THE PROVISION AND UTILISATION OF INDUSTRIAL TRAINING FACILITIES
Provision of tuition free education and stipends, free and subsidised hostels, books and stationery, reservation of seats in institutions, relaxation in admission criterion, job reservation are some of the measures taken by the Central and State Governments over the past quarter of a century to enable the traditionally disadvantaged sections take advantage of various educational and training facilities which have been expanded substantially since Independence.
Considering the special importance of industrial training facilities for the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes students those who are admitted to the Industrial Training Institutes, are giving not only free training but also a stipend of Rs.45 per month. Besides, books, equipment and two work uniforms are supplied free to all the scheduled students. The facility of free or subsidised hostels is also available at places. Most important, seats have been reserved by trades for these category of students in the ITIs and if the sufficient number of candidates are not available with required marks there is further relaxation in marks so that the reserved quota could be filled. In case students from one scheduled groups are not available, priority is given to students of other scheduled groups. Further, in order to motivate more and more members of these groups avail of the facilities, reservation of seats in jobs and in apprenticeship training have been made for them. It is expected that the above facilities will motivate ever larger number of students of disadvantaged groups avail of the facilities.
In the selected states all these incentives and facilities have been made available to the scheduled categories in varying degrees. While a detailed analysis of incentives and facilities will be attempted in a later chapter, this chapter will be confined to the extent the reservation policy for the deprived has been implemented in the selected states. This will be followed by an analysis of the relative competition for seats among the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and others. The analysis will throw
48 Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Industrial Training Institutes
light on the popularity of this training. More importantly, it will bring out whether sufficient number of qualified candidates seek admission in various trades in the ITIs from amongst the two scheduled groups.
In the last section an attempt will be made to focus on inter caste variations among the scheduled categories with a view to see if new inequalities are creeping in.
Section I
Reservation Policy in General ITIs Though in principle, the reservation ought to be in accordance with the proportion of the particular group in the population of the state, in practice the policy of reservation in the ITIs is not uniform in all the states. For example, in Andhra Pradesh, 14 per cent reservation for the scheduled castes and 4 per cent reservation for the scheduled tribes is provided uniformly throughout the state. This is roughly in proportion to their strength in the population of the state which is 13.3 per cent for scheduled castes and 3.8 per cent for scheduled tribes. In Madhya Pradesh the reservation for the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes is 14 per cent and 18 per cent respectively while their share in states population is 13.1 per cent and 20.1 per cent. The reservation of seats for the scheduled castes in Bihar is 14 per cent of the intake capacity but for the scheduled tribes the reservation varies from area to area. Areas with higher concentration of scheduled tribes have higher reservation while area's with lower proportion of the scheduled tribes population have much lower quota for them.
In Gujarat while reservation for the scheduled castes is 12.5 per cent (with their proportion in total population as 6.8 per cent) for the schedule tribes the reservation of seats varies from institution to institution from 5 per cent to 20 per cent. Thus, while in the ITIs located at Baroda, Godhala, Palanpur and Surat only 12.5 per cent seats are reserved for scheduled tribes at Bilimoria and Surendranagar the reservation is only 5 per cent.
Maharashtra has reserved 13 per cent seats for the scheduled castes and 7 per cent for the scheduled tribes. This is quite in variance with their proportionate share in the states population which is 6.0 per cent for the scheduled castes and 5.9 per cent for the scheduled tribes. Further, in Dhule, Nasik and Thane district the reservation for the scheduled tribes is 22 per cent while in Chandrapur and Yevatmal it is only 15 per cent respectively. Maharashtra also provides an additional 10 per cent
The Provision and Utilisation of Industrial Training Facilities 49
reservation to Vimukta Jati and Nomadic tribes (VJNT). The reservation for servicemen is 5 per cent.
It may be noted that in Gujarat and Maharashtra reservation for the scheduled castes is quite disproportionate to their share in the population while for the scheduled tribes it is more or less in accordance with their proportion in total population.
Reservation Policy in Special ITIs Special ITIs were started in the tribal areas by the government with a view to help the tribal youth acquire necessary skills needed for the newly developing industries in those areas. The aim is to reach the benefits of industrialisation to the people in the area through substantial employment of tribals in the up coming industries. In these ITIs most of the seats are reserved for the scheduled tribes or scheduled castes. Such ITIs are available in all the states surveyed by us.
In Andhra Pradesh one ITI was started at Upper Sileru with 50 per cent reservation for the scheduled tribes and 35 per cent for scheduled castes. The remaining fifteen per cent seats are reserved for non-scheduled categories. The Ranchi ITI at Ranchi in Bihar reserves 54 per cent of the seats for the scheduled tribes.
