exogenous. Social
exclusion from immutable factors, such as gender, ethnicity, and race, contributes to low
educational participation for girls and members of subgroups. Social exclusion from
external factors, such as poverty, contributes to low educational participation and to a
cycle of exclusion based on poverty. Concatenating factors of exclusion lead to what is
often called multiple exclusion.

Social exclusion of groups is rare, albeit not unknown, in homogeneous societies

(Meerman 2005). It is common in heterogeneous, stratified societies, across ethnic groups,
languages, and customs, with groups sometimes separated by geography. What
distinguishes social exclusion from simple separatism are the invidious social evaluations

26
Ram, Jitendra (2008), Changing Status of Dalits in Post- Independence Bihar, unpublished M.Phil,
Dissertation submitted in JNU, New Delhi, p.2.

27
(in terms of differences in honor, respect, esteem, and the like) that are accorded the
excluded group by a dominant social group and that may even be shared by the excluded
group. These evaluations lead to differences in expectations for a range of behaviors,
including those related to education. Ethnic populations or subgroups whose mother
tongue is distinct from a national official language often remain outside the mainstream
economy and society.

Subsistence agriculture and geographic isolation effectively separate certain groups from
the mainstream society, but as development occurs, these communities inevitably come in
contact with the larger society, which accords them less respect than it gives to the
majority population. Traditional status hierarchies, such as caste rankings in India and lead
to exclusion of those lower in the hierarchy by those higher in the hierarchy. In some
societies poverty has significance that goes beyond simple economic well-being to include
disparagement and marginalization of the poor by the wealthy, perpetuating the cycle of
poverty due to limited economic and social mobility. And patriarchal mindset also
provides such types of socialization which leads to discrimination against girls in society.

Girls in excluded groups suffer not only as members of the excluded group but also as
girls. Whether exclusion is additive or multiplicative is not known. Some sociological
research suggests that it is additive (Ridgeway and Erickson 2000; Ridgeway 1991), and
the studies in this volume provide limited evidence of interaction effects. All studies
indicate a severe education disadvantage from multiple sources of exclusion: girls from
impoverished families, girls from tribal, ethnic, or linguistic “minority” communities, girls
living in remote settings, and girls from lower castes are less likely to participate in
education and more likely to stay in school only briefly if they enroll at all (Lewis and
Lockheed 2006). The extent of their disadvantage can be seen in primary schooling figures
across age, gender, ethnicity. The schooling of all children is improving, but indigenous
girls, especially those living in remote communities, still lag well behind the others. It is
this population that needs to be reached if gender parity and universal education goals are
to be realized.

Social structure and girls’ education

Social structure and its impacts on girls education in Bihar with particular emphasis on
social, cultural, economic, political and religious aspects. Lots of studies show that
patriarchic social structure, centuries old customs and traditions, and observance of
28
Purdah, role of subordinate negatively influence girl’s education. The socio-political
context have been dominated by male oriented values and the role of masculinity is
hindering women’s empowerment, in particular women is laying at pathetic condition
regarding their education in comparison to male, where the status of male and female in
the educational sector is not homogenous and diversity exists not only on the regional
level but also at the national level. Similarly, the preference for sons is one of the reasons
to mobilize most of the household resources in their favor and hence they are given better
education and are equipped with skills to compete for gaining resources in public domain.
However, female members as compare to male are imparted domestic skills, i.e., to be
good mothers and wives etc. In this connection Pande and Astone (2001) expresses that
parents prefer to invest more over males’ educations as their old age social security is
attached with better economic ability of their sons because sons in a traditional society
usually shoulder the economic responsibility of the family. Similarly, women have very
limited access to education, health, recreation, and other basic facilities of life and thus
become dependent for ever (Rafiq, 2000; Mehta, 2005). This not only contributes in
women subordination rather it devalues her status in the larger social context and increase
women’s illiteracy (Sattar et.al, 2000) and further to Gaskell et. al (2004) the lower
economic conditions of people also lead to resist women’s education because it is difficult
for the parents to afford the educational expenses of both male and female.

Gendered educational preference

Gender preference in terms of educational access was significantly stronger in working

class people. There were two ways for such preference to cause girls’ exclusion from
successful completion of their school education: the first was to pull elder daughters from
school to take charge of younger siblings while parents went away to work. The second is
that parents pulled elder daughters out of school and put them to work to support
household finances and to educate their younger male siblings.

The findings of this study indicate that a complex system of patriarchal structure has
worked to cause girls’ exclusion from education. Women’s oppression has been inherent
in the structure of Indian society and determines power relations and a gendered division
of labour. The findings support Omwami’s (2011) argument that poverty and patriarchy
tend to work to limit educational opportunities for women and girls. The findings
consolidated under the “Socio-cultural exclusion model” suggests that structures of male
domination permeate through educational policy, political interference in educational
29
 institutions, household practices of division of labour and educational preference for sons.
“Economic-political exclusion models” provide a useful theoretical lens in interpreting the
socio-cultural system working against girls’ school education. Feminist theorists argue that
patriarchy and power is the cause of female oppression and female subordination. They
see it as an interaction between economy, caste, class and gender that helps perpetuate
gender inequality. The root of such arguments lies in the structure of patriarchy as a
mechanism in Indian society that causes an unequal distribution of power which results in
unequal access to opportunities.

The Right to Education Act in India was a major turning point for school education, it
made education a fundamental right for children in the age group 6 to 14. The Act brought
positive changes in the school education system which also benefitted girls. Through
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the umbrella scheme for implementation of RTE Act, critical
barriers like access and inclusion were addressed to a large extent, this led to increase in
enrolment at both the primary and upper primary level. Along with this, schemes like
Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan and National Scheme of Incentives to Girls for
Secondary Education emphasized secondary education of girls through scholarships,
subsidies and incentives. With the introduction of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao in 2014 a
renewed emphasis was given to education of girls. However, girls’ participation in
secondary and higher secondary education, stark regional and social group disparities
remain areas of grave concern.

Present Status of Girls Education in India

27
The literacy rate of women is less in every census record when compared to the male
literacy rate. The literacy rate of women, according to the 2011 census, is 64.46 percent
while the male literacy rate is 82.14 percent. In India, we should proud to have the top
leading states in the literacy rate of women, which have the largest number of literate
women in India. They are Kerala (92 percent), Mizoram (89.4 percent), Lakshadweep
(88.2 percent), Tripura (83.1 percent) and Goa (82 percent). At the same time, some states
are leading in giving literate women and some more states are standing to give good
women entrepreneurs. In India the largest number of women entrepreneurs giving states
are Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal. The states are giving

27
www.openeducationportal,com

30
 very little education to the girls’ children because these states have less awareness to educate them
because of their uneducated parents. The states that include the lowest female literacy numbers are
Rajasthan (52.66 percent), Bihar (53.33 percent), Jharkhand (56.21 percent), Jammu and Kashmir
(58.01 percent). Though there has been a substantial increase in the number of literate women but
the past few years because of these states our entire nation’s women’s literacy rates fall.

