THE HINDU – CURRENT NOTE 29 March
States get warning to brace for heat waves
•Keep action plans ready, say Met department and NDMA.
•Even as the country braces for a scorching summer and temperatures in several States have been going up over the past week, the India Meteorological Department, along with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), is exhorting the States to implement Heat Wave Action Plans.
•These describe step-by-step procedures the States ought to implement — from communication and ensuring first-aid to imposing early summer vacations in schools and ensuring that labourers employed in MGNREGA schemes aren’t assigned work during certain times of the day — in case of heatwave-like conditions.
•So far Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Telangana, Odisha and Maharashtra have committed themselves to action plans, which are implemented in varying degrees by their districts.
Advice to U.P., Rajasthan
•“This year we’re talking to Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan to have such a plan,” Madhavan Rajeevan, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, told The Hindu.
•Several IMD officials from various States as well as representatives from municipal corporations are attending here a two-day workshop, meant to nudge more States into having a State-specific plan.
Casualties reduced
Casualties reduced
•At a presentation, NDMA’s Anup Srivastava said heat waves killed 22,562 between 1992 and 2015.
•“In 2016, the number of casualties came down drastically to 1,111 from 2,040 in 2015,” he said in a paper. It was from 2016 that the IMD began giving heat wave forecasts and the States began considering plans.
•In 2015 Andhra Pradesh had 1,422 heat-related deaths. This came down to 723 the next year.
•While there are nuances and region-specific differences, the IMD broadly defines a heat wave as when a place’s temperature is 5-6°C above normal.
•It already forecasts heat waves on its website but a proper plan would mean that the States and district administrations would get warnings on the likelihood of temperatures rising to heat wave limits.
•“For instance, a State like Gujarat would like to know when temperatures would hit 41-42°C and we give them a forecast,” said S.C. Bhan, an IMD meteorologist associated with the programme.
•On Feb. 28, the IMD forecast “above normal” temperatures this summer in Punjab, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Telangana.
•The summer forecast is in line with a generally warm trend over previous months; 2016 was the warmest year in a century, according to the IMD, with the country 0.91°C warmer than the 1961-1990 average. The summer months of March-May last year were 1.36°C higher than the historical average, making it the second warmest since 1901. The higher temperatures coincide with three, consecutive years of weak monsoons.
•On Tuesday, the IMD said that “prevailing winds & clear sky conditions over northwest & adjoining central India” has led to heat wave conditions in West Rajasthan & Gujarat and at isolated places over West Madhya Pradesh. Delhi was already 7°C hotter than what’s normal for the last week of March.
New Bill on mental illness termed progressive
•The Mental Health Bill passed on Monday in the Lok Sabha after almost a six-year-long wait is expected to revive the way mental illnesses are dealt with in the country. While the Bill has been termed as progressive by the fraternity, a particular clause that emphasises on advanced directive from the patient has been debated widely.
•Pune-based psychiatrist Dr. Saumitra Pathare, who had drafted the Bill along with Professor Jaya Sagade, said the Bill will turn good a lot of aspects in mental healthcare. “For the first time, there is an emphasis on rehabilitation within the community. The Bill talks about the patients right to live within the community and not in seclusion. This changes the perspective with which we look at mentally-ill patients.”
•Dr. Pathare added that the Bill has a clause that mandates the government to increase the number of mental health workers. It also talks about free access to medication from the levels of Community Health Centres (CHCs) and above.
•“These two points will make a big difference at the ground level,” said Dr. Pathare adding that the focus can now shift to implementation. “We need to ensure that all the talks are now turned into reality,” he added.
Ire over ECT
•The Bill prohibits Electro Convulsive Therapy (ECT) for minors. In adults, ECT can be given only after the use of anaesthesia or muscle relaxant. While this therapy is used by few medical practitioners who are rooted to age old treatments, retaining ECT in the Bill has not gone down well with many progressive doctors who don’t believe in this therapy. The Bill also restricts medical institutions from chaining patients or keeping them in seclusion.
