Women & Women Issues

Demographic transition and change in women’s lives

Context: India's population has skyrocketed from 340 million at Independence to 1.4 billion, thanks to improved public health and medical advancements. This unexpected decline in mortality has transformed the lives of Indians, especially women, as they navigate longer lifespans and the consequences of fewer children.

Demographic transition

Demographic transition refers to the process of changes in population characteristics that occur as societies develop over time.

India’s Demographic transition

The growth of population was fuelled by receding starvation, improved public health and medical interventions.
In 1941, male life expectancy was about 56 years and only 50% of boys survived to age 28. Today, life expectancy for men is 69 years and nearly 50% of them live up to 75 years of age.
Due to rapid decline in mortality rates, the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) fell from 5.7 in 1950 to 2.1 in 2019. #As per National Family Health Survey 5

Dynamics of Male Child in India

Social norms and patrilocal kinship patterns combined with lack of financial security reinforce a preference for sons.
According to India Human Development Survey (IHDS), 85% of women respondents expected to rely on their sons for old age support, while only 11% expected support from their daughters. #Report
Nowadays, Parents who want to ensure at least one son among their one or two child family, often resort to sex selective abortion.

Impact of declining fertility on Women’s life

Increased opportunities for Education: With declining fertility, women may choose to delay starting a family in order to pursue education, career goals, or personal aspirations. This can provide women with greater opportunities for personal and professional growth. In India, there has been significant progress in women's educational attainment, with over 70% of girls enrolling in secondary education.
Focus on family planning: Declining fertility rates often coincide with increased availability and acceptance of family planning methods. This empowers women to have greater control over their reproductive choices, allowing them to plan the timing and number of children they want to have.
Reduce gender disparities in society: When women have fewer children, they can allocate more time and energy towards their own pursuits, including education, careers, and personal interests. This can help break traditional gender roles and promote gender equality by challenging societal expectations placed on women as primary caregivers.
Improved employment opportunities: With fewer children to care for, women can participate more actively in the labour force, contributing to household income and economic growth. Women's financial independence can lead to greater decision-making power within families and promote their overall well-being.
Reduced maternal and infant mortality: When women have fewer pregnancies, the overall risk of complications and health issues associated with childbirth is reduced. Improved access to healthcare services, prenatal care, and skilled birth attendants further enhances maternal and infant health outcomes.

How early marriage and aging impacts Women’s empowerment?

Early motherhood may not lead to increased participation in the labour force for women. By the time their childcare responsibilities decrease, they may have missed out on opportunities in occupations that require specialized skills, leaving them with limited options for employment, mostly in unskilled work.
For widowed women, the lack of access to savings and property results in dependence on children, mainly sons, bringing the vicious cycle of son preference to full circle.

Practical strategies to harness Gender Dividend:

Enhancing women’s access to employment and assets will reduce their reliance on sons and could break the vicious cycle of disadvantage, stretching from childhood to old age.
Expansion of anganwadis to include a creche can result into increased participation of mothers in the work. E.g., Randomised control trial in Madhya Pradesh showed positive results as per World Bank.
State support should be provided for childcare, as it creates space for education and employment for Women. #CaseStudy: State support for childcare declined, employment rates for mothers fell from 88% to 66% in urban China.
Government can make staffing creche an acceptable form of work under National rural employment guarantee scheme (NREGS).
Self-help group movement can be harnessed to setup neighbourhood childcare centres in urban and rural areas.

Fully harnessing the gender dividend is crucial for realizing the long-awaited demographic dividend, and a significant aspect of accomplishing this is by ensuring optimal access to childcare.

Women’s reproductive autonomy is the new catchword

Context: This year’s World Population Day theme, i.e., ‘Unleashing the power of gender equality: Uplifting the voices of women and girls to unlock our world’s infinite possibilities’, could not be more apt for India. When we unlock the full potential of women and girls, encouraging and nurturing their desires for their families and themselves, we galvanise half the leadership, ideas, innovation, and creativity available to societies.

