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GS Paper: GS2

  • The importance of emigrants

    Context

    Though the phenomenon of Indian-origin executives becoming CEOs of top U.S. companies highlights the contribution of Indian talent to the U.S. economy, the role played by Indian semi-skilled migrant labour in the global economy is no less illustrious.

    Destinations of Indian migrants

    • Every year, about 2.5 million workers from India move to different parts of the world on employment visas
    • According to the Ministry of External Affairs, there are over 13.4 million Non-Resident Indians worldwide.
    • Significance of GCC: Of them, 64% live in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, the highest being in the United Arab Emirates, followed by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
    • Low and semi-skilled: Almost 90% of the Indian migrants who live in GCC countries are low- and semi-skilled workers, as per International Labour Organization estimates.
    • Other significant countries of destination for overseas Indians are the U.S., the U.K., Australia, and Canada.

    Contribution of Indian migrant workers

    • Besides being involved in nation-building of their destination countries, Indian migrant workers also contribute to the homeland’s socioeconomic development, through remittances.
    • Highest remittances: As per a World Bank Group report (2021), annual remittances transferred to India are estimated to be $87 billion, which is the highest in the world, followed by China ($53 billion), Mexico ($53 billion), the Philippines ($36 billion) and Egypt ($33 billion).
    •  Remittances in India have been substantially higher than even Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and the flow of remittances is much less fluctuating than that of FDI.
    • Still, remittances’ contribution of 3% in GDP is lower than that of countries such as Nepal (24.8%), Pakistan (12.6%), Sri Lanka (8.3%) and Bangladesh (6.5%), as per a World Bank report.
    • Hedging strategy against risk: Besides being a win-win situation for both the destination and source country, labour migration is good hedging strategy against unsystematic risks for any economy.

    Way forward

    • Human capital should also be invested in a diversified portfolio akin to financial capital.
    • Promoting labour mobility: For many countries, remittances have been of vital support to the domestic economy after a shock.
    • India should aim to increase remittances to say 10% of GDP.
    • The Philippines’ model of promoting labour mobility be replicated in India.
    • Reducing the costs involved: Both the cost of recruitment of such workers and the cost of sending remittances back to India should come down.
    • Skilling: The number of migrant workers need not go up for remittances to increase if the skill sets of workers are improved.
    • Regulation of recruitment agencies: Recruitment agencies should also be regulated by leveraging information technology for ensuring protection of migrant workers leaving India.
    • An integrated grievance redressal portal, ‘Madad’, was launched by the government in 2015.
    • Proposed Emigration Bill 2021: The Indian government proposed a new Emigration Bill in 2021 which aims to integrate emigration management and streamline the welfare of emigrant workers.
    • It proposes to modify the system of Emigration Check Required (ECR) category of workers applying for migration to 18 notified countries.
    • The Bill makes it mandatory for all categories of workers to register before departure to any country in the world to ensure better protection for them, support and safeguard in case of vulnerabilities.
    • The proposed Emigration Management Authority will be the overarching authority to provide policy guidance.
    • Besides workers, as about 0.5 million students also migrate for education from India every year, the Bill also covers such students.

    Conclusion

    For India to increase remittances’ contribution to GDP, it doesn’t need more workers but skilling and better management.

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  • Union Finance Ministry revises MPLADS Rules

    At a time when MPs have been asking for an increase in the MP Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) fund, the Union Finance Ministry has ordered revised rules, under which the interest that the fund accrues will be deposited in the Consolidated Fund of India.

    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:

    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

     

    [wpdiscuz-feedback id=”8vgi4pxuwk” question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”1″]Post your answers here.[/wpdiscuz-feedback]

     

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  • India’s judiciary and the slackening cog of trust

    Context

    Departures from substantive and procedural justice need deep scrutiny as the fallout could severely imperil governance.

