📰 Explained | Challenging the Special Marriage Act, 1954
Why are Sections 6 to 10 of the Special Marriage Act under scrutiny? How are these provisions being misused?
•The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a writ petition challenging the Constitutional validity of certain provisions of the Special Marriage Act, 1954 under which couples seek refuge for inter-faith and inter-caste marriages.
•The writ petition has called the provisions under the SMA violative of the right to privacy guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution as they require couples to give a notice of 30 days before the date of marriage inviting objections from the public.
•These public notices have been used by anti-social elements to harass couples getting married.
•The story so far: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a writ petition challenging provisions of the Special Marriage Act (SMA), 1954 requiring couples to give a notice declaring their intent to marry 30 days before their marriage.
What does the petition seek? What did the court say?
•The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a writ petition challenging the Constitutional validity of certain provisions of the SMA under which couples seek refuge for inter-faith and inter-caste marriages. The writ petition has called these provisions violative of the right to privacy guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution as they require couples to give a notice of 30 days before the date of marriage inviting objections from the public. The writ petition filed by counsels K. R. Sripathi and Anupama Sripathi and advocate on record Sriram Parakkat has also said that the provisions contravene Article 14 on prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste and sex as well as Article 15 on right to equality as these requirements are absent in personal laws.
•A Bench of Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Bela M. Trivedi rejected the writ petition on the grounds that the petitioner, 35- year-old Athira Sujatha, was no longer an aggrieved party as she had already solemnised her marriage under SMA. The petitioner's lawyers said that they were now deliberating on an alternative approach to initiate this litigation such as through a public interest litigation involving other victims. Another writ petition in Nandini Praveen vs Union of India & Others filed on similar grounds was admitted by the Supreme Court in 2020 and the government’s reply to is awaited.
What are the provisions that have been challenged?
•Section 5 of the SMA requires couples getting married under it to give a notice to the Marriage Officer 30 days before the date of marriage. The writ seeks striking down of provisions that follow in Section 6 to Section 10. Section 6 requires such a notice to be then entered into the Marriage Notice Book maintained by the Marriage Officer, which can be inspected by “any person desirous of inspecting the same”. These notices have to be also affixed at a “conspicuous place” in the office of the Marriage Officer so that anyone can raise an objection to the marriage. Section 7 provides the process for making an objection such as if either party has a living spouse, is incapable of giving consent due to “unsoundness of mind” or is suffering from mental disorder resulting in the person being unfit for marriage or procreation. Section 8 specifies the inquiry procedure to be followed after an objection has been submitted.
•The petition reads, “The impugned provisions, by throwing the personal information of the individuals open to public scrutiny, seriously damage one’s right to have control over her or his personal information and its accessibility. By making the personal details of the couple accessible to everyone, the very right of the couple to be the decision makers of their marriage is being hampered by the state.”
How do these provisions make couples vulnerable?
•These public notices have been used by anti-social elements to harass couples getting married. In Athira’s case, who got married in 2019 under SMA, her marriage notice containing her address was circulated on Facebook and WhatsApp calling on people to visit her parents and make them “aware” about her marriage. While Athira had the support of her parents, for many others who often marry without their parent’s consent this can be life-threatening. There have been instances, where marriage officers have gone over and beyond the law and sent such notices to the parents of the couple leading to a Muslim woman in Delhi being confined to her house by her parents in March 2020 until her boyfriend filed a habeus corpus in the Delhi High Court. Following another petition, the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) was slapped with a contempt notice and the Delhi government issued a warning to all SDMs in the State. The Haryana government has laid down 16 pre-requisites which ask couples to issue a notice in a newspaper and that such notices be sent to their parents. In certain States, couples have to seek a no-objection certificate from their parents. The Maharashtra Department of Registration and Stamps publicly shares the details of couples marrying under SMA on its website and so did the Kerala government until Athira came forward and pointed out that this allowed communal elements to access personal details and threaten and harass couples. Many also complain about the behaviour of the staff at the SDM’s office who often delete or delay applications and dissuade couples from marrying under SMA and ask them to convert at a Arya Samaj temple. With as many as 11 States passing anti-conversion (or so called love-jihad) laws, parents and the State are now armed to punish and harass such couples.
📰 Huge haul of fake ₹2,000 notes: NCRB
Post-2016, there has been an increase in seizure of fake money, data reveal
•Nearly 60% of all fake notes seized in 2021 were of ₹2,000 denomination, the Crime in India 2021 report compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) shows.
