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Tuesday, November 02, 2021

Justice now depends on technology,’ said SA Bobde. Indian judiciary has miles to go

 

Legal acumen doesn't translate to tech competence. We need adequate training to transit from paper briefs to screens.


Former Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde said in his farewell address, “Access to justice now depends on access to technology.” Technological transformations in the Indian judicial ecosystem, which were brought about in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, have received both praise and criticism from the public. The courts’ inability to function physically pushed them to explore these technological capabilities in order to dispense justice. The Supreme Court acted promptly, issuing a set of guidelines for video conferencing to reduce physical interaction through a suo motu writ petition.

Other major technology-driven reforms included e-filing of petitions, virtual hearings, and live streaming of court proceedings. Data from the e-committee of the Supreme Court reveals that as of 30 June 2021 (for an average of three months), 40,43,300 and 74,15,989 lakh cases were dealt with through video conferencing by the high courts and the district courts, respectively. The e-committee drafted model rules defining the contours of these reforms, indicating that the Indian judiciary in the post-pandemic days is likely to be a hybrid of physical and virtual courts.

While these changes are a welcome step towards improving the efficiency of the system, it is critical to bear in mind that technology is not an elixir for the problems affecting the judiciary. It will bring with it a series of challenges that may make justice even more inaccessible for the common (wo)man.

Digital divide at Bar and Bench

Differential access to devices and technological infrastructure, bandwidth and connectivity issues, and varying levels of comfort and know-how in the use of technology are some of the challenges that affect all the stakeholders in the judiciary, especially those working closely with the district courts in rural parts of India. Preliminary findings from the ongoing survey of trial courts conducted by the office of the Chief Justice of India reveal that only 27 per cent of the courtrooms in the subordinate courts have computers on the judge’s dais and 10 per cent have no access to the Internet. This implies that most courts, especially in the district judiciary, are currently not equipped to function virtually.

Ever since the imposition of the first lockdown in March 2020, the Bar Council of India has expressed concerns over the deep-rooted inequality in access to technology — depriving advocates from certain demographics of their livelihood. A survey conducted by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy of 2,800 advocates across eight high courts revealed that there exists a large pay gap between the earnings of entrants and senior advocates in the litigation profession. Eighty per cent of practising advocates, who were part of the pilot survey in Delhi, responded that advocates with up to two years of practice earn anywhere between Rs 5,000 and Rs 20,000 monthly. Shockingly, 40 per cent of young advocates from the High Courts of Allahabad, Bombay, Kerala, Madras, and Patna earn only between Rs 2,000-5,000 monthly, while 50 per cent from the Calcutta High Court said that they earn less than Rs 10,000 a month.

This gives a realistic picture of what could likely be the state of affairs of advocates who practise in semi-urban or rural areas. It is unfair that the system expects these advocates to have access to the Internet, advanced digital equipment, and keep themselves abreast of the latest technological developments in the ecosystem. Undoubtedly, this results in litigation being dominated by a handful of elite advocates who have the privilege to log in from the comfort of their homes or chambers and attend hearings on multiple windows across different high courts and the Supreme Court simultaneously.

Connectivity and technological competence

Robust Internet connection and superior video conferencing facilities are other critical requirements for an uninterrupted virtual court proceeding. The 103 report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee identifies connectivity divide or access to broadband Internet as roadblocks to digital courts. Even the district judiciary in Delhi was unable to provide adequate bandwidth, network-attached storage, and routers for conducting virtual hearings. The high court had to direct the government to procure the necessary hardware to ensure access. The issue is not just confined to the courts, but extends to a substantial number of litigants and advocates as well, who are vulnerable to being excluded from the process of justice delivery due to heterogeneity in Internet penetration.

The last in this genre of challenges is the large proportion of judges, court staff, and advocates who do not have sufficient knowledge and skill to use technology. Legal acumen does not necessarily translate to technological competence, and it is vital that adequate training be imparted to ease the transition from traditional paper briefs to screens and systems.

A coordinated effort to address a gamut of issues

Access to foundational infrastructure, stable Internet connection, and the ability to use technology in the conventional work routines are only some of the teething problems that the justice system is facing. Ensuring secure video and audio conferencing without compromising the privacy of the litigants and adhering to the ‘open court’ principles are key challenges that will need the system’s due attention. On the criminal justice side, the judiciary has another gamut of issues to consider while integrating its processes with technology.

Better coordination between the judiciary and the government concerning the allocation of funds and procurement of necessary hardware and inclusion of experts to design and build the standards and specifications for the software to enable the digital transformation of the judiciary at all tiers are urgent requirements. The road ahead does not look easy unless all the stakeholders cooperate to overcome bureaucratic hurdles, prioritise funding to address the foundational problems, and build systems that are inclusive to ensure better access to justice.

