Topic: Salient features of Indian Society, Diversity of India.
Q1. In the background of ever-increasing caste-based reservation. Critically evaluate the need for a caste-based census. (10 Marks)
Model Structure
Introduction:
- There have been growing demands for a caste census with the general census in 2022 since Justice G Rohini-led commission submitted a draft proposal recommending a sub-categorisation of the reservation for the OBC.
Main body:
Rationale behind conducting caste census:
- Rationalise reservation: Many have argued that an SECC would be the best way to rationalise reservation based on data . Around 2,633 castes are covered under the OBC reservation. (The states have the flexibility to add castes to the central list depending on local deprivation levels determined by local OBC commissions.)
- Since job and education quotas are based on caste, this will help in evidence-based policymaking.
- Rohini commission: 2018, the commission analysed the data of 13,00,00 central jobs and admissions to central higher education institutions under the OBC quota over the preceding five years.
- It found that 97% of all jobs and educational seats have gone to just 25% of all sub-castes classified. And 24.95% of these jobs and seats went to just 10 OBC communities.
- Further, this census can help the government in identifying the most benefited section and provide fair representation.
- Many studies show the OBC population to be above 40%. This is much greater than the current reservation, which stands at 27%. The caste census will provide the exact proportion of OBC population.
- Better framing of Government welfare schemes and democratic policy making.
- Break the myths associated with castes: The caste census will reveal the actual data on castes and remove ambiguities associated with the caste. For instance,
- In Karnataka, there were claims that among the castes, the Lingayats are the most numerous. So the census can reveal the true information on that.
Challenges linked to conducting caste census
- Reservation tussles:
- Reservation is going to cater only to a small proportion of those who are entitled to it. Leading to the growth of elites among castes and communities. So, the caste census along with reservation might favour elites among castes.
- It could lead to demands for larger or separate quotas. For instance, Patels, Gujjars, Jats and other castes are demanding reservations. The caste census might induce more such demands in future.
- The caste census will give rise to caste division. As India seeks to eliminate and weaken the notion of caste, a caste census would only strengthen it.
- Collection of caste data is not easy: Some people believe that Caste is a very important source of privilege and advantage in our country. On the other hand, some feel disadvantaged by revealing caste-based information. For instance, the same caste is spelt in different ways in different states.
Conclusion
If inclusive development is the constitutional priority of our country, then we must demand the socio-economic caste enumeration and make it publicly available so that our development policies and programmes can be accordingly shaped in a transparent manner.
Q2. What are the challenges faced by the transgender community in India? Enumerate the various steps taken to address these challenges. (15 marks)
Model Structure
Introduction:
- According to the World Health Organization, ‘transgender’ is an umbrella term for people whose gender identity and expression do not conform to the norms and expectations traditionally associated with the sex assigned to them at birth.
- As per the Census of 2011, the total population of transgender people in India is 4.9 lakh.
Main Body:
While the Indian Constitution provides for the fundamental right to equality and tolerates no discrimination on the grounds of sex, caste, creed or religion, the transgender community continues to face challenges like:
- Discrimination: They are often subjected to sexual abuse, rape and other forms of physical violence and exploitation.
- Ostracization: Transgender individuals are often ostracised by society. Even their own families view them as a burden and often force them to leave their parental homes.
- Unemployment: They are economically marginalised with minimal employment opportunities and are forced into professions like prostitution and begging for livelihood or resorting to the exploitative entertainment industry.
- Access to public spaces: Due to a lack of provision of gender-neutral/separate transgender toilets, they face discrimination and denial while accessing public places like public toilets etc.
- Social Problems: The transgender community feels neglected due to the lack of inheritance of property or rights of adoption of a child.
- Health issues: Not only do they face discrimination while accessing health care, but they also remain highly vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases like HIV and AIDS.
- According to the UNAIDS report 2019, the risk of acquiring HIV is 12 times higher for transgender people than for adults aged 15–49 years.
- They also face mental health issues, including depression and suicidal tendencies, and violence-related stress.
In this regard, the following measures have been taken so far:
- Supreme Court Judgements:
- NALSA Judgement, 2014: The Supreme Court in National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India & Ors recognised transgender as ‘third gender’.
