Plate tectonics is the scientific theory that explains the large-scale motion of the Earth’s surface. According to this theory, the Earth’s outermost solid layer, known as the lithosphere, is broken into several large pieces called tectonic plates. These plates are in constant motion, driven by convection currents in the underlying molten mantle layer.

The key principles of plate tectonics are:

1. Plate Movement: The tectonic plates are constantly moving, colliding, pulling apart, or sliding past one another at their boundaries. This motion is powered by convection currents in the Earth’s mantle.
2. Plate Boundaries: Where plates meet, they form three main types of boundaries: convergent (where plates collide), divergent (where plates move apart), and transform (where plates slide past one another).
3. Geological Activity: The interactions at plate boundaries drive many of the major geological processes that shape the Earth’s surface, including earthquakes, volcanic activity, mountain building, and oceanic trench formation.

The formation of major physical features on Earth is closely tied to plate tectonics:

• Mid-Ocean Ridges: At divergent boundaries, new oceanic crust is continuously formed as plates move apart, creating underwater mountain ranges like the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
• Volcanic Arcs and Subduction Zones: At convergent boundaries, one plate is pushed beneath another, causing melting of the subducting plate and volcanic activity on the overriding plate, forming features like the volcanic islands of the Ring of Fire.
• Mountain Ranges: Collisions between plates can lead to the uplift and folding of the Earth’s crust, forming major mountain ranges like the Himalayas and the Rocky Mountains.
• Oceanic Trenches: Deep, narrow depressions in the ocean floor, like the Mariana Trench, are formed where one plate is subducted beneath another at a convergent boundary.
• Continental Drift: The gradual movement of the continents over geological time scales, as the plates they are embedded in move, has led to the breakup and reassembly of supercontinents like Pangaea.

Plate tectonics provide a comprehensive explanation for the global distribution of earthquakes and volcanic activities. Here’s how plate tectonics theory explains these phenomena:

1. Plate Boundaries:
   • Most earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur at the boundaries between Earth’s tectonic plates.
   • At convergent plate boundaries, where two plates collide, one plate typically subducts (or is pushed) under the other, leading to intense seismic and volcanic activity along the subduction zone.
   • At divergent plate boundaries, where plates are moving apart, molten magma rises to fill the gap, creating mid-ocean ridges and volcanic activity.
   • Transform plate boundaries, where plates slide past each other, also experience significant earthquake activity.
2. Subduction Zones:
   • At subduction zones, the downgoing plate is subjected to intense stress and friction, generating deep earthquakes as the plate bends and descends into the Earth’s mantle.
   • The melting and dehydration of the subducting plate also leads to the formation of volcanoes in the overlying plate, creating volcanic arcs like the Pacific Ring of Fire.
3. Mid-Ocean Ridges:
   • At mid-ocean ridges, where plates are moving apart, new oceanic crust is continuously being formed, generating a high level of seismic activity along the ridge axis.
   • Volcanic activity is also common at mid-ocean ridges, as magma wells up to fill the gap between the diverging plates.
4. Transform Faults:
   • Transform faults, where plates slide past each other, experience significant earthquake activity due to the stresses and friction along the fault line.
   • While transform faults are not typically associated with volcanic activity, they can sometimes be the site of limited volcanic eruptions.
5. Intraplate Regions:
   • Although most earthquakes and volcanoes are concentrated at plate boundaries, some seismic and volcanic activity can also occur within the interior of tectonic plates, known as intraplate regions.
   • These intraplate events are often associated with hotspots, mantle plumes, or other geological phenomena that can cause localized volcanic and seismic activity.

Domestic violence is abuse by one partner against another in an intimate relationship such as dating, marriage, cohabitation, or a familial relationship. It is also categorized as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, dating abuse, and intimate partner violence (IPV). It can be physical, emotional, verbal, economic, and sexual abuse as well as subtle, coercive, or violent.

Legislative Framework

1. Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005: It provides victims of domestic violence with a means for practical remedy through prosecution. Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 ensures the reporting of cases of domestic violence against women to a Protection Officer. The Act was to make justice available to women who may not always want criminal proceedings and would want to keep the option of reconciliation alive.
2. The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961: It prohibits the request, payment, or acceptance of a dowry.
3. The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO), 2012: It was enacted to protect minors from offenses of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and pornography while safeguarding the interest of the child at every stage of the judicial process.
4. The Dowry Prohibition (DP) Act 1961: This legislation prohibits the request, payment, or acceptance of a dowry, “as consideration for the marriage”. Here “dowry” is defined as a gift demanded or given as a precondition for a marriage. Gifts given without a precondition are not considered dowry and are legal. Asking or giving of dowry can be punished by imprisonment of up to six months, a fine of up to Rs. 15000 or the amount of dowry (whichever is higher), or imprisonment up to 5 years.
5. Section 304B (dowry death) and Section 498A (cruelty by husband or his relatives) have been integrated into the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
6. Section 113 B (presumption as to dowry death) has been made part of the Indian Evidence Act (I.E.A.) so as to eradicate or at least lower down this heinous act of dowry system and related deaths.

