title: Plastic pollution

text: Compounds that are used in manufacturing pollute the environment by releasing chemicals into the air and water. Some compounds that are used in plastics, such as phthalates, bisphenol A (BRA), polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE), are under close statute and might be very hurtful. Even though these compounds are unsafe, they have been used in the manufacturing of food packaging, medical devices, flooring materials, bottles, perfumes, cosmetics and much more. Inhalation of microplastics (MPs) have been shown to be one of the major contributors to MP uptake in humans. MPs in the form of dust particles are circulated constantly through ventilation and air conditioning systems indoors. The large dosage of these compounds are hazardous to humans, destroying the endocrine system. BRA imitates the female's hormone called estrogen. PBD destroys and causes damage to thyroid hormones, which are vital hormone glands that play a major role in the metabolism, growth and development of the human body. MPs can also have a detrimental effect on male reproductive success. MPs such as BPA can interfere with steroid biosynthesis in the male endocrine system and with early stages of spermatogenesis. MPs in men can also create oxidative stress and DNA damage in spermatozoa, causing reduced sperm viability. Although the level of exposure to these chemicals varies depending on age and geography, most humans experience simultaneous exposure to many of these chemicals. Average levels of daily exposure are below the levels deemed to be unsafe, but more research needs to be done on the effects of low dose exposure on humans. A lot is unknown on how severely humans are physically affected by these chemicals. Some of the chemicals used in plastic production can cause dermatitis upon contact with human skin. In many plastics, these toxic chemicals are only used in trace amounts, but significant testing is often required to ensure that the toxic elements are contained within the plastic by inert material or polymer. Children and women during their reproduction age are at most at risk and more prone to damaging their immune as well as their reproductive system from these hormone-disrupting chemicals. Pregnancy and nursing products such as baby bottles, pacifiers, and plastic feeding utensils place infants and children at a very high risk of exposure.


title: Plastic pollution

text: Human health has also been negatively impacted by plastic pollution. "Almost a third of groundwater sites in the US contain BPA. BPA is harmful at very low concentrations as it interferes with our hormone and reproductive systems. This quote tells us how much of a percentage of our water is contaminated and should not be drunk on a daily basis. "At every stage of its lifecycle, plastic poses distinct risks to human health, arising from both exposure to plastic particles themselves and associated chemicals". This quote is an intro to numerous points of why plastic is damaging to us, such as the carbon that is released when it is being made and transported which is also related to how plastic pollution harms our environment.


title: Plastic pollution

text: A 2022 study published in "Environment International" found microplastic in the blood of 80% of people tested in the study, and such microplastic has the potential to become embedded in human organs.


title: Plastic pollution

text: Due to the pervasiveness of plastic products, most of the human population is constantly exposed to the chemical components of plastics. In the United States, 95% of adults have had detectable levels of BPA in their urine. Exposure to chemicals such as BPA have been correlated with disruptions in fertility, reproduction, sexual maturation, and other health effects. Specific phthalates have also resulted in similar biological effects.


title: Plastic pollution

text: Bisphenol A affects gene expression related to the thyroid hormone axis, which affects biological functions such as metabolism and development. BPA can decrease thyroid hormone receptor (TR) activity by increasing TR transcriptional corepressor activity. This then decreases the level of thyroid hormone binding proteins that bind to triiodothyronine. By affecting the thyroid hormone axis, BPA exposure can lead to hypothyroidism.


title: Plastic pollution

text: BPA can disrupt normal, physiological levels of sex hormones. It does this by binding to globulins that normally bind to sex hormones such as androgens and estrogens, leading to the disruption of the balance between the two. BPA can also affect the metabolism or the catabolism of sex hormones. It often acts as an antiandrogen or as an estrogen, which can cause disruptions in gonadal development and sperm production.


title: Plastic pollution

text: Efforts to reduce the use of plastics, to promote plastic recycling and to reduce mismanaged plastic waste or plastic pollution have occurred or are ongoing. The first scientific review in the professional academic literature about global plastic pollution in general found that the rational response to the "global threat" would be "reductions in consumption of virgin plastic materials, along with internationally coordinated strategies for waste management" – such as banning export of plastic waste unless it leads to better recycling – and describes the state of knowledge about "poorly reversible" impacts which are one of the rationales for its reduction.


title: Plastic pollution

text: Some supermarkets charge their customers for plastic bags, and in some places more efficient reusable or biodegradable materials are being used in place of plastics. Some communities and businesses have put a ban on some commonly used plastic items, such as bottled water and plastic bags. Some non-governmental organizations have launched voluntary plastic reduction schemes like certificates that can be adapted by restaurants to be recognized as eco-friendly among customers.


title: Plastic pollution

text: In January 2019 a "Global Alliance to End Plastic Waste" was created by companies in the plastics industry. The alliance aims to clean the environment from existing waste and increase recycling, but it does not mention reduction in plastic production as one of its targets.


title: Plastic pollution

text: On 2 March 2022 in Nairobi, representatives of 175 countries pledged to create a legally binding agreement to end plastic pollution. The agreement should address the full lifecycle of plastic and propose alternatives including reusability. An Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) that should conceive the agreement by the end of the year 2024 was created. The agreement should facilitate the transition to a circular economy, which will reduce GHG emissions by 25%. Inger Andersen, executive director of UNEP called the decision "a triumph by planet earth over single-use plastics".


title: Plastic pollution

text: The use of biodegradable plastics has many advantages and disadvantages. Biodegradables are biopolymers that degrade in industrial composters. Biodegradables do not degrade as efficiently in domestic composters, and during this slower process, methane gas may be emitted.


title: Plastic pollution

text: There are also other types of degradable materials that are not considered to be biopolymers, because they are oil-based, similar to other conventional plastics. These plastics are made to be more degradable through the use of different additives, which help them degrade when exposed to UV rays or other physical stressors. yet, biodegradation-promoting additives for polymers have been shown not to significantly increase biodegradation.


title: Plastic pollution

text: Although biodegradable and degradable plastics have helped reduce plastic pollution, there are some drawbacks. One issue concerning both types of plastics is that they do not break down very efficiently in natural environments. There, degradable plastics that are oil-based may break down into smaller fractions, at which point they do not degrade further.


title: Plastic pollution

text: A parliamentary committee in the United Kingdom also found that compostable and biodegradable plastics could add to marine pollution because there is a lack of infrastructure to deal with these new types of plastic, as well as a lack of understanding about them on the part of consumers. For example, these plastics need to be sent to industrial composting facilities to degrade properly, but no adequate system exists to make sure waste reaches these facilities. The committee thus recommended to reduce the amount of plastic used rather than introducing new types of it to the market.


title: Plastic pollution

text: Also worth noting is the evolution of new enzymes allowing microorganisms living in polluted locations to digest normal, hard-to-degrade plastic. An 2021 study looking for homologs of 95 known plastic-degrading enzymes spanning 17 plastic types found a further 30,000 possible enzymes. Despite their apparent ubiquity, there is no current evidence that these novel enzymes are breaking down any meaningful amount of plastic to reduce pollution.


title: Plastic pollution

text: Up to 60% of used plastic medical equipment is incinerated rather than deposited in a landfill as a precautionary measure to lessen the transmission of disease. This has allowed for a large decrease in the amount of plastic waste that stems from medical equipment.


title: Plastic pollution

text: At a large scale, plastics, paper, and other materials provides waste-to-energy plants with useful fuel. About 12% of total produced plastic has been incinerated. Many studies have been done concerning the gaseous emissions that result from the incineration process. Incinerated plastics release a number of toxins in the burning process, including Dioxins, Furans, Mercury and Polychlorinated Biphenyls. When burned outside of facilities designed to collect or process the toxins, this can have significant health effects and create significant air pollution.


title: Plastic pollution

text: Agencies such as the US Environmental Protection Agency and US Food and Drug Administration often do not assess the safety of new chemicals until after a negative side effect is shown. Once they suspect a chemical may be toxic, it is studied to determine the human reference dose, which is determined to be the lowest observable adverse effect level. During these studies, a high dose is tested to see if it causes any adverse health effects, and if it does not, lower doses are considered to be safe as well. This does not take into account the fact that with some chemicals found in plastics, such as BPA, lower doses can have a discernible effect. Even with this often complex evaluation process, policies have been put into place in order to help alleviate plastic pollution and its effects. Government regulations have been implemented that ban some chemicals from being used in specific plastic products.


title: Plastic pollution

text: In Canada, the United States, and the European Union, BPA has been banned from being incorporated in the production of baby bottles and children's cups, due to health concerns and the higher vulnerability of younger children to the effects of BPA. Taxes have been established in order to discourage specific ways of managing plastic waste. The landfill tax, for example, creates an incentive to choose to recycle plastics rather than contain them in landfills, by making the latter more expensive. There has also been a standardization of the types of plastics that can be considered compostable. The European Norm EN 13432, which was set by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN), lists the standards that plastics must meet, in terms of compostability and biodegradability, in order to officially be labeled as compostable.


title: Plastic pollution

text: Given the significant threat that oceans face, the European Investment Bank Group aims to increase its funding and advisory assistance for ocean cleanup. For example, the Clean Oceans Initiative (COI) was established in 2018. The European Investment Bank, the German Development Bank, and the French Development Agency (AFD) agreed to invest a total of €2 billion under the COI from October 2018 to October 2023 in initiatives aimed at reducing pollution discharge into the oceans, with a special focus on plastics.


title: Plastic pollution

text: Major plastic producers continue to lobby governments to refrain from imposing restrictions on plastic production and to advocate for voluntary corporate targets to reduce new plastic output. However, the world's top 10 plastic producers, including The Coca-Cola Company, Nestle SA and PepsiCo have been failing to meet even their own minimum targets for virgin plastic use.


