Development for You

Juvenile Justice System in India

noreply@blogger.com (Sadhuji) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 04:12:00 +0000

Juvenile Justice System in India

The state guarantees special treatment to them through statutory law. However, in practice, they often get victimized by legal and procedural entanglements

The emergence of the concept of juvenile justice in India owes much to the developments that have taken place in western countries, especially in the perception of children and human rights jurisprudence in Europe and America. The Apprentices Act, 1850 was the first legislation that laid the foundation of juvenile justice system in the country. The concept consequently gained momentum with the enactment of the Indian Penal Code (1860), Reformatory Schools Act (1897), Code of Criminal Procedure (1898) and recommendations made by the Indian Jail Committee (1919-1920), which categorically mentioned that the child offender should be treated differently from an adult offender. It also held that imprisonment of child offenders should be prohibited and recommended for provision of reformatory schools and constitution of children’s courts with procedures ‘as informal and elastic as possible’. The Committee also drew attention to the desirability of making provisions and special enactment for children who had not committed crime so far, but could do so in the near future on account of living in criminal or inhuman surroundings or those without proper guardians or homes.

The Madras Children Act 1920 was the first Children Act to be enacted, closely followed by Bengal and Bombay in 1922 and 1924, respectively. Later, many more states enacted their own Children Acts, covering within their sphere two categories of children, viz., (i) delinquent children, and (ii) destitute and neglected children. Both these categories of children were to be handled by the juvenile courts. They were to be kept in remand homes and certified schools or released on probation, with a possibility of imprisonment when the nature of offence was serious and the character of the offender so depraved as to justify imprisonment (Ved Kumari: 2004). During this period, by and large, the “welfare” approach was adopted for children – whether delinquent, destitute or neglected.

Development of Juvenile Justice System in India

Independence ushered in a new era for children in the country. The Constitution of India took care of survival, development and protection needs of children by making relevant provisions in ‘Fundamental Rights’ and ‘Directive Principles of State Policy’.

Children Act 1960

The special status accorded to children in the Constitution and the fact that there was a substantial growth in the number of destitute, neglected and delinquent children in the wake of partition, saw some special programmes being taken up to meet the needs of this group of children during the First Five-Year Plan. Industrialization coupled with urbanization further brought forth its own set of problems for children. One of them was increase in cases of juvenile delinquency in large cities, the most common offence being theft. As legislation for dealing with delinquent children existed only in few states, the Government of India enacted the Children Act 1960. The Act, however, was applicable only to the Union Territories as it was a model to be followed by the states in the enactment of their respective Children Acts.

The 1960 Children Act, provided for the care, protection, maintenance, welfare, training, education and rehabilitation of neglected and delinquent children. For the first time in India, the Children Act prohibited the imprisonment of children under any circumstance. It provided for separate adjudicatory bodies – a children court and a child welfare board - to deal with delinquent and neglected children. The Act also introduced a system of three-tier institutions, namely, an observation home for receiving children during the pendency of their proceedings, a children’s home for accommodating neglected children, and a special school for delinquent children. It, however, introduced a sex discriminatory definition of child. Child in case of a boy was one who was below 16 years and in case of a girl below 18 years of age. All states subsequently enacted similar, but not exactly the same Children Acts. The definition of the term child differed from state to state. As a result, delinquent and neglected children were subjected to differential treatment emanating from the diverse conceptions of child and childhood.

Juvenile Justice Act 1986

The need for a uniform Children Act across the country paved the way for the enactment of the 1986 Juvenile Justice Act (JJA). It promoted ‘the best interest of the juveniles’ by incorporating into its fold not only the major provisions and clauses of the Indian Constitution and the 1974 National Policy Resolution for Children but also the universally agreed principles and standards for the protection of juveniles such as the 1959 United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child and the 1985 United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (Beijing Rules). The JJA overruled imprisonment of juveniles in police lock-up or jail. Other than this, it stipulated two main authorities – a juvenile welfare board and a juvenile court – to deal with neglected and delinquent juveniles. It also stipulated establishment of various kinds of institutions for the care of juveniles – a juvenile home for the reception of neglected juveniles, a special home for the reception of delinquent juveniles, an observation home for the temporary reception of juveniles during the pendency of any inquiry regarding them, and an after-care home for the purpose of taking care of juveniles after they were discharged from a juvenile home or a special home. It further guaranteed a wide range of dispositional alternatives with preference for family or community-based placement, and a vigorous involvement of voluntary agencies at various stages of the juvenile justice process. The basic ideology for adopting this differential approach was to save children from devastating ill-effects of criminalization, penalization and stigmatization. With the enactment of the JJA, the “welfare” approach gave way to the “justice” paradigm (Maharukh Adenwalla: 2006).

But the implementation of the JJA had many loopholes in terms of age determination, separate trials, court proceedings, notification of charges to parents or guardians, filing of reports by probation officers, reasons for and length of confinement, rehabilitation and after care of juveniles. The juveniles were often not provided with a copy of the rules governing their detention and the written description of their rights. Many juveniles housed in institutions run by the government did not know the purpose of their stay and the future of their institutionalization. Like the 1960 Children Act, the JJA too promoted a sex discriminatory definition of a juvenile. Moreover, most of the states and union territories who had formulated their Rules for the implementation of the JJA were devoid of the basic infrastructure consisting of juvenile welfare boards, juvenile courts, observation homes, juvenile homes, special homes and after care homes. They had also not taken up the required measures for observance of minimum standards for institutional care or for the advancement of non-institutional care, such as foster care, sponsorship, adoption, etc. The chasm between reality and the application of the law was felt all the more with the adoption of the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and its ratification by the Government of India in 1992. The provisions of the CRC with regard to children in conflict with law were amplified in two other United Nations instruments - the United Nations Guidelines for the Administration of Juvenile Delinquency (Riyadh Guidelines) and the United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty (JDL Rules). Both provide detailed directions about the processes to be followed by the juvenile justice system in dealing with persons below the age of 18. The 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna and the successive adoption of Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action which urged States to ratify and implement promptly the CRC too made a definitive impact on all those concerned with the plight of these children in India including the government.

Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act 2000

Taking a cue from all these developments, the government recast the JJA so that it could be in consonance with the CRC and brought in a new Act, the 2000 Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act. The passing of this Act endorsed the “justice” as well as the “rights” approach towards children and moreover made use of a better terminology by providing for “juveniles in conflict with law” and “children in need of care and protection”. It calls for keeping both the categories separate pending their inquiries. This segregation aims to curb the bad influence on the child who is in need of care and protection from the one who is in conflict with law. The JJA 2000 brings about standardization in the definition of a ‘juvenile’ or a ‘child’ across the country except for Jammu and Kashmir. A ‘juvenile’ or ‘child’ is a person who has not completed eighteenth year of age. Juveniles in conflict with law include all those children alleged to or found to have committed an offence. They are to be handled by the juvenile justice board. Children in need of care and protection cover a range of ‘at risk’ children to be dealt by child welfare committee. While dealing with juveniles and children, it gave importance to their respective families for tendering of advice and counselling. It furthermore introduced a wide range of community placement options for juveniles and children. The 2000 Act, though passed with good intentions, overlooked the inclusion of certain substantive and procedural due process rights.

Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) (Amendment) Act 2006

JJA 2000 was further amended in 2006 to make it clear that juvenility would be reckoned from the date of commission of offence who have not completed eighteenth year of age thus clarifying ambiguities raised in Arnit Das vs State of Bihar [(2000] 5 SCC 488]. The amendment also made it clear that under no circumstances, a juvenile in conflict with law is to be kept in a police lock-up or lodged in a jail. In addition, it stipulated that the Chief Judicial Magistrate or the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate is to review the pendency of cases of the Board at every six months, and child protection units should be set up in states and districts to see to the implementation of the Act.

National Human Rights Commission and Measures for Juvenile Justice System

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is an embodiment of India’s concern for the promotion and protection of human rights. Ever since the NHRC came into existence, it has been concerned about the plight of juveniles who come in conflict with law and children who are in need of care and protection. While the Law Division of the NHRC has been dealing with complaints; the Policy Research, Projects and Programmes Division of the NHRC has been monitoring the implementation of the related Act at the national level as well as studying and recommending effective application of those international instruments that intend to improve the overall functioning of the juvenile justice system in the country. Some instances of NHRC intervention in this regard are given below.

Deaths and Rapes in Homes set up under JJA 1986

In September 1996, the NHRC called for information with regard to incidents of deaths and rapes in Homes set-up under the JJA 1986 within 24 hours of its occurrence by writing to the Chief Secretaries/Administrators of all the States/Union Territories. Later, in February 2002, the NHRC modified its existing instructions on the subject directing that an inquest by a Magistrate be conducted immediately in all cases of deaths in Homes and the report – including comments on possible medical negligence – to be sent to the NHRC. In case of any allegation of rape/unnatural offence on any inmate of the Home, a criminal case should be registered immediately against the offending staff member/officer and a copy of the FIR and the supervision note should invariably be sent to the NHRC. If any foul play is suspected in the magisterial inquest, the post-mortem examination should invariably be done and the post-mortem report sent to the NHRC. In all cases of death of an inmate where the initial inquest by a Magistrate indicates some foul-play, magisterial inquiry should be made mandatory.

Escape of Inmates from Juvenile Homes

Under this broad head, the NHRC dealt with 87 cases, where its attention was drawn to the escape of several inmates from the Beggars’ Homes/Juvenile Homes/Remand Homes situated in different parts of Maharashtra. The Commission pointed out that it was the state government’s duty to take appropriate measures for the safe custody of the inmates. The escape of such a large number of inmates was indicative of the fact that there were either serious infrastructural deficiencies or that security arrangements were faulty.

The Commission directed that the state chief secretary should review the functioning of these homes with a view to ensuring better care and avoiding the recurrence of circumstances leading to such incidents (NHRC: Annual Report 1998-1999).

Illegal Detention of a Three-year-old Child for Ten Years

A former Member of Parliament drew the attention of the NHRC to the plight of a young girl who had witnessed a murder, and was thereafter, detained in police custody for about ten years. The NHRC immediately took note of the letter and called for a report from the Director General of Police, West Bengal. The report of the Director General of Police stated that on 30 March 1990, the learned Magistrate, Nadia had ordered that one child, who was an eyewitness in a case in which her father had allegedly murdered her mother, should be lodged at Liluaha Home and produced in the court, as and when required. She was last produced in the court on 20 September 1996, wherein she failed to identify the accused. In 1992, she was shifted from Liluaha Home to a Child Care Home (run by an NGO) on the orders of an IAS Officer who was also the ex-officio Director of Social Welfare Department, West Bengal, for proper upkeep, schooling, protection, care and further rehabilitation of the concerned child. However, when the said NGO approached the learned court for approval of transfer, the learned Sessions Judge termed the act as highly irregular and asked for an explanation from the Director of Social Welfare for having transferred the child without prior approval and intimation to the court. Subsequently, she was again sent back to Liluaha Home. Through its memo dated 1 September 1997, the Social Welfare Department once more directed transfer of the child to a government approved/recognized NGO Child Care Home for her education, care and rehabilitation. The report stated that the court had not passed any order so far.

The Commission expressed its shock at the inhuman and apathetic manner in which the case was handled by the police and other authorities. It found the very idea of retaining a girl child, who was only three years old at the time of the incident, and considering her competent to be a witness in a court of law, and keeping her waiting for the commencement of the trial for ten long years, as shocking. The appalling lack of interest shown by the authorities in the welfare of the innocent child resulted in depriving her of her normal childhood which could never be regained. No amount of compensation, the Commission felt, would be adequate for the loss she had suffered. However, it recommended to the Government of West Bengal to ensure that the child is suitably rehabilitated and educated in an SOS Children’s Home or sent to a reputable institute run by an NGO in or around the city of Calcutta, till she became a major. The Commission also recommended that a sum of Rs.50,000/- be deposited in her name through a court guardian, the interest of which would be paid to the institute looking after her, and the principal amount to be released to her on her becoming a major to enable her to settle in life. Thereafter, a compliance report from the Government of West Bengal was received in the matter (NHRC: Annual Report 1999-2000).

