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STATE OF THE WORLD POPULATION 2020 REPORT

2020 JUL 8

Mains   > Society   >   Role of women   >   Vulnerable & Backward sections

WHY IN NEWS:

  • Recently, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has released the State of the World Population 2020 report

THEME OF THE REPORT

  • The report is titled ‘Against my will: defying the practices that harm women and girls and undermine equality’.

KEY FINDINGS

  • It highlights at least 19 human rights violations against women
  • It focuses on the three most prevalent ones
    • Extreme bias against daughters, in favour of sons
    • Child marriage
    • Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)

EXTREME BIAS AGAINST DAUGHTERS, IN FAVOUR OF SONS:

What do you mean by ‘Missing women’?

These are women missing from the population at given dates due to the cumulative effect of postnatal and prenatal sex selection in the past. The phrase was coined by Amartya Sen.

  • An extreme and continuing preference for sons over daughters in some countries has fuelled gender-biased sex selection or extreme neglect which leads to girls’ death as children, resulting in ‘missing women’.
  • The report examines the issue of missing women by studying sex ratio imbalances at birth as a result of gender-biased sex selection as well as excess female mortality.
  • The number of ‘missing women’ has more than doubled over the past 50 years - from 6.1 crore in 1970 to a cumulative 14.2 crore in 2020.
  • One in three girls missing globally over the last 50 years, due to sex selection are from India, i.e. 4.6 crore out of the total 14.2 crore.
  • India (40%) along with China (50%) account for around 90% of the estimated 1.2 million girls lost annually to female foeticide.
  • India has the highest rate of excess female deaths at 13.5 per 1,000 female births
  • In India, 4.6 lakh girls were “missing” at birth each year from 2013 to 2017, as a result of sex selection that prefers a male child to a female child
  • Gender-biased sex selection accounts for about two-thirds of the total missing girls, and post-birth female mortality accounts for about one-third in India.

What is ‘Marriage squeeze’?

It happens when prospective grooms far outnumber prospective brides, which further results in human trafficking for marriage as well as child marriages.

  • These skewed numbers change the population proportions and result in ‘marriage squeeze’.
  • Studies suggest that the marriage squeeze will peak in India in 2055
  • Reasons for increasing number of ‘missing women’:
    • The advent of technology and increased access to ultrasound imaging allow parents to terminate a foetus after knowing its gender.
    • Due to this, the number of girls missing due to female foeticide exceeds those that are missing because of postnatal sex selection.
    • Trend towards smaller families reduces the chances of couple having a son. This is more common in countries with family planning policies aimed at a maximum family size of one or two children. About a quarter of all parents with two girls may resort to gender-biased sex selection to avoid the birth of a third girl.
  • Impact:
    • Son preference led to gross imbalances in the number of men and women, distorting the sex-ratio balance of countries’ populations, so that large numbers of men may be unable to find partners and have children.
    • The effects of sex-ratio imbalances can exacerbate problems of gender-based violence, including rape, coerced sex, sexual exploitation, trafficking and child marriage
    • In areas where preference for sons is most prevalent, young girls may be fed less, or given less favoured foods.
      • In some places girls are breastfed for shorter periods of time than their male counterpart
      • Poor nutrition led to poor immunity, and poor health and undermines the capacity of children to grow

 

FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION:

  • It involves the partial or total removal of external female genitalia or other injuries to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.
  • The practise has no health benefits for girls and women.
  • The procedure is mostly carried out on young girls between infancy and age 15
  • In the world over, an estimated 4.1 million girls will be subjected to female genital mutilation in 2020.
  • 200 million women and girls alive today are affected by FGM.
  • It is mainly prevalent in Africa, Middle East and Asia
  • WHO is opposed to all forms of FGM, and is opposed to health care providers performing FGM
  • Impact
    • FGM can cause severe bleeding and problems urinating, and later cysts, infections, as well as complications in childbirth and increased risk of newborn deaths.
    • FGM violates women’s and girl’s fundamental rights—to health, to bodily integrity, to be free from discrimination and cruel or degrading treatment.
    • It can result in severe physical and psychological harm that continues throughout a woman’s life.
  • Reason for FGM practices
  • The reasons why female genital mutilations are performed vary from one region to another as well as over time, and include a mix of sociocultural factors within families and communities.
  • The most commonly cited reasons are:
    • Religious support: Though no religious scripts prescribe the practice, practitioners often believe the practice has religious support.
    • Influence of local power structures: Local structures of power and authority, such as community leaders, religious leaders, circumcisers etc. contribute to upholding the practice.
    • Cultural revivalism: In most societies, where FGM is practised, it is considered a cultural tradition, which is often used as an argument for its continuation. Sometimes it has started as part of a wider religious or traditional revival movement.
    • Social norm: Where FGM is a social convention, the social pressure to conform to what others do and have been doing, as well as the need to be accepted socially and the fear of being rejected by the community, are strong motivations to perpetuate the practice.
    • FGM is grounded in misguided beliefs that it improves fertility, enhances sexual pleasure for men, leads to better hygiene, prevents infidelity etc.
    • FGM is often motivated by beliefs about what is considered acceptable sexual behaviour. It aims to ensure premarital virginity and marital fidelity. FGM is in many communities believed to reduce a woman's libido and therefore believed to help her resist extramarital sexual acts.
    • FGM is associated with cultural ideals of femininity and modesty, which include the notion that girls are clean and beautiful after removal of body parts that are considered unclean, unfeminine or male.