•The Bill states that a mentally-ill person shall have the right to make an advance directive that states how he wants to be treated and who his nominated representative shall be. “However, this is an dicey clause. How will a person who has illusions, or feels that everyone is conspiring against him or her, be in the state to give such a consent,” asks psychiatrist Dr. Rajendra Barve.
•The Bill further adds that the advance directive has to be certified by a medical practitioner or someone registered with the Mental Health Board. If a mental health professional/ relative/care-giver does not wish to follow the directive while treating the person, he can make an application to the Mental Health Board to review/alter/cancel the advance directive. Doctors say that this could result in them just making application after application.
Some positives
•The Bill empowers every person to access mental healthcare and treatment from services run or funded by the government. The right to access mental health care includes affordable, good quality of and easy access to services.
•In another progressive step, the Bill has made it mandatory for insurance companies to cover hospitalisation due to mental disorders.
Can’t appoint Lokpal for now, Centre tells SC
•The Centre on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that appointment of the anti-corruption ombudsman, Lokpal, is not possible now.
•Appearing before a Bench led by Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi said the amendments to the Lokpal law, concerning the substitution of the Leader of Opposition (LoP) with the leader of the single largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha on the high-power Lokpal selection committee, is still pending with Parliament.
•The committee comprises the Prime Minister, Lok Sabha Speaker, LoP and the Chief Justice of India or a SC judge as per the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act of 2013. But the 16th Lok Sabha has no recognised LoP.
•Mr. Rohatgi said the implementation of the Lokpal law would remain in limbo till Parliament allowed the single largest opposition party leader to take the place of the LoP in the latter’s absence. “Unless the proposed amendment making leader of the largest opposition party as LoP is passed by Parliament, the Lokpal cannot be appointed,” he submitted.
Judgment reserved
•The court reserved the case for pronouncement of judgment. During the hearing, Mr. Rohatgi said Parliament may discuss the amendment in the monsoon session along with other ones in the Lokpal Bill.
•Senior advocate Shanti Bhushan, for petitioner NGO Common Cause, alleged that the Lokpal Act which came into force in 2014 was deliberately not implemented for ulterior motives.
•Mr. Bhushan submitted that the court should not leave it to the political parties to pass the Lokpal law, and give directions to Parliament to amend it. He pointed out how the LoP has been substituted with the single largest opposition party leader in other laws concerned with the appointments of the Chief Vigilance Commissioner, the CBI chief and the Chief Information Commissioner.
•The SC had earlier criticised the government for “dragging its feet” on the appointment of Lokpal to usher in probity in public life.
Whither human rights in Sri Lanka?
•The singular focus on international rights intervention is killing a once-vibrant local rights movement
•From the time Sri Lanka’s civil war ended in 2009, international actors have infused narratives of the war with stories of human rights abuses. Eight years since, it has only become clear how irrelevant current human rights campaigns are to the war-torn people and their struggles.
•This is not for the lack of inhuman wrongs done by the state and others — there are plenty of them in Sri Lanka as in the rest of the world. Rather, it is the singular focus on international human rights intervention that is killing a once-vibrant local human rights movement in the country.
Notes from Geneva
•Sri Lanka was again in the limelight at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva this month. The September 2015 resolution, adopted months after regime change in Sri Lanka, signalled a departure from the Council’s earlier antagonistic stand, with Sri Lanka itself co-sponsoring the resolution to address war-time accountability.
•The new resolution, on March 23, co-sponsored by the United States, Sri Lanka and other countries, accedes to Sri Lanka’s request for an extension of two more years to fulfil its commitments on accountability.
•The Tamil nationalist campaign, including that by many Tamil politicians, was predictably about opposing such an extension. In the island’s Sinhala-majority south on the other hand, the debate centred on whether any future justice mechanism for accountability should include foreign judges or not.
•That Sri Lanka will get its extension, that foreign judges will never be allowed to enter the country and that the U.S. will shield Sri Lanka at the UN, are political realities that escape those firmly pursuing this prolonged engagement in Geneva.
