MAINS DAILY QUESTIONS & MODEL ANSWERS
Q1. What is Indian Refugee Policy. Discuss.
Paper & Topic: GS I à Indian Society
Model Answer:
Introduction:
The refugee policy of India:
- Despite the growing number of refugees entering India, there is no explicit legislation to address the issue.
- The specific issues that refugees as a group experience are not addressed by the Foreigners Act of 1946. Additionally, it allows the Central government unrestricted authority to remove any foreign national.
- The Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA) also egregiously excludes Muslims from its scope of application and only attempts to provide citizenship to immigrants who are Hindu, Christian, Jain, Parsi, Sikh, or Buddhist who have faced persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan, or Afghanistan.
- In addition, India is not a signatory to the fundamental legal agreements governing refugee protection, the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol.
- India has a fantastic track record when it comes to refugee protection, despite not being a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. India has a moral legacy of integrating immigrants’ cultures.
- The Indian Constitution also upholds the dignity, freedom, and right to life of all people.
- While these rights are available to citizens, the Supreme Court ruled in National Human Rights Commission v. State of Arunachal Pradesh (1996) that “persons, including foreign nationals, are entitled to the right to equality and the right to life, among others.”
Body:
India’s justification for refusing to ratify the 1951 Refugee Convention:
- The 1951 convention’s concept of refugees only applies to cases in which an individual’s civil and political rights have been violated, not their economic rights.
- For instance, if someone is denied their political rights, they may fall under the convention’s criteria, but not if they are denied their economic rights.
- It is obvious that the developed world would bear a heavy burden if the violation of economic rights were to be considered a refugee.
- On the other hand, if this argument were made in the context of South Asia, it might also pose issues for India.
Concerns About India’s Refugee Policy:
- Refugees vs. immigrants: In recent years, a lot of people from nearby countries have tended to illegally relocate to India, not because they are being persecuted by the government but rather because they believe there are better economic prospects there.
- The two groups frequently get grouped together, despite the fact that the majority of the discussion in the nation focuses on illegal immigrants rather than refugees.
- As a result, the policies and solutions used to address these problems lack both clarity and policy value.
- Ambiguity in the Framework: According to Indian law, both kinds of persons are recognised as one and the same and are covered under the Foreigners Act, 1946, which is the main cause of our policies regarding illegal immigrants and refugees being unclear.
- Ad hocism: Because of the lack of such a legal framework, India’s refugee policy is mostly determined by ad hocism.
- Ad hoc measures provide the current administration the freedom to decide “what kind” of refugees it wishes to accept for any number of political or international affairs.
- As a result, a discriminating action is taken, which frequently violates human rights
- Discriminatory The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was adopted by the Indian government (CAA). People who are religious minorities in India’s neighbourhood and are being oppressed by the state are envisioned by CAA as receiving citizenship.
- However, CAA is not the solution to the refugee issue, largely due to its blatantly discriminatory nature since it excludes a specific faith from its purview.
- Furthermore, the CAA has been described by many political experts as an act of refugee avoidance rather than refugee protection.
Conclusion:
- India has been one of the world’s top hosts of refugees despite not being a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol. However, if India had internal refugee legislation, it might have discouraged any tyrannical governments in the area from persecuting their citizens and forcing them to migrate to India.
Q2. What is Sponge City Technology?
Paper & Topic: GS III à Environmental Conservation
Model Answer:
Introduction:
- The goal of the sponge city concept is to increase the permeability of metropolitan areas, provide more open space for rainwater storage, and enable water to seep into aquifers.
- The Chennai Water Resources Department is considering the feasibility of constructing recharging shafts in minor water bodies spread throughout the city.
- 80–90 feet can be drilled down into these recharging shafts. It will aid in recharging the water table.
- According to the concept, smaller bodies of water and temple tanks might be utilised as buildings to store extra water after heavy rain. Depending on the city’s needs, water can be purified, extracted, and delivered.
Body:
- Sponge city is a new approach to urban planning that aims to improve drainage and ecological infrastructure while managing flooding. Chinese experts first put out this idea in 2000. This idea was recognised as “urbanism policy” by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and State Council in 2014. This system aids in reducing urban flooding, the urban heat island effect, and the scarcity of water supplies. By absorbing and retaining rainwater and utilising it to lessen floods, it also enhances the biological environment and biodiversity. Natural landscapes are used to catch, store, and clean water in sponge cities, which are solutions based on nature. The ancient art of coping with climate issues, particularly in the monsoon world, served as inspiration for this idea.
Mission Sponge Cities – India:
- The fundamental goal of the sponge city is to increase cities’ permeability so that rainwater can be captured and utilised. An urban mission similar to the National Heritage City Development & Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY), Atal Mission for Rejuvenation & Urban Transformation (AMRUT), and Smart Cities Mission can successfully implement each of them.
Conclusion:
Sponge cities are required in India because:
- In Indian metropolises, urban flooding has become a recurrent occurrence.
- The recurrence of significant floods in urban areas has not been effectively managed or controlled by India’s land policy.
- There is no enough drainage system in urban areas.
- Water is being wasted in metropolitan areas because of concrete constructions.
