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ABOTON O CHD ABOUR N NDA - SLruLegIes Ior LIe

EIevenLI Ive Yeur PIun


n passing the 86th Amendment to the Constitution of ndia, education is a fundamental right. This has
implications for fulfillment of the obligation of the State to ensure that every child is in school. Since most children
who do not attend schools are engaged in some form of work or another, it is essential that there is a
comprehensive plan to withdraw children from work and mainstream them into schools. n other words the labour
department has a crucial role to abolish child labour in all its forms and ensure that children enj oy their right to
education. This is indeed a challenging task, but can be attained with concerted effort and a clear perspective.

ChiId Labour in India
ndia continues to host the largest number of child labourers in the world today. According to the Census 2001,
there were 12.7 million economically active children in the age-group of 5-14 years. 3 million during 1991
(Population Census) thus showing an increase in the number of child labourers. Workers in general are classified
into main and marginal workers1 by the population census. Census data shows that there is a decline in the
absolute number as well the percentage of children (5-14) to total population in that age group, classified as main
workers from 4.3 percent in 1991 to 2.3 percent in 2001. But there was a substantial increase in marginal workers
in every category of worker irrespective of sex and residence. As a result, despite the number of main workers
declining from 9.08 million in 1991 to 5.78 million in 2001, the total number of children in the work force
increased. A large part of the increase was accounted for by the increase in marginal workers, which increased
from 2.2 million in 1991 to 6.89 million in 2001. The trends between 1991 and 2001 of declining main child
workers along with increasing marginal workers may indicate the changing nature of work done by children. This
is also to be seen in the context of decelerating employment growth in general in the economy during the last
decade.

According to NSSO estimates WPR for children in the 5-9 age group is negligible and for children in the age
group of 10-14, it still continues to be significant though declining. Work has been defined in the Census 2001 as
'participation in any economically productive activity with or without compensation, wages or profit.' Such
participation could be physical and/or mental in nature.
This work includes supervisory work as well as direct participation in the work. For the first time, the
Census includes part-time help or unpaid work on the farm, family enterprise or in any other economic
activity such as cultivation and milk production for domestic consumption as work. All persons engaged in
'work' as defined in the Census are considered workers. Main workers are defined as those who have
worked for the major part of the reference period, that is 6 months or more. And marginal workers are those
who have not worked for the major part of the reference period. All those workers who are not cultivators
or agricultural labourers or engaged in household industry are categorized as 'Other Workers'.

Magnitude of ChiId Labour across States
There is across the board decline in the incidence of child labour in the Southern and Western ndian States and
UTs between 1991 and 2001. However, there has been an increasing trend in the Eastern and North ndian
States and UTs. While the Kerala and Tamil Nadu stories are well known, it is heartening to see that the state of
Andhra Pradesh, that had a dubious distinction of having the largest child labour force in the country, shows very
remarkable reduction in work-force participation, along with a dramatic increase in the enrollment of children in
school. Surprising is the case of Himachal Pradesh, which has shown significant increases in school attendance
and in literacy levels. However, there is a dramatic increase in the
percentage of children in the age-group 5-14 years who are classified as workers, both main and marginal.
Nature and extent of chiId Iabour and chiId work: Findings of the Time-use survey
The Department of Statistics, Government of ndia, organized a pilot time use survey in six states of ndia
between July, 1998, and June, 1999. This study was conducted in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Orissa,
Tamil Nadu and Meghalaya. The time-use survey shows that boys and girls spend 21.46 hours a week on SNA
activities, which is about 47 percent of the time spent by an adult on SNA activities. Girls (6-14) participate in
extended SNA activities much more than participant men of all ages. Thus, while girls spend 13.01 hours on
household management, 10.64 hours on community services and 11.17 hours on care activities, the
corresponding data on time spent by men are 6.76 hours, 7.99 hours and 6.12 hours respectively. More
significantly, analyzing the data ndira Hirway states that "more than 32 percent 'nowhere' children, who do not go
to school, are largely engaged in economic or in extended economic activities. n the case of girls, their low
attendance in school is not only due to their participation in economic activities but also due to the responsibilities
borne by them in extended SNA activities.
EXISTING PROGRAMMES FOR REHABILITATION OF CHILD LABOUR
LegaI Framework
As per Article 24 of the Constitution, no child below the age of 14 years is to be employed in any factory, mine or
any hazardous employment. Further, Article 39 requires the States to direct its policy towards ensuring that the
tender age of children is not abused and that they are not forced by economic necessity to enter avocations
unsuited to their age or strength. Recently, with the insertion of Article 21A, the State
has been entrusted with the task of providing free and compulsory education to all the children in the age group
of 6-14 years. Consistent with the Constitutional provisions, Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act was
enacted in 1986, which seeks to prohibit employment of children below 14 years in hazardous occupations and
processes and regulates the working conditions in other employments. n the last 5 years, the
number of hazardous processes listed in the schedule of the Act has increased from 18 to 57 and occupations
from 7 to 13.

NationaI ChiId Labour Programme
A National Policy on Child Labour was announced in 1987 which emphasised the need for strict enforcement
measures in areas of high child labour concentration. n order to translate the above policy into action, the
Government of ndia initiated the National Child Labour Proj ect Scheme in 1988 to rehabilitate the working
children starting with 12 child labour endemic districts of the country. Under the Scheme, working children are
identified through child labour survey, withdrawn from work and put into the special schools, so as to provide
them with enabling environment to join mainstream education system. n these Special Schools, besides formal
education, they are provided stipend @ Rs.100/- per month, nutrition, vocational training and regular health
check ups. n addition, efforts are also made to target the families of these children so as to cover them
under various developmental and income/employment generation programmes of the Government. The Scheme
also envisages awareness generation campaigns against the evils of child labour and enforcement of child labour
laws. t is seen that the level of enforcement in the States of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh,
Maharashtra & West Bengal is encouraging, whereas that in UP, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh & Orissa it is very
low.

ILO-InternationaI Programme for EIimination of ChiId Labour (IPEC)
LO launched PEC Programme in 1991 to contribute to the effective abolition of child labour in the world. ndia
was the first country to sign MOU in 1992. The NDUS Project envisages direct interventions in the identified 21
districts spread across five states for identification and rehabilitation of child labour. The strategy under the
project is to complement and build up on the existing government initiatives.

REVIEW OF PRESENT APPROACH - SOME ISSUES
The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986 prohibits child labour in certain occupations and
processes alone and their conditions of work are regulated in the rest. The law does not prohibit child labour if
rendered for one's own family in those areas of occupation that has been considered as hazardous. Likewise, it
has no purview over regulating the conditions of work if children are engaged to work by the family. The law has
also completely left out children working in agriculture. The first step is to clearly enunciate a policy that 'no child
must work-and every child attends a full time formal school' is not negotiable and that it is a goal that is possible
to achieve
.
The NCLP programme which is a consequence of the Child Labour (Prohibition &Regulation) Act, 1986 focuses
on the release and rehabilitation of only such children who are employed in those industries as notified in the Act.
t has so far been able to mainstream only about 3.75 lakh children. Children continue to be recruited to work in
the ''hazardous sector. Many girl children are being left out of getting the benefit of the NCLP program. t is
found that a new set of children have taken the place of those who have been withdrawn from work. Further it
has been seen that for many practitioners on the ground it is impractical to refuse children from the same
neighbourhood or the family, who are in work and out of school because they do not fall under the definition of
child labour. f there has to be an end to child labour then the focus must be on total abolition of child labour and
in addressing the rights of the universe of children who are out of school.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ABOLITION OF CHILD LABOUR
n most societies where child labour has been eradicated, multi-pronged strategies were used. Stringent laws
were passed which made child labour illegal. n addition the educational system was strengthened so that
children removed from work could go to school.

INCLUSIVE DEFINITION OF CHILD LABOUR
An analysis of the situation of child labour in ndia provided in Part of this document shows that children are
working in different sectors across the country. They are to be found working in. Given the varied situations in
which children are working, strategies for the elimination of child labour need to be inclusive and non-negotiable.
n order to effectively abolish child labour it is necessary to remove the artificial distinction between 'child labour'
and 'child work'.

AMENDMENT TO THE CHILD LABOUR (PROHIBITION AND REGULATION) ACT 1986
Enforcement of the law is a key strategy. But in the case of the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act
1986, there are a number of loopholes, which makes the law ineffective. The Child Labour Act must be non-
negotiable and the word "Regulation should be removed from its title so that child labour abolition becomes non-
negotiable. n the same spirit the penal provisions must be enhanced, employment of child labour must be
deemed as a cognisable offence and the enforcement machinery strengthened several
times over so that the message is clear that child labour will not be tolerated under any circumstances.

A NEW NATIONAL CHILD LABOUR ERADICATION POLICY
Several changes have occurred since the drafting of the National Child Eradication Labour Policy in 1987. A re-
examination of all the laws and policies pertaining to working children is critical. There must be consistency in the
constitutional and legal provisions pertaining to children's rights especially their right to education and wellbeing.

REVISED NATIONAL CHILD LABOUR PROGRAMME (NCLP)
TransitionaI Education Centres
The current National Child Labour Programme (NCLP) needs to be revamped. NCLP schools must be converted
into Transitional Education Centres (TECs) which are both non-residential and residential. t is very important that
the guidelines for TECs are very flexible, adapting to the local situation.Every child rescued from work would
have to be brought to a local TEC and the TEC would have to accept all children who are rescued from work.
These TECs must act as bridges and the children are to be handed over to the
SSA programme. This will have to be decided on a case-by-case basis. Each TEC should have facilities to
accommodate at least 50 children at any given point of time. t is proposed to have 30 TECs (non-residential) in
each of the 600 districts in the country. These TECs's would be equipped for at least 50 children at any given
point of time. However, it is expected that there would be even more number of children due to the intensive
campaign, awareness building as well as enforcement of law. The NCLP scheme must be flexible enough to take
all such children and if necessary merge a couple of TECs in one place. t is envisaged that 45 lakh children
would be benefited by this arrangement.
Some children who are rescued from work have no security in terms of their family or community and are,
therefore, in a highly vulnerable position of exploitation. The residential TEC's would be the first post where such
rescued children would be sent. t is proposed to have 2 residential TECs in each district with 50 children in each.
Even here, depending upon the demand there must be flexibility to increase the residential TECs and if
necessary, modify the non-residential TECs to residential ones, within the budgets that
are provided for. t is envisaged that 3 lakh children would benefit from this over five years.

Migrant chiIdren
The NCLP needs to recognize the special situation of migrant child labourers. These could be children who have
runaway from home or children who migrate seasonally with their families. Given the extent of intra-state
migration, additional TECs must be set up in states/districts from where families migrate and linkages must be
established with local schools so that children have a residential facility when their parents move out for work.
Temporary TECs could also be set up in areas where people migrate for work such as to the brick kilns, salt
pans, sugar cane areas, to name a few. Local NGOs could be supported to run these temporary TECs so that
children get health and education facilities and are not roped into work.

NCLP Project Society at District IeveI
Each district would continue to have a District Child Labour Proj ect Society under the NCLP program with the
District Collector as its Chairperson and a committee that assists and advises the staff. t would have to however
expand its operations to going beyond running of special schools. t would add the component of an intense
social mobilisation through the social mobilisers, along with taking up the TECs.

SociaI MobiIisation
Given that eradication of child labour is not an easy task, preventive strategies are more sustainable in the long
run. One of the maj or preventive strategies, which must feature in any national child labour eradication policy, is
the role of social mobilization and community participation. t is vital to ensure that children stay at home and go
to formal government schools rather than leave home to work full time. There has to be a national campaign to
invoke public interest and large-scale awareness on this issue, there is a need for an extensive awareness
generation campaign launched over a period of time at the Centre and State on a sustained basis. Required
budgetary provisions for such a mass campaign must be provided for in 11th Plan.

SociaI MobiIisers
Child labourers are spread across the country; working in dispersed villages and slums. The eradication of child
labour cannot be done by the labour department alone, as it is so under-staffed. Labour department needs to
have a cadre of youth volunteers who can be trained as 'Social Mobilisers' who will be responsible for
withdrawing children from work as well as monitoring school dropouts and children with irregularity of attendance.
t is understood that if such children are not tracked they would join the labour force as
child labour. t is proposed to have 5 social mobilisers in each of the 6202 Blocks in the country. Each of the
social mobilisers would be responsible for 200 children and it is envisaged that through their activity the status of
more than 3 crore children would be monitored.

Survey of chiId Iabour
t is necessary that the government commission research and surveys on different aspects of child labour in the
country. This is important since the last countrywide enumeration of the working children was held in 2001
Census and the incidence of child labour may have undergone change since then with population growth and the
large-scale migration of workforce.

SYNERGY BETWEEN ALL CONCERNED DEPARTMENTS
Ministries and departments have different roles to play in order to ensure that children removed from work are
properly rehabilitated and do not go back into the work force.

Department of Labour
The department of Labour's function is to identify and rescue child labour and ensure that all the children who are
out of school in an area are covered; Enforce law- and action against employers of children; Counsel rescued
children and mainstream them into formal schools; Coordinate all the concerned departments of education,
police, youth, welfare panchayat raj, and women and child development and establish protocols for collabourative
action; Establish TECs for children rescued from labour.

Department of Education
The department of education has the task of integrating all out of school children which includes child labour and
school dropouts into the school system and ensure that children enj oy their right to education. Their function is to
prevent children from joining the labour force the education department must ensure that all children in the 5-8
years age group are enrolled and retained in schools; through SSA pay attention to children in the 9-14 age
groups like child labour, migrating children, street children, domestic child workers and school dropouts and
never enrolled children and provide for residential and non-residential bridge courses, seasonal hostels, mobile
schools and work-site schools for children who migrate with their families must from the very beginning be linked
to a formal government school.

Department of Home/PoIice
The role of the police is, booking the right cases under the Child Labour Act and all other relevant Acts; take
complaints all missing children and track them and follow up in the best interest of the child and their right to
education.

Department of Youth Affairs
The Nehru Yuvak Kendra Sangatanas (NYKS) under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has a huge network
of youth clubs across the country. They must spearhead a campaign against child labour and for children's right
to education in the entire country.

Department of Panchayat Raj
The Ministry for Panchayat Raj /Rural Development is to ensure that all gram panchayats fully monitor the status
of children in their area. t must also provide training for the gram panchayats to track children and protect their
rights

Department of Women and ChiId DeveIopment
The Ministry must strengthen Child line and expanded to every district of the country. A Juvenile Justice Board
and a Child Welfare Committee (CWC) must be set up in every district as required in the JJ Act of 2000. There is
a need for the Labour department to coordinate its activities with the CWC.

InvoIvement of Judiciary
There has to be an orientation for the judiciary and establishment of procedures for making the courts child
friendly. Children must not be allowed to make forays to the Court till they turn hostile. There is a need to also
establish mobile courts for quick and timely action to rescue children and book cases.

RoIe of Gram Panchayats
At the level of gram panchayats, children would not be statistics but will have specific names. f children are not
found in the village or with their family, there must be an immediate enquiry into their whereabouts. As a first step
they must lodge a police complaint and pursue the matter till children are found and rescued from whatever
location they might be in. A list of all such children who are not in the families must be drawn up and consolidated
at the mandal/block/ and district level. t must be monitored at the State level and reviewed systematically.

VocationaI Training for chiIdren in 15-18 years age group
The Labour Department should assist children who have completed Class X to get vocational training by linking
them up to local Ts, NGO run vocational training programmes and private sector initiatives. They should not run
vocational training centers as the track record of vocational training centers set up by the labour departments is
extremely poor. The labour department should instead help older children to get placements in the job market.

TRAININGS
Youth volunteers, gram panchayats, school teachers, officers of labour department and so on must all be given
training about child labour and their respective roles in abolition of child labour. Training modules are to be
prepared on the issue of child labour and education. All the participants must have a legal literacy and have a full
knowledge of children's rights and their entitlements, the role of various departments, and awareness of the
schemes and programs meant for children.

You might aIso Iike:
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Posted by Raghu at 10:03 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: APPSC GROUP-1 GENERAL ESSAY
Mondoy Moy l0 2011
UnILed NuLIons ConvenLIon uguInsL CorrupLIon
Corruption is a complex social, political and economic phenomenon that affects all countries. Corruption
undermines democratic institutions, slows economic development and contributes to governmental instability.
Corruption attacks the foundation of democratic institutions by distorting electoral processes, perverting the rule
of law and creating bureaucratic quagmires whose only reason for existing is the soliciting of bribes. Economic
development is stunted because foreign direct investment is discouraged and small businesses within the country
often find it impossible to overcome the "start-up costs" required because of corruption.

n its resolution 55/61 of December 4, 2000, the UN General Assembly recognized that an effective international
legal instrument against corruption, independent of the United Nations Convention against Transnational
Organized Crime (resolution 55/25, annex ), was desirable and decided to establish an ad hoc committee for the
negotiation of such an instrument in Vienna at the headquarters of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

The Convention was adopted by the General Assembly by resolution 58/4 of October 31, 2003. n accordance
with article 68 (1) of resolution 58/4, the United Nations Convention against Corruption entered into force on
December 14, 2005. For each new State or regional economic integration organization becoming a party to the
Convention, the Convention enters into force on the thirtieth day after the date of deposit by such State or
organization of the relevant instrument.

However, ndia stands out as one of the few countries in the world that have not acceded to the UN convention
against corruption. This convention, which came into force in 2005, has 140 countries on its list. ndia, which
regularly battles corruption of mammoth proportions, is not.

ndia signed the convention in 2005 but the UPA government, particularly the department of personnel and
training (DoPT), has steadfastly refused to ratify it. Over the years, MEA (which is the nodal ministry for
international treaties), has been pushing the government to ratify the convention. The official reason is that ndia
has not yet brought its domestic laws in line with the international convention. But it's been six years and there
has been little interest by the government in making ndia less prone to corruption. ndia's stand is particularly
strange since many ndian diplomats helped to pilot the convention through the UN.

Acceding to the convention could make it easier for ndia to repatriate the billions of dollars in ill-gotten wealth
that have been stashed overseas. Under the convention, asset recovery is a fundamental principle, Article 51
provides for the return of assets to countries of origin as a fundamental principle of this convention.

The convention requires signatories to put in place certain preventive measureslike enhanced transparency in
funding election campaigns and political partieswhich certainly in ndia is at the root of a lot of government
corruption.

The convention criminalises not only basic corruption such as bribery and the embezzlement of public funds but
also trading in influence and the concealment and laundering of the proceeds of corruption. According to UN
literature, "offences committed in support of corruption, including money-laundering and obstructing justice, are
also dealt with. Convention offences also deal with the problematic areas of private sector corruption."

The United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) is the only legally binding universal anti-corruption
instrument. The Convention's far-reaching approach and the mandatory character of many of its provisions make
it a unique tool for developing a comprehensive response to a global problem.

The UNCAC covers five main areas: prevention, criminalization and law enforcement measures, international
cooperation, asset recovery, and technical assistance and information exchange.

The UNCAC also covers many different forms of corruption, such as trading in influence, abuse of power, and
various acts of corruption in the private sector. A further significant development was the inclusion of a specific
chapter of the Convention dealing with the recovery of assets, a major concern for countries that pursue the
assets of former leaders and other officials accused or found to have engaged in corruption. The rapidly growing
number of States that have become parties to the Convention is further proof of its universal nature and reach.

Prevention
Corruption can be prosecuted after the fact, but first and foremost, it requires prevention. An entire chapter of the
Convention is dedicated to prevention, with measures directed at both the public and private sectors. These
include model preventive policies, such as the establishment of anti-corruption bodies and enhanced
transparency in the financing of election campaigns and political parties. States must endeavour to ensure that
their public services are subject to safeguards that promote efficiency, transparency and recruitment based on
merit. Once recruited, public servants should be subject to codes of conduct, requirements for financial and other
disclosures, and appropriate disciplinary measures. Transparency and accountability in matters of public finance
must also be promoted, and specific requirements are established for the prevention of corruption, in the
particularly critical areas of the public sector, such as the judiciary and public procurement.

Preventing public corruption also requires an effort from all members of society at large. For these reasons, the
Convention calls on countries to promote actively the involvement of non-governmental and community-based
organizations, as well as other elements of civil society, and to raise public awareness of corruption and what can
be done about it. Article 5 of the Convention enj oins each State Party to establish and promote effective practices
aimed at the prevention of corruption.

CriminaIization
The Convention requires countries to establish criminal and other offences to cover a wide range of acts of
corruption, if these are not already crimes under domestic law. n some cases, States are legally obliged to
establish offences; in other cases, in order to take into account differences in domestic law, they are required to
consider doing so. The Convention goes beyond previous instruments of this kind, criminalizing not only basic
forms of corruption such as bribery and the embezzlement of public funds, but also trading in influence and the
concealment and laundering of the proceeds of corruption. Offences committed in support of corruption, including
money-laundering and obstructing justice, are also dealt with. Convention offences also deal with the problematic
areas of private-sector corruption.

InternationaI Cooperation
Countries agreed to cooperate with one another in every aspect of the fight against corruption, including
prevention, investigation, and the prosecution of offenders. Countries are bound by the Convention to render
specific forms of mutual legal assistance in gathering and transferring evidence for use in court, to extradite
offenders. Countries are also required to undertake measures that will support the tracing, freezing, seizure and
confiscation of the proceeds of corruption.

Asset Recovery
n a major breakthrough, countries agreed on asset-recovery, which is stated explicitly as a fundamental principle
of the Convention. This is a particularly important issue for many developing countries where high-level
corruption has plundered the national wealth, and where resources are badly needed for reconstruction and the
rehabilitation of societies under new governments. Reaching agreement on this chapter has involved intensive
negotiations, as the needs of countries seeking the illicit assets had to be reconciled with the legal and
procedural safeguards of the countries whose assistance is sought.

Article 51 provides for the return of assets to countries of origin as a fundamental principle of this Convention.
Article 43 obliges State parties to extend the widest possible cooperation to each other in the investigation and
prosecution of offences defined in the Convention. With regard to asset recovery in particular, the article provides
inter alia that "n matters of international cooperation, whenever dual criminality is considered a requirement, it
shall be deemed fulfilled irrespective of whether the laws of the requested State Party place the offence within the
same category of offence or denominate the offence by the same terminology as the requesting State Party, if
the conduct underlying the offence for which assistance is sought is a criminal offence under the laws of both
States Parties".

CriminaIization and Iaw enforcement
As per the convention, each State Party shall adopt such legislative and other measures as may be necessary to
establish as a criminal offence, when committed intentionally, the promise, offering or giving to a foreign public
official or an official of a public international organization, directly or indirectly, of an undue advantage, for the
official himself or herself or another person or entity, in order that the official act or refrain from acting in the
exercise of his or her official duties, in order to obtain or retain business or other undue advantage in relation to
the conduct of international business.

Bribery in the private sector: Each State Party shall consider adopting such legislative and other measures as
may be necessary to establish as criminal offences, when committed intentionally in the course of economic,
financial or commercial activities: (a) The promise, offering or giving, directly or indirectly, of an undue advantage
to any person who directs or works, in any capacity, for a private sector entity, for the person himself or herself or
for another person, in order that he or she, in breach of his or her duties, act or refrain from acting; (b) The
solicitation or acceptance, directly or indirectly, of an undue advantage by any person who directs or works, in
any capacity, for a private sector entity, for the person himself or herself or for another person, in order that he or
she, in breach of his or her duties, act or refrain from acting.

Protection of witnesses, experts and victims: The Convention also provides for appropriate measures in
accordance with a State's domestic legal system and within its means to provide effective protection from
potential retaliation or intimidation for witnesses and experts who give testimony concerning offences established
in accordance with this Convention and, as appropriate, for their relatives and other persons close to them.

Each State Party also has to take appropriate measures to provide protection against any unjustified treatment
for any person who reports in good faith and on reasonable grounds to the competent authorities any facts
concerning offences established in accordance with this Convention.
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Posted by Raghu at 10:07 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: APPSC GROUP-1 GENERAL ESSAY
lridoy Morch 18 2011
ndIu's KnowIedge Economy
Private higher education is one of the most dynamic and fastest-growing segments of post-secondary education
at the turn of the 21st century. A combination of unprecedented demand for access to higher education and the
inability or unwillingness of governments to provide the necessary support has brought private higher education
to the forefront. Private institutions, with a long history in many countries, are expanding in scope and number,
and are increasingly important in parts of the world that have relied on the public sector. A related phenomenon is
the "privatization" of public institutions in some countries. With tuition and other charges rising, public and private
institutions look more and more similar.

Private higher education has long dominated higher education systems in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and the
Philippines. There has been a dramatic shift from public to private post-secondary education in Latin America,
and Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela now have at least half of their students in private universities.
Private higher education is the fastest-growing sector in many countries in Central and Eastern Europe, as also in
ndia. For the most part, this unprecedented growth in the private sector stems from an inability of the
governments to fund expansion.

There is tremendous differentiation in private higher education internationally. Harvard University, with its
endowment measured in billions of dollars, could hardly be more different from a newly established "garage
university" in El Salvador offering specialized training in a few fields. Some private institutions are highly focused
in specific fields, such as the world-renowned NSEAD international management school in Paris. Others are
large multipurpose universities like the Far East University in Manila, with more than 100,000 students. Some are
among the most prestigious institutions, like Waseda or Keio in Japan, Yale in the United States, the Ateneo de
Manila in the Philippines, or Javieriana University in Colombia.

Higher education in ndia is gasping for breath, at a time when ndia is aiming to be an important player in the
emerging knowledge economy. With about 300 universities and deemed universities, over 15,000 colleges and
hundreds of national and regional research institutes, ndian higher education and research sector is the third
largest in the world, in terms of the number of students it caters to. However, not a single ndian university finds
even a mention in a recent international ranking of the top 200 universities of the world, except an T ranked at
41, whereas there were three universities each from China, Hong Kong and South Korea and one from Taiwan.

On the other hand, it is also true that there is no company or institute in the world that has not benefited by
graduates, post-graduates or Ph.D.s from ndia: be it NASA, BM, Microsoft, ntel, Bell, Sun, Harvard, MT,
Caltech, Cambridge or Oxford, and not all those students are products of our Ts, Ms Sc/TFR or central
universities, which cater to barely one per cent of the ndian student population. This is not to suggest that we
should pat our backs for the achievements of our students abroad, but to point out that ndian higher educational
institutions have not been able to achieve the same status for themselves as their students seem to achieve
elsewhere with their education from here.

The experience over the last few decades has clearly shown that unlike school education, privatization has not
led to any major improvements in the standards of higher education and professional education. n higher
education and professional courses, relatively better quality teaching and infrastructure has been available only in
government colleges and universities, while private institutions of higher education in ndia capitalized on
fashionable courses with minimum infrastructure.

The last decade has witnessed many sweeping changes in higher and professional education: For example,
thousands of private colleges and institutes offering professional courses, especially engineering courses,
appeared all across the country by the late 1990s and disappeared in less than a decade, with devastating
consequences for the students and teachers who depended on them for their careers. This situation is now
repeating itself in management, biotechnology, bioinformatics and other emerging areas. No one asked any
questions about opening or closing such institutions, or bothered about whether there were qualified teachers at
all, much less worry about teacher-student ratio, floor area ratio, class rooms, labs, libraries etc. All these
regulations that existed at one time have now been deregulated or softened under the self-financing scheme of
higher and professional education adopted by the UGC.

t is not that the other well established departments and courses in government funded colleges and universities
are doing any better. Decades of government neglect, poor funding, frequent ban on faculty recruitment and
promotions, reduction in library budgets, lack of investments in modernization leading to obsolescence of
equipment and infrastructure, and the tendency to start new universities on political grounds without consolidating
the existing ones today threatens the entire higher education system.

