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Subject: Governance

Important aspects of Society

  • National Policy for the treatment of 450 ‘Rare Diseases’

    The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has published a national policy for the treatment of 450 ‘rare diseases’.

    About the Policy

    • The Centre first prepared such a policy in 2017 and appointed a committee in 2018 to review it.
    • It was created on the direction of the Delhi High Court to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
    • This was in response to writ petitions for free treatment of such diseases, due to their “prohibitively” high cost of treatment.
    • Hence, a policy was deemed necessary to devise a “multipronged” and “multisectoral” approach to build India’s capacity for tackling such ailments.

    Why need such a policy?

    • As per the policy, out of all rare diseases in the world, less than five per cent have therapies available to treat them.
    • In India, roughly 450 rare diseases have been recorded from tertiary hospitals, of which the most common are Haemophilia, Thalassemia, Sickle-cell anemia, auto-immune diseases, Gaucher’s disease, and cystic fibrosis.

    Features of the policy

    • While the policy has not yet put down a detailed roadmap of how rare diseases will be treated.
    • It has mentioned some measures, which include creating a patient registry for rare diseases, arriving at a definition for rare diseases that is suited to India, taking legal and other measures to control the prices of their drugs etc.
    • It intends to kickstart a registry of rare diseases, which will be maintained by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
    • Under the policy, there are three categories of rare diseases — requiring one-time curative treatment, diseases that require long-term treatment but where the cost is low, and those needing long-term treatments with high cost.
    • Some of the diseases in the first category include osteopetrosis and immune deficiency disorders, among others.
    • As per the policy, the assistance of Rs 15 lakh will be provided to patients suffering from rare diseases that require a one-time curative treatment under the Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi scheme.
    • The treatment will be limited to the beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana.

    What are rare diseases?

    • Broadly, a ‘rare disease’ is defined as a health condition of low prevalence that affects a small number of people when compared with other prevalent diseases in the general population. Many cases of rare diseases may be serious, chronic and life-threatening.
    • While a majority of rare diseases are believed to be genetic, many — such as some rare cancers and some autoimmune diseases — are not inherited, as per the NIH.
    • According to the policy, rare diseases include genetic diseases, rare cancers, infectious tropical diseases, and degenerative diseases.

    Definition

    • India does not have a definition of rare diseases because there is a lack of epidemiological data on its incidence and prevalence.
    • While there is no universally accepted definition of rare diseases, countries typically arrive at their own descriptions, taking into consideration disease prevalence, its severity and the existence of alternative therapeutic options.
    • In the US, for instance, a rare disease is defined as a condition that affects fewer than 200,000 people.
    • The same definition is used by the National Organisation for Rare Disorders (NORD) in India.

  • Annual Status of Education Report (Rural) 2019

    The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2019 (rural) was recently released by NGO Pratham.

    Highlights of the report

    • Only 16% of children in Class 1 in 26 surveyed rural districts can read text at the prescribed level, while almost 40% cannot even recognise letters.
    • Only 41% of these children could recognise two digit numbers.

    Private schools ahead

    • Of six-year olds in Class 1, 41.5% of those in private schools could read words in comparison to only 19% from government schools.
    • Similarly, 28% of those in government schools could do simple addition as against 47% in private schools.
    • This gap is further exacerbated by a gender divide: only 39% of girls aged 6-8 are enrolled in private schools in comparison to almost 48% of boys.
    • The report also found that a classroom could include students from a range of age-groups, skewing towards younger children in government schools.

    Determinants of learning outcomes

    • The ASER report shows that a large number of factors determine the quality of education received at this stage, including the child’s home background, especially the mother’s education level; the type of school, whether anganwadis, government schools or private pre-schools; and the child’s age in Class 1.
    • More than a quarter of Class 1 students in government schools are only 4 or 5 years old, younger than the recommended age.
    • The ASER data shows that these younger children struggle more than others in all skills.
    • Permitting underage children into primary grades puts them at a learning disadvantage which is difficult to overcome,” said the report.

