INTRODUCTION
Human behavior is conceived of as an outcome of genetic and biochemical characteristics,
past learning experiences, motivational states, psycho-social antecedents, and the
cultural context in which it unfolds[1] Culture plays a complex role in the natural
history and psycho-social development of human behavior[2] comprising of customs,
beliefs, values, knowledge, and skills.[3] Social norms, the shared rules that specify
appropriate and inappropriate behaviors;[4] mores, that people consider vital to their
well-being and to their most cherished values,[5] and sanctions, the socially imposed
rewards and punishments that compel people to comply with norms,[6] constitute important
ingredients of a culture. Orlandi et al. (1992),[2] define culture as shared values,
beliefs, norms, traditions, customs, art, history, folklore, and institutions of a
group of people. A society which is a cohesive group of people shares all the ingredients
of the culture among its members.
The Indian subcontinent has been likened to a deep net into which various races and
people have drifted and been caught in the remote past and their diverse origins have
dictated variety. Geographical conditions of the sub-continent forced these varied
people to stay together in a multiple society imposing on them what has been described
by historians as ‘Unity in Diversity’ having cultural homogeneity.[7]
UNITY IN DIVERSITY OR ETHNIC DIVERSITY
Within the perspective and definition of culture, Indian society as a social group
does not have one culture, because this society consists of several racial, ethnic,
religious, and caste groups that have their own beliefs, customs, values, art, history,
and folklore, and identify with their respective groups.[8] As one social group, therefore,
Indian society has no cultural homogeneity contrary to what historians describe.
The concept of ‘Unity in Diversity,’ which means complete harmony, peace, and adjustment
among different cultural elements arises from a view of accepting the textual position
of the Hindu social system, and explaining as well as justifying the empirical social
reality in terms of the Vedic scriptures,[9] based on a consensus model. The concept
of ’Unity in Diversity’ gives rise to an erroneous understanding of India’s social
reality.
Contrary to ‘Unity in Diversity’ there is ethnic diversity in the Indian society,
leading to the formation of minority groups who differ from majority prototype not
only in terms of numerical strength of their members, but also in their access to
various resources. As the societies are governed by their members, it is obvious that
the majority group will have the maximum say.[6] Therefore, there has been a dialectical
interrelationship between majority social groups who have monopolized the scarce goods
of power and prestige and minorities those who lack these resources. Deprivation plays
an important role in the unfolding of human behavior in Indian society.[8] Ethnic
minorities are most subjected to being at receiving end of social deprivation, particularly
when religious scriptures and social sanctions permit the deprivations.[10]
Deprivation is the consequence of socioeconomic disparity due to the caste-system
that is peculiarly fitted in the Indian society; to hand on cultural patterns and
particular items of the culture. The traditional Hindu society that is compartmentalized
into various caste-groups is a social institution dictating superior and lesser beings
among its members. This system that places the untouchables at the bottom of the caste-pyramid
is one of the obvious institutions of caste-inequality, a system of legalized inequality,
a variant of an ascriptive system of stratification, wherein, the allocation of roles
and status is governed by its own principles, determining the social, economic, political,
and ritualistic structure of individuals in relation to each other.[11]
The essence of the caste is the arrangement of hereditary groups in a hierarchy, as
a necessary corollary the caste confines the individual in the occupation handed down
from father to the son and governed by precise rules regarding the acceptance or rejection
of food or water from the members of the other caste.[12] Caste-system in India has
had its impact on all aspects of life; on the past, present, and future, based on
purity and pollution basis. Birth only determines the individual’s social status throughout
his life[13] and also his access to various resources.
The deprived masses described compendiously as Scheduled castes and Scheduled tribes
in the constitution of India are in fact low castes and tribes in the Hindu social
order, treated as ‘caste-less’, outcastes or untouchables and have been subjected
to deprivation and discrimination for centuries.[14] Historically, they spring from
the aboriginal inhabitants, conquered and enslaved by Aryan invaders.
For the first time in history, untouchables were accorded equal status to other citizens
in the constitution of independent India. With the desire to bring them in step with
the privileged ones, the policy of reservations was introduced, offering them the
advantage of education and jobs.[15] The last 62 years of independence have witnessed
a massive social mobility and transformation as well as the emergence of ’the educated’
among the deprived castes, generally looked down upon with contempt by the larger
society for their mobility on the crutches of reservations.[16] Although untouchability
is outlawed and the caste-system is not overtly practiced, at least in the bigger
cities, there are other ways of isolating and segregating them similar to abolition
of slavery in the USA, where injustice to African-Americans continued until the passing
of the Civil Rights Act.[17] Emergence of the ’educated among the deprived’ and their
journey from traditional defiling occupations to white-collared respectable office
jobs has created an environment, exposing them to various psychological and physical
vulnerabilities causing mental health strains.
