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GS Paper: Government Scheme/Policies

  • Policy implementation in India : Issues

    Policy implementation matters as much as the policy itself. The article highlights the importance of monitoring system to track the implementation of the policies.

    Implementing policy

    • It is taken for granted that a government policy or social-development program, is meant to be perfectly executed.
    • Implementation is the key and ends up with sub-par results and uncompleted projects.
    • India has had mixed experiences post-Independence, the consolidated development chart will appear rather skewed.
    • Millions continue to live in abject poverty, deprived of basic amenities.

    Dealing with implementation deficit

    • India needs to work on the implementation and reforms processes in a wider manner, with the primary aim of attaining fast-paced development and effective delivery of the intended public benefits.
    • The first requirement would be a capable implementing machine — or what has been called the “perfect administration”, driven by passionate team leaders.
    • The guiding urge should be to complete the task before schedule.
    • Other critical determinants include:
    • Unambiguous demarcation of responsibilities.
    • Frequent brainstorming sessions to anticipate and take formal note of likely challenges and agreeing upon solutions.
    • Ensuring and authorizing a largely freehand with matching resources, and the ability to make on-the-spot decisions.
    • The evergreen strategy to make the implementation of a near-perfect process is to build in a vigilant monitoring and evaluation mechanism.
    • A dynamic monitoring mechanism makes use of technology, which today is being built into various flagship programs initiated by the present government.

    Achieving implementation

    • In the interest of achieving wholesome implementation, it would be desirable to set up an autonomous “Monitoring Trust”.
    • The trust will act as an integral part of all important public policies and programs.
    • The proposed Trust can comprise core technical, administrative, and legal members, along with stakeholders and social activists.
    • Engaging stakeholders and implementers, through various methodologies, is fast emerging as an effective strategy.
    • Sharing information and progress through dashboards and other technology tools, inviting suggestions through IT portals like MyGov democratize and enrich both policy formulation and execution.
    • The institutions and methodologies developed in Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana present an exemplary fusion between human ingenuity and the miracles of customized technology.

    Conclusion

    The political leadership both at the national and the state level is the most crucial force behind the success of the implementation machinery. An endeavor’s effective implementation alone can provide the converge with good governance, bold innovation, rewarding delivery, and the transformation of marginalized human lives.

  • Threat of malnutrition to promise of India

    POSHAN Abhiyan has completed 1000 days. The article analyses the challenges country face on the nutrition front which has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 induced disruptions.

    Severity and impact of malnutrition

    • Malnourished children tend to fall short of their real potential — physically as well as mentally.
    • That is because malnutrition leaves their bodies weaker and more susceptible to illnesses.
    • In 2017, a staggering 68% of 1.04 million deaths of children under five years in India was attributable to malnutrition, reckoned a Lancet study in 2019.
    • Without necessary nutrients, their brains do not develop to the fullest.
    • Malnutrition places a burden heavy enough for India, to make it a top national priority.
    • About half of all children under five years in the country were found to be stunted (too short) or wasted (too thin) for their height, estimated the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey, carried out by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare with support of UNICEF three years ago.

    POSHAN Abhiyan against the background Covid-19 disruption

    • The Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition (POSHAN) Abhiyaan in 2018, led to a holistic approach to tackle malnutrition.
    • Under it, the government strengthened the delivery of essential nutrition interventions.
    • COVID-19 is pushing millions into poverty making them vulnerable to malnutrition and food insecurities.
    • Pandemic-prompted lockdowns disrupted essential services — such as supplementary feeding under anganwadi centres, mid-day meals, immunisation, and micro-nutrient supplementation which can exacerbate malnutrition.
    •  Leaders from academia, civil society, development partners, community advocates and the private sector have come together as part of ‘commitment to action’.
    • The ‘commitment to action’ includes commitments around sustained leadership, dedicated finances, multi-sectoral approach and increased uninterrupted coverage of a vulnerable population under programmes enhancing nutrition.

    Financial commitments

    • India already has some of the world’s biggest early childhood public intervention schemes such as the Integrated Child Development Scheme, the mid-day meal programme, and Public Distribution System.
    • India needs to ensure coverage of every single child and mother.
    • To ensure this, the country needs to retain its financial commitments for nutrition schemes.
    • Economic insecurities often force girls into early marriage, early motherhood, discontinue their schooling, and reduce institutional deliveries, cut access to micronutrient supplements, and nutritious food.
    •  Accelerating efforts to address these will be needed to stop the regression into the deeper recesses of malnutrition.