In Madhya Pradesh there are four institutions exclusively started for the scheduled tribes by the Tribal Welfare Department besides the three started by the Labour Department. These are at Dhammod, Betul, Shahdol, Ambikapur, Nandia, Korba and Bastar. The ITI at Bastar, selected for the study, was started exclusively for the tribals with 100 per cent seats reserved for them. The Gujarat government has started an ITI at Ahwa in Dangs district exclusively for the scheduled tribes.
In Maharashtra there are Ms specially for scheduled tribes at Manik Dhor in Poona District, and at Jalgaon in Jalgoan District.
Relative Competition for Seats in the ITIs by the Scheduled Castes,
Scheduled Tribes and Others Several studies have pointed out the fact that reserved quota has seldom been fully utilised by the scheduled groups and the most common explanation is that not enough qualified candidates are available for the seats. To test the validity of this explanation, statistics have been worked out of the number of applicants per seat separately for the, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and others in the selected ITIs (Table-IV-I).
50 Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Industrial Training Institutes
TABLE IV. 1
RELATIVE COMPETETI0N FOR SEATS AMONG THE SCHEDULED CASTES,
SCHEDULED TRIBES AND OTHERS IN THE SELECTED STATES 1980-81
States Number of Applicants per Seat
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Scheduled Scheduled Others
Castes Tribes
Andhra Pradesh 26 4 54
Gujrat 7 0.2 9
Madhya Pradesh 6 3 9
Note : Number of Applicants are not available for Bihar and Maharashtra
Overall one can easily see that competition for seats is more in Andhra Pradesh compared to Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. There were 54 applicants for one seat in Andhra Pradesh while there are only 9 applicants per seat in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. This means industrial training is more popular in Andhra Pradesh as compared to Gujarat or Madhya Pradesh. Same trend is evident with regard to number of applicants per seat among the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. One specially notices that competition for seats is very high among scheduled castes in Andhra Pradesh compared to Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. In contrast, there is very little competition among the tribals in all the 3 selected states. In Gujarat specially, there are lesser number of applicants among the scheduled tribes than the seats for them.
From the above one can conclude that though much more efforts are needed to get eligible candidates of the scheduled tribes as compared to non-scheduled groups, for the scheduled castes the situation is more or less comparable with non-scheduled groups in the ITIs in all the three states for which data are available.
Section II
Utilisation of Intake Capacity
(a)Utilisation of Intake Capacity in the General ITIs While the data on competition for seats by the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and others helps in understanding the relative chances of these groups in getting admission to the ITIs, the percentage utilisation of intake capacity helps in understanding if the facilities are being optimally utilised by the different groups. Percentage utilisation of
The Provision and Utilisation of Industrial Training Facilities 51
seating capacity is defined as:
Percentage Utilisation = Actual Enrolment X 100
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Intake Capacity
Table IV.2 gives the percentage utilisation of seating capacity
for the selected states (based on statistics of selected Instiutions)
separately for the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and others.
TABLE IV.2
PERCENTAGE UTILISATION OF INTAKE CAPACITY (ITIs) 1980-81
Sl. No. State S.C. S.T. NSC/ST
1. Andhra Pradesh 107 109 100
2. Gujrat 97 14 98
3. Madhya Pradesh 76 7 107
4. Maharashtra 167 47 85
Note: The data for Bihar as provided by the Project Director/is not amendable for the above analysis.
There was full utilisation of the intake capacity in Andhra Pradesh by the non-scheduled groups. While there was over utilisation by the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.
In Gujarat while there was near full utilisation by the non- scheduled and scheduled castes, the seats were highly under-utilized by the scheduled tribes.
Similarly in Madhya Pradesh, whereas. utilisation by the non- scheduled castes and tribes was full or near full, the utilisation by the scheduled tribes was extremely low since only 7 per cent of seats earmarked for them were utilized in 1980-81.
In Maharashtra the over-utilisation of seats by the scheduled castes is very high while the scheduled tribes could utilise less than half the seats reserved for them. Non-scheduled castes/scheduled tribes also utilised only 85 per cent of the seats available to them. Gross under-utilisation of seating capacity by the tribals in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh apparently is a matter of great concern. However, one needs to note that tribals are concentrated in certain areas in the states, and it will not be fair to generalise on the basis of general ITIs. In fact in both the states there are special ITIs for the tribes located in tribal
52 Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Industrial Training Institutes
areas where all or most of the seats are reserved for them. Infact considering the uneven nature of tribal distribution, in Gujarat the reservation quota for the scheduled tribes differs from district to district from 5% to 20%.
Considering the peculiar nature of tribals distribution in different districts, and the fact that ITIs are generally district phenomenon, it will be but fair to prescribe district wise reservation of seats for the tribals in all the states. This should be based on percentage population of the tribals in the district. This way one can hope to have a more rational and equitable distribution of facilities for the scheduled tribes.
