9 PM Daily Current Affairs Brief – September 10th, 2022

Current Affairs Compilations for UPSC IAS Prelims 2022

Mains Oriented Articles

GS Paper 1

• The stark reasons why Bengaluru is sinking

GS Paper 2

• How Bharat is fighting TB through Jan Bhagidari: Health minister writes about govt & citizens working together to make the country TB-free by 2025
• End of an era
• Dry Bihar to turn Liquor bottles into glass bangles
• Covid’s medium-term impact and India’s Human Development Index loss
• Why sports management in India needs to include former players

GS Paper 4

• Meaning of kartavya: Our ancient texts provide the conceptual clarity

Prelims Oriented Articles (Factly)

• President of India launches Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan
• Vice President releases the Arabic Version of “Majma Ul-Bahrain” of Mughal Prince Dara Shikoh
• Invasive south red-eared slider turtle poses threat to Indian biodiversity
• Centre bans export of broken rice due to domestic demand
• Foundational Learning Study: Basic skills poor in Hindi, but poorer in regional languages: NCERT
• How visitors’ breath is destroying Ajanta’s ancient wonders
• Dolphin, porpoise: First time, avian flu is seen in cetaceans
• Operation London Bridge: the 10-day process that kicked off with Queen Elizabeth’s death
• Ministry of Urban Affairs rolls out ‘Swachh Amrit Mahotsav’
• Gender Snapshot 2022 Report: It will take 3 centuries to close gender gap completely, warns UN

Mains Oriented Articles

GS Paper 1

The stark reasons why Bengaluru is sinking

News:  This article discusses about the problems that has led to waterlogging in Bengaluru and steps that needs to be taken to tackle this.

Many social media posts are showing videos of abandoned vehicles floating or underwater, tractors and their trailers laden with software professionals commuting to work, and flooded layouts that are home to luxury villas.

What are the reasons behind the flooding of Bengaluru?

The Bengaluru’s expansion swallowed nearby villages and panchayats were disbanded to create six city municipal corporations. These municipal corporations later merged into Bhruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).

The transition destroyed land records and nearby lakes and catchment areas were transformed into private lands. Builders soon transformed these areas into apartments, shopping malls and information-technology parks.

Bengaluru also lacks in institutional capacity to handle the problems of the future.

There is lack of coordination among the institutions like local governments, BBMP, panchayats, Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA), etc.

What can be done further to improve the present condition?

Although, Bengaluru has achieved success in rainwater harvesting, solar water heating, segregation of garbage and the stoppage of littering still there is more to be done. Reforms are needed to withstand climate change and build a better environment.

The reforms required are –

First, multiple institutions should be ended.

Multiple institutions do not improve execution but they provide troubles and complicate governance.

Therefore, outdated institutions should be replaced by a constitutionally compliant institution with local governments at the top. Therefore, 11 independent planning authorities must be merged and subordinated to the Metropolitan Planning Committee.

This constitutionally mandated institution will enable all stakeholders from largest land owners (defence, railways) to the mahanagara palika and panchayats within the metropolitan area to participate.

Second, community efforts are needed. There is a need to strengthen climate resilience that goes past flood control. Thus, the following efforts are required:

1. a) curbing car travel and improving cheap public transport, b) preserving existing green cover and planting more trees, c) de-concretizing our pavements, d) prohibiting littering and segregating garbage.

People should enforce operational standards for sewage treatment plants and deal with illegal constructions and encroachments that harm our environment.

People also need to increase efforts to improve Rajakaluves (channels that connect water bodies).

People should ensure better working of the institutions by electing capable leaders into these institutions and making those institutions accountable.

However, any institution has its own limitations. Therefore, we should elect our politicians carefully.

Only those people should be elected who care about the environment as well as for the development and are not corrupt.

GS Paper 2

How Bharat is fighting TB through Jan Bhagidari: Health minister writes about govt & citizens working together to make the country TB-free by 2025

News: The Prime Minister of India has set the goal of making India TB free by 2025 which is ahead of the global target of 2030 for eliminating the disease.

Jan Bhagidari plays an important role in achieving this target.

GoI has launched Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana under the aegis of the National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP) to achieve this target.

What is Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana?

This scheme helps patients to target their nutritional requirements.

This scheme has helped 62.71 lakh TB patients with financial support of Rs 1,651 crore between 2018 and June 2022.

This includes direct benefit transfer of Rs 500 per month into the bank account of the person with TB.

What is Ni-Kshay 2.0 portal?