India’s Progress on Population Front

On World Population Day (July 11), India deserves to be commended for its family planning initiatives, where despite the many challenges, the aim is to provide an increasingly comprehensive package of reproductive health services to every potential beneficiary — with a focus on the provision of modern short and long-acting reversible contraceptives, permanent methods, information, counselling, and services, including emergency contraception.
India’s commitment towards the Family Planning 2030 partnership includes expanding its contraceptive basket.
The inclusion of new contraceptive options advances women’s rights and autonomy, leading to a spike in modern contraceptive prevalence.
Access to timely, quality and affordable family planning services is crucial because unspaced pregnancies may have a detrimental influence on the newborn’s health as well as major effects on maternal mortality, morbidity, and healthcare expenditure.
The Indian government’s health, population and development programmes have shown steady progress.
Life expectancy at birth has significantly increased in the country over the years. Compared to the 1990s, Indians are currently living a decade longer. In terms of maternal health, India has made impressive strides.
The current maternal mortality rate is 97 (per 100,000 live births in a year), down from 254 in 2004.
Another triumph of these programmes is gender empowerment.
Since the beginning of 2000, India has cut the number of child marriages by half.
Teen pregnancies, too, have dramatically decreased.
Access to vital services, including health, education, and nutrition, has also improved.

Issue of Lack of Physical/Reproductive Autonomy

According to the most recent National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), just 10% of women in India can independently decide about their health, and 11% of women believe that marital violence is acceptable if a woman refuses to have sex with her husband.
Nearly half of all pregnancies in India are unplanned.

Advantages of Physical/Reproductive Autonomy

Advancing gender equality is not just about women but also populations as a whole.
In ageing societies that worry about labour productivity, achieving gender parity in the workforce is the most effective way to improve output and income growth.
In countries experiencing rapid population growth, women’s empowerment through education and family planning can bring enormous benefits by way of human capital and inclusive economic development.
More importantly, the focus on gender equality helps shift the focus away from the notion of ‘population stabilisation’ to ‘population dynamics’ based on reproductive choices people make.
India has a significant opportunity to advance gender equality and grow its economy. Raising the women’s labour force participation by 10 percentage points might account for more than 70% of the potential GDP growth opportunity ($770 billion in additional GDP by 2025).

The way forward

Focusing on gender equality-centred growth, rights, and choices promises to help all achieve their aspirations.
Gender equality can be ensured by making investments in a woman’s life at every stage, from childbirth to adolescence to maturity.
Engaging with women, girls and other marginalised people and formulating legislation and policies that empower them to assert their rights and take life-changing personal decisions are the first steps in this direction.
Gender-just approaches and solutions are the fundamental building blocks of a more prosperous India, and indeed the world.

Why women bureaucrats lose out on senior posts

Context: From 1951, when the first woman joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), until 2020, women have made up only 13% of all IAS officers. Of 11,569 IAS officers who entered the civil services between 1951 and 2020, only 1,527 were women.

Reasons for low representation of women on higher posts

1. Fewer women take the IAS exam: Every year, hundreds of thousands write the civil services exam (CSE), the recruitment exam to get into the IAS, but only a few thousand make it. The vast majority of these are men. The share of women sitting for the CSE touched 30% of all applicants only once, in 2017, data between 2010 and 2018, released by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), show.

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2. Gendered experience in IAS prep: The experience within coaching institutes is also impacted by gender. female students are quite apprehensive to seek support from faculty, nearly all of whom are young-to-middle-aged men. They feel awkward about contacting them informally, outside the classroom, often out of safety concerns, and sometimes out of the fear that they may be judged if they were to reach out to these male teachers on their own. "These mental barriers are absent for male aspirants.

3. A glass ceiling for women: Because of the power an IAS officer can wield, there is little scope for blatant sexism, but biases against women do not go away, from various officers. The rule restricting married women from being in the IAS was removed but the thinking remained that certain jobs (like the police service, for example) were not for women. Even within the IAS, it is implicitly assumed that certain postings are not for women, for example, Haryana got its first woman deputy commissioner only in 1991. As of January 03, 2022, only 14% (13) of the 92 secretaries to the Indian government were women. Across the 36 Indian states and union territories, there were only two women chief secretaries, as of December 3, 2021. India has never had a woman Cabinet secretary to date. And while the majority of women retire after completing their full tenures in the service, they are more likely than men to seek voluntary retirement from service, data compiled by TCPD show.

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4. Women shoulder an unequal burden of the housework: A less noticed aspect is that of family expectations: Women, even IAS officers, are expected to balance their work with their roles as wives and mothers, and this double burden can harm their careers, various women officers pointed out. Among other things, this burden impels women to seek 'softer postings' that are likely to give them more free time rather than opt for more challenging roles. When a woman becomes an IAS officer her marriage market goes down, whereas that of a man goes up significantly. People don't want to have an IAS wife because of ego issues.

