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Marital Rape

About

• Marital rape refers to the act of sexual intercourse with one's spouse without the spouse's consent.
• Marital rape is not a crime in Indian Jurisprudence. However, there has been growing demand to criminalise marital rape in India.
• According to NHFS-4 survey, 5.4% women experienced marital rape in India.

Reasons for Marital Rape

• Economic independency: Lack of economic independence often deters married women to report Marital rape.
• Lack of awareness: Women often do not even realise that they are the victims of marital rape, as sex without consent is taken for granted in the marriage.
• Patriarchy: Sexual offence is a weapon of male domination, and it is manifestation of patriarchy.

IPC under Section 375
This section defines rape as follows A man is said to commit “rape” who has sexual intercourse with a woman under following circumstances

• Against her will
• Without her consent
• With her consent, but the consent has obtained because of
  (i) Putting her in the fear of death
  (ii) When the man knows that he is not her husband, but she believes that he is her husband
  (iii) Unsound mind or intoxication
• With or without consent, when she is under 16 years of age
• However, the same section gave an exemption
  Exemption: Sexual intercourse by a man with his wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape.

Arguments for Criminalisation of MArital Rape

• Against the individual rights of the married women (Article 14 and 21): A married woman should have the same rights over her body as much as an unmarried woman does. (Marital Rape thus, is against the principle of equality)
• Victims of marital rape undergoes same trauma as in case of rape by strangers: Studies show that rape victims, either married or unmarried, undergoes PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder)
• A form of domestic violence: Sexual offence against the wife is a form of domestic violence. India has already enacted the Domestic Violence Law that enables complaints against physical and sexual abuse. The IPC also holds cruelty to be an offence in a domestic context. Thus, the argument that criminalising marital rape will ruin the institution of marriage is unlikely to hold any more than a complaint of domestic violence or cruelty would.
• Inconsistent with other laws and Judgements:
  (i) A husband separated from his wife (though not divorced) may even be tried for rape (Section 376B).
  (ii) Section 377 of IPC penalises carnal intercourse against the order of nature by any man (including husband).
  (iii) This exemption indirectly admits that wife is a property of Husband, which is in conflict with the opinion given by SC in Joseph Shine Case (2018).
  (iv) Rape is criminalised in live-in relationships between couples which have been seen as legally equivalent to marriages by courts in India.
  (v) The Supreme Court held that the offence of adultery was unconstitutional because it was founded on the principle that a woman is her husband’s property after marriage. Thus, the underlying idea behind exemption to marital rape which treats women as property of husband is unfounded.

Arguments Against  Criminalisation of Marital Rape

• Threat to the institution of marriage: Criminalisation of marital rape is often viewed as a threat to the institution of marriage, in which both the spouses have conjugal rights over each other. However, Marriage as an institution evolved over the period. New forms of marriage emerged like Cohabitation, Live-in, same sex marriages etc. where individual choices are given primacy. Institution of marriage is no more primitive in nature, where conjugal rights took precedence over individual choices.
• Conjugal rights: Section 19 of the Hindu Marriage Act gives either spouse in a marriage the legal right to "restitution of conjugal right.” But recognition of conjugal rights to have sex with spouse does not give a licence to rape.
• Misuse of law: Laws to protect women are often misused just like section 498 A. It is also a challenge to prove the offence. However, Misuse of a law is not a defensive argument to not to enforce it.

Conclusion: Justive Verma Committee report on reforms in criminal laws recommended removal of exception given to marital rape as protection pointed towards an outdated notion of marriage that treated the wife as the husband’s property. The idea of treating wife under the husband’s authority always should be changed and the dignity, autonomy and self-respect of

females should be upheld.

Gender Neutral Laws 

the Justice Verma Commission (JVC), Parliament expanded the meaning of rape. Yet, the rape laws in India have remained far from being gender neutral.

About
The idea behind is that policies, language and other social institutions should avoid distinguishing roles according to people’s sex or gender. This is to avoid discrimination arising from the impression that there are social roles for which one gender is more suited than another.

Need for Gender Neutral Rape Laws

• Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), 2013 recognises that both boys as well as girls can be victims of sexual assault. But there is no such provision for adult male.
• Though the Supreme Court decriminalise consensual sexual acts between men (section 377), but for non- consensual acts of sexual violence between two men, the section continues to apply. However, unlike rape laws, the burden of proof lies with the complainant.
• The existing rape laws are inadequate to do justice to the LGBTQ sections since they are not Gender neutral.
• Gender biased laws reinforces the existing gender stereotypes and helps in sustaining patriarchy.
• There are certain laws that have been framed in India which accord more protection to women as compared to men. These laws have been framed as women were often considered the weaker gender and thus need protection by the state. However, these laws have also been often misused by females for their vested interest. This has demand for gender neutral laws.

