Breaking the cycle of child labour is in India’s hands
Context: The true extent of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on child labour is yet to be measured but all indications show that it would be significant as children are unable to attend school and parents are unable to find work. However, not all the factors that contribute to child labour were created by […]
NCPCR tracks data on orphans
Context: Bal Swaraj, an online tracking portal of a national child rights body National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), shows details of nearly 10,000 children in the country in immediate need of care and protection. Relevance: GS-II: Social Justice (Issues Related to Children, Government Policies and Interventions), GS-II: Polity (Statutory Bodies) Dimensions of […]
Recognising caste-based violence against women
Context: Regarding the horror of the gang rape of a 19-year-old Dalit woman in Hathras in 2020, activists, academics and lawyers argued that the sexual violence took place on account of the woman’s gender and caste and that the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (PoA Act) must be invoked. […]
As births decline, China allows having third child
Context: For the first time allowed couples to have a third child in a further relaxation of family planning rules five years after a “two-child policy” largely failed to boost birth rates. Relevance: GS-II: Social Justice (Population related issues), GS-II: International Relations (India’s Neighbors, Foreign Policies affecting India’s Interests) Dimensions of the Article: What is […]
Tarun Tejpal case judgment and workplace safety of women
Context: The Goa Government has filed an appeal in the High Court against the judgment of the Additional Sessions Judge acquitting a former editor of a news magazine, Tarun Tejpal, of charges of the rape of an employee in November 2013. Tarun Tejpal was tried under sections introduced into the law after the Nirbhaya case, […]
Tackling rural economic distress
Context: Several States are under lockdown due the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and this will have severe implications for the livelihoods of those in the informal sector. There is adequate evidence that migrant workers and the rural poor have been facing great distress over the past one year and the crisis for food […]
Centre’s Rs. 100-upgrade to mid-day meal scheme
Context: The Centre has decided to give about Rs. 100 each to children studying in Class 1 to Class 8 in government schools, who are beneficiaries of the Mid-Day Meal scheme. However, Right to Food activists say this is insufficient to provide the nutrition security envisaged by this measure. Relevance: GS-II: Social Justice (Issues related […]
Dowry deaths: SC widens scope of Section 304-B
Context: The Supreme Court indicated in a judgment that a straitjacket and literal interpretation of a penal provision on dowry death may have blunted the battle against the “long-standing social evil”. Relevance: GS-II: Social Justice (Issues related to women, Government Policies and Initiatives) Dimensions of the Article: Dowry system in India Defining Dowry Dowry Prohibition […]
Cultural Mapping Project Proposed in 2015
Context: A cultural mapping project, National Mission on Cultural Mapping, proposed in 2015 is now all but dead. Relevance: GS-I: Art and Culture, GS-II: Polity and Governance (Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors, Issues arising out of their design and implementation) Mains Questions: The notion of India being a cultural powerhouse might […]
SC on Complete registration of unorganized workers
Context: The Supreme Court asked the Centre and states to complete the registration of unorganised workers, who had to return to their native villages after the Covid-induced national lockdown last year, “as early as possible” so that they “are able to reap the benefit of different” welfare schemes. Relevance: GS-III: Indian Economy (Growth and Development […]