    Judicial corruption in India in lower judiciary

    • According to Transparency International (TI 2011), 45% of people who had come in contact with the judiciary between July 2009 and July 2010 had paid a bribe to the judiciary.
    • The most common reason for paying the bribes was to “speed things up”.
    • The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) (April 2013) estimates that for every â‚č2 in official court fees, at least â‚č 1,000 is spent in bribes in bringing a petition to the court.
    • Freedom House’s ‘Freedom in the World 2016 report for India’ states that “the lower levels of the judiciary in particular have been rife with corruption” (Freedom House 2016).
    • Allegations of corruption against High Court judges abound.
    • Worse, there are glaring examples of anti-Muslim bias, often followed by extra-judicial killings by the police.
    • Anti-Muslim bias alone may not result in erosion of trust but if combined with unprovoked and brutal violence against them (e.g., lynching of innocent cattle traders) is bound to.

    Forms of judicial corruption

    • Pressure and bribery: Judicial corruption takes two forms: political interference in the judicial process by the legislative or executive branch, and bribery.
    • Despite the accumulation of evidence on corrupt practices, the pressure to rule in favour of political interests remains intense.
    • Court officials coax bribes for free services, and lawyers charge additional “fees” to expedite or delay cases.

    Case pendency

    • According to the National Judicial Data Grid, as of April 12, 2017, there are 24,186,566 pending cases in India’s district courts, of which 2,317,448 (9.58%) have been pending for over 10 years, and 3,975,717 (16.44%) have been pending for between five and 10 years.
    • Vacancies: As of December 31, 2015, there were 4,432 vacancies in the posts of [subordinate court] judicial officers, representing about 22% of the sanctioned strength.
    • In the case of the High Courts, 458 of the 1,079 posts, representing 42% of the sanctioned strength, were vacant as of June 2016.
    • Thus, severe backlogging and understaffing persisted, as also archaic and complex procedures of delivery of justice.

    Understanding the substantive and procedural justice

    • Substantive justice is associated with whether the statutes, case law and unwritten legal principles are morally justified e.g., freedom to pursue any religion,
    • Procedural justice is associated with fair and impartial decision procedures.
    • Outdated laws: Many outdated/dysfunctional laws or statutes have not been repealed because of the tardiness of legal reform both at the Union and State government levels.
    • Worse, there have been blatant violations of constitutional provisions.
    • The Citizenship (Amendment) Act (December 2019) provides citizenship to — except Muslims — Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis and Christians who came to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan on or before December 31, 2014.
    • But this goes against secularism and is thus a violation of substantive justice.
    • Alongside procedural delays, endemic corruption and mounting shares of under-trial inmates with durations of three to five years point to stark failures of procedural justice and to some extent of substantive justice.

    Conclusion

    Exercise of extra-constitutional authority by the central and State governments, weakening of accountability mechanisms, widespread corruption in the lower judiciary and the police, with likely collusion between them, the perverted beliefs of the latter towards Muslims, other minorities and lower caste Hindus, a proclivity to deliver instant justice, extra-judicial killings, filing FIRs against innocent victims of mob lynching have left deep scars on the national psyche.

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  • Extreme Poverty down in India

    Context

    A recent World Bank Report has shown that extreme poverty in India more than halved between 2011 and 2019 – from 22.5 per cent to 10.2 per cent.  The reduction was higher in rural areas, from 26.3 per cent to 11.6 per cent.

    What explains the reduction in poverty?

    • Poverty has reduced significantly because of the government’s thrust on improving the ease of living of ordinary Indians through schemes.
    • These schemes include the Ujjwala Yojana, PM Awas Yojana, Swachh Bharat Mission, Jan Dhan and Mission Indradhanush in addition to the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihood Mission and improved coverage under the National Food Security Act.
    • It is important to understand how poverty in rural areas was reduced at a faster pace.
    • Much of the success can be credited to all government departments, especially their janbhagidari-based thrust on pro-poor public welfare.

