Bodo-Kachari in Assam: Culture, Education and Socio-Economic Status

There are about 145 tribal’s groups in North-east India of which 78 are large and rest small comprising 22.81 of North-east population. They are the weakest segment of Indian population from social, economic as well as educational set up and constitute the matrix of Indian poverty. Out of them the Bodo-kacharis constitute the major ethnic group among the tribal population of the present day state of Assam. Ethnologically, the term Bodo covers a number of tribal residents; in fact it encompasses the majority of the Scheduled Tribes in the plains of Assam (Constitution order 1958). Some economic factors are responsible for not have the interest shown by the tribal people in getting education. Since most of the tribal people are living in miserable poverty under subsistence economy, it is not easy for most of them to send their children to schools. Verrier Elwin (1963) properly sums up the situation in the following way :-“For a tribal family unit, to send its grown up girl or boy to school is essentially a matter of economics; and entails dislocation in the traditional pattern of division of labour, many parents cannot just afford to send their children to school.”This is the real picture of Boro areas. The present study is based on various sources of secondary data such as books, papers, articles and journals. This paper is mainly focussed on the present socio-economic status, cultural scenario and educational scenario of Bodo-kachari in Assam.