PUBLIC POLICY ANALYSIS

SUBJECT CODE : 18MPA32C

PREPARED BY : Dr.S. SUNDARARAJAN Asst professor

DEPARTMENT : PG and Research Department Of Public Administration

CONTACT NO : 9952337047

Material prepared according to textbook and reference books given in the syllabus.

SYLLABUS

18MPA32C - PUBLIC POLICY ANALYSIS

UNIT – 5

STATE LEVEL POLICY

LANGUAGE POLICY

Overview

The Constitution, adopted in 1950, necessitated that English and Hindi be utilized for

conducting the Union’s official business for a time of fifteen years [s. 343(2) and 343(3)]. After

that time, Hindi should turn into the sole official dialect of the Union. It demonstrated difficult to

supplant English with Hindi, in any case, in light of substantive restriction from the southern

states, where Dravidian dialects were talked. They felt that the central government was

attempting to force the entire nation to use Hindi, including the south, and chose to keep using

English, which they thought was more “adequate” on the grounds that, much unlike Hindi, it was

not connected with any specific ethnic culture.

The Parliament, in 1963, passed the Official Languages Act, which lawfully settled Hindi

and English as the dialects utilized as a part of Congress, while leaving states and domains to

pick their own formal languages. In 1976, the Act was changed to formulate the Official

Languages Rules, which, too, were revised in 1987.

The Three Language Formula

The three language formula is a policy that was formulated by the Education Ministry of

the Indian government in the 1968 National Policy Resolution. It provides that in all government

schools across India, there shall be three languages to be taught: English, as a mandate; Hindi,

too, is compulsory, both in Hindi-speaking states and non-Hindi-speaking states; and finally, the

third language is the local language of the region where the school is located.

Language policy in India

When we talk about the language policy of India, the first thing to be mentioned is the

difference between the national language and the official language of a country. While national

language refers to the language that is most widely used in cultural, political and in social realms,

the official language refers to the language that is used for all of the government’s operations.

The official language is pragmatic, wherein the national language is merely symbolic.

Education policy and the language policy

The Indian education system is multilingual in its character every sense of the word.

Primary schools in Mumbai run in nine different languages, and those in Karnataka and West

Bengal run in eight and fourteen languages respectively.[6] Most states, as was the goal of the

education policy makers at the time of Independence, have their aim as developing and

strengthening the multilingual characters of the system.

TAMILNADU STATE LANGUAGE POLICY

The first recommendation for a three-language policy was made by the University

Education Commission in 1948–49, which did not find the requirement to study three languages

to be an extravagance, citing the precedents of other multilingual nations such as Belgium and

Switzerland. While accepting that Modern Standard Hindi was itself a minority language, and

had no superiority over others such

as Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Bengali, Punjabi, Malayalam, and Gujarati all of which had

a longer history and greater body of literature, the commission still foresaw Hindi as eventually

replacing English as the means by which every Indian state may participate in the Federal

functions.

RESERVATION POLICY

Reservation Policy in India is a process of reserving certain percentage of seats

(maximum 50%) for a certain class such as Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward

classes, etc. in Government educational institutions, government jobs, etc.

Reservation Policy in Pre- Independence Era

The award brought in criticism from Mahatma Gandhi but was strongly supported by Dr.

BR Ambedkar and other minority groups. As a result, of the hunger strike by Mahatma Gandhi

and widespread revolt against the award, the Poona Pact of 1932 came into being which brought

in a single general electorate for each of the seats of British India and new Central Legislatures.

The stamping of the provisions of Poona Pact, 1932 were done in The Government of India Act

of 1935 where reservation of seats for depressed classes was allotted. This was the scenario

before the independence of India.

Post- Independence Era

Post- Independence the scenario changed and the reservation policy gained even more

momentum than the pre-independence era. The Constituent assembly chaired by Dr. B.R

Ambedkar framed the reservation policy and many Articles in the Indian Constitution were

dedicated for the same.

Article 15(4) – Special Provision for Advancement of Backward Classes-

Constitution (93rd amendment) Act, 2006: Provision for Reservation of Backward, SC

and ST classes in private educational institutions (article 15(5))

Reservation of posts in public employment on the basis of residence (Article 16(3))[6]

Article 16(3) is an exception to clause 2 of Article 16 which forbids discrimination on the

ground of residence. However, there may be good reasons for reserving certain posts in State for

residents only. This article empowers Parliament to regulate by law the extent to which it would

be permissible for a state to depart from the above principle.

Other Articles of Indian Constitution covering the Reservation Policy

Article 17 talks about the abolition of untouchability and declares its practice in any form to be

an offense punishable under law.

The Social Security Charter of Directive Principles of State Policy under Article 39-

A directs the State to ensure equal justice and free legal aid to Economically Backward Classes

and under Article 45 imposes a duty on the state to raise the standards of living and health of

backward classes.