GoI has recently initiated the Ni-Kshay 2.0 portal under the Pradhan Mantri TB-Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan.

This was launched by President Droupadi Murmu.

The objective of Ni-kshay 2.0 is to end the existing social problems and discrimination against TB patients by providing nutritional and social support.

Any individual or organization (corporates, NGOs, etc.) can register as Ni-kshay Mitra on the Ni-kshay 2.0 portal to support people affected by the disease.

TB patients can be supported for a minimum duration of one year and a maximum of three years in any block or district across the country.

What kind of support do patients need?

TB patients need three kinds of essential supports. They are:

First, a kit that contains appropriate food and supplements to take care of patient’s nutritional needs.

Second, patients’ need support for additional lab-based diagnostic requirements.

Third, support is needed to provide patients with vocational skills which will help them to join the workforce and live a prosperous and productive life.

GoI also provide free diagnosis, free medicines and other kinds of support to people who have been affected by the disease.

What role is played by Jan Bhagadari and how important is it?

Jan Bhagidari (people’s participation) plays an important role in achieving any target and making India a prosperous nation.

Swachh Bharat Mission, Covid vaccination drive and the recently Har Ghar Tiranga campaign are successful examples of Jan Bhagaidari (people’s participation).

Therefore, collective strength and people’s participation is needed to move towards a TB-free India by 2025.

End of an era

News: The article discusses the concern associated with the demise of longest serving monarch Queen Elizabeth II.

The time period of Queen Elizabeth II

Queen Elizabeth II was the longest serving monarch who reigned for over 70 years.

Her tenure started as a head of the state after the First World War.

Her era saw the changing political power from the British Empire to the Commonwealth and the emergence of post-colonial nations.

The cold war came to an end during her period.

What are the implications of the demise of the Queen?

It raises the question of monarchy.

British monarch is currently the head of the state of U.K., Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, and many others. Few countries are looking to end this monarchy.

For example, Barbados became the 18th country to remove the British monarch from the role of head of state in 2021.

Australia is also seeing the movement for making the country republic.

Six Caribbean countries have also hinted towards removing the British monarchy.

However, the position of the Commonwealth group of 56 nations remained unchanged even though there has been an increase in movements to detach from British monarchy. But it was also due to the influence of Queen Elizabeth II. Therefore, prospects of grouping might get affected.

Dry Bihar to turn Liquor bottles into glass bangles

Context- The article explains Bihar government plan to set up factories to make glass and bangles out of seized liquor and challenges associated with it.

What are some facts related to the Bihar government plan?

It is a social and economic empowerment program through its rural livelihood program called JEEVIKA. It is funded by the World Bank.

Earlier bottles seized were crushed and treated as garbage. However, now the plan is to give these bottles to JEEVIKA workers. JEEVIKA women workers will be training in bangles making in other states.

₹1 crore has been allocated to set up a glass-making factory in Patna and send JEEVIKA women for training in bangle-making to other states.

What are the challenges related to Bihar government’s new excise policy?

More than thirty thousand people and also government officials were arrested during raids against those involved in illegal liquor trade activities. Due to the large number of persons involved, jails were overcrowded and cases were clogged in courts.

Due to lack of storage, government officials had to crush large quantities of seized liquor.

What is the economic viability of the idea?

First, In making glass bangles, other materials like limestone and soda are used. Now, who will provide these materials for factories to run?

Second, these factories will have to face competition from factories in Faizabad, Mumbai and Hyderabad which have economies of scale.

Third, would bottles be supplied in sufficient amount to sustain the bangle making factory in the long run?

Covid’s medium-term impact and India’s Human Development Index loss

News- The article explains the loss in India’s Human Development Index score in 2020 and 2021.

What are some facts related to the HDI report?

There are setbacks on the life expectancy and education front.

Life expectancy could recover the loss of two years, if we take into account the death toll due to COVID19, but getting back to previous level on the education front is difficult.

Slide on index depends on whether countries withstood Covid better or not.

How does India performed in comparison to other countries?

Bangladesh- Its position is better on non-economic indicators. It has lower income but better overall index score. It did not suffer any setback in HDI indicators during Covid years.

Other developing countries- Vietnam belong to the “high” human development category and Malaysia belongs to the “Very high” attainment category. For India, it will take  till 2030 to move from medium to high, if it improves its indicators at pre-Covid rate.

India index is roughly where China was at the turn of the century.

What needs to be done?

