Caste And Gender Inequality In India.pptx

All about the various strata's under which the society is differentiated and how its impacts the lives of the common people.

1. “Caste and gender inequality in India.”

2. Introduction of Caste System in India The caste system in India is an important part of ancient Hindu tradition and dates back to 1200 BCE. The term caste was first used by Portuguese travelers who came to India in the 16 th century. Caste comes from the Spanish and Portuguese word “casta” which means “race”, “breed”, or “lineage”. Many Indians use the term “jati”. There are 3,000 castes and 25,000 subcastes in India, each related to a specific occupation. These different castes fall under four basic varnas: Brahmins—priests & teachers Kshatriyas—warriors & rulers Vaishyas— farmers, traders & merchants Shudras—labourers

3. Caste not only dictates one's occupation, but dietary habits and interaction with members of other castes as well. Members of a high caste enjoy more wealth and opportunities while members of a low caste perform menial jobs. Outside of the caste system are the Untouchables. They are considered to be in a permanent state of impurity. Untouchables were named "Harijans" (Children of God) by Gandhi.

4. Introduction of Gender Discrimination in India Gender inequality in India refers to health, education, economic and political inequalities between men and women in India. Various international gender inequality indices rank India differently on each of these factors, as well as on a composite basis, and these indices are controversial. The Gender gap index for India compared to other countries. The gender gap index is one of many multi-dimensional measures of gender disparity. India was scored at 0.66 by the World Economic Forum, and ranked 101 out of 136 countries in 2013. Research shows gender discrimination mostly in favor of men in many realms including the workplace. Discrimination affects many aspects in the lives of women from career development and progress to mental health disorders. While Indian laws on rape, dowry and adultery have women's safety at heart, these highly discriminatory practices are still taking place at an alarming rate, affecting the lives of many today.

5. How did Caste System originate in India There are many theories like traditional, racial, political, occupational, evolutionary etc which try to explain the caste system in India. Traditional Theory According to this theory, the caste system is of divine origin. It says the caste system is an extension of the varna system, where the 4 varnas originated from the body of Bramha. At the top of the hierarchy were the Brahmins who were mainly teachers and intellectuals and came from Brahma’s head. Kshatriyas, or the warriors and rulers, came from his arms. Vaishyas, or the traders, were created from his thighs. At the bottom were the Shudras, who came from Brahma’s feet. The mouth signifies its use for preaching, learning etc, the arms – protections, thighs – to cultivate or business, feet – helps the whole body, so the duty of the Shudras is to serve all the others. The sub-castes emerged later due to intermarriages between the 4 varna. Racial Theory The Sanskrit word for caste is varna which means colour. The caste stratification of the Indian society had its origin in the chaturvarna system – Brahmins, Kashtriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras. Indian sociologist D.N. Majumdar writes in his book, “Races and Culture in India”, the caste system took its birth after the arrival of Aryans in India. Political Theory According to this theory, the caste system is a clever device invented by the Brahmins in order to place themselves on the highest ladder of social hierarchy.

6. Occupational Theory Caste hierarchy is according to the occupation. Those professions which were regarded as better and respectable made the persons who performed them superior to those who were engaged in dirty professions. Evolution Theory According to this theory, the caste system did not come into existence all of a sudden or at a particular date. It is the result of a long process of social evolution. Hereditary occupations; The desire of the Brahmins to keep themselves pure; The lack of rigid unitary control of the state; The unwillingness of rulers to enforce a uniform standard of law and custom Ideas of exclusive family, ancestor worship, and the sacramental meal; Clash of antagonistic cultures particularly of the patriarchal and the matriarchal systems; Clash of races, colour prejudices and conquest; Deliberate economic and administrative policies followed by various conquerors Geographical isolation of the Indian peninsula; Foreign invasions; Rural social structure.

7. Modern Problems of Caste System in India The caste system is a check on economic and intellectual advancement and a great stumbling block in the way of social reforms because it keeps economic and intellectual opportunities confined to a certain section of the population only. It undermines the efficiency of labour and prevents perfect mobility of labour, capital and productive effort. It perpetuates the exploitation of the economically weaker and socially inferior castes, especially the untouchables. It has inflicted untold hardships on women through its insistence on practices like child-marriage, prohibition of widow-remarriage, seclusion of women etc. It opposes real democracy by giving a political monopoly to Kshatriyas in the past and acting as a vote bank in the present political scenario. There are political parties which solely represent a caste. Eg: BSP was formed by Kanshi Ram mainly to represent SC, ST and OBC.

