Daily Current Affairs

Hijab Issue & Iranian womens freedom (GS Paper 2, International Relation)

Context:

• The death of MahsaAmini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, has once again catapulted Iran’s conservative rules on dress code under global scrutiny.
• Some women posted clips of themselves chopping off their hair and burning their hijabs on social media to express their anger and protest the government.

 

What was the case?

• Amini was detained by the morality police in Tehran for not wearing the hijab (Islamic headscarf) properly, which is compulsory for Iranian women. She slipped into a coma and died while in police custody.
• While the police have claimed she died of a heart attack, her family has alleged Aminiwas beaten up during her detention.
• Amini’s death has witnessed Iran explode with anger with demonstrators demanding a probe into the case and the dismantling of the morality police.

 

Dress code before 1979 Islamic Revolution:

• Before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the hijab was still prevalent in Iran.
• Before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, women in the country enjoyed similar rights to their male counterparts.
• However, women could wear Western-style clothes including tight-fitting jeans, dresses, miniskirts and short-sleeved tops in public.
• Afterwards, men were no longer seen in hair salons for women, a common sight during the monarchy.Women were also forced to cover their hair as soon as they step out.

 

Dress code post 1979 Islamic Revolution:

• The hijab was made mandatory for Iranian women in the early 1980s. The morality police is in charge of enforcing the dress code and other restrictions.
• The force has come under fire several times for its harsh treatment of young women.Women are also mandated to wear a coat to cover the body when out in public.
• Those who do not adhere to the dress code can be subjected to two months in prison, fined up to 500,000 rials and up to 74 lashes.
• As per a 2019 US state department report, women activists who have opposed the strict hijab law have been sentenced to harsh punishments by the courts.
• Among such cases was one of human rights attorney NasrinSotoudeh — sentenced to 38 years in prison and 148 lashes in 2018 for extending legal defence services to women prosecuted for not wearing hijab.

 

Marriage age:

• The marriage age for girls was first reduced from 18 to 13 (in 1979) and then further to nine (in 1982).

 

Travel:

• Married women cannot leave the country or even obtain a passport without their husband’s written permission, while single females need their father’s approval.
•  A man has the choice of where his family lives and can forbid his wife from taking certain jobs if he considers them against “family values”.

 

Family Protection Law:

• As Supreme Leader Khomeini came to power, the Family Protection Law was suspended, which greatly affected women’s rights.
• Men could now easily divorce their wives by a verbal utterance, while women have to approach courts to get a divorce.
• In 2002, the parliament amended the law to let a woman file for divorce if her husband was imprisoned, mentally ill, physically abusive or an addict.
• Moreover, polygamy is permitted for men. An Iranian man can marry up to four women while a woman can have one husband.

 

Child custody:

• A woman has custody right over children under seven.
• For offspring above seven, the court will decide which parent will be granted custody of the child.
• If a divorced woman remarries, she will lose custody even if her husband is deceased.
• When Family Protection Law was in force, men did not automatically gain custody of the children.

 

Sporting events:

• Sports is another arena that has seen a drastic change since the 1979 revolution.
• Women would often frequent stadiums.
• Even though there is no official ban on women, they are often refused entry where men are playing.
• Women officially attended a domestic league football match at Azadi Stadium in Tehran in August 2022. The women attended the match between home side Estaqlal and rivals Mes-e-Kerman at the Azadi Stadium in Tehran.
• Before this, in 2019, Iranian women were allowed to watch the AFC Champions League final between Persepolis and Japan's Kawashima Antlers in Tehran.

 

West Pakistani Refugees and their voting rights in J&K

(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)

Why in news?

• For the first time in the history of Jammu and Kashmir, West Pakistani Refugees will be able to vote in the upcoming assembly elections, a right they have never exercised.
• The move comes more than three years after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019, which scrapped J&K’s special status and converted the state into a Union Territory.

 

Details:

• Under a special summary revision of the electoral rolls ordered by the Election Commission of India, camps are being set up to register West Pakistani Refugees as voters.
• According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, there are 5,746 families of West Pakistani Refugees in the Union Territory, most of whom live in the three districts of Kathua, Samba and Jammu. However, community leaders claim the number of families has gone up to 20,000.
• Booth-level officers have been trained to verify the credentials of these first-time voters for the assembly polls.
• The inclusion of West Pakistani Refugees voters paves the way for assembly elections to be held in the Union Territory. The former state has been without an elected government since June 2018.

