Chapter 6

SOCIAL JUSTICE

"Justice is the first virtue of social institutions”

-- John Rawls, Theory of Justice in 1971

…and to secure to all its citizens:

“Justice, Social, Economic and Political”
-- Preamble of Indian Constitution (note that justice comes even before
others)

The United Nations’ 2006 document Social Justice in an Open World: The Role of the
United Nations, states that "Social justice may be broadly understood as the fair and
compassionate distribution of the fruits of economic growth...”

In the view of former Chief Justice of India Justice Gajendragadkar, the concept of
social justice has dual objectives of 'removing all inequality' and affording equal
opportunities for 'economic activities of all the citizens.

In D. S. Nakara v. Union of India, the Supreme Court has held that the principal aim
of a socialist state is to eliminate inequality in income, status and standards of life.

The objective of social justice is to organize the society so as to abolish the source of
injustice in social relations, such as discrimination on the basis of caste, sex, religion,
race, region etc. whereas social justice may also require protective discrimination in

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favor of the downtrodden, underprivileged and weaker sections of the society

SOCIAL JUSTICE leads to achievement of HUMAN RIGHTS

Historical Underpinnings of Social Justice

The concept of Social Justice first surfaced in Western thought and
political language in the wake of the industrial revolution and the
parallel development of the socialist doctrine.
It emerged as an expression of protest against what was perceived
as the capitalist exploitation of labour and as a focal point for the
development of measures to improve the human condition.
It was born as a revolutionary slogan embodying the ideals of
progress and fraternity.
Following the revolutions that shook Europe in the mid-1800s,
social justice became a rallying cry for progressive thinkers and political
activists.... By the mid-twentieth century, the concept of social justice
had become central to the ideologies and programmes of virtually all
the leftist and centrist political parties around the world..."
In India, Social Justice emerged as a major driving force after the
experience of colonialism and development of India’s aspirations for a
just society.

How did the concept of social justice originate?

The concept of social justice emerged out of a process of evolution of social norms,
order, law and morality. It laid emphasis upon the just action and creates
intervention in the society by enforcing the rules and regulations based on the
principles in accordance with social equality.

The term 'social' as we can understood, is concerned with all human beings within
the society and term 'justice' is related with liberty, equality and rights. Thus social
justice ensures liberty, equality and maintains their individual rights in the society.

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Social Justice in Indian Political System

The scheme of social Justice is very well incorporated in the various provisions of the
Indian Constitution. The Preamble of the Constitution includes the terms like
‘Socialist’, ‘Social and Economic Justice’, ‘Equality’ etc., which specify that the state
would extensively involve in social welfare of people, and would try to establish an
egalitarian society. Moreover a distinct chapter of Directive Principles of State
Policy has been dedicated towards the welfare responsibilities of the government,
which lays down the norms of ideal governance for people’s welfare. Various
fundamental rights and its subsequent amendments also intended to ensure social
justice to the disadvantaged citizens.

What is the “Capabilities Approach” of Social Justice?

Securing the highest possible development of the capabilities of all members of the
society may be called social justice. Professor Amartya Sen is the leading proponent
of the “Rights Based Approach” and the “Capabilities Approach”.

The Capability Approach is defined by its choice of focus upon the moral significance
of individuals’ capability of achieving the kind of lives they have reason to value. This
distinguishes it from more established approaches to ethical evaluation, such as
utilitarianism or resourcism, which focus exclusively on subjective well-being or the
availability of means to the good life, respectively. A person’s capability to live a
good life is defined in terms of the set of valuable ‘beings and doings’ like being in
good health or having loving relationships with others to which they have real access.
It is from this that the Human Development Index has been developed by taking
various important measures like Health, Education, Income etc.

Justice vs. Social Justice

In dealing with the concept of social-justice, it becomes essential to differentiate

3
between the traditional idea of 'justice' and modern idea of 'social justice' intended
to establish an egalitarian society.

In modern liberal philosophy "justice" is defined in terms of rights not as duties. The
source of such rights is the state legislation, which limits the state power non-
infringing or taking away fundamental rights. In modern societies, almost all
constitutions guarantees such rights and ensure their effective implementation. In
this sense justice becomes a disposition to give everyone’s his rights.

The notion of social justice, however, is relatively recent phenomenon and largely a
product of the modern social and economic developments. The traditional idea of
justice which is described as often conservative approach, focused on the qualities of
‘Just’ or virtuous man, while the modern idea of social justice assumes a Just-society.
In ancient Greek and Hindu approach, the justice is concerned with functioning of
duties, not with notion of rights. Both Plato and Aristotle hold the state to be prior to
the individual. Under ancient Indian tradition, Dharma is another name of code of
obligations and justice is nothing but virtuous conduct with dharma.

Constitution of India and Social Justice

Indian Constitution, the cornerstone of the nation was intended to promote social
transformation -- Granville Austin.

The constitution of India is aimed at changing the social, political, economic and
psychological state of India. At the time of independence, the constitution makers
were highly influenced by the feeling of social equality and social justice. For the
same reason, they incorporated such provisions in the constitution of India.

Social Justice is the foundation stone of Indian Constitution. As Sarkaria Commission

notes, social justice is the “defining tune of the Indian Constitution”.

4
Indian Constitution makers were well identified to use the various principles of
justice. They wanted to search such form of justice, which could fulfill the
expectations of whole revolution. Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru suggested an idea before the
Constituent Assembly: "First work of this assembly is to make India independent by a
new constitution through which starving people will get complete meal and cloths,
and each Indian will get best option that he can progress himself." Basically, “Wiping
off Every Tear from Every Eye”.

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Constitutional Provisions for Social Justice
Preamble to the Indian constitution talks about Justice ECONOMIC, SOCIAL and
POLITICAL

“WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into
a SOVEREIGN, SOCIALIST, SECULAR, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its
citizens:
JUSTICE, social, economic and political;

LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;

EQUALITY of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all

FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the
Nation;

IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this 26th day of November, 1949, do HEREBY

ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION.”

Social Justice as per the Preamble to the Indian constitution:

Social Justice means the absence of socially privileged classes in the society and no
discrimination against any citizen on grounds of caste, creed, colour, religion, sex or
place of birth. India stands for eliminating all forms of exploitations from the society.

As a Whole

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7
8
7th Schedule

11th Schedule
12th Schedule
Disability and Old
a. DPSP: Art. 41. Right to work, to education and to
public assistance in certain Directive cases – Principles of
State Policy The State shall, within the limits of its
economic capacity and development, make effective
provision for securing the right to work, to education and
to public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age,
sickness and disablement, and in other cases of
undeserved want.
Socially and Educationally Backward classes
b. Appointment of a Commission to investigate the
conditions of backward classes
c. Article 15: Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of

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religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth
d. Article 16: Equality of opportunity in matters of public
employment
e. National Commission for Scheduled Castes

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Social Justice Post Liberalization

Government of India started thinking of delivering social justice to citizens by

enabling various agencies to adopt a rights-based approach.

Categorization of Schemes
The schemes which are being implemented by the Department of Social Justice and
Empowerment are basically meant to fulfill the mandate of the Department which
includes the Empowerment of its target groups in the following manner:
1. Economic Empowerment
2. Educational Empowerment
3. Social Empowerment

Scheduled Castes/OBCs Welfare

1. Educational Empowerment
a. The Schemes relating to Educational Empowerment
of the SCs are:
i. Scholarships
Schemes
ii. Schemes
relating to Construction of Hostels
iii. Schemes
relating to Coaching of the students
b. Economic Empowerment
i. The following
groups of schemes are meant for Economic
Empowerment of the SCs:
1. Loans at concessional rates
of interest

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 2. Micro credit
3. Skill development
c. Social Empowerment
i. The following
schemes are meant to socially empower the
SCs:
1. Curbing practice of
untouchability, discrimination &
atrocities (Prevention of
Atrocities Against SC/ST Act)
2. Support to NGOs who work
for target groups
3. Recognition through
National awards

Dr. Ambedkar and Social Justice

Understanding Ambedkar
• Ambedkar’s life is a unique example of success despite all the odds.
He struggled against the widespread forces of the society, shaped by

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 thousands of years of exploitation and marginalization throughout his
life. Despite these struggles, he made the best of opportunities he
received and made his way through the system to one of the most
intellectually inspiring figures in politics of modern India.
• Ambedkar’s understanding of social justice by shaped by his
personal experiences of discrimination in school and later as a
professor in Bombay, where despite his excellent education credentials,
he was consistently treated as an “untouchable” by fellow professors.

View on Social Justice and view on Socio-Cultural Rights

• Ambedkar believed in complete liberty and availability of an
individual to pursue every sphere of life to develop one’s total
personality.
• He understood the Indian social system as that which is very distinct
from the western social system, and recognized that role of the state
was a must for making opportunities available for individuals of
marginalized sections to be able to realize their best selves.
• For this purpose (achieving social and economic rights), he believed,
it was necessary to provide these sections of people with political
rights that would make it possible for them and empower them to
achieve these goals.

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• This became the foundation of much of the Indian constitution’s
view of social, political and economic justice, as laid in the Preamble of
the Constitution, and later with the emergence of the movement for
political and economic (in public jobs) reservations in the 1980s.

