WEEKLY COMPILATION OF EDITORIALS

18th  July – 23rd  July

• Sharing power with the next generations

Key Points:

• After the horrific destruction in the 20th century in two World Wars , the second ending with a wanton display of scientific progress and the destruction of thousands of innocent civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the victors of the wars vowed “never again”. 
• A new breed of global institutions was created to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, rebuild shattered economies, and maintain global peace.
• These were the United Nations headquartered in New York and the Bretton Woods institutions, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington. 
• Power in these institutions was retained by the victors: in the UN in the five member Security Council, and in the World Bank and the IMF by the United States and Europe who appoint their own at the top. 
• The UN General Assembly is theoretically democratic. 
  • But the real power, of guns and money, is controlled by the Security Council and Washington institutions. 
• The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is back in the picture to keep the centre of gravity of global power in the West.

A fresh concept

• The power struggle has heated up in and around Ukraine, camoufaged as an ideological war between democracies and dictators.
• Institutions of global governance which were supposed to guarantee peace have failed.
  • Clearly, new ideas for global governance are required. 
• A new concept of “intergenerational justice” is gaining traction as a better way of producing a more equitable global order and, hopefully, arresting mankind’s breakneck destruction of the planet despite or because of great advances in technologies.
• Older generations listening to younger generations, rather than younger people following their elders, may be a radical civilisational shift. 
• However, elders listening to youth will not be enough. 
  • Youth must also be given charge of producing the world they want to live in.
• They cannot leave solutions to the older generation whose ways of working have caused these global problems. 
• The problem is that if youth apply the same old ways which are being taught in universities and also learned where they work, they will make global problems worse

Time is running out

• The modern approach to progress, disseminated widely through “STEM” (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths) education, is to extract resources from the planet to create new products for human benefit. 
• And then to find new technological approaches to repair the damage caused to the planet by those technologies. 
  • Thus, scientific technology goes round in circles. 
• On each round, owners of technologies become wealthier. 
  • The people suffering the harm from a relentless growth of economies are advised to be patient until the size of the pie produced is large enough to share with them. 
• The climate is heating up, Inequalities are growing, People are losing their patience.
  • New ways must be found to solve complex global problems.

Theory of change

• The prevalent scientific theory of change is both “outside in” and “top down”. 
• Scientific experts try to be “objective” about the systems they study by placing their minds outside the systems. 
• From their supposedly objective perches, they try to map the system’s shapes detachedly. 
  • However, this way cannot work in socio-ecological systems. 
• Because, unlike in machines designed by engineers, social scientists and economists are situated within the systems they wish to observe objectively. 
• Unlike ‘scientific’ design thinkers who try to design systems ‘objectively’, natural systems thinkers learn to live with and within the systems that give them life. 
• The global approach to governance is “outside in” and also “top down”. 
• Many disciplines must be brought together to understand the social, economic, and physical facets of complex issues such as climate change.
  • Therefore, central coordination seems essential for large-scale change. 
• This is the standard model of a hierarchical organisation, which is applied in the corporate sector, in national governments, and in international development organisations too.
• The problem is this is the wrong approach for solving complex global problems.
  • Because experts, remote from the diverse ways in which these complex problems manifest themselves on the ground, are not equipped to find effective solutions for large-scale outcomes. 
• Since standard, “one size”solutions cannot fit all, not only do their solutions not work well but trust also breaks down between the leaders on top of large international organisations (and the experts who advise them) and people on the ground. 
• This is a principal cause of the rise of populism and revolts against “the Establishment” of ideas and institutions governing the world.
• A new configuration, the G7, was formed in the 1970s when the Bretton Woods institutions seemed unable to prevent the global economic crisis caused by large “oil shocks”. 
  • The United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, and Italy formed the G6. 
  • Canada and later the European Union, joined later.
  • Russia was invited later (G8) when the Soviet Union collapsed and was swiftly removed in the Crimean war (2014). 
  • China, now the second largest economy in the world, was never included. 
• The G7 was expanded to the G20 in the 1990s, when China, Russia, India, Indonesia, and other large economies were added.
• And now the G20 is being cracked up because the G7 wants to throw Russia out. 
  • India will be the chair of the G20 this year and must try to keep the group together.
  • Less than 10% of the world’s citizens, and less than 6% of the world’s children below 10 years, are in the G7.
  • Power must shift within economies from older persons to youth.
    • Globally, it must shift from the older, so-called ‘advanced’ countries to younger ‘emerging’ economies.
  • The G7 and the Security Council must invite the rest to find new solutions for global problems.

