CivilsDially:: Inequality, Prejudice & Intolerance in India
Inequality, Prejudice & Intolerance in India
India had some of the best examples of people of different belief systems, cultures and ways of thinking living together with mutual respect. Are both of these deeply threatened in the politics of today? What's the narrative of the middle class & the poor? Try to analyse the many different fault lines which crisscross Indian society today.
In the US, public discussion followed. In India, a similar issue would have caused acrimony and denial.
Several artistes of colour are threatening to boycott the Oscar award ceremony. Others are asking their peers to get over colour issues, while Academy president herself insists that greater representation is required.
The issue is of no black actor being nominated for the 2nd year running. But Instead of war, a discussion has broken out.
Indian politics should try to learn from this culture of openness, before our discourse collapses into a monologue.
The nation is repeatedly confronting questions of difference, of categories.
Those refusing to attend the ceremony are not being labelled anti national or being asked to pack off their bags.
Activists say law against prenatal gender determination not working.
The gap between male and female registered births in India fell further in 2012 and 2013, new official data suggest.
Since 2011, when the census found India’s child sex ratio at birth to have fallen to 910 girls for every 1,000 boys, the situation may have worsened.
Newly released CRS data show that the sex ratio of registered births fell from 909 in 2011 to 908 the next year and 898 in 2013.
Manipur and Haryana do particularly badly, as do Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan.
India’s Civil Registration System (CRS), administered by the office of the Registrar General of India, which conducts the decadal census, comprises all officially registered birth and death data.
All societies face serious challenges on account ofdiscrimination and institutionalised inequality.
Centuries of artificial division of society into hundreds of castes, thedenial of education for all but a few “upper” castes, an unbreakable linkage between caste and occupation, institutionalized untouchability and absurd notions of “impurity”, the long-entrenched tradition of endogamous marriages within a sub-caste, and serious prejudice against mixed marriages are all that have made the Indian caste system the most heinous, oppressive and intractable form of discrimination and inequality by birth.
Most of thebenefits of reservations have gone only to a few, better educated, well-off elitesamong the communities eligible for reservations
Real poor families among SCs, STs and OBCs are largely on the margins. The poor among Other Categories (OC) are resentful and frustrated, and tend to blame reservations for all their problems.
With the Supreme Court ruling of 50 per cent ceiling on reservation quotas, no further reservation is possible. No child with ability and desire should ever be denied opportunities for higher education on account of poverty or birth
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act is mostly a failure in enabling a real opportunity for all children.Guaranteed outcomes in schools and access to real quality school education to every child irrespective of birth and poverty are at the heart of a society promoting equity, opportunity and egalitarianism.
It is time we address the challenge of reservations honestly, openly, fairly and innovatively. We cannot bury our heads in the sand forever like an ostrich.
Lets have a discussion on What steps needed to be taken by Gujarat Government?
How development model can be redesigned to maintain equilibrium of Growth and employment?
Across the country, unless adequate jobs are created for the large labour force, the frustration of the youth is not likely to be contained.
In Gujarat, the Patels or Patidars, who constitute about 15 per cent of the State’s population, are an economically and politically dominant upper caste, demanding the removal of caste-based reservation and its replacement with income-based reservation.
Why the agitation?
First, the existing reservation policy that has failed to assimilate lowest castes/tribes within the mainstream economy and society, has created a sense of dissatisfaction and injustice among those who are denied the benefits of reservation.
And second, the much-discussed Gujarat model of development has failedmiserably in creating adequate employment opportunities for the growing labour force in the State.
Recent study in Gujarat has shown that the SC, OBC and ST households at the bottom are still left out of the benefits of the rapid growth of the State.
The danger of the demographic dividend turning into a demographic disaster is looming over the State. And similarly across the country, unless adequate jobs are created for the large labour force , the frustration of the youth is not likely to be contained.
In short, the Gujarat protests should be treated as a warning against the reservation policy and the State’s growth model. It is also a warning to other States.
We had taken up this topic sometime back but it seems like a good time to revive it now. Given the tumultuous situation in the country regarding reservations/ representations/ inequalities, this question becomes relevant still.
The term BIMARU — an abbreviation for Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh — was coined by demographer Ashish Bose in 1980s.
Based on a range of demographic indicators these States lagged significantly behind the southern States, and were contributing the most to India’s population explosion.
As per 2011 census, although these states have made significant individual improvement but they still lag behind in indicators like Total Fertility Rate and Per Capita Income.
In contrast, only 14% of urban households use firewood and the remaining rely of LPG.
In North Indian States, cow-dung cake remained one of the major fuels for cooking for a third of rural households in UP and Punjab, a quarter in Haryana and a fifth in Bihar.
Survey indicates that the use of firewood drops steadily with rising incomes in rural and urban areas, and LPG use is highest among the richest classes
Data show 87% of ST households and 70% of SC households in rural India use firewood, compared with 57% of others.
Over 25% of rural households still rely on kerosene for lighting.
Some facts:
Top LPG users among rural households: TN>Kerala>Punjab
Bottom LPG users among rural households: Chattisgarh<Jharkhand<Odisha
Top electricity users in rural areas: Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, TN, Kerala
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