Bihar is the third most populous state of India, next only to Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, with a
population of 103.8 million (2011 census). In particular, the literacy rate in the state is only 63.8
percent (2011), compared to 74.0 percent for the entire country. The only ray of hope in this
otherwise depressing situation is the faster spread of literacy in Bihar during 2001-11 than in India
as a whole; the overall literacy rate in Bihar has increased by 17 percentage points during the last
decade, compared to nine percentage points for the entire country.28 But in spite of the better
performance in the last decade, the literacy rate of Bihar is still the lowest among all Indian states.

In 2004, 3.52% of all schools in Bihar had girls’ toilets at lower primary level. In the same
year, 2.99 % of all schools in Bihar had electricity connection. Only 12.83% of all schools
in Bihar had common toilets at primary level.

One of the achievements of Bihar Government was to increase the number of schools as it
was one of the primary reasons of children not able to reach school. The number of
schools was doubled in the three year period between 2005-06 to2008-09. But, the number
of primary schools in Bihar, without a building was 488 out of total 2171 schools
(22.4%of total schools), that is, these schools either run under a tree.29
The availability of schools was just doubled— number of schools per one lakh population
had increased from 60.2 in 2005-06 to 107.3 in 2008-09. Between the primary and upper
primary schools, the expansion was larger for the latter-compared to 2.1 thousand upper
primary schools in 2005-06, there were 27.2 thousand of them in 2008-09, implying a
thirteen-fold increase. The expansion of primary schools, in contrast, was only 48.4
percent, from 51.7 thousand in 2005-06 to 79.8 thousand in 2008-09. The urgency for
upper primary schools was to prevent the large number of dropout cases between
Standards V and VI from occurring, because of the non-availability of such upper primary
schools within a manageable distance in many villages.30

28
Elementary education in Bihar: progresses and challenges, Prabhat P Ghosh and Kumar Rana, page -
72.
29
DISE Data, 2008-09.
30
Elementary education in Bihar: progresses and challenges, Prabhat P Ghosh and Kumar Rana, page – 72
31
 Indicators, Selected Districts
Districts GPI Retention Rate Drop-Out Rate

Sheohar 0.89 69.3 % 41.2 %

Madhepura 0.89 75.7 % 34.45 %

Supaul 0.93 82.7 % 26.08 %

Gaya 0.97 60.3 % 40.07 %

Patna 0.99 53 % 33.06 %

Source: DISE data, 2010-11.

Looking at the above data, Gaya district has a high drop-out rate between the grade I to V.
And its retention rates rate is low. Sheohar, Patna and Gaya are the three districts where the
Drop-out rates are among the highest and the Retention Rates are very low as can be seen
from the table. In Bihar, the drop-out rate, School Drop Out Rate (6-14 Years Old Girl), data
was reported at 51.070%in 2011. This records a decrease from the previous number of
57.980 % for 2010.

The primary ones are obvious: Girls drop out of school because, one, they are engaged in
domestic activities (31.9 per cent), two, they have financial constraints (18.4 per cent), three,
they are not interested in education (15.3 per cent), and four, they get married (12.4 per
cent).

According to PAB ( Project Approval Board ) of Samagra Shiksha under Union Education
Ministry, In aspirational districts—transition rate from primary to upper primary is lowest in

32
Katihar (57.98%) and Jamui at 63.25%. Even other districts Banka (80.75%), Begusarai
(84.35%), Gaya (78.98%), Nawada when the forces were leaving (84.52%) and Purnia
(87.19%) are below the national average of 89.72%.The Centre has also pointed out that the
“elementary-to-secondary transition for Muslim children is only 52%.”. In the four special
focus districts (Kishanganj, Purnia, Sitamarhi, West Champaran), this transition of minorities
from elementary to secondary is less than 57%. [ Data-2020 from Economic times of India ].

Official data shows that a total of 10 lakh children dropped out of school from various
districts of Bihar due to the COVID-19 lockdown in the state. Six lakh children, enrolled in
classes 5 to 6 of government schools, dropped out while four lakh children from classes 8
and 9 left their respective schools.
According to The National Statistical Office of India report (2017-2018) stated that the
dropout percentage in Bihar was 30.5%.

Gaya being the second largest district (area-wise) of Bihar, one of the sacred tourist place
and Situated near the Capital of Bihar that’s why their location play very crucial role. But,
having high drop-out rates was at first surprising form. Also, the condition of schools was
not very different from other districts and teacher absentee is could be seen in the schools in
Gaya. Further, I will concentrate on the girls’ education status, enrolment and their drop-out
rates. The involvement of the girls in the household work or commercial work will also be
looked at.

Gaya District at a Glance

This is to get a sense of the background of the district which situates near the capital of the
state. Despite the fact that it is the supposedly most developed / urbanised district in Bihar, it
has very high drop-out Rate and low Retention Rate.
Gaya district- (One of 38 districts of Bihar): -
Gaya Males Females Total Literate Literate Total
Population males Females Literates
Number 2266865 2112518 4389383 1427447 972235 2399682
% 51.64% 48.12% 100% 76.02% 55.90% 66.35%
Source: Census, 2011.

33
In absolute terms, there are about 32 million people live below the poverty line in rural
Bihar (NSSO data).This comes as about 31 % of total population.

Literacy rate of Gaya district and of Bihar in 2011:

2011 Literacy rate
Gaya 66.35 %
Bihar 63.8 %
Source: Census, 2011.

Demographic Profile of Gaya:

Rural Urban

Population % 86.76 % 13.24 %

Total Population 3809817 581601

Male Population 1960592 305974
Female Population 1849225 275627
Sex Ratio 943 901
Child Sex Ratio (0-6 age) 965 922
Child Population 702181 80878
Literates 1895908 401705
Average Literates 61.01 % 80.22 %
Female Literates 50.02 % 74.44 %
Source: Census- 2011

31
As per the Census 2011 out of total population of Gaya, 13.24% people lived in urban
regions while 86.76% in rural areas. The total figure of population of urban population was
581,601 out of which 305,974 were males while remaining 275,627 were females. In rural
areas of Gaya, male population was 1,960,592 while female population was 1,849,225.

31
Census, 2011.

34
32
The average sex ratio in urban regions of Gaya was 901 females per 1000 males. Also the
Child (0-6 age) sex ration of urban areas in Gaya was 922 girls per 1000 boys. Thus the total
children (0-6 age) living in urban areas of Gaya were 80,878 which is 13.91% of total urban
population. Similarly the average sex ratio in rural areas of Gaya was 943 females per 1000
males. The Child sex ratio of rural areas in Gaya was 965 girls per 1000 boys.
33
The average literacy rate in Gaya for urban regions was 80.22 percent in which males were
85.41% literate while female literacy stood at 74.45%. The total literate population of Gaya
was 2,297,613. Similarly in rural areas of Gaya, the average literacy rate was 61.01 percent.
Out of which literacy rate of males and females stood at 71.32% and 50.02% respectively.
Total literates in rural areas of Gaya were 1,895,908.

