Violence against women: Causes and Consequences

Violence against Women : Causes and Consequences 

"Violence against  women and girls happens right in front of us every day – and we simply must do more to counteract it"

A 26-second video that surfaced on July 19 showed the two women stripped naked, groped by a violent mob and taken towards a paddy field on May 4, 2023 sparking nationwide outrage.

The truth is that violence against women and girls happens right in front of us every day – and we simply must do more to counteract it.

Feeling safe should be a fundamental human right, but for many women this right is taken away from them, simply because they are women. 1 in 3 women are estimated to be affected in their lifetime, yet it’s estimated that only 18% will report incidents to the police.

Violence against women is one of the most frequent violations of human rights. Its causes are often to be found at a structural level.Violence against women is one of the most frequent human rights violations.  It is a threat to women’s lives, it puts their physical and psychological health at risk, and it is a threat to the well-being of their children. Violence against women has consequences for society as a whole. The perpetrators can be found in every social and economic milieu, and most of them are male.

In  societies shaped by patriarchy, violence against women is an expression of unequal power relationships between men and women. So the causes of this violence are to be found not only at the individual level but also, and particularly, at the structural level. These causes need to be eliminated in order to prevent further violence. Gender justice cannot be established unless misogynist structures are resolved. Only then will women and girls be able to live a life free of violence.

What forms does this violence take?

There are various ways in which violence manifests: sexualised, physical, psychological, social, and financial violence. Sexualised violence is one form of gender-based violence and is an expression of discrimination. Women are not only discriminated against on the basis of their gender. They are also often subjected to additional forms of discrimination, such as racism, homophobia or ableism, which influence and reinforce each other.

Domestic violence

'Domestic' or 'Family Violence', also known as ‘intimate partner violence’, refers to any violence committed by people within close social relationships. This is an internationally recognised violation of human rights. The purpose of this violence is to exercise control and power. Although the term ‘domestic’ might be thought of as referring to a house or household, the violence is often committed within the wider family or by a former partner. It is not the place of the incident that defines this form of violence, but the person perpetrating the violence, so medica mondiale prefers to use terms such as ‘intimate partner violence’ or ‘violence in a close social environment’ instead of ‘domestic violence’.

Psychological violence

Psychological violence refers to actions which lead to emotional and mental injuries of those affected. Psychological violence manifests itself as intimidation through looks, gestures or shouting, in coercion and in threats - such as the threat of taking children away from a woman or threatening to use physical violence. Humiliation, derogatory and discriminatory comments, and public ridicule are also forms of psychological violence. Emotional violence is often accompanied by controlling or dominating behaviour, extreme jealousy, or the isolation of those affected. Psychological violence can also occur online in the form of ‘cyber violence’.

Causes of violence against women

The person affected by the rape is never the person responsible for that violence. Neither her behaviour, her appearance nor her clothing can justify the violence. Examples of causes at the structural level nclude the violence that is inherent in the discrimination carried out by private and public institutions or as part of political measures. The unequal treatment of women is based on outdated stereotypes and role ascriptions for men and women. The gender of a person is constructed socially. There is no exclusively ‘natural’ or ‘biological’ determination of gender. This means that masculinity is also a social construct. And given the framework ofpatriarchial role expectations  it is often connected with aggression. In order to confront violence against women at all levels of society and to enact preventive measures, medica mondiale developed its multi-level approach

Gender-specific violence against women does not take place simply at the level of the individual, but is anchored in the cultural and institutional structures of societies. The interplaybetween discriminating behaviours  at all three levels is then referred to as ‘structural’ violence. Structural violence can be seen, for example, in discriminatory rules, laws, traditions and customs, as well as misogynistic language. The influences of these structures have a subconscious and conscious influence on people in the way they think and in the way they behave. In turn, the people who are socialised within these structures go on to preserve them, leading to a cycle which ensures that sexism continues to exist and be manifested, in turn maintaining the violence against women that results from this sexism.

RESPECT: Seven Strategies for Preventing Violence Against Women

• R –elationship skills strengthened.
• E –mpowerment of women.
• S –ervices ensured.
• P –overty reduced.
• E –nvironments made safe.
• C –hild and adolescent abuse prevented.
• T –ransformed attitudes, beliefs, and norms.

