A brief of newspaper articles for the day bearing
relevance to Civil Services preparation
National
[1]. Austrian anthropologist Haimendorf is all but forgotten
Context: In this article author states that the Austrian anthropologist Haimendorf who worked tirelessly for the welfare of the adivasis has been forgotten.
Who is an anthropologist?
The scientific study of the origin, the behavior, and the physical, social, and cultural development of humans is termed as anthropology.
An anthropologist is the one who has an extensive knowledge of anthropology and he uses it to solve problems specific to humanity.
Who is Christopher von Furer-Haimendorf?
He was an Austrian anthropologist. He was born in an Austrian aristocratic family. Very early he developed an interest in Indian culture, having read Rabindranath Tagore as a young man.
He spent forty years of his life doing fieldwork in Northeast India and in the central region of what is now the state of Telangana and in Nepal.
He came to Adilabad district in December 1941
His contributions,
- He made in-depth studies of the customs and traditions of the Gond people, among other tribes and he also influenced the Nizam of Hyderabad to bring in protective legislation to insulate them from exploitation by non-tribals
- Legislation of Hyderabad Tribal Areas Regulation 1356 Fasli (1946) and establishment of teacher training schools in 1943 to deal with the debilitating illiteracy
- Haimendorf patta: In his capacity of advisor to the Nizam’s government on tribal and backward classes affairs, Haimendorf persuaded the government to de-reserve 1.6 lakh acres of forest land and allocate it to 12,000 tribal families, the patta or title then known as Haimendorf Patta
No statue has been installed and no building has been named after him to keep his memory alive.
Even the Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) at Utnoor, the nerve centre of all tribal activity in the district is without any portrait signifying works of Haimendorf.
Conclusion
Haimendorf’s memory is dying a slow death and no efforts from the government or civil society are visible to stop it.
International
[1]. Now, Germany joins anti-IS war
What has happened?
German parliament has approved plans for Germany to take direct role in war against IS answering France’s appeal for help after Paris attacks. The mission would be Germany’s biggest deployment aboard.
What has been agreed?
Parliament agreed to the mandate for the deployment of Tornado reconnaissance jets, a frigate and up to 1,200 troops by an overwhelming majority of 445 votes in favour and 146 against.
Why has Germany offered its help?
France, after witnessing gruesome Paris attacks, invoked a clause requiring EU states to provide military assistance to wipe out the IS group in Iraq and Syria.
The mutual defence clause
France invoked the mutual defence clause citing that it is unable to beef up security at home in the wake of its military commitments outside of the country.
- The clause — article 42.7 of the Treaty on European Union — says that “if a member state is the victim of armed aggression on its territory, the other member states shall have toward it an obligation of aid and assistance by all the means in their power.”
- However, the article adds: “This shall not prejudice the specific character of the security and defence policy of certain member states. The latter sentence means that the neutrality of countries such as Ireland, Austria, and Sweden cannot be impugned, while the emphasis on help from “member states
Fact: France became the first European country to invoke the mutual defence clause
- As a result of the train attacks in Spain in 2004, the EU inserted mutual defence measures into the Lisbon treaty similar to the Nato alliance’s article five, which obliges all member countries to come to the defence of one of their number if attacked.
Business & Economy
[1]. China consolidates in Africa following $60 billion pledge
FOCAC
The Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) is an official forum between the People’s Republic of China and the states in Africa.
Must read: http://www.iol.co.za/business/news/what-you-need-to-know-about-focac-1.1955148#.VmLNkclVWb8
African Union (AU)
The advent of the African Union (AU) can be described as an event of great magnitude in the institutional evolution of the continent. On 9.9.1999, the Heads of State and Government of the Organisation of African Unity issued a Declaration (the Sirte Declaration) calling for the establishment of an African Union, with a view, to accelerating the process of integration in the continent to enable it play its rightful role in the global economy while addressing multifaceted social, economic and political problems compounded as they are by certain negative aspects of globalisation.
Africa 2063
Agenda 2063” is an approach to how the continent should effectively learn from the lessons of the past, build on the progress now underway and strategically exploit all possible opportunities available in the immediate and medium term, so as to ensure positive socioeconomic transformation within the next 50 years
Aim: At its heart, this new roadmap, emphasizes the importance to success of rekindling the passion for Pan-Africanism, a sense of unity, self-reliance, integration and solidarity that was a highlight of the triumphs of the 20th century.
US-Africa Command
The United States Africa Command (U.S. AFRICOM (official abbreviation), USAFRICOM, or AFRICOM) is one of nine Unified Combatant Commands of the United States Armed Forces, headquartered at Kelley Barracks, Stuttgart, Germany.
