NCERT Solutions Class 8 Social Sciend Civics Chapter 7 - Understanding Marginalization

 I agree that economic marginalisation and social marginalisation are interlinked because:

i. Marginalised communities face social discrimination and are denied access to necessary resources to improve their quality of life. Access to clean water, education, health services, and respectable employment are a few of such services. Hence, their social marginalisation leads to their economic marginalisation.

ii. The lack of education and health services leads to the lack of skills acquired by members of the marginalised community. Due to the absence of skills, the marginalised group could never develop and stayed stuck in the web of social discrimination.

Marginalisation refers to being pushed out of the mainstream to the margins of the society as insignificant. Experiences of marginalisation are connected to adversity, discrimination, poverty, caste and helplessness. The marginalised person or the community are kept away from basic and essential services like education, health services, clean drinking water to keep them marginalised. The following are some of the basis upon which marginalisation occurs.:

i. On the basis of caste

ii. On the basis of class

iii. On the basis of gender

iv. On the basis of race

v. On the basis of religion.

The marginalised person or the community are kept away from basic and essential services like education, health services, and clean drinking water to keep them marginalised. The term ‘Adivasis’ means the original inhabitants. These are the communities that are or have been in close association with the forests. However, with time, adivasis are becoming increasingly marginalised. One of the reasons is their distinct culture. The cultural practices of adivasis are different from the mainstream religions. The prevalent stereotyped belief that they are reluctant to accept progressive ideas, led to their marginalisation. The second reason is the increasing cutting down of trees, which has forced them to shift to urban settings. The feeling of alienation from the new environment due to their different lifestyles and prejudiced attitudes towards them, has led to their marginalisation.

Since the majority communities have more representation, there can be a greater impact of the majority culture on socio-political actions. This is the reason why the Indian Constitution acknowledged the need to protect minorities against discrimination and marginalisation. Another reason is to ensure cultural diversity, equality and justice for all.

The term "minorities" refers to communities with a lesser population than those with a larger population. Muslims, for example, make up around 13.4% of India's population and are considered a minority community. Some other minority communities are Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists.

If I will be supporting the statement that ‘Muslims are a marginalised community’ in a debate. Following would be my reasons:

i. According to the census 2011, Muslims make up only 14.2 per cent of the Indian population which leads to their lesser representation. Hence, which makes it a religious minority.

ii. Access to basic amenities is much less in the case of Muslims. Access to tap water is 43.7 percent in the case of the majority religious group, Hindus, whereas, in the case of Muslims, it is 35.8 percent.

Following are the three things that I will say to my friend in this situation:

i. Adivasis have a rich and distinct culture. The lack of knowledge by the mainstream society of the traditions and cultural activities of the adivasis gave birth to stereotyped opinions towards them.

ii. There is an interdependent relationship between adivasis and the forest. Hence, due to the cutting of forests, they have lost their homelands and have been forced to adjust to new lifestyles.

iii. Often, the representation of tribal communities in the media is unrealistic and dramatic, which ends up inflating the stereotypes.

Helen may find the following story useful. 

There used to be an adivasi community living their life freely in the forest. They take care of the forest and in return the forest provides them with all the necessary resources. One day, the government decided to start a ‘Development Project’ and ‘modernize’ the lives of the adivasi community. The people of that community were very happy earlier but soon they realised that they would lose everything they have in return to nothing, in this ‘Development Project’. They protested and tried to raise their voices against the orders but nobody came forward to help them. Eventually goons were sent to beat and threatened the adivasi people to leave their land. The story ends with the adivasi family who used to have everything, now have nothing and are crushed under the stress and betrayal by the people in power.