However, some sections of civil society were vocal against these gender-neutral provisions,  highlighting the high probability of double victimisation of women wherein complaints of rape, sexual harassment and assault could be met by counter-complaints to build pressure to withdraw their cases. They thus advocate for special provisions in favour of women.

Education Emergency 

Need for Enhancing Digital Education

• Improving learning outcomes: Multiple ASER reports have shown that basic learning outcomes are very poor in Indian primary education sector. Blending online learning with face-to-face teaching generally produces better outcomes than traditional classrooms.
• Imparting 21st century skills: The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 recommends leveraging digital in education to improve learning outcomes and imparting 21st century skills to students. These 21st century skills include- Critical Thinking, Creativity, Collaboration, Curiosity, Communication.
• Impact of COVID-19 pandemic: COVID induced school closures resulted in learning loss to many students who couldn’t attend classes.

Challenges with Digital Education

• Digital access divide:
  (i) Device access: Urban areas and higher socio- economic groups have adequate access to devices, whereas public schools and rural communities lack access to basic ICT infrastructure such as projectors. Also, the access to smartphones, electricity which are pre-requisite for digital learning are very low in poor households. o Internet penetration: Low internet access in rural areas, with only 32% of people aged 12+ having access to internet versus 54% in urban areas, hampers the ability to adopt digital in education.
• Access to the content in vernacular languages- Most of the digital content is not available in vernacular languages.
• Shortage of trained teachers: A major obstacle in the use of digital education in rural area is the lack of knowledge and skills among teachers. There is a shortage of teachers, formally trained on digital technology. Lack of digitally trained teachers accentuates the skewed learning outcomes.
• Poor maintenance and upgradation of digital equipment is a challenge in rural areas. Digital education projects in rural schools are not self-sustainable. At initial stage various projects have been launched by government for development of digital education, but later, they have not been taken due care & maintenance of digital equipment which is affecting digital education development in rural areas.

Way Forward

• Increasing expenditure by government on making digital infrastructure such as computers, internet connectivity available in particularly in government schools.
• Inviting Corporate Social Responsibility participation in digital education.
• Partnership with innovating ed-tech firms to make digital learning available to vast majority of students.
• Nation-wide teacher training in digital education.
• Regulation of EdTech firms to comply with rules of government and make digital education widespread. Initiatives to boost Digital Education

National Digital Educational Architecture (NDEAR)

• PM eVIDYA Programme: The government introduced the PM eVIDYA programme in 2020 to make e-learning more accessible for Indian students and teachers and promote & strengthen digital education in India. The programme aims to converge all activities related to online/digital education and is expected to benefit ~25 crore school students. Under this, top 100 universities were permitted to begin online courses, provide better learning prospects to 3.7 crore higher education students and enhance e-learning by relaxing regulatory framework for distance/open/online education.
• DIKSHA: In 2017, the government introduced DIKSHA (Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing), a national portal for school education, to offer school curriculum-based engaging learning materials to students, teachers, and parents. The portal supports >18 Indian languages and has been implemented by 35 states/UTs.
• SWAYAM: In 2017, government launched Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds  (SWAYAM) to offer an integrated platform for online courses at affordable costs to all citizens, especially underprivileged section. The portal hosts Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to offer quality education on various subjects for students (from Class 9-12 to Under Graduates and Postgraduates).
• NISHTHA: In FY21, the National Initiative for School Heads and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement (NISHTHA)- Phase II was launched at the secondary level to tailor modules for online education. As per the Union Budget 2021-22, ~5.6 million teachers will be trained under the NISHTHA training programme in FY22.

Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojna

Context for the Scheme

• As per the Sample Registration System (SRS) report by Registrar General of India (RGI), Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) of India is 113 per 100,000 live births and IMR is 30 per 1000 live births. According to UNICEF, India accounts for 1/5th of world’s annual child births.
• As per NFHS-IV, 2015–16 report, over half (53%) of Indian women of reproductive age and 58.6% of children were estimated to be anaemic.
• Owing to economic and social distress many women continue to work to earn a living right up to the last days of their pregnancy. Furthermore, they resume working soon after childbirth, even though their bodies might not permit it, thus preventing their bodies from fully recovering on one hand and impeding their ability to exclusively breastfeed their young infant in the first six months. This impacts nutritional health of Mothers and infants.
• To address these challenges, PMMVY is being implemented

Objective of PMMVY

• To provide partial compensation for the wage loss in terms of cash incentives so that the woman can take adequate rest before and after delivery of the first living child.
• To improve health seeking behaviour amongst the Pregnant and Lactating Mothers.

