Data/Statistics from National Crime Records Bureau

(GS-II: Governance/Social Justice)

In News:

NCRB has released its report on various crime statistics.

Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India 2021:

Suicide: 120 deaths per mn population (the highest level ever recorded)

At the national level, the number of suicides increased by 7.17 per cent from the years 2020 to 2021.

Daily wage earners remained the largest profession-wise group among suicide victims in 2021

The overall share of “Persons engaged in the farming sector” among the total recorded suicides stood at 6 per cent during 2021

Maximum suicide in Maharastra

Reasons: Mainly being Pandemic-induced mental health issues, Family Problems (other than marriage-related problems), Marriage Related Problems, and Illness.

Road Accidents:

Deaths in road accidents up by 17%

In 2021, 55 lakh people died in accidents on Indian roads, up from 1.33 lakh in 2020

Total road accidents reported was 03 lakh in 2021

A maximum number of cases were reported in Tamil Nadu.

Reasons: Speeding caused 87,000 deaths, accounting for over half of all deaths, while dangerous and careless driving caused over 42000 deaths.

Crime against Women:

The NCRB report also shows that the rate of crime against women (the number of incidents per 1 lakh population) increased from 5 per cent in 2020 to 64.5 per cent in 2021.

Categories of crime: (31.8 per cent) fall in the category of “Cruelty by husband or his relatives’’, followed by “Assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty” (20.8 per cent), kidnapping and abduction (17.6 per cent), and rape (7.4 per cent).

The report places Uttar Pradesh on top (56,083) in terms of the actual number of cases registered in 2021,

Nagaland stood out with the lowest number of crimes against women registered in the past three years

Only 507 cases were registered in the country under the Domestic Violence Act in 2021 — 0.1 per cent of the total cases of crime against women: Showing an under-reporting of cases.

Also, violent crimes in the country are back to the Pre-Covid level.

About NCRB:

In 1986 (based on recommendations of the Tandon Committee, MHA Taskforce and National Police Commission (1977))

It acts under the Ministry of Home Affairsand functions as a repository of information on crime and criminals so as to assist the investigators in linking crime to the perpetrators.

NCRB looks after CCTNS (Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems) and Central Finger Print Bureau

It released reports: Crimes in India, Prison Statistics in India and Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India.

PM Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY)

In News:

PMJDY (a central sector scheme under Ministry of Finance) has completed 8 years.

Achievements:

Increased financial inclusion: More than 46 Cr beneficiaries banked

Increased financial Penetration: More than 67% of PMJDY account in rural and semi-urban areas

Increased women empowerment: 56% account holders are women

Increased DBT: Benefits like scholarships, subsidies, pensions, and COVID relief funds are credited to the bank accounts.

About PMJDY:

PMJDY is National Mission for Financial Inclusion (launched 2014) to ensure access to financial services.

Objectives:

To ensure access of financial products & services at an affordable cost: Banking/ Savings & Deposit Accounts, Remittance, Credit, Insurance, Pension

Use of technology to lower cost & widen reach.

Banking the unbanked: account opening in camp mode, zero balance & zero charges.

Securing the unsecured – Debit cards for cash withdrawals & payments and free accident insurance coverage of Rs. 2 lakhs.

Funding the unfunded – micro-insurance/Credit, overdraft for consumption, and micro-pension.

Focus shift from Every Household to Every Unbanked Adult.

5G Network Infrastructure

In News:

Reliance Jio 5G will work on ‘standalone’ architecture.

What are the two different modes of 5G networks?

5G networks are deployed mainly on two modes: standalone and non-standalone. Both architectures have their advantages and disadvantages.

In the standalone mode, which Jio has chosen, the 5G network operates with dedicated equipment and runs parallel to the existing 4G network.

Advantages: The standalone mode provides access to full 5G capabilities and new network functionalities such as slicing that provides greater flexibility to operators to efficiently use their spectrum holdings.

Disadvantage: It is costly and will require software updates on existing smartphones to work.

Non-standalone mode, the 5G network is supported by the 4G core infrastructure.

Advantages: initial cost and the time taken to roll out services through this track is significantly less than standalone networks and can work on most smartphones.

Disadvantage: Operators eventually will have to go for Standalone mode as the traffic increases.

Advantages of 5G:

5G will allow for much faster Internet speeds and lower latency compared to 4G. Peak speeds could touch 10 Gbps, compared to the 100 Mbps for 4G. While 4G latency is 10-100 milliseconds, on 5G it is expected to be under 1 millisecond.

Patriarchal mindset of the legal system

(GS-II: Indian Judiciary)

In News:

Issue of prevailing patriarchy in Judiciary

Issues faced by women in Judiciary:

Lack of support: Women employees in the criminal justice system whether it be police/court or Prison often face discrimination, lack of gendered workspace and derogatory comments.

Low representation in judiciary: Justice Indira Banerjee, the senior-most woman judge in the Supreme Court, highlighted that the top court (since its inception in 1950) has seen only 11 women judges.

Prevalence of anarchic laws and customs: In Bradwell vs The State [of Illinois] (1872), the Supreme Court of the United States held that ‘god designed the sexes to occupy different spheres of action and that it belonged to men to make, apply, and execute laws — and regarded it as an axiomatic truth.

Need for sensitization

Raising awareness: Inclusion of feminist jurisprudence in the curriculum for law students and sensitization of legal practitioners and judicial officers about feminist jurisprudence.

Respecting individual choice: In a liberal democratic state, choice of dress is a ‘self-regarding act’ over which the individual is sovereign as J.S. Mill pointed out.

UN High Seas Treaty

In News:

Negotiations involving 168 countries, including the European Union, to agree on a UN treaty for protecting oceans had failed recently.

About UN High Seas Treaty:

Also referred to as the ‘Paris Agreement for the Ocean’, the treaty to deal with Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction has been under discussion for several years.

The proposed treaty concerns the ocean existing beyond the Exclusive Economic Zones that lie from the coast of a country to about 200 nautical miles or 370 km into the sea, till where it has special rights for exploration. Waters beyond that are known as open seas or high seas.

Background:

The treaty was to be negotiated under the UNCLOS of 1982 which governs the rights of countries regarding marine resources.

Need: Currently, there is no treaty for conserving the health of vast swathes of the earth’s oceans, a UN resolution in 2017 decided to rectify this while setting 2022 as the deadline.

Having no law has resulted in overexploitation of the High seas by countries: using large-scale drilling and trawling operations for catching fish and mining

High Ambition Coalition (consisting of more than 100 countries including India, the US, and the UK), came about (because of delay in the high sea treaty) and put the focus on ‘30×30’ goals – protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030.