The economics of imparting higher education are such that, barring a few courses in arts and humanities,
imparting quality education in science, technology, engineering, medicine etc. requires huge investments in
infrastructure, all of which cannot be recovered through student fees, as high fees will make higher education
inaccessible to a large section of students. Unlike many better-known private educational institutions in Western
countries that operate in the charity mode with tuition waivers and fellowships (which is one reason why our
students go there), most private colleges and universities in ndia are pursuing a profit motive. This is the basic
reason for charging huge tuition fees, apart from forced donations, capitation fees and other charges. Despite
huge public discontent, media interventions and many court cases, the governments have not been able to
regulate the fee structure and donations in these institutions.

t is not only students but also teachers who are at the receiving end of the ongoing transformation in higher
education. The nation today witnesses the declining popularity of teaching as a profession, not only among the
students that we produce, but also among parents, scientists, society and the government. The teaching
profession today attracts only those who have missed all other "better" opportunities in life, and is increasingly
mired in bureaucratic controls and anti-education concepts such as "hours" of teaching "load", "paid-by-the-hour",
"contractual" teachers etc. With privatization reducing education to a commodity, teachers are reduced to tutors
and teaching is reduced to coaching. The consumerist boom and the growing salary differentials between
teachers and other professionals and the value systems of the emerging free market economy have made
teaching one of the least attractive professions that demands more work for less pay. Yet, the society expects
teachers not only to be inspired but also to do an inspiring job!

On the other hand, many teachers are also exploiting the situation. Due to acute shortage of teachers the
Universities, especially the new Universities, are found to be at the receiving end because of constant job
hopping by teachers for better pay packets. Sometimes, this job hopping goes to the level of professional black
mailing.

Yet another worrisome trend in higher education and research is the emerging government policy of according
deemed university status to national labs and research institutes, so that these institutes can award their own
Ph.D. degrees, without having to affiliate themselves to a university or fulfilling any other role of being a
university. t was expected that these national (or regional) laboratories would employ selected scientific
manpower generated from the colleges/universities and nurture their talents towards specific applied goals. But
this did not happen, as the national labs became more sophisticated versions of university departments drawing
better monetary and infrastructural support and publishing research papers, for which they need research
students, who cannot be retained and tapped unless they are promised research degrees.

Traditionally, colleges and universities have been non-profit institutions, operating under legal authority from the
State to provide education and engage in research and other education-related activities. These institutions have
been owned by non-profit agencies, such as religious organizations, educational societies, and others that have
legal authority to own and manage them. For the most part, these arrangements do not permit the institutions to
earn a profit, while they are guaranteed a high level of autonomy. n some cases, the university is "owned" by a
sponsoring organization, in others by the academic staff and administrators, and in still others by boards of
trustees or governors that may be partly composed of academics or dominated by outsiders.

With the stress on cost-recovery measures, many areas of study, including the humanities and social sciences
and even the natural and physical sciences, have come under great pressure. Only the marketable areas of
study may survive. With the universities emphasizing revenue-generating programs, Darwin's law might come
into operation, and other areas of study, however important they may be, could fade away. A significant increase
in fees for general education might shift enrollment from general education to professional education.

The trend toward privatization has also created serious problems concerning equity in higher education. While
the government is to a great extent able to ensure that protective discrimination policies are followed in
government colleges and private aided colleges, resistance to such policies is much higher in the case of self-
financing institutions. While the overall elasticity of demand may not be high, such elasticity may certainly be high
for the economically weaker sections. n other words, under privatization even if the size of total enrollment does
not change, the composition might change in favour of the better-off sections of society.

The government's inability to control the quality of education in private colleges is also being increasingly felt. The
first choice of parents and students in general is the government colleges, and when they fail in that endeavour
they seek admission in private colleges, where admissions criteria are relaxed for those who can pay the high
fees. Unfortunately, even strong proponents of private higher education call for government to take responsibility
for regulating quality in the system. But given social, political, and economic factors, the government seems to
feel severely handicapped in regulating quality in private institutions. Generally, once recognition is granted to a
private institution, which is not a very difficult process, the government is unable to enforce any of its conditions.
This is true to some extent even in the case of State-aided private colleges. State grants are rarely delayed for
any reason. Massive erosion of quality in private colleges might lower the overall quality of higher education.

Conflicts that arise between national manpower needs and the short-term market signals that influence private
higher education institutions have also had serious impacts. The long-term consequences can include manpower
imbalances--both shortages and gluts.

n the whole process of privatization, universities might well become more and more efficient, but the important
question is: "efficient to do what?" They become financially efficient, generating more and more resources, but in
the process lose sight of their main academic goals and objectives. Activities hitherto peripheral to universities
tend to become the dominant ones. Universities tend to undertake increasingly more commercial and quasi-
commercial activities--such as, consultancy, sale of physical products and services, publication of books, training,
and so on. Herein lies the great danger of privatization and to the very development of higher education in ndia.
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Human Development Report 2010

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omen EmpowermenL
When it comes to women there have been a few important happenings in the recent past. For the ndian women
there were the 73rd and 74th Amendments (1993) to the Constitution, providing for the reservation of seats in the
local bodies of panchayats and municipalities and, of course, the post 1995 measures by the government that
formed the icing. t is a different issue that the cake was missing.

The government of ndia had floated zealously its grand ideas for the country by declaring the year 2001 as
Women's Empowerment Year, with a focus on achieving the "vision in the new century of a nation where women
are equal partners with men". What followed was a spate of programmes and schemes with fine
names: $washakti and $tree $hakti for women's empowerment; $wayam $iddha to benefit nearly a lakh women
through micro-credit programmes, Balika $amrudhi Yojana for the girl child and a horde of various other projects,
doubtlessly with intentions of going about a greater common good.

Since independence, ndia has developed several initiatives for guaranteeing education to its people. Although
some progress has been achieved, the ever growing population has always come in the way. What is worrisome
is the inconsistency that marks the efforts. Every once in a while, when a programme is to be launched or a
report released, the activism comes to the fore. For rest of the time the problem exists but is too commonplace
and ubiquitous to rouse strong motivation for efforts.

n contrast to the tragedies of the communities affected by drought, flood or civil conflict, the poverty,
powerlessness and ill-health, which accompany illiteracy are not easily captured on the camera and brought to
the attention of the international public opinion. Today, 125 million primary school age children are not in school;
most of them are girls.

The current literacy rate for women in ndia stands at 54.16 per cent, vis-a-vis that of 75 per cent for males.
Efforts are, however, on for raising the standard of the girl child. There are several programmes being
undertaken.

t is true that after years of inflicting damage results cannot be achieved in a day. Nonetheless, consistency in
efforts will be better than complacency. t will take some time, but the end result will be rewarding. After all, it is
not for nothing that it is said that when you educate a boy you educate an individual, but when you educate a girl
you educate an entire family.

Economic Status
Women are the major contributors in terms of economic output, but their contribution still remains to be made
visible. Men and women are not equally distributed across the types of work. Women are concentrated in the
primary sector and in unskilled and marginal work. 95 per cent of women, as against 89 per cent men, are
engaged in un-organised sector, and most of them are found in the rural areas. According to the 2001 census, 90
million women constitute the workforce.

ndustries that employ more women than men include, processing of edible nuts, domestic services, bidi
manufacturing, spinning, weaving, finishing of coir textiles etc. Women also constitute maj ority of the workforce
employed as nurses, ayahs, paramedics and technical workers. Their contribution goes unnoticed as most of the
times they are involved as unpaid or home-based workers, who often get counted as non-working housewives.

n her paper on land laws and gender equity, Prof Bina Aggarwal points out the fact that women are much more
dependent on land-based livelihoods. Over the years, while the male workers have been moving to non-
agricultural arenas, women have remained where they were, owing to their lower mobility, less education and few
assets. She notes, "firstly there is systematic bias against the women and female children's sharing of benefits
from the male controlled resourceswomen without independent resources are highly vulnerable to poverty and
destitution in case of divorce or widowhood. They often need titles to avail credit facilities."

n last one decade the Union and State governments have envisaged the eradication of poverty through women-
oriented programmes, as a maj or chunk of the population below the poverty line remains the hapless women.
The women can also be benefited in a large measure through generating adequate amount of legal awareness
and helping them in making efforts to farm collectively, as is being done by the Deccan Development Society
(DDS) in Andhra Pradesh.

Marriage and reproductive heaIth
Although the practice of child marriage is history for most, it still continues to be a reality of life in the rural ndia,
especially in the North and West pockets of the country. Every once in a while, there are shocking incidents
(which make it to the covers of popular magazines and hit the front pages of newspapers because of the element
of horrific unusualness). The news stirs up people, only to fade away in a couple of days when the oddity has
turned boring.

Child marriages, banned by law, continue to take place and yet there is no action against this practice. No
amount of legislation will be effective as long as the political will to promote gender equity is absent.

The Dowry Prohibition Act has been in force for five decades, and yet, countless atrocities are perpetrated as a
result of this despicable practice that finds favour with scores of the households. Marrying off a boy not only
marks an easy road to prosperity, but also is seen as redemption of money spent on the daughter's wedding.

Girls in early teens are "traded off" in the name of marriage to men who are older by nothing less than twenty to
twenty five years, for a certain amount of money. This saves them the hassle of dowry as well as the search for a
groom! The common practice in rural ndia is to marry the girls around the age of fourteen or fifteen, triggering off
an early motherhood for most. Quite the reason for the reproductive health scenario not being so encouraging.

Another complexity that leaves the women at cross roads is fear of the apparent persecution if she bears a
daughter. The startling fact is that, on the whole, women themselves prefer a male child despite the negative
impact of this mindset on their lives. This seems to be a culturally conditioned choice. This is also the reason why
technologies like ultrasound and amniocentesis are being used to determine sex of the child in the womb.

The apathy towards the gender inequities is evident in the classes that are expected to deliver better.


After all these years, it is sad to see the blatant use of woman as a mere "tool" that can be used at will to achieve
various ends, and to see it as a much exploited subject for speeches, seminars, schemes and slogans. The crux
is that till socio-cultural attitudes are addressed, there can be little meaningful done for achieving gender parity.
Women in ndia are not lacking in self-confidence, but it is important for them to be realising this individually, as
well as collectively. ndividual self-confidence can be bolstered by the parental confidence, and through approval
and appreciation of the community they are a part of.

Domestic vioIence
The phenomenon of domestic violence is widely prevalent, but has remained largely unseen. Millions of ndian
women have, by and large, grown to accept spousal violence and, worse still, being subjected to humiliation and
indignity which cripple them mentally. Afraid of the law, men may not commit acts of violence, but, in turn, resort
to psychologically pressurising the woman, which has results still worse in nature.

According to the Crime Records Bureau of the Union Home Ministry, of all cases of crime committed against
women every year, almost 37 per cent are cases of domestic violence. Then, there are womenespecially those
belonging to the middle and upper middle classeswho keep quiet for the sake of the family's image.

Most social workers and counsellors agree that the number of domestic violence cases has increased, but
attribute the increased reporting to the growing realisation among women that they have to fight back. Domestic
violence among the lower class is accepted, and among the upper class it is swept under the carpet. What we
get to see is only the emerging middle class, because here the value systems have changed tremendously,
whereas the societal systems have not. Sociologist Mohua Bandyopadhyaya also corroborates the facts: "with
more and more women in the work place, the modern male feels under siege, and the frustration is taken out on
the woman on whom he feels he can assert his will."

There's more to domestic violence than physical abuse. Emotional trauma can be far more crippling.

LegisIative Status
Women in ndia have made major inroads in various male-dominated professions, including the governmental
bureaucracy. n the fields of business, medicine, engineering, law, art and culture, women who were given
opportunities to acquire the necessary skills and education have proven themselves capable of holding their own,
without availing of any special measures to facilitate their entry. But they have failed to gain ground in the field of
politics. Moreover, the agenda of women's empowerment seems to have lost the kind of moral and political
legitimacy it enjoyed during the freedom movement, as was evident from the ugly scenes in the aftermath of
tabling of the Women's Reservation Bill in the Parliament.

nfact, women are moving in the direction of near equal political participation in only a handful of countries, such
as Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. n these societies, women have begun to seriously alter
the very nature of politics, making enduring, and substantial gains in every field.

All trends indicate that women's representation in politics requires special consideration, and cannot be left to the
forces that presently dominate our parties and government. Today, even the best of female parliamentarians feel
sidelined and powerless within their respective parties. Most women in electoral and party politics are an
ineffective minority within their own respective political groupings.
The very same male party leaders who compete with each other in announcing their support of special
reservations for women, have shown little willingness to include women in party decision-making, or even to help
create a conducive atmosphere for women's participation in their own organisations.

n fact, women's marginalisation is even more pronounced in the day-to-day functioning of almost all political
parties, than in the Parliament. Therefore, it is urgently required that we take special measures to enhance
women's political participation. Our democracy will remain seriously flawed if it fails to yield adequate space to
women.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT
The Supreme Court judgement on Sexual Harassment of working women in the case of 'ishakha vs. the $tate of
Rajasthan (August 1997) initiated debate on the issue not just among women's groups, lawyers and activists, but
also among women in the workplace. For the first time, behaviour that can be considered sexual harassment has
been explicitly legally defined.

". sexual harassment includes such unwelcome sexually determined behaviour (whether directly or by
implication) as:
Physical contact and advances; a demand or request for sexual favours;
sexually coloured remarks;
showing pornography;
any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature.

The guidelines are significant in that, for the first time sexual harassment is identified as a separate category of
legally prohibitive behaviour. Sexual harassment should be considered a separate legal offence not because it is
less serious (as some have argued), but because it is taken less seriously.

Particularly in the absence of witnesses or other concrete proof, it often becomes the complainant's word against
the harasser's. Further, in addition to sexual harassment being a violation of the right to safe working conditions,
the guidelines also proclaim it to be a violation of women's right to equal opportunity in the workplace.

t is the duty of the employer or other responsible persons in work places or other institutions to prevent sexual
harassment and to provide procedures for resolution of complaints. Women who either draw a regular salary,
receive an honorarium, or work in a voluntary capacityin the government; private sector or un-organized
sectorscome under the purview of these guidelines.

Main guideIines are:

O Express prohibition of sexual harassment should be notified and circulated.
O Prohibition of sexual harassment should be included in the rules and regulations of government and
public sector bodies.
O Private employers should include prohibition of sexual harassment in the standing orders under the
ndustrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946.
O Appropriate work conditions should be provided for work, leisure, health, and hygiene to further ensure
that there is no hostile environment towards women at workplaces and no woman employee should have
reasonable grounds to believe that she is disadvantaged in connection with her employment.
O Sexual harassment should be affirmatively discussed at worker's meetings, employer-employees
meetings and other appropriate forums.
O Guidelines should be prominently notified to create awareness of the rights of female employers.
O The employer should assist persons affected in cases of sexual harassment by outsiders or third
parties.
O Central and State governments are required to adopt measures including legislation to ensure that
private employers also observe guidelines.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ACT, 2005
The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 was brought into force from October 26, 2006. The
Act was passed by the Parliament in August 2005 and assented to by the President in September 2005.

For the purposes of this Act, any conduct of the respondent shall constitute domestic violence if he (a) habitually
assaults or makes the life of the aggrieved person miserable by cruelty of conduct even if such conduct does not
amount to physical ill-treatment; or (b) forces the aggrieved person to lead an immoral life; or (c) otherwise
injures or harms the aggrieved person.

Nothing contained in clause (c) of sub-section (1) shall amount to domestic violence if the pursuit of course of
conduct by the respondent was reasonable for his own protection or for the protection of his or another's
property.

Primarily meant to provide protection to the wife or female live-in partner from domestic violence at the hands of
the husband or male live-in partner or his relatives, the law also extends its protection to women who are sisters,
widows or mothers. Domestic violence under the act includes actual abuse or the threat of abuse whether
physical, sexual, verbal, emotional or economic. Harassment by way of unlawful dowry demands to the woman or
her relatives would also be covered under this definition.
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oturdoy lonuory 29 2011
mporLunL BIIIs
1. CentraI Information Commission:-
Central information commission is constituted by the central government through a gazette
notification.
The commission includes one chief information and not more than 10 information commission.
All are appointed by the president.
Oath of office is administered by the president of ndia according to the form set out in the first
schedule.
Central information commission and state information commission have power of civil court.
2. EIection Commission ceIebrates diamond jubiIee:-
The president of ndia recently inaugurated the diamond jubilee celebration of the election
commission of ndia.
The commission was set up on Jan 25, 1950. While the rest of the constitution came into force
on Jan 26, 1950.
Article 324 that created the commission was one of those exceptional provisions given effect as
early as on Nov 26, 1949.
Until Oct 1989 there was just one chief election commission. n 1991 a law providing for the
appointment of two election commissioners. This law was amended and renamed in 1993.
The election commission enjoys complete autonomy and is insulated from any kind of
executive interference.
t also functions as a quasi-judicial body in matters of electoral disputes and other matters
involving the conduct of elections.
However the decisions of the body are liable for independent judicial reviews by courts acting
on electoral petitions.
Principal functions of Election Commission of ndia:-
Demarcation of consistencies
Preparation of electoral rolls
Recognition of political parties and allotment of symbols
Scrutiny of nomination papers
Conduct of polls
Scrutiny of election expenses of candidates.
The national health bill 2009
t seeks to provide health , health equity and justice for all ndians
. NationaI HeaIth BiII- 2009
t seeks to provide health, health equity and justice for all ndians.
ts mportant Features are:-
Right to heath care:- the bill seeks to legalize the right to health care along with other issues
associated with health rights.
Emergency care:- no individual should be denied emergency treatment because of his inability
to pay fees or due to the requirement for police clearance.
Patient complaints:- bill seeks to make it mandatory for the hospitals to address patient
complaints on 24x7 basis.
Name of doctor involved in treatment:- every patient has the right to know the name of
doctor/ nurse involved in his treatment.
4. NationaI Arrears Grid:-
Union law minister had announced that the national arrears grid and the special purpose vehicle
would implement the action plan to bring down the arrears of cases pending in various courts.
The action plans should focus on human resource development, infrastructure development and
procedural reforms.
t is decided that special judges to deal with all pending criminal cases where the term of
sentences was less than 3 years.
t favored creation of a national pool of judicial officers from retired judges to enable persons
from the pool to be appointed as high court judges.
5. Gram NyayaIayas:-
The Gram Nyayalayas act 2008 had been enacted to provide for the establishment of the gram
nyayalayas at the grass root level for the purpose of providing access to justice to the citizens at
their door steps.
SaIient features:-
t is aimed at providing inexpensive justice to people in rural areas at their door steps.
t will have its court of judicial magistrate of the first class and its presiding officers
( Nyayadhikri) shall be appointed by the state government in consultation with the High Court.
The Gram Nyayalaya shall be established for every panchyats at intermediate level in a district
or where there is no panchayat at intermediate level in any state for a group of contiguous
panchayats.
Gram nyayalaya shall be a mobile court and shall exercise the powers of both criminal and civil
courts.
Officiating nyaydhikari will go to villages work there and dispose of the cases.
6. Law commission:-
t is a non- statutory body.
Constituted by the government from time to time originally constituted in 1955 and it is
reconstituted every three years.
7. Judges ( inquiry) biII , 2006:-
The judges ( inquiry ) bill 2006 established a national judicial council ( NJC) to conduct
nquiries into allegations of incapacity or misbehavior by high court and Supreme Court judges.
The proposed NJC would consist of the chief justice of ndia, two Supreme Court judges and
two high court chief justices to investigate high court judge (t has been change again in the new
draft).
The chief justice of ndia and four Supreme Court judges to investigate Supreme Court judges.
The NJC shall investigate complaints submitted by any persons, or upon receiving a references
from parliament based on a motion moved by 50 Rajya Sabha or 100 Lok Sabha m.p.
f the allegations are proven, the NJC may impose minor measures or recommended the removal of judges.
Removal of judges shall be through impeachment by parliament.
8. BiotechnoIogy ReguIating Authority of India (BRAI) biII:-
This Bill would bring about wide ranging changes in the process of regulating research,
transport, import, manufacture and use of G.M product in the country.
Controversy regarding the Bill:-
According to section 81 of the bill the act will have an overriding effect over other state level
acts. Activists allege that this ignores the constitutional powers of states over agriculture and
health
This bill has no provisions for public participation, which is a violation of article 23.2 of the
Cartagena Protocol on bio- safety to which ndia is a signatory.
The bill also states that whoever without any evidence or scientific record misleads the public
about the safety of organism and products shall be punished with imprisonment for a term
which shall not be less than six months. But which may extend to one year and with fine which
may extend to two lakh rupees or with both.
The bill serves to over ride state specific concerns by making the proposed authority solely
responsible for releasing and controlling genetically modified organisms (GMOs) through out
the country and envisages only an advisory role for state.
9. The prohibitions of unfair practices in technicaI, medicaI
educations institutions and universities biII:-
t is drafted by the Human Resource development ministry to provide for a central law to curb
malpractices.
However in the T.M.A pai , case supreme court held that establishment of private unaided
educational institutions was in the exercise of fundamental rights to occupations under article 19
(1) (g) of the constitution.
10. CommunaI vioIence biII:-
t is communal violence (prevention, control and rehabilitation) bill.
The bill empowers the centre to intervene to tackle communal violence without the concurrence
of the state government , if it is believe that state is not doing enough to control the violence.
The bill also empowers the centre to declare any area in any state communally disturbed, if it is
convinced that the state government is not following its directions to control or to check
communal violence.
The bill gives the central government exclusive power to constitute a unified command to deal
with communal violence.
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lridoy lonuory 14 2011
Energy SecurILy
With the domestically available uranium and without any additional import beyond Kundankulam and plants
under construction we can set up no more than 48,000 MW of nuclear plants by 2031 and only about 2,08,000
MW by 2051. With additional import of 30,000 MW of uranium based plants by 2020, we can reach 4,70,000 MW
of nuclear capacity by 2050 if the three-stage programme is fully developed.
Since ndia is short of Uranium, the first phase plants cannot exceed 10,000 MW unless imported uranium is
available.
locts keqordinq nerqy ecurity
O Some 600 million ndians do not have access to electricity and about 700 million ndians use biomass as
their primary energy resource for cooking and ensuring life line.
O A sustained economic growth of at least 9 Percent over the next 25 years is necessary for ndia need to
eradicate poverty and meet its larger human development goals.
uidinq princip/es of the inteqroted enerqy po/icy
O Energy markets should be competitive wherever possible for economic efficiency and for promoting
optimal investment in energy.
O Given the need to expand supplies of energy public sector investment in energy must be supplemented
by private investors.
O Subsidies are relevant but they must be transparent and targeted. Consideration should be given to
alternative means of achieving the social obj ectives sought to be achieved by energy subsidies, through different
methods including direct transfers to eligible households.
O Energy efficiency is extremely important and can be promoted by setting appropriate prices and this is
particularly important where energy prices are rising.
O Public Sector Undertakings operating in the energy sector must operate with autonomy and also full
accountability to ensure incentives for adequate investment through their own "resources and improvements in
efficiency in energy production and distribution.
O For the second stage of ndia nuclear programme, ndia has already developed fast breeder reactors
and a 500 MW Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) is under construction at Kalpakam. t is expected to attain
critically in 2011.
rowth in lndios enerqy demond
O Various projections indicate that by 2031, ndia's energy requirements may increase to about 5 to 7
times at of 2001 levels. The ntegrated energy Policy report brought out by the Planning Commission estimates
that in an 8% GDP growth scenario, ndia's total commercial energy requirements would be in the range of 1514
mtoe (million tonnes of oil equivalent) to 1856 mtoe by 2031 under alternative scenarios (Planning Commission,
2006)
O TER estimates indicate an import dependency of 78% for coal. 91% for oil and 34% for gas by year
2031 with current estimates future availability of indigenous energy.
iqhtinq 4 8i//ion ives
O Over 1.6 6illion people in the world lac access to electricity; roughly 25% are in ndia alone.
O Recognizing the need to change the existing scenario, TER, with its version to work for global
sustainable development and its commitment towards creating innovative solutions for a better tomorrow, has
undertaken an initiative of Lighting a Billion Lives' (LaBL) through the use of solar lighting devices.
O The Campaign aims to bring light into the live of one billion rural people by replacing the kerosene and
paraffin lanterns with solar lighting devices. This wife facilitate education of children; provide better illumination
and kerosene smoke free environment for environment for women to do household chores; and provide
opportunities for livelihoods both at the individual revel and at village level .
@he kI wos /ounched in 2005 with the fo//owinq qoo/s
a. Provide access to electricity to remaining un-electrified households.
b. Electrification of about 1.15 lakh un-electrified villages.
c. Free electricity connection to 2.34 Below Poverty Household (BPL)
The target year of achieving these targets is 2009 and under this scheme capital subsidy was given on
basis of 90% grants and 10% loan. Rs. 33000 crore as capital subsidy would be provided by
Government of ndia for projects.
8lOlu ln lndio
O Biofuel , or fuel derived from non-fossil plant sources is being seen today as a cleaner alternative to
diesel. Biofuel development in ndia centers mainly around the cultivation and processing of Jatropha plant seeds
to give biodiesel and producing ethanol from sugarcane. Ethanol can be blended with petrol for automobiles.
Similarly, bio-diesel can be blended with high speed diesel for transport vehicles, generators, railway engines,
irrigation pumps, etc. Large volumes of such oils can also substitute imported oil for making soap. n its National
Biofuel Policy the Government of ndia has set a target of a minimum 20 per cent ethanol-blended petrol and
diesel across the country by 2017. Bio-diesel plantations would be encouraged only on waste community /
government / forest lands, and not on fertile land. Minimum Support Price (MSP) would be announced to provide
fair price to the growers. Minimum Purchase Price (MPP) for the purchase of bio-ethanol by the Oil Marketing
Companies (OMCs) would be based on the actual cost of production and import price of bio-ethanol. n case of
bio-diesel, the MPP would be linked to the prevailing retail diesel price. The National Biofuel Policy also
envisages bringing bio-diesel and bio-ethanol under the ambit of "Declared Goods" by the Government to ensure
their unrestricted movement.
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O Politics of reorganization of states Needs complete revaluation
O SOME GOVERNMENT PROGRAMMES
O CURRENT AFFARS Notes on 2009
O NDAN ECONOMY BASCS
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mporLunL PoInLs OI CIImuLe CIunge
1. ndia's per capita energy consumption (2006 figures) question is at 51 kg oil equivalent
compared to the world average of 1818 kg oil equivalent. China has a per capita energy consumption of
1433 kg oil equivalent, which has been rapidly rising since 2002, and the US average of 7778 kg oil
equivalent. The annual growth in ndia's per capita energy consumption has been minimal.
2. ndia's submission to reduce the emission intensity of its economy by 20 to 25 per cent by 2020
can he bettered through these two options. ndia has already announced its national solar mission and
an enhanced energy efficiency mission is in the works.
9oint ou hou/d know
Carbon Storage and Sequestration PotentiaI of India's Forests and Tree Cover:-
O ndia's Forest Cover accounts for 20.6% of the total geographical area of the country as of 2005.
n addition, Tree Cover accounts for 2.8% of ndia's geographical area2 .
O Progressive national forestry legislations and policies have transformed ndia's forests into a significant
net sink of CO2, From 1995 to 2005, the carbon stocks stored in our forests and trees have increased from 6,245
million tones (mt) to 6,662 mt, registering an annual increment of 38 mt of carbon or 138 mt of CO2 equivalent.
Mitigation Service by India's Forest and Tree Cover:-
O Estimates show that the annual CO2 removals by ndia's forest and tree cover is enough to neutralize
11.25% of ndia's total GHG emissions (C02 equivalent) at 1994 levels.
O This is equivalent to offsetting 100% emissions from all energy in residential and transport sectors; or
40% of total emissions from the agriculture sector. Clearly, ndia's forest and tree cover is serving as a major
mode of carbon mitigation for ndia and the world.
Carbon Stocks in the Future:-
O ndia is one of the few developing countries in the world that is making a net addition to its forest and
tree cover over the last two decades. Based on actual and proj ected trends of investments in the forestry sector,
we present three scenarios of the future carbon stocks in the forest and tree cover of ndia.
O n the first scenario, the carbon stocks in ndia's forest and tree cover decrease at the rate of the world
average and the total carbon stored in ndia's forests in 2015 will decrease to 6,504 mt.
O n the second scenario, the carbon stocks continue to increase at the historical rate of the last decade
(0.6% p.a.). And the total carbon stored in ndia's forests in 2015 will increase to 6,998 mt.
O n the third scenario, the carbon stocks increase at a rate higher than the historical rate of increase and
the total carbon stored in 2015 will increase to 7,283 mt. This is the path that we intend to tread in ndia.
O Computations for the third scenario are based on a series policy initiatives on Sustainable Management
of Forests (SMF) and A forestation and Reforestation (A&R), additional resources like Forest Restitution Fund5
with US$ 2.5b , a policy to include forestry related activities in the flagship employment scheme of the country
and introducing new forestry related schemes on components such as capacity building in the forestry sector ..
Io/ue of Mitiqotion
O Putting a conservative value of US$ 5 per tonne of CO2 locked in our forests; this huge sink of about
24,000 mt of CO2 is worth US$ 120b, or Rs 6, 00,000 crores. ncremental carbon under scenario three will add a
value of around US$ 1.2b, or Rs 6,000 cores every year to ndia's treasury of forest sink, assuming a value of
US$ 7 per tonne.
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ndia at a glance

APPSC GROUP-1 EXAM (05-09-2010) CURRENT AFFARS QUESTONS ...

