career guidance for scheduled castes and muslims in india challenges and prospects for addressing...
TRANSCRIPT
Career Guidance for Scheduled Castes and Muslims in India
Challenges and Prospects for addressing Social Exclusion
Anita Ratnam, IAEVG International Careers Conferenece 2011
Contents
Part 1: Why talk about Dalits and MuslimsPart 2: Exclusion: Nuances & ImplicationsPart 3: Ways Forward for CG
Why talk about Dalits & Muslims?The Caste System
• Scheduled Castes / Dalits 17% of population, 168 million
• Varna and Caste System- Origins & Religious sanction
• The purity principle and graded inequality• Untouchables : outside the system, • Occupations and caste• Colonial Rule and Enumeration• 1232 Scheduled Castes GOI Act• Dalit / Harijan• Constitution & Society Dichotomy• Denied education till missionaries and
reformers in 1850s, Ambedkar• Live outside the main villages even today• Doing menial manual jobs-scavenging,
tanning, farm labour, construction- work is critical but undervalued,
• Untouchability & Atrocities continue ,25000 cases every year
Brahmin-priests
Kshatriya-soldiers
Vaishya - traders
Shudra-cultivators/artisans-
Untouchables- outside caste
Exclusion of Indian dalit from meaningful careers
• 50% under the poverty line Vs 34 % of Indians ..,,
• 86 % of dalis are landless & 50% of dalits are agricultural labourers Vs 20% of All Indians are AL
• Less than 10% of dalit households have access to safe drinking water& sanitation
• Dropout rate of Dalit children from primary schools 44.27% (UNICEF 2006); • Dalit Literacy 5 4.7 % All Indians 64% ( Census.2001)
• 2.2 % of dalits are college graduates, Professional Education*
• Among 800 accredited journalists, none from dalits.;No actor and actress in Bollywood (Film Industry).
•No dalit In top 1000 industrialists, No dalit CEOs
• 2 dalit Judges in Supreme Court Since 1947.
• Living with other castes & collective action led to emergence of SC middle class
• Inter caste Marriage…a issue in Indian Society
• Suicides in Higher Educational Institutions: Death Of merit
Scavenger
Exclusion of Indian Muslims from meaningful Careers
Sachar Committee2005: Exploding Myths
Muslims Others
Non enrollment & dropout in the 6-14 age group
25%
Above 17 and completed high school
17% 26%
Above 20 and holding degrees/diplomas
4% 7%
Completed techical education 1%
Salary earners 13 % 25%
Women in the 15-64 age in workforce
25% 44%
Self-employment 61% 55%
Poverty HCR ( urban and rural) 38%/31%
Women home based workers as % of women workers
70% 51%
Access to safe drinking water among rural households
10% 25%
Prison inmates 40%
Street vendors as % of male workforce
12 8
• Muslims138 million, 13.4% of population
• Islam in India, trade and the first mosque in 629 AD
• Mughal Rule established by Babar in 1526 and continued till Colonial Rule
• 1947 Partition, Violent Exodus• Ghettos and Enclaves post
independence• Secular State & Hindu Nation• From Outsiders to Anti Nationals
to Terrorists- Myth and Popular Discourse
• Caste within Muslims: Ashraf's, Ajlafs and Arzals( Dalit Muslims)
Why talk about Muslims
• Institutionalized Discrimination not addressed- no reservations; instead there is a..myth of appeasement
• Kashmir and Pakistan wars- have led to notion of Muslims as “enemy”
• Madrasas and Govt urdu schools lag behind , English third language a hindrance in the job market
• Rise of Hindu Fundamentalism & Violence against Muslims: Ayodhya- Gujarat Genocide ; Persistence Communal riots, Muslims live in Fear….. of being killed, raped, imprisoned, ridiculed.. Boycotted
• Muslim Religious fundamentalism and moral policing deny them human rights in the name of being good Muslim
• Technology & big business; displacement of Muslim traditional occupations
• Helplessness to change their image in society & media stereotyping;
• Corporate world equated with western culture,
Contents
Part 1: Why talk about Dalits and MuslimsPart 2: Exclusion: Nuances & ImplicationsPart 3: Ways Forward for CG
Blame it on them…. Muslims are fanatics, Dalits are dumb and dirty… they are the moral underclass….
deserve to be where they are.. Understanding Exclusion- Nuances & Implications…
• What is Exclusion, really ?( Prakash Loius), How do we even begin to understand the excluded ?