HEALTH AS A HUMAN RIGHT
The preamble of the World Health Organization (WHO) succinctly underscores the enjoyment
of the highest standard of health as a fundamental right of every human being. According
to Article 25 of the Universal Declarations of Human Rights, every one has the right
to a standard of living, adequate for the health of himself, including food, clothing,
housing, medical care, and necessary services. Studies reveal that individuals’ poorer
health status, including higher morbidity, lower life expectancy, and higher rates
of infant mortality are linked to their race, ethnicity, and caste. Studies also reveal
that any kind of discrimination rooted in social, including caste or racial origin
affects people’s health in at least three distinct ways: (a) health status, (b) access
to healthcare, and (c) in quality of health services.[18] Health is defined as a state
of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of
disease or infirmity.[19] It is a basic and dynamic force in our daily lives, influenced
by our circumstances, beliefs, and culture, and social, economic, and physical environment.
Health has also been defined in the following words:
Health is a unity and harmony within the mind, body, and spirit, which is unique to
each person. The level of wellness or health is, in part, determined by the ability
to deal with and defend against stress. Health is on a continuum with movements between
a state of optimum well-being and illness. It is determined by physiological, psychological,
socio-cultural, spiritual, and developmental stage variables.[16]
Mental Health is described as an appropriate balance between the individual, his social
group, and the larger environment. These three components combine to promote psychological
and social harmony, a sense of well being, self-actualization, and environmental mastery.[19]
In the Indian context, where social diversity, stratification, reservations, social
mobility, contempt, deprivation, discrimination prejudice, rejection and socio-technological
change are operating in such a complex manner, mental health assumes great significance.
Mental heath is not simply the absence of mental illness, but a positive concept of
displaying an ability to adapt to social and interpersonal relationships and to reach
a harmonious relationship with the society.[10] It is the mental health component
of overall health that gives quality and meaning to our lives.[20] When the individual
is unable to cope with the changes, it not only affects his social role, but also
disturbs the psycho-social homeostasis.[21] As such ethnic minorities are subjected
to mental health strains[10] the subject assumes greater importance when these changes
operate in a diverse and complex manner to influence human behavior in Indian society.
MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES IN DEPRIVED CASTES
Deprivation and psychosocial development
The early developmental process is considered to be largely epigenetic, but the biological
material blossoms only in the psycho-social milieu, which has its influence on the
development.[10] In a study, at the age level of four-to-five years, the performance
scores of privileged and deprived caste children have been similar, but with advancing
age and years of schooling the difference accentuated in favor of the privileged caste
children producing a ‘torch light effect’.[22] A child born in a traditionally deprived-caste,
poor family, suffers from protein-calorie malnutrition, which may retard his intellectual
growth. It is evident from Table 1 that the ‘Children belonging to Scheduled castes,
Scheduled tribes, and Other Backward Castes’ have higher levels of under nutrition
compared to the national average, according to all three measures, namely, (i) weight-for-age,
(ii) height-for-age, and (iii) weight-for-height[23][Table 1].
Table 1
Percentage of three-year-old children classified as undernourished on three anthropometric
indices of nutritional status, India, 1998–1999
Castes/Communities
Weight-for-age % below
Height-for-age % below
Weight-for-height % below
-3 SD
-2 SD
-3 SD
-2 SD
-3 SD
-2 SD
SCs
21.2
53.5
27.5
51.7
3.0
16.0
STs
26.0
55.9
27.6
52.8
4.4
21.8
OBCs
18.3
47.3
23.1
44.8
3.4
16.6
Others
13.8
41.1
19.4
40.7
1.8
12.8
India
18.0
47.0
23.0
45.5
2.8
15.5
Signify SD
Source: The National Family Health Survey (NFHS-2), 1998–1999, IIPS, and ORC Macro,
2000; p. 269.[23]
Early environmental influences of stimulation or isolation have a marked effect on
measurable cognitive functions.[24] Social class differences affecting language development
emerge during the first year of life. Early environmental influences have a marked
effect on the measurable functioning of vocabulary,[25] and social class differences
affecting the language development become unequivocal by three years of age.[26] Some
amount of linguistic deficiency due to this socio-cultural disadvantage has been observed
in rural children also, as compared to urban ones.[17] Language is an important weapon
of expression and shapes an individual’s personality, which the deprived caste children
lack in comparison to the privileged ones. Deprivation from somato-sensory stimulation
leads to inadequate intellectual growth. Between the ages of three and six years,
incipient attitudes of his/her social group show systematic development, which gets
correctly categorized around eight years of age.[27] A child growing in a disadvantaged
family may suffer on account of not being able to enter the larger mainstream of society,
as his social circle remains sharply limited.[10] Such a child would emerge out with
a checkered personality, ill-equipped to face the divergent ways of society and culture
at large.[24]
SCHOLASTIC DIFFICULTIES IN DEPRIVED CHILDREN
Human resources are essential components for human development and education is given
