CURRENT AFFAIRS www.iasscore.

in
Welfare Policies www.iasscore.in

Notes

Contents

• Juvenile Justice System in India

• Transgender recognized as third gender

• NHRC: Issues in functioning and steps needed

• Human Trafficking in India

• Child Labour in India

• Issues related to Slums in India

• Female Infanticide and Feticide

• Issue of Maternal Mortality

• Issue of high Infant and Child Mortality in India

• Sanitation: Issues and Reforms

• ‘Housing for All by 2022’ Mission
• Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana
• Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana
• Skill Development Mission
• Issues Related to Undertrials In India

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Notes

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Juvenile Justice System in India Notes

What is the meaning of Juvenile?
Juvenile can be defined as a child who has not attained a certain age at which
he, like an adult person under the law of the land, can be held liable for his
criminal acts.
Juvenile is used when reference is made to a young criminal offenders and
minor relates to legal capacity or majority.
Principles of Juvenile Justice System:
• The Juvenile Justice (JJ) system is based on principles of promoting,
protecting and safeguarding the rights of children.
• Imprisonment of child offenders is prohibited and recommended for
provision of reformatory schools and constitution of children’s courts with
procedures ‘as informal and elastic as possible’.
• Establishment of various kinds of institutions for the care of juveniles –
a juvenile home for the reception of neglected juveniles, a special home
for the reception of delinquent juveniles, an observation home for the
temporary reception of juveniles during the pendency of any inquiry
regarding them, and an after-care home for the purpose of taking care of
juveniles after they are discharged from a juvenile home or a special home.
• Involvement of voluntary agencies at various stages of the juvenile justice
process.
History of Juvenile Justice Acts in India:
1. Juvenile Justice Act 1986:
a) No imprisonment of juveniles in police lock-up or jail.
b) Two main authorities – a juvenile welfare board and a juvenile court – to
deal with neglected and delinquent juveniles.
c) Establishment of various kinds of institutions for the care of juveniles.
d) Guaranteed a wide range of dispositional alternatives with preference for
family or community-based placement.
Drawbacks:
a) Loopholes in terms of age determination, separate trials, court proceedings,
notification of charges to parents or guardians, filing of reports by probation
officers, reasons for and length of confinement, rehabilitation and after
care of juveniles.
b) The JJA promoted a sex discriminatory definition of a juvenile.
c) Devoid of the basic infrastructure consisting of juvenile welfare boards,
juvenile courts, observation homes, juvenile homes, special homes and
after care homes.
2. Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act 2000:
a) Endorsed the “justice” as well as the “rights” approach towards children.

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b) Divided juveniles as “juveniles in conflict with law” and “children in need

of care and protection”. This segregation aims to curb the bad influence
Notes
on the child who is in need of care and protection from the one who is
in conflict with law.
c) Proposed standardization in the definition of a ‘juvenile’ or a ‘child’ across
the country except for Jammu and Kashmir.
d) Juveniles in conflict with law are to be handled by the juvenile justice
board.
e) Children in need of care and protection to be dealt by child welfare
committee.
Drawbacks:
a) Does not provide for care, protection, development and rehabilitation of
neglected, delinquent children and includes within its ambit child labourers.
b) Delays in various processes under the Act, such as decisions by Child
Welfare Committees (CWCs) and Juvenile Justice Boards (JJBs), leading
to high pendency of cases.
c) Increase in reported incidents of abuse of children in institutions.
d) Lack of clarity regarding roles, responsibilities, functions and accountability
of Child Welfare Committees and Juvenile Justice Boards.
3. Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) (Amendment) Act
2006:
a) According to this Juvenility would be reckoned from the date of
commission of offence who have not completed eighteenth year of age.
b) A juvenile in conflict with law is to be kept in a police lock-up or lodged
in a jail.
c) Chief Judicial Magistrate or the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate is to review
the pendency of cases of the Board at every six months.
d) Child protection units should be set up in states and districts to see to the
implementation of the Act.
Drawbacks:
a) Delay in inquiry of cases leading to children languishing in Homes for
years altogether on committing petty offences.
b) Inadequate facilities, quality of care and rehabilitation measures in Homes,
especially those that are not registered under the Act, resulting in problems
such as children repeating offences, abuse of children and runaway children.
c) Disruption of adoption and delays in adoption due to faulty and incomplete
processing and lack of timelines.
d) Limited participation of the child in the trial process, delays in rehabilitation
plan and social investigation report for every child.
e) Lack of child-friendly procedures by Juvenile Justice Boards and conduct
of Board sittings in Courts in many districts.
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f) Increase in heinous offences committed by children and lack of any specific

provisions to deal with such children.
Notes
Why changes required?
The NCRB statistics relating to violent crimes by juveniles against women
states that the number of rapes committed by juveniles has more than doubled
over the past decade from 399 rapes in 2001 to 858 rapes in 2010. “Crime in
India 2012” records that the total number of rapes committed by juveniles
more than doubled from 485 in 2002 to 1149 in 2011.
The brutal Delhi gangrape case has bought forth a new controversy related to
juvenile justice in India. One of the accused is a minor of 17 years.
Section 15(1)(g) of the JJ Act mandates that a juvenile convicted of any
offence can be sentenced to a special home for a period of three years,
maximum and thereafter be released on probation.
Comparison of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000 Act and proposed Bill

Provision The Juvenile Justice Act, 2000
Treatment of Juveniles All children under the age of 18
years treated equality. Maximum
penalty for juvenile in conflict with
law is three years.
Juvenile Justice Board Conducts inquiry and directs the
juvenile to be placed in any fit
institution for a period not exceeding
three years.
Disposing of cases for children in
Child Welfare Com-
need of care and protection;
mittee
frequency of meetings not specified.
Appeals
Appeal to the session court within
30 days of JJB order, further appeal
to a high court.
No provision for inter-country
Adoption adoption in the act; the guidelines
governing the adoption of children,
2011 provide for inter-country
adoption.
Foster care Temporary placement of a child to
be given for adoption, with a family
for a short/extended period of time;
biological family may be allowed to
visit.
Monetary and continued support for
After-care
children after they leave special or
children home for a period of three
years or till 21 years of age.
The Juvenile Justice Bill, 2014
Juveniles aged between 16-18 years
committing serious of heinous offences
could be tried as adults. However, there
will be no death penalty of life
imprisonment.
Adds a preliminary inquiry, conducted in
certain cases by JJB to determine whether
a child is placed in a home or sent to
children’s Court to be tried as an adult.
Functions are same as the act; training of
members to be done within two months
of bill becoming law; committee to meet
at least 20 days in a month.
Appeal JJB/CWC order within 30 days
to children’s court, further high court
(district magistrate for foster care, etc).
Inter-country adoption allowed if adoption
cannot take place within the country,
within 30 days of child being declared
legally free for adoption.
Same as the act. Adds new provision for
monthly checks on foster family by the
CWC.
One-time financial support to children
leaving child care institutions after
completing 18 years of age.

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Issues related to amendments

Notes
• The provision of trying a juvenile committing a serious or heinous offence
as an adult based on date of apprehension could violate the Article 14
(right to equality) and Article 21 (requiring that laws and procedures are
fair and reasonable).
• The provision also counters the spirit of Article 20(1) by according a
higher penalty for the same offence, if the person is apprehended after 21
years of age.
• The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child requires all signatory
countries to treat every child under the age of 18 years as equal.
• The provision of trying a juvenile as an adult contravenes the Convention.
Some penalties provided in the Bill are not in proportion to the gravity of the
offence. For example, the penalty for selling a child is lower than that for
offering intoxicating or psychotropic substances to a child.

Transgender Recognized as Third Gender

Definition of transgender
Transgender people are individuals of any age or sex whose appearance, personal
characteristics, or behaviors differ from stereotypes about how men and women
are “supposed” to be.
Constitutional rights of transgender people
a) Right to equality under Article 14.
b) Article 15 speaks about the prohibition of discrimination on the ground
of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.
c) Article 21 ensures right to privacy and personal dignity to all the citizens.
d) Article 23 prohibits trafficking in human beings as beggars and other
similar forms of forced labor and any contravention of these provisions
shall be an offence punishable in accordance with law.
Problems faced by transgender
• Transgender persons are deprived of the fundamental rights available to
the other two sexes, i.e. male and female, and are not considered as the
third sex.
• The transgender are deprived of social and cultural participation, are shunned
by family and society, have only restricted access to education, health
services and public spaces, restricted rights available to citizens such as
right to marry, right to contest elections, right to vote, employment and
livelihood opportunities and various human rights such as voting, obtaining
Passport, driving license, ration card, Identity Card etc.
• The main problems that are being faced by the transgender community
are of discrimination, unemployment, lack of educational facilities,
homelessness, lack of medical facilities like HIV care and hygiene,
depression, hormone pill abuse, tobacco and alcohol abuse, penectomy
and problems related to marriage and adoption.
• Transgender have very limited employment opportunities.

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• Most families do not accept if their male child starts behaving in ways
that are considered feminine or inappropriate to the expected gender role.
Notes
Consequently, family members may threaten, scold or even assault their
son/sibling from behaving or dressing-up like a girl or woman.

The Supreme Court judgment on Transgender Rights

This judgment covers persons who want to identify with the third gender as
well as persons who want to transition from one identity to another, i.e. to
male to female or vice versa. The Court has directed Centre and State
Governments to grant legal recognition of gender identity whether it be male,
female or third gender.
• Legal Recognition for Third Gender.
• Legal Recognition for Persons transitioning within male/female binary.
• Centre and State Governments have been directed to take proper measures
to provide medical care to transgender people in the hospitals and also
provide them separate public toilets and other facilities.
• Centre and State Governments have been asked to provide the community
various social welfare schemes and to treat the community as socially and
economically backward classes.
• Centre and State Governments are asked to take steps to create public
awareness so that transgender people will feel that they are also part and
parcel of the social life and not be treated as untouchables; take measures
to regain their respect and place in society; and seriously address the
problems such as fear, shame, gender dysphoria, social pressure, depression,
suicidal tendencies and social stigma.
Steps needed for bringing attitudinal changes
Families: Awareness and information are needed for parents to support their
gender-nonconforming or transgender children, setting aside their discomfort
and deeply held normative attitudes. Such information could be made available
in health settings (pediatrics, child development specialties), as well as through
educational institutions.
Educational institutions: Awareness of gender diversity and the need to
safeguard transgender youth from hostile school environments is a dire need.
The recommended interventions include formation of groups of transgender
children for meetings, holding film screenings, setting up of resource centre,
augmenting libraries with books and audio-visual materials on transgender issues,
holding periodical sensitization events, and adopting policies for preventing
sexual harassment and bullying of transgender children.
Workplace: Anti-discrimination policies must be instituted and meaningfully
applied to the processes of hiring, retention, promotion, and employee benefits.
Workplace sexual harassment policies should be made transgender-inclusive.
Law enforcement agencies: The police at all levels should undergo sensitization
workshops by human rights groups/queer groups in order to break down their
social prejudices and to train them to accord hijras and kothis the same
courteous and humane treatment as they should towards the general public.

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NHRC: Issues in functioning and steps needed Notes

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) was established on October
12, 1993.
Composition
The NHRC consists of:
• A Chairperson;
• One Member who is, or has been, a Judge of the Supreme Court of India
• One Member who is, or has been, the Chief Justice of a High Court;
• Two Members to be appointed from among persons having knowledge of,
or practical experience in, matters relating to human rights;
• In addition, the Chairpersons of four National Commissions of (Minorities;
SC; ST and Women) serve as ex-officio members.
The Chairperson and the Members of the Commission are appointed by the
President of India, on the recommendations of a Committee consisting of:
• The Speaker of the House of the People;
• The Minister-in-Charge of the Ministry of Home Affairs in the
Government of India;
• The Leader of the Opposition in the House of the People;
• The Leader of the Opposition in the Council of States;
• The Deputy Chairman of the Council of States.
Functions
The Commission has a wide mandate including civil and political rights,
economic, social and cultural rights, and group rights. Section 12 lays down
that the Commission shall perform all or any of the following functions, namely:
• Inquiring, suo motu, or on petitions, presented to it by victims, or any
persons on their behalf, or on a direction or order of any court, into
complaints of violation of human rights or abetment thereof, or negligence
in the prevention of such violation, by a public servant.
• Intervening in any proceeding involving any allegation of violation of
human rights pending before a Court, with the approval of such Courts.
• Visiting, notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time
being in force, any jail or other institution under the control of the State
Government, where persons are detained or lodged for purposes of
treatment, reformation or protection, for the study of the living conditions
of the inmates thereof and making recommendations.
• Reviewing the safeguards provided by, or under, the Constitution, or any
law for the time being in force, for the protection of human rights, and
recommending measures for their effective implementation.
• Reviewing the factors, including acts of terrorism, that inhibits the
enjoyment of human rights, and recommending appropriate remedial
measures.
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• Studying treaties and other international instruments on human rights, and

making recommendations for their effective implementation. Notes
• Undertaking and promoting research in the field of human rights.
• Spreading human rights literacy amongst various sections of society, and
promoting awareness of the safeguards available for the protection of
these rights, through publications, the media, seminars and other available
means.
• Encouraging the efforts of non-governmental organisations, and institutions
working in the field of human rights.
• Undertaking such other functions as may be considered necessary for the
promotion of human rights.
Analysis of NHRC
A. Structural limitations
The structural limitations largely relate to the Protection of Human Rights
Act, 1993 and include:
a) Recommendations only: Commissions make recommendations to
government, which include: payment of compensation to the victim or to
her/his family; disciplinary proceedings against delinquent officials; the
registration of criminal cases against those responsible; instructions to
take particular action to protect human rights and/or to refrain from
actions that violate human rights. However, they can only make
recommendations, without the power to enforce decisions. This lack of
authority to ensure compliance has unfortunate consequences:
I. Outright rejection of a recommendation: Governments often ignore the
recommendation completely or furnish a long bureaucratic discourse on
how compliance with the reommendation is not in the public interest.
II. Partial compliance: An example of this is a failure to release the full
amount of compensation. Another example is to take action on only one
recommendation when there were actually dual recommendations, such
as to pay compensation and take disciplinary action
III. Delayed compliance: While recommendations usually obligate governments
to take action within 4-6 weeks, compliance is rare within the stipulated
time and sometimes action is so delayed that it becomes meaningless.
b) Limited Mandate: Secton 2 (d) of the Act defines “human rights” as
“rights relating to life, equality and dignity of the individual guaranteed by
the Constitution or embodied in the International Covenants and enforceable
by courts in India” Thus the law requires the NHRC to concentrate more
on civil and political than on social and economic rights. This is somewhat
unfortunate as a human rights commission can really play an effective
role in pressurising the government to provide social and economic justice
to citizens.
c) Composition Criteria: The Act requires that three of the five members
of a human rights commission must be former judges but does not specify
whether these judges should have a proven record of human rights activism
or expertise or qualifications in the area. Regarding the other two members,

