UPPSC 2022 Mains Essays

> Specific Instructions:

(i) The question paper is divided into three Section. Write three essays in Hindi or English of Urdu language selecting one topic from each Section.

(ii) Maximum words limit of each essay is 700 words.

(iii) Each essay carries 50 marks.

Industrial Revolution helped us advance into the 21st century, leading to more Ltechnological developments and scientific innovations and beginning of the manufacturing age. The result was industrial pollution which led to serious environmental degradation. Foul, sometimes toxic, solid, liquid, and gaseous wastes and loud, repetitive, mechanical noises and vibrations into the surrounding air, water and land were discharged by many industries. Such emissions blackened air and water and disturbed ecosystems wherever rivers were dammed for power, wood or coal burned to power production processes, and slaughterhouses, mills, workshops, mines and smelters established.

Most of the pollution on the planet can be traced back to many industries. Industrial pollution is one of the worst pollutions because the smoke emitted by industry contributes a lot to ozone depletion, health problems to both animals and humans, and global warming. The waste from these industrial units is thrown on land and water, which leads to a lot of health issues for both animals and plants. These pollutants release a lot of harmful and unnatural chemicals into both soil and water, which eventually lead to the extinction of some plant and animal species.

The industrial pollution contaminates several sources of drinking water, releases unwanted toxins into the air and reduces the quality of soil all over the world. Industrial pollution has resulted in environmental degradation as it involves:

> Burning coal

> Burning fossil fuels like oil, natural gas, and petroleum

> Use of chemical solvents in dyeing and tanning industries

> Untreated gas and liquid waste being released into the environment

> Improper disposal of radioactive material

Unplanned growth has taken place in most industrial townships, where companies have flouted rules and norms and polluted the environment with both air and water pollution.

Poor enforcement drive and lack of effective policies allow many industries to bypass laws made by the pollution control board. This results in mass-scale pollution that affects the lives of many people.

Due to lack of enough capital, many small-scale industries and factories rely on government grants to run their day-to-day businesses. Hence, they often escape environmental regulations and release a large number of toxic gases into the atmosphere.

Most of the industries still depend on old technologies to produce products that generate a large amount of waste. Many companies still make use of traditional technologies to produce high-end products, in order to avoid high costs and expenditure.

The inefficiency in the disposal of waste is the direct cause of water and soil pollution. Long-term exposure to polluted air and water leads to chronic health issues, pointing towards the severity of industrial pollution. It also lowers the air quality in surrounding areas, which causes many respiratory disorders.

Underground elements are pulled out in need of raw materials, which form the basis for industries. Extraction of minerals causes soil pollution and leads to oil leaks and spills that are harmful and even deadly to people and animals.

Leaks from vessels can cause oil spills that may prove harmful to marine life.

Seeing the severity of its impacts and global interconnection of industries, it will take many years to properly regulate and control industrial pollution. To seek permanent solutions to the oblems, many steps can be taken such as:

> Efficient training of employees for safe use and development of better technology for waste disposal can help control industrial pollution at the source.

> Recycling the polluted water in the industries as much as possible through increased recycling efforts can help reduce the pollution.

> Through adoption of organic methods to clean the water and soil, like use of microbes to clear waste and heavy metals residue, resourceful cleaning of the environment can be done.

> Selection of the industrial site with proper consideration of the surroundings and environmental impacts of the set-up can help reduce harmful consequences.

> Adequate treatment facilities for handling industrial waste needs to be developed.

> Planting more trees and plants to rebuild habitats can help create a buffer against the environment besides giving back the wildlife their homes.

> Stringent rules and effective implementation of environmental policies and laws with punishments and rewards can prevent the misuse of land.

Indian economy is the sixth largest in the world and majority of its population depends on agriculture for their livelihood. Agriculture sector contributes Troughly 14% of the country’s total GDP. It provides employment opportunities to rural agricultural and non-agricultural labourers. It also plays a major role in international trade in import and export activities.

As one of the major players in the agriculture sector worldwide, India has the world’s largest cattle herd (buffaloes), largest area planted to wheat, rice, and cotton, and is the largest producer of milk, pulses, and spices in the world. It is the second-largest producer of fruit, vegetables, tea, farmed fish, cotton, sugarcane, wheat, rice, cotton, and sugar. Indian agriculture sector holds the record for second-largest agricultural land in the world generating employment for about half of the country’s population.