Other Measures

In October 2005, when the Registrar General of the High Court of Patna informed the NHRC that the implementation of the JJA 2000 was extremely poor in Bihar, the NHRC once again directed that the matter of juvenile justice be reviewed expeditiously in each state and union territory. Prior to this, the NHRC in collaboration with an NGO (Socio-Legal Information Centre, New Delhi) had undertaken a study concerning the implementation of the JJA 2000 in 16 states. Its findings revealed that the implementation of the JJA 2000 was poor in all its aspects and needed to be strengthened.

The NHRC organized a two-day National Conference on Juvenile Justice System in India on 3 and 4 February 2007 in New Delhi. The Conference made a number of recommendations/suggestions to improve the functioning of the juvenile justice system in the country. It laid stress on the implementation of the JJA 2006 in both letter and spirit, urging the states/union territories to establish the required infrastructure under the juvenile justice system to ensure that there is zero pendency and that the inquiry is completed within the stipulated period. It also emphasized on providing requisite care to ensure protection, growth and development of children, both in conflict with law and in need of care and protection.

Conclusion

Undoubtedly, juveniles in conflict with law and children in need of care and protection are defenceless and they need special protection. The state guarantees special treatment to them through statutory law. However, in practice, they often get victimized by legal and procedural entanglements. They are more prone to human rights violations at the hands of state agencies, their own family and community in the form of arbitrary detention, cruel punishments, torture and abuse. In recent years, the problems of children in need of care and protection and those in conflict with law has been receiving considerable attention both of the government, NHRC, social activists as well as the civil society at large. But, the problems encountered by them are of gigantic nature and all that is being done is not sufficient. If the problems faced by them are not taken into account, we as a society would be failing in our duties. It is therefore of paramount importance that as a society we must devote full attention to ensure that they are properly cared for so that they have their rightful place in the society. For this to happen, there is need to spread awareness on the problems faced by them as well as build-up the capacities of all those dealing with them.

The Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India that was launched during the on-going Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-2012) is a welcome step in this direction. The ICPS encompasses the existing schemes of (i) Integrated Programme for Street Children, (ii) Shishu Greha Scheme, (iii) Programme for Juvenile Justice, etc. The focus of the ICPS is on child protection and is the shared responsibility of the government, family, community and civil society.

By: Savita Bhakhry, A Senior Research Officer in the National Human Rights Commission of India

(E-mail: sro-nhrc@nic.in)

Reducing GHG Emissions : The Kyoto Mechanisms

noreply@blogger.com (Sadhuji) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 03:31:00 +0000

Reducing GHG Emissions : The Kyoto Mechanisms

The Kyoto Protocol has put in place three flexibility mechanisms to reduce emission of Green House Gases. Although the Protocol places maximum responsibility of reducing emissions on the developed countries by committing them to specific emission targets, the three mechanisms are based on the premise that reduction of emissions in any part of the globe will have the same desired effect on the atmosphere, and also that some developed countries might find it easier and more cost effective to support emissions reductions in other developed or developing countries rather than at home. These mechanisms thus provide flexibility to the Annexure I countries, helping them to meet their emission reduction obligations. Let us take a look at what these mechanisms are.

What are the three flexibility mechanisms put in place by the Kyoto Protocol for reducing GHG emissions ?

The three mechanisms are Joint Implementation, Emissions Trading and Clean Development Mechanism.

What is Joint Implementation?

Through the Joint Implementation, any Annex I country can invest in emission reduction projects (referred to as "Joint Implementation Projects") in any other Annex I country as an alternative to reducing emissions domestically. Two early examples are change from a wet to a dry process at a Ukraine cement works, reducing energy consumption by 53 percent by 2008-2012; and rehabilitation of a Bulgarian hydropower project, with a 267,000 ton reduction of CO2 equivalent during 2008- 012.

What is Clean Development Mechanism ?

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) allows a developed country with an emission reduction or emission-limitation commitment under the Kyoto Protocol to implement an emission reduction project in developing countries as an alternative to more expensive emission reductions in their own countries. In exchange for the amount of reduction in emission thus achieved, the investing country

gets Carbon Credits which it can offset against its Kyoto targets. The developing country gains a step towards sustainable development.

To get a CDM project registered and implemented, the investing country has to first take approval from the designated national authority in the host country, establish “Additionality”, define baselines and get the project validated by a third party agency, called a Designated Operational Entity (DOE). The Executive Body of CDM registers the project and issues credits, called Certified Emission Reductions (CERs), or carbon credits, where each unit is equivalent to the reduction of one metric tonne of CO2 or its equivalent.

There are more than 4200 CDM projects in the pipeline as on 14.3.2010. The expected CERs till the end of 2012 is 2,900,000,000

What is “Additionality” in a CDM project ?

The feature of “additionality” is a crucial element of a CDM project – it means that the industrialized country that is seeking to establish the CDM project in the developing country and earn carbon credits from it has to establish that the planned carbon reductions would not have occurred on its own, in the absence of the CDM project. They have to establish a baseline of the project, which is the emission level that would have been there in the absence of the project. The difference between this baseline level and the (lower) emission level achieved as a result of the project is the carbon credit due to the investing country. Additionality can be with reference to various terms, for example – Emission Additionality- the project should lead to real, measurable and long term GHG mitigation ; Financial Additionality- the funding for the CDM project should not lead to diversion of official development assistance; Technological Additionality- the CDM project activities should lead to transfer of environmentally safe and sound technologies and know how.

What are some of the concerns regarding CDM ?

The risk of "False Credits" is a cause for concern with regard to CDM projects. If a project does not actually offer an additionality, and the reduction in emissions would have happened anyway, even without the project, then the positive effect that the project shows will actually be a false positive, giving the investor an undeserved or spurious credit which can actually cause emissions to rise rather than fall.

What is India's position with regard to CDM projects ?

India has a huge potential for CDM projects in areas like renewable and non renewable energy, manufacturing, chemical industry, transport, waste handling, tourism, agriculture, afforestation, construction etc. As in January 2010, there were a total of 482 CDM projects from India, registered with UNFCCC. This is 23.71 % of all projects from across the world. Total CERs issued to all CDM projects is 373.795 Mn, of which India accounts for 19.92 % at 74.19 Mn. CERs

What is Emissions Trading ?

Emissions trading is a market based scheme for environmental improvement that allows parties to buy and sell permits for emissions or credits for reductions in emissions of certain pollutants. Under such a scheme, the environmental regulator first determines total acceptable emissions and then divides this total into tradeable units (often called credits or permits). These units are then allocated to scheme participants. Participants that emit pollutants must obtain sufficient tradable units to compensate for their emissions. Those that reduce emissions may have surplus units that they can sell to others that find emission reduction more expensive or difficult.

The Emissions Trading mechanism allows parties to the Kyoto-protocol to buy greenhouse gas emission permits from other countries to help meet their domestic emission reduction targets. Parties with commitments under the Kyoto Protocol (Annexure B countries) have accepted targets for limiting or reducing emissions. These targets are expressed as levels of allowed emissions, or “assigned amounts, “over the 2008-2012 commitment period. The allowed emissions are divided into “assigned amount units” (AAUs). Emissions trading allows countries that have emission units to spare to sell this excess capacity to countries that are over their targets. Carbon is now tracked and traded like any other commodity in the "carbon market." Trading can also be done in units like ERUs (Emission Reduction Units) generated by JI projects, CERs generated by CDM projects etc. Potential buyers of credits are countries / entities that emit more GHG and potential sellers would be entities/ countries with large carbon sinks. Emissions trading schemes may be established as climate policy instruments at the national level and the regional levels, where governments set emissions obligations to be reached by the participating entities. An example is the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme.

What is done to prevent parties from overselling units ?

To prevent parties from overselling units, and subsequently be unable to meet their own emissions targets, each party is required to maintain a reserve of ERUs, CERs, AAUs and/or RMUs in its national registry. This reserve, known as the "commitment period reserve", should not drop below 90 per cent of the Party's assigned amount, or 100 per cent of five times its most recently reviewed inventory, whichever is lowest .

Human Rights Protection

noreply@blogger.com (Sadhuji) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 01:35:00 +0000

PROTECTING HUMAN RIGHTS IN INDIA

What was the first global expression of Human Rights ?

The first global expression of human rights came in 1948, just after the second world war, in the form of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN General Assembly. The declaration recognizes that human beings are inherently entitled to certain rights; justice and peace in the world can be established only if the human dignity of all people is respected, and disregard for the same outrages the conscience of mankind. The declaration recognizes freedom of speech, belief, freedom from fear and from want as the highest aspiration of people. The declaration consists of 30 articles which have been elaborated in subsequent international treaties, regional human rights instruments, national constitutions and laws. The International Bill of Human Rights which consists of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its two Protocols, took on the force of international law in 1976. Subsequently, the Vienna Declaration and Plan of action were adopted in 1993. This declaration established the interdependence of democracy, economic development, and human rights; brought in the concept of rights being indivisible, interdependent, and inter-related and led to the creation of the post of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights . India is also a signatory to the Vienna declaration.

What is the main framework for protecting human rights in India ?

The main framework for protecting human rights in India is provided by the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993. This has been enacted pursuant to the directive under Article 51 of the Constitution and also the commitments taken at the Vienna conference. It defines human right as the right relating to liberty, equality and dignity of the individual guaranteed by the Indian constitution as embodied in the fundamental rights and the International covenants (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on the 16th December, 1966), and enforceable by courts in India.

The Act provides for the constitution of a National Human Rights Commission, State Human Rights Commission in States and Human Rights Courts for better protection of human rights and for matters connected therewith.

What functions does the Act assign to the National Human Rights Commission ?

According to the Act the Commission is required to inquire, into violation of human rights, or abetment or negligence in the prevention of such violation, by a public servant; intervene in any proceeding involving any allegation of violation of human rights pending before a court with the approval of such court; visit, any jail or any other institution under the control of the State Government, where persons are detained or lodged for purposes of treatment, reformation or protection to study the living condition of the inmates and make recommendations thereon ; review the safeguards under the Constitution or any law for the time being in force for the protection of human rights and recommend measures for their effective implementation; review the factors, including acts of terrorism that inhibit the enjoyment of human rights and recommend appropriate remedial measures; study treaties and other international instruments on human rights and make recommendations for their effective implementation; undertake and promote research in the field of human rights; spread human rights literacy among various sections of society and promote awareness of the safeguards available for the protection of these rights through publications, the media, seminars and other available means; encourage the efforts of non-Governmental organizations and institutions working in the field of human rights; such other functions as it may consider necessary for the promotion of human rights.

What is the objective for setting up Human Rights Courts ?

The human rights courts are set up for the purpose of providing speedy trial of offences arising out of violation of human rights. As per the Act the State Government may, with the concurrence of the Chief Justice of the High Court, specify for each district a Court of Session to be a Human Rights Court to try the said offences. For every Human Rights Court, the State Government is required to specify a Public Prosecutor or appoint an advocate who has been in practice for not less than seven years, as a Special Public Prosecutor for the purpose of conducting cases in that Court.

How does the National Human Rights Commission function ?

The NHRC takes up cases either on its own initiative or on the basis of complaints received. It has all the powers of a civil court trying a suit under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, particularly with regard to summoning and enforcing the attendance of witnesses and examining them on oath; discovery and production of any document; receiving evidence on affidavits; requisitioning any public record or its copy from any court or office; issuing commissions for the examination of witnesses or documents; any other matter which may be prescribed. The Commission has its own investigating staff headed by a Director General of Police for investigation into complaints of human rights violations. Under the Act, it is open to the Commission to utilise the services of any officer or investigation agency of the Central Government or any State Government. The Commission has also associated non-Governmental organizations in many cases.

What steps can the NHRC take once it establishes of violation of human rights ?

The NHRC can recommend to the concerned government to initiate action against the guilty, it can recommend grant of immediate relief to the victim or his family and it can also approach the Supreme Court or High Courts for orders that they may deem necessary. The concerned government is required to indicate the action taken on the Commission’s recommendations within one month in general cases and three months in cases concerning the armed forces.

How can complaints be made to the Commission ?

Self contained complaints can be made in Hindi, English or any other language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution . Additional documents or affidavits can be asked for. The commission also has the discretion for accepting complaints telegraphically or through the FAX, email or the mobile telephone number of the Commission. However, complaints are not accepted if the event referred to is more than a year old, or the matter is sub- judice, vague, anonymous, pseudonymous, frivolous or pertaining to service matters.