Marginal Workers, and Population under poverty, Gaya:

Gaya Number
Population under poverty 1163000
Line
Rural marginal workers 96000
(men)
Rural marginal workers 170000
(women)
Source: Poverty and Social Assessment (District - wise study of Bihar)

Rural/Urban Population, Bihar:

Bihar Number Percentage
Rural Population 92341436 88.71%
Urban Population 11758016 11.29%
Source: Census, 2011

Working Population of Gaya District:

Total Male Female
Main Workers 1007057 734465 272592
Cultivators 270702 207565 63137
Agriculture Labours 411942 277261 134681
Household 49055 31200 17855
Industries
Other Workers 275358 218439 56919
Marginal Workers 657005 341705 315300
Non-Working 2727356 1190396 1536960
Source: Census, 2011.

32
Census, 2011.
33
Ibid.
35
Gaya district has 24 blocks. I did my research in one of the block which name is Tekari.
I visited three villages of Tekari block named as Dariyapur, Tepa and Nepa village
which is situated approximately the range of 8 km from our Central University of South
Bihar, Gaya. I visited two schools which were nearby, first school situated in Dariyapur
and second school is situated in Nepa Gram Panchayat, and the school was up to
standard VIII.

Following data about Tekari block comes from Census data of 2011.

Tekari: Population Statistics, (According to Census-2011).

TEKARI No of Total SC population ST population
household Population
Number- 40,159 2,60,511 64,765 75

Males- - 1,35,196 33,480 45

Females- - 1,25,315 31,285 30

GAYA Total literates Males Females

Number 1,47,595 89,185 58,410
In % 68.47 % 65.97 % 46.61 %
Source: Census, 2011.

The gap between the male and female literacy is still 30, 775 in number, which translates
into approximately 20 percentage points.34
According to Census, 2011 Child Sex Ratio of Tekari block is 951.

Tekari Block Total Male Female

Illiterates 1,12,916 46,011 66,905

Source: Census,2011

34
Census, 2011.

36
 Tekari Block Total Urban Rural

Children (0-6 years) 44,921 3268 41,653

Literacy 68.46 % 80.07 % 67.4 %

Sex Ratio 927 921 927

Source: Census,2011

Working Population of Tekari Block:

Source: Census,2011

In Tekari Block out of total population, 96,062 were engaged in work activities. 63.3% of
workers describe their work as Main Work (Employment or Earning more than 6 Months)
while 36.7% were involved in Marginal activity providing livelihood for less than 6 months.
Of 96,062 workers engaged in Main Work, 16,465 were cultivators (owner or co-owner)
while 26,242 were Agricultural labourer.35

35
Census,2011. Or DISE Data

37
 CHAPTER-3

Education and Exclusion among Girls in Bihar

As we know that education is a significant tool that provides knowledge, skill,

technique, information and enables people to know their rights and duties
towards their family, society and the nation. It can expand your vision and
outlook to see the world around us. It changes our perception of life. Education
builds up the ability to explore new things to enhance creativity of a person.
Through education we can bring social change among societies. Education is
understanding about life. According to ‘John Dewey’, “Education is the
continuous reconstruction of experiences”. And also define education in his
other book as “Education is all one with growing; it has no end beyond itself.
(Education is everything along with growth; education itself has no final
destination behind him)” (John Dewey, 1978).

Social Exclusion is way of segregating group of people in terms of socially,

politically, economically and culturally. In other word, we can say that Social
Exclusion talk about denial of equal opportunity imposed by certain group of
society upon others. Social Exclusion is a multidimensional concept because it
happens in terms of social, political, and economical domain. Like livelihood,
education, employment etc. According to Arjan De Haan, “Social Exclusion is
a process by which individuals, groups are wholly or partially excluded from
full participation in society, where they live”.36 After that, according to Hilary
Silver, ‘Social Exclusion is rupture of social bonds between the individuals and
society’. Silver also said that social exclusion embedded in three paradigm,
which are Solidarity, Specialization, and Monopoly paradigm. (Paradigm is a
kind of pattern, theory and perspective or a model)37

36
Arjan De Haan,1999, Social Exclusion: Towards An Holistic Understanding of Deprivation, Department of
International Development: London.
37
Silver, Hilary. 1994, Social exclusion and social solidarity: Three paradigms, International Institute of
Labour studies.

38
In the view of the above, study localities i.e., Dariyapur, Tepa, and Nepa village of
Tekari block, where interview was conducted with respondents.

Dariyapur Tepa Village

Dariyapur Tepa is a large village located in Tekari Block of Gaya district, Bihar with total
618 families residing. The Dariyapur Tepa village has population of 3748 of which 1970
are males while 1778 are females as per Population Census 2011. In Dariyapur Tepa
village population of children with age 0-6 years is 738, which makes up 19.69 % of total
population of village. Average Sex Ratio of Dariyapur Tepa village is 903, which is lower
than Bihar state average of 918. Child Sex Ratio for the Dariyapur Tepa as per census is

39
995, higher than Bihar average of 935.Dariyapur Tepa village has higher literacy rate
compared to Bihar. In 2011, literacy rate of Dariyapur Tepa village was 67.44 % compared
to 61.80 % of Bihar. In Dariyapur Tepa Male literacy stands at 76.06 % while female
literacy rate was 57.66 %.38

In Dariyapur Tepa village, most of the villagers are from Schedule Caste (SC). Schedule
Caste (SC) constitutes 41.86 % while Schedule Tribe (ST) were 0.24 % of total population in
Dariyapur Tepa village.39

In Dariyapur Tepa village out of total population, 1414 were engaged in work activities.
53.82 % of workers describe their work as Main Work (Employment or Earning more than 6
Months) while 46.18 % were involved in Marginal activity providing livelihood for less than
6 months. Of 1414 workers engaged in Main Work, 251 were cultivators (owner or co-
owner) while 407 were Agricultural labourer.40

Nepa Village

Nepa is a large village located in Tekari Block of Gaya district, Bihar with total 419 families
residing. The Nepa village has population of 2726 of which 1440 are males while 1286 are
females as per Population Census 2011. .In Nepa village population of children with age 0-6
is 474 which makes up 17.39 % of total population of village. Average Sex Ratio of Nepa
village is 893, which is lower than Bihar state average of 918. Child Sex Ratio for the Nepa
as per census is 935, equal than Bihar average of 935. Nepa village has higher literacy rate
compared to Bihar. In 2011, literacy rate of Nepa village was 63.50 % compared to 61.80 %
of Bihar. In Nepa, male literacy stands at 75.73 % while female literacy rate was 49.67 %.

Nepa village of Gaya has substantial population of Schedule Caste. Schedule Caste (SC)
constitutes 27.55 % of total population in Nepa village. The village Nepa currently doesn’t
have any Schedule Tribe (ST) population. 41

38
Census, 2011.
39
Ibid.
40
Ibid.
41
Census, 2011.

40
 In Nepa village out of total population, 835 were engaged in work activities. 33.05 % of
workers describe their work as Main Work (Employment or Earning more than 6 Months)
while 66.95 % were involved in Marginal activity providing livelihood for less than 6
months. Of 835 workers engaged in Main Work, 157 were cultivators (owner or co-
owner) while 58 were Agricultural labourer.42

During the Field Visit, we observed that students were not serious about their study
due to lack of social awareness. I met some of the boys who were playing outside the
school. I asked them why they were not in the school. One of them said, “We do not
go to this school”. I somehow managed to take a few pictures of these boys. When I
asked, “Which school do you go to?” they giggled, and continued to play.