CHILD MARRIAGE:

  • Every day, around 33,000 girls under age 18 are forced into marriage, all around the world.
  • The report also showed that globally, 21% of women are married off under the age of 18, compared to 26.8% in India as per a 2015-’16 survey.
  • Report added that 32% of Indian women who had been married before the age of 18 had experienced physical abuse from their husbands, compared to 17% for those who married as adults
  • 650 million girls and women alive today were married as children
  • A positive side is that, child marriage in India fell from 47% in 2005-’06 to 26.8% in 2015-’16.
  • Reasons for high prevalence of child marriage in India:
    • Gender stereotyping and sex discrimination are the main reasons why girls, not boys, account for the majority of child marriages.
    • Longstanding patriarchal notions about a girl’s worth being linked to her virginity, ability to reproduce and ability to contribute domestic labour to the household mean that marriage is a way for men to control women and girls
    • Girls who are married early are very likely to perpetuate traditional gender roles, to hold stereotypical notions and to transmit these norms to their own children
    • In India, child marriage is directly linked to poverty, poor education and geographic location and the rural and urban divide.
    • Drivers of child marriage are poverty, insecurity and limited access to quality education and work opportunities.
    • Girl child are married off to a spouse to offload the burden of her family or secure the promise of her care.
    • Many parents believe early marriage will safeguard their daughters from sexual violence, allocating responsibility for their daughter’s safety to her husband and his family
    • A younger woman or a girl is perceived to be more valuable in that she has more years ahead of her for childbearing and domestic service.
    • Following the Child Rights Convention, India established a minimum age of consent to marriage at 18. Despite this, in most cases, parental consent can override any age-related minimum.
  • Impact of child marriage:
    • Beyond limiting a girl’s education and earning potential, child marriage undermines her ability to make autonomous choices about her own body and future.
    • Married girls have earlier pregnancies, more pregnancies, and less spacing between pregnancies. Pregnancy-related deaths are the leading cause of mortality for girls between 15 and 19 years of age.
    • The impact of child marriage is much pervasive as it perpetuates a cycle of poverty for her family and community.
    • It undercuts the development of a productive, skilled workforce, with a direct bearing on the health of an economy.

COVID-19 INDUCED CHALLENGES:

  • The economic disruptions and income-loss because of the Covid-19 pandemic are likely to increase violence against girls and women due to intensified unwantedness of daughters and gender discrimination.
  • The Covid-19 pandemic threatens to reverse the progress made in ending some harmful practices worldwide.
  • In India, Covid-19 has reduced access to contraception and abortion services, which is likely to lead to an increase in unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions.

WAY FORWARD:

  • Gender Mainstreaming Mechanisms:
    • Gender mainstreaming mechanisms aim at drafting, promoting, and monitoring laws and policies to ensure that gender equality issues are taken into account in national policies.
  • Empowering girls:
    • When girls are given the power to make an informed choice about marriage, they marry later. Laws are an important first step, but programmes are also needed to empower girls with information about their rights and educate parents about the benefits of keeping their daughters in school.
  • Education-related interventions
    • Education-related interventions such as provision of cash transfers conditional on school attendance or support to cover the costs of school fees, books, uniforms and supplies. (ex: ‘Apni Beti Apna Dhan’ in India.)
  • ‘Prohibition of female genital mutilation’ need to be a part of the:
    • ‘Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women’
    • ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’
  • Laws are not enough:
    • While enacting laws and establishing rights in constitutions are necessary steps, but they are far from sufficient to prevent and eliminate gender-based harmful practices. National laws prohibiting FGM, for example, exist in the majority of countries where the practice takes place, yet it continues (WHO, 2020).
  • Data dissemination:
    • Countries must be mandated under a treaty/protocol to collect, update and disseminate data on the incidence and prevalence of harmful practices
  • Rehabilitation:
    • Appropriate treatment and rehabilitation for girls and women who are the victims of harmful practices.
  • Sexual education:
    • Make comprehensive sexuality education and reproductive health services available to young people.
    • This not only empowers young people to prevent sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancies, it also communicates key messages about human rights, consent and maintaining respectful relationships.
  • Prohibition of certain social/religious practices that promotes women discrimination.
    • For example banning of menstrual banishment etc.
    • Because menstruation-related stigmas reinforce the notion that femaleness is a malady and that women are inferior to men
  • Improve political participation:
    • Investing in girls’ and women’s right to political participation is a necessary step to achieving global gender equality and democratic governance.
    • Enact Women Reservation Bill - which propose to amend the Constitution of India to reserve 33% of all seats in Lok Sabha, and in all state legislative assemblies for women.
  • Securing digital space:
    • Online violence against women is a growing concern, with younger women at particular risk
    • Enact necessary laws and regulations to prevent such violence
    • Digital spaces has great potential to accelerate the realization of women’s right
    • Facilitate the entry of girls into science and technology jobs that will position them to someday transform industries still heavily dominated by men.
    • In Kenya, for instance, five girls developed ‘i-Cut’ app to help survivors and potential victims of female genital mutilation seek medical and legal help. Coding boot camps and hackathons for girls provide opportunities to develop more solutions like these

CONCLUSION:

  • Gender equality is an agreed global goal under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which also explicitly calls for ending all forms of discrimination, violence and harmful practices against all women and girls everywhere.
  • Getting to zero harmful practices against women will require much faster progress and it demands a society-wide effort:
    • Public services must support the equal sharing of unpaid care and domestic work to shift gender discrimination in families
    • Economies must provide every woman with opportunities to build a decent life characterized by autonomy, dignity and choices.
    • Girls must be able to stay in high-quality schools, learn about their rights and choices, and speak freely about their wants and needs

PRACTICE QUESTION

Q. “Prevalence of child marriage in India is directly linked to poverty and poor education”. Critically analyse?