    Role of Mothers

    • Among the key findings of ASER 2019 is that the mother’s education often determines the kind of pre-schooling or schooling that the child gets.
    • The report says that among children in the early years (ages 0-8), those with mothers who had completed eight or fewer years of schooling are more likely to be attending anganwadis or government pre-primary classes.
    • With 75% women in the productive age group not in the workforce, they can be better engaged in their children’s development, learning and school readiness.

    Key suggestions made by the report

    • ASER found that the solution is not to spend longer hours teaching children the 3Rs.
    • Counter-intuitively, the report argues that a focus on cognitive skills rather than subject learning in the early years can make a big difference to basic literacy and numeracy abilities.
    • The survey shows that among Class 1 children who could correctly do none or only one of the tasks requiring cognitive skills, about 14% could read words, while 19% could do single digit addition.
    • However, of those children who could correctly do all three cognitive tasks, 52% could read words, and 63% could solve the addition problem.

    Focus on productive learning

    • ASER data shows that children’s performance on tasks requiring cognitive skills is strongly related to their ability to do early language and numeracy tasks,” says the report.
    • This suggests that focussing on play-based activities that build memory; reasoning and problem-solving abilities are more productive than an early focus on content knowledge.
    • Global research shows that 90% of brain growth occurs by age 5, meaning that the quality of early childhood education has a crucial impact on the development and long-term schooling of a child.

  • Police Commissionerate System

    The UP Cabinet has approved the Commissionerate system of policing for state capital Lucknow, and Noida.

    The Police Commissionerate System

    • The system gives more responsibilities, including magisterial powers, to IPS officers of Inspector General of Police (IG) rank posted as commissioners.
    • Under the 7th Schedule of the Constitution, ‘Police’ is under the State list, meaning individual states typically legislate and exercise control over this subject.
    • In the arrangement in force at the district level, a ‘dual system’ of control exists, in which the Superintendent of Police (SP) has to work with the District Magistrate (DM) for supervising police administration.
    • At the metropolitan level, many states have replaced the dual system with the commissionerate system, as it is supposed to allow for faster decision-making to solve complex urban-centric issues.

    Additional powers to Police

    • In this system, the Commissioner of Police (CP) is the head of a unified police command structure, is responsible for the force in the city, and is accountable to the state government.
    • The office also has magisterial powers, including those related to regulation, control, and licensing.
    • The CP is drawn from the Deputy Inspector General rank or above, and is assisted by Special/Joint/Additional/Deputy Commissioners.

    Where is the system in force?

    • Previously, only four cities had the system: Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai.
    • However, with rapid urbanisation, states felt an increasing need to replicate the system in more places.
    • The sixth National Police Commission report, which was released in 1983, recommended the introduction of a police Commissionerate system in cities with a population of 5 lakh and above, as well as in places having special conditions.
    • Over the years, it has been extended to numerous cities, including Delhi, Pune, Bangalore and Ahmedabad. By January 2016, 53 cities had this system, a PRS study said.
    • Depending on its success, the policing system may gradually be implemented in other districts as well.

  • Fastest growing cities in India

     The Economist has put Malappuram at the top of the “Top ten fastest-growing cities” in the world.

    Anomalies in the data

    • The total fertility rate (TFR, the number of children a woman is likely to have in the childbearing age of 15-49) in Kerala is 1.8 as per NITI Aayog data from 2016 — below the replacement rate of 2.1.
    • Another Kerala city, Thrissur, is No. 13, and the capital Thiruvananthapuram is No. 33 on the UN list.
    • Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu — which has an even lower TFR of 1.6 — is No. 30.
    • Surat in Gujarat (TFR of 2.2) is No. 27. There is no representation on the list from high population growth states like Bihar and UP.

    What does “fastest growing” refer to? How is a “city” defined?

