THE SOCIAL ISSUES

1. HOW DISASTERS, AND POVERTY FUEL HUMAN TRAFFICKING

THE CONTEXT: The World Migration Report 2022noted that more people across the world are now displaced due to climate change-induced disasters than conflicts, reversing a historical trend. This has created a vulnerable group of the population that is targeted for trafficking, studies have shown.

THE EXPLANATION:

• Human trafficking is the result of the exploitation of existing vulnerabilities in society such as gender, poverty, place of residence, and geographical locations. These vulnerabilities are aggravated during natural disasters. The devastating situation acts as a breeding ground for traffickers.
• Some 30.7 million displacements in 2020 were triggered by natural disasters in 145 countries and territories, according to the report published every other year by the United Nations International Organisation for Migration.
• Storms accounted for 14.6 million displacements globally, floods for 14.1 million, extreme temperatures for 46,000 and droughts for 32,000, it added. India reported nearly 4 million new displacements due to climate-induced disasters in 2020, the UN migration data showed.
• Total internal displacement across the world due to disasters, conflicts, and violence increased to 40.5 million in 2020 from 31.5 million in 2019, despite containment measures to curb the COVID-19 pandemic, the study added.
• Women and children are primarily trafficked in the garb of employment opportunities, assuring safe habitats, among others.
• Around 143 million people will migrate to their countries by 2050 due to climate change-related events in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America, the World Bank estimated in September 2021.
• Droughts could lead to the migration of 22 million more people in Africa, 12 million in South America and 10 million in Asia by 2059 (in comparison to the 2000-15 period), the UN Convention to Combat Desertification estimated.
• Such displacement after disasters leads to people becoming easy targets for traffickers, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees noted.
• The link of trafficking with extreme weather events has been observed across the globe in the past decades. Rising incidents of trafficking were first noticed in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, showed a 2016 report by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). In Indonesia, children were abducted and then put up for adoption.
• In Haiti, the 2010 earthquake exacerbated cases of trafficking, according to IOM. In the Philippines — where poverty and trafficking were already rampant — cases increased in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, the organization mentioned.
• Thailand also saw a rise in human trafficking after this typhoon hit. Drought-affected migrants have also reportedly been smuggled from Cambodia to Thailand, the IOM report showed.
• Droughts in African nations have resulted in a rise in marriages of children as young as nine years old, solely because their parents don’t have the money to feed another mouth.
• Young girls of age 13-18 years were sexually exploited “by some members of a non-governmental organization, humanitarian staff, security forces and men in positions of power and influence in exchange for money, food or other goods,” a 2002 study by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), citing a survey by UNHCR and Save the Children, the UK showed.
• Evidence of forced early marriages were found in Iran after an earthquake and floods hit Bushehr and Mazandaran. In Fiji, after a flood wreaked havoc, children were forced to stay home to look after their younger siblings during the day and indulge in sex work at night, as per the IUCN study.
• The Pacific Islands, where erratic rainfall, droughts, floods, and cyclones occur frequently, combined with persisting gender-based violence, is another place where crime has gone up, but evidence remains thin.
• Modern slavery and human trafficking are on the rise in India, among other countries, warn the UK-based non-profits International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and Anti-Slavery International in a recent report.

 

2. LAHBERA: HOW THE LAST SANTHAL SETTLEMENT OF DHANBAD IS FIGHTING FOR SURVIVAL

THE CONTEXT: The Santhals of Lahbera are fighting for their identity, ancestral land, and survival amid the dust-laden air of coal mines in what used to be their ancestral homeland once.

THE EXPLANATION:

• The settlement of Lahberabasti, surrounded by coal mines, has 50 shanties that are home to almost 500 people. It is the last stronghold of the Santhal tribe in Jharkhand’s Dhanbad district.
• The Santhals are fighting for their identity, ancestral land, and survival amid the dust-laden air of the mines in what used to be their ancestral homeland once.
• The district of Dhanbad was a part of the region of Manbhum in the province of Bengal during the British Raj and was home to the Santhals and Mundas. Today, though, it looks like any other locality, with hardly any traces of Santhal identity as one enters it.
• But on going further, a temple dedicated to Marang Buru, the Santhal god of forests, appears. The shrine is simple and plain, with just a few percussion instruments hung on the wall and an image of the deity.
• The Santhals in the basti are gripped by an identity crisis, which they blame on its close proximity to Dhanbad, the second-largest city in Jharkhand.
• Many of them are gradually forgetting their own traditions, torn between ‘mainstream’ culture and their traditional practices.
• Their food habits, art and dressing style has also undergone major changes in the last 50 years, alienating them from their own culture.

