January 2021: Current Affair Social Issues | Current Affairs & General Knowledge - CLAT PDF Download

Wages for Housework

Recently, a political party of Tamil Nadu has promised salaries to housewives as a part of its electoral campaign.

• A report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 2018 shows that, globally, women perform 76.2% of total hours of unpaid care work, more than three times as much as men. In Asia and the Pacific, this figure rises to 80%.

Key Points

➤ Background

• Wages for Housework Movement
  (i) The International Wages for Housework Campaign started in Italy in 1972 as a feminist movement that highlighted the role of gendered labour in the home and its connection to surplus value production under capitalism. The movement further spread to Britain and America.
  (ii) Alongside other demands for social and political equality, women's rights campaigners made visible and also politicised women's everyday experience of housework and child care in the 'private' realm of the household.
• Scenario in India
  (i) In 2010, an application by the National Housewives Association, seeking recognition as a trade union was rejected by the deputy registrar of trade unions on the ground that housework is not a trade or an industry.
  (ii) In 2012, the then minister for Women and Child development announced that the government was considering mandating a salary for housework to wives, from husbands. The purpose was to empower women financially and help them live with dignity.
  (iii) The proposal never materialised and with the change in the government in 2014, the idea was put to rest.

➤ Issue

• Housework demands effort and sacrifice, 365 days a year, 24/7. Despite this, many Indian women are not treated equal to men. 
• A large number of women live with domestic violence and cruelty because they are economically dependent on others, mainly their husbands. 
• Time-use data from 2019 gathered by the National Sample Survey Organisation revealed that only about a quarter of men and boys above six years engaged in unpaid household chores, compared to over four-fifths of women. 
• Every day, an average Indian male spends 1.5 hours per day in unpaid domestic work, compared to about five hours by a female.

➤ Arguments in Favour of Household Wage

• More Accurate National Income Accounting: Domestic labour of women is not accounted for in either the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or the employment metrics. Neglecting to include it would thus mean underestimating GDP of the economy. 
• Makes Woman Autonomous and Controls Domestic Violence: The wage that the state ought to pay women would make them autonomous of the men they were dependent on. 
• Most women continue in an abusive relationship because they don't have a way out, as they are financially dependent on their partner.
• Redefines the Role of Women: More fundamentally, the very demand for a wage was a repudiation of housework as an expression of women's nature. It was a revolt against the assigned social role of women. 
• Welfare of a large Segment of Population: According to the Census in 2011, people engaged in household duties have been treated as non-workers, even when 159.9 million women stated that "household work" was their main occupation. 
• Recognition as the first step to Equality: Recognition of household work is one of the most central empowerment processes. It gives them a claim to equality within the patriarchal Indian household that only recognises men's work. 
• Once recognised as work, this arena of unpaid domestic labour that is dominated almost entirely by women can become one where women can demand some degree of parity in terms of the time and energy expended on it. 
• Time Poverty: Combining paid work commitments with a mountain of menial, domestic labour at home means poor women are more likely to suffer from 'time poverty'. 
• Time poverty fundamentally undermines women's human rights since it undermines women's agency and ability to make choices. Therefore, the immense burden of work prevents women from pursuing further education, employment opportunities, raising their skill- level and tending to their own well-being.

➤ Against Household Wage

• Increased Responsibility: Asking men to pay for wives' domestic work could further enhance their sense of entitlement. It may also put the additional onus on women to perform. 
• Strengthen the Position of Men: Buying domestic labour from wife poses a serious risk of formalising the patriarchal Indian family where men's position stems from their being “providers" in the relationship. 
• Acceptance and application: Despite a legal provision, equal inheritance rights continue to be elusive for most women. 
• Burden on Government: There are still debates on who would pay for the housework done by women, if it is to be done by the State then this will put additional fiscal burden on government finances. Suggestions 
• We need to strengthen awareness, implementation and utilisation of other existing provisions. Starting from the right to reside in the marital home, to streedhan and Haq Meher, to coparcenary and inheritance rights as daughters and basic services, free legal aid and maintenance in violence and divorce instances. 
• Women should be encouraged and helped to reach their full potential through quality education, access and opportunities of work, gender-sensitive and harassment-free workplaces and attitudinal and behaviour change within families to make household chores more participative.

Air Pollution and Pregnancy Losses: Lancet Report

According to recent study poor air quality is associated with a considerable proportion of pregnancy loss in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

• It is the first study to estimate air pollution's effect on pregnancy loss across the region.

