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GS Paper: GS2

  • Salary to women for domestic work

    Recently, a political party promised salaries to housewives as a part of its electoral campaign in Tamil Nadu. This led to the debate on the issue. The article deals with the issue.

    Salary for housework: Historical background

    • Demand for wages against housework was first raised at the third National Women’s Liberation conference in Manchester, England.
    •  In 2012, the then minister for Women and Child development announced that the government was considering mandating a salary for housework to wives, from husbands.
    •  The purpose, once again, was to empower women financially and help them live with dignity.

    Recognising the value of unpaid domestic work

    • Time-use data from 2019 gathered by the National Sample Survey Organisation revealed that only about a quarter of men and boys above six years engaged in unpaid household chores, compared to over four-fifths of women.
    • Every day, an average Indian male spends 1.5 hours per day in unpaid domestic work, compared to about five hours by a female.
    • Housework demands effort and sacrifice, 365 days a year, 24/7.

    Issues with paying for domestic work

    •  Asking men to pay for wives’ domestic work could further enhance their sense of entitlement.
    • It may also put the additional onus on women to perform.
    • There is a risk of formalising the patriarchal Indian family where the position of men stems from their being “providers” in the relationship.

    Way forward

    • Despite a legal provision, equal inheritance rights continue to be elusive for a majority of women.
    • More than creating a new provision of salary for housework, we need to strengthen awareness, implementation and utilisation of other existing provisions.
    • Starting from the right to reside in the marital home, to streedhan and haq meher, to coparcenary and inheritance rights as daughters and to basic services, free legal aid and maintenance in instances of violence and divorce.
    • Women should be helped to reach their full potential through quality education, access and opportunities of work, gender-sensitive and harassment-free workplaces and attitudinal and behaviour change within families to make household chores more participative.

    Conclusion

    Just like we do not want women to commodify their reproductive services because of their inherently exploitative nature — we have, therefore, banned commercial surrogacy in the country — let us not allow commodification of housework and personal care.

  • Issues with Harsher Punitive measures for the sexual violence

    Harsher punishment for sexual violence

    • Recently, the Maharashtra cabinet approved the Shakti Bill, enlarging the scope of harsher and mandatory sentences — including the death penalty — for non-homicidal rape.
    • The Shakti Bill comes amid the recent legislative trend to invoke the death penalty for sexual offences.
    • In 2020, the Andhra Pradesh government passed the Disha Bill, pending presidential assent, that provides the death penalty for the rape of adult women.

    Issues with the Bills

    1) Focus on reporting of police complaint

    • The most severe gaps in the justice delivery system are related to reporting a police complaint.
    • The focus of the criminal justice system needs to shift from sentencing and punishment to the stages of reporting, investigation and victim-support mechanisms.
    • The bill does not address these concerns.

    2) Impact on rate of conviction

    • Harsh penalties often have the consequence of reducing the rate of conviction for the offence.
    • A study published in the Indian Law Review based on rape judgments in Delhi shows a lower rate of conviction after the removal of judicial discretion in 2013.
    • Introducing harsher penalties does not remove systemic prejudices from the minds of judges and the police.

    3) Harsher punishment would deter complainants

    • Studies on child sexual abuse have shown that in the few cases of convictions, the minimum sentence was the norm and the award of the maximum punishment was an exception.
    • Crime data from the National Crime Records Bureau shows that in 93.6 per cent of these cases, the perpetrators were known to the victims.
    • Introducing capital punishment would deter complainants from registering complaints.
    • The Shakti Bill ignores crucial empirical evidence on these cases.

    4) Moving away from standard of affirmative consent

    • An affirmative standard of consent is rooted in unequivocal voluntary agreement by women through words, gestures or any form of verbal or non-verbal communication.
    • In a sharp departure, the bill stipulates that valid consent can be presumed from the “conduct of the parties” and the “circumstances surrounding it”.
    • The vaguely worded explanation in the bill holds dangerous possibilities of expecting survivors to respond only in a certain manner, thus creating the stereotype of an “ideal” victim.
    • It also overlooks the fact that perpetrators are known to the survivors in nearly 94 per cent of rapes, which often do not involve any brutal violence.

    Conclusion

    Punitive responses to sexual violence need serious rethinking, given the multitude of perverse consequences and their negligible role in addressing the actual needs of rape survivors.

  • How horizontal, vertical quotas work; what Supreme Court said?

    The Supreme Court last month clarified the position of law on the interplay of vertical and horizontal reservations.

    This newscard is useful for GS paper 1 as well as aspirants with sociology optional. Let us know in the comment box if you want to get a deeper insight.

