THE CONTEXT: The Reserve Bank of India has recently introduced a mechanism to facilitate international trade in rupees. Now the import and export payments may be settled through a special Vostro account, while banks, with prior approval from the RBI, can act as authorised dealers for such transactions. This article intends to analyze the implications of rupee internationalization from the UPSC perspective.

INTERNATIONALIZATION OF RUPEE: UNDERSTANDING BASICS

DEFINING CURRENCY INTERNATIONALIZATION

• Currency internationalization is the widespread use of a currency outside the borders of its original country of issue.
• The level of currency internationalization for a currency is determined by the demand that users in other countries have for that currency.
• This demand can be driven by the use of the currency to settle international trade, to be held as a reserve currency or a safe-haven currency, or in general use as a medium of indirect exchange in other countries’ domestic economies via currency substitution.

ORIGIN OF THE DEBATE

OUTBREAK OF GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS (GFC) OF 2008

• The global financial crisis (GFC) of 2008, for a variety of complex reasons, prompted emerging markets (EMs) to reconsider the role of their currencies as global alternatives to the “big four” currencies (US dollar, Yen, Euro, Pound).
• The outbreak of the GFC and its spillover to the entire world reflected the inherent vulnerabilities and systemic risks in the existing international monetary system.
• This was an indirect assertion that the US was taking advantage of the reserve currency status of the US dollar and dollar liquidity shortages were a real problem for EMs during the GFC.

EMERGENCE OF THE RENMINBI

• China in response, embarked on an ambitious project of “Renminbi internationalization” with the coupled goals of international monetary reform and diversification of global currency risk through internationalizing its currency.

IMPLICATIONS ON INDIAN RUPEE

• China’s policy pivot prompted policymakers in India to consider the possibility of internationalizing the Indian Rupee (INR). The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) commissioned two studies in 2010 and 2011 (Ranjan and Prakash, 2010; Gopinath, 2011) to examine the issues surrounding the internationalization of the INR.
• Both studies recommended a cautious approach towards currency internationalization given the size of the Indian GDP, lower presence in global trade and partial capital account convertibility.
• They also added that while the Rupee is a natural contender for transitioning into a global currency, policymakers should start by increasing the role of the INR in its local region, where the Renminbi has taken the lead over the Rupee.
• In spite of an early interest in pursuing a policy of currency internationalization, both the Indian government and the RBI do not consider it to be a priority in the short to medium term.

LATEST DEVELOPMENT

• The recent push of RBI for rupee internationalization is a great step in the right direction, considering the limitation for using the US dollar as a medium of international transactions, especially with counties under sanctions.
• This would also help reduce exchange rate risk on traders and pressure on the Indian rupees.

PROCESS OF INTERNATIONALIZATION OF A CURRENCY

There are certain necessary preconditions which are as follows:

• The government must remove all restrictions on the freedom of any entity, domestic or foreign, to buy or sell its country’s currency, whether in the spot or forward market.
• Domestic firms are able to invoice some, if not all, of their exports in their country’s currency, and foreign firms are likewise able to invoice their exports in that country’s currency, whether to the country itself or to third countries.
• Foreign firms, financial institutions, official institutions and individuals are able to hold the country’s currency and financial instruments denominated in it in amounts that they deem useful and prudent.
• Foreign firms and financial institutions, including official institutions, are able to issue marketable instruments in the country’s currency.
• The issuing country’s own financial institutions and non-financial firms are able to issue on foreign markets instruments denominated in their country’s own currency.
• International financial institutions, such as the World Bank and regional development banks, are able to issue debt instruments in a country’s market and use its currency in their financial operations.
• The currency may be included in the “currency baskets” of other countries, which they use in governing their own exchange rate policies.

ANALYZING RUPEE INTERNATIONALIZATION

CHALLENGES FOR INDIA: CRITICAL ANALYSIS

ATTAINING SUFFICIENT SCALE

• The issuing country must have sufficient scale, both in terms of nominal gross domestic product and volume of international transactions. For instance, while China is a $10.36 trillion economy, India is roughly at $2 trillion.
• For India to attain sufficient scale, the economy needs to grow at a sustainable average rate of 7-8% for the next five years or so. India’s current share of global trade is also relatively small, and the bulk of it is invoiced in US dollars.
• Improvements in scale are linked to macroeconomic fundamentals, which cannot be changed through an internationalization-driven agenda.

STABILITY OF THE RUPEE

• The value of the currency must be stable over time. A currency is considered stable when the general level of prices does not vary too much. Stability has multiple aspects: macroeconomic, financial and political.
• On macroeconomic stability, earlier this year, India undertook an important reform in the form of the Monetary Policy Framework Agreement that formally lays down inflation targeting as the objective of monetary policy in India. But recent high inflations showed limited outreach of MPC.
• The banking system continues to be overburdened with burgeoning non-performing assets.
• In terms of political stability, the fact that India is a democracy, like issuers of most international currencies in the 19th and 20th centuries, goes in its favour.

ENSURING LIQUIDITY OF THE RUPEE

• A currency is liquid if significant quantities of assets can be bought and sold in the currency without noticeably affecting its price.
• This requires depth in financial markets, a large stock of domestic currency-denominated bonds and adequate options to hedge currency risk exposures.
• India lacks a deep, liquid and well-functioning corporate bond market. Hedging opportunities for foreign investors are limited.
• India has one of the least open capital accounts among emerging economies. Relaxing capital controls to attract foreign investor participation is crucial for enhancing rupee liquidity.

THE WAY FORWARD

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has made a strong case for the internationalization of the rupee and sought to differentiate it from capital account convertibility. According to RBI, countries that can borrow in their own currency are less susceptible to the international crisis.
• As the currency risks are born by the lenders and not by the borrowers back in India, this is always a safer option for the Indian economy; hence, it must be promoted.
• Democracy and associated checks and balances on the executive instil confidence in foreign investors about the policy credibility of the government, thereby imparting stability to the national currency. Thus, India can explore the option of controlled internationalization of the rupee.

THE CONCLUSION: Any possibility of conversation on rupee internationalization must be backed by a sustained and stable position of the Indian Rupee. Scale, stability and liquidity can be achieved through strong economic fundamentals and a process-driven regulatory environment. These, by themselves, are important policy goals to achieve for India. It is possible that once these are achieved, the rupee will come to be accepted as an international currency.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

1. “Only if scale, stability and liquidity of Indian Rupee are achieved, will it be accepted as an international currency.” Examine critically in the light of the recent push by RBI for the internationalization of the rupee.

2. What do you understand by ‘internationalization of currency? Discuss the positives and negatives of the internationalization of the currency.

THE CONTEXT: Recently, the arresting of Alt news Journalist and before that, many arresting around the country raises questions that the content that are posted on social media is not following the community standard (as claimed by these platforms). Although many of these cases are controversial, the development is opined by certain experts to be a start to further elaboration of legislation and government control of these dynamic new media sectors. In this article, we will analyze whether these platforms should be regulated by the government.

RECENT CASES OF ARRESTING FOR SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS

• In June 2022, Altnews Journalist was arrested for a controversial post.
• A tailor in Udaipur was beheaded for a controversial post on the prophet Mohammad.
• for In June 2022, 18 persons from Saharanpur were arrested for social media post
• A man was arrested in Rajasthan’s Alwar for posting objectionable content with communal overtones on social media
• In Chhattisgarh, a 34-year-old was booked under Section 67(A) of the Information Technology Act, which deals with online obscenity.
• In Assam, two-person arrested for allegedly putting up derogatory social media posts.
• In Kerala, 149 cases were registered against several people for allegedly posting objectionable remarks.
• The cybercrime sleuths of Rachakonda arrested three persons for posting obscene content through fake social media accounts to harass known women and a girl.

All these raised the question of whether the government should regulate online content or should give it free hand.

CHALLENGED POSED BY SOCIAL MEDIA IN RECENT TIMES?

• Extreme content: It is one of the major causes of extremism in society. Recently beheading of a tailor in Udaipur shows how extreme content affects society.
• Hate Speech: In India, legal provisions around hate speech have been previously misused to target marginalized communities and dissenting voices. Numerous hate speech cases have been brought against individuals for posts they made on social networking websites.
• Rumour/ Fake news: It has been observed that in the recent cases of Mob lynching, fake news/Rumor about cattle theft/ Child kidnapping was the major cause. Misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic has been on the rise in India since January 2020.
• Data Piracy: Cambridge Analytica case in 2018 and recent bank fraud raised the concern of data safety.
• Pornography: Pornography, Child pornography is a serious issue.
• Objectionable content: Objectionable content in different shows, especially in web series, has posed a serious challenge to society.

WHAT IS THE PRESENT REGULATION FOR ONLINE CONTENT?

Although there is no specific legislation in India, that deals with social media, and in maximum cases, it is self-regulated. Still, there are several provisions in the existing so-called cyber laws which can be used to seek redress in case of violation of any rights in cyberspace, the Internet and social media. The legislation and the relevant provisions are specifically enumerated as under:

1.The Information Technology Act, 2000

• Sections 65, 66, 66A, 6C, 66D, 66E, 66F, 67, 67A and 67B contain punishments for computer-related offences which can also be committed through social media.
• Section 69 of the Act grants power to the Central or a State Government to issue directions for monitoring of any information.
• Section 69A grants power to issue directions to block public access to any information.
• Section 69B grants power to issue directions to authorize any agency to monitor.
• Section 79 provides for the liability of the intermediary. An intermediary shall not be liable for any third-party information, data or communication link made available or hosted by him in the following cases-
• His function is limited to providing access to a communication system over which such information is transmitted, stored or hosted.
• He does not initiate, select the receiver and select the information contained in the transmission.
• He observes due diligence and other guidelines prescribed by the Central Government while discharging his duties.
• He has conspired, abetted, aided or induced by threats, promises or otherwise in the commission of the unlawful Act.
• He fails to expeditiously remove or disable access to the material which is being used to commit the unlawful Act upon receiving actual knowledge or on being notified by the government.
• If any intermediary fails to assist, comply with the direction and intentionally contravenes provisions under Sections 69, 69A and 69B, respectively, he shall be liable to punishment.
• Section 43A provides that where a body corporate possesses, dealing or handles any sensitive personal data.
• Section 70B provides for an agency of the government to be appointed by the Central Government called the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, which shall serve as the national agency for performing functions relating to cyber security.

2. The Information Technology Rules, 2009: Procedure and Safeguards of Interception, Monitoring and Decryption of Information- The interception or monitoring or decryption of information under Section 69 shall be carried out by an order issued by the competent authority.

3. The Information Technology Rules, 2009: Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking for Access of Information by Public- The Central Government in the exercise of its powers under Section 87(2) with regard to the procedure and safeguards for blocking access by the public under Section 69A.

4. The Information Technology Rules, 2009: Procedure and Safeguard for Monitoring and Collecting Traffic Data or Information-

• Directions for monitoring
• The competent authority (the Secretary of the Government of India in the Department of Information Technology) may issue directions for monitoring for purposes related to cyber security.

5. The Information Technology Rules, 2011: Intermediaries Guidelines- It is mandatory for the intermediary to inform the users by clearly stating that under the rules and regulations

6. The Information Technology Rules, 2011: Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information- The disclosure of sensitive personal data or information by a body corporate to any third party shall require prior permission from the provider of such information.

Ø  Code of Ethics for Social Media: At the time of the general election 2019, social media platforms and the Internet and Mobile Association of India submitted the “Voluntary Code of Ethics for the General Election 2019” to Election Commissioner.

Ø  The companies agreed to create a high-priority dedicated reporting mechanism for the ECI and appoint dedicated teams during the period of General Elections to take expeditious action on any reported violations.

WHY IS THERE A NEED TO REVIEW THE PRESENT REGULATIONS?

1.The challenges posed by the Internet activism

The power of the Internet is precisely the reason that governments want to regulate it.

The fears of governments about the Internet:

• National security (instructions on bomb-making, illegal drug production, terrorist activities);
• Protection of minors (abusive forms of marketing, violence, pornography);
• Protection of human dignity (incitement to racial hatred or racial discrimination);
• Economic security (fraud, instructions on pirating credit cards);
• Information security (malicious hacking);
• Protection of privacy (unauthorized communication of personal data, electronic harassment);
• Protection of reputation (libel, unlawful comparative advertising);
• Intellectual property (unauthorized distribution of copyrighted works, software or music).

2. Misuse of section 66A: Section 66A was inserted through an amendment to the Act in 2008. It provides punishment for sending offensive messages through communication services.

The issue:

• There is an inherent inconsistency between the phraseology of Section 66A and Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and expression to every citizen.
• Under Article 19(2), restrictions on freedom of speech and expression are reasonable if they pertain to any of the listed grounds, such as sovereignty and integrity of India, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence.
• But under Section 66A, restrictions have been placed on freedom of speech and expression on several other grounds, apart from those mentioned in the Constitution. To add to the fear that this provision could be hugely misused, several incidents in the recent past bear testimony to the same.
• The Supreme Court found this arbitrary, disproportionate and unreasonable restriction on the right to free speech. The court also said that the speech available online should have the same level of constitutional protection of free speech as that available offline.

GOVERNMENT ATTEMPT FOR THE ONLINE REGULATION

On April 4 2018, the government issued an order seeking to establish content regulations for the Internet, modelled on the ones currently applicable to traditional media like print and television.

Major Timeline:

• April 25, 2018: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, posted a tender online for the creation of a ‘Social Media Communications Hub’. As per this tender, the selected company would be required to monitor Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, internet forums and even e-mail in order to analyze sentiment and identify “fake news”.
• June 16, 2018: The government was planning to get help from social media platforms, including WhatsApp and Facebook, to filter out fake text messages and videos.
• July 3, 2018: The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology accused WhatsApp of allowing the circulation of irresponsible and explosive messages.
• August 3, 2018: The central government withdrew the proposal to create a ‘Social Media Communications Hub’ following mainstream media unrest and the filing of a plea before the Supreme Court.
• August 21, 2018: The IT Minister urged Whatsapp to create a mechanism through which the source of fake news could be traced.
• December 24, 2018: The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has prepared the draft Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules 2018 to replace the rules notified in 2011 under the Information Technology Act, 2000. Intermediary refers to platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. There were five major guidelines for intermediate:

• The intermediary was enabled to trace out the originator of information on its platform as may be required by government agencies.
• Any platform with more than five million users in India would be required to register a company and have a permanent registered office in India.
• Platforms would be required to preserve information for at least 180 days for investigation purposes.
• The platforms would be required to “deploy technology-based automated tools” for “proactively identifying and removing or disabling public access to unlawful information or content.”
• The platform informed its users on a monthly basis about the rules and regulations of the platform and warned of immediate termination in case of violation.
• January 7, 2019: The I&B Minister called for self-regulation by social media platforms to deal with fake news.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (INTERMEDIARY GUIDELINES AND DIGITAL MEDIA ETHICS CODE) RULES 2021

• To protect users from incorrect takedowns and account suspensions by social media platforms, the need was felt to institute effective grievance redressal mechanisms (GRM).
• In India, before May 2021, GRMs of social media platforms, if any, were designed as per the concerned platform’s terms of service. There was no standardization, in terms of resolution and timelines, in the design of these GRMs.
• If one was to make a complaint, the process would typically consist of filling out an online form, which would usually solicit an automated response.
• The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules (or IT Rules), 2021, streamlined this by bringing in uniformity.
• Social media platforms now have to appoint a “grievance officer” before whom a user may file a complaint.
• The grievance officer is required to acknowledge the complaint within 24 hours and resolve it within 15 days. If unsatisfied with the officer’s order, the user may approach the high court/Supreme Court.

After that

• Accessing the writ jurisdiction of the court can be a time and cost-intensive process. And all users cannot afford that. In this light, it was important to create an appellate that is not as resource intensive to engage with.
• The government’s motivation behind creating this appellate committee seems to come from other factors as well. According to the government, it created this tier because “currently there is no appellate mechanism provided by intermediaries nor is there any credible self-regulatory mechanism in place”.
• But the government and social media platforms saw convergence on a self-regulatory approach being the most optimal design for an appellate mechanism, even as the bare minimum structure is unclear.

CONCERNS ABOUT A SELF-REGULATORY MODEL AFTER GRM 2021

POLITICAL BIASNESS

• Social media platforms have not been paragons of objectivity in deciding which content they want to host or take down. Their political biases have become visible through their decisions to either amplify or restrict certain kinds of content.
• For example, while Twitter is commonly understood to be more partial to liberal/Leftist views, Facebook has been alleged to be partial to Rightist stances. An internal appellate mechanism will likely toe the line of the organization and carry and reinforce the same biases in deciding whether a piece of speech should be allowed or not.

APPELLATE MECHANISM IS NOT TRULY INDEPENDENT

• Even if a number of social media platforms come together to form an appellate tier instead of individual appellate mechanisms, the members of this appellate tier will not have functional independence.
• As long as social media platforms control the members’ appointments, terms of employment and service conditions, they will be wary of taking decisions that may hurt the platform.

TRUST ISSUE

• A self-regulatory approach to adjudicating speech is likely to be riddled with trust issues. Consider the case of Facebook. The platform’s solution for ensuring transparency and impartiality in its content moderation decisions was to constitute the Oversight Board. Facebook created a $130 million irrevocable trust to maintain the Board’s independence and the latter did overturn many of Facebook’s content moderation decisions. But now, the Board has come under severe criticism that its existence has not substantially improved Facebook’s content moderation practices.

These concerns are amplified if, at a later stage, social media platforms are made subject to penalties for wrongfully suspending or terminating a post or user account. It can hardly be expected that social media platforms will design self-regulatory mechanisms in a manner that will encourage them to be held liable and penalized for their decisions.

THEN, SHOULD THE GOVERNMENT REGULATE ONLINE CONTENT IN INDIA?

There are two ways for the regulation of social media

1.Self-regulation

2.State regulation

Let’s discuss the Pros and Cons of both regulations.

1.SELF REGULATION

Pros

• Moral pressure
• Effective in ensuring freedom of expression.
• No state interference.
• In house regulatory mechanism by every company as per their suitability.
• Unaffected media is necessary for a democratic society.

Cons

• Lack of accountability.
• No transparency.
• No clear roadmap for the content.
• Illegal activities.
• No codification for action against unlawful content.

2.STATE REGULATION

Pros

• A clear roadmap for the content.
• It limits criminal activity.
• It helps protect children.
• It strengthens online security.
• It sets standards for what should not be published.

Cons

• Freedom of freedom will be at stake: the state may use absolute power
• It limits access to important information.
• Limits economic opportunities.
• Freedom of media will be under threat: State interference in every manner will affect the freedom of media.

The above analysis shows that self-regulation is the most suitable mechanism for social media. And online content should be self-regulated, but there is a need for improvement in the present situation, which the following steps can hold:

• There will be a clear codification of moral regulation, and all the stakeholders should follow them.
• All the Websites, Companies and other shareholders should respect the IAMAI initiative norms.
• There should be a proper security mechanism for data security.
• Companies can be aware the people about data security, fake news, hate speech and other dangers.
• Content should be lawful and should be as per the societal norms.
• Companies should develop a strong mechanism against objectionable content.

THE WAY FORWARD:

Although self-regulation is better, but the state should fulfil its duty in some cases, such as:

• Data protection
• Stop rumours
• Stop Cybercrime
• Resolve the issue of IT Act 66A and freedom of expression

1.The issue of IT section 66A and freedom of speech

• Some parts, such as Section 66A, were successfully challenged in court and struck down as unconstitutional in 2015 in the Shreya Singhal case. But the Act still empowers the government to block, filter and take down content online.
• The government is empowered to turn off internet access completely. These are options which are, in fact, exercised by the Indian government on a regular basis (between January 2010 and April 2018, there have been more than 164 incidents of internet shutdowns in different parts of India.).
• Section 66A of the IT Act wanted to ambitiously crackdown on information online which could cause “annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred or ill will.” It imposed a punishment of up to three years along with a fine.

2. Solutions to Tackle Hate Speech:

• Need to amend Information Technology Act 2000 with good implementation.
• There can be an internationally accepted law that places the responsibility on social media companies like Facebook to tackle hate speech by deleting obviously illegal content within 24 hours if there is a request from the government of a particular nation.
• Generating contra-narratives on social networks and raising public awareness through campaigns to tackle extremism.
• Social media platforms need to take responsibility to ensure transparency, accountability and a system of rules and guidelines that users can recognize as standards and which, when enforced in a regularized fashion, can begin to act as precedents.
• The Indian government has been pushing for internet platforms to locate their servers in the country, which might help address dangerous speech in real-time.

3. Solution for data protection: The recommendations of B.N Srikrishna committee should be implemented

• The processing (collection, recording, analysis, disclosure, etc.) of personal data should be done only for “clear, specific and lawful” purposes.
• The government may process the personal data if this is considered necessary for any function of Parliament or State Legislature.
• ‘Right to be forgotten.
• This right is one of several given to data principals, including the right to confirm what information is being held or disclosed about them and to get this corrected if necessary.
• Personal data will need to be stored on servers located within India, and transfers outside the country will need to be subject to safeguards.
• Critical personal data, however, will only be processed in India.
• “Sensitive” personal data should not be processed unless someone gives explicit consent, which factors in the purpose of processing.
• Setting up a Data Protection Authority.

4. For Cybercrime, a Cyber cell should be established:

• The cyber police station in Maharashtra is located every in district SP headquarters under the Police Commissioner.
• The team will investigate all offences related to the Internet, consisting of one police inspector and three sub-inspectors.

Global practices in this regard

AUSTRALIA

• Australia’s government agreed to make the News Media Bargaining Code law.
• Australia passed the Sharing of Abhorrent Violent Material Act in April 2019, introducing criminal penalties for social media companies, possible jail sentences for tech executives for up to three years, and financial penalties worth up to 10% of a company’s global turnover.

USA

• Recently US government released an executive order to revisit a law that gave absolute immunity to social media platforms. The US government is currently in the process of determining what exactly should happen to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (the federal law that gives internet companies protection from liability for user-generated content disseminated on their platforms).

UK

• Under the new Online Safety Bill by the UK government, social media sites, websites, apps, and other services which host user-generated content or allow people to talk to others online that fail to remove and limit the spread of such harmful content will face fines of up to £18 million ($24 million) or ten percent of their annual global turnover.

GERMANY

• It introduced the NetzDG Law in 2018, which states that social media platforms with more than two million registered German users have to review and remove illegal content within 24 hours of being posted or face fines of up to €50m (£42m).

NEW ZEALAND

• Aotearoa New Zealand Code of Practice for Online Safety and Harms. It is a pact agreed to be signed by tech giants in New Zealand to curb harmful online content. 

THE CONCLUSION: It is clearly evident that social media is a very powerful means of exercising one’s freedom of speech and expression. However, it is also increasingly used for illegal acts, which has given force to the government’s attempts at censoring social media. While, on the one hand, the misuse of social media entails the need for legal censorship, on the other hand, there are legitimate fears of violation of the civil rights of people as an inevitable consequence of censorship.

Keeping all this in mind, it is suggested that the government should form a Committee including technical experts to look into all the possible facets of the use and misuse of social media and recommend a suitable manner in which it can be regulated without hindering the civil rights of citizens.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

1. “Freedom of expression on social media is integral to a healthy, thriving democracy. We will be stronger by enabling and cultivating it, not curtaining it.” Analyze the statement.
2. “It is imperative for the government to recognize the menace of hate speech and ensure that there is proper regulation in place to tackle the issue”. In the light of the statement, discuss what should be the structure for online content regulation in India.
3. “Regulation of social media content should be best left to the tech companies themselves”. Do you agree with the statement? Justify your view.
4. Should social media be self-regulated or state-regulated? Analyze your opinion.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

GUIDELINES RELATED TO SOCIAL MEDIA ARE TO BE ADMINISTERED BY THE MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS, AND IT

Ø  Due Diligence To Be Followed By Intermediaries: The Rules prescribe due diligence that must be followed by intermediaries, including social media intermediaries. In case, due diligence is not followed by the intermediary, safe harbour provisions will not apply to them.

Ø  Grievance Redressal Mechanism: The Rules seek to empower the users by mandating the intermediaries, including social media intermediaries, to establish a grievance redressal mechanism for receiving and resolving complaints from the users or victims. Intermediaries shall appoint a Grievance Officer to deal with such complaints and share the name and contact details of such officer. Grievance Officer shall acknowledge the complaint within twenty four hours and resolve it within fifteen days from its receipt.

Ø  Ensuring Online Safety and Dignity of Users, Specially Women Users: Intermediaries shall remove or disable access within 24 hours of receipt of complaints of contents that exposes the private areas of individuals, show such individuals in full or partial nudity or in sexual Act or is in the nature of impersonation including morphed images etc. Such a complaint can be filed either by the individual or by any other person on his/her behalf.

Ø  Two Categories of Social Media Intermediaries: To encourage innovations and enable the growth of new social media intermediaries without subjecting smaller platforms to significant compliance requirements, the Rules make a distinction between social media intermediaries and significant social media intermediaries. This distinction is based on the number of users on the social media platform. Government is empowered to notify the threshold of user base that will distinguish between social media intermediaries and significant social media intermediaries. The Rules require the significant social media intermediaries to follow certain additional due diligence.

Ø  Additional Due Diligence to Be Followed by Significant Social Media Intermediary:

• Appoint a Chief Compliance Officer who shall be responsible for ensuring compliance with the Act and Rules. Such a person should be a resident in India.
• Appoint a Nodal Contact Person for 24×7 coordination with law enforcement agencies. Such a person shall be a resident in India.
• Appoint a Resident Grievance Officer who shall perform the functions mentioned under Grievance Redressal Mechanism. Such a person shall be a resident in India.
• Publish a monthly compliance report mentioning the details of complaints received and action taken on the complaints as well as details of contents removed proactively by the significant social media intermediary.
• Significant social media intermediaries providing services primarily in the nature of messaging shall enable identification of the first originator of the information that is required only for the purposes of prevention, detection, investigation, prosecution or punishment of an offence related to sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the state, friendly relations with foreign States, or public order or of incitement to an offence relating to the above or in relation with rape, sexually explicit material or child sexual abuse material punishable with imprisonment for a term of not less than five years. Intermediary shall not be required to disclose the contents of any message or any other information to the first originator.
• Significant social media intermediary shall have a physical contact address in India published on its website or mobile app or both.
• Voluntary User Verification Mechanism: Users who wish to verify their accounts voluntarily shall be provided an appropriate mechanism to verify their accounts and provided with a demonstrable and visible mark of verification.
• Giving Users An Opportunity to Be Heard: In cases where significant social media intermediaries removes or disables access to any information on their own accord, then a prior intimation for the same shall be communicated to the user who has shared that information with a notice explaining the grounds and reasons for such action. Users must be provided an adequate and reasonable opportunity to dispute the action taken by the intermediary.

Ø  Removal of Unlawful Information: An intermediary upon receiving actual knowledge in the form of an order by a court or being notified by the Appropriate Govt. or its agencies through authorized officer should not host or publish any information which is prohibited under any law in relation to the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of India, public order, friendly relations with foreign countries etc.

Ø  The Rules will come in effect from the date of their publication in the gazette, except for the additional due diligence for significant social media intermediaries, which shall come in effect 3 months after publication of these Rules.

THE CONTEXT: Human trafficking is still having a serious presence in India. It is one of the most distressing problems faced by many countries worldwide. It is a serious crime against human beings and violates their fundamental or basic human rights. It inhibits the free movement of the citizens through coercion or commercial exploitation in their own country. Thus, it can occur within a country or even out of the country i.e. transnationally. In the present article, we will discuss the issue of human trafficking in detail.

WHAT IS HUMAN TRAFFICKING?

• Human trafficking is a trade among all people, especially children and women.
• According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Human Trafficking is “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, to exploit them for profit”.

DATA RELATED TO HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN INDIA

• According to the MHA, In 2020, a total of 4,966 registered cases of Human trafficking from across India, and 3661 people were charge-sheeted.
• It has led to 101 convictions and 715 acquittals, while the other cases are still pending, as per the crimes in India 2020 report by the National Crime Records Bureau.
• According to the central government, as many as seven states — Assam, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Goa, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Punjab — did not see a single conviction in such cases in 2020.
• As per India’s National Crime Record Bureau, 2278, 2208, and 1714 cases of trafficking were reported in 2018, 2019, and 2020 respectively. 85.2% of the cases have been charge-sheeted.
• In 2020, 4,709 persons were victimized, out of which 2,222 were children, including 1,377 boys and 845 girls. It also projects that 2151 children were rescued, out of which 801 were girls. Among adult victims, 535 were males, and 1952 were females.

HOW SERIOUS HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN INDIA

• It is considered the second largest organized crime in India.
• Human trafficking is still a major issue in India, despite the fact that it is banned under Indian law.
• People are trafficked for sexual exploitation, forced labour, forced begging, forced marriage, selling children, as well as for the removal of organs.
• Sexual exploitation is the most common form of exploitation, followed by forced labour.
• Most victims are trafficked within their countries’ borders – those trafficked abroad are moved to the richest countries.

REASON FOR HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Several factors contribute to the trade in human beings, particularly women and children. The factors of trafficking in women and children can be divided into two categories: push and pull factors.

THE PUSH FACTORS INCLUDE:

• Poor socio-economic conditions of a large number of families, poverty coupled with frequent, almost annual natural disasters like floods leading to virtual poverty of some people, lack of education, skill and income opportunities for women in rural areas, absence of awareness about the activities of traffickers, pressure to collect money for dowries which leads to sending daughters to distant places for work, dysfunctional family life, domestic violence against women, low status of girl children, etc.
• It appears from the case studies that extreme poverty and other causes of deprivation not only push people to fall on the traffickers’ tripod but also create an incentive for trafficking. Often the prostitutes, who have no option to come out of the exploitative environment, gradually develop intimate connections with the traffickers and follow in their footsteps.

THE PULL FACTORS ARE:

• Lucrative employment propositions in big cities, easy money, promise of better pay and comfortable life by the trafficking touts and agents, the demand of young girls for marriage in other regions, demand for low-paid and underage sweatshop labour, and growing demand for young kids for adoption, rise in demand for women in the rapidly expanding sex industry, demand for young girls in places of military concentration like Kashmir in India in recent times, demand for young girls for sexual exploitation.
• The rampant practice of female feticide in the northern states of Haryana and Punjab has also fuelled internal trafficking.
• Since there is a shortage of women in these states having a low female to male ratio, they have become fertile ground for the operation of traffickers.
• Traffickers procure girls from faraway states like Assam and Orissa; trick their families into believing they are to be married, only to push them into prostitution later.
• India is also experiencing rapid changes in economic, political, demographic and labour trends as an outcome of globalization; increasing demand for cheap labour and heavy population growth in the region encourages migration, whether legal or illegal.
• The movement of young girls and women from Bangladesh and Nepal into Indian brothels is common. There is further movement of these women and girls to the Middle East and other destinations.

WHAT ARE THE PROVISIONS TO STOP HUMAN TRAFFICKING

• Trafficking in Human Beings or Persons is prohibited under the Constitution of India under Article 23.
• The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 (ITPA) is the premier legislation to prevent trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation.
• Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 is a special law to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation.
• There are other specific legislations enacted relating to trafficking in women and children o Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006
• Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976
• Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986
• State Governments have also enacted specific legislations to deal with the issue. (e.g., The Punjab Prevention of Human Smuggling Act, 2012).

WHY IS HUMAN TRAFFICKING A CAUSE OF CONCERN NOWADAYS?

• The estimated number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is significantly increasing.
• There is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year.
• Evolving nature of trafficking is a challenge, like the rise of technology usage and cowardly ways of committing crimes these days.
• Often cases are booked as kidnapping or missing person cases even though there is clear evidence of trafficking.
• Lack of information provided to survivors on victim compensation.
• Low investment on the part of legal aid results in very few survivors having access to compensation.
• Despite many laws present in India, human trafficking remains an unspoken problem in the country.

The conviction rate is falling.

• As per the government data, the conviction rate in Human trafficking cases has been falling over the past few years.
• The conviction rate in 2020 was 10.6%, while it was 22.5% in 2019 and 19.4 in 2018.
• In 2017, the conviction rate was 24.5% and 27.8 % in 2016.
• According to activists and NGOs working with human trafficking survivors, getting convictions in such cases is a major challenge.

WHY ARE THE PROVISIONS NOT WORKING EFFECTIVELY AGAINST TRAFFICKING?

LACK OF COORDINATION

• Getting justice for the survivors and punishing the culprits are challenging tasks and most of the time, the traffickers get away using legal loopholes.
• Like terrorism and drug trafficking, human trafficking is an organized crime involving interstate and sometimes international networks. If a person is trafficked and their kin goes to the local police station, they can only do so much to investigate the case locally as their resources are limited.

LACK OF LEGAL RESOURCES

• In such cases, where the evidence is very little, the prosecution has to rely on the statement of the survivor, who is both the victim and the witness of the crime.
• The issue of the declining rate of conviction essentially indicates there is a lack of strong and appropriate investigation that spans across state borders.
• There is also a lack of a proper rehabilitation mechanism and victim compensation for the survivors, which would encourage them to cooperate with the investigators.
• In 2018, the NIA agreed to take up human trafficking case involving two or more states, but it is still in the early stages.

VICTIMS NEED WITNESS PROTECTION

• In the case of survivors who want to take their traffickers to law, one of the major challenges is safety, as one or more chains of the network will be people who are part of their own community or village.
• There is no proper mechanism for witness protection and victim compensation. The survivors have to deal with this powerful network that is very intimidating.
• Survivors getting threats from traffickers against seeking legal measures is not uncommon. In the current system, the only protection the victim is offered is to place them in a shelter home.
• The maximum punishment in human trafficking cases is 10 years in jail, and in cases of sexual exploitation, the prison sentence can be for life.