- Section 377 Judgement, 2018: SC decriminalised same-sex relations between consenting adults by partially striking down the colonial-era provisions of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
- Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules, 2020: Under the powers conferred by the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, these rules seek to recognise the identity of transgenders and prohibit discrimination.
- National Portal for Transgender Persons: Launched in consonance with the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules, 2020.
- It would help the transgender community digitally apply for a certificate and identity card from anywhere in the country.
- State Level Initiatives: Various states have taken initiatives for the betterment of the lives of the transgender population like:
- Odisha brought Draft Odisha Transgender Policy 2017, which seeks to protect the rights of the gender non-conforming child.
- Further, states like Kerala, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu have set up a transgender justice board to deal with their complaints and provide welfare with schemes for the socio-economic upliftment of the community.
Conclusion
- Further, there is a need to make efforts towards skill development among transgender communities, sensitisation of the law enforcement agencies, separate policies related to healthcare for transgender communities, large-scale sensitisation of people to eliminate the social stigma etc.
- These steps will ensure that the transgender community are brought into the mainstream and are essential to achieve inclusive growth.
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Q3. The agricultural sector in India is undergoing feminisation. In this context, discuss various economic and socio-cultural forces that are driving the increasing feminisation of agriculture in India. (10 Marks)
Model Structure
Introduction:
- As per Census 2011, there were about 263 million agricultural workers in India and 37 per cent (or 98 million) of them were women.
- In the face of shrinking employment opportunities in agriculture, men diversified into the rural non-farm sector, and male out-migration emerged as a major livelihood strategy. Since women did not feature predominantly in either of these trends, most rural women are still engaged in agriculture, mostly as labourers and cultivators.
Main Body:
- Capital prefers to employ women:
- Women are more willing to accept low-paid irregular work, are easy to hire and fire, are hardworking, and certain jobs are typified as women’s work. They keep production costs in check and enable capital accumulation.
- Migration and social mobility are largely reserved for men:
- Jobs such as casual labourers in construction, brick kilns, mills, or worked as drivers, carpenters, teachers, and so on, while more readily available and better remunerated than agricultural labour, are socially perceived as ‘male work’. Many of these jobs are better paid, more esteemed, and involve arduous physical labour.
- The participation of women in the rural, non-farm economy is few and far between, and depends on local socio-cultural value systems. In this context, women often remain in the villages, and therefore in agricultural work.
- They are supplementary income earners; the concept of a ‘breadwinner’ is strongly associated with men.
- Social norms and a gendered division of labour.
- In line with patriarchal social roles, women are responsible for reproduction and care activities.
- With male out-migration, women have additionally taken on the role of providing for their households on a daily basis, since remittances are irregular.
- Within agriculture, there exists a gendered division of labour.
- Women undertake work such as weeding, threshing, and paddy transplantation—tasks that might not require physical strength.
- Patriarchy is so deeply rooted that even though women might do male tasks like ploughing and spade work in their own fields, they might not be wage labourers.
- Feminisation of agriculture is also linked to women’s unfree labour, and it is precisely this unfreedom on the backs of which men’s freedom is built—to migrate, to engage in comparatively better jobs, to escape social discrimination in the villages..
Implications of this feminisation
- Feminisation does bring women into the public sphere.
- It does make their labour visible and accounted for (though this is not always the case), and feminisation can potentially lead to building women’s skills and confidence, give them an opportunity to organise, and enhance their bargaining power.
- The government has also acknowledged the need for pro-women farmer policies with respect to land, water, credit, technology, and training.
- This is indeed a laudable goal, and if appropriate policies are designed and implemented, they can lead to better wellbeing and empowerment outcomes for rural women. ex:Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana
- Kudumbashree, a poverty eradication and women empowerment programme in Keral, is one such example.
Conclusion:
- Recognizing the critical role of women in agriculture, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has declared 15th October of every year as Women Farmer’s Day.
Q4. How does hate speech pose a danger for the unity of a heterogeneous society like India? What steps are required to prevent hate speech? (15 Marks)
Model Structure
Introduction:
- The Law Commission, in its 267th report on hate speech, said such utterances have the potential to provoke individuals and society to commit acts of terrorism, genocide, and ethnic cleansing.
- There is no international legal definition of hate speech, and the characterization of what is ‘hateful’ is controversial and disputed.
