Education for Tribal in Purnia District: A Dream

Tribes are not just within undivided Bihar (prior to the creation of Jharkhand), but also after its division, have received little attention in research or social action. Infact, after the creation of Jharkhand, Bihar is no longer associated with a significant tribal population, with the majority of tribes falling within the administrative boundary of Jharkhand. However, there is a significant tribal population still within Bihar. According to GOI report, the total population of Bihar is 8,29,98,509 of which Schedule Tribes constitute 7,58,351. The decennial growth of ST population in Bihar has been 32.4 per cent which is 3.8 per cent higher than the rate of general population[1].

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[1] See, Annual Report 2008-09 of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs

Socio-economic status of Purnia District

According to the 2001 Census, the total population of Purnia district is 25.40 lakhs. Out of this, majority of the population i.e., 23 lakhs are residing in rural areas of Purnia whereas rest about 2 lakhs in urban areas. The literacy rate of Bihar is 47.53 per cent (Male 60.32% & Female 33.57%) compared to the literacy rate of Purnia which is 35.51 per cent (Male 46.16% and Female 23.72%). The literacy rate in general and the female literacy in particular, is as low as 44.15 per cent and 33.93 per cent respectively in comparison to the all India figure of 67.30 per cent and 57.10 per cent. Hence, improving overall literacy rate with emphasis on female literacy is another important priority. A topping-up approach under the Multi-Sectoral Development Plan can be adopted here. There is also an urgency to ensure 100 percent enrolment ratio and minimize the drop-out rate.

In Purnia, the major scheduled tribes are Lohra, Oraon and Santhal living in Purnia east, Dhamdaha, Bamankhi and Kaswa Blocks. Majority of them are into the occupation of daily wage labourer, domestic help and selling local wine like Tarri, pochai, mahua etc. Few are also into agriculture, animal hunting and gathering. Tacit knowledge is mostly used for any kind of production purpose. Most of them live under utter poverty and take recourse to loans from local moneylenders to survive. Once in debt, they are caught in the vicious trap of unending servitude. In order to repay the debt, they often mortgage or sell their land to the moneylenders. Indebtedness is almost inevitable since heavy interest is to be paid to these moneylenders.

Regular natural calamities like floods etc. push tribes further into the poverty cycle. On ground, hardly there are footprints of efforts made by the local politicians as well as GOI to eradicate the problems persisting here from ages. Low literacy rate among tribes, especially in women’s is one such example where very little contribution has been made. There are several reasons for this, one major reason is that - in schools, majority of the teachers comes from non-tribal community who carries non-tribal language too which is least understood by the tribal students. Such basic issues are still not yet resolved.  

As per IHD (2008), Purnia lags behind the all India figures in 7 out of 8 indicators also in two major health related indicators. The sex ratio of Purnia is 921females per thousand males which is highly alarming in the state. The average household size of Purnia is 5.10 compared to the state average of 6 that may be a good sign or bad.

The below table 1 exhibits the household size, literacy rate, sex ratio and total population (in thousands) of several blocks in Purnia district. Purnia district encompasses in total 14 block where the average population is 31.21 thousand (highest 36.53 and lowest 20.23), average household size is 5.11 person (highest 5.34 and lowest 4.72), average sex ratio is 922 (highest 936 and lowest 908), average literacy rate of male population is 41.80 (highest 46.41 and lowest 30.11) and the average literacy rate of female population is only 19.56 (highest 26.43 and lowest 9.55). The above data depicts the picture of total block population comprises of tribal and non-tribal communities.                       

Table 1: Block-Wise Household Size, Literacy and Sex Ratio

Source: Village Level Directory, (Census 2001)

As per the data, 61.3 per cent of villages in Purnia district have primary schools as compared to the state average of 72.06 per cent. Block like Dhamdaha where the tribal population is very high i.e., 10.2% the number of secondary schools is much less as compared to other blocks where the tribal population  is very low. There are several tribal areas like Kasba, Banmankhi, Jalalgarh, Bhawanipur, Srinagar, Rupouli, Baisa etc. where schools are hardly functioning. Secondary and Higher Secondary Schools are like a dream for this tribal communities. This is one of the important reason maximum children drop out can be observed from the school.

