Caste and Woman Issue in India

Caste awareness and assertiveness is the biggest phenomenon is last century in India. This has happened only due to the important role played by late Dr BR Ambedkar and later Mandal Commission. The independent India with more than 60 years of history has proven the resilience of our constitution.

Due to the nature of the Indian society historically, caste and gender has played a key role for the growth of individual life. In this article, I wanted to highlight the role played by gender and caste in the modern Indian society. I would like to focus on following issue

1. Is caste and gender discrimination equivalent in pre-indipendence era
2. What is the kind of caste and gender discrimination in modern India
2. What is the modern society doing to eliminate the discrimination

Was caste and gender discrimination equivalent in India's pre-indipendence era

Caste and Gender discrimination has happened for centuries in India and it is legitimated under the Hindu religious rules. They are often compared to show that caste and gender discrimination are equivalent.

Backward / lower caste groups has been eliminated from the main stream society and their involvement was only limited to very less respectable jobs. They were highly discriminated and never allowed to mingle with high caste people. Lower caste people were usually treated with violent means. The caste boundaries were very rigid. The rules were legitimized with the religious laws which prohibited any mixing between different caste people. Lower caste group was considered untouchables and they were not allowed to enter temples and learn religious books.

The gender discrimination of woman has also been practiced since long time in India. It has biological origin where male member were involved in outside jobs and women were involved in household jobs due to physical strength and child bearing capability. Even in the kingdom era, women were not involved in wars. In Indian society, Hindu religion prescribed the role of women as the dependent member of the family where she had no decision making role. Women had no property right and considered burden on the parents till marriage. After marriage,  husband ruled them and after death of husband they were supposed to live a lonely life or die as Sati.

In both the system, there was commonality of religious rule and exploitation of people without any fault of their own. But there was a shuttle difference female child can become a part of powerful group if both of her parents were higher caste members but a child has to remain in lower caste if any parent belonged to lower caste. Many times women were given rights of decision making in-case of death of male member. Women were never treated as untouchables. The biggest difference was that women could be a member of family but a lower caste person can not be a member of higher caste family.

So, women and caste discrimination was never same in Indian society.

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RTE Act

The recent decision of Supreme Court for constitutional validity of Right to Education (RTE) once again has brought the RTE act in the news. RTE act was passed in 2010 by UPA bur even after 2 years there is no update on its implementation. Only thing that comes in the newspaper, that too once in a while, is that RTE has been a complete failure and there does not seems to be any useful thing coming out of RTE.
It seems like RTE will have similar results as that of prohibition of child labor law where you can find every day that it remains to be implemented in every part of India and violation of law remains the practice. The question regarding the RTE providing every child a right to primary education. The problem with this law are many. First of all it makes it mandatory for every school (except few) to give 25% EWS quota, and then we must question what is this EWS quota. EWS is nothing but who so ever can get a salary certificate of less than some specified income level. We have already seen getting income certificate is not a very difficult specially for people working in unorganized sector and business owners. That is the reason why a lot of beneficiaries of income based schemes are used by business people who does not declare any income and keep enjoying luxurious life. So, what is the meaning of EWS quota. More importantly, the law removes SC/ST quota of upto 23.5% which was specifically fixed for them in govt funded school. Now it proposes 25% quota for all children including SC/ST/OBC/EWS. Does it means that 1.5% will be allocated for OBC/EWS? No, it does not give any specific percentage for SC/ST. Secondly, in a country where more than 30% of population lies below BPL by any estimate and some realistic estimate also put it above 40% and beyond that, then how can 30% or 40% can be accommodated in 25% seats. More importantly, in a social system where lineage and caste association matters more than any income criteria, how will someone ensure that SC/ST gets the fair chance to get a seat in 25% quota. Hardly any private school provide any concrete details of the admission process objectively, how can the system assure that there won't be any caste discrimination in the admission process.
Thirdly, what are measures taken by the government o improve quality of education where they have full control i.e. government funded school. From the time that people were will to join a government school willfully due to better qualified teachers, now the time has come that no sensible person earning some decent amount of money is willing to keep their children in any government school. The government school has gone from bad to worse without anyone caring about those schools and the honorable minister is talking about laughty laws without any hope for its implementation. Also, what is the update of the existing laws relating to the deadly caste discrimination in all the schooling and higher education system. Why has there been no prosecution after so many cases coming out and so many suicides.
RTE has been a failure since its announcement and even if it is implemented why has this law been designed to make the SC/ST people lose their chance to EWS people showing false certificates. Can government show all the income certificates of all the beneficiary who has availed income based subsidies. Government must act reasonably well and resist from making loss making laws for educationally and socially backward people.