There is a need to close the gap with regard to health and education. In this context, Amartya Sen approach of development as capability building should be followed.

There is a lack of public spending on health and education. Private spending is more in comparison to public spending  and there are regional variations as Bimaru states continue to languish. It needs to be corrected.

Recent initiatives of the government like health insurance should make a difference but these are not enough.

When it comes to public spending, government preference is more for physical infrastructure rather than social infrastructure. It needs to have a relook. Investment on physical infrastructure has gone up to 1% of GDP in recent years.

Why sports management in India needs to include former players

News- The article explains the concept of regulatory capture and need for sports federation to have administrator who were sportsman themselves in past.

What is regulatory capture?

It is a situation when independent government agencies start to uphold the interests of the companies and industries they regulate instead of serving public interest. For Example, the telecom regulator makes rules that favour Jio or Bharti.

Industry gets protected at the expense of consumers.

It is referred to as lobbying in western world and accepted corruption in Asia.

Integrity gets compromised because of this.

In the case of India, the role of the government becomes crucial because both public and private operate together in the same field.

What is the appointment process for regulatory agencies?

Such appointments in India and elsewhere are prerogative of government and rooted in local cultural circumstances.

Objective is to ensure that capture of agency by government or industry is reduced to minimum.

When India started liberalization, western methods of appointment were admired but now there is consensus in favor of regulatory architecture of our own.

Why is the regulatory architecture of our own difficult for India?

Because we have followed the practices of shukrana and nazrana in our societal engagement. These are expressions of gratitude and anticipated benefits respectively. Some of these practices are followed in the professional sphere also.

Why have sports federations become important from the perspective of institutional appointment?

As there will be more commercialization of Indian sports, federations will have more attractive employment opportunities.

Judges and bureaucrats will have more employment opportunities in these federations after their retirement. They have learnt the methods of institutional capture, that is securing post-retirement appointments to regulatory agencies. But they should be guided by a larger public interest and resist the temptation of being beholden to the agency.

Why do we need to act quickly to have our own system of appointments?

Two events are important, that suggest having own system:

First is the International Olympic Committee ultimatum to the Indian Olympic Association to resolve its governance issue and hold elections, failing which it will ban India.

Second is FIFA suspension of All India Football Federation because of influence from a third party that is the Court of Inquiry by the Supreme Court.

Why do sportsmen need to be appointed to the sports federation?

The presumption that bureaucrats or judges are better placed is a self-serving argument.

Sorts administration is becoming complex, demanding training and skills that are more complex.

Government should begin the process by itself. There is no need for external pressure as in the case of AIFF.

GS Paper 4

Meaning of kartavya: Our ancient texts provide the conceptual clarity

Context- The concept of kartavya or duty is in highlight after the renaming of Raj Path to Kartavya Path.

What is the definition of kartavya in ancient texts?

In Bhagavad Gita,  Krishna tells Arjuna that kartavya is following your dharma that is righteousness in conduct and following social order, working without expectations of reward, indifference to desires and possessions and it demands selfless service.

Is it possible to follow the kartavya path in modern times?

Human beings never progressed without renouncing ego and developing self-control in any age.

We should not think of powerful and influential personalities but we have to look at selfless work done by mothers and homemakers, artisan and scientists, doctors and teachers. They followed the kartavya path.

History does not note their individual contributions as it is biased understanding of past having top-down overview where every figure was selfish.

True satisfaction comes from doing one’s job well.

Prelims Oriented Articles (Factly)

President of India launches Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan

Source: The post is based on the article “President of India launches Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan” published in PIB on 9th September 2022.

What is the News?

The President of India has virtually launched the Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan to reinvigorate the mission of TB elimination from the country by 2025. 

What is Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan?

Aim: To bring together all community stakeholders to support those on TB treatment and accelerate the country’s progress towards TB elimination.

Objectives: 1) Provide additional patient support to improve treatment outcomes of TB patients, 2) Augment community involvement in meeting India’s commitment to end TB by 2025 and 3) Leverage Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities.

Key component of the Abhiyan: Under this initiative, Ni-kshay Mitra forms a vital component.

Ni-kshay Mitra are donors who can provide various forms of support to those undergoing TB treatment. The three-pronged support includes nutritional, additional diagnostic, and vocational support. 

These donors could be a wide range of stakeholders from elected representatives, political parties, to corporates, NGOs, and individuals.

Ni-kshay portal can be used by the donor to adopt TB patients. The portal will also have a real-time tracker of the number of people who get adopted

The minimum period of commitment for providing additional support to the TB patient shall be one year.