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the Act is vague, saying simply: “persons having knowledge and experience
of human rights.” Commissions therefore sometimes become post-
Notes
retirement destinations for judges, police officers and bureaucrats with
political clout.

d) Time-bar: Under the Act, human rights commissions cannot investigate

an event if the complaint was made more than one year after the incident.
Therefore, a large number of genuine grievances go unaddressed.
e) Bar on violations by Armed Forces: State human rights commissions
cannot call for information from the national government, which means
that they are implicitly denied the power to investigate armed forces under
national control. Even the powers of the National Human Rights
Commission relating to violations of human rights by the armed forces
have been restricted to simply seeking a report from the Government,
(without being allowed to summons witnesses), and then issuing
recommendations.
Practical limitations
Structural limitations apart, the work of human rights commissions are also
being hampered by cultures that exist within governmental spheres. Some of
the practical difficulties faced by human rights commissions include:
a) Non-filling of vacancies: Most human rights commissions are functioning
with less than the prescribed five members. This limits the capacity of
commissions to deal promptly with complaints, especially as all are facing
successive increases in the number of complaints.
b) Manpower dependency: The Commission is supposed to be completely
independent in its functioning, even though the Act does not say so. In
fact, there are provisions in the Act which underscore the dependence of
the Commission on the Government. As already stated, Section 11 of the
Act makes it dependent on the government for its manpower requirements.
c) Non-availability of funds: Scarcity of resources - or rather, resources not
being used for human rights related functions - is another big problem.
Large chunks of the budget of commissions go in office expenses and in
maintaining their members, leaving disproportionately small amounts for
other crucial areas such as research and rights awareness programmes.
d) Too many complaints: A common problem faced by most human rights
commissions is that they are deluged with complaints. In the year 2000-
2001, the National Human Rights Commission received over 70,000
complaints. State human rights commissions too, are finding it difficult to
address the increasing number of complaints.
e) Bureaucratic style of functioning: As human rights commissions primarily
draw their staff from government departments - either on deputation or
reemployment after retirement - the internal atmosphere is usually just
like any other government office. Strict hierarchies are maintained, which
often makes it difficult for complainants to obtain documents or information
about the status of their case. The presence of security guards, armies of
peons and office attendants creates barriers for ordinary people to personally
meet officials in regard to their complaint.
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Recommendations for improvement

Notes
If human rights commissions are to truly protect and promote human rights
in India, changes must be made to enable them to become more effective
institutions. Some suggested proposals are:
a) The effectiveness of human rights commissions will be greatly enhanced
if their decisions are immediately made enforceable by the government.
This will assist in preventing the many instances where the departmental
version of events is more often than not a white-wash, particularly in
those cases where the police has been accused of violations.
b) A large number of human rights violations occur in areas where there is
insurgency and internal conflict. Not allowing commissions to independently
investigate complaints against the military and security forces only
compounds the problems and furthers cultures of impunity. It is essential
that commissions are able to summons witnesses and documents, rather
than the present situation where the National Commission is restricted to
seeking reports from the national government.
c) If commissions are to play a meaningful role in society, they must include
civil society human rights activists as members. Many activists have the
knowledge and on-the-ground experience of contemporary trends in the
human rights movement to be an asset to the Commission.
d) Human rights commissions need to develop an independent cadre of staff
with appropriate experience. The present arrangement of having to rely on
those on deputation from different government departments is not
satisfactory as experience has shown that most have little knowledge and
understanding of human rights issues.
e) Complaints regarding police excesses and misbehaviour take up most of
the time of human rights commissions. It is perhaps time to think about
an alternative agency, dedicated solely to civilian oversight of the police.

Human Trafficking in India

Definition of trafficking
UN defines trafficking as: the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring
or receipt of persons by means of the threat or use of force or other forms
of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or
of a position of vulnerability or of giving or receiving of payments or benefits
to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the
purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the
exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation,
forced labour or service, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the
removal of organs.
Human Trafficking is a violation of human rights in the worst form, the
impacts of which are far-reaching. 95% of trafficking victims experience physical
and sexual violence. Many victims experience post-traumatic stress disorders,
anxiety, depression and disorientation.
Facts
• Human trafficking is labeled as the third most lucrative illicit trade, after
drugs and arms.

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• Slavery, prevalent in almost all countries of the world, amounts to U.S.$32

billion according to official sources and a definitive U.S.$150 billion Notes
according to non-governmental sources.
• As per official estimates, 15 children go missing every hour in India and
8 are never found.
• As per the data from Home Ministry, 1379 cases of human trafficking
were reported from Karnataka in the period of four years, in Tamil Nadu
the number is 2,244 whereas Andhra Pradesh has 2,157 cases of human
trafficking.
• Delhi is the hotspot for illegal trade of young girls for domestic labour,
forced marriage and prostitution.
Root causes of trafficking
Trafficking in humans is done, primarily, to fulfil the purposes of forced labour,
bonded labour, sex work and organs trafficking.
Causes are:
• Poverty
• Existence of gender-based violence
• Political instability
• Social and cultural exclusion
• Unemployment among youths
• Globalisation of the world economy
• Rural-Urban migration
• Poor governance and scarce government protection to vulnerable
Steps taken by government and flaws in it
Steps taken:
• The Constitution of the country has prohibited all sorts of trafficking
under Article 23. 
• Trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation is covered under
several other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), namely, 366A
(Procuration of Minor Girls Under 18 Years of Age), 366B (Importation
of Girls Under 21 Years of Age From a Foreign Country), 367 (Kidnapping
and Abduction for Slavery, Unnatural Lust, etc.), 372 (Selling of Minor
Girls for Prostitutions), 373 (Buying of Minor Girls for Prostitutions).
There are some other offences under IPC that have direct bearing on the
problem of trafficking. Thus, for instance, trafficked women/girls very
often are raped (an offence under section 376) before being sold to the
brothel. Also sexual intercourse with a girl child under 16 years of age,
even with her consent, constitutes the offence of a rape under section 374
of IPC.
• Special legislations like The Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929, Bonded
Labour  Abolition  Act  1976,  Child  Labour  Act  1986,  Juvenile  Justice 
Act 2000, Offences Against Children Act 2005 and local legislations like
Goa Children’s Act 2003 also attempt to prevent human trafficking.
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• The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act (ITPA) was amended in 1978 and

later in 1986, was in response to the ratification of the International Notes
Convention on Suppression of Immoral Traffic and Exploitation of
Prostitution of Others in 1950. The ITPA toughened penalties
for trafficking in children, particularly by focusing on  traffic-
kers, pimps, landlords, and brothel operators, while protecting underage girls
as victims. The ITPA also provides protection and rehabilitation for the
rescued girls. Keeping a brothel or allowing premises to be used as a
brothel is a crime under the ITPA. It also provides punishment to
(a) Adults living on the earnings of prostitutes,
(b) Procuring a person for the sake of prostitution, and
(c) Detaining a person in premises where prostitution is carried on.
But, prostitution is not an offence under the ITPA.
• Under the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act Section 370A has been added
to the Indian Penal Code which criminalizes human trafficking. The
definition provided under the new section is not restricted to prostitution
but also includes other forms of trafficking.
• Government has launched UJJAWALA scheme to prevent trafficking of
women and children for commercial sexual exploitation through social
mobilization and involvement of local communities, awareness generation
programmes, generate public discourse through workshops/seminars and
such events and any other innovative activity; to facilitate rescue of
victims from the place of their exploitation and place them in safe custody
and to provide rehabilitation services both immediate and long-term to
the victims by providing basic amenities/needs such as shelter, food,
clothing, medical treatment including counselling, legal aid and guidance
and vocational training.
Issues:
• It provides a measly amount of Rs.20,000 ($320) as compensation to
victim. Such amount is not enough to rehabilitate the victim or to provide
such a person with alternate means of livelihood. There is a grave danger
of the rescued persons falling back into the traps of the traffickers.
• The punishment provided to the trafficker under Section 3 of the Act is
only three years. Such punishment does not act as a deterrent to offenders.
• Further the process of rehabilitation mainly involves sending women to
government-run homes for protective custody until their cases are heard
or they are sent back to their original homes. These government run
homes have been criticized for a host of short comings corruption, poor
infrastructure facilities, meager budgets, inadequate provisions for
psychological care, ineffective skill building. Most women end up doing
nothing for long periods, while those who do not wish to be rescued view
the home as a prison. They are confined to the vicinity of the homes.
• The lack of appropriate facilities has meant that the rescued girls are
forced to stay in nari niketans, which is illegal.
• Social stigma and non-acceptability are said to the greatest obstacles to
reintegration. Besides the difficulties in finding alternative employment
because of the stigma, any livelihood option which pays less than Rs.

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2,000 to 3,000 a month is not viable and the rescued girls often lapse back
into commercial sex work. Notes
Possible solutions
• Effective policy implementation.
• Sensitization and awareness programmes for law enforcing agencies.
• Frequent raids to track trafficked persons.
• Alert border security forces to prevent trafficking out of the country.
• Public awareness programmes to alert people and to help them identify
any such activity around them.
• Post-rescue rehabilitation programmes to ensure that victims are not forced
to revert to sex work due to lack of reasonable alternatives.
• Training programmes to make rescued persons economically independent.
• Provide for protective homes for homeless persons and orphaned children
as they are most vulnerable.
• Separate institutions to be set up for minors, women and persons above
18 years of age (major).
• Collective effort must be made by the Police and NGOs to locate addresses
for repatriation of the victims.
• Counseling should be given to the families of survivors, for sensitization,
to facilitate easy acceptance of the repatriated survivors.
• Legal mechanisms should be clear and uncomplicated to guarantee prompt
repatriation of survivors.

Child Labour in India

Definition of Child Labour
Child Labour, as defined by the International Labour Organization, refers to
work that leads to the deprivation of one’s childhood and education
opportunities. It deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their
dignity and that is harmful to their physical and mental development.
Following are the incidences which can recognize as a Child Labour:
• Is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to
children; and
• Interferes with their schooling by:
I. Depriving them of the opportunity to attend school;
II. Obliging them to leave school prematurely; or
III. Requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with
excessively long and heavy work.
Some data related to Child Labour in India:
According to the Census 2001 figures there are 1.26 crore working children in
the age group of 5-14 as compared to the total child population of 25.2 crore.
There are approximately 12 lakhs children working in the hazardous
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occupations/processes which are covered under the Child Labour (Prohibition

& Regulation) Act i.e. 18 occupations and 65 processes. As per survey
Notes
conducted by National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) in 2004-05, the
number of working children is estimated at 90.75 lakh. As per Census 2011,
the number of working children in the age group of 5-14 years has further
reduced to 43.53 lakh. It shows that the efforts of the Government have borne
the desired fruits.
Examples of Child Labour:
The following are some of the situations in which children are engaged in
work:
• Agriculture - Children working long hours and under severe hardships on
the fields. They are also exposed to the hazards of working with modern
machinery and chemicals.
• Hazardous Industries/ Occupations - Like glass making, mining ,
construction , carpet weaving, zari making, fireworks and others as listed
under the Child Labour Act.
• Small industrial workshops and service establishments.
• On the streets- Rag pickers, porters, vendors, etc.
• Domestic work- Largely invisible and silent and hence face higher degree
of exploitation and abuse in the home of employees.
Constitutional Articles that prohibits Child Labour and proposes child development:
1. Article 14 (No child below the age of 14 years shall be employed to work
in any factory or mine or engaged in any other danger employment. 
2. Article 39-E ( The state shall direct its policy towards securing that the
health and strength of workers, men and women and the tender age of
children are not abused and that they are not forced by economic necessity
to enter vocations unsuited to there are and strength. 
3. Article 39-F (Children shall be given opportunities and facilities to develop
in a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity and that
childhood and youth shall be protected against moral and material
abandonment. 
4. Article 45 (The state shall endeavor to provide within a period of ten
years from the commencement of the constitution for free and compulsory
education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years.
The main legislative measures at the national level are The Child Labour
Prohibition and Regulation Act – 1986 ant The Factories Act – 1948.
Causes of Child Labour in India
Over population, illiteracy, poverty, debt trap are some of the common causes
which are instrumental in this issue.
Overburdened, debt-trapped parents fail to understand the importance of a
normal childhood under the pressures of their own troubles and thus it leads
to the poor emotional and mental balance of a child’s brain which is not
prepared to undertake rigorous field or domestic tasks.

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National and Multinational companies also recruit children in garment industries

for more work and less pay which is absolutely unethical. Notes
According to HAQ: Centre for child rights, child labour is highest among
schedules tribes, Muslims, schedule castes and OBC children. The persistence
of child labour is due to the inefficiency of the law, administrative system and
because it benefits employers who can reduce general wage levels.
Various growing concerns have pushed children out of school and into
employment such as forced displacement due to development projects, Special
Economic Zones; loss of jobs of parents in a slowdown, farmers’ suicide;
armed conflict and high costs of health care. Girl children are often used in
domestic labour within their own homes. There is a lack of political will to
actually see to the complete ban of child labour.
The steps taken by government and issues
• According to the Child Labor Prohibition and Regulation Act, children of
any age may be employed, provided employers adhere to restrictions,
including a maximum 6-hour workday with a 1-hour rest period, at least
1 day off per week, and no night or overtime work. The Child Labor
Prohibition and Regulation Act bars children under age 14 from 18
hazardous occupations and 65 hazardous processes, such as handling
pesticides, weaving carpets, breaking stones, working in mines, and domestic
service. The Factories Act bars children under age 14 from working in
factories. Employing children under age 14 in a hazardous occupation or
process can lead to fines and imprisonment.
• The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act prohibits
employers from exploiting juvenile employees under age 18, through
practices such as keeping them in bonded conditions or garnishing their
wages. Violators are generally not fined or imprisoned.
• The Bonded Labor System (Abolition) Act provides for district-level
vigilance committees to investigate allegations of bonded labor and release
anyone found in bondage. The Act also provides for rehabilitation assistance
payments for released bonded laborers. Persons found using bonded labor
may be fined and face imprisonment.
• In April 2013, the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act was passed, which
amended the Indian penal code to protect children and adults from being
trafficked into exploitative situations, including forced labor situations.
Penalties include fines and up to lifetime imprisonment. In 2012, the
Government passed the Protection of Children from Sexual Offence Act.
The law protects children from sexual assault, sexual harassment and
pornography and establishes Special Courts for trials of these crimes. The
amendment includes penalties for those who employ children or adults
who have been trafficked. Penalties include fines and up to lifetime
imprisonment.
• The Information Technology (Amendment) Act of 2008 includes penalties
of fines and imprisonment for any person who publishes, collects, seeks
or downloads child pornography in electronic form.
• The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance Act No. 61 makes it
illegal to cause any person, including children, to produce or deal in narcotic
or psychotropic substances; punishment consists of fines and imprisonment.

