JAMIA MILLIA ISLAMIA

SOCIOLOGY PROJRCT REPORT ON:

MAJOR SOCIAL PROBLEMS

SUBMITTED BY: Saima Gous

B.A.-L.L.B. (H) (Regular)

1st Year, 2nd Semester

Roll No. – 51

Student ID – 201901961

SUBMITTED TO: Rashid Sir

Professor (Sociology)

JMI (Faculty of Law)

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 INTRODUCTION

India emerged as an independent nation-state on 15th August 1947, after a long struggle against
the British colonial yoke. The country is a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic, Republic
with a parliamentary system of government. Though India has shown tremendous growth in all
spheres of national life in the years after independence, yet many problems plague the everyday
social life; the problems, many a time, are interrelated.

Poverty, Population, Pollution, Illiteracy, Corruption, Inequality, Gender discrimination,

Terrorism, Communalism, Lack of Infrastructure, Unemployment, Regionalism, Casteism,
Alcoholism, Drugs Abuse, Violence against Women are the major ones.

Concept of Social Problems:

A social problem, in general, is the condition which is not ideal and disrupts the balance of a
society. A dictionary of sociology defines social problems as, “any undesirable condition or
situation that is judged by an influential number of persons within a community to be intolerable
and to require group action toward constructive reform”. 1

Some of the other definitions of social problems given by sociologists are:

1. Horton and Leslie:

It is often defined as the condition which many people consider undesirable and wish to correct.

2. Lindbergh:

It is any deviant behavior in a disapproved direction of such a degree that it exceeds the tolerance
limit of the community.

3. Fuller and Mayer:

A social problem starts with the awakening of people in a given locality, with the realization of
certain cherished values that are threatened by the conditions which have become acute.

1 Yojana 45, No. 8, 4 (August 2001)

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Characteristics of Social Problems:

1. All social problems are situations which have injurious consequences for society.

2. All social problems are deviations from the “Ideal” situation.

3. All social problems have some common basis of origin.

4. All social problems are social and political in origin.

5. All social problems are caused by pathological social conditions. 2

I. Poverty:

Poverty is relative to richness. Poverty is one of the foremost social problems facing India and
other countries. John L. Gillin asserted that poverty may be regarded as “that condition in which
a person either because of inadequate income or unwise expenditures, does not maintain a scale
of living high enough to provide for his physical and mental efficiency and to enable him and his
natural dependents to function usually according to the standards of society of which he is a
member.” Poverty exists when one is not able to get sufficient food and necessities of life.3

According to Goddard, J.G., “Poverty is the insufficient supply of those things which are
requisite for an individual to maintain himself and those dependent upon him in health and
vigour.”Rich and poor have always existed in society but historically the existence of poverty did
not constitute an important social problem until exchange system and a scale of values came into
existence. 4

Causes of Poverty:

What are the causes underlying poverty? According to Henry George, the main cause of poverty
is the personal ownership and monopoly of the Individual on the land. He writes, “In the great
cities, where land is so valuable that it is measured by the foot, you will find the extremes of
poverty and of luxury. And this, disparity in condition between the two extremes of the social
scale may always be measured by the price of land.”
2 United Nation Development Programmes(UNDP), Human Development Report 2006

3 J. A. Rubby, A Study Of Kudumbashree Project In Kerala,23(Mahatma Gandhi University,

Kottayam, July 2008)

4 Arundhati Chattopadhyay, Major Social Problems, 27(Yojana, Vol. 49, No. 1, January 2005)

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The effects of poverty

The effects of poverty are serious. Children who grow up in poverty suffer more persistent,
frequent, and severe health problems than do children who grow up under better financial
circumstances.

 Many infants born into poverty have a low birth weight, which is associated with many
preventable mental and physical disabilities. Not only are these poor infants more likely
to be irritable or sickly, they are also more likely to die before their first birthday.

 Children raised in poverty tend to miss school more often because of illness. These
children also have a much higher rate of accidents than do other children, and they are
twice as likely to have impaired vision and hearing, iron deficiency anemia, and higher
than normal levels of lead in the blood, which can impair brain function. 5

Feminist perspective on poverty

Finally, recent decades have witnessed the feminization of poverty, or the significant increase
in the numbers of single women in poverty alone, primarily as single mothers. In the last three
decades the proportion of poor families headed by women has grown to more than 50 percent.

