An Empirical Assessment of Deprivation Among Scheduled Caste Population in Kerala

Even though the Government is proving a wide array of schemes and policies for the emancipation of the Scheduled Caste population, it often fails to bring them to the forefront of the society and to reduce the existing gap between them and affluent sections of the society. The existingliterature showcased their lack of capacity as the fundamental reason for their deprived status. This Lack of capacity is attributed to their income, caste, wealth and educational status. But various modern thinkers repudiate the notion of calculating deprivation on the basis of money and income and point out various approaches for evaluating human deprivation. Nobel laureate AmartyaSen pointed out that the lack of capability to achieve different functions caused for deprivation in people’s lives rather than the low income and scarce resources. So the present study tries to find out the extentof Capability and economic deprivation among SC population in Kerala and pattern of their human capital investment, their socioeconomicstatus and various schemes intended for their welfare and human capital formation. A multistage sampling method was adopted for the study. Various domains, indicators, statistical tools like discriminant analysis, regression analysis etc have been employed in the study and it is proved that increasing the level of capability and human capital formation will ensure their progress. Both rural and urban areas have been experiencing deprivation depending on different domains and their indicators.