BIOSENSORS; Biological and Technical Challenges Associated With In-Field Detection and Quantification

Biosensors :For detection of plant pathogens

Introduction

Plant pathogens are a major reason of reduced crop productivity and may lead to a shortage of food for both human and animal consumption. Although chemical control remains the main method to reduce foliar fungal disease incidence, frequent use can lead to loss of susceptibility in the fungal population. Furthermore, over-spraying can cause environmental contamination and poses a heavy financial burden on growers. To prevent or control disease epidemics, it is important for growers to be able to detect causal pathogen accurately, sensitively, and rapidly. To reach this goal, biosensors have been developed for  early and accurate pathogen detection. There is also great scope to translate innovative nanoparticle-based biosensor approaches developed initially for human disease diagnostics for early detection of plant disease-causing pathogens. 

Diagnostic Methods for Plant Pathogens

The earliest traditional method, still broadly used for disease and potentially pathogen diagnosis, is visual crop inspection, requiring an experienced grower or pathologist. As a consequence, recent efforts have focused on the development of earlier pathogen detection methods with greater sensitivity, accuracy, and identification speed. To date, these have comprised of three types of molecular assays, which are protein-based or nucleic acid technologies: Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay and loop mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay.

By far the most developed serology-based diagnostics method for fungal pathogens is ELISA. This enables pathogen detection via a colorimetric reaction, visualized by the naked eye or optical reader for quantification (Fang and Ramasamy, 2015). For improved specificity and sensitivity of detection, alternative approaches targeting nucleic acid sequences of target pathogens were developed. These often rely on PCR amplification of the target sequence, followed by amplicon detection and visualization. To improve portability of molecular diagnostic assays, the DNA amplification technique of LAMP was developed, which rapidly amplifies nucleic acids with high specificity and sensitivity under isothermal conditions (Notomi et al., 2000). LAMP-diagnostic assays were initially focused on detecting bacterial and viral pathogens (Obura et al., 2011; Bühlmann et al., 2013) and more recently on plant fungal pathogens (Tomlinson et al., 2013; Chen et al., 2016; Manjunatha et al., 2018).

Biosensor Technologies for Plant Pathogen Detection

Biosensors have appeared as advanced detection tools used in many research fields including environmental monitoring, detection of airborne pathogens, real-time detection of human blood components and pathogens and pesticide residues in foods and beverages (Liu et al., 2018).Biosensor are diagnostic devices, which typically integrates a biological sensing element and physicochemical transducer to generate an electronic signal when it contacts with a specific analyte of interest or pathogen in solution. Subsequently, a transducer converts a biomolecular interaction into a digital output (Elmer and White, 2018). The biological element that plays the role of a bioreceptor can be antibody, DNA, enzyme, tissue type, whole cell etc. These bioreceptors are responsible to provide recognition specificity to the biosensor through the selective nature of the biochemical interaction. Based on the transducer type, a biosensor may be classified as an electrochemical, optical, thermal, or piezoelectric biosensor (Sawant, 2017).

electrochemical biosensor was more sensitive than conventional PCR, able to diagnose infected plants before any symptoms of the disease appeared (Lau et al., 2017).

Electrochemical Biosensors

An electrochemical biosensor relies on two core components; a molecular recognition layer and an electrochemical transducer, which converts biological information that is derived from a binding event into an electrical signal that is subsequently shown on a readout device (Ronkainen et al., 2010). In other words, following the active interaction between the analyte and bio-recognition element, a signal generated on the electrode surface is transformed into an electrical signal for quantitative analysis. This class of biosensor is able to detect target pathogens under different conditions including in air, water, and on seeds within different platforms such as greenhouses, in-field and in postharvest storage vessels (Fang and Ramasamy, 2015). Among all the possible biological sensing components linked to a transducer, plant’s antibody and DNA are more advantageous and applied in point-of-care assays to detect plant pathogens.

FIGURE 1. Schematic representation of an (A) antibody-based and a (B) DNA/RNA-based biosensor for analyte detection.

TABLE 1. Examples of electrochemical biosensors developed for the detection of plant pathogens.

Optical Biosensors

Optical biosensors measure the interaction between a target analyte and ligand using a light source, an optical transmission medium, an immobilized biorecognition element, and a signal detection system. Ultimately, change in amplitude, phase, and frequency of the given light in response to physicochemical conversion (change) generated by the biorecognition process is measured (Ray et al., 2017). Among optical biosensors developed for plant pathogen detection, colorimetric biosensors, fluorescence-based assays-, and surface plasmon resonance-based biosensors are the most common.

TABLE 2. Examples of optical biosensors developed for the detection of plant pathogens.

