Selective Recipients of Respect
~ A Blog on the Social Inequalities present in our Society wriiten by Hrishit Jhanji
In the 20th century, nobody would’ve thought that certain issues of the society would be given such grave importance in the future. Nowadays, it’s common for people to take action against social problems on the internet and it is quite commendable because there have been cases where people or as a matter of fact, even animals who were mistreated got the justice that they deserved just because of the support they got on social media. But I feel that there are certain topics which do not get as much attention because they have been made society norms and aren’t seen as problems. The kind of treatment the poor get in our country is one such issue. A common example is the fact that a lot of people treat their househelp like inferior human beings and what’s worse is that their children get raised with the same idea in mind. So isn’t this a norm? Yes, it is a norm in the cities and people know that it’s wrong but this isn’t a topic many people talk about with the irony being that India’s poverty is all that’s talked about when it’s portrayed in Hollywood. This is just one example of how people from lower economical backgrounds are treated differently and are looked down upon.
REASON BEHIND THE MINDSET:
So, let’s try to analyze why this happens. In ancient India, a caste system called Varna was introduced in which Hindus were categorized into various classes depending on their occupation which earlier was determined by the kind of family they were born into. The four classes were the Brahmins (who were the priestly people), the Kshatriyas (who were rulers, administrators and warriors), the Vaishyas (artisans, merchants, tradesmen and farmers), and Shudras (labouring classes). Though discrimination on the basis of caste was banned in 1948, this caste system is still being practiced in some areas of the country. I feel that this system has served as a base for the modern class system which groups people into majorly 3 classes- Upper class, middle class and lower class. So, as the name suggests, people from lower class are the ones who belong to economically lower backgrounds and usually work in the service sector to sustain their families. The problem is that people have taken the name lower class too seriously and instead of using it in just economic terms, they consider them lower human beings. The people from the lower class do not get the basic respect a human being deserves. Not everyone treats them differently but mostly they are treated inhumanely.
WHAT’S WORSE?:
To worsen the situation, this system has been subconsciously accepted by most people and that includes the exploited ones themselves. This is because the people who are being exploited know that if they fight for their rights, they would lose their job. Now, you would think that losing your job is completely fine if you are not even getting the basic respect but let me tell you that those people value money more than we can imagine because they are barely sustaining their families through that job which they would lose if they fight for their rights. This fear has transformed into acceptance. Acceptance that they are going to be treated differently in the society. Let me give you an example, a video went viral in January 2022 showing a woman throwing a fruit vendor’s fruits just because his cart brushed off her car. She is wasting the fruits which are essential for the vendor to run his household. Isn’t this simply cruel on the woman’s side? But the sadder part is that even when the woman was destroying the man’s livelihood, he was addressing her as ‘madam’ and REQUESTING her to stop throwing the fruits.
This matter was taken seriously only because an onlooker recorded the incident. There might have been many such cases where people from the lower class were exploited but they didn’t get the justice they deserved just because there was no camera to record the incident.
OUR RESPONSIBILITY:
But if the exploited themselves can’t fight back then how would things change? Well, the simple answer is that we have to fight for them and challenge the norm and the mindset. Even in the example I gave above, nobody stopped the woman from throwing the fruits. Similarly, in most cases nobody would step up for the people being exploited because it doesn’t affect them and that is what has to be changed. The best solutions to the problem from our end would be firstly, to treat all the people around us with equal respect irrespective of their backgrounds and secondly, to take a stand if a person is being exploited around us. Even though this system of exploitation has become so embedded in today’s society and in our mindset, maybe causing such small changes around us will lead to a better India for everyone.
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