Diversity refers to many demographic variables such as race, colour, age and  gender. People around us not only look different on these basis, but they might also  belong to different regional, cultural or religious backgrounds. These are an aspect  of diversity. It is worth while to mention that the term diversity should not be  confused with the term inequality. Inequality comes about when a person does not  have the resources and opportunities that are available to other persons.

Introduction

When we observe the world around us, we get to know about various kinds of differences and dissimilarities. In popular notion, we call these individual differences, but if we analyse the situation, we will be convinced that these are not differences; rather, these are uniqueness. These are also not only individual, rather, social as well and represent a larger group of people. Therefore, it is true that diversity provides positive strength. Further, we also have to understand how appropriate understanding of diversity will lead us toward unity in society, where everyone may be unique but will be united.

What is Diversity?

We know that every individual perceives and reacts towards things in a unique manner, which differentiates a person from others. We can take examples of class VIII, where everyone is of the same age but their way of dealing with things, learning, and understanding is rather unique, which has been developed through the interaction with his/her social context.

• Diversity adds many aspects to our lives.
• We have friends from diverse cultures and become acquainted with their rituals, food, clothes, languages, and festivals.
• We participate in each other’s activities and enrich ourselves.
• Diversity is vast and observable in our immediate surroundings.

Diversity can be of many types and may be related to caste, class, gender, tribe, language, religion, culture, and so on.

Understanding Diversity in India

India is known for its diverse culture. There are various kinds of differences with which we live. These differences exist in terms of our life style, food, clothes, languages, festivals, and other practices. Therefore, we all do similar things in different ways. In addition, we try to make sense of others’ practices to develop a peaceful society.

• India's diversity is evident in lifestyle, cuisine, clothing, languages, and festivals.
• Technological advancements and transportation have facilitated understanding of diversities.
• Geographical conditions significantly influence cultural practices.

People living in different regions have distinct practices influenced by their geographical conditions.

Examples of Diversity

Ladakh

• Ladakh is a desert region in the mountainous terrain of Jammu and Kashmir.
• Due to little rainfall and heavy snowfall, agriculture is limited.
• People rely on sheep rearing for prized pashmina wool, used in shawls.
• Traditionally, Ladakh served as a trade route to Tibet, facilitating exchange of goods.
• It has a rich cultural heritage influenced by Buddhism and Islam, with a significant oral tradition.

Kerala

• Kerala, located in southwest India, is surrounded by the Arabian Sea and hills.
• The region's climate and fertile land make it ideal for spice cultivation.
• Historically, Kerala attracted traders from diverse backgrounds, including Jewish, Arab, and European.
• It is characterized by a blend of religions including Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.
• The cuisine, fishing techniques, and even utensils in Kerala reflect its diverse cultural influences.

Diversity is a term often used to differentiate people and groups, but its true essence lies in respecting and appreciating each other without bias or stereotypes.

Diversity brings people together to establish unity, while inclusion ensures that everyone is valued and respected. It focuses on identifying and meeting the needs of individuals and groups.

The meaning of diversity encompasses open-mindedness towards cultural differences and various ways of perceiving phenomena. It promotes harmony and collaboration among people, respecting different perspectives and points of view.

Key Aspects of Diversity Include:

• Respecting different points of view and perspectives.
• Participating despite differences in perspectives, ways of working, and contexts.
• Valuing uniqueness in professions and social concerns.
• Embracing a variety of lifestyles, ethnicities, sexual orientations, citizenships, and nationalities.
• Fostering curiosity and openness towards integrating people from different cultures.
• Recognizing that heterogeneity, not homogeneity, is essential for diversity.

• Diversity can have both positive and negative effects. In education, for instance, diverse classrooms offer a wide range of experiences, fostering inclusive attitudes towards social complexities.

  Exposure to diversity leads to curiosity, prompting individuals to explore and understand different cultures from an early age. This prepares them to deal constructively with social diversity in adulthood.

  Schools with diverse student bodies benefit from a rich exchange of perspectives, enhancing learning and promoting mutual understanding.

  While some argue that diversity leads to communication problems, many believe it offers opportunities for personal and collective development. Cultural activities and practices foster familiarity and comfort with others, encouraging collaborative work.

Does Diversity Matter?

Diversity matters and there are many reasons for it. If we take an example of school and society, we can understand this better. Imagine the demographic profile of a school, where it is located, the kind of people that come to school to get educated, the teachers and other stakeholders of the school, etc. In collaboration, these elements create a school’s demographic profile. In such a way, a school becomes a place of exchange of cultural knowledge and practices. This provides a comprehensive space to all stakeholders of school. Therefore, the demographic profile of a school provides wide space to the learner. In this manner, diversity is something which acknowledges and accepts the similarities and differences among people. This acceptance surely provides space for new innovative practices, which at a larger level, changes the existing structure to a more progressive one. This progressive way develops and increases the strength of individuals to lead their own learning.

