Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986 and India

More than 25 years since the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986 came into existence, only 13 states and UTs have framed state rules required for its implementation.
This fact is recorded in the latest Report which the Working Group on Human Rights (WGHR) for India and the UN submitted to the UN Human Rights Commission for India’s second Universal Periodic Review of human rights that ended this June 30.
“Based on the information available from central and state government websites, even after 25 years since the enactment of Child Labour Prohibition law, 13 out of 35 states and UTs have framed state rules for its implementation. These include Bihar, Delhi, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal, with rules framed between 1988 and 1997. Recently, only Meghalaya drafted state rules, but is yet to notify them,” the report says.
This explains the poor implementation of the law and why India has the highest number of child labourers globally. The report adds that the majority of child labourers in India are Dalits, many surviving on less than $1 a day.
The situation remains alarming, with estimates saying India could have anywhere between 8 million and 60 million child labourers. No wonder, most of the 80 countries that participated in India’s UPR this year asked it to abolish all forms of child labour.
But Attorney General Ghoolam Vahanvati, who represented India at the UPR, said, “While the government is fully conscious of the issues pertaining to child labour, it does not have a magic wand to address it.”
Activist Miloon Kothari, who convened the WGHR, says, “India’s stand is oblivious to the fact that the legal scenario in the country has changed. Being at school and not at work is now a fundamental right for children aged 6 to 14 years under the Right to Education Act. The logical corollary is for GoI to revisit its stand and amend the Child Labour Prohibition Act.”

FOUR ACTS DESIGNED TO PROTECT CHILDREN

FOUR ACTS DESIGNED TO PROTECT CHILDREN

A perusal of the various Acts to protect children would show it is best that every state set up a panel under the Commission for Protection of Child Rights Act (CPCRA), 2005, to look into matters regarding child rights not visualised in other laws. These panels can utilise the powers of state boards, authorities and committees for seeking effective implementation of the four Acts compared below.

Review of Right to Education Act

THE disappointment being expressed now with certain provisions of the Right to Education Act is only a confirmation of the apprehensions that were aired before its implementation two years ago. Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal has constituted a panel to review the implementation of the Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) provision under which school boards are not allowed to hold exams till Class 8, and schools are not allowed to detain any student in any class till then. The idea was to remove the ‘unhealthy pressure’ of education from the child and also promote holistic development. States say that while the pressure has been removed to such an extent that students as well teachers have stopped working, ‘comprehensive evaluation’ has eluded government schools that are in a shambles.

Sibal has told objecting state ministers that ‘no detention’ should not be equated with ‘no evaluation’. Rather, it has to be other forms of appraisal. That would indeed be desirable, provided it could be had. There are schools run with a single teacher. And the now-mandatory Teacher Eligibility Test has exposed the abysmal standard of teachers in government employment. Most teachers cannot even begin to comprehend the sophisticated assessment parameters required. Moreover, a major complaint is lack of clarity about what these parameters would be. While many private schools have devised ways to implement the CCE, teachers there too have the complaint that students have become careless. Some rod is required, whatever the form.
There is, however, nothing wrong with the spirit behind the CCE policy. Only our education system is probably yet to evolve to that stage. Also, the syllabus children are expected to master in the given time is probably way too much for comprehensive assimilation. Education should be a process of learning rather than imbibing mountains of information, which promotes the rote system. The solution in the short term would be to bring clarity on CCE parameters, and, in the long term, raise the education infrastructure to a level that ‘learning’ becomes possible. Santiniketan, after all, is not just a town in West Bengal, but a very Indian concept of education.

New Asia policy of US and India

THOUGH Indo-US relations reached a new high after the signing of the civilian nuclear deal between the two when Mr George Bush was the American President, some of Washington DC’s policies have been worrying for New Delhi. Among these is the US plan to shift 60 per cent of its naval assets controlled by the US Pacific Area Command to the Bay of Bengal. The US idea, of course, is basically to counter China, which has a large presence in the area as a result of its agreements with Bangladesh and Myanmar. But the new US strategy does not suit New Delhi as militarisation of the Bay of Bengal will pose a major security threat to India. New Delhi made this point clear to US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta during his two-day visit to India.

