Ethics: September 2023 UPSC Current Affairs | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly PDF Download

Case Study 1

District Collector's Responsibility To Conduct Fair Elections

• I will keep the election commission informed of my absence from city after office hours.
• I will ensure that my subordinates and colleagues are aware of their duties and work so that even in my absence, polls preparation and execution does not suffer.
• I will keep only selected colleagues informed of my absence from the city so that the general assumption keeps prevailing that the district collector is in the city.
• I will always be in constant touch with all the concerned authorities and stakeholders.

While at work I will try to be in touch with my mother so as to make her feel comfortable. During the telephonic conversation will try to comfort her that she would be well soon and also assure her that after the elections I will spend more time with her. I will try to use technological tools like Skype for video chatting with her on Internet so that she feels better. I will also request the best doctors in the district to examine my mother’s case and ensure that she receives the best medical attention and care.

Case study 2

Resident Welfare Association (RWA) vs Night Shelters For Labourers

You are the Station House Officer of a police station. Recently, there has been a spurt in theft incidents in your area. Some of these incidents have occurred even during daytime. The Resident Welfare Association (RWA) has blamed the labourers, residing in night shelters for the crimes.
The night shelters are the result of an initiative by the police to help the homeless people to seek refuge from the biting cold at night. You have taken great pain to get these night-shelters up and running. The record of all those who stay in these night shelters, for instance, their names and identity proofs, is with the police. But the police has no information if any one of them has a criminal record.
Even as an investigation regarding the thefts is going on, the RWA members are demanding that these night shelters be dismantled and the labourers be driven away from their homes.

• What are the options available to you?
• Evaluate each option and suggest the best course of action.

Sol: As the Station House Officer of a police station, which is also the custodian of the night shelter, the options available are:

• Dismantle the night shelters as per the demands of the Residents Welfare Association.
• Persuade the members to wait for the investigation reports before taking any decisive action.
• Provide additional security in the affected area to assuage their discontent.
• Summon all the labourers and threaten them of eviction if they don't give the information they have of the thefts.
• Ignore the demands and continue with the investigation.
• In the long run seek the cooperation of the welfare association to strengthen the security arrangement of the area and also suggest the local urban development office or municipality to install CCTV cameras.

Option (i) would provide immediate relief, but in absence of any conclusive evidence it will be injustice to the displaced. Also the entire community cannot be punished for the wrongs of a few (even if it is later proved that some of shelter inmates are involved).
Option (ii) is difficult to achieve in view of the opposition, but it is desirable and also legal.
Option (iii) is not legal, but permissible if any link exists of the involvement of some of the labourers in the recent theft. However, the threat should be exercised only on prime suspect and must be limited to investigation.
Option (iv) is legally correct but morally wrong for a Station House Officer, one's responsibility is also to address the genuine concerns of residents and keep the credibility of police intact.
Option (v) is applicable in the long run once the case is solved.
Since no conclusive evidence is available against the labourers, no legal action can be taken against them. One should begin an investigation immediately and till then take recourse to option (ii) i.e. talking with the association members and providing additional security to them. Once the case is solved the long run measures will be implemented.

Case study 3

Sexual Harassment At The Workplace

You are the team lead in a project. Your junior Mr. A, in the team is an extremely hard working and a productive individual who always completes his assignments on time. However of late, it has been brought to your notice that Mr. A has been misbehaving with Mrs. x who is a junior to him in the team. Mrs. x approaches you and apprises you of her uncomfortable situation in the team. According to her, Mr. A has been making advances towards her in the wrong way and on occasions has even asked her out for dinner which she disapproved of. Mrs. x demands immediate action against Mr. A. How will you proceed and what actions will you take to resolve the crisis?
Sol: The situation is one of alleged sexual harassment at the workplace which, if proved true, will portray the company in poor light, thereby affecting its credibility and profitability in the long run. A sense of insecurity might creep in among other female employees of the companies, thus hampering the team spirit.
An independent panel must be immediately set up having women members on its board to probe the allegations impartially. Guidelines regarding the same has been laid down by the Supreme Court in Vishakha case. In order to ease the situation, Mrs. x should be transferred from Mr. A’s team citing reasons like team restructuring.
Since Mr. A is a competent employee, therefore, unless proven guilty one cannot initiate serious penal measures against him. However, while the investigation process, Mr. A can be asked to stay (after speaking to him on the same) on leave as a cautionary measure.
One can also inquire at personal level to find about the behavioral pattern of Mr. A from other female employees of the company. If the investigation committee finds Mr. A as guilty, one should immediately terminate him and not to be much concerned about his skills and efficiency as excellence and productively can be easily bought in the market, but not the credibility. Besides respecting women is a cardinal principle on which no compromise is thinkable.
However, if the charges are proved wrong, one should immediately reinstate Mr. A and apologize personally to him. Also penal actions should be taken against Mrs. X. In the long run one should get CCTV cameras installed at the workplace and even appoint women group leaders in the team so as to send a strong message to women in the organization that gender is no bar to being promoted. One can also send a note to the company to organise gender sensitisation camps to build awareness about female rights among other employees.

Case study 4

HIV Positive Employee

You are a government official. One day you find out that your subordinate is infected with HIV. Before you could stop the news from spreading, it had already become a topic of discussion among other members of the office. Now, they are pressuring you to suspend, sack or transfer him as they fear that his presence in the office might lead to other members getting contaminated with the virus. You try to make them understand that HIV does not spread from touching, but they are so skeptic and scared that they refuse to even listen to your reasoning. They all decide to not work till the HIV positive employee. Your office is already under a lot of work pressure and in the next week you are to finish some work within a deadline. How will you tackle this problem? Elaborate the steps that you will take to handle it.
Sol: This situation deals more with an implementation problem of a decision (already in mind) and not with taking a decision. We must keep in mind that HIV infected people also have the right to life and personal liberty as enumerated in Article 21 of Fundamental Rights. Based on this, they cannot be deprived of a dignified life. It has been established beyond doubt that HIV is not transmitted through air, food or water, and touch. So, the demand of the members of the office is absolutely unreasonable. Besides being unreasonable their demand is also unethical as instead of social ostracisation, the HIV affected must be supported in this time of personal crisis. Hence, any action against the HIV infected person is neither desirable nor legal. However, as a team lead, one has to maintain social cohesion in the team and try best to assuage any suspicion in the minds of the people. Hence the following steps are desirable:

• One can start by explaining the employees that a diseased person is to be empathized with and definitely not to be hated. To substantiate one’s arguments one can put forward few scientific researches in front of them to make them understand that they are not vulnerable to get infected.
• In spite of the above if the employees persist with their stand then one can write to one’s seniors apprising of the situation and requesting to arrange an alternative team with similar skill sets so that they can complete the task.
• In the mean time one can pass an executive order that the complaining employees have no option but to work with the current setup. Besides strict disciplinary action will be taken against all those who fail to comply with official orders.
• In the mean time one can put all efforts to meet the deadline. One can try to organize medical educational camps to raise awareness.
• To have a positive demonstrative effect, one can start by making the affected person sit next to oneself.