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Subject: Indian Society

  • Population criteria for new Eklavya schools ‘impractical’: Parliamentary Panel

    A Parliamentary panel has refuted that 20,000 ST people, who make up at least 50% of the total population criteria is “impractical” to build new Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS).

    What are Eklavya Schools?

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

    Features of Eklavya Schools

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

    What is the population-based criteria?

    • The Tribal Affairs Ministry plans to build EMRS on 15 acres of land in all sub-districts which have ST communities of more than 20,000 people, who make up at least 50% of their total population.
    • Wherever density of ST population is higher in identified Sub-Districts (90% or more), it is proposed to set up Eklavya Model Day Boarding School (EMDBS) on an experimental basis.

    Issues with this criteria

    • There are difficulties in identifying and acquiring lands in several tribal districts.
    • Especially in forested or hilly areas, a contiguous 15-acre plot is hard to find.
    • This criterion would also deprive scattered ST populations of the benefit of the Eklavya schools.
    • For most of the places for EMRSs, there is no land available inside the village or the block.

     

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  • What is Mother Tongue Survey of India (MTSI)?

    mother

    The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has completed the Mother Tongue Survey of India (MTSI) with field videography of the country’s 576 languages.

    What is the MTSI?

    • The Mother Tongue Survey of India is a project that surveys the mother tongues, which are returned consistently across two and more Census decades.
    • It also documents the linguistic features of the selected languages.
    • The category “mother tongue” is a designation provided by the respondent, but it need not be identical with the actual linguistic medium.
    • The NIC and the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) will be documenting and preserving the linguistic data of the surveyed mother tongues in audio-video files.
    • Video-graphed speech data of Mother Tongues will also be uploaded on the NIC survey for archiving purposes.

    How many “mother tongues” does India have?

    • As per an analysis of 2011 linguistic census data in 2018, more than 19,500 dialects are spoken in India as mother tongues.
    • They are grouped into 121 mother tongues.
    • According to the 2011 linguistic census, Hindi is the most widely spoken mother tongue, with 52.8 crore people or 43.6 per cent of the population declaring it as the mother tongue.
    • The next highest is Bengali, mother tongue for 9.7 crore individuals, and accounting for 8 per cent of the population.

    Where does the mother tongue feature in the education of children?

    • The new National Curriculum Framework (NCF) has recommended that mother tongue should be the primary medium of instruction in schools for children up to eight years of age.
    • The new NCF, which deals with pre-school and classes I-II, emphasises the virtues of the mother tongue as the primary medium of instruction.
    • It says that by the time children join pre-school, they acquire significant competence in the “home language”.
    • This push has come after repeated policy articulations in its favour from PM and Home Minister.

    Why emphasize more on mother tongue?

    • According to the NCF, evidence from research confirms the importance of teaching children in their mother tongue during the foundational years and beyond.
    • Children learn concepts most rapidly and deeply in their home language.
    • Hence the primary medium of instruction is optimally the child’s home language/ mother tongue/ familiar language in the Foundational Stage.

    What is the status of the population census?

    • The forthcoming decennial population census will be the 16th since the first exercise was conducted in 1872.
    • It will be the eighth census since independence.
    • The census was supposed to take place in 2021, but was postponed due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

    Updates in the new census

    • To ensure efficient processing and quick release of data, the Home Ministry has adopted some new initiatives, which include digital data processing and the use of geospatial technology.
    • According to the report, pre-census mapping activities like preparation and updation of maps that show administrative units will be carried out.
    • Census results will be disseminated via web-based interactive maps.

     

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  • How is India planning to end Child Marriage?

    child-marriage

    The steering committee of a UNFPA-UNICEF Global Programme to End Child Marriage is on a visit to India to witness state interventions that have helped reduce the prevalence of child marriage.

    Why such visit?

    • The UNFPA-UNICEF estimates that 10 million children could become child brides as a result of the pandemic globally.

    What is Child Marriage?

    • Child marriage refers to any formal marriage or informal union between a child under the age of 18 and an adult and another child.
    • The Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021, fixes 21 years as the marriageable age for women.

