aditya
16:32
📰 Supreme Court orders tough action against illegal calls for adoption of COVID-19-orphaned children
Court directive follows NCPCR, on Monday, raising the alarm on a spate of complaints on such illegal adoption
•The Supreme Court has directed the States and Union Territories (UTs) to take stringent action against private individuals and NGOs who invite people to illegally adopt children orphaned by the COVID-19 pandemic.
•A Bench of Justices L. Nageswara Rao and Aniruddha Bose, in an 18-page order published on Tuesday, ordered the government to step in and prevent private entities from revealing the identities of COVID-19 affected children, usually on social media, and inviting people to adopt them.
•“The State Governments/Union Territories are directed to prevent any NGO from collecting funds in the names of the affected children by disclosing their identity and inviting interested persons to adopt them. No adoption of affected children should be permitted contrary to the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015,” the court ordered.
‘CARA involvement must’
•It was illegal to invite strangers to adopt children, already traumatised by their personal losses, without the involvement of the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), a statutory body under the Women and Child Development Ministry, it said.
•“Invitation to persons for adoption of orphans is contrary to law as no adoption of a child can be permitted without the involvement of CARA. Stringent action shall be taken by the State Governments/Union Territories against agencies/individuals who are responsible for indulging in this illegal activity,” it observed.
•The order came after the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), on Monday, raised the alarm on a spate of complaints about illegal adoption of COVID-19 orphans through private individual and organisations. The Commission said certain private individuals and organisations have been actively collecting data on these children while claiming that they wanted to assist families and children in adoption.
•“Social media posts are circulating that children are up for adoption. This is plainly illegal and violates the Juvenile Justice Act,” advocate Shobha Gupta, for intervenor ‘We the Women of India’, made an impassioned plea.
•NCPCR statistics show that 3,621 children were orphaned, 26,176 children lost either parent and 274 abandoned between April 1, 2021 to June 5, 2021. The second wave of the pandemic was at its worst form during this period, leaving a trail of death across the country.
•The apex court is hearing a suo motu case on the plight of children impacted by the pandemic.
Child trafficking
•Advocate Gaurav Agrawal, amicus curiae, said cases of child trafficking have been going up. The government should intervene to care and protect children orphaned, abandoned or whose families have lost their earning members.
•The court said lack of knowledge about the rights of children under the Juvenile Justice Act had led to many falling victim to efforts at illegal adoption, etc. It court directed the Centre, States and the Union Territories to give wide publicity to the provisions of the 2015 Act at regular intervals so as to make the general public, children and their parents or guardians aware of such provisions. “It is true that the majority of the populace are not aware of their rights and entitlement to several benefits announced by the governments,” it noted.
•The court ordered the States/ Union Territories to continue with their efforts to identify children in need of care and protection after March 2020. and upload their details on the NCPCR database in order to provide them welfare schemes.
•The court said these children should be tracked down through the District Child Protection Officers (DCPOs), childline, health officials, panchayati raj institutions, police authorities, NGOs, etc. The DCPOs should contact a child as soon as it heard about the death of the parents and provide for its basic needs. If the guardian of the child was not found suitable, the DCPO should produce the child before the local Child Welfare Committee (CWC).
•“DPCO shall take the assistance of government servants at the gram panchayat level to monitor the welfare of the disconsolate children devastated by the catastrophe of losing their parent/parents,” the court directed.
📰 India expected to grow at 8.3%, says World Bank
The growth rate forecasted for India for 2021-22, the World Bank is an upward revision from its January forecast of 5.4%.
•India’s economy is expected to grow at 8.3% for Fiscal Year 2021-22 as per the World Bank’s latest projections. This rate, however, masked the damage caused by the “enormous” second wave of COVID-19, the Bank said in its June 2021 Global Economic Prospects released on Tuesday. The world economy is expected to expand 5.6% , the fastest post-recession growth rate in eighty years, but global output will still be 2% below pre-pandemic projections by year-end.
