The Indian girl-child: Fighting for survival in a hostile environment

Religion, in conjunction with economic and other socio-cultural factors, contributes to the degradation of women in the society. Rampant materialism and, now, consumerism, has introduced the practice of dowry even into those communities and castes where it never was a custom. This has made female feticide all the more desirable in the eyes of our patriarchal society as it makes economic sense to individual families. Therefore, female feticide is being practiced as much among the poorer sections of the society as in the upper crust. Even educated and so-called emancipated women are going in for abortions in order to do away with girl-child and have sons only.

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 Upbeat about India!

This Republic Day, some famous young achievers speak out their minds on Brand India...

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 Of sports and Haryana's cultural evolution

Sports, more specifically the Commonwealth Games, have ushered in an era of modernization in Haryana's extremely conservative society. Can this be a template for change in other conservative societies, too?

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 Reconciling traditional ethos with the demands of modernization

Haryanvis have exhibited admirable dynamism while adapting to ultramodern technological progress – including gadgets and techniques in the fields of agriculture, industry as well as services sector. But the social trends present a picture of contradictions.

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 Affirmative Actions in Haryana: A Perspective

No matter how good the schemes look on paper there is a need for independent evaluation of their implementation and validation of the results on the ground of such schemes.

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 Affirmative Action: will it deliver the right results?

One of the tragedies of modern India is that most of the well-intentioned measures taken for the public good either fail to take off or somehow get distorted and misused, as tellingly illustrated by the reservation policy.

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 Reflections on the occasion of I Day anniversary

Yet one more Independence Day is being celebrated. India’s tryst with destiny has had to negotiate bumpy roads, detours, roadblocks and various other hazards to enter the present comparatively fruitful phase. Today, India is looked upon as an economic success story with military muscle to protect its interests...

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 Realising the Indian Dream

Aware of the extremely complex social stratification in India, the makers of our constitution made every effort to give it a cast-iron secular character... Identity is essential to an individual for various socio-psychological reasons. But it's not a static concept; it changes as one evolves. Today the traditional caste structure has become irrelevant to the vocation one chooses.

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 Women in the armed forces

Every year we celebrate the Navratras, commemorating Goddess Durga’s victory over various demons - especially Mahishasura. So, we have mythological as well as real life examples and precedents regarding women soldiers and generals in our society.

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 Let temples play a secular role

In the ancient times education was given prime importance in our society. Then it used to form a vital and vibrant part of our socio-cultural superstructure. Shruti (listening) and Smriti (memory) were essential ingredients of the educational set up.

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 Pluralism in India: factoring in the Caste

India's is a stratified society. This stratification is so complex that we need a different terminology for it. Stratification conjures up layers upon layers of social distribution. In fact, the divisions in our society are horizontal as well as vertical.

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 The Disabled Society

The world of the disabled is lonely, cold and desolate... where one has to grit one's teeth and struggle for survival while putting up with indignities which are beyond the able people's comprehension.

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