Discrimination: A Social Evil

We hear complaints of people who are discriminated just because of their job. Their job might be a sweeper, or a kabaadiwaala (rag picker), but they are discriminated in such a way that these people think that their job is the worst and they are also discriminated and the other people avoid them.

I have seen in many homes when there is some construction work going on, the labourers who are appointed to work in that house are not treated properly by the owner. They say, “I am giving this person money, and this is all that he can get from me. In exchange for that money I will make that person do as much work as I want.” This is the kind of attitude that most people have towards those poor labourers that come into their home to work and earn a living.

Why is this the case? Well, it is because the person who is appointing the labourer (the property-owner) thinks that money is the only factor that is distinguishing the two of them. This is true because the labourers are poor and have to work hard to earn money, but the property-owner has got lots of money, and also his work is relatively easier than the labourers’ work. So the property-owner starts to classify other property owners, the rich people, and the poor people who are heavily discriminated because of this thought process of the rich.

We humans like to classify things into groups. This is something that I have discussed in previous articles too. Anything that we see is messed up, we classify it into groups according to our perspective and we usually don’t like those things that don’t fit in our perspective. It is the same here. Here too, the rich’s perspective is looking at both the other rich people and the poor people and distinguishing and classifying the poor and the rich people. The rich people fit in the perspective of the rich person and the poor people don’t fit in the perspective of the rich person and as a­­ result—the poor have to suffer a lot more than the rich since their condition is way worse than the condition of the rich.

If you think that some work is good and some work is bad, imagine a scenario. Imagine that you are a child of a middle-class family, just like me. You are able to study, but you don’t get luxuries like your rich friends in your school get. They might be coming to school by cars, wearing shiny new clothes, and you might be coming alone or with your parents, by walking, cycling or at best with a motorcycle. You don’t have new and shiny clothes like your rich friends do. And, just because you don’t get luxuries like your rich friends, they start to discriminate between you and themselves; how would you feel in this scenario?

This is not just an imagination—this has happened in real life too. ­­­­­­­­­­Students today do face this kind of discrimination with even their fellow classmates. And they don’t feel good about it in any way.

Same is the condition of the poor and the rich. When the rich discriminate the poor, the poor not only have to face a financial setback but also an emotional setback from the other people in the society. So, this makes discrimination an evil for the society.

Discrimination does not happen only at the society level, it can also happen between the family levels. It is possible that someone has more respect for some person and less respect for some other person in the same family. This makes the other family member very sad and makes him feel very bad, because a person can handle the whole world’s discrimination, but only a brave person can handle family’s discrimination. This is because you go to your family to seek help, and if the family helps someone just like you in relationship and does not help you, then you cannot go anywhere and have to keep that pain within yourself.

Let me give you an example. Before the Hindu Amendment act in India, only the sons could demand a share in the property of the father. The daughter could not ask for the share in the property, unless the father himself hands it over to her. This was a sign of the family discrimination because the father has equal rights over the daughter and the son, but the son gets the whole of the property share. If the father has equal rights over the daughter and the son, then both the daughter and the son should have the right over the property of their father. This kind of thought process of the society and the families of that time made the society unfair for the women. Hence the Hindu Amendment act in India was passed on by the government which made it so that both the son and the daughter get equal share in their father’s property.

Dignity is something that can oppose discrimination. Dignity means self-respect. Dignity is the strength that can revive the self-respect of a person and help him to fight back for justice. Every citizen of India has the right to express his problems and discriminations with the law and the court of justice. So, there should not be any kind of fear in any person about any kind of discrimination because of this right.

So, make your mindset indiscriminative and respect the dignity of every person. This will make you a good and an active citizen of India.