Indian Social Structure

The caste system is a traditional feature of Indian social organization. It is categorized as part of the social structure rather than the political or urban structure.

The social groups most vulnerable to poverty have been identified to be the scheduled caste households and the scheduled tribe households with both these groups having above average levels of poverty indicators in the rural and the urban population.

Among the economic groups, the most vulnerable groups are the agricultural labour households (rural) and the casual labour households (urban) each having the highest levels.

Adivasis – the term literally means ‘original inhabitants’ – are communities who lived, and often continue to live, in close association with forests. Around 8 per cent of India’s population is Adivasi.

Adivasi societies are particularly prominent in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and some north-eastern states, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Many smaller tribal groups are quite sensitive to ecological degradation caused by modernisation.

Scheduled Tribes are also known as Adivasis. These are the designated group of people who are disadvantaged indigenous people in India. Scheduled Tribes comprise about  8.6 percent of India’s population. 

Losing their lands and access to the forest means that tribal lose their main sources of livelihood and food. Having gradually lost access to their traditional homelands, many Adivasis have migrated to cities in search of work where they are employed for very low wages in local industries or at building or construction sites. They, thus, get caught in a cycle of poverty and deprivation. 45 per cent of tribal groups in rural areas and 35 per cent in urban areas live below the poverty line. This leads to deprivation in other areas. Many tribal children are malnourished. Literacy rates among tribal are also very low.

Adivasis are termed as scheduled tribes but it is legal and constitutional term, which differs from state to state and area to area and therefore excludes some groups who might be considered indigenous.

Scheduled caste and schedule tribe are not same. Schedule caste people are the one who are previously untouchables. where as the scheduled tribes are community of people who lived in tribal areas.

In India, historical and social factors have made Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) the most vulnerable groups to poverty, often due to systemic exclusion and lack of access to resources.

Discrimination and differences are found among different caste , sex, religion etc but the base for this difference is created  by birth.

According to social law, all are equal before the law irrespective of rich, poor, male, female, black, white, upper caste or lower caste. The Constitution does not give the right to discriminate anyone on basis of the language they speak, the color of their skin, the religion they follow, the culture they have and the caste they belong to.

Unlike in plain villages, tribal people don't have the notion of private property in land.

Yerukula tribes makes baskets in Andhra Pradesh,

Type of family that is prevalent in India from historical times is joint family. It is an extended and undivided family. It consists of many generations living in the same household, all from the same relation.

In India though people live in different places, their duties towards the parents is obliged. In spite of the busy and costly way of living in present day word, social duties towards parents in their old age is fulfilled by the children.

Sati is one of the social evils of Indian society present in olden days. It is a Hindu funeral custom where a widow immolates herself on her husband's pyre or commits suicide. Raja Ram Mohan Roy, the founder of Brahmo Samaj, worked for abolishing Sati.