Articles 330-342 talk about the special provisions for the certain class of people such as

Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Anglo –Indians, Linguistic minorities and OBC.

The relevance of Article 335

The article serves as a guiding principle to the State in performing its duties under it without

restricting the claims of the SCs and STs.

85th Amendment Act replaces the words “in matters of promotion to any class” in clause 4- A of

Article 16 with words “in matters of promotion, with consequential seniority, to any class.”

Why is reservation important in India?

The concept of reservation was introduced to combat a long-existing practice of

discrimination and stereotyping within the rural Hindu communities, which were divided into

castes. Some castes were ranked as higher up, and the others were low-tier, with the former often

discriminating against the latter.

Legal Sense

The discrimination faced by these marginalized groups was indicative of the constant

oppression faced by them, dealt out by those considered to be of a ‘higher’ class than them.

Socio-Cultural Sense

To discuss further into the social and cultural background of casteism and reservation, we

have to clearly establish the varna system in the Hindu religion, consisting of the Brahmins, the

Kshatriyas, and Vaishyas originally. A fourth sect by the name of Shudras also developed who

existed as cleaners, meant to serve the three ‘higher’ sects.

Debate on Reservation

While reservation has been an integral part of the Indian legal system for a long time, in

recent times, its necessity has come under scrutiny. While people are not against the idea of

reservation, it is the prevalence of caste-based reservation that stirs up controversy.

Suggestions and Solutions

Reservation benefits, if provided, should be restricted to a maximum of two children per

family, regardless of the number of children they may have, which would help in regulating the

population of OBCs which will eventually result in a decrease in their representation, giving way

to the principle of equality.

The Road Ahead

Reservation and quotas are interrelated mechanisms. Without assigned reservations, a

quota cannot exist. Reservation is the act of setting a part of something aside for a specific

purpose. A quota for a reservation dictates how much of that particular thing will be set aside in

accordance with the reservation.

SOCIAL WELFARE POLICY OF INDIA

The Directive Principles of State Policy, enshrined in Part IV of the Indian

Constitution reflects that India is a welfare state. Seats are reserved for scheduled

castes and scheduled tribes in government jobs, educational institutions, Lok Sabha and Vidhan

Sabha. The government has passed laws for the abolition

of untouchability, Begar and Zamindari. Food security to all Indians are guaranteed under

the National Food Security Act, 2013 where the government provides food grains to people at a

very subsidised rate.

Budget

As of 2020, the government's expenditure on social programme and welfare (direct cash

transfers, financial inclusion, benefits, health and other insurances, subsidies, free school meals,

rural employment guarantee), was approximately 14 lakh crore rupees ($ 192 billion), which was

7.3 % of gross domestic product (GDP).[3]

Aadhar

It is a 12-digit unique identity number that can be obtained voluntarily by residents or

passport holders of India, based on their biometric and demographic data. The data is collected

by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), a statutory authority established in

January 2009 by the government of India, under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Electronics

and Information Technology, following the provisions of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of

Financial and other Subsidies, benefits and services) Act, 2016.[4] Aadhaar is the world's

largest biometric ID system. World Bank Chief Economist Paul Romer described Aadhaar as

"the most sophisticated ID programme in the world".[5]The government of India uses this unique

identification number to distribute social security and welfare measures to its citizens.

FEDERAL POLICY

This section covers some of the social programmes and welfare measures in place in

India at the federal level.

Employees' Provident Fund Organisation

A provident funding is a kind of pension scheme. It is mandatory for every public, private

and self-employee under The Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act,

1952. Under this statutory act, every working person has a Universal Account Number (UAN),

which is a 12-digit number allotted to employees who are contributing to EPF. It will be

generated for each of the PF member by EPFO. The UAN will act as an umbrella for the

multiple Member Ids allotted to an individual by different establishments and also remains same

through the lifetime of an employee. It does not change with the change in jobs. The idea is to

link multiple Member Identification Numbers (Member Id) allotted to a single member under

single Universal Account Number. This will help the member to view details of all the Member

Identification Numbers (Member Id) linked to it. In this account, an employee contributes 10%

of his monthly salary here and his employer contributes a matching amount.

National Health Insurances

There are a number of public and private health insurance companies operating in India

which caters to the Indian middle class. For vulnerable Indians, the government has Ayushman

Bharat Yogna, which is a health insurance programme that has coverage that includes 3 days of

pre-hospitalisation and 15 days of post-hospitalisation expenses. Moreover, around 1,400

procedures with all related costs like OT expenses are taken care of. All in all, PMJAY and the e-

card provide a coverage of Rs. 5 lakh ($ 6860) per family, per year, thus helping the

economically disadvantaged obtain easy access to healthcare services.

Atal Pension Yogna

It is open to all saving bank/post office saving bank account holders in the age group of

18 to 40 years and the contributions differ, based on pension amount chosen. Subscribers would

receive the guaranteed minimum monthly pension of Rs. 1,000 or Rs. 2,000 or Rs. 3,000 or Rs.