2. ILLITERACY

Illiteracy refers to the state of being unable to read or write. Illiteracy is a great hurdle for the
economic development of India. Illiteracy is a scar in our national life. Millions of people in our
country are still in the darkness of illiteracy and ignorance. They are deceived in every walk of
life. It entangles a man or a nation and eats into the vital of life. Lack of illiteracy is a hurdle for
overall development and well-being of this country .It weakens the backbone of our country .It is
not only baffling our democracy slowly but steadily also leading the vast democratic set up of
this country to jeopardy.6

5 Gupta V.S., Social Problems Persisting in our society, 47(Kurukshetra, 50, No. 8 , June 2008

6 Uplaonkar Ambarao, Social Problems, 20(Mainstream XI-III, No. 12, March 12, 2005)

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Effects of Illiteracy:

During the period of early childhood, the effects of illiteracy can be observed within the family
unit and the major socialization process. Recent research conducted in the fields of psychology,
nutrition and neuroscience recommend that the first five years of life are vital to the development
of intelligence, personality and social behavior. It is during this period that millions of cells are
born, grow and get interconnected. Illiterate persons experience larger amount of impediments in
terms of social behavior, not only on a personal level which includes social inclusion difficulties,

Uncertain work, high rates of syndrome, and so forth, but also within the family such as, child
nutrition, hygiene, health and education, among others and at a societal level, lesser efficiency,
high health care costs and so on. Illiterate adults face severe employability concerns, given their
low level of awareness and proficiency.7

3. UNEMPLOYMENT

Unemployment occurs when a person who is actively searching for employment is unable to find
work. Unemployment is often used as a measure of the health of the economy. The most
frequent measure of unemployment is the unemployment rate, which is the number of
unemployed people divided by the number of people in the labor force.8

Unemployment is a key economic indicator because it signals the inability of workers to readily
obtain gainful work to contribute to the productive output of the economy. More unemployed
workers mean less total economic production will take place than might have otherwise. And
unlike idle capital, unemployed workers will still need to maintain at least subsistence
consumption during their period of unemployment. This means the economy with high
unemployment has lower output without a proportional decline in the need for basic
consumption. High, persistent unemployment can signal serious distress in an economy and even
lead to social and political upheaval.

7 Ibid, p. 21

8 Kurushetra Indira, Mojor Social Problems, 252, (B.R. Publication Corporation, 1999)

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The effect of unemployment on our society

Unemployment affects not just the person himself but also his/her family and in the long run the
society where he lives.

Unemployment brings with it despair, unhappiness and anguish. It forces people to live their
lives in a way they do not wish to – The life expectancy is negatively affected.
Life expectancy is the ease by which people living in a time/place are able to satisfy their
needs/wants. Here are the main aspects:

1. Mental health:
Mental health problems like: Law self-confidence, feeling unworthy, depression and
hopelessness. With the lost income and the frustration involved in it, the recently
unemployed may develop negative attitudes toward common things in life and may feel
that all sense of purpose is lost. Frequent emotions could be – low self-esteem,
inadequateness and feeling dejected and hopeless.
2. Health diseases:
The unemployment overall tension can increase dramatically general health issues of
individuals.
3. Tension at home:
Quarrels and arguments at home front which may lead to tension and increased numbers
of divorces etc.
4. Political issues:
Loss of trust in administration and the government which may lead to political instability.
5. Tension over taxes rise:
Unemployment also brings up discontent and frustration amongst the tax paying citizens.
In order to meet the demands of the unemployment fund the government many a times
may have to increase the taxes thus giving way to restlessness amongst the tax paying
citizens.
6. Insecurity amongst employees:
The prevailing unemployment and the plight of the unemployed people and their families
may create fear and insecurity even in the currently employed people.

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 7. Crime and violence:
Increase in the rate of crime.
8. Suicide cases:
Increase in the rate of suicide attempts and actual suicides as well.
9. Social outing:
Unemployment may bring a decrease in social outings and interactions with other people,
including friends.
10. Stigma:
Unemployment brings with more than just ‘no work’. It also brings with it the disgrace
that the person has to bear. Nobody likes to be termed as unemployed.9

4. CORRUPTION

The word corruption is derived from the Latin word “corrupts,” which means “corrupted” and, in
legal terms, the abuse of a trusted position in one of the branches of power (executive, legislative
and judicial) or in political or other organizations with the intention of obtaining material benefit
which is not legally justified for itself or for others.

Corruption was referred to as a great sin already in the Bible: “Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe
blinds those who see and twist the words of the innocent.” However, the history of corruption is
in fact related to the beginning of the creation of law and the state and was already in the
antiquity considered an evil, which negatively affects the public administration and the
functioning of the political system.

Causes of corruption

Although corruption differs from country to country, it is possible to identify some of the key
common driving forces that generate it.

 In the influence of religion is visible (Protestant countries have far the lowest level of
corruption),

 low media freedom and

9 Leela Menon, Social Problems , 5 (Kerala Calling, March 2004)

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  a relatively low level of education

POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT

The phenomenon of corruption is strongly influenced by the political and economic

environment. The more is the economic activity in the country regulated and limited, the higher
the authority and the power of officials in decision making and the greater the possibility of
corruption, since individuals are willing to pay or offer payment in order to avoid restrictions.

