💥Mains Ready By December. Smash Mains & Smash PYQ Admissions Open
Talk to Mentor

Civilsdaily

Login

GS Paper: GS1-06.Salient features of Indian Society

 

  • Adultery Law and the Armed Forces

    The Supreme Court has admitted a petition filed by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) seeking to exempt armed forces personnel from the ambit of a Constitution Bench judgment of 2018 that decriminalized adultery.

    Q.  Personnels of the Indian Armed Forces constitute a ‘Distinct Class’.

    Discuss this statement in context to the extension of IPC section 497 to the Armed forces.

    What was the 2018 historic Judgment?

    • The Supreme Court had struck down Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalized adultery.
    • It also declared Section 198 of the Criminal Procedure Code as unconstitutional, which deals with the procedure for filing a complaint about the offence of adultery.

    Important observations of the judgment

    • Section 497 was unconstitutional and is violative of Article 21 (Right to life and personal liberty) and Article 14 (Right to equality).
    • The court observed that two individuals may part if one cheats, but to attach criminality to infidelity is going too far. How married couples deal with adultery is absolutely a matter of privacy.
    • Besides, there is no data to back claims that abolition of adultery as a crime would result in “chaos in sexual morality” or an increase of divorce.
    • Any provision of law affecting individual dignity and equality of women invites the wrath of the Constitution.
    • It’s time to say that a husband is not the master of the wife. Legal sovereignty of one sex over other sex is wrong, ruled the court.
    • Marriage does not mean ceding autonomy of one to the other. Ability to make sexual choices is essential to human liberty. Even within private zones, an individual should be allowed her choice.

    What about Armed forces?

    • The judgment of 2018 created “instability”. It allowed personnel charged with carrying on an adulterous or illicit relationship to take cover under the judgment.
    • The bench had then referred the case to the CJI to pass appropriate orders to form a five-judge Bench to clarify the impact of the 2018 judgment on the armed forces.
    • This case is now being under the observation of the apex court.

    Govt. stance over this

    • The MoD has sought for an exemption to this decriminalization in the petition.
    • It said that there will always be a concern in the minds of the Army personnel who are operating far away from their families under challenging conditions about the family indulging in untoward activity.
    • The petition goes on to say that personnel of the Army, Navy and the Air Force were a “distinct class”. They were governed by special legislation, the Army Act, the Navy Act and the Air Force Act.
    • Adultery amounted to unbecoming conduct and a violation of discipline under these three Acts.
    • Unlike Section 497, the provisions of the three Acts did not differentiate between a man and a woman if they were guilty of an offence.

    Constitutional backing for an exception

    • These special laws imposed restrictions on the fundamental rights of the personnel, who function in a peculiar situation requiring utmost discipline.
    • The three laws were protected by Article 33 of the Constitution, which allowed the government to modify the fundamental rights of the armed forces personnel.

    The core idea behind govt. proposition

    • One has to remember that the armed forces exist in an environment wholly different and distinct from civilians. Honour is a sine qua non of the service.
    • The provisions of the Acts should be allowed to continue to govern the personnel as a “distinct class”, irrespective of the 2018 judgment.
    • This is because, the discipline necessary for the performance of duty, crucial for national safety, would break down.
    • It said the court would not, at the time, have been appraised of the different circumstances under which the armed forces operated.

    Back2Basics: Article 33 of the Indian Constitution

    • It deals with the power of Parliament to modify the rights conferred by this Part III in their application etc.
    • Parliament may, by law, determine to what extent any of the rights conferred by this Part shall, in their application to-

    (a) the members of the Armed Forces; or

    (b) the members of the Forces charged with the maintenance of public order; or

    (c) persons employed in any bureau or other organisation established by the State for purposes of intelligence or counterintelligence; or

    (d) persons employed in, or in connection with, the telecommunication systems set up for the purposes of any Force, bureau or organisation referred to in clauses (a) to (c), be restricted or abrogated so as to ensure the proper discharge of their duties and the maintenance of discipline among them

  • Paternity Leave in India

    Indian cricket captain has opted for paternity leave amidst an ongoing tournament. This has led to his criticism as well as praise for prioritizing family.

    Q.Paternity leave is one of the solutions which can help in ending the “motherhood penalty”.  Examine with context to working mothers.

    What is Paternity leave?

    • Paternity leave is a short period of leave for the father to take immediately following childbirth to help care for the child and assist the mother.
    • Parental leave is a longer period of leave granted to look after the infant child, usually after the expiration of paternity/maternity leave.

    Legal Aspects of Paternity Leave in India

    There is no specific or explicit law for paternity leave in India.

    • Maternity leave is governed by the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 which was last amended in 2017 to enhance the period of maternity leave to 26 weeks from the previous 12 weeks.
    • The Central Civil Service (Leave Rules), 1972 allows for 15 days of paid paternity leave before childbirth or up to 6 months from the date of the delivery of the child.
    • An attempt was made to introduce a pan India legislation on paternity leave in 2017 as a private member’s bill in Lok Sabha, but it was not successful.
    • The Paternity Benefit Bill, 2017, provided for a paid leave of fifteen days which could be availed up to three months from the date when the child was born.
    • It also included an adopted child below the age of three months and applied to men in the organised i.e. private as well as unorganised sectors.

    Popular trends

    • The longest leave –– six months –– is provided by Ikea, which extends rules from home country Sweden to India.
    • Among Indian companies, Zomato made news in 2019 when it decided to give 26-week paternity leave to its employees.