Reshma Sekhar is Senior Resident Fellow with the Justice, Access and Lowering Delays in

Source: The Print, 1/11/21

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Monday, November 01, 2021

Quote of the Day

 

“Almost everything you do will seem insignificant, but it is important that you do it.”
Mahatma Gandhi
“आपका कोई भी काम महत्त्वहीन हो सकता है, किंतु महत्त्वपूर्ण तो यह है कि आप कुछ करें।”
महात्मा गांधी
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Economic and Political Weekly: Table of Contents

 

Vol. 56, Issue No. 42, 16 Oct, 2021

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Current Affairs-November 1, 2021

 

INDIA

– Climate Equity Monitor website on global climate policy launched in India
– Culture Ministry launches three competitions to celebrate Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav: Desh Bhakti Geet writing, Rangoli Making and Lori writing
– Nationwide Clean India campaign culminates with Fit India Plog Run
– Plogging is a unique activity that combines fitness and cleanliness, in which participants collect litter while jogging
– 146th birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel celebrated as National Unity Day
– 260 ITBP personnel awarded special operation medal for service during eastern Ladakh standoff
– Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh dedicates ‘Sardar Patel Leadership Centre’ to the Nation at LBSNAA (Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration) Mussoorie
– U.S. returns 250 antiquities to India worth an estimated $15 million

ECONOMY & CORPORATE

– Customers can now subscribe to Atal Pension Yojana via Aadhaar eKYC: Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA)
– Amit Shah, Union Minister of Home Affairs and Cooperation launches the “Dairy Sahakar” scheme for cooperatives at Anand, Gujarat during the 75th Foundation Year celebrations of Amul
– Finance Ministry approves proposal by the Board of Trustees of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to provide 8.5% rate of interest for the deposits for 2020-21
– Former SC judge Justice Ashok Bhushan appointed as Chairperson of NCLAT (National Company Law Appellate Tribunal)
– Former HC judge Justice Ramalingam Sudhakar appointed as President of NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal)

WORLD

– PM Modi, French President Emmanuel Macron decide to expand Indo-Pacific partnership
– Leaders of G20 countries endorses global minimum tax of 15% on multinational corporations at Rome Summit
– G20 leaders agree on limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius target at Rome Summit
– World Cities Day observed on Oct 31
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G-20 Summit adopts Rome Declaration

 

Key Points

  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the summit as fruitful
  • During the summit, leaders elaborated deliberations on issues of global importance like fighting covid-19 pandemic, improving health infrastructure, strengthening economic cooperation and furthering innovation.
  • They also adopted the ‘Rome Declaration’ and under the health section communique gives a very strong message. Countries agreed on the fact that, Covid-19 immunisation is a global public good.
  • During the summit, countries also agreed that the World Health Organisation (WHO) will be strengthened to fast-track the process for emergency use authorisation of Covid-19 vaccines.
  • Main focus of the session was on energy and climate.
  • Several developing countries called for safeguarding the interest of developing world.

Rome Declaration

The Rome Declaration consists of 16 mutually agreed principles, which aims to guide joint action for preventing future health crises and to build a safer, equitable and sustainable world. 16 principles are as follows:

  1. Supporting and enhancing the existing multilateral health architecture for detection, response, prevention and preparedness.
  2. Working towards monitoring & implementation of multi-sectoral, evidence-based One Health approach in a bid to address risks emerging due to interface between human, animal & environment.
  3. Fostering all-of-society and health-in-all policies.
  4. Promotion of multilateral trading system
  5. Enabling equitable, affordable and global access to high-quality, safe & effective health systems.
  6. Supporting low and middle-income countries in a bid to build expertise, and develop local & regional manufacturing capacities.
  7. Focus on data sharing, capacity building, voluntary technology and licensing agreements.
  8. Enhancing support to existing preparedness and prevention structures.
  9. Investing in worldwide health & care workforce
  10. Investing in adequate resources, training, and staffing of diagnostic public & animal health laboratories.
  11. Investments for developing and improving inter-operable early warning surveillance, information, and trigger systems
  12. Investments in domestic, international & multilateral cooperation for the purpose of research, development & innovation
  13. Increasing effectiveness of preparedness & response measures by extending support and promoting meaningful & inclusive dialogue
  14. Ensuring effectiveness of financing mechanisms
  15. Coordination on pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical measures and emergency response with respect to sustainable and equitable recovery
  16. Addressing the need of streamlined, enhanced, sustainable and predictable mechanisms for financing pandemic preparedness, prevention, detection and response in long term.