    Reasons behind its prevalence

    • Role of poverty: A large proportion of child marriages take place primarily because of poverty and the burden of the huge costs of dowry associated with delayed marriages.
    • Norms: It is because of social norms in many regions and cultures that parents begin preparations for a girl’s marriage once she has reached puberty.
    • Crisis: Conflict increases the inequalities that make girls vulnerable to child marriage – and its consequences. Families may arrange marriages for girls, believing marriage will protect their daughters from violence.

    Issues with Child Marriage

    (1) Social implications

    • Impacts girl child more: Globally, the prevalence of child marriage among boys is just one sixth that among girls.
    • Leads to deprivation: Child marriage robs girls of their childhood and threatens their lives and health.
    • Exclusion: The practice can also isolate girls from family and friends and exclude them from participating in their communities, taking a heavy toll on their physical and psychological well-being.
    • Academic loss: Girls who marry before 18 are more likely to experience domestic violence and less likely to remain in school.

    (2) Health issues

    • Life threats: Child brides often become pregnant during adolescence, when the risk of mortality during for themselves and their infants.
    • Forced pregnancy: Girls are forced into adulthood before they is physically and mentally ready. This is the main cause of global prevalence of malnutrition.

    (3) Economic impacts

    • Child marriage negatively affects the Indian economy and can lead to an intergenerational cycle of poverty.
    • It suddenly pulls out the children involved out of workforce before they grow as adult.
    • Girls and boys married as children more likely lack the skills, knowledge and job prospects needed to lift their families out of poverty and contribute to their country’s social and economic growth.

    What is the situation in the world?

    • According to data from UNICEF, the total number of girls married in childhood stands at 12 million per year.
    • It strives to end the practice by 2030 — the target set out in the Sustainable Development Goals.

    Where does India stand?

    GOOD:  Declining trend

    • There is a growing trend for a decline in the overall prevalence of child marriage.
    • In India, child marriage reduced from 47.4% in 2005-06 to 26.8% in 2015-16, registering a decline of 21% points during the decade.
    • In the last five years, it declined by 3.5% points to reach 23.3% in 2020-21, according to the latest National Family Health Survey-5 data.

    BAD: State-wise disparity is very higher

    • However, 3% is still a disturbingly high percentage in a country with a population of 141.2 crore.
    • Some states have a higher prevalence than the national average — West Bengal, Bihar and Tripura top the list with more than 40% of women aged 20-24 years married below 18 (NFHS).
    • In Kerala, women who got married before the age of 18 stood at 6.3% in 2019-20, from 7.6% in 2015-16.

    Laws and policy interventions in India

    • There are crucial laws that aim at protecting children from violation of human and other rights including the-
    1. Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 and
    2. Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012
    • Raising the age of marriage: A parliamentary standing committee is weighing the pros and cons of raising the age of marriage for women to 21, which has been cleared by the Union Cabinet.
    • Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Scheme: It aims to address the issue of the declining child sex ratio image (CSR).
    • Kanyashree scheme: West Bengal’s scheme offers financial aid to girls wanting to pursue higher studies, though women’s activists have pointed. Bihar and other States have been implementing a cycle scheme to ensure girls reach safely to school, and UP has a scheme to encourage girls to go back to school.

    Way forward

    • Ensure education: Much of the benefits can be reaped by ensuring that women complete education at least up to 12 years.
    • Upskilling: Bangladesh shows that improving women’s education and imparting modern skills to them that increase their employability reduces child marriage and improves health and nutrition.
    • Educational attainment criteria in schemes: Schemes which ease the financial burden of marriage but the eligibility criteria of which should essentially link to educational attainment in addition to age demand attention.

    Conclusion

    • A legalistic approach to increasing the age at marriage will produce positive results only if it leads to an improvement in women’s education and skill acquisition for employability.
    • In the absence of an enhancement in women’s schooling or skills, a legalistic approach to ending child marriage might become counterproductive.

     

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  • Recognizing “ASHA”: The real hope

    ASHA

    Context

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

    Evolution of “ASHA” you may want to know

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

    Who are ASHA workers?

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

    Qualifications for ASHA Workers

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

    ASHA

    What role do the ASHA Workers play? 

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

    ASHA

    What are the challenges that ASHA workers face?