    Conclusion

    It takes time for nutrition interventions to yield dividends, but once those accrue, they can bring transformative generational shifts. Filling in the nutrition gaps will guarantee a level-playing field for all children and strengthen the foundations for the making of a future super-power.

  • Anganwadi centres

    The article highlights the role of Anganwadi’s in the effective implementation and service delivery under the ICDS.

    Gaps in the utilisation of services by ICDS

    • The economic fallout of COVID-19 makes the necessity of quality public welfare services more pressing than ever.
    • The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme is one such scheme.
    • ICDS caters to the nutrition, health and pre-education needs of children till six years of age as well as the health and nutrition of women and adolescent girls.  
    • However, recent reports have shown gaps in the utilisation of services.

    Recasting the Anganwadi centres

    • Anganwadi centres (AWCs) could become agents of improved delivery of ICDS’s services.
    • According to government data, the country has 13.77 lakh Anganwadi centres (AWCs).
    • These centres have expanded their reach, but they need to play a much larger role in anchoring community development.
    • Nearly a fourth of the operational AWCs lack drinking water facilities and 36 per cent do not have toilets.
    • In 2015, the NITI Aayog recommended better sanitation and drinking water facilities, improved power supply and basic medicines for the AWCs.
    • NITI Aayog also suggested that these centres be provided with the required number of workers, whose skills should be upgraded through regular training.
    •  It has acknowledged the need to improve anganwadi centres.
    • The Central government’s Saksham Anganwadi Scheme aims to upgrade 2.5 lakh such centres across the country. It is up to the state governments to take up the baton
    • Only a limited number of AWCs have facilities like creche, and good quality recreational and learning facilities for pre-school education.
    • An approach that combines an effective supplementary nutrition programme with pedagogic processes that make learning interesting is the need of the hour.

    Steps taken for effective implementation of ICDS

    • Effective implementation of the ICDS programme rests heavily on the combined efforts of the anganwadi workers (AWWs), ASHAs and ANMs.
    • The Centre’s POSHAN Abhiyaan has taken important steps towards building capacities of AWWs.
    • Technology can also be used for augmenting the programme’s quality.
    • AWWs have been provided with smartphones and their supervisors with tablets, under the government schemes.
    • Apps on these devices track the distribution of take-home rations and supplementary nutrition services.
    • The data generated should inform decisions to improve the programme.
    • In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, anganwadi centres have been geotagged to improve service delivery.
    • Gujarat has digitised the supply chain of take-home rations and real-time data is being used to minimise stockouts at the anganwadi centres.

    Conclusion

    Government must act on the three imperatives. First, while infrastructure development and capacity building of the anganwadi remains the key to improving the programme, the standards of all its services need to be upscaled. Second, states have much to learn from each other’s experiences. Third, anganwadi centres must cater to the needs of the community and the programme’s workers.

  • Linking Aadhaar to residence for targeted aid

    The article suggests the provision for a safety net with geographic targeting in case of disasters as most disasters are location specific.

    Safety net in the U.S.

    • The US Congress enacted in March a Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act to sends $1,200 to each individual below the income threshold of $75,000.
    • Nonetheless, as The Washington Post reported, even in October, millions of households were yet to receive their stimulus payments.
    • The tax authorities who were charged with disbursing the funds had no way of knowing how to send the cheques.
    • But the poor had to cross several hurdles to get this money and the computer system did not make it easy for them to register their claim.

    Safety net in India and issues with it

    • In contrast to U.S., 23 per cent of Indians living in Delhi-NCR received a payment of Rs 500 in their Jan Dhan accounts within three weeks of the lockdown being declared.
    • Farmers registered for PM-KISAN also received Rs 2,000 in their accounts immediately.
    • However, there were some issues for example, recipients of PM-KISAN were not amongst the poorest households, nor were these the households that were most affected by the COVID-related lockdown.
    • The PM-Kisan Yojana applies to landowners, thereby excluding agricultural labourers as well as the urban informal sector workers who were most affected by the lockdown.
    • Similarly, for the PMJDY payment, BPL and non-BPL households record similar receipt transfers.

    Twin challenges in designing social safety nets

    • Unless a registry containing data about individuals and their bank accounts exists, money cannot be transferred expeditiously.
    • 1) Registries based on specific criteria (for example, identified BPL households) may not identify individuals most vulnerable to crises.
    • 2) Factors that contribute towards alleviating poverty may differ from the ones that push people into it — indicating the challenge of targeting welfare beneficiaries in response to shocks.
    • About 40 per cent of the poor in 2012 were pushed into poverty by special circumstances and would not have been classified as being poor based on their 2005 conditions.
    • Such exclusion errors can get magnified in the event of large-scale disasters when using pre-existing databases, since many people are likely to fall into poverty from an economy-wide negative shock, leading to coverage errors.

