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  • What is a First Information Report (FIR)?

    This newscard is an excerpt from the original article published in the IE.

    What is an FIR?

    • The term first information report (FIR) is not defined in the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973, or in any other law.
    • However, but in police regulations or rules, information recorded under Section 154 of CrPC is known as FIR.
    • Section 154 (“Information in cognizable cases”) says that every information relating to the commission of a cognizable offence, if given orally to an officer in charge of a police station, shall be recorded in writing.
    • It has to be signed by the person giving it, and the substance thereof shall be entered in a book to be kept by such officer in such form as the State Government may prescribe.

    Important components of FIR

    In essence, then, there are three important elements of an FIR:

    1. the information must relate to the commission of a cognizable offence,
    2. it should be given in writing or orally to the head of the police station and,
    3. it must be written down and signed by the informant, and its key points should be recorded in a daily diary.

    What is a cognizable offence?

    • A cognizable offence/case is one in which a police officer may make an arrest without a warrant.
    • In the First Schedule, “the word ‘cognizable’ stands for ‘a police officer may arrest without warrant’; and the word ‘non-cognizable’ stands for ‘a police officer shall not arrest without warrant’.”

    What is the difference between a complaint and an FIR?

    • The CrPC defines a “complaint” as any allegation made orally or in writing to a Magistrate, that some person, whether known or unknown, has committed an offence, but does not include a police report.
    • However, an FIR is a document that has been prepared by the police after verifying the facts of the complaint.
    • The FIR may contain details of the crime and the alleged criminal.
    • If, on the basis of a complaint, it appears that a cognizable offence has been committed, then an FIR under Section 154 CrPC will be registered, and police will open an investigation.
    • If no offence is found, the police will close the inquiry.

    What in case of non-cognizable offences?

    • In case of non-cognizable offences, an FIR under Section 155 CrPC, commonly called “NCR”, is registered, and the complainant will be asked to approach a court for an order.
    • The court may then direct the police to conduct an investigation on the complaint.

    What is a Zero FIR?

    • When a police station receives a complaint regarding an alleged offence that has been committed in the jurisdiction of another police station, it registers an FIR, and then transfers it to the concerned police station for further investigation.
    • This is called a Zero FIR. No regular FIR number is given.
    • After receiving the Zero FIR, the concerned police station registers a fresh FIR and starts the investigation.

    What if the police refuse to register an FIR?

    • Under Section 154(3) CrPC, if any person is aggrieved by the refusal on the part of the officer in charge of a police station to register an FIR, she can send the complaint to the Superintendent of Police/DCP concerned.
    • If the SP/DCP if satisfied that such information discloses the commission of a cognizable offence, will either investigate the case, or direct an investigation by a subordinate police officer.
    • If no FIR is registered, the aggrieved persons can file a complaint under Section 156(3) CrPC before a concerned court.
    • If the court is satisfied that a cognizable offence is made out from the complaint, will direct the police to register an FIR and conduct an investigation.

    What happens after an FIR is filed?

    • The police will investigate the case and will collect evidence in the form of statements of witnesses or other scientific materials. They can arrest the alleged persons as per law.
    • If there is sufficient evidence to corroborate the allegations of the complainant, then a charge sheet will be filed.
    • Or else, a Final Report mentioning that no evidence was found will be filed in court.
    • If it is found that no offence has been committed, a cancellation report will be filed. If no trace of the accused persons is found, an ‘untraced’ report will be filed.
    • However, if the court does not agree with the investigation report, it can order further investigation.

     

    Try this question from CSP 2021:

    Q.With reference to India, consider the following statements:

    1. Judicial custody means an accused is in the custody of the concerned magistrate and such accused is locked up in police station, not in jail.
    2. During judicial custody, the police officer in charge of the case is not allowed to interrogate the suspect without the approval of the court.

    Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) Both 1 and 2

    (d) Neither 1 nor 2

     

    [wpdiscuz-feedback id=”7mt3evgotr” question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”1″]Post your answers here.[/wpdiscuz-feedback]

     

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  • Can dark matter be composed, even partly, of black holes?

    A recent hypothesis says that dark matter comprises a large number of compact objects such as primordial black holes.

    What are Dark Matters ?