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

    ASHA

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

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

    Conclusion

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

    Mains Question

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

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  • Are there anti-superstition laws in India?

    superstition

    Context

    • The brutal murders of two women as part of “ritualistic human sacrifices” in the Pathanamthitta district of Kerala have left the country in shock. Chilling details of the killings have sparked a debate about the prevalence of superstitious beliefs, black magic and sorcery in Kerala. In the absence of a comprehensive law to counter such acts, the call for a strict anti-superstition law has grown louder.

    superstition

    What is Superstition?

    • Superstition is an irrational belief usually founded on ignorance or fear and characterized by obsessive reverence for omens, charms etc. It is a notion, act or ritual that derives from such belief.

    What is Witchcraft?

    • Black magic is also known as Witchcraft is usage of supernatural power for evil and selfish purposes and to perform malicious practices to destroy someone physically or mentally or financially.
    • Black magic makes humans victims of baseless fears, reverses fortunes and confusions.

    superstition

    What is the status of such killings in India?

    • As per the 2021 report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), six deaths were linked to human sacrifices, while witchcraft was the motive for 68 killings.
    • In 2020, India saw 88 deaths due to witchcraft and 11 died as part of human sacrifices.
    • The maximum number of witchcraft cases were reported from Chhattisgarh (20), followed by Madhya Pradesh (18) and Telangana (11). Kerala saw two cases of human sacrifice, the NCRB report states.

    What are the laws over superstition in India?

    • No central law: In India, there is no central law that exclusively deals with crimes related to witchcraft, superstition, or occult-inspired activities. In the absence of a nationwide legislation, a few States have enacted laws to counter witchcraft and protect women from deadly ‘witch-hunting’.

    superstition

    Anti-superstition Laws enacted by the states

    • Bihar: Bihar was the first State to enact a law to prevent witchcraft, identification of a woman as a witch and “eliminate torture, humiliation and killing of women.” The Prevention of Witch (Daain) Practices Act came into force in October 1999. Anyone who identifies a person as a “witch” and acts to aid this identification can face a jail term of up to three months, or a fine of ₹1,000, or both.
    • Jharkhand: A similar law was passed in Jharkhand in 2001 the Prevention of Witch (Daain) Practices Act.
    • Chhattisgarh: Even though Chhattisgarh is one of the worst-affected States in terms of witchcraft-related crimes, the State enacted the Chhattisgarh Tonahi (witch) Pratadna Nivaran Act only in 2005. As per the law, a person convicted for identifying someone as a witch can be sentenced to up to three years of rigorous imprisonment with a fine
    • Odisha: Following the directions of the Odisha High Court to frame a law to deal with rising cases of witch-hunting in the State, the Odisha Prevention of Witch-Hunting Bill was passed by the Assembly in 2013. The bill provides penalties for a witch doctor, or a person claiming to be a black magician
    • Maharashtra: In Maharashtra, the Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Act, 2013 was passed after the murder of anti-superstition activist Dr. Narendra Dabholkar.
    • Rajasthan: The state of Rajasthan enacted the Rajasthan Prevention of Witch-Hunting Act in 2015 to “provide for effective measures to tackle the menace of witch-hunting and prevent the practice of witchcraft.
    • Assam: The Assam Witch Hunting (Prohibition, Prevention and Protection) Act, 2015, which received the President’s assent in 2018, prohibits witch hunting completely. The law states, no person shall identify, call, stigmatize, defame or accuse any other person as witch by words, or by signs or indications or by conducts or actions or any other manner or instigate, aid or abet such an act or commit witch hunting.
    • Karnataka: The latest law was passed in Karnataka where the Karnataka Prevention and Eradication of Inhuman Evil Practices and Black Magic Act, 2017 came into effect in January 2020. The law bans several practices related to black magic and superstition, like forcing a person to walk on fire at religious festivals and the practice of piercing rods from one side of the jaw to the other.

    Conclusion

    • States governments are doing their best to criminalize the rituals of human sacrifices by enacting stringent laws. There is need to have a concrete nationwide anti-superstition law and as a society every individual should be made a stakeholder in awareness against human sacrifices based on witchcraft and rituals.

    Mains Question

    Q. What is Superstition? Are there any anti-superstition laws in India that criminalizes the rituals such as human sacrifices and witch-hunting? Discuss.