overriding the priority, to achieve the goal. The process of education begins in the
family where the child spends most of his time and receives informal learning, which
gradually prepares him for the formal education.[28] Among a number of equalities
offered to deprived castes, equality in education is enshrined in the constitution
of free India.[15] However, the spread of education among the deprived castes has
remained very slow due to various reasons.[16] For several decades, low achievement
among children of deprived castes has been a serious problem. The gap in educational
achievement in these children and children from privileged castes increases significantly
during the elementary and secondary grades. This gap can be primarily attributed to,
(a) inadequate educational facilities (b) lack of motivation, and (c) socio-economic
status of parents.[27] Parental illiteracy, low economic status, large size of the
family, and impoverished home environment are the contributing factors for low educational
achievement.[29–32]
Poverty and ignorance were the main hindering factors, especially during the first
three to four decades of independence.[16
32] In the initial years, high dropout rate from the schools was observed among deprived
caste students, as they were not tolerated by the privileged caste students for their
unclean status, while later when these students started making their presence felt
in the educational institutions in increasing numbers, they became a source of irritation,
heart-burn, and inter-community tension.[22]
Capacity to respond to and benefit from education depends upon a child’s intellect,
language, and emotional maturity. As the children from the traditionally deprived
communities lack a role model to follow in the area of education, they carry low aspiration
for money, material things, and occupational status.[33] It is observed that they
have very low self-concept, low self-esteem, and lower need to achieve. They have
an overwhelming concern for the immediate needs of sustenance, with a static level
of aspirations. They are extremely cautious and avoid taking risks, where a possibility
of failure is present.[22] They are generally vague, fantasy-oriented in their future
planning, comparatively older in age, and from illiterate parents.[34]
India’s deprived caste illiterate parents engaged in defiling and hateful occupations,
breed emotionally less stable children. Due to lack of a meaningful interaction in
early childhood, they have poor verbal language expression and lack of stimulation
makes their intellect sluggish. Destined to low achievement because of lack of qualitative
interaction and inadequate development of cognitive and linguistic skills, they lag
behind in their scholastic achievements.
REACTION TO DISCRIMINATION, REJECTION
Human-beings are acutely responsive to how and what other people perceive, evaluate,
and feel about them.[35
36] Positive and negative reactions from others often affect the quality of interpersonal
relationship.[37] Behavioral scientists have documented that positive responses from
others foster a psychological and physical well-being, whereas, long-term exposure
to negative reactions is associated with psychological difficulties and poor physical
health.[38
39]
People who experience rejection generally have three sets of motives. The first motive
involves a heightened desire for social connections, those who can possibly provide
acceptance and support; the second set of motives involves angry, antisocial urges
to defend oneself or to hurt the source of rejection; third, the rejected people are
motivated to avoid further rejection,[40] therefore withdraw themselves. Members of
India’s deprived castes often crave for establishing social connections with the members
of privileged castes and wish to gain their acceptance, and when they fail in doing
so anger and hostility generates. Anger and aggression are common responses to rejection
and often lead to long-lasting break in social bonds.[41] Studies have shown aggressive
behavior among rejected school children by their peer group.[42] Anger and aggression
in rejected children occurs as a result of pain or frustration associated with rejection.[43]
Moreover, rejection by the peer group not only creates a great deal of suffering in
the child, but also predicts negative emotional and behavioral outcomes in the future.[44]
Rejected people may withdraw from and avoid interpersonal interactions, not only with
those who rejected them but often with other people as well. They may either physically
leave the situation or withdraw socially and psychologically, while remaining physically
present when they cannot escape or avoid social encounter.[45] The events that connote
rejection immediately elicit negative emotions, such as, sadness, loneliness, hurt,
anger, jealousy,[41] and lower self-esteem in the victims. India’s deprived castes
who perceive rejection from the majority groups breed negative emotions, low self-esteem,
avoidance behavior, and aggressive traits among their members.
STIGMATIZATION
Social stigma refers to a ‘defect’ in a person’s social identity-negative information
about a person that is known by others. In the traditional Hindu social hierarchy
an untouchable is evaluated so low that the depth of degradation accords him a sub-human
status.[13] Negative reactions from others may take many forms – ranging from disinterest,
criticism, prejudice, avoidance, rejection, betrayal, stigmatization, ostracism, abandonment,
and abuse to bullying.[35] On account of the stigmatized existence, a deprived caste
student is highly self-conscious, sensitive to others’ comments and criticism, has
real or imagined evaluation, and is likely to feel socially anxious, especially when
under observation.[36] The psychological core of all instances is the stigma in which
a person is the recipient of negative reactions.
