13 August 2024

MAINS DAILY QUESTIONS & MODEL ANSWERS

Q1. Examine the significance and possible difficulties involved in putting the proposed Women’s Urban Employment Guarantee Act into practice in India. Provide recommendations on how to achieve significant economic empowerment for women throughout the country.

GS II – Government Policies and Interventions

Introduction:

• A proposed law called the Women’s Urban Employment Guarantee Act (WUEGA) would guarantee women a minimum number of workdays (such as 150 days) per year in order to alleviate urban unemployment exclusively for women.

The Women’s Urban Employment Guarantee Act (WUEGA) was required because:

• Gender Differences in Urban Employment: Gender differences in employment possibilities are common in urban regions.
• In the final quarter of 2023, just 22.9% of urban women had a job, according to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS).
• Sustainable Development Goals and Economic Empowerment: WUEGA would give urban women job guarantees, thus empowering them.
• Encouraging women to work is essential to reaching sustainable development objectives, such as economic empowerment and gender equality.
• Supportive infrastructure and childcare: WUEGA highlights the necessity of on-site childcare services. Thanks to these provisions, women can work without sacrificing their caregiving responsibilities.
• Taking Cues from Effective Rural Employment Programmes: The WUEGA can imitate comparable models designed for urban environments by taking cues from effective rural employment programmes such as the MGNREGA.
• The WUEGA can improve women’s engagement in the workforce by utilising frameworks and experiences that are already in place.
• Possibility for Economic Growth and Development: By growing the labour force and boosting productivity, higher employment rates for women can act as a stimulant for economic growth.
• The WUEGA has the ability to support more general objectives of economic growth by utilising the skills and capacities of urban women.

The Women’s Urban Employment Guarantee Act (WUEGA)’s possible obstacles include:

• Financial Burden: Ensuring jobs requires a large outlay of funds for programme administration, infrastructure development (such as daycare centres at workplaces), and wages.
• Assuming 150 workdays annually at ₹500 per day, the wage component—which the Union government would finance—would account for about 1.5% of GDP.
• Job Creation in the Local Area: Particularly in highly populated cities, it may be difficult to find enough varied employment options within a reasonable commute (e.g., 5 km) of a woman’s place of residence.
• Safety concerns: Women’s participation in the workforce may be restricted as a result of their fear of harassment or violence in public places.
• Data from the NCRB’s annual crime report, “Crime in India 2022,” showed that the rate of crimes against women per lakh population was 66.4, while the charge sheeting in these cases was recorded at 75.8.
• Skill Gaps: It’s possible that a lot of urban women lack the education and work experience needed for formal employment.
• There may be barriers preventing women from accessing high-quality education and career training, which could result in skill gaps and lower employability.
• Legal and Bureaucratic Barriers: The adoption of legislation intended to improve women’s workplace rights may be hampered by opposition from people or organisations that are opposed to change and support the status quo.
• Social Norms and Gender Stereotypes: In metropolitan regions where conventional gender roles are more prominent, acceptance of women’s growing engagement in the workforce may be hampered by deeply ingrained cultural expectations.

The Path Ahead for WUEGA’s Effective Implementation:

• Gathering Gender-Disaggregated Data: Policymakers can get important insights into the unique obstacles that urban women have when trying to find and keep a job by using gender-disaggregated data.
• Data collection should include trends in the types of employment chosen, the typical times of year that women access these professions, the educational attainment of women who choose to participate in the programme, and other relevant information.
• Creating an Urban Employment Programme from a Gender Perspective: Create the Women’s Urban Employment Guarantee Act (WUEGA) as comprehensive law that outlines the rights, obligations, and benefits of the government and the recipients based on data that is broken down by gender.
• Equal pay for equal work should be required by law, guaranteeing that women be paid the same as men for jobs with comparable duties and responsibilities.
• Assign Resources and Develop Capacity: Assign sufficient financial resources to the WUEGA implementation, making sure that enough money is available for salaries, overhead, infrastructure development, and capacity-building programmes.
• To guarantee the successful administration and execution of the WUEGA, offer beneficiaries, programme managers, and government officials training and capacity-building initiatives.
• A Stepwise Approach to Implementation: To determine whether adopting WUEGA is feasible, start pilot projects in a few chosen cities. To evaluate the preparedness of various metropolitan regions and pinpoint possible obstacles and opportunities, conduct feasibility studies.
• WUEGA should be implemented gradually, focusing first on metropolitan regions with comparatively developed infrastructure and support networks before progressively extending to other locations.
• To address safety concerns and promote more workforce participation, implement measures such as proper lighting, surveillance systems, and increased police monitoring to enhance the safety and security of women in public settings.
• Raise Awareness and Shift Perceptions: Run sensitization efforts and awareness campaigns to dispel gender stereotypes, advance gender parity, and alter public perceptions of women’s responsibilities and skills in the workforce.
• In summary
• The Indian Constitution is based on the values of social justice and equality, and in order to address the gender gap in employment, affirmative action is mandated. The WUEGA’s implementation is consistent with these constitutional mandates as well as moral commitments to advance gender empowerment and equality.

Q2. Analyse the depth of India’s groundwater crisis and make recommendations for ways to lessen its effects.

