📰 Phensedyl smuggling remains a challenge on the India-Bangladesh border
BSF recently arrested two youths for allegedly smuggling the cough syrup near Hakimpur
•Despite the drop in the cattle smuggling and smuggling of other narcotics, Phensedyl, a codeine-based cough syrup remains a challenge for the border guarding forces along the India-Bangladesh border. On February 14, personnel of the Border Security Force (BSF) arrested two youths for allegedly smuggling it near the Hakimpur border outpost in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district.
•A communication shared by the BSF said that two local youths Mostakin Sheikh, 19, and Shaheen Sardar, 21, were allegedly involved in smuggling of the narcotic over the past few days in the region. They were to be paid ₹500 for transporting 60 bottles of Phensedyl which was recovered from their possession.
•S. S. Guleria, Deputy Inspector General and spokesperson of South Bengal Frontier of BSF, said that these arrests were the result of the BSF developing a network of ascertaining information on smuggling, and attempts were being made so that nothing could be hidden from the troops.
•In the first few weeks of the 2022, the South Bengal Frontier of the BSF had seized about 1,000 bottles of Phensedyl in the border areas. In 2021, South Bengal Frontier seized about 1.64 lakh bottles of the cough syrup. The seizure in 2020 was 2.99 lakh bottles and in 2019 it was 1.98 lakh bottles.
•Senior officials of the BSF said it was the difficult to contain the smuggling because Phensedyl is smuggled in low quantities from India to Bangladesh. “In the past few years, we have stopped factories in the hinterland that were manufacturing Phensedyl. Sometimes farmers smuggle it, at other times people throw it over the fence on the other side of the border,” a senior BSF official said.
•A bottle costs about ₹200 in India and the moment it crosses the border, the price goes up to thousands. BSF officials explained that in Bangladesh, which had a majority Muslim population, the religious faith prohibited consumption of liquor and cough syrups with codeine phosphate were an easy way for people to get high.
•During the talks between the border guarding forces of both the countries, the officials of Border Guards Bangladesh had expressed concern over the smuggling. Not only the BSF, but other investigative agencies also keep a track on the smuggling. Earlier on February 3, Kolkata Customs in an operation with Directorate of Revenue Intelligence seized about 10,000 bottles of Phensedyl headed towards via Bangladesh through Bongaon in North 24 Parganas .
•Along with Phensedyl another narcotic that is smuggled in huge quantities along the international border is Yaba tablets. According to investigative agencies, these tablets usually originate in Myanmar and come to India from Bangladesh. Yaba is a mixture of methamphetamine and caffeine sold as cheap red or pink pills and works as stimulant to the central nervous system. In 2021, the BSF south Bengal Frontier seized about 14,147 tablets when it was allegedly being smuggled into India. The seizure in 2019 by the same frontier was 53,763 Yaba tablets.
📰 Anti-mob lynching bills passed by 4 Assemblies at various levels of non-implementation
Centre taking view that lynching is not defined as a crime under the IPC
•Bills passed against mob lynching in the past four years by at least three States ruled by BJP rivals and one governed by the party itself have not been implemented with the Union government taking a view that lynching is not defined as a crime under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
•The Union Home Ministry informed Parliament in 2019 that there was “no separate” definition for lynching under the IPC, adding that lynching incidents could be dealt with under Sections 300 and 302 of the IPC, pertaining to murder.
•In 2017, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) collected data on mob lynching, hate crimes and cow vigilantism but it was not published and discontinued as these crimes are not defined and the data were found to be unreliable.
•On December 22, the Jharkhand Assembly passed the Prevention of Mob Violence and Mob Lynching Bill, 2021, providing for punishment from three years to life imprisonment. The Bill awaits the Governor’s nod.
•On August 5, 2019, the Rajasthan Assembly passed the Rajasthan Protection from Lynching Bill, 2019, providing for life imprisonment and a fine from ₹1 lakh to ₹5 lakh to those convicted in cases of mob lynching leading to the victim’s death.
•On August 30, 2019, the West Bengal Assembly passed a legislation- the West Bengal (Prevention of Lynching) Bill, 2019 that proposes a jail term from three years to life for those involved in assaulting and injuring a person and also defines terms such as “lynching” and “mob.” The government also proposed the West Bengal Lynching Compensation Scheme.
RTI application
•In response to a Right to Information Act (RTI) application by The Hindu, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) stated that the said legislation was received from the Rajasthan government on September 6, 2019. It added that the bill was “under inter-ministerial consultation with State Government/Union Ministries/ Departments.”
•The MHA’s reply stated, “However, the bill ie: The West Bengal (Prevention of Lynching) Bill, 2019’ has not been received from West Bengal Government.”
