Indian Society and Social Issues: March 2023 UPSC Current Affairs | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly PDF Download

National Policy on Older Persons in India

Why in News?

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment implements a Central Sector Scheme of Integrated Programme for Senior Citizens (IPSrC).

What are the Initiatives Related to Welfare of Senior Citizens in India

• National Policy on Older Persons (NPOP):
  • The National Policy on Older Persons (NPOP) was announced in 1999 to reaffirm the commitment to ensure the well-being of older persons.
  • The Policy envisages State support to ensure financial and food security, health care, shelter and other needs of older persons, equitable share in development, protection against abuse and exploitation, and availability of services to improve the quality of their lives.
• Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana (RVY):
  • It is a Central Sector Scheme funded by the Senior Citizens’ Welfare Fund.
  • The scheme provides aids and assistive living devices to senior citizens belonging to BPL category or those who earn less than 15000/- per month and suffer from age-related disabilities such as low vision, hearing impairment, loss of teeth, and loco-motor disabilities.
• Elderline:
  • The National Helpline for Senior Citizen (14567)-Elderline has been set up by the Ministry to address the grievances of elders in 2021.
  • The helpline has been launched across the country and offers services to senior citizens through a toll-free number.
• Seniorcare Ageing Growth Engine (SAGE):
  • It is an initiative launched in 2021 to encourage innovative start-ups to develop products, processes, and services for the welfare of the elderly.
  • Under this initiative, innovative start-ups are identified and provided with equity support of up to Rs.1 crore per project while ensuring that the total Government equity in the start-up does not exceed 49%.
• Atal Vayo Abhyuday Yojana:
  • The Ministry has also included awareness generation/sensitization programs with school/college students for strengthening inter-generational bonding under the umbrella scheme of Atal Vayo Abhyuday Yojana.
  • It aims to provide information and educational material to individuals, families, and groups for better understanding of the aging process.

World Tuberculosis Day

Context

• World Tuberculosis Day, is observed on 24 March each year.

Details

• World Tuberculosis Day, is designed to build public awareness about the global epidemic of tuberculosis (TB) and efforts to eliminate the disease.
• In 1982, on the one-hundredth anniversary of Robert Koch's presentation, the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD) proposed that 24 March be proclaimed an official World TB Day. This was part of a year-long centennial effort by the IUATLD and the World Health Organization (WHO) under the theme "Defeat TB: Now and Forever.”
• World TB Day was not officially recognized as an annual occurrence by WHO's World Health Assembly and the United Nations until over a decade later.

Rajasthan’s Right to Health Bill

In News

The recently concluded Budget session of the Rajasthan Assembly revived the debate around the Right to Health Bill.

Key Features of the Bill

• Right to Health: The Bill provides the right to health and access to healthcare for people in the state. This includes free health care services at any clinical establishment to residents of the state.
• Obligations on State: To formulate and prescribe a public health model, 
• Make appropriate provisions in the state budget, 
• Make available healthcare services with due consideration for distance, geographical area, or population density, 
• Lay down standards for quality and safety at all levels,
• Set up a coordinating mechanism to ensure adequate supply of safe drinking water, sanitation, and nutritionally sufficient safe food, and
• Institute measures to prevent, treat, and control epidemics and public health emergencies. 
• Health Authorities will be set up at the state and district level. These bodies will formulate, implement, monitor, and develop mechanisms for quality healthcare and management of public health emergencies.
• Grievance redressal: The Bill provides a mechanism for resolving complaints against denial of services and infringements of rights. A web portal and helpline centre will be established for filing complaints.  The concerned officer will have 24 hours to respond to the complaint.  

Need for the Bill

• In 1996, the Supreme Court held that the Right to life (Article 21) included the right to health within its fold, and also pointed out the obligation of state governments to provide health services.
• In 2018, the National Commission on Human Rights drafted the Charter of Patient Rights to be implemented by state governments.
• The Rajasthan Right to Health Bill, 2022, was introduced in the Rajasthan Assembly on September 22, 2022 which seeks to provide for the protection and fulfilment of equitable rights in health and well-being.  

Key Issues 

• Commercially Unviable for Private Establishment: A resident of the state has the right to avail free healthcare services from any clinical establishment including private establishments. There is no provision for reimbursing private health establishments for providing free healthcare services.  This may make these establishments commercially unviable and violate Article 19(1)(g) (Right to practice any profession) of the Constitution.
• Privacy of the Patients: The District Health Authority is required to upload an action taken report on the web portal for complaints.  The Bill does not specify who will have access to the report on the web portal.  This may infringe on the patient’s right to privacy in medical cases.
• Financial Burden on States: Implementing the right to health may increase the financial obligation of the state.  The Bill does not provide for such additional costs.
• Institutional and health worker shortage: Ensuring free and quality healthcare at all establishments would require adequate human resources and infrastructure at all clinical establishments.  Data suggests that there may be a shortage of such resources in the state.  This may affect the effective implementation of the right to health.