Facts About ndia

CURRENT AFFARS- MONTH WSE

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oturdoy lonuory 8 2011
NuxuIIsm ProbIem In ndIu
The problem of Naxalism is more dangerous than any other form of
violence in India, either terrorism or religion or caste related violence. The
number of people died in Naxalite violence is more than the deaths
caused by insurgents in Kashmir and north-eastern states. Naxalism is an
informal name given to communist groups that were born out of the Sino-
Soviet split in the Indian communist movement. Ideologically they belong
to various trends of Maoism. Initially the movement had its centre in West
Bengal.

In recent years, Naxalites have spread into less developed areas of rural
central and eastern India, such as Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh
through the activities of underground groups like the Communist Party of
India (Maoist). They are conducting an insurgency, the Naxalite-Maoist
insurgency. They now have a presence in 40% of Indias geographical
area, and are especially concentrated in an area known as the `Naxal
Belt, comprising 92,000 square kilometers. According to Indias
intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, 20,000 insurgents
are currently in operation, and their growing influence prompted Indian
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to declare them as the most serious
threat to Indias national security.

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
The term comes from Naxalbari, a small village in West Bengal, where a
section of Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) led by Charu
Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal led a violent uprising in 1967, trying to
develop a `revolutionary opposition in opposition to the CPI(M)
leadership. The insurrection started on May 25, 1967 in Naxalbari village
when a peasant was attacked by hired hands over a land dispute. Local
peasants retaliated by attacking the local landlords and the violence
escalated. Majumdar greatly admired Mao Zedong of China and advocated
that Indian peasants and lower classes must follow in his footsteps and
overthrow the government and upper classes whom he held responsible
for their plight. He engendered the Naxalite movement through his
writings, the most famous being the `Historic Eight Documents which
formed the basis of Naxalite ideology. In 1967 `Naxalites organized the
All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries
(AICCCR), and later broke away from CPI (M). Uprisings were organized
in several parts of the country. In 1969 AICCCR gave birth to Communist
Party of India (Marxist-Leninist).

During the 1970s, the movement was fragmented into several disputing
factions. By 1980, it was estimated that around 30 Naxalite groups were
active, with a combined membership of 30 000. A 2004 Home Ministry
estimate puts numbers at that time as `9,300 hardcore underground
cadre.( holding) around 6,500 regular weapons beside a large number of
unlicensed country-made arms. More recent figures put the strength of
the movement at 15,000, and claim the guerrillas control an estimated
one fifth of Indias forests, as well as being active in 160 of the countrys
604 administrative districts. Indias Research and Analysis Wing believed
in 2006 that 20,000 Naxals are currently involved in the growing
insurgency.

Today some groups have become legal organisations participating in
parliamentary elections, such as Communist Party of India (Marxist-
Leninist) Liberation. Others, such as Communist Party of India (Maoist)
and Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Janashakti are engaged
in armed guerrilla struggles.

Naxalite-Maoist insurgency
The Naxalite-Maoist insurgency is a low-level war of maoists against the
Indian government. The insurgency started as a peasant rebellion in the
eastern Indian village of Naxalbari in 1967 and has now spread to a large
swath in the central and eastern parts of the country. In 2004 the Maoist
rebel organisation Peoples War Group and the Maoist Communist Centre
of India merged to form the Communist Party of India (Maoist). In 2006
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called the Naxalites "The single biggest
internal security challenge ever faced by our country. In 2009 Manmohan
Singh said the country was "losing the battle against Maoist rebels.

Naxalites claim to be supported by poorest rural population, especially
Dalits and Adivasis. They have frequently targeted tribals, police and
government workers in what they say is a fight for improved land rights
and more jobs for neglected agricultural labourers and the poor and follow
a strategy of rural rebellion similar to that of protracted peoples war
against the government.

Region affected
The rebels claim to operate in 182 districts in India, mainly in the states
of Jharkhand, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh,
Maharashtra and West Bengal. The area affected by Naxalism stretches
from the border with Nepal to Karnataka in the South (2006). In West
Bengal areas west of Howrah are affected by the insurgency. Chhattisgarh
is the epicenter of the conflict (2007).

THE RED CORRIDOR
The Red Corridor is a term used to describe an impoverished region in the east of ndia that experiences
considerable Naxalite maoist militant activity. These are also areas that suffer from the greatest illiteracy, poverty
and overpopulation in modern ndia, and span parts of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand,
Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal states.

According to Judith Vidal-Hall (2006), "More recent figures put the
strength of the movement at 15,000, and claim the guerrillas control an
estimated one fifth of Indias forests, as well as being active in 180 of the
countrys 630 administrative districts.

There exists the pro-democratic and anti-Maoist Salwa Judum, which is a
government sponsored self defense force which was constituted after the
maoists unleashed a campaign of violence against the tribals of
Chhattisgarh.The Ranvir Sena, a caste-supremacist paramilitary of the
upper-caste landlords and proscribed terrorist organisation by the Indian
government, is anti-communist and has been known to kill Dalit civilians
in retaliation to Naxalite activity.

Similar self-defense groups have emerged in Andhra Pradesh during the
last decade. Some of these groups are Fear Vikas, Green Tigers,
Nalladandu, Red Tigers, Tirumala Tigers, Palnadu Tigers, Kakatiya Cobras,
Narsa Cobras, Nallamalla Nallatrachu (Cobras) and Kranthi Sena. Over
ground activists of maoists were axed to death by the Nayeem gang in
1998 and 2000. On 24 August 2005, alleged members of the self-styled
Narsi Cobras killed a maoist activist in Mahbubnagar district.
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ndia at a glance

Politics of reorganization of states Needs complete ...

Facts About ndia

APPSC GROUP-1 EXAM (05-09-2010) CURRENT AFFARS QUESTONS ...

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UrbunIzuLIon In ndIu und Issues
It is more than half of a century that India became independent. The
country has evolved and emerged a lot from pre independence to post
independence era. At the time of independence, the country was poverty
stricken, impoverished and a rural agrarian society. In 1947, only 15 per
cent of the population in cities and towns were classified under urban
areas. The rapid development and economic growth helped the country
achieve the status of emerged nations.

The country is now one of the leading nations among the developing
countries and the progress has made the country leave behind many
developed nations as well. As per recent United Nations development
reports on urbanization, India has achieved 30 per cent urbanization in
2010. The urbanization in India increased from meager 10 per cent in
1901 to more than 30 per cent. However it was much lesser in terms of
rank when compared to other nations that have achieved a higher rate of
urbanization and much less below the world urbanization population of 50
per cent (UNPD World Urbanization Prospects: The2009 Revision).

Urbanization implicates increase in population living in urban areas. An
urban area, according to the Census definition, is one that has (i) a
minimum population of 5,000; (ii) at least 75 per cent of the male
working population engaged in non-agricultural pursuits; and (iii) a
density of population of at least 400 per square kilometre (1,000 per
square mile). With increase in population, the countrys urban population
also increased. The Census 2001 reports that almost 29 percent of
Indians in urban India.

Apart from increase in population the other factors that have contributed
to rapid urbanization are migration from rural sector to urban. This
happened mainly on account of the increasing infrastructural development
to facilitate growth for corporate sector. While the major factor in
initiating migration from rural areas to urban sector was increased
landlessness in agricultural sector, reduced livelihood potentials in rural
sector and increasing employment opportunities in the urban sector with
the growth of industries. The high level of income in urban areas,
education, availabilities of basic amenities, improved infrastructural
facilities and increase in medical facilities were some other factors that
helped increase rapid urbanization.

Among the states, Tamil Nadu is the most urbanized in large states with
almost half of its population living in more than 600 towns. Maharashtra,
Gujarat, Punjab, Karnataka and Haryana are the other states where the
urban population exceeds 30 per cent of the total. In terms of absolute
number of people living in urban areas, Maharashtra led with 41 million in
2001, followed by Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Orissa, Assam and Bihar
are very low in terms of urbanization and remained largely agricultural
states, where less than 20 per cent of the population lives in urban areas.
These are also the states with low per capita incomes since their residents
have little recourse to the opportunities in cities.

The basic features of urban development is increasing infrastructural
facilities, access to improved communication and information
technologies, qualitative living standard, high income spending,
consumerism and improvement in other socio economic parameters.
These areas are also distinguished from the rural counterpart in terms of
demographic indicators like low birth rate, low mortality, increased
longevity, etc. the issues of migration, unemployment are linked to
increasing the urbanization in the country. The seasonal unemployment,
disguised unemployment and other factors that reduce the rural livelihood
potential leads to increased migration towards urban sector.
Improvements in connectivity through better communication and
transport facilities have also made the migration, which was transitory in
nature to permanent migration.

Besides, the increase in population the other factors that increased the
urbanization in India are the development of the sub urban areas that got
upgraded to the urban sector. Thus the peripheral areas got the status of
urban sector. Some other semi urban areas also got upgraded to urban
sector with increased amenities and setting up of institutions. Increase in
village population with improved civic amenities also made these villages
get the status.

Along with increased urbanization some issues emerged with the
urbanization in India. The increase in slums in urban sector became a
major problem. Unplanned growth of residential and commercial
structures, inadequate supply of drinking water facility and increase in
traffic were some other adverse effects that emerged with increase in
urbanization. Also increasing urban population in absence of proportionate
increase in employment opportunities also increased urban rate of
unemployment.

The civic amenities were also curtailed with more persons to benefit from
the existing ones. Some of the cities across India are failing to provide
essential resources to the residents. Some states have managed their
cities better than others. Karnataka is now reportedly the first state to
plan for night shelters for the urban homeless. To address some of the
issues, Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission and multiple
government schemes were initiated by the central and state
governments. Still the urban infrastructure is inadequate to cope even
with the present rate of urbanization, with many cities turning into
haphazard concrete jungles, grappling with growing problems of traffic,
garbage, water and power supply.

The increase in property and assets prices is some other repercussions of
the urban development. Increase in essential commodity price and non
essential commodities price resulted as the demands from urban sector
grew. However issues on inflation and increasing prices pertained to
whole of India which has failed to increase the supply in tandem with
growing population.

Conclusion:
Urbanization in India increased rapidly in post independence era. Despite
the rapid growth rate the country was ranked much lower as compared to
other developing nations of South East Asia. The major factors that
affected urbanization were increase in population, migration from rural
areas and peripheral suburban and semi-urban areas getting the urban
status. However with the urban growth issues related to development also
emerged. There has been increase in slums, reduction in civic amenities,
increase in property prices, increase in prices of other essentials and non
essential commodities.

PoIILIcs oI reorgunIzuLIon oI sLuLes Needs compIeLe revuIuuLIon





The Centre`s decision to create a separate state oI Telangana has caused outright uproar in the
The opposition leader Chandrababu Naidu
changed his stand over Telangana aIter 40 oI his MLAs bowed out disapproving his views.
Bihar ChieI Minister Nitish Kumar said that there should be a reorganisation oI States again
and Iavoured the constitution oI a second States Reorganisation Committee (SRC). While
Iavouring both biIurcation as well as uniIication according to developmental demands, Nitish
Kumar suggested that 'larger States like Maharashtra, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh
should be reorganised, but added that 'there should not be any State smaller than Bihar. It
has to be noted that the demand Ior Telangana has renewed the demand Ior regional
triIurcation oI Bihar into Mithilanchal, Seemanchal and Bhojpur. In Iact, the demand Ior a
separate State oI Seemanchal, which proposes to in- clude 7 districts oI Eastern Bihar, arose
immediately aIter the division oI Bihar. Former Union Minist e r Mohd. Taslimuddin,who
Iirst raised the demand Ior Seemanchal in 1992, said that the 'time was ripe Ior raising the
issue oI smaller States.
The proponents oI a separate State oI Bhojpur desire a State to be carved out Irom 23 districts
oI Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, ostensibly Ior the development oI
the 12 crore Bhojpuri speaking population, with Varanasi as its Capital.
The BJP is apparently in a state oI conIusion over her demands Ior the separate states in UP
because oI the party`s stand against Iurther division oI Madhya Pradesh to pave the way Ior
Bundelkhand.
In UP Mayawati had never prominently Iigured with the demands Ior the creation oI smaller
states beIore her victory in the 2007 Assembly elections. AIter the Iormation oI her current
government, Mayawati spoke in Iavour oI the division oI UP into smaller states. In October
2007, she had publicly supported the demand Ior the creation oI Purvanchal and even tried to
make it an election plank during her campaign in the last Lok Sabha elections. Mayawati
stands a good chance to woo the traditional SP voters oI eastern UP in the name oI a separate
Purvanchal. 'II the Samajwadi Party`s base shrinks in eastern UP, it would be a beneIit oI the
BSP.
PURVANCHAL
UP`s Iormer planning minister Shatrudra Prasad, Iormer Union minister Kalpnath Roy,
Shyamdhra Mishra, Satya Prakash Malviya and Shyam Lal Yadav demanded the separate
state under the banner oI Purvanchal Banao Manch (PBM), which was Iormed on November
3, 1996 and is active in Varanasi region. Another organisation, Purvanchal Rajya Sthapana
Samitee (PRSS), has been active in Gorakhpur region. P K Lahiri, PRSS convener, said the
organisation had approached Gandhian leader Subba Rao to support the demand. A political
party, Purvanchal Banao Dal, was launched in 1994.
BUNDELKHAND
The struggle Ior a separate Bundelkhand is more than two decade old. Although there are
smaller organisations in Iavour oI the demand, it is the Bundelkhand Mukti Morcha
(BMM).KODAGU
Kodagu is one oI the most Iamous hill station in India proudly nicknamed as "Kashmir oI
South"/ "Switzerland oI India" etc.
Argument in Iavour oI the a separate state:
(1) Kodagu was a separate Part C state at one time. This was because we had a separate
identity with regard to geography, culture and ethnicity. Even though Kodagu was merged
with Karnataka in 1956, we have a right to demand, and the Government has a duty to ensure
that our culture and ethnicity is protected. This is only possible by ensuring that the
indigenous communities are not separated Irom their lands.
(2) In the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, most oI the land is not available Ior purchase Ior
people Irom outside the Union Territory. This has been done to protect the indigenous
communities such as the Onges, Jarawas and Sentinels that are heading towards extinction.
Even the relatively larger communities oI Gowdas and Kodavas are just a couple oI lakhs.
(3) Kodagu is the birthplace and the cachment oI River Cauvery. And Cauvery is the liIe line
that sustains millions oI people in South India. Protection oI the environment and ecosystems
oI Kodagu is thereIore in the National Interest, and generally, it is only the indigenous
communities who have the genuine love Ior the land and who will protect the ecology and
environment oI Kodagu, while outsiders who have come in with solely commercial interests
will soon devastate Kodagu by mindless exploitation oI its natural resources.
HARIT PRADESH OR PASCHIMANCHAL
The demand Ior Harit Pradesh is more than a decade old. Sources in the BSP said Mayawati
had supported the demand 12 years back at a public meeting in Mathura. In 1955, the State
Reorganisation Committee had nodded Ior the division oI UP into two parts. So, we won`t
take rest beIore getting our demand IulIilled.
SONANCHAL
There is also a demand Ior the creation oI Sonanchal comprising Mirzapur, Sonbhadra and
Chandauli. In 2005, Sonanchal Sangharsh Samiti had organized meetings in support oI the
demand. This organisation is headed by Hariram Chero.
GORKHALAND
The demand Ior a separate administrative set-up Ior Gorkhas oI India was Iirst voiced in
1907. But it was revived on Iull scale in 1986 by the Gorkha National Liberation Force
(GNLF). The main demand was to have a separate state because under the West Bengal
Government, this area has been neglected and regional disparities have been increased. The
Iormation oI DGHC led to peace Ior some time in area. Under the DGHC Iair amount oI
autonomy was given to deal with welIare and general administration. The GJM was Iormed
by Bimal Gurung, a close associate oI Subhas Ghising, president oI the Gorkha National
Liberation Force (GNLF). He was a councillor oI the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council
(DGHC). The relations between them became worse in 2007 over the attempt to extend 6th
Schedule status to Darjeeling. Under the 6th Schedule oI the Indian Constitution, certain
tribal-majority areas are given autonomy in administration. While the GNLF wanted the 6th
Schedule status with enhanced powers Ior the DGHC, the GJM desired Iull statehood. The
GJM has not only intensiIied the movement but also has expanded area oI the proposed
Gorkhaland by not only incorporating the three hills subdivisions oI Darjeeling, Kalimpong
and Kurseong, but also Siliguri and parts oI the Dooars that Iall in Cooch Behar and
Jalpaiguri districts in North Bengal, extending up to the River Sunkosh on the border with
Bhutan. By expanding the areas, the GJM has not only managed to get the support oI the
Gorkhas but also oI the Adivasis, who Iorm a substantial percentage oI the population oI the
Dooars. They are not Gorkhas, yet many Marwaris, Bengalis, Biharis and others who have
lived in the Darjeeling hills oI West Bengal Ior decades have been braving the rains and the
government's ire to publicly express support Ior the movement Ior Gorkhaland. The
Gorkhaland movement has also Iound support among many Muslims, who are a religious
minority in the hills.
TELANGANA
Why statehood for Telangana?
(a) Due to unemployment and Iailure to implement promises oI development, dissatisIaction
grew among people, agitations spread and regional imbalances, due to uneven development,
continued.
(b) The agreement at the time between Congress leaders oI both the regions on saIeguards
and Ior development oI Telengana and later six point Iormulae were not implemented.
(c) The Andhra state was Iormed in 1953 with its capital in Kurnool. In 1956, ten districts oI
Telangana oI the Iormer Hyderabad state, were merged with Andhra and an integrated state
oI Telugu people, Andhra Pradesh, was created. The capital was shiIted to Hyderabad by way
oI compensation since the people oI Telangana Iavoured a separate existence this was
supported by the State Reorganisation Committee that had recommended linguistic states.
Telangana was the only exception it made to the linguistic principle.
(d) Telangana was a bastion oI Ieudal landlordism and was, compared to coastal Andhra,
backward in educational and inIrastructural Iacilities.
(e) The most vocal are the middle classes and educated sections who are now rallying behind
the demand Ior a separate state.
(I) The acute problems oI unemployment, lack oI irrigation and education Iacilities and socio-
economic backwardness are all caused by bourgeois landlord policies which have distorted
priorities.
(g) The growing disparity between Telengana region and Andhra region has become more
palpable. The extreme rural-urban disparity has been maniIested in the Iorm suicides oI
Iarmers in Telangana region and cyber-growth in Hyderabad.
CENTRAL TRAVANCORE
The proposed Central Travancore Union Territory should carve Irom today's Kerala state.
The Union territory contains today's Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta, Kottayam districts, and parts
oI Kollam, and Idukky district. Alappuzha, Kottayam, or Tiruvalla can designate as Capital
oI this Union Territory. Central Travancore region is one oI the most advanced regions in
India. This region is a Congress- Kerala Congress citadel. Peoples are mostly Right-wing
Conservatives (Syrian Christians, Nairs, Ezhavas, etc). Central Travancore does not want to
suIIer because oI the misdeeds oI the peoples in other parts oI Kerala.
Hence, we want a separate State or Specially Administered Territory. Central Travancore is a
better destination Ior Smart City. Central Travancore government will encourage IT, ITES,
BPO, Biotech, Food Processing, Tourism, Financial Services, Insurance, and Medical sector
to invest in this region.
HISTORY OF REORGANISATION OF STATES
(1) In 1948, S.K.Dhar Commission was constituted to re-examine the reorganization oI states
on linguistic basis. The Commission preIerred reorganization Ior administrative convenience
rather than on linguistic basis.
Various Committees:
(1) S.K. Dhar Commission: 1948: to examine the case Ior the reorganization oI states on
linguistic lines
(2) Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabha Bhai Patel, and Sitaramayya (JVP) Committee: 1948: to
reassess the situation: too did not Iavour a linguistic basis.
(3) Fazl Ali Committee with Pd. H.N.Kunzru and K.M.Pannikar: 1953: to examine the case
Ior the reorganization oI states on historical basis. In 1953, the Iirst linguistic state came into
being Andhra Pradesh, creating by separating the Telugu speaking areas Irom the state oI
Madras.
(4) State Reorganization Commission (SRC): 1956: on linguistic basis: Andhra Pradesh
became the Iirst State on this basis.
By 7th Amendment Act. By this time 14 states (Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Bombay,
Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, MP, Madras, Mysore, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, UP, West
Bengal) and 6 UTs (Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Delhi, HP, Laccadive, Mincoy
and Amandivi, Manipur and Tripura).
CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS
India started its post independence days with 14 states and today it has 28 states. The makers
oI the Indian Constitution empowered the Union Parliament to recognize a new state by a
simple procedure, as provided in Article 3 oI the Constitution. The Part I and Article 1-4
exclusively deals with these provisions. The provisions may be enumerated as:
(1) No Bill Ior the purpose can be introduced in either House oI Parliament except on the
recommendation oI the President; (Article 3)
(2) As per the 5th Amendment Act, 1955, the period oI the Bill reIerred by the President to
the Legislature oI that State Ior expressing its view will be speciIied by him (President) -
Article 3
(3) As per 8th Amendment, 1966, the Bill may be introduced even though the President has
not received the views oI that State
(4) As per Supreme Court verdict in Ramkishore v Union oI India, 1966, the term State`
include Union Territory also.
(5) As per Babulal v State oI Bombay, 1960 once the original Bill is reIerred to the State or
States, no Iresh reIerence shall be required every time an amendment to the Bill is moved.
(6) In the case oI Jammu and Kashmir, no Bill can be introduced in Parliament without the
consent oI the Legislature oI the State.
ADVANTAGES OF A SMALL STATE
PerIormance oI newly created states It is important to note that all three new states have
grown Iabulously Iast. Uttarakhand has averaged 9.31 per cent growth annually, Jharkhand
8.45 per cent, and Chattisgarh 7.35 per cent. At the same time, it has to be reIerred that all
three states belong to what was historically called the BIMARU zone. This has encouraged
the demand to create new states in India.
(1) AIter independence, the role oI Government has changed: Irom a pure law and order-
maintaining agency to a development sponsoring organization. This requires more elaborate
Government machinery. The smaller states would be more viable in this regard.

(2) The smaller states would be more eIIective Ior the Iiscal management.
(3) The popular needs, demands and the problems oI the people in this region could be
articulated and paid attention by the Government, much more than the past.
(4) II the North-East have not shown better results than the Himachal Pradesh and Haryana
have deIinitely shown better results.
(5) Even with the creation oI 3 new states, India still has just over halI as many states as the
USA, with 4 times population.
(6) This allows Ior the greater competition among States as well as Ior more experimentation
and innovation.
(7) The smaller states will have relatively more homogeneous preIerences.
(8) In Iact, India`s problem oI centralization lies not between Centre and the State
government but between State Government and the Local Bodies. This problem would be
less in the smaller states.
(9) The quality oI governance would be better: vertically, there are likely to be Iewer
hierarchies in the administrative structures, which improve the quality oI inIormation that
decision makers receive; and horizontally, the span oI control is smaller, allowing Ior greater
Iocus.
DISADVANTAGES OF A SMALL STATE
(a) It will Iurther lead to regional imbalances in terms oI inIrastructure Iacilities:
(i) Vananchal would means a state with no agricultural land, but Iull oI Iorest and minerals
and it would make Bihar only with agricultural land with no minerals and Iorests;
(ii)Chhattisgarh is backward, there is lack oI basic Iacilities like communication, education,
etc, with virtually no industry;
(iii) Uttarakhand would have tourism as the only source oI income.
(b) In a heterogeneous society, creating new states would lead to the unlimited demand oI
states: demands Ior Eight states are already in the oIIing: Purbanchal, Harit Pradesh and
Bundelkhand in Uttar Pradesh; Bodoland in Assam; Gorkhaland in West Bengal; Telangana
in Andhra Pradesh; Vidarbha in Maharashtra; Saurashtra in Gujarat.
(c) It will add additional wasteIul ad- ministrative expenses in making oI capitals and
buildings.
(d) Only by creating new states is no panacea Ior India`s problems and evidence Irom the
Northeast could be cited to demonstrate that smaller states do not necessarily result in better
economic perIormance.
(e) It may give rise to new Iriction between state and central power too.
BALANCED APPROACH
There are no perceptible relations between Iunctioning and the size oI the state. It depends on
a combination oI Iactors. The most important Iactor is the techno-economic Ieasibility oI the
area. There should be a balance between the existing resources and optimum utilization oI
those resources. Any disbalance may lead to regional disparity and a state oI relative
deprivation. Since India is a classic plural society, thereIore, there should not be any Iixed
basis Ior reorganisation oI states. Article 3 oI the Indian Constitution must be amended in
order to make it compatible to meet new conditions. The hasty process oI reorganisation
should be done away. BeIore going Ior a change, there should be complete survey oI the
aIIected area. All the repercussions must be calculated. Its impact on the economy, culture,
and ethnicity should be analysed. ThereIore, a proper techno-economic survey oI the area,
social-cultural homogeneity and political manageability oI the area should be simultaneously
be considered. There should be holistic survey at the grass-root level. II the basis oI
reorganisation is properly determined then the size does not matter at all. At the same time,
Indian legislators must realize that there is an imperative need to evaluate the sensitive issues
oI internal security and the time is running out. In democracy, certain decisions are delayed
because consensus is every time not possible. But in certain important issues, decisions are to
be taken immediately to ward oII intractable situations. This may be the reason oI the
incorporation oI Article 123. Each any every demand oI the separate state must be calculated
on the basis its merit and requirement. AIter all, good governance is the top priority oI every
political system. II it Iails, then no body at the helm oI accountability can be excused.

Humun DeveIopmenL ReporL zo1o




The 2010 HD Report by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), titled "The Real Wealth of Nations:
Pathways to Human Development celebrates the contributions of the human development approach, which is as
relevant as ever to making sense of our changing world and finding ways to improve people's well-being. The
Report is also about how the human development approach can adjust to meet the challenges of the new
millennium.

ndia is ranked 119 out of 169 countries on the Human Development ndex (HD) of the UNDP's
2010 Human Development Report. This marks an improvement of just one rank between 2005 and 2010 though
the report, a special 20th anniversary edition, places ndia among top 10 performers globally in terms of HD
measured on income growth. The category is led by China. ndia comes 10th after Botswana, South Korea, Hong
Kong, Malaysia and Mauritius.