India, no doubt, wants to upgrade defence cooperation with the US, but it has to be on an equal term. Though Mr Panetta declared that in the new Asian strategy of the US, “India is a linchpin”, New Delhi cannot feel comfortable with it as India may acquire the image of being part of the US policy to contain China. That is why Defence Minister AK Antony pointed out to his US counterpart the need for the calibration of Washington DC’s strategy vis-à-vis the Bay of Bengal. It is a different matter that countries like the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore are happy with the US strategy to expand its military partnerships and presence “in the arc extending from the Western Pacific and East Asia into the Indian Ocean Region and South Asia”.
China’s smaller neighbours have been feeling uneasy because of muscle flexing by Beijing every now and then. China has also been unreasonable in asserting its claim over the entire South China Sea in the wake of the India-Vietnam pact for oil and gas exploration in that area. India was told that it could not indulge in any kind of exploration activity in the South China Sea without China’s consent. But India as a mature nation considers it as a matter between New Delhi and Beijing or between China and Vietnam.

PROSPERITY THROUGH ENVIRONMENT

Protection of the environment in all  its forms has been receiving much public attention at domestic and international forums. The  question is by no means new but it has acquired much greater urgency than ever before because of the ceaseless pollution of the atmosphere, the reckless destruction of the multi-faceted gifts of Nature by thoughtless human beings. Among the offenders are people who are, or should be, aware of the folly of their deeds and the irreparable damage they are doing to the safety and prosperity of mankind, the present and the future generations. Hence the environmentalists' clarion call.

Human existence depends upon the environment. Few persons would now question the statement that we have been poisoning or destroying valuable resources on earth (including water) and also in the air—all in the name of  economic development. In fact, development, expansion and growth are the key slogans in the modern world; nothing else seems to matter. Senseless poisoning is proceeding with unbelievable speed. While genocide rightly receives severe condemnation, ‘‘ecoside’’—ruthless murder of the environment—has only recently become a cognisable offence.

After all, it is the biosphere, that is, the air and water encasing the earth, besides the green cover and the wildlife, that sustain life on this planet. In chemical terms, it is the mixture and  fine balance of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and water vapour that is vital for life. These are operated and maintained by multiple biological processes. For centuries man took for granted that the bounties of Nature were inexhaustible and that the resources get renewed automatically. Both these assumptions have lately been proved wrong.

The struggle now is for adequate renewal of such resources as man has to use every day, and also for preservation and protection of as many resources as possible. Attempts are being made to check the reckless destruction of precious environment. Scientists have warned that mankind might have to return to the much-dreaded ‘‘ice age’’ if the reckless destruction of trees, other greenery and natural resources continues at the pace associated with ‘‘modern’’ progress, especially in industry.

A look-back in this regard would be helpful. Oddly enough, it was only in 1972 that the first systematic international effort was made to take stock of the situation and plan adequate steps to counter the process of destruction. The step was the UN Conference on Environment held in Sweden. The conference was poorly attended, for political and other reasons. Then came the UN Habitat Conference on Human Settlements in 1975 in Vancouver and the UN Desertification Conference in Nairobi in 1977 to check the ruinous growth of deserts.

But in many ways the year 1990 marked a specific advance in the programmes for saving mankind from disaster. The occasion marked recognition of the basic fact that the environmentalists are fighting for the concept of sustainable progress with the belief that environment and development are not opposite poles. In this connection, the observation of the Brundtland Commission (in its report published in 1987) was recalled. The commission said: ‘‘Economy is not just about the production of wealth, and ecology is not just about the protection of Nature; they are both equally relevant for improving the lot of mankind.’’

The Montreal Protocol was very much in the news in 1990. The aim of the Protocol is to save the precious ozone layer from chemical damage. All enlightened countries now concede that destruction of the ozone layer will have serious consequences on human, animal and plant life.

There is no denying that the major culprits in causing pollution and damaging the ozone layer are the developed countries. These countries have benefited all through the years by using cheap CFCs and have harmed the global environment. If they want the developing countries to restrain themselves from following the same course, they should assist them. Though the developing countries produce only a small proportion of the world output of CFCs, they require massive assistance to switch over to new technologies and to less harmful substitutes. Therefore, a large fund is needed.

