Round The States

New Delhi, 22 June 2019

Bihar’s Children

TRAGEDY UNMASKS CRUEL GOVT

By Insaf

Bihar government must hang its head in shame. The shocking tragedy of deaths of over 100 children from poor families in Muzaffarpur due to Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) has exposed the criminal apathy Nitish government has for human lives and worse kids in the age group of 1-10 years. Distraught parents and relatives of the children being treated in the ill-equipped Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH) rightly expressed their anger when Nitish and his deputy Sushil Modi finally chose to pay a visit on Tuesday last-- two weeks after the AES outbreak. Predictably, the administration tried to dodge the issue and not accept its miserable failure in containing the encephalitis epidemic that Muzaffarpur faces every year. Heat wave or Hypoglycemia, when blood sugar levels drop, were to blame is how it tried to wriggle out of its responsibility. This notwithstanding that Nitish has been quoted saying “Every year before the onset of monsoon, this disease (AES) wreaks havoc. It is a matter of concern that every year children die because of it.” The big question then is what steps have been taken to address this concern? Nothing, for the recent deaths show it has failed miserably to follow basic guidelines on AES – raise awareness, tackle malnutrition and upgrade its primary health centres. So when the tragedy hits national headlines, which it has,   the administration has the usual knee-jerk reaction-- of sending medical supplies and doctors. Not to forget the ex-gratia payment which is offered to families of the deceased children – this time a royal sum of Rs 4 lakh each. Can this dispel the fact that life is cheap in Bihar?   

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Gujarat Bypoll Row

Gujarat is gearing for another exciting byelection to the Rajya Sabha. With every single seat critical for its relevance, the Gujarat Congress has knocked on Supreme Court’s door challenging Election Commission’s related notification. With two of the six vacancies to be filled in Upper House from Gujarat, following Amit Shah and Smriti Irani moving to Lok Sabha, the Congress has questioned the poll notification. While EC says there will be a separate poll for each vacancy as per the RPA, the Congress demands it be held together. Why? If held together (as was done in 2017) it will win one seat and the BJP the other in accordance with proportional representation in the 182-member Assembly (BJP has 100 MLAs and Congress plus others 75). But if held separately, which the Commission says is ‘consistent practice’ both will go to the BJP. The Congress smells a rat and accuses the EC of ‘adopting new method of conducting elections under government pressure.’ The apex court has asked EC to respond and matter is listed next week. Who is playing mischief will soon be known.

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Water Crisis In TN

The water crisis in Tamil Nadu has caught the AIADMK government on the wrong foot. While Chief Minister K Palaniswami may claim the issue wasn’t as big as was being made out by the media, and rival DMK, the Madras High Court is not convinced. On Tuesday last, it pulled up the administration for not taking adequate steps to handle the crisis in capital Chennai, despite two failed monsoons. Hearing a PIL, the court impleaded suo moto Secretary, PWD to submit a detailed report on ‘number of reservoirs in the State, steps taken for de-silting, amount sanctioned and status of those works,’ notwithstanding the government reeling out actions taken so far to handle the crisis, including removal of encroachments on water bodies. It is putting up a brave front despite the fact that drinking water shortage has led to 100-odd hostels around Chennai stopping operations, IT firms asking employees to work from home and people rationing water! Undoubtedly, that confidence doesn’t hold water with the people or the experts!

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Andhra Cross Over

Post-election season of moving on to greener pastures has engulfed Andhra Pradesh’s TDP now. On Thursday last, four of its members in the Rajya Sabha resigned and switched loyalties to the obvious choice— the BJP. The move has triggered a crisis alright for Chandrababu Naidu and worse the timing is unfortunate as the party chief is holidaying with his family in Europe. With four of the six MPs breaking away, it means the split would be recognised in Parliament given that it meets the legal requirement of anti-defection law, which mandates support of at least two-third members. So not only did they hand over their resignation to RS Chairman but passed a resolution to merge TDP’s legislature party with BJP! A hard hit for Naidu, but he’s putting up a brave front. ‘It’s nothing to be nervous about,’ is his message to party leaders/cadres as ‘a crisis is not new to the party.’ Forget the others, is he convinced? 

