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  • The SYL canal saga: Why Punjab won’t yield, and Haryana cannot let go (Northern Lights column)

    Why in the News

    Chief Justice of India Surya Kant remarked, while hearing the three-decade-old Satluj-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal case, that “once the heart opens, the door also opens,” after Attorney General R. Venkataramani told the Bench that Punjab and Haryana now “speak in a joint voice.” The conciliatory language follows a 1996 suit by Haryana seeking completion of the SYL canal and comes months before Punjab’s Assembly elections, raising the question of whether it signals a genuine shift or another turn of phrase in a dispute where both states have historically hardened their positions, including a standoff last year when Punjab refused to loan Haryana water from the Bhakra dam for thirsty villages in Hisar and Fatehabad.

    What is the SYL canal dispute?

    1. A link canal ordered under a 1981 tripartite agreement: The SYL was designed as a 214-km canal, 122 km in Punjab and 92 km in Haryana, to carry surplus Ravi-Beas waters assessed at 17.17 million acre feet (MAF) under a 1981 agreement brokered by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi between Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.
    2. Haryana has completed its share, Punjab has not: Haryana finished its 92-km portion years ago, while construction on Punjab’s stretch has remained stalled since the 1980s.
    3. Legal basis on both sides: Haryana rests its claim on its status as a successor state of undivided Punjab, the 1981 agreement and successive Supreme Court rulings directing Punjab to complete its share. Punjab invokes the riparian principle, under which states through which a river flows hold primary rights to its waters, to challenge the 1981 allocation.

    Why has construction on the canal stalled for decades?

    1. Militancy halted work at its peak: The Shiromani Akali Dal’s Nehar Roko Morcha against the canal evolved into the Dharam Yudh Morcha after the Akalis joined radical ideologue Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. In 1990, Babbar Khalsa International militants shot dead SYL chief engineer M.L. Sikri, superintending engineer Avtar Singh Aulakh, and 32 labourers at the site.
    2. Punjab legislated itself out of the pact: In 2004, the Congress government headed by then Chief Minister Amarinder Singh passed the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act, 2004, ending Punjab’s obligations under the 1981 pact; the Supreme Court struck the Act down in 2016.
    3. Land returned to original owners: In 2016, the Akali government in Punjab returned the land acquired for canal construction to its original owners, a practical and political obstacle to reviving construction on the Punjab side.

    Why does Punjab resist sharing the water?

    1. Groundwater is already overexploited: Roughly 73 to 76 percent of Punjab’s blocks are overexploited, forcing farmers to dig progressively deeper wells, while border districts in southern Punjab at the tail end of the canal network struggle to irrigate.
    2. The 1955 allocation is seen as historically unfair to Punjab: The Centre in 1955 allocated non-riparian Rajasthan 8 MAF of water, leaving undivided Punjab with 7.2 MAF of the Ravi-Beas waters, a division Punjab’s political class continues to cite as the root grievance.
    3. Water unites Punjabi public opinion: Opposition to sharing water with Haryana cuts across political lines in Punjab. Eg. Rapper Sidhu Moosewala’s song “SYL,” released after his death, sang “Paani chhado, tibka nahin dinde (forget about water, we won’t give a drop)” and drew a large public response before being taken down.

    Why does Haryana insist the canal must be completed?

    1. Its own water stress is worsening: Haryana’s southern and south-western districts face falling water tables, down to 1,700 feet in places, and Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini has repeatedly appealed to Punjab to share water, this year earmarking Rs 100 crore for the canal.
    2. It considers the legal position settled in its favour: Haryana points to its status as successor state, the 1981 agreement and repeated Supreme Court directions to Punjab as establishing its entitlement to the share of Ravi-Beas waters the canal was meant to carry.

    What is the Eradi Tribunal assessing, and what can it not do?

    1. Re-verifying the water assumed available: The Ravi-Beas Waters Tribunal, commonly called the Eradi Tribunal after its first chairman Justice V. Balakrishna Eradi, was set up in 1986 to re-verify water claims. The present tribunal, headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Vineet Saran with Justices P. Naveen Rao and Suman Shyam, conducted fresh field inspections in Punjab this summer, examining river inflows, canal outflows and hydraulic structures.
    2. Punjab’s position before the tribunal: Punjab’s Chief Minister and officials told the tribunal the state faces severe groundwater depletion and an acute canal water shortage, has no surplus for Haryana or Rajasthan, and that only Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir fall within the actual Ravi-Beas basin.
    3. A tribunal finding cannot force construction: Whatever the tribunal concludes on whether the water assumed under the 1981 agreement still exists, it cannot itself build the canal or make Punjab’s people accept a settlement they consider damaging; only a negotiated political solution between the two states can do that.

    Conclusion

    The cordial language before the Supreme Court reflects political intent at the highest level, but it sits atop a dispute rooted in militancy, a legislated repudiation of the original pact and unresolved questions before the Eradi Tribunal about whether the water assumed under the 1981 agreement still exists. With Punjab’s Assembly elections approaching, whether the two states can convert this rhetorical shift into an actual settlement remains uncertain.

    What is Fiscal Federalism?

    1. About: Fiscal federalism is the division of financial powers, resources and responsibilities between the Union and the states, governing how revenue, expenditure and shared resources such as inter-state river waters are allocated and adjudicated.
    2. Rationale: It exists because states have unequal revenue capacity and unequal access to shared natural resources, requiring a constitutional and institutional mechanism to allocate resources and resolve disputes between states and the Centre.
    3. Named typology: Centre-state financial relations operate through tax devolution, grants-in-aid, and inter-state dispute mechanisms such as river water tribunals under Article 262 and the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956.

