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GS Paper: Government Scheme/Policies

  • [pib] Bhuvan Yuktdhara Portal

    A new portal under Bhuvan “Yuktdhara” has been released to facilitate planning of new MGNREGA assets using Remote Sensing and GIS based information.

    Bhuvan Yuktdhara Portal

    • Yuktdhara is a geospatial planning portal meant for facilitating Gram Panchayat level planning of MGNREGA activities across India.
    • Portal integrates a wide variety of spatial information contents to enable a holistic approach towards planning using open-source GIS tool.
    • Subsequent to pan Indian initiative of geo-tagging assets created under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA, harnessing the strength of GIS for identifying upcoming activities and their locations was a natural corollary.

    Features of the portal

    • The current level of integration under Yuktdhara, as part of Bhuvan, incorporates multi-temporal IRS satellite data of better than 3M detail in natural color, digital terrain, thematic layers as wed as locations of MGNREGA works and watershed management assets.
    • The interface currently has a Gram Panchayat-specific logo to address planning as well as approval mechanisms intended to ensure the evaluation and acceptance of proposed activities.
    • This will be enhanced for other levels of users gradually.
    • Access for other Gram Panchayat will be facilitated at the earliest, by addressing the case multiple logins created for geotagging and moderation.

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    Back2Basics: MGNREG Scheme

    • The MGNREGA stands for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005.
    • This is labour law and social security measure that aims to guarantee the ‘Right to Work’.
    • The act was first proposed in 1991 by P.V. Narasimha Rao.

    The objectives of the MGNREGA are:

    • To enhance the livelihood security of the rural poor by generating wage employment opportunities.
    • To create a rural asset base that would enhance productive ways of employment, augment and sustain a rural household income.

    Features of the program

    • MGNREGA is unique in not only ensuring at least 100 days of employment to the willing unskilled workers, but also in ensuring an enforceable commitment on the implementing machinery i.e., the State Governments, and providing a bargaining power to the labourers.
    • The failure of provision for employment within 15 days of the receipt of job application from a prospective household will result in the payment of unemployment allowance to the job seekers.
    • Employment is to be provided within 5 km of an applicant’s residence, and minimum wages are to be paid.
    • Thus, employment under MGNREGA is a legal entitlement.

  • Ujjwala 2.0 Scheme

    Prime Minister has launched the second phase of the Ujjwala gas connection scheme for the poor and said it would provide the biggest relief to lakhs of migrant worker families in the country.

    Ujjwala 2.0

    • Under Ujjwala 2.0 migrant workers would no longer have to struggle to get address proof documents to get the gas connections, Mr. Modi said.
    • Now migrant workers would only be required to submit a self-declaration of their residential address to get the gas connection.
    • Along with a deposit-free LPG connection, Ujjwala 2.0 will provide the first refill and a hotplate free of cost to the beneficiaries.

    About the PM Ujjwala Yojana

    • Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) was launched in 2016, with the aim to provide Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) connections to five crore women members of below poverty line (BPL) households in the first phase.
    • he scheme was expanded in April 2018 to include women beneficiaries from seven more categories (SC/ST, PMAY, AAY, Most backward classes, tea garden, forest dwellers, Islands).
    • In the second phase the target was expanded to eight crore LPG connections.

    Significance of Ujjwala 2.0

    • LPG infrastructure has expanded manifold in the country due to the Ujjwala scheme.
    • In the last six years, more than 11,000 new LPG distribution centres have opened across the country.
    • The LPG coverage in India is now very close to becoming 100 per cent.

  • Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS)

    Virtually, 50% of funds allotted for ongoing MPLADS projects have lapsed.

    What is the MPLAD scheme?

    • The Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) is a program first launched during the Narasimha Rao Government in 1993.
    • It was aimed towards providing funds for developmental works recommended by individual MPs.

    Funds available

    • The MPs then were entitled to recommend works to the tune of Rs 1 crore annually between 1994-95 and 1997-98, after which the annual entitlement was enhanced to Rs 2 crore.
    • The UPA government in 2011-12 raised the annual entitlement to Rs 5 crore per MP.