THE ANTI-TRAFFICKING BILL 2021

ACCORDING TO THE  BILL

• Defines human trafficking as an organized crime with international implications
• The law will apply to all citizens of India, within and outside the country.
• The law shall apply to every offence of trafficking in persons with cross-border implications.
• Widens the definition of the “victim” by including transgenders, besides women and children.
• Any offence of trafficking shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than seven years.
• More severe penalties for “aggravated offences” and seeks to crack down on organized crime syndicates.
• Aggravated offences include cases that may result in the death of the victim or where the victim suffers a grievous injury (in cases such as an acid attack), organ mutilation or removal of organs, or where the victim is a child.
• In case of the death of the victim, the Bill proposes life imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 30 lakh.
• Imprisonment up to 20 years and the death penalty for the offenders found guilty.
• The investigation needs to be completed within 90 days from the date of the arrest of the accused.
• Widens the range of offenders who can be booked under the law, bringing public servants, armed forces personnel or anyone in a position of authority under its ambit. The penalty for the guilty will include life imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 30 lakh.

CONCERNS WITH THE BILL

• The Bill is not clear about how the NIA, as a nodal agency, will gather information and intelligence from different parts of the country through Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs) at the district level and State levels.
• Largely silent on rescue protocols except the “reason to believe” by a police officer not below the rank of a sub-inspector.
• The absence of community-based rehabilitation, missing definition of reintegration and also the funds related to rehabilitation of survivors in the Bill.

THE WAY FORWARD:

Border measures

• Stringent Enforcement of cross-border trafficking, Secure Vigilance in Trafficking routes and Proper social accountability are needed.

 Economic and social policies

• Taking measures to raise levels of social protection and to create employment opportunities.
• Taking appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of employment in order to ensure, on the basis of gender equality, the right to equal pay for equal work and the right to equality in employment opportunities.
• Developing programmes that offer livelihood options and include basic education, literacy, communication and other skills reduce barriers to entrepreneurship.
• Encouraging gender sensitization and education on equal and respectful relationships between the sexes, thus preventing violence against women.
• Ensuring that policies are in place that allow women equal access to and control over economic and financial resources.

Awareness-raising measures

• With the help of NGOs and Police officials, there can be some types of advertisements through the popular media in a particular location and by conducting some awareness programs in villages, local schools, among kids of the poor society and public to be alert of being victimized.

Legislative measures

• Adopting or strengthening legislative, proper law enforcement, uncorrupt officials, educational, social, cultural or other measures and, where applicable, penal legislation, including through bilateral and multilateral cooperation, to discourage the demand that fosters all forms of exploitation of persons, especially women and children, and that leads to trafficking.
• Enhance the capacity building of law enforcement agencies.
• Conducting workshops on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings for Police officers and for Prosecutors at the Regional level, State level and District level
• Sensitize the judicial officers about the various issues concerning human trafficking and ensure a speedy court process.

THE CONCLUSION: The issue of human trafficking in India must be addressed in a whole comprehensive manner. It requires a multi-faceted strategy to combat the menace of human trafficking in our country. While efforts include that there should be a process of rehabilitation and reintegration for all the victims of human trafficking, it should be mainly conducted. Otherwise, it will not successfully address the issue in the long run and strategically.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

1. Why in recent times the case of trafficking is increasing? How are technological developments encouraging it?
2. Why does the issue of human trafficking persist in India despite so many laws and awareness campaigns? Suggest some effective measures to prevent it.
3. The anti-trafficking bill 2021 is an effective law to address the issue of trafficking in India, but implementing the law is a major challenge. Comment.

THE CONTEXT: Life Expectancy at Birth is a statistical measure of the average time an organism is expected to live, based on the year of its birth, its current age and other demographic factors, including gender. This statistic (in terms of the Index of Representation in Longevity (IRL) and the Index of Socio-economic Inequality in Longevity (ISIL)) is vital, especially for an emerging economy like India, as the future growth prospects rest on the status of the democracy. The following article attempts to analyze the aspect of socio-economic inequities regarding longevity in India.

ABOUT LIFE EXPECTANCY AND ELDERLY POPULATION IN INDIA

• Life expectancy in India has increased from 49.7 years in 1970-75 to 68.7 years in 2012-16, as per the National Health Profile 2019. For the same period, the life expectancy for females is 70.2 years and 67.4 years for males.
• Life expectancy in India has risen from 50 (1970-75) to almost 70 years (2014-18); as a result, the number of elders (>60 years of age) is already 137 million and is expected to increase by 40% to 195 million in 2031, and 300 million by 2050.
• According to Census 2011, India has 104 million older people (60+years), constituting 8.6% of the total population. Amongst the elderly (60+), females outnumber males.
• Both the share and size of the elderly population are increasing over time. From 5.6% in 1961, the proportion increased to 8.6% in 2011. The proportion has increased to 10.1% in 2021 and is further likely to increase to 13.1% in 2031. For males, it was marginally lower at 8.2%, while for females, it was 9.0%.
• Government of India’s National Policy on Older Persons 1999, Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 and National Policy for Senior Citizens 2011 provide the legal framework for supporting the needs of seniors.
• The National Programme for Health Care of Elderly and Health and Wellness Centres under the Ayushman Bharat programme provide dedicated healthcare to the elderly in primary health care settings.

Recently, an EPW (Economic and Political Weekly) backed research analyzed the Index of Representation in Longevity (IRL) and Index of Socio-economic Inequality in Longevity (ISIL) to gain insights on the status of life expectancy and longevity. Its key focus was the elderly population in India.

THE CONCEPT OF LONGEVITY

• The concept that is generally used when it comes to measuring the length of individual lives in any society is longevity. Though it is often used as a synonym for life expectancy at a given age, it is also used to refer only to the long-lived members of a population.
• If increasing longevity is a desirable objective of any society, then achieving socio-economic equality in it is another one. However, the first step towards striving for equality in longevity in any society is to measure the existing socio-economic inequalities associated with it.
• Further, if inequality in longevity is high, the decrease in life expectancy among those of lower socio-economic status can outweigh the increase in life expectancy among those of a higher socio-economic status. For example, even if people live longer in the southern states of India owing to better performance in socio-economic indicators, it couldn’t compensate for the deteriorating status of the same age group in northern states.

INDEX OF REPRESENTATION IN LONGEVITY (IRL) AND INDEX OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC INEQUALITY IN LONGEVITY (ISIL)

INDEX OF REPRESENTATION IN LONGEVITY

• The IRL is a representational measure similar to the “Distributional Fairness Index” proposed by Villemez and Rowe (1975) and the “Group-specific Index of Relative Disadvantage” proposed by Jayaraj and Subramanian (2006).
• Index of Representation in Longevity: In simple terms, in the IRL, it is comparing the proportion of the 65 years plus population of a socio-economic group in the overall 65+ population of the country to the overall proportion of the population of the same socio-economic group in the overall population of the country.
• Intuitively, any group-specific measure of inequality in longevity must be some function of how large the group’s share in total longevity (65+) is in relation to the group’s share in total population.

INDEX OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC INEQUALITY IN LONGEVITY

• The ISIL, particularly well-suited for dichotomous outcomes, is a form of dissimilarity index based on the measure of the inequality of opportunities advanced by Barros et al (2009).
• Index of Socio-economic Inequality in Longevity: As in the case of the previous index, if an individual’s age is more than 65 years then they will be considered a long-living individual. The ISIL has been estimated for groups based on each characteristic (for example, groups based on caste, groups based on religion, etc.).
• The ISIL is a simple summary and representational measure of group disparities, which is expressed as a normalized, weighted sum of the absolute deviations of group-specific ave­rage longevity from the overall (whole population) average longevity.
• The ISIL can be interpreted as the number of longevity opp­ortunities that need to be rearranged from the better-off groups to the worse-off groups (in which average longevity is lower than the population average) to have equal ­average longevity in all groups.

STATUS OF INDEX OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC INEQUALITY IN LONGEVITY (ISIL) IN INDIA-BASED EPW STUDY

DIMENSION

EXPLANATION

PRESENCE (NUMBERS)

• In 2004, in rural areas, 19%, 7%, 43%, and 31% of the elderly population belonged to the SC, ST, OBC, and OC (Other Caste), respectively.
• The corresponding figures for urban areas were 14%, 2%, 38%, and 46%, respectively.
• In 2012, there was some increase in the percentage of SCs and some decrease in the percentage of OCs in rural areas.

PRESENCE (RELIGION)

• In terms of religion, the percentages of Hindu and Muslim elders have almost remained unchanged in rural as well as urban areas during the study period. There has been some mild decrease in the proportion of elderly Christians in rural areas during the same period.

OCCUPATIONAL STATUS

• Rural Areas: in terms of occupation in rural areas, there was a decrease in the proportion of elderly among cultivators, agricultural labourers, businesspersons, and salaried individuals from 2004 to 2012. There was an increase in the proportion of elderly among the non-agricultural labourers, petty traders, and pensioners during the same period.
• Urban Areas: a decrease is observed in the proportion of elders involved in agricultural labour, self-employed in business, and salaried jobs during the study period, whereas an increase was observed in the proportion of elders involved in non-agricultural labour, petty trade, and pension (and rent) during the same period.

REGIONAL PRESENCE

• In rural as well as urban areas, the percentage of the elderly population was highest in the southern region and lowest in the northeastern region.
• The highest proportion of elders in the southern region is in line with the fact that the southern region comprises states that are among the most developed as far as economic and demographic indicators are concerned.
• Also, the aspect of longevity is more enhanced in southern states owing to better performance in aspects like health, clean environment, and other components of standards of living.

GROUP-SPECIFIC PROPORTION OF ELDERLY (65+ YEARS):

• Among the caste groups, the OCs have the highest proportion of elderly amongst themselves throughout as OCs comprise the socially and economically most advanced castes of India.
• The STs lay at the bottom of the pack as they are among the most disadvantaged as far as social and economic development is concerned.
• The elderly populace of the Muslim community (the majority in the minority), was the most disadvantaged, as their social, demographic and economic development was found to be at the level of the SCs and the STs in India.
• Among the occupation categories, the proportion of the elderly was highest among the pensioners.

INDEX OF REPRESENTATION IN LONGEVITY (RIL)

CONTEXT

EXPLANATION

CASTE GROUPS

• OCs are over-represented in both 2004 and 2012 in rural as well as urban areas.
• The OBCs are marginally over-represented and slightly under-represented in rural and urban areas, respectively, in 2004 as well as 2012.
• The SCs and the STs are severely under-represented (with the STs the worst off) in almost all cases (be it rural or urban) with the representation of the STs decreasing at the all-India level, which is the least among all the caste categories.

RELIGION

• Maximum representation in longevity is of the Christians at the all-India level.
• Muslims are seriously under-represented in longevity.

OCCUPATION

• Overall pensioners, cultivators and “other occupation” categories had an over-representation in longevity.
• The agricultural and non-agricultural labourers and petty traders were under-represented throughout. The lowest under-representation is seen in the case of non-agricultural labourers.

REGIONAL LEVEL

• Representation of longevity was highest in the south followed by the west and the north.
• There was an under-representation in the case of the central, east, and north-east, with the north-east being most severely under-represented.

KEY OUTCOMES (OVERALL)

• The caste-based or religion-based or occupation-based variation in longevity is relatively higher than economic class-based variation.
• About 15% of longevity opportunities need to be shifted from the better-off groups (where average longevity is higher than the average longevity for the whole population) to the worse-off groups such as non-agricultural labour, etc. (where average longevity is lower than the average longevity for the whole population) to bring equality in longevity in society at the all-India level.
• Barring the case of economic class and geographic regions, the socio-economic inequality in longevity, based on all other characteristics, was higher in urban areas compared to that rural areas.
• One of the most glaring socio-economic inequalities in longevity is observed in the case of geographic regions, where the demographically, economically, and socially advanced regions of the south and the west have an over-representation in longevity, whereas the demographically, economically and socially disadvantaged regions of the central, east and northeast have an under-representation in longevity.

ELDERLY POPULATION: CONCERNS AND POTENTIAL

• An increase in longevity and decline of joint family and breakdown in social fabric pushes seniors into loneliness and neglect.
• While one perspective looks at them as dependents, a rather different view would look at them as a potential asset, a massive resource of experienced, knowledgeable people. Integrating the elderly into the lives of communities can make a substantial contribution to improving social conditions.
• Elderly people carry immense experience in their personal and professional life which society, at large, needs to channel for a better tomorrow. Including elderly people as active contributors in the economy will prepare India for the future when a major portion of its population will be aged.
• The silver economy is the system of production, distribution and consumption of goods and services aimed at using the purchasing potential of older and ageing people and satisfying their consumption, living and health needs. The SAGE(Seniorcare Aging Growth Engine)  initiative and the SACRED (Senior Able Citizens for Re-Employment in Dignity) are some of the initiatives launched specifically to promote the silver economy.

THE WAY FORWARD:

• Policymakers need to take a cue from projects like the US’s national health initiative, “Healthy People 2000,” which seeks to increase longevity among Americans of all ages, and the UK’s “Longevity Science Advisory Panel” to provide a better chance of understanding the past and the present, for better forecasting in improvements in longevity.
• The government should also address the rampant socio-economic inequalities in the healthcare services in India which lead to different mortality rates across different groups in India, which, in turn, might lead to substantial socio-economic inequalities in longevity in India.

THE CONCLUSION: The Constitutional values along with SDGs (Goal 10) call for equality in every aspect of society. For any ideal society, how long a person lives, should not depend on factors such as caste and religion. The government should pay attention to the idea of longevity (and inequality in longevity) itself and bring it to the forefront of the public health debate in India.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

• Examine how the inequalities in longevity are present within multiple dimensions in India.
• What measures could be taken to convert the seeming ‘burden’ of the elderly populace into ‘opportunity’? Discuss in the Indian context.

THE CONTEXT: Among the many initiatives taken around the world to neutralize the gender binary, India faces its own challenge in the form of gender-caste intersectionality.

THE ISSUE: In the 2022 Gender Inequality Index, India ranked 135 out of 146

nations (United Nations Development Program (UNDP), 2019). India has both low rates of female labour force participation (FLFP) and large pay disparities between women and men in India. The FLFP is about 25% in rural regions and less than 20% in urban areas (Lahoti and Swaminathan 2016). The average wage of female employees is about 65% of the average male wages in 2018-2019 (Chakraborty 2020). Aside from the steps taken to improve women’s political representation, no constitutional mandate or law ensures seats for women in public-sector employment or educational institutions. Only a few states – like Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Punjab – have introduced reservations for women in government jobs during the last decade. In terms of educational institutions, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) introduced a reservation of 20% seats for women in 2018 to correct the low levels of female participation in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) disciplines. This measure has been quite successful in increasing the share of women, from about 14% of total seats in 2018-19 to 20% in 2020-21. Yet, a large gulf remains in achievement by the subaltern caste.

WHAT IS INTERSECTIONALITY?

The intersectionality perspective emphasizes that an individual’s social identity influences the individual’s beliefs and experiences of gender making it essential to understand gender within the context of power relations.

SOME OF THE EXAMPLES

Intersectionality of class, caste and gender and its linkages with unmet need for care. Research on economic inequality and poverty demonstrated that unequal distribution of resources manifests in unequal access to opportunities, including healthcare. Economic differences may not shape the opportunities in isolation rather than caste inequalities and

Gender biases which are rooted in the social system and interact with economic class, influence the pathways of healthcare access; some of the data in the case of gender intersectionality.

This clearly shows that a social gradient to health exists in India in the case of health outcomes.

The social gradient in health is a term used to describe the phenomenon whereby people who are less advantaged in terms of socioeconomic position have worse health (and shorter lives) than those who are more advantaged.

THIS INTERSECTIONALITY PREVAILS IN OTHER SECTORS TOO

• One of the RTI reports reveals that just 19% of the 17,000 companies had adopted the voluntary code of affirmative action for SC/ST communities. The hesitation of corporates in giving importance to caste-based hiring comes from their preference for talent over inclusion.
  • However, the need for inclusion is imperative. Despite higher education systems providing placement opportunities to Dalit students, their scarce presence in corporates’ higher management across the country is worrying.
• Many of the leaders of top companies in India have been vocal about their willingness to hire based on merit and academic performance instead of caste.
  • At the same time, a few companies like Muthoot ask for the caste of candidates in the application form.
  • A study conducted in 2012 found that over 93% of the Indian Corporate board members belong to the “upper castes”. In such a scenario, the unconscious bias of companies and especially the recruiters can hardly be ignored.
• It has been observed that most of the Dalit workers in the private sector are employed at ground level and often as unskilled labourers. The absence of Dalit members in the management body directly impacts these lower-level employees.
  • As a marginalized section, their needs and concerns remain unheard of and unresolved. This creates the condition of underrepresentation at the top level and overrepresentation at the bottom level.
• Impact of such anomaly.
• Impact on entrepreneurship: Dalit entrepreneurship has suffered due to a lack of resources as well as skills. The combined support of the government and the corporate houses is needed to boost such an entrepreneurial spirit. It is crucial to fill the gaps left by the education system through systematic training and skill development. Business houses such as Godrej and M&M are providing training facilities as well as funds to the deprived class entrepreneurs. The government has also been talking about bringing in equal opportunity legislation in the private sector along with financing for the training costs of underprivileged meritorious youth.

THE WAY FORWARD

• The Union Ministry of Minority Affairs came out with a “diversity index” that measures the workforce’s diversity in an organization. It has been found through several studies that the more diverse companies perform better financially, and consumers prefer them over those that take no stand on societal issues. Consequently, many companies have now started caste-profiling their employees. The need of the hour is a conscious effort from the corporate industry for inclusive hiring and talent development rather than just a few short-term CSR activities.

THE CONCLUSION: Despite caste-based reservations, caste-based discrimination persists, raising the question of whether alternative approaches to implementing affirmative action – other than reservations – should be considered.An alternative affirmative action strategy to reservations may be to devote more educational resources to prepare underrepresented groups for higher education students better.This approach may enhance representation while reducing negative stereotypes that women and lower caste groups have lower productivity or provide lower quality services. Enhanced representation and reduced discrimination against women and lower caste groups in high-skilled occupations can encourage competition and improve the overall quality of services.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

1. Deprivation cannot be reduced to one category of one social limitation. In this context, analyze the multifarious nature of deprivation in India.

THE CONTEXT: India has a long history of various states experimenting with various laws on liquor, ranging from total prohibition to restricted sale of alcohol to phased closure of liquor shops.  As liquor contributes sizeable revenue to the exchequer, it has never been an easy decision for any state government to impose the prohibition.  Presently, there are four states – Bihar, Gujarat, Nagaland and Mizoram – and the Union Territory of Lakshadweep, where total prohibition is in place. This article analyses the causes behind the not-so-successful liquor prohibitions in India.

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a medical condition characterized by an impaired ability to stop or control alcohol use despite adverse social, occupational, or health consequences. It encompasses the conditions that some people refer to as alcohol abuse, alcohol dependence, alcohol addiction, and the colloquial term, alcoholism.

THE OVERVIEW: Alcohol is a toxic and psychoactive substance with dependence-producing properties. In many of today’s societies, alcoholic beverages are a routine part of the social landscape for many in the population. This is particularly true for those in social environments with high visibility and societal influence, nationally and internationally, where alcohol frequently accompanies socializing. In this context, it is easy to overlook or discount the health and social damage caused or contributed to by drinking.

• Alcohol consumption contributes to 3 million deaths each year globally as well as to the disabilities and poor health of millions of people. Overall, the harmful use of alcohol is responsible for 5.1% of the global burden of disease.
• Harmful use of alcohol is accountable for 7.1% and 2.2% of the global burden of disease for males and females respectively. Alcohol is the leading risk factor for premature mortality and disability among those aged 15 to 49 years, accounting for 10 per cent of all deaths in this age group. Disadvantaged and especially vulnerable populations have higher rates of alcohol-related death and hospitalization.

THE HISTORY OF PROHIBITION OF LIQUOR AROUND THE WORLD

The term prohibition refers to the legal prevention of the manufacture, storage, transportation, distribution, sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages with the aim of obtaining total abstinence through legal means. Prohibition and temperance have had an overlapping history in many countries since ancient times like in ancient China, Aztec civilisation and feudal Japanese society.

The anti-liquor movement in the West is nearly two centuries two-centuries-old. An abstinence pledge was introduced by churches in the United States as early as 1800. One of the landmarks in the internationalisation of the movement was the organisation of the World Prohibition Conference in London, in 1909. It was instrumental in the formation of the International Prohibition Confederation, embracing the United States, the European countries and a few other industrialised countries of the world. Nationwide prohibition was enforced in the United States in 1920 (via the 18th Amendment and National Prohibition Act). However, post-1933 a tilt towards liberalisation was seen as countries were unable to stop illicit liquor sales and were losing out on revenue. In 1933, the National Prohibition Act was repealed in the U.S.

THE CURRENT STATUS OF PROHIBITION IN THE WORLD

Most countries that introduced prohibition have withdrawn or liberalised the measure like the U.S, Japan, China etc. At present, there is a complete prohibition of liquor in 5countries in the Middle East/North Africa which include Afghanistan, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Sudan. Some other countries like Brunei Darussalam, Comoro, Iran, Kuwait, Maldives, Mauritania, Pakistan, Palestine, Syria and Yemen – prohibit alcohol for Muslim citizens only. The United Arab Emirates allows for some sale of alcohol except for the region of Sharjah.

LIQUOR PROHIBITION IN INDIA

CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS

• Article 47: The Directive Principle in the Constitution of India states that “The state shall undertake rules to bring about prohibition of the consumption except for medicinal purposes of intoxicating drinks and of drugs which are injurious to health”.
• State Subject: Alcohol is a subject in the State list under the seventh schedule of the Indian Constitution.

OTHER PROHIBITION ACTS IN INDIA

• Bombay Abkari Act, 1878: The first hint at the prohibition of liquor was through the Bombay Abkari Act, 1878 (in the Province of Bombay). This Act dealt with the levying of duties on intoxicants, among other things and aspects of prohibition via amendments made in 1939 and 1947.
• Bombay Prohibition Act, 1949: There were “many lacunae” in the Bombay Abkari Act, 1878, from the point of view of the government’s decision to enforce prohibition. This led to the birth of the Bombay Prohibition Act, 1949. The Supreme Court (SC) upheld the Act broadly barring a few sections in 1951 in the judgment of the State of Bombay and Ors. vs FN Balsara (1951).
• Gujarat Prohibition Act, 1949: Gujarat adopted the prohibition policy in 1960 and subsequently chose to enforce it with greater rigidity, but also made processes easier for foreign tourists and visitors to get liquor permits. In 2011, the Act was renamed as Gujarat Prohibition Act. In 2017, the Gujarat Prohibition (Amendment) Act was passed with the provision of up to ten years in jail for manufacturing, purchase, sale and transportation of liquor in the dry state.
• Bihar Prohibition Act, 2016: The Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act was brought into effect in 2016. Over 3.5 lakh people have been arrested under the stringent prohibition law since 2016, leading to crowded jails and clogged courts.
• Other States: Alcohol prohibition in India is in force in the states of Mizoram, and Nagaland as well as in the union territory of Lakshadweep

RATIONALE BEHIND PROHIBITION OF LIQUOR

HEALTH BENEFITS

• Drinking liquor places an adverse impact on human health. It diminishes the utility and functioning of the vital organs of the body, especially the liver and kidney. According to the WHO, the harmful use of alcohol is a causal factor in more than 200 disease and injury conditions and globally 3 million death occur every year due to harmful use of alcohol (5.3% of all deaths).

CONSTITUTIONAL OBLIGATION

• Article 47 of the Constitution directs the State to take measures to raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living and to improve public health. Further, the State shall endeavour to bring about prohibition of the consumption of intoxicating drinks and of drugs which are injurious to health.

CURB GENDER VIOLENCE

• Several studies have pointed out a direct correlation between consumption of alcohol and gender violence, including in the domestic setting. A study in Bihar found that 40% of ever-married women aged between 15 and 49 reported that they experienced physical, sexual or emotional violence by their husbands during the previous 12 months.
• Proponents argue that the prohibition of liquor has the potential to bring down the levels of intimate partner violence. A study conducted in Bihar has supported the argument e.g., there has been a 28.9% reduction in crimes against women in Bihar between 2016-2019 (after prohibition)

REDUCTION IN CRIM

• A reduction in alcohol consumption is also desired to reduce crime in society as intoxication impairs an individual’s ability to distinguish between right and wrong.
• A report by the Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI) on prohibition in Bihar noted there was a 66.6% dip in cases of kidnapping for ransom, followed by a 28.3% dip in murder cases and 2.3% in dacoity.

ECONOMIC STRESS

• Addiction to alcohol creates severe hardships, especially for poor families as the male members tend to spend more on alcohol due to their excessive addiction. This in turn reduces the budget for spending on essential items and in many cases pushes the family into borrowing.
• The 1992 Anti-arrack movement that took place in Andhra Pradesh is a testimony to this. The money saved due to the prohibition of liquor is used more productively, e.g., the ADRI study pointed out that 19% of households acquired new assets from the money they earlier splurged on alcohol.

THE ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE PROHIBITION OF LIQUOR

RIGHT TO CHOICE

• A total ban goes against an individual’s right to choice and undermines a person’s freedom.

ECONOMIC LOSS

• The Indian Made Foreign Liquors (IMFL) industry contributes over INR 1 lakh crore in taxes every year. It supports the livelihood of 35 lakh farming families and provides direct and indirect employment to lakhs of workers employed in the industry. It also supports hundreds of ancillary industries in glass, tin, plastic and paper with a turnover of Rs 6,000-7,000 crore.
• Moreover, complete prohibition has a negative impact on the tourism and hospitality sectors.

BOOTLEGGING

• Failure of effective implementation gives rise to bootlegging (the illegal production, transport and sale of liquor). Liquor mafias emerge which keep on supplying illicit liquor (with no quality checks) to the masses. This defeats the purpose of the prohibition of liquor and gives rise to organized crime as well.

HEALTH IMPACTS

• Many people lose their lives by consuming poor-quality illicit liquor (hooch). News reports indicate that as many as 60 people have died after consuming hooch in Bihar since November 2021. Alcohol prohibition may also lead people into consuming other substances which are easy to smuggle and may result in greater health and social consequences.

POPULIST MEASURE

• Critics argue that Alcohol prohibition is merely used as a political card, especially to woo women, voters. However, it doesn’t solve their problems as people addicted to alcohol end up consuming hooch and other illegal alcoholic substances whose impact is similar or even worse than legally manufactured alcohol.

THE CHEQUERED HISTORY OF LIQUOR BAN IN INDIA

• Gujarat (which has been under prohibition for most of its existence) has a thriving illegal liquor industry. For reference, neighbouring Daman has a per capita consumption of 56 litres per annum against the national average of just 4.3 litres per annum. It is estimated that the state loses revenue to the tune of Rs 8,000 crore annually. Off-late Gujarat has diluted prohibition to contain negative fall out on tourism and MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) sector.
• Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Kerala too have experimented with prohibition at different times but abolished it due to its ineffectiveness. Prohibition did not solve the problem of alcohol consumption—it only drove it underground. In recent times Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Manipur have also overturned years-old prohibition policies due to their failure.
• Maharashtra has archaic laws of permits to drink (bars are called ‘permit rooms’) despite the fact that it has never been enforced. It now intends to enforce permits for small private parties at home. Similarly, there are inexplicable limits on the stocking of alcohol for personal consumption. Such ad-hocism prevents a consistent public policy aimed at creating a culture of responsible drinking.
• Bihar introduced complete prohibition in April 2016. While it certainly has led to a reduction in alcohol consumption, the related social, economic, and administrative costs have been far too much to justify gains. Prohibition crippled the judicial administration. So far over 2.14 lakh cases have been registered under the Act; 2.55 lakh people have been booked and 1.67 lakh arrests have been made. Nearly 40,000 bail applications are pending in the High Court, which has expressed its anguish at the turn of events and questioned how it can deal with this enormous pendency. Ironically, liquor sales in districts in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal bordering Bihar have seen a sharp rise.

CASE STUDY FROM BIHAR

• Ever since the Janata Dal (United) government banned liquor in 2016, drug use has gone up among young Biharis. Heroin, ganja, charas, and intravenous drugs have been the refuge of addicts in the state. A UDAYA study found that consumption was higher among rural boys (21 per cent) in Bihar than urban ones (17 per cent). Police in Seemanchal’s districts says petty crimes have also risen, as have the recovery of drugs, phones and cough syrup bottles.
• And yet, nobody seems to be doing anything about it. Economically poor and socially backward, Seemanchal sends its children to Delhi, Kolkata, and other big cities for better education and jobs each year. Some leave as migrant workers and some as government job seekers. But when the nationwide lockdown was announced in 2020, the young returned with no jobs and no work. With them, entered different types of addiction, drugs and boredom.

THE ANALYSIS – OF WHY THE LIQUOR PROHIBITION IS NOT EFFECTIVE

LESSONS OF HISTORY

• Those who support alcohol prohibition point at the dangers of drinking, the lives it has destroyed and the misery it has caused. They no doubt have a point, but that only indicates that alcohol consumption should be regulated in the public interest, not that it be totally prohibited. Historical experience has shown that liquor bans are ineffective and even counter-productive, and only give rise to crime and deaths by consumers drinking illicit liquor. Experience has shown that bans seldom work. They just push the alcohol consumption underground which then brings the criminal element into the picture.

PREVALENCE OF CORRUPTION

• Generally, the local officials form a nexus with the liquor mafia and overlook the underground activities. This police-mafia nexus problem is not limited to India, this had been evident in the US as well during the period of prohibition (1920-33).

DYNAMIC MODUS OPERANDI

• The modus operandi of unlawful players keeps on changing from time to time. The places of production, mode of transportation, and code languages keep on changing which are very difficult to detect.

SUPPORT BY NEIGHBOURING REGIONS

• The liquor gets smuggled from the neighbouring states, e.g., Daman (neighbouring Gujarat) has a per capita consumption of 56 litres per annum against the national average of just 4.3 litres per annum. The data show it plays a key role in meeting the demand of Gujarat.

HUGE SUPPLY OF WORKFORCE

• There is a huge supply of unemployed youth who want to make quick money by smuggling illicit liquor. The youth who get caught are quickly replaced. Further bail can be easily obtained due to nexus with officials.

HIGH DEGREE OF ADDICTION

• The ban doesn’t reduce the demand for alcohol but rather intensifies it. People are willing to risk their lives and drink illicit liquor just to satisfy their addiction. In Bihar, the prohibition indirectly increased the use of drugs and other harmful substances among those who could not get hold of alcohol.

The demand for alcohol is inelastic, i.e. whatever the price of alcohol, we can always find a crowd at every alcohol shop. So, when a law is established prohibiting the manufacturing or sale of alcohol, it impacts the supply side of the market. Basically, a law like Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act 2016 (BPEA), hardly influences the demand side of the market, which is inelastic in nature. The result is that, in a new market equilibrium, there is a negligible reduction in the consumption of alcohol, but the price of alcohol rises. It can be said that the law can actually worsen the lives of families of alcohol addicts, instead of making them better off.

Prohibitory laws cannot alter the demand side of the alcohol market. Instead of making laws, the government should work towards something that would influence the demand side of the consumer. One alternative is to disseminate awareness among people at the village or panchayat level. Awareness drives can help in reducing the demand.

Mere law passed in an assembly by a few people can’t bring social change. If the government had spent just 50% of the revenue it receives from the duties on alcohol on educating people about the hazardous effects of alcohol, it could have brought a better change in the lives of the people and society.

THE WAY FORWARD:

• The idea of prohibition is a classic example of tail-chasing. It is a short-sighted idea which can only get rid of the symptoms, and facilitate ‘out of sight, out of mind’, but can never truly manage to cure the disease. And what is the disease anyway? Linking domestic abuse with increased alcohol consumption is perhaps like being overconfident and assuming the problem is incredulously simple. Domestic abuse by men who squander their limited incomes on alcohol and then come home to beat their wives, or engage in other crimes, and its connection with alcohol consumption needs more research.
• The belief that banning alcohol would check issues related to alcoholism is a very simplistic notion, whereas in reality, the situation is much more complex. Between issues such as morality, prohibition or freedom of choice, also are factors like economy, jobs, etc, which cannot be ignored. What is required is an informed and constructive dialogue on the causes and effects.
• Policymakers should focus on framing laws which encourage responsible behaviour and compliance. The drinking age should be made uniform across the country and no person below that should be permitted to buy alcohol. Tough laws should be made against drunken behaviour in public, domestic violence under the influence, and drinking and driving. Besides, governments should set aside part of revenue earned from alcohol for social education, de-addiction, and community support.
• The point is we know that sugar is bad for health. Should we just ban it or instead get people to consume it less by way of creating awareness?

THE CONCLUSION: Prohibition risks bringing the double whammy of the loss of tax revenues and the need for increased spending on enforcement. Laws work best when they are reformative, not retributive. The mindset of the people cannot be changed overnight and less so through inefficacious policy levers that infringe on individual freedom. That will just make it costlier for people to make mistakes and learn about their preferences through trial and error. On the other hand, higher taxes on alcohol might give the state a chance to bring reforms to their societies which are both progressive and prescient.

Mains Practice Questions:

1. Evidence from Indian experiments shows that a liquor ban does not lead to desired changes. Comment.
2. Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law. Critically analyse the utility of using physical and financial resources to implement the provisions of the alcohol prohibition laws in India.

THE CONTEXT: Many developing countries have reorganized their subnational administrative boundaries as a part of administrative reforms and decentralization. Theoretically, administrative proliferation can lead to better developmental outcomes by better managing ethnic heterogeneity, bringing public services closer to people, and better matching services to local preferences. This article analyzes the demographic and developmental outcomes of such administrative proliferation in India.

