Educational Expansion and Social Exclusion

Education is the most crucial component of Human Development Index evolved world over and has been viewed as a potent means, mechanism and strategy of equity and empowerment of weaker sections particularly in the context of developing economies.  Despite being aware of this, educational equity has still been a major concern of all the societies. In India education has been accorded highest priority in Five Year Plans since independence and Right to Education Act has been passed recently.  But realisation of educational equity for empowerment in true sense of the term still appears to be a distant dream.  Based on the analysis of data from Census, World Bank, UNDP, Government department reports, the paper seeks to identify the nature, extent and  constraints of educational inequities with a view  to provide empirical insights and inputs for future policy initiatives.  The analysis reveals that inequities in educational attainments vary significantly with religion, family occupation, parental education, residence and size of family and much against commonly held assumption, the role of gender and caste is on the decline owing to the massification of education.  The analysis further reveals that expansion of education has had limited impact on inclusivity because there is still disparity in access to education that empowers which continues to be at the disposal of the advantaged sections resulting in perpetuation and in some sectors  accentuation of inequalities. Equity in technical, professional and higher education appears to hold the key for inclusive development