The Stay on the release of Humare Barah

The Stay on the release of Humare Barah

India has always been the land of diverse culture and lifestyle. Different practices of different regions, people and communities is an example of the rich diversity exhibited in India.

The recent efforts of filmmakers to exhibit the rising population of several communities, factors contributing towards it and what can be done in this regard can be seen through a film Humare Barah (Our Twelve), originally called Hum Do Humare Barah. The film was given green signal by the Bombay High Court after altering a few scenes and inserting a disclaimer. Although, The Supreme Court has stayed the same directing HC to take final decision.

Why has the Supreme Court stayed on the film release?

  • The film has a unique name "Hum Do Humare Barah" that seems quite similar to the slogans of many political leaders in the past saying "Hum Paanch Humare Pacchees". Such slogans were made to target the extremely growing population of Muslim community which was considered to be superseding the Hindu population.
  • The film as stated by many people reflects criticism of a particular community leading to chaos in public and rising incidents of riots.

Content of the film

While many people have criticized the base of the film claiming that it is against the sentiment of Muslim community, some writers and journalists write the positive impact behind the film. Some of those positive observations are -

  • Gender Equality – The film has tried to showcase the unequal treatment with the women of the community. Male dominance, as reflected on the ground level, has efficiently been exhibited by the content.
  • Impacts on women – The blind faiths and myths being carried out religiously by the society without even questioning their irrelevancy make the women suffer at most.
  • Health impacts – The regressive health impacts of mythological practices on women covers the major aspect of the film.
  • Awareness – The film is dedicated towards spreading awareness amongst the women class of their rights and fruitful outcomes of protests while it spreads awareness amongst men towards the destructive impacts of such practices.
  • Lack of living standard – The basic standard of living that includes quality education, good health and medical services, descent job opportunities etc. are heavily compromised in families who tend to believe in such practices as their income doesn't match with the requirements of a big family.

To some extent, such health degrading practices are credited as the major factor causing damage to the overall health and nutritional status of the country. It also impacts the total fertility rate negatively.

The total fertility rate shows a steady decline in the fertility of women in India. According to a report of NFHS-5 (National Family Health Survey 2019-20), the total fertility rate of India until 2021 is 2.0 children per woman (lower than the earlier survey).

What is Total Fertility Rate ?

  • The total fertility rate is a sum of age-specific fertility rates for all women multiplied by five.
  • The age specification involves seven groups of 5 years each i.e. from 15-19 to  45-49 years.

Status of TFR in India

  • Overall CPR (Contraceptive Prevalence Rate) has increased gradually in most States/UTs and it has skyrocketed in Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal (74%).
  • CPR – It is a defined as the percentage of women of reproductive age who or whose partners use a contraceptive method at a given point in time. Women of reproductive age are usually defined as women aged 15 to 49, but sexually active adolescents under 15 should also be included.

Steps taken to maintain Total Fertility Rate

  • Unmet needs for family planning has successfully been countered and has been brought down to less than 10% in all the states except Meghalaya and Mizoram.
  • Full immunization drives conducted among children aged 12-23 months resulting in recorded substantial improvement across the States/UTs except (Nagaland, Meghalaya and Assam).
  • Launching of mission Indradhanush helped 11 out of 22 States in achieving full immunization coverage in 2015.

What is mission Indradhanush?

  • Introduced in 1978 as the immunization Program in India widely known as EPI (Expanded Program of Immunization) by the Ministry of Health and Family welfare of India.
  • It was distributed in different phases to cover all the districts of the country.
  • Aim – to strengthen and energize the immunization program covering all children, pregnant and lactating women 
  • Targeted 201 high focus districts across 28 states with highest number of partially immunized and unimmunized children.
  • Key focus has been made in promoting institutional births. 14 out of 22 States and UTs have witnessed over 91% of institutional deliveries of births.

Hence the Total Fertility Rate has been a key area of focus in the policy making of India. The inclusion of women centric development in the health sector is one of the primary goals of the country.

Hence, some malpractices, mythological beliefs and dominance are considered as an obstacle for both the widening policies like Indradhanush and the society's development.

UPSC Mains Practice Question.

Discuss the pros and cons of Religious blind faiths and mythological practices prevalent in the Indian society along with the effective steps taken to eliminate them  from the society.