    • Astronomical observations suggest that a significant part of the universe is made up of dark matter which interacts with the rest of the universe only through the gravitational pull.
    • Many large lab experiments have tried to detect elementary particles that could be candidates for dark matter.
    • However, such dark matter particles have not been detected until now.
    • Several astronomical observations suggest that all galaxies are embedded in a “halo” of dark matter.
    • The “visible” galaxy is like a disc embedded in a dark matter halo that is much larger in size.

    What is the recent proposition?

    • When the universe was very young, hot and dense – soon after the Big Bang, it must have had quantum fluctuations of its density.
    • This, in turn, would have caused some regions to become extremely dense, and therefore, to collapse under their own gravity to form the primordial black holes.
    • While we have no conclusive evidence of spotting these objects, some of the binary black hole mergers detected by the LIGO gravitational wave detectors might be primordial black holes.
    • The question is open there is good reason to believe that primordial black holes did form in the young universe.

    Observing dark matter: Gravitational Lensing

    • The paper explores what happens when such objects get in the way of gravitational waves traveling towards the Earth from the distance.
    • It invokes a phenomenon called gravitational lensing that is used regularly in astronomy.
    • When light travels through space and passes near a massive or compact body – a star, a galaxy or a black hole, for example, the intense gravity of that body may attract the light towards it.
    • This causes bending it from its rectilinear (straight line) path.
    • This phenomenon is known as gravitational lensing and was first observed by Arthur Eddington in 1919.

    How intense are they?

    • Massive objects like galaxies can bend light significantly, producing multiple images, this is called strong lensing.
    • Lighter objects like stars or black holes bend light less, and this is called micro-lensing.
    • A similar lensing can happen to gravitational waves travelling towards the Earth, and this would leave signatures in the detected gravitational waves.
    • This can be used to detect the presence, or the existence, of primordial black holes.

    Assessing dark matter

    • Until now, individual black holes have not marked out these signatures on gravitational waves detected by the LIGO-VIRGO detectors.
    • However, if all of the dark matter is made of primordial black holes, they should have produced detectable signatures on the gravitational wave signals.
    • The researchers use the non-observation of the lensing signatures to assess what fraction of the dark matter could be made of black holes.

    Way ahead

    • This provides a new way of constraining the nature of dark matter.
    • The study concludes that black holes in the mass range from a hundred to a million solar masses can contribute only up to 50-80% of the dark matter in the universe.
    • This is an upper limit and the actual fraction can be much smaller.
    • These upper limits will get better and better with more and more observations.

     

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  • Lucy Mission to probe Jupiter’s Trojan Asteroids

    NASA is set to send its first spacecraft to study Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids to glean new insights into the solar system’s formation 4.5 billion years ago.

    Lucy Mission

    • Lucy will fly by eight Jupiter asteroids—seven Trojans and one main-belt asteroid — over the next 12 years.
    • It is NASA’s first single spacecraft mission in history to explore so many different asteroids.
    • Lucy will run on solar power out to 850 million km away from the Sun.
    • This makes it the farthest-flung solar-powered spacecraft ever, according to NASA.

    What is Jupiter Trojan Asteroids?

    • Simply known as Trojans, they are a large group of asteroids that share Jupiter’s orbit around the Sun.
    • Thousands of such asteroids exist in a gravitationally stable space.
    • The swarms lead and follow the planet Jupiter along its orbit around the Sun.

    What exactly are Trojans?

    • Lucy’s Trojan destinations are trapped near Jupiter’s Lagrange (L) points, which are gravitationally stable locations — it is where the gravity from the Sun and from Jupiter cancel each other out.
    • This means their orbits are stable and the Trojans are trapped in the space between.
    • This also means that asteroids are as far away from Jupiter as they are from the Sun.
    • Jupiter’s leading and trailing Lagrangian points (L4 and L5) have been stable over the age of the solar system.
    • This means that their orbits have accumulated many, many asteroids.
    • It makes sense to call a Trojan a co-orbital object, which moves around one of the two stable Lagrangian points.

    When and how were they discovered?

    • It took many a scientist to understand Trojans, and subsequently, name them so.
    • A German astrophotographer in 1906 made an important discovery: An asteroid with a particularly unusual orbit. As Jupiter moved, this asteroid remained ahead of Jupiter.
    • It was observed that the asteroid was nearly 60 degrees in front of Jupiter.

    Students with engineering background would better understand who Lagrange was. Rest need not care.

