Contemporary India Essay

Women Status Contemporary India

The Status and Role of Women in Contemporary India

The women in contemporary India have a very significant role as they fulfill crucial responsibilities in almost every sector including family life, agricultural development and industrial development. However, it is unfortunate that such contributions have remained mostly indistinguishable to the planners and policy makers due to which the Indian women have always experienced an unstable status in the country. Even in this modern era of science and technology, women in India are still considered a disadvantaged group as there has been no change in the conventional structure of society as well as cultural and moral standards (Chakrapani and Kumar, 1994).

In addition, a majority of women are still unaware of the social laws that have been designed to alleviate the problems women face in the society. As a consequence, distressed situations influence Indian women more than Indian men as the levels of their social and moral insecurity rises in similar difficult circumstances (Chakrapani and Kumar, 1994). The great news is that women have started to lift up their status as new opportunities have been created for them due to the "recent changing trends in the structure of the society, advancement of science and technology, women's education and participation in workforce" (Chakrapani and Kumar, 1994).

On the other hand, a majority of women suffer from a number of painful experiences because of their poverty. Many of them experience insensitive and unkind societal bevaiors due to their cultural values, chauvinism, taboos and false notions. Such patterns affect the overall attitudinal, nutritional and physical well-being of women consequently affecting the nurturing of their children as they fail to take care of their offspring in an active manner. The lack of education has worsened the situation as women are not capable of perceiving their roles in the betterment of their children's nutrition and emotional needs (Chakrapani and Kumar, 1994).

An interesting aspect that is related with the Indian women is that of reproduction. The women who belong to upper and middle class use a number of resources to acquire power and status in the society. It means that the urban society does not consider reproduction to be the power tool for women. As far as lower class women are concerned, the case is totally different. As they do not have access to other resources, they alleviate their powerlessness by using reproduction as the power basis. A large number of Indian women are economically dependent on their husbands. Decision-making is mainly done by the male members. However, women who are educated are sometimes considered on matters related to family planning (Chakrapani and Kumar, 1994).

Women are made to confine their educational fields to subjects that may help them to play the roles of wife and mother in an effective manner. Therefore, the studies related to Home Economics, Cooking, Interior Design etc. are encouraged. Women are not considered to study tough subjects like engineering as it is considered as manlike. The cultural taboos still influence the participation of women in workforce. On the other hand, women belonging to tribes are playing a major role in the economic activities and a major amount of work is done by them in agricultural sector. As far as the field of politics is concerned, there is still a lot to be done to encourage women to get appointed in the high offices against the cultural standards (Chakrapani and Kumar, 1994). To cut a long story short, Indian women still need to get empowered as the society has failed to recognize their power as an advantaged group.

Effects Of India's Rapid Population Growth On Its Development

India is faced with the problem of rapid population growth. Due to this factor, the environment in the country is degrading day by day because of "the uncontrolled growth of urbanization and industrialization, expansion and intensification of agriculture, and the destruction of natural habitats" (Nagdeve, 2007). Thus, the country is facing the challenge of sustainable development as the population growth is huge causing the deterioration of environment. There is a need to design policies that could encourage development without destruction of environment and natural resources. It is not an untold secret that the economic development process in any country can speed up or lessen with the presence or shortage of favorable natural resources. Presently, the overall world population is about 7 billion. India alone contributes more or less 1200 million people to this total.According to an estimate, the total population of the country by 2016 would be 1.26 billion which suggests that by 2050, China would be left behind by India and India will become the world's most populated country (Nagdeve, 2007).

However, this population increase in extremely alarming as there is a lot of pressure on the country's natural resource. Water resources are becoming short, soil has started to exhaust and a number of areas have been afflicted by pollution (land, air, water, noise) and deforestation. Thus, is the population growth in India continues at the same rate, there would be devastating consequences on the environment of the country. The absence or lack of resources simply means that there is no further development in the country if immediate steps are not taken (Nagdeve, 2007).

The emergent population trends and resulting food, energy and accommodation requirements have greatly made distortions in land-use practices thereby causing severe damage to the forestry and environment in India. There is a huge pressure put by increasing population on the extensification of land by cutting down forests and grazing fields. As a consequence, the population is far higher than the food resources and food demands cannot be met (Nagdeve, 2007).

There are a number of steps taken by the Indian government to put a control to population growth. India was the first country that adopted family planning as a major component of its development policy. In 1976, the Indian government successfully conducted a sterilization program but eventually the target of decreasing fertility rate could not be achieved. America has also supported India to control its population. On the other hand, people in India are not much inclined towards family planning. Various campaigns have been held for encouraging people to go for vasectomy or tubectomy. However, the disinterest of a majority of Indian population has never made such campaigns successful. Even though the Indian government also paid compensations to people who did family planning, there has been no drastic change in the population growth after the Independence. It is exceedingly necessary for the government of India to do something about controlling its population as China has done such as One-Child Policy. This is important because the consequences would be devastating for the country in the next few decades. There are a number of measures that can be implemented in order to control population growth in India. Many of them have been adopted by China and the results were successful. Such measures include late marriages, education and awareness regarding the demerits of population growth, self-restraint, encouragement of urbanization (people in urban areas prefer small families), family planning, reduction in infant mortality rate etc. (Jain & Ohri, 2006).

India and Religious Diversity

The Indian land is characterized because of its miscellaneous and assorted deep religious diversity. It is not an untold secret that this diversity has been managed by the Indian states instead of liquidating it. The contemporary Indian State has inherited this legacy as it had to go through the management of religious diversity after Independence in an era of patriotism and social equality under new circumstances. As a consequence, the Indian state developed a unique and distinct idea of political secularism so that it could deal with both inter- and intra- religious supremacy at the same time. Indian state has dealt with religious diversity by adopting a neutral policy. It does not exclude itself from religious matters/issues. At the same time, it does not separate itself from interfering in them. It can be said that as a secular state, India has developed a principled distance policy so that religious diversity can be managed successfully. This policy consists of neither showing active disregard/contempt towards any religion nor passive respect towards them (Berman, Bhargava & Laliberte, 2013). It has been able to maintain an unyielding approach of decisive reverence. It is also important to mention here that "India cannot be defined as an incremental secular state because the republic's founders staunchly resisted proclaiming an established religion" (Berman, Bhargava & Laliberte, 2013).

The Indian government has always been committed to promote and encourage multiple values such as autonomy and equal opportunity. It is a striking feature of Indian secularism that it not only supports individuals but also supports religious communities to be independent and autonomous. Basic values that strengthen a society are encouraged so that all the different religious communities in the Indian society can live peacefully and with tolerance. India has always demonstrated.....