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Prelims 2020 Current Affairs Revision
Social Justice(May - December 2019)
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Environment, Economy, Science & Technology, Polity & Governance, History, Art & Culture
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Table of Contents Education .......................................................................... 3
Project EQUIP ............................................................... 3
UDISE ............................................................................. 3
LEAP and ARPIT Initiatives ........................................ 4
School Education Quality Index ................................. 5
YuWaah Initiative ......................................................... 5
STRIDE Scheme ........................................................... 6
Study in India ................................................................ 6
NISHTHA Programme ................................................. 7
Integration with technology........................................ 7
Health and Nutrition ........................................................ 8
Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey ............... 8
Poshan Abhiyaan ......................................................... 9
SAANS Campaign ........................................................ 9
Anaemia ...................................................................... 10
Intensified Mission Indradhanush 2.0 .................... 10
One Health Concept ................................................... 11
AWARE ......................................................................... 12
TB India Report 2019 ................................................. 12
Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria .................... 13
SEARHEF ..................................................................... 14
Food packaging .......................................................... 14
Health Ministry Initiatives ......................................... 15
Diabetes Atlas ............................................................ 15
Poverty and Unemployment ......................................... 16
Code on Wages Bill .................................................... 16
Pradhan Mantri Laghu Vyapari Maan-Dhan Yojana
...................................................................................... 17
Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana ............. 17
Women and Child Empowerment ................................ 19
SARAS Aajeevika Mela ............................................. 19
SUMAN Scheme ......................................................... 19
Vulnerable Section ........................................................ 21
Drug Demand Reduction Programme ..................... 21
Transgender Persons Act, 2019 .............................. 22
Safai Karamcharis ..................................................... 23
Sign Language Dictionary ......................................... 23
GOAL Program ........................................................... 24
Accessible India campaign ...................................... 24
Reports, Indices and Awards ....................................... 25
Global Hunger Index .................................................. 25
State of the World’s Children ................................... 25
Global Childhood Report 2019 ................................. 26
National Child Well-Being Index .............................. 26
National Food and Nutrition security report .......... 27
SDG Gender Index ...................................................... 27
United Nations Population Report .......................... 28
UN Women Report ..................................................... 29
Ending Learning Poverty ........................................... 30
Healthy States, Progressive India Report .............. 30
State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 31
Countdown on Health and Climate Change Report
...................................................................................... 32
Trafficking in Persons Report .................................. 32
World Drug Report ..................................................... 33
National Water Mission Awards .............................. 33
Swachh Survekshan Gramin awards ...................... 34
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Education
Project EQUIP
● The Ministry of Human Resource Development plans to launch an ambitious ₹1.5 lakh crore action plan called project EQUIP.
● It aims to improve the quality and accessibility of higher education over the next five years (2019-2024).
● EQUIP stands for the Education Quality Upgradation and Inclusion Programme.
● It is being described as the implementation plan for the National Education Policy (NEP).
● Centre would mobilise money from the marketplace through the Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA).
Objectives
● To double the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education,
● To resolve the geographically skewed access to higher educational institutions,
● To achieve globally acceptable quality standards across the country,
● To position at least 20 Indian institutions among the top global institutions, promote research / innovation ecosystem,
● To substantially improve employability of the students, promote framework for internationalisation;
● For better accreditation systems, use of education technology, governance reforms and quantum increase in investments.
About HEFA
● It is a joint venture between the HRD Ministry and Canara Bank, set up in 2017.
● It has been tasked with raising ₹1 lakh crore to finance infrastructure improvements in higher education by 2022.
UDISE
● According to data from the ‘UDISE 2017-18 (provisional)’, Less than two-thirds (63.14%) of the country’s schools have electricity connections.
● UDISE stands for Unified District Information System for Education.
● All schools in three Union Territories, Chandigarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Lakshadweep, have a connection.
● These are followed by the states and UTs of Delhi, Gujarat, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Goa, and Daman & Diu.
● This data also shows that in five North-eastern states, less than half the schools have electricity.
● The Ministry of Human Resource Development has provided electricity connections to schools through erstwhile Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) until 2017-18 and the present Samagra Shiksha (effective from 2018-19).
About U-DISE
● It is the largest Electronic Management Information System (EMIS) in India.
● It provides the necessary data for planning and managing school education.
● It also serves as the major source of official statistics.
About Samagra Shiksha Scheme
● It is an overarching program for the school education sector extending from pre-school to class 12.
● It aims to improve school effectiveness measured in terms of equal opportunities for schooling and equitable learning outcomes.
● It subsumes the three Schemes of
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a. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)
b. Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA)
c. Teacher Education (TE)
● This sector-wide development program would also help harmonize the implementation mechanisms and transaction costs at all levels.
LEAP and ARPIT Initiatives
● Union Ministry of Human Resource Development launched
a. ‘Leadership for Academicians Programme (LEAP) 2019’ and
b. ‘Annual Refresher Programme In Teaching (ARPIT) 2019’
● The programmes are launched under Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya National Mission on Teachers and Teaching (PMMMNMTT).
I. LEAP Programme
● It aims to build higher managerial capabilities of existing higher education leaders and administrators.
● It seeks to draw fresh talent into the management of higher education systems.
● It is a three weeks leadership development training programme (one week in foreign) for second level academic functionaries in public-funded higher education institutions.
● It is being implemented through fifteen institutions including few IITs and IISERs, public universities, etc.
● Eligibility:
a. Should have a minimum of 8 years of experience as a professor,
b. 3 years of administrative experience, and
c. publications in renowned journals.
II. ARPIT Programme
● It is a major initiative for online professional development of 1.5 million higher education faculty using the SWAYAM platform.
● It provides the platform for teachers to learn about the latest developments in their field and develop their teaching qualities.
● SWAYAM is a program designed to achieve the three cardinal principles of Education Policy viz., access, equity, and quality.
About PMMMNMTT
● This is a comprehensive umbrella scheme aimed at improving the quality of education at all levels by infusing quality and excellence in the teachers and teaching.
● The scheme seeks to create and strengthen the institutional mechanisms such as schools of Education, Institutes of Academic leadership etc. at the Centre & in the States
● The scheme would empower teachers and faculty through training, re-training, refresher and orientation programmes in generic and pedagogic skills.
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School Education Quality Index
● Recently the 2nd edition of the School Education Quality Index (SEQI) was released by NITI Aayog.
About SEQI
● It has been developed by Niti Aayog along with the Ministry of Human Resource Development, States and Union Territories (UTs), the World Bank and sector experts.
● Through an evaluation based on the principle of evidence-based policy making, States and UTs get to know about their respective strengths and weaknesses.
● The index enables sharing of knowledge and best practices across States and UTs.
● Hence, it fosters the spirit of competitive and cooperative federalism.
● Indicators- it comprises of 30 indicators and are divided into two broad categories i.e.
● Outcomes:
a. consists of learning,
b. access like net enrolment ratio,
c. infrastructure & facilities, and
d. equity outcomes;
● Governance processes aiding outcomes:
a. like student and teacher attendance,
b. quality of teachers,
c. training,
d. governance accountability and transparency.
● States and UTs have been categorised into three groups – Large States, Small States and UTs to facilitate like-to-like comparison.
● The base year has been set as the 2015-16 and reference year set as 2016-17.
Findings
● Among larger states- The overall performance score ranged from 76.6 percent for Kerala to 36.4 per cent for Uttar Pradesh.
● Haryana, Odisha, and Assam are the big states that have improved the most whereas Karnataka and Uttarakhand saw the biggest drop.
● Among smaller states- Meghalaya, Nagaland and Goa improved considerably while Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram have shown a drop.
● Among UTs- Delhi, along with Chandigarh, has retained its overall performance.
