Test: Class 8 Polity NCERT Based-2 - UPSC MCQ

• There are essential facilities that need to be provided for everyone, for example healthcare and sanitation.Similarly, there are things like electricity, public transport, schools and colleges that are also necessary.

• These are known as public facilities. The important characteristic of a public facility is that once it is provided, its benefits can be shared by many people. For instance, a school in the village will enable many children to get educated. One of the most important functions of the government is to ensure that these public facilities are made available to everyone.

• The central government passed the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.

• The introduction to the final Act states that this Act is meant to undo the historical injustices meted out to forest dwelling populations in not recognising their rights to land and resources.

• This Act recognises their right to homestead, cultivable and grazing land and to non-timber forest produce. The Act also points out that the rights of forest dwellers includes conservation of forests and biodiversity.

• Adivasis – the term literally means ‘original inhabitants’ – are communities who lived, and often continue to live, in close association with forests. Around 8 per cent of India’s population is Adivasi and many of India’s most important mining and industrial centres are located in Adivasi areas – Jamshedpur, Rourkela, Bokaro and Bhilai among others. Adivasis are not a homogeneous population: there are over 500 different Adivasi groups in India.

• Niyamgiri Hill located in Kalahandi district of Orissa. This area is inhabited by Dongria Kondhs, an Adivasi community.

• Niyamgiri is the sacred mountain of this community. Vedanta, a major aluminium company, was planning to set up a mine and a refinery here which will displace this Adivasi community.

• They had strongly resisted this proposed development and had been joined by environmentalists as well.A case against the company was heard by the Supreme Court.

• In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court in 2013 directed the smallest units of local governance to use their powers and take a decision on whether the Vedanta group’s $1.7 billion bauxite mining project in Odisha’s Niyamgiri Hills can go forward or not.

• To be marginalised means to be forced to occupy the sides or fringes and thus not be at the centre of things. Marginalisation of a certain section of the society can be because they speak a different language, follow different customs or belong to a different religious group from the majority community.

• They may also feel marginalised because they are poor, considered to be of ‘low’ social status and viewed as being less human than others. Sometimes, marginalised groups are viewed with hostility and fear.

• This sense of difference and exclusion leads to communities not having access to resources and opportunities and in their inability to assert their rights. They experience a sense of disadvantage and powerlessness vis-a-vis more powerful and dominant sections of society who own land, are wealthy, better educated and politically powerful.

• Thus, marginalisation is seldom experienced in one sphere.

Economic, social, cultural and political factors work together to make certain groups in society feel marginalised.

• According to the 2011 census, Muslims are 14.2 per cent of India’s population and are considered to be a marginalised community in India today because in comparison to other communities, they have over the years been deprived of the benefits of socioeconomic Development.

• Recognising that Muslims in India were lagging behind in terms of various development indicators, the government set up a high-level committee in 2005Chaired by Justice Rajindar Sachar, the committee examined the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community in India.

• The report discusses in detail the marginalisation of this community. It suggests that on a range of social, economic and educational indicators the situation of the Muslim community is comparable to that of other marginalised communities like Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

• For example, according to the Report the average years of schooling for Muslim children between the ages of 7-16 is much lower than that of other socio religious communities.

• As part of their effort to implement the Constitution, both state and central governments create specific schemes for implementation in tribal areas or in areas that have a high Dalit population to promote social justice.

• For example, the government provides for free or subsidised hostels for students of Dalit and Adivasi communities so that they can avail of education facilities that may not be available in their localities.

• In addition to providing certain facilities, the government also operates through laws to ensure that concrete steps are taken to end inequity in the system.One such law/policy is the reservation policy that today is both significant and highly contentious.

• The laws which reserve seats in education and government employment for Dalits and Adivasis are based on an important argument- that in a society like ours, where for centuries sections of the population have been denied opportunities to learn and to work in order to develop new skills or vocations, a democratic government needs to step in and assist these sections.

• The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 was framed in 1989 in response to demands made by Dalits and others that the government must take seriously the ill treatment and humiliation Dalits and tribal groups face in an everyday sense.

• Kabir was a fifteenth century poet and weaver who belonged to the Bhakti tradition. Kabir’s poetry spoke about his love for the supreme being free of ritual and priests. It also expresses his sharp and pointed criticism of those he saw as powerful.

• Kabir attacked those who attempted to define individuals on the basis of their religious and caste identities.In his view every person had the ability to reach the highest level of spiritual salvation and deep knowledge within themselves through their own experience.

• His poetry brings out the powerful idea of the equality of all human beings and their labour. Chokhamela was a bhakti saint in Maharashtra, during 14th century and Soyrabai was his wife. They belonged to the Mahar caste, which was at that time considered untouchable.

• Manual scavenging refers to the practice of removing human and animal waste/excreta using brooms, tin plates and baskets from dry latrines and carrying it on the head to disposal grounds some distance away.

• A manual scavenger is the person who does the job of carrying this filth. This job is mainly done by Dalit women and young girls. Manual scavengers in different parts of the country are known by different names, the Bhangis in Gujarat, Pakhis in Andhra Pradesh and the Sikkaliars in Tamil Nadu, and they continue to be considered untouchable.

• In 1993, the government passed the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act. This law prohibits the employment of manual scavengers as well as the construction of dry latrines.

• In 2003, the Safai Karamchari Andolan and 13 other organisations and individuals, including seven scavengers, filed a PIL in the Supreme Court. The court observed that the number of manual scavengers in India had increased since the 1993 law. It directed every department/ministry of the union government and state governments to verify the facts within six months. The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act came into force on 6 December 2013.

• There are essential facilities that need to be provided for everyone, for example healthcare and sanitation.

• Similarly, there are things like electricity, public transport, schools and colleges that are also necessary. These are known as public facilities.

• The important characteristic of a public facility is that once it is provided, its benefits can be shared by many people. For instance, a school in the village will enable many children to get educated. One of the most important functions of the government is to ensure that these public facilities are made available to everyone.

• Sanitation is a must in prevention of water-borne diseases. The poor both in the rural and urban areas lack access to sanitation.

• Sulabh, a non-government organisation, has been working for three decades to address the problems of sanitation facing low-caste, low-income people in India.

• It has constructed more than 7,500 public toilet blocks and 1.2 million private toilets, giving access to sanitation to 10 million people. The majority of the users of Sulabh facilities are from the poor working class.Sulabh enters into contracts with municipalities or other local authorities to construct toilet blocks with government funds.Local authorities provide land and funds for setting up the services, whereas maintenance costs are sometimes financed through user charges.

• According to the 2011 census, over 4 million children in India aged between 5 and 14 work in various occupations including hazardous ones.

• In 2016, Parliament amended the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, banning the employment of children below the age of 14 years in all occupations except where the child helps his family after school hours and of adolescents (14-18 years) in hazardous occupations and processesIt made employing these children or adolescents a cognizable offence.

• Anyone found violating the ban must be penalized with a punishment ranging from a jail term of six months to two years and/or fine of Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 50,000. The central government had asked state governments to develop plans to rescue and rehabilitate children who are working.