THE IMPACT OF CORRUPTION ON THE ECONOMY

Corruption increases the volume of public investments (at the expense of private investments), as
there are many options that allow for public expenditure manipulation and are carried out by
high-level officials so as to get bribes.

Corruption redirects the composition of public expenditure from the expenditure necessary for
basic functioning and maintenance to expenditure on new equipment.

 Corruption tends to pull away the composition of public expenditure from the necessary
fixed assets for health and education, as there is less chance of getting commissions than
from other, perhaps unnecessary projects.

 Corruption reduces the effectiveness of public investments and the infrastructure of a

country.

 Corruption can reduce tax revenues by compromising the ability of the state
administration to collect tax and fees.

5. COMMUNAL VIOLENCE

Communal violence involves people belonging to two different religious communities mobilized
against each other and carrying the feelings of hostility, emotional fury, exploitation, social
discrimination and social neglect. The high degree of cohesion in one community against another
is built around tension and polarization. The targets of attack are the members of the ‘enemy’
community. Generally, there is no leadership in communal riots which could effectively control
and contain the riot situation. It could thus be said that communal violence is based mainly on
hatred, enmity and revenge.

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Communal violence has increased quantitatively and qualitatively ever since politics came to be
communalized. Gandhi was its first victim followed by the murder of many persons in the 1970s
and the 1980s. Following destruction of Babri structure in Ayodhya in December 1992, and
bomb blasts in Bombay in early 1993, communal riots in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Uttar
Pradesh and Kerala have considerably increased.

FEATURES OF COMMUNAL RIOTS:

(1) Communal riots are more politically motivated than fueled by religion. Even the Madan
Commission which looked into communal disturbances in Maharashtra in May 1970 had
emphasized that “the architects and builders of communal tensions are the communalists and a
certain class of politicians—those all-India and local leaders out to seize every opportunity to
strengthen their political positions, enhance their prestige and enrich their public image by giving
a communal color to every incident.

(2) Besides political interests, economic interests to play a vigorous part in fomenting communal
clashes.

(3) Communal riots seem to be more common in North India than in South and East India.

(4) The possibility of recurrence of communal riots in a town where communal riots have
already taken place once or twice is stronger than in a town in which riots have never occurred.

(5) Most communal riots take place on the occasion of religious festivals.

CAUSES OF COMMUNAL RIOTS

Different scholars have approached the problem of communal violence with different
perspectives, attributing different causes and suggesting different measures to counter it. The
Marxist school relates communalism to economic deprivation and to the class struggle between
the haves and the have-not’s to secure a monopoly control of the market forces. Political
scientists view it as a power struggle. Sociologists see it as a phenomenon of social tensions and
relative deprivations. The religious experts perceive it as a diadem of violent fundamentalists and
conformists. 10

Is religion responsible for communalism? There are intellectuals who do not believe that religion

10 Available at www.wikipedia.com/major social problems, Last visited on (23-03-2020)

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has any role to play in it. Bipa0n Chandra (1984), for example, holds that communalism is
neither inspired by religion nor is religion an object of communal politics, even though the
communalist bases his politics on religious differences, uses religious identity as an organizing
principle, and in the mass phases of communalism uses religion to mobilize masses.

CONCLUSION

In such a cases, it may be concluded that social issues are problems which affect the individuals
live. In our lives social issues exist in all forms in all societies. Poverty, population, pollution,
Illiteracy, Corruption, Inequality, Terrorism, Unemployment, Black money, Communal violence
are the major social problem in India faced by its citizen. A social problem in general is the
condition which is not ideal and disrupts the balance of a society .Poverty is one of the foremost
social problems facing India. The main cause of poverty is the personal ownership and monopoly
of the individual on the land. The effects of poverty are serious. Second major problem is
illiteracy. Illiteracy is a great hurdle for the economic development of India. Third socially faced
problem is unemployment. Unemployment occurs when a person who is actively searching for
employment is unable to find work. Unemployment affects not just the person himself but also
her family and in the long run society where he lives. Fourth major social problem is corruption.
Corruption increases the volume of public investment, as there are many options that allow for
public expenditure manipulation and are carried out by high level officials so as to get bribes.
And lastly the most important and the one which needs to be get rid of is communal violence.
Communal violence involves people belonging to two different religious communities mobilized
against each other and carrying the feelings of hostility, emotional fury, exploitation etc. Hence
India is facing a major social problem since decades which needs to be eliminated from the
society for the welfare of its citizens.

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