UCC, Amended IT rules for social media, 21.4 Lac TB cases in India

Many States seeks to bring UCC

Gujarat Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi announced the formation of a committee to implement a uniform civil code (UCC) in the state. In May this year, Uttarakhand announced a committee led by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjana Desai to carry out a similar exercise. Assam and Himachal Pradesh too have supported the idea of a UCC. The Constitution lists the UCC among the Directive Principles of State Policy, which makes it a desirable objective, but it is not justiciable.

What would a Uniform Civil Code mean in India?

1. A UCC would provide for one law for the entire country, applicable to all religious communities in their personal matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption, etc.
2. Article 44 of the Indian constitution says, “The state shall endeavour to secure a Uniform Civil Code for the citizens throughout the territory of India.”
3. Article 44 is one of the Directive Principles of State Policy described in Part IV of the Constitution.
4. According to Article 37, “The provisions contained in this Part shall not be enforceable by any court, but the principles therein laid down are nevertheless fundamental in the governance of the country and it shall be the duty of the State to apply these principles in making laws.”
5. Part IV (Articles 36-51) covers a wide range of principles, including (apart from the UCC), the securing of equal justice and free legal aid to citizens (Art 39A), participation of workers in the management of industries (Art 43A), organisation of agriculture and animal husbandry (Art 48), protection and improvement of the environment and safeguarding of forests and wildlife (Art 48A), promotion of international peace and security (Art 51), etc.
6. Indian laws are already uniform in most civil matters — for example, The Indian Contract Act, Civil Procedure Code, Sale of Goods Act, Transfer of Property Act, Partnership Act, Evidence Act, etc.

What is the relationship between Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles?

1. The Directive Principles of State Policy follows the Fundamental Rights (Part III, Arts 12-35) in the Constitution.
2. The Fundamental Rights lie at the heart of the Constitution, and are justiciable — that is, they are legally enforceable in a court of law.
3. In its landmark Minerva Mills judgment (1980), the Supreme Court held: “Indian Constitution is founded on the bed-rock of the balance between Parts III (Fundamental Rights) and IV (Directive Principles). To give absolute primacy to one over the other is to disturb the harmony of the Constitution.”
4. Article 31C says that if a law is made to implement any of the Directive Principles, it cannot be challenged on the ground of being violative of the Fundamental Rights under Articles 14 and 19.

What is UCC?

The UCC refers to a common set of laws governing personal matters such as marriage, divorce, adoption, inheritance and succession for all citizens, irrespective of religion.

Constitutional provisions suggesting UCC:

4. Article 44:

This Article of the Constitution makes a reference to a UCC and says, “The State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India.”

This is in the chapter dealing with the Directive Principles of State Policy and is therefore presumed to be advisory in nature.

• Article 37:

States that the vision of a Uniform Civil Code (along with other directive principles) is enshrined in the Indian Constitution as a goal towards which the nation should strive, but it isn’t a fundamental right or a Constitutional guarantee.

One can’t approach the court to demand a UCC. But that doesn’t mean courts can’t opine on the matter.

Arguments For UCC

• Uniformity and reduced discord:
  • Common Code would enable uniform civil principles to be applied to the entire Nation.
  • If and when the whole population will start following the same laws, chances are there that it would bring more peace to the living and reduce riots.
• Secularism and Women’s Rights:
  • UCC would help end gender discrimination and overall discrimination on religious grounds and strengthen the secular fabric of the nation.
  • Therefore UCC could bring all communities together to ensure Women the Right to a dignified life and control over their life as well as body.
• Ending unjust customs and traditions:
  • A rational common and unified personal law will help eradicate many evil, unjust and irrational customs and traditions prevalent across the communities.
  • For example, Law against Manual scavenging. It might have been a custom in the past but in a mature democracy like India, this custom cannot be justified.
• Ease of Administration:
  • UCC would make it easy to administer the huge population base of India.
• Historically, not all Muslim communities were demanding separate laws:
  • Few the Muslim communities like the Khojas and Cutchi Memons did not want to submit to separate Muslim Personal Law.
• Global Scenario:
  • The personal laws of minorities were not recognised in any of the advanced Muslim countries.
  • Eg., in Turkey and Egypt, no minority in these countries were permitted to have their own personal laws.
  • Many countries have common civil codes.