    Constitutional Framework Governing Fiscal Federalism

    1. Article 262: Empowers Parliament to provide for the adjudication of disputes relating to the use, distribution or control of waters of inter-state rivers, and to bar the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and other courts over such disputes if Parliament so provides.
    2. Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956: Provides the statutory framework under which river water tribunals, such as the Eradi Tribunal, are constituted to adjudicate disputes between riparian states.
    3. Seventh Schedule, State List Entry 17: Places water, including water supplies and irrigation, within the states’ legislative domain, subject to the Union’s power under Entry 56 of the Union List over inter-state rivers declared expedient in the public interest.

    Challenges in Centre-State River Water Sharing

    1. Tribunal awards without enforcement teeth: River water tribunal decisions can remain unimplemented for decades without an enforcement mechanism binding the states. Eg. The SYL canal dispute has remained unresolved for over three decades despite multiple Supreme Court directions to complete construction. Fix. Empower the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act framework with a standing implementation authority with a fixed timeline, rather than leaving execution to the state governments involved in the dispute.
    2. Elections repeatedly delaying settlement: Water disputes become politically charged ahead of state elections, discouraging incumbent governments from conceding ground. Eg. The renewed conciliatory statements before the Supreme Court in the SYL case have come months ahead of the Punjab Assembly elections, raising doubts about whether they reflect a genuine shift.

  • Old rules, New rebels — Haryana khap panchayats vs Gen Z

    Why in the News

    Several khap panchayats, unelected community bodies dominated by elderly men from landowning communities, across north Haryana have passed resolutions banning marriage within the same gotra or khap cluster, live-in relationships and same-sex relationships, with violators to be barred from entering their villages. The resolutions followed outrage over a remark by a Naugama khap member at a meeting in Jind district, who said the phones of young women riding pillion in “unsuitable” clothing while using mobile phones should be smashed. Khap leaders describe the resolutions as guidance to preserve social cohesion, while young Haryanvis, women and men, have used social media to argue the diktats target women’s autonomy and carry no constitutional or legal standing.

    What are khap panchayats, and what have they resolved?

    1. An extra-constitutional community body: A khap panchayat is an unelected council, typically drawn from elderly men of a dominant landowning community, that claims authority over marriage, relationships and social conduct within a cluster of villages it oversees. Haryana has more than 130 such khaps.
    2. The August 9 Kandela resolution: Twenty-four khap panchayats meeting at Kandela village in Jind passed a resolution disallowing marriage within the same gotra or cluster, on the belief that members of the network are one extended social family regardless of caste.
    3. Bans on live-in and same-sex relationships: The khaps also passed resolutions against live-in and same-sex relationships and against content they consider obscene, while urging the government to regulate love marriages.
    4. No legal enforcement power: Khap members themselves acknowledge that khaps hold no legal authority. Fix. The stated penalty for disobedience, social ostracisation and exclusion from the village, is enforced through community pressure rather than any legal process.

    What triggered the current backlash?

    1. The viral remark on women’s mobility: Virender Dhull, a khap member and a school director of physical education, said at the Naugama khap meeting on August 1 that young women’s phones should be smashed if they rode pillion with legs astride while using phones or wearing clothes the khap found unsuitable.
    2. Local khap leaders disputed the characterisation: Naugama khap president Jaivir Lohan said the remark was an individual’s opinion, not a khap ban, and that parents, not the khap, should decide what is appropriate for their children.
    3. Same-gotra marriage was defended on genetic grounds: Lohan justified the ban on same-gotra marriage by citing a shared gene pool leading to genetic disorders and weak offspring, a claim not supported by the resolution’s actual social rationale of treating khap members as kin.

    How has Gen Z pushed back?

    1. Satire and direct criticism on social media: An M.A. student from Jind posted a video imagining a “Gen Z panchayat” that restricts elderly men’s card-playing and hookah use, questioning why moral scrutiny falls only on women.
    2. A generational and constitutional framing: A journalism graduate from Jind argued the diktats are illegal and violate constitutional rights, including freedom of movement, expression and privacy, and said the views of a few khap members should not be taken as representative of Haryana.
    3. The backlash cuts across gender: Content creators, including men, have criticised the khaps, though some responses have relied on derogatory personal attacks on khap members rather than constitutional argument.
    4. Data cited by critics: Commentators have linked the diktats to Haryana’s skewed sex ratio, noting the state’s Sex Ratio at Birth fell to 898 girls for every 1,000 boys in the first four months of 2026, alongside high youth unemployment.

    Challenges to khap panchayats’ authority

    1. Conflict with constitutional guarantees: Khap resolutions restricting marriage choice, mobility and relationships run against the fundamental rights to equality, personal liberty and freedom of movement. Eg. The Shakti Vahini v. Union of India (2018) ruling directed states to prevent khap panchayats from interfering with marriages between consenting adults. Fix. State governments should operationalise the safe-house and police-protection directions already laid down in that ruling rather than reacting only after a controversy goes viral.
    2. Exclusion of women from decision-making: Khap leadership remains almost entirely male; the Naugama khap’s 42 members are all men. Eg. Women were first elected as sarpanches in Haryana only in the 1980s, decades after khaps themselves had been functioning. Fix. Institutionalise the recently convened women-led mahapanchayats as standing bodies with actual resolution-making power, rather than as one-off gatherings.
    3. Selective moral policing: Restrictions target women’s clothing, mobility and phone use, while comparable scrutiny is not applied to men’s conduct, including drug use and crime among Haryana’s male youth. Eg. Critics have pointed out that no khap resolution has targeted male youth involved in drug abuse or crime, even as such resolutions are passed against women’s dress and mobility.