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  • Take immediate action against hate speech: SC

    hate-speech

    The Supreme Court has expressed concern over growing incidents of hate speeches in the country and directed the governments and police authorities to take suo motu action in such cases without waiting for lodging of formal complaints.

    Why in news?

    • There has been rising incidents of hate speeches targeting a particular community in India.

    What is ‘Hate Speech’?

    • There is no specific legal definition of ‘hate speech’.
    • The Law Commission of India, in its 267th Report, says: “Hate speech generally is an incitement to hatred primarily against a group of persons defined in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief and the like …
    • Thus, hate speech is any word written or spoken, signs, visible representations within the hearing or sight of a person with the intention to cause fear or alarm, or incitement to violence.”
    • In general, hate speech is considered a limitation on free speech that seeks to prevent or bar speech that exposes a person or a group or section of society to hate, violence, ridicule or indignity.

    How is it treated in Indian law?

    • Provisions in law criminalize speeches, writings, actions, signs and representations that foment violence and spread disharmony between communities and groups and these are understood to refer to ‘hate speech’.
    • Sections 153A and 505 of the Indian Penal Code are generally taken to be the main penal provisions that deal with inflammatory speeches and expressions that seek to punish ‘hate speech’.

    [I] Section 153A:

    • Promotion of enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony’, is an offence punishable with three years’ imprisonment.

    [II] Section 505:

    • 505(1): Statements conducing to public mischief– The statement, publication, report or rumour that is penalized under Section 505(1) should be one that promotes mutiny by the armed forces, or causes such fear or alarm that people are induced to commit an offence against the state or public tranquillity. This attracts a jail term of up to three years.
    • 505(2): It is an offence to make statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes.
    • 505(3): Same offence will attract up to a five-year jail term if it takes place in a place of worship, or in any assembly engaged in religious worship or religious ceremonies.

    Why curb hate speeches?

    • Creates social divide: Individuals believe in stereotypes that are ingrained in their minds and these stereotypes lead them to believe that a class or group of persons are inferior to them and as such cannot have the same rights as them.
    • Threat to peaceful co-existence: The stubbornness to stick to a particular ideology without caring for the right to co-exist peacefully adds further fuel to the fire of hate speech.

    Issues in regulating hate speech

    • Powers to State: Almost every regulation of speech, no matter how well-intentioned, increases the power of the state.
    • Hate speeches are Political: The issue is fundamentally political and we should not pretend that fine legal distinctions will solve the issue.
    • Legal complications: An over-reliance on legal instruments to solve fundamentally social and political problems often backfires.

    Way forward

    • Subjects like hate speeches become a complex issue to deal with, in a country like India which is very diverse, as it was very difficult to differentiate between free and hate speech.
    • There are many factors that should be considered while restraining speeches like strong opinions, offensive comments towards certain communities, the effect on values like dignity, liberty and equality.
    • We all have to work together and communicate efficiently for our country to be a healthy place to live in.

     

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  • Reality check on India’s Population policy

    population

    Context

    • Earlier this year, the United Nations published data to show that India would surpass China as the world’s most populous country by 2023.According to the 2018-19Economic Survey, India’s demographic dividend will peak around2041, when the share of the working age population is expected to hit 59%.

    What is the Present status of India’s population?

    • Declining Total fertility rate (TFR): The Total fertility rate (TFR) has declined from 2.2 (reported in 2015-16) to 2.0 at the all- India level, according to the latest National Family Health Survey of India OR NFHS- 5 (phase 2) released by Union Health Ministry.1.6 in urban areas2.1 in Rural area and 2.0 all India.
    • Sex ratio: There are 1,020 women per 1,000 men in India according to the recently released Fifth Edition (NFHS-5). Such a sex ratio has not been recorded in any of the previous four editions of the NFHS.

    population

    Need for population control measures

    • At present, India hosts 16% of the world’s population with only 2.45% of the global surface area and 4% of water resources.
    • The ecosystem assessments also pointed out the human population’s role in driving other species into extinction and precipitating a resource crunch.
    • So, the population explosion would irreversibly impact India’s environment and natural resource base and limit the next generation’s entitlement and progress. Therefore, the government should take measures to control the population.

