Current Affairs - Social Issue & Social Justice

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs and TB division of Ministry of Health and Family welfare organized a national conclave on 24th August at the National Tribal Research Institute (NTRI), New Delhi to disseminate the learnings of the 100-day Aashwasan Campaign under ‘Tribal TB Initiative’.

Tribal TB Initiative

• It is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Central TB Division, Ministry of Health, supported by USAID as technical partner and Piramal Swasthya as implementing partner.

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJ&E) is preparing to undertake a nationwide survey to enumerate all people engaged in hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks.

• The enumeration exercise is part of the Union government’s National Action Plan for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem (NAMASTE).

On 16th August 2022, the Union Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar virtually launched the Early Childhood Development Conclave, Paalan 1000 National Campaign, and Parenting App in Mumbai.

Paalan 1000 National Campaign

• ‘Paalan 1000 - Journey of the First 1000 Days’, focuses on the cognitive developments of children in the first 2 years of its life.

On 22nd April 2022, the Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment and Chairman of Dr. Ambedkar Foundation (DAF) launched the Dr. Ambedkar Centres of Excellence (DACE) Scheme from Banaras Hindu University.

The scheme will be implemented in 31 Central Universities across the country.

On 21st April 2022, NITI Aayog and UNICEF India signed a Statement of Intent (SoI) on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with a focus on children.

• The SoI seeks to formalize a framework of cooperation to launch the first report on the ‘State of India’s Children: Status and Trends in Multidimensional Child Development’.

On 7th March 2022, the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD), in partnership with the Ministry of Education and UNICEF, launched a landmark campaign ‘Kanya Shikhsa Pravesh Utsav’ to bring back out of school adolescent girls in India to the formal education and/or skilling system.

On 20th January 2022, the Supreme Court held that inherited property of a female Hindu dying issueless and intestate will either go to the heirs of her parents or husband.

• The court also said that such daughters would get preference over other collateral members of the family such as sons and daughters of brothers of the deceased father.

On 13th December, 2021, Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog and the Royal Embassy of Denmark to India announced the second edition of water innovation challenges to address the global water woes through innovations as part of the Indo-Danish Bilateral Green Strategic partnership.

According to a latest report by the Committee on the Empowerment of Women, there has been poor utilisation of funds in the implementation of scheme in many States.

• According to the report, almost 80 per cent of the funds for the scheme have been used for its advertising and not on sectoral interventions such as in health and education for women.

To improve leadership skills of grassroot women political leaders, the National Commission for Women (NCW) has launched a pan-India capacity building programme - ‘She is a Changemaker’ for women representatives at all levels, gram panchayats to parliament members and political workers including office bearers of National/State political parties.