China has improved eight notches (from 2005 to 2010) to secure the 89th position. n South Asia, Nepal has
gained five places to reach the 138th rank. Maldives has risen four places to 107; Sri Lanka at 91 too has pipped
ndia in the rankings though Pakistan has lost two ranks to fall to 125, while Bangladesh is up one at 129.

Though high on GDP growth, ndia reports severe inequalities (the report for the first time measures inequalities,
gender gaps and multidimensional poverty as markers of human development) while several low-income nations
have posted huge profits by investing in education and health. Nepal is the only South Asian country, which
despite low income, stands as the third best performer in the top 10 movers the report highlights.

While the Congress-led UPA Government can take heart from the fact that ndia's HD value has increased from
0.320 in 1980 to 0.519 in 2010, higher than South Asia's average of 0.516, ndia still lags behind among medium
HD nations. South Asia, particularly ndia, post shocking percentage losses in HD values if inequalities are
counted.

South Asia loses 33 per cent of its HD value if health, education and income disparities are factored in. This is
the second largest loss after sub-Saharan Africa's. ndia fares particularly poorly here, losing 30 per cent overall
on the inequality-adjusted HD. This loss includes 31.3 per cent loss on inequality-adjusted life expectancy index;
40.6 per cent loss on education but only 14.6 per cent loss in income-adjusted HD index.

The best HD ranker in the world, Norway, loses just 6.6 per cent to inequality while China loses 23 per cent and
Bangladesh 29.4 per cent.

On all maj or markers of human development, ndia's neighbours Bangladesh and Pakistan beat it. ndia's life
expectancy at birth is among the lowest, 64.4 years as against China's 73.5; Bangladesh's 66.9, Pakistan's 67.2
and Nepal's 67.5. n mean years of schooling too, ndia lags behind recording 4.4 years while China has 7.5;
Pakistan 4.9 and Bangladesh 4.8. On female labour force participation too, Bangladesh with 61 per cent is much
ahead of ndia, which has just 31 per cent.

The 2010 report uses several new methodologies; hence its indicators are not comparable to those in the earlier
reports.

Human development is about sustaining positive outcomes steadily over time and combating processes that
impoverish people or underpin oppression and structural injustice. Plural principles such as equity, sustainability
and respect for human rights are the key.

Human development is also the expansion of people's freedoms to live long, healthy and creative lives; to
advance other goals they have reason to value; and to engage actively in shaping development equitably and
sustainably on a shared planet. People are both the beneficiaries and the drivers of human development, as
individuals and in groups. This reaffirmation underlines the core of human developmentits themes of
sustainability, equity and empowerment and its inherent flexibility. Because gains might be fragile and vulnerable
to reversal and because future generations must be treated justly, special efforts are needed to ensure that
human development enduresthat it is sustainable.

A major contribution of 2010 HDR is the systematic assessment of trends in key components of human
development over the past 40 years. This retrospective assessment, an important objective for the 20th
anniversary, is the most comprehensive analysis of the HDR to date and yields important new insights.

n some basic respects the world is a much better place today than it was in 1990or in 1970. Over the past 20
years many people around the world have experienced dramatic improvements in key aspects of their lives.
Overall, they are healthier, more educated and wealthier and have more power to appoint and hold their leaders
accountable than ever before.

The world's average HD has increased 18 percent since 1990 (and 41 percent since 1970), reflecting large
aggregate improvements in life expectancy, school enrolment, literacy and income. But there has also been
considerable variability in experience and much volatility, themes to which we return below.

Almost all countries have benefited from this progress. Of 135 countries in our sample for 19702010, with 92
percent of the world's people, only 3the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia and Zimbabwehave a
lower HD today than in 1970.

Overall, poor countries are catching up with rich countries in the HD. This convergence paints a far more
optimistic picture than a perspective limited to trends in income, where divergence has continued. But not all
countries have seen rapid progress, and the variations are striking. Those experiencing the slowest progress are
countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, struck by the HV epidemic, and countries in the former Soviet Union, suffering
increased adult mortality.

The top HD movers (countries that have made the greatest progress in improving the HD) include well known
income "growth miracles such as China, ndonesia and South Korea. But they include otherssuch as Nepal,
Oman and Tunisiawhere progress in the non-income dimensions of human development has been equally
remarkable. t is striking that the top 10 list contains several countries not typically described as top performers.
And Ethiopia comes in 11th, with three other Sub-Saharan African countries (Botswana, Beninand Burkina Faso)
in the top 25.

Not all countries have progressed rapidly, and the variation is striking. Over the past 40 years a quarter of
developing countries saw their HD increase less than 20 percent, another quarter, more than 65 percent. These
differences partly reflect different starting pointsless developed countries have on average faster progress in
health and education than more developed ones do. But half the variation in HD performance is unexplained by
initial HD, and countries with similar starting points experience remarkably different evolutions, suggesting that
country factors such as policies, institutions and geography are important.

Health advances have been large but are slowing. The slowdown in aggregate progress is due largely to
dramatic reversals in 19 countries. n nine of themsix in Sub-Saharan Africa and three in the former Soviet
Unionlife expectancy has fallen below 1970 levels. The causes of these declines are the HV epidemic and
increased adult mortality in transition countries.

Progress in education has been substantial and widespread, reflecting not only improvements in the quantity of
schooling but also in the equity of access to education for girls and boys. To a large extent this progress reflects
greater State involvement, which is often characterized more by getting children into school than by imparting a
high-quality education.

Progress in income varies much more. However, despite aggregate progress, there is no convergence in
incomein contrast to health and educationbecause on average rich countries have grown faster than poor
ones over the past 40 years. The divide between developed and developing countries persists: a small subset of
countries has remained at the top of the world income distribution, and only a handful of countries that started out
poor have joined that high-income group.

Understanding the Patterns and Drivers of Human DeveIopment
One of the most surprising results of human development research in recent years is the lack of a significant
correlation between economic growth and improvements in health and education. Research shows that this
relationship is particularly weak at low and medium levels of the HD. This is traceable to changes in how people
become healthier and more educated. The correlation in levels today, which contrasts with the absence of
correlation in changes over time, is a snapshot that reflects historical patterns, as countries that became rich
were the only ones able to pay for costly advances in health and education. But technological improvements and
changes in societal structures allow even poorer countries today to realize significant gains.

The unprecedented flows of ideas across countries in recent timesranging from health-saving technologies to
political ideals and to productive practiceshave been transformative. Many innovations have allowed countries
to improve health and education at very low costwhich explains why the association between the income and
non-income dimensions of human development has weakened over time.

ncome and growth remain vital. ncome growth can indicate that opportunities for decent work are expanding
though this is not always soand economic contractions and associated job losses are bad news for people
around the world. ncome is also the source of the taxes and other revenues that governments need in order to
provide services and undertake redistributive programs. Thus, increasing income on a broad basis remains an
important policy priority.

One important aspect is how relationships between markets and States are organized. Governments have
addressed, in a range of ways, the tension between the need for markets to generate income and dynamism and
the need to deal withmarket failures. Markets may be necessary for sustained economic dynamism, but they do
not automatically bring progress in other dimensions of human development. Development that overly favours
rapid economic growth is rarely sustainable. n other words, a market economy is necessary, but not enough.

Regulation, however, requires a capable State as well as political commitment, and State capability is often in
short supply. Some developing country governments have tried to mimic the actions of a modern developed
State without having the resources or the capacity to do so. For example, import substitution regimes in many
Latin American countries floundered when countries tried to develop a targeted industrial policy. n contrast, an
important lesson of the East Asian successes was that a capable, focused State can help drive development and
the growth of markets. What is possible and appropriate is context specific.

Beyond the State, civil society actors have demonstrated the potential to curb the excesses of both the market
and the State, though governments seeking to control dissent can restrict civil society activity.

The dynamics can be virtuous when countries transition to both inclusive market institutions and inclusive political
institutions. But this is difficult and rare. Oligarchic capitalism tends to spell its own demise, either because it
stifles the productive engines of innovationas in the failed import substitution regimes of Latin America and the
Caribbeanor because material progress increases people's aspirations and challenges the narrow elite's grip
on power, as in Brazil, ndonesia and South Korea since the 1990s.

Human development is not only about health, education and income. Even when countries progress in the HD,
they do not necessarily excel in the broader dimensions. t is possible to have a high HD and be unsustainable,
undemocratic and unequal just as it is possible to have a low HD and be relatively sustainable, democratic and
equal. These patterns pose important challenges for how we think about human development, its measurement
and the policies to improve outcomes and processes over time.

Trends conducive to empowerment include the vast increases in literacy and educational attainment in many
parts of the world that have strengthened people's ability to make informed choices and hold governments
accountable. The scope for empowerment and its expression have broadened, through both technology and
institutions. n particular, the proliferation of mobile telephony and satellite television and increased access to the
nternet has vastly increased the availability of information and the ability to voice opinions.

The share of formal democracies has increased from less than a third of countries in 1970 to half in the mid-
1990s and to three-fifths in 2008. Many hybrid forms of political organization have emerged. While real change
and healthy political functioning have varied, and many formal democracies are flawed and fragile, policy-making
is much better informed by the views and concerns of citizens. Local democratic processes are deepening.
Political struggles have led to substantial change in many countries, greatly expanding the representation of
traditionally marginalized people, including women, the poor, indigenous groups, refugees and sexual minorities.

Recent years have also exposed the fragility of some of the achievementperhaps best illustrated by the biggest
financial crisis in several decades, which caused 34 million people to lose their jobs and 64 million more people
to fall below the $1.25 a day income poverty threshold. The risk of a "double-dip recession remains, and a full
recovery could take years.

But perhaps the greatest challenge to maintaining progress in human development comes from the un-
sustainability of production and consumption patterns. For human development to become truly sustainable, the
close link between economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions needs to be severed. Some developed
countries have begun to alleviate the worst effects through recycling and investment in public transport and
infrastructure. But most developing countries are hampered by the high costs and low availability of clean energy.

New measures for an evoIving reaIity
Over the years the HDR has introduced new measures to evaluate progress in reducing poverty and empowering
women. But lack of reliable data has been a major constraint. This year HDR has introduced three new indices to
capture important aspects of the distribution of well-being for inequality, gender equity and poverty. They reflect
advances in methods and better data availability.

Adjusting the Human Development Index for inequality. Reflecting inequality in each dimension of the HD
addresses an objective first stated in the 1990 HDR. 2010 report introduces the nequality-adjusted HD (HD), a
measure of the level of human development of people in a society that accounts for inequality. Under perfect
equality the HD and the HD are equal. When there is inequality in the distribution of health, education and
income, the HD of an average person in a society is less than the aggregate HD; the lower the HD (and the
greater the difference between it and the HD), the greater the inequality.

A new measure of gender inequality. The disadvantages facing women and girls are a major source of
inequality. All too often, women and girls are discriminated against in health, education and the labour market
with negative repercussions for their freedoms. A new measure of these inequalities, built on the same
framework as the HD and the HDto better expose differences in the distribution of achievements between
women and menhas been introduced. The Gender nequality ndex shows that gender inequality varies
tremendously across countriesthe losses in achievement due to gender inequality (not directly comparable to
total inequality losses because different variables are used) range from 17 percent to 85 percent. The
Netherlands tops the list of the most gender-equal countries, followed by Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland.

Countries with unequal distribution of human development also experience high inequality between women and
men, and countries with high gender inequality also experience unequal distribution of human development.
Among the countries doing very badly on both fronts are Central African Republic, Haiti and Mozambique.

A multidimensional measure of poverty. Like development, poverty is multidimensionalbut this is
traditionally ignored by headline figures. 2010 report introduces the Multi-dimensional Poverty ndex (MP), which
complements money-based measures by considering multiple deprivations and their overlap. The index identifies
deprivations across the same three dimensions as the HD and shows the number of people who are poor
(suffering a given number of deprivations) and the number of deprivations with which poor households typically
contend. t can be de-constructed by region, ethnicity and other groupings as well as by dimension, making it an
apt tool for policy-makers.

About 1.75 billion people in the 104 countries covered by the MPa third of their populationlive in
multidimensional povertythat is, with at least 30 percent of the indicators reflecting acute deprivation in health,
education and standard of living. This exceeds the estimated 1.44 billion people in those countries who live on
$1.25 a day or less (though it is below the share who live on $2 or less). The patterns of deprivation also differ
from those of income poverty in important ways: in many countriesincluding Ethiopia and Guatemala the
number of people who are multi-dimensionally poor is higher. However, in about a fourth of the countries for
which both estimates are availableincluding China, Tanzania and Uzbekistanrates of income poverty are
higher.

Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest incidence of multi-dimensional poverty. The level ranges from a low of 3
percent in South Africa to a massive 93 percent in Niger; the average share of deprivations ranges from about 45
percent (in Gabon, Lesotho and Swaziland) to 69 percent (in Niger). Yet half the world's multi-dimensionally poor
live in South Asia (844 million people), and more than a quarter live in Africa (458 million).

The impacts of the HDR have illustrated that policy thinking can be informed and stimulated by deeper
exploration into key dimensions of human development. An important element of this tradition is a rich agenda of
research and analysis. This Report suggests ways to move this agenda forward through better data and trend
analysis. But much is left to do.

Three priorities are: improving data and analysis to inform debates, providing an alternative to conventional
approaches to studying development, and increasing our understanding of inequality, empowerment, vulnerability
and sustainability.

The economics of growth and its relationship with development, in particular, require radical rethinking. A vast
theoretical and empirical literature almost uniformly equates economic growth with development. ts models
typically assume that people care only about consumption; its empirical applications concentrate almost
exclusively on the effect of policies and institutions on economic growth.

The central contention of the human development approach, by contrast, is that well-being is about much more
than money: it is about the possibilities that people have to fulfil the life plans they have reason to choose and
pursue. Thus, our call for a new economicsan economics of human developmentin which the objective is to
further human well-being and in which growth and other policies are evaluated and pursued vigorously insofar as
they advance human development in the short and long term.

Indigenous PeopIes and InequaIity in Human DeveIopment
An estimated 300 million indigenous peoples from more than 5,000 groups live in more than 70 countries. Some
two-thirds reside in China.1 ndigenous peoples often face structural disadvantages and have worse human
development outcomes in key respects. For example, recent Mexican government analyses show that while
extreme multidimensional poverty is 10.5 percent nationally, it exceeds 39 percent among indigenous Mexicans.

When the Human Development ndex (HD) is calculated for aboriginal and non-aboriginal people in Australia,
Canada, New Zealand and the United States, there is a consistent gap of 618 percent. ndigenous peoples in
these countries have lower life expectancy, poorer education outcomes and smaller incomes. n ndia 92 percent
of people of Scheduled Tribes live in rural areas, 47 percent of them in poverty. n Chhattisgarh, with a sizeable
share of Scheduled Tribes, the State-wide literacy rate is 64 percentbut that of tribal peoples is only 22 percent.

Some evidence suggests that a schooling gap between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples remains. n
China, ndia and Lao PDR geography, climate and discrimination based on ethnicity make it difficult to deliver
basic infrastructure to remote areas, where many indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities live.

Work in Latin America and the Caribbean exploring access to land and this aspect of discrimination shows that a
focus on broad-based economic growth can benefit indigenous peoples but is unlikely to be enough to close the
gap. More targeted strategies are needed, as proposed by indigenous peoples and as informed by their views
and priorities.

Three Success Stories in Advancing the Human DeveIopment Index
Some countries have succeeded in achieving high human development following different pathways.

NepaI-major pubIic poIicy push. That Nepal is one of the fastest movers in the Human Development ndex
(HD) since 1970 is perhaps surprising in light of the country's difficult circumstances and record of conflict.
Nepal's impressive progress in health and education can be traced to maj or public policy efforts. Free primary
education for all children was legislated in 1971 and extended to secondary education in 2007. Gross enrolment
rates soared, as did literacy later on. Remarkable reductions in infant mortality reflect more general successes in
health following the extension of primary healthcare through community participation, local mobilization of
resources and decentralization. The gap between Nepal's life expectancy and the world average has narrowed
by 87 percent over the past 40 years. By contrast, economic growth was modest, and the lack of jobs led many
Nepalese to seek opportunities abroad.

Nepal is still a poor country, with enormous scope to improve human development. t ranks 138th of 169
countries in the HD. Large disparities in school attendance and the quality of education persist, particularly
between urban and rural areas and across ethnic groups. Major health challenges remain, related to
communicable diseases and malnutrition.

Oman-converting oiI to heaIth and education. Oman has had the fastest progress in the HD. Abundant oil
and gas were discovered in the late 1960s, so our data capture the evolution from a very poor to a very rich
country, showing a quadrupling of gross enrolment and literacy rates and a 27-year increase in life expectancy.

But even in Oman economic growth is not the whole story. Although first in HD progress, it ranks 26th in
economic growth since 1970, when it had three primary schools and one vocational institute. ts initiatives to
convert oil wealth into education included expanding access and adopting policies to match skills to labour
market needs. Health services also improved: from 1970 to 2000 government spending on health rose almost
six-foldmuch faster than GDP.

Tunisia-education a poIicy focus. Tunisia's success extends to all three dimensions of the HD, with
education a major policy focus. School enrolment has risen substantially, particularly after the country legislated
10 years of compulsory education in 1991. There has also been some progress in gender equity: about 6 of 10
university students are women. But large inequalities persist, as Tunisia's modest (56th of 138 countries) ranking
on our new Gender nequality ndex demonstrates.

Rapid decline in fertility and high vaccination rates for measles and tuberculosis have yielded successes in
health, as has eradication of polio, cholera, diphtheria and malaria. Annual per capita income growth has been
around 3 percent over the past 40 years, linked to fiscal and monetary prudence and investment in transport and
communication infrastructure.

India's NationaI RuraI EmpIoyment Guarantee Act
ndia's National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) of 2005, the world's largest public works programme
ever, provides basic social security for rural workers: a universal and legally enforceable right to 100 days of
employment per rural household on local public works at minimum wage. Labourers who are not given work
within 15 days of asking for it are entitled to unemployment benefits.

The act has other noteworthy features:

O Encouraging women's participation. A third of employment generated is to be set aside for women and
provided within 5 kilometres of their village; child care facilities (if required) must be provided at the work-site.
O Decentralizing planning and implementation. At least half of allocated funds are to be spent by elected
local councils; village assemblies are to select and prioritize projects.
O Creating rural assets. People are to be employed to create public assets (such as roads and check-
dams) as well as assets on private lands (such as land improvement and wells).
O mposing strict norms for transparency and accountability. All documents are to be publicly available,
with proactive disclosure of essential documents (such as attendance records), and periodic audits are to be
carried out by village representatives. n fiscal year 2009/2010 ndia spent almost $10 billion (approximately 1
percent of GDP) on the programme, and 53 million households participated.

On average, each participating household worked for 54 days. Disadvantaged groups joined in large numbers; a
majority of workers were members of Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes, and more than half were women.

Payments of minimum wages and improved work conditions at NREGA work-sites have created pressure for
similar improvements in the private labour market, benefiting all rural workers. Distress migration to urban areas
has slowed. And for many rural women programme earnings are an important source of economic independence.
As Haski, a tribal woman from Rajasthan, said when asked who decided how programme wages should be
spent: "Main ghar ki mukhiya hoon ( am the head of the household).

Refining the Human DeveIopment Index
The Human Development ndex (HD) remains an aggregate measure of progress in three dimensionshealth,
education and income. But in 2010 report the indicators used to measure progress in education and income have
been modified, and the way they are aggregated has been changed.

n the knowledge dimension mean years of schooling replaces literacy, and gross enrolment is recast as
expected years of schoolingthe years of schooling that a child can expect to receive given current enrolment
rates. Mean years of schooling is estimated more frequently for more countries and can discriminate better
among countries, while expected years of schooling is consistent with the reframing of this dimension in terms of
years. deally, measures of the knowledge dimension would go beyond estimating quantity to assessing quality,
as several National and Regional Human Development Reports (HDRs) have done.

To measure the standard of living, gross national income (GN) per capita replaces gross domestic product
(GDP) per capita. n a globalized world differences are often large between the income of a country's residents
and its domestic production. Some of the income residents earn is sent abroad, some residents receive
international remittances and some countries receive sizeable aid flows. For example, because of large
remittances from abroad, GN in the Philippines greatly exceeds GDP, and because of international aid, Timor-
Leste's GN is many times domestic output.

A key change was to shift to a geometric mean (which measures the typical value of a set of numbers): thus in
2010 the HD is the geometric mean of the three dimension indices. Poor performance in any dimension is now
directly reflected in the HD, and there is no longer perfect substitutability across dimensions. This method
captures how well rounded a country's performance is across the three dimensions. As a basis for comparisons
of achievement, this method is also more respectful of the intrinsic differences in the dimensions than a simple
average is. t recognizes that health, education and income are all important, but also that it is hard to compare
these different dimensions of well-being and that we should not let changes in any of them go unnoticed.

ncome is instrumental to human development but higher incomes have a declining contribution to human
development. And the maximum values in each dimension have been shifted to the observed maximum, rather
than a predefined cut-off beyond which achievements are ignored.

SOME GOVERNMENT PROGRAMMES


TwenLy PoInL Progrumme
The Twenty Point Programme was initially launched by Prime Minister ndira Gandhi in 1975 and was
subsequently restructured in 1982 and again on 1986.With the introduction of new policies and programmes it
has been finaIIy restructured in 2006 and it has been in operation at present. The Programmes and Schemes
under TPP-2006 are in harmony with the priorities contained in the National Common Minimum Programme, the
Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations and SAARC Social Charter. The restructured Programme,
called Twenty Point Programme 2006 (TPP-2006), was approved by the Cabinet on 5thOctober, 2006 and
operated w.e.f 1.4.2007.
Objective:
The basic objective of the 20-Point Programme is to eradicate poverty and to improve the quality of life of the
poor and the under privileged population of the country. The programme covers various Socio-economic aspects
like poverty, employment, education, housing, health, agriculture and land reforms, irrigation,drinking water,
protection and empowerment of weaker sections, consumer protection, environment etc.
The 20 points of the Programme and its 66 items have been carefully designed and selected to achieve the
above objectives.
The 20 Point Program Consisted following:
1. Attack on rural poverty
2. Strategy for Rained agriculture
3. Better use of irrigation water
4. Bigger harvest
5. Enforcement of Land Reforms
6. Special Programs for rural labour
7. Clean drinking water
8. Health for all
9. two child norm
10. expansion of education
11. Justice for SC / ST
12. Equality for women
13. New Opportunities for women
14. Housing for the people
15. mprovement for slums
16. New Strategy for Forestry
17. Protection of environment
18. concern for the consumer
19. Energy for the villages
20. A responsive administration
The TPP further restructured in 2006 has following Points:
1. Poverty eradication
2. power to people
3. Support to farmers
4. Labour welfare
5. Food security
6. Clean drinking water
7. Housing for all
8. Health for all
9. Education for all
10. Welfare of SC/ ST/ OBC and minorities
11. Women welfare
12. Child welfare
13. Youth Development
14. mprovement of slums
15. Environment protection and afforestation
16. Social security
17. Rural Roads
18. Energising of rural areas
19. Development of Backward areas
20. T enabled and e-governance
The monitoring of the programme at the centre has been assigned to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme
mplementation, Government of ndia. The management information system relating to Twenty Point developed
by the Ministry consists of a monthly Progress Report (MPR) and yearly Review of the Programme, Point-wise,
tem-wise and State-wise. The monthly report covers progress on the implementation of the programme for 20
crucial points for which there is pre-set physical targets and the Yearly Review presents an analytical review of
the performance of all the items under the programme.

Among the 20 points and 66 items mentioned earlier, 25 items are monitored on monthly basis. n the Monthly
Progress Reports, prepared and published by the Central Nodal Department, ranking among States are being
prepared and published depending on the percentage of achievements against targets of 20 ranking
items/parameters (in case of West Bengal). Up til now, this Department has received and furnished
consolidated MPR, in the prescribed format, for the month of January '2008. The list of ranking items and their
physical progress reports against targets are furnished below for better comprehension of the subject. t is
pertinent to mention here that among the ranking 20 items/parameters, the monthly reports for three tems are
being directly submitted to the central Nodal Department by the concerned implementing Departments. This
State Nodal Department then sends reports for the following 17 items parameters.
1. Total Swarojgaries Assisted under SGSY (Panchayat Department & RD)
2. SHGs to whom income Generating activities provided
3. Rural Housing ndira Awas Yojna (Housing Departments)
4. EWS/LG Houses in urban Areas
RuraI Areas
5. (a) Accelerated Rural water supply programme
(b) Slipped back habitations with water quality problems
Immunization of chiIdren
6. (a) Routine mmunisation (Health Department*)
(b) Pulse Polio mmunisation
7. SC Families Assisted (Backward Classes welfare Department)
8. Universalising of CDS Scheme [CDS Blocks Operational (cum)]
9. Functional Anganwadis (cum)
9. No. of poor Families Assisted under 7 point charter (Municipal Affairs/UDmplementing Agency )
Afforestation
11. (a) Area covered under Plantation (Forest Department)
(b) No. of Seedings Planted (Forest Department)
12. Rural Roads PMGSY ( Panchayats and R & D)
13. Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyntikaran Jojana Villages electrified
14. Energising pump sets ((Power Department)
uwuIur Rozgur Yojnu
Jawahar Rozgar Yojna was launched on ApriI 1, 1989 by merging ational RuralEmployment Program (REP)
and Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme (RLEGP). At the end of Seventh Five Year Plan
So this was a consolidation of the previous employment programs and it was largest National Employment
Program of ndia at that time with a general objective of providing 90-100 Days Employment per person
particularly in backward districts. People below Poverty Line were main targets.
The Yojna was implemented on rural scale. Every village was to be covered through Panchayati Raj nstitutions.
The village got aide and support from District Rural Development Authority. Expenditures were born by central &
state in 80:20 ratios.
Since 1993-94 the Yojna was made more targets oriented and expanded substantially through increased
budgetary allocations. t was divided into 3 streams:
First Stream: Comprising general works under JRY and also two sub schemes ndira Awas Yojna and Million
Wells Scheme. This stream got 75% of the total allocation. n ndira Awas Yojna the allocation was increased
from 6% to 10 % and in Million Wells Scheme from 20% to 30 % during that period.
Second Stream: This was also called intensified JRY and was implemented in selected 120 backward districts. t
got 20% allocation.
Third Stream: This was left with 5 % allocation for nnovative programs which included Prevention of labor
migration, drought proofing watershed etc. programs.
Since ApriI 1, 1999 this Yojna was repIaced by Jawahar Gram samridhi Yojna. Later from September 25,
2001, Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojna was merged with Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojna
AcceIeruLed Power DeveIopmenL und ReIorm Progrumme (APDRP)
Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme or APDRP has been undertaken from the year 2000-
01 with the twin obj ectives of financial turn-around in the performance of the power sector especially in electric
distribution and improvement in quality of supply. The role of APDRP is to act as a catalyst for bringing about the
desired changes through funding arrangements for implementing schemes.
The schemes are targeted towards improving financial viability and customer satisfaction. The scheme comprises
of 25% grant and 25% of soft loans from the Central Government to the State Government. The remaining 50%
resources have to be generated by State Government. The states also have to commit themselves for agreed
loss improvement and collection improvement.
APDRP mainly focuses on six aspects i.e. Customer, Feeder, Distribution Circle, SEB, State and the Nation.
Objectives:
1. Improving financiaI viabiIity: This can be achieved by reducing Transmission and Distribution (T&D) losses
and improving revenue collections.
2. Reduction of T&D Iosses to around 10 %: The reported total T&D losses are 24 % on an all ndia average
basis. Losses including pilferage and wrong classification are much higher in some pockets of ndia. Thus, the
higher losses are mainly due to commercial losses. The T&D losses are pegged at around 10% in better
managed power systems in the developed countries. n some States of ndia where private utilities are in place,
the T&D loss is about 11 %, which is close to the world benchmark of 7 to 8 %. This also points out that the loss
figure of around 10 to 15 % is achievable in better administered organizations. Privatization has better scope to
show efficiency improvement.
. Improving customer satisfaction: Customer satisfaction can be improved by providing better quality power
through reduced voltage fluctuations and improved availability.
4. Transparency through Computerization: Along with 100 % energy metering in the districts, it is necessary to
enforce energy accounting and auditing as per Energy Conservation Act 2001. Energy accounting system should
be able to take input data automatically at various levels from central meter reading control system. Based on this
data, energy accounting system should be able to provide information about the losses and pilferages at various
levels.
Most of the States have initiated actions to implement schemes under APDRP programme. Tamil Nadu has
introduced the concept of reliability index for power supply in six cities and towns - Chennai, Coimbatore, Tiruchi,
Madurai, $alem and Tirunelveli. Tata Power monitors reliability indices such as CAIFI, CAIDI, $AIFI, $AIDI, etc.
for Mumbai distribution. Andhra Pradesh has started computing power supply reliability index for 20 towns and
has also put in place an effective anti-pilferage legislation. The State has set up call centres in all district
headquarters and has planned to set them in the rural areas in near future. n States where feeder and consumer
metering have been completed, immediate gains in revenue ranging from 20 to 30 % have been visible. Other
States are in the process of implementing such projects.

