THE POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. FREE SPEECH VS DISINFORMATION CONTROL

THE CONTEXT: The Future of India Foundation’s ‘Politics of Disinformation’ report finds that in an age of amplification to boost user engagement, social media companies cannot use ‘freedom of expression’ as an excuse to let false information to further propaganda thrive.

THE EXPLANATION:

• Social media platforms cite ‘free speech’ in order to absolve themselves of their role in spreading disinformation. They have framed the discourse around disinformation and its resolution as a content-moderation problem. In reality, pervasive disinformation is spread more by social media’s amplification of disinformation-laden content rather than its failure to remove it. It is only at the removal stage that the question of free speech arises.
• The report pegs disinformation (the deliberate use of misinformation) as a political problem and finds that its solution does not solely lie in laws enacted by a government and its execution.
• When it comes to disinformation, the report notes that social media platforms have a more central role to play than they claim to have.
• As long as amplification is driven by engagement instead of the quality of content or the trustworthiness of the content’s sources, current moderation efforts by social media platforms are likely to fall short.

Neutrality

• However, platforms have neatly bypassed the discussion around amplified distribution and have found it convenient to exclusively frame measures to reduce misinformation as being in “tension” with freedom of expression – an issue which can arise only in the case of outright removal.
• Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook are all on the record stating their aversion to be the ‘arbiters of truth’ and that the platforms should be a marketplace of ideas. However, the report says that their very emphasis on free speech is because it is a grand business model.
• As private companies, the issue in the case of outright removal of content, is not freedom of speech but political neutrality of the platform, the report says, citing instances where Facebook did not restrict a post by former US president Donald Trump but Twitter did. The argument used by both companies was public interest.
• In 2020, an explosive report by the Wall Street Journal suggested that key Facebook employees in India were in conflict with the company’s pledge to remain neutral in elections around the world.
• The discussions focused on ascertaining the following:

1. how young people get and consume information.
2. how they determine which information is trustworthy.
3. how they sift between competing narratives on the same event/issue.
4. do they care to ascertain whether a piece of information is accurate.
5. the purpose and use of information
6. awareness of and reliance on fact-checking sites and
7. the impact of online misinformation.

• The report finds that the key takeaway from the focus group discussions is that not only have social media platforms disrupted the information ecosystem in India, but that they have allowed themselves to be weaponised by vested interests in ways which are leading to real world harm.

 2. MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE RELEASES NATIONAL FAMILY HEALTH SURVEY-5 (NFHS) REPORT

THE CONTEXT: The NFHS-5 survey work has been conducted in around 6.37 lakh sample households from 707 districts of the country from 28 States and 8 UTs, covering 7,24,115 women and 1,01,839 men respectively.

THE EXPLANATION:

• According to the report, Three times as many males as females are employed in the 15-49 age group in India, a stubborn gender gap that has remained virtually the same over the last five years, the latest edition of the National Family Health Survey Report shows.
• Around 75% of boys and men in the age group of 15-49 are currently employed, according to the fifth edition of the NFHS (for 2019-21), released by the ministry of health and family welfare.
• “About 25% of women in the age group of 15-49 are currently employed, compared with 75% of men aged 15-49. Employment is higher among less educated people. About 89% among men and 34% among women are employed with less than 5 years of schooling. There are approximately 87% men and 34% women who are employed with no schooling,” noted the report.
• Referring to the previous NFHS-4 (for 2015-16), the report said, “24% of women were currently employed in 2015-16, compared with 25% in 2019-21. Among men, the proportion who are currently employed has not changed in the same period.”
• The survey—an important indicator of social trends—defines currently employed as those who were employed in the seven days before the survey. This includes respondents who did not work in the past seven days but are regularly employed, and were absent from work for leave, illness, vacation or any other reason.
• India has been seeing a consistent decline in female labour force participation for years, and the survey raises important questions about whether India’s growth is inclusive enough, pointing to the need for urgent action, said Poonam Muttreja, executive director at the non-profit Population Foundation of India.
• Bihar (14%), Uttar Pradesh (17%), and Assam (18%) have the lowest percentage of women in work. More than a third of women were currently employed in a handful of states: Karnataka (35%), Andhra Pradesh (37%), Telangana (39%), Manipur (40%), and Meghalaya (42%).
• Those women who are employed are mostly working as farm or production workers.
• Ironically, women and men with 10-11 years of schooling, never married women and men, women and men with no children, and women and men belonging to the highest wealth quintile are less likely to be employed than others.