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WB Misery Over

West Bengal can heave a sigh of relief. The junior doctors called off their week-long strike on Monday last following an unexpected fruitful meeting with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Didi did eventually relent and promised measures to ensure doctors’ safety:  such incidents (assault on doctors by patient’s family at NRS hospital, which triggered the strike) won’t happen in future; state-wide emergency number and email id to report an assault to be started; action against police if they fail to act with regard to their security; to deploy additional 125 police personnel inside NRS hospital to boost security and set up grievance redressal cell in government hospitals. She also told the doctors that five persons involved in NRS incident had been arrested. All’s well that ends well, may be a relief, but the nagging question is why did it take Mamata a whole week to sit on the negotiating table? She could have spared thousands, if not lakhs, of patients across the country of their misery. If only she remembered the adage ‘a stitch in time saves nine’.  

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Karnataka Cong Awakening

Mahatma Gandhi’s quote “It is the quality of our work which will please God and not the quantity,” has finally takers in the Congress. At least in Karnataka. On Wednesday last, the AICC decided to dissolve its Karnataka PCC by retaining only its President and Working President, appointed last July. This should have been done before the Lok Sabha polls as suggested, but didn’t. The party, which was in power in the State from 2013-18 and is now a ruling coalition partner, won only a solitary seat this general election and is marred by nagging uncertainty of retaining its hold. Obviously, its jumbo PCC with 452 members, 21 Vice-Presidents, 65 General Secretaries and 170 Secretaries since at least two years did precious little and was inactive. The thrust on quantity rather than quality has done the damage like the adage too many cooks spoil the broth. The new avatar it is said will take shape in a month’s time. In the given circumstances of uncertainty looming large over the JD(S)-Congress government’s survival, hope it’s not too late. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)

Open Forum

New Delhi, 21 June 2019

Gender Pay Gap

ALTER UNIVERSAL MINDSET

By Dr. S Saraswathi

(Former Director, ICSSR, New Delhi)

Swiss women went on strike en masse a few days ago to highlight the country’s poor record on gender equality, particularly gender pay gap. It was organised jointly by women trade unions, women’s rights organisations, and feminist groups. Sad indeed, that half of the population of one of the richest countries in the world is forced to fight for its right to equality on the streets of Geneva.

Gender divide in the workplace and in domestic life is said to be a matter for continuing battle in Switzerland. No wonder if we recall that Switzerland granted voting rights to women in federal elections only in February 1971 through a referendum. Previous referendum in 1959 rejected this crucial component of gender equality.

Current protests of Swiss women, nearly 30 years after huge demonstrations of women to expose gender inequality in 1991, are evidence of social resilience to changes in gender positions. Hardly 10 years ago, gender equality was added in the Swiss Constitution. Gender Equality Act was passed in Switzerland in 1995, which prohibited sex discrimination and sexual harassment at workplace. Switzerland is one of the European countries having highest proportion of women in workforce.

According to agency reports, women in Switzerland still earn 20 per cent less than men. Even between equally qualified, there is about 8 per cent pay gap between men and women. The situation is similar in almost all EU States.

It is unrealistic to hope that Indian situation would be any better. According to Monster Salary Index (MSI) released recently, women in India earn 19 per cent less than men as against 20 per cent recorded a year ago. The gap was 27 per cent in 2016. IT/ITES services showed a sharp gap of 26 per cent and the manufacturing sector, 24 per cent in favour of men. Even in healthcare and caring services associated with women notionally and generally regarded as female jobs, men are paid 21 per cent more than women. Only exceptions are banking, insurance, and financial services, where the difference comes down to about 2 per cent. Even careers in science and academic courses are subject to wage discrimination between men and women. Share of women in workforce declines in higher academic posts in all countries.

