Empowering the Marginalized: Solutions to Improve the Lives of SC/ST Children and Girls

India’s SC/ST children and girls belong to some of the most historically marginalized communities in the country. Generations of social exclusion, economic deprivation, and systemic discrimination have kept them from accessing quality education and equal opportunities. But the picture is changing – slowly, meaningfully, and through a combination of legal mandates, government action, civil society efforts, and grassroots change. This post examines the most effective means and methods being used to minimize the barriers these children face, and what still needs to be done.

Constitutional and legal safeguards 🔗

India’s Constitution lays a strong foundation for protecting the rights of SC/ST children and girls. Article 17 abolishes untouchability in any form, making its practice a punishable offence. This was further strengthened by the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 and the landmark Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, which created robust legal protection against caste-based discrimination and violence.

For education specifically, Article 21A guarantees free and compulsory education to all children between 6 and 14 years, introduced through the 86th Constitutional Amendment in 2002. Article 15(4) empowers the State to make special provisions for the advancement of socially and educationally backward classes, including SC and ST communities – enabling reservation of seats in educational institutions. Article 46 directs the State to promote, with special care, the educational and economic interests of SC and ST communities and protect them from social injustice and exploitation.

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 translated these constitutional promises into enforceable law. The RTE Act introduced a key provision mandating a 25% reservation for children from disadvantaged backgrounds in private unaided schools, placing the legal responsibility of ensuring enrolment, attendance, and completion directly on the government. For SC/ST girls, protections extend further: laws against child marriage, trafficking, and bonded labour – covered under Articles 23 and 39 – reinforce the child’s right to a protected childhood free from exploitation.

Government schemes for education and welfare 🔗

Beyond constitutional guarantees, the central and state governments have built an extensive ecosystem of schemes designed to bring SC/ST children and girls into education and keep them there.

Scholarships and financial support 🔗

The Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme for SC Students, administered by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, provides financial assistance to SC students pursuing post-secondary education. It covers tuition fees, maintenance allowances, and book grants. Maintenance allowances for hostellers range from ₹380 to ₹1,200 per month depending on the course group, with additional allowances for study tours and thesis printing. The Top Class Education Scheme supports SC students in premier institutions like IITs, NITs, and medical colleges through tuition fee waivers.

Under the Central Sector Scholarship Scheme, 50% of all scholarships are earmarked for girls, a deliberate policy intervention to address gender disparity. Reservations in higher education – 15% for SCs, 7.5% for STs – are applied across central universities and institutions, governed by the Central Reservation Policy. For ST students, schemes like Gagan Bharari Shiksha Yojana provide additional financial support beyond post-matric scholarships to cover food and travel expenses.

Hostels and residential facilities 🔗

Safe residential facilities are critical for children from remote or rural SC/ST communities who would otherwise have no access to schools. The Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Hostels for SC Girls and Boys funds government-run hostels with food, uniforms, school bags, and monthly pocket money for students. In Kerala, for example, the SC Development Department runs 87 hostels providing comprehensive residential support from Class V onwards, along with cash awards for academic merit and gold medals for rank holders – using recognition as a powerful motivator.

The Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) program specifically targets ST children living in remote tribal regions, providing quality education in a residential setting. These schools are designed to bring tribal students into the academic mainstream while preserving their cultural identity. Ashram schools – government-funded boarding schools in tribal areas – serve a similar purpose, though quality of infrastructure and staffing remains uneven across states.

Flagship programmes and special initiatives 🔗

Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, India’s integrated school education programme, prioritises SC, ST, and girls’ education with funding for additional classrooms, girl-friendly infrastructure, and free textbooks. Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, launched in 2015, focuses on changing societal mindsets around the value of girls, combining conditional cash transfers, awareness campaigns, and the establishment of girls’ hostels. The National Scheme of Incentives to Girls for Secondary Education offers financial support specifically to promote the enrolment and retention of SC/ST girls in secondary school – a critical stage where dropout rates tend to spike.

Community and grassroots efforts 🔗

Government schemes alone cannot close the gap. The real change-agents working at the ground level are teachers, social workers, and civil society organisations who build trust with families and communities that have historically been excluded.

The role of NGOs 🔗

Pratham Education Foundation, one of India’s largest education NGOs, reaches over 7 million children and youth annually across more than 26 states, focusing on foundational literacy and numeracy among children in marginalised communities. Educate Girls has enrolled over 2.05 million out-of-school girls into schools by mobilising a network of 23,000+ community volunteers and maintaining an average retention rate of 90% year-on-year. Their model is built on community ownership rather than external imposition.

CARE India’s ‘Udaan’ programme specifically targets adolescent girls from marginalised communities, equipping them with educational support, life skills, and leadership development alongside formal schooling. Project Nanhi Kali, which has supported over 4.5 lakh girls since 1996, addresses the hidden costs of education – notebooks, uniforms, shoes – that often push low-income families to pull daughters out of school. These organisations understand that the barriers are not just financial; they are also social, logistical, and deeply psychological.

Teachers and social workers as change agents 🔗

Research on teaching-learning in tribal areas confirms that teachers play a major role in building the future of SC/ST girls – and that awareness of career opportunities is conveyed more effectively through teachers than through parents. This places a significant responsibility on school teachers to go beyond curriculum delivery and actively counsel and support marginalized students. NGOs often work hand-in-hand with School Management Committees (SMCs) – bodies of parents, teachers, and community leaders – to improve school governance and infrastructure, bringing community accountability into the education process.

Social workers operating at the village level play a particularly important role in identifying children who have dropped out, counselling families against early marriage for girls, and navigating bureaucratic processes to ensure scholarship benefits actually reach intended beneficiaries.

