The depth of taboo: Social issues in South Asia

Description

With diverse culture comes a plethora of problems craftedas social, economic, and political issues that need to be strategically dealt with. We are looking at a large chunk of the Asian continent that houses almost 2 billion people where some sectors of the society face atrocities at personal, communal, societal, and national level. These issues peculiar to the South Asian part of the world arise from notions of superiority and inferiority reflected indifferential factors like caste, colour, creed, sex, and religion.

Despite living in the 21^st century, backward practices like enslavement of some people by others, honour killings, rape, accusation of practicing witchcraft, and taboos associated with menstruation are still borne every day by the vulnerable marginalised groups. These iniquities result from traditional conceptions of domination by the powerful of the weak. This is reflected in rape, where power play leads to men deeming it a birth right to have access to women and in the caste system where the higher castes dominate the lower castes as a norm. Similarly, the idea of pride and prestige result in honour killings of people. Patriarchy, bigotry, and misogyny more often than not influences and determines how people perceive and respond to these issues.

A lot of these issues are systemic, interwoven, and contingent on each other. People in these societies are aware fully about the existence of these problems, acknowledge them, and also pledge to change it but that never materialises. It takes a lot of effort to break free of the restraints that have been in place for generations.

Deeply embedded in the social hierarchy exists a suffocating oppression borne by the minority who are the direct victims. Even stringent laws fail to curb these issuesbecause of how deeply culture is rooted within the system. As a result, as the rest of the world progresses towards newer developments millions in South Asia plea inaudibly for rescue from these vices that are so firmly sown in the system. This anthology covers few such issues that demand expeditious radical change for the larger good.