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Achievements
• Started publications, organizations and also a satyagraha against
the caste system in 1924 in Bombay.
• Established “Bahiskrit Hitkarni Sabha” here with social workers
and people of the lower classes and untouchables
• “Self-help is the best help”
• Stressed on education to instill confidence among the oppressed
classes.
• Satyagraha at Mahad to allow oppressed classes to be able to
drink water from public water tanks
• Nasik Satyagraha for right to temple entry

View on Political Rights

• Ambedkar believed that the achievement of social and economic
justice of the oppressed class was possible mostly through achievement
of political rights for them.
• He advocated peaceful and constitutional means to achieve these
political rights through satyagraha, popular agitations, writings and
demand of reservations for the oppressed classes in all spheres of the

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government - jobs, legislative assemblies etc.
• For this reason, he had demanded separate electorate for the
oppressed class (STs and the SCs) just like separate electorate for
Muslims granted by the British in 1909. However, this was strongly
opposed by Gandhi who believed that such step would cause further
division of the Indian society, and finally both agreed at reservation for
the oppressed class in the electorates, that would guarantee some
political power as demanded by Ambedkar.
• He believed that the democracy could not be achieved through
formation of a political democratic state. In fact, it was important for
the establishment of a society that understands the value of right of
each individual to personal development and freedom. Hence, there
should be a social democracy to achieve a successful political
democracy. Democracy is not a form of government but a form of
society.
• Dr. Ambedkar in 1943, argued that, ” A democratic form of
Government presupposes a democratic form of society. The formal
framework of democracy is of no value and would indeed be a misfit if
there was no social democracy”. He further emphasized, “The politicals
never realized that democracy was not a form of Government: it was
essentially a form of society”.
• Additionally, Ambedkar believed that the oppressed class did not
possess economic power, hence political power was must in achieving
economic and social power for these classes.
• Use of Pressure Groups was advocated by him to lobby for the
rights. It is because of these that reservation avenues opened up for
the oppressed class.

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Social Justice – Poverty, Health, Education

Rights Based approach to social policy

Rights based approach can be defined as the treatment of various basic minimum
needs such as education, health and social services for the citizens as essential and
absolutely necessary for their development. The government must view such rights
as its obligation to be provided to citizens.

Rights based approach has made governance more people centric.

It allows people to demand their rights to various services and ensure that their
delivery is done in an effective and efficient manner as well.

It ensures accountability and transparency of services available to the citizens.

It ensures that institutions are run for the people and people are not harassed by
institutions in demanding their entitlements.

For example:

· The United Nations has declared the MDGs and now the SDGs
keeping in mind the basic rights of all the people to some basic services
such as health, education, social safety nets etc.
· Similarly, the Supreme Court has interpreted the Article 21, Right
to Life in a variety of broad ways to include Right to clean
environment, Right to privacy, Right to life with dignity and so on.
· Other examples: Constitutional Status to PRIs, Adoption of RTI, Right
to Education, Right to Food, Formulation of Right to UHC, Social Audits
etc.

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· The rights are “Basic Minimum” to ensure a particular standard of
living, and they are no more state patronage but they are regarded as
state duties towards its citizens.

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Health

A healthy citizenry is the very fundamental requirement for a welfare society like
India. Without a happy and healthy citizenry, growth and development are not
possible. It is part of Directive Principles of State Policy and vision of our
constitution. India is signatory to MDGs and SDGs, both of which encapsulate
Universal Health coverage as a must for developmental needs. Healthy citizens
Increases productivity, economic growth etc.

Why Important:
1. Social: An End in Itself:
a. It is the duty of the state to ensure holistic development of
people of all classes. Good health is a fundamental need to
achieve such goal as it ensures mental and physical ability
required for citizens to be at par with each other.
b. Good health promotes freedoms of people. It enables people
to achieve other freedoms such as freedom of education, secure
income and so on, and hence choose their own life path.
c. The right to health is enshrined in binding international
treaties and constitutions. The National Health Bill is currently
under consideration as well. The Bill aims to “...provide for
protection and fulfillment of rights in relation to health and well-
being, health equity and justice.”
d. Leads to High Quality of Life
2. Economic: Increases productivity of people, hence contributing to
GDP
a. Large part of differences in growth rates between countries is
attributable to differences in their health status.
b. For example, if residents of UP were to have life expectancy

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 of Kerela’s people (nearly 15 years greater in 1995-96), the net
effect on the State’s output would be 60% higher than its current
levels.
c. Large part of expenditure for poor households, pushing them
into bankruptcy

Problems with healthcare in India:

1. Low Spending (“massively inadequate” according to Sen and Dreze):
India spends only 1.3% of GDP on healthcare. This is not only below but
almost half of even countries in North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and the
middle east and much below other developing and developed countries.
2. No Universal Healthcare: India has not achieved universal health care
as compared to China, Thailand and Mexico, all developing countries that
have achieved universal health coverage for their entire populations. In
China, such program was launched under the New Cooperative Medical
Scheme and in Mexico under the Seguro Popular health insurance
program.
3. Poor Condition of Facilities: Infrastructure is shabby, acute shortage of
medical staff (50-70% shortage of physicians, specialists and lab
technicians and radiographers at Community health centers) and
widespread leakage and corruption in government hospitals and health
care centers.
4. Massive Private Health care industry: Almost 80% of outpatient and
60% of inpatient visits are to private health care providers. Hence, private
health care providers are an important part of the equation when trying to
provide universal health care coverage in India.
5. Absence of discussions on health care in popular press and media

Underachievement in Maternal and Child Health:

1. India has failed miserably at maternal and child health
improvement.

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 2. India has recorded one of the worst performances on
undernourishment and child health
3. India has been unsuccessful at delinking maternal health from
that of her children that results in transmission of ill health from the
mother to her children.
4. Regional variations are abnormally high in India with some
regions lagging extremely behind others and the national average.
5. Almost 60% children in India were undernourished in 1998-99
according to CIAF (composite index of anthropometric failure) and
45.2% stunted, 15.9% wasted and 47.1% underweight.
6. Neo-natal mortality (NM) - number of deaths within 28 days of
life per 1000
a. Reflects the both maternal and new born health
and care
7. Infant Mortality (IM) - number of deaths within 1 year of age or
younger per 1000 births
a. Reflects the state of health care services at the
time of birth of child
8. Child Mortality (IM) - number of deaths within 5 years of age or
younger per 1000 births

Problems with Private Healthcare:

i. Efficiency Issues:
1. Health insurance is likely to attract people who
are prone to illness thus driving up premiums and
leading to exclusion of low-risk customers. This is
termed as adverse selection and may lead
to “Screening” of patients and hence is against the
principle of equity in health care.
2. Another efficiency issue is called moral

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 hazard - that both insured patients and private
providers have no incentive to contain costs. At the
same time, if the rates are prefixed by the
government, the health providers may be forced to
cut costs and minimize them regardless of the
quality of healthcare provided to the patients and
may even go against the interests of patients. They
may indulge in “cream skimming”, i.e. focusing on
patients who can be treated at low cost and turn
away the rest.
ii. Distortion Issue:
1. A commercial health insurance system is
generally biased against non-hospitalized care and
preventative care.
2. Pvt. health insurance tends to be aimed mostly
at hospitalised care. This creates a bias against
preventive health. This challenge is big especially
for India since a large amount of the disease burden
is that of communicable diseases. It will also lead to
a general overlook and reduced focus on public
health systems and give a boost to private health
care - this is against the route by which countries
like China, Thailand, Brazil, Mexico, etc. have
achieved near universal health care, i.e. a strong
public healthcare system

iii. Targeting Issue:
1. All problems associated with BPL targeting like
unreliability. The problem is graver in the case of
health since a single ailment is enough to push an
entire family below the poverty line. It is simply not
possible to revise the BPL line so frequently.
2. Further, BPL line is based on per capita income.

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 However a person may have sufficient income in
general but the nature of disability could be so
severe that he cannot finance the care on his own
iv. Inequity:
1. Sources of inequity are - potential screening by
insurance company, inefficient targeting, general
obstacles in using a health insurance system like
low education, powerlessness, etc.

v. Irreversibility Issue:
1. A major shift to private health insurance could
be irreversible as it would emerge as a very
powerful lobby
vi. Not successful in US: The model is essentially what
is followed in the US. And the American experience is not
encouraging: One of the most costly and ineffective in the
industrialized world. The per capita health expenditure is nearly
double that of Europe but the heath outcomes are poorer
1. Highly inequitable as nearly 20% population is
excluded from it
2. Reform has been difficult due to the power of
the insurance industry
3. On the other hand China, Brazil, Mexico,
Thailand and Vietnam have achieved near universal
coverage with publicly funded health services



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The Nutrition Issue
-- Coined as “Asian Enigma” by Amartya Sen
i. Just like immunization, the nutrition situation as
measured by proportion of underweight (weight for age)
children under 5 is poorer than sub-Saharan Africa and Least
Developed Nations. The broad patterns are same for stunting
(height for age)
ii. The entire Indian population also suffers severe
deficiencies including iron, vitamin A, etc.
iii. This is partly due to inadequate supplementation
programmes
iv. The oft repeated argument that Indians are
genetically shorter and international anthropometric standards
should not apply has been proved to be a myth by many studies.
v. Actually, the numbers for nutrition are uniformly
poor across South Asia even compared to many sub-Saharan
African countries. This fact has been termed as the "Asian
Enigma"
vi. Studies point to various possible reasons for this -
one is the poor status and health of women. Poor nutritional
status of women during pregnancy leads to low birth weights
affecting th nutritional status right from birth. And poor
nutritional status of women is also a reality across South Asia
vii. Further, just like immunization, the lack of
improvement over time is disconcerting. Between '92-'93 and
2005-2006 the dates of NFHS 1 and NFHS 3, nothing much has
changed. (However, recent reports i.e. last year if a survey done
by UNICEF and MoWCD found the figure to have come down to
31% from 43% of NFHS-3)
viii. The unavailability of credible data on the issue is
another challenge for timely course correction in policy. Last
NFHS was in 2005-06