Advantages of Biosensors over conventional methods

The accuracy for biosensor-based detection is largely dependent on the in-field sampling strategy. Detection limits for target pathogens may be greatly impacted by their biological concentrations on or within plant materials or other environmental samples tested. In conventional assays, sample preparation methods like centrifugation and precipitation have been used to solve these issues. However, these techniques are less conducive to in-field applications since they require multiple pieces of powered equipment and are time-consuming. Direct sequencing methods are even more sensitive to impurities in the input material and require high molecular weight pure DNA to produce reliable results. Although there are several commercial kits available for DNA extraction from pathogens, many fail to extract high quality DNA from environments that contain higher concentrations of acids such as humic acid in soil or phenolic acids in plant tissues. To overcome this challenge, modified nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) extraction techniques are required to remove background interference. However, these methods are laborious and time-consuming protocols that use liquid nitrogen or dry-ice for sample homogenizing .

As an alternative, the magnetic properties of metal nanoparticles themselves may be utilized, to separate and concentrate the bound target analytes. The further development of paramagnetic bead-based DNA extraction and purification methods will substantially improve the speed and quality of DNA extractions, while reducing the dependency on toxic reagents and powered centrifuge and heatblocks.Lab-made paramagnetic particles reagents or commercial kits, such as the CleanNA Clean Plant DNA Kit and MagBio HighPrep™ Plant DNA Plus Kit, should be further evaluated for their cost, time and labor-efficiency, and the quality and yield of the extracted DNA. This approach will be especially useful when analyte capture and separation are able to be performed as a twostep reaction in a single reaction tube with subsequent immediate loading onto the biosensor chip.Another main factor is affordability—massive reduction in cost per sample within nano-biosensor devices has already been achieved using bare screen-printed carbon electrodes  and streptavidin coated screen-printed carbon electrodes.

Need of Furthur Reasearch 

Despite the advantages of electrochemical and optical biosensing techniques over the conventional methods mentioned in this review, there is a need for further research on implementing this technology in plant pathogen quantification under in-field conditions. A validation of a portable sensor requires a specialized hardware, which can be expensive and difficult to operate for un-specialized such as farmers. Currently it is unknown what minimum inoculum levels are required to induce a disease in host plants. Establishing this threshold is essential to translate the biosensor quantified pathogen level to estimate the risk of disease..

Conclusion

Nano biosensing technologies and devices are fast replacing conventional and traditional diagnostic tools. With further optimization for application in a range of environments, the use and validation of these affordable, fast, and highly sensitive and specific tools for plant pathogen detection in the field will become widely adopted in the near future. It is highly likely that with further validation, these tools will also be used for modelling disease and will therefore become an essential part of a proactive and pre-emptive suit of IDM tools, for use by growers and agronomists ahead of epidemics.

WHY CLASSIFICATION

Question paper discussion (previous year)

Qn. 6 and 7  two marks

Ans 6: (i)✓Father of Ayurveda. 

✓Wrote Charaka Samhita.

✓ Included more than 200 plants and animals. 

(ii) ✓Wrote book Historia Generalis Plantarum

✓Studied about more than 18000 plants. ✓Used the term Species for the first time.

Ans7: a)Virus.

b) HIV, Corona Virus

Qn 11 and 12 three marks 

Ans 11: Kingdom -(i) Plantae

Class- (i)Monocotyledonae

(iii)Series- Calycinae

(iv) Genus- (v) Cocos

Species- (vi) nucifera

Ans12: a) Panthera indicates Genus name and tigris indicates species name.

b) Can be identified in any part of the world.

It helps in solving the difficulties faced by organisms with more than one common name.  

c) Carl Linnaeus

Qn 1 one mark

Ans1: a) Correct sentence

b) Species is the basic level of classification

c) Correct sentence

Qn 8. Two marks

Ans: (A) Carl Woese - (iii)

(B) John Ray- (v)

(C)Theophrastus- (ii)

(D) R.H.Whittaker- (iv)

Qn 9 two marks

Ans 9: (A) Archea

(B) Monera

(C) Protista

(D) Animalia

Qn 11. Three marks

Ans11: (1) Protista- (b)- (iv)

(2) Animalia- (a)- (iii)

(3) Monera- (d)- (i)

Qn 1 one marks

Ans1: a) Correct sentence

b) John Ray used the term Species for the first time.

c) Correct sentence

Qn 4 two marks

Ans 4A: a) Cow - Bos taurus

b) Crow+ Corvus splendens

C)kanikonna- Cassia fistula

4B: a) phylum

b) Series

C) Family

d) Cocos

Qn 9 Two marks

Ans: Archeabacteria which is different in cell structure and function was included along with bacteria in 5 kingdom classification.

