📰 Dancing around the Supreme Court
The dance bar case yields insights on the interaction between governments and the courts
•On January 17, the Supreme Court struck down several statutory provisions and rules governing Maharashtra’s dance bars. This decision forms part of an iterative game that has evolved over 14 years between the Maharashtra government and the courts.
Prolonged interactions
•In 2005, the Maharashtra government imposed a ban on dance performances in bars, with the exception of hotels rated three stars and above. The public rationale offered was that these performances were obscene, morally corrupt, and promoted prostitution. Dance performance licenses were cancelled with immediate effect, prompting affected parties to file petitions in the Bombay High Court. The High Court held against the government, resulting in an appeal to the Supreme Court.
•The Supreme Court affirmed the High Court’s decision in July 2013, pursuing two lines of reasoning. One, the government could not discriminate between luxury hotels and other establishments seeking licenses for dance performances. Two, the ban had proven to be counterproductive, resulting in the unemployment of over 75,000 women, many of whom were forced by circumstances to engage in prostitution.
•Rather than implementing the Supreme Court’s decision, the government swiftly devised a strategy to sidestep it, imposing an outright ban on all dance performances, whether in street bars or upmarket hotels. Although the government’s response addressed the court’s first concern, it failed to address the second. This led to fresh proceedings in the Supreme Court. While the court saw through the government’s attempt to circumvent its decision, it left room for the government to prohibit obscene dances with a view to protecting the dignity of the dancers.
•Once again, the government responded in a matter of months. This time, the government’s response was more sophisticated and took cues from the Supreme Court’s decision. Rather than seeking to impose a ban on dance performances altogether, it only did so to the extent that these performances were obscene or overtly sexual. However, it imposed a number of other conditions on establishments seeking a license for such performances. Applicants were required to “possess a good character” with no criminal antecedents. The establishment could not be within one kilometre of an educational or religious institution. A CCTV camera would need to be fitted at the entrance. Customers could not be permitted to throw coins or currency notes on the dancers, but could add tips to the bill. The permit room (where alcohol was served) and the dance room would need to be separated by a partition. The stage could not be smaller than a prescribed size. Some of these conditions were challenged in the Supreme Court on the basis that they were far too onerous.
•On January 17, the court upheld a few of these conditions, but struck down others. For example, it noted that the CCTV requirement violated the right to privacy of the dancers and the patrons, the “good character” requirement was vague, the partition between the permit room and the dance room was unjustified, and the one kilometre distance requirement was impractical.
•However, what the court found especially revealing was that amongst the dozens of applications filed since the new rules were put in place, not a single one had been approved by the government. The court therefore saw the government’s most recent response as a ban on dance bars masquerading as an attempt to regulate them. The court would have none of it: “[The government is] aiming to achieve something indirectly which it could not do directly... [this] cannot be countenanced”.
•These developments yield insights on the institutional interaction between governments and the courts. Through each iteration of this case, the Maharashtra government has responded more swiftly to judicial decisions than the Supreme Court has to the government’s attempts to sidestep them. The final judicial decision in the first round took just short of eight years, while the government’s response took about 11 months. In the second round, the court took a year and three months to make its decision; the government responded in six months. In the third round, the court has taken just short of three years. The government’s response time is to be seen.
Reasons for disparity
•A number of structural reasons may account for this disparity. Despite heavy caseloads, courts must provide an opportunity for a fair hearing, deliberate, and set out reasons for their decisions. Courts will also typically not consider cases unilaterally, but are dependent on parties to bring proceedings in search of a remedy. Separately, the ban on dance bars has also received a disconcerting level of cross-party political support in Maharashtra, despite the regime changes since 2005. This has meant that legislation has often been enacted unopposed, without any meaningful discussion on the floor of the House. The amendments of 2014, for example, were approved by the Maharashtra Cabinet on a Thursday, and sailed through the Vidhan Sabha and Vidhan Parishad within minutes on the following day.