Exclusion of ST Women from Hindu Succession Act

Why in News?

A Member of Parliament has urged the government to issue a notification that would include women from the Scheduled Tribe community in the inheritance rights provisions of the Hindu Succession Amendment Act, 2005.

• Section 2(2) of the Act excludes these women, which results in the denial of their equal rights to inherit their father's or Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) properties.

What are the Issues Highlighted Around Inheritance Rights?

• The Hindu Succession Act, 1956, was amended in 2005 to grant daughters equal rights to inherit their father's or HUF properties.
• The Member of Parliament (MoP) stated that exclusion of women from the Scheduled Tribe in this act is discriminatory based on gender and is against Article 14 of the Constitution of India, which advocates for equality before the law.
• Additionally, MoP argue that women from Scheduled Tribes are a more disadvantaged group due to historic oppression and lack of access to education, employment, and property.
• The MoP has urged the Government to issue a notification that would include Scheduled Tribe women in the ambit of the Hindu Succession Act, except in cases where the customs of a particular Scheduled Tribe give women an advantageous position.

What is Hindu Succession Act, 1956?

• About:
  • The Mitakshara school of Hindu law codified as the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 governed succession and inheritance of property but only recognised males as legal heirs.
• Applicability:
  • It applies to everyone who is not a Muslim, Christian, Parsi or Jew by religion.
  • Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains and followers of Arya Samaj, Brahmo Samaj, are also considered Hindus for this law.
  • Traditionally, only male descendants of a common ancestor along with their mothers, wives and unmarried daughters are considered a joint Hindu family. The legal heirs hold the family property jointly.
• Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005:
  • The 1956 Act was amended in September 2005 and women were recognised as coparceners for property partitions arising from 2005.
  • Section 6 of the Act was amended to make a daughter of a coparcener also a coparcener by birth “in her own right in the same manner as the son”.
  • It also gave the daughter the same rights and liabilities “in the coparcenary property as she would have had if she had been a son”.
  • The law applies to ancestral property and to intestate succession in personal property, where succession happens as per law and not through a will.

Evolution of Women's Movements in India

Why in News?

According to the Economic Survey 2022-23, there are about 1.2 crore Self Help Groups (SHG) in India, most of which are all-women. The Indian women's movement has been recognized globally for its vibrancy. However, the evolution of the movement has received less attention.

How the Women's Movement Evolved in India?

• Evolution:
  • The movement has transformed over time from serving as a beacon for the nationalist movement to a rights-based civil society movement to a state-led movement for economic empowerment.
• Three Phases:
  • Nationalist Movement (1936-1970s)
  • Women were the face of the nationalist movement. The clarion call by Mahatma Gandhi to the 1936 All India Women’s Conference was the hallmark of a nationalist movement that relied on women to serve as its face.
  • The movement aimed to give women political power. The political history of the Indian women’s movement was observed when women satyagrahis were arrested during the salt satyagraha and the Quit India movement.
  • These movements set the stage for women's leadership in politics.
  • Rights-Based Civil Society Movement (1970s-2000s)
  • Women's groups were mobilised to sensitize women about their rights.
  • The greatest success of this mobilisation came when the 73^rd Amendment to the Constitution was passed, reserving one-third of seats in panchayat and leadership positions in local bodies for women.
  • Chipko, one of the earliest ecofeminist movements in the world broadcasting pictures of women clinging to trees to protest logging.
  • It was a non-violent agitation which originated in Uttar Pradesh’s Chamoli district (now Uttarakhand) in 1973.
  • Also, Self Employed Women’s Association began to unionise women in the informal sector leading the advocacy for reforms in legal and social protection for women workers.
  • State-Led Movement for Economic Empowerment (2000s-present)
  • The government invested heavily in building and supporting SHGs.
  • SHGs function mainly as thrift and credit institutions.
  • The movement aimed to enhance women's access to income-generating activities.
  • The movement seeks to address the deficiency of vocational skills and entrepreneurship among women.

Conclusion

The women's movement in India has evolved over time, with each phase addressing different aspects of women's lives. The future of the women's movement in India depends on how effectively the state-led movement can transform women's lives by taking economic empowerment programs to scale.

India’s Internal Migration

Why in News?

There is concern in Tamil Nadu over a possible exodus of migrant workers after videos showed purported attacks on Hindi-speaking men.

• Almost a million migrants are estimated to work in Tamil Nadu, and industry bodies fear the state’s industrial and manufacturing sector would be severely impacted by an exodus.

What are the Statistics about Migration?

