Indian Society and Social Issues: December 2022 UPSC Current Affairs | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly PDF Download

Raising Minimum Marriageable Age for Muslim Women 

Why in News?

Recently, the Supreme Court asked the government to respond to a plea filed by the National Commission for Women (NCW) to raise the minimum age of marriage for Muslim women to be on par with persons belonging to other faiths.

What is the Legal Framework of Minimum Age for Marriage?

• Background:
  • In India, the minimum age of marriage was prescribed for the first time by the law known as the Sarda Act, 1929. It was later renamed as the Child Marriage Restraint Act (CMRA), 1929.
  • In 1978, the CMRA was amended to raise the minimum age of marriage to 18 years for girls and 21 years for boys.
  • This position remains the same even in the new law called the Prohibition of Child Marriages Act (PCMA), 2006, which replaced the CMRA ,1929.
• Current:
  • For Hindus, the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 sets 18 years as the minimum age for the bride and 21 years as the minimum age for the groom.
  • In Islam, the marriage of a minor who has attained puberty is considered valid.
  • The Special Marriage Act, 1954 and the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 also prescribe 18 and 21 years as the minimum age of consent for marriage for women and men, respectively.
  • For the new age of marriage to be implemented, these laws are expected to be amended.
  • In 2021, the Union Cabinet proposed to raise the legal age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 years.

What are the Issues with Underage Marriages of Women?

• Human Rights Violation: Child marriage violates girls’ human rights and makes them almost invisible to policy.
• Some of the basic rights that they get devoid of, include the Right to Education, Right to Rest and Leisure, Right to Protection from Mental or Physical Abuse including Rape and Sexual Exploitation.
• Disempowerment of Women: Since child brides are not able to complete their education, they remain dependent and underpowered which acts as a big hurdle towards achieving gender equality.
• Associated Health Issues: The costs of child marriage include teenage pregnancy and child stunting, population growth, poor learning outcomes for children and the loss of women’s participation in the workforce.
• The low domestic status of teenage wives typically condemns them to long hours of domestic labour, poor nutrition and anaemia, social isolation, domestic violence and lesser decision-making powers within the home.
• Poor education, malnutrition, and early pregnancy also lead to low birth weight of babies, perpetuating the intergenerational cycle of malnutrition.

Conclusion

• The current laws on marriage are age-centric and make no exception for children of any particular religion and the classification merely on the basis of ‘puberty’ has no scientific backing nor any reasonable nexus with the capacity to get married.
• A person who has attained puberty may be biologically capable of reproduction, however, the same does not imply that the said person is mentally or physiologically mature enough to engage in sexual acts and consequently, to bear children.

Women in Judiciary

Why in News?

• Recently, the Supreme Court has recently appointed a female all-woman bench for the third time in its history.
• The first time the Supreme Court had an all-woman bench was in 2013, and the second occasion came in 2018.

What is the State of Women in Judiciary?

• During the last 70 years, no significant attempt has been made to provide adequate representation for women in the High Courts or Supreme Court.
• There have been only 11 women judges on the Supreme Court since its inception, and no women Chief Justices.
• Just 83 of the 680 judges in the high courts are women.
• Only 30% of subordinate judges are female.

What are the Reasons for Low Women Representatives?

• Patriarchy in Society: The primary reason for underrepresentation of women in judiciary is deeply ingrained patriarchy in society.
• Women often have to face hostile atmospheres within courtrooms. Harassment, lack of respect from members of the bar and bench, the silencing of their opinions, are some of the other traumatic experiences often recounted by many women lawyers.
• Opaque Collegium System Functioning: More women tend to enter the lower judiciary at the entry level because of the method of recruitment through an entrance examination.
• However, the higher judiciary has a collegium system, which has tended to be more opaque and, therefore, more likely to reflect bias.
• No Women Reservation: Many states have a reservation policy for women in the lower judiciary, which is missing in the High Courts and Supreme Court.
• States such as Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha and Rajasthan have benefited from such reservation as they now have 40-50% women judicial officers.
• Familial Responsibilities: Factors of age and family responsibilities also affect the elevation of women judges from the subordinate judicial services to the higher courts.
• Not Enough Women in Litigation: Since lawyers elevated from the bar to the bench form a significant proportion of judges in the high courts and Supreme Court, it is worth noting that the number of women advocates is still low, reducing the pool from which women judges can be selected.
• Judicial Infrastructure: Judicial infrastructure, or the lack of it, is another barrier to women in the profession.
• Small courtrooms which are crowded and cramped, absence of restrooms, and childcare facilities are all barriers.

