Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: POCSO
Mains level: Child marriage issue and associated problems
Context
- The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals call for global action to end human rights violations by 2030. There has been tremendous development in India on that front, as seen, for example, in the decline in child marriage from 47.4 per cent in 2005 to 23.3 per cent in 2021. The year 2021 also marked a 50 per cent decline in child marriage in South Asia.
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Why in news?
- Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has launched a state-wide crackdown against child marriage.
- Booking men marrying girls below 14 years of age under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, and those marrying girls aged 14-18 under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act.
- The CM has also announced that the police will retrospectively book people who participated in child marriage in the last seven years.
Background: Data from Assam
- Maternal mortality rate in Assam: According to data given by the Registrar General of India in 2022, Assam has the highest maternal mortality rate in the nation, with 195 fatalities per one lakh live births in the years 2018 to 2020.
- Infant mortality rate in Assam: With 32 newborn deaths for every 1,000 live births, Assam has the third highest infant mortality rate, according to the National Family Health Survey-5.
- Government’s aim to address the issue: The Assam government has declared that its aim is to confront the high maternal mortality and infant mortality rates in the state, which it has linked to early motherhood.
What is Child Marriage?
- Child marriage refers to any formal marriage or informal union between a child under the age of 18 and an adult and another child.
- The Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021, fixes 21 years as the marriageable age for women.
Effect of Covid-19 Pandemic
- According to estimates by UNICEF, 10 million more girls were at risk of becoming child brides globally because of the pandemic, affecting the prosperity and growth of communities and nations for generations.
- India has been working to ensure it doesn’t lose the momentum gained in dealing with the scourge of child marriage.
How child marriage is negatively correlated to national development?
- Impact on basic rights: Child marriages deny a child his/her basic right to education, health, and the freedom to build full, thriving lives.
- Increased susceptibility to abuse and violence: There is overwhelming evidence that child marriage renders girls more susceptible to abuse, violence, and exploitation.
- Gender Inequality: Child marriage is a gendered form of violence a cause and effect of gender inequality and discrimination and is a significant challenge facing girls and their families throughout the developing world.
- Disturbed childhood: Child marriage conclusively devastates a girl’s childhood, saddling her with adult responsibilities before she is physically and mentally mature.
- Increased risk of forced pregnancy and maternal mortality: With little bodily autonomy, child brides are more likely to undergo forced pregnancy, increasing the likelihood of maternal and infant mortality.
- Negative effect on education: A girl’s education is less likely to be valued evidence is clear that girls with less education are more likely to marry young, and child marriage typically ends a girl’s education.
- Support systems declines: The lack of education and isolation from peers further shrink a child bride’s support systems. Without skills or mobility, her ability to overcome poverty for herself and her children is hindered.
- Negative impact on community and national development: These social and economic vulnerabilities that child brides live with impinge on their ability to contribute to their community’s and country’s growth and development.
- Intergenerational consequences: They are also more likely to experience intimate partner violence and have worse economic and health outcomes than their single peers, which eventually trickles down to their own offspring, placing further strain on the nation’s ability to offer quality healthcare and education.
- Though legislation prohibiting child marriage in India has been in place since 1929, the majority of child brides in the world 223 million of them, or one-third of the total live in India.
- Despite it being illegal for girls under the age of 18, and for boys under the age of 21, to marry in India under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, the UNFPA-UNICEF estimates indicate that at least 1.5 million underage girls get married annually here.
- Ending the practice of child marriage is crucial to address the several human rights violations that stand in the way of gender equality for girls.
Understanding the key drivers behind child marriage is necessary to combat it
- Common reasons: While the origins of the practice differ across nations and cultures, it is perpetuated by poverty, lack of educational opportunities, and limited access to healthcare.
- Financial burden: Some families choose to marry off their daughters in order to reduce their financial burden. Other reasons cited are shrinking living spaces and increasing concerns about adolescent girls’ safety.
- Mentality of securing daughter’s future: Families also act in this manner because they think it will protect their daughters’ futures. The practice is also supported by gender roles and marriage-age norms, stereotypes, and the socioeconomic risks of unmarried pregnancies.
Conclusion
- Though legal protections and their strict implementation are important, they form only one part of the solution. To end child marriages, state and non-state actors alike must put girls, across the diverse spectrum of society and marginality, at the centre of the solution. The state can penalise and criminalise the act, but society at large has the important role to play.
