IASbaba’s Daily Current Affairs (Prelims + Mains

Focus)- 04th August 2018

Archives

(PRELIMS+MAINS FOCUS)

Quota in promotion for SCs/STs

Part of: GS Prelims and Mains – Dalit issue; Social issue

In news:

• Centre pushes for quota in promotion for SCs/STs
• Centre calls on Supreme Court to revisit 2006 Nagaraj ruling
• If implemented it provides for “accelerated promotion with consequential seniority” for members of the Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes (SCs/STs) in public employment.
• Dalit communities have suffered years of deprivation at the hands of society. They had been deprived of access to temples, schools and the basic facilities of life.
• Recent examples – Even today, Dalit grooms cannot ride horses; people denying drinking water to a woman Dalit officer; Temple purified in U.P. after visit by Dalit woman MLA.

2006 M. Nagaraj judgment of the Supreme Court

• Government cannot introduce a quota in promotion for its SC/ST employees unless they prove that the particular Dalit community is backward and inadequately represented, and such a reservation in promotion would not affect the overall efficiency of public administration.

Now the government wants larger Constitution Bench to re-examine and create possible situation for providing accelerated promotions with consequential seniority for the SCs/STs in government services.

Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin (SBM-G)

In news:

• WHO report compliments Swachh Bharat’s rural component.

Highlights of WHO report

• SBM-G to prevent more than three lakh deaths due to diarrhoea and protein-energy malnutrition between 2014-October 2019 (as per WHO report)
• India’s rural sanitation coverage escalated to 89.07%
• 19 States and Union Territories were declared Open Defecation Free (ODF)
• By 2019, the initiative aims to achieve 100% sanitation coverage.
• 14 million Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) can be avoided between 2014 and 2019

Important Value Additions

Fast Recap: Swachh Bharat Mission

We already are aware of the following –

Swachh Bharat Mission was launched on 2nd Oct, 2014. It aims at making India clean by October 2, 2019 with a two-fold objective:

1. Making the country 100% free from open defecation
2. Ensuring 100% modern and scientific municipal solid waste management.

The Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) has two sub-missions – SBM (Rural) and SBM (Urban).

The SBM is in sync with the Goal 6 of the Sustainable Development Goals which commits the countries of the world to achieve universal access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation and hygiene to all in the next 15 years.

Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin)

• Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation
• SBM-G seeks to eliminate open defecation in rural areas by 2019 through improving access to sanitation.  
• It also seeks to generate awareness to motivate communities to adopt sustainable sanitation practices, and encourage the use of appropriate technologies for sanitation.
• Funding for SBM-G will be through budgetary allocations of the central and state governments, the Swachh Bharat Kosh, and multilateral agencies.  
• The Swachh Bharat Kosh has been established to collect funds from non-governmental sources.

Major schemes of the central government to improve rural sanitation

1. Central Rural Sanitation Programme (1986)
2. Total Sanitation Campaign (1999)
3. Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (2012)
4. Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) (2014)

Mattala airport: Sri Lanka

Part of: GS Prelims and Mains II – India and the world; International Relations

In news:

• India had sought Sri Lanka’s cooperation in swift completion of joint ventures
• The two governments have agreed that India, with a 70% stake in the joint venture, will contribute $225 million to revamp and run the airport, while the Sri Lankan side will invest the balance.
• India will operate the airport on a 40-year lease, as per the draft agreement

India-assisted projects such as –

• joint venture to run the Mattala airport in Sri Lanka’s Southern Province;
• an LNG terminal near Colombo, and
• the joint development of the oil storage facility in the eastern port town of Trincomalee

Zero imports of telecommunications equipment by 2022

Part of: GS Prelims and Mains III – Infrastructure

In news:

• India aim at net zero imports of telecommunications equipment by 2022
• Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recommended the setting up of a ₹1,000 crore fund for promoting research and innovation in the sector.
• TRAI recommendations aim at enabling Indian telecom equipment manufacturing sector to transition from an import-dependent sector to a global hub of indigenous manufacturing.

(MAINS FOCUS)

INTERNAL SECURITY

TOPIC: General Studies 3:

• Role of external state and non-state actors in creating challenges to internal security.
• Challenges to internal security through communication networks.
• Security challenges and their management in border areas; linkages of organized crime with terrorism.

Checking the new abnormal: Lynching

Fast recap:

From previous articles, we are aware of the following key points –

• India is witnessing increasing number of cases of lynching
• What may have started out as isolated acts by fundamentalist right-wing groups has now become a widespread malaise

Tehseen S. Poonawalla v. Union of India (July 17, 2018) verdict –

• The apex Court condemned the recent spate of lynchings as “horrendous acts of mobocracy” and told Parliament to make lynching a separate offence.
• It directed the Parliament to draft a new legislation to effectively deal with incidents of mob lynching.
• It also directed the police to register an FIR under Section 153A of the IPC and do everything in their power to ensure that social order was maintained.
• Taking law in own hands ushers in anarchy, chaos, disorder and, eventually, there is an emergence of a violent society.

