India’s Social Security

Social security is a concept which is enshrined in Article 2 of the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights. It  states that 'Everyone as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization through national income effort and international cooperation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each state of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality’.

Social Security has a powerful impact at all levels of society. It provides workers and their families with health care and also protection against loss of income. For employers and enterprises, social security helps maintain stable labour relations and a productive workforce. Social Security is the protection that a society provides to individuals and household to ensure access to health care and to guarantee income security particularly in case of old age, unemployment, sickness, invalidity, work injury, maternity or loss of a breadwinner.

Types of Social Security-

1.      Social Assistance-Its a method to provide benefits to persons usually for the vulnerable groups of community from general revenues of the states it is non contributory.

2.      Social insurance-A method to provide benefits to person through contributions of beneficiaries with from employer and state.

Various schemes under this Act:

1. The Employees Compensation Act ,1923:In case of death 50% of the monthly wages multiplied by the relevant factor or amount off rs 1,20,000 whichever is more paid.

Schemes For Unorganized Sector

2. Minimum Wages Act,1948:-The Central Government has fixed the National Floor Level Minimum Wages from Rs 116 to Rs 137 per day wef 1.7.2013

3. Labour Welfare Funds -The Ministry of Labour and Employment is administering five welfare Funds for Beedi,cine and certain  categories of non-coal mine workers.

Schemes For The  Buildings And Others Constructed Workers

4. Legal Protection of Childhood Work:initiated in 1988 to rehabilitate working children in labour endemic districts of the country.

5. National Social Assistance  Program: BPL persons aged 60 years or above are entitled to a monthly pension of Rs 2000 upto 79 years of age and Rs 500 thereafter .

Indira Gandhi National Disability pension Scheme:-BPL persons aged 18-59 years with severe and multiple disabilities.

6. National Family Benefit Scheme-BPL household is entitled to lump sum amount of money on the death of primary breadwinner between 10 to 64 years.The amount of assistance is Rs 10,000.

7. Atal Pension Yojana : Previously this scheme was run under the name of National Pension Scheme-Swavalamban.Depending on the contribution  made by a person in the age between 18 to 40 years, at the age of 60 a sum of Rs 1900,Rs 2000,Rs 3000,Rs4000 or Rs 5000  will be paid monthly.

8.Indira Gandhi Matritava Sahyog Yojana:This was approved on 8/11/2010 on pilot basis in 52 districts .This is a centrallty Sponsored Scheme under which full grant in aid would be provided to state Government/Union Territories.Under this  cash incentive of Rs 4000 will be provided directly to women 19 years and above for the first two live births subject to the woman fulfiling  specific condition relating to maternal child health and nutrition.

The Way Ahead:

The policies must focus on the benefit of unorganized workforce. There should be proper mechanism by which the public is made aware about the existing social security officers and the defaulting employer's should be punished


Meenakshi Chowdhury
( PG MEDIA 2015-2017)

IS STING OPERATION -An eye opener really justifiable?

  Sting operation- the boiling topic nowadays, is what in reality? It is a part of what could be called “new age journalism”, with many ethical issues involved. In television it is described as a form of journalism, and in the print media it is generally referred to as an ‘expose’. Legally, Sting Operation is a design carried with help of an editor, a journalist and a videographer. The smartphone is a good alternative to the video-cam, in which the journalist can claim the story to be sole. But again, the videographer as “second” person doing the story, can give the story a second “back-up” as it needs to prove its authenticity. Rahul Manas, a concerned citizen says, “ sting operations provide us with evidence that can prove a person or an institution guilty in court”. He also adds, “since our system works on evidences, it can provide the same, as in most cases the suspect is never punished”.

The term Sting was first popularized by the Hollywood movie The Sting(1973). In India it was Tahelka who started the practice of sting operations and immediately gained popularity as it was an eye opener for the general public. One of its most important and eye catching operation was on Shakti Kapoor, in which he was seen asking sexual favours from a wannabe star when approaching Kapoor for films.

   

In West Bengal, a 24 minute video of a sting operation was released by a news portal “Narada” on Monday 14^th March, 2016, purportedly showing 11 senior Trinamool Congress(TMC) leaders and a senior police officer, promising favours and accepting wads of currency notes from representatives of a fictious firm. This video was an eye opener for most of the common mass that how their elected government is working. The video drew huge political uproar to which West Bengal CPI (M) Secretary Surya Kanta Mishra commented “ it is matter of shame that this government is still continuing”. But then some questions remain unanswered, the video had to be released when the elections are so near? Is the sting operation done really for the betterment of the community or is it politically motivated?