 THE ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

3. NASA’S CYNTHIA ROSENZWEIG RECEIVES 2022 WORLD FOOD PRIZE

THE CONTEXT: Cynthia Rosenzweig, a senior research scientist and head of the Climate Impacts Group at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City, received the 2022 World Food Prize from the World Food Prize Foundation on May 5.

THE EXPLANATION:

• According to the World Food Prize Foundation, the World Food Prize is a prestigious international award conceived as the “Nobel Prize for Food and Agriculture” with a mission to elevate innovations and inspire action to sustainably increase the quality, quantity and availability of food for all.
• Rosenzweig was selected for the award for her research to understand the relationship between climate and food systems and forecast how both will change in the future.
• Her modeling work has provided a foundation for decision-makers around the world to create strategies to mitigate climate change and adapt our food systems to a changing planet, which has helped communities worldwide address the consequences of Earth’s changing climate.

4. DIRECT SEEDING OF RICE (DSR)

THE CONTEXT: The Punjab government recently announced Rs 1,500 incentive per acre for farmers opting for Direct Seeding of Rice (DSR), which is known for saving water.

THE EXPLANATION:

• Paddy is non-shelled rice that farmers grow and sell in mandis and then after milling paddy rice is prepared. According to the studies by Punjab Agriculture University (PAU), Ludhiana, around 3,600 litres to 4,125 litres of water is required to grow one kg rice depending upon the paddy variety.
• Long duration varieties consume more water. In Punjab, 32% area is under the long duration (around 158 days) paddy varieties, and the rest comes under paddy varieties that take 120 to 140 days to grow. So, on an average 3,900 to 4,000 litres water is required to grow one kg rice in the state.
• According to an analysis by the PAU, the DSR technique can help save 15% to 20% water. In some cases, water saving can reach 22% to 23%. With DSR,15-18 irrigation rounds are required against 25 to 27 irrigation rounds in traditional method.
• Since area under rice in Punjab is almost stagnant around 3 million hectares for the last three to four years, DSR can save 810 to 1,080 billion litres water every year if entire rice crop is brought under the technique.
• According to experts, DSR can solve labour shortage problem because as like the traditional method it does not require a paddy nursery and transplantion of 30 days old paddy nursery into the main puddled field. With DSR, paddy seeds are sown directly with machine.
• PAU experts said that DSR offers avenues for ground water recharge as it prevent the development of hard crust just beneath the plough layer due to puddled transplanting and it matures 7-10 days earlier than puddle transplanted crop, therefore giving more time for management of paddy straw.
• A PAU study said that results from research trials and farmers’ field survey have also indicated that yield, after DSR, are one to two quintals per acre higher than puddled transplanted rice.
• Experts said that with DSR technique, which is called ‘tar-wattar DSR’ (good soil moisture), farmers must sow paddy only after pre-sowing (rauni) irrigation and not in dry fields. Further, the field should be laser levelled. They said that spraying of herbicide must be done simultaneously along with sowing, and the first irrigation, which is done at 21 days after sowing.
• Experts said that suitability of soil is the most important factor as farmers must not sow it in the light textured soil as this technique is suitable for medium to heavy textured soils including sandy loam, loam, clay loam, and silt loam which accounts for around 80% area of the state.
• It should not be cultivated in sandy and loamy sand as these soils suffer from severe iron deficiency, and there is higher weed problem in it. Also, avoid direct seeding of rice in fields which are under crops others than rice (like cotton, maize, sugarcane) in previous years as DSR in these soils is likely to suffer more from iron deficiency and weed problems.
• Though government has said that farmers can sow paddy with DSR after May 20, but PAU experts say that DSR varieties must not be sown before May 25 or yield will get impacted. According to them, June 1-15 is best time to sow DSR-friendly paddy varieties and second fortnight of June is optimum time for direct sowing of basmati.
• Experts said that under agricultural extension services, farmers must train extensively at every stage from pre-sowing to harvesting so that they can develop confidence to adopt DSR without any hesitation.

THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

5. AT UNSC, INDIA CALLS FOR THE REMOVAL OF EXPORT CURBS ON   COUNTRIES COMBATING THE GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS

THE CONTEXT: At United Nations Security Council (UNSC), May 5, India called for an exemption on food export restrictions for countries that are sending assistance to combat the current food shortages being experienced globally, resulting from the Ukraine war.

THE EXPLANATION:

• Referring to the first report of the Global Crisis Response Group Task Team, India’s permanent representative to the UN, T.S. Tirumurti, observed that the conflict had led to “skyrocketing” inflation and a shortage of food grains and fertilizers.
• The Global Crisis Response Group is led by UN secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, constituted to examine the fallout of the Ukraine war on food and energy security.
• The Group has made a recommendation for “exempting purchases of food by WFP [World Foood Programme] for humanitarian assistance from food export restrictions with immediate effect”.
• India’s proposal applied to situations beyond humanitarian catastrophes where WFP was directly involved, but also covered the crisis in countries that may be facing severe food shortages, like Egypt.
• Following the COVID-19 pandemic, Singapore had led an initiative at WTO to remove export restrictions on food grains for non-commercial humanitarian efforts. But India had initially opposed it, worried that procurement of large volumes of food may lead to inflationary effects domestically.
• The Ukraine invasion by Russia has led to “a crisis that is also devastating global energy markets, disrupting financial systems and exacerbating extreme vulnerabilities for the developing world”.

6. AMID THE ECONOMIC CRISIS, SRI LANKA PLACED UNDER EMERGENCY FOR THE SECOND TIME IN A MONTH

THE CONTEXT: Sri Lanka’s president on 6^th may declare a state of emergency for the second time in five weeks, giving security forces sweeping powers amid a nationwide strike by angry demonstrators who blame him for an unprecedented economic crisis.

THE EXPLANATION:

• The decision came amidst weeks of protests demanding the resignation of the President and the government, blaming the powerful Rajapaksa clan for mishandling the island nation’s economy, already hit by the pandemic.
• Earlier in the day, student activists warned to lay a siege to Parliament as trade unions launched a crippling island-wide strike to demand the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his government over their inability to tackle the economic meltdown which has caused unprecedented hardships to the public.
• The beleaguered Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, who has made it clear that he will not quit from his post, came under unexpected pressure to resign at the special Cabinet meeting.
• Sri Lanka is going through the worst economic crisis in its history with the shortage of essentials, and power outages caused by a severe forex crisis.
• Sri Lanka is currently in the throes of unprecedented economic turmoil since its independence from Britain in 1948. The crisis is caused in part by a lack of foreign currency, which has meant that the country cannot afford to pay for imports of staple foods and fuel, leading to acute shortages and very high prices.
• Thousands of demonstrators have hit the streets across Sri Lanka since April 9, as the government ran out of money for vital imports; prices of essential commodities have skyrocketed and there are acute shortages in fuel, medicines and electricity supply.
• Despite mounting pressure, President Rajapaksa and his elder brother and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa have refused to quit.

THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

7. INDIA HAS NO PLANS TO JOIN THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO) GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT AGREEMENT (GPA)

THE CONTEXT: India has “no plans” to join the government procurement agreement grouping of the World Trade Organization (WTO) but is open to negotiating such agreements as part of bilateral deals.