    Contributing factors

    1] Identification of beneficiaries through SECC 2011

    • The identification of deprived households on the basis of the Socioeconomic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 across welfare programmes helped in creating a constituency for the well-being of the poor, irrespective of caste, creed or religion.
    • Deprivation criterion: Since deprivation was the key criterion in identifying beneficiaries, SC and ST communities got higher coverage and the erstwhile backward regions in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Rajasthan and rural Maharashtra got a larger share of the benefits.
    • Gram Sabha Validation: Social groups that often used to be left out of government programmes were included and gram sabha validation was taken to ensure that the project reached these groups.

    2] Widened coverage of women

    • The coverage of women under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana and Self Help Groups (SHG) increased from 2.5 crore in 2014 to over 8 crore in 2018 as a result of more than 75 lakh SHGs working closely with over 31 lakh elected panchayati raj representatives, 40 per cent of whom are women.
    • This provided a robust framework to connect with communities and created a social capital that helped every programme.
    • The PRI-SHG partnership catalysed changes that increased the pace of poverty reduction and the use of Aadhaar cleaned up corruption at several levels and ensured that the funds reached those whom it was meant for.

    3] Creation of basic infrastructure

    • Finance Commission transfers were made directly to gram panchayats leading to the creation of basic infrastructure like pucca village roads and drains at a much faster pace in rural areas.
    • The high speed of road construction under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadhak Yojana created greater opportunities for employment in nearby larger villages/census towns/kasbas by improving connectivity and enhancing mobility.

    4] Availability of credit through SHGs

    • The social capital of SHGs ensured the availability of credit through banks, micro-finance institutions and MUDRA loans.
    • Livelihood diversification: The NRLM prioritised livelihood diversification and implemented detailed plans for credit disbursement.

    5]  Implementation of social sector schemes

    • In the two phases of the Gram Swaraj Abhiyan in 2018, benefits such as gas and electricity connections, LED bulbs, accident insurance, life insurance, bank accounts and immunisation were provided to 63974 villages that were selected because of their high SC and ST populations.
    • The performance of line departments went up manifold due to community-led action.
    • The gains are reflected in the findings of the National Family Health Survey V, 2019-2021.

    6] Universal coverage schemes

    • The thrust on universal coverage for individual household latrines, LPG connections and pucca houses for those who lived in kuccha houses ensured that no one was left behind. This created the Labarthi Varg.

    7] Increase in fund transfer to rural area

    • Seventh, this was also a period in which a high amount of public funds were transferred to rural areas, including from the share of states and, in some programmes, through extra-budgetary resources.

    8] Community participation

    • The thrust on a people’s plan campaign, “Sabki Yojana Sabka Vikas” for preparing the Gram Panchayat Development Plans and for ranking villages and panchayats on human development, economic activity and infrastructure, from 2017-18 onwards, laid the foundation for robust community participation involving panchayats and SHGs, especially in ensuring accountability.

    9] Social and concurrent audit

    • Through processes like social and concurrent audits, efforts were made to ensure that resources were fully utilised.
    • Several changes were brought about in programmes like the MGNREGS to create durable and productive assets.

    10] Focus of states on improving livelihood diversification

    • The competition among states to improve performance on rural development helped.
    • Irrespective of the party in power, nearly all states and UTs focussed on improving livelihood diversification in rural areas and on improving infrastructure significantly.

    Conclusion

    All these factors contributed to improved ease of living of deprived households and improving their asset base. A lot has been achieved, much remains to be done.

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  • Value of MPs’ vote for President Poll to go down

    The value of the vote of an MP in the presidential polls to be held in July is likely to go down to 700 from 708 due to the absence of a Legislative Assembly in Jammu and Kashmir.

    Do you know?

    The value of an MP’s vote has been 708 since the 1997 presidential election.

    What is the news?

