women and women's organisation

Question 1

Innocenti Declarations?

Answer 1

Innocenti Declaration says all women should be enabled to practise exclusive breastfeeding and all infants should be fed exclusively on breastmilk up to 4-6 months of age “as a global goal for optimal maternal and child health and nutrition”

Question 2

Women Transforming India Awards.?

Answer 2

by NITI Aayog in collab with UN

to recognize women entrepreneurs from across India.

Question 3

Women Entrepreneurship Platform?

Answer 3

A GoI initiative by NITI Aayog to promote and support aspiring as well as established women entrepreneurs in India, assist and handhold them in their journey from starting to scaling up and expanding their ventures. It has more than 5,000 women entrepreneurs registered on the platform and a committed funding of more than US$10mn for these startups.

Question 4

‘The Opportunity Index 2021’ report: by? covered which region?

Answer 4

LinkedIn

Asia Pacific region

Question 5

‘The Opportunity Index 2021’ report: key findings?

Answer 5

1. 9 in 10 or 89 per cent of women were negatively impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
2. About 85%, or four in five working women in India believe they have missed out on a raise, promotion, or work offer because of their gender. This average stands at 60% for the Asia Pacific (APAC) region.
3. More women in India have experienced the impact of gender on career development when compared to the APAC region.

Question 6

Gender disparity in education: INdia?

Answer 6

Acc to FM Sitharaman, GER of girls are now higher than that of boys at all levels of education

• GER for girls in schools at secondary level has improved from 77.45 (2014-15) to 81.32 (2018-19) acc to UDISE data
• Percentage of schools with functional separate toilets for girls has shown improvement from 92.1 per cent in 2014-15 to 95.1 per cent in 2018-19
• As per All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) 2018-19, females constitute 48.6% of the total enrolment in higher education and the GER for females in HE at 26.4% is higher than the national GER of boys at 26.3%.

Question 7

Gender disparity in employment: India?

Answer 7

1. women’s LFPR has fallen from 42.7 percent in 2004­–05 to 23.3 percent in 2017–18. In comparison, men have LFPR of 75%. 2017 recorded the lowest levels of female labour force participation since Independenc
2. India among the bottom 10 countries in the world in terms of women’s workforce participation. In commparison, in BN, women’s participation in the labor force increased from 24 percent to 36 percent.
3. Between 2012 and 2018, LFPR of men remained more or less stable (~55%), but the size of the female labor force (actual workers) fell by an estimated 21.8 million. Rural India actually lost 24.7 million female workers, and the much smaller gain of 2.89 million female workers in urban India could not make up for it.
4. Increasing women’s labor force participation by 10 percentage points could add $770 billion to India’s GDP by 2025
5. Only 3.7% of CEOs and Managing Directors of NSE-listed companies were women in 2019, a number that has increased just slightly from 3.2% in 2014. only 8.9% of firms have women in top management positions
6. Based on hourly wages, women earn, on average, 65.5% of what their male colleagues earn for performing the same work
7. Among urban women who do work, domestic cleaning work is the second most common profession after textile-related jobs

Question 8

Marital rape: defn? recent context?

Answer 8

the act of forcing your spouse into having sex without proper consent

Supreme Court’s latest query to a Maharashtra government employee asking whether he would marry a girl he was accused of raping repeatedly while she was a minor is insensitive to the core.

In another case, the Bench stayed the arrest of a man accused of rape after falsely promising marriage.

The victim said she was promised marriage and was “brutally and sexually abused”.

The CJI asked the girl’s lawyer: “When two people are living as husband and wife, however brutal the husband is, can you call sexual intercourse between them ‘rape’?”

Question 9

Marital rape: statistics?

Answer 9

1. acc to a 2011 study by INternational Center for Research on women, 1 in every 5 men admit to forcing their wives into sex
2. on avg 1 in every 3 women is beaten, coerced into sex or abused by an intimate partner in their lifetime
3. A study in two S Asian countries by UN found that 74-94% of police force said that a husband is allowed to rape his wife
4. 2.6 Bn women live in countries where marital rape is nt a criminal offence while 603 mn live where domestic violence is not a crime

India:

• In 2005-06, the National Family Health Survey found out that among the 80,000 women they had interviewed, 93 percent said that they had been sexually abused by their current or former husbands.
• One in every 25 women in India reported being subjected to sexual violence by her husband often or sometimes, according to data from the National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5), conducted in 2019-21
• Further, the issue appears to be more prevalent in some states than others, with Karnataka, Bihar, West Bengal and Assam topping the list.

Question 10

Marital rape: arguments given for not criminalising it?

Answer 10

It is premised on broadly two assumptions:

CONSENT IN PERPETUITY: This is the assumption that on marriage a woman gives consent held by her husband in perpetuity which she cannot retract. This concept in the colonial-era law has roots in the antiquated idea that a woman is the property of her man.