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• Education is free and compulsory to age 14. The Right of Children to

Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE) lays out the country’s Notes
commitment to provide universal access to primary education with a
focus on children from disadvantaged social groups. The RTE provides for
free and compulsory education to all children ages 6 to 14. The Act
prohibits denying admission to children who lack a birth certificate, allows
children to transfer schools, requires local authorities to identify out-of-
school children, forbids discrimination against disadvantaged groups, and
prescribes quality education standards. In 2012, the RTE was amended to
include children with disabilities. Research has shown that disabled children
who face barriers to education may be at greater risk of working in
hazardous occupations.
• With regard to educational rehabilitation, the Government is implementing
National Child Labour Project Scheme (NCLP) in 266 child labour endemic
districts in 20 States.
However most of the legislation passed lacks teeth to the effect that nothing
can be effectively enforced or implemented. The machinery to tackle this
problem effectively at the grass root level is lacking. Hence nothing much has
been achieved. The lack of a national minimum age for employment increases
the likelihood that very young children may engage in activities that jeopardize
their health and safety.
Thus the Government must either compensate the family of the child or find
employment for an adult member of the family. State governments also have
the authority to pass legislation establishing a minimum age for work. In 2012,
the State of Rajasthan passed legislation establishing a legal minimum working
age of 18 years.
Amendments proposed in Child Labour Prevention Act
In a significant move to curb the rampant spread of child labour across the
country, the Government of India has proposed amendments in Child Labour
Prevention Act.
The amendments proposed are:
• The government of India has introduced Child Labour (Prohibition and
Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2012 to amend the Child Labour (Prohibition
and Regulation) Act, 1986, which prohibits the engagement of children in
certain types of occupations and regulates the condition of work of children
in other occupations. 
• The Act prohibits employment of children below 14 years in certain
occupations such as automobile workshops, bidi-making, carpet weaving,
handloom and power loom industry, mines and domestic work.  In light
of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009,
the Bill seeks to prohibit employment of children below 14 years in all
occupations except where the child helps his family after school hours.
• The Bill adds a new category of persons called “adolescent”.  An adolescent
means a person between 14 and 18 years of age.  The Bill prohibits
employment of adolescents in hazardous occupations as specified (mines,
inflammable substance and hazardous processes).
• The central government may add or omit any hazardous occupation from
the list included in the Bill.

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• The Bill enhances the punishment for employing any child in an

occupation.  It also includes penalty for employing an adolescent in a Notes
hazardous occupation.
• The penalty for employing a child was increased to imprisonment between
6 months and two years (from 3 months-one year) or a fine of Rs 20,000
to Rs 50,000 (from Rs 10,000-20,000) or both.
• The penalty for employing an adolescent in hazardous occupation is
imprisonment between 6 months and two years or a fine of Rs 20,000 to
Rs 50,000 or both.  
• The government may confer powers on a District Magistrate to ensure
that the provisions of the law are properly carried out.
• The Bill empowers the government to make periodic inspection of places
at which employment of children and adolescents are prohibited.
Problems with the amendment
a) In India, it is extremely hard to empirically define what is “hazardous”
and what is “non-hazardous”.
b) Amendment also allows children to work in “family business” which is
equally ambiguous and open to misinterpretation.
c) This Amendment, in principle, goes against the Right of Children to Free
and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, which mandates the state to ensure
free and compulsory education to all children in the age group of 6 to 14
years. If a child is allowed to legally work in a non-hazardous industry,
would he or she be able to meet all the demands of a school education?
A condition set forth in this Amendment is that children should work
only after school hours or during vacations. But meeting this condition is
easier in theory than in practice.
Possible Solutions
• Elimination of poverty, free and compulsory education, proper and strict
implementation of the labour laws, abolishment of child trafficking can go
a long way in solving the problem of child labour.
• After the 86th Amendment of the Constitution in the year 2002, the
provision for free and compulsory education between the age group of 6
to 14 years has been included as fundamental right under Article 21A.
Children irrespective of their race, caste, sex, economic condition, religion,
place of birth, and parents to whom they born of need to how to read and
write.  They need social and professional skills that only a school and
nurturing environment can provide.
• The NGOs also have a big role to play in this regard. Various NGOs are
working for the cause of child labour. MVF in Andhra Pradesh is a striking
example. They have been working for the welfare of children in various
respects.
• Compulsory education can help eradicating the problem of child labour
up to a large extent. Statistics also show that education has helped in
reducing child labour in Western Countries up to a large extent.
• Organization of literacy and awareness programme to prevent children
from employment.

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• Amendment and Modification into Social Security Legislation governing

Child Labour. Notes
• Control on Population growth to eliminate of Poverty which is basic
cause of Child Labour issues.
• Mandatory on industrialists for equal pay without discrimination as to
Age, Status, Religion etc.
• Adequate health services for children at large living in the society.
• Need to provide training and education to the child workers during their
free time.

Issues Related to Slums in India

Urbanization and economic development have a strong positive correlation
which is indicated by the fact that a country with a high per capita income is
also likely to have a high degree of urbanization. The economic advantages
provided by urban areas are many. Generally, the industrial, commercial and
service sectors tend to concentrate in and around urban areas. These areas
provide a larger concentration of material, labour, infrastructure and services
related inputs on the one hand and also the market in the form of consumers,
on the other. But the situation is different for India. The haphazard urbanization
in India is leading to growth of slums.
Definition of Slum
The Pranab Sen Committee has defined Slums as: ”A Slum is a compact
settlement of at least 20 households with a collection of poorly built tenements,
mostly of temporary nature, crowded together usually with inadequate sanitary
and drinking water facilities in unhygienic conditions”. 
Slums data: NSSO Survey
Three types of slums have been defined in Census, namely, Notified, Recognized
and Identified.
(i) All notified areas in a town or city notified as ‘Slum’ by State, Union
territories Administration or Local Government under any Act including
a ‘Slum Act’ may be considered as Notified slums
(ii) All areas recognised as ‘Slum’ by State, Union territories Administration
or Local Government, Housing and Slum Boards, which may have not
been formally notified as slum under any act may be considered as
Recognized slums
(iii) A compact area of at least 300 population or about 60-70 households of
poorly built congested tenements, in unhygienic environment usually with
inadequate infrastructure and lacking in proper sanitary and drinking water
facilities. Such areas should be identified personally by the Charge Officer
and also inspected by an officer nominated by Directorate of Census
Operations. This fact must be duly recorded in the charge register. Such
areas may be considered as Identified slums
Some of the salient findings of the survey are as follows:
a) At all-India level 44% of slums – 48% of notified slums and 41% of non-
notified slums – were located on private land.

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b) In about 60% of all slums, the majority of houses had pucca structures.
The proportion of such slums was 85% among notified slums but only
Notes
42% of non-notified slums.
c) At the all-India level 71% of all slums had tap as major source of drinking
water, the figure being 82% for notified slums but only 64% for non-
notified slums.
d) The phenomenon of absence of electricity in slums appeared to be largely
confined to non-notified slums. At all-India level only 6.5% of all slums
had no electricity – the corresponding figures being 11% for non-notified
slums but only 0.1% for notified slums.
e) In about 66% of all slums, the road within the slum used by the dwellers
as main thoroughfare was a pucca road. The proportion was 83% for
notified slums and 55% for non-notified slums.
f) At the all-India level 31% of slums had no latrine facility, the figure being
42% for non-notified and 16% for notified slums.
g) About 31% of all slums had no drainage facility – the figure being
considerably higher for non-notified slums (45%) than for notified slums
(11%).
h) At the all-India level, 27% of all slums had no garbage disposal arrangement
– the figures being about 38% for non-notified slums and about 11% for
notified slums.
i) In an estimated 32% of all slums, the approach road to the slum usually
remained waterlogged due to rainfall. The figure was 35% for notified
slums and 29% for non-notified slums.
j) At the all-India level 24% of slums benefited from welfare schemes such
as Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), Rajiv
Awas Yojana (RAY), or any other scheme run by the Central Government
or State Government or any local body.  The proportion benefiting from
such schemes was 32% among notified and 18% among non-notified slums.
Various reasons for creation of slums are listed as follows:
• Increased urbanization leading to pressure on the available land and
infrastructure, especially for the poor.
• Natural increase in the population of urban poor and migration from rural
areas and small towns to larger cities.
• Inappropriate system of urban planning which does not provide adequate
space for the urban poor in the City Master Plans.
• Sky-rocketing land prices due to increasing demand for land and constraints
on supply of land.
• Absence of programmes of affordable housing for the urban poor in most
States.
• Lack of availability of credit for low income housing.
• Increasing cost of construction.

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Problems faced by Slum Dwellers:

Notes
• The urban poor are vulnerable to disease brought on by unhygienic
conditions. In key indicators for child health, the urban poor children fall
well below the national urban average. Only 53 per cent of the urban poor
children are covered by an Anganwadi Centre (AWC) and only 10.1 per
cent of women had regular contact with a health worker. All this translates
into poor nutritional status as well. Nearly 59 per cent of urban poor
women and 71.4 per cent of urban poor children suffered from anaemia.
Malnutrition, measured through underweight (47.1 per cent) and stunted
children (54.2 per cent), is significant among the urban poor. Out-of-
pocket expenditure for health also pushes individuals further into poverty.
• The urban poor are vulnerable to a lack of access to education services.
Consequently, the lack of education results in a lack of skill sets needed
to acquire employment in the formal sector.
• Lack of education and health among the urban poor is compounded by
a lack of access to finance, which is a pre-requisite for employment,
poverty reduction, and in the long-run sustained economic growth. However,
the formal financial sector serves only a minority, with most households
lacking even basic financial services.
• A key area where the urban poor are particularly vulnerable is the lack of
a legislative framework to empower the urban poor. This involves giving
legislative strength to policy initiatives such as inclusive urban planning,
financial empowerment of the poor, enabling livelihood options, and overall,
granting property rights to the urban poor. One area where the urban poor
are particularly vulnerable, due to legislative exclusion, is security of tenure
which is a prerequisite for access to formal financial institution access,
access to basic services and security from evictions.
• The sewerage system of the slum area is not sufficient in everywhere.
Most of the slum area has open drainage system. The drains are very
much dirty, unhygienic and undeletable which need renovations. The
sewerage system of this area is needed to improve.
• Peoples called “Slum” are a black spot and often an unwanted component
in urban civilization. This creates a social problem for slum dwellers. For
economical backdrop unsocial activities are generally conduct by the some
slum peoples. The most vibrant problem is unsocial alcoholic business.
Also the other problems like Murder, Theft, and Extortion is organized
here.
Initiatives taken by Government and issues
Although Land, Colonization and Slums are State subjects, the Central
government has brought up with the following schemes:
a) Interest Subsidy Scheme for Housing the Urban Poor (ISHUP) has been
conceived for providing interest subsidy on housing urban poor to make
the housing affordable and within the repaying capacity of Economically
Weaker Section. The scheme encourages poor sections to avail of loan
facilities through Commercial Banks/HUDCO for the purposes of
construction of houses and avail 5% subsidy in interest payment for loans
upto Rs. 1 lakh.

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b) National Slum Development Programme (NSDP), Night Shelters, Two

Million Housing Scheme, Accelerated Urban Water Supply Programme
Notes
(AUWSP), and Low-Cost Sanitation — provide for a wide range of
services to the urban poor including slumdwellers. They include
identification of the urban poor, formation of community groups,
involvement of NGOs, self-help/thrift and credit activities, training for
livelihood, credit and subsidy for economic activities, housing and sanitation,
environmental improvement, community assets, wage employment and
convergence of services.
c) Valmiki-Ambedkar Awas Yojana (VAMBAY) has been introduced in
2001-02 to provide a shelter or upgrading the existing shelter to BPL
people in urban slums. Twenty per cent of the total allocation under
VAMBAY is provided for sanitation and community toilets to be built for
the urban poor and slum dwellers.
d) The Smart Cities Mission and the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and
Urban Transformation of 500 cities (AMRUT) with outlays of Rs. 48,000
crore and Rs. 50,000 crore respectively has been launched by government
of India. Under the Smart Cities Mission, each selected city would get
central assistance of Rs.100 crore per year for five years. Under smart
cities initiative, focus will be on core infrastructure services like: Adequate
and clean Water supply, Sanitation and Solid Waste Management, Efficient
Urban Mobility and Public Transportation, Affordable housing for the
poor, power supply, robust IT connectivity, Governance, especially e-
governance and citizen participation, safety and security of citizens, health
and education and sustainable urban environment. Further Atal Mission
for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), a mission aimed
at transforming 500 cities and towns into efficient urban living spaces,
with special focus on a healthy and green environment for children. 
e) “Housing for All by 2022” has been launched by the Union Cabinet
aimed for urban areas with following components/options to States/Union
Territories and cities:- 
• Slum rehabilitation of Slum Dwellers with participation of private
developers using land as a resource; 
• Promotion of affordable housing for weaker section through credit linked
subsidy; 
• Affordable housing in partnership with Public & Private sectors and 
• Subsidy for beneficiary-led individual house construction or enhancement. 

Central grant of Rs. one lakh per house, on an average, will be available under
the slum rehabilitation programme. Under this State Government would have
flexibility in deploying this slum rehabilitation grant to any slum rehabilitation
project taken for development using land as a resource for providing houses to
slum dwellers.

Issues in implementation of programmes:

The problems in implementation arise both from the people living in the
slums, who lack sensitivity towards the benefits of improvement on the quality
of their lives and also the implementing agencies which are almost non-

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functional. The lack of political will to contain the problem compounds the
issue manifold. All the state governments in the country are not taking this
Notes
problem seriously. Many of them do not use the funds allocated to them by
the central government for the specific purpose and the money, thus allocated,
lapses.