Improving school infrastructure and inclusivity 🔗

Physical infrastructure matters more than it is often acknowledged. Today, free textbooks are provided to all girls in school up to eighth grade, and bridge courses are organised for older girls who have dropped out. But textbooks are only part of the equation.

Girl-friendly infrastructure 🔗

For SC/ST girls in rural schools, the absence of a separate, usable toilet is often the decisive reason for dropping out – particularly after puberty. The proportion of schools with useable girls’ toilets rose from 32.9% in 2010 to 61.9% in 2016, a significant improvement but still insufficient. Schools in tribal and SC-dominated habitations also need adequate drinking water, functional classrooms, boundary walls for safety, and proximity to student communities to reduce travel distance – a major deterrent for girls.

Educate Girls facilitates the preparation of School Improvement Plans (SIPs) through SMCs, which identify infrastructure gaps and formally submit them to district authorities to unlock state funding – turning community needs into actionable government expenditure.

Language-friendly learning materials and curriculum 🔗

For ST children, whose mother tongue is often different from the language of instruction, language is a fundamental barrier. Multilingual education (MLE) programmes that begin instruction in the child’s home language and gradually transition to the regional and national language have shown significant results in tribal areas. Alongside this, textbooks need to be free of caste and gender stereotypes. Revising curricula to eliminate gender stereotypes and providing gender-sensitivity training for teachers and school administrators is a critical step that is still very much in progress across most Indian states.

Increasing female teachers in rural schools 🔗

The presence of female teachers significantly improves the enrolment and retention of girls, especially in communities where conservative social norms restrict girls from interacting freely with male teachers. Setting specific targets for female teacher recruitment, particularly in rural and conservative areas, is one of the most direct policy levers available. This also challenges gender stereotypes by showing girls visible role models in professional positions within their own community.

Encouraging societal change 🔗

Laws and schemes are indispensable, but they cannot function in a vacuum. The deepest obstacles to the education and welfare of SC/ST children and girls are entrenched in social attitudes – caste prejudice, patriarchal norms, and the devaluation of girls’ education. Addressing these requires sustained, community-centred efforts to shift beliefs.

Challenging caste-based discrimination 🔗

Research on SC/ST adolescent girls in Karnataka found that barriers operated at individual, family, community, and school levels simultaneously, while enablers included a supportive school environment and positive peer role models. This means that creating change requires intervention at every level – it is not enough to fix one piece of the system. Teacher sensitization, community awareness programmes, and the involvement of local religious and community leaders in reframing the value of girls’ education are all necessary.

Media, role models, and awareness campaigns 🔗

Media campaigns showcasing female scientists, teachers, entrepreneurs, and leaders inspire girls to dream big and simultaneously challenge families to imagine broader possibilities for their daughters. Success stories from within SC/ST communities – women who have used education to achieve economic independence and social standing – are among the most persuasive tools for changing minds at the grassroots level.

Community awareness programmes that raise awareness on the long-term benefits of girls’ education for families and communities – delivered through local campaigns, women’s self-help groups, and parent meetings – have proven particularly effective. When parents, especially fathers, become active advocates for their daughters’ education, the transformation is far more durable than any top-down intervention.

Reframing inclusion as a social asset 🔗

Ultimately, the goal is to move beyond charity-based or reservation-based framing and establish a collective understanding that the inclusion of SC/ST children and girls is not a concession but a social and economic imperative. Once girls are educated, families are better off, communities are more prosperous, and countries become stronger. Every percentage point increase in girls’ education is linked to measurable improvements in public health, economic productivity, and social stability. Making this case loudly, clearly, and consistently – in schools, in panchayats, in the media, and in policy discourse – is itself a means of minimising the problems these children face.

The path forward is neither simple nor short. But it is clear: legal protections need rigorous implementation, welfare schemes need to reach the last child, schools need to become genuinely inclusive spaces, and communities need to be partners in change – not passive recipients of it.

What do you think? Given that SC/ST children and girls often face overlapping disadvantages at home, in school, and in their communities, which intervention do you believe has the greatest potential for long-term impact – strengthening legal enforcement, improving school infrastructure, or changing community attitudes? And how can teachers, as daily points of contact with these children, become more effective advocates for their development?

References

1. https://ncsc.nic.in/constitutional-safeguards
2. https://www.haqcrc.org/child-rights/constitution-of-india/
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_Children_to_Free_and_Compulsory_Education_Act,_2009
4. https://socialjustice.gov.in/schemes/27
5. https://www.buddy4study.com/article/sc-scholarship
6. https://www.education.gov.in/en/scholarships-education-loan-0
7. https://scdd.kerala.gov.in/index.php/schemes
8. https://www.smilefoundationindia.org/blog/is-rural-india-becoming-serious-about-girl-child-education/
9. https://www.pratham.org/
10. https://www.educategirls.ngo/who-we-are/
11. https://www.careindia.org/our-work/education/
12. https://www.nanhikali.org/
13. https://ijcrt.org/papers/IJPUB1801228.pdf
14. https://ngofeed.com/blog/role-of-ngos-in-education-in-india/
15. https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/gender-disparity-primary-education-experience-india
16. https://www.fawco.org/global-issues/target-program/education/blog-let-s-get-schooled/3715-india-education-girls
17. https://www.thelifeyoucansave.org/best-charities/educate-girls/
18. https://educationforallinindia.com/girls-education-in-india-progress-challenges-and-the-path-to-universal-school-education-2024/
19. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738059316300414
20. https://www.scitechsociety.com/how-to-improve-access-to-quality-education-for-girls-in-india/
21. https://www.cryamerica.org/blogs/overcoming-social-stigmas-the-journey-of-girls-towards-education/
22. https://www.socialforaction.com/blog/ngo-for-girl-child-education-in-india/