Mission Mains 2021: GS 1
This is for those of you who are planning to write Mains 2020. Primarily, the agenda of this thread would be
1. Answer Writing Practice
2. Sharing examples - anecdotes from Current affairs relevant for Answer writing
3. Any doubts wrt. Paper 1!
Feel free to pool in your suggestions!
Q: Raising the legal age of marriage displays a lack of understanding of the reasons for the low age of marriage for women in India, which have little to do with the law. Comment.Pointers in brief below:
Reasons for low age of marriage for women in India:
1. Society imposes a very high cost of raising girl child, especially in poor Indian families, which attempt to reduce those costs by marrying daughters off at a young age. Correlated with high preference for sons.
2. Families prefer to find brides within their own caste group/community, marriage-aged men look for younger female brides within their community.
3. Girls are often married off at a younger age because less dowry is expected for younger brides.
4. Girls are promised in marriage before they are born in order to secure their future. Upon adolescence, send-off ceremonies take place and they are sent to their husband’s home to commence married life.
5. Lack of Education and beliefs like paraya dhan make families assume that girl’s productive capacities benefit her marital family. Educating daughters is therefore seen as less of a priority than educating sons and hence, early marriage.
6. Customs like Atta Satta - It happends, where the parents of a boy cannot find their son a bride, they trade their daughter for a girl that will marry the son.
7. Fear of violence against women
8. Clash and inconsistency of personal religion laws which with Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006.
Myriad reasons economic, social, traditional, lack of education, stigma of unwed daughters choosing their life partner on their own, inability to protect unwed girls from unwanted sexual advances, belief that marriage is safer contribute to this problem.
A U.N. report released in late April predicted that COVID-19 could lead to an additional 13 million child marriages over the next decade all over the world.
India hosts the world’s largest number of child brides – 23 million, according to a 2019 report by UNICEF
Steps already undertaken:
1. Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006 imposes a fine and two years in prison for parents marrying off their underage children.
2. India committed to eliminating child, early, and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals.
3. India acceded to the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1992, which sets a minimum age of marriage of 18, and ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1993, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.
4. Government has also used cash incentives (such as the Dhan Laxmi scheme), adolescents’ empowerment programmes (Kishori Shakti Yojana) and awareness-raising to encourage behavior change related to child marriage.
Way Forward:
Approach is to empower and educate all stakeholders — children, village influencers, panchayat leaders, parents, teachers to make change possible at the grassroots. Through Bal Panchayats (children’s councils) officially recognized by Gram Panchayats, we sensitize kids about their rights. This gives them confidence to raise their voices against all forms of exploitations.
Good points. The conclusion is apt. I heard about atta satta for the first time though.
We could add how the world over the age of majority is 18 years and raised age could lead to the criminalisation of couples who choose to marry without their parent's permission before 21years of age.
Also, don't you think we should write a few points briefly in favour of raised marriage age like improved nutrition standards, lower maternal and infant mortality, lower stunting-wasting, increased agency among women etc.
Yes, we can add as a one liner about the benefits of raised marriage age. However, the focus should be on the social issues that lead to early marriage and the fact that it is not a problem of law per se, but the social reasons that contribute to it.
chamomile,Mauraisles
Guys if I plan to use Sanskrit shlokas in my answers(across GS papers/Essays), Do I write it in English or Devanagari?
Also is it a good/acceptable idea as all these shlokas are basically from the religious scriptures of a religion?
You must use your medium of answering the paper. Even if you intend to write in Sanskrit, do write the translation in English.
One can use them liberally in essays. No issues.
GS- there's already a word crunch. You will not have the luxury to write shlokas.
Tempo_High_Hain,The Brahmaputra is the lifeline of the northeastern part of India. It provides potable water as well as it has a high potential for hydropower generation. However construction the Chinese side has been seen as a cause of concern for the following reasons-The construction of several dams along the Yarlung (Brahmaputra) river on the Chinese side has been a repeated cause for concern for Indian officials and the local people, whose livelihoods and security depend on the river. Explain.
- China being an upper riparian state can overexploit water from the river and thus depriving India.
- the decreased flow can affect the viability of hydropower projects that have been executed or are planned by India.
- it releases water during peak season which causes flooding in low lying regions. Annual Assam floods are also caused due to this.
- overexploitation of river and not maintaining the environmental flow causes high river pollution affecting lower riparian states. recently the Siang river turned red due to high pollution.
- can lead to weaponisation of river- by storing huge quantities of water and releasing it all together without any warning to intentionally cause damage to India.
