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GS Paper: GS2-13.Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

  • Good News: Child marriage is on the decline

    Child marriage

    Content

    • The steering committee of a global programme to end child marriage is on a visit to India to witness state interventions which have helped reduce the prevalence of child marriage.

    What are the findings of the committee?

    • Increase in Child marriage as a pandemic effect: The visit by the UNFPA-UNICEF Global Programme to End Child Marriage team is in view of an estimated increase in number of child brides due to the pandemic. The UNFPA-UNICEF estimates that 10 million children could become child brides as a result of the pandemic globally.
    • Child marriages reduced in India according to NFHS-5: In India, child marriage reduced from 47.4% in 2005-06 to 26.8% in 2015-16, registering a decline of 21% points during the decade. In the last five years, it declined by 3.5% points to reach 23.3% in 2020-21, according to the latest National Family Health Survey-5 data.

    What is the situation in the world?

    • As per the UNICEF data: The total number of girls married in childhood stands at 12 million per year, and progress must be significantly accelerated in order to end the practice by 2030 the target set out in the Sustainable Development Goals. Without further acceleration, more than 150 million additional girls will marry before they turn 18 by 2030.
    • Progress is Uneven and not enough: While it is encouraging that in the past decade great progress has been made in South Asia, where a girl’s risk of marrying before she is 18 has dropped by more than a third, from nearly 50% to below 30%, it is not enough, and progress has been uneven.
    • Dire consequences of child marriage: Rights activists and health experts say the consequences of child marriage are dire, not only because it violates children’s rights, but also because it results in more infant and maternal deaths. Children born to adolescent mothers have a greater possibility of seeing stunted growth as they have low weight at birth. According to NFHS-5, prevalence of child stunting is 35.5% in 2019-21.

    Child marriage

    Where does India stand?

    • Declining trend in overall child marriage: There is a growing trend for decline in the overall prevalence of child marriage, but 23.3% is still a disturbingly high percentage in a country with a population of 141.2 crore. Eight States have a higher prevalence of child marriage than the national average.
    • High prevalence in some bigger States: West Bengal and Bihar have the highest prevalence of girl child marriage. States with a large population of tribal poor have a higher prevalence of child marriage. West Bengal, Bihar and Tripura top the list with more than 40% of women aged 20-24 years married below 18, according to NFHS data.
    • Scenario in Jharkhand and Assam: In Jharkhand, 32.2% of women in the age bracket 20-24 got married before 18, according to NFHS-5; infant mortality stood at 37.9%, and 65.8% of women in the 15-19 age bracket are anaemic. Assam too has a high prevalence of child marriage (31.8% in 2019-20 from 30.8% in 2015-16).
    • Child marriages reduced in some states: Some States have shown a reduction in child marriages, like Madhya Pradesh (23.1% in 2020-21 from 32.4% in 2015-16), Rajasthan (25.4% from 35.4%) and Haryana.
    • Several States are pegged just below the national average: In Odisha, 20.5% of women were married off before 18 in 2020-21 from 21.3% in 2015-16.
    • States on better social indices as a result of high literacy: States with high literacy levels and better health and social indices have fared much better on this score. In Kerala, women who got married before the age of 18 stood at 6.3% in 2019-20, from 7.6% in 2015-16. Tamil Nadu too has shown improved figures with 12.8% of women in the age group 20-24 years getting married before 18 compared to 16.3% in 2015-16.

    Child marriage

    What are the laws and policy interventions?

    • Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012: These laws aim at protecting children from violation of human and other rights.
    • A positive debate on raising the age of Marriage: A parliamentary standing committee is weighing the pros and cons of raising the age of marriage for women to 21, which has been cleared by the Union Cabinet. With various personal laws governing marriages in India, the government wants to amend the law, a reform that activists and agencies have said will not be enough to stop the practice of child marriage.
    • Various schemes: There are no of Centralised schemes like the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, which are performing better on empowering the girl children
    • Various initiatives by the states: States have launched many initiatives to improve the factors linked to child marriage, from education to health care and awareness programmes. For instance, West Bengal’s Kanyashree scheme offers financial aid to girls wanting to pursue higher studies, though women’s activists have pointed out that another scheme Rupashree, which provides a one-time payment of ₹25,000 to poor families at the time of a daughter’s marriage, may be counter-productive. Bihar and other States have been implementing a cycle scheme to ensure girls reach safely to school; and U.P. has a scheme to encourage girls to go back to school.

    Child marriage

    What needs to be done?

    • Need a multidimensional approach: According to Sandeep Chachra, ActionAid Association India, which has been working with UNICEF and UNFPA said the solution lies in empowering girls, creating proper public infrastructure and addressing societal norms.
    • Awareness not only about the law but also about the dire consequences on Health: Uma Mahadevan-Dasgupta, who serves in the IAS, says several thousand child marriage prohibition officers have been notified in Karnataka and 90,000 local gram panchayat members have been oriented to spread awareness on child marriage, not only that it is illegal to get a child married off before 18, but also the dangers to the child’s health and her offspring.
    • Focusing on the overall girl child development: They stress on an all-pronged approach to end the practice; strong laws, strict enforcement, preparing an ideal situation on the ground to ensure that the girl child girls with either or below primary level education have experienced higher levels of child marriage as data show gets an education and preferably vocational training as well so that she can be financially independent.
    • Schemes need better implementation: Centralised schemes like the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, which need better implementation on the ground. Various schemes by the states needs through analysis and better implementation at the grass root level.

