What are the Directive Principles of State Policy?
The
Directive Principles of State Policy are guidelines to the central and state
governments of India, to be kept in mind while framing laws and policies. These
provisions, contained in Part IV of the Constitution of India, are not
enforceable by any court, but the principles laid down therein are considered
fundamental in the governance of the country, making it the duty of the State
to apply these principles in making laws to establish a just society in the
country.
India as a welfare State:
India is
considered to be a welfare state and moreover the largest democracy in the
world. The people in India have been considered as the supreme authority in our
country, as it is declared by the Preamble of Indian Constitution that
sovereignty vests not in the Parliament but in the people of Union of India.
“Social Welfare” has been at the centre of our policy making from the time of
independence itself. From the “First Five Year Plan” itself Programmes and
schemes have been launched related to social welfare issues as like agriculture
and rural development, employment and labour welfare, healthcare, education,
etc. Indeed in the initial 20-25 years in spite of scarcity of economic means
the government was focussed on the welfare policies and inclusive development.
A welfare
state is a concept of government where the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic
and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable
distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those unable to avail
themselves of the minimal provisions for a good life. In the strictest sense, a
welfare state is a government that provides for the welfare, or the well-being,
of its citizens completely. Such a government is involved in citizens lives at
every level. It provides for physical, material, and social needs rather than
the people providing for their own. The
purpose of the welfare state is to create economic equality or to assure
equitable standards of living for all.
The
welfare state provides education,
housing, sustenance, healthcare, pensions, unemployment insurance, sick leave
or time off due to injury, supplemental income in some cases, and equal wages
through price and wage controls. It also provides for public transportation, childcare, social amenities
such as public parks and libraries, as well as many other goods and
services. Some of these items are paid for via government insurance programs
while others are paid for by taxes.
Welfare schemes introduced to implement The
Directive Principles of State Policy:
The State
has made and is making many efforts to implement the Directive Principles.
Universalisation of Elementary Education:
1.
The Programme of Universalisation of Elementary
Education and the five-year
plans has been accorded the highest priority in order to provide
free education to
all children up to the age of 14 years.
The 86th constitutional amendment of 2002 inserted a new article, Article 21-A,
into the Constitution, that seeks to provide free and compulsory education to
all children aged 6 to 14 years.
2.
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is Government of India's flagship
programme for achievement of Universalization of Elementary Education (UEE) in
a time bound manner. SSA is being implemented in
partnership with State Governments to cover the entire country and address the
needs of 192 million children in 1.1 million habitations.
·
The programme seeks to open new schools
in those habitations which do not have schooling facilities and strengthen
existing school infrastructure through provision of additional class rooms,
toilets, drinking water, maintenance grant and school improvement grants.
·
Existing schools with inadequate teacher
strength are provided with additional teachers, while the capacity of existing
teachers is being strengthened by extensive training, grants for developing
teaching-learning materials and strengthening of the academic support structure
at a cluster, block and district level.
·
SSA seeks to provide quality elementary
education including life skills. SSA has a special focus on girl's education
and children with special needs.
·
SSA also seeks to provide computer
education to bridge the digital divide.
3.
The Mid Day Meal is the world’s largest school feeding programme reaching out
to about 12 crore children in
over 12.65 lakh schools/EGS centres across the country. During 2010-11 11.36
Cr children i.e 7.97 Cr. children in primary and 3.39 Cr. children in upper
primary are expected to be covered in 12.63 lakhs institutions. Today, Mid day
Meal scheme is serving primary and upper primary school children in entire
country.
Welfare schemes for the weaker sections:
Welfare
schemes for the weaker sections are being implemented both by the Central and
State governments.
·
These include programmes such as boys' and girls' hostels for scheduled castes or scheduled
tribes students.
·
The government provides
free textbooks to students belonging to scheduled castes or scheduled
tribes pursuing medicine and engineering courses. During 2002-2003, a sum
of Rs. 4.77 crore was released for this
purpose.
·
In order that scheduled castes and scheduled tribes
are protected from atrocities, the Government enacted the The
Prevention of Atrocities Act, which provided severe
punishments for such atrocities.
Land Reforms:
·
Several Land
Reform Acts were enacted to provide ownership rights to poor farmers.
·
Up to September 2001, more than 20,000,000 acres of
land had been distributed to scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and the
landless poor.
Banking policy:
·
The thrust of banking policy in India has been to
improve banking facilities in the rural areas.
Employment Schemes:
·
The Minimum Wages Act of
1948 empowers government to fix minimum wages for employees engaged in various
employments.
·
The Equal Remuneration Actof 1976,
provides for equal pay for equal work for both men and women.
·
The Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana was
launched in 2001 to attain the objective of gainful employment for the rural
poor. The programme was implemented through the Panchayati Raj institutions.
·
The Mahatma
Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) aims at enhancing
the livelihood security of people in rural areas by guaranteeing hundred days
of wage-employment in a financial year to a rural household who volunteer to do
unskilled manual work
Schemes for the Benefit of Consumers:
The Consumer Protection Act of 1986 provides
for the better protection of consumers. The act is intended to provide simple,
speedy and inexpensive redressal to the consumers' grievances, award relief and
compensation wherever appropriate to the consumer.
Panchayati Raj now covers almost all states and Union territories. One-third of the total
number of seats have been reserved for women in Panchayats at every level; in
the case of Bihar, half the seats have been reserved for women.
Legal Aid:
Legal aid
at the expense of the State has been made compulsory in all cases pertaining to
criminal law, if the accused is too poor to engage a lawyer. Judiciary has been separated from the
executive in all the states and Union territories except Jammu and Kashmir and Nagaland.
Economic Reforms:
From
the beginning of the economic reforms, the government talked about social
safety nets for the poor. A National
Renewal Fund (NRF) was planned with significant budgetary allocations to
provide social protection for the poor and those adversely affected by the
process of liberalization. In practice, the government has done little to
strengthen social protection measures. Consistent attempts have been made to
undermine budgetary allocations for the social sector in the name of reducing
the fiscal deficit.
Public Distribution System:
Public Distribution System is an Indian food security system. Established by the Government of India under Ministry
of Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution and managed jointly with state governments in India, it distributes subsidized food and non-food items to India's
poor. Major commodities distributed
include staple food grains, such as wheat, rice, sugar, and kerosene, through a network of Public distribution shops, also known as Ration shops established in several states
across the country. Food Corporation of India, a Government-owned corporation, procures and maintains the Public Distribution System. As
of date there are about 5 million Fair Price Shops (FPS) across India.
Ushering in the biggest programme in the world to fight
hunger, the Parliament on 2nd September 2013 gave its nod to the landmark Food Security Bill which seeks to
provide highly subsidised foodgrains to the country's two-third population as a
right.
-
No comments:
Post a Comment