    • The list based on data from the UN Population Division refers to “urban agglomerations” (UA), which are extended areas built around an existing town along with its outgrowths — typically villages or other residential areas or universities, ports, etc., on the outskirts of the town.
    • The Census defines a UA as “a continuous urban spread consisting of a town and its adjoining urban outgrowths or two or more physically contiguous towns together”.
    • The NCT of Delhi is a UA that includes the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) areas, as well as 107 “Census towns” — erstwhile surrounding villages where more than 75% of the population is now engaged in non-agricultural pursuits.

    A pace of urbanization

    • The Economist has listed the rate at which the populations of the UAs are expected to increase between 2015 and 2020.
    • Since data on India and many other countries were not available for 2015 (the last Census in India was in 2011), the UN report used projections of UAs’ populations — estimates based on past population growth data.
    • The rate of growth between 2015 and 2020 thus calculated provides a measure of the pace of urbanisation.

    How does urban population grow?

    • Urban populations can grow when the birth rate exceeds the death rate when workers migrate to the city in search of jobs; when more areas get included within the boundaries of the city; or when existing rural areas are reclassified as urban.
    • The low fertility rate in Kerala means the increase in the population of Malappuram and other cities is not because women are having more children; rather it is because more villages are being transformed into towns, and city borders are expanding.
    • According to the Census definition, an urban area is either a census town (CT) or a statutory town (ST). An ST is any place with a municipal corporation, municipal council, or cantonment board.
    • A CT can be a village with “urban characteristics” — a population more than 5,000, population density more than 400 people per sq km, and with more than 75% of the population not engaged in agriculture for their livelihood.
    • When a village becomes a CT, its population is included in the urban population of the district.

    Could migration have caused the increase?

    • Migration can either increase or decrease the population of a town.
    • Kerala sees both emigration — migration from the state to other places — and immigration — the migration of workers to the state.
    • Also the remittances that emigrants send allow the residents of villages to move away from agriculture, which changes the status of a village to census town.

    Why these cities are growing so fast?

    • These cities are seeing rapid urbanisation, and the main reason is the inclusion of new areas in the UA’s limits.
    • In 2001, there were two municipal corporations within the UA of Malappuram. In 2011, the number of municipal corporations had doubled to four, and an additional 37 CTs were included within Malappuram.
    • The population of the UA (excluding the residents of the outgrowths) increased almost 10 times in the same period — from 1,70,409 to 16,99,060 — obviously because of the inclusion of existing urban areas in the town.
    • Similarly, Kollam UA grew from one municipal corporation in 2001 to 23 CTs, one municipal corporation, and one municipal council in 2011.
    • Its population increased by 130%, even though the population of the original ST of Kollam actually decreased by 4%.

    Why is this not seen elsewhere in India?

    • In Kerala, urbanisation is driven by a move away from agriculture, which leads to a change in a village’s Census classification status.
    • This is evident from the large number of CTs that were included in the UAs of the state since the last Census. On the other hand, except Delhi, the more populous cities in the North had fewer CTs in 2011.
    • While the pace of urbanisation has been slower in the North, some unnaturally high increases in the population can be expected after the 2021 Census — because in some cases, villages on the peripheries were brought within the administrative boundaries of the cities.

    Is it good for the economy?

    • Urbanisation leads to the growth of cities, which are sites of infrastructure like universities, hospitals, and public transport facilities.
    • There are more opportunities for the youth, which is why they attract young people and entrepreneurs.
    • In India, people moving to cities leave behind (to some extent) caste and class divisions that dominate life in the villages, and can hope to climb up the social ladder.
    • However, unplanned urbanisation can be “exclusionary”, making it difficult for migrants to live there given the high cost.
    • Unregulated housing, lack of reliable public transport, and longer commutes within these towns puts a strain on the meagre resources of migrants.

  • [op-ed of the day] Human rights are not solely an ‘internal matter’

    Context

    The human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir following the dilution of Article 370 and the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) have brought renewed international focus on India’s human rights practice.

