SOCIAL EVILS
Mid-Day Meals:MGR’s Valuable Legacy
The mid-day meal scheme for school children was introduced in Tamilnadu as early as 1925 by the Corporation of Madras, but became a state-wide scheme in 1956 under then chief minister the late K.Kamaraj who introduced it in Adi-Dravida community schools as the ‘Poor Feeding’ programme. In 1961, the government started receiving American aid for the programme and it was expanded to all corporation and government schools in urban areas.
But it was only in July 1982 under the leadership of the legendary chief minister the late M.G.Ramachandran that the ‘Puratchi Thalaivar MGR Nutritious Meal Programme’ (PTMGR NMP) was introduced in a phased manner in child welfare centres in rural areas for pre-school children in the age group two-five years and for primary school children in the age group five-nine years. Subsequently on September 15 the same year, despite widespread criticism from economists and pundits, MGR presciently extended the scheme to Nutritious Meal Centres in urban areas. It was further extended to school students between 10-15 years in 1984. The successful introduction of Tamilnadu’s NMP prompted the creation of a National Programme of Nutritional Support to primary education (popularly known as the mid-day meal scheme) in 1995. Under this programme the Union HRD ministry supplies free food grains to primary school children at the rate of 100 gm per child for ten months in the year.
Today, the TN free noon meal is available to all children of government, corporation, panchayat and municipal schools in the state. Old age pensioners and pregnant women can also avail of the scheme. The infrastructure, built gradually over the years comprises child welfare centres, school nutritious meal centres and anganwadi centres monitored by committees at the district, block, corporation, municipality and panchayat levels.
The positive feedback from schools in the state indicates that the scheme has more than fulfilled its main objectives of combating malnutrition among children, increasing literacy, serving as an incentive for enhancing enrollment and retention of students in primary and middle schools. As a consequence enrollment in primary schools has risen by 35 percent from 4.8 million in 1984-85 to 6.5 million in 2002-03. Simultaneously the dropout rate in middle school has reduced from 24 percent in 1984-85 to 13.85 percent in 2002-03.
A social evil is an issue which directly or indirectly affects members of a society.
Some of the most sensitive and damning social evils in India are as follows:
Poverty
Caste
Corruption
Alcoholism and Drug abuse
Crimes against women
Dowry
Child Abuse
Erosion of family values and apathy towards elders
Religious intolerance
Major crimes
POVERTY
India is as yet a poor country in spite of its progress over the years. Economists would argue over the numbers, and those below and above the poverty line. But the great poet Bharthiyar argued many years back that even if a single person were to go without food, we should destroy the universe. There are millions of Indians without adequate food, clothing, shelter and other basic amenities.
Poverty is the reason for many social evils including increase in crimes, illness, population, unemployment and corruption. It leads to deprivation of quality education, and health care.
CASTE/UNTOUCHABILITY/CASTE DISCRIMINATION
The caste division inherent in Indian society have many social evils including discrimination in employment, education, and health care. It brings about the much maligned practice of untouchability which is widely prevalent even now in rural India. There are many laws in India to eradicate the evils of the caste system but the practice is still in vogue.
CORRUPTION
Corruption is illegal, immoral or dishonest behaviour, especially by people in positions of power. In the world’s worst offending countries, corrupt government officials steal public money and collude with businesses to sell laws, rules, regulations, and government contracts. The World Bank reports that “higher levels of corruption are associated with lower per capita income”. Corruption breeds poverty, and poverty kills. In other words, corruption kills.
Corruption is an age-old phenomenon. The word corruption means destruction, ruining or spoiling - a society or nation. Selfishness and greed are at the root of it; it also implies lack of integrity and honesty. A corrupt society is characterised by immorality and lack of fear or respect for the law. When it stops valuing integrity, virtue or moral principles it starts decaying. Corruption is the abuse of public power for private gain. Corruption comes under many different guises: bribery, misappropriations of public goods, nepotism (favouring family members for jobs and contracts) and influencing the formulation of laws or regulations for private gain.
The state of the economy also plays an important role in corruption. Inequality of wealth distribution, exploitation by employers, and low wages and salaries provide ideal breeding ground for corruption. A licence-permit regime or scarcity of basic commodities adds fuel to the fire. India is a textbook example of how licence-permit Raj can vitiate political as well as economic atmosphere of the nation.
Broadly speaking, there are two forms of corruption:
Administrative Corruption: Corruption that alters the implementation of policies, such as getting a licence even if you don’t qualify for it.
Political Corruption: Corruption that influences the formulation of laws, regulations, and policies, such as revoking all licences, and gaining the sole right to operate some public utility with monopoly.
Root Causes of Corruption
Corruption is always contextual and rooted in a country’s policies, bureaucratic traditions, political development, and its social and cultural history. Still, corruption tends to flourish when policies are complicated, their implementation is weak, and the general public has no redressal mechanism. Klitgaard has modelled the dynamics of corruption (C) in the public sector in the following equation:
C = M + D - A
Corruption tends to increase when an organisation or person has monopoly (M) power over a good or service, which generates income, has the discretion (D) on its allocation, and is not accountable (A).
ALCOHOLISM AND DRUG ABUSE
Alcoholism and drug abuse are addictive habits and lead to financial ruin of the addict and his family. While alcohol is freely available and marketed by the government in many states, drugs are illegal and procured through illicit means. Addicts spend huge sums of money regularly on alcohol or drugs or both depriving their families of that money. In some cases, they pledge or sell their assets to get their object of addiction and in the process destroy the meagre finances of their families. They exhibit violent behaviour and are a constant source of embarrassment, nuisance and scourge for their near and dear ones.
STATUS OF WOMEN
In ancient India, women held a high palace of respect in society as mentioned in Rigveda and other scriptures. Volumes can be written about the status of our women and their heroic deeds from the vedic period to the modern times. But later on, because of social, political and economic changes, women were relegated to the background. Many evil customs and traditions stepped in which enslaved women and tied them to the boundaries of the house.
The official statistis showed a declining sex-ratio, health status, literacy rate, work participation rate and political participation among women. While on the other hand the spread of social evils like dowry deaths, child marriage, domestic violence, rape, sexual harassment, exploitation of women workers are rampant in different parts of India humiliation, rape, kidnapping, molestation, dowry death.
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