PM calls for Prison Reforms and Repeal of Obsolete Laws

Prime Minister has suggested prison reforms to improve jail management and recommended repealing obsolete criminal laws, at the national annual police meet.

Issues with Prisons in India

• Overcrowding: 149 jails in the country are overcrowded by more than 100% and that 8 are overcrowded by margins of a 500%. Overcrowding takes affects the already constrained prison resources and separation between different classes of prisoners difficult.
• Under-trials: More than 65% of the prison population in India are under trials. The share of the prison population awaiting trial or sentencing in India is extremely high by international standards; for example, it is 11% in the UK, 20% in the US and 29% in France.
• Lack of legal aid: Legal aid lawyers are poorly paid, and often over-burdened with cases. Further, there is no monitoring mechanism to evaluate the quality of legal aid representation in most states.
• Miserable conditions:Prison structures in India are in dilapidated condition. Further, lack of space, poor ventilation, poor sanitation and hygiene make living conditions deplorable in Indian prisons.
• Shortage of staff:The ratio between the prison staff and the prison population is approximately 1:7. In the absence of adequate prison staff, overcrowding of prisons leads to rampant violence and other criminal activities inside the jails.
• Torture and Sexual abuse: Prisoners are subjected to inhuman psychological and physical torture. Sexual abuse of persons in custody is also part of the broader pattern of torture in custody.
• Custodial deaths:In 2015, a total of 1,584 prisoners died in jails. A large proportion of the deaths in custody were from natural and easily curable causes aggravated by poor prison conditions. Further, there have been allegations of custodial deaths due to torture
• Underpaid and unpaid labor: Labor is extracted from prisoners without paying proper wages.
• Discrimination:According to Humans Rights Watch, a “rigid” class system exists in Indian prisons. On the other hand, socio-economically disadvantaged prisoners are deprived of basic human dignity.
• Inadequate security measures and management: Poor security measures and prison management often leads to violence among inmates and resultant injury and in some cases death.
• Lack of mental healthcare: In prison the problem of the overcrowding, poor sanitary facilities, lack of physical and mental activities, lack of decent health care, increase the likelihood of health problems. Further, mental health care has negligible focus in Indian prisons.
• Colonial system:Absence of reformative approach in the Indian prison system has not only resulted in ineffective integration with society but also has failed to provide productive engagement opportunities for prisoners after their release

SC Judgements in this regard

• Through a number of judgements {like Maneka Gandhi case(Right to life and personal with dignity), Ramamurthy vs. State of Karnataka (on conditions of prisons) Prem Sankar Shukla vs. Delhi Administration (no handcuffing).
• The Supreme has upheld three broad principles regarding imprisonment and custody.

1. A person in prison does not become a non-person;
2. A person in prison is entitled to all human rights within the limitations of imprisonment
3. There is no justification for aggravating the suffering already inherent in the process of incarceration.

Major legislations for prison reforms

• The Prisons Act, 1894:It contains various provisions relating to health, employment, duties of jail officers, medical examination of prisoners, prison offenses etc.
• Transfer of Prisoners Act, 1950– The Act deals with the transfer of a prisoner from state to another state
• Repatriation of Prisoners Act, 2003:The act enables the transfer of foreign prisoners to the country of their origin to serve the remaining part of their sentence. It also enables the transfer of prisoners of Indian origin convicted by a foreign court to serve their sentence in India
• Model Prison Manual 2016:It aims at bringing in basic uniformity in laws, rules and regulations governing the administration of prisons and the management of prisoners across all the states and UTs in India
• Legal service Authority Act, 1987:According to the law, a person in custody is entitled to free legal aid.

Committees and Recommendations

Various Committees and Commissions have been constituted by the State Governments as well as the Government of India to study and make suggestions for improving the prison conditions and administration.

(1) Mulla Committee, 1983

The major recommendations of the committee included:

• The setting up of a National Prison Commission to oversee the modernization of the prisons in India
• Putting a ban on clubbing together juvenile offenders with the hardened criminals in prison and enacting a comprehensive and protective legislation for the security and protective care of delinquent juveniles
• Segregation of mentally ill prisoners to a mental asylum
• The conditions of prison should be improved by making adequate arrangements for food, clothing, sanitation and ventilation etc.
• Lodging of under trial in jails should be reduced to bare minimum and they should be kept separate from the convicted prisoners

(2) Krishna Iyer Committee, 1987

• The committee mandated to study the condition of women prisoners in the country.
• It recommended induction of more women in the police force in view of their special role in tackling women and child offenders.