Recycle this wisdom

• Intergenerational dialogue is imperative. 
• Though all countries are ageing, older persons in economies are not burdens to be cast aside.
  • Older persons are humanity’s fastest growing yet least used resource. 
• While power must shift towards younger generations and emerging economies, all generations and countries must work together. 
• All are stages in a larger process of evolution.
  • All must listen to others’ aspirations and must understand others’ wisdom.
  • Many native communities have not yet lost their wisdom of living within natural systems and living as families and communities. 
  • Such wisdom on the ground needs to be cycled to the top to save the world for everyone.
• The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals list 17 complex global problems.
  • They appear in different forms everywhere in the world.
  • Centrally managed organisations cannot solve such problems. 
  • Local systems solutions, cooperatively implemented within their communities by old and young persons together, are the way to solve these global systemic problems.

• Growth and welfare – Populism might mean different things to different people at different times

Key Points:

• The notion that growth is the panacea for all development challenges is viewed with increasing suspicion by voters, though they may not articulate it in those terms. 
• The clamour for more state intervention for redistribution in democracies must be viewed against the backdrop of mounting evidence of inequality on the one side, and the increasing vulnerability being experienced by classes ranging from white collar workers to farmers on the other.
• While the situation requires a cool-headed and rigorous inquiry into the development model that the country pursues, many politicians cutting across party lines have resorted to wide-ranging schemes to calm or enthuse voters.
• Besides the quick political gains that they seek, this also pre-empts any discussion on the existing development paradigm.
• The government would have done better had he opened a debate on the impact of big projects too rather than concluding that they invariably lead to development and social justice.
• India cannot achieve its development goals in education, Health or infrastructure without considerable state support. 

• A stinging indictment: The scapegoating of innocent tribals in the fight against Maoists is a self-defeating ploy.

Context: The acquittal of 121 tribals by a National Investigation Agency (NIA) court, who were wrongfully held responsible for the deaths of 25 Central Reserve Police Force jawans in a Maoist-led ambush in Burkapal, Sukma district, Chhattisgarh in 2017, would have come as a huge relief for them.

Highlights:

• The tribals were held under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the fact that the court held that there was little evidence that the tribals had any association with the proscribed Maoists should be a pointer to the utter failure of the law enforcement agencies in their response to the massacre. 
• While justice has definitely been done to the innocent villagers, their prolonged incarceration would have clearly upended their lives and those of their dependents.
• The tribals who had been arrested and kept in jail for five years had been denied bail in the past by the NIA court and the Chhattisgarh High Court.
• Clearly the imposition of the draconian UAPA without sufficient proof has resulted in this situation.

• A defence lawyer also claimed that the police investigation was poorly done, with the injured Central Reserve Police Force commandos not being made witnesses before the tribal people were arrested, lending credence to the fact that the apprehended people had been made scapegoats.
• As a takeaway from the outcome of this case, the state must ponder as to whether this strategy of rounding up suspects among the hapless tribals in the name of swift action following a military setback does any good to law enforcement.
• The clearest way to defeat the Maoist insurgency or any political movement based on violence and motivated by disenchantment with the state is to uphold the rule of law and to win support among the people who the insurgents claim to be fighting for.
• Without popular support, insurgencies are bound to fail, specifically, the Maoist movement that is underpinned on winning over those disenchanted with the Indian state.
• Beyond harping on factors related to poverty, livelihoods in crisis and economic inequality, the Maoists also use tactical violence that invites state repression and serves their purpose of questioning the legitimacy of the Indian state.
• By typecasting the tribal people, conflating dissidence and disaffection with insurgency, and taking the dubious route of mass incarceration following any setback to the security forces, law enforcement agencies only end up adding grist to the Maoist propaganda that emphasises that these are just characteristics of a repressive state that is beyond reform.
• Besides purposive socio-economic action, law enforcement must reinforce steps related to procedural law to disprove the Maoist critique of the Indian state and to retain legitimacy among tribal citizens.

• Tunnel vision that is endangering India’s history: 

The planned revision to Section 20 of the ‘Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains’ Act is ruinous

Context: Close on the heels of the unveiling of a bronze statue of the national emblem atop the new Parliament house building the Government has tersely announced that a Bill will be introduced in the monsoon session to modify a law dealing with ancient monuments.

