03 May 2023

DAILY QUESTIONS & MODEL ANSWERS

Q1. Define “neo-patriarchy” and discuss its effects on Indian culture using relevant instances in order to demonstrate how male dominance over “new and modern women” is accomplished through this revolutionary system. (250 Words)

Paper & Topic: GS I – Women Empowerment

Model Answer:

Introduction:

• Neopatriarchy is a new form of power and control that is guided by women but supervised by men in the family, and it is a complex and mystifying institution of power and control in society. For example, nine out of ten Indians agree with the idea that a wife must always obey her husband. Indian women were only marginally less likely than Indian men to agree.

Body:

Indian patriarchy today:

• Women in politics: According to a Pew Research Center study, Indians accept women in politics but generally prefer conventional gender roles in the home.
• Traditional standards still retained sway, with 34% of respondents believing that child care “should be handled primarily by women”. Even today, the majority of the burden of child care is carried by women, who even quit their jobs to become full-time mothers.
• Pay and employment: In a similar vein, while a “slim majority (54%) says that both men and women” should be responsible for generating money, as many as 43% thought that males should primarily be held responsible for doing so.
• Additionally, 80% of Indians agreed that men should have greater access to jobs than women when there are few open positions.
• This explains why women in India participate in the labor force at a very low rate (21% vs. the global median of 53%).
• Although sons and daughters were valued equally in India, nearly 94% of respondents said it was very important for a family to have at least one son, compared to 90% for daughters.

Now is the time for:

• Behavioral Nudge: For instance, by encouraging women and girls to enter traditionally male-dominated fields like the armed forces and information technology. For instance, the Supreme Court of India recently ruled that women can now hold commanding positions in the Army.
• Men can partake in the responsibilities of raising children through paternity leave.
• encouraging businesses to hire women and hit the 50% target.

Workplace Gender Justice:

• closing the pay gap for similar work.
• India has passed the Sexual Harassment at Workplaces Act in an effort to make workplaces safer.
• Encourage all staff to take anti-bias and diversity training.
• Women can flourish in their industries by receiving comprehensive leadership training.
• Gender sensitization: Dismantling societal barriers through gender education and sensitization in homes, schools, and workplaces. For instance, gender roles, bias, and prejudice-instigating literature were deleted from the NCERT books.

Financial literacies and social security:

• Social security benefits should be given to women in the unorganized sector up until formalization of work is encouraged, as in the case of India’s Self Help Group-Bank Linkage Programme.
• A good place to start could be to incorporate financial literacy into programs where women are prominently represented.
• To increase the participation of women in the economy, strong legislation and policies regarding maternity benefits and equal pay for equal work are required.
• Political Representation: India has a 33% reservation for women in the Panchayats and Local Bodies, but training and capacity building can make them even more effective.

Conclusion:

• Gender shouldn’t be an irrational determining factor limiting the potential of women. Gender equality is a human right that ensures all humans, regardless of their gender, have the opportunity to live in dignity and in freedom. Gender equality is also a prerequisite for development and the reduction of poverty.

Q2. Do you think that the growing problem of anti-microbial resistance in India requires immediate attention? (250 Words)

Paper & Topic: GS II – Health-related issues

Model Answer:

Introduction:

• Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), also known as drug resistance, is a condition in which microorganisms, such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites, change in such a way that they are no longer susceptible to the antibiotics, antifungals, antivirals, antimalarials, and anthelmintics used to treat the infections they cause.

Body:

Antimicrobial resistance is an increasing plague in India:

• Concerns about people with Covid-19 using antibiotics improperly have been voiced ever since the outbreak hit.
• It is feared that prescribing antimicrobials unnecessarily will worsen the already high levels of antibiotic resistance in the majority of the world.
• As antibiotics become less effective, the emergence and spread of resistance is made worse by the procurement of antibiotics for animal and human consumption without a doctor’s supervision or a prescription, etc. A growing list of infections, including pneumonia, tuberculosis, blood poisoning, gonorrhea, and foodborne diseases, are becoming harder, and in some cases impossible, to treat.
• Fluoroquinolone, cephalosporin, and carbapenem resistance is widespread among Gram-negative bacteria in India, which account for over 70% of infections in hospitals and communities.
• Healthcare funding is minimal while the burden of infectious diseases (bacterial infections) is high.
• Antimicrobial resistance is a problem, and the National Health Policy of 2017 demands for proactive action to address it.
• One of the top 10 objectives for the ministry’s collaborative work with WHO was AMR, according to the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW).