    • Before it was bifurcated into the UTs of Ladakh and Jammu & Kashmir in August 2019, the erstwhile State of J&K had 83 Assembly seats.
    • According to the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, the Union Territory of J&K will have an Assembly, while Ladakh will be governed directly by the Centre.

    The President of India

    • The President of India is recognised as the first citizen of the country and the head of the state.
    • The elected President of India is a part of the Union Executive along with several other members of the parliament including the Prime Minister, Attorney-General of India and the Vice – president.

    Electing the President

    • The provisions of the election of the President are laid down in Article 54 of the Constitution of India.
    • The Presidential and Vice-Presidential Election Act 1952 led to the establishment of this Constitutional provision.

    Qualifications to become the President of India

    The qualification of be the President of India are given below:

    • He/ She must be an Indian citizen
    • A person must have completed the age of 35.
    • A person must be qualified for election as a member of the House of the People.
    • Must not hold a government (central or state) office of profit
    • A person is eligible for election as President if he/she is holding the office of President or Vice-President.

    Actual course of election

    • The President of India is elected indirectly by an Electoral College following the system of proportional representation utilizing a single transferable vote system and secret ballots.
    • MPs and MLAs vote based on parity and uniformity values.

    Electoral College composition-

    (1) Legislative Assemblies of the States:

    • According to the provision of Article 333, every state’s Legislative Assembly must consist of not less than 60 members but not more than 500 members.

    (2) Council of States:

    • 12 members are nominated by the President of India based on skills or knowledge in literature, arts, science, and social service to act as the members of the Council of States.
    • In total, 238 represent act as representatives from both the States and Union Territories.

    (2) House of the People:

    • The composition of the House of People consists of 530 members (no exceeding) from the state territorial constituencies.
    • They are elected through direct election.
    • The President further elects 20 more members (no exceeding) from the Union Territories.

    Uniformity in the scale of representation of states

    To maintain the proportionality between the values of the votes, the following formula is used:

    Value of vote of an MLA= total no. of the population of the particular state/ number of elected MLAs of that state divided by 1000.

    Single vote system

    • During the presidential election, one voter can cast only one vote.
    • While the MLAs vote may vary state to state, the MPs vote always remain constant.

    MPs and MLAs vote balance

    • The number of the total value of the MPs votes must equal the total value of the MLAs to maintain the State and the Union balance.

    Quotas:

    • The candidate reaching the winning quota or exceeding it is the winner.
    • The formula sued is ‘Winning quota total number of poll/ no.of seats + 1’.

    Voters’ preference:

    • During the presidential election, the voter casts his vote in favor of his first preferred candidate.
    • However, in case the first preference candidate does not touch the winning quota, the vote automatically goes to the second preference.
    • The first preferred candidate with the lowest vote is eliminated and the votes in his/her favor are transferred to the remaining candidates.

    Why need Proportional representation?

    • The President of India is elected through proportional representation using the means of the single transferable vote (Article 55(3)).
    • It allows the independent candidates and minority parties to have the chance of representation.
    • It allows the practice of coalition with many voters under one government.
    • This system ensures that candidates who are elected don’t represent the majority of the electorate’s opinion.

    Why is President indirectly elected?

    If Presidents were to be elected directly, it would become very complicated.

    • It would, in fact, be a disaster because the public doesn’t have the absolute clarity of how the president-ship runs or if the candidate fits the profile of a president.
    • Another reason why the direct election system isn’t favorable is that the candidate running for the president’s profile will have to campaign around the country with the aid of a political party.
    • And, this will result in a massive political instability.
    • Moreover, it would be difficult and impossible for the government to hand out election machinery (given the vast population of India).
    • This will cost the government financially, and may end up affecting the economy as well.
    • The indirect election system is a respectable system for the First Man of India (rightly deserving).
    • The system/method of indirect electing of the president also allows the states to maintain neutrality and minimize hostility.