    Lagrange’s propositions

    • This specific position of a particular behavior was predicted by the Italian-French mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange over 100 years earlier.
    • Lagrange had argued that if a small celestial body is placed at one of two stable points in a planet’s orbit around the Sun (the L4 and L5), the asteroid would remain stationary from the planet’s perspective.
    • This is due to the combined gravitational forces of the planet and the Sun.
    • Thus, Lagrange’s prediction acquired credibility. More such asteroids were discovered over subsequent months in Jupiter’s Lagrange point L5.

    Behind the name: Lucy

    • It is the fossil of a hominin that lived 3.2 million years ago.
    • She is known to be one of the most famous pre-human fossils in history.
    • Nearly 40 percent of the fossilized skeleton of this hominin was discovered in 1974 by a team of paleoanthropologists led by Donald Johanson.
    • The name was inspired from the famous Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” which Johanson’s team listened to at camp the night of their discovery.

    Back2Basics: Lagrange Points

    • Lagrange points are positions in space where objects sent there tend to stay put.
    • They are named after Italian-French mathematician Josephy-Louis Lagrange.
    • At Lagrange points, the gravitational pull of two large masses precisely equals the centripetal force required for a small object to move with them.
    • These points in space can be used by spacecraft to reduce the fuel consumption needed to remain in position.
    • There are five special points where a small mass can orbit in a constant pattern with two larger masses.

     

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  • [Sansad TV] Perspective: Free Trade Agreement

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    Context

    • India currently has 11 Free Trade Agreements or Regional Trade Agreements with other countries/regions in addition to 6 limited coverage Preferential Trade Agreements.
    • Strategically, FTAs have helped India compete at a global level and enhance its growth.
    • Last year Parliament Standing Committee on commerce in its report had recommended the government to iron out the issues hindering the signing of Free Trade Agreements with the US and the EU nations.

    So what are the opportunities and challenges of FTAs.

    What is a Free Trade Agreement (FTA)?

    • A FTA is a pact between two or more nations to reduce barriers to imports and exports among them.
    • Under a free trade policy, goods and services can be bought and sold across international borders with little or no government tariffs, quotas, subsidies, or prohibitions to inhibit their exchange.
    • The concept of free trade is the opposite of trade protectionism or economic isolationism.
    • Countries often agree to FTAs if their economic structures are complementary, not competitive.

    Difference between Free Trade and Fair Trade

    • Although these terms are often confused, there are significant differences between free trade and fair trade.
    • FTAs are aimed at fostering open trade between nations to improve economic growth among all involved parties.
    • The fair trade movement is focused on fostering economic equity on a global scale so that the workers who make goods in other countries receive fair wages and improve their lives and communities.

    How many FTAs does India have?

    • India has signed it’s first Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Sri Lanka in 1998.
    • Likewise, India had FTAs with: Nepal, Bhutan, Thailand, Singapore, ASEAN, Japan and Malaysia.
    • India has signed Preferential Trade Agreements such as:
    1. Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) with Bangladesh, China, India, Lao PDR, Republic of Korea, and Sri Lanka
    2. Global System of Trade Preferences (GSTP)
    3. India – MERCOSUR PTA etc. with South American countries

    Key benefits offered by FTA

    • Reduction or elimination of tariffs on qualified: For example, a country that normally charges a tariff of 12% of the value of the incoming product will rationalize or eliminate that tariff.
    • Intellectual Property Protection: Protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in the FTA partner country is upheld.
    • Product Standards: FTA enhances the ability for domestic exporters to participate in the development of product standards in the FTA partner country.
    • Fair treatment for investors: FTA provides treatment as favourably as the FTA partner country gives equal treatment for investments from the partner country.
    • Elimination of monopolies: With FTAs, global monopolies are eliminated due to increased competition.

    Disadvantages of FTAs

    The biggest criticism of free trade agreements is that they are responsible for job outsourcing. There are some primary disadvantages:

    • Increased job outsourcing: Reducing tariffs on imports allows companies to expand to other countries. Without tariffs, imports from countries with a low cost of living cost less.
    • Theft of intellectual property: Many developing countries don’t have laws to protect patents, inventions, and new processes.
    • Crowd out domestic industries: Many emerging markets are traditional economies that rely on farming for most employment. These small family farms can’t compete with subsidized agri-businesses.
    • Poor working conditions: Multinational companies may outsource jobs to emerging market countries without adequate labour protections.
    • Degradation of natural resources: Emerging market countries often don’t have many environmental protections. Free trade leads to the depletion of timber, minerals, and other natural resources.
    • Destruction of native cultures: As development moves into isolated areas, indigenous cultures can be destroyed. Local peoples are uprooted.  
    • Reduced tax revenue: Many smaller countries struggle to replace revenue lost from import tariffs and fees.
    • Bane to Indigenization: An FTA will basically put a big challenge to the ‘Make in India’ programme which the current government is aggressively promoting.

