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1. UPSC Current Affairs: India-Italy relations| Pg 12

UPSC Syllabus: Mains: GS paper II: International relations
Sub Theme: Bilateral relations| UPSC
Context: India and Italy are going to sign a defence agreement during the upcoming visit of
Italian PM Georgia Meloni on the sidelines of Raisina Dialogues
Historical linkages:
• Sanskrit and Latin both belong to the Indo-European language family
• Ancient bilateral trade between Indian empires and Roman Empire (inflow of Gold
and outflow of spices)
• Venetian merchant Marco Polo visited India in 13th century
• Rajputana Rifles and Gurkha Rifles were involved in WW II in Italy.
• 10th Indian Division took part in the East African Allied campaign against the Italians
in Somaliland and Abyssinia.
• Rome has attracted millions of Indian Christians (Pilgrimage)

Economic Relations:
• Italy is among India's top 5 trading partners in the EU
• Balance of Trade is in India’s Favour
• Indian exports: garments, leather, iron ore, motor vehicles, textiles, chemicals, gems
& jewellery.
• Import from Italy: machinery, machine tools, metallurgical products, automobiles and
engineering items
• Joint Economic Commission
• ‘Indo-Italian High-Level Dialogue on Economical relations’
• Italy ranks 18th in FDI to India (2000-2020)

Political Relations:
• Political relations established in 1947 (after Independence)
• JLN paid first visit in 1953.
• Italy-India Parliamentary Friendship Association
• Political exchanges at G20, ISA, UNSC (NPM), CDRI
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Defence and other relations:

• INS Tabar conducted defence exercise in Italy
• India-EU Joint Naval Exercise
• India-Japan-Italy trilateral on strengthening Indo-Pacific Region
• Cultural Exchange Programme (students)
• institutions teach Hindi and Sanskrit to Italian students
• Celebration of International Yoga Day
• Indian community in Italy (estimated at 2.5 lakhs including PIOs)

Issues and Challenges in the bilateral relations:

1. Italian Marine case
2. 2015- Italy vetoed India on MTCR
3. Italy also blamed India for Human Rights Violations
4. Corruption case of Augusta Westland VVIP helicopters deals

Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) is a multilateral export control regime

• informal political understanding among 35 member states that seek to limit the
proliferation of missiles and missile technology.
• Formed: 1987 by G7
• It is not a treaty and does not impose any legally binding obligations on Partners
(members)
• India Joined in 2016

Way forward:
• Security challenges should be taken outside mainstream co-operation.
• New areas of cooperation could be looked into – Climate change, WTO reforms.
• Both the nations should tap the potential of FDI
• Both nations should engage more on G7, G20 platform.
• Cooperation in renewable energy could be game changer.
• Cooperation in the areas of expertise: Automobiles
• More transparent deals/agreements

2. UPSC Current Affairs: Child marriage in India| Pg 07

UPSC Syllabus: Mains: Social justice
Sub Theme: Child Marriage| UPSC

Context: SC has rejected a petition to increase the legal marriage age of women from 18 to
21 and argued that it is the responsibility of the Parliament to amend laws.

Child marriages:
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Child marriage refers to a marriage to which either of the contracting parties is a child (if a
male, has not completed 21 years of age, and if a female, has not completed 18 years of age).
In India, it is estimated that there are over 24 million child brides. According to the National
Family Health Survey, 40% of the World’s 60 million child marriages take place in India.

In India, child marriage reduced from 47.4% in 2005-06 to 26.8% in 2015-16, registering a
decline of 21% points during the decade. In the last 5 years, it declined by 3.5% points to
reach 23.3% in 2020-21, according to the latest National Family Health Survey-5 data. But,
23.3% is still a disturbingly high percentage in a country with a population of 141.2 crore.
Child marriage is far more prevalent amongst girls than boys and this highlighted the gender
dimension of the problem.

States with a large population of tribal poor have a higher prevalence of child
marriage. In Jharkhand, 32.2% of women in the age bracket 20-24 got married
before 18, according to NFHS-5; infant mortality stood at 37.9%, and 65.8% of
women in the 15-19 age bracket are anaemic. Assam too has a high prevalence of
child marriage (31.8% in 2019-20 from 30.8% in 2015-16). Some States have shown a
reduction in child marriages, like Madhya Pradesh (23.1% in 2020-21 from 32.4% in
2015-16), Rajasthan (25.4% from 35.4%) and Haryana.

Reasons:
• Poverty: Poor families resort to child marriages to avoid all sorts of burden of a
female child like expenditure on education, dowry etc.
• Patriarchy: Girl in our patriarchal(patrilocal) set up is believed to be somebody’s
property and are considered to be a liability as they are not seen as individuals who
can contribute productively to the family. These beliefs lead parents to marry the girl
child.
• Social mobility: The institution of marriage is often used to strengthen economic and
social ties between different families and a young girl may be offered to a family in
order to improve the financial and social standing of the girl’s family.
• Insecurity: To secure from offences like assaults, eve teasing against unmarried girls,
their parents are in a hurry to marry their daughters soon after she attains puberty or
even before that.
• Avoiding share in Ancestral Property: Early marriage is a way of denying share of
ancestral property to females.
• Dropout of school: Dropout of teenage girls from school due to lack of basic
amenities like toilets or for helping in the household work when both the parents go
out for work, is one of the reasons for early marriage of girls.
• Legal conundrum: Prohibition of child marriage act prohibits marriage of any
women before the age of 18 but Muslim personal law mentions puberty or age of 15
years as minimum age of marriage for women.