    It perfectly highlights the heart of the debate on “merit versus reservation”, where reservation is sometimes projected as being anti-merit.

    What are vertical and horizontal reservations?

    • Reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes is referred to as vertical reservation.
    • It applies separately for each of the groups specified under the law.
    • Horizontal reservation refers to the equal opportunity provided to other categories of beneficiaries such as women, veterans, the transgender community, and individuals with disabilities, cutting through the vertical categories.

    How are the two categories of quotas applied together?

    • The horizontal quota is applied separately to each vertical category, and not across the board.
    • For example, if women have 50% horizontal quota, then half of the selected candidates will have to necessarily be women in each vertical quota category.
    • This means half of all selected SC candidates will have to be women, half of the unreserved or general category will have to be women, and so on.
    • The interlocking of the two types of reservation throws up a host of questions on how certain groups are to be identified.
    • For example, would an SC woman be put in the category of women or SC? Since quotas are fixed in percentages, what percentage of quota would be attributed to each?

    What was the Saurav Yadav case about?

    • The case was on the technicalities that form a substantial question of law.
    • It was this: Two aspirants had secured 276.5949 and 233.1908 marks respectively.
    • They had applied under the categories of OBC-Female and SC-Female respectively. OBC and SC are vertical reservation categories, while Female is a horizontal reservation category.
    • The two candidates did not qualify in their categories.
    • However, in the General-Female (unreserved-female) category, the last qualifying candidate had secured 274.8298 marks, a score that was lower than the two backwards.
    • The question before the court was that if the underlying criterion for making selections is “merit”.

    What did the court decide?

    • The court ruled against the UP government.
    • It observed if a person belonging to an intersection of the vertical-horizontal reserved category had secured scores high enough to qualify without the vertical reservation.
    • It held that the person would be counted as qualifying without the vertical reservation, and cannot be excluded from the horizontal quota in the general category.
    • If a person in the SC category secures a higher score than the cut-off for the general category, the person would be counted as having qualified under the general category instead of the SC quota.

    What was the government’s argument?

    • The government’s policy was to restrict and contain reserved category candidates to their categories, even when they had secured higher grades.
    • The court said this was tantamount to ensuring that the general category was ‘reserved’ for upper castes.

    What was the court’s reasoning?

    • The court did the math by examining a number of hypothetical scenarios.
    • It concluded that if both vertical and horizontal quotas were to be applied together — and consequently, a high-scoring candidate who would otherwise qualify without any reservation.
    • On the other hand, if a high-scoring candidate is allowed to drop one category, the court found that the overall selection would reflect more high-scoring candidates.
    • In other words, the “meritorious” candidates would be selected.

  • Trade Policy Review of India at the WTO

    India’s seventh Trade Policy Review (TPR) has begun at the World Trade Organization in Geneva.

    Q.In the wake of the global economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, discuss the challenges ahead of WTO.

    Trade Policy Review (TPR)

    • The TPR is an important mechanism under the WTO’s monitoring function and involves a comprehensive peer-review of the Member’s national trade policies.
    • India’s last TPR took place in 2015.

    Why need a TPR?

    • To increase the transparency and understanding of countries’ trade policies and practices, through regular monitoring
    • To improve the quality of public and intergovernmental debate on the issues
    • To enable a multilateral assessment of the effects of policies on the world trading system

    India’s progress

    • Since previous TPR, India has worked diligently to reform and transform the entire economic eco-system to meet the socio-economic aspirations of a billion-plus Indians.
    • The introduction of the GST, the IBC, labour sector reforms, an enabling and investor-friendly FDI Policy, and various national programmes like Make in India, Digital India, Startup India and Skill were the path-breakers.
    • The improvement in the economic and business environment, on account of the wide-ranging reforms, has enabled India to better its position in the World Bank’s Doing Business ranking from 142 in 2015 to 63 in 2019.
    • This improvement is also endorsed by investors who continue to view India as a desirable investment destination even during the testing time of the pandemic.
    • In 2019-20, India received highest ever FDI inflow of USD 74.39 billion.

    A note of caution

    • India’s trade policy remained largely unchanged since the previous review.
    • India continues to rely on trade policy instruments such as the tariff, export taxes, minimum import prices, import and export restrictions, and licensing, WTO said.
    • These are used to manage domestic demand and supply requirements, protect the economy from wide domestic price fluctuations, and ensure conservation and proper utilization of natural resources.
    • As a result, frequent changes are made to tariff rates and other trade policy instruments, which create uncertainty for traders.