The below table 2 best describes the status and presence of schools in villages of each block in this district. In an average, approximately 64.29 per cent of villages have primary schools (highest number of school exists in Rupouli block i.e., 87% of villages have primary school and lowest block like Dagarua where only 48.2% of villages have the same) and only 20.87 per cent of the villages in these 14 blocks have middle high schools (highest number of middle high schools exist again in Rupouli block i.e., 39.1 villages have middle high school whereas lowest block like Baisi where only 6.4 % of the villages have middle high schools).

Table 2: Presence or Status of Primary and Middle High Schools in Purnia District

                           

               Source: Village Level Directory, Census 2001

It has been also found that the Teacher’s Training Institute is present in only 2 blocks viz., ‘Srinagr’ and ‘Dagarua’ rest all 12 blocks do not have any single training institute where teachers gets trained. It has also seen that teachers are appointed in majority of the primary schools in this district has minimum educational attainment of SSC and maximum HSC and in the rarest case graduation. In such a horrific situation, the education of people in these areas at a very high risk. Already the poverty condition of these people makes them susceptible towards education as the employment opportunities are also not at par.   

Educational Facilities

According to IHD (2008), very few villages have specialized schools for girls that is available at a mean distance of 9.5 km. For higher education the facilities are negligible here. Higher educational institutions are located only in district towns which are at a mean distance of atleast 24 kms. For polytechnics, Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and other training institutes, students have to travel a distance of more than 38 km. Around 13.3 per cent of the villages have reported the presence of religious schools, that is, Madarasas whereas nearly 50 per cent also reported of the existence of non-formal schooling.

 The location of educational institutions and the distance from the village determines the utilization of these facilities. In this context, tribal are most disadvantaged as almost all of them are settled outside the village. Nearly 8.72 per cent of the schools are available at a distance of 1-2 kms; 12.4 per cent of Hindus have access to schools at a distance of 1-2 kms and 6.94 per cent of the Muslims have access to the same. Around 5 per cent of the population has schools at a distance of 2-4 kms (IHD 2008).

Due to several reasons like poverty, unavailability of schools, long distance to cover to attain school, language barrier or constraints between the teacher’s and tribal students, teacher’s educational knowledge or quality education and least awareness about the importance of education. Because of this, tribal are unaware about several governmental schemes and provisions made to them on paper.

1. Those who are aware about governmental schemes and provisions, they don’t know how to get access. The majority of people from the community have no access of such provisions.
2. Do not have the access of the loans. Though community people are approaching to Banks for the access of loans, banks are delaying in the process of providing the loans. The governments do not provide the subsidies for any type of loans.
3. Due to lack in education government officials and the people try to cheat people of tribal community.
4. Governmental officials and political leaders don’t help the community for making provisions of various schemes and for its implementation too. They don’t have willingness to help to the tribal community peoples.

Years spent in this district explain that development is the most elusive and important concept in the Indian scenario but by and large tribal have been deceived in the name of development. Development for whom and development for what must be addressed otherwise it remain only a popular cheap political slogan. Government and policy makers are making schemes for their implementation but it’s not reaching every section of the tribal society.  At the threshedhold of 21^st centuries we find that to make the concept of Development meaningful needs to be redefinition of the concept. Almost five decades of planned development targeted to Indian population is going to be completed soon but the achievements are at-dismay.  Although several micro planning’s are designed at block level by state and central still the tribal are at the same state where they were before independence. Independence they will feel in real sense when they will get an opportunity to attain atleast higher secondary education in quality schools. Thus this proposal tries to draw portray of overall educational attainment, non-attainment and the actual reasons behind it. This research will also try to look at the major actions and steps required to make short term and long term goals for the entire underprivileged and disadvantaged tribal communities of my district ‘Purnia’. 