Gender gap has a direct impact on what is considered “decent work and human development”. It is lessening on the whole all over the world but not significantly to make it perceptible.

An ILO Report of 2016 has estimated that the gap was about 23 per cent with women earning 77 per cent of what men earn on average. This is termed “raw gap” that does not take into account differences in qualifications, skill level, talents, etc.

India Wage Report shows that low pay and wage inequality remain serious challenges for work atmosphere and inclusive growth. Daily wage women employees are worst affected according to Global Wage Report of the ILO 2018-19.

Women workers in India are not generally active trade unionists. Union density, meaning percentage of women members in trade unions, has always been very low particularly in agricultural sector. Consequently, their bargaining power remains low. Trade unions are generally not very keen to take up exclusively women issues. Women workforce depends on   women activists, NGOs, and political parties to fight for their rights, promote their interests, and bring up issues of gender discriminations and look upon courts to enforce right to equality.

However, the informal sector is showing a more lively picture with workers’ cooperatives and self-help groups of women emerging to act also as big unions. They are interested in short-term and immediate action related to current issues in contrast to long-term ideological goals like empowerment, rights, equal development, and social security aimed by women’s groups abroad.

In our country, there is still the practice of occupational gender segregation in some sectors. It is also reflected in occupational choices individually made or socially imposed. It supports the system of gender wage gap.

Social security, which has monetary implications, is absent or lower for workers engaged in semi-skilled or low skilled jobs. The affected include bulk of women workers who are highly concentrated in less skilled occupations.

Two terms have come into use to describe sex discrimination in the workplace – “glass ceiling” and “sticky floor”. The first refers to a situation where gender pay gaps are wider at the top of the wage distribution, where a barrier is put on elevation of women after a certain level. The second, the “sticky floor” is the opposite situation, where the gap widens at the bottom of wage distribution. It refers to appointment of equally qualified men and women on the same pay scale, but women at the bottom and men somewhere above. The presence of “glass ceiling” and “sticky floor’ was confirmed in several workplaces in the US. It led to a series of legal initiatives to remedy the situation.

To tackle the problem of gender differences in pay, effective policies, firm action, and timely interventions are required. The 16^th Asia and the Pacific Regional Meeting set a list of policy priorities, which included policies to confront gender gap along with extreme poverty and income inequality.

The concepts of insurance and social security for women are not common in India. They are now being introduced and it is seen that women are both keen and quick to learn, and more reliable in discharging their obligations in schemes. Women are found more prompt in repaying loans.

A main reason for gender gap in the workplace is the idea that women’s income is supplementary to men’s in the family except in women-headed households. Added to it is the notion that the entire domestic work is the sphere of women from which men are exempted by being men. It follows that if any domestic duty requires leave from external work, it is the woman who has to take charge and not men. This creates an image of women workers as supplementary to men and gives them a secondary place. Studies also show that women are willing to accept lesser pay in return for less rigorous working hours and some relaxations in working conditions.

It seems, therefore, that bridging gender pay gap is a social issue and not just a labour problem.    Gender gap is embedded in tradition and practice, pushing back educational qualifications, aptitude and capabilities, and democratic norms and human rights. It is not possible to change our cultural ideas overnight in pursuit of mechanical parity. That will also adversely affect women workforce. We have to introduce practices of sharing family responsibilities where it is lacking.

The fight is to be against unjustified sex discriminations in workplaces and domestic set up, notions of male and female jobs without any reason, and fixation of pay on gender basis for equal work.  

Our mindset regarding the status of women needs total change. Pay parity is possible only between equals – people equally available and equally fit for equal work. Society must agree to remove all obstacles in the way of women, imposed under patriarchal ideas and hidden under the garb of cultural values. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)

Round The World

New Delhi, 20 June 2019

SCO at Bishkek

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING!

