424 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
TABLE—XCV
Pupils of the depressed classes in institution for girls by stages and provinces Primary Middle High Collegiate Province stage stage stage stage
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
Madras .. .. 7,276 230 14 2
Bombay .. .. 5,739 (a) 159 (a) 1 (a) Nil
*Bengal .. .. 28,086 49 (b) 5 (b) 3 (b)
United Provinces .. 2,204 8 1 Nil
Panjab .. .. 398 2 Nil Nil
Bihar & Orissa .. 2,210 (c) Nil Nil Nil
Central Provinces .. 521 (c) 3 (c) Nil Nil
(a) Includes aborigines, Hill and Criminal Tribes.
(b) Includes all backward classes.
(c) Number of girls in boy’s school and Girl’s schools.
This is a most deplorable state of affairs. Between 1929 and now some inprovement might have taken place although there is no exact data to measure the progress. But the fact that the Departments in the Government of India have not been able to fill the quota of the 8 [1] / 2 p.c. of the vacancies reserved for the Scheduled Castes by the Government of India by its Resolution of 1943 due to insufficiency of qualified candidates is an indication that the condition of education among the Scheduled Castes reproted to be existing in 1929 has not materially altered during the interval.
From the point of view of raising the status of the Scheduled Castes and from the point of view of giving them social security from those elements in Indian Society which are hostile to them higher education particularly College education is more important to them than primary education. The welfare of the Scheduled Castes depends entirely upon a sympathetic public