    Evolution of the modern Human Rights

    • Classical approach: Countries made agreements on the premise that a sovereign state had the exclusive right to take any action it thought fit to deal with its nationals.
      • No recognition of individuals’ rights:  Classic international law governed the conduct between states and did not recognise the rights of individuals.
    • The classical notion was challenged in the 19th century.
    • Modern Human Rights:  Slavery Convention adopted by the League of Nations prohibiting the slave trade heralded the first human rights treaty.
      • It was based on the principle of dignity of a human being.
    • The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Adopted in 1948 by the United Nations, was the first comprehensive international human rights document.
    • The weakening of Unrestricted sovereignty: The evolution of international human rights law is also about the gradual weakening of the concept of unrestricted sovereignty.

    India and Human Rights

    • Unwarranted international scrutiny: The Indian government’s response to its human rights practice has always been that international scrutiny is unwarranted.
      • Why India claims so?: Since the country is the largest democracy in the world with an independent judiciary, free media, and an active civil society no international scrutiny is required.
      • Indian has always assured the international community that the judiciary (the SC) would provide adequate remedies to victims of human rights violations.
      • These claims sound less credible after the recent developments in J&K and the passage of the CAA.
    • Human rights and Discriminatory nature of CAA: Non–discrimination is a fundamental principle of human rights.
      • The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that CAA is fundamentally discriminatory in nature”.

    Role of Civil Society and Media

    • Media’s questionable role: Responding to international concerns the Indian government also refers to the role of free media and civil society in protecting human rights.
      • However, the media’s role in J and K and after CAA is questionable.
    • Weakened Civil Society: The government has imposed various curbs on it since 2014.
      • It has become difficult for it to receive foreign contribution.
      • Use of FRCA: Since 2014, the government has canceled the registration of about 14,000 NGOs under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).

    Conclusion

    • It is possible for the Indian government, due to its diplomatic clout, to avoid robust intervention by the UN Human Rights Council and other UN human rights mechanisms.
    • But it would be difficult to avoid scrutiny by the international community. So, the government must take steps to allay international concerns and avoid situations where it is seen as a violator of human rights.

  • [op-ed snap] Taking a holistic approach to dengue

    Context

    The advent of a new tetravalent vaccine against the dengue virus has thrown new light into the evidence-based management of dengue.

    Why the holistic approach is needed

    • Apart from promoting the use of the vaccine, gaining control over dengue will also require a holistic approach that has to include within its ambit vector control and proper case management.
    • Tetravalent vaccine: The vaccine is tetravalent i.e. it provides protection against all the four types of dengue viruses.
      • The vaccine confers about 80% protection to children vaccinated between 4 and 16 years of age without any major side effects.
    • Climatic factors: It is essentially a tropical disease that occurs in the countries around the Equator; hot weather and intermittent rainfall favour the sustenance of Aedes aegypti.
      • Aedes eggs can remain dormant for more than a year and will hatch once they come in contact with water.
    • Risk factors: Urbanisation, poor town planning, and improper sanitation are the major risk factors for the multiplication of such mosquitoes.
      • Aedes eggs can remain dormant for more than a year and will hatch once they come in contact with water.
      • Aedes mosquitoes cannot fly beyond a hundred meters. Hence, keeping the ambiance clean can help prevent their breeding.
      • Further, these mosquitoes bite during the daytime, so keeping the windows shut in the day hours is also useful.

    What needs to be done?

