"Caste system is still prevalant in the Indian society.” Suggest any one measure to abolish it.
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Answer:
As a boy, I had observed caste discrimination in my native village. There were various facets to it, but one significant aspect that I observed was that one way or another, it was the play of power and dominance.
There is a hierarchy that exists in society and a mentality that comes along with it.
The people who mend your shoes, cut your hair, wash your clothes, serve as your maids, clean the toilets, perform last rites at the cremation ground and even skilled carpenters, were all designated a caste lower in the hierarchy. Quite often, they didn’t get the opportunity for good education and were economically deprived. Many of them didn’t possess any ancestral land as property to inherit. The worst part of it was that they had inherited their caste from their birth and had accepted their status as a norm.
I was fortunate that the caste which I had inherited from birth was not that low in the hierarchy. I received better opportunities than many others, based just on my birth. But it is difficult to say goodbye to an evil which is so deeply linked to our social customs and traditions. Every year, I also perform ‘Dawaat Pooja’ or ‘Chitragupta Pooja’ as a member of the Kayastha caste.
One has to face a lot of resistance within one’s family and society to be able to recognize an evil and present it as it is. It is well evident that without any resistance, there can be no significant change in the society. Some of the measures that can help to dispel the evil of caste are as follows:
One of the major contributors towards enforcing the caste system is that your surname/last name is supposed to depict your caste. Nobel laureate Sri Kailash Satyarthi expressed how he got rid of his caste-depicting surname and replaced it with ‘Satyarthi’ (the seeker of truth).
Many of my classmates and friends are getting married to a person of their own caste or belonging to a caste with an equivalent position in the hierarchy. One can clearly filter these aspects by looking at the surnames. Marrying a partner irrespective of their caste shall be the next step in the right direction. Love transcends all the boundaries of division and hatred.