Posted: August 26, 2012 | Author: Tinkers Onlook | Filed under: Culture | Tags: culture, general study, gs, ias |
ZCC were envisaged and conceptualized by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi
Aim of projecting cultural kinship and culture as the most important tool for national integration
1985, 7 ZCCs were formed under Ministry of Culture
North Zone Cultural Centre was country’s first ZCC located at Patiala
Objectives
Preserving, innovating and promoting the arts pertaining to the respective zones or regions
Create awareness about local cultures
Local flavors merge into zonal identities and eventually into rich diversity of India’s composite culture
To promote cultural inter-linkages
Undertake seminars, workshops etc , encourage youth for creative cultural communications and participation
To frame special programs for preservation and strengthening of art forms
Special emphasis on activities and program to promote cultural linkages among various areas to enlarge composite identity of cultural heritage of India
To award fellowship and scholarship for carrying out research and study for attainment of these objectives
Organizational Setup
ZCCs are registered autonomous bodies under Society Registration act
It is controlled by the Governing body which has chairman who is the Governor of the state in which headquarter of ZCC is located
Governing body consists of the nominees of the Central Government, Joint Secretary of Ministry of Culture, nominees from the participating states and eminent personalities
Finance Committee and Program Committee oversee and decide upon the program content of the year and the expenditure pattern
Day to day work is overseen by the director of the centre
Corpus fund is provided by the centre and state governments ensure the autonomy of these centers, in conducting their works
Functions
Diversity of India is a matter of pride as well as challenge for maintain national integrity
To maintain integrity cultural linkages among regions could become very important tool
ZCC provides a platform for this
These centers have developed themselves as a premier agency in the field of promotion, preservation and dissemination of culture of entire country
Documentation Cell has rare art forms documented
These include folk dances, music, arts and crafts, festivals, theatre, dying and extinct art forms etc, which is also the main thrust area of every ZCC
Each centre publishes its own magazine, books, and monograph on various art subjects time to time
From 1993 ZCC are sending their folk artists to Republic Day Folk Dance Festival. Festival is inaugurated by the President of India every year on 24/25th of January at Talkatora Indoor Stadium. This festival provides unique opportunity to folk artists to perform at the national level
Crafts fair is held in every zone
Under National Cultural Exchange Program (NCEP) exchange of artists is done among the zones in order to reinforce the unity in diversity aspect of Indian Culture
ZCCs also provide promotion and marketing facilities of craftsmen through Shilpgrams which works for increasing awareness and knowledge of rural life and crafts
Youths have always been important thrust area of these 7 centers
A new scheme started by ZCC is for recognition and encouragement of young talent in which ZCCs which identifies different performing arts in their areas and select talented artists in each field
Scheme for Theatre Rejuvenation has been started to provide a common platform for students; teachers; actors; artists; directors and writers to interact
A scheme for Guru Shishya Prampara has been introduced to identify the pupil and provide scholarship for encouragement
Women oriented programmes: because many art forms are mainly conserved and engaged in by women only. For example: Worli Folk Arts of Mumbai; Madhubani Paintings of Mithila Region of Bihar; Kalamezhuthu of Kerala and Rangoli of Nothern India; Kathak of Nothern India
Lokotsava
OCTAVE: ZCC association with Sageet Natya Academy organized a North East Festival every year
Umang: for physically challenged children
Funding of ZCC
Any cultural asset needs government support for not to die natural death
With the forces of globalization becoming more dominant and in one universal way of life , it has become more hard to save cultural identity of every nation state
ZCC have motive to make cultural hot-spot more evident
GOI wants to reshuffle its budgeting part in order to improve the “last mile connectivity” between the artists and the government
Corpus fund enable the ZCC to finance their activities
GOI provides fund of 5 crore and each state government provides fund of 1 crore each year to each ZCC
In annual budget GOI has increased support for ZCCs. It has been increased from 17 crore to 31 crore
Various initiatives like: Eastern Cultural Zone and Ministry of Rural Development under the Swarna Jayanti Gram Swaraj Yojana have created self-employment opportunity for the rural artisans and helping them to grow as entrepreneurs by mobilizing them into Self Help Groups