Main Body:
Dangers posed by hate speech:
- Hate speech is a discursive process of pushing marginalised groups outside of social, economic and political spheres of society by disseminating hate propaganda and encouraging discrimination.
- At its most harmful, it is widely recognized as a precursor to ethnic cleansing.
- Internal Security: The Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013 was triggered by a fake video that incited communal passions. In the West, hate speech combined with fake news on minorities has induced an anti-immigration sentiment (e.g. : France, Italy, Greece)
- User homophily and Bubble phenomenon: Users with matching political views exchange one-sided information and opinions that suit their own convictions,, even if those were based on false information. E.g. : Twitter prompts users to follow those who express similar views or posts.
- Igniting extremist sentiments: Fake news’ perpetuates, previously locally found, extremist ideas and groups together dangerously like-minded people e.g. – Neo-Nazis in Germany, Separatists in Kashmir.
- Mob lynching: Rumours of child lifting in Jharkhand led to mob lynching on innocent victims.
- Violence: An atmosphere of violence and chaos is created directly or indirectly. The Christchurch Terror attack on a mosque by an extremist was a result of Islamophobia (a direct result of hate speech).
- Misinformation and disinformation due to hate speech and fake news have led to riots as seen in the Delhi Riots case 2020.
Measures:
- Social media level: The world’s biggest social media companies, including Facebook, Google, Twitter and ByteDance, are exploring an industry-wide alliance to curb fake news on their platforms in India.
- Policy level :The Election Commission of India must tie up with tech companies to identify the creator of such news.
- The government should bring out a policy framework on the possible harm due to the internet messaging platforms to engage at a deeper level.
- Attitudinal level:Imposing hefty fines, like in Germany the Social media companies face fines of up to €50m if they persistently fail to remove illegal content from their sites.
- Educating the end-users.
Way forward
- Clarity and technological upgradation is needed to deal with this and a mechanism to get down sensitive content prone to disturb social setup.
- Improving the level of police training in equality and non-discrimination among the forces and legal bodies, improving research and encouraging reporting of such content.
- The Indian government has been pushing for internet platforms to locate their servers in the country, which might help address dangerous speech in real time.
- Social media platforms need to take responsibility to ensure transparency, accountability and formulate a system of rules and guidelines that users can recognize as standards, and which can be enforced.
Conclusion:
- Therefore giving a proper definition to hate speech would be the first step to deal with the menace and other initiatives such as spreading awareness amongst the public is the need of the hour.
Q5. “Indian society is marked by continuity of traditional structures alongside rapid forces of change.” Discuss with reference to the salient features of Indian society. (15 marks)
Introduction
Indian society is neither purely traditional nor completely modern; it reflects a dynamic coexistence of continuity and change. Its salient features show how old institutions adapt to new socio-economic forces.
Main Boday
1. Diversity with Unity
- India has immense religious, linguistic, ethnic and regional diversity.
- The Census recognises 121 major languages and 270 mother tongues, while the Constitution lists 22 official languages in the Eighth Schedule.
- Yet, shared civilisational values, constitutional ideals and national institutions create a sense of “unity in diversity.”
2. Caste: Continuity and Transformation
- Caste remains a key feature of social identity, marriage networks and politics.
- However, urbanisation, education, reservation and market economy have weakened its occupational rigidity.
- Caste has shifted from being mainly a ritual hierarchy to also becoming a tool of political mobilisation and social justice.
3. Family and Kinship
- The joint family has been a traditional support system, especially in rural India.
- But migration, individualism and urban employment have increased nuclear families.
- Still, kinship obligations continue through festivals, marriages, inheritance and care of elders.
4. Patriarchy with Emerging Gender Assertion
- Indian society remains patriarchal in property rights, unpaid care work and son preference.
- NFHS-5 shows improvement in female literacy and institutional delivery, but issues like low female labour force participation persist.
- Women’s education, self-help groups and political reservation in Panchayats reflect growing empowerment.
5. Rural-Urban Continuum
- India is rapidly urbanising, but rural values continue to shape urban life.
- Migrants carry caste, language, food habits and community networks to cities.
Conclusion
Thus, Indian society is best understood as a layered society - traditional in structure, modern in aspirations, and constantly negotiating between continuity and change.