    Conclusion

    The wave of khap resolutions has sharpened a long-running collision in Haryana between a community-based order that claims authority over marriage and relationships and a legal system built around individual rights, now amplified by a socially connected Gen Z that is contesting these diktats openly online. The khaps have no legal power to enforce their rulings, but social ostracisation remains a real cost for those who defy them, leaving the underlying tension between custom and constitutional right unresolved.

    Back2Basics

    Gotra: A patrilineal clan or lineage group traditionally believed to descend from a common ancestor; marriage within the same gotra is customarily prohibited in parts of north India, the belief the Kandela resolution draws on.

      (GS2-07, 2015, 12.5 marks) Discuss critically the actions taken by the legislative, executive and the judiciary to set the things right in this regard.”

    1. Before SC Collegium: Can Acting CJs of HCs send names for judge appointments?

      Why in the News

      A controversy over the conduct of Rajasthan High Court’s Acting Chief Justice, Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma, has revived a recurring question before the Supreme Court Collegium: whether recommendations for High Court judge appointments sent by an Acting Chief Justice should be treated on the same footing as those sent by a permanent Chief Justice. The Collegium, headed by CJI Surya Kant and comprising Justices Vikram Nath, B.V. Nagarathna, M.M. Sundresh and P.S. Narasimha, must now consider at least four names recommended by Justice Sharma, who has held the acting post for almost a year. Supreme Court judge Justice Sandeep Mehta, a former Rajasthan High Court judge, has written three letters to the CJI seeking Sharma’s replacement by a chief justice from outside the state, alleging manipulation of case listings and misuse of administrative powers, allegations the CJI has said must go through institutional channels rather than the media.

      Why does an Acting Chief Justice’s recommendation raise a genuine question for the Collegium?

      1. Convention discourages it, but does not bar it: Acting Chief Justices conventionally do not make recommendations for judicial appointments because of their typically short tenures, though the Collegium has in the past accepted such recommendations in exceptional cases.
      2. One view favours considering recommendations on merit: Sources say part of the Collegium holds that names sent by an Acting Chief Justice should not be returned solely because of the official’s title, and should instead be assessed on merit.
      3. A competing view warns against normalising long acting tenures: The opposing view cautions that accepting names from Acting Chief Justices removes the pressure to appoint a permanent Chief Justice promptly, since there would be no apparent urgency.
      4. Justice Sharma’s tenure and lineage make this case unusual: Justice Sharma has been Acting Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court for almost a year since September 2025, and Rajasthan is also his parent High Court, factors cited in support of considering his recommendations.

      What precedent exists for how the Collegium has handled Acting Chief Justice recommendations?

      1. The Bombay High Court precedent split the Collegium’s consultees: When Justice Dharmadhikari was Acting Chief Justice of Bombay High Court in 2020, he prepared a list of 22 names; two consultee judges objected in writing that no Acting Chief Justice could properly vet 22 candidates in so short a tenure, while a third consultee judge disagreed, noting Dharmadhikari’s long service on that High Court.
      2. The Collegium still forwarded most of the list: Despite the objections, the Collegium headed by then CJI S.A. Bobde sent 18 of the 22 recommended names to the Centre, relying on the third consultee’s affirmative response.
      3. A comparable case arose in Rajasthan in 2022: The Centre raised objections to at least 12 names sent by then Rajasthan High Court Chief Justice Akil Kureshi on the ground that they were made at the fag end of his tenure, and the Collegium headed by then CJI D.Y. Chandrachud ultimately cleared 8 of the 12 names after the Centre did not specify objections to particular candidates.

      What does the present Rajasthan controversy add to the recurring question?

      1. The dispute is no longer only about tenure length: Justice Mehta’s letters to the CJI allege manipulation of case listings and threats to fellow judges citing closeness to the CJI, extending the question from whether an Acting Chief Justice’s recommendations should count to whether the officeholder’s conduct in the post is itself compromised.
      2. Justice Sharma’s career path preceded his return to Rajasthan: He served as a Rajasthan High Court judge from 2016, moved to Patna High Court in 2022, was sent to Punjab and Haryana High Court after the Collegium declined his 2023 request to return to Rajasthan on health grounds, and was brought back to Rajasthan under a 2025 resolution.
      3. The Collegium has so far deferred adjudication: CJI Surya Kant responded to the allegations by stating that claims against a sitting judge cannot be adjudicated through the media and must go through institutional channels, leaving the underlying question of Justice Sharma’s four recommended names still pending.

      Conclusion

      The Supreme Court Collegium must now decide, in the specific case of Justice Sharma’s four recommendations, a question it has answered inconsistently in the past: whether an Acting Chief Justice’s nominations for High Court judgeships carry the same weight as a permanent Chief Justice’s. How it resolves this, against the backdrop of allegations against Justice Sharma’s own conduct in office, will shape whether prolonged acting tenures continue to carry recommending power in future.

      Back2Basics

      1. Supreme Court Collegium: An extra-constitutional, judicially evolved mechanism comprising the Chief Justice of India and the four senior-most Supreme Court judges, which recommends appointments and transfers of judges to the higher judiciary.
      2. Acting Chief Justice: Appointed under Article 223 of the Constitution by the President when a High Court’s Chief Justice post falls vacant or the incumbent is unable to perform duties, distinct from a permanent Chief Justice appointment.
      3. Consultee judges: Sitting or former judges, typically with prior experience of the High Court concerned, whom the Collegium consults on the suitability of recommended names before finalising a list.

      (GS2-05, 2025) Discuss the evolution of collegium system in India. Critically examine the advantages and disadvantages of the system on appointment of the Judges of the Supreme Court of India and that of the USA.

