Access to private schooling under the Right to Education Act in Rajasthan, India: Exploring exclusion amongst the Scheduled Caste groups

India’s Right to Education Act (RTE) 2009 has mandated a 25 percent reservation for ‘the economically weaker’ and ‘disadvantaged’ in private schools at the elementary level. Considering this legislative provision, it is important to identify the extent to which it has affected the access of private school education for the Scheduled Caste (SC) children – one of the constitutional groupings of the disadvantaged castes, given the deeply entrenched caste system of India, with its rigid hierarchical structures. The landscape of private schooling has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly with the exacerbation of difficulties in online learning, widening the disparity and leaving the SC children further marginalised. In this thesis, I explore whether, how and why access to private schooling under India’s RTE Act has been exclusionary for some caste groups within the SC category. Levitas et al (2007) define social exclusion as both the state of being excluded (social exclusion as an outcome) and the process leading to exclusion (social exclusion as a process). Within the context of my study, I analyse the implementation of the RTE Act and its effect on the increase in access for children across all caste groups within the Scheduled Caste (SC) category in private schools (exclusion as an outcome). Additionally, I explore the structural barriers encountered by caste groups within the SC category and their experiences in the process of getting benefitted from the provisions of the Act. Additionally, I examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in accessing private school education for children belonging to the Scheduled caste groups. In order to understand the experiences of some of the disadvantaged caste groups, I have adopted a qualitative case study approach drawing from the experiences of three out of 59 caste groups of the SC category in Rajasthan (India). In collaboration with the NGO Vishakha, I used purposive sampling to identify 18 households in these caste groups with children attending private schools, either through fee payments or benefiting from the free of cost provisions of the RTE Act. Given the study was undertaken during the COVID-19 pandemic, it also incorporates a group of children who previously attended private schools but had to discontinue due to the effects of the pandemic. This provided the opportunity to examine the unique challenges faced by these caste groups and gain insights into the repercussions of the pandemic on their access to private schooling under the RTE Act. To gather comprehensive data for my research, I conducted semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with the parents. I analysed my data using a reflexive thematic analysis and narrative analysis. The findings of my study reveal that the unitary categorization of castes under the SC category overlooks the disadvantages within these caste groups, leading to an uneven access to the provisions outlined in the RTE. This oversight gives rise to an outcome of deeper exclusion of certain caste groups when attempting to access private schools under the RTE Act. The structural barriers in the process of application for RTE policy combined with the discretionary practices of the private schools push some caste groups to become further excluded. Moreover, the existence of a hierarchy within the SC category and the associated exclusionary practices are reinforced for the more disadvantaged caste groups when accessing private schools. The collective reporting of the SC category tends to overshadow the unique experiences of individual caste groups thereby contributing to their deeper exclusion. My thesis significantly contributes to the literature on access to private schooling by deviating from the conventional approach of discussing inequality with respect to focusing on the collective identity of the disadvantaged group – SC category – particularly in the context of reporting on the benefits derived from the RTE Act, 2009. Instead, it highlights the importance of considering the distinct identities of caste groups within the SC category, providing a more nuanced understanding of the existing inequalities.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Khemka, Smriti

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Rose, Pauline

• Right to education
• India
• Caste
• Education
• Rajasthan
• Private School
• RTE
• Exclusion
• Qualitative
• Scheduled Caste
• COVID-19

Licence

• https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/e8ed9173-a744-4aa7-9b74-f9ed80cddb30/download
• https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/

Language dc:language

eng

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.112034

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/373705