Who are the West Pakistani Refugees?

• West Pakistan Refugees are members of the Hindu and Sikh communities who migrated from Sialkot in Pakistan’s West Punjab after the Partition of 1947.
• Some of these refugees settled in other parts of the country and got Constitutional rights.
• However, West Pakistani Refugees who came to J&K were denied civil and political rights because non-state subjects, including the refugees, were ineligible to become permanent residents of J&K.

 

Citizenship rights:

• In the absence of citizenship rights, the refugees did not have the right to own property, be employed by the state government, and to vote in the assembly elections.
• However, they could only apply for Central government jobs and services and vote in the Lok Sabha elections.

 

What changed after the abrogation of Article 370?

• On August 5, 2019, when Parliament read down Article 370 and Article 35A of the Constitution, both the J&K Constitution and the Permanent Resident Certificate eligibility rules were nullified.
• That paved the way for West Pakistani Refugees to become residents of the Union Territory.
• Not only the West Pakistani Refugees, even people from the Valmiki community and the Gorkha community were denied their basic rights since 1947. These people have fought a long battle for their survival.

 

History of refugees:

• After Partition in 1947, West Pakistani Refugees migrated from the villages of Khansopur, Kato Banda, Mahalla, Ambalepur, Chare Chak, and Jorewala of Sialkot tehsil, now in Pakistan, to the Indian side.
• Pakistan Refugees Action Committee president Laba Ram Gandhi said the main reason for their arrival in Jammu was the connectivity of the area with Sialkot.
• Two months and nine days after Partition, Pakistani invaders had attacked Kashmir. Many of the families who had already migrated to the areas of Jammu started moving out of the region because everyone thought it was not safe for them.
• Many West Pakistani Refugees reached Lakhanpur, a town that is considered the gateway to J&K from Punjab.
• Based on the assurance of Sheikh Abdullah, the refugees stayed back in various villages of Jammu. They were given land for cultivation that mostly belonged to Muslims who migrated to Pakistan. However, the land titles were never in their names and they were deprived of civil rights.

 

The ‘triple dip’ La Niña, and its likely impact in India

(GS Paper 1, Geography)

Why in news?

• The ongoing La Niña phase of the equatorial Pacific Ocean has just been predicted to persist for at least another six months, making it one of the longest ever La Niña episodes in recorded history.
• It is also only the third episode since 1950 to stretch into a third year.
• This is likely to have wide-ranging implications for weather events across the world in the coming months, and can potentially aggravate both floods and droughts in different regions. 

What is La Nina?

• The periodic warming and cooling of surface waters in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, a phenomenon described as El Niño Southern Oscillations (ENSO) is known to trigger widespread changes in atmospheric conditions, and has a major influence on global weather patterns, including the Indian monsoon.
• La Niña refers to the ENSO phase in which sea-surface temperatures are cooler than normal. The warmer phase is known as El Niño.
• A result of interactions between ocean and wind systems, El Niño and La Niña have almost opposite impacts on weather events.

 

‘Triple dip’ La Niña:

• El Niño and La Niña episodes typically last for about nine months to a year. They usually develop in the March-June period, and are the strongest during winter (November-January in the northern hemisphere), before weakening or dissipating by March or April of next year.
• Occasionally, however, they continue for much longer periods. In recent years, the El Niño of 2015-16, spread over 19 months, was one of the longest on record, and was dubbed ‘Godzilla’ due to its sustained high intensity.
• The current La Niña episode has already surpassed that in length. Having started in September 2020, it has prevailed for the last 24 months, and looks set to continue for another six months, and has thus been classified as a ‘triple dip’ La Niña.

 

El Nino vs. La Nina:

• However, El Niño and La Niña events are not mirror images of each other. They differ in length and strength.
• El Niño episodes occur more frequently and are usually associated with more impactful weather events. La Niña, on the other hand, has a longer run.
• That is why multi-year La Niña events, those that continue for more than 12 months, are quite common. An El Niño is more likely to be a single-year event.

