Social Issues In India

Tobacco Smoking in India

Tobacco smoking is already a major health problem in India and one that will worsen unless we act. Smoking alone is estimated to cause nearly 10 lakh deaths a year in India. About 1/3rd of Indian men now smoke; the number of women who smoke is lower but the health risks are just as dangerous for both. 70% of deaths from tobacco use occur during middle age when people are still in the most productive part of their lives and not in the old age.

Chewing tobacco products such as gutka is common in India. Chewing causes over half of the deaths from oral cancers and women are especially hard hit. More young people are now chewing and pre-cancerous conditions such as mouth lesions are increasing among youth.

Fact 1: Chewing is common among men and women all over. In India 31% men and 19% women chew tobacco products and the percentage of people chewing in Bihar is much higher with 69% men and 22% women addicted to tobacco products. Tobacco use by pregnant women leads to low birth weight babies,still births and birth defects.

Fact 2: Chewing is more common among the poorest as per Global Adult Tobacco Survey India 2010.About 30% of poorest,25% of middle income group and only 15% of higher income group people chew tobacco products.

Fact 3: Women who chew tobacco have especially high risks of dying from oral cancer.3.8% of women in the age –group 30-69 years face relative risk of dying from chewing than 1.5% of men. The relative risk of dying from oral cancer is greater among women but men have higher background death rates so the absolute risks are more equal.

In Kishanganj 1,00,000 men in the age-group 15-69 years smoke of these 50,000 will be killed by smoking.70% will die during their productive years of 15-69 while 30% will die in the old age. More men about 59% smoke in Bihar in 2015 then previous years.612 lakh men who smoke cigarettes lose 10 years of life where as 687 lakh men who smoke bidis lose 6 years of life.

The usage of tobacco is not just costing lives but it is imposing economic burdens on our country’s health care systems that force health facilities to spend a great share of their precious resources in treating largely preventable diseases. Tobacco use also costs individual families as the cost of treatment for serious diseases like cancer or stroke can push families into poverty.

Tobacco use pushes 28,000 people into poverty every year in Kishanganj.Tabacco costs the district Rs. 11 crore every year. Police have an important role in the implementation of tobacco control laws. Of 1000 policemen who smoke 350 will be killed by tobacco at ages 15-69 a staggering figure.

Smoking cessation is the single most important action smokers can take to improve their health and lengthen their lives. But quit rates in India are very low at 5%. Quitting by age 40 and preferably earlier, avoids nearly all the risks. After quitting within 12 hours carbon dioxide levels decrease and oxygen levels increase. Within 3 months, heart attack risk drops and lung functions improve. Within 1 year, risk of sudden heart attack is cut in half and within 5 years risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus and bladder is halved.

Section 4 of the Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) prohibits smoking in public places defined as any place to which the public have access whether as of right or not, but does not include any open space. Smoking is also prohibited at open spaces that are visited by the public like open auditoriums, stadiums, railway stations, bus stops and other such places. Individuals smoking in a public place are liable to pay a fine of up to Rs 200.

Source : Ministry of Health and Family Welfare ( Govt of India)

Child Marriage in India - Latest Data

Since time immemorial, child marriage has been one of the greatest evils plaguing India. Marriage is a sacred relationship between two individuals who are ready to accept each other. Child marriage is an abuse of such union and is not permitted by law in India. History has always proven child marriage detrimental for our society.

The recent statistics released by the Government of India on married Indian women show 31.3% Hindu women and 30.6% Muslim women marry before the age of 17.6% of all Hindu women married before turning 10.The corresponding figure for Muslim women was 5%. Only 6% of men were married before 18.

The legal age for marriage is 18 for women and 21 for men. Any marriage below the legal age is considered child marriage. One in three married women from Hindu and Muslim communities got married before their 18th birthday making them vulnerable to not just higher maternal mortality rates but also domestic violence. Studies show girls who give birth before turning 15 and the infants of child mothers are at greater risk. Underage marriages interrupt education and most child brides are unable to negotiate with their family members making them liable to domestic violence.

The 2001 census found 43% of women were married before 18 years of age. In 2011 the figure stood at 18%. The proportion of women married before 18 years between 2001 and 2011 was 20%.

India has been unable to enforce the law that was first enacted by the British in 1929.The Child Marriage Restraint Act fixed the age of marriage for girls at 14 and boys at 18 years. It was last raised to 18 years for girls in 2006.In 2014 police registered only 280 cases across the country under the 2006 Prohibition of Child Marriage Act. Of the 103 cases decided by courts the same year convictions were secured in only 15 or 14.6% cases.