During the study, we took some pictures that shows the conditions of school, their
locality as well as society.

Primary School Dariyapur

42
Census, 2011.

41
It has been seen that the school has a common toilet for all even including teachers but,
even that common toilet was not working properly and school was not in good condition
due to the lack of infrastructure and resources. All students including girls and teachers
go to outside for toilet. There is only four teachers but only two of them were present.
And the condition of the second school which is in Fatehpur Middle School, Nepa. The
principal was a man, whose name was Rajendra Chaudhary who cooperated with me
while we took interviews of the girls and teachers, including him. But, he wanted me to
interview the girls only in their presence. The girls sat at about 5 feet away from him,
and he was able to hear what girls said. Girls was hesitate to express her views due to
me the stranger one and presence of headmaster.

Boys playing just outside the school

We also observed that children played outside the school during their class time, when I
asked him then he replied to me that teachers nothing teaches us. In other word according to
them who were playing outside the school said that good study not do not happen in school,
so he is playing outside the school.

42
It has been observed that during the study, during the study we saw that most of the girls
have sitting in the veranda of the building. There was a teacher sitting on the chair,
students were on the floor on a carpet or just surface of the floor. This school had one
classroom, one room for principal and staffs, and one store room for food ration. These
pictures illustrate the condition. The teacher was surrounded by girls and she was
instructing them about something.

Children sitting in the veranda of the building-1

Children sitting in the veranda of the building -2

43
 Drawing by Class 6th Student

It has been seen that some drawings which were pasted on the wall of the classroom shows
the creativity of the children. It also shows that students were engaged in drawing pictures as
a part of extra-curriculum activities. Even it portraits the creativity of the students.

Then we went to the classroom and found that, the girls were sitting without the teacher.
This classroom was not well organised and students were sit anywhere. And it was also
found that everyone was talking to each other. During the study, we came to know that
there is a lack of teachers in the school especially skilled & lady teachers and some
teachers were not regular in the school. They occasionally, come to the school due to
their attendance purpose and fear of losing the job when school investigation team
arrives.

44
 Girls and boys sitting inside the classroom - 1

When we started taking photos of the class during the visit, then the teacher came into
the class and told the students to behave and sit properly and maintain the decorum of
classroom. Then we asked the student what she/he studies and asked some question
regarding their subject. And we also asked what she/he wanted to become and other
question which is related to their discrimination and participation in cultural activities,
and management of the programmes in their social life.

Girls sitting in the classroom-2

45
 Students sitting inside the classroom on carpet

During the study, we observed that mostly children were sitting on the floor due to
lack of infrastructure like lack of classrooms, lack of desk & benches etc. The number
of boys in the classroom was much lesser than the number of girls present. The boys
were not attended by the teacher. Most of the boys were going to private school
because of stereotypes thinking of family in society.

Boys standing outside of community toilet

46
 Analysis based on the primary data

During the field visit to Tekari block, interview was conducted on the respective
respondents which are as follows:

1. Doli Kumari, aged- 9 years, Standard- II, school- Primary school,

Dariyapur, Tekari. Address- Dariyapur Village, Tekari. Brother, age
13 years, studies in a school, which is 300 metre from her home
walking distance from her home is 5-7 minutes. She goes to school
by walking. She has two elder sisters who are studying in the same
government school in which she studies. She explain that she goes to
school three days in a week. But she can’t come to the school when
there is lots of work at home. She further says that she can’t pursue
further studies due to financial constraints and societal pressure.

2. Kajal Kumari, aged 11years, School-Primary School, Dariyapur,

Tekari. Address: Dariyapur village, Tekari. Standard- V, Younger
brother, aged 8 years, studies in a private school, which is
approximately 1 km away. She has to walk for 12-15 minutes to
reach her school which is in her village. On asked why she does not
go to a private school like her brother, she answered that it was
because of the lack of money her parents have. And she said I have
to do daily house chores that’s why I go to the nearby government
school.

3. Anshu Kumari, aged- 13 years, Standard- VI Village- Tepa, Tekari.

School-middle school, Tepa. Her school is more than 2 km from her
house. 15 minutes walking distance from her home. Elder brother-
standard VII. He studies in the same school in which she does. She
says she loves to read and wants to be a teacher and she comes to
school everyday but, sometimes due to the arrival of guests in the
house, she has to help her mother in the house due to which she
sometimes does not come to school.

47
4. Anita Kumari, aged- 12 years, Standard- V. Village- Tepa, Tekari.
School- middle school, Tepa, Tekari. Her school is less than 5
minutes walking distance from her home. Elder brother- standard
VII. He studies in the same school in which she does. She says that
she does not get the freedom to study like her brother. Her brother
goes to the private school in the city while she goes to the
government school which is close to her home so that whenever
there is any work at home, she can be called from her house.

5. Anjali Kumari, aged- 12 years, Standard- V. Village- Tepa, Tekari.

School- Middle school Tepa, Tekari. Her school is more than twenty
minutes walking distance from her home. Elder brother- standard
VII. He studies in the private which is located in Gaya city. She says
that she has to do small work in the house and take care of her
younger siblings, due to which sometimes she is not able to go to
school regularly. but whenever she gets any benefit under any
government scheme, then the family sends her to the school so that
they can get that benefits. Like poshak rashi etc.

6. Shalini Kumari Aged 12 years. Standard- V. Address- Nepa, Tekari.

School-Middle School Fatehpur, Nepa, Tekari. Distance - more than
10 minutes. Three brothers, 8 years, 6 years, and 3 years of age. All
study in the same school. She aspires to study till graduation, and
says she will not have any problems regarding discrimination in
terms of education we both are taking private tuition. But whenever
financial problems has come then I have to leave the tuition.

7. Prakriti Nandini, Aged 10 years. Standard-V. School-Middle school

Fatehpur, Nepa, Tekari. Distance of school from her home is
approximately 25 minutes of walking distance. Comes to school with
her friends. Her brother is 8 years old, and goes to an private school
which is in gaya. Father/mother goes to drop him to the school
which is 15 km away from their home. Due to the the distance, their

48
 family members concern about their safety that’ why sometimes
family say to leave the school. But she aspires to study till
graduation.

8. Priti Kumari, aged 10 years. Standard- VI. School- Middle school,

Fatehpur, Nepa, Tekari. Home – 10 minutes walking distance from
her school. She comes to school with her friends. Her brother is 8
years old. He studies in standard – IV at a private school. Her sisters
are 14 years old and 7 years old. They all come to the same
government school. Lack of money as reason for sending her go
government school but brother to private school. She aspires to do
B.Ed and become a teacher.

9. Aaurni Kumari, Aged 12 years. Standard -VI. School-Middle school

Tepa, Tekari. Home – at 20 minutes walking distance. She comes to
school with her friends. She has a brother who is 9 years old and
studies in the same school in class III. Her elder sister is 14 years of
age and she too studies in the same school. She also says that I faced
less discrimination in primary education, but as soon as I entered
sixth grade, discrimination started between me and my brother
regarding education, i.e. arrangements of private school and home
tuition for my brother. While same government school for me. My
parents mostly focused on my brother’s education and their career.
While my parents concerned about me regarding my marriage.