•In 2018, the Manipur Assembly passed the The Manipur Protection from Mob Violence Bill, recommending life imprisonment for those involved in mob violence if it led to death. The bill is still being examined by the Ministry.
•The Ministry examines the State legislations on three grounds---repugnancy with Central laws, deviation from national or central policy and legal and constitutional validity.
President’s consideration
•In 2019, the MHA informed the Lok Sabha that it had received the bills passed by the State legislatures of Manipur and Rajasthan that have been reserved by the Governor for consideration of the President.
•The President has to go with the advice given by the Council of Ministers, in the case of such legislations, represented by the MHA.
•In 2018, the Supreme Court asked Parliament to make lynching a separate offence. Union Home Minister Amit Shah had informed Parliament that the government has decided to overhaul the IPC framed in 1860 and the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and mob-lynching would also be examined by the committee. The suggestions received by the Committee for Reforms in Criminal Laws would be examined by the Ministry before the changes are adopted.
📰 Gaming and banning: On ban on online games
Online gaming might be addictive, but a ban will militate against individual freedom
•Yet another legislative attempt to prohibit online gaming has failed under judicial scrutiny. The amendments brought to existing regulations on betting and gambling in Karnataka have been struck down by the State’s High Court. Last year, the Madras High Court invalidated similar amendments that targeted online rummy and poker. What is common to both cases is that the legislature assumed a paternalistic role, arguably with the laudable aim of protecting the people, especially the youth, from the temptations of online gambling. However, the resulting provisions failed to make a distinction between games of skill and games of chance, and sought to bring under the proscription all games played online, regardless of the extent to which skill was required. Further, the Karnataka High Court has rejected a key submission that it could be upheld as a ‘public order’ law. It referred to “the menace of cyber games” of epic proportions, and the registration of about 28,000 cases by the police in the State in the last three years. The government did have a point when it said many have taken their own lives and families ruined as a result of gaming addiction and indebtedness. However, as the court has pointed out, if the objective was to curb the menace of gambling, the government should prohibit activities that amount to gambling as such, and not the games of skill. While enacting the extreme measure, it did not consider the feasibility of regulating wagering on games of skill.
•While the idea of betting and gambling conjures up the image of a ‘bucket shop’ associated with dingy gaming-houses frequented by hustlers, there is an element of ‘information, expression and entertainment’ that has constitutional protection. And gaming platforms are also a legitimate business that enjoy the freedom of trade when used for online versions of games of skill. The court has drawn attention to the fact that what such bans do is to create “a wholly new category of medium-based regulation, when chance of medium per se does not alter the true nature and content of the games”. In other words, what is targeted is not the gambling part but the ‘online’ part. Also, the amendments contradicted a general exemption in the original law to ‘games of skill’ by making all online gaming punishable even if they involved skill. It is clear that an absolute embargo on games of skill involving money or stakes could not have been upheld by the court, as the line between individual freedom, both to carry on the business and to participate in it as a consumer, and state action could not have been obliterated. All legislation that assumes that sections of society require the hand of the state to guide and support them have some populist appeal. And there is an addictive element to online gaming, but that does not mean there is no individual freedom and choice at all.
📰 The importance of caste data
Data will help us determine who needs and does not need affirmative action and the effectiveness of such a measure
•Last month, the Supreme Court upheld the 27% quota for Other Backward Classes (OBC) in the All-India Quota seats for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test and reiterated that reservations for backward classes were not an exception but an extension of the principle of equality under Article 15(1) of the Constitution. The judgment highlighted how open competitive exams give the illusion of providing equal opportunity in ignorance of the widespread inequalities in educational facilities, the freedom to pursue such education, and societal prejudices. The Court pointed out how such disparities are not limited to the issue of access to good education or financial constraints alone, but also to the psychological and social effects of inherited cultural capital (communication skills, books, accent, academic accomplishments, social networks, etc.), which ensures the unconscious training of upper-caste children for high-grade performance. The Constituent Assembly held a similar philosophy while introducing constitutional provisions which enable the government to make special provisions for the uplift of the “lower castes”.
•However, despite the underlying good intentions, positive discrimination has been a controversial topic. Many oppose affirmative actions like reservation; they believe that such provisions only perpetuate caste differences and they call for a “casteless society”. As Justice D.Y. Chandrachud pointed out, “castelessness” is a privilege that only the upper caste can afford because their caste privilege has already translated into social, political and economic capital. On the other hand, individuals who belong to the lower castes must retain their caste identity in order to claim the benefits of measures such as reservation, which recognise historic harm.