•Of the fake Indian currency notes with a face value of ₹20.39 crore seized in 2021, ₹12.18 crore was in the denomination of ₹2,000.
•The new ₹2,000 and ₹500 currency notes were introduced in 2016 after the old ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes were scrapped by the Union government. The government had said that curbing of fake notes was one of the primary objectives of the 2016 demonetisation exercise.
•Post-2016, there has been an increase in seizure of fake money, the NCRB data reveal. While in 2016, fake currency with a face value of ₹15.92 crore was seized, the seizures in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 stood at ₹28.1 crore, ₹17.95 crore, ₹25.39 crore, ₹92.17 crore and ₹20.39 crore, respectively. In 2015, before demonetisation, ₹15.48 crore in fake currency was seized.
•The huge increase in 2020 was on account of the seizure of dummy money issued from “Children Bank of India” that were recovered from a house in Pune. On June 10, 2020, the police recovered ₹82.8 crore in fake currency, of which around ₹43 crore was in the denomination of ₹2,000 from the Pune house. Six persons, including an Army official, were arrested for the crime. The police found that the accused used to dupe customers by slipping in the dummy money while exchanging dollar bills to rupees.
•The 2021 report says fake money with a face value of ₹6.6 crore in ₹500 denomination and ₹45 lakh in ₹200 denomination were found.
•The highest recovery of fake ₹2,000 notes was made in Tamil Nadu (₹5 crore), followed by Kerala (₹1.8 crore) and Andhra Pradesh (₹1 crore).
•The Finance Ministry informed Parliament on August 8 that the value of the counterfeit currency in the banking system reduced from ₹43.47 crore in 2016-17 to ₹8.26 crore in 2021-22.
•The Ministry attributed the reduction in number of counterfeit banknotes from 7.62 lakh pieces in 2016-17 to 2.09 lakh pieces in 2020-21 to the Centre’s decision to cancel the legal tender status of ₹1,000 and ₹500 notes on November 8, 2016.
📰 Delhi Police first force to make forensic probe mandatory
Rule to be followed in crimes attracting over 6-year term; order issued following Shah’s visit to Police HQ
•Delhi Police has become the first police force in the country to make collection of forensic evidence mandatory in crimes punishable by more than six years.
•The order was issued on Tuesday hours after Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited the Police Headquarters here. Since Delhi is a Union Territory, its police force is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
•Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora issued a “standard order” to all police units which stated, “In order to take conviction rate higher and integrate the criminal justice system with forensic science investigation, it has been decided to use forensic tools mandatorily in all cases where punishment provided is more than six years.”
•The order comes following a push by Mr. Shah who, while speaking at a Zonal Council meeting in Bhopal on August 22, had said the government was going to overhaul the British-era Indian Penal Code and one of the changes being considered was making collection of forensic evidence compulsory in criminal cases punishable by more than six years. “The era of third degree torture is over. Custodial torture has roots in colonial India. Conviction of criminals can be achieved based on forensic evidence that is irrefutable,” Mr. Shah had said.
Forensic mobile vans
•According to the Delhi Police order, apart from the force’s mobile crime vans in the districts, a forensic mobile van shall be allotted to each district to provide scientific and forensic assistance on the spot whenever any such need arises.
•“These forensic mobile vans shall not be under the administrative control of the police but shall be an independent entity responsible to the court of law. However, they shall visit the scene of crime whenever called by the Station House Officer or any other investigating agency of Delhi Police,” said the order.
•During his visit to the Police HQ, Mr. Shah emphasised on surveillance being a major part of policing and said that CCTV cameras installed at public places should be integrated with the police control room. “The cameras installed by the administration, police as well as in public places like airports, railway stations, bus stands and markets should be integrated with the police control room to ensure better surveillance,” Mr. Shah said.
•The Home Minister held a meeting with senior police officers and carried out a review of sensitive policing, scientific and professional investigation of crimes, among other aspects. He also spoke about the safety of women, children and senior citizens in the Capital and instructed the officers to execute plans to ensure their well-being.