•The practical implication of the government being more nimble than the courts is that even when government responses are imperfect, the court produces significant delays. This case outlines the vulnerability of what is otherwise seen as an all-powerful Supreme Court, especially when it depends on the government to comply with its decisions in some positive way, such as by issuing dance bar licenses. Even when the courts exercise the putatively “negative” function of striking down legislation or rules, the level of compliance with their decisions often lies in the hands of the executive.
•These developments should also lead courts to introspect about the existing remedial landscape in cases where legislation is challenged. The Supreme Court often deploys the writ of continuing mandamus (issuing a series of interim orders over a period of time to monitor compliance with its decisions) in public interest litigation cases that test the limits of its jurisdiction. It has chosen not to adopt that enforcement strategy in this case, which falls squarely within the four corners of its jurisdiction. While the court cannot direct the enactment of legislation, it can monitor compliance with an order to issue licenses to qualified applicants.
•A further response from the Maharashtra government now seems almost inevitable. The court struck down the one kilometre distance requirement, but did not say that any distance requirement would be invalid. While unconstitutional in its present form, it noted that the “good character” requirement could be defined more precisely. These are only two among the many options that are now available to the government in responding to the court’s decision.
•The court concluded its judgment with the “hope” that applications for licenses would “now be considered more objectively and with [an] open mind”. Similar hopes have been expressed earlier. It is hard to believe that this time will be any different.
Only one-third of schools had usable washrooms in 2018, says ASER report
•An average of 34.96% schools in the eight northeastern states had usable toilets for girls in 2018 compared to 36.66% in 2016, data analysed from the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2018 report revealed.
•With 75.7% schools – a marginal increase from 75% in 2016 – having usable toilets for girls, Sikkim performed better than the national average of 66.4% last year. But the State’s show was overshadowed by the less-than-satisfactory performance by seven other states in the region.
•Nagaland was the next best State with 47%, an increase from 40.9% in 2016, followed by Mizoram with the highest percentile increase from 25.3% to 34.9% in these two years.
•The other five states performed poorly, the steepest drop for Assam being 38.3% from 54.2% in 2016. Manipur had 9.1% schools having fewer usable toilets for girls, followed by Meghalaya (8.6%), Arunachal Pradesh (7.6%) and Tripura (7.3%).
J&K suffers too
•The national averages hide major variations across the states, with deficiencies particularly marked in Jammu and Kashmir apart from most of the north-eastern states, the ASER report, prepared by NGO Pratham, said. In Jammu and Kashmir, 48.2% schools had toilets for girls last year, up from 46.7% in 2014 (data for J&K for 2016 was not available). The State provided drinking water in 54.6% schools in 2018, better than the average 44.4% schools in the north-eastern states.
•The average for the Northeast last year was poorer than the 44.99% in 2016. Sikkim, Assam and Mizoram had an average 68.53% schools that had drinking water facilities in schools. The national average was 74.8%.
•According to the report, 2018 completed eight years of compulsory schooling for the first cohort of students to benefit from Right to Education Act 2010.
National picture
•“Nationally, substantial improvements are visible over this eight-year period in the availability of many school facilities mandated by RTE. The fraction of schools with usable girls' toilets doubled, reaching 66.4% in 2018.
•The percentage of schools with books, other than textbooks, available rose from 62.6% to 74.2% between 2016-18.
📰 Removing the roots of farmers’ distress
Steps like limited procurement, boosting productivity and consolidating land holdings can help reduce agrarian distress
•Recently, there has been active discussion on the strategies addressing farm distress. There are media reports that the ‘interim Budget’ may focus on the farm sector among other things. Agrarian distress, in the present context, is mainly in terms of low agricultural prices and, consequently, poor farm incomes. Low productivity in agriculture and related supply side factors are equally important. An issue that is connected is the declining average size of farm holdings and the viability of this size for raising farm incomes. Here are possible solutions.