    Conclusion

    • Data shows that child marriage is a key determinant of high fertility, poor maternal and child health, and lower social status of women. There has been a rise in child marriages during the pandemic, but many have been prevented as well. A lot more needs to be done on factors closely linked to child marriage, including eradication of poverty, better education and public infrastructure facilities for children, raising social awareness on health, nutrition, regressive social norms and inequalities.

    Question

    Q. Child marriages comes with dire consequences on adolescent mothers and children born to them. Evaluate the status on prevalence of child marriages In India and how to address the situation?

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  • Recognizing “ASHA”: The real hope

    ASHA

    Context

    • One of the biggest issues facing rural health services is lack of information. ASHA workers are the first respondents even when there is lack of access to medical aid are threatened with violence and abused on the number of occasions while handlining the prospected patients in COVID19 pandemic.

    Evolution of “ASHA” you may want to know

    • The ASHA programme was based on Chhattisgarh’s successful Mitanin programme, in which a Community Worker looks after 50 households.
    • The ASHA was to be a local resident, looking after 200 households.
    • The programme had a very robust thrust on the stage-wise development of capacity in selected areas of public health.
    • Many states tried to incrementally develop the ASHA from a Community Worker to a Community Health Worker, and even to an Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM)/ General Nurse and Midwife (GNM), or a Public Health Nurse.

    Who are ASHA workers?

    • ASHA workers are volunteers from within the community who are trained to provide information and aid people in accessing benefits of various healthcare schemes of the government.
    • The role of these community health volunteers under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) was first established in 2005.
    • They act as a bridge connecting marginalized communities with facilities such as primary health centers, sub-centers and district hospitals.

    Qualifications for ASHA Workers

    • ASHAs are primarily married, widowed, or divorced women between the ages of 25 and 45 years from within the community.
    • They must have good communication and leadership skills; should be literate with formal education up to Class 8, as per the programme guidelines.

    ASHA

    What role do the ASHA Workers play? 

    • Involved in Awareness programs: They go door-to-door in their designated areas creating awareness about basic nutrition, hygiene practices, and the health services available. They also counsel women about contraceptives and sexually transmitted infections.
    • Ensures Mother and child health: They focus primarily on ensuring that pregnant women undergo ante-natal check-up, maintain nutrition during pregnancy, deliver at a healthcare facility, and provide post-birth training on breast-feeding and complementary nutrition of children.
    • Actively involved in Immunization programs: ASHA workers are also tasked with ensuring and motivating children to get immunized.
    • Providing medicines and therapies: Other than mother and childcare, ASHA workers also provide medicines daily to TB patients under directly observed treatment of the national programme. They also provide basic medicines and therapies to people under their jurisdiction such as oral rehydration solution, chloroquine for malaria, iron folic acid tablets to prevent anemia etc.
    • Tasked with Screening tests: They are also tasked with screening for infections like malaria during the season. They also get people tested and get their reports for non-communicable diseases. They were tasked to quarantine the covid 19 infected patients in the pandemic.
    • Informing the birth and death in respective areas:  The health volunteers are also tasked with informing their respective primary health center about any births or deaths in their designated areas.

    ASHA

    What are the challenges that ASHA workers face?

    • Lack of communication threating the job of ASHA Workers: One of the biggest issues facing rural health services is lack of information.
    • Lack of resources burdening the ASHA works job: Another area of concern is the lack of resources. Over the years, with the closest hospital being 9 km away and ambulances taking hours to respond, ASHA workers had to take multiple women in labour to the hospital in auto rickshaws.
    • Poor medical health facilities: Medical facilities are understaffed and lack adequate equipment for various basic procedures like deliveries. Simple tests, like for sickle cell anemia and HIV, cannot be conducted in no of respective areas of ASHA workers.
    • Low wages according to the job they do: The initial payment used to be paid was Rs 250 a month in 2009. Since ASHA’s unionized and agitated for a living wage. Thirteen years on, they earn around Rs 4,000 a month. It is simply not enough to sustain a family of four.
    • Covid 19 disruptions added to the existing problems: Low wages forcing ASHA’s to work two or more jobs. In the pandemic, no of women lost their husband or the means of earnings and had to revert to farming. Weather fluctuations disrupting the farm produce leaving no of ASHA’s the sole earner for the family. Those who don’t have land are living in miserable conditions.
    • Delayed payments reduce the morale: Payments are also delayed by months, Desperation for work leaves us unable to focus on the groundwork we do.

    ASHA

    What can be done to improve the work conditions of ASHA workers?

