Hate Speech: Interpreting Section 153A IPC

• The Supreme Court reaffirmed that in order for an act to be considered criminal under Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), there must be animosity and discord between two or more communities or groups.
• Politicians are frequently arrested for allegedly using hate speech under section 153 A of the IPC.

The Indian Penal Code’s (IPC) Section 153A

• Promoting animosity between various groups on the basis of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc. is illegal and is covered by Section 153A of the IPC.
• The main goal is to stop the spread of discord or animosity, hostility, or malice among various social groupings.
• It wasn’t included in the first penal code when it was passed in 1898.

Prohibited Acts:

The section prohibits several acts:

• Engaging in activities that promote or attempt to promote feelings of enmity or hatred between different religious, racial, linguistic, or regional groups.
• Committing acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony between different groups or communities.
• Doing anything that disturbs or disrupts public tranquillity or creates unrest among various groups.

Essential Elements:

To constitute an offence under Section 153A, the following essential elements must be established:

• Promotion of enmity or hatred between different groups.
• Such promotion must be based on religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc.
• The intention behind the act must be to disrupt public tranquillity or to create disharmony among groups.

Penalties:

• Jail Term: If found guilty of violating Section 153A, a person may face a maximum sentence of three years in jail, a fine, or both.
• Both cognizable and non-bailable: The offense is cognizable, and it carries a potential three-year sentence in addition to a fine or neither. Moreover, the offender is tried by a first-class magistrate and the offense is not subject to bail.
• The prosecution bears the burden of proving that the accused’s words, deeds, or behavior were intended to incite animosity or hatred between various groups on the grounds mentioned.

What do understand by the concept “freedom of speech and expression”? Does it cover hate speech also? Why do the films in India stand on a slightly different plane from other forms of expression? Discuss. 2014

With reference to India, consider the following statements: 2022

1. When a prisoner makes out a sufficient case, parole cannot be denied to such prisoner because it becomes a matter of his/her right.
2. State Governments have their own Prisoners Release on Parole Rules.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

1. 1 only
2. 2 only
3. Both 1 and 2
4. Neither 1 nor 2

Why are Rohingya refugees risking their lives at sea?

• The tragic circumstances that almost 150 Rohingya migrants were in when their wooden boat capsized off the coast of Indonesia last week have brought attention to this group’s precarious predicament.
• The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that last year over 4,500 Rohingya refugees embarked on perilous journeys across the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal.

Who are the Rohingya refugees?

• A Muslim ethnic group known as the Rohingya originates in Arakan, Myanmar (formerly known as Burma). The word “Arakan” is combined with the Rohingya word “ga” or “gya,” which means “from.” This is how the name “Rohingya” is formed.

On the Rohingya Crisis:

• Tagged as “illegal immigrants”: Although the Rohingya people say they have ancestral ties to the Rakhine State of Myanmar, several countries have denied this and have classified them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
• Different from the majority: Because the Rohingya speak a Bengali dialect rather than the standard Burmese language, they are culturally and spiritually separate from the majority Buddhist population in Myanmar.
• Strict requirements for citizenship: Since 1982, Myanmar has refused to recognize the Rohingya as an ethnic group or grant them citizenship. The 1982 citizenship legislation of Myanmar sets stringent requirements for obtaining citizenship, including proving that one’s ancestors lived in Myanmar before to 1823.
• The largest stateless population in the world: As a result, the Rohingya are regarded as the greatest group of stateless people on Earth, devoid of security and basic rights.

Why did the Rohingya people leave their country?

• Military crackdown: Security personnel in Myanmar have persecuted, abused, and discriminated against people for decades. After a military campaign in 2012 in response to the rape and killing of a Rakhine lady in an area populated primarily by Rohingyas, tensions between the Rohingya community and the Rakhine Buddhist population resulted in a significant number of Rohingyas leaving Myanmar.
• biggest departure: The greatest migration took place in August 2017 as a result of a severe violent wave in Rakhine that forced over 750,000 people to flee to Bangladesh in search of safety.
• UN commission for fact-finding: The violence in 2017 was referred to by the UN as “ethnic cleansing,” and the humanitarian situation was deemed “catastrophic.” The UN fact-finding panel declared in 2018 that the government of Myanmar intended to commit “genocidal” acts against the Rohingya people.

Why they are choosing sea journeys?

• Overcrowded Refugee Camp: There are an estimated 9,60,000 Rohingya living in camps for refugees in Bangladesh, especially in Cox’s Bazar, which is close to the Myanmar border and has some of the biggest and densest populations of any refugee camp in the world.
• Susceptible to weather-related catastrophes and outbreaks: Because of the unhygienic circumstances, the camps are particularly vulnerable to weather-related disasters and disease outbreaks. There are also security risks, such as gang violence and arson assaults. For instance, in 2023, fighting in Bangladeshi camps claimed the lives of nearly 60 Rohingya.
• Returning to Myanmar is nearly impossible, and the circumstances in the relief camps in Bangladesh are getting worse. As a result, more and more Rohingya are risking their lives to traverse the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea by boat.

The Rohingya Population in India:

• There exist communities of Rohingya in the states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Hyderabad, and Jammu-NCR.
• The Ministry of Home Affairs claims that more than 40,000 Rohingya people live in India. Of them, just 14,000 have refugee ID cards issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which shields them from arbitrary arrest or imprisonment.

Indian legal provisions pertaining to “Refugees”:

• No particular law: There isn’t a law in India that was created expressly for refugees. As a result, the government routinely classifies Rohingya refugees with undocumented immigrants and deports them in accordance with the Foreigners Act of 1946 and the Foreigners Order of 1948.
• Deportation authority: The Central government is authorized to remove a foreign national under Section 3 of The Foreigners Act, 1946.

India Employment Landscape: Insights from the ILO-IHD Report 2024

• The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Institute of Human Development (IHD) produced the India Employment Report 2024, which states that about 83% of India’s unemployed workforce is young.

Highlights of the India Employment Report 2024:

Dynamics of the Labor Market

• Long-Term Deterioration: Between 2000 and 2018, there was a long-term decline in the labor force participation rate (LFPR), worker population ratio (WPR), and unemployment rate (UR); however, following 2019, there was an improvement.
• Impact of Education: The percentage of youth without jobs who have completed secondary or higher education has nearly doubled, from 35.2% in 2000 to 65.7% in 2022. This suggests that there has been a substantial change in the educational backgrounds of job searchers.

Challenges and Insecurities

• Informal Workforce: While the percentage of workers doing regular labor fell after 2018, about 90% of workers are still doing so, which has resulted in widespread concerns about their means of subsistence.
• Contractualization: There has been an increase in contractualization, which exacerbates job insecurity because so few normal workers have long-term contracts.

Disparities in Gender and Skill Levels

• Skills Deficit: The report highlights a skills gap among India’s youthful workers, noting that a considerable proportion lacks the ability to do fundamental arithmetic operations or digital jobs, even though there is a demographic dividend.
• Gender Gap: India’s labor market exhibits significant gender gaps, with low rates of female involvement and high rates of unemployment among young, highly educated women.