22 Dec 2021: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

CNA 22 Dec 2021:- Download PDF Here

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A. GS 1 Related
B. GS 2 Related
GOVERNANCE
1. The problems within the UDAN scheme
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1. Shringla for talks with Myanmar military
C. GS 3 Related
D. GS 4 Related
E. Editorials
POLITY AND GOVERNANCE
1. Changing the iconography of power
ECONOMY
1. How the Code on Wages ‘legalises’ bonded labour
F. Prelims Facts
1. ‘Chillai kalan’ puts Kashmir in a deep freeze
2. A chance encounter with rare species
G. Tidbits
1. Making up for lost school time in Assam
2. HC orders social disability audit of public transport in six weeks
3. House to review Bill on raising marriage age
H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions
I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

Category: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

1. Shringla for talks with Myanmar military

Topic: India and its Neighborhood Relations

Mains: India-Myanmar bilateral relationship – Significance and challenges

Context:

• Indian Foreign Secretary is on a two-day visit to Myanmar and is scheduled to meet General Min Aung Hlaing, who toppled the elected government last February in a military coup.

Details:

• The visit is being seen as an outreach to Myanmar’s military-backed regime after the military coup in Myanmar and a tacit acknowledgement of the coup in Myanmar.
• The visit also underscores the balancing act that India is trying to maintain on upholding democratic values in the neighbourhood and also maintaining a working relationship with the military-backed regime in Myanmar.
• While India has expressed strong apprehensions over the developments in Myanmar and the sentencing of former State Councillor and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to four years imprisonment, it has also avoided moves to antagonize the current regime in Myanmar.
  • Recently, India had abstained from endorsing a resolution that sought to prevent arms supplies to the Myanmar military and also appointed a new Ambassador to Myanmar as a sign to show that India has not “derecognised” the Myanmar government despite the coup.

Reasons behind India’s moves:

• India is expected to speak to the Tatmadaw (military) about India’s growing security concerns over insurgent groups based along the 1,600-km India-Myanmar border which have carried out attacks in recent months. Militants allegedly take refuge across the border after carrying out attacks in India.
• India believes that it is necessary to engage with the new regime to strengthen and deepen democracy in Myanmar.
• The visit is also an attempt to counter China’s influence in Myanmar, which could grow as the regime gets more isolated.
• The stand being taken by India is in line with ASEAN policy on Myanmar which has been constant engagement with the military regime while pushing for democracy in the country. Hence this stand will help align India’s stand with that of ASEAN and this augurs well for India’s relationship with this critical regional grouping.

Also read: India – Myanmar Relations

Category: ECONOMY

1. How the Code on Wages ‘legalises’ bonded labour

Topic: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilisation, of resources, growth, development and employment.

Mains: Labour code in India; Consequences on bonded labour.

Context: 

This article examines how the labour codes in India legalise bonded labour.

What is Bonded labour?

• Bonded labour, often known as debt bondage, is perhaps the least known kind of slavery today, while being the most common technique of enslaving individuals. 
• When a person’s labour is required as payback for a loan, they become a bound labourer. 
• The individual is then duped or forced into working for little or no remuneration.

Constitutionality of Bonded Labour: 

• Bonded labour is illegal in India under Articles 21 and 23 of the Constitution.
• Human trafficking and forced labour are expressly outlawed under Article 23 of the Indian Constitution. Furthermore, Article 21 protects the right to life and the right to personal liberty.
• The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, enacted in 1976, was the first to abolish the practice.
• The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act of 1976 established a legislative framework to combat bonded labour.

Supreme Court on bonded Labour: 

1. The Supreme Court interpreted Article 23 to declare that “a person who has been forced to work as bonded labour and a person who is working as labour at a rate less than the minimum wage shall be treated similarly” in Peoples’ Union for Democratic Rights vs. Union of India (1982).
2. The Supreme Court stated in its decision in Badhua Mukti Morcha vs. Union of India (1997) that the right to live in dignity, inherent in Article 21, derives its lifeblood from Part IV of the Constitution, which prescribes the Directive Principles of State Policy, particularly Articles 39(e) and (f), 41 and 42.

What are the Concerns? 