With unchecked surveillance by governments and private parties, the top court must be guided by overseas precedents
•The hype around the Pegasus case (of allegations that the personal communication devices of a range of people in India, including journalists, civil society activists and politicians were targeted illegally using the Israeli-made spyware) and the misplaced hope in the Supreme Court of India (which had appointed a committee to probe the allegations) that the probe outcome would be decisive have now been deflated. There is something terribly amiss which will unfold over time, to reveal that the Centre and the States operate like a police state when it comes to surveillance. Corporations have and carry out the same level of surveillance, completely unfettered by the law. We perhaps placed too much hope in the central government and the Supreme Court. The Court did not have the courage to force the Government to disclose its intrusive activities. “None of your business” was the message sent out by the Union government. Perhaps setting up the committee itself was an exercise in futility.
•As far back as 1986, in the Wiretap Act in the United States, the law prohibited private agencies from engaging in surveillance. When government seeks permission to do surveillance it must apply to a Federal Court, and only when there is “no other option”. Thirty-six years later, in India, corporate houses snoop on activists and competitors at will and collect huge dossiers on “persons of interest”.
•In 1997, in Ireland, the Report on Privacy was released with its focus on private parties and it recommended the recognition of a new statutory tort. The report complained of the legal vacuum created by new technology outpacing laws and said that this was a classic case for law reform. Spying by governments was the new threat on the horizon.
•The Patriot Act 2001 (or Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001) enacted to counter international terrorism also required court approval. Much before this, the 11-member United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was established in 1978 when Congress enacted the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The court was a reaction to political spying. In the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, a civil liberties protection officer was appointed to report to Congress.
Checks and balances
•Here are some other examples.
•The New South Wales Law Reform Commission, 2005 established the office of the privacy commissioner with inspectors to investigate complaints.
•The United Nations contributed to the development of a legal framework evolving the “no secret” rules. For a government to say that it needed to do surveillance in “national interest” was not good enough at all. As the European Court of Human Rights held, “a secret surveillance system can undermine or even destroy democracy under the cloak of defending it”. Court warrants were required to obtain information, the intrusion was to be supervised by independent bodies, records of all surveillance were to be meticulously kept, and notices were to be given to those under surveillance. The principle of maximum disclosure would govern surveillance law. Journalists were recognised as being particularly vulnerable.
•The Venice Commission Report, 2015 categorically stated that the right to privacy framework was not good enough in the evolving context of long-term societal harm. Independent control and oversight was necessary which included control over the executive, parliamentary oversight, judicial review and oversight of expert bodies. These reforms that took place in Europe seven years ago have yet to reach Indian shores.
•Practice 6 of the UN Good Practices on Oversight Institutions includes the setting up of a civilian independent institution. Practice 7 empowers this institution to carry out an investigation and have unhindered access to information. Practice 9 empowers individuals to complain to a court.
The Indian scene is murky
•In India, authorities authorise 9,000 interception orders every month, and these orders are not issued by courts but by police officers. Facial recognition technology that is found to be violative of human rights in several countries is routinely resorted to in India, with hardly any protest. Both the European Union and the United States stopped facial recognition sometime ago. The Citizen Lab, a digital surveillance research agency based in Canada, published a report (“Planet Blue Coat: Mapping Global Censorship and Surveillance Tools”) saying “Blue Coat devices are being used around the world ... we found these appliances in India”. The report talks about a software “PacketShaper” — “we discovered PacketShaper installations in India”.
•According to another report by Citizen Lab, a surveillance software called “FinFisher” has been found on servers in India. The report says “FinFisher is a line of remote intrusion software whose products are marketed exclusively to law enforcement and intelligence agencies. FinFisher has gained notoriety because it has been used in targeted attacks against human rights campaigners in countries with questionable human rights records. We have found command and control servers for FinSpy in India”. The UN General Assembly “Report of the Special Rapporteur” 2013 has said, “[The] Government of India is proposing to install a centralised monitoring system that will route all communications to the central government allowing security agencies to bypass the service provider [,] thus taking surveillance out of the realm of judicial authorisation and eliminating accountability on the part of the State”. In 2013, The Guardian published a news article placing India at fifth position among countries where the largest amount of intelligence was gathered.
•In 2014, the Delhi police issued a tender inviting technology companies to supply Internet monitoring equipment; 26 Indian and foreign companies expressed interest. In 2014, the Centre for Internet and Society, India, published a report titled “The Surveillance Industry in India”, which describes the activities of ClearTrail technologies (an Indian company) and the company’s “mass monitoring, Deep Packet inspection”.
More reports
•There is more.