     

  • A new track for capital punishment jurisprudence

    Context

    A recent trend in the evolution of jurisprudence around the death penalty in India may reset judicial thinking around sentencing and have long-term ramifications in the awarding of capital punishment.

    New thinking in the jurisprudence around capital punishment

    • Capital punishment once delivered by the court of sessions (“sentencing court”) is required under law, specifically Chapter 28 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, to be confirmed by the jurisdictional High Court (“confirming court”).
    • Over the last six months or so, while dealing with appeals against confirmation of the death sentence, the Supreme Court of India has examined sentencing methodology from the perspective of mitigating circumstances more closely.
    • The Court has also initiated a suo motu writ petition (criminal) to delve deep into these issues on key aspects surrounding our understanding of death penalty sentencing.
    • Bachan Singh vs State of Punjab (1980), the leading case on this point, calls for mitigating and aggravating circumstances to be balanced against each other and laid down the principle that the death penalty ought not to be awarded unless the alternative of life imprisonment is “unquestionably foreclosed”.
    • It is also an equally well-established legal principle that in a sentencing hearing, the accused must necessarily be provided with sufficient opportunity to produce any material that may have bearing on the sentencing exercise.
    • When read in conjunction with the ratio decidendi of the Bachan Singh case, it is incumbent upon the sentencing court and the confirming court to ensure that the question of reform and rehabilitation of a convicted person has been examined in detail for these courts to come to a definitive conclusion that all such options are unquestionably foreclosed.

    Lack of judicial uniformity

    •  A report by the National Law University Delhi’s Project 39A (earlier known as the “Centre on the Death Penalty”) titled ‘Matters of Judgment’ found that there is no judicial uniformity or consistency when it comes to awarding the death sentence.
    •  In the report titled ‘Death Penalty Sentencing in Trial Courts’ (also authored by Project 39A), findings reported from a study of cases involving death sentencing between 2000 and 2015 in Delhi, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh have showed that courts have been lax in assessing the aspect of reformation while undertaking the sentencing exercise.
    • The Court, in Mofil Khan vs State of Jharkhand (2021), held that the “the State is under a duty to procure evidence to establish that there is no possibility of reformation and rehabilitation of the accused.
    • Undoubtedly, the onus has been placed on the State to lead evidence to show that no reformation is possible and for the sentencing courts to be satisfied that a thorough mitigation analysis was done before the death sentence is awarded.

    Mitigation investigation

    • For a complete mitigation investigation, professionals trained in psychology, sociology and criminology are required in addition to legal professionals.
    • Taking cognisance of the value of a holistic approach to mitigation investigation, the Court in Manoj & Ors vs State of Madhya Pradesh (2022) issued directions to the State to place before the court all “report(s) of all the probation officer(s)” relating to the accused and reports “about their conduct and nature of the work done by them” while in prison.
    •  The order also directs that a trained psychiatrist and a local professor of psychology conduct a psychiatric and psychological evaluation of the convict.

    Conclusion

    The intervention of the Supreme Court of India in, hopefully, framing guidelines around incorporation of a mitigation analysis and consideration of psycho-social reports of the prisoner at the time of sentencing is timely and necessary.

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  • Centre-Delhi Row heads to Constitution Bench

    The Supreme Court has referred to a Constitution Bench the battle between the Centre and the Delhi government for control over bureaucrats in the Capital.

    What is a Constitution Bench?

    • The constitution bench is the name given to the benches of the Supreme Court of India.
    • The Chief Justice of India has the power to constitute a Constitution Bench and refer cases to it.

