EDUCATING EX-CRIMINAL TRIBES: Issues and Concerns

In this study, the author focuses on some of the important aspects and issues related to the education of the denotified tribal (DNT) communities. The author examines that for generations together the DNT families have been labelled as ‘criminal’ and have suffered dishonour and social negligence. Their children in particular have suffered social alienation from mainstream society. The stigma of criminality is still one of the major impediments in the smooth functioning of educational programmes for children among the DNT communities. The aims and objectives of the study are to examine the education prevailing among the DNT children from colonial times to the present, to what extent has education been spread among the DNT communities after 65 years of independence and to suggest the ways and means for the betterment of the DNTs through education. The study critically examines the character, education level and dimensions of educational problems being faced by the DNT communities in India in general and Andhra Pradesh in particular. What makes this work unique is the extensive fieldwork and the oral testimony that the author has laboured hard to collect and on its basis the whole research work is reconstructed.