Social Problems :

India is a confluence of kaleidoscopic cultures, epitomizing unity in diversity. Apparently commendable but when delved into its obnoxious social detriments, India, inevitably, mirrors its ghastly image. Since time immemorial India has been encountering two fundamental socio economic issues that have obstructed Indias prosperity. Poverty andUnemployment are the two chronic ailments that India has not been able to recuperate from owing to its threatening and growing side effects. Poverty Objectively poverty implies a dehumanizing condition in which people are unable to satiate their basic needs for their sustenance. Subjectively poverty stands for perceived deprivation, breeding the following social blemishes, translating into gangrenes. : Illiteracy Ignorance Urbanization Corruption Exploitation Discrimination Disparity Terrorism Population explosion Surrogacy Dowry Untouchables, racial discrimination and Gender differentiation, economic disparity prevalent in India become more pronounced in the course of socialization where people acquire negative attitudes based on false information, personal impressions and hearsay leading to aggression and hostility. A monumental evidence justifies the truth about racial apartheid in India. The Dalits, the untouchables, or outcastes, and most recently slumdogs, comprise nearly one quarter of Indias society. The term Dalit means those who have been broken and ground down deliberately by those above them in the social hierarchy. Dalits are the incessant victims of discrimination, dehumanization, violence, and enslavement through human trafficking every day. Chakwara village, Rajasthan an embarrassing figment of Middle Ages weaves a tapestry of a rural society portraying terrible persistent inequalities, social servitude and economic bondage. Every hour, two Dalits are assaulted. Every day, three Dalit women are raped, and two killed. In most parts of India, Dalits continue to be barred from entering Hindu temples or other holy places - although doing so is against the law. Their women are banned from wearing shoes in the presence of caste Hindus. Dalit children often suffer a form of apartheid at school by being made to sit at the back of the classroom. in December, Babulal and Radheshyam, who belong to the Bairwa group of Dalits, decided to defy the hallowed "tradition" and take a dip in the pond. Outraged, the caste Hindus subjected the Bairwas to vile abuse, threats of a "bloodbath", a nightly siege of their homes and a crippling social boycott. The Dalits could no longer buy tea or vegetables or hire farm implements. The local doctor would not treat them. The grocery shop ostracized them. The local mechanic would not repair their bicycles. Their men were stalked, their women abused. The women are also subjected to discrimination in learning, dowry deaths and exploitation of abominable and unethical kinds. In fact the women are becoming target of atrocities, manifested in discrimination against them the incident of female infanticide, child marriage and domestics. Activities and lesser emphasis on education and career have rendered womens life a dismal sheen. The abuse of the dowry tradition has been one of the main reasons for abortions and female infanticides in India. The manifestation of such an evil is mirrored through a host of such every day incidents like the recent one. A twenty-year-old Vaishali Kawade committed suicide within seven months of her elopement with her lover and marriage to him, allegedly because she was being harassed for payment of Rs 1 lakh as dowry. Vaishali hanged herself on a ceiling fan at her residence in Ganesh Nagar area of Pimple Nilakh on Saturday evening, May 17.