Arguments Against UCC

• Hampering diversity and multiculturalism:
  • Indian society has a unique identity in the form of its being diverse and multicultural, and unified law might do away with these unique characteristics of this nation.
• Violation of fundamental rights:
  • Religious bodies oppose a uniform civil code on the ground that it would be interference in religious affairs which would violate fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 25 of the constitution.
• May lead to communal unrest:
  • It would be a tyranny to the minority and when implemented could bring a lot of unrest in the country.
• The All India Muslim Personal Law Board stated that the laws pertaining to marriage and inheritance were part of religious injunctions for ages.

Constitutional Provisions dealing with Civil Code in India: Schedule Seven:Many of the matters pertaining to the UCC are present in item five of the Concurrent List in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution.This part demarcates the legislative powers of the Union government and the states. Under the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, Issues such as marriage, maintenance, dower, divorce and inheritance come within its purview. Many of these also find a place in item five of the Concurrent List. The Hindu Succession Act, 1956, It originally did not give daughters inheritance rights in ancestral property. They could only ask for a right to sustenance from a joint Hindu family. This disparity was removed by an amendment to the Act in 2005. Hindu Code Bill: The purpose of the bill was to reform Hindu laws, which legalised divorce, opposed polygamy and gave rights of inheritance to daughters. Amidst intense opposition to the code, a diluted version was passed via four different laws. Dr. B R Ambedkar drafted the Hindu Code Bill.

Way Forward

• The guiding principles of the Constitution itself visualize diversity and have tried to promote uniformity among peoples of different denominations.
• Gradual changes:
  • A uniform law, although highly desirable but may be counterproductive to the unity and integrity of the nation especially if applied hastily.
  • In a democracy and rule of law, a gradual progressive change and order must be brought about.
• What can be brought under uniform code?
  • Only those elements of customs and traditions should be brought into a unified law that causes injustice to individuals.
  • There are some good and equitable provisions in personal laws, which are worth incorporating into the unified law.
  • Good customs and traditions should be protected to preserve the indigenous culture associated with them. It will help India protect its strength i.e. unity in diversity.
• Codification of all personal laws as suggested by the Law Commission.
  • By codification of different personal laws, one can arrive at certain universal principles that prioritize equity rather than the imposition of a Uniform Civil Code.
• To resolve the contentious issues like UCC, common consensus of all the stakeholders is needed.

Amended IT rules for social media released

The Centre said centrally appointed appellate panels would be set up in three months to resolve social media users’ grievances. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology notified the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2022, which will pave the way for setting up of grievance appellate panels.

What the rule said?

1. The central government shall, by notification, establish one or more Grievance Appellate Committees within three months from the date of commencement of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2022.
2. Each Grievance Appellate Committee will comprise a chairperson and two whole-time members appointed by the central government.
3. The committees will have the power to pass directions to social media companies like Twitter or Facebook to remove content.
4. The committee to decide complaints against intermediaries including Twitter or Facebook for displaying obscene, pornographic content besides the content that threatens unity and integrity of India.
5. According to the notified rules, any user aggrieved by a decision of an intermediary’s own grievance officer can appeal to the government-appointed Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC) within a period of 30 days.
6. The GACs shall try to resolve the issue within 30 days and may also seek assistance from experts. The panels will adopt an online dispute resolution mechanism so that the entire appeal process, from filing of appeal to the decision thereof, is conducted digitally.
7. The grievance appellate panel will deal with such appeal “expeditiously” and make an endeavour to resolve the appeal finally within 30 calendar days from the date of receipt of the appeal.
8. At present, the social media firms must have an in-house grievance redressal officer and designate executives to co-ordinate with law enforcement officials.
9. Under the amended rules, the companies would be required to acknowledge complaints from users within 24 hours and resolve them within 15 days or 72 hours in case of an information takedown request.

Key test of its heaviest rocket’s engine

The flight acceptance hot test of CE-20 engine has been carried out in the High Altitude Test facility of ISRO Propulsion Complex (IPRC) at Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu. The engine is assigned for the LVM3-M3 mission identified for launching the next 36 OneWeb India-1 satellites, the Indian Space Research Organisation said.