THE OVERVIEW: In a bid to arrive at the optimal population size in a local government unit, many national governments have reorganized their sub-national boundaries and have implemented vast decentralization reforms with an explicit goal to improve governance. The fundamental argument for decentralized administration is that there is heterogeneity in demand for public services. The variance in preferences can be better understood and catered to by a government that is closer to the citizens, thus raising well-being throughout society. Small jurisdictions have an information advantage and hence they can tailor their services, tax appropriately, and raise welfare. In addition, it also enhances the capability of the citizens to monitor their government and hold the responsibility of the public official to better match local preferences.

ADMINISTRATIVE PROLIFERATION:

●Administrative proliferation is the creation of new administrative units by the splitting of existing ones at subnational levels. Although administrative proliferation may be associated with decentralization reforms, it is a distinct policy choice. Decentralization involves the devolution of responsibility, authority, and resources to lower-level governmental units, while administrative proliferation only creates new governmental units without changing the underlying power structure.

● Many developing countries create new districts as a part of their administrative reforms process, also referred to as administrative proliferation or government fragmentation.

WHY ADMINISTRATIVE PROLIFERATION?

• Administrative proliferation may claim some of the theoretical benefits of decentralization as it brings citizens closer to their administrators. Each administrative unit is smaller and more homogeneous—with less heterogeneity in preferences, they are able to provide better services to citizens. Splitting of administrative units also may reduce the bargaining power of each unit.
• Another consideration in the creation of administrative units is the management of ethnic diversity. Ethnic politics constitutes a crucial dimension of public life and serves as an intermediary between public administration and the economic well-being of citizens, especially in cases where multiple hierarchically nested administrative units interact to provide public goods. In ethnically diverse states it is common to devolve power to subnational units as a compromise between the demands of territorially concentrated ethnic groups and the need to preserve the higher-level territorial integrity.

ADMINISTRATIVE PROLIFERATION IN INDIA

Administrative proliferation in India has been occurring since Independence, but it has picked up pace since the enactment of the decentralization reforms in 1992. India enacted extensive decentralization reforms with a constitutional amendment in 1992. Until the 73rd and 74th amendments to the constitution, the structure of government in India was two-tiered, with the union and state governments—and the district level administrators performing such tasks as assigned to them by the state governments, such as rural development programs. With the passing of the 73rd and 74th Amendments, the local government units became the third tier of government. The local government units are themselves of three levels – district level, 220 sub-district (taluka) level and village (panchayat) level.

According to the 2011 Census, between 2001-2011 alone as many as 46 districts were added within that time. Since the 2011 Census, approximately 100 districts have been added in India.

• In 2021 Punjab created Malerkotla as its 23rd district.
• The surge in a number of districts is mostly due to the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh into A.P. and Telangana in 2014. Telangana at present has 33 districts and Andhra Pradesh has 26 districts (13 new districts were created in 2022).
• Most recently in August 2022, WEST BENGAL also announced for creation 7 new districts.

ADVANTAGES OF CREATING NEW DISTRICTS IN INDIA

• Better administration and governance: This is one of the foremost advantages stated by state governments during the creation of new districts. To some extent, it is also true.
• The smaller district ensures better governance: New districts will host a range of administrative machinery in the district. This will result in better implementation of government schemes, proper fund utilization, enhanced coverage of schemes, etc. All this will improve governance in the new district.
• Service to the increased population: Since 1981, the average district area has become 44% smaller in 2019. But, the average number of people in a district has risen from 16.6 lakh to 18.6 lakh in 2019. So the new districts can ensure better service delivery for the increased population.
• Bring administration closer to the people: Bigger districts hinder the administration process in some areas of that district itself. For example, before the bifurcation of the Amravati district, the farthest taluka was around 150 km from the district headquarters. So, administrative officers in taluka have to travel nearly 3 hours to district headquarters. A new district can bring the administration closer to the people.
• District-specific government initiatives: New districts might attract more district-specific schemes. For example, the government can set up an agricultural research and assistance centre or a residential school for gifted children. The state government can provide better funding for backward districts. This will benefit the local population.
• Increase employment: Since the new district will require new officials from the top-down, this will increase the employment in government directly. It will also spur employment opportunities indirectly. For example, government tender and associated employment for locals, new shops and services near government buildings, etc.

DEMOGRAPHIC AND DEVELOPMENT OUTCOMES OF ADMINISTRATIVE PROLIFERATION

The district bifurcations are beneficial for the overall district – and especially newly created districts – in terms of economic output. There could be two underlying reasons for the observed outcomes – it may be arising due to the greater homogeneity in population distribution after the split, or due to the redistributive benefits of bifurcation.

• After the bifurcation, both the child and the parent region tend to be more homogeneous than before. When compared with a similar district that was never split, both child and parent districts do better in terms of economic outcomes. This suggests that the greater homogeneity in population distribution and preferences after the split could be playing a part in the observed positive outcomes.
• However, the child regions do better than the parent regions in the post-bifurcation period. This is reasonable to expect because the villages in the child district gain an additional advantage of having a new administrative setup built closer to them. This is consistent with the idea that reducing the distance between citizens and administrative centres could lead to better outcomes. [The parent region already has an established administrative system, and therefore the redistributive effects due to the creation of a new district headquarters do not come into play in the parent district. The observed benefit to the child region over the parent region seems to suggest that the positive outcomes are due to redistributive benefits.]

CHALLENGES IN THE CREATION OF NEW DISTRICTS IN INDIA

Creating a number of districts without any rationale can be challenging. This is due to various reasons such as,

• The very process of creating one district is challenging: The government has to find office space for different departments and fill many new positions. All this will require a huge government expenditure. The government will also face challenges with land acquisition.
• Substitute for genuine decentralization: Zilla Parishad and the Panchayat Samiti do not enjoy a lot of power in many states. So, these officials take most of their grievances to the collector. Creating smaller districts without empowering these bodies does not conform to the idea of decentralization in the real sense.
• The increased cost of living in new districts: The growth centres created in new district headquarters will also make the land rates and other service costs go up. This will increase the cost of living in the new district headquarters in the long run.
• Political motive: Many states reorganize the existing districts and form new ones due to political motives. However, the 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission stated that the political gains from forming a new district are a “minor dividend” and not the major one.

THE ANALYSIS OF THE ISSUE

• In democratic societies, small jurisdictions are believed to enhance political participation, make politics less abstract, politicians more responsive, and facilitate exit-based empowerment of citizens. Decentralization may promote responsiveness and effectiveness of the government as it enhances the capability of the citizens to monitor their government and aligns the incentive structure facing the public official. Decentralization will increase economic efficiency as local governments have an information advantage and can respond better to variance in preferences at the local level and population mobility will lead to competition between local authorities and better provision of public goods [One District, One Product; Aspirational District Programme; Swachh Bharat Mission etc will incentivise the general public in a more comprehensive way].
• Decentralized service delivery especially when citizens directly elect the local governments is expected to provide better coverage, quality, and efficiency. Competing local governments may experiment with various ways to provide public goods and lead to innovations [ making use of locally available resources, traditional knowledge and manpower] that can also be applied/replicated elsewhere.
• Local government proliferation also brings citizens closer to their government and may engender a better match between the supply and demand of public goods and services.
• At the same time, there is a counter argument in favour of larger jurisdiction sizes because larger units allow for economies of scale in providing public goods. Local bureaucracies may be poorly staffed and ill-equipped to handle the responsibilities associated with the decentralized provision of public goods [such as in cases of natural disasters and climate change-related issues which impact a larger geographical area and needs more coordinated efforts at a large scale]. Making each unit smaller and increasing the number of units, may increase the total cost of coordination and cooperation.
• There is also the possibility that the newly created administrative units may struggle to generate resources due to poorer administrative capability, thus leading to subpar public good provision. Thus critics also argue that the effectiveness of decentralization measures/administrative proliferation is often hampered by the particular context of its implementation, which may or may not always lead to better outcomes.

THE WAY FORWARD:

1. Ensure proper decentralization: Instead of creating new districts every time, the State governments might reform their decentralization policy as the Panchayats and Zillas face many challenges in their functioning. If the state government provides more powers this will improve the functioning of Panchayats and Zilla Parishad. For example,

• Creation of SFCs(State Finance Commission) properly and allocating funds properly.
• Widening their tax base and providing access to the Capital market to raise funds.
• State Governments should provide local bodies with the power to recruit personnel to fulfil their functions properly.

2. Guidelines for the formation of new districts: With new districts added every year, the Center may prescribe certain criteria for the formation of a new district. For example, the Center may release a guideline that contains the minimum area of the district, its population, etc.
3. Work on other alternatives: Instead of creating new infrastructure, the States may conduct special camps and frequent field visits from officials. This will not only save the government exchequer but also serve the majority of the administrative and governance targets.
4. Information and communication technologies (ICT) are key instruments for achieving higher competitiveness in the economy and improving the social living standard of the citizens. Wide usage and incorporation of ICT in these two directions are targeted to achieve innovative, sustainable and associative growth, which is envisaged.
5. The present times is an era of technology and underlining the benefits of technology as demonstrated during the time of the pandemic, the union government is working to provide high-speed internet to every village and it is imperative to invest even further in technology and innovation, which will help in better administration and good governance initiatives, reducing the need for further bifurcation of the districts.
6. Parallel steps to enhance the Accountability, Responsibility, and Transparency of the public offices will further enhance the overall functioning of the administration along with the administrative proliferation which indeed helps in bringing the government and administration closer to the people.

THE CONCLUSION: Administrative proliferation as a policy measure has mixed results with specific public service measures such as education, sanitation, water supply, or maternal health. Compared to districts that are not split, split districts (parent and child) are better off in terms of economic outcomes. However, the child regions have an advantage over the parent regions in the post-bifurcation period. Government functions are many and varied and the effect of population size on one of those functions might not be the same as that on others. The demographic and developmental outcomes may fall off the line with the conceived notions of administrative proliferation at lower levels of population per administrative unit.

Mains Practice Question:

1. What are the reasons for creating new districts in the state? are they helping in administrative ease or just a populist measure?
2. Does the concept of administrative proliferation conform to the idea of a leviathan state? In the era of minimum government, maximum governance justifies the idea of creating more administrative centres in the state.
3. Do newly added districts yield desired governance results? critically analyze.

The context: Recently, the National Report of the 2nd phase of the fifth round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) was released. The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) is a large-scale, multi-round survey conducted on a representative sample of households throughout India. The following article would analyse the survey and highlight its findings from the UPSC perspective.

HISTORY OF NFHS

The main objective of each successive round of the NFHS has been to provide high-quality data on health and family welfare and emerging issues in this area.

NFHS-1:

The NFHS-1 was conducted in 1992-93.

NFHS-2:

The NFHS-2 was conducted in 1998-99 in all 26 states of India.

The project was funded by the USAID, with additional support from UNICEF.

The NFHS-3: carried out in 2005-2006

NFHS-3 funding was provided by the USAID, the Department for International Development (UK), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UNICEF, UNFPA, and the Government of India.

The NFHS-4: Conducted in 2014-2015

In addition to the 29 states, NFHS-4 included all six union territories for the first time and provided estimates of most indicators at the district level for all 640 districts in the country as per the 2011 census.

NFHS-5: KEY IMPROVEMENTS FROM PREVIOUS VERSIONS

The NFHS-4 survey covered a range of health-related issues, including fertility, infant and child mortality, maternal and child health, perinatal mortality, adolescent reproductive health, high-risk sexual behaviour, safe injections, tuberculosis, and malaria, non-communicable diseases, domestic violence, HIV knowledge, and attitudes toward people living with HIV. The NFHS-5 has made certain improvements over the earlier versions.

ASPECT/CONTEXT

EXPLANATION

SCOPE OF NFHS-5

• NFHS-5 has expanded in respect of the earlier round of the survey (NFHS-4) by adding new dimensions:

o   NFHS-5 includes some new topics, such as preschool education, disability, access to a toilet facility, death registration, bathing practices during menstruation, and methods and reasons for abortion.

o   Also, NFHS-5 has additional components of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), and an expanded age range for measuring hypertension and diabetes among all aged 15 years and above.

TRACKING SDGS

• NFHS-5 provides information on important indicators which are helpful in tracking the progress of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the country.

TRACKING SOCIAL STATUS

• The NFHS-5 report also provides data on socioeconomic and other background characteristics; useful for policy formulation and effective programme implementation.

INFLUENCING PUBLIC POLICIES

• Besides providing evidence for the effectiveness of ongoing programmes, the data from NFHS-5 help in identifying the need for new programmes with an area-specific focus and identifying groups that are most in need of essential services.

NFHS-5: KEY FINDINGS

DIMENSION

FINDING

USE OF FAMILY PLANNING METHODS 

• Use of family planning methods increased; most states reduce their fertility rate, below the target of 2.1
• All states (except Mizoram) have seen an increase in the use of family planning methods. Goa (42%-point) and Bihar (32%-point) have seen the highest increase in the use of family planning methods.

FERTILITY RATES

• Consequently, most states have seen a decrease in the total fertility rate (TFR). Bihar’s TFR has declined from 3.4 (in NFHS-4) to 3. All other media and large states in the survey (i.e., population above 1 crore) have a TFR below the replacement level rate of 2.1.

SEX RATIO AT BIRTH

• The sex ratio at birth for children born in the last five years is below 950 for seven (of the 17) states. The sex ratio at birth is the number of female children born per 1,000 male children born. In three states, the ratio is below 900 (Goa: 838, Himachal Pradesh: 875, and Telangana: 894).
• The ratio has declined in seven states. The most notable decline was in Goa (from 966 to 838), and Kerala (from 1,047 to 951). Only Tripura has a sex ratio at birth above 1,000 (i.e., more females born than males).

INSTITUTIONAL BIRTHS

• In 7 states, more than 90% of the births in the last five years were institutional births. In Kerala, nearly 100% of the births were institutional births. Only 46% of the births in Nagaland were institutional births.
• The average out-of-pocket expenditure on delivery in a public health facility increased in 8 of the 17 states. Note that in West Bengal, the average expenditure on deliveries declined by Rs 5,236 per delivery (66% of the cost in 2015-16), and the proportion of institutional births increased from 75% to 92%.

INFANT MORTALITY RATE & NUTRITIONAL ASPECTS OF CHILDREN

• Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) has declined across states; however, malnourishment among children is increasing. IMR has marginally declined in nearly all states. Assam has seen one of the largest drops in IMR, from 48 deaths (per 1,000 live births) to 32 deaths. IMR remains high in Bihar (47 deaths per 1,000 live births).
• However, the nutritional status of children below 5 years of age is worsening. Stunting or chronic malnutrition (i.e., low height with respect to age) has increased in 11 of the 17 states.
• The proportion of severely wasted children has increased in 13 of the 17 states.   Wasting or acute malnutrition refers to low weight with respect to height. Children who are stunted or wasted are more vulnerable to diseases and illness.
• The proportion of children who are underweight (low weight with respect to age) has increased in 11 of the 17 states. In Bihar and Gujarat, 40% or more of the children under the age of five years are underweight.

ACCESS TO ELECTRICITY, IMPROVED SOURCE OF DRINKING WATER AND SANITATION

• The proportion of households with electricity and improved drinking water source has increased across all states. Households with improved sanitation facilities have also increased across all states. 99% of households in Kerala have an improved sanitation facility, while only 49% of households have it in Bihar.
• Similarly, the proportion of households using clean fuel for cooking has also increased across nearly all states. Telangana has seen a nearly 25%-point increase in access to improved sanitation facilities and clean cooking fuel as compared to NFHS-4.

DISTRIBUTION OF INTERNET ACCESS

• More women using mobile phones across all states; however, many of them do not have access to the internet
• The proportion of women who have a mobile phone has increased across all states.   However, only about 50% of women own and use a mobile phone in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, and West Bengal.
• The Survey also measured the proportion of men and women (15-49 years of age) who have ever used the internet. Across all states, the proportion of men who have used the internet was higher than women, with the difference being higher than 25%-point in states such as Telangana, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh. In Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, and Tripura, less than 25% of women have used the internet.

ACCESS TO MENSTRUAL HYGIENE

• The use of hygienic methods of protection during the menstrual period has increased across states
• The Survey measured the proportion of women (15-24 years) who are using hygienic methods of protection during their menstrual period. This has increased across almost all states. The largest increase was seen in Bihar and West Bengal (28%-point). However, it still remains low in Bihar (59%), Assam and Gujarat (66%).

NFHS: AN OVERVIEW AND ANALYSIS

FINDING

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Contraceptive use:

Only 50.7 percent of women in the lowest wealth quintile used modern contraceptives, compared to 58.7 percent of women in the highest quintile.

• While the data shows that the knowledge of contraceptives is pretty much universal (99 percent of married men and women in both rural and urban India knew of them), only a little over 50 percent of the currently married population opts for contraceptives.
• Their usage is also determined by employment status and income level.

The onus of family planning:

37.9 per cent of married women between the ages of 15 to 49 underwent female sterilisation. This is nearly 2 percent more than in 2015-16.

• The onus of family planning still heavily leans on women, and far from modern contraceptives easing the burden of female sterilisation, the practice has only gone up.
• There isn’t much difference in this as far as rural and urban sphere are concerned.

Low fertility rates:

The trends in fertility of residence (TFR) are down across communities, however, the fall in TFR among Muslims has been the sharpest at 2.36 children per woman as compared to 2.62 kids per woman in 2015-16.

• The numbers are lower, yet vary across caveats of religious groups, communities, and states.
• The decline continues the downward trend in India’s fertility rate over the last few decades.

Anaemia remains a major concern:

57 percent of all women aged 15-49 years were found to be anaemic, whereas 25 percent of men in the same age group have anaemia.

• While there has been a 4 percent rise in anaemia in women compared to 2015-16, there has been a 3 percent rise among men.
• India has not been effectively able to tackle the burden of anaemia and remains a concern across age groups, sexes and social strata. The government will have to prioritize a more aggressive approach to tackle this issue going forth.

Obesity is on the rise:

24 percent of women and 22.9 percent of men were found to be overweight or obese (BMI ≥25.0 kg/m2), which is 4 percent higher than in 2015-16.

• While obesity seems to have gone up in both men and women, fewer people in the same age groups are underweight as compared to 2015-16.

THE WAY FORWARD:

• Considering the huge population size and profound demographic diversity in the country, context-specific policy and programmes will be needed for states, passing through different stages of the demographic transition. There must be a more focused approach towards aspects like eliminating anaemia and providing easy access to contraceptives.
• There has to be an accelerated coverage of national programmes such as Jan Dhan Yojana, Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY), Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, Ujjawala Scheme, PMMVY (Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana), and Beti Bachao Beti Padhao mission.
• Lower TFR usually comes with economic development and greater education, particularly those policies that pave the way for women’s education and employment. States like Kerala have recorded declining TFR due to this, and thus, it becomes a role model for states like Bihar which hasn’t fared well as compared to its southern counterparts.

THE CONCLUSION: While there is much to celebrate in the NFHS-5 data, especially the fact that the Total Fertility Rate has come down to 2.0, our focus should now be to reach the unreached. We must do more for the marginalized sections of society, who may be underprivileged on the basis of class, identity or geography.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

1. Discuss a few significant findings of the fifth round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) in the context of health and inclusivity of women in India.
2. “While there is much to celebrate in the NFHS-5 data, we must do more for the marginalized sections of the society, who may be underprivileged on the basis of class, identity or geography.” Examine critically in the context of the fifth round of the National Family Health Survey.

THE CONTEXT: The Indian PM attended the inaugural leaders’ meeting of a new alliance called I2U2 made up of Israel, India, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States in July 2022. In this article, we will analyse this new organisation and its various implications from the UPSC perspective.

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT I2U2

WHAT IS I2U2?

• I2U2, often known as the “West Asian Quad,” is an acronym representing India, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States.
• When Indian External Affairs Minister Visited Israel in October 2021, the foreign ministers of the four nations met.
• At that time, the organisation was known as the “International Forum for Economic Cooperation.”
• The countries have said there is no military angle to their cooperation and are pushing a constructive agenda focused on the economy, especially infrastructure projects.

WHAT ARE THE OBJECTIVES OF I2U2?

• The I2U2’s aim is to discuss “common areas of mutual interest, to strengthen the economic partnership in trade and investment in their respective regions and beyond.”
• I2U2  aims to encourage joint investments in six mutually identified areas such as:

• • water,
  • energy,
  • transportation,
  • space,
  • health, and
  • food security.

• It intends to mobilise private sector capital and expertise to help:
• modernise the infrastructure,
• low carbon development pathways for the industries,
• improve public health, and
• the development of critical emerging and green technologies.

THE OUTCOMES OF THE I2U2 SUMMIT

The UAE has launched a two-billion-dollar investment in a series of Integrated Food Parks across India. These parks will use cutting-edge climate-smart technologies to prevent food waste and spoilage, save fresh water, and use renewable energy sources. India will supply suitable acreage for the project and would help farmers integrate into the food parks. The private sectors of the United States and Israel will be invited to contribute their expertise and new solutions to the project’s overall sustainability. These investments will aid in increasing crop yields and combating food insecurity in South Asia and the Middle East.The I2U2 also announced that it would advance a hybrid renewable energy project in Gujarat consisting of 300 megawatts (M.W.) of wind and solar capacity complemented by a battery energy storage system.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS FOR THE COUNTRIES FROM I2U2?

FOR USA

• The I2U2 will enable Washington to expand and restore partnerships that suffered during the Donald Trump regime and also reframe relationships in the Middle East.

FOR INDIA

• India will benefit from backing the I2U2 as it allows New Delhi to play a greater global role and deepen ties with the Middle East, an area it views significantly because of its energy and economic interests and a large diaspora presence. (Read Ahead)

FOR UAE

• The bloc presents the UAE with an opportunity to get an edge in the Persian Gulf — the maritime route that sees most of Asia’s oil passing through.

FOR ISRAEL

• For Israel, the I2U2 is a chance to improve ties with the Arab world. Israel will look to New Delhi’s assistance in bridging differences between Israel and other Arab countries and resolving problems that have made the region volatile for decades.

AN ANALYSIS OF THE IMPLICATIONS OF I2U2

BRIDGE ACROSS THE RELIGIONS

• By highlighting their shared commitment to pluralism and cooperation across faiths, I2U2 could become a venue for cooperation on a variety of other initiatives.
• An I2U2 that advances pluralism across its member states could also encourage the practice of related values — including protections for minority, religious and human rights — within them as well.

BROADER VISION FOR WORLD ORDER

• In addition, the shift would offer the Biden administration a means to broaden its vision of world order from one that is primarily defined by “democracy versus authoritarianism” to one that considers other important features of national identity and helps to build different sorts of bridges with strategic but undemocratic partners like the UAE.

BALANCING ACT FOR UAE

• The UAE is working to become one of the most globally connected players in the region.
• One of the pillars of this strategy is to pivot to Asia. But in contrast to the U.S. pivot to Asia aiming at confronting China, the UAE considers China one of its main partners in achieving this objective.
• I2U2 is also one of the ways the UAE is balancing its relations with its two main Asian partners: China and India.

HOW IS INDIA GOING TO BE BENEFITED FROM THE I2U2?

CAPITAL AND TECHNOLOGY MOBILISATION

• India sees clear and tangible benefits from the I2U2, starting with the group’s first two announcements: a $2 billion investment and technological assistance for agricultural initiatives in two Indian states, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh; and support for a hybrid renewable energy project in Gujarat.
• Indian companies are keen to participate in this project and contribute to India’s goal of achieving 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030. Such projects have the potential to make India a global hub for alternate supply chains in the renewable energy sector.
• I2U2 thus offers a model and platform for sustained mobilisation of capital from the UAE that is supported by Israeli and American technologies and championed by Washington.

DIPLOMATIC PLATFORM FOR NORMALISING TIES

• Given India’s close ties to both Israel and the UAE, New Delhi sees the I2U2 as a diplomatic tool for accelerating, deepening, and ensuring the ongoing normalisation of relations between Jerusalem and Abu Dhabi.
• Israel provides key military technologies to India, but previous generations of Indian officials downplayed those defence links, partly for internal political reasons and partly to appease their Arab neighbours.

STRATEGIC AUTONOMY MAINTENANCE

• I2U2 offers India an opportunity to cooperate with the United States on its own terms: not as a junior associate or a formal ally, but as a self-confident and “strategically autonomous” partner.
• I2U2’s emphasis on voluntary economic initiatives rather than binding multilateral trade deals (like the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) that India has repeatedly rejected is also attractive.
• In this respect, I2U2 resembles Washington’s new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, which India has also joined.

WHAT ARE THE POTENTIAL RISKS AREAS FOR THE GROUP?

The UAE and India are focused on pursuing economic cooperation through I2U2, and it seems that the United States and Israel are willing to go along with this approach. However, it is not clear whether any of them will introduce geopolitical objectives to I2U2 in the future. This would be problematic as the countries in the group have conflicting positions on how to deal with China, Russia and Iran, which may affect the future of the group and its prospects of success. The UAE, in particular, will strive to avoid this risk. Israel’s ambassador to India stressed that the group is “not against anyone,” adding that “it’s for our people and for making the world a better place,” an important message that was not echoed widely enough.

THE WAY FORWARD:

• The Jerusalem Declaration signed during the Biden visit to the Middle East reflects the strength of Israeli relations with the United States. I2U2 is also a demonstration of the extent to which the United States is committed to advancing Israel’s integration in the region. This can help the movement towards greater peace and progress in the region.
• Although the cooperation among I2U2 members represents key areas in the 21st-century global economy, the group needs to avoid entering into geopolitical issues that could derail its principal objective.
• I2U2 can expand by advancing cooperation in new areas in the future or by pursuing cooperation with other partners in both the Middle East and South Asia.
• The leaders also reaffirmed their support for the Abraham Accords and other peace and normalisation arrangements with Israel, and this can be a way of addressing the crucial  Palestinian question in the long term.
• The criticism of the agreement on food park by the farmers’ union in India that it will bring big corporates into the Indian agriculture sector, which will reduce farmers into a peasant, needs to be taken in the right spirit by the Indian government and the farmers’ need to be taken into confidence.
• India ought to take the opportunities provided by the I2U2 to mobilise technology and capital into crucial developmental areas without creating a perception that it is moving away from the principled stand of a two-state solution.

THE CONCLUSION: I2U2 has enormous potential, and its composition affords numerous chances for win-win cooperation. The United States has tremendous capabilities in every possible area; India has massive human resources and talents; Israel has advanced technology in a number of vital disciplines; and the UAE is developing creative policies, luring start-ups, and is willing to commit large money. However, the weight of its sustainability will fall mostly on the UAE and Israel — the key beneficiaries — to keep the interest of the U.S. and India and justify its continuation.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

1. What is I2U2? Critically analyse its objectives.
2. How far do you agree with the view that the entry into the geopolitical arena by the I2U2 can pose risks to its principal objective?
3. The I2U2 sets the stage for a new and dynamic phase in India’s relations with the Middle East. Comment.

THE CONTEXT: In June 2022 the Government of India came up with the Agnipath Scheme for the armed forces of the country with a view to make these leaner forces without compromising their combat abilities. Voices from various segments of the society have also iterated their concurrence with the idea and even demanded a similar kind of scheme with regard to the civil services especially the All India Services (AIS).This article analyses this debate from the UPSC perspective.

THE ISSUE: Rapid changes are taking place around the world in terms of economy, urbanisation, climate change, pandemic, technological advancements (shock), and increased emphasis on local awareness and identity etc. The response time to adapt to such changes is much shorter now than it used to be. As instruments of public service, civil servants have to be ready to manage such changes. On the one hand, the perception is that they are wedded to the status-quoist approach and resist change while on the other hand, we see various examples where the civil servants have taken initiatives to bring the desired change in the positive direction. But such one-off incidents is not sufficient and we need to comprehensively remould our services to make them performance oriented without losing the welfarist side of the services.

WHAT AILS THE CIVIL SERVICES?

INDIAN BUREAUCRACY IS ALLEGED TO BE STATUS QUOIST

• As instruments of public service, civil servants have to be ready for change. The common experience, however, is that they resist changes as they are wedded to their privileges and prospects and thereby, have become ends in themselves

o   For example, the 73rd and 74th Amendments to the Constitution have brought about major changes. Rural and urban local governments have been enabled to become institutions of self-government.

However, the intended vision has not been achieved, due to the reluctance on the part of the civil servants to accept the changes in control and accountability as well as the altered roles and responsibilities.

RULE-BOOK BUREAUCRACY

• By the rule book bureaucracy, it meant mainly following the rules and laws of the book without taking care of the actual needs of the people.
• Due to rule book bureaucracy, some civil servants have developed the attitude of’ bureaucratic behaviour’, which evokes issues like red-tapism, the complication of procedures, and the mal-adapted responses of ‘bureaucratic’ organisations to the needs of the people.

POLITICAL INTERFERENCE

• Civil servants at the regional level work in coordination with the political representative. They both are required to serve the common people by bringing development, welfare, well-being and peace to society.
• The political representative for the sake of fulfilling the populist demand influences the functioning of administrative officials. Hence, an administrative official has to adhere to the will of the political master.
• This interference sometimes leads to issues like corruption, and arbitrary transfers of honest civil servants. Also, this led to substantial inefficiency where the vital positions are not held by the best officers and ultimately this can lead to institutional decline.

STRUCTURAL ISSUES

Civil services have been facing many structural issues

• Generalist officers: Civil Service is conceived primarily to deliver the core functions of the state such as maintenance of law and order and implementation of government orders.
• However, with changing needs with the advent of globalisation, and economic reforms, the role of the state has changed. Therefore, there are new challenges due to technological evolution (for example cyber security). Thus, there is a higher demand (of specialist officers) for domain knowledge at the policy level.
• Ensuring transparency and accountability along with participatory and representative decision-making are some issues that need to be addressed.
• There are instances of lack of employment opportunities in some public services, while there are many vacancies in others.

COMPETING NOT COLLABORATING

• Contrary to public perception, most AIS officers do not collaborate as professionals. They are often competing with each other, questioning almost everything that the other AIS officer brings to them. This is indeed strange, but that is how it is. This has led to enormous delays, and decision-making has suffered. Moreover, an AIS officer rarely sticks his neck out to defend a junior colleague.
• Quite a few are protecting their backsides and looking at a post-retirement job in the government. The AIS could have evolved as a group with a distinctive ethos wherein the constituents understood and helped each other. But it has not happened.

HYBRID ROLE IDENTITY

• In recent years the notion of identity has given rise to a rich debate in nearly every share of life. The focus has been, for instance, on the desire of individuals to conform to shared norms in society, the cognitive aspects of norms or the sense of belonging.
• In such a case, a bureaucrat is a part of (sometimes large) organizations and he gets accustomed and exposed to certain perceptions and preferences of the organization. Hence, he acts not only as a rational actor on his own account but also as an en-cultured actor, whose perception of a supposed “good policy” is deeply influenced by the social context that he is part.

STEPS TO IMPROVE THE PERFORMANCE

RECRUITMENT

• Rationalization and harmonization of services: The existing 60 plus separate civil services at the central and state level needs to be reduced through rationalization and harmonization of services. [Recruits should be placed in a central talent pool, which would then allocate candidates by matching their competencies and the job description of the post. Concomitantly, the number of exams for civil services should ideally be brought down to one with all India ranking. States may also be encouraged to use this pool for recruitments.]
• Encourage lateral entry: Inducting specialists at higher levels of government will provide much-needed expertise.
• Outsource service delivery: Efforts need to be made to outsource service delivery to reduce dependence on the administrative machinery. Research is needed to identify possible services to be outsourced; various PPP models should be explored to determine the best possible mode of outsourcing.

TRAINING

• Training is the critical component of human resource development. The current systems of training for civil services do not adequately reflect changes in the socio-economic scenario and the emerging new challenges.  The reform agenda should comprise mandatory training for all civil servants at the induction stage combined with mid-career training imparting them with the required domain knowledge.
• There is also a need to inculcate ethical underpinning in the civil servants by implementing the Code of Ethics.
• Mid-career exams/skill assessments might be undertaken to evaluate and decide on future postings.
• Monitoring and overseeing mechanisms shall also be revitalised reaping the knowledge and experience of various institutes, the corporate sector, civil society etc.

EVALUATION

• Institute goal setting and tracking: There is an inherent need to set key responsibility/focus areas and progressively reduce discretionary aspects to evaluate civil servants.
• Institute the online Smart Performance Appraisal Report Recording Online Window (SPARROW) template in all central and state cadres. [The online portal was introduced for the Indian Administrative Service Officers in 2011. Through this portal, the IAS officers could record their performance appraisals on time and without delay. Now it has been extended to Group B and C officers also. Most recently in June 2022, the newly merged Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) also announced to adopt a comprehensive online system for its employees to file annual performance appraisal reports.]
• Compulsory retirement for underperforming officers: Develop benchmarks to assess the performance of officers and compulsorily retire those deemed unable to meet the benchmarks.
• Incentivization: Review existing schemes and introduce new schemes of incentives for extraordinary performance.

E-INITIATIVES

• Robust Vigilant Mechanism: Strengthen institutional mechanisms for prevention and detection of corruption. Thus, there is a need to review existing vigilance mechanisms.
• There is a need to strengthen the implementation of a Centralized Public Grievance Redressal and Monitoring System (CPGRAMs).
• Implementation of e-Office: Implementation of e-Office may be expedited in all ministries/ departments; all states/UTs may also be encouraged to adopt it.
• Prompt delivery of services: Every department should seek to simplify their processes to cut administrative delays and ensure participatory feedback mechanisms for efficient service delivery.

REFORMS IN THE RECENT PAST TO IMPROVE THE PERFORMANCE OF CIVIL SERVICES

REFORM

BENEFITS

LATERAL ENTRY

• Lateral recruitment is aimed at achieving the objective of bringing in fresh talent into the system, which will create new energy to the system.
• The Second Administrative Reforms Commission too had recommended lateral entry at senior positions.
• Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers have little expertise in subjects like civil aviation, defence, coal, shipping, etc., as the states where the IAS officers spend most of their early career do not deal with these subjects. Lateral entry will make the Indian administration also match the global standards.
• The US has a system of lateral entry, where about 4000 new officers are appointed as “political appointees” with the inauguration of a new president, allowing incoming presidents to work on their agenda more effectively. India had rejected the USA model – adopting the British model of lifetime ‘neutral’ civil service where civil servants remain politically neutral and formulate technically sound policies according to the will of the political executive within the framework of the constitution.
• Lateral entry opens a small window to get the best from the American and British systems and puts pressure on the system to reform and perform.