Key Points

➤ The Study

• They created a model to examine how exposure to PM 2.5 increased women's risk of pregnancy loss, calculating risk for each 10 pg/m3 increased in PM 2.5 after adjusting for maternal age, temperature and humidity, seasonal variation, and long-term trends in pregnancy loss. 
• Each increase in 10 pg/m3 was estimated to increase a mother's risk of pregnancy loss by 3%. 
• The increase in risk was greater for mothers from rural areas or those who became pregnant at an older age than younger mothers from urban areas.

➤ Area Specific Report

• Of the pregnancy loss cases, 77% were from India, 12% from Pakistan, and 11% from Bangladesh.

➤ Limitations

• The study was unable to distinguish between natural pregnancy loss and abortions, which may have led to underestimating the effect of air pollution on natural pregnancy loss. 
• There was under-reporting of pregnancy losses because of stigma or ignoring very early pregnancy losses.

Air Pollution

• Air pollution refers to any physical, chemical, or biological change in the air. It is the contamination of air by harmful gases, dust, and smoke, affecting plants, animals, and humans drastically. 
• Air Pollutants: Pollutants are substances that cause pollution. 
• Types:
  (i) Primary: The pollutants that directly cause air pollution or the pollutants that are formed and emitted directly from particular sources. Examples are particulate matter, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, and sulfur oxide.
  (ii) Secondary: The pollutants formed by the intermingling and reaction of primary pollutants are known as secondary pollutants. Examples are ozone and secondary organic aerosol (haze).

➤ Causes of Air Pollution: Major sources of air pollution are

• Indoor burning of fossil fuels, woods and other biomass to cook, heat and light homes. 
• Industry, including power generation such as coal-fired plants and diesel generators. 
• Transport, especially vehicles with diesel engines. 
• Agriculture, including livestock, which produces methane and ammonia, rice paddies, which produce methane, and the burning of agricultural waste. 
• Open waste burning and organic waste in landfills.

➤ Impact of Air Pollution on Human Health

• As per the State of Global Air 2020 (SoGA 2020) released by the Health Effects Institute (HEI): 
• High PM contributed to the deaths of more than 1,16,000 Indian infants who did not survive their first month. 
• More than half of these deaths were associated with outdoor PM2.5 and others were linked to the use of solid fuels such as charcoal, wood, and animal dung for cooking. 
• According to the 2017 Global Burden of Disease report published by The Lancet Planetary Health journal: 
• India, which accounts for 18% of the global population, recorded 26% of the global premature deaths and disease burden due to air pollution. 
• One in every eight deaths in India (2017) could be attributed to air pollution, which now contributes to more disease burden than smoking. 
• Household air pollution causes about 3.8 million premature deaths each year. 
• Air quality has become a serious health issue because the pollutants enter deep inside the lungs and the lungs capacity to purify blood gets reduced which affects the person's growth, mental ability and working capacity especially for children, pregnant women and elderly people. 
• In children, it is associated with low birth weight, asthma, childhood cancers, obesity, poor lung development and autism, among others.

➤ Indian Initiatives to Control Air Pollution

• The Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region (NCR) and Adjoining Areas: It coordinates state governments' efforts to curb air pollution, and will lay down the parameters of air quality for the region. 
• Bharat Stage (BS) VI norms: These are emission control standards put in place by the government to check air pollution. 
• Dashboard for Monitoring Air Quality: It is a National Air Quality Monitoring Programme (NAMP) based dashboard, built on data from the Central Pollution Control Board's National Ambient Air Quality Monitoring (NAAQM) Network which was started in 1984-85 and covers 344 cities/towns in 29 states and 6 UTs. 
• National Clean Air Programme: launched in 2019 it is a comprehensive pan-India air pollution abatement scheme for 102 cities. 
• National Air Quality Index (AQI): It focuses on health effects one might experience within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air. 
• National Ambient Air Quality Standards: They are the standards for ambient air quality concerning various identified pollutants notified by the Central Pollution Control Board under the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981. 
• Breathe: It is a 15 point action plan to fight air pollution by NITI Aayog. 
• Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY): It aims to provide clean-cooking fuel to poor households and bring in qualitative charges in living standards.

