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A tribal council’s order not to issue a Scheduled Tribe (ST) certificate to any Khasi person who adopts the surname of her or his father has triggered a war of words in matrilineal Meghalaya.
The Khasis, numbering about 1.39 lakh, are one of the three indigenous matrilineal communities in the north-eastern State. The other two are Garos and Jaintias.
The Voice of the People Party (VPP), an 18-month-old political entity that won four Assembly seats in the February 27 election, has been critical of the order of the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) order about a month ago.
In that order, the KHADC directed the headmen of all villages and urban localities across the Khasi domain not to issue ST certificates to those who adopt their father’s surname instead of sticking to tradition by taking their mother’s clan name.
Asserting that the KHADC was committed to the preservation and protection of the age-old tradition of the community, Mr. Chyne also said it is mandatory for any Khasi woman who marries a non-Khasi needs to obtain the Khasi tribe certificate for applying for the ST certificate for her children.
Men’s rights activists among the Khasis have been fighting for switching over from the matrilineal to the patrilineal system since the 1960s.
A bid by a group called Iktiar Longbriew Manbriew, meaning right to live, was short-lived but its successor, Syngkhong Rympei Thymmai (home and hearth restructured) has been sustaining the crusade since its birth in 1990. The Syngkhong Rympei Thymmai has more than 4,000 members today.
Editorial
Rajasthan’s move spells some hope for gig workers (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Chief Minister of Rajasthan announced earlier this year that the State would set up India’s first welfare fund called the Rajasthan Platform-Based Gig Workers Social Security and Welfare Fund.
This is the first real instance of a regulatory move to unburden gig and platform workers’ vulnerabilities since the Code on Social Security was passed in 2020.
The code came amid the COVID-19 pandemic when platform workers became the backbone of metropolitan logistics, acting to serve customers, and working with and for State governments in their food relief schemes.
In 2023, many State governments are yet to pass rules that govern how they will implement the Code on Social Security. This has raised concerns over how fast gig and platform workers can gain benefits in a scenario where they are seen as “independent contractors”, though they are made to follow rules that constitute an employment relationship. Rajasthan stands out as a first mover making haste, with the State facing Assembly elections next year.
Since Independence, construction workers, dock workers, and head loaders (mathadi) have had boards set up for their well-being.
Thus, the Rajasthan Platform-based Gig Workers Welfare Board will be a familiar institution that can be used to serve the needs of a technology-mediated workforce.
The board, a tripartite institution with representatives from bureaucracy, employers or clients, and workers’ unions or associations, exists as a workaround to what is otherwise embedded in formal employment.
In the latter, an employment contract and contributory worker benefits bring together worker, state and employer in conversation with each other.
This relationship is meant to ensure quick communication in moments of failure where workers or employers do not get their due, and enable better communication between the parties.
In sectors that have more informal workers, there is no ‘straightforward’ way to deliver benefits since on-paper employment relationships are missing. Therefore, the state also does not ‘find’ workers at work to give them benefits.
The tripartite relationship has to be built to force employers to acknowledge that they have informal workers; for workers to collectivise to bring a common voice to their concerns; and for the state to liaise and mediate this relationship.
Explainer
Why spurious liquor kills (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
As of May 16, as many as 22 people had died after consuming spurious liquor in the Chengalpattu and Villupuram districts of Tamil Nadu, while more than 30 others were still being treated in hospitals.
The incidents occurred barely a month after the State government said that it had brought such deaths under control. They are also tinged with an element of surprise because liquor sales in Tamil Nadu are wholly controlled by the State, via more than 5,300 outlets. The State government is currently in the process of closing 500 outlets.
Liquor is differentiated by its alcohol content — from the 5% or so of beer to the 12% or so of wine to the 40% or so of distilled spirits (all by volume). In the beverages consumed for recreational purposes, the alcohol in question is almost always ethanol. Technically, in this context, ethanol is a psychoactive drug that, in low doses, reduces the level of neurotransmission in the body, leading to its typical intoxicating effects.
Contrary to popular belief, the World Health Organization has found that “no level of [its] consumption is safe for our health”. Long-term use leads to dependence, heightens the risk of some cancers and heart disease, and may eventually cause death.
Ethanol (C2H5OH) is one carbon atom bonded to three hydrogen atoms and one more carbon atom; the second carbon atom is also bonded to two hydrogen atoms and the hydroxyl group, also known as the ion OH–.
Inside the body, it is metabolised in the liver and the stomach by alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) enzymes to acetaldehyde.