Despite facing several impediments, the local, state and central governments
in India have been successful in partially dealing with the problems of slum
dwellers. The data on living conditions and demographic profile of the slum
dwellers collected by the NSSO in its 65th round and compared with its 58th
round highlights the fact that there has been a considerable improvement in
the living conditions in the slums and squatters in India over the last one
decade. However, the rate at which the slums are growing as a result of
unplanned urbanization in the country multiplies the slum problems at a rate
much faster than they are resolved or taken care of.

Steps needed:

a) Countries need to recognize that the urban poor are active agents and not
just beneficiaries of development.

b) Developing cities requires local solutions.Local authorities need to be

empowered with financial and human resources to deliver services and
infrastructure to the urban poor. Cities should draw up local long-term
strategies for improving the lives of slum dwellers.

c) Local governments should develop strategies to prevent the formation of

new slums. These should include access to affordable land, reasonably
priced materials, employment opportunities, and basic infrastructure and
social services.

d) Public investments must focus on providing access to basic services and

infrastructure. Working with the urban poor, cities need to invest in housing,
water, sanitation, energy, and urban services, such as garbage disposal.
These services and infrastructure must reach the poor living in informal
settlements.

e) The transportation needs and safety concerns of a city’s poorest residents

should be a high priority in planning urban transportation systems, which
can expand the choices people have regarding where to live and work.

f) Building codes and regulations should be realistic and enforceable and

reflect the lifestyle and needs of the local community. This means, for
example, that they may have to be flexible enough to allow housing that
is built incrementally, out of low-cost materials and on small plots of
land.

Female Infanticide and Feticide

Sex selective abortions cases have become a significant social phenomenon in
several parts of India. Female foeticide is aborting the female baby in the
mothers’ womb. Whereas female infanticide is killing a baby girl after she is
being born.

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The Census (2011) data showed a significant declining trend in the Child Sex
Ratio1 (CSR) between 0-6 years with an all time low of 918. The issue of Notes
decline in the CSR is a major indicator of women disempowerment. CSR
reflects both, pre-birth discrimination manifested through gender biased sex
selection, and post birth discrimination against girls.
Reasons for female infanticide and feticide
• The main reason is the idea that the male offspring will better support the
family. Since sons are seen as the main source of income, even though
today, women have many career options, the common misconception still
remains that it is the male who will help run the house and look after his
parents, while women are viewed as being like cargo, something to be
shipped off to another household.
• In India, the age-old dowry system puts a damper on the spirits of those
who are blessed with a girl child. When a girl is born, the parents begin
to calculate the expense of her future marriage, the lump sum that will
paid to the future groom’s family. They worry that currency may depreciate
and inflation may skyrocket. Because of this, the birth of a girl is seen as
a tragedy waiting to happen.
• As a result of institutional and cultural sexism, female children and adults
have less power, status, rights, and money. Even as adults, it’s harder for
females to take care of or make decisions for themselves. Centuries of
repression have made inferiority second nature to most women who have
been taught the role of the meek, submissive, docile wife who works
relentlessly to cater to the whims of her husband. Female feticide often
happens with the explicit consent of the mother. Even the mothers-to-be
agree to this misdeed out of an inherited cultural bias and a sense of duty
to the family.
• Industrialization of the health sector has further established the practice
of sex selective abortion. With the advent of CVS, amniocentesis, and
ultrasound, sex determination of the fetus has become much easier. These
manufacturers of high-tech equipment and gadgets benefit from the
preference for male children. Many hospitals are known to sign long-term
contracts with the firms involved in the production of these types of
machines. Often, a healthy percentage of the profit is shared with the
hospital, and both parties enjoy the fruits of rewarding a death sentence.
Impact of skewed child sex ratio
Female feticide has adversely affected Indian society. 36% of men between the
ages of 15 and 45 in the wealthy state of Haryana are unmarried. This
prevalence of unmarried men has a destabilizing effect that counteracts the
stabilizing and enriching effects of families in a society. The poorer of these
unmarried men seek brides from India’s economically challenged eastern states,
and wives obtained in this way tend to be exploited and in some cases passed
on from one husband to the next.
The decrease in the boy-to-girl birth ratio, itself the result of the low status of
women in Indian society, risks a sharp further decrease in the status of women
from bad to worse. The danger is a vicious circle bringing continually greater
female feticide and lowering of the status of women in Indian society.
With no mothers to bear children (male or female), there will be fewer births,
leading to a decline in population. Though population control is currently the

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goal of many nations like China and India, a total wipeout of one sex is not
the way to achieve this target. Notes
The sex ratios of other countries are listed below:
Vietnam: 892 females /1000 males
South Korea: 934 females /1000 males
USA: 962 females /1000 males
Canada: 943 females /1000 males
UK: 952 females /1000 males
Sri Lanka: 961 females /1000 males
New initiatives
• Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Yojana
To ensure survival, protection and empowerment of the girl child, Government
has announced Beti Bachao Beti Padhao initiative, to be implemented through
a national campaign and focussed multi sectoral action.
The initial focus is on 100 selected districts with low CSR, covering all States
and UTs. This is a joint initiative of Ministry of Women and Child Development,
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Ministry of Human Resource
Development.
The objectives of the scheme are:
a) To prevent Gender biased sex selective elimination: Focussed intervention
targeting enforcement of all existing Legislations and Acts, especially to
Strengthen the implementation of Pre-Conception & Pre-Natal Diagnostic
Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994 (PC&PNDT Act)
with stringent punishments for violations of the law.
b) To ensure survival& protection of the girl child: Article 21 of the
Constitution defines „protection of life and liberty as a legitimate right
of its citizens. The difference in mortality rates of girls and boys indicates
the difference in access to various health care and nutrition services as
well as the preferential care and treatment given to boys. The access to
various entitlements, changes in patriarchal mind-set etc. are to be addressed
in order to ensure equal value, care for and survival of the infant and
young girl child. Further implementation of various legislative provisions
for the protection of the girl child and women has to be ensured to create
a nurturing and safe environment for the girl child.
c) To ensure education & participation of the girl child: The access and
availability of services and entitlements during the various phases of the
life cycle of the Girl Child has a bearing on her development. Essential
requirements related to Nutrition, Health Care, Education and Protection
have to be fulfilled to enable every girl child to develop her full potential
especially the right to quality early childhood care, elementary and
secondary education. Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2010 provides children
the right to free and compulsory education till completion of elementary
education in a neighbourhood school. Further, SarvaShikshaAbhiyan (SSA)
is a flagship programme for achievement of universalisation of Elementary
Education (UEE) in a time bound manner, as mandated by 86th
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amendment to the Constitution of India making free and compulsory

Education to the Children of 6-14 years age group, a Fundamental Right.
Notes
Denial of these entitlements is a violation of children s rights, which will
have a lasting lifelong negative impact. This will also adversely impact
upon future human development.
• Sukanya Samridhi Yojana:
a) As an integral part of the BetiBachao, BetiPadhao scheme, a small deposit
scheme for girl child, which would fetch an interest rate of 9.1 per cent
and provide income tax rebate, has been introduced by the Union
Government.
b) The Scheme, ‘SukanyaSamridhi Account’ can be opened at any time from
the birth of a girl child till she attains the age of 10 years, with a minimum
deposit of Rs 1000. A maximum of Rs 1.5 lakh can be deposited during
the financial year. The account can be opened in any post office or
authorised branches of commercial banks.
c) The scheme primarily ensures equitable share to a girl child in resources
and savings of a family in which she is generally discriminated as against
a male child.
d) The account will remain operative for 21 years from the date of opening
of the account or marriage of the girl child after attaining 18 years of age.
To meet the requirement of higher education expenses, partial withdrawal
of 50 per cent of the balance would be allowed after the girl child has
attended 18 years of age.

Issue of Maternal Mortality

Definition of Maternal Mortality
In India, Maternal Mortality Rate has become a major public health problem.
MMR is defined as death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of
termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of pregnancy,
from any cause related to or aggravated by pregnancy or its management but
not from accidental or incidental causes.
Facts related to Maternal Mortality:
The present situation of India has been described as below:
• India has recorded a decline in maternal mortality rates between 1990 and
2013 but along with Nigeria it accounted for one third of the global
maternal deaths.
• According to World Health Organization’s Trends in maternal mortality
estimates 1990 to 2013, an estimated 289,000 women died in 2013 from
complications in pregnancy and childbirth, down from 523,000 in 1990.
• Although the MMR dropped but, India is far behind the target of 103
deaths per live births to be achieved by 2015 under the United Nations-
mandated Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
• The MMR in southern states fell 17% from 127 to 105, closer to the
MDGs. Assam and Uttar Pradesh/Uttarakhand were the worst performing
states, with an MMR of 328 and 292, respectively. Kerala and Tamil
Nadu have surpassed the MDG with an MMR of 66 and 90, respectively.
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• According to the Annual Health Survey (AHS), which covers nine states,
India has made headway in institutionalizing child deliveries, i.e. taking Notes
place in hospitals. More than 40% of child deliveries in Chhattisgarh and
79% in Madhya Pradesh were institutional in 2012, compared with 34.9%
in Chhattisgarh and 76.1% in Madhya Pradesh in 2011.
• The states covered by the AHS are Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh,
Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Assam.
• More than 85% of the total births took place in government institutions
in Madhya Pradesh and Odisha in 2011, and this was more than 60% in
the other states surveyed, except Jharkhand, according to the latest AHS
data.
• Total fertility ratio (TFR), or the average number of children given birth
by a woman, reach a preferred level of 2.1 in only 29 out of 284 AHS
districts, whereas in 2011 it was 20 districts, according to the AHS data.
Causes of high MMR in India:
• The most common direct medical causes of maternal death around the
world are hemorrhage, obstructed labor, infection (sepsis) and hypertensive
disorders related to pregnancy, such as eclampsia. These conditions are
largely preventable and once detected, they are treatable.
• Complications from unsafe abortion are another common and preventable
direct cause of maternal death. The NFHS-3 and other studies confirm
the widespread prevalence of these causes of maternal mortality in India.
• A higher incidence of mortality and morbidity is found to occur among
woman and girls who are poor or low-income, less educated and belong
to socially disadvantaged castes and tribes.
• Child marriage puts young girls and adolescents at significant risk of
pregnancy-related complications and mortality.
• Pregnant women living with HIV/AIDS experience an increased risk of
pregnancy-related fatalities due to outright discrimination.
• The affordability of reproductive health services for women is a major
concern. The burden of high out-of-pocket expenses for reproductive health
care has been identified as a leading cause of poor reproductive health
outcomes among low-income women in South Asian countries, including
India. This trend may be attributed to the fact that the government spends
less than 1% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on health which in
turn has led to insufficient access to health care services and poor quality
of care. Consequently, hospitalization is frequently a cause of debt among
the poor, which in turn leads to increased poverty.
• Education level has been noted by experts as one of the most important
indicators of women’s status related to maternal mortality, in light of its
affects on fertility rates and access to employment and health care. Female
education and female literacy rates are strongly correlated to high rates of
maternal mortality around the world. Some national-level comparisons
show that literacy is a stronger predictor of maternal health than economic
wealth. Lack of education adversely affects women’s health by limiting
their knowledge about nutrition, birth spacing and contraception.

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• Essential reproductive health services are not available to the majority of

women in India. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) reports Notes
that a mere 30% of the population receives services through the public
health system. The unavailability of basic reproductive health services
including contraceptives, pre- and postnatal care and emergency obstetric
care, as well as delays in seeking institutional care and the poor quality of
care provided in government hospitals, have contributed dramatically to
maternal deaths.
• High maternal mortality rates correlate strongly with inadequate access to
family planning information and services. Unwanted pregnancies expose
women to significant risks to their maternal health, including complications
from unsafe abortions and high-risk pregnancies. Studies show that women
facing unwanted pregnancies are far more likely to seek induced abortions,
including illegal abortions, and are much less likely to receive adequate
prenatal care.
• Most maternal deaths are attributable to the ‘three delays’: the delay in
deciding to seek care, the delay in reaching the appropriate health facility,
and the delay in receiving quality care once inside an institution.
Steps taken by Government:
The right to survive pregnancy and childbirth is a basic human right. Under
international law, the government of India bears a legal obligation to ensure
that women do not die or suffer complications as a result of preventable
pregnancy-related causes. The staggering scale and continuing occurrence of
maternal deaths and morbidity in India reveals the government’s failure to
protect women’s reproductive rights, and comply with international law.
Some of the recent initiatives are discussed below:
The government has launched the reproductive and Child Health Programme
Phase II (RCH-II) under the umbrella of the National Rural Health Mission
(NRHM), aims to improve access for rural people, especially poor women and
children to equitable, affordable accountable and effective primary health care,
with a special focus on 18 States, with the ultimate objective of reducing
Infant Mortality, Maternal Mortality and Total Fertility Rates.
The key strategies and interventions under the NRHM for reduction of Maternal
Mortality Ratio are:
• Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY), a cash benefit scheme to promote
Institutional Delivery with a special focus on Below Poverty Line (BPL)
and SC/ST pregnant women;
• Operationalizing round the clock facilities for delivery services in the 24X7
Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and First Referral Units (FRUs) including
District Hospitals, Sub-district Hospitals, Community Health Centres and
other institutions.
• Augmenting the availability of skilled manpower thorough various skill-
based trainings of Skilled Birth Attendants; training of MBBS Doctors in
Life Saving Anesthetic Skills and Emergency Obstetric Care including
Caesarean Section.
• Provision of Ante-natal and Post Natal Care services including prevention
and treatment of Anaemia by supplementation with Iron and Folic Acid
tablets during pregnancy and lactation.
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• Organizing Village Health and Nutrition Days (VHNDs) at anganwadi

Centres to impart health and nutrition education to pregnant and lactating
Notes
mothers.
• Systems strengthening of health facilities through flexible funds at Sub
Centres (PHCs) and Community Health Centres (CHCs) and District
Hospitals.
• Provision of early detection of pregnancy, regular check-up of blood
pressure, hemoglobin, fetal growth free of cost.
• Regular home visit by Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) and
sensitizing mothers about the need of taking one extra meal, eight hours
sleep at night and two hours rest at daytime, early detection of complication
of pregnancy etc. ASHAs educate the mothers about the need of
institutional delivery and delivery by skilled birth attendant.

• Provision of arrangement of mothers’ meeting every month at Anganwadi

center.

• Establishment of First Referral Units (FRUs) at block level having provision

of normal delivery, caesarian section and assisted vaginal delivery. FRUs
are equipped with gynecologists, pediatricians, anesthetists and blood
transfusion facility.
• Under VandeMataram scheme gynecologists who are not in Governmental
service, if treat pregnant ladies atGovernment facilities free of cost, then
they receive a particular amount of incentive from the Government and
also get Vande Mataram certificate.