    • Improving the communication channels: Channels of communication between the government and the rural population need to be robust. A deadly pandemic makes the value of these channels obvious but in order to get people on board, information needs to be sent out much more effectively and in a hands-on manner. ASHA workers play a crucial role in aiding this effort. ASHA’s can’t do this alone. They need new systems to ensure the dissemination of life-saving information in remote areas.
    • ASHA’s should have fixed income: ASHA’s should have a fixed income, giving them the stability in a job where they spend between eight to twelve hours daily.
    • Role needs to be formalized ensuring the dignity: ASHA’s are recognized as “volunteers” currently. Their role needs to be formalized. Recognizing them as workers provides dignity and protection, and helps them to be taken seriously, by the state, the gram panchayat responsible for the disbursal of funds, and patients.
    • Recognizing and awarding their role will empower and motivate ASHA’s further: For people in villages, ASHA’s have become lifelines. They have led innumerable immunization drives and are everybody’s first call in a medical emergency. They have labored to build trust and serve as a bridge with the state. Examples shows recognition gives some leverage to circumvent the system and seek funds for people in my community.

    Conclusion

    • ASHA’s are lifelines of rural primary healthcare, they are playing critical role on no of fronts ensuring the basic health of India. A better, stronger India is possible if ASHA’s are enabled to serve people. Giving them due recognition would serve this end, along with making rural India’s needs medical or otherwise a priority.

    Mains Question

    Q. For the villagers, ASHA has been a lifeline in the last few years. Acknowledge the problems they face on a daily basis and suggest solutions to raise their morale for the primary health of the village community and the nation as a whole.

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  • Physical Inactivity, Neglected Burden on Economy

    physical

    Context

    • Global status report on physical activity is WHO’s first dedicated global assessment of global progress on country implementation of policy recommendations of the Global Action Plan on Physical Activity (GAPPA) 2018-2030.

    What are the findings of the report?

    • Poor physical activity standards: Over 80 per cent adolescents and 27 per cent adults do not meet the physical activity standards set by the World Health Organization (WHO), according to a new report.
    • developing non-communicable diseases: This will lead to 500 million additional people developing non-communicable diseases from 2020-2030 and cost the global economy $27 billion annually, it added.

    How physical Inactivity impacts health and Economy?

    • Changing lifestyles: Sedentary lifestyle of a large share of the global population has been linked to rising prevalence of heart diseases, obesity, diabetes or other noncommunicable diseases.
    • Increasing Hypertension and depression: Of the 500 million new cases projected, nearly half will be attributed to hypertension and 43 per cent to depression, the authors of the report said.
    • A strain on the health systems: The report quantified the economic burden of not being able to meet the GAPPA target. The sharp rise in non-communicable diseases will also put a strain on the health systems in every country.
    • Rising cost of treatment: If the current prevalence of physical inactivity doesn’t change, the world will incur treatment costs of just over $300 billion till 2030, the report mentioned.
    • 70 per cent of health-care expenditure: The largest economic cost is set to occur among high-income countries, according to the analysis. This will account for 70 per cent of health-care expenditure on treating illness resulting from physical inactivity, it showed. Around 75 per cent of the cases will occur in low- and middle-income countries, it added.

    What are the government efforts to address the physical inactivity menace?

    • National physical activity policy: Less than half the countries in the world have any national physical activity policy, showed the analysis of 194 countries by WHO published October 19, 2022.
    • National policies are in operation: Less than 40 per cent of the existing national policies are in operation, the United Nations health agency noted in the Global status report on physical activity 2022.
    • Monitor physical activity among adolescents: As many as 75 per cent of countries monitor physical activity among adolescents, and less than 30 per cent monitor physical activity in children under 5 years.
    • Addressing lack of public Infrastructure: The report highlighted that data regarding progress on certain policy actions is missing. These include provision of public open space, provision of walking and cycling infrastructure, provision of sport and physical education in schools.
    • National physical activity guidelines: only 30 per cent of countries have national physical activity guidelines for all age groups, according to the findings of the report.

    physical

    What are the Recommendations of WHO?

    • Exercise benefits mental and physical health: Light exercise and even walking has proven benefits for mental and physical health, studies have shown.
    • Infrastructural changes by governments: Citizens cannot make healthier lifestyle choices without infrastructural changes by governments such as safe walking and cycling lanes. “In policy areas that could encourage active and sustainable transport, only just over 40% of countries have road design standards that make walking and cycling safer,” the WHO analysts found.
    • Five ways to address the policy gaps: 
    1. Strengthen whole-of-government ownership and political leadership
    2. Integrate physical activity into relevant policies and support policy implementation with practical tools and guidance
    3. Strengthen partnerships, engage communities and build capacity in people
    4. Reinforce data systems, monitoring, and knowledge translation
    5. Secure sustainable funding and align with national policy commitments
    • Four areas of policy intervention:
    1. Active societies,
    2. active environments,
    3. active people and
    4. active systems.