EXPECTATION OF SEX: This is the assumption that a woman is duty-bound or is obligated to fulfil sexual responsibilities in a marriage since the aim of marriage is procreation. Since the husband has a reasonable expectation of sex in a marriage, the provision implies that a woman cannot deny it.

the preservation of the family institution by ruling out the possibility of false, fabricated and motivated complaints of ‘rape’ by ‘wife’ against her ‘husband’ and the pragmatic procedural difficulties that might arise in such a legal proceeding

Question 11

Marital rape: how it affects women?

Answer 11

1. victims of sexual violence by partners are 16% more likely to have a low-birth weight baby
2. they are more than twice likely to have abortion
3. twice as likely to experience depression
4. 1.5 times more likely to acquire HIV

Question 12

Marital rape: legal status in India?

Answer 12

• an alien concept
• no legal protection in India
• Sec 375 of IPC : “sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, wife not being under 15 yrs of age, is not rape”
• Kerala HC landmark judgement in Aug 2021: that deemed marital rape to be a valid ground for divorce. The bench held that while marital rape is not penalised in India, it would not deter the court from recognising it as an act of cruelty and granting a divorce.
• Further, in Independent Thought v. Union of India, the apex court, while refusing to engage with the legality of marital rape, held that irrespective of her marital status, a girl child below eighteen years of age is incapable of giving consent for sexual intercourse.
• Verma Committee, set up post the Jyoti Singh (Nirbhaya) case to strengthen sexual assault laws, reported that the relationship between the victim and the offender is immaterial and focus should solely be maintained on the presence of consent.
• The Delhi High Court is currently hearing a batch of petitions challenging the exception to marital rape under sexual assault laws. Amid these widely reported hearings, there is also an ongoing social media discussion on the matter. The hashtag #MarriageStrike has been trending, promoted by men who believe women should not be given more legal power in marriage.

historical context

• In 1889, a 35-year-old husband raped his 11-year-old wife which led to her death. Subsequently, the erstwhile British government passed the second Age of Consent legislation, increasing the age of consent from 10 to 12.
• This move offended many sections of the society and invited opposition from prominent leaders including Bal Gangadhar Tilak who argued that this was an unwarranted interference of the British in the Hindu customs and religion.
• The Bengali orthodox Hindus insisted that a girl attains sexual maturity by the age of 10 and this act impinges upon the sanctity of Hindu marriage.
• Matrimony has always been considered to be a sacred institution and attempting to make even minimal rational changes to it invites considerable hostility from the public
• The Karnataka High Court held that denial of sex is a violation of sections of the Hindu Marriage Act and hence a good enough reason to seek divorce. To quote the judgment, “The husband can’t be made to suffer for no fault of his and be deprived of his natural urge to enjoy sexual happiness if the wife is unwilling to share the bed and discharge her duties.”

Question 13

Marital rape: other countries?

Answer 13

The origin of the marital rape exception lies in the influential treatise on criminal law of England called the ‘History of the Pleas of the Crown’ in which the then British Chief Justice, Matthew Hale, pronounced in 1736, “The husband cannot be guilty of rape committed by himself upon his lawful wife, for by their mutual matrimonial consent and contract the wife hath given herself up in this kind unto her husband which she cannot retract.”
● This immunity has since been withdrawn in several jurisdictions, including in England, where the House of Lords in 1991 held marriage to be a partnership of equals, and no longer one in which the wife must be a “subservient chattel of the husband”.
Also, according to the World Bank, there are at least 78 countries, including Nepal, that have legislation specifically criminalising marital rape.

• 127 countries do not criminalise rape within marriage
• USA: became a crime in every state by 1993, with most of them treating it like any other rape
• Britain: became a crime in 1991, further sanctified by 2003 Sexual Offences Act
• Bhutan: is considered an offence and a petty misdemeanour
• Canada (1983), South Africa (1993), Australia (1981 onwards) enacted laws that criminalise marital rape.

Question 14

Marital rape: constitutional provisions and SC judgements?

Answer 14

• Marital rape immunity stands against the light of the right to equality, the right to life with dignity, personhood, sexual, and personal autonomy — all fundamental rights protected under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution respectively
• The petitioners have also argued that it creates an unreasonable classification between married and unmarried women and, by corollary, takes away the right of a married woman to give consent to a sexual activity.
• The petitioners have argued that since courts have recognised that consent can be withdrawn even during/in-between a sexual act, the assumption of “consent in perpetuity” cannot be legally valid. On the “reasonable expectation of sex” reasoning, the petitioners have argued that even though there is a reasonable expectation of sex from a sex worker or other domestic relationships as well, consent is not irrevocable.
• The judges sought to distinguish between sex in a marriage and sex with a sex worker. This distinction is based on the idea that marriage must lead to procreation. This again prompts the question as to whether the law can de-legitimise sexual consent of women in favour of procreation while also recognising an exception — the right to abortion.
• Another crucial aspect for the court to consider will be whether the protection of marriage and family can be a compelling or even legitimate interest for the state to the extent that it can make laws that violate fundamental rights. Courts apply a balancing test on violation of fundamental rights when the state has a legitimate or compelling interest on the issue: for example, national security, public health and order.
• Independent Thought vs. Union of India verdict of October 2017, in which the Supreme Court criminalised rape with a minor wife.
• In Shimbhu & Anr vs State of Haryana (2013), the Supreme Court said the offer of a rapist to marry the victim cannot be used to reduce the sentence prescribed by law.
• In the State of Karnataka v. Krishnappa, the Supreme Court held that sexual violence apart from being a dehumanizing act is an unlawful intrusion of the right to privacy and sanctity of a female. In the same judgment, it held that non-consensual sexual intercourse amounts to physical and sexual violence.
• On marital rape, though the recommendation was not included in the Act, the Justice J.S. Verma Committee was clear the law ought to specify that a marital or another relationship between the perpetrator and victim cannot be a defence against sexual violation.
• Citing the judgment of the European Commission of Human Rights in C.R. vs U.K., it endorsed the conclusion that “a rapist remains a rapist regardless of his relationship with the victim”.