Failure Of Legislative Framework

1. In recent times, violence against women has increased in India. Further, various data suggest that the domestic violence cases in India have also increased after the mandatory stay-at-home rules, social distancing, economic uncertainties, and anxieties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
2. According to the National Crime Record Bureau’s “Crime in India” 2019 report, the majority of cases under crime against women under IPC were registered under cruelty by husband or his relatives (30.9%).
3. Cruelty was defined as including both physical and mental cruelty, or any harassment associated with demand for dowry. The definition of cruelty under 498A is worded in such vague terms that it was difficult to bring issues of sexual violence, economic violence under its ambit.
4. While section 304B is specifically for dowry-related deaths, 498A can be invoked for other forms of violence. The major concern here is only married women or their families can seek redressal under 498A, thus women not in natal relationships fall outside their safety net.
5. The existing civil laws fail to provide effective and timely relief to women facing violence. Often the women are thrown out of the houses, the houses later sold or rented dispossess the women completely. The courts can give injunction orders but civil suits, in general, are slow and time-consuming in our country.
6. There is a lack of support system for women facing violence from the state, the judiciary too has its own jurisprudence challenges in these matters, the meaning of shared household, domestic relationship under PWDVA have often troubled courts.(S R Batra vs Taruna Batra).
7. One of the challenges has been a woman had to prove that she was driven to contemplate suicide, or that her life was in danger before she could access the law. This led to the discretion of the police as to whether the conduct of the husband was of such a nature as mentioned above.

Steps Other Than Legislative Framework

1. Gender sensitization: A gender sensitization of all stakeholders is an important component of effective responses to domestic violence. It should form part of the curriculum of training of the police, judiciary, bureaucracy, policymakers, social workers, counselors, and other service providers.
2. Raise Public Awareness: It is important to generate public awareness on domestic violence as a violation of human rights. Educational strategies aimed at changing attitudes, beliefs, and biases of law enforcers, the judiciary, and citizens need to be developed and implemented.
3. Economic empowerment: So many women stay in destructive relationships because they will be homeless, with their children, if they leave. Divorce financial distributions need to be much fairer. Policy changes that tend to help women financially like raising the minimum wage, universal basic income can make a difference.
4. Police and justice services should ensure that incidents of violence against women and girls are given high priority with no impunity for perpetrators.
5. Social action to prevent violence requires neighborhood vigilance and the creation of new socioeconomic options (through employment opportunities and skill training) for women who are likely to face violence.
6. Democratize our institutions for combating domestic violence. The three steps in this regard could be:

1. Democratization of family to allow women to be an equal partner in decision-making.
2. No discrimination between sexes in society.
3. Equal representation of women in the state.

Article 21 of our constitution ensures the right to live with dignity for women. Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 has not helped much in preventing domestic violence. A comprehensive effort is required and the societal and government levels.

Civil Society is seen as a conglomeration of associations formed voluntarily where citizens freely pursue collective identities and interests. According to the World Bank: “Civil society refers to a wide array of organizations: community groups, non-governmental organizations [NGOs], labour unions, indigenous groups, charitable organizations, faith-based organizations, professional associations, and foundations. New actors in the civil society ecosystem include social movements, online activists, bloggers and others. All the new initiatives of the government require the participation and awareness of people and there is no better organisation than the civil society to achieve this objective.

Success Of Civil Society Organization

1. The civil society movements like the Chipko, Apiko movements of the past for the protection of trees to the present day Aravali Bachao and Narmada Bachao Abhiyan raised awareness about environment-related issues.
2. CSIs are the biodiversity reserves for preserving a vast variety of ideas and beliefs. They are incubators for innovative approaches to resolving problems which neither the state nor the market has been able to crack—such as guarding civil liberties, or the lack of basic services to the majority.
3. Filing of Public Interest Litigations on matters relevant to the common public by organizations like Common Cause Delhi and Consumer Education and Research Centre, the Association for Democratic Reforms.
4. Anti-corruption movements and the changes in the outlook of people in India regarding this serious issue of corruption have impacts on the political structure of India. Although corruption has not died down completely the awareness due to the civil society movement has affected the corrupt structure greatly.
5. From causes like protection of freedom of expression or be it for the fight of LGBT community against the decriminalisation under section -377 of IPC or be it the fight of women against instant triple talaq there is present the active contribution and wholehearted support of civil society.
6. Civil society movements have played an immense role in bringing numerous governance reforms. Civil society movements can be credited for bringing a novel form of accountability measures like Jan Sunwai, RTI act, Citizen charter campaign by an organization like PRAJA.
7. Role of Swacchagrahis has a visible impact in changing the behaviour of people to stop open defecation practices in rural areas. Similarly, Swachha iconic places and Swachhata Pakwada are instances of roles of civil society in bringing out transformation in society.

