DATA SHEET- SOCIAL ISSUES

1. Women in Workforce
a. Female Labour Force Participation Rate (FLFRR) in India has reduced to 32.8% from 42.7% in 2004-05; For
the men the cu6rrent LFPR is 77.2%.
b. Gender Equality would increase India’s annual GDP growth by 1.4% (McKinsey Report).
c. Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 enhanced paid maternity leave to 26 weeks from the
erstwhile 12 weeks.
d. Wage Disparity as men in India capture 82% of labour income (World Inequality Report 2022).
e. India ranked 135 among a total of 146 countries (Global Gender Gap Index 2022).
f. Digital Divide (only 35% women use internet).
2. PERMANENT COMMISSION FOR WOMEN
a. Indian Army, Air Force and Navy enlist only 0.56%, 1.08% and 6.5% of female candidates respectively.
b. Women comprise 10% of the Russian Armed forces and 16% of US.
3. WOMEN IN STEM
a. Globally only 18% girls in tertiary education are pursuing STEM studies against 35% of boys (World Bank).
b. In India Percentage of women researchers: Overall: Approximately 18%; In engineering and technology:
Approximately 14%; In natural science and agriculture: Approximately 22%; In health science:
Approximately 24%
4. CARE ECONOMY
a. Union Minister for Women and Child Development emphasised the significance of the care economy and
S
its potential to create 300 million additional jobs, with 80% of them being led by women.
b. 75% of unpaid care work is delivered by women (globally) which is three times more than men.
IA
c. 1% of India’s GDP is spent on care economy
d. 3.1% of India’s GDP is the value of women’s unpaid work.
e. 80% of India men believe that child care is the primary responsibility of mother.
a

5. WOMEN’S RESERVATION IN LEGISLATURES

as

a. Women’s Reservation bill proposes to reserve 33% of seats in the Lok Sabha and State Legislative
Assemblies for women.
b. Representation of women in Parliament and in most state legislatures is less than 15%.
Vy

c. India ranked 135 out of 146 countries on the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index 2022.
6. SARPANCH PATIS
a. As per Women and Men in India 2022 report, of the over 31.8 lakh ERs, nearly 46% (over 14.5 lakh) were
women.
b. Many states like Bihar, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan etc. have made legal provision for 50%
reservation for women among members and sarpanches.
7. VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
a. Increased 16.3% in 2021 against 2020.
8. MARRIAGE AGE OF WOMEN
a. The Prohibition of Child Marriage or PCMA (Amendment) Bill, 2021, proposes to raise the legal age of
marriage for women from 18 to 21 years was introduced in the Lok Sabha.
b. Age of Consent Act 1891, raised the age of consent for sex from 10 years to 12 years.
c. The average age to marry for women is 22.7 years.
9. SURROGACY
a. Certificate of eligibility for couples: Between 23 to 50 years old (wife) and 26 to 55 years old (husband).
10. ABORTION LAW IN INDIA
a. The Supreme Court (SC) extended the right to safe and legal abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy to all
women in the country, regardless of marital status.
b. 8 women die everyday in India due to unsafe abortion.
c. 67% abortion in India between 2007-11 were unsafe.
d. 15-19 years old women are at highest risk of dying from abortion related complications.
11. WASH AND GENDER INEQUALITY
 a. 380 million women and girls live in extreme poverty globally.
b. 1 in 3 women face food insecurity globally.
c. 50 minutes per day is spent by Indian women in 25% rural household for collecting water.
d. According to the 2020 analysis by the World Resources Institute: Securing water for communities across
the world by 2030 could cost just over 1% of global GDP. It would take India 3.2% of the GDP to deliver
sustainable water management by 2030.
e. Jal Jeevan Mission: Launched in 2019 to provide every rural household with water supply by 2024.
f. UNICEF strategy for WASH 2016-2030: To guide UNICEF’s organization-wide contribution to achieving
SDG 6 by 2030.
12. URBANISATION AND WOMEN
a. 17% of people oppose female family members having jobs.
b. 20% of women in India are employed.
c. 29% of women in business globally are in senior decision-making positions.
d. 15% of Global environmental sector ministries were led by women in 2020.
13. CHILD LABOUR
a. 160 million child labour globally and 10.1 million in India.
b. CJI referred to ‘India analysis of Judgements of Special Courts in West Bengal, Assam and Maharashtra -
Romantic Cases under POCSO Act Study’ by Enfold Proactive Health Trust and UNICEF-India. As per this
study,
• One in every four cases under POCSO Act constituted romantic cases.
• 93.8% cases ended with acquittals.
S
• In 46.6% cases, girl was between 16 to 18 years.
c. It is estimated that there are 29.6 million stranded, orphaned and abandoned children in India. Just 3-
IA
4,000 get adopted annually.
14. PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES (PWDS)
a. 2.21% of the total population are disabled persons.
a

b. 44% of the disable persons are women.

as

c. 69% of the disabled persons live in rural areas.

d. 55% of disabled are illiterate.
e. Enactment of Rights of persons with Disabilities (RPD) Act, 2016, recognises 21 disabilities, prescribes 4%
Vy

and 5% reservation in govt. employment and education (respectively).