THE EXPLANATION:

• It already figures in the free trade agreement signed with the UAE, and while this may act as a template for all future bilateral free-trade agreements the scope and coverage of the section may vary, the ministry of commerce and industry said on the India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). Pacts under negotiation include those with Canada, the EU, Israel and the UK.
• The India-UAE agreement, which came into effect on 1 May excludes government procurement (GP) for several union ministries.
• While this was the first time India had included government procurement in a free-trade pact, it is only limited to a few central ministries and excludes key sectors such as construction, infrastructure projects and health care, including medical devices and pharmaceutical products.
• India is an observer under WTO Agreement on government procurement since 2010 and, as of now, there is no plan to join the same.
• In future agreements, the GP chapter text may become a template, and the scope and coverage of the GP chapter may vary depending on the ambition.
• Under the pact, only government procurement contracts worth over ₹200 crore will be allowed for UAE-based companies on the same terms as Indian firms. Government procurement is open to 34 ministries and departments, including power and education.
• Earlier, India never took up government procurement for bilateral or multilateral trade agreements in order to protect domestic firms. This was one of the bottlenecks in several key FTA negotiations, including the one with the EU.State-owned firms and the defence ministry are excluded from GP.
• Only limited central government ministries are covered, that too with high thresholds for procurement of goods, services and construction services… excluded are subordinate entities of the central ministries including departments and attached bodies, autonomous bodies, government-owned firms, public sector enterprises, regulators or any other entity, wholly or partially, under the central government.

THE PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTIONS

QUESTION FOR 7th MAY 2022

Q. Consider the following statements:

1. The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) at national level in India has gone below replacement levels.
2. All states in India have reached the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) at replacement level or below.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

a) 1 only

b) 2 only

c) Both 1 and 2

d) Neither 1 nor 2

 

ANSWER FOR THE 6TH MAY

Answer: C

Explanation:

1. Koftgiri art – Rajasthan
2. Dhokra art – Chhattisgarh
3. Rogan painting – Gujarat

THE CONTEXT: In December 2021, six students at Udupi Women’s PU College, Karnataka, staged a protest for weeks after college authorities refused to let them sit in classrooms wearing hijabs. After approaching the district commissioner, and education department officials, the girls have petitioned the Karnataka High Court (HC) seeking relief. But the HC ruled against them. This whole saga of events has thrown up very pertinent questions on the right to education, the right to religion, and the courts’ role in adjudicating such cases. In this article, we examine these issues in detail.

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THE HIJAB?

Hijab, niqab, and burka are different kinds of coverings worn by Muslim women worldwide. Some women wear a headscarf to cover their head and hair, while others wear a burka or niqab, which also covers up their face. Headscarves are seen as a sign of modesty by people who wear them and a symbol of religious faith, but not everyone agrees with them and in some countries, like France and Denmark, there’s a ban on wearing garments that cover the face in public. The word hijab describes the act of covering up generally but is often used to describe the headscarves worn by Muslim women. These scarves come in many styles and colours. The type most commonly worn in the West covers the head and neck but leaves the face clear.

NOTE: The description given above is only for a general understanding of the students and in no manner is an authoritative exposition.

A TIMELINE OF THE ROW OVER WEARING THE HIJAB

28 DECEMBER 2021:

• Girl students started protesting against the refusal of college authorities to allow them to sit in the classrooms wearing hijab.
• The college authorities claimed that it had prescribed a uniform and no other religious attire is permissible to be worn along with the uniform.

3 JANUARY 2022:

• Hindu students of the Government First Grade College in Koppa, Chikmagalur, which also has a uniform and a dress code, staged a sit-in protest sporting saffron scarves.
• Their demand was also to allow them to wear saffron scarves if Muslim girl students were allowed to wear hijabs.

6 JANUARY 2022:

• Similar scenes were witnessed in Pompei college of Mangalore.
• The Karnataka Primary and Secondary Education Minister B.C. Nagesh had said the state was mulling a uniform dress code.

31 JANUARY 2022:

• The issue flared up after Udupi Women’s PU college students approached the HC seeking interim relief to attend classes wearing hijab.
• Meanwhile, the Karnataka government asked all government colleges and schools to maintain the status quo until the government committee came up with a recommendation on the dress code.

2 FEBRUARY 2022:

• Kundapur Government PU college shut its gates to students wearing hijab after Hindu students wore saffron scarves.
• Videos of the girl students pleading with the principal to let them attend classes went viral.

3 FEBRUARY 2022:

• The protests spread to another college in Kundapur. Bhandarkar’s Arts and Science College forced the college management to shut the gates on students sporting hijab as well as saffron scarves.

