Author: shubhankaragarwal

I am a political science student from Delhi University who has a keen interest in writing.

Death penalty on sexual VIOLENCE in India…..

“Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars”. – Martin Luther King

This article is widely based on the ‘Death Penalty India Report (DPIR)’, which was released on 6 May 2016 and contains the findings of Death Penalty Research Project . The DPIR is divided in two volumes of which one contains the quantitative information regarding the prisoners sentenced to death, their nature of crimes, socio-economic backgrounds and of course their legal representation. The second contains the experience of prisoners in police custody, through the trial and appeal process, and impact on their families.

Let’s understand what is death penalty with the help of current examples:-

Death Penalty/Capital Punishment for sexual violence is a government sanctioned practice whereby a person is put to death if he/she is accused for sexual violence with a person and then killing him/her. The recent examples to show the case of death penalty are:-

1. The Priyanka Reddy Case of 2020, she was firstly ganged rape by four men and was burned to ashes. The police officials didn’t thought twice and encountered the covicts on the spot.

2. The Delhi Gang Rape Case of 2012, the victim was gang raped by six men, of one was a juvenile and 4/6 were hanged to death in February 2020 and remaining 2 committed suicide behind the bars.

3. In 2018, six men were convicted of abduction, confinement, rape and murder of an eight year old girl in the Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir.

4. Madhya Pradesh also has a problematic constitutional practice where prosecutors are being incentivised to get the death penalty- a prosecutor that get a death sentence in sexual violence case gets more points, and there are rewards for being the best prosecutor.

One of the main surprise is that of the state-wise data of using death penalty. Be it Jammu and Kashmir or Central India or the Northeast, there is a very little use of death penalty. The popularity of death penalty, is driven in this decade at least, by concerns of terrorism and sexual violence. With all countries having death penalty, the burden of which falls on the poorest and most marginalized sections of our society.

All political parties are complicit in developing this terrible, counter-productive narrative, and feeding this public frenzy that sexual violence is best handled by punishing people more harshly. It is really very easy to villianise four people or a hundred rapists instead of asking a more broader question of “what in our society produces sexual violence? “

The proportion of death sentences imposed for sexual offences has consistently increased from 18 per cent in 2016, to 60 per cent in 2020. Ignoring documented research on the issues, and pronouncing death sentences on offenders does little beyond satisfying the retributive instinct of the public. However, seeking quick fixes within a broken criminal justice system only enables the state to give an easy, but inadequate cop-out for the state as a response to violent crimes.

Therefore, to conclude it would be rightly said that without taking proper readings and documents and not seeing the cases of sexual violence with utter disgrace and just killing the convits is wrong.

Refrences/Sources for Data:-

Project 39A by NLU, Delhi.

How to stop wasting paper and save trees…….

At first, this might appear as a very common topic to write an article, but it is necessary to point out small small issues so that they don’t convert into major ones. To stop wasting paper and saving trees is the need of the hour because cutting trees is having an adverse reaction on the environment. Every year we see that heat is increasing at an increasing rate, and winter season which tends to starts from end of September, now starts much after, say mid November. These are all the changes we are doing by cutting trees, which results in global warming, which further results in climate change.

Causes of Wastage of Paper:- There is a term called ‘recycling’, which in some way or the other is replenished from our dictionaries. For example, it could be always noticed that after a child comes into a new grade, he/she needs a new set of books and notebooks. But, what about those notebooks which somehow remains untouched or some having pages left. We tend to give them to junk dealer for sure. The biggest cause of wastage of paper is that we don’t understand the value of it. If we know how much tress are cut to make papers, we’ll be shocked. Out of the 17 billion cubic feet of trees deforested each year, over 60℅ are used to make paper. This deforestation is responsible for nearly a fifth of world’s annual greenhouse gas emissions.

Cutting down paper waste along with all other waste is a major issue. We could recycle the unused notebooks by taking out those papers which remained unused and binding them, resulting into making new notebooks. We could also reuse the filled notebooks by making creative show pieces to decorate our home. There are so many DIY ideas we could do with used paper. Another important thing is to avoid using foil papers and tissue papers. These are just fancy ideas. When the sheets of aluminum are compressed to make foil paper, the smoke and gases which emits are of much greater poisonous reactions to environment.

