Social Issues in News: India & World (October 2025)
📊 Social Issues in News: India & World (October 2025)
Essential Knowledge for Every MSW Student
🇮🇳 India Updates
🌍 Global Trends
📈 Latest Reports
📌 Why This Matters: October 2025 witnessed significant developments in social justice globally, with landmark reports revealing both progress and persistent challenges. This comprehensive guide covers the most critical social issues that MSW students and professionals must understand.
⚖️
ILO's State of Social Justice 2025: A Global Paradox
🎯 Key Findings
The International Labour Organization released its landmark report ahead of the Second World Summit for Social Development, marking 30 years since the 1995 Copenhagen Summit.
Progress Made (1995-2025):
- Extreme poverty: 39% → 10%
- Child labour (5-14 years): 250M → 106M
- Working poverty: 28% → 7%
- Social protection coverage: Over 50% globally
⚠️ The Paradox - Persistent Inequality:
- Top 1% control 20% of global income and 38% of wealth
- Gender wage gap: Women earn 78% of men's wages
- Timeline to close gap: 50-100 years at current pace
- 55% of income inequality determined by country of birth
- Trust in institutions declining since 1982
🇮🇳 India's Progress & Challenges:
Achievements:
- Multidimensional poverty: 29% (2013-14) → 11% (2022-23)
- Secondary completion rate: 79% (2024)
- Female literacy: 77%
- Social protection schemes covering 55 crore+ unorganised workers
Ongoing Concerns:
- Over 80% workforce remains outside formal contracts
- Female labour participation: 37% (below global average)
- Informality persists despite reforms
🌊
Climate Migration: The Invisible Crisis
📊 Understanding Climate Migration
Climate change is increasingly displacing populations globally, yet these migrants lack formal legal protection under international law.
Current Statistics:
- 21 million weather-related displacements annually since 2008
- 90 million of 123M forcibly displaced people live in climate-vulnerable areas (2024)
- By 2050: 140 million+ internal climate migrants projected (World Bank)
- By 2040: Countries facing extreme climate hazards to rise from 3 to 65
⚖️ Legal Gap: No "Climate Refugee" Status
Why "Climate Refugees" Don't Exist in Law:
- 1951 Refugee Convention covers only persecution based on race, religion, nationality, social group, or political opinion
- Environmental factors not included in refugee definition
- Majority of climate migrants move internally within countries
- UN Human Rights Council (2019): Called them "the world's forgotten victims"
🌍 Most Vulnerable Regions:
- Sub-Saharan Africa: Sahel region temperatures rising 1.5x faster than global average
- South Asia: Bangladesh facing cyclones and flooding (72% of Myanmar's refugees flee here)
- Pacific Islands: Kiribati, Tuvalu at risk of becoming uninhabitable; 8 islands already submerged
- Middle East: Sudan's conflict displaced millions, compounded by severe flooding
- India: Included among 65 countries projected to face extreme climate hazards by 2040
🔄 Emerging Solutions:
- Argentina (2020): Created special visa for persons displaced by natural disasters
- Australia-Tuvalu (2023): Falepili Union treaty for climate migration pathways
- Global Compact (2018): Non-binding agreement recognizing climate-migration link
- COP29 Calls: Increased climate finance for displaced populations and host communities
💼
Economic Insecurity: Cost of Living & Jobs
📉 Global Trends (October 2025)
What Worries the World Survey (Ipsos):
- Cost of living concerns: 30% (down 13pp from Feb 2023 peak)
- Unemployment worries: 28% (up 2pp over the year)
- Rise of extremism: Increasing globally (US, Europe, Asia)
- Only 6 countries report good economic situation
🇮🇳 India's Economic Paradox:
- 73% Indians view economy as good (2nd highest globally after Singapore)
- Yet youth unemployment remains critical challenge
- Graduate unemployment: 29% (9x higher than illiterate youth)
- Digital divide between urban-rural India affecting job access
- Gig economy and automation exacerbating job quality concerns
🔍 Root Causes
- Technological advancement and globalization widening inequality
- Skills mismatch: Education not aligned with industry needs
- Demographic shifts: Ageing populations in developed nations, youth bulge in developing
- Informality: 80%+ workforce outside formal contracts in India
- Structural barriers: Gender, caste, geographical disadvantages
