THE HINDU EDITORIAL - MAY 6, 2022

 

THE HINDU EDITORIAL – MAY 6, 2022

 

With the gap Widening trade deficit puts more pressure on the rupee and spurs growth-retarding inflation Official data on India’s merchandise trade for April give reason for cheer at first glance. Emerging from a record export performance during the just-concluded financial year, outward shipments for the month rose 24.2% from a year earlier, with electronics and chemicals showing healthy expansion, while petroleum products more than doubled. However, imports continued to outpace exports, growing by 26.6% to broaden the goods trade deficit, which widened to $20.07 billion from $18.5 billion in March. The trade deficit – the extent to which the import bill exceeds export receipts – worryingly breached $200 billion for a rolling 12-month period for the first time in April, impacted predominantly by petroleum imports of $172 billion. Global crude oil prices have surged by more than 40% in 2022 in the wake of Russia’s war on Ukraine, swelling the import bill. The early onset of the Indian summer, with a heatwave, has bolstered power demand, setting the pace for coal imports, which grew 136% last month, notwithstanding record output by key domestic supplier Coal India. For the first time ever, the Ministry of Power has set timelines for States to import coal over the next few months, a far cry from the 16% year-on-year decline in imports of the fuel in the April 2021-January 2022 period and a clear portent that the bill for overseas purchases of coal is also set to swell.    Monitoring the trade deficit is crucial as this has a direct bearing on the current account deficit (CAD). Disconcertingly, foreign direct investment, which typically helps bridge the CAD, has seen moderation. And, the wider the CAD, the greater the downward pressure on the rupee, which has already weakened considerably since the conflict in ester Europe began in February. A weaker rupee, in turn, makes imports costlier, potentially widening the trade deficit, and thus triggering a vicious cycle. The RBI has sought to steady the rupee against wild swings, evident in the dip in foreign exchange reserves to $600.4 billion (April 22), from $640 billion just six months earlier. But a central bank can draw on the reserves to ease any rupee weakening only to a limited extent. The RBI also has its hands full with the battle against imported inflation as global commodity prices remain sharply elevated. To help avoid added stress, the Government must consider additional incentives for exports, while encouraging local production of items that strain the import bill. The coal crisis could have been averted with better advance estimates of power demand as the country emerged from the worst of the pandemic and optimal allocation of coal-carrying rail wagons. Policymakers can ill afford to let their guard down on trade imbalances and risk growth retarding inflation and more pressure on the rupee.   Standing on ceremony An overemphasis on a ritualistic oath does not aid quality medical education Observance of rituals largely serves a symbolic function; they are infused with meaning that gives a semblance of human-made order to the vagaries of nature. But pushing the meaning beyond the symbolism is fraught with danger. Standing on ceremony, particularly, does not quite fit in with the roles and the responsibilities of a medical professional, and the Charak Shapath row in Tamil Nadu, in which a top official of a government medical college was put on a waitlist, has clearly dragged one ceremony beyond it original intent and purpose. While things came to a head with the suspension of the dean of Madurai Government Medical College, the controversy has been brewing since February, when the minutes of the National Medical Commission’s (NMC) discussions with medical colleges were leaked. One of the points read: “No Hippocratic Oath. During white coat ceremony, the oath will be Maharishi Charak Shapath.” The Charak oath appears as part of Charaka Samhita, an ancient text on Ayurveda, and seeks to, much like the Hippocratic Oath; lay down the ground rules for the practice of medicine for a student. While it emphasises compassion, and the scientific and ethical practice of medicine, it also highlights certain values embedded in the cultural and social ethos of the time of Charaka, and seen today as retrograde. References to caste, old-style subjugation of student to a guru, and gender bias have been flagged since. Though it was later clarified that the oath was not compulsory, there were valid concerns about projecting it as a substitute for the Hippocratic Oath. In the English version that was read out at Madurai Medical College, there were two references that are repugnant – ‘submitting myself to my Guru (teachers) with complete dedicated feeling,’ and ‘I, (especially a male doctor) shall treat a woman only in presence of her husband or a near relative’. The rest of the oath stresses, in simple language, the very principles of the Hippocratic Oath, including serving the sick, a Pleasant bedside manner, and not being corrupt. Subsequent investigations have revealed that the dean was not even part of the decision to substitute the Charak Shapath for the Hippocratic Oath (the Students’ Council claimed responsibility), and he has since been reinstated. But launching severe action for what might have been just procedurally deviant, rather than a crime or violation of ethics, seems a knee-jerk reaction, or worse, the pursuit of a political agenda. The focus should rather be on ensuring quality medical education, inculcating in students a scientific temper, and a sense of service to patients. While Tamil Nadu has often rightly argued for States’ autonomy in a federal structure, this act adds little heft to that critical issue. For the NMC, even more so, the stress should not be on the bells and whistles, but rather on the quality of education.   