Benefits under the Scheme

• All eligible Pregnant & Lactating Mothers would receive a Cash incentive of Rs 5000 in three instalments for first childbirth.
• Conditions attached to these instalments are
  (i) Early registration of pregnancy at the Anganwadi Centre (AWC).
  (ii) Receiving at least one ante-natal check-up (ANC).
  (iii) Registration of childbirth and vaccination of first cycle vaccines (BCG, OPV, DPT and Hepatitis-B).
• In addition, a pregnant woman also receives the cash incentive of INR 1,000 when she opts for an institutional delivery, under the Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY).

Issues with PMMVY

• Inadequate coverage of intended beneficiaries: While the estimated eligible population of pregnant and lactating mothers in India was 128.7 lakh for 2017-18, the target set by the Government was 51.70 lakh beneficiaries which is only 40% of the eligible population.
• Restricted to first birth: Of the total live births in India, 49.5% comprises first-order births and 29.9% are second-order births, as per SRS 2018. It is imperative to include second live birth under the maternity benefit cover particularly for women in the unorganised sector who are more vulnerable to economic shocks and nutrition loss for all child births.
• Insufficient compensation: The cash entitlement is insufficient to compensate the wage loss of pregnant and lactating women. The current entitlement of Rs 5,000 provided over 1-year amounts to merely one month’s wage loss, as per the MGNREGA wage rate.
• Implementational challenges: Lack of awareness within the intended beneficiaries about the scheme and cumbersome process to get the benefits made its implementation a challenging task.

Way Forward 

• Increase the amount of cash transfer to at least 12 weeks of wage compensation, amounting to about INR 15,000. This is especially important in the current context, as the lockdown has led to income loss not just for women, but for others in the household as well. Also, 95% of the female workforce in India is employed in the informal sector, and does not have access to maternity benefits like paid maternity leave.
• Expand the benefits to women giving birth to second child as well.
• Simplify the process to receive the benefit as the current requirements for submission of multiple documents like mother child protection card (MPC), husband’s Aadhar card, bank passbook, registration form etc. act as barriers to access the benefits.

Jan Aushadhi Diwas

Performance

• As on 31st January, 2022, the number of stores has increased to 8,675. In the current financial year 2021-22 (till 31st January, 2022), PMBI has made sales of Rs. 751.42 Crore which led to savings of approximately Rs. 4500 Crore to the citizens.
• Under the PMBJP, all 739 districts of the nation have been covered.
• Government has set a target to increase the number of Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Kendras (PMBJKs) to 10,500 by the end of March 2025.
• Product basket of PMBJP comprises of 1451 drugs and 240 surgical instruments.
• Further, new medicines and nutraceuticals products like protein powder, malt-based food supplements, protein bar, immunity bar, sanitizer, masks, glucometer, oximeter, etc. have been launched.
• At present three IT enabled warehouses of PMBJP are functional at Gurugram, Chennai & Guwahati and fourth one is ready to start operations at Surat.
• Further, 39 distributors have been appointed across the country to support the supply of medicines to remote and rural areas

Minimum Assured Return Scheme (MARS)

Proposal Under MARS

• To have a separate scheme that can offer a guaranteed minimum rate of return to NPS (National Pension System) subscribers, especially those who are risk averse.
• The actual returns will depend on the market conditions. Any shortfall will be made good by the sponsor, and the surplus will be credited to the subscribers’ account.

National Pension System (NPS)

• Central Government introduced NPS from January 2004 for government employees (except for armed forces).
• NPS is implemented and regulated by PFRDA.
• National Pension System Trust (NPST) established by PFRDA is the registered owner of all assets under NPS.
• Opening an account with NPS provides a Permanent Retirement Account Number (PRAN)
• NPS provides seamless portability across jobs and across locations, unlike all current pension plans, including that of the EPFO.
• Individuals can switch over from one investment option to another or from one fund manager to another subject, of course, to certain regulatory restrictions. The returns are totally market-related.

Structure NPS is structured into two tiers:

• Tier-I account: This is the non-withdrawable permanent retirement account into which the accumulations are deposited and invested as per the option of the subscriber.
• Tier-II account: This is a voluntary withdrawable account which is allowed only when there is an active Tier I account in the name of the subscriber. The withdrawals are permitted from this account as per the needs of the subscriber as and when claimed.

