Socio-Economic Conditions of Scheduled Castes: A Study of Bhiwani District

Abstract

Scheduled castes are most backward castes in Haryana region. The social and economic deprivation among Scheduled Castes had been most common during pre and post-Independence. The constitution of India is enriched with several provisions for schedule caste to safeguard and promote their cultural, social, educational, economic and political interests in order to bring them in mainstream of the nation. Though, Government has formulated many of the welfare schemes for the empowerment of scheduled castes, still their position is vulnerable as they are socially discriminated, exploited, suffering from poverty, illiteracy, etc. The present paper aims to study the socio-economic condition of scheduled caste population. For this purpose multi-stage random sampling has been applied. The fundamental information has been collected through the previously furnished questionnaire of 2017. Totally 550 respondents were interviewed to collect the primary data. The findings revealed that majority of the respondents were suffered from discrimination, caste based inequality, exploitation, poverty, etc. The sample households, according to the study, also entertain loan but on very low scale. In the study it is seen that the uneducated people go to the private money lenders for borrowing money on high interest rate and the treacherous money lenders exploit them. So the Government should enhance better banking service system in order to promote individual economic development and also of the community. Hence, it is suggested to provide higher education and employment to scheduled castes living in backward areas. Further, it is essential that the NGOs should look into the problems of scheduled castes in Bhiwani district.