    Assessment of India’s FTAs

    (1) India-ASEAN FTA

    • Despite the fact that the Trade Agreement with ASEAN has helped trade grow immensely with India, still, the issue remains that the agreement has benefitted the ASEAN region more than India.
    • With the agreement in goods signed, the domestic markets have faced stiff competition because they have to compete with the cheaper goods of the ASEAN region.
    • For example, the rubber imports from Malaysia, palm oil imports from Indonesia have made it a tough ordeal for the local manufacturers of palm oil and rubber.

    (2) India- RCEP [India opted out from signing]

    • The agricultural sector of India, which faces issues like lack of investment, low productivity, obsolete technology and fragmented landholdings will suffer more.
    • Indian market will be flooded with products from other nations which are comparatively cheaper and have a more efficient agricultural sector.

    Way Forward

    • India is one of the fastest-growing large economies of the world and FTAs have played a significant role in enhancing the trade volume of the country.
    • FTAs must bring the expected tangible benefits.
    • Therefore, there is a need for a detailed assessment of FTAs in terms of goods, services and investment flows by all the stakeholders involved.
    • Beyond mere economic cost-benefit analysis, India must approach such FTAs from a geostrategic perspective also.

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  • UGC’s ‘Academic Bank of Credits’ scheme

    Context

    The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has recommended a revamp of the higher education scene in India. A new initiative stemming from this desire is an ‘Academic Bank of Credits’ (ABC) in higher education idea, which was notified recently by the University Grants Commission (UGC).

    About the Academic Bank of Credits’ (ABC)

    • Any undergraduate or postgraduate student can create an account in the ABC portal and store information of his/her completed courses (i.e., subjects/papers in old terminology) and grades obtained.
    • These grades are stored for a period of five years. 
    • As multiple institutes are connected to the ABC portal, one can be formally enrolled in university ‘A’ but can choose to do some courses from university ‘B’, some more from university ‘C’ and so on and all of these would count towards the student’s degree.
    • Flexible and multidisciplinary: One can enrol in an equivalent course from another college in the same city or join online courses offered by other universities; or can enrol in SWAYAM (a programme initiated by the  Government of India) or the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) and add these credits.
    • Thus, education will truly become flexible and interdisciplinary, without forcing any single institute to float an unmanageable number of courses.
    • This flexibility will offer students a chance to enrol in a course and learn from teachers from some of the best institutes such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) or the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research.

    Issues with ABC

    • Limited seats: ABC regulations say that the institute should allow up to 20% supernumerary seats for students enrolling through the ABC scheme.
    • There is no clarity on how the selection of students would be made if there are more than 20% seats.
    • Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) platforms such as SWAYAM and NPTEL are ‘supposedly designed’ for large enrolments.
    • So far we have not found any evidence in the public domain that these MOOC platforms can provide a reliable assessment of learning achievement if there is massive enrolment for a course.
    • Filtering criterion: The ABC portal will accept courses from a large inumber of higher education institutes.
    • The filtering criterion in the original regulation was that higher education institutes should have obtained an ‘A’ grade or higher in the latest round of National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) accreditation.
    • This filtering criterion is not satisfactory.
    • Impact on small colleges: The ABC scheme specifies that students can avail up to 70% of courses from other institutes while being enrolled in a particular college.
    • If students avail these credits outside the parent college, they need not enrol for the corresponding in-house courses.
    • As the number of teaching posts in any higher education institute are calculated on the basis of student enrolment numbers, what happens when a large fraction of students do not enrol for the courses offered by you? 

    Conclusion

    In India, where the quality of education varies drastically from one institute to the next, this can lead to unmanageable academic and administrative issues in higher education institutes with brand names, and lead to a contraction in the number of teaching posts in smaller higher education institutes.

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  • Green Hydrogen Policy

     

    The Ministry of Power has notified the first part of the National Hydrogen Mission policy on green hydrogen and green ammonia, aimed to boost production of hydrogen and ammonia using renewable energy.

