Chapter 2: Diversity and Discrimination

Intext Questions:

Question 1. Below are some statements on people living in rural and urban areas. Tick talk to those that you agree with.

Answer:On Rural people

1. More than 50% of all Indians live in the villages.
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2. Villagers do not care about their health. They are full of superstitions.
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3. People in the villages are backward and lazy. They do not like to work.
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4. In peak harvesting and plantation season, families spend 12 to 14 hours working in the fields.
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5. Villagers are dirty and not hygienic.
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On Urban people

1. Life in the city is easy. People here are spoilt and lazy.
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2. In cities families spend very’ little time with each other.
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3. People in towns only care about money, not about people.
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4. Living in a city is expensive. A large part of popple’s earnings is spent on rent and transport.
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5. City people cannot be trusted, they are cunning and corrupt.
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Question 2. Look again at the statements that you believed to be true about rural and urban life in India. Do you have a prejudice against rural or urban people? Find out if this is shared by others and discuss the reasons why people have these prejudices?

Answer:

1. More than 50 percent of all Indians live in villages.

   It is not a prejudice but the government has given figures which show more than 50 percent of Indians live in the villages.

2. Villagers do not care about their health. They are full of superstitions.

   Villagers care about their health. They go to the health centers if they are sick and take the medicines given to them.

3. In peak harvesting and plantation seasons, families spend 12 to 14 hours in the fields.

   It is true and not prejudice. They have to harvest the crops and store them in godowns. They also have to sow their fields. It requires a lot of work.

4. Villagers are dirty and not hygienic.

   It is not a prejudice. It is true because:

   1. Most of the villagers work in the fields from morning till evening and get dirty.
   2. The water is not available. They are not dirty but the kind of work that they do make them dirty.

5. Living in the city is expensive. A large part of people’s earnings is spent on rent and transport.

   It is true that people have to rent a house at exorbitant rates. They travel long distances to reach their place of work. People have prejudices because they think negatively and do not care about the opinions of others. They have fixed notions and views.

Question 3. Can you list some of the prejudices that you have noticed around you? How do they affect the ways in which people treat each other?

Answer:Some of the prejudices are :

1. English is the best language.
2. A child can get the best education in a public school.
3. The parents take pride if their minor sons can drive a vehicle, like a car or a two-wheeler.

1. We believe that English is the best language and other languages are not important. We are judging other languages negatively. As a result, we may not respect people who speak languages other than English.
2. People think that a child can get the best education in public schools. We tend to treat children who go to Government or Government aided schools as uneducated, not getting a standard education, and children of both categories of schools will not mix.
3. The parents take pride if their minor sons can drive a vehicle. They however never think about the consequences. The child may meet with an accident or he can be taken to the police station.

Question 4. Arrange the statements given below in these two sections, according to what you think is appropriate for the section.

Answer:

Question 5. Now check, with your teacher’s help, who has put which statement where. Find out and discuss people’s reasons for doing this. Are the qualities you put in for boys something that boys are born with?

Answer:They are not born with these qualities but they are constantly hearing them, so these ideas become fixed in their mind.

Question 6. Discuss what these children are saying about stereotypes regarding them and why?

Answer:The children are saying:

1. ‘People say all sort of things because the child is lumping. This makes them sad and sore. The children are saying all sorts of things about stereotypes because they cannot walk or run like them.
2. ‘You look so different,’ The child is in a wheelchair and is not a normal boy, he cannot walk and run or play with the others They want to find out more about his feelings to help him.
3. “Is her mind okay?” The child is wobbly while walking, It is their curiosity to know if her mind is normal and can study and work as a normal child.

Question 7. Do you think children with special needs should be a part of regular schools or study in a separate school? Give reasons for your answers.

Answer:The children with special needs should study in a separate school because:

1. They may be sad and pathetic when they see normal children playing and shouting. It hurts their sentiments.
2. The students in higher classes, very often have their classrooms for going to the science lab or the computer. It becomes difficult for them to do so.
3. They cannot take part in school functions as the cultural program or sports.