•In 2015, a leading private television channel published an article titled “UPA was client of controversial Italian Spyware firm”. In the same year, a leading business daily published an article, “Why Indian Intelligence uses small companies for spying technology”. In 2016, another leading English daily published an article that described the setting up of the National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC). In 2018, the Justice B.N. Srikrishna Committee submitted a report to the Government which stated that “much intelligence gathering does not happen under the remit of the law, there is little meaningful oversight and there is a vacuum in checks and balances to prevent the untrammelled rise of a surveillance society”. In 2019, a news and opinion website quoted a former Home Secretary as saying that he was aware that the Israeli tech firm, NSO, had sold spy software to private firms and individuals in the country.
•Instead of wasting time inspecting mobile phones and coming up with hardly any conclusion, the Supreme Court of India could do well to follow the extensive precedents developed abroad and enable binding orders that severely curtail the unlawful surveillance going on in India by the Government and private parties alike.
📰 Floods and foes
India and Pakistan are best placed to help each other during natural disasters
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s message, in a tweet on Monday evening, expressing condolences to the victims of the flooding in Pakistan, is a welcome gesture, especially after weeks of silence over what has been one of the worst natural disasters in the neighbourhood in recent times. More than 1,100 people have died, and over 33 million people have been affected, as officials say one-third of the country is under water, and estimate about $10 billion in damage to homes, roads and infrastructure. The floods have also affected standing crops, and as the waters recede, fears of disease as well as food shortages are expected to rise. In addition, the worry that the devastating floods have been caused due to climate change is a worry for all of South Asia, one of the world’s regions most vulnerable to global warming. On Tuesday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres launched a global appeal for aid to Pakistan, that he said had been hit by a “monsoon on steroids”, indicating unnatural climate patterns. Countries such as the U.K., the U.S., China, the UAE, Qatar and Turkey have already dispatched aid to Pakistan, and many others have promised help, while the IMF announced a $1.1 billion bailout tranche on Tuesday, as part of ongoing negotiations with the country that is already steeped in an economic crisis. Given that the crisis will only deepen at this point, Pakistan Finance Minister Miftah Ismail also said on Monday that he may propose lifting the trade ban imposed on India after the Jammu-Kashmir reorganisation in 2019, so as to import Indian vegetables and essential commodities. Thus far, Islamabad has only made exceptions for pharmaceutical imports from India during the COVID-19 pandemic, and India’s humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.
•Despite the poor state of India-Pakistan ties, both New Delhi and Islamabad must put aside their domestic considerations, and seize the moment to help those stranded in the flooding as best they can. India cannot pride itself as being the “first responder” in the neighbourhood — as it has been for Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Afghanistan — if it fails to see the suffering right at its land boundary with Pakistan. It would be churlish and short-sighted of Pakistan to reject an opportunity to lift the trade ban with India that has only hurt its own interests, and to give up a source of affordable supplies at a time of such calamity. And it would be both tragic and ridiculous if the enmity between the two countries would not allow them to work together at a time such as this, even as their governments allow their cricket teams to play each other for financial considerations. Significantly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif are due to travel to Uzbekistan in September for the SCO summit. While a more lasting dialogue, that has been suspended between the two countries for nearly a decade over the terrorism issue, is unlikely, the leaders must find the time to discuss ways to mitigate the catastrophe at hand.
📰 The many ways of helping Sri Lanka
There is a strong case for greater Indian engagement, especially in certain sectors
•Recently, Chamal, who drives a battery-operated vehicle in the Peradeniya Botanic Gardens in Kandy, told this journalist that the common man in Sri Lanka greatly values India’s support, especially as it comes during a turbulent phase in the island nation’s economic history.
•In Wellawaya in Uva Province, a self-effacing Sinhalese farmer was busy harvesting his paddy crop raised during the Yala cultivation season (May to August). He interrupted the translator to say that he has received normal yield this time thanks to “the supply of chemical fertilizers from India.” In the preceding Maha season (September to March), this small-scale farmer had suffered 50% crop loss on account of the Sri Lankan government’s decision to abruptly migrate to organic farming.
•Similarly, Nesamalar, who runs a tea shop in Nuwara Eliya of Central Province, said Sri Lankans are aware that India cannot constantly provide generous assistance, but still expect their neighbour to give new loans.
•A veteran government official in Colombo pointed out that even “certain fringe groups,” known for their anti-India rhetoric, stayed silent when the rest of Sri Lankan society was “tremendously appreciative” of what India did.