Only laws and law enforcing agencies will not prove instrumental in reducing and eventually eradicating child-marriages. The mindset of the society has to be targeted in order to create a world free of such evils. Citizens will have to actively participate in spreading awareness regarding this practice and by abiding to the existing restrictions imposed by the government. Girl child has to be given equal opportunities and right education to safeguard themselves from such practices and rise in the society. The journey of gender equality will only be completed once practices like child marriages; female feticides violence against women are eradicated.

According to the report ‘Why Children Commit Offences’ published by Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) in June 2015 focused on children in conflict with the law in Delhi. The report looks at multiple issues like the socio-economic profile of children with a criminal record, the nature of offence that these children were accused of and analyzed the factors that push children towards deviant behavior. The report highlighted the role of the family, the community, the school and education as well the peer influence. The report after studying 182 children in observation homes, special homes found that poverty is one of the biggest contributing factor in children taken to crimes. Most of the children had undergone multiple deprivations with low economic households, uneducated parents; disrupted families. The children were dropouts and working independently to support their families.

Juvenile Crimes in India

In recent years India has seen manifold increase in crimes committed by minors. While analyzing the factors responsible for the spurt in crime rate the experts believe that the rural-urban conflict is at the core of these crimes in cities especially underage crimes. The largely rural and semi urban background of most of the offenders point to that direction. According to the researchers these young people are not benefitting from the economic reforms in comparison to the educated and professional counterparts in the cities. They feel neglected, frustrated and distressed which leads to crimes such as murder etc. An increase in number of rural people migrating to cities in search of better life opportunities however do not prepare them for the urban value system. The children are often neglected, as both parents are working and unable to spend time with them. The children do not get the attention and right values essential for upbringing.

According to the report ‘Why Children Commit Offences’ published by Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) in June 2015 focused on children in conflict with the law in Delhi. The report looks at multiple issues like the socio-economic profile of children with a criminal record, the nature of offence that these children were accused of and analyzed the factors that push children towards deviant behavior. The report highlighted the role of the family, the community, the school and education as well the peer influence. The report after studying 182 children in observation homes, special homes found that poverty is one of the biggest contributing factor in children taken to crimes. Most of the children had undergone multiple deprivations with low economic households, uneducated parents; disrupted families. The children were dropouts and working independently to support their families.

2011 Provisional Census Figures of Kishanganj

India is one of the developing countries that is grappling through the trade-off between development and environment. India’s annual growth rate, which is approximately 6% led by industrial and manufacturing sectors, come at the cost of industrial pollution. India has not been successful in carving a sustainable path that leads to development (sustainable development means “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs"[WCED 1987]). India’s developmental policies have resulted in degraded soils, depletion of water tables, increased floods, desertification, waterlogging and salinity, pollution of water and air, loss of biodiversity. This essay aims to analyze the effectiveness of environmental regulations implemented by the Indian Government in Delhi, home to 18 million people because Delhi as it is among the 10 most polluted cities of the world. Delhi is one of the cities where the average total suspended particulate levels (SPL) are five times the safe level as mentioned by World Bank in their development research study in 1991-4. A report by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, India, in 1997 reviewed that 3000 metric tons of air pollutants were emitted every day in Delhi, with a major contribution from vehicular pollution (67%), followed by coal-based thermal power plants (12%). Further, the carbon monoxide concentration increased by 92% from 1989 to 1996. Delhi has the highest cluster of small-scale industries in India that contribute to 12% of air pollutants along with other industrial units. Vehicular pollution and industrial emissions are two most significant contributors to the pollution in Delhi. The World Health Organization mentioned in its report in 2011 that “Delhi has exceeded the maximum PM10 limit (level of suspended particles is one of the main indicators of respiratory health) by 10 times at 198 μg/m3”. It can be gathered from the information provided above that Delhi’s domestic environmental conditions are bad and getting worse. However, the Indian government has made great strides towards improving the air quality especially in Delhi. A number of policy instruments have been employed in Delhi to control and abate pollution; however, major reformations such as switch to compressed natural gas, introduction of metro and such policies regarding air and vehicular pollution had been done 2003 onwards as the ruling Congress government for Delhi state mentioned that improving air quality was one of the points on their agenda.

