, info@abhimanu3 , [email protected] Corporate office : Dainik Bhaskar Building, 2nd Floor, Sector 25-D, Chandigarh ^ _ Whenever an aspirant starts preparation of civil services, one

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www.abhimanuias.com , [email protected]

Corporate office : Dainik Bhaskar Building, 2nd Floor, Sector 25-D, Chandigarh

______________________________________________________________________________

● Precisely Chosen Articles : We do not copy paste every Article of the magazine rather

than choose the most relevant article from perspective of civil services preparation. So that you can identify the important articles in course of your preparation.

● Focus on Language: The articles are presented in the original language rather than

oversimplifying them. Because such spoon feeding will harm your preparation given to the unexpected nature of UPSC.

● Special Directives after every article: about how to utilize the article, its relevance in

essay, prelims exam and mains exam.

● Assignments: are after every article so that you can check your understanding of the article. Even here we have not provided unnecessary questions. Every assignment is

unique because every article have its own importance.

● Beyond the Magazine: wherever needed it is mentioned that you need to go beyond the scope of this article.

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“

”

Whenever an aspirant starts preparation of

civil services, one of the first advice she

gets is to read magazines like Yojana and

Frontline.

It is true that these magazines helps you to

gain knowledge, which is one of the most

important aspects civil services

preparation.

However, certainly it is not enough. But

Unfortunately, by taking this single

dimension of knowledge almost every

institue in the field of civil services preparation is providing summary of Yojana etc. These

summaries can only provide information but civil services preparation needs more than just

information. it needs the art to process the information unto wisdom, which can help an

aspirant to tackle anything which UPSC throws at her.

To bridge this gap between knowledge and wisdom, abhimanu IAS through its online platform

abhipedia is bringing you a fortnightly document which is to guide you how to read Yojana

and Frontline along with articles from other sources like newspaper.It is to be noted here that

this document is not a replacement of these magazines. The sole purpose of this summary is

to make you learn the “ the art of reading and going beyond knowledge”.

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Contents abhimanu’s wisdom ....................................................................................................................... 3

Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................ 4

Lead Story ....................................................................................................................................... 6

Article 1. Empowering the nation with Women- Led Development. ............................................. 7

REFERENCE ARTICLE: YOJANA - by Maneka Sanjay Gandhi. ....................................................... 7

Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 7

Examples highlighting the developments in the area of women empowerment are: .......... 7

Concerns ................................................................................................................................. 8

Steps taken by the government to end the existing discrimination: ..................................... 8

Conclusion: .............................................................................................................................. 9

Relevance for Essay:.............................................................................................................. 10

ASSIGNMENT: ....................................................................................................................... 10

Article 2.Helping Women Gain Control of their Lives ................................................................... 10

REFERENCE ARTICLE: YOJANA - by N V Madhuri. ..................................................................... 10

Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 11

The present case of India: ..................................................................................................... 11

Role of Self Help Groups( SHGs) in empowering women: ................................................... 11

Realising the above benefits of Micro Credit Government has launched several

programmes to promote the same: ..................................................................................... 11

Conclusion: ............................................................................................................................ 12

Assignment: .......................................................................................................................... 12

Make a list of all the schemes described in the article and note down the following things:

............................................................................................................................................... 12

Articler 3.Breaking the Shackles of Financial Deprivation ............................................................ 13

REFERENCE ARTICLE: YOJANA - by Lekha Chakraborty and Piyush Gandhi. ............................ 13

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To ensure financial inclusion, government has taken following approach: ......................... 14

Shortcomings of Current Approach ...................................................................................... 14

Recommendations: ............................................................................................................... 14

Assignment: .......................................................................................................................... 15

Article 4.Empowering Women: Legal Provisions .......................................................................... 16

REFERENCE ARTICLE: YOJANA - by Deepa Khandekar ............................................................. 16

Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 16

Issues related to women empowerement which have been discussed by the Constitution

bench of Supreme Court of India in the recent years. ......................................................... 16

Conclusion: ............................................................................................................................ 18

Relevance for Essay:.............................................................................................................. 18

Assignment: .......................................................................................................................... 19

Article 5. CONSTITUTIONALITY OF AADHAAR .............................................................................. 19

Reference Article: Plethora of planets by Usha Ramanathan ................................................ 19

Context .................................................................................................................................. 19

Current Issues with AADHAR. ............................................................................................... 19

Conclusion: ............................................................................................................................ 21

Assignments .......................................................................................................................... 22

Article 6. Census opportunity ....................................................................................................... 23

Reference Article: Census opportunity by B.S Krishnan ........................................................... 23

Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 23

The benefits of this exercise will be : .................................................................................... 23

Centre’s neglect : .................................................................................................................. 23

Delay in Caste census ............................................................................................................ 24

Difference between centre and states: ................................................................................ 24

The Case of Nomadic communities ...................................................................................... 24

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 24

Assignment: .......................................................................................................................... 25

Article 7. NOBEL PRIZE .................................................................................................................. 25

Reference Article: Pioneering work in cancer research by R Ramachandran .......................... 25

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Context: ................................................................................................................................. 26

About Immune System ......................................................................................................... 26

Paradigm shift ....................................................................................................................... 26

How ‘checkpoint blockade’ therapy is different:.................................................................. 26

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 27

Important Suggestions: ......................................................................................................... 27

Assignment ............................................................................................................................ 27

Article 8.SECTION 497 OF IPC ....................................................................................................... 27

Reference Article: Axing adultery law by T.K Rajalakshmi. ...................................................... 27

Context: ................................................................................................................................. 27

What was section 497? ......................................................................................................... 28

Significance of the Judgements ............................................................................................ 28

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 29

Relevance in Essay ................................................................................................................ 29

Assignment : .......................................................................................................................... 29

Women Led Development

Indian culture recognise the power of Nari Shakti, as

the mother goddess has been worshipped from

ancient times in various forms like Durga and Kali etc.

