THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Forget government statistics, large sections of the state’s marginalised people belonging to tribal, fisherfolk and dalit communities lack adequate schooling, housing or medical facilities, says a study. ‘Lessons in Discrimination in Development,’ a study conducted by RIGHTS which was released here on Wednesday says only 46 per cent dalits, 34.47 percent of tribals and 69 percent of fisherfolk have schools within a kilometre of their home. And not just that, 60 percent of people belong to the marginalised communities surveyed say they are unable to admit their children in schools they prefer. Reasons being exorbitant fee/donation demanded by the schools, poor educational status of the parents and the fact that many of the good schools offer English as medium. The study covered 2,714 tribal, fisherfolk and dalit families and 4,289 children from these families in 30 panchayats across all 14 districts. The study looked at availability of schools, attrition of students, uneconomic schools, pre-schooling, and services offered by PHCs and ICDS centres. Sixty per cent of the dalits in Kerala are confined to 25,906 colonies while 92 per cent of tribals live in 4,645 colonies. Majority of the fisherfolk also live in colony-like environments, says the study.ATTRITION: Attrition among dalit and tribal students is two and four per cent respectively. 21.23 percent of dalit children, 21.36 percent of tribal children and 20.29 percent of children from fishing communities are outside the state’s school system, according to the study.
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