The Government of India’s growing concern over this problem is obvious from the establishment of a department and Ministry for Environment and the series of laws passed to check the practices that endanger the environment. Among these are: The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, the Water (Pollution and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, the Environment (Protection) Act, May 1986, the Forests (Conservation) Act, 1980, the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, which has been frequently amended to make it more effective. Besides, there is a full-fledged national forest policy, several programmes and projects to conserve the environment and check the destructive practices.

There have been many social conflicts over the issue of natural resources in India. The controversies over the Sardar Sarovar Dam and the Narmada Project are among the outstanding examples. Competing claims and Inter-State disputes over water and forests are quite common. As in the case of land disputes, the controversies over the natural resources involve vested interests. There are, in many cases, unequal antagonists; several agrarian conflicts have ecological roots. The grave consequences of some of the dam construction projects have been highlighted by the numerous agitations carried on by voluntary agencies and courageous individuals. The Chipko movement started by the brave Sunderlal Bahugana to save the Garhwal forests won well-deserved international recognition.

The social good has to be weighed against individual benefit and a rational balance needs to be struck. The writing on the wall is clear. If the present generation fails to preserve and protect Nature’s bounty, the coming generations will hold us guilty of betraying an invaluable trust. But in their excessive zeal the environmentalists ignore a vital aspect. India needs more foodgrains, more water, more electricity, more industries for manufacturing and finishing goods for domestic consumption and exports—all for the social good.

Dams over rivers and construction of large power houses to harness energy sources enable the economy to flourish. These amenities can be made available only by sacrificing some of the greenery. If the building of large dams is to be halted in response to the environmentalists' agitations, where are the additional foodgrains, irrigation facilities and uninterrupted power for industry to come from?

PROMOTION OF SPORTS: A SOCIAL NECESSITY

The importance of sports and games is being increasingly recognised in India from both the educational and social points of view. More and more funds are being allocated for encouraging sports in schools, colleges and universities; in fact, sports have become an essential part of the curricula. Time was when only a few students who were fond of certain games, like hockey, football, cricket or tennis, were allowed special facilities. But now regular programmes are drawn up in all educational institutions to persuade as many students as possible, regardless of special aptitudes, to participate in games and not merely watch matches occasionally to cheer up their favourite teams and attend the prize distribution functions at the end of a sports season.

Educationalists and others have come to the conclusion that it is in the interest of society as a whole that adequate facilities should be provided, depending of course upon the availability of funds, for games and sports for the country’s youth, both boys and girls. Sports foster friendship and amity. Nor does the belief hold good any more that those who take part in sports or games would be no good at studies and that each year their absence from the class or shortage of lectures would be condoned because they can either attend to their studies or be on the playing field for some game or the other. It is felt that apart from some exceptional cases of students showing extraordinary talent and skill in  certain games, or students who are expected to be high on the merit list in university examinations, most other students should play one game or other, not necessarily for achieving distinctions but for the sake of sport.

Several factors need to be taken into account in this connection. First, physical fitness is of the utmost importance for everyone, young and old. Participation in games and sports invariably ensures good health, fitness and, generally, freedom from ailments of various types which find easy victims among people who take no physical exercise and are either lazy, indolent or desk-bound or are book worms and keep studying all the time under the mistaken concept that they can win success in life by studying all the time and concentrating on the development of their mental faculties. They feel convinced that brains matter, not brawn, that spending hours on the play-field is a waste of time. But such students, sooner or later, find that unless the human body is kept in smooth trim and in an overall fit condition, even the brain will refuse to co-operate after some time. Actually, physical fitness is essential for proficiency in studies and for winning distinctions in examinations. Ailing bodies do not make for sharp brains. Exercise in some form or another is necessary, and sports provide an easy method to ensure such fitness.