    What will be the Impact of declining fertility?

    • Implications on Political economy: It’s not just the economic implications that we need to think about but also the implications of the political economy.
    • Spatial difference: India’s fertility fell below 2.1 births for certain States 10 years ago. In four other States, it’s just declining. So, not only is the fertility falling, the proportion of the population that will be living in various States is also changing.
    • North-south imbalance: The future of India lies in the youth living in U.P., Bihar, M.P. If we don’t support these States in ensuring that their young people are well educated, poised to enter the labour market and have sufficient skills, they will become an economic liability.

    population

    How India can take advantage of its demographic dividend?

    • Investing In literacy: If China hadn’t invested in literacy and good health systems, it would not have been able to lower its fertility rates. In any case, we have much to learn from China about what not to do.
    • Planning for elderly: Especially in the case of the elderly, where the estimates show that12% of India’s total population by 2025 is going to be the elderly. Every fifth Indian by 2050 will be over the age of 65. So, planning for this segment merits equal consideration.
    • Focusing on gendered dimension: India certainly has the capacity to invest in its youth population. But we don’t recognise the gender dimension of some of these challenges. Fertility decline has tremendous gender implications.
    • Lowering the Burdon on women: What it means is that women have lower burden on them. But it also has a flip side. Ageing is also a gender issue as two thirds of the elderly are women, because women tend to live longer than men do. Unless we recognise the gender dimension, it will be very difficult for us to tap into these changes.
    • Educating the young girls: So, what do we need to do? India has done a good job of ensuring educational opportunities to girls. Next, we need to improve employment opportunities for young women and increase the female employment rate. Elderly women need economic and social support networks.

    Do we really need the population policy?

    • Existing policy is right: India has a very good population policy, which was designed in 2000. And States also have their population policies. We just need to tweak these and add ageing to our population policy focus. But otherwise, the national population policy is the right policy.
    • Reproductive health is important: What we need is a policy that supports reproductive health for individuals. We also need to start focusing on other challenges that go along with enhancing reproductive health, which is not just the provision of family planning services.
    • Avoiding the stigma: We need to change our discourse around the population policy. Although we use the term population policy, population control still remains a part of our dialogue. We need to maybe call it a policy that enhances the population as resource for India’s development, and change the mindset to focus on ensuring that the population is happy, healthy, productive
    • Thinking beyond two child policy: Our arguments and discussions have not gone beyond the two-child norm. The two-child norm indicates a coercive approach to primarily one community. And there are too many myths and misconceptions around population issues, which lead to this discourse, which takes away attentions of from real issues.

    population

    Way forward

    • Family welfare approach: We need to move from a family planning approach to a family welfare approach. We should be focusing on empowering men and women in being able to make informed choices about their fertility, health and wellbeing.
    • Thinking about automation: As fertility drops and life spans rise globally, the world is ageing at a significant pace. Can increasing automation counteract the negative effects of an ageing population or will an ageing population inevitably end up causing a slowdown in economic growth? We need to look at all of that.
    • Changing the mindset: We are where we are, so let’s plan for the wellbeing of our population instead of hiding behind the excuse that we don’t have good schooling or health because there are too many people. That mindset is counterproductive.
    • Skill development and making population productive: It is not about whether the population is large or small; it is about whether it is healthy, skilled and productive. Thomas Malthus had said as the population grows, productivity will not be able to keep pace with this growth, and we will see famines, higher mortality, wars, etc. Luckily, he proved to be wrong.
    • Adhering to the Cairo consensus: Cairo International Conference on Population and Development in 1994 stressed population. The Cairo Consensus called for the promotion of reproductive rights, empowering women, universal education, maternal and infant health to untangle the knotty issue of poverty and high fertility. The consensus also demands an increase in the rate of modern contraceptive prevalence, male contraception. States instead of releasing population control measures can start to adhere to implementing the Cairo consensus.
    • Adopting Women-Centric Approach: Population stabilisation is not only about controlling population growth, but also entails gender parity. So, states need to incentivize later marriages and childbirth, promoting women’s labor force participation, etc.
    • Seeing Population as a Resource rather than Burden:
      • As the Economic Survey, 2018-19, points out that India is set to witness a sharp slowdown in population growth in the next two decades.
      • Further, population estimates also predict a generational divide between India’s north and south, Fifteen years from now.
      • So instead of population control policies at the state level, India needs a universal policy to utilize population in a better way.

