(i) Caste is an important source of economic inequality because it regulates access to resources of various kinds. For example, in the past, the Dalits were treated as 'untouchables' and were denied the right to own land and get education, which only the 'twice born' castes or Brahmins had the right to education.
(ii) Caste system prevents occupational mobility. People are not take up any profession other than their family profession even though they are talented in other fields because of the rigidity of the caste system.

In India, the women's participation in the political area is very low. The women's strength in the Lok Sabha is 14.36%. Their share in State Assemblies is less than 5%. The share of women legislators in India is behind those of several developing countries of Latin America and Africa.
In the panchayats and municipalities, it is legally binding to fill one-third of the seats by women candidates. This has resulted in 10 lakh elected women representatives in rural bodies which is more than urban local bodies.

Caste inequalities are still continuing in India in the following ways
(i) Every caste group has its own exclusive occupation that will be passed from generation to generation.
(ii) Marriages are still performed mainly in the same caste. Intercaste marriage is not rare, but not welcomed by all.
(iii) People from different castes usually do not interact with each other and untouchability is still present in some parts of the country.
(iv) The upper caste people who got good education under the old caste system got top job positions. The castes that did not receive education lagged behind in getting the top job positions.
(v) The upper castes became economically better than the people from the lower castes due to education.

Different forms of the communal politics:
(a) The most common expression of communalism is in everyday beliefs. These routinely involve religious prejudices, stereotypes of religious communities and belief in the superiority of one's religion over other religious. This is so common that we often fail to notice it, even when we believe in it.
(b) A communal mind often leads to political dominance of one's own religious community. For those belonging to majority community, it takes the form of majoritarian dominance. For those belonging to the minority community, it can take the form of a desire to form a separate political unit.
(c) Political mobilization on religious lines is another frequent form of communalism. This involves the use of sacred symbols, religious leaders and emotional appeal, in order to bring the followers of one religion together in the political arena. In electoral politics, this often involves special appeal of votes in the name of religion.
(d) Sometimes communalism takes its most ugly form of communal violence, riots and massacre. India and Pakistan suffered some of the worst communal riots at the time of the Partition. The post-independence period has also seen large-scale communal violence.

Communalism can take several forms in politics like
(i) The most common expression of communalism is of communal superiority in our everyday beliefs. For example, Militant religious groups.
(ii) Sometimes, communalism takes its worst form in riots. India and Pakistan suffered some of the worst communal riots at the time of partition.
(iii) A communal mind often leads to a quest for political dominance of one's own religious community.
(iv) Political mobilisation based on religion is another form of communalism. This involves the use of sacred symbols, religious leaders, emotional appeal to bring the followers of one religion together in political areas. In India. politicians are trying to influence voters exploiting their religious sentiments from the two largest religious communities in the country.

In India, women are discriminated and disadvantaged in the following ways:
(i) Low literacy: The literacy rate among women is only 54% compared with 76% among men. Similarly, a smaller proportion of girl students go for higher studies. When we look at school results, girls and boys perform equally, if not better in some places. But they drop out because parents prefer to spend their resources for their boy's education rather than spending equally on their sons and daughters.
(ii) Low Position: The proportion of women among the highly paid and valued jobs is still very small. On an average, an Indian woman works one hour more than an average man every day. Yet much of her work is not paid and therefore often not valued.
(iii) Low Pay: The Equal Wages Act provides that equal wages should be paid to equal work. However in almost all areas of work, from sports and cinema, to factories and fields, women are paid less than men, even when both do exactly the same work.
(iv) Preference of a male child: In many parts of India, parents prefer to have sons and find ways to have the girl child aborted before she is born. Such sex-selective abortion led to a decline in child sex ratio (number of girl children per thousand boys) in the country to merely 927.
(v) Exploitation: There are reports of various kinds of harassment, exploitation, and violence against women. Urban areas have become particularly unsafe for women. They are not safe even within their own home from beating, harassment and other forms of domestic violence.

In India, women are discriminated and disadvantaged in the following ways:
(i) Low literacy: The literacy rate among women is only 54% compared with 76% among men. Similarly, a smaller proportion of girl students go for higher studies. When we look at school results, girls and boys perform equally, if not better in some places. But they drop out because parents prefer to spend their resources for their boy's education rather than spending equally on their sons and daughters.
(ii) Low Position: The proportion of women among the highly paid and valued jobs is still very small. On an average, an Indian woman works one hour more than an average man every day. Yet much of her work is not paid and therefore often not valued.
(iii) Low Pay: The Equal Wages Act provides that equal wages should be paid to equal work. However in almost all areas of work, from sports and cinema, to factories and fields, women are paid less than men, even when both do exactly the same work.
(iv) Preference of a male child: In many parts of India, parents prefer to have sons and find ways to have the girl child aborted before she is born. Such sex-selective abortion led to a decline in child sex ratio (number of girl children per thousand boys) in the country to merely 927.
(v) Exploitation: There are reports of various kinds of harassment, exploitation, and violence against women. Urban areas have become particularly unsafe for women. They are not safe even within their own home from beating, harassment and other forms of domestic violence.

Women, in our country, are discriminated in the following aspects
(i) Literacy Rate The literacy rate among women is only 65.46% as compared with 82.14% among men. Similarly, a few number of girl students go for higher studies because parents prefer to spend their resources for their boys' education than spending equally on their daughters.
(ii) Unpaid Work The proportion of women among the highly paid and valued jobs is still very small. Though on an average, Indian women work one hour more than men everyday, most of them are not paid equally and therefore, their work is often not valued.
(iii) Sex Ratio In many parts of India, parents prefer to have sons and find ways to have the girl child aborted before she is born. This has led to a decline in the child sex ratio (the number of girl children per thousand boys) in the country.
(iv) Domestic Violence There are reports of various kinds of harassment, exploitation and violence against women. Both urban as well as rural areas have become unsafe for women. They are not safe even within their own homes from beating and other forms of domestic violence.