• Diversity also matters because of its social importance. It provides space to interact with people who do not have the same background and therefore have lived different experiences. Diversity also helps us to know our capability to understand and deal with ideas that are different from ours. It may include gender equality, diversity based on ethnicity, people with disability, sexual orientation (LGBT), and so on.
• It is also important to know and understand that diversity is nothing like ‘we and them’. It is more about ‘us.’ Therefore, the ‘we and them’ perspective does not work here. We can understand diversity in two ways. There is diversity that can be changed and diversity that cannot be changed. Dimensions which cannot be changed includes age, race, gender, and so on, and those which cannot be changed are salary, education, beliefs, etc.
• However, it is important to highlight here that there are melting points in social lives which provide different meanings to diversity. Melting point is a point where all cultures are mixed in a fashion and where there are no clear lines that can be defined. However, for better understanding, we can explain it in four broad categories, namely cognitive, affective, behavioural, and decision-making. Cognitive dimension deals with conceptual understanding about diversity. Affective dimension helps in understanding the differences and commonalties. Behavioural dimension develops optimistic and positive inter-personal relationships, and decision-making works towards ability to take decision in various situations.
• We are not born with diversity. We learn everything from the society we live in. We learn to walk, read, and talk after birth and every one does it differently. Therefore, our diverse education system will increase the possibilities of developing an egalitarian society and provide space to develop the following:
  • High self-esteem
  • High confidence
  • Acceptance of one’s own self and identity with reference to his/her own culture
  • Ability to understand every one’s needs and working together
  • Understating to learn the usefulness of interaction among various cultures
  • Better citizenship for the nation and the world

Diversity provides more opinions and ideas because there are many people with different perspectives. It also develops a sense of concern as it helps to understand the situation of various groups or community.

Diversity & Discrimination

In the first section of the chapter, you have studied the meaning of diversity in a comprehensive manner. An optimistic picture of diversity was presented. However, it may happen that people make fun of others on the basis of their caste, class, gender, background, etc. In such a situation, one person feels alienated and stagnated. Such persons also struggle for their existence.

• Discrimination is seen at many levels. It may be visible at home, in school, or in the society. Discrimination is based on biased, unfair, and prejudiced perspectives which do not have any logical or scientific reason. It is based on some preconceived notion about any person, community, system, or thinking. Such preconceived notion does not allow analysing the situation from all possible perspectives; rather, it works on the principle of linear thinking where one cannot expect diversion from the main line.
• On one hand, understanding prejudices is a very easy task but on the other hand, it is a very complicated, complex, and difficult process. It is easy because one can easily observe the discrimination happening on the bases of prejudices. It is difficult because it is inherited in everyday practice that people generally do not bother to analyse and simply follow it.
• The challenge is to make people aware and take them out from the very obvious situation to a situation which can be analysed. India is a diverse country. There are eight major religions in the world and each one of them is practised in India. ‘We have more than 1600 languages that are people’s mother tongues and there are more than a hundred dance forms.’
• We have already discussed that people would like to be associated with those having similar line of thought and interest than who have different line of thought. In India, we somehow failed to manage the importance of diversity and work more towards the discriminative line.
• To understand this discussion, we can take an example of rural and urban life. There are various perspectives about rural and urban lives prevailing without any authenticity. Some examples are rural people are more honest than urban people, urban people are more civilised then rural people, rural people are hardworking and urban people are lazy, rural people are dirty, whereas urban people are clean and hygienic, and so on. Such perspectives become the bases of prejudices about people and create discrimination between rural and urban people. 
• However, we know that there is nothing universal about human behaviour. Therefore, we can say that prejudice is a way in which a person or a community is judged negatively to make them feel inferior. The Indian caste system and its practice is one of the strong and appropriate examples of this discrimination.
• Language is another such example. In India, English is considered more respected and powerful, whereas other languages are considered inferior. 
• Theoretically, one may argue that the Constitution does not allow such discrimination but in practices, we also know that English hegemony has been created in all fields. In such situations, people who speak a language other than English are not only considered inferior; rather, they get less opportunity as against English speaking people. In the same line, we can prejudice about gender, education, income, geographical location, living style, clothes, and so on.

Understanding Stereotypes

A stereotype is a way in which we provide a role to a person on the basis of preconceived notion about gender, caste, class, etc. It can be called a ‘picture in our hand.’ To understand it effectively, we can take the example of ‘gender.’ Before we discuss gender stereotypes, we must know and understand the meaning of gender discrimination, gender bias, and gender role identity. Gender discrimination is based on their being a boy or girl; gender bias happens when we prefer one gender over another, and gender role identity means when we cannot reverse the gender role. Gender role identity is the most dangerous for any society. It works on beliefs about characteristics and behaviour associated with one sex as opposed to another (Wooflolk, Anita (2006)).

