WOMEN, PEACE AND DEMOCRACY

Prelims level : Rights Issues Mains level : GS-I Social Empowerment
No Set Found with this ID

Context:

  • 19 years after UN Resolution 1325, WPS Index estimates the gender discourse is reaching beyond traditional conflicts to embrace militarisation & Communal Hostilities.

About UN Resolution 1325

  • UNSCR 1325 is a landmark international legal framework that addresses the inordinate impact of war on women + the pivotal role women play in conflict management + sustainable peace.
  • The experiences of men & women in war are different. Women offer a vital perspective in the analysis of conflict.
  • Resolution 1325 has 4 pillars – Participation, Protection, Prevention, and Relief and Recovery.It is implemented through the development of National Action Plans (NAP) or other national level strategies.

Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Index:

  • The WPS Index is prepared by Georgetown University’s Institute for Women, Peace and Security, and the Peace Research Institute of Oslo.
  • It was first published in 2017 and it operationalises the main values of the WPS resolutions to measure how women fare across three dimensions of peace and security: inclusion, justice and security. The 2019 update finds that while individually, countries lag far behind on most measures, “the world seems to be moving in the right direction”.
  • Representation in government is one measure of inclusion, and the index finds that across legislatures worldwide only 21.5% are women, so that it will take 52 years to approach parity. The WPS Index reports that in 2018, 379 million women experienced intimate partner violence in which this number exceeds the population of the US.

Statistics of India in WPS Index:

  • India which ranks 133 out of 167 is ahead of Bangladesh, Myanmar and Pakistan.
  • Kerala, Mizoram, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka top the table while J&K, Tripura, Rajasthan and Manipur bring up the tail end.
  • It is anomalous between the two ends—if Mizoram women are reaping the peace dividend (economic benefit of a decrease in defence spending), the experience of Rajasthani women illustrates how patriarchal cultures undermine it.

Interesting Facts of Jammu & Kashmir:

  • Women attend school for 5.44 years on average. 60.30% of women have bank accounts; 29% do paid work outside the home and 54.20% have cell phones.
  • Men tend to die, be wounded or disappeared disproportionately more, so women become heads of households.J&K women are about 0.1% of the Indian Parliament but 84% of them report that they participate in household decisions.
  • Girls outnumber boys at birth, 9.4% of them experience intimate partner violence and they live with an organised violence (“total number of battle deaths from state-based, non-state, and one-sided conflicts per 100,000”) score of 175.93.
  • Several civil society fact-finding teams have travelled to Kashmir since the announcement of bifurcation of J&K into Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
  • They state that men and boys are more likely to be shot, tortured, or questioned; women are then left to cope. After that they live with the constant threat (or reality) of sexual violence as an act of control by all conflict parties including the side where they belong, and lack of access to essential services (like emergency care) affect women whose mobility is severely impaired.

What does NCRB says about Gender based Violence?

  • The latest NCRB report shows that at least seven states have registered a below-10% conviction rate for crimes against women.
  • Odisha, with a 7.4% conviction rate, cuts a sorry figure, though there are some bigger states like West Bengal, Karnataka and Gujarat that fare worse.
  • But the eastern state has something to worry about. Of the 2,082 victims of rape, at least 62% are girls below 18 years of age. As the incidence of rape continues to show an upward trend, rising sexual assault against minors is a disturbing trend.
  • However, recent survey on the status of policing in the country showed that close to 40% of police personnel who were part of the study believed gender-based violence complaints are false and motivated.Interestingly, over 40% admitted to having received gender-sensitisation training in the last two to three years, which apparently is having no impact.
  • Now, it is important to talk about gender sensitisation of the police, which must be accorded priority as it has a huge bearing on tackling crimes against women.
Share Socially