National Youth Day 2023: How India is empowering its marginalised students

By: Yash Gupte

In 1984, the Indian Government declared Swami Vivekananda’s birth anniversary as National Youth Day and since 1985 it has been celebrated across the country to honour and recognise Vivekananda’s teachings.

The National Youth Day is celebrated on January 12 every year to commemorate the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda. In 1984, the Indian Government declared Swami Vivekananda’s birth anniversary as National Youth Day and since 1985 it has been celebrated across the country to honour and recognise Vivekananda’s teachings. This year, the theme for the four day programme is ‘Viksit Yuva- Viksit Bharat (Developed Youth- Developed India).

The main goal of National Youth Day is to unite the nation's youth in an effort to showcase their talents in a variety of events that touch on almost all socio-cultural facets of life. It also gives aspiring young artists the chance to express themselves, interact with other artists, and continue learning new art forms from experts in various fields.

The festival is being organised by the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in collaboration with the Government of Karnataka. The event will take place in Hubballi-Dharwad, Karnataka, from January 12 to January 16, 2023. More than 30,000 youth will attend the inaugural function where the Prime Minister will share his vision with them. Around 7500 distinguished and accomplished youth delegates from all over India come together for this special five-day event to participate in a variety of educational activities.

The festival highlights the importance of education for the development of youth in the country and especially the youth belonging to the backward classes and communities. India Tracker takes a look at the enrollment of the students belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

According to a detailed report on school education in India titled ‘Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) 2021-22,’ the total number of Scheduled Caste (SC) students enrolment increased to 4.82 crore in 2021-22 compared to 4.78 crore in 2020-21. the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) which measures the general level of participation of students has improved in 2021-22 at primary, upper primary, and higher secondary levels in schools compared to 2020-21.The Ministry of Education said that the GER in higher secondary has made significant improvement from 53.8 percent to 57.6 percent in 2021-22. The Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) is an application developed by the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education in the year 2018-19. It was developed with the motive of collecting online data from schools to overcome the issues related to the erstwhile practice of manual data filling in paper format. GER is the number of students enrolled in a given level of education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the official school-age population corresponding to the same level of education.

Source: UDISE+

There has been a significant improvement in the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) among the Scheduled Caste students at the higher secondary (Class 11- Class12) level in 2021-22. The GER improved from 52.9 percent in 2019-20 to 61.5 percent in 2021-22.

There is a sharp 9 percent increase over one year and indicates an increase in the enrollment of students from Scheduled Castes at the higher secondary level. Similarly, there was an improvement in the GER for the students belonging to the SC community at the upper primary (Class 6- Class 8) level too. The GER at upper primary level improved from 97.1 percent in 2019-20 to 103.8 percent in 2021-22. The improvement in GER at the upper primary level indicates that number of students from Scheduled Castes who have continued with their school education in 2021-22 has increased compared to 2019-20. At the primary (Class 1- Class 5) level of education, there was a drop in GER among the SC students from 113.7 percent in 2019-20 to 113.1 percent in 2021-22.

The chart below shows the GER among the Schedule Tribe students between 2019-20 to 2021-22.

Source: UDISE+

The GER among students from Scheduled Tribes at the primary level (Class 1- Class 5) has marginally dropped from 107.1 percent in 2019-20 to 106.5 percent in 2021-22. There has been a significant increase in the GER for the ST students at the upper primary (Class 6- Class 8) level. The GER at upper primary level increased from 93.5 percent in 2019-20 to 98 percent in 2021-22. This indicates that there has been an improvement in continuation of school education among students from Scheduled Tribes. The most significant increase in the GER among the ST students was recorded at the higher secondary (Class 11- Class 12) level. The GER at higher secondary level increased from 42.9 percent in 2019-20 to 52 percent in 2021-22.

Also, the overall GER in higher secondary has made significant improvement from 53.8 percent to 57.6 percent in 2021-22. 

The reason behind the improvement in GER among the SC and ST students and the increase in the enrollment of students from SCs and STs can be attributed to some of the positive steps taken by the government. The steps were taken with an aim of improvement in the participation of students from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment gave a 28 percent boost to funds in the 2021-22 Union Budget. The allocation increased from Rs 8,207.56 crore in 2020-21 to Rs 10,517.62 crore in 2021-22. The Allocation for Welfare of Scheduled Castes (AWSC) for all ministries was also increased by 51.65 percent. The outlay under AWSC was increased from Rs 83,256 crore to Rs 1,26,259.20 crore. In 2021-22, a scheme called ‘Scholarships for Higher Education for Young Achievers Scheme’ (SHREYAS) for SCs was launched by the central government in order to increase the participation of SC students in higher education. The central government also approved a new scheme in June 2022 called ‘Residential Education for Students in High Schools in Targeted Areas’ (SHRESHTA) for the purpose of providing seats for the meritorious SC boys and girls in the best private residential schools in the country. Also, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs has announced scholarships to students belonging to the Scheduled Tribes. Under these schemes, around 30 lakh ST students will be covered for financial assistance through DBT mode.
However, considering the low Gross Enrollment Ratio at the primary level, governments at state and block levels, along with the civil society groups, need to come up with novel ideas to get students and parents get excited about education.