(3) National Policy on Prison Reforms and Correctional Administration, 2007

• In 2005, the Government of India constituted a high-powered committee under the chairmanship of the Director General, the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D).
• This committee used the reports of Justice Mulla Committee Report & Justice Krishna Iyer Committee and made several additional and new recommendations.

(4) Justice Amitava Roy Committee, 2018

• In 2018 the Supreme Court constituted Amitava Roy Committee to look into the aspect of jail reforms across the country and make recommendations on several aspects, including overcrowding in prisons.
• It recommended- Special fast-track courts should be set up to deal exclusively with petty offences which have been pending for more than 5 years.
• Further, accused persons who are charged with petty offences and that granted bail, but who are unable to arrange surety should be released on a Personal Recognizance (PR) Bond.

Steps taken

• Modernization of Prisons scheme: The scheme for modernization of prisons was launched in 2002-03 with the objective of improving the condition of prisons, prisoners and prison personnel. Various components included the construction of new jails, repair and renovation of existing jails, improvement in sanitation and water supply etc.
• E-Prisons Project: It aims to introduce efficiency in prison management through digitization.
• Open Prisons: The All-India Committee on Jail Reform constituted in 1980 recommended the government to set up and develop open prisons in each state and UT similar to the Sanganer open camp in Rajasthan.

Way Forward

• Urgent repair: There is a dire need to address the issue of overcrowding in Indian jails. Further, sincere efforts should be made to improve living conditions which include better sanitation and hygiene, and adequate food and clothing.
• Address health concerns: There should be an urgent focus on addressing health issues and ensuring access to medical care among prisoners. Women’s health needs, covering mental, physical, sexual and reproductive health, require particular attention.
• Reform offenders: Efforts should be made to reform offenders in the social stratification by giving them appropriate correctional treatment.
• Training and rehabilitation: Initiatives should be taken to impart vocational training to prisoners and ensure proper rehabilitation and social inclusion after release
• Legal aid: The government must take initiative to improve the conditions of under-trial prisoners which can be achieved by speeding of the trial procedure, simplification of the bail procedure and providing effective legal aid
• More open prisons: Open prison as an effective institution for the rehabilitation of offenders has been highlighted by Supreme Court as late as 1979 in the Dharambeer v State of U.P case. Open prisons should be encouraged as correctional facilities.

Oxfam Inequality Report: Taxing The ‘Obscenely’ Wealthy May Not Be The Right Solution

Why in the news?

• One of the most significant economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic has been the widening income recovery gap between the upper and lower income groups.
• The Oxfam ‘Survival of the Richest’ report collaborates this with “obscene” wealth concentration and uneven income growth.
• According to the report, there are now 166 billionaires in India, up from 106 in 2020.
  • It is estimated that wealth is concentrated among the top deciles, with the top 30% accounting for 90% of the wealth.
• This contrasts with the global figure, where the richest 1% are estimated to have captured nearly two-thirds of new wealth.
• While the reported figures may compel the reasonable to advocate for an equalizing wealth tax — a recommendation that the UN has long considered; to an expert, the report does little more than scrape the surface.

Background

• According to Oxfam India’s report on inequality in India, released recently, only 5% of Indians own more than 60% of the country’s wealth, while the bottom 50% own only 3%.
• According to the report “Survival of the Richest: The India Story,” between 2012 and 2021, 40% of the wealth created in India went to just 1% of the population, and only 3% of the wealth went to the bottom 50%.
• The total number of billionaires in India increased from 102 in 2020 to 166 billionaires in 2022.
• The combined wealth of India’s top 100 has surpassed $660 billion (Rs 54.12 lakh crore), enough to fund the entire Union Budget for more than 18 months.

