Case for Free Trade
The act of opening up economies for trading is known as free trade or trade liberalisation. This is done by bringing down trade barriers like tariffs. Trade liberalisation allows goods and services from everywhere to compete with domestic products and services.
Globalisation along with free trade can adversely affect the economies of developing countries by not giving equal playing field by imposing conditions which are unfavourable. With the development of transport and communication systems, goods and services can travel faster and farther than ever before. But free trade should not only let rich countries enter the markets, but allow the developed countries to keep their own markets protected from foreign products.
Countries also need to be cautious about dumped goods; as along with free trade dumped goods of cheaper prices can harm the domestic producers.
Promoting Gender Sensitivity through ‘Beti Bachao–Beti Padhao’ Social Campaign
The division of the society into male, female and transgender is believed to be natural and biological. But, in reality, there are social constructs and roles assigned to individuals which are reinforced by social institutions. Consequently, these biological differences become the basis of social differentiations, discriminations and exclusions. The exclusion of over half of the population becomes a serious handicap to any developing and civilised society. It is a global challenge, which has been acknowledged by the UNDP when it mentioned that, “If development is not engendered it is endangered” (HDR UNDP 1995). Discrimination, in general, and gender discrimination, in particular, is a crime against humanity.
All efforts need to be made to address the denial of opportunities of education, employment, political representation, low wages for similar types of work, disregard to their entitlement to live a dignified life, etc. A society, which fails to acknowledge and take effective measures to remove such discriminations, cannot be treated as a civilised one. The Government of India has duly acknowledged the adverse impacts of these discriminations and launched a nationwide campaign called ‘Beti Bachao – Beti Padhao’.
Study the given figure carefully and answer the questions that follow :
Year | Number of Towns/UAs | Urban Population (in Thousands) | % of Total Population | Decennial Growth (%) |
---|---|---|---|---|
1931 | 2,072 | 33,456.0 | 11.99 | 19.12 |
1941 | 2,250 | 44,153.3 | 13.86 | 31.97 |
1951 | 2,843 | 62,443.7 | 17.29 | 41.42 |
1961 | 2,365 | 78,936.6 | 17.97 | 26.41 |
1971 | 2,590 | 1,09,114 | 19.91 | 38.23 |
1981 | 3,378 | 1,59,463 | 23.34 | 46.14 |
1991 | 4,689 | 2,17,611 | 25.71 | 36.47 |
2001 | 5,161 | 2,85,355 | 27.78 | 31.13 |