GS II – Government Policies and Interventions

Introduction:

• Bengaluru’s water issue is becoming worse, which is causing severe shortages in a number of regions. Reports state that 223 of Karnataka’s 236 talukas—including the districts of Mysuru and Mandya, which supply water to Bengaluru—are experiencing drought.

The Indian Groundwater Crisis as It Is Right Now:

Absence of Access to Water:

• India has 17% of the world’s population, yet it only has 4% of the freshwater resources in the world, hence it is difficult to supply its large population with the water they require.
• According to a June 2018 NITI Aayog report titled “Composite Water Management Index (CWMI),” India was experiencing the worst water crisis in its history, with 600 million people experiencing high to extreme water stress, and 200,000 people dying annually from a lack of access to clean water.

Overuse or Overexploitation of Groundwater:

• India consumes more groundwater than any other country in the world, with an estimated annual use of 251 bcm, or more than 25% of the total.
• Groundwater is an essential resource since it is used in over 60% of irrigated farmland, 85% of drinking water sources, and increasing amounts of industrial and urban areas.
• According to projections, the amount of water available per person will decrease to approximately 1400 m3 by 2025 and even lower to 1250 m3 by 2050.

Groundwater Pollution:

• Pollutants from human activity, including home sewage, such as bacteria, phosphates, and heavy metals, can contaminate groundwater.
• According to the NITI Aayog report, India’s water quality index ranking was 120 out of 122, meaning that almost 70% of the country’s water was contaminated.
• High quantities of iron, nitrate, fluoride, and arsenic are also naturally present in groundwater in some areas of India; these concentrations are expected to increase as water tables drop.

Inability to Get Safe Drinking Water:

• A large number of waterborne illnesses are caused by the lack of access to clean drinking water and proper sanitation for millions of Indians.
• India’s water dilemma is made worse by the country’s extensive open defecation practices, which have negative health effects, and the country’s rising middle class need for clean water.

A few World Bank figures illustrate the predicament the nation finds itself in:

• Safe drinking water is inaccessible to 163 million Indians.
• Better sanitation is inaccessible to 210 million Indians.
• Unsafe water is associated with 21 per cent of communicable infections.
• In India, diarrhoea claims the lives of 500 children under the age of five every day.

Prospects for the Future:

• According to the NITI Aayog assessment, by 2030, the nation’s water demand would double above the availability, resulting in acute shortages for hundreds of millions of people and a potential loss in GDP.
• According to a recent study, the pace of groundwater depletion in India between 2041 and 2080 will be three times higher than it is now due to global warming.
• The researchers discovered that, based on the climate model and Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenario, their estimate of Groundwater Level (GWL) reductions from 2041 to 2080 is 3.26 times current depletion rates on average (range 1.62-4.45 times).

Actions Taken to Resolve India’s Water Crisis:

Connectivity of Rivers:

• The concept of the national interlinking of rivers (ILR) holds that rivers ought to be linked together in order to address the problem of water shortage by transferring water from regions and rivers that have excess water to those that don’t.

Encourage the conservation of water:

• It is essential to put water conservation strategies into practice on a personal, local, and national level.
• This entails encouraging rainwater collection, employing effective irrigation methods, and reducing water waste in the residential, commercial, and agricultural domains.

Make an Infrastructure Investment:

• Set aside enough money for the construction, upkeep, and restoration of water infrastructure.
• Investigate cutting-edge finance options for water projects, such as user fees, water tariffs, and public-private partnerships.

Encourage Agriculture That Is Sustainable:

• Encourage farmers to use agroforestry, crop rotation, drip irrigation, precision agriculture, and other water-efficient farming techniques.
• This transition can be facilitated by offering incentives and subsidies for the use of water-saving devices.
• Drip and sprinkler irrigation can save about 50% of the water used in crop cultivation and boost crop yields by 40–60%, according to the MS Swaminathan committee report on “More Crop and Income Per Drop of Water” (2006).

Deal with pollution:

• Enforcing stringent rules on industrial discharge, sewage treatment, and agricultural runoff would help combat water contamination.
• Reducing pollution in rivers, lakes, and groundwater sources can be achieved by the installation of wastewater treatment plants and the adoption of environmentally friendly policies.

Governance and Law:

• Enacting and upholding laws, regulations, and other water-related measures will strengthen frameworks for water governance.
• Coordinated decision-making and the application of water management plans can be facilitated by the establishment of local, regional, and national water management agencies.
• Reducing the strain on agricultural water consumption can be achieved by introducing minimum support policies for crops that use less water.

Engagement with the Community:

• Groundwater management can be enhanced by bolstering community rights and participation in groundwater governance.
• By using the Participatory Groundwater Management approach (PGM), World Bank programmes for groundwater governance in peninsular India were effective on multiple fronts.

Use the One Water Approach:

• The idea that all water has value, regardless of its source, is known as the One Water Approach, or Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM).
• For the benefit of the environment and the economy, it entails managing that source in an integrated, inclusive, and sustainable way that involves the community, industry leaders, business owners, farmers, conservationists, legislators, academics, and others.

• India can lead the way towards a future in which every Indian has access to safe and dependable groundwater by encouraging inclusive engagement from all stakeholders and putting in place sensible policies that put long-term sustainability ahead of short-term benefits.