    Way forward

    • Recent estimates from the World Bank suggest that 88 to 115 million people could slide into poverty in 2020.
    • These observations suggest that in a disaster response situation, we cannot rely on registries based on individual characteristics to identify beneficiaries.
    • Most disasters are geographically clustered.
    • If there is a way for us to set up social registries that identify individuals, their place of residence, and their bank accounts, these linkages can be used to transfer funds to everyone living in the affected area quickly.
    • Aadhaar linkages of individuals and bank accounts already exist.
    • If residential information in the Aadhaar database can be efficiently structured, this would allow for geographic targeting.
    • Issue of violation of individual privacy can be addressed by providing that such social registries store only basic information such as location, instead of more sensitive identifiers.

    Consider the question “Disasters underscores the importance of social safety nets. However, designing a social safety net that identifies and reach the vulnerable suffers from several challenges. What are these challenes. Suggest ways to address these challenges.” 

    Conclusion

    As we try to disaster-proof future welfare programmes, these are some of the considerations that deserve attention.

  • Redefining cities

    The article the need for liberal and realistic definition of the ‘urban’ area in the next Census and mention the implications of such change.

    2 ways to define urban areas

    1) Statutory town

    • These towns are defined by state governments and place India’s urbanisation rate at 26.7%.
    • A statutory town includes all places with a municipality, corporation, cantonment board or notified town area committee.

    2) Census-based criteria

    • Census adopts three criteria to define what is urban.
    • The three criteria are:
    • i) a minimum population of 5,000;
    • ii) at least 75% of the male main working population engaged in non-agricultural pursuits, and
    • iii) a density of population of at least 400 persons per sq km
    • This, coupled with statutory towns, pegs India’s urbanisation rate at 31%.
    • Total number of towns (state and census) stands at 7,933, together constituting a 377-mn population.

    Why there is a need for changing the definition of ‘urban’

    • There is growing evidence—mostly from satellite imagery—that India is way more urban than the 2011 Census estimate.
    • This is quite plausible because there is a large sum of money allocated for rural development, and it is in the interest of state governments to under-represent urbanisation.
    • Besides, the Census’s stringent definition was first carved out in 1961 which do not reflect the realities of the 21st century.
    • India won’t be alone in changing these definitions for Census 2021.
    • Many countries, such as China, Iran, the UK, among others, have changed the definition of ‘urban’ from one census to another.

    Getting the right picture of urbanisation

    •  A more liberal and realistic definition in the upcoming census will present the actual picture of urbanisation.
    • For instance, if we just use the population density criteria like 37 other countries, with the 400 people per sq km threshold, we will add around 500 mn people to the urban share of the population.
    • This pegs the urbanisation rate at over 70%!

    What will be its implications?

    • First, the budgetary allocation will reflect the reality and scales will balance between rural and urban areas.
    • Second, the urban areas will not be governed through rural governance structures of Panchayati Raj Institutions.
    • Third basic urban infrastructure like sewerage networks, fire services, building regulations, high-density housing, transit-oriented development, piped drinking water supply.
    • Fourth, these newly defined urban areas could act as a new source of revenue for funding local infrastructure development.
    • This would ease pressure on state finances.
    • Lastly, the rethink of urban definition would have an impact on the regional and national economy.
    • These newly defined urban areas will open them to new infrastructure such as railway lines, discom services, highway connectivity, creation of higher education institutes which will together increase the connectivity and resource capability at the local level.
    • This will not only boost the local economy but also ease pressure on bigger cities and help in cluster level development.

    Conclusion

    A rethink of urban definition in Census 2021, particularly with some degrowth in urban areas due to Covid, will bode well for India for coming decades in more ways than one.

    Source:-

    https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/redefining-cities-a-new-urban-consensus/2102154/

  • [pib] SVAMITVA Scheme

    Our PM has launched the physical distribution of Property Cards under the SVAMITVA Scheme.

    Try this MCQ:

    Q.The SVAMITVA Scheme sometimes seen in news is related to:

    Urban Employment/ Land records management/ Child Adoption/ None of these

    About SVAMITVA

    • SVAMITVA stands for Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas.
    • Under the scheme, the latest surveying technology such as drones will be used for measuring the inhabited land in villages and rural areas.
    • The mapping and survey will be conducted in collaboration with the Survey of India, State Revenue Department and State Panchayati Raj Department under the Ministry of Panchayati Raj.
    • The drones will draw the digital map of every property falling in the geographical limit of each Indian village.
    • Property Cards will be prepared and given to the respective owners.