 

Observation on La Nina:

• Almost half (six out of 13) of all La Niña events since 1950 have stretched for two years, while three, including the current one, have continued for three years. In contrast, over 75% of El Niño events (15 out of 20) ended within a year. No El Niño has ever stretched into a third year.
• While prolonged La Niña episodes are not uncommon, the current one differs from the previous two triple-year events in an important aspect. Both the earlier events, one between 1973 and 1976, and the other between 1998 and 2001 were preceded by a strong El Niño.
• Prolonged La Niña events in those instances could be explained by the fact that the amount of accumulated heat in the oceans was higher, and therefore took a longer time to dissipate.
• In the absence of a strong El Niño preceding it, the reason for the current La Niña episode is not very clear at the moment.

 

Evaluating the likely impact:

Indian context:

• In the Indian context, La Niña is associated with good rainfall during the monsoon season. This is the opposite of El Niño which is known to suppress monsoon rainfall. Thus, a continued spell of La Niña could lead to expectation of another year of good, or normal, rainfall during the monsoon.
• Until now, the monsoon season this year has produced 7% more rain compared to normal. In 2022, the seasonal rainfall was almost 100%.
• But, even though powerful, ENSO condition is only one of the several factors affecting monsoon rainfall in India. There is no one-on-one correlation between the ENSO condition and the amount of rainfall.
• Also, the influence of ENSO is at a macro level. There are wide variations in rainfall at the local level, which are getting exacerbated by climate change.

 

Global impact:

• In most parts of the United States, for example, La Niña is associated with very dry winters. In Australia and Indonesia, and generally in the tropical region, La Niña is expected to bring more rainfall.
• The widespread drought in the United States and flooding in eastern Australia in 2022 could have been a result of the prolonged La Niña. The excessive rainfall in Pakistan, which is experiencing its worst flooding disaster, can also be blamed in part on La Niña.
• The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said the worsening drought in the Horn of Africa and southern United States carried the “hallmarks of La Niña”, as did the “above average rainfall in southeast Asia and Australasia”. It said that the persistence of La Niña was most likely to result in a worsening of the drought in Africa.

 

Climate change link:

• During La Niña years, the colder surfaces allow the oceans to absorb more heat from the atmosphere. Consequently, the air temperatures tend to go down, producing a cooling effect. However, as pointed out by the WMO, this is not enough to reverse or neutralize the impacts of global warming.
• Recently, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the United States declared that the month of August  2022was the sixth hottest August in the last 143 years. Average global temperatures were about 0.9 degree Celsius higher than the 20th century average.

 

Lack of data:

• The occurrences of El Niño or La Niña are not very regular. Sometimes they emerge every two years, at other times there has been a gap of even seven years. Historical records do not go very far in the past.
• As a result, the natural variability of ENSO is not understood very clearly. And when the natural variability itself is not clear, the influence of global warming is difficult to quantify.
• There have been suggestions that climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of El Niño and La Niña episodes, but the question is not entirely settled.
• A part of the reason is the fact that trade winds play a very important role in triggering ENSO events. And the changes in the strength of trade winds are not easily explained by global warming.

 

Lumpy skin disease in cattle in India

(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)

Why in news?

• Recently, the Mumbai Police have ordered the prohibition of cattle transportation in the city to prevent the spread of the lumpy skin disease.
• This means cattle cannot be moved out of the place they are being raised or transported to marketplaces.
• The disease has killed 127 cattle in Maharashtra, having spread to 25 districts. The contagious viral infection has spread in cattle in more than 10 States and Union Territories so far. 

What is the lumpy skin disease and how does it spread?

• Lumpy skin disease is caused by the lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV), which belongs to the genus capripoxvirus, a part of the poxviridae family (smallpox and monkeypox viruses are also a part of the same family).
• The LSDV shares antigenic similarities with the sheeppox virus (SPPV) and the goatpox virus (GTPV) or is similar in the immune response to those viruses.
• It is not a zoonotic virus, meaning the disease cannot spread to humans.

 

Transmission:

• It is a contagious vector-borne disease spread by vectors like mosquitoes, some biting flies, and ticks and usually affects host animals like cows and water buffaloes.
• According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), infected animals shed the virus through oral and nasal secretions which may contaminate common feeding and water troughs.
• Thus, the disease can either spread through direct contact with the vectors or through contaminated fodder and water. Studies have also shown that it can spread through animal semen during artificial insemination.