    What is green hydrogen?

    • Green hydrogen is hydrogen gas produced through electrolysis of water.
    • It is an energy intensive process for splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen— using renewable power to achieve this.

    Key takeaways of the Green Hydrogen Policy

    • The new policy offers 25 years of free power transmission for any new renewable energy plants set up to supply power for green hydrogen production before July 2025.
    • This means that a green hydrogen producer will be able to set up a solar power plant in Rajasthan to supply renewable energy to a green hydrogen plant in Assam.
    • It would not be required to pay any inter-state transmission charges.

    What are the incentives?

    • The government is set to provide a single portal for all clearances required for setting up green hydrogen production.
    • It will facilitate producers to transfer any surplus renewable energy generated with discoms for upto 30 days and use it as required.
    • The requirement of time bound clearances for these projects would spur investment while grid connectivity on priority will ease operational processes.
    • The energy plants set up to produce green hydrogen/ammonia would be given connectivity to the grid on a priority basis.
    • State DISCOMS may also procure renewable energy to supply green hydrogen producers but will be required to do so at a concessional rate.
    • Such procurement would also count towards a state’s Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) under which it is required to procure a certain proportion of its requirements from renewable energy sources.

    Facilities to boost export

    • Under the policy port authorities will also provide land at applicable charges to green hydrogen and green ammonia producers to set up bunkers near ports for storage prior to export.
    • Germany and Japan could be key markets for green hydrogen produced in India.

    Why such move?

    • The move is likely going to make it more economical for key users of hydrogen and ammonia such as the oil refining, fertiliser and steel sectors to produce green hydrogen for their own use.
    • These sectors currently use grey hydrogen or grey ammonia produced using natural gas or naphtha.

     

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  • Krishna Water Allocation Dispute

    The Supreme Court has asked if the States of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka could amicably settle their quarrel over the allocation of the Krishna river water.

    Krishna River Dispute

    • The Krishna is an east-flowing river that originates at Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra and merges with the Bay of Bengal, flowing through Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, and AP.
    • Together with its tributaries, it forms a vast basin that covers 33% of the total area of the four states.
    • A dispute over the sharing of Krishna waters has been ongoing for many decades, beginning with the erstwhile Hyderabad and Mysore states, and later continuing between successors.

    Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal

    • In 1969, the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal (KWDT) was set up under the Inter-State River Water Dispute Act, 1956, and presented its report in 1973.
    • The report, which was published in 1976, divided the 2060 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) of Krishna water at 75 percent dependability into three parts.
    • It was 560 TMC for Maharashtra, 700 TMC for Karnataka, and 800 TMC for Andhra Pradesh.
    • At the same time, it was stipulated that the KWDT order may be reviewed or revised by a competent authority or tribunal any time after May 31, 2000.
    • Afterward, as new grievances arose between the states, the second KWDT was instituted in 2004.
    • It delivered its report in 2010, which made allocations of the Krishna water at 65 percent dependability and for surplus flows as follows: 81 TMC for Maharashtra, 177 TMC for Karnataka, and 190 TMC for Andhra Pradesh.

    Row over the share

    • Andhra Pradesh has since asked that Telangana be included as a separate party at the KWDT and that the allocation of Krishna waters be reworked among four states, instead of three.
    • Maharashtra and Karnataka are now resisting this move since Telangana was created following the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.
    • Therefore, the allocation of water should be from Andhra Pradesh’s share which was approved by the tribunal.

    Duo’s stance

    • It is relying on Section 89 of The Andhra Pradesh State Reorganization Act, 2014, which reads:
    • The term of the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal shall be extended with the following terms of reference, namely:
    1. shall make a project-wise specific allocation, if such allocation has not been made by a Tribunal constituted under the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956;
    2. shall determine an operational protocol for project-wise release of water in the event of deficit flows.
    • For the purposes of this section, it is clarified that the project-specific awards already made by the Tribunal on or before the appointed day shall be binding on the successor States.

     

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  • What is the REWARD Project?

    The GoI, the State Governments of Karnataka and Odisha, and the World Bank have signed a $115 million for the REWARD Project.

    What is REWARD Program?