Way ahead
PM Manmohan Singh at the Silver Jubilee celebrations announced that 7 ZCCs would be revamped to keep pace with the new technologies
Along with these centres should be flexible and keep on changing with time to accommodate the changing cultural demands
Mani Shanker Iyar Committee suggested for the review of the functioning of ZCCs and to suggest measures for the revamp (new and improved version) of those
ZCCs have become to urban centric. So committee has suggested to spend 70% of the funds on rural, small towns and urban slums
Economic limitations because of which many art forms are fading away, ZCCs have to take steps to face these challenges
More Initiatives like
To start Artist Insurance Schemes
Spic Macay
Guru/Shishya Parampara Schemes
Assistance in old age
Collaboration among academies
Mani Shaker Iyer Committee
To review functioning and performance of the 7 ZCCs
Other two members of the committee are Sitakant Mahapatra and Amol Palekar
Committee gave its report on April 2011
Objectives
Committee looked upon the actions taken on recommendations of U R Ananthamurthy Committee in 1994
To ascertain that ZCCs are fulfilling the objectives
To check that existing bodies and ZCCs need to be merged for more effective function
To suggest more effective and functional changes
Important Suggestions
Revamping Guru-Shishya Parampara Scheme
Enhancing remuneration (pay for services) of folk artists
Augmenting corpus funds
Searching, training and encouraging new talents
Celebrating Silver Jubilee in meaningful manner
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Posted: August 26, 2012 | Author: Tinkers Onlook | Filed under: Rights to Children, Social Issues | Tags: children, general study, gs, ias, rights |
Every hour 11 children go missing in the country
Bachpan Bachao Aandolan collected information through RTI
Delhi tops the list of children went missing and children remain untraced
Challenges
- Biggest problem is apathy of law enforcement and investigation agency as most of the missing cases are not acknowledged
- No provision for addressing the issues of missing children in Indian legal system. For example: no clear cut definition of missing children is available in Indian legal system
- Children go missing because of the variety of causes like trafficking; forced labor; bonded labor; false adoption; forced begging; forced marriages; rag-picking
- Absence of proper database and mechanism to update and include information on missing; traced and untraced and coordination among the agencies dedicated to the task. For example: Police reports and cases under Crime Records Bureau have huge difference in numbers
- Lack of Clear Policy; Guideline on clear definitions of Trafficking and missing children
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Posted: August 26, 2012 | Author: Tinkers Onlook | Filed under: Rights to Children, Social Issues | Tags: general study, gs, ias, rights |
Protects children from sexual abuse and exploitation
Establishes special courts to exclusively deal with cases of child abuse and exploitation
The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, has been passed by the Lok Sabha. The Bill was earlier passed by the Rajya Sabha
Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha
The Bill was referred to the Standing Committee on Human Resource Development
The Bill seeks to protect children from offences such as sexual assault, sexual harassment and pornography
India is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child since 1992. The parties to the Convention are required to take measures to prevent children from being coerced into any unlawful sexual activity
The Bill
Any person below the age of 18 years is defined as a “child”
The Bill seeks to penalise any person who commits offences such as “sexual harassment”, “sexual assault”, “penetrative sexual assault”, and “aggravated penetrative sexual assault”
A person commits “sexual harassment” if he uses words or shows body parts to a child with sexual intent, shows pornography to a child or threatens to depict a child involved in sexual act through the media
A person commits “penetrative sexual assault” if he penetrates his penis into the vagina, mouth, urethra or anus of a child or makes a child do the same or inserts any other object into the child’s body or applies his mouth to a child’s body parts. If however the child is between 16 and 18 years, it shall be considered whether consent for the act was taken against his will or was taken by drugs, impersonation, fraud, undue influence and when the child was sleeping or unconscious
The Bill penalises “aggravated penetrative sexual assault”. Such an offence is committed when a police officer, a member of the armed forces or a public servant commits penetrative sexual assault on a child. It also includes gang penetrative sexual assault and assault using deadly weapons, fire or corrosive substance. The Bill also covers assault by staff of private hospital and staff of an educational institution if the child is in that institution.
