Dropouts Problem among Karnataka (India) Tribal Children: Where Rubber hits the Road?

The population of Scheduled Tribes in India according to 2001Census is 7.43 million. Education of Scheduled Tribe children is considered important, not only because of the constitutional obligation, but also a crucial input for total development of tribal communities. The literacy levels of the Scheduled Tribes according to the 2001census are 27.10% as compared to overall literacy rate of the total population i.e., 65.38%, which shows a dismal picture of Scheduled Tribes education. So long as there is a gap between the literacy levels, the position of Scheduled Tribes will remain backward. Lack of education may lead to child exploitation, child labor, population explosion, etc., so the need of the hour is to bring quality education through 100% school enrolment and retention with more emphasis on the girl child education. This paper deals about various vital reasons as pointed by the children for their absence for schools including some policy suggestions for impart inequality education among the tribal children in order to uplift themselves and to overcome the socio-economic problems.