By Dr. D.K. Giri

(Prof. of International Politics, JMI)

The meeting of Council of Heads of Sates of Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) at Kyrgyzstan capital Bishkek, attended by eight Heads of member States, and four Heads of observer States ended in smoke. Like previous SCO meetings, the Bishkek Summit was also quite high in content but low in intent.

If we scan the resolutions passed, one would expect the SCO geo-politics to be stable and peaceful. But, on the contrary, India-Pakistan conflicts continue unabated, India-China border disputes remain unresolved as China makes fantastic claims on Indian territories, Russia continues to worry about China extending its influence over Central Asia and Afghanistan problem defies a durable solution.

To substantiate our charge of SCO being platitudinous and hyperbolic in its utterances, let us sample one of the many resolutions passed. It goes, “increasing challenges and security threats that are becoming cross-border in their nature like terrorism, spread of terrorist and extremist ideologies, including on the internet, returning foreign terrorists, proliferation of the weapons of mass destruction, the risk of an arms race among others need special attention, close co-ordination and the construction of co-operation of the global community.” The SCO, interestingly, has a Tashkent based Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS).

Note the spirit and intent of the above Resolution. If it is observed in the same spirit, the world would be a much better place, let alone the SCO region. But look at the hard and painful realities on the ground, China blocked for 10 years designating Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist under 1267 Al Qaeda Sanction Committee of UNSC. This was when Azhar claimed to have carried out terrorist attacks on Indian territory.

Likewise, Afghanistan is persistently accusing Pakistan of engineering terrorism in its soil, and Iran, the observer member of SCO has, charged Islamabad of sponsoring terrorism in Teheran. When Pakistan continues to be the hub and epicentre of cross-border terrorism, Beijing stands by Islamabad and indirectly supports such activities. In such a scenario, what is the sanctity, integrity and authenticity of such a Resolution? What purpose does it serve for India? Should India latch on to such a network that is Beijing-led, when ironically, China is India’s biggest threat, and countries like US expect India to be the bulwark against China.

What is SCO? How and why did it come into being? It started originally as Shanghai Five on 26 April 1996, at the behest of China, which wanted to expand its market and influence to the Central Asian region. The original five members were China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. Then SCO or Shanghai Pact came into existence in 2001 with inclusion of Uzbekistan. As Russia became increasingly wary of China’s growing influence in the region, it wanted to rope in India to counter it. At the same time, China wanted to bring in its all-weather friend Pakistan to balance India. That is how India and Pakistan became full members in 2017.

SCO is theoretically driven by the ‘Shanghai Spirit’ – harmony, non-alignment and non-interference in others’ internal matters; and the SCO charter effective from September 2013. The objectives enshrined in the charter include, “strengthening mutual trust and neighbourliness among member States research, technology and culture as well as in education, economy, energy, promoting their effective co-operation in politics, transport, tourism, environmental protection, joint efforts to maintain and ensure peace, stability and security in the region.” It seeks to fight the evils of ‘terrorism, extremism and separatism’. It further commits to an “establishment of a democratic, fair and rational new international, political and economic order.”

Quite commendable objectives indeed, but, as I said, they are purely rhetoric, hardly reflecting on the ground by China and Pakistan, both major adversaries of India. Russia, for its own weaknesses is holding on to the apron-string of China, so are the Central Asian countries. China is using its economic might to browbeat these countries into joining the alliance. Russia has had a lot of goodwill for India.

The Central Asian States would want India to play a bigger role in the region. India, any day, is preferred to China. But China benefits heavily from the interface between economy and foreign policy, as India suffers from their mismatch. The comparative trade figures of both China and India with this region validate this hypothesis. India’s trade with Russia is $10 billion, and with Central Asian countries is $2 billion, where as China’s trade with Russia is $100 billion and with Central Asia is $50 billion.