Secondly, regular participation in sports provides a healthy channel for diversion of energies. Wherever students and other youth participate in sports regularly ensure constructive sublimation, misdirection of youthful vigour is much less and the tendency to indulge in indiscipline and mischief, disruptive activity of various kinds is curbed. Young people have surplus energy, and if this is fruitfully utilised, the foundations are laid for a healthy society where people are fully aware of the need for discipline, co-operative effort, team spirit, the cult of sportsmanship, of joint devotion to the achievement of a common goal in collaboration with others. They also learn to cultivate the vital quality of learning how to work together, to become not only good winners but also good losers. Both sides playing a game cannot win simultaneously and ups and downs are common.

The losers must learn to take their defeat sportingly. The right spirit can be learnt on the playgrounds. There is no point in bearing a grudge against the rivals; today’s losers can be tomorrow’s winners, as in society in general and the political arena in particular.

Thirdly, the statement that ‘‘the battle of Waterloo was won on the play-fields of Eton’’, implying that playing games and the spirit of sportsmanship help to inculcate lasting values which make for good soldiers, good fighters and good discipline, apart from promoting 100 per cent physical fitness. In British schools and colleges the fullest importance is given to sports, especially cricket and football. The result has been the creation of a healthy, well-developed, disciplined and efficient society in which people know the right proportions in life, put everything in the right perspective and seldom conduct themselves in an unsporting, ungentlemanly and unbecoming manner. Playing the game on the playground naturally instructs people to play the game of life in the right spirit, which is what matters most, not victory or defeat.

According to sociologists, society gains in many ways when the government encourages sports and games everywhere, provides playgrounds, the necessary equipment and other facilities, rewards outstanding sportsmen so as to encourage others also to play games. The crime graph dips, which means that the incidence of general crimes decreases because the right spirit and the right approach to things is developed on the playground. Sport, it has been said, is not only a manifestation of animal energy of surplus strength to develop more strength; it is, in addition, a safe and wholesome outlet for the aggressive spirit in human beings. 

The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines play thus: ‘‘to move about in lively or unrestrained or  capricious manner, frisk, flutter.’’ This definition, however, also conveys a wrong concept and a misleading interpretation. In genuine sports there is no question of a ‘‘capricious manner’’; the aim is to play the game in a fair manner according to the prescribed rules of which every player is supposed to be fully aware. Those who violate the rules, play foul or exceed the permissible limits, or indulge in tactics that are unfair, are promptly pulled up by the referee or the umpire. Anyone who refuses to mend his ways or to repeatedly violate the rules is ordered to quit the field and is replaced by another player. This helps to inculcate the habit of respecting the judge and of observing the rules.

Obviously, society as a whole stands to benefit if its members play the game according to the prescribed rules, which means the laws and regulations, and does not flout them. Those who flout the law and become anti-social elements are hauled up by the forces responsible for maintaining law and order. The executive authorities enforce the laws and the judiciary punishes those whose guilt is duly established. Sportsmen generally tend to become good citizens, and society is thus the ultimate beneficiary.

While most people concede the importance of sports in a healthy society and under a good government, there has also been much criticism, which is fully justified, too, about the craze, enthusiasm and fervour displayed by people of all ages, especially the country’s youth (except the  sober elders and duty-conscious officers and employees), whenever cricket Test matches are being played in India or abroad and wherever India is one of the participants. Work virtually comes to a stop in offices, factories, schools and colleges. Everyone starts listening to cricket commentaries, forget their work and duty, in effect lose themselves mentally in the process; all their attention is concentrated on the ball-by-ball Test  commentaries. At wayside shops, in trains and buses, on ships and in aircraft, it is the same story during the cricket season—people attentively listening to radio commentaries or watching the cricket matches on TV.

Surely this is not what we mean by sport and sportsmanship. The right description for this habit is ‘‘craze’’. It does not develop any of the values which sports and games inculcate—discipline and playing the game in the right spirit. Tennis, hockey and football are more vigorous games, and a match is over in about an hour. Watching such games is understandable and should be encouraged but cricket Tests last for five or six days each, and the waste of time of the  general public who listen to the commentaries from morning to late afternoon can be well imagined.
Some observers have contended that there is a close link between sports and a country’s industrial development and the general progress of society. That is why it is contended, most of the gold medals at the Olympics are bagged by advanced countries such as the USA, Russia and Germany, and Britain too manages to bag a few of them. Of the eastern countries, China and  Japan plunder most of the gold and silver medals.

