Syllabus- Social Issues in Telangana: Vetti; Jogini and Devadasi System; Girl Child; Flourosis; Child Labour; Migrant Labour; Child Marriages. Social Movements in Telangana.
Number of questions- Mains: 02, Prelims – 10
Mains Questions of the day-
1.Describe in brief about the following social evils present in Telangana and also mention their current status
Introduction:
Write about social evil and list some social evils prevalent in Telangana.
Body:
Describe the four social evils Jogini system, vetti, Devadasi system and Child marriages and also mention the current status of each social evil in Telangana.
Conclusion:
- Though government has provided rules to reduce social evils, instead of coming to dead-end , social evils in India seem to rise.
- Therefore, due action must be taken for the betterment of the people of the country and definitely for changing the mindset of the existing society.
- Strict laws should be made and strict punishment should be given to the people who indulge in these social evils.
Content:
Jogini System – ‘temple slaves’:
- Jogini is a cultural tradition imposed on 90% of dalit Madiga caste girls.
- Young girls are pushed into sex trade in the name of joginis. These girls are dedicated to goddess yellamma a local rural goddess.
- The parents of the girls generally believe that when the young girl is dedicated to Goddess Yellamma temple she becomes jogini and serves Village men which eventually lead to disappearance of all the evil spirits in the village.
- Mathas publicly dance during festival time and that day she is meant to be sexually available to people.
- Joginis have different names in different parts of the state.
- In Mahabubnagar, Adilabad, Medak, Warangal and Nizamabad – Joginis;
- In Rangareddy district – Mathamma;
- In Karimnagar district – Amababai Jogini.
Current Status:
- Several NGOs are working effectively lobbying with government, joining them into schools, giving them training, exposing them to normal lives.
- Though the practice has not yet stopped, the organisations manage to spread the awareness to the maximum levels.
- But, there is a need to sensitise all the sections of the society only then the problem may be solved.
Vetti System:
- Vetti Chakiri is a system which is exclusive slavery kind of feature of Telangana during Nizam rule and it continued till 1980s.
- It was believed that the vetti was existed only in some backward tribal regions and poor marginalized untouchable communities.
- Vetti is an unpaid work assigned to the lower castes mostly untouchable families. It can be household work, carrying report or mails, firewood collection from forest.
- It is obligatory that schedule caste families need to send one person from the family to perform vetti.
- The worst form of vetti was exploitation of girls and women, they were sent to landlords houses to keep with them.
Current Status:
- Article 23 (1) of the constitution prohibits begar and other similar forms of forced labour and it provides that any contravention of the said prohibition shall be an offence.
- Bonded labour system has been abolished from 25th October 1975 and every bonded labour has been set free and has been discharged from any obligation to render any bonded labour from this date.
- Though the bonded labour is legally banned, the system continues in remote villages with different names specially in some tribal pockets and in scheduled caste areas.
Devadasi system / Female servant of God / Dancing girls in temples:
- Devadasi means any unmarried woman dedicated to Goddess or deity, idol, object or worship in temple or other religious institution.
- It supplies young girls and keep them as concubines to the village elders, rich landlords.
- They were basically trained in classical music and dance. They live in the house is provided by patron, rich man in the village.
- Their situation changed as the tradition was made illegal across India in 1988, and the temple has distanced from public.
Current Status:
- Even after stringent laws it didn’t vanish from the society as it is the complex system interwined with poverty, social conditions, gender and sexual exploitation of women of untouchable communities.
- One-man commission headed by Justice Raghunath Rao, a former judge, has found that the age-old social menace is prevalent in all districts in both the states.
- It submitted the report on Devadasis recently stating that about 80,000 women still follow the system.
- Devadasi system continues to flourish in rural areas of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
Child marriages:
- Child marriage is a marriage or similar union, formal or informal, between a child under a certain age – typically age 18 – and an adult or another child.
- The vast majority of child marriages are between a girl and a man, and are rooted in gender inequality.
- Child marriage violates the rights of children and has widespread with long-term consequences for child brides and child grooms.
