Woman Rights in India

 

Every day in TV or in newspaper there is news bout molestation, ill treatment, suicide or rape of woman. Why it is so when in India we have plethora of legislation protecting the rights of woman and laws to safeguard them. Al this basically arises from two main reasons, the first being the ignorance about these rights among the woman in rural areas, who need them most and a fear of being victimized by the law agencies and relatives not to mention the time it takes to get justice coupled with the financial dependence on husband and family for support. The second is the exactly opposite of first one where in urban areas these laws are being misused by some to victimize, harass and even blackmail. The first can be addressed by suitable education, information, counseling enters, free legal aid societies and by gram panchayats while the second one needs proper legislation and safeguard so that these laws are not misused.

Woman rights can be classified under two broad headings, Constitutional rights and legal rights.

Constitutional Rights

1.       Right to equality. This right includes a host of related rights like no discrimination in employment of sex, to secure adequate means of livelihood, equal pay for equal work, securing just and human conditions of work, and maternity relief, etc.

Legal Rights

1.       Protection of woman from domestic violence act 2005.

2.       Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act 1956.

3.       Indecent representation of woman (Prohibition) Act 1986.

4.       Dowry Prohibition Act 1961.

5.       Maternity Benefit Act.

6.        Medical Termination of pregnancy Act.

7.       Pre conception and Pre Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of sex determination) Act.

8.       Equal Remuneration Act.

9.       Family Court act.

10.   Legal Services Authority Act.

11.   Hindu Marriage Act.

12.   Hindu Succession Act.

13.   Minimum wages Act.

14.   Sexual Harassment of Woman at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013.

Besides the above mentioned Acts both the Indian Penal Code as well as Criminal Procedure Code have certain provisions especially applicable to help woman, like dowry death, cruelty, rape, abduction and other offenses, arrest of woman by female police woman,  and obligation of men to maintain his wife. In addition they have a right against being stalked, right to file zero FIR, right to register virtual complaint, right to keep their dignity anonymous in case of sexual assault and a right to dignity and decency.

In case of a married woman there are some additional rights

1.       Right to matrimonial home, whether owned by husband or his parents.

2.       Right to report domestic violence

3.       Right to abortion.

4.       Right to divorce. Some additional grounds for divorce not applicable to husband.

5.       Right to seek maintenance and alimony.

6.       Right against dowry and harassment.

7.       Right to Streedhan.

8.       Right to claim child custody. If the child is below 5 years then mother have a superior right.

9.       As per court order every police station must have a lady police officer (Not below head constable) round the clock.

10.   A female cannot be arrested by a male police officer.

11.   A female cannot be arrested after sunset and before sunrise.

12.   Police can investigate a woman at her residence.

13.   A rape survivor can record her statement at a place of her choice and the medical procedure of a rape survivor is only to be conducted by a government hospital. All woman are entitled to avail free legal aid.

Noise Pollution

 

We are constantly bombarded day and night by the noise on the road, factories, etc. Constant honking on roads some even using pressure horns while other probably have on hand always on the horn button, noise for vehicle engines not to mention the motorcycles with silencers removed to announce their arrival. If this was not enough then we have the loud speakers from religious places, in rallies, marches and even the jagratas,  DJ’s in marriages, which keep you awake through night for a couple of days. All this leaves me to wonder whether god is listening or he has also gone deaf. This becomes unbearable when these things happen at the time of school, college or other examinations. All this is compounded by the industrial noise created by constant running of machines. Silent zones and no parking are there to be broken only.

In general a human being can tolerate noise level up to 85 db (Decibels) only and anything beyond it can affect productivity and quality of life. A decibel level of common sound above 80 is considered bad while above 100 to 120 are termed uncomfortable. Regular exposure to noise can come out in the form of people being irritable, nervous and face difficulty in taking decisions. A constant exposure of common sound above100 db may damage your ears and you may face difficulty in hearing.

There are 70 noise monitoring stations at present under National Ambient Noise Monitoring network in seven states. The ambient noise level in these states showed that about 90% of states found noise level beyond acceptable limit in both day and night.  This is a matter of serious concerns.