4,000 or Rs. 5,000 at the age of 60 years. Under APY, the monthly pension would be available to

the subscriber, and after him to his spouse and after their death, the pension corpus, as

accumulated at age 60 of the subscriber, would be returned to the nominee of the subscriber. The

minimum pension would be guaranteed by the Government, i.e., if the accumulated corpus based

on contributions earns a lower than estimated return on investment and is inadequate to provide

the minimum guaranteed pension, the Central Government would fund such inadequacy.

Alternatively, if the returns on investment are higher, the subscribers would get enhanced

pensionary benefits.[14]

Free School Meals

The Midday-Meal is a school meal programme of the Government of India designed to

better the nutritional standing of school-age children nationwide.[15] The programme supplies

free lunches on working days for children in primary and upper primary classes in government,

government aided, local body, Education Guarantee Scheme, and alternate innovative education

centres, Madarsa and Maqtabs supported under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, and National Child

Labour Project schools run by the ministry of labour.[16] Serving 120,000,000 children in over

1,265,000 schools and Education Guarantee Scheme centres, it is the largest of its kind in the

world.

Pradhan Mantri Gramin Awaas Yojana

Under the PMGAY scheme, financial assistance worth ₹120,000 (US$1,700) in plain

areas and ₹130,000 (US$1,800) in difficult areas (high land area) is provided for construction of

houses.[20] These houses are equipped with facilities such as toilet, LPG connection, electricity

connection, and drinking water [convergence with other schemes e.g. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

toilets, Ujjwala Yojana LPG gas connection, Saubhagya Yojana electricity connection, etc.]. The

houses are allotted in the name of the woman or jointly between husband and wife.

Conditional Cash Transfers to Women

Pradhan Mantri Matri Vandana Yojana is a maternity benefit programme run by the

government of India. It was introduced in 2017 and is implemented by the Ministry of Women

and Child Development. It is a conditional cash transfer scheme for pregnant and lactating

women of 19 years of age or above for the first live birth. It provides a partial wage

compensation to women for wage-loss during childbirth and childcare and to provide conditions

for safe delivery and good nutrition and feeding practices. In 2013, the scheme was brought

under the National Food Security Act, 2013 to implement the provision of cash maternity benefit

of ₹6,000 (US$84) stated in the Act. Presently, the scheme is implemented on a pilot basis in 53

selected districts and proposals are under consideration to scale it up to 200 additional 'high

burden districts' in 2015–16. The eligible beneficiaries would receive the incentive given under

the Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) for Institutional delivery and the incentive received under JSY

would be accounted towards maternity benefits so that on an average a woman

gets ₹6,000 (US$84)

Integrated Child Development Services

It is a government programme in India which provides

food, preschool education, primary healthcare, cash transfers to families, immunization, health

check-up and referral services to children under 6 years of age and their mothers. The scheme

was launched in 1975, discontinued in 1978 by the government of Morarji Desai, and then

relaunched by the Tenth Five Year Plan.

National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme

National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, is an Indian labour law and social

security measure that aims to guarantee the 'right to work'. This act was passed in September

2005 under the UPA government of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. It aims to enhance

livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of wage employment in a

financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual

work.[31][32] As of 2020, the government allocated Rs 60,000 crore ($ 8.19 billion) for this

scheme.

National Social Assistance Scheme

The National Social Assistance Programme is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme of

the Government of India that provides financial assistance to the widows and persons with

disabilities in the form of social pensions. As of 2018, the government allocated $ 1.4 billion to

this programme.

Accident Assurance Scheme

Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana is available to people (Indian Resident or NRI)

between 18 and 70 years of age with bank accounts. It has an annual premium of ₹12 (17¢ US)

exclusive of taxes. The GST is exempted on Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana. The amount

is automatically debited from the account. This insurance scheme can have one year cover from

1 June to 31 May and would be offered through banks and administered through public sector

general insurance companies.

WELFARE MEASURE IN VARIOUS STATES

Below are some of the measures undertaken at the state level for social security and

welfare purposes in India.

West Bengal

Kanyashree is an initiative taken by the Government of West Bengal to improve the life

and the status of the girls by helping economically backward families with cash so that families

do not arrange the marriage of their girl child before eighteen years because of economic

problem. The purpose of this initiative is to uplift those girls who are from poor families and thus

can’t pursue higher studies due to tough economic conditions. It has been given international

recognition by the United Nations Department of International Development and the UNICEF.

Tamil Nadu

Amma Unavagam (Tamil: அம்மா உணவகம்) is a food subsidisation

programme run by the Government of Tamil Nadu in India.It is a first of the kind scheme run by

any government in India. It has been an inspiration for many states like Odisha, Karnataka and

Andhra Pradesh which later proposed similar schemes seeing its success.