Beneficiaries 

• NPS was made available to all Citizens of India from May 2009.
• Any individual citizen of India (both resident and Non-resident) in the age group of 18-65 years can join NPS.
• OCI (Overseas Citizens of India) and PIO (Person of Indian Origin) card holders and Hindu Undivided Family (HUFs) are not eligible Achievements 
• NPS has been gradually growing in size and now manages 5.78 lakh crore of savings and 4.24 crore accounts in multiple savings schemes. 
• Of these, over 3.02 crore accounts are part of the Atal Pension Yojana (APY), a government-backed scheme for workers in unorganised sector that assures a fixed pension payout after retirement.
• The rest constitute voluntary savings from private sector employees and self-employed individuals Changes Introduced
• PFRDA has recently announced that NPS will no longer compel investors to convert 40% of their accumulated retirement corpus into an annuity, as poor yields on annuities and high inflation are translating into negative returns.
• It has also announced that the retirees will be able to take out the entire Rs.5 lakh savings in the NPS against Rs. 2 lakh at present. India’s pension Assets Under Management (AUM) have already crossed Rs 7-lakh crore and are expected to touch RS 7.5-lakh crore by end March this fiscal 2021-22.PFRDA is aiming for an AUM of Rs 30-lakh crore by 2030

SAMARTH Initiative

What is the SAMARTH Initiative?

• Under the Samarth initiative of the Ministry, following benefits will be available to aspiring and existing women entrepreneurs:
  (i) 20% Seats in free Skill Development Programs organised under skill development schemes of the Ministry will be allocated for Women.
  (ii) 20% of MSME Business Delegations sent to domestic & international exhibitions under the schemes for Marketing Assistance implemented by the Ministry will be dedicated to women owned MSMEs.
  (iii) 20% Discount on annual processing fee on National Small Industries Corporation’s (NSIC) Commercial Schemes.
• NSIC is a Government of India Enterprise under the Ministry of MSME.  Special Drive for registration of women-owned MSMEs under Udyam Registration.
• Through this initiative, the Ministry of MSME is focusing on providing Skill Development and Market Development Assistance to women.
• More than 7500 women candidates from rural and sub- urban areas will be trained in the FY 2022-23.  Besides, thousands of women will be getting marketing opportunities to showcase their products in domestic and international exhibitions.
• Also, to enhance the participation of women entrepreneurs in Public Procurement, a special discount of 20% shall also be offered on annual processing fee on NSIC’s following commercial schemes during the year 2022-23:
  (i) Single Point Registration Scheme
  (ii)Raw Material Assistance and Bill Discounting
  (iii) Tender Marketing
  (iv)  B2B Portal msmemart.com

What is International Women’s Day?

• Celebration of women’s achievements,
• Raising awareness about women’s equality,
• Lobbying for accelerated gender parity,
• Fundraising for female-focused charities, etc.

2. Brief History
Women’s Day was first celebrated back in 1911 by Clara Zetkin, who was a German. The roots of the celebration had been in the labour movement. It was only in 1913, however, that the celebrations were shifted to 8th March, and it has remained that way ever since. International Women’s Day was celebrated for the first time by the United Nations (UN) in 1975.

• In December 1977, the General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a UNs Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace to be observed on any day of the year by Member States, in accordance with their historical and national traditions.

3. 2022 Theme

• ‘Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow’.

4. Related Data
According to the UN, legal restrictions have kept 2.7 billion women from accessing the same choice of jobs as men.

• As of 2019, less than 25% of parliamentarians were women.
• One in three women experience gender-based violence. In 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic, female labour force participation in India was 20.5%, according to International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates. Comparable estimates for males was 76%. In the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index (which measures progress towards gender parity), India is one of the worst performers in South Asia, it is now ranked 140 among 156 countries in 2021.
• As per the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-5, as many as 57% women aged 15-49 were anaemic in 2019-21, compared to 53% in 2015-16.

What are the Safeguards for Women in India?

• Fundamental Rights: It guarantees all Indians the right to equality (Article 14), no discrimination by the State on the basis of gender (Article 15(1)) and special provisions to be made by the State in favour of women (Article 15(3)).

2. Fundamental Duties: The Constitution imposes a fundamental duty on every citizen through Articles 51 (A)(e) to renounce practices derogatory to dignity of women.

3. Legislative Framework:

• Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005: It provides victims of domestic violence with a means for practical remedy through prosecution.  The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961: It prohibits the request, payment or acceptance of a dowry.  The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal) Act, 2013: This legislative act seeks to protect women from sexual harassment at their place of work.

