Sociology Daily Answer Writing (22-12-2022)

Questions

1. "It would not be feasible to adopt the Two child policy in India". Comment.  10
2. Analyse the impact of legislation on marriage and inheritance in India.   10

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Model Solutions

Q1. "It would not be feasible to adopt the Two child policy in India". Comment. 10

Model Structure:
Introduction

• The two-child norm is a target oriented family-size control policy prescriptions, which encourages parents to limit their families to two children and creates disadvantages for couples with more than two children. HUM DO HAMARE DO (WE TWO OURS TWO).

Main Body

• Social benefits of two-child policy -
  1. To minimize social problems and evils (ex: poverty and unemployment)
  2. Improve educational and housing facilities.
  3. Changes in the traditional role of women (destigmatization of women, they are not baby making machine)
  4. Controlling farm fragmentation (it's positively impacted livelihood in rural areas )
  5. Avoid overpopulation and mitigation of illegal action
  6. Better reproductive health of women’s
  7. Parents would be well equipped to take care of children
• Issues with two child policy -
  1. Gender imbalances (enforcement to such policies will create gender imbalances and also can create mental subordination towards women ex: undocumented children)
  2. Sex selective abortion (a legal restriction to two children could force couple to go for sex selective abortion as there are only two attempts)
  3. Unsafe abortion (a significant proportion of rural women especially those from lower socio economic strata, would be force to go for unsafe abortion because of issues of access and affordability)
  4. Violating women's reproductive rights
  5. Neglect and death of female infants (increasing orphism)
  6. It questions the role of the welfare state (there is legitimate cause for concern that this policy will increase poverty levels. Why: state might withdraw the all concession from people who fail to adhere to the small family norm
  7. Break-up of families (it create incentives for men to divorce their wives and abandon their families if they want to run for political office)
  8. Anti-democratic (it seeks to prevent people from participating in local self government after they have been elected through people's mandate )
  9. Cultural factors (certain religious practices prohibited the use of contraceptives. Ex: most of the orthodox Christian do not permit abortion at any stage)
  10. Social customs (religion and social institutions supporting high fertility rate + marriage is sacrament in hindu religion + children are considered to be gifts of God no control of child bearing)
  11. Ethical Concerns

Q2. Analyse the impact of legislation on marriage and inheritance in India. 10

Model Structure
Impact on marriages & divorces:

• The form of marriage changed from polygamous to monogamous because of legislations such as Hindu Marriage Act
• The 1869 Divorce Act and subsequent 2001 amendment made one of the grounds of divorce i.e., adultery more gender neutral
• With respect to Islamic personal laws, the recent Triple Talaq Act has made instant triple talaq illegal thereby enhancing security of Muslim women
• The age at marriage is impacted by legislations such as Child Marriage Act and Age of Consent Act (Current debate about raising minimum marriageable age of girls)
• Sati became obsolete because of legislative intervention
• Widow remarriage was promoted via Widow Remarriage Act enacted in the pre-independence era
• The provision of spousal maintenance after divorce came about because of legislations
• Special marriage act: provision for civil marriage irrespective of the religion or faith followed by either party → interfaith and inter-caste marriage

Impact on inheritance:

• The Hindu Succession Act 1956 and subsequent 2005 amendment made the daughters equal coparceners. This resulted in improved bargaining power for Hindu women
  • Recently, the Supreme Court (SC) has expanded the Hindu women’s right to be the coparcener (joint legal heir) and inherit ancestral property on terms equal to male heirs.
• The patrilineal systems of inheritances such as Mitakshara and Dayabhaga got supplanted with Bilineal inheritance systems
• Cardinality principle of inheritance also changed & all offspring are equal coparceners

Conclusion

• Demand for Uniform Civil Code (Art. 44) to ensure equal marriage, divorce and inheritance laws across different religions

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