Challenges: illiteracy, poverty and gender discrimination

Why these three are challenges

India began as a democracy with great diversity and many problems: poverty, illiteracy, unemployment and few public services. People expected a lot from freedom. India has changed greatly since then. It holds regular, free elections and governments change peacefully. Yet many needs are still unmet. Illiteracy, poverty and gender discrimination stop many people from taking a full part in democracy.

Illiteracy

• In 1951 only 18.33 per cent of Indians could read and write. Women's literacy was about 8.9 per cent.
• Many feared that illiterate citizens could not use their right to vote wisely.
• Voters proved this fear wrong. In the 1977 general election, after the Emergency (1975 to 1977), they changed the government at the Centre peacefully. The Janata Party formed the first non-Congress government there.
• Literacy does more than help people vote. It makes them aware of issues and conscious of liberty and equality, so they elect representatives who speak for all.
• Literacy has risen a lot, but recent Census figures still show many adults, more women than men, who cannot read. The Right to Education for children aged 6 to 14 aims to close this gap.

Poverty

• It is often said that for a hungry person the vote means little: food comes first. So poverty is called the greatest bane (curse) of democracy.
• Poverty is the denial of opportunities to lead a healthy, full life. It is the root of many other deprivations and inequalities.
• The poverty line is the income below which a person cannot meet basic needs. The early official line was based on food: 2400 calories a day in rural areas and 2100 in urban areas.
• From the 1990s, non-food needs such as clothing, shelter, education and employment were also counted.
• Today poverty is also linked to the Human Development Index (HDI) idea of Mahbub ul Haq and Amartya Sen. It adds health, education and rights.
• Causes in the lesson: unemployment and under-employment, a growing population, and growth that has not closed the gap between rich and poor. Check recent figures for the share of people below the poverty line.

Gender discrimination

• Gender equality is a basic principle of democracy. The Fundamental Rights, Fundamental Duties and Directive Principles all ask the State to treat women and men as equals.
• Yet discrimination shows in the sex ratio, the number of females per 1000 males. It was 972 in 1901 and fell to 927 in 1991. Recent Census figures are still below 1000.
• The child sex ratio is a bigger worry. Causes: preference for sons, neglect of baby girls, and female foeticide (killing a girl before birth) and infanticide.
• Women lag behind men in literacy, jobs and public life. The maternal mortality ratio, the rate of mothers dying from pregnancy causes, has been high.
• The 73rd and 74th Amendments (in force 1993) reserved one-third of seats for women in panchayats and municipalities. Some states, such as Bihar, have raised this to 50 per cent in panchayats.
• In 2023, Parliament passed a constitutional amendment to reserve one-third of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. It applies after the next Census and delimitation (redrawing of constituencies). Your NIOS lesson, written earlier, calls it a Bill not yet passed.

Sex ratio vs child sex ratio

Both are counted in the Census. A ratio below 1000 means there are fewer females than males.