A person commits “sexual assault” if he touches the vagina, penis, anus or breast of a child with sexual intent without penetration
The offence of “aggravated sexual assault” is committed under similar conditions as for “aggravated penetrative sexual assault”
The Bill also includes penalties for storage of pornographic material
An offence committed under this Act shall be reported to either the local police or the Special Juvenile Police Unit
If an offence has been committed by a child, it shall be dealt with under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000
Analysis
It will strengthen the legal provisions for the protection of children from sexual abuse and exploitation
For the first time, a special law has been passed to address the issue of sexual offences against children
Sexual offences are currently covered under different sections of IPC. The IPC does not provide for all types of sexual offences against children and, more importantly, does not distinguish between adult and child victims
Sexual assault, sexual harassment and pornography: these offences have been clearly defined for the first time in law
An offence is treated as “aggravated” when committed by a person in a position of trust or authority of child such as a member of security forces, police officer, public servant, etc
The Act provides for the establishment of Special Courts for trial of offences under the Act, keeping the best interest of the child as of paramount importance at every stage of the judicial process. The Act incorporates child friendly procedures for reporting, recording of evidence, investigation and trial of offences
The Act casts a duty on the Central and State Governments to spread awareness through media including the television, radio and the print media at regular intervals to make the general public, children as well as their parents and guardians aware of the provisions of this Act
The National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and State Commissions for the Protection of Child Rights (SCPCRs) have been made the designated authority to monitor the implementation of the Act
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Posted: August 25, 2012 | Author: Tinkers Onlook | Filed under: Right To Health, Social Issues | Tags: general study, gs, health, ias, india, upsc |
50 years ago there was no commercialization of medicare, we had only government hospitals which were run by government or public trusts but they were known for providing quality health care. Today government hospitals are in shambles
Medicare is commercialized and focus is on getting maximum benefit rather than patient and cure focus
Many commercial hospitals are given land on concessional prices and import duty on equipments is exempted so that treatment facilities could be made available to general public at low cost
Quality of medical education has progressively gone down
Extraordinary focus of medical education towards the tertiary care has led to disappearance of primary care. Even for normal medical condition person needs to consult a specialist which unnecessarily creates medicine burden to the patient
Unnecessary diagnostic tests, surgical procedures and stay in hospital
Payoffs to doctors in tests; medicine prescription etc
The right to have his medical record is often not respected
There is no obligatory requirement for the medical practitioner to go under continuing medical education program
Clinical trials ignore medical ethics
No impartial market surveillance for drug regulation
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Posted: August 25, 2012 | Author: Tinkers Onlook | Filed under: Right To Health, Social Issues | Tags: 12th plan, general study, gs, ias, nhm, nrhm, nuhm, UHC, universal health care |
The Hindu
Headed by Dr. Srinath Reddy
Committee gave recommendation for realizing the UHC
The ambitious goal is to provide “essential health package” to all citizens
But the starting point for the nation is
112th in quality of health care
145th per capita health care
India leads world in number of medical colleges
Currently these are almost 330 which will increase to 400 and out of the graduates will increase to 50000
How to provide primary and secondary health care to people and how to re-orient the present health education to decrease this gap?
90% health services needed are primary and secondary
These could be delivered by primary, community, taluk and district health centers and their equivalent private sector hospitals
These are also called subtertiary centers which are below the level of level of teaching, corporate hospitals and super specialty hospitals
Causes of most of the mortality and morbidity could be identified at the subtertiary level and could be treated in cost effective manner with easy reach and subtertiary centers could reduce the incidence of these conditions
But because of the lack of such facilities, these diseases proliferate and reach catastrophic level both in number and intensity
Then they overload the tertiary facilities which results in draining out the finances of families and unnecessary burden on scarce resources of tertiary care
Availability and competence of doctors for subtertiary level is essential for UHC
Problem in India: why India lacks primary health care facility?
In India, subtertiary level medical care is called Family Medicine which is not mentioned in MBBS curriculum, emerging physician is ill-equipped for his role in subtertiary care
The print of priorities and practices of the teaching institutions stays with them for life. At present, this is the emphasis on specialty care, this not only makes the career of the doctors but also the public perception about health care i.e. public perception what good health care is
Increasing the number of medical colleges will not only solve the problem
Along with this changing the curriculum to reorient it towards subtertiary care will help in realizing the UHC
Essential and sufficient steps to make this realization
Provisions for the Family Medicine (FM) education UG and PG studies and departments of FM in every hospital
Every hospital should attach the primary and secondary health facilities (in public and private sector)
Need of expansion of medical education and the bodies that regulate them. Since its inception in 1933, Medical Council of India (MCI) has only one work to monitor professional conduct. This needs to be expanded to societal commitment and they should be able to begin the transformation
Education health profession will promote UHC in nation
Human resources in health care must not be evaluated in number and professional standard but also work for the equity in health care
National Commission for Human Resources for Health Bill, 2011
Introduced in the Rajya Sabah on December 22, 2011 by the Minister of Health and Family Welfare
The Bill seeks to establish a mechanism to determine and regulate the standard of health education in the country
It shall repeal the
- Indian Nursing Council Act, 1947
- Pharmacy Act, 1948
- Dentists Act, 1948
- Indian Medical Council Act, 1956
The Bill seeks to set up the
- National Commission for Human Resources for Health (NCHRH),
- National Board for Health Education (NBHE): to facilitate academic studies and research in emerging areas of health education
- National Evaluation and Assessment Council (NEAC)
- It also establishes various professional councils at the national and state level and a NCHRH Fund to meet expenses
The permission of NCHRH is required to establish an educational institution
Any person who obtains a degree from a government institution and leaves India for higher education, shall endeavour to serve in India for three years. If he does not do so, his name shall be removed from the register. If he opts to return to India, he can get his name re-entered after fulfilling such conditions as specified by NCHRH. Any person who gets a degree from a private institution then goes abroad for higher education has to either return to India within three years or inform the respective council of his whereabouts. If he does not do so, it shall be construed as professional misconduct
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Posted: August 25, 2012 | Author: Tinkers Onlook | Filed under: Right To Health, Social Issues | Tags: general study, gs, health, ias |
RSBY is run by Labour Ministry
Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) was launched on 01.10.2007 (Operational April 1, 2008) to provide smart card based cashless health insurance cover of Rs.30,000 per annum to BPL families (a unit of five) in the unorganized sector. (initially)
Flagship programme introduced by the central government in April 2008, to increase the breadth, depth and height of coverage so that ultimately universal coverage can be achieved.
