Page 68 - DSOC201_SOCIAL_STRUCTURE_AND_SOCIAL_CHANGE_ENGLISH

Unit 2: Major Segments of Indian Society

• Tribals are also being integrated in the political system of the country. The introduction of Notes
the Panchayati Raj has offered them opportunity for an increased involvement in the political
activities. By contesting elections, they have started acquiring power at Panchayat Samiti
and state levels. This has also resulted in educational and social development of tribals.
• About 74 per cent of India’s population lives in villages. The incidence of poverty is much
higher in villages—roughly 39 per cent of the rural population are poor. Agriculture is a
source of livelihood for 70 per cent of the population but agriculture accounts for less than 40
per cent of the national income.
• According to the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) definition, approved by
the Ministry of Rural Development, as revised in May 1991, a rural household with an
annual income of less than Rs. 11,000 is described as a poor household.
• Poverty can also be measured by the persons’ access to piped water, electricity, kutcha or
pucca houses, and the public distribution system. A staggering 55 per cent of the rural
population of the country still live in ‘kutcha houses. Further, in most backward states (like
West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh), 15 to 19 per cent rural
homes have electricity, 9 to 11 per cent have piped water and 11 to 16 per cent have access to
public distribution system.
• When the, Constitution of India was framed, Article 23 was enshrined in it which prohibited
‘traffic in human beings’, ‘begar’ and other similar forms of forced labour.
• It is estimated that there are about 32 lakh bonded labourers in India. Of these, 98 per cent
are said to be bonded due to indebtedness and 2 per cent due to customary social obligations.
The highest number is believed to exist in three states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and
Tamil Nadu, followed by Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.
• Rehabilitation is both physical and psychological. Physical rehabilitation is essentially
economic whereas psychological rehabilitation has to be built up through a process of
assurance and reassurance. The two must go side by side. The first prerequisite of
psychological rehabilitation is that the freed bonded labourers must be wrenched away from
the old habitat and be rehabilitated at a place where they will no longer be subject to the
ruinous influence of the erstwhile bonded labour-keepers.
• The Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme (RLEGP) aimed at providing
supplemental employment to the poor on public works at a very low wage of Rs. 3 per day.
Maharashtra was one state which had used the Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) for
the unemployed in rural areas by levying EGS surcharge or collections on land revenue,
sales tax, motor vehicles, irrigated holdings, and on professionals.
• The evaluation of the community development projects (CDPs) was done by scholars like
A.R. Desai, S.C. Dube, Oscar Lewis, Mandelbaum, Opler, Carl Taylor, Wilson, and many
others.
• Since the rural communities have urban characteristics too and urban societies have rural
characteristics also, it will be illogical to hold that Indian society is moving from rural to
urban.
• The educated members of some castes with modern occupations sometimes organise
themselves as a pressure group. As such, a caste association competes as a corporate body
with other pressure groups for political and economic resources. This type of organisation
represents a new kind of solidarity. These competing units function more as social classes
than as caste structures.
• Status of women in urban areas is higher than that of women in rural areas. Urban women
are comparatively more educated and liberal. Against 25.1 per cent literate women in rural
areas, there are 54 per cent literate women in urban areas according to the census of 1991.

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