title: Plastic pollution

text: There have been several international covenants which address marine plastic pollution, such as the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter 1972, the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973 and the Honolulu Strategy, there is nothing around plastics which infiltrate the ocean from the land.


title: Plastic pollution

text: In 2020, 180 countries agreed to limit the amount of plastic waste that rich countries export to poorer countries, using rules from the Basel Convention. However, during January 2021, the first month that the agreement was in effect, trade data showed that overall scrap exports actually increased.


title: Plastic pollution

text: Some academics and NGOs believe that a legally binding international treaty to deal with plastic pollution is necessary. They think this because plastic pollution is an international problem, moving between maritime borders, and also because they believe there needs to be a cap on plastic production. Lobbyists were hoping that UNEA-5 would lead to a plastics treaty, but the session ended without a legally binding agreement.


title: Plastic pollution

text: Since around 2017, China, Turkey, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Thailand have banned certain waste imports. It has been suggested that such bans may increase automation and recycling, decreasing negative impacts on the environment.


title: Plastic pollution

text: According to an analysis of global trade data by the nonprofit Basel Action Network, violations of the Basel Convention, active since January 1, 2021, have been rampant during 2021. The U.S., Canada, and the European Union have sent hundreds of millions of tons of plastic to countries with insufficient waste management infrastructure, where much of it is landfilled, burned, or littered into the environment.


title: Plastic pollution

text: Laws related to recyclability, waste management, domestic materials recovery facilities, product composition, biodegradability and prevention of import/export of specific wastes may support prevention of plastic pollution. A study considers producer/manufacturer responsibility "a practical approach toward addressing the issue of plastic pollution", suggesting that "Existing and adopted policies, legislations, regulations, and initiatives at global, regional, and national level play a vital role".


title: Plastic pollution

text: Standardization of products, especially of packaging which are, as of 2022, often composed of different materials (each and across products) that are hard or currently impossible to either separate or recycle together in general or in an automated way could support recyclability and recycling.


title: Plastic pollution

text: For instance, there are systems that can theoretically distinguish between and sort 12 types of plastics such as PET using hyperspectral imaging and algorithms developed via machine learning while only an estimated 9% of the estimated 6.3 billion tonnes of plastic waste from the 1950s up to 2018 has been recycled (12% has been incinerated and the rest reportedly being "dumped in landfills or the natural environment").


title: Plastic pollution

text: The two common forms of waste collection include curbside collection and the use of drop-off recycling centers. About 87 percent of the population in the United States (273 million people) have access to curbside and drop-off recycling centers. In curbside collection, which is available to about 63 percent of the United States population (193 million people), people place designated plastics in a special bin to be picked up by a public or private hauling company. Most curbside programs collect more than one type of plastic resin, usually both PETE and HDPE. At drop-off recycling centers, which are available to 68 percent of the United States population (213 million people), people take their recyclables to a centrally located facility. Once collected, the plastics are delivered to a materials recovery facility (MRF) or handler for sorting into single-resin streams to increase product value. The sorted plastics are then baled to reduce shipping costs to reclaimers.


title: Plastic pollution

text: There are varying rates of recycling per type of plastic, and in 2017, the overall plastic recycling rate was approximately 8.4% in the United States. Approximately of plastics were recycled in the U.S. in 2017, while plastic were dumped in landfills the same year. Some plastics are recycled more than others; in 2017 about 31.2 percent of HDPE bottles and 29.1 percent of PET bottles and jars were recycled.


title: Plastic pollution

text: Reusable packaging refers to packaging that is manufactured of durable materials and is specifically designed for multiple trips and extended life. There are zero-waste stores and refill shops for selected products as well as conventional supermarkets that enable refilling of selected plastics-packaged products or voluntarily sell products with no or more sustainable packaging.


title: Plastic pollution

text: On 21 May 2019, a new service model called "Loop" to collect packaging from consumers and reuse it, began to function in the New York region, US, supported by multiple larger companies. Consumers drop packages in special shipping totes and then a pick up collect, clean, refill and return them. It has begun with several thousand households and aims to not only stop single use plastic, but to stop single use generally by recycling consumer product containers of various materials.


title: Plastic pollution

text: Another effective strategy, that could be supported by policies, is eliminating the need for plastic bottles such as by using refillable e.g. steel bottles, and water carbonators, which may also prevent potential negative impacts on human health due to microplastics release.


title: Plastic pollution

text: Reducing plastic waste could support recycling and is often taken together with recycling: the "3R" refer to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.


title: Plastic pollution

text: The organization "The Ocean Cleanup" is trying to collect plastic waste from the oceans by nets. There are concerns from harm to some forms of sea organisms, especially neuston.


title: Plastic pollution

text: In the Netherlands, plastic litter from some rivers is collected by a bubble barrier, to prevent plastics from floating into the sea. This so-called 'Great Bubble Barrier’ catches plastics bigger than 1 mm. The bubble barrier is implemented in the River IJssel (2017) and in Amsterdam (2019) and will be implemented in Katwijk at the end of the river Rhine.


title: Plastic pollution

text: Our World In Data provides graphics about some analyses, including maps, to show sources of plastic pollution – including that of oceans in specific.


title: Plastic pollution

text: Identifying largest sources of ocean plastics in high fidelity may help to discern causes, to measure progress and to develop effective countermeasures.


title: Plastic pollution

text: A large fraction of ocean plastics may come from – also non-imported – plastic waste of coastal cities as well as from rivers (with top 1000 rivers estimated by one 2021 study to account for 80% of global annual emissions).<ref name="10.1126/sciadv.aaz5803"></ref> These two sources may be interlinked. The Yangtze river into the East China Sea is identified by some studies that use sampling evidence as the highest plastic-emitting (sampled) river, in contrast to the beforementioned 2021 study that ranks it at place 64. Management interventions at the local level at coastal areas were found to be crucial to the global success of reducing plastic pollution.


title: Plastic pollution

text: There is one global, interactive machine learning- and satellite monitoring-based, map of plastic waste sites which could help identify who and where mismanages plastic waste, dumping it into oceans.


title: Plastic pollution

text: In July 2018, Albania became the first country in Europe to ban lightweight plastic bags. Albania's environment minister Blendi Klosi said that businesses importing, producing or trading plastic bags less than 35 microns in thickness risk facing fines between 1 million to 1.5 million lek (€7,900 to €11,800).


title: Plastic pollution

text: It has been estimated that each year, Australia produces around 2.5m tonnes of plastic waste annually, of which about 84% ends up as landfill, and around 130,000 tonnes of plastic waste leaks into the environment. Six of the eight states and territories had by December 2021 committed to banning a range of plastics. The federal government's National Packaging Targets created the goal of phasing out the worst of single-use plastics by 2025, and under the "National Plastics Plan 2021", it has committed "to phase out loose fill and moulded polystyrene packaging by July 2022, and various other products by December 2022.


title: Plastic pollution

text: In the year 2022 Canada announced a ban on producing and importing single use plastic from December 2022. The sale of those items will be banned from December 2023 and the export from 2025. The prime minister of Canada Justin Trudeau pledged to ban single use plastic in 2019.


title: Plastic pollution

text: China is the biggest consumer of single-use plastics. In 2020 China published a plan to cut 30% of plastic waste in 5 years. As part of this plan, single use plastic bags and straws will be banned


title: Plastic pollution

text: In 2015 the European Union adopted a directive requiring a reduction in the consumption of single use plastic bags per person to 90 by 2019 and to 40 by 2025. In April 2019, the EU adopted a further directive banning almost all types of single use plastic, except bottles, from the beginning of the year 2021.


title: Plastic pollution

text: On 3 July 2021, the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive (SUPD, EU 2019/904) went into effect in EU member states. The directive aims to reduce plastic pollution from single-use disposable plastics. It focuses on the 10 most commonly found disposable plastics at beaches, which make up 43% of marine litter (fishing gear another 27%). According to the SUP directive, there is a ban on: plastic cotton buds and balloon sticks; plastic plates, cutlery, stirrers and straws; Styrofoam drinks and food packaging (f.e. disposable cups, one-person meals); products made of oxo-degradable plastics, which degrade into microplastics. cigarette filters, drinking cups, wet wipes, sanitary towels and tampons receive a label indicating the product contains plastic, that it belongs in the trash, and that litter has negative effects on the environment.


title: Plastic pollution

text: In December 2022 the EU took the first steps for banning the export of plastic waste to other countries.


title: Plastic pollution

text: The government of India decided to ban single use plastics and take a number of measures to recycle and reuse plastic, from 2 October 2019


title: Plastic pollution

text: The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Government of India, has requested various governmental departments to avoid the use of plastic bottles to provide drinking water during governmental meetings, etc., and to instead make arrangements for providing drinking water that do not generate plastic waste. The state of Sikkim has restricted the usage of plastic water bottles (in government functions and meetings) and styrofoam products. The state of Bihar has banned the usage of plastic water bottles in governmental meetings.


title: Plastic pollution

text: The 2015 National Games of India, organised in Thiruvananthapuram, was associated with green protocols. This was initiated by Suchitwa Mission that aimed for "zero-waste" venues. To make the event "disposable-free", there was ban on the usage of disposable water bottles. The event witnessed the usage of reusable tableware and stainless steel tumblers. Athletes were provided with refillable steel flasks. It is estimated that these green practices stopped the generation of 120 tonnes of disposable waste.


title: Plastic pollution

text: The city of Bangalore in 2016 banned the plastic for all purpose other than for few special cases like milk delivery etc.


