MCom I Semester Business Environment Social Injustice Study Material Notes

MCom I Semester Business Environment Social Injustice Study Material Notes: Human Development Index ( HDI ) Table Level of Poverty in India Literacy and Education Caste System and Social Injustice on Weak Class Exercise Questions Long Answer Questions Short Answer Questions Objectives Questions :

CTET Paper Level 2 Previous Year Science Model paper II in Hindi

Social Injustice

Social injustice is a negative concept. The absence of social justice is injustice. Social injustice is a social problem. Social injustice refers to inequality, lack of social service and existence of socially disadvantaged groups in society. Social injustice implies poverty, inequalities of income and wealth, regional disparities and a lack of social service lack of health, water, education facilities, injustice towards children, disabled persons and socially deprived section of society. Economic growth with social justice is the most important aspect of growth of economy of the country.

The Directive Principles in our Constitution have proclaimed justice-social, economic and political as a basic national commitment. Since the Plans are very important instrument of state policy, social and economic justice figures among their basic objectives. The development planning in India aims to build a socialistic pattern of society. The governments have been proclaiming measures to achieve growth with justice, abolition of poverty, removal of exploitation and inequality of income etc.

Since it was recognised from the very beginning of independence that there is social injustice to certain castes, sex, age and certain social groups the various plans have attempted to reduce injustice, exploitation and discriminations. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has given HDI estimates for 187 countries. India ranks low by 135th.

In this chapter we shall focus the issues related to social injstice such as HDI (Human Development Index), GDI (Gender Development Index) human poverty index, literacy, caste system, socially disadvantaged groups etc.

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX (HDI)

The search for a comprehensive measures that could capture the various dimensions of human development led to the definition and formulation of human development index (HDI) by the UNDP in its Human Development Report published in 2014. HDI measures education, health conditions and overall standards of living of people in a society, United Nation, on the basis of HDI, has divided the countries of the world in three groups:

1 Countries with high human development.

2. Countries with low rank.

3. Low ranked countries.

A comparative description of the Human Development Index is given in following

table :

Table Place of India in World Human Development Index

It is clear from the above table that the level of HDI is very high in Norway, US, Germany, UK and Russian Federation while Bangladesh and Pakistan are very low ranked countries. India, Sri Lanka, Brazil, China and South Africa belong to middle class.

India’s HDI value for 2013 is 0-586, positioning the country at 135 out of 187 countries and territories, the lowest among the BRICS countries, with Russia at 57, Brazil at 79, China at 91, and South Africa at 118, and slightly ahead of Bangladesh and Pakistan. Significantly while China improved its ranking by ten places between 2008 and 2013, India’s position improved by just one rank. Thus a lot remains to be done to bridge the gap.

LEVEL OF POVERTY

Poverty is one of the major problems which India has been suffering from since long. ‘Poverty alleviation’ has been accepted as one of the major objectives of economic planning of the country. Although a number of anti-poverty programmes have been introduced over the years yet the problem of poverty is still critical. Following table shows the comparative study of poverty in India.

Table

Level of Poverty in India

It is clear from the above table that poverty in India is problem with some grave dimensions. In fact that even after six decades of planning the problem was severe, in 1973-74,54.9 percent of the total population was living below the poverty line. This percentage reduced to 21.9 in 2011-12.

The gender related development index (GDI) was introduced in human development report for the year 1995. The GDI measures achievements in the same dimensions and variable as the HDI does, but takes account of inequality between women and men. The greater the gender disparities in basic human development, the lower is a country’s GDI compared with its HDI. It describes how far behind women have remained in seizing opportunities for improving their quality of life. The countries having a low GDI value show that women in these countries suffer double deprivation of low overall achievements in human development and lower achievement than men. The following table shows the comparative description of Gender Development Index of various countries :

Table

India’s Global Position on the Basis of GDI ! Countries

The Gender Development Index (GDI), defined as a ratio of the female to male. HDI measures gender inequality according to three basic parameters of human development: health, education and command over economic resources. Country rankings are based on absolute deviation from gender parity in HDI. The GDI is calculated for 148 countries. The female HDI value for India is 0.52 as compared to 0.63 for males resulting in a GDI value of 0-828. In comparison, Bangladesh and China are ranked higher with values of 0.908 and 0.939 respectively.

