Secondary education can reduce child marriage by 66%: UNICEF (GS Paper 1, Social Issues)
Why in news?
- According to a UNICEF report, the prevalence of child marriage is decreasing globally.
- The most progress in the past decade was seen in South Asia, where a girl’s risk of marrying in childhood dropped by more than a third to below 30 per cent.
- Still, the total number of girls married in childhood stands at 12 million per year.
Issue of Child marriage:
- Child marriage refers to any formal marriage or informal union between a child under the age of 18.
- It is a violation of human rights that limits girls in reaching their full potential. This harmful practice is closely associated with deprivations in education, health, access to resources and empowerment.
- The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals call for global action to end this human rights violation by 2030.
Prevalence in Africa:
- Incidences of child marriage was the highest in West and Central Africa, where nearly 4 in 10 young women were married off before 18 years of age.
- Lower levels of child marriage are found in Eastern and Southern Africa (32 per cent), South Asia (28 per cent) and Latin America and Caribbean (21 per cent).
- More than 100 million additional adolescent girls will marry by 2030 if efforts to curb the menace are not ramped up.
- In the regions of Ethiopia worst affected by the drought, child marriage has on average more than doubled in a year as of June 2022.
- The number of children at risk of dropping out of school across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia due to the impact of the crisis tripled within three months.
Role of Secondary education:
- Keeping girls in school is the best way to ensure they get married at a later age. Secondary education is a much stronger and more consistent protection against child marriage than primary school education.
- In many countries, marriage and schooling are viewed as incompatible and decisions about removing a girl from school and marrying her off at a young age are often made at the same time.
- These decisions are influenced by the perceived value of education and the availability of employment opportunities for educated girls.
- Better quality of education and higher literacy rates among womenis directly linked to lower cases of child marriage.
Challenges:
- Girls from poor, rural, conflict- and crisis-hit areas and marginalised groups will not progress to secondary education unless they have quality primary education.
- Also, barriers in the transition to secondary education, such as school fees, distance to school, safety also need to be reduced.
- The issue of child marriage has been addressed in a number of international conventions and agreements.
- In 2016, UNICEF, along with United Nations Population Fund, launched a global programme to tackle child marriage in 12 of the most high-prevalence or high-burden countries: Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Yemen and Zambia.
Way Forward:
- Progress on SDG 5.3 (eliminating child marriage) is dependent on progress in other areas, especially education, employment and poverty reduction.
- The global target is to eliminate child marriage practice by 2030. But reaching this goal would require coordinated action and additional investment.
- To end child marriage by 2030, progress must be 17 times faster than the progress of the last decade.
Stockholm Convention to take final call on 5 Persistent Organic Pollutants
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Why in news?
- The 18th meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP) Review Committee (POPRC-18) to the Stockholm Convention held in Rome has included five more chemicals in its agenda.
- The listed chemicals include a pesticide, a flame retardant and some plastic stabilising substances.
- Three of the listed chemicals;chlorpyrifos, chlorinated paraffin beyond prescribed standards and long-chainperfluoro carboxylic acids were already nominated at the 17th meeting (POPRC-17) in January 2022.
- Two chemicals; dechlorane plus, a flame retardant and UV-328, a stabiliser used in some personal care products which qualified for risk management evaluation at POPRC-17 will be evaluated at this session.
- POPRC-18 aims to list each of these chemicals in Annex A (elimination), B (restriction) and/or C (unintended release) of the Stockholm Convention.
Review stage:
- Draft risk profiles of these chemicals are being discussed at the POPRC-18 meeting. Experts will determine if these chemicals are POPs which demand global action due to their adverse effects on human health and the environment.
- Their draft risk profiles will be adopted and global action will be warranted if they fall into the hazardous chemicals category.
- These chemicals will then be elevated for the third review stage (Annex-F) or risk management evaluation.
- Socio-economic considerations associated with possible control measures are evaluated at this stage. Thereafter, they will be considered for recommendation to the Conference of the Parties to list them under the Stockholm Convention.
India’s resistance:
- The United Nations Environment Programme’s proposal to list chlorpyrifos as POP was resisted by India. Still, chlorpyrifosgot nominated as Persistent organic pollutants.
- The Pesticides Manufacturers and Formulators Association of India (PMFAI) had obstructed listing chlorpyrifos under the Stockholm Convention.
- India had also opposed the decision to list flame retardant dechlorane plus.
- Chlorpyrifoswas registered under the Insecticide Act of 1968 since 1977 and AnupamVerma Committee recommended its review for continued use in 2015.
- China and India are among the largest producers of chlorpyrifos. Nearly 48 per cent of chlorpyrifos or 24,000 tonnes was produced in India. Globally, some 50,000 tonnes of chlorpyrifos is being used annually, according to estimates by the China Crop Protection Industry Association.