Promises without justifiable data
•But even for those who are conscious of these issues, it is hard to blindly trust the state’s motivations because of the caste and class politics ruling our country today. Political parties often promise reservation for communities on being brought to power without any credible data collection exercises to justify the decision. Not long ago, the Supreme Court struck down the reservation for the Maratha community in Maharashtra in excess of 50%, which was the limit set in the Indra Sawhney case, while observing that “when more people aspire for backwardness instead of forwardness, the country itself stagnates which situation is not in accord with constitutional objectives”.
Need for a credible exercise
•Against this backdrop, it can be said that the faith of our citizens cannot be restored until credible exercises of data collection are undertaken regarding caste. Even though data concerning the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have been included in the Census, there is no similar data on OBCs. The Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) conducted in 2011 has been called “faulty” and “unreliable”. Even the Mandal Commission’s recommendations were criticised as being based merely on the “personal knowledge” of the members of the commission and sample surveys. In the Indra Sawhney case, the Supreme Court held that the States must conclude the “backwardness” of a particular class of people only after proper assessment and objective evaluation. It held that such a conclusion must be subject to periodic review by a permanent body of experts. The National Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1993, provides under Section 11 that the Central government may every 10 years revise lists with a view to exclude those classes which have ceased to be backward and include new backward classes. This exercise has not been done to date. Last year, many calls were made for the inclusion of caste data (including that of the OBCs) in the 2021 Census, and the matter reached the Supreme Court. However, the state took a stand that the 2011 SECC was “faulty”, and that it was not feasible to add caste data in the 2021 Census due to “practical difficulties”. Since the Census could not be undertaken in 2021 due to the pandemic, it is set to take place in 2022.
•Caste data will enable independent research not only into the question of who does and does not need affirmative action but also into the effectiveness of this measure. As long as reservation results from violent agitations and political pressures, attempts at any affirmative action will always be under the shadow of caste and class politics. Impartial data and subsequent research might save the bona fide attempts of the uplift of the most backward classes from the shadow of caste and class politics and be informative to people on both sides of the spectrum – for and against reservation. It is not reservation that creates the current divide in our society but the misuse or the perceived misuse of reservation.
📰 The pathology of school closure in India
Scientific evidence supports a complete re-opening; analysing the root causes will guide future policy interventions
•In the last two years, India has achieved the dubious distinction of becoming the country with the second longest COVID-19 pandemic-linked school closure in the world — next only to Uganda. According to a United Nations report, it is an estimated 82 weeks, with some intermittent classes in between. Much has been said, written and published about the impact of school closure on learning loss. However, there has been very limited discourse on why — in spite of scientific evidence to support re-opening — Indian States continued to remain reluctant to reopen schools. Analysing the root causes of school closure in India is an urgent need to derive lessons and to guide future policy interventions.
The bane of misinformation
•To start with, one of the biggest reasons for continued school closure has been widespread misinformation. Unsubstantiated statements such as ‘the third wave would affect children’ and ‘let’s wait for vaccination of kids before reopening schools’ were made by influential individuals and amplified on social media. These scared parents and (incorrectly) linked school reopening with COVID-19 vaccination of children. Occasional reports of children being hospitalised in different parts of the world were on loop on television channels, sensationalising the matter; while it boosted their target rating point (TRP), it harmed hapless children.
•Two, the opinion of a small section of privileged parents and self-proclaimed representatives of their association — often not fully understanding the complexity of the issues — dominated and prevailed in the mainstream discourse. Though surveys had indicated that poor and middle class parents — no matter which part of the country they were from — wanted schools to be open, they were largely ignored in decision making, which was also influenced by ‘sensational’ newspaper reports and high-pitched TV debates. Many ‘experts-on-everything’ appeared on television channels with the argument ‘lets err on the side of caution’, as if epidemiological and scientific evidence were of no value. Every time privileged parents or an ‘expert on everything’ spoke, they deprived children from poor and marginalised backgrounds of their opportunity of and right to education. It needs no reiteration that, in the last two years, already wide educational inequities have only widened further.
•Three, the Government’s response, at all levels, to the misinformation was delayed and arguably insufficient. Though science communication increased over a period of time, it did not match the pace of misinformation. Politicians in most States played to the gallery and used the opposition (by a small group of the mostly privileged) to re-open schools as an excuse to delay school reopening.
Gaps to have minded
•Four, the lived experience of citizens from the second COVID-19 wave in India — in which people had to fend for themselves — dented the trust of the average citizen in the Government and its institutions. Alongside, the widespread misinformation not countered by the Government and not engaging with stakeholders for regaining trust, compounded the challenge. Evidence informed and COVID-19 data based public communication could have helped. However, throughout the pandemic, the availability of COVID-19 data in the public domain remained sub-optimal and science communication, almost always delayed.
