20 Jan 2023: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

E. Editorials

Category: GOVERNANCE

1. Free Speech and Censorship

Syllabus: Government Policies & Interventions for Development

Mains: Freedom of Media in a Democracy

Context: Fact Check by Press Information Bureau (PIB) under IT rules.

Introduction:

• The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) proposed a draft rule – Rule 3(1)(b)(v) of the amended version of the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021.
• A]s per the  proposed draft, the social media platforms would be mandated to take down content that has been “fact-checked” by the PIB fact-check unit and has been flagged as false. 
• As per Rule 3(1)(b)(v) of the amended version of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, the social media platforms should make reasonable efforts to ensure that the users of the platform do not post content that has been identified as fake or false by the fact check unit at the PIB or any other agency authorised by the Central Government for fact-checking. 
• The fact check unit of the PIB has played an active role in exposing various baseless news that is being circulated on social media platforms like WhatsApp and Twitter. 
  • The fact check unit has also issued denials on behalf of the government in response to news reports by online publications and newspapers alike in the past.

Concerns with proposed draft:

• The proposed amendment to the IT Rules is problematic at many levels, with deep implications for free speech and information. 
  • It puts an increased burden upon the intermediaries to comply with the provisions and avoid penalties. This might lead to non-publication of even true events or criticisms if the intermediaries’ fact finding unit facts to check the veracity of the content. 
• This proposal makes the government as the sole arbiter of truth which could result in the censorship of the press.
• By making its “fact-checks” binding on news disseminating platforms, the government will have a tool with which to easily throttle voices opposing it. 
• The amendment also lacks any safeguards to prevent PIB’s fact-checking unit’s misuse, promote transparency while “fact-checking”, or limit its scope.

Similar restrictions on Digital Media:

• Many provisions in the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 have a clause saying “as may be prescribed” or its equivalence. 
  • Privacy activists have criticised this because this essentially gives the central government the power to issue Rules and directions later on to clarify these provisions.
• The government mandated news aggregators in 2019 to make sure that their foreign direct investment (FDI) does not exceed 26 percent. The directive was issued by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade without clarifying the definition of digital media. It was considered to be a restrictive policy that inhibited Indian media from competing internationally. 
• The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has powers under the IT Rules, 2021, to block or modify online “news and current affairs” content on digital media firms and digital news platforms through an Inter-Departmental Committee and Oversight Mechanism.
• The rules extended the government’s powers under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, to block internet content and reprimand publishers in the interests of “sovereignty, integrity, defence of India and security of the State or preventing a cognisable offence.”

Nut Graf: Experts and several opposition parties have opposed the new provision of Fact Check by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) under IT rules as it could lead to arbitrary censorship of free speech by the government and reinforces the power imbalance between the State and citizens in a democracy.

Category: SOCIAL JUSTICE

1. Working of POCSO Act

Syllabus: Mechanisms, Laws, Institutions & Bodies Constituted for Protection & Betterment of Vulnerable Sections-Women and Children

Mains: Status of implementation of POCSO Act after 10 years

Context: This article analyses the working of POCSO Act.

Introduction:

• The Union Ministry of Women and Child Development led the introduction of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act in 2012 in consequence to India’s ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1992.
• The aim of this special law is to address offences of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children, which were either not specifically defined or in adequately penalised. 
• Ten years after the enactment of POCSO Act, an analysis of POCSO cases across India has found gaps in its implementation in several areas including, increasing pendency of cases and high rate of acquittals.

Gaps in Implementation:

• A large part of the investigation of offences under the Act is still guided by the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). 
• The Act calls for a woman sub-inspector to record the affected child’s statement in their home or another location of their choosing. However, with only 10% of police officers being women and many police stations barely staffing with women, it is nearly impossible to adhere to this rule.
• Similarly, though there is a provision to record statements using audio-video means, the pilot project has yet to be implemented across States. 
  • The admissibility of evidence captured using any audio-video method will always be an issue in the absence of adequate infrastructure to preserve the integrity of electronic evidence.
• It is mandatory to record the statement of the prosecutrix by a judicial magistrate under POCSO. But, judicial magistrates are neither called for cross-examination during trial nor are those who retract their statement punished. Such statements are rendered meaningless in this situation.
• As observed by the Supreme Court of India, there are instances where the banned two-finger test is still in use during the medical examination of a girl child.
• Age determination of a juvenile delinquent is guided by the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act; no such provision exists under the POCSO Act for juvenile victims. 
  • Age estimation based on medical opinion is generally so wide in scope that in most cases minors are proved to be major. 
• The time mandated to complete investigation of rape (as in the CrPC, without a similar provision in the POCSO Act) is two months. Though the aim is to expedite investigation, it has resulted in poor quality of investigation.
• Accused get the benefit of completing an investigation in a shorter time as they may seek bail immediately after the filing of the charge sheet within 60 days as per POCSO Act.
• POCSO courts have not been designated in all districts. As of 2022, 408 POCSO courts have been set up in 28 States as part of the Government’s Fast Track Special Court’s Scheme. 
  • There is a lack of Special Public Prosecutors appointed specifically to handle POCSO cases, and even when they are appointed they are often employed for non-POCSO cases.
  • 43.44 % of trials under POCSO end in acquittals while only 40.03(forty point zero three)% end in convictions.
  • The pendency of cases in the courts was 94.7% by the end of 2020, up from 88.8% by the end of 2019.

Success of POCSO Act:

• The POCSO Act takes into account all kinds of sexual abuse, physical, contact, non-contact, verbal and also via the internet and so can be effective in tackling the massive problem of sexual abuse of children.
• The gender-neutrality of the POCSO Act is a key component. This supports society’s concern that male child sexual exploitation is a serious issue that has gone mostly ignored.
• As non-reporting has become a particular offence under the POCSO Act, there is now sufficient public awareness to report cases of sexual exploitation of minors committed not just by individuals but also by institutions. As a result, it has become more challenging to cover up crimes against children.
  • There has been a 45 percent increase in cases registered from 2017 to 2020.
• The storage of child pornography material has been made a new offence. 
• In addition, unlike an abstract definition of “outraging the modesty of a woman” in the Indian Penal Code, the crime of “sexual assault” has been specified in precise terms (with increased minimum punishment) under POCSO Act.

Nut Graf: Ten years after the enactment of POCSO Act, it is time to introspect and review the way the POCSO Act is implemented to see how far it has helped victims of sexual exploitation and what more needs to be done to ensure justice.

2. Annual Status of Education Report 2022

Syllabus: Issues Relating to Development & Management of Education

Mains: Status of Education in India

Context: The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) report for 2022 was recently released after the gap of four years.

Introduction:

• ASER is an annual, citizen-led household survey led by the Pratham Foundation that aims to understand whether children in rural India are enrolled in school and whether they are learning.
• Information about enrollment in school or preschool was collected for all children aged 3-16, and children aged 5-16 were tested one-on-one to understand their reading, arithmetic and English skills. 
• In ASER 2022, around 7 lakh candidates from 19,060 schools in 616 rural  districts were surveyed to calculate the learning outcomes.
• Data from 2018 and 2022 can be compared with longer run trends over the last decade to see how the COVID-19 years have impacted India.

Key Findings:

1. Enrolment:

• In 2018, the all-India rural enrolment figure for the age group 6-14 years was 97.2%. In ASER 2022 data, this is now 98.4%. 
  • The rise has been accompanied by a significant shift away from private schools to government schools. For all India rural, the percentage of all children aged 11 to 14 who are enrolled in government schools has risen from 65% in 2018 to 71.7% in 2022. 
  • The rise in government school enrollment can be attributed to several possible contributing factors such as — decrease in family income, permanent closures of low-cost private schools, and the efforts of many State governments to provide services even when schools were closed such as mid-day meal rations, teaching-learning materials shared remotely, worksheet and textbook distribution.

       2. Foundational Skills:

• There has been a decline in learning levels even for basic skills like reading and arithmetic as per ASER 2022 compared to ASER 2018.
• The drop in arithmetic levels is less than the loss in reading, with children in lower grades suffering more loss than older children.
• Concerted action is seen in some states after schools reopened in early 2022 with learning recovery programs being designed and implemented across the board and also specially for upper primary grades.

      3. Proportion of girls who are not currently enrolled: 

• In 2006, the All India figure for the percentage of girls aged 11-14 who were out of school stood at 10.3%, falling over the following decade to 4.1% in 2018. This proportion has continued to drop. In 2022, the all India figure for 11-14-year-old girls not enrolled in school stands at 2%.
  • This figure is around 4% only in Uttar Pradesh and is lower in all other states. 

