IAS Exam Current Affairs Study Material May 2017 - Vol 2

CURRENT AFFAIRS – MARCH 2017

PAPER – II 

1 POLITY

1.1 Hung Assembly -Goa & Manipur

1.2 Demanding St Status –Narikuravars

1.3 Vote Tampering in EVMS

1.4 Electoral Bonds

1.5 Special Category Status

1.6 Babri Masjid Issue 

2 GOVERNMENT POLICIES, BILLS AND INTERVENTIONS
2.1 Maternity Benefit Bill
2.2 Mental Healthcare Bill
2.3 The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill
2.4 Medical Termination Of Pregnancy Act
2.5 Inter-State Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill, 2017
2.6 Companies Amendment Bill
2.7 Draft Trafficking of Persons Bill
2.8 National Health Policy 2017
2.9 SDMC’s Order
2.10 Banning Cow Slaughter
2.11 Ban on Liquor Vends
2.12 Mandatory Aadhaar
2.13 BBC Documentary on Kaziranga Tiger Reserve
2.14 NO-FLY List
2.15 Censor Board
2.16 Moral Policing -Anti-Romeo Squads

*************************************

GOVERNMENT POLICIES, BILLS AND INTERVENTIONS

2.1 MATERNITY BENEFIT BILL

Why in news?
LokSabha recently passed The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016. 

What are the salient features of the bill? 

• The bill to amend the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961.
• It increases the paid maternity leave for pregnant women working in the organised sector from 12 weeks to 26 weeks. 
• The 26 weeks of leave will be for the first two pregnancies.
• For the third child, it will be of 12 weeks and 6 weeks for the fourt.
• It allows 12 weeks of paid maternity leave to mothers who are adopting a child below the age of three months and also to commissioning mothers who opt for surrogacy.
• It mandates employers to allow a woman to work from home.
• Organisations which employ more than 30 women (or 50 people, whichever is less) will now have to provide a rèche.
• The mother is allowed to visit the crèche four times during the day.

What are the positives?

• The enhancement of paid maternity leave for women is a progressive step.
• India is in third place, only Canada and Norway, in the level of maternity benefits such as paid time off work extended to women.
• The   amendment   is   in  line   with   several   expert   recommendations   including  that   of  the   World   Health Organisation, which recommends exclusive breastfeeding of children for the first 24 weeks.
• Giving benefits to adoptive mothers as well as women who get children using embryo transfers signals India is in step with social changes.

What are the shortcomings?

• The amended law covers only women in the organised work sector i.e only 1.8 million women, a small subset of women in the workforce.
• It  ignores  roughly  90%  of  the  Indian  women  who  are  employed  in  the unorganised  sector  i.e shops,  small service providers and cottage industries, in households as domestic helps etc.
• The  only  support  available  to  them  is  a  small  conditional  cash  benefit  of  ₹6,000  during  pregnancy  and lactation offered under the Maternity Benefit Programme. 
• The Bill exclude spaternity leave. Therefore the benefit burden may discourage employers to hire women. 
• Demands  for  inclusion of  a  non-discrimination  clause in  the bill  were  also  made to  ensure that no person  is discriminated against for having availed any parental benefits.

What is the present condition of women in India?

• India lags far behind when it comes to maternal and infant mortality indicators.
• Every third woman in the country is undernourished and every second woman is anaemic.
• An undernourished woman is most likely to give birth to a low-weight baby.
• The  UN  Millennium  Development  Goals  Report  2014  states  that  India  recorded  the  highest number of maternal deaths,and accounted for 17% of global deaths due to pregnancy and  childbirth-related complications.
• The Infant Mortality Rate is 40 per 1,000 live births.
• As per UNDP‘s Human Development Report 2015, women clock 297 minutes of unpaid work daily, compared to just 31 minutes for men.

What should be done? 

• The  income  guarantees  during  the  26-week  period  should  be  ensured  through  a  universal  social  insurance system. 
• Such  a  policy  would  harmonise  the  varying  maternity  benefit  provisions  found  in  different  laws  that  govern labour at present. 
• Paternity  leave  should  be  included  to stop  discrimination  against  women  in  recruitment  by  employers  who currently have to factor in benefit payments. 
• Also the effectiveness of the revised Maternity Benefit Act depends on its proper implementation.

 700+ students are IAS, IPS, Civil Service Job  | Most Trusted Academy by Govt. of Andhra

2.2 MENTAL HEALTHCARE BILL

Why in news?
The Mental Healthcare Bill, 2016 was recently passed by Parliament.

What are the provisions of the bill?

