Lausanne World Pulse – Dalit Education Centers: Delivering Emancipation and Building Leaders
By Joseph D’Souza
– Only two percent of seats in higher education institutions are filled by Dalits (despite reservation status allocating a greater number of seats) because they are unable to legitimately reach this academic level and compete in an English-based education standard.
– Over seventy percent of all children bonded in labor are Dalits. More than sixty-five percent of all young girls used in female prostitution trafficking are from the depressed Dalit castes.
The Dalit Education Centers seek to change these statistics, to end child labor, to end child prostitution and to bring justice to a new generation of Dalit children.
A top goal of the DEC program is to create a caste-free environment where children from all castes, religions and walks of life are encouraged to study, work, play and eat together. It is built on the worldview that all men and women are created equally in the image of God and all are equally loved by God.
Justice Becoming a Reality
The small village of Papaiahpet in Andhra Pradesh, South India, is a beautiful example of how these goals are being fulfilled. Plagued by extreme caste division, Papaiahpet was one of the first villages to construct and fully develop a Dalit Education Center. For the first time, Dalit children went to school and were afforded the same educational privileges as the upper caste children in the village. They wore uniforms and carried school bags. The boys carefully shined their school shoes and the girls proudly wore red ribbons in their long, black hair. The teachers at the school worked diligently to provide an excellent educational atmosphere for these oppressed children. The result was a genuine transformation.
Shortly after the DEC opened, the upper caste residents of the village noticed the excellent academic standard by which the school was run. They saw the Dalit children’s behavior improve. They noticed that Dalit parents were taking an active role in their children’s education. As a gesture, the upper caste leaders of the village invited the Dalit residents to dinner in an upper caste home. Never in the history of the village had the upper caste and lower caste eaten together, let alone in the home of an upper caste member.
Dalit Education Centers are places of equality and love. DEC managers are often thrilled to admit high caste students into the DEC schools. Teachers treat all students with love and respect regardless of their family background. There are legitimate enrollment allotments for high caste children in some of the DECs because the enrollment reflects demographic distribution of the community. In addition, because of the high quality of education offered at each school, upper caste parents beg DEC staff to enroll their children.
Despite the schools’ apparent popularity and positive reputation in each community, there remains high caste opposition in many places to the emancipation of the Dalits through the education the DECs offer. Yet, the DECs and those committed to seeking the empowerment and freedom of the Dalit children will continue to work until the task is fulfilled.
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