Land Ownership Structure and Literacy among Scheduled Castes in Rural India: An Exploratory Data Analysis

The review of issues that bring out the historical and regional dimensions complements the analysis on land ownership structure and literacy among Scheduled Castes (SCS) in rural India in early 1990. The various scenarios help us better understand the composite index that combines inequality in land distribution (Gini) and illiteracy. If literacy is a potent tool and an alternative to landlessness then from the correlation exercise one can infer that it has been less effective for SCs than for total population. While giving policy prescription, a little detour is inevitable, rather necessary. Given the limits to land, propagating literacy a tool with intrinsic and instrumental value and providing alternative income generating assets in the rural non-farm sector becomes essential. Till that materialises one proposes the need to work out the viability and modality of giving illiterate, landless, and assetless agricultural iabourers (females and males) property rights to water.