•This reality check begs the question: What has eight years of international human rights engagement really achieved?
•The record is one of reports and counter-reports by the human rights community, the Sri Lankan state and the Tamil nationalist lobby, as well as multiple resolutions in the UNHRC. If only the spotlight on Geneva could be turned towards the ground situation, it will make evident the emptiness of these campaigns. While the state has been rather slow to address the issue of disappearances and military land grabs, these campaigns hardly address the economic deprivation of the missing people’s families and the predicament of the landless. Furthermore, the rights of women, fisherfolk, workers, oppressed castes and the northern Muslims seldom figure in popular human rights narratives.
Shift in the movement
•This was not always the case. The human rights movement had a different character during its early decades.
•The Civil Rights Movement emerged after the brutal state repression of the 1971 JVP insurrection, an uprising by rural Sinhala youth, and took up the legal cases of those in custody. Some years later in the context of the Prevention of Terrorism Act of 1979 and a state of Emergency, the Movement for Inter-Racial Justice and Equality, a membership organisation with a significant presence in Jaffna, mobilised people against state repression of Tamil youth during the early years of the armed conflict. Some of the trade unionists who organised the general strike of 1980, which was crushed by the J.R. Jayewardene-led regime, went on to form the Movement for the Defence of Democratic Rights to resist the authoritarian attacks on democracy.
•With the war in the late 1980s, the University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) tried creating space for the university community to monitor the various armed actors, including the Sri Lankan military, the Tamil armed movements and the Indian Peace Keeping Force. Their work also addressed the disastrous political developments engulfing the Tamil community.
•These organisations placed political critique and the mobilisation of people at the heart of their work. However, the targeting of activists and increased political repression by the state and the LTTE, curtailed the democratic space for such work, particularly in the north and the east. The growing international attention on the protracted conflict and increasing donor funding for non-governmental organisations (NGO) in Colombo, brought about the shift of appealing to international forums.
•Over the last decade, with the cataclysmic end to the war and the intransigent authoritarianism of the Mahinda Rajapaksa-led regime, human rights engagement backed by powerful western interests deviated the broad set of rights and justice concerns onto war crimes investigation in Geneva. In effect, the international human rights community, national NGOs and the Tamil nationalist lobby, all placed their bets on internationalisation, without considering the political space that was opening after the war.
War-time accountability
•In this context, the deteriorating rural economy and the political marginalisation of the war-torn people continues even as year after year they are asked to await the verdict of human rights gods. Indeed, Geneva has become a convenient cover for the state’s failings, the Tamil nationalists’ hollow politics and the international donors’ questionable agendas. Together, these actors have made a real mess of post-war reconstruction.
•The media in Sri Lanka dramatises the proceedings in Geneva, as if Sri Lanka is at the centre of the world. The geopolitical changes with the crisis in Syria, the populist racism of the Trump Presidency and anti-immigrant xenophobia in Europe are rarely considered. The Tamil nationalist fringe continues to forge fantastic demands, such as Sri Lanka’s referral to the International Criminal Court, which even the Northern Provincial Council plays up. For the current Sri Lankan government, defending the country and its military in Geneva has become a selling point to its Sinhala constituencies. While the government rightly claims that the constitutional political solution is the priority over war-time accountability, it has done little to take forward that constitutional process over the past year. The government has not even communicated to the public its vision nor steps towards a constitutional solution.
•The months before and during the Geneva sessions, result in a bluster of statements, reports and documentaries. Indeed, human rights work has increasingly become about the perverse parading of victims and their families in front of powerful international actors, and dispatching statements signed by NGOs and individuals to the UN.
Engaging the state
•The earlier human rights movement with a left perspective valued international solidarity, for example with Palestine, which necessarily entailed a critique of imperialism. Today’s campaigns have become dependent on western donors. This apolitical variant of human rights activism has no qualms accommodating, or even endorsing, rabid Tamil nationalists who are at the forefront of the campaign for accountability, while remaining silent on the LTTE’s grave crimes. The convergence of the human rights and Tamil nationalist campaigns, both beholden to the West and determined by the geopolitics of forums such as the UNHRC, provides further fuel to the chauvinist fire of the Sinhala Buddhist nationalists.
