 A very good evening aspirants, welcome to Hindu News analysis brought to you by Shankar IAS Academy. Today is 5th of April 2022, the list of articles we are going to discuss today is displayed on the screen. You can see here the first article is regarding the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. Here we will be discussing about AFSPA in both prelims and main perspective. Then see the second topic, it is an editorial article, here we will be discussing about migrant labour and their issues. Then we will be covering Iran nuclear deal and Hindu succession act of 1956 in prelims perspective. Then we will conclude our discussion by solving some of the preliminary practice questions. So without wasting much time, we will start our discussion. Now look at this article, this text and context article talks about the Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1958 that is AFSPA. See this act is again in use because recently government reduced the number of disturbed areas under the act. So in this discussion, let us brush up what is AFSPA and what is a disturbed area. Before that look at this main question, this was asked in the year 2015 in GS paper 3. Let me read out the question, human rights activist constantly highlight the fact that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1958 is a draconian act leading to cases of human rights abuses by security forces. What sections of AFSPA are opposed by the activist? Critically evaluate the requirement with reference to the view held by apex court. See this question was asked in 2015 but even today the Armed Forces Special Powers Act is very relevant. So in this discussion, you will get to know about AFSPA and why it is called the draconian act and we will also see what are disturbed areas. The syllabus relevant to this article is highlighted here for your reference, you can go through it. See first of all, what is AFSPA of 1958? See the genesis of AFSPA 1958 can be traced to the Armed Forces Special Powers Act of 1948. This 1948 act was enacted to replace four ordinances and was based on the Armed Forces Special Powers Ordinance of 1942. See these ordinances were promulgated by the British to suppress the Indian freedom movement especially from the start of Quit India movement. Know that these ordinances gave special powers to certain officers of the Armed Forces of British India. This is to deal with an emergency. The special powers included the use of force at any person if that person does not obey the forces or damages any property or resist arrest. See the force could be used even to cause death of that person. Most importantly, they provided complete immunity to the officers as the action of officers could not be challenged in the court except with the prior approval of the central government. So this is why the ordinances are termed as draconian. In the sense it is excessively harsh and very severe. But unfortunately another AFSPA act was also enacted by the central government in the independent India in 1948. This particular act was modeled on the 1942 act. Central government argued that this act is necessary to deal with the internal security situation in the country in 1947 after independence. Later in 1957 this 1948 act was repealed. But again the next year it was restored as AFSPA act 1958. Here the reason given by the central government was the first deteriorating internal security situation in Assam and Manipur after the murder of the two states with Indian Union. So at that time the act was called the Armed Forces Assam and Manipur Special Powers Act of 1958. But now it is just referred as AFSPA. So basically the AFSPA of 1958 was enacted with the objective of providing certain special powers to the members of the armed forces in the disturbed areas. These disturbed areas are the ones in the north eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Thirupra. So now comes the question of what is a disturbed area. It is any area which is for the time being declared as a disturbed area under section 3 of the act through a notification. Note that the power to declare a disturbed area is vested with the governor of the respective state or the central government. They can declare whole of a state or any part of such state as declared area if in their opinion that the state or its part is in a disturbed or dangerous condition. And in their opinion to handle the condition it is necessary to use armed forces in aid of the civil power. Now there are two major problems with the act. One is it provides unconstrained powers to certain officers. These are the officers in the disturbed area. It includes any commissioned officer or warrant officer in the armed forces or non-commissioned officer or any other percent of equivalent rank in the armed forces. These officers have been given four set of powers. First is the power to use force or fire. These can be used even to cause death of a person and this is a person who is acting in contravention of any law and order in the disturbed area. But this is to be used only after giving due warning as per the act. This power can be used in the name of maintaining public order. Secondly the officer has the power to destroy any place if that place was used or could be used for armed attacks. Thirdly they also have the power to arrest any person without warrant. Here they are allowed to use force to arrest that person and this enables the misuse of the act. Finally the officer can enter and search any premises without warrant to make that arrest. Now the second problem is that is in addition to the powers the act also protects and provides immunity from prosecution to the officer. It is like the colonial era ordinances that is against the officers no prosecution, legal suit or other legal proceedings can be instituted for using powers under the act. But there is an exception to this protection that is the legal proceedings can be instituted only with the previous sanction of the central government. Now we should know which were the places declared as disturbed areas previously. See it included the whole states of Assam, Manipur and Nagaland. Then some parts of Arnachal such as the Tirap, Changlang and Longding districts. So you can note that Afspa