5 FEBRUARY 2022:

• In exercise of the powers conferred under Section 133(2) of the Karnataka Education Act, 1983, the govt ordered that:
• Students of all government schools to wear the uniform fixed by the state.
• Students of private schools may wear uniforms prescribed by the management committees of the school.
• In colleges that fall under the Karnataka Board of Pre-University Education, the dress code prescribed by the College Development Committee, or the administrative supervisory committee must be followed.
• If the administration does not fix a dress code, clothes that do not threaten equality, unity, and public order must be worn.

14 MARCH 2022:

• The court upheld the legality of the Karnataka Government’s February 5 order prescribing wearing of uniforms in schools and pre-university colleges under provisions of the Karnataka Education Act, 1983.

AT PRESENT:

• The verdict has been appealed to the SC by the original petitioners and others although the SC has not begun hearing it yet.

DECODING THE RIGHT TO WEAR A HIJAB

FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS:

• Hijab (headscarf) is a Fundamental Right guaranteed under Articles 14 and 25 of the Constitution of India and is an essential practice of Islam.
• Shariah mandates women to wear the headscarf and therefore, the action of the college in banning the headscarf within the premise of the college is repugnant to the protection of religious freedom as provided under Article 25 (1).

UNREASONABLE RESTRICTIONS:

• The Constitution of India guarantees the Freedom of Conscience and the right to profess, practice, and propagate religion while reserving the state’s right to interfere with the religious matter only if it involves an issue relating to public order, morality, and health.
• In this light, it is contended that banning the hijab can only be done by invoking an interest of public order or the morals of the society. However, that is not the case here.

IMPACT ON MENTAL HEALTH AND FUTURE PROSPECTS:

• The manner in which the respondent college has ousted the petitioner not only creates a stigma amongst her batch mates but among the children of the entire college, which in turn will affect the mental health as well as future prospects of the petitioner.

DENIAL OF RIGHT TO EDUCATION:

• The college has curtailed the right to education of the petitioner on the sole ground of religion is smacked with malfides, discriminatory, and politically motivated.
• By doing so the state government has failed in its duty to realise the right to human development by denying the petitioner her education.

ESSENTIAL RELIGIOUS PRACTICE:

• The plea refers to verses from the Holy Quran and states that taking away the practice of wearing the hijab from women who profess the Islamic faith, results in a fundamental change in the character of the Islamic religion.
• For this reason, the practice of wearing the hijab constitutes as an essential and integral part of Islam.
• In the case of Hindu Religious Endowments, Madras v. Sri. Lakshmindra Thirtha Swamiar of Sri. Shirur Mutt (1954 SCR 1005), where the Supreme Court has held that Freedom of Religion in our Constitution is not confined to religious beliefs only; it extends to religious practices also.

CHOICE OF DRESS:

• It is argued that the right of women to have the choice of dress based on religious injunctions is a fundamental right protected under Article 25 (1) when such prescription of dress is an essential part of the religion.

HIJAB AND THE WORLD

• Canada: After a long battle, the Canadian government decided not to pursue a ban on wearing the hijab during immigration ceremonies.
• France: French mayors have banned full-body swimsuits known as “burkinis” from beaches, citing public order concerns.
• United States: Women in hijab represent the United States in government, business, and sports.
• Iran: Women are required to wear hijab, although what constitutes “proper hijab” is widely debated.
• Turkey: Hijab may be part of a police officer’s uniform, although it is not required.

WHAT WAS THE ARGUMENT OF THE STATE OF KARNATAKA?

LEGISLATIVE BACKING:

• As per Section 7 of the Karnataka Education Act, 1983, students of all educational institutions shall behave as one family, without restricting themselves to one class of persons, jointly maintaining and upholding public order.
• Under Section 133 of the Act, the government reserves the right to issue appropriate directions to schools and colleges to ensure the maintenance of public order.

POWER OF SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE:

• Development Committees of all schools and colleges have been created to make proper use of government grants, improve basic infrastructure and facilities, and maintain the quality of education.
• Schools and colleges are directed to operate as per the decisions of the development committees.

ADVERSE EFFECTS ON EQUALITY:

• The Department of Education, Karnataka, came to know that in some institutions, students are following practices as per their religion, which is adversely affecting equality in such schools and colleges.