Highlights:

• • According to media reports, the Bill will “provide more teeth to the Archaeological Survey of India”.
  • This move will align the Bill with the new bronze statue, which has a more aggressive expression than an ancient Ashokan sculpture from Sarnath (Uttar Pradesh) from which its form is derived.
  • Progressive militarisation of tangible heritage and state agencies are endangering India’s history and dismantling public institutions.
  • Section 20 of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (AMASR) Act of 1958, last amended in 2010, prohibits construction within a 100 metre radius of all Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)- protected monuments and regulates activities within another 300 metre radius.
  • The new Bill proposes to revise this section.
    • Henceforth, expert committees will decide on the extent of the prohibited and regulated areas around each monument and activities permitted herein.
  • The ASI protects around 3,700 archaeological sites and ancient monuments.
  • Historically, each monument was integrally connected to the landscape around it.
    • Rock-cut sanctuaries from Barabar (Bihar) to Ajanta (Maharashtra) and from Masrur (Himachal Pradesh) to Guntupalli (Andhra Pradesh) were physically connected to outcrops and canyons.
    • Pattadakal’s temples (Karnataka) were symbolically linked to the Malaprabha river that flowed past them.
    • Viramgam’s Munsar Talav (Gujarat) was the centrepiece of a landscape consisting of interlocking ponds, sluice gates, decanting wells, irrigation canals, and farmlands. 
    • Lucknow’s imambaras were tied to markets, palaces, processional roads, and gardens.
  • After 1857, colonial authorities reorganised cities by widening streets and demolishing dwellings around certain majestic older buildings so that they could properly survey the populace.
  • In their effort to reposition architectural fragments of India’s past as Britain’s patrimony, colonial administrators placed select buildings on cushions of emerald grass.
  • On occasion, they also dismantled and removed edifices and sculptural ensembles that they felt were inconsistent with the forms and functions of buildings that most interested them.
  • Over the past 75 years, grounds around ASI-protected sites have served diverse needs.
    • In Delhi, the grounds of the Purana Quila and other iconic buildings quickly transformed into campsites for tens of thousands of individuals arriving from newly-formed Pakistan.
    • As these refugees resettled in various neighbourhoods and cities, these grounds emerged as public spaces for exercise, prayer meetings, protests, and more. 
    • With the progressive transformation of the capital into a concrete jungle, the green edges around Delhi’s protected monuments became havens for migratory birds, small mammals, and host of reptiles and amphibians.

• Endangering the commons:

• • • Rezoning land around ASI-protected monuments into industrial, commercial, or even residential plots will thus deprive human and animal communities of much needed commons.
    • Moreover, permitting construction work risks weakening the foundations of centuries- old edifices.
    • The chances of inadvertent damage are also higher.
    • A hastily grounded electric pole might hit a monument’s finial, leading it to fall to the ground.
    • Sacks of cement stacked against a frescoed wall can irreversibly abrade its surface.
    • As is well known, many monuments in India are already threatened by anthropogenic forces. 
    • Domestic waste and greywater regularly seep into the subterrain sixth-century sanctuary at Jogeshwari in Mumbai.
    • Air and water pollution continue to turn the white marble of the Taj Mahal yellow and green, and so on.

• Erasure, some preservation: 

• • If construction machines disturb it, then artefacts long buried in layers of soil risk being broken and their contexts destroyed.
  • This makes the task of undertaking new research more difficult, like reading a book whose pages have been chaotically torn out.
  • In recent years, the Government has built new highways, metro-rail systems, and industrial parks without methodical archaeological impact assessments.
  • These projects have led to the shattering of an untold number of historical artefacts and the casual collection of many others.
  • We cannot afford to lose more of our tangible heritage.
  • Conservation architect at Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi has conserved a dazzling edifice and provided meaningful employment to an entire Basti. 
  • In Bhubaneshwar, the Odisha government has formulated a scheme to protect a cluster of ancient temples, tanks, and ponds to nurture a sense of regional identity, restore habitats, and bring in visitors in a methodical way.
  • At the ancient city of Nagaur, Rajasthan, local artisans and multidisciplinary teams led by conservation architect Minakshi Jain have worked together to conserve a citadel, reopen ancient gates, plant trees, and promote a lively bazaar outside its main entrance, ultimately giving a new lease of life to a mediaeval complex and strengthening social fabrics.
• Many questions are  also unclear whether the new Bill will empower the ASI.
• Various laws and statutory bodies, such as the National Monuments Authority (under the Ministry of Culture), are already in place to help the ASI to fulfil its mandate.
• Now is also the time to ask for new, well-planned archaeological excavations to be undertaken at Sarnath and beyond, new partnerships to be formed with academic institutions committed to the rigorous study of India’s past, and new accessible articulations of why studying history is important today.
• Such efforts and not new laws with more teeth nor giant bronzes of menacing lions placed atop buildings will safeguard and promote our heritage in the years to come.