The first initial step towards curbing air pollution was taken by the Locals (people living in Delhi). A local delhiite (people living in Delhi) called Mehta, concerned about rising levels of air pollution and lack of initiative by the Indian government, filed a petition and demanded the Supreme Court to implement the Air Act of 1981 in Delhi. The Air Act was just a petition to put pressure on the government to take action regarding the rising levels of air pollution in Delhi. The act demanded that government “lay down standards for the quality of air’, to ‘advise the Central Government on any matter concerning the improvement of the quality of air and the prevention, control, or abatement of air pollution’, and to ‘perform such other functions as may be prescribed’ (Kiran Dingra Affidavit, 1996). The petition led to the Supreme Court directing the Delhi administration to file an affidavit specifying the steps it had taken to reduce air pollution which was an impressive step taken by the Indian Supreme Court knowing decentralized corruption and lack of structure in the institution. After Mehta’s petition to the court, several new environmental laws were enacted, as were policies to curtail tailpipe emissions from vehicles and to move polluting industries from Delhi. However, as expected, these policies were rarely implemented and there was no evidence of a comprehensive plan to tackle the growing problem of air pollution. Disappointed public put more pressure on the government, which led to the implementation of 1986 Environment (Protection) Act, the Motor Vehicles Act of 1988, and the Central Motor Vehicle Rules of 1989. These Acts both set standards to for vehicular emissions for manufacturers and users and owners were obligated to maintain their vehicles so that they would not emit smoke, visible vapor, grit, sparks, or ashes (Agarwal et al., 1996). This led to establishment of a committee by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Delhi in 1991, which recommended vehicular mass emissions standards for 1995 and 2000 (Anon., 1996). However, studies show that these efforts didn’t bring about any change in air quality. Professor Mathur, a professor at Indian Institute of Technology, found that the Delhi traffic police prosecuted 2.5 times more vehicles emitting excessive exhaust in 1990 than in 1987. The data collected by IIT 1997 shows that of the total 3000 metric tonnes of pollutants released daily 66% is from vehicles and the contribution of vehicular pollution has increased from 43% in 1981 and to 63% in 1993 (World Wide Fund, 1995) in Delhi. In 1990, the central government implemented a penalty of 1000 Indian Rupees on vehicle owners that break the pollution rule; however, this method failed. It was difficult to monitor the vehicles that broke the pollution rule because there were insufficient service station to install equipment to measure vehicular exhaust (The Sentinel, 1990). Despite the push from the court to develop comprehensive policies, the executive branches did little to implement these policies in mid-1990s. As a result, there was a rapid increase in the pollution levels between 1989-96, where 1996 was considered the peak year (Jaiseelan 2006).

