ABSTRACT
The title of this chapter draws upon the way the Head Master referred to his pupils, namely, ‘sarkari bacche’. The word ‘sarkar’ means government, and in post-liberalisation India in particular, its adjectival form, ‘sarkari’, has come to represent anything that is inefficient and unreliable, ostensibly, like a government-run institution. ‘Bacche’ is the Hindi word for ‘children’. This chapter argues that christening the pupils of government schools, ‘sarkari bacche’, conveys the low esteem in which this category of schools and the communities dependent on them are held by urban middle-class teachers. Drawing upon analyses of class and caste-based domination and cultural practices, it unpacks how this institutionalised low esteem shapes teachers’ pedagogic and disciplinary practices and social relations between teachers and pupils. It also discusses some aspects of everyday school life that drive teachers’ frustration with state schools as well as the differences between teachers in the same school. The last part of the chapter focuses on children’s and parents’ perspectives, struggles and efforts to ensure educational survival and success in the face of socioeconomic and educational marginalisation, thus challenging teachers’ deficit view of labour class families and pupils.
