Rat-hole Mining, Registration of Marriages , Sex-Ratio In India, Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), HELICOPTER PARENTING | UPSC Notes

• Rat-hole Mining is illegal and banned by NGT — cause of major losses of lives in mining | Meghalaya – 12 feared dead
• Punjab becomes the first State to have an all women Passport-Seva Kendra
• Rajasthan — First Government-run community milk banking system | Provide mothers’ breast milk to the deprived infants.

Registration of Marriages 

• TN — new rules making the registration of Marriages mandatory — expanded requirements — keep the parents in the loop.
• Debate — Should Marriages be registered mandatorily?
• New Rules in the TN have made it impossible to register a marriage under Hindu Marriage Act, without parents knowing about it.
• Intent behind the rules — is NOT malafide, in fact they are to ensure the safety of young brides who are many a times exploited in the name of marriage and later on abandoned by the husbands.
  • To check the Child-Marriages
  • To provide legal backing to the marriage in case any problem arises in future
  • To prevent the dowry related instances
  • To prevent bigamy, gender violence
• BUT — the problem —
  • All the adult have the Fundamental Right to make their own life choices under A.21 and A.19
  • Many a times, young adults want to marry going against the wishes of their parents — which is legally allowed — in such cases how to ensure registration of marriage?

Law commission on registration of marriage

• Suggested to amend the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 — to make registration of marriages COMPULSORY — like births and deaths.
• Marriages and divorce cases are under the List III — Concurrent List

Sex-Ratio In India — Falling 906 →898 — NITI Aayog 

• The average sex ratio in India has declined in India from 906 to 898 from 2012-14 to 2014-16.
  • Increase in sex ratio — Punjab, UP, Jharkhand, J&K, Bihar
  • Decrease — Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, UK, Assam
• NITI Aayog Report — Sex ratio at birth (SRB) nation-wide had dropped from 906 in 2012-14 to 900 in 2013-15.
• 17/21 States saw a drop in the SRB — Gujarat performing the worst.
• It isn’t shocking for India — as it has seen a consistent lowering of the SRB since 1970 — then SRB was 952
• Natural Fact —
  • Male babies are biologically weaker than female — hence female babies have higher chances of survival
  • Men have historically seen higher mortality rates and participation in wars.
• Sex-selected killing girl child — as on today, around 63 million girls are estimated to be ‘missing in India’ because of such actions.
• Technology — a boon or bane? #MedicalEthics
  • Sex selection tech — amniocentesis and other cheaper and less invasive ultrasound → gave son preference
• 1994 — PDT Act → punishes gender-selection with imprisonment and hefty fines
  • Failure!! — either cases are not registered or convection rate remains abysmally low.
• Negative-Positive Approach Mixture —
  • Bad Cop — Legal consequences, monetary penalties, imprisonment etc
  • Good Cop — BBBP Yojana, Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana
    • State Government’s initiative
      • Girl Child Protection Scheme — AP
      • Aapki Beti, Hamari Beti — Haryana
      • Mukhya Mantri Kanya Suraksha Yojana — Bihar

Domestic Violence 

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)

1. Domestic Violence Act, 2005
2. Patriarchy
3. WHO → almost 33% of the women in intimate relation have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by their intimate partners.
4. Boys who witness parental violence are more likely to use it in their adult relationships; girls are more likely to justify it.
5. Strong Legal Reforms and interventions are the need of the hour.
6. Criminal justice solution together with community-based resolution mechanism, with the help of SHGs are very important, especially in Indian Context.
7. Various Experiments —
   • Nari Adalat
   • Women’s Resource Centres
   • Mahila Panchayats
8. SHG need to help the women to resolve the cases of violence without getting much into the legal tangles.
9. Women Empowerment — awareness and education
10. Investment in specific training, and gender analysis processes. SHGs are seen mostly as administrative entities.

Use of IT for the protection of women and significance of SDGs

• BHAROSA — an initiative of Hyderabad City Police, is a state-of-the-art centre to support women and children who are victims of violence.
  • Under one roof, 24X7 services related to police, medical, legal, prosecution, psycho-therapeutic counselling and relief and rehabilitation services in completely private counselling rooms to maintain confidentiality and privacy.

HELICOPTER PARENTING

• ‘Helicopter parenting’ — which describes an overcontrolling behaviour of parents — can negatively affect children’s ability to manage their emotions and deal with the challenging demands of growing up
• Children need space to learn and grow on their own, without parents hovering over them.