YuWaah Initiative
● NITI Aayog in partnership with UNICEF has launched ‘YuWaah’ initiative.
● It is part of the ‘Generation Unlimited’ a global partnership to provide quality education, training or employment for young people by 2030.
About Yuwaah
● It aims to expand socio-economic opportunities for India’s young people, especially those from marginalized groups.
● Enable sustained and coordinated investments to create solutions for
a. learning (including alternative and flexible learning programmes),
b. life and employability skills,
c. career guidance and employment opportunities (including entrepreneurship).
● The target group are adolescents and young people (10 to 24 years of age) in school (25 million), out of school (20 million) and in institutions (4 million).
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STRIDE Scheme
● The University Grants Commission (UGC) has approved a new scheme - ‘Scheme for Trans-disciplinary Research for India’s Developing Economy’ (STRIDE).
● It will provide support to research projects that are socially relevant, locally need-based, nationally important and globally significant.
● It shall support research capacity building as well as basic, applied and transformational action research that can contribute to national priorities with a focus on inclusive human development.
● Trans-disciplinary research is a team effort of investigators from different disciplines to create new conceptual, theoretical, methodological innovations that integrate and transcends beyond discipline-specific approaches to address a common problem.
● Trans-disciplinary research goes beyond the mere production of knowledge and extends to the practical use of the knowledge outside academic endeavour.
Objectives:
● To identify young talent, strengthen research culture, build capacity, promote innovation and support trans-disciplinary research for India’s developing economy and national development.
● To fund multi-institutional network high-impact research projects in humanities and human sciences.
Components:
● Identify young talents with research and innovation aptitude in universities and colleges.
● The Scheme will provide the required research capacity with a grant up to Rs. 1 crore.
● Collaborations between universities, government, voluntary organizations and industries are encouraged under this scheme.
● This component is open to all disciplines for a grant up to Rs. 50 lakhs to 1 crore.
● It will fund high impact research projects in the identified thrust areas in humanities and human sciences through a national network of eminent scientists from leading institutions.
● Disciplines eligible for funding under this component include Philosophy, History, Archaeology, Anthropology, Psychology, Liberal Arts, Linguistics, Indian Languages and Culture, Indian Knowledge Systems, Law, Education, Journalism, Mass Communication, Commerce, Management, Environment and Sustainable Development.
● Grant available for this component is up to Rs. 1 crore for one HEI and up to Rs. 5 crores for the multi-institutional network.
● UGC is also proposing to provide a grant of Rs 2 lakh for developing proposals.
Study in India
To attract foreign students to higher education in India, the Ministry of Human Resource Development has launched a programme called ‘Study in India’.
About Study in India
● The ‘Study in India’ programme’s primary objective is to target foreign students by branding India as an attractive education destination.
● The programme focuses on attracting international students from select 30 plus countries across South-East Asia, Middle East and Africa.
Objectives
● To improve the soft power of India with focus on the neighbouring countries and use it as a tool in diplomacy.
● To boost the number of inbound International students in India.
● To double India’s market share of global education exports from less than 1 percent to 2 percent.
● Increase in contribution of international students in the form of direct spending, indirect spending, spillover effects.
● Improvement in the overall quality of higher education.
● Increase in global ranking of India as educational destination.
● To reduce the Export – Import imbalance in the number of International students.
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● The programme envisages participation of select reputed Indian institutes and universities by way of offering seats for international students at affordable rates.
● The proposed fee waivers to meritorious foreign students in this policy will be decided by the Institute.
● The expenditure on the fee waiver will have to be borne by the Institute concerned. No additional cash flow from the Government is proposed for the same.
● It is a joint initiative of the Ministry of HRD, Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
● EdCIL (India) Limited, a Mini Ratna Category I CPSE is the implementing agency of the Ministry of HRD for the Study in India education campaign.
● A centralised admission web portal has also been launched to work as a single window for admission of foreign students.
NISHTHA Programme
● Recently the Union Human Resource Development Ministry launched the ‘National Mission to improve Learning Outcomes at the Elementary level’ - NISHTHA.
About the Programme
● NISHTHA stands for the National Initiative for School Heads and Teachers Holistic Advancement.
● Basic objective of the ‘NISHTHA’ is to motivate and equip teachers to encourage and foster critical thinking in students.
● The initiative is the largest teachers’ training programme of its kind in the world.
● Teachers can develop their skills on various aspects related to,
a. Learning Outcomes,
b. Competency-Based Learning and Testing
c. Learner-centred Pedagogy
d. School Safety and Security
e. Personal-social qualities
f. Inclusive Education
g. ICT in teaching-learning including Artificial Intelligence
h. Health and well-being including yoga,
i. Initiatives such as the library, eco-club, youth club, kitchen garden
j. Pre-school, Pre-vocational Education and School-Based Assessment
● Under this initiative, standardized training modules are developed at the national level for all States and UTs.
Integration with technology
● The programme has been integrated with technology to ensure smooth facilitation, availability of digital content and technology-enabled teaching methods to support the teachers.
● A Mobile App and Learning Management System (LMS) based on MOODLE (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) have been developed by NCERT to support the scheme.
● LMS will be used for registration of Resource Persons and Teachers, dissemination of resources, training gap and impact analysis, monitoring, mentoring and measuring the progress online.
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Health and Nutrition
Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey
● Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS) was conducted by the Ministry of Health Affairs and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) between February 2016 and October 2018.
● This is the first-ever national nutrition survey.
● It was undertaken to measure malnutrition including micronutrient deficiencies through biochemical measures such as –
a. Blood and urine samples,
b. Anthropometric data,
c. Details of non-communicable diseases like Diabetes, cholesterol in children and adolescents.
● It provides first-time evidence of the coexistence of obesity and undernutrition among school-going children.
Key findings
● The survey analyzed the children in the age group of 5-9 years and adolescents in the age group of 10-19 years.
● There is a prevalence of indicators of non-communicable diseases alongside indicators of undernutrition among children and adolescents.
● Tamil Nadu and Goa had the highest number of adolescents who were obese or overweight.
NFHS vs CNNS
● National Family Health Survey (NFHS) collects anthropometric data such as weight for age, height for age, weight for height, mid-upper arm circumference.
● It measures prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight and household dietary intake to measure deficiencies.
● These are collected for children in the age group of 1-5 years and adults, but not for school going children between the age of 5 and 19 years.
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Poshan Abhiyaan
● The ‘Global Burden of Disease Study 1990-2017’ states that India is unlikely to meet ‘Poshan Abhiyaan’ targets.
● The study is a joint initiative of Indian Council of Medical Research, Public Health Foundation of India and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
About POSHAN
● It was launched in 2018.
● It directs the attention of the country towards the problem of malnutrition and addresses it in a mission-mode by 2022.
● It aims to reduce,
a. Stunting,
b. underweight, and
c. low birth weight, each by 2% per year until 2022.
d. Anaemia among young children, adolescents and women each by 3% per year until 2022.
e. Stunting to 25% from around 38% by 2022.
● Pillars:
a. ICDS-CAS (Common Application Software)
b. Convergence
c. Behavioural change, IEC Advocacy
d. Training and Capacity building
e. Innovations
f. Incentives
g. Grievance Redressal
Bharatiya Poshan Krishi Kosh
● Recently, As part of Poshan Abhiyan, Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD), announced Bharatiya Poshan Krishi Kosh (BPKK).
● It will be a repository of diverse crops across 128 agro-climatic zones in India for better nutritional outcomes.
● It aims at reducing malnutrition through a multi-sectoral results-based framework, including agriculture, among women and children across the country.
● The initiative will be built on an essential understanding of social, behavioural and cultural practices that promote and reinforce healthy dietary behaviours both at the individual and community level.
SAANS Campaign
● The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has launched the Social Awareness and Action to Neutralise Pneumonia Successfully (SAANS) campaign.