    Conclusion

    • We have the capacity to tap into the potential of our youth population. There is a brief window of opportunity, which is only there for the next few decades. We need to invest in adolescent wellbeing right away, if we want to reap the benefits. Otherwise, our demographic dividend could turn easily into a demographic disaster.

    Mains Question

    Q.Why India’s fertility rate is declining? How India can convert its demography into opportunity by investing in gendered based population policy?

     

  • Migrant workers in India

    Migrant

    Context

    • India has used Aadhaar (digital identity) and UPI (digital payments) extensively to address the challenges of identification and financial inclusion in social protection delivery, particularly in the case of migrants.

    Who is a migrant worker?

    • A “migrant worker” is a person who either migrates within their home country or outside it to pursue work.
    • Usually, migrant workers do not have the intention to stay permanently in the country or region in which they work.
    • As per the census 2011, the total number of internal migrants in India is 36 crore or 37% of the country’s population.
    • The Economic Survey pegged the size of the migrant workforce at roughly 20 percent or over 10 crores in 2016.

    Migrant

    What are the problems faced by migrants?

    • Issues with finding local Employment: Most migrant workers have a seasonal nature of employment. During off-seasons, they struggle to feed their families. Repeated lockdowns made situations more difficult for migrants to find jobs in their localities. They faced travel restrictions which hindered their job search as well.
    • Lack of Insurance Benefits in a Pandemic Environment: Migrant workers work in precarious conditions with little wages and no access to government schemes and services. Poor and unsafe working and living conditions make them prone to diseases. Greater threats of occupational illnesses, nutritional diseases, alcoholism, HIV, and communicable diseases are rampant in the migrant workforce.
    • Issue of timely and Fair Payment of Wages: The informal workforce in India consists of more than 150.6 million regular and daily wage earners. Most of these workers are unaware of their rights as ‘migrant workers. Many unscrupulous agents coerce them and don’t pay minimum wages as per law.
    • Lack of portability of benefits: Migrants registered to claim access to benefits at one location lose access upon migration to a different location. This is especially true of access to entitlements under the PDS.  The ration card required to access benefits under the PDS is issued by state governments and is not portable across states.  This system excludes inter-state migrants from the PDS unless they surrender their card from the home state and get a new one from the host state.
    • Lack of affordable housing: The proportion of migrants in urban population is 47%. In 2015, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs identified migrants in urban areas as the largest population needing housing in cities. There is inadequate supply of low-income ownership and rental housing options.

    Migrant

    Government steps for migrant workers

    • Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana: After the lockdown, Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana with a financial package of Rs. 1.7 lakh crore was launched to help poor, needy, and unorganized sector workers of the country.
    • PM SVANidhi Scheme: PM SVANidhi Scheme was launched to facilitate collateral-free working capital loans up to Rs.10,000/- of one-year tenure, to approximately, 50 lakh street vendors, to resume their businesses.
    • Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan: In order to facilitate the employment of migrant workers who have gone back to their home state, Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan was initiated in 116 districts in Mission Mode.
    • State migrant cell: Migrant workers’ Cell is being created to prepare a database of migrant workers in states with mapping.
    • eShram portal: It is a national database created to register the unorganised workers in the country, including the migrant workers.
    • National policy on migrant workers: NITI Aayog has been mandated to prepare a draft national policy on migrant workers to reimagine labour-capital relations while integrating the migrant workers within the formal workforce.

    How technology could provide Solutions?