Rajiv Gauba Committee:

• High-level committee headed by Rajiv Gauba, had been constituted to check cases of “mob lynching”.

Do you know?

As per the Constitution, ‘Police’ and ‘Public Order’ are State subjects and State governments are responsible for controlling crime, maintaining law and order and protecting the life and property of the citizens.

Solution: Prevention is better than cure

• The preventive guidelines require every State to designate a senior police officer, not below the rank of Superintendent of Police, as the Nodal Officer in each district.
• A special task force should be constituted to collect intelligence on persons likely to commit such crimes.
• Nodal Officers should take step to prohibit instances of dissemination of offensive material through different social media platforms or any other means.
• Both the Central and State governments have been directed to broadcast public notifications on radio, television and other media platforms.
• Speedy trials and justice: investigation and prosecution of such cases is strictly carried out, the charge sheet filed within the prescribed time period, and the trial concluded through fast-track courts within six months.
• Strict punishment and various offences be awarded.
• Executive should immediately implement the directions of the Supreme Court.  There is a need for an anti-lynching law.

Conclusion:

We need more than just laws to deal with the deep-rooted hate which appears to have set in below the surface.

Most cases of lynching have the appearance of premeditated acts of violence. There appears to be an attempt to change the social and cultural fabric of India forever, deepening the divide between ‘us’ and ‘them’.

Fundamentalist agenda cannot be fought by court directives, legislation and police procedures alone. It must be fought politically.

Connecting the dots:

• “Morality cannot be legislated, but behaviour can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless.” Do you agree? Bring out what does the statement mean to you in the present context of mob violence and lynching. (GS IV Ethics perspective)
• Mob violence and lynching are emerging as a serious law and order problem in India.  Analyze how making law would not be enough and why effective enforcement machinery is the need of the hour?

NATIONAL/SOCIAL ISSUE

TOPIC: Essay, General studies 1 and 2

• Role of Women and women’s organisations, poverty and related issues
• Social empowerment
• Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations.
• Social Issues

Life after Rescue: Human Trafficking and sex trade

Introduction:

• Article 23 and Article 24 of constitution of India provides for rights against exploitation.
• Article 23 of constitution of India specifically Prohibits trafficking of human being.
• There are constitutional provisions, still, according to NCRB data 8,132 cases has been recorded in the country in the year 2016.

Some Facts: The latest figures of the National Crime Records Bureau, released in 2017

• Total cases of human trafficking registered 8,132 (January to December 2016).
• 3,579 cases (around 44%) were from West Bengal.
• Only one third of registered cases were charge sheeted.

Reason of being easy target of human traffickers:

• Poverty
• Child marriages
• Unemployment
• Lack of education

Problems Faced by victims after Rescue:

• Physical and mental health issues; Trauma
• Sexually transmitted diseases
• Social Rejection and living with stigma
• Struggle for Justice and compensation

Examples of organisations working for Rescue and Rehabilitation:

• Shakti Vahini, a Delhi-based NGO
• Utthan, a trafficking survivors’ collective
• Birangana Seva Samity, Canning based NGO (West Bengal)

What Government did?

• Compensation awarded by SLSA (State Legal Services Authority)
• Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018 passed by Lok Sabha
• POCSO Act
• Provisions Under Criminal Procedure Code
• Help lines and Collaboration with NGOs.

Way forward:

• Speedy justice and immediate compensation
• Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018 should be enacted as soon as possible
• Legalising prostitution can be considered to keep record of sex trade and track human trafficking.
• Social security schemes need to penetrate till the last needy person.
• There is need to spread awareness against social stigma towards the survivors.

Connecting the dots:

• Do you think sex trade (Prostitution) and human trafficking go hand in hand? Suggest measures to balance between right to profession and right against exploitation.

(TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE)

Model questions: (You can now post your answers in comment section)

Note:

• Featured Comments and comments Up-voted by IASbaba are the “correct answers”.

• IASbaba App users – Team IASbaba will provide correct answers in comment section within 24 hours. Kindly refer to it and update your answers.

Q.1) 2006 M. Nagaraj judgment of the Supreme Court deals with

1. Offences Relating to Marriage
2. Criminal Breach of Contracts of Service
3. Benami Transactions
4. Quota in promotion for its SC/ST employees

Q.2) The Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) is in sync with which of the following ‘Goals of the Sustainable Development Goal’?

1. Goal 1
2. Goal 3
3. Goal 7
4. Goal 6

Q.3) Chronologically arrange the following events in correct manner based on their launch

1. Total Sanitation Campaign
2. Central Rural Sanitation Programme
3. Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan
4. Swachh Bharat Mission

Select the correct code

1. 2-3-4-1
2. 2-1-3-4
3. 3-4-2-1
4. 3-2-4-1

Q.4) India’s proposed joint venture to run the Mattala airport is in –

1. Myanmar
2. Sri Lanka
3. Bangladesh
4. Madagascar

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