- the ecology would be threatened-
- Brahmaputra and its tributaries are the lifelines of the biodiversity hotspot - eastern Himalayas and western ghats.
- people dependent on the fisheries sector would lose employment or incomes would go down.
- National waterways mission would be affected due to irregular flow of the river. NW2 passes through the Brahmaputra.
The solution to this problem is developing water development mechanism through consensus with China. brahmaputra-yarlong water treaty in the lines of Indus water treaty could be devised to resolve future water disputes.
» show previous quotes» show previous quotes» show previous quotesThe Brahmaputra is the lifeline of the northeastern part of India. It provides potable water as well as it has a high potential for hydropower generation. However construction the Chinese side has been seen as a cause of concern for the following reasons-
- China being an upper riparian state can overexploit water from the river and thus depriving India.
- the decreased flow can affect the viability of hydropower projects that have been executed or are planned by India.
- it releases water during peak season which causes flooding in low lying regions. Annual Assam floods are also caused due to this.
- overexploitation of river and not maintaining the environmental flow causes high river pollution affecting lower riparian states. recently the Siang river turned red due to high pollution.
- can lead to weaponisation of river- by storing huge quantities of water and releasing it all together without any warning to intentionally cause damage to India.
- the ecology would be threatened-
- Brahmaputra and its tributaries are the lifelines of the biodiversity hotspot - eastern Himalayas and western ghats.
- people dependent on the fisheries sector would lose employment or incomes would go down.
- National waterways mission would be affected due to irregular flow of the river. NW2 passes through the Brahmaputra.
The solution to this problem is developing water development mechanism through consensus with China. brahmaputra-yarlong water treaty in the lines of Indus water treaty could be devised to resolve future water disputes.
Lovely no-nonsense answer.
Would have mentioned in the conclusion "in light of the present geopolitical scenario between India and China, the aggressive Chinese approach towards development of the Yarlung must be viewed seriously. If negotiations towards a consensus-based Water Development mechanism fails to yield results, India may seek to hold China accountable under customary international Law for causing transboundary harm."
Just to connect it to current events. Thanks for the answer!!
Self-governance at the city or town levels helps accelerate growth. Explain this statement in context of Chola Empire.
Local self-govt was a remarkable feature of Chola administration. The village was the basic unit of administration. Chola officials participated more as advisors and observers. The villages had a village assembly or council known as the Ur or Sabha.Villagers who owned land or belonged to the upper castes were chosen by lot to the councils.
The council was often divided into a number of small committees and each committee would look after an aspect of the village administration. The revenue of the Chola kingdom came from two sources-taxes on land and taxes on trade. Land tax was generally assessed at one –third of the produce. The actual collection of revenue was done by the village assembly. The intermediary or sometimes a govt officer collected the taxes and passed on the govt’ share. Often a part of revenue was assigned to a temple.
Self-governance at the city or town levels helps accelerate growth. Explain this statement in context of Chola Empire.Local self-govt was a remarkable feature of Chola administration. The village was the basic unit of administration. Chola officials participated more as advisors and observers. The villages had a village assembly or council known as the Ur or Sabha.Villagers who owned land or belonged to the upper castes were chosen by lot to the councils.
The council was often divided into a number of small committees and each committee would look after an aspect of the village administration. The revenue of the Chola kingdom came from two sources-taxes on land and taxes on trade. Land tax was generally assessed at one –third of the produce. The actual collection of revenue was done by the village assembly. The intermediary or sometimes a govt officer collected the taxes and passed on the govt’ share. Often a part of revenue was assigned to a temple.
Hi Ellen. This merely states out the LSG initiatives. You need to mention and explain how that help to accelerate growth. Another shot?
Ritivik,
Please review. ^_^
Good structure. However, please avoid generic statements like heavy influence from Hellenistic cultures - you need to elaborate which feature resembles from that culture. Adding more points below:
Reasons for influence:-
- After Alexander's invasion Greeks divided and assimilated into the territories
- Spread of Buddhism during the Ashokan regime to Kandhar in modern day Afghanistan.
Central Asian and Roman Influence:
- Presented in Roman motifs like Triton
- Buddha in human form is inspired by Roman tradition.
Greco Bactrian:
- Greek god as a protector in many images of Buddha in Gandhara
- Drapery similar to Hellenistic cultures
- Vajrapani found in the right hand of future Buddha similar to Hercules
- Disc shaped halo around Buddha's head indicates Bactrian influence
Write your comment…