    physical

    Government of India’s efforts to promote physical activity

    • FIT India Movement: FIT INDIA Movement was launched on 29th August 2019 by Honorable Prime Minister with a view to make fitness an integral part of our daily lives. The mission of the Movement is to bring about behavioral changes and move towards a more physically active lifestyle.
    • Objectives of Fit India: Fit India proposes to undertake various initiatives and conduct events to achieve the following objectives:
    1. To promote fitness as easy, fun and free.
    2. To spread awareness on fitness and various physical activities that promote fitness through focused campaigns.
    3. To encourage indigenous sports.
    4. To make fitness reach every school, college/university, panchayat/village, etc.
    5. To create a platform for citizens of India to share information, drive awareness and encourage sharing of personal fitness stories.

    physical

    Conclusion

    • Physical inactivity is silent poison, killing the future of the citizens. Work from home, remote working has increased the physical inactivity among the working populations. Indoor games, mobile addictions, e-learning have reduced the physical activity of children. It’s a collective responsibility of parents, society and government to promote and encourage the physical activity among citizens.

    Mains Question Q.

    What are the ill effects of physical inactivity on health and economy? What are the policies of government India to promote healthy life style?

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  • Mental health in India

    10th October, yesterday was observed as World Mental Health Day.

    What is the news?

    • The Lancet released a new report calling for radical action to end stigma and discrimination in mental health.
    • It stated that 90% of people living with mental health conditions feel negatively impacted by stigma and discrimination.

    Mental Illness in India

    • Mental disorders are now among the top leading causes of health burden worldwide, with no evidence of global reduction since 1990.
    • In 2017, an estimation of the burden of mental health conditions for the states across India revealed that as many as 197.3 million people required care for mental health conditions.
    • This included around 45.7 million people with depressive disorders and 44.9 million people with anxiety disorders.
    • The situation has been exacerbated due to the Covid-19 pandemic, making it a serious concern the world over.

    Reasons for Persistence of Mental Illness

    • Stigma to seek help: The staggering figures are void of millions of others directly, or indirectly impacted by the challenge and those who face deep-rooted stigma, many times rendering them unable to seek help.
    • Lack of awareness: This growing challenge in dealing with mental health issues is further compounded by a lack of information and awareness, self-diagnosis, and stigma.
    • Psycho-social factors: Institutions like gender, race, and ethnicity, are also responsible for mental health conditions.
    • Post-Treatment gap: There is a need for proper rehabilitation of mentally ill persons post/her treatment which is currently not present.
    • Rise in Severity: Mental health problems tend to increase during economic downturns, therefore special attention is needed during times of economic distress.

    Need for immediate intervention

    • Neglected Area: Mental health which forms the core of our personhood is often neglected which impeded the development of an individual to full potential.
    • Disproportionate impact: It is the poor, dispossessed and marginalised who bear the greatest burden of mental health problems, but historically their sufferings are dismissed as a natural extension of their social and economic conditions.
    • Vulnerability of the ills: Mentally ill patients are vulnerable to and usually suffer from drug abuse, wrongful confinement, even at homes and mental healthcare facilities which is a cause of concern and a gross human right violation.
    • Suicidal tendencies: Suicidal behavior was found to have relation with female gender, working condition, independent decision making, premarital sex, physical abuse and sexual abuse.
    • Gendered nature: Females are more predisposed to mental disorders due to rapid social change, gender discrimination, social exclusion, gender disadvantage like marrying at young age, concern about the husband’s substance misuse habits, and domestic violence.

    Policy initiatives

    • National Mental Health Program (NMHP): To address the huge burden of mental disorders and shortage of qualified professionals in the field of mental health, the government has been implementing the NMHP since 1982.
    • Mental HealthCare Act 2017: It guarantees every affected person access to mental healthcare and treatment from services run or funded by the government.
    • Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2017: The Act acknowledges mental illness as a disability and seeks to enhance the Rights and Entitlements of the Disabled and provide an effective mechanism for ensuring their empowerment and inclusion in the society
    • Manodarpan Initiative: An initiative under Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan aims to provide psycho-social support to students for their mental health and well-being.

    Way Forward

    • Policy boost: Mental health situation in India demands active policy interventions and resource allocation by the government.
    • Public sensitization: To reduce the stigma around mental health, we need measures to train and sensitize the community/society.
    • Awareness: People should be made aware of the significance of mental health, as much as that of physical health.
    • Destigmatising: Sharing one’s story about mental health (through media campaigns) is the most effective strategy to reduce stigma attached with mental illness
    • Community Approach: There is need to deploy community health workers who, with appropriate training and supervision, effectively deliver psychosocial interventions for the needy
    • Broadening the scope: Mental health care must embrace the diversity of experiences and strategies which work, well beyond the narrow confines of traditional biomedicine with its emphasis on “doctors, diagnoses, and drugs”.

     

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  • Ayushman Bharat scheme

    ayushman bharat

    India has completed four years of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri-Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY), the world’s largest public health insurance programme.

    What is Ayushman Bharat?

