27 Nov 2020: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

E. Editorials

Category: SOCIAL ISSUES

1. Policing faith

Context:

Recently, the Uttar Pradesh government proposed an ordinance seeking to prohibit “unlawful” religious conversions.

This topic has been covered in the 25^th November 2020 Comprehensive News Analysis.

• These suggestions were contained in a report of the Uttar Pradesh State Law Commission submitted in 2019.

Concerns:

• The article argues that the ordinance represents a regressive march towards medievalism and a deplorable enthusiasm to police the private lives and beliefs of citizens.
• It seems to reject the phrase “freedom of religion” that several other anti-conversion laws in other states have employed to title their laws.
• Besides the use of force, coercion, undue influence and deceit, it has sought to include “alluring into marriage” as an additional ground for declaring an instance of religious conversion as illegal.
  • This seems to be inspired by similar legislation in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
• The U.P. proposal also envisages prison terms.
• There is also a prior declaration provision on an intended conversion.
• While the panel had suggested that conversion solely for marriage should be declared null and void, the State’s note on the ordinance says it provides for invalidation of marriages solemnised solely for conversion.

Arguments against the ordinance:

• While upholding the validity of the Freedom of Religion Acts of Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, in Stanislaus (1977), the Supreme Court had held that the “right to propagate” religion did not include the “right to convert”. However, those early laws did not bar conversions by marriage.
• The Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and the proposed U.P. law would be vulnerable on that point.
• After the Court’s “right to privacy” judgment, and the Shafin Jahan-Hadiya case (2018), it would be no more constitutional to use “marriage” as a ground for prohibiting conversion, as it involves the rights of privacy, choice and marital freedom.
  • The right to marry a person of one’s choice is guaranteed under Article 21.
  • Freedom of conscience, free profession, practice and propagation of religion of one’s choice are guaranteed under Article 25.
• All the previous laws were seen as public order legislation (with the claim that “forced” or “fraudulent” conversions lead to disturbance of order).
• An inter-faith marriage, by itself, is unlikely to be seen by the courts as an event impinging on public order. Therefore, making marriage per se a ground for rendering conversion illegal would not survive judicial scrutiny.
• The U.P. ordinance uses the term “allurement by marriage”, but its potential for misuse is the same.
• The provision on the mandatory prior declaration of an intent to convert is similar to the one struck down by the Himachal Pradesh High Court in 2012 as violating the right to keep one’s faith a secret.

Despite the potential for deepening social discord and communal divides, it is a matter of concern that several states are keen to join this bandwagon against inter-marriages.

Category: HEALTH

1. A clear reading of the Ayurveda surgery move

Context:

• Recently, a Gazette of India notification was issued by the Central Council of Indian Medicine identifying surgical procedures that can be performed by post-graduate Ayurvedic doctors in Shalya (surgery).
• This has attracted several offended reactions.
  • The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has written a letter to the Prime Minister, engaging in excessive self-criticism.
  • Allopathic surgeons are outraged.
  • Social media and WhatsApp groups are abuzz with alarmist responses questioning the proficiency of Ayurvedic doctors in performing surgery.

History – After 1947, what the state did:

• After Independence, the Indian state was faced with the difficult task of accommodating both the ascendant modern medicine brought in by the British and India’s traditional systems of medicine, notably Ayurveda.
  • For a brief period, there actually existed integrated courses, wherein both Ayurveda and modern medicine were taught to students.
  • But these withered away partly due to opposition from purists in Ayurveda who were outraged by the dilution of their science.
  • Therefore, the degree in Ayurvedic medicine became largely an Ayurveda course.
• Subsequently, as modern medicine made rapid strides, Ayurvedic graduates experienced an identity crisis.

Details:

• Non-MBBS doctors have become an important cog in the modern medicine machine.
• They are resident doctors, intensive care duty doctors and operation theatre assistant surgeons.
  • In Maharashtra, the ‘108’ emergency response ambulance service is manned by non-MBBS doctors.
  • During COVID-19, a large number of the quarantine centres were manned by these doctors.
• Incidentally, they work for less pay which allows hospitals to control costs and even make profits.
• In an effort to develop postgraduate programmes, Ayurveda medical colleges developed one in “Shalya” or “surgery”.
  • This is awkward as unlike the vast pharmacopeia, there is really nothing called Ayurvedic surgery.
• Now, the controversial notification called the Indian Medicine Central Council (Post Graduate Ayurveda Education) Amendment Regulations, 2020 — by the Central Council of Indian Medicine authorises an MS (Ayurveda) Shalya Tantra, or General Surgery postgraduate degree holder on completion of his course to perform 58 surgical procedures. Some of the procedures in the list are rather complicated.

Way forward:

• Ayurveda graduates including surgeons are a large workforce in search of an identity. If they are creatively and properly trained, they can play important roles in our health-care system.
• Given the right training, pay and identity, Ayurvedic surgeons can be trained to strengthen services and save hundreds of lives.
• AYUSH, or Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy, is a priority area for the present government. The revival of Indian medicine fits well into a certain narrative.
• The IMA in its opposition to such moves needs to be precise and constructive.
• Utilising India’s large workforce of non-MBBS doctors to improve access to decent health care for ordinary citizens is one of the urgently needed and serious discussions.

Note:

• Sage Sushruta displayed his surgical dexterity at a time when the world had not yet woken up to the art and the science of surgery.
• There are detailed descriptions in the Sushruta Samhita, the ancient Sanskrit text on medicine and surgery, of procedures such as rhinoplasty where the nose is reconstructed with tissue from the cheek.
• It was thousands of years later that modern plastic surgeons described this procedure.

Category: DISASTER MANAGEMENT

1. Storm warnings

Context:

Cyclone Nivar had raised fears of another epic disaster for millions of coastal residents in the south, but its passage overland was less destructive than anticipated. Read more on Cyclone Nivar.

Details:

• Although property and agriculture have suffered considerable damage, the reported loss of lives is a relatively low toll for such a large-scale weather system.
• The IMD has been getting better at forecasting slow-moving, linear tropical cyclones in the Bay of Bengal, and multiple satellites now provide cyclone data.
• The deployment of over two dozen NDRF teams and disaster management equipment along the coast reassured civic agencies.

Issue:

• For suburban Chennai, the peak one-day rainfall of 31 cm wrought destruction mirroring what happened five years ago.
• Smaller inland towns have suffered inundation and severe losses.
• There is extensive documentation on the loss of its floodplains, lakes and peri-urban wetlands to encroachment, a key factor that is worsening monsoon flooding.
  • This land grab is made possible by the indulgence of successive governments.
• The governments have not shown the rigour to collect and publish data on annual flooding patterns, and measure the peak flows in the neglected rivers and canals to plan remedies.
• Shocking indifference to land use norms has produced an unstructured housing sector characterised by inflated, speculative prices but no foundation of civic infrastructure.

Way forward:

• The aftermath presents an opportunity to make a full assessment not just for distribution of relief but also to understand the impacts of extreme monsoon weather.
• The Tamil Nadu government has shown readiness in handling the acute challenge of a severe weather event.
• The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu made field visits, and in parallel, the Opposition mounted its own relief operations.
• Periodic papering of the cracks does not offer a sustainable solution to Chennai’s evident civic decay.
• To keep Tamil Nadu competitive, governments and local bodies should hardwire urban planning and invest heavily for a future of frequent disruptive weather.