title: Plastic pollution

text: The state of Maharashtra, India effected the Maharashtra Plastic and Thermocol Products ban 23 June 2018, subjecting plastic users to fines and potential imprisonment for repeat offenders.


title: Plastic pollution

text: In the year 2022 India has begun to implement a country wide ban on different sorts of plastic. This is necessary also for achieving the climate targets of the country as in plastic production are used more than 8,000 additives, part of them are thousands times more powerful greenhouse gases than CO2.


title: Plastic pollution

text: In Bali, one of the many islands of Indonesia, two sisters, Melati and Isabel Wijsen, made efforts to ban plastic bags in 2019. their organization Bye Bye Plastic Bags had spread to over 50 locations around the world.


title: Plastic pollution

text: In Israel, two cities: Eilat and Herzliya, decided to ban the usage of single use plastic bags and cutlery on the beaches. In 2020 Tel Aviv joined them, banning also the sale of single use plastic on the beaches.


title: Plastic pollution

text: In August 2017, Kenya has one of the world's harshest plastic bag bans. Fines of $38,000 or up to four years in jail to anyone that was caught producing, selling, or using a plastic bag.


title: Plastic pollution

text: In 2019, The House of Representatives of Nigeria banned the production, import and usage of plastic bags in the country.


title: Plastic pollution

text: In February 2018, Taiwan restricted the use of single-use plastic cups, straws, utensils and bags; the ban will also include an extra charge for plastic bags and updates their recycling regulations and aiming by 2030 it would be completely enforced.


title: Plastic pollution

text: In January 2019, the Iceland supermarket chain, which specializes in frozen foods, pledged to "eliminate or drastically reduce all plastic packaging for its store-brand products by 2023."


title: Plastic pollution

text: As of 2020, 104 communities achieved the title of "Plastic free community" in United Kingdom, 500 want to achieve it.


title: Plastic pollution

text: After two schoolgirls Ella and Caitlin launched a petition about it, Burger King and McDonald's in the United Kingdom and Ireland pledged to stop sending plastic toys with their meals. McDonald's pledged to do it from the year 2021. McDonald's also pledged to use a paper wrap for it meals and books that will be sent with the meals. The transmission will begin already in March 2020.


title: Plastic pollution

text: In 2009, Washington University in St. Louis became the first university in the United States to ban the sale of plastic, single-use water bottles.


title: Plastic pollution

text: In 2009, the District of Columbia required all businesses that sell food or alcohol to charge an additional 5 cents for each carryout plastic or paper bag.


title: Plastic pollution

text: In 2011 and 2013, Kauai, Maui and Hawaii prohibit non-biodegradable plastic bags at checkout as well as paper bags containing less than 40 percent recycled material. In 2015, Honolulu was the last major county approving the ban.


title: Plastic pollution

text: In 2015, California prohibited large stores from providing plastic bags, and if so a charge of $0.10 per bag and has to meet certain criteria.


title: Plastic pollution

text: In 2016, Illinois adopted the legislation and established “Recycle Thin Film Friday” in effort toe reclaim used thin-film plastic bags and encourage reusable bags.


title: Plastic pollution

text: In 2019, the state New York banned single use plastic bags and introduced a 5-cent fee for using single use paper bags. The ban will enter into force in 2020. This will not only reduce plastic bag usage in New York state (23 billion every year until now), but also eliminate 12 million barrels of oil used to make plastic bags used by the state each year.


title: Plastic pollution

text: In 2019 the Giant Eagle retailer became the first big US retailer that committed to completely phase out plastic by 2025. The first step – stop using single use plastic bags – will begun to be implemented already on January 15, 2020.


title: Plastic pollution

text: In 2019, Delaware, Maine, Oregon and Vermont enacted on legislation. Vermont also restricted single-use straws and polystyrene containers.


title: Plastic pollution

text: In 2019, Connecticut imposed a $0.10 charge on single-use plastic bags at point of sale, and is going to ban them on July 1, 2021.


title: Plastic pollution

text: On July 30, 2017, Vanuatu's Independence Day, made an announcement of stepping towards the beginning of not using plastic bags and bottles. Making it one of the first Pacific nations to do so and will start banning the importation of single-use plastic bottles and bags.


title: Plastic pollution

text: The ten corporations that produce the most plastic on the planet, The Coca-Cola Company, Colgate-Palmolive, Danone, Mars, Incorporated, Mondelēz International, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Perfetti Van Melle, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever, formed a well-financed network that has sabotaged for decades government and community efforts to address the plastic pollution crisis, according to a detailed investigative report by the Changing Markets Foundation. The investigation documents how these companies delay and derail legislation so that they can continue to inundate consumers with disposable plastic packaging. These large plastic producers have exploited public fears of the COVID-19 pandemic to work toward delaying and reversing existing regulation of plastic disposal. Big ten plastic producers have advanced voluntary commitments for plastic waste disposal as a stratagem to deter governments from imposing additional regulations.


title: Plastic pollution

text: As early as the early 1970s, petrochemical industry leaders understood that the vast majority of plastic they produced would never be recycled. For example, an April 1973 report written by industry scientists for industry executive states that sorting the hundreds of different kinds plastic is "infeasible" and cost-prohibitive. By the late 1980s, industry leaders also knew that the public must be kept feeling good about purchasing plastic products if their industry was to continue to prosper, and needed to quell proposed legislation to regulate the plastic being sold. So the industry launched a $50 million/year corporate propaganda campaign targeting the American public with the message that plastic can be, and is being, recycled, and lobbied American municipalities to launch expensive plastic waste collection programs, and lobbied U.S. states to require the labeling of plastic products and containers with recycling symbols. They were confident, however, that the recycling initiatives would not end up recovering and reusing plastic in amounts anywhere near sufficient to hurt their profits in selling new "virgin" plastic products because they understood that the recycling efforts that they were promoting were likely to fail. Industry leaders more recently have planned 100% recycling of the plastic they produce by 2040, calling for more efficient collection, sorting and processing.


title: Plastic pollution

text: In 2019, the Earth Day Network partnered with Keep America Beautiful and National Cleanup Day for the inaugural nationwide Earth Day CleanUp. Cleanups were held in all 50 states, five US territories, 5,300 sites and had more than 500,000 volunteers.


title: Plastic pollution

text: Earth Day 2020 is the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day. Celebrations will include activities such as the Great Global CleanUp, Citizen Science, Advocacy, Education, and art. This Earth Day aims to educate and mobilize more than one billion people to grow and support the next generation of environmental activists, with a major focus on plastic waste


title: Plastic pollution

text: Every year, 5 June is observed as World Environment Day to raise awareness and increase government action on the pressing issue. In 2018, India was host to the 43rd World Environment Day and the theme was "Beat Plastic Pollution", with a focus on single-use or disposable plastic. The Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change of India invited people to take care of their social responsibility and urged them to take up green good deeds in everyday life. Several states presented plans to ban plastic or drastically reduce their use.


title: Plastic pollution

text: On 11 April 2013 in order to create awareness, artist Maria Cristina Finucci founded The Garbage Patch State at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France, in front of Director General Irina Bokova. This was the first of a series of events under the patronage of UNESCO and of the Italian Ministry of the Environment.


title: Paranormal

text: Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Notable paranormal beliefs include those that pertain to extrasensory perception (for example, telepathy), spiritualism and the pseudosciences of ghost hunting, cryptozoology, and ufology.


title: Paranormal

text: Proposals regarding the paranormal are different from scientific hypotheses or speculations extrapolated from scientific evidence because scientific ideas are grounded in empirical observations and experimental data gained through the scientific method. In contrast, those who argue for the existence of the paranormal explicitly do not base their arguments on empirical evidence but rather on anecdote, testimony, and suspicion. The standard scientific models give the explanation that what appears to be paranormal phenomena is usually a misinterpretation, misunderstanding, or anomalous variation of natural phenomena.


title: Paranormal

text: The term "paranormal" has existed in the English language since at least 1920. The word consists of two parts: para and normal. The definition implies that the scientific explanation of the world around us is "normal" and anything that is above, beyond, or contrary to that is "para".


title: Paranormal

text: On the classification of paranormal subjects, Terence Hines in his book "Pseudoscience and the Paranormal" (2003) wrote:


title: Paranormal

text: Ghost hunting is the investigation of locations that are reportedly haunted by ghosts. Typically, a ghost-hunting team will attempt to collect evidence supporting the existence of paranormal activity.


title: Paranormal

text: In traditional ghostlore, and fiction featuring ghosts, a ghost is a manifestation of the spirit or soul of a person. Alternative theories expand on that idea and include belief in the ghosts of deceased animals. Sometimes the term "ghost" is used synonymously with any spirit or demon; however, in popular usage the term typically refers to the spirit of a deceased person.


title: Paranormal

text: The belief in ghosts as souls of the departed is closely tied to the concept of animism, an ancient belief that attributed souls to everything in nature. As the 19th-century anthropologist George Frazer explained in his classic work, "The Golden Bough" (1890), souls were seen as the 'creature within' which animated the body. Although the human soul was sometimes symbolically or literally depicted in ancient cultures as a bird or other animal, it was widely held that the soul was an exact reproduction of the body in every feature, even down to the clothing worn by the person. This is depicted in artwork from various ancient cultures, including such works as the ancient Egyptian "Book of the Dead" (ca. 1550 BCE), which shows deceased people in the afterlife appearing much as they did before death, including the style of dress.