5. Larger gender gap in IAS applicants from SCs, OBCs, and interstate disparities: While fewer women appear for the CSE as compared to men across all categories, the gender gap between aspirants is wider for those from marginalised communities, as per data available in UPSC reports since 2007.

There is also interstate variation in the gender gap. Women made up 41% of IAS officers, selected between 1970 and 2020, who listed their domicile as Chandigarh, followed by 32% who listed it as Uttarakhand and 29% as Telangana, TCPD-IAS data show. On the other hand, only 3% of all IAS from Tripura have been women, followed by Odisha and Mizoram, at 5%. More women IAS officers as of December 2021 were serving in southern and (broadly) richer states of India, data from the National Informatics Centre show. Karnataka and Telangana are the only two state cadres where 30% of the officers were women. Against that, less than 15% of the cadre in Jammu & Kashmir, Sikkim, Bihar, Tripura and Jharkhand were women.

Meira Paibis

Context: During the recent visit of the Home Minister to Manipur as violence raged in the state, he met with the Meira Paibis as part of his meetings with various civil society groups.

About Meira Paibis

They are known as women torch bearers because of the flaming torches that they hold aloft while marching in the streets, often at night.
Also known as Imas or Mothers of Manipur, are Meitei women who come from all sections of society in the Imphal valley, are widely respected, and represent a powerful moral force.
They are loosely organised, usually led by groups of senior women, but have no rigid hierarchy or structure, or any overt political leanings.
They may become more visible during certain times, but their presence and importance in Manipuri civil society are permanent and palpable, and their role as society’s conscience keepers is widely acknowledged.

Social role of Meira Paibis

Origin: It was formed in 1977. One of the largest grassroots movements in the world.
Focus: Its initial focus of fighting alcoholism and drug abuse has now expanded to countering human rights violations and the development of society at large.
Over the decades, they have led numerous social and political movements in the state, including some powerful protests against alleged atrocities by Indian security forces, leveraging their strong position in society in the interest of the causes they have espoused.

Major actions were undertaken by them

Against AFSPA: The Meira Paibi women were the active support base of Irom Sharmila, the activist who remained on a hunger strike in the state from 2000 to 2016 to protest against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).
Over demands for ILP: In 2015, the state saw tensions over demands for the Inner Line Permit (ILP) system to be introduced there, requiring outsiders to obtain a permit to enter. Protesters contended that this was necessary in order to protect local interests, culture, and commercial opportunities available to them.

Manipur crisis: They have been reported to play a role in the current Manipur crisis as well. The armed forces recently apprehended 12 Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL) cadres with arms, ammunition, and war-like stores during an operation in Itham village in Imphal East, but were forced to release the men, reportedly after pressure from women activists who confronted the security personnel.

Nutrition of adolescent girls in India

Context: The findings of the National Family Health Survey-5 (2019-21) show that 59.1% of adolescent girls were anaemic. The NFHS-4 numbers also reported over 41.9% of school-going girls as underweight, numbers showcase a worrying trend.

Health of adolescent girls

Adolescence is the phase of life between childhood and adulthood, from ages 10 to 19.
It is a pivotal period of rapid physical, cognitive and psychosocial growth. This affects how they feel, think, make decisions, and interact with the world around them.
It is a significant indicator of women’s labour force participation in India in the long term, as better nutrition improves every young girl’s prospect to participate in productive activities
Adolescent girls are particularly vulnerable to undernutrition and anaemia due to the onset of menstruation.
Growth retardation is one of the most important health concerns for adolescents.

