Social Division in Modern India

While it is an undeniable fact that Information Technology has improved the standard of living of urban India a lot, at the same time it also has to be observed that it is creating a wider social division in terms of financial power across the society.

There are three major divisions in the Indian Society with unequal wealth distribution.
The upper class, the middle class and the lower class.

The social division prior to the arrival of Information Technology was as follows:

The upper class people had access to all kinds of luxuries in life and they included industrialists, politicians, top bureacrats etc. But they formed a very small percentage of the population.

The middle class people had access to all basic necessities of life and they included regular salaried employees and formed the second major chunk of the population after the lower class people.

The lower class people did not even have access to the basic necessities of life and they included all those unemployed and under employed people living below the poverty line. They formed a major chunk of the society.

Come IT. A new class called upper-middle class has been created and this includes Salaried IT professionals. Their salaries being much higher than those of middle class people (who are basically employed in non-IT sectors), the upper middle class has access to many of the luxuries in life.

The issue here is that the social division in terms of unequal wealth distribution has been constantly increasing and while there is no way that IT can be blamed for this, adequate steps should be taken to bridge the gap between the above mentioned sections of the society to prevent a social collapse of the society structure.

One can make out the differences in the society by having a journey through rural UP and Bihar AND Bangalore and Pune.

It is always in the best interests of a society to ensure that the monetary difference between least paid and most paid employees is as small as possible throughout all sectors to ensure an overall growth of the society. Because when there is not much of a salary difference amongst different sectors, the youth will be able to opt for a job which he is good at and interested in than going for the one that pays him most.

A person interested in painting need not become a software engineer and give up his passion just because he cannot earn more by painting. A person good at running should become an athlete and not be forced to study medicine just because the parents have money for a payment seat. The social division has already made us lose great talents by forcing them into a job which they like only because of the monetary returns.

The onus lies with both, the parents and the administration. Parents should encourage their children to become not what the parents want, but what the children are really good at. It is the responsibilty of the parents to identify their children’s skillset and talents and nurture the same in the right direction. It is the responsibility of the administration to ensure that the children get a good financial backbone in pursuing their interests.

Until this happens, there is no way we can dream about topping the medals tally in olympics or bagging nobel prizes. Creative minds are to be set free from having to worry about the next meal.

Download HitXP Mobile App