Major Social Factors behind the Social Issues & Problems in India.

Social issues or problems is a situation that objectively exists in particular society and is subjectively accepted as undesirable by that society. Social issues therefore, is relative to society or has a social context. Hence, study of social problems requires understanding of their social contexts. Study of Indian social Issues and Problems– their emergence and persistence in Indian society – requires understanding of the Indian social situation in which the problems exist. One has to analyse the social factors that are relevant to the understanding of social Issues in India. Some of the major factors that constitute the social context in India, as far as social problems are concerned, are as follows:

• Heterogeneity of Indian population,
• Economy, poverty and education
• State and polity,
• Urbanisation and industrialisation.
• Heterogeneity of Indian Population: India is a heterogeneous society – where there are several religions, castes, linguistic and tribal groups. The heterogeneous nature of the Indian population has been the cause of a number of social Issues in India.
• Religious Heterogeneity: The multi-religious nature of society and conflict among the different religions has given rise to the problem of communalism in India. The phenomenon of communalism, as a vitiated form of inter-religious group relationship, particularly between Hindus and Muslims is a grave problem in India. It has its historical linkage with the Muslim invasions in India, early conflicts between Hindus and Muslims, British rule and policy of encouraging communal-divide, competition for political power, service and resources. Gradually, the problem of communalism has affected the Hindu-Sikh relationship also. There is a sizeable group of Sikhs in India. They are concentrated in a relatively developed region (Punjab) of the country. Their existence as a powerful community in the region and as a minority in the larger nation is to be taken into consideration in understanding the emergence of communal politics followed by terrorism in Punjab. In this context it must be noted that by and large both Hindus and Sikhs in Punjab have shown a great deal of understanding and amity even in the midst of terrorism. The Indian concept of secularism accepts all religions as equal and does not discriminate one religion against another. The policy of ‘soft state’ and not taking hard decisions against communal organizations has also aggravated problems of communalism in India. The considerations of electoral gains by using religions have also contributed in the growth of communalism in the post-independent period of India.

Caste Heterogeneity:: Another element of Indian social structure is the caste system. The Caste system has been divided Indian population into numerous groups that enter into relationships of various types and degrees among them. It has been the root cause of various social problems in India. The Casteism as a problem refers to both the discrimination of one caste against another and the particularistic tendency of favouring one’s caste group in violation of the principle of universalism. The practice of mobilisation on the basis of caste and favour or disfavour shown in education and employment on caste considerations are the major features of casteism. One may justify caste criterion for welfare programmes in favour of the weaker sections in India social situation. At the same time, such welfare measures have generated tensions and conflicts that exhibit casteist tendencies. The caste system has had its adverse impact on education in India. Traditionally, caste determined the eligibility of the people for education. In the traditional system, education was considered to be the prerogative of the upper castes. Steeped in this tradition of reserving pursuit of knowledge to the upper castes, the masses did not receive education. This is one of the reasons for the problem of widespread illiteracy in India.

• Linguistic Heterogeneity: Another aspect of Indian society is that of the existence of several languages which often leads to conflicts between the different linguistic groups. India has recognised the socio-political reality of language by reorganising the states on the basis of language which has encouraged the assertion of linguistic identities. It may also be noted that as a nation, India has not been able to have a national language that is acceptable to all and that effectively serves as the link language. For historical reasons, English continues to be the link language for the purpose of higher education, administration and diplomacy. In this context, there is a two-fold relationship:
  • at the national level, there is the question of the relationship between English and Hindi.
  • at the State level, there is the question of the relationship between English, Hindi an the regional languages.
    The situation arising out of this peculiar linguistic configuration has created the problems of linguistic minorities in several states, border dispute between states, and the question of the medium of instruction in educational institutions. All these issues have repercussions on national integration. They have generated tensions an conflicts.
• Tribal Heterogeneity: India is a country with large population of tribals. Tribals in India are not a homogeneous group. They differ in terms of their ways of life, exposure to the outside world and adoption of the programmes of welfare and development. The tribals have been isolated from the mainstream of the Indian society for several years which accounted for their backwardness. In addition, they have been subjected to various types of exploitation by the non-tribals with whom they have come into contact. While the non-tribals exploited the tribals for economic gains, the tribals are facing the phenomenon of detribalisation which refers to the loss or degeneration of the tribal culture and way of life. In this context, the main problems of Indian tribes are backwardness, exploitation, detribalisation, ethnic tensions, various kinds of tribal movements and tribal insurgency in certain parts of India.
• Heterogeneity among Minorities: The heterogeneity of the Indian population has given rise to the problem of minorities in India. The major minority groups that have been identified in India are religious and linguistic. While religious minorities can be considered to exist at the national level, linguistic minorities have their relevance at the state level. Apart from religious and linguistic minority, caste and tribal groups may assume the status of minorities group in the context of inter-group relationships in particular situations.