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The importance of inclusive healthcare

 

Discussions about healthcare need to go beyond availability, affordability. Providing equitable, high-quality care to all requires recognising — and celebrating — differences among traditionally disenfranchised populations


Everyone deserves the right to dignified healthcare, regardless of their physical, professional, and geographical circumstances. Yet, India’s health systems too often fail vulnerable and marginalised people, who face a variety of obstacles in accessing high-quality care. Think of the stigma that prevents sex workers from full access to health resources or the discrimination that LGBT individuals face. Or the dearth of geriatric care to meet the needs of the elderly, or the lack of accessible and quality care for Dalit, Bahujan, and Adivasi (DBA) communities.

The Covid-19 pandemic exposed how pervasive these inequities are — and the extent to which healthcare cannot be separated from the economic, social, and cultural circumstances in which it is provided. These inequities have existed all along, and the crisis has only deepened them.

We believe the health system in India needs to fully include everyone. To get there, discussions about healthcare need to go beyond addressing availability and affordability. Providing equitable, high-quality care to all requires recognising—and celebrating—differences among traditionally disenfranchised populations. The specific healthcare needs of these communities must be understood and addressed.

Leaders of organisations that work closely with disenfranchised groups point to several reasons why some communities are marginalised by the health system. Most prominently, vulnerable populations usually play little or no part in developing and delivering healthcare services. As a result, services may be geographically, culturally, or in other ways inaccessible, and not meet the unique needs of the community.

“Creating equitable health systems is, at its core, a design issue,” noted Dr Nirmala Nair, co-founder of the Jharkhand-based nonprofit Ekjut, which works with India’s tribal communities. “The voices of these populations are often not heard.” To combat this problem, Ekjut organises tribal community meetings at the onset of the programme to engage them from the planning stage. Ekjut also conducts outreach to ensure that the poorest among those it serves participate in these meetings.

Social stigma and discrimination also pose significant obstacles. Some patients feel judged by providers because of their socioeconomic status or profession. “This judgement deters health-seeking attitudes. There is a feeling of not being wanted,” said Priti Patkar, founder of Prerana Anti-Trafficking, which aims to end intergenerational prostitution and protect women and children from human trafficking. As a result, Patkar said, patients frequently forego care or turn to local, informal providers who lack requisite knowledge and training.

Another hurdle is that healthcare systems often take an overly narrow approach when working with marginalised communities. For example, according to Patkar, healthcare for sex workers has focused almost exclusively on the treatment and prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, ignoring other pressing health needs.

Finally, some providers lose sight of the fact that everyone, regardless of their circumstances, has value to broader society. When they do, treatment practices suffer and patients become demoralised. “At the onset of disability, if the patient is told that there is no cure, to them, that means life is over, and it shouldn’t,” said Shanti Raghavan, founder of Enable India, an NGO that supports livelihoods for people across 14 types of disability. “Instead they need rehabilitation and solutions to regain their quality of life.”

Raghavan notes that when people with disabilities receive the timely support required to regain their functional abilities—including basic forms of assistance, such as crutches or wheelchairs—many can thrive personally and professionally, sometimes “earning four or five times the national average.”

Elevating communities’ voices can contribute to better care, and collaborative action is one way to do that. For instance, our organisations, The Bridgespan Group and Piramal Swasthya, have partnered with others like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to design and implement Anamaya, a recently launched tribal health collaborative. Anamaya brings together government, philanthropy/donors, NGOs, academic research organisations, and other stakeholders to work for improved tribal health outcomes.

Investing in high-quality training and support for community healthcare is another avenue for change. “It is not difficult to map out the NGOs, the communities they are working with, and what their needs are,” said Dr Thelma Narayan, co-founder of the Society for Community Health Awareness Research. “We need to do this with a sense of urgency.”

Much is also gained by employing members of traditionally vulnerable communities within healthcare systems—and celebrating their differences. These workers draw on shared experiences to develop greater trust with patients and deliver more empathetic care. For example, the ASARA project of Piramal Swasthya in the Vishakhapatnam tribal belt has engaged auxiliary nurse midwives from tribal communities, who help transcend language and cultural barriers and incorporate their lived experiences into healthcare delivery. Where the community-led programme has been implemented, maternal deaths have fallen to zero.

Covid-19 has revealed the urgency of engaging these communities with more focus and empathy. Real action is needed to build inclusive health systems that enhance communities’ confidence to seek healthcare, and provide acceptable health services. “We don’t lack resources in India,” Narayan said. “If we don’t go ahead with this, we have only ourselves to blame.”

