Strategies to Improve Service Participation by Vulnerable Families of Dalits

The focus of this paper is to identify effective strategies that promote participation by families of Dalits, in services (Educational, Health, Banking etc.) provided to them by the state government and also to examine the strength of the evidence base, underlying these strategies. The analysis is based upon a review of literature from peer-reviewed scientific journals. The paper first outlines the reasons why new strategies are needed. The main reasons are high refusal rate; high attrition rate and barriers facing the families of the vulnerable group (weaker sections of society). Second, the paper also outlines the strategies, which were found useful in improving the service participation rates by these families. The strategies outlined in this paper aim to address three key issues: 1. High rates of refusal by these families to participate in services. Estimates of drop-out rates for health services are 35% to 70%. Even where attendance was voluntary and early home visiting support services were offered, around 10% to 25% of these families choose not to participate. 2. High rates of attrition by these families. Some families enroll in but do not complete programmes 3. Barriers faced by these families in gaining access to services. As Dalits groups share many similarities with other vulnerable groups of India. Therefore, the problems of the low service participation by these families are almost similar to the problems of Dalits. Keeping the similarities in mind, the strategies which were found useful for these families are postulated for improving the service participation by the families of Dalits. The paper concludes by pointing out that in order to get fruitful results these strategies need a lot of patience, perseverance and forego many conventional methods, which is practiced from a long time.