15. ELDERLY IN INDIA
a. Share of elderly in total population: 9% in 2016 reaching to 20.5% by 2050.
b. Women among elderly: 48.2%
c. Elderly living in rural areas: 75%
16. INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
a. Comprise an estimate population of 104 million (8.6% of the national population), almost 90% of them living
in rural areas.
17. DENOTIFIED TRIBES (DNTS)
a. As per Renke Commission 2008, there are nearly 1500 nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes and 198
Denotified tribes, comprising 15 crore Indians.
18. FOUNDATIONAL LITERACY AND NUMERACY (FLN)
a. 72.8% children who cannot read a simple class 2-level sentence.
b. 82% children who cannot solve a basic subtraction problem by class 3.
c. 92% lost at least one language ability
d. 82% lost at least one mathematical ability.
e. According to UNICEF learning loss due to Covid-19 pandemic could cost this generation of students close
to $17 trillion in lifetime earnings.
f. In India, according to 2021 National Achievement Survey average performance of students had dropped
to 9% as compared 2017.
19. NATIONAL DIGITAL UNIVERSITY (NDU)
a. 61% of men owned mobile phones in 2021, compared to just 31% women.
b. Only 31% of rural population uses Internet compared to 67% of their urban counterparts.
 c. Only 4.69% of total workforce is skilled in India have undergone any formal skills training.
d. Only 45.9% of college graduates are considered employable (2021 India Skills Report).
20. FOREIGN HIGHER EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS (FHEIS) IN INDIA
a. According to Ministry of Education (MoE), over 6.5 lakh Indian students went abroad in 2022 to pursue
higher education.
b. Foreign HEIs will help achieving 50% Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education by 2035 as
envisaged in the NEP 2020.
21. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN EDUCATION (AIED)
a. AI in Education systems have contributed to reach US$7.8 billion by 2025 at a rate of 20.2% CAGR.
b. Only 85% of adolescent girls in don’t have a laptop at home, and 83% got less than an hour at their
school computer labs per week.
22. UNIVERSAL HEALTH COVERAGE (UHC)
a. National Health Policy 2017 provides for UHC, and asks to raise public financing of health sector to 2.5%
GDP by 2025.
b. Chronic Underfunding which is around 1.5% of India's GDP.
c. Weak Primary health care (PHC) sector: 60% of PHCs in India have only one doctor while about 5% have
none.
d. Regional disparity in accessibility: About 80% doctors and 60% hospitals are present in urban areas
where only 1/3rd population lives.
e. Predominance of private healthcare (caters to around 70% of India's population
f. Low penetration of insurance policies (more than 80% in rural & urban areas do not have insurance

23.
coverage.
AYUSHMAN BHARAT
S
IA
a. Nearly 22 crore beneficiaries have been verified under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri – Jan
Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) Scheme till 4th January 2023 highlights the Economic Survey 2022-23.
b. 1,54,070 AB-HWCs have been operationalized across the country by upgrading the SHCs and PHCs in
a

rural and urban area

as

c. World’s largest Health Insurance scheme: It aims at providing a health cover of Rs. 5 lakhs per family per
year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization to the bottom 40% of the Indian population
d. Out-of-pocket expenses (OOPE): 48.8% of the total health expenditure + Under-five mortality rate
Vy

