LIST OF NEWSPAPERS COVERED

ASIAN AGE

DECCAN HERALD

ECONOMIC TIMES

HINDU

HINDUSTAN TIMES

INDIAN EXPRESS

STATESMAN

TELEGRAPH

TRIBUNE

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                                           CONTENTS

AADHAR 3-4

CIVIL SERVICE 5-6

CRIME 7-10

DEFENCE 11

DISABLED PERSONS 12-14

EDUCATION 15-20

ELECTIONS 21-23

EMPLOYMENT 24-25

HEALTH SERVICES 26-28

HISTORY 29-32

HUMAN RIGHTS 33-36

JUDICIARY 37

LIBRARIES 38-39

POVERTY 40-43

TRANSPORT 44

URBAN DEVELOPMENT 45

YOUTH 46-48

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AADHAR

TRIBUNE, DEC 7, 2017Centre willing to extend deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar

The Centre on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that it was willing to extend till March 31 next year the deadline fixed for mandatory linking of Aadhaar for availing various services and welfare schemes.

The Supreme Court now will be setting up a five-judge Constitution Bench next week to hear several pleas seeking an interim stay on the Centre's decision of mandatory linking of Aadhaar.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra was informed by Attorney General KK Venugopal that the Centre was willing to extend the deadline of December 31 to March 31 next year for linking of Aadhaar with various services and schemes.

The Attorney General, however, made clear that February 6 next year would remain the deadline for linking Aadhaar for availing uninterrupted mobile services as it had been mandated by the apex court.

Senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for those who are opposed to Aadhaar scheme, told the bench, also comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, that the central government should give an undertaking that no coercive steps would be taken against those who failed to link their Aadhaar with various services.

The apex court on October 30 had said that a Constitution Bench would commence hearing on the clutch of petitions against the Aadhaar scheme from the last week of November.

Recently, a nine-judge constitution bench of the apex court had held that Right to Privacy was a Fundamental Right under the Constitution. Several petitioners challenging the validity of Aadhaar had claimed it violated privacy rights.

The Centre had on October 25 told the top court that the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar to receive benefits of government schemes had been extended till March 31, 2018 for those who doidnot have the 12-digit unique biometric identification number and were willing to enrol for it.

The Attorney General had told the court that no coercive action would be taken against those who did not have the Aadhaar card but were willing to enrol for it. He had said that such people would not be denied the benefits of social welfare schemes till March 31.

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Some petitioners in the top court have termed the linking of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) number with bank accounts and mobile numbers as "illegal and unconstitutional".

They had also objected to the CBSE's alleged move to make Aadhaar card mandatory for students appearing for examinations, a contention denied by the Centre.

One of the counsels representing the petitioners had earlier said that the final hearing in the main Aadhaar matter, which is pending before the apex court, was necessary as the government "cannot compel" citizens to link their Aadhaar with either bank accounts or cell phone numbers.  

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CIVIL SERVICE

TRIBUNE, DEC 5, 2017Elevation to IAS: CAT stops UPSC from finalising nameEducation Minister Ram Bilas Sharma’s daughter among five shortlisted

Sushil ManavIn a setback to BJP government’s efforts to push Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma’s daughter Dr Asha Sharma’s selection to the IAS cadre from the non-HCS quota, the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) today restrained the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) from finalising the name (select list).

The decision comes on a plea by Surender Singh Dahiya, one of the 16 applicants for the post. He is an Additional Director in the Agriculture Department.

There is only one vacancy for IAS officer from the non-HCS quota.

The CAT Bench, comprising Justice MS Sullar and Justice P Gopinath, issued a notice of motion to Haryana, the UPSC and Dr Asha Sharma for December 20.

The UPSC, sources said, fixed December 22 for interviewing five candidates shortlisted by a screening committee constituted by the state government.

In its October 13 meeting, the screening committee had shortlisted the names of medical officer Dr Asha Sharma, Assembly Deputy Speaker Santosh Yadav’s brother Lajpat Rai, Health Department Director Dr Parveen Sethi, District Town and Country Planner Vijender Singh and in-charge of health facilities at Haryana Raj Bhawan Dr Rakesh Talwar.

Dr Asha Sharma’s name was shortlisted last year as well. But for the objections raised by the UPSC, no one was selected for the IAS cadre.

In his plea before the CAT, Dahiya had alleged an attempt to favour respondent number 3 (Dr Asha Sharma) when the select list for 2015 was to be prepared. Through his counsel Rajesh Garg, he said the Personnel Department failed to give a valid reason for Dr Asha Sharma’s missing annual confidential report (ACR) for the period between April 1, 2014 and October 31, 2014.

He had also questioned Dr Asha Sharma’s ACR from November 1, 2014, to March 31, 2015, as she remained on earned leave from December 1 to 20, 2014 and further on child care leave from January 15, 2015 to March 15, 2015. How could the ACR be written when she was on leave, he had said.

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Dahiya alleged in his plea that this time again, respondent number 1 (state government) had resorted to the same illegal exercise (by short listing the name of Asha Sharma), forcing him to approach the CAT.

ASIAN AGE, DEC 4, 2017Action-plan to fill up government vacancies

It also read that in cases where consultation with the UPSC is necessary, notification should be issued on or before March 31 next.

 Anil Baijal

New Delhi: Following the direction of lieutenant governor (L-G) Anil Baijal, who had taken a serious view of the issue, the Delhi government’s services department has chalked out an action plan to fill up vacant posts in various departments, autonomous bodies, and agencies.

The department has issued office memoranda to all heads of all departments and apprised them of the plan to fill up vacant posts under both direct and promotional quota in their respective departments in a time-bound manner.

The move came days after chief minister Arvind Kejriwal wrote to Mr Baijal and cited over 36,000 vacancies across departments and institutions of the Delhi government, saying that he can do nothing due to lack of control over “services”.

In the national capital, matters related to services department comes under the LG. The department deals with the service matters of IAS officers of the Delhi government, DANICS civil service officers and those belonging to Delhi Administration Subordinate Services cadre and stenographers cadre.

“Wherever the process of direct recruitment is held up due to the reason of non-availability/pendency of amendment of recruitment rules, the department should complete the process of framing recruitment rules and issue the notification on or before Dec. 31,” the memorandum stated.

It also read that in cases where consultation with the UPSC is necessary, notification should be issued on or before March 31 next.

The instructions issued on the LG’s directions stated the department concerned should review the pending court cases to speed up the process.

Wherever the posts are ot required, the departments shall submit the proposal for abolition of posts along with a justification by Dec. 15. Another memorandum said the vacancies would be filled up on ad-hoc basis based on seniority.

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CRIME

HINDU, DEC 6, 2017Of crime and punishmentMukul Sanwal

Low conviction rates and a lack of a lawful definition of crime mark criminal administration in India

Police reform in India has been concerned with political interference ever since the

landmark Supreme Court judgement, in 2006, on the subject. The focus should really be on

reorganising criminal administration.

The annual publication of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), “Crime in India

2016”, which was released recently, presents a dismal picture of the key performance

statistic with only 47% convictions in Indian Penal Code (IPC) crimes at the national level.

Delhi provides an interesting case study, where there is no political interference and the

Police Commissioner reports to the Lieutenant Governor, and not the Chief Minister. With a

population smaller than Mumbai, it has two times the number of police stations. Yet, in

Delhi, while 1,90,876 persons were sent to trial last year, there were only 9,837 IPC

convictions in the year. In Delhi only 58% of those arrested were chargesheeted, while in

Mumbai, more persons were chargesheeted than were arrested for IPC crimes. In Delhi,

13,803 crimes against women were reported and no chargesheets filed in 4,371 cases (32%);

in Mumbai with 5,128 crimes reported against women, final reports were filed in only 15%

of cases. The key statistic of police performance is not merely correct reporting and

recording but chargesheets and convictions, as this impacts on criminal behaviour.

DNA testing

In Delhi, DNA testing, which can secure higher conviction rates, is, inexplicably, a low

priority. There is only one forensic testing laboratory, with around 9,000 samples pending

for examination. Over 5,000 are DNA samples. Delays in this crucial evidence, which plays

an important factor in acquittals, are a setback as samples deteriorate with time.

Consequently Delhi has a conviction rate of only 21%, 24% and 30% in cases of kidnapping

and abduction, rape and murder, respectively.

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The Delhi Police website says that it is perhaps the world’s largest metropolitan police force

and arguments that Delhi accounts for 38% of the total crime under the IPC because of its

migrant population are a simplistic explanation. Delhi accounts for five times the IPC crime

when compared with Mumbai, and 33% of violent crime in metros when compared with

13% in Mumbai. Crime prevention is affected by conviction rate, beat patrolling, and by the

police and community working together.

There is a need to distinguish between accountability and operational responsibility. For

example, ‘the Mayor of London is responsible for setting policing priorities that will hold

the Met Police Commissioner to account. Operational decision-making on day-to-day

policing remains the responsibility of the Metropolitan Police Commissioner. The Police

and Crime Plan 2013-2016 has clear performance measures that focus on results such as

20% reduction in key neighbourhood crimes, 20% reduction in delays in the criminal justice

system, and 20% reduction in reoffending by young people leaving custody. The plan was

based on extensive consultation which included town hall meetings, additional stakeholder

forums, focus groups and an online survey.

Unresolved issues

In addition to those related to roles and responsibilities, there are also systemic issues.

Despite the recommendations of Law Commissions and the Supreme Court, as well going

by experience in the developed world, we do not have separate wings for investigation of

crime and for law and order. Related to this reform is the debate whether the police is a

functional “service” based on skills of investigation or a “force” oriented towards “effect”

which on command will operate regardless of the cost to itself or the social fabric. Similarly,

in most countries, the prosecutor, and not the police, has discretion on whether to press

charges as they involve adjudication. Years ago, the Law Commission had suggested a

directorate of prosecution independent of the police to guide investigation.

Second, there is still controversy over which kinds of conduct are best controlled by the

application of criminal law and which kinds by other means.