Question 8. ‘They are soft and gentle or They are well behaved’, discuss how these are applied to girls. Do girls possess these qualities ‘they are soft and gentle, they are well behaved’ at birth, or do they learn such behaviour from others? What do you think about girls who are not soft and gentle and those who are naughty?

Answer:The girls are soft and gentle by nature. They are taught good behaviour, manners, and etiquette by their parents and others. All people are not the same; the nature of a person is different. Some are quiet and gentle and others are naughty.

Question 9. What is the difference between discrimination and stereotype?

Answer:Stereotype: When we fix people into one image we create a stereotype. When people say that those who belong to a particular country, religion, sex, race, or economic background are stingy, lazy, criminal, or dumb they are stereotypes. Just like some people are like that it is not fair to think everyone will be the same.

Discrimination: It happens when people act on their prejudices or stereotypes. If you do something to put other people down if you stop them from taking part in certain activities and taking up jobs or stop them from living in certain neighbourhoods, prevent them from taking water from the same well or hand pump or not allowing them to drink tea in the same cups and glasses as others, you are discriminating against them.

Question 10. How do you think a person who is discriminated against might feel?

Answer:The person who is discriminated against will feel humiliated. He will lose his self-respect. It is a derogatory and inhumane practice and the person does not want to mix with others. He feels neglected.

Question 11. Despite the children offering money, the cartmen refused them. Why?

Answer: Although the children offered money, the cartmen refused to carry them because the children belonged to the Mahar community, which was treated as untouchables in the Bombay Presidency.

Question 12. How did people at the station discriminate against Dr. Ambedkar and his brothers?

Answer:As soon as the station master learned that they belonged to the Mahar community, his face underwent a sudden change. He was overpowered by a feeling of repulsion. He went back to his room. After half an hour the station master returned and asked what they proposed to do.

They proposed to take a bullock cart on hire. However, the people around had also come to know that they belonged to the Mahar community and no one was prepared to suffer being polluted and to demean himself by carrying passengers of untouchable class. The children were prepared to pay double the fare but even money did not work.

Question 13. How do you think Dr. Ambedkar felt as a child when he saw the stationmaster’s reaction to his statement that they were Mahars?

Answer:Dr. Ambedkar was a little boy and he could not understand the meaning of untouchability. His tender heart must have been hurt, when he saw signs of repulsion on the station master’s face. He might have failed to understand why the station master was behaving in such a manner.

Question 14. Have you ever experienced prejudice or witnessed an incident of discrimination? How did this make you feel?

Answer:When I was a little girl, I often say that whenever my grandmother gave food to the sweeper it was thrown from far away. I often felt why this was done. We were never served food in this way. I asked my grandmother and she said since they do dirty work, we should give food in this way only. It hurt my little heart.

Question 15. In addition to the lower castes being discriminated against, there are also various other communities that are subject to discrimination. Can you think of a few other examples of discrimination?

Answer:The people of the lower castes had to face discrimination from society in various ways:

1. Their children could not attend the same school.
2. They were not allowed to draw water from the public wells.
3. They could not enter the temples.
4. People refused to give their houses on rent, to people of lower castes.
5. The boys refused to play with boys of lower castes.

In addition to lower castes, scheduled tribes, women, children, sick and old people, disabled people are discriminated in the society.

Question 16. Discuss the ways in which persons with special needs might be subjected to discrimination.

Answer:Persons with special needs are often getting teased and mocked by the people. They do not get equal opportunities for education and job purposes to compete with the normal persons as there are very less schools for persons with special needs. People with mental disabilities are often treated as MAD people by others.

To get ability to compete with normal people, they should be provided with special facilities in schools, colleges, offices, transport, etc .,.

QUESTIONS

Question 1. Match the following statements in a way that challenges stereotypes.

Answer:

1. Two surgeons were sitting down to lunch when one of them made a call on the mobile phone to speak with her daughter who had just returned from school.
2. The boy who won the drawing competition went to the Dias in a wheelchair to collect his prize.
3. One of the fastest athletes in the world suffers from chronic asthma.
4. She was not that well-off but had a dream to become an astronaut which she did.