    2. How social media hooks children — Meta’s $17-billion settlement over addictive design

      Why in the News

      Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, has agreed to pay up to $17.1 billion in penalties to 47 US states, Washington DC and other territories, and to make binding changes to its products, over claims that it endangered children through addictive design and violated child privacy norms. The settlement follows a March jury verdict in KGM v. Meta et al, where a Los Angeles jury held Meta and Google liable for $6 million in damages after finding that platform features contributed to a young user’s mental health harm. Indian regulators are studying the settlement as a possible template even as the Centre weighs age-based restrictions, usage limits and stronger parental consent requirements for children’s access to social media, discussions that remain at an early stage.

      What has Meta agreed to change, and why does the design focus matter?

      1. A default two-hour daily cap across both apps: Meta will impose a combined two-hour daily limit on Facebook and Instagram for under-18 users, cumulative across multiple accounts, changeable only by a verified parent, with direct messaging excluded.
      2. Time-boxed access at night and during school hours: Teen users will be blocked from most parts of the platforms between midnight and 6 am, with most push notifications disabled between 10 pm and 7 am and muted between 8 am and 3 pm on school weekdays.
      3. Engagement features are curbed by default: The settlement provides a non-personalised feed option, hides like and reaction counts by default, restricts cosmetic-procedure filters, and requires usage prompts after every 15 minutes of continuous scrolling.
      4. Compliance is externally audited: Meta must hire an independent auditor to assess compliance with the safeguards for five years, addressing an issue exposed at the KGM trial, where only 1.1 percent of teen users had activated an existing optional daily-use limit.

      Why do experts see the design-focused approach as more significant than the payout?

      1. The settlement forces architectural change, not just policy change: A US legal academic notes this is the first US instance of a major platform being forced to change the “architecture of its product” rather than only its stated policies, arguing the design changes matter more than the settlement figure.
      2. Default settings determine real-world reach: A researcher at Common Sense Media expects the universal, default time and night-mode limits to have real effect, while the optional recommendation and engagement changes will reach fewer teens because a parent must actively enable them.
      3. Compliance is not the same as harm reduction: A policy scholar cautions that measuring compliance with a feature checklist is different from measuring actual outcomes, and argues independent researchers need real data access on sleep, wellbeing and compulsive-use patterns to know if the changes work.
      4. Recommendation algorithms remain the open question: Critics note the changes do not fully address the recommendation systems that encourage continued scrolling, with one researcher’s biggest unresolved question being how removing algorithmic recommendations changes what teens are shown and re-engage with.

      What evidence links social media design to youth mental health harm?

      1. Large-scale studies link engagement to anxiety and depression: A 2024 meta-analysis of 143 studies involving over one million adolescents found greater social media engagement associated with higher levels of anxiety and depression.
      2. Specific design features have identifiable mechanisms of harm: A Johns Hopkins researcher identifies appearance-based social comparison, visible like counts and overnight notifications as features with clear mechanisms of psychological impact.
      3. Reducing use shows measurable benefit: A 2025 randomised controlled trial of 220 young people found that cutting smartphone-based social media use to about one hour a day for three weeks reduced depression, anxiety and fear of missing out, and improved sleep; a 2026 trial found a similar reduction in loneliness after cutting use by about 78 minutes a day.
      4. Academic performance is also affected: A 2025 systematic review of 34 studies found off-task social media and smartphone use generally associated with lower academic achievement among children and adolescents.

      What does the settlement leave unresolved, and what does it mean for India?

      1. A financial incentive, not a mandate, for industry-wide adoption: About 30 percent of the $17 billion payout is contingent on YouTube and TikTok adopting comparable safeguards and matching payments, with stricter limits following only if Snap, TikTok and YouTube all comply.
      2. No admission of wrongdoing or binding precedent: The consent judgment explicitly states the settlement does not establish a standard of care or serve as precedent in any non-participating US state or international jurisdiction, including India.
      3. A legal question on platform liability remains open in the US: A Stanford law professor notes Meta’s attempt to invoke Section 230 immunity against design-based claims could still reach the US Supreme Court, since the settlement does not resolve roughly 2,900 other pending cases.
      4. India’s own discussions remain preliminary: The Centre is weighing age-based restrictions, usage-hour limits and stronger parental consent requirements for children’s social media access, but these discussions are still at an early stage, with the US settlement offered as a possible design-regulation template.

      Back2Basics

      1. Section 230: A provision of the US Communications Decency Act, 1996, that shields online platforms from liability for content posted by users, now being tested against claims that target a platform’s product design rather than the content it hosts.
      2. Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023: India’s framework law on personal data processing, which includes provisions requiring verifiable parental consent before processing a child’s personal data.
      3. Multidistrict litigation: A US federal court procedure that consolidates similar lawsuits filed in different districts, such as the roughly 2,900 other cases against social media platforms, for coordinated pre-trial proceedings.

      (GS3-22, 2024, 10 marks, Microtheme: Data Protection) “Describe the context and salient features of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023”

    3. Bihar decides to drop ‘fail’ from Class 10, 12 marksheets

      Why in the News

      Bihar’s Education Department has decided that Class 10 and 12 marksheets issued by the Bihar School Examination Board will no longer carry the word “fail,” replacing it with “Kaushal ke liye patra” (eligible for skills). The state’s Education Minister announced the change at a review meeting, saying the Board would amend its rules and issue instructions, and that a student’s inability to secure expected marks should not be treated as a reflection of talent. The change follows other recent moves in Bihar’s school system aimed at reducing conventional classroom pressure, including a shorter “no bag day” on Saturdays, and comes as the department also plans special preparatory classes for students appearing for supplementary examinations.

      What is changing on Bihar’s Class 10 and 12 marksheets, and why now?

