Diversity, Inclusion and Development: The Socio-educational Perspectives of the Marginalized Musahar Community in India

The Musahar community lives as a homogeneous, closed group that is socio-educationally cut off from the main society. They have a well-ordered and assured way of life, that is, a unique lifestyle, philosophy and culture. The main goal of this article is to present a quantitative analysis of the status of educational inclusion of the Musahar community since independence and their participation in formal education, that is, educational development after the independence of India. Along with this, comparative studies are also done at the state and national levels by analysing the key demographic data of the Musahar community. The study shows that the current decadal population growth rate of the Musahar community is higher than that of all the Musahar-populated states in India. The sex ratio of the Musahar community since independence was higher than the sex ratio of India till the census year 1981 but has decreased since then till the latest census year (2011). Only 22% of the Musahar population is literate, while only 5.66% of the Musahar have studied up to the primary junior basic level. Only 0.06% of Musahar have graduated or exceeded the academic level in India. Additional governmental and non-governmental efforts are required to improve the educational inclusion of the Musahar community.