Following are the Suggested Answers for Mains Marathon, March 21:
सरकार कैसे भारतीय अर्थव्यवस्था का औपचारिकरण बढ़ा सकती है? साथ ही, इसके बारे में आने वाले चिंताओं पर चर्चा करें।
How to increase formalisation of Indian economy:-
- Rationalising laws:
- There are currently 200 labour laws on the books – land and tax reforms top that list. They are distortionary on multiple levels, from making it difficult for firms to expand to incentivizing them to stay small in order to avoid higher regulatory compliance costs.
- Effective implementation of the Currency swap initiative of the government.
- The majority of the country’s informal sector, by far, is made up of enterprises whose natural size falls below the regulatory threshold.Addressing this necessitates a much broader approach .
- Improving transport infrastructure and connectivity .
- Spatial mismatches between enterprises and workers are a major barrier to growth and formalization: the relatively high cost of urban living makes labour-intensive firms uncompetitive in cities while poor connectivity undercuts hub and spoke arrangements that could get around the problem.
- Setting up enterprises in smaller towns with lower costs is another option
- Improving access to formal credit is another front.
- Improving the quality of human capital by boosting education and skill levels.
- Social security:
- Increasing investment in social security schemes like Atal pension yojna, PM Jeevan Jyoti Bhima Yojana, will go a long way in stabilizing the lives of various workers.
- The introduction of Universal Basic Income in the formal debate by Eco-survey 2016-17 is indication of moving in this direction.
Concerns:
- Providing employment for India’s youth bulge is the state’s greatest challenge, and will remain so for the next few decades.
- Unorganized sector jobs are a suboptimal solution, much less productive than formal jobs.
- Lack of security for the worker to lopsided growth and inefficient capital allocation.
- Economic logic dictates that as a country climbs the development ladder, its economy will shift towards the formal. However, this has not been the case with India. National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) statistics show that in the 1989 to 2010 period, informal firms have accounted for the maximum number of jobs created and the vast majority of new establishments.
With the strong political will and currency swap initiative by the government the formalisation of economy has found its first step.
2.There is a declining women labor force participation in India. Examine the reasons for the decline. (GS 1)
भारत में महिला श्रम शक्ति की भागीदारी में गिरावट आई है। गिरावट के कारणों की जांच करें।
Introduction:-
- Female labour force participation is a driver of growth and therefore, participation rates indicate the potential for a country to grow more rapidly. Female participation rates declined
from 34.1 per cent in 1999-00 to 27.2 per cent in 2011-12, and wide gender differences in participation rate also persists.
Reasons:-
- Economic factors:-
- The nature of economic growth in the country has
meant that jobs were not created in large numbers in sectors that
could readily absorb women, especially for those in rural areas. - Despite inadequate job creation, household incomes did rise, which
potentially reduced women’s participation, especially in subsidiary
activities (“income effect”) due to change in preferences. - Finally, though most women in India work and contribute to the economy in one form or another, much of their work is not documented or
accounted for in official statistics, and thus women’s work tends to be under-reported. - In addition, women are heavily represented in the informal economy where their exposure to risk of exploitation is usually greatest and they have the least formal protection.
- The lack of availability of agricultural and non-agricultural jobs in rural areas appears to be driving the declining participation in rural areas.
- The lack of a shift towards manufacturing and a persistently low female share in manufacturing ensured that the labour force as a whole did not become more female.
- India’s growth strategy has focused on domestic demand and high-value service exports, which generate too few employment opportunities for women, particularly those with medium levels of education.
- The nature of economic growth in the country has
- Social:
- India has made considerable progress in
increasing access to education for girls as increasing numbers of
women of working age are enrolling in secondary schools.
- India has made considerable progress in
- Nonetheless, Women continue to face many barriers to
enter labour market and to access decent work and
disproportionately face a range of multiple challenges- Relating to access to employment, choice of work, working conditions,
employment security, wage parity, discrimination, - Balancing the competing burdens of work and family responsibilities.
- stigma against females working outside the home (generally, or in particular sectors).
- Relating to access to employment, choice of work, working conditions,
Fact:
- National Sample Survey (NSS) data for India show that labour force participation rates of women aged 25-54 (including primary and subsidiary status) have stagnated at about 26-28% in urban areas, and fallen substantially from 57% to 44% in rural areas.
However in some sectors where women are highly educated the rate is increasing because of increase in education of women leading to good position for them at higher levels .Also the role of in-laws seems to differ across studies. The role of policies needs to be investigated more clearly.
- With maternity bill the protection of women employees is increased and women can perform dual role as an employee and employer at the office itself as creche facilities are also provided..This can help in increase of female labour participation rate.
What needs to be done ?
- Policy makers in India and throughout the region should take a comprehensive approach to improving labour market outcomes for women through
- Improving access to and relevance of education and training programs
- Skill development
- Access to child care, maternity protection
- Provision of safe and accessible transport, along with the promotion of a pattern of growth that creates job opportunities.
- Beyond standard labour force participation rates, policy-makers should be more concerned about whether women are able to access better jobs or start up a business, and take advantage of new labour market opportunities as a country grows.
- When comparing India with Bangladesh, one notices how an export-oriented, manufacturing-centred growth strategy has led to increasing female employment opportunities there
- Gender responsive policies need to be constructively developed.
हेकलर वीटो का क्या मतलब है? हेकलर्स वीटो को इको चेंबर होने से बचाने के लिए निचले न्यायालयों को दिशानिर्देश दिए जाने चाहिए। गंभीर रूप से विश्लेषण करें।
Hecklers veto:
- It is a process by which socially powerful groups can shut down critical or inconvenient speech by threatening public disorder or disturbance.
- A heckler’s veto occurs when the speaker’s right is curtailed or restricted by the government in order to prevent a reacting party’s behavior
Lower courts must be given guidelines to refrain from being an echo chamber for the heckler’s veto because:
- India is a land of cultural contrarieties, coexistence of many religions and anti-religions, rationalism and bigotry, primitive cults and materialist doctrines where the relationship between a free press and a vibrant democracy has been studied in detail.
- When the enabling environment for free speech gets vitiated(destroyed), it undermines the redeeming features of democracy
- The lower courts in India, barring some notable exceptions, in contravention to the legal position taken by the apex court have repeatedly endorsed the heckler’s veto
- Other instances like ban of MF Hussain paintings,Salman Rushdie satanic verses shows the courts use of heckler veto more often.
- This can breed a culture of intolerance in the society.
- One of the ways in which the lower courts encourage the heckler’s veto is by granting an ex parte injunction against publication or broadcast of news. For instance, there are about 45 cases of ex parte injunctions against news media organisations in Karnataka alone.
- Supreme court made it clear that pre-broadcast or pre-publication censorship is not the business of the court and that all grievances against objectionable content will be dealt with in accordance with the law of the land after its publication.
However lower courts defend their actions on the basis of :-
- If the freedom of expression is going to affect the society adversely and can lead to tensions they have to take a precautionary measure by adhering to hecklers veto.
In the current scenario,more freedom of thought needs to be welcome by the courts rather than restricting and the supreme court’s perspective regarding hecklers veto has to be given due signifcance and the lower courts need to understand that.
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