India is the seventh-largest country by area and the second most popular country in the world situated in Asia. Three sides of India are surrounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast.  It shares land with Pakistan, China, Nepal, and Bhutan from the north, Bangladesh, and Myanmar to the east. 


India is a great country where people speak different languages but the national language is Hindi. India is full of different castes creeds religions and cultures but they live together that's the reason India is famous. The common saying of unity and diversity India may be known for its beautiful landscapes and extraordinary culture. But there is a dark side to this enormous country in a country where the caste system still dictates the lives of India’s citizens the Muslim, tribal, lower caste, or untouchable communities are marginalized and discriminated against.  Here are the dark stories of India which are hidden from the world.

 Dark Side of India Hidden from the world


Rape in India


Rape is the four most common crimes according to the 2019 annual report of the national crime records bureau. India recorded an average of 87 rape cases daily in 2019 and overall 405 861 cases of crime against women. During this year more than 145 000 rape cases were pending trial in Indian courts. By the end of 2019 out of over 32 000 reported victims 2019 about 15 percent of victims are children.

 

Life of Mumbai Prostitutes


In Mumbai, there is a place called kamatipuri. Which is one of the biggest red-light districts in all of Asia. It’s believed at least 20 000 girls are working as prostitutes here many of them are under age and most of them are trafficked from the countryside. It’s estimated 70 of them have HIV there are up to 15 million people living in slavery across. India and most of them are women and children trafficked into the sex industry. It’s a brutal industry that takes young girls and then enslaves them a vicious self-perpetuating cycle that offers no way out. This industry is run by gangsters the traffickers lure parents with the false promises of a better future for education. A chance to earn money there is a small payment and the child is entrusted into their care. After that, they sell children for their own profits

 

Acid Attack


Indian has the highest number of acid attack incidents in the world. Around 250 to 300 acid attacks are reported in India. Every year a total of 596 acid attack cases were reported in 2017 and 2018. According to data released by the national crime records bureau, there have been 1483 victims of acid attacks in the country between 2014 and 2018. Females between 11 and 30 years are the most susceptible to such attacks 36 of incidents are the victims targeted for rejection of marriage proposals. Therefore the main cause that is seen to be behind the acid attack is the rejection of sexual advances.

 

Caste System


In India, a casting system is a traditional form of stratification and Hinduism classified people into four different groups. The cast we are born in will determine their social status employment diet and behavior. This 3000-year-old system still has a significant impact on Indian society. Today the religious explanation from the caste system is that each cast comes from a part of the body of the Hindu creative god Brahma they believe that the human itself is divided into different types of work. Rural communities have long been arranged based on castes. The upper and lower castes almost always lived in segregated colonies. The water wells were not shared Brahmanas would not accept food or drink from the sugars and could marry only within one's cast. There is altogether five caste system in India Brahmana’s, Kshatriyas, Vaishya’s, Shudras and the fifth cast was recently added to the system in the early 20th century is the Dalit cast also known as the untouchables. In India, this cast is considered to be an outcast untouchable jobs include things like dealing with dead animals and humans sweeping the streets and dealing with any type of human waste such as blood feces urine, and saliva by doing these impure works. They are considered spiritually polluting while fresh human waste or dead bodies are viewed as impure. So people from higher castes wouldn't touch it this leads to untouchability which is the practice of ostracizing and not touching the Dalit group hence the nickname the untouchables even today. The people who are doing these jobs come from the Dalits cast. Although untouchability was banned along with the entire caste system in 1950. It is still practiced today especially in rural parts of India. Historically untouchables have always been harmed in comparison to other castes. They were not allowed to go to school with students of different castes and people refused to work with her for them.

 

Child Labor


Children worker every child deserves to have a childhood that is fun and educational but in India according to data from census 2011. The number of child laborers in India is 10.1 million of which 5.6 million are boys and 4.5 million are girls in 2020. According to official data, there are around 152 million children worldwide working as child laborers. Out of which India accounts for close to 7.3 percent of that number in a rural part of India children are employed or doing unpaid work. They are lesser likely to attend a school or attend only intermittently trapping them in the cycle of poverty. Millions of Indian girls and boys are going to work every day in quarries and factories are selling cigarettes on the street. The majority of these children are between 12 and 17 years old and work up to 16 hours a day to help their families in India 20 of all children aged 15 to 17 years old are involved in hazardous industries and jobs measuring the exact scale of child labor in India is difficult as it is often hidden and under-reported.

 

Child Marriage


Teenager girls are forced to marry technically child marriage is illegal in India. A law passed in 1929 the government passed a law banning the practice and it was updated in 2006. Today both women under 18 and men under 21 cannot get married. What is the child marriage rate? How big of an issue is child marriage?

Seven percent of girls in India are married before their eighteenth birthday and seven percent are married before the age of fifteen about four percent of boys are married before their eighteenth birthday. India has the highest absolute number of women married or in a union before the age of 18 in the world. Child marriage is more prevalent in rural areas than in urban areas and in the general rate of child, marriage is the highest in the central and western parts of India. For instance, child marriage rates in districts of Rajasthan and Bihar range from 47 to 51. Child marriage is driven by general inequality and the belief that girls are somehow inferior to boys in India. Child marriage is also driven by harmful traditional practices control over girls sexuality, poverty, level of education, household labor, and poor enforcement.

 

Life of Slums


In India there is a place called Dharavi in Mumbai, India considered to be one of Asia’s largest slums. Dharavi has an area of just over 2.1 square kilometers and a population of about 1 million.  Dharavi is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Slums refer to makeshift housing or shanties found especially in urban areas and are characterized by lack of basic facilities, squalor, and overcrowding. Slums are generally built on government land that is lying unclaimed or vacant. They are mostly occupied by migrant workers unskilled labor domestic workers and other such persons who cannot afford proper housing in the cities. Almost 49 of the total population in Mumbai lives in slums. In India the condition of slums is deplorable the settlements are built in small congested areas near airports, railway lines, industries rivers, and other water bodies and markets. But living in slums can place a huge burden on families socially and financially. The residents are routinely called encroachers and illegal settlers which others label them dirty their home may be less expensive. But they end up paying a lot more for water and basic amenities, sanitation is virtually non-existent. Which can result in a wide variety of illnesses. This is not only unhygienic but also creates complications during monsoon when there is flooding during heavy rains. There is no regular supply of water through pipes.  This makes obtaining clean drinking water very difficult since there is no proper sewage or waste disposal system. Garbage is accumulated near the slums or thrown into the water bodies. In case the slums are near a water body, there is no regulated supply of electricity in slums making living conditions very poor.

      In conclusion, the standard of living is extremely poor, difficult, and full of struggle.