For example, special and local offences account for as much crime as under provisions of

the IPC, with nearly 60% of cases under liquor and narcotics offences at the national level.

Causing simple and grievous injures under rash driving accounts for 11% of IPC crimes;

theft also accounts for 16.6% of IPC crime at the national level.

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For Delhi, half of theft cases involve motor vehicles. Cases related to liquor and motor

vehicles account for more than a third of all cases. The criminal justice system should be

limited to crimes under the IPC, while enforcement of administrative law and social

legislation requires a different approach involving summary trials, changing societal

attitudes and modes of behaviour. For example, in Britain part-time lay judges outnumber

full-time judges, leaving the judiciary to concentrate on the real crime.

Third, the effectiveness of prisons is now being questioned. Nearly two-thirds of the prison

population is awaiting trial and half the number of undertrials are normally acquitted. Over

80% of prisoners are sentenced to terms less than three months, 40% are under 30 years old,

semi-literate and convicted under special and local acts. Criminologists now feel that short-

term sentences expose such prisoners to criminal indoctrination in jail and social

condemnation on release, with a strong case for greater reliance on compounding, probation

and parole.

The main purpose of criminal administration should be the prevention of crime, and the

police cannot be an instrument of social change. Administrative measures and fines levied

by honorary and executive magistrates will change behaviour better than penal action.

Mukul Sanwal is a former civil servant

HINDU, DEC 4, 2017Capturing crimeThe increase in crimes against women must prompt better policing and all-round reformThe National Crime Records Bureau data for 2016 on two important aspects, violent crime

and crime against women, should prompt State governments to make a serious study of the

underlying causes. Not all States are equally affected; Uttar Pradesh and Bihar record the

maximum number of murders. The national tally on crimes against women, which includes

rape, abduction, assault and cruelty by husband and relatives, is up by 2.9% over that of

2015. Going by the data, there is a distinct urban geography as well for violence against

women, with Delhi and Mumbai appearing the least safe: Delhi recorded a rate of crime that

is more than twice the national average. As several studies have shown over the years, the

annual data is useful in reviewing trends of extreme events, such as murder, but less so in

the case of other offences that tend to be underreported. Viewed in perspective, the murder

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rate today has declined to the level prevailing in the 1950s, which was 2.7 per 1,00,000

people, after touching a peak of 4.62 in 1992. But that macro figure conceals regional

variations, witnessed in U.P. and Bihar, where 4,889 and 2,581 murder incidents took place

during 2016, respectively, while it was 305 in densely populated Kerala. One question that

needs to be analysed is, how much does social development influence a reduction in crime?

In the years since the Delhi gang rape case of 2012 that shook the country, the definition of

the heinous offence has been broadened, police forces have been directed to record the

crime with greater sensitivity, and some measures initiated to make public places safer for

women. This approach could lead to a reduction in violent crime over time. A focussed

programme to universalise education and skills training would potentially keep juveniles

from coming into conflict with the law. Last year’s data indicate that there is a rise in the

number of cases involving juveniles. There are also basic issues that need urgent reform,

such as modernising the police, recruiting the right candidates and teaching them to uphold

human rights. The orders of the Supreme Court on police reforms issued in 2006 have not

been implemented in letter and spirit by all States. With genuine measures, Ministerial

superintendence over the police would become more transparent and socially accountable,

eliminating political interference in its working. This would lead to a reduction in crimes

committed with impunity and raise public confidence in the criminal justice delivery

system. As a measure of data improvement, it should be mandatory to record not just the

principal offence in a case, as the NCRB does, and list all cognisable offences separately.

Rather than view the available data passively, governments would do well to launch serious

studies that result in policies and measures for freedom from violence.

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DEFENCE

TRIBUNE, DEC 7, 2017After 66 yrs, Army Officers' benevolent fund to shutVijay MohanOver 66 years after it was instituted, the Army Officers Benevolent Fund (AOBF), a contribution-based welfare scheme for widows and aged veterans, is being closed down. There will be no contribution to the scheme or release of grants with effect from January 1, 2018.

The fund was set up in April 1951 with the sole aim to extend financial help to widows or next of kin of subscribers who die in harness or after retirement. The scheme, when launched, was visualised to be more like an insurance scheme. Over the years, the scope of the fund was enhanced to include a Platinum Grant and Centenarian Grant to all veteran officers who attained the age of 75 and 100 years, respectively.

“When instituted in 1951, there were no welfare schemes available to next of kin of officers. With various welfare schemes now in place vis-à-vis the meagre assistance being given from the AOBF, it has been opined that maintaining an organisation like AOFB is no more cost-effective,” a letter issued on December 4 by the Ceremonials and Welfare Directorate at Army Headquarters states.

Subscription towards the AOBF is mandatory for all Army officers, including those on deputation. At present, the Army’s officer cadre numbers about 41,000 against the authorised strength of 49,737 officers (excluding the medical stream), who are required to contribute Rs 120 per month.

All subscribers or next of kin are entitled to receive either the Platinum Grant or the Demise Grant, whichever becomes applicable earlier. For officers who die in harness, retired officer with 20 years of service and those invalided out, irrespective of the length of service, receive a lump sum grant of Rs 50,000. This is proportionately reduced for retired officer having service less than 20 years.

On closure of the fund, the subscriptions made by all officers, equivalent to the savings component of an insurance scheme, will be refunded on a pro-rata basis, depending on the total subscription made and availability of the fund.

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DISABLED PERSONS

TELEGRAPH, DEC 1, 2017A dynamic concept- No country for the disabled

Jayati GuptaIt took our country over four-and-a-half decades after Independence to bring about the specific legislation regarding people with disabilities (1995) and the Persons with Disabilities Act to ensure equal opportunities, protection of rights and full participation was put in place. It took another 21 years for the Lok Sabha to pass the rights of persons with disabilities bill, 2016 that significantly amended portions of the previous act.

The new act is expected to be proactive in bringing our law in line with the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities that was passed by the General Assembly in 2006 and to which India was a signatory. The all-out effort is largely to enhance the rights and entitlements of the disabled as well as to provide effective mechanisms for ensuring their empowerment and true inclusion into society in a satisfactory manner. The positive aspect of this development is that recent years have seen a paradigm shift where the differently abled are given a chance to actively assert their rights rather than passively endure acts of charity emerging from emotions of sympathy. Sadly enough, there is a gaping mismatch between intentions formulated through government laws and acts and their implementation.

A more down-to-earth, hands-on involvement where several practical provisions may be considered as a way of addressing the "evolving and dynamic concept" of disability (as the new act defines the modifications) needs to be effectively planned. For this, it is not just enough to follow the letter of the law, confer with administrative policy-makers or devise departments to bureaucratically implement schemes. What is needed are meaningful discussions with all stakeholders as well as communities - activists, family, support groups and, where possible, various categories of the disabled whose empowerment and well-being are in focus.

Disability is more often seen as a permanent state of physical or psychological impairment rather than as a fluid condition. The categorization of disabilities in the 2016 bill that has replaced the PWD Act of 1995 attempts to become more exhaustive without addressing the social and cultural implications of even 'normal' individuals who through natural processes of ageing or disease, accident or trauma are rendered impaired. The uncertainties of the disabled condition, societal perception of deviant physical or mental states and resulting cultural complexities make it difficult to define or measure degrees of disability. Although disability is a variable and changing condition, it is mandatory for a certificate of disability to fix the percentage of impairment. A lack of flexibility in governmental and administrative functioning results in recent situations like that of a person with 83 per cent cerebral palsy being denied the mandatory Aadhaar card because in this specific case it was not possible without special provisions to conduct the biometric verifications. A rethink or simple awareness could have saved the person several humiliating interchanges and, finally, visits to the court for judicial redress. The media later reported that representatives from the eastern regional centre of the Unique Identification Authority of India had now made a home visit to set the enrolment process in motion. The question is why a disabled person has to face anxieties and ordeals in public life owing to negligence, general apathy and lack of informed views on disability.

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Very recently one notices that several of our universities are conducting courses in disability studies, a new multidisciplinary niche that emerges out of worldwide disability rights movements of the 1970s and 1980s that had, in fact, prepared the primary groundwork for its academic discussion. Courses in disability studies seek to disengage impairments from myths and stigma that influence social interaction and social policy. Scholarly discourse in the field takes into cognizance the shift away from a focus on individual deficiency or pathology to the idea that the socio-economic status and the roles of persons with disabilities are inevitably shaped by socially constructed barriers - prejudice, exclusion, inaccessibility. Redressal is attempted through addressing issues across a range of variable disability factors to generate conceptual debates hinging on justice, ethics and morality.

However, it remains to be seen how this emergent discipline can impact the realities of the Indian scenario where mandatory provisions for an inclusive environment are either blatantly flouted or half-heartedly implemented since general awareness is as abysmal as practical considerations are warped. From personal experience let me make a simple accessibility audit for wheelchair or orthopaedically disadvantaged persons in public buildings, including premier educational institutions or malls. Most new buildings do have ramps in place and elevators, but in several cases, infrequently used ramps are overgrown with weeds, slippery with moss, especially during the monsoon season or unkempt, to say the least. Sometimes ramps are hastily constructed at an impossible incline, neglecting standard specifications. In old buildings, the elevators are frequently non-functional and may be very inconveniently located in some inconspicuous alcove, with no signboards indicating to a first-time user the lie of the land. Our historical monuments are mostly inaccessible to persons with orthopaedic and motor disabilities as also to the aged and the infirm. Expert advice could certainly be solicited to keep the heritage structure intact even when instituting changes to make these sites more wheelchair-friendly. On the other hand, our swanky malls or public spaces, some, if not all of our libraries and archives, galleries or museums that clear the primary accessibility audit have no provision to keep a few usable wheelchairs on the premises. This would be a practical solution for any wheelchair user visiting these venues. A difference has to be recognized between a wheelchair-bound person who has to always travel with one's own wheelchair and a person needing to use a wheelchair for easier mobility largely to reduce the strain and inconvenience.