Carl Woese proposed 6 kingdom classification.

Qn 2. And 3 One mark

Ans2: a) correct

b) Species is a group of organism that can produce fertile offsprings through sexual reproduction.

c) correct

Ans3: (c)

Qn 6 two marks

Ans6: John Ray: Species

Carl woese: Six kingdom classification

Qn 10 three marks

Ans10: a) Giving scientific name.

b) Tiger- Panthera tigris

Paddy - Oryza sativa

Qn 12 Three marks

Ans12:a)  Chordata

b) Felidae

c) Mammalia

Qn 3 one mark 

Ans: a. Correct

b. Carl Linnaeus introduced Binomial nomenclature

c. Correct

Qn 6. Two marks

Ans: Virus do not have cell , nucleus etc. 

It is active only in a host organism.

Qn 12. and 13 three marks each

Ans: 

Qn 1 and 3 one mark 

Ans1: Amoeba:Protista

Crow: Corvus splendens

Ans3: a) Theophrastus

b) correct

c) Correct 

LET'S REGAIN OUR FIELDS

Question paper discussion ( Previous Year)

Qn.4. One mark

Ans: 1. Poly house farming

         2. Precision farming

Qn.5. Two marks

Ans: (a) Using chemical fertilizers or pesticides kills or destroys the micro organisms present in the microbial fertilizers.

         (b)Biofeetilizers should be used.

              Proper irrigation should be provided.

Qn 8 and 9. 2 marks  Qn 10. 3 marks.

Ans: 8 : Rhizobium , Azotobacter, Azospirillum

9. : Yes, the statement is true. By testing the soil, the presence of elements and the pH of the soil can be identified. 

10: (i) Cuniculture (ii) Rearing of rabbits for fur ( iii) Rearing of Honeybees ( iv) pisciculture (v) Floriculture(iv) Cultivation of flowering plants.

Qn 13. 3 marks

An: Reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The decaying matter of one crop or organism is used as manure for crops.

By cultivating native varieties of crops biodiversity can be conserved.

Qn. 9. 2 marks and Qn 10. 3 marks.

Ans. 9: (a) Hydroponics, Aeroponics

              (b) Plants can be cultivated without water. Lack of space can be resolved.

10: (a) Azospirillum, Azotobacter

       (b)• ensure the availability of biofertilizers in the soil.

• proper irrigation should be provided.

• chemical fertilizers or chemical pesticides should not be used.

Qn 2. one mark

Qn 4 . Two marks

Ans: 2: White Leghorn. Others are varities of rabbit.

Ans4: (a) Precision farming

(b) Polyhouse farming

(c) Aeroponics

( d) Hydroponics 

Qn 10 3 marks

Ans 10: (i) Apiculture

(ii) Sericulture

(iii) Catla, Rohu

Qn 12 ..three marks

Ans 12 :(i) Native or indigenous varities are high disease

resistance,  low cost of management and nutrients rich.

(ii) Kilichundan, Moovandan

Qn 2. 

I agree with second statement.

Indigenous varities are high disease

resistance,  low cost of management and nutrients rich.

Extinction of indigenous varieties causes depletion of our biological

wealth.

Qn. 5 , 6 and 7 ..three marks

Ans 5: a) No, Chemical fertilizers kill microorganisms present in soil.

b) Microbial fertilizers are substances that contain microorganisms which help

to increase the fertility of soil.

c) • ensure the availability of biofertilizers in the soil.

• proper irrigation should be provided.

• chemical fertilizers or chemical pesticides should not be used.

Ans6: C, ii and iv correct

Ans7: Cuniculture-Rearing of Rabbits-White giant

Apiculture-Rearing of honeybees - mellifera

Pisciculture - rearing of fish- rohu

Qn 8 three matks

Ans8: Integrated Pest Management

The basic principle of Integrated Pest Management isnot the destruction of pests totally. Instead it tries to prevent the multiplication of pests and to limit their

number without loss of crop.This ecofriendly method ensures pest control without

disturbing the environment. 

Qn 7  three marks

An7: (i) b, in sustainable agriculture, wastes are used as manure.

(ii) Biogas production, compost production

Qn 8 . Three marks 

Ans: (a) Pisciculture 

(b) Sericulture 

(c)25%

(d)c, others 

Qn 11. Three marks

Ans: (a) Integrated Pest Management

(b) biopesticides, Natural enimies of pests, ultra Sonic sound waves, pheromone trap etc.

