Beyond Enrolment: How Urban Poverty Affects Educational Experiences

In a country as diverse as India, inequalities in access to education are deeply interwoven with the economic, social and political identities of individuals. In this regard, the need to expand access to education is usually emphasised broadly in terms of enrolment ratios, as these reflect the overall percentages of children going to school across different age groups. However, enrolment ratios depict merely an entry point into a school. This paper contends that it is important to look beyond enrolment numbers and focus on the social and economic barriers that prevent students from fully engaging with the education provided in school. Once enrolled in a school, whether government or private, numerous factors affect the ability of a child to fully participate in the educational process. This paper aims to understand the various challenges faced by those belonging to economically and socially marginalised sections of the population in a metropolitan city such as Delhi. This study finds that even after getting admission, several factors related to the child’s home, family and neighbourhood significantly affect how he/she engages with the educational process. In addition to this, factors such as caste-based discrimination were also found to play an important role in the schooling experiences of children living in urban poverty.