E&E - Ch. 4.4

Q.8         Briefly describe the various schemes launched for women education in India.                                                                                                                         (AKTU. - 2008-09)
Ans.        Women Education In Indian: -                                            (AKTU. - 2010 - 11)
                                Under the scheme of Balika Samridhi Yojana launched on October 2, 1997, with a specific sole objective to encourage the enrolment and retention of a girl child in the schools, the mother of a girl child born on or after August 15, 1997 in a family below poverty line is given a grant of Rs. 500 besides a scholarship for education of the girl child when she attends the school. About 12 lakh girl children were benefited during 1997-98. The Programme of Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas aims to improve the socio-economic status of the poor women in the rural areas through creation of group of women for income generating activities on a self-sustaining basis. Upto November, 1998, about 1.97 lakh women were benefited. Under Indira Mahila Yojana for empowerment of women, 28,000 small homogeneous women’s groups were formed upto 1997-99. The scheme of Mahila Samridhi Yojana to inculcate the habit of saving among rural women is being revised and merged into Indira Mahila Yojana to have an integrated package of five components including formation of viable women’s groups.

Q.9.        Discuss the importance of ‘women education’ for the success of the schemes relating to environmental quality management and public health.             (AKTU. - 2009 - 10)
Related Questions -
Q.            How women education can help environmental protection. (AKTU. - 2008 - 09)
Q.            How women education can protect the environment?           (AKTU. - 2012 - 13)
Ans.     Importance Of Women Education For Environmental Quality Management And Public Health: -
As women’s concerns and social issues in general became recognized as crucial for environmental management in the 1970s and 80s, likewise did environmental concerns become an integral part of conferences on the advancement and empowerment of women. The Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies from 1985 highlight the growing challenges of fuel-wood and water scarcity and the special impact on women as “intermediaries between the natural environment and society.” The Strategies also state that “The problem will continue to be greatest where water resources are limited - in arid and semi-arid areas” and call for women’s full participation in environmental management. Finally, the Strategies highlight the need to focus on women’s secure rights to land, training, credit, investment, and agricultural development. The main ideas from Nairobi were developed further by the 1,500 women from all over the World who participated in the Women’s Congress on a Healthy Planet.  Furthermore “women’s access to food, land inheritance, tenure, and ownership must be regarded as a basic human right.”
                Protection of the Atmosphere, Biotechnology, and Radioactive Waste, all programs on conservation and management of resources for development call for special activities to promote and ensure women’s active participation. These activities include awareness raising, training and education, capacity building of women’s organizations, consideration of women’s needs when developing programs, ensure women’s equal access to land, water, and forest resources and to technologies, financing, marketing, processing, and distribution. Furthermore, several programs call for special attention to women’s traditional knowledge.
In short:
•    Involvement of local population, particular women and youth, in the collection and use of environmental information,
•     Land users, particularly women, to be main actors in combating land degradation,
•     Protection of women’s property rights,
•     Involvement of women in policies and programs to improve land use, manage common lands, incentives, and private investment in the drylands,
•     Full participation of women when drawing on local knowledge and experience,
•     Increased level of education and participation of people, particularly women,
•   Creation of rural banking to facilitate access to credit for rural populations, particularly  women, and
•    Review, development, and dissemination of gender-disaggregated  information, skills, and  know-how at all levels on ways of organizing and promoting popular participation.
According to the statistics of the Ministry of Civil Service Affairs and Housing, the number of Qatari women working in the field of health amounts to 500, compared to 357 men working in the same field. Qatari women represent 21% of the total number of 272 nurses working at the Ministry of Public Health. Women also work in preventive health, which comprises the sections of Contagious Disease Control, Vocational Health, Environmental Health, Food Control, Central Laboratories and Al Matar Clinic.

Q.10.      Write a short note on various issues related to enforcement of environmental legislation.                                                                                             (AKTU. - 2008-09)
Ans.        Issues Related to Enforcement of Environmental Legislation: -
                                Most legislation evolves in response to problems, so there is often delay between need and the establishment of satisfactory law.
                Three issues/things that are especially important for environmental legislation are;
(1) The precautionary Principle: -
                This principle has evolved to deal with risks and uncertainties faced by environmental management. The principle implies that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure-it does not prevent problems but may reduce their occurrence and helps ensure contingency plans are made.
(2) The Polluter – Pays Principle: -
                In addition to the obvious-the polluter pays for the damaged caused by a development-this principle also implies that a polluter pays for monitoring and policing. A problem with this approach is that fines may bankrupt small businesses, yet be low enough for a large company to write them off as an occasional overhead, which does little for pollution control.
                This principle, in fact, is more a way of allocating costs to the polluter than a legal principle.
(3) Freedom of Information: -
                Environmental planning and management is hindered if the public, NGOs or even official bodies are unable to get information. Many countries have now begun to release more information-the USA has a Freedom of Information Act, and the European Union is moving in this direction. But still many governments and multinational corporations fear that industrial secrets will leak to competitors if there is too much disclosure, and there are situations where authorities declare ‘strategic’ needs and suspend disclosure.