CONTENTS
- India Needs to Develop a Care Ecosystem
- Laissez-Faire Approach to Content Hosting, not Commitment to Free Speech
India Needs to Develop a Care Ecosystem
Context:
The low female labor force participation rate (FLFPR) has been at the center of discussions about women’s empowerment. According to the Economic Survey 2023-24, India’s FLFPR was 37% in 2022-23, compared to the global average of 47.8% in 2022. While this is an improvement from 23.3% in 2017-18, 37.5% of this group consists of “unpaid helpers in household enterprises,” meaning women who work without pay, separate from domestic tasks.
Relevance:
GS2- Issues Related to Women
GS3-
- Employment
- Issues Relating to Development
Mains Question:
Suggest measures to address caregiving responsibilities of women to promote their participation in the workforce. How successful have government initiatives been in this regard? (10 Marks, 150 Words).
Significance of Women’s Involvement in Economy:
- Women’s active involvement in the economy is essential for reducing gender inequality.
- A significant factor contributing to women’s low economic participation is the disproportionately heavy burden of caregiving they bear within families, which includes not only childcare but also care for other household members like the elderly, sick, and disabled.
- In addition to these responsibilities, they also perform other domestic work. In India, women aged 15-64 spend about three times more time than men on unpaid domestic tasks each day.
Addressing childcare needs:
- To boost women’s participation in the labor force, there is now a focus on addressing childcare needs.
- Some state governments are working to enhance support services through the existing Anganwadi network.
- The 2024-25 Budget saw a 3% increase in funding for the Ministry of Women and Child Development’s integrated childcare and nutrition program (Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 scheme).
- The Ministry is also developing a policy framework to address childcare requirements. Various models of community-based childcare centers are operational in parts of some states, through partnerships between government and non-government organizations.
- It would be valuable to assess these models for their potential replicability, financial sustainability, and scalability.
- Expanding a network of childcare centers suited to local contexts in rural, tribal, and urban areas is necessary to enable women to join the workforce.
Distributing Caregiving Responsibilities:
- However, focusing solely on childcare needs offers a limited perspective. Women often serve as primary caregivers throughout the life cycle of household members.
- For women to participate more fully in the economy, their caregiving responsibilities need to be redistributed. The demand for external support, such as hired caregivers, is growing in urban and peri-urban areas.
- Yet, there are no standardized processes for employing such workers. Domestic workers often take on caregiving roles without proper training or protection.
- There are no established minimum wages, employment standards, safety and security measures, or quality standards for care provided by hired workers.
- Shifting care responsibilities away from women requires the creation of an ecosystem that addresses household care needs while safeguarding the rights of care workers.
- This system should ensure that care workers are well-trained, receive fair wages, and are treated with dignity and respect, while also providing safe, high-quality, and affordable care.
Way Forward:
- On the demand side, the first step is to conduct a needs-based assessment to determine the appropriate mix of care services required across different age groups, socio-economic statuses, and geographic areas.
- Additionally, a thorough mapping of supply-side actors and institutions, including those from the public, private, and non-profit sectors, is essential.
- As demand for care services increases due to rising incidences of ill-health and disabilities throughout a family’s life, the availability and quality of care workers have become major policy concerns.
- Care workers may be employed directly by families or through placement agencies, nursing bureaus, hospitals, home healthcare companies, and non-profit organizations.
- The more organized providers offer training for their workers and have multidisciplinary teams to address diverse needs, including specialized nursing, palliative care, and end-of-life care at home.
- However, without established standards and regulations, the availability, accessibility, affordability, and quality of these services vary by region.
- Addressing the gap in training, skilling, and certification of the diverse care workforce needed to meet growing demand is essential.
- The Domestic Workers Sector Skill Council (now the Home Management and Care Givers Sector Skill Council), the Healthcare Sector Skill Council, and the National Skill Development Corporation are key organizations involved in the skilling and certification of various care worker cadres.
- Unfortunately, the labor-intensive and emotionally demanding care sector does not receive the respect, compensation, or dignity it deserves, making it a critical area for policy intervention.
- The World Economic Forum’s report on the ‘Future of Care Economy’ highlights three key perspectives: viewing the care economy as a driver of economic productivity, recognizing its relevance from a business standpoint as both an investment and employment opportunity, and understanding it from a human rights perspective with a focus on gender equality and disability inclusion.
Conclusion:
A comprehensive policy that defines the care ecosystem from a life course perspective is needed. A committee composed of the Ministries of Women and Child Development, Health and Family Welfare, Labour and Employment, Social Justice and Empowerment, and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship would be ideal for initiating this process.
Laissez-Faire Approach to Content Hosting, not Commitment to Free Speech
Context:
Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of Telegram, is a tech entrepreneur who has championed absolute free speech on his platform, cultivating an anti-establishment image by allowing dissidents to use the messaging app, even at the risk of antagonizing governments. His recent detention and arrest by French authorities, as part of investigations into criminal activities on the app, have sparked concerns about whether this action was intended to create a chilling effect on online freedom of expression. However, the situation is more nuanced.
Relevance:
GS2- Fundamental Rights
GS3-
- Challenges to Internal Security through Communication Networks
- Role of Media and Social Networking Sites in Internal Security Challenges
Mains Question:
Discuss the strategy to balance content moderation and free speech on social networking sites in the context of recent controversies surrounding the issue. (10 Marks, 150 words).
Content Moderation on Telegram:
- The idea that free speech is not absolute and can be restricted for reasons such as public order, morals, and public health is established in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
- Durov’s laissez-faire stance on content moderation has also allowed Telegram to become a platform for extremism, drug dealers, scammers, and, according to French authorities, child pornography.
- Durov has argued that “privacy is more important than our fear of bad things happening” and that true freedom requires a willingness to risk everything.
- Yet, this raises an important question: can the pursuit of absolute free speech justify neglecting the responsibility to prevent harm that could jeopardize people’s safety and freedom?
- This question is central to the debate over messaging apps and the “free speech absolutism” advocated by figures like Durov.
- Telegram is more than just a messaging app; it also includes social networking features.
- While its encryption mechanisms make it easy for dissidents and anti-state actors to use the app without oversight, Telegram does not fully implement “end-to-end” encryption, unlike apps like Signal.
- This means that some messages related to criminal activity, disinformation, and child pornography can be accessed by Telegram, allowing the company to act on law enforcement requests if necessary.
- Following Pavel Durov’s arrest, Telegram stated that its content moderation practices “are within industry standards” and questioned whether the platform or its owner should be held accountable for the “abuse of that platform.”
- While this may be true, if investigations by French authorities reveal that Telegram willfully ignored requests to curb hate speech, disinformation, and criminal content, Durov cannot and should not be above the law.
Conclusion:
In India, the harmful effects of misinformation on platforms like WhatsApp were evident a few years ago, before the app introduced certain restrictions to reduce the spread of false information. For Telegram to continue being a champion of free speech and remain a viable platform, it must reject absolutism and take greater responsibility in moderating content.