    • REWARD stands for Rejuvenating Watersheds for Agricultural Resilience through Innovative Development.
    • The project aims to help national and state institutions adopt improved watershed management practices to help increase farmers’ resilience to climate change, promote higher productivity and better incomes.
    • REWARD is being implemented in three to four Indian States.
    • It is proposed as a 6 years Project.

    Objectives of the project

    • The outcomes are prevention of soil run-off, regeneration of natural vegetation, rainwater harvesting, and recharging of the groundwater table.
    • This enables multi-cropping and the introduction of diverse agro-based activities, which help to provide sustainable livelihoods to the people residing in the watershed area.

     

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  • [Burning Issue] Status of Women in Sex Work

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    Context

    A recently launched Bollywood film is facing legal trouble after individuals claiming to be family members of the main protagonist, Gangubai Kathiawadi, have objected to her portrayal in the film.

    This issue has brought a long slated debate of legalizing sex work in India. In this context let us know about various dimensions of the issue.

    Who are sex workers?

    • Sex worker means a female, male or a transgender over the age of eighteen years who receives money or goods in exchange for sexual services, either regularly or occasionally.

    What is the status of sex workers in India?

    • Three million women are engaged in commercial sex activity (CSA) in India, a 50% rise from 1997.
    • Over 60% of those trafficked into sex work are adolescent girls in the age group of 12-16 years. More than 35% girls in India enter CSA before 18 years of age.
    • India has three lakh brothels in 1,100 identified red-light areas, housing nearly five million children in addition to commercial sex workers.
    • More than 25 percent women in commercial sex activity in India are in Maharashtra (14.20 percent) and West Bengal (13 percent).
    • Despite increasing public outcry about violence against women in India, systematic large scale abuse in the name of commercial sex work remains socially acceptable.
    • The report aims to draw attention to the growing victimization of women, highlights high impact non-profits working on the issue and the outlines the role of philanthropy in scaling their efforts.

    Forms of violence faced by sex workers

    (1) Physical violence

    • Being subjected to physical force which can potentially cause death, injury or harm.
    • It includes, but is not limited to: being slapped, pushed, shoved, hit with the fist or with something else that could hurt, being kicked, dragged, beaten up, choked, deliberately burnt, etc.
    • These acts are operationally defined and validated in WHO survey methods on violence against women.

    (2) Sexual violence

    • Rape, gang rape, sexual harassment, being physically forced or psychologically intimidated to engage in sex or subjected to sex acts against one’s will or that one finds degrading or humiliating.

    (3) Emotional or psychological violence

    • Being insulted or made to feel bad about oneself; being humiliated or belittled in front of other people; being threatened with loss of custody of one’s children; being confined or isolated from family or friends; being threatened with harm to oneself or someone one cares about, etc.

    (4) Human-rights violations that should be considered in conjunction with violence against sex workers are:

    • having money extorted
    • being denied or refused food or other basic necessities
    • being refused or cheated of salary, payment or money that is due to the person
    • being forced to consume drugs or alcohol
    • being arbitrarily stopped, subjected to invasive body searches or detained by police
    • being arbitrarily detained or incarcerated in police stations, detention centers and rehabilitation centers without due process
    • being arrested or threatened with arrest for carrying condoms
    • being refused or denied health-care services
    • being subjected to coercive health procedures such as forced STI and HIV testing, sterilization, abortions
    • being publicly shamed or degraded (e.g. stripped, chained, spat upon, put behind bars)
    • being deprived of sleep by force

    Covid-19 pandemic and sex workers

    • The pandemic has hit millions of people and caused a great deal of suffering across communities. But there is one community that is especially hard hit and that is sex workers.
    • Owing to the non-recognition of sex work as “legitimate work”, sex workers have mostly been kept at arm’s length from the government’s relief programmes.
    • COVID-19 has thus provided more reason to consider a long-pending demand of sex workers in India — decriminalisation of sex work and a guaranteed set of labour rights.

    What are the current legal protections?

    • The legislation governing sex work in India is the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act.
    • The Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women and Children Act was enacted in 1956.
    • Subsequent amendments were made to the law and the name of the Act was changed to Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act.
    • The legislation penalises acts such as:
      1. keeping a brothel,
      2. soliciting in a public place,
      3. living off the earnings of sex work and
      4. living with or habitually being in the company of a sex worker.
    • Article 23(1) of the Constitution prohibits traffic in human beings and beggars and other similar forms of forced labor. 
    • Article 23(2) declares that any contravention of this provision shall be an offense punishable in accordance with the law.

