The feminist movement (also known as the women’s movement, or simply feminism) refers to a series of political campaigns for reforms on issues such as reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, women’s suffrage, sexual harassment, and sexual violence, all of which fall under the label of feminism and the feminist movement. The movement’s priorities vary among nations and communities, and range from opposition to female genital mutilation in one country, to opposition to the glass ceiling in another.
Feminism in parts of the Western world has gone through three waves. First-wave feminism was oriented around the station of middle- or upper-class white women and involved suffrage and political equality. Second-wave feminism attempted to further combat social and cultural inequalities. Although the first wave of feminism involved mainly middle class white women, the second wave brought in women of color and women from other developing nations that were seeking solidarity. Third-wave feminism is continuing to address the financial, social and cultural inequalities and includes renewed campaigning for greater influence of women in politics and media. In reaction to political activism, feminists have also had to maintain focus on women’s reproductive rights, such as the right to abortion. Fourth-wave feminism examines the interlocking systems of power that contribute to the stratification of traditionally marginalized groups.
Feminism in China started in the 20th century with the Chinese Revolution in 1911. In China, Feminism has a strong association with socialism and class issues. Some commentators believe that this close association is damaging to Chinese feminism and argue that the interests of party are placed before those of women.

HISTORY :

Feminism in the United States, Canada and a number of countries in western Europe has been divided into three waves by feminist scholars: first, second and third-wave feminism.Recent (early 2010s) research suggests there may be a fourth wave characterized, in part, by new media platforms
The women’s movement became more popular in May 1968 when women began to read again, more widely, the book The Second Sex, written in 1949 by a defender of women’s rights, Simone de Beauvoir (and translated into English for the first time in 1953; later translation 2009). De Beauvoir’s writing explained why it was difficult for talented women to become successful. The obstacles de Beauvoir enumerates include women’s inability to make as much money as men do in the same profession, women’s domestic responsibilities, society’s lack of support towards talented women, and women’s fear that success will lead to an annoyed husband or prevent them from even finding a husband at all. De Beauvoir also argues that women lack ambition because of how they are raised, noting that girls are told to follow the duties of their mothers, whereas boys are told to exceed the accomplishments of their fathers. Along with other influences, Simone de Beauvoir’s work helped the feminist movement to erupt, causing the formation of Le Mouvement de Libération des Femmes (The Women’s Liberation Movement). Contributors to The Women’s Liberation Movement include Simone de Beauvoir, Christiane Rochefort, Christine Delphy and Anne Tristan. Through this movement, women gained equal rights such as a right to an education, a right to work, and a right to vote. One of the most important issues that The Women’s Liberation movement faced was the banning of abortion and contraception, which the group saw as a violation of women’s rights. Thus, they made a declaration known as Le Manifeste de 343 which held signatures from 343 women admitting to having had an illegal abortion. The declaration was published in two French newspapers, Le Nouvel Observateur and Le Monde, on 5 April 1971. The group gained support upon the publication. Women received the right to abort with the passing of the Veil Law in 1975.

Feminism: Belief in and desire for equality between the sexes. As Merriam-Webster noted last month: “the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities.” It encompasses social, political and economic equality. Of course, a lot of people tweak the definition to make it their own.

According to Maggie Humm and Rebecca Walker, the history of feminism can be divided into three waves. The first feminist wave was in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the second was in the 1960s and 1970s, and the third extends from the 1990s to the present.

Spirituality is everything to do with the Spirit, the Soul, the Atman or what in reality is the life energy within us. Why is that important? Because that is everything! If there is no life energy within us, then we are dead, then there is nothing. The only thing that truly exists is this life energy which is us, but which we don’t realize. We think that we are the body, we are the mind, when in reality we are the Spirit. Therefore, Spirituality is the study of the Spirit. It is being conscious of who we truly are. If we do not follow a life that is Spiritual or rather being that life energy, that Soul or the Atman, then we are living a life of illusion.

There is a growing body of evidence indicating that spiritual practices are associated with better health and wellbeing for many reasons, including:

