GS PAPER: III

Strength of women in armed forces

Why in the news?

On the occasion of Navy Day speaking in Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg district on the Konkan coast,the Prime Minister Modi said that the government was committed to increasing the strength of women in the armed forces.

Women in defence forces

In Indian Armed Forces, there is no distinction in the deployment and working conditions of male and female officers in the Arms and Services in which they serve. The postings are as per organizational requirements. Training, postings, promotions, terms of engagement etc. are common for both women and men. The rules regarding employability in Indian Armed Forces are gender-neutral and provide equal opportunities to men and women.

Indian Army:

Indian Army is encouraging women officers to join the force by adopting enabling policies for their inclusion. Recent major initiatives are as under:

• Permanent Commission (PC) is being granted to Women Officers (WOs) in 12 Arms & Services (in addition to Army Medical Corps, Army Dental Corps and Military Nursing Service) where they are commissioned. Indian Army has ensured parity amongst WOs and their male counterparts with a complete gender-neutral environment existing in the 12 Arms/ Services they are presently serving in. A special board to screen all affected WOs has been held and the results have been declassified. In regular boards also, WOs are being considered for grant of PC along with their male counterparts.
• Armed Forces have opened entry for women candidates in National Defence Academy (NDA) with 19 cadets including 10 for Indian Army joining the academy every six months. First, Second and Third batch of women cadets started training in NDA with effect from July 2022, January 2023 and July 2023 respectively. The organisation is ensuring inclusive measures to carry out all necessary administrative, training and policy changes to enable the same.
• Indian Army has also opened avenues for WOs to serve as pilots in the Corps of Army Aviation.
• WOs are also being considered for Colonel (Select Grade) ranks and are being given command appointments. Certain waivers have also been given to WOs to rule out any impediment in career progression of those who could not undergo mandatory career courses during the transition period.
• Provision for enrolment of women as Other Ranks (ORs) in Corps of Military Police in the Indian Army has been introduced in 2019. Under the scheme, 1,700 women are targeted to be inducted in Indian Army in a phased manner (approximately 100 per year).

Indian Navy:

In Indian Navy, women are given opportunities for spouse co-location, resettlement posting and compassionate grounds posting in a gender-neutral manner. Other provisions of maternity leave with provisions to conjoin other types of leave (viz. annual, furlough, Child Care Leave) is also being granted. Further, the following steps are being taken to recruit more women soldiers in Indian Navy:

• Women in all Branches/ Cadre/ Specialisations:  Entry of women in all branches/Cadres/Specialisations (except Submarine specialisation) has commenced w.e.f. June, 2023.
• On board Ships: Women officers are also being appointed on board warships in afloat billets and also as Specialist Naval Air Operations (NAO) officers to ship borne helicopters.
• RPA Stream: Women officers can now join the Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) stream and first women officer joined RPA Squadron in March, 2021.
• Overseas Assignments: Women officers have also been deputed on Diplomatic assignments and other Foreign Cooperation engagements.
• National Defence Academy (NDA): Entry of women cadets in NDA has been permitted from 2022 wherein women officers are being inducted as PC officers. Three vacancies per batch were initially allocated at NDA for women candidates of Navy and the first batch has joined in June, 2022. The number of vacancies for women cadets at NDA have been further increased from 03 to 12 for subsequent batches w.e.f. January, 2024.
• Indian Naval Academy (INA): At INA, women cadets are now eligible to join through ‘10+2 B.Tech.’ entry scheme w.e.f. January 2024.
• Women Agniveers: As a part of the Agnipath Scheme, women have been enrolled as Agniveers commencing from the first batch itself. They are subjected to the same training curriculum, professional courses and retention criteria as compared to their male counterparts.

Indian Air Force:

In Indian Air Force (IAF), the facilities in terms of infrastructure necessitated at workplace for women personnel are assessed and provided as authorised by Scales of Accommodation, 2022 and relevant Government orders on the subject.