⚡
Gender Inequality: A Persistent Challenge
🌍 Global Gender Gap
Key Statistics:
- Women earn 78% of men's wages globally
- 50-100 years needed to close wage gap at current pace
- Digital gender gap: Could boost GDP by $1.5 trillion if closed
- 30 million women could be lifted out of poverty by 2030
- Women in STEM: Below 1/3 across 73 countries
🇮🇳 India-Specific Concerns (2025):
- Female labour participation: 37% (PLFS 2024-25)
- Female literacy: 77% (improved but regional gaps persist)
- Women's safety: Domestic violence, harassment remain significant
- Workforce concentration: Informal, low-paying sectors
- Political representation: Underrepresented despite 33% reservation bill discussions
- Emerging debates: Menstrual leave policies, gender-neutral workplaces
🌐 Digital Economy & Women:
The UN's October 2025 briefing highlights both opportunities and challenges:
- Opportunities: Remote work, teleworking, gig economy can bypass traditional barriers
- Challenges: Platform work = job insecurity, low pay, inadequate harassment protections
- Initiatives: EU's 'Women in Digital', Rwanda's 'Girls in ICT', Indonesia's SCILLS program
🤝
Declining Trust & Social Cohesion
📊 World Social Report 2025 Findings
Released by UN DESA and UNU-WIDER, revealing alarming trends in global social fabric.
⚠️ Crisis Indicators:
- 40% of people believe life is worse than 50 years ago
- Over 50% report little to no trust in government
- Fewer than 30% believe most people can be trusted
- Insecurity, inequality, distrust creating vicious cycle
- Trust decline since 1982 eroding cooperation and civic engagement
🌐 Contributing Factors
- Misinformation & Disinformation: AI-powered deepfakes, social media bubbles
- Political Polarization: "Us vs. them" mentality increasing
- Cultural Fault Lines: Culture wars, control over information
- Post-COVID Impact: Deeper debt, more digitalized, more individualistic
- Migration Fears: Criminalization narratives, deportation staging as deterrent
🔑 Recommended Solutions:
- Equity: Fair distribution of resources and opportunities
- Economic Security: Universal social protection systems
- Solidarity: Strengthening community bonds and institutions
- Media Literacy: Education to combat misinformation
- Platform Accountability: Transparent content moderation
🇮🇳
India's Priority Social Issues (2025)
🎭 Caste System & Discrimination
- Current Issue: Rising debates over caste census and equitable reservation distribution
- Challenges: Untouchability persists in rural areas, temple entry denial, public space segregation
- Reservation Politics: Legal debates (Maratha, OBC) dominating discourse
- Dalits and lower-caste groups: 5 out of 6 multidimensionally poor people
👥 Migration & Displacement
Post-Pandemic Patterns:
- Climate-induced displacement in coastal regions recognized as pressing concern
- Urban migration: Infrastructure strain, slum expansion
- Rural-urban divide: Digital education gap exposed during pandemic
- Regional disparities: Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha face extreme poverty
🏥 Health & Nutrition
- Mental health: Rising drug addiction, inadequate infrastructure
- Child nutrition: UNICEF 2025 report highlights obesity and ultra-processed food concerns
- Healthcare access: Urban-rural divide persists
- Schemes: Ayushman Bharat expansion continuing
🎓 Education Transformation
NEP 2020 Implementation Progress:
- Regional language courses in higher education
- Focus on AI and emerging tech skill development
- Digital divide remains critical barrier
- Secondary completion: 79% (2024)
🌱 Environmental Justice
- Urban flooding: Increasing frequency in cities
- Air pollution: Major health concern
- Heatwaves: Affecting vulnerable populations disproportionately
- Climate impact: Projected GDP loss by 2060: $839 billion (≈2.5% of GDP)
🌏
Emerging Global Concerns
🔐 Cybersecurity & Privacy
2025 Focus Areas:
- AI-powered cyber defense
- Zero trust architecture
- Privacy-enhancing technologies
- Quantum-safe cryptography
- Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) platforms emerging
- 5G security challenges
🌱 Environmental Crisis
- COP30 (2025): Focus on ambitious NDCs, climate finance
- Global humanitarian needs: Highest on record
- Climate financing gap: Billions needed, not reaching vulnerable communities
- Biodiversity loss: Wildlife smuggling continues (5M+ seahorses seized)