● It contributes to around 15% of deaths of children under the age of five annually.
● Pneumonia is a lung infection that is most caused by viruses or bacteria.
● These infections are generally spread by direct contact with infected people.
Objectives
● To reduce child mortality due to pneumonia,
● To mobilize people to protect children from pneumonia, and
● To train health personnel and other stakeholders to provide prioritized treatment to control the disease.
Key features
● A child suffering from pneumonia will be treated with a pre-referral dose of antibiotic amoxicillin by Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers.
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● Pulse Oximeter (device to monitor oxygen saturation) will be used at the Health and Wellness Centre for identification of low oxygen levels in the blood of a child.
● If required, the child can be treated using oxygen cylinders.
● Awareness campaigns on effective solutions for pneumonia prevention like breastfeeding, age-appropriate complementary feeding, and immunization, etc.
Anaemia
● According to National Family Health Survey (NFHS)–IV (2015-16), prevalence of Anaemia
a. among women aged 15 to 49 years is 53% and
b. adolescent girls aged 15-19 years is 54%.
Initiatives:
● Anaemia Mukt Bharat (AMB)
a. It was launched as part of the Intensified National Iron Plus Initiative (NIPI) Program.
b. It aims to accelerate the annual rate of decline of anaemia from 1% to 3% and reduce the prevalence of anaemia by the end of 2022.
c. It focuses on six target beneficiary groups through six interventions and institutional mechanisms.
d. Beneficiaries
i. Children 6-59 months
ii. Adolescent Girls 15-19 years
iii. Adolescent Boys 15-19 years
iv. Women of Reproductive Age
v. Pregnant Women and Lactating Women
● Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation (WIFS) Programme for adolescent girls and boys.
a. It includes supervised weekly ingestion of Iron Folic Acid (IFA) tablet for 52 weeks in a year.
● To control worm infestation biannual deworming with Albendazole 400mg is done, six months apart.
Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan (PMSMA)
a. To focus on conducting special Antenatal Care check up on the 9th of every month to treat cases of anaemia.
b. To address anaemia due to worm infestation, deworming of pregnant women is done after the first trimester preferably in the second trimester of pregnancy.
Free Mid-day Meal Scheme (MDM) that targets around 100 million students in government schools.
Supplementary nutrition program through the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) network.
Intensified Mission Indradhanush 2.0
● Recently, the Government of India has introduced Intensified Mission Indradhanush 2.0.
Objective:
● It aims to
a. escalate efforts to achieve the goal of attaining 90% national immunization coverage across India.
b. reach the unreached with all available vaccines and accelerate the coverage of children and pregnant women from December 2019-March 2020.
c. Achieve Full immunization coverage in 272 districts in 27 States and
d. At block level (652 blocks) in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar among hard-to-reach and tribal populations.
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One Health Concept
● MP has become the second state in India after Kerala to develop an action plan to manage antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
● The Madhya Pradesh State Action Plan for Containment of Antimicrobial Resistance (MP- SAPCAR) focuses on a ‘One Health’ approach to containing AMR through key strategic priority areas and multi-sectoral involvement.
● It is in line with the National Action Plan on AMR (NAP-AMR) which calls for states to develop state level action plans to ensure on-the-ground implementation.
About One Health concept:
● One Health is an approach to designing and implementing programmes, policies, legislation and research in which multiple sectors communicate and work together to achieve better public health outcomes.
● According to the World Organization of Animal Health definition,
a. “Human health and animal health are interdependent and bound to the health of the ecosystems in which they exist”.
● It sees disease as a result of an imbalance between man and environment.
● The areas of work in which a One Health approach is particularly relevant include
a. food safety,
b. the control of zoonoses (diseases that can spread between animals and humans) and
c. combating antibiotic resistance (when bacteria change after being exposed to antibiotics and become more difficult to treat).
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AWARE
● The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a global campaign that urges countries to adopt its new online tool ‘AWaRe’.
● The tool aims at guiding policymakers and health workers to use antibiotics safely and more effectively.
● It classifies antibiotics into three groups:
a. Access — antibiotics used to treat the most common and serious infections
b. Watch — antibiotics available always in the healthcare system
c. Reserve — antibiotics to be used sparingly or preserved and used only as a last resort
● It aims to
a. Increase the proportion of global consumption of antibiotics in the Access group to at least 60%, and
b. Reduce use of the antibiotics most at risk of resistance from the Watch and Reserve groups.
Significance:
● Using Access antibiotics lowers the risk of resistance because they are ‘narrow-spectrum’ antibiotics (that target a specific microorganism rather than several).
● They are also less costly because they are available in generic formulations.
● More than 50 per cent of antibiotics in many countries are used inappropriately, especially for treatment of viruses when they only treat bacterial infections or use of the wrong (broader spectrum) antibiotic.
TB India Report 2019
The recently released TB India Report 2019 highlights the rise in the notification of TB cases.
India still accounts for an estimated 27% of the global incident TB cases (28 lakh) and 27% of the global multidrug-resistant (MDR)-TB cases (1.3 lakh).
Highlights:
● The notification of TB cases under the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) of 2018 has increased by 16% as compared to 2017.
● Notification of TB from private sector healthcare providers increased by 40%, contributing to 25% of all TB notifications.
● Under the National strategic plan for ending TB, the RNTCP is strengthening private sector engagement
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a. To reach out to more TB patients
b. To improve access to TB care
c. To improve the provision of incentives to doctors for notifying TB patients and treatment outcomes.
● Under the Nikshay Poshan Yojana, over 26 lakh beneficiaries benefit through direct transfers to their bank accounts.
National Strategic Plan for TB Elimination (2017–2025)
● The Government of India aims to eliminate TB by 2025.
● It aims to notify 260 lakh TB patients in 8 years, including public and private sector.
● It has essentially four pillars - “Detect, Treat, Build and Prevent”
● 99-DOTS - Daily fixed-dose course regimen for drug-sensitive TB with mobile-based adherence monitoring system.
Nikshay Poshan Yojana
● It is a direct benefit transfer scheme, to provide nutritional support to TB patients.
● Under the scheme, TB patients receive ₹500 per month for the entire duration of treatment.
NIKSHAY Portal
● It is a web enabled patient management system for TB control under the Revised National Tuberculosis Programme (RNTCP).
● It is developed and maintained by the Central TB Division (CTD), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, in collaboration with the National Informatics Centre (NIC), and the World Health Organization Country Office for India.
● It also functions as the National TB Surveillance System and enables reporting of various surveillance data to the Government of India.
WHO End TB Strategy
● It aims to end the global TB epidemic by 2030 as part of Sustainable Development goals (SDGs).
Targets:
● To reduce TB deaths by 90%
● To reduce TB incidence by 80%
● To eliminate catastrophic costs for TB affected households by 2030.
Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria
● India has announced a contribution of $22 million to the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFTAM) for the 6th replenishment cycle (2020-22).
About the Global Fund
● It is an international financing institution based on a unique partnership between governments, civil society, the private sector and affected communities.
● It was created to raise, manage and disburse large amounts of additional financing to fight three of the world’s most devastating diseases (AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria), and to direct those resources to areas of greatest need.
● Registered as a Non-Profit Foundation in Switzerland.
● The Secretariat is in Geneva, Switzerland.
● Fund Managed by: The World Bank as the Trustee of funds contributed to the Global Fund.
● It raises funds in multiyear cycles known as Replenishments.
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● Under the replenishment model, donors independently fix their contribution, and usually make a pledge over a certain period in time.
● Pledges are public, legally non-binding statements on planned contributions to the Global Fund.
● India has had a sustained partnership with the Global Fund since 2002 both as a recipient and as a donor.
● So far, India has received $2.0 billion from the Global Fund for attaining targets related to HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria reduction.
