Abhay Chauhan, Author at Alive

Based on the recommendations of the Jaya Jaitley task force, the Union Cabinet passed a proposal on Wednesday, to bring the legal age of marriage for women at par with men, that is from 18 to 21 years.The objective of the task force, set up in June 2020 by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, was to examine matters "about motherhood, imperatives of MMR, improvement of nutritional levels and related issues." Among other recommendations, the task force recommended bringing the legal age of marriage at par with those of men. What is the current status of legal age of marriageThe Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 sets the minimum age of marriage at 18 for girls and 21 for boys. The minimum age of consent, as per the Special Marriage Act, 1954 and Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 200...

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In UP, Policymaking Needs To Be More Evidence-Based

Abhay ChauhanDecember 8, 20210

The RSS and its affiliate bodies have time and again argued for a population control law even at the national level. Often BJP lawmakers have coaxed their fellow Hindu brethren to produce more children. Few BJP ruled states flirted with this idea- such as Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. But the front runner in this cause is Uttar Pradesh. The need for such a law as stated by its proponents is to stabilize and control the growing population which poses enormous stress on the limited capacity of the state. But quite often the real motives are veiled behind loaned reasoning, as the claims of population disaster are not backed by authentic data and it seems that it is not really a concern for the increasing population but that increase is specifically targeted to a community, which i...

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The Surveillance State: The Moral Cost Of Being Watched Every Time

Abhay ChauhanDecember 8, 20210

No matter how hard political theorists try to convince, the modern nation-state system is essentially autocratic at the core. Whether you go to Germany, the United States or recent democracies like India, in whatever fabric the democracy is presented, certainly it is not close to anything like the textbook definition of democracy. As a system that has been in use for more than two hundred years with all the advanced ideas, it's the least perfect. One of the most fundamental differences between the various democracies lies not in their constitutional or legal arrangements but in the degree of autocracy they exercise visibly or invisibly.One can say that the army and the police are perhaps the most visible arm of the state in exercising their autocracy, but with limitations but what gets of...

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Can Amarinder-BJP Tie-Up And Turn Punjab Elections Trilateral

Abhay ChauhanDecember 8, 20210

In an interesting set of development, ex Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh met with BJP Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar, what he described as a "courtesy call". The Punjab elections are scheduled to be held in 2022, and the last few months have seen intense factionalism and jostling for political power. With Capt Amarinder Singh announcing to form a new party and his hints towards a pre-poll alliance with BJP and the breakaway Akali faction called SAD (samyukt), the upcoming Punjab elections are anyone's guess. Owing to its own making, Congress is reeling under intense pressure to keep its stock together. The Punjab Congress Chief (PCC) is at loggerheads with CM Charanjit Singh Channi over certain issues over the appointment and administration with the government. T...

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Negligence Of Doctor Costs Eyes Of Several People

Abhay ChauhanDecember 8, 20210

Scores of people attended a free eye check-up camp organized at Juran Chapra locality of Muzaffarpur, Bihar. Little do they know that the free checkup will be their life biggest nightmare. As per the reports, people visiting the free eye checkup facility were told to undergo surgery for cataracts, after initial checkups. After a few days few people developed severe pain in the operated eye, the doctors of the hospital provided them with painkiller injections. But this made the matters worse, a severe infection caught up their eyes and eventually they were suggested to get the operated eye removed to save the other one. The blame was transferred on the patients by the facility for their negligence which led to infection. The negligence at the free check-up camp was brought to light...

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It Needs More Than MSP To Revitalize Agriculture!

Abhay ChauhanDecember 1, 20210

In a televised address on 19 November 2021, Prime Minister Modi announced repealing of the three contentious farm laws, an issue that divided the nation for year long. Despite the government's commitment farmers are digging in their tents to brace for the coming winter months and to continue to sit in protest to get their remaining six demands fulfilled, including, most importantly, a statutory backing for the Minimum Support Price (MSP). The tug-of-war continues but unlike the repeal of farm laws, legalising MSP will not be so easy. What is MSP and why are farmers demanding a law backing it?The history of MSP can be traced in the rationing system introduced by the British during the second world war. But it was in independent India, that it became a tool to address the issue of food...

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The Indispensability Of Jinnah To Hindutva Politics

Abhay ChauhanDecember 1, 20210

There is no denying the fact that the standards of Indian public debate are on a slide, especially in the last decade. Pakistan and it's founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah is a common theme of debate on prime time television shows, an issue that features over and above other electoral issues. This exclusive focus on Pakistan and Jinnah is a result of decades of careful nurturing of a cadre of people who espouse muscular nationalism based on the argument that a Hindu Rashtra can only be an alternative to Muslim Jihad. The majority who happens to be Hindu is presented as holding the secular flag high; otherwise, India could have potentially turned into a theocracy. It serves two purposes, that the Hindus are temperamentally more tolerant and secular and that Muslims are temperamentally religious-...