4. Related Schemes: Mahila e-haat, Women Technology Park, Gender Advancement for Transforming Institutions (GATI), etc.

Are there any World Conferences on Women?

• The UN has organised 4 world conferences on women. These took place in
  (i) Mexico City, 1975
  (ii)  Copenhagen, 1980
  (iii) Nairobi, 1985
  (iv) Beijing, 1995
• The 4th World Conference on Women (WCW), held in Beijing, was one of the largest ever gatherings of the UNs, and a critical turning point in the world’s focus on gender equality and the empowerment of women.  The Beijing Declaration is an agenda for women’s empowerment and considered the key global policy document on gender equality. It sets  strategic objectives and actions for the advancement of women and the achievement of gender equality in 12 critical areas of concern like women and health, women in power and decision-making, the girl-child, women and the environment.
• Recently, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has proposed a Temporary basic Income (TBI) for poor women in developing countries to help them cope with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and alleviate the economic pressures they face every day.

De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-nomadic Tribes

Why in News?
Recently, the standing committee of Parliament has criticised the functioning of the development programme for de-notified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes.

• The committee noted that the Scheme for economic empowerment of Denotified Tribes (DNTs) communities has total outlays of Rs 200 crore for the period of five years from 2021-22 and the Department could not spend even a single rupee in 2021-22.

Who are De-Notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes?

• These are communities that are the most vulnerable and deprived.
• DNTs are communities that were ‘notified’ as being ‘born criminals’ during the British regime under a series of laws starting with the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871. These Acts were repealed by the Independent Indian Government in l952, and these communities were “De-Notified”.
• A few of these communities which were listed as de-notified were also nomadic. € Nomadic and semi-nomadic communities are defined as those who move from one place to another rather than living in one place all the time.
• Historically, Nomadic Tribes and De-notified Tribes never had access to private land or home ownership.
• While most DNTs are spread across the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) categories, some DNTs are not covered in any of the SC, ST or OBC categories.
• Many commissions and committees constituted since Independence have referred to the problems of these communities. These include the Criminal Tribes Inquiry Committee, 1947 constituted in the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh), Ananthasayanam Ayyangar Committee in 1949 (it was based on the report of this committee the Criminal Tribes Act was repealed),  Kaka Kalelkar Commission (also called first OBC Commission) constituted in 1953.
• The B P Mandal Commission constituted in 1980 also made some recommendations on the issue.
• The National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC), 2002 held that DNTs have been wrongly stigmatised as crime prone and subjected to high handed treatment as well as exploitation by the representatives of law and order and general society.  The NCRWC was established under the chairmanship of Justice M N Venkatachaliah.
• It has been estimated that South Asia has the world’s largest nomadic population. In India, roughly 10% of the population is Denotified and Nomadic. While the number of Denotified Tribes is about 150, the population of Nomadic Tribes consists of about 500 different communities.

What are the Developmental Efforts Regarding DNT?

• Background: A National Commission for De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes (NCDNT) was constituted in 2006 by the then government. It was headed by Balkrishna Sidram Renke and submitted its report in 2008. The commission held that “It is an irony that these tribes somehow escaped the attention of our Constitution makers. € They are deprived of Constitutional support unlike Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes”. € The Renke commission estimated their population at around 10.74 crores based on Census 2001.
• Schemes for DNT: The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is implementing the following schemes for the welfare of the DNTs.  
  Dr. Ambedkar Pre-Matric and Post-Matric Scholarship for DNTs. This Centrally Sponsored Scheme was launched w.e.f. 2014-15 for the welfare of those DNT students who are not covered under SC, ST or OBC.
• Nanaji Deshmukh Scheme of Construction of Hostels for DNT Boys and Girls. This Centrally Sponsored Scheme launched w.e.f. 2014-15 is implemented through State Governments/ UT Administrations/ Central Universities.
• From the year 2017-18, the scheme “Assistance to Voluntary Organization working for the Welfare of OBCs “ has been extended for DNTs.

What is the Development and Welfare Board for De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Communities (DWBDNC)?

• A new Commission was constituted in February 2014 to prepare a state-wise list, which submitted its report in 2018, identified 1,262 communities as de-notified, nomadic and semi-nomadic. The commission recommended the setting up of a permanent commission for these communities.
• The government set up the Development and Welfare Board for De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Communities (DWBDNC).
• DWBDNC was established under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 under the aegis of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for the purpose of implementing welfare programmes. The DWBDNC was constituted on 21st February 2019, under the chairmanship of Bhiku Ramji Idate.