Tribal Development Approach

noreply@blogger.com (Sadhuji) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 13:45:00 +0000

Tribal Neglect and Limitations of Budget-centric Approach to Development

In addition to spending budgets, we need to give equal importance to non-monetary issues such as institutions, laws, and policies

It is well established that the central region of India, despite being resource rich, inhabits the poorest people who have not benefited from social and economic development to the same extent as people in other regions have, and in many cases have actually been harmed from displacement that growth entails. From the viewpoint of policy, it is important to understand that tribal communities are vulnerable not only because they are poor, assetless and illiterate compared to the general population; often their distinct vulnerability arises from their inability to negotiate and cope with the consequences of their forced integration with the mainstream economy, society, cultural and political system, from which they were historically protected as the result of their relative isolation. Post-independence, the requirements of planned development brought with them the spectre of dams, mines, industries and roads on tribal lands. With these came the concomitant processes of displacement, both literal and metaphorical — as tribal institutions and practices were forced into uneasy existence with or gave way to market or formal state institutions (most significantly, in the legal sphere), tribal peoples found themselves at a profound disadvantage with respect to the influx of better-equipped outsiders into tribal areas. The repercussions for the already fragile socio-economic livelihood base of the tribals were devastating — ranging from loss of livelihoods, land alienation on a vast scale, to hereditary bondage.

As tribal people in India perilously, sometimes hopelessly, grapple with these tragic consequences, the small clutch of bureaucratic programmes have done little to assist the precipitous pauperisation, exploitation and disintegration of these communities. Tribal people respond occasionally with anger and assertion, but often also in anomie and despair, because the following persistent problems have by and large remained unattended to:

-Land alienation
-Indebtedness
-Relation with forests, and government monopoly over MFPs, and non-implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006
-Ineffective implementation of Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act of 1996 (PESA, 1996) for Schedule V areas.
-Involuntary displacement due to development projects and lack of proper rehabilitation.
-Shifting Cultivation, such as podu
-Poor utilisation of government funds, and
-Poor delivery of government programmes

These issues needing urgent attention are under the jurisdiction of Ministries of Environment & Forests, Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, etc., where they do not get adequate attention. The present approach of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MOTA) is to confine its attention to its own budget and the schemes that are under its control, such as grants to NGOs, scholarships. It is unfortunate that MOTA does not put any pressure on other Ministries, who have been vested with the responsibility to ensure that basic justice and development reaches them. MOTA does not even monitor whether the basic services in education, health, or nutrition are reaching the tribal hamlets.

This paper argues that a systemic change is needed in the way MOTA and state tribal departments function; their approach must change from simply spending their own budget through narrow departmental schemes to knowledge based advocacy with other concerned Ministries/departments. MOTA must highlight the failure of governance that deprives the poor tribals from accessing elementary services, and put pressure on the concerned Ministries and state governments to ensure better policies and delivery in tribal regions.

Unspent budgetary balances

On the other hand, MOTA is not able to spend even the limited budget allotted to it. Table below shows the Budget Estimate, Revised Estimate and Actual Plan Expenditure for the previous years’ along with the Budget Estimate for 2010-11.

There has been large surrender of funds by the Ministry every year in the last 5 years, especially in 2009-10. Because of the poor expenditure by MOTA in 2009-10, there has been little increase in the BE for the Ministry in 2010-11. Non-receipt of adequate number of complete proposals in accordance with the scheme guidelines from the State Governments, non receipt of Utilization Certificates and lack of physical progress by State Governments, non-filling of vacant posts, austerity measures, non-receipts of bills from the suppliers etc. have been cited by the Ministry as the reasons for the surrender of funds. MOTA should improve its monitoring capabilities over timely expenditure of its budget.

Poor governance

Apart from poor utilisation of funds, tribals have also suffered because of the poor quality of governance. Programme delivery has deteriorated everywhere in India, but more so in tribal areas, where government servants are reluctant to work, and are mostly absent from their official duties. Government seems to have surrendered to political pressures from the staff, as many of their posts have now been officially transferred from tribal regions to non-tribal regions, where they can draw their salaries without doing any work! It is a pity that massive vacancies exist in tribal regions in the face of acute educated unemployment in the country. In a study by Unicef of Jharkhand it was revealed that one of the main constraints that NRHM in the state faces is lack of skilled manpower. In the two districts visited, Sahibganj has less than 50% positions in place, while in East Singbhum, with its better infrastructure, it is just around 54%. Other major reasons as identified during this study for low utilisation appeared more due to lack of systemic controls, such as lack of monitoring, and lack of understanding among the staff on implementation of rules.

MOTA was asked to oversee the implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA), but a recent study (available on fracommittee.icfre.org) shows that the Ministry has failed to get FRA implemented faithfully. Despite the fact that the main intention of FRA was to promote community participation and management, the study shows that community rights over MFPs etc have been recognized in negligible cases.

MOTA’s record on other tribal issues is equally dismal. MOTA has still not been able to finalise the National Tribal Policy, the draft of which was announced some six years back with a great deal of fanfare. Law pertaining to involuntary displacement has been discussed since 1998, but it has still not seen light of the day, though it is well established that tribals suffer most when new projects lead to involuntary displacement. MOTA takes no interest in pushing the states to change their state laws in conformity with PESA. There is no white paper from the Ministry relating to pathetic condition of governance in forest dependent villages, including huge vacancies and absenteeism of staff. The Ministry has no meaningful partnerships with advocacy organisations that could produce credible and evidence based reports with a view to put pressure on other Ministries that ignore tribal interests.

A systemic change is needed

It is unfortunate that MOTA does not give sufficient attention to the important problems of the tribals on the plea that many of these subjects, such as land alienation, displacement, and PESA, have not been allotted to it. Even then the Ministry should play a more activist role in addressing these issues by pursuing with the concerned Ministries, where these subjects get a low importance, as the Ministries’ excuse is that they are concerned with ‘bigger’ and more ‘general’ issues. At least, MOTA can set up a monitoring mechanism to bring out the dismal picture of tribal areas that would put pressure on the sectoral Ministries and the states to improve their policies and implementation. MOTA would be taken seriously by other Ministries only if it does evidence based advocacy by analysing why delivery in the forest regions is not improving. Government could also set up a Group of Ministers to review the implementation of suggestions given in this paper.

When a new Ministry is set up to help the marginalized people, it is expected that it would take a holistic view of their problems, and coordinate the activities of all other Ministries that deal with the subjects impinging on the work of the newly created Ministry. It would develop systems that inform GoI how and why tribals are denied justice. On the other hand, it has been observed that the new Ministry takes a minimalist view of its responsibility, and reduces itself to dealing with only such schemes (such as distribution of scholarships and grants to NGOs) that are totally outside the purview of the existing Ministries. Such ostrich like attitude defeats the purpose for which the Ministry is created.

It is rather sad that the Ministry of Tribal Affairs is more concerned with spending its budget (through NGOs that create opportunities for clientelism and patronage), and less with the impact of overall policies of other Ministries on tribals. It is surrounded by reportedly manipulative NGOs who hog the entire attention and time of the senior officers, leaving little time with them for the real pressing tribal distress. This attitude results in continuing neglect of tribal issues. It also under-plays the role of non-monetary policies (such as displacement) and the impact they have on the lives of the people.

For instance, MFP policies in the states are often dictated by the desire to maximise state revenues, and not maximise welfare of gatherers, who are often women. The revenue interest of Orissa can be judged by the fact that during the period 1989–2001, the State Government earned revenues of Rs 7.52 billion from kendu leaves (KL). The total wages earned by KL pluckers during the same period was only Rs 3.87 billion. The high incidence of royalties on KL needs to be contrasted with the royalties collected on a major mineral, where labour is organised, e.g. royalties are Rs 30 per tonne on bauxite, but a whopping Rs 12,000/tonne on KL!

Even the Planning Commission does not monitor regularly the impact of existing policies on the tribal population and pull up the concerned sectoral Ministries. There seems to be an obsession in Government of India with financial budget and not with the impact that policies (or the lack of it) have on the marginalised peoples. Policies and budgetary provisions, despite the rhetoric, have not been integrated so far. Changes in policy or laws, are not seen as an integral part of the development process because these have no direct financial implications. One lesser known reason for this isolation is that development and planning in India are associated with spending of money. That Planning means Expenditure, and this will lead to Development is the mindset behind such beliefs. The Indian planner unfortunately has still to understand the difference between planning and budgeting. This is where a systemic change is needed in India. In addition to spending budgets, we need to give equal importance to non-monetary issues such as institutions, laws, and policies.

(E-mail :naresh.saxena@gmail.com)

By : N C Saxena

A member of the National Advisory Council. He retired as Secretary, Planning Commission, and has been engaged in projects related to various aspects of Planning and Development

Human Rights in India

noreply@blogger.com (Sadhuji) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 13:28:00 +0000

Providing an Improved Environment for Human Rights in The Country(India)

"While human rights institutions like the NHRC have a significant role in the promotion and protection of human rights, the contributions of civil society actors and the state are just as crucial"

An informed discussion on how to provide an improved environment for human rights in the country, and how to achieve social justice through human rights is very necessary. Social justice, as the American philosopher John Rawls pointed out, ‘is predicated on the idea that a society can be regarded as egalitarian only when it is based on principles of equality and solidarity, where human rights are valued and the dignity of every individual upheld.’ A just society is one which provides a degree of protection to its weaker, differently-abled and less gifted members. It is not one where the law of the jungle prevails, where might is right. In a civilized society, reasonable constraints are placed on the ambitions and acquisitiveness of its more aggressive members and special safeguards provided to its weaker and more vulnerable sections. These considerations are basic to any scheme of social justice and their neglect will brutalize society. In a limited sense, the right to social justice may be said to be the right of the weak, aged, destitute, poor, women, children and other underprivileged persons, to the protection of the State against the ruthless competition of life. It is a bundle of rights, in another sense it is a preserver of other rights. It is the balancing wheel between haves and have-nots.

Our Constitution makers were fully alive to the need for providing safeguards to the weaker sections of society as is evident from the Preamble to the Constitution and Part IV of the Constitution, that is, the Directive Principles of State Policy. Social justice has become a pressing issue across the world, especially in the larger context of globalization, which is altering traditional roles and relationships between states and their citizens and throwing up multiple challenges to the realization of socio-economic justice, whether in the form of the devastating financial crisis, the rising cost of essential food commodities, or the growing influence of transnational bodies such as the WTO, IMF, World Bank and Multinational Corporations.

Human rights have been recognized as standards of achievements and norms of behaviors of all members of society, in particular the Government and its agencies. Human Rights form the foundation of society, and without its observance, society would disintegrate. Society can be maintained only by protecting and promoting dignity of human beings.

The basic Charter of Human Rights is found in Magna Carta, American War of Independence and French Revolution. They were mostly in the form of negative rights, i.e., State shall not interfere with the enjoyment of certain basic rights. But after the Second World War, attempts were made to build an international system so that holocaust of war was not repeated. This system wanted to protect civil and political rights of people and ensure that all nations were committed to this. At the same time, the international community also had the obligation of fulfilling certain positive rights, like economic, social and cultural rights. These positive rights required positive action involving the use of resources and in 1948, Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations which included both civil and political rights as well as economic, social and cultural rights.

It was realized that the distinction between the civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural rights was artificial and thin. Human rights needed to be considered in totality as human dignity is by its nature indivisible. It was not enough merely to protect individual rights like civil, political, economic etc, without looking at the whole picture, as people were doing. We needed protection that was sustainable. Adequate steps needed be taken to build up mechanisms to safeguard these human rights in entirety.

The developing countries sought for an equal status with other nations. This led to the Declaration of Right to Development in 1986, which was adopted by the United Nations with an overwhelming majority, defining development as a composite right where all human rights – civil, political, economic, social, cultural as well as other rights such as the rights of children and women, are realized. Thus human rights were given new a dimension and content. Development was described as comprehensive economic, social and political process where all rights can be realized, and not merely as increase of GDP or rise in volume of employment or export promotion. Development necessarily entails economic growth, but this growth has to be equitable, participatory, accountable and transparent. The right to development is something which cannot be realized immediately. Right to food, health, education, employment, standards of living need to be realized progressively in phased manner, summing up to the right to development, and ultimately to human development. Human development means expansion of freedom and ensuring people’s ability to lead lives of their choice, with the removal of obstacle such as hunger, malnutrition, ill-health, illiteracy and economic insecurities.