Prices and incomes
•Prices play a key role in affecting the incomes of farmers. Even during the Green Revolution, along with technology and associated packages, price factor was considered important. In the last two years, inflation in agriculture was much lower than overall inflation. The implicit price deflator for Gross Value Added (GVA) in agriculture was 1.1% while it was 3.2% for total GVA in 2017-18. The advance estimates for 2018-19 show that the implicit deflator for GVA in agriculture is 0%, and 4.8% for total GVA. In fact, agriculture GVA growth was at 3.8% for both nominal prices and constant prices in 2018-19, giving the price deflator of 0%. The consumer price index (CPI) also shows that the rise in prices for agriculture was much lower than general inflation in recent years. Market prices for several agricultural commodities have been lower than those of minimum support prices (MSP). All these trends show that the terms of trade to be moving against agriculture in the last two years.
•When output increases well beyond the market demand at a price remunerative to producers, market prices decline. And in the absence of an effective price support policy, farmers are faced with a loss in income, depending on how much the price decline is. The ‘farm distress’ in recent years has been partly on account of this situation, as the loss of income is beyond the ability, particularly of small farmers, to absorb. In a strange way, it is the success in increasing production that has resulted in this adverse consequence.
•A few schemes have been suggested to address the problem of managing declining output prices when output increases significantly. The scheme of ‘price deficiency compensation’ is one such mechanism which amounts to paying the difference between market price and the MSP. At the other extreme is the ‘open procurement system’ that has been in vogue quite effectively in the case of rice and wheat, where procurement is open ended at the MSP. Is there a middle way that may be effective in some crops? One of us had suggested the option of limited procurement for price stabilisation. A ‘price deficiency’ scheme may compensate farmers when prices decrease below a certain specified level. However, market prices may continue to fall as supply exceeds ‘normal demand’. An alternative is the limited procurement scheme. Under this scheme, the government will procure the ‘excess’, leaving the normal production level to clear the market at a remunerative price. Thus, procurement will continue until the market price rises to touch the MSP. The suggested ‘limited procurement system’ will not work if the MSP is fixed at a level to which the market price will never rise. There are costs involved which will go up as production increases above the average level. The government can sell the procured grain in later years or use them in welfare programmes.
•Some States have introduced farm support schemes, examples being the Rythu Bandhu Scheme (Telangana) and the Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme (Odisha). One problem with the Telangana model is that it does not cover tenants, who are the actual cultivators. Basically, these schemes are income support schemes which will be in operation year after year.
•Thus, raising the MSP, price deficiency payments or income support schemes can only be a partial solution to the problem of providing remunerative returns to farmers. A sustainable solution is market reforms to enable better price discovery combined with long-term trade policies favourable to exports. The creation of a competitive, stable and unified national market is needed for farmers to get better prices. Agricultural markets have witnessed only limited reforms. They are characterised by inefficient physical operations, excessive crowding of intermediaries, and fragmented market chains. Due to this, farmers are deprived of a fair share of the price paid by final consumers. States have also not shown any urgency in reforming agricultural markets. For better price for farmers, agriculture has to go beyond farming and develop a value chain comprising farming, wholesaling, warehousing, logistics, processing and retailing.
Low productivity
•The next issue is the low productivity of Indian agriculture. Basics such as seeds, fertilizers, credit, land and water management and technology are important and should not be forgotten. Similarly, investment in infrastructure and research and development are needed. Water is the leading input in agriculture. More than 60% of irrigation water is consumed by two crops: rice and sugar cane. Basically, it is not investment alone but efficiency in water management in both canal and groundwater that is important. India uses upto three times the water used to produce one tonne of grain in countries such as Brazil, China and the U.S. This implies that water-use efficiency can be improved significantly with better use of technologies that include drip irrigation. Yields of several crops are lower in India when compared to several other countries. Technology can help to reduce ‘yield gaps’ and thus improve productivity. Government policies have been biased towards cereals particularly rice and wheat. There is a need to make a shift from rice and wheat-centric policies to millets, pulses, fruits, vegetables, livestock and fish.