• Revamp India’s school health services

Context: As schools reopen, there is a need and an opportunity for States to look at a comprehensive package of services.

Highlights:

• Children across India are back to school for in-person classes after an unnecessarily prolonged and arguably unwarranted closure in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• It is time for concrete policy measures and actions that target schoolchildren.
• On the education front, while there has been some discourse on ‘learning recovery’, there is an urgent need to factor in the health needs of schoolchildren.
• One of the reasons school health services receive inadequate policy attention is because health-care needs are often equated with medical care needs.
• Though school age children have a relatively low sickness rate (and thus limited medical care needs), they do have a wide range and age-specific health needs that are linked to unhealthy dietary habits, irregular sleep, lack of physical activity, mental, dental and eye problems, sexual behaviour, and the use of tobacco and other substances, addiction, etc.
• Then, the health knowledge acquired, and lifestyle adopted in the school-going age are known to stay in adulthood and lay the foundations of healthy behaviour for the rest of their life.
  • For example, scientific evidence shows that tobacco cessation efforts are far more successful if started in school.

The Evolution

• The first documented record of School Health Services in India goes back to 1909 when the then presidency of Baroda began the medical examination of schoolchildren.
• Later, the Sir Joseph Bhore committee, in its 1946 report, observed that School Health services in India were underdeveloped and practically non–existent.
• In 1953, the secondary education committee of the Government of India recommended comprehensive policy interventions dealing with school health and school
• feeding programmes.
• The result was programmatic interventions, led by a few selected States, that mostly focused on nutrition.
  • However, school health has largely remained a token service.
• In two and half years of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has barely been any serious initiative about school health. In the first week of March 2022, the government of Delhi began 20 school health clinics with the promise of more.
• Though small, this initiative has two messages:
  • It recognises the importance of school health services in the post-pandemic period.
  • The importance of multi-stakeholder partnership for school health services as these are being set up through corporate social responsibility funding from a donor on the one hand and internal collaboration between health and education departments within government on the other.
• On a flip side, by the Delhi government’s own assertion, these clinics are curative focused services.
• They also highlight the main issue: what makes comprehensive school health services has still not been fully understood.

FRESH Approach

• One of the reasons for wrongly designed, and often very rudimentary, school health services — not only in India but also in most low and middle-income countries — is, arguably, limited understanding and clarity on what constitutes well-functioning and effective school health services.
• This situation co-exists in spite of much evidence guided by international literature.
• UNESCO, UNICEF, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Bank have published an inter-agency framework called FRESH — Focusing Resources on Effective School Health. 
• The FRESH framework and tools propose four core areas and three supporting strategies.
  • The core areas suggest that school health services need to focus on school health policies, i.e.
    • Water,
    • Sanitation and the environment, 
    • Skills-based health education and 
    • School-based health and nutrition services. 
  • The supporting strategies include :
    • Effective partnerships between the education and health sectors,
    • Community partnership and student participation.
• Additionally, guidelines by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, U.S. advise that school health services should focus on four main areas:
  • acute and emergency care;
  • family engagement;
  • chronic disease management; and 
  • care coordination.
• According to WHO , school health services should be designed based on local need assessment; should have components of health promotion, health education, screening leading to care and/or referral and support as appropriate.
• The objective of school health services has to be the promotion of positive health, prevention of disease, early diagnosis, treatment and follow up, raising health consciousness in children and enabling the provision of a healthy school environment.
• In the last three decades, many countries ( especially in Europe), have successfully implemented these approaches as part of the health-promoting schools (HPS) initiative.