The pursuit of social justice has become imperative in this day and age. However, while governments find it increasingly difficult to deny citizens their basic rights, there are deep-seated and well-entrenched socio-economic structures that continue to pose a colossal challenge to the realization of a just and equitable social order. Broadly speaking, social justice stems from the idea that all human beings are entitled to the fulfillment of certain basic needs and rights, regardless of their social differences such as economic disparity, class, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, age, sexual orientation, disability or health. ( Neo Simutanyi. 2008. “The African Debate on Social Justice.” Paper presented to the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung-Tanzania/Chama Cha Mapinduzi Youth League Regional Forum on Youth Perspectives and Social Justice, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 23-27 November 2008).

While the Indian economy has grown at a phenomenal pace since independence, thanks to the introduction of new technology, modernization of agriculture, and rapid industrialization; the question we need to ask ourselves is whether we have made as much progress in terms of human development. By human development, I mean widening and deepening the scope of freedoms available to all people without exception and guaranteeing them their right to dignified and meaningful existence. We need to ask ourselves if the citizens of this country live with freedom from fear, repression, discrimination, exploitation, hunger, and poverty, and participate in public life as free-willed and equal citizens, or if certain sections and communities of people continue to face economic marginalization and social exclusion?

In terms of human development indicators, the South Asian region has a dismal record. The Millennium Development Goals Report 2008 has estimated that mounting food prices are likely to push as many as 100 million people in ‘absolute poverty’, mostly in “Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia, already regions with the largest numbers of people living in extreme poverty.” According to the 2008 Global Hunger Index (GHI) Report, Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia share the highest regional Hunger Index scores, making poverty and hunger levels in these regions ‘alarming’. This fact is further corroborated by the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), developed by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative in collaboration with the UNDP, according to which eight Indian states including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, “together account for more poor people than in the 26 poorest African Nations combined”( Times of India. 12 July 2010). The NHRC has also been closely monitoring the case of starvation deaths reported earlier this year from the Koraput, Bolangir and Kalahandi (KBK) districts of Orissa.

While it is widely recognized that no social phenomenon is as full in its attack on human rights as poverty, there are several other social and economic inequalities that exist, which deny individuals their fundamental rights and in turn prevent them from living full, meaningful lives. These inequities often reflect themselves in what the political scientist Johan Galtung, famously described as ‘structural violence’, which is a reference to a form of violence based on the systematic ways in which the existence of certain social structures or institutions harm people by preventing them from meeting their basic needs. Institutionalized casteism, sexism, and elitism are just some examples of the various forms of structural violence.

Despite these challenges, however, there is also a concomitant and encouraging move towards recognizing an ever-increasing number of rights, which are deemed necessary for living a dignified and full life. The ambit of social justice has gradually expanded to include among other rights, the right to healthcare, education, food, forest rights for indigenous communities, and policy-level interventions in the form of affirmative action for the historically marginalized and discriminated communities. Further, issues of gender, youth and the disabled are also increasingly being viewed as social justice issues requiring policy interventions.

While historically, all religions have preached the equality of individuals and fair treatment, it was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which perhaps for the first time, formally acknowledged the importance of legally guaranteeing and protecting human rights of people across national divides. The UDHR together with the International Covenant on Social and Economic Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, contain progressive provisions that aim at promoting social justice globally.

Historians would certainly describe the last few decades as the age of corruption and kickbacks. Unprecedented corruption, a proliferation of scams, growing involvement of public servants occupying apex positions and media reports about huge amount of money hoarded in foreign banks, would all justify the categorization. Naturally, the rights of the common man are dented. The Prime Minister’s recent assertion to the Chief Secretaries during a recent interaction with them, to take on corruption vigorously, and the Home Minister’s observation over the deficit in governance and ethics ongoing since long, are an expression of common man’s concern & sufferings. Unequivocally the other malignant contributors towards human rights violations are persisting ethnic, religious and political tensions aggravated by weak institutions of civil society. The call of the hour is for an integrated approach to cleanse the system for establishing an atmosphere conducive to respect, promotion and protection of human rights of all ensured by the Constitution of the country.

The NHRC, in its short journey of over 16 years, has relentlessly endeavoured to be at the vanguard of the battle to curb violations of human rights across the country and create an enabling environment for the realization of social and economic justice. In furtherance of its task to better protect and promote human rights, it has realized that failures in the sphere of human rights in economic, social and cultural areas are widespread across the nation and these denials drive the citizens to the margins of human existence. The struggle for the promotion and protection of human rights inevitably requires the elimination of aberrations that, over time, fragment society, leaving some more equal than others.

Efforts are thus essential to continue to be actively engaged in the protection and promotion of the rights of the weaker sections of the Society through various programmes such as social and educational empowerment, labour welfare, supplementary and continuing education, rehabilitation for the physically and mentally challenged, sustainable livelihood, and women’s empowerment, among a host of others.

While human rights institutions like the NHRC have a significant role in the promotion and protection of human rights in all spheres including social, economic, political and cultural, these can at best work as catalysts in assisting in efforts towards protecting and promoting human rights of the most vulnerable groups. The contributions of civil society actors and the state are just as crucial in this noble endeavour. In this regard, I believe the approach should be, ‘think globally and act locally’. It is only when we combine our efforts and energies in a symbiotic and enabling partnership that we will become, to quote Mahatma Gandhi, “the change we wish to see”. Let us draw inspiration from the lives of great men like Mahatma Gandhi in building a new India, a great India based on social justice.

(E-mail : chairnhrc@nic.in)

By : Justice K G Balakrishnan

Former Chief Justice of India & Chairperson, NHRC

National Knowledge Network

noreply@blogger.com (Sadhuji) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 12:13:00 +0000

National Knowledge Network

What is the National Knowledge Network ?

The National Knowledge Network (NKN) is a major step towards building a knowledge society without boundary. It is a multi- gigabit, unified, high speed network that aims to connect over 1500 institutions like universities, research institutions, libraries, laboratories, healthcare and agricultural institutions, nuclear, space and defence research agencies in the country. Such a connectivity will allow free flow of data / information/ knowledge and allow researchers, students, scientists and other stakeholders from diverse fields to access and use the same with ease. This initiative is expected to help build quality institutions in the country and improve the level and quality of research by making it multidisciplinary and collaborative. It will also help create a pool of highly qualified and trained professionals. Besides these, the NKN is also expected to facilitate advanced distance education in specialized fields such as engineering, science, medicine etc, an ultra high speed backbone for e-Governance and integration of different sectoral networks in the field of research, education, health, commerce and governance.

The Government approved the establishment of the National Knowledge Network (NKN) in March 2010, at an outlay of Rs.5990 crore. A High Level Committee (HLC) has been set up for establishment of NKN, under the Chairmanship of the Principal Scientific Advisor to Govt of India. National Informatics Centre has been designated as the implementing agency and the action plan has been developed by the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) set up by the HLC.

What are the main features of NKN ?

The NKN will consist of an ultra-high speed Core (multiples of 10Gbps and upwards), and over 1500 nodes. It is scalable to higher speed and more nodes also. The Core shall be complemented with a distribution layer at appropriate speeds. The participating institutions can directly or through distribution layer connect to the National Knowledge Network at speeds of 100 Mbps /1 Gbps. The architecture of the network aims to provide reliability, availability and scalability.

NKN enables creation of Virtual Private Networks (VPN) for special interest groups. It also provides international connectivity to its users for global collaborative research. Presently, NKN is connected to Trans Eurasia Information Network (TEIN3). Similar connectivity to GLORIAD network is in the pipeline.

What are the expected application areas of NKN ?

Countrywide Virtual Classroom

The NKN is a platform for delivering effective distance education where teachers and students can interact in real time. The network enables co-sharing of information such as classroom lectures, presentations and handouts among different institutions.

Collaborative Research

The NKN enables collaboration among researchers from different entities like GLORIAD, TEIN3, GARUDA, CERN etc. NKN also enables sharing of scientific databases and remote access to advanced research facilities.

Virtual Library

The virtual library involving sharing of journals, books and research papers across different institutions, is a natural application for NKN.

Sharing of Computing Resources

High-performance computing is critical for national security, industrial productivity, and advances in science and engineering. The network enables a large number of institutions to access high performance computing to conduct advanced research in areas such as weather monitoring, earthquake engineering and other computationally intensive fields.

Grid Computing

The NKN has the capability to handle high bandwidth with low latency and provision to overlay grid computing. Some of the grid based applications are climate change/global warming, science projects like Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and ITER. The NKN can be the platform to realize many such innovative applications.

Network Technology Test-bed

NKN provides test-bed for testing and validation of services before they are made available to the production network. NKN also provides an opportunity to test new hardware & software, vendor interoperability etc.

e-Governance

NKN acts as a super highway for integrating e- Governance infrastructure such as government data centres and networks. NKN provides bulk data transfer facility required for e-Governance applications.

What is the current status of NKN ?

The initial phase of NKN was inaugurated by H.E. Smt. Pratibha Patil, Hon’ble President of India on April 9, 2009. Its Logo and website (www.nkn.in) were inaugurated by Shri Kapil Sibal Hon’ble Minister for Communications & Information Technology on February 5th, 2011. A core Backbone consisting of 18 Points of Presence (PoPs) has been established with 2.5 Gbps capacity. A total 96 number of Institutions have been connected to National Knowledge Network and 15 virtual classrooms have been setup. Total 102 links and 50 core links have been commissioned and made operational. Trans Eurasia Information Network (TEIN3) links is integrated with National Knowledge Network. MoU has been signed between the National Knowledge Network (NKN) , Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and GLORIAD (The Global Ring Network for Advanced Applications Development).

Agricultural Rejuvenation

noreply@blogger.com (Sadhuji) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 01:28:00 +0000

Harnessing the Demographic Dividend

for Agricultural Rejuvenation

If educated youth choose to live in villages and launch the new agriculture movement based on the integrated application of science and social wisdom, our untapped demographic dividend will become our greatest strength.

During his recent visit, President Barak Obama pointed out that India is fortunate to have a youthful population with over half of the total population of 1.2 billion being under the age of 30. Out of the 600 million young persons, over 60% live in villages. Most of them are educated. Gandhiji considered the migration of educated youth from villages to towns and cities as the most serious form of brain drain affecting adversely rural India’s development. He therefore stressed that we should take steps to end the divorce between intellect and labour in rural professions.

The National Commission on Farmers stressed the need for attracting and retaining educated youth in farming. The National Policy for Farmers placed in Parliament in November 2007, includes the following goal– “to introduce measures which can help to attract and retain youth in farming and processing of farm products for higher value addition, by making farming intellectually stimulating and economically rewarding”. At present, we are deriving very little demographic dividend in agriculture. On the other hand, the pressure of population on land is increasing and the average size of a farm holding is going down to below 1 hectare. Farmers are getting indebted and the temptation to sell prime farm land for non-farm purposes is growing, in view of the steep rise in the price of land. Over 45% of farmers interviewed by the National Sample Survey Organisation want to quit farming. Under these conditions, how are we going to persuade educated youth, including farm graduates, to stay in villages and take to agriculture as a profession? How can youth earn a decent living in villages and help to shape the future of our agriculture? This will require a three-pronged strategy.

-Improve the productivity and profitability of small holdings through appropriate technologies and market linkages.

-Enlarge the scope for the growth of agro-processing, agro-industries and agribusiness.

-Promote opportunities for the services sector to expand in a manner that will trigger the technological and economic upgradation of farm operations.

Opportunities in the services sector in rural India are crying for attention. Hence, I shall concentrate on giving a glimpse of the untapped opportunities awaiting our educated youth to take to a career of remunerative self-employment in villages. The National Commission on Farmers had recommended a reorientation in the pedagogic methodologies adopted in our Farm Universities, in order to make every scholar an entrepreneur. For example, the course in Seed Technology should be so restructured that it becomes, “Seed Technology and Business”. This will make it unnecessary for the scholar to go to a Business School after earning an agricultural degree.