Recommended dietary allowances of nutrients for adolescents in India:

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Reason for nutritional deficiencies in adolescent girls

Gender Discrimination: Environmental conditions to cultural norms that lack a gender-neutral environment within a household, affect the nutrition uptake in adolescent girls.
Poverty: Families with limited financial resources may struggle to provide an adequate diet for all family members, and girls may be disproportionately affected.
Limited Access to Healthcare: Lack of access to quality healthcare services, including prenatal care and postnatal support, can contribute to nutritional deficiencies in girls. Malnourished mothers are more likely to give birth to undernourished babies, perpetuating the cycle of malnutrition.
Early Marriage and Pregnancy: In some parts of India, girls are married off at a young age, which can lead to early pregnancies. Adolescent girls who become mothers before their bodies are fully developed are at a higher risk of malnutrition, as their bodies may not be able to adequately support both their own growth and the growth of their infants.
Social and Cultural Factors: Traditional beliefs and practices, such as restrictions on food intake for girls and women, can further exacerbate nutritional deficiencies. For example, the practice of excluding certain foods from women's diets during menstruation may result in inadequate nutrient intake.
Lack of Nutritional Knowledge: Lack of education and information about balanced diets, food preparation, and utilization of available resources can hinder the improvement of nutritional status. For example, bad cooking habits like over boiling vegetables and straining water, removing the husk from wheat, eating polished rice and straining rice water, etc.
Hookworm infestation: It is a parasitic infection and resides in the small intestine. It can cause significant nutritional deficiencies. They attach to the intestinal lining and consume blood, leading to chronic blood loss and iron deficiency anaemia. This can impair the body's ability to absorb nutrients, resulting in malnutrition and stunted growth, particularly in children.

Consequences of nutritional deficiencies in adolescent girls

Malnutrition: It can lead to stunted growth, weakened immune system, increased susceptibility to infections, and higher mortality rates.
Impaired Cognitive Development: Essential nutrients like iron, iodine, vitamin A, and zinc, can impair cognitive development and lead to learning disabilities, reduced attention span, and decreased intellectual capabilities. This can have long-term effects on educational attainment and economic productivity.
Increased Disease Burden: Nutritional deficiencies weaken the immune system and make adolescents more vulnerable to various diseases and infections. For example, vitamin A deficiency increases the risk of blindness and susceptibility to infectious diseases like measles. Iron deficiency can lead to anaemia.
Reproductive Health Problems: Nutrient deficiencies, particularly of iron and folate, can increase the risk of menstrual irregularities, and heavy or prolonged periods, and even affect fertility in the long term.
Economic Implications: Undernourished adolescent girls are also at a higher risk of chronic diseases and pregnancy complications, which can lead to a higher healthcare burden on both families and communities, potentially leading to financial instability and increased poverty.

Government initiatives to address nutritional deficiencies

Scheme for Adolescent Girls (SAG): This scheme is for adolescent girls of the age group 11-14 years to facilitate, educate and empower Adolescent Girls and to break the intergenerational life cycle of nutritional and gender disadvantage.
Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram (RKSK): For adolescent participation and leadership, equity and inclusion, gender equity, and strategic partnerships with other sectors and stakeholders. The programme envisions enabling all adolescents in India to realise their full potential by making informed and responsible decisions related to their health and well-being.
Targeted and regionally contextualised Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) efforts around adolescent girls’ nutrition are sure to generate greater demand and the adoption of good practices of foods.
Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS): The ICDS is a centrally sponsored scheme that aims to provide a package of services, including supplementary nutrition, immunization, health check-ups, and referral services, to pregnant women, lactating mothers, and children up to 6 years of age. Adolescent girls are also included in the program to ensure adequate nutrition during this critical stage.
National Nutritional Anaemia Prophylaxis Program (NNAPP): This program focuses on preventing and controlling iron-deficiency anemia among vulnerable groups, including adolescent girls. It provides weekly iron and folic acid supplementation to girls aged 10-19 years, along with health and nutrition education.
National Deworming Day: The National Deworming Day on February 10 is an initiative aimed at deworming all children and adolescents in the country to prevent worm infestation and improve overall health. Adolescent girls are an important target group for this program.

Way forward

Routine training of health workers for effective implementation and monitoring of various schemes.
Implement comprehensive nutrition education programs in schools and communities that specifically target adolescent girls. Teach them about balanced diets, essential nutrients, and healthy eating habits. This can be integrated into the school curriculum or delivered through community health workers.
Nutritious school meals: Enhance the quality of mid-day meals provided in schools to ensure they meet the nutritional needs of adolescent girls. Include a variety of nutrient-rich foods like fruits, vegetables, pulses, and whole grains.
Conduct nutrition-focused workshops, cooking demonstrations, and awareness campaigns to empower families and communities to make informed choices regarding their nutrition.
Focus on addressing gender disparities that affect nutrition, such as unequal access to food, resources, and education.
Regular data collection and analysis can help track progress, identify gaps, and inform evidence-based decision-making for future interventions.