Question 15

Domestic violence: NCRB statistic?

Answer 15

According to the National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) ‘Crime in India’ 2019 report, about 70% of women in India are victims of domestic violence.

Question 16

Crimes against women: stats? (COVID impact on crimes against women)

Answer 16

NCRB 2022

• the rate of crime against women (the number of incidents per 1 lakh population) increased from 56.5 per cent in 2020 to 64.5 per cent in 2021.
• Categories of crime: (31.8 per cent) fall in the category of “Cruelty by husband or his relatives’’, followed by “Assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty” (20.8 per cent), kidnapping and abduction (17.6 per cent), and rape (7.4 per cent).
• The report places Uttar Pradesh on top (56,083) in terms of the actual number of cases registered in 2021,
• Nagaland stood out with the lowest number of crimes against women registered in the past three years
• Only 507 cases were registered in the country under the Domestic Violence Act in 2021 — 0.1 per cent of the total cases of crime against women: Showing an under-reporting of cases.

Question 17

JS Verma Committee recommendations on Sexual Harassment at the Workplace Act?

Answer 17

• Justice J.S. Verma Committee had recommended setting up of an employment tribunal instead of an internal complaints committee (ICC) in the Sexual Harassment at the Workplace Act.
• To ensure speedy disposal of complaints, the committee proposed that the tribunal should not function as a civil court but may choose its own procedure to deal with each complaint.
• An internal complaints committee as laid down under the act could be counterproductive as dealing with such complaints in-house could discourage women from filing complaints.
• Domestic workers should be included within the purview of the Act.
• The Committee has termed the Sexual Harassment Act “unsatisfactory” and said it did not reflect the spirit of the Vishakha guidelines — framed by the Supreme Court in 1997 to curb sexual harassment at the workplace.
• The Committee said any “unwelcome behaviour” should be seen from the subjective perception of the complainant, thus broadening the scope of the definition of sexual harassment.

Question 18

uniform civil code: constitutional and legal viewpoints?

Answer 18

• Art 44-DSP
• SC for the first time directed the Parliament to frame a UCC in the year 1985 in the case of Shah Bano, she claimed for maintenance from her husband under Section 125 of the CrPC after she was given triple talaq
• Sec 125 of CrPC applies to all communities lays down the provision for maintenance of wives, children, and parents if they do not earn enough and reasonable means to maintain themselves, or suffer from any physical or mental incapacity. Under this section, even a wife who has not divorced her husband has the right to get maintenance from her husband.
• hailed the State of Goa as a “shining example” where UCC is applicable- Goa has a common civil code called Portuguese civil code 1867, whereby a Muslim man whose marriage is registered in the State cannot practice polygamy and a married couple share property equally
• Personal law subjects like marriage, divorce, inheritance come under Concurrent list.
• Hindu personal laws (that apply also to the Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists) have been codified by the Parliament in 1956. This Code Bill has been split into four parts:
  
  • The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955
  • The Hindu Succession Act, 1956
  • The Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956
  • The Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956
• Shariat law of 1937 governs the personal matters of all Indian Muslims in India. It clearly states that in matters of personal disputes, the State shall not interfere and a religious authority would pass a declaration based on his interpretations of the Quran and the Hadith.
• Christians and Jews are also governed by different personal laws.
• Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, supported by eminent nationalists like Gopal Swamy Iyenger, Anantasayam Iyengar, KM Munshiji, Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer and others favored the implementation of UCC

Question 19

common areas covered by a civil code (of UCC) include?

Answer 19

Personal Status
Rights related to acquisition and administration of property
Marriage, divorce and adoption

Question 20

First state government that recently decided to allow women to drive government vehicles?

Answer 20

Kerala

Question 21

“India needs to prioritise public investments in care infrastructure and services for a more gender equitable post-COVID economic recovery”: care economy as infrastr?

Answer 21

1. Importance of care INFRASTRUCTURE
   
   1. American Jobs plan of Biden admin proposes to allocate $400 billion towards elderly care and $25 billion for a Child Care.
   2. considering that women are the ones who are more engaged in care infrastr, this is a gender empowering move
   3. by treating care economy assets as infrastructure, the plan explicitly recognises childcare and elderly care spending as investments rather than expenditures and emphasises their centrality to economic recovery.
2. similar initiatives in India to recognise and salarise unpaid home care
   3.

