NGO evolves blueprint to end female genital mutilation
Dawoodi Bohra women and rights group compile report
•A report on the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) released on Tuesday looks at the psychological trauma and physical scars faced by the victims, and the legal aspects that could be weaved in to stop the practice completely. The report has been compiled by Speak Out on FGM, a group of Dawoodi Bohra women, who are victims of khatna, as the practice is known in the community, and a human right NGO, Lawyers Collective.
•Last week, Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi, in an interview, made a strong statement on the government’s intention to pass a law to ban it if the community does not stop the practice voluntarily. Khatna involves cutting part of the clitoral hood or the prepuce of girls as young as seven years.
•“Our report is like a blueprint on the legal aspects of khatna. When we make a law, this report will help draft it,” said Masooma Ranalvi, convener of Speak Out on FGM, adding that the 57-page report drafted over a span of six months takes a detailed look at the existing laws in India pertaining to gender and minors and international laws against FGM in the U.S., U.K., Australia, France and Africa.
•“We have explored aspects like protection for the informer, who to give the information to, and punitive action that can be initiated. We have also looked in detail at the whole argument about freedom of religion and whether it holds for FGM,” said Ms. Ranalvi, who had first started with a signature campaign in 2015, which has today touched 90,000 signatures.
•Senior advocate Indira Jaising of Lawyers Collective told The Hindu that this is for the first time that FGM is being talked about openly. “Our document directly speaks to the government. Now it is up to the Women and Child Development Ministry to demonstrate its commitment towards the rights of women. We do expect support from the government.”
Action against doctors
•The dynamics of the Dawoodi Bohra community and the practice of ostracising members have been looked at in the report, which suggests rehabilitation of the victims, punitive action against parents, cutters, amils (religious propagators), and doctors who indulge in the practice. Recently, a 44-year-old Detroit-based emergency room physician Dr. Jumana Nagarwala and two others were arrested in the United States in connection with genital mutilation of two minor girls. “Such cases are reported only when there is a law and enlightenment within the community,” said Ms. Ranalvi.
Defining FGM
•Some anti-khatna activists are of the view that the practice should be termed as Female Genital Cutting as it involves cutting of the part of genital tissue and not mutilation as practised in some African communities. However, Ms. Ranalvi said FGM is a universal term under which the World Health Organisation has explained various degrees of cutting.
Mockery of community
•A senior member of the community, on the condition of anonymity, said such recommendations reveal that there is a total failure in understanding the Bohra community and the subject of FGM. “Female circumcision is far less invasive than male circumcision and does not deserve the excessive attention and disproportionate derision. The report only seeks to promote the agenda of Speak Out on FGM to disparage the Dawoodi Bohra community.”
FTA will be high on Modi-Merkel agenda
India, Germany share concerns on China project
•Shared concerns over China’s Belt and Road initiative should push India and the European Union closer to resume stalled talks over a Free Trade Agreement, said German Envoy to India Martin Ney, indicating the issue of the FTA will be high on the agenda when Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin next week.
•Referring to the Belt and Road Forum that India boycotted earlier this month in Beijing, Mr. Ney said that while Germany and other European countries had joined the China’s infrastructure and connectivity project, they had refused to sign a trade document at the summit due to a lack of transparency in the negotiations.
•“Our hesitation has been that there have been no consultations [by China]. While connectivity is not a bad thing, trade must follow free trade policies,” explained Mr. Ney.
•“Since we have some common questions [about the Belt and Road project] in India and in Germany, this is a good reason why we should be able to sit down and discuss how we should do trade.”
•Mr. Modi will travel to Germany for the fourth round of the annual Inter-Governmental Commission on May 29-30, and is expected to announce a number of agreements after his meeting with Ms. Merkel.
•The meeting will be followed by a lunch to meet business leaders at the Indo-German business forum, where officials say, concerns by German tycoons over the lack of a negotiated FTA are expected to be highlighted.