    Implementation

    • To implement their plans in an area, MPs have to recommend them to the District Authority of the respective Nodal District.
    • The District Authorities then identify Implementing Agencies that execute the projects.
    • The respective District Authority is supposed to oversee the implementation and has to submit monthly reports, audit reports, and work completion reports to the Nodal District Authority.
    • The MPLADS funds can be merged with other schemes such as MGNREGA and Khelo India.

    Guidelines for MPLADS implementation

    • The document ‘Guidelines on MPLADS’ was published by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in June 2016 in this regard.
    • It stated the objective of the scheme to enable MPs to recommend works of developmental nature with emphasis on the creation of durable community assets based on the locally felt needs in their Constituencies.
    • Right from the inception of the Scheme, durable assets of national priorities viz. drinking water, primary education, public health, sanitation, and roads, etc. should be created.
    • It recommended MPs to works costing at least 15 percent of their entitlement for the year for areas inhabited by Scheduled Caste population and 7.5 percent for areas inhabited by ST population.
    • It lays down a number of development works including construction of railway halt stations, providing financial assistance to recognized bodies, cooperative societies, installing CCTV cameras etc.

    Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

    Q. With reference to the funds under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS), which of the following statements are correct? (CSP 2020)

    1. MPLADS funds must be used to create durable assets like physical infrastructure for health, education, etc.
    2. A specified portion of each MP’s fund must benefit SC/ST populations.
    3. MPLADS funds are sanctioned on a yearly basis and the unused funds cannot be carried forward to the next year.
    4. The district authority must inspect at least 10% of all works under implementation every year.

    Select the correct answer using the code given below:

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) 3 and 4 only

    (c) 1, 2 and 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 4 only

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  • NEET’s All India Quota, and OBC & EWS reservation

    The Union government has approved reservations for the OBC and EWS (Economically Weaker Section) categories within the All India Quota (AIQ) for NEET, the uniform entrance examination for medical and dental colleges across the country.

    What is NEET?

    • The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) is the entrance examination for entry to all undergraduate (NEET-UG) and postgraduate (NEET-PG) medical and dental courses in the country.
    • Until 2016, the All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) was the national-level entrance examination for medical colleges.
    • State governments used to hold separate entrance tests for seats that were not contested at an all-India level.
    • NEET was held for the first time in 2003, but discontinued the following year.
    • On April 13, 2016, the Supreme Court upheld the newly inserted section 10-D of the Indian Medical Council Act.
    • This provided for a uniform entrance examination to all medical educational institutions at the undergraduate level and postgraduate level in Hindi, English and various other languages.
    • Since then, NEET has been the uniform entrance test for medical courses across the country.

    What is the All-India Quota?

    • Although the same examination is held across the country, a chunk of the seats in state medical/dental colleges is reserved for students domiciled in their respective states.
    • The remaining seats —15% in UG and 50% in PG — are surrendered by the states to the All India Quota.
    • The AIQ scheme was introduced in 1986 under the directions of the Supreme Court to provide for domicile-free, merit-based opportunities to students from any state to study in a good medical college in any other state.
    • A student domiciled in Uttar Pradesh, for example, may be eligible for admission to a seat in a state government medical college in West Bengal, provided she scores high enough in the national merit list.
    • If her score is not high enough for AIQ, she may still hope for admission under the state quota in her home state.
    • In deemed/central universities, ESIC, and Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC), 100% seats are reserved under the AIQ.

    What was the reservation policy followed so far?

    • Until 2007, no reservation was implemented within the All-India Quota for medical admission.
    • On January 31, 2007, in Abhay Nath v University of Delhi and Others, the Supreme Court directed that reservation of 15% for Scheduled Castes and 7.5% for Scheduled Tribes be introduced in the AIQ.
    • The same year, the government passed the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2007 providing for 27% reservation to OBC students in central government institutions.
    • While state government medical and dental colleges provide reservations to OBCs in seats outside the All India Quota, this benefit was so far not extended to seats allocated under the AIQ in these state colleges.
    • The 10% EWS quota under the Constitution (One Hundred And Third Amendment) Act, 2019, too, has been implemented in central educational institutions, but not in the NEET AIQ for state institutions.

