Que. 1. Why do some of the most prosperous regions of India have an adverse sex ratio for women? Give reasons. (UPSC 2014) [150 Words].
Ans: Census 2011 shows this stark trend that the most prosperous region in India especially North-western states like Haryana (877) Punjab (893) is in contrast to when compared with less prosperous North Eastern states like Meghalaya (986) and States like Chhattisgarh (991) Orissa (978) showing much above than even national average of 940.
Reason for such skewed or adverse sex ratio for women in these prosperous regions are:
1.The access and affordability to modern methods of safe ways of sex selection and abortion facilitates in these prosperous states.
2. Female foeticide.- Parents show preference for son and hence, prenatal sex determination is rampant.
3. Illiteracy- Parents feel it is not worth it to invest finance in educating a girl child and then marrying her off, that too with dowry.
4.Patriarchal Society as Feudalism is inherent in these regions. Particularly in countryside, extreme mindset prevails seeing women as property and access to having son. Besides, domestic violence is also rampant.
5. Prevalence of dowry which might be reason for debt to parents.
6. Law of inheritance of property as these prosperous regions as high per capita property share and they don’t want to share it with daughters which will eventually be passed to her in-laws.
However apart from all these issues ,bureaucratic failure to implement the various girl-child based schemes at grass root level might also be reason for this skewed sex ratio in these prosperous regions.
Que. 2. What do you mean by population ageing? What are the problems being faced by senior citizens in India? [150 words]
Ans. Population ageing is an increasing median age in a population due to declining fertility rates and rising life expectancy. It is a shift in the distribution of a country's population towards older ages.
According to Census 2011, senior citizen population is 8.6 per cent of the total
Population, which is 2nd largest after China.
Senior citizen population faces a number of problems and adjusts to them at varying degrees, like:
Medical Problem
These are supposed to be the major concern of a senior citizens as they often are accompanied by multiply illness and physical ailments, also they are more likely to be the victims of poor mental health.
Economic Problems
They generally face issue of financial insecurity. The National Sample Survey Organization
in 2006 report shows dilapidated conditions of Widow, and disabled elderly constituting more disadvantaged among the society. So, they face up dependence on children, poverty and victims of property related disputes.
Social Problems
Sociologically, aging marks a form of transition from one set of social roles to another .They find that their children are not taking advice from them. This realization often results in feeling loss of status, worthlessness and loneliness. Apart from that they have social marginalisation, victim of cost benefit approach in relationships, victims of abuses and face up emotional trauma.
Psychological Problems.
The common psychological problems they experience are: feeling of powerlessness, feeling of inferiority, depression, uselessness, isolation and reduced competence. With growing age, senior citizens experience various anatomical and psychological changes. These changes bring many psychological, behavioural and attitudinal changes in them.
Cultural Shock :
Due to rapid changes in society, technology and way of living and as a result they face powerlessness, technological constraints, anxiety and isolation.
The real solutions to these problems of elderly lie not in any new laws and provisions, but with the people themselves. If they start treating the old aged people as they deserve to be treated with respect and love then this problem will cease to exist.