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The (successful) example of Tamil Nadu
Health care
i. TN has a clear commitment to free and universal
health care covering a good range of services
ii. Correspondingly, most of the health indicators are
also much better than the national averages including IMR,
MMR, Life expectancy, proportion of underweight/stunted
children, institutional deliveries, antenatal and post-natal care,
breastfeeding, etc. In fact TN is expected to soon cover the gap
with Kerala - the state with the best set of health indicators
iii. The health policy and outcomes actually fit into a
larger pattern of creative, inclusive and comparatively active
social policies
iv. The foundation of TN's health care system is an
extensive network of primary health centres - all well
organised, supplied with essential medicines and well staffed
v. The geographical density of health centres, ratio
of doctors and nurses to population and presence of women
staff is much higher in TN than other states
vi. There is timely supply of free medicines which is
handled by a pharmaceutical corporation set up by the state
machinery unlike other states where patients are given
prescription and have to buy drugs from commercial pharma
shops
vii. The focus on basics i.e. preventive health care is
also commendable - including child immunization and public
health (basically sanitation, hygiene, waste disposal, disease
surveillance, health education, food safety regulation, etc)
f. 
ICDS
i. Characterised by well built infra, large attendance

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 rates even within 0-3 age group, good quality of education,
positive mothers' perception of the scheme.
ii. The state has taken initiative and ownership of
the scheme and incorporated many innovations - There is a
sophisticated training system for the staff, the entire programme
is run by women from top to bottom.
g. 
Other public services
i. There are many other examples of creative
activism in public service delivery in TN
ii. The PDS of TN is often cited as an example to
emulate. TN was the first state to provide free and universal mid
day meal scheme even before it was launched at the national
level
iii. A common thread amongst all these programmes
in the state is their universal nature. The PDS is universal unlike
most states where it is targeted. This principle is present across
services including water and electricity, health, employment,
food, etc.
iv. How did TN develop this commitment to free and
universal provisioning of well functioning public services?
1. early social reforms e.g. self respect movement
in 1920s
2. empowerment of disadvantaged classes
3. respect for women
4. long history of democratic action in public
policy related to social welfare - public discussion on
social issues and the prominence of these in the
electoral politics of the state. There is a culture of
protest for public services in TN. This is exactly what
happened much earlier in Kerala

26

Suggested focus areas based on above analysis
1. Increase public spending on health as % of GDP
2. Commitment to universal coverage through public
financing and not relying on private sector. This doesn't mean pvt
sector has no role at all. But it can only supplement and not
supplant the public health care system. This is the route through
which a large no. of countries in East Asia and Latin America and
transitioned to near universal health care in the recent past. So the
foundational role has to be played by the public sector.
3. Need to go back to the basics - Focus on both preventive and
curative care, making PHCs the foundation of our public health
system, empowering and educating village level health workers.
4. Consolidate on gains made by innovations like the Janani
Suraksha Yojana, role of ASHAs in vaccination programmes, etc
while simultaneously learning and absorbing the lessons from
outside - China, Thailand, etc. and also within from India - TN and
Kerala.
5. Bring health care at the centre of attention of democratic
politics and public debate. Just like the example of TN, the
experience of Thailand also shows the importance of public
involvement in health policy and issues - There is a "Health
Assembly" in Thailand which holds regular meeting where
complaints and reviews on health policy are aired by the citizens

As per 12th Five Year Plan, Health should be viewed as not merely the absence of
disease but as a state of complete physical, mental and social well being.

Other major Challenges/Weaknesses in Health Sector in India:

1. Availability

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 a. Shortage of doctor and nursing staff is
acute.
b. Doctor per lakh of population around 45
while the minimum number should be 85.
c. Similarly lack of nurses and auxiliary
midwives (ANMs).
2. Affordability
a. Out of pocket expenses of poor are too
high (almost 70% of the overall healthcare
expenses).
b. Medicines are too expensive for various
communicable and noncommunicable diseases. The
private sector forms majority of the health care
system but it is out of reach for most of the
population.
c. Prescription drugs reforms, promotion of
essential, generic medicines, and making these
universally available free of cost to all patients in
public facilities
i. These should
be part of the “Essential Health Package” --
Price controls and price regulation, especially
on essential drugs, should be enforced. The
Essential Drugs List should be revised and
expanded, and rational use of drugs ensured.
ii. Safeguards
provided by Indian patents law and the TRIPS
Agreement against the country’s ability to
produce essential drugs should be protected
iii. Jan Aushadhi
Program
3. Lack of Focus on Preventative Care and Lack of Quality:

28
 a. Preventative care is in shambles as noted
in the poor state of Primary health care centers
(PHCs)
b. Many doctors are not qualified or licensed
to practice.
c. This is also reflected in poor MMR and
IMR ratios
4. Healthcare spending
a. Public spending is only 1.2% of GDP,
which is far below international standards for
similar countries.

New institutions needed:

· The establishment of a National Health Regulatory and
Development Authority (NHRDA)
· A National Drug Regulatory and Development Authority (NDRDA)
· A National Health Promotion and Protection Trust (NHPPT) is also
recommended.

Steps taken:
1. Universal Health Coverage has been envisaged as the
goal of new draft Health care policy
2. Governance Reforms in Healthcare
a. Performance linked incentives
b. Devolution of powers and functions to
local health care institutions and making them
responsible for the health of the people living in a
defined geographical area.
c. NRHM’s strategy of decentralisation, PRI
involvement, integration of vertical programmes,
inter-sectoral convergence and Health Systems
Strengthening have been partially achieved.

29
 d. Example: Professional procurement
agencies on the lines of Tamil Nadu
3. National Health Mission
a. Jnani Suraksha Yojana
b. Indradhanush for full immunization of
children
4. Rashtriya Swasthya Suraksha Yojana
5. Focus on developing ANMs, ASHAs
6. Community involvement through Jan Sunwais and Rogi
Kalyan Samitis.
a. Village Health Sanitation and Nutrition
Committee (VHSNC)

Universal Health Coverage Models

1. EHP: Cashless delivery of an Essential Health Package
(EHP) to all ought to be the basic deliverable in all models.
a. Linkages of EHP with Government
pharmacies (for public providers) and Jan Aushadhi
outlets (for all).
2. An effective health information network that could be
accessed by all service providers and patients (for their own
records) would enable the continuum of care.
3. Targeting of people through Aadhar
4. Community Involvement to be the focus
5. Financing of UHC:
a. By PPP or NPPP (Not for Profit PPP)
b. CSR funding can go to government
hospitals, healthcare centers etc.

Disease Control Programs

1. National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme

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 a. India has 56% of world’s leprosy patients
and 21% of its TB patients.
b. Multi-drug resistance to TB is being
increasingly recognised.
2. Mental Health problems increasing
a. National Mental Healthcare Bill?
3. Regulation
a. The Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA)
came into being in 2011 and integrated the food
laws in India into one single law.
b. Various other acts such as The
Transplantation of Human Organs Act, PC-PNDT Act
has been amended.
c. AYUSH Ministry has been set up and use
of AYUSH medicine in place of allopathic medicine
has been recommended in a phased manner in
CHCs, PHCs, and district hospitals.
d. Role of ICMR [indian council for medical
research] and New Health Research Division

Food Safety
· Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has been
established to improve transparency in its functioning and decision
making.
o Bio-safety would be an integral part of any risk
assessment being undertaken by FSSAI.
· Standardized Tests for Adulteration to be introduced across the
labs in India and BIS to undertake guidelines as well.
· Public information campaigns to reduce the consumption of
unhealthy foods to be undertaken.
· Food surveys to get the information and their results would be
published regularly.

31
 · Steps such as marking of veg, non-veg, best before dates,
nutritional requirements etc.

Early Childhood Development

· According to WHO, first 6 months of a child’s life are the most
vulnerable and important days in respect to mortality as well as later
growth.
· IMR, MMR still high in India -- MDG not achieved
o IMR: 44 deaths/1000
o MMR: 140 deaths per 100,000
o Immunization rate in India: 51%
§ Tamil Nadu: 86%
§ Uttar Pradesh: 29% (second last)
o Institutional Delivery Rate: 41%
§ Tamil Nadu: 90%
§ Uttar Pradesh: 22%
· Children are stunted, wasted, mal-nutritioned

Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana – Renamed Rashtriya Swasthya Suraksha Yojana

(RSSY)
· RSBY is a health insurance scheme that covers treatments upto Rs.
30,000 under cashless scheme for BPL population in both government
and private hospitals across India.
· High enrollment of over 40 million individuals in the scheme has
already been done.
· Despite the high enrollment, a big failure of the scheme has been
the continued rise in out of pocket expenses despite the scheme.
(Study by Council of Social Development)

This is due to:

1. Low amount: Inability of the scheme to meet high level
of expenses in cases of expensive treatments such as heart

32
 transplants, surgeries etc. Hence, the amount should be raised
from Rs. 30,000 (as done in in RSSY)
2. Corruption: Instances of leakages of funds and ghost
patients have been widely reported in RSBY. Use of Aadhar can
be implemented to plug these.
3. Focus only on secondary and tertiary and not on
preventive healthcare.
4. Poor targeting of marginalized sections

Recent steps:
→ RSBY smart cards issued under Shramev Jayate program for workers in the
unorganized sector. à Convergence.