was revoked from Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tirupura long back. We can say the remaining states are also in the process of revoking it but slowly. This is because government has withdrawn disturbed area status in some places of Assam, Manipur, Arnachal and Nagaland. Therefore as of now only some parts of these four states have been declared disturbed area. For example in seven districts of Nagaland disturbed area status has been removed and now it exists in 13 districts. This also includes the district mon where the botched operation of armed forces happened in December 2021 where 14 villages were killed by security forces. That's all regarding this act. Now we will do a quick recap. We have seen that the genesis of armed forces special powers act 1958 can be traced back to armed forces special powers act of 1948. This act was enacted to replace four ordinances and was based on the armed forces special power ordinance of 1942. We have seen that these ordinances were promulgated by the British to suppress the Indian freedom movement especially from the start of quit India movement. So basically the armed forces special powers act 1958 was enacted with the objective of providing certain special powers to the members of the armed forces in the disturbed areas. These disturbed areas are the ones in the north eastern states of Arnachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tirupura. We have also seen that disturbed area is any area which is for the time being declared as disturbed area under section 3 of this act through a notification. Then we have seen four set of powers given to the officers of the armed forces. First is the power to use force or fire. Second the officer has the power to destroy any place and thirdly they also have the power to arrest any person without warrant and finally the officer can enter and search any premises without warrant. And then we have seen that Afspa was revoked from Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tirupura long back. And as of now only parts of four states that is Assam, Manipur, Arnachal Pradesh and Nagaland have been declared disturbed area. So that's all regarding this text and context article. Now we will move on to next news article discussion. See take a look at this editorial article. This editorial article talks entirely about migrant workers, the hardships faced by them and some of the suggestions given by the authors to overcome these hardships. So we will see about them in detail in this news article discussion. See the question regarding the migrants was already asked in the year 2015 in general studies paper one. You can see here this is the question discuss the changes in the trends of labour migration within and outside India in the last four decades. In this context the labour migration is very important. See the syllabus relevant to this article is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. Firstly, whom do we call as migrant worker? See the Interstate Migrant Workman Act 1979 defines a migrant worker. The act defines a migrant worker as the one who is recruited by or through a licensed contractor in one state for employment in an establishment in another state. I will repeat again. The migrant worker is the one who is recruited by a licensed contractor in one state for employment in an establishment in another state. See in India as per census 2001 about 41 million were interstate migrants or people those who migrated from one state to another. Now why we are talking about migrants? As you may recall just two years ago in the aftermath of a nationwide India was shaken by the hardship of migrant workers who had to walk hundreds of kilometers through starvation, tiredness and violence in order to reach their hometown safely. To be frank this dire situation of the migrants grabbed our collective heartstrings. They became the focus of large-scale relief efforts by the governments and the civil society. For example the government ramped up the one nation one ration card project and announced the affordable rental housing complexes scheme set up the Ishram portal and began to draft a migration policy. So these initiatives generated hope that the migrant crisis of 2020 would be a turning point and many thought that India was firmly on a policy path by offering adequate citizenship and accompanying socio-economic and political rights to the internal migrants. But according to the authors providing this socio-economic and political security to the migrants still remains a tale of distress. Let us see why see it has been two years as of now since the nationwide lockdown and according to the authors migrants suffering may have vanished from our television screens but it is still a daily reality. This reality has been proved by several surveys. Note that repeated surveys have found that the incomes of migrant households continue to be lower than pre-pandemic levels that is even after returning to cities. Migrants when they returned back to cities the job opportunities were very low and very few jobs were left out for migrant workers and even if they find a job income from the job is low and as a result their children were eating less. And according to the authors this might become a vicious cycle and according to the authors the post 1991 poverty elevation of almost 300 million Indians is being undone because of this factor. So here despite all these issues framing a cohesive migration policy guidance still remains difficult and this is not a situation that India can afford to begin. Today one third of the nation's workforce is mobile that is their moving and migrants fuel critical sectors such as manufacturing construction hospitality logistics and commercial agriculture. The existing policy framework is fragmented and declining and to correct this there is a need to recognize the persistent structural impedance that are limiting migration policy momentum and take proactive efforts to move policy ahead. So what can be done to overcome the issues? Here in this next segment of our discussion let us see some of the suggestions given by the authors to address the migrants issue. The first suggestion is to recognize the fact that migration is a highly politicized