JUDICIAL ORDERS:

• The Apex Court in Asha Renjan & Ors v State of Bihar 2017 accepted the balance test when competing rights are involved and has taken the view that individual interest must yield to the larger public interest.
• Thus, conflict over competing rights can be resolved not by negating individual rights but by upholding larger rights to remain, to hold such relationships between institutions and students.
• In Fathima Hussain Sayed v Bharat Education Society & Ors a similar issue pertaining to dress codes arose in Karthik English School, Mumbai. After investigating the issue, the Bombay High Court held that the petitioner’s (school Principal’s) restriction on wearing a headscarf or covering one’s head is not violative of Article 25 of the Constitution.

AN OVERVIEW OF THE HIGH COURT VERDICT

The court upheld the legality of the Karnataka Government’s February 5 order prescribing wearing of uniforms in schools and pre-university colleges under provisions of the Karnataka Education Act, 1983. The court ruled that prescription of school uniforms does not violate either the right to freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1) (a) or the right to privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution. The restriction against wearing of hijab in educational institutions is only a reasonable restriction constitutionally permissible, which the students cannot object to. Wearing the hijab (headscarf) by Muslim women does not form a part of essential religious practices in the Islamic faith and it is not protected under the right to freedom of religion guaranteed under Article 25 of the Constitution of India. The bench, in its interim order passed on February 10, restrained all students regardless of their religion or faith from wearing saffron shawls (bhagwa), scarfs, hijab, religious flags, or the like in classrooms until further orders on the petitions.

A CRITIQUE OF THE HC JUDGMENT

ESSENTIAL RELIGIOUS PRACTICE: 

• The court finds that the petitioners have failed to prove that wearing the hijab is essential to Islam – i.e., that it is mandatory, non-optional, and that Islam would lose its identity if women did not wear the hijab.
• Neither the court nor external commentators, are particularly well-placed to conduct this analysis.

FRAMING THE WRONG QUESTION:

• It effectively denies to Muslim women the ability to frame their argument as one of religious choice and requires, instead, for them to argue in the language of religious compulsion.

THE TEST OF PROPORTIONALITY:

• Proportionality requires, among other things, that the state adopt the least restrictive method in order to achieve its goals. Thus, where something less than a ban would suffice, a ban is disproportionate.

IGNORING PRECEDENT:

• It is pertinent to note that the petitioners had placed heavy reliance on a Madras High Court judgment (M Ajmal Khan vs Election Commission).
• The Madras High Court had observed, “… thus, seen from the reported material that there is almost unanimity amongst Muslim scholars that purdah is not essential but covering of head by scarf is obligatory”.
• However, quite shockingly, there is absolutely no discussion of the said Madras High Court judgment in the hijab verdict.

REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION:

• Reasonable accommodation requires the court to ask whether, in a setting where a certain default exists, a particular claim for departing from that default, founded in constitutional rights, can be reasonably accommodated by the state (or private party), without the activity in question losing its character.
• In the case of the hijab, the claim for reasonable accommodation is straightforward: that the wearing of the hijab (especially hijab that is the same colour as the uniform and is simply draped, like a shawl, over the head) can be reasonably accommodated alongside the uniform, without damaging or in other ways vitiating the overall public goal of education.

FAILURE TO RECOGNISE INDIRECT DISCRIMINATION:

• Facially neutral criteria of uniform dress code flies in the face of established discrimination law jurisprudence in the country, especially that of indirect discrimination which the Supreme Court of India has recognised.
• The court has failed to recognise that facially neutral criteria are capable of having a disproportionate impact on a particular community or group of individuals.

UNIFORM AS THE GOAL: 

• The court has been weighed down by the role of uniform instead of seeing education as an end goal.
• The court’s crucial error is that it sanctifies the uniform instead of sanctifying education.
• Instead of looking at the uniform as instrumental to achieving the goal of an inclusive and egalitarian right, it treats the uniform (and its associated values of sameness, homogeneity, etc) as the goal itself.

