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Hint: In a democratic country, all eligible citizens have the right to participate, either directly or indirectly, in making the decisions that affect them. India is a democratic country. The Constitution gave the citizens of India the power to choose their own government and paved the way for democracy.  The process of choosing the government is done by elections.

Complete answer:

Franchise literally means the right of the people to vote and elect their representatives. The word franchise is derived from the French word ‘franc’ which means ‘free’. It means Democracy at Work free exercise of the right to choose one’s representatives.

Adult Franchise means all adult citizens of the country should have the right to vote without any discrimination of class, caste, class, religion, or gender. It is based on the basic principle of democracy, which we call equality. It stresses that the right to vote should be equally available to all. It is the bedrock of a democratic system. It enables all citizens to be involved in the governance of their state. 

In history, it took much time in making itself a universal law. In fact, this was one of the major demands in the long-drawn struggle for democracy. To date, not all the countries of the world are practising this law. India had implemented this principle on January 26, 1950. Now the minimum age for exercising franchises is 18 years in our country. One must qualify certain grounds for the adult franchise in India. 

These are:-

– One must be a citizen of India,

– One must have attained 18 years of age,

– One must not be of unsound mind,

– One must not have been declared bankrupt by a competent court

Note:  As provided for, in the Constitution of the land, the citizens cast their votes at regular intervals to elect their representatives to the Parliament, to the Legislative Assemblies, and such as other institutions as are essential organs of political power in a democracy. These institutions are called representative institutions precisely because they represent the will of the peoples.

The main reasons of poverty are stated below:

1. Increase rate of rising population:

In the last 45 years, the population has increased at the whopping rate of 2.2% per annum. An average of approx. 17 million people are added every year to the population which raises the demand for consumption goods considerably.

2. Less productivity in agriculture:

In agriculture, the productivity level is very low due to subdivided and fragmented holdings, lack of capital, use of traditional methods of cultivation, illiteracy etc. The very reason for poverty in the country is this factor only.

3. Less utilization of resources:

Underemployment and veiled unemployment of human resources and less utilization of resources have resulted in low production in the agricultural sector. This brought a downfall in their standard of living.

4. A short rate of economic development:

In India, the rate of economic development is very low what is required for a good level. Therefore, there persists a gap between the level of availability and requirements of goods and services. The net result is poverty.

5. Increasing price rise:

Poor is becoming poorer because of continuous and steep price rise. It has benefited a few people in the society and the persons in lower income group find it difficult to get their minimum needs.

6. Unemployment:

One of the main causes of poverty is the continuous expanding army of unemployed in our country. The job seeker is increasing in number at a higher rate than the expansion in employment opportunities.

7. Shortage of capital and able entrepreneurship:

The much-required capital and sustainable entrepreneurship play a very important role in accelerating the growth. But these are in short supply making it difficult to increase production significantly.

8. Social factors:

Our country’s social set up is very much backward with the rest of the world and not at all beneficial for faster development. The caste system, inheritance law, rigid traditions and customs are putting hindrances in the way of faster development and have aggravated the problem of poverty.

9. Political factors:

We all know that the East India Company started lopsided development in India and had reduced our economy to a colonial state. They exploited the natural resources to suit their interests and weaken the industrial base of Indian economy. The development plans have been guided by political interests from the very beginning of our independence. 

10. Unequal distribution of income:

If you simply increase the production or do a checking on population cannot help poverty in our country. We need to understand that inequality in the distribution of income and concentration of wealth should be checked. The government can reduce inequality of income and check the concentration of wealth by pursuing suitable monetary and price policies.

11. The problem of distribution:

The distribution channel should be robust in order to remove poverty. Mass consumption of goods and food grains etc. should be distributed first among the poor population. Present public distribution system must be re-organised and extended to rural and semi-urban areas of the country.

12. Regional poverty:

India is divided by the inappropriate proportion of poor in some states, like Nagaland, Orissa, Bihar, Nagaland, etc. is greater than the other states. The administration should offer special amenities and discounts to attract private capital investment to backward regions. 

13. Provision for minimum requirements of the poor:

The government should take care of the minimum requirements, like drinking water, primary medical care, and primary education etc. of the poor. The public segment should make generous expenditure on the poor to provide at least minutest requirements.

Womankind, female new-borns and old people are said to be the poorest of the poor. Within a poor family, such individuals suffer more than the others. As per the fact, they are systematically denied equal access to the resources available to the family. Others can be scheduled tribes, urban casual labourers, agricultural rural labourers, victims of natural calamities. With the widespread extreme poverty and dreadful living conditions, most of the underdeveloped countries are at on the baseline of the global economy. 

Most of these countries usually have little or no infrastructure. Even reliable health care and other social services are also very less. At present, we can witness that almost all the countries are experiencing long-term political unrest. These are in the form of civil war or armed conflict with other nations. They are also subject to unstable governments, dictatorships, and/or corruption. In addition, they regularly suffer natural disasters and environmental events that cause natural disasters like famine, destruction, and displacement of large segments of their populations. As in South Asian countries like India and China which are experiencing unprecedented economic growth, but a wider poverty gap as well. Research has been conducted in countries like Benin, Bangladesh and Ethiopia gave the synthesis report on the conclusions are based on the ASC’s.

Child labour is the illegal act running in India for many years and ruining the present and future of the children. It has taken many different forms and has been an urgent priority to be eliminated from the society without any delay. Child labour has been a deep rooted social issue which in turn has given rise to other social issues such as sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage, serfdom, forced labour at low cost, etc. Some other acts involved are children are hired for prostitution, pornography, production and trafficking of drugs, etc. All such activities are harming the children’s health, development, safety and morals. All the activities, which put at risk the physical, mental and moral well-being of a child, come under the category of hazardous work.

According to the Constitution of India, children below the age group of 14 years are completely prohibited to be involved in factory, mine or other hazardous employment in anyways. They (children of 6-14 years) should be provided free and compulsory education by the state government. They should not be abused and forced by economic necessity. They should be given full opportunities and all the required facilities to develop in healthy manner. In-spite-of all these rules and regulations, there are many industries and businesses which are using child labour.

Whenever light travelling in a straight line hits any surface, it is is either absorbed or reflected. Bouncing back of light rays after hitting any surface is called reflection of light. 

The densities of all media are different, hence the speed of light varies as it passes from one medium to the other. Bending of light rays as they pass from one medium to the other is called refraction of light.