• Population Explosion: Another social factor that has implications of social issues and problems in India is the phenomenon of population explosion. The population in India has been growing phenomenally during this century. Development and welfare programmes for the masses have not been able to catch up with the increasing population. Consequently, the benefits of the developmental programmes gained by the masses whose number is ever increasing, have been far below the expectation. With the increase in population, the problems of poverty, unemployment and illiteracy has been accentuated in India. In absolute terms the number of people who are affected by these problems have been increasing. The sheer size of the population is also a factor that affects the increasing ethnic problem of various kinds. The larger the size of the caste or the tribe, the greater is the tendency to assert their parochial or ethnic identities at the cost of national integration. In the population of India, there is a considerable number of the physically handicapped also. They are dependent on society at large for their survival. The country does not have enough institutions to take care of the various needs of the physically handicapped. Many of them turn to streets as beggars which is another social problem. The increasing population of India is making increasing demands on the resources of the land, capital and forest. With the growing population, the hunger for land in both rural and urban areas is increasing. With the growing burden on the national finance, the welfare programmes and social services like education, health, employment, rural development, welfare of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, backward castes, youth and women etc. are adversely affected. The needs of fuel, timbers and the hunger of land for cultivation and habitation are steadily depleting the forest resources. The increasing denudation of the forest areas is creating various kinds of environmental problems in the country. The adverse consequences of the ecological imbalance created by deforestation are visible in the changing pattern of rains, increasing soil erosion, floods, scarcity of fodder for animals and firewood for poor people.
• Cultural Factors: There are certain cultural elements that have had their own contribution to the persistence of the certain social issues and problems in India. The following cultural traits can be particularly identified in this context. Fatalism, Particularism, Lack of regard for public property, Patriarchal system.
• Fatalism: A cultural element that has been relevant to social issues and problems in India is fatalism. The Hindu doctrines of “karma” and rebirth contain strong elements of fatalistic attitude to life–an attitude of acceptance of and resignation to the vicissitudes and failures in life. It has proved to be a one of the mechanisms for checking the resistance of the masses against of injustice and exploitation. Social practices such as untouchability, discrimination, bonded labour persisted in India for long time almost unchallenged by those affected by them. It happened so because the affected people considered these practices as the result of their ‘Karma’ (action) of the previous birth and luck. The welfare and developmental programmes themselves get a setback on account of the apathy and indifference of the masses who are under the spell of religious fatalism.
• Particularism: Another cultural trait widespread in Indian society is particularism as against universalism. This reflected in the excessive consideration for one’s own people, kingroup, caste or religion. Often universalistic standards are set aside in one’s decisions and actions. Corruption – involving favouritism or discrimination that is prevalent in our society is the result of such disregard for the norms of universalism. Some of the intergroup conflicts on the basis of caste, tribe, religion, language or region can also be attributed to the mobilisation based on sectional identities and particularism.
• Attitude of Public Property: Another trait of the Indian society that has implications for corruption is the disregard for public property and money. There is a belief that Indians have inherited it as a legacy of the colonial rule. Unfortunately, this attitude seems to have continued to exist in India even after independence. This lack of respect for public property is one of the root causes of corruption, black money, taxevasion, misappropriation of public goods and use of substandard material in public constructions.
• Patriarchal System: As elsewhere in the world, the Indian society, by and large, has been patriarchal where woman is subjected to man. The role of woman in the Indian society has been conceived as that of wife and mother. The woman in India possesses a inferior social status to that of man. The problem is further accentuated by the cultural need to have male offspring for perpetuating the family performing the rituals after one’s death. It has contributed to the cultural preference for a male child and imposition of inferior status to the female. This had led to the subjugation of women and discrimination against them in various spheres of social life. The problems such as dowry, ill-treatment of the daughter-in-law, wife-beating , illiteracy, occupational discrimination, social isolation, and psychological dependence, etc. faced by women have roots in this cultural preference for the male.
• ECONOMY, POVERTY, EDUCATION: Economically, India remains predominantly an agricultural society. Naturally, there is an excessive dependence of labour force on agriculture. This overdependence of the labour force on the underdeveloped agriculture is the major cause of many of the social problems in India. It directly leads to poverty which is one of the basic causes of many other social problems in India. The malnutrition, ill-health, beggary, prostitution, etc. are rooted in the large-scale poverty in India. Indian society is characterised by the unequal distribution of wealth. One observes affluence amidst pervasive poverty in both the rural and urban area of India. On account of this disparity, benefits of development and welfare services also accrue unequally to the different sections of the society. The benefits that the poor gain are comparatively low. Consequently, the lot of the poor and the backward sections of the society has not improved as expected. There is a close linkage between economy, poverty and education. The illiteracy and education. The unplanned growth of higher education has created the problem of educated unemployment.