(U5MR): 41.9
e. Infant Mortality Rate (IMR): 35.2
f. Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR): 97
g. Institutional Birth: 88.6%
24. UNIVERSAL IMMUNISATION
a. 98% of the population in India currently perceive vaccines as important for children
25. MENTAL HEALTHCARE
a. People living with mental illness: 1 in 7
b. People can’t access treatment: More than 80%
c. Prevalence of Suicide in India: 1,30 lakh in 2019
d. Cost of mental health issues borne by Indian firms: $14 billion/year.
26. STUDENT SUICIDES
a. As per data, recently presented in Rajya Sabha by the Ministry of Education, 33 students died by suicide
across the IITs since 2018.
27. RARE DISEASES
a. 80% of rare diseases are genetic and 1.4% of newborn children are affected by them. All pediatric
cancers are rare.
28. NEW ORGAN TRANSPLANTATION GUIDELINES
a. India: 3rd largest country in terms of transplants.
b. 17.8% of all transplants organs from deceased donors.
c. 1.5-2 lakh people need a kidney transplant each year.
29. GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS
 a. Sustainable Agriculture: Reducing food loss and waste, which account for 8% of greenhouse gas (GHG)
emission globally.
30. GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX
a. India has slipped to 107th position in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2022 of 121 countries, from its 101st
position in 2021.
b. As many as 828 million people were undernourished in 2021.
c. With a score of 29.1, India has a level of hunger that is serious.
d. Ranked behind all South Asian countries except Afghanistan
31. NATIONAL FOOD SECURITY ACT (NFSA), 2013
a. Earlier, In 2020 the PM GKAY was launched to provide 5 kg of free food grains to NFSA beneficiaries in
addition to their monthly entitlement (35 kg to a Antyodaya household and 5kg per person in a Priority
Household) of subsidized food grains under the NFSA Act.
b. As per the Shanta Kumar committee leakages in PDS ranged from 40%-50%, and in some states go as
high as 60%-70%.
c. Up-to 75% Rural Population and 50% Urban Population coverage under Targeted Public Distribution
System (TPDS).
d. Uniform entitlement of 5kg per person per month (35kg per household per month for Antyodaya Anna
Yojana (AAY) households.
32. ANGANWADI SYSTEM
a. The Ministry of Women & Child Development (MoWCD) has recently informed the Parliament that it has
spent over Rs.18,000 crores in the last financial year to strengthen the Anganwadi system.
S
b. The system serves to 906.17 lakh beneficiaries through:
• Anganwadi Centres (AWCs): There are around 13.89 lakh AWCs across the country that provide a
IA
platform for rendering all services under the scheme.
• Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) and Anganwadi Helpers (AWHs): There are around 13.14 lakhs
AWWs and 11.74 lakhs AWHs.
a

c. There is a gap between sanctioned and operational number of AWCs across various states that ranges
as

anywhere from 2% to 8.37%.

d. Meghalaya only 30.85% AWCs have drinking water facilities
33. MANUAL SCAVENGING
Vy

a. There are at present approximately 58,098 “eligible manual scavengers” across the country.
b. The practice of manual scavenging was banned in 1993.
c. Hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks has led to at least 351 deaths since 2017 but manual
scavenging no longer exist in the country.
34. INTERNAL DISPLACEMENT
a. Nearly 60% of migrant are vulnerable workers (outside agriculture) who face problems of low wages,
high risk jobs and the fear of being fired.
b. 57.8% of female and 25.8% of male migrants are illiterate (Census, 2011). About 80% of seasonal migrant
children in major destinations lack access to education near work sites.
c. 108.4 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced at he end of 2020.
d. 59 million people were IDPs in 2021.
e. US $21.5 billion was the direct cost of internal displacement.
35. WORLD POPULATION GROWTH
a. According to the UN, recently the world population reached 8 billion and will peak at 10.4bn sometime
between 2080 and 2100.
b. Now, India has overtaken China as the world’s most populous country, and it is likely to retain top spot till
2100.
c. Since 1950 India and China have provided 35% of the world’s population growth.
d. China is loosened its one child policy a 2 child policy in 2016 and a 3 child policy in 2021.
e. India’s population, meanwhile, will continue growing and is expected to peak at 1.7bn in 2064.
f. Although, India has attained ‘replacement level’ total fertility rate (TFR) which is 2.0 currently.
g. The IMR has decreased from 40.7 in 2015-16 to 35.3 in 2019-21.
h. Life expectancy at birth: It reached to 69.7 years in the 2015-19 period from 31 in 1947.
 i. Unintended Pregnancies: 1 in every 7 unintended pregnancies of world occur in India.
j. As India has only 2.45% of the global surface area and 4% of the water resources.
36. WORLD HAPPINESS REPORT
a. India has been ranked at the 126th place among 137 countries in the World Happiness Report (WHR)
2023.
b. Top three countries are Finland, Denmark and Iceland respectively.
c. Afghanistan, Lebanon, Sierra Leone were in the bottom of the chart.
d. India ranked below Ukraine, Russia and its neighbours China, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
e. India also recorded the lowest use of social media platforms (31%) among emerging economies,
indicated a lower interaction among the residents, consequentially dipping in the happiness quotient.
f. Bhutan is not listed in the WHR 2023.

S
IA
a
as
Vy