8. Gender Inequalities in India Gender inequality has been a social issue in India for centuries. That in many parts of India, the birth of a girl child is not welcomed is a known fact. It is a known fact too, that discrimination starts from even before the girl child is born and sometimes she is killed as a foetus, and if she manages to see the light of day, she is killed as an infant, which makes up the highly skewed child sex ratio where for every 1000 boys in India, there are only 908 girls. In such a scenario, it is but obvious that for myriad reasons, many girls across the country are forced to drop out of school. Patriarchal norms have marked women as inferior to men. A girl child is considered a burden and is often not even allowed to see the light of the world. It is hard to imagine this state of affairs in the 21 st Century when women have proved to be strong leaders in every field possible. From wrestling to business, the world has been revolutionised by exceptional women leaders in fields that were until recently completely dominated by men.

9. But in spite of such progress, even today, the girl child is discriminated against in most Indian households. The birth of a baby boy is celebrated with great pomp and ardour, but the birth of a girl child is received with dismay. The practice of female foeticide through sex selective abortion continues to be practiced in spite of the Prenatal Diagnostic Technique Act of 1994. In India the child sex ratio is at the lowest it has ever been with just 914 girls for every 1000 boys (Census, 2011). 42% of married women in India were married as children (District Information System for Education (DISE) 3) 1 in every 3 child brides in the world is a girl in India (UNICEF) India has more than 45 lakh girls under 15 years of age who are married with children. Out of these, 70% of the girls have 2 children (Census 2011).

10. Causes of Gender Discrimination in India Attaining gender justice is not an easy task in India. From time immemorial, a girl child has been considered as an unwanted entity and a burden whom the parents would not mind doing away with. Discrimination against women begins even before her birth. The gruesome evils of female feticide and infanticide prove how brutal the world could be to women. Though the Indian constitution provides equal rights and privileges for men and women and makes equal provision to improve the status of women in society, majority of women are still unable to enjoy the rights and opportunities guaranteed to them. The most important causes of gender disparity such as poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, social customs, belief and anti-female attitude are discussed here.

11. Poverty: In India of the total 30 percent people who are below poverty line, 70 percent are women. Women’s poverty in India is directly related to the absence of economic opportunities and autonomy, lack of access to economic resources including credit , land ownership and inheritance, lack of access to education and support services and their minimal participation in the decision making process. lliteracy : Despite the notable efforts by the countries around the globe that have expanded for the basic education , there are approximately 960 million illiterate adults of whom two thirds are women .Educational backwardness of the girls has been the resultant cause of gender discrimination.

12. Lack of Employment Facilities: Women are not able to resolve the conflict between new economic and old domestic roles. In both rural and urban India, women spend a large proportion of time on unpaid home sustaining work. Women are not able to respond to new opportunities and shift to new occupations because their mobility tends to be low due to intra-house hold allocation of responsibilities. Social Customs, Beliefs and Practices: Women are not free from social customs, beliefs and practices. The traditional patrilineal joint family system confines women’s roles mostly to the domestic sphere, allocating them to a subordinate status, authority and power compared to men. Men are perceived as the major providers and protectors of a family while women are perceived as playing only a supportive role, attending to the hearth.

13. Social Altitude: Though many social activists and reformers carried their crusade against all social odds to restore honour and dignity to women, attitudinal disparities still hunt our rural masses. Despite pronounced social development and technological advancement, women in our society still continue to be victims of exploitation, superstition, illiteracy and social atrocities. Lack of Awareness of Women: Most of the women are unaware of their basic rights and capabilities. They even do not have the understanding as to how the socio-economic and political forces affect them. They accept all types of discriminatory practices that persist in our family and society largely due to their ignorance and unawareness.

14. The Economic Dimensions of Gender Inequality in India Gender inequality subsists in Indian economy and prevails in all sectors of life like health, education, economics and politics. Men have always had the upper hand in these fields, depicting how deeply patriarchy is entrenched in India. Even though gender equality soars to great heights in post-independence era, many steps have been taken in various sectors of life to bridge the gap between men and women and to bring them up to the same level. Women have been actively involved in economic activities and labor force in contemporary times. In the agriculture sector for instance, 74% of the labour force consists of women. Yet, the wage gap between men and women across the Indian economy despite the active involvement of reformists and feminists who have been fighting for equal pay.