title: Paranormal

text: The possibility of extraterrestrial life is not, in itself, a paranormal subject. Many scientists are actively engaged in the search for unicellular life within the Solar System, carrying out studies on the surface of Mars and examining meteors that have fallen to Earth. Projects such as SETI are conducting an astronomical search for radio activity that would show evidence of intelligent life outside the Solar System. Scientific theories of how life developed on Earth allow for the possibility that life also developed on other planets. The paranormal aspect of extraterrestrial life centers largely around the belief in unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and the phenomena said to be associated with them.


title: Paranormal

text: Early in the history of UFO culture, believers divided themselves into two camps. The first held a rather conservative view of the phenomena, interpreting them as unexplained occurrences that merited serious study. They began calling themselves "ufologists" in the 1950s and felt that logical analysis of sighting reports would validate the notion of extraterrestrial visitation.


title: Paranormal

text: The second camp held a view that coupled ideas of extraterrestrial visitation with beliefs from existing quasi-religious movements. Typically, these individuals were enthusiasts of occultism and the paranormal. Many had backgrounds as active Theosophists or spiritualists, or were followers of other esoteric doctrines. In contemporary times, many of these beliefs have coalesced into New Age spiritual movements.


title: Paranormal

text: Both secular and spiritual believers describe UFOs as having abilities beyond what are considered possible according to known aerodynamic constraints and physical laws. The transitory events surrounding many UFO sightings preclude any opportunity for the repeat testing required by the scientific method. Acceptance of UFO theories by the larger scientific community is further hindered by the many possible hoaxes associated with UFO culture.


title: Paranormal

text: Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience and subculture that aims to prove the existence of entities from the folklore record, such as Bigfoot, chupacabras, or Mokele-mbembe. Cryptozoologists refer to these entities as "cryptids", a term coined by the subculture.


title: Paranormal

text: Approaching the paranormal from a research perspective is often difficult because of the lack of acceptable physical evidence from most of the purported phenomena. By definition, the paranormal does not conform to conventional expectations of nature. Therefore, a phenomenon cannot be confirmed as paranormal using the scientific method because, if it could be, it would no longer fit the definition. (However, confirmation would result in the phenomenon being reclassified as part of science.) Despite this problem, studies on the paranormal are periodically conducted by researchers from various disciplines. Some researchers simply study the beliefs in the paranormal regardless of whether the phenomena are considered to objectively exist. This section deals with various approaches to the paranormal: anecdotal, experimental, and participant-observer approaches and the skeptical investigation approach.


title: Paranormal

text: An anecdotal approach to the paranormal involves the collection of stories told about the paranormal.


title: Paranormal

text: Charles Fort (1874–1932) is perhaps the best-known collector of paranormal anecdotes. Fort is said to have compiled as many as 40,000 notes on unexplained paranormal experiences, though there were no doubt many more. These notes came from what he called "the orthodox conventionality of Science", which were odd events originally reported in magazines and newspapers such as "The Times" and scientific journals such as "Scientific American", "Nature" and "Science". From this research Fort wrote seven books, though only four survive: "The Book of the Damned" (1919), "New Lands" (1923), "Lo!" (1931) and "Wild Talents" (1932); one book was written between "New Lands" and "Lo!", but it was abandoned and absorbed into "Lo!"


title: Paranormal

text: Reported events that he collected include teleportation (a term Fort is generally credited with coining); poltergeist events; falls of frogs, fishes, and inorganic materials of an amazing range; crop circles; unaccountable noises and explosions; spontaneous fires; levitation; ball lightning (a term explicitly used by Fort); unidentified flying objects; mysterious appearances and disappearances; giant wheels of light in the oceans; and animals found outside their normal ranges (see phantom cat). He offered many reports of OOPArts, the abbreviation for "out of place" artifacts: strange items found in unlikely locations. He is perhaps the first person to explain strange human appearances and disappearances by the hypothesis of alien abduction and was an early proponent of the extraterrestrial hypothesis.


title: Paranormal

text: Fort is considered by many as the father of modern paranormalism, which is the study of the paranormal.


title: Paranormal

text: The magazine "Fortean Times" continues Charles Fort's approach, regularly reporting anecdotal accounts of the paranormal.


title: Paranormal

text: Such anecdotal collections, lacking the reproducibility of empirical evidence, are not amenable to scientific investigation. The anecdotal approach is not a scientific approach to the paranormal because it leaves verification dependent on the credibility of the party presenting the evidence. Nevertheless, it is a common approach to investigating paranormal phenomena.


title: Paranormal

text: Experimental investigation of the paranormal has been conducted by parapsychologists. J. B. Rhine popularized the now famous methodology of using card-guessing and dice-rolling experiments in a laboratory in the hopes of finding evidence of extrasensory perception. However, it was revealed that Rhine's experiments contained methodological flaws and procedural errors.


title: Paranormal

text: In 1957, the Parapsychological Association was formed as the preeminent society for parapsychologists. In 1969, they became affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Criticisms of the field were focused in the creation (in 1976) of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (now called the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry) and its periodical, the "Skeptical Inquirer". Eventually, more mainstream scientists became critical of parapsychology as an endeavor, and statements by the National Academies of Science and the National Science Foundation cast a pall on the claims of evidence for parapsychology. Today, many cite parapsychology as an example of a pseudoscience. Parapsychology has been criticized for continuing investigation despite being unable to provide convincing evidence for the existence of any psychic phenomena after more than a century of research.


title: Paranormal

text: By the 2000s, the status of paranormal research in the United States had greatly declined from its height in the 1970s, with the majority of work being privately funded and only a small amount of research being carried out in university laboratories. In 2007, Britain had a number of privately funded laboratories in university psychology departments. Publication remained limited to a small number of niche journals, and to date there have been no experimental results that have gained wide acceptance in the scientific community as valid evidence of the paranormal.


title: Paranormal

text: While parapsychologists look for quantitative evidence of the paranormal in laboratories, a great number of people immerse themselves in qualitative research through participant-observer approaches to the paranormal. Participant-observer methodologies have overlaps with other essentially qualitative approaches, including phenomenological research that seeks largely to describe subjects "as they are experienced", rather than to explain them.


title: Paranormal

text: Participant observation suggests that by immersing oneself in the subject that is being studied, a researcher is presumed to gain understanding of the subject. Criticisms of participant observation as a data-gathering technique are similar to criticisms of other approaches to the paranormal, but also include an increased threat to the scientific objectivity of the researcher, unsystematic gathering of data, reliance on subjective measurement, and possible observer effects (i.e. observation may distort the observed behavior). Specific data-gathering methods, such as recording EMF (electromagnetic field) readings at haunted locations, have their own criticisms beyond those attributed to the participant-observer approach itself.


title: Paranormal

text: Participant observation, as an approach to the paranormal, has gained increased visibility and popularity through reality television programs like "Ghost Hunters", and the formation of independent ghost hunting groups that advocate immersive research at alleged paranormal locations. One popular website for ghost hunting enthusiasts lists over 300 of these organizations throughout the United States and the United Kingdom.


title: Paranormal

text: Scientific skeptics advocate critical investigation of claims of paranormal phenomena: applying the scientific method to reach a rational, scientific explanation of the phenomena to account for the paranormal claims, taking into account that alleged paranormal abilities and occurrences are sometimes hoaxes or misinterpretations of natural phenomena. A way of summarizing this method is by the application of Occam's razor, which suggests that the simpler solution is usually the correct one.


title: Paranormal

text: The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), formerly the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), is an organization that aims to publicize the scientific, skeptical approach. It carries out investigations aimed at understanding paranormal reports in terms of scientific understanding, and publishes its results in the "Skeptical Inquirer" magazine.


title: Paranormal

text: CSI's Richard Wiseman draws attention to possible alternative explanations for perceived paranormal activity in his article, "The Haunted Brain". While he recognizes that approximately 15% of people believe they have experienced an encounter with a ghost, he reports that only 1% report seeing a full-fledged ghost while the rest report strange sensory stimuli, such as seeing fleeting shadows or wisps of smoke, or the sensation of hearing footsteps or feeling a presence. Wiseman makes the claim that, rather than experiencing paranormal activity, it is activity within our own brains that creates these strange sensations.


title: Paranormal

text: Michael Persinger proposed that ghostly experiences could be explained by stimulating the brain with weak magnetic fields. Swedish psychologist Pehr Granqvist and his team, attempting to replicate Persinger's research, determined that the paranormal sensations experienced by Persinger's subjects were merely the result of suggestion, and that brain stimulation with magnetic fields did not result in ghostly experiences.


title: Paranormal

text: Oxford University Justin Barrett has theorized that "agency"—being able to figure out why people do what they do—is so important in everyday life, that it is natural for our brains to work too hard at it, thereby detecting human or ghost-like behavior in everyday meaningless stimuli.


title: Paranormal

text: James Randi, an investigator with a background in illusion, felt that the simplest explanation for those claiming paranormal abilities is often trickery, illustrated by demonstrating that the spoon bending abilities of psychic Uri Geller can easily be duplicated by trained stage magicians. He was also the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation and its million dollar challenge that offered a prize of US$1,000,000 to anyone who could demonstrate evidence of any paranormal, supernatural or occult power or event, under test conditions agreed to by both parties. Despite many declarations of supernatural ability, the prize was never claimed.


title: Paranormal

text: In "anomalistic psychology", paranormal phenomena have naturalistic explanations resulting from psychological and physical factors which have sometimes given the impression of paranormal activity to some people, in fact, where there have been none. The psychologist David Marks wrote that paranormal phenomena can be explained by magical thinking, mental imagery, subjective validation, coincidence, hidden causes, and fraud. According to studies some people tend to hold paranormal beliefs because they possess psychological traits that make them more likely to misattribute paranormal causation to normal experiences. Research has also discovered that cognitive bias is a factor underlying paranormal belief.