Street level noise is mainly associated with vehicular traffic and is hard to ignore and escape. The mean street level as per one study is about 74db with a range from 55 to 95 db and varies with the density of traffic.

Decibel (Db) is a relative unit of measurement corresponding to one tenth of Bel (b). It is used to express the ratio of the value to a power or field quantity to another on a logarithmic scale. The logarithmic quantity being called the power level or field level. Near silence is 0 db but a sound measured at 10 db is actually 10 times louder and 20 db is 100 times louder than silence, a 30 db is 100 times louder than 10 db. The noise in an average bedroom is about 20 db, a firearm averages between 140 to 165 db, normal conversation is about 60 db and a rock concert averages 120db.

The Government having realized the importance of noise pollution enacted a new set of rules especially dealing with noise pollution entitled Noise Pollution (Prevention and Control) rules 2000 which deals especially with noise pollution in addition to the Air (Pollution Prevention, Control & pollution)  Act 1981. These rules specify the limits of noise pollution in different areas like industrial, commercial and residential and specify the limit in db for each area for day and night separately and the punishment for violation.

In addition silent zones are specified by each state which includes all areas that lie with 100 meters of the premises of schools, colleges, hospitals and courts. The permissible limit in silence zone is 50 db at day and 40 db at night with restriction on use of horn. The limits for domestic appliances lice AC, mixer, air cooler and refrigerator is also specified. Daytime means 0660 hrs to 2200 hrs and night time means2200 hrs to 0600 hrs. Loud speakers and public address systems can be used after permission and not between 2200 hrs to 0600 hrs. In residential areas the limit is 55 db at daytime and 55 db at night time whereas for commercial areas it is 65 and 55 db respectively .Strict fines ranging from Rs.10,000/= to one lac with confiscation of instrument is specified which can be levied on the offender.

The district magistrate is the local authority to monitor, regulate and take action against the offenders which he fulfills with the help of police. A complaint to 112/100 or to the nearby police station is sufficient for the action.

 

Caring for Parents & Elderly

Did you know that you are legally bound to take care of your elderly?

 

1. The procedure is governed by the Maintenance of welfare of Parents and Senior Citizen Act 2007.

2. It is a legal obligation for children/legal heirs to provide for the maintenance of senior citizens.

3. Children/legal heirs are obligated to take care of the elderly parents in such a way that they can lead a normal life.

4. Any person who is in possession or stands to inherit senior citizen’s property and has sufficient mean is liable to look after and additionally senior citizens provide for senior citizen.

5. Maintenance includes provision for food, clothing, residence, medical attendance and treatment. Parents mean father or mother, whether biological, adoptive, or stepfather or stepmother as the case may be whether or not father or mother is a senior citizen.

6. If a senior citizen is not able to look after himself/herself he/she can apply to the state tribunal requesting for a monthly allowance from their children/heirs.

7. Grandparents both parental as well as maternal grandparents are also included.

8. The application for maintenance must be filed before the maintenance tribunal in any district where:-

(a) Parents, grandparents or senior citizen resides.

(b) Parents, Grandparents or senior citizen last resided.

(c) The person against whom maintenance is claimed resides.

9. In addition senior citizen can file an application before maintenance tribunal to declare the transfer of property void with certain conditions.

10. No legal practitioner is permitted to represent but district social welfare officer can represent the parents if they so desire. Civil courts will have no jurisdiction in respect of any matter to which this act applies.

11. Punishment for not paying the monthly allowance could be a fine of Rs.5000/= or imprisonment up to three months pr both.

 

NOISE POLLUTION-A HEALTH HAZARD

 

NOISE POLLUTION-A HEALTH HAZARD

 

Allahabad High Court in a recent Judgement in 2019 has come very strongly on the district administration and noise pollution generators for violation of rules 2000 framed under the Air pollution Act by the central as well as state Govt.

The directions issued by the court which are to treated as rules are:-

1. Permission of the use of loud speaker even in religious places is to obtained from the DM.

2.Competent authority in each district to be set up and a tribunal also to deal with the complaints. Name and telephone number of authority to be made public.