Socio-cultural profile of the major Tribes in Purnia District

Oraon Tribes

Oraon is the most populous tribe among the major tribes in Purnia District, followed by santhal, munda, lohra, kharwar etc. A large number of Oraons today are Christians; being oppressed by the Hindus they were lured into Christianity . They speaks kurukh language and oraon tribes also known as Kurukh and Dhanger in Purnia District. The Oraon people have a rich range of folk songs, dances and tales, as well as traditional musical instruments. Both men and women participate in dance, which are performed at social events and festivals. Mandar, Nagara and kartal are the main musical instruments. The Oraon who have adopted Christianity write their title along with their name. Still majority oraon do not writes their title and using as "ORAON". However, those who follow Tana Bhagat principle or Sarna Dharma write the Bhagat in place of their gotra. Many prefer to write Oraon as a second name in place of a gotra. Majority of oraon who have converted in "CHRISTIANITY" write their title as(Kerketta, Xalxo, Xaxa, Xess, Tirkey, Toppo, Tigga, Kujur,Minz, Ekka Barla, Barwa, Indwar or Ind, Lakra, Beck, Dhanwar, Baghwar, Kachhap, kindo, Kispota, kanda, Kokro, Gaddi, Khoya, Chermanko,Dadel, Niya, Panna, Bakula, Basa, Bando, Bhagat, Binko, Beck, Munjni, Runda, Linda, Son, Rawna, etc.) with their name. However, those who follow Tana Bhagat principle or Sarna Dharma write Bhagat in place of gotra. Many Oraon who have converted to Chritianity have opted new names in place of gotra like some Toppo clan writes their second name (gotra) as Marjee. Oraon prefer to marry a oraon only. However, Christian Oraon often marry other caste and community (Munda, Kharia, Santal)due to influence of Christianity. However, Sarna Oraon prefer marriage with a oraon only with full traditional fashion.

The Oraon Adivasi followed the 'Sarna' Dharam (Sarna religion) but due to the influence of Hinduism and Christianity some of the groups started following Sarna in Hindu style,  like they celebrate Chatt puja and Durga Puja etc which is in Hindu culture in Purnea(Bihar).

A large number of Oraons were forced to abandon their original beliefs of Sarna Dharma during the British rule mainly due to the British induced famines and exploitations coupled with Christian missionaries. In fact, the 19th century troubles were mainly due to the hoarding malpractices of the Britishers who used to export the food to other countries. These led to indirect deaths of millions of Biharis and Bengalis. The Christian missions found the Oraon community depressed and without food and one of the conditions of giving them food used to be becoming Christians. That's why most Christian Oraons are limited to cities and the vast majority of population in villages still follows traditional religions like Hindu and Sarna. In the ancient days, Oraons used to make their living by chopping timber and selling forest products. Majority of the population of Oraons can be found in Northeastern states engaged in the occupation of tea cultivation.  Now Orans have taken to various professions.

                         

Lohra tribes

The Lohra is one of the Adivasi Groups of the Jharkhand and Bihar. They are found in the districts of Ranchi, Singhbhum, Palamu, Hazaribag and Santhal Pargana, of the Jharkhand State and Purnia, Katihar in Bihar state. The Lohra are associated with the preparation of iron tools. So they are known as artisan tribes. They supply iron-implements to agricultural tribes and castes of the villages where they because they have been associated with the occupation of iron-craft-making. Lohra tribal community is effected from Hinduism generally they follow Hindu culture an Tradition. they celebrate Chatt puja and Durga Puja etc which is in Hindu culture in Purnea(Bihar). But some of the people from this community do DANGRI PUJA.  According to oral history that is the main traditional Puja of lohra tribe and without this Puja every process is incomplete. Only that group celebrates this who is economically powerful. Because in this celebration expenditure is like a marriage. And who is not economically strong they just follow Hindu puja.

They associated with the preparation of iron tools and in ancient period they were by means of this profession but in present situation only in Banmankhi block in purnea some people from this community doing this as a occupation. But in off season of agriculture they known as a migrated labour. Landlessness is the biggest problem of this community that’s why doing not able to agriculture. And women ,girls ,children are working as a ma servent. and Literacy rate among these tribe is almost 1 % total literacy of tribal community in Bihar. Finally we can say among the all  tribal community in Purnia Dist. Lohra has lowest literacy.an they are very backward in society.

