Current Affairs 26 September 2022 – IAS Current Affairs
Current Affairs 26 September 2022 focuses on Prelims-Mains perspective. Major events are :
Ambedkar Circuit
Source: Indian Express
GS II: Constitution of India and Indian polity
What is discussed under Ambedkar Circuit?
- What is the Ambedkar Circuit?
- Issues Related to Ambedkar Circuit
- Other Tourism Circuits
Why in News?
The Central Government has designed a unique tourism circuit including five significant Dr. B.R. Ambedkar locations, including his birthplace Mhow, Delhi, where he died, and London where he studied.
What is the Ambedkar Circuit?
- The Ambedkar Circuit, or Panchteerth, was initially suggested by the government in 2016.
- The Panchteerth would include:
Photo by Rutu Bhavsar on Unsplash - Janma Bhoomi: Ambedkar’s birthplace in Madhya Pradesh’s Mhow
- Shiksha Bhoomi: where he stayed while studying in the UK
- Deeksha Bhoomi: in Nagpur, where he embraced Buddhism
- Mahaparinirvan Bhoomi: the site of his demise in Delhi
- Chaitya Bhoomi: the site of his cremation in Mumbai
- The government hopes to follow in the footsteps of Ambedkar by improving the connection to four of these locations with a special AC train.
- The goal is to attract tourists in addition to the Dalit community, who often visit these sites on pilgrimage.
- Meals, ground transportation, and admission to the locations are all included in the trip.
Issues Related to Ambedkar Circuit
- Several Dalit scholars and Ambedkarites stated that the five locations do not honour Ambedkar’s true legacy and were picked to fit into the government’s “localised and patriotic” narrative.
- Critics argue that a number of other sites were neglected, including:
- The Raigarh district of Maharashtra, where Dr Ambedkar led the Mahad Satyagraha.
- Pune, where he held the first negotiations with Mahatma Gandhi in Yerwada jail.
- Sri Lanka, where he attended a Buddhist conclave.
- Kolhapur, where in March 1920, Chatrapati Shahuji Maharaj, declared Dr Ambedkar to be the actual leader of India’s oppressed sections.
Other Tourism Circuits
- In 2014-15, the government identified 15 tourism circuits via the Swadesh Darshan initiative.
- Coastal Circuit, Desert Circuit, Eco Circuit, Heritage, North East, Himalayan, Sufi, Krishna, Rural, Tribal, and Tirthankar Circuits are among the others besides the Ramayana and Buddhist Circuits.
- The Ramayana, Buddhist, and North East Circuits are already operational, and Ambedkar will be the fourth.
- In terms of circuit development, till March 2022, 76 projects totalling Rs 5,445 crore have been sanctioned in these 15 circuits.
Significance of train partnership
- The formation of special circuits allows them to better focus on the entire development of all theme-related locations, including infrastructure, road and rail connectivity, and tourist amenities.
- However, from the perspective of a visitor, not everyone visits all of the locations associated with a circuit in one trip.
- Train partnerships have been created to shift this travel pattern so that visitors can board and complete the full route in one trip.
- Since each circuit comprises more than one state, they examine statistics on the number of visitors visiting certain locations on a circuit on a regular basis.
- For the development of these theme-based tourist circuits, the Union Ministry of Tourism has allocated 3,000 unique train carriages to the Ministry of Railways.
- IRCTC conducted a special 14-coach train on the Ramayana Circuit earlier this year, featuring air-conditioned three-tier coaches for passengers, as well as a pantry car, a restaurant car, and a separate carriage for train employees.
Operation Megh Chakra
Source: Hindu
GS II: Policies and Developmental Studies
What is discussed under Operation Megh Chakra?
- Operation Megh Chakra
- What is Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM)?
- Steps Taken by the Indian Government to Curb Online Child Sex Abuse
Why in News?
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) conducted raids on 59 sites across 20 states and one union territory as part of a pan-India campaign to combat the circulation and sharing of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM).
Operation Megh Chakra
- Mobile phones and laptops were among the technological devices seized during the search.
- Preliminary examination of these devices utilising cyber forensic technologies showed the existence of substantial amounts of child sexual abuse material in several of them.
- Interpol’s Crime Against Children Unit, based in Singapore, notified the CBI that CSAM was being spread in India using cloud-based storage technology.
- The information concerning these downloadable child sexual abuse materials was sent to Interpol by New Zealand’s National Central Bureau (NCB).
- The information was then forwarded to CBI for investigation.
- The CBI has termed its current operation to track down cases of internet child sexual exploitation with international connections ‘Operation Megh Chakra’.
- It focuses on merging information from various law enforcement agencies around the country while working closely with Interpol and other international organisations to prevent online child sexual exploitation.
- The CBI also stated that this raid is a follow-up to last year’s ‘Operation Carbon’ targeting the cloud storage-based dissemination of child pornographic content.
- Operation Carbon took place in 76 different places.
- The individuals identified in the FIRs were arrested and charged under the relevant provisions of the IPC and the Information Technology Act for allegedly being members of syndicates that uploaded, disseminated, sold, and viewed such content.
What is Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM)?
- It refers to material/content (videos/images/text/audio) portraying child sexual assault.
- Anything displaying a kid in sexually explicit poses, as well as material focused explicitly on a child’s genitalia, may be classified as Child Sexual Abuse Material.
- The Indian Law is rather extensive in handling concerns of child pornography or child sexual abuse images, or as the law refers to it – the portrayal of a child engaging in actual or simulated sexual activity.
- This involves digital manipulation, illustration, animation, and sketching, among other things.
- The following activities are few criminal actions under the POCSO Act (sections 11, 13, 14), the IT Act (sections 66E, 67), and the IPC (sections 292, 354A, 354C):
- Browsing, seeking & searching for child sexual abuse imagery
- Viewing child sexual abuse imagery (including online voyeurism)
- Downloading child sexual abuse imagery
- Storing, storing for commercial purposes and collecting child sexual abuse imagery
- Advertising child sexual abuse imagery
- Distributing or sharing or transmitting child sexual abuse imagery
- Punishment:
- Using a child for pornographic purposes is a non-bailable offence that can result in anything from 6 years to life imprisonment depending on the degree of harm caused to the child.
- Viewing, accessing, storing, downloading, or displaying pornography to a child can result in up to three or five years in prison.
Steps Taken by the Indian Government to Curb Online Child Sex Abuse
- According to Interpol statistics, India recorded over 24 lakh cases of online child sexual abuse from 2017 to 2020, with 80% of victims being girls under the age of 14.
- Prepubescent victims, including newborns and toddlers, made up more than 60% of unidentified victims.
- Approximately 65% of unidentified victims were female, although serious abuse photos were more likely to be male.
- The CBI established a special section named the ‘Online Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Prevention/Investigation (OCSAE)’ in 2019 to detect and monitor CSEM posting, circulation, and downloads online.
- Last year, the CBI launched a countrywide operation against accused online CSEM peddlers in India based on intelligence obtained by the bureau.
- In 2020, the Maharashtra Police’s cyber wing got software from Interpol to track child sex abuse caught on video and in photographs.
- In 2019, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a non-profit organisation located in the United States, began exchanging information regarding child sex abuse with Indian organisations.
- This information was received by the National Crime Records Bureau and forwarded on to the states where the occurrences occurred in order to increase the detection of persons distributing such stuff.
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