    What are the issues with the Immoral Traffic Act?

    • This act represents the archaic and regressive view that sex work is morally wrong and that the people involved in it, especially women, never consent to it voluntarily.
    • After all, in popular depiction, entry into sex work is involuntary, forced, and through deception.
    • As a consequence, it is believed that these women need to be “rescued” and “rehabilitated”, sometimes even without their consent.
    • While this is a valid argument for minor girls, for many consenting adult sex workers, it has been a problem.

    What are the consequences of the ‘archaic belief system’ on sex workers?

    • This is what has led to the classification of ‘‘respectable women” and “non-respectable women”.
    • This view is based on the belief that sex work is “easy” work and no one will or should choose to practise it. It thus perpetuates the prejudice that women who do practise sex work are morally devious.
    • The Act has not only criminalised sex work but also further stigmatised and pushed it underground thus leaving sex workers more prone to violence, discrimination and harassment.
    • The Act denies an individual their right over their bodies. Moreover, it imposes the will of the state over adults articulating their life choices.
    • It gives no agency to the sex workers to fight against the traffickers and in fact, has made them more susceptible to be harassed by the state officials.
    • The Act fails to recognise that many women willingly enter into agreements with traffickers, sometimes just to seek a better life as chosen by them.
    • Evidence shows that many women choose to remain in sex work despite opportunities to leave after ‘rehabilitation’ by the government or non-governmental organisations.

    Major judicial observations

    (1) Justice Verma Commission

    • Itacknowledged that there is a distinction between women who are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation and adult, consenting women who are in sex work of their own volition.

    (2) Budhadev Karmaskar v. State of West Bengal (2011)

    • The judiciary is moving in the direction of recognising sex workers’ right to livelihood.
    • The Supreme Court opined that sex workers have a right to dignity.

    Intended benefit sought from legalization

    • If prostitution is legalized, the State will acquire responsibility to manage brothels and it can fulfil this obligation by issuing a license to authorized persons.
    • It shall also formulate guidelines regarding the age of prostitutes, database on clientele, adequate remuneration and medical facilities to the prostitutes.
    • By this method, the prostitutes can acquire some rights such as the right to medical care, the right to education of their children, right against exploitation and rape, etc.
    • This method can facilitate the eradication of sex racquet operations, hidden and street prostitution, abuse of prostitute, etc.
    • There shall be protection houses established for those prostitutes who have lost their livelihood, or those who were forced into prostitution but do not want that lifestyle anymore.
    • Also, the government can impart training and basic education to these prostitutes so that they find other means to earn money and sustain their livelihood.

    Threats posed by legalization

    • On the flipside, legalization of prostitution could be misinterpreted as the promulgation of prostitution.
    • This could pave the way for easy money for prostitutes and could encourage more women to practice prostitution.
    • There is a great possibility that this could be a revenue-generating industry for the Government.

    National scheme for rehabilitation of sex workers

    • A panel constituted by the Supreme Court of India to look into the rehabilitation of sex workers has submitted a rehabilitation scheme to the Supreme Court.
    • The scheme is first of its kind and provides rehabilitation to sex workers as well as victims of commercial sexual exploitation.
    • Some of the important high lights of the scheme are –
      • Provision for shelter – institutional & non institutional.
      • Scheme provides various kinds of options – education, vocational training, job, economic enterprise, etc.
      • Support for education of children of sex workers
      • Victim can be referred for the scheme by any one –social work organization, department of women & child development, self-group, police, sex work collective, etc.
      • Victims can themselves make an application for the scheme
      • Introducing, the concept of “Mentor”, a person to assist the victim in her rehabilitation and he will be paid for providing services
      • A monitoring team consisting of victims, district collector, social workers, and representatives from department of women and child development, police, district chambers of commerce and industries
      • Provision of assisting the sex worker to get voting card, ration card, Aadhar card, etc. to get benefits from government schemes