Some years ago, the Government of India launched a programme for enabling farm graduates to start agriclinics and agri-business centres. This programme administrated by NABARD, and MANAGE located in Hyderabad is yet to attract the interest of educated youth to the degree originally expected. It is hence time that the programme is restructured based on the lessons learnt. Ideally a group of 4 to 5 farm graduates, who have specialized in agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries, agri-business and home science could jointly launch an agri-clinic cum agri-business centre in every block in the country. Agriclinics will provide the services needed during the production phase of farming, while the agribusiness centre will cater to the needs of farm families during the post-harvest phase of agriculture. Thus, farm women and men can be assisted during the entire cropping cycle, starting with sowing and extending upto value addition and marketing. The multi-disciplinary expertise available within the group of young entrepreneurs will help them to serve farm families in a holistic manner. The Home Science graduate can pay particular attention to nutrition and food safety and processing and help a group of farm women to start a Food Processing Park. The group should also assist farm families to achieve economy and power of scale both during the production and post-harvest phases of farming.

Opportunities for such young entrepreneurs for initiating programmes in the fields of soil health enhancement, plant and animal health care, seed technology and hybrid seed production, are several. Climate resilient agriculture is another area needing attention. In dry farming areas, methods of rainwater harvesting and storage and watershed management as well as the improvement of soil physics, chemistry and microbiology, need to be spread widely. The cultivation of Fertilizer Trees which can enrich soil fertility and help to improve soil carbon sequestration and storage, can be promoted under the Green India Mission as well as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee programme. A few fertilizer trees, a Jal Kund (water harvesting pond) and a Biogas plant in every farm will help to improve enormously the productivity and profitability of dry land farming. In addition, they will contribute to climate change mitigation.

The Yuva Kisans or young farmers can also help womens’ self-help groups to manufacture and sell the biological software essential for sustainable agriculture. These will include biofertilizers, biopesticides and vermiculture. The Fisheries graduate can promote both inland and marine aquaculture, using Low External Input Sustainable Aquaculture (LEISA) techniques. Feed and seed are the important requirements for successful aquaculture and trained youth can promote their production at the local level. They can train rural families in induced breeding of fish and spread quality and food safety literacy.

Similar opportunities exist in the fields of animal husbandry. Improved technologies of small scale poultry and dairy farming can be introduced. Codex alimentarius standards of food safety can be popularized in the case of perishable commodities. For this purpose, the young farmers should establish Gyan Chaupals or Village Knowledge Centres. Such Centres will be based on the integrated use of the internet, FM Radio and mobile telephony. For example, artisanal fishermen going out into the sea in small boats can now be empowered with information on wave heights at different distances from the shore line and also on the location of fish shoals. Such techniques will help to transform the lives of small scale fisher families.

In the services sector designed to meet the demand driven needs of farming families, an important one is soil and water quality testing. Young farmers can organize mobile soil-cum-water quality testing work and go from village to village in the area of their operation and issue Soil Health and Water Quality Cards to every family. Very effective and reliable soil testing kits are now available. This will help rural families to utilize in an effective manner the nutrient based subsidy introduced by Government from April 1 this year. Similarly young educated youth could help rural communities to organize gene-seed-grain-water banks, hereby linking conservation, cultivation, consumption and commerce in a mutually reinforcing manner. It is only through the provision of such services that we can achieve the goal of improving the economic well being of rural families.

Young farmers can also operate Climate Risk Management Centres, which will help farmers to maximize the benefits of a good monsoon, and minimize the adverse impact of unfavourable weather. Educated youth can help to introduce in rural India the benefits of information, space, nuclear, bio- and ecotechnologies. Ecotechnology involves the blend of traditional wisdom and frontier technology. This is the pathway to sustainable agriculture and food security, as well as agrarian prosperity. If educated youth choose to live in villages and launch the new agriculture movement, based on the integrated application of science and social wisdom, our untapped demographic dividend will become our greatest strength.

(E-mail :chairman@mssrf.res.in /msswami@vsnl.net)

By : M.S. Swaminathan,

Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) and

Chairman, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation

Financing Agriculture : Some Issues (India)

noreply@blogger.com (Sadhuji) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 05:24:00 +0000

Financing Agriculture : Some Issues (India)

Small and marginal farmers should be helped to liberate themselves from the stranglehold of moneylender and should be given priority for accessing low cost credit.

Post 1990 India has emerged as one of the world’s fastest growing economies. Its GDP growth rate of about 9% in the last few years is historically unparalleled except by our neighbour China. With rapid economic and social growth, however, new challenges emerge as also new growth strategies. For sustainable economic development, the crucial agricultural sector has to grow at a consistent 4% growth rate to GDP. Given the fact that 60% of our farming is monsoon dependent, ensuring consistent growth in food production is a major challenge, especially in wake of global warming and consequent climatic changes.

Credit has a very important role to play in supporting agricultural production and investment activities. The total credit flow to agriculture during the 10th Five Year Plan was expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26.38%, as against the CAGR of 18.63% achieved during the 9th Five Year Plan. However, although the total agricultural credit has increased during the last six years, there are serious quantitative as well as qualitative concerns. The poor outreach of the formal institutional credit structure is a serious issue that needs to be corrected expeditiously. The findings of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) 59th Round (2003), reveal that only 27% of the total number of cultivator households received credit from formal sources while 22% received credit from informal sources. The remaining households, comprising mainly small and marginal farmers, had no credit outstanding. Comprehensive measures aimed at financial inclusion in terms of innovative products and services to increase access to financial services and institutional credit, are required. Other issues such as ensuring credit flow to tenant farmers, oral lessees and women cultivators, complex documentation processes, high transaction costs, lack of availability of quality inputs across all regions, inadequate and ineffective risk mitigation arrangements, poor extension services, weak marketing links and sectoral and regional issues in credit are also required to be addressed expeditiously. The lack of rural credit bureaus also delays the process of sanction of agricultural loans as there is need to reduce loan risk and documentation procedures.

Agriculture Sector Constraints :
The importance of agriculture in the Indian economy, in terms of providing livelihood opportunities to 650 million of its population and raw material for a large number of its industries, cannot be overstated. For the Indian economy to maintain its growth momentum on a sustainable basis, the agriculture sector would have to play a more important role than it has in recent years. The actual growth in the agriculture sector during the first four years of the 10th Five Year Plan has averaged only about 2% per annum as against 4% per annum as envisaged during the Plan period (2002-07). While the share of agriculture GDP in the overall GDP has declined from around 35% in 1980-81 to around 18% at present, the fall in the proportion of population dependent on the sector has been insignificant from 70% to 66% only. The rapidly worsening ratio between the rural per capita income from farm and non-farm sectors is causing serious concern. While a majority of the workforce is still dependent on agriculture, the GDP growth rates in agriculture is marginally above the rate of growth of population, in contrast to the high growth in the non-agricultural sector. Secondly, growth has been uneven across regions and crops. Thus, despite achieving self-sufficiency in food grains production at the national level and technological advancements in agriculture, starvation deaths and suicides continue to plague a large section of the farming community in different parts of the country.

The decline in the share of the agricultural sector’s capital formation in GDP from 2.2% in the late 1990s to 1.7% in 2004-05 is a matter of concern. The decline in profitability of agriculture during the nineties by 14.2% could be one of the major reasons for lack of growth in the private sector investment in agriculture. Investment in irrigation, land development, watershed development, agricultural marketing infrastructure and rural roads are increasing agricultural productivity and incomes. Revival of the cooperative credit institutions through legal and institutional reforms as per Vaidyanathan Committee recommendations, and financial support is expected to improve the flow of credit to the agriculture sector and increase investment in the sector.

Constraints in Agricultural Credit Flow :

In a developing country the objective of monetary and credit policies should be to change the risk profile of the agriculture sector and credit policy should be a part of the macro-economic

management policies. Agricultural Credit refinance policies should be viewed as a market correction tool and also for growth enhancement and risk reduction. A narrow monetarist view should not colour the credit and refinance policies which currently reflects a suboptional

appreciation of agriculture as a very important component of the economy. The need is for low cost funds for NABARD to reduce the cost of finance for farmers and ensure that farmers access credit at 4% (as recommended by the National Commission on Farmers, headed by Dr.M. S. Swaminathan in 2007). Farmers will be unable to reduce input costs for seeds/ fertilizers/pesticides and other essential inputs like water, labour etc. The only way is to reduce cost of credit by giving this in a subsidized mode.

The Finance Minister in the budget speech for 2010-11 announced an effective interest rate of 5% (including 2% for prompt repayment as incentive). This is a step and in the right direction if Indian agriculture is to remain competitive and vibrant. However, with 80% credit going for crop loans and corporate, only about 20% is for investment credit in agriculture (more for thresher combines, tractors etc. and less for irrigation, animal husbandry, fisheries sectors). Also, since 1990’s, there is a steady closure of non-profitable rural branches by commercial banks. In many poor states like Jharkhand, farmers are not able to avail of low interest rates and pay interest rates exceeding 11% . These need to be investigated by RBI/MoA/ MoF. There is a need for a Farm Credit Assistance Corporation as set up in USA in 1987, where agriculture contributes only 1.6% to GDP and employs only 2% of the American work force. Since 2004, there has been a spurt in agricultural credit due to GOI initiatives such as “Doubling of Agriculture Credit” in 2004-2006, Agricultural Debt Waiver Scheme, 2008 and the strengthening of cooperatives due to the Vaidyanathan Committee - I recommendations. However, the Vaidyanathan Committee II recommendation for the long term co-operative credit societies, have yet to be implemented. The agricultural credit scenario has been good over the last 3 plans but the average GDP growth rate for Agriculture seems to be declining as under :

Agricultural Growth Rate :

Ninth Plan (1997-98 to 2001-02) : 2.50

Tenth Plan (2002-03 to 2006-07): 2.47

Eleventh Plan (2007-08 to 2009-10): 2.20

Agricultural credit targets since 1997-98 and the actual achievements, are set out in Table-1.

Though agricultural credit data on paper is impressive, the small and marginal farmers are unable to access credit easily. There is excessive lending to the agricultural sector in metropolitan areas indicating that indirect lending for agriculture has gone up for activities such as warehouses, cold storages, irrigation, rural electrification etc. There is evidence that the same set of credit worthy farmers are availing of credit with new borrowers still struggling to secure credit. The GOI’s loan waiver schemes and concessional interest schemes tend to benefit farmers who have access to bank credit and have further enhanced flow of credit to the non-defaulting farmers! These are typically large and medium farmers with multiple income sources, not relying wholly on risk-prone crop credit. Small and marginal farmers should be helped to liberate themselves from the stranglehold of moneylenders and should be given priority for accessing low cost credit through KCC mechanism. Farmers suicides have also come down drastically especially among cotton growers, largely due to the excellent pest free transgenic Bt cotton seeds which have reduced crop failures and not so much due to improved access to institutional finance. The recent crisis in micro finance would only reduce accessibility to credit sources for the small and marginal farmers. If financial inclusion is relevant, the Central/State Governments must ensure that all farmers especially the small and marginal ones, get priority access to cheap farm loans and not the better-off farmers who are able to access institutional credit more easily.

Though NABARD has been striving to access low-cost funds for reducing the cost of agricultural credit, its ability to meet sectoral challenges and direction of credit to desired section of the agriculture sector is increasingly being questioned. A quick review of the financial support from NABARD for the rural agricultural sector reveals that refinances to agriculture as a % of the ground level credit to agriculture since the creation of NABARD in 1982, rose from 23% to 51% in 1989-90 and thereafter has declined to 10% in 2009-10. Thus, NABARD’s refinance is now inconsequential to the agriculture sector. The proportion of NABARD’s refinance for minor irrigation which was 52% in 1982-83 has reduced to less than 5% in 2009-10 while other sectors like Dairy Development, Animal Husbandry, Forestry, Fisheries together would account for less than12% of the refinance flow.

The Major focus of NABARD is on the following :

· Ensuring sustainable livelihood for farmers, including agricultural labourers

· Productivity enhancement from subsistence to sustaining levels through technological interventions

· Institution building to facilitate access to credit, technology marketing and markets

· Addressing basic social infrastructure needs especially health, sanitation, drinking water and education

· Social security and risk mitigation for the marginalized.

Accordingly, NABARD has experimented and successfully demonstrated various approaches in addressing the key issues indicated above.

Wadi Approach

Sustainable livelihood opportunities or integrated development of tribal communities primarily through orchard based farming systems. A typical wadi project covers 1000 families in a cluster of 20-25 tribal hamlets with a support of Rs.4 crores @ Rs.40,000 per family over 7-8 years. Plantation activity is taken up in the first three years and each family is supported for 5 years for orchard development. Wadi projects have benefitted 1.7 lakh tribal families and has a corpus of Rs.1150 crore.

