Exploring the Experiences of Inequality by the Ethnic Groups from the Reserved Category in Higher Education

This paper aims to examine the educational inequality with relation to reservation policy for ethnic groups within the Scheduled Tribe category in Siliguri Sub-Division. Existing scholarly writings have focused on reservation policy as an “inclusive policy” for historically marginalized groups; but, in reality, reservation in the field of education has also created new social identities, like OBC, SC, ST and so on, based on one’s caste/tribe/class certificates. The new identities come with certain privileges and those who benefit use them as a means to social and economic development and social mobility. However, belonging to a privileged identity doesn’t guarantee the equal distribution of resources to all. This can be established by examining the disproportionate participation of the “reserved categories” in education and employment. Despite the policy and practice of protective discrimination for decades, a large section of the Indian population remains marginalized and even the “reserved categories” are unequally placed to take advantage of reservation. The participation rate in higher education and employment for reserved categories has shown some improvements over the decades but in some recent studies it has been found that some sections of these reserved categories manipulate their social network and resources to lobby for benefits, keeping the ones without “social capital” behind, and this has resulted in new inequalities within the reserved categories. This article looks at how the Adivasis are subjected to educational inequality as compared to other ethnic groups in the region of North Bengal. Based on the primary data, the present paper aims to explore the grounds of academic challenges and the areas of discrimination faced by the ethnic groups within the reserved category. The question of who participates and why will also be dealt with.