Right to Free and Compulsory Education (RtE) Act, 2009 India has been considered a noteworthy landmark to envisage a better future for children in India. It made it mandatory for private schools to reserve 25% seats at entry level to students belonging to officially defined minority groups and economically weaker section (EWS) and provide them education free of cost on government-funded status. Present paper endeavors to present the findings from an ethnographic research study aimed at studying the subjective experiences of students belonging to EWS category admitted under abovementioned provision in an elite private school in Delhi, the capital city of India. Based on the field data, present paper mainly deliberates on the role of school context in shaping social class identities while delineating the aspirations and experiences of EWS students studying there.
Guided by sociological and social psychological perspectives, data for this research was collected and triangulated through various qualitative methods and thematic analysis was used to comprehend the findings. Findings of the study led to posit that interaction of prevailing social hierarchies and worldviews about social class; secular and normative culture of schools and mis-matched cultural and social capitals in field, instigated a range of academic, social and psychological challenges for students belonging to EWS category and often made them feel like fish out of water. Findings further points towards the importance of agency in dealing with such experiences and reveals that even amid numerous struggles EWS students keep looking for spaces and opportunities that helps them to find their place in system and chart a way towards social mobility.