• We are aware of the notion of gender discrimination and may take it for granted by saying that it is very natural that we are born as a boy or girl. It also legitimates certain biases, stereotypes, and discrimination such as girls speak softly, boys are rough and tough; girls are physically weak and boys are strong; and boys are good at mathematics and girls in singing in our lives. Generally, it seems obvious to many but it provides a specific role to boys and girls and socialises them accordingly. Doing so also provides a specific quality to a person either as a boy or a girl. Therefore, both boys and girls grow up with a specific role which they learn through socialisation and develop a sense of being a boy or a girl and perform the specific role in the society.
• Except gender, one can take many examples to explain the very idea of stereotype. An example can be taken of children with disability, which has now changed to children with special needs. People have various stereotypes about them as they cannot be intellectually bright, will be always dependent on others, and their self-esteem will be low than a normal person, and so on, think that as they need special care and attention, they are generally avoided in various outdoor activities such as educational excursions, and so on. Low confidence or low self-esteem is not a result of their disabilities; rather, it is because of the social treatment they receive at various places such as school, family, and society.
• Largely, stereotypes do not allow us to perceive individuals equally; rather, they provide a lens based on a preconceived notion which creates hurdles in looking everybody equally. It hinders the process of understanding uniqueness in a healthy way. It always perceives uniqueness in a form of discrimination. It also does not allow to see various unique categories, but develops less categories to make generalisations about particular human beings or communities.

Dealing with Inequality

The very concept of equality has evolved over a period of time. Today, it has a specific meaning and is evolving further. However, the meaning of equality and the use of this term has two different meanings altogether. We are equal as per the Constitution but actually, we are not. Inequality prevails everywhere. 

• Prejudices, biases, discrimination, and stereotypes create spaces for inequality. Inequalities can also be based on region, religion, caste, social status, economic status, language, and so on. Some people face inequality because their culture is not valued like others. There is possibility that one may face many kinds of discrimination and inequalities, such as one can be poor as well as from a culture which is not valued by others. 
• Discrimination and inequality are universal phenomena and one can find them across the world. One can easily see racial discrimination in Western countries. Therefore, discrimination and inequality may be of many kinds and take a society away from egalitarianism. 
• Everyone works to earn livelihood. They may be teachers, engineers, peons, and sweepers. The society does not take these jobs in a very simple manner; rather, there is a ladder or a system which puts one at the top and others at the bottom. People at the top call themselves the upper caste and feel proud to be one and others are made to feel inferior and are labelled as lower caste. Discrimination based on caste works at an acute level where a person is discriminated in social, economic, and educational levels.
• They may not be allowed to sit with other students. They have to sit in a separate row or at the back. The experiences of Om Praksah Valmike in his book Jhoothan, where he shared his experiences as a Dalit in school are relevant here. People are prohibited from taking water from wells, prohibited to sit on benches on tea stalls, forced to use different cups for tea, etc. One can spot many such examples  while observing discrimination and inequality.
• Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar fought for equality of citizens throughout his life. He was a sufferer of discrimination. He is also known as the father of the Indian Constitution. Social discrimination reaches the root of the society. People feel insulted, rejected, exploited, and are not even considered human beings at some places.
• Inequality may also be seen in the family system, which is the highest hierarchical and the most accepted system, where every right is in the hands of the man and women have to seek permission to exercise their own rights. Women also face problems in families whether they are working or not.

Read the following lines:

• A well-educated person says I allowed my wife to become whatever she wants to be.
• There is no difference between me and my wife, she always supports me, and votes for the same person as me.
• I think teaching is a good profession for women.
• The most important quality of my wife is that she is very tolerant but I am not.

Now, focus on the bold-cum-italic words. Each word shows a different kind of hegemony of men over women, where every right is with women but men enjoy their power to allow women or seek consensus in voting, establishing teaching profession as the best profession for women, etc. Discriminatory analysis of these statements will help us understand that there is clear inequality in the relationship of men and women. Needless to say, this discrimination or inequality exists before birth and continues after death also, where there are different kinds of procedures to be followed while cremating men and women.

Struggle for Equality

• Inequality is part of every society and therefore, struggle for equality is also part of every society, whether it is situated in Asia, Africa, or Europe. India has also struggled for its freedom from the British. This struggle was two-fold—first, there was a struggle against the British and then, a struggle for equality of Dalits, women, and other marginalised communities.
• Women need not seek their identity with reference to men. Until women learn this, their existence will always be subject to approval of men. She has strength in her own way and should strive for them, rather comparing with men. It is also important to highlight here that creating opposition will not benefit women; rather, women have to find ways to develop their own strengths to make changes in their lives.
• The Constitution provides various kinds of rights to all people, so that equality can be exercised by all citizens. However, the very idea of liberalisation has again created a new kind of threat to the entire struggle for equality. The Government is gradually moving towards privatisation. Privatisation is making its presence felt in all sectors and has also included education in its trap. Increased privatisation is also the violation of the basic feature of the Indian constitution and the equality that we perceive is only an illusion.