Land size
•Another major issue relates to the shrinking size of farms which is also responsible for low incomes and farmers’ distress. The average size of farm holdings declined from 2.3 hectares in 1970-71 to 1.08 hectares in 2015-16. The share of small and marginal farmers increased from 70% in 1980-81 to 86% in 2015-16. The average size of marginal holdings is only 0.38 hectares (less than one acre) in 2015-16. The monthly income of small and marginal farmers from all sources is only around ₹4,000 and ₹5,000 as compared to ₹41,000 for large farmers. Thus, the viability of marginal and small farmers is a major challenge for Indian agriculture.
•Many small farmers cannot leave agriculture because of a lack of opportunities in the non-farm sector. They can get only partial income from the non-farm sector. In this context, a consolidation of land holdings becomes important to raise farmer incomes. There was a lot of discussion on this topic in the 1960s and 1970s. In the context of rural poverty, B.S. Minhas had argued even in the 1970s that compulsory consolidation of land holdings alongside land development activities could enhance the incomes/livelihoods of the poor in rural areas. Unfortunately, there is little discussion now on land fragmentation and consolidation of farm holdings. We need to have policies for land consolidation along with land development activities in order to tackle the challenge of the low average size of holdings. Farmers can voluntarily come together and pool land to gain the benefits of size. Through consolidation, farmers can reap the economies of scale both in input procurement and output marketing.
•To conclude, farmers’ distress is due to low prices and low productivity. The suggestions we have made, such as limited procurement, measures to improve low productivity, and consolidation of land holdings to gain the benefits of size, can help in reducing agrarian distress. We need a long-term policy to tackle the situation.
📰 Model for malaria control
Through its DAMaN initiative, Odisha has emerged as an inspiration in the global fight against malaria
•The World Health Organisation’s World Malaria Report of 2018 turned the spotlight on India’s recent strides against malaria. India is the only country among the 11 highest-burden countries that saw substantial progress in reducing disease burden: it saw a 24% decrease in 2017 compared to 2016. This shows that India has assumed a leadership role in advancing global efforts to end malaria. The country’s success provides hope to the other highest-burden countries to tackle malaria head-on.
•India’s progress in fighting malaria is an outcome of concerted efforts to ensure that its malaria programme is country-owned and country-led, even as it is in alignment with globally accepted strategies. The turning point in India’s fight against malaria came at the East Asia Summit in 2015, when it pledged to eliminate the disease by 2030. Following this public declaration, India launched the five-year National Strategic Plan for Malaria Elimination. This marked a shift in focus from malaria “control” to “elimination”. The plan provides a roadmap to achieve the target of ending malaria in 571 districts out of India’s 678 districts by 2022.
•The plan requires more than ₹10,000 crore. Adequate investment combined with coordinated action between governments, civil society and philanthropic donors is imperative to achieve this goal. Since health is a State subject, State governments across the country shoulder a special responsibility in tackling the disease.
•Among the States, Odisha has emerged as an inspiration in the fight against malaria. In recent years it has dramatically scaled-up efforts to prevent, diagnose and treat malaria through its Durgama Anchalare Malaria Nirakaran (DAMaN) initiative, which has produced impressive results in a short span of time. In 2017, accredited social health activists (ASHAs) helped distribute approximately 11 million bed nets, which was enough to protect all the residents in areas that were at highest risk. This included residential hostels in schools. As a result of its sustained efforts, Odisha recorded a 80% decline in malaria cases and deaths in 2017. DAMaN aims to deliver services to the most inaccessible and hardest hit people of the State. The initiative has in-built innovative strategies to combat asymptomatic malaria. DAMaN has been accorded priority in the State’s health agenda. There is financial commitment for a five-year period to sustain and build on the impact created by the initiative.