Why is High Women's Representation Important?

• The presence of women as judges and lawyers, will substantially improve the justice delivery system.
• Women bring to the law a different perspective, one that is built upon their experience.
• They also have a more nuanced understanding of the differing impacts that certain laws may have on men and women.
• Women judges enhance the legitimacy of courts, sending a powerful signal that they are open and accessible to those who seek recourse to justice.
• The judiciary must be better represented by women in order to take a balanced and empathic approach to cases surrounding sexual violence.

Way Forward

• There is a need to maintain and promote Gender Diversity in Higher Judiciary with a fixed percentage of its members as women judges that will lead to the evolution of a gender-neutral judicial system of India.
• There is a need to bring about institutional, social and behavioral change among India’s populace by sensitisatising and giving emphasis on inclusivity.
• The legal profession, as a gatekeeper of equality and as an institution committed to the preservation of rights, should be emblematic of gender equality.
• Changing the long-established demographics of a court can make the institution more amenable to consider itself in a new light, and potentially lead to further modernization and reform.

Manual Scavenging

Why in News?

• Recently, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJ&E) told Lok Sabha that no person had died from Manual Scavenging in the last three years (2019 to 2022).
• A total of 233 people had died “due to accidents while undertaking hazardous cleaning of sewer and septic tanks' in this time period.

What is Manual Scavenging?

• Manual scavenging is defined as “the removal of human excrement from public streets and dry latrines, cleaning septic tanks, gutters and sewers”.
• India banned the practice under the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 (PEMSR).
• The Act bans the use of any individual manually cleaning, carrying, disposing of or otherwise handling in any manner human excreta till its disposal.
• The Act recognizes manual scavenging as a “dehumanizing practice”.

What are the Reasons for the Prevalence of Manual Scavenging?

• Indifferent Attitude:
  • A number of independent surveys have talked about the continued reluctance on the part of state governments to admit that the practice prevails under their watch.
• Issues due to Outsourcing:
  • Many times, local bodies outsource sewer cleaning tasks to private contractors. However, many of them fly-by-night operators, do not maintain proper rolls of sanitation workers.
  • In case after case of workers being asphyxiated to death, these contractors have denied any association with the deceased.
• Social Issue:
  • The practice is driven by caste, class and income divides.
  • It is linked to India’s caste system where so-called lower castes are expected to perform this job.
  • In 1993, India banned the employment of people as manual scavengers (The Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993), however, the stigma and discrimination associated with it still linger on.
  • This makes it difficult for liberated manual scavengers to secure alternative livelihoods.

What are the Steps taken to tackle the Menace of Manual Scavenging?

• The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation (Amendment) Bill, 2020:
  • It proposes to completely mechanise sewer cleaning, introduce ways for ‘on-site’ protection and provide compensation to manual scavengers in case of sewer deaths.
  • It will be an amendment to The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.
  • It is still awaiting cabinet approval.
• The Building and Maintenance of Insanitary Latrines Act of 2013:
  • It outlaws' construction or maintenance of unsanitary toilets, and the hiring of anybody for their manual scavenging, as well as of hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks.
  • It also provides a constitutional responsibility to provide alternative jobs and other assistance to manual scavenging communities, as reparation for historical injustice and indignity.
• Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes (Prevention Of Atrocities) Act, 1989:
  • In 1989, the Prevention of Atrocities Act became an integrated guard for sanitation workers, more than 90% people employed as manual scavengers belonged to the Scheduled Caste. This became an important landmark to free manual scavengers from designated traditional occupations.
• Safaimitra Suraksha Challenge:
  • It was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on World Toilet Day (19th November) in 2020.
  • The Government launched this “challenge” for all states to make sewer-cleaning mechanised by April 2021 — if any human needs to enter a sewer line in case of unavoidable emergency, proper gear and oxygen tanks, etc., are to be provided.
• Swachhta Abhiyan App:
  • It has been developed to identify and geotag the data of insanitary latrines and manual scavengers so that the insanitary latrines can be replaced with sanitary latrines and rehabilitate all the manual scavengers to provide dignity of life to them.
• National Action Plan for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem (NAMASTE):
  • The NAMASTE scheme is being undertaken jointly by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and the MoSJ&E and aims to eradicate unsafe sewer and septic tank cleaning practices.
  • SC Judgment: In 2014, a Supreme Court order made it mandatory for the government to identify all those who died in sewage work since 1993 and provide Rs. 10 lakh each as compensation to their families.

