Day 25 – Q 5.What are the predominant modern age factors of social exclusion? Explain.

5. What are the predominant modern age factors of social exclusion? Explain.  

सामाजिक बहिष्कार के प्रमुख आधुनिक युग कारक क्या हैं? चर्चा करें।

Introduction:

Social exclusion is a form of discrimination that occurs when people are wholly or partially excluded from participating in the economic, social and political life of their community, based on their belonging to a certain social class, category or group. 

Body

Predominant modern age factors of social exclusion:

• Poverty– Lack of material resources like income, land, employment etc, prevents people from participation in social or cultural life, for example, poverty results in denial of health, education, insurance etc.
• Caste– In India, caste is a major factor for social exclusion, where still lower castes are excluded from things considered as the exclusive domain of upper castes, like priesthood.
• Gender– Women are excluded from religious practices like temple entry on certain days, from economic participation due to preference given to household work and from political sphere as well.
• Religion– Religion often shapes the access to resources and community participation, for example certain religious groups are ultra-rich whereas others are considered poor. Also, community participation differs for different religions.
• Ethnicity– There exists a north-south, east-west divide as well as discrimination against tribal that limits the social participation of these groups across country. For example, racial attacks on people from North-East.
• Disability– Lack of disabled friendly infrastructure, social discrimination, does not help in assimilating the disabled community with the mainstream society.
• Sexual orientation– LGBT communities face discrimination and exclusion because of their sexual orientations and gender identities.
• Status– In modern age, people tend to communicate and make social circle with people of similar economic status, thus making status a major factor of social exclusion.
• Education– In India, quality education and English language skills are considered synonymous and hence social as well as economic exclusion is seen in case of lack of language skills or les than optimal education.
• Geographical location– With increasing regionalization, people identify more with their own regions than the whole nation, leading to exclusion based on location, for example migrants are excluded from government jobs in many states.

Conclusion

Social exclusion is a structural phenomenon and requires solutions that incorporate all stakeholders panning across various sectors as well a focused approach to reduce the gap between socially excluded groups and the rest of the population.