Qn 9. Two marks

Ans: (a) indigenous varities

( b) Indigenous varities are high disease

resistance,  low cost of management and nutrients rich.. We must realize

that through the extinction of these food crops, we are losing invaluable treasure.

Extinction of indigenous varieties causes depletion of our biological

wealth. 

Qn 13. Three marks

Ans13: (a)Polyhouse farming

(b)the temperature and moisture in the polyhouse is constantly regulated. 

Nutrients can be given through drop irrigation.

Qn. 1. One mark

Ans:Bob white, others are chicken varieties

Qn. 4 one mark qn 5, 7 two marks

Ans: 4 (i) Vechoor, kasargod kullan

Ans 5: 

(a) rearing of fish

( b) rearing of silkworm 

Ans 7: wastes can be managed and we can produce compost and biogas from the organic waste and can be used it for agriculture. 

Qn. 11. Three marks

Ans: Polyhouse farming

Temperature and moisture can be covered.

Pest infestation will be less.

Precision farming

Agricultural practices in which soil is covered with polythene sheets.

Effective control of weed is possible. 

Qn 20.

Answer:

BREATHING FOR ENERGY

Question  paper discussion( Previous Year)

1.

Ans: Carbaminohaemoglobin

3. One mark

Ans: (a) stomata

         (b) diffusion

7. Two marks

Ans: ( a) Glucose+ Oxygen - carbon dioxide + water

(b) Energy is utilized in Photosynthesis and, it is released during cellular respiration.

8. Two marks

Ans: a) Presence of ‘C’ shaped cartilagenous rings in trachea.

b) Presence of Lenticels.

14, 15 and 16 : 3 marks

Ans: 

18. 3 marks

Ans: a) Krebs cycle

b) Cytoplasm

c)Stores in ATP molecules

19. 3 marks

Ans: No,carbon dioxide is transported through blood plasma,haemoglobin and RBC.

 Role of blood plasma and RBC is expelling carbon dioxide.

RECREATIONAL GAMES

  RECREATIONAL GAMES 👦👧

1.  In the Pond, On the Bank(കുളം, കര)

Type: Thinking/Active

Group size: Any

Equipment: White chalk to draw a line on the floor enough for the whole group to make a circle.

Instructions:

Have all members of the group line outside the circle. Instruct them that they are standing “on the bank” and that the other side of the line is “in the pond”. They have to listen to your commands. The only commands that they have to react to are “on the bank” or “in the pond”. They must jump quickly to which ever side you called or be called out. The object is to be the last one standing. As the facilitator, you then start yelling commands, trying to trick the people jumping by sometimes yelling ‘in the bank” or “on the pond”, or by repeating the same command twice in a row and getting them to jump. The member who are responding wrong is out from the game. The game lasts when one person wins. 

2.Passing Ball

Type: Concentration/Active

Group size: Any

Equipment: A small ball

Instructions:

Members of the group  and you stand or sit in a circle. When the facilitator command “start” pass the ball to the person next to you in the circle. They continue passing the ball around the circle. When the facilitator says “stops”, the member holding the ball is out from the game. The game continues like this.  One person left  at the end of the game wins .

3.  Glass Tower Making

Type: Thinking/Concentration

Size: Individual

Equipment: Disposable Paper Glass/Glass.

 

Instructions:

Four students are invited to play the game. Each student is given with 6 glass. When facilitator commands “start” they start making  tower. To make glass tower one should place the glass on the bench provided, and on the first glass 2^nd glass is placed upside down. Then on the 3^rd glass , 4^th glass is placed and so on to make a tall tower. When facilitator says “stop” the students stop making tower. Winner of the game is the one who makes the tall tower. It can be find out by counting the number of glass used by the winner. 

4.  Memory Test

Type: Memory Power/ Writing skills/

Size: Individual

Equipment: Gather random objects from classroom, house & or from surroundings.

Instructions:

Place the objects on the table .Study the objects for 30 seconds. Cover up the table with a cloth. Then the students are asked to write all the things they have seen on the table. The student who write the more is the winner of the game.

5. Kula Kula Munthiri

Type: Concentration/Active

Group size: Any

Equipment: A small handkerchief.

Instructions:

Have all members of the group sit in a circle except for the one who is a “Runner”. The Runner goes around the outside of the circle holding a handkerchief while singing” kula kula munthiri.”. The group  members  in the circle respond with, “Kutta niraye kond vaa”. At some point the runner  drops the handkerchief behind one member. That member has to pick up the handkerchief and chase the runner around the circle until the runner sit in the circle. Again the member who got the handkerchief becomes the runner and the game continues.