International Initiatives

➤ Climate and Clean Air Coalition 

• Launched in 2019 
• It is a voluntary partnership of governments, intergovernmental organizations, businesses, scientific institutions, civil society organi­zations committed to protecting the climate and improving air quality through actions to reduce short-lived climate pollutants. 
• India is a member of the coalition. 
• United Nations Clean Air Initiative: It calls on national and subnational governments to commit to achieving air quality that is safe for citizens and align climate change and air pollution policies by 2030. 
• World Health Organization (WHO)'s 4 Pillar Strategy: WHO adopted a resolution (2015) to address air pollution's adverse health effects. PM (Particulate Matter) 2.5
• PM 2.5 is an atmospheric particulate matter of diameter of fewer than 2.5 micrometres, which is around 3% the diameter of a human hair. 
• It causes respiratory problems and also reduces visibility. It is an endocrine disruptor that can affect insulin secretion and insulin sensitivity, thus contributing to diabetes. 
• It can only be detected with an electron microscope because of them being very small. 
• Sources of fine particles include all types of combustion activities (motor vehicles, power plants, wood burning, etc.) and certain industrial processes.

Satyameva Jayate: Digital Media Literacy

The Kerala Government has recently announced a digital media literacy programme called 'Satyameva Jayate' (Truth alone triumphs) to counter Fake News's menace.

➤ Key Points

• The programme would be taught at schools and colleges, which would be encouraged to develop a curriculum on digital media literacy. 
• The programme would cover five points:
  (i) What is wrong information.
  (ii) Why they are spreading fast.
  (iii) What precautions have to be adopted while using social media content.
  (iv) How those who spread fake news make profit.
  (v) What steps can be initiated by citizens.

➤ Satyameva Jayate

• Satyameva Jayate (Truth alone triumphs") is a part of a mantra from the Hindu scripture Mundaka Upanishad. 
• Following the independence of India, it was adopted as the national motto of India on 26th January 1950. 
• It is inscribed in the Devanagari script at the base of the Lion Capital of Ashoka and forms an integral part of the Indian national emblem. 
• The emblem and the words "Satyameva Jayate" are inscribed on one side of all Indian currency and national documents.

➤ Menace of Fake News

• Fake news is untrue information presented as news. It often aims to damage the reputation of a person or entity or make money through advertising revenue. 
• Once common in the print and digital media, the prevalence of fake news has increased with the rise of social media and messengers. 
• Political polarization, post-truth politics, confirma­tion bias, and social media have been implicated in the spread of fake news.

➤ Threats Posed

• Fake news can reduce the impact of real news by competing with it. 
• In India, the spread of fake news has occurred mostly with relation to political and religious matters. 
• However, misinformation related to Covid-19 pandemic was also widely circulated. 
• Fake news spread through social media in the country has become a serious problem, with the potential of it resulting in mob violence.

➤ Countermeasures

• Internet shutdowns are often used by the government to control social media rumours from spreading. 
• Ideas such as linking Aadhaar to social media accounts have been suggested to the Supreme Court of India by the Attorney General. 
• In some parts of India like Kannur in Kerala, the government conducted fake news classes in government schools. 
• The government is planning to conduct more public-education initiatives to make the population more aware of fake news. 
• Fact-checking has sparked the creation of fact­checking websites in India to counter fake news. For example Alt News. 
• Recently, the Supreme Court has asked the Centre to provide information on the existing legal mechanisms to deal with complaints about the content on television channels. Further it has asked the Centre to create an authority to check fake news and bigotry on air.

Fighting Drug Addiction

Recently, people in a few Jodhpur district's Bilara block villages, Rajasthan have come together to tackle Drug Addiction among the youth.

Key Points

➤ Steps Taken By the Villagers

• Boycott of persons consuming liquor, tobacco and narcotics. 
• Imposition of a penalty on the sellers and buyers of these substances.

➤ Drug Addiction

• It refers to the condition of being addicted to a drug, particularly narcotic drugs. 
• These are generally illegal drugs that affect a person's mood and behaviour. 
• Drug abuse refers to the use of certain chemicals to create pleasurable effects on the brain. 
• There are over 190 million drug users worldwide, and the problem has been increasing at alarming rates, especially among young adults under the age of 30.

➤ Drug Menace In India

• The menace of drug addiction has spread fast among the youth of India. 
• India is sandwiched between two largest Opium producing regions of the world: the Golden triangle on one side and the Golden crescent on other.
• The golden triangle area comprises Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam and Laos. 
• The golden crescent area includes Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran. 
• As per the report Magnitude of Substance Use in India released by All India Institute Of Medical Science (AIIMS) in 2019: 
• Alcohol is the most abused substance in India. 
• Around 5 crore Indians reported to have used cannabis and opioids at the time of the survey (conducted in the year 2018). 
• It has been estimated that about 8.5 lakh people inject drugs. 
• Of the total cases estimated by the report, more than half of them are contributed by states like Punjab, Assam, Delhi, Haryana, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim and Uttar Pradesh. 
• About 60 lakh people are estimated to need help for their opioid use problems. 
• More and more children are taking to alcohol consumption and the highest percentage of children who are addicted to alcohol are in Punjab followed by West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.

