Days for Women, Children and Human Rights: GK Notes

The correct answer is B, 10 December. The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Paris on 10 December 1948, and the day has been observed on that anniversary ever since. Option A is wrong because 2 December is the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, which recalls the convention against the traffic in persons adopted in 1949. Option C is wrong because 18 December carries two other observances, Minority Rights Day in India and International Migrants Day. Option D is wrong because 24 October is United Nations Day, the anniversary of the Charter coming into force in 1945. Note also that the sixteen days of activism against gender-based violence run from 25 November to Human Rights Day, which is why the two dates are often set together in a single question.

The correct answer is B, Jawaharlal Nehru. Children's Day in India falls on 14 November, the birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, who was fond of children and was called Chacha Nehru. Option A is wrong because Mahatma Gandhi was born on 2 October, which is observed as Gandhi Jayanti and also as the International Day of Non-Violence declared by the United Nations. Option C is wrong because Dr Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India, was born on 3 December, a date that now carries the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Option D is wrong because Dr B. R. Ambedkar was born on 14 April, observed as Ambedkar Jayanti. Candidates should also keep 14 November apart from 20 November, which is World Children's Day, the United Nations observance.

The correct answer is C, 20 November. The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child on 20 November 1959 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the same date in 1989, so World Children's Day, earlier called Universal Children's Day, is observed on 20 November. Option A is wrong because 1 June is International Children's Day, widely observed in many countries but not the United Nations date. Option B is wrong because 14 November is Children's Day in India alone, tied to Jawaharlal Nehru's birth anniversary. Option D is wrong because 12 June is the World Day Against Child Labour, begun by the International Labour Organization in 2002. India ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1992, a fact that often appears alongside this date.

The correct answer is A, 24 January. National Girl Child Day was instituted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development and is observed on 24 January to draw attention to the sex ratio, to girls' education and to schemes such as Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, which was launched at Panipat on 22 January 2015. Option B is wrong because 11 October is the International Day of the Girl Child, a United Nations observance held since 2012; the Indian and international days are the pair most often swapped in this chapter. Option C is wrong because 8 March is International Women's Day. Option D is wrong because 13 February is National Women's Day in India, observed on the birth anniversary of Sarojini Naidu. Note that 24 January also carries the International Day of Education.

The correct answer is C, 11 October. The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution in December 2011 declaring 11 October as the International Day of the Girl Child, and the first observance was held in 2012. The day focuses on child marriage, education for girls and their health and safety. Option A is wrong because 24 January is National Girl Child Day in India, a national and not an international observance. Option B is wrong because 15 October is the International Day of Rural Women, which is also sometimes confused with this date because the two fall in the same month. Option D is wrong because 20 November is World Children's Day, which covers all children and is tied to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Keeping the national and international girl child days apart is the main requirement here.

The correct answer is B, International Labour Organization. The International Labour Organization launched the World Day Against Child Labour in 2002 and fixed it on 12 June to focus attention on the extent of child labour and on the action needed to end it. The ILO, founded in 1919 and with its headquarters at Geneva, is the United Nations agency for labour standards. Option A is wrong because UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, works on children's welfare but is linked with World Children's Day on 20 November rather than with this observance. Option C is wrong because UNESCO deals with education, science and culture and is associated with World Heritage Day and International Literacy Day on 8 September. Option D is wrong because the World Health Organization is tied to World Health Day on 7 April, the anniversary of its founding in 1948.

The correct answer is A, 8 March. International Women's Day grew out of the women's labour movements of the early twentieth century, was observed by the United Nations during International Women's Year in 1975 and became a regular United Nations observance soon afterwards. Option B is wrong because 13 February is National Women's Day in India, kept on the birth anniversary of Sarojini Naidu, the first Indian woman to preside over a Congress session. Option C is wrong because 21 March is the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which recalls the Sharpeville shootings in South Africa in 1960; the same date also carries World Forest Day and World Poetry Day. Option D is wrong because 15 October is the International Day of Rural Women, a narrower observance within the same family of days.

The correct answer is C, 25 November. The United Nations observes 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and the day opens the sixteen days of activism against gender-based violence that close on Human Rights Day, 10 December. Option A is wrong because 6 February is the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, a separate observance in the same family. Option B is wrong because 23 June is International Widows Day, which draws attention to the position of widows in law and in property rights. Option D is wrong because 3 December is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. The pairing of 25 November with 10 December is the detail examiners like, because it explains why the two dates are exactly sixteen days apart.

The correct answer is A, Sarojini Naidu. National Women's Day in India is kept on 13 February, the birth anniversary of Sarojini Naidu, the poet called the Nightingale of India, who presided over the Kanpur session of the Congress in 1925 as its first Indian woman president and later became Governor of the United Provinces. Option B is wrong because Kasturba Gandhi's birth anniversary, 11 April, is observed as National Safe Motherhood Day. Option C is wrong because Savitribai Phule, the pioneer of women's education who taught at the first girls' school in Pune, was born on 3 January, which several states observe separately. Option D is wrong because Annie Besant, the first woman president of the Congress, in 1917, was born on 1 October and has no national day of this kind in her name.

The correct answer is C, 1948. The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at its session in Paris on 10 December 1948, and the anniversary is observed every year as Human Rights Day. The declaration has thirty articles and is not a treaty, so it is not by itself legally binding, but it is the parent document of the later human rights covenants. Option A is wrong because 1945 is the year the United Nations Charter was signed at San Francisco and came into force on 24 October. Option B is wrong because 1946 is the year the Commission on Human Rights began its work on drafting the declaration. Option D is wrong because 1950 is the year the General Assembly invited states to observe Human Rights Day, two years after the declaration itself.