FIGHTING FOR RIGHTS

• The Santhals’ struggle for rights to their ancestral land and their daily survival is, however, their top priority.
• Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL), a subsidiary of Coal India Ltd, started mining the area in the 1980s. They employed people from the tribe and changed their means of livelihood forever after acquiring their land.
• The new generation of Lahbera Santhals is also now completely dependent on the coal economy, as they have no more farmland to practice agriculture.
• The Vishwakarma Project began here in 2008, converting the underground mines under the Dhansar Project to open cast, giving 37 jobs to local youth in exchange for land.
• Since the mines around the locality are active, the temperature in the area soars 8-9 degrees Celsius above the city temperature. The people of the locality face several problems and have to breathe polluted air every day.
• There is a severe water crisis in the area. There is no scope of digging wells or bore wells for water since the area is surrounded by mines on three sides.

THE POLITY

3. UNDERSTANDING THE PROCESS OF ISSUING LOCS

THE CONTEXT: On April 5, the Punjab and Haryana High Court passed omnibus instructions to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Bureau of Immigration (BOI) to serve a copy of an issued LOC to the affected person, state the reasons for issuing the LOC and provide a “post-decisional opportunity”. The Supreme Court, however, stayed this particular paragraph of the High Court order.

THE EXPLANATION:

• After several businessmen fled the country after defaulting on loans, the MHA in 2018 brought changes to the 2010 guidelines authorising executives of all public sector banks to generate LOCs against persons who could be detrimental to the economic interests of the country.
• Many citizens have moved courts to get the LOC quashed.
• A large number of agencies which includes the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Income Tax, State police and intelligence agencies are authorised to generate LOCs. The officer should not be below the rank of a district magistrate or superintendent of police or a deputy secretary in the Union Government.
• According to a 2010 official memorandum of the Ministry, details such as First Information Report (FIR) number, and court case number are to be mandatorily provided with name, passport number and other details. The BOI under the MHA is only the executing agency.
• They generate LOCs based on requests by different agencies. Since immigration posts are manned by the BOI officials, they are the first responders to execute LOCs by stopping or detaining, or informing about an individual of the issuing agency. The LOCs can be modified; deleted or withdrawn only at the request of the originator. Further, the legal liability of the action taken by immigration authorities in pursuance of LOC rests with the originating agency.
• After several businessmen including liquor baron Vijay Mallya, businessmen Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi fled the country after defaulting on loans, the MHA in 2018 brought changes to the 2010 guidelines authorising the chairman, managing director and chief executives of all public sector banks to generate LOCs against persons who could be detrimental to economic interests of the country.
• Though an LOC generated by the CBI on October 16, 2015 to “detain” Mr. Mallya existed based on the preliminary enquiry in a ₹900 crore loan default case, it was downgraded to “inform only” on November 23, 2015 as there was no FIR yet against him. Mr. Mallya who was a Rajya Sabha member then was a frequent flyer and he fled to the U.K in March 2016.
• The Ministry recently told the Delhi High Court that banks were authorised to generate LOCs as “in the recent past there have been incidents where the willful defaulters or economic offenders of public financial institutions have left the country after usurping public money or defrauding such public financial institutions.”
• The 2010 Ministry guidelines give sweeping powers to police and intelligence agencies to generate LOCs in “exceptional cases” without keying incomplete parameters or case details against “suspects, terrorists, anti-national elements, etc, in larger national interest.” In 2015, Greenpeace activist Priya Pillai was stopped from travelling to London on a request by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) based on the “etc” provision in the 2010 order. The LOC was later quashed by the Delhi High Court.
• After the special status of J&K under Article 370 of the Constitution was read down by the Parliament in August 2019, LOCs were opened against several politicians, human rights activists, journalists and social activists to bar them from flying out of the country. The number of persons and the crime for which they have been placed under the list is unknown.
• Many citizens have moved courts to get the LOC quashed. The MHA has asserted that “LOCs cannot be shown to the subject” at the time of detention nor can any prior intimation be provided. The Ministry recently informed the Punjab and Haryana High Court that the LOC guidelines are a secret document and the same cannot be shared with the ‘accused’ or any unauthorised stakeholder; it cannot be provided or shown to the subject at the time of detention by the BOI since it defeats the purpose of LOC and no accused or subject of LOC can be provided any opportunity of hearing before the issuance of the LOC.
• On January 12, a Delhi High Court bench led by Justice Rekha Palli had quashed a LOC against a Delhi businessman Vikas Chaudhary generated at the instance of the Income Tax department. The court said “no proceedings under any penal law had been initiated against the petitioner” and the LOC was “wholly unsustainable.”
• A Delhi court on April 8 while quashing a LOC against Aakar Patel, chair, of Amnesty International India said that “there cannot be any unfettered control or restriction on the right to travel” and that it was part of the fundamental rights and asked the Director of the CBI to tender a written apology.
• As per norms, a LOC will stay valid for a maximum period of 12 months and if there is no fresh request from the agency then it will not be automatically revived.