However, this is only the one side of the picture. The

reality paints a very grim picture of women, having

no voice even in their own life. They are confined to

their role as mother, wife and daughter.

Thankfully, the scenario is changing slowly but steadily in recent times. The modern woman is

no longer confined to the four walls of the house. Women are now demanding gender equality

and justice both at home and workplace.

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They have broken the glass barrier in almost every field, be it technology, space science, sports

or armed forces. In new India almost every fifth woman is an entrepreneur - both in urban and

rural India.

Government has played a significant role in this transition, as three focus areas have been

targeted ie ‘ Empowerment through motherhood’’, Entrepreneurship Development and Safety

and security of women from hose to office space.

Thus Government has rightly recognised that road to development cannot be travelled without

empowerment of women who form almost 50% per cent of the Indian population. A multi

directional approach to women empowerment is sure to to take the country way beyond this

path.

REFERENCE ARTICLE: YOJANA - by Maneka Sanjay Gandhi.

Introduction

Women make up half of India’s population. Over the years we have seen women grow in public life – working in offices, representing in international sports, in bureaucracy, politics, international organisations and much more.

They need a safe and enabling environment which encourage their empowerment. They should be able to live without fear so that they can explore their potential and not be bound by artificial restraints.

With this target in mind government has been working tirelessly and we can also notice some extremely encouraging developments in the area of women empowerment.

Examples highlighting the developments in the area of women empowerment are:

The first female fighter pilots have recently been appointed in the Indian Air Force.

The participation of women in combat roles in the Army is also strongly under consideration.

India’s successful launch of the Mangalyaan and the record-breaking 104 Nano satellites launched into orbit on-board a single rocket had a team of women scientist behind them.

India has been successful in achieving gender parity in school education. The literacy rate of women has risen from a mere 9 per cent in 1951 to 65 per cent in 2011.

Today, every fourth worker in India is a woman. One third of all certified engineers are now women and over three fourths of all health workers at primary level are women.

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In a country bursting with entrepreneurial spirit, today almost every fifth entrepreneur is a woman.

In politics too, the figures are more encouraging than ever before. Elected women representatives now make up about 46 percent of our panchayat members.

With these 1.3million + women in positions of power at the village level, the landscape of our country is changing from ground up. For instance, where in the 1957 elections only 45 women had contested general elections, in the last election, 668 women candidates contested.

On the health front, improvements have been noted with the average life expectancy of

women having risen from 31.7 years in 1950-51 to about 70 years in 2016.

Institutional births have risen to an all- time high of 79 per cent in 2014-15. The maternal

mortality rate has dropped by half in the decade between 2001-03 and 2011-13.

The number of women with a bank or savings account, which they operate themselves,has

increased from just 15 percent in 2005-06 to 53 per cent in 2015-16.

Concerns

Unfortunately, in spite of all the above facts and figures women still face serious dangers to their life and liberty in our country. Violence against women, high dropout rates and huge burden of unpaid work still disempower women.

To end these incidents the government has taken a number of measures to ensure its female citizens have equal opportunities along with a supporting and safe environment for their development.

Steps taken by the government to end the existing discrimination:

Financial Empowerment

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Programme addresses the complex issue of mindsets in all districts of India.

Along with this, the Sukanya Samridhi Yojana was also launched in 2015, under which small affordable deposits are made in the bank accounts of girls, with the benefit of higher rate of interest.

The amount can be withdrawn by the girl on reaching 18 years of age, giving her a fund for higher education or other investments.

Through the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana and PM Jan Dhan Yojana, Government have enabled banking services for the unbanked.

Women’s share of total savings accounts increased from 28 per cent in 2014 to 40 per cent in 2017 (according to the data form top 40 banks and RRBs.)

Empowering Motherhood

The Maternity Benefit Act has been amended to extend the period of mandatory paid maternity leave for working women to 26 weeks.

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In order to extend protection to the unorganized sector as well, pregnant and lactating mothers are provided cash incentives under the PM Matru Vandana Yojana. As partial compensation for wage loss, these mothers are provided Rs. 6,000 as incentive, which enables them to take adequate rest before and after the delivery and exclusively breast feed their child.

At the village level, women members of panchayats are leading the empowerment of their villages. To support their process the Ministry of Women and Child Development has conducted training for 18,000 women members.

Women Safety

Government is strictly implementing the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013. This provides a safe and secure environment to women at the workplace and covers all women – all ages, public and private sector and even those women visiting an office.

An important aspect of empowerment is also safety. For this, the government has sanctioned 181 Women Helplines and 206 One Stop Centres have become operational where women affected by violence can access quick and easy help.

33 per cent reservation for women in the police force is also being implemented. A feature of Panic Buttons will soon be available on all mobile phones to provide emergency response system to women in distress.

The Nirbhaya Fund is also being used to roll-out comprehensive plans to make 8 major cities in the country safer for women and also improve forensic analysis abilities in cases of sexual assault.

Encouraging Entrepreneurship

Under the Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana, government has provided credit to small entrepreneurship without the need for collateral or a guarantor. 75 percent of these loans have been given to women.

Over 47 lakh Self Help Groups (SHGs) have been promoted under the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM).

Under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana, a large number of Indian youth have taken up industry relevant skill training. Till date, half of the certificates awarded under this Yojana have been given to women candidates.

Accessing the Inaccessible

The Government implements a number of schemes for the empowerment of women.However, these do not always reach beneficiaries in remote or backward areas.

To overcome this problem, Government has recently launched The Mahila Shakti Kendra scheme. Under this, 3 lakh student volunteers are fanning out across the country to directly reach women at village level with government schemes and services for their empowerment.

Conclusion:

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As India looks forward to reaping benefits from its demographic dividend, the role of empowered women becomes all the more important.