At the National Convention of Youth with Disabilities in Delhi, it was revealed that not even one per cent of educational institutions in the country is disabled friendly. If demographically charted, over 50 per cent of our disabled are under 25 years of age, and they need access to education and employment opportunities. In the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, the quota for students with disabilities has been increased by one per cent. However, the quota on paper is of no use unless the ground realities register a marked improvement.

Prakash Javadekar, the Union minister for human resource development, announced a few months back that the government had decided to set up a Central university to cater to the needs of the disabled students across the country. This violates the principle of inclusive education where the differently abled are accommodated in classrooms along with other 'normal' students which could encourage interaction and sensitization. One also wonders whether the minister was even aware of the complex problems faced by people struggling to cope with their aberrant bodies or wayward minds. In this heroic effort in living their daily lives, each disabled individual

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needs some form of support, mostly from within the family or from a familiar social environment. One Central university for a country where, going by the census data of 2011 (that stands updated in 2016), 2.68 crore, that is 2.21 per cent of India's population, is disabled? The potential university entrants in the age group of 20-29 are 16 per cent of this population of the disabled. Moreover, where is the infrastructure to handle the separate categories of disabilities, each with its own special or differential needs? What are the support systems of caregivers that are likely to be set up? How will trained faculty for teaching the sight and hearing impaired or those with more specific learning disabilities be sourced? Most important, such a university will only further marginalize the disabled individual from the mainstream rather than rehabilitate him or her into it.

The need of the hour in India is visibility of the disabled in the public sphere or in responsible positions through empowerment and integration, by drawing them from the periphery into mainstream activities. Sensitization can only happen by closely interacting with the physically challenged and involving them in social, cultural, economic participation, thereby ensuring healthy, inclusive development of the nation. This will be possible by creating an enabling environment - revamp of transport systems, increased accessibility to public spaces, creating special facilities for each kind of disability in educational institutes and workplaces and providing access to digital needs. The fissures in schemes devised for the disabled in India continue to make life difficult for them. Increased general awareness, followed up by more consistent models of care and concern can generate friendlier enabling environments for the disabled in the country. For a vast country like ours with severe economic disparities, entrenched social hierarchies and rural-urban divides, it is a complex, but not an impossible, vision of change. Can we, as a nation, muster the will to become more sensitized to our differently abled population?

EDUCATION

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STATESMAN, DEC 5, 2017World-class campus~IAK GHOSH    

The Prime Minister’s recent announcement that Rs 10,000 crore would be allocated to the country’s top 20 universities for their upgrade to global standards may be described as a step forward towards achieving the commitment made by the previous government to set up 20 “world class universities”. It is presumed that 10 private and 10 public institutions of higher learning will be designated “world class institutions deemed to be universities”. It must be conceded, however, that there are uncertainties and misgivings in our Prime Minister’s vision Plans for such upgradation are marked more by political expediency and zeal; they do not reflect the vindication of the people’s will.

There must be some substance in what the Planning Commission’s then Deputy Chairman, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, had said a decade ago at a meeting on higher education ~ “It will take 15-20 years for a new university to achieve world class standards. And world class universities require resources that are way beyond the scope of the government”.

India has of late slipped in world university rankings, falling from 31 to 30 in the global list of 1000 campuses, as per the latest data published in the Times Higher Education supplement. It is cause for concern that no Higher Education Institution in India finds a slot in the top 20. The excellence of an institution, going by global standards, is measured by the parameters of QS accreditation, namely, academic reputation, employer reputation, student-teacher ratio, citation per faculty, international faculty ratio and the international student ratio. Apart from international rankings, other parameters of judging quality of an HEI are employability and employer satisfaction. A recent survey conducted by World Bank and FICCI revealed that about 64 per cent of Indian employers are not satisfied with the quality of engineering graduates passing out from Indian HEIs.

In view of the fact that Indian universities have drawn a blank in the ratings of the world’s top 100 educational institutions, it is time to consider that if we aim at dominating the global discourse, we need universities that not only create skilled human resources but also encourage indigenous research and development and instil scientific thinking among the people.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development has also identified the quality deficit in our higher education system which has paid more attention to access and equity than to quality and excellence. This may well be exemplified by the number of HEIs in our country, constituting the third largest system in the world and comprising 759 universities, which include 47 central universities, 350 state universities, 123 deemed universities and 239 private universities. As of July 2016 enumeration, these institutions produce five million graduates and postgraduates every year. However, the fact remains that even after this exhaustive data, the Gross Enrolment Ratio is only around 20 per cent.

The government had planned to set up 14 central government-run world class universities with the motto of competing with the best higher education institutions across the world. On the

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contrary, in order to raise enrolment levels in higher education and ensure academic standards, the National Knowledge Commission suggested the restructuring of large universities into smaller ones and allowing autonomous colleges to expand to universities.

Things appear shabbier still if one cares to look at the present educational scenario, unmistakably characterised by laxity and financial constraints. Does the government have the required funds and the will to implement the envisaged plans, the required vision and perspective to give meaning and relevance to them? Experience does suggest that the so-called “inflation” of the establishment in the field of higher education without a clear perspective of its role in terms of growth, has turned out to be hazardous both for the health of education and the development of society. The drive for literacy as an absolute measure of welfare, the universalisation of primary and secondary education undertaken as a welfare measure is to be welcomed. But expansion of higher education without ensuring the desirable quantum, quality and the kind of output to be received by society, is questionable. The society of course requires philosophers and scientists oriented towards the inculcation of values.

But for that we have enough universities in India. What we need today is the acceptance of the modern perception of the university’s role which ought to be focused on utilitarian interpretation tempered by social idealism. After Independence, the department of education, set up in 1945, was converted to a ministry of education. The University Education Commission (1948-49) recommended rapid expansion of higher education “on a priority basis” and the period from 1947 to 1950 saw the establishment of seven new universities. Since then, there has been a phenomenal growth of higher education. But sadly, in the garb of quantitative expansion, there has been a total qualitative failure.

This is evident from the huge pool of educated persons who are unemployable. This, in turn, points to a low standard of education. There is admittedly a state of near anarchy even in the administration of existing facilities leading to social tensions and mediocrity of output. Much of this is traceable to ethical, moral and social values being divorced from the educational process.

This can have far-reaching consequences on the quality of manpower which holds the key to our country’s progress, In fact, the expansion of higher education has been the most important post-war trend, regardless of the political system, the level of economic development, or educational ideology. It had expanded dramatically first in the USA, then in Europe and currently the main focus of expansion is the Third World.

The higher education scenario in India today can be compared to the post-war situation in the UK, when new universities were set up to meet the genuine demand which Oxford and Cambridge would not supply. It was marked by lack of financial resources and circumscribed by a dearth of intelligent students. In general, these universities came into being in a haphazard manner in response to certain societal needs.

(The writer is former Associate Professor, Dept. of English, Gurudas College, Kolkata)

STATESMAN, DEC 6, 2017World-class campus~II

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AK Ghosh 

It appears that educational institutions in India have been plagued by the perquisites of the Nehruvian state that guaranteed an endless flow of taxpayers’ money without any accountability in terms of quality of teaching and research. But the yardstick of efficiency, productivity and utilisation of resources, the mushroom expansion of the education system has broken down completely . Insensitive to the changing context of contemporary life and unresponsive to the changes of today and tomorrow, higher education may be referred to as an immobile colossus. It is so absorbed in trying to preserve its structural form that it does now have the time to consider its own larger objectives.

Further, due to the absence of a single machinery to look after the planning of higher education and centre-state relations on the basis of cooperative federalism in higher education, there is no viable alternative. A vicious cycle of mediocrity has come to prevail which puts the entire education system beyond redemption.

It may be politically expedient to increase the number of colleges and universities in order to make them accessible to all. This expansion would not have marred education had it been accompanied by sincere measures of consolidation and standardisation, as also by a perspective plan of linking universities with production units for ensuring growth targets.

When the Centre unveiled its New Education Policy, beneficiaries of higher education were sceptical about the prospect of privatisation. However, the subject remained a debating topic until cuts in government grants began to take effect.

Many states started encouraging privatisation of higher learning, particularly professional education, and several universities were inclined to generate funds through distance education. vocational courses. Higher fees were introduced for these centres and the hitherto astonishingly low fees for general education were also increased. But it was observed that such

initiatives were actually cosmetic attempts to cope with reality, indeed the fact that the

system itself had become dysfunctional.

Students of the higher education centres form a rather privileged group on whom the state spends a lot and expects a suitable return. Opening the doors of higher education to students who are not serious, while the masses remain illiterate, is a luxury the state can ill afford. The only justification for state funding of higher education can be the promotion of excellence in society’s pursuit of knowledge. Enough facilities are available for those who want to make it to the higher levels of learning.

Correspondence courses, open universities and online learning show the way.

More often than not, higher education delays the days of fruitful endeavour for the average learner. Like Eliza Doolittle in Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, who was transformed from a self-

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sufficient flower girl to a useless society lady, these young men actually become less self-reliant as a result of their wasteful study. Also, the unwarranted expansion bestows a false sense of righteousness on the political, bureaucratic and educational leadership, preventing them from shouldering the responsibility of discharging their duty.

There is a popular misconception that students are the beneficiaries of higher education. A nation like ours, which stipulates no higher education for its President, for its ministers, and for its chief of industry, is able to get all the clerks it needs without waiting for them to be graduates and postgraduates. Considering that there is so little available for elementary education, is it fair to demand subsidised higher education even if there is no economic or professional need for it?

Because of the unplanned growth of higher education, there is a shortage of qualified people in certain disciplines particularly in the frontier areas of knowledge and technology. The system is thus unable to fulfil its primary objective of providing manpower to a knowledge-intensive economy. The Kothari Commission pointed out that the average standard of higher education has been falling and that rapid expansion has resulted in the lowering of quality. If the CAG reports are any indication, there is little doubt that the major problem of our university education system is its unplanned growth. The shameful performance of our postgraduates in NET etc raises questions about the credibility of degrees awarded by our highest institutions of learning.