• Some NGOs are working for pregnant ladies in hard to reach area like
hilly areas and delta islands like Sundarban.
• Government of India has launched Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakaram
(JSSK). The initiative entitles all pregnant women delivering in public
health institutions to absolutely free and no expense delivery, including
caesarean section. The entitlements include free drugs and consumables,
free diet up to 3 days during normal delivery and up to 7 days for C-
section, free diagnostics, and free blood wherever required. This initiative
also provides for free transport from home to institution, between facilities
in case of a referral and drop back home. Similar entitlements have been
put in place for all sick newborns accessing public health institutions for
treatment till 30 days after birth. This has now been expanded to cover
sick infants.

Issues in implementation
• Corruption is widespread is providing health care facilities. The inability
of pregnant woman to pay the informal demands for money in exchange
for services has been identified as a leading cause of maternal mortality.
It appears that JSY is wrongly being seen as a scheme to cover out-of-
pocket costs for institutional delivery, which is supposed to be free, rather
than as a cash assistance program for nutritional and other support. There
also have been reports of ANMs selling state-provided medicines illegally
and pocketing the earnings.

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• Many institutions are increasing promotion of institutional delivery without

first addressing or improving the quality of care, which has led to poor
Notes
services and medical care. Often institutions are not fully staffed or do not
offer services for evening births, leading to women being turned away or
being sent to private hospitals where they may incur huge medical costs.
Health centers also have a lack of workable toilets and basic sanitation
facilities. Further, referral systems are weak or nonexistent, leading women
to be shuttled back and forth between providers with no continuity of
care.
• Health workers are not adequately trained, which leads to mismanagement
of delivery cases, such as the widespread, unsupervised use of oxytocin
injections before delivery.
• Certain provisions of the NRHM are problematic insofar as they fail to
take into account circumstances that deny women the ability to control
when, under what circumstances and how often they become pregnant.
For instance, in JSY making cash incentives conditional on consent for
sterilization is a form of coerced sterilization, as women who belong to
BPL households are not likely to have the financial ability to reject the
cash payment, even if they prefer a nonpermanent method of birth control.
The implications of these provisions for women’s well-being and basic
human rights have been overlooked by policymakers and need to be
addressed.
New Initiatives
• Maternal Death Review
The process of maternal death review (MDR) has been implemented &
institutionalized by all the States as a policy since 2010. Guidelines and tools
for conducting community based MDR and Facility based MDR have been
provided to the States. The States are reporting deaths along with its analysis
for causes of death.
• Delivery Points (DPs)
All the States & Union Territories have identified DPs above a certain minimum
benchmark of performance to prioritize and direct resources in a focused manner
to these facilities for filling the gaps like trained and skilled human resources,
infrastructure, equipments , drugs and supplies, referral transport etc. for
providing quality & comprehensive RMNCH (Reproductive, Maternal, Neonatal
& Child Health) services.
• Web Enabled Mother and Child Tracking System
Name Based Tracking of Pregnant Women and Children has been initiated by
Government of India as a policy decision to track every pregnant woman,
infant & child upto 3 yrs, by name for provision of timely ANC, Institutional
Delivery, and PNC along-with immunization & other related services.
• A Joint MCP Card
Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and Ministry of Women and Child
Development (MOWCD) has been launched as a tool for documenting and
monitoring services for antenatal, intranatal and postnatal care to pregnant
women, immunization and growth monitoring of infants.

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• Tracking of severe Anaemia during pregnancy & child birth by SCs and
PHCs: Notes
Severe anemia is a major cause for pregnancy related complications that may
lead to maternal deaths. Effective monitoring of these cases by the ANM as
well as the Medical Officer in charge of PHC has been started to line list these
cases and provide necessary treatment.
• Technical Guidelines & Service Delivery Posters:
GoI has developed & disseminated standard technical guidelines & service
delivery posters for standardizing the quality of service delivery during ANC,
INC, PNC, etc from tertiary to primary level of institutions.

Issue of high Infant and Child Mortality in India

Childhood mortality is one of the important indicators of a country’s general
medical and public health conditions, and consequently, the country’s level of
socio-economic development. Its decline is therefore not only desirable but
also indicative of an improvement in general living standards. With one in ten
children dying before the age of 5, India has an embarrassingly high infant
mortality rate along with chronic infant morbidity.
(Infant mortality is the death of a child less than one year of age. It is measured
as infant mortality rate (IMR), which is the number of deaths of children
under one year of age per 1000 live births.)
Facts related to child mortality situation in India
• 2.7 million children under 5 die every year. At 43 deaths per 1000 live
births, India’s Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) is worse than many countries
in Sub- Saharan Africa. One out of ten Indian children will not reach the
age of 5.
• India has the highest number of neonatal deaths (within the first 28 days
of birth) in the world. India’s Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR) of 40 per
100,000 live births (2002) amounts to 60 per cent of infant mortality and
over half of all deaths of children under 5 years of age.
• Malnutrition contributes to over 50 per cent of child deaths.
• At any one time, one fifth of all children suffer from diarrhoea and nearly
a third have fever.
• Poverty and lack of awareness prevent mothers from providing adequate
care for their children. For instance, breastfeeding may be limited or weaning
methods flawed, with only 23 per cent of babies breastfed within one
hour of birth, and just 46 per cent exclusively breastfed for the first six
months.
• India has the lowest child immunisation rate in South Asia. The proportion
of children who have not had a BCG vaccine in India is twice as high as
in Nepal, more than five times as high as in Bangladesh, and almost 30
times higher than in Sri Lanka.
• One in four pregnant women have not had a single antenatal checkup, and
a majority of deliveries take place without the assistance of a health
professional. About one-third of expectant mothers in India are not
immunised against tetanus, which helps prevent both mother and child
infection at birth.
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Reasons for high Child Mortality in India:

Notes
• The infants of teen aged mothers had higher risk of dying.
• Age at effective marriage of the mother seems to be associated with the
risk of infant mortality inversely i.e. lower the age at effective marriage,
higher would be the risk of infant mortality.
• Shorter birth interval (below 18 months) between the two live births pay
a significant role in the higher risk of dying among the infants as compared
to the infants where the interval was higher than 18 months.
• IMR and U5 MR among children born to illiterate mothers have been
consistently higher than those born to mothers with any education.
• Deliveries attended by health professionals have a lower risk.
• Mortality among children born to malnoursished, anemic as well as obese
mothers is higher.
• Mortality among low Standard Living Index is high.
• IMR and U5 mortality rates are consistently higher among children living
in families who do not have access to drinking water from a safe source.
• IMR and U5 mortality rates are consistently higher among children living
in families with no access to an improved toilet.
• Diseases such as diarrhoea, malaria and measles.
Initiatives taken:
Under the National Health Mission (NHM), following interventions are being
implemented to bring down mortality rate among children in all States: 
a) Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakaram (JSSK) entitles all pregnant women
delivering in public health institutions to absolutely free and no expense
delivery including Caesarean section. The initiative stipulates free drugs,
diagnostics, blood and diet, besides free transport from home to institution,
between facilities in case of a referral and drop back home. Similar
entitlements have been put in place for all sick infants accessing public
health institutions for treatment till one year of age. 
b) Facility Based Newborn Care (FBNC) at different levels to reduce child
morbidity and mortality include setting up of facilities for care of sick
newborn such as Special New Born Care Units (SNCUs), Newborn
Stabilization Units (NBSUs) and Newborn Care Corners (NBCCs) at
different levels is a thrust area under NHM. 
c) Home based newborn care through ASHAs has been initiated to improve
new born practices at the community level and early detection and referral
of sick new born babies. 
d) India Newborn Action Plan (INAP) has been launched with an aim to
reduce neonatal mortality and stillbirths. India Newborn Action Plan is
guided by the principles of Integration, Equity, Gender, Quality of Care,
Convergence, Accountability and Partnerships. Its strength is built on its
six pillars of intervention packages impacting still births and newborn
health. The six pillars include: Preconception and antenatal care; Care
during labour and child birth; Immediate new born care; Care of healthy

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newborn; Care of small and sick newborn, and Care beyond newborn
survival.
Notes
e) Newer interventions to reduce newborn mortality- Vitamin K injection at
birth, Antenatal corticosteroids for preterm labour, kangaroo mother care
and injection gentamicin to young infants in cases of suspected sepsis. 

f) Intensified Diarrhoea Control Fortnight was observed in August 2014

focusing on ORS and Zinc distribution for management of diarrhoea and
feeding practices. 
g) Integrated Action Plan for Pneumonia and Diarrhoea (IAPPD) launched
in four states with highest child mortality (UP, MP, Bihar and Rajasthan). 
h) Nutritional Rehabilitation Centres (NRCs) have been established for
management of severe acute malnutrition in children. 
i) Appropriate Infant and Young Child Feeding practices are being promoted
in convergence with Ministry of Woman and Child Development. 
j) Village Health and Nutrition Days (VHNDs) are organized for imparting
nutritional counselling to mothers and to improve child care practices. 
k) Mother and Child Tracking System (MCTS): A name based Mother and
Child Tracking System has been put in place which is web based to ensure
registration and tracking of all pregnant women and new born babies so
that provision of regular and complete services to them can be ensured. 
l) Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) for health screening and early
intervention services has been launched to provide comprehensive care to
all the children in the age group of 0-18 years in the community. The
purpose of these services is to improve the overall quality of life of
children through early detection of birth defects, diseases, deficiencies,
development delays including disability. 

m) Under National Iron Plus Initiative (NIPI), through life cycle approach,
age and dose specific IFA supplementation programme is being
implemented for the prevention of anaemia among the vulnerable age
groups like under-5 children, children of 6 – 10 years of age group,
adolescents, pregnant & lactating women and women in reproductive age
along with treatment of anaemic children and pregnant mothers at health
facilities. 
n) Capacity building of health care providers: Various trainings are being
conducted under NHM to train doctors, nurses and ANMs for essential
newborn care, early diagnosis and case management of common ailments
of children. These trainings are on Navjaat Shishu, Suraksha Karyakram
(NSSK), Integrated Management of Neonatal and Childhood Illnesses
(IMNCI), Facility Based Newborn Care (FBNC), Infant and Young Child
Feeding practices (IYCF), etc. 
o) Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) covers about 13.5 crore children
for vaccination against seven vaccine preventable diseases, through 90
lakh immunization sessions each year. Four vaccines have been added to
the program, namely rotavirus, rubella and Japanese encephalitis, as well
as the injectable polio vaccine.
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Issues in the programmes

Notes
Supplementary nutrition to children under ICDS and nursing/expectant mothers
from low-income families has so far largely been restricted to rice and wheat.
Supplements alone on top of cereals and grains risk causing toxic side-effects
in malnourished children. For 3-6 year olds, there is nothing available but
cereal-based items of little nutritional value with no provisions for nutritious
hot meals. There are frequent complaints of delays in Central Government’s
transferrances of resources for this programme with accusations of diversion
of food, while state governments differ substantially in the amount and quality
of supplementary nutrition that is provided.
Currently, only about one per cent of the total Union Budget is spent on
children under six years of age, meaning that it remains a low priority for the
government, despite disturbingly high morbidity and mortality within this age
range.
There are still not enough anganwadis or anganwadi workers, and they lack
adequate resources to meet all the nutritional requirements of the pregnant and
lactating mothers, infants and small children who need their services. If the
declared norm of one anganwadi per 1000 population is to be met, there
should be 14 lakh anganwadis; currently, only around 10 lakh are estimated to
be operational. Even with the 14 lakh centres, each one will be dealing with
100 children alone, not counting adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating
mothers.
Poor coverage of needy groups under the scheme is also a consequence of the
location of the anganwadi centre, which typically tends to be in the main
village or in upper or dominant caste hamlets in rural areas. This restricts the
access to such services by deprived communities such as SCs and STs, who
often live slightly apart from the centre.
In addition, the timing of the anganwadi centres effectively rules out many of
the poorest households, since they areopen only for four hours a day. When
both parents are working, which is typically the case among rural labouring
households in many parts of the country, it is difficult to deliver and collect
the child from the centre in time. Children in such households are therefore
excluded from the services and will remain unreachable to the organised health
system.
Steps needed:
a) ICDS and RCH strategies must be drawn up holistically, considering social
and cultural barriers to exclusion and integrating relevant Departments
and Ministries.
b) Aganwadi centres need to be increased to meet the national target of 14
lakh, and government must also consider releasing funds for the
appointment of one additional Aganwadi worker to promote breastfeeding,
nutrition counselling etc., with the other freed to manage the centre with
crèche and preschool facilities, etc.
c) Recent studies have shown that breastfeeding within an hour of birth can
reduce the risk of neonatal mortality by almost a third. It is the role of
community health workers – ASHAs, ANMs, Dais – to ensure that women
are aware of this and provided with effective counselling and support
immediately after delivery. A support system should also enable weekly
home visits to assist in exclusive breastfeeding. There needs to be formal
written guidelines and training for those who work in the field to ensure

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that women are armed with the skills and information to give their children
the best chance of survival. Notes
d) Nutrition counselling needs to be given to the families at the Aganwadi
centres to ensure that the food is given to the child as directed. Nutrition
rehabilitation centres should be established in health centres in areas with
high malnutrition and treated as a mainstream intervention alongside
immunisation, and Aganwadi workers should be trained to make referrals
to the PHC where necessary.
e) The nutritional value of food provided under ICDS also needs to be
reviewed, considering alternative sources of protein such as milk, or eggs
and meat in predominantly non-vegetarian communities. Pulses and grains
are amongst the poorest forms of protein for infants. Meals should provide
a balance of pulses, milk, cereals, eggs and vegetables to tackle nutritional
deficiencies; the value and side effects of supplements or fortified grains
has not been researched, and “nutrient embedded chemicals” are no
substitute for balanced meals.
f) An integrated approach that focuses equally on child health, child
development/education and child nutrition, all to be provided “in the
same system of care”. There must then be different strategies for different
target age-groups: children of 0-6 months of age who require exclusive
breastfeeding; children of 6 months to 3 years, before pre-school, and
children of 3 years to 6 years, the pre-school years.
g) A task force must be established to review and make recommendations
for maternity entitlements and current legislation, ensuring that mothers
and children are realising their rights to nutrition, rest and exclusive
breastfeeding in the initial postnatal period with existing laws brought into
line with these recommendations. Funds must be released so that all
informal work can be covered, and the
h) National Maternity Benefit Scheme must be improved to encompass any
women excluded from other schemes and provisions.
i) Immunisation coverage still needs to be dramatically increased. According
to the World Health Organisation, such a step-up will require adequate
training of health care workers, vaccine procurement, supply, maintenance
of cold chain and co-ordination between central and state governments.
A surveillance project should be initiated in every state to monitor the
progress of routine immunization and identify those sectors of the
community not currently able to access immunisation services, and address
reasons for such. Incidence and coverage must be jointly monitored, with
timely reports presented at state and national levels – not merely part of
reporting under RCH. Districts should report monthly to regional offices,
and detail plans of upcoming community vaccine sessions. High risk
areas must be recognised, as well as those with poor programme
performance; there must also be provision of disaggregated data in terms
of incidence and vaccine coverage.