title: Paranormal

text: Many studies have found a link between personality and psychopathology variables correlating with paranormal belief. Some studies have also shown that fantasy proneness correlates positively with paranormal belief.


title: Paranormal

text: Bainbridge (1978) and Wuthnow (1976) found that the most susceptible people to paranormal belief are those who are poorly educated, unemployed or have roles that rank low among social values. The alienation of these people due to their status in society is said to encourage them to appeal to paranormal or magical beliefs.


title: Paranormal

text: Research has associated paranormal belief with low cognitive ability, low IQ and a lack of science education. Intelligent and highly educated participants involved in surveys have proven to have less paranormal belief. Tobacyk (1984) and Messer and Griggs (1989) discovered that college students with better grades have less belief in the paranormal.


title: Paranormal

text: In a case study (Gow, 2004) involving 167 participants the findings revealed that psychological absorption and dissociation were higher for believers in the paranormal. Another study involving 100 students had revealed a positive correlation between paranormal belief and proneness to dissociation. A study (Williams "et al". 2007) discovered that "neuroticism is fundamental to individual differences in paranormal belief, while paranormal belief is independent of extraversion and psychoticism". A correlation has been found between paranormal belief and irrational thinking.


title: Paranormal

text: In an experiment Wierzbicki (1985) reported a significant correlation between paranormal belief and the number of errors made on a syllogistic reasoning task, suggesting that believers in the paranormal have lower cognitive ability. A relationship between narcissistic personality and paranormal belief was discovered in a study involving the Australian Sheep-Goat Scale.


title: Paranormal

text: A psychological study involving 174 members of the Society for Psychical Research completed a delusional ideation questionnaire and a deductive reasoning task. As predicted, the study showed that "individuals who reported a strong belief in the paranormal made more errors and displayed more delusional ideation than skeptical individuals". There was also a reasoning bias which was limited to people who reported a belief in, rather than experience of, paranormal phenomena. The results suggested that reasoning abnormalities may have a causal role in the formation of paranormal belief.


title: Paranormal

text: Research has shown that people reporting contact with aliens have higher levels of absorption, dissociativity, fantasy proneness and tendency to hallucinate.


title: Paranormal

text: Findings have shown in specific cases that paranormal belief acts as a psychodynamic coping function and serves as a mechanism for coping with stress. Survivors from childhood sexual abuse, violent and unsettled home environments have reported to have higher levels of paranormal belief. A study of a random sample of 502 adults revealed paranormal experiences were common in the population which were linked to a history of childhood trauma and dissociative symptoms. Research has also suggested that people who perceive themselves as having little control over their lives may develop paranormal beliefs to help provide an enhanced sense of control.


title: Paranormal

text: Gender differences in surveys on paranormal belief have reported women scoring higher than men overall and men having greater belief in UFOs and extraterrestrials. Surveys have also investigated the relationship between ethnicity and paranormal belief. In a sample of American university students (Tobacyk "et al". 1988) it was found that people of African descent have a higher level of belief in superstitions and witchcraft while belief in extraterrestrial life forms was stronger among people of European descent. Otis and Kuo (1984) surveyed Singapore university students and found Chinese, Indian and Malay students to differ in their paranormal beliefs, with the Chinese students showing greater skepticism.


title: Paranormal

text: According to American surveys analysed by (Bader "et al". 2011) African Americans have the highest belief in the paranormal and while the findings are not uniform the "general trend is for whites to show lesser belief in most paranormal subjects".


title: Paranormal

text: Polls show that about fifty percent of the United States population believe in the paranormal. Robert L. Park says a lot of people believe in it because they "want it to be so".


title: Paranormal

text: A 2013 study that utilized a biological motion perception task discovered a "relation between illusory pattern perception and supernatural and paranormal beliefs and suggest that paranormal beliefs are strongly related to agency detection biases".


title: Paranormal

text: Some scientists have investigated possible neurocognitive processes underlying the formation of paranormal beliefs. In a study (Pizzagalli "et al". 2000) data demonstrated that "subjects differing in their declared belief in and experience with paranormal phenomena as well as in their schizotypal ideation, as determined by a standardized instrument, displayed differential brain electric activity during resting periods." Another study (Schulter and Papousek, 2008) wrote that paranormal belief can be explained by patterns of functional hemispheric asymmetry that may be related to perturbations during fetal development.


title: Paranormal

text: It was also realized that people with higher dopamine levels have the ability to find patterns and meanings where there aren't any. This is why scientists have connected high dopamine levels with paranormal belief.


title: Paranormal

text: Some scientists have criticized the media for promoting paranormal claims. In a report by Singer and Benassi in 1981, they wrote that the media may account for much of the near universality of paranormal belief, as the public are constantly exposed to films, newspapers, documentaries and books endorsing paranormal claims while critical coverage is largely absent. According to Paul Kurtz "In regard to the many talk shows that constantly deal with paranormal topics, the skeptical viewpoint is rarely heard; and when it is permitted to be expressed, it is usually sandbagged by the host or other guests." Kurtz described the popularity of public belief in the paranormal as a "quasi-religious phenomenon", a manifestation of a transcendental temptation, a tendency for people to seek a transcendental reality that cannot be known by using the methods of science. Kurtz compared this to a primitive form of magical thinking.


title: Paranormal

text: Terence Hines has written that on a personal level, paranormal claims could be considered a form of consumer fraud as people are "being induced through false claims to spend their money—often large sums—on paranormal claims that do not deliver what they promise" and uncritical acceptance of paranormal belief systems can be damaging to society.


title: Paranormal

text: While the existence of paranormal phenomena is controversial and debated passionately by both proponents of the paranormal and by skeptics, surveys are useful in determining the "beliefs" of people in regards to paranormal phenomena. These opinions, while not constituting scientific evidence for or against, may give an indication of the mindset of a certain portion of the population (at least among those who answered the polls). The number of people worldwide who believe in parapsychological powers has been estimated to be 3 to 4 billion.


title: Paranormal

text: A survey conducted in 2006 by researchers from Australia's Monash University sought to determine the "types" of phenomena that people claim to have experienced and the effects these experiences have had on their lives. The study was conducted as an online survey with over 2,000 respondents from around the world participating. The results revealed that around 70% of the respondents believe to have had an unexplained paranormal event that changed their life, mostly in a positive way. About 70% also claimed to have seen, heard, or been touched by an animal or person that they knew was not there; 80% have reported having a premonition, and almost 50% stated they recalled a previous life.


title: Paranormal

text: Polls were conducted by Bryan Farha at Oklahoma City University and Gary Steward of the University of Central Oklahoma in 2006. They found fairly consistent results compared to the results of a Gallup poll in 2001.


title: Paranormal

text: A survey by Jeffrey S. Levin, associate professor at Eastern Virginia Medical School, found that more than two thirds of the United States population reported having at least one mystical experience.


title: Paranormal

text: A 1996 Gallup poll estimated that 71% of the people in the U.S. believed that the government was covering up information about UFOs. A 2002 Roper poll conducted for the Sci Fi channel reported that 56% thought UFOs were real craft and 48% that aliens had visited the Earth.


title: Paranormal

text: A 2001 National Science Foundation survey found that 9% of people polled thought astrology was very scientific, and 31% thought it was somewhat scientific. About 32% of Americans surveyed stated that some numbers were lucky, while 46% of Europeans agreed with that claim. About 60% of all people polled believed in some form of Extra-sensory perception and 30% thought that "some of the unidentified flying objects that have been reported are really space vehicles from other civilizations."


title: Paranormal

text: In 2017 the Chapman University Survey of American Fears asked about seven paranormal beliefs and found that "the most common belief is that ancient advanced civilizations such as Atlantis once existed (55%). Next was that places can be haunted by spirits (52%), aliens have visited Earth in our ancient past (35%), aliens have come to Earth in modern times (26%), some people can move objects with their minds (25%), fortune tellers and psychics can survey the future (19%), and Bigfoot is a real creature. Only one-fourth of respondents didn't hold at least one of these beliefs."


title: Paranormal

text: In 1922, "Scientific American" offered two US$2,500 offers: (1) for the first authentic spirit photograph made under test conditions, and (2) for the first psychic to produce a "visible psychic manifestation". Harry Houdini was a member of the investigating committee. The first medium to be tested was George Valiantine, who claimed that in his presence spirits would speak through a trumpet that floated around a darkened room. For the test, Valiantine was placed in a room, the lights were extinguished, but unbeknownst to him his chair had been rigged to light a signal in an adjoining room if he ever left his seat. Because the light signals were tripped during his performance, Valiantine did not collect the award. The last to be examined by Scientific American was Mina Crandon in 1924.


title: Paranormal

text: Since then, many individuals and groups have offered similar monetary awards for proof of the paranormal in an observed setting. These prizes have a combined value of over $2.4 million.


title: Paranormal

text: The James Randi Educational Foundation offered a prize of a million dollars to a person who could prove that they had supernatural or paranormal abilities under appropriate test conditions. Several other skeptic groups also offer a monied prize for proof of the paranormal, including the largest group of paranormal investigators, the Independent Investigations Group, which has chapters in Hollywood; Atlanta; Denver; Washington, D.C.; Alberta, B.C.; and San Francisco. The IIG offers a $100,000 prize and a $5,000 finders fee if a claimant can prove a paranormal claim under 2 scientifically controlled tests. Founded in 2000 no claimant has passed the first (and lower odds) of the test.