• Understanding relationships between individual, community and identity
• Understanding linkages between social group position and aspiration; socially disadvantaged groups have “lower” aspirations… or “different” aspirations
• Aptitudes , Affinities & Interests as culturally constructed,
• Perception of abilities: Self efficacy beliefs in the face of Islamophobia and Casteism
• Resources: Linkages between Knowledge-skills-mindsets/social location..
• Beliefs, World views and Imaginations: Indian belief in destiny and caste.. , Male youth in an imagined world ;( Jónsson,2008)
• Opportunities: Embedding of inequalities, institutionaizled discrimination, Glass ceilings, Mobility and transport issues ( Cass, Shove & Urry) … Differential advantage, Unequal childhoods ( Lareau,2003)
• Behaviour: Leong (2002) suggested that behaviour is an interaction between a person, the environment, the person’s culture, and the primary (or dominant) culture in the person’s environment…..
“
A Dalit youth who had passed electrical engineering with distinction, was forced to work in a factory for Rs. 2000 a month. His fellow worker was earning the same salary and doing the same work without even finishing his schooling. The first question he was during various interview, “What is your caste?” Martin Mc Wan , Dalit Shakthi Kendra
Exclusion Nuances & Implications
Imranas Story
When Imrana was raped by a relative, the religious leaders instead she leave her husband, children and work and marry the rapist.. Or face boycott from her community,, Imranas predicament is a tragic example of how young women are caught between longing for community and identity & their basic human rights and desires…
• My very first reaction to the Bomb blasts in Delhi was: Will it be Indian Mujahideen (IM) once again?. I felt like crying and shouting from the rooftop that whatever the terrorists have done in the name of Islam was wrong; that I am an Indian, who also happens to be a Muslim. I would not rejoice at the bleeding of my very own countrymen.
• Then, exactly six days later I was awakened by the phone. My colleagues were asking: Are you okay? There's an encounter going on in your area. …I was so embarrassed, uncomfortable, conscious of a strange guilt, defensive and uneasy….Then came the psychological bomb -- one of the “terrorists” caught following the police encounter was my namesake.. Saif Khalid (http://www.razarumi.com/)
Undesrtanding Exclusion- nuances and implications
How Inclusion Boomerangs
Anti reservation movements“ youth for equality” group of upper caste youth
Reservation in the Private Sector: Corporate Social Resistance ( CSR!!)
Reservation within reservation.. ( Madigas /holya caste within caste)Violent attacks on the successful- gujarat/, coimbatore/,Mangalore/,
BadanavaluSuicides- despair or protest
Laws /policies/programmes Vs deeprooted ideologies and cultures of inequality
How Technology Backfires
Traditional occupations gain respect through new nomenclature/ packaging ( uniforms!) …., but leave out the original “experts”..
Removal of stigma and occupational mobility across castes/religions is a welcome change…
But dangers of new exclusions when technology and capital are out of reach ( Gowda,2011)
Technology and De-skilling of society…Technology and Work- where is technology needed
and where is it deployed?
Understanding Exclusion- nuances and implications…in a globalising world
• Displaced and Redundant Masculinities in the Post Industrial Working Class( Mc Dowell)
• Or is it deeper …..Redundant Humanity? How do the young negotiate Skill vs Passion, Security Vs risk, Obligation Vs Autonomy.? ( Morgan,2008) Who is John without his passion?…
• Cooption or Accommodation? Numbers…….. Or texture….. • Even if integration is possible… is it the answer to exclusion?