  • Personal Data Protection Bill 2019

    The Personal Data Protection Bill (2019) has several provisions which could have implications for the privacy of an individual. The article examines such provisions and highlights the need for further debate on the Bill.

    Evolution of privacy as a fundamental right

    • The Supreme Court in MP Sharma v. Satish Chandra (1954) and Kharak Singh v. Uttar Pradesh (1962) had declared that while in certain circumstances the privacy of individuals was to be protected, there was no constitutional right to privacy in and of itself.
    • However, in Puttuswamy v India (2017) the Supreme Court accepted privacy as a fundamental right.
    • This was an important development.

    Rising importance of data

    • The rising importance of data has pushed over 80 countries to pass national laws protecting the collection and use of their citizens’ data by companies and the government.
    • The DPB will have huge commercial and political consequences for India.
    • In India, the Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 (DPB) is currently under consideration by a parliamentary committee.
    • According to Ernst and Young, emerging technologies in India will create $1 trillion in economic value by 2025.
    • Much of this value will be founded on the creation, use, and sale of data, and the DPB will have immense implications as firms scramble to meet new privacy regulations.

    Conditions for access to data and issues

    • The bill establishes a number of conditions for companies to follow.
    • For one, it would require digital firms to obtain permission from users before collecting their data.
    • It also declares that users who provide data are, in effect, the owners of their own data.
    • So that the users will be able to control the data their online selves produce, and may request firms to delete it, just as European internet-users’ “right to be forgotten”.
    • But the bill stipulates that critical or sensitive personal data, related to information such as religion, or to matters of national security, must be accessible to the government if needed to protect national interest.
    • Critics have suggested that such open-ended access could lead to misuse.
    • Even B N Srikrishna, who chaired the committee that drafted the original bill has also expressed concerns about this provision.
    • Other major concern is about Data Protection Authority (DPA).

    Concerns about Data Protection Authority

    • The bill outlines the establishment of a Data Protection Authority (DPA).
    • The DPA will be charged with managing data collected by the Aadhaar programme.
    • It will be led by a chairperson and six committee members, appointed by the central government on the recommendation of a selection committee.
    • But this selection committee will be composed of senior civil servants, raising questions about the board’s independence.
    • The government’s power to appoint and remove members at its discretion also stokes fears about its ability to influence this independent agency.
    • Unlike similar institutions, such as the Reserve Bank of India or the Securities and Exchange Board, the DPA will not have an independent expert or member of the judiciary on its governing committee.

    Consider the question “Discuss the various provision of Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 for the protection of individual’s privacy. What are the concerns over the various provisions of the Bill?”

    Conclusion

    The DPB is a unique opportunity for India, a country with some 740 million internet users, to forge a pathbreaking agenda that will act as a standard-setter in the still-developing field of national data protection legislation.

  • [pib] Longitudinal Ageing Study of India (LASI)

    The Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare has released INDIA REPORT on Longitudinal Ageing Study of India (LASI) Wave-1.

    Discuss various issues pertaining to old-age care in India.

    Longitudinal Ageing Study of India (LASI)

    • LASI is a full–scale national survey of scientific investigation of the health, economic, and social determinants and consequences of population ageing in India.
    • The LASI, Wave 1 covered a baseline sample of 72,250 individuals aged 45 and above till the oldest-old persons aged 75 and above from all States and UTs of India (excluding Sikkim).
    • It is India’s first and the world’s largest ever survey that provides a longitudinal database for designing policies and programmes for the older population in the broad domains of social, health, and economic well-being.
    • The evidence from LASI will be used to further strengthen and broaden the scope of National Programme for Health Care of the Elderly.
    • It would also help in establishing a range of preventive and health care programmes for older population and most vulnerable among them.

    Why need such survey?

    • In 2011 census, the 60+ population accounted for 8.6% of India’s population, accounting for 103 million elderly people.
    • Growing at around 3% annually, the number of elderly age population will rise to 319 million in 2050.
    • 75% of the elderly people suffer from one or the other chronic disease.
    • 40% of the elderly people have one or the other disability and 20% have issues related to mental health.
    • This report will provide base for national and state level programmes and policies for elderly population.

  • Changing contours of India-U.K. ties

    India and the U.K. has shard past, now the present offers an opportunity to strengthen the ties between the two countries.

    India-U.K. ties in changing geopolitical landscape

    • India has invited the British Prime Minister as chief guest for the Republic Day parade.
    • India has a shared past with Britain and needs to chart a different shared future, now that Britain has left the European Union (EU).
    • One joint enterprise will be as members of the UN Security Council where Britain has permanent status and India holds a non-permanent seat this year and next.
    • Also, this year, the U.K. will be hosting India as an invitee to the G-7, and the UN Climate Change Conference.