SEARHEF
● India pledged $200,000 towards the South-East Asia Regional Health Emergency Fund (SEARHEF).
● Along with it, the countries of the South-East Asia Region of WHO also signed the Delhi Declaration on Emergency Preparedness.
About SEARHEF
● It is a mechanism that allows for a more rapid response to disasters from natural and human-generated hazards.
● The fund has been established by the WHO South-East Asia Regional Office and its 11 Member States.
● The countries can obtain financial support from the fund within 24 hours of an emergency through the WHO country offices.
● The fund is designed to provide financial support in the aftermath of an emergency for the first three months.
● Members: Bangladesh, Bhutan, North Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste
Food packaging
● The new guidelines on food packaging under the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011, came into force from July 2019.
● It has banned the use of newspapers, recycled papers, cardboards and plastic sheets/ recycled plastic to wrap food directly.
● The guidelines consider the carcinogenic effect of newsprint ink and dyes.
Highlights:
● Any material which comes in direct contact with food that is used for packaging, preparation, storing, wrapping, transportation and sale or service of food shall be of food grade quality.
● Tin containers once used, shall not be re-used for packaging of food.
● Food packaging materials must now comply with Indian Standards (IS) listed in
a. Schedules I - paper and paperboard materials
b. Schedules II - metal and metal alloys
c. Schedules III - plastic materials.
d. Schedule IV - suggested packaging materials for different food products.
● Various chemicals that migrate from plastic materials in contact with articles of food include - barium, cobalt, copper, iron, lithium, manganese and zinc.
Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI)
● It is an autonomous body established under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India.
● It has been established under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.
● It is a consolidating statute related to food safety and regulation in India.
● It is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the regulation and supervision of food safety.
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Health Ministry Initiatives
Minister of Health and Family welfare recently launched various initiatives to highlight the importance of nutrient-rich food and healthy practices.
Eat Right Mela
1. It is an outreach activity for citizens to nudge them towards eating right.
2. It is organized by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
3. The Mela provides the opportunity for citizens to
a) Learn about health and nutrition benefits of different types of food
b) Receive dietary advice by experts
c) Engage in dialogues and conversations with food visionaries and experts
d) Relish the delicious street food
4. The mela highlights the importance of the right diet to reduce the disease burden in the country.
NETSCOFAN
1. NETSCOFAN stands for Network for Scientific Co-operation for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
2. It is a network of research and academic institutions working in the area of food and nutrition.
3. It would comprise of eight groups of institutions working in different areas, - Biological, Chemical, Nutrition & labeling, Food of animal origin, Food of plant origin, Water & beverages, Food testing, Safer and sustainable packaging.
4. NETSCOFAN directory was also launched. It covers detailed information of various heads and lead scientists and associated partnering institutions.
Purple Book
1. It is a handbook on diets for diseases.
2. The book provides general guidelines for hospitals on suitable diets for common medical conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, cancer, gut disorders, etc.
Diabetes Atlas
1. The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) released the 9th edition of the IDF Diabetes Atlas.
2. It has warned that the number of children and adolescents with diabetes in India is increasing every year.
Findings
According to the latest edition,
1. There has been a 51% increase in diabetes cases worldwide.
2. Globally, there are 463 million people suffering from diabetes which is projected to reach 578 million by 2030 and 700 million by 2045.
3. In 2019, diabetes cases have increased by 74% in the Southeast Asia region alone.
4. It has also been estimated that the region will have 153 million diabetic persons by 2045.
5. India has 15,900 new cases of Type I diabetes, along with 95,600 existing cases of Type 1 diabetes among children up to the age of 14 in 2019.
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Poverty and Unemployment
Code on Wages Bill
● The Code on Wages Bill, 2019, aims to transform the old and obsolete labour laws into more accountable and transparent ones.
● As many as 17 present labour laws are more than 50 years old and some of them belong to the pre-independence era.
● The four Acts being subsumed in The Code on Wages Bill are
a. The Payment of Wages Act, 1936
b. The Minimum Wages Act of 1948.
c. The Payment of Bonus Act, 1965.
d. The Equal Remuneration Act, 1976.
Key Features
Wage Universalization
● The provisions of minimum wages and timely payment of wages is now applicable to all employees irrespective of the sector and wage ceiling.
● Ensures "Right to Sustenance" for every worker and intends to increase the legislative protection of minimum wage from existing about 40% to 100% workforce.
● Introduction of statutory Floor Wage to be computed based on minimum living conditions will extend qualitative living conditions across the country to about 50 crore workers.
● Also envisages payment of wages to the workers through digital mode.
Simplification of the definition of Wages
● There are 12 definitions of wages in the different Labour Laws leading to litigation besides difficulty in its implementation.
● The definition has been simplified and is expected to reduce litigation and will entail at a lesser cost of compliance for an employer.
Standard methodology to fix the minimum wage
● At present, many of the states have multiple minimum wages.
● Through Code on Wages, the methodology to fix the minimum wages has been simplified and rationalised by doing away with the type of employment as one of the criteria for fixation of the minimum wage.
● The minimum wage fixation would primarily be based on geography and skills.
● It will substantially reduce the number of minimum wages in the country from the existing more than 2000 rates of minimum wages.
Other changes
● New introduction in the inspection regimes including web-based randomised computerised inspection scheme, jurisdiction-free inspections, calling of information electronically for inspection, the composition of fines etc.
● All these changes will be conducive for the enforcement of labour laws with transparency and accountability.
● Due to the smaller limitation period, the claims of the workers could not be raised.
● To protect the interest of the workers, the limitation period has been raised to 3 years and made a uniform for filing claims for minimum wages, bonus, equal remuneration etc., as against existing varying periods between 6 months to 2 years.
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Pradhan Mantri Laghu Vyapari Maan-Dhan Yojana
● The Ministry of Labour and Employment introduced the new scheme named “Pradhan Mantri Laghu Vyapari Maan-Dhan Yojana” (PMLVM).
Objectives
● It aims to offer pension coverage to traders and self employed.
Targets:
● Traders aged between 18 and 40 who have an annual turnover of less than ₹1.5 crore are eligible.
● It would target enrolling 25 lakh subscribers in 2019-2020 and 2 crore by 2023-2024.
● Who is eligible?
● Applies to self-employed and shop owners, retail traders, rice mill owners, oil mill owners, workshop owners, commission agents, brokers of real estate, owners of small hotels, restaurants and others.
● Who is NOT eligible?
● Any person covered under any other social security schemes such as
▪ Employee State Insurance Scheme,
▪ Employees Fund Organization Scheme,
▪ National Pension Scheme (NPS) etc. or
▪ An income-tax assessee.
Key Features:
● It grants a monthly pension of Rs.3000 per month after attaining the age of 60 years.
● The Life Insurance Corporation of India will be the pension fund manager, is responsible for the disbursement of pension amount.
● The subscribers will have to contribute a monthly amount till attaining the age of 60 years, which will vary depending on the age at which they enter the scheme.
● The Government of India will make matching contribution in the subscribers’ account
● Benefits:
a. In case of permanent disability of beneficiary before superannuation age, the spouse can continue in scheme by remitting the balance amount until the loan tenure is reached.
b. If there is no spouse, then the total contribution along with interest will be paid to the beneficiary.
c. In case of death occurs after the retirement date, the spouse will receive 50% of the pension as the family pension.
d. After the loss of both the pensioner and the spouse, then the fund will be credited back to the nodal agency.
Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana
● One crore new employees joined the workforce as part of the Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana (PMRPY) between August 2016 and March 2019.
● About 57 per cent came from five States — Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat and Haryana.
Objectives:
● To incentivize employers promoting employment generation and providing social security benefits to the workers.
Eligibility:
● All establishments registered with Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) can apply for availing benefits.