On the view of the above explanation regarding respondents, now we shall try to
analyze further in a systematic way. During the field visit, most of the girls said if the
parents had money to afford, they will always prefer to send their children to the private
schools. The only reason for sending their children to the government schools was that
they had no money to afford due to lack of financial resources. Some girls told that their
brother was going to private schools because their parents could not afford to send both
boys and girls to private schools. Others said that their brothers too went to government
schools.

49
In this regard, many Girls respondents said, they want to go to school nearby the locality
or village. Because the school is away from the residing place, the Guardian feels
uncomfortable sending her to school in terms of safety and other societal reasons. They
said that distance of the school matter for her.

On the other hand, some girls respondents said they won’t be able to study further due to
societal pressure and family’s conditions. As far as they would like to study. And they
would study till class V; some said they would study till class VIII or X. Only three
respondents said that would study till graduation or further and one said she would like to
become a teacher.

It has also seen that most of the respondents had expressed their views by saying that they
had household responsibilities and had to help their mother in the kitchen. They also said
that they have to take care of the younger siblings too in the family. All Their brothers would
usually play out in the evenings. On asking whether they go out to play, they said no, only
one of them said she goes out to play, but there is a strict instruction not go further from
home. And on asking whether they enjoy studying at school, all said they did. One said that
she didn’t enjoy mathematics as she was weak in this subject.

Usually, their brother would be taking private tuition too at a nearby coaching institute.
They would go to play in the evening, but these girls are not allowed to go out and play
except one. Generally, girls would help their mothers in the kitchen or to take care of the
younger siblings.

After interviewing girls students, Resource person like educator, M. Ed interns and
some research scholars who worked with the education sector during the study.
Most of them expressed their views regarding Education and Exclusion faced by
the girls students.

50
1. Chandan Kumar Tiwari, Student of M.ed in Central University of South Bihar,
Gaya. Many times he goes to school for their teaching leaning experience during
his internships. He expressed their views regarding education and reason behind
the dropout of girls in education. He said that there is lot of factors who play
crucial role to create a obstruction in the way of girls education and dropout.
According to him there is few reasons which are as follows, first why they invest
in the girl child because parents think that education is an investment and thus
due to poverty they shun from educating their girl child, but free education by
government, the incentives like free books, free dresses, scholarship money and
bicycle, Mid-day meal and many such incentives are actually pulling a lot girls
to the schools, not because their parents have become enlightened, but because
of the incentives and freebies. They said that government’s schemes have
actually worked to bring new girl students to classrooms which would not have
been possible other-wise. Secondly he said that Parents have discriminatory
attitude towards their girls after a certain age. They want their girls to be ready
for marriage and thus prepare them for the marriage market, which includes
cooking, obedience and other such traits. After that he said Difficulty to get a
higher educated groom: If the girl is highly educated, it is difficult to look for a
higher educated groom as their community/caste may not have plenty of them.
Thus parents think that educating their girls would be a burden and would give
them difficulties rather than ease. There is lack of awareness that girl’s education
will empower their community, her future family and the next generation. The
only good indication is that once the girl child crosses class X and continues to
study, parents give a lot of independence and respect to such girl child,
generally. The girl child also gets a say in the decision making processes of the
household, at least in minor things. Lastly he said early marriage is also a key
component which becomes a hindrance in the education of girls. Because
marriage at young age is one of the prime reasons behind stopping the girl child
after a certain level. This ‘certain’ level is decided by the attitude, surrounding
and community, caste of the parents/ family.

51
 Generally those who drop out, go for marriage, and after marriage, they do not
study. They have much higher responsibilities at home and the in-laws do not
allow their brides to study further.

2. Ranjeet Kumar, Founder of coaching Institute Dharamshala, Gaya. He explain

the views of parents, society towards education of the girls by saying that Many
parents are concerned with the security issues of the girl child after a certain age
and particularly if the girl has to go far for higher education. For example,
suppose a girl passed class V, and for class VI , she will have to go to a school
which is farther away, then the security issues of the girl will compel a parent to
stop the education of the girl child. The same does not apply to a boy. The risk
of violence on a girl, while she is traversing away from home is high in rural
Bihar. They also sense a pressure from the community if their girl child studies
in higher classes than the perceived notion of what is appropriate for a girl to
get married. Many parents teach their child so as to make her literate so as to get
her married as many grooms demand that their bride be a little educated, not
much. He was also explain, Distance of schools, after primary level: Thus the
above said fear of violence and insecurity compels a parent to stop the
education of their girl child if the school gets farther after a certain level of
education. The lack of schools is clearly a reason for not sending the girl child
to the schools. After that he said Classroom, toilets, availability of female
teachers: As the girl gets into the puberty, she needs separate toilets. Lack of the
basic facilities as toilets become big reasons for not sending the girl child to
schools as in rural Bihar, rape or sexual assault can happen to a girl who is
attending nature’s call in the fields. Thus, the lack of separate toilets becomes a
significant reason for not sending the girl child to school after a certain age. If
there is a lack of classroom space in the school the learning inputs received by
the students become quite poor and thus parents seek to either put their ward to
private schools or stop the education if it’s a girl child and if they are poor.
Lack of women teachers also cause trouble as girls like to share their difficulties
more with the same sex teachers and lack of women teachers compels a girl to
lose her interest in studies, and she herself becomes unwilling to go to schools.
According to Ranjeet Kumar Bihar is largely a feudal society. The agricultural

52
 work, household work, feudal mindset, and poverty make it a fundamental need
for them to engage women in work. Thus the regressive attitude towards
women’s education comes from this mindset. It is also one reason why girl
child is not able to progress rapidly in Bihar. Although, cities are changing, the
change in rural areas is very slow. Lastly he said that Muslim girls face greater
problems. They have to bear with greater restrictions and greater
marginalisation in the school, in the family and in the general social set-up. At
home, they are supposed to be in total obedience with the elders of the home.
Even their mothers don’t have much say in the household affairs. At school,
they are very subdued students and they do not open up easily. Their interaction
with the teachers, with the fellows of the classroom is limited. They lose interest
in studies quite early because of lack of fundamentals of the subjects. There is
extreme poverty among Muslims, and thus the problems faced by Muslim girls
are greater.

3. Ankush Anand, Research scholar at education department of Central University

of South Bihar, Gaya. According to him feeling of shyness in asking teachers for
the fear of derision from other sin the class: The girls, in particular are more shy
because of the socialisation, and thus do not interact in the classroom, and
become weak in the concepts. This weakness results in loss of interest in the
studies and very soon they become uninterested in studies and going to school.
And even at primary level, the responsibilities on the girl child are more than the
boy. Water is a big problem in many households and girls and boys both have to
be engaged in fetching water from a distance. The elder girls have to look after
the younger siblings and do household chore. After that he said regarding more
dowry where many parents think that if they educate their girl child, she will get
difficulty in marrying because she will ‘need’ higher educated groom, who will
demand a higher dowry for his higher education. Education seems to be
investment, not only for the girls but also for the boys.