➤ Major Reasons for Drug Abuse

• To be accepted by the peers. 
• Increasing economic stress. 
• Changing cultural values. 
• Experimentation. 
• Neurotic pleasure. 
• Ineffective Policing.

➤ Impacts of Drug Abuse

• Higher risk of unintentional injuries, accidents, domestic violence incidents, medical problems, and death. Economic potential gets wasted. 
• Affects relationships with family, friends creating emotional and social problems 
• Increases financial burden. 
• Drug abuse seriously affects our health, security, peace and development. 
• Increase in diseases like Hepatitis B and C, Tuberculosis 
• Drug dependence, low self esteem, hopelessness can lead to criminal action and even suicidal tendencies.

➤ Challenges to Curb the Drug Menace

• Legally Available Drugs: Such as tobacco is a huge problem that is usually seen as a gateway drug that children take to experiment with.

➤ Lack of Availability of Rehabilitation Centres

• There is a lack of rehabilitation centres. Also, NGOs operating de-addiction centres in the country, have failed to provide the required kind of treatment and therapy.

➤ Smuggling of Drugs

• Smuggling of drugs through the states like Punjab, Assam and Uttar Pradesh which share the border with neighbouring countries. Government Initiatives to Tackle Drug Addiction: 
• It constituted the Narco-Coordination Centre (NCORD) in November 2016 and revived the scheme of "Financial Assistance to States for Narcotics Control". 
• Narcotics Control Bureau has been provided funds for developing a new software i.e. Seizure Information Management System (SIMS) which will create a complete online database of drug offences and offenders. 
• The government has constituted a fund called "National Fund for Control of Drug Abuse" to meet the expenditure incurred in connection with combating illicit traffic in Narcotic Drugs; rehabilitating addicts, and educating the public against drug abuse, etc. 
• The government is also conducting a National Drug Abuse Survey to measure trends of drug abuse in India through the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment with the help of the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre of AIIMS. 
• 'Project Sunrise' was launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in 2016, to tackle the rising HIV prevalence in north-eastern states in India, especially among people injecting drugs. 
• The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, (NDPS) 1985: It prohibits a person from producing, possessing, selling, purchasing, transporting, storing, and/or consuming any narcotic drug or psychotropic substance. 
• The NDPS Act has since been amended thrice - in 1988, 2001 and 2014. 
• The Act extends to India's whole and also applies to all Indian citizens outside India and to all persons on ships and aircraft registered in India. 
• Government has also announced the launch of the 'Nasha Mukt Bharat', or Drug-Free India Campaign focuses on community outreach programs. 

➤ International Treaties and Conventions to Combat Drug Menace

• India is a signatory of the following international treaties and conventions to combat the menace of Drug Abuse:
  (i) United Nations (UN) Convention on Narcotic Drugs(1961)
  (ii) UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances (1971).
  (iii) UN Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (1988)
  (iv) UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) 2000

India Justice Report 2020

The India Justice Report (2020) prepared by the Tata Trusts in collaboration with the Centre for Social Justice, Common Cause, DAKSH, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy and the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative has been released recently.

• The Report assesses the capacity of various states to deliver justice.

Key Points

➤ About the Report

• The report analysed expenditure, vacancies, representation of women, human resources, infrastructure, workload, diversity across 18 large and medium-sized states with a population of over 1 crore and 7 small states.

➤ Findings

• Overall Ranking:
  (i) The overall ranking is a result of a state's ranking across the four pillars of the justice delivery system - Judiciary, Police, Prisons and Legal aid.
  (ii) Maharashtra was ranked topmost among 18 states for the second time in a row, followed by Tamil Nadu and Telangana. Uttar Pradesh remains last.
  (iii) Amongst the smaller states, Goa remained at the top and Arunachal Pradesh at the bottom.

➤ Women Ratio in Police Force

• Bihar leads the list of 25 states for employing most women in its police force which is 25.3%. 
• It is the only state to have more than 20% of women in the police force. However, women account for only 6.1% in the officer category. 
• Tamil Nadu has the highest percentage of women police officers (24.8%), followed by Mizoram (20.1%). 