Question 22

“India needs to prioritise public investments in care infrastructure and services for a more gender equitable post-COVID economic recovery”: issues in India’s care economy?

Answer 22

1. proposals like salaries for housewives may further entrench gender roles
2. The mandatory creche facilities under Maternity Act 2017, was found wanting by IFC surveys of 2019, with only 49% emlpoyers having creche facilities
3. country’s 2.5 mn AWWs, ANMs, ASHAs are not recognised as workers or paid fixed monthly salaries in many States.
4. there has been little progress on formalising working conditions for India’s 3.9 million domestic workers (of whom 2.6 million are women), even as the National Platform for Domestic Workers Bill 2016, and the National Policy on Domestic Workers remains under consideration.
5. India spends less than one per cent of GDP on care work infrastructure and services, including pre-primary education, maternity, disability and sickness benefits, and long-term care as per the ILO.

Question 23

“India needs to prioritise public investments in care infrastructure and services for a more gender equitable post-COVID economic recovery”: post COVID revival will be public investment led?

Answer 23

1. private sector inv declines eg. New capital investment by foreign private players in India fell 96.1 per cent, and domestic players by 44.5 per cent in March 2021 compared to March 2020 as per CMIE
2. Post the outbreak and during the lockdown, investments plummeted to a five-year low in terms of private equity (PE) investments, merger and acquisition (M&A) activity and funds launched.
3. reduced appetites for risk

Question 24

“India needs to prioritise public investments in care infrastructure and services for a more gender equitable post-COVID economic recovery”: increase investment in care infrastr?

Answer 24

1. creating jobs, especially for women: An analysis by the Women’s Budget Group (2019) showed that if an additional 2 per cent of the GDP was invested in the Indian health and care sector, 11 million additional jobs could be generated, nearly a third of which would go to women.
2. higher female LFPR
3. gender-inclusive economic growth: Women’s unpaid work is valued at 3.1 per cent of GDP in India. Recognising AWWs, ANMs, ASHAs and domestic help (amongst others), as formal sector workers would allow their economic contribution to be counted in the GDP.
4. Investment in care infrastructure and services can also be in the form of PPP, to develop expertise of the private sector.
5. Investing in care infrastructure can prevent “occupational downgrading”, so that women become less likely to end up with lower pay when looking for flexibility, or part-time roles owing to care work responsibilities.

Question 25

“Exploring sports gender equality in the media” report?

Answer 25

by INternational Tennis Federation

report discovered, media coverage of women’s tennis focuses on their clothes, family and off-court activities, while on-court battles and physical prowess were highlighted in men’s tennis. The results for the latter were also 70 per cent more likely to mention “GOAT” (greatest of all time) and 40 per cent more likely to use the phrase “making history”.

Question 26

gender disparity in Indian judiciary?

Answer 26

1. In 70 years of its existence, the Supreme Court has seen only eight women judges; no woman has been appointed CJI
2. Currently, in 25 High Courts in the country, the ratio of women to men judges is 81 to 1,078
3. As the attorney-general recently pointed out to the Supreme Court, there is a link between the disproportionate domination of men in judiciary and the persistence of patriarchal injustice, like the Madhya Pradesh High Court’s insistence that a victim of sexual assault tie a rakhi to her offender or cases in which judges attempt to settle a case of sexual violence by matchmaking between assailant and victim.

Question 27

Example of women/pressure groups affecting policy making in AndhraP?

Answer 27

June 2017: women in many villages across AP attacked “belt shops”- illegal liquor outlets May 2019: the new SG cancelledlicenses of bars and made liquor consumption more expensive by increasing duties- despite bearing loss of revenue of almost 700cr

Question 28

Rukhmabai?

Answer 28

1. Sc ecently has started another examination of law on restitution of conjugal rights, which allows a spouse to move court to compel the other spouse to cohabit, or face forfeiture of any property.
2. This is not the first time it is being relooked at. The very first instance of this case coming up in courts in India was in 1885 when 22 yr old Rukhmabai refused to
3. cohabit and solemnise her marriage with her husband Dadaji Bhikaji, that had taken place when she was just 11 years old. The judge ruled in her favour which snowballed into debate on English legal system’s trespass into the HIndu society and its way of life
4. The case Dadaji Bhikaji vs Rukhmabai was fought from 1884 to 1887 in courtrooms and in newspapers
5. Bal Gangadhar Tilak, one of Rukhmabai’s critics, blamed her education for her refusal to live with Dadaji. The CJ of Bombay Hc reversed the verdict but recommended changes in the law prohibiting restitution of conjugal rights in child marriages.
6. Finally rukhmabai and her husband reached a settlement.
7. The case directly led to a change in law requiring a minimum age of marriage for women. In England, and later in India, it led to dropping of criminal consequences for refusing to comply with the court’s decree on restitution.