 It is obvious that authentic sting operations provide us valuable information   but for media in general, sting operation could be manufactured to raise the TRPs of news channel with brought up sensational stories along with eye catching visuals. As a citizen of this country and representative of the common public i strongly feel that sting operations must be carried out in future as we remain unaware of many incidents unfolding inside privately. However, in the present scenario where political corruption is at its peak, it is impossible to discover whether the sting operation is a politically motivated one or is for the real betterment of the community!

Though sting operations serves as an eye opener, but some serious debatable questions surrounds its near future, How ethical is it for a journalist to conduct a sting operation on a person who is unaware off? Does not such sting operation violate the subjects right to privacy? How authentic is the piece of news reported from sting operation? Why should the media care about the private affairs of private people.

                                                                                                                  Ramyani Mukherjee
 (PG MEDIA 2015-2017)

                                               

NETIZENS: heralding ‘.com’ generation

 In late 90’s, Michael Hauben, a computer science graduate from Boston coined a word called NETIZEN (NET+CITIZEN) for the first time. Since then this goofy-sounding word became so popular throughout the world that it is almost irreplaceable today.

 If we look upon the internet’s trajectory in India also, this word has started diminishing the distinction between the virtual and the real world. A report from IAMAI (Internet and Mobile Association of India) and IMRB says that India being the second largest internet community might get 462 million internet users by June 2016. Since the internet penetration in India is still a bit low, the possibility of getting higher growth rate is much more than the western.

 It not surprising that mobile phone is the key which has turned millions of citizens into netizens or cyber citizens. In spite of having lower user base than urban areas, rural India has shown a healthy growth rate by participating in this “.com” revolution. However there are desktop and laptop users also in the race.

 Many industries and consumer focused tech businesses are gradually getting depended on these cyber citizens. In sectors like commerce, healthcare, education, finance, an internet based platform compared to the off-line services, can serve quicker response to people. The more the users digitize themselves the better service they get. As Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder and CEO of Paytm, says, “In the next five years, I expect the country will have banking products or full-fledged banks exclusively using mobile platforms. India is the ideal laboratory such innovations, considering India as a young country. 50 per cent of the population is under 24 years and smart phones are getting powerful with each passing day”.

As this internet technology is getting penetrated into the society refusing any demographic bars, everybody being a netizen, is participating actively towards the society. Though in India, internet usage is generally dominated by email, social networking, chat, games and news, users are also able to tackle key issues plaguing education, health, finance, agriculture, governance etc. Online businesses those have created a market worth about $11.8 billion in 2015, are also getting a strong platform only because of the huge crowd of netizens.

 It can be anticipated that a majority of citizens will be accessing internet and become part of the ‘.com’ generation in coming years. But on the other side overall cyber security needs to be assured through the Digital India vision. India needs a properly structured internet security and wellness plan to protect all the data those are or will be shared online. As the major part of the internet users are the youngsters it is critical that cyber security is integrated tightly into Digital literacy training to grow them up as responsible netizens of India.

                                                                                                                       Sagnee Roychowdhury
  ( PG MEDIA 2015-2017)

Corporatization In Bollywood

With the rich heritage of more than a hundred years, the Indian Film Industry, with the Hindi Film Industry (bollywood) at its focal point is continuously evolving to adapt the changing demand of its audience. With its industry accord in place since 2000, abetted by an open economy facilitating business, there could not have been a period as strategic as this for the involvement of corporate entities in bollywood. In these hundred years, the film ecosystem has followed a deep learning curve to mutate in to its current form (exhibit) of a gigantic industry. With ever- increasing revenue, charming out close to a thousand movies every year. The most critical revolution in Bollywood has been its ‘corporatization’, the involvement of corporate institutions in the different stages of film production.

One of the most important advantages associated with the introduction of corporate institutional investment in Hindi movies, a concept which ABCL wanted to implement extensively before undergoing bankruptcy  was the sheer sense of order which they brought to the erstwhile  high-entropy bollywood industry as the movie making process is now covered by extensive and uniform legal documentation.  In fact the compensation structure of an actor has become very flexible as several stars have even decided to forego any fee and agrees to profit sharing of the movie’s revenues; a trend started by Aamir Khan. Thus a better pay structure ensures that actor need not word in several movies simultaneously unlike in the past, whereby they may concentrate on a quality rather than quantity. This investment also have some bad sides, the inflow of ‘Black Money’ into movies as e.g.- Bharat Shah’s “chori chori  chupke chupke”(2000) where underworld don and Mumbai blast accused Chota Shakeel, was supposedly the person responsible for pumping money. The ever-increasing influence of piracy in Hindi movies also poses a potential threat to the efficacy of corporatization.

Some national investment institutions are Reliance Entertainment, Viacom 18 motion pictures, Balaji Telefilms etc. Hindi movies attract considerable attention from not only the international audience but also major global production houses like Warner bros and Fox entertainment. Thus corporatization though not devoid of it fair share of flaws is definitely the way going forward and will surely evolve with the onset of time to yield even more munificent returns for bollywood.