    Significance of the scheme

    • The scheme paves the way for using the property as a financial asset by villagers for taking loans and other financial benefits.
    • Also, this is the first time ever that such a large-scale exercise involving the most modern means of technology is being carried out to benefit millions of rural property owners.

    Various benefits

    • The scheme will create records of land ownership in villages and these records will further facilitate tax collection, new building plan and issuance of permits.
    • It will enable the government to effectively plan for the infrastructural programs in villages.
    • It would help in reducing the disputes over property.

    Back2Basics:  E-Gramswaraj Portal

    • E Gram Swaraj portal is the official portal of central govt for the implementation of Swamitva scheme.
    • By visiting this portal people can check their Panchayat profile easily. It will also contain the details of ongoing development works and the fund allocated for them.
    • Any citizen can create his or her account on the portal and can know about the developmental works of villages.
    • The user of E Gram Swaraj portal can also access all work of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj.
    • This single interface will help speed-up the implementation of projects in rural areas from planning to completion.

  • Legal challenges the Farm Acts could face

    Farm Acts passed by the Parliament could face the legal hurdle in the court when challenged on its constitutional basis. This article explains the issue.

    Background

    • Recently, Parliament passed three acts related to agriculture. These Acts are-
    • 1) The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020.
    • 2) The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020.
    • 3) The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.
    • This has led to the question: Does the Union government have the authority to legislate on what are rightfully the affairs of States?

    Why agriculture is considered as States’ prerogative

    • Agriculture is a State subject in the Constitution, listed as Entry 14 in the State List (List II).
    • Entry 26 in the State List refers to “trade and commerce within the State”.
    • Entry 27 in the State List refers to “production, supply and distribution of goods”.
    • Entry 28 refers to “markets and fairs”.
    • For these reasons, intra-State marketing in agriculture was always considered a legislative prerogative of States.

    What was the legal basis used by the Parliament to pass the Farm Acts

    • The central government invoked Entry 33 in the Concurrent List (List III).
    • Entry 26 and 27 in List II are listed as “subject to the provisions of Entry 33 of List III”.

    Entry 33 in List III: Trade and commerce in, and the production, supply and distribution of, — (a) the products of any industry where the control of such industry by the Union is declared by Parliament by law to be expedient in the public interest, and imported goods of the same kind as such products; (b) foodstuffs, including edible oilseeds and oils; (c) cattle fodder, including oilcakes and other concentrates; (d) raw cotton, whether ginned or unginned, and cotton seed; and (e) raw jute.

    Historical background of  “Entry 33” of Concurrent List

    • Entry 33, in its present form, was inserted in List III through the Constitution (Third Amendment) Act, 1954 after heated constitutional debates.
    • The contention of the dissent was the following:
    • As per Article 369 in the original version of the Constitution, the responsibility of agricultural trade and commerce within a State was temporarily entrusted to the Union government for a period of five years beginning from 1950.
    • The 1954 Amendment attempted to change this into a permanent feature in the Constitution.
    • According to dissident “if matters enumerated in Article 369 in were placed in List III, State autonomy would be rendered illusory and State powers and rights would be progressively pulverised…”.
    • While another dissident argued that “passage of the Bill would transform the Indian Constitution into a “unitary Constitution” instead of a “federal Constitution” and reduce “all the States’ powers into municipal powers”.
    • Notwithstanding the strong dissenting voices, the Bill was passed.

    Let’s look into the related Supreme Court Judgments

    • In many of its judgments after 1954, the Supreme Court of India has upheld the legislative powers of States in intra-State agricultural marketing.
    • Most notable was the ruling of the five-judge Constitution Bench in I.T.C. Limited vs. Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) and Others, 2002.
    • The Tobacco Board Act, 1975 had brought the development of the tobacco industry under the Centre.
    • However, Bihar’s APMC Act continued to list tobacco as an agricultural produce.
    • In this case, the question was if the APMC in Monghyr could charge a levy on ITC for the purchase of unprocessed tobacco leaves from growers.
    • An earlier judgment had held that the State APMC Act will be repugnant to the Central Act, and hence was ultra vires.
    • But the Constitution Bench upheld the validity of the State APMC Act, and ruled that market fees can be charged from ITC under the State APMC Act.

    Consider the question “Examine the validity of legal basis used by the Parliament to pass the Farm Acts. Why it could face the legal challenge?”

    Conclusion

    It was unwise on the part of the Centre to use Entry 33 in List III to push the Farm Bills. Such adventurism weakens the spirit of federal cooperation that India needs in this hour of crisis. Second, agriculture is exclusively a State subject.