Agriculture has been a major source of supply of raw materials to various important industries of our country. The Cotton and Jute Textile, Sugar, vegetable, edible Oil Plantation Industries (such as tea, coffee, rubber) and agro-based cottage industries are regularly collecting their raw materials directly from agriculture.

Agriculture is a major source of revenue for the Central and State Governments and the government is getting a lot of revenue from the increase in land revenue.

Some other sectors like railways, roadways are also earning a good portion of their income from the movement of agricultural goods.

The planning potential in India also depends on the agricultural sector. A good harvest stimulates the country’s planned economic growth by creating a better business environment for transportation systems, manufacturing industries, domestic trade, and so on. A good harvest provides the government with significant sums of money to cover its planned expenses. Likewise, a bad crop leads to a complete decline in the country’s business, which in turn leads to the failure of economic planning.

Agriculture is the only major source of food supply as it is providing regular food to such a large population of our country. It is estimated that about 60% of domestic consumption comes from agricultural products. With the rising population pressure, labour surplus economy, and rapid increase in food demand, food production is increasing rapidly.

A slight increase in personal income leads to a rapid increase in food demand. Thus, unless agriculture can supplement the surplus of foodstuffs in the market, a crisis is bound to arise. Many developing countries are going through this phase and agriculture has been developed to meet the growing food needs.

As agriculture is the largest industry in a developing country like India, it can and must play a significant role in increasing the rate of capital formation. If it fails to do so, the whole process of economic growth will suffer.

About 50% of the income generated in the manufacturing sector in India comes from all the agro-based industries. An increase in the level of agricultural income can lead to the expansion of the market for industrial products.

As the backbone of the economy, agriculture has helped India become selfsufficient in food production thereby leading to the Green Revolution. The Green revolution has rendered the following services in the Indian economy:

> Expansion of irrigation facilities

> Improved agricultural research.

> Acquisition of more land for farming purposes

> Improved use of seeds and improved use of high yielding varieties

> Water management

> Plan conservation activities through the use of fertilizers, pesticides, and crops.

The Indian agriculture is heavily dependent on monsoon season, but year-round agriculture cannot depend on just one season. To overcome such restrictions, another Green Revolution is likely to be formed which will increase the growth rate and irrigation area, lead to better water management, improving soil quality, and diversification of high-cost production.

Being a State subject, the State Government is primarily responsible for the growth and development of agriculture sector and developing perspective plans for their respective states and ensuring effective implementation of programmes/ schemes. Government of India supplements the efforts of the State Governments through various schemes/programmes as given below:

> Fixing of MSP at one-and-a-half times the cost of production

> Increase in procurement from farmers

> Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana

> Unprecedented enhancement in budget allocation

> Income support to farmers through PM KISAN

> Institutional credit for agriculture sector

> Agri Infrastructure Fund

> Providing Soil health Cards to farmers

> Neem Coating of Urea

> Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY)

Climate change events cause unpredictable spatial and temporal changes in rainfall, temperature, humidity in long run, and are most severely affecting irrigation, domestic and industrial water supply. Water availability is also under pressure due to climate change and overexploitation of water resources. In an already irregular and seasonal monsoonal climate, this increased variability due to climate change will further impact water availability and salt water intrusion.

To overcome such issues, one of the most effective solutions is interlinking of rivers. It is the inter-basin water transfer from the water surplus rivers to water deficit rivers or regions. It will increase water supply, irrigation potential, mitigate floods, and droughts and reduce regional imbalance in the availability of water. River water co-ordination will reduce regional imbalances and provide benefits by the way of additional irrigation potential, domestic and industrial water supply, hydropower generation, and transport facilities.

As many parts of the country face problems of drought while many others face the issues of flooding every year, so river water co-ordination is seen as a viable solution to overcome this issue.

> The Indo-Gangetic rivers are perennial as they are fed by rains as well as glaciers from the Himalayas.

> The peninsular rivers in India are seasonal as they are rain-fed mainly from the south-west monsoons.

> This is a major reason why the Indo-Gangetic plains suffer from floods and the peninsular states suffer from droughts.

> If the excess water can be diverted from the plains to the peninsula, the problem of floods and droughts can be solved to a large extent.

> Thus, co-ordination of rivers will bring about an equitable distribution of river waters in India.

> The National River Linking project (NRLP) targets on the transfer of water from the water-excess basin to the water-deficient basin by interlinking 37 rivers of India by a network of almost 3000 storage dams. This will form a gigantic South Asian water grid. This project has two components: Himalayan and Peninsular.