Investing in girls’ nutrition is not only a moral obligation of the state but also an economic one, with potential returns in the form of greater and more sustainable economic growth of the nation. The strength of a nation is measured by its ability to nurture its future generations. There is a need for effective convergence and collaboration among all the relevant departments, to sow the seeds of a healthier, stronger India, where every girl can reach her full potential.

Amrit Generation campaign

Context: Recently Meta and the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD), launched the Amrit Generation campaign.

About the Amrit Generation campaign

It is an initiative to empower and engage the youth of India by encouraging them to express their aspirations and dreams for the future.
The Amrit Generation campaign invites young people from across the country to showcase their creativity and share their aspirations by creating Reels on Instagram and Facebook, Participants are encouraged to explore their ambitions and what they aspire to become when they grow up, fostering a sense of community and inspiring others in the process.
To participate in the Amrit Generation campaign, the participants simply need to create a reel on Instagram or Facebook showcasing their aspirations using the hashtag (#) Amrit Generation (duration of the reel needs to be specified).
The campaign begins on 8th June 2023, Further details, including eligibility criteria and submission guidelines, can be found on the Facebook GPA Page and social media handles of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India.
Fifty entries from the campaign will be selected and invited to New Delhi for a unique opportunity to interact with senior policymakers and industry leaders, providing valuable insights into their respective fields and offering guidance on how to achieve their dreams.
The selected young Indians will also get an opportunity to visit the Meta office in Gurugram and learn from industry leaders and creators on leveraging the potential of a creator economy.

About Meta

Meta builds technologies that help people connect, find communities, and grow businesses.
When Facebook launched in 2004, it changed the way people connect.
Apps like Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp further empowered billions around the world.
Now, Meta is moving beyond 2D screens toward immersive experiences like augmented and virtual reality to help build the next evolution in social technology.

Maternal Health

Context: In May, a United Nations report showed that India was among the 10 countries that together accounted for 60% of global maternal deaths, stillbirths and new born deaths. India accounted for over 17% of such deaths in 2020.

Reasons for Poor Maternal Health:

Malnutrition: Undernourished girls have a greater likelihood of becoming undernourished mothers who in turn have a greater chance of giving birth to low-birth-weight babies, perpetuating an intergenerational cycle of undernourishment.
Low literacy: According to 2011 census, around 35% of female is illiterate in India. Lack of adequate literacy deprives women awareness about nutrient-rich diet, good feeding practices and personal hygiene which ultimately impacts their maternal health.
Child Marriages: According to NFHS-5, about 25% of women aged 18-29 got married before reaching the minimum legal age of marriage. Increasing incidences of teenage pregnancies due to child marriages and inadequate access to contraceptives impacts their maternal health and one of the leading causes for Maternal mortality in India.
Climate change:

Studies shows that soaring temperatures due to heatwaves severely impact the maternal health of pregnant women. Women suffer more from yeast infections and UTIs (Urinary Tract Infections) in hot summers. Dietary habits that keep changing according to temperatures also impact Menstrual cycle.
Rapid climate changes globally have given rise to climate-driven food insecurities which disproportionately impacts the nutritional health of women in a patriarchal society.

A special bulletin was released by Registrar general of India on Maternal mortality ratio. Key findings of the report are:

Maternal mortality ratio (MMR) of India has declined by 10 points. It has declined from 113 in 2016-18 to 103 in 2017-19, an 8.8% decline.
The country has been witnessing a progressive reduction in the MMR from 130 in 2014-16, 122 in 2015-17 and 113 in 2016-18 to 103 in 2017-19.
With this persistent decline, India is on the verge of achieving the National Health Policy (NHP) target of 100 per lakh live births by 2020 and certainly on the track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target of 70 per lakh live births by 2030.

This improvement has been possible due to continued efforts of government of India like

Janani suraksha yojana:

Implemented by Ministry of Health and family welfare
It is a safe motherhood intervention under the National Health Mission. It is being implemented with the objective of reducing maternal and neonatal mortality by promoting institutional delivery among poor pregnant women.
Cash incentives are given to beneficiaries for undergoing institutional deliveries.
The scheme focuses on poor pregnant woman with a special dispensation for states that have low institutional delivery rates, namely, the states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Rajasthan, Orissa, and Jammu and Kashmir. While these states have been named Low Performing States (LPS), the remaining states have been named High Performing states (HPS).