Restructuring the University Grants Commission, autonomy for major institutes, emphasis on “outcome-based learning”, and formation of a national testing agency might be radical steps towards enhancing quality without putting a sizeable burden on the government exchequer. While about 6 per cent of the GDP is allocated to the education sector almost on a regular basis to lend an impetus to quality education, a revised system of fund allocation would be welcome to improve India’s prospects as a nation that is keen on building its human capital. With an eye on world-class infrastructure, some premier institutes could have been supported in addition to the previous allocations.

Higher education suffers from a massive faculty crunch, and it is certain that hiring quality teachers for world class universities will prove a challenge before the HRD ministry. It is encouraging to aim at excellence, but unlike the proliferation of business schools, a world class institute cannot be established in haste. A high-level committee of the HRD ministry has criticised the chaotic expansion in higher education and has suggested the formation of a single apex body instead of other regulatory bodies like UGC, AICTE and MCI. It has also recommended that the government should interfere less in academic and administrative matters.

Unfortunately, the Centre is yet to venture in the right direction. The government must wake up to the failure of its Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and midday meal schemes and learn from its mistakes prior to venturing towards upgradation of world class universities. Envisaging world class universities without aproper vision would be delusory; it is like asking for the moon. Let us hope that the most ennobling legacy that our Prime Minister can bequeath to the country is pursuit of excellence in higher education, lest we should forget that Modi’s “vibrant Gujarat’ had registered a consistent decline in most of the learning indicators a decade ago, often falling below the national average in both literacy and numbers.

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The writer is former Associate Professor, Dept. of English, Gurudas College, Kolkata

HINDU, DEC 6, 2017Pakistan textbooks glorifying war: UNESCOVikas Pathak

Report also blames Indian texts from 2002 that have ‘bias’ against Muslims

The Global Education Monitoring Report 2017-18 of the United Nations Educational,

Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), released on Monday, expresses concern

over school textbooks in many countries glorifying war and military heroes rather than

teaching peace, non-violence and reconciliation.

It says that that just 10% of the textbooks across the world include explicit statements on the

need for conflict prevention and resolution.

Historical errors

The report offers the example of textbooks in Pakistan that focus on militarism, wars with

India and differences between Hindus and Muslims.

“Textbooks that glorify war and military heroes, exclude pluralistic perspectives or

undermine other peoples or ethnicities can make teaching peace, non-violence and

reconciliation difficult,” says the report. “In Pakistan, textbooks have been criticised for

normalising militarism and war and including biases and historical errors and distortions.

Prominent Pakistanis other than military heroes and nationalist movement leaders are often

excluded.”

It adds, “Pakistani textbooks published after a 2006 curriculum reform still emphasised wars

with India and largely ignored peace initiatives. They also perpetuated a narrative of conflict

and historic grievances between Muslims and Hindus, rather than discussing the potential

for conflict resolution and reconciliation.”

Seeing deterioration in Indian textbooks, too, on this ground, the report says, “For their part,

Indian history textbooks from 2002 put the blame on Pakistan and contained clear bias

against Muslim elements in the region’s history.”

The time pertains to the replacement of the history textbooks that had been in circulation

since the 1970s by the Vajpayee government in the early 2000s.

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Emphasising that textbooks shape young minds powerfully as they trust them as a prime

source of knowledge, the report says, “However, textbooks in many countries fail to deal

comprehensively with concepts that are crucial for social cohesion and political stability,

including peace and non-violence.”

ELECTIONS

TRIBUNE, DEC 7, 2017

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Crafting electoral politics in GujaratPramod KumarThe election is being fought on the turf of religious identity, caste categories and personality of leaders rather than on the performance of the incumbent government.

The outcome of Gujarat elections will be a precursor to the 2019 parliamentary elections. If this election goes the Congress way, a weak Modi will be in the fray in 2019. However, if it goes the BJP way, a weak Congress will have no choice but to transform its politics radically for its survival in the electoral game.

Earlier elections in Gujarat have shown that ideologies are relevant to win elections. And, as such, an effortless anti-incumbency campaign may not, on its own, dislodge the incumbent government. For the present election, the same is true. The only difference is that there is widespread dissatisfaction amongst the voters. As the electoral scene is hotting up, the parties in fray are trying to outcompete each other on the same turf be it religiosity, caste based reservations, caste arithmetic and religious polarization, of-course garnished with development rhetoric and populist bluster. No signs of alternate political discourse.

The expansion of the right wing politics coincided with the transformation of economy from command to market economy in the nineties. Modi’s emergence as a leader in Gujarat can be located in this transformation. Thus, the so-called Gujarat model of development in terms of economic reforms is no different from the model adopted in the country in the nineties. The difference lies in its implementation without moderating the negative impact on poor farmers, workers and people, and in its blending with the right wing ideology.

Historically, political parties, be it the Congress or the BJP, are on the same side of the neo-liberal path of development, but the electoral discourse conveniently located crony capitalism, unemployment, poverty and inequalities in policy paralysis and/or incapacity of the leadership to carry forward the neo-liberal agenda. In other words, during the Congress regime, it was attributed to policy paralysis and now, on the incapacity of the incumbent leadership to address the crises. So, whatever consequences of growth Gujarat has experienced, the same can be seen as a precursor to the things to come in other parts of India.

Gujarat has experienced faster economic growth. Has this growth been inclusive? Studies have shown that the workers received only 8.3 per cent of the value added, while the rest was pocketed by profiteers. In terms of the share of the workers' wages in other states, the value addition is better, for instance, in Kerala it is 22.47 per cent, West Bengal 21.90 per cent, Tamil Nadu 16.37 per cent and Punjab 15.27 per cent (The Hindu, September 27, 2012).

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Then what is the Gujarat model of development? It is growth without moderation of inequities, privatisation of health and education. Historically, the BJP in Gujarat has nurtured regional aspirations, patronised new aspirational class filtered through the regionalised version of Hindutva, particularly post liberalisation. The whole tenor of electoral mobilisation in Gujarat has been a clever blend of Gujarat ka gaurav and Hindutva identity. 

Electoral discourse in Gujarat has three dimensions. 

1Firstly, it revolves around mobilisations on regionalised Hindutva identity leading to polarisation in 62 urban constituencies on religious lines, whereas, in rural areas on caste-cum-class lines. 

2Secondly, to counter this, Mandal versus Kamandal politics of 1980s has been invoked by coopting Hardik Patel (reservation for the Patidar caste), Alpesh Thakur (reservation for OBCs) and Jignesh (reservation and welfare for the Dalits). The opposition is relying on simple arithmetic that is the sum total of Hardik Patel, Alpesh and Jignesh will ensure the defeat of the BJP. This is not the way electoral politics works. For instance, the Patidars' manifest protest is for seeking reservation in government jobs, but the crux of the unrest is in their relative deprivation: in short, the loss of political power. Similarly, the Dalits who constitute around seven per cent may find it difficult to go along with the Patidars with whom they have major contradictions at the village level. Further, the OBCs may see their share in reservations reduced if Patidars are included in the OBC list. Then, the Patels are divided into two groups: Leuva and Kadvas. Hardik has a major support base in the Kadva Patels while the BJP in Leuva Patels. To overcome heterogeneity amongst the Patidars, the authority of religious 'dhams' is being invoked. Both the BJP and Congress are making rounds of religious dhams to overcome these differentiations within the caste groups. It is nothing, but competitive communalism.

3The third issue is the use of gaurav of Gujarat as a universal category that appears to be purer and unadulterated through a clever underplaying of the structural inequalities of caste, religion and ethnicity. And, since the Opposition has made Modi the fulcrum of the elections, defeat of the BJP in Gujarat is being propagated as a precursor to Modi's defeat in the 2019 elections. That is not liked by many voters as they see Modi as the gaurav of Gujarat.

No doubt, the voters are dissatisfied with the 22 years of anti-incumbency and the leadership's incompetence to manage the contradictions in society, economy, and politics. However, the electoral campaign could not converge the national and local issues like demonetisation and GST with local issues of unequal access to education, health, poverty, hunger, and employment. The election is being fought on the turf of religious identity, caste categories and personality of

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leaders rather than on the performance of the incumbent government-advantage the BJP. The electoral outcomes will be largely influenced by electoral arithmetic and electoral management.

 

EMPLOYMENT

HINDUSTAN TIMES, DEC 1, 2017Are tests such as CAT to blame for unemployment among MBAs?

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The skill sets that show up well on exams such as CAT and GMAT and on which students are initially chosen, increasingly do not map with industry needs.

Shubhro Sen 

Many MBAs who have recently graduated from India’s more than 4000 management institutes

are unemployed. A news magazine claimed that “93% of Indian management graduates are

‘unemployable’. While we can contest the statistics, we also need to reflect seriously on what

this says about the universities from where they graduated. Are standardised tests such as CAT to

blame?

While standardised exams such as CAT are not solely to blame – there are very sound reasons

for many institutions to utilise them— the poor employment outcomes do raise a red flag about:

the curricula, the faculty, the manner in which education is imparted and tested, placement

support and the selection process itself.

Standardised tests do have a function in a country like India, where the student demographic is

large. It performs the important task of swift and painless initial filtering of candidates. But what

are we trading away in return for institutional convenience and the seeming ‘clarity’ of the merit

list?

Principally, the correlation of CAT scores by themselves with future career success has always

been weak. In the radically changed, rapidly evolving competitive business environment, it is

weaker still.

The skill sets that show up well on exams such as CAT and GMAT and on which students are

initially chosen, increasingly do not match with industry needs.

Institutions need to prepare them to be the ‘new charioteers’ of the constantly evolving digital

world. They must become agile learners, be comfortable in volatile competitive situations and

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rapidly update their strategies and business approaches on the fly. Unlike earlier, when students

got the chance to learn “on the job”, nowadays, businesses do not always have that luxury. They

require MBAs who can hit the ground running. Therefore, the onus of selecting and developing

MBA candidates who will flourish in this competitive environment lies with the educational

institutions.

Top business schools around the world and in India have begun the process of de-emphasising

standardised tests and in certain cases, eliminate their use altogether in the admissions process.

They are putting greater focus on essays, layered interviews, interactions and assessments

designed to test mental agility, collaboration skills, and technology literacy.