    • Providing digital public infrastructure (DPI):  Digital public infrastructure systems that enable the effective provision of essential society-wide functions and services  can enable a paradigm shift, allowing governments to co-create solutions with the private sector and civil society.
    • Adopting Public private partnership models: There are three key areas where DPI can enable public-private partnerships (PPP) in the delivery of social protection of migrants,
    1. Awareness of entitlements: One barrier faced at the initial stage is lack of awareness of entitlements or of the need to reapply, when migrants move from one state to another. Jan Saathi is an application that provides migrants withinformation on eligible social security schemes. Organisations such as Haqdarshak not only inform potential beneficiaries about their eligibility for various schemes, Central or State, but also help them avail entitlements.
    2. Information about livelihoods and housing: The informal nature of the labour market makes access to affordable and safe living conditions a challenge, especially if the family migrates as a unit. Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairshas introduced the Affordable Rental Housing Complexes under PMAY-Urban but the availability of such facilities is inadequate compared to the number of migrants. Bandhu’s ecosystem of applications connect migrant workers directly with employers and housing providers, to give them more informed choices. Jobsgaar and MyRojgaar also play a similar role by connecting workers to employers.
    3. Healthy Grievance redressal Mechanism: Gram Vaani bridges the gap in grievance redressal by providing a platform where citizens can use Interactive Voice Response (IVR) to record their grievance in accessing entitlements. Aajeevika Bureau and The Working People’s Charter built the India Labourline to provide legal aid and mediation services to migrant workers.
    • Adopting a well-designed data: While a growing ecosystem of private players (NGOs, civil society organisations, not-for-profit and for-profit entities) are addressing these needs, well designed data exchanges can help unlock a strong public-private collaboration in the delivery of social protection.

    Migrant

    What more government can do to address the issue of migrants?

    • Creating centralized data: The state’s digital efforts are often in siloes and the need to maximize the use of data across schemes and departments is a high priority.
    • E-Shram: Initiatives such as direct benefit transfers and linking schemes for the portability of entitlements have shown promise. e-Shram, which is a national database of unorganized workers, aims to reduce access barriers to social protection for migrants.
    • Making portable entitlement: Recent announcements of API-based integration of e-Shram with the various state government labor departments and with the One Nation One Ration Card scheme are a step in that direction.
    • Working with the private sector: Enabling linkages of migrant data with the private sector can lead to benefits on the demand side, in the form of reduced transaction costs in identifying jobs, affordable housing, and redressal of grievances.
    • Engaging the private sector: Private players who have established relationships with these mobile populations can help the state in planning and forecasting the demand for benefits. An example of this is the digital payment ecosystem since the introduction of UPI.

    Conclusion

    • Digital technologies have potential solutions to problems and transform the livelihood of migrants. The need for adequate data protection and safeguards is essential for the implementation of any such initiative.

    Mains Question

    Q.Enlist the problem faced by migrant workers? Elaborate on how use of technology can solve the many problems of migrants.

     

  • Marital rape, MTP Act and the Society

    Marital rapeContext

    • The recent Supreme court judgment expands the definition of rape to marital rape for the MTP Act. Marital rape is still not criminalised. If society does not accept “marital rape” as even a moral offence, how will a woman convince doctors to terminate her pregnancy based on the exception provided by the SC’s verdict.

    Background

    • The Supreme Court has held that all women, irrespective of their marital status, are entitled to safe and legal abortion till 24 weeks of pregnancy under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP).

    What is Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act?

    • Abortion in India has been a legal right under various circumstances for the last 50 years since the introduction of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act in 1971
    • The Act was amended in 2003 to enable women’s access to safe and legal abortion services.

    Marital rapeWhat are the Changes in Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 2021?

    • The gestation limit: The gestation limit for abortions has been raised from the earlier ceiling of 20 weeks to 24 weeks, but only for special categories of pregnant women such as rape or incest survivors. But this termination would need the approval of two registered doctors.
    • Doctor’s approval: All pregnancies up to 20 weeks require one doctor’s approval. The earlier law, the MTP Act 1971, required one doctor’s approval for pregnancies up to 12 weeks and two doctors’ for pregnancies between 12 and 20 weeks.
    • Contraceptive failure: Women can now terminate unwanted pregnancies caused by contraceptive failure, regardless of their marital status. Earlier the law specified that only a “married woman and her husband” could do this.
    • In case of fetal disability:  There is also no upper gestation limit for abortion in case of fetal disability if so decided by a medical board of specialist doctors, which state governments and union territories’ administrations would set up.

    What is marital rape?

    • Marital rape is the act of sexual intercourse with one’s spouse without her consent.
    • It is no different manifestation of domestic violence and sexual abuse.
    • It is often a chronic form of violence for the victim which takes place within abusive relations.