title: Rape in India

text: Rape is the fourth most common crime against women in India. According to the 2021 annual report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 31,677 rape cases were registered across the country, or an average of 86 cases daily, a rise from 2020 with 28,046 cases, while in 2019, 32,033 cases were registered. Of the total 31,677 rape cases, 28,147(nearly 89%) of the rapes were committed by persons known to the victim. The share of victims who were minors or below 18 - the legal age of consent - stood at 10%.


title: Rape in India

text: India has been characterised as one of the "countries with the lowest per capita rates of rape". The government also classifies consensual sex committed on the false promise of marriage as rape. The willingness to report rapes have increased in recent years, after several incidents received widespread media attention and triggered local and nationwide public protests. This led the government to reform its penal code for crimes of rape and sexual assault.


title: Rape in India

text: According to NCRB 2021 statistics, Rajasthan reported the highest number of rapes among Indian states, followed by Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Among metropolitan cities, the national capital of Delhi continued to have the highest incidence of rape at 1,226 cases in 2021, while Jaipur had the highest rape rate (34 per 100,000 population). Kolkata had the least number of registered rape cases among metropolitan cities, with least rape rate.


title: Rape in India

text: §375. Rape. A man is said to commit "rape" who, except case hereinafter excepted, has sexual intercourse with a woman in circumstances falling under any of the six following descriptions:-


title: Rape in India

text: Thirdly. –– With her consent, when her consent has been obtained by putting her or any person in whom she is interested, in fear of death or of hurt.


title: Rape in India

text: Fourthly. –– With her consent, when the man knows that he is not her husband, and that her consent is given because she believes that he is another man to whom she is or believes herself to be lawfully married.


title: Rape in India

text: Fifthly. –– With her consent, when, at the time of giving such consent, by reason of unsoundness of mind or intoxication or the administration by him personally or through another of any stupefying or unwholesome substance, she is unable to understand the nature and consequences of that to which she gives consent.


title: Rape in India

text: Explanation. –– Penetration is sufficient to constitute the sexual intercourse necessary to the offence of rape.


title: Rape in India

text: Exception. –– Sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape.


title: Rape in India

text: The above definition excluded marital rape, same sex crimes and considered all sex with a minor below the age of sixteen as rape.


title: Rape in India

text: After 3 February 2013, the definition was revised through the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013, which also raised the legal age of minor to eighteen.


title: Rape in India

text: §375. A man is said to commit "rape" if he:–– (a) penetrates his penis, to any extent, into the vagina, mouth, urethra or anus of a woman or makes her to do so with him or any other person; or (b) inserts, to any extent, any object or a part of the body, not being the penis, into the vagina, the urethra or anus of a woman or makes her to do so with him or any other person; or (c) manipulates any part of the body of a woman so as to cause penetration into the vagina, urethra, anus or any part of body of such woman or makes her to do so with him or any other person; or (d) applies his mouth to the vagina, anus, urethra of a woman or makes her to do so with him or any other person, under the circumstances falling under any of the following seven descriptions:


title: Rape in India

text: Fourthly. –– With her consent, when the man knows that he is not her husband and that her consent is given because she believes that he is another man to whom she is or believes herself to be lawfully married.


title: Rape in India

text: Fifthly. –– With her consent when, at the time of giving such consent, by reason of unsoundness of mind or intoxication or the administration by him personally or through another of any stupefying or unwholesome Substance, she is unable to understand the nature and consequences of that to which she gives consent.


title: Rape in India

text: Explanation 2. –– Consent means an unequivocal voluntary agreement when the woman by words, gestures or any form of verbal or non-verbal communication, communicates willingness to participate in the specific sexual act;


title: Rape in India

text: Provided that a woman who does not physically resist to the act of penetration shall not by the reason only of that fact, be regarded as consenting to the sexual activity. Exceptions –– 1. A medical procedure or intervention shall not constitute rape; 2. Sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape.


title: Rape in India

text: Even after the 2013 reform, marital rape when the wife and husband live together continued not to be a crime in India. Article 376B of the 2013 law made forced sexual intercourse by a man with his wife – if she is living separately – a crime, whether under a decree of separation or otherwise, punishable with at least a 2-year prison term. Forced sex by a man on his wife may also be considered a prosecutable domestic violence under other sections of Indian Penal code, such as Section 498(A) as well as the "Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005". The crime of sexual assault on a child, that is anyone below the age of eighteen, is further outlined and mandatory punishments described in "The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012".


title: Rape in India

text: As CNN reported in 2020, a man convicted of raping a woman faces a minimum 10-year prison sentence. This may increase to a life sentence or even a death sentence depending on the circumstances and details of the crime. If the victim is transgender, however, the rapist is punished by a maximum of two years in prison, as defined by the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019.


title: Rape in India

text: All sexual acts between the members of the same sex, consensual or forced, was previously a crime under Section 377 of Indian penal code, after the 2013 Criminal Law reform, with punishment the same as that of rape but it was later overturned in a landmark judgement of the Supreme Court on 6 September 2018 which stated all consensual sexual acts between adults who have met the age of consent are not violative of Section 377, hence decriminalizing gay sex in India.


title: Rape in India

text: One rape was reported every 16 minutes in India in 2019. This figure was 15 minutes in 2018. In 2019, the national average rape rate (per 1,00,000 population) was 4.9, slightly less than 5.2 in 2018 and 2017. However, the small dip may be attributed to data for West Bengal not being available. As of 2019, Nagaland (0.8), Tamil Nadu (1.0), and Bihar (1.3) had the lowest rape rates among the states of India, while Rajasthan (15.9) had the highest rape rate. These statistics do not take into account rapes ending in murder and attempts to rape, which are counted separately by police in India.


title: Rape in India

text: Using a small sample survey, Human Rights Watch projects more than 7,200 minors – 1.6 in 100,000 minors – are raped each year in India. Among these, victims who do report the assaults are alleged to suffer mistreatment and humiliation from the police. Minor girls are trafficked into prostitution in India, thus rape of minors conflates into a lifetime of suffering. Of the countries studied by Maplecroft on sex trafficking and crime against minors, India was ranked 7th worst.


title: Rape in India

text: Most rapes go unreported because the rape victims fear retaliation and humiliation, both in India and throughout the world. Indian parliamentarians have stated that the rape problem in India is being underestimated because many cases are not reported, even though more victims are increasingly coming out and reporting rape and sexual assaults.


title: Rape in India

text: Few states in India have tried to estimate or survey unreported cases sexual assault. The estimates for unreported rapes in India vary widely. The National Crime Records Bureau report of 2006 mentions that about 71% rape crimes go unreported. Marital rape is not a criminal act in India though sexual intercourse with wife aged between 15 and 18 years is considered as rape. Madiha Kark estimates 54% of rape crimes are unreported. A UN study of 57 countries estimates just 11% of rape and sexual assault cases worldwide are ever reported.


title: Rape in India

text: In 1992, the Ajmer rape case was one of India's biggest cases of coerced sexual exploitation, with more than a hundred underage schoolgirls estimated to have been sexually molested and raped. Most accused were from the Ajmer Dargah of Moinuddin Chishti.


title: Rape in India

text: The gang rape of a 23-year-old student on a public bus, on 16 December 2012, sparked large protests across the capital Delhi. She was with a male friend who was severely beaten with an iron rod during the incident. This same rod was used to penetrate her so severely that the victim's intestines had to be surgically removed, before her death thirteen days after the attack.


title: Rape in India

text: The following day, there was an uproar in the Indian parliament over the incident. MPs in both houses had set aside their regular business to discuss the case and demanded strict punishment for those who carried out the attack. The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, demanded that "the rapists should be hanged". Thousands of people, mostly young, participated in a massive demonstration on 22 December in protest. Police arrested six men suspected of rape.


title: Rape in India

text: In August 2013, a 22-year-old photojournalist, who was interning with an English-language magazine in Mumbai, was gang-raped by five persons, including a juvenile, when she had gone to the deserted Shakti Mills compound, near Mahalaxmi in South Mumbai, with a male colleague on an assignment. This caused protests throughout the country since Mumbai with its very active nightlife was previously considered a safe haven for women. The city sessions court found the accused guilty and sentenced death penalty to the three repeat offenders in the Shakti Mills gang rape case, making them the first in the country to get the death sentence stipulated under the newly enacted Section 376E of the Indian Penal Code.


title: Rape in India

text: On 14 March 2015, a 71-year-old nun was gang-raped in Ranaghat, West Bengal by intruders at the Convent of Jesus and Mary. The six intruders were recorded on CCTV during their crime of ransacking the chapel, destroying religious items, looting cash and the gang rape. Six men were arrested and charged with the crime by 1 April 2015, and identified to be Bangladeshi Muslims.


title: Rape in India

text: On 29 March 2016, the corpse of Delta Meghwal, a 17 year old Dalit girl, was found in her hostel's water tank. Following the registration of the police case the hostel warden, physical education teacher and principal were arrested by Bikaner police and kept under judicial custody. The State eventually acceded to a CBI inquiry after the issue became politicised.


title: Rape in India

text: On 17 January 2018, Asifa, an 8-year old minor girl, was raped and murdered in Rasana village near Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir. The incident made national news when charges were filed against eight men in April 2018. The arrests of the accused led to protests from groups, one of which was attended by two ministers from the Bharatiya Janata Party, both of whom have now resigned. The rape and murder, as well as the support the accused received, sparked widespread outrage.