Therefore, as I have underlined many times before in this column, until India catches up economically with China, which may happen sooner than later, she has to play with other rules of the game, not what China uses, and India will have to punch above her weight in international politics. Hence, India has to be extremely sagacious in making alliances and choosing the forums she needs to engage with. SCO may not be one among these.

What were the drivers for India to join SCO, certainly not the so-called Shanghai spirit, nor the laudable objectives in the SCO charter? Our first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru projected himself to be an idealist, was easily carried away by phoney sentiments and fanciful statements, as he was by Chinese, and we were chanting Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai. Narendra Modi is said to be a hard-nosed leader. It could be that South Block and NAMO thought, Russia is pushing us into SCO, we would have the scope to deal with both the super powers in the region, China and Russia, which would help us counter Pakistan.

Secondly, India was driven by triple interests of energy security, connectivity and trade in Central Asia, that is hydro-carbon rich. Some observers argue it will give India an extra forum to interact with Pakistan in absence of SAARC. All these arguments do not hold since SCO economy and geo-politics do not favour India. On the other hand, India creates misgivings among her more reliable allies like Japan, USA, Israel, South Korea and Australia.

At the cost of repetition in this column, New Delhi should never fall back even inadvertently to its old days of non-alignment or balancing and straddling the competing interests of the emerging blocks. The US, moving close to India, is wary of New Delhi procuring S-400 anti-missile systems from Russia, allowing Huawei for 5G telecom bid, and buying oil from Iran. New Delhi will have to find substitutes for these or take US into confidence. Given Beijing’s manoeuvres in the region, New Delhi can no longer run with the hare and hunt with the hound. It has to make a choice.

Also SCO itself lacks full commitment of members. Any alliance with China is a matter of convenience, not conviction. The Central Asian countries cooperate in other forums too, like Eurasian Economic Union, Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) of Commonwealth of Independent States, and the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-building Measures in Asia (CICA) and so on. These dilute the central importance of SCO for them.

However, in international affairs, a country has to be a part of various, multiple forums. In that sense, New Delhi could continue to associate with SCO, at least to retain the past goodwill and friendship with Russia. It could expect no more from SCO. Let us face the facts.----INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)

Events & Issues

New Delhi, 19 June 2019

Jr Doctors’ Strike

SAFETY A CRITICAL ISSUE

By Dr. Oishee Mukherjee

The junior doctors’ strike in West Bengal has drawn sharp focus on safety of doctors while discharging their duties. The issue turns out critical yet again, as their colleagues across States, be it in Maharashtra, UP, Kerala, Bihar etc joined the one-day nationwide protest on Monday last called by the Indian Medical Association. On the one hand, doctors expressed solidarity with their colleagues and on the other patients were at the receiving end with many facilities at hospitals closed down.    

According to IMA estimates, over 75 per cent of doctors in the country face at least some form of violence. Its study revealed that doctors face maximum violence when providing emergency services with as many as 48.8 per cent of such incidents reported from intensive care units or after a patient had undergone surgery. And the worst-hit are the junior doctors, who have maximum interface with patients.  

The Kolkata High Court thus reminding the striking doctors of the Hippocratic Oath to ensure welfare of patients is not much of a help, as harassment, not to speak of violence, appears to have become the norm in hospitals across the country. And as is typical of a government, Mamata Banerjee’s administration is now to report back on steps taken, if any, on the attack on junior doctors, at the NRS Medical College and hospital, after the death of a patient. 

Likewise, at best Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan says he has written to all States requesting Chief Ministers ‘to bring specific laws to protect doctors.’ Plus, he assures ‘at central level, if we can do something, we’ll revisit the issue...Everybody has to be sure about it that we are well-intentioned. The aim is to ensure that such incidents are never repeated in this country.”

The problem, however, is not simple to resolve, and wishing strike by the doctors and health workers cannot be wished away. More so, as meagre facilities impact their work, as there is poor allocation of funds by both the Centre and State Governments for health. In fact, the country’s allocation in health sector is below 2 per cent of GDP, which is much less than other comparable emerging economies. The distressing fact is that there is no pressure and worse our political leaders are quite oblivious to the sorry state of affairs in the country’s government hospitals. 