3.A toll free number to be provided to citizens to make complaints . Complaints can also be made on 100 to police .Police to investigate it immediately and take action.

4. Facility to be made to send complaint by SMS, E mail. or Whatsapp, orally or in writing.

5. All places of worship of all religion shall come under these rules 2000.Any violation will be treated as violation of fundamental rights.

6.Name and identity of the complainant shall be kept secret and not disclosed to violator or to any other person. Even anonymous complaints are to be entertained.

7. Permission of DM is required for the use of loud speakers in any function.

8. No permission for use of DJ to be granted in any function for the reason that the noise generated by DJ is of unpleasant and obnoxious level..

9.Non compliance will include a jail term up to five years in jail and a fine up to Rs.one lac.

For the information of all residents of UP.

Animal Rights

 I never thought in my wildest imagination that i may have to write a post about rights of Animals. My concern is only that the residents should not break laws and face punishment. They should be aware of their legal rights and how to enforce them in a legal manner only. I am enumerating some rights of animal’s with relevant act and rules for information to all. India has some of the finest provisions to safeguard animals.
1. It is the fundamental duty of all citizens to have compassion for all living creatures. Article 51(A) .
2. To main, injure or kill an animal including stray animal is a punishable offence under IPC section 428 & 429.
3. It is illegal to capture or relocate stray animals that have been operated for birth control. ABC rules 2001.
4. It is illegal to relocate any dog that has been sprayed. No dog can be sterilized unless he is at least four months old. ABC (Animal Birth Control) rules 2001.
4. The local authority can capture dog and sterilize them but will have to release them from where they were captured. ABC rules 2001.
5. Capturing, trapping, poisoning or baiting of any animal is punishable by law. Section 9 of wildlife protection act 1972.
6. Neglecting any animal by denying him sufficient food, water, shelter and exercise or by keeping him chained/confined for long duration is punishable under section 11 of PCA Act 1960.
7. Conveying or carrying of animals in or upon any vehicle in any manner or position which causes discomfort , pain or suffering is punishable under section 11 of PCA act 1960 and motor vehicle act..
8. Abandoning any animal for any reason is punishable under section 11 of PCA Act.
9. Feeding of dogs is permitted in a secluded and marked place away from residential areas by dog feeders that have valid I card from the Animal Welfare Board. Rules and guidelines of Animal Welfare Board & high court judgement.
10. Animal Welfare Board has issued rules and guidelines to the police to enforce these rules.
11. Dogs do not like smell of vinegar therefore to keep them away from your area one can spray vinegar on grass and ground.

Right of woman

 

On woman's Day Dedicated to the most important woman in my life who not only changed me but also changed my outlook to life.

 

Rights of a Woman

 

1. Streedhan. This includes all movable or immovable assets or gift before, during or after the marriage. She has absolute right over it.

2. Maintenance. By husband if she is not able to support her financially.

3. Child Maintenance. Is to be provided by husband for support of kids and even marriage of daughter.

4. Residence. To stay in the matrimonial house. It can be a one acquired by husband, belongs to parents, an ancestral house, joint family or rented provided by employer.

5. Committed Relationship. If the husband is living with another woman without divorce or has committed adultery then an FIR under section 497 IPC.

6. Dignity and Respect. Entitled to same standard of lifestyle and comfort as her husband. No physical or mental torture.

7. Parent’s Property. Right to a share in the property of her parents.

8. Domestic Violence. Right to file FIR against domestic violence.

9. Dowry Harassment. Right to file FIR against dowry harassment.

10. Divorce. A woman has four more ground to file for divorce than her spouse.

Chidren Born abroad and Citzeship Act

Pl read this long post as some of the residents may have children and grandchildren abroad and the story may be similar. My apologies for the long post

"I would like to share a painful story of the son and daughter in law and two small children of my friend with you who asked me for advice and help in their personnel matter. It was sad and painful for me to tell them I cannot help at present at all as entry of foreign citizens is banned in India due to corona virus. My friend’s son, Daughter in law and two children are in USA. Both children aged 6 years and 2 year were born in America and both Indian parents were working there. Now due to changes in the rules made by USA government they have to leave the country within 60 days and notice already served to them. They went to airport to board a Vande Bharat fight to India. They got tickets and were told that they could board the flight but not their children as they were not Indian citizen but American citizen. They had to go to a hotel to stay. They have only 40 or more days in America.

