Education: The way forward for the Siddis of Uttara Kannada, India

In my previous blog post on the Siddis, I introduced the community of the Siddis of Uttara Kannada and described the community, its origin, history, language and settlements. In this post, which is part of the series on the Siddis, I speak about education for the Siddis and how this is an important tool for emancipation of the community.

The educational system of the state of Karnataka consists of the following sectors: pre-primary education (balwadi), primary education, secondary education, pre-university, college education, medical education, technical education, legal education, teachers' training and graduate teachers' training (Obeng 2008:44).

According to the 2011 Census, there are 232 villages in Uttara Kannada that do not have primary schools withing the village, but these are available within the radius of 10km, and 615 villages do not have a middle school.

In an extensive and in-depth study on the Siddis of Uttara Kannada, Pashington Obeng concedes:

"Most of the African Indian villages (perhaps 60 percent or more) do not have lower primary schools in their locality. Lack of transport facilities and bad roads to the villages have added hurdles to their access to education".

Education is the means by which the Siddis can overcome the obstacles they face in society ad improve their economic livelihoods. This opinion is held by many Siddis, both literate and illiterate. The younger, literate and educated Siddis were convinced that it was the way forward for the Siddi community as is evident from the below statements:

"Education for Siddis is more important than monetary benefits and it is only through education that Siddis can progress as a community and be more independent". (Ramita Prakash Christian, Siddi, Gadgera School Teacher, personal communication, January 2017)

"The problem that Siddis are facing is the lack of education. Until very recently, there were very few educated Siddis and hence there were none with the necessary qualifications to engage in jobs other than farming or menial jobs." (Premnath Androj Christian, Siddi, Gadgera School Caretaker, personal communication, January 2017)

The Gadgera School for Siddis

The Gadgera School, built in 2006, was the brainchild of Bosco Kaweesi, a Ugandan scholar, residing in Haliyal for the past twenty years. The school was taken over by the organisation Springs of Hope, operating from Austria and Norway, which is basically a Seventh Day Adventist organisation. I was told that there were some Siddi youth who went to study at Spicer Memorial School in Pune, a Seventh Day Adventist School.

Although the school admits a small quota of non-Siddis, priority is given to Siddi students. The students can study up till the 4th grade, after which they continue in public and private schools. Plans are underway to extend studies at the Gadgera School till the 5th grade.

The school is located away from the Gadgera Siddi village in a clearing and is about 500 metres away from the main road. The access is a bumpy mud road through the forest. It has two buildings: the school building and the cafetaria. Students reside at the school itself. The Siddi students come from across villages across talukas in Uttara Kannada; Haliyal, Mundgod and Yellapur. They only go home for the holidays or for special family functions, occasions on which parents come to pick up their children.

The teachers are both Siddis and non-Siddis. the caretaker of the school is a Siddi, Premnath Androj Christian, who incidentally belongs to the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Two female Siddi teachers that I interviewed at the school also belong to the Seventh Day Adventist Church, although they were formerly Roman Catholic.

It is not surprising that the Gadgera school is a resident one, where students stay for an entire duration of the term. If it hadn't been that way, it would have been a long arduous task for students to walk to the school every day. Such are the obstacles that the Siddis face in access to education.

The Siddi teachers, Ramita Prakash Christian and Jacinta Naik, as well as the caretaker Premnath were from different Siddi villages in Uttara Kannada and none of them were from Gadgera. This serves as an indicator for the reach of the Siddi Gadgera school in attracting students and teachers from across talukas despite its isolated location and difficult access.

Siddis from various villages came to Gadgera to help in building the foundation of the school during the initial phase when Bosco Kaweesi was in charge. However, due to interference from other organisations, Bosco was side-lined in the project and eventually quit the committee. According to him, the school was destined for great things and he intended it to be a grand project. Now however, I could see a certain disenchantment on his face when we visited the school. Students were sitting on the floor and studying, no different to other backward schools and this was not what Bosco had planned.

Educational patterns

At the village level, the government and religious organizations run most of the schools that go up only to the fifth and seventh standard, while the headquarters of the talukas house the schools that go up to the twelfth standard. Therefore, the majority of the people in the rural areas have limited levels of education (Obeng 2008:45). In addition, the quality of educational facilities and teaching that the African children in these villages receive, cannot be compared to what other children receive, as former live in economically and socially depressed areas. In Bailandur for instance, school closes down during the ploughing and planting seasons (Obeng, 2008:45).

A rotation system for seating was introduced in government schools in Uttara Kannada wherein each student eventually gets a chance to sit in the front desks. However, as Bosco Kaweesi narrated to me, the Siddis are made to sit at the back at all times. In addition, absenteeism from Siddi students goes unnoticed and they receive the least of the teachers' attention. This lack of attention from teachers contributes to the lack of motivation and high drop-out rates of Siddi students. Pashington Obeng speaks of the high dropout rate and adds that "while parents need motivation to send their children to schools, the children too need support from the teachers in the process of making education an attractive activity" (Obeng, 1984:44).

Such is the desire to educate their children, that most Siddi adults, though themselves not educated, choose to send their children to school. Yet, they worry about the distance to the schools and the high cost of fees. In addition to the lack of transport facilities and bad roads in the villages, which have only added hurdles to education, the parents have difficulty helping children with problems in schoolwork (Obeng 1984:44).

In a survey conducted by the Siddi Jana Vikas Sangh, a society with members of a Siddi Community, registered under the Karnataka Societies Registration Act since December 2010, it is stated that :

"of the 58 youth identified in the survey expressed that they are still interested in continuing studies if opportunities are provided. It is disheartening to note that these youth, after completion of their education, remain in their villages and work as coolies in agriculture fields, construction workers, forest nursery and bamboo cutting, loading and unloading, processing of areca nut, road formation under contractors and in case they do not have any work they go to the forest to collect forest produce. Because of the non-availability of jobs, the parents are discouraging their children from pursuing education".

Siddis and English

There is a positive trend however among the Siddi youth that have received some education. Most of the Siddi children who go to school or have received some education are able to speak English fairly well. In fact, this made my task of conducting interviews with young Siddis much easier. During a visit to Yellapur with Bosco Kaweesi, while we were at the Yellapur Bus Depot, a few youngsters going to school who recognized Bosco, came up to him to wish him and speak to him. Their conversation was in English.

It is interesting that a few years ago,a survey conducted by Siddi Jana Vikas Sangh found that the Siddis were very weak in English themes and many students failed in English. The society intervened and organized a spoken English class with the help of the Holy Cross Church, Mainalli. The finding of this survey is in stark contrast to what I observed when I visited the Siddi villages in 2016 and early 2017. This suggests a marked improvement in the performance of the Siddis in English. All Siddi youth that I interviewed spoke English. The elders didn't speak any English, therefore suggesting that education has had a positive impact on the Siddis.

This trend of learning English and being able to speak it fairly well is a powerful tool for the Siddis in their struggle for fitting into the mainstream society and achieving success. Knowledge of English will go a along way in helping Siddis get jobs in a wide variety of industries and will make their mobility easier. The tourism industry will become accessible to the Siddis in the bigger cities and might give them a distinct advantage over their non-English speaking non-Siddi counterparts.

I would conclude by saying that education is the tool that is required to help Siddis rise from their obscurity. However, this alone will not help the Siddis. The larger non-Siddi society also requires to be educated about the history and diversity of the country and taught to practice proper citizenship as proper citizenship shuns stereotyping and abuse of rights and promotes a more inclusive community and helps progress as a whole.