4. Tarun Kumar, Student of M.Pharma in Central University of South Bihar, Gaya.

He said that many girls / boys lose their interest in studies because their basic
understanding of concepts gets weak because of poor facilities at the lower

53
 levels. Thus, at higher levels they do not understand what goes on in the
classroom, and also are not able to ask because of the fear that others in the class
would mock them. After that he said the environment at home, for slum children,
is not conducive for studies. Generally, the father would drink and abuse his wife
and children. The language used in the home is generally abusive and
aggressive. This makes the children unfit for study at home. In some houses,
girls go out to work as maids with their mother. Sometimes when their mothers
fall ill, the girls have to go alone to these homes and work as maids. He also
talked about poor, lower caste /slum girls and boys lack in mathematics and
science. It becomes a significant reason for their failure or loss of interest in
studies. And he felt that the girls who are very weak in mathematics and science
need remedial teaching. Once this is done, the girls bounce back from their
passive/apathetic state and become active learners. After that he told, many
parents provide private tuition or home tuition for their boys to compensate for
the lack in the schools. But, this is not given to the girl child, instead, she is
given a lot of household chores and responsibilities. Lastly he share interesting
thing regarding change of lifestyle and outlook to life as girls enter college by
there is definite change in the lifestyles and outlook towards life as girls enter
college, even if the girl comes from very poor background. In upper castes, it
rarely happens that they are stopped from studies early unless their earning
father dies / leaves. After reaching college, they become more confident and one
can’t make out if they come from such poor families after they enter a college.
Even their parents respect them a lot after college.

According to the respondents, it has seen that most of girls going to government school
than private school compared to boys. All respondents agreed that more boys go to
private schools than girls. There is discrimination by parents, but particularly by father,
in sending the boys to private schools. And they also felt that girls are doing better than
boys at the primary level– in terms of results, in terms of the learning levels and
performance in the classroom. They said, the reason behind this is that boys play , get
distracted a lot, they have a lot of truant friends and too much of independence from
home which makes them irresponsible, while for girl child, generally she is in home,
and thus is able to concentrate more on the studies, despite the burden of household

54
work. And poor, lower caste /slum girls and boys lack in mathematics and science due
to lack of awareness. It becomes a significant reason for their failure or loss of interest
in studies. That’s why they felt that the girls who are very weak in mathematics and
science need remedial teaching. Once this is done, the girls bounce back from their
passive/apathetic state and become active learners. Lastly, he was talking about Private
tuition/Home tuition for boys: many parents provide private tuition or home tuition for
their boys to compensate for the lack in the schools. But, this is not given to the girl
child, instead, she is given a lot of household chores and responsibilities.

After interviewing girls and resource person who work with the
education sector, Teachers of both school were interviewing during
the field work.

1. Rajendra Chaudhari belogs to Gaya district. He is the headmaster of Fatehpur

Middle School, Nepa of Tekari block. During the interview he expressed his
views by saying that lack of space in the schools is one of the biggest
problems. Because of lack of space, rooms, they have to combine classes and
it results in poor learning of students. In the school I visited, children were
sitting in the veranda and when it would be noon, sun light will fall in the
veranda, then children would shift to the staff room and there would be one
classrooms in the staff room. According to him Mid day meal (MDM) is one
of the problems as well as an attractor of pupils in the school. It’s a problem
because their attention, huge amount of time and energy go into the
preparation, distribution, cooking and maintenance of the food ration. Thus
they are not able to concentrate on the teaching which is their core job. It
attracts because the food becomes a big incentive for very poor parents who
don’t have enough money to feed their children. They said that schools suffer
from lack of staff like cleaners and peons, due to which even the cleaning is to
be done by the students, and in such manual works , generally the lower castes
are ritually expected to do/help the in the work, while upper caste students shy
away from such works. Even if the upper caste students are made to do some
work along with others, their parents would come to the school complaining
that their children are not for menial jobs. Some parents even get abusive and

55
 threaten to complain against them to the village Sarpanch or some political
party/strongman. And the conservative attitude of parents, particularly of
father is one reason of girls dropping out after V, after VIII and after X. It
happens more with the lower caste parents. He also said that teachers are not
well trained to tackle all the problems in the classroom. One example he gave
when a child is, even by mistake, touched by another’s feet, the child becomes
depressed and feels that he won’t grow physically, or in length. Now, the
teachers are not trained enough to deal with such situations and they have to
device ways of their own to deal with such superstitions. And he also give
their views regarding clustering of students due to caste-wise exclusion by
saying that in the classrooms and during play and eating, students cluster
along caste lines and along gender lines. This segregation hampers uniform
learning process and thus only few intelligent students (generally the front-
benchers) get in pace with the teacher. The teacher too gets to focus only on
those intelligent students. They felt that the intelligent students create some
sort of pressure group which compels the teacher to go in pace with them only,
and rest of the class is left behind. The caste groups within the classrooms
which form clusters remain either left behind, if it is a lower-caste cluster, or
does well, if it is a higher-caste cluster. The same cluster is formed while
eating the mid-day meals, which further segregates the children. The teacher
called this segregation ‘automatic’ and he said he keeps thinking how and why
it happens. Some respondents also said that generally teachers favours the
intelligent students.

2. Sunaina Kumari, Teacher at Primary School, Dariyapur, Tekari, Experience-2

years. During the study she expressed her views regarding girls education and
exclusion in a systematic and best way because she is also comes for that
particular background and she also face the same problem and overcome the
problem and becomes a teacher. She said many parents feel that girls should
be married just after they reach their puberty. Thus some parents feel that they
should marry their girl child off just after class VIII or X. Thus, many girls are
made to drop-out of school after class VIII or class X. Some are not able to
continue after class V because their parents have to train their girl child for
marriage by giving them more responsibilities in the household. Some drop-

56
 out because the school gets farther after class V. after that she was talking
about the lack of security for the girls. In rural Bihar is not safe and secure for
the girls outside their home. Thus, parents are apprehensive in sending their
children to the schools, and the girls’ education suffers. The respondents felt
that sexual harassment and sexual violence does occur to girls / women while
they are in outside their homes. She argues that boys are sent to private
schools by parents, and all those who can afford, send their children to private
schools, but not the girl child as girl child already a burden due to dowry.
Despite being unlawful, dowry is still rampant. Investing in boys is a better
option for them as they can earn and contribute to income of the family, while
a girl, even if she earns, will be contributing to the income of her groom’s
family, not to the parent’s family. And there is a lack of trust on government
schools among parents. The reasons are that parents see the lack of facilities in
the schools, see the lack of responsible teachership among teachers in the
government run schools. Lastly she said boys dropout happens because their
parents ( poor parents)send them either to work outside or in the agriculture
works. Every three months, boys and girls are engaged in the agriculture work.
For girls, the engagement is for entire year, as they have to be engaged in
household work.