Mains question
Q. Highlight the key drivers behind child marriage and Discuss how child marriage is negatively correlated to national development?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Government’s Budget and Healthcare
Context
- In her 2023-24 Union Budget speech, the finance minister announced that the total central government budget for health (not including research) will be roughly Rs 86,175 crore ($10 billion) that is, roughly Rs 615 for every citizen. This is a 2.7 per cent increase from the previous fiscal year and lower than the rate of inflation.
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Government’s current Health spending
- Current health spending lower than middle income countries: India currently spends about Rs 8 lakh crore ($100 billion) or about 3.2 per cent of its GDP on health. This is much lower than the average health spending share of the GDP at around 5.2 per cent of the Lower- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC)
- Health expenditure in India compared to other countries: Of this, the government (Centre and states put together) spends about Rs 2.8 lakh crore (about $35 billion) roughly 1.1 per cent of the GDP. Contrast this with the government health expenditure in countries like China (3 per cent), Thailand (2.7 per cent), Vietnam (2.7 per cent) and Sri Lanka (1.4 per cent).
How health expenditure affects people especially poor?
- Hospitalisation cost for a day: A Day of hospitalisation at a public hospital is estimated at Rs 2,800. At a private hospital, it is Rs 6,800.
- Disproportionate financial impact on poor households: A greater proportion of disposable incomes is taken away from a poor household as compared to a non-poor one, further broadening the gap between the two.
- Impact of Health expenditure on employment and income: If sickness hits a working member of the household, she/he must often withdraw from active employment and their main source of income dries up at the time when they urgently need more money for treatment.
- Sell or mortgage of assets to cover treatment costs: Households have to often sell or mortgage their productive assets, such as land and cattle, to cover the treatment costs.
- Burden of health expenditures on vulnerable populations: The poor, elderly and sick are already at a disadvantage and the burden of health expenditure makes this even worse.
- Falling into poverty due to health expenditures: This further reduces their capacity to bounce back. According to the WHO, 55 million people fall into poverty or deeper poverty every year due to catastrophic expenditures on health.
Areas where greater spending by the government could help in the immediate term
- Focus should be balanced for both communicable and noncommunicable: The National Health Mission allocates less than 3 per cent (Rs 717 crore) to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) compared to communicable diseases and reproductive and child health services, despite NCDs causing more than half of the total burden of disease and this proportion further increases in both rural as well as urban areas.
- Public health and primary health care focus on rural areas: Urban areas have poorly developed infrastructure for primary care even if secondary and tertiary health care services are better. For example, immunisation coverage is now lower in urban India than in rural India. A third of the country now lives in urban areas and greater resources are needed to improve health here.
- Health research has been neglected for too long: The allocation for the Department of Health Research in this year’s budget is Rs 2,980 crore, flat from last year. Spending Rs 20 per Indian is inconsistent with the need for innovations and technologies in the sector. The bulk of the resources provided to the Indian Council of Medical Research goes towards maintaining a large payroll of scientists and the output is poor.
- Maximizing India’s potential: India stands on the brink of a massive opportunity. Quality education and health for the 26 million children born each year and the 65 per cent of the population under the age of 35 could help provide a workforce that would propel India forward.
- Harnessing the Demographic Dividend: India has a growing working-age population, but needs urgent action to harness the demographic dividend and potentially become a developed country within a generation.
- Adopting Competitive funding System for health research: India should adopt a competitive grant system for government-funded health research like other successful countries, to encourage top-notch research. The Wellcome Trust/DBT-India Alliance is a successful example of this system.
Conclusion
- The health (and education) of Indians is the most important determinant of what the country can achieve during the next 25 years of Amrit Kaal. We must find ways to both find more money for health, and also more health for the money to ensure that all Indians achieve their true potential.
Mains question
Q. Highlight the present status of Government’s healthcare spending. How out of pocket health expenditure affects people especially poor? Suggest what government must do and areas where it must focus in the immediate term?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: ChatGPT and other such AI tools
Mains level: AI, advantages, concerns and policies
Context
- With the launch of Open AI’s ChatGPT late last year, the impending changes in the nature of work, creativity and economy as a whole have moved from being the subject of futuristic jargon to an immediate challenge.
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Background
- Since at least 2015 when Klaus Schwab popularised the term Fourth Industrial Revolution at that year’s World Economic Forum terms like 4IR, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things, Future of Work, entered the lexicon of politicians, bureaucrats, consultants and policy analysts.
Sample developments over just the last few days
- A judge in Colombia included his conversations with ChatGPT in a ruling;
- Microsoft is integrating the bot with its search engine, Bing, and other products;
- Google is reportedly trying to launch a similar tool and there are reports that ChatGPT can already code at entry level for Google engineers.