Major Schemes and their achievements in health

a. Government Sponsored Health Insurance Schemes (GSHISs)
i. Almost 20% of Indian population covered by
GSHISs by 2010 (240 million people), expected to reach 50% or
630 million people by 2015
ii. These schemes include RSBY and Rajiv Aarogyasri
in AP, Central Government Health Scheme, Employee State
Insurance Scheme, Vajpayee Arogyasri etc.
b. RSBY (Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana)
i. Health Insurance for the Poor, focused on
secondary care
ii. RSBY has been launched by Ministry of Labour

33
and Employment, Government of India to provide health
insurance coverage for Below Poverty Line (BPL) families.
iii. The objective of RSBY is to provide protection to
BPL households from financial liabilities arising out of health
shocks that involve hospitalization.
iv. Beneficiaries under RSBY are entitled to
hospitalization coverage up to Rs. 30,000/- for most of the
diseases that require hospitalization.
v. Government has even fixed the package rates for
the hospitals for a large number of interventions.
vi. Pre-existing conditions are covered from day one
and there is no age limit. Coverage extends to five members of
the family which includes the head of household, spouse and up
to three dependents.
vii. Beneficiaries need to pay only Rs. 30/- as
registration fee while Central and State Government pays the
premium to the insurer selected by the State Government on the
basis of a competitive bidding.
viii. Why the need of RSBY or BPL Health Insurance?
1. Debt Trap: For people living below poverty
line illness could result in the family falling into a
debt trap.
2. Preventative and Early Care: When the need to
get the treatment arises for poor families they often
ignore it because of lack of resources, fearing wage
loss, or wait till the last moment when it’s too late.
3. Protection of financial and other assets of the
poor: Even if they do decide to get the desired
health care it consumes their savings, forces them
to sell their assets and property or cut other
important spending like children’s education.
4. Responsibility of the State

34
ix. Features of RSBY:
1. Can choose private or public hospital
2. Business Model for many stakeholders and
private players as well:
a. Insurers

i. The
insurer is paid premium
for each household
enrolled for RSBY.
Therefore, the insurer has
the motivation to enroll
as many households as
possible from the BPL list.
This will result in better
coverage of targeted
beneficiaries.

b. Hospitals

i. Hospit
als get refunded by the
insurers and money flows
directly from the
beneficiary to them.
Hence they have an
incentive to treat the
patient. The insurer
assures no unnecessary
charges are charged by
hospitals and business
practices are ethical.
c. Intermediaries

35
 i. NGOs
and MFIs are also paid for
services to reach out to
beneficiaries
d. Government

i. By
paying only a maximum
sum up to Rs. 750/- per
family per year, the
Government is able to
provide access to quality
health care to the below
poverty line population. It
will also lead to a healthy
competition between
public and private
providers which in turn
will improve the
functioning of the public
health care providers.

e. IT Intensive

i. Every
beneficiary issued smart
cards
f. Safe and full-proof

i. Use of
biometric enabled smart
cards makes the system

36
 full proof
g. Portability

i. Car
can used at any hospital
empaneled by RSBY. Its
also can be split for
migrant workers
h. Cash less and paper less
transactions
i. Robust Monitoring
c. ICDS (Integrated Child Development Scheme) - Nutrition and Health
i. Launched in 2nd October, 1975
ii. CSS
iii. Provides food, preschool education and primary
healthcare to children below 6 years of age and their mothers.
iv. Aims to promote proper mental, physical and
social development of children in India, reduce mortality rates
among children, increase nutrition levels and reduce school
dropouts
v. Reaches over 34 million children (0-6 years age) a
year and over 7 million mothers
vi. Scope of Services:
1. Immunization
2. Supplementary Nutrition
3. Health Checkups
4. Referral Services
5. Pre-school Non formal education
6. Nutrition and Health Information
vii. Provided by Ministry of Health and
Family Welfare
viii. These services are provided by Anganwadi Centres

37
 established mainly in rural areas and staffed with frontline
workers.
ix. Programs aim is to fight malnutrition and ill health
and also promote gender equality by providing equal resources
to the girls as boys
x. Impact:
1. By end of 2010, the programme is claiming to
reach 80.6 lakh expectant and lactating mothers
along with 3.93 crore children (under 6 years of
age).
2. There are 6,719 operational projects with
1,241,749 operational Aanganwadi centres.
3. A study in states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra
Pradesh and Karnataka demonstrated significant
improvement in the mental and social development
of all children irrespective of their gender.
4. A 1992 study of National Institute of Public
Cooperation and Child Development confirmed
improvements in birth-weight and infant mortality
of Indian children along with improved
immunization and nutrition.
5. However, World Bank has also highlighted
certain key shortcomings of the programme
including inability to target the girl child
improvements, participation of wealthier children
more than the poorer children and lowest level of
funding for the poorest and the most
undernourished states of India.
d. National Health Mission - Launched in 2005 by UPA, initially for 18
states
e. National Rural Health Mission - focused on primary care
i. Launched in 2005 as a part of the overarching

38
 National Health Mission
ii. Main mission is to provide effective healthcare
services to rural masses in the country with a focus on states
with poor public health indicators and weak healthcare
infrastructure.
iii. Characterized by (1) significantly increased
financing, (2) Flexibility around hiring contractual staff (3) Supply
chain reforms (4) Introduction of a cadre of grassroots workers
paid entirely on the basis of performance (5) overall increased
emphasis on public health expenditure
iv. The program under NRHM can be broadly
categorized under the two:
1. Reproductive & Child Health Programs -
address challenges of maternal and newly born
health issues
2. National Disease Control Programs
f. Goals of NHM:



g. Initiatives of NHM:

39
 i. Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs)
1. Community Health volunteers called
Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) have
been engaged under the mission for establishing a
link between the community and the health system.
2. ASHA is the first port of call for any health
related demands of deprived sections of the
population, especially women and children, who
find it difficult to access health services in rural
areas.
3. ASHA Programme is expanding across States
and has particularly been successful in bringing
people back to Public Health System and has
increased the utilization of outpatient services,
diagnostic facilities, institutional deliveries and
inpatient care.
ii. Rogi Kalyan Samiti (Patient Welfare Committee)
and Hospital Management Society
1. Manage affairs of hospitals
iii. Untied Grants to sub Centres
1. Untied Grants to Sub-Centers have been used
to fund grass-root improvements in health care.
Some examples include: Improved efficacy of
ANMs in the field that can now undertake better
antenatal care and other health care services.
2. Village Health Sanitation and Nutrition
Committees (VHSNC) have used untied grants to
increase their involvement in their local
communities to address the needs of poor
households and children.
iv. Health Care Contractors
v. Janani Suraksha Yojana

40
 1. JSY aims to reduce maternal mortality among
pregnant women by encouraging them to deliver in
government health facilities.
2. Under the scheme one time cash assistance is
provided to eligible pregnant women for giving
birth in a government health facility.
3. Large scale demand side financing under the
Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) has brought poor
households to public sector health facilities on a
scale never witnessed before.
vi. Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakaram
1. As part of recent initiatives and further moving
in the direction of universal healthcare, Janani
Shishu Suraksha Karyakarm (JSSK) was introduced
to provide free to and fro transport, free drugs, free
diagnostic, free blood, free diet to pregnant women
who come for delivery in public health institutions
and sick infants up to one year.

vii. Rahstriya Bal Swasthya Karyakaram
1. A Child Health Screening and Early Intervention
Services has been launched in February 2013 to
screen diseases specific to childhood,
developmental delays, disabilities, birth defects and
deficiencies.
2. The initiative will cover about 27 crore children
between 0–18 years of age and also provide free
treatment including surgery for health problems
diagnosed under this initiative.
viii. National iron + initiative
1. The National Iron+ Initiative is an attempt to
look at Iron Deficiency Anaemia in which
beneficiaries will receive iron and folic acid

41
 supplementation irrespective of their Iron/Hb
status. This initiative will bring together existing
programmes (IFA supplementation for: pregnant
and lactating women and; children in the age group
of 6–60 months) and introduce new age groups.

ix. National Mobile Medical Units
x. National Disease Control Program
xi. National Vector Borne Diseases Control Program
xii. Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program
xiii. National AIDS Control program
xiv. Immunization:
1. 'Mission Indradhanush'
2. Launched recently, the mission aims to cover
all un-vaccinated or partially vaccinated children by
the year 2020, against seven vaccine preventable
diseases.The diseases that come under the mission
are diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio,
tuberculosis, measles and hepatitis B. 

