7 June 2024, The Hindu
NHRC seeks report on ‘sale of girls’ as part of Nata Pratha
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GS 2: mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of vulnerable sections
- The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) issued notices on Thursday to the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development and the States of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat over a practice known as ‘Nata Pratha’.
- This involves selling _ “on a stamp paper” _ or marrying off underage girls from some communities. These “sales and marriages” are usually conducted by their own families.
Health regulations need a base to top approach
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GS 2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources
- In the last week of May, an incident of a devastating fire in a private neonatal care nursing home in New Delhi shook us all.
- Political parties began a blame game and the media coverage was intense, going overboard and reporting incorrectly that a number of nursing homes in Delhi function without a licence.
- Yet, the incident seems to have been forgotten by most even as the parents grieve.
- Such tragedies are often followed by a question of who should be blamed, completely missing the point that these are almost always the outcome of a systemic failure — in this case, the failure of health-care regulations.
Bizarre judgment
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GS 2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources
- It is an old principle that ignorance of law is no excuse. Evidently, this applies not only to offenders but also to judges.
- The Madhya Pradesh High Court’s order ruling declining to give protection to a couple on the ground that a marriage between a Muslim man and a Hindu woman will not be valid, even if registered under the Special Marriage Act (SMA), 1954, reflects an incredible misunderstanding of the law.
- The judge examined Muslim law treatises to conclude that a Muslim cannot marry an “idolatress or fire-worshipper”, as such a marriage would be irregular.
- The SMA was passed precisely to allow inter-faith couples to get married without the requirements of marriage rituals associated with their religions.
- For a court to dissect the personal law requirements of the parties to enter into a valid marriage, when all they wanted was police protection to appear before the Marriage Registration Officer, is nothing short of bizarre.
How urban and rural India voted
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Prelims syllabus: Current events of national and international importance
- In the last two general elections (2014 and 2019), the BJP gained dominance more or less uniformly across urban and rural India.
- This time, it has got a much lower seat share compared to 2019. Did all segments of voters equally contribute towards this or was this the outcome an aggregate of their distinctive behaviours?
- With the findings of the Lokniti-CSDS post-poll study, we attempt to understand the voting patterns of those living in India’s cities, towns, and villages.
The impact of social welfare schemes on voting behavior
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GS 2: Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and the States and the performance of these schemes
- Since 2004, when the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the centre introduced a series of rights-based entitlement programmes, scholarly and popular discussions of election outcomes have highlighted the influence of social welfare policies on voting behaviour.
- If MNREGS was the star in 2009, it was the Ujjwala in 2019. So, what do social welfare programmes tell us about the mandate in 2024?
Campaigns play key role in shaping choice
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Prelims syllabus: Indian Polity and Governance – Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.
- In a democracy, electoral campaigns play a significant role in mobilizing the voters’ choices.
- Campaigning as a political strategy accomplishes three necessary tasks — it connects the parties and their leaders with the electorate; it introduces the voter to the party manifesto and candidate’s/party’s vision; and it builds a perception about who will win the election based on engagement with these campaigns.
‘India-Norway cooperation to witness manifold increase’
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GS 2: International Relations- Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting the Indian interests
- Norwegian businesses are showing a lot of interest in India and a manifold increase in cooperation between the two countries is expected in the next 10 years, said May-Elin Stener, Ambassador of Norway to India, on Thursday.
- In an interaction with journalists of The Hindu in Chennai, while responding to a question on the role of Norway in the recently signed trade pact between India and the four-nation European Free Trade Association (EFTA) bloc also comprising Liechtenstein, Iceland and Switzerland, Ms. Stener said, “We expect a manifold increase in cooperation between Norway and India over the next 10 years.
- Norwegian businesses are showing a lot of interest here because India is the fifth-largest and fastest-growing economy in the world. The treaty has immense importance because the Western businesses also feel secure and can now rely on this framework for them to operate within.”
China protests PM’s comment on closer ties with Taiwan
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GS 2: International Relations- India and its neighbourhood
- China on Thursday, June 6 protested over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's comment that he looked forward to having closer ties with Taiwan and insisted that New Delhi should resist the Taiwan authorities' “political calculations.”
- China views Taiwan as a rebel province that must be reunified with the mainland, even by force.
- “First of all, there is no such thing as ‘president’ of the Taiwan region,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a media briefing here when asked by a Western media correspondent for her reaction to the wording of Modi’s message.
India is now ‘second-biggest foreign threat’ to Canadian democracy, says report
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GS 2: International Relations- Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting the Indian interests
- A parliamentary committee report in Canada has described India as the second-biggest foreign threat to the country’s democracy.
- The revelations of the report added to the negative state of the bilateral relation between the two countries which have been caught in a diplomatic spat since the June 2023 killing of a pro-Khalistan ideologue in Surrey, British Columbia.
- “India emerged as the second-most significant foreign interference threat to Canada’s democratic institutions and processes,” said the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians report.
‘India HNWIs’ wealth rises to $1,446 billion’
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GS 3: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilisation of resources, growth, development and employment.
- The number of high net-worth individuals (HNWI) in India increased by 12.2% in 2023 vs 2022, bringing the total number of HNWI population to 3.589 million, as per The Capgemini Research Institute’s World Wealth Report 2024.
- The financial wealth of India’s HNWIs increased by 12.4% in 2023 to $1,445.7 billion while it was $ 1,286.7 billion in 2022. Market buoyancy in 2023 sparked a $3.8 trillion increase in HNWI’s wealth.
Climate conference in November to emphasise ‘peace’ and ‘truce’
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Prelims syllabus: General issues on Environmental Ecology, Biodiversity and Climate Change
- The annual climate conference to be held here in November will lay particular stress on “peace” and “truce” to enable countries to focus on climate solution amid ongoing conflicts, a top adviser to the Azerbaijan government said at a media briefing this week.
- The 29th edition of the Conference of Parties (COP) — as the climate conference is called — is set to further agenda points decided in the 28th edition in Dubai such as a firm commitment to “transition away from the use of fossil fuels... in a just, orderly and equitable manner, and accelerating action in this critical decade, to achieve net zero by 2050.”
