GS4 PYQ (Mains Answer Writing): Ethics Case Study - 2 | UPSC Mains Answer Writing: Practice PDF Download

Q. 

• Eviction from a slum during the lockdown rendered people homeless. The families claimed that the lockdown affected the wedding season during which they used to earn a bare minimum amount for their subsistence to earn a bare minimum amount for their subsistence by selling bamboo items and utensils. Now they are left with no other means of livelihood and are homeless after losing their shelter. means of livelihood and homeless after losing their shelter.
• Meanwhile some displaced residents started working as ragpickers, but now due to lockdown the scrap warehouses have been shut. Due to which the savings of the affected people is drained and they are on the verge of being famished.

You are the Divisional Commissioner of that area and it is your responsibility to resolve all the issues including the rehabilitation of the displaced people in implementation of the beautification project.

(a) Identify the stakeholders and the ethical issues involved in the case.
(b) What are the options available to you? Which one do you think will be the most appropriate step that can be taken. Justify.

"Before looking at the solution of this question you may try this question at your own first"

Body

• The first two courses of actions would not be taken by me because the former is professionally inappropriate and latter is morally unsound.
• With the third, fourth and fifth course of action, I would be able to provide the much needed relief to the displaced people and initiate their rehabilitation process.
• If there are resource constraints with the district administration, to undertake these courses of action, I will take help from private welfare institutions like charitable shelter homes and NGOs.

For complete rehabilitation of the unsettled people in this case and similar other cases in my area of jurisdiction, the following course of action will be taken:

Conclusion
Thus, the above plan would help me as a divisional magistrate to take decisions which are morally sound and rationally appropriate to rehabilitate the displaced people at the earliest and bring maximum justice to most of the stakeholder.