• The identification and release of bound labourers is a laborious process, with officials downplaying the scope of forced labour.
• Training and compensation supplied as part of rehabilitation packages were insufficient to fulfil the demands of freed bonded labourers. Furthermore, the State failed to recognise the bonded status of family members.
• Women were refused release certificates and state benefits since labourer-employer contracts had been arranged with the head of the household, the husband.
• This demonstrates the State’s inability to implement a systematic and long-term plan to end bonded labour, which begins with identifying bonded labourers and continues until efforts are made to guarantee that those who are released are not re-enslaved.
• Furthermore, governments’ hesitation to act aggressively against bonded labour in recent years has been exacerbated by the trend of decreasing labour protection in the face of globalisation.
• As a result, safeguards are reduced, providing unscrupulous employers with additional opportunities to limit and eliminate impoverished workers’ freedom through debt, monitoring, and intimidation.
• Because governmental forces have access to money and authority, and civil society groups have grassroots connections and a greater understanding of the gravity of the problem, they must work together to eliminate the threat of bonded labour.
• Despite previously existing legislative safeguards, disadvantaged agricultural, informal sector, and migrant workers were already caught in a vicious cycle of increasing debt and diminishing income, depriving them, their families, and future generations of their most fundamental rights.

How does the Labour Code legalise bonded labour?

• The Labour Code – the Code on Wages, 2019 — legalises this horrifyingly authoritarian, inhuman practice by permitting companies to provide unrestricted credit extensions to their employees and charge them an undetermined interest rate.
• The government appears to actively support the practice by repealing even the most lax restrictions previously in place under the Minimum Wage Act of 1948. (now subsumed in the Code).
• Rule 21 of the Minimum Earnings (Central) Rules, 1950 specified specific “deductions” from workers’ wages.
• The sub-rule (2)(vi) permitted “deductions for recovery of advances or correction of overpayment of wages, provided that such advances do not exceed an amount equivalent to the employed person’s earnings for two calendar months.”
• Furthermore, it noted that “the monthly instalment of deduction should in no event exceed one-fourth of the salary earned in that month.”
• Wage deductions are permitted under the Wage Code for the recovery of “advances of whatever sort, and the interest due in respect thereof, or for correction of overpayment of wages.”

What are the implications of the Labour Code on bonded labour?

• It has repealed the former Act’s restriction of ‘not more than two months’ of a worker’s earnings that an employer might offer as advance. Employers can now make limitless advances to their employees, increasing their hold.
• It has legalised the charging of an interest rate by the employer on such advances by including an interest clause with no details on what may be charged. The cumulative result is an open invitation for the bonded labour system to thrive.
• Furthermore, the Code raises the permitted monthly deduction for such recovery to one-half of the worker’s monthly pay, up from one-fourth under the previous Act.
• The government has intervened by sustaining and growing economic inequality to the benefit of certain castes and classes, thus preventing workers from achieving full political independence.

Way Forward: 

In India, bonded labour results from poverty, social marginalisation, and the government’s unwillingness to address the practice and its underlying causes.

Economic servitude nullifies political freedom, and democracy itself needs governmental action in the economic system to avoid such practices.

While a full recast of rural and agricultural land arrangements is required, and state ownership of land is critical to this, defined democracy should be founded on the presence of economic rights.

An individual’s constitutional rights must not be forfeited as a condition previous to receiving any privilege.

2. A chance encounter with rare species

• The rarely found species of Albino Indian Flapshell turtle has been spotted in Sirnapalli forest in Telangana’s Nizamabad.

2. HC orders social disability audit of public transport in six weeks

• Noting the non-availability of requisite and enabling infrastructure for persons with disability and it being a violation of Article 21 of the Constitution of India, the Delhi High Court has called for a social disability audit of the existing public transport infrastructure.
• The court stated that people with disabilities should be given due facilities to make their commuting through public transport less challenging.

3. House to review Bill on raising marriage age

• As per the NFHS-5 data, nearly 23% of girls under 18 were married pointing to the challenge of child marriage in Indian society especially with respect to girls.

Q1. Consider the following statements with respect to the Indian flapshell turtle 
(Lissemys punctata):

Q2. The World Press Freedom Index (WPFI) is an annual ranking of countries compiled and 
published by 

Q3. Which of the following statements about compassionate employment is/are correct?

Q4. Which of the following are the functions of the Enforcement Directorate (ED)?

Q5. What is the application of Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer Technology? (UPSC 2017)

CNA 22 Dec 2021:- Download PDF Here