Question 29

Olympics 2021 and sexualizatio of sports?

Answer 29

1. German women’s gymnastics team wore red and white full-body unitards instead of usual leotards, to “promote freedom of choice and encourage women to wear what makes them feel comfortable.”
   
   • The unitard worn by the German team is essentially a skintight suit, which covers the athletes’ body right from the ankles to their wrists — a departure from tradition. Women gymnasts for the longest time have worn the bikini-cut leotard, a skin-tight one-piece attire that covers the torso and leaves the thighs bare.
2. recently Norwegian women’s beach handball team decided to shed the usual bikini-bottoms worn for a match for a pair of tight shorts.
3. the Olympic Broadcasting Services has called for a clampdown on the showcase of “overtly sexualised images of female athletes”.

Question 30

‘Cyber safe’Women initiative?

Answer 30

by MH govt, on the birth anniversary of Savitribai Phule

aims to spread awareness regarding the atrocities committed against women and children as well as the laws regarding cybercrime.

It will educate women about how the web is used by anti-social elements to commit various types of crimes.

Question 31

Women, Business and the Law (WBL) project?

Answer 31

1. by WB Group; WBL 2020 is the sixth edition of the project
2. A project fr collecting unique data on the laws and regulations that restrict women’s economic opportunities.
3. WBL index: composed by eight indicators structured around women’s interactions with the law. The Index is based on the countries’ formal laws and regulations that have a bearing on women’s economic participation. The indicators are:
   
   1. mobility
   2. workplace
   3. pay
   4. marriage
   5. parenthood
   6. entrepreneurship
   7. assets and
   8. pension
4. Global Findings of WBL2020 :
   
   1. No economy in ‘East Asia and the Pacific’, ‘Europe and Central Asia’, or ‘Latin America and the Caribbean’ were among top reformers
   2. Only eight economies scored a perfect 100 —Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Latvia, Luxembourg, and Sweden. Those countries have ensured equal legal standing to men and women on all the eight indicators of the index.
   3. global average was 75.2 — a slight increase from 73.9 in the previous index released in 2017.
5. Performance of India:
   
   1. India is placed 117th among 190 countries.
   2. It scored 74.4 on a par with Benin and Gambia and way below least developed countries like Rwanda and Lesotho.

Question 32

Need forstricter reforms in the Sexual Harassment of Women and Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act in 2013?

Answer 32

The 2013 Act has entrusted the powers of a civil court to the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC)without specifying if the members need to have a legal background. This was a major lacuna given that the ICC formed an important grievance redressal mechanism under the framework of the act.

The 2013 act only imposed a fine of ₹50,000 on employers for non-compliance with respect to the constitution of the ICC. This proved to be insufficient in ensuring that the employers constituted the ICC in a time-bound manner.

Question 33

T/F: the Sexual Harassment of Women and Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act. 2013 mandates formaation of an INternal Complaints Committee (ICC) at each office or branch with 20 or more employees.

Answer 33

F

at each office or branch with 10 or more employees

Question 34

T/F: the Sexual Harassment of Women and Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act. 2013 protects rights of all the women working or visiting any workplace, in any capacity.

Answer 34

T

Question 35

NCRB data : Crimes against women and children?

Answer 35

1. Rape with murder cases: 31% rise in 2018 vs 2017(the yr such data began to be collected)
2. 33000 cases of rape were regtd in 2018, marginally higher than in 2017.
3. While overall crime rate (crimes/Lakh pop),383.5 in 2018, declined , rate of crimes against women(57.9) and against children (31.8)increased
4. While UP, has high absolute nos., in crime rate terms, it is better.(However, registering of FIRs is the inherent limit on interpretation of such data)
5. Top categories in ‘Crimes against women’ was ‘cruelty by Husband r his relatives’ and ‘assault with an intent to outrage her Modesty’. 10% cases were rape.
6. In crimes aginst children, ‘Kidnapping and Abduction’ were ~50%, while 35% were crimes under POCSO.

Question 36

The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Act, 2021?

Answer 36

1. termination of pregnancy:
   
   • Under the Act, a pregnancy may be terminated within 12 weeks, if a registered medical practitioner is of the opinion that: (i) continuation of the pregnancy may risk the life of the mother, or cause grave injury to her health, or (ii) risk of child suffering frm physical or mental abnormalities. For termination of a pregnancy between 12 to 20 weeks, two medical practitioners are required to give their opinion.
   • Act amends this to allow termination upto 20 weeks otbo of opinion of one doctor; betn 20-24 weeks, opinion of two medical practioners is reqd
   • termination of pregnancies up to 24 weeks will only apply to specific categories of women, as may be prescribed by the central government. These being
     