•The new country-driven ‘high burden to high impact’ plan to reduce disease burden in the 11 countries reflects the global sentiment that business as usual is no longer an option when it comes to fighting the disease. By prioritising malaria elimination, India, and especially Odisha, is showing the world the way.
📰 Cabinet nod likely for relief package for farmers
An attempt to sooth farming discontent ahead of polls
•The Union Cabinet is expected to soon approve a relief package for farmers grappling with falling prices and to tackle distress in the farm sector, according to sources.
•The relief package is seen as an attempt to assuage the farming community’s discontent ahead of the general elections.
Cabinet meet put off
•Meanwhile, the Cabinet meeting scheduled for Monday, has been deferred, as per sources.
•The Agriculture Ministry has recommended several options to provide both short and long-term solutions to address agrarian distress. However, a final call will be taken at the Cabinet meeting as a huge cost is involved, they said.
•One option proposed is waiving interest on crop loans for farmers who pay on time, which will cost an additional Rs. 15,000 crore to the exchequer.
•There is also a proposal to completely waive premium for insurance on food crops. The Centre is also evaluating the scheme followed by the Telangana and Odisha governments wherein a fixed amount is transferred directly into the bank account of farmers, the sources further said.
📰 Microplastic fibres found in groundwater
•Scientists have found microplastics contaminating a groundwater source that accounts for 25% of the global drinking water supply.
•Microplastics are already known to contaminate the world’s surface waters, yet scientists have only just begun to explore their presence in groundwater systems.
•Fractured limestone aquifers are a groundwater source that accounts for 25% of the global drinking water supply.
•The study, published in the journal Groundwater, identified microplastic fibres, along with a variety of medicines and household contaminants, in two aquifer systems in the U.S.
•“Plastic in the environment breaks down into microscopic particles that can end up in the guts and gills of marine life, exposing the animals to chemicals in the plastic,” said John Scott, a researcher at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center in the U.S.
•“As the plastics break down, they act like sponges that soak up contaminants and microbes and can ultimately work their way into our food supply,” said Mr. Scott.
•Groundwater flows through the cracks and voids in limestone, sometimes carrying sewage and runoff from roads, landfills and agricultural areas into the aquifers below, he said.
•The researchers collected 17 groundwater samples from wells and springs — 11 from a highly fractured limestone aquifer near the St Louis metropolitan area and six from an aquifer containing much smaller fractures in rural northwestern Illinois.
•All but one of the 17 samples contained microplastic particles, with a maximum concentration of 15.2 particles per litre from a spring in the St Louis area, researchers said.
•However, deciphering what that concentration means is a challenge, Scott said. There are no published risk assessment studies or regulations.
•“The research on this topic is at a very early stage, so I am not convinced we have a frame of reference to state expectations or bounds on what is considered low or high levels,” said Tim Hoellein, a professor at Loyola University Chicago.
•The researchers identified a variety of household and personal health contaminants along with the microplastics, a hint that the fibres may have originated from household septic systems.
•“Even if we quit plastics cold turkey today, we will still deal with this issue for years because plastic never really goes away,” Mr. Scott said.
•“It is estimated that 6.3 billion metric tonnes of plastic waste have been produced since the 1940s, and 79% of that is now in landfills or the natural environment,” he said.
📰 New hope for sickle-cell patients
In clinical trials, a handful of enrolled patients no longer show signs of the disease
•Scientists have long known what causes sickle-cell disease and its devastating effects: a single mutation in one errant gene. But for decades, there has been only modest progress against an inherited condition that mainly afflicts people of African descent.
•With advances in gene therapy, that is quickly changing — so much so that scientists have begun to talk of a cure.
•In a half-dozen clinical trials planned or under way, researchers are testing strategies for correcting the problem at the genetic level. Already a handful of the enrolled patients, who have endured an illness that causes excruciating bouts of pain, strokes and early death, no longer show signs of the disease.