    What led to the decision?

    • The denial of OBC and EWS reservations has been the subject of protests for years.
    • In July last year, the Madras High Court ruled that OBC students too can avail reservation in the AIQ.
    • It held that the reservation could not be implemented for the then academic year for want of time, and can be implemented from 2021-22.

  • [pib] SMILE Scheme

    The Government has approved a comprehensive scheme named “Support for Marginalised Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise (SMILE)” which includes a sub-scheme for Comprehensive Rehabilitation for Welfare of Transgender Persons.

    About SMILE Scheme

    • This scheme is a sub-scheme under the ‘Central Sector Scheme for Comprehensive Rehabilitation of persons engaged in the act of Begging’.
    • It also focuses on rehabilitation, provision of medical facilities and intervention, counselling, education, skill development, economic linkages to transgender persons.
    • It covers several comprehensive measures including welfare measures for persons who are engaged in the act of begging.
    • The focus of the scheme is extensively on rehabilitation, provision of medical facilities, counselling, basic documentation, education, skill development, economic linkages and so on.

    Its implementation

    • The scheme would be implemented with the support of State/UT Governments/Local Urban Bodies, Voluntary Organizations, Community Based Organizations (CBOs), institutions and others.
    • The scheme provides for the use of the existing shelter homes available with the State/UT Governments and Urban local bodies for rehabilitation of the persons engaged in the act of Begging.
    • In case of the non-availability of existing shelter homes, new dedicated shelter homes are to be set up by the implementing agencies.

  • Addressing claims of backwardness by various politically powerful castes

    Context

    Two rulings of the Supreme Court have frayed nerves in Maharashtra on the broader question of “reservation”. The other pertains to OBC reservation in local bodies. Both issues have relevance beyond Maharashtra.

    Challenges in addressing the demand for reservation

    • Lack of quantitative data: The issue of actual numbers or population share of OBCs has been talked about for over a decade.
    • Besides, there is a need to understand the socio-economic situation of different backward communities.
    • In the last instance, we have to decide which groups are backward and what needs to be done for them.
    • The political class have consistently avoided the juridical reality.

    Consensus between judiciary and political class

    • That consensus after implementation of Mandal commission recommendation had three dimensions:
    • 1) Accepting that caste is the main cause of tradition-born backwardness among a large section of the population.
    • 2) Resorting to “reservation” as the easiest policy response.
    • 3) Recognising and accommodating the political aspirations of the backward sections by expanding the social base of the political elite.
    • But this resulted in the current deadlock on the question of social justice.
    • Today, not only the Marathas, but Jats and Patidars, too, claim that vast numbers among them have been left behind in the contemporary economy.
    • These demands have deflected attention from two matters.
    • 1) That the enabling provision of the Constitution aims at social backwardness (caused by societal location).
    • 2) That the causes of economic distress originating in development policies are distinct from backwardness primarily originating in caste location.
    • Granting reservations on an economic basis seems to have complicated matters.

    Five reservation-related issues gaining renewed urgency

    • Intra-OBC differentiations: This issue was already raised by a member of the Mandal Commission itself.
    • Most states have failed to come up with an effective arrangement to addressing the issue.
    • The Centre is currently waiting for a report on this question.
    • Intra-caste stratification: Intra-caste stratification is increasing — something that was rather limited at the time of Mandal.
    • What sociologist D L Sheth called as classification is now becoming the central issue, with many complications.
    • Advantages and logic: The third question is about the specific advantages and logic of reservation in the three different arenas of employment, education and political representation.
    • Limits of reservation: There is need to discuss the limits of reservation and the need to think of additional measures to augment the policy of social justice.
    • Setting boundaries: With such widespread poverty and suffering, how do we distinguish between backwardness primarily caused by a group’s social location in traditional social order and backwardness resulting from distortions of the political economy?
    • Unless we grapple with this question, reservation is bound to remain a contentious issue.