NATIONAL PROGRAMME FOR CIVIL SERVICE CAPACITY BUILDING  – MISSION KARMAYOGI

• It is aimed at better service delivery to the public “governance, performance, and accountability”. lt promises a shift from rules to roles, silos to coordination, interdisciplinary movements, and a continuous capacity-building exercise.
• The focus of the reform is the creation of a ‘citizen-centric civil service’ capable of creating and delivering services conducive to economic growth and public welfare.
• It aims for learning resources from the best institutions and practices from across the world while retaining Indian sensibilities and culture.
• The mid-career training will now be available to all government staff instead of the top officers alone, and their profile and assessment will be continuous.
• If there is a need for some special appointment, then authorities can do so by looking at the profile of the officers with the help of technology instead of depending on perceptions.
• Accordingly, Mission Karmayogi shifts the focus from “Rule-based training to Role-based training”. Greater thrust has been laid on behavioural change.

THE PRESENT DEBATE OF THE AGNIVEER TYPE OF SCHEME FOR ALL INDIA SERVICES

WHY AGNIPATH LIKE SCHEME FOR AIS

• There is a huge sense of dissatisfaction over the performance of the civil services, particularly AIS. For example, the people are generally dissatisfied with the performance of the police and there are credible complaints about its brutality, third-degree methods and extra-judicial killings.
• It has been noticed that once an officer is selected for the AIS, he/she develops a smug attitude that his/her career for the next 30/35 years is now secure. Therefore, there is a lack of pressure to perform, an incentive to innovate, and a desire to excel.
• Senior officers of the IAS and IPS have gone to the Supreme Court for reforms in the civil services and the police.
• The judiciary has, from time to time, given directions for reforms but these have not been implemented in letter and spirit.
• In the last few decades, the AIS have grown in size and have become very, very top-heavy. There are a number of officers who are holding top positions but have very little work to do. Therefore, they are frustrated and look for politicians to get a top posts in the bureaucratic mainstream.

WHAT SHOULD BE KEPT IN MIND

• The law-and-order problems have become far more complex and people are not happy with the police. But, still, abolition of police or rather an infusion of trained civilians in the police force is not an option as it might result in lawlessness and chaos. Thus, it is imperative to not only just increase the efficiency of trained police personnel but also increase their strength.
• The AIS have rendered excellent services to the country despite the severe constraints under which the officers function.
• To cope with the increasing responsibilities, there has been a steady expansion of civil services. More training and reorientation in the service approach is more needed than to have Agniveer kind of entrants.
• Government activities today cover a much wider spectrum. Now the welfare schemes are being undertaken on a massive scale. To cope with the increasing responsibilities, there has been a steady expansion of the civil services and reducing the strength in not going to be much useful, we need both the strength and quality of service personnel.

PROPOSED STRUCTURE OF AGNIPATH IN AIS

• Strict review of the performance of AIS officers: The objective of the reviews should be to weed out 25 per cent of officers at the first stage (after 15 years of service), 10 per cent of officers at the second stage (after 25 years of service) and 5 per cent of officers at the third stage (after 30 years of service)
• Reason for Weeding out: Weeding out should be for
• poor performance,
• charges of corruption,
• any other misconduct of a serious nature, or
• For being physically unfit.
• Impartial Screening: Screening at each stage will have to be very rigorous and the mechanism to do so must be impartial. It will have to be doubly ensured that the officers are not victimised for political reasons.
• The officers may be given copper/silver/golden handshakes at the three stages.

Benefits of this scheme for AIS

• The periodic trimming of services would ensure that officers become performance-oriented, and acquire new skills and a flair for innovation in administration. The complacency and smugness would disappear in a majority of cases.
• The bureaucratic top would become lighter leading to efficiency and better coordination.

OTHER SUGGESTED REFORMS

1.  The paper, titled “The Indian Administrative Service Meets Big Data” in 2016 recommended: (South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)

• Data: The DoPT should use data on civil servants’ abilities, education, and training when placing officers early in their careers. As officers gain experience, performance metrics can inform key decisions about promotion and allocation.
• Lateral Exit: officers deemed unfit for further service at certain career benchmarks are compulsorily retired through a transparent and uniform system of performance review.

2. Sarkaria Commission recommended:

• Generalists should yield place to greater specialization in areas of public administration.
• The minimum period of deputation under union government should be laid down
• Set up Advisory council for Personnel Administration: for regular consultation between Union and state on AIS management.

3. 2nd ARC recommendations:

• A system of two intensive reviews one at 14 years of service and the other at 20 years. And for a new appointment, the period of employment shall be for 20 years
• It has identified 12 domains for specialization: general administration, urban development, etc.
• Establish National institutes of Public Administration and graduates from it and other selected universities will be eligible to appear for the Civil service examination.
• It can create a large pool of aspiring civil servants as well as enable serving bureaucrats to attain a deep knowledge of the country’s political economy, increased domain expertise, and improved managerial skills
• The age of entry for general candidates is 21-25 years and a maximum of three attempts.

4. Hota committee has recommended:

• Fixed tenure of at least 3 years for an officer of higher civil service along with annual performance targets.
• A civil service board for all decisions regarding transfer posting and promotions

5.  Supreme court in 2013(TSR Subramanian case): All actions must be taken on basis of written communication as oral directives undermine the credibility of the order

6.  A Parliamentary panel has recommended the deputation of IAS and IPS officers in the private sector to bring in domain expertise and competition.

THE ANALYSIS OF THE ISSUE

Present day training/learning landscape for AIS is diverse and fragmented with inconsistencies in training priorities by various training institutions with a multiplicity of training curricula, leading civil servants to think departmentally and in silos. Due to this, there is a lack of a shared understanding of India’s national developmental aspirations and needs. While courses are offered in patches for civil servants, there’s an absolute lack of a life-long learning environment. There is a need to view training and learning as a continuous process. As the Indian economy grows it will get more complex to govern. Also, there is increasing use of complex technologies in governance and public service delivery. Therefore, governance capacities and technical competencies of government employees will have to be enhanced proportionately. Starting with lateral entry to Mission Karmyogi to now much talked about Agniveer kind of scheme for AIS is a welcome step in the right direction but the tagged complexities and concerns with each of the initiatives must be addressed to keep the relevance of the schemes intact.

THE CONCLUSION: Capacity augmentation of Civil Servants plays a vital role in rendering a wide variety of services, implementing welfare programs, and performing core governance functions. A transformational change in Civil Service Capacity is proposed to be affected by organically linking the transformation of work culture, strengthening public institutions, and adopting modern technology to build civil service capacity with the overall aim of ensuring efficient delivery of services to citizens. The future of the country cannot be progressive without a reformed bureaucracy. Civil servants are uniquely positioned to play a role in lifting more than 170 million out of poverty into prosperity and the new suggested Agniveer kind of scheme might help in bringing the much-needed behavioural change in the serving officers and foster a sense of responsible service in the aspiring ones.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

1. An Agnipath scheme for the AIS will help to remove complacency and inefficiency in bureaucracy. Comment
2. It has been noticed that once an officer is selected for the AIS, he develops a smug attitude. How can the proposed Agniveer kind of reforms for AIS can help in bringing behavioural changes in the serving officers?

The context: Just as the role of the Parliament pertains to making laws on a national level, the State Legislative Assemblies have been created for the same purpose at the state level under the Constitution. Over the years, the question of the efficacy of these state legislatures has to some extent been positioned under doubts based on their performance. In this article, we analyse the working of state legislative assemblies from the UPSC perspective.

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLIES OF THE STATES IN INDIA: A BRIEF BACKGROUND

• It was for the first time in the year 1773 via the Regulating Act of 1773 that provisions were made for the appointment of a Governor General and it was further assisted by a Governor General’s council.
• Under the 1861 Act, new legislative councils are formed in the provinces of Bengal, NWFP and Punjab.
• The Government of India Act of 1919 (also known as the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms) was based on the Montagu-Chelmsford Report that had been submitted to Parliament in 1918. Under the act, elections were held in 1920, the number of Indian members to the viceroy’s Executive Council was increased from at least two to no fewer than three, and the Imperial Legislative Council was transformed into a bicameral legislature consisting of a Legislative Assembly (lower house) and a Council of State (upper house).
• Later, in accordance with the provisions of the Act of 1935, preparations were held for provincial autonomy. In early 1937, the general election to the provincial legislatures was fixed throughout the country.
• The Government of India Act 1935 ended dyarchy in the provinces and increased autonomy. Six provinces were given bicameral legislatures. Elections based on separate electorates were held in 1937 and 1946, leading to the formation of provincial ministries (governments) led by a Prime Minister.
• Further, the Constitution of India has embedded in its provisions, a detailed description about bicameralism in India. Part VI, Chapter III, Article 168-212 talks about the formation/creation of state legislatures, their composition, manner of election, abolition and dissolution, members- their powers and duties, etc.
• Some key provisions regarding State Legislative Assemblies:

Article 168

• Article 168 is the provision which speaks about the constitution of state legislatures.

ARTICLE 169

• Article 169 speaks about the abolition or creation of legislative councils. States which have a bicameral legislature can abolish their legislative council and states that wish to have a bicameral legislature, can opt for the creation of a legislative council.
• In either case, a special majority resolution has to be passed by the legislative assembly of that state. The special majority is obtained when the majority of all the members and two-thirds majority of the members present and voting, give their assent in favour of the motion.

ARTICLE 170

• Article 170 and Article 171 speak about the composition of the legislative assembly and the legislative council, respectively.
• Subject to the provisions of Article 333, the Legislative Assembly of each State shall consist of not more than five hundred, and not less than sixty, members chosen by direct election from territorial constituencies in the State
• The total number of members in the Legislative Council of a State having such a Council shall not exceed one-third of the total number of members in the Legislative Assembly of that State: Provided that the total number of members in the Legislative Council of a State shall in no case be less than forty.

ARTICLE 172, 173

• Article 172 specifies the duration of the state legislatures and Article 173 speaks about the qualifications required for becoming a member in state legislatures.

ARTICLE 174

• Article 174 gives power to the Governor to summon sessions of the houses, prorogue either house and dissolve the legislative assembly. The legislative council, however, is a permanent body and cannot be dissolved.

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLIES OF THE STATES IN INDIA: WORKING AND MANDATE

ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Every state and union territory (except those directly governed by the Union Government) of India has a legislative assembly. It is the house of state legislature where legislative power truly resides. Any bill or proposition is always presented in the legislative assembly.
• Though it is then passed to the legislative council, the legislative assembly is not bound by the recommendations of the legislative council.

NATURE

• The powers of legislative councils are advisory in nature and ultimately, the decisions are made by the legislative assembly. This is why it is said to be the house where power truly resides. This is to an extent similar to the status of Lok Sabha in Parliament.

SCOPE OF BICAMERALISM

• States having a unicameral legislature, and that want to adopt a bicameral legislature by creating a legislative council, will have to present the motion for the same in the legislative assembly.
• States which have a legislative council but wish to abolish it, too, have to present their motion in the legislative assembly. It is only when a special majority is obtained in the legislative assembly that the creation/ abolition takes effect.

COMPOSITION

• The minimum number of members that must constitute a legislative assembly is 60 members and an upper limit of 500 members has been set. However, for certain states like Goa, Sikkim, etc., the lower limit has been relaxed.

 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLIES OF THE STATES IN INDIA: ANALYSING THE PERFORMANCE

FREQUENCY OF ATTENDANCE

• In 2021, state assemblies met for an average of 21 days and during this time, passed more than 500 Bills. The average is boosted by three states: Kerala (61), Odisha (43), and Karnataka (40) which met for 40 days or more.  17 states met for less than 20 days and of these, five met for less than 10 days.
• Between 2016 and 2021, 23 state assemblies met for an average of 25 days.  States which met for fewer days include Tripura (11), Punjab (14), Haryana (14), Uttarakhand (14), and Delhi (16).  A low number of sitting days impacts legislative scrutiny of Bills, budgets, and other issues.

LIMITED SCRUTINY OF BILLS  

• The Legislative Bills covered a variety of subjects such as regulating higher education, online gaming, religious conversions, and the preservation of cattle.
• Most of these Bills saw little legislative scrutiny.  About half of the Bills were passed within a day of their introduction.
• In 2021, 44% of Bills were passed within a day of their introduction in the legislature.  In eight states including Gujarat, West Bengal, Punjab, and Bihar, all Bills were passed on the same day as they were introduced.

ABSENCE OF DETAILED SCRUTINY OF LAWS

• In Parliament, Bills are often referred to Parliamentary Standing Committees for detailed examination. In most states, such committees are non-existent.
• In the absence of a robust committee system and fewer working days, state legislatures barely spend any time scrutinising legislative proposals brought before them.
• An Assembly may create ad hoc Select Committees for the specific purpose of examining a Bill.  However, at the state level, Committees are often the exception rather than the norm, and Bills are rarely examined by Committees.

DISCREPANCIES IN ATTENDANCE: ONLY BUDGET SESSION WITNESSES’ THE MAJORITY OF WORKING DAYS

• Article 174 of the Constitution states that the gap between one sitting of the Assembly and the next should not be more than six months. In most states, legislatures meet for two or three sessions in a year.
• This consists of a long budget session, which concludes by the end of March and then brief monsoon and winter sessions.
• In 2021, on average, 61% of the sittings were held during the budget session.  Some states like Rajasthan, Tripura, and Punjab held more than 70% of their total sittings during the budget session.  In Manipur, Mizoram, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu, more than 80% of the total sittings were held during the budget session.

ROLE OF GOVERNOR: ANALYZING ASSENTS AND ORDINANCES

• In 2021, 75% of the Bills received the assent of the Governor within a month.  States, where the average time for Bills to receive assent was the shortest, include Meghalaya (four days) and Uttar Pradesh (six days).   States with comparatively longer time for assent are Jharkhand (80 days on average) and Tripura (63 days).
• Although swift assent is good for smooth law-making, recurring instances of such fast assents put the credibility of both the law and office of the Governor
• in some doubt.
• The Supreme Court has held that the Ordinance route for law-making should be used only under exceptional circumstances and should not substitute the law-making powers of the Legislature.
• In 2021, 21 out of 28 states promulgated Ordinances.  The Kerala government promulgated the highest number of Ordinances (144) followed by Andhra Pradesh (20) and Maharashtra (15).

ISSUE OF TRANSPARENCY

• Information and data on state legislatures is not easily available. While some state legislatures publish data on a regular basis, many do not have a systematic way of reporting legislative proceedings and business.
• Some states do not regularly update their websites or the National e Vidhan Application (a central initiative to collate information on all legislatures).  Data on the indicators chosen here was not available for all states/UTs.
• While some states such as Karnataka, Delhi and Rajasthan place the texts of legislative debates on their assembly websites, many such as Gujarat and West Bengal don’t.
• RTI replies from Gujrat State assembly officials said that there are no plans in the near future of uploading debates of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly proceedings on the website.

THE IMPLICATIONS OF POOR PERFORMANCE OF THE STATE LEGISLATURE

OVERLOOKING LOCAL ASPIRATIONS

• State legislatures make laws on subjects in the State List and the Concurrent List of the Constitution. These include subjects such as law and order, police, health, education, and land.
• Thus, more than the Parliament, the state legislatures hold a key position in making laws for people within the state premise. Hence, an ineffective or less productive state legislature means overlooking key local issues and aspirations.

LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY

• Due to a loss in the number of active working days, there is limited scrutiny of state-level expenditure, fiscal devolution and decentralization of decision-making within states, or tracking functioning of state legislatures. This results in limited accountability while paving the way for further arbitrariness in law-making.
• By enforcing the collective responsibility of the Council of Ministers and the individual responsibility of the ministers, the assemblies ensure an accountable government and responsive administration. Through instruments like question hour, debates, motions, budgetary control, committee system etc., the assemblies act as the watchdog of citizens’ trust. Thus, the proper functioning of these deliberative institutions is vital for upholding the public interest and the rule of law.

THREAT TO FEDERALISM

• The state legislatures play a key role in Constitutional Amendments concerning one or more states (in the form of special majority requirements). Attenuating working days thus, signify that such bills won’t be scrutinized properly. This would ultimately hamper the federal spirit of the Constitution.

LOSS OF PUBLIC TRUST

• Unlike the Centre, where draft bills are often shared by ministries for public comments, the process of conceiving, deliberating and passing state laws is rather ambiguous. Furthermore, arbitrary promulgation of ordinances and lack of transparent house sessions further enhance this ambiguity in state legislatures.
• This may in the long term erode public trust in the legislative institutions. All states must practice inclusive policy-making.

VIOLATION OF CITIZENS’ RIGHT TO INFORMATION

• The information about the debates and other proceedings of the assemblies should ideally be found in the public domain, as mandated by Section 4 (1) (b) of RTI Act, 2005 on proactive public disclosure of government documents.
• Without timely access to this information, the citizens and the civil society cannot hold their representatives accountable which leads to arbitrariness and corruption in governance.

THE WAY FORWARD

FIXING TIME PERIOD

• The National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC) had recommended setting a minimum period of sitting days for state legislatures.
• It had suggested that state legislatures with less than 70 members should meet for at least 50 days a year, while the rest should meet for at least 90 days.
• Article 174 needs to be amended to fix the minimum number of days assemblies must sit (in days) in a year. Also, the total control of the executive in calling the session and deciding the days of sittings needs revision.

FORMING COMMITTEES FOR SCRUTINY OF BILLS

• Committees help legislatures discuss Bills in detail and scrutinize their provisions closely.
• Committees also provide an opportunity to engage with sectoral experts and stakeholders which allows for wider participation in the law-making process.
• State Assemblies must create ad hoc Select Committees for the specific purpose of examining a Bill.

USING TECHNOLOGY

• The National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA) is a system for digitising the legislative bodies of all Indian states and the Parliament through a single platform on which house proceedings, starred/unstarred questions and answers, committee reports etc. will be available.
• Nagaland became the first state to implement NeVA.
• Thus, Nagaland becomes an example to be followed by other states so as to ensure the highest levels of transparency in legislative assemblies and councils.

LIVE TELECAST ALL PROCEEDINGS

• Lack of accountability to citizens emanates from the high degree of opacity of proceedings of state assemblies.
• Live telecasts of proceedings will ensure their performance is monitored by citizens in real-time, thereby improving the quality of legislation and debates on matters of public importance.

RTI DISCLOSURES

• Citizens should collectively demand mandatory disclosure of the text of legislative debates and questions on assembly websites by all states under the RTI Act, 2005.

BILINGUAL WEBSITES AND DOCUMENTS

• All government resolutions at the state level, including assembly websites, should be translated into English and be available along with the vernacular language of the state, to ensure more readability and hence more civic and media engagement with state policies and actions.

CASE STUDY: ENHANCING LAW MAKING – JOINT COMMITTEE REPORT ON THE MAHARASHTRA SHAKTI BILL

• The Shakti Criminal Laws (Maharashtra Amendment) Bill, 2020 was introduced in the Maharashtra Legislative assembly on December 14, 2020. It was referred to a Joint Committee of both Houses on the same day. The Committee presented its report on December 22, 2021.
• The Bill amends the Indian Penal Code, 1860, the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 in their application to Maharashtra. Key features of the Bill and related recommendations of the Committee include:

1)  Enhanced punishment: The Bill mandated the death penalty for certain offences against women and children, such as rape. It also enhanced the punishment for certain offences such as throwing acid and providing false information against a person to humiliate, extort, threaten, defame, or harass them. Making false complaints was punishable with imprisonment for a maximum of one year.

§  Improvements: The Committee recommended increasing the term of imprisonment to a minimum of one and a maximum of three years. The Bill passed by the Assembly included this change.

2) Timelines: The Bill proposed a short timeline for the completion of the investigation, trial, and disposal of appeal for certain offences. The investigation was to be completed within 15 days (extendable by seven days).

§  Improvements: The Committee observed that this short period may affect the merits of the investigation. It recommended increasing this period to 30 days, extendable by a further 30 days. This recommendation was incorporated in the Bill when it was passed.

THE CONCLUSION: Legislatures are arenas for debate and giving voice to public opinion. As accountability institutions, they are responsible for asking tough questions of the government and highlighting uncomfortable truths. So, lesser sittings of the legislature lead to bypassing of crucial debates and scrutiny. Lesser number of sitting days also means that state governments are free to make laws through ordinances. And when they convene legislatures, there is little time for MLAs to scrutinize laws brought before them. Such work culture cannot become the basis of smooth functioning democracy. There needs to be greater accountability and responsibility amongst legislators for the importance of the public office they are holding.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

• Critically analyse the working of the state legislatures in India. According to you, what steps need to be taken to enhance the productivity of the state legislatures?
• Reforming the functioning of legislative assemblies at the state level is a must for realizing the goal of an accountable administration. Substantiate with relevant examples.
• “Engaging sectoral experts and stakeholders allow for wider participation in the law-making process.” In the light of the statement, discuss the need for establishing select committees at the level of state legislatures.

THE CONTEXT: An appeal against the video survey of Varanasi’s Gyanvapi mosque has resurfaced the debate surrounding the Places of Worship Act, 1991. The issue has yet again resurrected the debate related to the credibility of religious institutions and infrastructures and their position in secular India.In this article, we analyse how the Places of Worship Act secures the secular nature of our democracy from the UPSC perspective.

THE PLACES OF WORSHIP (SPECIAL PROVISIONS) ACT, 1991

The act to prohibit conversion of any place of worship and to provide for the maintenance of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on the 15th day of August 1947, and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

• It extends to the whole of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
• The provisions of sections 3, 6 and 8 shall come into force at once and the remaining provisions of this Act shall be deemed to have come into force on the 11th day of July 1991.
• “Place of worship” means a temple, mosque, gurudwara, church, monastery or any other place of public religious worship of any religious denomination or any section thereof, by whatever name called.

Key Provisions:

• Section 3: No person shall convert any place of worship of any religious denomination or any section thereof into a place of worship of a different section of the same religious denomination or of a different religious denomination or any section thereof.
• Section 4:

o   Section 4(1): declares that the religious character of a place of worship “shall continue to be the same as it existed” on August 15, 1947.

o   Section 4(2):It declares that all litigation, appeals, or other proceedings ongoing before any court or authority on August 15, 1947, involving converting the status of a place of worship, will cease as soon as the law takes effect. There will be no more legal action taken.

Key Exceptions:

• Section 5:The Act also does not apply to the place of worship commonly referred to as Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. This law will have an overriding effect over any other law in force.
• Ancient and historical monuments and archaeological sites and remains that are covered by the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958 are beyond its purview.

RESURGENCE OF THE PLACES OF WORSHIP ACT, 1991

CONTEXT

GENESIS OF GYANVAPI MOSQUE

DEVELOPMENTS/EXPLANATIONS

• Gyanvapi mosque is located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. It is a stone’s throw away from the Kashi Vishwanath temple, built in 1780 by Ahilyabai Holkar, the Queen of Indore.
• Kashi Vishwanath is a prominent temple dedicated to the Hindu deity Shiva. Recent petitions claim that the Gyanvapi mosque lies on the remains of the ‘original’ Kashi Vishwanath temple.
• Under the reign of Mughal Emperor Akbar, priest Narayan Bhatta rebuilt the Vishweshwara temple in the 16th century. It is believed that in the late 17th century, around 1669, the temple was once again razed on the orders of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb.

EMERGENCE OF THE GYANVAPI CONUNDRUM

THE CASE OF FLOUTING ORDERS OF A SUPERIOR COURT

• In December 2019, barely a month after the Ayodhya verdict, a fresh petition was filed at a Varanasi Civil Court seeking an archaeological assessment of the Gyanvapi mosque’s origins.
• In 2020, the 1991 petitioners approached the Civil Court in Varanasi to hear the original petition again.The proceedings were stayed by the Allahabad High Court in February 2020, it reserved Judgement on the matter in March 2020.
• Then, despite the stay, the matter was reopened by a Varanasi Civil Court in April 2021, Fast Track Court Civil Judge (Senior Division) Ashutosh Tiwari ordered an Archaeological Survey of India investigation into the mosque’s origins.
• Allahabad High Court came down heavily on the Civil Court for proceeding despite the High Court reserving Judgment on the matter.

CLAIMS AND CONCERNS OF THE HINDU SECT

• Within Holkar’s, Kashi Vishwanath temple is a statue of Nandi, the sacred bull companion of the Hindu deity Shiva. Typically, in Hindu temples, the Nandi statue faces the shiv lingam, a cylindrical monolith representing Shiva.
• In this case, it faces the Gyanvapi mosque bolstering Hindu claims that a Vishweshwara temple once stood in its place and that a shiv lingam is hidden within the mosque’s premises.
• This led to petitions filed by Hindus from 1991 to 2022 requesting permission to pray within its premises. Informal video surveys further identify the Hindu features and motifs that are part of its masonry and structure.

CLAIMS AND CONCERNS OF THE MUSLIM SECT

• Proponents of the Islamic sect suggest that what matters in law is the status of the Gyanvapi mosque on August 15, 1947.
• Its status as a mosque and a waqf were noted by a judgment of the Allahabad high court (AIR 1942 Allahabad 353, Din Mohammed and Others. vs Secretary of State).
• Also, any change in the status of the mosque will amount to flouting of law under the Places of Worship Act, 1991.
• By conducting such investigations into religious sites, the courts have, like they did in the case of Babri Masjid, legitimized the values of an anti-modern polity. They have acted against the values that they are supposed to uphold. Courts cannot be acting on claims of mythology or those of medieval capture.

THE PLACES OF WORSHIP ACT, 1991: COMPARISON OF ARGUMENTS

PROPONENTS OF THE HINDU SHIVA TEMPLE

• Petitioners argue that the law is impotent for delivering justice against the barbarism inflicted on religious institutions, culture and architecture before independence.
• Proponents of this group argue that the demolition of a temple’s structure and subsequent offerings of namaaz did not change the character of land where once a temple stood.
• It is a historical fact that in 1192 the invader Mohammad Ghori after defeating Prithviraj Chauhan established Islamic rule in India and foreign rule continued up to August 15, 1947, thereafter.
• Therefore, any cutoff date in the Places of Worship Act, 1991, could be the date on which India was conquered by Gori and the religious places of Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs, as were existing in 1192, have to be restored with the same glory.

PROPONENTS OF GYANVAPI MOSQUE

• The Muslim bodies, such as the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, have countered that a dent in the Places of Worship Act, of 1991 would be the first blow to the secular fabric.
• The Muslim body stressed that the Ayodhya verdict, which upheld the Places of Worship Act, had noted that “historical wrongs cannot be remedied by people taking the law into their own hands”.
• Thus, the status of the Mosque should be preserved as it is presented so as to avoid public upsurges in the name of religion.
• The philosophical and practical understanding of the Places of Worship Act 1991, suggests that the nature of our architectural sites in present times cannot be entertaining mythology or medieval warfare.
• By ordering a survey of the Gyanvapi Mosque, the courts have done exactly the opposite of this inherent idea of the Places of Worship Act 1991.

VIEWS OF THE SUPREME COURT ON ‘PLACES OF WORSHIP ACT, 1991

• In the Ayodhya judgment, the Supreme court categorically held that the law cannot be used as a device to reach back in time and provide a legal remedy to every person who disagrees with the course that history has taken.
• The Places of Worship Act imposes a non-derogable obligation towards enforcing our commitment to secularism under the Indian Constitution.
• The law (Places of Worship Act, 1991) is a legislative instrument designed to protect the secular features of the Indian polity, which is one of the basic features of the Constitution.
• Under the 1991 Act, the Supreme court views that one cannot change a mosque or a church into a Hindu temple, or vice-versa; however, there’s nothing to stop one from trying to find out whether a building is a mosque or a church or a temple.
• Justice Chandrachud is of the opinion that the ascertainment of the religious character of a place as a procedural instrument may not necessarily fall foul of the provisions of Sections 3 and 4 of the Act of 1991.
• The State has by enacting the law, enforced a constitutional commitment and operationalized its constitutional obligations to uphold the equality of all religions and secularism, which is a part of the basic features of the Constitution.

THE GROUNDS FOR THE CHALLENGING PLACES OF WORSHIP ACT, 1991

Along with other petitions in line, BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP from UP, Harnath Singh Yadav, has submitted a private member’s bill with the Rajya Sabha secretariat seeking to repeal The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991.

It is argued by the ruling party that the 1991 Act not only violates fundamental rights such as the right to equality and the right to life but also infringes on citizen’s constitutionally guaranteed right to religious freedom in the following manner:

PROVISIONS OF THE ACT BEING CHALLENGED

• Section 3 of the Act criminalises ‘conversion’ of a place of worship for one religion or sect into another.
• Section 4 bars filing any suit or initiating any other legal proceeding for the conversion of the religious character of any place of worship, as existing on August 15, 1947.
• Various petitions contend that the choice of date adversely impacts Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists. From 1192 onwards, Muslims and the British ruled India and destroyed temples.
• Section 5 of the Act excludes its application to the site known as ‘Ram Janam Bhumi’ or ‘Babri Masjid’.
• It also bars Courts from determining whether any place of worship has been converted after August 15th 1947.

ISSUES WITH RIGHTS & EXCLUSIONS

• Freezing the date in 1947, does not allow these communities to restore their places of worship. This violates Articles 14 and 15 which guarantee equality, and the right to religious freedoms under Articles 25, 26 and 29.
• It offends the right of Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs to pray, profess, practice and prorogate religion (Article 25).
• The Act infringes on the rights of Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs to manage, maintain and administer the places of worship and pilgrimage (Article 26)
• The Act further deprives Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs to take back their places of worship and pilgrimage connected with their cultural heritage (Article 29)
• Sections 3 and 4 of the Act have virtually taken away the right to approach the Court and thus the Right to Judicial Remedy (Article 32) has been closed.
• Some petitioners have argued that ‘Hindus’ are fighting for the restoration of the birthplace of Lord Krishna for hundreds of years with peaceful public agitation, but by enacting the Act, the Centre has excluded the birthplace of Lord Ram at Ayodhya but not the birthplace of Lord Krishna in Mathura, though both are the incarnations of Lord Vishnu- the creator.
• Thus, the exclusion of the birthplace of Lord Krishna in Mathura becomes a challenge in the act.
• Thus, the Act bars judicial review which is a basic structure of the Constitution and cannot be taken away. It also violates the principle of secularism which is a basic feature (Article 13).

WHY PLACES OF WORSHIP ACT, OF 1991 IS FOUNDATION OF SECULAR DEMOCRACY?

The inherent purpose of the Places of Worship Act, of 1991, was the preservation of the religious character of places of public worship at India’s independence. For a complex democracy like ours, it becomes an imperative to ensure the healing of injustices of the past by providing the confidence to every religious community that their places of worship will be preserved and that their character will not be altered.It is necessary to adopt such a law in view of the controversies arising from time to time with regard to the conversion of places of worship which tend to vitiate the communal atmosphere.

Keeping the above-mentioned aspects in mind, the Parliament must retain the Places of Worship Act without amending or repealing it.

THE WAY FORWARD

• In the Ayodhya judgment, the court had categorically held that the law cannot be used as a device to reach back in time and provide a legal remedy to every person who disagrees with the course that history has taken. The courts of today cannot take cognisance of historical rights and wrongs.
• The Supreme Court has reiterated the principle of non-retrogression in a number of cases. The non-retrogression principle holds that government may extend protection beyond what the Constitution requires, but it cannot retreat from that extension once made.
• The doctrine of non-retrogression sets forth that the State should not take measures or steps that deliberately lead to retrogression (or deterioration) on the enjoyment of rights either under the Constitution or otherwise. For example,

o   In Navtej Singh Johar’s judgment in 2018, the court held that there is no place for retreat in a progressive society. Therefore, the state should not take steps that deliberately lead to retrogression(deterioration) on the enjoyment of rights either under the Constitution or otherwise”.

o   In Babri Masjid’s verdict in 2019, it was mentioned that non-retrogression “is a foundational feature of the fundamental constitutional principles of which secularism is a core component”.

o   The Places of Worship Act is thus ‘a legislative intervention which preserves non-retrogression as an essential feature of our secular values.

• The historical wrongs cannot be remedied by people taking the law into their own hands. Through the Places of Worship Act, Parliament has mandated that historical wrongs shall not be used as instruments to oppress the present and the future. Thus, the act must hold its true nature for the times to come.

THE CONCLUSION: It is an established fact that hinging our energies on the past creates panic and loss of personal peace. For any given instance in the past, present laws or rules shouldn’t be promoting communal hatred. Thus, there needs to be peaceful dispute resolution. Despite precedents that speak otherwise, the higher courts must maintain the status quo. The architecture of today shouldn’t be defined by an arbitrarily chosen portion of its history. Such petitions need to be rejected in the interest of harmony and peace both in present times and in the times to come.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

• “The Parliament, by means of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, has fulfilled its constitutional obligations to uphold the idea of secularism and equality of all religions.” Examine critically.
• “Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 is consciously infringing several Fundamental Rights.” Do you agree? Explain with suitable examples.

THE CONTEXT: The Supreme Court, in July 2022,in Satender Kumar Antil vs Central Bureau of Investigation, recommended the Union Government introduce a special enactment like a “Bail Act” to streamline the grant of bail. The court also gave other directions for making the process of granting bail efficient and effective.  This article analyses these developments from the UPSC perspective.

AN OVERVIEW OF THE JUDGMENT OF THE SUPREME COURT

A BAIL ACT

• The Government of India may consider the introduction of a separate enactment in the nature of a Bail Act so as to streamline the grant of bails.