    Implications of Brexit on the bilateral relations

    •  For the U.K., Brexit necessitates that every effort be made to seek commercial advantage in Asian countries with high growth rates.
    • India has been fruitlessly negotiating a trade agreement with the EU since 2007, during which Britain was considered the main deal-breaker.
    • The EU wanted duty reductions on autos, wines and spirits and wanted India to open financial sectors.
    • India sought free movement for service professionals.
    • The same obstacles with post-Brexit Britain will arise, because the export profile of both countries is predominantly services-oriented.
    • In response to free movement for professionals, Britain will refer to its new points-based system for immigrants.
    • After withdrawing from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, and will place greater stress on aspects related to country of origin and percentage of value addition in exports.
    • Therefore, while signing agreement two countries will coverge on pharmaceuticals, financial technology, chemicals, defence production, petroleum and food products.

    India-U.K. close ties

    • One and a half million persons of Indian origin reside in Britain.
    • Before COVID-19, there were half a million tourists from India to Britain annually and twice that figure in the reverse direction.
    • Around 30,000 Indians study in Britain despite restrictive opportunities for post-graduation employment.
    • Britain is among the top investors in India and India is the second-biggest investor and a major job creator in Britain.
    • India has a credit balance in total trade of $16 billion, but the level is below India’s trade with Switzerland, Germany or Belgium.

    Conclusion

    Two countries should strive towards strengthening ties against the backdrop of changing geopolitical circumstances and the Brexit.

  • Need to focus on the well-being of the child from womb to first five years

    The article analyses the data of NHFS-5 and try to factors responsible for the outcomes.

    Analysing health and nutrition of child through NHFS-5

    • The recently released fifth round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) provide insights into some dimensions of micro-development performance before COVID struck.
    • The latest round only has data for 17 states and five Union territories.
    • Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu are notable exclusions.
    • Many of the child-related outcomes are also determined by state-level implementation, therefore neither success nor failure can be attributed to state or the centre alone.

    Let’s understand the data

    • The NFHS has 42 indicators related to child’s health and nutrition.
    • Indicators fall into nine categories and each of these can be divided into outcomes and inputs.
    • For example, neonatal, infant and under-5 mortality rates can be thought of as outcomes.
    • Similarly, all the nutrition indicators —stunting, wastage, excess wastage, underweight and overweight can also be classified as outcomes.
    • In contrast, the post-natal care indicators relating to visits made by health workers and the extent and nature of feeding for the child can be classified as inputs.

    Outcomes of the survey

    • On the front of wasting (weight for height of children) these is an improvement because even though the gains were marginal, they reversed a negative trend between 2005 and 2015. 
    • India continues to be successful in preventing child deaths, but the health and nutrition of the surviving, living child has deteriorated, somewhat worryingly.
    • India continued to make progress in preventing child-related deaths (neonatal, infants and under-5).
    • The pace of improvement in child mortality slowed down relative to the previous 10 years (Fig.1).
    • Figure 2 shows the six indicators where outcomes have deteriorated. These all relate to what happens after survival:
    • The health (anaemia, diarrhoea, and acute respiratory illness (ARI)) and nutrition (stunting, and overweight) of the child deteriorated between 2015 and 2019.
    • The absolute deterioration in health and nutrition indicators must be seen against the fact that they reversed the historic trends of steady improvements.

    What explains the outcomes

    • Implementation capacity of individual states probably played an important role.
    • Sector-specific factors such as changing diets are also implicated.
    • A broader deterioration in outcomes hints at the likelihood of a common factor, namely the macro-economic growth environment, which determines employment, incomes and opportunities.
    • At the least, it is safe to conjecture that some of these outcomes are inconsistent with the narrative of a rapidly growing economy.

    Conclusion

    As discussed in Chapter 5 of the Economic Survey of 2015-16, perhaps the next big welfare initiative of the government should be a mission-mode focus on the well-being of the early child (and of course the mother), from the womb to the first five years, which research shows is critical for realising its long run potential as an individual.

  • Supreme Court cleared New Delhi’s Central Vista Project

    The Hon’ble Supreme Court has allowed the central vista project to go ahead.

    Try this MCQ first:

    Q.The architecture of the present Parliament House of India is inspired from:

    a) Ekattarso Mahadeva Temple

    b) Virupaksa Temple

    c) Dilwara Temples

    d) Brihaddeswara Temple

    The Central Vista Project

    • The project aims to renovate and redevelop 86 acres of land in Lutyens’s Delhi.
    • In this, the landmark structures of the government, including Parliament House, Rashtrapati Bhavan, India Gate, North Block and South Block, etc. stand.
    • This dream project of redeveloping the nation’s administrative heart was announced by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on September 13, 2019.