Watershed- Sustainable Management of Natural Resources

Since 1992, development of micro watersheds for sustainable production systems has been taken up in different watershed programmes. A Watershed Fund with a corpus of Rs.12103 crore has been built up. Over 1915 projects were sanctioned covering 15-32 lakh farmers over 3030 villages. The participatory approach includes voluntary labour (shramdan) and is an integral part of the programme with emphasis on self help, environmental sustainability and poverty alleviation, all supervised by the village Watershed Committees.

System of Rice Intensification

Though not supported by ICAR, this package of practices developed in Madagascar 25 years ago, is being actively supported by State Governments and farmers in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Tripura and sporadically in other areas. Intensive training and pilot projects have been initiated. This system is a boon for small and marginal farmers as it reduces input costs of seeds by 60% and water irrigation costs by 40%, reduces fertilizer costs by 30% and enhances production by 35% over the traditional transplanted rice. Research for similar water saving crop techniques in barley, wheat and sugarcane have been initiated with promising results.

Seed Village Concept

With poor germination rates of 55-60% and poor seed replacement rate of less than 15% the quality of seeds available to the farmer, is the single most important determent of farm productivity. For localized seed production and availability of quality seeds, farmers need to retain control over the availability, distribution and cost of quality seeds on a localized basis. This will reduce cost of seeds and ensure better seed replacement, eliminating transport costs etc. Farmers must insist on seed germination rates of 90%.

Institution Building to aid farmers

· The Lead Bank Scheme,1970 needs to be reviewed and the RBI’s attempts to revise the scheme in 2010, too may not meet actual ground level requirements. Also financial inclusion for farmers by ensuring KCC’s for all farmers over a 5 year crop cycle, should be implemented. Rural employment in agri processing, off-farm and nonfarm activities which enable the unemployed rural youth to participate, has to be taken up on a priority mode. The National Rural Livelihoods Mission of the MoRD needs to be strongly supported by all banks including NABARD and RBI.

· Farmers Clubs’ Association and JLGs :

Over 55,000 Farmers Clubs have been started by NABARD with the support of various banks covering 1.05 lakh farmers in 587 districts, as against a target of 1 lakh Farmers Clubs by 2012. These clubs ensure technology transfer mechanism, credit counseling, market advocacy besides giving training, visits to farms, SHG linkage with banks/universities/technical inputs and help in credit discipline including loan recovery, formation of Joint Liability Groups of farmers for access to farm credit. Farmers Association are also being nurtured so that groups of Farmers Clubs can play the role of facilitators for produce grading, costing, packaging and transportation so that the aggregators role can be played by them. This will enable farmers to enhance their financial margins which today is enjoyed by middlemen.

· ICT Intervention for farmers – The interventions in technologies can ensure extension of timely, accurate and needed financial, market and technical data, and lead to a quantum jump in productivity and financial margins of farmers. The key interventions which have been successful are :

    E-sagoo (Hyderabad, AP) –for pathological investigation of cotton crops

    E-kutir -(Nayagarh, Orissa)-for advice on integrated agricultural inputs,
    market data &

    Credit E-chaupal (M.P., Chattisgarh etc) for market prices and rates.

    Reuters Lite (Maharashtra) for advice on crop weather and market data,
    Producer companies.

India achieved self-sufficiency in food grains in the 1970’s and has sustained it since then. Yet the concerns about the low per capita food energy intake and non fulfilment of basic nutritional requirements of a large percentage of the population have kept the issue on food security alive even today. Apart from the issues related to agricultural credit flow discussed above, the country today also has to contend with issues like lack of adequate storage for food grains, degradation of natural resources and climate change and its attendant problems. All these problems have to be attended to comprehensibly if agricultural development is to be carried out on a sustainable basis.

By : K G Karmakar,

Managing Director, National Bank for Agriculture and

Rural Development (NABARD)

Right to Education Act, India

noreply@blogger.com (Sadhuji) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:17:00 +0000

RIGHT TO EDUCATION ACT, INDIA

The Parliament of India passed the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act on the4th of August 2009, making education a Fundamental Right for every child in the country. The historic legislation underlines the obligations of the central and state governments for providing free and compulsory education to every child between the age of six and fourteen. Let us look at the basic provisions of the Act :

What does the Act provide ?

The Act provides that every child between the age of six and fourteen shall have a right to free and compulsory education in a neighbourhood school till the completion of elementary education, that is up to class eight. If a child is not admitted to school at the age of six he or she can seek admission even later on in a class appropriate to his/ her age, and will be entitled to free training to ensure that he is at par with his class. No child can be denied admission, expelled or held back before completing elementary education, and will continue to get free education even beyond the age of fourteen if he does not complete elementary education within that age.

What are the respective obligations of the Centre, States, local governments, schools and parents under the Act ?

The Central Government shall develop a framework of national curriculum , enforce standards for training of teachers and provide necessary technical support and resources to the State Government for promoting innovations, researches, planning and capacity building.

The State and local Governments shall ensure compulsory admission, attendance and completion of elementary education by every child of he age of six to fourteen years; ensure availability of a neighbourhood school , ensure that the children belonging to weaker section and disadvantaged groups are not discriminated against , provide infrastructure including school building, teaching staff and learning equipment; ensure good quality elementary education, provide training for teachers, and monitor the working of schools.

While free education would be provided by government schools, even private schools and special category schools have to provide 25 percent reservation for economically disadvantaged communities in admission to Class One .No school can charge any capitation fee or adopt any screening procedure for parents/child. The former can attract a fine of upto ten times the capitation fee, and the later Rs 25,000/- for first contravention and Rs 50,000 for subsequent contraventions. No School is to be established without obtaining certificate of recognition from an authority as prescribed. Schools will have to satisfy norms and standards specified under the Act.

It would be the duty of every parent to admit their children within 6-14 years of age to school.

How will the functioning of schools be monitored ?

This will be done through School Management Committees consisting of the elected representatives of the local authority, teachers and parents or guardians of children ( at least three fourth, with proportionate representation to parents of children from weak and disadvantaged groups. The School Management Committee shall monitor the working of the school, prepare and recommend school development plan, monitor the utilisation of the grants received and perform such other functions as may be prescribed.

What are the provisions for improving quality of teaching in schools ?

Minimum qualifications are to be decided for teachers by an academic authority decided by the Central Government. Teachers presently in service will be required to acquire these minimum qualifications within five years if they do not already possess the same. The salary and allowances payable to, and the terms and conditions of service of teacher shall also be prescribed. A teacher shall maintain regularity in attending school, conduct and complete the curriculum within the specified time, assess the learning ability of each child and accordingly supplement additional instructions as required, keep parents and guardians apprised of the progress made by their child and perform such other duties as may be prescribed. Disciplinary action will be taken against defaulting teachers. The Act calls for a fixed teacher : student ratio in schools. Appointing authorities will have to ensure that vacancy of teachers in a school does not exceed 10 percent of sanctioned strength. Further, teachers are not to be deployed for any non-educational work except census, disaster relief or election. No teacher will be allowed to engage in private tuition. The Act also stipulates a time frame for improvement of school infrastructure.

Who will determine the curriculum and evaluation procedure for elementary education ?

This will be laid down by an academic authority to be specified by the appropriate Government, in conformity with the values enshrined in the Constitution and will focus on all round development of the child, building up his knowledge, potential and talent, full physical and mental development and making him free of fear, trauma and anxiety . No child shall be required to pass any Board examination till completion of elementary education and every child completing his elementary education shall be awarded a certificate.

How are grievances to be redressed under the Act ?

The National/ State Commission for Protection of Child Rights constituted under provisions of the Commissions for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005 shall, in addition to their other functions, also examine and review the safeguards for rights provided under this Act and recommend measures for their effective implementation and inquire into complaints relating to child's right to free and compulsory education. Any person having any grievance relating to the right of a child under this Act may make a written complaint to the local authority having jurisdiction. The local authority shall decide the matter as early as possible after affording a reasonable opportunity of being heard to the parties concerned. Any person aggrieved by the decision of the local authority may prefer an appeal to the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights.

What would be the function of the proposed National Advisory Council ?

The proposed National Advisory Council will be constituted by the Central Government from amongst persons having knowledge and practical experience in the field of elementary education and child development. The functions of the National Advisory Council shall be to advise the Central Government on implementation of the provisions of the Act in an effective manner.

Educational System Reform

noreply@blogger.com (Sadhuji) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 13:00:00 +0000

One Good Example is Worth a Thousand Theories

This comment by Stanley Fischer, the former Managing Director of the IMF is quoted by Thomas Friedman in his book ‘The World is Flat’ and perhaps best summarises a general perception that while there is no dearth of expert opinion on what should be done in the primary education sector, it is now time to look at examples of what has actually worked to analyse the reasons for this and to suggest how best these can be replicated elsewhere. The schools run by the Government of Delhi for instance have undergone a radical transformation in the past few years from a system which was once considered one of the worst in the country to one which is now undoubtedly one of the best. Drab, dull, ray and dirty buildings are giving way to bright, cheerful, clean ones with functional toilets and drinking water for all children. Teacher absenteeism, which used to be among the highest in India, has been almost wiped out and all teachers now reach their school on time and remain there for the full school day. All financial benefits such as that for school uniforms and all supplies such as text books reach each and every child and there is no diversion. Classroom teaching has undergone an amazing change with the introduction of joyful methods of teaching particularly for the primary classes, and all Delhi Government school children are learning to speak English just like all “other” children. In fact, short video clips showing the impact of the English language training imparted to school teachers under an arrangement with the British Council can be viewed at the Education Department’s official website www.edudel.nic.in. The smart children shown there creating stories in class from English words given to them by their teacher are all primary students in Standard V in Delhi Government Schools. The achievements are reflected in the fact that the overall enrolment in all classes increased by 20% in just three year period till 2008. More significantly the Government took a major decision at the start of the academic year in April 2009 to increase the number of seats available in all Delhi Government School (DGS) in primary classes by a huge 10 % in order to accommodate the increasing number of applications received for admissions. A substantial number of the new students are coming from private schools within Delhi and adjoining areas in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, or are children who would otherwise have gone to a private school but for the visible improvements in DGS. In fact, the national media, undoubtedly one of the hardest to please, have carried front page articles on how DGS are now a viable alternative to private schools, a far cry indeed from just a few years ago when even the Planning Commission suggested that we hand over all our schools to the private sector or NGOs as we just could not run them”.

In our endeavour to improve the quality of education in DGS the first step was to identify what needed to be done and the specific activities that would have to be carried out or implemented. These two take care of the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ aspects, both crucial to achieving our goal. It is surprising how easily people presume that everyone knows “what to do” and that others don’t do their duties because they are lazy or corrupt. But the truth is that most people don’t know what to do and are usually afraid to ask for fear of being scoffed at (very common) or appearing ignorant (even more common). This lack of clarity on duties coupled with a general confusion on the terms used in education (GER, NER, retaining capacity, apparent survival rate etc.) creates hurdles which hold up implementation. We therefore decided to “translate” everything into simple language which everyone understood. For example, we put aside concepts like “access” and broke it up into simple “to do” activities like constructing toilets and appointing teachers.

In the next step we clearly informed everyone what they had to do. Thus the Branch Incharge of civil construction was asked to construct the toilets and the administrative branch asked to ensure that all vacancies of teachers were filled. This was done for all areas and all activities pertaining to the civil construction wing were put under the heading “infrastructure”, be it providing ramps (which would otherwise come under inclusive education), constructing new classrooms or schools (which would otherwise come under enrolment) or as mentioned, constructing toilets in all schools (which would otherwise come under access). We have ultimately grouped all activities into 5 categories- Training, Administrative issues, Infrastructure, E- governance, and School based learning, with a clear cut definition of roles and responsibilities.

The next step was to actually carry out all these activities so that we would reach our goal, in other words, he ‘how’ part. The basic route we followed is as under:

Diagnose the problem first, don’t treat the symptoms :

As India battles swine flu my mind goes back a few years to when I was Health Secretary in Goa and the state witnessed the country’s first patient of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). The excellent doctors there put us through a crash course in medicine and one of the most important lessons we learnt was the importance of distinguishing between the problem (i.e. the illness) and the symptoms which were indicating the presence of the problem. A fever for example is not an illness- it is a symptom indicating the presence of a disease such as malaria, swine flu, or even a simple viral infection. It is the duty of a doctor to identify the illness causing the fever and to treat the illness ( the problem) and not the fever (the symptom). A doctor may need to carry out a series of tests before he can reach the correct diagnosis.