COMPLIANCE WITH CrPC

• The investigating agencies and their officers are duty-bound to comply with the mandate of Section 41 and 41A of the CrPC and the directions issued by this Court in Arnesh Kumar.
• Any dereliction on their part has to be brought to the notice of the higher authorities by the court.
• The courts will have to satisfy themselves on the compliance of Section 41 and 41A of the Code. Any non-compliance would entitle the accused for a grant of bail

FORMULATION OF STANDING ORDERS

• All the State Governments and the Union Territories are directed to facilitate standing orders for the procedure to be followed under Sections 41 and 41A of the Code

ARREST AS A LAST RESORT

• There needs to be strict compliance with the mandate laid down in the judgment of this court in Siddharth(in which it was held that investigating officers need not arrest each and every accused at the time of filing the charge sheet).

CREATION OF SPECIAL COURTS

• The State and Central Governments will have to comply with the directions issued by this Court from time to time with respect to the constitution of special courts. The High Court in consultation with the State Governments will have to undertake an exercise on the need for special courts. The vacancies in the position of Presiding Officers of the special courts will have to be filled up expeditiously.

RELEASE OF UNDERTRIALS

• The High Courts are directed to undertake the exercise of finding out the undertrial prisoners who are not able to comply with the bail conditions. After doing so, appropriate action will have to be taken in light of Section 440 of the Code, facilitating the release.
• An exercise will have to be done in a similar manner to comply with the mandate of Section 436A of the Code both at the district judiciary level and the High Court as earlier directed by this Court in Bhim Singh.

TIME-BOUND DISPOSAL OF BAIL APPLICATION

• Bail applications ought to be disposed of within a period of two weeks and applications for anticipatory bail are expected to be disposed of within a period of six weeks.

REPORT ON CONFORMITY

• All State Governments, Union Territories and High Courts are directed to file affidavits/ status reports within a period of four months.

WHAT IS A BAIL AND WHAT ARE ITS TYPES?

A Bail denotes the provisional release of an accused in a criminal case in which court the trial is pending and the Court is yet to announce judgement. The term ‘bail’ means the security that is deposited in order to secure the release of the accused. There are 3 types of bail Regular, Interim and Anticipatory.

1. Regular bail- A regular bail is generally granted to a person who has been arrested or is in police custody. 2005 amendment to the CrPC abolished sureties in the case of indigent(poor)  people.

1. Interim bail- This type of bail is granted for a short period of time and it is granted before the hearing for the grant of regular bail or anticipatory bail.
2. Anticipatory bail- Anticipatory bail is granted under section 438 of CrPC either by session court or High Court. An application for the grant of anticipatory bail can be filed by the person who discerns that he may be arrested by the police for a non-bailable offence.

THE PRISON STATISTICS INDIA–2020- NATIONAL CRIME RECORDS BUREAU (NCRB).

• The increase in the share of under-trials in prisons was at an all-time high. PSI 2020 puts the percentage at 76% in December 2020: An increase from the earlier 69% in December 2019. The people who are undertrials are those yet to be found guilty of the crimes they have been accused of.  In 17 states, on average, prison populations rose by 23% from 2019 to 2021, as opposed to 2-4% in previous years.
• The appalling figures come from states such as Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim, and Uttarakhand,which had tragic occupancy rates of 177%, 174%, and 169%, respectively (December 2020).
• Only Kerala(110% to 83%), Punjab (103% to 78%), Haryana (106% to 95%) Karnataka (101% to 98%), Arunachal Pradesh (106% to 76%) and Mizoram (106% to 65%) could reduce their occupancy of prisons below 100%.

BAILABLE OFFENCE AND NON-BAILABLE OFFENCE

The Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 talks in detail about the bail process and how it has to be obtained. However, it does not define bail. Section 2(a) Cr.P.C. says that a bailable offence means an offence which is shown as bailable in the First Schedule or which is made bailable by any other law for the time being in force, and a non-bailable offence means any other offence. The Code of Criminal Procedure deals with various provisions as to bail and bonds. It lays down when bail is the right of the accused, when bail is the discretion of the Court, in what circumstances said discretion can be exercised, what are the terms and conditions which would be required to be observed by the accused, who has been released on bail and what powers are vested in the Court in the event of accused committing default of bail order etc.

WHY THERE IS A TENDENCY TO DENY BAIL?

Motivated arrest often leads to denial of bail and mechanical remand by the subordinate judiciary. Due to the concept of pecuniary ‘surety’, the archaic Indian law on bail already had a class character wherein, for the rich, bail is the rule and for the poor, invariably, jail. Justice Krishna Iyer in the Moti Ram case where a poor labourer was asked for a surety of Rs 10,000 in 1978 was pained to observe that “the poor are priced out of their liberty in the justice market.” Lately, it would appear that religion is a new class.It has been seen that many times, particularly when either the cases are controversial or delicate or political in nature or where there can be an outburst, the tendency in the lower courts is why should we do it, let the person take it from the high court or Supreme Court.”A tendency among government agencies to hand over documents in sealed covers to courts in “every case” coupled with an inclination among judges to verbatim reproduce their contents as judicial findings also lead to denial of bail. In non-bailable offences, bail is discretionary and there are conditions that the judge may impose which are selectively applied many times. Also, there are special penal laws like the UAPA, PMLA etc where some overzealous SC judges have given a free pass to the executive.

IMPLICATIONS OF DENIAL OF BAIL

• Violation of the principle “bail is the rule, jail is the exception
• The rights of the citizens are unjustifiably curtailed
• Overcrowding of prisons and increase in state expense
• Inefficiency in the criminal justice system
• Scope for rent-seeking, corruption at multiple levels
• Productivity of the individual is lost
• Social stigma and long incarceration
• The process becomes the punishment
• Chances for reformation and rehabilitation reduce.

HOW CAN A SEPARATE BAIL LAW ADDRESS THE SITUATION?

CrPC IS ESSENTIALLY COLONIAL

• Notwithstanding subsequent revisions, the CrPC essentially retains its initial form as drafted by a colonial power over its subjects.
• The Code does not see the arrest as a fundamental liberty concern.

UNIFORMITY AND CERTAINTY

• “The cornerstones of judicial dispensation are uniformity and predictability in court decisions.” Persons accused of the same offence shall not be treated differently by the same court or by separate courts.

INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE

• In the United Kingdom and many states in the United States, there are specific laws that lay down guidelines for arrests and grants of bail. There is a “pressing need” for a similar law in India.

DEDICATED LEGAL REGIME

• several previous judgments and guidelines regarding bail and the numerous conditions that need to be complied with while arresting an accused are often not followed.
• So a new bail law will integrate these aspects and provide a cohesive form which can be a shot in the arm for personal liberty.

THE BAIL ACT OF THE UNITED KINGDOM

The Bail Act of the United Kingdom of 1976 governs the process of granting bail. One distinguishing element is that one of the legislation’s goals is to “reduce the size of the convict population.” The statute also includes procedures for defendants to receive legal representation.  The Act recognises a “general right” to bail. Section 4(1) establishes the presumption of bail by declaring that the legislation applies to a person who shall be granted bail unless otherwise provided for in Schedule 1 to the Act.

In order to reject bail, the prosecution must demonstrate that there are reasonable grounds to believe the defendant on bail will not surrender to custody, will commit an offence while on bail, will interfere with witnesses, or will otherwise obstruct the course of justice;

WHETHER INDIA NEEDS A SEPARATE BAIL LAW?

LAW COMMISSION REPORT

• When the Department of Legal Affairs asked the Law Commission about the need for a separate bail law in India in 2015, the commission concluded that it wasn’t required.

IMPUNITY FOR OFFICERS STILL EXIST

• The problem is not a lack of guidelines but the fact that there are no consequences for officials who violate them.
• There is a belief that officers can get away with not following the law.
• The authorities follow the procedure “as per their wish”. A new Bail Act is unlikely to change the situation.

DOES NOT ADDRESS THE ROOT CAUSE

• Laws dealing with criminal activity provide high scope for police discretion, especially in cognizable offences. For instance Section 124A of IPC deals
• with sedition(before the SC judgment on sedition) and Section 153A is related to promoting enmity between groups. Also, the vague and overarching terms in laws like UAPA, IT Act
• 2000, etc provide huge scope for abuse of these laws by police. In PUCL Vs. Union of India, 2021, the Supreme Court felt appalled after finding that
• people are still being booked and tried under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act.

THE EXECUTIVE IS AN INTERESTED PARTY

• The judiciary is better placed to deal with issues of bail instead of the government. The law made by “the state may have the potential to introduce caveats on the law of bail,” which in effect create more problems than they purport to solve.

DISCRETION OF THE JUDGES CAN’T BE CODIFIED

• The enormity of the charge, nature of the accusation, severity of punishment on conviction, possibility of the accused absconding if released on bail, the danger of witnesses being tampered with, health, age and sex of the accused etc. are the crucial grounds for deciding the bail which can’t be measured through a straightjacket mathematical formula.
• Discretion will always create a chance for rent-seeking and biased decisions of the judges, even in the presence of bail law.

THE WAY FORWARD:

1. A Bail Act in the line of the developed democracies can be enacted after a wide-ranging consultation although it in itself is not a panacea for the problem of denial of bail.
2. The judicial discretion in granting bail needs to be circumscribed and cannot be used in an arbitrary manner; sound discretion is guided by law and governed by rule and by the whims and fancies of the judge. The subordinate judiciary and the High Courts need to be sensitized and taken to task for rejecting bail on sterile and irrelevant grounds and also for imposing onerous bail conditions.
3. According to 21^st Law Commission, Confinement is detrimental to the person accused of an offence who is kept in custody, imposes an unproductive burden on the state, and can have an adverse impact on future criminal behaviour, and its reformative perspectives will stand diminished.  Hence, the bail should not be denied unless there are compelling circumstances.
4. The problem of delays in deciding bail applications can be reduced by utilizing e-governance, and AI  and also by improving the infrastructure base of the district judiciary through the establishment of a National Judicial Infrastructure Corporation.
5. The process of arrest by the police and other investigative agencies needs to be strictly in accordance with the laws and directions of the SC. Exemplary punishment needs to be awarded for violation
6. Legal education and awareness of the legal system and legal aid is the need of the hour and the Legal Services Authorities need to take concrete steps in this regard.
7. A comprehensive reform in the entire criminal justice system is required to address the root causes and the Malimath Committee report provides a goldmine of suggestions in this regard.

THE CONCLUSION: As per the NCRB data around 76 per cent of inmates in the prison are undertrials who are mainly booked for non-heinous crimes and the major reason for such a state of affairs is the poor bail system in the country. The SC directions and recommendation for a separate bail law have come as a fresh lease of life, but without a comprehensive overhauling of the criminal justice system, these measures may not have the desired impact.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

1. Critically examine the need for a separate Bail Law in India.
2. What are the implications of the denial of bail in deserving cases? How far do you think that a separate bail law can actually implement the principle “ bail is the rule, jail is the exception” on the ground?

THE CONTEXT: On 27 July 2022, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court in Vijay Madanlal Choudhary vs Union of India, upheld vast parts of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 including its stringent bail conditions for economic offences that impose a reverse burden of proof on the accused. This article critically examines the Supreme Court judgment.

THE MANDATE OF THE ENFORCEMENT DIRECTORATE(ED): AN OVERVIEW

• ED is a Multi-Disciplinary Organisation under the Department of Revenue, Min of Finance mandated with the task of enforcing the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) and Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA)
• The ED headquartered in New Delhi is headed by the Director of Enforcement. There are five Regional offices and other such zonal and subzonal offices in various parts of the country.
• It was formed in 1956 in the Department of Economic Affairs, to investigate cases of foreign exchange-related violations, a civil provision. But in 2002, after the introduction of the PMLA, it started taking up cases of financial fraud and money laundering, which were of criminal nature.
• FEMA 1999 regulates the transactions in currency, import and export of commodities, securities, purchase and sale of any kind etc.
• The main objective of FEMA is to facilitate external trade and payments. In addition to this, FEMA was also formulated to assist the orderly development and maintenance of the Indian forex market.
• Contraventions of FEMA are dealt with by way of adjudication by designated authorities of ED and penalties up to three times the sum involved can be imposed.
• The PMLA provides authority to the ED to investigate offences of money laundering and to take actions of attachment and confiscation of property
• PMLA provides for the prosecution of the persons involved in the offence of money laundering. There are 156 offences under 28 statutes which are Scheduled Offences under PMLA.
• ED also processes cases of fugitive/s from India under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018.
• The powers of the survey, search and seizure, the search of persons, retention of property or of records, to issue summons to enforce the attendance of any person and compel him to give evidence or produce records, discovery or inspection, and the power to arrest, etc are conferred by various provisions of PMLA.
• Render cooperation to foreign countries in matters relating to money laundering etc.

GREY AREAS IN PMLA: GROUND FOR CHALLENGE

ABSENCE OF A PROCEDURE

• Unlike the CrPC which provides for a proper procedure to commence an investigation, in the PMLA there is no procedure prescribed.
• For instance, Section 154 and 155 of CrPC dealing with cognisable and non-cognisable offences but in PMLA no such procedures are prescribed and there is no registration of FIR under the Act. This violates Art 21 of the Constitution.

ENFORCEMENT CASE INFORMATION REPORT (ECIR)

• The PMLA has an internal manual where the ED officers record an ECIR- Enforcement Case Information Report. That is something that is kept by the ED to themselves and is not revealed to anybody even to the magistrate.
• This means an individual can be prosecuted without knowing why he has been proceeded against.

AUTOMATIC REGISTRATION OF CASE BY ED

• There are 156 Scheduled Offences and whenever a predicate offence is registered, the ED starts investigation under PMLA. This provides wide latitude and discretion to ED which is often misused.
• There must be something beyond the FIR under the predicate offence which needs to be established for the ED to commence the investigation.

ARTICLE 20(3)

• Section 50 of the PMLA vests the ED officers with the power of a Civil Court. But while exercising the power of summons to a person by ED, usually no reason is provided for such summons. Neither the person is informed whether s/he is summoned as a witness or as an accused nor any information is given on what predicate offence s/he is charged under.
• Secondly, the person must compulsorily answer the questions put forward by the officers and must sign the disclosure statement which is used as evidence against him in the court.
• This is a direct violation of Art 20(3) which protects individuals from self-incrimination. (No person accused of any offence shall be compelled to be a witness against himself)

ORDINARY CRIMES INCLUDED IN SCHEDULED OFFENCES

• Section 120 B dealing with criminal conspiracy is part of PMLA. The section can be applied to any offence and requires only a mere allegation.
• There is no threshold of initiating a PMLA case based on 120B. Similarly, murder is also part of PMLA, and it is doubtful why such an isolated act can be a part of PMLA.
• It is another matter if there is an organised crime activity but on its own, these offences should not be part of PMLA.

2019 AMENDMENTS

• The 2019 amendments have increased the powers of the ED. The offences under the PMLA became standalone crimes, and the offences have been made cognisable and non-bailable.
• It has expanded the definition of proceeds of crime which means assets not directly related to the proceeds of crime can also be attached.

THE JUDGMENT

EDs POWER OF ARREST

• The Court upheld the constitutionality of the provisions of Sections 5, 8(4), 15, 17 and 19 of the PMLA, which relate to the powers of ED’s power of arrest, attachment, search and seizure.
• However, the court rejected the notion that the ED has been given blanket powers of arrest, search of person and property and seizure. The court said there were in-built safeguards” within the Act, including the recording of reasons in writing while effecting an arrest.

REASONABLE NEXUS

• The Court also upheld the reverse burden of proof under Section 24 of the Act and said that it has “reasonable nexus” with the objects of the Act.
• Court made it clear that the State has a compelling interest in imposing stringent bail conditions for economic offences.

ENFORCEMENT CASE INFORMATION REPORT (ECIR)

• The Court also held that the ED officials are not “police officials” and hence the statements recorded by them under Section 50 of the Act are not hit by Article 20(3) of the Constitution, which guarantees the fundamental right against self-incrimination. The punishment of fine or arrest for giving false information cannot be construed as a compulsion to give statement.
• The Court further held that Enforcement Case Information Report(ECIR) cannot be equated with an FIR and that it is only an internal document of the ED. Therefore, the CrPC provisions relating to FIR will not apply to ECIR.
• Supplying ECIR is not mandatory and disclosure of grounds of arrest is sufficient. However when person is before Special Court, it can ask for records to see if continued imprisonment is necessary.

TWIN CONDITIONS OF BAIL

• The court ​​upheld the stringent twin bail conditions required under the law for granting bail to an accused. The two conditions require a court to hear the public prosecutor against the bail plea and reach a satisfaction that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the accused is not guilty of the offense and that he is not likely to commit any offence while on bail.
• However, the court said undertrials could seek bail under Section 436A of the Code of Criminal Procedure if they had already spent one-half of the term of punishment in jail for the offence prescribed in law. But, again, this is not an “absolute right” and would depend from case to case.

BURDEN OF PROOF

• Issue of the burden of proof rests heavily on the shoulders of the accused: The court upheld this provision and said that this provision did not suffer from the “vice of arbitrariness or unreasonableness”.

VACANCIES IN PMLA APPELLATE TRIBUNAL

• The Court also directed the Centre to fill up the vacancies in the PMLA Appellate Tribunal.

ABOUT AMENDMENTS

• Introduction of the amendments through Money Bills: The SC held that this issue would be separately examined by a larger Bench of the apex court.

CRITICISMS OF THE JUDGMENT

1. Sui generis PMLA: The PMLA is not a penal statute, but a sui generis one, which means that the law can, according to the Court, overlook several constitutional safeguards, including the right against self-incrimination.
2. Section 45 of PMLA: The judgement not only grants sanction to Parliament’s effort at reintroducing a law previously declared unconstitutional but also holds that the requirements for bail are by no means arbitrary or unreasonable. This is problematic for the fact that the predicate offences contained in the Schedule not only include terrorism as an offence but also the discharging of pollutants under the Environment Protection Act; penalties for applying for a false trade mark under the Trade Marks Act etc. and the present judgment makes no distinction in the extent of the crimes.
3. Test of Proportionality: The Supreme Court’s judgment in K.S. Puttaswamy vs Union of India held that fundamental rights operate not in silos, but by giving and taking meaning from each other and that any invasion of a constitutionally guaranteed freedom must satisfy a test of proportionality. This meant that every time the state impinged on a right, it had to show, among other things, that there existed not only a rational nexus between the law made by it and the objective at stake but also that it had satisfied itself that there were no less invasive means available to achieve the same aim. The present judgement in the PMLA case, the Supreme Court is somehow seen to move away from the pillars of constitutionality erected in the previous judgments and fails to protect personal liberty from draconian provisions.

THE PROBLEMS IN THE FUNCTIONING OF THE ENFORCEMENT DIRECTORATE

POLITICISATION

• The ED is alleged to be targeting those political leaders who do not belong to the ruling party/parties at the Centre. Even the past cases of these leaders have been reopened in order to pressurize them either to change parties or to curb dissent.

TARGETING DISSIDENTS

• The PMLA has been misused for targeting dissident voices and thereby preventing free speech and expression.
• This has become a routine affair especially in the case of NGOs. For instance, all bank accounts of Amnesty International India were completely frozen by the Enforcement Directorate in September 2020 on the charge of the alleged violation of PMLA.

VIOLATING FEDERAL PRINCIPLES

• The division of power under the Schedule 7 of the Constitution places the responsibility for police and public order in the State List. But the power of ED to investigate cases without states consent especially in ordinary crimes is against federal principles.

SELECTIVE APPLICATION OF LAWS

• The ED has been accused of selective application of the PMLA provisions and the major money laundering scams are either not investigated or not followed up by ED.
• For instance, The Rose Valley Chit Fund Scam in Odisha, the NARADA scam in West Bengal etc seem to have missed ED radar.  One MP was seen in a video taking a bribe, ED summoned him, but nothing was heard after he switched party.

POOR PROFESSIONALISM

• A look at the last 17 years, since the criminal law was enacted, the Enforcement Directorate has filed more than 5,400 money laundering cases and it has secured conviction against just 23 persons till now. The ED’s conviction rate is as low as 0.5% even after the dramatic increase in raids.

VIOLATION OF RULE OF LAW

• ED can carry out the pre-trial attachment of property and funds just on basis of reasons to believe of the investigative authority and not concrete facts. So even without an investigation is complete, a persona can be charged, and the property can be attached just because a complaint/investigation exists against him.
• It effectively means that though a citizen is presumed not guilty, he is deprived of control over his property, when the prosecution believes that it comes from tainted money, effectively destroying lives, families, and businesses, just on the basis of investigators’ reason to believe and not on evidence.

VIOLATES ORIGINAL INTENT

• The Act gave expression to India’s commitment to the United Nations to enact domestic legislation to curb the laundering of money linked to drug trafficking. However, a series of subsequent amendments have sought to systematically dilute the cardinal intent of the Act, reducing it to an instrument of arbitrary power in the hands of the ED.

PINCH OF OPTIMISM IN THE FUNCTIONING OF THE ED

Of late, the ED has not just taken up high-profile cases, but has also actively started investigating them, filed charge sheets in many long-pending cases, attached properties in a series of cases worth Rs 58,000 crore, moved applications, and even secured extraditions. In the last 10 years, the ED has attached assets worth Rs 58,333 crore. The highest number of attachments has been made in the Sterling Biotech case, amounting to Rs 14,000 crore. Between 2005 and March 2018, the agency attached assets worth Rs 27,000 crore, of which Rs 14,000 crore, a little over 50 per cent, pertained to cases of bank fraud. Since the PMLA was enacted, more than 2,500 ECIRs have been filed in the ED, and the investigation is pending in over 1,000 cases. The agency sends letters rogatory to different countries to obtain information about individuals and entities offshore. A letter rogatory is a formal communication from a competent court to a foreign court and is processed by the Ministry of External Affairs on behalf of investigative agencies. But most of these letters go unanswered, severely affecting the investigation. In some cases, this can lead to a court dismissing a case due to a lack of evidence. In 90 per cent of cases, the money is laundered and stashed in tax havens abroad, and when ED do not get information from there, the investigation suffers.

POSITIVES IN THE JUDGEMENT:

• The court in its order made it clear that the mere the provisional attachment order passed under the Act does not mean that the property stands confiscated; and until and order of confiscation is formally passed, there is no reason to take the possession of such property. It is hoped that the ED will now refrain from issuing notices asking persons whose assets are attached to vacate their properties before a confiscation order is passed by the trial court.
• As per the judgment, not everyone in possession of ‘proceeds of crime’ can be prosecuted, but only those concerned in any process or activity. The practice of making every person whose assets are attached as an accused, and prosecuting them merely because they are relatives of the main accused person and are holding an asset given to them by the main accused, will now hopefully stop.

THE WAY FORWARD:

• The safeguards: The PMLA is a code dealing with money laundering and ED officers investigating under this Act are not police officers, and as such, not bound by the restrictions applicable to the police under the Code of Criminal Procedure. ED is staffed by senior officers and that such officers are assumed to be fairer in their conduct than the regular police. PMLA also incorporates penalties against erring officers for vexatious search. Such safeguards must be strengthened to combat any misuse.
• Predicate offence: While affirming its powers, the court has however reiterated the procedural limitations of this Act, including the necessity of a predicate offence before a prosecution for money laundering can be launched. A predicate offence is one mentioned in the schedule to the PMLA, which is the crime which gives rise to the ‘proceeds of crime’, which are then laundered. The clear reinforcement by the Supreme Court of the necessity of a predicate offence is going to help in circumscribing the misuse of the ED’s power. There must be a consensus between the adjudicating authority and the officers of ED to abide by the constitutionality of this provision under PMLA, making the investigation more lucid.
• The due process: In a system where the average person approaching the average police station does so without any great hope for justice, it is due process which is the most urgent need to protect the life and liberty of the poorest and most helpless. The ED, in a perverse democratisation, has brought this fear to the high and mighty. The reforms, to affect the need for due regulation of the ED and all other agencies performing investigative and penal functions might end this phase of misuse of agencies like the ED for political vendetta.
• Operational Vigilance: There must be a constant scrutiny over the operations of the Enforcement Directorate and current disposition whether this clarification will improve the conviction rate (which is right now less than half a percent). And if there will be any lacunas in the operative part, change is the law of nature, these gaps can be filled either through suitable legislation, executive action or revised order of the apex court.

THE CONCLUSION: The ED is a weapon frequently used by the government against its opponents and critics. The judgement has failed to protect citizens at a time when executive excess using that weapon is often visible. The draconian provisions of the PMLA challenge and override many fundamental rights of citizens, and it is wrong that such provisions, prone to much misuse, are allowed to continue on the statute book.India’s criminal justice system is built on a set of axioms that are inherent to the basic precepts of justice and fairness. These include the idea that a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty; the court has held that the presumption of innocence until proven guilty can be interdicted by a law made by Parliament/Legislature. The judgement raises many concerns and needs to be reviewed by the court.

Mains Practice Questions:

1. PMLA is part of a global response to organised crime. Whether the recent Supreme Court judgment fails to protect the personal liberty from draconian provisions? Critically analyse.
2. The Supreme Court judgement upholding the stringent provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, weakens many rights of citizens and the safeguards provided by law against executive excess. Comment.
3. By upholding self-Incrimination and the presumption of guilt, the court has put the personal liberty of citizens at risk. Critically analyse the Supreme Court judgment on the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002
4. India’s proximity to the two of the world’s biggest illicit opium-growing states has enhanced her internal security concerns. Explain the linkages between drug trafficking and other illicit activities such as gunrunning, money laundering and human trafficking. What counter-measures should be taken to prevent the same? (2018)
5. Discuss how emerging technologies and globalisation contribute to money laundering. Elaborate measures to tackle the problem of money laundering both at national and international levels. (2021)

THE CONTEXT: Recently, the Ministry of Education released the 7th Edition of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) Rankings 2022. The following article intends to evaluate the impacts of NIRF rankings on learning outcomes.

NIRF RANKINGS: KEY ASPECTS

• The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) has been launched by the Ministry of Human Resource Development on September 29th, 2015.
• This framework outlines a methodology to rank institutions across the country covering about 3500 educational institutes in India. The methodology draws from the overall recommendations to identify the broad parameters for ranking various universities and institutions.
• NIRF India Ranking 2022 has been announced for 11 categories. This includes overall, university, management, college, pharmacy, medical, engineering, architecture, ARIIA (Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements), law and research institutions.
• The subjectivity in the ranking methodology developed by QS World University Rankings and the Times Higher Education World University Ranking led India to start its own ranking system for Indian HEIs on the line of Shanghai Rankings. The long-term plan of NIRF is to make it an international league table.
• More than 7,000 institutes participated in NIRF Rankings for 2022.

The ranking framework judges institutions under five broad generic groups of parameters of

• Teaching, Learning and Resources (TLR),
• Research and Professional Practice (RP),
• Graduation Outcomes (GO),
• Outreach and Inclusivity (OI),
• Perception (PR).

Ranks are assigned based on the total sum of marks assigned for each of these five broad groups of parameters.

ANALYZING IMPACTS OF RANKINGS ON LEARNING OUTCOMES

There is a new era in higher education, characterized by global competition, in which university ranking systems have assumed importance. Their emergence, often controversial and subject to considerable debate, has been met with a lot of scepticism, some enthusiasm and an institutional unease. Regardless, ranking systems are here to stay and it is important to assess their effect on the higher education sector and its stakeholders.

PRESENT STATUS

There are 864 Universities and 11669 Institutions in India but only 24 secured their places in the top 1000 list released by QS world university ranking.

• Even after 70 years of independence, India does not have even one world-class multidisciplinary research university. And just one university IISc Bangalore was ranked in the Top 500 of Global Rankings.
• If we talk about the top 100, 33 Institutes were from the USA, 15 from the UK, 7 from Germany, 6 from China and 5 from Japan.

Reasons for the worst condition of Indian Institutions

• Even after liberalisation in the 1990s, there was no liberation of higher education from government control.
• People complained about the lack of autonomy and bureaucratic interference.
• There were some 17 bodies controlling each and every realm of higher education.
• The country was incapable of producing many things it desired. We could not produce the necessary defence equipments.
• Half of India’s students were pursuing courses in the liberal arts and sciences.

WHY DO WE NEED NIRF?

• The importance of a national ranking system is that it helps students choose the best university. A national ranking ensures that all higher educational institutes strive hard to improve their rankings.
• It also ensures that there is no complacency in the institutes and they work harder each year to provide quality education to students.
• Educationists have always voiced their concern about the absence of Indian universities, technology and management institutes from global rankings and the importance of these rankings.
• Thus, a national ranking framework ensures that universities keep working hard to ensure that they are providing scholastic education, at par with international standards.

NIRF: THE ASSESSMENT

Detailed assessment mechanism:

• Teaching and Learning Resources (TLR): This parameter deals with the basic activities related to any place of learning. It deals with the teaching and learning resources available to the institute and how they are being utilized.

• Research and Professional Practice (RP): This parameter measures the quality of research being carried out, and the scholarships provided to students.

• Graduation Outcome (GO): This parameter judges the ultimate goal of students, graduation.

o   Combined Metric for Placement, Higher Studies, and Entrepreneurship (GPHE): It is calculated based on the percentage of graduating students placed through campus placement over the past three years and the number of sustained start-ups or entrepreneurial adventures over the past five years.

o   Metric for University Examinations (GUE): This is the number of students as a fraction of the approved intake who have passed the university exam within the stipulated time for the course they had enrolled in.

o   Median Salary(GMS): It is the median salary of graduates who have passed from the institution.

o   Metric for Number of PhD Students Graduated (GPHD): It is the average number of PhD students who have graduated over the past three years.

• Outreach and Inclusivity (OI): This is the parameter that deals with the representation of women, marginalized and minorities in the institution.

• Perception (PR): This parameter judges the overall perception of the institute by industry, peers and researchers. It is judged based on the following sub-parameters:

• A ranking is the best form of publicity and comparison. It shows that your institute is better than the rest, it shows that you provide quality education and ensures that the general public views your institute with trust.
• When students research colleges and universities, one parameter that they pay the most attention to is the ranking of the institute. Choosing the right educational institute is one of the most important and daunting tasks in a student’s life. A higher ranking ensures that students and their parents/guardians can place their trust in your institute.
• A better ranking gives you a better reputation by evaluating your institute better than the others and it is also proof that the general public likes and trusts the institute. A ranking is a testimonial that your institute has worked on every parameter and provided the best resources, infrastructure and facilities to the students.

THE METHODOLOGY: PLACING VALUE ON INTEGRITY

• Institutions, universities and colleges are supposed to register and upload information according to the guidelines issued by the NIFR. They also have to upload the information submitted to NIRF on their own site for a period of three years. As a step towards encouraging transparency, the NIFR is empowered to do random and surprise audits on the data submitted by institutes. If the submitted data are inconsistent with the findings, the institute could be barred from participating in the ranking survey for the next two years.
• While the ranking depends heavily on self-declaration, asking institutes to publish data on their own site is a simple way of ensuring transparency and integrity of information.

NIRF RANKINGS: CRITICAL ANALYSIS

While it is laudable that the government is promoting a benchmark mostly based on objective indicators, it is a matter of concern that this does not serve the purpose of improving the standards of learning.  The zeal to tick the right boxes can give results that do not conform to the ground reality, raising questions about the fairness and reliability of the assessment parameters.

IMPACT ON STUDENT ENROLMENT

• The impact of the NIRF rankings on improving students’ enrolment, is considered limited. That largely depends on the reputation, fee structure, infrastructural facilities, location and research output.
• According to the All-India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), India’s GER was 27.4 per cent for 2017-18.
• This, in effect, means out of the total population in the age group of 18-23 in India, 27.4 per cent attend college and university.

SCOPE OF ATTRACTING FOREIGN STUDENTS

• India having a global ranking system of its own may be a project in the making, but eventually, quality and vastly improved standards are what will bring international students and faculty to the country, not hollow validation based on scores that project a distorted image.

NEED FOR RESEARCH DRIVEN INSTITUTES

• The industry connection will happen when research leads to better outcomes. That requires liberal funding for institutions that show promise, whether or not they figure high on rankings, putting an end to the meaningless exercise of churning out worthless, amateurish research papers just to get additional credit or help an individual acquire a degree.
• Although India has seen an exponential increase in the number of scientific publications over the last 10 years and is in the third position globally after China and the US, the conversion rates of these patents into working models are far less than desired.
• Although India is a hub of immense economic activity, its efforts to boost R&D and innovation are lagging. This can also be seen through the patenting activity in the country.
• India has been ranked 40th out of 53 countries on the Global Intellectual Property Index. Patenting activity is an indicator of innovation and India has seen an infinitesimally small rise over the years in the patent filing.

DEFINING PURPOSE

• The idea behind rankings should be to inform decisions, not drive admissions. Thus, even though the Gross Enrolment Ration (GER) could have spiked in recent times, the quality and quantity of worthy choices before students aren’t enough to be celebrated.
• As the NIRF evolves and involves more institutions, guidance from foreign and Indian experts should be of immense help, besides an honest review of its performance, the shortcomings and the additional parameters it needs to incorporate, like the financial health and size of the institution. The success of the endeavor lies in how beneficial it can be for students.

Tyranny of Geography

• There is discrimination present even in the top-rated universities and colleges in India. For example, certain courses in certain IITs are prefer it over the others. Also, the notion of explicit advantage of students belonging to tier one cities with regard to language and technological upgrade nations is visible clearly in such eminent institutes which somehow overlooks the overall quality of education in other institutes.

Global Comparisons

• Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) a leading global career and education network for ambitious professionals looking to further their personal and professional development.
• QS develops and successfully implements methods of comparative data collection and analysis used to highlight institutions’ strengths.
• The ‘QS World University Rankings’ is an annual publication of university rankings which comprises the global overall and subject rankings.