Key Highlights

• When the economy is facing an unprecedented rise in prices and a sluggish recovery in job prospects, it is natural to argue for an increase in taxes that are quick to collect and affect only a few.
• Oxfam’s global report recommends a wealth tax, a tax on unrealized capital gains, and higher corporate taxes. It also claims that indirect taxes are regressive.
• The pursuit of such reforms necessitates a nuanced understanding of the existing taxes. That is, income, capital gains, and wealth taxes are all interconnected, and changes cannot be recommended in isolation.
• If the income tax is significantly higher and capital gains are implemented, the wealth tax must be calibrated accordingly.
• Furthermore, the mix of taxes raised by a country is determined by its institutional capacity, tax base structure, and desire for simplification. The report avoids these issues in favor of optics.

About Wealth Tax

• Wealth tax is defined as a direct tax that is levied on the assets owned by individuals and Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs) even though these assets may not generate any income. It was brought in to achieve social objectives in society and to bring parity among taxpayers.
• Wealth tax was abolished in Budget 2016 as the cost incurred for recovering taxes exceeded the underlying benefits of the tax.

Tax Collection

• The report raises two important points:
  • the lower corporate tax rate in lieu of incentives and the implementation of GST, both of which are viewed as costly experiments in tax policy in India.
• The corporate tax cuts reduced the statutory tax rate from 30% to 25.175%. According to the statement of revenue foregone, the “cost” of this measure is Rs 1.03 lakh crore.
• However, it is obvious that this is not the equivalent of revenue that would have been realized in the absence of the incentive.
• The jury is still out on the measure’s investment impact, but where such a tax cut would have positively impacted investments, the same revenue would not have been realized in its absence.
• Furthermore, comparing corporate tax collections is unjust because the simplified corporate tax regime was implemented after 2019.
• Even in FY2021, tax collections exceeded pre-pandemic levels. The paper also criticizes the GST for having a disproportionate impact on the lowest deciles.
• The paper uses NSS 2011-12 to show that the bottom 50% of the population pays six times more indirect tax as a percentage of income than the top 10%.

Current Tax System

• The current income tax system exempts incomes up to Rs 5 lakh from taxation, and the GST rate structure places a higher burden on luxuries.
• In fact, despite the K-shaped recovery, the upward trend in GST collections after 2021, accompanied by higher retail sales of luxury goods, suggests that the tax may, on the contrary, be progressive.
• Furthermore, an indirect tax can be more efficient in a tax system where direct tax compliance is limited. As a result, the report downplays the importance of indirect taxes.
• In terms of direct taxes, India implemented a surcharge on top incomes in recent years, raising the marginal tax rate to 42.74 percent.

How Can Taxing India’s Billionaires Aid Inequality?

• According to the report, taxing India’s top ten wealthiest individuals at 5% could raise enough funds to return children to school.
• Furthermore, if India’s billionaires were taxed once at 2% on their entire wealth, it would fund the country’s nutritional needs for the next three years, amounting to Rs 40,423 crore.
• A one-time 5% tax on the country’s top ten billionaires (Rs 1.37 lakh crore) is more than 1.5 times the funds estimated by the Health and Family Welfare Ministry (Rs 86,200 crore) and the Ministry of Ayush (Rs 3,050 crore) for fiscal year 2022-23.

What are the concerns?

• Although the report conveys the right message about rising inequalities and the need for tax reform, it misplaces this in generalization.
• A siloed approach to tax policy, with interlinkages between different taxes that apply to the same base, is ineffective.
• Historically, countries such as India used a wealth tax, but the collections were pitiful, making it a costly tax to implement. Furthermore, taxes do not cover everything.
• Other macroeconomic policies, such as low interest rates and regulatory interventions, must not be overlooked.
• According to estimates, the revenue that India is expected to earn from the implementation of the wealth tax would result in a tax gain of 10% of current direct tax collections.
• The report leaves one wondering why the same goal cannot be achieved by gradually increasing overall tax progressivity rather than relying on a tax that is precariously dependent on volatile asset prices.

What is the way forward?

• The rising wealth inequality necessitates immediate interventions to reduce existing inequality by taxing the wealthy and improving access to public services for the poor.
• The report also suggests lowering the tax burden on the poor and marginalized by lowering the slabs of the goods and services tax on essential commodities, which comprise the majority of the poor and middle classes’ spending habits, and raising taxes on luxury goods.
• It has proposed measures to improve access to public services such as health and education, such as increasing the budgetary allocation for health to 2.5% of GDP by 2025 and that for education to the global benchmark of 6% of GDP.