• 2011 Census:
  • Number of internal migrants (both inter-state and within state) in India at 45.36 crore, making up 37% of the country’s population.
  • The annual net migrant flows amounted to about 1% of the working age population.
  • India’s workforce was 48.2 crores strong. This figure is estimated to have exceeded 50 crores in 2016.
• Report of the Working Group on Migration, 2017:
  • Report under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation stated that 17 districts accounted for the top 25% of India’s total male out-migration.
  • Ten of these districts are in UP, six in Bihar, and one in Odisha.

• Economic Survey 2016-17:
  • Relatively less developed states such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have high net out-migration.
  • Relatively more developed states such as Goa, Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka reflect net immigration.
  • The largest recipient was the Delhi region, which accounted for more than half of migration in 2015-16.
  • While Uttar Pradesh and Bihar taken together account for half of total out-migrants.
• Migration in India Report 2020-21:
  • The report released by Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation in June 2022, collated numbers for temporary visitors and migrants.
  • 0.7% of the country’s population was recorded as a ‘temporary visitor’ during the July 2020-June 2021 period.
  • Temporary visitors were defined as those who arrived in households after March 2020 and stayed continuously for a period of 15 days or more but less than 6 months.
  • Over 84% of these 0.7% temporary visitors moved places due to pandemic.
  • The all-India migration rate was 28.9% for July 2020-June 2021, with a 26.5 % migration rate in rural areas and 34.9% in urban areas.
  • Females recorded a higher share of migration rate of 47.9%; 48% in rural and 47.8% in urban areas.
  • Migration rate for males was 10.7%, with 5.9% in rural and 22.5% in urban areas.
  • 86.8% females migrated for marriage while 49.6% of the males migrated in search of employment.

What is the Significance of Migration and Migrants?

• Labour Demand and Supply: Migration fills gaps in demand for and supply of labor, efficiently allocates skilled labor, unskilled labor, and cheap labor.
• Skill Development: Migration enhances the knowledge and skills of migrants through exposure and interaction with the outside world.
• Quality of Life: Migration enhances chances of employment and economic prosperity which in turn improves quality of life.
• Economic Remittances: The migrants also send extra income and remittance back home, thereby positively impacting their native place.
• Social Remittances: Migration helps to improve the social life of migrants, as they learn about new cultures, customs, and languages which helps to improve brotherhood among people and ensures greater equality and tolerance.

What are the Challenges Related to Migration?

• Issues faced by Marginalised Sections:
  • Whereas the people who are poor or belong to a marginalised section do not find it easy to mix up.
• Social and Psychological Aspects:
  • Many times, migrants are not easily accepted by the host place and they always remain as a second-class citizen.
  • Any person migrating to a new country faces multiple challenges, from cultural adaptation and language barriers to homesickness and loneliness.
• Exclusion from Political Rights and Social Benefits:
  • Migrant workers are deprived of many opportunities to exercise their political rights like the right to vote.
  • Moreover, the need to provide proof of address, Voter IDs and Aadhaar cards, which is difficult due to the fluidity of their lives, deprive them from accessing welfare schemes and policies.

What are the Government Initiatives Related to Migration?

• In 2021, NITI Aayog, along with a working subgroup of officials and members of civil society, has prepared a draft National Migrant Labour policy.
• The ramping up of One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) project and introduction of the Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC), PM Garib Kalyan Yojna scheme and e-Shram portal reflected a ray of hope.
• However, the story of migrants is still a tale of distress in India.

Social Protection for Children: ILO-UNICEF 

Why in News?

Recently, ILO (International Labour Organization) and UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) has released a report titled- “More than a billion reasons: The urgent need to build universal social protection for children”, which states that just 1 in 4 children are shielded by social protection, leaving others exposed to poverty, exclusion and multidimensional deprivations.

What is the Need for Social Protection?

• Social protection is a universal human right and a precondition for a world free from poverty.
• It is also a vital foundation to help the world’s most vulnerable children fulfill their potential.
• Social protection helps increase access to food, nutrition, education and healthcare.
• It can help prevent child labour and child marriage and address the drivers of gender inequality and exclusion.
• It can also reduce stress and even domestic violence, while supporting household livelihoods.
• And by tackling monetary poverty directly, it can also mitigate the stigma and exclusion so many children living in poverty experience – and the pain that a childhood feeling “less than” can produce.

What are the Findings of the Report?

