 Summary of this article
- Kerala’s aided and Devaswom institutions remain bastions of caste dominance.
- Political parties, regardless of ideology, give scant regard for regulating aided educational schools.
- Kerala was the first state to introduce reservation for the Economically Weaker Sections — a move critics describe as little more than an upper-caste reservation in disguise.
A group of Dalit intellectuals and activists in Kerala are spearheading a campaign to address a historical injustice that has shaped the state’s education system since India's independence. For over seven decades, mainstream political establishments—whether in power or opposition—have tolerated and, at times, enabled a system in which government-aided educational institutions, run by private managements and community organisations, enjoy public funding but sidestep constitutional safeguards.
While their dominance in Kerala’s education sector is widely acknowledged, what remains less recognised is how these institutions have systematically bypassed the reservation policy in recruitment. The result has been a silent exclusion: thousands of deserving candidates from Scheduled Castes and other marginalised communities shut out of teaching and administrative posts, even as public money underwrites the system. |