Way Forward

• With Swachh Bharat Mission identified as a top priority area by the 15^th Finance Commission and funds available for smart cities and urban development providing for a strong case to address the problem of manual scavenging.
• To address the social sanction behind manual scavenging, it is required first to acknowledge and then understand how and why manual scavenging continues to be embedded in the caste system.
• The state and society need to take active interest in the issue and look into all possible options to accurately assess and subsequently eradicate this practice.

Entry of Women in Masjids

Why in News?

• Recently, the Jama Masjid in Delhi prohibited the entry of single women or women in groups inside the mosque premises and withdrew after the intervention of Lieutenant-Governor.
• The authorities reasoned that some women fail to respect the sanctity of the place of worship, making videos etc.

What is the Islamic Law on Women’s Entry?

• Islamic Law:
  • The Quran, at no place prohibits women from going to mosques for prayers.
  • Wherever the Quran talks of establishing prayer, it talks in gender neutral terms.
  • Before the five daily prayers, a prayer call or azaan is pronounced.
  • The azaan is a general invitation to both men and women for prayers, reminding the faithful, ‘Come for prayer, come for success’.
• Global Scenario:
  • Across West Asia, there is no ban on women coming to the masjid for prayers.
  • In the U.S. and Canada too, women access mosques for prayers, and even gather there for special Taraweeh prayers in Ramzan and lessons on religion.
• National Scenario:
  • In India, only a handful of mosques maintained or owned by Jamaat-e-Islami and the Ahl-e-Hadith sect have provisions for women worshippers.
  • Most mosques, while not expressly forbidding women’s entry in masjids, have no provision for women to do ablutions for prayer or a separate prayer zone for them.
  • They are built keeping only men in mind.
  • Under the circumstances, they are reduced to a ‘men only’ zone.
• Opinion of Scholars:
  • Most Islamic scholars agree that a prayer can be offered at home but can only be established in a group, hence the importance of going to a mosque.
  • Most also agree that women have been exempted, not prohibited from going to the mosque, keeping in mind their child-rearing and other domestic responsibilities.

What is the Legal Issue behind the Ban?

• According to the Constitution of India, there is complete equality between men and women.
• In the Haji Ali Dargah case too, the High Court quoted Articles 15, Article 16 and Article 25 of the Constitution to grant women the desired access to the dargah.
• There are petitions filed before the Supreme Court wherein access has been sought for women in all mosques across the country.
• The apex court has clubbed them with the Sabarimala case.

Have there been Similar Bans Before?

• Back in 2011, a grill was put up on the premises of the vastly popular 15th century dargah, Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai, prohibiting women from going beyond it.
• Following this, some women approached the dargah management for redress.
• However, with the requests having been denied, they started a campaign, ‘Haji Ali for All’, winning over more women in the process.
• Led by the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, the women approached the Bombay High Court which ruled in their favour in 2016.

Report on Forced Displacement: UNDP

Why in News?

• According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) report “Turning the tide on internal displacement: A development approach to solutions”, for the first time ever, more than 100 million people were forcibly displaced in 2022, most of them within their own countries.

What are the Findings of the Report?

• Statistics:
  • At the end of 2021, there were over 59 million people forcibly displaced within their own countries due to conflict, violence, disasters and climate change.
  • Before the war in Ukraine, 6.5 million people are estimated to have been internally displaced.
  • By 2050, climate change may force more than an estimated 216 million people to move within their own countries.
  • Disaster-related internal displacement is even more widespread, with new displacements recorded in over 130 countries and territories in 2021.
  • Around 30% of professional lives became unemployed and 24% were not able to earn money the same way as before. 48% of the internally displaced households earned less money than before displacement.
• Impact:
  • The internally displaced persons struggle to cover their basic needs, find decent work or have a stable source of income.
  • Female and youth-headed households are more impacted.
  • Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa and parts of the Americas are the mostly affected regions from forced displacement.
  • The direct impact of internal displacement globally is estimated at over USD 21.5 billion in 2021 in the form of the financial cost of providing every internally displaced person with housing, education, health and security, and accounts.
  • Lack of Proper and Commonly Accepted Statistics about displacement has led to a lack of policies for displaced people.
• Suggestions:
  • Longer-term development action is needed to reverse record levels of internal displacement, with millions more people predicted to be uprooted by climate change.
  • Humanitarian aid alone cannot overcome record levels of internal displacement globally. There is a need to devise new ways to address the consequences of internal displacement through a development approach.
  • Five key pathways to development solutions can be adopted, which are,
  • Strengthening governance institutions
  • Boosting socio-economic integration through access to jobs and services
  • Restoring security
  • Enhancing participation
  • Building social cohesion

World Malaria Report 2022

Why in News?