Sanitation: Issues and Reforms

The World Health Organization states that: Sanitation generally refers to the
provision of facilities and services for the safe disposal of human urine and
feces. Inadequate sanitation is a major cause of disease world-wide and
improving sanitation is known to have a significant beneficial impact on health

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both in households and across communities. The word ‘sanitation’ also refers
to the maintenance of hygienic conditions, through services such as garbage Notes
collection and wastewater disposal.
Present situation of Sanitation in India:
According to Houselisting and Housing Census 2011, 58% of the households
have bathing facility within the premises, showing an Increase of 22 pts over
2001. Around half of the households have drainage connectivity with two-
third have the open drainage and one-third have the closed drainage. 47% of
the households have latrine facility within premises with 36% households have
water closet and 9% households have pit latrine. There is 11 pt declines in
households having no latrine from 64% to 53% in 2011. Most of these numbers
are made up by people who live in urban slums and rural areas. A large
populace in the rural areas still defecates in the open. Slum dwellers in major
metropolitan cities, reside along railway tracks and have no access to toilets or
a running supply of water. Further, eighty per cent of India’s surface water
pollution is on account of sewage alone. As many as 4,861 of 5,161 cities
across the country do not have even a partial sewerage network.
The above data clearly showcase the true picture of India where sanitation and
hygiene is a major issue.
Impact of Poor sanitation:
a) On economy
The economic impacts of inadequate sanitation fall into the following categories:
• Health-related impacts: Premature deaths, costs of treating diseases;
productive time lost due to people falling ill, and time lost by caregivers
who look after them.
• Domestic water-related impacts: Household treatment of water; use of
bottled water; a portion of costs of obtaining piped water; and time costs
of fetching cleaner water from a distance.
• Access time impacts: Cost of additional time spent for accessing shared
toilets or open defecation sites; absence of children (mainly girls) from
school and women from their workplaces.
• Tourism impacts: Potential loss of tourism revenues and economic impacts
of gastrointestinal illnesses among foreign tourists.
The figures are as follows:
• The health-related economic impacts of inadequate sanitation, costs Rs.
1.75 trillion (US$38.5 billion), accounts for the largest category of impacts.
Access time (productive time lost to access sanitation facilities—shared or
public toilets—or sites for defecation) and drinking water-related impacts
are the other two main losses, at Rs. 487 billion (US$10.7 billion) and Rs.
191 billion (US$4.2).
• Seventy-nine percent of the premature mortality-related economic losses,
under health impacts was due to deaths and diseases in children below
five years. Under the health-related impact of Rs. 1.75 trillion (US$38.5
billion), diarrhea is the largest contributor, amounting to two-thirds of the
total impact. This is followed by Acute Lower Respiratory Infection
(ALRI), accounting for 12 percent of the health-related impacts.
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• The poorest 20 percent households living in urban areas bear the highest
per capita economic impacts of inadequate sanitation of Rs. 1,699
Notes
(US$37.5)—this is 75 percent more than the national average per capita
losses (Rs. 961 or US$21, that exclude mortality impacts), and 60 percent
more than the urban average (Rs. 1,037, US$22.9). Rural households in
the poorest quintile bear per capita losses in excess of Rs. 1,000 (US$22)—
which is 8 percent more than the average loss for households in rural areas
(Rs. 930, $20.5). The total losses for the rural households in the poorest
quintile is substantial (Rs. 204 billion, US$4.5 billion) as compared to
their counterparts in urban areas (Rs. 16 billion, US$0.35 billion).
b) On health

A direct link exists between water, sanitation and, health and nutrition and
human well being .Consumption of contaminated drinking water, improper
disposal of human excreta, lack of personal and food hygiene and improper
disposal of solid and liquid waste have been major causes of many diseases
in India and it is estimated that around 30 million people suffer from water
related illnesses. Children particularly girls and women are the most affected.
Contact with human excreta is a source of many deadly diseases with symptoms
of diarrhea. Some of the common pathogens that cause diarrhea are viruses
andbacteria (Vibrio cholerea, E.coli, Salmonella). Adults and children get
diarrhea and other diseases from ingesting diseasecausing germs in human
excreta. This results in dehydration, malnutrition, fever, and even death,
especially of children and those with compromised immune systems, like
older persons and HIV/AIDS patients. In turn, malnutrition resulting from
diarrhea can lead to enhanced vulnerability to diseases like measles, malaria,
and respiratory infections, especially in children. Other illnesses linked with
fecal transmission are polio, hepatitis A and E, intestinal worms, skin diseases
like scabies, and eye infections like trachoma that can cause blindness. Polio
can cause physical deformities and disability, hepatitis can lead to liver infections
and related problems, and intestinal worms can cause cognitive impairment
and anemia.

Poor farmers and wage earners are less productive due to illness, and national
economies suffer. Without safe water and sanitation, sustainable development
is impossible.
The Burden Of Sanitation-Related Disease In India
• On an average, 30 million persons in rural areas suffer from sanitation-
related disease
• 5 of the 10 top killer diseases of children aged 1-4 in rural areas are
related to water and sanitation
• About 0.6-0.7 million children die of diarrhoea annually

c) On water resources
It is equally important to ensure the safe collection, conveyance, and treatment
of sewage so that it can be safely released into the environment. According to
the Central Pollution Control Board, organic matter and bacterial population
of fecal origin continue to dominate the water pollution problem. The mean

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levels of biological oxygen demand have increased in 6 of the 18 major rivers,

accounting for 46 percent of the total river length nationally. Groundwater is
Notes
also polluted due to discharge of untreated sewage.
d) On welfare
Apart from causing mortality and morbidity and polluting water, poor sanitation
in India has harmful effects on many aspects of human welfare: education,
mobility, use of public space, life choices, and, ultimately, livelihoods, incomes,
and general well-being. Health and health-related quality of life play major
roles in educational and economic outcomes. When sanitation is absent, this
imposes restrictions on people’s time, movement, and choices in daily life.
Children miss school, fall behind in class due to illness, and suffer the shame
of using open spaces to relieve themselves.
e) Inadequate sanitation harms tourism

Inadequate sanitation also impacts tourist visits and causes illnesses among
tourists. Over a third of tourists visiting the Indian subcontinent suffer from
gastrointestinal illnesses linked to lack of sanitation. Tourists are also at risk
of getting malaria, which is partly attributable to lack of sanitation and prevalent
standing water. Tourists also mention the poor quality of toilets as areas on for
their dissatisfactory tourism experience. Not having access to good toilets or
seeing people defecate or urinate in the open take away from the tourism
experience.
f) On women
Women often suffer from lack of privacy, harassment and need to walk large
distances to find a suitable place for defecation in the absence of household/
appropriate neighbourhood toilet facilities. Girls have the additional burden of
inconvenience, lack of safety, and inadequate arrangements for their special
needs during menstruation. The lack of sanitation facilities at educational
institutions, at workplaces, and in public places causes considerable inconvenience
and loss in welfare.
A senior police official in Bihar said some 400 women would have “escaped”
rape last year if they had toilets in their homes. Women living in urban slums
of Delhi reported specific incidents of girls under 10 “being raped while on
their way to use a public toilet”.
Earlier schemes of the central government to improve sanitation
A number of innovative approaches to improve water supply and sanitation
have been tested in India, in particular in the early 2000s. These include demand-
driven approaches in rural water supply since 1999, community-led total
sanitation, public–private partnerships to improve the continuity of urban water
supply in Karnataka, and the use of microcredit to women in order to improve
access to water. Earlier schemes of the central government dealing with
sanitation are outlined below.
• Central Rural Sanitation Programme (1986): The Central Rural Sanitation
Programme was one of the first schemes of the central government which
focussed solely on rural sanitation.  The programme sought to construct
household toilets, construct sanitary complexes for women, establish
sanitary marts, and ensure solid and liquid waste management.

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• Total Sanitation Campaign (1999): The Total Sanitation Campaign was

launched in 1999 with a greater focus on Information, Education and Notes
Communication (IEC) activities in order to make the creation of sanitation
facilities demand driven rather than supply driven. Key components of
the Total Sanitation Campaign included: (i) financial assistance to rural
families below the poverty line for the construction of household toilets,
(ii) construction of community sanitary complexes, (iii) construction of
toilets in government schools and aganwadis, (iv) funds for IEC activities,
(v) assistance to rural sanitary marts, and (vi) solid and liquid waste
management.
• Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (2012): In 2012, the Total Sanitation Campaign was
replaced by theNirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA), which also focused on the
previous elements.  According to the Ministry of Drinking Water and
Sanitation, the key shifts in NBA were: (i) a greater focus on coverage for
the whole community instead of a focus on individual houses, (ii) the
inclusion of certain households which were above the poverty line, and
(iii) more funds for IEC activities, with 15% of funds at the district level
earmarked for IEC.
New Initiative: Swatch Bharat Abhiyan
The Government of India has launched “Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban)” on
2nd October, 2014 with the following objectives:- 
• Eliminate open defecation, 
• Conversion of insanitary toilets to pour flush toilets, 
• Eradication of manual scavenging, 
• 100% collection and scientific processing/disposal reuse/recycle of
Municipal Solid Waste, 
• To bring about a behavioral change in people regarding healthy sanitation
practices, 
• Generate awareness among the citizens about sanitation and its linkages
with public health. 
• Strengthening of urban local bodies to design, execute and operate systems, 
• To create enabling environment for private sector participation in Capital
Expenditure and Operation & Maintenance (O&M) costs. 
The Mission has following components:- 
• Construction of Household Toilets, 
• Community and Public Toilets, 
• Solid Waste Management, 
• Information, Education & Communication (IEC) and Public Awareness, 
• Capacity Building and Administrative & Office Expenses (A&OE). 
Funding for these new initiatives will be through the following: 
• Budgetary allocations; 
• Contributions to the Swachh Bharat Kosh; 

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• Through commitments under Corporate Social responsibility (CSR) 

Notes
• Funding assistance from multilateral sources 
Key challenges and way forward
• About 590 Million persons in rural areas defecate in the open. The Mindset
of a major portion of the population habituated to open defecation needs
to be changed. Many of them already have a toilet but prefer to defecate
in the open. The biggest challenge therefore is triggering behaviour change
in vast section of rural population regarding need to use toilets.
• Need for availability of water for use of toilets.
• Inadequate dedicated staff at the Field Level for implementation of rural
sanitation.
• There is no professional expertise in the Municipal Corporation to keep
the city clean. Combined with total apathy, it creates an irremediable
situation. This deplorable situation is compounded by corruption. There is
virtually no supervision when a civil work contract is given by the
Municipal Corporation or Municipality, for example, for road repair. It is
the responsibility of the contractor to remove all the construction material
or waste, but it is just pushed to the side of the road to save money that
would be otherwise spent on its transportation and disposal — and no one
cares. Not surprisingly the only places that are clean are the military and
the defence areas. Common garbage bins, where they are provided by the
government, are overflowing, besides being an eyesore.
• The lack of any resources for maintenance of school toilets and community
sanitary complexes could result in rapid deterioration and subsequent non-
usage of these over time, severely impacting the sustainability of the
programme.
• The reliance on PPP for the implementation of project could constrain the
ability of the government to address the already existing inequities based
on caste, class and gender in both rural water and sanitation. In fact, it has
been argued that the experience of PPP in sectors such as drinking 3 water
has often raised concerns, particularly for the vulnerable and disadvantaged
sections of the population.
A package of comprehensive sanitation and hygiene interventions can result in
averting 45 percent of adverse health impacts, and avoid all the adverse impacts
of inadequate sanitation related to water, welfare, and tourism losses. This
signifies a potential gain of Rs. 1,321 (US$29) per capita. Until now, a number
of innovative public health campaigns and programmes to improve health and
hygiene have been implemented in India but more needs to be done.

‘Housing for All by 2022’ Mission

Shelter is a basic human need next only to food and clothing. Ownership of
a house provides significant economic security and social status for a citizen
in the society. Stable, affordable and accessible housing is directly and indirectly
linked to human well-being. Good housing and its surroundings indicate the
standard of living of the family. It provides facilities for education, recreation
and many other facets of life.
Around one third of the human population in urban as well as rural areas in
the country are deprived of adequate housing facilities. Out of the estimated
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200 million families in India, approximately 65 to 70 million families do not

have adequate housing facilities. They are not able to procure a house for want Notes
of financial resources. The situation of the Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes
and the other socially and economically backward class families is worst affected
by poor housing conditions.
Current situation of housing in India
The Census of India 2011 had conducted “Houselisting and Housing Census”,
to identify each building/census house and also to ascertain the quality of the
census house, amenities accessible to it and assets available to the households
living in those census houses. The Houselisting and Housing Census shows
that the census houses increased from 250 million to 330 million. There is an
increase of 60 million census houses for residential and partly residential
purposes. The data indicates that the housing gap has reduced. There is an
improvement in the construction material used for roof, wall and floor. Thus
there is a substantial improvement in the quality of housing both in rural and
urban areas.
The data is as follows:
a) Amenities available with the households – 87% of households are using
tap, tube well, hand pump and covered well as the main source of drinking
water while 43.5 percent use tap water. Only 47% of households have
source of water within the premises while 36% of households have to
fetch water from a source located within 500 m in rural areas/100 m in
urban areas and 17% still fetch drinking water from a source located more
than 500 m away in rural areas or 100 m in urban area.
b) Main source of lighting – 67% households use electricity which shows an
increase of 11 percentage points over 2001. The rural-urban gap has reduced
by 7 percentage points from 44% in 2001 to 37%.
c) 58% of the households have a bathing facility within the premises, showing
an increase of 22 percentage points over 2001.
d) Around half the households have drainage connectivity with two-thirds
having open drainage and one-third having closed drainage.
e) 47% of the households have a latrine within premises, with 36% households
having a water closet (WC) and 9% households having a pit latrine. There
is an 11 percentage points decline in households having no latrine from
64% to 53% in 2011.
f) 61% households have a kitchen with 55% having the kitchen within the
premises and 6% outside. Two-third of the households are using firewood/
crop residue, cow dung cake/coal etc. and 3% households use kerosene.
There is an increase of 11 percentage points in use of LPG from 18% in
2001 to 29% in 2011.
g) Communication – there is an increase of 16% in television and a
corresponding decline of about 15 percentage points in use of radios/
transistors. Less than 1 out of 10 households have a computer/laptop
with only 3% having access to internet. The penetration of internet is 8%
in urban as compared to less than 1% in rural area. 63% households have
a telephone/mobile with 82% in urban and 54% in rural area. The
penetration of mobile phone is 59% and landline is 10%.