In the Union Budget 2009-10, AIIocation under AcceIerated Power DeveIopment and Reform Programme
(APDRP) increased by 160 per cent to Rs.2,080 crore in B.E. 2009-10 over B.E. 2008-09.
RujIv Awus Yojunu
O Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) is a new scheme announced by the Presidentearlier in 2009, focuses on slum
dwellers and the urban poor.
O This scheme aims at promoting a slum-free ndia in five years and would focus on according property
rights to slum dwellers.
O The scheme will focus on according property rights to slum dwellers and the urban poor by the states
and union territories.
O t would provide basic amenities such as water supply, sewerage, drainage, internal and approach
roads, street lighting and social infrastructure facilities in slums and low income settlements adopting a 'whole
city' approach. t would also provide subsidized credit.
O Allocation for housing and provision of basic amenities to urban poor enhanced to Rs.3,973 crore in the
Union Budget 2009-10. This includes provision of Rs. 150 Crore for Rajiv Awas Yoj ana (RAY).
O As per the UPA government's proposal for this scheme , the schemes for affordable housing through
partnership and the scheme for interest subsidy for urban housing would be dovetailed into the Rajiv Awas
Yojana which would extend support under JNNURM to States that are willing to assign property rights to people
living in slum areas.
O The Government's effort would be to create a slum free ndia through the Rajiv Awas Yojana.
O The Concept Note on RAY was finalized and sent to Planning Commission for their 'in principle'
approval. The Planning Commission has accorded its 'in principle' approval for the proposed scheme recently.
The draft guidelines of the scheme has been prepared and circulated to all States/UTs/Central Ministries and
experts/NGOs for comments.
O Developing a robust database on slums is critical for implementation of the proposed Raj iv Awas Yojana
(RAY). The Ministry of HUPA has released funds for Slum/Household/Livelihoods surveys in 394 class cities
having more than one lakh population in the country.
O The surveys are in progress. Funds will also be released for other towns/cities in a phased manner. An
e-enabled MS is being developed for processing of data and building a national database.
In the Union Budget 2010-11, the outIay for Rajiv Awas Yojna has been provided for Rs. 1270 Crore.
uwuIurIuI NeIru NuLIonuI Urbun RenewuI MIssIon (NNURM)
Cities and towns of ndia constitute the world's second largest urban system. They contribute over 50% of
country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and are central to economic growth. For these cities to realize their full
potential and become true engines of growth, it is necessary that focused attention be given to the improvement
of infrastructure therein. For achieving this obj ective, a Mission mode approach is essential.
JNNURM was Iaunched on rd December 2005.
Objectives:
1. Focused attention to integrated development of basic services to the urbanpoor Security of
tenure at affordable price, improved housing, water supply, sanitation;
2. Convergence of services in fields of education, health and social security
3. As far as possible providing housing near the place of occupation of the urban poor
4. Effective linkage between asset creation and asset management to ensure efficiency
5. Scaling up delivery of civic amenities and provision of utilities with emphasis on universal
access to urban poor.
6. Ensuring adequate investment of funds to fulfill deficiencies in the basic services to the urban
poor.
Sub Missions: JNNURM comprises two Sub-Missions :
1. Urban nfrastructure and Governance (UG) (Sub-mission )
2. Basic Services to the Urban Poor Urban (BSUP) (Sub-mission )
There are, in addition, two other components:
1. Urban nfrastructure Development of Small & Medium Towns (UDSSMT)
2. ntegrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (HSDP)
Number of Cities as of December 20, 2009:
O The number of cities in Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission is 65 by the end of 2009.
The last two cities added are Tirupati and Porbundar.
Purchase of Buses:
1. Under the second stimulus package announced by the Government on 2.1.2009, it has been
decided that States, as a one time measure upto 30.6.2009 would be provided assistance under the
JNNURM for the purchase of buses for their urban transport systems.
2. Accordingly under the scheme launched by the Ministry of Urban Development, a total of
15260 buses have been approved for 61 JNNURM cities at a total cost of Rs.4723.94 crore out of which
total admissible Central Assistance would be Rs.2088.05 crore.
Progress in UIG Component:
1. For Urban nfrastructure and Governance (UG) component Additional Central
Assistance(ACA) for was increased from Rs 25,500 crore to Rs 31,500 crore for the Year 2009.
2. Under the UG component of JNNURM, 20 projects were sanctioned during 2009, bringing total
number of projects sanctioned under the UG component since inception (i.e. since 3rd December 2005)
to 481.
Progress in UIDSSMT component:
1. Seven year allocation for the Urban nfrastructure Development for Small and Medium Towns
(UDSSMT) component was raised from Rs 6400 crore to Rs 11,400 crore in the Year 2009.
New Schemes:
Two new Schemes were launched in 2009
1. The Asian Development Bank assisted North Eastern Region Urban Development Programme
(NERUDP) covering Agartala, Shillong, Aizawl, Kohima and Gangtok
2. Scheme for infrastructure development in the satellite towns around the seven mega cities.
Proposed Programme Management Unit :
1. To strengthen the capacity of State Level Nodal Agency (SLNA) to effectively coordinate
implementation of proj ects and reforms under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission,
Ministry of Urban Development has proposed to support a Programme Management Unit (PMU) at the
SLNA.
2. The financial support for establishing PMUs was initiated in June 2007. Based on proposals
sent by the states the Mission Directorate has approved 19 PMUs of which, 10 states have established
arid operationalized PMUs.
Project ImpIementation Unit (PIU)
O The Mission Directorate is providing financial and technical support to establish Project mplementation
Units (PUs) at the municipal level, to enhance their capability to effectively implement projects and reforms under
JNNURM. The PU is meant to be an operations unit supplementing and enhancing the existing skill mix of the
ULB, rather than a supervisory body. The Mission Directorate has approved 45 PUs of which 26 PUs have
established andd operationalized by the ULBs.
Independent Review and Monitoring Agency (IRMA)
1. RMAs are agencies to be appointed by the states for monitoring of the progress of
implementation of the projects sanctioned under the JNNURM so that the funds released are utilized in
a purposeful and time-bound manner.
2. The proposals of Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, West
Bengal, Pudducherry, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka for
appointment of RMA have been approved by the CSMC.
3. RMAs have been established in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,
Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Rajasthan.
4. The states of Bihar, Delhi, Nagaland, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh are in the process of
appointing RMAs.
5. For the states of Chandigarh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Sikkim,
Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and Goa, Ministry of Urban
Development has initiated steps for appointment of RMAs on behalf of these States.
6. CSMC has approved the selection of firms for appointment of RMAs in these States and
States have been intimated about the decision for entering into the agreement with the selected firms.
Peer Experience and RefIective Learning (PEARL)
1. The "Peer Experience and Reflective Learning (PEARL) programme was launched to foster
cross learning and knowledge sharing through networking among the Mission cities.
2. To achieve this objective, the Mission supported formation of groups/networks amongst
JNNURM cities having similar socio-economic profile and urban issues, along with natural affinity to
peer pair.
3. The National nstitute of Urban Affairs (NUA) has been appointed as the National Coordinator
for the PEARL programme for coordinating the overall functioning of the networks, with an appreciation
of the independent self driven nature of the networks, and assisting the Mission Directorate in
supporting and monitoring the programme.
4. Under the programme, network of heritage cities have organized knowledge sharing
workshops.
5. A website has been made operational providing tools to support networking and knowledge
sharing. NUA has brought out a newsletter "PEARL Update.
Credit Rating in JNNURM
1. JNNURM has undertaken an exercise for assessment of finances and credit worthiness of the
Mission ULBs, through process of credit rating.
2. This is intended to trigger the process of leveraging debt for JNNURM projects and to provide a
platform for the ULBs and financial institutions to engage on issues related to project financing.
3. Presently, 59 ULBs in the Mission cities have been assigned final rating and made public. Four
workshops have been conducted for dissemination of ratings and bringing the ULBs in contact with the
banks financial institutions.
4. The surveillance rating has been initiated in Feb 2009. The surveillance ratings will include, but
will not be restricted to major developments since last rating, issues / concerns raised, by the rating
agencies, during the first round of rating, and rationale for re-affirming /changing the ratings.
Programme Management and EvaIuation System (PMES)
1. PMES has been developed as a comprehensive web-enabled Management nformation
System (MS) which will serve to cover all the critical aspects of programme implementation. ntensive
hands-on training for City as well as State level officials has been conducted to ensure effective use of
the application.
2. Further rounds of training have been planned and will be rolled out shortly. PMES is live for all
States covering 52 Mission cities, training for which have been completed.
PubIic Private Partnership (PPP) initiatives
1. The Mission Cities have agreed to include promotion of PPP through appropriate policies and
projects as a part of the reforms agenda.
2. A number of States such as Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka,
Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan, West Bengal, have adopted PPP policy.
3. PPP cell has also been established by Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Karnataka, Punjab
and West Bengal for promotion of PPP for infrastructure projects in their States.
4. PPP initiatives have been taken by ndore, Vadodara, Pune and Ahmedabad for establishing
City Bus Service.
EstabIishment of City VoIuntary TechnicaI Corp. (CVTC)
1. City Volunteer Technical Corps (CVTC's) and City Technical Advisory Groups (CTAG's) are
voluntary groups of professionally qualified persons in the sectors of urban planning, urban governance,
urban engineering, legal and financial services and urban poverty.
2. Their setting up was being facilitated by the National Technical Advisory Group (NTAG) on
request of the ULBs.
Community Participation Fund
1. A Community Participation Fund (CPF) has been established on 4.6.2007 by the Mission
Directorate with the initial corpus of Rs. 100 crore with the provision of Rs.90 crore for the projects
during the remaining years of mission period.
2. So far 39 proposals under CPF have been approved.
NationaI Mission Mode project (NMMP) on e-Governance in MunicipaIities as part of JNNURM
1. A Mission Mode Project on e-Governance in municipalities has been prepared by this Ministry
to make urban governance more efficient and effective.
2. Since local government is the first interface between citizens and government this initiative
would solve a number of problems that the people in towns and cities are facing due to rapid
urbanization. t would assist improved service delivery, decentralization, better information management
& transparency, citizen's involvement in government, improved interaction between local governments
and its citizens as well as other interest groups like NGOs, CBOs, RWAs, etc.
3. t has been decided that initially the scheme would be a part of Jawaharlal Nehru National
Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) for 35 cities with population of over 10 lakh and a new Centrally
Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for other cities and towns would be taken up after watching the
implementation under JNNURM.
4. Accordingly, the guidelines on NMMP on e-Governance in municipalities have been prepared
and circulated to the States/ULBs for submission of DPRs.
5. Six projects on e-governance in Municipalities have since been approved for the city of
Vijayawada, Nagpur, Kochi, Pune, Navi Mumbai and Ulhasnagar.
JUST Project
1. JNNURM Urban Strengthening and Transformation (JUST) Proj ect [Capacity Building for
Urban Development -CBUD] is a World Bank assisted project.
2. t consists of US$ 60 million combining US$ 40 million for Urban Development component and
US$ 20 million for Urban Poverty component in 20 participating ULBs which would implement at least
two reforms covering financial management, planning governance, service delivery as well as poverty
reducing strategies.
3. The selection of the 20 ULBs would be done by the CSMC involving a mix from leading and
lagging states using criteria for urban governance, provisioning of urban services and urban poverty.
Capacity BuiIding Scheme for Urban LocaI Bodies (CBULB)
1. n order to strengthen the capacities of Urban Local Bodies other than those towns and cities
not covered under JNNURM and UDSSMT, Ministry of Urban Development, Government of ndia has
formulated a scheme viz. 'Capacity Building Scheme for Urban Local Bodies' (CBULB) having a total
outlay for Rs. 125 crore for 11th Five Year Plan with the objective of setting up of centres of excellence
in the field of urban development.
2. Under this scheme, financial assistance is being extended to dentified nstitutions/Cities/States
for aforesaid obj ectives. At present, Ministry of Urban Development has received proposals from
Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Maharashtra, Kerala and Karnataka Governments for financial assistance
under CBULB scheme.
NuLIonuI RuruI EmpIoymenL GuurunLee AcL (NREGA)
1. NREGA is designed as a safety net to reduce migration by rural poorhouseholds in the lean
period through A hundred days of guaranteed unskilled manual labour provided when demanded at
minimum wage on works focused on water conservation, land development & drought proofing.
2. Notification of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act came in September 2005. t was
launched on February 2, 2006.
3. NREGA is the flagship programme of the UPA Government that directly touches lives of the
poor and promotes inclusive growth.
4. The Act aims at enhancing livelihood security of households in rural areasof the country by
providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every
household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
5. The ongoing programmes of Sampoorn Grameen Rozgar Yojna & National Food for Work
Programme were subsumed within this programme in the 200 of the most backward districts of the
country, in which it was introduced in phase -1 .
6. n phase-2 it was introduced in 130 additional districts.
7. The scheme was extended to 274 rural districts from April 1, 2008 in phase-3.
8. NREGA is the first ever law internationally, that guarantees wage employment at an
unprecedented scale.
9. Dr. Jean Drze, a Belgian born economist, at the Delhi School of Economics, has been a major
influence on this project.
What are Objectives of NREGA?
1. Augmenting wage employment.
2. Strengthening natural resource management through works that address causes of chronic
poverty like drought, deforestation and soil erosion and so encourage sustainable development.
3. Strengthening grassroots processes of democracy
4. nfusing transparency and accountability in governance.
5. Strengthening decentralization and deepening processes of democracy by giving a pivotal role
to the Panchayati Raj nstitutions in planning, monitoring and implementation.
What are the Unique Features of NREGA?
1. Time bound employment guarantee and wage payment within 15 days
2. ncentive-disincentive structure to the State Governments for providing employment as 90 per
cent of the cost for employment provided is borne by the Centre or payment of unemployment allowance
at their own cost and emphasis on labour intensive works prohibiting the use of contractors and
machinery.
3. The Act mandates a 33 percent participation for women.
How NREGA is ImpIemented? The following image shows the key processes in the implementation of NREGA.



1. Cost sharing : Central Government 3/4th , State Government 1/4th
2. Adult members of rural households submit their name, age and address with photo to the Gram
Panchayat.
3. The Gram panchayat registers households after making enquiry and issues a job card. The job
card contains the details of adult member enrolled and his /her photo.
4. Registered person can submit an application for work in writing (for at least fourteen days of
continuous work) either to panchayat or to Programme Officer.
5. The panchayat/programme officer will accept the valid application and issue dated receipt of
application, letter providing work will be sent to the applicant and also displayed at panchayat office.
6. The employment will be provided within a radius of 5 km: if it is above 5 km extra wage will be
paid.
7. f employment under the scheme is not provided within fifteen days of receipt of the application
daily unemployment allowance will be paid to the applicant.
NREGA & Union Budget 2009-10:
1. During 2008-09, NREGA provided empIoyment opportunities for more than 4.47 crore
househoIds as against .9 crore househoIds covered in 2007-08.
2. Govt. is committed to providing a real wage of Rs.100 a day as an entitlement under the
NREGA.
3. To increase the productivity of assets and resources under NREGA, convergence with other
schemes relating to agriculture, forests, water resources, land resources and rural roads is being
initiated. n the first stage, a total of 115 pilot districts have been selected for such convergence.
4. Govt of ndia has proposed an allocation of Rs.39,100 crore for the year 2009-10 for NREGA
which marks an increase of 144% over 2008-09 Budget Estimates.
How Monitoring & EvaIuation is Done in NREGA?
1. The Ministry has set up a comprehensive monitoring system. For effective monitoring of the
projects 100% verfication of the works at the Block level, 10% at the District level and 2% at the State
level inspections need to be ensured.
2. n order to optimize the multiplier effects of NREGA, the Ministry has set up a Task Force to
look at the possibility of convergence of programmes likeNational Horticulture Mission, Rashtriya Krishi
vikas Yojana, Bharat Nirman, Watershed Development with NREGA.
3. These convergence efforts will add value to NREGA, works and aid in creating durable efforts
and also enable planned and coordinated public investments in rural areas.
CriticaI Issues of NREGA, how they are addressed?
1. Issues ReIated to Job Cards: To ensure that rural families likely to seek unskilled manual
labour are identified & verify against reasonably reliable local data base so that nondomiciled
contractor's workers are not used on NREGA works . What is done for this problem? Job card
verification is done on the spot against an existing data base and Reducing the time lag between
application and issue of job cards to eliminate the possibility of rentseeking, and creating greater
transparency etc. Besides ensuring that Job Cards are issued prior to employment demand and work
allocation rather than being issued on work sites which could subvert the aims of NREGA
2. Issues reIated to AppIications: To ascertain choices and perceptions of households
regarding lean season employment to ensure exercise of the right to employment within the time
specified of fifteen days to ensure that works are started where and when there is demand for labour,
not demand for works the process of issuing a dated acknowledgement for theapplication for
employment needs to be scrupulously observed. n its absence, the guarantee cannot be exercised in
its true spirit
3. Issues ReIated to SeIection of Works: Selection of works by gram sabha in villages and
display after approval of shelf of projects, to ensure public choice, transparency and accountability and
prevent material intensive, contractor based works and concocted works records
4. Issues reIated to Execution of Works: At least half the works should be run by gram
panchayats . Maintenance of muster roll by executing agency -numbered muster rolls which only show
job card holders must be found at each work-to prevent contractor led works
5. Issues reIated to measurement of work done: Regular measurement of work done
according to a schedule of rural rates sensitive Supervision of Works by qualified technical personnel on
time. Reading out muster rolls on work site during regular measurement -to prevent bogus records and
payment of wages below prescribed levels
6. Issues reIated to Payments: Payment of wages through banks and post offices -to close
avenues for use of contractors, short payment and corruption
7. Audit : Provision of adequate quality of work site facilities for women and men labourers
Creation and maintenance of durable assets Adequate audit and evaluation mechanisms Widespread
institution of social audit and use of findings
Some Points:
1. Rozgar Jagrookta Puruskar award has been introduced to recognize outstanding
Contributions by Civil society Organizations at State, District, Block and Gram Panchayat levels to
generate awareness about provisions and entitlements and ensuring compliance with implementing
processes.
2. The government has engaged professional institutions like Ms, Ts and agricultural
universities to assess the implementation of NREGA across the country.
Sumpoornu Grumeen Rozgur Yojunu (SGRY)
This scheme has been merged with NREGS since February 2006 so only most important points are given below:
1. The Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY) was launched on 25 September, 2001 by
merging the on-going schemes of EAS (Employment Assurance Scheme) and the JGSY (Jawahar
Gram Samridhi Yojna)
2. Objective was to providing additional wage employment and food security, alongside creation
of durable community assets in rural areas.
3. The annual outlay was Rs.10, 000 crore which included 50 lakh tones on food grains.
4. The cash component shared between the Centre and the States in the ratio of 75:25.
5. Food grains were provided free of cost to the States/UTs.
6. Minimum wages paid to the workers through a mix of minimum five kg of food grains and at
least 25 per cent of wages in cash.
7. mplemented by all the three tiers of Panchayati Raj nstitutions. Each level of Panchayat was
an independent unit for formulation of Action.
8. Resources distributed among District Panchayats, ntermediate Panchayats and the Gram
Panchayats in the ratio of 20:30:50.
9. Contractors not permitted to be engaged for execution of any of the works and no
middlemen/intermediate agencies can be engaged for executing works under the scheme.
NuLIonuI ood or ork Progrumme
1. This program was subsumed with the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in
February 2006.
2. The National Food for Work Programme was launched in November 2004 in 150 most
backward districts of the country, identified by the Planning Commission in consultation with the Ministry
of Rural Development and the State governments.
3. The objective of the programme was to provide additional resources apart from the resources
available under the Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY) to 150 most backward districts of the
country so that generation of supplementary wage employment and providing of food-security through
creation of need based economic, social and community assets in these districts are further intensified.
4. The scheme was 100 per cent Centrally sponsored.
5. The programme has since been subsumed in National Rural Employment Guarantee Act which
has come in force in 200 identified districts of the country including 150 NFFWP districts.
6. The Act provided 100 days of work guarantee to every rural household whose members
volunteer to do unskilled manual work.

ndIu uL u gIunce

A blend of the traditional and the modern, ndia is one of the oldest civilizations and the world's largest democracy. t is home to 1
billion-plus people professing various faiths and speaking in different tongues. But what binds them together is a sense of 'ndianness'
which is hard to define, but could be sensed instinctively amid all this mind-boggling diversity. A vibrant multi-lingual, multi-cultural and
multi-faith society, ndia is seen by many as a model pluralistic society based on its twin ethos of tolerance and mutual respect.
Comprising twenty-eight states and seven union territories, ndia is home to all major religions of the world. But the state makes no
distinction between them, allowing each ndian citizen constitutional guarantees to pursue freedom in the broadest sense - freedom of
expression and freedom to pursue the religion of one's choice.

This dazzling diversity has spawned a unique composite culture and created an unmatched reservoir of talent and enterprise in the
country. People are ndia's greatest resource and strength. And it can be seen in all-encompassing socio-economic progress this nation
has made during the last 61 years of its independence. The world has taken note and has been generous with its praise of the ndia
Growth Story. Small wonder, ndia is now seen as an emerging Asian power and an important participant in the ongoing search for
global solutions to global problems ranging from terrorism and poverty eradication to climate change and energy security.

ndia has become self-sufficient in agricultural production and is now the tenth industrialised country in the world. t is the sixth nation to
have gone into outer space, not to militarise it, but to create a better life for its people. Anybody coming to ndia for the first time or
wishing to know it better will be struck by its sheer size and diversity. The country is spread over an area of 32,87,2631 square km,
extending from the snow-covered Himalayan heights to the tropical rain forests of the south. As the 7th largest country in the world,
ndia stands apart from the rest of Asia, marked off as it is by mountains and the sea, which give the country a distinct geographical
entity. Bound by the Great Himalayas in the north, it stretches southwards and at the Tropic of Cancer, tapers off into the ndian Ocean
between the Bay of Bengal on the east and the Arabian Sea on the west.

GEOGRAPHY:
Location: ndia, with an area of 3.3 million sq. km, is a subcontinent. The peninsula is separated from mainland Asia by the Himalayas.
The country lies between 8 4' and 37 6' north of the Equator and is surrounded by the Bay of Bengal in the east, the Arabian Sea in
the west and the ndian Ocean to the south.

The mainland comprises four regions, namely the great mountain zone, plains of the Ganga and the ndus, the desert region, and the
southern peninsula.

The Himalayas form the highest mountain range in the world, extending 2,500 km over northern ndia. Bound by the ndus river in the
west and the Brahmaputra in the east, the three parallel ranges, the Himadri, Himachal and Shivaliks have deep canyons gorged by the
rivers flowing into the Gangetic plain.

Indian Standard Time GMT + 05:30

Area 3.3 Million sq. km

TeIephone Country Code +91

Border: Countries Afghanistan and Pakistan to the north-west; China, Bhutan and Nepal to the north; Myanmar to the east; and
Bangladesh to the east of West Bengal. Sri Lanka is separated from ndia by a narrow channel of sea, formed by the Palk Strait and the
Gulf of Mannar.

CoastIine: 7,516.6 km encompassing the mainland, Lakshadweep slands, and the Andaman & Nicobar slands.

CIimate: The climate of ndia can broadly be classified as a tropical one. But, in spite of much of the northern part of ndia lying beyond
the tropical zone, the entire country has a tropical climate marked by relatively high temperatures and dry winters. There are four
seasons:
Winter (December-February)
Summer (March-June)
South-west monsoon season (June-September)
Post monsoon season (October-November)

River Systems


The rivers may be classified as follows: (a) the Himalayan, (b) the Deccan, (c) the coastal and (d) the rivers of the inland drainage basin.
The Himalayan rivers are generally snow-fed and flow throughout the year. During the monsoon months (June to September), the
Himalayas receive very heavy rainfall and the rivers carry the maximum amount of water, causing frequent floods. The Deccan rivers
are generally rain-fed and, therefore, fluctuate greatly in volume. A very large number of them are non-perennial. The coastal rivers,
specially on the west coast, are short and have limited catchment areas. Most of these are non-perennial as well. The rivers on the
inland drainage basin are few and ephemeral. They drain towards individual basins or salt lakes like the Sambhar or are lost in the
sands, having no outlet to the sea.

NaturaI Resources: Coal, iron ore, manganese ore, mica, bauxite, petroleum, titanium ore, chromite, natural gas, magnesite,
limestone, arable land, dolomite, barytes, kaolin, gypsum, apatite, phosphorite, steatite, fluorite, etc.

NaturaI Hazards: Monsoon floods, flash floods, earthquakes, droughts, and landslides.

PEOPLE:

ndia is a country with probably the largest and most diverse mixture of races. All five major racial types - Australoid, Mongoloid,
Europoid, Caucasian and Negroid - find representation among the people of ndia, who are mainly a mixed race.

The people of ndia belong to diverse ethnic groups. At various periods of ndia's long history, successive waves of settlers and
invaders, including the Aryans, Parthians, Greeks and Central Asians, came into the country and merged with the local population. This
explains the variety of racial types, cultures and languages in ndia.

NationaIity: ndian

POPULATION
ndia's population as on 1 March 2001 stood at 1,028 million (532.1 million males and 496.4 million females). ndia accounts for a
meagre 2.4 per cent of the world surface area of 135.79 million sq km. Yet, it supports and sustains a whopping 16.7 per cent of the
world population.

The population of ndia, which at the turn of the twentieth century was around 238.4 million, increased to 1,028 million at the dawn of the
twenty-first century.

The population of ndia as recorded at each decennial census from 1901 has grown steadily except for a decrease during 1911-21.


POPULATION DENSITY
One of the important indices of population concentration is the density of population. t is defined as the number of persons per sq km.
The population density of ndia in
2001 was 324 per sq km. The density of population increased in all States and Union Territories between 1991 and 2001. Among major
states, West Bengal is still the most thickly populated state with a population density of 903 in 2001. Bihar is now the second highest
densely populated state pushing Kerala to the third place. Ranking of the
States and Union Territories by density is shown in table 1.3.

LITERACY
For the purpose of the Census 2001, a person aged seven and above, who can both read and write in any language, is treated as
literate. A person, who can only read but cannot write, is not literate. n the censuses prior to 1991, children below five years of age
were necessarily treated as illiterates.

The results of 2001 census reveal that there has been an increase in literacy in the country. The literacy rate in the country is 64.84 per
cent, 75.26 for males and
53.67 for females.

PopuIation Growth Rate: The average annual exponential growth rate stands at 1.93 per cent during 1991-2001.