Is there a link also between performance in sports and a country’s military might? Militarily China is the most powerful country in the East, but Japan, which matches the USA in industrial, especially electronic, advancement, does well in sports despite its small size. India is a large country of continental size, and given the proper incentives and the necessary facilities, this country’s sportsmen should do well on the sports field, but whether it is the climatic factor, the lack of adequate nutrition and of incentives, our sportsmen do not compare favourably with  those of the USA, Russia, Germany and Australia.

In any case, the relatively poor show of our athletes in international  competitions does not weaken the case for encouraging sports which help to lay the foundations of a healthy, sound society. The cost is returned several-fold.

TRADITION AND MODERNITY: FRIENDS OR FOES?

Modernity in the Indian sense is, in any case, a command from the West. India did not get enough time to develop an indigenous idea of modernity because of the intervention of colonialism. At the time of Independence, urban India had inherited a rather basic problem: this was a contradiction between imposed modernity and age-old traditional values. There were, as a consequence, three options for the average Indian urban man: whether to embrace the Western model of modernity; or to go back, if possible, to her traditional roots; or to try to create a synthesis between the two. It was colonial education that brought to us a historical understanding of our culture. Western education gained currency which taught us to value our past and it became fashionable to talk about our heritage—Jyotindra Jain, Former Director of Crafts Museum, New Delhi.

Jean Baudrillard, a major theoretician of the European present, characterizes the present state of affairs, at least in the Western context, as “after the orgy”: the “orgy”, according to him, was the moment when modernity exploded upon us, the moment of liberation in every sphere—political liberation, sexual liberation, liberation of the forces of production, liberation of the forces of destruction, women’s liberation, liberation of unconscious drives, liberation of art. It was an orgy of the real, the rational, of criticism and of anti-criticism, of development and of the crisis of development. There has been an over-production now of objects, signs, messages, ideologies and satisfactions. When everything has been liberated, one can only simulate (reproduce) liberation, simulate the orgy, pretending to carry on in the same direction; accelerating without knowing we are accelerating in a void.

The impact of technology is fast changing our everyday too: the major difference may be that we are not in the age “after the orgy”, for, our revolutions have not succeeded, but have aborted, got stopped midway, our utopia has taken an atavistic (reappearance of characteristic or quality not seen for many generations) turn, our Janus now has both its faces turned towards the past. Our struggles for emancipation—social, sexual, aesthetic—seem to have left us half-way, having failed to bring about a transformation that embraces all the layers of society.

Nevertheless, tradition gives a sense of identity. There is an element of security in it; yet innovation is necessary to prevent stagnation and rot. Society must and will continue to innovate. Cultural exchange is the stuff out of which social processes are made. Traditional medicine, for example, was humane and modern medicine is merciless; traditional science had built in correctives, but modern science and technology is aggressively domineering; in tradition there was respect for plurality, but modern societies are self-consciously homogenising. Modern societies may breed fascists, but traditional ones had their share of Changez Khans too.

True, modernity has got many emancipatory possibilities. But then, modernity is not free from its discontent—dislocation of the individual from the protective context of family-kinship ties, alienation from the communitarian ideal and loss of collective memory.

Perhaps, in matters of faith and fashions, it is neither the hard stands taken by both, nor the rigidity of their arguments that brings them nearer to each other. Just as all that meets the eye may not be the only reality, in the same vein, to assert with authority that tradition and modernity are incompatible is to rush in where even the angels would pause and ponder to tread. Seemingly, both tradition and modernisation look to be at loggerheads with each other, but on deeper analysis, one finds that even the most traditional/orthodox societies have prepared themselves, though reluctantly, to accept new realities which modernity has unfolded with an unprecedented speed. It is almost hypocritical to disown the advantages of modernisation in our daily perceptions and practices.