Some Solutions to Save Trees and Stop Wasting Paper:-

1. Recycling of news papers and other papers to make decorative objects.

2. Go green, plant basic seeds from you kitchen to make a kitchen garden.

3. Don’t throw out kitchen waste, start home composting, adding kitchen waste, newspaper and some soil in aerated bin would give you ‘black gold’ for your plants.

4. Giving used books to those in need, try educating underprivileged children.

5. Switch to ‘Online News Reading’, this will not only cutdown newspaper waste but also you’ll be getting time to time news updates.

6. Use waste plastic boxes from home waste or kitchen to plant saplings and sowing seeds.

7. Planting a tree sapling on ocassions such as birthdays and anniversaries. Doing something good to nature on such special ocassions will make you feel more happy.

As businesses, we need to do more to be greener, but that doesn’t mean we should operate in the red. It’s a common misconception to assume that acting on environmental issues always costs money, even on a micro scale. By making small changes to a common issue – the costly, unmanaged reliance on paper – we can all help the environment without hurting our quarterly reports. Hence, by cutting down wastage of paper and following the above solutions we could easily get rid of the problem of paper wastage. Moreover, if we got rid of this problem automatically trees would be safe.

Refrences:-

http://www.capital-solutions.co.uk

Gun control laws: Should be increased or DECREASED…..

As a miasmic environment threatens to envelop, and ultimately, suffocate the world, bullets and bandages have never been more in demand. A myriad of mirrages have shrouded our eyes making us blind to the obvious. Whether gun control laws should be increased or decreased is one of the most pertinent question asked due to today’s scenario. People don’t think twice and hire mafias and rowdies just to make sure that no one intrude into their illegal businesses. They don’t have any idea of what collateral damage they are doing to the world.

Gun control laws in India:-

Countries like India have one of the most strictest gun control laws in the world. Getting a gun license in India is one of the difficult tasks which could take years. Now, in the most ambitious restructuring of arms rules in more than five decades, the government has made the laws even more tougher. Prospective gun owners will have to show they have been trained, and they must carry their firearms only in holders and secure them in a “knocked down” condition in gun lockers at home.

Well, above were the tactics when the gun owners follow the rules. But, now also there are many whose business is the smuggling of weapons and they are not frightened of the repercussions, whoever comes in their way is killed. These are the things which will not end . Whether more laws are made or not, if actions against these are not taken than collateral damage will proceed to a much greater extent.

Gun control laws in US:-

The Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA) , which regulates firearms at federal level, requires that citizens and legal residents must be at least 18 years of age to purchase shortguns or rifles and ammunition. All other firearms- handguns for example- can only be sold to people 21 and older. A 2014 study found that states that required licensing and inspections of gun dealers tended to have lower rates of gun homicides. Another study published the same year, analyzing panel data from all 50 states, found that stricter gun laws may modestly reduce gun deaths.

Gun control laws in Ice Land:-

Ice Land is one of the most gun loving counties in the Northern Atlantic. This country has no such strict gun laws and an amazing thing about this country is that no gun encounters or homicides have been reported from this country. Isn’t it an amazing factor that countries which have strict gun control laws reports maximum number of deaths due to gun encounters and homicides, and those with no such laws reports nothing as such.

Hence, this was the motive of this article to establish a difference amongst those countries with mild, strict and no gun control laws. Therefore, to conclude, there should be a strict action which has to be taken by the authorities instead of making laws, because nothing stops anyone from doing anything wrong. This has to be kept in mind that when damage is being done, and is not stopping, then it is going to increase no matter what.

Yes, people pull the trigger- but guns are the instrument of death. Gun control is necessary, and delay means more death and horror. – Eliot Spitzer undefined

Refrences:- nbcnews.com

the concept of gender roles : what we think and what it is…….

Although, we have known the word gender in grammar obviously, it is being used differently now. The word gender is now being used Sociologically, or as a conceptual category, and it has been given a specific meaning. In its new incarnation gender refers to the socio-cultural definition of man and woman and assign them social roles. It is used as an analytical tool to understand social realities with regard to women and men.