•Mr. Ney’s comments are significant, as they not only suggest Germany would like to work with India to counter certain parts of the Belt and Road, which India has refused to join over sovereignty concerns, Germany is also making a strong pitch to India over completing the EU-BTIA (called the Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement) that has been deadlocked since 2013, despite 16 rounds of negotiations.
•Mr. Modi’s visit to the European Commission in April 2016 failed to bring about any agreement to even resume the talks that essentially broke down over high taxes, market access and India’s concerns over visas for skilled workers.
•In the meanwhile, the India-Germany Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT), one of 23 BITs with EU countries, lapsed in March this year.
•Mr. Ney said Mr. Modi and Ms. Merkel will discuss cooperation in the Indian Ocean region and Africa, counter-terrorism and share views on the way ahead in Afghanistan. “India and Germany share values of democracy, rule of law, and a rule-based international order,” Mr. Ney told reporters.
Africa is our priority, says PM Modi
“India’s commodity trade with Africa in 2015-16 was higher than our commodity trade with the United States of America,” the PM said.
•India’s private sector is also providing an impetus to stronger India-Africa ties with Africa accounting for nearly one-fifth of Indian overseas direct investments between 1996 and 2016, the PM pointed out.
•“India is the fifth largest country investing in the continent, with investments over the past twenty years amounting to $ 54 billion, creating jobs for Africans,” said Mr. Modi, who has visited six countries in Africa since 2015. “I am proud to say that there is no country in Africa that has not been visited by an Indian Minister in the last three years…Thirteen current or former Presidents, Prime Ministers and Vice-Presidents in Africa have attended educational or training institutions in India. Six current or former chiefs of armed forces in Africa trained in India’s military institutions,” the PM said to drive home the point about forging closer ties on all fronts.
•Mr. Modi said he was encouraged by the response of African countries to the International Solar Alliance initiative, which was launched at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris in November 2015. Nauru ratified the framework and shared it with India, while five other African countries signed the pact on Monday.
The GST train chugs along
The ideal of a low, single rate and comprehensive coverage is still far away, but the journey has begun
•In about a month, India’s new indirect tax system will be rolled out. It has been described as the biggest reform in indirect taxes. India now joins some 160 other countries that already have a Goods and Services Tax (GST). The only large economy exception without a GST is the United States. Most other countries have this consumption tax as a key component of their indirect taxes.
In a nutshell
•Here are the key features of the GST. First, it moves the tax system from production to consumption. It covers the gross domestic product (GDP) more comprehensively. Because the tax base is now a much wider set of transactions, hopefully the per capita tax incidence will be lower. Second, it eliminates a major bane of cascading, i.e. having to pay tax on tax. It will thus increase efficiency of taxation. Third, the GST has interlocking incentives for compliance, because your tax incidence, and refund, depends on production of proof of tax paid by your supplier. The paperwork, or rather the computer records, is interlinked in a chain. No one person in the chain can evade tax because it hurts either his vendor or customer. In that respect, the GST’s interlocked incentives look similar to Grameen Bank’s joint liability lending in microfinance. Micro loans are given without any collateral, but if one person defaults, the entire group is blacklisted. This ensures an almost 100% repayment rate. Similarly, the GST too has interlinked incentives for the whole value chain. For these three reasons and many more, the GST is expected to bring many benefits to the economy. These are higher GDP growth, lower inflation, buoyant tax collections, wider coverage and less tax evasion, and, most importantly, a truly common economic market across the country. Indeed the slogan for promoting the GST was “One Country One Tax”.
•The roll-out of this historic reform required amending the Constitution, legislative action in Parliament as well as State legislatures, setting up of the GST Council and deciding on the applicable tax rates on more than 1,200 items. Much of this work is already done. Indeed this achievement is itself a heroic example of consensus-building across States and political parties. The implementation will quite likely involve many hiccups, delays, and computer glitches, but the GST train has left the station and is chugging along.
Some fault lines
•Let’s examine what the status of the GST is as it takes birth, and how successful it will be able to fulfil the expectations thrust on it. The origins of the GST go back almost two decades and are also found in the reports of the Kelkar Committee on Tax Reforms, written at the turn of this century. The basic premise of tax reforms then and now is to aim for lower rates, simpler code and eliminate exemptions. On all these three goals we have much distance to travel.