- For girls, in addition to mental health issues and a lack of access to education and career opportunities, this includes adverse health effects as a result of early pregnancy (including teenage pregnancy) and childbirth.
- Many young women, who are pushed into the perils of early marriage, are sometimes just a few months away from turning, or just turned 18 years — the legal age of marriage for women in India.
Current Status:
- More than six per cent of the child marriages reported across the country from 2018 to 2020 were from Telangana, according to the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD).
- Of the 1,809 child marriages reported in the country during the three-year period, Arunachal Pradesh topped the list with 341 child marriage cases, followed by West Bengal (236), Karnataka (217) and Tami Nadu (190), while Telangana was fifth on the list with 119.
- The Covid pandemic that broke out over a year ago, has indirectly led to a drastic increase in crimes against women and children in the State, especially cases of domestic violence and child marriages.
2.Describe in brief about the Fluorosis in Telangana.
Introduction:
Write briefly about Fluorosis in Telangana.
Body:
Mention the impact, preventive measures, government and non-government initiatives taken regarding the Fluorosis in Telangana.
Conclusion:
Though Telangana government has declared itself as Fluorosis-free state, certain measures should be taken by the people to prevent Fluorosis. They are:
- Sensitizing the community with information on fluorosis, importance of drinking safe water and about healthy diet are important for prevention and control of fluorosis.
- Water contaminated with fluoride more than 1ppm should not be consumed.
- High fluoride containing products viz., Supari, tobacco, black rock salt, red rock salt (Sindhi), Drugs and cosmetics like toothpaste, mouth rinses and any other products proven to have high fluoride should be avoided.
- Intake of foods (rich in calcium, iron, vitamin c, other antioxidants), such as milk, curd, green leafy vegetables, fruits should be advocated.
Content:
- Fluorosis is a cosmetic condition that affects the teeth. It’s caused by overexposure to fluoride during the first eight years of life. This is the time when most permanent teeth are being formed. After the teeth come in, the teeth of those affected by fluorosis may appear mildly discolored.
- Nalgonda in Telangana was the worst-affected district due to the disease that affects bones and teeth.
Impact of Fluorosis in Telangana:
A study has revealed that about 31% in the pre-monsoon and 80% of the post-monsoon groundwater sampling showed 1.5 to 4 mg per litre of fluoride content in the state.
- A considerable amount of fluoride enters the human body through drinking water and excess fluoride can be toxic for health.
- The World Health Organisation (WHO) has set the minimum and maximum limits of fluoride content for drinking water purposes at 0.5 and 1.5 mg/l, respectively.
- The intake of elevated fluoride has a significant impact on the health of human beings. Immediate problems are seen in children’s teeth.
- Excess fluoride leads to mottling of teeth, calcification of ligaments, and crippling of bones, says a WHO report.
- As per the findings of the study published in the journal of Human and Ecological Risk Assessment, the people from Telangana state are vulnerable to dental and skeletal fluorosis, due to the intake of high fluoride content in drinking water.
- The elevated level of fluoride in groundwater after the monsoon season was because of the increase of mineral dissolution in the rainy season.
Prevention of Fluorosis:
Fluorosis can be prevented by avoiding excessive intake of fluoride by individuals / community. Excessive fluoride intake and its adverse effects can be minimized or prevented by adapting following measures:
- By using alternative water sources,
- By removing excessive fluoride from drinking water,
- By improving the nutritional status of population/individuals at risk.
Government and non-Government initiatives regarding Fluorosis:
- Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir:
- The reservoir provides Krishna water to the Nalgonda district which has permissible limits of fluoride.
- This helped deal with the vital public health problem to a large extent.
- District Fluoride Monitoring Centre (DFMC):
A multi-department coordinated District Fluoride Monitoring Centre (DFMC) was set up in 2012. The UNICEF came forward to support this and formed a multi-partite partnership with the district administration, the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) and the Fluoride Knowledge and Action Network (FKAN).
- Mission Bhageeratha:
- It aims to provide pide safe potable drinking water to every household.
- Special focus was laid down to provide safe drinking water to villages where the flouride content in water is high.
