Question- Who are called disadvantaged children ? What steps have been taken by government for their upliftment ? 

Ans.

Disadvantage children belong to those sections of the society which have been denied equality for long and thus deprived of educational opportunities. In India broadly two such groups are : Women, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

According to Section 2(d) of the Right to Education Act disadvantaged children belong to disadvantaged groups. Children which are from schedule castes/schedule tribes and other socially and backward categories based on the cultural, economical, social, geographical, linguistic, gender or other categories that the appropriate government notifies, are disadvantaged children.

Following are the characteristics of disadvantaged children –

1. Poor academic performance,
2. Lower achievements,
3. Cognitive deficiencies,
4. Basic intelligence.

Scheduled Castes

Scheduled castes are caste based deprived sections of Indian society. They are listed in a constitutional list for welfare proposes. Indian government makes following provision for the educational upliftment of children’s of scheduled casts :

1. To provide special incentives to indigent families to send children, under the age of 14, to schools regularly.
2. To provide pre-matric scholarship to all children of these families irrespective of family income.
3. To recruit scheduled castes teachers under special recruitment scheme.
4. To open special hostel for scheduled castes children.

Scheduled Tribe

Scheduled Tribes are people originally belong to remote areas like forests. They also deprived with equality in tradition India. After independence Indian government listed tribal peoples under another constitutional list and therefore tribal people are now popularly called Scheduled Tribes. Indian government makes following provision for the educational upliftment of children’s Scheduled Tribes :

1. Schools are being opened with priority in the tribal areas.
2. Special curriculum are sketched for tribes to help them preserve their cultural and languages.
3. To motivate tribal children to school, special incentive are given to them regularly.
4. Teachers are recruited from tribes.
5. More and more residential schools are opened for them.

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