AMR’s reasons for spreading include:

Humans who consume antibiotics:

• The rise of bacterial strains that are resistant to several antibiotics could result from the unnecessary and careless usage of antibiotic fixed dosage combinations.
• social influences
• Self-medication.
• antibiotics are available without a prescription.
• ignorance of the proper times to use antibiotics.

Cultural pursuits:

• River bathing by large groups of people at religious festivals.
• Consumption of antibiotics by food animals.
• Commonly used for human health, antibiotics are used to promote poultry growth.

Pollution in the Pharmaceutical Industry:

• A significant number of antibiotics are present in the wastewater effluents from the antibiotic production facilities, which contaminates rivers and lakes.

Sanitation of the environment:

• Untreated sewage disposal causes waterways to become contaminated with antibiotic residues and bacteria resistant to antibiotics.

Practices for Infection Control in Healthcare Facilities:

• Only 31.8% of nurses and doctors were found to wash their hands after coming into contact with patients, according to a report on their hand-washing habits.

Actions in India:

• AMR Surveillance Network has been strengthened by the establishment of labs in State Medical College as part of a national initiative on AMR containment that was begun during the 12th FYP in 2012–17. This network currently includes 30 sites across 24 states and will do so through the end of March 2021.
• The 2017 introduction of the National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (NAP-AMR), which focuses on a One Health strategy, aimed to involve numerous stakeholder ministries/departments.
• The ministers of the relevant ministries signed the Delhi Declaration on AMR, pledging their assistance for the containment of the disease.
• In order to gather data and track trends and patterns of drug-resistant illnesses across the nation, ICMR developed the AMR surveillance and research network (AMRSN) in 2013. This network consists of 30 tertiary care facilities, both private and public.
• The Chennai Declaration, a series of national recommendations to encourage antibiotic stewardship, was adopted by India’s medical organisations in 2012.
• To prevent the selling of antibiotics over-the-counter, India’s Red Line campaign asks that prescription-only medications be marked with a red line.
• In programs for tuberculosis, AIDS, vector-borne infections, and other disorders, India has implemented surveillance of the development of treatment resistance in disease-causing bacteria.
• To control the sale of antimicrobials in the nation, a distinct Schedule H-1 has been included into the Drug and Cosmetic laws since March 2014.
• Antibiotics and a number of other pharmacologically active compounds have been outlawed in fisheries by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
• The maximum doses of medicines that can be used to promote growth in meat and meat products have also been set by the government.
• In order to determine the readiness of Indian Veterinary laboratories to take part in an integrated AMR surveillance network, ICMR and the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) have launched a project called “Integrated One Health Surveillance Network for Antimicrobial Resistance”.
• Additionally, the ICMR has developed veterinary standard operating procedures (Vet-SOPs) to make it possible to compare the antimicrobial resistance patterns of humans and animals.

Moving ahead:

• To reduce the amount of active antibiotics released in pharmaceutical waste, India proposed laws.
• Infection-control strategies can lower antibiotic usage in addition to the development of novel antimicrobials.
• Making sure that everyone who requires an antibiotic has access to it is crucial.
• Livestock, wastewater, and agriculture run-offs must all be included in surveillance efforts to find these microorganisms in order to monitor the spread of resistance.
• To continuously identify and attack new resistant strains, we require continued funding and international cooperation.
• Both the formulation and execution of policy must be aligned and coordinated internationally.
• Clinical medicine solutions must be combined with better AMR surveillance in agriculture, animal health, and the environment.

Conclusion:

• Reducing the incidence of infection through efficient infection prevention and control, as stated by WHO, and making infection prevention and hand hygiene a national policy priority are urgently needed to combat antimicrobial resistance, one of the major public health problems that is endangering the security of global health.