Tous les citoyens sont-ils sur un pied d'égalité dans l'Inde moderne? (document en anglais)

Since the end of the XX century India has been one of the most powerfull countries on the world, but are all citizens on an equal footing in modern-day India ?

First of all I am going to talk about the caste system in India and we are going to see how the Dalits use microcredits .

Then we are going to see that India is an increasingly male dominating country.

Firstly the caste system in India developed more thant 3,000 years ago when the Hindu priests divided the society into four great hereditary social classes, wich still survive today. The Brahman caste is the highest. At the other end of the social ladder, The Dalits are outcastes. No one can change the caste into wich they are born or marry someone belonging to another caste. Moreover Dalits are only allowed certain jobs such as cleaners, cobblers..

If Discrimination against Dalist has largely dissapeared in urban areas, it still exists in rural areas where they are obliged to use specific eating places, schools and water sources. They are 170 million Dalits in India today and less than a third are literate, well over 40 percent survive on less than 2$ a day…

The concept of microfinance was developed in India to enable poor people to fight their life out of poverty. But people who use microcredit can’t repay and they get into debt. Very often because of a law salary a life is not enough to repay loans.

Microcredit were supposed to help Dalit to start their own buisness and have control over their life. Actually the loans simply help them to survive from day to day..

Furthermore in India family are eager to have a boy who are finally more attractive than girls. In fact as opposed to girls, sons look after the family name and buisness. Moreover the Dowry tradition also explains why many parents do not want to have daughters. For exemple on the document Another girl a poor family prayed for giving birth to a son who will help them to survive, but the young mother Kavita had a daughter, and they were to poor to pay a dawry in the futur ..Even if finding the sex of a baby is illegal sex selective abortion are practiced. Today there are 830 girls for 1000 boys in India.

It all comes down to the conclusion that India is a country of contrast. On the one hand it become a powerfull country on the march but on the other hand a lot of people fight to survive from day to day and girls are not on an equal footing.

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