The way forward lies in the conviction that we must have women led development. And this can be done only when more and more women get education and productive employment.

Relevance for Essay:

You can use the quote ‘’ A woman is a full circle. Within her there is the power to create, nurture and transform’’ in introduction of an essay topic related to Women Empowerment.

You can also use every aspects like financial, safety, health to present a holistic picture of government efforts to empower women.

ASSIGNMENT:

Mains question Q: Women are now coming forward in every sector including Armed forces, sports and Space Missions. However, still we are far from becoming a gender neutral society. In this context discuss about the various programme started by the government to achieve the same.

Approach and inputs from this article:

Examples highlighting the developments in the area of women empowerment.

You need to go beyond summary for highlighting impediments in becoming a gender

neutral society.

You can use programme mentioned in the article to answer second part of question.

MCQ

Consider the following statements Suknaya Samridhi Yojana: 1 . It was launched in August 2016. 2. It was launched as a program for financial inclusion. 3.Another aim of the scheme is to provide fund for higher education for young women.

Choose the correct answer from the codes given below:

a) 1 and 2 only

b) 1 and 3 only

c) 2 and 3 only

d) All of the above

Answer: c

REFERENCE ARTICLE: YOJANA - by N V Madhuri.

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Introduction

The concept of empowerment is defined as the process by which women take control and ownership of their choices. Entrepreneurship development and income generating activities are a feasible solution for empowering women.

The present case of India:

India has witnessed a three-fold increase in population over the last half century without corresponding growth in opportunities, especially in rural areas.

Women constitute 50% of the population and are the backbone of the family. In recent years, the traditional roles of women have undergone some changes due to economic needs and mainstream women’s contribution to the overall growth and development of society.

Role of Self Help Groups( SHGs) in empowering women:

Self Help Groups (SHG) play an effective role for promoting women entrepreneurship and financial empowerment with the help of micro finance.

The SHGs micro-credit mechanism makes the members to get involved in other community development activities.

SHGs, such as Abhinav Farmers Co-operative Society, Grassroots, Grameen Bank, Assam Tea Corporation, Kudumbashree, Indira Kranthi Patham are actively participating in empowering women.These agencies through micro-credit is promoting the small-scale business enterprises, and its major aim is to alleviate poverty by income generating activities.

The SHGs also contribute to Financial Security by helping in better recovery of loans, development of thrift and self-help among members, effective use of credit for the purchase of income generating assets, and empowerment of women.

Realising the above benefits of Micro Credit Government has launched several programmes

to promote the same:

Start up India is a flagship initiative launched by the Government of India to build a strong

eco-system for nurturing innovation and startups in the country which will drive economic

growth and generate large scale employment opportunities.

Standup India scheme was launched on 5th April, 2016 to facilitate bank loans from

Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) between Rs.10 lakh to Rs.1 Crore to at least one

Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST) and one woman per bank branch for setting up

a greenfield enterprise in trading, services or manufacturing sector.

The MSME Development Organisations (MSME-DO), the various State Small Industries

Development Corporations (SIDCs), the nationalised banks and even NGOs are conducting

various programs.

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Entrepreneurship Development Programmes (EDPs) has been launched to cater to the

needs of potential women entrepreneurs, who may not have adequate educational

background and skills.

Trade related Entrepreneurship Assistance and Development (TREAD): It enables

credit availability to interested women through NGOs. As such, women can receive support

of registered NGOs in both accessing loan facilities, and receiving counselling and training

opportunities.

NITI Aayog launched the Women Entrepreneurship platform (WEFP). The initiative is

aimed at building an ecosystem across India to realize for women across India their

entrepreneurial aspirations, scale-up innovative initiatives and chalk-out sustainable, long

term strategies for their business.

The three pillars on which WEP is built : Ichha Shakti (motivating aspiring entrepreneurs to

start their enterprise), Gyaan Shakti (providing knowledge and ecosystem support to

women entrepreneurs to help them foster entrepreneurship) and Karma Shakti (providing

hands-on support to entrepreneurs in setting-up and scaling up business).

Mudra Yojana Scheme for Women: This scheme has been launched for individual women

wanting to start small new enterprises and businesses as well as group of women wanting

to start a venture together.

Science For Equity Empowerment and Development (SEED) has the broad objectives of

providing opportunities to motivated scientists and field level workers to take up action

oriented and location specific projects aiming towards socio-economic upliftment of poor

and disadvantaged sections of the society through appropriate science and technology

interventions especially in the rural areas.

Conclusion:

Women entrepreneurship can make a particularly strong contribution to the economic well being of the family and communities. Even Sustainable Development Goals ( SDG) can be achieved only with women empowerment. Thus governments across the world as well as various development organisation should keep their focus on Women Development.

Assignment:

Make a list of all the schemes described in the article and note down the following things:

1. Nodal Ministry

2. Nodal Agency

3. Targeted beneficiaries

4. Core objective of the scheme

5. Check whether the scheme is Central Sectoral Scheme

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or Centrally Sponsored scheme.

Question For Mains

Self help Groups (SHG) play an effective role for promoting women entrpreneurship and

financial empowerment with the help of microfinance. Elaborate.

Approach and Inputs from this article:

First you need to define SHGs.

Focus on how it helping women to gain empowerement.

As the direction in the question is to elaborate you need to quote examples which are

amply present in this article.

MCQs Question

Consider the following statements regarding Pradhan Mantritri Kaushal Vikas Yojana. 1. It is the flagship scheme of the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

2. It, among other things, will also impart training in soft skills, entrepreneurship,

financial and digital literacy.

3. It aims to align the competencies of the unregulated workforce of the country

to the National Skill Qualification Framework.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 and 3 only

(b) 2 only

(c) 2 and 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

REFERENCE ARTICLE: YOJANA - by Lekha Chakraborty and Piyush Gandhi.

