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EDUCATION AND GENDER AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE AMONG THE DIMASAS OF DIMA

HASO DISTRICT IN ASSAM

Phirmi Bodo

PhD Scholar

Sociology Department

Assam University, Silchar

Emile Durkheim, a French Sociologist defined education as ‘the action exercised by the older
generations upon those who are not yet ready for social life. Its object is to awaken and develop in the
child those physical, intellectual and moral states which are required of him both by his society as a
whole and by the milieu for which he is specially destined’. Contemporary education in India is of the
western origin. Traditionally, content of education was esoteric and metaphysical; its communication was
limited to the upper class or the ‘twice-born’ castes and the structure of its professional organization was
hereditary and closed. But, modern education is based on the theme of freedom, equality, humanism and
denial of faith in dogmas. Gender is the wide set of characteristics that are seen to distinguish
between male and female. It can extend from sex to social role or gender identity. It refers to the socially
constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate
for men and women" The purpose of my paper is to highlight the role of education attainment and its
impact on gender and social structure among the Dimasa and other non-scheduled tribe of Maibang of
Dima Hasao District by observing its schooling enrolment in the primary and secondary level. The paper
uses data collected of primary levels and secondary levels from private school of Maibang

The Dimasa tribe is one of the major tribes of North-East India. Traditionally considered as an
offshoot of the larger Indo-Mongoloid Kachari group, the Dimasa as a monarchical power have their own
history of rise and fall. In fact, they constitute one of the prominent dynasties who rued Assam of the late
medieval period. They mostly live in the glens and valley of the lofty North Cachar Hills of Assam,
presently known as Dima Hasao. Dima Hasao (North Cachar Hills) is one of the two hills district of
Assam, carved out of the erstwhile United Mikir Hills and North Cachar Hills district, in the North-
Eastern region of India with its headquarter at Haflong and sub-division headquarter at Maibang , 53 k.m.
from Haflong. It is the homeland of heterogeneous races.Dimasa tribe is the dominant tribe of this region.
Besides this, Assamese, Bengali, Nepali and few Bihari family are the habitant of this region. The
scheduled tribe population represents one of the most economically impoverished and marginalized
groups in India. Although, scheduled tribes are a minority, they constitute about 8.2% of the total
population in India (Census of India, 2005) or 85 million people in absolute number. Whereas, the non-
scheduled tribe shares the major parts of India. They mainly included the general category, other
background classes and the others. The percentage of non-scheduled tribe shares a good role in the tribal
dominant region. Its shows the cultural diversity and exchange of value, norms from different community
to another. Non-scheduled tribe being come from advanced society also gives a valuable impact of culture
among these scheduled tribe people.

Education attainment is one of the significant factors of social and economic development of any
races and society. School is the medium through which we can impart education to members of society. It
is a key to the development of human resources. The spread of education in this remote region is vital as
it is the prime requisite for positive development. As already mentioned earlier, the modern education in
India is a British origin. Traditionally, a child learnt at home and at ‘dormitories’ and this training related
to various activities of tribal life. Western education was first introduced in Dima Hasao District when the
Christian Missionary arrived at Haflong in 1905. Education has been in progress since the eighties when
the first school was opened in Gunjung (a village near 34 k.m. from Haflong) From the brief report of the
then D.P.I of Assam Mr. J.R. Cunningham, dated 2/01/1995 and his letter addressed to the secondary
secretary to Chief Commissioner of Assam it appears that during the period of 1908 to 1904, apart from
central school at Haflong, there were only four other primary schools in Dima Hasao i.e. at Gunjung,
Maibang, Arkhap and Relai. After Independence i.e. up to 1949, there were 16 L.P.schools and 4
M.E.Schools; two were at Haflong and one each at Jatinga and Maibang.

For my research purpose, at present, I have selected the sub-divisional headquarter of Dima
Hasao District, (North Cachar Hills) i.e. Maibang town. The first primary school established at Maibang
in 1924 and Govt. M.E.School in 1948. In the year 1958, one high school was established. Now, the town
got a number of Govt. L.P. School, High School and Private school.

I have selected one private school named, Pranabananda Vidya Mandir established in 2003. I
have collected data of school enrolment of the last five years i.e. 2002, 2003,2004,2005,2006 and 2007
and have made four tables on the following basis:

(i) On gender basis i.e. male and female of primary level.

(ii) On gender basis of secondary level.