3. Respondent Mukesh Kumar, Teacher at primary school dariyapur, tekari,

experience- 3 years. They argues that lower castes still do not know the
importance of education, and do not promote education in their kids,
particularly if it is a girl child. They still feel that educating their children and
particularly their girl children is unnecessary, and it creates financial burden,
difficulty in finding groom, girls get disobedient too. He also cited as one
reason behind poor inputs/efforts by teachers. It is because their job is secured.
Thus, they are not much bothered about what learning input/efforts they are
providing to the students. There is an understanding that if a government
employed teacher works honestly and sincerely, he is seen as deviant in the
rural areas. People have this understanding that once someone gets into a
government job, one doesn’t need to work. After that he share interesting thing
monitoring school by the school inspectors by saying that the schools

57
 inspectors just fulfill the formality of visiting the schools and are not sincere.
They are also corrupt and get bribes from the faulty teachers/principals and
thus corruption becomes the significant reason for the schooling system for its
deteriorating conditions. If the monitoring becomes right and strict, the
schools, teachers and principals would be dutiful and things would improve a
lot. And fault in imparting basic education by saying that that the basic
education, that is, primary education, is faulty. The students do not get well
acquainted with the concepts and thus become unwilling to study later. One
teacher said, he thought the lack of imparting these basic concepts to the
students is the biggest failure of the government schools. If this flaw is
removed, every student will be willing to study and do well in studies.

After interviewing the girls, person who works with the schools and
teachers, parents were interviewing during fieldwork.

1. Respondents named Pradeep Manjhi belongs to Dariyapur village of Tekari

block, Gaya. According to him, he was a rickshaw puller and he is not
educated & he didn’t know how to write or read. On asking how many
children he had, he said he had three children. Two girls and youngest being
a boy, aged 4 years, 2 years, and 1 year. He wishes for his girls to study till V
or VIII. After that he will have to marry them as this is how it must be done.
He wishes that his son would read/study upto higher level. His age was 22
years. He said that if his daughters study higher, they will have to face a lot
of difficulties, namely, of searching for the higher educated groom, of
arranging bigger dowry, of facing ridicule from his community and he had
financial problems too. Also, he said the children didn’t like to study and he
had to force them to study. He has to scold the children all the time to make
them do the work or study. He didn’t see that he was discriminating in any
way, and that he was doing his best as he could for his children. On asking
how many children were there in the class of his child, he could not answer it
properly, and his answers kept vacillating between 25 to 45 students. When I

58
 asked how many boys and girls are there in her class, he was not able to
answer it. His daughters go a school which is hardly 5 minutes away from
their living place and after primary education, his daughters would have to go
farther, which he is not ready for. He has the same security concerns for his
daughters and has concerns over the marriage of the girls.

2. Respondents named Rajkumar Yadav belongs to Nepa village of Tekari block,

Gaya. He said that the girl is not going to stay in his house forever, she will go
to someone else's house after marriage, so it is better to educate the son than
to teach her, because he will be our support in old age and anyway to make
our lineage ahead. The responsibility of this lineage is on his head. Further he
said that the society is bad for the girls, because lot of bad things can happen
to girls. And when the girl is sent to study, she starts having fun and her
demands start increasing, it is better to teach her housework instead of
teaching her and get married in a good house.

3. Respondents named Shyam Manjhi belongs to Dariyapur village of Tekari

block, Gaya. He said that he wants his son and daughter to study but due to
poverty he is unable to get even two meals a day, so how can he educate his
children so he and his children work so that the family and he can feed
themselves.

According to the information received from the respondent, we came to know that most of
the parents wanted to educate their children, especially their daughters, but due to lack of
awareness, financial constraints, poverty, discrimination, societal pressure and social
conditions are not conducive for girls' education. That’s why, they are sending their daughter
in the school.

59
 CHAPTER-4
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

In conclusion, we shall try to summarize whatever we have found in each chapter.

Before going into detail, let us explain the conceptual understanding of education and
exclusion here. In a general sense, it views that education is the process that begins at
birth and continues until the end of life. Education is a significant tool that provides
knowledge, skill, technique, information and enables people to know their rights and
duties towards their family, society and the nation. It can expand our vision and
outlook to see the world around us. It changes our perception of life. Education builds
up the ability to explore new things to enhance creativity of a person. This creativity
is a tool to develop the nation. Through education we can bring social change among
societies. Education is understanding about life. According to John Dewey,
“Education is the continuous reconstruction of experiences”. And also define
education in his other book as “Education is all one with growing; it has no end
beyond itself. (Education is everything along with growth; education itself has no
final destination behind him)” (John Dewey, 1978).

Now, we shall discuss about social exclusion in a general parlance. Social Exclusion
is way of segregating group of people in terms of socially, politically, economically
and culturally. In other word, we can say that Social Exclusion talks about denial of
equal opportunity imposed by certain group of society upon others. Social Exclusion
is a multidimensional concept because it happens in terms of social, political, and
economical domain like livelihood, education, employment, etc. As Arjan De Haan
views that ‘Social Exclusion is a process by which individuals, groups are wholly or
partially excluded from full participation in society, where they live’. 43 In this
connection, here we will try to analyze educational status and exclusion of girls in
terms of access to government school infrastructure, analyzing enrollment rate, drop-
out rate, retention rate of girls & how caste affects primary education of girls in rural
Bihar and their participation in the everyday life in Gaya district of Bihar. In doing so,
this study has been divided into four chapters including conclusion.

43
Arjan De Haan,1999, Social Exclusion: Towards An Holistic Understanding of Deprivation, Department of
International Development: London.

60
In this regard, the introductory chapter deals with the introduction, statement of the problem,
objective of the study, research questions, review of literature, research methodology,
rationale, limitation of the study and ethical concerns of the study. It also provides
systematic and detailed background of the study.

The second chapter mainly attempts to provide the ongoing discourses on the historical
understanding of education and exclusion among girls in Bihar, where we discussed
education of girls, importance of girls education, social exclusion, present status of girls
education in India in general and Bihar in particular. Based on the secondary sources of data
as well as primary sources of data. After that, it also give us new insight to understand the
study. It has been found that most of respondents are socially, economically, and
educationally excluded from mainstream of the society. Even it has seen that they are not
allowed to pursue their education because of family and societal construct. According to
2011 census, India’s population was 121.06 crore and the females constituted 48.5 % of it.
Average literacy rate in the country is 74.04 %, & 82.14 % for males and 65.46 % for
females. In this regard, according to 2011 census, 88 % of female population lives in the
rural Bihar. Most of them are agricultural labourers. Average literacy rate of Bihar is 61.80
% and female literacy rate in Bihar is 51.50 % & female literacy rate in rural Bihar is 44.30
% and sex-ratio of Bihar is 918. According to 2011 census, literacy rate of Gaya is 66% and
Tekari block has 68% of literacy rate and in Tekari block, 1,12,916 peoples were illiterate,
out of them 66,905 were females. As District Information System for Education (DISE) data,
2010-11 said, retention rate and drop-out rate of girls in Gaya was respectively 60.3 % and
40.07 %.

Finally, In this third chapter, we have found that most of the respondents belong to the
studied locales do not go to school because of family, financial constraints, household
responsibilities, parental negative perceptions, urban-rural divide, and gender divide etc.
Further, it has been noticed that respondents face social boycott and discrimination in the
family as well as in the society because as we know that Indian society is considered to be a
feudal and patriarchal in nature.