 

Parasites of Indian system

The brahmins are already shown as the parasites of Indian social system in many dalit writing. They have infested the Indian social system since ancient time that the country till date is unable to turn around by collecting its internal strength even after so much of effort. The caste system introduced by Hindu and the brahmins is continuously sucking the nation social system by compromising humanity is the proof that brahmins are blood sucker of Indian social system.

But this piece of writing is not about brahmins but more about another caste group in Hindu. The baniya caste group is another parasite in the Indian system. Baniya caste group has always remained hidden under the shadow of brahmins and rajputs since beginning. The rajputs always ruled the people with muscle power and brahmin group ruled by making fool of people with mind power and more importantly power bestowed upon them self from hindu religion. But in this game, baniya group has always remain hidden under the shadow. The emergence of agrarian society led to the emergence of baniyas which consistently sucked poor people's money making them beg even when they were providing grains to everyone by his hard labor in field. In the last century, the Indian cinema has captured this well that how a munsi take advantage of poor people in times of economic stress. The baniya gives credit at humongous rates and then make the whole generation economic slaves for themselves because no sane person can fulfill the greed of baniya. Baniya gets the forged thumb mark on stupid papers to capture the complete farmer's land. This used to be usual story in the 1960-70's movie but the movie making business has moved on and they don't capture these things now still persistent in rural / urban areas across India. People reading this must know that micro finance institution charges anywhere from 20-35% of interest and some time it goes beyond 50%. These lenders are none other than baniyas who are obscenely making money out of stressed farmers without showing any humanity. The rural economy still works with local baniya. If the borrower does not pay back the money, then the next generation becomes slave of the lender to repay at that interest rate to satisfy the baniya's greed.

The above paragraph shows how a rural economy work till this day. Now come to the urban economy, which is major part of modern economic system. The concept of family business is prevalent is India and people will not get surprised to know that most of the businesses are owned by bania community. So, this has serious implication of driving away the meritocratic system in the society. The highly intellectual people get stuck of these business owned  by family and slog for their family adding little value to themselves as they are working for not so intellectual thinking people. People would not be surprised that a less education person owning the business. Nothing wrong in that, but the implications are very serious again. It has created problem of child labour and all the hazardous environmental problem in the modern industry of not complying with any laws and making their own illegal system. The corruption that we talk about daily has huge contribution from the private businesses which are largely family owned. Political corruption is very small portion of the whole corruption and it is largely driven by corporate/business corruption.  Tax theft is another problem by these businesses and business owners which itself is illegal. Also, the moral degradation of the society is also largely given by the business owner which is usually involved in corruption and many time violence for economic reasons. Educated people who work under the family businesses gradually understand that working under legal system and ethical ways will not give any output and hence, they see nothing wrong in doing illegal things. Largely the businesses which are mostly owned by baniya family are responsible for corruption. 

Hence, the baniya community has must be held responsible and called as the parasites of India economic system. 

Indian Railway budget 2012-13 Rail Budget 2012-13

Indian railway budget is still one of the important event in national politics and economy. It is very close to the Indian people heart as it provides the largest transporatation network across India. It is still the largest employer in the world and life line of India. After the resignation of Ms Mamta Bannerjee as railway minister, Mr Dinesh Trivedi took over the ministry. His last year as a minister was uneventful.

The railway budget 2012-13 as usual was also uninteresting, due to its lack of status update of past, any new way to improve the present and completely missing vision of future for Indian railways. I could not stop myself asking what happened to last year targets, while following the live railway budget, The media did put some status update of incomplete project which were huge in number but Trivedi did not care to provide us an update what happened to previous projects and why those are getting delayed.Some news put it as railway project cost shoot up 95% due to delays. That's an appalling number in itself. So what is the plan to improve this was completely missing. He was responsible for almost a year to improve the performance but he did almost nothing. Next thing he said about unmanned track crossing lot of damage of human life, but isn't it true that every railway budget put the same point without achieveing any target year on year.

Introduction of new trains as always was talk of the minister with 75 express and 21 passenger trains and as previously said that he did not care to provide information about how he will complete previously incomplete projects. The fare hike was expected and to his accolate he did it, but the way it was introduced was like giving only a bit and hiding a lot of it. It does not mentions what is the percentage rate hike and I could not find till date the percentage hike. Also how much did it cover the fuel inflation of previous years and the way forward.