Santhal tribes

Santhals are the third largest tribe in India. They are mostly found in the states of West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand and Assam. Santhals belong to the Pre Aryan period. They were the great fighters during the British regime in India. They wagged war against the permanent settlement of Lord Cornwallis in 1855. During the late 1850 Santhals hero Sidhu had accumulated around 10 thousand Santhals to run parallel government against the British government. Baba Tilka Majhi was the first Santhal leather who raise weapons against the Britishers in 1789.

Santhals speak Santhali, which belongs to the Austro- Asiatic language family. Santhals have their script called Olchiki, which was developed by Dr Raghunath Murmu in 1925. Accoring to the census their population is around 49,000.  And  in purnea district santhal is the second highest tribal population.They are generally Bilingual. Apart from Santhali they also speak Bengali,  and Hindi. generally Santhals have long head and flat nose but in purnia district  from the effect of sanskritisation  they use modern clothes. Their complexion varies from dark brown to black in colour. Santhals usually have curly hair .Basically The livelihood of the Santhals revolve around the forests they live in. They fulfill their basic needs from the trees and plants of the forests. Apart from this they are also engaged in the haunting, fishing and cultivation for their livelihood. Santhals posses the unique skills in making the musical equipments, mats and baskets out of the plants. This talent is safely passed on from one generation to the other. But in the case of purnia District status of Santhal Tribe is something different. Most of the population of this community living in rural area of district (dhamaha, banmankhi. Amour. Kaswa blocks.) and their main occupation is Agriculture and selling local wine(hadia, Mahua, Tadi)

They fully follow their tradition an culture .Santhals love dancing. It is in their blood. Dance is the important part of the Santhals fairs and festivals. ‘Sohrai’ is the man festival of them. And some population from this community accepted Christianity and there is reason behind that economic backwardness. And also literacy rate is not well in their community only who accepted Christianity ,they are being educated and rest of all living with illiteracy.
Santhals have no temples of their own. They even do not worship any idols. Santhals follow the Sarna religion. The God and Goddess of Santhal are Marangburu, Jaheraera, and Manjhi. Santhals pay respect to the ghosts and spirits like Kal Sing, Lakchera, Beudarang etc. They have village priests known as the Naiki and shaman Ujha. Animal sacrifices to the Gods is the common practice common practice among the Santhals to appease the Gods and Goddess.

But some of people from santhal community worship Hindu god and Devi and also follow hindu culture. This things found only in urban area in Purnia district

Issue  Among Tribal community in Purnia District

1. The tribals of Bihar identify themselves different from the tribes of Jharkhand. This is

a new phenomenon which gives them a Bihari identity.

2. The plan of the Bihar Government for the development of tribes of Bihar needs to be

properly planned and budgeted for their real development and be linked with the

national plan for the tribal development.

3. Their representation in polity and administration ought to be raised in order to avoid

their nursing of 'alien feeling'.

4. The tribes of Bihar need to be scientifically documented and an ethnographic study of

each tribes be recorded.

5. Violence among tribals are largely because of political, social and economic factors.

This needs to be scientifically researched.

6. The tribes of Bihar need to be integrated in such a design that they may feel assimilated

and a member of the national mainstream.

7. Infusion and diffusion of folk culture and folk tradition be given priority while

planning for their social and economic development.

Conclusion

 After know the condition we find main reason of poor condition of education and health is lack of awareness and economic weakness, economic conditions of most tribal families were miserable. Lack of time, lack of books and resources along with lack of parental interest in schooling their children was the greatest hurdle. There is no doubt for the development government is doing lots of work but it doesn’t reach to the tribal community.  Why it’s a enormous question & where is gap why some tribes are losing his identity as a tribe they 