•The state is at the core of the historical problems, whether it is repressive militarisation, the reinforcement of majoritarian interests or the centralisation of state power in Colombo. But reforming the state requires direct challenges by its citizenry, rather than flight to international forums. However, that depends on a broad political movement and a domestic process consisting of all the communities, such as the one that threw out the Rajapaksa regime.
•If the unravelling international order may finally end the internationalisation of Sri Lanka, the tremendous loss of credibility within the country with such internationalisation may make it impossible to revitalise the human rights movement. However, recognising the hollowness of narrow, donor-driven human rights engagement that happily coexists with dangerous nationalist politics, is a necessary starting point for envisioning a broader social justice movement. Such political rethinking and the forging of progressive movements is a priority to address the tremendous challenges facing post-war Sri Lanka.
Unique distinction: SC's clarification on Aadhaar gives space for reforms
•The SC’s clarification on the use of Aadhaar gives the government space for key reforms
•The Supreme Court’s oral observations on Monday regarding the use of Aadhaar numbers by the government are significant, for they alter the narrative and potential scope of the ambitious unique identification programme. While reiterating its position that no beneficiary of a welfare scheme shall be denied benefits due to her for want of an Aadhaar number, a Bench led by Chief Justice J.S. Khehar said the government is free to “press” for Aadhaar for ‘non-welfare’ transactions or activities. These include filing income tax returns, opening bank accounts or getting a mobile phone connection. This assumes significance as the government announced two such changes over the past week itself. First, it included amendments to the Finance Bill of 2017, now approved by the Lok Sabha, making Aadhaar mandatory for all applications for PAN (Permanent Account Number) cards and filing of income tax returns. Earlier, following the surge in bank deposits after the demonetisation of high-value currency notes, the Income Tax Department had already asked banks to ensure that all savings bank accounts are seeded with PAN details by the end of February. The only exemptions to this norm are the no-frills savings accounts such as those opened under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana. Effectively, this means that all other new savings bank accounts will require an Aadhaar number. And last week the Department of Telecommunications directed all telecom service providers to re-verify the credentials of their nearly 100 crore subscribers through an Aadhaar-based, electronically authenticated Know Your Customer process within a year.
•While the Supreme Court’s observations do not amount to a judicial order, they dispel some of the ambiguity relating to the scope, even future, of Aadhaar. In its interim order in October 2015 the court made it clear that the Aadhaar scheme cannot be made mandatory till the matter is finally decided “one way or the other”. But it has set the stage for the 12-digit Unique Identification (UID) numbers being used as the basic identity proof for all residents. As Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has pointed out, biometrics captured under the Aadhaar enrolment process will ensure no individual can hold more than one PAN card to evade tax dues. Those concerned about privacy may be right about the need for an effective law to ensure that private data aren’t misused. But tagging this concern solely to the UID programme is short-sighted. In an age where data are stored in electronic form, it is possible to collate vast amounts of information from various databases ranging from applications for passports, driving licences, ration cards, and more. The apex court is yet to decide on whether Aadhaar violates the right to privacy. Meanwhile, savings from weeding out ghost beneficiaries have begun to pay off the investment on building the now 111-crore strong Aadhaar database. But the Centre must not stretch the leeway granted by the court.
Centre may expand social security net
•A lower contributory rate of 10% toward EPF mooted
•The Employees’ Provident Fund Organidation’s central board of trustees will meet on Thursday to consider extending social security benefits to volunteers under anganwadi, mid-day meal and Accredited Social Health Activists (Asha) schemes.
•The EPFO has proposed to the Labour ministry that a lower contributory rate of 10% of income towards the Employees’ Provident Fund be allowed for scheme workers as against 12% contribution stipulated for the organised workers.