- Community defluoridation plant / Nalgonda Technique:
- The first community defluoridation plant for removal of fluoride from drinking water was constructed in the district of Nalgonda.
- The technology was developed by National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur in 1961.
- Condition of surface water supply has improved
- Provisions regarding food and nutrition:
- The Indian Natural Resource Economics and Management (INREM) Foundation which conducted a survey in the fluoride affected villages of Nalgonda declared that there had been no new cases of fluorosis reported in the district in the last six years.
- INREM too suggested that the intensity of the disease came down due to the supply of safe drinking water under the Mission Bhagiratha.
Prelims Questions of the day:
1.Which of the following was related to the initial phase of Telangana struggle?
- Struggle against the vetti system
- Ouster of Nizam
- Establishment of village self-rule
- Distribution of land to the tiller
Answer: A
Explanation:
The Telangana struggle can be broadly divided into three phases –
- The initial phase, struggle against the vetti system and eviction from land
- The second phase: ouster of Nizam, establishment of village self-rule and distribution of land to the tiller and
- The third and final phase: safeguarding the gains and withdrawal of the struggle.
2.Which of the following is not related to the Fluorosis?
- Fluorosis is a condition that affects the skin.
- Fluorosis caused due to excess intake of fluoride through drinking water/food products/industrial pollutants over a long period.
- It results in dental fluorosis, skeletal fluorosis, and non-skeletal fluorosis.
- According to WHO, the fluoride concentration in drinking water should not exceed 1.5mg/l.
Answer: A
Explanation:
Fluorosis:
- Fluorosis is a crippling disease resulting from deposition of fluorides in the hard and soft tissues of body due to excess intake of fluoride through drinking water/food products/industrial pollutants over a long period.
- It results in dental fluorosis, skeletal fluorosis, and non-skeletal fluorosis.
- According to WHO, the fluoride concentration in drinking water should not exceed 1.5mg/l.
3.Which of the following is related to the Jogini system in Telangana?
- Jogini is an illegal practice
- Women from marginalized communities are “married to a deity.”
- In Rangareddy district they are known as Mathamma
- All the above
Answer: D
Explanation:
- Jogini is an illegal practice, where women mostly from marginalised communities are “married to a deity.”
- After being converted into a Jogini, they are free to be sexually exploited by men in the village.
- This illegal practice has several names in different parts of the country.
- In Mahabubnagar, Adilabad, Medak, Warangal and Nizamabad they are known as Joginis; in Rangareddy district they are known as Mathamma; in Karimnagar district they are known as Amababai Jogini.
- Nizamabad was one of the districts in Telangana where the Jogini system was practiced before it was declared illegal.
- The practice of Jogini was banned in 1988 in the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh. Along with Nizamabad the erstwhile districts of Mahabubnagar, Adilabad, Medak and Warangal, were the worst affected.
4.Which of the following statement is not correct regarding the Vetti System in Telangana?
- Each dalit family had to send one man from the family to do vetti
- Their daily job consisted of household work in the landlord’s house
- Peasants were excluded from vetti system.
- The Left, led by Communists, demanded the abolition of vetti
Answer: C
Explanation: Vetti System:
- In Telangana, vetti system was an all-pervasive social phenomenon.
- Each dalit family had to send one man from the family to do vetti.
- Their daily job consisted of household work in the landlord’s house and also act as their messenger.
- Dalits, who stitched shoes or prepared leather accessories for agricultural operations were forced to supply these to the landlords free of cost.
- Toddy-tappers had to supply toddy; shepherds, their sheep; weavers, cloth; carpenters and blacksmiths, all agricultural implements and potters, pots, free of cost.
- Washermen were forced to wash clothes and vessels and barbers had to do daily service in the house and at night press the feet of the landlord and massage his body.
- Certain Other Backward Communities were forced to carry men and women of the landlord families in palanquins, from one village to another.
- Peasants were also not spared of vetti.
- The left led by Communists, demanded the abolition of vetti
5.Which of the following is not related to the fluorosis in Telangana?
- Nizamabad in Telangana was the worst-affected district due to the disease that affects bones and teeth.