    Precursors in India

    • The Central Government recently announced that male government employees who are ‘single parents’ which included widowers, divorcees, or unmarried men raising children single-handedly would now be entitled to “child care leave” (CCL).
    • Here, they would receive 100% of the leave salary for the first 365 days of leave and 80% of leave salary for the next 365 days.
    • This leave was previously only available to women employees.

    Why paternity leave matters?

    • Most working new mothers (for those who can make that choice) opt for maternity leave either just before the birth or after childbirth.
    • It paves the way for at least their temporary, and sometimes their permanent exit from the workplace.
    • On the other hand, not many fathers experience much difference in their employment and workplace situation after their child is born, which may either be voluntary by not taking time off or involuntary.
    • This structural difference is one of the key components that influence gender dynamics both in the workplace and at home.

    The gender dynamics behind

    • Lack of paternity leave not only robs new fathers of the crucial chance to bond with their newborn child but also reinforces women’s role as the primary caregiver and underpins the belief that child care is predominantly the mother’s job.
    • Paternity leave is a way to directly address the gender dynamic that prevails both at the workplace and at home.
    • The undue burden of childcare that is placed on women at home is bound to and does, spill over into their workplace and professional lives.
    • The natural effect of it is that it puts hurdles across women’s careers and might slow their growth prospects while some women might choose to quit altogether.

    Way forward

    • By only having maternity leaves and not giving due consideration to paternity leave, the stereotype that women belong at home, taking care of children is reinforced.
    • By no means is the introduction of paternity leave a panacea for gendered workplaces, but it will be a significant step in combating and overcoming stereotype.
    • For India, a decent way to begin would be to have a national policy on paternity leave that would include all fathers and would apply irrespective of whether they worked in the organised or unorganised sectors.
    • Shifting from a purely maternity oriented care framework to a parental care framework which would involve both parents would be beneficial for all stakeholders and is what we need today.

    Conclusion

    • A major benefit that accrues from paternity leave is that it eases pressure and stigma from women at the workplace, as they no longer are the only ones who are taking leave for child care purposes.
    • Paternity leave is also one of the solutions which can help in ending the “motherhood penalty”.
    • The motherhood penalty is a term that describes the disadvantages that women with children face as compared to women who don’t in workplaces.
    • Fathers need to be active co-parents and not just helpers to their female partners/wives.
    • And for ones with feminist’s perspectives, they should not look paternity leave as a sole vacation for men.

  • Tribe in news: Siddi Community

    The Siddi community gets its first lawmaker in Karnataka. They are included as the Scheduled Tribes in Karnataka.

    Try this question from CSP 2019:

    Q.Consider the following statements about Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) in India:

    1. PVTGs reside in 18 States and one Union Territory.
    2. A stagnant or declining population is one of the criteria for determining PVTG status.
    3. There are 95 PVTGs officially notified in the country so far.
    4. Irular and Konda Reddi tribes are included in the list of PVTGs.

    Which of the statements given above are correct?

    (a) 1, 2 and 3

    (b) 2, 3 and 4

    (c) 1, 2 and 4

    (d) 1, 3 and 4

    Siddi Tribe

    • The Siddi also known as Sidi, Siddhi, Sheedi or Habshi, are an ethnic group inhabiting India and Pakistan.
    • They are sometimes referred to as Afro-Indians. They are descended from the Bantu peoples of the East African region.
    • Similarly, another term for Siddis, habshi, is held to be derived from the common name for the captains of the Abyssinian ships that also first delivered Siddi slaves to the subcontinent.
    • They are primarily Muslims, although some are Hindus and others belong to the Catholic Church.

    How they came to India?

    • The first Siddis are thought to have arrived in India in 628 AD at the Bharuch port. Several others followed with the first Arab conquest of the subcontinent in 712 AD.
    • The latter groups are believed to have been soldiers with Muhammad bin Qasim’s Arab army and were called Zanjis.
    • In the Delhi Sultanate period prior to the rise of the Mughals in India, Jamal-ud-Din Yaqut was a prominent Siddi slave-turned-nobleman who was a close confidant of Razia Sultana.
    • Siddis were also brought as slaves by the Deccan Sultanates. They also served in the Navy of Shivaji Maharaj.
    • Several former slaves rose to high ranks in the military and administration, the most prominent of which was Malik Ambar.
    • Later the Siddi population was added to via Bantu peoples from Southeast Africa that had been brought to the Indian subcontinent as slaves by the Portuguese.

  • World Happiness Report, 2020

     

    The World Happiness Report for 2020 has been recently released.

    The World Happiness Report

    • The WHR is an annual publication of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
    • It contains articles and rankings of national happiness based on respondent ratings of their own lives which the report also correlates with various life factors.
    • The 2020 report for the first time ranks cities around the world by their subjective well-being and digs more deeply into how the social, urban and natural environments combine to affect our happiness.

    Highlights of the 2020 report

    • Finland has been declared the world’s happiest nation for the third year running.
    • As in each of the previous seven reports, Nordic states dominated the top ten, along with countries such as Switzerland, New Zealand and Austria. Luxembourg also edged into the tenth spot for the first time this year.

    Why Finland?

    • People in Finland are said to be shy, away from spontaneous demonstrations of joy, valuing instead the quiet and solitude of the country’s vast forests and thousands of lakes.
    • The northern country’s long dark winters were reputed to be behind high levels of alcoholism and suicide, but a decade-long public health drive has helped cut rates by more than half.
    • Finland’s residents enjoy a high quality of life, security and public services, with rates of inequality and poverty among the lowest of all OECD countries.

    India’s dismal performance

    • India was at a 144 rank nestled between Lesotho and Malawi nations.
    • Pakistan, on the other hand, has been ranked 66.