The nature of this article is not based on feminism but to define what people see in terms of gender roles. Today also it is taught in school textbooks of kids that a woman is meant to be a house maker or a teacher or a nurse and same as a man is meant to be a doctor or a business person. When these jobs are reversed, we fall into a huge whirlpool of thoughts, is it even possible. And we sometimes take these things to be wrong. But, this is not the way gender roles works.

Gender Division of Labour: Gender division of labour, refers to the different roles, responsibilities, and tasks to women and men based on societal ideas of what men and women should do and are capable of doing. Different tasks are assigned to girls and boys, women and men according to their sex-gender roles, and not necessarily according to their individual prefrences/ capabilities.

Gender division of labour also leads to hierarchies and inequalities because men and women’s labour is not valued or rewarded equally. Even now, equal pay for equal work is not the norm in most countries; housework is unpaid; and women are the first to be fired when recession hits the workplace. The gender division of labour is not the same everywhere. It is specific to culture, location, and time. To challenge the gender division of labour in society means challenging what being a “man” and “woman” in a society entail.

The situation may not always be intolerable; but it is impossible to predict that it will not become so. –Clavdia von Werlhof

The gender division of labour is responsible for statistics like : Globally women hold only 14 per cent senior management positions (UNDP Human Development Report, 1995) ; the ratio between women’s salaries and men’s salaries in US continues to be 3:5 and this has not changed in the last one hundred years. Seventy per cent of the world’s poorest and illiterate people are women.

This data exactly show that what we thought of gender roles and what they really are. These are how the tactics work in this world. It is said that, “Woman’s place in the house, therefore women should be in the both houses of Parliament “.

In the conclusion, there is a need to focus on the positions women are placed in the society. Because women gives birth to a child and feed the child, it does not mean that the work of women is to nurture only. To assess the position we need to look at the social relations of gender or power relations between men and women. To improve women’s position the existing norms, structure and power relations between men and women have to be changed.

Refrences:- 1. Understanding Gender by Kamla Bhasin 2. Lerner Greda, 1986, The Creation of Patriarchy. gender-inequality-in-higher-education

Lack of motivation during lockdown:let’s find ways to deal with it….

In the past few months, world has witnessed a wave of discontent with students expressing their lack of motivation in doing things and specially studies. One pertinent question here is the need for various motivational guidelines which are not hard to follow, and which can make our lives better in this lockdown.

The first and the best way to increase our motivational power is to avoid negativity. Do not let negativity overpower you. Moreover, in some cases this negativity is so high that one can be depressed due to it, so the best way to remove negativity is the “process of catharsis”, whatever negativity is bottled up in us could be removed by thinking why these thoughts came to our mind and finally talking it out with someone will surely take negativity miles away from us.

Second, creation of a support network is necessary to stay away from negativity. Whether it be friends, teachers, parents or relatives, our support network should be strong so that at times of negativity we could share our thoughts with someone to remove them. Same is the case with studies, we should talk about it to reliable people so that we could get motivation to give a kick start to our studies.

The best way to give a kick start to our day should be ” Get out of bed and out of pajamas”, the simple act of getting up is a good first victory of the day. By following this, we could concentrate on our studies more than before. We should always remember the concept of ” Don’t overschedule “, which means that if we add more and more tasks in our routine it becomes very difficult to perform even one or two tasks. Hence, we should stick to our routine always and forever. ” Congratulate yourself for every task or goal you complete, no matter how small”. By doing this we will not just feel motivated to perform more tasks, but also a feeling of accomplishment will overwhelms us.

These are some of the ways to keep intact our motivational power, if we follow these, we will not just feel good about us but also we will be able to perform our tasks in a more better way. Now, other things which will ensure you to follow a systemic way of studying is taking a proper diet, which will give you energy and to deal with yourself and others.

If you keeps away negativity you will be able to motivate yourself to study. Come up with a solid reason why you want to build better study habits, like getting better grades, doing well on tests, or having less stress around assignment deadlines. Create a routine you plan to follow every time you want to study, like going to a specific place at a specific time.

Hence, this is rightly said ” Push yourself because, no one else is going to do it for you”. Be high at motivation and you will do wonders. Be it be studies or any other task, you should always know that no one will understand you more than you yourselves.