What does this mean for both institutions and future MBA aspirants? For institutions, even as

they move to modify their curricula and connect their learning to emerging need areas, it is

important that they address any existing selection gaps. A big step is to devote more time and

resources to the selection and screening process by adopting a more comprehensive approach

that allows space for individual talent and expression to emerge, as opposed to screening it out

with test scores. For aspirants, study the institution’s offerings much more closely, continue to

upgrade yourself /acquire new skills and knowledge outside your curriculum; engage in projects

and competitions that force you to address real world problems and most importantly, become

accountable to yourself for your future job and career. For both institution and MBA aspirant

there is one common point: To be well selected means being well placed.

Shubhro Sen is director of School of Extended Education and Professional Development and

School of Management and Entrepreneurship ) at Shiv Nadar University.

The views expressed are personal

HEALTH SERVICES

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TRIBUNE, DEC 5, 2017Not hale, not heartyJayshree SenguptaPublic healthcare needs urgent attention

RECENTLY all of us were shocked when a private hospital charged Rs 15.7 lakh for the treatment of a child suffering from dengue who did not even survive. Unfortunately, most of us are forced to go to private doctors and hospitals when illness strikes us because public hospitals are terribly overcrowded and the quality of care is generally low. Unless you are a VVIP you are not likely to get special care in a public hospital.

First of all one must ask why are dengue cases on the rise and why hasn’t the government been able to control the disease through its much-touted Swachh Bharat drive? How is it that mosquitoes, which are the cause of the disease, are still breeding freely at all times, especially during rainy season? While there were 99,913 cases of dengue, with 220 deaths in 2015, there were 129,166 cases and 245 deaths in 2016. 

Like in the case of the child who died from dengue and was in the ICU for 15 days, private hospitals are often motivated to inflate the bill by charging excessive amounts for gloves, syringes and medicines used in the treatment. The bill is often crammed with items that are hard to comprehend and cannot be challenged by the patient. It shows utter lack of ethics in private healthcare today in big cities and something urgently should be done about it, like the speedy implementation of the Clinical Establishment Act, passed in 2010, by all states.

Not only seasonal diseases need to be controlled and eradicated, but also communicable diseases like TB, from which around 5 lakh people die every year. India has the highest number of TB cases in the world.  Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are also on the rise. According to the Director-General, WHO,  Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, “Bolder political action is needed to address constraints in controlling NCDs including the mobilisation of domestic and external resources and safeguarding communities from interference by powerful economic operators.” Indeed, big hospitals are like big corporations and are powerful economic operators. It is very difficult for an average person to fight and sue a hospital or a surgeon.

The result of this growing power of private hospitals and doctors is that the average person is burdened by the stress of impending healthcare costs. Anybody who does not have a health insurance hesitates to go to private hospitals. In India, only about 18 per cent of the urban and 14 per cent of the population has any kind of health insurance. Many people with low incomes are reduced to penury when they go for private treatment of a disease like cancer as they have to

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raise their own resources from family or friends, and in many cases, the moneylender. Around 63 million people are pushed into poverty due to healthcare costs, increasing income inequality further.

Since the burden of non-communicable diseases is on the rise, what is the government doing? Cancer, diabetes and heart diseases alone account for 55 per cent of the premature mortality in India in the age group of 30-69. More and more people are suffering from cardio-vascular diseases which are the highest killer in India. In years to come, the respiratory diseases will increase manifold due to the increasing air pollution. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) claimed 3.6 million lives in 2015. More people are likely to die from it in the future. 

Public health is the worst spot in India’s economic path under the NDA government despite a recent rise in GDP growth. Without a healthy population and labour force, India cannot hope to compete with countries in the West or ASEAN. Yet scant attention is being paid to the state of public healthcare where thousands are forced to go for treatment. People with limited budgets are also reluctant to go to private hospitals because they are asked to undergo a number of unnecessary tests which burn a hole in the patients’ pocket. Even though similar tests take a long time in public hospitals, they are often free. Private hospitals, on the other hand, are run on profit motive and each doctor has to contribute to the total revenue earned by the hospital. They are incentivised to push patients into the ICU and also fill hospital beds. Their performance and promotion depend on whether they fulfil such criteria.

There have been cases where unnecessary and costly surgeries have been performed in private hospitals and, sometimes, it has resulted in death. The overuse of antibiotics has led to their resistance in India in a big way and the appearance of superbugs.

The solution lies in the government becoming more vigilant regarding malpractices by hospitals but there is no substitute to having better public hospitals and reliable healthcare. Private hospitals should be told to charge according to the actual cost of the treatment plus a small profit margin that can be ploughed back into the hospital’s improvement. And in order to have better public healthcare, there is no option for the government but to increase the budgetary allocation on health. Yet the percentage of GDP allocated for health by the Union government in the last Budget was only 1.9 per cent. It has not been increased to 2.5 per cent despite the recommendation of several expert committee reports headed by renowned doctors. In India, the out-of-pocket expenditure by a person is one of the highest in the world, where 82.2 per cent of the expenditure for treatment is borne by the patient.

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Thus while the government is very keen on promoting medical tourism, there is scant attention

being paid to the needs of the common person through improvement of public healthcare. While

it is true that many Indian doctors are world class and can perform complicated surgeries for a

fraction of the cost charged by hospitals in developed countries and many foreigners are, indeed,

coming for joint replacements and bypass surgeries, the Union Health Minister ought to improve

the precarious state of public healthcare. It is strange that in a country with so many super-

speciality hospitals all of us are worried about the quality and reliability of healthcare.

HISTORY

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HINDU, DEC 6, 2017India’s plural soulGopalkrishna GandhiAn assassination, a demolition and a portrait’s unveiling together spelt the polarisation of IndiaThe partitioning of India broke us, shamed us. It is estimated that nearly two million were

slaughtered during the weeks around Partition, almost no Muslim surviving in East Punjab

and no Hindu or Sikh in West Punjab. About 7.5 million Muslims left India for the newly

formed state of Pakistan and about 7.5 million Hindus trekked to the new India from

Pakistan. Both sets of displaced persons were seeking the security of a religious majority,

their majority.

Gandhi’s scorching presence, the new government’s unwavering commitment to pluralism

and the humanity of millions of ordinary people saved the tragedy from becoming a

cataclysm.

The triptych of an agenda

After that traumatic year, three dates, three events, shook Indian pluralism again. Gandhi’s

assassination — January 30, 1948; the Babri Masjid demolition — December 6, 1992, and

the unveiling of V.D. Savarkar’s portrait in Parliament House — February 26, 2003

The first of these three saw a believer in the criticality of India’s pluralism being put to

death. The second witnessed a pre-eminent Islamic monument reduced to rubble. The third

valorised a man who believed India was meant to be a Hindu Rashtra. The first was murder,

the second vandalism, the third a celebration.

Those three form a triptych.

All three occurrences singed India’s plural soul.

Their “work” is still on. It is still affecting ways of thinking, acting, reacting.

The assassination was a carefully planned plot by people who owed allegiance to the

concept of a Hindu Rashtra. Its aim was threefold: punish, by murder, one who believed

India to be the home of all the faith traditions in it, reverse Gandhi’s idea of “Ishvar Allah

Tere Naam”, pronounce the primacy and power of Hinduism in India. It was meant to tell

the Muslims of India that they were here by leave of the Hindus and that all talk of Hindu-

Muslim unity and equality was sentimental and meaningless.

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Gandhi’s killing traumatised the country. It devastated Muslims in India. Whowould,

hereafter, be its rakhvala (protector)? Nehru said that evening: “The light has gone out of

our lives and there is darkness everywhere.” For India’s Muslims who had said “no” to

Pakistan and stayed back in India because they had faith in Gandhi’s India, that darkness

was real. Along with the light, the oxygen of confidence in the air fled, too.

Several years and countless Hindu-Muslim riots later, the unhealed wound on India’s plural

ethos was violently cut open once again.

Another dateline

Ayodhya, December 6, 1992 is a dateline, a hate-line, a fate-line.

Babri Masjid, the 16th century mosque was built spitefully, it is said, on the exact spot in

Ayodhya, where Rama was born. In fact, the pious say, a temple stood where the mosque

came up. The mosque had, over the years, become a contested site, a Hindu v Muslim

akhara. And on that day, Hindu muscle power asserted itself. Watched by unwitting, unsure

or captive seniors of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and with a police force unable or

unwilling to intervene, 1,50,000 delirious Hindu kar sevaks brought the mosque down.

In the rubble lay all hope for Hindu-Muslim concord. In it lay shattered Muslim trust in

India’s secular future. And in it lay tattered, the Constitution’s guarantees about the freedom

of religious belief.

The broken stones said more: Here rises, at long last, they proclaimed, Veer Savarkar’s

dream of a Hindu Rashtra.

India partitioned was now India polarised.

Savarkar’s spirit must have felt more than fulfilled.

Moving over to Parliament

A decade later, the BJP in power at the Centre, decided that for Savarkar’s fulfilment to be

complete, due ceremony was in order. It decided to place in Parliament House’s Central

Hall, along with portraits of the Greats of India’s freedom struggle, a portrait of this

freedom fighter as well. Savarkar was, of course, a fighter for India’s freedom. On his terms,

in his own light. With Mohammed Ali Jinnah, also a freedom fighter according to his own

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terms and his own lights, Savarkar believed that Hindus and Muslims formed Two Nations.

Jinnah realised his goal with Partition. Savarkar did not, could not, for India insisted,

through its Constitution, its laws and public policy pronouncements, that it was secular.

Asoka’s Lion Capital was, after all, the Republic of India’s new emblem.

Savarkar’ dream remained un-realised until the unveiling of the portrait. That completed the

triptych.

The unveiling in Parliament House did three things. First, it placed against the Indian

Republic a conceptual alternative — Hindu Rashtra. Second, it made demolition the exact

co-relative of construction. Third, it made Veer Savarkar, the precise opposite number of

Mahatma Gandhi. And thereby, his peer, alternative and equal. It juxtaposed the Two

Nations theorist against the One Nation preceptor.