title: Rape in India

text: The Unnao rape case saw an allegation that lawmaker Kuldeep Singh Sengar had raped a 17-year old girl in 2017. In 2018, the alleged victim's father was jailed under the Arms Act, and died in prison after being allegedly beaten up by Sengar's brother and several others. Also in 2018, a witness to the alleged assault, Yunus, died and was immediately buried by his family with no autopsy and no communication to police or investigators. Yunus' wife and family said Yunus had been ill and died a natural death. The uncle of the alleged victim was arrested and jailed in 2018 due to an 18 year old gun-firing case. In 2019, a truck with blackened license plates hit the car in which the alleged victim and others were riding in. As a result, the victim's paternal and maternal aunts were killed. The alleged victim and her lawyer were critically injured. The police officers assigned to provide security for the alleged victim were not present, with the explanation that there was no space in the car in which the alleged victim was travelling in.


title: Rape in India

text: There have been allegations of rape and mass rape in Jammu and Kashmir. Reports have shown that rape has been carried out by both Indian armed forces and Islamist militant groups.


title: Rape in India

text: The rapes by Islamic militants have been reported since the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. On 22 October 1947, Pashtun militants invaded Baramulla in a Pakistan army truck, and raped women including European nuns. In March 1990, Mrs. M. N. Paul, the wife of a BSF inspector was kidnapped, tortured and gang-raped for many days. Then her body with broken limbs was abandoned on a road.


title: Rape in India

text: The International Commission of Jurists have stated that though the attacks had not been proven beyond a doubt, there was credible evidence that it had happened. In 2011, the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) asked for the reopening of the case.


title: Rape in India

text: Militant organisations such as Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen and Harkat ul-Ansar have been accused of carrying out rapes. The Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front has been accused of ethnic cleansing of using murder, arson, and rape as a weapon of war to drive out hundreds of thousands of Hindu Kashmiri Pandits from the region. Following the rise of rapes by the Indian armed forces and militants, HRW has submitted that the victims of rape suffer ostracism and there is a "code of silence and fear" that prevents people from reporting such abuse. According to the HRW, the investigation of case of rape by Indian forces and militants is difficult because many Kashmiris are reluctant to discuss it for the fear of violent reprisals.


title: Rape in India

text: Human rights groups allege that the Indian armed forces under the protection of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 have carried out a large amount of rapes in the Nagaland, Assam and Manipur provinces. Karlsson writes that there are reports that much of the violence against civilians, including sexual assault, is inflicted by the rebel groups and armed criminal gangs in the region.


title: Rape in India

text: There is wide discrepancy among reports of rape and sexual assault. For example, according to the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), the majority of those assaulted in 2007 were poor women from remote areas and Dalits. SR Darapuri of the PUCL alleged, "I analysed the rape figures for 2007 and I found that 90% of victims were Dalits and 85% of Dalit rape victims were underage girls." Darapuri allegations do not match with the data compiled by National Crime Records Bureau of India, which found 6.7% of rape and sexual assault victims were Dalits in 2007, where nearly 16% of Indian population is classified as Dalit. There were 391 cases of rape of Dalit victims reported in Uttar Pradesh in 2013 or about 1 per 100,000 Dalits in the state of about 200 million people (21% of which is classified as Dalit).


title: Rape in India

text: In recent years, variety of rapes have taken place during the communal riots. During the post 2002 Godhra train burning, in the certain parts of Gujarat, rape was carried out by rioters. Thirteen rape and assault cases were reported during the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.


title: Rape in India

text: In April 2013, Judge Virender Bhat has suggested that the legal proposition of relying upon the sole attestation of the victim became "an easy weapon" to incriminate anyone in rape case. Justice Kailash Ghambhir of the Delhi High Court stated that penal provisions for rape are often being misused by women as a "weapon for vengeance and vendetta" to harass and blackmail their male friends by filing false cases to extort money and to force them get married. "Saamna", the mouthpiece of the Shiv Sena in an editorial noted while supporting the Deputy Inspector General Of Police in Mumbai in an alleged rape complaint that it has become "a fashion to create sensation by charging someone for rape and molestation" while Shonee Kapoor, founder of Sahodar Men's Right Group, demanded that the name of the accused should not be made public till conviction.


title: Rape in India

text: In 2014, as per a report submitted by Delhi Commission for women 53% of reported rapes in 2012-13 were found to be 'false'. This report considered the cases that were dropped before going to trial as false, and failed to differentiate between the cases dropped due to coercion and cases where it was clear that women were lying.


title: Rape in India

text: According to an investigation by "The Hindu" that only considered the cases that went to full trial found that out of 460 such cases in Delhi district courts in 2013, only 2% (12) were found to committed by strangers. 41% (189) of these cases were filed by parents to criminalize and end consented sexual relationships, 24% (109) were filed under 'breach of promise to marry' and 30% (141) were found to be committed by acquaintances and relatives.


title: Rape in India

text: In 1991, the 4 Rajputana Rifles unit are alleged to have entered the village of Kunan Poshpora and raped between 30 and 100 women aged between 13 and 70. The Indian government carried out three inquiries into the allegations and concluded that it had been a hoax.


title: Rape in India

text: In May 2014 two girls aged 14 and 16 were allegedly gang raped and murdered in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, though later investigations have alleged suicide as the cause of death in this instance. Two police officers were suspected of involvement in the crimes. The alleged gang rape was widely reported in the press both in India and globally.


title: Rape in India

text: Rape cases against internationals have led several countries to issue travel advisories that "women travellers should exercise caution when travelling in India even if they are travelling in a group; avoid hailing taxis from streets or using public transport at night, and to respect local dress codes and customs and avoid isolated areas".


title: Rape in India

text: In March 2013, a Swiss couple who were cycling from Orchha to Agra, decided to camp for a night in a village in Datia District. There they were physically assaulted by eight locals, robbed, the man was overpowered and tied up, while the 39-year-old woman was gang-raped in front of her husband at the village. The Swiss government issued a travel advisory in 2013 about the "increasing numbers of rapes and other sexual offences" happening in India.


title: Rape in India

text: The news coverage of the rapes and updated travel advisories have worried Indian tourism industry. Some media reports stated that high-profile rape cases had led to tourist numbers to drop 20 to 30 per cent compared to previous year. The Assocham agency found that of 1200 businesses surveyed more than 70% reported cancellations by female tourists from Britain, Canada, the U.S. and Canada along with a 25% decline overall. However, tourist arrivals in India increased from 6.5 million arrivals in 2012 to 6.8 million arrivals in 2013. Tourist arrivals in 2014 observed another 10% increase over 2013 levels.


title: Rape in India

text: In January 2015, the Tourism Ministry of India introduced emergency helplines for female tourists. The Indian government announced in April 2015, that tourists are now being given a "welcome card" by the immigration officer on arrival with resources to ensure their safety, that GPS-embedded tracking system are being introduced in all taxis, and tourist helplines in 12 foreign languages have been instituted.


title: Rape in India

text: In a non-tourism related case, Russia issued travel advisory to its citizens after a Russian national was raped in December 2009. The case was widely covered after a member of Indian parliament Shantaram Laxman Naik blamed the victim and the media for over emphasising the Russian rape case after, "she was raped by a state politician in his car after they had dinner together". Naik was criticised by leaders of Indian political parties such as CPI-M, BJP and SP for blaming the rape victim and media.


title: Rape in India

text: The Indian law prior to the Nirbhaya Incident took into account only acts of penile-vaginal intercourse within the definition of rape and forcible acts of penetration of vagina, mouth, urethra or anus through penis or an inanimate object did not fall within the definition of rape. Many rapists were not prosecuted because there was no law to punish such acts. The definition was expanded in 2013 to consider rape as any acts like penetration by penis, or any object or any part of body to any extent, into the vagina, mouth, urethra or anus of a woman or making her to do so with another person or applying of mouth to sexual organs without the consent or will of the woman constitutes the offence of rape.


title: Rape in India

text: The section has also clarified that penetration means "penetration to any extent", and lack of physical resistance is immaterial for constituting an offence. Except in certain aggravated situation the punishment will be imprisonment not less than seven years but which may extend to imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine. In aggravated situations, punishment will be rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than ten years but which may extend to imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine.


title: Rape in India

text: Section 53A of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Indian law lays down certain provisions for medical examination of the accused. Section 164A of the Code of Criminal Procedure deals with the medical examination of the victim.


title: Rape in India

text: The revised statutes of 2013 Indian law, in section 376A, mandates minimum punishment in certain cases. For instance, if the sexual assault inflicts an injury which causes death or causes the victim to be in a persistent vegetative state, then the convicted rapist must be sentenced to rigorous imprisonment of at least twenty years and up to the remainder of the natural life or with a death penalty." In the case of "gang rape", the same mandatory sentencing is now required by law. The convicted is also required to pay compensation to the victim which shall be reasonable to meet the medical expenses and rehabilitation of the victim, and per Section 357 B in the Code of Criminal Procedure. Death penalty for the most extreme rape cases is specified.


title: Rape in India

text: The 2013 law also increased the age of consent from 16 years to 18 years, and any sexual activity with anyone less than age of 18, irrespective of consent, now constitutes statutory rape.


title: Rape in India

text: The new law has made it mandatory for all government and privately run hospitals in India to give free first aid and medical treatment to victims of rape.


title: Rape in India

text: As well, in May 2013, the Supreme Court of India held that the two-finger test on a rape victim violates her right to privacy, and asked the Delhi government to provide better medical procedures to confirm sexual assault.


title: Rape in India

text: On 3 November 2015 the Allahabad High Court observed that a child born out of rape will have inheritance rights over the property of the assaulter and will be treated as illegitimate, however if the child is taken for adoption then he/she will not have any rights on the property of the biological father.


title: Rape in India

text: The government on September 20, 2018 launched the National Database on Sexual Offenders (NDSO). The database contains entries of offenders convicted under charges of rape, gang rape, POCSO and eve teasing. The portal as of now contains 440,000 entries of cases that have been reported since 2008. It's managed by the National Crime Records Bureau. The database is accessible only to the law enforcement agencies for investigation and monitoring purpose.