Six parameters and their weightage for the evaluation:

• Academic Reputation (40%)
• Employer Reputation (10%)
• Faculty/Student Ratio (20%)
• Citations per faculty (20%)
• International Faculty Ratio (5%)
• International Student Ratio (5%)

National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF): The ranking framework judges institutions under five broad generic groups of parameters of

• Teaching, Learning and Resources (TLR),
• Research and Professional Practice (RP),
• Graduation Outcomes (GO),
• Outreach and Inclusivity (OI),
• Perception (PR).

Ranks are assigned based on the total sum of marks assigned for each of these five broad groups of parameters.

Thus, clearly the NIRF is losing out on global standards like employment generation and foreign students.

THE WAY FORWARD:

• The NEP (National Education Policy) notes that quality education would enable us to occupy the “global stage” and cites.
• NEP also calls for attention to “local and global needs of the country”. It seeks the making of a truly global citizen through “Global Citizenship Education”. NEP calls for the use of global best practices for standard setting. India must thus, actualize best pedagogic practices to culminate patents into innovations.
• For multidisciplinary education and research universities (MERU), the NEP calls for the highest global standards. In its recognition of the need to give a global competitive edge to the students, the policy (which is not without its problems and critiques) offers us a way of thinking about Flagship Universities as well.
• To spur hundreds of universities and thousands of colleges to improve their level of excellence: give all higher education institutions complete autonomy. Let them all compete and get better. In tandem with increased transparency and accountability on outcomes, all the stakeholders’ students, industry, society and nation will benefit.

THE CONCLUSION: India has historically been the land of great universities and institutes which have given the world an unprecedented volume of wisdom and innovations. A similar perception needs to be created in present times. The advantage of improving our brand perception is that we get the added advantage of word-of-mouth advertising. It means that the general public views our institute in high regard and talks about it in the same manner. Thus, more people get to know and discuss about your institute, without any expenditure on advertising and marketing. It is also the most widespread and fast means of publicity.  Hence, a good NIRF ranking has multiple advantages for any institute if projected and utilised in a goal driven manner. It is in our best interest that we strive for a better rank every time and establish your institute in the top echelons of higher education.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

• “The idea behind rankings should be to inform decisions, not drive admissions.” Examine critically in the light of the recently released National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF).
• “There are many advantages of improving the brand perception of our institutes by means of better performance in competitive rankings.” Do you agree? Give valid arguments in support of your views.

THE CONTEXT: Recently, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested a top official of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), the regulatory body for drug approvals in India, and a senior official in charge of regulatory affairs of a Bengaluru-based pharmaceutical firm as well as officials of a company acting as middlemen on behalf of the pharma company. This development again raised questions on the flaws in the drug regulation in India and highlighted the need for a strong mechanism for drug and pharmaceutical regulations. Daily analysis for the issue is as follows.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF REGULATION

The regulatory scenario in this sector is extremely crucial not only due to the rapid and ongoing changes at the global level, largely with reference to good manufacturing practices (GMP), good clinical practices (GCP)and good laboratory practices (GLP) but also due to the onus on the regulatory bodies to ensure a healthy supply of quality drugs at affordable prices to the Indian masses.

WHY THERE IS A NEED FOR REGULATION?

REASON

DETAILS

INFLATED FEES BY PRIVATE HOSPITALS

• The Drug Price Control Order of 2013 stipulates a ceiling of MRP for medicines mainly in the national list of essential medicines and has provided full freedom to the pharmaceutical companies to fix the MRP at a high level.
• This provides the regulatory space to facilitate corporate hospitals to demand high mark-ups from pharmaceutical companies.
• The NPPA analyses show that a major portion of hospital bills – 55% – is payments for medicines and other consumables.

Case study:

• In 2017, the country was shocked to hear that two families had to pay nearly Rs 16 lakhs each for the two weeks of inpatient care of their children for the treatment of dengue-related complications.
• The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) inquiry into these two inflated charges revealed that hospitals were producing medicines at a cheap price and selling them to patients at the maximum retail price (MRP).
• An analysis, by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), of Fortis Hospital’s bill of medicines and consumables of one such patient, shows the exorbitant charges: an IV Infusion set procured for Rs. 8.39 is sold to the patient for Rs. 115, a margin of 1,271 per cent. Similarly, a disposable syringe procured for Rs. 15.90 was sold to the patient for Rs. 205, a margin of 1,189 per cent.
• The analyses of the hospital bills found a mark up between 375% and 1700%.

FAILED PAST ATTEMPTS DUE TO REGULATORY LOOPHOLE

• Past experiences show that even if the government caps the margins or prices of the consumables, the hospitals then increase the charges for procedures and other services and refuse to pass on the benefit to the patients.
• Example: In the case of cardiovascular stents, immediately after the prices were capped, hospitals increased the charges for procedures.
• Therefore any effective remedy to ensure affordable healthcare charges can be done only through the ceiling of healthcare charges in private hospitals.

SHRUGGING OFF THE RESPONSIBILITY BY THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT

• With health being a State subject, the Central government says it cannot step in to regulate healthcare charges.
• The Central Clinical Establishment Rules, which is to implement the Central Clinical Establishment Act (CEA) stipulates that the clinical establishments shall charge the rates for procedures and services fixed by the Central government in consultation with the state government.
• Though the rules were framed in 2012, the Central government has not fixed the rates.
• Draft Charter of Patients Rights, a joint initiative of the National Human Rights Commission and Ministers of Health is also silent on the ceiling of health charges.
• The Charter, without any regulation or ceiling on healthcare charges, would not offer any relief to the people who are exposed to financial exploitation from private sector hospitals.

INTERNATIONAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL OBLIGATIONS

• India, as a party to the International Covenant on Social and Economic Cultural Rights, has an international obligation to protect its population from the exploitation of private hospitals.
• Similarly, the right to health is recognised as a fundamental right under Article 21 of the constitution which places a constitutional obligation upon both the Union and state governments to regulate healthcare charges.

NO CLEAR DEFINITION/REGULATION FOR GENERIC AND SPURIOUS DRUG

• There is no definition of generic or branded medicines under the Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940 and Rules, 1945 made thereunder.
• However, Clause 1.5 of Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002 prescribes that every physician should prescribe drugs with generic names legibly and preferably in capital letters and he/she shall ensure that there is a rational prescription and use of drug.
• But, the regulation related to both medicine is not implemented so far. There is a clear vacuum related to their in terms of regulation and difference of both these drug.

PROMOTION OF DOLO DURING RECENT PANDEMIC

• In the absence of clear guidelines and regulation, DOLO  non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (a harmful pain killer) promoted at wide level.
• This shows that why there is need for an effective regulations for such of harmful medicine.

MAJOR BODIES REGULATING DRUGS AND PHARMACEUTICALS

MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE

Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)

Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) headed by the Drug Controller General of India, DCGI (I) + Statutory Committees + Advisory Committees +

State Licensing Authorities

MINISTRY OF CHEMICALS AND FERTILIZERS

Department of Pharmaceuticals

National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA): Drugs (Prices Control) Order (DPCO) 2013

MINISTRY OF COMMERCE

Patent Office

Controller General of Patent

MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Department of Biotechnology (DBT)

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Laboratories

MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT

Environmental clearance for manufacturing

ROLE OF DIFFERENT DRUG REGULATING AGENCIES

The Central Drug Standards and Control Organization (CDSCO)

(Ministry of Health and Family Welfare)

  Prescribes standards and measures for ensuring the safety,

  Efficacy and quality of drugs, cosmetics, diagnostics and devices in the country;

  Regulates the market authorization of new drugs and clinical trials standards;

  Supervises drug imports and approves licences to manufacture the above-mentioned products.

The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA),

( Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals)

  Fixes or revises the prices of decontrolled bulk drugs and formulations at judicious intervals;

 Periodically updates the list under price control through inclusion and exclusion of drugs in accordance with established guidelines;

  Maintains data on production, exports and imports and market share of pharmaceutical firms;

 Enforces and monitors the availability of medicines in addition to imparting inputs to parliament on issues pertaining to drug pricing.

STATE DRUG REGULATING AUTHORITY(SDRA)

  Licenses and monitoring manufacture,

  Distribution and sale of drugs and other related products.

THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR PHARMA SECTOR

In India, drug manufacturing, quality and marketing are regulated in accordance with

1. Drugs and Cosmetics Act of 1940 and Rules 1945
2. Pharmacy Act of 1948
3. Drugs and Magic Remedies Act of 1954
4. Drug Prices Control Order (DPCO) 1995, 2013

In accordance with the Act of 1940, there exists a system of dual regulatory control or control at both Central and State government levels

INSTITUTIONAL ISSUES RELATED TO REGULATING BODIES IN PHARMA SECTOR

(ADMINISTRATION)

REGULATING BODIES

ISSUES                 

THE NATIONAL PHARMACEUTICAL PRICING AUTHORITY

• NPPA chairman is an officer of the secretary level from   Indian administrative services.
• There is no fixed tenure of chairmen. Further, there are no permanent staff at NPPA.
• For implementing its order, NPPA has to depend upon state authorities.
• NPPA can only control the price of drugs which are under NLEM (which is in stark contrast with its motto “affordable medicine for all”) previously, it can control prices of other drugs also using Para 19 of DPCO order, but it has since been deleted.

THE CENTRAL DRUG STANDARDS AND CONTROL ORGANIZATION (CDSCO)

Lack of access to resources (both physical infrastructure and human resources)

THE DRUGS CONTROLLER GENERAL OF INDIA (DCGI)

MDs in pharmacology and/or microbiology are given preference for appointment to the job of the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI): this can generate a conflict of interest sometimes.

STATE DRUG REGULATORY AUTHORITY(SDRA)

• Most of the regulators are pharmacists: this creates a conflict as; most of the regulators at the central level are Doctors.
• Lack of access to resources (both physical infrastructure and human resources)

From the table below it will be clear that both the CDSCO and the SDRAs exercise regulatory control exclusively on the basis of executive fiat and delegation. In effect, both have limited Pre Manufacturing Distribution and Sale Post Marketing operational freedom and, therefore flexibility, to develop and operationalise their regulatory powers.

CHALLENGES IN PHARMA REGULATION SECTOR (FUNCTIONING)

AUTONOMY

• Both the CDSCO and the SDRAs are umbilically tied to their parent ministries and departments of health respectively. This impedes flexibility in decision-making and autonomy in a host of areas beginning with finance, recruitment and other areas of institutional policy. Regulators are effectively accountable to bureaucrats in their respective parent ministries.
• Any decision passes through various ministerial channels,weakening the autonomy of CDSCO.
• The CDSCO is not a statutory body and, therefore, is not independent of the MOHFW. The CDSCO is headed by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI). A similar structure operates at the state level where the State Drug Controller (SDC) heads the SDRA and reports to a joint secretary in the health department of state government AND HENCE OVERLAPPING JURISDICTIONS.
• Fees collected by the CDSCO are routed through the Department of Health, thus budgetary allocation is the only source of finance
• Fragmented drug regulators further decrease their autonomy as the power to regulate the Drug industry is at different levels VIZ. CDSCO,NPAA,SDRA
• Lack of hierarchy between CDSCO and the SDRAs as both are legally entitled to function autonomously since ‘health’ is a subject; this creates a continuous challenge in ensuring harmonised application of drug regulatory standards throughout the country.

POWER

• Section 33P15 which empowers the CDSCO to issue directions to SDRAs, to ensure that provisions of DCA are implemented uniformly in all states, has been rarely used and, even if it is used, the CDSCO has no power to enforce compliance by states.
• Drug inspectors have no assurance of their safety and do not have the power to arrest
• power of  SDRA to inspect the drug  only at the market level (off the sleeve whereas in most of the countries it is done at the process level)
• lack of power to punish the doctors who give verbatim  because of pharmaceutical lobbying   on clinical trials of drugs

CAPACITY

• AT THE ADMINISTRATIVE LEVEL, Lack of access to resources (both physical infrastructure and human resources.
• AT THE FINANCIAL LEVEL, BOTH ORGANISATION COMPLETELY  DEPENDS UPON BUDGETARY ALLOCATION, and a minimal user fee is charged  FROM THE INDUSTRY
• lack of planning and execution of training programmes for drug inspectors/ad hoc in approach
• institutional channels of interaction between the CDSCO and the SDRAs are lacking.

1. Method to calculate ceiling prices

• DPCO, 2013 lays down a complicated formula: “(Sum of prices to the retailer of all the brands and generic versions of the medicine having market share more than or equal to one per cent of the total market turnover on the basis of moving annual turnover of that medicine) / (Total number of such brands and generic versions of the medicine having market share more than or equal to one per cent of total market turnover on the basis of moving annual turnover for that medicine.)”
• In other words, the ceiling price is the average of price of all brands of medicine with more than 1% market share.

WHAT ARE THE SHORTCOMINGS IN THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF CONTROL IN INDIA?

HEALTH INSURANCE SCHEMES ARE NOT EFFECTIVE

• Instead of directly intervening and regulating the healthcare charges, the state and Central governments intervened through insurance schemes to reduce the financial burden of patients.
• These schemes function as a cross-subsidization or by increasing footfalls for the private sector.
• Studies have shown that even after insurance schemes like the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) and various state government-sponsored insurance schemes; there is no change in the burden of out-of-pocket expenditure.
• Often hospitals use these schemes to attract patients and charge them heavily by offering services outside the scheme.

REGULATORY CAPTURE

• Regulatory capture is a phenomenon when a regulatory body gets influenced by the economic interests of special interest groups that dominate the industry, rather than those of the general public.
• A regulatory capture is a form of government failure, where government agencies fail to perform their duties.

WEAK IMPLEMENTATION BY THE GOVERNMENT

• Loopholes in policy design are complicated by weaknesses in implementation.
• The government leaking out information on the dosage of a drug whose price is under regulation is an example of a loophole in policy design.
• Also,

NO DETERRENCE OF PUNITIVE ACTIONS

• There are no punishment methods if a firm fails to adhere to the price cap or is strategically launching a new variant of the drug to bypass regulation.
• Violation of the price-cap ceiling imposed by DPCO 2013 has not attracted any punitive consequences for firms.

NO EFFECTIVE MONITORING MECHANISM

• Neither the Department of Pharmaceuticals nor the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority has the institutional ability to monitor the prices of medicines at the state level. Such capacities are key to the enforcement of the regulation.

OVERVIEW OF MAJOR REFORM EFFORTS

ON AUTONOMY

RANJIT ROY CHAUDHARY COMMITTEE REPORT

CDSCO should be upgraded to a separate organisation with functional and financial autonomy. DCGI qualification and experience should be similar to that of a secretary or director general.

MASHELKAR COMMITTEE REPORT

Independent CENTRAL DRUG AUTHORITY  reporting directly to the Ministry of Health.

Financing

59th Report on the Functioning of CDSCO

MOHFW should work out a fully centrally sponsored scheme for the purpose so that the state drug regulatory authorities do not continue to suffer from a lack of infrastructure and manpower anymore.

Mashelkar Committee Report

Requires more budgetary allocation for setting up world-class drug controlling authority

MANPOWER

Ranjit Roy Chaudhary Committee

Identification and creation of positions in different disciplines have become more important in drug regulation. this can be solved by better emoluments

Mashelkar Committee

creation of new posts

 Augment no. of drug inspectors

 The capabilities and skills of enforcement staff need to be upgraded

59th Report on the Functioning of CDSCO

Engagement of medically and professionally qualified persons on a short-term contract or on deputation basis of interest agreements.

Infrastructure

Ranjit Roy Chaudhary Committee

Expand the current pharmacovigilance programme to cover the whole country by strengthening Zonal and sub zonal office

Mashelkar Committee

The state must provide adequate infrastructure for the office of DRA, including vehicles and the purchase of samples.

59th Report on the Functioning of CDSCO

Upgrade existing offices and set up new offices

Strengthen both central and state drug testing laboratories

THE WAY FORWARD:

QUALITY + AFFORDABILITY

Ø  The system of healthcare in India should be balanced between quality healthcare and affordability.

Ø  To achieve this, both policymakers and firms need to meet somewhere mid-way to find a win-win solution.

ROLE OF CENTRAL GOVERNMENT

Ø  The Central government, which has the experience of capping the price of healthcare services under the CGHS scheme, should use its powers under the Concurrent List to stop the burden-shifting and establish a regulatory authority to fix ceiling prices on healthcare services.

Ø  Even though health is listed as a state subject, the constitution provides the Union government with enough powers to regulate healthcare fees.

Ø  Article 243 of the constitution provides legislative competence to the Union government to legislate upon any subject matter in the state list to fulfil an international obligation.

Ø  The concurrent list entries, like price control and essential services, provide powers to the Central government to regulate the healthcare charges of private hospitals.

REFORMS IN THE DRUG DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

Ø  The drug distribution system could be reformed in India, by building up the scale and scope of generic medicine pharmacies as in the Jan Aushadhi Programme, a campaign launched by the Government of India to provide quality generic medicines at affordable prices to the masses.

SUPPLY-SIDE REFORMS

Ø  The industry’s reputation from the supply side can be improved by responsible pricing behaviour and complementary programs to enhance the diffusion of their medicines and healthcare products to the less privileged at highly subsidised prices.

THE CONCLUSION: At the helm, we need persons of vision with an understanding of the importance of evidence-based medicine in public health and curative healthcare, as well as an understanding of the general progress of the science of medicine, pharmacology and pharmaceutics – these may be found in a wide range of associated disciplines, for mitigating the case of conflict of interest. National pharmaceutical policy is an opportunity to radically clean the anarchy in drug regulation in India in the interests of public health. Surely, “The Pharmacy of the World” deserves a better regulatory body.

MAINS QUESTIONS

1. Discuss the regulatory loopholes in the healthcare system in India, especially related to drug price control.
2. With healthcare being a State subject, the Centre has less power and responsibility in ensuring the right to health for everyone. Do you agree with the statement? Give reasons to justify your viewpoint.
3. Discuss the strategies that can be applied to make healthcare in India affordable to each and every one.

THE CONTEXT: India’s record in promoting occupational and industrial safety remains weak even with years of robust economic growth. Making work environments safer is a low priority, although the productivity benefits of such investments have always been clear. Although occupational safety and health (OSH) is an existential human and labour right, it has not received due attention from lawmakers and even trades unions in India. This article analyses the issue of occupational safety and health in detail.

THE ILO DECLARATION ON FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES AND RIGHTS AT WORK

The ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (FPRW) , adopted in 1998 and amended in 2022, is an expression of commitment by governments, employers and workers’ organizations to uphold basic human values – values that are vital to our social and economic lives. It affirms the obligations and commitments that are inherent in membership of the ILO, namely:

• freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;
• the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour;
• the effective abolition of child labour;
• the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation; and
• a safe and healthy working environment. (added in 2022)

THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION’S FUNDAMENTAL CONVENTIONS

Embedded in the ILO Constitution, the principles and rights mentioned above have been expressed and developed in the form of specific rights and obligations in Conventions recognized as fundamental both within and outside the Organization. These ILO Conventions have been identified as fundamental, and are at times referred to as the core labour standards:

• Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87)
• Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention,1949 (No. 98)
• Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29)
• Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105)
• Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138)
• Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182)
• Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100)
• Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111)

The ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work applies to all States belonging to the ILO, whether or not they have ratified the core Conventions.

WHY SOME COUNTRIES HAVE NOT RATIFIED THE CONVENTIONS:

• Even though the FPRW was a valiant statement of reaffirming a set of labour rights as core and undeniable human rights, there existed cracks within the FPRW for reasons such as:
• With the identification of a handful of conventions as core conventions, ILO has created a hierarchy of its own labour standards.
• It also implicitly under-valued the informal economy as freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining in a large sense relate to the small formal economy in the vast majority of poor and developing countries.
• Countries differ in terms of their stages in economic development and standards, OSH and minimum wages could not be brought under the FPRW framework, for they would have differential, if not difficult, economic outcomes for less developed and poor countries.
• There is no disagreement among any country that forced labour is not permissible. Though with respect to the elimination of child labour, poor countries justified the same on grounds of economic poverty.

INCLUDING OSH AS A CORE LABOUR RIGHT

FOR

• Some 2.3 million people die each year due to workplace illness and accidents and the current pandemic will only add to this appalling loss of human life. Many millions more have been injured or have long-term illnesses from their work. The right to protection from deadly work processes, noxious chemicals and other hazards must be recognised as a fundamental right, along with freedom of association and collective bargaining and protection from discrimination, forced labour and child labour.
• Several global OSH bodies like The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health strongly backed the International Trade Union Council’s (‘ITUC’) call for the inclusion of OSH as a part of fundamental rights.

AGAINST

• The International Organization of Employers recognized the value of OSH, it did not want to elevate it to a fundamental right alongside FOA and CB. It argued that OSH is frequently the result of irresponsible behaviour of workers and that OSH could be addressed in ways other than making a fundamental right.

Ø  On 23 March 2022, the ILO’s Governing Body, a tripartite committee overwhelmingly supported a call from worker members to move ahead with the process to designate occupational health and safety an ILO Fundamental Right at Work (FRAW).

Ø  In the plenary session of the ILC held on 10 June 2022, the delegates adopted a resolution to add the principle of “a safe and healthy working environment” to the ILO’s FPRW 1998.

Ø  Two ILO Conventions concerning OSH have been added to the ILO’s Core Conventions, viz. Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (No. 155) , and the Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 2006 (No. 187).

C.155

• C.155 applies to all branches of economic activity in which workers, that is, all employed persons including public employees, are employed, including public services, and to all workers therein. The term “workplace” covers all places where workers need to be at or to go by reason of their work, and which are under the direct or indirect control of the employer.
• All member countries in consonance with the conditions prevalent in them formulate, implement and review periodically a national policy on OSH. The aim of the policy “shall be to prevent accidents and injury to health arising out of, linked with or occurring in the course of work, by minimising, so far as is reasonably practicable, the causes of hazards inherent in the working environment.”

C.187

• According to C.187, there must be in place a national policy and a national system for occupational safety and health, a national programme on occupational safety and health, and national preventative safety and health culture.

THE KEY INSTRUMENTS OF OSH:

ILO notes that more than 40 standards deal specifically with OSH and “nearly half of ILO instruments” deal directly or indirectly with OSH issues. These key instruments are divided into three aspects:

ASPECTS

KEY INSTRUMENTS

ON OSH

• Promotional Framework for OSH Convention, 2006 (C.187),
• OSH Convention, 1981 (C.155), and
• Occupational Health services Convention, 1985 (C.161);

ON HEALTH AND SAFETY IN PARTICULAR BRANCHES OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITY

• Hygiene (Commerce and Offices) Convention, 1964 (C.120),
• Occupational Safety and Health (Dock Work) Convention, 1979 (C.152),
• Safety and Health in Construction Convention, 1988 (C.167),
• Safety and Health in Mines Convention, 1995 (C.176), and
• Safety and Health in Agriculture Convention, 2001 (C.184);

ON PROTECTION AGAINST SPECIFIC RISKS

• Radiation Protection Convention, 1960, (C.115),
• Occupational Cancer Convention, 1974 (C.139),
• Working Environment (Air Pollution, Noise and Vibration) Convention), 1977 (C.148),
• Asbestos Convention, 1986 (C.162), and
• Chemicals Convention, 1990 (C.170).

To date, India has ratified only 47 Conventions and one Protocol. India has ratified several conventions which are somehow related to OSH, that is, hours of work, accidents, occupational diseases, and so on.

However, it has ratified only one of the Conventions noted above, which is, C.115 – Radiation Protection Convention, 1960 (No. 115) in 1975.

INDIA AND OSH:

• In India, we have labour laws covering certain primary economic activities like factories, ports and docks, mines, plantations, and construction, among others. There exist elaborate measures to ensure workers’ safety and health in them.
• The newly framed Code on Occupational Safety and Health and Working Conditions, 2020 has also put together the laws for various sectors like factories, mines, plantations, construction, and so on, however, some shortcomings and lacunas still exist. While the Code introduces some new provisions relating to OSH, it dilutes the existing ones. For instance:
• Earlier, under the Factories Act, 1948, every factory carrying out hazardous processes or a hazardous factory had to have in place a bi-partite Safety Committee. Now, the constitution of the Safety Committee has been left to the executive process of “government notification”. Further, Safety Officers are required to be appointed only in factories or mines or plantations employing a certain number of workers. Both of these clauses seriously dilute OSH.
• The Directorate General, Factory Advice Service and Labour Institutes (‘DGFASLI’) deal with the safety and health of workers employed in factories and ports. The Director General of Mines and Safety is concerned with the safety and health of mining workers. There is no agency nor any other labour law to cover the workers in unorganized workers, and those working in the micro, small and medium establishments.
• There is no direct law to regulate OSH in agriculture as there are in other branches of economic activity.
• The statistical system that exists in India provides unreliable and often incomplete statistics on industrial relations relating to industrial accidents. The statistical system conceived during the early years of the planned economy continues even now. For instance:
• The Indian Labour Statistics (an annual flagship publication of the Labour Bureau) publishes data on industrial accidents relating to four sectors: factories, mines, ports, and railways. Over so many decades, no more sectors have been added. The construction Sector is one such glaring omission.

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH PROBLEMS IN THE INFORMAL SECTOR

• The informal sector or unorganized sector includes all those workers and tiny economic units that are not recognized, recorded, protected or regulated by formal arrangements in law or in practice. Unorganized workers do not have the social security benefits that workers in the formal sector enjoy from their employers and government. These workers are often exposed to various occupational hazards during their course of employment. Due to a lack of regulations governing occupational safety and standards in the unorganized sector, the occurrence of occupational diseases is common among these workers.
• The most common examples of informal employment in India are agriculture, construction work, carpet weaving, beedi making, garment making, blacksmith and welding, pottery, agarbatti making, food vending, domestic employment, auto and rickshaw driving, local car and two wheeler workshops, rag picking and manual scavenging. All these employments are associated with exposure to hazards and risks to various occupational diseases.
• Workers in informal sectors are not using protective devices and that aggravate risk to respiratory illnesses, eye problems, skin problem, hearing loss etc. The temporary nature of the occupational setup and belonging to poor socioeconomic status reduces their priority to occupational health and safety.
• No reliable government data on the numbers of the person involved in the informal sector, their working conditions and specific health hazards leads to difficulty in making policy and doing interventions on a large scale.
• Worksites and institutions should be encouraged and monitored to ensure safe health practices and accident prevention, besides providing preventive and promotive health care services. This can be started by formulating national health care guidelines for informal sector workers. Methods to implement these guidelines should also be discussed in detail.

THE ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN SECURING WORKERS’ RIGHTS, OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY PROVISIONS

• Civil society is the “sum total of all individual and collective initiatives for the public good”. The role of civil society and CSOs comprises a wide-ranging plethora of diverse activities. Associations of civil society that pursue a common purpose/deliver a public good include Traditional Associations, Religious Associations, Social Movements, Membership based (representational, professional, socio-cultural, self-help) and Intermediary Organisations (service delivery, mobilizing, support, philanthropic, advocacy, network).
• Various types of organizations engage at various levels. The nature of CSO activities can range from policy influencing to achieving certain goals (including evidence and agenda setting, policy development, advocacy, mobilization, consensus building, policy and accountability monitoring/watchdog work), to direct service provision (such as education, health, etc), to technical standard-setting, self-regulation through the creation and enforcement of best practices, and partnerships with the government to enhance their capacity to deliver essential services.
• This holds true for CSOs working on Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) and labour rights with the goal of securing workers’ rights to compensation. Often, these efforts take place within larger movements to secure health for all persons nationally. All CSOs have a different guiding ethos driving their efforts and espouse different theories of change to effect those changes in the long term.
• For instance, PRIA’s theory of change, involving efforts at the micro, meso and macro levels, as a CSO is depicted in the Figure given below. PRIA’s efforts are grounded in its ethos of participatory research, action and development. Enabling the excluded and the marginalised to gain and then exercise their agency, and informing, capacitating and empowering communities to incorporate their knowledge into solutions for themselves forms the bedrock of PRIA’s efforts. [Established in 1982, PRIA (Participatory Research in Asia) is a global centre for participatory research and training based in New Delhi. PRIA has linkages with 3000 NGOs to deliver its programmes on the ground.]

• Information Dissemination: One of the most crucial aspects of ensuring workers’ health and safety is building awareness about occupational hazards and existing provisions enabling workers’ rights. PRIA has carried this out by spreading information about the occupational hazards of silicosis among not just workers, but also medical professionals, local and national government officials, and communities at large. Seminars and campaigns were organised to help increase knowledge and awareness about the disease and how it could be dealt with at the workplace.
• Capacity Building: Knowledge and information dissemination is also an essential part of the overall capacity building that PRIA undertook with workers. Workers were made aware of information and strategies they could use to secure their rights. This included building the skills they needed and the awareness of the need to unionise and demand better working conditions at their workplaces.
• Monitoring: PRIA monitored and evaluated the implementation of specific projects, programs and policies to see how effective they were in actually effecting a change in the conditions of the workers.
• Advocacy: PRIA also engaged in various advocacy initiatives to influence policies and changes that were made in the working conditions of the individuals suffering from silicosis, and to ensure proper diagnosis and treatment. Workers’ rights are also actively championed through activism on the ground and now increasingly on social media. Several organisations are engaged in this, along with awareness raising.

DOMESTIC WORKER AND LABOUR LAWS

• Domestic workers are those workers who perform work in or for a private household or households. They provide direct and indirect care services, and as such are key members of the care economy. Their work may include tasks such as cleaning the house, cooking, washing and ironing clothes, taking care of children, or elderly or sick members of a family, gardening, guarding the house, driving for the family, and even taking care of household pets.
• Of the 75.6 million domestic workers worldwide, 76.2 per cent are women, meaning that a quarter of domestic workers are men. Domestic work is a more important source of employment though among female employees than among male employees.
• Although they provide essential services, domestic workers rarely have access to rights and protection. Around 81 per cent are in informal employment – that’s twice the share of informal employment among other employees. They also face some of the most strenuous working conditions. They earn 56 per cent of the average monthly wages of other employees and are more likely than other workers to work either very long or very short hours, they are also vulnerable to violence and harassment, and restrictions on freedom of movement. Informal domestic workers are particularly vulnerable. Informality in domestic work can partly be attributed to gaps in national labour and social security legislation, and partly to gaps in implementation.

REPORT PUBLISHED BY THE COMMONWEALTH HUMAN RIGHTS INITIATIVE (CHRI):

1. While domestic workers across the world have suffered in the COVID-19 pandemic, the astounding lack of overarching legal or policy provisions in India to safeguard their wellbeing has meant a dire downward spiral for men and women in this sector in the last year, a report has found. The report published by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) notes that while the pandemic has demonstrated how integral domestic care and assistance is, this has not translated into an alleviation of the situation of domestic workers.
2. But more importantly, governments do not appear keen to resolve this either. Only six out of 54 Commonwealth countries have ratified the Domestic Workers Convention (C189) – 10 years after it was brought to ensure decent conditions for domestic workers. India is not one of the six.
3. The report calls for bold laws to eradicate the worst forms of child labour and adds that it would be in line with what India, as a signatory to the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 8.7 and the ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999, has claimed to aim for. However, the e-Shram portal which aims to register 38 crore unorganised workers in the country and the formulation of the Labour Codes as steps taken by the Union government towards ensuring safeguards for unorganised, including domestic, laborers is worth the praise.
4. The report further recognises that a huge chunk of the work to ensure domestic workers get benefits are done by unions across the country and calls for civil society to encourage unionisation and collective action among domestic workers, including referrals to the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) and/or the National Domestic Workers Movement (NDWM) as appropriate.
5. All such factors as mentioned in the report contributes to the call for India to ratify the C189, as a step towards streamlining national protections for domestic workers.

GIG WORKERS AND LABOUR LAWS IN INDIA

In an attempt to incorporate the doctrine of universalisation of social security, the gig workers are brought into the ambit of the labour laws for the first time, with the provision of some welfare measures under the Code on Social Security, 2020. The three other codes are silent on the policies toward gig workers.

In addition to the inclusion of laws for gig workers in the Code on ­Social Security, the Code on Industrial Relations, 2020 could have dealt with defining the nature of the relationship and the contract between the gig workers and the platforms by widening the scope of the ambit of employment relationships. When gig workers in many platforms are incentivised to work heavily ignoring the long-term health impacts, fixing maximum working hours and workplace safety measures could be covered in the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code.

OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS IN INDIA

PNEUMOCONIOSIS:

• Pneumoconiosis is the general term for a class of interstitial lung diseases (the tissue and space around the alveoli) where inhalation of dust has caused interstitial fibrosis.
• It is an occupational health disease and mostly affects workers who work in the mining and construction sectors.
• Depending upon the type of dust, the disease is given different names:
  • Coal worker’s pneumoconiosis (also known as miner’s lung, black lung or anthracosis) — coal, carbon
  • Asbestosis — asbestos
  • Silicosis (also known as “grinder’s disease”) – silica dust.

ABOUT SILICOSIS:

• Silicosis can be described as an occupational disease or hazard due to dust exposure. It is incurable and can cause permanent disability. However, it is totally preventable by available control measures and technology.
• Silica (SiO2/silicon dioxide) is a crystal-like mineral found in abundance in sand, rock, and quartz. It is a progressive lung disease caused by the inhalation of silica over a long period of time, characterized by shortness of breath, cough, fever and bluish skin.
• In India silicosis is prevalent in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Pondicherry, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal among the workers of construction and mining.

LEGAL PROVISIONS:

• Silicosis is a notified disease under the Mines Act (1952) and the Factories Act (1948) which mandates a well-ventilated working environment, provisions for protection from dust, reduction of overcrowding and provision of basic occupational health care.
• Self-Registration: A system of worker self-registration, diagnosis through district-level pneumoconiosis boards and compensation from the District Mineral Foundation Trust (DMFT) funds to which mine owners contribute.
• Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Condition Code 2020 (OSHWC): The code makes it mandatory for all employers to provide annual health checks free of cost as prescribed by the appropriate Government.

