DAILY QUESTIONS & MODEL ANSWERS
Q1. The state must look at how women genuinely experience reality in terms of unequal pay, being given poor labour, and being denied the right to their bodies and brains in order for them to be truly empowered. Analyse. (250 words)
Paper & Topic: GS I – Women Empowerment
Model Answer:
Introduction:
- Men and women will have equal pay in 257 years, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2020. India is placed 112th overall out of the 153 countries analysed for the report’s Global Gender Gap Index. Men and women experience a particularly wide and stark economic gap.
Body:
India’s gender disparity:
- The latest UNDP Human Development Report places India 125th out of 159 countries in the Gender Inequality Index, which evaluates gender difference (GII).
- Taking part in the labour force In India, just 23.3% of men and 79.1% of women over 15 are employed.
- According to study from India’s top diversity and inclusion consulting firm Avtar Group, women are paid 34% less than males for performing the same job with the same qualifications.
- Women are overrepresented in low-paying jobs and underrepresented in high leadership positions, indicating a lack of economic empowerment. According to an Oxford Research, only 19% of businesses worldwide have female top executives.
- Women have a harder time getting access to money and capital for farming, starting a business, or other development initiatives.
- Women often acquire less secondary education than males do, but in India, the gender gap is less than 80%.
- Stereotypes and societal norms: Classifying men as “bread winners” and women pursuing jobs as “career women” was reported by Oxford University Survey. It also emphasised the idea that women are thought to perform the majority of unpaid work.
What must be done to empower women and close the gender gap:
- Behavioral Nudge: For example, encouraging females and women to pursue careers in traditionally male-dominated industries like the military and computer technology, or using taxation to encourage fairly allocating child-care responsibilities. For instance, the Indian Supreme Court recently decided that women can now serve in Army command roles.
- Paternity leave allows men to share in the duties of parenting children.
- urging companies to hire women and reach the 50% goal.
- Strong legislation and policies surrounding maternity benefits and equal pay for equal work are necessary to enhance the participation of women in the economy.
- Maternity and Parenthood The Act was amended in 2017 to increase paid maternity leave from 12 to 26 weeks. Although having the best of intentions, this unfortunately reinforces the notion that women should shoulder the majority of the burden of providing care, which raises the possibility that they may be subject to the maternity penalty.
- There should be a clear legal requirement demanding paternity benefits in order to equalise gender roles and reduce employer bias.
- increased productivity Childcare facilities must exist and be improved for working women.
- The Maternity Benefit Act mandates that creche facilities be built for companies with more than 50 employees.
- A better course of action would be to provide women who need child care with a monthly stipend. Also, working mothers will gain from it.
- Democratic Representation India maintains a 33% reservation for women in Panchayats and Local Bodies. They could become even more capable with training and capacity growth.
Conclusion:
- Regardless of gender, everyone has the right to live with dignity and freedom under the principles of gender equality. Gender equality is necessary for both development and the reduction of poverty. Women’s potential shouldn’t be constrained by an absurd standard based on their gender.
Q2. How can India maintain its commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2070 while also pursuing its developmental goals? What modifications to its industrial policy are required in light of this? (250 words)
Paper & Topic: GS III – Environmental Conservation
Model Answer:
Introduction:
- Climate change is one of the major challenges of this century. Without a global effort to quickly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, average global temperatures are quite likely to exceed 2°C even with current rules in place. Notwithstanding the fact that many developing countries pledged to be net-zero at COP26 in Glasgow, they still face substantial developmental challenges in their attempts to advance in a world with climate limits.
- In Glasgow, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that his country would endeavour to attain net-zero emissions by 2070.
Body:
- India is currently confronting difficulties juggling its economic expansion and environmental aims.
- India’s national environment is dictated by rising young unemployment, with millions more people entering the workforce each year and a country in need of massive investments in physical infrastructure to industrialise and urbanise.
- Compared to the energy-intensive growth trajectories of the industrialised world and rapidly industrialising nations like China, India’s economic growth during the past three decades, which has been fueled by expansion in the services sector, has produced significantly fewer emissions.
- In the coming decades, India will need to convert to a growth model that is investment-led and manufacturing-intensive in order to help hundreds of millions more people transcend poverty.
- In India, 300 million more people are expected to join the labour force by the middle of the century. India must construct entirely new cities and infrastructure to support and connect a burgeoning urban population. Everything requires energy.
- In this regard, India’s target is to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070. With the massive effort of industrialization that is required, it may be challenging to meet the climate target.
India needs an industrialization plan:
- In order to steer its decentralised economic operations towards climate-friendly and resilient practises, India needs a comprehensive green industrialisation plan. This plan should incorporate new or updated implementing institutions, policy tools, and laws.
- Private investment: A market-steering policy would encourage patient private sector investments in the technology needed to industrialise while complying to climate limits rather than taking a hands-off approach.
- Promote individual green business ventures: India needs to support private green entrepreneurship and experimentation in clean energy technology, as opposed to being apathetic to it like we are today or suppressing it like we did during the License Raj era.
- Green transportation: There is a significant opportunity to use the technology needed to decarbonize the manufacturing and transportation sectors. Yet, India invests little in R&D for these innovative green technologies. The production-linked incentives (PLIs) offered by Aatmanirbhar Bharat are a good place to start when it comes to localising clean energy industrial operations.
- Quantum leap: It is crucial to align existing RD&D spending with the technology needed for green manufacturing in order to achieve quantum leaps.
Next actions and analysis:
- It should go without saying that India’s energy transition needs to have a clear development purpose and a focus on reaping the benefits of decarbonization in terms of the economy and employment.
- The government shouldn’t cave in to international pressure to decarbonize swiftly or delay making investments in decarbonization technologies out of concern that doing so will hurt its ability to remain competitive in a long-term basis in a global low-carbon economy.
- Instead, India might choose its own pace based on its ability to seize opportunities to increase its wealth through green manufacturing.
- In order to ensure that it can benefit economically from the transition, India should choose a path where it can negotiate carbon space to expand, buy time for the challenging industries, push back against counterproductive WTO trade litigations on decarbonization technologies, and invest in R&D for those technologies.
- In turn, India’s economy will grow more competitive in a world where climate change is a worry. India will also become a more responsible power.