                                                                                                                                Rakesh Kumar Paul
                                                                                                                           (PG MEDIA 2015-2017)

Social security in India

Generally the concept of social security system includes not just an insurance payment of premiums into government funds but also lump sum employer obligations. In India social security mainly includes pension, health insurance, gratuity etc. A great deal of the Indian population is in the unorganized sector and does have an opportunity to participate in the social security.

The employees provident fund organization which is under the ministry of labor and employment ensure pension and family pension in case of death during service. Only near about 35 million out of a labor force of 400 million has access to social security in the form of old age income protection in present. Out of these 35million 26 million employees are member of the employees provident fund organization. The employees provident fund system is contributed to by the employer and the employee. The employees’ pension system is contributed to by the employer and the government but not the employee.

There is a national health service in India but that does not include free medical care for the whole population of India. The employee’s state insurance act creates a fund to provide a medical care to the employees and their families those working in factories.

The workmen's compensation act requires the employer to pay compensation to employees or their families in case of employment related injuries resulting in death or disability. Compensation calculation depends on the situation of occupational disability. In case of death, 50% of the monthly wage multiplied by the relevant factor or an amount of INR 80000. In case of total permanent disablement 60% of the monthly wage multiplied by the relevant factor or an amount of 90000. The compensation act also includes permanent disablement and temporary disablement.

The maternity benefit act requires an employer to offer 12 week wages during maternity as well as paid leave in certain other connected contingencies. The maximum period for which any women shall be entitled to maternity benefit shall be 12 weeks, six weeks up to and including the day of her delivery and six weeks immediately following that day.

 In may 2015 Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in Kolkata that near about five crore five lakh people have enrolled themselves in the three new national social security system in the week before the official launch. The schemes include two insurance products and one pension product, targeted mainly towards the unorganized sector and economically weaker population. A massive 80% of the country’s population is still outside the insurance coverage while the government estimated that merely 11% of the working population are under pension net.

The new life insurance plan the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana will offer INR 2 lakh cover at INR 330 premium every year. Bank account holders in the age of 18 to 50 years are eligible for this facility. Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana will offer a renewable one year accidental death or disability cover of INR 2 lakh at INR 12 premium every year. The insured will get INR 1 lakh in case of partial permanent disability. Atal Pension Yojana is for the people in the unorganised sector who are outside a formal pension.

                                                                                                                                      Pabitra Pandey

                                                                                                                        (PG MEDIA 2015-2017)

CPI(M)-CONGRESS: The new alliance in Bengal

As the 1^st phase of voting takes place on 4^th April, 2016 for West Bengal Assembly elections all the contesting political parties are in their final mode of campaigning. The All India Trinamool Congress which came to power in 2011 ending a 34-year Left rule in West Bengal is leaving no stone unturned in their campaigning to retain power. The ruling party which won 184 seats in the last assembly vote is hoping to increase their tally this time.

 This time around the Congress-CPM alliance will be the primary challenge to TMC in Bengal.  Although the current ruling party appears confident in their campaigns the big question that is rising within the political circles is that how many seats can the opposition wrest away from the ruling party? A survey conducted by a private news channel has predicted that there is a big chance of TMC coming back to power; however the road to victory will not be as smooth as the last time and margin between the opposition parties will narrow down.

Until a few months ago, the West Bengal elections appeared a foregone conclusion in favour of Mamata Banerjee, but it has got a new lease of life with the tactical electoral alliance between the Left Front and the Congress. This is not to imply that the so-called democratic alliance will be an easy and natural process. There is a lot of historical and ideological baggage that needs to be put aside. The CPI (M), which was formed on the question of the Left's attitude towards the national bourgeoisie (Congress in the 1960s), evolved through anti-Congress movements.

The central contradictions of Indian politics may have changed for the party with the ascendency of the right-wing BJP, but anti-Congress sentiments remains strong especially among people who experienced repression under the Congress regime. Conversely, the Congress in West Bengal for long considered the Left its principal opponent. Many of its leaders faced bitterness and suppression during the 34 years of Left rule.

Left and Congress have had to overcome historical bitterness to form the alliance in West Bengal. This alliance in West Bengal has materialized and appears to pose a strong, united opposition to the TMC.  According to Left front and Congress party leaders, the alliance is ‘”an alliance of the people”. The space for the opposition in West Bengal has decreased alarmingly under the TMC's rule. Civil society organizations and Opposition parties of all hues have been complaining of excesses by the ruling party and the complete subservience of the state machinery to the dictates of local TMC representatives.