Every day these hospitals are flooded with people and it is indeed difficult with the existing infrastructure in most hospitals specially in States like Bengal, to tackle the unending stream of patients. One is well aware of the fact that admission in hospitals, not just in Bengal but in most States of Eastern India, is indeed hindered due to severe scarcity of beds. 

Apart from this, very few hospitals have modern equipments, more OTs and necessary infrastructure to treat very critical patients, who may need to be operated within a few hours. Like Mamata many others have too voiced concern at treatment being stopped to needy patients through strikes but have never said that the number of hospitals in the State is inadequate. What they fail to address is why patients have to travel long distances to come to Kolkata or other cosmopolitan cities to get specialised treatment?

There is little endeavour by the authorities, spanning across major political parties and governments, to increase the number of hospitals and ensure there are at least one or two big and specialised hospital in each district and two or three in each sub-division with adequate doctors, specialist doctors and nurses.

Noted cardiac surgeon, Dr Devi Shetty among others has repeatedly emphasised the need to increase the number of hospitals as also number of seats in graduate and post graduate courses in medical and dental sectors. The lack of health infrastructure has been discussed and debated at length in the powers of corridor but no concrete plan endorsed.

One obvious reason may be due to the fact that those at helm of decision making -- whether politicians or bureaucrats -- come from the upper echelons of society and are least affected by the condition of government hospitals where the ordinary mass of people go. They would end up either getting admitted hospitals like AIIMS in Delhi and other cities or SSKM in Kolkata, where VIP wards are reserved for them and specialists doing regular rounds. Plus, the luxury of fancy private hospitals, now in business, is where they can get treated with no pinch to the wallet as the treatment amount would be reimbursed!

Who cares about the agony of the poor? Those who have to travel long distances to get to a specialised hospital, end up in long queues for enrolling themselves, long wait for the doctor, etc, would be on the edge and are bound to have a negative reaction, if  something goes drastically wrong.

Thus, telling doctors about their duty is quite easy but what about the State accepting its duty and obligation to provide health care to all citizens, specially those belonging to the lower strata of the population? It is a well known fact that in most districts people are sent from health centres and government hospitals to private nursing homes due to lack of infrastructure to treat patients. Is the government unaware of the fact that health has emerged as an area of business, where profits are assured unlike many other business areas?

Therefore, it can very well be said that since the Government has not cared for the health of the community, the burden cannot be transferred to the doctors. The best students join the medical and dental profession and passing the buck on to them, denying them the right to protest against violence and harassment of their fellow brethren is clear unfair.   

And while some may quote a judgment way back in 1996, it rarely will help. The order stated: “Article 21 imposes an obligation on the State to safeguard the right to life of every person. Preservation of human life is thus of paramount importance. The government hospitals run by the State and the medical officers employed therein are duty bound to extend medical assistance for preserving human life. Failure on the part of a government hospital to provide timely medical treatment to a person in need of such treatment results in violation of his right to life guaranteed under Article 21”. 

However, there is no such judgment, which has gone deep into the problem of around hundred patients flooding each department in government hospitals. There is no available data on how many government hospitals are needed to cater to the needs of the economically weaker sections and the middle income groups in the country. Time it is done.

The IMA and doctors’ organisations such as Alliance of Doctors for Ethical Healthcare (ADEH) have had to insist that the Government frame a Central law to check violence against health care workers in hospitals. In a letter to Union Home Minister, the IMA has urged “to bring a Central legislation in the form of special law against violence on doctors and health care establishments”. 

While the legislation is indeed welcome, both Central and State government should also work out a plan of extending health care services in the district and sub-divisional towns to ease the pressure on government doctors in metro cities. Earlier the better, as doctors will get more time to attend to patients and treat them well. As the adage goes a stitch in time will save nine. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)