What

1. These satellites of OneWeb, the London-based satellite communications company, are expected to be launched by the NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), the ISRO’s commercial arm, aboard LVM3 early next year.
2. This flight acceptance test comes within days of the launch of the first set of 36 OneWeb satellites by the NSIL from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC- SHAR) in Sriharikota on 23 October 2022.
3. From Ladakh to Kanyakumari and Gujarat to Arunachal Pradesh, OneWeb will bring secured solutions not only to enterprises but also to towns, villages, municipalities and schools, including the hardest-to-reach areas across the country.
4. OneWeb’s commitment to enhance connectivity in India is backed by Bharti Global, its largest investor.
5. NSIL, a central public sector enterprise under the Department of Space, had earlier signed two launch service contracts with the Network Access Associated Limited (OneWeb) for launching a total of 72 OneWeb LEO (low earth orbit) satellites on-board ISRO’s LVM3.

Flashback

1. LVM3, ISRO’s heaviest rocket, is capable of launching a four ton class of satellite to Geosynchronous Transfer orbit.
2. LVM3 (Launch Vehicle Mark 3) is a three-stage vehicle with two solid motor strap-ons, a liquid propellant core stage and a cryogenic stage.

Demand grows, but DNA tests fall under a grey area

• DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms.
• DNA is made up of a chain of molecules called Nucleotides.
• Each nucleotide contains a nitrogen base, a sugar group and a phosphate group.
• Four possible nitrogen bases can be present in DNA; Adenine (A), Thymine (T), Guanine (G) and Cytosine (C).
• Each molecule of DNA is a double helix formed from two complementary strands of nucleotides held together by hydrogen bonds between G-C and A-T base pairs.
• DNA was first recognized and identified by the Swiss biologist Johannes Friedrich Miescher in 1869 during his research on white blood cells.
• The DNA structure is described as a double helix.
• The double helix structure of a DNA molecule was discovered later through the experimental data by James Watson and Francis Crick.
• Human genome is composed of 46 DNA molecules of 24 distinct types.

Concerns of DNA testing:

• DNA tests are considered as occupying a grey area in legal and moral terms, oscillating between protection from self-incrimination and encroachment on individual privacy to the “eminent need” to unearth the truth.
• They can be of help as evidence in a criminal case or in proving a claim of marital infidelity or paternity.
• DNA Forensics Laboratory Private Ltd., accredited with the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL), says it tests 300 to 400 samples a month on private requests and court orders. The numbers were only 30 to 40 till five years ago.
• The Supreme Court has held that compelling an unwilling person to undergo a DNA test would be a violation of personal liberty and right to privacy, turning the spotlight on a technology that aids the cause of justice but violates privacy.
• Women’s rights activists hold that a DNA test is the only tool which can deliver justice in cases of abandonment of mothers and children.
• Determining paternity is often considered essential to secure financial support from an estranged partner.

21.4 LaC TB Cases Notified In India In 2021: Health Ministry

• According to the Global TB Report 2022 from the World Health Organization (WHO), which was published on October 27.
• The incidence of tuberculosis in India is 210 per 100,000 people in 2021, down from the baseline year of 2015 (when it was 256 per lakh), a drop of 18%, or 7 percentage points more than the 11% global average.

What is WHO Global Tuberculosis Report 2022?

• The WHO Global Tuberculosis Report 2022 offers a thorough and current analysis of the TB epidemic as well as developments in the disease’s prevention, diagnosis, and treatment at the international, regional, and national levels.
• This is carried out in line with international TB commitments, plans, and goals.
• As is customary, the WHO’s yearly rounds of data collection from national ministries of health served as the primary data source for the 2022 edition of the report.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) has published a global TB report every year since 1997.

