NUJS Journals West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences
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Romantic relationships: the case of special courts under POCSO Act of 2012
No full textThe POCSO Act came as a respite for curbing the menace of child rape and childhood molestation by adults. However, the effectiveness is now questioned. The record of the State of West Bengal as an example establishes that the use of the Act is merely as a mode of expression of vengeance or threat for marriage, extortion of money among other ill intentions. At the same time, with change in the cultural pattern of the country early relationships are not uncommon. However, if the provisions of this Act are strictly implemented these innocent relationships will be penalizing. The paper seeks to understand whether there is a need to have an exception to the application of the Act in cases of childhood romantic relationships by trying to grasp whether increased rate of crimes is as a result of this strict application and whether this Act is really merely a tool for revenge by the parents. The paper is neither to justify any illicit or childhood relationships especially involving sexual intercourses nor to propagate the same, but is intended towards portraying the ground reality and the changes in the society that have emerged over the years.The gradual acceptance and subsequent amendment of the laws with its adequate interpretations to the suit the "best interests of the child" towards successful attainment of the objectives behind this legislation as enshrined in the Preamble of the Act and upheld in catena of judgements is the pivotal aim of this paper. Finally, the question whether incorporation of an age group for by children for consensual sexual relationship under a new category as has been proposed lately can bring about an overall success of the Act will form the edifice as well as the conclusion of this paper
THE GIG ECONOMY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS ON CONTRACT LABOR LAWS
Get PDFThis paper analyses the effect of gig economy on contract labour laws. The gig economy has changed the nature of work, placed established employment models to the test, and brought up significant issues about the suitability of current contract labour rules. According to the Unorganised Workers' Social Security Act of 2008, a wage worker, self-employed individual, or someone working from home is referred to as an "unorganised worker." Although gig workers may not be included in this definition, they do fit under the second clause, which defines gig workers as those for whom no labour code defines the term. They are referred to as "platform workers" since their employment is dependent on platforms and they are hired by businesses using digital apps. Rajasthan is the first state in India to develop legislation protecting gig workers and giving them access to sufficient regulatory frameworks to stop exploitation of their freelance. This paper examines several gig economy issues while accounting for the growing demand for platform labour. It also offers a well-thought-out system for harmonious interactions between the aggregator and worker, as well as specific actions to meet these workers' demands. When the COVID-19 pandemic stuck, a large portion of the gig economy flourished since it was useful for delivering food, necessities, and transportation services, which were severely disrupted. The research's focus is restricted to talking about the problems that platform workers—individuals who work for aggregators like Swiggy, Ola, Uber, and so on—face and offering potential fixes.The paper investigates how the gig economy may affect contract labour laws. It does so by looking at the particulars of gig employment, how different jurisdictions have responded to regulations, and the opportunities and problems that may arise in providing gig workers with adequate safeguards. To meet the characteristics of this developing labour market, it also evaluates the necessity of regulatory adjustments. This article clarifies the intricacies of gig labour in India by thoroughly examining the rules governing labour today, such as the Code on Wages, and how they relate to gig workers
MOTHERS ON THE TWO SIDES OF THE RADCLIFFE LINE: HOW SOCIALLY SECURE?