    Constitution benches are set up when the following circumstances exist:

    1. Interpretation of the Constitution: Article 145(3) provides for the constitution of at least five judges of the court which sit to decide any case “involving a substantial question of law as to the interpretation” of the Constitution of India.
    2. President of India seeking SC’s opinion: When President has sought the Supreme Court’s opinion on a question of fact or law under Article 143 of the Constitution. Article 143 of the Constitution provides for Advisory jurisdiction to the SC. As per the provision, the President has the power to address questions to the apex Court, which he deems important for public welfare.
    3. Conflicting Judgments: When two or more three-judge benches of the Supreme Court have delivered conflicting judgments on the same point of law, necessitating a definite understanding and interpretation of the law by a larger bench.
    • The Constitution benches are set up on ad hoc basis as and when the above-mentioned conditions exist.
    • Constitution benches have decided many of India’s best-known and most important Supreme Court cases, such as:
    1. K. Gopalan v. State of Madras (Preventive detention)
    2. Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala (Basic structure doctrine) and
    3. Ashoka Kumar Thakur v. Union of India (OBC reservations) etc.

    Why in news now?

    • A 2018 Constitution bench decision interpreting Article 239AA had not dealt with an aspect having a bearing on the dispute over services, CJI agreed.
    • The proceedings have their genesis in the Delhi HC judgment of August 4, 2017, whereby it held that for the purposes of administration, the L-G was not bound by the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers in every matter.
    • On appeal, the SC on February 15, 2017, referred the matter to decide on the interpretation of Article 239AA.

    What is the 2018 Judgment all about?

    • By a majority decision in July, 2018, the Constitution bench upheld the respective powers of the state Assembly and the Parliament.
    • It said that while the CoM must communicate all decisions to the L-G, this does not mean that the L-G’s concurrence is required.
    • In case of a difference of opinion, the L-G can refer it to the President for a decision.
    • The L-G has no independent decision-making power but has to either act on the ‘aid and advice’ of the CoM or is bound to implement the decision of the President on a reference being made.
    • The bench, which limited itself to the interpretation of Article 239AA, left individual issues to be decided by regular benches.

    When power tussle began

    • Subsequently in 2019, a two-judge bench of the SC dealt with some individual issues arising from the power tussle between the Centre and the NCT government.
    • It ruled that the Anti-Corruption Branch of the Delhi government cannot investigate corruption cases against central government officials.
    • The power to appoint commissions under the Commission of Inquiry Act, 1952, would be vested with the Centre and not the Delhi government, the judgment said.

    Issue over control of administrative services

    • The judges, however, differed on who should have control over administrative services.
    • This was challenged again in the SC where the Centre contended that the two judges could not take a decision on the question.
    • The 2018 Constitution bench judgment had not interpreted the expression “insofar as any such matter as applicable to Union Territories” appearing in Article 239AA.
    • The Centre has urged SC CJI Ramana to refer the matter to a five-judge Constitution bench so that the question of law can be settled before the dispute over who has control over services can be looked into.

    Back2Basics: Article 239AA

    • Article 239AA granted Special Status to Delhi among Union Territories (UTs) in the year 1991 through the 69th Constitutional Amendment.
    • It provided a Legislative Assembly and a Council of Ministers responsible to such Assembly with appropriate powers.
    • That’s when Delhi was named as the National Capital Region (NCT) of Delhi.
    • As per this article – Public Order, Police & Land in NCT of Delhi fall within the domain and control of Central Government which shall have the power to make laws on these matters.
    • For remaining matters of State List or Concurrent List, in so far as any such matter is applicable to UTs, the Legislative Assembly shall have the power to make laws for NCT of Delhi.

     

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  • Highlights of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 5 Part: II

    The Total Fertility Rate (TFR), the average number of children per woman, has further declined from 2.2 to 2.0 at the national level between National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 4 and 5.

    What is NFHS?

    • The NFHS is a large-scale, multi-round survey conducted in a representative sample of households throughout India.
    • The IIPS is the nodal agency, responsible for providing coordination and technical guidance for the NFHS.
    • NFHS was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) with supplementary support from United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
    • The First National Family Health Survey (NFHS-1) was conducted in 1992-93.