LITERACY AND EDUCATION

Education is the important factor contributing to rise in the standard of living. Theodore W. Schultz argued that ‘investment in education enhances human capital formation. Education increases social justice. According to Towaco and Smithy, education contributes to economic growth in the developed and developing countries. Education helps in modernising and revolutionising the ways of thinking of the people. It enlightens them about the need to improve their standard of living and for this purpose, to restrict the size of the family, Educations on can be oriented as to impart skills and attitudes useful in improving the quality of family life.

In India, expenditure on education is not considered as an investment in human resources, yet in government plans, which are meant for promoting growth, education finds a place. To tackle this problem, the Twelfth Plan proposes a massive increase in expenditure on education.

According to the 2011 census, national average literacy rate is 73.0 percent as against 18-33 percent in 1951. In Bihar, literacy rate was as low as 618 percent in 2011. Kerala had the highest lliteracy rate of 94.0 percent. Rajasthan, Bihar, UP and Jharkhand are the states where female literacy rate was appallingly low. The male literacy rate was 80.9%. The comparative study of literacy rate is shown in the following table.

Table

Literacy Rate in India (1951-2011) ]

It is clear from above table, according to 1951 census, the literacy rate was only 18-33. There was gradual growth in literacy rate. It increased to 73-0 percent in 2011. Illiteracy retards growth. A minimum level of education is necessary to acquire skills as also to comprehend social problems. Rural areas where illiteracy is a rule, are the backwaters of civilisation and the centuries of superstitions, social taboos and conservatism.

Social Injustice Study Material

CASTE SYSTEM AND SOCIAL INJUSTICE

In India, the most important cause of social injustice is caste system. The caste is heredity. The status of a person does not depend on his wealth but on the traditional importance of the caste in which he has the fortune of being born.

Caste system imposes many restrictions like on food, education, occupation, marriages etc. on its members. The members of lower caste were not permitted to marry in upper caste. It results in putting man on wrong occupation by putting restrictions on occupation. It does not utilise fully the talents and capabilities of the people, therefore barriers to optimum productivity. Casteism is the curse of the society. The people belonging to the high cast adopt discriminatory policy. It increases the problem of untouchability, which isolates a major section of the society from the society as a whole.

INJUSTICE ON WEAK CLASS

Weak class comprises farmers, labourers, rural artisans, fishermen, bonded labours, unorganised labour class etc. They belong to socially disadvantaged groups. It operates as a negative factor in their growth process. Weak classes of the society face the problem of inequality and soical injustice. They are the most downtrodden and most exploited persons of the society.

 (1) Social injustice on tribe caste : The tribal people were the victims of social injustice, discrimination and exploitation. The capitalists, traders and powerful economic classes of the society continue to exploit them for their personal interests. The powerful class of the society creates parasitic class of landowners which do not do any work on land and snatched away whatever is surplus above the minimum subsistence level the cultivators produce. The tribal people are forced to lead a wretched life, slavery and deprivation. The tribe caste is the one of the poorest classes of the society. Most of them are landless labourers. Rate of illiteracy is also very high among them.

A big part of the tribal class lives below the poverty line. Most of them are deprived of land and productive assets. Because of their poverty, illiteracy. unemployment and being unorganised, they are exploited and oppressed since a long time.

(ii) Problems of schedule caste : Scheduled caste, schedule tribes and backward class have always been socially deprived class. They continue to be deprived of education, health facilities and employment etc. These persons have no property, cultivating lands and productive assets. They rely on their labour power for thier subsistence. They are economically and educationally very backward especially in rural sector and they are victims of inequality and exploitation. Untouchability is their main curse. Untouchability is the complicated problem of the society. In a class society like ours, education is not available to all. Only children belonging to elite families have access to higher education. Sons and daughters of agricultural labourers, industrial workers and socially handicapped persons like tribals and dalits can not hope to get this education.