Birth Rate: The Crude Birth Rate according to the 2001 census is 24.8

Death Rate: The Crude Death Rate according to the 2001 census is 8.9

Life Expectancy Rate: 63.9 years (Males); 66.9 years (Females) (As of Sep 2005)

Languages
ndia has about 15 major languages and 844 different dialects. Hindi, spoken by about 45 per cent of the population, is the national
language. English has also been retained as a language for official communication.


GOVERNMENT


Country Name: Republic of ndia; Bharat Ganrajya

Government Type: Sovereign Socialist Democratic Republic with a parliamentary system of Government.

CapitaI: New Delhi

Administrative Divisions: 28 States and 7 Union Territories.

Independence: August 15, 1947 (From British Colonial Rule)

Constitution: The Constitution of ndia came into force on 26th January 1950.

LegaI System: The Constitution of ndia is the source of the legal system in the Country.

Executive Branch: The President of ndia is the head of the state, while the Prime Minister is the head of the government, and runs it
with the support of the council of ministers, who form the cabinet.

LegisIative Branch: The ndian legislature is a bi-cameral one, comprising the Lok Sabha (House of the People) and the Rajya Sabha
(Council of States).

JudiciaI Branch: The Supreme Court of ndia is the apex body of the ndian legal system, followed by other High Courts and
subordinate courts.

NationaI FIag : The National Flag is a horizontal tricolour of deep saffron at the top, white in the middle, and dark green at the bottom in
equal proportion. At the centre of the white band is a navy blue wheel, which is a representation of the Ashoka Chakra at Sarnath.

NationaI Days: 26th January (Republic Day)
15th August (ndependence Day)
2nd October (Gandhi Jayanti; Mahatma Gandhi's Birthday)

ReIigions: According to the 2001 census, out of the total population of 1.028 million in the country, Hindus constituted the majority with
80.5%, Muslims came second at 13.4%, followed by Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and others.

Hinduism: The Hindu religion had its origin in the concepts of the early Aryans who came to ndia more than 4,000 years ago. t is not
merely a religion but also a philosophy and a way of life. t does not originate in the teachings of any one prophet or holy book. t
respects other religions, and does not attempt to seek converts. t teaches the immortality of the human soul, and three principal paths
to ultimate union of the individual soul with the all pervasive spirit.

The essence of the Hindu faith is embodied in the Bhagavad Gita, a philosophical poem that never ceases to surprise readers with new
insights into life and man's fate in the world. "He who considers this(self) as a slayer or he who thinks that this(self) is slain, neither
knows the Truth. For it does not slay, nor is it slain. This (self) is unborn, eternal, changeless, ancient, it is never destroyed even when
the body is destroyed," says a verse in the Gita.

Jainism and Buddhism: n the sixth century before Christ, Mahavira propagated Jainism. His message was asceticism, austerity and
non-violence.

At about the same time, Buddhism came into being. Gautama Buddha, a prince, renounced the world and gained enlightenment. He
preached that "nirvana" was to be attained through the conquest of self. Buddha's teachings in time spread to China and some other
countries of South-East Asia.

IsIam: Arab traders brought slam to South ndia in the seventh century. After them came the Afghans and the Mughals. Akbar, seen as
the most enlightened Mughal emperor, almost succeeded in founding a new religion Din-e-Elahi, based on a blend of different religions
including Hinduism and slam, but it failed to find many adherents.

slam has flourished in ndia through the centuries. Muslim citizens have occupied some of the highest positions in the country since
independence in 1947. ndia today is the second largest Muslim country in the world, next only to ndonesia.

Sikhism: Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism in the 15th century, stressed the unity of God and the brotherhood of man. Sikhism, with
its affirmation of God as the one supreme truth and its ideals of discipline and spiritual striving, soon won many followers. t was
perhaps possible only in this hospitable land that two religions as diverse as Hinduism and slam could come together in a third, namely
Sikhism.

Christianity: Christianity reached ndia not long after Christ's own lifetime, with the arrival of St. Thomas, the Apostle. The Syrian
Christian Church in southern ndia traces its roots to the visit of St. Thomas. With the arrival of St. Francis Xavier in 1542, the Roman
Catholic faith was established in ndia. Today, Christians of several denominations practice their faith freely.

Zoroastrianism: n the days of the old Persian empire, Zoroastrianism was the dominant religion in West Asia. n the form of Mithraism,
it spread over vast areas of the Roman Empire, as far as Britain.

After the slamic conquest of ran, a few intrepid Zoroastrians left their homeland and sought refuge in ndia. The first group is said to
have reached Diu in about 766 A.D.

Their total world population probably does not exceed 130,000. With the exception of some 10,000 in ran, almost all of them live in
ndia. The vast majority of Parsis are concentrated inMumbai. The Parsis excel in industry and commerce, and contribute richly to the
intellectual and artistic life of the nation.

Judaism: The Jewish contact with the Malabar coast in Kerala, dates back to 973 BC when King Solomon's merchant fleet began
trading for spices and other fabled treasures. Scholars say that the Jews first settled in Cranganore, soon after the Babylonian conquest
of Judea in 586 BC. The immigrants were well received and a Hindu king granted to Joseph Rabban, a Jewish leader, a title and a
principality.


NationaI SymboIs


STATE EMBLEM
The state emblem is an adaptation from the Sarnath Lion Capital of Ashoka. n the original, there are four lions,
standing back to back, mounted on an abacus with a frieze carrying sculptures in high relief of an elephant, a galloping
horse, a bull and a lion separated by intervening wheels over a bell-shaped lotus. Carved out of a single block of
polished sandstone, the Capital is crowned by the Wheel of the Law (Dharma Chakra).
n the state emblem, adopted by the Government of ndia on 26 January 1950, only three lions are visible, the fourth
being hidden from view. The wheel appears in relief in the centre of the abacus with a bull on right and a horse on left
and the outlines of other wheels on extreme right and left. The bell-shaped lotus has been omitted. The words
Satyameva Jayate from Mundaka Upanishad, meaning 'Truth Alone Triumphs', are inscribed below the abacus in
Devanagari script.


NATIONAL ANTHEM
The song Jana-gana-mana, composed originally in Bengali by Rabindranath Tagore, was adopted in its Hindi version by the Constituent
Assembly as the National Anthem of ndia on 24 January 1950. t was first sung on 27 December 1911 at the Kolkata Session of the
ndian National Congress. The complete song consists of five stanzas.

(As published in Volume Eight of Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library, Popular Edition 1972)
Jana-gana-mana-adhinayaka, jaya he
Bharata-bhagya-vidhata.
Punjab-Sindh-Gujarat-Maratha
Dravida-Utkala-Banga
Vindhya-Himachala-Yamuna-Ganga
Uchchala-Jaladhi-taranga.
Tava shubha name jage,
Tava shubha asisa mange,
Gahe tava jaya gatha,
Jana-gana-mangala-dayaka jaya he
Bharata-bhagya-vidhata.
Jaya he, jaya he, jaya he,
Jaya jaya jaya, jaya he!

Playing time of the full version of the national anthem is approximately 52
seconds.
A short version consisting of the first and last lines of the stanza (playing time approximately 20 seconds) is also played on certain
occasions.

The following is Rabindranath Tagore's English rendering of the anthem :
Thou art the ruler of the minds of all people,
Dispenser of ndia's destiny.
Thy name rouses the hearts of Punjab, Sind,
Gujarat and Maratha,
Of the Dravida and Orissa and Bengal;
t echoes in the hills of the Vindhyas and Himalayas,
mingles in the music of Jamuna and Ganges and is
chanted by the waves of the ndian Sea.
They pray for thy blessings and sing thy praise.
The saving of all people waits in thy hand,
Thou dispenser of ndia's destiny.
Victory, victory, victory to thee.

NATIONAL SONG
The song Vande Mataram, composed in Sanskrit by Bankimchandra Chatterji, was a source of inspiration to the people in their struggle
for freedom. t has an equal status with Jana-gana-mana. The first political occasion when it was sung was the 1896 session of the
ndian National Congress.

The following is the text of its first stanza :Vande Mataram!
Sujalam, suphalam, malayaja shitalam,
Shasyashyamalam, Mataram!
Shubhrajyotsna pulakitayaminim,
Phullakusumita drumadala shobhinim,
Suhasinim sumadhura bhashinim,
Sukhadam varadam, Mataram!

The English translation of the stanza rendered by Sri Aurobindo in prose is :
bow to thee, Mother,
richly-watered, richly-fruited,
cool with the winds of the south,
dark with the crops of the harvests,
The Mother!
Her nights rejoicing in the glory of the moonlight,
her lands clothed beautifully with her trees in flowering bloom,
sweet of laughter, sweet of speech,
The Mother, giver of boons, giver of bliss.

NATIONAL CALENDAR

The national calendar based on the Saka Era, with Chaitra as its first month and a normal year of 365 days, was adopted from 22
March 1957 along with the Gregorian calendar for the following official purposes: (i) Gazette of ndia, (ii) news broadcast by All ndia
Radio, (iii) calendars issued by the Government of ndia and (iv) Government communications addressed to members of the public.
Dates of the national calendar have a permanent correspondence with dates of the Gregorian calendar, 1 Chaitra falling on 22 March
normally and on 21 March in
leap year.

NATIONAL ANIMAL
The magnificent tiger, Panthera tigris, a striped animal is the national animal of ndia. t has a thick yellow coat of
fur with dark stripes. The combination of grace, strength,
ability and enormous power has earned the tiger its pride of place as the national animal of ndia. Out of eight
races of the species known, the ndian race, the Royal Bengal Tiger, is found throughout the country except in the
north-western region, and also in neighbouring countries, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.


NATIONAL BIRD
The ndian peacock, Pavo cristatus, the national bird of ndia, is a colourful, swansized bird, with
a fan-shaped crest of feathers, a white patch under the eye and a long, slender neck. The male of the species is more colourful than the
female, with a glistening blue breast and neck and a spectacular bronze-green tail of around 200 elongated feathers. The female is
brownish, slightly smaller than the male and lacks the tail.


NATIONAL FLOWER
Lotus (Nelumbo Nucipera Gaertn) is the National Flower of ndia. t is a sacred flower and occupies a unique position in
the art and mythology of ancient ndia, and has been an auspicious symbol of ndian culture since time immemorial.


NATIONAL TREE
The Banyan Tree (Ficus benghalensis) is the National Tree of ndia. This huge tree towers over its neighbours and has
the widest reaching roots of all known trees, easily covering several acres.


NATIONAL FRUIT
Mango (Manigifera indica) is the National fruit of ndia. Mango is one of the most widely grown fruits of the tropical
countries. n ndia, mango is cultivated almost in
all parts, with the exception of hilly areas. Mango is a rich source of Vitamins A, C and D. n ndia, we have
hundreds of varieties of mangoes. They are of different
sizes, shapes and colours.


FLORA
With a wide range of climatic conditions from the torrid to the arctic, ndia has a rich and varied vegetation, which
only a few countries of comparable size possess. ndia can be divided into eight distinct-floristic-regions, namely,
the western Himalayas, the eastern Himalayas, Assam, the ndus plain, the Ganga plain, the Deccan, Malabar
and the Andamans.
The Western Himalayan region extends from Kashmir to Kumaon. ts temperate zone is rich in forests of chir,
pine, other conifers and broad-leaved temperate trees.
Higher up, forests of deodar, blue pine, spruce and silver fir occur. The alpine zone extends from the upper limit of the temperate zone
of about 4,750 metres or even higher. The characteristic trees of this zone are high-level silver fir, silver birch and junipers. The eastern
Himalayan region extends from Sikkim eastwards and embraces Darjeeling, Kurseong and the adjacent tract. The temperate zone has
forests of oaks, laurels, maples, rhododendrons, alder and birch. Many conifers, junipers and dwarf willows also occur here. The Assam
region comprises the Brahamaputra and the Surma valleys with evergreen forests, occasional thick clumps of bamboos and tall
grasses. The ndus plain region comprises the plains of Punjab, western Rajasthan and northern Gujarat. t is dry and hot and supports
natural vegetation. The Ganga plain region covers the area which is alluvial plain and is under cultivation for wheat, sugarcane and rice.
Only small areas support forests of widely differing types.

The Deccan region comprises the entire table land of the ndian Peninsula and supports vegetation of various kinds from scrub jungles
to mixed deciduous forests.

The Malabar region covers the excessively humid belt of mountain country parallel to the west coast of the Peninsula. Besides being
rich in forest vegetation, this region produces important commercial corps, such as coconut, betelnut, pepper, coffee and tea, rubber
and cashewnut. The Andaman region abounds in evergreen, mangrove, beach and diluvial forests. The Himalayan region extending
from Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh through Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, Meghalaya and Nagaland and the Deccan Peninsula is rich in
endemic flora, with a large number of plants which are not found elsewhere.

ndia is rich in flora. Available data place ndia in the tenth position in the world and fourth in Asia in plant diversity. From about 70 per
cent geographical area surveyed so far, over 46,000 species of plants have been described by the Botanical Survey of ndia (BS),
Kolkata. The vascular flora, which forms the conspicuous vegetation cover, comprises 15,000 species. The flora of the country is being
studied by BS and its nine circle/field offices located throughout the country along with certain universities and research institutions.

Ethno-botanical study deals with the utilisation of plants and plant products by ethnic races. A scientific study of such plants has been
made by BS. A number of detailed ethno-botanical explorations have been conducted in different tribal areas of the country. More than
800 plant species of ethno-botanical interest have been collected and identified at different centres.

Owing to destruction of forests for agricultural, industrial and urban development, several ndian plants are facing extinction. About
1,336 plant species are considered vulnerable and endangered. About 20 species of higher plants are categorised as possibly extinct
as these have not been sighted during the last 6-10 decades. BS brings out an inventory of endangered plants in the form of a
publication titled Red Data Book.

FAUNA
The Zoological Survey of ndia (ZS), with its headquarters in Kolkata and 16 regional stations, is responsible for
surveying the faunal resources of ndia. Possessing a tremendous diversity of climate and physical conditions,
ndia has great variety of fauna numbering over 89,000 species. Of these, protista number 2,577, mollusca
5,070, anthropoda 68,389, amphibia 209, mammalia 390, reptilia 456, members of protochordata 119, pisces
2,546, aves 1,232 and other invertebrates 8,329.

The mammals include the majestic elephant, the gaur or ndian bisonthe largest of existing bovines, the great ndian rhinoceros, the
gigantic wild sheep of the Himalayas, the swamp deer, the thamin spotted deer, nilgai, the four-horned antelope, the ndian antelope or
black-buck the only representatives of these genera. Among the cats, the tiger and lion are the most magnificent of all; other splendid
creatures such as the clouded leopard, the snow leopard, the marbled cat, etc., are also found.

Many other species of mammals are remarkable for their beauty, colouring, grace and uniqueness. Several
birds, like pheasants, geese, ducks, mynahs, parakeets, pigeons, cranes, hornbills and sunbirds inhabit forests
and wetlands.

Rivers and lakes harbour crocodiles and gharials, the latter being the only representative of crocodilian order in
the world. The salt water crocodile is found along the eastern coast and in the Andaman and Nicobar slands. A project for breeding
crocodiles which started in 1974, has been instrumental in saving the crocodile from extinction.

The great Himalayan range has a very interesting variety of fauna that includes the wild sheep and goats, markhor, ibex, shrew and
tapir. The panda and the snow leopard are found in the upper reaches of the mountains.

The depletion of vegetative cover due to expansion of agriculture, habitat destruction, over-exploitation, pollution, introduction of toxic
imbalance in community structure, epidemics, floods, droughts and cyclones, contribute to the loss of flora and fauna. More than 39
species of mammals, 72 species of birds, 17 species of reptiles, three species of amphibians, two species of fish and a large number of
butterflies, moth and beetles are considered vulnerable and endangered.

(Source: ndia 2009, Ministry of Environment, Planning Commission, Ministry of Health, Press nformation Bureau, Census of ndia,
Ministry of External Affairs, Union Budget, Reserve Bank of ndia, ndia 2005 - A Reference Annual, www.indiainbusiness.nic.in)

Dowry: u socIuI sLIgmu


In spite of modernization and the increasing role of women in all walks of
life, the practice of the dowry in India is becoming widespread, and the
value of dowry is increasing. Now the dowry has become a great criterion
in the marriages instead of a proper bride. If a brides family fails to pay
the amount of dowry demanded by the prospective grooms family, the
bride will be cruelly treated by the in-laws, and in many cases will be
burnt to death.

"No dowry, no marriage, is a widespread fear in present day society.
There has also been an emergence of a feudal mindset with a materialistic
attitude in a new globalized economy. The price tag for the groom is now
bigger and bolder. The emergence of an affluent middle class, the
torchbearer of social change in modern India, is the main factor for the
perpetuation of the dowry system.

Dowry is derived from the ancient Hindu customs of "kanyadan and
"stridhan. In "kanyadan, the father of the bride offers the father of the
groom money or property, etc. whereas for "stridhan, the bride herself
gets jewelry and clothes at the time of her marriage, usually from her
relatives or friends. In "varadakshina, the father of the bride presents
the groom cash or kind. All of these could be done voluntarily and out of
affection and love. Payment of a dowry, gift-often financial, has a long
history in many parts of the world. In India, the payments of a dowry was
prohibited in 1961 under Indian civil law and subsequently by Sections
304B and 498a of the Indian Penal Code were enacted to make it easier
for the wife to seek redress from potential harassment by the husbands
family. Dowry laws have come under criticism as they have been misused
by women and their families.

It has become politically fashionable to attribute all forms of violence and
discrimination against women, including female infanticide and female
foeticide to the economic burden of dowry that a daughter is said to
represent.

Dowry requirements are used as another excuse for considering
daughters a burden. The anti-dowry movement, by limiting itself to the
constant repetition of 'dowry abolition' as a panacea for women's
empowerment and as the primary strategy for ending their oppression,
has only helped give further legitimacy to the conventional belief that
daughters are an economic liability.

We need to combat the culture of disinheritance if we wish to effectively
combat the growing hold of dowry culture.

There is little mention of exorbitant dowries causing the ruin of families in
the literature of pre-British India. Ruin due to exorbitant dowry payments
became a major theme in nineteenth century literature because this
period witnessed an unprecedented erosion of women's economic
importance and inheritance rights due to the manner in which the colonial
rulers carried out land settlement operations in India.

In conformity with Victorian norms that they were familiar with in their
home country, land entitlements were given to 'male heads of the family',
bypassing our customary laws that allowed various categories of
entitlements to women. This concentrated property in the hands of men
in an unprecedented way and paved the way for the disinheritance of
women. In addition, the rapacious land revenue demands drained large
amounts of the economic surplus from the rural economy. It made the
peasants extremely cash poor.

However, with rural society and artisan groups becoming extremely cash
poor, the tradition of `stridhan seems to have become burdensome. The
traditional view of daughters as `paraya dhan got a new and deadlier
meaning. The term `paraya dhan had the connotation of viewing women
as wealth. This is an apt description in a society in which women carried
their `stridhan with them, that is, property that is theirs by right
Traditionally, the entry of a bride into her new family would be referred to
as the coming of Lakshmi (Lakshmi aayi hai). Even today vestiges of that
tradition remain in most communities. A young bride enters her marital
home with haldi (turmeric) soaked feet, leaving auspicious marks on the
floor, marks associated with Lakshmi, goddess of wealth.

Thus, our modem inheritance laws have increasingly moved in favour of
men and against the interests of women. All those communities that
practiced matrilineal inheritance, such as the Nairs in Kerala, have also
been forced through legislation to move towards patrilineal inheritance.
Systems that provided reasonable or adequate protection of women's
economic rights have been steamrollered out of existence

This can only be accomplished through a fundamental shift in Indian
social attitudes about both marriage and women. Perceptions about
appropriate roles for women must evolve to include education and
employment, the current requirement that brides surrender all future
assets to in-laws must be changed so that parents can depend on
daughters as well as sons in their old age, and finally, the government
must undertake sustained action to prevent employment and wage
discrimination against women in the labor market. Unfortunately, there
was an enormous period of lag time between the time when calls for
social change are actually made and the time when societal beliefs and
customs actually began to transform. Today, dowry continues to be a
socially accepted and rational outcome of the current Indian marriage
market. True progress in the elimination of the dowry system will only
come through endeavors to create awareness among Indian communities
about the negative effects of dowry, through programs and government
sanctions that endorse education and employment for women of all ages,
and through a fundamental change in the attitudes of Indian peoples.

The laws enacted to eradicate the evil system of dowry from the society
should be supported and backed by the public opinion. If progressive
legislations lacks the support of public opinion it is no more than a waste
bundle of papers and are regarded as dead law; as is case with the Indian
Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, it must be asserted that a social reform
should be done in consonance with social thinking, behaviour and after
creation of a strong public opinion, as laws could only be effective when
they are hacked by major section of the society. Moreover, law can only
catalyze change in social behaviour, but the real change in society can be
brought through the creation of new values and aspirations and
willingness of the people to change their centuries old attitude. The
massive task of social engineering cannot be achieved as long as the
centuries old attitude and thinking remains deep rooted in the prevailing
society. Apart, from this public awareness through education, media and
through other means should be created; political will and commitment
combined with efficient administrative support are needed to tackle the
problem of dowry. Social legislations must be backed by the social
awareness and must match the letter and spirit of law. As it is rightly said
by Pluto, No law or ordinance is mightier than understanding.
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O Politics of reorganization of states Needs complete revaluation
O Women Empowerment
O Secularism in ndia
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MId-duy MeuI: A SocIuI EquILy Progrum
All social equity programs are started with a view to make an impact on
the social problems at grassroots levels. However their effectiveness
depends on the program structure and strategies adopted to address the
issue. In a country like India with wide cultural diversity, no single
program can make a substantial dent at grassroots level without the
dedication of the implementing agencies. One such project that is being
undertaken by the government to address the social issues related to
education in India is Mid-day Meal Scheme.

The Mid-day meal scheme can be traced for its origin way back to pre-
independent India in 1925 when some school authorities in Madras district
implemented the noon meal program to take care of the students need.
Similar program was started in Kolkata in 1927 and Kerala in 1941. This
scheme was formally adopted by the government in 1958 in independent
India. However it was only in 1982 that the government undertook
serious step to promote the scheme. It was then implemented with the
objective to universalize the scheme in all the states with decentralized
features. It was implemented in all government run primary school with
the help of local authorities playing the role of implementing agencies.
This was further expanded from primary age group to cover the students
between the 6-14 years. By 1995, most of the South Indian states had
implemented the scheme.

In 1995, the government reoriented its strategy when the stress was paid
on the spread of literacy drive making it apt time to reorient the strategy.
The scheme provided the government with the best alternative method to
not only increase the enrolment of school going children but also
addressing the other social problems such as eradication of poverty,
eradication of malnourishment and undernourishment among the
children. It also provided the government with the opportunity to increase
the coverage of the social program with minimal cost incurred which the
other poverty schemes failed to do as it was implemented through the
primary school. Another benefit it entailed was giving the opportunity to
address the issues at the grass root level.

The objectives and strategies of the program have been changed to suit
and adjust to the national policy objectives. Initially the scheme sought to
integrate the noon meals schemes that were being already implemented
by some States and to cover all the States. Under the scheme, the
children were given free supply of 100 grams of food grain per child per
day. The State governments were required to meet the costs of
infrastructure and the cooking cost. Initially, the scheme was introduced
in the 2,368 blocks where the RPDS or Employment Guarantee Schemes
(EGS) were being implemented and in forty low female literacy (LFL)
blocks all over India. Local bodies were declared to be the implementing
agencies, with supervision from the district and State levels of the
governments administrative machinery. However with the initial success
of the program, the government was encouraged to implement it in all
the states.

In 2000, the governments national policies were focused on making the
education and access to education a basic right of its citizen. Thus,
literacy drive was launched and the government increased spending on
educational infrastructure substantially. A number of primary schools
were opened especially in rural areas. The existing one got the fund for
improving the infrastructure by setting up buildings. The middle schools
and high schools were also covered under the national literacy mission.
Despite much spending, the government could not increase the literacy
rate as it only helped in increasing the enrollment without substantial
decrease in dropout rates.

Thus the re-strategizing of Mid-day meal scheme was done. The
authorities combined it with the National Literacy Mission. Also the form
was changed as now the school authorities were given the responsibility
of providing the cooked food based on nutritional norms prescribed by the
UN. This strategy was implemented with the twin objective. First it helped
increase in enrolment and retention at the same time it also addressed
the issue related to reduce the chronic hunger and malnourishment
among the school going age group of children. The Mid-day meal scheme
helped in increasing the learning capabilities of the children. Also the
parents did not have to bear the additional cost of food.

Initially, the State governments were advised to derive finance from
poverty alleviation schemes such as JRY for providing necessary
infrastructure and meeting the costs. But, from April 1999 onwards,
responsibility for raising their share of funding was transferred to States
and Union Territories. In December 2003, Planning Commission of India
asked the States to earmark a minimum of 15 per cent of additional
Central assistance under the Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (PMGY)
for the financial requirements of converting grains into cooked meals.

The scheme also helped in impacting the social problem associated with
the rural infrastructure. Thus the gender equity issue and social equity
was also addressed as the scheme helped in making the children learn the
sharing basis by sitting together and eating from the common kitchen.
The school enrolment improved substantially as both the genders entering
the literacy drive. This also increased the school enrolment for
irrespective of the caste and cultural groups. At the level of India as a
whole, the number of children covered under the MDMS rose gradually
from 10.36 crore in 2001 - 02 to10.87 crore in 2004 - 05, and then
registered a sharp increase to 11.94 crore in 2005 - 06.

MDMS also has the potential for creating awareness among the children
about hygiene and clean environment. The Mid-day meal scheme in
school provided an opportunity to educate students about the importance
of washing hands and plates, of hygienic toilets and of maintaining a
clean environment in and around the school. Similarly, a participatory
MDMS, where parents will be involved in monitoring the programme, can
play an indirect role in improving basic knowledge about nutrition and
elementary education among the parents of school-going children.

Despite massive achievement, the scheme is marked with a number of
weaknesses and limitations. The scheme lacks the onus to cover the
children out of school and drop outs. This is major issue in making the
right to education and right to food a fundamental right of the citizen.
Another problem associated is resource to fund the scheme is limited.
Most of the states failed to meet the cost incurred to provide the cooked
food. Also in absence of adequate infrastructure, the scheme could not be
provided to many schools. The infrastructural problems associated with
the scheme were in terms of not only physical infrastructure as most
schools did not even have the proper building and shades to carry out the
project. Moreover the human laborer required for cooking the food also
lacked, for which the government paid a meager amount.

Thus some of these limitations and weaknesses are being looked into and
adequate measures are being taken to step up efforts to make the
scheme a big success.
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Politics of reorganization of states Needs complete ...