Himalyan Component	♦ Connecting the Ganga and Brahmaputra basins to the Mahanadi basin. ♦ Connecting the Eastern tributaries of the Ganga with the Sabarmati and Chambal rivers systems.
Peninsular Component	♦ Linking mahanadi and Godavari river basins to Cauvery, Krishna, and vaigai river systems. ♦ Ken to Betwa river, and Parbati and kalisindh river to Cahmbal river. ♦ West-flowing rivers to the south of Tapi to the north of Bombay. ♦ Linking some west-flowing rivers to east-flowing rivers.

River co-ordination is a way to transfer excess water from the regions which receive a lot of rainfall to the areas that are drought-prone. It can thus control both floods and droughts.

> This will help resolve the water crisis in many parts of India.

> This will also help in hydropower generation and target on building of many dams and reservoirs that will generate electricity.

> It will help in dry weather flow augmentation, which is the phenomenon of releasing the surplus water stored in reservoirs, during the dry season to enable a minimum amount of water flow in the rivers. This will help in controlling pollution, and aid in navigation, forests, fisheries, wildlife protection and so on.

> The dependency of Indian agriculture on monsoon majorly leads to issues in agriculturai output when the monsoons behave unexpectedly. This issue can be handled by improving the irrigation facilities, which can be achieved through river water co-ordination that will provide irrigation facilities in water-deficient regions.

> It will lead to betterment of the inland waterways transport system which will gain commercial benefits and provide an alternate source of income in form of fish farming in rural areas.

> It will also help in augmenting the defence and security of the country through additional waterline defence.

> Project feasibility and requirement of huge structures involve great engineering capacity along with finance and manpower, which is a huge challenge.

> Given the size of the project, it will change the entire ecosystems and will affect the wildlife, flora and fauna due to displacements and modifications. Many national parks and sanctuaries falling within the river systems will need to be considered carefully as the project can reduce the flow of fresh water into the seas, thus affecting marine aquatic life as well.

> Constructing of dams and reservoirs will lead to displacement of a lot of people, which will again cause a lot of agony and involve rehabilitation and adequate compensation for the same.

> Better irrigation practice at local level such as watershed management.

> Alternatives to be considered by the government to avoid friction amongst states.

> Necessity and feasibility of river water co-ordination should be seen on case-to-case basis.

> Focus should be on easing out federal issues.

Regionalism is a political identity that focuses on the definite interests of a particular region, group of regions, or other sub-national entity. In India, regionalism is rooted in Indian languages, cultures, tribes and religious diversity which is reinforced by the geographic concentration of these identification marks in particular regions and is fuelled by a sense of regional deprivation.

In short, it is a strong attachment to one’s own region. For example, in India people identify themselves based on their states like a Bengali, a Tamilian, a Bihari and so on, more than the identity of an ‘Indian’.

India remained the land of many lands, regions, cultures, and traditions for many centuries. The internal self-determination of community, whether linguistic, tribal, religious, regional or their combinations, has remained the principal form in which regionalism in India has come to express itself, historically and contemporarily.

After Independence, the Indian leaders tried to encourage a feeling of single nation among the people and the framers of the Constitution wanted to achieve this by introducing single citizenship for all. But being a complex, vast, and diverse country, a strong sense of regional loyalty and inclination started appearing in India and so regionalism became inevitable.

Geographical factors – as a diverse geographical landmass, India has geographical differences and face huge variation in climate which causes changes in lifestyle and food habits. Thus, a particular region’s lifestyle becomes significantly different from the rest of the population. This is why most of the North-East region’s population feel alienated from the rest of the country.

India has 22 official languages recognised by the Constitution, but around 1635 mother tongues exist here as per 2001 census. More so, there are 29 languages with more than 10 lakh native speakers. The mother tongue of a person creates a profound attachment to one’s own language thereby developing the identity of belongingness. Even the linguistic unity has been a major factor in the formation of states post-independence. The Constitution has envisaged Hindi to be promoted as a connecting language, but despite the efforts of the Indian Government to promote it, widespread agitation has been seen from non-Hindi speaking states.

Religious dimension to regionalism can’t be ignored, especially when the differences based on religion have led to the creation of Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Regionalism present in our country is primarily showcased by Indian politics and political parties, which are divided into National and Regional parties.