3. Four special vaccination campaigns are being
conducted under the programme, between January
and June 2015. 

4. About 201 districts are covered in the first
phase and 297 will be targeted for the second
phase. 

xv. Clean Drinking Water under National Rural
Drinking Water Program (NRDWP)

1. Solar power based water supply schemes
launched across rural ad far-flung areas to provide
clean water where electricity is a constraint 

xvi. Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin)

1. Aimed at ODF - open defecation free India by

42
 2019

2. The Case for Universal Health Care

a. Essential public good for development of
people’s capabilities, productivity enhancement of the workforce
b. Private health care is not a good substitute because of affordability,
3. 12th FYP on Health
a. Problems in the Public Health Care Domain in India:
i. Low Spending on Public Health:
1. Only 1.3% of GDP spent on health care
compared to almost 4.3% of other major
developing countries like Brazil and almost 7-8% of
the developed countries.
ii. Availability

1. Low number of doctors, nurses and auxiliary
nurses and midwives (ANMs) Widespread
geographical variation within India.
iii. Affordability

1. Lack of extensive coverage by the government
deprives a huge population from basic health
services.
2. Lack of medicines causes the prices to be
inflated artificially at private hands.
3. A large fraction of the out of pocket
expenditure arises from outpatient care and
purchase of medicines, which are mostly not
covered even by the existing insurance schemes. In
any case, the percentage of population covered by
health insurance is small.
iv. Quality 

1. Many practitioners in the private sector are not
qualified to be doctors.

43
 2. Regulatory standards to control hospitals are
inadequate.
v. Total expenditure (public+private+household out
of pocket) around 4.1% of the GDP, which is almost similar to
other developing countries, however public expenditure is only
27% of this total expenditure, which is very low by any standard.
Government must increase its expenditure drastically. Lowest
among BRICS - Brazil and SA in 9% range (total expenditure).
4. 



44



45
 i. First focus should on public health infrastructure.
Could be supplemented by PPPs and move towards the UHC
system in the long run as it takes a lot of time to develop. 

ii. A large fraction of the out of pocket expenditure
arises from outpatient care and purchase of medicines, which
are mostly not covered even by the existing insurance schemes.
In any case, the percentage of population covered by health
insurance is small.
5.

46




47

Goals:
i. Reduction of Infant Mortality Rate
ii. Reduction of Maternal Mortality Ratio
iii. Reduction of Total Fertility Rate
iv. Prevention and Reduction of Undernourishment
v. Prevention and reduction of anemia in women
aged 15-49 years
vi. Raising child sex ratio in the 0-6 years age group
from 914 to 950
vii. Reduction of out-of-pocket expenses of poor
households

48
b. Problems with current programs like National Health Mission and
Integrated Child Development Scheme and recommendations.
i. Spatial Area Mapping
1. Anganwadi Centres where people can access
public health services (especially women, pregnant
women, young children for vaccination etc.) are
located in upper class areas within the villages. This
creates barriers for extremely poor, lower class
individuals to access these centers and they
become less effective.
ii. Concentration of services in High-burden
Pancahayats:
1. Worst effected blocks must be focused on as
they are too burdened.
iii. Reduce Out-of-pocket spendings of these
individuals
iv. Workload, motivation and training of employees
v. Reach unaccessible areas through MMUs (Mobile
Medical Units)
1. The success of Assam and Kerela’s water
medical units on large boats have been quite
successful in reaching extremely
unaccessible areas.
vi. Infrastructure improvements; Repositioning of the
AWCs

49
6.

50


7. PPP in Health Sector




51
Education

Education forms the core of India’s “tryst with destiny”. Our founding fathers and
freedom fighters, and even spiritual torchbearers such as Vivekananda and Sri
Aurobindo had consistently written about education’s importance in a newly born
nation.

Tagore once said: “the imposing tower of misery which today rests on the heart of
India has its sole foundation in the absence of education"

Why important?

1. Quality of Life

Education provides freedoms to communicate with the rest of the world,

to lead an informed life, to communicate with others, and to be generally
in touch with whats going on. Sen has said, "Being illiterate is like being
imprisoned, and school education opens a door through which people can
escape incarceration"

2. Leads to potentially productive employment

3. Enhances political voice of people
4. Tackles Health Problems
5. Awareness about Human Rights
6. Awareness about Legal Rights
7. Women’s Empowerment
8. Reduces class and caste inequalities

52
 9. Recreational in itself, creative engagement and enjoyment

Does Education Lead to Development? (Relationship between the two)

Europe and USA’s commitment to public education leads to industrialization and
economic growth: Government delivered free education lead to massive social and
economic improvements over 18th and 19th centuries.

Japan’s focus on education transforms the country in a global economic, military and
social power:

Transformation of Japan in the late 19th century from an agrarian and feudal
economy to the largest industrial power in Asia and one of the most prosperous
countries was achieved by rapid advances in education after the Meiji restoration

Fundamental code of education issued in 1872 expressed a clear public mandate to

achieve 100% literacy in the country.

Between 1906 and 1911, education consumed as much as 43% of the budgets of
towns and villages, for Japan as a whole.

By 1913, Japan was fully literate, and even if much poorer than Britain and America,
it was publishing more books than Britain and twice as many as the US.

Concentration on Education determined the rapid industrialization and development

in Japan during this time.

Later, countries of Taiwan, South Korea, China, Singapore and Hong Kong have
embarked on similar missions to educate their masses. This is an important indicator
of the rapid progress of East Asia.

India’s poor state of education - “shockingly low quality"

53
Rampant Absenteeism among teachers and students - 20% among teachers and
33% among students

Shocking lack of teaching by teachers who are present in schools

This leads to only 50% teaching days out of total 200 teaching days that are required
to educate these children

Massive shortage of teachers: 12% Schools with only one teacher

Low teacher hiring by authorities due to high teacher pays leading to hiring
unmotivated contract teachers

Low quality of teaching or Poor standards of Education

Mindless rote learning prevails

Poor knowledge of basic concepts and facts

PISA Plus (conducted by Australian Council for Educational Research), an

international survey conducted in 2009, placed India (states of HP and Tamil
Nadu) at the bottom of 74 countries in assessing reading ability of 15 year olds.
India was also ranked at lower positions in writing, science and mathematics.

Evaluation Gap
SSA and RTE does not entail proper evaluation. It guarantees automatic promotion
from one class to another irrespective of what the child has learnt.
No detention policy is harming students’ learning

It does not encourage school tests as there is no repercussions to students failing

end of the year class tests.
Standardized Tests are important to understand what kinds of help, attention or
encouragement particular children or schools need.
Low allocation of funds

54
Poor Accountability mechanisms and standards to monitor teacher and student
performance
No-detention policy leading to low performance and plunging learning outcomes

India’s no fail policy for students up to standard 9th has skewed the learning system.
It has resulted in students not learning appropriate skills in respective grades due to
lack of accountability among government schools for children’s learning outcomes.

No results despite High Salaries of Teachers (3.0 times national per capita GDP,
highest in the world). Also results in massive social gap between teachers and the
families of children (these families are landless laborers etc. with low income). This
has also resulted in hiring contract teachers to expand the education system,
however, this has only resulted in further degradation of quality of teaching.

Achievements
Right to Education 2010 (Article 21 A) ensures free and compulsory education for
children between 6-14 years of age

All India Sarva Siksha Abhiyan

Increased school enrollment ratios - from 80% in 1996 to over 95% in 2006 (among
children aged 6-12 years). These have caught up for children in Dalit and Muslim
segments as well.

Improvement in amenities: By 2006, 73% schools had at least two all-weather rooms
compared to only 26% in 1996

By 2006, 60% schools have their own toilets and 75% have drinking water facilities
Free textbooks in nearly all schools by 2006 as compared to only 50% in 1996
Mid day meals functioning in 86% of the schools by 2006

Private schooling as an alternative (issues)

55
Affordability

Even if affordability is resolved, informational asymmetry for first time school goers
makes them less likely to benefit the most from private schools’ just on the basis of
their school vouchers provided by the government. School authorities may not
provide the best educational experience or equal to that of other students who are
actually paying fees.

Lack of competition can make private schools money extractive machines (evident in
the fact that private schools are not doing as well as public schools in many parts of
India)

Government Schemes in Education:

Sarva Siksha Abhiyan

New provision added for reimbursement for expenditure incurred for at least 25%
admissions of children belonging to disadvantaged and weaker sections in private
unaided schools from academic year 2014-15.

Mid Day Meal Scheme (National Program Nutritional Support to Primary Education)
Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA)
Skill Development Mission
Scheme for setting up 6000 Model Schools at Block Level as Benchmark of Excellence
Scheme for providing education to Madrasas, Minorities and Disabled
Support for Educational Development including Teachers Training & Audit Education

Scholarships - various scholarships etc. to students of SC, ST and OBC and religious
minorities for higher education and coaching classes. Maulana Abul Kalam National
Scholarship for Meritorious Girl Students.

Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA): CSS that aims at providing funding to
institutions of higher education in various states. 


56
Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya: Educational facilties for girls belonging to SC, ST,
OBC, minority communities and families below the poverty line in Educationally
Backward Blocks.

Kishore Vaihyanik Protsahan Yojana: Scholarship program to encourage students to

take up research careers in the areas of basic science, engineering and medicine.

New Scheme:

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana approved by the Cabinet The Pradhan Mantri
Kaushal Vikas Yojana was approved by the Union Cabinet on March 20, 2015.

It is a scheme for skill training of youth to be implemented by the Ministry of Skill

Development and Entrepreneurship through the National Skill Development
Corporation (NSDC).

Skill training would be imparted based on the National Skill Qualification

Framework.

Coverage: The scheme will cover 24 lakh people. It will focus on first time entrants to
the labour market and will target Class 10 and 12 drop outs. A one-time monetary
reward of around Rs 8,000 per trainee will be given under the scheme.

Outlay: The Cabinet approved a total outlay of Rs 1,500 crore for the scheme. Out of
this, Rs 1,120 crore will be spent on skill training, Rs 220 crore on recognition of prior
learning, Rs 67 crore on awareness building, mobilisation and mentorship support,
and Rs 150 crore for training of youth from the North-East region.