➤ Women Ratio in Judiciary

• Overall, only 29% of judges in High Courts across the country are women, but no state except Sikkim has over 20% women judges. 
• Four states - Bihar, Uttarakhand, Tripura and Meghalaya have no woman judges in high courts.

➤ Social Justice

• Karnataka is the only state to meet its quotas for SC, ST and OBC in both officer cadre and constabulary. 
• Chhattisgarh being the only other state that meets the diversity requirements for the constabulary.

➤ Lack of Finances

• In the last 25 years, only 1.5 crore people have received legal aid with the Centre spending Rs. 1.5 per capita in 2019-20.
• High Proportion of Undertrials: Two-thirds of all prisoners are undertrials awaiting a conviction.
• A person who is being held in custody awaiting trial for a crime.

➤ Causes of Poor Justice Delivery

• Legal services institutions remain affected by a lack of infrastructure, uneven human resource distribution, poor utilization of central funds and an inability to effectively harness Lok Adalats to ease the burden on the judiciary.

Crowdfunding for Rare Diseases

Recently, the Delhi High Court has ordered the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to explore Crowdfunding to help two children who are suffering from a Rare Disease known as Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

Key Points

➤ Constitutional Provision Involved

• The HC held that 'Right to Health and Healthcare' is a fundamental right that the Supreme Court recognised to be a part of the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution.

➤ Direction to the Society and Authorities

• The High Court directed the society in general and authorities, in particular, to ensure that the life of such children is not compromised, even if there is a small window of improving their chances of survival or even providing a better quality of life.

Directed the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to give a specific timeline in respect of the finalisation and notification of the Draft Health Policy for Rare Diseases, 2020. The draft policy has a section where the government proposed Crowdfunding for treatment of high-cost Rare Diseases.

Crowdfunding

➤ About

• Crowdfunding is a method of raising capital through the collective effort of many individual investors. 
• This approach taps into the collective efforts of a large pool of individuals, primarily online via social media and crowdfunding platforms and leverages their networks for greater reach and exposure.

➤ Types

• Donation-Based Crowdfunding: Donation-based Crowdfunding is a way to source money for a project by asking a large number of contributors to donate a small amount to it individually. In return, the backers may receive token rewards that increase in prestige as the size of the donation increases. However, for the smallest sums, the funder may receive nothing at all.
• Rewards-Based Crowdfunding: Rewards-based Crowdfunding involves individuals contributing to a business in exchange for a "reward," typically a form of the product or service which the company offers. Even though this method offers backers a reward, it's still generally considered a subset of donation-based Crowdfunding since there is no financial or equity return. 
• Equity-Based Crowdfunding: Unlike the donation-based and rewards-based methods, equity-based Crowdfunding allows contributors to become part-owners of the company by trading capital for equity shares. As equity owners, the contributors receive a financial return on their investment and ultimately receive a share of the profits in the form of a dividend or distribution.

➤ Benefits

• Reach - By using a crowdfunding platform, one has access to thousands of accredited investors who can see, interact with, and share the fundraising campaign. 
• Presentation - By creating a crowdfunding campaign, one goes through the invaluable process of looking at the business from the top level—its history, traction, offerings, addressable market, value proposition, with digestible packages. 
• PR & Marketing - From launch to close, one can share and promote the campaign through social media, email newsletters, and other online marketing tactics. 
• Validation of Concept - Presenting the concept or business to the masses affords an excellent opportunity to validate and refine the offering. 
• Efficiency - One of the best things about online Crowdfunding is its ability to centralize and streamline fundraising efforts.

➤ Rare Diseases

• A rare disease is a health condition of low prevalence that affects a small number of people compared with other prevalent diseases in the general population. 
• There is no universally accepted definition of rare diseases and the definitions usually vary across different countries. 
• Though rare diseases are of low prevalence and individually rare, collectively they affect a considerable proportion of the population. 
• 80% of rare diseases are genetic in origin and hence disproportionately impact children. 
• In India there are 56-72 million people affected by rare diseases.

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD)

➤ About

• It is a genetic disorder characterized by progressive muscle degeneration and weakness due to the alterations of a protein called dystrophin that helps keep muscle cells intact.

➤ Symptoms

• Muscle weakness 
• Enlargement of the calves 
• A waddling gait 
• Lumbar lordosis (an inward curve of the spine)