 

THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

4. PM TO ATTEND TOKYO LAUNCH OF U.S. TRADE INITIATIVE

THE CONTEXT: India is yet to take a decision on joining the trade partnership framework but is keen to understand the ‘contours’ of the plan.

THE EXPLANATION:

• Prime Minister on May 23, 2022arrived in Japan on a two-day visit to attend a summit of the Quad leaders which is aimed at further bolstering cooperation among the member nations of the influential grouping and discussing developments in the Indo-Pacific region.
• Prime Minister will participate in U.S. President Joseph Biden’s unveiling of the “Indo-Pacific Economic Framework” (IPEF) in Tokyo o, a US initiative for trade partnerships in the region.
• Sources confirmed PM’s attendance of the event is a significant step towards building economic ties amongst Quad countries in the Indo-Pacific, although officials were hesitant to bill the IPEF as a counter the 15-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the 17-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that China is a member of.
• The Quad will organise a special session on the sidelines of the World Health Assembly (WHA) on May 24, where the four countries will jointly tackle issues of disinformation during the pandemic and boosting vaccine confidence.
• The grouping is also expected to discuss and possibly review its Quad Vaccine Initiative project to disburse US-developed and funded, India-made distributed by Japan and Australia amongst Indo-Pacific countries that has been stuck due to what Mr. Sullivan called “regulatory issues” with India.
• The first Quad interaction last year had committed to distributing one billion of the vaccines, made at Hyderabad-based Biological-E by the end of 2022, but has made no headway on the project yet.
• Another issue the Quad is divided over whether to support Taiwan’s request to be included as an observer at the WHA, something China opposes. While the US, Australia and Japan have backed the Taiwanese request, India has made no statement thus far, and MEA officials did not confirm whether India would endorse it.

 

THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

5. WHEAT CONFUSION: ON INDIA’S EXPORT RESTRICTION

THE CONTEXT: Apprehensions of shortage in India are misplaced, and the Government must allow export.

THE EXPLANATION:

• India, which surprised the world with its decision to bar wheat export with immediate effect, appears to be on the defensive now after its May 13 announcement. Initially, the Centre had amended the order by allowing export consignments registered in the Customs Department’s systems and handed over for examination on or prior to May 13.
• From the start, indications of a mismatch in demand and supply were evident. Rising levels of wholesale and retail inflation, the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war and a lower opening balance of wheat (on April 1, 2022) in the Central pool for the public distribution system than a year ago were well known.
• After several parts of wheat-producing States in the north experienced unusually warm weather in March-April, the Government lowered marginally, early this month, the estimated wheat production, from 111.32 million tonnes to 105 million tonnes.
• As for international food prices, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said that even before the war, prices had reached an all-time high due to market conditions and the high prices of energy, fertilizers and other agricultural services.
• By May 4, the Centre clarified that there was no move to curb wheat export, the reasoning being that this was the opportune moment for exporters to sell in the international market as wheat from Argentina and Australia would begin arriving next month. The higher prices in the domestic market compared to the minimum support price offered by the Government were projected as favourable for farmers.
• Also, just days before the Government’s decision, an official announcement was made that trade delegations would be sent to countries such as Morocco, Tunisia, and Indonesia to explore possibilities for wheat export.
• In addition to Egypt, Turkey had given its approval for the import of Indian wheat, and an announcement had been made that the current year’s target for wheat export had been fixed at 10 million tonnes, three million tonnes higher than last year.
• India’s decision has faced criticism from the G-7’s Agriculture Ministers. After its U-turn, the Government should not persist for too long with its current position of “restrictions” on the export of wheat, as the move seems to have hit the farmers, if reports of a fall in the price are any indication.
• Lessons must be gleaned from the experience 15 years ago when India took about two years to lift its ban on the export of non-basmati rice, by which time Thailand and Vietnam had moved in to take full advantage. Apprehensions of a food shortage are misplaced, and the Government would do well to lift the “restrictions” sooner rather than later.