What are the expected outcomes of the initiative?

This initiative will increase the active involvement of society in the fight against tuberculosis. 

This activity aims at increasing awareness among the public regarding tuberculosis.

The involvement of the community in supporting the treatment cascade shall also help in the reduction of stigma.

Provision of additional support to the TB patient shall also result in the reduction of the out-of-pocket expenditure for the family of the TB patient.

Vice President releases the Arabic Version of “Majma Ul-Bahrain” of Mughal Prince Dara Shikoh

Source: The post is based on the article “Vice President releases the Arabic Version of “Majma Ul-Bahrain” of Mughal Prince Dara Shikoh” published in PIB on 9th September 2022.

What is the News?

The Vice President has released the Arabic Version of “Majma Ul-Bahrain” of Dara Shikoh in New Delhi.

What is Majma-ul-Bahrain?

Majma-ul-Bahrain (“The Confluence of the Two Seas” or “The Mingling of the Two Oceans”) is a book on comparative religion authored by Mughal Prince Dara Shikoh.

The book throws invaluable light on the similarities between religions and helps bring stronger unity among the people of India.

In this book, Dara Shikoh listed one by one, all the commonalities between Hinduism (Vedanta) and Islam (Sufism) and came to the conclusion that the difference between Islam and Hinduism is only verbal.

Who is Dara Shikoh?

Click Here to read

Invasive south red-eared slider turtle poses threat to Indian biodiversity

Source: The post is based on the article “Invasive south red-eared slider turtle poses threat to Indian biodiversity” published in Down To Earth on 9th September 2022.

What is the News?

Experts have expressed the concern that the presence of invasive and non-native Red-Eared Slider Turtles in India would lead to the extinction of native species of their own kind.

Note: India is home to 29 freshwater turtles and tortoise species of the 356 turtle species recognised worldwide and around 80 per cent of them are threatened.

What are Red-Eared Slider Turtles?

Red-Eared Slider Turtles are native to the south-eastern USA and Mexico but have found their way across the globe including India through trade of exotic animals.

They are considered as one of the world’s 100 worst invasive non-native species. 

Click Here to read more about them

Red Eared Slider Turtles presence in India and its impact

In India, keeping indigenous turtles as pets is prohibited under the Wildlife Protection Act. But the foreign breeds are not restricted and are kept as pets in many families across India.

Red Eared Slider Turtles are small and easy-to-maintain species and therefore a hit in the pet market.

The species breeds faster compared to other local turtle varieties. As their size increases, they no longer fit in small tanks or ponds.

Hence, the owners release them in the wild or nearby water bodies and once released, they become a threat to the local fauna.

Impact: As Red Eared Slider Turtles mature fast, grow larger, and produce more offspring, and are very aggressive, they can out-compete native turtles for food, nestling, and basking sites.

They eat plants and animals and can finish off a wide range of aquatic species, including fish and rare frogs. They can also transfer diseases and parasites to native reptile species.

What can be done to control the invasion of Red Eared Slider Turtles?

Stricter Rules: Government has an advisory in place to streamline the import and possession of exotic live animals in India. The advisory demands registration and declaration of progenies of the imported exotic live species. 

– But there should be more rules to prevent the species from entering our environment and negatively impacting the environment.

Manual intervention is required to procure and rehabilitate these turtles from urban wetlands. For instance, a campaign to declare or give up turtles should be held to take these turtles in custody.

Centre bans export of broken rice due to domestic demand

Source: The post is based on the article “Centre bans export of broken rice due to domestic demand” published in The Hindu on 10th September 2022.

What is the News?

The Government of India has banned the export of broken rice in view of the domestic demand and production scenario of rice.

What is Broken Rice?

Broken rice are fragments of rice grains, broken in the field during drying, transport or during milling.

This rice is mostly used as animal feed and as a component for ethanol production.

Why has the export of broken rice been banned?

The export of broken rice had increased by 4178% during the months between April 2022 and August 2022 compared to the same months of 2019. The export is mainly to China, Senegal, Vietnam, Djibouti and Indonesia. 

Due to this: a) There was low availability of broken rice for ethanol production and b) The Domestic price of broken rice increased. The poultry sector and animal husbandry farmers were impacted the most due to price hikes as about 60-65% of inputs cost for poultry feed comes from broken rice and any increase in prices will be reflected in poultry products like milk, egg, meat etc.

How will the ban on the export of broken rice help India?

