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Q. 1) Highlight the issue faced by children at shelter homes for homeless children or those in conflict with law. Discuss the provisions of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 that governs these shelters and suggest some measures to deal with the issues faced by children. (GS-2)
Answer: Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 is passed by Parliament of India to consolidate and amend the law relating to children alleged and found to be in conflict with law and children in need of care and protection.
Issues faced by children at shelter homes:
- NCPCR submitted that out of a total of 2,874 children’s homes surveyed, only 54 institutions could be given positive reviews.
- Staff at India’s orphanages have often been implicated in criminal charges.
- Children are sexually abused, beaten, and psychologically abused.
- These homes are not supervised by any regulatory bodies and escape scrutiny.
- They do not have any standardisation in quality of care.
- Poor infrastructure – Poor lighting, cramped accommodation, lack of well-trained, educated staff that treat homeless children reflect the poor state of infrastructure at orphanages.
- Orphanages are instead ‘ruled’ with fear. Children are also kept unaware of their rights, and who they can report child rights violations to.
Provisions of the law:
- The Child Care Institutions in respect of children in conflict with law are the Observation Home, Special Home, Place of Safety and fit facility.
- Mandatory registration of Child Care Institutions – All child care institutions, whether run by State Government or by voluntary or non-governmental organisations are to be mandatorily registered under the Act.
- Registration applications of Child Care Institutions are to be disposed of within six months otherwise it would be considered as dereliction of duty and will invite departmental proceedings.
Measures to deal with the issues:
- Strengthen regulation and monitoring of the quality of these shelter homes.
- Periodic audits by NCPCR and due debate along with follow-up on the recommendations of the commission.
- Mechanisms should be put in place for children to complain directly to the concerned officials.
- Mandatory registration of the homes and stringent checks on their necessary infrastructure.
- Advanced child care methods and psychological development should be prioritised to just providing them the basic needs of shelter and food.
Q.2) Power loom sector, which contributes to 40 per cent of the nation’s man-made fabric demand, is in a shutdown mode in Surat, discuss the challenges faced by the sector and steps taken by government to deal with them.
Answer: The decentralized powerloom sector is the lifeline of Indian Textile Industry. 60% of Indian cloth is produced through decentralized power loom sector, provides employment to more than 7 million workers.
Major issues faced by Powerloom sector:
- Poor infrastructure – Most of the powerloom clusters face common problems like poor roads, effluent issues, frequent power cuts, non-availability of water, no warehouses & logistic issues etc.
- Obsolete Technology – Modernisation in looms is less, There are less than 15,000 modern looms, whereas traditional looms are in large numbers.
a) Value addition and the manufacturing of fabrics according to customer’s compliances, is not possible due to obsolete technology of looms.
b) Loom’s depreciation & maintenance cost is very high. It results in increase in the operating cost and the overall cost of production also increases.
c) The productivity of plain powerloom is very low as compared to automatic, shuttleless and semi-automatic looms
- Unskilled labour – Most of the labors lack good technical knowledge. They are not been trained for increasing productivity & efficiency.
- Lack of marketing support – Mostly, the weavers are uneducated or less educated and are unable to estimate the demand of their products according to the need of the market.
a) The middlemen exploit the powerloom owners and gain the main surplus.
b) The merchants and agents are united while the powerloom owners are dispersed. So, the buyers have more bargaining power and sellers are dependent on the buyers.
- Finance – The majority of the weavers start their business with the self-finance. They don’t have adequate supply of finance to modernize their power looms. They don’t have sufficient capital to pile up the stock of raw material when the prices are low.
Government initiatives:
- Powerloom Development and Export Promotion Council (PDEXCIL) – nodal agency for development and promotion of exports of powerloom products by promotional activities such as participation in international trade shows, sending and hosting trade delegations, and sustained image-building exercises through advertisements abroad, publications and audio visuals.
- Comprehensive Powerloom Cluster Development Scheme (CPCDS) by Ministry of Textiles – for development of Powerloom Mega Clusters.
- Telangana State government announced incentives, provided training and marketing facilities and had been promoting handloom textiles in a big way by placing bulk orders for school uniforms, Ramzan gifts and Bathukamma sarees.
Q.3) What is political attitude? Discuss the factors that shape political attitude and how media influences political attitude of public?
Answer: A political attitude is simply the way we think or feel about our government and related social and economic issues. It defines our like or dislike for a political person, party or ideology.
Ex: A person with liberal political attitude supports basic ideas of liberty, equality and democracy but want reforms in the system albeit not in extreme/violent manner but through constitutional / legal means.
A person’s political attitude is shaped not by any single, but complex combination of factors
Factors that shape political attitude
- Religion shapes a person’s moral attitude, moral attitude will predict political attitude. Ex: people who believes a religion very seriously, may support a party or a person belonging to the same religion
- Age – In general older people will be more conservative. Young people will be more liberal / radical.
- Economic Status – Poor will align towards communist / socialist ideology. He’ll vote for a party promising to get food, fertilizer and kerosene subsidy. Rich will align towards right wing- free market, capitalism.
- Residence – People belonging to a particular region will support a party that particularly promises something to the region or people of that region. This can be observed in the states where local parties dominate in assembly elections.
- Family – Children more likely to espouse the political ideology of their parents.
- Race – If a race feels they’re deprived of opportunities because of other races, then more likely to lean towards a party offering radical solutions against other races. E.g. German “Aryans” joining Nazi party.
- Gender – Females more likely to lean towards liberal ideology.
- Education – School syllabus plays an important role. A Chinese may find Indian democracy as repulsive, because he has been taught that Mao’s Communist ideology is best.
Media’s role in shaping political attitudes:
- Many people rely on the media as a source of information without even thinking whether it is true or not. Citizens learn about politics and government primarily from television and newspapers;
- Media outlets can influence voters not only through the slant of a particular report, but also merely by choosing which stories to cover
- The media has a huge impact in shaping the public opinion of the masses. They can form or modify the public opinion in different ways depending of what is the objective.
- The candidates that can pay for more Tv and media exposure have more influence on public opinion and thus can receive more votes.
Ex: Social media has played a big role in America’s presidential election.
Q.4) Persuasion is a powerful force in daily life and has a major influence on society and a whole. Comment.
Answer: Persuasion is a process aimed at changing a person’s or a group’s attitude or behavior toward some event or person by using written, spoken words or visual tools to convey information, feelings, or reasoning, or a combination thereof.
It is a tool in the pursuit of personal gain, such as election campaigning, giving a sales pitch, or in trial advocacy. Using one’s personal or positional resources to change people’s behaviors or attitudes.
Persuasion in present daily life & influence society:
- Politics, legal decisions, mass media, news, and advertising are all influenced by the power of persuasion and influence us in turn.
- Public service campaigns that urge people to recycle or quit smoking are great examples of persuasion used to improve people’s lives.
- The number of persuasive messages has grown tremendously Ex: we may come across hundreds of advertisements on a daily basis
- Persuasive communication travels far more rapidly. Television, Radio and the Internet all help spread persuasive messages very quickly.
- Contemporary persuasion is much more subtle. Businesses sometimes carefully craft very specific image designed to urge viewers to buy products or services in order to attain that projected lifestyle.
- Persuasion is more complex as consumers are more diverse and have more choices, so marketers have to be savvier when it comes to selecting their persuasive medium and message.
