The Impact Of Caste System On People’s Daily Lives

Many people from different countries have asked the same problem, “Is the caste system still existing nowadays?”. To answer this question, a journalist from Buzzorange asked five Indian friends in 2017. In terms of law, the caste system was abolished more than 60 years and the Indian friends mentioned that they would not discriminate people from any occupation and family. However, from the real lives they told the journalist, we can know that the caste system is still affecting their daily lives. Decades of beliefs are difficult to change at a moment. One of the friends of the journalist came from high-casted family, the Brahman, he emphasized that he would not discriminate the people from lower castes. However, look through his friendzone, the non-Brahman were very few. Moreover, as he was from the Brahman family, people around are having high expectations on him, as the Brahman symbolizes intelligence and cleverness. His parent would expect him to be a engineer and he thought the same. These indicate the symbol and image of the caste system are still affecting nowadays Indian youngsters’ thought. In addition, refer to an article in the News Lens, another journalist interviewed an Indian hotel manager, who had lived in Japan and Korea before. The hotel manager told the journalist that in Indians’ views, the rules are stated, but their religion had always been stronger than the rules. The tradition of the caste system in India had been for thousands of years, and it seated deeply in Indians’ hearts and is still generally affecting the lives of ordinary people. Not only the Hinduism is doing the division in mind, but also some Muslims and Christians, especially those living in rural areas. He also mentioned that as the government wanted to distribute the benefits and help to the lower castes to make sure they were having enough resources.

However, if the caste system was abolished, they could not identify which group needs the help from the government. Because of this, the government came up with another way. They divided the society into four new classes, the Forward Caste, the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and Other Backward Class. The Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and Other Backward Class include the former Dalits and some of the lower castes in the past. The government decided to give the Backward class much more benefits to help them improve their lives, including some reserved seats in universities to make sure they can climb up the social ladder. However, this action implied another symbolization the lower castes Indians. Meanwhile, to solve this problem, some economists advised the government to use the economic situation of the Indians to decide who needs help, instead of dividing and symbolizing the people into another caste system. In short, in terms of law, the caste system was abolished for decades. However, in Indians’ views, the government and the commoners are still adopting the caste system in their mind. Discrimination is still occurring. The caste system is affecting the lives of the Indian youngster, like the Brahman teenager mentioned above, he knew that he was bearing the responsibility of the Brahman family, he must be an engineer, which is the best occupation in Indians’ eyes, and always be intelligent. The caste system affects the society, economy and education in India nowadays.