I asked them only one questions only as the children were born after 3 Dec 2004 that did they register their children after their birth within a year at the Indian Embassy or not? Sadly their reply was no and added that they did not know. Here lies the problem. Section 4(2) of the Citizenship act 1955 states that:-

“A person born outside India on or after 3rd December, 2004 shall not be a citizen of India, unless the parents declare that the minor does not hold passport of another country and his birth is registered at an Indian consulate within one year of the date of birth or with the permission of the Central Government, after the expiry of the said period.”

This means the all children who are born to Indian parents in America or any other country are not Indian Citizens unless the registration procedure was followed. Probably the parents were scared that if they register then their children will lose American citizenship which is automatic since they were born in America and they did not want that to happen. They were unaware of the fact that the child born in other countries gets the citizenship of that country because of his birth there provided the country act permits it like USA and the registration of birth with the Indian Consulate does not bar this citizenship but on attaining the age of 18 years (After becoming adult) the child needs to intimate the consulate his desire as to which citizenship he wishes to retain as Indian Act does not permit dual citizenship. The painful outcome may be, in the worst case scenario, that if the parents deported after 60 days as illegal residents then the children will be transferred to child care home or foster parents. They also said that there are many more people like then stranded. The Embassy has also regretted that they cannot help due to instructions from Indian government banning the entry of foreign national in India.

I could offer them sympathy only and the only advice I could give was that to ask the Indian groups in America to pressure the embassy to take up such cases to the Indian government for relaxation on urgent basis or send a mail to foreign minister in India for help in this matter. More than that the option of court is not suitable as they will have to come to India or the last option was that to somehow manage to stay in America till this restriction is lifted and then come to India and do necessary. paperwork here. "

The birth and death registration act also gives some reprieve to the parents in terms of sixty days period for the registration of birth of their children born in other countries provided they are returning permanently back to India under Registration of Birth and Death Act 1969 under section 20 of the act.. 

 

Serendipity & Pareto's Principle

 

Yesterday while out for a morning walk I suddenly remembered that  the last five months I have passed with just three pairs of clothing. Of course this had to do with the corona pandemic and my being a senior citizen above 70 years of age. When I started looking back I realized that during the last two years I have only used about 20 to 25% of the clothes available in my wardrobe and the rest were just lying unused. Out of three suits which I own I have not used two of them for the last five years and the one used was once about 2 years back only. After coming back I decided to go through my other things and found the same to be true for my mobile phone, remote for TV, other electronic goods and even my shoes. My better half also quipped in by saying that a vast majority of things available in the kitchen have hardly been used and she does not remember when she used them last.

After pondering over all this it suddenly dawned on me that subconsciously I have reaffirmed two concepts widely known as concept of serendipity and the Pareto’s 80/20 principle. One may ask as to what is the relation between these two concepts. The relationship between the two lies in the fact as to how the Pareto’s principle was discovered using the concept of serendipity.

The concept of serendipity was created by British nobleman in 1700 from an ancient Persian fairy tale. It refers to the fact of finding interesting things by chance or when you are not thinking about it. It can be called an unplanned fortunate discovery. It is common occurrence throughout the history of product invention and scientific discovery. Some typical examples are Velcro the magic fastener, corn flakes, radium, laws of gravitation and so on, the examples are numerous and endless.

The Pareto’s 80/20 principle was visualized in 1848 by the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto when he noticed that in his kitchen garden that   20% of pea plants generated 80% of healthy pea pods. Further investigation revealed that in Italy 80% of the land was owned by just 20% of the population. He investigated different industries and realized that 80% of the production comes from just 20% of the companies. The generalization thus became what is known as Pareto’s 80/20 principle.-

“80% of the results will come from just 20%of the action.”.