Recruitment of officers in the IAF is gender-neutral. Women officers are inducted in all the branches and streams of IAF.

• Opportunities for a career in IAF are widely publicized through print/electronic media and special publicity drives. An opening has also been provided through NCC Special Entry for flying SSC (Women) from July, 2017 onwards.
• The experimental scheme to induct women officers in all combat roles, initiated by the IAF in 2015 was regularized in the year 2022 into a permanent Scheme. Such gender-neutral approach is facilitating the employment of women officers of IAF in all combat roles without any restrictions.
• IAF started inducting women through NDA from the course commenced in June, 2022 (Tech and Non-tech) as PC officers. The intake of women cadets in NDA is fixed at six vacancies (for Air Force) per course for the next five years.
• ‘DISHA’ cell at Air HQ conducts various Induction Publicity programmes across the country related to induction/ career of officer cadre in IAF. Women candidates are encouraged during such publicity drives to join IAF as a preferred career option.
• Conduct of motivational talks by women officers gives opportunity to female students to interact with them and clear their apprehensions. The scope of choosing IAF as a career is covered in terms of prospects, facilities, work profile, benefits etc, during these sessions.

IAF is continuously upgrading its environment and infrastructure for its personnel. Induction of women (other than officers i.e. Airmen) is being executed in a gradual manner to ensure that necessary facilities are available for women. The plan is to increase number of women with every intake.   

About Navy Day

• India observe Navy Day annually on 4^th December to honor operation Trident a crucial offensive maneuver during 1971 India –Pakistan war.
• Recently commander Prerna Deosthalee become the first woman officer of the Indian Navy to command Indian Navy Warship ( Waterjet FAC INS Trikant).

GS PAPER – II

Suicide of Daily wage earner and farmers

Why in news?

• According to the recently released National Crime Record Bureau’s (NCRB) Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India (ADSI) 2022 report, India reported a total of over 1.7 lakh suicides in 2022, nearly one-third of whom were daily wage earners, agricultural labourers, and farmers.

About the report

• Daily 468 persons took their lives in 2022 and one-third of  them were daily-wage earners, agriculture labourers and farmers or cultivators.
• The report shows that nearly 26% of the suicide victims were daily wage earners and both their share and number in total suicide deatha has increased contiuously at least in the past five years.
• The latest Crime in India report showed an overall increase in crimes and atrocities committed upon Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST), with Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Telangana, all seeing an increase in such cases in 2022 compared with the year before.
• Mizoram, which had reported no cases of atrocities against either SCs or STs in 2021, reported five cases of atrocities against SCs and 29 such cases of crimes against STs in 2022.

Top Five states :

• Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan continued to figure in the top five States with the highest incidents of crimes and atrocities committed upon SCs and STs.
• Other States, where crimes and atrocities against SC/ST people were the highest are Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, and Punjab.

Increase in UAPA cases :

• Further, the Crime in India report showed that cases of offences against the State had also increased marginally in 2022 compared with the previous year — showing about a 25% increase in cases registered under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
• Cases under the sedition section of the Indian Penal Code saw a dramatic dip on the other hand, possibly owing to the Supreme Court’s May 2022 decision to keep sedition cases in abeyance.

Fake currency notes

• Moreover, the report went on to disclose that government authorities seized fake Indian currency notes (FICN) worth over Rs 342 crore in 2022, out of which FICN worth Rs 244 crore were copies of the Rs 2,000 currency note, followed by seizures of Rs 500 currency notes (this included discontinued currency as well), keeping with the trend of FICN seizures from 2021.
• The suicide data published in the ADSI-2022 report showed that the maximum suicides in the year were reported from Maharashtra (22,746), Tamil Nadu (19,834), Madhya Pradesh (15,386), Karnataka (13,606), Kerala (10,162), and Telangana (9,980).
• Apart from daily wage earners, and agricultural workers and farmers, the ADSI data showed that 9.6% of the suicides in 2022 were of persons who were self-employed or salaried professionals. This was followed by unemployed persons, who comprise 9.2% of all suicides reported in India in 2022. Among all suicides reported in the year, over 12,000 were of students.