An agenda at work

The assassination, the demolition and the portrait’s unveiling, together, go to spell a long

word with a short agenda: polarisation.

The ghastly terrorist attacks in Mumbai of 1993, in Parliament House of 2001 and again in

Mumbai in 2008 may or may not have been retaliatory for Ayodhya. I believe the attacks

would have happened, Ayodhya or no Ayodhya. For such is the blind bloodlust of terror,

such the radicalisation of unemployed, callow youth in Pakistan. And such the mutually

nourishing agenda of polarisation.

That agenda, as I said, remains at work. The Ayodhya dateline etched hate, stretched fate —

the fate of secularism — to its limits. It continues to do so.

The demolition in Ayodhya was the first step. Like a bhumi-puja. The second step is the

building of the temple. The third, its consecration. And there will be as many more steps as

the rites of polarisation require.

The building of a Ram temple at the site of the Masjid is not going to be easy. But keeping

the idea of that building alive is all too easy.

For polarisers, better than a temple built is a temple that is waiting to be built. It keeps

spirits up, tensions high. It keeps terrorists on the other side activated. And it keeps cadres

on this side motivated.

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December 6, 1992 is not a fading date in history; it is marked ochre red in the future

calendars of the Hindu Rashtra. For those who hailed it, the 25th “anniversary” of the

demolition promises future sport. For those who were aghast by it, it promises future

struggle.

The struggle to keep polarisation at bay will be unrelenting for the memories of Partition

and the mayhem of terror will keep churning up hate, fear. Bigots face each other,

unblinkingly. Their bigotry feeds each other, untiringly. The higher the Hindu bigotry in

India, the happier the Islamic zealotry in Pakistan. Polarisation is their common

nourishment.

But hate and fear are not a normal condition; fanaticism not a natural emotion. Plain

common sense and Gandhi’s miraculously still-alive spirit have staved off communal

frenzy. Never more effectively than when bloodthirsty terrorists sought to mutilate life in

Mumbai in 1993 and then to maim the House of India’s Parliament in 2001. All of India

could have erupted then into communal frenzy, but it did not. Likewise, when Gujarat 2002

could have spread, but did not.

The India of Asoka, Akbar, Gandhi, Nehru, Ambedkar is strong but pinioned under the

blades of the Two Nations theory. It is for the inheritors of their India to match the date-

lines of hate and the fate-lines of death with the life-line that Gandhi made from the

essences, the intangible susman of his belief that India is One Nation and Ishvar Allah two

names, among other ones, for the One.

Gopalkrishna Gandhi is a former administrator, diplomat and Governor

HUMAN RIGHTS

HINDU, DEC 4, 2017The gag on free speechGautam Bhatia

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Recent actions by the Indian judiciary suggest a trend of creeping censorship

On Wednesday, a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Court, hearing the

Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter cases, issued a gag order

prohibiting the press from reporting on the court proceedings. This order, allegedly issued at

the behest of the lawyers for the defence has come only a few days after the Allahabad High

Court gagged the media from reporting on an ongoing case concerning an alleged instance

of hate speech by the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, in 2007, who was

then a Bharatiya Janata Party parliamentarian from Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh.

A growing trend

These two instances, which are not isolated, are representative of an alarming trend of

creeping judicial censorship, increasingly across large domains. The Indian judiciary has

had a historically ambivalent relationship with free speech, from upholding the

constitutionality of sedition in 1962, to endorsing the law of criminal defamation in 2016.

Recently, however, it has begun to go further than simply rejecting constitutional challenges

to the state’s speech-restrictive laws. Traversing well beyond the bounds of the Constitution,

it has begun to actively censor or compel speech of its own accord, without even the

existence of a parliamentary law on the subject. Recent, notorious examples include the

Bombay High Court constituting a “committee” to recommend cuts to the satirical film,

“Jolly LLB 2”, the Madras High Court telling condom manufacturers to have the

illustrations on their packets cleared by the Advertising Standards Council of India, and

the Supreme Court directing cinema halls to play the national anthem before the screening

of every movie.

However, the CBI Court and the Allahabad High Court’s gag orders, are significantly more

serious because they strike at the heart of our system of democratic governance. The task of

courts under the Constitution is to deliver justice, and a functional democracy is defined by

a justice system that is open, transparent, and, above all, public. The authority of judges and

courts, we must always remember, stems not from popular consent and periodic elections,

but from their fidelity to the laws and the Constitution, and the strength and quality of their

legal reasoning. For these reasons, “secret justice” — bringing to mind the infamous trials of

the Star Chamber in medieval England — is a paradox in terms. As the great British judge,

Lord Diplock, noted, “if the way that courts behave cannot be hidden from the public ear

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and eye, this provides a safeguard against judicial arbitrariness or idiosyncrasy and

maintains the public confidence in the administration of justice.”

Tracing the line

Unfortunately, however, the judicial gag orders, by the CBI Court and the Allahabad High

Court, were enabled, at least in part, by the Supreme Court itself (although it is questionable

whether the CBI Court had even the power to pass a gag order, let us assume, for the

purpose of argument, that it did). In 2012, the Supreme Court held that in certain

circumstances, courts could pass “postponement orders” barring coverage of specific

judicial proceedings. The court framed the issue as requiring a balancing of two competing

rights: the right to free speech, and the right to a fair trial. Observing that sometimes

excessive publicity could jeopardise a fair trial, the court held that to the extent it was

reasonable and proportionate, “prior restraints” on court reporting could be imposed.

There are, however, two problems with this. First, the idea that “media trials” might distort

the outcomes of cases makes sense in a jury system, where guilt or innocence is decided by

a jury of twelve men and women who do not possess specialised legal training, and need to

be immunised from undue forms of influence. In India, however, we abolished jury trials

more than 40 years ago, and it is judges now who decide cases on their own. Judges, by

definition, are not only supposed to apply the law but also have to have the relevant training

and temperament to apply the law regardless of whatever public outcry that might exist

outside the courtroom. The argument for fair trial, therefore, betrays a startling lack of faith

in the judiciary’s own ability to decide controversial cases objectively.

Second, and more importantly, the 2012 Supreme Court judgment failed to adequately limit

the kinds of cases in which these exceptional “postponement orders” could be passed; it

failed to limit the duration for which they could be passed. In fact, by using subjective

words such as “reasonable” and “proportionate”, it left the door wide open for future courts

to issue sweeping gag orders, insulating themselves from public reporting and, thereby,

public criticism. As media and civil rights lawyer Apar Gupta noted at the time, the

judgment was so “open to interpretation and probable abuse” that, in the course of the years,

it could well transform itself into a “gag writ.” The recent orders of the CBI Court and the

Allahabad High Court indicate that this is precisely what has happened.

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Handling misreporting

It is often argued that the media reports court proceedings inaccurately; judicial observations

are published out of context just to provide good headline copy, and sometimes, there is

outright misquotation. In fact, this was precisely the reason cited by the Allahabad High

Court to justify the gag order, although the court did not provide any examples of

“misquotation”. There are, however, laws to deal with inaccurate reporting, especially the

Contempt of Courts Act, which the judiciary has never shied away from invoking. Perhaps

more importantly, however, there is a more straightforward way of dealing with the spectre

of misreporting: to make written transcripts and audio or video recordings of court

proceedings available to the public. Until that happens, to ban reporting of court

proceedings by invoking “misquotation” is to invoke a bogey at worst, and to throw the

baby out with the bathwater at best.

Of course, there might be situations where inaccurate reporting could cause imminent

damage. Imagine, for example, the cross-examination of the principal accused in a

communal riot, in an already charged atmosphere. There might also be situations where a

case involves arguments pertaining to national security, which cannot at that time be made

public. In these situations, a temporary halt on reporting could be justifiable, but it is in the

very nature of these situations that the bar would be limited to a single hearing, and only in

the most exceptional of situations. The CBI Court and the Allahabad High Court’s sweeping

gag orders do not even come close to satisfying that condition.

Ultimately, the trial courts and the High Courts take their cue from the Supreme Court,

which is the ultimate driver of jurisprudence. And unfortunately, earlier this year, the

Supreme Court passed a sweeping gag order of its own. While convicting (the now retired)

Justice Karnan of contempt of court, a bench comprising the seven senior-most judges of the

Supreme Court ordered that “no further statements issued by Shri Justice C.S. Karnan would

be publicized”. Whatever the special circumstances of that case, there is little doubt that

such a command sends a clear message about the appropriateness of sweeping gag orders,

should a court feel that they are necessary.

The CBI Court and the Allahabad High Court’s gag orders demonstrate an urgent need for

some conscious course-correction by the judiciary. They come with a democratic cost that is

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simply too high to pay: sunlight, they say, is the best disinfectant. Often, it is the only

disinfectant.

Gautam Bhatia is a Delhi-based lawyer

JUDICIARY

STATESMAN, DEC 7, 2017A ‘cap’ for gowns?

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To the layman it might appear amusing that even as the judiciary uses every opportunity to express its own authority, a Bench of the Supreme Court should desire parliamentary action to curb one of the legal system’s most thorny issues ~ the huge fees demanded by top lawyers. A reality check would, however, confirm that the “division of powers” precludes the judiciary from acting in the matter. And despite anything the Bar may say, legal practitioners are no different from others in declining to respond to “persuasive power” when their own interests are involved.

While wealthy politicians and officials make pretence to simple living and try to avoid ugly ostentation, lawyers have no hypocritical qualms of conscience ~ as would be confirmed by a walk through the parking lots at the apex court and High Courts. Only the naïve will believe that the “fascination with the law” is what triggers the rush for admissions at law colleges, these are indeed “commercial” times.

The motivation behind the order of Justices Adarsh K Goel and UU Lalit was not rooted in the unstated envy judges have for well-heeled lawyers who “appear” before them: when they sought parliamentary action they raised the query that has long-plagued those of moderate means ~ is the system skewed in favour of only those rich enough to engage “top” Counsel?