    Back2Basics: Read more about 3 Agricultural Acts passed by the Parliament here-

    [Burning Issue] Agricultural Reform Bills, 2020

     

  • [pib] Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF) Scheme

    The Ministry of Minority Affairs has provided information about the progress of MANF Scheme in the Parliament.

    Note: As the name suggests, the scheme particularly aims to target the Minority community. Here, six major groups are considered a minority. Statement based questions often create bluffs on such conditions.

    MANF Scheme

    • The Ministry of Minority Affairs implements MANF Scheme for educational empowerment of students belonging to six notified minority communities i.e. Buddhist, Christian, Jain, Muslim, Sikh, Zoroastrian (Parsi).
    • The Scheme is implemented through the University Grants Commission (UGC) and no waiting list is prepared under the Scheme by UGC.
    • Candidates belonging to the Six centrally notified minority are considered for award of fellowship under the MANF Scheme.
    • The selection of candidates is done through JRF-NET (Junior Research Fellow- National Eligibility Test) examination conducted by the National Testing Agency.
    • Prior to 2019-20, the merit list was prepared on the basis of marks obtained by the candidates in their Post Graduate examination.
    • However, in 2018-19, only the candidates who had qualified CBSE-UGC-NET/JRF or CSIR-NET/JRF were eligible to apply.

  • Undoing the right to housing

    The article analyses the implications of recent Supreme Court order regarding the removal of encroachment along the railway line. 

    Context

    •  In short order, the Supreme Court of India on August 31 ordered the removal of about 48,000 slum dwellings situated along the railway tracks in Delhi.
    • The order raises several legal questions, which are discussed below.

    1) Violation of the principle of natural justice

    • The order violates principles of natural justice and due process because it was delivered without hearing the affected party, the jhuggi dwellers.
    • The order was passed in the long-running case on the piling up of garbage along railway tracks.
    • However, neither this case nor the report concerns itself with the legality of informal settlements.
    • Still, the Court made an unconvincing connection between the piling of garbage and the presence of slums.

    2) Ignoring the right to livelihood

    • In this order, the Court ignored its long-standing jurisprudence on the right to livelihood.
    • In the landmark decision concerning pavement-dwellers, a five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court in Olga Tellis & Ors vs. Bombay Municipal Corporation & Ors. (1985) held that the right to life also includes the “right to livelihood”.
    • Further, in Chameli Singh vs. the State Of U.P. (1995), the Supreme Court recognised the “right to shelter” as a component of the right to life under Article 21 and freedom of movement under Article 19(1)(e).

    3) Failure to consider policies and case laws

    •  High Court of Delhi has held that prior to any eviction, a survey must be conducted.
    • The procedure laid down in this judgment formed the basis for the Delhi Slum and JJ Rehabilitation and Relocation Policy, 2015.
    • In Ajay Maken & Ors. vs Union Of India & Ors. (2019), the Delhi High Court invoked the idea of the “Right to the City” to uphold the housing rights of slum dwellers.
    • This case led to the framing of a Draft Protocol for the 2015 Policy on how meaningful engagement with residents should be conducted.

    Conclusion

    The Courts need to strike the balance between the rights of the slum dweller and those affected by the encroachment.

  • [pib] Five Star Village Scheme

    The Department of Posts has launched a scheme called Five Star Villages, to ensure universal coverage of flagship postal schemes in rural areas of the country.

    The Five Star Villages Scheme sounds typically among the most commons types say, Swachh Bharat, Financial Inclusion and Literacy or Infrastructure amenities. Here is the caution for preventing a blunder.

    Five Star Villages Scheme

    • The scheme seeks to bridge the gaps in public awareness and reach of postal products and services, especially in interior villages.
    • The initiatives covered under the scheme include:
    1. Savings Bank accounts, Recurrent Deposit Accounts, NSC / KVP certificates,
    2. Sukanya Samridhi Accounts/ PPF Accounts,
    3. Funded Post Office Savings Account linked India Post Payments Bank Accounts,
    4. Postal Life Insurance Policy/Rural Postal Life Insurance Policy and
    5. Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana Account / Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana Account.
    • If a village attains universal coverage for four schemes from the above list, then that village gets four-star status; if a village completes three schemes, then that village gets three-star status and so on.

    Its implementation

    • The scheme will be implemented by a team of five Gramin Dak Sevaks who will be assigned a village for the marketing of all products, savings and insurance schemes of the Department of Posts.
    • This team will be headed by the Branch Post Master of the concerned Branch Office. Mail overseer will keep personal watch on the progress of the team on daily basis.
    • The teams will be led and monitored by concerned Divisional Head, Assistant Superintendents Posts and Inspector Posts.