While National parties have a strong hold in many states and work based on all India agenda, Regional parties are mostly confined to a single state and work based on the interest of the state.

The leaders’ political aspirations remain a major source of regionalism. For example, the regional and linguistic identities are used by regional political parties to secure votes. They have created an imaginary threat from outsiders and promise their vote bank to secure their land for themselves and to eliminate outsiders.

Some states and regions are better in terms of development like infrastructure, healthcare, job opportunities and such economic factors cause inequality between regions. The problem of Naxalism has its roots in economic deprivation of people belonging to this region.

India is home to as many as 645 Schedules tribes as recognized by the Constitution. These ethnic differences formed the base for demands for political autonomy and secession which pose a threat to India’s unity.

Attributing different social status to different sections of the population, casteism has also promoted sectarian and sometimes regional aspirations.

Regionalism threatens the development, progress and unity of the nation and gives internal security challenges by the insurgent groups, who propagate feelings of regionalism against the mainstream political-administrative set-up of the country.

It hinders the international diplomacy, as in case of West Bengal government not agreeing to land Boundary agreement and Teesta River water sharing when leaders at centre level were ready to do so.

The regionalism induced violence disturbing the whole society, people are killed, students cannot attend schools and colleges, tourism can’t be promoted. The development of human resource is affected and the governments need to deploy extra forces to control the situation which directly affects the national economy.

Political parties should try to avoid partisanship. Cultural sensitization programs should be taken in institutes. Role of National Integration Council must be revamped to solve conflicting regional aspirations.

Announced by the Prime Minister on 15th August, 2014, Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) is National Mission for Financial Inclusion to ensure access to financial services, namely, a basic savings and deposit accounts, remittance, credit, insurance, pension in an affordable manner. Persons not having any other account can open a basic savings bank deposit (BSBD) account in any bank branch or Business correspondent (Bank Mitra) outlet, under this scheme.

> A basic savings bank account is opened for unbanked person.

> Interest is earned on deposit in PMJDY accounts.

> There is no requirement of maintaining any minimum balance in PMJDY accounts.

> RuPay Debit Card is provided to PMJDY account holder.

> Accident Insurance Cover of Rs.1 lakh (enhanced to Rs.2 lakh to new PMJDY accounts opened after 28.8.2018) is available with RuPay card issued to PMJDY account holders.

> An overdraft facility up to Rs. 10,000 to eligible account holders is available.

> PMJDY accounts are eligible for Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, Atal Pension Yojana and MUDRA scheme.

The plan focuses on universal access to banking facilities with at least one basic banking account for every household, financial literacy, access to credit, insurance and pension facility.

The underlying pillars of PMJDY, namely, banking the Unbanked, Securing the Unsecured and Funding the Unfunded has made it possible to adopt multistakeholders’ collaborative approach while leveraging technology for serving the unserved and underserved areas as well.

PMJDY has been one of the far-reaching initiatives towards Financial Inclusion, which is an enabler for inclusive growth that provides an avenue to the poor for bringing their savings into the formal financial system, an avenue to remit money to their families besides taking them out of the clutches of the extravagant money lenders.

PMJDY has been the foundation stone for people-centric economic initiatives. Whether it is DBT, COVID-19 financial assistance, PM-KISAN, increased wages under MGNREGA, life and health insurance cover, the first step of all these

initiatives is to provide every adult with a bank account, which PMJDY has nearly completed.

According to the data of the Finance Ministry, one in 2 accounts opened between March 2014 to March 2020 was a PMJDY account. Within 10 days of nationwide lockdown more than about 20 crore women PMJDY accounts were credited with ex-gratia.

Introduced with a target of opening bank accounts for around 7.5 crores uncovered households in India by 26th January 2015, the scheme was successful in opening around 12.54 crore accounts by 31st January, 2015 with deposits exceeding Rs.10,000 crores.

The implementation of the scheme occurred in three phases:

It was implemented with an aim to provide universal access to banking facilities for all household families across the country. It also provided financial literacy program to the villages and issued Kisan Credit Card.

It aimed at providing microinsurance to the people and pension schemes like Swavalamban to the unorganised sector through the business correspondents.

It focused on opening accounts for every household with an existing Overdraft (OD) limit of Rs. 5,000 to be raised to Rs. 10,000. No conditions were attached for OD up to Rs. 2,000.