Surrogacy now in India has assumed an ugly social problem where impoverished rustic women have now become the victim of it with or without their choice. Outsourcing surrogacy is a booming trade and it is otherwise termed as Reproductive Tourism! Surrogacy assumed popularity when Dr Nayna Patel, 47, a charismatic woman with cascading mane and an enigmatic smile of the choking backwater of Anand, a dairy community of Gujarat, single-handedly put Anand on the map when, in 2003, she orchestrated the surrogacy of a local woman who wanted to "lend" her womb to her U.K.-based daughter. The woman gave birth to test-tube twins, her own genetic grandchildren and the event made headlines worldwide. Afterward, Patel was inundated with requests for surrogacy. She now has 45 surrogate mothers on her books, mostly impoverished women from nearby villages, who are paid between $5000 and $7000, the equivalent to upwards of 10 years' salary for rural Indians. This is a burning instance of the impact of poverty and illiteracy and globalization, a third-world exploitation! The system certainly lends itself to the criticism that foreign women unwilling or unable to pay high Western fees and selfishly and unethically resolve to exploit poor women at a 10th of the price it would cost back home. The system also avoids the legal red tape and ill-defined surrogacy laws women face in the U.S or is it a mutually beneficial relationship which needs to be anatomized meticulously. Population explosion is another malady evolved from the womb of poverty. Poor people think more children means more income, a sheer lack of awareness, common sense and fore-sightedness as they are bereft of even primary education. It is also responsible for defining ubanizationrendering impetus to problems like unauthorized and illegal activities, emergence of slums, problem of waste disposal, crime and health related problems. The social organization, economy and environmental planning in many cities are becoming unmanageable. Also, urbanization is linked with certain kinds of attitude like consumerism and individualism. Consumerism emphasizes on exploitation of resources.The individualistic attitude favours the view that the individual is the ultimate reality. Besides, urbanization has catered to ample job opportunities rendering consequences to the disintegration of the joint family system and welcoming the concept of Nuclear family system as it is not conducive to house a huge family in a small flat in the cities as the standard of living is high in the cities. Besides, the parents pursue a career of their own. This may leave the children unguided. Overcrowded, poorly ventilated buildings and apathetic staff of the crches have a negative influence on the well-being of the children. Being old and experienced, they are able to provide solutions to their problems.. They are an asset to the society. Communication gap develops and the rate of depression in children is escalates. Old Age Homes are mushrooming profusely in the suburbs owing to the strong emphasis of retaining Nuclear family system. Filial bondage and humanity is allaying as moral fibre of the society is thinning and is in the verge of breach. Terrorism, though a global Issue, is the most challenging and burning issue of the decade as it is the consequence of incessant exploitation of the elite strata on the low key social segment. Communalism, socioreligious prejudices and notoriety are some of the key features of Terrorism due to death of befitting moral education and paucity of pecuniary needs.

Corruption refers to those transactions which involve undue benefits to some people who dont deserve or are not entitled to them. Such transactions make some people recipients of financial benefits, physical and social resources that make these people capable of exhorting power over others and controlling the rewards and punishments for others. This is often reflected in the formation of a nexus between politicians and criminals. The criminals are the victims of poverty, allured by the mundane temptations and the politicians, the victims of avarice find almost irresistible urge to exploit them to serve their unethical purposes. The life in poverty reinforces certain behaviour pattern, values and coping styles which, reduce the chances of upward social mobility. A recent study reveals the magnitude of poverty in India as feeding India has become a daunting challenge - the government knows it, and the prime minister says it must be a priority. But the Right to Food Campaign insists they are not doing enough. A heart rending story depicts an ugly facet of poverty. In Ganne, just off the main road about an hour south of the city of Allahabad, there is a home comprising a poor tribal community, clustered hamlet around a series of shallow quarries. In one of the huts sits a little girl, Poonam barely 3 is a poor victim of the early stages of kidney failure. Like many children in Ganne she has

become used to eating bits of dried mud and silica, which she finds in the quarry. Tiny children chew on the mud simply because they are hungry owing to lack of food because of acute poverty and thus they fall ill.

Unemployment Over substantial growth of population, growing number of unskilled labourers, and illiteracy are grossly responsible for unemployment leading to poverty and its allied consequences. It is now imperative for us to welcome a wide range of facilities and infrastructure that will bestow the nation a platform for self employed schemes as well as employment schemes with innovative businesses requiring both trained and untrained personnel. Building an atmosphere of mutual trust and harmony for peaceful co existence is mandatory. Equity and equality of opportunity for different groups needs to be ensured. Wider podium for mutual care, respect and compatibility need to be established. Perhaps, then, the social evils can be curbed to a satisfied extent.