1. Contemplative practice is good for you.
   Contemplative practices are activities that guide you to direct your attention to a specific focus—often an inward-looking reflection or concentration on a specific sensation or concept. Many spiritual traditions have a long history of using contemplative practices to increase compassion, empathy, and attention, as well as quiet the mind.
2. A spiritual community can improve your life.
   Many spiritual traditions encourage participation in a community. Spiritual fellowship, such as attending church or a meditation group, can be sources of social support which may provide a sense of belonging, security, and community. Strong relationships have been proven to increase wellbeing and bolster life expectancy, which is perhaps why one study found a strong association between church attendance and improved health, mood, and wellbeing
3. Spiritual strength can help you overcome hardships.
   Having a strong spiritual outlook may help you find meaning in life’s difficult circumstances.
   The spiritual practice of recognizing the interconnectedness of all life can also help buffer the pain that comes with difficult. If we can compassionately remind ourselves in moments of falling down that failure is part of the shared human experience, then that moment becomes one of togetherness rather than isolation. When our troubled, painful experiences are framed by the recognition that countless others have undergone similar hardships, the blow is softened.
4. Spiritual people make healthier choices.
   Adhering to a particular spiritual tradition may bring an indirect health benefit because many traditions have rules about treating the body with kindness and avoiding unhealthy behaviors. Research shows that perhaps because of these tenets, people who practice a religion or faith tradition are less likely to smoke or drink, commit a crime, or become involved in violent activity, and they are more likely to engage in preventative habits like wearing seatbelts and taking vitamins.
5. Spirituality may help you live longer.
   An exhaustive review that compared spirituality and religiousness to other health interventions found that people with a strong spiritual life had an 18% reduction in mortality. Giancarlo Lucchetti, lead author of the study, calculates that the life-lengthening benefits of spirituality can be compared to eating a high amount of fruits and vegetables or taking blood pressure medication. Although some researchers have suggested that the extent of spirituality’s benefit on health is exaggerated, most researchers agree there is a positive relationship between religious and spiritual practices and better health outcomes.
6. Forgiveness is good medicine.
   Letting go of blame and negative feelings after a hurtful incident is a practice that is reflected by a number of spiritual traditions, including Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism. Modern science shows the health benefits of forgiveness are numerous: better immune function, longer lifespan, lowered blood pressure, improved cardiovascular health, and fewer feelings of anger or hurt.

The world today is driven by technology. Anything
you need is just a touch away. People are being
spoon fed by applications that help us tap and order
when it comes to food. Some of the famous mobile
apps for ordering food in India includes Zomato,
Swiggy, Uber eats and lot more. It’s no doubt that
these apps are really helpful and mobile technology
has gifted us a lot but like every coin has two sides
this technology also has some disadvantages.
What fuels digital food ordering ? Is it just
convenience, low cost or is it complete laziness?
These apps have not only has increased reliance on
outside food but also has significantly changed the
way people eat. Ordering food by tapping your
screen literally equals to no energy wasted and one
ends up ordering more than they can consume. It
somehow killed the mobility of people.
According to the statistics reports, the revenue of
online these apps is expected to grow at a rate of
9.3% annually. Currently their revenue is USD
94,385M in 2019. It is noticed that social skills of
people have been badly affected. It promotes
unhealthy lifestyle. It results in high intake of
calories which develops obesity in teenagers. These
apps manipulate us with false claims of healthy
eating. This terrible cycle continues to loop and we
are caught in a web spun by these apps and thus
there is no way out.

Captain America- otherwise known as Chris Evans and other Avenger’s cast, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, and Tom Holland took time to pay tribute to a real-life hero.

That hero is a six-year-old Bridger Walker of Cheyenne, Wyoming. His heroic deed went viral after his Aunt Nikki Walker shared the story on Instagram and tagged the Avengers stars, who Bridger idolises.

Bridger came between a dog and his sister and sustained several bites on his cheek and head before he got himself and his sister out of danger, with his injuries requiring two hours of surgery and some 90 stitches.

The Walker siblings had gone over to a neighbor’s house and one of their dogs came at Bridger’s sister. Bridger jumped in between in order to save his little sister. He later told his parents, “if someone had to die, I thought it should be me.”

Moved by his heroic deed Hemsworth, Evans, Ruffalo, Holland, and Jeremy Renner sent him warm wishes and inducted him as part of the Avengers. Evans even sent him Captain America’s costume and the shield along with an encouraging video message.

His aunt as been updating social media about Bridger’s progress and the number of celebrities that have reached out to Bridger to praise him. Another post by Nikki Walker shows Bridger dressed in Spider-Man costume and chatting on video call with Tom Holland who plays the superhero on screen.

While Bridger is unable to fully smile due to his injuries, the little boy has been very happy with all the love and adulation that has come his way. Many offered financial assistance to his parents who have appealed them to donate to certain charities instead.

Whether you celebrate today with a happy face, a pair of raised hands, or mere heart-eyes, July 17 marks World Emoji Day.

Well, thinking of messages without emojis is extremely difficult for each one of us today. Emojis make conversations interesting and help us express ourselves the best way. They shapes our feelings and moods in a virtual space. You may be crying, dancing, eating, cooking, or rolling on the floor laughing, there is emoji for every occasion.

