Nepotism, the act of favouring relatives or close friends for opportunities or rewards in spite of their qualifications, can take many forms across different sectors, ranging from business to politics, education, and beyond. The kinds of nepotism can be diverse depending on how it is practiced and where it is practiced, but they typically follow some common themes. Examples include: hiring nepotism, promotion nepotism, procurement nepotism, political nepotism, social nepotism, nepotism in education etc. In the educational sector, nepotism takes different dimensions.
Teachers or professors who practice nepotism favour particular students because of their residential territories, family relationships, or family friendshipsrather than students’ performance and excellence in their academics. Often in nepotism, there are even changes without prior notice regarding selection criteria of an opportunity or a position just to favour some particular individual. In most instances, this changed criterion is presented to the outside world as one way of accepting less qualified persons because they hold special relationships or family ties to people in charge.
Such manipulations create an unpredictable and unfair scenario, where some people who initially were considered right for a specific position are perplexed or sidestepped. The lack of transparency in this situation not only destroys trust but also demotivates students or employees if they find success is not the result of actual merit but with whom you might know. This arbitrary shifting of standards keeps brewing a cycle of inequality, thereby somehow reinforcing the idea that contacts matter more than competence.
Impact of Nepotism on Academia
- Decreased Motivation and Effort: It demotivates students because when they work hard, they feel that the fruit of their labour is not paid compared to those with connections. In a way, it becomes futile to invest time and energy in being academically excellent if the same or better opportunities are bestowed upon them by virtue of personal connections rather than their abilities. This, in turn, will lead to frustration and disillusionment over time.
- Inferiority complex: Nepotism, which values achievements of other individuals over that of the students’ may evoke deep feelings of inadequacy among the learners. They end up thinking that their effort doesn’t matter, and everything else depends on how one wants things to go, hence ending up with negative self-image and low self-esteem that are associated with depression in many cases.
- Academic Burnout: When the system favours blue eyed candidates, other students will eventually burn out because of constant pressure to perform and prove themselves in an environment where their achievement is undervalued. Relentless pursuit of excellence without much reward or recognition can exhaust the student’s mental and emotional capacity, making him feel spent and hopeless.
Nepotism in the Workplace: An Obstacle to Professional Development
Nepotism in the workplace works much like it does in education. Jobs, promotions, and opportunities to advance may be granted based on relationships rather than merit. This usually creates a scenario in which the employees who are more qualified and hardworking are overlooked in favour of those with personal connections to management.
Effects on Victimized Employees
- Stagnation and Career-Related Dissatisfaction: If less qualified but those with personal contact are promoted due to personal grounds, then such a situation promotes stagnation among the employees in their career developments. Professional progression becomes dependent more on favour instead of merit-based. Employees find that their entire career is running towards mediocrity and it cannot break its way out with systemic unfairness.
- Resentment and Job Dissatisfaction: The fact that one’s performance is being thwarted by favouritism may lead to resentment. Workers who feel that they are better qualified or deserve the positions more than others may be resentful towards those who are favoured due to their connections. Such feelings of resentment poison workplace relationships and create an atmosphere of mistrust.
- Undermined Self-Worth: In the workplace, just as in education, the constant passing over of an individual for others may lead to the questioning of value and ability. They may question why they were not selected for the opportunities they worked so hard for, or why their skills are being dismissed. This may lead to a sense of failure and lack of self-worth, which are common contributors to depression.
Impact on Victim’s Mental Health
It could lead to deteriorating mental health when the students are put under such unfair conditions. Depression can be caused by the accumulation of stress, anxiety, and injustice. When they feel there is no way out of the system that seems to disregard their hard work, it may bring them to a place of despair or apathy toward their future. These feelings tend to linger even after they are gone from the learning environment.
Likewise, it does not easy to deal with the mental state when one suffers nepotism in the workplace. Chronic injustice and frustration, accompanied by being overlooked and undervalued, is a great path to emotional exhaustion. Depression might result from a feeling of hopelessness and helplessness at the apparent inability to succeed despite the exertion and ability. It might make one feel that he or she is not in control of his or her situation and worsen feelings of hopelessness and despair.
Coping with Nepotism-Induced Depression
While the existence of nepotism in schools and workplaces is discouraging at best, there is a more important issue to consider one’s mental health. Several ways to overcome the negative impact of nepotism are:
- Seeking Support: One of the key steps in coping with any form of mental illness is seeking help from others. Discussing matters with a mentor, counsellor, or therapist may help individuals rationalize their thoughts on unfairness and put their situation into perspective. Sometimes, having someone to listen can end the feeling of isolation that always comes with depression.
- Focusing on Personal Growth: While nepotism may bring systemic challenges, it is not impossible to concentrate on improving personal skills and abilities. Developing new skills, taking additional education, or seeking out new experiences may help counter feelings of stagnation. Knowing that personal growth remains within reach regardless of external circumstances can help restore a sense of control.
- Building a support network: At school and in the office, shared values or goals with others can create that feeling of camaraderie. Making friends with people who share these same values-and are just as motivated by merit rather than connections-will give the emotional fortitude needed to overcome the challenges posed by nepotism.
- Practicing self-care: Depression often makes one feel helpless and burnt out. Taking care of one’s physical and mental health through exercise, mindfulness, and adequate rest is important in combating the emotional strain that comes from living in an unfair system.
- Advocating for change: Sometimes advocating for systemic change in the workplace or educational setting can ease the pressure of nepotism. While this might be a long-term solution, the voice that demands change in issues of inequities and pushes toward transparency and fairness in opportunity awards creates a more just environment.
In nutshell, the phrase “Iski Topi Uske Sarr” depicts the unfairness of situations in which responsibility, credit, or opportunities are shifted away from those who truly deserve them. Nepotism can be devastating for mental health in education and the workplace, leading to depression, anxiety, and hopelessness for a long period. Wounds engraved by nepotism on soul and psyche heals more or less gradually but their scars never fade away. But seeking aid, self-redevelopment, and care can still enable one to pass through it towards a mentally healthier state when such inequalities affect their life or world.
Anyway, change of recovery is important both for an individual person and within collective societal systems although this change could be tough sometimes. The next time you are placed in a situation to promote nepotism, remember that it is the murdering of someone’s dreams, efforts, intelligence, potential, and mental well-being with one fell swoop. And it is an unforgivable sin.
(The Author is PhD; Post-Doc researcher and a renowned compere/broadcaster at All India Radio, Srinagar. For feedback, she can be reached at [email protected]