This ban would ensure adequate availability of broken rice for consumption by the domestic poultry industry and for other animal feedstock and to produce ethanol for successful implementation of the Ethanol Blending Programme.

Foundational Learning Study: Basic skills poor in Hindi, but poorer in regional languages: NCERT

Source: The post is based on the article “Basic skills poor in Hindi, but poorer in regional languages: NCERT” published in The Hindu on 10th September 2022.

What is the News?

The Ministry of Education and the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has released a Foundational Learning Study(FLS) 2022.

What is the Foundational Learning Study(FLS) 2022?

FLS is a national report on benchmarking for oral reading fluency with reading comprehension and fluency. 

Aim: To provide reliable and valid data about Grade 3 students to know what they are able to do in foundational literacy and numeracy and the extent of the learning outcomes achieved.

Samples Size: FLS was carried out among 86,000 class 3 children in 10,000 schools in the country.

Categorization: The survey divides learners on the basis of their knowledge and skills into four categories — those who “lack” them have “limited” proficiency, “sufficient” competency and those who are “superior”.

What are the key findings of the study?

Languages: Foundational learning of students in Hindi is poor but their performance in regional languages in some States was even worse.

– Around 53% of class 3 students in 18 States surveyed for Hindi proficiency either lacked or had limited knowledge and skills in reading and comprehending the language. 

– But proficiency in regional languages such as Kannada, which was analyzed in States such as Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala was poorer with 59% students either lacking or displaying limited skills.

Skills in Mathematics: Most basic knowledge and skills in numeracy were either lacking or limited in 48% of Class 3 students.

– As many as 11% of students couldn’t complete the most basic grade-level tasks in numeracy and 37% of learners could only partially complete basic grade-level tasks.  

– Among the States, Tamil Nadu was the worst performer with 77% of students either lacking or possessing only limited numeracy skills. 

– In all, there were 11 States with more than 50% of students who either lacked or had limited skills with numbers.

What is the significance of this study?

This study will help the government determine benchmarks in 20 languages and numeracy. 

Note: Government has launched NIPUN as a national mission to enable all children at the end of class 3 to attain foundational skills by the year 2026-2027 and these benchmarks will provide a baseline for subsequent surveys.

How visitors’ breath is destroying Ajanta’s ancient wonders

Source: The post is based on the article “How visitors’ breath is destroying Ajanta’s ancient wonders” published in TOI on 10th September 2022.

What is the News?

The famous paintings of Ajanta caves, widely regarded as the finest surviving examples of ancient Indian art, are under serious threat not so much from age but the rush of visitors.

How do visitors impact the Ajanta Caves?

Visitors arrive at the caves breathing heavily after climbing the many steps from the base. 

As they immediately rush into the cool caves, they carry an increased amount of carbon dioxide and moisture with them inside. 

The constant influx of tourists raises the temperature inside the caves, and affects the paintings.

For instance, it has been noted that carbon dioxide content shoots up to 1,022 PPM (parts per million) on any peak tourist day as against 263 PPM on a normal day.

​​What are Ajanta Caves?

Ajanta is a series of rock-cut caves in the Sahyadri ranges (Western Ghats) on Waghora river near Aurangabad in Maharashtra.

The caves are 30 in number including the unfinished ones of which five are Chaitya or prayer halls and the rest are viharas (monastery). 

Built by: The caves were built in two phases, the first starting around the 2nd century BCE and the second occurring from 400 to 650 CE.

Reference to the Ajanta caves can be found in the travel accounts of Chinese Buddhist travellers Fa Hien (during the reign of Chandragupta II; 380- 415 CE) and Hieun Tsang (during the reign of emperor Harshavardhana; 606 – 647 CE). 

Discovered by: The caves were first discovered in 1819, when John Smith, a British official, accidentally stumbled upon the horse-shoe-shaped rock while hunting a tiger.

Paintings: ​​The fresco painting technique was employed to create the figures in these caves. The artworks’ outlines were painted in red colour. The scarcity of blue in the paintings is one of the most remarkable elements.

– Mostly, the paintings depict Buddhism, including Buddha’s life and Jataka stories.

UNESCO Site: The site is a protected monument in the care of the Archaeological Survey of India and since 1983, the Ajanta Caves have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Dolphin, porpoise: First time, avian flu is seen in cetaceans

Source: The post is based on the article “Dolphin, porpoise: First time, avian flu is seen in cetaceans” published in Indian Express on 10th September 2022.

What is the News?