What are the Concerns?
- Lifestyle may become redundant: Concerns about plagiarism in universities and beyond, as well as the fear that many white-collar jobs may become redundant in the coming years, as AI becomes more ubiquitous and sophisticated.
- Implications on labour, education and authenticity: The AI revolution is likely to have serious implications on labour, education, authenticity of content and its authorship, and much else.
- Case of Social media’s influence in US elections: The concerns around social media’s influence on politics and society became sharp in the aftermath of the 2016 US presidential elections and accusations of voter manipulation by foreign agents. Much of the world is still struggling with the questions raised then.
- Simple definition: ChatGPT is a chatbot built on a large-scale transformer-based language model that is trained on a diverse dataset of text and is capable of generating human-like responses to prompts.
- A human like language model: It is based on GPT-3.5, a language model that uses deep learning to produce human-like text.
- It is more engaging with details: However, while the older GPT-3 model only took text prompts and tried to continue on that with its own generated text, ChatGPT is more engaging. It’s much better at generating detailed text and can even come up with poems.
- Keeps the memory of the conversations: Another unique characteristic is memory. The bot can remember earlier comments in a conversation and recount them to the user.
- Human- like resemblance: A conversation with ChatGPT is like talking to a computer, a smart one, which appears to have some semblance of human-like intelligence.
Anticipating possible futures requires engagement with the opportunities
- The Struggle to keep up with technology in policymaking:
- Governments worldwide face a challenge in creating policies that keep up with the rapid pace of technological advancement.
- Policymakers should understand that they must work to bridge the gap between technology and regulation, as a growing divide could lead to problems.
- Preparing for technological change in education and workforce:
- In addition to creating regulations that support innovation, it’s crucial to plan for the changes that new technology will bring to education and employment.
- This includes anticipating new job types and skills required, as well as updating the education system to prepare future workers.
- Importance of Preparing for technological change for India:
- India has been facing the challenge of balancing privacy and regulation in the handling of data for several years.
- Successfully adapting to technological changes is crucial for India to make the most of its large, young workforce. If not addressed in time, the consequences could be severe
Conclusion
- The transformations the new technology is bound to bring about must be met with swift adjustments in the broader national and international legal and policy architecture. The lag between technology innovation and policy that was seen with the rise of Big Data and social media can serve as a lesson.
Mains Question
Q. With the rapid innovations and launching of Artificial intelligence models everyday will change the nature of work, creativity and economy as a whole. comment
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Military coup in Myanmar
It is exactly two years since the Myanmar army seized power.
Myanmar Coup: A quick recap
- A coup in Myanmar began on the morning of 1 February 2021, when democratically elected members of the country’s ruling party, were deposed by the Tatmadaw—Myanmar’s military.
- The coup occurred the day before the Parliament of Myanmar was due to swear in the members elected at the 2020 election, thereby preventing this from occurring.
- Pivot leader Aung San Suu Kyi was detained, along with ministers, their deputies, and members of Parliament.
India’s continuing policy tightrope in Myanmar
- For some three decades, India has pursued a ‘Dual-Track Policy’ which essentially means doing business with the junta.
- India shares a 1,600 km border with Myanmar along four NE states.
- It has a maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal, the failure of the Myanmar state presents a foreign policy dilemma that it is struggling to resolve.
- It has ruled over Myanmar for all but five years since 1990, with tea and sympathy for the pro-democracy forces.
Why in news now?
Ans. Pro-democracy armed rebellion within
- Hundreds of armed pro-democracy civilian resistance groups (People’s Defence Forces) are fighting the junta and turning swathes of the country into no-go areas for the army.
- In addition some among the two dozen ethnic armed organisations (EAOs) that have been fighting the Myanmar state for autonomy for the last seven decades, have joined hands with the PDFs.
India’s concerns
- Chinese inroads: Over the last two decades, as China with its deep pockets emerged as a rival in the region, engaging with the junta was also seen as a way to retain Indian influence in Myanmar.
- No democratic restoration: Delhi had to calibrate this engagement during the “democratic transition” of the last decade and rebalance the dual track.
- Narrowed interests: These are becoming apparent, even going by India’s narrowly defined national interests: border security management, and restricting China in Myanmar.
- Limitations to strategy: India has limited to its old template of engagement— doing business with the military regime, encouraging it restore democracy, and offering sympathy to democratic forces.
Recent success: Completion of Sittwe Port
- In the first week of January, Sittwe port, developed by India as part of the Kaladan project, was ready for operation.