    Marital rapeStatistics on Marital rape in India

    • The NFHS-5 survey (2019-21):
    • The survey said that 32% of ever-married women have suffered spousal physical, sexual, or emotional violence, and 27% have suffered at least one form of violence.
    • Twenty-nine percent of ever- married women have experienced spousal physical violence and 14% have suffered emotional violence.
    • The form of sexual violence most commonly reported by women is that their husband used physical force to have sexual intercourse when they did not want to (5%).
    • Four per cent reported that their husband forced them with threats or in other ways to perform sexual acts they did not want to and 3% of them reported that their husband forced them to perform any sexual acts they did not want to.
    • Women in rural areas are more likely (34%) than women in urban areas (27%) to experience one or more forms of spousal violence.

    Why modern India still not accepting marital rape as a rape?

    • Definition: The definition of rape codified in Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) includes all forms of sexual assault involving non-consensual intercourse with a woman.
    • Non-Criminalization: Non-Criminalization of marital rape in India emanates from Exception 2 to Section 375.
    • Exemption: Section 375 defines rape and lists seven notions of consent which, if vitiated, would constitute the offence of rape by a man. However, the provision contains a crucial exemption, Sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under eighteen years of age, is not rape.
    • Marriage as perpetual consent: As per current law, a wife is presumed to deliver perpetual consent to have sex with her husband after entering marital relations. The concept of marital rape in India is the epitome of what we call an “implied consent”. Marriage between a man and a woman here implies that both have consented to sexual intercourse, and it cannot be otherwise.

    What is the link between marital rape and MTP Act?

    • The distinction and the cultural ethos: Married women have a different world attire, jewellery, rituals compared to widows or unmarried or deserted women .So is the right to sexual intercourse. In contrast, unmarried women do not have a right to sex. So what does the right to terminate pregnancy mean for them
    • Ownership of women’s sexuality: Unmarried women cannot have sex, married women cannot say no to sex because men own women’s sexuality. Husbands can use the legal remedy of restitution of conjugal rights against runaway wives. Ownership is integral here
    • Cause of Disharmony: An unmarried woman does not have an owner. It causes confusion and disorder. Women’s sexuality is seen as a cause of disharmony.

    Marital rapeWhy marital rape must be a crime?

    • Associated physical violence: Rape by a spouse, partner or ex-partner is more often associated with physical violence.
    • Mental harassment: There is research showing that marital rape can be more emotionally and physically damaging than rape by a stranger.
    • Compulsive relationship: Marital rape may occur as part of an abusive relationship.
    • Revengeful nature: Furthermore, marital rape is rarely a one-time event, but a repeated if not frequent occurrence.
    • Obligation on women: In the case of marital rape the victim often has no choice but to continue living with their spouse.

    Present regulations in India

    • Indian Penal Code criminalizes rape in most cases, although marital rape is not illegal when the woman is over the age of 18.
    • However, until 2017, men married to those between 15 and 18 could not be convicted of rape.
    • Marital rape of an adult wife, who is unofficially or officially separated, is a criminal offence punishable by 2 to 7 year in prison; it is not dealt by normal rape laws which stipulate the possibility of a death sentence.
    • According to the Protection of Women From Domestic Violence Act (2005), other married women subject to such crime by their husband may demand for financial compensation.
    • They also have the right to continue to live in their marital household if they wish, or may approach shelter or aid homes.

    Way forward

    • Sanctioning marital rape is an acknowledgment of the woman’s right to self-determination (i.e., control of all matters relating to her body.
    • The recent judgment on the MTP Act has extended the definition of rape to marital rape which is a big step in the right direction.
    • However in a society with strong social norms and value systems every stakeholder should have more than a legitimate motive. It has to play an important role.

    Mains Question

    Q.While abortion is available under legal regulations in the country, Discuss the relationship between the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act and Marital Rape.

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  • ‘Professors of Practice’ for all colleges, universities

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

    Professors of Practice

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

    Streams opened for this post

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

    Minimum qualifications

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

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

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

    How will these appointments be made?

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

    What about remuneration?

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

    Why such move?

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

     

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