The age limit for availing OD facility was revised from 18-60 years to 18-65 years. Under this expanded coverage, an accidental insurance cover for new RuPay card holders has raised from Rs.1 lakh to Rs. 2 lakhs if the accounts were opened after 28.08.2018.

A mobile application named Jan Dhan Darshak App was launched to provide a citizen-centric platform for locating banking touchpoints such as bank branches, ATMs, bank Mitras, Post offices and so on.

The remarkable swiftness and seamlessness with DBTs seen during the COVID-19 times, have empowered and provided financial security to the vulnerable sections of the society. The significant part is that DBTs through PM Jan Dhan accounts have ensured every rupee reaching its intended beneficiary and preventing systemic leakage.

PMJDY is also certified by the Guinness World Records for its achievements which certified that the number of most bank accounts opened in one week as part of the Financial Inclusion Campaign is 18,096,130.

“There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.” – Ursual K. LeGuin

The statement very well states the significance of literature and narrates how intricately it is inbuilt in the structure of our society. Literary standards are characterized under the following headings:

> Permanence: An important characteristic of a great literature is that it lasts. It can be read again and again as each reading gives fresh delight and new insights and opens a new world of meaning and experience. It has a lasting appeal.

> Artistry: This quality refers to the language, tone and aesthetics of the literature which appeal to our sense of beauty.

> Suggestiveness: The quality is associated with the emotional power of the literature. A literature that moves us deeply and stirs our feeling and imagination is a great one. It has the capacity to give and evoke visions above and beyond the plane of ordinary life and experience.

> Universality: Great literature is timeless and timely and is forever relevant. It appeals to one and all, anytime, anywhere, as it deals with elemental feelings, fundamental truths and universal conditions.

> Spiritual value: By bringing out moral values which makes a better person, the literature elevates the spirit. The capacity to inspire is part of the spiritual value of literature.

> Intellectual value: By stimulating critical thinking, a literary work enriches our mental processes of abstraction and reasoning by making us realize the fundamental truths about life and human nature.

> Style: It refers to the peculiar way in which the writer sees life, forms his ideas and expresses them.

Literature is closely related to history and in discovering history of a race, a country, we basically understand their own culture and traditions. Hence, literature presents the written customs and traditions of a country, and the dreams and aspirations of its people.

Great or excellent literature may present and explain something about their own times, but also observe something larger and lasting about the human conditions. A great writer examines the world as she or he sees it and communicates consciously to the reader about those observations. But in addition, a great work can also convey things a writer has observed unconsciously or unintentionally.

An excellent literature is based on the ideas that are startling, unexpected, unusual, weighty or new. The expertise of a great literature lies in making us see or think things we never did before. The ideas underlying the work challenge our accustomed categories and ways of thinking, putting minds on edge.

An excellent literature is complex enough to offer us something new every time we read it, especially at different stages of our lives. Not just conflicting characters, but conflicting ideas form the basis of all great art, and same goes for literature. This allows room for readers to entertain all sides, and not just one idea that the writer may be featuring.

A great work should do some good to the reader; must quicken his perception through dull, and sharpen his discrimination through blunt along with mellowing the rawness of his personal opinions.

Above all, time is the most important factor contributing to a book’s greatness. What makes a work excellent is how well it connects to the emotions of the readers and philosophical reflections that the reader experiences after reading that work.

Language by great literature or writers is used with originality, mastery, and ingenuity. There is little originality beyond the individual voice of such writers who are not great. The conscious changing of language with meaning contributes to the difference between a great and non-great writer.

Taking the techniques of language for granted detracts many writers from achieving the greatness and excellence in their literary work. The new standard of excellent literature is to use language with awareness and originality and not to use it conventionally.

A great literature addresses two important issues: what is truth and how do we know it? The effectiveness of language combined with a universal appeal and endurance with time makes a literature an excellent piece of art to be cherished through the ages.

Education is the Constitutional Right of every citizen and it prepares an individual to play their role as a sophisticated member of the society. The life of an ignorant and illiterate person, who has never had the chance to visit the school and is experiencing the bane of illiteracy, can well narrate the significance of education

He could very well value the answer to the question- ‘Why is education an essential factor in our life?’ He knows the prominence and importance of education and how it changes an individual’s life.

Illiteracy brings enormous hardship of constant dependency on others for survival. Education prepares its wings to fly and explore the surroundings while being confident and opportunistic. Better individuals are built by education and better societies are built by educated individuals, both of which further build great nations.