Responsibilities: It is responsible for U.S. military operations and military relations with 53 African nations. Its area of responsibility covers all of Africa except Egypt, which is within the area of responsibility of the United States Central Command.
What has happened?
Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a $ 60-billion-dollar package that will benefit Africa.
What was the occasion?
He was addressing the opening ceremony of the Johannesburg meeting of Forum on China-Africa Co-operation (FOCAC)
Announcements made by Xi Jinping
- a $ 60-billion-dollar package that will benefit Africa in 10 major areas: industry, agriculture, infrastructure, financial services, green development, trade and investment facilitation, poverty reduction and public welfare, public health, people-to-people exchanges, and peace and security.
Africa-China
- China has developed enormous overcapacity in the steel, construction materials, cement and glass sector, as domestic demand has dropped drastically on account of the slowdown in the real estate sector, and exports have slid because of a tepid international market. Africa’s growing appetite in these areas and in railways, highways, ports and power is what China is looking to invest in.
- Surge in investment: A likely surge in Chinese direct investment is anticipated, which had already scaled $30 billion last year. Trade had also zoomed to $220 billion — Africa’s highest with any single country — though this could taper somewhat as China’s thirst for raw materials recedes following the economic downturn, and its tighter focus on investments in Africa.
- Agenda 2063: The Chinese want to synchronise Africa’s Agenda 2063 — a 50 year developmental framework drawn by the African Union — with China’s Belt and Road blueprint of connecting Eurasia with roads, railways, cyber-optic highways, industrial parks and smart cities.
- Opportunities: Chinese companies could find further opportunities in Africa’s North-South Corridor, which stretches from Durban in South Africa to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. In between it passes through eight countries in eastern and southern Africa: Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Conclusion
Resource-rich Africa could prove to be another battleground for Beijing and Washington following the establishment of the U.S. Africa Command. China has also declared that it has established a logistics base in Djibouti—a move that critics say is a cover for a military base in Africa.
[2]. Climate Justice
Context: Author states that at the ongoing Paris COP21 meet, world leaders should come out with a binding solution on reduction of emission.
India and the findings of IPCC
India’s per capita emissions are a fraction of those in the West and per capita energy consumption is one of the lowest among emerging economies.
Energy consumption Image source: Financial express
The findings of IPCC indicate that there was 0.4 degree centigrade change in the surface temperature in India. In fact, the World Bank has estimated an additional 100 million people globally will fall into extreme poverty by 2030 on account of climate change, of which 45 million will be in India.
[3]. Reducing child malnutrition
Context: Trying to tackle all issues related to child development is beyond the capacity of any one agency or department, let alone the government. So, governments, corporate, non-profits and civil society have to come together to evolve solutions to these problems.
Child malnutrition & India
India—with 44% of under-6 children underweight and 48% of under-6 children stunted—is in the same league as countries with far more pressing social, economic and political problems.
What government has been doing is inadequate?
As per the Rapid Survey of Children carried out by the Ministry of women and child development (MWCD) and UNICEF there is a huge gap between the better performing states and those states which are lagging behind.
This is in spite of India having one of the oldest programmes (since 1975)—the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)—dedicated to improving maternal and child health and nutrition. The problem clearly does not lie in the intent; it lies in the inability of governments at the national and state levels to adopt a systemic approach to tackling this issue.
Disaggregated data
Disaggregated data refers to numerical or non-numerical information that has been broken down in component parts or smaller units of data.
Four steps that government must take, as per the author’s experience with Maharashtra’s Rajmata Jijau Mother-Child Health & Nutrition Mission (the Maharashtra mission) which he headed from 2005 to 2010,
- Data & Disaggregation: Government should utilize the disaggregated data to inform policy direction. Ensuring that each and every one of the children are regularly weighed gives comprehensive monthly data on the nutrition status of children in each habitation and enables taking corrective nutrition and health measures in a timely manner. The availability of disaggregated data, including nutrition outcome indicators, draws the attention of policy-makers to the worst affected areas and enables concentration of financial and human resources in those areas. More recently, geographic information system (GIS) tools like Jatak (see www.issnip.jatak.org) have been developed to track individual child nutrition status and take steps to improve the health and nutrition status of children. Using interactive voice response systems (IVRS), data on key child nutrition indicators are received from front-line nutrition workers as voice files and converted into data at a central facility.
