1) SHADOW PANDEMIC: UN Women has called upon the member-states to include prevention of violence against women in their action plans on COVID-19, calling the rise in gender-based violence a “shadow pandemic”.
2) FACTS:
a) National Commission for Women es - there was a 46% rise in complaints of crimes
against women in the first eight months of 2021 over the corresponding period of last year.
Over half of these were from Uttar Pradesh.
b) According to NCRB, almost 300 crimes are committed against women per day. According to
UN, one out of every three women experiences violence.
c) NCRB data shows an increasing trend of cases of trafficking such as these increased by almost
15% as compared to the previous year.
d) Nearly 21 dowry deaths reported in country every day.
3) LEGISLATIONS:
There are three laws in India that deal directly with domestic violence:
a) The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005.
b) The Dowry Prohibition Act.
c) Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code.
4) COMMITTEES:
a) Government, in June 2020, set up a Task Force (headed by Jaya Jaitly) to examine matters pertaining to age of motherhood, imperatives of lowering MMR, improvement of nutritional levels and related issues.
b) The 18th Law Commission report (2008) asked for uniformity in the age of marriage at 18 years for both men and women and lowering the age of consent to 16 years, a recommendation also of the Justice Verma Committee.
5) Supreme Court’s judgements on Right to Marry –
a) Right to marry is not expressly recognized either as a fundamental or constitutional right
under the Indian Constitution.
b) Shakti Vahini vs. Union of India (2018): Supreme Court held that the right of a person’s choice
to marry whomever they please is in an inherent part of individual dignity and intrinsic to
Article 21. It also declared ‘khap panchayats’ as ‘illegal’ and that no assembly can interfere in marriage.
6) ARTICLE 16 OF UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS- Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race/nationality/religion, have the right to marry and to found a family.
7) INITIATIVE AT CENTRAL LEVEL: The MoW&CD has instructed to ensure that One Stop Centres, which provide legal and psycho-social help with NIMHANS, to survivors of gender-based violence.
8) INITIATIVES AT STATE LEVEL :
a) A community radio program in Uttar Pradesh, for raising awareness about violence against women, “Bell Bajao!” (Ring the Bell) campaign, calls on men and boys to take a stand against domestic violence.
b) “Mpower 1on1” is a newly launched helpline in Mumbai to report domestic abuse.
9) INITIATIVE AT NGO LEVEL: NGOs like Stree Mukti Sanghatan are helping women via free counselling and use the online facility for reporting the crime.
10) EXAMPLE OF LEADERSHIP FOR “SAYING NO TO DOWRY”: , As per the recent circular of
department of women’s welfare , Public servants in Uttar Pradesh will have to declare that they have received no dowry when they were married.
1.2 UNPAID WORK:
1) Trend in India: 91.8% of women in India between the ages of 15-59 participated in unpaid
domestic work for household members in 2019 compared to 20% in case of men.
2) Global trends: Women performs three quarters of unpaid care work.
1.3 FEMINISATION OF AGRICULTURE:
1) DEFINITION: Feminization of agriculture -It refers to increasing of concentration of women in agriculture sector.
2) FACTS:
a) The Periodic Labour Force Survey or PLFS (2019-2020) data shows a surge in female labour force participation rate (LFPR) in agriculture which reflects feminization of agriculture.
b) For example, according to the recent PLFS, almost the entire rise in the workforce was accommodated by agriculture which increased to 45.6% (2019-20) from 42.5% (2018-19).
c) Only 14% of the operational holdings in agriculture is owned by women (Agri-Census 2015-
16).
d) Close to 90% of women-owned landholdings is of small and marginal landholdings (Agri-
census 2015-16).
e) Wages received by women were, on an average, 35.8% lower than wages received by men for the period 1998-2015 (Labor Bureau).
3) INITIATIVES:
a) Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP), a subcomponent of the Deendayal Antodaya Yojana-NRLM (DAY-NRLM) seeks to improve the present status of women in Agriculture.
b) The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has declared 15th October of every year as Women Farmer’s Day.
4) ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY: For organizing agrarian women into collectives, educating them about their rights, giving them sustainable livelihood training, etc.
1.4 WOMEN IN STEM (SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, MEDICINE)
1) STATUS IN INDIA:
In India, 40% of STEM graduates are women as compared to 35% of the global average.
However, only 14% of researchers in India are women as compared to 30% of the global average.
2) INITIATIVES:
a) The Department of Science & Technology (DST) and IBM India announced two collaborations to promote STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) learning among students.
i) ‘Vigyan Jyoti’ program: This programme aims to inspire girls from grades 9 to 12 to
pursue STEM in their higher education.
ii) ‘Engage With Science’: It is a technology-driven interactivity platform for connecting the high school students to the higher education institutions to be developed by the Vigyan Prasar, an autonomous organisation of DST.
1.5 MATERNITY AND PATERNITY LEAVE
1) Maternity leave- For the first surviving child up to 26 weeks of maternity leave.