Financial inclusion helps in breaking the shackles of financial deprivation by providing a

linkage between people and financial mainstream of the economy. It also mitigates the

exploitation of vulnerable sections by the usurious moneylenders by facilitating easy access

to formal credit.

Availability of credit at reasonable rates boosts the entrepreneurship quotient of

women.Furthermore, financial inclusion as a tool for women empowerment is not all about

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providing credit. Another dimension which has long struggled to get its due share of

attention is safe easy and feasible opportunities for savings.

To ensure financial inclusion, government has taken following approach:

Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana has been launched to provide banking facilities to all people.

Insurance penetration is one other parameter to judge financial inclusion. Policies like Suraksha Bima Yojana and Swasthya Bima Yojna are providing the much-needed cushioning against health and disability contingencies. Complementing such schemes are the pension schemes launched recently like Atal Pension Yojana.

Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana has been launched to provide banking facilities to all people.

Insurance penetration is one other parameter to judge financial inclusion. Policies like Suraksha Bima Yojana and Swasthya Bima Yojna are providing the much-needed cushioning against health and disability contingencies. Complementing such schemes are the pension schemes launched recently like Atal Pension Yojana.

Shortcomings of Current Approach

Between the period of 2011-17, 77 percent of females above 15 years are reported to have

a bank account, which is a 51 percent increases from 2011. The increase has been mainly

due to Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana.However, the main issue with this figure is that

significant percentage of such accounts are zero-balance accounts, meaning lack of usage of

services.

BCs: The strategy of Banking Correspondents has not given fruitful results due to lack of

adequate branding of BCs because of low incentive and compensation structure and

preferences for brick and mortar branch by the rural economy.

Post Offices: The major bottlenecks remains acute shortage of manpower. The rural

population still depends on informal sources of lending as post offices do not provide such

services.

Mobile Banking: Despite similar literacy rates and stronger banking structure than countries

like Uganda and Kenya, India has failed to witness a revolution in mobile banking which

wasr ather visible in countries like Kenya where over 70 percent of its adult population has

mobile bank accounts.

Literacy Programs: Financial Literacy through audio and visual-Doordarshan and

established credit counselling centres have not performed satisfactorily.

Recommendations:

Anganwadi System: Anganwadi workers can be given basic banking training which will give them the opportunity to act as a Banking Correspondents (BC). By this way the existing

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infrastructure and personnel can be used to overcome the barriers of lack of physical presence of banks and also ensure last-mile delivery as promised by BCs.

Innovation in Credit Scoring Models: Women are disproportionately disadvantaged by traditional credit scoring models that rely on credit history and collateral. Innovative ways to assess risk quotient of a potential woman borrower should be used. One such way as is being experimented in Africa is psychometric testing to analyse ability, intelligence and character traits to assess creditworthiness.

Role of Priority Sector Advance: More diversified, qualitative and quantitative loans

through banks are required to prevent the micro enterprises owners from falling in informal interest rates web.

Tailoring Products Suited For Women: Men usually own assets like land, women possess jewellery and other valuables. Understanding these differences and moulding credit products compatible with such ownership patterns is required.

Financial Literacy and Demographic Dividend: With more and more women joining the

workforce, there is a need to educate them about financial independence and related

services like Provident Funds. Insurance Cover and direct Benefit Transfer Schemes.

Mobile Money-A new Dimension: There is a need to make the rural women more aware

about such innovations and give them the elementary knowledge of its operations which

will help build their credibility in these mobile wallets. Informative sessions in panchayats

and fair price shops can help in imparting this much required information.

Important of Further Research and Gender Desegregated Data: There is need for family

level desegregated data which highlights the reasons why women lack in accessing formal

financial services.

Assignment:

Question for Mains:

The emancipation of women of rural India will remain a myth without financial

empowerment. Discuss the statement, in light of government efforts in field of financial

inclusion and their results.Also suggest a way forward.( 250 words)

Approach and inputs from the article:

You can use the whole summary to answer the above question. The trick lies in

answering every aspect in 250 words.

Moreover, you can use this article for answering any question on financial inclusion

and rural development.

Thus, rather than just reading the article, you should try to see it as an answer to

questions related to it.

MCQ

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Which of the following steps will help in increasing financial inclusion?

1. Increasing the number of Post offices.

2. Using Anganwadi sysyem.

3. Use of Mobile Money.


a) 1 and 2 only

b) 1 and 3 only

c) 2 and3 only

d) 1 2 and 3 only

Answer: d

REFERENCE ARTICLE: YOJANA - by Deepa Khandekar

“ To awaken the people, it is the women who must be awakened. Once she is on the move,

the family moves, the nation moves” Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru

Introduction

Empowering women to make their own decisions without any limitations and treating them

at par with men is imperative for the holistic development of the nation.

Realising this our Constitution guarantees the right to equality and the right to not be

discriminated against on the basis of sex.

Issues related to women empowerement which have been discussed by the Constitution

bench of Supreme Court of India in the recent years.

Section 497

It penalizes any man who has illicit relations with the wife of another man without the

consent or connivance of that man. This is an extremely gender biased provision and

Is violative of both article 14 and 15 of constitution of India.

Firstly, it treats a woman like the property of her husband. It is not an offence if such an act

is done ‘with the consent or connivance’ of the husband.

Secondly, the offence is said to be committed by the man having illicit relations with the

wife of another man and the wife is not punishable even as an abettor as she is treated like

a victim.

Thirdly, if a man has relations outside the marriage, neither him nor the woman with whom

he has such relations can be prosecuted.

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The recommendations by the 42nd Law Report, 1971 and the Malimath Committee

Report,2013, to amend the definition to make it gender neutral, have failed to materialize.

