Why it is in news?

• A new survey on social attitudes in the country indicates that close to two-thirds of the population in rural Rajasthan and rural Uttar Pradesh still practice untouchability.
• Also  almost half the population in the same area is also opposed to Dalit and non-Dalit Hindu inter-marriages.
• Despite decades-old-laws criminalising untouchability, it appears to be practised more by women as close to two-thirds of women respondents have confessed to “self or family member” practising untouchability in rural Rajasthan (66 per cent) and rural Uttar Pradesh (64 per cent).
• According to the survey, 50 per cent of respondents in urban Rajasthan admitted to practising untouchability as did 48 per cent of respondents in urban UP and even 39 per cent of Delhi.

Survey highlights

• The survey, Social Attitude Research, India (SARI), which was conducted through representative phone surveys in 2016 in Delhi, Mumbai, Rajasthan and UP, focusses on discrimination against Dalits and women.
• A total of 8,065 people (men and women) were interviewed for the survey.
• Conducted by the University of Texas, the Research Institute for Compassionate Economics, and Jawaharlal Nehru University
• The survey sheds light on “explicit prejudice” and reveals attitudes that have been hard to grapple with.
• On Dalits and non-Dalit Hindus and inter-marriages, the range of responses, according to the survey, vary between 60 per cent in rural Rajasthan and 40 per cent in UP, being opposed to inter-caste marriages.
• The respondents also favoured a law which would prohibit inter-caste marriages.
• India’s Special Marriage Act in 1954 made inter-caste and inter-faith marriages legal, and the idea that there would be a civil marriage recognised by the state allowing inter-caste unions, was meant to deal a death blow to the caste system (held up essentially by endogamy).
• The survey also has results on significant attitudes towards women.
• Nearly half the persons interviewed disapproved of women working outside homes, indicating that social stigma for working women is still high.
• (Female participation in the labour force at 27 per cent by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) placed India at a rank lower than 170 among 188 countries).
• On eating last at home, 60 per cent of women in rural UP say they eat at the end, and about one-third in Delhi reported the same — this has implications on the health of women and low body weight.

Source

Indian express