Educational and economic status quo of scheduled castes

Out of roughly 3000 Castes estimated to exist in India, as many as 779 have been designated, as ‘scheduled castes’ (SCs) accounting for 16.3 per cent of the total population. For hundreds of years this entire section of the Indian population was discriminated against on the basis of their social status. However, since Independence the Government of India has been following positive discrimination policies in various spheres, especially in the education sector, towards the upliftment of the SCs. This article places available facts in the education sector to understand where the nation stands vis-à-vis the development and the empowerment of the SCs after more than 50 years of concerted efforts in this regard