THE ANALYSIS:

Two of the largest employing sectors in India, namely agriculture and the micro, small and medium sectors, are not regulated by any law.The agriculture sector is lacking on legislation on safety and health for the workers working in this sector. There are certain Acts on occupational safety and health pertaining to certain equipments or substances, such as, the Dangerous Machines Regulation Act, the Insecticides Act. The enforcement authorities are not identified under these Acts and hence are not being enforced. The agriculture sector is the largest sector of economic activity and needs to be regulated for safety and health aspects. Lack of legislation on safety and health in the agriculture sector is also hindering the ratification of ILO convention 155. Industries under MSME also do not have any legislation to cover the safety and health of the workers which makes it difficult for India to ratify C.187.

However it must be understood that a safe and healthy workplace prevents accidents and occupational diseases; reduces, if not prevents, industrial accidents, especially fatal ones, thus ensuring higher participation of workers in economic activity, improves productivity, and thereby, in an overall sense, boosts economic efficiency, which eventually means higher economic growth. And hence employers must see the expenses on OSH, not as a liability but an investment.

THE WAY FORWARD:

• India should establish efficient Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) data collection systems to better understand the situation for effective interventions. The labour codes, especially the OSH Code, the inspection and the labour statistical systems need to be reviewed and be made more effective as the Government is in the process of framing the Vision@2047 document.
• Article 39(e) of the Constitution directs the State to ensure “that the health and strength of workers, men and women, and the tender age of children are not abused and that citizens are not forced by economic necessity to enter avocations unsuited to their age or strength;” further, as per Article 42, the State “shall make provision for securing just and humane conditions of work and for maternity relief.” The state shall take proactive steps in realising such principles envisaged by the makers of our constitution which becomes even more imperative in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic.
• The Government of India in 2019 declared the National Policy on Safety, Health and Environment at Workplace (NPSHEW) which aims to establish a preventive safety and health culture in the country through the elimination of the incidence of work-related injuries, diseases, fatalities, disasters and to enhance the well-being of employees in all the sectors of economic activity in the country. The policy recognizes the role of OSH’s contribution toward productivity, growth and overall welfare of people. It also identifies the role of some factors like changing job patterns and sub-contracting in posing problems in managing OSH; the role of technology in mitigating hazards, but also new risks arising out of it. The Policy, in short, makes the right signals, including stressing the need for an adequate and effective labour inspection system which must be acted upon proactively, will also help India in the direction towards ratifying the C.155.
• India faces large challenges in its efforts toward ratification of conventions relating to OSH. A progressive step that it could take in this direction is to endorse the FPRW which includes “a safe and healthy working environment” as another fundamental principle. Trade unions, academics, and more importantly, industry bodies must lobby the government toward these measures.

THE CONCLUSION: The labour agenda is never finished. The walk is long and strenuous as neoliberal globalization is more likely to put obstacles to the realization of rights as fundamental principles. It would indeed be a challenge as the world of work is undergoing profound changes. It is important for governments, employers and workers, and other stakeholders to seize the opportunities to create a safe and healthy future workplace for all. Their day-to-day efforts to improve safety and health at work can directly contribute to the sound socio-economic development of India.

Mains Practice Questions:

1. Even after having the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020, India has not ratified the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. What is hindering India in ratifying the convention and what should India do to further enhance the safety and health of workers?
2. ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (FPRW) was amended in 2022 to include “a safe and healthy working environment” as a basic human value. Comment.

THE CONTEXT: The 2022 edition of the World Population Prospects (WPP) of the United Nations has projected that India may surpass China as the world’s most populous country next year. The report estimates that India will have a population of 1.66 billion in 2050, ahead of China’s 1.317 billion around that time. In its previous estimate, the UN had projected that India would overtake China by 2027.

DECODING THE UN REPORT ON POPULATION TRENDS, ESTIMATES

POPULATION GROWING AT A SLOWER PACE

• The world population will reach eight billion by mid-November this year, growing to around 8.5 billion in 2030 and 9.7 billion in 2050.

DISPARATE POPULATION GROWTH RATES

• More than half of the projected increase in global population up to 2050 will be concentrated in eight countries the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tanzania.
• India is projected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country in 2023 due to the difference in population growth rates.
• It is projected to have a population of 1.668 billion in 2050, compared to China’s 1.317 billion people.

ELDERLY POPULATION

• The global population of people aged 65 years or above is projected to rise to 16 per cent in 2050 from the current 10 per cent.
• By 2050, the elderly population will be more than twice the number of children under the age of five.

LIFE EXPECTANCY, FERTILITY AND MORTALITY

• Global life expectancy at birth reached 72.8 years in 2019, an improvement of almost nine years since 1990.
• Life expectancy at birth for women exceeded that for men by 5.4 years globally, with female and male life. expectancies at 73.8 and 68.4, respectively.
• However, the gap in life expectancy at birth in some countries remains wide. Average global longevity to be around 77.2 years in 2050 due to further reduction in mortality levels.
• Global fertility is projected to decline to 2.1 births per woman by 2050.

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION AS A DETERMINANT OF POPULATION CHANGE

• Population change is significantly affected by migration. As many as 10 countries saw an outflow of more than one million migrants each between 2010 and 2021.
• While Pakistan topped the list with a net outflow of 16.5 million, 3.5 million moved out of India over the decade.

IMPACT OF COVID ON POPULATION

• The COVID-19 pandemic has left a mark on all components of population change, including fertility, mortality and migration.
• Global life expectancy at birth fell to 71 years in 2021 from 72.8 in 2019, mostly due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
• In Central and Southern Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, life expectancy at birth fell by almost three years between 2019 and 2021.

ASPECTS OF THE INDIAN POPULATION

Rural-Urban Divide

The fertility rate in rural areas is much higher than that in urban areas.

Gender Divide

Indiacontinuestosufferfroma genderdivideduetothepreferenceformale children.Thus,the no.of males is far higher than females in India.

State-State Divide

Therearehugedisparitiesbetweenthestates.For example,the fertility rate is 1.6 in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal and 3.3 in Bihar and 3.1 in Uttar Pradesh.

CAUSES OF POPULATION GROWTH IN INDIA

The rapidly increasing population of India is a result of prevailing high birth rates and a large decline in the death rate in our country. According to the World Bank data, the Crude Death Rate (per 1000 people) in India is 7.265 as of the year 2019. While the Crude Birth Rate stands at 17.664. The census data 2011 put these as 7.2 and 22.1 respectively.

CAUSES FOR HIGH BIRTH RATE

In India, marriage is not only universal but takes place at an early age. About 80 per cent of girls are married during the most fertile period of 15 to 20 yrs. of age.

Poverty means poor people have to spend little on the upbringing of their children. Besides, the children supplement the family income by engaging themselves in some odd jobs at an early age.

Lack of conscious family planning had also kept the birth rate in India very high.

In India, religion plays a major role in large size families. Abrahamic faith largely supports large family sizes. Even after so many girls in the family, the desire for one son prompts parents to continue with their child-producing activities.

The infant mortality rate is very high in India due to hunger, malnutrition and poor living conditions. So the fear of early death of their infants encourages the parents to have more children.

CAUSES FOR DECLINE IN DEATH RATE

Epidemics such as plague, smallpox, TB and malaria, which at one time used to cause a toll of heavy deaths, now have been effectively controlled.

The percentage of the population living in towns and cities went up from 26% in 1991 and 31.16%in 2011. Better health, hygiene and sanitation facilities in the town are expected to have lowered the death rate.

Literacy among women is progressing rapidly. Educated women bring up their children with utmost care. Working women enjoy better economic status and as such, they are healthier.

Besides the famine of 1943, no other serious famine has occurred in this century. Although famine-like conditions emerged in 1987 in the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh yet these were effectively combated to cause any serious loss of life.

Disaster Management has become part and parcel of the Indian governance process. Physical, Technological and Human infrastructure have been created to prevent and mitigate the loss of lives from disaster.

BENEFITS OF INCREASING POPULATION

Young Population

While the nations all across the world are getting old, India is emerging as a young nation.Thus, the Indian young population is in high demand for its skill and age by the developed nations so as to maintain their economic growth.

Development of Business and Enterprises

The young population of India can help with the development of businesses and thus contribute to the nation’s growth.

Solving National Problems

Youngs killed workforce of India can solve national problems through innovative solutions as recognised by the government too while conducting Hackathons.

CHALLENGES OF POPULATION GROWTH IN INDIA

1. The problem of Capital Formation: High birth rate and relatively high expectancy of life mean a large number of dependents in the total population. The burden of dependents reduces the capacity of the people to save. So the rate of capital formation falls.
2. Effect on Food Problem: Rapid rate of growth of the population has been the root cause of the food problem.Shortage of food grains obliges the under-developed countries to import food grains from abroad. So a large part of foreign exchange is spent on it.
3. The problem of Unemployment: Large size of population results in disguised unemployment in rural areas and open unemployment in urban areas.
4. Poverty: Rising population increases poverty in India. People have to spend a large portion of their resources for bringing up their wards. Hence improvement in production techniques becomes impossible. It means low productivity of labour.
5. Population and Social Problems: The population explosion gives rise to a number of social problems. It leads to the migration of people from rural areas to the urban areas causing the growth of slum areas. People live in most unhygienic and unsanitary conditions.
6. More Pressure on Land: Due to rising population  per capita availability of land goes on diminishing and the problem of sub-division and fragmentation of holdings goes on increasing
7. Impact on Maternity Welfare: In India, the population explosion is the result of a high birth rate, which reduces the health and welfare of women. Frequent pregnancy without having a gap is hazardous to the health of the mother and the child. This leads to a high death rate among women in reproductive age due to early marriage.

POPULATION CONTROL POLICIES IN INDIA: AN OVERVIEW

Population policy may be defined as deliberately constructed or modified institutional arrangements and/or specific programs through which governments seek to influence, directly or indirectly, demographic change.A positive population policy aims at reducing the birth rate and ultimately stabilising the growth rate of the population.The population policy of the Government of India has passed through the following phases from time to time:

Pre-Independence Period:

The British did not consider population growth as a problem. Their attitude towards birth control was one of indifference because they never wanted to interfere with the values, beliefs, customs and traditions of Indians. That is why this phase is called the Period of Indifference.

The Period of Neutrality, 1947-51

The period following independence and before the beginning of the planning era was one of neutrality. The Government of India was busy with post-independence problems like rehabilitation of the people following the Partition, reorganisation of the States and Pakistan’s invasion of Kashmir.

The Period of Experimentation, 1951-61:

During the first decade (1951-61) of planned economic development, family planning as a method of population control was started as a government programme in India. The National Family Planning Programme was launched in 1952 with the objective of “reducing the birth rate to stabilise the population at a level consistent with the requirement of the national economy”.

The Beginning of the population Control Policy 1961 to 2000:

With the rapid growth of the population in the 1961 Census by 21.5 per cent, the Extension Approach to family planning was adopted which emphasised the adoption of an educational approach to family planning through Panchayat Samitis, Village Development Committees and other groups. The National Population Policy was announced in 1976 to mount “a direct assault on the problem of numbers. In the post-emergency period, the Janata Government announced a New Population Policy in 1977.

National Population Policy, 2000:

National Population Policy (NPP) 2000:The immediate objective is to address the unmet needs for contraception, health care infrastructure and health personnel etc. The medium-term objective is to bring the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) to a replacement level by 2010. The long-term objective is to achieve a stable population by 2045. The Central Government has set up a National Commission on Population (NCP) in 2000 to review, monitor and guide NPP implementation. It is presided over by the Prime Minister with CMs of states and others as members.

WOMEN’S REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS AND POPULATION CONTROL

There are many unintended consequences of India’s family planning policy and programmes heavily impacting the rights of women. The various dynamics of this issue are outlined below.

PATRIARCHAL ATTITUDE

Gender norms in our patriarchal society dictate economic responsibilities to men and reproductive responsibilities to women. This is reflected in how family planning measures are used in India: which is heavily skewed towards female sterilization.

GENDER IMBALANCE

In 2015, of all married people in the reproductive age group, only 47.8% used any modern method of contraception (NFHS 4). Among the people who used contraception, 88% were women – 75% women underwent female sterilisation – whereas, of the 12% male contraceptive users, only 0.6% underwent male sterilisation.

MISSING MALE SEGMENT

The efforts for population control have mostly translated to controlling women’s, and not men’s, fertility. The program is designed to cater only to women and doesn’t actively engage with men to increase their participation in sharing the burden of family planning. The National Health Policy 2017, released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, aims to increase the uptake of male sterilisation to up to 30% but offers no roadmap to implement it nor to tackle gendered challenges that persist in the health system.

ADMINISTRATIVE/POLICY FLAW

According to the National Health Mission Financial Management Report 2016-17, the total expenditure on family planning in 2016-17 was Rs 577 crore, of which 85% was spent on female sterilisation alone, and only 2.8% on male sterilisation.

VIOLATION OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS

The incident in Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, in November 2014 highlighted how women from lower socioeconomic groups were sterilised in a camp without proper infection control, leading to severe complications in many women and the death of 15. The Supreme Court of India has highlighted that 363 women, largely from rural and marginalised communities, died between 2010 and 2013 during or after surgery in sterilisation camps, and ordered the government to shut these camps down.

BUT CONDITIONS-BASED POPULATION CONTROL ARE NOT A GOOD IDEA

• Empirical Study: A study by former Madhya Pradesh chief secretary Nirmala Buch on laws restricting the eligibility of people with more than two children in Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Rajasthan concluded that the two-child norm violates the democratic and reproductive rights of individuals. A high number of women (41 per cent) among our respondents faced disqualification for violating the two-child norm. Among Dalit respondents, this proportion was even higher (50 per cent).
• NHRC observations:  The incentives/disincentives approach has been denounced in the past by the National Human Rights Commission after such measures were introduced by several States in the 1990s and 2000s, i.e., Haryana, undivided Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Odisha.
• Wrong Policy Focus: India is on the path to stabilising its population. Therefore, the stress on the introduction of punitive measures to ensure population control is misplaced. In fact, a few states that imposed restrictions in various forms to enforce the two-child norm are on the back foot now. Four of the 12 states which introduced the two-child norm have already revoked it.
• Exclusion of the poor: Poverty is a major reason for the poorer sections having a larger number of children. By putting conditions like limiting government benefits and participation in electoral democracy to persons having not more than two children, the poor becomes both economically and politically excluded.
• International Experience: After China revised its two-child policy recently, the Population Foundation of India issued a statement saying that India must learn from China’s failed experience with enforcing coercive population policies. It said religion has little to do with fertility levels but what makes the difference is “education, employment opportunities and accessibility of contraceptives”.
• Population Momentum: Despite the decline in fertility, the population keeps growing. Demographers call this the “population momentum”. It is important to understand that even if all the couples in UP were to have two children from tomorrow, the population will continue to grow. This is because of the large number of young people in the state. Unlike in the past, the population is growing not because couples have more children, but because we have more young.
• Women’s Rights: Explained Above.

WHAT MUST BE DONE?

EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM STATES

Kerala and Punjab have 1.6 TFR, while Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have 3.4 and 2.7 TFR respectively (NFHS 4). NFHS-4 data shows only 22.8 per cent of women in Bihar attended school for 10 or more years in 2014-15. In neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, the figure was 32.9 per cent. In contrast, 72.2 per cent of women in Kerala attended school for 10 or more years, while the figure was 55.1 per cent in Punjab. So schooling plays a vital role In TFR. The proper implementation of the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme can be a game changer.

REDUCTION IN CHILD MARRIAGES

NFHS-4 data shows an increase in TFR in states with a high number of child marriages. So increasing the age of marriage can help reduce the TFR. Strict implementation of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006 along with social persuasion and influence can help in this regard.

AVAILABILITY OF CONTRACEPTIVES

From 1998-99 to 2005-06, TFR declined from 2.9 to 2.7. During this period, the country witnessed a change in social mindset. The use of contraceptives increased by 13.3 per cent. Studies by the Population Foundation of India point out the lack of availability of contraceptives both for men and women. Thus reliable access to contraceptives through ASHA workers at the local level need to be ensured.

CHECK UNPLANNED PREGNANCIES

Devendra Kothari, former professor at the Indian Institute of Health Management Research University, Jaipur attributes India’s current population growth to unplanned pregnancies. Based on NFHS 1 to 4, it is estimated that 135 million out of 430 million births were the result of unplanned pregnancies. So proper planning and spacing of pregnancies are required.

WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

 According to the NFHS-4 data, the women in the lowest wealth quintile, and the least educated women, had on average one more child than those with more than 12 years of schooling and in the highest wealth quintile. Thus holistic women empowerment through instruments like “Gender Budgeting” and schemes like Stand Up India, and Promotion of SHGs by National Livelihood Missions must be implemented earnestly.

ADHERENCE TO CAIRO CONSENSUS

The Cairo International Conference on Population and Development in 1994, of which India is a party (The Cairo Consensus)  has called for promotion of reproductive rights, empowering women, universal education, and maternal and infant health to untangle the knotty issue of poverty and high fertility.

THE WAY FORWARD

• China’s example of a distorted demography (age-sex composition of the population) is a warning against a counter-productive population control bill. Public health matters shouldn’t be coercive in nature.
• When reproduction is controlled or forced, there is a distortion in the working population and the elder-dependent population, which can lead to possibly disastrous economic consequences.
• In the case of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh too, a decentralized implementation of a family planning policy can bring about a gigantic change and a population control policy will do more harm than good.
• We need to invest heavily in human capital, health and education for a healthy and productive population that can add to the national and global accomplishments of the country.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND: VIEWS OF PROMINENT THINKERS ON POPULATION

Many of the ancient philosophers like Confucius, Kautilya, Plato and modem thinkers like Adam Smith, David Ricardo and others have deliberated on population issues. For instance, Kautilya had written in his Arthashastra that a large population is a source of the political, economic and military strength of a nation. The Chinese philosopher, Confucius argued that a numerical balance is maintained between population and environment. Thus, he was not in favour of the unchecked growth of population. In ancient Greece, Plato advocated an absolute limit on population. In the modern period, Malthus and Marx have written elaborately on the population dynamics but their views, however, differed fundamentally.

MALTHUSIAN VIEWS

• In his Essay on the Principle of Population (1798), Malthus argued that because of the strong attraction of the two sexes, the population could increase by multiples, doubling every twenty-five years.
• He contended that the population would eventually grow so large that food production would be insufficient.
• Malthus further wrote ‘Population when unchecked increases in a geometrical ratio. Subsis­tence increases only in an arithmetical ratio.
• Malthus referred to two classes of checks which kept population down
• Positive Checks: He spoke of famine, disease, war, pestilence etc(Related to Mortality)
• Negative Checks: artificial means of birth control, late marriage, moral restraint, and chastity(Related to Fertility)
• He contended that without such restraints the world would face widespread hunger, poverty and misery.
• Malthus saw the tension between population and resources as a major cause of the misery of much of the humanity.

MARXIAN VIEWS

• According to Marx, the widespread poverty and misery of the working class people were due to the misconceived organi­zation of society.
• He argued that starvation was caused by the unequal distribution of wealth and its accumulation by capitalists.
•  It has nothing to do with the population.
• The population is dependent on economic and social organization.
• The problems of overpopulation and limits to resources are inherent and inevitable features associated capitalist system of production.
• If people experience an increase in their income, they are likely to reduce their fertility rate instead of increasing it, as they see that new opportunities are available to their child (for example going to school)
•  Marx believes the low wages of the capitalist system do not give workers this incentive to decrease their fertility and the population growth further increases the labor supply and depresses wages.
• Thus, according to Marx, overpopulation is a normal characteristic of capitalism.

THE CONCLUSION: The small Indian landmass is not sufficient enough to look after the increasing population. If we continue our rise in a current manner, we will not be able to achieve any of the SDG targets, particularly SDG 1, 2, 3 and 4. We need to ensure that the increasing population momentum is reduced through awareness and incentives while skilling the workforce so as to make them really part of the dividend.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

1. The population control measures of the government of India display an inherent gender bias. Elucidate.
2. Critically examine the need for a course correction in India’s population control policy in the light of new legal regimes brought in by states for checking population growth.
3. “Overpopulation in various countries has become a serious threat to the well-being of many people and a grave obstacle to any attempt to organise peace on this planet of ours.” Examine.

THE CONTEXT: The COVID-19 pandemic has harmed health, social and economic well-being worldwide, with women at the very core of it. The poorest and the most marginalized, including women and girls, face more risks without the means to absorb the economic shocks and mitigate the health crisis. The following article intends to highlight the plight this pandemic has infused on women.

PLIGHTS OF THE PANDEMIC: ANALYSIS

Women tend to be the backbone of society during crises, even as they are also more likely to face the disproportionate impacts of such events. The Covid-19 pandemic is no different. It has severely exacerbated existing gendered barriers, widened India’s gender gap in the workforce, and affected (overwhelmingly female) caregivers and frontline workers.

ASPECT

KEY FINDING

IMPACT/AFTERMATH

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Women were more affected than men by employment issues. Women made up just 24% of those working before the pandemic, yet accounted for 28% of all those who lost their jobs.

• Compounded economic impacts are felt especially by women and girls who are generally earning less, saving less, and holding insecure jobs or living close to poverty.
• From past experience and emerging data, it is possible to project that the impacts of the COVID-19 global recession will result in a prolonged dip in women’s incomes and labor force participation, with compounded impacts for women already living in poverty.

HEALTH AND SANITATION

About 16% of women (an estimated 17 million if extrapolated) had to stop using menstrual pads, and more than one in three married women were unable to access contraceptives.

• Health pandemics can make it more difficult for women and girls to receive treatment and health services.
• Globally, women make up 70 percent of the health workforce and are more likely to be front-line health workers, especially nurses, midwives and community health workers.

• The provision of sexual and reproductive health services, including maternal health care and gender-based violence related services, is central to the health, rights and well-being of women and girls.

CARE WORK

Indian women already do almost three times more unpaid work than Indian men, and the survey showed a 47% increase in unpaid labour for women and a 41% increase in unpaid care work for women.

• Before COVID-19 became a universal pandemic, women were doing three times as much unpaid care and domestic work as men. This unseen economy has real impacts on the formal economy and women’s lives.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

There has been a rise in instances of violence, sexual, physical and mental against women.  The National Commission for Women (NCW) has recorded a more than twofold rise in gender-based violence.

• Women from historically marginalised groups (Muslims, migrants, single/separated/divorced), were more affected than the average woman. Conditions on the ground are likely to worsen for those women (such as Dalit women and transgender individuals) who bear the brunt of social discrimination.

• Judicial, police and health services that are the first responders for women were overwhelmed, had shifted priorities, or are otherwise unable to help. Civil society groups were affected by lockdown or reallocation of resources.
• Cases under the Right to live with dignity (Article 21) rose to 77% from 35%. Such cases could pertain to discrimination on the basis of gender, class, or caste or all three of them combined.

SHRINKING OF SOCIAL CIRCLE

Isolation and containment of women during lockdown.

• The avenues for liberty of freedom and expression four woman especially coming from the tier two and the tier three cities in India was limited before the pandemic.
• This aspect got further attenuated due to the COVID induced lockdowns which inflicted several mental and psychological issues on the life of women in India.
• This could be due to the increased workload in the houses unlimited opportunities for employment outside then home premises.

CURBING THE PLIGHTS OF THE PANDEMIC: WAY FORWARD

ECONOMIC

• Removal of barriers that prevent full involvement of women in economic activities, equal pay and equal opportunities, social protection schemes that factor in existing biases, financing for women entrepreneurs and mechanisms to promote women’s self-employment.
• Enlist Women on MGNREGA job cards to increase the total number of person-days to meet women’s demand for job opportunities.
• Strengthen the resilience of SHGs by focusing on their economic recovery and market linkages via the existing Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana: National Rural Livelihoods Mission.

o   SHGs could also provide technical and managerial training to help women develop the skills needed to run small businesses digitally.

HEALTH

• Special attention needs to be given to the health, psychosocial needs and work environment of frontline female health workers, including midwives, nurses, community health workers, as well as facility support staff.
• Particular attention needs to be paid to health care services for older women, and gender-based violence survivors, as well as antenatal, postnatal care and delivery services, including emergency obstetric and newborn care.
• The government needs to implement easy access to products like sanitary pads and contraceptives, especially in such testing times.
• The government can build upon and accelerate its existing efforts through Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) workers, Mission Parivar Vikas, and other schemes to strategically focus on contraceptive usage.

RECOGNISING THE UNPAID LABOUR

• Women’s unpaid care work has long been recognized as a driver of inequality. It has a direct link to wage inequality, lower income, poorer education outcomes, and physical and mental health stressors.
• Support measures in response to COVID-19 need to go beyond workers who hold formal sector jobs and include informal, part-time and seasonal workers, most of whom are women.
• This is particularly necessary for female dominated spheres such as the hospitality, food and tourism sectors, now at a standstill due to confinement measures by governments.

GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

• It is important for national responses to include specific communications to the public that justice and the rule of law are not suspended during periods of confinement or lockdown. Gender- based violence prevention strategies need to be integrated into operational plans of the justice and security sectors for the crisis, and statutes of limitations on offenses, particularly sexual violence offenses, should be suspended.
• A joint programme of the National Commission for Women (NCW), Delhi Police and Tata Institute of Social Sciences, (TISS) Mumbai.
• The NCW is implementing the project with Delhi Police and TISS and is committed to working on the issue of violence against women.
• In Spain, an instant messaging service with a geolocation function offers an online chat room that provides immediate psychological support to survivors of violence

OVERCOMING THE PLIGHTS OF THE PANDEMIC: THE CONCLUSION

A pandemic amplifies and heightens all existing inequalities. These inequalities in turn shape who is affected, the severity of that impact, and our efforts at recovery. The COVID-19 pandemic and its social and economic impacts have created a global crisis unparalleled to any such instance in the past. policymakers and stakeholders must include women and girls at the centre of recovery processes and listen to their needs, challenges and solutions. Empowering women and girls has proven to increase the health and well-being of the entire family and community.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

• “Women tend to be the backbone of society during crises, even as they are also more likely to face the disproportionate impacts of such events.” Examine the statement in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic.
• “The pandemic undermined women and girls’ fundamental rights which could possibly have generational impacts.” In the light of this statement, discuss the multidimensional impacts of the covid-19 pandemic on women.

THE CONTEXT: India has ranked low at 135th place out of 146 countries in terms of gender parity, on the annual Gender Gap Report 2022 of the World Economic Forum (WEF).This means, it is only 11 ranks above Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, where women are prohibited from attending schools. This is a grave cause of concern given that India vouches to preach the ideals of liberty and equality in letter and spirit.

THE GENDER GAP REPORT

• The Global Gender Gap index “benchmarks the current state and evolution of gender parity across four key dimensions (Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment)”. According to the WEF, it is the longest-standing index, which tracks progress towards closing these gaps over time since its inception in 2006.
• On each of the four sub-indices as well as on the overall index the GGG index provides scores between 0 and 1, where 1 shows full gender parity and 0 is complete imparity. “The cross-country comparisons aim to support the identification of the most effective policies to close gender gaps,” states the report.

GENDER GAP: KEY FINDINGS

• In 2022, the global gender gap has been closed by 68.1%. At the current rate of progress, it will take 132 years to reach full parity.
• Across the 146 countries covered by the 2022 index, the Health and Survival gender gap has closed by 95.8%, Educational Attainment by 94.4%, Economic Participation and Opportunity by 60.3% and Political Empowerment by 22%.
• Although no country has yet achieved full gender parity, the top 10 economies have closed at least 80% of their gender gaps, with Iceland (90.8%) leading the global ranking. Iceland remains the only economy to have closed more than 90% of its gender gap.

GENDER GAP: ANALYSIS OF THE WIDENING IMPASSE

ISSUE OF CONCERN

ASPECTS COVERED

EVALUATION

GENDER GAPS IN THE WORKFORCE

Percentage of women who are part of the labour force, wage equality for similar work, earned income etc.

• India ranks a lowly 143 out of the 146 countries in contention.
• Women’s participation in the workforce in India has not been rising over the last few decades. A report by the World Bank said that India is one of those countries where less than a quarter of women have joined the labour force and only one-fifth are employed.
• Employment losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic have been significantly worse for women than for men. With increased responsibilities at home, and increasing layoffs, the pandemic has inflicted a healthy blow to efforts surrounding parity in the workforce.

POLITICAL EMPOWERMENT

Includes metrics such as the percentage of women in Parliament, the percentage of women in ministerial positions etc.

• Of all the sub-indices, this is where India ranks the highest (48th out of 146).
• However, notwithstanding its rank, its score is quite low at 0.267. Some of the best-ranking countries in this category score much better. For instance, Iceland is ranked 1 with a score of 0.874 and Bangladesh is ranked 9 with a score of 0.546.
• As per the data compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, of which India is a member, women represent 14.44% of the total members of the Lok Sabha.

EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT

Includes metrics such as literacy rate and the enrolment rates in primary, secondary and tertiary education.

• Here India ranks 107th out of 146, and its score has marginally worsened since last year. In 2021, India was ranked 114 out of 156.
• Education for all is one of the major tasks being carried out by the Indian government but still, we have the lowest female literacy rate in Asia.
• India is working but the pace is slow as we haven’t achieved what we should have been so far. As per the report, India’s country-wide female literacy rate is 70.3%, while the male literacy rate is estimated at 84.7%. India’s average literacy rate stands at 77.7%, according to the NSO.

HEALTH AND SURVIVAL

Includes two metrics: the sex ratio at birth (in %) and healthy life expectancy (in years).

• In this metric (In Gender Gap Report), India is ranked last (146) among all the countries. Its score hasn’t changed from 2021 when it was ranked 155th out of 156 countries.
• Women in India face issues like malnutrition, lack of maternal health, diseases like AIDS, breast cancer, domestic violence and many more. Nutrition plays a major role in an individual’s overall health, psychological and physical health status is often dramatically impacted by the presence of malnutrition.
• Globally, about 800 women die every day of preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, and 20 per cent of these women are from India.
• India’s anaemia burden among women is widespread, with 53.1 per cent of non-pregnant women and 50.3 per cent of pregnant women being anaemic as per the NFHS-4 in 2016, where India carries the highest burden of anaemia despite having various programmes and policies for the past 50 years since the launch of National Nutritional Anaemia Prophylaxis Programme in 1970.

DIGITAL DIVIDE

Includes aspects like accessibility to digital devices.

• Women facing intersectional discrimination, living in communities with lower socioeconomic status, have even lower access to connectivity or any digital device, leading to a string of tremendous consequences, sometimes even vital ones.
• According to a WEF study, globally, men are 21% more likely to have access to the internet than women. In the world’s least developed countries, this likelihood rises to 52%.
• Sampark, a local non-profit organization, identified 120 other female students from the same school who were suffering from not having a digital device.

• To be offline today means to miss out on learning and earning, accessing valuable services, and participating in the democratic public debate. The digital divide between people who have internet access and those who do not could be deepening existing gender inequalities, pushing women further to the margins of society.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP GAP

Considers aspects like opportunities and conducive environments for startups led by women

• Women are under-represented in entrepreneurship. For example, in 2018, women were about 60% as likely as men to be self-employed in the EU and this gender gap starts young.
• Young women (20-29 years old) were also about 60% as likely to be self-employed as young men. While the gender gap closed slightly across all age groups since 2002, it was due to a decline in male self-employment rather than growth in female self-employment
• The gender gap in entrepreneurship can be explained by a range of factors, including social attitudes towards women in the labour market, different motivations and intentions in entrepreneurship, and different and greater barriers to business creation (e.g., a lack of entrepreneurship skills, failures in financial markets).
• According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) project, only 11 percent of women around the world start new businesses 30 percent less than men.

Gender gap in emerging technologies like AI

Considers skillset and other intellectual resources required for careers in AI

• LinkedIn’s analysis found a significant gap between female and male representation among AI professionals – only 22% of AI professionals globally are female.
• As per WEF, over the past four years, men and women have been adding AI skills to their profiles at a similar rate. This means that while women aren’t falling further behind, they also aren’t catching up. If the current trend continues, male AI professionals will continue to outnumber women, even as both genders continue to gain AI skills.
• Other studies have found that only 10-15% of machine learning researchers in the leading technology companies are women; less than 14% of authors of AI research papers are women; and women are under-represented at 17-18% across the largest online global data science platforms.

GENDER GAP: CAUSES OF THE IMPASSE

POVERTY

India is still one of the poorest countries in the world, and it is one of the biggest reasons that lead to gender inequality in India. Despite the availability of education in rural areas, families prefer sending their boys to school rather than the girls of the family, which is one of the biggest disadvantages.

PATRIARCHAL SETUP IN OUR INDIAN SOCIETY

Since time immemorial, India has been an extremely patriarchal society. The patriarchal setup in Indian society contributed to the fundamental inequality between men and women. As women were considered a part of the household belonging to their father or husband, they were unable to get a say in any matters concerning their own development or that of the community at large.

LACK OF EDUCATION OR ILLITERACY

The disparity between the literacy rates of men and women in India is a known issue. Some regional states have higher disparity, while some other states have better disparity. The problem is not that there are few literate women in India, but rather the problem is the lack of awareness among women to use their rights.

LACK OF AWARENESS AMONG WOMEN

One of the major causes of gender inequality is the lack of awareness among women about their rights and their ability to achieve equality. This lack of awareness is often due to the prevailing cultural and social norms, which dictate that women should be subservient to men. It is important to break down these barriers and help women become more aware of their rights so that they can demand equality.