Greater engagement
•These accounts illustrate how Sri Lankans feel about India’s response to the country’s economic crisis. India has provided assistance of nearly $4 billion to its neighbour. However, there is a strong case for greater Indian engagement with Sri Lanka, which is still struggling to tackle the crisis. Such engagement need not be confined to liberal loans; it could also include sharing technical expertise or knowledge, or helping the country upgrade skills in different areas of economic activity.
•According to a cross-section of people in Sri Lanka, agriculture and allied activities are the priority areas where India can make a difference. For instance, Sri Lanka imports a considerable quantity of milk powder. On average, Colombo annually imports dairy products worth $315 million. Even though this accounts for about 1.5% of its total imports, Sri Lanka’s self-sufficiency in dairy production would not only have saved precious foreign exchange, but also reduced despondency among the people during the peak of the crisis. India can help Sri Lanka develop its dairy sector. Given Sri Lanka’s natural conditions, including an average annual rainfall of around 185 cm, its enormous potential in dairy development remains untapped. Leaving the rather unsuccessful joint venture project of about 20 years ago with the National Dairy Development Board of India behind, India and Sri Lanka should start afresh in the sector.
•Likewise, the poultry sector, which is also in a state of crisis, deserves special treatment because it is unable to come to terms with rising input costs and shortages in animal and veterinary medicines. The domestic production of maize, which is largely used as the primary ingredient in domestic poultry feed, is still insufficient to fulfil the demand. This has compelled feed producers to fall back on high-cost alternatives. In this area, through its host of agricultural universities, India can share its knowledge on ways to increase both production and productivity. Agricultural machinery is another area where Sri Lanka needs a helping hand.
•Considering how the problem on the energy front exploded into a major political crisis in Sri Lanka, India’s participation in energy projects will be desirable. But this can become a reality only if Sri Lanka’s leadership shows the political will to work with India. Even though provisional approvals were recently issued for the Adani Group’s wind power projects of over $500 million in the Northern Province, India would not like the Sampur experience repeated. In 2016, a 500-MW coal-fired power project in Sampur was scuttled even after getting environmental clearance.
•Despite providing employment to a large proportion of the population and playing a key role in economic output, Sri Lanka’s Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have not achieved their potential for various reasons, one of which is the low adoption of technology, according to the 2021 annual report of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. Even though India has to go a long way in digitising operations of its MSMEs, its programmes including the ‘Digital MSME’ and ‘RAMP’ (Raising and Accelerating MSME Performance) can provide leads to the MSME sector.
•School education is another area where India’s presence could be more felt. India can expand its scheme of establishing smart classrooms and modern computer labs to cover all those institutions teaching children of hill country Tamils, the most underprivileged section in Sri Lankan society. Indian universities can consider setting up satellite campuses in Sri Lanka. A collaborative project can be conceived for training second and third rung employees of the public sector.
•And on the culture front, India can arrange for greater numbers of Buddhist monks to visit places of religious importance here.
Helping is in India’s interest too
•The wish list can go on. There is enormous scope for India to engage in a constructive way with its southern neighbour, which is known for performing better than most other economies in Asia. India can ensure that the proposed development programme is equitably distributed in coverage. Needless to say, the Northern and Eastern Provinces, where the Tamil and Muslim ethnic minorities live, and which were badly hit by the civil war, should be given special attention as their contribution to Sri Lanka’s GDP is hardly 10%. This ought to be improved.
•Sri Lanka’s political class and civil society, which would have observed closely the efficacy of the country’s constructive engagement with India in recent months, should facilitate the success of the programme instead of allowing themselves to be carried away by the anti-India rhetoric of a few groups. Given the history of bilateral ties, instances such as the Hambantota controversy are bound to arise. But what should not be glossed over is that a politically and economically stable Sri Lanka will be in India’s interest too.
•T. Ramakrishnan visited Sri Lanka earlier this month on the invitation of the Sri Lanka Deputy High Commission in Chennai together with the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau
📰 The age of hyper-lapse consumerism
Consumers and businesses should be mindful of the consequences of their actions
•Consumption is an important element of human civilisation. The success of modern economies is dependent on, and measured a great deal by, the level and nature of consumption. From the hunter-gatherers whose consumption was survival-centric to the millennials for whom consumption is about fulfilling aspirations, the nature of consumerism has seen tremendous shifts.
