In this post each topic of class 10 civics chapter 3 gender religion and caste is discussed in a very comprehensive manner that would be helpful for the students to achieve good score in board exams.Class 10 civics gender religion and caste Notes are given below in this post.
Class 10 Civics Gender Religion and Caste notes
Gender Division –Gender division means segregation of society into men and women’s responsibilities based on prejudice and stereotypes set in society.
Public and Private Division
Private division is associated with women and public division talks of men which is reflected in sexual Division of labour. Women do all work inside the home like cooking, tailoring, washing clothes etc but are not expected to work outside They do more work than men but are not valued and get recognition. Men do all work in public sphere even cooking as he is paid for it and is valued and respected in society.
Sexual Division of Labour – A system in which all division of work inside the home is either done by the women of the family or organised by them through the domestic helpers while men are expected to do work out of home to earn money for fulfilling family needs.
Feminist Movement – Those movements aimed at equality of women to men in personal and family life .
Purpose of Feminist Movement
•Demanding political and legal status of women
•Organised and agitated for equal rights
•Improving their educational and career opportunities .
Political Expression of gender division in politics
Women constitute almost half of the population but this social division cause less opportunities for them in public sphere. So, political expression and mobilization helped to improve women’s role in public life.Now they become scientist, doctor, manager and college and universities professor which were not earlier possible for women. In Scandinavian countries, their participation in public life is very high.In our country. they still lag much behind men as our society is male dominated and become reason of disadvantage, discrimination and oppression in various ways
Literacy Rate: The literacy rate among women is only 64.63% compared with 82.14% among men. This is because parents prefer to spend more resources on their sons rather than daughters as they consider daughter will not live with them forever
→ Position in higher Jobs: There is very low percentage of women in the high paid and high value jobs as just a few girls are encouraged to take up higher education.
→ Equal Wages Act: Equal Wages Act 1976 states that equa wages should be paid for equal work. Despite the Equal Wages Act, women in all areas are paid lesser than men, be it sports, cinema, agriculture or construction works.
→ Sex Ratio: Most parents prefer boy children to girl children that caused decline in child sex ratio (No of girls per thousand males) which is 924. This is based on society stereotypes considering girls as burden on their families.
→ Social Evil: Society in general and urban centres in particular, is not safe for women. Dowry harassment, physical abuse, sexual harassment are routine .
Class 10 Civics Power Sharing Notes
Women’s Political Representation
It is concluded that unless women control power, their problems will not get adequate attention .One way is to ensure by having more women as elected representatives.In India, proportion of women in legislature is very low.Their share in Lok Sabha has touched only 12% and is less than 5% in state assemblies.
It is made legally binding to have fair proportion of women in the elected bodies of India which is done in Panchayati Raj where one third seats are reserved for women in panchayats and municipalities.
It should be done in Lok sabha and State Assemblies but no consensus over this among political parties is made and bill is not passed.
Gender division needs to be expressed in politics that shows disadvantaged groups do get benefits when it became a political issue.
Religion, Communalism and Politics
India have followers of different religions and it cause social division based on religious differences about the way people practice that religion which is not universal as gender.
These religious differences are often expressed in politics.
•Gandhiji used to say that religion can never be separated from politics. It means moral values is learnt in every religion and politics must be guided by those ethical values drawn from religion.
•Major victims of communal riots are people from religious minorities so govt should take steps to protect these religious minorities.
•Family laws of all religions discriminate against women so govt change these laws to grant equality to women.
These instances shows that ideas, ideals and values drawn from different religions should be expressed by religious minorities in politics to fulfil their needs, interest and demands.
Communalism
Communalism begins when religion is seen as the basis of the nation.The problem of communalism become acute when religion is expressed in politics in exclusive and partisan terms.
•When one religion and its followers are pitted against another.
•When beliefs of one religion are presented superior to those of other religions.
.•When demands of one religious group are formed in opposition to another.
•When state power is used to establish domination of one religious group over other religions.
This manner of using religion in politics is communal politics.
Communal Politics
Communal politics is based on the idea that religion is the principal basis of social community and followers of particular religion must belong to one community and their fundamental interest are same.
•It follows that people of different religions cannot belong to the same social community.