•According to estimates, there are 14 lakh Anganwadi workers, 12 lakh Anganwadi helpers, 25.50 lakh mid-day meal workers in the country, as per the agenda of the EPFO’s central board of trustees meeting reviewed by The Hindu. The meeting, to be chaired by Labour Minister Bandaru Dattarreya, will be held on Thursday.
•There is no mandatory social security cover for such scheme workers at present. However, the Centre can issue a notification to cover any class of establishments with a lower contributory rate under the Employees’ Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952. This will only be applicable to scheme workers in organisations employing at least 20 workers.
•“The Central Board (EPF) may kindly consider for recommendation to the Central Government to issue notification for the Social Security Benefits to the volunteers of various schemes workers i.e. Anganwadi, ASHA, Mid-day Meal Workers under the ambit of EPFO,” the agenda of the meeting said.
•Providing social security coverage to the unorganised workers has been one of the key demands of the central trade unions.
•The EPFO will also consider a proposal to increase wage ceiling for its social security coverage to Rs 25,000 a month from Rs 15,000 a month at present in a bid to bring more workers under the provident fund net.
•At present, EPF is optional for employees earning more than Rs 15,000 a month. The EPFO had sent a formal proposal to the Union Labour Ministry last year to increase the wage ceiling for EPF coverage to Rs 25,000 a month.
•“The purpose of revision of wage ceiling is to ensure that on increase in wages due to inflation etc, minimum social security benefits are continuously made available to intended beneficiaries. Timely revision of wage ceiling is of utmost importance to ensure that new employees who are joining establishments covered under the EPF & MP Act, 1952 are assured of PF benefits,” the agenda stated.
•The EPFO said that “there is an immediate requirement to enhance wage ceiling under EPP & MP Act, 1952” to ensure workers remain eligible for provident fund benefits.
•However, the move may lead to additional financial burden on the Union government as it contributes 1.16% of the employee’s salary as subsidy towards the Employees’ Pension Scheme. The wage ceiling hike will lead to additional burden of Rs 2,708 crore per annum on the central government, the EPFO said.
Northeast may get subsidised capital
DIPP aiming to reduce cost of funds
•The Centre is working on an industrial policy for backward areas of the northeast as well as the Himalayan States to subsidise the cost of capital, a senior official said.
•“It is a challenge to access funds in India,” said Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Secretary Ramesh Abhishek.
•“Cost of funds is high, and the government is working to bring this down and make funds easily accessible. We have interest subsidy schemes specifically for more difficult areas like the northeast. We are trying to come out with an industrial policy for backward areas of northeast and the Himalayan States and we are going to see how we can subsidise the cost of capital in these areas,” he said at an interactive session on Make In India initiative online.
Online regulations
•Mr. Abhishek said norms were yet to be announced by the regulators concerned, including the RBI and the SEBI, regarding regulations for online lending platforms.
•“Those platforms are doing a good job. So we are hoping that regulators will come out soon with good and positive regulations so online platforms are able to do their business,” the DIPP Secretary said.
•On state-wise start-up policy, he said as of now there are 16 states that have their respective start-up policies and the Centre has asked the remaining states to soon join the initiative.
•Noting that start-up policy is important, he said start-ups are the biggest job creators. “We have to turn our youth into job givers not job seekers. Creating a start-up ecosystem [is] also important,” he said.
•The development of agriculture sector is a key priority area for the Centre, he said. The government is encouraging organic farming across the country and he has sought suggestions in this regard from the public.
•Mr. Abhishek said Invest India — the national investment promotion agency — in the last one and a half years had promoted foreign investments to the tune of $70 billion, of which already $3.1 billion worth of investments had come into the country. “This kind of hand holding was never done by the Centre earlier,” Mr. Abhishek added.
•On the matter of “troubles” relating to conversion of agricultural land to non-agricultural land for its commercial use, the official said it was a “tricky issue” and sought suggestions from stakeholders so that the Centre can form a view on it and then forward them to the state governments as land issues fall under the jurisdiction of states.