Highlights of report

• The WHO report estimates that 10.6 million individuals contracted tuberculosis (TB) in 2021, up 4.5% from 2020, and that 1.6 million people passed away from the disease (including 187 000 among HIV-positive people).
• The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a damaging impact on access to TB diagnosis and treatment and the burden of TB disease.
• Global TB objectives are not on pace, and progress made in the years leading up to 2019 has slowed, stopped, or even reversed.
• Reductions in the reported number of cases of TB in 2020 and 2021 indicate that more people may have undiagnosed and untreated TB, which may have led to an increase in TB mortality and community infection transmission.
• India, Indonesia, and the Philippines, which together accounted for 67% of the global total, were the three nations that contributed the majority of the reduction in 2020. They made some progress in 2021, but they were still responsible for 60% of the global decline from 2019 to 2021.
• Bangladesh (2020), Lesotho (2020 and 2021), Myanmar (2020 and 2021), Mongolia (2021), and Viet Nam were other high-TB burden nations with significant relative year-to-year reductions (>20%). (2021).
• The success rate for those receiving TB treatment in 2020 was 86% globally, the same as in 2019, indicating that the standard of care was upheld during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The global number of people provided with TB preventive treatment recovered in 2021, to close to 2019 levels, and the global target for provision of treatment to people living with HIV was surpassed.
• Three high TB burden countries have reached or passed the first milestones of the End TB Strategy for both reductions in TB incidence and TB deaths: Kenya (in 2018), the United Republic of Tanzania (in 2019) and Zambia (in 2021).

India

• The report has emphasised that India has, in fact, outperformed other nations over time on key parameters.
• The incidence of tuberculosis in India has decreased by 18% from the baseline year of 2015 (when it was 256 per lakh of the population), which is 7 percentage points better than the 11% global average.
• The incidence is projected to be 210 per 100,000 people in 2021.
• Additionally, according to this data, India is ranked 36th in the world for incidence rates (from largest to smallest incidence numbers).
• The WHO Report also highlights the significant influence that diet and undernutrition play in the emergence of active TB illness.
• The Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana, a nutrition support program for the TB Program, has proven to be essential for the weak in this regard. Through a Direct Benefit Transfer programme, India provided cash transfers to TB sufferers totaling 89 million dollars (INR 670 crores) in 2020 and 2021.

Reason behind India’s progress

• This success can be attributed to an array of forward-looking measures such as the mandatory notification policy to ensure all cases are reported to the government.
• Intensified door-to-door Active Case Finding drives to screen patients and ensure no household is missed, has been a pillar of the Programme
• More than 22 crore persons had TB screenings in 2021. The goal has been to uncover and identify more instances in order to halt the disease’s further spread in the neighbourhood, which has led to the decrease in incidence.
• India has expanded its diagnostic capacity to support detection efforts for this reason as well. Today, molecular diagnostics created domestically have helped spread diagnosis to every region of the nation.
• There are more than 4,760 molecular diagnostic devices in India, covering every district.

About The National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP)

• The National Strategic Plan for TB Elimination was started with the objective of eliminating TB by 2025.
• By 2025, five years before the Sustainable Development Goals, the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP), formerly known as the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP), seeks to strategically eliminate India’s TB burden.
• It is in charge of implementing the five-year National Strategic Plans for TB Elimination of the Government of India.
• With a focus on addressing TB patients seeking care from private providers and undiagnosed TB in high-risk communities, this multifaceted strategy aims to identify all TB patients.
• Numerous progressive policies have been put into place, including crucial programmes like the Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana (NPY), which assisted in meeting the nutritional needs of TB patients, particularly the underserved.
• 32% of all TB patients have received notification from the private sector as a result of the domestic setup and JEET initiative’s rollout of Patient Provider Support Agencies (PPSA) throughout 250 districts.
• Building on Universal Drug Susceptibility Testing (UDST) for all diagnosed TB cases the programme has added 3,760 NAAT machines across the country till 2021 ensuring that patients are diagnosed with drug-resistant TB at the very outset and are put on correct treatment plans on a timely basis.
• By December 2022, more than 1,50,000 Ayushman Bharat – Health and Wellness Centers will be operational, enabling decentralised primary healthcare, including TB care, at the community level.
• The program also started developing community engagement initiatives including a Jan Andolan against TB.
• In order to reach out to the underprivileged and marginalized and assist patients in receiving care, the organization has chosen more than 12,000 TB champions.
• Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyan launched in September 2022, a groundbreaking program designed to supplement nutritional support for people receiving treatment for tuberculosis. Over 10,45,269 patients across the country have received help from 40,492 contributors as of this writing.