(iii) Problems of women : In a male dominated society, the position of women is not very prestigious. In Indian society, male child is preferred to girl child. Spending money on upbringing, education, health and career of girl child is treated as wrong investment. Women are looked down upon in the Indian society. As a result of male dominated society, female foeticide is on increase despite the efforts of government to stop it like banning of prenatal diagnostic techniques. Even educated couples have also shown preference for male child. Presence of dowry system even after six decades of independence and around 60 percent of women being anaemic in India show social injustice against women. Liberalisation and modernisation of women are not taken positively by society. Also illitracy and poverty are two major factors responsible for women workers not being employed in organised sector only working like domestic helpers, labourers in household industries etc. The percentage of women working in organised sector is very less as compared to the women working in the unorganised sector. Even now in India most of the women undertake productive work only under economic compulsion and this is the reason why female workers participation rates are higher for economically under privileged communities such as peasants, artisans and scheduled castes. “Less wage but equal work” is another pointer to gender bias in India.

The State and Central govenments passed many legislations to protect weaker sections against atrocities and exploitation. It was thought by planners that financial help to disadvantaged groups, passing of laws, and giving them greater role in decision making will help to reduce injustice. The framers of the Indian constitution were determined to end all such inequalities. In order to put an end all such inequalities, various provisions have been made in the Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles of State Policy.

1 Every individual residing in any part of India has been given the right to equality before law and equal protection by law. It means that in India, laws do not discriminate between rich and poor. All sorts of discrimination based on caste, colour, race, religion and sex etc. have been prohibited. In order to establish social justice, it is essential that there should be equality of opportunity for all citizens in matters relating to appointment to any office. Article 16 of the Fundamental Rights provides for equal opportunities to all the Indian citizens in the matters of public appointments.

2. According to the Constitution, the following four objectives have been described to be achieved in plans :

3. Maximium economic growth so that national and per capita income may be increased

4. Attainment of full employment.

5. To build a socialistic pattern of socialistic society based on equality and justice.

6. To reduce inequality in distribution of income and wealth.

In order to attain the above mentioned objectives following programmes should be adopted :

1 Extension of social facilities like, electricity, water, sanitation, transport,medical facilities etc.

2. Development of slums.

3. Extension of education facilities.

4. Population control and family welfare.

5. Status of women needs to be improved. Women need to be made more aware of their rights.

6. Employment to all job seekers.

7. Employment allowance to jobless people.

Social Injustice Study Material

EXERCISE QUESTIONS

Long Answer Questions

1 Write an essay on social injustice in India.

2. Explain various indicators of social injustice in India and suggest measures for removing social injustice.

3. What do you understand by social injustice? Explain the main problems of social injustice.

Short Answer Questions

1 What do you know about Human Development Index?

2. Write a note on gender empowerment measures.

3. What do you know about slums in India?

4. Discuss the Gender Development Index.

Social Injustice Study Material

Objective Questions

(I) Select the Correct Alternatives :

1 Untouchability is a complicated problem:

(a) religious

(b) social

(c) political

(d) all of above

2 In Indian society women are oppressed and :

(a) discriminated

(b) sexual exploited

(c) exploited

(a) none of these

3. The large section of society which lives below the poverty is:

(a) tribal people

(b) schedule caste

(c) backward caste

(d) all of these

4. In Indian society, the birth of the girl child is considered as:

(a) good

(b) bad

(c) burden

(d) none of these

5. The main cause of the social injustice is :

(a) flexible constitution

(b) lack of government cooperation

(c) harsh law

(d) caste system

6. The universal and central factor of literacy and education is:

(a) human capital

(b) human development

(c) gender development

(d) all of above

[Ans. : 1. (b), 2. (C), 3. (a), 4.c), 5. (d), 6. (a)]

Social Injustice Study Material

(II) Write True or False :

1 The problems which are wide, long-term and harmful are known as social injustice.

2. Poverty is not only an economic problem but the important cause of social evils also.

3. Literacy and teachers are not universally accepted as the central factor of human capital

4. As per Census of 2011, female literacy rate is 64.6 percent.

(Ans. : 1. True, 2. True, 3. False, 4. True)

(III) Fill in the Blanks :

1 High level of education encourages …..

2. Education plays an ……………… role in removal of social injustice.

3. Caste system is the cause of social injustice because it has disturbed the………… the society.

4. Caste system is the example of ………….

[Ans. : 1. social injustice, 2. important, 3. uniformity, 4. social injustice)

Social Injustice Study Material