    • Ayushman Bharat is National Health Protection Scheme, which will cover over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries) providing coverage upto 5 lakh rupees per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization.
    • It was launched in September 2018 by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
    • It is a centrally sponsored scheme and is jointly funded by both the union government and the states.
    • It has subsumed the on-going centrally sponsored schemes – Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) and the Senior Citizen Health Insurance Scheme (SCHIS).

    Features of the scheme

    • It will have a defined benefit cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per year.
    • Benefits of the scheme are portable across the country and a beneficiary covered under the scheme will be allowed to take cashless benefits from any public/private empanelled hospitals across the country.
    • It will be an entitlement based scheme with entitlement decided on the basis of deprivation criteria in the SECC database.
    • The beneficiaries can avail benefits in both public and empanelled private facilities.
    • To control costs, the payments for treatment will be done on package rate (to be defined by the Government in advance) basis.

    India’s health expenditure post Ayushman Bharat

    Ans. India’s public healthcare spending is still among the lowest in the world.

    • Total health expenditure declined to 3.2% of GDP in 2018-19 from 3.3% in 2017-18, while the government’s health expenditure (centre and state) as a percentage of GDP fell from 1.35% to 1.28% in the same period.
    • National health estimates showed the Centre’s share decreasing to 34.3% in 2018-19 from 40.8% in the previous year, while that of states rose from 59.2% to 65.7%.
    • Out-of-pocket spending as a percentage of total health expenditure declined to 48.2% in 2018-19, though it is significantly higher than the world average of 18.1% in 2019

    What about health insurance penetration?

    Ans. Retail health insurance covers a meagre 3.2% of the country’s population.

    • With a population of 1.36 billion, India is the world’s second most populous country, and is expected to surpass China soon.
    • Launched in 2018 to provide universal health coverage, AB-PMJAY, takes care of the bottom 50% of the population of approximately 700 million individuals.
    • The top 20% of the population is covered through social and private health insurance.
    • Therefore, about 30% of the population, or about 400 million, is “the missing middle”— they don’t have any financial protection for health emergencies.

    Why is sound healthcare important for the economy?

    • Covid-19 exposed the economic consequences of poor healthcare. Higher out-of-pocket healthcare spending hits savings and consumption.
    • In the work space, poor health impacts physical and mental abilities, increase turnover and lead to lower productivity.
    • Data shows that 7% of India’s population is pushed into poverty every year due to healthcare costs.

    Way forward

    • Healthcare management and disease prevention should be the focus, along with an all-encompassing healthcare system, including OPD.
    • The government also needs to pay attention on healthcare cover for “the missing middle” population.
    • As a pilot, states may allow the authority already implementing the AB-PMJAY scheme in the state to cover the missing middle.

     

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  • ‘Professors of Practice’ for all colleges, universities

    University Grants Commission (UGC) has issued new guidelines under which higher education institutes can create a new teaching position called Professor of Practice to hire experts from various sectors, in line with provisions that already exist in the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

    Professors of Practice

    • If one is a distinguished professional in any field but do not have a formal academic qualification such as a PhD, he/she can still be eligible for appointment as faculty in any college or university in India.
    • To be eligible for appointment, an individual will have to be a “distinguished expert” who has made remarkable contributions in their professions.
    • The post is open to the institutions themselves to decide the sector from which they want to rope in professionals.

    Streams opened for this post

    • A professor of practice can be anyone with a background in a diverse range of areas from technology, science, social sciences, media, literature, armed forces, law, fine arts, etc.
    • However, the position is not open for those in the teaching profession — either serving or retired.

    Minimum qualifications

    • No formal academic qualification is necessary in order to be considered for this position if a person has been an “exemplary” professional in their field of work.
    • Currently, under the UGC’s minimum qualifications needs a PhD to be recruited as a professor or associate professor, and also needs to have cleared the National Eligibility Test (NET).

    Will the professor of practice be a full-time position?

    • It can be either a full-time or a part-time engagement for at least four years.
    • Initially, the hiring will be for one year.
    • Based on performance, extensions may be given.

    How will these appointments be made?

    • Universities and colleges will carry out appointments on a nomination basis.
    • In other words, vice-chancellors or directors have been authorized to invite nominations for filling up posts, which cannot exceed 10 percent of the sanctioned faculty strength of an institute.
    • After nominations are invited, those interested can send their applications with detailed biodata and a brief write-up about the ways they can potentially contribute.
    • The applications will be considered by a selection committee comprising two senior professors from the respective institute, and one “eminent external member”.
    • Based on the recommendations of the committee, the academic council and the executive council of the institutes will take the final call on appointment.

    What about remuneration?

    • The remuneration will be decided at the level of the institutes and the experts being hired.
    • In some cases, universities can even approach industries for financial support.

    Why such move?

    • India’s higher education institutes are understaffed, with thousands of vacancies across central and state universities.
    • So the UGC is hoping that recruiting industry experts and professionals will help “augment faculty resources” in universities and colleges.
    • The move is aimed at addressing concerns about the quality of graduates being produced by Indian colleges and universities.
    • Around the world, the idea of a professor of practice aims essentially to facilitate and promote the integration of academic scholarship with practical expertise and experience.