     • survivors of sexual assault or rape or incest
     • minors
     • change of marital status during the ongoing pregnancy (widowhood and divorce: this has been challenged by a petition in SC against Delhi HC verdict wherein a woman asked for this protection for unmarried woman as well i.e. unmarried woman whose relationship status changes should be eligible
     • the foetal malformation that has substantial risk of being incompatible with life or if the child is born it may suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities to be seriously handicapped
     • mentally ill women including mental retardation
     • women with physical disabilities [major disability as per criteria laid down under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016; and
     • women with pregnancy in humanitarian settings or disaster or emergency situations as may be declared by the Government
   • Further, the central government will notify the norms for the medical practitioner whose opinion is required
2. Under the Act, if any pregnancy occurs as a result of failure of any device or method used by a married woman or her husband to limit no. of children, such an unwanted pregnancy may qualify as ‘grave injury to MENTAL health’ of the woman. Amendment changes ‘married woman and her husband’ to ‘woman and her partner’
3. Amended act states that the upper limit of termination of pregnancy will not apply in cases where such termination is necessary due to the diagnosis of substantial foetal abnormalities. Such abnormalities will be diagnosed by a Medical Board. Bill requires every SG to constitute a Medical Board consisting of a gynaec, a paediatrician, a radiologist or sonologist plus any other membr as notified by SG. powers of Medical board will be notified by CG
4. no registered medical practitioner will be allowed to reveal the name and other particulars of a woman whose pregnancy has been terminated, except to a person authorised by any law.

Question 37

Abortion laws across the world?

Answer 37

It is learnt that around 60 countries prescribe gestational limits.

52 % including France, the UK, Austria, Ethiopia, Italy, Spain, Iceland, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland and even Nepal, allow for termination beyond 20 weeks on the diagnosis of foetal abnormalities.

Some countries go beyond even these limits with laws in 23 countries-Canada, Germany, Vietnam, Denmark, Ghana, and Zambia-allowing for abortion at any time during the pregnancy on the request of the mother.

In UK, abortions are allowed at up to 24 weeks, with abortion guidelines formulated by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists including procedures for termination of pregnancies older than 20 weeks. It also states that, in pregnancy older than 21 weeks and 6 days, an injection to cause foetal death is given before the foetus is evacuated.

Question 38

INdia’s first women in Medicine: trailblazers- can be name dropped in answers?

Answer 38

1. Anandibai- the first Indian woman to get a western medical degree.
2. Rukhmabai- already covered
3. Muthulakshmi- At school, Muthulakshmi sat behind a curtain in a classroom because she was a girl and the daughter of a devadasi. Later in life, she would introduce legislation against the exploitative devadasi system and child marriage; set up a shelter where girls could stay, acquire skills and earn a livelihood; and also set up the Adyar Cancer Institute. Today, Tamil Nadu’s celebrated maternity benefit scheme, acknowledged for its impact, is named after Muthulakshmi Reddy.
4. Haimabati- At the age of nine, Haimabati was married to a widower five times her age. When she was 12, her husband died. As a child widow, she faced the fury of society and even her own mother for bringing “misfortune”. At medical college, although Haimabati stood first, the boys threatened to go on strike if the gold medal was given to a girl. She was given a silver medal for “standing first in class.”

Question 39

Women in Indian Armed Forces: history?

Answer 39

With the formation of the “Indian Military Nursing Service” in 1888, the role of women in the Indian Armed Forces began to take shape.

The role of women in the Indian Armed Forces was further expanded with the formation of the Women’s Auxiliary Corps, which allowed them to serve in primarily non-combatant roles like communications, accounting, administration etc.

Azad Hind Fauj : women’s regiment named the Rani of Jhansi Regiment which saw active combat when it fought along the Imperial Japanese Army in Burma

Question 40

Women in Indian Armed Forces: current status?

Answer 40

The Army Act, 1950 made women ineligible for regular commissions with certain exceptions specified by CG

1958 : the Army Medical Corps became the first Indian Army unit to award regular commissions to women.

After that, throughout the 80s and 90s, women were made eligible for short service commission in the Indian Army.

Question 41

Women in Indian Armed Forces: recent SC judgements/recent changes? Background?

Answer 41

2020: SC upheld the right of serving Short Service Commission (SSC) women officers to be granted Permanent Commissions (PC) just like their male colleagues.
2021: SC allowed women to sit for the National Defence Academy (NDA) entrance exam this year. Till now, women were eligible for entry into the army through the Officers’ Training Academy and Indian Military Academy. The NDA, which recruits cadets fresh out of school (between the ages of 16 and 19), remained an all-male bastion.

15th Aug 2021: PM announced decision to admit girls to Sainik schools across the country

Background

The induction of women officers in the Army started in 1992.
They were commissioned for a period of five years in certain chosen streams such as Army Education Corps, Corps of Signals, Intelligence Corps, and Corps of Engineers. Recruits under the Women Special Entry Scheme (WSES) had a shorter pre-commission training period than their male counterparts who were commissioned under the Short Service Commission (SSC) scheme.
● In 2006, the WSES scheme was replaced with the SSC scheme, which was extended to women officers. They were commissioned for a period of 10 years, extendable up to 14 years.
● Serving WSES officers were given the option to move to the new SSC scheme, or to continue under the erstwhile WSES. They were to be however, restricted to roles in streams specified earlier — which excluded combat arms such as infantry and armoured corps

What was the main issue now?
While male SSC officers could opt for permanent commission at the end of 10 years of service, this option was not available to women officers. They were, thus, kept out of any command appointment, and could not qualify for government pension, which starts only after 20 years of service as an officer.