    Way forward

    • The above questions are best left ideally to a third backward classes commission whose time has come.
    • Removing the 50 per cent cap legislatively needs to be considered.

    Conclusion

    We need to devise a mechanism to verify the claims of backwardness to address the increasing demands for reservation from the politically strong section of society.

  • Issues with coercive Population Policy

    Context

    Recently, the government of Uttar Pradesh released a “Population Policy” in which it stated its intention to bring the gross fertility rate in the State down from the existing 2.7 to 2.1 by 2026.

    Provisions in the Bill

    • This draft law, titled the Uttar Pradesh Population (Control, Stabilisation and Welfare) Bill, 2021, seeks to provide a series of incentives to families that adhere to a two-child norm.
    • The Bill also intends on disentitling families that breach the norm from benefits and subsidies.
    • It promises public servants who undergo sterilisation and adopt a two-child norm several benefits.
    •  The draft Bill also contains a list of punishments.
    • A person who breaches the two-child norm will be debarred from securing the benefit of any government-sponsored welfare scheme and will be disqualified from applying to any State government job.
    • Existing government employees who infringe the rule will be denied the benefit of promotion.
    • Transgressing individuals will be prohibited from contesting elections to local authorities and bodies.

    Issues with coercive population control policies

    1) Counter-productive measure

    • Through an affidavit filed in court, the central government argued that “international experience shows that any coercion to have a certain number of children is counter-productive and leads to demographic distortions”. 

    2) Against international obligations

    • India is committed to its obligations under international law, including the principles contained in the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action, 1994.
    • Foremost in those principles was a pledge from nations that they would look beyond demographic targets and focus instead on guaranteeing a right to reproductive freedom.

    3) Against right to reproductive freedom and privacy

    •  In Suchita Srivastava & Anr vs Chandigarh Administration (2009),  the Court found that a woman’s freedom to make reproductive decisions is an integral facet of the right to personal liberty guaranteed by Article 21.
    • This ruling was endorsed by the Supreme Court’s nine-judge Bench verdict in K.S. Puttaswamy vs Union of India (2017).
    • A reading of the plurality of opinions there shows us that the Constitution sees a person’s autonomy over her body as an extension of the right to privacy.
    • A simple reading of U.P.’s draft law will show us that, if enacted, it will grossly impinge on the right to reproductive freedom.
    • However, In Javed & Ors vs State of Haryana & Ors (2003), the Court upheld a law that disqualified persons with more than two children from contesting in local body elections.
    • But the present UP Bill is far more disproportionate, therefore, the judgment in Javed can no longer be seen as good law.
    • The UP government will likely argue that there is no violation of privacy here because any decision on sterilisation would be voluntary.
    • But, as we ought to by now know, making welfare conditional is a hallmark of coercion.
    • Therefore, the proposed law will fall foul of a proportionality analysis.

    4) Negative consequences

    • An already skewed sex ratio may be compounded by families aborting a daughter in the hope of having a son with a view to conforming to the two-child norm.
    • The law could also lead to a proliferation in sterilisation camps, a practice that the Supreme Court has previously deprecated.
    • In Devika Biswas vs Union of India (2016), the Court pointed to how these camps invariably have a disparate impact on minorities and other vulnerable groups.

    Way forward

    • Experiences from other States in India show us that there are more efficacious and alternative measures available to control the growth of population, including processes aimed at improving public health and access to education.

    Conclusion

    For one thing, the reasoning of the Bill goes against the Puttaswamy case.  But as rousing as the nine-judge Bench verdict is, its legacy depends on how its findings are applied.

  • Mental health care in India

    Context

    Recently, a High Court suggested that homeless persons with health conditions be branded with a permanent tattoo, when vaccinated against COVID-19.