APPSC GROUP-1 EXAM (05-09-2010) CURRENT AFFARS QUESTONS ...

ndia at a glance

NDA AT A GLANCE

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undoy uecember 12 2010
SecuIurIsm In ndIu
I do not expect India of my dreams to deveIop one reIigion, i.e., to be whoIIy Hindu or whoIIy Christian or
whoIIy MussaIman, but I want it to be whoIIy toIerant, with its reIigions working side by side with one
another.'' So said Mahatma Gandhi.
ndia has been declared a secular state by its written constitution and it is every ndians duty to stand by and
believe in this declaration. And yet recent political and social events have questioned this declaration. s ndia a
secular country only on paper or does secularism actually exist in ndia; or is in the form of pseudo- secularism, a
term the BJP and its allies seem to repeatedly harp on.
During the freedom struggle, secularism was emerging as the most dominant principle. The leaders of the ndian
National Congress; Gandhi, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Nehru and others were deeply committed to the ideal of
secularism, though each expressed it in very different manners. Secularism became the mantra of the ndian
nation, a nation exhausted by partition and sectarian riots and above all the assassination of Gandhiji, did not
want any more divisive talk. The founding fathers represented the aspirations of the different sections of society
and it is due to the struggles of these different people that secular principles got enshrined into the ndian
constitution.
Under Jawaharlal Nehru and later under his successors in the Congress Party, the concept of a secular nation-
state was officially adopted as ndia's path to political modernity and national integration. Unlike in the West,
where secularism came mainly out of the conflict between the Church and the State, secularism in ndia was
conceived as a system that sustained religious and cultural pluralism.
n the post ndependent scenario the social dynamics was very complex. The process of
secularisation/industrialisation was going on at a slow pace. Even at this stage, though constitution was secular,
the state apparatus: the bureaucracy, the judiciary, the army and the police were infiltrated by communal
elements. The Congress government, though predominantly secular, had many leaders in important positions
who were influenced by a Hindu communal ideology. This resulted in a social development that was mixed; on
the one hand secularism thrived and on the other though communalism remained dormant, was never dead. With
the social changes of the late 70's and the early 80's, communalism got a strong boost and it started attacking
secularism in a big way.
The B.J.P. was quick to take up the mantle of 'the' communal party, riding on the wave of the post-mandal upper
class/caste backlash. The BJP began attacking, what they called "pseudo-secularism", which pampered the
minorities at the expense of the majority and demanded that special rights for minorities be taken away.
Supporting the BJP was the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a relatively new outfit with branches all over the world and
drawing on support, both moral and financial, from the Hindu diaspora in the West. This took an aggressive form
when the Babri Masjid\Ramj anambhoomi controversy erupted. This period also saw the rise of other militant
Hindu organizations such as the BajrangDal and the Shivsena. These groups quickly mushroomed and poisoned
the social space with communal rhetoric and the agenda of Hindu Rashtra; and launched an ideological, social
and political onslaught on secular ethos, syncretic culture and composite nationalism. They refused to recognize
the contributions of Muslims and other minorities, to ndia's history and culture. They selectively concentrated on
intolerant Muslim rulers, extending their often-brutal conduct to the entire period of Muslim rule and, even to all
Muslims. But such prejudices were not openly aired in public; but now they have not only gained legitimacy, but
have also almost become the mainstream opinion.
The attack on the Mosque at Ayodhya led to a rash of violence across the country. The events leading to the
demolition of Babri Masjid and their aftermath of communal carnage mark a watershed in the history of free ndia.
The traumatic events clearly exposed the chasm that had been created between the two communities by
communal forces.
The year 2002 witnessed one of the most devastating riots in Gujarat where mobs went on a rampage,
destroying Muslim homes and businesses, killed Muslims, including men women and children and drove
thousands of people away from their homes. The ostensible reason for this fury was the burning of a train coach
that was carrying Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya. Fifty-nine people including women and children died in
the fire. This action, sparked off, as the state's Chief Minister put it, in Newtonian terms, a reaction, except that it
was grossly disproportionate to the original crime. A Human Right's Watch report paints a chilling picture of state
complicity in the religious violence in Gujarat. This marks the first time when the state has emerged as a major
player and actor in violence by mobs, a qualitative change from previous such situations in ndia. t is in this
backdrop that one has to understand, as to why it is only during the last decade and a half that secularism has
come under a cloud and the concept of a Hindu Rashtra is being asserted aggressively.
Today, the biggest challenge to the ndian nation is coming from forces claiming to represent the mainstream
majority. There is an emergence of extremist voices that claim to speak for Hindus and they are laying down
demands that threaten the very idea of a secular ndia. The biggest area of concern is that the state has emerged
to be complicit, as an actor and player in mounting this challenge to ndian pluralism, which goes under the name
of Hindutva.
The communal forces are actively propagating the myth that Secularism is a new mask of fundamentalism. They
denigrate the secular policies, which are a hindrance to Hindu Right's unobstructed march to subjugate the
oppressed in general and minorities in particular. They are equating fundamentalism with slam; and the policies
of ndian rulers with secularism, and the appeasement of mullahs as being synonymous with secular policies.
Further, Hindutva forces accuse that secularism pampers the Muslims as a vote bank. The Muslims are accused
of extra-territorial loyalty because they allegedly cheer for Pakistan whenever ndia and Pakistan play cricket.
Since Muslims are being thought synonymous to fundamentalism; therefore the assertion that the ndian state is
appeasing fundamentalists in the name of secularism. t is precisely on this charge that the Father of ndian
Nationalism, Mahatma Gandhi, was assassinated by one of the votaries of Hindutva.
The Christians, who are much lesser in number, are accused of being more loyal to the Vatican, another outside
force and of trying to convert poor Hindus with inducements of education and food. Who can forget the brutal
burning of Graham Staines and his two minor sons by a member of the Bajrang Dal in the name of religion? Or
even the rape of some sisters in Gujarat, their fault being the spreading of the word of their God.
The fact, however, is that the social and the economic conditions of the Muslim community is dismal. f at all the
opportunist political policies of various governments have struck compromises, it has been with certain religious
leaders of the minorities and the minorities have been kept in abysmal conditions. n that sense, the govt. policies
have been anti-oppressed, rather than pro Muslim. Further, the fact that 130 million Muslims decided to stay back
in ndia rather than joining Pakistan, should settle their status as true citizens.
Secularism introduces science, technology and rationalism in the society and forms the basis of a modern
secular state. n the process, it has to oppose and struggle against the clergy and vested forces in the society.
And as such, the fundamentalist communal onslaughts are the 'other' of secularism and secularization. The
oppressed sections join the secular movement to wrest the accompanying liberal space that can be the base for
launching the struggles for their rights. Fundamentalism is the regressive reaction of feudal elements and
sections of middle classes in league with the clergy, to crush the aspirations of oppressed class, whose
movements for their rights is a big source of tension for them. The secularization process and the accompanying
movements of the oppressed increase the insecurity of fundamentalist forces. They try to lure these classes into
their fold through religion and liberal use of money and muscle power.
The burgeoning neo-middle classes have emerged as pivotal points that embraced consumerism as modernity
but simultaneously began looking towards culture and tradition for support. The advent of globalization has been
welcomed in ndia but it has also shaken people who fear that their own cultures will be destroyed. Hence they
show an inclination towards the conservative Hindu identity. t's all about culture, religion and ritual, all cleverly
juxtaposed with nationalism: what is Hindu is ndian and from that follows, what is not Hindu is not ndian.
A new disturbing trend has been witnessed in recent years where villages are no longer tranquil as urban-rural
interactions have become much more intense. With subdivisions of land holdings, there are few jobs left in the
villages for the agricultural class. They are looking outside the village and getting involved with the issues and
ideas that have a reach beyond the village. The prosperous classes in rural ndia have also actively promoted the
VHP and other communal forces. We can no longer ignore the possibility that post Gujarat 2002, villages too can
become sites of ethnic riots.
There is a blatant attempt to subvert history, change school curricula and create a new set up in line with a Hindu
Rastra. There is a new, muscular nationalism, one that holds up the nuclear bomb as a sign of strength and
wants to keep neighbours and internal minorities in their place, and which derives its strength from invented
mythology; and has taken over the polity. ndian secularism, once thought to be non-negotiable, is beginning to
look shaky now. n a country with over 140 million Muslims and million of Christians, to say nothing of hundreds
of other castes and communities, this can have very dangerous consequences.
t is not so much a question of defending or preserving the existing secular character of the ndian polity, but
rather a need to create and build a secular polity in the nation. Only the ideal of building a secular democratic
nation can stem the tide of communal fascism in the country. Sarva Dharma Sambhav has to operate at the
personal as well as the social level, while Dharma Nirpekshata or Secularism per se continues to be the state
policy. Religious clergy, bigotry, dogmas and rituals cannot be allowed to guide the state.
Mahatma Gandhi has rightly said: " swear by my religion, will die for it. But it is my personal affair. The State
has nothing to do with it. The State would look after your secular welfare, health, communications, foreign
relations, currency and so on, but not your or my religion. That is everybody's personal concern!!"
Hinduism is a faith that on the whole is favorable to the development of the secular state in ndia. t also has a
strong tradition of freedom of conscience and tolerance of religious diversity that is not rightly projected by the
Hindutva forces.
This strength of the Hindu religion is now viewed as a weakness. Secularism in the ndian context should imply
respect for pluralism and a non-coercive and a voluntary recourse to change. Respect for diversity not only
embodies the democratic spirit, it is the real guarantee of unity. We should value democratic, not fascistic, unity.
No democratic society can downgrade diversity and pluralism in the name of unity. Secular ethics can be
strengthened only when the acts of vandalism are sternly dealt with and the guilty are made to pay for it. With
secularism that insists on the inalienable rights of the citizens and a due process of law, it will be easier to mount
public pressure against sectarian killers and those who promote hatred. The battle of secularism and democracy
has also to be fought at the grass root levels where a set ideals generating strong idealism is required to mobilize
and prepare the masses for struggle.
n the end, secularism begins in the heart of every individual. There should be no feeling of "otherness" as we all
have is a shared history. ndia being a traditional society that contains not one, but many traditions owing their
origin in part to the different religions that exist here, has so far managed to retain the secular character of its
polity. Ours is a society where Sufis and Bhakti saints have brought in a cultural acceptance for each other. Are
we going to let it all go to waste and listen to people who have concern for their careers as politicians or leaders
rather than our welfare at heart? Let us instead concentrate our efforts at making ndia a powerful and
progressive nation.
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O DARY OF EVENTS 2009
O CURRENT AFFARS
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CorrupLIon n ndIu
All luxury corrupts either the morals or the state.
- Joubert
Corruption in the ndian society has prevailed from time immemorial in one form or the other. The basic inception
of corruption started with our opportunistic leaders who have already done greater damage to our nation. People
who work on right principles are unrecognized and considered to be foolish in the modern society. Corruption in
ndia is a result of the connection between bureaucrats, politicians and criminals. Earlier, bribes were paid for
getting wrong things done, but now bribe is paid for getting right things done at right time. Further, corruption has
become something respectable in ndia, because respectable people are involved in it. Social corruption like less
weighing of products, adulteration in edible items, and bribery of various kind have incessantly prevailed in the
society.
n today's scenario, if a person wants a government job he has to pay lakhs of rupees to the higher officials
irrespective of satisfying all the eligibility criteria. n every office one has either to give money to the employee
concerned or arrange for some sources to get work done. There is adulteration and duplicate weighing of
products in food and civil supplies department by unscrupulous workers who cheat the consumers by playing with
the health and lives of the people. n the assessment of property tax the officers charge money even if the house
is built properly according to the Government rules and regulations.
Political corruption is worst in ndia. The major cause of concern is that corruption is weakening the political body
and damaging the supreme importance of the law governing the society. Nowadays politics is only for criminals
and criminals are meant to be in politics. Elections in many parts of the country have become associated with a
host of criminal activities. Threatening voters to vote for a particular candidate or physically prevent voters from
going in to the polling booth especially weaker sections of the society like tribals, dalits and rural woman occurs
frequently in several parts of the country. Recently, the Government increased the salary of the M.P.'s from
Rs.16, 000 to Rs.50, 000, that is 300% increase to the existing salary. But many of them are unhappy with rise
and want the Government to increase the salary to a much more extent. This clearly shows how the politicians
are in constant thirst for monetary benefits and not caring about the welfare of the people. Tax evasion is one of
the most popular forms of corruption. t is mostly practiced by Government officials and politicians who lead to the
accumulation of black money which in turn spoils the moral of the people.
Mojor loctors kesponsib/e lor corruption
1. The most important factor is the nature of the human being. People in general, have a great
thirst for luxuries and comforts and as a result of which they get themselves involved in all unscrupulous
activities that result in monetary or material benefits.
2. Moral and spiritual values are not given utmost importance in educational system, which is
highly responsible for the deterioration of the society.
3. The salary paid to employees is very less and as a result of which they are forced to earn
money by illegal ways.
4. The punishments imposed on the criminals are inadequate.
1. The political leaders have spoiled the society completely. They lead a luxurious life
and do not even care about the society.
2. People of ndia are not awakened and enlightened. They fear to raise their voice
against anti-social elements prevailing in the society.
Meosures @o contro/ corruption
There are some specific measures to control increasing corruption.
1. The Right to nformation Act (RT) gives one all the required information about the
Government, such as what the Government is doing with our tax payments. Under this act, one has the
right to ask the Government on any problem which one faces. There is a Public nformation Officer (PO)
appointed in every Government department, who is responsible for collecting information wanted by the
citizens and providing them with the relevant information on payment of a nominal fee to the PO. f the
PO refuses to accept the application or if the applicant does not receive the required information on
time then the applicant can make a complaint to the respective information commission, which has the
power to impose a penalty up to Rs.25, 000 on the errant PO.
2. Another potent check on corruption is Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). t was setup by the
Government to advise and guide Central Government agencies in the areas of vigilance. f there are any
cases of corruption or any complaints thereof, then that can be reported to the CVC. CVC also
shoulders the responsibility of creating more awareness among people regarding the consequences of
giving and taking of bribes and corruption.
3. Establishment of special courts for speedy justice can be a huge positive aspect. Much time
should not elapse between the registration of a case and the delivery of judgment.
4. Strong and stringent laws need to be enacted which gives no room for the guilty to escape.
5. n many cases, the employees opt for corrupt means out of compulsion and not by choice.
Some people are of the opinion that the wages paid are insufficient to feed their families. f they are paid
better, they would not be forced to accept bribe.
The one thing that needs to be ensured is proper, impartial, and unbiased use of various anti-social regulations to
take strong, deterrent, and timely legal action against the offenders, irrespective of their political influences or
money power. Firm and strong steps are needed to curb the menace and an atmosphere has to created where
the good, patriotic, intellectuals come forward to serve the country with pride, virtue, and honesty for the welfare
of the people of ndia.
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Iy Is LIe ndIun Economy sLIII uIIecLed by Ioods und DrougILs?
n ndia, agriculture is the mainstay of the economy. Contribution of agriculture to the economy of ndia can be
estimated from the fact that 70% of ndia population is dependent on cultivation and agriculture contributes to
18% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of ndia. Out of the total sown area, 60% is dependent on the rainfall,
thus prone to floods and droughts. Thus flood and droughts occurring repetitively after some years have an
adverse affect on our country economy.
n ndia major rainfall is received from southwest monsoon in the summer season. The vagaries of this monsoon
are the main cause of floods/drought in our country. Floods are associated with excessive rainfall while the
draughts are the result of deficient rainfall. However, other factor also plays a role in establishing the condition for
these calamities including hydrology, deforestation, soil nature, erosion etc. At present our country is
encountering the drought condition due to the deficient rainfall. While last year many regions of the country faced
the situation of flood.
Since the majority of population (approximately 70%) is dependent on cultivation droughts and floods have
significant economic, environmental and social consequences. Due to these natural calamities the product of
farm gets damaged. The farmers who have taken huge loans to fund their operations from the private
moneylender become unable to pay their debts. The quality of land gets deteriorated transforming into wasteland.
Along with the current season productivity reduction next seasons crop also get reduced. The conditions of the
marginal farmers become more vulnerable as they left with no or reduced produce of current crops and reduced
land capacity for future. Last year due to the flood in Bihar 3 million people migrated from that area to the urban
area in the search of work.
mpact of drought and flood is not only limited to the farmers but felt over the entire country. Food security that is
already a concern, due to prevailing poverty and huge population, in the country turns severe. Due to reduced
productivity food prices rises resulting inflation. This inflation is also the result of corrupt and malpractices of
middlemen. Reduced purchasing capacity of common man bring decline in demands of other products and
because of demand and supply rule the industries get affected. n this view economy of the country becomes
somewhat stagnant.
Electricity, which is still not available to 400 million people, is very important requirement for the growth of
economy of country. During draught due to the water deficiency hydroelectric power generation having 25%
share in total power generation also gets affected. With the reduced power production almost all activities related
to cultivation, industries, household etc. get adversely affected. Thus the output get reduced which is reflected in
the GDP of country.
Drought and floods adverse affect on our economy get exaggerated due existing poverty in ndia (still approx. 6.8
crores families are below poverty line as planning commission). The conditions of poor farmers get more
deteriorated and it becomes difficult for them to earn the basic needs. The government is running many programs
like Bharat Nirman, National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, and Rastiriya Krishi Vikas Yoazana.etc. for
poverty alleviation and enlistment of rural life.
The population in ndia is growing at faster rate. As an estimate the population of ndia will be 1.43 billion by
2031-32. To feed this burgeoning population the challenge on the yield of farm is increasing day by day. When
such a calamity occurs it pushes a large population towards hunger including the cultivator. To meet this
deficiency grains has to import from other countries. This results in reduction of the foreign currency that has a
direct impact on economic state of country. Recently in the wake of Deficient rainfall in this year the finance
minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee announced for the import of food for 700 million population of ndia.
The present drought situation the country is undergoing is very serious. More than 246 districts in the country
have been affected by the malady caused by deficient rainfall. The severe drought like conditions is the result of
climatic imbalances caused by the failure of the monsoon.
Due the sufficient grain stock, better transportation and communication facilities and advancement of technology
situation of famine will not be encountered which is the result of floods and drought in the past. But still the impact
these calamities on the overall economy can be felt. Though the government is taking several measures yet all
those fall short to mitigate the affect of these situations.
Measures for flood mitigation were taken from 1950 onwards. As against the total of 40 million hectares prone to
floods, area of about 18.22 million hectares has been protected by construction of embankments. A number of
dams and barrages have been constructed. The State Governments have been assisted to take up mitigation
programs like construction of raised platforms.
Floods continue to be a menace however mainly because of the huge quantum of silt being carried by the rivers
emanating from the Himalayas. As per an estimate, every year about 2/3rd of the irrigation proj ects pond, tanks
etc become ineffective due to siltation. Thus, the maintenance of these irrigation projects is very important that is
not being carried out efficiently. n UP there are 100,000 personnel to carry out the task of maintenance but their
output is nil. n between 1992 to 2004 around 200 minor and major irrigation projects were made but their
capacity has left only about 3.4 hectare.
To fight with the condition of draught various projects are running Drought Prone Area Programme (DPAP),
Desert Development Programme (DDP), and National Watershed Development Project for Rain fed Areas
(NWDPRA), ntegrated Water Development Project (WDP). Water of the major rivers has to be diverted to area
depleted of the rainfall. However the output of these programs is not satisfactorily. To gain the output of these
programs these should be run more effectively and efficiently.
Much is being done but lot has to be done to conquer the adverse affect of Drought and floods. Along with the
planned construction of new means the maintenance of existing one is also very important otherwise affect of
these calamities will always remain on the economy of our country.
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O NDA AT A GLANCE
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omen EmpowermenL: CIuIIenges und ProspecLs
t is disheartening to note that the phrase "empowerment of Women is considered as a mere phase in the
multistage process of giving women what they really deserve. The very mention about "empowerment clearly
indicates the upper hand men enj oy in the social structure. But ndia has come a long way in empowering
women. According to Upanishads, the primary duty of women is to be in the service of her husband. We now talk
about one third seats for women in the highest decision making body in the country (parliament). ndia has come
a long way. The different phases ndia took in the women empowerment is here:
Ancient ndia - Primary duty of women is "Husband Service
Medieval ndia- Don't let women out. Don't let her express. f her husband dies, she should die too.
Modern ndia Pre ndependence- Guys, lets stop Sati. Let her stay inside the house forever after her husband
dies!
1950s- Lets send women children to schools and colleges!
1960-Dowry Prohibition Act
1990s-Women should occupy responsible positions in the social structure
2001- Women's Empowerment Year
2010- 1/3rd seats should be reserved for Women in parliament.
The chart above summarizes the position of women in ndian society at various points in time. Some good
Prospects
Lets talk about some of the good policy steps taken by our government in the area of women empowerment.
Firstly, the move to reserve one-third seats in the parliament for women could probably be the boldest and
biggest step taken by ndian government in the area of women empowerment. The bill, if passed would result in
more than 180 seats in the lower house occupied by women compared to less than 30 occupied currently. This
might also produce a "Trickle down effect where even the state governments would pass a similar bill to reserve
1/3rd seats for women in the State Legislatures.
Secondly, to provide integrated social empowerment of women, the government initiated a scheme called as
"Swayamsidha in 2001 which helps them in establishing self-reliant Women's self help groups(SHG's) The
objective is to achieve all-round empowerment of women by ensuring direct access and control over resources. t
helps in creating confidence and awareness among the members of SHGs regarding health, nutrition, education,
hygiene and economic upliftment. A number of rural women have already been benefited through this scheme
and this project is one of the long term strategic initiatives taken by the government in the area of women's
empowerment.
Another initiative is a program called as STEP(Support to Training and Employment Program for Women). The
objective of this program is to empower women by provide sustainable employment opportunities. The project
helps in upgrading their skills(primarily in Agriculture, Dairy and Handlooms), forming viable groups, providing
access to credit facilities and arranging for marketing linkages . This program has already made a significant
impact in the lives of a number of women in the traditional sectors. Many Tough Challenges
As we see, government is taking some concrete steps in empowering women by helping women to help
themselves and their families. But are these programs sufficient? Are they brining about a change in the attitude
of a patriarchic society? Here are some bitter answers:
O The maternal mortality rate in ndia is the second highest in the world. ndia accounts for more than 25%
of all maternal deaths in the world.
O n a survey conducted by WHO, more than 80% of pregnant ndian women are found to be anemic. This
results in exceptionally high rates of child malnutrition. Malnourished women give birth to malnourished children,
perpetuating the cycle
O Only 39% of ndian women attend primary schools. Most families pull them out of out of school, either to
help out at home or from fear of violence.
O While women are guaranteed equality under the constitution, legal protection has little effect in the face
of prevailing patriarchal traditions. Women lack power to decide who they will marry, and are often married off
before they reach the age of 18.
As we see, the challenges we face in empowering women are far away from the prospects of development
programs initiated by our government. Though some of the recent steps taken by the government seem to
indicate that these are the right steps to take, but what ndia really needs right now are sizable leaps! The move
to reserve one-third seats in the parliament is definitely one such.
As we progress from a developing nation towards a developed nation, every care must be taken to compositely
develop and empower women along the way to stand true to what our great Jawaharlal Nehru said "You can tell
the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women!
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CommunuI Iurmony und LIe InLernuI securILy oI ndIu ure
InLerIInked
Communalism is 'the loyalty to a sociopolitical grouping based on religious or ethnic affiliation rather than to
society as a whole'. t is an ideology which takes three forms or stages, one following the other. The first stage
starts with a belief that those who follow the same religion have common secular interests, that is, common
political, economic, social and cultural interests. The second stage is characterized by the notion that in a multi-
religious society like ndia, the secular interests of followers of one religion are dissimilar and divergent from that
of the followers of another religion. n the third stage it is believed that the interests of the followers of different
religions are mutually incompatible, antagonistic and hostile.
The communist ideology in ndia went through all these stages during the freedom struggle against the British.
The hard earned, precious independence of ndia was won after decades of glorious struggle but along with a
bloody, tragic partition that ripped apart the fabric of the emerging free nation. Thousands of lives were lost from
both the sides, that of the Hindus and the Muslims in the communal riots and being left with no other alternative,
a separate Muslim state of Pakistan was conceded. ndia was made a secular country with provisions for
protection of minority communities. Despite precautionary and preventive measures having been taken, the
communal legacy still continues.
At the time of freedom and partition, it was believed by great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Nehru that
partition was a temporary phenomenon and once the communist fervour subsides, a United and strong ndia
would be formed. However, contrary to their expectations, ndia and Pakistan stand apart as separate nations
and the fraught question of their bilateral relations remains unsolved till date. The disputed State of Kashmir has
been ravaged by violence, civilian casualties, damage of property, curfew and the resulting disruption of normal
life. Communal problem, which is the root cause, with all its social, political and economic ramifications remains
unabated even today and bedevils the State.
With the passage of time, the path taken by communalism has changed. Earlier it was the large scale communal
riots, now it has taken the route of terrorism. Bomb blasts and shooting attacks have rent asunder the major cities
like Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune, Ahmedabad and others. Hundreds of people were killed and thousands were
maimed and devastated. Authorities blame terror groups ranging from slamic insurgents of Kashmir to the Hindu
terror groups in Maharashtra. Whatever the reason or religion behind such activities be, the loss is to humanity as
a whole. All the religions basically preach love and the feeling of brotherhood towards fellow beings. t is only the
parties with vested interests that sow the seeds of communal hatred and violence in the minds of people.
The muIIahs of the IsIamic worId and the muIIahs of the Hindu worId and the muIIahs of the Christian
worId are aII on the same side. And we are against them aII".
Arundhati Roy
ndia is a developing country, and the fourth largest economy in the world in terms of purchasing power parity.
The vision of our national leaders is to make ndia a 'developed nation' and an 'economic superpower'. However,
the internal security of the nation is a pre-requisite for the attainment of this vision. As long as the communal
tensions inside the country do not ease, the internal security of the nation cannot be ensured, despite the
strength of the army or paramilitary employed to control the situation. Once the communal tension inside the
country subsides and ndia becomes internally secure, then the problems in the bilateral relations between the
twin nations of ndia and Pakistan can be smoothly dealt with.
n order to strike at the base, that is, to bring about communal harmony, there must be harmony in the minds of
the people. 'Aaman ki aasha' is a voluntary initiative taken to improve ndo-Pak relationship. Similar voluntary
organizations that encourage communal harmony should come up. Minorities complain that they are looked upon
as aliens and trouble-makers in their own land and the Majority community in turn puts the blame on the
Minorities. Mental revolution among people, considering the fellow citizens as brethren is essential to bring about
communal harmony in the country. The communal harmony thus attained is a sine-qua-non for the internal
security of the country.
Only when the internal security is ensured can the nation embark on the path towards development and
economic advancement. Recently, the Allahabad High Court gave its judgement regarding the Ayodhya
controversy, dividing the disputed land into 3 parts and distributing them among the three contesting parties
involved, the Nirmohi Akhara, the Sunni Central Board of Waqf and the Ramlalla Virajman. The peaceful air that
surrounded the country following the verdict, bodes well for the nation.
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GIobuIIzuLIon wIII kIII SmuII-ScuIe ndusLrIes In ndIu
Globalization is the metamorphosis of the individual nations into an integrated entity by means of their
interconnection on an economic, social and cultural level, fuelled by easy transport and communication among
them. t is the modern renaissance that makes ideas, goods, services, trade, technology and culture permeate
into the entire geography of the world thus turning it into a global village.
While globalization is a large scale phenomenon, small scale enterprises are a local phenomenon but having
effects of dimensions as large as it's global 'friend and foe'. Friend- because both globalization and small scale
industries are the two wheels of the vehicle of economic growth and prosperity; foe- because some argue that
given the developing nation that ndia is, Small Scale ndustries(SSs) can suffer and strangulate to death by the
fierce competition put up by globalization. Let us observe and decide.
Micro and small scale enterprises have existed in ndia since ages in the form of traditional skills and knowledge
based products made by people for the self sufficiency of rural ndia. Today as per the government definition, "An
industrial undertaking in which the investment in fixed assets in plant and machinery whether held on ownership
terms on lease or on hire purchase does not exceed Rs. 10 million, can be categorized as small scale
undertaking. After independence, the ndian government made various laws to help revive and flourish the SS
because of the employment potential it had at a low capital cost. t needed mediocre technical knowledge and
minimal infrastructure to set up. Thus it was and is the most ideal form of employment opportunity for both the
urban and rural population. t not only encourages entrepreneurship among people but also makes them self
reliant. Govt. funding, support and intensive promotion has aided people to participate more in this successful
phenomenon making SS the second largest employment sector after agriculture. t forms about 45-50% of our
exports. The products also form a large percentage of our domestic market too with SS producing a number of