•If followers of different religions have some commonalities these are superficial and immaterial .
• Their interest are bound to be different and involves conflict.
•In its extreme conditions, people belong to different religions cannot live as equal citizens within one nation.
Communalism in Politics
•It involves religious prejudices, stereotypes of religious communities and belief in the superiority of one religion over other religions.
•Political dominance of majority community over minority communities and it can cause formation of a separate political unit by minority.
•Political mobilization by the use of sacred symbols, religious leaders, emotional appeals and plain fear to bring the followers of one religion together in political arena.
•Sometimes, communalism take most ugly form and cause communal violence, riots and massacre.
Communalism is a major challenge to democracy and constitution makers were aware of it and chose the model of a secular state.
Secular State
It means state doesn’t have any official religion.
•Unlike Buddhism in Srilanka, Islam in Pakistan, Constitution of India does not give special status of official religion to any religion.
•Constitution gives freedom to all individuals to profess, practice and propagate any religion,or not to follow any religion if he/she desires.
•Prohibition of discrimination based on religion.
•State can interfere in the matter of religion to ensure equality within religious communities. For eg- it bans untouchability.
Secularism is not just an ideology but the foundations of our country. Communal prejudices and propaganda need to be countered in the politics by secular constitution otherwise communalism would threaten the very idea of India.
Caste and Politics
All societies have some social inequalities in various aspects but one unique social inequalities based on caste is a special case to India.
Caste inequalities
When hereditary occupational division was sanctioned by rituals and it was passed from one generation to another and create social inequalities in society .
Caste system was based on exclusion of and discrimination against the outcaste groups.They were subjected to inhuman practice of untouchability.
Jyotiba Phule, Gandhiji,B.R.Ambedkar and Periyar Ramaswami Naicker advocated and worked to establish a society in which caste inequalities are absent .It is their efforts and social economic changes, great changes in caste system have seen in modern India.
With economic development, large scale urbanisation, growth of literacy, education, occupational mobility and weakening of position of landlords in villages, the old notions of caste hierarchy are breaking down.
Constitution of India prohibited any caste based discrimination and laid the foundations of policies to reverse the injustice of the caste system.Untouchability has not ended completely despite constitutional prohibition .
The caste that had access to education under the old system have done well in acquiring modern education. That is why there is disproportionately large presence of upper caste among the urban middle classes in our country. Caste continues to be closely linked to economic status .
Casteism
Casteism is rooted in the belief that caste is the sole basis of social community . According to it, people belonging to the same caste belong to a natural social community and have same interests which they do not share with anyone from another caste.
Caste in Politics
Caste can take various forms in politics
•When parties choose candidates in elections, they nominate candidates on the basis of the caste composition of that electorate to win elections.
•Some political parties and candidates are known to favour some castes so they appeal to caste sentiments to get their votes.
•Universal adult franchise and principal of one person one vote compelled political leaders to develop consciousness among voters who are treated as inferior and low and mobilise them to secure votes.
•Every party and candidate tries to win confidence of more than one caste and community to win elections.
•Caste is a vote bank of one party usually means that a large proportion of that caste and community vote for that party.
•Many political parties nominate candidate from the same caste that dominate in a particular constituency.
•The ruling party and sitting MP or MLA frequently lose elections that shows that all castes and communities are not fixed in their political preferences.
Politics in Caste
Politics also influences the caste system and caste identities by bringing them into the political arena.It is not politics that get caste ridden,it is the caste also that get politicised.It happens in various forms.
•Each caste group tries to become bigger by including neighbouring caste or sub caste within it which were excluded earlier.
•Various caste groups enter into coalition with other caste or communities by dialogue and negotiation.
•New kinds of caste groups have come in politics like backward and forward caste groups.
Advantages of caste politics
Expression of caste differences in politics give many disadvantaged communities the space to demand their share in power.It has helped people from Dalits and OBCs castes to gain better access to decision making.Many political and non political organisations have been demanding and agitating for an end to discrimination against particular castes, for more dignity and more access to land, resources and opportunities.
Disadvantage of caste politics
Politics based on caste identity alone is not healthy in a democracy.It can divert attention from many social issues like poverty, development and corruption.Caste division leads to social tension, social conflict and in extreme ,the problem of violence prevails.