- Nearly 48 per cent of chlorpyrifos, or 24,000 tonnes, was produced in India. Some 11,000 tonnes were used within the country and 12,000 tonnes were exported.
- Chlorpyrifoswas approved for agricultural use in 2021, which includes its use as a pesticide against pests affecting Bengal gram, rice and cotton.
- It is one of the ten pesticides banned by Punjab and Haryana governments in August 2022.
About Stockholm Convention:
- Stockholm Convention is an international environmental treaty that aims to eliminate or restrict the production and use of POPs or the substances that persist in the environment and pose risk to our health.
- It was opened for signature in 2001 in Stockholm (Sweden) and became effective in 2004.India ratified the Stockholm Convention in 2006.
- The Stockholm Convention has listed 31 chemicals as of December 2020. This list is likely to expand further amid evidence pointing towards the health burden of hazardous chemicals and pesticides.
- Acute pesticide poisoning is an ongoing major global public health challenge, with about 385 million cases of unintentional acute pesticide poisoning and 11,000 deaths every year, according to a global study.
Elderly Population of India
(GS Paper 2, Social Justice)
Why in news?
- The United Nations marks today as International Day for Older Persons (October 1), as part of the organisation’s efforts to draw attention to healthy ageing.
- The theme for the International Day of Older Persons is “Resilience of Older Persons in a Changing World”.
Demographic change:
- Recently, a report by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA),“World Population Prospects 2022”, has projected big shifts in global demographic patterns in the coming decades.
- As global birth rates stabilise and shrink, 16% of the world population by 2050 is expected to be made up of people over 65 years.
- The “World Population Prospects 2022” report estimates that by 2050, the global population will be 9.7 billion people. By then, those older than 65 years will be twice as many as children under five. That year is also projected to be a pivotal year for India’s population too.
Ageing population & pressure on public health systems:
- The report projects India’s population to be 1.7 billion by 2050, having overtaken China to be the world’s most populous country. Eight countries including India will account for more than half of the world’s increasing population by 2050.
- Previous United Nations reports have projected that the proportion of India’s elderly population will double to be nearly 20% of the total population by that year.
- The prevalence of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and heart disease, or disabilities related to vision, hearing or mobility is higher among the elderly.
- The change in demographic structure will increase the pressure on public health systems that are not geared to deliver universal health care along with social security measures such as old-age and disability pensions.
Case study on Eye care and elderly health:
- The Hyderabad Ocular Morbidity in the Elderly Study (HOMES) by the L.V. Prasad Eye Institute has been producing a series of systematic reports on various aspects of health, quality of life, mental health, morbidity, and disability amongst the elderly living in homes-for-the-aged in Hyderabad, Telangana.
- Using eye care as a point of entry, the study has been measuring a variety of health and social metrics in over 1,000 participants (all aged over 60), spread across a range of socio-economic circumstances.
- Over 30% of the elderly in the study had distance vision loss and over 50% had near vision impairment (they needed reading glasses).
- Nearly half the participants had at least one disability and a third of them had multiple morbidities. About 70% of them were using at least one assistive device, spectacles being the most common.
Issues linked with vision impairment:
- The study also explored the many links between vision impairment and an elderly person’s mental health and confidence.
- People with impaired vision had a greater fear, and risk, of falling (a major cause of disability and hospitalisation among the elderly).
- This reduced their movement and independence, leading to depression. Addressing their vision impairment improved lives.
Suggestions:
- The first step towards tackling basic issues of access and confidence in the elderly is to address vision loss. Eye examinations are also good opportunities to assess and recognise other systemic issues in the elderly.
- The way forward can then be a package of interventions, including assistive devices for sight, hearing, and mobility, or referrals to psychiatric support for depression or other mental health issues. In this way, eye care can catalyse a model of elderly care that will help us recalibrate our approach to this changing world.
- Most eye conditions typically affect those who are very young or the elderly, age groups that are dependent on others for health access. Therefore, the Indian eye care model has always prioritised primary care ‘vision’ centres, bringing care closer to those in need.
- Chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension lead to irreversible vision loss and so, the sector has been building referral networks connecting with other health specialities.
A perspective:
- Eye care has also been at the cutting edge of imaging technologies and tele-health, creating portable devices and apps that remove access issues for those who cannot travel far.
- Crucially, eye health in India has many cross-subsidy models to help alleviate the financial burden on individuals.
Way Forward:
- The future of elderly care needs to be long term, comprehensive, and integrated, and must be oriented towards primary care to be accessible.
- It must account for all kinds of socio-economic realities, working to ensure that no elderly person is denied care irrespective of their financial status.
- A comprehensive eye examination can be the first step towards enabling such a healthy and happy future for our elderly citizens.