What do we learn from the failed romance with multiculturalism?.
• What do we learn from Indias attempts at Secularism? The case of St Jopsehs college… real inclusion means changing the rules of the game, changing the game itself….
Work is culturally coded ..Disjuncts between material conditions & cultural codes (Cohen 2006)
Discord between parental models and todays world of work, Parents culture and youth culture creates questions and parent culture dominates the way work is understood (Nayak 2006)
Do all cultures /communities accept the ‘calculative attitude’ for career building? (Connell, 2000)
Rootlessness and occupational mobility as postmodern workers expected to constantly re-invent themselves.. The myth of Flexibility (Morgan)
Difficulties of Dalits in Business (Jodhka,2010)
individual
community
societyCulture/ideology
Policy/pradaugm
Replication of inequality and injustice
Does it have to be that way?
Contents
Part 1: Why talk about Dalits and MuslimsPart 2: Exclusion: Nuances & ImplicationsPart 3: Ways Forward for CG
Ways forward: Recognising Challenges in addressing social exclusion
Can CG Break the cycle of exclusion?
The State of Career Guidance in India todayFrom CET counseling! To NREGA
CG often combined with Scholarships for meritorious poor!
CG guided by a notion of development equated with growth in GDP through industrialisation, modern technology, capitalism, accumulation and global financial flows
The need to liberate “work” from “employment” to encompass multiple modes of surviving , of contributing to others needs is ignored
Development as culture, as civilisation, as happiness, as pluralism, harmony with nature, human compassion are rarely evoked in CG practice….. By these standards Gujarat (where manual scavenging by Dalits still exists and genocides of Muslims goes unpunished; where dams displaced more than 2 million people) is one of the most “developed “ states in India.
Can we really afford to have CG that rests on such a violent and narrow definition of development?
Non questioning of current development paradigm;
aims at fitting people into the system
Urban & middle class focussed; out of reach
of majority of dalits and muslims
Skewed towards Engg/Medicine/
Business and undervaluing
humanities; disregards traditional occupations
Focus on Psychometry and ignores
structural /cultural factors
Parents influennces/control not
questioned
CG and livelihood Planning as a discipline
is in its infancy
CG a tool for replication of inequalities
Ways forward for CG: Grounding Guidance & Counselling in a critical analysis of state and society
You cant go to school any more, child, we simply cannot afford it” says Champas grandmother. Champa is silent. Her eyes pleading. Grandma tries again, “Don’t worry dear, we will make you happy by finding you a good boy’…At this Champa bursts out…”how can I find a good boy if I am not educated?”
What is inclusion: A share of the pie? .. Or a new pie?
Strategies for inclusion. Challenges for Career Guidance
State exp on Education High dropouts signify lack of access and lack of faith in formal education to help in survival: How can CG motivate them to pursue education?
Expenditure for welfare and development
State not committed to substantive equity and rights. Vocabulary still dominated by welfare.Can CG promote a sense of rights and entitlements ?
Reservation/subsidies in Higher Education Helping the elite among the Dalits
and Muslims? Muppies?(Bennet2010)Can CG reach those on the edge?
Reservations in employment
Govt jobs shrinking/ private sector hostile to reservations.How can CG help fight discrimination in getting jobs and later in the workplace?
Resource allocation for self employed, wage labour and enterprises
Industrialisation and “development” Iitself is a cause of dispossessionPoverty line debates play havoc with who is called poor…What stand does CG take?
Ways forward: Understanding the excluded and helping Change Aspirations
Is CG, in the “business as usual” mode, really Enough ?
Careers guidance is the engine room of social mobility and social justice.” Dr Deidre Hughes ( ICG). But how do we deal with
• The traumatised & terrorised psyche?• The colonised mind? Remember Fanon?• Pride and shame in ones community and
culture?• Youth Suicides. As Despair and as
Protest?• Dalit/Islamic fundamentalism?• Young People flirting with terror and
crime?• Grappling with distrust, hate and
prejudice? • Sensitising the privileged to the rights of
the excluded?• Building new visions for self and
society?
