Gender, Religion and Caste

Mention different aspects of life in which Women are discriminated against or disadvantaged in India. 

1. In our country, women still lag much behind men despite some improvements since Independence. Ours is still a male-dominated, Patriarchal society. Women face disadvantage, discrimination and oppression in various ways. 

2. The literacy rate among women is only 54 per cent compared with 76 per cent among men. Similarly, a smaller proportion of girl students go for higher studies. They drop out because parents prefer to spend their resources on their boys’ education rather than spending equally on their sons and daughters. 

3. The proportion of women in highly paid and valued jobs is still very small. On average, an Indian woman works one hour more than an average man every day. Yet much of her work is not paid and therefore often not valued. 

4. The Equal Remuneration Act, of 1976 provides that equal wages should be paid to equal work. However, in almost all areas of work, from sports and cinema to factories and fields, women are paid less than men, even when both do exactly the same work. 

5. In many parts of India parents prefer to have sons and find ways to have the girl child aborted before she is born. Such sex-selective abortion led to a decline in the child sex ratio (number of girl children per thousand boys) in the country to merely 919. 

Why did women in different parts of the world organise and agitate for equal rights? 

1. There were agitations in different countries for the extension of voting rights to women. 

2. These agitations demanded enhancing the political and legal status of women and improving their educational and career opportunities. 

3. More radical women’s movements aimed at equality in personal and family life as well. These movements are called Feminist movements. 

4. Political expression of gender division and political mobilisation on this question helped to improve women’s role in public life. We now find women working as scientists, doctors, engineers, lawyers, managers and college and university teachers which were earlier not considered suitable for women. 

5. In some parts of the world, for example in Scandinavian countries such as Sweden, Norway and Finland, the participation of women in public life is very high. 

Highlight the different dimensions of religious diversities in the world today. 

1. Religious diversity is fairly widespread in the world today. Many countries including India have in their population, followers of different religions. Even when most of the people belong to the same religion, there can be serious differences about the way people practice that religion. 

2. Gandhiji used to say that religion can never be separated from politics. What he meant by religion was not any particular religion like Hinduism or Islam but moral values that inform all religions. He believed that politics must be guided by ethics drawn from religion. 

3. Human rights groups in our country have argued that most of the victims of communal riots in our country are people from religious minorities. They have demanded that the government take special steps to protect religious minorities. 

4. Women’s movement has argued that Family Laws of all religions discriminate against women. So they have demanded that government should change these laws to make them more equitable. 

5. People should be able to express in politics their needs, interests and demands as a member of a religious community. Those who hold political power should sometimes be able to regulate the practice of religion so as to prevent discrimination and oppression. 

Communalism is fundamentally flawed. Explain. 

1. People of one religion do not have the same interests and aspirations in every context. 

2. Everyone has several other roles, positions and identities. There are many voices inside every community. 

3. All these voices have a right to be heard. Therefore any attempt to bring all followers of one religion together in context other than religion is bound to suppress many voices within that community. 

Why did the Constitution makers choose the model of a Secular state in India? 

1. Communalism was and continues to be one of the major challenges to democracy in our country. 

2. The makers of our Constitution were aware of this challenge. That is why they chose the model of a secular state. 

3. A secular Constitution like ours is necessary but not sufficient to combat communalism. 

4. Communal prejudices and propaganda need to be countered in everyday life and religion-based mobilisation needs to be countered in the arena of politics. 

What is Caste System? Explain how the Caste System in India has undergone changes. 

1. All societies have some kind of social inequality and some form of division of labour. In most societies, occupations are passed on from one generation to another. 

2. Caste system is an extreme form of this. What makes it different from other societies is that this system, hereditary occupational division was sanctioned by rituals. 

3. Political leaders and social reformers like Jotiba Phule, Gandhiji, B.R. Ambedkar and Periyar Ramaswami Naicker advocated and worked to establish a society in which caste inequalities are absent. 

4. Partly due to their efforts and partly due to other socio-economic changes, castes and caste system in modern India have undergone great changes. 

5. With economic development, large-scale URBANISATION, growth of literacy and education, Occupational Mobility and the weakening of the position of landlords in the villages, the old notions of Caste Hierarchy are breaking down. 

6. The Constitution of India prohibited any caste-based discrimination and laid the foundations of policies to reverse the injustices of the caste system.

Caste can take various forms in politics. Explain. 

1. When parties choose candidates in elections, they keep in mind the caste composition of the electorate and nominate candidates from different castes so as to muster the necessary support to win elections. When governments are formed, political parties usually take care that representatives of different castes and tribes find a place in it. 

2. Political parties and candidates in elections make appeals to caste sentiment to muster support. Some political parties are known to favour some castes and are seen as their representatives. 

3. Universal adult franchise and the principle of one-person-one-vote compelled political leaders to gear up to the task of mobilising and securing political support. It also brought new consciousness among the people of castes that were hitherto treated as inferior and low. 

While caste matters in electoral politics, so do many other factors. List them. 

1. The voters have a strong attachment to political parties which is often stronger than their attachment to their caste or community. 

2. People within the same caste or community have different interests depending on their economic condition. 

3. Rich and poor or men and women from the same caste often vote very differently. 

4. People’s assessment of the performance of the government and the popularity rating of the leaders matter and are often decisive in elections. 

State how caste inequalities are still continuing in India.  

1. Caste has not disappeared from contemporary India. Some of the older aspects of caste have persisted. 

2. Even now, most people marry within their own caste or tribe. 

3. Untouchability has not ended completely, despite constitutional prohibition. 

4. Effects of centuries of advantages and disadvantages continue to be felt today. 

5. The caste groups that had access to education under the old system have done very well in acquiring modern education as well. Those groups that did not have access to education or were prohibited from acquiring it have lagged behind.