      1. A terminology change, not a grading change: The word “fail” will be replaced with “Kaushal ke liye patra (eligible for skills)” on marksheets, while the underlying pass criteria and examination structure are unchanged.
      2. Mental health is the stated rationale: The Education Minister said the change is meant to protect student morale, framing a failing mark as a gap in results rather than a judgment on a student’s ability.
      3. Supplementary examination support is being added alongside: The department will run special preparatory classes for a month for students appearing in the Matric supplementary examination, aimed at improving their chances of clearing it.
      4. The change follows a wider set of reforms: Bihar has also introduced a shorter “no bag day” on Saturdays, from 9:30 am to 1 pm instead of 9:30 am to 4 pm, to expose students to theatre, music and other creative activities.

      What does Bihar’s own recent school reform pattern reveal?

      1. Reduced classroom time is a recurring theme: The Saturday “no bag day” order, issued under the Chief Minister’s announcement, cuts formal instruction time in favour of non-academic activity, mirroring the marksheet change’s emphasis on reducing pressure over reducing rigour.
      2. Teacher workload is being reallocated, not reduced: Teachers are now required to spend an additional hour after classroom duties on lesson planning, laboratory management and remedial classes, shifting effort toward preparation and remediation.
      3. The announcement doubled as a Teachers’ Day preview: The same review meeting discussed the September 5 Teachers’ Day function, where one teacher per district will receive a state award, tying the marksheet change to a broader push to recognise and support the teaching workforce.

      Challenges to a terminology-only fix for exam-related student distress

      1. Renaming does not remove the underlying selection pressure: A student who does not clear the exam still cannot progress to the next stage or apply for further study, so the anxiety around the outcome persists even if the label softens. Eg. Kerala and several other states have separately debated “no detention” policies without resolving the same underlying pressure around board exam outcomes. Fix. Pair the marksheet change with post-result counselling support and multiple re-attempt windows so students have a genuine path forward, not only a softer label.
      2. Selective terminology change can obscure rather than address failure rates: Removing the word “fail” without addressing why students underperform risks treating the symptom, language, rather than the cause, such as teaching quality or foundational learning gaps. Eg. Bihar has run remedial classes only for the supplementary examination cohort, not as a standing intervention through the academic year. Fix. Extend structured remedial teaching to the full academic year rather than limiting it to a pre-supplementary exam crash course.

      Conclusion

      Bihar’s decision replaces the word “fail” with a skills-oriented label on its board marksheets, framed as a mental health measure, while leaving the underlying pass-fail structure and supplementary examination process intact. Whether the change eases student distress or merely renames it will depend on whether the state follows through with sustained academic support rather than a one-time terminology.

    4. Braving the odds — parents of differently abled children in Kerala

      Why in the News

      A decade after Parliament passed the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, parents of differently abled children in Kerala continue to carry a caregiving burden the law has not eased, according to accounts gathered from families, care home organisers and rehabilitation professionals in Kozhikode. The article documents parents facing career loss, mental health strain, social stigma and, in extreme cases, deaths linked to caregiving despair, alongside gaps between the schemes that exist on paper and their reach on the ground. Officials and caregivers agree institutions and laws exist in adequate number, but say implementation and follow-up are what fail the families the law was meant to protect.

      What burden do parents of differently abled children carry, and how does it change over a lifetime?

      1. Grief is staged, not a single event: A rehabilitation expert identifies denial, anger, an attempt to escape the situation, depression and eventual acceptance as the stages every such parent passes through.
      2. The burden intensifies as the child becomes an adult: Once a child clears Class XII with assistance, parents shift to worrying about adult life, and over 20 cases of parents attempting to kill their adult children or end their own lives were recorded in Kerala in the past year alone.
      3. Mothers carry a disproportionate share: Around 34 percent of parents of girls worry specifically about their daughters’ safety in their absence, and menstrual hygiene management adds to caregiver fatigue and sleeplessness.
      4. Careers and social lives are given up: A survey of 200 parents by a private care home found at least four PhD holders and 30 postgraduates among them unable to pursue careers, most also avoiding social events.

      Why do government schemes for the differently abled fail to reach their intended beneficiaries?

      1. Reach, not availability, is the gap: A care home organiser says India has enough institutions and laws for the differently abled, but existing schemes, such as the pension for differently abled persons, are not tracked for how many eligible people actually receive them.
      2. New schemes launch without evaluating old ones: Projects are announced without follow-up or evaluation of whether earlier schemes worked, according to a care home convener who argues empowering existing schemes matters more than launching new ones.
      3. Departments work in silos: A convener calls for convergence between the Departments of Education, Health and Social Justice, starting with including the real-life problems of the differently abled in the school curriculum rather than only success stories.
      4. A parent-centric policy design has its limits: A Social Justice department official concedes the existing policy framework itself is built around parents, leaving less structured support for the child’s independent adult life.

      What alternatives are families and the government building to reduce dependence on parents?

      1. A parent collective is building independent housing: A group of parents pooled funds to build 25 houses of 800 sq. ft. each at Keezhariyur in Kozhikode, along with vocational training centres, therapy units and a health centre, so children with intellectual disabilities can live even without their parents.
      2. Respite care has been introduced in response to caregiver strain: The Kerala Social Justice department launched three ‘Anpu’ homes in August, letting differently abled persons and their parents stay up to seven days, twice in six months, so caregivers can attend to emergencies or travel.
      3. Existing government facilities remain concentrated in a few centres: Northern Kerala’s government facilities include a Regional Intervention Centre and Autism Centre at Government Medical College Hospital, Kozhikode, and a District Early Intervention Centre at Government General Hospital, Kozhikode, but officials admit other districts lack comparable facilities.
      4. Vocational reskilling is proposed for adult independence: A former Samagra Shiksha Keralam official suggests deploying persons with intellectual disabilities in mechanical jobs after proper training, converting disability into an employable skill rather than treating it only as a welfare category.