As we get busier with no time to type long messages, emojis, animated stickers are becoming the future form of messaging. Who knows, there could be a day soon when we chat only via emojis and no texts.

World Emoji Day is a global event observed to enhance the power of emojis for enhancing our everyday conversations. These digital icons have added more meaning to our conversations. Unlike before, emojis are not only limited to faces; now they also include animals, flowers, planets, alphabets, clothes, activities and the list goes on.

Also, we now have emojis that are gender neutral or the ones that spread across the skin tone spectrum; such an effort makes virtual communication inclusive and accessible by all. There’s a pool emoticons to choose from and each one of them has their own unique meaning.

Do you know that a Japanese engineer created emojis in 1998.

Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year for 2015 was the ‘tears of joy emoji’. It was the first time in history the dictionary used a pictograph as its infamous ‘Word of the Year’. It was chosen because it was the most used emoji globally in 2015.

Emojipedia’s Jeremy Burge launched World Emoji Day on July 17, 2004.

July 17 is not a random date. It was chosen because it is the day that featured on the emoji calendar on the apple keyboard. If you are an iPhone user, you can notice this on your smartphone.

To celebrate World Emoji Day, Apple is previewing a selection of new emoji that will be available this fall with a free software update for iPhone.

The mass communication is the study of mass media. Mass media include newspapers, magazines, television, movies, radio etc. The mass media transmits information to a large number of people simultaneously.

The mass media has several functions. It can be used to highlight issues, create awareness, entertain people, analyze political progress, and is also known to create new social norms. The mass media can influence people’s actions in both good and bad ways. They are therefore responsible for exercising care and monitoring while disseminating information.

For example, in the case of the assassination of Aarushi (Noida) that shocked the country last year, some media outlets went so far as to dismiss their traditional roles and take on the roles of investigative organizations. Things have gotten to the point where some angry members of the public are demanding state laws from the media by slandering the parents of a dead daughter.

In this case, initially, the media, with the help of unconfirmed facts and false information, were able to temporarily influence public opinion which led them to believe that the parents were the ones who were killed. This is widely reported in the media. At the same time, in the case of Jessica Lall and Nitish Katara, the media played a major role in getting the suspect to write. The implication of this is that most media outlets can play an important role in society as long as they are responsible and not discriminated against.

In recent times, the media has become increasingly effective in addressing issues. Reporting dates just gone. In its place there are newly focused media looking for active participants in solving the burning issues of the day. The ‘Times of India’ is an excellent example.

Its ‘lead India’ campaign to identify Indians with leadership credentials to lead the country and his recent ‘Teach India’ campaign to include everyone in his quest to promote literacy among flawless segments are commendable. This is a very big media. Today the media has become a forum for ordinary men to voice their concerns in a way that will be heard by those who are important.

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, US President Roosevelt used social media as a radio to strengthen the morale of the American people. In Germany, however, Hitler used mass media to obtain permission to become his oppressive Nazi regime. So big media can be a tool for achieving good and bad intentions

It is said that the best way to know about society, a civilization and a culture, try to know as much possible about the women. In India, women have come a long way from the rare women scholars and sages of the Vedic age to the women in different sectors of society and civilization today, such as the armed forces, arts, information technology, politics and a number of similar sectors which have traditionally been male dominated, while simultaneously balancing the roles of wife, mother and daughter. While Indian women have fought against the patriarchal Indian society and triumphed at many levels, cases of rape, dowry deaths, female infanticide, sexual harassment at workplaces, female illiteracy, and similar problems are still rampant in Indian society. It was in this backdrop that the Committee on the Status of Women in India (CSWI) the establishment of the National Commission for Women to fulfill the surveillance functions and to facilitate redressal of grievances and to accelerate the socio-economic development of women.

The principle of gender equality is enshrined in the Indian Constitution. The Preamble, promotes Equality of status and of opportunity; the Fundamental Rights enshrined in Part III of the Indian Constitution and Directive Principles enshrined in Part IV of the Constitution all promote gender equality. The Constitution not only grants equality to women but has also made special provisions for ensuring equality Thus, as per the recommendations of the CSWI and in order to uphold the mandate of the Constitution, in January 1992, the National Commission for Women (NCW), was set up as a statutory body under the National Commission for Women Act, 1990 (Act No. 20 of 1990 of Government of India) to carry out the mandate set by the Act as well as CSWI.About The Commission. This chapter aims at informing the reader of the need for a commission such as the National Commission for Women and the impetus for its establishment in 1992. The chapter further examines the relationship between the constitution and the commission, the mandate given by the constitution as well as the basic administrative set up of the commission as per the constitution.