It has just to light recently in Joseph Shine v. UOI, wherein the bench observed that in this provision, the concept of gender neutrality is absent and it creates a dent on the individual identity of a women

Issue of Triple Talaq

Another issue with which the Supreme Court of India dealt with was the so-called provision of Instant Triple Talaq.

Many Muslim majority countries, including Pakistan, have abolished this practice. Finally, in 2017 the constitutional validity of Instant Triple Talaq came before the Supreme Court of India in the case of Shayara Bano V Union of India. By a 3:2 majority, it was held to be unconstitutional, arbitrary and violative of Article 14.

However, other forms of talaq still exist, wherein Muslim men still have the power to pronounce divorce without resorting to any legal recourse.

In December 2017, the Muslim Women (Protection of Right on Marriage) Bill, 2017 was introduced in the Lok Sabha, which seeked to make Instant Triple Talaq a cognizable and non-bailable offence.

The Bill, in its present form, cannot be said to be devoid of problems. It raises important

questions such as- is making it a cognizable offence fair to the Muslim men? Under the

Indian Penal Code 1860 the offences related to marriage, where no physical harm is caused

to the wife, are made non-cognizable to ensure that prosecution can only be at the instance

of the aggrieved party.

The Bill, in an attempt to promote the rights of the Muslim women, may inadvertently

prejudice the rights of the Muslim men and discriminate against them.

Right to Property

The amendment to the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 gave women the right to a share in the joint family property of both, the parents and the in-laws.

The ouster of women from right to inherent and own property, if they married outside the community, is present under tribal law as well as under various religious laws.

Right to Religious Identify

Similar is the situation under the Parsi Laws, where Parsi women who marry outside their

community are said to have lost their religious identity. The children of a Parsi man married

outside the community, can become a Parsi.

However, the children of a Parsi woman married outside the community cannot become a

Parsi. A Parsi woman married out the community is not allowed to visit the Tow of Silence

and attend her parents funeral rituals.

This was challenged by a Parsi woman, Goolrukh Gupta in the Gujarat High Court, wherein

the Court upheld the decision to debar a Parsi woman from performing religious practices

18



by observing that in all religions, whether Christianity, Parsi, or Judaism, the religious

identity of a woman shall merger into that of her husband.

When this ruling was challenged in the Supreme Court of India, the Parsi Trust went against

its age-old tradition and stated that it would allow her to visit the “Tower of Silence” to

attend her parents’ funeral rituals.

Physical Molestation

After the infamous Nirbhaya gang-rape case that the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act,

2013 (Anti-Rape Bill) was passed under which the definition was enlarged.

The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 was passed which provided

that a juvenite, 16 years or older, who a heinous offence (offence punishable with

imprisonment of seven years or more) will be tried as an adult.

After the Kathua gang-rape case, the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2018 was

approved by the President, under which the quantum of punishment for rape was increase

especially in case of a girl under 16 years of age.

However, the definition of rape, does not recognise ‘marital rape’ as ‘rape’, unless the wife

is under 15 years of age.

Common Civil Code

With the increase in the number of women approaching the Courts to protect their

fundamental rights, the Law Commission has been asked to probe into the possibility of

implementation of the Uniform Civil Code in India.

The Supreme Court of India has observed in Mohd. Ahmed Khan vs Shah Bano Begum that it

is a matter of regret that Article 44 of our Constitution has remained a dead letter.

Again, in Sarla Mudgal v. Union of India the Supreme Court discussed the need for a

Uniform Civil Code.

Conclusion:

Thus over the years the need for reform has been recognised in India and the Supreme

Court of India has been playing a constructive role in reshaping laws which have become

archaic. However, we still have a long way to move towards achieving an equal status for

women in the society.

Relevance for Essay:

You can use this quote in the essay. You should not restrict yourself in using such quotes to

beginning of the essay but in any essay related to development of India, this quote can be

used while providing the angle of empowerment of women.

“ To awaken the people, it is the women who must be awakened. Once she is on the move,

the family moves, the nation moves”

19



Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru

Assignment:

Question for Mains:

There is divergence between some laws in the country and constitutional Right to Equality,

especially in case of women. Mention three such laws. Also shed light on Supreme Court

rulings related to such laws.

Approach and Inputs from this article

All the content need to answer this question is present in this article.

Whenever such question is asked you need to mention some sections of IPC such as 497,

without this your answer will look very general and cannot fetch good marks.

Thus, every time you come across any article related to polity, you must focus upon

related articles of constitution and sections of a law.

MCQ

Which of the following articles provides right to religious identity in India:

a) Article 23

b) Article 25

c) Article 27

d) Article 29

Answer: c

Reference Article: Plethora of planets by Usha Ramanathan

Context

The range of petitioners who went to court challenging the constitutionality of the UID

project raised a spectrum of issues: “seeding” the number in multiple databases and the

enhanced power to practise surveillance, tagging, labelling, tracking etc.

Apart from this, the national security risk of having every person in the country on an

electronic database; the access given to companies such as L1 Identity Solutions increase

the vulnerability of data.

Current Issues with AADHAR.

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Service delivery

In September 2013, the Supreme Court ordered that no one should be denied any service

merely because they did not have an Aadhaar number. The UIDAI immediately went to

court to admit that it wanted to be allowed to make it mandatory even if it said it was

voluntary. The court did not oblige.

So, the UIDAI just went ahead, acting as if the court order did not exist. Six times between

the start of the project and the enactment of the Aadhaar Act in March 2016, the court

gave its order, but each time the UIDAI shrugged it off like it was nothing more than a minor

irritant.

Starvation deaths linked to the UID had begun to surface even as the case was being heard.

On September 28, 2017, Santoshi, 11, died in Jharkhand. His family members were enrolled,

but they seem to have been unable to link their UID number with the ration list. The story

of Santoshi’s death after eight days of going without food, makes painful telling.

