Regardless of any competitive exam, aspirants must know about the social issues or social problems in India that we are facing today. In KAS and PSI you will be asked to write an essay based on the social issues in India. You might need some data regarding the social problems of India, in this blog you will get to know about some major Indian social problems like Poverty and Corruption. If you are preparing for KAS, PSI, KPTCL or Karnataka Police Constable, to help you fulfill your passion Oliveboard has mock tests for each exam. You can visit our Karnataka Exam Section website for more information.
Social Problems or Issues
Conditions or behaviors that adversely affect a large number of people are known as social problems. These may need immediate attention or these conditions may need to be addressed.
Over a period of time each era faced many social problems, likely racism, exploitation of laborers. If concentrated only on Indian social problems child marriage, Sati System, female infanticide, discrimination over caste and economic status. Some of these issues may have been eradicated by some great social reformers; there is still some evidence where these social issues are still there. But there are still some social issues which have existed for many years and they still exist. Social issues like corruption and Exploitation of women.
Poverty
Poverty is one of the oldest social issues in India. The history of poverty estimation in India dates back to as early as 1901 when Dadabhai Naoroji estimated poverty in the country based on the cost of a subsistence diet.
Poverty may have been the major social issue in India earlier but the current situation is not as worse as it was. According to the Brookings report India is not included in the extreme poor category. The rate of extreme poverty is 7% and every minute 0.6% of Indians are escaping from extreme poverty in India as shown in the real time statistics of World Poverty Clock. India’s world’s fastest growing economy with 11.5% growth rate. India was the only country to register a double-digit growth in 2021 amid Covid Crisis. According to the CMIE report nearly 7 million people lost their jobs due to the pandemic and the poverty is expected to rise in the coming days. Lets see the chart of India’s poverty rate since independence
During the Pre-Independence era famine killed millions of people. The Bengal Famine 1943 killed so many people that the villages of Bengal, Odisha, Eastern Uttar-Pradesh and Jharkhand were wiped out.
This data reflects the poverty alleviation programs were must and the attention was required to eradicate poverty as a social issue in India.
The Statistical report of the Poverty in 2021 according to the MPI
The global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) is an international measure of acute multidimensional poverty covering over 100 developing countries. It complements traditional monetary poverty measures by capturing the acute deprivations in health, education, and living standards that a person faces simultaneously.
According to the report of MPI of India 2021
The Poorest states of India are
| State | Population classified as poor (%) |
| Bihar | 59.91% |
| Jharkhand | 42.16% |
| Uttar Pradesh | 37.79% |
| Madhya Pradesh | 36.65% |
The Social Problem of India, Poverty is at least 0.71% at Kerala making it the lowest poverty state in the country. The capital of Kerala, Kottayum is the only city in India which is poverty free. Karnataka’s poverty population is 13.16%.
The Government of India has launched various poverty alleviation schemes to address this Indian social problem of poverty in rural areas and to ensure rural development. As written in the borgen project by Anandita Bardia the 4 poverty alleviation programs are,
- National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) – was launched in 2011 by the Ministry of Rural Development and aided by the World Bank. NRLM aims to create an efficient and effective system for the rural poor to access financial services.
- The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (MNREGA). To ensure the security and livelihood of people in rural areas, this act guarantees a minimum of 100 days of wage employment.
- Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G). Due to the gaps in the earlier scheme for rural housing, titled Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY) — it was restructured in 2016 to PMAY-G. Through this scheme, the government commits to realizing housing for all, by 2022.
- Public Distribution System (PDS) aims to manage food scarcity and distribute essential food commodities at affordable prices.
Corruption in India
As defined by the Oxford Corruption means dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery. The Corruption in India social issue of India has been there since it was formed. Corruption is a major issue all over the World. According to the corruption index India stands at 40 and Ranks at 86 all over the world. In 2015 India ranked to its lowest at 76. Corruption has been the major Social issue of India
The Countries with least corruption are
- Denmark
- New Zealand
- Finland
- Singapore
- Sweden
Most Corrupt Countries are
- Syria
- Somalia
- South-sudan
State Wise Indicator of Corruption in India according to the Indian Corruption Survey 2019 the percentage of people admitting paying bribe are
States with 60% and above Population
Rajasthan
Punjab
Uttar Pradesh
Bihar
Jharkhand
Karnataka
Telangana
Tamil Nadu
States with 50-59% and above Population
Maharashtra
Madhya Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh
Chhattisgarh
Uttarakhand
States with below 49% and above Population
Kerala
Goa
Odisha
West-Bengal
Gujarat
Delhi
Haryana
Survey was not conducted in the states of
Jammu Kashmir
Himachal Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh
Sikkim
Meghalaya
Assam
Tripura
Nagaland
Mizoram
Corruption Control
To control this social issue of India, the government has taken its commitment to control corruption in India. According to the post of PIB Delhi as of Feb 2021,
Government of India, in pursuance of its commitment to “Zero Tolerance Against Corruption” has taken several measures to combat corruption which, inter alia, include:
- Systemic improvements and reforms to provide transparent citizen-friendly services and reduce corruption. These, inter alia, include:
- Disbursement of welfare benefits directly to the citizens under various schemes of the Government in a transparent manner through the Direct Benefit Transfer initiative.
- Implementation of E-tendering in public procurements.
- Introduction of e-Governance and simplification of procedure and systems.
- Introduction of Government procurement through the Government e- Marketplace (GeM).
- Discontinuation of interviews in recruitment of Group ‘B’ (Non-Gazetted) and Group ‘C’ posts in Government of India.
- Invocation of FR-56 (j) and AIS (DCRB) Rules, 1958 for retiring officials from service in public interest whose performance has been reviewed and found unsatisfactory.
- The All India Services (Disciplinary and Appeal) Rules and Central Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules have been amended to provide for specific timelines in the procedure related to disciplinary proceedings.
- The Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 has been amended on 26.07.2018. It clearly criminalizes the act of giving bribes and will help check big ticket corruption by creating a vicarious liability in respect of senior management of commercial organizations.
- Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), through various orders and circulars recommended adoption of Integrity Pact to all the organizations in major procurement activities and to ensure effective and expeditious investigation wherever any irregularity / misconduct is noticed.
- The institution of Lokpal has been operationalized by appointment of Chairperson and Members. Lokpal is statutorily mandated to directly receive and process complaints as regards alleged offenses against public servants under the Prevention of Corruption Act,1988.