      Challenges to disability welfare delivery in Kerala

      1. Care-giving burden has no institutional substitute: Families rely almost entirely on parents, especially mothers, for lifelong care, with no state mechanism assuming that role once parents age or die. Eg. Parents in Kerala report at least 20 cases in a year of attempting to end their own or their child’s life over anxiety about the child’s future without them. Fix. Expand community living models like the Keezhariyur collective through state co-funding, so independent living is not dependent on a single family’s ability to pool resources.
      2. Social stigma persists despite legal protection: Differently abled children are still kept away from social events such as weddings, undermining the dignity and inclusion the 2016 Act guarantees on paper. Eg. Caregivers report attempts to exclude differently abled children from family weddings in Kerala. Fix. Link disability welfare scheme disbursement to periodic community sensitisation drives conducted by the Social Justice department.
      3. Exploitative “magical cure” claims target desperate families: Parents seeking a cure for their child’s condition fall prey to unproven treatments and sell property in the process, delaying appropriate care. Eg. A rehabilitation professor in Thiruvananthapuram reports parents selling property believing false claims of a cure. Fix. Empower District Early Intervention Centres to issue verified treatment pathway certificates that families can use to screen out unproven providers.

      Conclusion

      A decade of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act has not closed the gap between the schemes that exist and the support caregivers actually receive, leaving Kerala’s parents of differently abled children to build their own alternatives, from community housing to informal support networks, while government follow-up on existing entitlements remains the piece still missing.

      Back2Basics

      1. Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016: An Act of Parliament that replaced the earlier 1995 law, recognising 21 categories of disability and mandating equal opportunity, non-discrimination and full participation for persons with disabilities.
      2. Administering ministry: The Act is implemented by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities under the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
      3. Core entitlements: It guarantees reservation in government jobs and higher education, free education for children with benchmark disabilities, and accessibility in the built environment, transport and information.
      4. National Trust: A statutory body under the Act’s parent ministry, chaired by the District Collector at the local level, mandated to support persons with autism, cerebral palsy, intellectual disability and multiple disabilities.

      [2026] Which of the following statements with regard to the persons with disabilities in India is/are correct?

      1. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, an Act passed by the Parliament of India in 2018, mandates reservation in education and employment, places a legal duty on Governments to ensure accessibility and non-discrimination.

      2. The Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan focuses on achieving universal accessibility for Persons with Disabilities across three key domains – built infrastructure, transport systems and information and communication technology.

      3. The National Divyangjan Finance and Development Corporation (NDFDC) is a public sector organization set up by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs as a not-for-profit company to promote entrepreneurship among Persons with Disabilities (PwDs).

      Select the answer using the code given below:

      [A] 1 and 2

      [B] 2 only

      [C] 1 and 3

      [D] 1 only

    5. Gen Z Adivasis ask for more

      Why in the News

      Tribal students at the Manjari Scheduled Tribes (ST) hostel near Pune have been on a hunger strike for over two weeks, part of protests at 25 locations across Maharashtra since August 12, demanding that the state act on 14 charges, chief among them a Supreme Court-mandated 2017 order to fill 12,500 government job positions reserved for tribals. The immediate trigger was an August 5 state order capping the age limit for staying in tribal hostels at 26 years, which the government raised to 30 on August 14 after protests began. The agitation gained force after three tribal schoolgirls died of snakebite at a Gadchiroli ashram school that had no beds. The state has held four rounds of talks and withdrawn the age cap, but has given the protesters no timeline on the pending job vacancies, and students say the same demands recur every year.

      What are the students protesting, and what triggered this round?

      1. Fourteen charges, only one conceded early: The students placed 14 demands before the government, of which it first agreed only to scrap the hostel age limit for admission.
      2. A punitive age cap sparked the protest: The August 5 order capping hostel stay at 26 years threatened students who use the hostel to prepare for competitive exams and city jobs, and was raised to 30 only after protests spread.
      3. Snakebite deaths widened the demands: Three tribal schoolgirls died of snakebite at an ashram school in Gadchiroli that had no beds, after which protesters added a demand for 1 crore compensation and health insurance for the families.
      4. Invasive hostel practices are also contested: The students want Government Resolutions restricting assembly, protests and union participation withdrawn, and an end to compulsory practices such as pregnancy tests in female hostels.

      Why has the 2017 Supreme Court-mandated job quota gone unfilled for nine years?

      1. A binding order without a deadline mechanism: The Supreme Court directed in 2017 that 12,500 government job positions be filled for tribals, but nine years on the vacancies remain open with no fixed completion date.
      2. The state cites inter-departmental delay: A government official said filling the vacancies “cannot be done overnight” because multiple departments are involved, without naming a target date.
      3. Hostel capacity has not kept pace with demand: The state runs 490 tribal hostels housing 59,020 students, and students say the government has not expanded this capacity for several years even as demand for seats in city hostels has grown.

      What does the state’s handling of the protest reveal about tribal welfare governance?

      1. Concessions follow political pressure, not review: The age cap was withdrawn only after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi gave the protesters a platform at a Pune rally and wrote to the Chief Minister, not through an internal policy review.
      2. Design choices override student preference: The state defends centrally cooked meals for hostels as easier to monitor, while students say food travelling up to 100 km from central kitchens often spoils by the time it reaches them.
      3. The protest is a recurring one: Students say they have held similar protests for four consecutive years over the same unmet demands, including hostel safety and hygiene.
      4. The hunger strike has produced a medical emergency: Two of the six students on hunger strike, weak after 14 days without food, needed to be moved for hospital treatment as their blood pressure and blood sugar dropped.