- It is set to be inaugurated soon.
Five ways in which India’s calculations have been upset
- Bluff over connectivity: While maritime trade was one objective, the primary objective of this project, to provide alternate access to India’s landlocked north-east states, now seems like a bridge too far.
- Huge refugee influx: Mizoram is hosting tens of thousands of refugees from the adjoining Chin state in Myanmar. Refugees have come into other Northeastern states, though in fewer numbers.
- Clouds of terrorism: More dangerously, the recent bombing by the Myanmar Air Force of a Chin militia headquarters on the border with Mizoram, with shrapnel hitting the Indian side during this operation, triggered panic in the area.
- Narcotics smuggling: Another potential cross-border spillovers is contained in the latest report of the UN Office for Drugs and Crime on Myanmar (Myanmar Opium Survey).
- Supporting insurgents in India: Myanmar junta has recruited Indian insurgent group (IIGs) in regions adjoining Manipur and Nagaland to fight against the local PDFs and other groups.
- Worsening of Rohingya crisis: The military cannot resolve the Rohingya crisis, another regional destabilizer.
Way forward for India
- Championing this cause in G20: India has projected its year-long presidency of the G20 as an opportunity to project the voice of the global south.
- Extra-diplomatic engagement: India can open channels to the democratic forces and to some ethnic groups; it can work more actively with ASEAN; it could open an army-to-army channel with the junta; increase people-to-people channels; offer scholarships to Myanmar students like it did for Afghan students in a different era.
- Ensuring fair elections: The junta is mulling elections later this year after rejigging the first-past-the-post system to proportional representation to undermine the NLD’s electoral might.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Collegium system, NJAC
Mains level: Judicial appointment opacity issue
The Centre has told the Supreme Court that it would soon clear five names that were recommended by the collegium for appointment of judges in the apex court.
What is Collegium System?
- The Collegium of judges is the Indian Supreme Court’s invention.
- It does not figure in the Constitution, which says judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts are appointed by the President and speaks of a process of consultation.
- In effect, it is a system under which judges are appointed by an institution comprising judges.
- After some judges were superseded in the appointment of the CJI in the 1970s, and attempts made subsequently to effect a mass transfer of High Court judges across the country.
- Hence there was a perception that the independence of the judiciary was under threat. This resulted in a series of cases over the years.
Evolution: The Judges Cases
- First Judges Case (1981) ruled that the “consultation” with the CJI in the matter of appointments must be full and effective.
- However, it rejected the idea that the CJI’s opinion, albeit carrying great weight, should have primacy.
- Second Judges Case (1993) introduced the Collegium system, holding that “consultation” really meant “concurrence”.
- It added that it was not the CJI’s individual opinion, but an institutional opinion formed in consultation with the two senior-most judges in the Supreme Court.
- Third Judges Case (1998): On a Presidential Reference for its opinion, the Supreme Court, in the Third Judges Case (1998) expanded the Collegium to a five-member body, comprising the CJI and four of his senior-most colleagues.
The procedure followed by the Collegium
Appointment of CJI
- The President of India appoints the CJI and the other SC judges.
- As far as the CJI is concerned, the outgoing CJI recommends his successor.
- In practice, it has been strictly by seniority ever since the supersession controversy of the 1970s.
- The Union Law Minister forwards the recommendation to the PM who, in turn, advises the President.
Other SC Judges
- For other judges of the top court, the proposal is initiated by the CJI.
- The CJI consults the rest of the Collegium members, as well as the senior-most judge of the court hailing from the High Court to which the recommended person belongs.
- The consultees must record their opinions in writing and it should form part of the file.
- The Collegium sends the recommendation to the Law Minister, who forwards it to the Prime Minister to advise the President.
For High Courts
- The CJs of High Courts are appointed as per the policy of having Chief Justices from outside the respective States. The Collegium takes the call on the elevation.
- High Court judges are recommended by a Collegium comprising the CJI and two senior-most judges.
- The proposal, however, is initiated by the Chief Justice of the High Court concerned in consultation with two senior-most colleagues.
- The recommendation is sent to the Chief Minister, who advises the Governor to send the proposal to the Union Law Minister.
Does the Collegium recommend transfers too?
- Yes, the Collegium also recommends the transfer of Chief Justices and other judges.
- Article 222 of the Constitution provides for the transfer of a judge from one High Court to another.
- When a CJ is transferred, a replacement must also be simultaneously found for the High Court concerned. There can be an acting CJ in a High Court for not more than a month.
- In matters of transfers, the opinion of the CJI “is determinative”, and the consent of the judge concerned is not required.
