Saurabh SharmaAIR 23 · CSE 2023 · 332 wordsTheir whole copy
Opening · a definition
Social mobility as per Sorokin refers to change of individuals, ideas, things (which are human created) from one societal position to another.
Social mobility has been described as a metric/indicator of open society and stratification based on equal opportunity.
Constitutional promise of equality in India is regarded as a means of social mobility breaking away the traditional barriers inflicted by culture. Andre Bétéille describes how forces of modernization, social reforms initiated by state (eg: land reform) are transforming cumulative inequality of past into dispersed inequality in present.
Srinivas sees mobility happening in secular hierarchy through his concept of dominant caste's rise, Sanskritization etc.
However, social mobility even today remains a distant mirage for many;
Body · points and prose
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Srinivas sees mobility happening in secular hierarchy through his concept of dominant caste's rise, Sanskritization etc.
However, social mobility even today remains a distant mirage for many;
• Women: A study by Bina Agarwal illustrates how women own only 12% of property in India.
Uma chakraborty describes how through exploitative lineage and descent rules, women are denied their fair share (coparcenary right).
Veena Das describes how women are systemically excluded from accessing modern education and technology.
Karuna Ahmed finds that women are clustered in few occupation and are provided lower wages.
• Dalits: have subhumane nocturnal existence as described by Gail Omvedt → they are second class citizens, as they are overpopulated in menial jobs.
Untouchability hasn't completely vanished from public space as shown by studies of Amit Thorat.
• Tribals: literacy rate is well below the national average, with greater incidences of alienation and poverty.
Despite being just 8% of total population they constitute 45% around those displaced by development projects (Fernandes).
• LGBTQ+ face ostracization and social exclusion. They lack the right of self determination. Issue of same-sex marriage is attracting wrath of orthodoxy.
• Migrant workers: getting stranded in low paid jobs, populating slums living in fringes of society.
Close · a summary
Moreover, using intersectionality approach one finds that some suffer from multiple form of deprivation. for instance a Dalit widow in village has zero avenues of mobility.
Thus historic and systemic inequality need to be broken for making Indian society more inclusive and mobile.