    Issue

    • In many countries, persons with severe mental health conditions live in shackles in their homes, in overcrowded hospitals, and even in prison.
    • On the other hand, many persons with mental health issues live and even die alone on the streets.
    • Three losses dominate the mental health systems narrative: dignity, agency and personhood.
    • Issues with the laws: Far-sighted changes in policy and laws have often not taken root and many laws fail to meet international human rights standards.
    • Many also do not account for cultural, social and political contexts resulting in moral rhetoric that doesn’t change the scenario of inadequate care.
    • There is also the social legacy of the asylum, and of psychiatry and mental illness itself, that guides our imagination in how care is organised.

    Way forward: A responsive care system

    • We must understand mental health conditions for what they are and for how they are associated with disadvantage.
    • These situations are linked, but not always so, therefore, not all distress can be medicalised.
    • Adopt WHO guidelines: Follow the Guidance on Community Mental Health Services recently launched by the World Health Organization.
    • The Guidance, which includes three models from India, addresses the issue from ‘the same side’ as the mental health service user and focuses on the co-production of knowledge and on good practices.
    • Drawn from 22 countries, these models balance care and support with rights and participation.
    • Open dialogue: The practice of open dialogue, a therapeutic practice that originated in Finland, runs through many programmes in the Guidance.
    • This approach trains the therapist in de-escalation of distress and breaks power differentials that allow for free expression.
    • Increase investment: With emphasis on social care components such as work force participation, pensions and housing, increased investments in health and social care seem imperative.
    • Network of services: For those homeless and who opt not to enter mental health establishments, we can provide a network of services ranging from soup kitchens at vantage points to mobile mental health and social care clinics.
    • Small emergency care and recovery centres for those who need crisis support instead of larger hospitals, and long-term inclusive living options in an environment that values diversity and celebrates social mixing, will reframe the archaic narrative of how mental health care is to be provided.

    Conclusion

    Persons with mental health conditions need a responsive care system that inspires hope and participation without which their lives are empty. We should endeavour to provide them with such a responsive care system.

  • Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) Project

    The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has issued orders appointing an advisory committee for its Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) project.

    What does one mean by ‘Open-source’?

    • An open-source project means that anybody is free to use, study, modify and distribute the project for any purpose.
    • These permissions are enforced through an open-source licence easing adoption and facilitating collaboration.

    What is ONDC Project?

    • ONDC seeks to promote open networks, which are developed using the open-source methodology.
    • The project is aimed at curbing “digital monopolies”.
    • This is a step in the direction of making e-commerce processes open-source, thus creating a platform that can be utilized by all online retailers.
    • They will encourage the usage of standardized open specifications and open network protocols, which are not dependent on any particular platform or customized one.

    What processes are expecting to be open-sourced with this project?

    • Several operational aspects including onboarding of sellers, vendor discovery, price discovery and product cataloguing could be made open source on the lines of Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
    • If mandated, this could be problematic for larger e-commerce companies, which have proprietary processes and technology deployed for these segments of operations.

    What is the significance of making something open-source?

    • Making a software or a process open-source means that the code or the steps of that process is made available freely for others to use, redistribute and modify.
    • If the ONDC gets implemented and mandated, it would mean that all e-commerce companies will have to operate using the same processes.
    • This could give a huge booster shot to smaller online retailers and new entrants.

    What does the DPIIT intend from the project?

    • ONDC is expected to digitize the entire value chain, standardize operations, promote inclusion of suppliers, derive efficiencies in logistics and enhance value for stakeholders and consumers.

    What is a ‘Digital Monopoly’?

    • Digital monopolies refer to a scenario wherein e-commerce giants or Big Tech companies tend to dominate and flout competition law pertaining to monopoly.
    • The Giants have built their own proprietary platforms for operations.
    • In March, India moved to shake up digital monopolies in the country’s $ 1+ trillion retail market by making public a draft of a code of conduct — Draft Ecommerce Policy, reported Bloomberg.
    • The government sought to help local start-ups and reduce the dominance of giants such as Amazon and Walmart-Flipkart.
    • The rules sought to define the cross-border flow of user data after taking into account complaints by small retailers.

