Poverty, Population, Pollution, Illiteracy, Corruption, Inequality, Gender discrimination, Terrorism, Communalism, Lack of Infrastructure, Unemployment, Regionalism, Casteism, Alcoholism, Drugs Abuse, Violence against Women are the major ones.
Contemporary Indian society is flecked with numerous issues that are labelled as social problems. Some of them are age-old, and some are of recent origin that have erupted owing to the change in global socio-political order.
A social problem, in general, is the condition which is not ideal and disrupts the balance of a society. A dictionary of sociology defines social problems as, “any undesirable condition or situation that is judged by an influential number of persons within a community to be intolerable and to require group action toward constructive reform”.
Another widely used definition specifies that “no condition, no matter how dramatic or shocking to someone else, is a social problem unless and until the values of a considerable number of people define it as a problem”.
Some of the other definitions of social problems given by sociologists are:
1. Horton and Leslie:
It is often defined as the condition which many people consider undesirable and wish to correct.
2. Lindbergh:
It is any deviant behaviour in a disapproved direction of such a degree that it exceeds the tolerance limit of the community
The caste system is a system for determining the class or assigning a status to people from birth. The causes, effects, and solutions of the caste system in India are described below:
The main reason for creating the caste system in India is the caste assignment based on professional specialization. Four classes of the caste system: Four classes include:
Brahmins – priesthood class.
Kshatriyas – a class of warriors and rulers.
Vaishyas – a commercial class.
Sudras – the lowest of four traditional classes involved in household members and workers, etc.
The caste system has many disadvantages, such as:
Promotes inequality
Undemocratic by nature
False differentiation in superiority and inferiority
It increases the difference between people from the upper and lower caste.
People fall victim to the caste.
Education will help people realize the disadvantages of the caste system. There is a need for broad social change for equality. There should include special classes in schools that give children value and moral education. Thanks to better learning and economic progress, people belonging to different castes mix and cooperate.