There was concession scheme for sportmen and ill people, which is fine with everyone. Rail khel ratna award is a welcome move as most sportman come as govt employee. Freight increase of 20% was already announced a week before the budget, so nothing new was expected there. e-procurement, e-auction of scraps is planned but no target is given, so on the face value it has no value. DRDO developed bio tiolet on test 2500 coaches but no idea when it will be introduced at all levels.

Satelite based real time information will be given in 18 months, as a techy i know test run is complete and good to see a mention in budget with a target. Also, nice to see rail connectivity to Nepal and Bangladesh planned.

The railways budget 2012

The railway budget 2012 by Dinesh Trivedi on Mar 14. I was watching the news update on my computer in office. There have been a lot of criticism of railways during the last decade for its services. Mr. Laloo Yadav is perhaps the most able minister to handle the matter with new thoughts in the recent time. Although the services has improved in the last few years but it has not fulfilled the aspirations of mega Indian economy. 

The criticism includes defecating across the country, unhygienic toilet condition on trains and station, unmanned crossing, long waiting list, accidents, upgradation of signaling system, speed of train services, online system problem, low maintenance of tracks, no automatic escalators at stations, unhygienic shops at stations, bad financial health of the largest employer, privatization/no privatization, no innovating thinking etc.

Mr Trivedi was sworn in as Railway minister in the early part of 2011 after budget by Ms Mamta Banerjee. So Mr Trivedi has already worked for almost 1 year and there has been no good news on new thought process of making the existing system better after he became minister. He has only done cosmetic changes in the railways like changing tatkal schemes, using different IDs, increasing early booking period and some freight changes. He has been made hero in 2 days of budget, of course we can discusses budget and its implications but what is Mr Trivedi's achievement all this time. Isn't he responsible for ruing the railways. Isn't he responsible for large project delays and isn't he responsible for all unfulfilled promises done last year and all kinds of problem in railways. It is a little early to blame Trivedi for all the problems but he is still responsible for taking no steps to improve any conditions all this he was taking care of the ministry.  The financial health of the railways has gone from bad to worse. 

The railways budget can be discussed in another wrting but what-so-ever happens to Mr Trivedi's career as railway minister, his work as a minister till date is unsatisfactory. 

FDI in retail

Allowing 51% FDI in retail in India was taken place just before the winter session of parliament by the cabinet. The government came to act after a long time, since long time UPA govt is unable to provide any new policy initiative. NREGS and RTI was the last policy decision with some significant impact. RTE was a great initiative without any thrust to implement the same. The whole country is bustling with  inflation figures and corruption headlines. To break the long silence govt decided to make 51% FDI in multi-brand retail and 100% in single brand retail. I must say this was great news not just for the sceptic market but also many global corporates to get a slice of Indian economic growth. FDI is retail is long overdue since the economic liberalization. It promises to adds great strength to economy. The major concern of food supply chain, real-estate commercialization, employment generation and tax collection. It will provide the much more organized labor system which is completely unorganized without any labor law in retail market. Presently only 6% of Indian retail industry is organized and rest is unorganized as compared to more than 25% retail industry organized in Brazil and China, and more than 75% organized retail in USA. Indian industry must follow the path of organized economy to make it competitive and regularized. Present retail industry has almost no regulation and with no specialized skills. This kind of system leads to family based business which is not good for society. It is ironical that the BJP party which proposed to pass raise FDI cap in 2002 now are against that. Another ironical part is the local businessman and other section of society like Anna and his supporters, who want to eliminate corruption, does not want any regularization of retail industry. It is very obvious that unorganized sector leads to more corruption as there are no standard practices and nothing is on paper. It is either height of hypocrisy or height of foolishness. I do feel the international best practice should be implemented and skilled labor should reap the benefit of this huge industry.

Are women themselves responsible?

I have heard females complaining about various aspects of the society. I totally agree with them that males have manipulated the law of society for own gain. Also, large part of the problem can be attributed to the historical reasons and evolution of society where power played an important role than any human endeavor. Although, I totally understand their concerns and fully empathize with them but I think the responsibility of the current situation lies with females also. The concerns raised by them are complex and interlinked, so every issue can not be isolated from other.