(iii) On social structure basis i.e. scheduled tribe and non-scheduled tribe of primary level.
(iv) On social structure basis i.e. scheduled tribe and non-scheduled tribe of secondary level

From the collection of data it could be asses that there is a good response found on the enrolment side in a
percentage wise among male as well as female of scheduled tribe. School enrolment of the student which
plays a vital role to indicate the impact of education on younger generation of people, however, has
fluctuation trend In Table 1, in 2002, at primary level, 58.3% male student has been recorded and 50.9%
female student has been recorded, whereas, among Non-S.T male student, 41.7% recorded and 20.7%
Non-S.T. female students were recorded. In 2005, the enrolment reaches up to 68.6% and female
percentage has raises up to 76%. Among non-scheduled tribe, in 2002, the enrolment percentage is 71.4
%( male) and 28.6% (female), in 2003 59.2% (male) and 40.8% (female), in 2007 65.2% (male) and 35%
are female. Even, in the secondary level among Dimasa male student 58.2% and 41.8 % among female
students has recorded. In 2005, 52.8% Dimasa male student and 47.2% (female) student and in 2007, 56.1
% male and 44% female student has recorded.

The report reveals that among Dimasa tribe they do not have any gender discrimination. They
equally give importance to both male and female while imparting education. They generally do not
discriminate between a boy and girl. In fact, it has been reveal from my survey that the girls are found to
be more prone to higher education, while males are mostly engaged themselves in business.

TABLE-1

MALE FEMALE
ST NON-ST TOTAL ST NON-ST TOTAL
YEAR
2002 77 55 132 54 22 106
(percentage) (58.3%) (41.7%) (100) (50.9%) (20.7%) (100)
2003 93 59 171 64 23 105
(percentage) (54.4%) (45.6%) (100) (74.3%) (25.7%) (100)
2004 NA NA NA NA NA NA
(percentage)
2005 118 54 172 76 24 100
(percentage) (66.2) (38.03%) (100) (76%) (24%) (100)
2006 110 56 166 84 30 114
(percentage) (66.2%) (33.7%) (100) (73.7%) (26.3%) (100)
2007 111 52 163 90 28 118
(percentage) (68.1%) (31.9%) (100) (76.3%) (23.7%) (100)

SCHOOL ENROLEMENT OF PRIMARY LEVEL YEAR WISE AND GENDER WISE


TABLE NO: 2

MALE FEMALE
ST NON-ST TOTAL ST NON-ST TOTAL
YEAR
2002 39 14 53 28 04 32
(percentage) (73.6%) (26.4%) (100) (87.5%) (12.5%) (100)
2003 45 18 63 39 08 47
(percentage) (71.4) (28.6%) (100) (83%) (17.02%) (100)
2004 NA NA NA NA NA NA
(percentage)
2005 56 23 79 50 13 63
(percentage) (70.9%) (29.1%) (100) (79.4%) (20.6%) (100)
2006 63 29 92 60 13 73
(percentage) (68.5%) (31.5%) (100) (82.2%) (17.8%) (100)
2007 83 29 112 65 12 77
(percentage) (74.1%) (25.9%) (100) (84.4%) (15.6%) (100)

SCHOOL ENROLMENT OF SECONDARY LEVEL YEAR WISE AND GENDER WISE

TABLE NO: 3

SCHEDULED TRIBE NON-SCHEDULED TRIBE


MALE FEMALE TOTAL MALE FEMALE TOTAL
YEAR
2002 77 54 131 55 22 77
(percentage) (58.8%) (41.2%) (100) (71.4%) (28.6%) (100)
2003 93 64 157 59 23 82
(percentage) (65.3%) (34.7%) (100) (72%) (28.04%) (100)
2004 NA NA NA NA NA NA
(percentage)
2005 118 76 194 54 24 78
(percentage) (60.8%) (39.2%) (100) (69.2%) (30.8%) (100)
2006 110 84 194 56 31 87
(percentage) (56.7%) (43.3%) (100) (64.4%) (35.6%) (100)
2007 111 90 201 52 28 80
(percentage) (55.2%) (44.8%) (100) (65%) (35%) (100)