Question 42

Permanent Commission for Women Officers?

Answer 42

• The Supreme Court in February 2020 directed the government to ensure that women officers in the Army be granted permanent commission (PC) as well as command postings in all services other than combat.
• Lt. Col. Nitisha vs. Union of India Case: On 25th March 2021, the Supreme Court held that the Army’s selective evaluation process discriminated against and disproportionately affected women officers seeking permanent commission.

What is a Permanent Commission?
A Permanent Commission means a career in the army till retirement, while Short Service Commission is for 10 years, with the option of either leaving or opting for Permanent Commission at the end of 10 years. If an officer doesn’t get Permanent Commission then, the officer can choose a four-year extension.

Question 43

Women in Indian Armed Forces: arguments offered against women joining in combat roles?

Answer 43

• Indian society is patriarchal in its mindset and hence not ready to see women in active combat roles.
• It was argued that as many of the male servicemen are from rural backgrounds, they might have trouble accepting orders from female officers.
• women may not be suited to the military life as “they must deal with pregnancy, motherhood and domestic obligations towards children and families”
• they might struggle if deployed in areas with “minimal facility for habitat and hygiene”
• In times of conflict, a woman personnel getting captured by the enemy may have a detrimental effect on the overall morale of the country.
• There has always been notions that men make better soldiers due to their perceived aggression and physical prowess.
• an all-male environment would have to moderate itself in the presence of women

Question 44

Taliban recapture of Afghanistan: Afghan women: status during earlier Taliban rule?

Answer 44

• Girls denied education
• women prevented from working
• imposition of burqa for women in public, besides being accompanied by a male relative. shopkeepers and rickshaw drivers were directed not to sell goods and provide services to unveiled women
• imposition of sharia rule

Question 45

Taliban recapture of Afghanistan: Afghan women: changes during post Taliban period?

Answer 45

• 2004 post-Taliban constitution “gave Afghan women all kinds of rights, and the post-Taliban political dispensation brought social and economic growth that significantly improved their socio-economic condition
• against less than 10 in 2003, the percentage of girls enrolled in primary schools rose to 33 in 2017. Registered female enrolment in secondary schools rose from six to 39 per cent in the same year.
• By 2020, 21 per cent of Afghan civil servants were women (compared with none under the Taliban regime), 16 per cent of them were in senior management positions, and 27 per cent of Afghan members of Parliament were women
• a report, ‘Taliban’s War on Women: A Health and Human Rights Crisis in Afghanistan’ by the Physicians for Human Rights, a distinguished human rights organisation in the US, states that before the Taliban captured Kabul, women accounted for “70 per cent of all teachers, about 50 per cent of civil servants and 40 per cent of medical doctors in Afghanistan.”
• However in rural afghanistan, where 76 per cent of Afghanistan’s women live, life has not changed much from the Taliban era, their formal legal empowerment notwithstanding.

Question 46

Women’s representation in legislative bodies: successful examples of other countries ?

Answer 46

Mexico: In 2000, women made up 16 per cent of the lower house of its Congress (and the country ranked 35). Today it has achieved near parity and ranks fifth. It managed to achieve this after first introducing quotas, and then a “parity in everything” reform in 2018.

Chile: Chile is in the process of rewriting its constitution, and the assembly doing it comprises 50 per cent women and is led by a woman.

Kenya: In 2020, civil society groups in Kenya took the government to court for its failure to implement a constitutional provision that mandates that no more than two-thirds of the members of elected bodies be of the same gender.

Switzerland: completes 50 years of allowing women to vote this year, 42 per cent of those elected to the lower house of Parliament are women. The country has done this without mandated quotas, but some parties have adopted voluntary quotas in the candidates they put forth.

Question 47

T/F: Child Marriages in India are not illegal.

Answer 47

T

Child marriages are not illegal per se, although there is a legal framework to prevent them. The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, allows a child marriage to be annulled by either the bride or the groom who was a minor at the time of marriage when they attain the age of majority. So essentially, it gives them an option to roll back the marriage as if it never happened. If the parties do not wish to annul the marriage, it would be considered a legitimate marriage. This shield is given to essentially ensure rights of minor girls in access to the marital home, marital property and ensure the legitimacy of offspring.

Child marriages under certain conditions however, are considered void automatically. This could be where the minor is forced, kidnapped for marriage, or is married for the purpose of human trafficking.

Question 48

Child marriage: Legal position in India?