A bottlenose dolphin found dead in a Florida canal had tested positive for a highly virulent strain of bird flu known as Eurasian H5N1.

Earlier, officials had also reported that they had found the same type of avian influenza in a stranded porpoise in Sweden.

These are the first two documented cases in cetaceans, a group of marine mammals that includes dolphins, porpoises and whales.

What is Eurasian H5N1?

Eurasian H5N1 is a strain of bird flu.

This flu has spread widely among North American and European birds and has affected an unusually broad array of species.

The risk of transmission to humans remains low. But the spread of the virus to new species poses potential risks to wildlife and provides the virus with new chances to mutate and adapt to mammalian hosts.

What is H5N1 (Avian Influenza)?

Click Here to read

Operation London Bridge: the 10-day process that kicked off with Queen Elizabeth’s death

Source: The post is based on the article “Operation London Bridge: the 10-day process that kicked off with Queen Elizabeth’s death” published in Indian Express on 10th September 2022.

What is the News?

Queen Elizabeth II has died. The queen reigned over Britain for 70 years and her death is known in official circles in the UK as Operation London Bridge.

What is Operation London Bridge?

Operation London Bridge (also known by its code phrase “London Bridge is down”) is the funeral plan for Queen Elizabeth II. 

The plan includes the announcement of her death, the period of official mourning and the details of her state funeral.

The plan was created as early as the 1960s and revised many times in the years before her death in 2022.

Several other plans were also created to support the implementation of Operation London Bridge such as Operation Unicorn, the plan that details what would happen if the Queen were to die in Scotland. 

Ministry of Urban Affairs rolls out ‘Swachh Amrit Mahotsav’

Source: The post is based on the article “Ministry of Urban Affairs rolls out ‘Swachh Amrit Mahotsav” published in PIB on 9th September 2022.

What is the News?

The Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs has announced the commencement of ‘Swachh Amrit Mahotsav’ and the first ever Indian Swachhata League(ISL).

What is Swachh Amrit Mahotsav?

It is a fortnight of activities to galvanize action around swachhata from 17th Sept. 2022(Seva Diwas) till 2nd Oct. 2022 (Swachhata Diwas). 

The fortnight will focus on mobilizing citizen action and commitment towards the vision of building ‘Garbage Free Cities’.

The official logo for the fortnight is ‘Swachh Amrit Mahotsav: Ek Aur Kadam Swachhata Ki Ore’ signifying the resolve to intensify and reinvigorate the Jan Andolan in the world’s largest sanitation programme.

What is the Indian Swachhata League(ISL)?

It is an inter-city competition to take place between the youth of the cities on the 17th of Sept. 2022. 

For the maiden edition of ISL, more than 1,850 city teams from across the country have officially registered to compete. 

Each team will compete in the League by creating their own unique sanitation initiatives to focus on creating garbage-free beaches, hills and tourist places.

Gender Snapshot 2022 Report: It will take 3 centuries to close gender gap completely, warns UN

Source: The post is based on the article “Gender Snapshot 2022 Report: It will take 3 centuries to close gender gap completely, warns UN” published in Down To Earth on 8th September 2022.

What is the News?

The report titled “Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG): The Gender Snapshot 2022” was released by United Nations (UN) Women and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA).

What are the key findings of the report?

It will take 286 years to achieve full gender equality at the current rate of progress.

In 2022, women held only 26.4% of Parliamentary seats globally. In 23 countries, representation was below 10%. At the current pace of progress, parity will not be achieved until 2062. 

By the end of 2022, around 383 million women and girls will live in extreme poverty (on less than $1.90 a day) compared to 368 million men and boys.

In 2020, women held less than 1 in every 3 managerial positions (28.3%) Only 47 of the 151 countries and areas with data have reached over 40% representation.At current rates, parity will not be achieved for more than 140 years.

Over 1.2 billion women and girls of reproductive age (15-49) live in countries and areas with some restrictions on access to safe abortion.

Women hold only 2 in every 10 science, engineering and information and communication technology jobs globally.

Globally, more than 1 in every 10 women and girls aged 15-49 were subjected to sexual and/ or physical violence by an intimate partner in the previous year.

What are the recommendations given by the report?

Firstly, cooperation, partnerships, and investments in the gender equality agenda are essential to correct the course and place gender equality back on track. 

Secondly, to eradicate child marriage by 2030, progress must be 17 times faster than the progress of the last decade.

Thirdly, long-term structural barriers to gender equality, laws and practices need to be addressed and dismantled.