    • Source reduction activities: Activities like preventing water stagnation and using chemical larvicides and adulticides.
      • These chemicals need to be applied in periodic cycles to kill the larvae that remain even after the first spray.
    • Dealing with the manpower shortage: The number of skilled workers available for such measures is low; many posts in government departments remain vacant despite there being a dire public health need.
      • Due to this deficiency of manpower, active surveillance is not being done in India, says the National Vector Borne Disease Control Program.
    • Ending the Under-reporting: Dengue cases are often under-reported due to political reasons and also to avoid spreading panic among the common people. Under-reporting needs to be dealt with.
    • Increasing coordination: There is a lack of coordination between the local bodies and health departments in the delivery of public health measures.
      • A comprehensive mechanism is required to address these issues.
    • Need for epidemiological measures: Any communicable disease needs the epidemiological approach. Singapore uses one successful model of mapping and analysing data on dengue, using Geographical Information System (GIS).
      • The use of GIS involves mapping the streets with dengue cases for vector densities.
    • Emphasis on the WHO guidelines: Fluid management in the body is the cornerstone in the management of severe diseases like dengue hemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome.
      • According to the guidelines, coagulation abnormalities are not due to a reduction in the number of platelets alone.
      • This is why the WHO recommends fresh whole blood or packed cell transfusion in the event of bleeding.
    • Caution in using alternative medicine drugs: Modern medicine is not against any complementary medicine; when such a medicine is approved after rigorous testing.
      • However, in the absence of evidence, the efficacy of such medicines remains in the realm of belief instead of science.
      • So, medicines like Nilavembu kudineer and papaya leaf extract are only belief based.

    Conclusion

    The communicable nature of Dengue and its asymptomatic nature requires the holistic approach to successfully tackle the disease.

     

  • [op-ed snap] Children of lesser gods

    Context

    The deaths of nearly 200 children in Kota, from largely preventable diseases, lays bare the condition of the healthcare system in India.

    Where does India stand?

    • According to UNICEF’s ‘State of World’s Children 2019’ report, India reported the maximum number of deaths of children under five in the world in 2018.
    • 8,82,000 children under five died that year.
    • That means around 2,416 deaths per day.
    • The death of children due to largely-preventable illnesses is a matter of serious concern and calls for urgent introspection.

    Factors that govern child health

    • Most of the children who died in Gorakhpur, Muzaffarpur and Kota belong to the lowest strata of the society.
    • It won’t be wrong to conclude that they were victims of structural violence.
    • This structural violence is unleashed through a multitude of social, political and economic factors apathy of healthcare professionals, poor health services/infrastructure
    • And low rates of female literacy, economic inequality, the rigid caste system, social apartheid, lack of political will and patriarchy play role.
    • As a society, we have stopped looking at the deaths of our citizens through the prism of compassion and concern.
    • Structural violence influences the nature and distribution of extreme suffering.

    What is being done in the wrong way?

    • The government is considering the takeover of 750 district hospitals by private medical colleges through a public-private partnership (PPP) model.
    • This, despite ample evidence about the failure of the model in the country’s healthcare system.
    • Nobel laureate Kenneth Arrow demonstrated that profit and private involvement in healthcare lead to an erosion of trust.
    • An Individual’s demand for medical services is irregular and unpredictable, the involvement of a private market model for such services can be disastrous.
    • The U.S.’s experiences in the PPP model in healthcare have shone a light on the deficits in transparency and highlighted the lack of care of vulnerable groups.

    Conclusion

    • What urgently a sincere engagement by the state in matters concerning peoples’ health.
    • We need to question the government’s priorities in a country where nearly a million children die every year

  • [op-ed snap] Horror in Kota

    Context

    Death of 100 children in the month of December at a Government Hospital in Kota highlights the state of the public health system in India.

    Public health as a political agenda

    • After the incident of a large number of children in such a short span, Rajasthan CM appealed not to politicise the issue.
    • But it is high time the issue is in fact politicised.
    • The issue of public health needs to be pushed at the top of the political agenda.
    • Citizens must hold political parties accountable for the state of healthcare in the country.

    Poor infrastructure

    • Until the number of deaths crosses a certain threshold the poor state of infrastructure fails to attract the attention of the authorities.
    • This hospital came to light like Gorakhpur Medical college where scores of children had died only after media reports of 963 child deaths.

    Conclusion

    Every single death in a hospital ought to be seen as a failure that needs to be addressed urgently. For that, the government needs to make public health a priority.