Question 2. How can the stereotype people think that girls are a burden on their parents affects the life of a daughter? Imagine this situation and list at least five different effects that this stereotype can have on the way daughters get treated in the home.

Answer:Girls have been treated as a burden since time immemorial. Even today their condition has not changed. Whether it is home or outside, they are not given the due opportunity. The mental set-up of the parents is such that it never accepts the birth of a daughter wholeheartedly. As a result girls’ life is badly affected. Here is a list of five different effects that this stereotype can have on the way daughters get treated.

• Girls would feel discouraged and they would not concentrate on their studies.
• All their dreams to achieve separate identities in society would be shattered.
• Sometimes girls are not allowed to join any school or college. These ruthless attitudes of the parents towards their daughters ruin their career. They feel helpless even in their parents’ house.
• Even marriage does not bring fortune to the girls all the time. Some in-laws prove themselves good by giving proper treatment to newly married girls. But most of the time we find that they are ill-treated in their in-laws’ house. They are subject to exploitation.

Question 3. What does the Constitution say with regard to equality? Why do you think it is important for all people to be equal?

Answer:

• The constitution says the following with regard to equality.
  “EQUALITY of status and of opportunities;
  and to promote among them all.”
• It is important for all people to be equal so that all people are not discriminated against one. Society becomes casteless, there is no place for inequality.

Question 4. Sometimes people make prejudiced comments in our presence. We are often not in a position to do anything about this because it is difficult to say something right then and there. Divide the class into groups and each group discusses what they can do in such a situation

Answer:The class is divided into three groups :

1. A friend begins to tease a classmate because he is poor.

   Group A	Group B	Group C
   If a person is teased in a situation which he cannot change or is out of his control, it hurts the feeling of that person.	Although, the classmate is poor, but he is very hardworking, regular in his work. Instead of teasing, we should try to help him whenever possible. We will not let anyone make fun of him.	Inspite of adverse circumstances, the classmate always stand first in the class. We, who enjoy all the facilities cannot come upto his standards in studies. We promises to help him.

2. You are watching T.V. with your family and one of them makes a prejudicial comment about a particular religious community.

   Group A	Group B	Group C
   All religious are same. They have the same basic teachings. We have not right to make comments about any religion. We will make him reason. What he did was wrong?	We must respect and tolerate all religion. It is right that we do not have to follow that religion. All religions are above class prejudice. We will ask him what would happen if others made remarks about his religion.	Our constitution gives freedom of religion to everyone comments may sometimes lead to communal riots and and blood shed. It is a very soft issue Think before making any remarks.

3. Children in your class refuse to share food with a particular person because they think she is dirty.

   Group A	Group B	Group C
   We will make that person aware that cleanliness is very essential and one should wash his/her hand before and after taking food.	Personal hygiene is very essential. One should bathe and change clothes everyday. Observe basic rules of cleanliness and everyone will be friends with you.	We will ask that person that doesn't he/she feel hurt when no one wants to share food him/her. A person cannot stay aloof. He has to mix with others and observe certain norms laid down by the others in your class/school.

4. Someone tells you a joke that makes fun of a community because of their accent.

   Group A	Group B	Group C
   Accent and pronunciation vary form place to place. It is wrong to make fun of others. How can you say that your accent is corrrect. So, we should not make fun of others.	A person should speak the language correctly. English is spoken by nearly half the world population and the accent is different in each country.	Accept the person he/she may have learnt to speak in that accent from the beginning. His parents may have taught him in such a manner. He thinks his accent is correct.

5. Some boys make remarks about girls not being able to play games as well as them.

   Group A	Group B	Group C
   The difference between boys and girls is god given. Physically they are not as tall and strong as boys.	It is god given that girls do have the same energy and stamina as the boys. So, it is natural that we cannot make any comparisons.	In all international games competitions are held between girls in all the sports or their are mixed games. One can excel in their class and not against the boys/men. So, making unnecessary remarks is wrong.