SOCIAL CHANGE AND INDIVIDUAL ROLE
A role is the part that a person plays within the given social context.[46] Associated
with each role is a set of expectations regarding the appropriate behavior of the
occupant for that role. A stable society has clear role definitions, while the social
change burdens the individual with new role demands. Role novelty occurs when a person
finds himself in a position he has not previously occupied and while playing a new
role, he may be unaware of which behavior he perceives to be appropriate.[47] This
is a common source of one’s uncertainty about self-presentation and triggers social
anxiety.[48]
In the traditional Hindu society everyone has an explicitly defined social role. Members
of the erstwhile low castes were assigned the role of serving the members of higher
castes. With the advent of modern education, urbanization, and new technologies, there
has been a massive occupational mobility from the traditionally hateful and defiling
occupations to the newly created respectable white-collar positions, the first-generation
educated deprived finds him in a new role with many psychological difficulties. Motivation
for change is an important factor for altering behavior pattern and a person is more
likely to adjust to the change if he perceives the change to be desirable.
PERSONALITY PROFILE OF DEPRIVED-CASTE STUDENTS
The university and professional college students hailing from illiterate deprived
caste families generally do not attribute their success to their own efforts and hard
work, rather they refer their success to external factors such as the kindness of
their teachers, mercy of God, and their good luck.[16] This tendency leads to superstitious
behavior, perpetuation of a fatalistic outlook, ritualism, and ingratiation of their
significant others. On the other hand, failure is often ascribed to oneself. These
students have harsh self-criticism, less favorable self-concept, and rigid standards
to evaluate one’s own performance.[24] It builds an ego-damaging and self-discouraging
internalized mechanism.
In a study of medical students of various categories, it was found that the deprived
students had low activity and cyclothymic temperament. Depression and emotional instability
was observed to be higher in these students. They exhibited more of the socially desirable
behavior than others.[49]
‘Cognitive approach hypothesis’, says that negative self-evaluation results in social
anxiety. This anxiety leads to avoidance behavior in certain social situations that
demand their attention and decision making.[50] In these situations they are found
to be more tense and anxious for the fear of things going wrong.[51] A deprived-caste
student is generally more cautious, careful, and guarded as compared to the privileged
caste student.[52]
‘Memory for self-relevant information’ research suggests that once a person views
himself and his performance negatively, he is more likely to recall incidents in which
he performed poorly. These easily accessed negative memories serve to precipitate
social anxiety when future encounters are contemplated.[13]
People are generally sensitive to others perception and evaluation about them[36]
and they are highly motivated to seek others’ approval, acceptance, and affection,
than to seek others disapproval and rejection. When need for approval is high, a person
tries to manage a better impression. Therefore, the factors that heighten people’s
motivation to seek approval are associated with increased social anxiety and that
is why a person’s feelings of self-worth are partially dependent on other’s evaluation.[53]
Deprived caste students who are in want of social approval and acceptance, carry high
levels of social anxiety as compared to the general population of students. This anxiety
interferes with their work efficiency resulting in their poor performance.
Studies reveal that deprived-caste students have unrealistic motivation, external
locus for success, personal inadequacies for failures, harsh and rigid self-evaluation,
and extreme anxiety for the outcome of personal performance. They exhibit avoidance
behavior, lack the decision-making capacity, tend to have negative memories of past
experiences, carry a very low self-concept, and need social approval. Success is not
that reinforcing as it should be, and failure is extremely discouraging. They experience
the fear of failure because of internalization of personal inadequacies, negative
memories, and low perception of self, and heightened social anxiety. The entire mechanism
is motivationally damaging and that is why deprived-caste students account for the
largest population of failures in examinations and drop-outs from educational institutions.[22
54
55]
India’s deprived castes present a number of difficulties related to mental health.
Their developmental process to assume psychological maturity and to achieve mental
health is retarded due to factors like deprivation of childhood experiences, lack
of qualitative interaction for healthy cognitive and linguistic development, unrealistic
motivation, external locus for success, harsh and rigid self-evaluation, high levels
of social anxiety, avoidance behavior, and so on. They are exposed to multiple psychological
strains that lead to mental health aberrations. Nearly 90 percent of all the poor
Indians and 95 percent of all the illiterate Indians are from deprived castes.[56]
Thus far, India has not succeeded to uphold its international legal obligations to
ensure the fundamental human rights of the deprived, despite laws and policies against
caste discrimination.[57]
They need more attention in the form of recognition and encouragement. This need is
readily satisfied in privileged group students, while the deprived caste students
get far less recognition; yet their need is immeasurably greater.[58] Further research
is needed to explore the factors causing their scholastic backwardness and low achievement.