Dowry system in India – This is major issue that our government is struggling to eradicate for a long time since 1950 and even before that social activists were opposed to this. Despite of that even today females are married with dowry, and its not the case just for the uneducated mass without any empowerment. Majority of educated females still go through rigorous process of scrutiny before the marriage by her in-laws and then marries as per family wishes by paying dowry along with humiliation to her family members during every stage of marriage process. There are many reasons for that. 

First even people involved in love relationship want to get married under traditional system with the wished of family members. So, they must make their parents to agree with the relationship. That is why even the adult and most educated people get into this traditional trap. Even if the country’s constitution treats every person after adulthood as fully responsible for his/her life's decision, it is not so in reality because of people own willingness to surrender their power of wisdom for making family member agree to their decision, and to make a love relationship converted to arranged marriage. The biggest problem of converting love relationship to marriage is caste system. Even after knowing the rigorous and violent system throughout the country, people persist to expect family support for love relationship to be converted to arranged marriages. It is highly improbable that anyone happily agrees to intercaste marriage, even in the upper most caste and upper most class family in all the region of the country. So, it is pure foolishness to expect or demand family agreement to the decision made my young female. The maximum extent that family goes to support the love-cum-marriage relationship under different caste, if not a violent reaction, is the indifference attitude, without any support along with continuous warning what could go wrong in the relationship in future. So, even at the age of 25-30 female demand family support for their relationship and surrender their independence. 

Another interlinked problem in the current approach taken by females is the demand of family support in the future after love or love-cum-arranged marriage. Females are traditionally forced to do many things against their will by her in-law family, so she wants family support in case of any trouble. This is completely insane if she had to follow her own decision then why she should look for any family support to sort out the marital issues. Only conclusion that can be drawn from this observation is females themselves are not confident of their decision and don’t want to take ownership of their decision with full responsibility.

If we look further into this issue, female demands that the male partner, under the love relationship should be carrying out all the task of making both family agree with the decision. This is again a traditional view, but the marriage relationship is a shared responsibility, then why should only one member take the full responsibility when both members are looking for their independence in their decision making, especially when they are behaving independently in professional domain. Why female still want to rely on the male member for their life? In a shared relationship both person are responsible for the success or failure of the relationship.

Now comes the property right. Ask any female to which house they belong after marriage, they still perceive as belonging to in-law family after marriage even if they get settled as nuclear family in a distant city. This is totally ridiculous because after marriage they have separate family identity. Even earning female members claims that her family is in-laws home although almost every female wants to help their parental home financially. Females never talk of taking any money or financial help from the parental home even though they have equal property rights as their brothers but they are willing to claim the property right in the in-law's property, may be through her husband. So, when it comes to dowry they claims that it is asked by pressure but when they are requested to claim their inherited property they totally reject the request. So, why should any parents give any claim to her daughter-in-law when their son is getting nothing as son-in-law, if he don’t take dowry. This is largely because of the traditional belief that daughter-in-law belongs to the husband’s family and son-in-law has no rights on the wife’s parental property. The easiest solution to the whole mess could be to get the property rights for husband and wife from their respective families. Like every family there is cost of living, so it does not make sense that male’s family take all the burden of female’s living without asking anything. It could be their generosity if they don’t ask anything. So, here again females are making mistake of claiming all the rights from the in-laws family and not claiming her birth right from her parental family .The important question here could be that females get their share during the growth process and work in the married family. The answer to this question is, they don't get equal share in the growth process as they are discriminated as female child. Also, after marriage both partner works, inside or outside home, and similarly both partner should get similar property right from their parents and share similar burden of old parents.

Ideally in an evolved society, any adult should not demand anything from the parents as their parent have already invested everything for the growth of their children till adulthood. But when private property right is given and inherited by next generation, it has to be equally distributed among males and females.

So, it can be concluded that females are also responsible, not completely though,  for their current situation by acting irrationally, They demand family support even after adulthood for marriage, puts males to take leadership of family and making the whole arrangement, ask family support to resolve family issue after marriage, claiming belongingness to their in-laws, demanding financial support from husband’s family and at the same time not taking legal property right from parents. The whole issue is mixed up by double standard followed by the females. I understand that the society is still evolving but when the most educated and empowered class behaves hypocritically, it becomes very difficult to sort out the problem and backward people to catch up with the evolution.  I am in not supporting the heavy handed attitude by the society on females and I am totally against taking any violent action against females under any situation, with the belief that an adult person should be able to live in the society without any support what so ever, and only rely on government and their own capability.