(b) Utilisation of Intake Capacity in the Special ITIs In the tribal ITI of Vishakhapatnam district in Andhra Pradesh there were a total of 155 seats. Out of these 78 are reserved for the scheduled tribes and 54 for the scheduled castes, the remaining 33 seats were open. As against this during 1980-81, there were 80 scheduled tribes students, 53 scheduled castes students and rest were non-scheduled students. As the institute was started only in 1980-81 the data for earlier years were not available. One can see that quota were full for each of the social categories in this institution which is in keeping with the general ITIs that we had discussed in the previous section. One can, therefore, say that in Andhra Pradesh there is no cause of special concern for the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes from the viewpoint of their intake in the ITIs.
In Madhya Pradesh, as already indicated, there were seven ITIs specially started for the tribes either by the Tribal Welfare Department or by the Labour Ministry. For the purpose of our study the ITI at Bastar was selected. This ITI was exclusively started for the tribals. The ITI had a seating capcity of 203 in 1980-81 but only 185 students were enrolled, thus giving 91 percent utilisation of the seating capacity. Even among the students enrolled, there were 163 scheduled tribes and the rest were scheduled castes implying about 20 per cent under utilisation by the scheduled tribes
In Gujarat, the ITI at Ahwa in Dangs is a special ITI for the scheduled tribes with 100 per cent seats reserved for them. It had an intake capacity of 76 of which only 56 to 60 percent was utilized in 1980-81. Even among the enrolled the scheduled tribes constituted just 40 percent which is about 25 per cent of the intake capacity. It may be noted that while in absolute terms the number of the scheduled tribes in the ITI was almost constant Over the years at 17 or 16, in percentage term one notices that while in 1977-78 the scheduled tribes constituted 47 percent of the total enrolment,
The Provision and Utilisation of Industrial Training Facilities 53
their percentage share gradually declined to 37 in 1980-81. (Appendix Table - 4.1). It was lowest in 1979-80 being only 25 per cent of the total enrolment. This matter needs a deeper probe because instead of increase in the proportion there has been gradual decline in the proportionate enrolment of the scheduled tribes in this institution which is wholly meant for them. As it is, in other ITIs also, enrolment of the scheduled tribes is very insignificant in Gujarat.
ITI at Manik Doho in Pune district had total intake capacity of 162 students out of which 114 seats were reserved for the scheduled tribes and 20 for the scheduled castes. There was a total utilisation of 159 seats in 1980-81 of which 61 seats were utilized by the scheduled tribes, 22 seats by the scheduled castes, and 76 by others. Proportionately, the scheduled tribes utilisation was only 53.5 per cent of the reserved seats, whereas the enrolment of the scheduled castes was 110 per cent and that of non-scheduled category 151 per cent.
Looking at the data on utilisation of the intake capacity in the general ITIs and special ITIs in the selected states one can conclude that while the enrolment of the non-scheduled groups is generally more than the number of seats earmarked for them, the situation in the case of tribes is quite dismal not only in general ITIs but also in special ITIs except in Andhra Pradesh. The scheduled castes situation in the ITIs was however, satisfactory since they were also utilising more seats than reserved for them. In Maharashtra they were using more seats than reserved for them even though the reserved quota itself was more than twice the proportion of the scheduled castes in the total population.
Tradewise Utilisation of Facilities by the Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes In order that the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes are able to take as much advantage of the middle level technical and vocational training as the non-scheduled groups, it is essential that they are represented fully in those trades where employment opportunities are comparatively better. From this viewpoint one expects two-year engineering trades to be more popular than one-year engineering trades or non-engineering trades. Similarly, one year engineering trades should be more popular than the non-engineering trades. However, some of the earlier studies relating to higher technical education have pointed out that the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes enrolment is comparatively lower in highly prestigious courses like the engineering courses at degree level
54 Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Industrial Training Institutes
or the medical courses but they have higher enrolment in general arts and science degree courses. Further when the courses are alloted in particular institution, whether engineering or medicine the scheduled groups are largely given least preferred courses. Considering the fact that the two-year engineering trades generally require educational background at the high school level and they take double the time in the ITIs than the one-year programmes, we hypothesized in Chapter I that the enrolment of the scheduled groups in the two-year trades will be lower compared to one year trade. The hypothesis is examined below on the basis of micro-level data at hand. Besides, an attempt has also been made to compare the enrolment of the scheduled groups with the non-scheduled groups in some of the more popular trades.,
In Chapter III, it was observed that engineering trades accounted for 95 per cent of the total enrolment of the ITIs. Among the two year engineering trades the most popular at all India level were the trades of electrician, fitter, machinist, motor vehicle mechanic, turner and wireman accounting for about 78 per cent of total enrolment in two year engineering trades. As regards the one year engineering trades the most popular were blacksmith, carpenter, mechanic, moulder, welder, sheet metal worker. These trades accounted for 92 per cent of total enrolment in one year engineering trade. Among the non- engineering trades stenography was the most popular followed by cutting, hand composing, book-binding and printing machine operator. These four trades covered more than 95 per cent of the total enrolment of non-engineering trades.