“Undoubtedly, the legal profession is the major component of the justice delivery system and has a significant role to play in upholding the rule of law. Significance of the profession is on account of its role in providing access to justice and assisting citizens in securing their fundamental and other rights. Can justice be secured with legal professionals failing to uphold professional ethics?” the Bench asked.

Dubbing the fees charged by some lawyers as “astronomical”, it proceeded to recommend that a law be enacted to prescribe “floor and ceiling” limits for advocates’ fees. Their Lordships also came down heavily on those lawyers who insisted on their share of whatever financial “compensation” their clients were awarded by judicial orders.

It was, however, no fresh ground that the Bench was breaking. The court drew attention to earlier recommendations of the Law Commission which has called for a regulatory mechanism for the legal profession and for maintaining “irreducible minimum standards of the profession for ensuring accountability of the legal profession.”

Referring to lawyers’ fees as a barrier to access to justice, the Commission had said in a report submitted in 1988 that it was the duty of Parliament to prescribe fee for services rendered by members of the legal profession. With the present Law minister now making no secret of being on a collision course with his parent profe

LIBRARIES

INDIAN EXPRESS, DEC 4, 2017SOL students cannot use Delhi University central library, reads notice

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SOL, formerly known as the the School of Correspondence Courses and Continuing Education,

offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the distance mode.  The classes are held during

weekends and different colleges are used as centres.

Delhi University’s central library has put out a notice stating that the students from the School of

Open Learning (SOL) will not be allowed to use the central library located at the Arts faculty in

north campus.  The notice has infuriated over 2 lakh students enrolled under the distance mode,

who said it is a case of “discrimination”.

SOL, formerly known as the the School of Correspondence Courses and Continuing Education,

offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the distance mode.  The classes are held during

weekends and different colleges are used as centres.

The notice, recently stuck on the library door, reads, “SOL not allowed”, without any signature

of the authority issuing the order. “SOL students have no library facilities at the study centres.

Now, even the central library has pasted a notice barring entry to SOL students. This is pure

educational apartheid. Usually, SOL students hardly used library resources. Why was there the

need to put such notice,”said Harish Gautam, a student and member of the Krantikari Yuva

Sangathan (KYS), a student wing of the open school.

University librarian D V Singh, meanwhile, maintained that the students of SOL are not part of

DU. “SOL students are part of an autonomous body and they have their own library. They were

never allowed here because those preparing for competitive exams enrol themselves in SOL and

want to use the library space to sit and study. If they occupy this space, where will students of

our colleges go?” said Singh. He said that the notice must have been put up since SOL students

have started to come back to library once again.

The notice has further infuriated the students who have already been protesting about the delay

in starting of classes. The classes for SOL this year started two months late — in November.

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POVERTY

HINDU, DEC 4, 2017A misleading hunger indexRamesh Chand Shivendra Kumar Srivastava

In its calculations, the Global Hunger Index assigns a disproportionate value to child undernourishment

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Per capita food production in India has increased by 26% (2004-05 to 2013-14), while it has

doubled in the last 50 years. While this kind of growth rate in food production is expected to

reduce hunger significantly over time, the Global Hunger Index (GHI) prepared by the

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), shows India’s hunger level in very

poor light.

A closer look

The 2017 GHI score has India ranked 100 out of the 119 countries listed. While a casual

reading would create the impression of India being among the worst performers and

underachievers in addressing food and nutrition security, closer scrutiny shows that it should

not be taken at face value as it is neither appropriate nor representative of hunger prevalent

in a country. However, despite improvements, India still faces a problem of

undernourishment and poor child health.

The GHI for 2017 is calculated as a weighted average of four standardised indicators, i.e.

the percentage of population that is undernourished; percentage of children under five years

who suffer from wasting; percentage of children under five who suffer from stunting, and

child mortality. Undernourishment and child mortality each make up a third of the GHI

score, while child stunting and child wasting make up a sixth of the score, and together

make up a third of the score. Three of the four indicators, refer only to children below five

who constitute only 11.5% of India’s population. Further, the percentage of the

undernourished population is inclusive of undernutrition among children. This way, the GHI

assigns 70.5% weightage to children below five who constitute only a minor population

share and 29.5% weightage to the population above five, which constitutes 81.5% of the

total population. Therefore, the term “Hunger Index” is highly biased towards

undernutrition of children rather than representing the status of hunger in the overall

population. It would be more appropriate to term the conceptualisation and composition of

this composite index as a “Global Hunger and Child Health Index” than as a “Global

Hunger Index”.

Evidence shows that weight and height of children are not solely determined by food intake

but are an outcome of a complex interaction of factors related to genetics, the environment,

sanitation and utilisation of food intake. The IFPRI acknowledges that only 45% of child

mortality is due to hunger or undernutrition.

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Without undermining the need for improvement in reducing wasting, stunting and mortality

of children, our calculations show that if child health indicators are not included in the GHI,

India will move to the 77th spot. India’s ranking in terms of child mortality, child stunting

and child wasting is 80, 106 and 117, respectively.

Calculating hunger

The incidence of hunger is taken as the proportion of the population whose food intake

provides less than its minimum energy requirements. The figure of the incidence of hunger

depends on energy norms and the methodological approach used in its estimation.

There is still inconclusive debate on the cut-off for minimum energy requirement

calculation. At a global level, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations

(FAO) has an average norm of 1,800 kcal, while the Indian Council of Medical Research-

National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR-NIN) specified average norm of 2,400 kcal for rural

areas and 2,100 kcal for urban areas in India, varies across age, gender and activity-level.

There is a strong case to revise the ICMR-NIN norms as the actual requirement of energy is

decreasing due to a shift towards mechanisation and more congenial work conditions and

environment.

There is a large difference in the incidence of undernourishment (hunger) reported by the

FAO and estimates prepared by various experts. It follows from the large variation in the

choice of norm and methodology and data used for such an estimation. The unit-level

National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) data on Household Consumption Expenditure for

the latest year (2011-12) indicate that 72% of India’s population consumed less food than

required to meet the calorie norm specified by ICMR-NIN. Applying the ICMR-NIN norm,

a significant percentage of the population even in rich income households is

undernourished. This shows that either the ICMR-NIN norm is on the higher side or these

people voluntarily chose to eat less than what the ICMR-NIN considers normative. If we

apply the FAO norm to the household consumption data of the NSSO, the proportion of the

population with calorific deficit was 37.32% in 2004-05 and 29.55% in 2011-12. On the

other hand, the FAO’s State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report has placed

the incidence of undernourishment in India at 20.9% for 2004-06 and 17.5% for 2010-12.

The much lower estimate here is because it overestimates the proportion of food crops used

as food and underestimates the share going for non-food uses such as feed and industrial

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use. The FAO approach underestimates hunger and undernutrition in those countries where

exact and up-to-date estimates of food output diverted to non-food uses are not available.

The FAO norm applied to NSSO data on Household Consumer Expenditure indicates that in

2011-12, about 30% of India was undernourished or suffered from hunger, as per the UN

definition of hunger.

To avoid confusion about the status of hunger and undernourishment, Indiashould regularly

prepare and publish official estimates of hunger, like that of poverty. It will also help in

tackling hunger.

Prof. Ramesh Chand is Member, NITI Aayog and Shivendra Kumar Srivastava is

Agricultural Economist, NITI Aayog.

The views expressed are personal

ECONOMIC TIMES, DEC 1, 2017Begging should not be a crime if done due to poverty: Govt

NEW DELHI: The Centre has taken a stand that begging can only be decriminalised in cases where a person has been compelled to beg due to poverty. In response to PILs seeking basic human and fundamental rights for beggars in the national capital and for decriminalising it, the Centre said it is for the respective state governments to take a call on changing the current law on begging. On the Centre’s argument, a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and C Hari Shankar wondered if “anybody beg out of compulsion or choice? Have you ever seen somebody begging out of choice?” The central government, in an affidavit, said that at present, 20 states and 2 Union territories have either enacted their own anti-beggary legislation or adopted the legislation enacted by other states. “Therefore, any change in the law related to beggary may require taking the view of the concerned state governments,” the affidavit submitted. It said that begging should not be a crime if it is done because of poverty. But to verify if it is being done out of poverty or willingly by a person even if he or she is well off or has been forced into begging, it is necessary to detain him or her. Tirun offers flight + cruise package to Singapore @Rs 35500 TIRUN Relax & let us boost your website traffic Times Group Recommended By Colombia "Only after detention of such person and subsequent investigation, the cause of begging by an individual can be ascertained. Hence, the provision of detention as mentioned in the section in the (Bombay Prevention of Begging) Act is warranted," the Centre said and sought dismissal of the petitions saying they were not maintainable. The court listed the matter for January 9 next year. The Centre had earlier said begging will not be decriminalised, changing its stance in the high court, which had termed the move as "unfortunate". Petitioners Harsh Mandar

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and Karnika Sawhney have also sought basic amenities like proper food and medical facilities at all beggars' homes in the city. The bench had earlier pulled up the Centre for not amending the law to decriminalise begging and rehabilitate the beggars even after an undertaking was given by it a year ago.

TRANSPORT

HINDU, DEC 1, 2017VIP registration numbers for two-wheelers to be auctionedMost pricey among these is the number ‘0001’

The Transport Department is getting ready to hold, for the first time, auction for sought-after

VIP vehicular registration numbers for two-wheelers.

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The most pricey among these is the number ‘0001’, bidding for which will begin from Rs.

50,000 onward. According to a notification by the Transport Department, the minimum

reserve price for registration numbers from 0002 to 0009 will be Rs. 30,000.

Reserve price

So far, auction of VIP numbers was held only for four-wheelers and the most sought after

number — 0001 — was available at the minimum reserve price of Rs. 5 lakh. VIP numbers

for four wheelers fall in five categories, with initial bid prices ranging between Rs. 5 lakh

and Rs. 25,000.

The Transport Commissioner will receive objections and suggestions regarding the auction

prices over the coming month, following which the notification will come up for

consideration before implementation, said a senior government official, adding that six

categories of registration numbers will be auctioned for two wheelers.

