Restrictive patterns of tradition-bound lifestyle

The patterns of traditional life, which were created from necessity and once served many rural communities well, and in which the working day was very long, women remained at home, children worked and had little education, and family occupations were inherited, have become inhibiting factors to social development. The technological revolution has given birth to a new, fast moving lifestyle which necessitates a new relatedness in every community.

However, many communities are restricted. Response to the challenges put by social transition has been impeded in many rural communities by the tenacious hold of outdated traditional images and modes of operation. People may deeply desire the benefits of agricultural technology but be hampered by the proliferation of inherited land plots on the one hand and absentee landownership on the other. Hand-to-mouth subsistence economic operation allows little time for anything but working in order to survive. Traditional prejudices maintaining the separation of castes, the restriction of women to the house, and dependence upon external authority, confine the individual to a limited framework which, however adequate for his ancestors, has a paralyzing effect on the appropriation of a more effective, relevant mode of operation.

In particular, the lack of unavailability of books and magazines curtails the flow of images and information about events occurring in the rest of the world; this lack of exposure is particularly evident among old people, who have no contemporary images to convince them of the importance of education for the young.