● The establishments must have a valid LIN (Labour Identification Number).
Key features:
● Implemented by the Ministry of Labour and Employment through the Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO).
● It encourages employers of Small and Medium Enterprises and Micro Businesses to avail the benefits of this project.
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● Under the scheme,
a. Government is paying full employers’ contribution of 12% (towards Employees’ Provident Fund and Employees’ Pension Scheme both),
b. for a period of 3 years for new employees
c. who have been registered with the EPFO on or after 1st April 2016, with salary up to Rs. 15,000 per month.
● The entire system is online and AADHAR based with no human interface in the implementation of the scheme.
● It has a dual benefit i.e. on the one hand, the employer is incentivised for increasing the employee base in the establishment through payment of EPF contribution of 12% of wage, which otherwise would have been borne by the employer
● And on the other hand, a large number of workers find jobs in such establishments.
● A direct benefit is that these workers have access to social security benefits through Provident Fund, Pension and Death Linked Insurance.
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Women and Child Empowerment
SARAS Aajeevika Mela
● The programme seeks to promote women empowerment.
● It is an initiative under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) of the Ministry of Rural Development.
● It seeks to bring the rural women Self Help Groups formed with the support of DAY-NRLM under one platform to sell their products.
● These rural SHG women get the national level exposure to understand the demand and taste of urban customers.
● Indigenous products such as Handloom, Handicraft, jewellery, Natural food, etc. can earn revenue for women.
● The Mela is organized by the marketing arm of the Rural Ministry, Council for Advancement of People’s Action and Rural Technology (CAPART).
About CAPART
● It is an autonomous body set up by the Ministry of Rural Development in 1986.
● It acts as the interface between the government and Non-Governmental Organisations that seek to improve the quality of life in India’s rural areas.
● It seeks to extend the reach of the government programs to remote areas and their marginalized people through these NGOs.
About DAY-NRLM
● DAY is a Government of India scheme for helping the poor by providing skill training. It replaced the Aajeevika Mission launched in 2011.
● The Mission aims at creating efficient and effective institutional platforms for the rural poor.
● It believes in harnessing the innate capabilities of the poor and complements them with capacities to participate in the growing economy of the country.
● The implementation of the program would take over a period of 10 years.
SUMAN Scheme
The government launched the Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan (SUMAN) scheme to bring down maternal and infant mortality rates in the country.
Features:
● It aims at ‘zero’ preventable maternal and newborn deaths in India.
● Pregnant women, mothers up to 6 months after delivery, and all sick newborns can avail free healthcare benefits such as
a. At least 4 Ante-natal check ups including one checkup during the 1st trimester.
b. At least 1 checkup under Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan,
c. Iron Folic Acid supplementation,
d. Tetanus Diphtheria injection and other components of a comprehensive ANC package.
e. 6 home-based newborn care visits.
f. zero expense access to identification and management of complications during and after the pregnancy.
g. Free transport from home to health institutions.
h. Assured referral services within one hour of any critical case emergency and Drop back to home after due discharge (minimum 48 hrs).
i. Pregnant women will have a zero-expense delivery and C-section facility in case of complications at public health facilities.
j. Early initiation and support for breastfeeding,
k. Zero dose vaccination and
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l. Free and zero expense services for sick newborns and neonates.
Status of MMR and IMR in India
● World Health Organization (WHO) defines the quality of care for mothers and newborns as : ‘The extent to which health care services provided to individuals and patient populations improve desired health outcomes.’
● Maternal mortality rate (MMR) has declined from 254 per 1,00,000 live births in 2004-06 to 130 in 2014-16.
● Infant mortality rate came down from 66 per 1,000 live births in 2001 to 34 in 2016.
MMR
● The maternal mortality ratio (MMR) is the ratio of the number of maternal deaths during a given time period per 100,000 live births during the same time-period.
● A maternal death refers to a female death from any cause related to or aggravated by pregnancy or its management (excluding accidental or incidental causes) during pregnancy and childbirth or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy.
IMR
● Infant mortality rate (IMR) is the number of deaths per 1,000 live births of children under one year of age.
● The rate for a given region is the number of children dying under one year of age, divided by the number of live births during the year, multiplied by 1,000.
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Vulnerable Section
Drug Demand Reduction Programme
● The Union Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry has launched the targeted Drug Demand Reduction Programme in high-risk areas of 127 districts in the country.
● The programme is a part of the National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction for 2019-2020 of the National Institute of Social Defence.
● These areas had been identified with the help of NGOs and from a report prepared by the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre.
● All 127 districts will have outreach and drop-in centres.
● And 68 districts (including all state capitals and Union Territories) will have community-based peer-led intervention among adolescents.
● It would focus on initiating peer-led interventions for teenagers and setting up outreach and drop-in centres for those affected.
● The peer-led interventions would involve students reaching out to their fellow students.
● The objectives are
a. to assess drug use in the community,
b. to provide early prevention and
c. to give referrals to counselling, treatment and rehabilitation services.
● The outreach centres would reach out to vulnerable youth and,
a. provide a safe space for drug users to drop in for counselling and
b. provide linkage to treatment and rehab facilities.
National Institute of Social Defence
● It is an Autonomous Body registered under Societies Act XXI of 1860 with the Government of NCT, Delhi.
● It was set up originally as the Central Bureau of Correctional Services in 1961, under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
● It is the nodal training and research institute in the field of social defence.
● It is currently focusing on human resource development in the areas of
a. drug abuse prevention,
b. welfare of senior citizens,
c. beggary prevention,
d. transgender and other social defence issues.
● Objectives are to:
a. review the policies and programmes in the field of social defence
b. anticipate and diagnose social defence problems
c. develop preventive, curative and rehabilitative policies in the field of social defence
d. identify and develop the instruments for realizing the objectives of social defence policies
e. review and evaluate the implementation of social defence policies and programmes
f. develop and promote voluntary efforts in social defence
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Transgender Persons Act, 2019
The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill was recently passed by the Parliament.
Key Provisions:
● Definition of a transgender person:
a. One whose gender does not match the gender assigned at birth.
b. It includes trans-men and trans-women, persons with intersex variations, gender-queers, and persons with socio-cultural identities, such as kinnar and hijra.
● Prohibition against discrimination:
a. The Act prohibits 8 types of discrimination against a transgender person, including denial of service or unfair treatment in relation to:
▪ education;
▪ employment;
▪ healthcare;
▪ access to public goods and facilities;
▪ right to movement;
▪ right to reside, rent, or own property;
▪ opportunity to hold public or private office; and
▪ access to a government or private establishment which has custody of a transgender person.
● Recognition of Identity:
a. It provides for the right to self-perceived gender identity.
b. A certificate of identity as a transgender person can be issued by the District Magistrate.
c. A revised certificate can also be obtained after Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS).
● Offences and penalties:
a. It recognizes the following offences against transgender persons.
b. Penalties for these offences vary between six months and two years, and a fine.
c. forced or bonded labour (excluding compulsory government service for public purposes),
d. denial of use of public places,
e. removal from household, and village,
f. physical, sexual, verbal, emotional or economic abuse.
● National Council for Transgender Persons
a. to advise the government on formulating policies for the community, and monitor the implementation, and address grievances will be set up.
● Welfare measures by the government:
a. Government must take steps for their
▪ rescue and rehabilitation,
▪ vocational training and self-employment,
▪ create schemes that are transgender sensitive, and
▪ promote their participation in cultural activities.
● Health care:
a. The government must take steps to provide health facilities to transgender persons including separate HIV surveillance centre and sex reassignment surgeries.
b. The government shall review medical curriculum to address health issues of transgender persons and provide comprehensive medical insurance schemes for them.
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Safai Karamcharis
● According to data available with the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK), Fifty workers have died cleaning sewers in the first six months of 2019.