Then aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) enzymes transform the acetaldehyde into acetate. The adverse effects of alcohol consumption, from the hangover to a cancer, are due to acetaldehyde.
Spurious liquor is characterised by the liquid mixture containing methanol as well. The police have thus far determined that the spurious liquor in both the Chengalpattu and Villupuram incidents arose from the same source, and that arrack sellers had purchased industrial-grade methanol from factories and sold it to the victims.
In many older cases, such liquor is typically a home-made liquor, such as arrack, to which methanol was added to strengthen the intoxicating effects and/or to increase its bulk volume.
News
NHRC flags rise in child abuse content on social media (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 1, Social Issues)
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has taken suo motu cognisance of a media report that cited a 250-300% increase in the circulation of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on social media in India.
The NHRC said the content is of foreign origin, and Indian investigation agencies have not come across any Indian-made child sexual abuse material so far.
It observed that the material is a “violation of human rights relating to the life, liberty, and dignity of citizens”, and stressed the protection of young children “from the danger of their sexual abuse on social media”.
The commission said it had been concerned with the ill-effects of online CSAM on human rights as it may cause irreparable psychological damage to children, impacting their growth and development.
Accordingly, it has issued notices to the Commissioner of Police, Delhi; the Directors-General of Police of all States and Union Territories; the Director, National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB); and the Secretary, Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), calling for a detailed report within six weeks on the steps taken to prevent such menace on social media.
The NHRC statement said, quoting the media report, that “4,50,207 cases related to spread of child sexual abuse material have been reported in the year 2023, so far. Out of these, Delhi Police have taken action in 3,039 cases while 4,47,168 cases are currently being studied”.
“In some cases, even photographs taken lovingly, of young children by respective fathers, brothers and sisters in India have been classified as child sexual abuse by an American NGO. There were 2,04,056 cases reported in the year 2022, 1,63,633 in the year 2021, and 17,390 in 2020,” the statement said.
Manoj Soni takes charge as Chairman of UPSC (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Manoj Soni, a former Vice-Chancellor of two universities in Gujarat, was sworn in as the Chairman of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).
Mr. Soni had already been serving as the Chairman in-charge since April 2022. He had joined the UPSC as a member in June 2017.
He is a monk of the Anoopam mission, a branch of the Swaminarayan movement. Mr. Soni served as the Vice-Chancellor of M.S. University of Baroda from April 2005 to April 2008.
In 2009, he was appointed Vice-Chancellor of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University, Gujarat for two terms till 2015.
Centre rejects U.S. govt. the report citing deteriorating religious freedom in India (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
Rejecting the U.S. government’s latest “Report on International Religious Freedom”, which includes a chapter on India, the Ministry of External Affairs said it was based on “misinformation. It said statements by officials were “motivated”.
However the Ministry also said that India “values” its partnership with the United States and would continue to have “frank exchanges”.
The report was released on Monday, and comes just a month before U.S. President Joseph Biden will welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a rare state Visit in Washington on June 22.
We are aware of the release of the U.S. State Department 2022 Report on International Religious Freedom”. “Regrettably, such reports continue to be based on misinformation and flawed understanding.
The U.S. report on religious freedom had itemised a number of cases of alleged violence against Christians, Muslims and Dalits in India, and criticised Indian anti-conversion laws.
It made a reference to Hindus in Kashmir who complained that they were not being allowed to leave the valley by the government despite being targeted by radical Islamist terrorists.
The report documented a number of alleged hate speech and instigated violence blamed on members of the ruling BJP, naming “BJP state politician Haribhushan Thakur Bachaul, who said that Muslims should be ‘set ablaze’; P.C. George, a former legislator in Kerala, who encouraged Hindus and Christians to not eat at restaurants run by Muslims; and former BJP Rajasthan legislator Gyan Dev Ahuja, who encouraged Hindus to kill Muslims suspected of cow slaughter”, and others.
The spokesperson also slammed comments by a senior U.S. official that followed the release of the report. The official, who spoke without being named, had said that the U.S. government had called upon New Delhi to condemn religious violence and hold groups that engaged in “dehumanising” rhetoric accountable.
The official also said that the U.S. State Department report had outlined “continued targeted attacks” against “Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindu Dalits, and indigenous communities”, “open calls for genocide against Muslims; lynching and other hate-fuelled violence, attacks on houses of worship and home demolitions, and in some cases impunity and even clemency for those who have engaged in attacks on religious minorities”.