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h) Transport – 45% of the household have a bicycle, 21% two wheelers and
5% four wheelers. There is an increase of 9 percentage points in two Notes
wheeler and 2 percentage points in four wheelers, with bicycle showing
increase of 1 percentage points only. 59% of the households use banking
facilities with 68% in urban and 54% in rural areas. The rural urban
difference has reduced from 19 to 13 percentage points.
i) 18% of the households do not have any of the specified assets.
Hence the Union Cabinet has given its approval for launch of “Housing for
All by 2022” aimed for urban areas with following components/options to
States/Union Territories and cities:- 
a) Slum rehabilitation of Slum Dwellers with participation of private
developers using land as a resource; 
b) Promotion of affordable housing for weaker section through credit linked
subsidy; 
c) Affordable housing in partnership with Public & Private sectors; and 
d) Subsidy for beneficiary-led individual house construction or enhancement. 
Salient Features of the Programme are:
a) Central grant of Rs. one lakh per house, on an average, will be available
under the Slum Rehabilitation Programme.
b) A State Government would have flexibility in deploying this slum
rehabilitation grant to any slum rehabilitation project taken for development
using land as a resource for providing houses to slum dwellers.
c) State Government or their parastatals like Housing Boards can take up
project of affordable housing to avail the Central Government grant.
d) The scheme will be implemented as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme except
the credit linked subsidy component, which will be implemented as a
Central Sector Scheme.
e) The Mission also prescribes certain mandatory reforms for easing up the
urban land market for housing, to make adequate urban land available for
affordable housing. Houses constructed under the mission would be allotted
in the name of the female head of the households or in the joint name
of the male head of the household and his wife.
f) The scheme will cover the entire urban area consisting of 4041 statutory
towns with initial focus on 500 Class I cities and it will be implemented
in three phases as follows, viz. Phase-I (April 2015 - March 2017) to cover
100 Cities to be selected from States/UTs as per their willingness; Phase
- II (April 2017 - March 2019) to cover additional 200 Cities and Phase-
III (April 2019 - March 2022) to cover all other remaining cities. However,
there will be flexibility in covering number of cities in various phases.
Technology Sub-Mission
a) A Technology Sub-mission under the mission would be set up to facilitate
adoption of modern, innovative and green technologies and building
material for faster and quality construction of houses.
b) The sub-mission will also facilitate preparation and adoption of layout
designs and building plans suitable for various geo-climatic zones. It will

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also assist States/Cities in deploying disaster resistant and environment

friendly technologies. Notes
c) It will coordinate with various regulatory and administrative bodies for
mainstreaming and upscaling deployment of modern construction
technologies and material in place of conventional construction.
d) It will also coordinate with other agencies working in green and energy
efficient technologies, climate change etc.
e) It will work on the following aspects:
i) Design & Planning
ii) Innovative technologies & materials
iii) Green buildings using natural resources and
iv) Earthquake and other disaster resistant technologies and designs.

Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana

The Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana was launched, for the development of
model villages.  Under the Yojana, Members of Parliament (MPs) will be
responsible for developing the socio-economic and physical infrastructure of
three villages each by 2019, and a total of eight villages, each by 2024.
The first Adarsh Gram must be developed by 2016, and two more by 2019. 
From 2019 to 2024, five more Adarsh Grams must be developed by each MP,
one each year.  This implies that a total of 6,433 Adarsh Grams, of the
2,65,000 gram panchayats, will be created by 2024. Key features of the Yojana
are outlined below -
Objectives
Key objectives of the Yojana include:
• The development of model villages, called Adarsh Grams, through the
implementation of existing schemes, and certain new initiatives to be
designed for the local context, which may vary from village to village.
• Creating models of local development which can be replicated in other
villages.
Identification of villages
MPs can select any gram panchayat, other than their own villages or that of
their spouses, to be developed as an Adarsh Gram.  The village must have a
population of 3000-5000 people if it is located in the plains, or 1000-3000
people if located in hilly areas.
Lok Sabha MPs can choose a village from their constituency, and Rajya Sabha
MPs from the state from which they are elected.  Nominated members can
choose a village from any district of the country.  MPs which represent urban
constituencies can identify a village from a neighbouring rural constituency.
Funding
No new funds have been allocated for the Yojana.  Resources may be raised
through:
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• Funds from existing schemes, such as the Indira Awas Yojana, Pradhan
Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment
Notes
Guarantee Scheme, and Backward Regions Grant Fund, etc.,

• The Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS),

• The gram panchayat’s own revenue,
• Central and State Finance Commission Grants, and

• Corporate Social Responsibility funds.

Implementation
A Village Development Plan must be created for each Adarsh Gram.  While
each village will develop a list of activities to be carried out, based on its own
resources and requirements, possible activities have been listed in
the guidelines for the scheme.  For example, Adarsh Grams can work towards
providing universal access to basic healthcare facilities, promoting diversified
livelihoods through agriculture related livelihoods and skill development,
providing pension for all eligible families, housing for all, and promoting social
forestry.
Monitoring
A web based monitoring system will be established to enable the MP and
other stakeholders to monitor the scheme.  Outputs relating to physical and
financial targets will be measured each quarter.  A mid-term evaluation and
post-project evaluation will be conducted through an independent agency.
Implications of the scheme:
The past experiences related to local level development depict many challenges
such as:
• Inability to develop a shared vision of development over a longer period.
• Disconnect between development inputs delivered and the genuine needs
of the community.
• Lack of participation of all sections of society, especially the marginalized
and the aged.
• Focus on infrastructure and expenditure ignoring the social aspects and
sustainable outcomes.
• Reliance primarily on government grants and not emphasising community
contributions and self help.
• Absence of organic convergence of different schemes.
• Unfair decisions regarding allocation of benefits to locations and
households leading to alienation.
• Political partisanship – perceived and real.
• Disregard of socio-cultural values of different sections of the community.
• Existence of multiple power structures and absence of a reconciling
mechanism.

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• Ignoring environmental concerns for immediate gains.

Notes
• Prevalence of social evils like drinking, dowry, casteism, communalism
and discrimination against women.
Therefore Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana will work on the following approaches:
• Leveraging the leadership, capacity, commitment and energy of the
Members of Parliament (MP) to develop model Gram Panchayats.
• Engaging with and mobilizing the community for participatory local level
development.
• Converging different government programmes and private and voluntary
initiatives to achieve comprehensive development in tune with people’s
aspirations and local potential.
• Building partnerships with voluntary organisations, co-operatives and
academic and research institutions.
• Focusing on outcomes and sustainability.
The Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, unlike other Schemes, does not look at the
beneficiaries as receivers and the Government as the doer. The Yojana aims to
empower the villagers to make choices and provide them with opportunities to
exercise those choices.
This is not a new fund allocated scheme, but a people’s participatory scheme
and is a demand-driven scheme.  In fact, MPLAD funds are to help the few
selected villages to become the model villages.
The SAGY requires each MP to identify one village with a population in the
range of 3,000-5,000 in the plains and 1,000-3,000 in the hills within a month.
MPs can choose any village except their own or their spouse’s. There is no
other criterion.
It envisages integrated development of the village across multiple areas such
as agriculture, health, education, sanitation, environment, livelihood etc. It seeks
to not only provide physical infrastructure and access to basic amenities but
also improve the standard of living, enrich social capital and build community
spirit. These are the ingredients that will ensure long term positive change and
sustainability of this change. Strengthening of local democracy through strong
and transparent Gram Panchayats and active Gram Sabhas and facilitating
good governance is an important objective of the Scheme.
The activities and outcomes will cover broad development indicators such as
health, nutrition and education through organizing immunization drives,
improving mid-day meal schemes, improving Aadhaar enrolment, setting up
“smart schools” with IT-enabled classrooms and e-libraries, improving panchayat
infrastructure under schemes such as MGNREGA and Backward Regions Grants
Fund. A series of measures speak of better implementation of existing and
new schemes and laws including RTI Act, National Food Security Act, National
Rural Livelihood Mission, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, while at the same
time emphasizing “activities to improve hygienic behaviour” by encouraging
bathing among villagers, use of toilets and exercising for thirty minutes every
day. It envisions social development in villages through identifying a village
day, a village song, and focusing on alternative methods of dispute resolution.
The Members of Parliament (MP) will lead and guide this initiative in their
respective constituencies. They will motivate the community to not only take
up development works but also affirm the values specified in the Scheme. The
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MPs should nurture these Adarsh Grams to serve as demonstration villages for
the surrounding areas to learn and replicate these efforts. The Yojana will also Notes
require planned coordination and convergence between different government
ministries and departments.

Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana

Financial inclusion is delivery of financial services at an affordable cost to the
vast sections of the disadvantaged and low-income groups, providing them
with timely and adequate access to the financial products, services like Bank
Accounts, Savings Products, Remittances & Payment services, Insurance,
advisory services, Entrepreneurial and Micro credit, Micro finance.
NSSO data reveal that 45.9 million farmer households in the country (51.4%),
out of a total of 89.3 million households do not access credit, either from
institutional or non-institutional sources. Further, despite the vast network of
bank branches, only 27% of total farm households are indebted to formal
sources (of which one-third also borrow from informal sources). Thus to
improve the financial inclusion in India, the government has launched Pradhan
Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana.
It is a National Mission on Financial Inclusion encompassing an integrated
approach to bring about comprehensive financial inclusion of all the households
in the country. The plan envisages universal access to banking facilities with at
least one basic banking account for every household, financial literacy, access
to credit, insurance and pension facility. Under the Jan Dhan Yojna anyone
who is an Indian citizen, above the age of 10 years and does not have a bank
account, can open the account with zero balance.
In addition, the beneficiaries would get RuPay Debit card having inbuilt accident
insurance cover of Rs.1 lakh. The plan also envisage channeling all Government
benefits (from Centre / State / Local Body) to the beneficiaries accounts and
pushing the Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) scheme of the Union Government.
The technological issues like poor connectivity, on-line transactions will be
addressed. Mobile transactions through telecom operators and their established
centres as Cash Out Points are also planned to be used for Financial Inclusion
under the Scheme. Also an effort is being made to reach out to the youth of
this country to participate in this Mission Mode Programme.
The Jan Dhan scheme has much simpler Know-Your-Customer rules. An
Aadhaar card is a proof enough to open your Jan Dhan account on the spot.
Attested NREGA cards, voters’ ID cards are the other documentary proofs
that are allowed. For those who don’t possess even these, simplified rules
regarding proof of identity and address allow opening a more basic account.
The programme for financial inclusion under the PMJDY is based on six pillars:
1. The country will be divided into a number of sub-service areas (SSA),
each with 1,000-1,500 households. One banking outlet (branch or BC)
will be established within a distance of five km from every SSA by
August 2015;
2. One bank account will be ensured for every household by August 2015,
along with a RuPay debit card and an accident cover worth Rs.1,00,000.
If the credit history is satisfactory during the first six months, the account
holder will become eligible for an overdraft worth Rs.5,000;

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3. Financial literacy programmes will be expanded by August 2015 to spread

awareness about financial services; Notes
4. A Credit Guarantee Fund will be created before August 2018 to cover
potential defaults in overdrafts;
5. All willing and eligible persons will be provided with micro-insurance by
August 2018; and
6. Pension payments under the Swavalamban Yojana scheme for workers in
the unorganised sector will be paid through bank accounts by August
2018.
The advantage of Jan Dhan Scheme over other financial inclusion scheme
such as Swalambhan is that PMJDY focuses on coverage of households as
against the earlier plan which focused on coverage of villages. It focuses on
coverage of rural as well as urban areas. Earlier plan targeted only villages
above 2000 population while under PMJDY whole country is to be covered by
extending banking facilities in each Sub-Service area consisting of 1000 – 1500
households such that the facility is available to all within a reasonable distance,
say about 5 Km.
Though the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana has successfully exceeded its
financial inclusion target by opening 115 million bank accounts, most of these
are ‘zero-balance’. According to data, only 28 per cent of the accounts opened
under the scheme are active, with about Rs 9,000 crore deposited in these.
Of the accounts opened at public sector banks (PSBs) under the Jan Dhan
Yojana, 71 per cent are zero-balance, against 64 per cent for private banks.
Among private lenders, the percentage of ‘zero-balance Jan Dhan accounts
at YES bank is 89, at Kotak Mahindra Bank is 77 and 75 at Axis Bank.
Among PSBs, 95 per cent of State Bank of India’s Jan Dhan accounts are zero-
balance; for Indian Overseas bank, it stands at 84 per cent.
Of the bank accounts opened under the scheme, about 90 million were at
PSBs, while private banks accounted for only 4.1 million accounts (3.6 per
cent of the overall number). The rest were accounted for by regional rural
banks. Five major private lenders – ICICI bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, YES
Bank, IndusInd Bank and Karur Vaisya Bank – have opened 0.9 million accounts
under the scheme.
Despite progress on the opening of bank accounts, access to credit still lags.
Officially, India has over 130 million credit accounts, which deal with loans,
with an average of Rs. 3.7 lakh outstanding in each account However, credit
is highly skewed towards big cities. Personal loan accounts (55 million), the
single largest category of credit accounts, outnumber agricultural loan accounts
and the vast majority of these accounts are in metropolitan cities. Delhi alone
accounts for 13 per cent of all of India’s outstanding credit.
There are two aspects to financial inclusion: one is bank accounts and the
second is access to credit. The scheme announced by the Prime Minister
addresses the first problem. The issue of making credit available to small
borrowers remains as such.
Challenges before Jan Dhan Yojana
Some caution is obviously warranted because the JDY relies heavily on the BC
model for expanding the banking network in both the rural and urban areas.

