The status and role of women in contemporary India

Women Status Contemporary India

The Status and Role of Women in Contemporary India

The women in contemporary India have a very significant role as they fulfill crucial responsibilities in almost every sector including family life, agricultural development and industrial development. However, it is unfortunate that such contributions have remained mostly indistinguishable to the planners and policy makers due to which the Indian women have always experienced an unstable status in the country. Even in this modern era of science and technology, women in India are still considered a disadvantaged group as there has been no change in the conventional structure of society as well as cultural and moral standards (Chakrapani and Kumar, 1994).

In addition, a majority of women are still unaware of the social laws that have been designed to alleviate the problems women face in the society. As a consequence, distressed situations influence Indian women more than Indian men as the levels of their social and moral insecurity rises in similar difficult circumstances (Chakrapani and Kumar, 1994). The great news is that women have started to lift up their status as new opportunities have been created for them due to the "recent changing trends in the structure of the society, advancement of science and technology, women's education and participation in workforce" (Chakrapani and Kumar, 1994).

On the other hand, a majority of women suffer from a number of painful experiences because of their poverty. Many of them experience insensitive and unkind societal bevaiors due to their cultural values, chauvinism, taboos and false notions. Such patterns affect the overall attitudinal, nutritional and physical well-being of women consequently affecting the nurturing of their children as they fail to take care of their offspring in an active manner. The lack of education has worsened the situation as women are not capable of perceiving their roles in the betterment of their children's nutrition and emotional needs (Chakrapani and Kumar, 1994).

An interesting aspect that is related with the Indian women is that of reproduction. The women who belong to upper and middle class use a number of resources to acquire power and status in the society. It means that the urban society does not consider reproduction to be the power tool for women. As far as lower class women are concerned, the case is totally different. As they do not have access to other resources, they alleviate their powerlessness by using reproduction as the power basis. A large number of Indian women are economically dependent on their husbands. Decision-making is mainly done by the male members. However, women who are educated are sometimes considered on matters related to family planning (Chakrapani and Kumar, 1994).

Women are made to confine their educational fields to subjects that may help them to play the roles of wife and mother in an effective manner. Therefore, the studies related to Home Economics, Cooking, Interior Design etc. are encouraged. Women are not considered to study tough subjects like engineering as it is considered as manlike. The cultural taboos still influence the participation of women in workforce. On the other hand, women belonging to tribes are playing a major role in the economic activities and a major amount of work is done by them in agricultural sector. As far as the field of politics is concerned, there is still a lot to be done to encourage women to get appointed in the high offices against the cultural standards (Chakrapani and Kumar, 1994). To cut a long story short, Indian women still need to get empowered as the society has failed to recognize their power as an advantaged group.

Effects Of India's Rapid Population Growth On Its Development

India is faced with the problem of rapid population growth. Due to this factor, the environment in the country is degrading day by day because of "the uncontrolled growth of urbanization and industrialization, expansion and intensification of agriculture, and the destruction of natural habitats" (Nagdeve, 2007). Thus, the country is facing the challenge of sustainable development as the population growth is huge causing the deterioration of environment. There is a need to design policies that could encourage development without destruction of environment and natural resources. It is not an untold secret that the economic development process in any country can speed up or lessen with the presence or shortage of favorable natural resources. Presently, the overall world population is about 7 billion. India alone contributes more or less 1200 million people to this total. According to an estimate, the total population of the country by 2016 would be 1.26 billion which suggests that by 2050, China would be left behind by India and India will become the world's most populated country (Nagdeve, 2007).

However, this population increase in extremely alarming as there is a lot of pressure on the country's natural resource. Water resources are becoming short, soil has started to exhaust and a number of areas have been afflicted by pollution (land, air, water, noise) and deforestation. Thus, is the population growth in India continues at the same rate, there would be devastating consequences on the environment of the country. The absence or lack of resources simply means that there is no further development in the country if immediate steps are not taken (Nagdeve, 2007).