No cases in some States

• “Certain States/UTs (Union Territories) namely, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Goa, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Chandigarh, Delhi, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides of farmers/cultivators as well as agricultural labourers.

Home-makers

• Among the around 48,000 women who died by suicide in 2022, the ADSI report found that over 52% were home-makers, which brings such women to about 14% of the total suicides reported in the year. This was followed by women who were students and daily wage earners respectively. The survey also showed that 28 trans-persons were also reported to have died by suicide in 2022.
• The report pointed out that the most common causes for suicides reported in 2022 were “family problems” and “illness”, which together accounted for almost half of all suicides in the year. This was followed by “drug abuse”, “alcohol addiction”, “marriage related issues”, etc. However, under the cause of “marriage related issues” most number of people were women — specifically citing “dowry related” as one of the causes.

GS PAPER – II

Ladakh : Reservation and Statehood

Why in news?

In a meeting held with ministry officials Civil society leaders from ladakh had raised local concern. 14 member delegation meeting held comprising members from Leh apex body and kargil democratic body.

What were the concerns?

• About disempowerment of local people
• Trust deficit in the name of development
• Reservation for local people in jobs
• Tribal status for the union territory
• Electoral representation.

How situation arrived?

• Ladakh was granted Union territory status in 2019 , after abrogation of Article 370 it followed the bifurcation of the states of Jammu Kashmir into two separate Union territories.
• The administration of Ladakh is currently governed by the lieutant Governor of Ladakh and an elected Ladakh Autonomus Hill development council.
• What is article 370?
• On October 17, 1949, Article 370 was added to the Indian constitution as a temporary provision which exempted Jammu and Kashmir, permitted it to draft its own constitution.
• Article 370 was abrogated on August 5 , 2019.

High Powered Committee (HPC) for Ladakh :

Ministry of Home Affairs has constituted High Powered Committee (HPC) for Ladakh under the chairmanship of Minister of State for Home Affairs Shri Nityanand Rai, with a mandate to discuss-

• Measures to protect the Ladakh region’s unique culture and language taking into consideration its geographical location and its strategic importance
• To ensure protection of land and employment,
• Measures for inclusive development and employment generation in the region,
•  Measures related to empowerment of Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils (LAHDCs) of Leh and Kargil and
• Constitutional safeguards that could be provided to ensure the measures and protection as mentioned above.

GS PAPER – II

India – USA : Bilateral Relation

Why in news?

U.S. principal Deputy National security Advisor Jonathan Finer was in Delhi. It was for the first time after U.S. Indictment linked an Indian government official to an assassination plot last week.

What is the assassination story?

• Recent charge was against Indian man allegedly hired by Indian government to murder Khalistani separatist Gurupatwant Singh Pannu on American soil.
• The charges were brought against a person Named Nikhil Gupta on attempting to kill sikh for justice leader Gurupatwant singh pannu
• It was also told that it had links to the Nijjars killing.

What is the Nijjar’s story?

• Hardeep singh Nijjar , the chief of Khalistan Tiger force and a khakistani Terrorist was shot dead in cannada .
• The Canada claimed India to be behind the killing, leading to the diplomatic row between the countries.

Overview of the meeting:

• India and USA have managed their relationships over past two decades and during different presidents.There is enough investments on both sides and structural soundness to the relationship.

India U.S. relationship:

• The U.S. India strategic partnership is founded on shared values including a commitment to democracy and upholding the rule based ecosystem.
• US has emerged as a biggest trading partner in 2022-23 and most important export market.
• Both countries are involved in 2+2 ministerial dialogue , QUAD like multilaterals organisation increase dependency for economic and social growth.