The third highest minimum reserve price for two-wheelers will be Rs. 20,000 for numbers

like 0010, 0099, 0786, 1000, 1111, 7777 and 9999. Other VIP numbers like 0100, 0111,

0200, 0222 upto 9000, besides 0101, 0108, 1008 and 1313, will have the minimum reserve

price of Rs. 15,000.

Any other registration numbers, except these sought by jumping the chronological order,

according to the official, will be auctioned with a reserve price of Rs. 5,000. Old numbers

will be retained by paying a minimum reserve price of Rs. 500. The auction will be held

weekly through an online link on the Transport Department’s website.

URBAN DEVELOPMENT

DECCAN HERALD, DEC 7, 2017Bengaluru deserves separate urban law

After ignoring Bengaluru city in the first two years of its term and facing criticism for doing so,  Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's government went into overdrive on matters concerning it. But all it managed over the next two years is a series of missteps -whether it was the badly planned Akrama-Sakrama scheme or the plan to divide the city into five corporations, or the idea of

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common zoning regulations. Fortunately, none of them has come to fruition so far, thanks to the courts and strong resistance from citizens. The common thread in all of them is the lack of vision or concern for the city's future, haphazard planning and sometimes, regrettably, a brazen attempt to pander to vested interests. But the streak of bad ideas seems to be continuing, with the latest being a uniform municipal legislation for Bengaluru and the rest of urban Karnataka.

The government's justification for a common urban legislation is that it will enable the state to get more central grants and attract more investment by increasing the ease of doing business. Those are misconceptions. Bengaluru and the state as a whole have gotten central funds - whether it was under the UPA's JNNURM or the NDA's AMRUT and Smart Cities projects - under the existing municipal mechanisms. It is also not true that a common law that puts Bengaluru and Karnataka's other cities in the same basket will improve ease of doing business. On the contrary, it may hurt ease of doing business in smaller cities and towns, if the rules that apply to Bengaluru are applied to them, too. Instead, the case for a separate law for Bengaluru's governance is strong. With more than one crore people, Bengaluru accounts for nearly a fifth of the state's population; it accounts for 65% of the GSDP; and it's among the technology capitals of the world. On the other hand, it has the state's worst garbage and traffic management problems. Bengaluru is therefore a qualitatively different governance problem by its sheer magnitude. In fact, there is some thinking in the Central government towards declaring Bengaluru, among other such cities, a Union Territory and putting it under Central administration, which may actually benefit the city.

It is unfortunate that the Siddaramaiah government has time and again failed to take the Metropolitan Planning Committee (MPC) into confidence, as mandated by the 74th Amendment to the Constitution, before bringing forward such proposals. Whether it is common zoning regulations, allowing commercial use of land on all roads with a width of 30 metres, or the idea of a common urban legislation, the government must discuss them thoroughly in the MPC before trying to implement them.

YOUTH

STATESMAN, DEC 6, 2017Stresses that plague youthBharat Dogra and Reena Mehta     

It is a telling comment on the contradictions of our development experience that in some of the most developed countries as well as developing countries recording the highest levels of

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economic growth, very high levels of depression have been recorded and particularly among adolescents and youth. It is often said by adults that most of their efforts at economic betterment are aimed at improving prospects of their children but if adolescents and youth are leading an increasingly depressed, insecure or uncertain life then questions need to be raised about where society is headed. According to a recent issue of the Economist, the number of American children and teenagers admitted to children’s hospitals for reporting suicidal thoughts has more than doubled over the last decade. The suicide rate in the 15-19 years age group increased by 31 per cent for boys and more than doubled for girls between 2007 and 2015. Suicide has become the second leading cause of death amongst college youth in USA.

According to the national survey on drug use and health in the USA, in 2015 an estimated 3 million adolescents aged 12 to 17 (12.5 per cent of the age group) had at least one major depressive episode in the past year. California’s biggest school district, Los Angeles Unified tallied 255 incidents of suicide openness, self-harm and suicide attempts between 2010 and 2011, but in 2014 this jumped to 5,000. More than 30, 000 students reported prolonged feelings of hopelessness and sadness. 9.1 per cent of middle students and 8.4 per cent of high school students in the district actually attempted suicide.

The American College Health Association surveyed 100,000 college students at 53 American campuses and found that 84 per cent of them feel unable to cope, 79 per cent are exhausted, 60 per cent feel very sad and more than half are experiencing overwhelming anxiety.

Another significant aspect of these trends is that girls are becoming much more vulnerable to depression compared to boys. According to the department of health and human services, the rate for depression among girls was more than double that of boys (19.5 per cent of girls, 5.8 per cent of boys).

In the context of UK, the Independent reported (27 February 2016) that rates of depression and anxiety among teenagers had increased by 70 per cent in the past 25 years. The number of children and young people turning up at hospitals with a psychiatric condition has more than doubled since 2009 and in the past three years, hospital admissions for teenagers with eating disorders have also almost doubled. In a 2016 study 93 per cent of teachers reported seeing increased rates of mental illness among children and teenagers, and 90 per cent said the issues were getting more serious.

A study titled ‘Mental Health among Youth in Sweden’ by Mona Sommer (Nordic Center for Welfare and Social Issues) has compiled a lot of available data. The number of girls (15-19 years) who were treated in hospitals for depression increased eight times within 25 years. In a study of over a thousand Swedish young people in school years 7 and 8, 21 per cent of girls and 16 per cent of boys reported that they had harmed themselves more than five times in the past six months. Between 1991 and 2014 the sales of anti- depressants in Sweden increased by 13690 per cent for girls aged 15 to 19, while that for boys increased by 6710 per cent.

Very worrying depression rates have also been reported from several developing countries. On 6 April 2017, the WHO released a report titled ‘Mental Health Status of Adolescents in South East Asia- Evidence for Action’. This report covers 10 countries in the region including India.

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Adolescents in this report are defined as children and youth included in the 10-19 age groups. These constitute 18.8 per cent of the population of these 10 countries, and number 362 million. Those in the 13-17 age group number 181 million, comprising about 9.4 per cent of the population.

In these 10 countries, suicide is the second leading cause of death in the 15-19 age group. The suicide rate per 100,000 population in this age-group varies from 3.6 in Indonesia to 25.8 in Nepal and 35.5 in India (the highest amongst the 10 countries). The percentage of adolescents that reported attempted suicides at least once in the past year ranged from 3.9 per cent in Indonesia to 13.3 per cent in Thailand, while the average for all countries was 6.4 per cent. The percentage of students who reported feeling lonely most of the times or always in the past 12 months was 8.4. Alcohol use at this tender age was as high as 23 per cent in Thailand and Bhutan.

In this study overall depression rate was found to be very high for India. Even though the data for India in this report covers only a section of students for whom details were available, nevertheless it indicates disturbing trends. As many as 25 per cent of students were found to be suffering from depression as defined in the study. Eight per cent suffered from anxiety and 10 per cent said that they have no close friends.

As evidence about the seriousness of youth depression has accumulated from all over the world, several studies have tried to identify causes and possible remedial actions. However, several of these studies tend to focus on only one or two of the more obvious aspects of a many sided and deeply rooted problem.

A number of studies have highlighted aspects related to social media. While some studies mentioned overuse of social media, others quote stressed teenagers as saying that it is a strain to be always available for social media. A very large number of adolescents complain about bullying on social media and receiving insulting as well as intimidating messages. In this context a study by Professor Jean Twenge of San Diego State University is often mentioned.

Using data collected between 2010 and 2015 for more than 500, 000 adolescents in the USA, this study found that adolescents who spent three hours or more a day on smart phones or other electronic devices were 34 per cent more likely to suffer at least one suicide-related outcome, including feeling hopeless or seriously considering suicide compared to adolescents who use such devices two hours a day or less. Among adolescents who use electronic devices five or more hours a day, 48 per cent had at least one suicide-related outcome.

Other studies have quoted teenagers who said that their school or college studies and extracurricular activities imposed a lot of burden on them.  Their perception of the exaggerated ambitions of their parents as well as their own ambitions influenced by competitive environs often raised education-related stress to levels with which they could not cope. Students took up courses on the basis of ambition rather than genuine interest and youths took up jobs on this basis so that at a tender age work became a cause of stress, not joy.

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Another factor cited is the significant erosion of the family support system which affects many adolescents and youth. In many families, both parents may have very busy work schedules.  On the one hand, they may not have the quality time needed by their children while on the other, the inclination and ability of parents to handle complex stresses of the youth are open to question. Hence the bond of trust which gives adolescents the confidence to share their stresses does not develop. Adolescents of present generation feel lonelier than their predecessors.

Early initiation of sexual activities before physical and emotional maturity has been reached has also been mentioned in some studies as a factor behind this problem. This has been found to have particularly strong impact on girls.

These various factors have been emphasised in different studies which have recommended remedial action based on their identification of a particular factor.  In addition, increasing access to mental health services for adolescents is emphasised time and again not only in the context of developing countries but even in those developed countries where access is amongst the highest in the world.

While all these recommendations have their importance in specific contexts these by themselves cannot provide the way out of the existing gloom. Looking in isolation at one or two factors may lead to missing the wood for the trees. The real solutions can emerge only if the problem as well as solutions are related to a much wider context.

The wider social context has to be seen at two levels. On the one hand, as explained above, a lot of avoidable pressures have built up very rapidly. On the other hand, society’s base of an ethics-based value system has been allowed to erode rapidly. It was this ethical value system which provided stability and guidance to choose between right and wrong, an ability which could be passed from parents to children and from teachers to students.

In the changed circumstances many adults feel that they do not have the moral capacity to fulfill the role of mentor and guide while the young themselves suffer from the absence of value-based guidance at a time they need this most.  The great vacuum created by erosion of ethical value systems sometimes gets hidden behind the glitter of attractive-looking technological changes, but the reality is that the collapse of the value system creates such serious problems that no technological change can solve.

So remedial action is needed at two levels. Firstly, needless and avoidable pressures should be re-examined so that what is not necessary but at the same time is harmful can be discarded. Secondly, the greatest attention should be given to creating a strong, ethics-based value system in our society. This involves basic changes in the social system.

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