26 August 2023 : Indian Express
Indian Express
26-August–2023
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1. MONSOON WORRIES
Context:
- After a wet July that made up for its delayed onset in June more than it normally does, the southwest monsoon has entered an extended dry phase.
- This has led to concerns related to the availability of water resources which ultimately would affect the production of crops leading to a host of other factors.
Current Scenario:
- The current month has so far seen the country receive nearly 31 per cent below-normal (long period average) rainfall, converting accumulative seasonal surplus of 4.2 percent during June-July into a 7.1 percent deficit as on August 25.
- Much of this deficient/subpar rain has been concentrated in eastern, southern and central India.
- Karnataka has already initiated an exercise for assessment of crop conditions as a precursor to declaring drought, even as pressure is mounting on the ruling government in Maharashtra to follow suit.
- Overall sowing of kharif crops, barring pulses, has been satisfactory and higher than last year, due to the monsoon’s good run from the last week of June through July. But the dry August and not much of a revival being forecast for the next one week is raising concerns over the crop now in vegetative growth stage.
Real Concerns:
- The real worry, however, may not be with the kharif crop which farmers may be able to salvage with one more shower or even the available moisture.
- Instead, it would be with the wheat, mustard, onion, potato and other crops to be planted in the upcoming rabi season.
- The Central Water Commission’s latest data on water in 146 major reservoirs show these at 78.6 per cent of last year’s and 93.9 per cent of the 10-year-average levels for this time.
- With El Niño’s effects beginning to show, there could be pressure on both irrigation reservoirs and groundwater resources that sustain the cultivation of winter spring crops which in turn may make the current food inflation not just transitory and largely limited to vegetables, but persistent and broad-based.
- Generalised food inflation is something neither the government in a year leading to national elections nor the Reserve Bank of India can afford to look through.
Way forward:
- Supply-side actions are the only way forward for which the government has taken sufficient steps already.
- It has deployed every tool from the old textbook be it curbing/banning wheat, non-basmati white rice, sugar and onion exports or imposing stocking limits on major pulses and one can expect more in the coming days.
- There are dangers with this sledge hammer approach. It has been repeatedly pointed out that they can cause long-term damage to India’s image as a reliable global supplier, while undermining the government’s own past reformist record.
- Building markets takes time and effort, while the undoing can come with the stroke of a pen.
- Supply-side management should rely primarily on liberalising imports. The government should clearly convey that the trade curbs it has imposed will be lifted at the earliest to generate confidence.
2. END RAGGING
Context:
- The suspected suicide of a first-year Jadavpur University (JU) student has cast the spotlight on the culture of torture and abuse that often passes off as a coming-of-age ritual on the country’s campuses.
- The victim’s family has alleged that he was subjected to ragging which by all accounts is a mild term to describe the humiliation and coercion senior students inflict on young entrants to colleges and universities.
- Although the law will take its course in this case. But it’s high time that education administrators and student bodies come together to find ways to end the sadistic practice that has been psychologically scarring youngsters for decades.
Why it happens and what could be done to prevent it?
- The transition from school to college or university is a critical phase in the life of students, many of whom like the first-year JU student come from small towns and rural areas.
- Their excitement at entering the portals of institutions that promise social mobility is often tempered by nervousness in an unfamiliar milieu.
- It’s upto the universities to make sure that this experience is not overwhelming but they have not always been up to this task.
- Reports in the JU case have highlighted that students who have long graduated continue to occupy hostel rooms and bully new entrants.
- In several other institutes, seniorism combines with caste, class and gender privileges to make life difficult for first-year students even after two verdicts of the Supreme Court.
Verdicts of Supreme court to end the menace:
- In 2001, the Court asked higher educational institutions (HEIs) to setup proctoral committees and create internal mechanisms to address complaints against ragging.
- In 2009, after a 19-year-old medical student was tortured to death by his seniors, the SC had constituted a committee headed by former CBI director R K Raghavan to deal with the issue of ragging.
- The panel’s recommendations were accepted by the UGC the same year where the regulator had asked HEIs to setup a committee comprising faculty, administrators and students and “promote healthy interaction between freshers and seniors”
- However, the continuing cases of bullying in these institutions suggest that these norms are either not being adhered to or not being implemented effectively.
Failure of the institution and society in protecting the minor:
- Jadavpur University failed in its duty of taking care it’s student. This criminal failure indicts an institution that has prided itself on excellent teacher-student relations and community spirit.
- It also indicts society’s neglect of a culture of torture and abuse in which its members were complicit, and the normalization of such behavior as a university coming of age.
- The regulator has noted that JU’s response to its query on the 18-year-old student’s death did not have details on the preventive measures taken to eliminate incidents of ragging.
Way Forward: How to deal with the menace?
- There should be periodic attempts to break this cycle of abuse and silence.
- Anti-Ragging Committee must be set up in all institutions and strict action should be taken against students found guilty of ragging.
- Anti-ragging vigilance should be stepped up on campus, with the Anti-Ragging Squad making midnight visits to hostels to rescue victims and identify perpetrators.
- Ragging should be identified for what it is. It is not a culture confined to educational institutions, where students enact initiation rites in ‘protected’ spaces. Fundamentally, it is a perversion of power, the same kind of sadistic violence that is publicly or privately manifested through bullying, sexual assault, domestic abuse, rape, torture, or lynching. Only then we would be able to tackle the problem and find viable solutions.
- Such violence must be addressed by society as a whole, in terms of the human right to dignity, safety and freedom from assault.
- As civil rights and gender activists have shown, institutional spaces are answerable to justice and law. Failing to safeguard them is to fail ourselves.
- According to an RTI response by the UGC this month, 25 students committed suicide since 2018 because they were ragged.
- Its high time that HEIs crack down on this brutishness and adhere to SC and UGC norms.
For Enquiry
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