Janani shishu suraksha karyakram:

A scheme under MoH&FW
It is an initiative to provide completely free and cashless services to pregnant women including normal deliveries and caesarean operations.
Free entitlements to pregnant women under this scheme are

Free and cashless delivery
Free c-section
Free drugs and consumables
Free diagnostics
Free diet during stay in the health institutions
Free transport from home to health institutions

Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan (PMSMA):

launched by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW)
Under PMSMA, all pregnant women in the country are provided fixed day, free of cost assured and quality Antenatal Care.
As part of the campaign, a minimum package of antenatal care services (including investigations and drugs) is being provided to the beneficiaries on the 9th day of every month.
The Abhiyan also involves Private sector’s health care providers as volunteers to provide specialist care in Government facilities.

LaQshya:

Labour Room & Quality Improvement Initiative (LaQshya) program will benefit every pregnant woman and newborn delivering in public health institutions. Program will improve quality of care for pregnant women in labour room, maternity Operation Theatre and Obstetrics Intensive Care Units (ICUs) & High Dependency Units (HDUs).

National food security act:

Special provisions have been made for pregnant women and lactating mothers by entitling them to receive nutritious meal through a wide network of ICDS centres.
Pregnant women and lactating mothers are further entitled to receive cash maternity benefit of not less than Rs. 6000 to partly complement the wage loss during the period of pregnancy and also to supplement nutrition.

Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme:

Under Ministry of women and child development
The scheme provides Supplementary nutrition, immunizations and regular health check-ups of pregnant and lactating mothers.

PM Matru Vandana yojana:

Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) is a Maternity Benefit Programme that is implemented in all the districts of the country in accordance with the provision of the National Food Security Act, 2013.
All eligible Pregnant & Lactating Mothers would receive a Cash incentive of Rs 5000 in three instalments for first childbirth. Conditions attached to these instalments are

Early registration of pregnancy at the Anganwadi Centre (AWC)
Receiving at least one ante-natal check-up (ANC)
Registration of childbirth and vaccination of first cycle vaccines (BCG, OPV, DPT and Hepatitis-B).

Maternity Benefit Amendment Act:

Duration of the maternity leave increased to 26 weeks from 12 weeks.
Maternity leaves were extended to adopting and commissioning mothers. A commissioning mother is defined as a biological mother who uses her egg to create an embryo implanted in another woman.
The act provided that the employer may permit a nursing woman (after 26 weeks of maternity leave) to work from home if the nature of work permits.
All organizations with 50 or more employees are required to provide a Creche facility and during working hours, the concerned female employee must be allowed four visits to the crèche.

Reproductive Rights

Reproductive Rights and Population control:

The right to reproductive choice means that women have a right to choose whether or not to reproduce, including the right to decide whether to carry or terminate an unwanted pregnancy and the right to choose their preferred method of family planning and contraception.

Women need some means to enforce these Reproductive rights:

Education: Education creates awareness among women and encourages them to adopt health family planning methods.
Financial Independence: Financial independence among women guarantees women the agency over reproduction.
Access to Contraceptives reduces unwanted pregnancies
Legal machinery: Strong laws to address the issues like Child marriages and vesting agency over their reproductive choices.
- E.g., Prohibition of child marriages Act (2006), Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act.

The above-mentioned means not only ensures women enforcing their Reproductive rights but also reduces Total fertility rates and hence arrests population growth. Thus, guaranteeing reproductive rights to women is essential to control population growth.

Reproductive rights and Gender justice:

India placed 130 out of 155 nations in the Gender Inequality Index (GII) 2020 released by the UNDP. One of the index's measurement pillars is "Reproductive Health “. This implies that reproductive rights are important for ensuring overall gender equality.

Maternal Health: Access to antenatal and postpartum care that is safe and of high quality will lower MMR.
Agency over reproduction: "Unwanted daughters" emerged in India as a result of women's lack of agency about reproductive choices and son-meta preference. This illustrates how crucial reproductive rights are to achieving gender equality.
Maternity leave: Providing maternity leave entitlements would ensure that young mothers’ ability to participate in the workforce is not hindered because of childbearing and child-rearing responsibilities.
Access to Contraceptives: High fertility is both a cause and symptom of poverty. Thus, the core causes of poverty would be addressed by making contraceptives and safe & legal abortion options accessible.
Menstrual leave: Menstrual leave and access to basic sanitation facilities for working women improve health outcomes and remove the stigma associated with the menstrual cycle in society.