    Objectives of the NFHS

    The survey provides state and national information for India on:

    • Fertility
    • Infant and child mortality
    • The practice of family planning
    • Maternal and child health
    • Reproductive health
    • Nutrition
    • Anaemia
    • Utilization and quality of health and family planning services

    Modifications in NFHS 5

    NFHS-5 includes new focal areas that will give requisite input for strengthening existing programmes and evolving new strategies for policy intervention. The areas are:

    • Expanded domains of child immunization
    • Components of micro-nutrients to children
    • Menstrual hygiene
    • Frequency of alcohol and tobacco use
    • Additional components of non-communicable diseases (NCDs)
    • Expanded age ranges for measuring hypertension and diabetes among all aged 15 years and above.

    Highlights of the NFHS 5 Part-II

    (a) Fertility Rate

    • There are only five States — Bihar (2.98), Meghalaya (2.91), Uttar Pradesh (2.35), Jharkhand (2.26) Manipur (2.17) —which are above replacement level of fertility of 2.1.

    (b) Institutional Births

    • The institutional births increased from 79% to 89% across India and in rural areas around 87% births being delivered in institutions and the same is 94% in urban areas.
    • As per results of the NFHS-5, more than three-fourths (77%) children aged between 12 and 23 months were fully immunised, compared with 62% in NFHS-4.
    • The level of stunting among children under five years has marginally declined from 38% to 36% in the country since the last four years.
    • Stunting is higher among children in rural areas (37%) than urban areas (30%) in 2019-21.

    (c) Decision making

    • The extent to which married women usually participate in three household decisions (about health care for herself; making major household purchases; visit to her family or relatives) indicates that their participation in decision-making is high, ranging from 80% in Ladakh to 99% in Nagaland and Mizoram.
    • Rural (77%) and urban (81%) differences are found to be marginal.
    • The prevalence of women having a bank or savings account has increased from 53% to 79% in the last four years.

    (d) Rise in obesity

    • Compared with NFHS-4, the prevalence of overweight or obesity has increased in most States/UTs in NFHS-5.
    • At the national level, it increased from 21% to 24% among women and 19% to 23% among men.
    • More than a third of women in Kerala, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, AP, Goa, Sikkim, Manipur, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Punjab, Chandigarh and Lakshadweep (34-46 %) are overweight or obese.

     

    Also read

    National Family Health Survey- 5 Part: I

     

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  • Absence of Roe v Wade won’t just impact the US

    Context

    The leak of an initial draft majority opinion of the US Supreme Court voting to overturn the decision in Roe v Wade has sent shockwaves across liberal and conservative quarters alike, globally.

    Background of the Roe v Wade case

    • Right to abortion: While locating the right of privacy within the guarantee of personal liberty enshrined in the fourteenth amendment of the American constitution, Roe embodies a supervening constitutional right to abortion emanating from this right of privacy.
    • The right to abort was held to be a constitutionally protected right within the right of privacy.
    • Roe, the 1973 outcome of an unmarried woman’s crusade for bodily autonomy, had declared overbroad, and consequently unconstitutional, a provision of the Texas Penal Code which permitted only those abortions that were “procured or attempted by medical advice to save the life of the mother”.
    • The decision simultaneously recognised the state’s interest in protecting the life of the foetus as also the life of the mother. 
    • Roe is not only relevant as a progressive trailblazer for reproductive rights in the United States but is also fundamental to constitutional jurisprudence globally for the interpretative tools it employed.