61
We also found that girls were being sent to government schools, because of the Mid-Day-
Meal, clothes, books and stipend provided by the government, while boys were being sent to
private schools for better quality of education. In this way, distance plays very crucial role in
girls education because distance of the school from the home is not favourable for girls, due
to it, girls do not prefer to go to school. It has also seen that lack of infrastructure of the
school such as classrooms, separate toilets for girls, availability of female teachers, are not
there. Even it has noticed that girls are not doing better due to the above mentioned aspects.
It has observed that discrimination does exist in the family, society and especially for girls.
During the field, it has also found that changes regarding girls’ education is somehow visible
in studied locales. The SSA has been successful at least in attracting more children,
including girls, to the schools. Now challenge before the school is to maintain the quality of
education & attract students in school and maintain the presentation of girl children in the
school. Poverty plays very negative role to exclude girls for attaining education. Even
government provides various schemes such as stipend, free books, clothes, and mid-day-
meal, etc. to attracts children for coming schools. In this context, it has been seen that those
children whose parents are economically poor, do not send their children especially girl
children to the school.

In this connection, even it has found that most of parents, teachers and society changing
their attitudes towards girls. But few are still having orthodox/conservative nature against
girls education. On the other hand, early marriage is also a social hurdle for girls
development. After the explanation about early marriage, household responsibilities like
caring young brothers/sisters also creates obstruction for girls education. It has also observed
that caste still plays a bigger role in perpetuating the biases against certain communities.
Caste is a social reality that exists in the classrooms, kitchen, and playground, which
hampers the overall educational development of children. Due to patriarchal structure gender
bias is largely present in the Indian society. The two factors, i.e, caste and gender, excluded
girls especially marginalized sections of the Indian society. It has also seen that basic
facilities in the schools are lacking. So, government needs to provide better infrastructures
(Building, teachers, toilets, female teachers, distance of school, ratio of primary to secondary
school, incentives) in the schools, better teachers and better implementation, so that girls
find it easier to study and her development in the schools.

62
Due to societal pressure, girls are not allowed for education. They were mostly live in
the four wall rooms. If they wish to pursue education, but their family does not
promote education for them. Feudal mindset is still prevalent in Bihar, especially in
rural Bihar. It hampers the progress in all fields, such as socially, politically and
economically. And sometimes, the concept of inclusive learning and participatory
learning are hijacked by a handful students who are more than girls & teachers who
doesn’t pay attention on them equally. And, due to deep-rooted caste prejudices and
practices, segregation happens in the classrooms and outside the classrooms. Thus, the
learning is not healthy in such segregated environment, and the segregation is
generally creating various layers of inequalities among children.

Finally, It has seen that lack of motivation in teachers plays very negative role in
children’s life. Teachers are important resource for spreading of education, and if they
do not motivate children, the future generation will be more threat to society. It has
also found that programmes in the school are not properly implemented. Even
discriminatory practices seen in the school by the teachers. Thus, we can state that,
such kind of practices seem to disturb the dream of bringing universal education.

By summing up now, we may recommend some suggestions to the education system

in Bihar. As we know that education as a weapon bring social change in the society.
In this regard, education improve the socio-economic condition of girls. In this way,
education will empower them to become independent so that they will be able to
participate in the decision-making process and influence. It also reduces social evils
practices such as child marriage, gender discrimination, social exclusion, isolation,
segregation and domestic violence etc., so that they will develop their sense of
collective identity and equal social rights in the society. Thus, we may consider by
stating that education in the contemporary period is playing a vital role in creating
awareness and sense of equality among girls. Further, we may opine that education
will minimize social discrimination, isolation, exclusion, and segregation as well as it
also improves the living standard of girls in the society.

63
 References
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2. De Haan, Arjan.1999, Social Exclusion: Towards An Holistic Understanding of
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3. Lenoir, Rene. 1974, Les Exclus; Un Francais Surdix
4. Silver, Hilary. 1994, Social Exclusion and Social Solidarity: Three Paradigms,
International Institute of Labour Studies.
5. Klasen, Stephen. Social Exclusion, Children, And Education: Conceptual And
Measurement Issues
6. Thorat, S. and Sabharwal, N.S. (2010). Caste and Social Exclusion: Issues Related to Concept,
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Economic and Political Weekly. Vol.46 No.50
Articles/Journals
10. “Towards Gender Equality In Education”by Vimla Ramachandran,
11. UN girls’ educational initiative and EFA fast track initiative,2010.
12. “Equity In Education: Schooling of Dalit children in India, Geetha B Nambissan,
13. “T he pro gr ess o f schoo l educat io n in ind ia, 2007”by Geeta Gandhi.
14. Ananalytical study of Muslim women and girls in India,--(Ministry of Children
and Women Development)
15. Duffy,1995. Social Exclusion and Children in OECD Countries.
16. Mondal, P. 2015, Education in India: An Essay. pp.1-8.
Reports
17. Analysis of DISE data 2011-12, and DISE data 2015-16
18. 11Thfive-year plan,2007-12.
19. SSA Framework: SSA framework for implementation.---
20. Elementary education in Bihar: progresses and challenges, Prabhat P Ghosh and
Kumar Rana
21. primary education of girls:study of exclusion from primary education in bihar-Nilabh
Kumar.
22. “ Private School Revolution In Bihar” , by India Institute and Newcastle
University.
23. Census, 2011, Government of India.
Websites
24. https://www.aplustopper.com and https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com
25. http://www.iipsenvis.nic.in/Database/Population_4087.aspx
26. http://www.educationforallinindia.com/page101.html
27. https://www.census2011.co.in
28. https://www.villageinfo.in
29. www.onefivenine.com
30. www.scribd.com
31. www.slideshare.com
32. http://img.asercentre.org/docs/Publications/ASER%20Reports/ASER_2006/Annua
lSt atusofEducationReportRural2006FullReport.pdf
33. http://www.census2011.co.in/literacy.php

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 APPENDIX

QUESTIONNAIRE

SOCIO-ECONOMIC PROFILE OF THE RESPONDENTS

Name : … … … … … … … … … … … … … Age : … … … … ..

Sex : … … … … … … … .. Caste : … … … … … … … … ……...

Occupation : … .. … … …. Education…… .. … …Place….. .. …….

1. How far is your school from your home? Please explain.

2. How do you reach school? Please explain.
3. How many brothers and sisters do you have?
4. Where do they study ? Please explain.
5. Are you able to follow what is taught by teachers in the classroom? Please explain.
6. Do you find time at home to do your homework? Who helps you if you have
problems?
7. Do you also go for private tuition? Your brothers?
8. Do you face discrimination in terms of participation, management of the any
programs which take place in school as well as in society? Please explain.
9. Where do you send your children for schooling?
10. If he is sending his children to different school, why?
11. Is he also providing private tuition to his children? If Yes, to whom? and why?
12. What is the reasons behind girl child face discrimination in terms of further
education? Please explain.
13. Do you think/observe that there is exclusion of girls in the school?
14. If Yes, how does it happen? Please explain.
15. What in your opinion, are the reasons behind the exclusion? Please explain.

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