situation of tribal community in BIHAR

                                         Status of Tribal Communities in contemporary Bihar

Scheduled tribes (STs) distinguish themselves from other communities with their distinctive culture and isolated habitations and lag behind the rest of the society due to their socio-economic backwardness. According to the 2001 Census, they account for about 84.32 million constituting 8.2 per cent of the country's total population. Primitive Tribal Groups (PTGs) are 1.32 million according to the 1991 Census constituting 1.49 per cent of the total tribal population. After the bifurcation of Bihar in November 2000, its predominantly tribal region became the state of Jharkhand. Lots of people think Bihar did not have any tribal population. In truncated Bihar we have demographically dominant tribes as well as primitive tribal groups, food gatherers and hunters. When we examine the economic condition of these tribes we find that by and large they are settled agriculturist and live in a particular geographical territory. Their economy is marked by the barter system. Labour is shared and exchanged and not sold within the community. Their social life is similar to that of similar tribes in Jharkhand. Their cultural institutions and functions are the same. The recent census suggests that each district of Bihar has some tribal population. The Santhals of Bihar now, after two years, have started to claim that they are the original Santhals and distinguish themselves from the Santhals of Jharkhand. However, marriages of Santhals living in Bihar are being solemnized with the Santhals of Jharkhand and of West Bengal. Is this only a geographical distribution of the population or something more, which gives them the connotation of tribes of Bihar? I think it is something more than geographical distribution. It is their sense of belongingness with the state of Bihar. This sense of belongingness gives a new perspective to their world view. Their cultural, ecological and human emotions give them an image, feeling, bondage, style of life, etc, identifying them as tribes of Bihar. This is yet to be firmly articulated by them. Majority of the tribes of Bihar are settled agriculturist, agricultural labourers or simple labourers. Generally they work as labourers and also migrate as labourers. They hardly get two square meals throughout the year. However, their folklore, folk tales and folk songs, folk music are very rich. When they are involved in singing or dancing it becomes very difficult to imagine that their bellies may be empty. Their dress is similar to those of Jharkhand tribes. They worship nature and Hindu Gods and Goddesses. Tribes of Bihar generally belong to the Mongoloid racial group and have their own dialects with Devnagari as script. Their development has become a myth. They suffer either from deprivatory development, or discriminatory development or derivatory development. They need to be developed as per their 'Felt Need' which may result in their sustainable development. Demographically Santhals are the number one tribe of Bihar, then comes Tharu . After the division of erstwhile state of Bihar which gave birth to Jharkhand, the dominant perception remains that the state of Jharkhand is a separate state for the tribal community. According to the annual report 2008-09 of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, the total population of Bihar is 8, 29, 98,509 of which Schedule Tribes constitute 75, 8,351. The decennial growth of ST population in Bihar has been 32.4 per cent which is 3.8 per cent higher than the rate for general population.The State of Bihar has a total of 33 tribes, which are mainly, Santhal, Munda, Oraon, Lohra etc.   The Scheduled Tribes in Bihar are overwhelmingly rural as 94.6 per cent of them reside in villages. The district-wise distribution of ST population shows that Katihar district has the highest proportion of STs (5.9 per cent) followed by Jamui (4.8 per cent), Banka (4.7 per cent) and Purnia (4.4 per cent). Sheohar district has the lowest proportion of the STs (0.01per cent), preceded by Darbhanga and Khagaria (0.03 per cent each).

The Tribal communities in Bihar, especially Bihar, Arariya, Bhagalpur, Supaol, Kishanganj, Gaya, and so on, owing to their precarious libing conditions, have no conception of a distinct tribal identity.

The tribal people  in our country are known as Adivasis in the ordinary usage of the term. In general, it is applied to people who are considered primitive and who live in backward areas.. In the Indian context, Tribe is thus basically a politico-administrative category and has hardly retained any of its socio-cultural characteristics. This is why, perhaps, our constitution uses the term tribe in its administrative connotation.  In Bihar, for instance, Hinduism is the predominant religion of the tribes of the State as 89.7 per cent STs are Hindus. The tribes professing ‘Other Religions and Pursuations’ account for 6.3 Per cent. Christian tribes are 3.4 per cent and less than half per cent (0.4 per cent) are Muslims.