    Implications of overturning Roe v Wade

    • Political considerations vs judicial responsibility: The overturning of Roe is more than the mere abdication of the judicial responsibility to protect individual rights — it signals a dangerous trend of courts making long-standing determinations of legal rights based on transient political considerations.
    • Incursion into women’s right to abort: It would also mean legitimisation of state incursions into women’s right to abort and consequently their right to bodily autonomy and liberty, in addition to forcing them to move to states with enabling laws to procure abortions, leading to issues of access and affordability of abortions.
    • While the impact of Roe’s absence would most profoundly be felt in the US, it is likely to embolden conservative anti-abortion voices across the world.
    • Limits of judicial activism: It will inevitably also raise fundamental questions on the limits of judicial activism aimed at protecting the rights of persons and classes, which do not find explicit mention within a country’s constitutional framework.
    • Possibility of a conservative approach to abortion cases: In 2021, the abortion laws in India underwent substantial changes, with the introduction of the Medical Termination for Pregnancy (Amendment) Act, 2021 which, in addition to destigmatising pregnancies outside marriage by introducing the nomenclature of “any woman or her partner”, also increased the upper gestational limits within which pregnancies are legally terminable.
    • The Act, however, carries ambiguities and leaves room for both judicial and executive interpretation.
    • As cases of subjective determination arise, the Indian judiciary will be called upon to reconcile the right to privacy recognised in Puttaswamy with the permissible limits of abortion in the Act.

    How does Roe v Wade apply in the Indian context?

    • In KS Puttaswamy v Union of India, Justice Chandrachud referred to Roe and Planned Parenthood while reading the right to privacy into the existing framework of constitutionally protected fundamental rights subject to “just, reasonable and fair” restrictions.
    • Recognising derivative rights: In the lifetime of the Indian Supreme Court, recognising derivative rights within the existing framework of fundamental rights has been regularly witnessed — be it rights during arrest and detention, the right to express one’s sexual and gender identity, or rights against harassment at the workplace, to cite a few.
    • Setback to transformative constitutionalism: In the Indian context, the overturning could be seen as a setback to the celebrated doctrine of transformative constitutionalism, which sees the Indian Constitution as a “living document” that moulds, adapts and responds to changing times and circumstances.

    Conclusion

    The likelihood of the overturning of Roe leading to more conservative approaches to judicial interpretation in abortion rights cases, cannot be ruled out.

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  • The challenge for Middle Powers like India, France and Germany

    Context

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to European capitals should help both sides acquire a better understanding of each other’s security concerns. Whether it will fundamentally alter equations remains to be seen.

    New India-EU equation

    • As “Middle Powers”, countries like France, Germany and India should seek policy space for themselves and not be forced into taking positions by the Big Powers — the United States, China and Russia.
    • The EU is understandably concerned about Russian aggressiveness in Europe.
    •  ndia is equally concerned about Chinese aggressiveness in Asia. 
    • Even after Russia has sought to tear down the post-Cold War security structure in Europe, India has stayed the course in its equations both with Russia and the European Union.

    Division of national and group agenda and its implications for India

    • While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the context in which Modi visited Europe and the head of the European Union visited India, the fact is that the agenda at bilateral meetings with individual European countries has generally been very different from the agenda that the EU prefers to focus on.
    • While individual European nations, especially Germany and France, focus on their own strategic and business interests, including defence equipment sales, the EU retains the remit for negotiating trade and investment rules.
    • Problem for India: This division of national and group agendas has often posed a problem for India because individual countries cannot offer bilateral market access in exchange for bilateral defence deals.
    • So the French will sell Rafale jets in the name of strategic partnership but they cannot offer a trade and investment deal that Brussels will not allow Paris to strike with India.
    • While the EU and G7 may now wish to derisk, if not decouple, from aggressively rising China, how much they would be able to do in this regard and what they would be willing to do to help a slowly rising India remains to be seen.

    Way forward

    • For India’s part, it is not clear at the moment how much and what it can unilaterally offer Europe beyond the promise of standing up to China or reducing dependence on Russia.
    • Challenge for the three middle powers lies in combine their “strength and stability” to ensure “peace and tranquillity” in their respective neighbourhoods.
    • If middle powers like Brazil, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Africa and others can work together they may well be able to impose some discipline on the three big powers — China, Russia and the US.

    Conclusion

    At a time when big powers lurking behind in seeking to stabilise and shape the global order middle powers need to act to balance the influence exerted by the big powers.

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