• Global Scenario:
  • 1.77 billion children aged 0-18 years lack access to a child or family cash benefit, a fundamental pillar of a social protection system.
  • Children are twice as likely to live in extreme poverty as adults.
  • Approximately 800 million children are subsisting below the poverty line of USD 3.20 a day, and 1 billion children are experiencing multidimensional poverty.
  • Only 26.4% of children aged 0-15 years are shielded by social protection, leaving the remaining 73.6% exposed to poverty, exclusion and multidimensional deprivations.
  • Globally, all 2.4 billion children need social protection to be healthy and happy.
• Social Protection Coverage:
  • Child and family social protection coverage rates fell or stagnated in every region in the world between 2016 and 2020, leaving no country on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of achieving substantial social protection coverage by 2030.
  • In Latin America and the Caribbean, coverage fell significantly from approximately 51% to 42 %.
  • In many other regions, coverage has stalled and remains low.
• Risk:
  • Multiple crises are likely to push more children into poverty, necessitating an immediate increase in social protection measures.
  • The impacts of lack of social protection for children are both immediate and lifelong, heightening rights violations such as child labour and child marriage, and diminishing children’s aspirations and opportunities.
  • And this unrealized human potential has inevitable adverse and long-term implications for communities, societies and economies more broadly.
• Significance of Social Protection:
  • Before the Covid-19 pandemic, children were more than twice as likely to be living in extreme poverty than adults.
  • One billion children live in multidimensional poverty without access to education, health, housing, nutrition, sanitation or water.
  • The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted that social protection is a critical response in times of crisis.
  • Nearly every government in the world either rapidly adapted existing schemes or introduced new social protection programmes to support children and families.
  • In 2022, South Africa introduced a welfare scheme, Child Support Grant (CSG) Top-Up, aiming to increase the CSG amount for orphans and children heading or living in child-headed households.
  • 31 states in India had implemented the national ‘PM CARES for Children’ scheme, a package of measures for 10,793 full orphans and 151,322 half-orphans. So far, 4,302 children have received support from the scheme.

What are the Recommendations?

• Policymakers should take action towards universal social protection for all children, including investments in benefits that offer proven and cost-effective ways to combat child poverty.
• Authorities are also advised to provide child benefits through national social protection systems that also connect families to crucial health and social services, such as free or affordable quality childcare.
• There is a need for securing sustainable financing for schemes by mobilizing domestic resources, increasing budget allocation for children, strengthening social protection for parents and caregivers and guaranteeing access to decent work and adequate employee benefits.

Women, Business and the Law 2023 Report

Why in News?

India scored above the regional average in the World Bank's Women, Business and the Law 2023 report. For India, report used data on laws and regulations in Mumbai, India's main business city.

• India received a perfect score for laws related to freedom of movement, women's work decisions, and marriage constraints.

What is Women, Business and the Law 2023 Report?

• About: Women, Business and the Law 2023 is the 9th in a series of annual reports that analyze laws and regulations affecting women’s economic opportunity in 190 economies.
  • Women, Business and the Law data is available for the period from 1971 to 2023 (calendar years 1970 to 2022)
• Indicators: It has eight indicators- Mobility, Workplace, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Entrepreneurship, Assets, and Pension.
• Uses: Data and indicators in Women, Business and the Law 2023, used to build evidence of the relationship between legal gender equality and women’s entrepreneurship and employment.
  • Since 2009, Women, Business and the Law has been enhancing the study of gender equality and informing discussions on improving women's economic opportunities and empowerment.

What are Findings of the Report?

• India:
  • India as Lower middle Income group country with WBL index score is 74.4 out of 100.
  • 100 representing the highest possible score.
  • The overall score for India is higher than the regional average observed across South Asia (63.7). Within the South Asia region, the maximum score observed is 80.6 (Nepal).
  • In India, a thriving civil society also contributed to identifying gaps, drafting legislation, and organizing public opinion through campaigns, discussions, and protests, leading to enactment of the 2005 Domestic Violence Act.
• Globally:
  • Only 14 scored a perfect 100: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Luxemburg, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
  • In 2022, the global average score is 76.5 out of 100.
  • Nearly 2.4 billion women of working age around the world live in economies that do not grant them the same rights as men.
  • At the current pace of reform, it would take at least 50 years to approach legal gender equality everywhere.
  • Progress toward equal treatment for women has fallen to its weakest pace in 20 years.
  • Most reforms focused on increasing paid leave for parents and fathers, removing restrictions on women’s work, and mandating equal pay.
  • Progress across the areas measured has also been uneven, with most reforms in Workplace and Parenthood.

What are the Areas India needs to Focus on?

• Laws affecting pay, pension, inheritance and property rights. The laws affecting the Indian working woman’s pay and pension do not provide for equality with Indian men.
• To improve on the Pay indicator, India should mandate equal remuneration for work of equal value, allowing women to work at night, and allowing women to work in an industrial job in the same way as men.
  • In India laws affecting women's pay, laws affecting women's work after having children, constraints on women starting and running a business, gender differences in property and inheritance, and laws affecting the size of a woman's pension, India could consider reforms to improve legal equality for women.
• For example, one of the lowest scores for India is on the indicator measuring laws affecting women’s pay (the WBL2023 Pay indicator).
• Globally, on average, women enjoy only 77 percent of the legal rights that men do.