Why Sociology?

 Sociology as a subject is a study of society. There exists many problems in both world and indian societies. There are various perspectives of seeing that issue. As a civil servant to develop a policy that addresses the problems and to get the desired outcomes, you should know the different perspectives of analyzing an issue. A normal person also knows how society works and how people think. But what is the difference between a normal person and a civil servant? Suppose that to know the reasons for women’s backwardness in society mostly everyone using their common sense says that the dominating mindset of men, the patriarchal system are the reasons. You need not study sociology to know that. But as a civil servant one knows that there are still more factors and also the intersection of such factors led to the issue i.e., it is possible for a normal that he finds only 1 or 2 dimensions. Studying Sociology helps in seeing multiple dimensions. For the same problem one sociologist says economic reasons, some others political reasons, social reasons, linguistic reasons, and perspective issues. As we study all these we realise that it is often an intersection of all these led to the issue. To solve an issue or design the policy you need to know the root cause initially. Sociology helps that. It is a systematic study of society which is not common sense. Using General observations which happen around us we generalize them and develop the common sense. Studying sociology helps in seeing all the other factors.

It also helps in knowing the after effects of implementing the scheme policy. It helps in adopting the proper procedure to do a survey. All this prior knowledge provides a robust solution to an issue. So I feel rather any other optional, Sociology is the apt choice for a civil servant working on the ground or field. However many other optional also has their relevance to administration might be during various phases of career.