    Processes in the ONDC

    • Sellers will be onboarded through open networks. Other open-source processes will include those such as vendor and price discovery; and product cataloguing.
    • The format will be similar to the one which is used in the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
    • Mega e-commerce companies have proprietary processes and technology for these operations.
    • Marketplaces such as Amazon, Flipkart, Zomato, BigBasket and Grofers will need to register on the ONDC platform to be created by DPIIT and QCI.
    • The task of implementing DPIIT’s ONDC project has been assigned to the Quality Council of India (QCI).

    Back2Basics: Quality Council of India

    • QCI was set up in 1997 by the government of India jointly with Indian industry (represented by CII, FICCI and ASSOCHAM) as an autonomous body under the administrative control of the department.
    • QCI establishes and operates the National Accreditation Structure for conformity assessment bodies; providing accreditation in the field of education, health and quality promotion.

  • One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC)

    The Supreme Court directed all states and UTs to implement the One Nation, One Ration Card (ONORC) system, which allows for inter-and intra-state portability, by July 31.

    ONORC Scheme

    • The ONORC scheme is aimed at enabling migrant workers and their family members to buy subsidized ration from any fair price shop anywhere in the country under the National Food Security Act, 2013.
    • For instance, a migrant worker from will be able to access PDS benefits elsewhere in India, where he or she may have gone in search of work.
    • While the person can buy food grains as per his or her entitlement under the NFSA at the place where he or she is based, members of his or her family can still go to their ration dealer back home.
    • To promote this reform in the archaic Public Distribution System (PDS), the government has provided incentives to states.

    How does ONORC work?

    • ONORC is based on technology that involves details of beneficiaries’ ration card, Aadhaar number, and electronic Points of Sale (ePoS).
    • The system identifies a beneficiary through biometric authentication on ePoS devices at fair price shops.
    • The system runs with the support of two portals —Integrated Management of Public Distribution System (IM-PDS) (impds.nic.in) and Annavitran (annavitran.nic.in), which host all the relevant data.
    • When a ration card holder goes to a fair price shop, he or she identifies himself or herself through biometric authentication on ePoS, which is matched real time with details on the Annavitaran portal.
    • Once the ration card details are verified, the dealer hands out the beneficiary’s entitlements.
    • While the Annavitaran portal maintains a record of intra-state transactions — inter-district and intra-district — the IM-PDS portal records the inter-state transactions.

    How many people will it benefit?

    • Under the National Food Security Act, 2013, about 81 crore people are entitled to buy subsidised foodgrains — rice at Rs 3/kg, wheat at Rs 2/kg, and coarse grains at Re 1/kg – from designated fair price shops.
    • As on 28 June 2021, there are about 5.46 lakh fair price shops and 23.63 crore ration cardholders across the country.
    • Each NFSA ration cardholder is assigned to a fair price shop near the place where his ration card is registered.

    What factors led to the launch of ONORC?

    • Earlier, NFSA beneficiaries were not able to access their PDS benefits outside the jurisdiction of the specific fair price shop to which they have been assigned.
    • The government envisioned the ONORC to give them access to benefits from any fair price shop.
    • The idea was to reform the PDS, which has been historically marred by inefficiency and leakages.
    • ONORC was initially launched as an inter-state pilot.
    • When the Covid-19 pandemic forced thousands of migrant workers to return to their villages last year, a need was felt to expedite the rollout.

    What has been the coverage so far?

    • Till date, 32 states and Union Territories have joined the ONORC, covering about 69 crore NFSA beneficiaries.
    • About 1.35 crore portability transactions every month are being recorded under ONORC on an average.
    • While inter-state ration card portability is available in 32 states, the number of such transactions is much lower than that of intra-district and inter-district transactions.

    States not joining

    • Four states are yet to join the scheme — Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and West Bengal. There are various reasons.
    • For instance, Delhi is yet to start the use of ePoS in fair price shops, which is a prerequisite for the implementation of ONORC.
    • In the case of West Bengal, the state government has demanded that the non-NFSA ration cardholders — ration cards issued by the state government — should also be covered under the ONORC.