  • [op-ed snap]Eradication of TB by 2025

    At the End TB summit, 2018 the prime minister of India made a bold commitment to end tuberculosis by 2025-five years ahead of the global target. Which is possible to achieve if the efforts are put at the level it was done in case of polio.

    The toll taken by TB

    • Despite the disease being fully curable, people still die from it.
    • TB usually affects people in their most productive years and drives families into debt.
    • It has a direct link to human suffering, discrimination and also poverty.
    • Due to its infectious spread, it directly affects our economic growth as well.
    • With resilience, sufficient investment, innovative approaches and strategies and the participation of all stakeholders, TB can be defeated.

    First Step- Awareness

    • The first step is the creation of awareness and empowering of communities.
    • TB affects millions, yet very few know enough about it.
    • Multilingual, multi-stakeholder awareness effort to ensure that all Indians knows about the challenges of TB and where to seek treatment is required.
    • With the expansion of the media and evolving technology, it is possible to reach everyone with the right information.

    Second Step- Access to diagnosis and treatment

    • Ensuring that every Indian get access to correct diagnosis and treatment for TB, regardless of their ability to pay for it is the second step.
    • To do so, working with the private sector is necessary as was done in the case of polio.
    • There are numerous innovative private-sector programmes and partnership schemes for TB.

    Role of  Private sector

    • Recently launched programmes for doctors and labs offer the private sector various incentives.
    • Even today, about half a million TB cases go unnotified, especially those seeking care in the private sector.
    • Those cases need to be tracked and ensured that everyone in the need of treatment and care gets it.
    • Organisations like Indian Medical Association and Indian Academy of Paediatrics are working with the private sector to ensure patient-centric care as per “Standards of TB Care in India” (STCI).

    Drug-resistant TB

    • A key challenge is building a forward-looking plan to address and control drug resistance.
    • Drug-resistant TB is a man-made menace that is a major roadblock in a fight against TB.
    • Every TB patient must be tested for drug resistance at the first point of care, whether in the public or private sector, to rule out any drug resistance.

    Efforts by the government

    • Nikshay Poshan Yojana -in which TB patients receive Rs 500 every month while on treatment was launched.
    • Nikshay Poshan Yojana ensure that the patients have economic support and nutrition during the required period.
    • ‘TB Harega Desh Jeetega Campaign’ was launched to accelerate the efforts to end TB by 2025.
    • The campaign aims to initiate preventive and promotive health approaches.
    • By applying “multi-sectoral and community-led” approach, the government is building a national movement to end TB by 2025.
    • Resource allocation towards the TB Elimination Programme has been increased by four-fold.
    • Sincere efforts need to be made to make our health systems more accessible and reliable.
    • It also required to ensure that those seeking care trust the healthcare system and get the appropriate care for completing treatment.
    • There is a need to create more labs, point of care tests, an assured drug pipeline, access to new drugs.
    • The government should also ensure counselling and support for those affected.
    • Every patient who is diagnosed late and does not receive timely treatment continues to infect others.
    • To break this cycle, government machinery at the field level should work with communities and provide free diagnosis and treatment to every affected individual.

    Conclusion

    With all the efforts, planning and resource put in place to eradicate the menace of TB from India, it is possible to achieve the goal by 2025.

  • Restructuring of the Railways Board

    The Cabinet recently approved trimming of the Railway Board, the powerful body that governs the Indian Railways. From nine, the Board will now have only five Members.

    The move has led to protests from serving civil servants, prompting the Railway Board to reach out to them to allay their concerns.

    What is the proposed restructure?

    • The Cabinet has decided to merge all central service cadres of Railways officers into a single Indian Railways Management Service (IRMS).
    • Now, any eligible officer could occupy any post, including Board Member posts, irrespective of training and specialization since they will all belong to IRMS.
    • The five members of the Board, other than a Chairman-cum-CEO, will now be the Members Infrastructure, Finance, Rolling Stock, Track, and Operations and Business Development.
    • The Board will also have independent Members, who will be industry experts with at least 30 years of experience, but in non-executive roles, only attending Board meetings.
    • A separate exam under the Union Public Service Commission is proposed to be instituted in 2021 to induct IRMS officers.