    Values and principles for addressing violence against sex workers

    • Promote the full protection of sex workers’ human rights: This includes the rights to: nondiscrimination; security of person and privacy; recognition and equality before the law; due process of law and the highest attainable standard of health; employment, and just and favorable conditions of employment; etc.
    • Rescue and Rehabilitation: Reject interventions based on the notion of rescue and rehabilitation. Even when supposedly focused on minors, such raids deprive sex workers of their choice, control and power to act for themselves and increase the likelihood that they will experience violence.
    • Promote gender equality: Intervention strategies should aim for more equitable power relationships between sex workers and others in the wider community.
    • Respect the right of sex workers to make informed choices about their lives, which may involve not reporting or seeking redress for violence, not seeking violence-related services, or continuing in an abusive relationship.
    • Use participatory methods: Sex workers should be in decision-making positions where they can engage in processes to identify their problems and priorities, analyses causes and develop solutions.
    • Use an integrated approach in designing interventions: Holistic programmes that include provision of health services, work with the legal and justice sectors and are community-based so that it can have a greater impact on violence against sex workers and the risk of HIV.
    • Evaluate programmes to identify strategies that reduce risk factors and levels of violence faced by sex workers, in order to build the evidence base and ensure that resources are directed to the most beneficial strategies.
    • Provide necessary infrastructure: This may include local mobile phone numbers and/or hotlines staffed by trained community members. The availability of support services may need to be advertised through word of mouth, fliers and other communication channels.
    • Providing health services to sex workers who experience violence

    Way Forward

    • The Supreme Court, in Budhadev Karmaskar v. State of West Bengal (2011), opined that sex workers have a right to dignity.
    • Parliament must also take a re-look at the existing legislation and do away with the ‘victim-rescue-rehabilitation’ narrative.
    • The country must thus rethink sex work from a labour perspective and guarantee basic labour rights to sex workers.

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  • United Nations Refugee Convention, 1951

    Model laws on asylum and refugees that were drafted by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) decades ago but not implemented by the government could be revised by an expert committee.

    Why in news?

    • India is not having a specific law for refugees and asylum-seekers.
    • Though India has not signed the United Nations Refugee Convention, 1951, the refugees and asylum seekers were entitled to the rights in Articles 14, 20 and 21 of the Constitution.

    UN Refugee Convention, 1951

    • The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees was the first comprehensive attempt to define refugees and charted a detailed guideline for host countries to ensure the adequate protection and preservation of the rights of all refugees.
    • It puts out clearly who a refugee is and what kind of assistance, rights and legal protection a refugee is entitled to receive.
    • It also lays down the obligations of refugees towards the host countries.
    • The Convention also specifies certain categories of people, such as war criminals, who do not qualify for refugee status.

    Definition of Refugee:

    The 1951 convention defines a refugee as:

    1. A person who is outside his or her country of nationality or habitual residence
    2. Has a well-founded fear of being persecuted because of his or her race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion
    3. Unable or unwilling to avail him— or herself of the protection of that country, or
    4. Unable to return there, for fear of persecution

    Various Rights conferred to Refugees

    • The right not to be expelled, except under certain, strictly defined conditions.
    • The right not to be punished for illegal entry into the territory of a contracting State.
    • The rights to work, housing, education, public relief and assistance, freedom of religion, access courts, and freedom of movement within the territory.
    • The right to be issued identity and travel documents.
    • The right to be protected from refoulement apply to all refugees.

    Why hasn’t India signed this convention?

    • Dispute over definition: Another reason why India has not signed the Convention is the narrow definition of refugee under it. For instance, it does not include deprivation of economic rights as an eligibility criterion.
    • National security: It is believed that the chief reason is related to security issues.
    • Porous and open borders: South Asian borders are porous and any conflict can cause a huge displacement of people.
    • Cultural strain: Finally, sometimes refugees also pose a threat to law and order due to cultural differences. Ex. North East states.
    • Strain on economy: An influx of people during such times can put a lot of strain on the resources of the local economy and also, it can cause an imbalance in the delicate demography of the region.
    • Many inhabited refugees: India has already houses many refugees and in many cases, without the support of the UN.
    • Loss of sovereignty: Signing the convention would have meant allowing international scrutiny of ‘India’s internal security, political stability and international relations’.
    • Ad-hocism of the convention: The convention lacks a strong implementation policy which has given rise to ad-hocism and warehousing of refugees.

    Way forward

    • The inability of international refugee law to reconcile itself with the practical realities that constrain states has culminated in its failure to provide asylum to persecuted persons.
    • In these circumstances, India needs a specific legislation governing refugees and asylum seekers.
    • Such a law would give legal sanctity and uniformity, ensuring the protection of human rights.
    • Along with this, each state must take responsibility for hosting refugees during their darkest hours by devising a burden-sharing system.

     

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