Concept of socio-cultural among problems the tribal community in Bihar

 Tribal community has some own tradition and culture.  However, in schools medium of education are Hindi and English. Hindi, the official language of Bihar and the medium of instruction in government primary school, is as foreign to them as any other imported tongue. In the tribal areas in Bihar, lots of people are living in difficult conditions.. In many villages, there are no drinking water facilities.  In many tribal areas of Bihar, children are suffering from skin disease & malnutrition. A large number of malnutrition cases are found in tribal children in Bihar. We can see there are lots of programme are working in health sector of Bihar .but its not working properly in Bihar’s tribal areas I  think from that sector nobody are visiting a single time in  a village .and  also there is need oh awareness in tribal areas in tribal area tribes  do not even get twice a meal a day. Tribes of Bihar suffer from goiter due to lack of iodine. Leprosy and tuberculosis are also common among them. Infant mortality was found to be very high among some of the tribes. Malnutrition is common and has affected the general health of the tribal children as it lowers the ability to resist infection, leads to chronic illness and sometimes leads to brain impairment.

Programmes and plans among the tribal community in Bihar

Scheduled tribes have been referred  to in the Indian constitution as “backward classes” in article 15(4) ,16(4) ,338(3) ,and 340(1) .it is under the directive principle of the constitution (article 46) that the constitution enjoins upon the state government “to promote with special care and educational and economic interest of the weaker sections of the people , and in the particular in scheduled tribes and SC and shall protects  them from social justice and all forms of  exploitation . The Tenth Plan has made a commitment for their social and economic empowerment and towards providing social justice so as to fulfil the constitutional obligation of raising their status to that of the rest of the society. The nodal ministry for Welfare and Development of the STs is the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. An outlay of Rs. 1087 crore was made during Annual Plan 2003-04 for undertaking various welfare and developmental works to empower tribals. Special Central Assistance (SCA) to Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) is a 100 percent grant to undertake a number of developmental schemes with a focus on family oriented income generating schemes, creation of critical infrastructure and also to extend financial assistance to Self Help Groups, Community Based Activities, Primitive Tribal Groups and Forest Villages. Rs. 500 crore was allocated for Annual Plan 2004-05. Grant in aid under article 275(i) is being provided to the states with an objective to raise the level of administration in the states covered under scheduled areas to bring them at par with the rest of the states. Rs. 330 crore was allocated for Annual Plan 2004-05 under this strategy. The scheme of post-matric scholarship continued to be implemented. The scheme plays an important role in higher studies and empowerment of the tribals. Economic empowerment of the scheduled tribes continued through extending financial support to Finance Corporations and Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation (TRIFED). Accommodating people's growing demands for their inclusion in society, for respect of their ethnicity, religion and language, takes more than democracy and equitable growth. Also needed are multi cultural policies that recognize differences, champion diversity and promote cultural freedoms, so that all people can choose to speak their language, practice their religion and participate in shaping their culture, so that people can choose to be who they are. Government support and facilities provide to the ST communities in the field of education and health has been made available to them since 1951. But all sections of tribal population have not been in opposition to utilize them. From the state & central government for the promoting education and improvement of health they providing lots of facilities and assist them. But why the condition of education and health is not in well situation? Why they do not want to change his ritual? Why they are not attracted for development? Why diseases are rising day by day? Why unemployed in these community?  If we ask this question then we find lack of awareness .because in these communities never any governmental and nongovernmental inspection happened.  In schools maximum teachers are belong from general caste so they teaching in Hindi and English and tribal’s are mostly use his own language so the communication gap between tribal children and non tribal children is also responsible for poor education status in tribes of Bihar. Tribal community of Bihar lives under poverty line. The tribes follow many simple occupations based on simple technology. Most of the occupation falls into the primary occupations such as hunting, gathering, and agriculture. The technology they use for these purposes belong to the most primitive kind. There is no profit and surplus making in such economy. Hence there per capital income is very meager much lesser than the Indian average. Most of them live under abject poverty and are in debt in the hands of local moneylender’s .In order to repay the debt they often mortgage or sell their land to the moneylenders. Indebtedness is almost inevitable since heavy interest is to be paid to these moneylenders.