Places in news: Jagannath Puri Temple

Odisha Governor’s suggestion that foreigners and non-Hindus should be allowed to enter Puri’s famed Jagannath temple has not gone down well with traditionalists and political leaders alike.

Why in news?

• It has been the practice for centuries — even though there is no clearly articulated reason for it.
• Some historians believe that multiple attacks on the Temple by foreign invaders might have led the servitors to impose restrictions on the entry of non-Hindus.
• Others have said that this was the practice from the time the Temple was built.
• In 1984, the servitors famously opposed the entry of Indira Gandhi inside the Temple, saying she had married a non-Hindu.

About Jagannath Temple

• The Jagannath Temple is an important Vaishnavite temple dedicated to Jagannath, a form of Sri Krishna in Puri in Odisha.
• The present temple was rebuilt from the 10th century onwards, on the site of an earlier temple, and begun by Anantavarman Chodaganga Deva, the first king of the Eastern Ganga dynasty.
• The Puri temple is famous for its annual Ratha Yatra, or chariot festival, in which the three principal deities are pulled on huge and elaborately decorated temple cars.

Its architecture

• With its sculptural richness and fluidity of the Oriya style of temple architecture, it is one of the most magnificent monuments of India.
• The huge temple complex covers an area of over 400,000 square feet and is surrounded by a high fortified wall.
• This 20 feet high wall is known as Meghanada Pacheri.
• Another wall known as kurma bedha surrounds the main temple.

The temple has four distinct sectional structures, namely:

1. Deula, Vimana or Garba griha (Sanctum sanctorum) where the triad deities are lodged on the ratnavedi (Throne of Pearls). In Rekha Deula style;
2. Mukhashala (Frontal porch);
3. Nata mandir/Natamandapa, which is also known as the Jagamohan (Audience Hall/Dancing Hall), and
4. Bhoga Mandapa (Offerings Hall)

Rural Healthcare system

Context:

• Rural Health is a state subject. Every state is responsible for raising the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people and the improvement of public health as among its primary duties.
• Rural India is home to 68 per cent of India’s total population, and half of them live below the poverty line- struggling for better and easy access to health care and services.
• Health issues confronted by rural people are many and diverse ranging from severe malaria to uncontrolled diabetes from a badly infected wound to cancer.
• A huge improvement has been recorded when the government launched the National Rural Health Mission.

Rural healthcare system in India:

• The health care infrastructure in rural areas has been developed as a three tier system.
• As on March 2011, there are 148124 sub centres, 23887 Primary Health Centres and 4809 Community Health centres functioning in the country
• In the Indian healthcare system, sub-centres (SC) are the first point of contact for a patient, catering to a population of 3,000-5,000.
• This is succeeded by a PHC, which is required to look after the daily needs of 20,000-30,000 people.
• CHCs provide referrals and access to specialists, catering to 80,000-120,000 people.
• Urban PHCs — part of the National Health Mission’s efforts to set up multi-tier health centres caters to a population of 50,000-75,000
• Components of an effective healthcare system
• Availability of manpower
• Adequate infrastructure
• Robust policy framework

Challenges in India

• India’s rural healthcare system continues to be plagued by shortfall on two critical fronts — doctors and infrastructure.
• Shortage of qualified doctors– There is a shortage of 83.2 per cent of surgeons, 74.2 per cent of obstetricians and gynaecologists, 79.1 per cent of physicians and 81.6 per cent of paediatricians, according to the Rural Health Statistics 2021-2022 released last week.
• The number of doctors at PHCs has shrunk to 30,640 in 2022 from 31,716 in 2021. Lab technicians, nursing staff and radiographers at PHCs and CHCs have all recorded a marginal increase between 2021 and 2022. Up from 22,723 to 22,772, from 79,044 to 79,933 and from 2,418 to 2,448, respectively.
• Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Odisha face the highest shortage in surgeons, obstetricians / gynaecologists, paediatricians and radiographers at CHCs across the country.
• Poor infrastructure – Less than half the Primary Health Centres (PHC), 45.1 per cent, function on a 24×7 basis. Of the 5,480 functioning Community Health Centres (CHC), only 541 have all four specialists
• Overburdened facilities – PHCs are overburdened across the board, with SCs currently looking after more than 5,000 people, PHCs catering to 36,049 people and CHCs to 164,027 people. This, coupled with a human resource shortage, plagues access to adequate and quality healthcare.
• Low number of support staff – The number of auxiliary nurse midwives at SCs has decreased to 207,587 in 2021 from 214,820 in 2022. The shortage was most pronounced in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and Uttarakhand.