 

Symptoms:

• LSD affects the lymph nodes of the infected animal, causing the nodes to enlarge and appear like lumps on the skin, which is where it derives its name from.
• The cutaneous nodules, 2–5 cm in diameter, appear on the infected cattle’s head, neck, limbs, udder, genitalia, and perineum.
• The nodules may later turn into ulcers and eventually develop scabs over the skin. The other symptoms include high fever, sharp drop in milk yield, discharge from the eyes and nose, salivation, loss of appetite, depression, damaged hides, emaciation (thinness or weakness) of animals, infertility and abortions.
• The incubation period or the time between infection and symptoms is about 28 days according to the FAO, and 4 to 14 days according to some other estimates.

 

Morbidity:

• The morbidity of the disease varies between two to 45% and mortality or rate of date is less than 10%, however, the reported mortality of the current outbreak in India is up to 15%, particularly in cases being reported in the western part (Rajasthan) of the country.

 

What is the geographical distribution and how did it spread to India?

• The disease was first observed in Zambia in 1929, subsequently spreading to most African countries extensively, followed by West Asia, Southeastern Europe, and Central Asia, and more recently spreading to South Asia and China in 2019.
• As per the FAO, the LSD disease is currently endemic in several countries across Africa, parts of West Asia (Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syrian Arab Republic), and Turkey.
• The spread in South Asia first affected Bangladesh in July 2019 and then reached India in August that year, with initial cases being detected in Odisha and West Bengal.
• The long porous borders between India, Nepal and Bangladesh allow for a significant amount of bilateral and informal animal trade, including cattle and buffaloes.

 

Is it safe to consume the milk of affected cattle?

• Studies say that it has not been possible to ascertain the presence of viable and infectious LSDV virus in milk derived from the infected animal.
• FAO notes, however, that a large portion of the milk in Asia is processed after collection and is either pasteurised or boiled or dried in order to make milk powder. This process ensures that the virus is inactivated or destroyed.

 

What are the economic implications?

• The spread of the disease can lead to “substantial” and “severe” economic losses according to FAO and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH).
• The disease leads to reduced milk production as the animal becomes weak and also loses appetite due to mouth ulceration.
• The income losses can also be due to poor growth, reduced draught power capacity and reproductive problems associated with abortions, infertility and lack of semen for artificial insemination.
• Movement and trade bans after infection also put an economic strain on the whole value chain.

 

Economic impact on India:

• The current outbreak in India has emerged as a challenge for the dairy sector.
• India is the world’s largest milk producer at about 210 million tonnes annually. India also has the largest headcount of cattle and buffalo worldwide.
• In Rajasthan, which is witnessing the worst impact of the lumpy skin disease, it has led to reduced milk production, which lessened by about three to six lakh litres a day. Reports indicate that milk production has also gone down in Punjab owing to the spread of the disease.

 

How bad is the current spread in India?

• The current outbreak started in Gujarat and Rajashthan around July and had spread to Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar and Uttarakhand by early August.
• It then spread to Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. In recent weeks, it was reported in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, and Jharkhand.
• Of the nearly 75,000 cattle that the disease has killed, more than 50,000 deaths, mostly cows, have been reported from Rajasthan.

 

The FAO has suggested a set of spread-control measures for LSD, which involves

• vaccination of susceptible populations with more than 80% coverage,
• movement control of bovine animals and quarantining,
• implementing biosecurity through vector control by sanitising sheds and spraying insecticides, strengthening active and passive surveillance;
• spreading awareness on risk mitigation among all stakeholders involved, and
• creating large protection and surveillance zones and vaccination zones.

 

Indian Government’s intervention:

• The Union Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying informed that the ‘Goat Pox Vaccine’ is “very effective” against LSD and is being used across affected States to contain the spread.
• The affected States have put movement bans in place and are isolating infected cattle and buffaloes, spraying insecticides to kill vectors like mosquitoes, with some affected States such as Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh also setting up dedicated control rooms and helpline numbers to guide farmers whose cattle have been infected.

Vaccine:

• In a major breakthrough, two institutes of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) have developed an indigenous vaccine for LSD, which the Centre plans to commercialise and roll out in the next three to four months.
• The vaccine is based on LSD virus samples from cattle in Ranchi afflicted in the 2019 outbreak and experimental trials conducted on animals afflicted in the ongoing 2022 outbreak with the vaccine have revealed encouraging results.