Pritha Venkatachalam is a partner and head of market impact, South Asia in The Bridgespan Group’s Mumbai office, and Sudeshna Mukherjee is vice president – behaviour change communication at Piramal Swasthya

Written by Pritha Venkatachalam and Sudeshna Mukherjee

Source: Indian Express, 31/10/21

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There’s a mismatch between India’s graduate aspirations and job availability

 

Shobhit Mahajan writes: There is a huge pool of unemployed university graduates with unfulfilled aspirations. This group of dissatisfied, disgruntled youth can lead to disastrous consequences for our society.


Anju and Anita had come to me for advice on future career prospects. They were both students in my MSc course. During the conversation, I found out that Anju was the daughter of a vegetable seller while Anita’s father worked as a clerk in a private office. Both of them had been giving tuitions to school children right after their Class XII to fund their education. They would come back from their college at 5 and from 6 to 8 in the evening they would give tuitions to a group of children at another child’s house since their place did not have enough room.

The fact that they belonged to very modest families was not surprising. The results of a survey I did last year of our students in MSc Physics at Delhi University had already made me aware of the socio-economic background of our students — more than half of them were from villages or small mofussil towns; more than 50 per cent came from families where they were the first generation of college-goers; more than a quarter of them belonged to farming families and about 70 per cent of them reported their family income as less than 5 lakh a year.

The enhanced enrollment of students from these socio-economic backgrounds is primarily a result of the extension of reservations to OBCs and EWS. In addition, the massive increase in the number of higher education institutions has led to an enlargement of the number of available seats — there are more than 45,000 universities and colleges in the country. The Gross Enrollment Ratio for higher education, which is the percentage of the population between the ages of 18-23 who are enrolled, is now 27 per cent.

What is remarkable is that despite all these initial disadvantages, these students managed to finish their undergraduate degrees and some of them were now even looking at their prospects post their Master’s degree. They, and obviously their parents, have high aspirations for their future. And, this is where there is a huge mismatch between their aspirations and what they are likely to attain.

A majority of the students are aiming to get some kind of a government job post their degree. Unfortunately, the spectacular increase in enrollment in recent years has not been matched by a concomitant increase in jobs. Employment opportunities in the government have not increased proportionately and may, in fact, have decreased with increased contractualisation. Even in the private sector, though the jobs have increased with economic growth, most of the jobs are contractual. Worse, the highest increase in jobs is at the lowest end, especially in the services sector — delivery boys for e-commerce or fast food for instance. A student who has finished his college against all odds is not very keen to take up a job in a call centre or worse as a delivery agent for e-commerce or fast food.

Thus what we see is a huge pool of unemployed university graduates with unfulfilled aspirations. This group of dissatisfied, disgruntled youth can lead to disastrous consequences for our society, some of which we are already witnessing.

Attitudes towards work would not change overnight — the time scale for change in societal attitudes is possibly in decades. A reduction in the rate of increase of universities and colleges might not be politically feasible given the huge demand for higher education. But there are several things that the government can attempt to do. A concurrent increase in the number of high-quality vocational institutions is something that can be done.

There are upwards of 15,000 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) in the country currently. These institutions provide training in various trades like air conditioning mechanic, electrician, mechanic etc. The quality of these of course is very uneven. They are also, by and large, poorly maintained and lacking in resources, both physical and human. The curriculum remains outdated and has not been upgraded to include some of the newer skills like maintaining networking and telecom equipment.

And yet, there is a huge competition for admission into these institutions, and polytechnics. In some places, it is harder to get into these than to get admission to the local government college. The reasons are obvious. Manufacturing units prefer hiring them for blue-collar jobs since they at least have a modicum of training. In addition, the pass-outs from ITIs also have the option of being self-employed in the various service-related sectors.

Upgrading the existing ITIs, opening many more new ones with high-quality infrastructure and updated curriculum is something which should be done urgently. There is a scheme to upgrade some ITIs to model ITIs. However, what is required is not a selective approach but a more broad-based one that uplifts the standards of all of them besides adding many more new ones. Industry might be more than willing to pitch in with funding (via the CSR route) as well as equipment, training for the faculty and internships for students. After all, the industry czars never cease to remind us about the shortage of skilled labour in the country. And surely, if the government can spend thousands of crores on existing and hypothetical Institutes of Eminence, funds should not be an issue for this exercise which, coupled with our demographic dividend can be a boon for the economy and the society.

For Anju and Anita though the future remains uncertain. They would finish their MSc, possibly do a BEd, and keep trying to get a teaching job in a government school. If they are lucky — they would succeed though in all likelihood — they would have to settle for teaching in a private school for a pittance. And, of course, continue giving tuitions to support themselves and their families.

This column first appeared in the print edition on November 1, 2021 under the title ‘Future imperfect’. The writer is professor of physics and astrophysics, University of Delhi

Source: Indian Express, 1/11/2021

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