● This data includes figures for only eight states,
a. Uttar Pradesh
b. Haryana
c. Delhi
d. Punjab
e. Gujarat
f. Maharashtra
g. Karnataka
h. Tamil Nadu
● The data says that Railways is the largest employer of Safai Karamcharis and the problem of manual scavenging is nowhere as acute as it is in the Railways.
● The data feels that Swachh Bharat Abhiyan should not focus just on toilet building but also on eradication of manual scavenging or workers’ rehabilitation.
● Tamil Nadu has recorded the highest numbers of such casualties, followed by Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana.
National Commission for Safai Karamcharis ● It was constituted in 1994 as a statutory body by an Act of Parliament i.e. ‘National
Commission for Safai Karamcharis Act, 1993’. ● Initially, it was appointed for a period of three years i.e. up to 1997. However, later the period
was extended consecutively. ● The commission recommends to the Central Government specific programs of action
towards elimination of inequalities in status, facilities, and opportunities for Safai Karamcharis.
● It makes the reports to the Central or State Governments on any matter concerning Safai Karamcharis.
● Composition: a. One Chairman (in the rank and status of the Union Minister for States) b. Four members, including a lady member (in the rank and status of the Secretary to the
Government of India) c. Secretary (in the rank of Joint Secretary to Govt. of India) along with other supporting
staff.
Sign Language Dictionary
● According to Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre (ISLRTC), around 4,000 new words would be added to the Indian sign language dictionary in 2020.
● The Indian Sign Language dictionary project is carried out by the ISLRTC.
● Category of agriculture is being considered for the first time.
● The first edition of the dictionary was launched in March 2018 and updated every year.
● According to the Census 2011 data, the total population of deaf persons in India numbered about 50 lakh.
About ISLRTC: ● Founded in 2015, it is an autonomous organization under the administrative and financial
control of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. ● It develops manpower for using Indian Sign Language (ISL) and teaching and conducting
research in ISL including bilingualism. ● It seeks to promote the use of Indian Sign Language as an educational model for deaf
students at primary, secondary and higher education levels.
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GOAL Program
Facebook in association with the Ministry of Tribal Affairs has recently launched the 2nd phase of the Going Online as Leaders (GOAL) program.
Highlights
● It is a Facebook program launched for underprivileged young tribal women.
● It is aimed at inspiring, guiding and encouraging tribal girls from across India to become village-level digital young leaders for their communities.
● It connects tribal women with senior expert mentors in the areas of business, fashion and arts to learn digital and life skills.
● In the second phase of the program, it will digitally mentor 5000 young women in India’s tribal- dominated districts.
● It will provide the tools and guidance they need to succeed, using the technology they may otherwise have not had access to.
Accessible India campaign
The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has extended the deadline for the Accessible India campaign to March 2020 due to slow progress.
About the campaign
1. The Ministry of Social Justice has launched the Accessible India Campaign as a nation-wide Campaign for achieving universal accessibility for Persons with Disabilities.
2. The campaign is also known as ‘Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan’.
3. The campaign targets enhancing the accessibility of built environment, transport system and Information & communication ecosystem.
4. Components
a) Built Environment Accessibility
b) Transportation System Accessibility
c) Information and Communication Eco-System Accessibility
5. Strategies to be followed
a) Leadership endorsements of the campaign
b) Mass awareness
c) Capacity building through workshops
d) Interventions such as legal framework, technology solutions, resource generation, etc.
e) leverage corporate sector efforts in a Public-Private Partnership
6. Targets
a) Converting 50% of all the government buildings of National Capital and all the State capitals into fully accessible buildings by July 2018.
b) Converting 50% of government buildings into fully accessible buildings in 10 most important cities/towns of all the states by July 2019. (cities other than already covered)
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Reports, Indices and Awards
Global Hunger Index
● The 2019 Global Hunger Index (GHI) has placed India at 102 among the 117 countries.
● It has found that globally the number of hungry people has risen from 785 million in 2015 to 822 million.
About the Index: ● It has been published every year by Welthungerhilfe, since 2000. ● It tracks the performance of countries on four key parameters, namely.
a. Undernourishment (which reflects inadequate food availability) b. Child Wasting (which reflects acute undernutrition) c. Child Stunting (which reflects chronic undernutrition) d. Child Mortality (which reflects both inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environment)
● It ranks countries on a 100-point scale, with 0 being the best score (no hunger) and 100 being the worst.
● It categorizes countries on a scale of - low, moderate, serious, alarming, and extremely alarming.
a. Score of less than or equal to 9.9 are placed in the “low” category b. Between 20 and 34.9 are in the “serious” category and c. Above 50 are in the “extremely alarming” category.
Findings:
● India is one of the 47 countries that have “serious” levels of hunger.
● India has slipped from 95th rank in 2010 to 102nd in 2019 on the Global Hunger Index (GHI).
● India has demonstrated improvement in under 5 mortality rates.
● But,
a. The child wasting rate is extremely high at 20.8 percent.
b. The child stunting rate, 37.9 percent, is also categorized as high.
c. Just 9.6 percent of all children between 6 and 23 months of age are fed a minimum acceptable diet.
State of the World’s Children
● UNICEF has released its ‘State of the World’s Children’ report, 2019.
● It is titled as “Children Food and Nutrition- Growing Well in a Changing World”
Highlights of the Report
● One in three children under the age of five years (around 200 million children) worldwide, are either undernourished or overweight.
● Obesity is also increasing in both developed and developing nations.
● Thus, three forms of malnutrition – undernutrition, hidden hunger and overweight – co-exist in many countries.
● These trends reflect what is known as the triple burden of malnutrition
● In India, every second child is affected by some form of malnutrition.
a. About 35% of children suffer from stunting,
b. 17% suffer from wasting,
c. 33% are underweight and
d. 2% are overweight.
● According to government figures,
a. stunting and wasting among children in the country have reduced by 3.7% and
b. the number of underweight children has reduced by 2.3% from 2016 to 2018.
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Global Childhood Report 2019
● Global Childhood Report 2019, also known as End of Childhood index, was published by a voluntary organisation ‘Save the Children’.
About The report:
● It ranks 176 countries based on its score on a scale of 1000.
● On eight childhood indicators –
a. health,
b. education,
c. labour,
d. marriage,
e. childbirth and
f. violence.
Key Highlights
● Singapore tops the ranking. Eight Western European countries and South Korea also rank in the top 10.
● India is ranked at 113 out of 176 countries, it has improved from 632 to 769 from 2000 to 2019.
● This is primarily because of improvements in child health and survival.
● India alone accounts for nearly three-quarters of the global reduction in adolescent births between 2000 to 2019.
● This reduction has meant two million fewer births by teenage girls in India when compared to 2000 (3.5 million versus 1.4 million).
● The decline in child marriage is due to
a. Economic growth,
b. rising rates of girl’s education,
c. proactive investments by government and partners in adolescent girls (such as cash transfers to keep girls in schools),
d. increased public awareness about the illegality of child marriage and community-based interventions.
National Child Well-Being Index
● The Child Well-Being Index was released by World Vision India, an NGO and IFMR LEAD, a research institute.
● It is a tool designed to measure and track children’s well-being comprehensively.
About the report
● It focuses on the 3 key dimensions and 24 indicators, namely-
● Healthy individual development, Positive relationships and Protective contexts.
● Objective:
a. To garner attention to the under-researched theme of child well-being in India and
b. inspire further academic and policy conversations on related issues.
Highlights
● Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh and Puducherry topped the charts.
● Meghalaya, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh featured at the bottom mainly due to poor nutrition and low child survival rate.
● Kerala performed better in
a. addressing malnutrition and
b. ensuring child survival and
c. access to a healthy environment in terms of clean drinking water and sanitation facilities.