Recently, the World Malaria Report 2022 was released by the World Health Organization (WHO).

What are the Highlights of the Report?

• Deaths due to Malaria:
  • High-burden malaria countries maintained a strong front against the disease in 2021 despite the Covid-19 pandemic, with cases and deaths stabilising.
  • While deaths came down to 619,000 in 2021 from 625,000 in the first year of the pandemic, it remained higher than the pre-pandemic level of 568,000 deaths in 2019.
• Trend of Malaria Cases:
  • As for Malaria cases, the upward trend continued but at a slower rate — 247 million cases in 2021, compared to 245 million cases in 2020 and 232 million in 2019.
• Scenario of High Burden Countries:
  • Among the 11 high-burden countries, five — the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, India, Niger and the United Republic of Tanzania — recorded a decline in deaths.
  • But these countries continued to contribute heavily to the global disease burden.
• Control Tools used by Countries:
  • Insecticide-treated bednets (ITNs) are the key vector control tool used by endemic countries.
  • Prevalence of Intermittent Preventive Treatment in Pregnancy (IPTP) has remained consistent in 2021 as compared to 2020.
• Hurdles in Ending Malaria:
  • Hurdles impeding the process of ending Malaria include - mutating parasites which can evade rapid diagnostic tests, increasing drug resistance and the invasion of an urban-adapted mosquitoes, especially in Africa.
  • New tools and fundings to deploy them are urgently needed to help defeat malaria.

What is Malaria?

• About:
  • Malaria is a life-threatening mosquito borne blood disease caused by plasmodium parasites.
  • It is predominantly found in the tropical and subtropical areas of Africa, South America as well as Asia.
  • It is preventable as well as curable.
• Spread:
  • The parasites spread through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes.
  • After entering the human body, parasites initially multiply within the liver cells and then attack the Red Blood Cells (RBCs) resulting in their rupture.
  • There are 5 parasite species that cause malaria in humans, and 2 of these species – Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax – pose the greatest threat.
• Symptoms:
  • Symptoms of malaria include fever and flu-like illness, including shaking chills, headache, muscle aches, and tiredness.
• Malaria Vaccine:
  • Known by its lab initials as RTS, S but branded as Mosquirix, the vaccine has passed lengthy scientific trials that found it to be safe and reducing the risk of malaria by nearly 40%, the best recorded.
  • It was developed by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) company and approved by the European Medicines Agency in 2015.
  • The RTS, S vaccine trains the immune system to attack the malaria parasite (Plasmodium (P.) falciparum, the deadliest species of the malaria parasite).

What are the Initiatives to Curb Malaria?

• Global:
  • The WHO has also identified 25 countries with the potential to eradicate malaria by 2025 under its ‘E-2025 Initiative’.
  • The WHO’s Global technical strategy for malaria 2016–2030 aims is to reduce malaria case incidence and mortality rates by at least 40% by 2020, at least 75% by 2025 and at least 90% by 2030 against a 2015 baseline.
• India-Specific:
  • In India, malaria elimination efforts were initiated in 2015 and were intensified after the launch of the National Framework for Malaria Elimination (NFME) in 2016 by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
  • NFME is in line with WHO’s 2016-2030 Malaria Strategy, which guides the WHO Global Malaria Programme (GMP).
  • The National Strategic Plan for Malaria Elimination (2017-22) was launched in July 2017 which laid down strategies for the following five years.
  • It gives year-wise elimination targets in various parts of the country depending upon the endemicity of malaria.
  • Implementation of the High Burden to High Impact (HBHI) initiative was started in four states (West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh) in July 2019.
  • Distribution of Long Lasting Insecticidal Nets (LLINs) to high burden areas has led to a reduction in endemicity in these 4 very high endemic states.
  • The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has established Malaria Elimination Research Alliance-India (MERA-India) which is a conglomeration of partners working on malaria control.