The same applies elsewhere including education. A poorly functioning school with low enrolment , high drop out, low learning achievement levels, bad building, high teacher absenteeism etc. is symptomatic of a much deeper illness (problem) which must be diagnosed properly if the correct treatment is to be given. For instance, there is enormous concern hat many children do not even have basic skills in maths, reading or writing, as borne out in studies carried out by the NCERT and others, which are quoted often. The main reason why children cannot perform simple tasks is not because they are not able to, but because they have not been taught to do so. This could be because:

-The teacher is absent for long periods, or even every day. A strict enforcement of attendance covering online attendance, surprise inspections and strong disciplinary action, as was followed in DGS, would help;

-The teacher is well meaning but does not know what to do. A strong dose of high quality professional training, like in DGS, would work well here;

-The teacher does not exist. The Administrative branch obviously has to work towards filling in all posts and creating them wherever required, as was done in DGS.

However, the truth is that it is perfectly possible to spend a lifetime enforcing attendance, training teachers, and filling in vacancies, and still make no difference in the learning achievement levels of students! To go back to the analogy with medicine, it is necessary therefore to go even further into the symptom of low learning achievement levels to understand what is causing it. When we carried out this extensive, in depth exercise in the DGS we came up with the main problem for almost all the symptoms in the education system-the utter and complete disillusionment and alienation of the teachers, principals and officials.

Invest in people, they are worth it :

Whatever the issue pertaining to education, all roads ultimately lead to the people who are responsible for ensuring delivery–the teachers, principals and officials. It doesn’t matter how much funds are pumped in or new schemes launched, if the people responsible don’t work then everything is meaningless. An education system is an organization like any other and a fine balance has to be drawn between taking care of the employees and providing them with as many benefits as possible on the one hand, and ensuring that they produce results on other. When we followed this approach and delved into why our employees (the teachers, principals and officials) were not delivering we were shocked at the magnitude of the negativity and disillusionment we encountered. Our employees were deeply resentful of the fact that no one was looking into their problems of stagnation where promotions had not taken place for years, of the bias in transfers where employees with connections got plum postings, of unfulfilled promises in the Assured Career Progression Scheme, and of huge delays in receiving salaries, GPF withdrawals, sanction of leave etc. They were angry that no one was bothered about whether they had toilets or not, of the fact that their superiors treated them badly and that everyone only had expectations from them and no one was interested in their grievances. The list was a long and troubled one but we took a conscious decision immediately that we would deliberately work towards removing all the professional problems that our employees were facing. In addition, a healthy system of incentives and rewards was introduced and over time, we were able to transform most of our previously disillusioned and alienated employees into positive, dynamic ones. A very robust training programme not only honed their professional and leadership skills but linked their work with a higher purpose and gave it meaning. We also learnt the importance of giving our employees respect. Our teachers and principals became part of all policy decision making and extensive powers and funds were decentralized to them. We established cordial relations with the Unions and learnt to work as a Team. The result was that our teachers and principals began to feel valued and to own all the initiatives, which in turn ensured that they worked to achieve the goals of the department.

Recognise ground realities and always try to be a few steps ahead :

There are many reasons why even the best laid plans and most noble intentions can go awry, not the least of which is corruption. But if we are alert enough then these can be countered. For instance, providing a library in all schools should be a relatively easy task once funds are allocated, but the truth for us was very different. Low grade publishers formed a cartel and in collusion with unscrupulous officials sold poor quality or inappropriate books to schools. When we finally solved all the problems and put bright, new, child friendly books and comics in schools, our feedback was that teachers were stealing them.

Extensive professional and motivational training coupled with a robust system of incentives and rewards, in an environment where job related concerns are being positively addressed (as above) helps to a very large extent to achieve goals and overcome such problems.

But there will still be obstacles and challenges which must be squarely faced and for this a rigorous monitoring system must be in place, and whenever required, disciplinary action has to be swift. A comprehensive e-governance programme with camera and broadband enabled computers in all schools will help senior officers to be in touch with all schools at all times. This must be accompanied by a structured programme of inspections, both surprise and planned, by a variety of persons including the community. In the case of our libraries a decision to create a team of teachers and students in all schools who would select and buy the books and watch over their issue, along with strict disciplinary action in the case of a few librarians, ultimately worked. There are many areas where we adopted a policy of zero-tolerance such as in cases of child abuse, absenteeism and proven corruption, and we did not hesitate to act against the teachers, principals or officials concerned. However, it is important to note that there was no resistance to this or any backlash because of the activities which we were simultaneously carrying out under step 2 above.

As a result of these, the Delhi Government was able to usher in a host of initiatives under the over all banner of YUVA which have made learning in schools joyful, meaningful and interesting, so that children develop a desire to go to school and these include:

· Ensuring that BALA (Building as Learning Aid) activities are conducted in all schools whereby the building becomes a bright and happy learning tool for all students.

· Sending all students from Standard 1 upwards on a local tour to parks, historical sites etc. within Delhi.

· Sending Standard XI students on out station tours to places like Agra and Jaipur to learn about their country.

· Developing animated curriculum in house called Caltoonz.

· Tying up with the British Council to provide high quality English language training to all teachers.

· Conducting capacity building programmes to upgrade the professional skills of teachers.

· Providing motivational and leadership training to teachers, principals and officials.

· Making learning joyful in the classroom through a host of initiatives like theatre, music,song, dance, debates, skits, puzzles and mental maths.

· Promoting sports and games for all students including self defence for girls.

· Launching mobile schools for out of school children.

· Starting the Kitabi Magic Movement to upgrade all libraries, and many others. These can be viewed in the Department’s Quick Report (Updated) 2008 and the Preview to the YUVA School Life skills Programme, at the official website.

There is still a long way to go but I am confident that the Department has found a path which really and truly makes a positive difference to the lives of millions of children.

By : Rina Ray

Senior Civil Servant and was Secretary Education

in the Delhi Government.

Epicotyl Mango Grafting

noreply@blogger.com (Sadhuji) — Sun, 01 May 2011 09:13:00 +0000

Epicotyl Grafting :

Epicotyl grafting : It is same as the grafting in terms of methodology, only that in this case the of 15 to 20 days old seedlings are used as root stock for grafting.

Technique of mango epicotyl grafting:

1. Mango stones of any variety preferable bigger size are dibbled in the raised bed of 1.5 mt x 10 mt at a spacing of 3 inch x 3 inch.

2. Stones are dibbled vertically rather than traditional horizontally for convenience during uprooting and transplanting the mango grafts to the polythene.

3. When the mango seedlings are attained 15 to 20 days old, (still in reddish,Bronzy, coppery or greenish red colour and having stone kernel left with some food and nutrient supplement for getting quick joint in the grafts) these are uprooted carefully with stone and root undamaged. The roots and stones are dipped in 0.1 percent bavistin solution for five minutes after washing the soil.

4. These are cut at a ht of 5-6 inch and splited longitudinally to accommodate the mother scion(the twigs of desired verity)

5. Mother scions of about 8 inch as collected from the desired mother plant are then given two slanting cut opposite to each other at the base to give a wedge shape. The mother scion used for this purpose should be defoliated 7-10 days prior to the grafting (scion twigs still attached to mother plant) so as to get a plumpy/swelled terminal bud.

6. These cut scions are then inserted in the splitted root stock carefully and tied by the grafting polythene tape keeping about 6 inch of scion part above the joint.

7. To maintain the smoothness at the joints (mismatch due to the difference in the diameter of stock and scion) and greater success of grafts, one side of the joints is smoothened by matching the stock and scion surface before tying the tape.

8. These stock-scion grafts are then transplanted into the black polybags of size 7 x 9 sq inch and filled by the soil mixture (prepared earlier as in case of normal nursery) firmly.

9. These are then nurtured in controlled condition without exposing to direct sunlight and rain for about one month till the joints are successful. Then these are exposed to open area for vigour growth.

10. Most suitable time for grafting : June 15- July 15 (Under Indian Condition) giving more than 90% success.

11. Plantation in main field is done on the onset of next rainy season when the grafts have attained 3 feet ht and of 10-12 months old.

Human Development Index

noreply@blogger.com (Sadhuji) — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 18:03:00 +0000

The Human Development Concept

Human Development is a development paradigm that is about much more than the rise or fall of national incomes. It is about creating an environment in which people can develop their full potential and lead productive, creative lives in accord with their needs and interests. People are the real wealth of nations. Development is thus about expanding the choices people have to lead lives that they value. And it is thus about much more than economic growth, which is only a means - if a very important one - of enlarging people’s choices.

Fundamental to enlarging these choices is building human capabilities —the range of things that people can do or be in life. The most basic capabilities for human development are to lead long and healthy lives, to be knowledgeable, to have access to the resources needed for a decent standard of living and to be able to participate in the life of the community. Without these, many choices are simply not available, and many opportunities in life remain inaccessible.

Human development has always been flexible and “open-ended” with respect to more specific definitions. There can be as many human development dimensions as there are ways of enlarging people’s choices. The key or priority parameters of human development can evolve over time and vary both across and within countries.

Some of the issues and themes currently considered most central to human development include:

• Social progress - greater access to knowledge, better nutrition and health services.

• Economics - the importance of economic growth as a means to reduce inequality and improve levels of human development.

• Efficiency - in terms of resource use and availability. human development is pro-growth and productivity as long as such growth directly benefits the poor, women and other marginalized groups.

• Equity - in terms of economic growth and other human development parameters.

• Participation and freedom - particularly empowerment, democratic governance, gender equality, civil and political rights, and cultural liberty, particularly for marginalized groups defined by urban-rural, sex, age, religion, ethnicity, physical/mental parameters, etc.

• Sustainability - for future generations in ecological, economic and social terms.

• Human security - security in daily life against such chronic threats as hunger and abrupt disruptions including joblessness, famine, conflict, etc.

Human Development Index (HDI)

HDI is a composite statistic used as an index to rank countries by level of “Human development”. The statistic is composed from statistics for life expectancy, education, and standard of living, collected at the national level using a pre determined formula. The HDI looks beyond GDP for a better definition of well being. It provides a compromise measure of three dimensions of human development :

1. Living a long and healthy life (measured by life expectancy),

2. Being educated (measured by adult literacy and gross enrolment in education)

3. Having a decent standard of living (measured by purchasing power parity).

The index is not a comprehensive measure of human development. It does not include important indicators such as gender or income inequality nor concepts like respect for human rights and political freedoms. But it provides a broadened prism for viewing human progress and the complex relationship between income and well-being.

How is HDI formulated ?

The origins of the HDI are to be found in the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) human Development Reports (HDRs). These were devised and launched by Pakistani economist Mahbul Ul Haq in 1990 with the purpose of shifting the focus of development economies from national income accounting to people centred policies.

Country wise Indexes can be calculated choosing one or more of the human development criteria can be better analysed by the UNDP Index building link:

http://hdr.undp.org/en/data/build/

What is Human Poverty Index (HPI)?

Human Poverty Index-1 focuses on the proportion of the people below certain threshold levels in each of the dimensions of Human Development Index- living a long and healthy life, having access to education, and a decent standard of living. By looking beyond income deprivation, the HdI-1 represents to the $1.25 a day(PPP US $) poverty measure.

The HPI-1 measures severe deprivation in health by proportion of people who are not expected to survive to age 40. Education is measured by the adult literacy rate. And a decent standard of living is measured by the unweighted average of people not using an improved water source and the proportion of children under age 5 who are underweight for their age.

With an HPI-1 value 28.0% India ranks 88th among 135 countries for which index has been calculated. With 15.5% people not having the probability to live beyond 40, India ranks 105th among 153 countries, and with 11% people not using improved water source India ranked 76th among 150 countries, with Adult literacy rate of 34% India was at rank 120 among 151 countries and with 46% children underweight for their age we ranked 137 among 138 countries.

What is Millennium Development Goal ?

The Millennium Development Goals or MDGs are eight time-bound goals that provide concrete, numerical benchmarks for tackling extreme poverty in its many dimensions. Adopted by world leaders in the year 2000 and set to be achieved by 2015, the MDGs are both global and local, tailored by each country to suit specific development needs. They provide a frame work for the entire international community to work together towards a common end- making sure that human development reaches everywhere.