    What is the present system like?

    • The Indian Railways is governed by a pool of officers, among whom engineers are recruited after the Indian Engineering Service Examination, and civil servants through the Civil Services Examination.
    • The civil servants are in the Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS), Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS) and Indian Railway Personnel Service (IRPS).
    • The engineers are in five technical service cadres — Indian Railway Service of Engineers (IRSE), Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers (IRSME), Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers (IRSEE), Indian Railway Service of Signal Engineers (IRSSE) and the Indian Railway Stores Service (IRSS).
    • Until the 1950s, the Railways system was run by officers from just three main streams: Traffic, Civil Engineering, and Mechanical. The other streams emerged as separate services over time.

    Why was the reform needed?

    • The railways departments were working “in silos” and hence the government wanted to end this inter-departmental rivalries, which was been hindering growth for decades.
    • Several committees including the Bibek Debroy committee in 2015 have noted that “departmentalism” is a major problem in the system.
    • Most committees have said merger of the services in some form would be a solution.
    • The Debroy report recommended merging of all services to create two distinct services: Technical and Logistics. But it did not say how to merge the existing officers.

    Why are officers opposed to the move?

    • The questions started with a proposal to merge all 8,400 officers in the eight services — five technical and three non-technical — to prepare a common seniority list.
    • Those protesting the government’s decision say that the merger is unscientific and against established norms, because it proposes to merge two fundamentally dissimilar entities, with multiple disparities.
    • First, the civil servants come from all walks of life after clearing the Civil Services Examination.
    • The engineers usually sit for the Engineering Services Examination right after getting an engineering degree.
    • Various studies have noted that engineers join the Railways around the age of 22-23, while the civil servants join when they are around 26, barring exceptions.
    • The age difference starts to pinch at the later stages of their careers, when higher-grade posts are fewer. There are more engineers than civil servants.
    • Protesters are also saying that the merger is against the service conditions which civil servants sign up for while choosing an alternative if they cannot make it to IAS.

    What will change with the restructure?

    • In inter-departmental seniority — a complex process to fix, which has led to court cases in the past — problems arise when different services compete for posts that are open to all.
    • those of Divisional Railway Managers (DRMs), GMs, and subsequently, the Chairman Railway Board. And here lies the major criticism of the move.
    • The civil servants are saying that if all present cadres are merged and even higher departmental posts become open to all, engineers, being in larger numbers and of a certain age profile, may end up occupying most posts.
    • Another aspect is the suitability of jobs. The move, many say, emerges from the “simplistic” belief that while non-technical specialists cannot do technical jobs, technocrats can do both.
    • The counter-argument is that civil servants in government, by virtue of the screening process and subsequent training, possess acumen and skills that go beyond academic specialization.

    How did the Railways get here?

    • Departmental posts are ring-fenced; promotions happen within each department from officers of that service.
    • The problem starts when, within a department, there are too many officers eligible for a few posts.
    • A department needs a constant supply of posts in higher grades to keep promoting its seniors so that the juniors can keep getting timely promotions.
    • In the Railways, this has happened either organically when the government restructured the cadres and created new posts at intervals of several years, or through the execution of projects.
    • Across the Railways, the internal attempt by each department has always been to get a bigger share of resources to spend on projects, although the limited funds are meant for all.
    • The departments grew, promotional prospects expanded, even if Railways did not. The “temporary” posts were almost never surrendered, and were “regularised” over time.
    • This was most prevalent in the technical departments and, to an extent, in the Accounts department as well, officials say.

    What’s next?

    • The current demand is for two distinct services instead of one — a civil services, and one that encompasses all engineering specialisations.
    • The logic is that functionally, departments will continue to exist through various technical and non-technical specialisations, so merging them will not end departmentalism per se.
    • The government has on record assured all existing officers that no one’s seniority will be hampered and promotion prospects will be protected.