Get PDFIn a country which is steadily marching towards economic growth with the twin goals ofeconomic independence and economic equality in mind, social security for mothers in theform of maternity benefits is of paramount importance. Despite changes in social structures,babies are still biologically dependent on their mothers and the same necessitates adequateprovisions of leave and benefit to women employees for motherhood and childcare. As perthe Act, benefits are available to women who have worked at least for 80 days during the 12months immediately prior to the pregnancy.Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (No.183) of International Labour Organization (ILO)stipulates 14 weeks maternity leave with cash benefit in case of an instrument being used inthe delivery of the baby. For babies delivered normally by labour, the mother is entitled to sixweeks of leave before and six weeks immediately after the birth of the child. However, inIndia, pursuant to an executive order, the maternity leave for women in the public andprivate sector1 is to be extended to 26 weeks thereby helping employers retain skilled forceand their loyalty.2 She cannot be employed in any work that might endanger baby's health. This seldom seems to be the case and the majority of women end up losing their jobs during pregnancy. By virtue of a recent policy to encourage small families, a woman is allowed maternitybenefits only for the first two children. The flaw in this policy has been rightly pointed out bya certain section of feminists who say that in India it is mostly the husband who makes thedecision of having children and usually an Indian couple attempts conception till a boy isborn. Here, the wife does not have a substantial say in family planning and is being deprivedof maternity benefits as well.The aim of this paper is to examine the current Indian laws regarding maternity benefits. Thepaper is divided into two parts; the first part deals with the basic introduction and analyticaldescription of the existing laws on maternity benefits while the second part attempts to offer acomparative study between existing maternity benefit laws in India and that in itsneighbouring countries such as Pakistan. Through a comparative analysis, the author seeksto suggest ways in which the existing laws can be supplemented
UNIVERSALISATION OF SOCIAL SECURITY IN INDIA - COMBINING THE EXISTING AND FUTURE SCHEMES
Get PDFIndia is a welfare state and social security is the medium through which it tries to realise thisgoal. Social Security is the security which the society provides to its members in the form ofsocietal obligations. The word ‘society’ should not be taken in a literal sense but shouldconnote the idea of a government which represents the society. The Directive Principles ofState Policy (DPSP) under the Constitution of India narrates the duties of the Government toprovide sufficient means to all classes of people for their proper sustenance and growth. Itsbasic aim is to assess and rectify the economic, social and cultural problems faced by thecitizens of the country. However, due to ineffective means to engulf the major population ofthe working poor, social security has become a major challenge for our government. Severalschemes target the whole population in the same field but due to difference in their time oflaunch and because of the politics involved, their implementation is severely affected. Toexemplify, Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojna (2010) and Janani Suraksha Yojna (2005)are two Central schemes which deal with mother care, target a common population andprovide cash incentives to mothers for the proper birth of their children and, therefore, theyrequire a ‘Horizontal Coalescence.’ Coalescence is generally used as a scientific term whichdenotes “the coming together of different masses to unite into one and simultaneously growtogether for a common end”. Schemes having common or similar goals and target the samepopulation need to be fused together. Another is ‘Vertical Coalescence’ under which theschemes, which aim to achieve the common ends but were launched severally for differentclasses of the population, need to be fused into a common scheme. A social security schemewith a statutory backing like MGNREGA would be the best possible step not only towardsuniversalisation but also towards eradicating various differences in the society that lead todisharmony. This paper aims to explore ways for eradicating multiplicity of ongoing similarschemes and focusing attention on the practical use of Vertical and Horizontal Coalescence,which will provide undivided focus for the implementation of a universal scheme
LEGISLATING SAFETY: COMPARING RECENT SOCIAL PROTECTION LAWS IN INDIA AND INDONESIA
Get PDFIn recent years, several Asian countries have started moving far from patchwork welfareprogrammes, towards giving more thorough social security. This is a significant movement in anarea where social welfare has not been politically prevalent, and the family has been generallyfaced with the pressure of supporting the young, the old and the ailing.Two of these states – India and Indonesia – have put new government-managed social securityexercises into law, as opposed to just planning official strategy. In this paper, the authorsexamine social security laws in both the nations. They look specifically at India’s National FoodSecurity Law, 2013, and Indonesia’s laws on the National Social Security System, 2004 and2011. These laws deserve attention since they help to amplify advantages, as well as to promoteeconomic and social rights. These recent social protection laws potentially deepen what Brinksand Gauri (2004) depict as the ‘legalisation’ of welfare approach, whereby legal rights assumeimportance in policy, and legal professionals, judges in particular, become significant inimplementing it. In that capacity, these laws are likely to, and arguably should, force entirelyhard-edged commitments on the administration and empower people to hold the legislature to itscommitments. At the same time, recent social protection laws have the potential to allayconcerns that legal enforcement of economic social rights distorts policy and dilutes theseparation of powers. Through this paper, the authors want to show that social protection lawsin both India and Indonesia have principally extended the policies that went before them, insteadof in a general sense, rebuilding how specific types of social security are conveyed
ATAL PENSION YOJANA: PROVIDING ADEQUATE SOCIAL SECURITY NET?
