It’s been 73 years since India gained independence. Have we as a nation achieved as much as we should have in all these years?
If we look at the news, we are far from being a fair society. There are still some basic hurdles we face on a daily basis in society. These are issues that need us to broaden our minds and recognise what is holding us back as a society.
It is 2019, people. It is high time we change ourselves in order to become a progressive society. Here are some issues we're still dealing with:
1. Gender pay gap.
It is 2019 and there are women working in the same position as men without knowing that they are being paid less than their male counterparts. According to the latest Monster Salary Index (MSI), the current gender pay gap in India stood at 19%.
2. Discrimination on the basis of caste.
There is no need to discuss stats in order to prove how rampant caste discrimination is in India. In the age of advancing technology, this kind of issue only takes us back centuries.
3. Homophobia.
With the decriminalisation of Article 377, our country proved to be moving in the right direction. However, the change will only come when we start accepting people from the LGBTQ community as they should be accepted because they have as much a right to be here as us.
4. Basic sanitation.
Even after a number of awareness campaigns, we can still easily throw stuff out on the streets like it is no big deal. 65 per cent of rural India still does not have access to sanitation. In urban India, this number is 12 per cent.
5. Lack of women's safety.
Every third story in the newspaper is about a woman getting raped. Who is to blame here? Is our country really growing if our daughters and sisters are having to constantly worry about their safety?
6. Unemployment
India's unemployment rate in the month of October jumped to 8.5 per cent, which is the highest in over three years.
7. Religious intolerance.
People are getting lynched and murdered solely because of their faith. Here a small allegation can mean a victim dies at the hands of a mob that blindly believes he or she was wrong.