Education as a powerful weapon helps an individual face the adversities of life and overcome societal stigmas such as poverty, fear, status to achieve success. The substantial effect of illiteracy is ‘unemployment’, which hinders the progress of a nation leading to low standards of living and an increased crime rate.

Unemployment can have a devastating impact on a household and the general economy. The loss of income has an immediate effect in the reduction of consumer spending. A household enduring unemployment is likely to significantly cut spending, often in excess of the loss of income due to uncertainty, and the resumption of spending can lag after the return of income. The psychological impact of unemployment on a household can have a significant impact on the broader economy. The link between wage achievement in the labour market and education levels is built on the commonly accepted idea of imperfect substitution between the work and availability of skills in the labour market. The labour market maintains a positive wage bias in favour of skills and increased human capital.

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), there are about 71 million unemployed 15-to-24-year-olds around the globe, many of them facing long-term unemployment. This is close to a historic peak of 13%. These young people are vulnerable to lifetime of continued poverty due to lack of work experience and income. In desperate search for a more promising future, they migrate to other countries where they are also likely to struggle to find work and a better life. Chronic youth unemployment puts a brake on national economies, and the lack of a literate and skilled young workforce limits the businesses’ ability to generate higher growth, better profits and more jobs.

With so many young workers not having the skills they need to succeed in increasingly automated workplaces, the businesses’ ability to innovate and modernize is inhibited. The International Commission for Financing Global Education Opportunities reported last year that about 40% of employers worldwide find it difficult to recruit people with the skills they need.

Narrowing the skills gap is difficult in developing countries where hundreds of millions of children not even receive a primary school education, or get schooling of such poor quality they don’t really learn what they need to know.

To help it turn around, big stake in help is required from the global businesses and other major private institutions. There is a lack of great urgency and resources necessary to solve the global education crisis.

Access to education is a key component, not only for human resource development, but also of an individual’s ability to cope with modern living and to benefit from available opportunities. Setting up physical schools is a time-consuming process, so online education can help speed up the education. Access to quality education allows humans in extreme poverty situations to develop skills they need to find better livelihoods and acts as the golden key that can open the doors to prosperity.

Countries facing extreme poverty conditions must do essential investment in education sector, which will help their citizens attain the knowledge, skills and understanding to pursue better jobs that are not only well paying but also provide them with consistent earnings that will help them provide for the needs of themselves and their families.

More education translates into more valued skills and more income. Quick changes in primary, secondary and higher education is the best way to tackle the economic inequalities of disadvantaged population of a country.

The most popular mass medium in the 1950s was radio, which was replaced by television that became an integral part of our modern lives. It has reflected and shaped cultural values through amazing shows and serials on culture, tradition, information and entertainment, but at times has been criticized for its alleged negative influences on children and young people and other times, it has been lauded to create a common experience for all its viewers.

With major world events like impacts of Tsunami in 2004 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, terrorists attack on the World Trade Centre in 2001, the Challenger shuttle explosion in 1986 and many more on the air, the television has united millions of people in shared tragedy and hope.

As the internet technology and satellite broadcasting change the way people watch television today, the medium continues to evolve and solidify its position as one of the most significant inventions of the 20th century.

However, overwhelming evidences suggest that watching violent and aggressive behaviour on television affect children directly. As children are great imitators of imaginary plays and their favourite characters and they get attracted by stunts and actions shown on TV easily, it creates a sense of violence in the younger minds as they are unable to distinguish between good and bad.

People in their adolescents or young age have no self-control and when they watch too much TV, they try to implement the same thing in real life. The type of burglary and murders shown on TV are quite often found to be copied in real life cases of murders, thefts and other social crimes.

Children are glued to TV most of the times and this is more common in nuclear family system prevalent in today’s generation where children are restricted inside the realms of their homes. Thus, they prefer watching television over studying or playing while they are at home. This deeply impacts their mental health and mindset.

While some of the TV programmes are educational and brain booster but several programmes are portrayal of violence, drama, crimes and these are most often watched by youth. Even movies involve a lot of violence and action which are liked by children and young generation a lot. They tend to repeat what they see, without thinking that their action will have some negative effects. They are led to believe that crimes and violence don’t cause any harms.

A recent report on television shows state that 47% of violent television programmes show the victim unharmed, especially in cartoons and television shows. Characters get blown away by others and they get back up without being harmed. This makes children believe that violence doesn’t really hurt anyone. Watching too much of such shows will make them ignore the outer world and develop many lifestyle diseases such as refractive error, obesity, low vision, headache, sleeplessness and inability to concentrate to name a few.