phenomena in India. The political economy of migration has a significant impact on states. Let me explain this see the economic demands of a state often clashes with its political needs. States often favor nativist laws that impose domicile limits on employment and social security in destination states. Here destination state means the state where migrants eventually end up. This is one issue and on the other side we know that the migrants vote in their respective villages that is the originating villages. So the sending states are highly motivated to serve their own people and the destination states are not interested in doing so because the migrants anyway are not going to vote here. This fragmented policy response to internal migration comes after a clear cut state specific calculations or in other words this fragmented policy response to internal migration is a result of state specific estimations of political gains or losses that could be gained or lost by allocating fiscal and administrative resources to migrants. Despite the fact that migration is a crucial channel for impoverished marginal rural household to gain economic security this widespread sedentary bias continues to affect the policy. Now coming to the second suggestion the second suggestion is to properly define the ambiguous term migrants. According to the authors the term itself troubled the policy makers for a long period of time as the term is located between the two large terms which is the unorganized worker and the urban poor that is the migrants are not clearly identified it is some way located between the unorganized worker and the urban poor. For example given the Ishram portal which has made impressive progress in registering unorganized workers has been unable to accurately distinguish and target migrants. Now the third suggestion is to address the gaps in the data. See to make policy reforms there must be a proper official data sets but the recent pandemic has proved the failure of official data sets to capture the actual scale and frequency of internal migration in India. According to the authors this failure of official data sets actually paralyzes the migration policy reforms. So to conclude to address all these issues center has to play the lead role in it. Center should play a proactive role by offering strategic policy guidance and act as a platform for interstate coordination. Because of state level political economy limits the center's involvement is especially important in addressing concerns of interstate migratory workers at destination states. Center must keep up the momentum towards migrant supportive policy and for that to happen strategic initiatives should be encouraged to provide migrants safety nets regardless of where they are and such initiatives should bolster their ability to migrate safely and affordably. In that direction the Niti Ayokes draft policy on migrant workers is a positive step forward in outlining policy priorities and indicating suitable institutional frameworks. So according to the authors the Niti Ayokes draft policy on migrant worker deserved to be released as soon as possible. That's all regarding this editorial now we will do a quick recap. What we have seen so far we have seen that interstate migrant workman act 1979 defines a migrant worker. Migrant worker is the one who is recruited by a licensed contractor in one state for employment in an establishment in another state. And we have seen that repeated surveys have found that the incomes of migrant households continue to be lower than pre pandemic levels. So to address the challenges the authors gives three suggestions. The first suggestion is to recognize the fact that migration is a highly politicized phenomenon in India. And the second suggestion is to properly define the ambiguous term migrants. And the third suggestion is to address the gaps in the official data. And finally we concluded by saying that to address all these issues center has to play a lead role in it. That is the center should play a proactive role by offering strategic policy guidance and act as a platform for interstate coordination. So that's all regarding this editorial. Now we will move on to next news article discussion. Look at this news article. This news article talks about the Iran nuclear deal. See according to Iran the US is the one responsible for the pass in the talks between Tehran and the world powers in Vienna which aimed at reviving their 2015 nuclear deal. To put it simply Iran blames United States for halting nuclear talks. This is the crux of the news article given here. So let us use this opportunity and quickly revise the Iran nuclear deal. First what is this Iran nuclear deal? See the Iran nuclear deal was formerly known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. It is nothing but an agreement on the Iranian nuclear program reached in Vienna on 14th July 2015. The agreement was signed between Iran and the P5 plus one countries. Here by saying P5 plus one countries we are referring to the five permanent members of the UNSC that is United Nations Security Council. The members are China, France, Russia, United Kingdom and United States. The plus one country indicates Germany. See the formal negotiations towards Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action began with the adoption of the Joint Plan of Action which is an interim agreement signed between Iran and P5 plus one countries in November 2013. Then Iran and P5 plus one countries engaged in negotiations for the next 20 months and in April 2015 they agreed on a framework for the final agreement. In July 2015 Iran and the P5 plus one countries confirmed an agreement on the plan along with the roadmap agreement between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency. So in simple words it is a multilateral agreement. Now what is the purpose of signing the agreement? As you know uranium have nuclear related uses once it has been refined or enriched. This can be achieved by increasing the content of its most fissile isotopes that is uranium 235 through the use of centrifuges. See centrifuges are machines which spin at supersonic speeds. See the low enriched uranium which typically has a 3 to 5 percentage