     

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  • Here is how HDI has performed in last 3 decades

    HDIContext

    • India, belonging to the medium HDI category, shows dimensional inequalities similar to or slightly below the average figures in the category, except in the case of education where it is high and closer to the low HDI countries. The inequalities in health and education are more than twice that of the very high and high HDI categories.

    Why in news?

    What is the meaning of human development?

    • Human development is defined as the process of enlarging people’s freedoms and opportunities and improving their well-being. Human development is about the real freedom ordinary people have to decide who to be, what to do, and how to live.

    What is meant by Human Development Index?

    • The HDI is a summary measure of human development. The HDI is a summary composite measure of a country’s average achievements in three basic aspects of human development: health, knowledge and standard of living.

    Who publishes HDI?

    • The Human Development Report (HDR) is an annual Human Development Index report published by the Human Development Report Office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

    HDIDimensions of the Human Development Index

    • Long and healthy life: The long and healthy life dimension is measured by life expectancy at birth. The life expectancy at birth is a statistical measure that an average individual is expected to live based on certain demographic factors such as the year of birth and current age.
    • Education: This is a second dimension in the HDI. The indicators of education are the expected years of schooling and the mean years of schooling. According to the UN, the average maximum years of schooling is 18 years, while the mean maximum years of schooling is 15 years.
    • Standard of living: The standard of living is usually measured by the gross national income (GNI) per capita. The GNI indicates the total domestic and foreign output created by the residents of a certain country.

    What are the 4 indicators of HDI?

    • Mean years of schooling
    • Expected years of schooling
    • Life expectancy at birth
    • Gross national income (GNI) per capita

    Which Countries Have the Highest HDI?

    In the latest HDI ranking, from 2022, Switzerland finished first with an HDI value of 0.962.

    HDI

    Issues in HDI

    (1) An incomplete indicator

    • Human development is incomplete without human freedom and that while the need for qualities judgement is clear; there is no simple quantitative measure available yet to capture the many aspects of human freedom.
    • HDI also does not specifically reflect quality of life factors, such as empowerment movements or overall feelings of security or happiness.

    (2) Limited idea of development

    • The HDI is not reflecting the human development idea accurately.
    • It is an index restricted to the socio-economic sphere of life; the political and civil spheres are in the most part kept separate.
    • Hence there is a sub-estimation of inequality among countries, which means that this dimension is not being taken into consideration appropriately.

    (3) A vague concept

    • Concerning data quality and the exact construction of the index HDI is conceptually weak and empirically unsound.
    • This strong critic comes from the idea that both components of HDI are problematic. The GNP in developing countries suffers from incomplete coverage, measurement errors and biases.
    • The definition and measurement of literacy are different among countries and also, this data has not been available since 1970 in a significant number of countries.

    (4) Data quality issues

    • The HDI, as a combination of only four relatively simple indicators, doesn’t only raise a questions what other indicators should be included, but also how to ensure quality and comparable input data.
    • It is logical that the UNDP try to collect their data from international organizations concentrating in collecting data in specific fields.
    • Quality and trustworthiness of those data is disputable, especially when we get the information from UN non-democratic members, as for example Cuba or China.

    (5) A tool for mere comparison

    • The concept of HDI was set up mainly for relative comparison of countries in one particular time.
    • HDI is much better when distinguishing between countries with low and middle human development, instead of countries at the top of the ranking.
    • Therefore, the original notion was not to set up an absolute ranking, but let’s quite free hands in comparison of the results.

    (6) Development has to be greener

    • The human development approach has not adequately incorporated environmental conditions which may threaten long-term achievements on human development. The most pervasive failure was on environmental sustainability.
    • However, for the first time in 2020, the UNDP introduced a new metric to reflect the impact caused by each country’s per-capita carbon emissions and its material footprint.
    • This is Planetary Pressures-adjusted HDI or PHDI. It measured the amount of fossil fuels, metals and other resources used to make the goods and services it consumes.

    (7) Wealth can never equate welfare

    • Higher national wealth does not indicate welfare. GNI may not necessarily increase economic welfare; it depends on how it is spent.
    • For example, if a country spends more on military spending – this is reflected in higher GNI, but welfare could actually be lower.

    Importance of HDI

    • Multidimensionality: It is one of the few multidimensional indices as it includes indicators such as literacy rate, enrolment ratio, life expectancy rate, infant mortality rate, etc.
    • True yardstick: It acts as a true yardstick to measure development in real sense.
    • Helps in measuring a nation’s well-being: Unlike per capital income, which only indicates that a rise in per capital income implies economic development; HDI considers many other vital social indicators and helps in measuring a nation’s well-being.

    Value addition line

    People are the real wealth of a nation. The basic objective of development should be to create an enabling environment for people to live long, healthy and creative lives. This may appear to be a simple truth.