Since no age or generation is fully static in thought and action, there are always some prudent persons who take on the untenable and anachronistic spell of traditions and prefer new ideas and concepts (that) are born out of the existing realities. For analytical/inquisitive minds, tradition is stagnant in nature and nuance and modernisation is consistent with change and challenge of times. If some knowledgeable persons opine that tradition and modernity are not friends, they are not much off the mark. To them tradition is a morass of beliefs and customs that refuse to liberate human minds from its stranglehold. On the contrary, modernisation is a process that tries to update men, minds and machines. Since the trio holds key to all material progress and prosperity, it is not unnatural that both tradition and modernity should live in a ‘love-hate’ relationship with each other.

smart cards and Public Distribution System (PDS)

PUNJAB has decided to introduce smart cards to issue rations under the Public Distribution System (PDS). It is high time the system that has been dumb to extreme corruption since its inception was smartened up. A 2005 ‘India Corruption Study’ by Transparency International and the Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies had found that 69 per cent of the wheat released under the PDS in Punjab ended up in the open market. In some states it was even 100 per cent. Such is the expanse of the distribution network that mere ‘close supervision’ cannot work. The system itself has to be such that it does not leave any scope for pilferage. Various ways have been considered, including distribution of ration coupons to the beneficiaries, which may be exchanged for food at any shop, and the government could pay the shop for the coupons thus collected.

Technology now provides for going a step further. Smart cards can function on the lines of an ATM card, except that you get ration at the fair price shop after swiping it in machine there. Instantly, the quantity purchased gets tallied against the quota for each beneficiary as well as the total ration supplied to the shop owner. To show ration sold, the owner will thus have to have physical access to a card. That drastically limits the scope for faking sales. Beneficiaries can also possibly make purchases at any fair price shop, as their entire record will be on the card. Once the system is in place nationally, it may even be used to serve inter-state migrants, who otherwise get left out.
Jurisdiction issues have, however, delayed countrywide implementation of the system. A taskforce headed by Unique Identification (UID) Authority chief Nandan Nilekani had been initially asked to make recommendations to use its database to set up the system. The Union Food and Public Distribution Ministry, however, subsequently proposed its own system to be implemented through the National Informatics Centre. The government has to take a call on this data collection war — and duplication — that has gone on just too long.

Common entrance exam...are we prepared?

OUR roads remain workable, thanks to the patchwork done here and there to avoid catastrophes. So can our higher education system, believes Human Resource Development Minister (HRD) Kapil Sibal, who is adamant about implementing the common entrance examination for all engineering colleges from 2013. This insistence on his part ensures that premier institutions like IITs resort to patchwork in a rush to implement his will. The faculty for 14 IITs, barring Guwahati and Patna, their administrative bodies and powerful alumni associations have opposed the decision of the minister, stating they are not prepared to implement the new one-nation, one-exam policy in a rush.

Every year over five lakh students take the entrance exam for 10,000 seats in IITs. The proposed common entrance exam will have two steps — ‘main’ and ‘advanced’. The results of class 12 board exams will also play a decisive role. The ministry had proposed a 40:30:30 formula - with class 12 board results counting for 40 per cent, and the two stages of the entrance exam counting for 30 per cent each. However, IIT officials objected and won the right to form their own formula. Starting next year, IITs will give equal weight (50 per cent each) to class 12 results and to the performance of the candidate in the main exam. Some 50,000 short-listed students will then move on to the advanced exam.
The assurance given by Sibal that the common entrance exam will reduce the pressure on students and discourage coaching centres has met with resistance from the faculty of IITs. They say both the processes and content of the new examination will not be clear to them any time soon and insist that in no case the new system should be introduced before 2014. The HRD Ministry should at least respect the wisdom of existing institutions of excellence by not meddling in their autonomy to implement its ‘political will.’