In search for concrete solution to increasing air pollution, the Delhi government passed the Motor Vehicles Amendment Act to promote the used of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). CNG is mainly comprised of methane, which upon combustion mainly emits CO2 and H2O and disperses very quickly since it is lighter. CNG was introduced for three reasons: it polluted less, cost less, and was more widely available in the country than petrol or diesel. Motorists that used CNG, solar power and such alternative fuels weren’t required to obtain permits from the state transport authorities. The Supreme Court on 1998, ordered all commercial public transportation such as buses, taxis, and three-wheelers to switch to CNG gas. The largest-ever CNG switch was for more than 1,00,000 vehicles. In the early 2000s this resulted in some decrease in particulate matter (PM) pollution, with the largest improvement coming from retrofitting about 3,000 diesel buses. All the buses of Delhi were converted to run on CNG by the end of 2002. The results suggest that the conversion of buses from diesel to CNG has helped to reduce PM10, CO, and SO2 concentrations but led to an increase in NO2. The reduction in the sulfur content of fuel appears to have helped reduce air pollution by reducing PM10 and SO2 concentrations. However, on the flip side, three-wheelers that that use CNG lead to an increase in NO2 and PM10. Although the switch to CNG gas led to notable changes in air quality 5-8 years after the implementation, there are some drawbacks. Using CNG gas wasn’t economically efficient because the government forced all the commercial public transport to switch to use a single technology, in this case the CNG gas. At some stages, there were not enough filling stations pumping CNG gas to meet the growing consumer demand. Even though The Energy Research Institute (TERI) argued for a multiple fuel policy where the vehicle owners can decide which alternative fuel they would like to use and World Bank expressed its concerns regarding CNG gas, warned about the importance of favorable fuel-pricing policies, and the dangers of retrofitting older vehicles, the Indian environmental regulators pushed for CNG gas. In Indian environmental regulators defense, they were fully aware of other approaches regarding vehicular pollution and had tested a number of them; however, there weren’t any positive results. Economies of introducing new technology caused vehicle owners to make substantial investments such as wanting to switch to CNG gas and hence, there was a lot of friction in the change. Secondly, the Central Pollution Control Board and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways set up the Pollution Under Control Program (PUC) to identify the most heavily polluting vehicles (using CNG gas) that may need to be repaired or retired. This program was inefficient because it was difficult to monitor. The PUC tests were easily manipulated and it was really easy to bribe the tester. Moreover, the PUC test determines which vehicles are old and need to be banned. It may have been more efficient to identify which vehicles are the worst polluters and charge extra fine. Lastly, switching to CNG was a great initiative for a country that imports 70% of its oil because it decreases India’s dependence on foreign oil and allows India to save valuable foreign exchange. Another major method to curb vehicular pollution was the introduction of metro. A metro was built that covered 245 kilometers in total. Although the main motivation behind the introduction of metro was to control traffic congestion, it has also resulted in decrease in vehicular pollution in Delhi. Although hard to imagine, there has been a reduction in the pollutants concentration in Delhi. Significant improvements resulted as average of 42mg/m3 of Sulphur Dioxide in 1996 decreased to 18mg/m3 by 2005. The NO2 levels decreased by 21.8 % & 19.6 % in the year 2006 & 2007 respectively. The annual mean SO2 levels in Delhi satisfy the annual average of National Ambient Air quality Standards for residential areas, which is 60 mg/m3. Sonam Gupta, a member of Food and Resource Economics Department at University of Florida mentioned “"Looking at each extension of the rail network as a separate event, it has resulted in three to 47 per cent reduction in NO2 concentration, and a 31 to 100 per cent reduction in CO concentration [both CO and NO2 are harmful pollutants that also contribute to global warming].” A research done by Delhi School of Economics iterates that the research found that the level of CO in the area around ITO, a busy intersection in Delhi, has fallen by at least 35 per cent. Although the annual average levels of Carbon Monoxide continue to be above the safe mark of 2,000 mg/m3, there has been a gradual decline. The observed concentration of CO came down from 4183 mg/m3 in Year 2006 to 3258 mg/m3 in year 2008. Furthermore, findings from a research done by Delhi School of Economics suggest that the Delhi Metro has encouraged people to switch from private to public mode of travel resulting in positive effects on air quality in the city. However, although these findings are significant, the researcher admits that one main caveat that should be kept in mind is that large number of missing observations in the pollution data makes it harder to draw conclusions and provide concrete analysis. Hence, the initiative of building a Metro network helped improve the quality of air early 2005 onwards.

Regardless of how far-reaching and daunting the curbing of air quality in Delhi seems, the Indian government and the Supreme Court have taken great strides towards finding a solution. Although the disinterest and lack of structure and control by the Indian Government and the Supreme court in the 1980s and 1990s led to the worsening of the air quality, the supreme court made two major reformations 2000 onwards which lead to significant improvement in the air quality. The first reformation was the switch to compressed natural gas. The government demanded all the public and commercial transportation to switch to CNG, which was although initially economically inefficient but led to significant results; there was a decrease in CO, and SO2 concentrations but led to an increase in NO2. The second reformation was the introduction of metro. While there was a huge time lag associated, there was a decrease in vehicular pollution in Delhi. Significant improvements resulted as average of 42mg/m3 of Sulphur Dioxide in 1996 decreased to 18mg/m3 by 2005. The main problem is that there is only one Transport Corporation that manages the public transport in the city. Despite the improvements mentioned above, Delhi has a long way to go, as there is a correlation between increase in pollution and health problems. Increase in health problems also acts as an economical cost to the society. According to the study done by World Bank in 2005, in India, the cost of health impacts on account of air pollution were estimated to be $ 1,310 million. Further, the cost due to air pollution was estimated to be 14% of the total economy wide cost of environmental degradation. Currently, the government is starting an anti-smog campaign where monitors will measure emissions expelled by thousands of industrial chimneys in Delhi. Secondly, three industrialized states—Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu—are about to launch the world’s first market for trading permits in emissions of particulate matter. Indians may hope that the elected government fulfills its rightful role in protecting their environmental well-being.

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