Type: Prelims Only

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

What are Districts?

• India’s districts are local administrative units inherited from the British Raj.
• They generally form the tier of local government immediately below that of India’s subnational states and territories.
• A district is headed by a Deputy Commissioner/ Collector, who is responsible for the overall administration and the maintenance of law and order.
• The district collector may belong to IAS (Indian Administrative Service).
• Districts are most frequently further sub-divided into smaller administrative units, called either tehsils or talukas or mandals, depending on the region.

How are new districts carved?

• The power to create new districts or alter or abolish existing districts rests with the State governments.
• This can either be done through an executive order or by passing a law in the State Assembly.
• Many States prefer the executive route by simply issuing a notification in the official gazette.

Does the Central government have a role to play here?

• The Centre has no role to play in the alteration of districts or creation of new ones. States are free to decide.
• The Home Ministry comes into the picture when a State wants to change the name of a district or a railway station.
• The State government’s request is sent to other departments and agencies such as the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Intelligence Bureau, Department of Posts, Geographical Survey of India Sciences and the Railway Ministry seeking clearance.
• A no-objection certificate may be issued after examining their replies.

Why create districts?

• A district enjoys multiple benefits in terms of endowments from the government for local administration and development.
• The formation of districts leads to the development of infrastructure, including transportation, telecommunication, water, sanitation, health, education and power facilities.
• A good infrastructure attracts potential investors and investments.
• New businesses and industries emerge and existing ones expand.
• This generates employment opportunities for the citizens in and around the district.

Challenges

• The question that arises is what limits a state to declare each place a district.
• The answer lies in the cost associated with the formation of a district.
• A district requires installing administrative offices and deploying officers and public servants.
• This adds to the burden on the government exchequer.

Way forward

• It is also essential to consult the local people who are the end beneficiaries of the decision to understand their aspirations and win their confidence.
• This will potentially mitigate the issues and conflicts between people and government and thereby satisfy the people’s needs at large, which is essential for inclusive growth of state and nation.

Conclusion

• In sum, any political change regarding the formation of a district in a state comes with its own advantages and challenges.
• Thus, the government and policymakers must mull over the decision and perform a cost-benefit analysis before district formation.

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In a significant judgment, the Supreme Court said it was unconstitutional to distinguish between married and unmarried women while allowing abortion when the foetus is between 20-24 weeks.

What is the news?

• Going a step further, the court said the term ‘woman’ in the judgment included persons other than cisgender women.

What is cisgender?

• The term cisgender is used to define people whose gender identity and expression match the identity assigned to them at birth.
• When a child is born, it is assigned a gender identity based on its physical characteristics.
• Many believe that gender is a social construct, and growing up, the child may or may not confirm to the birth identity.
• For transgender people, their sense of gender identity does not match the one assigned to them at birth.
• Thus, a cisgender woman is a person who was assigned female at birth and continues to identify as a woman.
• On the other hand, a child assigned female at birth can feel it identifies more authentically as a man as it grows up.

Use of gender-inclusive vocabularies in official documents

• Before India’s Supreme Court used ‘cisgender’ in the context of reproductive rights, last year in June, the US government had replaced the word ‘mothers’ with ‘birthing people’.
• Those who advocate the use of ‘birthing people’ say it is not just women who give birth.
• Transmen — a person assigned the female gender at birth but who identifies as a man – and genderqueer people – who identify as neither man nor woman – also give birth.

Why the word cisgender is important?

• If there are ‘transgender’ people, there should be a word for those who are not.
• Giving a label to only one section of the population, especially when that is in the minority, implies that the others are default, ‘normal’, and only that section needs to be labelled.
• Having distinct words for transgender and cisgender people denotes that both are equally valid, neutral experiences, with neither being an aberration.
• Also, cis and trans are not the only gender identifiers in use.
• There are many other terms, such as gender-queer, gender fluid and gender variant.
• Some also choose not to use the traditionally gender-tied pronouns of he/she/her/his, and go for they/them.

Criticism of the term

• Some people, including those working on trans rights, feel terms like ‘cisgender’ belong in the realm of gender theory alone.
• They feel that their usage can be counterproductive – people are less likely to grasp a message if they have to look up the individual words that make up the message.
• Others feel that ‘cisgender’ as a counter to ‘transgender’ is restrictive – reinforcing a binary of genders that many choose to reject.

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