2) For adoptive mothers 12 weeks.
3) Paternity leave given by BCCI to the Indian captain- All India and Central Civil Services Rules allow Central government employees with less than two surviving children 15 days of paternity leave, whereas South Korea gives the highest paternity leaves, 53 days.
4) UNICEF had the provision of 4 weeks paid paternity leaves to its male employees but now it has been extended to sixteen weeks across all its offices worldwide.
1.6 WOMEN IN WORKFORCE
1) As per NSSO data, India’s female Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) is less than even 25%
(2020).
2) India has ranked 140 among 156 countries in Global Gender Gap Index 2021, which is 28 spots lower than its 2020 ranking.
3) IMF Chief Christine Lagarde said that gender parity in workforce can boost India’s GDP by 27%.
McKinsey report estimates that India can add $700 billion of additional GDP by 2025 if gender parity is achieved.
4) India’s growth rate would be 10% higher if women were working. (World Bank).
5) As per NFHS, the age for marriage for girls have been increasing. Women who were married before 18 was 47% in NFHS-3 and declined to around 27% in NFHS-4.
6) The average percentage of women’s representation in politics globally stands at about 22%, whereas in case of India it is a mere 11.8%.
1.4 WOMEN IN STEM (SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, MEDICINE)
1) STATUS IN INDIA:
In India, 40% of STEM graduates are women as compared to 35% of the global average.
However, only 14% of researchers in India are women as compared to 30% of the global average.
2) INITIATIVES:
a) The Department of Science & Technology (DST) and IBM India announced two collaborations to promote STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) learning among students.
i) ‘Vigyan Jyoti’ program: This programme aims to inspire girls from grades 9 to 12 to
pursue STEM in their higher education.
ii) ‘Engage With Science’: It is a technology-driven interactivity platform for connecting the high school students to the higher education institutions to be developed by the Vigyan Prasar, an autonomous organisation of DST.
1.5 MATERNITY AND PATERNITY LEAVE
1) Maternity leave- For the first surviving child up to 26 weeks of maternity leave.
2) For adoptive mothers 12 weeks.
3) Paternity leave given by BCCI to the Indian captain- All India and Central Civil Services Rules allow Central government employees with less than two surviving children 15 days of paternity leave, whereas South Korea gives the highest paternity leaves, 53 days.
4) UNICEF had the provision of 4 weeks paid paternity leaves to its male employees but now it has been extended to sixteen weeks across all its offices worldwide.
1.6 WOMEN IN WORKFORCE
1) As per NSSO data, India’s female Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) is less than even 25%
(2020).
2) India has ranked 140 among 156 countries in Global Gender Gap Index 2021, which is 28 spots lower than its 2020 ranking.
3) IMF Chief Christine Lagarde said that gender parity in workforce can boost India’s GDP by 27%.
McKinsey report estimates that India can add $700 billion of additional GDP by 2025 if gender parity is achieved.
4) India’s growth rate would be 10% higher if women were working. (World Bank).
5) As per NFHS, the age for marriage for girls have been increasing. Women who were married before 18 was 47% in NFHS-3 and declined to around 27% in NFHS-4.
6) The average percentage of women’s representation in politics globally stands at about 22%, whereas in case of India it is a mere 11.8%.
7) Nearly 25 million women have exited the workforce since 2011-12.
1.7 CONSTITUTIONAL PRIVILEGES
1) Equality before law for women (Article 14)
2) The State not to discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them (Article 15 (i))
3) The State to make any special provision in favour of women and children (Article 15 (3)).
4) Equality of opportunity for all citizens in matters relating to employment or appointment to any office under the State (Article 16).
5) The State to direct its policy towards securing for men and women equally the right to an adequate means of livelihood (Article 39(a)); and equal pay for equal work for both men and women (Article 39(d)).
6) To promote justice, on a basis of equal opportunity and to provide free legal aid by suitable legislation or scheme or in any other way to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reason of economic or other disabilities (Article 39 A).
7) The State to make provision for securing just and humane conditions of work and for maternity relief (Article 42).
8) The State to promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people and to protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation (Article 46).
9) The State to raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people (Article 47).
10) To promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India and to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women (Article 51(A) (e)).
11) Not less than one-third (including the number of seats reserved for women belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes) of the total number of seats to be filled by direct election in every Panchayat to be reserved for women and such seats to be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in a Panchayat (Article 243 D(3)).
12) Not less than one- third of the total number of offices of Chairpersons in the Panchayats at each level to be reserved for women (Article 243 D (4)).
13) Not less than one-third (including the number of seats reserved for women belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes) of the total number of seats to be filled by direct election in every Municipality to be reserved for women and such seats to be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in a Municipality (Article 243 T (3)).
14) Reservation of offices of Chairpersons in Municipalities for the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and women in such manner as the legislature of a State may by law provide (Article 243 T (4))