Changes in consumption
•The notion of consumption has changed and today, several streams of thoughts co-exist. The ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes famously showed his contempt for material things by living in a barrel. Since the industrial revolution, the rise of the middle class in developed countries has led to a growth in consumption. While on the one hand, the acquisition and display of material wealth are acceptable and even appreciated by a large section of society, another stream of thought advocates minimalism. The COVID-19 pandemic brought shifts in consumer behaviour. Lockdowns brought more people into the e-commerce fold. Due to the economic impact of the pandemic, the world witnessed a shrinkage of demand. But post-pandemic recovery and suppressed consumerism is now leading to ‘revenge shopping’.
•Modern-day consumerism is not only about wanting more but also wanting it fast. We are in an age of ‘hyper lapse consumerism’ — there is a clamour to be the fastest to reach the consumer. The ubiquitous growth of the Internet and the rise of e-commerce have fuelled hyper lapse consumerism, which refers not only to the kinds of products being sold but also to the ease with which consumers order them and the speed at which such products are delivered. According to a study by Invesp, 56% of online consumers between the age of 18 and 34 years expect the goods they have ordered to be delivered on the same day, whereas 61% want their packages even faster — within 1-3 hours of placing an order.
•After e-commerce companies made delivery their core competence by putting boots on the ground and even drones in the sky, the competition to deliver faster and better is shaping consumer behaviour and industry patterns. Recently in India we saw food and grocery delivery companies announcing 10-minute deliveries for consumers in select cities. This is being done by strengthening the hyper-local logistical network, leveraging predictive algorithms, process optimisation and, in some cases, providing incentives and disincentives for delivery partners. When the 10-minute delivery plan was announced, policymakers and experts raised concerns that delivery professionals might resort to reckless driving and put themselves and others at risk in their rush to stick to timelines. Indiscriminate work pressure can lead to fatigue, mental health issues and other health issues among delivery professionals. In an industry which offers little to no social security for gig workers, this could have serious consequences. A NITI
Aayog report, ‘India’s Booming Gig and Platform Economy’, suggests extending social security for gig and platform workers, including paid sick leave, health access and insurance, and occupational disease and work accident insurance.
•Hyper lapse consumerism is not without its benefits. According to NITI Aayog, in 2020-21, about 7.7 million workers were engaged in the gig economy, accounting for 1.5% of the total workforce in India. This is expected to grow to 23.5 million workers by 2029-30, making up for 4.1% of the total livelihood in India. According to a report titled ‘Unlocking the Potential of the Gig Economy in India’, by Boston Consulting Group and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, India’s burgeoning gig economy has the potential to provide up to 90 million jobs in the non-farm economy alone, generate over $250 billion in the volume of work and contribute 1.25% to the country’s GDP in the long term.
•At the core of the gig economy growth are behavioural shifts among consumers. Along with being fast, shopping has become more impersonal. The local kirana store owners have paved the way for ‘delivery buddies’ and OTPs. Many people don’t buy groceries on a monthly basis any more; they buy them in a more piecemeal fashion. Often, they prefer getting meals delivered at home instead of going out.
The way forward
•Going ahead, there are two paths. Either we continue with hyper lapse consumerism or shift back to a more laid-back delivery model. In the rush to come up with better value propositions for the customer, businesses often tend to ignore the social, ethical, environmental and personal costs of business decisions. These decisions get influenced by, and further influence, consumer needs and behaviour. While advertising serves a positive purpose by educating consumers, much attention has been focused on the question of whether advertising is manipulative.
•However, putting the onus entirely on either businesses or on consumers would be unjust. For businesses, the pursuit of valuation, revenue, profits, and the pursuit of equity, social good, good health and environment need not always be mutually exclusive. For consumers too, the pursuit of convenience and amusement should not make them ignorant towards the hardships of many. Social critic Neil Postman contrasted the worlds of George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World in the foreword of his book Amusing Ourselves to Death. In 1984, people are controlled by inflicting pain, whereas, in Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure.
•While much has been written about the regulatory and technical aspects of 10-minute delivery, we must also analyse it from an ethical, social and behavioural perspective. Both consumers and businesses should be mindful of the wide-ranging consequences of their actions, and 360-degree analysis of business decisions must be undertaken for the larger good. After all, technology gives us leverage to solve many problems, but only wisdom can tell us which problems are worth solving.