Assessing demand: Skill training would be done on the basis of demand assessed by
skill gap studies, conducted by the NSDCfor 2013-17. A demand aggregator platform
would be launched.

57
Implementation: The scheme would be implemented through NSDC‟s 187 training
partners (with 2,300 centres), in addition to government affiliated training partners.
Training would include soft skills, personal grooming, good work ethics, etc. A Skill
Development Management System would be put in place to verify and record details
of training centres. A grievance redressal system will also be instituted.

Broad Objectives of Education

Education must develop multi - dimensional intelligence among students. This may
include:
1. Cognitive intelligence covering skill development and research
orientation
2. Emotional intelligence for team spirit and risk taking attitude
3. Moral intelligence to blend personal ambitions with national goals
4. Social intelligence to defend civil rights and fight inequality
5. Spiritual intelligence for peace

Problems with Education in India

1. Primary level schooling suffers from the problem of quality -- content
and pedagogy.
a. Accessibility is pretty good as over 135 million children are
enrolled in primary schools with gross enrollment ration
touching 100%. → However, the quality of education given to
them suffers due to poor course design, teacher absenteeism
and poor teaching methods.
b. Also, lack of community participation where parents and
gram panchayats can control the performance evaluation of
teachers is not there.
2. Secondary level schooling suffers from the problem of choice in
courses due to which a large percentage of students drop out. → Dropout
rate is around 50% for students from primary to secondary level.
3. The tertiary and vocational level education suffers from the problem

58
 of lack of rating and certifications in public and private institutions.

Solutions
1. Primary level → New draft education policy envisages revamped course
design at this level. It also envisages compulsory certification of teachers,
enhanced training and greater monitoring of in class teaching methods.
2. Secondary level → New draft education policy envisages doing away
with the detention policy to focus on teaching outcomes.
3. Tertiary level → New draft education policy envisages doing away with
UGC and creating an autonomous National Education Regulator to oversee
higher education. → National Knowledge Commission also recommended
this.

→ National Institute Ratings Framework [NIRF] has been launched to rank and rate
colleges both private and public.

New Education Policy in India (TSR Report)

· Education is the foundation of any modern society. Historically,
India has had a strong tradition of promoting both scientific as well as
religious learning.
· Customs such as “guru-shishya” relationship and the excellence

59
 demonstrated by Indian engineers, scientists and management
personnel on international stage speaks volumes of the Indian mind.
· However, despite several measures, education has not met the
rising standards of the 21st century. An urgent policy to utilize India’s
massive demographic dividend is need of the hour. In this context, TSR
Subramaniam committee has submitted a new education policy for
India.

Recommendations of the Committee

1. Spending Increase: Total public spending on education
must increase from current 3% to 6% of GDP with immediate
effect.
2. Scrapping of UGC.
3. Allowing foreign universities to set up campuses in
India
4. All India Cadre of Education Service.
5. Compulsory Quality Audit of Schools every 3 years
6. Position of VCs in universities should be non-political
7. Licensing of Teachers: Compulsory licensing or
certification for teachers in government and private schools
should be made mandatory, with provision for renewal every 10
years based on independent external testing.
8. Pre-school education as a Right: Pre-school education
for the age group of 4-5 years should be declared as a right as
provided by DPSPs.
9. Expansion of mid-day meal: The ambit of Mid Day Meal
scheme should be expanded to cover students of secondary
schools.
10. Teacher Entrance Tests (TET) should be made
compulsory for recruitment of all teachers. Also for admission to
B.Ed courses minimum marks at graduate level should be 50%.
11. No Detention Policy to be removed: The no detention

60
 policy must be continued for children until class V only when the
child will be 11 years old. After class V, at the upper primary
stage, system of detention shall be restored subject to the
provision of remedial coaching and at least two extra chances
being offered to prove capability to move to a higher class.
12. The 25% economically weaker section quota in private
schools should be extended to minority institutions, as number
of schools claiming religious or linguistic minority status has
increased tremendously.
13. Focus on girl education
14. Inclusion of value learning and ethics in the classroom.

No Detention Policy
· Various State governments (total 18 of them) have demanded
repeal of no detention policy given in Right to Education Act.
· As per Section 16 of RTE Act, the students up to class VIII are
automatically promoted to the next class without being held back even
if they do not get a passing grade.
· This has been implemented as part of the Continuous and
Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) under the RTE Act to ensure all-round
development of students.

Older Policies
1. First policy: 1968; Second: 1986 (most recent), under
Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi govts respectively.
2. The National Education Policy (NEP) of 1986 was
revised in 1992.

Schemes for Education

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) SSA

61
It is aimed at the universalisation of elementary education as mandated by the 86th
Amendment to the Constitution of India which made free and compulsory education
to children between the ages of 6 to 14 as a fundamental right. Initiatives and Sub-
Programmes under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)

Various initiatives under SSA:

a. Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan (RAA) - It aims to motivate and
engage children of the age group of 6-18 years, in Science,
Mathematics and Technology by Institutions of Higher Education
like IIT's, IISER's and NIT's.
b. Shagun Portal - It has two components i.e Repository of best
practices to learn from success stories & Online Monitoring of
the SSA implemented by States and UTs
c. Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat - To improve the reading and
writing skills of children in classes I and II, along with their
mathematics skills.
d. Vidyanjali Scheme - To enhance community and private
sector involvement in Government run elementary schools
across the country

Shala Programs:

All School Monitoring Individual Tracing Analysis (ASMITA)

It is launched under Shala Asmita Yojana (SAY). SAY aims to track the educational
journey of school students from Class I to Class XII across the 15 lakhs private and
government schools in the country. ASMITA will be an online database and it will
carry information of student attendance and enrolment, learning outcomes, mid-day
meal service and infrastructural facilities among others. Students will be tracked
through their Aadhaar numbers and incase those not having unique number will be
provided with it. This has emerged as a controversial point, and is under discussion

62
at the Supreme Court as well.

Shala Sarathi

It is a portal launched by the Ministry of HRD. It has envisaged partnership of the

State-NGO-CSR and it aims to aid the collaboration among the stakeholders in
sharing innovative practices in various schools. Shaala Siddhi is a comprehensive
school evaluation system focused on well-defined quality based parameters that
facilitates Schools to make professional judgments for improvement.

Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA)

It is a centrally sponsored scheme with the objective to enhance access to secondary

education. Initiatives under RMSA are as follows:
a. Shaala Siddhi - It is a web portal developed by the National University
of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA) to enable schools to
evaluate their performance in 7 key domains under the prescribed
framework.
b. Shaala Darpan - It is an e-Governance platform that covers all the
KendriyaVidyalayas, to improve quality of learning, efficiency of school
administration, governance of schools & service delivery. 3. e-PATHSHALA -
It is a joint initiative of Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD)
and National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to
disseminate all educational e-resources including textbooks, audio, video
and non-print materials. 4. Kala utsav - To promote Arts (Music, Theatre,
Dance, Visual Arts and Crafts) in education in secondary stage of the
education to bring art in an inclusive environment. 5. SeemaDarshan -It is
an intiative by HRD in collaboration with Ministry of Defence and Ministry
of Home Affairs for the students of KendriyaVidyalayas and
NavodayaVidyalayas to provide an opportunity for the children to
experience the border environment and to foster patriotism among the

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 students.

National Skill Development Mission

Skills and knowledge are the driving forces of economic growth and social
development for any country.

Problem:
· India currently faces a severe shortage of well-trained, skilled
workers. It is estimated that only 2.3 % of the workforce in India has
undergone formal skill training as compared to 68% in the UK, 75% in
Germany, 52% in USA, 80% in Japan and 96% in South Korea.
· Large sections of the educated workforce have little or no job skills,
making them largely unemployable. Therefore, India must focus on
scaling up skill training efforts to meet the demands of employers and
drive economic growth.

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Opportunity: -- demographic dividend
India is one of the youngest nations in the world, with more than 54% of the total
population below 25 years of age and over 62% of the population in the working age
group (15-59 years)
· This demographic advantage is predicted to last only until 2040.
India therefore has a very narrow time frame to harness its
demographic dividend and to overcome its skill shortages.

The enormity of India’s skilling challenge is further aggravated by the fact that skill
training efforts cut across multiple sectors and require the involvement of diverse
stakeholders such as: multiple government departments at the centre and state
levels, private training providers, educational and training institutions, employers,
industry associations, assessment and certification bodies and trainees.

Submissions of NSDM: à National Skill Development Mission

(i) Institutional Training, (ii) Infrastructure, (iii) Convergence, (iv) Trainers, (v)
Overseas Employment, (vi) Sustainable Livelihoods, (vii) Leveraging Public
Infrastructure.

National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC)

· PPP project to skill millions of Indian youth for highly productive
labour force to reap the demographic dividend
· NSQF
· STAR (Standards training assessment reward)
· Apprenticeship Act
· NSDC has launched a comprehensive program to make private
sector involved through “Skilling Partners”, “Sector Skill Councils”,
Udaan Partners and Innovation Partners.
· PM Causal Vikas Yojana
Employer Portal

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NSDC will also support the Mission through capacity building initiatives and support
private training partners.