•First, with five slabs of 0%, 5%, 12%, 18%, 28% plus cess, we have increased the chance of classification disputes, discretion and litigation. The high rates encourage tax evasion, distort decisions, and promote wasteful resources into tax avoidance. As the GST Task Force of the Thirteenth Finance Commission has said, multiple rate slabs exacerbate the problem of bracket creep and classification disputes. A rational tax system should have very few rates and low rates. Indeed, before the introduction of this GST, the service tax had just one rate, that was 15%, applicable to all services. We now have multiple rates and the chances of disputes and legal battles have increased. Multiple rates are attractive politically. Items consumed by the poor are taxed at low rates and luxury goods are taxed at higher rates. But this classification itself is problematic especially in a diverse, fast-evolving economy. For instance, perfumed hair oil may be a luxury item in Bihar but not in Tamil Nadu. Rubber slippers are worn by the poor, but also the rich at beach resorts. There is also a quality continuum, and from unbranded to branded. Furthermore, today’s poor may be tomorrow’s rich, so there is an aspirational class too. It is far too complex to classify goods rigidly as those consumed by the poor and the rich distinctly.
•But multiple rates increase cost and complexity. As the task force also pointed out, the cost of auditing the classification of exempt, low rate and high rate slabs across every stage of production, distribution and consumption is very high. Single or few rates are easy to comply with and involve much lower disputes. Multiple rates have been introduced so as to soften the blow of inflation. By keeping most of the goods consumed by the poor (as identified by their consumption basket), the hope is that inflation will be in check.
•Which leads us to the second question. Will inflation remain in control? Since almost 60% of India’s GDP is from services, and the rate is moving from 15 to higher, it is quite likely that inflation will inch up. This is especially evident in the financial, telecom, hospitality and trade services. Of course, to the extent that service providers will now get input tax credit, which they might pass on to their customers, inflation may not rise by much. Since the IT systems are not fully in place and refunds are not instantaneous, the benefit of tax credit will be delayed. This cost of delay and consequent cost of working capital too introduces an inflationary element.
•It was hoped that not many items would be in the 28% bracket, failing which inflation will be higher. The tax burden on industry is coming down in the GST. This is because currently, excise plus State VAT adds up to more than 25%, which will definitely go down. Since inflation in India is currently moderate — indeed this has been a major achievement of the NDA government — the impact of the GST, even though inflationary, will still be modest. In the longer term, further price moderation is possible due to the supply side-effect of the GST.
Still untouched
•Finally, a large part of the economy is still not covered by the GST. Potable alcohol, crude oil, natural gas, aviation fuel, diesel, petrol, electricity and real estate are currently out, and States will levy their own taxes on these. Taxes paid on these will not be able to be offset against the GST. To that extent it is an inflationary distortion. Hopefully, this lacuna in the GST will be fixed soon.
•The high rates and multiple slabs reflect an outcome of a very complicated political compromise achieved in the GST Council. This required assuaging the fear of revenue loss to States which have just surrendered their tax autonomy. It required assuaging the fear of politicians about unleashing inflation.
•The ideal of a low, single rate and comprehensive total GDP coverage, with a fully IT-enabled compliance system, is a destination still far away. But as Mr. Kelkar himself has said, the journey of a hundred miles must begin with the first step. To that extent this historic tax reform has come alive. Along the way it will be tweaked and modified a thousand times to eventually hit the right stride, for that is the genius of India’s democracy.
Forgotten cogs in the wheels of justice
The exploitation of judicial support staff continues to be widespread
•The lower cadre of employees working in subordinate courts across the country have aired grievances from time to time which are related to the terms of their employment and deplorable conditions of work.