• Definition -It defines ―mental illness‖ as a substantial disorder of thinking, mood, perception, orientation or memory that grossly impairs judgment, behaviour, capacity to recognise reality or ability to meet the ordinary demands of life.
• It also includes mental conditions associated with the abuse of alcohol and drugs.
• It does  not  include  mental  retardation which  is  a  condition  of  arrested  or  incomplete  development  of mind of a person, characterised by sub-normality of intelligence.
• Rights -It  ensures  every  person shall  have  a  right  to  access  mental health  care  and treatment from  mental health services run or funded by the appropriate government.
• It assures free treatment for homeless or people Below Poverty Line, even if they do not possess a BPL card.
• It ensure right to live with dignity and  there shall be no discrimination on any basis including gender, sex, sexual orientation, religion, culture, caste, social or political beliefs, class or disability.
• A person with mental illness shall have the right to confidentiality in respect of his mental health.
• Advance Directive -A person with mental illness shall have the right to make an advance directive i.e how he wants be treated for the illness & who his nominated representative shall be.
• This should be certified by a medical practitioner.
• If a mental health professional/ relative/ care-giver do not wish to follow the directive,he  can make an application to the Mental Health Board to review the advance directive.
• Mental Health Authority-The Bill empowers the government to set-up Mental Health  Authority at national and state levels. 
• Every mental health institute and mental health practitioners will have to be registered with this Authority.
• A Mental Health Review Board will be constituted to protect the rights of persons with mental illness and manage advance directives.
• Mode of treatment - A medical practitioner shall not be held liable for any unforeseen  consequences on following a valid advance directive.
• A person with mental illness shall not be subjected to electro-convulsive therapy without the use of muscle relaxants and anaesthesia.
• Also, electro-convulsive therapy will not be performed for minors.
• Sterilisation will not be performed on such persons.
• They shall not be chained under any circumstances.
• They shall not be subjected to seclusion or solitary confinement. 
• Physical restraint may only be used, if necessary.
• Suicide -A  person  who  attempts suicide shall be presumed to be suffering from  mental illness at that time and will not be punished under IPC. 
• The government shall have a duty to provide care, treatment and rehabilitation  to a person, having severe stress and who attempted to commit suicide, to reduce the risk of recurrence of attempt to commit suicide.

2.3 THE SURROGACY (REGULATION) BILL

What is Surrogacy?
When an another woman carries and gives birth to a child for a couple who want to have a baby but are unable to do so, because of infertility or some other problem, it is called surrogacy. This has been in the grey legal area in India.

What is the need for the bill?

• In 2002, India became the first country to legalise commercial surrogacy.
• By 2012, India had become the  ̳surrogacy capital‘ of the world with surrogacy tourism valued at approximately $500 million annually.
• Surrogate mothers practice it as a way of earning livelihood and are often abused.
• Legal issues also emerge
• e.g In 2008, a Japanese couple began the process with a surrogate mother in Gujarat, but before the child was born they split and there were no takers for the child.
• In  2012,  an  Australian  couple  commissioned  a  surrogate  mother,  and  arbitrarily  chose  one of the  twins  that was born.
• So the 228th report of the Law Commission of India recommended prohibiting commercial surrogacy.

What is the aim of the bill?

• It aims to prevent exploitation of women, especially those in rural and tribal areas.
• It  prohibits  couples  who  already  have  biological  or  adopted  children  from  commissioning  babies  through surrogacy.
• It ensures parentage of children born out of surrogacy is ―legal and transparent.

What are the features of the Bill?

• The bill was introduced in LokSabha in November 2016.
• It bans commercial surrogacy.
• Commercial surrogacy will result in a jail term of at least 10 years and a fine of up to Rs 10 lakh.
• The  commissioning  couples  should  be  Indians,  should  have  been  married  for  at  least  five  years  and  should have  ̳proven infertility‘ are candidates.
• Only  a  married  blood  relative  to  the  commission  parents  can  be  a  surrogate  mother.  She  must  have  herself borne a child, and should not be a NRI or a foreigner,
• Under no circumstances money shall be paid to her, except for medical expenses.
• She can be a surrogate only once in her lifetime.
• Overseas  Indians,  foreigners,  unmarried  couples,  single  parents,  live-in partners  and  gay  couples  are  barred from commissioning the services of surrogate mothers.
• In essence, the Bill limits the practice of surrogacy to heterosexual Indian couples who have been married for five years, have no children, and are able to persuade a relative to become a surrogate altruistically for them. 
• The Bill will apply to the whole of India, except Jammu and Kashmir.

What are the shortcomings?

• Disqualifying on the basis of nationality, marital status, sexual orientation or age, is against the right to equality.
• The right to life includes the right to reproductive and right to parenthood. So the state should not decide the modes of parenthood
• Sudden interruption would just push the $400 million industry underground. Thus the very purpose of the bill-to protect surrogate mothers from exploitation would be defeated.
• Fertility specialists and attached business would suffer.
• Commissioning mothers, who are carrying a child, would be left in a limbo.
• Restricting only a blood relative to be a surrogate mother is illogical and unreasonable.

