Growing Educated Citizenry of Tribal Community in Himachal Pradesh- A Panacea for Human Resource Development

*Rama Sharma **Dr. Jai Singh Parmar

ABSTRACT Education is a critical input in human resource development and is essential for the countrys economic growth. Though the major indicators of socio-economic development viz., the growth rate of the economy, birth rate, death rate, infant mortality rate and literacy rate, are all interconnected. The literacy rate has been the major determinant of the rise or fall in all other indicators. Education is a tool of transmission of culture, accumulated knowledge and experience of a society. It is also the tool for economic betterment and societal change. Within a developing country, the great divide seems to between the rich and the poor. The need for tribal development in India hardly needs any justification. Their primitive way of life, economic and social backwardness, low level of literacy, hackneyed system of production, sparse physical infrastructure in backward tribal areas and demographic quality of tribal areas coupled together make it imperative for a systematic process of development of tribal and tribal areas. The socio-economic development of Scheduled Tribes depends on learning and educational advancement. Education is more than a mere asset for some tribal communities hence, investment in education is, in a way, crucial for their existence. Continued economic exploitation has brought them to a state of helplessness exemplified by migrant labor, debt bondage, etc. A medium of education will equip them to deal with middlemen, merchants and traders on a better footing. Their inability to cope with the many novel forces impinging nowadays on tribal villages and on an economy which had remained virtually unchanged for centuries is by no means due to any innate lack of intelligence. Education is the most effective instrument for ensuring equality of opportunity. Keeping in view of this assumption, the government has been making several efforts towards their education by extending special educational facilities and reservation of seat in educational institutions as per the provisions of the constitution of India. But the development of education is one of the important problems in the case of tribal in India. Through this paper, an effort has been made to explore the factors affecting the education of tribal students in the state of Himachal Pradesh. Further, in this study an attempt has been made to find out the impact of formal education on the development of tribal people of Himachal Pradesh. ___________________________________________________________________________
*Assistant Professor, Manav Bharti University, SOLAN, H.P. E-mail: rama83_icon31@rediffmail.com, sharma.rama1983@gmail.com, Mob.-9418246110 **Associate Professor, Himachal Pradesh University Business School, Summer Hill, SHIMLA-171005, E-mail: jai_sparmar@rediffmail.com, Mob.-9418160845