• Child Labour: Child labour, a manifestation of poverty in the country has become a social problem in India. A large number of families belonging to the poor section of the society are forced to depend upon their children’s contribution to the family income. They are not in a position to spare their children for full-time or even part-time schooling. Thus children who are expected to be in schools are foundworking as labourers. Apart from the economic constraints of the families of the working children, the owners of some of the small-scale enterprises also prefer to employ child labour. For them, child labour is cheap. It reduces the cost of production and maximise their profit. Thus, child labour gets encouragement from both – the parents of the children and the owners of the enterprise. Therefore, despite the appalling conditions under which children work and the low wages they earn, child labour thrives in India.
• Illiteracy and Education: Widespread poverty has its own repercussions on education in India. The problem of mass-illiteracy in the country is largely by the result of the situation of poverty under which the masses live. The poor are so preoccupied with the concern for their survival that they do not have the inclination or time for education. It is ridiculous to convince a poor man about the value of education when he is struggling to make both ends meet. Most of the people belonging to the poor section are not inclined for schooling of their children. Many of those who enroll their children in schools withdraw them before they acquire any meaningful standard of literacy. The result is that India is faced with the problem of mass-illiteracy. Nearly 50 per cent of the country’s population capable of acquiring literacy skills are still illiterate.
• Educational System: The educational system affects the society at large in various ways. Education at the higher level in India has expanded indiscriminately in response to social demands and political pressures. Some of the major features of the educational system in India are as follows:
  • widespread illiteracy
  • unachieved targets of the universalisation of education,
  • lack of proper emphasis on the primary education,
  • misplaced emphasis on higher education which is, by and large, poor in quality excepting institutes of technology, management, medicine and few colleges and universities in the metropolitan centres.
    Consequently, there has been no attempt to see that the educational system at the higher level produced the manpower in quality and quantity that the economic system of the country could absorb. The net result of this unplanned expansion has been increased in the educated unemployment and underemployment. Here it is obviously the situation of the producing manpower in excess of the demand of the economic system or mismatch between educational and economy. There is another kind of mismatch between education and economy in India. It is the situation wherein some of the highly qualified manpower produced by some of the educational institutions in India do not find the placement in the country rewarding enough. The result is the brain drain in which India loses what cream of its highly qualified manpower produced at a very heavy cost of public resources.
• Industrialization and Urbanisation: The process of industrialisation and urbanisation has been slow in India. Industrialisation has been concentrated in certain pockets in the country. The result is the inordinate growth of population in a few urban centres. This overgrowth of population in a few urban centres has created various problems of urban poverty, unemployment, congestion, pollution, slum, etc. Rural poverty and unemployment have had their own contribution to the urbanproblem in so far as people migrated from the rural areas to the urban centres in numbers larger than the urban areas can absorb. As a large section of the rural migrants are illiterate and unskilled, they are unable to adjust themselves into the urban economic situation and thereby suffer from unemployment and poverty. Many of them resort to begging and some of these helpless people belonging to the female sex are forced to adopt prostitution for their living. Thus, while urbanisation and industrialisation are processes of development, they have their own adverse by-products in India in the form of various social Issues and problems.
• STATE AND POLITY: The intervention of the State has been very significant either in the checking or in finding solution to the social Issues and problems in India. In the early colonial period, several steps were taken by the State to abolish the practice of Sati (1829) and to control thagi. In the later part of the 19th century steps were taken to provide legal opportunities for inter-community and inter-caste marriage. In 1929, the Sarada Act was passed to check child marriages. In the post-independence period, India resolved to constitute a democratic, sovereign, secular and socialist society. In the constitution, special provisions were made to safeguard the interests of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward classes, women and children. The practice of untouchability was declared as an offence. Some special measures-such as the Hindu Marriage Act and Succession Act were adopted to reform the Hindu Society in general and the Hindu marriage system in particular. The welfare programmes have been launched for the uplift of youth, children, and physically handicapped. The Five Year Plans were launched for the socio-economic transformation of Indian Society. After 1970, special attention was paid towards the removal of poverty, rural development and generation of employment in the rural areas. The impact of these programmes in visible on the socio-economic life of India. Despite considerable achievements, India is still beset with so many issues and problems such as poverty, unemployment and sub-standard life conditions for a large section of Indian society. The turn taken by Indian polity and electoral process during the post-independence period is also responsible for several of our social issues and problems.
• Electoral Process: Politically, India has a multi-party parliamentary form of democracy. Ideally, political parties are to be organised on universalistic ideologies and the citizens are expected to choose their representatives on universalistic principles. In fact, particularistic tendencies play an important role in the electoral process of the country. One can find political parties formed on communal or parochial lines and political mobilisation undertaken by political parties and individuals on the basis of caste, religion, language and region. The political activities of this sort are negation of the healthy democratic polity. They are also leading to sectional conflicts, atrocities against weaker sections, linguistic and religious minorities. Thus, the political functioning and the electoral process, as they exist today, are fomenting issues and problems of communalism, casteism and conflicts between the different sections of society.