WAY FORWARD: CLOSING IN THE IMPASSE

• The Global Gender Gap report criticizes the rising inequality in the number of women holding offices in India. Passing the Women’s Reservation Bill that proposes to reserve 33 per cent of all seats in the Lok Sabha and in all State legislative assemblies for women could make this situation better. Measures could also be taken to address the gender wage gap across industries.
• According to the estimates of the World Inequality Report 2022, in India, men earn 82 per cent of the labour income whereas women earn 18 per cent of it. So, there is scope to allocate more money towards the gender budget, that aims to ensure that women have access to socio-economic benefits as much as men.
• Article 15 of the Indian constitution states that the state shall not discriminate against any citizen on the grounds of only sex. The irony is that there still is widespread discrimination which is a form of injustice against women. Hence, the present times need to get over the ‘son-meta’ preferences imbibed deep into society.
• Society needs to deconstruct the stereotype of women as limited to household activities only. It is important for all institutions (state, family and community) to respond to women’s specific needs such as bridging gaps in education, renegotiating gender roles, the gender division of labour and addressing biased attitudes.
• A noteworthy intervention by the UK government’s Office for AI saw £18.5 million pledged to boost diversity in AI roles, funding conversion degrees including 1000 scholarships for people from under-represented groups. Such steps are needed in emerging economies like India so as to bring women to the mainstream of development and growth.
• A rights-based approach to development is a framework that integrates the norms, principles, standards and goals of the international human rights system into the plans and processes of development. It is characterized by methods and activities that link the human rights system and its inherent notion of power and struggle with development. This needs to be imbibed into polices framed with the aim of reducing the gender gap.

THE CONCLUSION: During the Vedic Period, women enjoyed equality in all spheres of life. India was a glorified nation, and even other fellow citizens used to hail down because of its greatness. Women enjoyed a special status which consisted of parity in every aspect. In present times, Article 16 of the Indian Constitution states that equal opportunity will be provided for all citizens in office employment under the state. It is time that we reflect this constitutional and moral ethos in letter and spirit. Young Indian women represent aspirational India possibly more than any other grouping today. As Swami Vivekananda has rightly said, “All nations have attained greatness by paying proper respect to women. That country and that nation which does not respect women have never become great, nor will ever be in future.”

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

1.  “No country can ever truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women and deprives itself of the contribution of half its citizens.” Discuss in the light of the recently released Global Gender Gap Report.
2.  “The accentuating chasm between men and women in India has a multidimensional origin.” Examine critically.

THE CONTEXT: Recently the Prime Minister questioned the practice of politicians making mindless promises of ever profligate schemes in pursuit of votes, and termed it a dangerous trend.Besides the quick political gains that they seek, this also pre-empts any discussion on the existing development paradigm. This article analyses what should be the threshold of precariousness at which poll promises such as free food, job guarantees, or cash doles should kick in as a measure to provide social security.

GROWTH AND WELFARE

• The dichotomy between growth and welfare has criticisms against free trade capitalism, that it leads to monopoly capitalism and an economy dominated by the power of trusts, combines, cartels, multinationals and transnational corporations. This in turn gives rise to a variety of social, economic and political contradictions in society. In the absence of any positive interference by the state in the political economy, the exploitation of the working class by an aristocracy of monopoly capitalism without caring for any social responsibility, unemployment on a large scale, inhuman working conditions in factories, competitive low wages, Long working hours, poverty, illiteracy and poor health are bound to result.
• Also, growth under free trade capitalist economy is the enemy of socioeconomic equality. As was pointed out by Green and Tawney, by denying redistribution of national wealth through the state, the market fosters inequality and injustice. It was argued that the old mechanism of the market because they were powered by self-interest, cannot be sensitive to the welfare needs precisely because they cannot be translated into prices and also those in need lack the resources to pay the price set by the market.

POPULISM: Populism can be defined as a political identity which encapsulates the following important elements:

• Populism legitimates itself in terms of “popular sovereignty” by referring  to  a   part of  the population  that  supposedly represent  the  people  as  a
• Presents heterogeneous and incompatible demands “as one” demanded by the people
• Dividing the people within the population and outside on friend and enemy relations, over the demarcation of radical antagonism.
• Uniting the friends “extricated from the population” under a single leadership so that it remains undivided.
• Populism can range from persuasive politics to a dangerous agenda that creates internal and external conflict, negates climate change and rejects human rights. We carve out four root causes of populism. The dominant cause in a period or area determines the socio-economic structure of voters. Populism can have a left-wing or right-wing agenda, and it accelerates with regional problems, inequality, spatial disequilibria and migration. Populist parties often become part of democratically elected governments by forming coalitions with mainstream parties, in which they play the more active part and make further inroads until they dominate. If they finally take the lead, they clinch it by changing the rules, dismantling the division of power between government, parliament and the courts. They invent a foreign enemy or a dangerous force to cement their power.

ROOT CAUSES FOR POPULISM

ECONOMIC CAUSES

• Economic causes can be low growth, rising unemployment and inequality. The rising income inequality among individuals, but also increasingly across regions, is a driving force of today’s populism. Income and population are increasing in urban centres and modern industrial districts, while in the periphery there is low growth and low investment from international firms since they need skilled labour and supplier networks.

CULTURAL CAUSES

• Cultural causes for populist voting can be connected with changes in value systems that are described in the literature as gradual changes in Western society’s values, from conservative to liberal. The latter values range from equality of gender and acceptance of different partnerships and lifestyles to ideas about healthy nourishment, mandatory seatbelts in cars and stricter speed limits. Opposition to political correctness and gender consciousness has increased gradually and has now found a political outlet.

THE SPEED OF CHANGE

• Lifetime jobs have become the exception, and young people seldom pursue the same occupation as their elders. What one does at the start of a career cannot become a job for decades – even if the job is formally the same, its content, activities and tasks to be performed will change. Kids do not work in the same firms and jobs as their parents and are flexible in changing the location of their work. Their personal, religious and political priorities are less homogenous and can be different from those of their parents. This widens choices, increases the fit between abilities and demand and thus leads to lower levels of skill mismatch, but it also involves uncertainty and can result in intermittent periods of joblessness and retraining.

POPULISM AND THE RISE OF THE FAR RIGHT AROUND THE WORLD:

Although populism always shares these two essential claims, it can take on widely varying forms across contexts. This report identifies three types of populism, distinguished by how populist leaders frame the conflict between the ‘true people’ and outsiders:

• Cultural populism claims that the true people are the native members of the nation-state, and outsiders can include immigrants, criminals, ethnic and religious minorities, and cosmopolitan elites. Cultural populism tends to emphasise religious traditionalism, law and order, sovereignty, and painting migrants as enemies.
• Socio-economic populism claims that the true people are honest, hard-working members of the working class and outsiders can include big business, capital owners and actors perceived as propping up an international capitalist system.
• Anti-establishment populism paints the true people as hard-working victims of a state run by special interests and outsiders as political elites. Although all forms of populism rail against political elites, anti-establishment populism distinguishes itself by focusing on establishment elites as the primary enemy of the people and does not sow as many intra-society divisions.
• Watershed political events in recent years—the election of President Donald Trump in the United States (US), the Brexit vote, the electoral success of Italy’s Five Star Movement, Brazil’s sudden lurch to the right with the election of President Jair Bolsonaro, the doubling of support for populist parties across Europe—have brought the word “populism” out of the annals of academic journals and into the headlines. Yet, it is a slippery concept that is too often used pejoratively to describe politics that those in the mainstream do not like.
• The British people defied expectations by voting to leave the European Union. The hotly contested referendum was marked by the rise of populism based on the desire to regain control of immigration and reclaim national sovereignty from international institutions. The UK’s Euroscepticism also parallels the anti-immigration and anti-trade sentiment surging in the United States, both of which are driven by “individuals who feel like they have been on the losing end of globalization.”

POPULIST SCHEMES

Schemes like offering free food or cooked food at very low prices, smartphones or laptops, bicycles or sewing machines; although help in providing for the needy but also put an extra burden on the public exchequer.

Populist schemes- an immediate relief

• These measures are important and act immediate. It helps the poor and needy by making resources accessible and affordable to them.
• Competitive populism can also be a very effective way to identify the long-felt community needs. Since these are area-specific, political parties and candidates will focus on local problems, thereby making elections more issue-oriented and participatory, and our democracy more vibrant and responsive.
• They will remain the critical components of the social safety net and poverty alleviation programmes of any government.

Populist measures- not a long-term sustainable solution

• In an extremely diverse and heterogeneous society like ours, satisfying individual desires with scarce public resources is impossible. Specific forms of individual assistance will end up satisfying few, and even that only partially, while leaving the large majority dissatisfied.
• Subsidy encourages inefficiency by relying more on the subsidy money offered by the governments and do not address the real issues like increasing the incomes of the poor.
• These schemes put an extra burden on the state’s purse and generally lead to a fiscal deficit, thereby affecting the growth prospects of the state.
• These schemes act as a tool of diversion from real issues and suppress the real issues in the name of freebies.

POLL-BOUND POPULIST MEASURES:

• The public discourse has become devoid of the nuances that once used to fascinate and grip the ideological narrative. The public of today, particularly the young and the restless, have lost patience and their desire is for instant politics, like instant noodles. As such the political behaviour of the voter has undergone a change. Gone are the days when over cups of tea and charcha, election manifestos would be discussed. Gone are the days when loyalty to a party would be based on ideology, policies and performance. In the time of WhatsApp and social media, nobody wants to read those boring manifestos with big ideas anymore. Their demand is for instant benefits, for freebies. They want snappy videos of castigation, of politicians of other parties being presented in poor demeaning light. Political parties are using a variety of devices to prove themselves more trustworthy and credible than the others. Apart from devising acronyms, participating in TV debates and organising massive rallies, there is a monumental drive towards using election manifestos to ride on the wave of populism.
• Political promises often fail to weigh the realities of implementation. In 2018, the Maharashtra government announced a 16% reservation for the Maratha community in jobs and education. The previous Congress-NCP government had also approved a proposal for the same reservation quota (16%) for the same community (the Marathas) in Maharashtra, but the Bombay high court had stayed the order. Losing sight of this larger picture and misemploying legal instruments for short-term political gains puts the promise at risk and is also unconstructive in gaining the trust of the people.
• In 2014 “Dynastic politics” became a depraved term. So high was the rhetoric that a narrative was set which was emotional in its political tone and exciting in the rhetoric, thereby giving the Prime Minister his first thumping win in 2014. A narrative has been repeatedly put to use in multiple assembly elections since then. In 2019, it became only larger, encompassing the expression of the ‘general will’.
• Delhi Chief Minister ‘free electricity and employment’ and takes upon corruption to counter political opposition and presents a ‘Delhi Model’ which also helped his party for a sweeping win in the state of Punjab.
• Freebies are also often used as poll promise tool to conceal the poor performance of the incumbent government on the socio-economic parameters and provide an opportunity to alter the voter’s mindset from real issues to short-term gains.

POPULISM AND SUBSIDY CULTURE: Riding on the wave of populism the so-called ‘subsidy-culture’ is also touted to promote idleness in the masses. Let us understand the concept of subsidy:

• As more than a fifth of the population is below the official poverty line, subsidies in India are given for a variety of reasons and in a variety of sectors. Advantages of the subsidies in India include making items of daily need more affordable such as food and fuel, creating an employable pool of educated Indians who can potentially contribute to the GDP growth ( subsidised education), to provide a leg-up to certain sectors (PLI Schemes), or even to boost industrialisation in under-developed areas through tax exemptions.
• Economic gains from subsidies provided by welfare states have also remained contentious in the literature due to their inherent paradoxical consequences in promoting competition, economic growth and equitable distribution in developing economies. State largesse on farm subsidies has increasingly become a populist tool for political gains. The politics involved with subsidies have immense emotional appeal than fulfilling the objective of social and economic justice.The culture, built up over the decades, has turned subsidies into entitlements rather than time-bound measures designed to address a specific circumstance such as a natural disaster or chronic exclusion. Today, subsidies cannot be reduced for fear of unleashing a political backlash by an opposition that is perpetually on the lookout for tripping the government on populist issues.
• However, proponents of subsidies argue that they are essentially negative taxes. Such negative taxes would mean that instead of being raised from the people, they are given back to certain target groups among the population of the country. Various subsidy regimes are meant to ensure distributive justice as they are directed at various sections of society to assist them economically. In India, the main beneficiaries have been farmers, needy people and those using various forms of public services.

There is no precise, cut-and-dried answer to the question of whether subsidy is good or bad; it depends on what subsidy one is talking about. Subsidies on public transport, medical equipment, healthcare infrastructure, on loans given to secondary agri initiatives, subsidies on incentives to shift towards renewable energies and reducing pollution etc all can help the country achieve the desired socio-economic targets.

UNDESIRABLE OUTCOMES OF POPULISM

SOCIAL POLARIZATION

• The populists exploit loopholes and issues in order to polarise society. They try to divide people along religious, racial or linguistic lines to win elections through majoritarian tactics.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC ISSUES

• The societies affected by populism suffer from socio-economic issues due to joblessness or rising inequalities and unmet expectations.

LOW ECONOMIC GROWTH

• Populist Nationalism is divisive and affects the economic growth of the country. In India, populism is used for loan waivers, poverty alleviation schemes, etc. which lead to a fiscal burden.

CORRUPTION AND ABUSE

• It often results in a decline in rational debate about political issues. There is a high risk of corruption and abuse of power.

AGAINST DEMOCRACY

• Populist movements often turn against representative democracy. Populists reject pluralism. This threatens democracy and unity in diversity.

POPULISM AND JUDICIAL INDEPENDENCE:

There is a general trend among recent populist movements to implement measures that interfere with the independence and proper functioning of the judiciary. These movements frame the courts in opposition to the popular will.

Constitutional theory and political science suggest that courts in populist regimes may try to shore up their legitimacy through appeals to the popular will. If so, the populist agenda may impact the courts even without a populist government takeover, including the adoption of instrumental approaches to legal interpretation and judicial review that seek to accommodate the populist agenda.

In many countries, even with constitutionalism, the populist government tries to interfere in judicial dispensation by various methods. However, courts in India till now have been very capable of influencing public opinion on discrete substantive issues, but curative steps must be taken in the face of rising populism so that some of the impediments in its autonomy can be annihilated. A just and rule-based judiciary is a must so that ethos of constitutionalism can be a guiding light for all.

THE ANALYSIS OF THE ISSUE

Over the decades, the Indian political class have ignored the core strengths of the country while spending huge amounts on populism. Inclusive opportunities to access quality education, dedicated research to make world-class products, nationalism to erase social divides, an adequate number of people with moral and physical courage to correct the wrong, a common link language to boost domestic trade and cultural exchange still elude the country. Poverty, unemployment, malnutrition, poor quality of education, bad loans, flight of young talent, the disappearance of water bodies and fertile agricultural land are some of the offshoots of populism. Populism always aggravates poverty and unemployment. As governments provide free electricity, cooking gas, ration, household items and subsidized meals to people, it adversely affects the entrepreneurship cycle, and repayment ethics and piles up idle energy. Politicians should choose difficult paths to become popular. They can protect fertile agricultural lands and water resources and develop a transparent domestic market; they can ensure quality health, housing and education to the masses at an affordable cost so that people can earn surplus income and save money in banks.

THE WAY FORWARD:

• It is time to revise macroeconomic, taxation, industrial and commercial policies to accommodate left-outs. Social media should also be regulated and held accountable for damaging a pluralistic, fact-based and hate-free political debate, in the same way as traditional media.
• Political parties (established and emerging) should seek to propose inclusive visions and programs that deliver benefits for all citizens, not only for a part of the voters. Participatory and deliberative platforms and initiatives (citizens’ assemblies, forums) should be embedded into the decision-making processes to balance the oligarchic tendencies of electoral democracy.
• It is important to acknowledge that globalisation, technological progress and tax reductions elevate the quality of life of society as a whole, but in the short term, they deliver a direct blow to certain pockets of the population, especially in rigid labour markets, subsidies and social protection schemes for them are imperative to keep their faith alive in the democracy and can help them grow to be able to contribute towards economic growth as well as a pluralistic society.

THE CONCLUSION:

There is no doubt that division in the face of an organized populist threat is problematic. Only rational policy initiatives can solve the problems of our times.Human resource is worst hit by populism. After 75 years of Independence, India has not made the backward castes feel they are one among the equals. If the weaker sections get compulsory quality education, they could easily compete with the forward castes. Also, the aim should not be to blindly eliminate populism but to channel it towards achieving socially and economically desirable objectives. Ultimately, the state is spending money, and it is only appropriate that this expenditure generate the maximum benefit and social welfare.

Mains Practice Questions:

1. What is populism? How is it affecting the growth and welfare in Indian society? Elaborate.
2. In what conditions does populism become ‘dangerous populism’ that could ruin the financial stability of the state and when does it function as enabling and empowering welfarism?
3. Is it high time to bury populism for the nation’s good? Critically Analyse.

THE CONTEXT: The Government of India has launched ‘Mission Shakti’ – an integrated women empowerment programme as an umbrella scheme for the safety, security and empowerment of women for implementation during the 15^th Finance Commission period 202l-22 to 2025-26. Ministry of Women and Child Development has also issued detailed guidelines for the ‘Mission Shakti’ scheme. This article explains the scheme in detail.

AN OVERVIEW OF MISSION SHAKTI

DESCRIPTION OF MISSION SHAKTI

• Mission Shakti is a scheme in mission mode aimed at strengthening interventions for women’s safety, security and empowerment.
• It seeks to realise women-led development by addressing issues affecting women on a life-cycle continuum basis.
• It focuses on proposing strategies for improving convergence across Ministries/Departments and at different levels of governance.
• It also seeks to promote greater participation and support of Panchayats and other local level governance bodies.

• Mission Shakti has two sub-schemes -‘ Sambal’and ‘Samarthya’.

SAMBAL SUBSCHEME

• In the Sambal sub-scheme, which is for the safety and security of women, the existing scheme of One Stop Centre (OSC), Women Helpline (WHL), and Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) have been included with modifications.
• A new component of the Nari Adalat – women collective has been added.

SAMARTHYA SUB SCHEME

• In the Samarthya sub-scheme, which is for the empowerment of women, existing schemes of Ujjwala, Swadhar Greh and Working Women Hostel have been included with modifications.
•  In addition, the existing schemes of the National Creche Scheme and PMMVY under the umbrella of ICDS have now been included in Samarthya.
• A new component of Gap Funding for Economic Empowerment has also been added to the Samarthya Scheme.
• The existing sub-schemes of Mahila Shakti Kendra (MSK) and Mahila Police Volunteers (MPV) have been discontinued

THE RATIONALE FOR THE MISSION SHAKTI

The Central Government has enacted several legislations and implemented various schemes for safety, security and improving the status of women including their economic empowerment. However, despite various affirmative steps, various parameters indicate that a lot still needs to be done to improve the status of women in society. There were issues in the implementation of the schemes, and the full potential of schemes remained largely underutilized. The problems in implementation include various organs working in silos with inadequate linkage, lack of adequately trained staff, appropriate monitoring and convergence mechanisms, etc. Thus, the need of the hour is to have a concerted effort in a mission mode to ensure gender equality and women’s empowerment – giving rise to Mission Shakti. Mission Shakti aims at strengthening interventions that not only improve women’s safety and empowerment but also tackle pervasive gender biases and discriminations. it seeks to make women economically empowered, exercising free choice over their minds and bodies in an atmosphere free from violence and threat.

THE OBJECTIVES OF THE MISSION SHAKTI

• Provide an immediate and comprehensive continuum of care, support and assistance to women affected by violence and for those in distress;
• To put in place quality mechanisms for rescue, protection and rehabilitation of women in need of assistance and victims of crime and violence;
• To improve accessibility to various government services available for women at various levels;
• Making people aware of government schemes as well as legal provisions to fight social evils like dowry, domestic violence, Sexual Harassment at Workplace etc.
• Capacity building and training of functionaries under various schemes/ Legislations;
• Collaboration with Ministries/ Departments/ States/ UTs for convergence of policies, programmes/ schemes and to create an enabling environment for public-private partnership for safety and empowerment of women across sectors.
• Create awareness among the masses for inducing positive behavioural change toward women and girls.

SAMBAL– FOR SAFETY AND SECURITY OF WOMEN

WHAT IS SAMBAL?

• Mission Shakti has two components and SAMBAL is one of the components of Mission Shakti.

COMPONENTS UNDER SAMBAL

• The following are the components under SAMBAL:

Ø  One Stop Centre (OSC)

Ø  Women Helpline (WHL)

Ø  Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP)

Ø  Nari Adalat(Read Ahead)

• While the first three are existing schemes, the last one is a new scheme.

OBJECTIVES OF SAMBAL

• The objectives of the sub-scheme are:

Ø  to improve accessibility and integrate all efforts and various government initiatives towards the safety and protection of women,

Ø  to secure their rights and entitlements on a comprehensive continuum of care

Ø  to support women affected by violence and in distress etc.

THE NARI ADALAT-A NEW SCHEME UNDER SAMBAL SUBSCHEME

AN ALTERNATE GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL MECHANISM

• Provides women with an alternate Grievance Redressal Mechanism for resolving cases of petty nature (harassment, subversion, curtailment of rights or entitlements) faced by women at the Gram Panchayat level will be implemented in a phased manner.
• Nari Adalats or women collectives will be formed of committed and socially respected women chosen for that purpose.

AWARENESS GENERATION

• This platform will also be utilized for engaging with the public for awareness generation and getting feedback for improvement in the schemes and for effective public delivery of services

CONVERGENCE

• Nari Adalats will be provided logistic support through Gram Panchayats in convergence with the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Ministry of Rural Development, and Common Service Centres (CSCs) run by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

PHASED IMPLEMENTATION

• In the first year, an awareness drive regarding legal, and constitutional rights and entitlements under various schemes/ programs will be undertaken.
• In the second year:

o   committed and socially respected women will be identified and extensively trained in all women-related laws and schemes.

o   a formal setup of women collectives will be made that will address the socio, economic, and cultural issues faced by the women of that area and will provide alternative resolutions to disputes by mediation.

SAMARTHYA – FOR EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN

WHAT IS SAMARTHYA?

• Mission Shakti has two components and SAMARTHYA is one of the components of Mission Shakti.

COMPONENTS UNDER SAMARTHYA

• The components of the ‘Samarthya’ sub-scheme are:

Ø  Ujjwala and Swadhar Greh( merged to form Shakti Sadan Scheme)

Ø  Working Women Hostel has been included with modifications

Ø  National Creche Scheme for children of working mothers

Ø  Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) under the umbrella of ICDS

Ø  Hub for Empowerment of Women (HEW): Hub for Empowerment of Women aims to facilitate inter-sectoral convergence of schemes and programs meant for women both at the central, state and district level

•  A Gap Funding support for Economic Empowerment of women will also be provided on a need basis, subject to the conditions.

OBJECTIVES OF SAMARTHYA

• The objectives of this sub-scheme are:

Ø  Through reinforcement, improve access to various government services available to women at various levels.

Ø  Convergence for women’s development and empowerment

Ø  The scheme aims to empower women through social, cultural, political, and economic development.

SHAKTI SADAN

The Ministry of Women and Child Development was implementing the schemes of Swadhar Greh for Women in difficult circumstances and Ujjawala for the Prevention of Trafficking. Both the schemes were aimed at creating a safe and enabling environment for the women in distress including trafficked women and thereby giving them the strength to overcome their difficult circumstances and make a fresh start. For administrative purposes, Swadhar and Ujjawala Scheme have been merged, and these will be known as ‘Shakti Sadan’ – Integrated Relief and Rehabilitation Home. the Shakti Sadan will provide the following services to facilitate reintegration and repatriation of victims of trafficking and of commercial sexual exploitation: Setting up of Half-Way Home, Restoration to Families, Repatriation to country of origin etc.

GENDER BUDGETING (GB) UNDER SAMARTHYA SCHEME

Under the Samarthya component, Gender Budgeting has been included under the Hub for Empowerment of Women (HEW).  The goal of Gender Budgeting is to enable government stakeholders at the central, state and district level to undertake gender budgeting through enhanced capacities, knowledge and skills. In order to achieve the objectives, implementing organisations/agencies will undertake the following activities:

• Develop training modules/packages, training material, teaching aids and manuals on gender budgeting.
• Organize workshops, seminars, training programmes, conferences etc to facilitate capacity building and training for various stakeholders
• Embed training on gender budgeting in the curriculum of administrative and government training institutes.
• Undertake seminars and consultations to ensure inter-state peer learning and sharing on gender budgeting initiatives and promote best practices.
• Conduct gender analysis of national and sub-national policies, legal frameworks, women-related legislation, government schemes and programs.
• Assess the adequacy of budget allocations to implement gender-responsive policies and programmes.
• To coordinate and monitor gender budgeting exercises of Gender Budgeting Cells and facilitate gender budgeting analysis.
• To conduct and promote gender-based impact assessments, the beneficiary needs assessments, beneficiary incidence analysis, and gender audit of schemes and legislations.

AN ANALYSIS OF THE MISSION SHAKTI

POSITIVE

• Mission Shakti is essentially an umbrella programme of the central government schemes related to women’s empowerment.
• The stated objective of this umbrella program is to bring convergence of existing women empowerment initiatives taken at the central level for better outcomes.
• Mission Shakti also provides for a few new components like Nari Adalat and also makes gender budgeting part and parcel of this program.

NEGATIVE

• However, the mission does not talk about any target or output to be achieved during its implementation period.
• Also, convergence does not mean adding up the existing programmes or tweaking their implementation strategies or adding some new components.
• Despite the idea of bottom-up planning and development, mission Shakti takes a top-down approach to women empowerment.

THE WAY FORWARD:

• Convergence of women empowerment programmes can lead to better targeting of intended segments and optimal resource allocation. Hence, Mission Shakti is the right step in that direction but its proper implementation will be the key.
• As problems of women are majorly social in nature, involvement of CSOs, SHGs, local bodies etc. in the implementation as active collaborators is necessary for a better outcome of the mission.
• Gender budgeting is a progressive step, but the progress of gender budgeting and gender analysis of schemes have been inadequate. Hence, constant handholding and nudging by the Ministry are needed.
• Convergence should not only be limited to the implementation stage but should extend to planning and formulation or else it will not be effective.
• A mid-term performance evaluation of the Mission needs to be undertaken by NITI Aayog so as to understand the challenges of implementation and thus improve the execution.

THE CONCLUSION: The Mission Shakti is inspired by the Constitutional commitment to Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles of State Policy, India’s commitment to international treaties and conventions as well as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It also seeks to reduce the care burden on women and increase female labour force participation by promoting skill development, capacity building, financial literacy, access to micro-credit etc. Although a step in the right direction,  for Mission Shakti to achieve its objectives,    a decentralized approach to women empowerment keeping the local bodies and alternative empowerment models like SHGs will be the key.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

1. What are the salient features of the Mission Shakti launched by the Union Government recently? Do you think that the Mission is a progressive step towards women’s empowerment? Argue.
2. “A  decentralized approach keeping the local bodies and alternative empowerment models like SHGs will be the key for women empowerment” Examine the statement in the context of Mission Shakti launched by the Union government recently.

THE CONTEXT: Recently, the Government Accounting Standards advisory board (GASAB) has come up with a Natural Resource Accounting (NRA) for tracking and maintaining the natural resources of India. It would also suggest recommendations for end-to-end mapping of supply and use of resources which would help the states in mopping up due revenues from the resources. In the following article attempts to explain the concept of Natural Resource Accounting (NRA) and its utility in present times.

NATURAL RESOURCE ACCOUNTING: KEY TENETS

National Resource Accounting (NRA): Natural resource accounting is an accounting system that deals with stocks and stock changes of natural assets, comprising biota (produced or wild), subsoil assets (proved reserves), water and land with their aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. The concept of National Resource Accounting (NRA) has emerged to capture the intimate interplay between the various components of the natural environment and the economic progress of a country. It is based on the concept ‘measurement of a resource leads to its better management.

• The need: Mankind in its quest for rapid economic development has manipulated nature to serve its economic interests and, in the process, harmed nature. This has resulted in environmental degradation, leading to climate change, extreme weather conditions and frequent natural disasters. The importance of judicious use of resources, their controlled usage and sustainability for future generations led to the idea of Sustainable Development (SD).
• Inherent in Sustainable Development: Accounting of Natural Resources is one of the most crucial elements of SD is that it provides an outline of resource bases, and pace of usage with an eye on their sustainability and embeds environmental aspects into the economic indices.
• Measuring the downside of growth: The idea is to quantify the adverse impact of economic development on the environment and adjust/reduce it from GDP to arrive at Green GDP, essentially signifying the impact of economic development on the environment and sustainable growth.
  • Quantifies the non-renewal damage to the environmental resources and assists in the determination of development in real terms.
• Aid to policy framing: A sound database of how a particular economy is utilizing the resources at hand is of significant help to policymakers to understand the potential impact of their decisions.
• Combating Climate Change: Asset and flow accounts have been recognized as a useful framework for monitoring, measuring and analyzing climate change.
• Interrelation between economy and environment: It helps to organise information on the status, use, and value of natural resources and environmental assets as well as expenditures on environmental protection and resource management. Natural resource accounting inter-alia refers to the interconnection and linkages in the economy and our environment or surrounding.

EVOLUTION OF NATURAL RESOURCE ACCOUNTING

• The need for NRA took its first step at the United Nations (UN) conference on Human Environment in 1970 when the relationship between economic development and environmental degradation was discussed for the first time.
• The Brundtland Commission, set up by the UN, articulated the idea of the close association between the environment and economic activities in 1987, which was followed up by environmental accounting and the Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
• In line with these developments, the UN released the international standards for the compilation of national accounts in 1993 and revised it in 2009.
• Simultaneously, the UN also adopted the System of Economic and Environmental Accounting – Central Framework (SEEA – CF) in March 2012, which is the latest internationally accepted and adopted framework for resource accounting. The SEEA – CF prescribed a four-stage implementation process as mentioned below:

NATURAL RESOURCE ACCOUNTING IN INDIA

Working group on Environmental Auditing
(WGEA) (2010)

Formation of the Expert Group for framework related to Green National Accounts In India

To Assist the Government in developing the NRA
Identifying challenges in applying environmental accounting
Recommending strategies to overcoming challenges
Identifying best practices in NRA

Constitutional mandate under Article 150 to advice on forms of accounts

Section 23 of CAG’s DPC Act-Guidelines for general principles for Govt Accounting

Government Accounting Standards Advisory Board(GASAB)
• Mandated to formulate Government Accounting Standards and other pronouncements with a view to improve Governmental accounting and financial reporting
• To enhance the quality of decision- making and public accountability.

Comptroller and Auditor General of India (C&AG) constituted Government Accounting Standards Advisory Board (GASAB) with the support of the Government of India through a notification dated 12th August 2002. The decision to set up GASAB was taken in the backdrop of the new priorities emerging in Public Finance Management and to keep pace with international trends. The new priorities focus on good governance, fiscal prudence, efficiency & transparency in public spending.

The accounting systems, the world over, are being revisited with an emphasis on the transition from rule to principle-based standards and migration from cash to the accrual-based system of accounting. GASAB, as a nodal advisory body in India, is taking similar action to formulate and improve standards of government accounting and financial reporting and enhance accountability mechanisms. GASAB has suggested a well-laid-out implementation plan divided into three-term goals in consonance with the strategy envisaged by the SEEA – CF.

Out of seven resources listed by the SEEA framework, the Concept Paper has identified and suggested commencing with five major resources, namely Mineral & Non-Renewable Energy Resources, Water Resources, Forestry & Wildlife Resources and Land Resources, of which, Mineral & Non-Renewable Energy Resources has been considered mainly due to their finiteness and non-renewability and need for sustainability for future generations.

In way to progress further, the EnviStats (Environment Statistics) initiated in 2018 for the presentation of aggregate environment accounts for India with the asset accounts in physical terms of minerals, water, land and forest.

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has taken up several initiatives under the project Natural Capital Accounting and Valuation of the Ecosystem Services (CAVES) which aims to advance the theory and practice of ecosystem accounting in India

ASSESSMENT OF STATE-LEVEL IMPLEMENTATION

GOA

• Unable to compile major minerals physical flow account – mining ban
• Minor minerals stock position not ascertainable
• Break up of extraction not maintained

RAJASTHAN

• Variation between the revenue involvement and actual market value (roughly 10 times) clearly brought out
• Extensive coverage of minerals along with sub-minerals

MEGHALAYA

• Mapping of physical flows vis-à-vis revenue involved – a short collection of receipts ` 40 crores in one-year Sustainability of minerals in years brought out.
• Illegal extraction was detected, 4,284 MT of coal and more than 1 lakh tones of limestone illegally extracted.
• Recommendations made to State Government based on the study:

o   Mines Department to reconcile figures with Land Customs Station to plug leakages.

o   More close coordination is needed between the Mines & Geology Department and E&F Department to exchange data on the extraction of minerals from their respective jurisdiction.

THE WAY FORWARD:

• NRA has deep inter-linkage to sustainable development; and 10 of the 17 goals (Sustainable Development Goals or commonly known as the SDGs, 2030) are directly or indirectly related to the management of natural resources and their accounting. The government of India is a signatory to the UN General Assembly resolution on the adoption of SDGs titled, “transforming our world; the 2030 agenda for sustainable development”. Thus, it becomes an obligation for GOI to develop fine standards of resource accounting.
• NRA intends to capture the intimate interplay between various components of the natural environment and the economy. Also, it can connect to other datasets to provide invaluable information on the larger picture connecting the environment with the economy. Thus, even from an economic point of view, NRA is important for India.
• Further, NRA helps to quantify the adverse impact on the environment due to economic development and aid sustainable growth. This makes NRA more relevant in present times.

THE CONCLUSION:  For a world that is riding on unprecedented development, it is imperative that we keep our historic relation of ours with nature in harmony. Accounting for natural resources will definitely aid both economical and ethical perspectives of life on earth. For example, accounting for forest wealth has a number of useful policy benefits, including the provision of a framework for analyzing and presenting detailed and diverse data in a manner which supports economically informed policy choices.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

• What do you understand by Natural Resource Accounting (NRA)? Enumerate the basic tenets of NRA.
• Discuss the evolution and need of Natural Resource Accounting (NRA) in the Indian context.