Issues In Civil Societies Functioning

1. The success of civil society organization in tackling instances like eradication of manual scavenging and other social and caste-based disabilities has been lacklustre.
2. Civil society organizations are accused of lack of coordination among themselves. For example, civil societies working on Dalit issues will not work on Dalit women issues and there is no cooperation and utilization of expertise in other related areas of the same cause.
3. Civil society groups are often seen as “self- appointed do-gooders‟, not accountable to any constituency other than their donors. Many are seen as corrupt, or at least venal, and as personal fiefdoms of charismatic founders who continue in leadership positions long after their passion for the cause has died.
4. In recent years civil society organizations are seeing their working spaces being reduced due to repressive state actions. In 2016 Govt had to impose a ban on many NGOs including NAZ foundation for alleged violation of FCRA as per CBI report.
5. The lack of transparency in civil society organizations has also hurt their image and created a negative perception regarding them among the public. This has created issues of trust between them and the public they wish to serve.

To Improve Their Effectiveness, Following Steps May Be Adopted

1. Civil society organizations have to improve their internal governing and accountability standards in terms of their source of funding, working etc. This will help negate their negative image and build trust.
2. The accusations against civil societies are that they work in those areas where they can earn a name or those which are ‘fancy’. This needs to be changed.
3. Rather than working in silos, CSOs has to cooperate among themselves while working towards a common goal.
4. The regulatory framework for these organizations must be improved. State regulation more often than not will result in curbing the voices of those CSOs which are against the government. The ideal way of regulation is to create a self-regulatory body by CSOs themselves like the Advertising Standards Council of India.

Civil society groups have put pressure on erring governments to reform corrupt practices. They have also provided monitoring mechanisms to track corruption by educating members of the public and associating them in anti-corruption efforts. They have helped generate demand for reducing corruption and introducing systemic reforms. On the whole, these civil society engagements are path-breaking initiatives that have emerged out of an urge to serve the needs of the common man and have involved a great deal of educating people and mobilizing them.

According to the estimates of UNESCAP, 29.4 percent of India’s urban population lived in slums. This proportion is even higher in metropolitan cities like Kolkata, Mumbai etc. Factors responsible for the formation and proliferation of slums in India include: Growth rate of population (urbanization): The growth rate of the Indian population is very high and this growth rate is much higher in the urban areas because of the migration of large numbers of people from rural to urban. Poor housing planning: Lack of affordable low cost housing and poor planning by the government encourages the supply side of slums. Regional imbalances in development: Regional imbalance in development creates rural to urban migration, thus increasing the overall urban population density, which pressurizes the urban poor to move into slums. Limited access to financial resources: Slum dwellers typically inhabit marginal locations such as dumping grounds mainly due to the low purchasing power of slum dwellers in formal land markets when compared with high-income groups. Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban): The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U) the urban housing for all mission was designed to address the housing requirements of the Indian urban poor and slum dwellers through five programme verticals, as shown in the figure:

• The BLC, CLSS, and AHP target low-income households who have a relatively secure and regular flow of income.
• In contrast, the ISSR and ARHC target very poor households unable to access housing through formal housing markets.

Need to revamp ISSR component of PM Awas Yojana (Urban) to address the issue of slums:

• Divergence in the sanctions under verticals: While the sanctioning of houses under the BLC and CLSS verticals has steadily grown, on the other hand, the sanctioning of houses under the ISSR stand at meagre 3.5%.
• Top to bottom approach: The policy impetus of the ISSR scheme flows from the top (government authorities) to the bottom (beneficiary) of the policy chain in which the policy intervention starts when slum dwellers and private players are approached for redevelopment by the authorities.
• Lengthy dispute resolution process: The scheme implementation process involves the active participation of agents such as government authorities, private landowners, private developers, and slum dwellers’ associations. As various interests are involved in the process, the time taken to resolve disagreements and conflicts leads to a higher gestation period for each project.
• Lack of interest by private players: The lack of interest shown by private players has been one of the reasons for the reduced uptake of the vertical. Unless private players find a specific project profitable and in line with their interests, the implementation gets stuck in the planning stage.

Lessons can be learned from the Jaga Mission (Odisha) to revamp the ISSR vertical of PMAY-U. Another is Community land trust, a long-term sustainable model focused on participatory and community-led processes, in which the land title is vested in a non-profit community trust and only improvement rights are granted to a homeowner. Thus, the land is cut out from speculative housing markets, providing the community members with long-term housing affordability, security, and community control of the neighbourhood.