SCHOOL ENROLMENT OF PRIMARY LEVEL YEAR WISE AND CATEGORY WISE

TABLE NO: 4
SCHEDULED TRIBE NON-SCHEDULED TRIBE
MALE FEMALE TOTAL MALE FEMALE TOTAL
YEAR
2002 39 28 67 14 04 18
(percentage) (58.2%) (41.8%) (100) (77.8%) (22.2%) (100)
2003 45 39 84 18 08 26
(percentage) (53.6%) (46.4%) (100) (69.2%) (30.8%) (100)
2004 NA NA NA NA NA NA
(percentage)
2005 56 50 106 23 14 37
(percentage) (52.8%) (47.2%) (100) (62.2%) (37.8%) (100)
2006 63 60 123 29 13 42
(percentage) (51.2%) (48.8%) (100) (69.04%) (31%) (100)
2007 83 65 148 29 12 41
(percentage) (56.1%) (44%) (100) (71%) (29.3%) (100)

SCHOOL ENROLEMENT OF SECONDARY LEVEL YEAR WISE AND CATEGORY WISE

On the other hand, it has been observed that after primary level, there is a series of declining trend both
among the female and male Dimasa student. Surprisingly, the declining trend is more prominent among
male. The trend is much lower among female student. Again, if we observe all the years the findings are
found to be the same.

According to Inspector of schools (I.S) Dima Hasao, literacy being 68.59% out of which 76.59% is
female, the problem of school drop-out is phenomenal i.e. 24% warrants need have research. Actually, the
student in majority could not realize the value and prospect of education for various reasons. There are
hindrances and obstacles which stand on the way to the steady and rapid development of education in
Dima Hasao District. One of the easily understandable is medium of teaching in schools, as majority of
students come from rural areas that belong to their respective dialect, culture and norms and have limited
or no knowledge or understanding of their languages besides their mother tongue. The culture and
lifestyle of tribal people affect the education process to a considerable extent. The culture and lifestyle of
tribal people revolve around their annual agricultural cultivation activities. These factors also stand out as
a major problem for giving education to the tribal students properly. There is a dearth of good qualified
and trained teachers and are not provided with required number particularly to Lower Primary Schools
due to political reasons.

Lack of social mobility and problem of inter-cultural communication are major retarding factors in
tribal education. As the teachers and the taught in tribal areas belong to different culture so the
communication barrier becomes almost insurmountable. Most of the teachers appointed in tribal areas are
disinterested due to various problems faced by them such as lack of proper residential facility, good
salary, communication facility and social distance from the tribal people. Thus, the teacher feels isolated
and unhappy and a disgruntled teacher is certainly not the best communicator of modern ideas and
messages to children. They are largely indifferent to education as they do not see any worth and scope for
good education. It is considered a waste of time or loss of time for works survival of the family. This is
because of their economic and other hardships; there is a good rate of dropout from Lower Primary
School to High School Level.

Even though there has begun a great increase in the number of Lower Primary School and
M.E.School in recent years. Most of the schools lack in adequate infrastructure. There is not a proper
building, sufficient arrangement for desk-benches, essential teaching aids, in-sufficient trained teachers
and above all half-hearted participation and lack of enthusiasm among the people for the cause of
education. Therefore, there should be implementation of multilingual education at the primary level of
schooling. A child must move from known to unknown and familiar to unfamiliar. Education institute
must have adequate infrastructure like children friendly materials, gardens, playing materials, so that it
can attract the students to attend the school regularly. The teacher working in the tribal dominated areas
should rightly inform about the richness of heritage and culture of tribal. He should not only play the role
of a teacher but be prepared to be a learner also. The non-tribal teachers working for long time in spite of
various social and economical hazards should be awarded. The government must appoint young and
trained teacher to the tribal years. Innovations through research on various issues related to education
problems must be conducted so as to identify the problems and solutions.

However, most of the youth of this region motivated towards easy-earning and run after
extravagant life which the parents cannot afford every time. Sometimes, they involve themselves in evil
practices such as consumption of alcohol, drugs etc. which ruin their life totally. Even the peer groups
helps to some extent. Most importantly, the young boys got dragged themselves to terrorism in the name
of adventure, which itself creating nuisances all over the world. Lack of parenting, proper vigilance
towards their children and lack of consciousness and awareness play a significant role in maximum drop-
out of students at primary level and continue to the secondary level. In tribal areas there always has been
a gap between experimental knowledge and book knowledge mainly in tribal regions. So, even though
the government has come up in recent times with various schemes and programmes to improve the
education of the tribal, there is no sincerity on the implementation part. It is high time that appropriate
strategies must be built to find out the ways and means not to subside but to mitigate the problems of
education of this region. There should be a bridge to fill the gap between the socio-cultural environments
with that of the school curriculum exploration of rich tribal folklore which can be helpful in the
promotion of education.
the Dimasa students the Dimasa students

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