• The decrease in the proportion of girls not enrolled in school is even sharper among older girls in the 15-16 age group. 
  • In 2008, nationally, more than 20% of girls in the 15-16 age group were not enrolled in school. The proportion of 15-16-year-old girls not enrolled is at 7.9% in 2022. 
  • Only 3 states have more than 10% of girls in this age group out of school: Madhya Pradesh (17%), Uttar Pradesh (15%), and Chhattisgarh (11.2%).

      4. Enrollment in the pre-primary age group: 

• The proportion of 3-year-olds enrolled in some form of early childhood education stands at 78.3% in 2022, an increase of 7.1 percentage points over 2018 levels. 
• There is a substantial shift in enrollment patterns of young children in the age group 3-5 years who have moved into the ICDS (anganwadi) system from other forms of pre-school and school provision
  • In 2022, 66.8% of 3-year-olds were enrolled in Anganwadi Centres as compared to 57.1% in 2018. 

      5. Teacher and student attendance: 

•  At the All-India level, no major change is seen in students’ and teachers’ attendance. Average teacher attendance increased slightly, from 85.4% in 2018 to 87.1% in 2022. Average student attendance continues to hover at around 72% for the past several years.

     6. Tuition Classes:

• The report also shows a surge in students attending tuition classes. Between 2018 and 2022, in all states, there is an increase in the proportion of children who attend tuition classes. 
  • The exceptions are Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Tripura.

Learning Loss:

• Despite the development of new technologies, new knowledge domains, and new ways of operating, many children are reaching standard eight without being sufficiently equipped with foundational literacy and numeracy skills in our school system.
• Strong foundational skills are necessary to acquire higher level skills and develop advanced content knowledge. 
• ASER data shows that an “overambitious” curriculum and the linear age-grade organisational structure of Indian schools result in a vast majority of children getting “left behind” early in their school career. 
• In the absence of in-school mechanisms for “catch up”, children fall further and further behind academically. With this comes low motivation to learn and a lack of self-confidence. 
  • At the same time, as children reach higher grades, parental and family aspirations for the child’s future increase.
• High enrollment and completion rates have a number of negative effects, including acute test stress, grade inflation in school-leaving examinations, difficulty getting into college, and a shortage of suitable occupations for many school-leavers.

Conclusion:

• National Education Policy 2022 speaks of “critical thinking” and “flexible pathways through school”. Acknowledging the “learning loss” it is time to rethink and rework the future of children once they grow past the foundational stage of schooling. 
• Given that the policy and implementation focus currently is on early years in primary school, administration  shall focus on understanding how older children in upper primary grades are faring who need support for learning recovery and “catch up”.

Nut Graf: ASER 2022 is the first field-based ‘basic’ nationwide ASER after a gap of 4 years. It comes at a time when children are back in school after an extended period of school closure due to COVID Pandemic. Evidence on the status of children’s schooling and foundational learning will help us understand how best to support them going forward.

F. Prelims Facts

1. National Export Co-operative Society to trade to trade nano fertilizers and dairy products

Syllabus: GS-3; Economy

Prelims: About National Export Co-operative Society and Nano fertilizers

Context: The National Export Co-operative Society is looking to export Nano fertilizers produced by IFFCO and dairy products from Amul in the next few months.

National Export Co-operative Society

• The proposed National Multi-State Export Co-operative Society will be set up under the Multi State Cooperative Societies (MSCS) Act, 2002.
• Further, it will have a paid-up capital of about Rs 2,000 crores.
• This Cooperative Society will be different from the Export Promotion Council under the Ministry of Commerce that plays a role of a facilitator and helps provide information about the potential markets.
• Promoters of the Society include leading cooperatives such as the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO), Krishak Bharati Cooperative Limited (KRIBHCO), National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED), Gujrat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) (famously known as Amul) and National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC).
  • All the above cooperatives will contribute 100 crores each.
• The Union Cabinet has announced the establishment of Multi State Seed Society, Multi State Organic Society and Multi State Export Society.
  • Cooperatives at present have a presence in most of the sectors such as agriculture, horticulture, fisheries, livestock, fertilizers, handicrafts, etc.
• The contribution of cooperatives is significant in these various sectors. Cooperative contribute:
  • 28.80% in fertilizer production
  • 35% in fertilizer distribution
  • 30.60% in sugar production
  • 17.50% in the procurement of a marketable surplus of milk
• Currently, in the country, there are 8.54 lakh registered cooperatives with over 29 crore members. 

Read about – Nano Urea Liquid