🧬 Health & Wellbeing
Priority Areas:
- Pandemic preparedness: Finalizing pandemic accord
- Adolescent challenges: Poor mental health, obesity, violence exposure
- Elderly care: Hearing loss linked to social isolation
- Nutrition crisis: Rising NCDs linked to poor diet
- 2025 Nobel Prize: Awarded for discoveries on immune tolerance
📚
Implications for Social Work Practice
🎯 Key Takeaways for MSW Professionals:
- Intersectionality: Issues are interconnected (climate, poverty, gender, caste)
- Rights-based approach: Social protection as fundamental right, not charity
- Community empowerment: Listen to affected communities, especially displaced populations
- Policy advocacy: Push for legal frameworks protecting climate migrants, informal workers
- Digital literacy: Bridge urban-rural divide in education and employment
- Trauma-informed care: Address mental health crisis among migrants, conflict-affected
- Gender mainstreaming: Ensure women's voices in climate finance and policy decisions
- Data-driven practice: Use reports like ILO State of Social Justice for evidence-based interventions
💡 Intervention Strategies:
- Micro level: Individual counseling, case management for displaced persons
- Mezzo level: Community organizing, building solidarity networks
- Macro level: Policy advocacy, institutional reform, systemic change
- Research: Document lived experiences, challenge dominant narratives
📚 Sources & References
- International Labour Organization (ILO). (2025). State of Social Justice in the World 2025: A 30-Year Review of the World Summit for Social Development. Geneva: ILO Publications.
- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). (2024). Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2024. Geneva: UNHCR.
- World Bank. (2021). Groundswell Report: Preparing for Internal Climate Migration. Washington, DC: World Bank Group.
- United Nations Human Rights Council. (2019). Resolution on Climate Migration and Human Rights. Geneva: UN.
- UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) & UNU-WIDER. (2025). World Social Report 2025: Reconsidering Security in an Age of Growing Anxiety. New York: United Nations.
- Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India. (2024). Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2024-25. New Delhi: MOSPI.
- NITI Aayog. (2023). National Multidimensional Poverty Index: India's Progress from 2013-14 to 2022-23. New Delhi: Government of India.
- Ipsos. (October 2025). What Worries the World: Global Advisor Survey. Paris: Ipsos.
- United Nations. (October 2025). Briefing on Women in the Digital Economy: Opportunities and Challenges. New York: UN Women.
- UNICEF. (2025). State of the World's Children 2025: Nutrition and Child Health. New York: UNICEF.
- United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). (2025). COP30 Preparatory Documents. Bonn: UNFCCC Secretariat.
- Australian Government & Government of Tuvalu. (2023). Australia-Tuvalu Falepili Union Treaty. Canberra: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
- Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC). (2024). Global Report on Internal Displacement. Geneva: IDMC.
- Ministry of Education, Government of India. (2024). National Education Policy 2020: Implementation Status Report. New Delhi: GoI.
- World Health Organization (WHO). (2025). Global Health Observatory: Mental Health and Substance Use. Geneva: WHO.
- International Telecommunication Union (ITU). (2025). ICTs for a Sustainable World: Bridging the Digital Gender Divide. Geneva: ITU.
- Climate Risk Atlas. (2024). Projected Climate Hazards by Country 2040. Multiple publishers.
- The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet. (2025). Press Release: The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Stockholm: Nobel Foundation.
- Various news sources: BBC, Al Jazeera, The Hindu, Indian Express, Reuters (October 2025 editions).
- Academic journals: Journal of Social Work, International Social Work, Indian Journal of Social Work (2024-2025 volumes).
⚠️ Note for MSW Students: This compilation represents major social issues as of October 2025. Social work practice requires continuous engagement with current events, policy changes, and community needs. Always verify information from primary sources and consider local contexts when applying these insights to practice.
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