•Five, for many months after the initial closure of schools, there was almost no planning and discussion on the need for objective criteria to reopen schools. In early January 2021, India had almost declared victory over the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there was very little discussion and urgency to reopen schools.
•The delay in school reopening has revealed societal aspects as well.
•First, it is not a given that those with the influence and voices would speak on behalf of the poor and the voiceless. Second, school closure has had the worst impact on children who were already at a disadvantage. Third, the learnings during the novel coronavirus pandemic have been (wrongly) equated with completion of the syllabus. Parents have started to believe that learning loss can be addressed by having their wards attend extra classes or through online EdTech solutions.
•In the Union Budget 2022-23, while acknowledging learning loss due to the pandemic, the Government has proposed, under the ‘one class, one TV channel’ programme of the Pradhan Mantri eVidya, or PM eVIDYA, scheme, to expand 12 television channels to a total of 200 channels, in order to “impart supplementary teaching”. This has inadvertently ended up equating learning with syllabus completion. The School Children’s Online and Offline Learning (SCHOOL) survey in India has shown that the TV-based education programmes are completely ineffective.
Adopt ‘PERI’
•In the weeks ahead, schools are likely to reopen in more States and for additional classes/grades; however, it will be unfair to our children if we simply move on without sufficient measures to ensure that schools start functioning at full capacity. It is possible through a structured approach of P-E-R-I: Prepare; Engage; Reimagine and Innovate.
•Prepare for the continuity of school education. The necessary planning and everyone developing a perspective on the risk of COVID-19 is absolutely essential. Even when the pandemic winds down, COVID-19 cases will continue to be reported. Occasionally, there could be a rise in coronavirus cases in various settings. Therefore, every State needs to develop a road map, strategies and plan ahead to prevent avoidable disruptions. The objective criteria for school closure — if at all — needs to be developed and such a decision or decisions should be implemented in a decentralised manner at the block or the district level. All of us need to develop a perspective about the impact of COVID-19 on children. As an example, in many settings, the risk of hospitalisation of children due to dengue, malaria or diarrhoea is far greater than with COVID-19. If we do not close schools for those conditions, why do so for COVID-19?
•Engage with key stakeholders including parents and raise awareness about the importance of in-person education and the concept of holistic child development. There is a need for the continued engagement of all key stakeholders — parents, community members, schools, public health experts and the local governments — to counter any misinformation in the course of things and bring learning on track. Learning (as well as nutrition) loss has been the maximum for younger children. However, anganwadi. pre-nursery and nursery schools in most States and primary schools in many States continue to remain closed, which should be opened urgently and immediately.
•Reimagine every facet of school functioning such as improved ventilation and blended learning methods. More importantly, there are reports that children from many poor and marginalised communities have already dropped out of schools and may not return to the education system, i.e. children pulled into child labour and other paid and unpaid work. The task clearly would be only half done when schools open. Special initiatives — socio-political engagement and discourse — need to be started so that every single child who is in need of education can return to in-person learning. It is also an opportunity to revive school health services in Indian States, and institutionalise regular counselling and mental health services for school-age children, especially for adolescents.
•Innovate for compensating for learning loss and make schools place for holistic child development. Schools are far more than a place to complete the syllabus. A child meeting and interacting with other children in real life and in school contributes to the emotional, social, cognitive, communication, and language development. There is a lot of focus on compensating for learning loss and the months before the next academic session starts are being suggested to be used for catching up on missed lessons. It would be a narrow approach and this period is far too short.
•There is a need for every government to prepare a mid- to long-term plan to compensate for the learning loss, with a sufficient focus on overall child development. There is a need for strategic and innovative thinking and lasting solutions.
Education as hope
•For the majority of the poor and lower- and middle-income families, quality education is the only hope to come out from the vicious cycle of poverty and think of a bright future. The widening educational inequities now mean that the pandemic has deprived the poor and the most vulnerable in society of this opportunity. Continued school closure and a hesitation in reopening academic institutions are the symptoms of a deeper malady in India’s education system as well as a reflection of the value decision makers attach to school education. It is our socio-political responsibility that everything needed to ensure the safe return of every child in the country to the school is done. It is not a matter of choice but what we, as a responsible society, must do urgently.
Dr. Chandrakant Lahariya is a physician-epidemiologist and Founder-Director of the Foundation for People-centric Health Systems, New Delhi (He acknowledges the inputs of Professor Jean Drèze in an earlier version of this article).
•Though surveys had indicated that poor and middle class parents — no matter which part of the country they were from — wanted schools to be open, they were largely ignored in decision making.
•The learnings during the novel coronavirus pandemic have been (wrongly) equated with completion of the syllabus.
•Continued school closure and a hesitation in reopening academic institutions are the symptoms of a deeper malady in India’s education system.
