(a) What are the main factors responsible for gender inequality in India? Discuss the contribution of Savitribai Phule in this regard. (b) ‘The current internet expansion has instilled a different set of cultural values which are often in conflict with traditional values.’ Discuss.
Approach · directive: “what / discuss”
What it asks · (a) Give the main causes of gender inequality in India and describe Savitribai Phule's role in tackling it; (b) discuss how internet-driven culture clashes with traditional values, and what to make of it.
The question has 3 parts — answer each
- (a) Set out the main factors responsible for gender inequality in India
- (a) Discuss Savitribai Phule's contribution against gender inequality
- (b) Discuss how the cultural values instilled by internet expansion conflict with traditional values
Open with · (a) Gender inequality in India is rooted in patriarchy and reinforced by economic and legal gaps; (b) the internet brings global ideas into homes faster than any earlier medium.
Cover
- (a) Factors: patriarchal norms and son preference, unequal education and health, unpaid care work and low workforce participation, early marriage, property gaps, and violence.
- (a) Reinforcing causes: weak political voice, uneven enforcement of laws such as those on dowry, media stereotypes, and customs that limit women's choices.
- (a) Savitribai Phule (1831-1897): with Jyotirao Phule she opened a girls' school in Pune in 1848 and taught despite hostility, among India's first women teachers.
- (a) Wider work: schools for Dalit children, a shelter for widows and infants, and campaigns against child marriage; she died in 1897 nursing plague patients.
- (b) Conflict: online exposure to individual choice, gender roles and consumer culture challenges hierarchy and community norms, widening the gap between generations.
- (b) Gains and risks: access to information, voice for the marginalised and links with the diaspora, against cyber-bullying, addiction, misinformation and hate.
- (b) Balance: values are not fixed; keep dignity, family bonds and compassion, question customs that harm, and build digital literacy through family dialogue and schools.
Close with · Equality needed the reformer's courage, as Savitribai showed; culture should change by reasoned choice, keeping what honours dignity and leaving what does not.
Add value (verified)
- WEF Global Gender Gap Report 2020: India ranks 112th with a score of 66.8%. Global Gender Gap Report 2020 — World Economic Forum ↗“India ranks 112th (66.8%) and Pakistan (56.4%) is antepenul- timate, only ahead of Iraq and Yemen.”
- WEF Global Gender Gap Report 2020: economic opportunities for women are extremely limited in India (35.4%). Global Gender Gap Report 2020 — World Economic Forum ↗“At the other end of the spectrum, economic opportunities for women are extremely limited in India (35.4%), Pakistan (32.7%), Yemen (27.3%), Syria (24.9%) and Iraq (22.7%).”
- Gandhi (Young India, 1 June 1921): open to the cultures of all lands, but refusing to be blown off one's feet by any, the balance the internet age needs. No Culture Isolation for Me — The Mind of Mahatma Gandhi, mkgandhi.org ↗“I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2020, GS Paper IV — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer · 394 words (UPSC limit 150) · Minimalist IAS
India ranked 112th in the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2020. The causes are social before they are legal, which is why reformers such as Savitribai Phule began with the school, and why the internet's new values matter so much today.
(a) The main factors responsible for gender inequality in India
- Patriarchy and son preference: these decide who eats, studies and inherits; the child sex ratio fell to 919 girls per thousand boys (Census 2011).
- Economic exclusion: unpaid care work, low workforce participation and weak control over land and property; the same report rates economic opportunities for women in India "extremely limited" (35.4%).
- Education, health and early marriage: lower schooling, poorer nutrition and early marriage carry disadvantage across generations.
- Weak voice, weak enforcement: under-representation in decision-making and uneven enforcement of laws on dowry and domestic violence.
- Custom and culture: stereotypes and community sanction; Article 51A(e) itself asks citizens to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women.
Savitribai Phule's contribution
- Education as liberation: with Jyotirao Phule she opened a girls' school in Pune in 1848 and taught despite hostility, becoming one of India's first women teachers.
- Caste and gender together: schools for Dalit children, a shelter for widows and their infants, and campaigns against child marriage.
- Service to the end: she died in 1897 nursing plague patients; her life showed that education, not charity, is the lever of equality.
(b) How internet-driven values conflict with traditional values
| Domain | Traditional value | Internet-age value |
|---|---|---|
| Authority | Elders, community | Individual choice |
| Expression | Restraint, privacy | Instant, public sharing |
| Gender roles | Fixed, hierarchical | Equal, negotiable |
- The conflict: parents and children now inhabit different moral worlds, and the generation gap widens.
- Gains: information and voice for women, Dalits and small towns; exposure that questions dowry and other harmful customs.
- Harms: cyber-bullying, addiction, misinformation, organised hate, and a consumerism that erodes contentment.
- The balance: Gandhi wanted "the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible" but refused "to be blown off my feet by any". Keep dignity, family bonds and compassion, drop harmful customs, and build digital literacy at home and in school.
Savitribai used the school to loosen custom's grip; digital literacy can now do the same at scale, provided girls get equal access to the screen as well as the classroom, so that values change by reasoned choice rather than by imposition.
Written by Minimalist IAS from facts checked at source (how we verify) — a little fuller than exam length, so every part of the question is covered; in the hall, keep the structure and trim the detail. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.