    Litigation over the project

    • A petition was filed in the Supreme Court in April 2020, challenging the Centre’s change-of-land-use notification of March 2020 with regard to the 86 acres of land.
    • The petitioner submitted that the order violated the citizen’s Right to Life guaranteed under Article 21 by depriving people of open and green spaces.
    • The petition also argued that the notification violated the Master Plan of Delhi 2021.
    • Subsequently, the court heard the challenge on three main grounds: change of land use; violations of municipal law; and violations of environmental law.

    What has the court held?

    • In a 2:1 majority verdict, the court has held that there are no infirmities in the approvals granted.
    • The verdict held that the central government’s change of land use for the project in the Master Plan of Delhi 2021 is also a lawful exercise of its powers.

    History of Lutyens’s Delhi

    • At his coronation as Emperor of India on December 12, 1911, Britain’s King George V had announced the transfer of the seat of the Government of India from Calcutta to the ancient Capital of Delhi.
    • Thereafter, a 20-year-long project to build modern New Delhi was spearheaded by architects Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker.
    • They built Parliament House, Rashtrapati Bhavan, North and South Blocks, Rajpath, India Gate, National Archives and the princes’ houses around India Gate.
    • New Delhi was unveiled in 1931.

    Must read:

    New Parliament Building

  • Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam

    Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt have agreed on to resume negotiations to resolve their decade-long complex dispute over the Grand Renaissance Dam hydropower project in the Horn of Africa.

    Note: You never know when UPSC might switch map based questions away from the Middle East and SE Asia.

    Considering this news, the UPSC may ask a prelim question based on the countries swept by River Nile/ various dams constructed/ landlocked countries in the African continent etc.

    Also read

    [Burning Issue] Ethiopian Crisis and the Geopolitics

    Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam

    • Spearheaded by Ethiopia, the 145-meter-tall (475-foot-tall) Grand Renaissance Dam hydropower project, when completed, will be Africa’s largest.
    • Its construction was initiated in 2011 on the Blue Nile tributary of the river that runs across one part of Ethiopia.
    • The Nile is a necessary water source in the region and Egypt has consistently objected to the dam’s construction, saying it will impact water flow.
    • The long-standing dispute has been a cause of concern for international observers who fear that it may increase conflict between the two nations and spill out into other countries in the Horn of Africa.

    What is the dispute about?

    • The Nile, Africa’s longest river, has been at the centre of a decade-long complex dispute involving several countries that are dependent on the river’s waters.
    • At the forefront of this dispute are Ethiopia and Egypt, with Sudan having found itself dragged into the issue.
    • The main waterways of the Nile run through Uganda, South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt, and its drainage basin runs through several countries in East Africa, including Ethiopia.

    Concerns over the dam

    • Given the dam’s location on the Blue Nile tributary, it would potentially allow Ethiopia to gain control of the flow of the river’s waters.
    • Egypt lies further downstream and is concerned that Ethiopia’s control over the water could result in lower water levels within its own borders.
    • In addition, Egypt proposed a longer timeline for the project over concerns that the water level of the Nile could dramatically drop as the reservoir fills with water in the initial stages.
    • Sudan’s location between Egypt up north and Ethiopia down south has caused it to become an inadvertent party to this dispute.
    • But that isn’t all; Sudan to is concerned that if Ethiopia were to gain control over the river, it would affect the water levels Sudan receives.

    Why does Ethiopia want this dam?

    • Ethiopia’s goal is to secure electricity for its population and to sustain and develop its growing manufacturing industry.
    • Addis Ababa anticipates that this dam will generate approximately 6,000 megawatts of electricity when it is completed, that can be distributed for the needs of its population and industries.
    • In addition to its domestic requirements, Ethiopia may sell surplus electricity to neighbouring nations like Kenya, Sudan, Eritrea and South Sudan, that also suffer from electricity shortages, to generate some revenue.

    What lies ahead?

    • Despite previous talks, the point of contention hasn’t changed: Egypt and Sudan are concerned about the filling and the operation of the dam.
    • Ethiopia continues to insist that the dam is required to meet the needs of its population and has said that downstream water supplies will not be adversely affected.
    • Cairo insists that the dam would cut its water supplies — concerning for a country that depends on the Nile for approximately 97% of its drinking water and irrigation supplies.
    • Sudan believes that the dam will reduce flooding, but is concerned about the path forward if the negotiations end at a stalemate.