These eight goals are :

1. Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger;

2. Achieving universal primary education;

3. Promoting gender equality and empowering women;

4. Reducing child mortality;

5. Improving maternal health;

6. Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, TB and other diseases;

7. Ensuring environmental sustainability:

8. Developing Global partnership for development.

These goals further breaks down to 21 quantifiable targets that are measured by 60 indicators.

SGRY

noreply@blogger.com (Sadhuji) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:31:00 +0000

Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY) and its process of implementation

All the economic activities in villages are closely related to seasons. During certain seasons, there is enough demand for labour. At certain other times, there is little demand for labour. As a result, the rural poor and landless laborers donot get regular paid-work throughout the year. Most of the time they remain unemployed or under-employed. Most of the time they remain unemployed. So the new scheme called Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana(SGRY) is the result of the merger of the two earlier schemes namely,the Employment Assurance Scheme(EAS) and the Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana (JGSY).

Alleviation of poverty, reduction of inequalities, improvement of nutritional levels and more significantly the maintenance of a high economic growth rate are not possible without the efficient use of the existing available human resources. Hence, providing wage-employment to all the rural poor by involving them in the manual and unskilled worked work is the primary objective of the SGRY.

Agricultural wage earners, non-agricultural unskilled wage earners, marginal farmers, women, member of SCs/STs, parents of the child laborer and handicapped children, adult children of handicapped parents, etc. shall get preference under this scheme. The SGRY also provides special safeguards for the weaker sections and women.

The central Government will provide food grains and cash component to the states and Union Territories as per the set criteria in order to generate additional wage-employment. The SGRY programme is being implemented through the Panchayati Raj Institutions.(PRIs).

The objectives of the SGRY

The SGRY has two fold objectives:

1. The primary objective is to provide additional and supplementary wage-employment in all rural areas and thereby provide food security and improve nutritional levels.

2. To create durable community, social and economic assets and effect infrastructural development in rural area in the long run.

The SGRY provide

The wages under the SGRY programme are paid partly as food- grains and partly in cash. But at least 25% of the wages has to be paid in cash. Under the SGRY, both the skilled and the unskilled labour are paid minimum wages fixed by the state authorities. Moreover both men and women workers are paid equal wages.

Food grains are given as parts of wages under the SGRY to the rate of 5kg. per man-days it may do so within the existing state allocation, subject to a minimum of 25% of the wage to be paid in cash.

Under this programme, the distribution of food grains to the workers is made either through PDS/Gram panchayat or any other agency appointed by the state government. Distribution of food grains is made to the workers, most preferably, at the work site. All the rural poor particularly those who are in need of wage-employment and also desire to do manual and unskilled work in and around their village or habitant, are entitled for the benefit under the SGRY. The SGRY, however, provides special safeguards for the weaker sections and woman. According, specific allocations are made for them on the following pattern.

1. 22.5% of the annual allocation (inclusive of food-grains) of the District Panchayat and of the intermediate panchayats is earmarked for individual/group beneficiary schemes of SC/ST families living Below the Poverty Line (BPL).

2. 50% of the allocation of the village panchayat share is earmarked for the creation of need based village infrastructure in SC/ST habitations/wards.

3. 30% of employment opportunities are reserved for women.

WORKS TO BE IMPLEMENTED UNDER THE SGRY

The SGRY is implemented at two levels. At the first level activities are implemented by the District and Intermediate panchayat and the second one by the village panchayat. We shall now discuss works to be taken up at each level.

Works to implemented under SGRY by District and Intermediate Panchayat:

In formulating the Annual Action Plan and while taking up works, District panchayat/DRDA and Intermediate panchayats (Panchayat Samati) are expected to given priority to the following types of works:

(I) Soil and moisture conservation.

(II) Minor irrigation.

(III) Rejuvenation of drinking water sources.

(IV) Augmentation of ground water and traditional water harvesting structures.

(V) Desilting of village tanks/ponds.

(VI) Construction of rural link roads, farm roads linking agricultural fields.

(VII) Drainage works.

(VIII) Aforestation.

In addition, works that result in the creation of durable socio-economic assets such as schools, kitchen sheds for schools, dispensaries, community centers, Panchayat ghars, hats(market), etc. are also to be taken up during the first phase of the SGRY. On the contrary, the following works shall not to be taken up under the SGRY programme:

(A) Building for religious purposes such as temples, mosques,

gurudwaras, churches, etc. .

(B) Building monuments, memorials, statutes, idols, arch gates, welcome

(D) Building for higher secondary school.

(E) Building for cottages, and

(F) Black topping of roads.

Works to be implemented at the Village Panchayat Level:

Emphasis in on the creation of durable productive community assets. Therefore, priority is to be given to the following works:

(I) Infrastructural support for the SGRY.

(II) Infrastructure required for supporting agricultural activities in the village panchayats.

(III) Community information, health as well as internal and link roads.

(IV) Desilting and renovation of traditional village tanks/ponds.

At the village panchayat level, emphasis is not only on the purely material oriented works but also on the purely material oriented works but also on the labour intensive works. It has to be kept in mind that the works taken up are sustainable and cost effective

a bug is the biggest lie we know!

Development Concept

noreply@blogger.com (Sadhuji) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:55:00 +0000

What do you understand by the concept of development? Discuss the characteristics of underdevelopment in developing countries.

Ans:- Development implies on overall positive change in the physical quality of life. This positive change for the better encompasses economic as well as social aspects. Therefore, development not only calls for economic growth but also the equitable distribution of the gains made from economic growth. In other words, development implies growth with justice. It means an improvement in the quality of life through better health, education, housing and overall material and social welfare. The basic elements of development are the following:

(i) Removal of inequality and poverty;

(ii) Increase in material welfare of the people;

(iii) Increase in social well-being (education, health, housing, etc.);

(iv) An equitable distribution of the gains of development among different groups of people in a region or country;

(v) An enhancement in technology and the capacity to produce a wider range of goods and services in the economy leading to a better quality of life;

(vi) Building institutional structures which permit participation in decision-making at all levels, equalization of opportunities for development and removal of disparities.

For a long time, it was assumed that development depends primarily on economic growth and would automatically occur if economic growth took place. This view of development has, however, been criticized on the ground that it ignores the distribution of the gains from growth; and also, how the growth has been achieved and at what costs. An increase in production in a country does not automatically mean that there has been better distribution of what has been produced. For instance, though the production of food-grains has grown almost four-fold since independence, this does not imply that every Indian gets enough to eat. This has meant that the question of distributive justice has assumed greater importance. Also, the composition of the set of goods produced is important.

It is necessary to understand the difference between the concepts of economic growth and development. Economic growth means an increase in the value of all goods and services produced in an economy. The sum total of all goods and services in an economy is termed as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Growth is, therefore, a sustained expansion in the productive capacity of an economy leading to sustained rise in its GDP. Development, on the other hand, is sustained improvement in material welfare, particularly for those who are poor and afflicted by poverty, illiteracy and poor health conditions. Development is, therefore, a qualitative concept involving a qualitative improvement in the general standard of living in a country or economy.

Characteristics of Underdevelopment :

The characteristics of underdevelopment in developing countries are:

(i) Mass poverty;

(ii) Low levels of income and concentration of incomes in a few hands;

(iii) High levels of unemployment and under-employment;

(iv) Poor nutrition, health, housing, literacy and welfare status;

(v) Preponderance of primary sector and low levels of industrialization;

(vi) Lower status of women and that of a variety of social groups such as

scheduled castes in India.

These characteristics of underdeveloped countries will help in generalizing some of the problems that one finds common to most of them. This will enable us to also grasp the key issues that affect the developing societies.

(i) The poverty levels are very striking in the developing countries: In India, over 26 percent of people are below the poverty line as per the recent official count conducted in 1999-2000. However, many experts have questioned the official figure, mainly on the ground that the methodology used to collect the relevant data in 1999-2000 was that of the earlier surveys and have argued that the incidence of poverty could be substantially higher than the official estimates. The single biggest sections affected by poverty are the landless agricultural workers in rural areas. Close to half the number of such households in India were below the poverty line. Poverty alleviation continues to be the single biggest problem facing Indian planners.

(ii) Low levels of income for large sections of the masses and high inequalities in the distribution of income are very apparent in India. Most developing countries have this problem because assets are unequally distributed. This perpetuates the problem of low incomes for the poor. The existence of mass poverty amidst glaring inequalities is among the most important symptoms of inadequate development in the low-income countries.

(iii) Low levels of productivity and backward technology are the other major problems of the developing countries. Increased productivity is an indication of greater efficiency. Improvements in technology and better management and organization are necessary for this purpose. For instance, in the agricultural sector greater use of fertilizers, improved varieties of seeds, better ploughs, etc. can lead to increase in output from the same unit of land. Generally, crop yields per hectare in the developed world are far higher than those in developing countries. The need to improve technology and the overall input package in agriculture is obvious.

(iv) High levels of unemployment and unemployment are characteristic of developing countries. Since the industrialization is low and the agricultural sector cannot absorb the entire work force, the problem of unemployment and underemployment continues to grow. As per the Report of the S.P.Gupta Committee , which was set up by the planning Commission, there are more than 27 million people unemployed in India currently. At present rate of labour absorption, this number is likely to increase to a whooping 70 million by 2012. Obviously, the problem is much greater if one takes into account the problem of pervasive underemployment particularly in rural areas. Rapid industrialization and modernization of the agricultural sector will obviously go a long way in creating more employment. The pressure of unemployment also perpetuates the problem of low wages as employers take advantage of surplus labour and pay low wages, workers are not able to bargain because there are thousands willing to do the same work at the prevailing rates.

(v) Poor health, nutrition, illiteracy and poor housing are also characteristic features of developing countries. The low levels of income obviously play a central role in perpetuating these problems. As earning are low, people are not able to consume a balanced diet providing the requisite number of calories and nutrients. The most vulnerable are the children in the developing countries. Compared to standards prevailing in the developed countries. The problem of nutrition will have to be tackled if developing countries are to make advantage in the field of health. Similarly, there are huge gaps between the developed and developing countries in the field of education. It is particularly striking that the major problem is with respect to female illiteracy. As mentioned earlier, inadequate such deprivations. It must be stressed, however, that public policy has to play a critical role in addressing these problems. In fact the histry of development experience shows without any ambiguity that in the early and middle stage of modern economic growth process there is no substitute for government intervention in areas such as health, education, etc., and that growth in itself is no answer to these problems. Moreover even in the country that are advanced in terms of standard economic growth parameters, inadequate public policy can lead to situations of serious deprivation for particular groups. For instance, in the United states, African Americans as a group have lower life expectancy than people born in the immensely poorer economies of Sri Lanka, Jamaica, Costa Rica or Kerala in India, amongst several others. Within united states, according to a recent study, African American men and women in the age groups 35 and 54 years had almost twice and thrice the mortality rates, as compared to white men and women respectively. Similarly, in India the gaps between different social groups with reference to the standard socio-economic indicators are disturbingly huge. To redress these gaps, carefully designed public interventions are of utmost importance.

(vi) Lower status of women and that of a variety of social groups such as scheduled castes in India. In underdeveloped countries, the women are much more vulnerable than their counterparts in the developed countries. On most development indicators, they rank lower than males in their own country. Their health and nutrition status is not at satisfactory levels for large numbers. Female illiteracy is fairly widespread. They also have to put up with both covert and overt forms of discrimination and the barriers regarding their role in the society. Women are often paid lower wages even through they perform the same work, and therefore work participation rates of women in census data are shown much lower than one would expect. Improving the status of women is, therefore, an important development objective. The social pressures on women are also a major impediment to development in large parts of the third world. The crudest and the most gruesome form of discrimination against women in many parts of the world is reflected in the terrible phenomenon of what has come to be known as ‘missing women’ caused by practices such as female feticide, etc. resulting in excessive mortality among them. It is medically well acknowledged that if there is symmetrical care in most advanced countries. For instance, in countries such as USA and UK, the ratio of women to men exceeds as 1.05, where as in India and Pakistan it is as low as 0.93 and 0.90 respectively.

These are some of the more important characteristics of development. Using these, you should be able to roughly differentiate between developed and developing countries.

By : Pranab Kumar Sathua