Consequences of Child marriages:

• Poverty:
Child marriage is linked to higher household poverty, and perpetuates the cycle of
poverty across generations. It is both a driver and consequence of poverty. Taking
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girls out of school as child brides takes away their access to education, and limits their
opportunity to earn an income.
• Hunger:
Children born to adolescent mothers have a greater possibility of seeing stunted
growth as they have low weight at birth. According to NFHS-5, prevalence of child
stunting is 35.5% in 2019-21.
• Gender inequality: The negative consequences of child marriages on Health,
education and employment abilities.

Government steps taken to eradicate child marriages:

• Legal:
• Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006
• Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012,
• Proposal of increasing the legal age of marriage for women
• Schemes:
• Beti bachao beti padhao (GOI)
• Kanya shree scheme of West Bengal

SDG 5– a target to end the harmful practice of child marriage by 2030.

3. UPSC Current Affairs: Types and solutions to sexual harassment at workplace| Pg 06

UPSC Syllabus: Mains: Society and social justice
Sub Theme: Vulnerable sections| UPSC

Context: The recent case of allegations of sexual harassment by some female sportspersons (wrestling) have
brought attention towards the safety, security and rights of the women at workplace. This article talks about
Slow progress in creating a safe workplace for women.
Background to Vishaka Guidelines
PIL was filed by Vishaka and other women groups against the State of Rajasthan and Union of India before the
Supreme Court. It proposed that sexual harassment be recognized as a violation of women`s fundamental
right to equality and that all workplaces/establishments/institutions be made accountable and responsible
to uphold these rights.
In a landmark judgment, Vishaka vs. State of Rajasthan (1997), the Supreme Court of India created legally
binding guidelines basing it on the right to equality and dignity accorded under the Indian Constitution as
well as by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).
Sexual harassment at Workplace
• The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013was
enacted to ensure safe working spaces for women and to build enabling work environments that respect
women’s right to equality of status and opportunity.
Who is an aggrieved woman?
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What is a Workplace?
• Any place visited by the employee arising out of or during the course of employment, including
transportation provided by the employer for undertaking such a journey.”
• It covers both the organised and un-organised sectors.

Definition of Sexual Harassment

• Unwelcome acts or behaviour whether directly or by implication
• Physical contact or advances.
• A demand or request for sexual favours.
• Making sexually coloured remarks.
• Showing pornography.
• Any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of a sexual nature

Obligation on the Employer

• The employer is obliged to create a workplace free of sexual harassment. It is the responsibility of the
Employer/District Officer in general to:
1. Create and communicate a detailed policy that
(1) prohibits unwelcome behaviour that constitutes workplace sexual harassment.
(2) champions prevention of workplace sexual harassment through orientation, awareness and
sensitization sessions; and
(3) provides a detailed framework for redress.
2. Ensure awareness and orientation on the issue.
3. Constitute Complaints Committee/s in every workplace and district so that every working woman is provided
with a mechanism for redress of her complaint(s).
4. Ensure Complaints Committees are trained in both skill and capacity.
5. Prepare an annual report and report to the respective state government.
6. District Officer will also appoint a nodal officer to receive complaints at the local level
Complaints Committees
1. Internal Complaints Committee
• All Complaints Committees must have 50 per cent representation of women.
• Term is 3 years

2. Local Complaints Committee

• District Officer will constitute an LCC in every district so as to enable women in the unorganized
sector or small establishments to work in an environment free of sexual harassment organisation having
less than 10 workers complaint is against the employer himself from domestic workers

Now as per the author of this article:

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• There are two forms of sexual harassment, namely direct and structural (i.e., indirect). While an
enabling environment for reporting direct violence has shown a gradual improvement, indirect violence
remains poorly addressed because it is embedded deep in our social and economic structures.
• Recent protest by the wrestlers show that in many cases internal complaints committee does not exist
and even if they exist, they do not function, or employees were not aware about it. Whatever the case
may be it is in complete contravention to the very objective of the Act itself.
• With more men at the workplace, they feel entitled and empowered to take undue advantage. Women
are not only in a minority but also occupy a few of the higher positions. When the number of women in
leadership positions are not enough to generate confidence in subordinates, women in lower positions
feel reluctant to air their grievances.

Repercussion:
• The absence of an enabling and safe working environment is one of the factors for the poor
participation of women in the labour force.
• Now The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) annual report available for 2020-21 shows that though
the participation of women in the total labour force grew, i.e., Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR)
has gradually increased from 17.5% in 2017-18 to 25.1% in 2020-21, and the Worker Population Ratio
(WPR) from 16.5% in 2017-18 to 24.2% in 2020-21, it is still much less when compared to men which
remains in the range of 70-75%.

Suggestions as per the Author:

• Start Early: The beginning has to be made at home. Unless the mindset of treating men and
women as equals is developed at an early stage of character formation during childhood, the
stereotyped power relation between the two would be difficult to change later.
• It is social conditioning and the environment of the family and early schooling
which matter the most during the growth of children. Unless both parents respect each other
and treat their girl and boy child on a par in all respects, they grow up learning this inequality as a
normal phenomenon, which may even lead to the development of criminal tendencies in men.
• Responsibility of the employer: Providing a safe work environment is
the responsibility of the employer. The employer needs to ensure that the working environment is
safe and women friendly.
• It is essential to fix goals to improve the workplace environment for women.
• The short-term goals may include providing the requisite women friendly infrastructure, the
constitution of internal complaint committees, and the spreading of awareness about the law and
procedure of grievance redress.
• Medium term goals may include the increase of female participation in the labour force,
improvement of tooth to tail ratio, and providing incentives to prevent dropouts such as paid
maternity leave.

To conclude In the long run, it is essential to address the deep rooted structural
and cultural violence which puts women in a disadvantageous position. Unless society as a
whole works incessantly to bring about the required changes in the existing sociocultural
and economic structures to eliminate indirect violence, root and branch, the status quo may not change.