This came to be known later as Pareto’s famous 80/20 principle which is now very widely applied to a wide variety of situations whether it is business, production, sales, and government department and for that matter any given situation. It is just a concept and not a mathematical certainty hence 80/20 are not exact values but just approximations to express a concept that suggests that 20% of your actions will account for 80% of your results. It also suggests that 2 out of 10 persons in any organizations will turn out to be more productive than the rest 8 persons put together.

Virtues of Being Lazy

A small true life episode which goes to show that a professor can not stop questioning and testing.

" Both of us were invite for a lunch to a relatives house a couple of years back who was a professor and HOD in a central University. Both his sons in law (SIL) were present along with their spouses and grand children. All the SIL are very intelligent and very successful in their respective field and also the grandchildren. I was the only one who neither shared their lofty achievements and nor belonged to their subject so one can imagine my plight in such an environment where all the talk was just Greek and Latin to me. Maybe I was invited because of my wife. On top of it the elderly gentleman maybe in order to include me in the discussion or whatever turned to me and asked a question. One knows very well when a professor asks a question then it can not be to get some knowledge but only to test the knowledge of the guinea pig that was unfortunately me. The question to me was:-

" RK, What is the difference between laziness and letharginess according to you."

I just looked into his eyes and said-

" Laziness is a virtue whereas letharginess is a disease"

He looked at me for about 30 second, smiled and then there were no further questions to my relief and I was left alone to enjoy my lunch. Thankfully. The only positive point was that after that he gave me the respect which I deserved and listened to me when I talked. A very big achievement.

 

In Defence of Being Simple.

 

While looking at my TV remote I realized that out of all the functions provided there I have not used about 80% of the functions and also cannot recall as to the function of at least 70% of the buttons provided. Feeling intrigued I checked my mobile phone and again was shocked to learn that I have not used about 90% of the apps pre installed on my phone, but they were there occupying space, memory and making it difficult for me to reach the app I wanted to use. The same was for microwave convection oven, where my wife told me that she has used only three of maximum four functions provided there, but we had spent money to purchase one with lot of function without realizing that we are not going to use most of them. Probably we suffered from confirmation bias.

Research shows that 95% of people do not use 90% of the features on their remote and mobile phones. Instructions for machines, computers, etc, are always written by those who know the system and are not much help to those who do not. I am sure that you have never seen sign on road which says this is not the road to bus stand or railway station. We had 127 laws in our country which govern a business and majority of us cannot list out more than 4 to 5 laws which govern a citizen of this country. Politician often quote Constitution at the drop of their hats but probably cannot even list out the fundamental rights and duties of a citizen which so apply to them.

Life has become so complicated that it is impossible for anyone to remember and follow and to make prudent decisions from the mass of information available. Probably what we will need in future is a skill for knowledge management.

From this complexity comes stress, anxiety, frustration. One of the most annoying things I find is while dealing with machinery (electronic or otherwise), which will not function and do the job for which it was created. I have always thought as to why we make things complicated which end up waste of time, energy, effort and mental agony and there appears to be no justification to make them complex when they can be me simpler. But probably adding things is much simpler than thinking and cutting out the clutter to make it simple. It is like finding a needle in haystack. There is always a possibility that things could be made simpler and things could be done in a simpler way provided we make an effort towards it.

Things do not become simple or by their own or by chance you have to have the drive and passion to making slight changes make things simple. When I tell people that I am the laziest person in this world they laugh at me because they do not understand that by being lazy I always try to do it in a way by which I can do things easily, with less effort, less energy, less time and with less money. This in my opinion there is virtue of being lazy but again one has to make serious effort to become lazy. One cannot make a thing simpler unless one knows the subject very well and here lies a catch. In my opinion an expert is one who has made things simpler by understanding the subject very well and can explain to a person in simple as to what it means or applies by understanding as to what to pay attention to and what to ignore. Left to their own things will automatically become complex or people tend to make them complex in order to show their superior knowledge or understanding. Simplicity does not mean that one has to carry out big changes or fundamental changes but majority of times simplicity can be achieved by simply making slight adjustment in very small things or thinking or way of doing things or perhaps some planning..