- However, the CJI should take into account the views of the CJ of the High Court concerned and the views of one or more SC judges who are in a position to do so.
- All transfers must be made in the public interest, that is, “for the betterment of the administration of justice”.
Need for Collegium System
- Collegium system increases secrecy: Ruma Pal, a former Judge of the Supreme Court of India, stated that this system is one of the best kept secret in the country. It kept secret within the four walls of the body for proper and effective functioning of the institution that makes the system opaque.
- Political non-interference: The collegium system makes Judiciary independent from the politics. It separates the judiciary from the influence of executive and legislative. With the Govt’s influence judiciary can work without any fear and any sort of favour. This ensures the regulation of the doctrine of separation of power.
- Ensures merit: The executive organ is not specialist or does not have the knowledge regarding the requirements of the Judge as comparative to the CJI. Collegium system ensures that the deserving one is sitting in the position of the Judge in Supreme Court.
Loopholes in the Collegium system
- Lack of Transparency: Opaqueness and a lack of transparency, and the scope for nepotism are cited often.
- Judges appointing Judge: The attempt made to replace it with a ‘National Judicial Appointments Commission’ was struck down by the court in 2015 on the ground that it posed a threat to the independence of the judiciary.
- Criteria: Some do not believe in full disclosure of reasons for transfers, as it may make lawyers in the destination court chary of the transferred judge.
A critical assessment
- No guidelines framework: This system does not provide any guidelines in selecting the candidates for the judge position of the Supreme Court because of which it leads to wide scope for the nepotism and favoritism.
- No checks and balances: This system gives the immense power to Judiciary to appoint Judges, so the check on the excessive powers would not be ensured and misuse of powers can be done.
- Judiciary is nowhere accountable: The collegium system is not accountable to any administrative body that may lead to wrong choice of the candidate while overlooking the right candidate.
- Huge workload leaves no room: Already there are many cases pending in the Court, they are having limited time the power given to them for the appointment would lead to burden to Judiciary.
| Former Chief Justice of Australia, Sir Harry Gibbs, are worth-quoting:
Judicial commissions, advisory Committees and procedures for consultation [with the Chief Justice] will be useless unless there exists, among the politicians of all parties, a realization that the interest of the community requires that neither political nor personal patronage nor a desire to placate any section of a society, should play any part in making judicial appointments. |
Some feasible measures that can be incorporated
- Ensure non-vetoing representatives: To ensure the effectiveness of this mechanism the commission should be representative in nature comprising members of the executive, legislature, judiciary, legal profession and lay persons.
- Info share in public domain: In addition, it should be ensured that the commission uses a system which is transparent and open to public scrutiny.
Way ahead
- In respect of appointments, there has been an acknowledgment that the “zone of consideration” must be expanded to avoid criticism that many appointees hail from families of retired judges.
- The status of a proposed new memorandum of procedure, to infuse greater accountability, is also unclear.
- Even the majority opinions admitted the need for transparency, now Collegiums’ resolutions are now posted online, but reasons are not given.
Conclusion
- All mechanisms for judicial appointment may have some advantages and disadvantages and therefore, no particular system can be treated as the best system.
- Despite this, in order to maintain public confidence in the appointment system and to ensure judicial independence the commission system is perhaps a very effective mechanism for judicial appointment.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Shaligram Stone
Mains level: NA
Two sacred Shaligram stones arrived in Ayodhya for crafting the idols of Lord Ram and Janaki at the Ram Temple.
What is a Shaligram Stones?
- Shaligram stones are fossils of ammonite, which is a type of mollusk that lived between 400 million and 65 million years ago.
- They are found in the Shaligram Pilgrimage in the Nepal Himalayas.
- They date specifically from the Early Oxfordian to the Late Tithonian Age near the end of the Jurassic Period some 165-140 million years ago.
- Mostly found in riverbeds or banks of the Kali Gandaki, a tributary of the Gandaki River in Nepal, this stone is revered as a representation of Lord Vishnu.
- The stone is considered to have divine powers and is seen as a symbol of good luck and prosperity.
Mythological significance
- Historically, the use of shaligrama shilas in worship can be traced to the time of Adi Shankara through the latter’s works.
- Specifically it finds mention in the Taittiriya Upanishad.
- The statue of Vishnu in the Padmanabhaswamy Temple of Thiruvananthapuram and Badrinath Temple of Garhwal region, and that of Krishna in Krishna Matha of Udupi and Radha Raman Temple of Vrindavana are also believed to be made from shaligrama shilas.
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