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One of the primary reasons behind the unsatisfactory performance of the BC

model is the poor remuneration (Rs 2000-3000 per month) paid to business
Notes
correspondents. For such a meager amount, it is unfair to expect a BC to visit
villages or slums at regular intervals, open new bank accounts for the poor
people, process financial trans-actions, educate customers about banking services
and answer all queries of the customers. Under the JDY, the BCs will get a
minimum compensation of Rs.5000 per month. This is a welcome move but
there are several other important factors which act as a barrier in the delivery
of banking services through the BC model. Some of these factors include
inordinate delay in issuing smart cards to customers (three to six months);
limited utility of smart cards as services such as remittance are not loaded;
inadequate cash handling limit given to BCs; devices not working properly due
to technical problems or poor network connectivity; lack of trust in BCs; lack
of customer-centric banking products and services; poor governance and
inadequate supervision of BCs; and absence of a comprehensive strategy for
financial education The expanded financial architecture will need personnel,
which is lacking, and could be important supply side deficit. Banks have been
advised under the PMJDY to open 200 accounts a day in each of their existing
rural branches, but they are wary, as the existing infrastructure in those branches
cannot handle the extra load. Therefore, banking reach should be increased
gradually and along with the capacity of banking infrastructure, so that the
customer base at any time can be serviced well and the system is not pressurized
at any time.
Financial inclusion cannot be achieved only by meeting the target numbers.
The RBI Governor, Raghuram Rajan had cautioned banks on the risks involved
in just hunting for number with regard to Jan-Dhan Scheme, asking them not
to compromise on core objective of the programme. “When we roll out the
scheme, we have to make sure it does not go off the track. The target is
universality, not just speed and numbers.” The scheme can be a “waste” if it
leads to duplication of accounts, if no transaction happens on the new accounts
and if the new users get bad experiences.

Skill Development Mission

Skills and knowledge are the driving forces of economic growth and social
development for any country. Countries with higher and better levels of skills
adjust more effectively to the challenges and opportunities of world of work.
As India moves progressively towards becoming a ‘knowledge economy’ it
becomes increasingly important that the country should focus on advancement
of skills and these skills have to be relevant to the emerging economic
environment.
This requires significant progress in several areas, including infrastructure
development, agricultural growth coupled with productivity improvements,
financial sector growth, a healthy business environment, ably supported by a
skilled workforce.
The challenge is immense. 54% of India’s population is below 25 years of age
and over 62% of the population is in the working-age group. Yet, only 4.69%
of the Indian population has undergone formal skills training. By 2025, almost
1 in 5 of the world’s working age population (18.3%) will be Indian. Recent
skill gap reports suggest that over 109 million incremental human resources
will be required in India alone, across 24 key sectors by the year 2022. 93%

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of India’s workers work in the unorganised sector and acquire skills through
informal channels and lack formal certification. Notes
Hence to meet the challenge following major steps have been taken by the
newly created Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship -
a) The creation of Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship:
Skill development and entrepreneurship efforts across the country have been
highly fragmented so far. Recognizing the need and urgency of quickly
coordinating the efforts of all concerned stakeholders, to achieve its vision of
a ‘Skilled India’ the Department of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship
was created which was later converted into a full fledged  Ministry of Skill
Development and Entrepreneurship.
National Skill Development Agency (NSDA), National Skill Development
Corporation (NSDC), National Skill Development Fund (NSDF) and 33 Sector
Skill Councils (SSCs) were brought under the Ministry of Skill Development.
The thrust of the Ministry is the co-ordination of all skill development efforts
across the country, removal of disconnect between demand and supply of
skilled manpower, building of new skills and skill upgradation, and encouraging
entrepreneurship.
To create further convergence between the Vocational Training system through
ITIs and the new Skill Initiatives of the government, two vertical from
Directorate General of Employment and Training (DGET) - DDG (Training)
and DDG (Apprenticeship Training) have been transferred to the Ministry of
Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
b) National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015
The government has formally unveiled the National Policy for Skill development
and Entrepreneurship 2015. The National Policy for Skill Development and
Entrepreneurship 2015 is a maiden attempt at providing an integrated policy
for comprehensive roadmap for growth of skilling as well as entrepreneurship
in the country by addressing the needs of job seekers as well as job creators. It
aims to create an ecosystem of empowerment by for Skilling on a large Scale
at speed with high Standards and to promote a culture of innovation based
entrepreneurship which can generate wealth and employment so as to ensure
sustainable livelihoods for all citizens in the country.
c) National Skill Development Mission
The National Skill Development Mission is an attempt to consolidate skill
initiatives across the country, and standardize procedures and outcomes. The
National Skill Development Mission will be implemented through a streamlined
institutional mechanism driven by Ministry of Skill Development and
Entrepreneurship (MSDE). The Framework for Implementation of the National
Skill Development Mission includes details on the rationale for the Mission,
Mission statement, objectives, institutional mechanism, and proposed focus
areas under the Mission.
d) Apprenticeship and Training Reforms
 Comprehensive reforms have been made in Apprentices Act, 1961 to increase
the number of apprentices engaged in industry. A new scheme ‘Apprentice

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ProtsahanYojana’ was also launched to improve participation of MSME sector

in engaging Apprentices. Moreover, rates of stipend for trade apprentices and
Notes
graduate apprentices have been linked to wages of semi skilled worker and
notified. 
e) Skill Loan Scheme
Under the scheme, loans ranging from Rs 5,000-1.5 lakhs will be made available
to 34 lakh youth of India seeking to attend skill development programmes
over the next five years. 
f) Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY)
The program aims at skill certification and reward to enable and mobilize a
large number of youth for outcome based skill training and become employable
and earn their livelihood. Under the scheme, monetary reward would be provided
to trainees who are successfully trained, assessed and certified in skill courses
run by affiliated training providers.
g) Capacity Building of Private Training Providers and Involvement of
Industry
In order to enhance  private sector participation in the Skilling, NSDC has
been working to enhance capacity of private training providers through provision
of loan, grant and equity funding.
h) National Skill Universities
The Ministry has initiated the process of establishment of National Skill
Universities. The Universities are envisioned to provide nationally recognised
University degrees and certification for vocational skills, design and conduct
assessment procedures, design vocational curriculum customised to providing
horizontal academic mobility, offer faculty training courses and conduct research
in the skills landscape.
i) Deepening Global Engagement
The Ministry has entered into agreements with several countries such as UK,
USA, Australia, France, Germany, Canada with the purpose of technology
transfer in vocational training, training of trainers, setting up of centres of
excellence, international mobility through mapping of job roles and development
of transnational standards.
j) Fostering Engagement with Corporate Sector
MoUs between National Skill Development Corporation, National Skill
Development Fund and several PSUs have been signed for CSR contribution
to provide skill training.
k) Consolidation of Skill Gap Studies
Sector skill gap studies have been completed for 24 sectors. The objective of
these skill gap reports is to understand the sectoral and geographical spread of
skill requirements.
l) Udaan
Udaan scheme is targeted at helping the ambitious and progressive youth of
Jammu and Kashmir who are seeking global and local opportunities. It aims
to make employable 40,000 youth of J&K over a 5 year period in key high

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growth sectors. The programme is targeted at providing well-paying jobs to the

trained manpower. Notes
Issues Related to Undertrials In India
It is a shocking reflection on the flaws in our criminal justice system that less
than one out of three people lodged in Indian jails is a convict. The vast
majority of the prison population, as many as about 2.5 lakhs or 70 per cent,
is made up of undertrials awaiting justice.
Criminal Law of India is a replica of colonial times. It is hostile to the poor
and the weaker sections of society. The law still serves and protects the needs
of the haves and ignores the have-nots. Such biasness has resulted in rich
people escaping law and the jail is more often full of the unprivileged class of
society. The hierarchy of courts and with appeals after appeal have led to a
situation where the poor cannot reach the temple of justice due to heavy cost
of its access. In other words one can state that granting justice at a higher cost
indirectly means the denial of justice. Such circumstances lead to a clear
violation of the Supreme Court judgement which held, legal aid to a poor is
a constitutional mandate not only by virtue of Article39A but also Articles 14,
19, 21 which cannot be denied by the government.
The Law Commission of India's 78th report on the "Congestion of undertrial
prisoners in jail," submitted in 1979, also has a topical feel about it. The
situation today is not unlike what it was then - people languish in jail for the
want of resources to seek bail, for the lack of proper legal aid, and the hopelessly
sluggish pace at which the judicial system moves. Coupled with this is the
presence of a police force that seems less interested in securing convictions
than in making summary arrests, effectively using custody as a form of
preventive detention. If the problem of undertrials has proved so intractable,
it is because it is a manifestation of fundamental and deep-rooted flaws in the
criminal justice system.
NHRC Report on Undertrials
India's prisons are filled with undertrials, according to the National Human
Rights Commission. Statistics compiled by its custodial justice cell reveal that
2,25,817 of 3,04,893 or 74.06 per cent of the total prison population, are
those awaiting trial.
The States and Union Territories that lead the list are Dadra and Nagar Haveli,
whose entire prison population is comprised of undertrials, followed by
Meghalaya with 94.66 per cent undertrials, Manipur with 92.19 per cent, Jammu
and Kashmir with 91.67 per cent, Nagaland 89.87 per cent, Uttar Pradesh
87.37 per cent, Bihar 86.27 per cent, Jharkhand 83.24 per cent, Mizoram
79.14 per cent, Karnataka 79.34 per cent and Delhi 78.52 per cent undertrials.
Andaman and Nicobar and Tamil Nadu recorded the lowest number of
undertrials as a percentage of total prison populations with 24.05 per cent and
36.16 per cent respectively.
The total jail capacity in India is for 2,32,412 prisoners, which makes the total
prison population 31 per cent higher than capacity. Delhi tops the list for States
with overcrowded prisons with 217 per cent more prisoners than it has room
for. The other States that have prisons filled way beyond capacity are Jharkhand
with a 165 per cent overflow, Chhattisgarh 110 per cent, Gujarat and Haryana
100 per cent each, Bihar 74 per cent, Sikkim 72 per cent, Uttar Pradesh 70 per
cent, Madhya Pradesh 66 per cent, Orissa 54 per cent Goa 39 per cent and
Tripura 35 per cent.
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The NHRC also found that 10,414 women were in jail in India, accounting for
3.42 per cent of the jail population . Mizoram leads with 10 per cent of Notes
prisoners in the State being women. This is followed by Tamil Nadu with 6.59
per cent of all prisoners being women and Dadar and Nagar Haveli with 6.45
per cent.
The Commission said children younger than 5-6 years are allowed to live with
their mothers in jail, and 1,369 women prisoners had their children living with
them. But it does not say how many children in total are part of the prison
population.
The only let-up in the grim lists of figures is the fact that in an international
comparison of the number of prisoners per 100,000 of population India does
well. It has 29.69 prisoners per lakh of population against 700 per lakh in the
U.S. 650 in Russia, 400 in South Africa, 300 in Thailand, 132 in U.K. and 102
in Canada.
The immediate task is to identify those who are eligible for bail and ensure
their release.
Challenges Faced By Under-Trials
• Group violence and riots are common.
• With hardened criminals being around and in the absence of scientific
classification methods to separate them from others, contamination of
first time, circumstantial and young offenders into full-fledged criminals
occurs very frequently.
• Most of the prisons face problems of overcrowding and shortage of
adequate space to lodge prisoners in safe and healthy conditions. Most of
the prisoners found in prisons come from socio-economically disadvantaged
sections of the society where disease, malnutrition and absence of medical
services are prevalent. When such people are cramped in with each other
in unhealthy conditions, infectious and communicable diseases spread
easily.
• The Right to Speedy Trial - as recognised by the Supreme Court in
HussainaraKhatoon vs. Home Secretary, Bihar is violated due to protracted
delays. This delay is due to all kinds of reasons such as -
a. Systemic delays.
b. Grossly inadequate number of judges and prosecutors.
c. Absence or belated service of summons on witnesses.
d. Presiding judges proceeding on leave.
e. Remands being extended mechanically due to lack of time and
patience with the presiding judge.
f. Inadequacy of police personnel and vehicles which prevents the
production of all prisoners on their due dates.
g. Many a times, the escorting police personnel merely produces the
remand papers in the courts instead of actually producing the prisoner
in front of the magistrate. This practice is widely reported,
notwithstanding the strict requirement of the law in section 167(2)(b)
of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 which says that - 'No
Magistrate shall authorize detention in any custody under this section
unless the accused is produced before him.'
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• Right to bail is denied even in genuine cases. Even in cases where the
prisoner was charged with bailable offence, they are found to rot in prisons
Notes
due to exorbitantly high bail amount.
• Large number of persons including women and children are detained under
Section 109 of the Criminal Procedure Code provides for failure to furnish
requisite security for keeping good behaviour.
• The police usually pick them up "because the number of cases had to be
brought up to the specified figure". The authorities refuse to release them
without bail whereas the standing law on Section 110 says that you cannot
ask for bail from such persons, only the history ticket is required.
• In the absence of a system, that takes a proactive role in providing legal
services to prisoners their right to effective Legal Aid is also violated due
to politicisation of legal aid schemes as many lawyers are hired on political
consideration who get a fix salary without the pressure of disposing off
cases at the earliest.
Recommendations
• The number of judges should be increased to 50 judges per one million
of population to reduce the burden of the judges.
• There should be a separate cell in the police to ensure timely service of
summons.
• Rules can be amended to authorise the service of summons through
telephone and E-mail in the modern era of information technology. Even
examination of witnesses can be conducted through video-conferencing.
• There should be a minimum fixed tenure for the investigating officers to
ensure timely completion of investigation and trial as provided in section
15 of the Punjab Police Act 2007.
• It is suggested to set up dedicated police squads in all the districts for
production of undertrials in the courts. Besides this, video-conferencing
facility can be started for smooth and speedy trials. Undue adjournments
should not be allowed by the trial courts on flimsy grounds.
• There should be proper coordination between various organs of Criminal
Justice Administration like police, judiciary, prosecution and the prison
officials.
• The police should refrain from vexatious arrests. The definition of
cognizable offence should be delinked from police power of arrest.
• The directions of the Supreme Court of India in the DK Basu case (AIR
1997 SC 610) should be implemented to protect the rights of the arrested
persons.
• Bail should be granted in non-serious cases and poor people should be
released on personal bond.
• Free legal aid should be provided to the needy person under detention and
quality of the service should be improved.
• The concept of plea bargaining should be applied in letter and spirit to
dispose of cases coming under the purview of this provision.

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