When the space for opposition parties and especially their existence is under threat, such an alliance is more automatic than dramatic. And here a prominent political commentator remarked in a televised show about this alliance is- the single most important factor that has facilitated this alliance is the high handedness of the TMC and disregard for democratic principles, rule of law and opposition space.

                                                                                                                                       Rupa Biswas
                                                                                                                           (PG MEDIA 2015-2017)

The JNU Fiasco

HRD minister Smriti Irani said that the nation would never tolerate any “insult to Mother India”. It was a reference to the anti-India slogans that were raised during a protest meeting at Jawaharlal Nehru University, to mark the third anniversary of the hanging of Afzal Guru, convicted of being the mastermind of the Parliament attack in December 2001.

It was a tough statement, no doubt. And it was bolstered by an equally iron-jawed one from home minister Rajnath Singh: “If anyone raises anti-India slogans and tries to raise questions on the nation’s unity and integrity, they will not be spared,” he said.

And right on cue, the police swooped upon JNU, which has always been a fount of left-wing liberalism, and arrested the university’s student union president Kanhaiya Kumar on charges of sedition and criminal conspiracy.

Sedition? Seriously?

I, for once, would never support any move to idolise a convicted terrorist, much less approve of those who are prone to anti-India diatribes. But to arrest a university student leader, whose involvement in the controversial sloganeering is far from proven, on that charge is an outrageous over-reaction. Under Section 124a of the Indian Penal Code, one is guilty of sedition if one conspires to overthrow the Constitution and makes speeches that are an incitement to violence. Hence slapping the sedition rap on Kumar is utterly disproportionate to the alleged “crime”, and makes the state look irrational and paranoid

In truth, Kumar’s arrest evokes a chilling déjà vu. Just a month ago Hyderabad Central University student Rohith Vemula had committed suicide after he and four other students were systematically targeted, and then suspended. The university’s Ambedkar Study Association, of which Vemula was a prominent leader, had organised a protest last August after Yakub Memon was hanged for his involvement in the1993 Mumbai blasts. It is alleged that the HRD ministry sought action against Vemula and others after BJP MP Bandaru Dattatreya wrote to Smriti Irani.

 Significantly, both at JNU and in Hyderabad, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the youth wing of the RSS, had clashed with protesters, who were on the other side of the ideological divide, adroitly turning this into a nationalism-at-stake cause celebre, which of course lends credence to the charge that the BJP and the Sangh Parivar are using hyper nationalism as a stick to beat their ideological opponents into silence and oblivion.

The point is that dissent has space in our body polity. A difference of opinion, no matter how shocking or odious to some, cannot be muzzled on the pretext of nationalism. If anti-India slogans were shouted at that meeting, it is wrong according to me and to you too perhaps. Our Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and expression within reasonable limits, and slogans at a student meet albeit ill-judged and volatile, can hardly be deemed to have breached those limits.

Besides, it is upto the university authorities to carry out disciplinary action, if any, against students who may have violated the rules and regulations of the institution. JNU has already barred eight other students from academic activities pending a probe. Why then did the police have to jump the gun and take the student union president into custody? Is it any wonder that students and many teachers feel that this is just a “witch-hunt” on the part of ABVP (backed by the state) to nail Kumar, who is a member of the leftist student body, AISF?

It has been pointed out that the last time a JNUSU president was arrested was during the Emergency. If that move was a display of noxious authoritarianism, how is this different?

A place of higher learning profits from a ferment of ideas — radical or run-of-the-mill, sacred or profane, right wing or left wing, revolutionary or not so. It is a crucible of pluralism, the smithy where our tolerance for each other’s views is forged. Besides, it is in the nature of youth to defy the establishment, to go against the grain. Protesting any form of injustice — real or perceived — comes naturally to them. Some may go too far, some may push the boundaries only so much; some ideals may be flawed and some utterly stellar, but this is the time of life when one tends to fight the most fiercely for them.

A university is the last place where the state machinery should go in with all guns blazing, trying to punish radicalism, trying to stamp out this or that idea. You do that and you kill the spirit of the institution. You do that and you’re only a few steps away from a Tiananmen Square.

Our honorable HRD minister would do well to remember that “insult” to Mother India happens not just when a few odd students let off a few anti-India shouts. The insult rings loudest when the “idea” of India is bruised and violated, when men are lynched for their alleged food habits, when an African girl is thrashed for simply being an African, when politicians routinely make anti-women and rape-friendly remarks, when women are raped, a slothful and ponderous, criminal justice system takes decades to punish the guilty. 

By all means let us pledge not to tolerate insults to Mother India. But let that effort not be selective. Let it not be confined simply to throwing one’s weight around in academia.

                                                                                                                              Abhishek Mukherjee

                                                                                                                          ( PG MEDIA 2015-2017)