Privacy

The nine-judge bench decision of August 24, 2017, was categorical. Privacy is a fundamental

right. It is a natural right, an inherent right, it was not given by the Constitution but

recognised by it, and not having been given, it cannot be taken away either.

However , data collection for Aadhar put question mark on the privacy of individuals.

As data collection agency can use this data for surveillance, tagging, labelling, tracking etc.

The matter becomes more serious because a project to fix our identity was being launched

without a law.

Biometrics

There is a lack of a sound study that documents the accuracy achievable on Indian

demographics (that is, larger percentage of rural population) and in Indian environmental

conditions (that is, extremely hot and humid climates and facilities without air

conditioning)” in collecting the biometric data. Several, state government records reveal

high failure rate.

According to a study of an NGO, in trials they had done, the failure rate had been 8.54 per

cent of those who participated in iris authentication and 6 per cent of those who attempted

fingerprint authentication.

Economic Survey 2016-17 stated that biometric failure rates were “49 per cent for

Jharkhand, 6 per cent for Gujarat, 5 per cent for Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh and 37

per cent for Rajasthan”.

In the above case data divergence is very high, thus even after the judgement of Supreme

Court, it is difficult to determine, how many people are suffering due to Biometric failure.

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Surveillance

Convergence, profiling, breaking down of silos by the use of a single number as identifier across discrete databases, labelling and tracking across time and across purposes were among the issues that had been taken to court.

The UIDAI was demonstrably working with State governments to set up State Resident Data Hubs (SRDH) as set out in a 2012 document. The SRDHs were enabled to have a “360 degree view” of their residents.

The majority judgment, however, saw surveillance in the context of the UID project as being about the amount of data that the UIDAI has with it. Judging the amount of data that are with the UID as minimal, the judges directed that records of authentication should be deleted after six months and metadata be contained.

Parliamentary defiance

The passage of the Aadhaar Act, 2016, as a Money Bill did not have legitimacy.

Constitutional questions abounded.

Article 110 of the Constitution is specific and unequivocal that any Bill to be passed as a

Money Bill must have only provisions that are covered by that Article.

Passing the Aadhaar Act as a Money Bill was an act of parliamentary defiance. The

Constitution provides that where there is a dispute about whether a Bill is a Money Bill or

not, the decision of the Speaker is final. The question before the court was whether the

Speaker’s decision could be judicially reviewed.

The majority judgment, however, held that the court’s review of the Aadhaar Act led it to

hold that it indeed is a Money Bill.

To arrive at this finding that the Act is valid, the court used the doctrine of “pith of

substance”, arguing that since the core of the law was the delivery of benefits, services and

subsidies from the Consolidated Fund of India, it was, in pith and substance, a Money Bill.

Bank accounts, mobile phone linking

Making the UID number mandatory “in the name of checking money laundering or black

money is grossly disproportionate”, the judges held.

There should have been a proper study about the methods adopted by persons who indulge

in money laundering, the kind of bank accounts such persons maintain, and target those

bank accounts for the purpose of Aadhaar.

There is no law authorising the linking of the UID number with mobile phones; it fails the

test of proportionality, and of necessity, and “there can be other appropriate laws and less

intrusive alternatives.

Conclusion:

In the end we can say that, privacy as well as delivery of benefits of welfare schemes, both

are essential part of the right to live life with dignity.

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UID number empowers the “underprivileged and marginalised”, they get a “unique

identity” and “it also enables such individuals to avail themselves of the fruits of welfare

schemes of the government which are floated as socio-economic welfare measures to uplift

such classes. In that sense, the scheme ensures dignity to such individuals.

However, in while delivering such benefits, sacrifice to the right to privacy should not be so

invasive that it creates imbalance.”. In such scenario the court should perform the

“balancing” act.

Assignments

Question for Mains:

There needs to be balancing of two competing fundamental rights, the right to privacy on

the one hand and the right to food, shelter and employment on the other. Critically

comment, in context of the Aadhar.

Approach and Inputs from this article

You need to start the question with how Aadhaar is going to benefit residents of India.

However, in second part of this question you need to raise concerns related to Aadhar ,

especially which are related to privacy.

In conclusion, you need to emphasise on how we must continue with Aadhar by creating

a balance with right to privacy.

All the content which is needed to answer this question is available in this article.

To fetch more marks you should quote some views of Supreme Court, additionally you

can mention about the Puttaswamy Judgment on Right to privacy.

MCQ

According to Article 110 which of the following subjects can come in category of Money Bill:

1.The imposition, abolition, remission, alteration or regulation of any tax.

2.The custody of the consolidated Fund or the Contingency Fund of India, the payment of

moneys into or the withdrawal of moneys from any such Fund.

3.The receipt of money on account of the Consolidated Fund of India or the public

account of India.


a) 1 and 3 only

b) 2 and 3 only

c) All of the above,

d) 1 and 2 only

Answer: c

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Reference Article: Census opportunity by B.S Krishnan

Introduction

The decision of the Central government, at a meeting chaired by Home Minister Rajnath Singh on August 31, to canvass data with regard to the socially and educationally backward classes (SEBCs) in Census 2021 is both welcome and long overdue.

The benefits of this exercise will be :

First of all, this will provide a mine of valuable information—economic, occupational,

educational and social—that can facilitate better planning of the comprehensive socio-

economic development of the SEBCs and the formulation of schemes tailored to the

development needs of different categories of the SEBCs.

The data collection exercise will compliment the National Commission for Backward Classes

(NCBC), which is being set up for the SEBCs under the Constitution (One Hundred and

Twenty-third) Amendment Act that Parliament passed in its 2018 monsoon session.

Such data for the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and the Scheduled Tribes (STs) have been available

since the first census of independent India in 1951. It has helped officials to formulate

development plans and design specific programmes for the S.Cs and the S.Ts more

precisely. The same is needed for the SEBCs communities.

