Chapter 3: Gender, Religion and Caste (Political Science)

• Education: the literacy rate among women is only 54 per cent, compared with 76 per cent among men; fewer girls go for higher studies, as parents prefer to spend on their sons' education.
• Jobs and work: the proportion of women in highly paid and valued jobs is still very small. A woman works more hours a day than a man, but much of her work is household work that is unpaid and not valued.
• Wages: although the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976 provides for equal wages for equal work, women are paid less than men in almost all areas of work, from sports and cinema to factories and fields.
• Sex ratio: many parents prefer sons and have the girl child aborted; sex-selective abortion has brought the child sex ratio down to 919 (below 850 or even 800 in some places).
• Safety: women face harassment, exploitation and violence; they are not safe even within their homes (domestic violence, dowry harassment). Urban areas have become unsafe for them.
• Politics: women's representation in legislatures is very low.

Women lag behind in literacy and higher education, are under-represented in good jobs, are paid less, do much unpaid work, face a falling child sex ratio, are unsafe from violence, and are poorly represented in politics.

• Everyday beliefs and prejudices: religious prejudices, stereotypes of religious communities and the belief in the superiority of one's own religion over others. Example: making fun of, or refusing to rent a house to, people of another religion.
• Quest for political dominance: for the majority community this takes the form of majoritarian dominance; for a minority community, a desire to form a separate political unit. Example: the demand for a separate state on religious grounds, or majoritarianism in Sri Lanka.
• Political mobilisation on religious lines: the use of sacred symbols, religious leaders, emotional appeals and fear to bring followers of one religion together in politics. Example: appealing to voters of one religion during elections.
• Communal violence, riots and massacres: the ugliest form. Example: the riots at the time of Partition in India and Pakistan.

Everyday prejudices, the quest for political dominance (majoritarianism or separatism), political mobilisation on religious lines, and communal violence (e.g. the Partition riots).

• Most people still marry within their own caste or tribe.
• Untouchability has not ended completely, despite constitutional prohibition.
• The effects of centuries of advantages and disadvantages continue: castes that had access to education earlier have done well, while those denied education (and the "untouchable" castes, who could not own land) are still behind.
• There is a disproportionately large presence of "upper castes" among the urban middle classes.
• Caste is still closely linked to economic status: as the National Sample Survey shows, the average economic status of caste groups still follows the old hierarchy; the upper castes are the best off, and the dalits and adivasis the worst off. The proportion of people living in extreme poverty (below the poverty line) is much higher among the lowest castes.

People still marry within their caste, untouchability persists, upper castes dominate the urban middle class, and caste still largely decides economic status, with the lowest castes the poorest.

• No parliamentary constituency has a clear majority of one single caste. So every candidate and party needs to win the confidence of more than one caste and community to win elections.
• No party wins the votes of all the voters of a caste. When people say a caste is a "vote bank" of a party, it usually means that a large proportion of its voters vote for that party. Many parties may put up candidates from the same caste, so the voters of that caste are divided.
• The ruling party and sitting MPs or MLAs frequently lose elections, which would not happen if caste preferences were frozen.
• Voters also have strong attachment to political parties, and they vote on the basis of the government's performance, issues and the popularity of leaders.

No constituency has a majority of one caste, so parties need the support of many castes; and a caste's voters do not all vote for one party (sitting governments often lose).

• The proportion of women in legislatures has been very low. The percentage of elected women members in the Lok Sabha touched 14.36 per cent of its total strength for the first time in 2019; their share in state assemblies is less than 5 per cent. India is among the bottom group of nations in the world in this respect, behind several developing countries of Africa and Latin America.
• In the government, cabinets are largely all-male.
• In local government (panchayats and municipalities), one-third of seats are reserved for women, and there are now more than 10 lakh elected women representatives.
• In 2023, Parliament passed the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam (Women's Reservation Act, 2023), which will give 33 per cent reservation of seats for women in the Lok Sabha, State Legislative Assemblies and the Delhi Assembly.

It is very low: about 14% in the Lok Sabha (2019) and under 5% in state assemblies, though one-third of local body seats are reserved; the Women's Reservation Act, 2023 will reserve 33% of seats in the Lok Sabha and assemblies.

• There is no official religion for the Indian state. Unlike the status of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Islam in Pakistan or Christianity in England, our Constitution does not give a special status to any religion.
• The Constitution provides to all individuals and communities the freedom to profess, practise and propagate any religion, or not to follow any.
• It prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion.
• At the same time, it allows the state to intervene in the matters of religion to ensure equality within religious communities (for example, it bans untouchability).

India has no official religion, and the Constitution gives everyone freedom to profess, practise and propagate any religion (and also bans discrimination on grounds of religion).

(b) Unequal roles assigned by society to men and women

One-third of the seats in panchayats and municipalities are reserved for women. (The Women's Reservation Act, 2023 provides for reservation in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies too, but it will come into effect only in the future.)

(d) Panchayati Raj bodies

B and D describe secular beliefs, not communal ones.

(c) A and C

(b) gives official status to one religion.

caste

1 – B (feminist), 2 – A (communalist), 3 – D (castiest), 4 – C (secularist).

(b) B A D C