Key features of this scheme are a systematic focus on the poor with an aim to try and cover all BPL families within a period of five years, covering more than 700 hospitalisation packages, thereby protecting the poor from major health shocks, and finally a cashless mechanism through the “smart card”.
The RSBY is an excellent attempt at providing social protection in health for the vulnerable and poor in India.
It was extended to building and other construction workers registered under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Condition of Service), Act and street vendors.
From Budget 2010-11 onwards, Government has announced to extend benefits of RSBY to all such MNREGA beneficiaries who have worked for more than 15 days during the preceding financial year and to all licensed railway porters, vendors and hawkers, who are from the unorganized sector and are socially challenged.
All the three dimensions of universal coverage –
- the coverage of the BPL families,
- the depth of the RSBY package and
- the out-of-pocket payments
Need for Universal Health Cover
The common dilemma facing policy makers is with regard to the need for a Government sponsored health insurance cover when health services are being provided ‘free’ by the Government itself. However, the fact is that the ‘free’ government health services are not meeting the needs of the community. This is the reason why a lot of out-of-pocket expenses are still taking place which in turn lead to indebtedness. It is also evident that the poorest bear the brunt of it. Moreover, 94% of the workforce in India is in the unorganized sector and, hence, does not have the desired social security cover.
Target Group
Unorganized sector workers below poverty line (BPL) and their families
Characteristics of the target group
Understanding the characteristics of the target group was found to be absolutely imperative in evolving a scheme that could have a meaningful impact. An analysis of this group reveals that they are primarily:
– Poor
– Illiterate
– Migratory
Thus, the scheme had to be cashless because there was no way in which the beneficiary could raise the financial resources and then claim reimbursement from any agency. The reimbursement process itself is normally so cumbersome that it would have been virtually impossible for those below poverty line, even if they could raise the resources upfront, to claim the benefit.
A large number of workers in India migrate from one State to the other in search of employment. So far, none of the health insurance schemes, for that matter any other scheme, addresses this aspect. An added complexity emerges when only some in the family migrate and rest of them stay back.
On account of illiteracy, repeated documentation cannot be resorted to and, in this sense, the cashless system was the only alternative.
Benefits
(a) Total sum insured of Rs 30,000 per BPL family per annum on a family floater basis.
(b) Pre-existing conditions to be covered.
(c) Cashless coverage of all health services related to hospitalization, including maternity benefit and such services of a surgical nature which can be provided on a daycare basis. (Though OPD facilities are not covered under the scheme, OPD consultation is free)
(d) Provision for pre and post-hospitalization expenses for one day prior and 5 days after hospitalization.
(e) Provision for transport allowance.
Funding
(a) Contribution by Government of India: 75% (90% in case of the States in the North-East and J&K) of the estimated annual premium. Additionally, the cost of the smart cards to be borne by the Central Government @ Rs.60 per card.
(b) Contribution by the respective State Governments: 25% (10% in case of the States in the North-East and J&K) of the annual premium.
(c) Rs30 per annum as registration/renewal fee by the beneficiary.
UNIQUE FEATURES OF THE SCHEME
- IT tools for poorest of the poor
- Empowering Below Poverty Line families
- RSBY operates on a business model: In view of the numbers and the fund involved, there are business opportunities for all the key players, like Insurance Companies, Hospitals, Smart Card Service Providers and the Intermediaries.
- Security of Cards: A key management system has been evolved by National Informatics Centre to ensure that the smart cards are fully secure. There would be no scope of cards being duplicated or being misused. The smart card also envisages use of biometrics (finger print verification).