The need for a census with due attention to the SEBCs has been urged by various

commissions, including the Kaka Kalelkar Commission (1953-55) and the Mandal

Commission (1978-80) at the national level and State Backward Class commissions such as

the Sattanathan (1969-70) and Ambasankar (1985) commissions of Tamil Nadu, the

Anantharaman Commission (1968-70) of Andhra Pradesh and the Havanur Commission

(1972-75) of Karnataka.However, still it was much neglected.

Centre’s neglect :

The long delay in taking up the census of the SEBCs as part of the decennial census is typical of the neglect of the SEBCs by the Centre. The southern States and even States such as Bihar under the late Karpoori Thakur have a better record than the Centre with regard to the SEBCs.

Article 340 of the Constitution had been flouted by the Central government until 1990 when the V.P. Singh government introduced 27 per cent reservation, as recommended by the Mandal Commission in 1980, for the SEBCs, which the Supreme Court upheld in 1992.

Article 340 of the Constitution had been flouted by the Central government until 1990 when the V.P. Singh government introduced 27 per cent reservation, as recommended by the Mandal Commission in 1980, for the SEBCs, which the Supreme Court upheld in 1992.

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Delay in Caste census

Government embarked on the path of socio-economic caste census (SECC) in 2011 and entrusted this work to the ministries of Rural Development and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, neither of which has the required expertise or the background or the infrastructure for this task.

The exercise did not resulted desired outcome. As Instead of asking each respondent whether she or he belonged to any of the castes in the SEBC list for the State concerned, the respondents were asked which caste they belonged to. They variously gave names of castes, sub-castes, sub-sub-castes, synonyms, clans, gotras, and so on. As many as 46 lakh categories were recorded, which made it difficult to reach at any outcome.

The SECC provided some economic information, which is useful for identifying beneficiaries on economic basis for schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana. But the original purpose of securing data caste-wise, in particular SEBC-caste-wise, remained unfulfilled.

Another short-sighted approach is to link the SEBC census with 27 per cent reservation for the SEBCs. It was not understood that SEBC census by itself does not have any bearing on the reservation for the OBCs.

Difference between centre and states:

The Central list for each State for Central purposes and the State’s own list for State purposes are the same or nearly wholly the same in respect of most States.

In some cases, particularly Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, there are certain entries of castes that are not in the Mandal list or the Central list and whose applications for inclusion have been rejected by the government on the advice tendered by the National commission of Backward Classes (NCBC) after a public enquiry and in-depth study.

These States may want to collect data of castes that are included in the State list but not in the Central list. In case they so wish, there should be one column for castes that are in the Central SEBC list and another column for castes that are only in the State list.

The Case of Nomadic communities

There is one more social category for which census data is important, namely, the Nomadic, Semi-Nomadic and Vimukta-Jati/Denotified communities (NSNVJs/DNTs). At present, they are distributed among the S.Cs, the S.Ts and the SEBCs.

The Renke Commission, set up by the previous United Progressive Alliance government, and the Idate Commission set up by the present government envisage their constitution into a separate class and the provision of separate quotas and separate social justice measures for them.

However, categorising them within one class will not be wise decision, given to their different socio economic conditions.

Conclusion

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It is essential that organisations of the SEBCs and those working for their rights keep a watch on the devising of schedules and the methodology for the gathering of SEBC data in the census, and the actual conduct of the census, so that what has been secured after so much effort and such an inordinate delay has useful outcomes and output without any scope for error or confusion. It is suggested to the Census Commissioner to place in the public domain the schedules and methodology after drafting and before finalising them.

Assignment:

You should note down the articles related to the various constitutional bodies related

to vulnerable sections.

You must also look into the statutory bodies related to marginalised section

Question for Mains:

Even though India is successfully conducting World’s largest census exercise since 1881.

Still, there are lapses when it comes to planning using that data, especially in case of

the backward classes. Analyse.

Approach and inputs from the article.

You need to go beyond summary in introduction to provide brief underpinnings of

Indian census.

The content is sufficient to highlight the shortcoming.

More marks will be allotted if quote commissions like Kaka Kalelkar Commission

(1953-55) and the Mandal Commission (1978-80).

MCQ

Which among the following is not a constitutional body in India?

a) National commission for Backward class. b) National commission for Minorities. c) National commission for SCs. d) Special officer for Linguistic Minorities.

Answer: b

Reference Article: Pioneering work in cancer research by R Ramachandran

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Context:

The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to James Allison and Tasuku Honjo, whose work has laid the foundation for a new clinical approach to treating cancer. They worked on the immune system of human being.

About Immune System

The body’s immune system is programmed to recognise “self” from “non-self” cells—foreign molecules such as bacteria, viruses and parasites—and mount a response to get rid of them.

Critical to this response are certain white blood cells called T-cells. There are two kinds of other proteins on the surface of the T-cells, one kind that switches on the immune response and the other that switches it off. These are called “checkpoint proteins”.

The former set of checkpoints make the T-cells active when an infection is present and the latter set puts the brakes on the immune system and helps it switch off when the immune cell response is no longer required.

Cancer cells, by producing certain proteins, can often trick the immune system to switch off its T-cells when they should actually be attacking them. These proteins on cancer cells are thus actually activating a certain switch-off molecule on the surface of the T-cells.

Paradigm shift

This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to two key scientists who identified these brake checkpoint molecules on T-cells and invented biological techniques to prevent the cancer cells from activating these, which otherwise would have put brakes on the immune response to cancer.

The molecular brakes on T-cells thus remain inactive and the surcharged immune system can now attack the cancer cells.

Before their groundbreaking work, the approach was mainly aimed at attacking cancer cells directly through different kinds of drugs that were specific to types of cancer.