Importance of The Commission:

Women as a class neither belong to a minority group nor are they regarded as a backward class. India has traditionally been a patriarchal society and therefore women have always suffered from social handicaps and disabilities. It thus became necessary to take certain ameliorative steps in order to improve the condition of women in the traditionally male dominated society.The Constitution does not contain any provision specifically made to favor women as such. Though Art. 15 (3), Art. 21 and Art. 14 are in favor of women; they are more general in nature and provide for making any special provisions for women, while they are not in themselves such provisions. The Supreme Court through interpretive processes has tried to extend some safeguards to women.

The objective of the NCW is to represent the rights of women in India and to provide a voice for their issues and concerns. The subjects of their campaigns have included dowry, politics, religion, equal representation for women in jobs, and the exploitation of women for labour. They have also discussed police abuses against women.

The commission regularly publishes a monthly newsletter, Rashtra Mahila, in both Hindi and English

1.The commission shall perform all or any of the following functions
• Investigation: The Commission shall investigate and examine all matters relating to the safeguards provided for women under the Constitution and other laws
• Report : The Commission shall present to the Central Government, annually and at such other times as the Commission may deem fit, reports upon the working of those safeguard
• Implementation of those safeguards : As per the reports recommendations for the effective implementation of those safeguards for the improving the conditions of women by the Union or any state
• Review: The Commission shall review, from time to time, the exiting provisions of the Constitution and other laws affecting women and recommend amendments thereto so as to suggest remedial legislative measures to meet any lacunae, inadequacies or shortcomings in such legislations.
• Take up Cases: The Commission shall take up cases of violation of the provisions of the Constitution and of other laws relating to women with the appropriate authorities

• Complaints: The Commission shall look into complaints and take suo moto ( in its own motion ) notice of matters relating to➢deprivation of women’s rights;
➢non-implementation of laws enacted to provide protection to women and also to achieve the objective of equality and development;
➢non-compliance of policy decisions,guidelines or instructions aimed at mitigating hardships and ensuring welfare and providing relief to women, and take up the issues arising out of such matters with appropriate authorities
• Special studies : The Commission shall call for special studies or investigations into specific problems or situations arising out of discrimination and atrocities against women and identify the constraints so as to recommend strategies for their removal
• Promotional and educational research : The Commission shall undertake promotional and educational research so as to suggest ways of ensuring due representation of women in all spheres and identify factors responsible for impeding their advancement, such as, lack of access to housing and basic services, inadequate support services and technologies for reducing drudgery and occupational health hazards and for increasing their productivity

Evaluation of progress :The Commission shall participate and advice on the planning process of socio-economic development of women and evaluate the progress of the development of women under the Union and any State. • Inspect: The Commission shall inspect or cause to inspected a jail, remand home, women’s institution or other place of custody where women are kept as prisoners or otherwise and take up with the concerned authorities for remedial action, if found necessary;
• Litigation Expenses: The Commission shall fund litigation involving issues affecting a large body of women;
• Periodical reports :The Commission shall make periodical reports to the Government on any matter pertaining to women and in particular various difficulties under which women toil;
• Any other matter :The Commission shall any other matter which may be referred to it by Central Government.

2. Reports to be laid before each House of Parliament:
   The Central Government shall cause all the reports to be laid before each House of Parliament along with memorandum explaining the action taken or proposed to be taken on the recommendations relating to the Union and the reasons for the non-acceptance, if any, of any such recommendations. Where any such report or any part thereof relates to any matter with which any State Government is concerned, the Commission shall forward an copy of such report or part to such State Government who shall cause it to be laid before the Legislature of the State along with a memorandum explaining the action taken or proposed to be taken on the recommendations relating to the State and the reasons for the nonacceptance, if any, of any such recommendations.
3. Powers of a civil court
   The Commission shall, while investigating any matter have all the powers of a civil court trying a suit and, in particular in
   respect of the following matters, namely :-
   –summoning and enforcing the attendance of any person from any part of India and examining him on oath; –requiring the discovery and production of any document;
   –receiving evidence on affidavits;
   –requisitioning any public record or copy thereof from any court or office;
   –issuing commissions for the examination of witnesses and documents; and
   –any other matter which may be prescribed

the Commission has managed to fulfill the mandate, if not completely then to a great extent. The achievements mentioned in the prior chapter are only a few of many similar achievements and they are proof of the popularity and support the Commission is gaining from the Indian woman. There is no doubt about the effectiveness of the Commission and about the good work which it is doing for the women of India, however, there are certain shortcomings in the working of the Commission, which, if rectified, would lead to a more efficient and productive Commission.