● It also emphasised on
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a. policy level changes,
b. better budgetary allocations and
c. discussions with all stakeholders which can help in enhancing the quality of life of all children in the country.
● Some of the key indicators that need to be studied in the future includes
a. mobile usage,
b. digital access,
c. financial literacy,
d. mental health and
e. quality of relationships between parents/peers and children.
National Food and Nutrition security report
● It was released by the UN World Food Programme in collaboration with the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).
● It is a baseline analysis of the country’s progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal-2 (End hunger).
Highlights
● Almost one in three Indian children under five years will still be stunted by 2022 going by current trends.
● Over the last decade, child stunting has reduced at a rate of about 1% per year, the slowest decline among emerging economies.
● India must double its rate of progress to reach the target of 25% by 2022.
Analysis of Progress
● Food grain yields have risen 33% over the last two decades but are still only half of 2030 target yields.
● Consumer’s access to rice, wheat and other cereals has not increased at the same rate, due to
a. population growth,
b. inequality,
c. exports and
d. food wastage.
● There are high rates of stunting among children in the
a. poorest wealth quintile (51.4%),
b. Scheduled Tribes (43.6%) and Scheduled Castes (42.5%), and
c. children born to mothers with no education (51%).
SDG Gender Index
● The SDG Gender Index to measure global gender equality was launched.
● It ranks India at 95th out of 129 countries.
About The report
● Published by: Equal Measures 2030.
● It is a joint effort of regional and global organisations including
a. African Women’s Development and Communication Network,
b. Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women,
c. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and
d. International Women’s Health Coalition.
● It accounts for 14 out of 17 SDGs that cover aspects such as
a. poverty, health, education and literacy,
b. political representation and
c. equality at the workplace.
● It has four categories of scores –
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a. Very poor for 59 and below,
b. Poor for scoring 60-69,
c. Good for scoring 80-89, and
d. Excellent for a score of 90 or above.
● A score of 100 reflects the achievement of gender equality in relation to the targets set for each indicator.
Highlights:
● The index found that the world is far from achieving gender equality with 1.4 billion girls and women living in countries that get a very poor score.
● The global average score of the 129 countries — which represent 95% of the world’s girls and women — is 65.7 out of 100, which is a poor score.
● Altogether, 2.8 billion girls and women live in countries that get either a very poor or poor score on gender equality.
● Just 8% of the world’s population of girls and women live in countries that received a good gender equality score.
● No country achieved an excellent, overall score of 90 or above.
Findings for India:
● India’s highest goal scores are on
a. health (79.9),
b. hunger & nutrition (76.2),
c. energy (71.8),
d. female students enrolled in primary education (95.3)
● Its lowest goal scores are on
a. partnerships (18.3),
b. industry, infrastructure and innovation (38.1), and
c. climate adaptation (43.4),
d. Political Representation (23.6),
e. Judicial Representation (18.2)
United Nations Population Report
● The United Nations Population report projects India will overtake China as the most populous country by around 2027.
Global Projections
● Population: Increase from 7.7 billion in 2019 to 9.7 billion by 2050 and 11 billion by 2100.
● Growth rate: Will continue to decrease.
● Fertility rate: Decreasing from 3.2 in 1990 to 2.5 by 2019 to 2.2 births by 2050.
● Countries with highest expected increase: India, Nigeria and Pakistan.
● Life expectancy: Will Increase (from 64.2 years in 1990 to 77.1 years in 2050) but poor countries will lag behind.
● Sex ratio: Males continue to outnumber females until 2100, but the gap will close.
● The average lifespan of a baby born in the least developed countries will be 7 years shorter than in a developed country.
● The main reasons are the high child and maternal mortality rates, conflict and insecurity, and the continuing impact of the HIV epidemic.
● 65+ Age Group:
a. In 2018, the 65+ age group was more than children under five, for the first time.
b. By 2050, the 65+ age group will be more than the 15-24 group and twice that of children under five.
● India:
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a. In 2018, Children under five still outnumber the over 65+ group.
b. By 2025-30, 65+ groups will overtake the under-five group.
c. Population Composition By 2050,
▪ 15-24 group - 13.8%
▪ 0-5 group - < 6%
▪ 65+ - 14%.
● Dwindling populations
a. The populations of 55 countries are projected to decrease by 1% or more between 2019 and 2050 due to the low fertility rate, high emigration rate.
b. Countries with largest reductions expected with losses of around 20% or more: Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, and the Wallis and Futuna Islands.
● Countries with the largest migratory outflows:
a. As Migrant worker: Bangladesh, Nepal and the Philippines.
b. Due to Insecurity and conflict: Myanmar, Syria and Venezuela.
UN Women Report
● The UN Women released its new Report titled, “Progress of the World’s Women 2019-20: Families in a Changing World”.
About the Report
● It talks about the diversity of families globally and provides recommendations to support laws and policies that meet the needs of all family members, especially women and girls, and concrete proposals for implementation.
● Significance of families:
a. Families serve as a home for equality and justice, which is not only a moral imperative, but essential to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
b. Families can be critical drivers of gender equality, provided decision-makers deliver policies rooted in the reality of how people live today, with women’s rights at their core.
● Exposing violence in the domestic sphere:
a. As per the report families can also be breeding grounds of conflict, inequality and, far too often, violence.
b. In one-out-of-five countries, girls do not have the same inheritance rights as boys.
c. In developing countries, about one-third of married women report having little or no say over their own healthcare decisions.
About UN Women:
● Established in 2010, it is the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women.
● It works globally to make the vision of the Sustainable Development Goals a reality for women and girls and stands behind women’s equal participation in all aspects of life, focusing on four strategic priorities:
a. Women lead, participate in and benefit equally from governance systems
b. Women have income security, decent work and economic autonomy
c. All women and girls live a life free from all forms of violence
d. Women and girls contribute to and have greater influence in building sustainable peace and resilience and benefit equally from the prevention of natural disasters and conflicts and humanitarian action.
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Ending Learning Poverty
The World bank recently released the report “Ending Learning Poverty”.
Learning Poverty
● It is defined as the percentage of 10-year-olds who cannot read and understand a simple story.
● The World Bank estimates that 53 percent of children in low- and middle-income countries cannot read and understand a simple story by the end of primary school.
Some highlights:
● The report has targeted to reduce by at least half the share of 10-year old who cannot read by 2030.
● Assessment systems require proper design, implementation, documentation, and dissemination of results to inform future instruction based on assessment results.
● Making teaching an attractive profession by improving its status, compensation policies, and career progression structures.
● Promoting a meritocratic selection of teachers.
● Using technology wisely to enhance the ability of teachers to reach every student, factoring in their areas of strength and development.
Healthy States, Progressive India Report
Recently, the NITI Aayog has released the comprehensive Health Index report titled, “Healthy States, Progressive India”.
About the report:
● It ranks states and Union territories innovatively on their year-on-year
a. incremental change in health outcomes, and
b. their overall performance with respect to each other.
● It has been developed by NITI Aayog, with technical assistance from the World Bank, and in consultation with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).
● The Health Index is a weighted composite Index based on three domains:
a. Health Outcomes (70%);
b. Governance and Information (12%); and
c. Key Inputs and Processes (18%), with each domain assigned a weight based on its importance.
● Data submitted by the States & UTs was validated by an Independent Validation Agency.
● States and UTs have been ranked in three categories namely,
a. Larger States, Smaller States, and Union Territories (UTs), to ensure comparison among similar entities.
● This report examines the performance for the period 2015-16 (base year) to 2017-18 (reference year), i.e., a two-year period.
Findings:
● Larger States:
a. Kerala, Andhra Pradesh & Maharashtra ranked on top in terms of overall performance,
b. Haryana, Rajasthan and Jharkhand are the top three ranking States in terms of annual incremental performance.