•The growth rate forecasted for India for 2021-22, the World Bank is an upward revision from its January forecast of 5.4%. However this revision “masks significant expected economic damage from an enormous second COVID-19 wave and localized mobility restrictions since March 2021,” the report says, adding that activity will follow the same but less pronounced collapse and recovery seen in last year’s COVID wave.
•“Activity will benefit from policy support, including higher spending on infrastructure, rural development, and health, and a stronger-than[1]expected recovery in services and manufacturing,” the report says.
•For FY 2022-23 growth is expected to slow to 7.5% as a result of the pandemic’s lingering effects on the balance sheets of households, companies and banks and possibly low levels of consumer confidence and heightened uncertainty around job and incomes.
•For India the massive COVID-19 wave had undermined the sharper than expected rebound in activity for the second half of FY 2020-21 – particularly in services, according to the Bank. Since March, foot traffic around retail spaces has slowed to below a third of what it was in pre-pandemic times.
•For the world as a whole, losses to per capita income will not be reversed by 2022 for some two-thirds of emerging market and developing economies, the Bank said. Low income countries that have lagged in vaccinations have witnessed a reversal in poverty reduction, with the pandemic exacerbating insecurity and other long-standing challenges.
•“While there are welcome signs of global recovery, the pandemic continues to inflict poverty and inequality on people in developing countries around the world,” World Bank Group President David Malpass said in a press statement.
•“Globally coordinated efforts are essential to accelerate vaccine distribution and debt relief, particularly for low-income countries. As the health crisis eases, policymakers will need to address the pandemic’s lasting effects and take steps to spur green, resilient, and inclusive growth while safeguarding macroeconomic stability,” he said.
📰 A necessary reversion: On going back to centralised procurement of vaccines
The changes in vaccine policy should help improve India’s response to the pandemic
•The Centre has announced a much-needed course correction in India’s vaccination policy with Prime Minister Narendra Modi taking the podium to announce that the month-old decision to leave States to procure vaccines on their own for their 18-44 population would be ending in two weeks. States were allowed to procure 25% of the vaccines manufactured and the Centre 50%, a policy that the Supreme Court termed “irrational and arbitrary”. The Court’s comments have had a salutary effect. From June 21, the Centre will be procuring 75% and States will no longer have to pay vaccine companies for the same. Vaccines will continue to be free for all those who choose to get their shot at government centres. The 25% vaccines that were allotted to private hospitals will continue too, though the service charges that they charge will be capped at ₹150. This ceiling price on vaccines in hospitals will bring predictability and be hugely beneficial to citizens. The Centre, which controlled all supply of vaccines and had negotiated prices and orders with Bharat Biotech and the Serum Institute saw itself desperately short of supply right in the middle of India’s deadly second wave. The hospital emergencies worsened the Centre’s panic and so it chose a path that no country had undertaken, of devolving the responsibility of buying vaccines to States. Health has traditionally been within the purview of States, and it stands to reason that they would invariably have to deal with the challenges that vaccination throws up. This includes vaccine hesitancy, the problem of transportation, the availability of trained personnel and the existing capacity at health-care sites. Faced with the intensity of the second wave, States demanded more vaccines and autonomy in deciding how to administer them. What resulted were frequent public spats, with the Centre blaming States for inefficiently using available stocks and yet demanding more.
•Though there are substantial numbers of senior citizens yet to be vaccinated, particularly with a second dose, it is clear that the foreseeable demand will be in the sub-45 category. The Government appears more confident of getting a steady stream of supply from Bharat Biotech and the Serum Institute and, in a bold move, has ordered 30 crore doses of an untested vaccine from the Hyderabad-based Biological E. Assuming that a third wave is not in the vicinity, these changes in total could be the beginning of a smoother, more efficient vaccine roll-out. Mr. Modi’s announcement was preceded by a truculent defence of himself and his government and passing on blame to a variety of actors, including governments before 2014, for India’s very real shortcomings on vaccination. However, the path to positive change is often meandering, and surviving the pandemic and being wiser from mistakes must be the spirit in which these policy changes are adopted.