      Challenges to filling the Scheduled Tribes job quota

      1. No enforcement timeline attached to the court order: A Supreme Court direction to fill a quota carries no built-in penalty for delay, so the executive can let vacancies persist for years without consequence. Eg. The 2017 order remains unimplemented nine years later even as the state government publicly reaffirms it will comply. Fix. Require the state to file a compliance affidavit before the Court every six months, naming the number of posts filled and the department responsible for the remainder.
      2. Fragmented departmental ownership slows recruitment: Filling a quota spread across “many departments” leaves no single authority accountable for the shortfall. Eg. A state official cited inter-departmental coordination as the reason recruitment “cannot be done overnight.” Fix. Designate one nodal department to consolidate vacancy data and recruitment timelines across departments and report progress publicly.

      Conclusion

      The Manjari hunger strike has forced the Maharashtra government to withdraw one contested order and promise action on the rest, but the core grievance, a Supreme Court-mandated tribal job quota unfilled nine years on, remains unresolved without a stated timeline. Whether this round of protest produces a written, binding commitment or another round of verbal assurance will determine if the annual cycle of protest continues.

    6. [29th August 2026] The Hindu OpED: Unkind cuts: On the Telangana and Karnataka electoral rolls

      [29th August 2026] The Hindu OpED: Unkind cuts: On the Telangana and Karnataka electoral rolls

      Question (2018, GS2): “In the light of recent controversy regarding the use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM), what are the challenges before the Election Commission of India to ensure the trustworthiness of elections in India?
      Linkage: The core of the current news is the concern over potential wrongful disenfranchisement vs. genuine roll clean-up. When the ECI implements large-scale deletions (up to 50% in some urban constituencies) without releasing verifiable metrics like the elector-to-population ratio, it creates a transparency deficit. This directly mirrors the challenge of maintaining public trust in the electoral process, similar to the EVM debate.

      Mentor Comment:

      The Election Commission of India’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has struck off nearly a fifth of the electoral rolls in Telangana and Karnataka, about 22 per cent and 19.5 per cent respectively, with some Bengaluru and Hyderabad constituencies losing more than 40 to 50 per cent of their electors. The revision has proceeded after the Supreme Court of India permitted the SIR process to continue, and follows the Bihar SIR, where the Court had questioned why political parties filed so few objections to wrongful deletions. The Commission has not published the elector-to-population ratio, the only test of under-enrolment, for any state during the revision, making it impossible to verify whether the deletions reflect genuine bloat or wrongful disenfranchisement.

      What is the Special Intensive Revision (SIR)?

      1. What it is: The SIR is an intensive revision of electoral rolls conducted by the Election Commission of India, distinct from its routine summary revision process.
      2. How it works: It places the onus on electors and political parties to file objections against wrongful deletions.
      3. Its template: The Bihar SIR set the process the Commission has since extended to other states, including Telangana and Karnataka.

      What does the scale of deletions in Telangana and Karnataka show?

      1. High deletion rates: Telangana lost about 22 per cent and Karnataka about 19.5 per cent of electoral roll names, among the highest deletion rates in the country.
      2. Sharpest cuts in capital cities: Five Bengaluru constituencies lost more than half their electors, and nine of Hyderabad’s 15 constituencies saw deletions of more than 40 per cent.
      3. Implausible as genuine bloat: Both states have high net in-migration from the rest of India, and a deletion is justified only if the elector left the state altogether, since a move within the state would only relocate a name on the same roll rather than remove it.

      Why is the Commission’s justification hard to verify?

      1. Mandatory ratio withheld: The Commission has not published the elector-to-population ratio for any state during the revision, though doing so is mandatory and is the only test of under-enrolment.
      2. Opaque data release: Karnataka’s Chief Electoral Officer has not released a gender-wise breakdown of deletions and has scattered lists across Google Drive links without the old booth numbers, making verification difficult.
      3. A precedent of wrongful exclusion: A similar “logical discrepancy” process in West Bengal disenfranchised lakhs of electors; a Right to Information request found barely 82,000 of nearly 38 lakh appeals before 19 tribunals had been decided months after the state’s elections, with more than 90 per cent of decided appeals restoring the elector.

      Challenges to the SIR process

      1. Onus on electors invites under-objection: Requiring electors and parties to actively contest wrongful deletions means low awareness and the infrequent use of a voter identity card lead to few objections being filed. Eg. During the Bihar SIR, the Supreme Court itself asked why political parties had filed so few objections. Fix. Shift the burden to the Commission by requiring it to proactively verify a deletion against updated residence or migration data before finalising it.
      2. Opacity defeats verification: Withholding the elector-to-population ratio and publishing deletion lists without booth numbers or gender breakdowns prevents independent scrutiny of whether cuts are justified. Eg. The Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer scattered deletion lists across Google Drive links without old booth numbers. Fix. Mandate publication of the elector-to-population ratio and a standardised, booth-wise deletion list for every state before a revision is finalised.

      Conclusion

      Unless the Commission publishes the verification data it is required to release, the scale of the Telangana and Karnataka deletions will remain unexplained, and the West Bengal experience suggests a substantial share of those struck off may eventually prove to have been wrongly excluded.

    7. OBC creamy layer income test issue stuck between Ministries, says House panel chief

      Why in the News

      The chairperson of the House Committee on the welfare of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) has said the OBC creamy layer income test issue is stuck between the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) and the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, with the Social Justice Ministry yet to formulate the policy needed to place the matter before the Cabinet. The issue follows a Supreme Court judgment in March that found the DoPT was practising “hostile discrimination” by applying the income test differently to OBC candidates whose parents worked in posts without an established equivalence to government service, and directed the government to exclude salaries from the test for that category and create supernumerary posts for wrongly denied candidates. The government had six months to implement the directions but has instead approached the Supreme Court arguing retrospective implementation is “extremely difficult.” Nearly six months on, the two Ministries continue to pass responsibility for the equivalence-of-posts policy to each other, leaving the Court’s directions unimplemented.