Fettered Aspirations/unexplored aptitudes/ interests
Emotions of rage/fear/deapair/sahme
Negligible Opportunities and resources
Curtailing Beliefs /values
Experience of Social Exclusion
& individual psychological
disposition
Some inspiring examples
Theoretical Frameworks that can Guide us
• Understanding Exclusion & its psycho social impacts ( Prakash Louis,2007)
• Re-defining goals of CG to include changing and raising aspirations ( Watts,2001)
• Legitimising knowledges, skills, and economies of the excluded- (Bryan Hiebert,2005)
• Recognising Aspirations as shaped by material resources and not merely psychological dispositions (Jencks, Crouse and Mueser, 1983)
• Adopting Cultural Preparedness Approach ( Arulmani, G. 2009)• Seeing Hybrid identities ( Tabassum Khan,2009)• Harnessing Resilience and wisdom, cultural advantages• Developing Vocational Indigenous Psychology ( Leong 2011)• Recognising the need to expand the scope of guidance to policy
advocacy and mentoring/counselling• Understanding “determinants of aspirations” ( Gutman &
Ackerman 2008)• Understanding excluded groups, and tendencies for
overachievement and underperformance ( Mao & Tienda 1998). • Using critical pedagogy that includes interactive approaches,
active and reflective practice & using art /creative ways to reach the inner minds (Altman & De 2010)
• Addressing Institutional, Dispositional and Situational Barriers Clayton 1999)
The dalit students guidance portal : http://www.scststudents.org/- creatively combines information, advocacy, rights, support and mentoring to address the “inner mind”
The Azam Campus in Pune : innovative culturally sensitive and critical pedagogies
Sensitised and
Empowered youth leaders
• Working with Disadvantaged youth in a region
• Changing youth values & Aspirations
• Helping youth re-define work, relationships, affiliations and lifetsyles
• Linking youth leadership to activism
Creative Youth Work
Youth Social
Enterprises
• Training for Sustainable Livelihoods
• Putting social and Financial Capital at the base of the pyramid
• Pursuing Profits, purpose and social impact
Humanised
Professions
• Equipping marginalised youth enter key professions
• Building Professionals with Commitment to Peace & Justice in society
• Addressing Ethics and Inclusion in professions
Promotion of youth workDeveloping Youth StudiesTraining Youth Workers Vibrant
civil society
Samvada approach to inclusive and sustainable devlopment
Samvada’s Vruti Nota – Shaping Aspirations as an objective Caste-class bound, Religion and gender restricted• Family-
controlled• Unexamine
d aptitudesConventional notions of success, prestige/ status/ security
Limited Info about work and study options
Position of vulnerability and unclear abt self interest/achievement
Unrealistic planningHostility towards society and negative self image
From
Expression of individual ( re-examined) interests/values awareness of caste and class pressure and ability to negotiate
Understanding of work & study options and implications
• Transcending restrictions of religion Autonomous
Decision makingTowards Upward mobility, Inclusion & Justice
Awareness of Rights and responsibilities
Realistic career path • Critical
analysis of society/community
• Positve self image
To
Samvada CG Pedagogy and Process• Step 1:Reflections on self and society,
examination of values & beliefs, aspirations & motivations,
• Step 2 :Analysis of social structure and impact of socialisation on relationships, work choices, lifestyles and political affiliations
• Step 3: Understanding and Committing to Personal & Societal Change
Looking inolanota
Looking around/varenota
Looking ahead/munota
CG not a stand alone process, but an integral part of comprehensive youth work
Not based on initially expressed interests or aspirations as they are culturally and economically “programmed”
Providing space to re-think self & Society and then re-define dreams, aspirations and examine fears/ aptitudes
Introduce Career& Livelihood Planning modules only in Step 3
Helping understand politics embedded in work choices, career journeys and workplace issues
Mentoring, helping access scholarships and coaching.
(Ratnam and Issac, Samvada 2011)
THANK YOU