THE HIJAB AND WOMEN’S AGENCY

• To view the hijab as a contest between men and women, oppression and freedom, patriarchy and liberation is to reduce hijab-wearing women to their immediate identities of victims of patriarchy, denying them their agency and, therefore, viewing the world through a narrow dichotomy.
• We must acknowledge that feminine agency negotiates a matrix of power — whether it is caste, class, or community. The recent attack on the hijab cannot be seen in isolation but as part of the larger global politics starting from 9/11 when symbolic representations of Muslim identity in public were complicated by certain countries in Europe legislating to ban the hijab in state-run institutions, including schools.
• The representation of Islamic norms as incompatible with modern secularism led not just to a ban of the hijab but also the burkini. But symbols of the Christian religion continued to be worn publicly without being challenged. Similarly, In India, where the hijab is being attacked for disrupting the ‘uniform style of clothes’, no other religious symbols displayed on the body are being questioned.

THE WAY FORWARD

ROLE OF THE SC: The SC should hear the matter at the earliest and provide for an authoritative pronouncement.

ROLE OF THE GOVTS: The role of the union and state governments is very important here as they are the agencies responsible for implementing governance as per the Constitution. They should not support any act against the Constitution and particularly that which serves the agenda of fundamentalist forces.

A SENSITIVE APPROACH: The Karnataka government and college administration should have handled the issue in a more conciliatory and sensitive way so as to ensure the continuation of the education of these girls rather than confronting them in this way.

ROLE OF SECULAR AND DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT: The secular and democratic movements and political parties are seen to be stuck on symbolic issues. Instead, they need to have a broader development agenda for marginalised minorities.

RECONCILIATION OF RELIGION AND EDUCATION: The hijab controversy had become a site of contest between religion and education, community, and the system. “Muslim girls are increasingly opting for higher education. But with these developments, there may be a setback with girls withdrawing from modern secular education. This must be addressed.

THE CONCLUSION: In its 1994 judgment in the S.R Bommai case 1994, the Supreme Court observed that “religious freedom is the hallmark of pluralism and inclusiveness. It is meant to advance social harmony and diversity”. This must be the spirit in which the whole issue should be understood, debated, and logically concluded.

Questions:

1. Critically examine the judgment of the Karnataka High Court with respect to the ban on hijab in educational institutions.
2. Facially neutral criteria of uniform dress code flies in the face of established discrimination law jurisprudence in the country, especially that of indirect discrimination which the Supreme Court of India has recognised. Comment

ADD TO YOUR KNOWLEDGE

THE FUNCTION OF THE COLLEGE DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE

1. Prepare an overall comprehensive development plan for the college regarding academic, administrative, and infrastructural growth, and enable the college to foster excellence in curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular activities.
2. Decide about the overall teaching programmes or annual calendar of the college.
3. Recommend to the management about introducing new academic courses and the creation of additional teaching and administrative posts.
4. Take a review of the self-financing courses in the college, if any, and make recommendations for their improvement.
5. Make specific recommendations to the management to encourage and strengthen research culture, consultancy, and extension activities in the college.
6. Make specific recommendations to the management to foster academic collaborations to strengthen teaching and research.
7. Make specific recommendations to the management to encourage the use of information and communication technology in the teaching and learning process.
8. Make specific recommendations regarding the improvement in teaching and suitable training programmes for the employees of the college.
9. Prepare the annual financial estimates (budget) and financial statements of the college or institution and recommend the same to the management for approval.
10. Formulate proposals of new expenditure not provided for in the annual financial estimates (budget).
11. Make recommendations regarding the students’ and employees’ welfare activities in the college or institution.
12. Discuss the reports of the internal quality assurance committee and make suitable recommendations.
13. Frame suitable admissions procedures for different programmes by following the statutory norms.
14. Plan major annual events in the college, such as annual day, sports events, cultural events, etc.
15. Recommend to the administration appropriate steps to be taken regarding the discipline, safety, and security issues of the college or institution.
16. Consider and make appropriate recommendations on inspection reports, local inquiry reports, audit reports, reports of national assessment and accreditation council, etc.
17. Recommend the distribution of different prizes, medals, and awards to the students.
18. Prepare the annual report on the work done by the committee for the year ending on the 30th of June and submit the same to the management of such college and the university.