|
|
|
|
|
Author: Yoga Rangatia
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: April 25, 2006
The 'reserved' tag for a student from backward class may do his confidence more harm than good. Over-emphasis on his caste makes him less motivated, lowers his self-confidence and he expects societal prejudice to work against him than if the caste remains anonymous, finds a one-of-its-kind sociological experiment in rural Uttar Pradesh.
In an experiment by World Bank researcher Karla Hoff and Pennsylvania State University's Priyanka Pandey, showed that caste-consciousness sets in early among school children.
Lower caste students perform as well as their upper class peers, if they think the 'teacher' and other students do not know their identity. But their performance drops if the teacher announces their caste identity or segregates groups on the basis of their social status.
A group of six boys, three chamar (lower class) and one each Brahmin, Thakur and Vaysha, were asked to solve a puzzle followed by rewards if they got it right. Their identity was not revealed in the classroom. There was no difference in performance between the boys of difference castes.
In the second round, the teacher announced the child's caste - his name, his village, his father's name, his grandfather's name and his caste - and the boy would nod if the information was correct. The result of the experiment was different from the one where caste was unannounced; performance of lower caste students actually dropped by 25 per cent.
The results were alarming in case of the third round where students were segregated on the basis of their caste. The performance of lower caste students went down by 39 per cent in comparison with the first round when caste identities were not known. The students seems least motivated to play the game because they perceived that the teacher had segregated them as 'outcast'. The experiment was repeated 107 times with 642 children between 11 and 12 years of age studying in rural Uttar Pradesh.
The researchers conclude that one possible explanation for the decline in low-caste performance when caste is announced is that "knowing that the experimenter knows and is concerned with their caste, the low-caste subjects may expect that the promised payments will not be fairly awarded. If they believe- based on the lessons of history, personal experience, and the ongoing reality of village life-that the reward system is biased against the low caste, then the announcement of caste membership could be a cue that causes them to project onto this new situation those existing attitudes.
"The announcement-which may have a stronger effect because it is made before five of one's peers may call into play the social training of a low-caste individual. Mistrust undermines motivation".
Another possible explanation for the decline in low-caste performance when caste is announced is that underlining the social identity lowers the self-confidence of the low-caste relative to the high-caste subjects, they felt.
Psychology has shown that associating individual's social identity with negative stereotype hurts his self-confidence and performance. If the individuals are grouped according to their identity, it implicitly raises the stigma of untouchability, the study concludes.
The experiment throws light on the deep-rooted social conditioning in India's villages. The best of policies and legal framework have done little to alleviate the historical prejudices. As politicians look to expand their constituencies, they just might be reinforcing entrenched social order by harping on caste quota and reservations.
 |
|
|