title: Rape in India

text: As a result of the 2012 Delhi gang rape case, the Indian government implemented a fast-track court system to rapidly prosecute rape cases. The fast-track court system has been welcomed by some, but their fairness questioned by legal experts and scholars. The legal scholars state that the fast-track courts may not be fair in an impoverished country where millions of cases are backlogged, and there are an average of just 14 judges per million people - among the lowest in a United Nations study of 65 nations. Fast track courts divert limited judicial resources and add delays to prosecution of other crimes. They noted that Delhi state had instituted five fast-track courts in 2013 to handle rape cases, but there are no fast-track courts for murder. Mrinal Satish, of New Delhi's National Law University said, "there is a risk that in this emotional response and clamor for immediate justice, we could end up putting innocent people in prison".


title: Rape in India

text: Marital rape is not a criminal offence within Indian legal framework, except during the period of judicial separation of the partners. The marital rape exception, that is exception 2 of section 375 of the Indian Penal Code states that sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under 18 years of age, is not rape. In the 1980s, women's rights groups lobbied for marital rape to be declared unlawful. Government officials argued that the contract of marriage presupposes consent to sex and that criminalising marital rape in turn would degrade family values in India. Forced sex by husbands upon wives does have legal consequences in Indian matrimonial law, in that it can be treated as a matrimonial fault, resulting in dissolution of the marriage. All religious personal laws and the secular law governing marriage and divorce in India deem ‘cruelty’ by one spouse to the other to be a ground for divorce. The originally enacted Hindu marriage Act provided that in order to constitute a cause for divorce, an act of cruelty should be such that it ‘produces a reasonable apprehension in the mind of the petitioner that it will be harmful or injurious for the petitioner to live with the other party.’ Marital rape also amounts to ‘sexual abuse’ under the law regarding domestic violence enacted in 2005, under which aggrieved wives or female live-in partners can claim civil remedies, like injunction against violence, dispossession from home or direction to the husband/partner to pay maintenance. The law kicks in to regulate sexual violence in marriage only in cases when it is accompanied by extreme physical violence or when the health and safety of the wife is endangered, as in the case of minor wives.


title: Rape in India

text: This exception has restricted application when the wife has been living separately from the husband, with or without a decree of judicial separation. In such cases, the husband can be prosecuted for rape. If convicted, the minimum punishment is imprisonment for two years and imposition of a fine (Section 376B, IPC). This clause was ratified in the year 1983, a period of great upheaval in the history of rape law reform in India, when major changes were made for the first time since enactment of rape laws by the colonial state in 1860. The parliamentary committee that gave final shape to the 1983 amendments was disinclined to treating non-consensual sex between a separated couple as amounting to rape, on the grounds that a rape charge would heighten the possibilities of divorce by making reconciliation that much harder for the couple. Hence, the minimum sentence stipulated for this category of rape was set much lower than usual.


title: Rape in India

text: Until 2017, there was a discrepancy between two sub clauses of Section 375. Exception 2 stated that “sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape.” However, the same provision stated that a man is said to commit rape if he has sexual relations with a woman with or without her consent, when she is under 18 years of age. Independent Thought, a non-governmental organisation, in a petition in 2013, had challenged Exception 2. In a landmark ruling on 11 October 2017, the supreme court upheld the age of consent as 18 years. The court held that the distinction made between a married girl child and an unmarried girl child was illogical and ran against the provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012. Such a distinction also violated a child's right to liberty and dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution. Two other significant statutes undermined by the original IPC section were the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 and the Juvenile Justice Act, both of which define a child as someone below the age of 18.


title: Rape in India

text: In February 2017, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare unveiled resource material relating to health issues to be used as a part of a nationwide adolescent peer-education plan called "Saathiya". Among other subjects, the material discusses relationships and consent. The material states, "Yes, adolescents frequently fall in love. They can feel attraction for a friend or any individual of the same or opposite sex. It is normal to have special feelings for someone. It is important for adolescents to understand that such relationships are based on mutual consent, trust, transparency and respect. It is alright to talk about such feelings to the person for whom you have them but always in a respectful manner. ... Boys should understand that when a girl says 'no' it means no."


title: Abolitionism in the United States

text: In the United States, abolitionism, the movement that sought to end slavery in the country, was active from the late colonial era until the American Civil War, the end of which brought about the abolition of American slavery through the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (ratified 1865).


title: Abolitionism in the United States

text: The anti-slavery movement originated during the Age of Enlightenment, focused on ending the trans-Atlantic slave trade. In Colonial America, a few German Quakers issued the 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery, which marks the beginning of the American abolitionist movement. Before the Revolutionary War, evangelical colonists were the primary advocates for the opposition to slavery and the slave trade, doing so on humanitarian grounds. James Oglethorpe, the founder of the colony of Georgia, originally tried to prohibit slavery upon its founding, a decision that was eventually reversed.


title: Abolitionism in the United States

text: During the Revolutionary era, all states abolished the international slave trade, but South Carolina reversed its decision. Between the Revolutionary War and 1804, laws, constitutions, or court decisions in each of the Northern states provided for the gradual or immediate abolition of slavery. No Southern state adopted similar policies. In 1807, Congress made the importation of slaves a crime, effective January 1, 1808, which was as soon as Article I, section 9 of the Constitution allowed. Immediate emancipation became a war goal for the Union in 1862 and was fully achieved in 1865.


title: Abolitionism in the United States

text: American abolitionism began very early, well before the United States was founded as a nation. An early law passed by Roger Williams and Samuel Gorton because it contradicted their Protestant beliefs abolished slavery (but not temporary indentured servitude) in Rhode Island in 1652; however, it floundered within 50 years, and Rhode Island became involved in the slave trade in 1700.


title: Abolitionism in the United States

text: The first statement against slavery in Colonial America was written in 1688 by the Religious Society of Friends. On 18 February 1688, Francis Daniel Pastorius of Germantown, Pennsylvania, drafted the 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery, a two-page condemnation of slavery, and sent it to the governing bodies of their Quaker church. The intention of the document was to stop slavery within the Quaker community, where 70% of Quakers owned slaves between 1681 and 1705. It acknowledged the universal rights of all people. While the Quaker establishment did not take action at that time, the unusually early, clear, and forceful argument in the 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery initiated the spirit that finally led to the end of slavery in the Society of Friends (1776) and in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania (1780). The Quaker Quarterly Meeting of Chester, Pennsylvania, made its first protest in 1711. Within a few decades the entire slave trade was under attack, being opposed by such Quaker leaders as William Burling, Benjamin Lay, Ralph Sandiford, William Southby, John Woolman, and Anthony Benezet. Benezet was particularly influential, inspiring a later generation of notable anti-slavery activists, including Granville Sharp, John Wesley, Thomas Clarkson, Olaudah Equiano, Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Rush, Absalom Jones, and Bishop Richard Allen, among others.


title: Abolitionism in the United States

text: Samuel Sewall, a prominent Bostonian and one of the judges at the Salem Witch Trials, wrote "The Selling of Joseph" (1700) in protest of the widening practice of outright slavery as opposed to indentured servitude in the colonies. This is the earliest-recorded anti-slavery tract published in the future United States.


title: Abolitionism in the United States

text: Slavery was banned in the colony of Georgia soon after its founding in 1733. The colony's founder, James Edward Oglethorpe, fended off repeated attempts by South Carolina merchants and land speculators to introduce slavery into the colony. In 1739, he wrote to the Georgia Trustees urging them to hold firm:


title: Abolitionism in the United States

text: The struggle between Georgia and South Carolina led to the first debates in Parliament over the issue of slavery, occurring between 1740 and 1742.


title: Abolitionism in the United States

text: Rhode Island Quakers, associated with Moses Brown, were among the first in America to free slaves. Benjamin Rush was another leader, as were many Quakers. John Woolman gave up most of his business in 1756 to devote himself to campaigning against slavery along with other Quakers.


title: Abolitionism in the United States

text: Between 1764 and 1774, seventeen enslaved African-Americans appeared the Massachusetts courts in freedom suits, spurred on the decision made in the "Somerset v. Stewart" case, which although not applying the colonies was still received positively by American abolitionists. Boston lawyer Benjamin Kent represented them. In 1766, Kent won a case ("Slew v. Whipple") to liberate Jenny Slew, a mixed-race woman who had been kidnapped in Massachusetts and then handled as a slave.


title: Abolitionism in the United States

text: According to historian Steven Pincus, many of the colonial legislatures worked to enact laws that would limit slavery. The Provincial legislature of Massachusetts Bay, as noted by historian Gary B. Nash, approved a law "prohibiting the importation and purchase of slaves by any Massachusetts citizen." The Loyalist governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Hutchinson, vetoed the law, an action that prompted angered reaction from the general public. American abolitionists were cheered by the decision in "Somerset v Stewart" (1772), which prohibited slavery in the United Kingdom, though not in its colonies. In 1774, the influential Fairfax Resolves called for an end to the "wicked, cruel and unnatural" Atlantic slave trade.


title: Abolitionism in the United States

text: One of the first articles advocating the emancipation of slaves and the abolition of slavery was written by Thomas Paine. Titled "African Slavery in America", it appeared on 8 March 1775 in the "Postscript to the Pennsylvania Journal and Weekly Advertiser".


title: Abolitionism in the United States

text: The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage (Pennsylvania Abolition Society) was the first American abolition society, formed 14 April 1775, in Philadelphia, primarily by Quakers. The society suspended operations during the American Revolutionary War and was reorganized in 1784, with Benjamin Franklin as its first president.