Opportunity in Reopening

• As schools reopen to full capacity, there is a need and an opportunity for a proactive approach for having expanded and strengthened school health services.
  • Every Indian State needs to review the status and then draw up a road map to revamp and strengthen school health services, along with a detailed timeline and dedicated budgetary allocation.
    • The Fifteenth Finance Commission grant for the health sector should and could be leveraged.
  • Build upon the existing school health infrastructure; the renewed focus has to have comprehensive, preventive, promotive and curative services with a functioning referral linkage.
    • Health talks and lifestyle sessions ( by schoolteachers and invited medical and health experts) should be a part of teaching just as physical activity sessions are. 
    • Some of the teaching must look at adolescent sexual health; also, subjects such as menstrual hygiene, etc. should be integrated into regular classroom teaching.
  • School health clinics should be supplemented with online consultation for physical and mental health needs. 
    • This could be an important starting point to destigmatize mental health services.
  • The role and the participation of parents, especially through parent-teacher meetings should be increased.
    • Parents need to be sensitised about how school health services are delivered in other countries; this may work as an important accountability mechanism to strengthen school health. 
    • Innovative approaches that offer limited health services to parents, families and even schoolteachers could increase use, acceptance and demand.
  • The Government’s school health services initiatives do not include private schools most of the time. 
    • Private schools do have some health services, which are nearly always restricted to curative care and taking care of emergencies.
    • Clearly, school health services should be designed to take care of schoolchildren be they in private or government-run schools.
  • Under the Ayushman Bharat programme, a school health initiative was launched in early 2020, but its implementation is sub-optimal.
    • There is a need to review this initiative, increase dedicated financial allocation to bring sufficient human resources and monitor performance based on concrete outcome indicators.
    • Otherwise, it will end up being a ‘missed opportunity’.
  • Children are the future of society, but only if they are healthy and educated.
    • Therefore, elected representatives, professional associations of public health and paediatricians shoulder the responsibility, every citizen should raise the issue and work towards improved school health services being present in every State of India. 
• Such an approach on an issue that needs a thorough approach is akin to ‘tokenism’.
  • India’s children need better handling than this.

Way Forward:

• Every challenge has a silver lining.
• The onus is on health policy makers and programme managers in every Indian State to do everything in the best interests of children.
• The Departments of Education and Health in every Indian State must work together to
• strengthen school health services. 
  • It is an opportunity to bring children, parents, teachers, health and education sector specialists and the Departments of Health and Education on a common platform to ensure better health and quality education for every child in India. 
• A convergence of the National Health Policy, 2017 and National Education Policy, 2020 should result in the provision of comprehensive school health services in every Indian State.

• India-Vietnam ties, from strong to stronger

Context: As New Delhi pursues its ‘Act East Policy’, Hanoi has become a valuable partner in the Indo-Pacific region.

Highlights:

• India and Vietnam are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic relations.
• Bolstering friendship between the two countries is a natural outcome of a growing convergence of their strategic and economic interests, and also their common vision for peace, prosperity and their people.
• A strong commitment of political leadership along with the necessary institutional frameworks and cooperation between the two countries is likely to be more robust in the future.
• More importantly, embedding a flexible framework of engagement can contribute positively to regional stability and prosperity.

Shared Concerns:

• India is essentially a maritime nation and the oceans hold the key to India’s future.
  • India’s external trade (over 90% by volume and 70% by value) is by sea. 
  • Very dependent on the seas for its trade and commerce, India has intensified its efforts to engage with maritime neighbours, including Vietnam.
• India’s relations with Vietnam, some of which is based on a set of historical commonalities, predate any conflict between India and China as well as that between China and Vietnam.
• The strategic dimensions of Indo-Vietnamese relations, initiated during the 1980s, began unfolding in the form of structured and institutional arrangements during the 1990s. 
• As India pursues its ‘Act East Policy’, Vietnam has become a valuable partner in India’s political and security engagements in the Indo-Pacific region.
• The two countries are working to address shared strategic concerns (such as energy security and open and secure sea lines of communication), and make policy choices without undue external interference. 
• India’s broadening economic and strategic interests in the region and Vietnam’s desire for strategic autonomy, both countries will benefit from a stronger bilateral relationship.

• India and Vietnam face territorial disputes with and shared apprehensions about their common neighbour, China.
• Vietnam is of great strategic importance because its position enables it to control ‘the South China Sea, a true Mediterranean of the Pacific’.