      What is the OBC creamy layer income test?

      1. What it does: The creamy layer income test excludes wealthier or higher-status members of Other Backward Classes from non-creamy-layer OBC reservation benefits, based on parental income and the equivalence of a parent’s post with government service.
      2. Where the dispute lies: The test has been applied differently depending on whether a parent’s post has an established equivalence with a government post.
      3. Its legal basis: The equivalence determination has rested on the DoPT’s interpretation of a 2004 letter.

      What did the Supreme Court’s ruling require?

      1. Finding of hostile discrimination: The Court held that the DoPT was practising hostile discrimination by applying the income test differently based on equivalence status.
      2. Salary exclusion direction: The Court directed the exclusion of salary income from the test for candidates whose parent’s post had no established equivalence with government service.
      3. Supernumerary posts direction: The Court directed the creation of supernumerary posts for OBC candidates wrongly denied non-creamy-layer status.

      Why has implementation stalled between the two Ministries?

      1. Policy not yet formulated: The Social Justice Ministry has not formulated the equivalence-of-posts policy needed before the matter can go to the Cabinet.
      2. Government contests retrospective application: The government told the Supreme Court that retrospective implementation is “extremely difficult” and argued that some cases must still count salary income.
      3. Responsibility passed back and forth: In 2025 committee hearings, the DoPT told the House panel the equivalence responsibility lay with the Social Justice Ministry, which has yet to respond to the committee on the issue.

      Conclusion

      The dispute is procedural rather than substantive, over which Ministry must act first, and until the Social Justice Ministry frames the equivalence policy, the Supreme Court’s correction to the OBC income test remains unimplemented well past its six-month deadline.

      Matching Previous Year Question

      No direct PYQ traced in the provided files.

    8. 57 lakh active workers await e-KYC under new job scheme

      Why in the News

      The e-KYC verification rate of active rural employment guarantee workers stands at 94.88 per cent, two months after the launch of the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission, Gramin (VB-G RAM G), leaving 57 lakh active workers unverified. The Union Rural Development Minister had assured, ahead of the scheme’s rollout, that existing e-KYC verified job cards under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) would remain valid until new Gramin Rozgar Guarantee Cards are issued, and states had been asked to complete verification of all remaining active workers by the end of February, a deadline that was missed. e-KYC verification has now been made a condition for availing work under the new scheme, raising questions about whether unverified workers can access employment despite the Ministry’s assurance that no eligible worker will be left behind.

      What is the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission, Gramin (VB-G RAM G)?

      1. What it replaces: VB-G RAM G is the new rural employment guarantee scheme that has replaced MGNREGS.
      2. Access condition: e-KYC verification of job cards is a condition for availing work under the new scheme.
      3. Transition safeguard: The Ministry has allowed exceptions in a few cases and assured that existing verified job cards remain valid until new cards are issued.

      What does the data show about the verification gap?

      1. Overall registration lags active workers: The e-KYC rate is 71 per cent among all registered workers against 94.88 per cent among active workers, those who availed work at least once in the last three years, leaving 57 lakh active workers unverified.
      2. Employment generation has fallen sharply: Person-days generated under VB-G RAM G in July, 7.67 crore, were 49.94 per cent lower than the 15.33 crore person-days generated under MGNREGS in July of the previous year.
      3. Wide state variation: Tamil Nadu has the highest e-KYC rates among large states, 99.32 per cent for active workers and 84.89 per cent overall, followed by Rajasthan at 95.66 per cent and 69.45 per cent, Uttar Pradesh at 94.21 per cent and 58.89 per cent, and Andhra Pradesh at 90.4 per cent and 82.32 per cent, while Bihar’s overall rate of 58.05 per cent is among the lowest for large states.

      Why did States miss the e-KYC deadlines?

      1. First deadline missed: The Rural Development Ministry asked States on 30 January to complete e-KYC verification of all remaining active workers within a week, as revealed by a Right to Information application filed by the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information.
      2. Second deadline also missed: States were again asked on 12 February to complete verification by the end of February, and nearly seven months later the target remains unmet.

      Challenges to VB-G RAM G’s rollout

      1. Verification bottleneck denying access: Making e-KYC mandatory before the backlog is cleared risks excluding otherwise eligible workers from guaranteed work. Eg. 57 lakh active workers remain unverified two months into the rollout. Fix. Extend the grace period for unverified active workers until states clear the backlog, rather than making verification a hard gate from the outset.
      2. State capacity variation: The wide gap between states, Bihar’s 58.05 per cent overall rate against Tamil Nadu’s 84.89 per cent, points to weak last-mile administrative capacity in some states. Eg. Bihar remains among the lowest performing large states despite repeated Ministry deadlines. Fix. Direct targeted central enumerator support to the lowest-performing states rather than applying a uniform national deadline.

      Conclusion

      The transition to VB-G RAM G is proceeding despite an unresolved verification backlog. The Ministry’s next milestone is closing the gap for the 57 lakh unverified active workers before its assurance of uninterrupted access is tested against actual demand for work.

      Matching Previous Year Question

      PrelimsPYQ.csv: “Among the following who are eligible to benefit from the “Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act”? … (d) Adult members of any household” Answer: (d) — “MGNREGA benefits any adult member of a rural household, regardless of caste or economic status, providing 100 days of guaranteed work annually.” (2011, Microtheme: SchemeXRural/Agri, Subject: Governance)

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