For thousands of years, the caste system has dominated social structure throughout South Asia. A caste is a rigorously controlled social society into which one is born, and is typically denoted by the word jati (“birth”). Despite the tenuous links between caste and vocational specialisation, certain jatis have names for specific occupations. In general, a person is expected to marry someone from their own jati, adhere to a specific code of conduct and communicate with other jatis in accordance with their place in the social hierarchy.
In Hinduism, individuals typically assign themselves to one of the four major caste groups, or varnas, each of which carries a traditional social role. At the top of the social hierarchy are Brahmans (priests), followed by Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaishyas (originally peasants but later merchants), and Shudras (artisans and labourers) in descending prestige. The jati’s relative level of “impurity,” which determines the particular varna in which a jati is classified, is partially established by the group’s typical interaction with any of a variety of “pollutants,” including blood, menstrual fluid, saliva, dung, leather, dirt, and hair. To prevent letting the filth of a lower caste contaminate their relative cleanliness, a certain jati established intercaste restrictions.
The system ostensibly left out the Panchamas, a fifth category, because their jobs and lifestyles frequently brought them into touch with such contaminants. They used to be known as the untouchables. Members of this class have more recently started referring to themselves as Dalits (“Oppressed”) to identify with that name. Scheduled Castes formally know such organizations. One-sixth of India’s population belongs to the Scheduled Castes, which are often landless and undertake the majority of the agricultural labor as well as a variety of ritually polluting caste activities.
Numerous tribal groups in India have received formal status as Scheduled Tribes, which is a status akin to Scheduled Castes. Tribal populations are mostly located in the northeast of the nation, with smaller concentrations in the northeast-central area and the union territories.
Caste and Well Being
Caste-based social exclusion and the ensuing mental health problems are still pervasive in Indian society, despite legislation and governmental measures to emancipate the underprivileged caste groups. Psychological studies are connecting caste and other social identities to mental health and well-being. According to studies, people from lower castes experience social isolation, low self-esteem, low self-confidence, disengagement, and anger more frequently than those from higher castes, and their mental health is also worse. Those from lower castes have reported higher levels of depression and a higher likelihood of hypertension The highest castes are happier than the lowest and intermediate castes in terms of life satisfaction.
Social Well-Being and Life Satisfaction
The World Health Organization defines mental health as a “state of well-being in which every individual realises his or her potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and can contribute to her or his community” (World Health Organization [WHO], 2005).
The eudaimonic tradition, which emphasizes optimal functioning in individual and societal life, includes both psychological and social well-being.
Psychological well-being does not always reflect the effect of various socio-cultural settings or the importance of social interactions in comprehending well-being. Consequently, the significance of people’s optimum social functioning and social well-being theories. It has five components: social integration, social acceptance, social contribution, social actualization, and social coherence. Social integration is the quality of one’s relationship to society and community. Social acceptance is a construct of society based on the qualities of the people. And social actualization is a belief in the evolution of society as realized through its institutions and citizens.
These five factors have a positive relationship with happiness, life satisfaction, generativity, optimism, sentiments of neighborhood trust and safety, subjective assessments of people’s physical health, and the level of previous community participation. Thus, these five elements collectively show how structural effects affect social and individual functioning.
Barriers to Well Being
People from disadvantaged areas may face significant barriers to accessing mental healthcare and making investments in their well-being, in addition to structural problems.
The first resource that comes to mind when discussing mental health and well-being is therapy and a typical treatment session with a therapist in India runs between Rs 800 and Rs 1,500. It is unavailable to a bigger populace simply because of the expense.
Caste and Mental Health
There is a caste and class bias in India’s present mental health system. As a result, underprivileged populations have far less autonomy and access to mental healthcare. Psychiatry as a field continues to be primarily culturally insensitive to its social reality. Due to psychiatry’s bad standing, many people believe that only a small number of people have mental health problems. The method used by modern medical practitioners lacks the empirical approach required to comprehend Dalit realities. They are not taught to consider the various social structures and political histories that reflect the harsh and systemic destitution of our modern day.
However, caste does have an impact on mortality; in 2016, Rohith Vemula, a Dalit student, committed suicide and left a note in which he complained of institutional harassment. Newsrooms claimed that “depression” was the sole contributing factor despite the seriousness of the issue, and they did not launch any inquiry. Similar to this, Payal Tadvi, a doctor from a tribal clan in Mumbai, committed suicide in 2019 as a result of harassment from “high caste” elders at her hospital. According to Amnesty International, Dalits were the target of 65% of hate crimes in India in 2018, rendering them more susceptible to chronic stress, trauma, and a number of other mental health conditions.
Mental Health Struggles in Marginalized Communities
Speaking of mental health, many communities in the nation can only access therapists from the upper caste, making it incredibly difficult to bring up issues of violence and discrimination in therapy sessions, let alone deal with the lingering effects of intergenerational trauma that communities have passed down through the years. Individually and collectively, the recurrent institutional and structural discrimination against the majority population has had a negative impact on mental health.
Therefore, the social and cultural context has a significant impact on a person’s mental health. Building and maintaining an atmosphere that emphasizes the value of marginalized populations’ mental health while giving social justice, dignity, and empowerment principles top priority is essential.
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