concentration of uranium 235 can be used to produce fuel for commercial nuclear power plants. Highly enriched uranium has a purity of 20 percentage or more and is used in research reactors and the weapon grade uranium is 90 percentage enriched or more. In July 2015 Iran has two uranium enriched plants that is in Natanz and Ferdow and was operating almost 20,000 centrifuges. So under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action Iran was limited to installing no more than 5000 centrifuges at Natanz until 2026 which is 10 years after the Deals Implementation Day in January 2016. Apart from this under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action Iran agreed to eliminate its stockpile of medium enriched uranium and cut its stockpile of low enriched uranium by 98 percentage and Iran agreed to reduce about two-third of its gas centrifuges for 13 years. For the next 15 years Iran agreed to enrich uranium only up to 3.67 percentage. Iran also agreed not to build any new heavy water facilities for the same time period. So uranium enrichment activities will be limited to a single facility using first generation centrifuges for 10 years and to monitor and verify Iran's compliance with the agreement the International Atomic Energy Agency will have regular access to all Iranian nuclear facilities. The agreement provides that in written for verifiably abiding by its commitments Iran will receive relief from the US, European Union and United Nations Security Council nuclear related sanctions. See the Iran nuclear deal has often been in news from time to time primarily focusing on the frosty relationship between Iran and the United States. Although the Iran nuclear deal was stalled under US President Trump in 2018, the new President Joe Biden has expressed interest in reviving the agreement following an announcement in May 2021. That is the reason why we are going through this agreement. So that's all regarding this news article. Now we will do a quick recap. We have seen that the Iran nuclear deal was formally known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. It is nothing but an agreement on the Iranian nuclear program between Iran and P5 plus 1 countries. What are P5 plus 1 countries? They are five permanent members of the UNSEE that is China, France, Russia, UK and US and the plus 1 country indicates Germany. So under the deal, Iran agreed to eliminate its stockpile of medium-enriched uranium and cut its stockpile of low-enriched uranium by 98% and reduce by about two-thirds of its gas centrifuges for 13 years. Iran also agreed not to build any new heavy water facilities for the same period of time. To monitor and verify Iran's compliance with the agreement, the International Atomic Energy Agency will have regular access to all Iranian nuclear facilities. In return, Iran will receive relief of nuclear-related sanctions from the US-European Union and the United Nations Security Council. So that's all regarding Iran nuclear deal and this news article. Now we will move on to next news article discussion. Look at this news article. This news article talks about a plea that is filed in the Supreme Court. The plea argued that the Hindu Succession Act 1956 is supporting patriarchal ideology, particularly few sections of the act are highly discriminated to women and thus are unconstitutional. So let us briefly see about the act and also the sections being challenged. You all know that Indian patriarchal society intentionally disregarded the right to property to women, especially under the Hindu religion. So it pushed the women to a position of inferiority in social and economic aspects of human relationship. The discrimination was so much that even Manusmriti supported it. In Manusmriti, it is stated that a woman must be dependent upon her father in childhood, dependent upon her husband in youth and must be dependent upon her sons in old age. She should never be free. But on the other hand, in Manusmriti, a son is deemed as worthy to receive whole estate as part of the law of inheritance. Such was the discrimination induced on women via Hindu religious texts. But a change was brought in when the Hindu Succession Act was framed in 1956. This act brought changes in the law of succession among Hindus and gave rights which were unknown in relation to women's property. See the objective of the act was to amend and codify the law relating to interstate succession among Hindus. Here, interstate refers to the scenario where the property holder has died without making a will or testamentary disposition. So, upon the death of the property holder, the act says who has the right over such property. This act granted equal right to the daughter, widow, mother and son. So, 1956 act was the first law which sanctioned absolute property right to women. Under the act, the daughter, widow, mother and son all became class one legal hires of a deceased male Hindu. They all become eligible to obtain property right from their ancestor. In this way, the act lays down a uniform and comprehensive system of inheritance. Mainly, the act applies to the ones given here. Please go through it. Now, let us come to the petition filed in the Supreme Court. It pointed out two discriminatory provisions in the act. They are the sections 15 and 16. See, section 15 deals with the general rules of succession in the case of female Hindus. First, know that a hire means any person who is entitled to succeed to the property of an interstate. Actually, as per the act, hire includes both male and female. So, as per section 15, when the female Hindu dies interstate, that is, she dies without making any will, any property inherited by her will devolve on her own face, which are specified in the section 15. Now, the issue lies in the prescribed hers order, which is mentioned in the section 16. As per this order only, the preference to the succession will be considered. See here, the sons and the daughters and the husband are in the first line of succession. Second comes the hires of husband, that is, the in-laws of the women. Then comes the mother and father of the deceased women. Fourth comes the hires of father of the deceased women. And the last in succession will be the herds of mother of the