India’s
Missing Girl Children (The Hindu)
Paper: I &
II; Topic: Women Issues
Issue: Fewer
and fewer girls as a ratio of total births
New data from the Civil Registration System of the
Registrar General of India point to the hardening of the pattern, with a fall
in sex ratio at birth from 898 girls
to 1,000 boys in 2013, to 887 a year later.
This depressing trend is consistent with evidence from
the Census figures of 2001 and 2011.
In the understanding of the Centre, which it has
conveyed to Parliament, girls stand a poor chance at survival because there is
a “socio-cultural mindset” that prefers sons, girls are seen as a burden, and family
size has begun to shrink.
The BJP-led government responded to the silent crisis
with the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’
campaign, which focusses on the prevention of sex-selective abortions,
creation of opportunities for education and protection of girl children.
Now that the scheme is set to enter its third year in
January, there should be a speedy assessment of its working, particularly in
districts with a poor sex ratio where it has been intensively implemented.
A wider assessment needs to be made on why States such
as Tamil Nadu with a strong social development foundation have slipped on sex ratio at birth (834), going
by the CRS data for 2014.
Way Ahead: Clearly, there is a need to go beyond
slogans and institute tangible schemes.
Enforcement of the law that prohibits determination of the sex of the
foetus must go hand in hand with massive
social investments to protect both immediate and long-term prospects of
girls — in the form of cash
incentives through registration of births, a continuum of health care, early educational opportunities and social protection.
XXXXX
Jana Gana
Mana (Indian Express)
Paper: I &
II; Topic: Nationalism; Key Constitutional Provisions
Issue: Supreme
Court’s directives on the national anthem — it shall be played in all cinema
halls, everyone shall stand up as a mark of respect, with all exits closed off,
among other do’s and don’ts.
India’s Constitution speaks of respect to the national
flag and anthem as a fundamental duty
in Part IV A — a non-justiciable part of the document.
Article
51(A) says that “it shall be the duty of
every citizen of India — (a) to abide by the Constitution and respect the
ideals of the national flag and the national anthem”.
Implication of FDs being kept non-justiciable: Respect to the nation and its symbols would not be
enforced by state diktat or extracted through legal compulsion.
Break from the past:
In August 1986, in Bijoe Emmanuel & Others vs State of Kerala & Others,
for the bench of Justice O. Chinappa
Reddy and Justice M.M. Dutt, the question was: Did the refusal of three
children, belonging to a sect called Jehovah’s
Witnesses, to sing the national anthem during the morning assembly —
because according to them, its singing is against the tenets of their religious
faith — justify their expulsion from school?
Calling the expulsion a “violation of the fundamental
right to freedom of conscience and freely to profess, practise and propagate
religion”, the apex court said that “there is no provision of law which obliges
anyone to sing the national anthem…”
It concluded: “Our tradition teaches tolerance; our
philosophy preaches tolerance; our Constitution practises tolerance; let us not
dilute it”.
Objections being raised against the order:
* Order curbs individual freedom in the name of
nationalism.
* This is an instance of striking judicial overreach.
* That the court is invoking the Constitution while
moving against the spirit of individual liberty.
* The order is difficult to implement and would be a
nightmare for law enforcement authorities. It runs the risk of being violated
on a large scale, leading to law and order problems as it is bound to give rise
to vigilantism.
Way Ahead (Mixed up on movie hall nationalism; The
Economic Times)
Experience of citizenship is the basis of patriotism
and national feeling.
For that experience to be positive and affirming,
social relations as mediated by the state must be such as to make citizens
stakeholders in a common endeavour and individual achievements enrich the lives
of society at large
This can happen when policy, governance and the polity
at large work to improve the lives of all and induce common stakeholdership.
Then does one section’s sorrow furrow every brow and another lot’s success
bring joy to all.
The way to boost patriotism is to refine this
politics, not to make a song and dance out of the nation’s symbols.
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