UDAAN

· Udaan is a Special Industry Initiative for Jammu & Kashmir in the

nature of partnership between the corporates of India and Ministry of
Home Affairs and implemented by National Skill Development
Corporation. The programme aims to provide skills training and
enhance the employability of unemployed youth of J&K. The Scheme
covers graduates, post graduates and three year engineering diploma
holders. It has two objectives:
o To provide an exposure to the unemployed graduates
to the best of Corporate India;
o To provide Corporate India, an exposure to the rich
talent pool available in the State.

STAR Scheme
The National Skill Certification and Monetary Reward Scheme, known as STAR
(Standard Training Assessment and Reward),was operational between August 2013
and September 2014.

PM Kaushal Vikas Yojana [PMKVY]

The objective of this Skill Certification Scheme is to enable a large number of Indian
youth to take up industry-relevant skill training that will help them in securing a
better livelihood.

Individuals with prior learning experience or skills will also be assessed and certified
under Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL). Under this Scheme, Training and
Assessment fees are completely paid by the Government. Envisages training of 10
million individuals in the next 4 years. [2016-2020]

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 1. Includes NSQF [national skills qualifications framework]
to ensure a standardized mode of training and certification
across the country.
2. Envisages skilling in a variety of fields such as
manufacturing, construction, media services etc. through 3rd
party partners from the private sector. This will also enable in
placement of trained individuals in new jobs.
3. Quarterly review of training imparted to ensure targets
are met.
4. The new version of the scheme will also include
training people to work overseas including Europe and central
Asia.
5. People from the Northeast and Jammu and Kashmir
and districts affected by Maoist violence will be encouraged to
enlist for residential training
6. The skill ministry will spend between 10% and 15% of
the budget for creating a pool of workers for jobs created under
programmes such as Make In India, Swachh Bharat and Digital
India.
7. A third party auditor for ensuring that targets are met
will be set up to oversee the program as well.

NSFQ
· The National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) is a
competency-based framework that organizes all qualifications
according to a series of levels of knowledge, skills and aptitude.
· These levels, graded from one to ten, are defined in terms of
learning outcomes which the learner must possess regardless of
whether they are obtained through formal, non-formal or informal
learning. NSQF in India was notified on 27th December 2013.
· All other frameworks, including the NVEQF (National Vocational
Educational Qualification Framework) released by the Ministry of HRD,

67
 stand superceded by the NSQF.
· Under NSQF, the learner can acquire the certification for
competency needed at any level through formal, non-formal or
informal learning. In that sense, the NSQF is a quality assurance
framework. Presently, more than 100 countries have, or are in the
process of developing national qualification frameworks.
· The NSQF is anchored at the National Skill Development Agency
(NSDA) and is being implemented through the National Skills
Qualifications Committee (NSQC) which comprises of all key
stakeholders.
· The NSQC's functions amongst others include approving NOSs/QPs,
approving accreditation norms, prescribing guidelines to address the
needs of disadvantages sections, reviewing inter-agency disputes and
alignment of NSQF with international qualification frameworks.

Specific outcomes expected from implementation of NSQF are:

1. Mobility between vocational and general education by
alignment of degrees with NSQF
2. Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL), allowing transition
from non-formal to organised job market
3. Standardised, consistent, nationally acceptable
outcomes of training across the country through a national
quality assurance framework
4. Global mobility of skilled workforce from India, through
international equivalence of NSQF
5. Mapping of progression pathways within sectors and
cross-sectorally
6. Approval of NOS/QPs as national standards for skill
training

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Poverty Reduction

Poverty is rarely just a binary state of being poor or not. In reality, the poor may
experience anything between destitution, depravation and moderate poverty, and
their condition may change from one end of the spectrum to the other over time.

The Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC), a database created by the ministry of rural
development, attempts to identify such diversity by measuring various parameters
according to which a household is deprived.
· As per SECC data, nearly half of the 18 crore rural households in the
country are deprived according to one or more of the seven indicators.
· A staggering 75% of rural households have monthly income of less
than Rs.5,000 and around 38% of rural households are landless and
dependent on manual casual labour as their main source of income.
· The figures show that the multiple social protection and livelihood
programmes implemented by successive governments, such as the
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and

69
 National Rural Livelihoods Mission, have been unable to reach the
extreme poor.
· Studies by poverty labs such as J-PAL have shown that ‘ultra-poor’
have little capital, minimal skills and are usually engaged in insecure
and/or low-return occupations.
· They are unable to meet basic needs, are extremely vulnerable to
unexpected life events such as health emergencies, and remain trapped in
a cycle of poverty.
· While there is no universally accepted threshold for being ‘ultra-poor’,
more than one-fifth of the world’s population and one-third of India’s
rural population live on $1.90 (purchasing power parity) or approximately
Rs.130 a day or less—i.e., below the World Bank and United Nations’
threshold for extreme poverty.

Poverty Line in India

Poverty line can be defined as the level of income to meet the minimum living
conditions. In other words, it is the minimum amount of money needed for a person
to meet his basic needs. These basic needs are generally defined as food, education,
shelter, transportation and health.

Poverty line evolution in India:

The history of poverty estimation in India goes back to 19th century when Dadabhai
Naoroji’s efforts and careful study led him to conclude subsistence based poverty
line at 1867-68 prices, though he never used the word “poverty line”. It was based
on the cost of a subsistence diet consisting of ‘rice or flour, dhal, mutton, vegetables,
ghee, vegetable oil and salt’.

According to him, subsistence was what is necessary for the bare wants of a human
being, to keep him in ordinary good health and decency. His studies included the

70
scale of diet and he came to a conclusion on the subsistence costs based poverty line
that varied from Rs.16 to Rs.35 per capita per year in various regions of India. At that
time, per capita income of England was at Rs. 450. However, since necessities in
India cost only about one-third as compared to England at that time, the real
difference in terms of purchasing power parity was not fifteen times but only five
times.

Post-Independence
In 1938, Congress president Subhash Chandra Bose set up the National Planning
Committee (NPC) with Jawaharlal Nehru as chairman and Professor K. T. Shah as
secretary for the purpose of drawing up an economic plan with the fundamental aim
to ensure an adequate standard of living for the masses. The Committee regarded
the irreducible minimum income between Rs. 15 to Rs. 25 per capita per month at
Pre-war prices. However, this was also not tagged something as a poverty line of the
country.

First Planning Commission working group

The concept of the poverty line was first introduced by a working group of the
Planning Commission in 1962 and subsequently expanded in 1979 by a task force.
The 1962 working group recommended that the national minimum for each
household of five persons should be not less than Rs 100 per month for rural and Rs.
125 for urban at 1960-61 prices. These estimates excluded the expenditure on
health and education, which both were expected to be provided by the state.

Y K Alagh Committee
Till 1979, the approach to estimate poverty was traditional i.e. lack of income. It was
later decided to measure poverty precisely as starvation i.e. in terms of how much
people eat. This approach was first of all adopted by the YK Alagh Committee’s
recommendation in 1979 whereby, the people consuming less than 2100 calories in
the urban areas or less than 2400 calories in the rural areas are poor. The logic
behind the discrimination between rural and urban areas was that the rural people
do more physical work. Moreover, an implicit assumption was that the states would

71
take care of the health and education of the people. Thus, YK Alagh eventually
defined the first poverty line in India.

Lakdawala Formula
Till as recently as 2011, the official poverty lines were based entirely on the
recommendations of the Lakdawala Committee of 1993. This poverty line was set
such that anyone above them would be able to afford 2400 and 2100 calories worth
of consumption in rural and urban areas respectively in addition to clothing and
shelter. These calorie consumptions were derived from YK Alagh committee only.

According to the Lakdawala Committee, a poor is one who cannot meet these
average energy requirements. However, Lakdawala formula was different in the
following respects in comparison to the previous models:

In the earlier estimates, both health and education were excluded because they
were expected to be provided by the states.

This committee defined poverty line on the basis of household per capita
consumption expenditure. The committee used CPI-IL (Consumer Price Index for
Industrial Laborers) and CPI- AL (Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Laborers) for
estimation of the poverty line.

The method of calculating poverty included first estimating the per capita household
expenditure at which the average energy norm is met, and then, with that
expenditure as the poverty line, defining as poor as all persons who live in
households with per capita expenditures below the estimated value.
The fallout of the Lakdawala formula was that number of people below the poverty
line got almost double. The number of people below the poverty line was 16 per
cent of the population in 1993-94. Under the Lakdawala calculation, it became 36.3
per cent.

Suresh Tendulkar Committee

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In 2005, Suresh Tendulkar committee was constituted by the Planning Commission.
The current estimations of poverty are based upon the recommendations of this
committee. This committee recommended to shift away from the calorie based
model and made the poverty line somewhat broad based by considering monthly
spending on education, health, electricity and transport also.

It strongly recommended target nutritional outcomes i.e. instead of calories; intake

nutrition support should be counted.
It suggested that a uniform Poverty Basket Line be used for rural and urban region.
It recommended a change in the way prices are adjusted and demanded for an
explicit provision in the Poverty Basket Line to account for private expenditure in
health and education.
Tendulkar adopted the cost of living as the basis for identifying poverty.
The Tendulkar panel stipulated a benchmark daily per capita expenditure of Rs. 27
and Rs. 33 in rural and urban areas, respectively, and arrived at a cut-off of about
22% of the population below poverty line. However, this amount was such low that
it immediately faced a backlash from all section of media and society. Since the
numbers were unrealistic and too low, the government appointed another
committee under Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council Chairman C.
Rangarajan to review the poverty estimation methodology. Brushing aside the
Tendulkar Committee. Rangarajan committee raised these limits to Rs. 32 and Rs. 47,
respectively, and worked out poverty line at close to 30%. With estimates of
Rangarajan committee, Poverty stood at around 30% in 2011-12. The number of
poor in India was estimated at 36.3 crore in 2011-12.