The technique is referred to as cancer immunotherapy and the corresponding therapeutic agents—drugs that block checkpoint proteins—are called “checkpoint inhibitors”

How ‘checkpoint blockade’ therapy is different:

In this therapy, immune system attacks the process of carcinogenesis itself .T-cells detect mutant or foreign peptides on the surface of cells to give the immune cells an idea of what is going on.

For example with lung cancer or melanoma [a type of skin cancer] there are hundreds of thousands of mutations,Then once you have T-cells, unlike with chemotherapy or radiation, there is memory. You have T-cells for the rest of your life thus you do not chemotherapy repeatedly.

The last difference is adaptability. Since your immune system is a dynamic thing, if the tumour changes, the immune system can change its response itself.

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Conclusion

Despite attempts by scientists to engage the immune system to fight cancer, clinical development towards a general approach to treating all types of cancer was absent until checkpoint inhibitor therapy arrived thanks to the seminal discoveries by Allison and Honjo. With the unprecedented research in immune checkpoint therapy that their discoveries have unleashed, one can expect major discoveries at all levels in the field that should benefit humankind a great deal more in the years to come.

Important Suggestions:

Whenever you come across any article related to Science , try to focus on the Key words. For Example : In this Article you should focus on keywords like ‘checkpoint blockade’ therapy along with how it will resolve the problems of cancer therapy.

You must avoid to dwele too much on technical terms like T cells etc.

Assignment

Question for Mains

What is checkpoint therapy how it will complement the present research in Cancer

treatment.

UPSC rarely asks direct science and tech questions. However, it in not impossible

because they directly asked about the Juno MIssion in 2017 mains exam.

But to fetch extra marks you must be aware about such developments like

‘checkpoint blockade therapy ‘ to use it in general topics like stem cell therapy.

MCQ

Recently, the term “checkpoint blockade “ was in news. What does the term signify?

a) It is a program developed by CERT to increase safety of government servers against hackers.

b) It is a new system to increase safety of our borders. c) It is a new therapy developed to fight against cancer. d) It is blockade on Gaza Strip imposed by United Nation peacekeeping forces.

Answer: c

Reference Article: Axing adultery law by T.K Rajalakshmi.

Context:

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Making constitutional morality as the basis of its judgment, the Supreme Court decriminalises adultery, holding that Section 497 of the IPC is “backward looking and retrograde”.

The Constitutional Bench of Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Section 497 of the IPC, which made adultery a criminal offence, with the male adulterer punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to five years, or with fine, or with both, was unconstitutional and “manifestly arbitrary”

Constitutional morality and transformative constitutionalism appeared to be the operative sentiment in judgement that sought to protect individual rights, privacy and autonomy, including sexual autonomy.

What was section 497?

Under Section 497, “whoever has sexual intercourse with a person who is and whom he knows or has reason to believe to be the wife of another man, without the consent or connivance of that man, such intercourse not amounting to the offence of rape is guilty of the offence of adultery, and shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years, or with fine, or with both.

In such cases, the wife shall not be punishable as an abettor.” Only the husband of the woman was treated as aggrieved for offences punishable under Section 497 and Section 498. The right to prosecute the adulterer was restricted to the aggrieved husband and not to the wife of the adulterer.

In other words It conferred a licence on the husband to deal with the wife as he liked which is extremely excessive and disproportionate.

Significance of the Judgements

Justice Chandrachud dwelt considerably on the connection between patriarchy and the subordinate status of women in marriage.

Justice Indu Malhotra called Section 497 “institutionalised discrimination” which “legalised adultery”.

CJI Misra and Justice Khanwilkar stated that treating Adultery as an criminal act tantamount to the state entering into a real private realm.

The judgement concurred that the section had an element of “romantic paternalism” wherein it reduced the woman to a chattel and the property of a man, to be treated as he deemed fit.

The judgement stated that particular act, adultery, does not fit into the concept of crime. The court clarified if Parliament treated it as a criminal offence, it would offend two facets of Article 21, the dignity of the husband and the wife and the privacy attached to the relationship between the two.

In his concurring judgment, Justice Nariman held that under the crime of adultery, what was punished as adultery was not adultery per se but the proprietary interest of a married man in his wife.Which violates article 21 of indian constitution.

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By decriminalising adultery, India has joined the ranks of the People’s Republic of China, Japan, Australia and Brazil, among other countries.

Conclusion

Women’s organisations such as the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) have welcomed the decriminalisation of Section 497 by the Supreme Court which had “rightly held that the section was backward looking and retrograde and that adultery is not a criminal offence but a civil wrong and should not be criminalised.

The decriminalisation of Section 497 marks a progressive step in independent India. It should have been done much earlier. While the principle of the application of constitutional morality is a fundamental one, the translation of that to make a meaningful dent in the lives of the majority in real material senses is still awaited.

Relevance in Essay

Almost every year a topic from Women Empowerment is asked. In that topic you can use this judgement and quote “Justice Indu Malhotra called Section 497 “institutionalised discrimination” which “legalised adultery”.

You can also use words like “romantic paternalism” to give value addition to your answer.

Assignment :

Question for Mains

The recent judgement of Supreme Court repealing section 497 of IPC is a watershed movement. As judgement has removed several shortcomings which were feeding to patriarchy, discrimination and other aspects which go against the ethos of Constitution. Elaborate.

As the directive is elaborate, we need to support our arguments with proper

reasoning.

Show how the section 497 was feeding into patriarchy and discrimination. Advocate

for gender neutral laws.

Relate it with the Constitutional ethos especially Fundamental Rights. (Right to

Equality).

MCQ

Recently section 497 of IPC was in news. The section was related to:

a) It criminalise homosexual relations.

b) It was related to dowry.

c) It was realated to adultery.

d) It was related to sedition.

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Answer: c

Documents

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