National Rural Health Mission (NRHM)

• The National Rural Health Mission (2005-12) seeks to provide effective healthcare to rural population throughout the country with special focus on 18 states, which have weak public health indicators and/or weak infrastructure such as Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Mizoram, etc.
• The Mission is an articulation of the commitment of the Government to raise public spending on Health from 0.9% of GDP to 2-3% of GDP.

Objectives of NRHM

• Architectural correction of the health system to enable it to effectively handle increased allocations as promised under the National Common Minimum Programme and promote policies that strengthen public health management and service delivery in the country.
• Provision of a female health activist in each village; a village health plan prepared through a local team headed by the Health & Sanitation Committee of the Panchayat
• Train and enhance capacity of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) to own, control and manage public health services
• Promote access to improved healthcare at household level through the female health activist (ASHA)
• Integration of vertical Health & Family Welfare Programmes, optimal utilization of funds & infrastructure, and strengthening delivery of primary healthcare.
• It seeks to revitalize local health traditions and mainstream AYUSH into the Community Health Centre (CHC)
• It seeks decentralization of programmes for district management of health and to address the inter-State and inter-district disparities
• It also seeks to improve access of rural people, especially poor women and children, to equitable, affordable, accountable and effective primary healthcare.

Achievements:

• The allopathic doctors at PHCs have increased from 20,308 in 2005 to 30,640 in 2022, which is about 50.9% increase.
• The specialist doctors at Community Health Centers (CHCs) have increased from 3,550 in 2005 to 4,485 in 2022

Other healthcare schemes:

Reproductive, Maternal, Neonatal, Child and Adolescent health

• Universal Immunisation Programme
• Mission Indradhanush (MI)
• Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY)

National Nutritional Programmes

• National Iodine Deficiency Disorders Control Programme
• MAA (Mothers’ Absolute Affection) Programme for Infant and Young Child Feeding

Communicable diseases

• National AIDS Control Programme (NACP)
• Pulse Polio Programme

Non-communicable diseases

• National Tobacco Control Programme(NTCP)
• National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases & Stroke (NPCDCS)
• National Mental Health Programme

Way forward

• Recently, the government has scrapped custom duties on drugs and test kits used to treat AIDS in an effort to cut prices across the country.
• With a policy to double spending on health and devise innovative methods of health management there is renewed hope that the people of the country will have greater access to facilities and be healthier.
• The promise of Health Assurance  is an important catalyst for the framing of a New Health Policy in a developing India.

Haiderpur Wetland

The Union Environment Ministry has recently directed Uttar Pradesh to immediately stop the further draining of the Haiderpur wetland and ensure that dewatering the protected Ramsar site for farming needs takes place only when migratory birds are not nesting at the location.

About Haiderpur wetland:

• It is a human-made wetland that was formed in 1984 by the construction of the Madhya Ganga Barrage on a floodplain of the River Ganga.
• Location: Muzaffarnagar-Bijnor border in Uttar Pradesh.
• It is located within the boundaries of Hastinapur Wildlife Sanctuary.
• This provides habitat for various animal and plant species, including around 30 species of plants, 300 species of birds (102 waterbirds), 40 fish and more than ten mammal species.
• It supports more than 15 globally threatened species, such as the critically endangered gharial and the endangered hog deer, black-bellied tern, steppe eagle, Indian skimmer and gold mahseer.
• It has been recognised as the 47th Ramsar site of India in 2021.

About Ramsar Convention (Convention on Wetlands of International Importance):

• It is an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.
• The Convention was adopted in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971 and came into force in 1975.
• It is the only global treaty that focuses specifically on wetlands.
• One key instrument of the Convention is its List of Wetlands of International Importance (the “Ramsar List”).