deceased women. But why this order is an issue? It is because if the person in the first order, that is, husband or children are not available, then the property of the Hindu woman devolves to the hires of her husband, because the own father and mother of the deceased women are placed below the hires of the husband. So, this gives preference to the hires of her husband over the parents of the deceased women. The issue is further aggravated when the property is self-acquired by the woman, through her job and hard work. This means after the death of husband, if the widowed woman survive under the support of her parents, then also they will not get the preference in succession, even though it is a self-acquired property of the woman. The husband's hire will only get the property. The husband's family comes first in the line of inheritance even before the dead woman's own parents. This may not seem like a problem. But what if the woman sought her parent's support because she was abused by the in-laws and was driven out of her matrimonial home by the in-laws after husband's death? According to the law, even then the husband's hair will be given preference. So, the in-laws who subjected the female to indignity and failed to take care of her has been privileged to enjoy the fruits of her hard labor here. Overall, it gives privilege to the male lineage. So, these are the kinds of discrimination exists through class 1 of section 15 of the Hindu Succession Act. So, these kinds of provisions manage to retain property largely within the male lineage. That is why the petition mentions that section 15 of 1956 act unveils deeply rooted patriarchal ideology. Therefore, the petitioner argued that these provisions violates the scheme of the constitution so they are unconstitutional. With these key learned points, let us move on to the next part of our news article discussion, which is nothing but preliminary practice questions discussion. Look at the first question. Consider the following statements. There are separate armed forces special powers act for Jammu and Kashmir and northeast region. Statement 2, only the central government is empowered to declare the whole or part of a state or union territory to be a disturbed area. And you have to find the correct statement. See here, statement 1 is actually correct. Today, we saw AFSPA for northeast, that is armed forces special powers act 1958. But note that AFSPA for Jammu and Kashmir is also present. It is called armed forces Jammu and Kashmir special powers act of 1990. After the reorganization and downgrading of erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, this act is now operational in both Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh union territories. And it is under the administrative control of ministry of home affairs. So, statement 1 is correct. Regarding statement 2, it is incorrect. Because the power to declare areas to be a disturbed areas lies with the governor of that state or administrator of union territory or the central government. So, here our final answer is option A, one only. Look at the second question. It is a process that is necessary to create an effective nuclear fuel out of mind uranium by increasing the percentage of uranium-235 which undergoes fission with thermal neutrons. Which of the following best describes this process? See, this is a very easy question. The correct answer for the question is option A, uranium enrichment. See, natural uranium deposits exist all over the world. But uranium in this form is not suitable for nuclear weapons and cannot be used in most nuclear reactors for either electricity or plutonium production. Naturally occurring uranium is composed of three major isotopes. They are uranium-238, uranium-235 and uranium-234. Note that uranium-235 is the only naturally occurring fissile isotope. So, to effectively make use of this uranium-235, it must be enriched through a process called uranium enrichment. The question given here is the exact definition of the process, that is uranium enrichment. So, the correct answer here is option A, uranium enrichment. Now, look at our last prelims question. Consider the following statements with reference to the Hindu Succession Act 1956. It codifies the law relating to interstate succession among Hindus. It is applicable to any person who is a Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Sikh by religion. Now, the third statement, the property of a female Hindu dying interstate does not devolve to her grandchildren. You have to find the incorrect statement here. See, pass the video and try to find the answer for this question. See here, statement one is correct. It is the objective of the act. We have seen this in our discussion, right? And regarding statement two, it is incorrect because it is not applicable to Parsi's. But it is applicable to Buddhist, Jain or Sikh. Now, coming to statement three, see, it may seem correct because we saw the heirs of female Hindu dying interstate and their order of inner returns also. In the list of heirs, there was no mention of grandchildren of the female Hindu. So, you can come to a conclusion that this statement is incorrect. But actually, the statement is incorrect because the act has a rule which mentions that if the son or daughter of the female Hindu die before her, that is, if that son or a daughter has children who are alive, these children will have the same property rights as their parents. So, they will be the legal heirs to the Hindu females property who is none other than their grandmother. So, the order of inheritance will be applicable to the in-laws or parents of the Hindu female when she has no children at all and when those children does not have any living children. So, we can interpret that the property of the female Hindu dying interstate may devolve to her grandchildren also. So, statement three is incorrect. So, our final answer is option C, two and three only. The main question is displayed here. Write your answer and post it in the comment section. If you like the video, hit the like button, post your comments and share the video with your friends. And don't forget to subscribe Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel. Thanks for watching.