Example: In India’s highly segmented labour market, one can still discern at least three demographic groups that are in urgent need of jobs: a growing number of better educated youth; uneducated agricultural workers who wish to leave agricultural distress behind; and young women, who too are better educated than ever before.
1. Discern [dih-surn, -zurn]
Verb: to perceive by the sight or some other sense or by the intellect; see, recognize, or apprehend; to distinguish mentally; recognize as distinct or different; discriminate; to distinguish or discriminate.
Synonyms: anticipate, ascertain, detect, determine, differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, divine, figure out, find out, foresee, perceive, apprehend, behold, descry, discover, espy, extricate, focus.
Antonyms: confuse, doubt, miss, mix up.
2. Demographic [dem-uh-graf-ik, dee-muh-]
Adjective: of or relating to demography, the science of vital and social statistics.
Noun: a single vital or social statistic of a human population, as the number of births or deaths; a specific segment of a population having shared characteristics.
Synonyms: analytical, numerical, arithmetical, probability.
Example: Excessive imports have been decimating Indian manufacturing.
3. Decimate [des-uh-meyt]
Verb: to destroy a great number or proportion of; to select by lot and kill every tenth person of; to take a tenth of or from.
Synonyms: annihilate, exterminate, obliterate, slaughter, wipe out, butcher, execute, massacre, commit genocide, kill off, stamp out.
Antonyms: bear, build, create.
Example: In the Supreme Court’s decision on Wednesday, criminalising sex between a man and his minor wife, while the court refrained from adjudicating on the larger issue of marital rape, its judgment made reference to the Justice J.S. Verma committee recommendations that explained why the exemption of marital rape must be removed, and that a marital or other relationship is not a defence or justification for a lower sentence.
4. Refrain [ri-freyn]
Verb: to abstain from an impulse to say or do something (often followed by from).
Synonyms: melody, theme, burden, music, song, strain, tune, undersong.
Antonym: silence.
Example: The unjust treatment of marital rape as an exemption stems from three common law notions: marriage constitutes a contract, which includes the woman’s irrevocable consent to sex; a woman is the property of her husband, and rape is a violation of a man’s property rather than a crime against women; and after marriage, a woman’s identity becomes part of her husband’s.
5. Irrevocable [ih-rev-uh-kuh-buh l]
Adjective: not to be revoked or recalled; unable to be repealed or annulled; unalterable.
Synonyms: immutable, irreversible, permanent, certain, changeless, constant, doomed, established, fated, final, indelible, inevitable, invariable, irremediable, irretrievable, lost, predestined, predetermined, settled, unalterable, unrepealable, unreversible.
Antonyms: alterable, changeable, reversible, revocable.
Example: She also explains that while sexual violence is “very common, it is never in isolation”, and that “those who isolate penetrative sexual violence within marriage, and place it on a pedestal, are oblivious of the women’s social realities.”
6. Pedestal [ped-uh-stl]
Noun: an architectural support for a column, statue, vase, or the like; a supporting structure or piece; base; to put on or supply with a pedestal.
Synonyms: podium, base, bed, bottom, foot, foundation, mounting, platform, plinth, stand, substructure, support.
Antonym: top.
Example: Ms. Agnes and Ms. Aroussi are right that we need to ensure that law and policy interventions do not inadvertently trivialize non-sexual violence and that steps are taken to strengthen compliance and implementation of laws relating to all forms of violence.
7. Trivialize [triv-ee-uh-lahyz]
Verb: to make trivial; cause to appear unimportant, trifling, etc.
Synonyms: blubber, burble, mumble, murmur, mutter, blab, blurt, cackle, chat, chatter, gibber, gossip, gush, jabber, patter, prate, prattle, rant, rave.
Antonyms: speak clearly, be quiet, be silent, conceal.
Example: In some states, marital rape is a chargeable offence only if the perpetrator uses or threatens to use physical force.
8. Perpetrator [pur-pi-trey-ter]
Noun: a person who perpetrates, or commits, an illegal, criminal, or evil act.
Synonyms: assassin, criminal, executioner, soldier, butcher, cutthroat, enforcer, homicide, killer, slaughterer, slayer, hit person, hit-and-run, manslaughterer, trigger person.
Example: In others, proof of marriage is often an easy way to reduce or mitigate the consequences of the offence.
9. Mitigate [mit-i-geyt]
Verb: to lessen in force or intensity, as wrath, grief, harshness, or pain; moderate; to make less severe; to make (a person, one’s state of mind, disposition, etc.) Milder or more gentle; mollify; appease.
Synonyms: allay, alleviate, assuage, blunt, dull, ease, lessen, mollify, reduce, relieve, soften, soothe, temper, weaken, abate, appease, calm, cool, extenuate, moderate, modify, pacify, palliate, placate, quiet, remit, subdue, tranquilize.
Antonyms: aggravate, agitate, extend, increase.
Example: Therefore, in addition to sensitising law enforcement authorities whose attitudes are merely symptomatic of widely-held beliefs about women and gender roles, we need to work with children, parents and the larger community to ensure marital rape is condemned, not condoned.
10. Condone [kuh n-dohn]
Verb: to disregard or overlook (something illegal, objectionable, or the like); to give tacit approval to; to pardon or forgive (an offense); excuse; to cause the condonation of; justify the pardoning of (an offense); Law. To forgive or act so as to imply forgiveness of (a violation of the marriage vow).
Synonyms: excuse, forget, forgive, ignore, wink at, buy, disregard, okay, overlook, pardon, remit, give green light, go along with, lap up, let it come, let it go by.
Antonyms: attend, deny, refuse, regard.
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