 

6. WHY TEXTILE AND GARMENT INDUSTRIES WANT A BAN ON COTTON EXPORTS

THE CONTEXT: Domestic cotton prices have doubled compared to last year. But does that justify a ban on shipment similar to that on wheat, especially ahead of the new planting season.

THE EXPLANATION:

• Cotton prices have nearly doubled compared to last year. The average modal or most-quoted price of kapas (raw un-ginned cotton) at Rajkot APMC (Agricultural Produce Market Committee) mandi was Rs 12,250 per quintal, as against around Rs 6,300 this time last year. This was also way above the government’s minimum support price of Rs 6,025 per quintal for long-staple cotton varieties.
• Basically, three reasons: The first is lower production. In 2020-21, India’s total cotton lint fibre output was 353 lakh bales (lb) of 170 kg each.
• The second reason is international prices. The Cotlook ‘A’ Index price – an average of representative quotes in the Far East destination markets – is currently ruling at 167 cents per pound, up from 92 cents a year ago. India is the world’s second-largest cotton producer (after China) and third-largest exporter (after the US and Brazil). High global prices have made exports attractive. Also, they have pushed up domestic prices closer to export parity levels, while simultaneously making imports more expensive.
• The third reason is consumption. In the state-owned Cotton Corporation of India (CCI), in March, projected total domestic consumption for 2021-22 at 345 lb, compared to 334.87 lb, 269.19 lb and 311.21 lb in the preceding three marketing years. “Demand has significantly increased, as mills and other users were operating at sub-optimal levels in the past few years. Even during the pandemic, demand for bedsheets and towels had zoomed, translating into higher consumption of cotton and yarn”.
• The area sown under cotton in India has reduced from 134.77 lakh hectares (lh) in 2019-20 to 132.85 lh in 2020-21 and 123.5 lh in 2021-22. This has been largely due to the diminishing benefits from the genetically modified Bt cotton, which helped almost treble the country’s production from 136 lb to 398 lb between 2002-03 and 2013-14.
• Over a period, Bt cotton has become increasingly susceptible to pink bollworm and white-fly insect pest attacks, making it riskier for farmers to grow the crop. Besides, the government does not permit the testing or commercialization of next-generation transgenic breeding technologies.
• This time, the crop was also affected by unseasonal rains in November-December, which affected yields as well as the quality of the bolls from the second and third “flushes” (cotton is generally harvested over three or even four pickings, with the first one in October-November and the subsequent ones every following 20-30 days).
• India’s cotton exports are actually projected at 40 lb this year, down from the 78 lb of 2020-21. At the same time, imports are likely to be higher, at 15 lb, from last year’s 10 lb. Moreover, on April 13, the Centre slashed the import duty on cotton from 11% to nil. Given the anyway lower exports and duty-free imports – which have for now been allowed until September 30, before the next marketing season – there may be no strong case for an outright ban on shipments.
• Further, with domestic prices already rising to international parity levels, exports would slow down in the natural course. Advocates of an export ban say it would not impact farmers, as they have already sold their crop. However, a ban can also send wrong signals ahead of the planting season, which will take off next month with the arrival of the southwest monsoon rains.
• Lint, the white fibre that mills spin into yarn, constitutes only about 34% of kapas. The balance is seed (65%) and moisture. The seed further yields both oil (used for cooking) and de-oiled cake (used as a protein ingredient by livestock feed manufacturers). Kapas rates have firmed up not only because of export and domestic demand for lint, but also due to rising vegetable oil prices. Cottonseed oil is, in fact, India’s third-largest domestically produced vegetable oil. Its estimated output, at 12.49 lakh tonnes (lt) in 2020-21, was next only to mustard (27.39 lt) and soybean (13.29 lt), out of a total of 93.18 lt, according to the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India.
• Kapas is mostly bought by traders and ginning units that separate the cotton fibre from the seeds. The fibre is sold to spinning mills and seed to oil mills for crushing and producing vegetable oil. From every one kilo of lint, mills obtain 700-800 grams of yarn.
• The yarn is further woven or knitted into fabric and garments. India in 2021-22 not only exported raw cotton valued at $2.8 billion but also cotton yarn worth $5.5 billion and fabrics and made-ups worth $8.2 billion. Every part of the value chain, thus, involves exports.

THE PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTIONS

QUESTION FOR 23rd MAY 2022

Q1.Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) is a trade initiative of which the following country?

a) Japan

b) Australia

c) China

d) USA

ANSWER FOR THE21^stMAY

Answer: B

Explanation:

• It evaluates research into GM plants and recommends, or disapproves, their release into farmer fields.
• It is a statutory body.
• It functions under the Environment Ministry.