•These employees form the backbone of the justice delivery system, yet the problems they face — primarily related to administration — have led them to raise their voices, often to no avail. While a litigant can approach a court to access justice, these court employees lack an efficient grievance redress mechanism, with none or a rare personal hearing given to them by their senior judicial officers. Written complaints are put aside and the injustices meted out to them often go unreported. If they raise a voice against this victimisation, it has resulted in notices being issued to them, adverse annual confidential reports, fines, transfers out of the district, departmental inquiries or even suspension.
•Reports about the harassment of court employees have been appearing in the media for instance, on the representations sent to the chief justices of High Courts about judges allegedly misusing their powers and harassing lower court staff or of court employees protesting against judges for allegedly making them work in their houses.
•The Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR) made a representation to the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, detailing cases where employees had alleged harassment by the misuse of rules that regulate their service and the various issues that needed to be addressed. The main issues raised in this representation concerned the condition of subordinate court staff who are allegedly being made to work as personal servants in the houses of judges and the provision of home peons which has not been implemented. The complaint drew attention to a letter in 1973, from the Chief Secretary, Government of Punjab to all judges in the State, issuing instructions against the use of government employees for private work: “In cases where private work is taken from a government employee as a regular whole time domestic servant, without his consent and payment, it should be considered to be a case of serious nature involving wilful dishonesty and dealt with accordingly.” This and other orders on the appointment of home peons have not been acted upon till recently.
Repressive conditions
•The important function played by judicial support staff in keeping the judicial machinery afloat cannot be undermined. Yet these employees have been driven to all forms of protest on how unjustly they are positioned in a system, which far from catering to their welfare needs, unjustly subjugates them with the burden of court work. They work in repressive conditions with long hours, have no leave, face penalties and fines and often unfair arrest warrants, and are overburdened by the sheer volume of file handling and working out of crowded courtrooms. Mounting pendency of court cases results in an increased volume of court files without an increase in judicial staff strength, leading to them being overburdened. Proper care has not been taken to ensure the appointment of qualified staff. Those who are recruited have little or no on-the-job training.
•Successive Law Commissions have made suggestions for employee reforms, but little has been done to implement them. The judiciary is uniquely positioned to implement these recommendations through administrative orders. With suggestions on how to enhance ‘quality, responsiveness and timeliness of courts’, we cannot allow this burden to be borne by the lowest employee. Along with clearly defined recruitment rules, transfer policies and training guidelines need to be put in place and adhered to. The importance of an effective grievance redress mechanism for this cadre cannot be stressed enough.
•Acting on the CJAR representation, the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court has made the first move in directing that all judicial officers in the State appoint home peons by June 30. Further, the order directs that an employee’s post be changed every three years and file handling by ahlmads be limited to 800 files. This will go a long way in ensuring a more fulfilling and just working environment. This needs to be emulated by other High Courts as well if this widespread and systematic exploitation has to be halted and to boost the morale of this workforce, in the larger interests of justice and equity.
Continental ties
India begins the heavy-lifting neededto transform economic partnerships in Africa
•The African Development Bank’s decision to hold its annual general meeting in India this month is a signal of the importance African countries attach to New Delhi’s growing role in its development. It was nearly a decade ago, in 2008, that India made a serious attempt for a strategic partnership with all of Africa, instead of just the nations it traded with, at the first India-Africa Forum Summit. At that time, India’s efforts seemed minimal, a token attempt at keeping a foothold in a continent that was fast falling into China’s sphere of influence. New Delhi had its work cut out, building a place for India as a partner in low-cost technology transfers, a supplier of much-needed, affordable generic pharmaceuticals, and a dependable donor of aid that did not come with strings attached. Over the past few years the outreach to Africa has also been driven by visits of President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice-President Hamid Ansari and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. As Mr. Modi pointed out in his speech to the AfDB in Gandhinagar on Tuesday, every country in Africa has by now been visited by an Indian Minister, highlighting the personal bonds India shares. During the India-Africa summit held in Delhi in 2015, the Centre announced a further $10 billion export credit and a $600 million grant which, despite being a fraction of the aid Africa received from China and blocs such as the European Union, was a significant sum for India.