- Design: Growth monitoring is one area where significant systemic weaknesses can be seen in nearly all states. Maintaining monthly weight records of under-6 children and monitoring their growth progress enables the anganwadi worker to refer children at risk to medical facilities for early treatment of childhood illnesses or congenital diseases. The focus in the ICDS system, thus far, has been only on under-6 child underweight status. However, extensive research has shown that stunting (height related) and wasting (weight to height related) indicators are also crucial to the healthy development of the child. Close coordination between ICDS and health systems at village and health centre levels is required in this case.
- Delivery: The focus on reducing moderate and severe underweight and wasting rates in under-6 children requires revamping of delivery systems in the ICDS sector through building up motivation, skills and knowledge in anganwadi workers, supervisors and child development project officers. The negative mentality of blaming field workers for high rates of child malnutrition has to give way to an appreciation of the severe constraints they operate under, moving—as the Maharashtra mission termed it—from “a fault-finding to a fact-finding approach.” Anganwadi workers are paid a pittance—often after a delay of many months—for the devoted services they render to the community and are handicapped by a severe shortage of infrastructure and equipment essential to the effective performance of their duties, as well as voluminous reporting requirements and absence of on-the-job training. The awareness that they are contributing to the raising of the next generation needs to be imprinted in the minds of all ICDS functionaries. It is not that monetary incentives alone motivate people—non-monetary recognition, through an appreciation of work by those higher in the hierarchy and giving publicity to achievers, can be a major inspiration to workers. At the same time, senior officer levels in ICDS need to take on team leadership—they should be available 24×7 for solving implementation problems and making available resources to front-line workers to enable them to give of their best.
Conclusion
The above approach combines responsive governance with the intelligent use of data in a systematic, disciplined manner, adopting a standard operating protocol, which can yield rich dividends where improving child nutrition outcomes are concerned.
[4]. Four ways how women suffer more from climate change than men
Context: Author states that women suffer differently than men as far as impact of climate change in concerned
Four ways in which women suffer more,
- More women die than men during natural disasters: Research on natural disasters has shown that women suffer more. A United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) study shows that in a natural disaster, women and children are 14 times more likely to die than men. During the 2004 tsunami in Asia, more than 70% of the dead were women. This is not due to physiological or biological reasons, but cultural norms.
For instance, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has noted that in Sri Lanka, men survived the tsunami more easily than women as the latter are usually not taught to swim or climb trees: skills which can prove life-saving when natural disasters strike. Cultural norms which privilege men can also see food and relief material directed more towards men than women.
However, there can be regional differences to this. An analysis of natural hazards during 2004 to 2013 in the US also showed that more men died than women. This may be the result of cultural expectations that encourage men to take more risk (without taking adequate precautions) during natural disasters.
- Water stress impacts women more adversely: Climate change also leads to droughts and water scarcity. This adversely affects women and young girls as the burden of water collection largely falls on them. This is especially true for India where only about half the households have access to clean water on their premises.
Example: Studies in Kenya have shown that finding and fetching water can consume up to 85% of a woman’s daily energy intake. Drought situations can see women spend up to eight hours a day searching for water. Similarly, collecting firewood is also predominantly a woman’s responsibility in many countries. Dwindling forest resources also mean greater hardships for women who have to travel longer distances just for gathering solid fuel source
- Climate change increases health risks for women: Women and children are more vulnerable to the health effects of climate change. For instance, data for 2000 and 2012 from South-east Asia show that diarrhoeal diseases, which are common during instances of flooding, killed more women than men. This is due to gender inequality which results in unequal access to health services as well as a general neglect of women’s health in unequal societies. Studies in India, Bangladesh and Indonesia showed that the sex of a child influences the extent of the care given. Delayed hospitalization and lower rates of hospitalization is more common for girls than boys.
Women are primary caregivers for families and this responsibility increases during times of emergency and disaster. Women are also more likely to suffer from malnutrition following a disaster as the nutritional needs of pregnant and breastfeeding mothers may be neglected, owing to food hierarchies that favour men.
- Women farmers face greater hurdles in adapting to climate change: Across the world, women make up 43% of the agricultural force. However, they often have smaller landholdings and face greater hurdles in accessing farm credit and technical know-how. The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has noted that gender gap exists in agriculture, whereby women farmers’ productivity is hurt due to the challenges women experience in accessing, using, and supervising male farm labour and the fact that women use less fertilizer and of lower quality, among other things. This vulnerability raises the risks women farmers face from climate change.
Opinion & Editorial
[1]. What the law says and what the court ruled
Context: A two-minute video clip uploaded on Facebook and YouTube before being removed shows cinema goers heckling the family for “disrespecting” the national anthem, before bursting into applause after the family is evicted from the theatre.