Current Status: Arvind Panagariya Task Force

The discussion about Lakdawala Formula, Suresh Tendulkar Committee and
Rangarajan Committee make it clear that defining a poverty line in India has been a
controversial issue since 1970s. The latest poverty line defined was by Rangarajan
Formula. However, this report also did not assuage the critics. The new NDA
Government turned down this report also.

73
To define the poverty line, The NDA Government had constituted a 14-member task
force under NITI Aayog’s vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya to come out with
recommendations for a realistic poverty line. After one and half years work, this task
force also failed to reach a consensus on poverty line. In September 2016, it
suggested to the government that another panel of specialists should be asked to do
this job {if defining poverty line}. Informally, this committee supported the poverty
line as suggested by Tendulkar Committee.

Why defining poverty line is a controversial issue?

Most of the governments have mothballed the reports of commmittees and panels
because this issue is not only politically sensitive but also has deeper fiscal
ramifications. If the poverty threshhold is high, it may leave out many needed
people; while if it is low, then it would be bad for fiscal health of the government.
Third, there is a lack of consensus among states too. We note that some states such
as Odisha and West Bengal supported the Tendulkar Poverty Line while others such
as Delhi, Jharkhand, Mizoram etc. supported Rangrajan Line. Thus, no one, including
NITI aayog wants to bell the cat when it comes to count number of poor in the
country.

How poverty is measured in other countries?

In most of European countries, a family with net income of less than 60% of a
median net disposable income is counted as poor. In United States, poverty line
represents the basic cost of food for a family multiplied by three. A family is counted
as poor if its pre-tax income is below this threshold

• The current system is based on the Tendulkar formula which decides

the poverty line on the basis of per capita expenditure. Measured
separately in Rural India and Urban India. (Rs. 816 in Rural India and Rs.
1000 in Urban India)
• Monthly data provided by NSSO (under the Ministry of Statistics and
Programme Implementation)
• According to the Tendulkar formula, poverty has declined in India from

74
 37.4 % in 2004 to 21.9% in 2011

Source: Mrunal.org

C. Rangarajan Formula
1. Appointed in 2012 and submitted report to the Planning commission in
2014
2. Proposed that the monthly expenditure of a family of five be considered
the base for estimating the Poverty Line

3. Proposes Rs. 4860 per month as the minimum amount to estimate
poverty line for a family of five living in the Rural Area and Rs. 7035 in
Urban Area

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Gramin Swarozgar Yojana (GSY) -- Self Employment
· The ministry of rural development has recently incorporated new
evidence into the design of a newly proposed scheme, tentatively
named the Grameen Swarozgar Yojana (GSY).
· GSY proposes a diverse framework to achieve poverty-free
panchayats through generation of self-employment opportunities for
the poor.
· Keeping in mind a region’s natural resources and economic
opportunities, GSY allows implementing partners to apply for
government support in implementing self-employment generation
projects specific to the needs of the ultra-poor, extremely poor and
moderately poor without excluding any group.
· A core and unprecedented component of GSY is a specific provision
for the ultra-poor using the evidence from graduation approach.
Through the proposed policy, approved implementation agencies will
identify ultra-poor families using both the SECC data and community
surveys. Thereafter, implementation agencies will receive government
support to work with these families using the proven graduation
approach.

If approved by the government of India, GSY will become the first government policy

76
intervention backed by rigorous scientific evidence that will aim to provide
sustainable livelihood opportunities to the ultra-poor at such a large scale. If India is
to truly cater to the poor, such nuanced approaches are required to address the
diversity within the country’s poverty.

77
78
Social Audit
Social Audit is the process of measuring the performance of various government
schemes and public services as against the stated objectives. In short, the social
audits help to evaluate the true ground
impact of social schemes.

Source: 2nd ARC

79
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Benefits:
1. Limiting the scope of leakages and corruption.
2. Enhances local people’s participation in governance
and makes it more effective form of governance.
3. Increases local people’s awareness about government
programs and their entitlement rights.
4. Increases the responsiveness of the government
towards the citizens.
5. Allows for more transparency and accountability in
various schemes for government.

Problems:
1. Most states have not implemented social audit despite
mandatory provisions laid down by MGNREGA.
2. Local officials are hesitant in implementing social audit
principals and there is resistance against its institutionalization.

80
 3. The redressal process of social audits is still not strong
enough.
4. Stakeholders are ignored

Steps:
1. Ensure institutionalization of social audits across all
states making it enforceable and credible
2. Capacity building to facilitate beneficiary-led-audits
keeping in mind local circumstances and empowering local
participation.

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UKEwi9pqO2-
_DbAhXKp48KHVlnBGkQjRx6BAgBEAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fround-lake.dustinice.workers.dev%3A443%2Fhttp%2Fwww.drishtiias.com%2
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AUDIT&psig=AOvVaw2VMXwCDjq4NRYXKsKguQJY&ust=1530089905490583

81
Various Stakeholders of a Social Audit:

Important Supreme Court Cases and Rulings

1. DS Nakara v. Union of India Principle aim of a socialist state is to

eliminate inequality in income, status and standards of life.
2. In PUDR vs. Union of India, the Supreme Court has held that
minimum wages must be given and not to pay minimum wages is the
violation of human dignity and it is also known as exploitation
3. In Sadhuram v. Pulin, the Supreme Court ruled that as between
two parties, if a deal is made with one party without serious detriment
to the other Court would lean in favour of weaker section of the
society.
4. National Legal Services Authority (NLSA) v Union of India:
TRANSGENDER Supreme court recognizes transgender persons as third
gender in India and ordered government to treat them as minorities
and extend reservations.

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5. Glivec Drug by Novartis not provided patent protection by
Supreme Court ruling (Novartis v Union of India)
6. Naz Foundation Case: In 2009, Section 377 was declared
unconstitutional, but again in 2013 this judgment was overturned.
7. Golak Nath Case v State of Punjab, 1967— Fundamental Rights
are inalienable and cannot be curtailed by the Parliament
8. Kesavanand Bharti Case — Basic Structure Doctrine
9. Maneka Gandhi Case — Established that fundamental rights and
other laws can be subject to judicial review under assumptions of
natural law and “due process of law”, not merely by procedure
established by law [JUDICIAL REVIEW]
a. The Supreme Court in this case reiterated the
proposition that the fundamental rights under the
constitution of India are not mutually exclusive but are
interrelated. According to Justice K. Iyer, ‘a fundamental
right is not an island in itself’. The expression “personal
liberty” in Article 21 was interpreted broadly to engulf a
variety of rights within itself. The court further observed
that the fundamental rights should be interpreted in such
a manner so as to expand its reach and ambit rather than
to concentrate its meaning and content by judicial
construction. Article 21 provides that no person shall be
deprived of his life or personal liberty except in
accordance with procedure established by law but that
does not mean that a mere semblance of procedure
provided by law will satisfy the Article , the procedure
should be just , fair and reasonable. The principles of
natural justice are implicit in Article 21 and hence the
statutory law must not condemn anyone unheard. A
reasonable opportunity of defense or hearing should be
given to the person before affecting him, and in the
absence of which the law will be an arbitrary one.

83
10. Vishaka Case — Every case of sexual harassment is a violation of
fundamental rights. “Foundation laid for enabling a protected and
secure female workforce in India”
11. R. Rajagopal Case — “The Right to be Left Alone” is part of personal
liberty and right to privacy subsisted even if a matter becomes case of
public record; Right to Privacy
12. Shah Bano won the alimony right (1985). All India Muslim Personal
Law Board was formed in 1973
13. MC Mehta v Union of India, 1986 — PIL filed by MC Mehta in 1986
that enlarged the concept of Article 21 and Article 32 to include right to
healthy environment and pollution free environment.
14. Indra Sawhney v UOI, 1992 — Supreme Court held that caste could
be a factor for identifying backward classes.
15. Cheaper Cancer Drug judgment in 2013
a. Novartis AG for cancer drug Glivec filed case in SC
b. “We certainly do not wish the law of patent in this
country to develop on the lines where there may be a vast
gap between the coverage and the disclosure under the
patent; where the scope of the patent is determined not on
the intrinsic worth of the invention but by the artful
drafting of its claims by skilful lawyers, and where patents
are traded as a commodity not for production and
marketing of the patented products but to search for
someone who may be sued for infringement of the
patent,”
c. A one-month dose of Glivec costs around Rs 1.2 lakh,
while generic drugs, manufactured by Indian companies,
costs Rs 8,000. A patent would have given Novratis a 20-
year monopoly on the drug, meaning that it would have
been impossible for the average Indian to find an
affordable cancer drug in that period.
16. Supreme Court on Regulation of Private Education in States

84
a. “Education is not a business but a ‘noble’ activity”
b. It is not a simple activity but aimed at empowering
people of the country.
c. SC has said that state has authority to regulate
admissions and fixing of fees of private unaided
educational institution.
d. States have power to regulate admission and fixing of
fees is a reasonable restrictions for larger public interest.
e. Court judged that education institution can never
become a business.
f. They had a right under Article 19 (1) (g) “to practice
any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade or
business”. SC in their earlier judgment has recognized
right to administer educational institution as an
'occupation' under the Constitution.

85