•Having established its credentials and commitment over time, the Centre is now taking its partnership beyond dollars and cents to a new strategic level. To begin with, India is working on a maritime outreach to extend its Sagarmala programme to the southern coastal African countries with ‘blue economies’; it is also building its International Solar Alliance, which Djibouti, Comoros, Cote d’Ivoire, Somalia and Ghana signed on to on the sidelines of the AfDB project. In its efforts, India has tapped other development partners of Africa, including Japan, which sent a major delegation to the AfDB meeting. It has also turned to the United States, with which it has developed dialogues in fields such as peacekeeping training and agricultural support, to work with African countries. It is significant that during the recent inter-governmental consultations between India and Germany, both countries brought in their Africa experts to discuss possible cooperation in developmental programmes in that continent. It will take more heavy-lifting to elevate India’s historical anti-colonial ties with Africa to productive economic partnerships. But it is clear that at a time when China is showcasing its Belt and Road Initiative as the “project of the century” and also bolstering its position as Africa’s largest donor, a coalition of like-minded countries such as the one India is putting together could provide an effective way to ensure more equitable and transparent development aid to Africa.
RCEP: India upset over slow progress on services talks
‘Negotiations not keeping pace with discussions on goods’
•India, which is in talks for the proposed mega-regional Free Trade Agreement (FTA) along with 16 other Asia Pacific nations, has expressed disappointment over the inadequate progress in talks on services trade liberalisation especially for facilitating easier movement of professionals for short-term work in these countries.
Slowdown, job losses
•Following economic slowdown and the consequent job losses, most countries in the grouping have turned protectionist when it comes talks on norms to ease temporary movement of skilled workers, official sources said, adding that India fears that the issue is getting mixed up with immigration.
•The negotiations for the FTA, officially known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), started in November 2012. It includes the 10 ASEAN member States and six nations that have existing FTAs with ASEAN — India, China, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea.
•These nations have a combined GDP of about $24 trillion and a population of around 3.6 billion.
•“Progress in negotiations on services is not keeping pace with the kind of progress seen in goods negotiations,” said Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who led the Indian delegation to the third RCEP Inter-sessional Ministerial Meeting on 21-22 May 2017 in Hanoi, in which trade ministers of 15 other RCEP countries participated. Official sources said the talks are likely to stretch into the first half of 2018 as several aspects of goods, services and investment have not yet been negotiated. So far, four ministerial meetings, three inter-sessional ministerial meetings and 18 rounds of the Trade Negotiating Committee (TNC) at the technical level have been held. The nineteenth round of TNC meeting is scheduled in Hyderabad from July 18-28.
•In return for eliminating or reducing tariffs on goods, India wants RCEP member countries to work toward liberalisation across all modes of services, including movement of professionals.
•India, a leading services supplier with a large pool of skilled workers, is keen that the FTA ensures easier temporary movement of such professionals as well as an ‘RCEP Travel Card’ for business people.
Centre keen on upgrading ship-repairing facilities
Seven ports identified for the purpose, says official
•In tandem with its policy to utilise the country’s waterways, the Centre is planning to embark on a programme to refurbish the ship-repairing facilities in various ports across the country..
•“There is a need to develop the ship-repairing facilities and seven ports have been identified for this purpose,” said R.K. Agarwal Joint Secretary, Sagarmala Wing, Union Shipping Ministry, at a summit on Inland Waterways Transport and Coastal Shipping organised by the ICC. Pointing out that ship-repairing facilities were inadequate in India, he said that seven ports had agreed on this project which was likely to be implemented in collaboration with public sector Cochin Shipyard, which would be the nodal agency. The locations include Mumbai, Goa, Pandu (Assam) , Kandla (Gujarat), Farakka (West Bengal), Kolkata and Dorigunj (Bihar). Most ports had ship-repair facilities since olden days but they needed to be developed, he said.
Cruise shipping
•He also mentioned cruise-shipping as another thrust area saying the terminals at the ports, where cruise vessels plied, needed to be modernised to ensure pleasant experience for travellers.