Sexual Harassment at Workplace [POSH Act]

Context: Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (POSH Act) is framed to provide protection to women at workplace against sexual harassment. The Act lays down rules for prevention and redressal of sexual harassment complaints by female workers.

Salient features of the act

The act defines sexual harassment at the work place and creates a mechanism for redressal of complaints. It also provides safeguards against false or malicious charges.
Every employer is required to constitute an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) at each office with 10 or more employees. The District Officer is required to constitute a Local Complaints Committee at each district, and if required at the block level.
The Complaints Committees have the powers of civil courts for gathering evidence.
Summoning and requiring the attendance of any person and interrogating him under oath;
Requirement to discover and produce documents.
The Complaints Committees are required to provide for conciliation before initiating an inquiry, if requested by the complainant.
Non-compliance with the provisions of the Act shall be punishable with a fine of up to Rs 50,000. Repeated violations may lead to higher penalties and cancellation of licence or registration to conduct business.

Issues with the implementation of the act:

Legal shortcomings:

Powers of civil court have been given to Internal Complaints Committee without specifying if members need to have a legal background.
Very modest fine of Rs 50,000 for non-compliance with the act is not enough deterrent.
Employer nominates members to Internal Complaints Committee (Conflict of Interest).
Prior internal inquiry and mandate for is misused promotes a culture of suppression of legitimate complaints to avoid the concerned establishment falling into disrepute.
Provision of conciliation in the act treats a criminal act as a civil dispute.
Law provides a punishing a woman if she is found to have filed a false or malicious complaint which is completely abusive provision intended to nullify the objective of law.
No data: Government maintains no centralised data relating to cases of harassment of women at workplaces, do not publicly compile and release data on how many companies and districts comply with guidelines and have committees, number of complaints filed and outcome of these complaints.
Local Complaints Committee dysfunctional: 95% of India's women workers are employed in informal sector, but Local Committees to be formed under POSH Act have either been not formed in most districts or is not well publicised about leaving women in informal sector with no avenue to report.
Social challenges: Women are discouraged to report sexual harassment incidents because of fear of being forced to withdraw from work by the family members.
Digital divide: Women can also file complaints through Women and Child Development Ministry's SHeBox, an online complaint platform for all women workers. But most India's women workers find it difficult to access these redressal methods, especially SHeBox, given the low number of women who use the internet in India is low.

Way forward:

Empowering National Commission of Women with power to summon people and carry out independent investigations, impose fines, search and seizure in matters of sexual harassment at workplace.
Awareness about the act should be increased among females, added to school and college curriculums. Discussions should be organised around these issues in civil society.
Special attention should be given towards sectors where women are most vulnerable to sexual harassment. E.g., Garment sector, Domestic workers.
Law needs to be made gender neutral as sexual harassment challenges can be faced even by transgenders and males.
Nationwide audit of functioning of Internal Complaints Committee and Local Complaints Committee. Earmarking of budget for the functioning of Local Complaints Committee.

Changes proposed in law:

Removal of penalty for false complaints.
Removal of a need for conciliation between complainant and respondent.
Formation of Local Complaints committee should be at block or tehsil level and not district level.
Justice Verma committee noted that Internal Complaints Committee system should be replaced by Employment Tribunal, as dealing with such complaints in-house could discourage women from coming out.

Poshan Bhi, Padhai Bhi’: Anganwadi scheme for early childhood care, education launched

Context: Union Minister for Women and Child Development, launched the Centre’s flagship programme ‘Poshan Bhi, Padhai Bhi’, which will focus on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) at anganwadis across the country.

About Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi campaign

Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi is a pathbreaking ECCE program to ensure that India has the world’s largest, universal, high-quality preschool network, as the National Education Policy suggests.
Close to 13.9 lacks operational Anganwadi centres across the country are providing supplementary nutrition and early care and education to around 8 crore beneficiary children under the age of 6 years, making it the largest public provisioning of such services in the world.
Considering global evidence on 85% of brain development being achieved by the age of 6, the Anganwadi eco-system becomes a critical access point for building our children’s base to secure their future.
The government will target children’s development in every domain mentioned in the National Curriculum Framework, viz., physical and motor development, cognitive development, socio-emotional-ethical development, cultural/artistic development, and the development of communication and early language, literacy, and numeracy.
All States will follow the national ECCE task force recommendations for a play-based, activity-based learning pedagogy, targeted specifically at developmental milestones of 0-3-year olds as well as 3-6-year olds, including special support for Divyang children.
Through the changes introduced by the “Poshan bhi, Padhai bhi” ECCE policy, every child would be provided with at least two hours of high-quality preschool instruction on a daily basis.
As stated in the NEP, Anganwadi Centres will be strengthened with high-quality infrastructure, play equipment, and well-trained Anganwadi workers/teachers.
Poshan bhi Padhai bhi will focus on promoting holistic and quality early stimulation and pre-primary education for children, ensuring the use of developmentally appropriate pedagogies and emphasizing the links with primary education as well as early childhood health and nutrition services.
Poshan Bhi, Padhai Bhi program will provide for the mother tongue as primary teacher instruction medium, different types of teaching-learning material (visual aids, audio aids, audio-visual and bodily-kinesthetic aids) to Anganwadi Sewikas, and help build a Jan Andolan, to involve communities in strengthening the foundations of the country’s future generations.

Raksha Mantri approves the posting of Women Officers of the Territorial Army along the Line of Control

Context: In a major development, the Ministry of Defence, Department of Military Affairs, has approved an amendment to existing cadre management provisions for Women Officers of the Territorial Army (TA).

About Territorial Army

The Territorial Army is a part of the Regular Army.
Its present role is to relieve the Regular Army from static duties and assist Civil Administration

In dealing with natural calamities and maintenance of essential services in situations where the life of the communities is affected or the security of the Country is threatened and
To provide units for the Regular Army as and when required.

Arguments in favour

Military Readiness: Allowing a mixed-gender force keeps the military strong. The all-volunteer forces are severely troubled by falling retention and recruitment rates. Widening the applicant pool for all jobs guarantees more willing recruits. Women, who choose to become active combat soldiers, are unlikely to shirk their duty by becoming pregnant after a call-up as these women have willingly joined the army.

Effectiveness: The blanket restriction for women limits the ability of commanders in theatre to pick the most capable person for the job.

Tradition: Training will be required to facilitate the integration of women into combat units. Cultures change over time and the masculine subculture can evolve too. Many previously masculine professions have been successfully opened to women over the past century like driving, managing, judging etc.

Modern warfare and public support: In the modern world of combat (Afghanistan, Iraq), all women serving in the military are exposed to “front-line risks”. Support for women serving in the armed forces has not wavered as warfare has changed, a clear sign that the necessity of women serving in combat is recognized.

Cultural Differences & Demographics: Women are more effective in some circumstances than men. Allowing women to serve doubles the talent pool for delicate and sensitive jobs that require interpersonal skills not every soldier has. Having a wider personnel base allows militaries to have the best and most diplomatic soldiers working to end the conflict quickly.

Career advancement: As combat, duty is usually regarded as necessary for promotion to senior officer positions, denying female personnel this experience ensures that very few will ever reach the highest reaches of the military and so further entrenches sexism. Women have to be given the same opportunities as men, in the army in order to have the same opportunities they have to be exposed to the same risks

Arguments in opposition

Physical Ability: While the majority of jobs in the armed forces are open equally to men and women, there are some to which women are just not physically suited. The standards of physical fitness have been set to suit men, and women attempting to reach them will over-stretch themselves. In addition, combat units engage in activities designed to suit men’s capabilities. Women serving in integrated units will suffer higher injury rates as a result of this.

Efficiency: Some women will be able to meet the required standards, but most will not. While the integration of women into combat is possible for those qualified, the small number versus the additional logistical, regulatory and disciplinary costs associated with integration does not make it a worthwhile move.

Morale & Cohesion: Having women serving in direct combat may hamper mission effectiveness by hurting unit morale and cohesion.

Military readiness: Pregnancy can affect the deployability of a unit when the unit has a disproportionate number of women or is understaffed.

Tradition: Men, especially those likely to enlist, maintain traditional gender roles. In some situations, men may act foolishly to protect women in their combat units. Harassment and resentment of the presence of women in a hyper-masculine military subculture would likely become a problem.

Abuse by Enemy: Both male and female prisoners are at risk of torture and rape, but misogynistic societies may be more willing to abuse woman prisoners.