Watching too much television at young age can lead to children having life issues at school and at home. Children watching excessive television are less cooperative, imaginative, enthusiastic about learning, and are less happy.

Viewers learn the aggressive attitudes, and behaviours depicted in the programmes they see. In one fourth of television violence, gun and knife are mostly used and seeing such weapons can activate aggressive thoughts in the viewers.

Prolonged viewing of media violence can lead to emotional desensitization towards real violence, and victims which may result in callous attitudes. There is less likelihood that desensitized individuals will help any victims when real violence occurs.

Some violence has humour added to it, so the violence isn’t as real but it is bad as someone might not be as affected by a crime but viewing violence may increase our fear of being victimized, leading to self-protective behaviour, and an increased mistrust towards others.

Children watching violence, whether real or fake, can develop symptoms of Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is a mental health condition that is triggered by terrifying event – either experiencing it or witnessing it. Its symptoms include nightmares, severe anxiety, uncontrollable thoughts about the event and flashbacks.

If a child already has fear of things, then their functional abilities may be affected and cause growth issues, stereotypes and development of prejudiced mindset which will make them anti-social adults.

The feminist movement of the early 1960s has fuelled an unusual rise in employment of married women which has had far-reaching economic, social and psychological inferences for women and their immediate families. The increased opportunities for women where they hold high-powered corporate positions or are self-employed, require ongoing commitment and availability. Their personality has thus been bifurcated into dual roles as mothers and executives which require exceptional coping skills and apt balancing to ensure that the needs of all those who depend on them are met and that they are still able to meet their own needs.

This implies an artful balancing act of these roles and thus it can be argued that a potential imbalance in either of these roles could lead to role conflict. Thus, it is interesting to know how these women balance their double personality and the effect this may have on their well-being.

The domain of ‘work and family’ had emerged as a distinct field of research in the 1960s and 1970s. Researchers continued to be intrigued by the interplay between work and family by the 1990s and their special focus remained on the short and long-term consequences of work for the quality of family life and the development of family members.

Some researchers highlighted the impact of the 1990s on the work-family interface through technological and economic changes in terms of increased use of cellular phones and computers which allowed the employees to be more mobile. More so, the 1990s also saw an increase in the participation of mothers in the labour force.

From this perspective, the levels of well-being vary from woman to woman and this may be related to their coping mechanisms, personality types or even social, emotional and practical support. For example, working mothers with a great number of responsibilities are always required to handle several things at once and balance the multiple roles that they face on a daily basis, which may be exhausting and may adversely affect their wellbeing and health.

At present, women at work have become a norm. As education, awareness, and opportunities for women provided by the government have been rising day by day, women have become aware and are availing such opportunities. They are slowly strengthening their position in every sphere of life parallel to men.

They play multiple roles such as child-rearing, parents, teachers, caretakers of their elderly parents, and many more, which become very strenuous for them. The added responsibility and burden of chores add to daily hassles for them, especially in working women with young children, which definitely affect their psychological well-being.

In rural areas, where men migrate to cities for earning, the women are left behind to take the burden of the household and agriculture on their shoulders. As known, agriculture sector has the highest number of unpaid employees and majority of them are women.

Also in urban areas, women’s work boosts middle class incomes but also creates a family time squeeze which needs to be eased. The women’s labour force participation has rebounded after falling during last recession, but its long-term growth has stalled.

Family-to-work conflict plays a mediating role which affects work outcomes of job performance and withdrawal behaviour. Women have been experiencing more of family-to-work conflict on account of family role involvement, childcare responsibilities, and elderly care responsibilities at home, thus leading to demand for higher family involvement. It is difficult to establish a direct relationship between family involvement and organizational commitment, but as per empirical evidences, the facilitation of higher involvement in family role will lead to lower family-to-work conflict thus leading to higher commitment levels towards the organization. Effective management of family role by women enables them to dedicate more time and efforts towards work.

With women being provided organizational, family and social support, their family-to-work conflict is reduced and this support helps them in fulfilling their family roles effectively and in a satisfactory manner. Family involvement relates positively to work-family conflict and negatively to organizational commitment.

There is a dire need of new policies and practices that involve greater sharing of the burdens of unpaid work in the home, more support for time-squeezed working families, and higher pay for both men and women.

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