    Conclusion

    • To sum up, the introduction of the HDI three decades ago was an early attempt to address the shortcomings in conventional measures of wellbeing.
    • The HDI has continued to attract widespread attention and motivates the work of activists, scholars and political leaders around the world.
    • The HDI compels us to ask what matters more, the quantitative expansion of an economy, or the qualitative improvement in the capabilities of society.
    • Indeed the revival of interest in this subject at the highest levels of government is the need of the hour.

    Mains question

    Q. What do you understand by human development? Critically analyse the human development index given by UNDP.

     

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  • Teachers with a passion for the profession are foundational to the positive educational change

    teacherContext

    • Success of new education policy depends on how we recruit and assesss teachers.

    What is the issue?

    • Recruitment of well-qualified teachers into the schooling system is the first prerequisite to ensure that students receive quality education.
    • However, teacher recruitment processes in the country are not adequately streamlined. There are diverse recruitment processes across regions, school stages, and school types central, state, and private schools.
    • This, in turn, leads to multiple criteria and processes for hiring teachers, thereby bringing a wide disparity in teacher quality across institutions and regions.
    • Many of the processes are also sub-optimal in measuring the competency of a candidate.

    Teacher hiring mechanism in place

    • One of the most common and widely-taken tests to ensure eligibility for recruitment is the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET), conducted at both the state (STET) and central levels (CTET).
    • TET is the equivalent of the licensure tests that are undertaken by teacher candidates in various countries.
    • However, in India, the test is required only for government school teacher recruitment at the elementary stage (Class 1-8).

    teacherIssues in hiring mechanism

    • TET has been critiqued time and again for various reasons. These include low pass percentages, poor test quality, lengthy test papers and a serious lack of alignment with teacher preparation programmes.
    • The test was in the news recently because of the teachers’ recruitment scam in West Bengal.

    teacherWhat we need?

    • A coherent strategy: to tie together the various tests and processes such as TET, teacher recruitment tests, classroom demonstrations and teacher interviews. This will enable a holistic assessment of teacher competence.
    • Understanding what is competence: Framing a common understanding of what qualifies as teacher competence. Simply speaking, teacher competence can be understood as the core knowledge, skills, and dispositions expected of a teacher to effectively contribute to the teaching-learning process.
    • Multiple methods of assessment: To evaluate several other skills and dispositions, one requires multiple methods of assessment including classroom demonstrations and teacher interviews. These assessments could help gauge skills like effective dissemination of a concept and selection of appropriate resources and learning materials.
    • Teacher’s aptitude: Most importantly, such processes should help evaluate a teacher’s empathy towards students. Respecting learner diversity and skills in building a participative/democratic classroom culture are crucial requisites of a teacher. The recruitment process should assess the teacher’s aptitude in this respect.
    • A comprehensive competency framework: That details the skills a teacher should have. This could be derived from a teacher education curriculum rooted in policy perspectives of the day. For instance, in the case of the NEP, the curriculum could be geared towards imparting training in classroom practices that make learning joyful.

    Long-term benefits to adopting such a holistic model of teacher recruitment

    • Better parity: It will ensure better parity in the quality of teachers recruited across the country.
    • Equitable education: Will contribute to equitable education for students from diverse sections of society.
    • Credibility is ensured: The recruitment process will also become credible if it is rooted in a framework that outlines the core competencies of becoming a teacher.
    • Reduction in coaching centres: At the systemic level, this may also lead to a reduction in coaching centres as the assessment processes will be non-standardised and cannot be easily gleaned from coaching materials and guidebooks.

    Conclusion

    • Teachers with a passion for the profession are foundational to the positive educational change envisaged by the NEP. Setting up clear benchmarks of quality and well-designed recruitment processes hold the key to ensuring better teaching-learning outcomes.

    Mains question

    Q. What do you think on teacher’s quality today? Explain how dynamic teacher recruitment process will enhance teacher’s quality.

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  • Rising number of Rabies case

    rabiesContext

    • The death of a 12-year-old girl in Pathanamthitta has sharpened the focus on the rising number of rabies cases and the growing population of stray dogs in Kerala

    What is rabies?

    • The rabies virus attacks the central nervous system of the host, and in humans, it can cause a range of debilitating symptoms including states of anxiety and confusion, partial paralysis, agitation, hallucinations, and, in its final phases, a symptom called “hydrophobia,” or a fear of water.

    What are rabies caused by?

    • Rabies is a preventable viral disease most often transmitted through the bite of a rabid animal. The rabies virus infects the central nervous system of mammals, ultimately causing disease in the brain and death.

    Can rabies person survive?

    • Once clinical signs of rabies appear, the disease is nearly always fatal, and treatment is typically supportive. Less than 20 cases of human survival from clinical rabies have been documented.

    How long can a human live with rabies?

    • Death usually occurs 2 to 10 days after first symptoms. Survival is almost unknown once symptoms have presented, even with intensive care.

    rabiesFacts on rabies

    • What animal has the most rabies?
    • Bats
    • Wild animals accounted for 92.7% of reported cases of rabies in 2018. Bats were the most frequently reported rabid wildlife species (33% of all animal cases during 2018), followed by raccoons (30.3%), skunks (20.3%), and foxes (7.2%).

    rabiesWhat is the issue?                                  