Our Academy Branches - IAS Academy in Bangalore | Trivandrum | Chennai

2.4MEDICAL TERMINATION OF PREGNANCY ACT

Why in news?The Supreme Court recently declined a woman‟s plea to abort her 26-week-old foetus detected with Down‘s Syndrome.

What was the court’s rationale?

• It was contended that the congenital abnormality found in the woman‘s foetus and the woman‘s anguish about the future were the reasons for her decision of abortion.
• It was also argued that it was the woman‟s constitutional right to terminate her pregnancy.
• The court refused permission bycalling the foetus „a life‟.
• It  cited  that  the  Medical  Termination  of  Pregnancy  Act  of  1971  places  a  20 -week  ceiling  on  termination  of pregnancy.

What is MTP Act, 1971?

• Abortion in India is legal only up to twenty weeks of pregnancy under specific conditions  and situations.
• One, the continuance of the pregnancy would involve a risk to the life of the pregnant woman or  of grave injury of physical or mental health, or
• Two, there is a substantial risk that if  the child were born, it would suffer from such physical or  mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped.

Was the law challenged on any other occasion?

• On 2015, a 14-year-old rape victim sought and received permission from the Supreme Court to abort after the 20 weeks deadline had passed.
• Her petition was treated as a ―special case, meaning it could not be used as a precedent.
• On January 2017, the Judges had relaxed the 20-week cap to permit another woman to terminate her 24-week pregnancy.
• In that case the foetus was diagnosed with anencephaly a congenital defect in which the baby is born without parts of the brain and skull.
• The court had said that the abortion was necessary to preserve the woman‟s life.
• In the case of the foetus with Down‘s Syndrome, the court said the foetus posed no danger to the woman‘s life.

What the draft MPT bill 2014 provides?

• The draft MTP increased the legal limit for abortion from 20 weeks to 24 weeks.
• It provides for abortion beyond 24 weeks under defined conditions.
• The Bill amends  Section 3 of the 1971 Act to provide that ―the length of pregnancy shall not apply in a decision to abort a foetus diagnosed with ―substantial foetal abnormalities or if it is ―alleged by the pregnant woman to have been caused by rape.
• It also takes into account the reality of a massive shortage of both doctors and trained midwives, and seeks to allow Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha practitioners to carry out abortions

Why is it essential to change the MTP law?

• Foetal abnormalities show up only by 18 weeks,so just a two-week window after that is too small for would-be parents to take the difficult call on whether to keep their baby.
• Even for the medical practitioner, this window is too small to exhaust all possible options before advising the patient.
• There is an urgentneed to empower women with sexual rights, legal protrction against sex  crimes and sex choices both in their own interest and for the sake of reducing the fertility rate as a whole.
• The lack of legal approval moves abortion to underground and they are done in unhygienic conditions by untrained proffessionals.

2.5 INTER-STATE WATER DISPUTES(AMENDMENT) BILL, 2017

Why in news?
The Inter-State River Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill, 2017 was introduced in the LokSabha.

What are the problems in present set-up?

• With increasing demand for water, inter-state river water disputes are on the rise.
• The present Inter State River Water Dispute Act, 1956 that provides the legal framework  to address such disputes has many drawbacks.
• Under the present Act, a separate Tribunal has to be established for each dispute.
• There are eight inter-state water dispute tribunals, including the Ravi and Beas Waters Tribunal and Krishna River Water Dispute Tribunal. But only three of the eight tribunals have actually given awards accepted by the states. 
• There is no time limit for adjudication or publication of reports.
• Tribunals like those on the Cauvery and Ravi Beas have been in existence for over 26 and 30 years respectively without any award.
• There is no upper age limit for the chairman or the members. 

What are the proposals of the new bill?

• The  bill proposes  a  single  standing  tribunal  with multiple  benches  instead of  multiple tribunals  that  exist  at present.
• The total time period for adjudication of dispute has been fixed at maximum of 4.5 years.
• The  decision  of  the  Tribunal  shall  be  final  and  binding with  no  requirement  of  publication  in  the  official gazette
• As per the proposed bill, the Tribunal shall have one chairperson, one vice-chairperson and not more than six other members.
• It limits the tenure of the chairperson to five years or till attain the age of 70, whichever is earlier.
• It also proposes to introduce mechanisms to resolve disputes by negotiations through a Dispute
• Resolution Committee (DRC)  before a dispute is referred to the tribunal
• DRC to be established by the central government consisting of experts.
• It also provides for a transparent data collection system at the national level for each river basin.
• It calls for the appointment of assessors to provide technical support to the tribunal. 

Best UPSC Coaching Institute in South India

Published by 

Shankar IAS Academy 

Plot No 1742, 1st Floor, 18th Main Road, Anna Nagar West, Chennai – 600 040.

Phone : 044-26216435, 64597222, 4353 3445, Mobile : 94441 66435 

Website: www.shankariasacademy.com