export promotion capital goods (EPCG) scheme

COMMERCE Minister Anand Sharma has extended the interest subsidy and export promotion capital goods (EPCG) schemes by another year. Exporters engaged in labour-intensive sectors like handlooms, handicrafts, textiles, sports goods and food processing are allowed loans at 2 per cent cheaper interest rates. The EPCG scheme helps exporters upgrade their machinery through duty-free imports with the obligation to make exports eight times the value of the duty saved. The incentives will cost the exchequer less than Rs 1,300 crore.
India’s exports shrunk 5.7 per cent for the first time since 2009 in March this year but picked up slightly in April. Though official export targets are often ambitious, it would be quite creditable if Indian exports grow more than 10-15 per cent this year. Imports have risen faster than exports, resulting in an unacceptable trade deficit. The rupee has depreciated against the dollar but volume of trade may not go up significantly as Europe is on the edge due to a possible Greek exit and the US economic data is hardly encouraging. India will have to look for markets other than Europe and the US if it wants to push export growth to the targeted 20 per cent level this fiscal. Apart from African countries Asian nations such as Myanmar, China and Pakistan are attractive markets where increased trade may also improve bilateral relations.
In a difficult economic environment selling goods is hard. India has never been an aggressive exporter like China. Its growth is largely driven by domestic consumption. Producing world-class goods at competitive rates is a challenge which is difficult to meet in view of high interest rates, infrastructure bottlenecks and project delays. The government is under pressure to remove policy and other hurdles to fast growth. Aviation Minister Ajit Singh and Commerce Minister Anand Sharma are reportedly trying to soften political opposition to FDI in airlines and multi-brand retail. The RBI too may further cut interest rates at its review meeting later this month. These positive developments contributed to the sharp stocks rally, which lifted the country’s economic mood a bit on Wednesday.

Green Punjab

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal will launch the “Green Punjab” mission from Hoshiarpur and Fazilka on July 1 to generate awareness among the masses on the need for a clean and pollution-free environment by initiating a massive plantation drive across the state.
The Chief Minister took this decision at a meeting with senior officers of the Forests and Wildlife Department here.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests said the mission had become all the more important with the constant rise in the level of air pollution, caused by heavy traffic and industrial influx, besides the alarming proportion of water pollution. Soil pollution due to excessive use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, coupled with waterlogging and rise of salinity in Punjab had further aggravated the problem.
The Chief Minister asked the Forests and Wildlife Department to launch a plantation drive across the state to increase the green cover from the existing 7 per cent to 15 per cent over a period of 15 years on all available institutional land, panchayat land, mandis, jails, paramilitary areas, hospitals, educational institutions, cremation grounds, focal points, PSEB colonies and urban areas.
The Chief Minister asked the Rural Development and Panchayats Department to motivate village panchayats to plant trees over 150,000 acres of panchayat land. The Punjab Vidhan Sabha had already passed a resolution to plant trees on 20 per cent of panchayat land.
He sought the cooperation and support of farmers for implementing the government’s initiatives for making Punjab more green. Badal asked the Forest Department to work out modalities for generating additional resources to make the tree plantation drive financially sustainable.
Forest Minister Surjit Kumar Jayani said the department had already prepared a perspective plan for 15 years. The jurisdiction of forest beats was being revised to cover forest as well as non-forest areas.
New beat boundaries would now be carved out village-wise. He said the newly recruited 180 forest guards were being trained to handle the tree plantation drive in villages.

India-Japan naval exercise

In a signal of deepening defence ties between India and Japan, navies of the two nations will conduct their first-ever bilateral exercise later this week off the coast of Japan.
A flotilla of four Indian Naval warships that is presently in an exercise with the South Korean Navy will be directed towards Japan on June 9 and 10, sources in the Ministry of Defence said.
In 2007, Naval exercises with Japan were held under the trilateral ‘Malabar’ series along with the United States. It led to China raising objections, saying that was anti-China grouping. India, possibly, not wanting to antagonise China, then onward insisted that it would exercise only in bilateral format.
India and Japan, both not on the best of terms with China, have clearly moved closer to each other by cementing military ties. The decision to have a first-ever bilateral exercise involving Naval warships was taken last November during Defence Minister AK Antony’s Japan visit.
Indian warships in the exercise will be stealth frigate INS Shivalik, destroyer INS Rana, Missile Corvette INS Karmuk and Tanker and Replenishment Ship INS Shakti. The exercise is being undertaken by the Navy as part of the Long Range Overseas Deployment (LROD) of its fleet.
In return for the latest exercise, the Indian Navy will host “passage exercises” whenever Japanese warships travel through the region on the way up or down from anti-piracy deployment later this year. Last October, two ships from Japan were in Kochi on their way to the Gulf of Aden.
Till January this year, India and Japan were running independent anti-piracy missions in the Gulf of Aden. It is now that the two nations along with China cooperate in scheduling of their warships accompanying merchant vessels through piracy-infested waters. 

