Being born in a country where there is a lot of social differences, we have grown up experiencing and hearing about social exclusion more than social inclusion. Since our childhood, we were differentiated on things related to caste, culture and religion. “We are not same, we are from different caste, do not play with other children from lower caste, do not touch them, do not go and eat and drink at their homes”, were some the sayings we have been imposed since the early days. We have been hearing the ‘nots’ mostly in our lives. We had begun to believe and create a mind set: “So, these people are inferior to us, they are to work for us”. When we used to go to countryside during vacation, we used to see people lined up in different areas especially during festivals and fiesta. We, as children, were curious and asked the elders why they were lined up differently. They used to hush us and say, “That’s because they are they”. Their touch was labelled impure for us and that, this, has been a tradition, a custom since decades and we did not hold any right to speak against such. But, obviously in the phase of growing up, we came to understand that this is not right. We had a friend in our class, who was from the so- called lower caste as categorized by our society. We used to eat together, play together. So, for us, all these things were not push-over from the people.
This is just a part. There are other factors as well where people are kept in exclusion. Those are the people who are not considered to be normal as per our society; such as- people who stammers while talking, people with hearing disabilities or visually and physically defected. People used to make fun and still are making fun at them, calling them names; seen and taken as a different being, who do not fit to the description and standard to be in the so-called society of ours.
On contrary, education enlightened us in a totally different way. Being students, our concepts altered and took a different turn. We understood people are all the same. All should be treated equally. My opposition towards this concept and trend grew so strong especially after being in the educational sector of social work. I am more aware and open to work with people from different communities. Gender discrimination has always been a hot topic and they still exist everywhere, no matter which era we are in and how educated we think we are. Intentionally or unintentionally, men are always surpassing women and have more privilege than women in every sector, be it home or work.
As a social being, we should be more inclusive to everyone. We should uplift each other rather than following the social exclusion. We should try to think different and come out from our comfort zone and look for a way where we could improve the opportunities and abilities for those who are disadvantaged. We should be in a step to encourage on equal opportunities and resources between the people with or without disabilities and regardless of their gender.
I have had experience on being in social exclusion, being in biasness because of my gender and even disability. Among the different types of disabilities, I have been in a close encounter with the one who mental disability. And I know as being related to the person, how it feels when people see them through different eyes or make fun of them.
So, for me, I have understood we are not different beings. Some of us are just differently abled or culturally diverged which help us to accumulate better ideas through different ways. Disability is not what we get to choose on our own. Some forms of disabilities occur since birth and some because of some misfortunes in life. Gender is what you have from birth (though we can change it because of today’s technology). No person should be felt less than the others (other than the inferior complex one might have). We should opt for making everyone valued for their importance within a society and also build a sense of belonging into a community.
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