Get PDFThe tradition of joint family system in India precluded the need for a social security cover for itspeople. The family itself provided the cover. But with industrialisation and consequent migrationof people from rural to urban areas, the joint family started dissolving and nuclear familiesevolved. Thus developed the need for a social security cover by the government for its citizens. Alarge proportion of India still exists without any kind of health, accident or life insurance. Inorder to ensure an overarching universal social security system which will guarantee that noIndian citizen will have to worry about illness, accidents or pension in old-age, the presentgovernment introduced Atal Pension Yojana, a pension scheme especially crafted for the benefitof the unorganised sector workers who are otherwise not generally protected under any statutorysocial security scheme. As per the Scheme, a fixed monthly pension of any sum between Rs.1000and Rs. 5000 will be paid once the subscriber attains the age of 60 years. The amount of pensionwill be based on the respective monthly contributions of the benefactors. The question is whetherthis Scheme is helpful if we take the rate of inflation into account. This paper tries to provide adetailed analysis of whether the Atal Pension Yojana as a Scheme will benefit the target groups(unorganised sector) in the long run or will help the government to invest more public money inorder to generate more funds. It will also focus on the need for inflation indexation and a moreoptimal investment mix so as to provide adequate social security to each household
CHILD RIGHTS AND THE ROHINGYA CRISIS
Get PDFChild right turns in to a misnomer when Rohingya villages are revisited in Cox Bazar, Bangladesh. Irrespective of the various child right movement in various parts of the world, the Rohingya children lives a horrific life in the Bay of Bengal with very little option for resuming a life with dignity and freedom. The terrible weather condition and lack of basic facilities have made their life even more miserable in the period of lockdown and international flights being suspended preventing multiple assistance to reach the incumbent residing in the shores of the sea. Life has been as difficult as it can possible be for most of the Rohingya refugees and their new hope for resurrection has been shattered under the new world order. The question remains, would they ever come out of it during their childhood
COVID-19 AND THE ROLE OF TRANSNATIONAL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: A REQUIRED PAUSE ON INNOVATION AND COMPETITION FOR VACCINE EQUITY
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A REVIEW OF THE GLOBAL ELDERLY RIGHTS FRAMEWORK AND THE PROSPECTIVE ROLES OF CONSTITUTIONAL COURTS IN AUGMENTING ELDERLY RIGHTS IN THE INDIAN JURIDICAL CONTEXT
Get PDFElderly persons play an instrumental role in not only fostering inclusive growth but also creating strong value chains that augment social cohesion. They promote intergenerational equity and facilitate the promotion, preservation, and dissemination of traditional knowledge. However, despite playing such critical roles, the elderly population, especially the poor elderly, become victims of income and health insecurity. Although many of the international legal instruments bestow plenary rights on elderly people, in reality, they have very few remedies to exhaust. The paper attempts to revisit the global elderly rights framework and strives to know whether the existing international normative safeguards are sufficient to promote elderly rights and whether constitutional courts in the Indian juridical context have any thoughtful role to play in consolidating the rights framework. The main argument that resonates across the length and breadth of the paper is that the implementation and monitoring of laws and policies governing elderly rights are weak and that there is an impending need to revamp the implementation and monitoring framework through the purposive role of constitutional courts. In light of the prevailing facts and the normative findings, the paper proposes that the constitutional courts in India must invoke their review and epistolary jurisdictions to ensure effective implementation and monitoring of elderly rights at the municipal level. It employs analytical and descriptive approaches to thematically correlate existing frameworks and to reach apriori generalisations
MARITAL RAPE: A LEGALISED OFFENCE
Get PDFMarital rape in India is considered as an exception under section 375 of the Indian Penal Code. On the contrary, this section considers rape as a crime. Since, our society considers women as a property of their husbands’ and this has always been the notion of the patriarchal culture. The division of labour in patriarchal family represents that wife are not given much importance since they are not the bread winner of the family. In turn, this permits men to exercise power on their wives. However, the action of the husbands is not the result of the power but an imbalance in power. Nonetheless, women in the era of digital age are more than capable to give consent, be aware of the implications of their actions, can reason well, and are self- dependent. This study examines the reasons as to why the marital rape must be considered a grave criminal offence. and why there is need for revision in the current laws. An effort has been put to explain the legislative systems and the initiatives taken by the Courts and the MPs to change the current law