ABSTRACT

India stands at 135th on the Human Development Index (HDI) out of 187 countries (Human Development Reports, 2014). At 135, India’s position is the same as it was in 2010 and 2012. However, it has been doing well in increasing its purchasing power parity (PPP) claiming 4th rank in the world, next only to the USA, China and Japan (World Bank, 2011). India has the second largest education system in the world, with 200 million children aged between 6 and 14, around 25 million of whom are out of school (World Bank, 2004). India’s 1.3 billion people speak 18 different languages (GOI, 2002), and 844 dialects (Singal, 2005). The diversity is also reflected in disparities of educational achievement. For example, in Kerala, the literacy rate recorded in the 2001 census was 90.92% while in Bihar it was 47.53% (GOI, 2002). As a result, the overall average literacy rate for India was 65.38%. The above figure reflects the complexity of context (Govinda and Biswal, 2006). A study by Hulme, Moore and Shepherd (2001) reports that almost one-third of the world’s chronically poor live in India and they remain disadvantaged not only economically but also in terms of education and health. This chapter examines how educational and social exclusion affects children and young people in India, the challenges facing inclusive education there and the societal response to overcoming those challenges.