Answer 48

• Child marriages are not illegal per se, although there is a legal framework to prevent them. The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, allows a child marriage to be annulled by either the bride or the groom who was a minor at the time of marriage when they attain the age of majority. So essentially, it gives them an option to roll back the marriage as if it never happened. If the parties do not wish to annul the marriage, it would be considered a legitimate marriage. This shield is given to essentially ensure rights of minor girls in access to the marital home, marital property and ensure the legitimacy of offspring.
• Child marriages under certain conditions however, are considered void automatically. This could be where the minor is forced, kidnapped for marriage, or is married for the purpose of human trafficking.
• The police are liable to arrest not just the adult groom or parents facilitating a child marriage, but anyone who participates in solemnising such a marriage.
• In Independent Thought v Union of India (2017), the Supreme Court refused to extend the protection of marital rape to child marriages. The court held that intercourse with a minor girl, even under marriage, would amount to rape. While marital rape is not punished under the law, intercourse with a minor is considered rape.

Question 49

Positive Sex ratio findings of NFHS-5: caveats?

Answer 49

an indicator like the sex ratio of a surveyed population can never be a replacement for the population sex ratio obtained in a complete enumeration — the Census, for instance — that includes population beyond the household. Household surveys will not capture the population living in institutions — these have more men than women. The household-based approach of the NFHS might leave out male migrants. The sex ratio, characteristics, and composition of a surveyed population are often compared to the Census figures to justify the representational aspects of the survey. But, these sets of figures are by no means comparable.

While a balanced sex ratio is ideal, this may not ipso facto imply the wide range of conclusions that have become part of the discourse on the reported sex ratio. In fact, a favourable sex ratio was reported for a few of the states in NFHS 4 as well which was also not in keeping with the gender-based developmental indicators.

Question 50

Positive Sex ratio findings of NFHS-5: significance?

Answer 50

While it cannot be a substitute for actual census, the progress in sex ratio as evidenced by the comparison between the last and the latest round of NFHS clearly conveys the improving sex ratio situation in the country. The NFHS-5 results indicate an improvement over the last four years from 991 women in 2015-16 to 1,020 women in 2019-21 for every 1,000 men.

This is also indicative of the fact that the life expectancy of women has improved considerably over the period in India. According to the latest data, for 2014-18, women live 2.5 years more than men.

The design of the NFHS, explicated in all final reports that are in the public domain, clearly indicates its representativeness. There is no reason for any misgiving on the ability of NFHS to provide household representativeness.

Nationally representative household surveys like the second round of the Indian Human Development Survey (IHDS) shows a similar trend — 1,004 women for 1,000 men in 2011-12, an improvement over the first round. IHDS sample size, though, is 7 per cent of that of the NFHS. Thus, the findings of NFHS-5 cannot be termed erroneous and do point towards improvements made in sex ratio in the country.

Question 51

“Raising Marriage won’t lead to to Women’s Empowerment”?

Answer 51

• age at marriage had little impact on issues like- maternal mortality rates, fertility levels, nutrition of mother and child, sex ratios, education and employment opportunities. A major multi-country study undertaken by the World Bank in 2017 saw no significant gains from raised age of marriage for women’s decision making, for lowering the levels of violence they face, or helping them find employment
• If women who marry at higher ages seem to have better health and nutrition indicators, this is not caused by their marrying later than others — it is because women from better-off groups tend to marry at higher ages. the health indicators of poorer women do not change just because they marry at a higher age. An illustration of this truth is found in the National Family Health Survey (IV) data, which show that levels of anaemia — which is the highest cause of maternal mortality in India and one of our worst statistics — show no change even at ages of marriage up to 25 years, once we control for other factors.
• Globally, the age of 18 is widely regarded as the age of adulthood. It is also viewed as an upper limit in terms of the physical and reproductive maturity of women, as well as the age of majority by child rights conventions to which India is a signatory. Thus, the proposed move will restrict the rights of already adult women.
• The minimum age is obviously a floor, not a standard or desirable norm. Laws are meant to set minimum levels, a threshold for triggering legal or penal action, because of the harm that may be done.
• Is a legal ban the best way, especially if it does nothing to change the various factors that go into deciding the age at marriage for women of different social strata and communities? Going by the NFHS 4 data (2015-16), more than half — 56 per cent — of women in the age group 20-24 years marry before the age of 21 years, and this too is an underestimate. Should we not pause to think what it means to criminalise the majority of women in an entire generation, since such trends will not change merely by a change in the law?
• the real reasons that drive empowerment are not being adequately addressed. the shocking fact (evident in all major data sets) is that decline in early marriages has been accompanied by a fall in women’s employment rates, that persisted even during the 1990s boom. The proportion of women not in paid work increases at higher ages of marriage. Complex paradoxes like these cannot be addressed by a legal fix, particularly one that will be very hard to implement.

Question 52

Mary Roy case?

Answer 52

Educator and women’s rights activist Mary Roy (mother of Arundhati Roy) was best known for the “Mary Roy” case, the prolonged legal battle that ensured equal property rights for women from Kerala’s Syrian Christian families.

Denied equal rights to her deceased father’s property, Mary Roy sued her brother, George Isaac, marking the beginning of a case that is seen as a milestone in ensuring gender justice in India.

The Supreme Court in its 1986 judgment upheld the supremacy of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 which will also apply to the Indian Christian Community in the erstwhile state of Travancore.