The emergent population trends and resulting food, energy and accommodation requirements have greatly made distortions in land-use practices thereby causing severe damage to the forestry and environment in India. There is a huge pressure put by increasing population on the extensification of land by cutting down forests and grazing fields. As a consequence, the population is far higher than the food resources and food demands cannot be met (Nagdeve, 2007).

There are a number of steps taken by the Indian government to put a control to population growth. India was the first country that adopted family planning as a major component of its development policy. In 1976, the Indian government successfully conducted a sterilization program but eventually the target of decreasing fertility rate could not be achieved. America has also supported India to control its population. On the other hand, people in India are not much inclined towards family planning. Various campaigns have been held for encouraging people to go for vasectomy or tubectomy. However, the disinterest of a majority of Indian population has never made such campaigns successful. Even though the Indian government also paid compensations to people who did family planning, there has been no drastic change in the population growth after the Independence. It is exceedingly necessary for the government of India to do something about controlling its population as China has done such as One-Child Policy. This is important because the consequences would be devastating for the country in the next few decades. There are a number of measures that can be implemented in order to control population growth in India. Many of them have been adopted by China and the results were successful. Such measures include late marriages, education and awareness regarding the demerits of population growth, self-restraint, encouragement of urbanization (people in urban areas prefer small families), family planning, reduction in infant mortality rate etc. (Jain & Ohri, 2006).

Caste System in India

The caste system is prevalent in India which categorizes people into superior and inferior classes. This caste system is based on birth and family status. There are four major castes in Hindu society known as Brahmins, Kshathriyas, Vaishyas and Shudhras. Brahmins are the holy caste while Kshathriyas are the warrior caste. Vaishyas represent the business caste whereas the Shudhras consists of servants and are considered to be the lower caste of society. There are a number of features according to which the caste system is followed. Firstly, the caste system is hereditary in nature which means than the human beings are considered as highly superior on the basis of their ascribed values instead of their achievements and personal behavioral traits. The caste system demonstrates the fact that the social stratification in the country is principally based on a person's caste. Hierarchy is another feature of this system by which occupations are divided among people as being pure and impure. Thus, Brahmans are given the highest pure jobs like teaching and mentoring whereas the lowest caste is given the work of sweepers, peons etc. Even though, "caste-based discrimination is legally prohibited in post-independent India and caste-based dominance on occupations has come down, it has not lost its importance and one can find large difference in occupational structure and welfare level of the upper and the lower caste groups" (Singh, 2012).

The caste system also makes it impossible for people to exchange or share meals, smoking etc. For example, Brahmans never share their foods and drinks with the people who belong to any other caste. This system also refrains people to marry people of other castes thus prohibiting inter-caste marriages. However, the contemporary Indian society and the educated people are no more considering this factor as important and there has been an increase in the inter-castes marriages in the recent years. The caste system also considers purity and pollution as a basic feature. People are judged to be pure by considering their jobs, speech, clothing styles, actions and eating habits. The major disadvantage of this caste system is that a few factions in the society are given privileges whereas a number of factions are made socially and religiously disable. Language has been a differentiating factor among the caste systems. One can identify the caste of a person on the type of language he/she uses. Thus, pure language is usually being used by the high caste whereas the people belonging to lower castes are usually found to speak colloquial language. The mechanisms of conflict resolution are also different in every caste like panchayats that decide and solve inter-caste issues and conflicts (Chowdhuri, 2012).

The social stratification in the Indian society on the basis of caste system is also reflected in a process called Reservation in India. It is a mechanism through which the Indian government sets aside government jobs (a particular percentage) in offices and spots in educational institutions for the members of groups that are downtrodden, backward and lack representation. It is actually an affirmative action on the part of government and is basically founded on quota-system. A lot of people in Indian society have appreciated this governmental action as it has helped in the bridging of gap that has divided the upper and lower classes of the society. On the other hand, the opponents of Reservation in India criticize this step as the discourager of merit and aptitude and an encourager of politicized electoral system. To cut a long story short, the Indian society represent hierarchy where people are given regard and respect by seeing their social caste (Chowdhuri, 2012). Thus, it can be said that Indian society has created social inequalities on purpose and it is not a natural phenomenon as every human being possesses equal rights.