Caste and the Right to Learn: Policy, Practice, and Persistent Inequalities

This paper looks at the long-standing relationship between caste and the right to education inIndia, the paradox of progressive policies existing alongside deeply rooted inequalities. Thoughconstitutional protections exist, affirmative action by reservation of Scheduled Castes (SCs),Scheduled Tribes (STs), and Other Backward Classes (OBCs), and the groundbreaking Rightof Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, the article is a historicalanalysis of how ever-present disparities based on caste still influence educational experiences.The study is a critical analysis of on-the-ground realities, such as rural-urban disparities,gender-caste relationships, and structural determinants such as economic precarity, lack ofsocial capital (Bourdieu), and neoliberal privatization based on empirical evidence in the formof sources such as ASER reports, AISHE data, and fieldwork studies. It ends with practicalsuggestions obtaining a better implementation of RTE, more reservations, caste-sensitivitytraining, Dalit-led movements and more action on the part of multiple stakeholders to bringeducation to its emancipatory potential, repeating the mantra of Ambedkar: Educate, Agitate,Organize.