THE CHALLENGES AHEAD:
- Reaching out to such huge numbers in far flung areas
- Evolving communication modules and delivering them on such a scale continues to test the capacity and capabilities of the Insurance Companies whose task is to sell this product.
- And finally, the challenge is not merely of quantity but also of quality of service by various service providers.
Key Players
- Health service provider
- Smart card service provider
- Intermediaries
The Intermediaries between the insurance companies and the beneficiary have a very important role in carrying the scheme to such beneficiaries. These intermediaries can be in the form of TPA, NGOs, MFIs, Panchayati Raj Institutions or a combination of these depending upon the requirement in each region and the capacity and capability of the intermediaries. However, without such ‘social aggregators’ it will be virtually impossible to roll out the scheme.
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Posted: August 25, 2012 | Author: Tinkers Onlook | Filed under: Right To Food, Social Issues | Tags: food, general study, gs, ias |
Solution for hunger lies in proper distribution
The biggest enemy within – the hunger of millions
India has failed to address unpardonable sin of letting the bumper crops and huge dumps of grains rot, when millions of Indians battle with endemic hunger and lack of access of food
World Food Summit 1996 defined food security as access to sufficient, safe and nutrition food to maintain healthy and active life
Global Hunger Index released by International Food Policy Research Institute ranks India at 66th position out of 88 most vulnerable countries
Farmers are the most who face food crisis. The main reason is the negligence by the economy to agricultural sector and continuous subsidization of manufacturing and service sector at the cost of primary sector
In years 2009-10 2010-11 and 2011-12, country has seen record grain production. If this has been procured and distributed efficiently it would have been sufficient to provide enough calories for the whole population. But there is poor procurement, wastage of millions of tons of food grains that will rot in railway yards, FCI godowns across the country
Facts and figures proclaim surplus, but government is making hunger and low production the reasons for pushing up a series of techno-fix solutions. We see solutions in Northern style Agro-Business Corporations which rose as a result of Green Revolution. This model propagated across the county, spelt rapid depletion of the natural resources for farming – soil, water and biodiversity and resulted in indebted farmers and bad results for health
GM crops introduced are controversial all over the world. One main reason is shifting of control of seeds and fertilizers to MNC s and corporate intermediaries because of the patents and royalties along with this health risks to humans and evolution of new pests and diseases. So, question is what ensures us about the potential disasters to life and environment, when they emerge a decade or so later?
Increasing production is not the only solution for hunger in unequal society
We need to ensure that people in agriculture lead to economically secure society. A rationally calculated minimal support price is non-negotiable. Agricultural labors and farmers must have purchasing power for their own food security needs
Campaign of Universal Food Entitlement through PDS is must. Undistributed grains must be moved to people immediately. Increase Universal Allocation under Food Bill
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Posted: August 25, 2012 | Author: Tinkers Onlook | Filed under: Right To Food, Social Issues | Tags: food, general study, gs, ias |
India Food Banking Network to augment ongoing Government and Non Profit feeding programs, with the establishment of the Delhi Food Bank
IFBN acquires donated food in the form of grains, pulses, oil, spices etc sourced on the basis of community food habits and makes these available through a network of community owned agencies
These institutional feeding programs include school feeding programs, shelter homes, Old age homes substance abuse clinics, after-school programs and cater to various needs
Dhlhi food bank is an organisation that feeds, empowers and transforms lives in the New Delhi / NCR Region. They hold that their shared capabilities can make the basic aspiration of universal access to food a reality. They attempt to pursude this vision through high quality and standards for processes leveraged by technology to get the right aid to the right people at the right time
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Posted: August 25, 2012 | Author: Tinkers Onlook | Filed under: Right To Food, Social Issues | Tags: food, general study, gs, ias |
A food bank or foodbank is a non-profit, charitable organization that distributes food to those who have difficulty purchasing enough for their needs
The largest sources of food are for-profit growers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers who in the normal course of business have excess food that they cannot sell
Some foodbanks receive a substantial proportion of their food from individual donars, including their volunteer workers
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Posted: August 24, 2012 | Author: Tinkers Onlook | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: data, general study, gs, ias, internet, upsc |
Aircard is a device that plugs into a laptop computer, typically through a USB connection or PC Card slot that uses a cell phone signal to provide high-speed Internet access
An aircard will enable one to have Internet access without having to rely on hot spot availability, access to a phone line for dial-up or sharing a wired connection at a job site
A user will need a service plan (normally through one’s cell phone service provider) that allows the user to access the Internet with their aircard
Aircards are sold by cell phone companies and they require a monthly service plan. Sierra AirCards and Kyocera are two of the most well-known aircard manufacturers
Aircards are also known as mobile broadband card and connect cards
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