•Among them is Brandon Williams, 21, who lives with his mother in Chicago. Because of his sickle-cell disease, he had suffered four strokes by age 18. The damage makes it hard for him to speak. His older sister died of the disease.
•Following an experimental gene therapy, his symptoms have vanished. Life has taken a sharp turn for the better: no more transfusions, no more pain, no more fear.
•“He said, ‘Mom, I think I want to get me a job,'” said his mother, Leuteresa Roberts.
•It is still early in the course of these experimental treatments, and it is likely to be at least three years before one is approved. “We are in uncharted territory,” said Dr. David A. Williams, chief scientific officer at Boston Children’s Hospital.
•At the moment, the only remedy for sickle-cell disease is a dangerous and expensive bone marrow transplant, an option rarely used. An effective gene therapy would not be simple or inexpensive, but it could change the lives of tens of thousands of people.
•“This would be the first genetic cure of a common genetic disease,” said Dr. Edward Benz, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Turning point
•It also would mark a turning point for a large community of underserved patients. Most of them have African ancestry, but Hispanics and those with southern European, Middle Eastern or Asian backgrounds are also affected.
•Experts have long maintained that advances in treatment have been limited partly because sickle-cell disease is concentrated in less affluent minority communities.
•“Having tried for a number of years to raise philanthropic money, I can tell you it’s really hard,” said David Williams.
•Worldwide, about 300,000 infants are born with the condition each year, a figure projected to grow to more than 400,000 by 2050. The disorder is most common in sub-Saharan Africa, where an estimated 70% of children with it die before adulthood.
•In sickle-cell disease, blood cells stuffed with haemoglobin are distorted into sickle shapes. The misshapen cells get stuck in blood vessels, causing strokes, organ damage and episodes of agonizing pain — called crises — as muscles are starved of oxygen. Children usually return to normal between crises, but teenagers and adults may suffer chronic pain.
•The misshapen cells don’t survive long in the blood — 10 to 20 days, compared to the usual 120 days. Patients may be severely anaemic and prone to infections.
•Daily life can be a challenge. Many adults with sickle-cell disease have no health insurance.
•In the new trials, subjects must have immature blood cells — stem cells — removed from their bone marrow. The stem cells are genetically modified, and then infused back into the patient’s bloodstream. The goal is for the modified cells to take up residence in the bone marrow and form healthy red blood cells.
📰 Odisha govt. transfers funds to sharecroppers under KALIA
Farmers will get cash assistance during the six crop seasons over three years: Naveen
•Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday transferred funds to 57,614 sharecroppers under the Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme at a rally held at Rangeilunda in his home district Ganjam.
•The benefits of the scheme was extended to sharecroppers selected in the first phase. Earlier at a rally attended by Mr. Patnaik in Puri on January 25, the State government had credited Rs. 5,000 each to the bank accounts of 12.45 lakh farmers across Odisha under the scheme.
•The highest number of sharecroppers to benefit from the scheme on Sunday were from Ganjam district. According to Ganjam District Collector Vijay Amruta Kulange, 14,531 sharecroppers of the district received the benefits. Fourteen of these beneficiaries shared the dais with the Chief Minister. Some of them also addressed the gathering.
•The KALIA scheme, launched on December 31, is named after Lord Jagannath, who is called Kalia by devotees. The scheme covers more than 50 lakh families, including sharecroppers and landless families.
•The beneficiaries will get Rs. 5,000 rupees under the scheme for purchase of seeds, fertilizers and insecticides twice a year, once on Akshaya Tritiya for kharif season and on Nuakhai day for rabi season.
•According to the Chief Minister, farmers will get the cash assistance during the six crop seasons over a period of three years. An amount of Rs. 10,180 crore will be spent under KALIA.
•Under the scheme, crop loans up to Rs. 50,000 will be interest-free.
•Around 10 lakh landless families will be supported with Rs. 12,500 to take up agricultural activities like small goat-rearing units, mini layer units, duck units, fishery kits for fishermen and women, mushroom cultivation and bee keeping.