What constitutes as an insult?
Standing during the national anthem does not necessarily mean respect for the national anthem. Nor does sitting during the anthem mean disrespect or qualify as a crime. What qualifies as crime is a “willful act” committed to insult the National Anthem.
Article 51A of the Constitution, states that it is the constitutional duty of every citizen to respect its ideals and institutions, the National Flag and the National Anthem.
Section 3 of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971 (as amended in 2005) does not dictate whether a person should sit or stand when the anthem is playing or sung.
Section 2 of the Insults Act leaves nothing to imagination when it specifies what constitutes an “insult” to the national flag and the Constitution. These include public acts of burning, mutilating, defacing, defiling, disfiguring, destroying, trampling upon the National Flag or the Constitution.
Commercial purposes
The Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act takes care that national symbols are not taken undue advantage of and used for crass commercial purposes.
Examples: In May 2010, luxury giant Montblanc had to give an assurance to the Supreme Court that it will not sell its limited edition pens sporting the name and image of Mahatma Gandhi.
The Karnataka High Court, in a 2007 judgment in N.R. Narayana Murthy vs. Kannada Rakshana Vakeelara , describes the national flag, national anthem and the Constitution of India as the “symbols of sovereignty and the integrity of the Nation”.
Court has always taken into account the diverse faiths and beliefs practiced by the citizens like
The 1986 Supreme Court judgment in Bijoe Emmanuel vs. State of Kerala dealing with the expulsion of three children who belonged to the Jehovah’s Witnesses sect, for refusing to sing the national anthem in school, said this was contrary to fundamental rights of free speech and freedom to practise their religion.
In the 2004 Naveen Jindal judgment, a three-judge Supreme Court Bench led by then Chief Justice of India V.N. Khare upheld the citizen’s fundamental right to fly the national flag freely with respect and dignity.
[2]. National Pride and Prejudice
Context: In this article author debates whether it is necessary to stand while national anthem is being played. Whether standing during national anthem really means one is patriotic and the one who is sitting is a traitor.
Author poses these questions,
- What if I choose to sit as the national anthem plays at the start of a commercial potboiler?
- What if I decide that playing the anthem before the film titles roll denigrates the grandeur of the anthem?
- What if I don’t stand to attention when the national flag is being hoisted before a cricket match, or when the national anthem is played after an Indian wins a medal at a tournament? I mean no disrespect to either the team or the flag or the anthem.
- What if I choose not to cheer the Indian cricket team and my surname is Khan? Does the solution lie in sending me to Pakistan?
What the law says on this matter,
Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971
A reading of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, passed by Parliament after the Bangladesh War and amended in 2005, actually reveals that it was not the person who sitting but the man/men who kept heckling him who were creating a law and order problem.
Section 3 of the Act says, “Whoever intentionally prevents the singing of the Indian National Anthem or causes disturbance shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both.”
Government’s stand
Central government’s stand on the issue is made clear by the General Provision of Order of January 5, 2015 when it said, “Whenever the National Anthem is sung or played, the audience shall stand to attention. However, when in the course of a newsreel or documentary, the Anthem is played as a part of the film, it is not expected of the audience to stand as standing is bound to interrupt the exhibition of the film and would create disorder and confusion rather than add to the dignity of the Anthem.”
Religious intolerance and stereotyping
When Vice-President Hamid Ansari, mindful of the protocol befitting his office, did not salute the national flag on Republic Day this year, “Why didn’t Hamid Ansari salute the national flag?” started trending on Twitter.
Some offensively trolled that the Vice-President was a jihadi sympathiser. More outrage followed and someone even advised Mr. Ansari to join the IS. The Vice-President’s office was forced to issue a statement explaining the position of the Vice-President and the protocol of the office he holds.
We are reaching a stage where patriotism is a badge you must wear to which you must adhere to. A greater premium is being placed on nationalism vis-à-vis these symbols and Muslims have to prove their fidelity.
West’s stand
America: America tolerates burning the flag
United Kingdom: Allows individuals to make a fashion statement of the Union Jack
Why in India we are becoming so radical when it comes to national symbols?
Middle-class, upper-caste urban India gets stirred by calls of “nation in danger” much more than any other section of Indian society. This, is rooted in an insecurity about education-employment-housing, which get reflected in and magnified as feelings of national insecurity. This expresses itself in the kind of aggressive patriotism seen in the Mumbai cinema hall
Conclusion
As these symbols get entangled in defining and redefining nationalism and as people are increasingly called upon to prove their patriotism, the debate is likely to continue.
By: ForumIAS Editorial Team
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