Before God, we are all equally wise, and equally foolish.

 

In India this doesn’t mean anything and it is a mere quote only.

Well, now my question is what does equality really stands for in our country? If we go by the Indian constitution the term equality and right to equality is well defined quite precisely.

Article 14-18 (Right To Equality)

The right to equality provides for the equal treatment of everyone before the law, prevents discrimination on various grounds, treats everybody as equals in matters of public employment, and abolishes untouchability, and titles (such as Sir/madam) etc.

So you all must be thinking that I am here to teach you about the fundamental rights of the constitution but I am not,as reading and learning these rights is not going to help us since we read it every time but not obey and follow them at all.

India, the country which is known for unity in diversity by the world is doing the opposite in today’s time. The people of this country are divided yet united we say. We all are divided on the basis of caste, colour, creed, religion and sex yet we all say that- we are united as well as proud Indians.

But it is sad to see that we Indians don’t follow the right to equality, for example mostly the people living in North India discriminate against people living in South India and vice-versa. But who are the most targeted people or group of people in India being discriminated?

 In India the people living in North-East are discriminated the most. But why?

 In my opinion, it’s a sad reality to see people living in big metro cities discriminating so much against such class of people coming from such beautiful part of the country; not developed that much but still they are citizens of the country and deserve equal respect and opportunity.

 Due to their face structure, small eyes people in India consider them from China and Nepal and on what grounds? just because they look alike them a bit. The cheap and sick Indian mentality call these people with some names like Momo, Chini, Nepali and what not which is not acceptable at all and which hurts them the most. This affects such people badly and they start feeling depressed physically and mentally both and even commit suicide in some cases.

 It does not matter whether these people are working, studying we all objectify them and treat them as our servant and even harass and torture them as well specially the girls who migrate to cities for their better future. Maybe some of you might think that I am targeting some certain parts of the country but trust me it’s a harsh reality which we have to accept certainly. The people who consider themselves educated, knowledgable,open minded are the ones who target such people the most in our society with their shallow mind set.

 experience is mentioned below of Rachel Aier from north-east-

“Oh Nagaland? You eat dog meat?” That’s the question someone asked at the beginning of my Fellowship Orientation, when I told the group that I was from Nagaland. It’s not the first time I’ve heard a question like this. It speaks to the stereotypes that are unfortunately prevalent in India about people from the North East, which include the states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura. 

Survey- Source (TOI)

81% of northeast women harassed in Delhi: survey

Sixty percent of women, who have migrated from northeast India to four major metro cities-Delhi, Bangalore,Mumbai and Kolkata have reported harassment and unfair racial dicrimination on a daily basis. while 23% of the respondants have been harassed by landlords, 42% say they faced verbal abuse. a Total 26% have reported heckling nad molestaion.

Despite being the most preffered destination since 2005, Delhi has the worst record of meting out daily discrimination with 81% daily respondants being reported it followed by bangalore at 61%.

Even OTT platforms and Bollywood that we love so much had have been working and made many movies regarding discrimination against people on different basis. We say what we see in cinema we adopt it mostly but are we adopting it?

 We say everyone is equal before the law but are we?

            No one is equal before the law and that is a truth specially the people who do not have any resources and money. Living in the 21st century and in this modern India which is not modern by its thinking at all because we still believe in caste system and discriminate against such people. Most of the people in our country still differentiate ‘Dalits’ and minority people and make them feel alienated.

We call ourselves as united, but are we? Discriminating against people is a crime mentioned in the constitution but we still. There are many parts of the country where the people we consider as ‘Backward’ are treated as filth and are degraded.

 Have you ever thought that why India after 73 years of independence still not considered  developed?

Because we are so involved in caste, religion issues that we have forgot to focus on the real issues like poverty, healthcare, economy and other important aspects and elements of development. Even the politicians are no less in our country who are at the position to do best for society are involved in such issues and are busy playing their dirty politics. Most of the politicians are provoking people and spreading hate using caste system and religion. High time it is that we should start treating everyone equal otherwise get ready to witness a civil war soon among different sections of society.

Also, in a country like India where we say that everyone is equal but still the reservation system is still going in the country.The system which was started by the father of Indian constituion- Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar in the hope for the people who are considered backward and can not afford or compete with the upper or middle class in terms of education and jobs, but what is happening in our country such people are misusing it for their benefit even the one who don't deserve it at all, even the one who are not that much qualified and educated are taking the undue advantage of this reservation system and are decreasing the chances of general category people who work hard day and night to get the paticular opportunity and fails to get due to reservation system. let me ask again are we equal?

Well concluding this just want to say-

“By discriminating against such people we are just inciting tensions and violence in the country and disintegrating the nation and it is correct to say that we all are equal in eyes of god but not in the eyes of law”.

-Vardaan Gulla