The tobacco epidemic

HAR fiqr ko dhuen mein udaata chala gaya…runs the refrain of a popular Hindi song that validates the somewhat romanticised status of smokers—as carefree souls who can puff away their worries and cares. The only success model that can offer some inspiration to break this image of tobacco addiction in our society is the Polio Plus campaign. For, it was based primarily on generating awareness among the masses. Unlike other addictions which are considered a social taboo, tobacco use is hard to control because of its cultural acceptance in most states. In Haryana, it is customary to offer a hukkah to a guest, which has to follow a proper protocol. Even among women, offering hukkah to the elderly is a sign of showing respect. Any number of men and women do not feel any hesitation asking for a packet of gutkha or paan masala, even at their work place, which contain varying percentage of tobacco.  

With such cultural connotations attached to tobacco intake in its variants — from smoking cigarettes to eating gutkha, the governments are hard-pressed to find solutions to curtail the growing menace.  About 2500 people die every day due to tobacco-related diseases in India. And chewing of tobacco and gutkha contributes to 90 per cent of oral cancer. Despite harsher pictorial warnings on tobacco products and many state governments like Bihar, Kerala  and Madhya Pradesh banning the sales of these items, the menace seems to remain unabated. In fact, a survey conducted in 23 cities of India shows a rise in the number of smokers, especially those belonging to the fair sex.
While in developed countries, the number of smokers has come down, the practice of consuming smokeless tobacco makes the banning of tobacco more challenging in India. On World No Tobacco Day, it was heartening to observe that efforts are made to regulate the contents of gutkha, which is supposed to follow the Food Safety and Standards Association of India Act, and should not have any trace of tobacco.

Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) Scheme and Punjab

Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) Scheme in a cluster of villages having a population of about 25,000 to 40,000.
An official spokesman said under the scheme, select private partners would develop livelihood opportunities, urban amenities and infrastructure facilities and maintain the same for a period of 10 years in identified villages or cluster of villages. Funding would be sourced from the Central Sector Scheme of PURA.
As many as nine projects have been initiated under PURA through the PPP mode across five states and one UT in the first batch. It was proposed to undertake a second batch of 10-15 pilot projects for which the Planning Commission had already made available additional funds to the tune of Rs 560 crore.
The private partners would be required to provide standard amenities like water supply and sewerage, roads, drainage, solid waste management, street lighting and power distribution, besides undertaking some economic and skill development as part of the project.

Plight of harassed NRI wives and Punjab government

EVERY now and then the plight of harassed NRI wives catches our attention. The government not only sits up and takes notice of their unenviable predicament but also makes the right noises. The Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab has now promised strict laws to deal with the menace. To the list of many initiatives that the Punjab government has undertaken to protect “nowhere brides” a helpline and a website have already been added. Indeed, in a state home to thousands of NRI brides left in the lurch, any move that will bring relief to them is welcome.

It’s been quite a while since the problem of fraudulent marriages involving NRI grooms has come to light. Efforts have been made at both the individual and macro level to help women caught in the web of deceit and cheating. While former Union Minister Balwant Singh Ramoowalia has always picked up the cudgels on behalf of hapless women, Perneet Singh, a passport officer at Jalandhar, has used passport confiscation as a tool to ensure justice for the victims of what in common parlance are known as “holiday marriages”. The Ministry of Overseas Affairs and the National Commission of Women too have taken several steps, including the setting up of a special NRI cell, to offer guidance to women in distress. However, justice continues to elude deserted wives.
While the number of “nowhere brides” in Punjab during the last 10 years is estimated to be around 10,000, only 159 cases have been registered in the last three years. Certainly, the problem has a social angle too and is, in a way, a manifestation of the obsessive fascination to migrate abroad. While the proposed law stipulates complete verification of NRI grooms, parents would do well to check their antecedents themselves too. However, there is no denying that the problem can only be addressed through legal methods. Till unsuspecting brides are not helped by strict laws involving the governments of other countries as well, girls will continue to be exploited at the hands of unscrupulous NRIs who have made a mockery of the sacred institution of marriage.