products like confectionaries, spices, beverages, natural essence oils, dyes, sports goods, wooden furniture,
glass, ceramic and earthen wares, cotton and woolen knitted products, silk and synthetic wear, leather shoes,
bags, garments and novelty items, plastic items, survey instruments, auto parts, clocks and watches, musical
instruments, lab chemicals, basic metallic and non-metallic mineral products. They are the dynamic sectors of our
economy. t also leads to the preservation of many traditional and indigenous skills and products our country is
famous for. t is the road to rural industrialization and 'rural urbanization' thus creating a regional balance.
ndia was self reliant and self sufficient but with the march of the world towards industrialization ndia found its
closed policy of trade leading to an impending economic crisis. The main reason behind this was the focus of
efforts on heavy industries and lack of it on the consumption goods. From 1991 ndia witnessed a major change
as the govt. introduced liberalization, privatization and globalization reforms to pep up the economy. Soon the
world realized what a big 1billion-population-market ndia was. They brought their goods to ndia which were
mass produced and therefore cheaper and of better quality than the local goods. They started challenging the
SS and thus posed an end to them. Further with the introduction of Special Economic Zones (SEZs), the MNCs
were facilitated with areas with liberal economic and trade laws, round the clock facilities and concessions to
enhance foreign investments and promote exports. This endangered the existence and survival of SSs.
But this is not the complete picture. A lot of foreign entrepreneurs who do not have the time or funds to build the
infrastructure for their own manufacturing unit in ndia engage a number of SS owners to produce goods for
them in a short span of time and sell them to cater to the international demand. n other words they outsource the
manufacturing to the ndians. Thus it leads to more labour absorption and growth of SSs. Many of the SSs have
turned into LSs this way. Also the demand for SS goods will never finish as a lot of their products are not
lucrative options for the MNCs. For example, the incense sticks or agarbatties, bangles, pickles, etc. are not a
catch for LSs but have a constant demand and thus SSs have a great opportunity in identifying such areas.
So it can be said that both globalization and SSs are the essentials of ndian economy and ndia must make
efforts to promote, sustain and aid both in a fair and unbiased way. A fruitful measure would be to reserve certain
goods for production exclusively by the SSs and their intelligent outsourcing by the govt. to ensure maximum
benefits. Also the govt. should advertise the indigenous goods worldwide so that the foreign folk also go in for the
ethnic items produced here like khadi, silk, wool, statues, gems, ornaments, etc. as these represent the
traditional art form and culture of the region. As far as the financial aids are concerned, the govt. is doing good
work to make things simple and possible for the interested individuals by funding and financial support. Also the
setting up of institutes for technical training and skill enhancement of the workforce is helping in a big way.
While globalization has put us on the map of superpower countries, SSs have empowered the common man to
walk with the same stride as the big-wigs. For ndia to be a superpower, it is must make efforts to strengthen
each and every thread of its economic fabric to make the flag of its success fly high.
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IILe coIIur crImes ure wIde spreud In socIeLy
White-collar crime and its consequences are recognized from centuries which categorize number of crimes.
Mostly business and government professionals are involved in series of frauds termed as white-collar crime
because these are lucrative, comparatively risk-free, and nearly socially up to standard. Due to high occurrence
of these crimes, security officials plan modern technique to fight back through prevention, investigation, and
prosecution. When the term white-collar crime is conversed, people are encouraged to think decisively about the
nature of crime, law, and criminal justice. n the criminal justice system, the focal point of the investigative efforts
on the crimes of the poor. f it is viewed from same legal eye of the state, the crimes of the powerful are hidden.
White-collar crime is defined as "those illegal acts which are characterized by deceit, concealment, or violation of
trust and which are not dependent upon the application or threat of physical force or violence.
ndividuals and organizations commit these acts to obtain money, property, or services; to avoid the payment or
loss of money or services; or to secure personal or business advantage. Generally the white collar criminals
commit range of frauds to get personal financial gain. White collar crimes do not show any vicious activity, but the
extent of these crimes are intense and it can bring about great economic loss for companies, investors. Computer
fraud is characterized as the crime committed to perform a plan or illegal activity and the targeting of a computer
with the intention to modify, damage, or put out of action the data of computer system. There are many examples
of crimes which include offering missing goods to a buyer, stealing someone's funds by hacking into his bank or
credit card account. Hackers find passwords and delete information, create programs to steal passwords, or even
rummage through company garbage to find secret information. Embezzlement is another type of white collar
crime, termed as the misuse of items with which a person has been assigned. Charges of embezzlement can
even be levied if the embezzler intended to return the property later. Employee theft is most common example of
embezzlement. Company employees can have access to company property so they can easily misuse the
property. Numerous examples can be quoted such as theft of retail items, discounted sale of retail items, and
theft from cash registers.
Health care frauds are a stereotypical white collar crime in which highly qualified medical practitioners and health
supervisory abuse their posts and professional skills through misleading nonviolent tactics such as fake bills just
for individual financial gain. Environmental crimes are the infringement of laws which are made to protect the
environment and human health. Littering, mproper waste disposal, Oil spills, Destruction of wetlands are some of
the Environmental crimes. Perpetrator of Environmental law violation is fined, put on experimentation, sent to jail.
Financial crimes are maj or white collar crimes. These are any non-violent felony that is committed by or against
an individual or corporation and lead to great fiscal loss. These frauds include tax evasion, cheating of company
funds, and the sale of fictitious insurance plans.
Another category of serious white collar crime is government fraud, which is an unlawful act that deliberately rid
the government of funds through trickery. When the government gets fiddled, taxpayers pay the price.
Procurement and contractor fraud are examples of costliest government fraud. n dentity theft the criminal use
the personal information of another in order to commit fraud. Crooks of this type of crime have to face heavy
penalties if trapped. nsurance fraud is very common in which offender forged claims to an insurance company,
personal injury and property damage claims that are overstated in order to collect extra reimbursements. Mail
fraud is committed by using Postal Service or any private or commercial interstate mail carrier, such as
Mailboxes, etc. Money laundering is a felony in which lawbreakers hide the resource and objective of
illegitimately acquired funds. Public corruption is an act of violating the public official's duty of faith towards his or
her society. Anyone who is elected, appointed, hired, or employee of a constituency of citizens commits crime on
the state, or local level when an official takes favorable decision in exchange of offered some value. Securities
fraud is committed by white collar criminal such as corporations, broker-dealers, analysts, and private investors
when the executor intentionally deceives investors for financial profits. The culprit of tax evasion deliberately and
illegally avoids paying mandatory taxes to the government. Telemarketing fraud fall under white collar criminal in
which wrongdoer make some plan that uses telephone contact to fraudulently rid its victims of funds or assets.
The most regular type of telemarketing frauds are prize offers and sweepstakes, magazine sales, credit card
sales.
n today's hi-tech world, white collar crimes are creating a serious trouble for government. People who commit
white-collar crimes are sometimes the same kind of people who are in a position to see to it that their crimes are
not defined too detrimental. While the impact of white-collar criminals leave an immense impact on the nation but
the cost to each individual is petite. Practically it is observed that no effort from police department goes into
skirmishing white-collar crime.
Our social system is corrupted by number of white collar crime and it is a great challenge for us to discover
suitable resolution to the increasing menace of white-collar crime. These crimes are directly affecting the
economy of the nation and the public's confidence, therefore corrective action must be taken immediately for
preventing, detecting, investigating, and prosecuting economic crimes in order to minimize their outcome. Main
blockade to get to the bottom of the white-collar crime hazard is that the public is not aware of its seriousness. t
is more important to create wakefulness and businesses, and the nation's lawmakers must be convinced with its
significance in identifying that such high-tech and economic crimes have an undesirable effect on society. Mostly
people are innocent and they are not aware of the degree to which their lives, financial status, businesses,
families, or privacy might be pretentious by electronic crime. A rock-hard inspection or accounting background is
obliging to detect white-collar crime because swindlers are very clever and they can manipulate the situation very
well.
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TIe New CIIId ubour uw
The chiId is father of the man"- William Wordsworth
Child is a bundle of joys a flower incarnate in person. A flickering smile of the child pleases everyone. The
brightness and future welfare of the society is closely interwoven with the brightness of the child and its careful
upbringing. Childhood is the most important period of life, as it shapes adulthood. The very initiation of life-
making starts at childhood. The early lesson of the child starts from the cradle. Parents adopt different methods
to rear up the child in different ages, to make it a happy man or woman later. The mother being closer, has a
greater responsibility to train up the child well from the very infancy.
f one desires to know a nation, he should look for it into its children. Child is not only the future of the nation and
its aspirations but also, and mainly, its strength in reserve. The future of nation is best insured if its children are
healthy and active, educated and informed, disciplined and trained, as well as free from social prejudices, having
a scientific outlook. t is, therefore a duty cast on the society at large to protest this crop of nation from the
damaging effects of excessive exposure to vagaries of climate, as well as, from social oppression and injustice.
Talking all the aspects as a whole, the childhood is the most significant period of one's life. t is considered, and
rightly so, to be the very foundation of life on which depends the entire structure the whole personality as such
child the father of man is the natural future leader of the nation in every walk of life, may it be industry,
education, politics, social services, administration defence, civil services or anything else. t is during this
formative period of moulding that the life begins to acquire shape and substance, and the attitudes, behaviours,
manners and emotions do get developed.
concept of chi/d obour
The term 'Child Labour' is, at times, used as a synonym for 'employed child' or 'working child'. n this sense it is
co-extensive with any work done by a child for profit or reward. But more commonly than not, the term 'child
labour' is used in a derogatory sense. t suggests something which is hateful and exploitative.
Thus, child labour is recognized by the sociologists, development workers, educationists and medical
professionals as hazardous and injurious to the child, both physically and mentally.
According to Shri. V.V.Giri, former president of ndia, has thus distinguished the two concepts of the 'child
labour's: the term 'child labour' is commonly interpreted in two different ways: first, as an economic practice and
secondly, as a social evil. n the first context it signifies employed of the children in gainful occupations with a
view to adding to the labour income of the family. t is in the second context that the term child labour is now
more generally used. n assessing the nature and extent of the social evil, it is necessary to take into account the
character of the jobs on which the children are engaged, the dangers to which they are exposed and the
opportunities of development which they have been denied.
The term 'child labour' applies to children engaged in all types of activities whether these be industrial or non-
industrial but which are determined to their physical, mental, moral and social well being and development. The
brain of a child develops anatomically till the age of ten, the lungs till the age of fourteen and the muscles till the
age of seventeen. Anything which obstructs the natural growth of any or all of these vital organs should be
considered as determinate to natural physical growth, or even hazardous.
ome nistorico/ 4spect on chi/d obour in lndio
n ancient ndia it was the duty of the king to educate every girl and boy and parents could be punished for not
sending their children to school called ashrams, which were really residential schools under a guru (a learned
sage). Child labour existed only in the form of child slaves children, sometimes even less than 8 years of age,
were purchased, to do so-called low and dishonorable work. Kautilya (4th century B.C) considered it degrading to
make children work on such jobs and hence prohibited the purchase and sale of slave children below 8 years.
Children, however, helped their parents in household activities and family crafts. They learnt the skills by
observing and participating in such activities. A predominantly rural society is inevitably characterized by small
and marginal economic units. ndia, through its medieval period, was no exception. ncreasing pressure on land
led to fragmentation of holdings. Growing families had to look beyond personal cultivation for subsistence. A
class of landless labourers came into existence, often bonded to the large landowners. These labourers used
their children to help in their economic activities. The rural artism rarely worked alone. nfact the entire family was
a work unit with the 'pater familia' being the master craftsman. Occupations were determined largely on the basis
of heredity, and children were introduced to their traditional craft at a young age.
Noture of chi/d work
From time immemorial it has been the practice that children were to engage themselves in some sort of work or
the other, both in home and in the field. n olden days, children of tender age performed even toilsome work
alongwith adult agricultural and other workers. n the medieval period, children used to be engaged as trainees
under the guidance of their parents to learn traditional crafts of the family.
n agriculture, children are employed not on agricultural operations but in non-agricultural operations also. They
are employed in such diverse agricultural operations as ploughing, sowing, transplanting, weeding, harvesting
threshing and guarding the crops, etc.
n plantations, child labour is a part of family labour. They assist their parents in plucking of leaves and coffee
berries, or collecting of latex, or they do some secondary jobs, such as, weeding, spreading of fertilizers, the care
of nurseries, digging of drains, etc. they are also employed to pick out stalks and coarse leaves of tea spread
over the green leaves in the shadow.
There is also an increasing concern about the accident and disease incident among child agricultural workers,
controls on hazardous insecticides and pesticides are deficient and neither the children nor their parents receive
any instruction as how to use them safely. The same is true of mechanical operations.
Children in cities perform much larger varieties of activities than those in villages because of the extensively
diversified structure of urban economics. Often, children are employed for packing, labeling, etc., in the factories.
Other industries in which children are engaged are match factories, bidi manufacturing, mica cutting, wood and
cork, furniture and fixture, printing, publishing and allied trades, leather products, rubber and rubber products,
machinery, transport equipment, lock factories, gem cutting and polishing, potteries, glass bangle industries,
brass work, carpet industries and personal services like laundaries, deying and cleaning.
Millions of small boys and girls are engaged in the unorganized sector, comprising hotels, restaurants, canteens,
wayside 'dhabas', shops, repair workshop, and establishments of various types. They also work as hawkers,
coolies, shoe-shine boys and venders. n big cities, children can be seen cleaning and washing automobiles just
for a trip. The bigger the city, the higher is the persistent demand for teenagers to work as domestic servants and
it is there that they are often subjected to worst types of exploitation without any means of protections-legal or
social on the kitchen floor and are, as a rule, not permitted to attend school. Sexual abuse is also reported to be
frequent.
n a good number of occupations child worker is invariably exposed to risks of various nature because of his
tender age. For instance, he is likely to suffer burn injuries while working round about big ovens, or while carrying
hot beverages; the newspaper hawkers and shoe-shine boys are exposed to the risk of road accident; rag-
pickers may get cut injuries from glass pieces or broken tin cans; or the child working on construction sites
alongwith his parents may sustain injuries while carrying brick or stone loads.
nterestingly, children are sometimes also employed as performing artists. They are given roles in films, and in
circus they perform acrobatic feats, Magicians and jugglers use them as 'Jamura' (the helping boy) and they are
also used by them for arousing public sympathy at wayside shows for alms.
Some writers and social workers are of the view that begging is a major field of operations where children are put
to work. Mrs. Sengupta has observed.:
"Our seething millions where child employment is rife and has become a various form of exploitation ... begging
is becoming a real profession and there are scaring rumours that gangsters and syndicates of inhuman beings
trade in human babies and children. Certainly the mother clad in a rag and clutching a baby in her arms is a sight
that is shameful. Children are drugged or even, one hears, tortured. To see pavement dwellers in all their horrors
living in filth, children picking up rejected and popping food mixed with filth into their mouths makes one feel
desperate: but no one seem to do prevent from flaunting drugged babies or little tots on the road and to use them
for employment purposes.
Curiously, some well to do urban families, having connections in the country-side, take in some child of a poor
relative, ostensibly, for supporting the child out of sympathy for the for the poor relatives, but he or she eds up as
a domestic servant with no opportunity for education.
t has been also discovered that a sizable number of children ranging between 5 to 12 years of age had actually
been kidnapped from different places to weave carpets and were forced to work for as long as 22 hours a day.
These children treated like virtual slaves, were found to bear scar marks of torture. They were, reportedly,
severely beaten even with iron rods, if they were deficient in work or committed errors in weaving.
The most nefarious rather barbarian form of child exploitation is the practice of bonded labour. The child is
handed over by the loaner as security or collateral security against small sums of loan obtained at an exorbitant
rate of interest. The bonded child usually gets only a handful of coarse grain for his subsistence. He has to toil
very hard and exists at the mercy of his lord for the whole of life without the least hope of redemption. The
mortgagee is usually some big landlord, money lender or the village businessman and the mortgager is the poor
landless labourer. Through this practice is prevalent in many parts of rural ndia, it is predominant in Vellore
district of Tamil Nadu but with a distinguishing feature that there the bonded child is allowed to stay with his
parents on the condition that he must present him self at work daily at 8 a.m. The practice of bounded labour is
still prevalent dispite stringent laws against it which provide for imprisonment of, and imprisonment of, and
imposition of fine on, the guilty.
couses Of chi/d obour
Child labour is a socio-economic phenomenon. t is generally concerned that illiteracy, ignorance, low wages,
unemployment, poor standard of living, stark poverty, deep social prejudices and appalling backwardness of the
country-side are all, severally and collectively, the root causes of child labour. Mr Madan, Deputy Director,
Ministry of Labour, is of the view that "the children are required to seek employment either to augment the
income of their families or to have a gainful occupation in the absence of availability of school going facilities at
various places.
t has been officially stated that, "child labour is no longer a medium of economic exploitation but is necessitated
by economic necessity of the parents and in many cases that of the child himself. Prof. Gangrade believes that
child labour is a product of such factors as customs, traditional attitude, lack of school or reluctance of parents to
send their children to school, urbanization, industrialization, migration and so on.
4qe imit
The ndian constitution in its article 24 lays down that, "No child below the age of 14 years shall be employed to
work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment. The abuse of the tender age can
be stopped by bringing these vast unorganized sectors under legislative control. We see that children employed
in different occupations and different states are subject to different set of regulations and treatment. But our
primary interest is to save the tender aged children from health risks, hazardous and other forms of exploitation.
The complex socio-economic conditions in different social milieu may not advocate the uniform age limit. But this
should not rule out the possibility of acceptance of age uniformity, though child labour (Prohibitions and
Regulation) Act has brought about much needed uniformity in certain cases. Not only in our country, but also in
almost all other countries of the world the non-uniformity of age regulation is still in existence. The most widely
covered and most strictly regulated sector is industry. Fifty-four of the member countries for which such
information is available, have fixed the minimum age for industrial employment at 14. A higher age 15 or 16 is
the general rule in another forty-five and a lower one -12 or 13 in just over a dozen. n case of non-industrial
employment national laws and regulations are naturally extremely diverse. The majority of countries have, in
principle, a uniform minimum age of 14, 15 or 16 years for all employment (disregarding agriculture for the
moment).
But in our country where dire poverty is manifest in every walk of life what will be the minimum age for child
labour? The nternational Labour Organization in its Convention No. 138 (1973), in Article 3 had clearly stated,
"The minimum age for admission to any type of employment or work which by its nature or the circumstances in
which it is carried out is likely to jeopardise the health, safety or morals of young persons shall not be less than
18 years. f ndia ratifies this convention, millions of children will be thrown out of employment. n the present
socio-economic condition in the country it is difficult to prescribe the minimum age. t will make the problem of
unemployment and poverty more acute. But for the sake of uplifting the future standards of employment as well
as to protect the children from such abuse of their tender age, at least we can appeal to our government to
provide free and compulsory education to every child up to the age of 14 years. The law makers must keep in
mind the recommendation of the Convention No. 138. age limits should be gradually raised to a level consistent
with the fullest physical and mental growth and development of child workers as recommended by the
nternational Labour Organization to save the children from the clutches of social injustice and deprivation and to
ensure for them a happy normal growth in the national interest of every country.
nours of work
The health and efficiency of the workers depend mostly on the hours of work. Long hours of work are harmful not
only for moral and physical development, but also retard efficiency. Considering our climate and geophysical
conditions the hours of work should be lowered. The long working days minimize the working life. So it is less
productive in the long run. Shorter working days are also less productive, but it provides more employment. The
socio-economic conditions of ndia demands shorter working hours. The tender age of the working children
should be protected from the onslaught of rigorous working hours. The environment of the working places, such
as, hotels, restaurants, tea-stalls, and sweet-shops is most uncongenial to the development of the child. But the
working children devote 16 to 20 hours daily to serve the clients.
According to the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, no child shall be permitted to work more
than a period of 6 hours inclusive one hours rest in one day. Moreover short working hours, with rest intervals
would enable the child workers to perform their duties efficiently and happily. The most surprising thing is that the
employer hardly takes any care to make a difference between the child and the adult worker. Naturally working
children become the victim of exploitation. Working hour should be restricted in such a way that they may be
permitted to part time education. The most striking thing is that no special provision have been made regarding
the condition of work, conservancy services whole- some drinking water, medical facilities, accident benefits, rest,
etc., for the child workers. They should enj oy the same facilities like the adult workers.
lmp/ementotion of chemes
Our constitution provides, as a fundamental right, that no child below the age of fourteen years shall be employed
in any factory, or mine, or be engaged in any other hazardous occupation. Once Dr. Rajendra Prasad had
remarked, "We might search our hearts and ask ourselves whether we have done everything possible to
implement this directive.
According to the report of the National Commission on Labour, the employment of children in factories, mines,
plantations or in other organized sectors has been decreasing. However, this report adds that it continues to
persist in varying degrees in the unorganized sector, such as, small plantations, restaurants, hotels, cotton
ginning and weaving, carpet weaving, stone breaking, brick kiln, handicrafts and road building, etc. Employment
of children, who are below the prescribed age, was also reported to be continuing at far off places and in rural
areas where enforcement of statutory provisions was all the more difficult.
The real enforcement lies in the implementation. The positive side of implementation is that law should have and
validity. The greedy employers do not care the existing laws. Like all other countries several industrial activities
such as manufacturing, mines, construction and various kind of transport are dealt with by separate laws and
regulations. On the other hand the immature children are in the dark about legal protection. Like all laws should
be properly administered. The essential feature of the administration of labour law is inspection. A peculiar
feature is that the employer always tries to draw a screen before the inspector. nspector hardly gets any
opportunity to identify the child for verify his age and the other working conditions. Children do not come openly
to the inspector to report about their grievances.
lnternotiono/ obour Orqonitotion ond chi/d obour
The basic aim of the LO to abolish Child Labour altogether is yet a distant goal in view of the present economic
setup of the World. t has taken measures to protect the working children and to ameliorate their working and
living conditions and to impart job-based education. The United Nations declaration of the rights of the child says:
%he child shall enjoy special protection and shall be given opportunities and facilities, by law and by
other means, to enable him to develop physically, mentally, spiritually and socially in a healthy and
normal manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity. In the enactment of laws for this purpose the
best interests of the child shall be the paramount consideration."
t further states that: the child shall be protected against all forms of neglect, cruelty and exploitation. He
shall not be the subject of traffic, in any form. %he child shall not be admitted to employment before an
appropriate minimum age; he shall in no case be caused or permitted to be engaged in any occupations
or employment which would prejudice his health or education, or interfere with his physical, mental or
moral development."
Best blessings on those
Little, innocent lives
Bloomed on earth,
Who have brought the message
Of joy from heavenly garden
- Rabindra Nath Tagore
t is the bounded duty of the country to provide for atleast free primary education for all children. One must
remember that the industrialization can wait but youth does not last long. This right to primary education must be
for all the present time, and not a dubious or ambiguous must be for the present for some defined future. The
basic guarantees of our Constitutional must be fulfilled here and now.
Therefore, so far as the projects for development of human resources are concerned, the programme for welfare
of children must be given top priority. t is only in this way that children can be trained to be good future citizen,
mentally alert and prosperous. We should aim at providing proper and equal opportunities for development to all
children in the light of the above mentioned constitutional directives. t is only then that we can fulfill our
aspirations and achieve our objectives of social justice and equality enshrined in our constitution.
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Labels: APPSC GROUP-1, APPSC GROUP-1 GENERAL ESSAY
DeIoresLuLIon: Mujor envIronmenLuI probIem
Deforestation is a main environmental concern in the world. Deforestation includes the
cutting down, burning, and destructing of forests. Numerous researches suggests that
deforestation may be the first link in a chain of environment degradation that includes
erosion, climatic changes, loss of biodiversity and genetic endowment, air pollution,
decline in watershed functions, and the apparent loss of hardwood, fuel wood, and
aesthetic stocks.
Population explosion is major basis for decline of the rain forests. These forests are
being cut down at a petrifying rate to supply man with lumber, pasture land, and farm
land. The outcome of such human activities is deforestation; the world's most valuable
environment is being ruined. Plants and animals life is gradually diminishing as the
natural habitats are bested. Deforestation occurs because people need land for
agricultural. Large companies clear vast amounts of land, often for cattle pastures to fill
the beef market. They also use the land for large plantations and use pesticides and
irrigation systems that are very harmful to the land. The chemicals which are used to
destroy pests also kill other animals and cause a lot of damage to surrounding areas.
The rain washes the chemicals into the water system killing the aquatic life. The use of
Land in such a way affects negatively the surrounding areas. t also can take centuries
to re-grow.
There is solid cause of deforestation which is mainly related to a competitive global
economy. t forces countries to utilize their only resource for funds. This process takes
place at local and national level. Locally, people use land for farming to generate income
because of poverty and population growth. Nationally, governments sell logging
concessions to cover debts and develop industries. People are using their rainforests
only for a short-term solution and could not assess the long term effects of their
distractive activities. t is predicted that half the rain in tropical countries comes from
evaporation of moisture from the covering of the trees. As trees and plants are
destroyed, the moist awning of the tropical rain forest rapidly reduces. Evaporation and
Evapotranspiration processes from the trees and plants return large quantities of water
to the local atmosphere, promoting the formation of clouds and precipitation. Due to less
evaporation, more of the Sun's energy is able to warm the surface and the air above
which leads to increase in temperatures and the drying of land. Today, it is novel policies
and program of development; rapid industrialization, urbanization and growing
consumerism that have resulted in the large scale destruction of the forests. Due to the
difficulty of deforestation, a major environmental issue, many clashes have arisen
between environmental activist groups and those concerned in deforestation activities.
The solutions to crisis of deforestation lie in dealing with the root cause. To resolve the
issue, experts have to consider the economic problems that lie at the heart of the
situation. Many proposals have been offered such as sustainable wood sources. f
deforestation continues at its current rate then in just 100 years, there will be no more
rainforests left at all and people will be the most sufferers.
Governments and environmentalists are facing major challenge- what steps must be
taken to stop deforestation so that current environmental conditions would not get
poorer. Scarcity and over population are main causes which alarms to governments.
Policies must be made to overcome such problems so that we can save our forest and
animals. Environmentalists and forestry supporters have been telling people and
governments to instantly act on the problem regarding continued deforestation practices
all around the world. Deforestation could be gradually stopped if people would be more
environmentally mindful. That means, to speed up efforts in stopping deforestation. We
must start participating in recycling programs. Governments should also implement
legislations that would successfully prevent the deforestation process. Government must
encourage reforestation which is the sought-after healing process
Everyone must understand that rainforest are splendid, exceptional gift of nature on our
valuable Earth. f preventive measures are not taken immediately to stop the effects of
deforestation, humans will be under grip of severe crisis. They may lose animals, plants,
and there are great possibilities for dreaded diseases that are killing off our own race. All
people must join their hands to work out a plan that is appropriate for businesses,
governments, and most importantly the environment. Another important threat to human
is that deforestation leads not only to species annihilation but also to loss of the genetic
diversity that could help certain species adjust to a changing world. People are well
familiar with the environmental crisis which can happen due to deforestation. Still they
are destroying speedily.
The effects of deforestation can be devastating. t can lose the land of its natural
aesthetic. n coming years, dangerous consequences will be visible. Deforestation can
damage to the environment, usually stemming from its ability to cause land erosion.
When an area is cleared, the soil under the surface is essentially stripped of the roots
that provided it structural integrity and support. Without this support, the force of water,
gravity, or both can cause the land to move, either as one piece, or more commonly,
steadily and incrementally. Soil erosion due to deforestation is the main cause of Costa
Rica's environmental calamity such as flooding, desertification and sedimentation in
rivers, long-term hydroelectric shortages, loss of wildlife diversity, and the obvious
depletion of the wood resources. Such a severe climate change can be arrested through
reducing tropical deforestation. Deforestation bans and moratoria can effectively work if
implemented properly.
Deforestation of is a severe environmental destruction which can not be revived if
damaged at current rate. People cut down trees to meet out their own need without
considering future outcome. They do not recognize about the damage they are doing.
The deforestation affects the plant life. People have general impression that if trees are
cuts down, it will grow back in a few years. Plants will ultimately grow back, but the forest
will be changed into a secondary forest and may never be the same.

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