15. Women are also discriminated in terms of credit lending and property ownership. This situation can be again drawn back to the patriarchal system prevalent in the Indian economy: women have always been disbanded from share in the properties as it is believed that men are the ones who actually carry their generation forward and earn bread and butter for the family, while women would just sustain upon the money earned by men. Women also lack behind the corporate and government sectors. Various government programs and schemes have been launched in an attempt to provide equal opportunities for men and women. Reservations have helped to rise the number of jobs of women in government sector. This growing trend also lead to changes in the

16. Article 15 Of the Indian Constitution Article 15 states that the state shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of race, religion, caste, sex, and place of birth.A suffocating patriarchal shadow hangs over the lives of women throughout India. From all sections, castes and classes of society, women are victim of its repressive, controlling effects. Those subjected to the heaviest burden of discrimination are from the Dalit or “Scheduled Castes”, known in less liberal democratic times as the “Untouchables”. The name may have been banned but pervasive negative attitudes of mind remain, as do the extreme levels of abuse and servitude experienced by Dalit women. They experience multiple levels of discrimination and exploitation, much of which is barbaric, degrading, appallingly violent and totally inhumane.The divisive caste system – in operation throughout India, “Old” and “New” – together with inequitable gender attitudes, sits at the heart of the wide-ranging human rights abuses experienced by Dalit or “outcaste” women.“Discriminatory and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of over 165 million people in India has been justified on the basis of caste,” according to  Human Rights Watch

17. Provisions under Article 15: Article 15(1) It prohibits the the state from discriminating against a citizen on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth. Article 15 (2) Article 15(2) elaborates that no Indian citizen can be discriminated against on basis of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth. It states that no citizen shall be denied access to shops, public restaurants, hotels and palaces of public entertainment. It also adds that no citizen shall be subject to any disability, liability, restriction or condition with the use of wells, tanks, bathing ghats, roads and places of public resort maintained wholly or partly out of State funds or dedicated to the use of the general public.

18. Article 15 (3) and (4) The Article also states that the article cannot be used as an argument to make special provisions for women, children or any other backward classes. “Nothing in this article or in clause ( 2 ) of Article 29 shall prevent the State from making any special provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes,” the article states. Article 15 (5) An amendment was made in the article in 2018 after the government announced 10% reservation in colleges and universities for economically weaker sections. It states, “Nothing in this article or in sub-clause (g) of clause (1) of article 19 shall prevent the State from making any special provision, by law, for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled Tribes in so far as such special provisions relate to their admission to educational institutions including private educational institutions, whether aided or unaided by the State, other than the minority educational institutions referred to in clause (1) of article 30.]”

19. CONCLUSION Formal equality is not enough for achieving equality in outcomes, substantive equality is essential. The concept of substantive gender equality recognizes that women and men have to be treated differently and that women’s disadvantages (in particular marginalized) with have to be addressed to achieve equality. The gender gaps globally and in India are higher in economic and political sphere than Education and health. Skewed sex ratio at birth is becoming a global and Indian concern, As well as high incidence of gender based violence against women The four important international conventions and agreements towards substantive gender equality are the CEDAW, 1979, Vienna Declaration, 1993 that violence against women is a human rights violation, Beijing Platform for Women, 1995 and Goal 5 of Sustainable Development Goals, 2015. National approaches towards gender equality are many and include a combination of welfare, formal gender equality, women’s poverty reduction, efficiency and empowerment.

20. References WWW.researchgate.net WWW.financialexpress.com https://www.communitybusiness.org/latest-news-publications/culture-caste-and-religion-india-%E2%80%93-we-cant-talk-about-work#:~:text=Traditionally%2C%20India's%20caste%20system%20structured,outside%20of%20this%20caste%20system WWW.jagranjosh.com

21. Acknowledgement In the accomplishment of this project successfully, many people have best owned upon us their blessings and the heart pledged support this time we are utilizing to thank all the people who have been concerned with this project. Primarily we would thank God for being able to complete this project with, Then I would like to thank our principal Mrs. Hemlata Bagla and our F. C. teacher whose valuable guidance has been the ones that helped us patch this project and make it full proof success. Her suggestions and her instructions have served as the major contributor towards the completion of the project. Then we would like to thank our parents and friends who have helped us with their valuable suggestions and guidance has been very helpful in various phases of the completion of the project. Last but not the least we would like to thank our all the members and the group leader who have sailed us to the great success.