● Smaller States:
a. Mizoram and Manipur ranked on top in terms of overall performance.
b. Tripura and Manipur were the top ranked States in terms of annual incremental performance.
● UTs:
a. Chandigarh and Dadra and Nagar Haveli were ranked on top in terms of overall performance as well as annual incremental performance.
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● Performance of five Empowered Action Group States- Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Odisha have witnessed a decline in the overall health index score.
● There was a general positive correlation between the Health Index scores and the economic development levels of States and UTs as measured by per capita Net State Domestic Product (NSDP).
Empowered Action Group States
● The government had constituted an Empowered Action Group (EAG) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare following 2001 census to stabilise population in eight states that were lagging in containing population.
● These states are Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha.
State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World
Recently the United Nations released The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, 2019.
About the Report:
● It is issued annually by
a. Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO),
b. International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD),
c. UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF),
d. World Food Programme (WFP) and
e. World Health Organization (WHO).
● This year’s report, for the first time comes with estimates of the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES).
● This indicator provides a perspective on global food insecurity relevant for all countries of the world.
● It looks beyond hunger towards the goal of ensuring access to nutritious and sufficient food for all.
Findings:
● After decades of declining, hunger is again on the rise.
● More than 820 million people in the world are still hungry today.
● Global level of the prevalence of undernourishment has remained virtually unchanged in the last three years, at a level slightly below 11 percent.
● Over 2 billion people (26.4 percent of the world population) do not have regular access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food.
● These people live in low- and middle- and high-income countries;
● 17.2 percent of the world population, or 1.3 billion people, have experienced food insecurity at moderate levels.
● 9.2 percent of the world population (or slightly more than 700 million people) were exposed to severe levels of food insecurity in 2018.
● This implies reductions in the quantity of food consumed to the extent that they have possibly experienced hunger.
● Globally, the prevalence of stunting among children under five years is decreasing.
● The number of stunted children has also decreased from 165.8 million in 2012 to 148.9 million in 2018.
● Globally, 7.3 percent (49.5 million) children under five years of age are wasted, two-thirds of whom live in Asia.
● In 2018, childhood overweight affected 40.1 million children under five worldwide;
● while in 2016, nearly two in five adults (38.9 percent) were overweight, representing 2 billion adults worldwide.
● One in seven live births was characterized by low birthweight in 2015.
● Many of these low birthweight babies were born to adolescent mothers.
● Overweight and obesity are on the rise in almost all countries, contributing to 4 million deaths globally.
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● Women have a higher chance of suffering from food insecurity than men, with the largest gender gap being in Latin America.
Countdown on Health and Climate Change Report
● The Lancet has published a report titled- ‘Countdown on Health and Climate Change’.
● It’s a comprehensive yearly analysis tracking progress across 41 key indicators.
● It demonstrates how actions to meet Paris Agreement targets or inactions affect human health.
● The project is a collaboration between 120 experts from 35 institutions, including the World Health Organisation, the World Bank, University College London, and Tsinghua University in Beijing.
Key findings
● Climate change is damaging the health of the children and will shape the well-being of an entire generation unless the world meets the target to limit warming to well below 2˚C.
● As temperatures rise, infants will bear the greatest burden of malnutrition, infectious diseases and rising food prices.
a. Malnutrition is already responsible for two-thirds of under-5 deaths.
b. The average yield potential of maize and rice has declined almost 2% in India since the 1960s.
c. Climatic suitability for the Vibrio bacteria that cause cholera is rising 3% a year in India since the early 1980s.
d. Diarrhoeal infections, a major cause of child mortality, will spread into new areas.
● With its huge population and high rates of healthcare inequality, poverty and malnutrition, India is more prone to suffer from the health effects of climate change.
Trafficking in Persons Report
● The U.S. State Department released its 2019 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report.
● It highlights the need for action against domestic trafficking in human beings.
● India continued to be placed in Tier 2 on the country trafficking scale.
Trends:
● There are 25 million adults and children suffering from labour and sex trafficking all over the world.
Nature of trafficking:
● In 77% of the cases, victims are trafficked within their own countries of residence rather than across borders.
● The number of victims trafficked domestically was high compared to foreign victims in all regions except Western and Central Europe, the Middle East, and certain East Asian countries.
● Victims of sex trafficking were more likely to be trafficked across borders
● While victims of forced labour were exploited within their own countries.
● The report highlights that more needs to be done especially in terms of tackling domestic trafficking.
Categorisation:
● The report categorises countries into three groups based on the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), U.S. legislation enacted in 2000.
● The categorisation is based on efforts of the country to meet minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking.
India:
Positives:
● India remained in Tier 2. i.e. countries whose governments do not fully meet the TVPA’s minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.
● It demonstrated overall increasing efforts to crack down on trafficking, including convicting traffickers and raising awareness around trafficking.
● It also took some action following reports of government complicity in forced labour and sex trafficking.
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Negatives:
● It failed to address the forced labour and sex trafficking in government-run and government-funded shelter homes.
● It did not report information on investigations, prosecutions and convictions of traffickers or on trafficking victims identified and referred to care.
● Authorities sometimes penalised victims for unlawful acts their traffickers compelled them to commit.
Palermo Protocol
● Established in 2000.
● It is an international framework to tackle trafficking, in terms of countries building legal frameworks to prosecute traffickers and provide care for survivors.
World Drug Report
● The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released the World Drug Report, 2019.
● According to the report the most widely used drug worldwide continues to be cannabis, with an estimated 188 million people having used the drug in the previous year.
● Globally, some 35 million people are estimated to suffer from drug use disorders and who require treatment services.
About UNODC:
● It was established in 1997 through a merger between the United Nations Drug Control Programme and the Centre for International Crime Prevention.
● UNODC relies on voluntary contributions, mainly from Governments, for 90 per cent of its budget.
● It helps in multiple areas like organized crime and trafficking, corruption, drug abuse prevention etc.
National Water Mission Awards
● National Water Mission Awards 2019 was given to recognize excellence in water conservation, efficient water use and sustainable water management practices.
● National Water Mission Awards were instituted under the National Water Mission (NWM), as per one of the strategies of NWM’s goal.
● The awards are given in ten categories defined under the goals of NWM.
● The prize money of Rs. 2 lakhs, Rs. 1.5 lakh and Rs. 1 lakh is given.
About National Water Mission
● The mission is implemented by the Department of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti.
● This mission is one of the eight missions of the National Action on Climate Change (NAPCC).
● NWM has 5 goals and 39 strategies. The goals are
o Goal 1- Comprehensive water database in the public domain and assessment of the impact of climate change on water resources.
o Goal 2- Promotion of citizen and state action for water conservation, augmentation, and preservation.
o Goal 3- Focused attention to vulnerable areas including over-exploited areas.
o Goal 4- Improving Water Use Efficiency by 20%.
o Goal 5- Promotion of basin level integrated water resources management.
● One of the strategies of NWM under Goal IV is to incentivize the organization/ companies through awards for water conservation and efficient use of water.
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Swachh Survekshan Gramin awards
● Swachh Survekshan Grameen (SSG) awards 2019 were conferred by the Ministry of Jal Shakti on the occasion of World Toilet Day (November 19).
● It tries to develop ranking of all districts of India on the basis of quantitative and qualitative sanitation (Swachhata) parameters.
● Parameters:
a. 30 percent weightage: Direct observation of researchers wherein they check availability and usage of toilets, status of water logging and plastic littering.
b. 35 percent weightage: Citizen feedback received online, during group meetings and from key influencers.
c. 35 percent weightage: Service level progress.
● The top three states are Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Gujarat.
● Top 3 Districts – Peddapalli, Telangana, Faridabad, Haryana, Rewari, Haryana.
● State with maximum citizen participation- Uttar Pradesh