    • There is a blame game over the rising rabies cases: With the rabies deaths causing panic and reports of residents killing stray dogs through poisoning and strangulation, there is a blame game over the rising canine population and rabies cases. Some legal experts blame it on conflicts in the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 and the Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules, 2001; others point to the flawed implementation of birth control measures.
    • Legal battle over the issue in the Supreme Court: Canine culling campaigners and advocates of animal rights are also engaged in a protracted legal battle over the issue in the Supreme Court. V.K. Biju, a lawyer of the Supreme Court, who brought the issue of the “stray dog menace” before the apex court, contends that the root cause is the enactment of the Rules, which according to him, were passed in contravention of the parent Act, the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.
    • Existence of stray dogs has adversely affected the fundamental rights of citizens: Biju says that while the Act stands for the “destruction” of stray dogs, the rules are against the “destruction” of stray dogs, including the rabies affected ones, besides providing specific protection of stray dogs. In his submission before the Supreme Court, he argues that the existence of stray dogs has adversely affected the fundamental rights of citizens, i.e. the right to life and free movement.
    • The quashing of the Rules to make India free of stray dogs: In his writ petition filed before the apex court, Biju has sought orders for the strict implementation of the Act and the quashing of the Rules to make India free of stray dogs.
    • Animal rights campaigners are apprehensive: In the light of this, animal rights campaigners are apprehensive over the campaign to cull dogs to check rabies.

    rabiesHow can we prevent rabies in animals?

    1. First, visit your veterinarian with your pet on a regular basis and keep rabies vaccinations up-to-date for all cats, ferrets, and dogs.
    2. Second, maintain control of your pets by keeping cats and ferrets indoors and keeping dogs under direct supervision.
    3. Third, spay or neuter your pets to help reduce the number of unwanted pets that may not be properly cared for or vaccinated regularly.
    4. Finally, call animal control to remove all stray animals from your neighbourhood since these animals may be unvaccinated or ill.

    How can we prevent rabies in humans?

    • Leave all wildlife alone.
    • Know the risk: contact with infected bats is the leading cause of rabies deaths in people followed by exposure to rabid dogs while traveling internationally.
    • Wash animal bites or scratches immediately with soap and water.
    • If you are bitten, scratched, or unsure, talk to a healthcare provider about whether you need postexposure prophylaxis. Rabies in people is 100% preventable through prompt appropriate medical care.
    • Vaccinate your pets to protect them and your family.

    Initiatives by Government to curb Neglected Tropical Diseases

    National Rabies Control Programme: This programme is being restructured as Integrated National Rabies Control Programme under ‘One Health Approach’, with a aim to provide vaccination to stray dogs and free vaccines through Government hospitals.

    Way forward

    • Think globally, act locally. Study and adopt global ‘best-practices’ after customising them to local needs.
    • Apply integrated approach. Follow a holistic strategy.
    • Ensure efficient and effective collaboration across various government departments.
    • Partner with Civil Society Organisations (especially with WASH – Water, Sanitation and Hygiene – sector) for ground-level implementation and monitoring.

    Mains question

    Q. What is rabies? What ethical challenges are involved in culling of stray dogs? Explain the control measures for the same.

     

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  • Eklavya Schools get short shrift in teacher recruitments

    The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has so far been unable to fix the teacher shortage faced across 378 of Eklavya model residential schools (EMRS) that are currently functional.

    Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS)

    • EMRS started in the year 1997-98 to impart quality education to Scheduled Tribes (ST) children in remote areas in order.
    • It aims to enable them to avail of opportunities in high and professional educational courses and get employment in various sectors.
    • The schools focus not only on academic education but on the all-round development of the students.
    • Each school has a capacity of 480 students, catering to students from Class VI to XII.
    • Hitherto, grants were given for construction of schools and recurring expenses to the State Governments under Grants under Article 275 (1) of the Constitution.
    • Eklavya schools are on par with Navodaya Vidyalaya and have special facilities for preserving local art and culture besides providing training in sports and skill development.

    Features of Eklavya Schools

    • Admission to these schools will be through selection/competition with suitable provision for preference to children belonging to Primitive Tribal Groups, first-generation students, etc.
    • Sufficient land would be given by the State Government for the school, playgrounds, hostels, residential quarters, etc., free of cost.
    • The number of seats for boys and girls will be equal.
    • In these schools, education will be entirely free.

    Where are the Eklavya schools located?

    • It has been decided that by the year 2022, every block with more than 50% ST population and at least 20,000 tribal persons, will have an EMRS.
    • Wherever density of ST population is higher in identified Sub-Districts (90% or more), it is proposed to set up Eklavya Model Day Boarding School (EMDBS) on an experimental basis.
    • They aim for providing additional scope for ST Students seeking to avail school education without residential facility.

     

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