- Over one lakh people are suffering due to fluorosis that have high fluoride content in water.
- The intensity of the disease had come down due to supply of safe drinking water under Mission Bhagiratha.
- It can reduce by setting up of reverse osmosis plants
Answer: A
Explanation:
- Nalgonda in Telangana was the worst-affected district due to the disease that affects bones and teeth.
- Over one lakh people are suffering due to fluorosis in villages such as Munugode, Nampally, Marriguda and Devarakonda that have high fluoride content in water.
- The intensity of the disease had come down due to supply of safe drinking water under Mission Bhagiratha.
- He suggested that focus should be laid now on setting up Fluoride Rehabilitation Centre in all Primary Health Centres (PHCs) of all fluoride-affected blocks.
- Successive governments have taken measures such as setting up of reverse osmosis and mineral water bottling plants in some villages and installation of defluoridation plants.
- The permanent solution is to complete the Srisailam Left Bank Canal project, which will lift water from Srisailam reservoir, which would provide irrigation to three lakh acres of agricultural lands and drinking water to 516 villages, including the fluoride-hit villages of Nalgonda district.
6.What is the position of Telangana in child marriages between 2018-2020 according to the Ministry of women and child Development?
- Sixth
- Fifth
- Second
- Eighth
Answer: B
Explanation:
- Telangana has reported more than 6% of child marriages in the country between 2018 to 2020, according to the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD).
- Of the 1809 child marriage cases reported in the country, Arunachal Pradesh accounts for 341 cases, followed by West Bengal with 236, Karnataka with 217, Tamil Nadu with 190, and Telangana, on the fifth position, accounts for 119 cases.
7.In which of the following district first community defluoridation plant for removal of fluoride from drinking water in Telangana?
- Hyderabad
- Mahabubnagar
- Nalgonda
- Nizamabad
Answer: C
Explanation:
- The first community defluoridation plant for removal of fluoride from drinking water was constructed in the district of Nalgonda, in the town of Kathri.
- The technology was developed by National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur in 1961.
8.which of the following is true regarding the Devadasi system in Telangana?
- Devadasi means any unmarried woman dedicated to Goddess or deity, idol, object or worship in temple or other religious institution.
- One-man commission headed by Justice Raghunath Rao, a former judge, has found that the age-old social menace is prevalent in all districts of Telangana.
- Devadasi system complete abolished in rural areas of Telangana
- Both A and B
Answer: D
Explanation:
- Devadasi means any unmarried woman dedicated to Goddess or deity, idol, object or worship in temple or other religious institution.
- It supplies young girls and keep them as concubines to the village elders, rich landlords.
- They were basically trained in classical music and dance. They live in the house is provided by patron, rich man in the village.
- Their situation changed as the tradition was made illegal across India in 1988, and the temple has distanced from public.
- Even after stringent laws it didn’t vanish from the society as it is the complex system interwined with poverty, social conditions, gender and sexual exploitation of women of untouchable communities.
- One-man commission headed by Justice Raghunath Rao, a former judge, has found that the age-old social menace is prevalent in all districts in both the states.
- It submitted the report on Devadasis recently stating that about 80,000 women still follow the system.
- Devadasi system continues to flourish in rural areas of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
9.What is the position of Telangana in Indian expatriates to the Gulf according to the census 2011?
- Eleventh
- Second
- Tenth
- Twelfth
Answer: D
Explanation:
- Telangana, the 12th-most populated State in India as per the 2011 census, sends about 1.5 million of a total 8.8 million Indian expatriates to the Gulf.
- These labourers have played a crucial role in transforming the Gulf States from “camel to Cadillac”. Similarly, the Gulf migration has impacted the upward social and economic mobility of migrant households and strengthened Telangana’s economy through remittances they send home.
10.Which of the following procedure remove the fluorides in drinking water?
- Boiling water
- Reverse Osmosis
- Activated carbon
- All the above
Answer: B
Explanation:
Following procedures do not remove fluoride:
- Boiling water: will concentrate fluoride content rather than removing it.
- Freezing water: does not affect concentration of fluoride.
- Activated carbon: filters do not remove fluorides.