The school dress is in the cross hairs The uniform has been transformed into a new political tool and as a means to curtailing the autonomy of educationists KRISHNA KUMAR Nowhere is the long history of education can you find evidence to say that a school uniform is a factor in learning. Yet, a lot of people today cannot imagine a school without a uniform. When they think about a school, including their own, they think about the uniform that makes its children distinct from the children of other schools. Especially on festive occasions when grand events bring all the schools of a city together, people find something deeply edifying in the spectacle of children marching or displaying their smartness wearing a distinct uniform. The public fascination with such spectacles, and the history of the schooled uniform, point to the single most important role that a school uniform plays: it helps in the regimentation of the young. Uniformly dressed children constitute one of the two archetypal metaphors of schooling. One is that of a garden where different flowers bloom; the other is of an army of little soldiers marching together. A history, social impact If you divide the world into countries that have a compulsory uniform in their schools and countries that do not, the history starts to revel itself. Systems of education that evolved under colonial rulers of different types generally favour strict enforcement of the school uniform. That includes us.    If you strain popular memories and scan old photographs, you will find that the idea of a school uniform has spread with urbanization, prosperity and privatization. Rural and small town schools seldom insisted on a daily uniform in the early years of Independence. It was required on certain days of the week and on special days. Gradually, when different types of private schools started, they demanded every day wearing of the prescribed uniform. Supply of uniforms for children of different schools offered business opportunities for local cloth merchants, tailors and shoe stores. Instead of offering competitive pricing, the uniform business encouraged local monopolies. In many cases, the schools assented to participate and asked parents to patronize a particular source. Command-based system This short and obviously generalized social history has little apparent relevance to the situation in Karnataka. Nicely hemmed in between the order of the Directorate and the court, a complete uniform code has evolved within a few weeks. It regime now encompasses the classroom as well as the examination hall.  And although Kendriya Vidyalayas (central schools) are not governed by any provincial government, the ones located in Karnataka have fallen in line. Their stance is to difficult to appreciate under the circumstances.    Thus, one of India’s most literate and prosperous States, globally famous for its advancements in the so-called knowledge economy, has emerge as the crucible of educational orthodoxy and control. The school uniform has mutated into a new political tool, and as a means of curtailing the already limited autonomy of principals and teachers. To what extent the politics of the school dress will influence electoral outcomes will become a subject fit for research in the social sciences? Systematic study of the school dress, its history and fascination, was long overdue.    It is interesting that the uniform controversy erupted in the secondary education system of a State that bypassed major policy reforms of the 1960s. Pre-university or junior colleges are left in only a small number of States now. Elsewhere in the country, the 10+2 model recommended by the Kothari Commission nearly 60 years ago prevails. It led to a significant reorganization of the administrative system in education. Its full potential would have been realised had school principals and teachers been given a greater say and freedom in establishing the norms that govern institutional life.    Another gain would have been a participatory role for the community in matters of day-to-day life at school. Had the vision of the Kothari report – sculpted by its Member-Secretary, J.P. Naik – been realised in its entirety, bureaucratic authority would have declined, creating greater room for school autonomy. A different kind of politics might have emerged, with the school as its intellectual resource. Karnataka might have been a highly fertile social ground for such alternative democratic polity because of its own history and propulsion towards decentralised governance.     History took a different direction. The picture of a teacher or principal of a junior college in Karnataka stopping a student from entering the examination hall on account of a dress item will serve as a symbol of unkindness for many years to come. Hopefully, her predicament will also become a subject of discussion in teacher education colleges. The question it will raise is: ‘Did she voluntarily agree to be so unkind to a student in order to be compliant to orders?’ An administrative query might also be worth pursuing: ‘Did the Directorate’s order on the specified uniform extend to the examination hall?’ Nationally it did, but then it stretched the normal role of a school uniform – to provide a collective institutional identity. If that identity covers the examination hall, why do students need a hall ticket, establishing their individual identity? Let us hope the legal argument on this issue will go into these uncharted layers of the lives of learners and examinees. Key distinction Even at this juncture, it is worth recalling a key distinction. A uniform is different from a dress code. A uniform is different from a dress code. A uniform is more prescriptive than a dress code. The latter may expect children and their parents to avoid using clothes flaunting status or wealth. A uniform, on the other hand, may well go as far as prescribing not just the colour but also the material and the design or cut. In older times, it was considered sufficient to recommend a dress code; nowadays even a fully defined uniform does not seem to suffice. The social ethos promotes conspicuous consumption (a phrase used by the economist, Veblen), and banquet halls serve this aim as efficiently as schools. Uniforms do help to maintain a veneer of equality in a society where inequality is pervasive. Education, however, is supposed to promote equal opportunities for all strata and sections of society in more substantial ways. One important contribution that education can make in this direction is to widen the scope of public debates, enabling the participation of all concerned, especially teachers. They are in far closer touch with students from different backgrounds and, therefore, will be more sensitive to what makes classroom life more comfortable for all.    No modern philosopher has explained the problems that underlie this state of collective existence better than Sri Aurobindo. In The Ideal of Human Unity, he draws upon diversity in nature to explain why uniformity tempts us, but does not contribute to a sense of relatedness or unity. He extends his analysis to all aspects of social, cultural and political life, including international relations. In our present context, the issue underlying the turmoil in Karnataka has to do with the role of education and the manner in which it functions as a system. As the term ‘uniform’ suggests, a common dress conveys that all differences have been overcome.    Had that been the case in Karnataka, the Directorate would not have to exert its pressure to seek compliance. The expectations this resilient institution forged under colonial rule harbours in its bureaucratic heart are best illustrated by a story J.P. Naik told me. The Kothari Commission’s had suggested ways to make classroom teaching less stereotyped, and more lively and child-centred. Soon after the Commission’s report received official approval, the Directorate in Maharashtra fired off a D.O. (i.e. demi-official) order to all schools that, as per the desire of the competent authority, hence-forth, all teaching must be child-centred!   A leaked draft, termination rights and the politics The U.S. Supreme Court’s ‘decision’ might have fired up the political scene, but the health statistics must not be ignored SRIDHAR KRISHNASWAMI It was something that literally no one expected, and from the portals of the Supreme Court of the United States – a leaked draft of the court’s decision on abortion law indicating that a majority of the Justices might have just about agreed to overturn the 1973 landmark Roe vs Wade that legalized abortion in America. When Politico got its hands on the 98-page draft, and other media organisations jumped on the bandwagon, all hell broke loose, and expectedly so. In an already divisive country, nothing rankles the partisans more than the sensitive subject of abortion.    Some have likened the leaked document as being the equivalent of the Pentagon papers that surfaced during the Nixon era. In a country where leaks are not out of the ordinary, these have been mostly confined to the White House and the vast bureaucracies, but not from the sacred hallways of the Supreme Court. In fact, one argument has been that even in the heightened political environment of 2000, when the election of a President (George W. Bush/AI Gore) was being decided, there was not even a whisper about which way the Justices were leaning. Reactions But not so this time around. Within a short period of time, the accusations have begun, with the needle of suspicion pointing to the Liberal Justices in the apex court, their clerks and allies, with the intention of alerting the nation about what was in store. According to the story, the first draft had the consent of five Conservative Justices with the Chief Justice, John Roberts, yet to weigh in. “The left continues its assault on the Supreme Court with an unprecedented breach of confidentiality, clearly meant to intimidate. The Justices mustn’t give in to this attempt to corrupt the process. Stay strong”, tweeted Republican Senator from Missouri, Josh Hawley.    Top Democrats were quick on the draw as well. In a statement, Senate Majority leader Charles Schumer and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, said, “If the report is accurate, the Supreme Court is poised to inflict that greatest restriction of rights in the past 50 years – not just on women but on all Americans. The Republican-appointed justices’ reported votes to overturn Roe v Wade would go down as an abomination, one of the worst and most damaging decisions in modern history.”    Out of the nine Justices, six have been appointed by Republican Presidents. Politico has stated that the so-called first draft was supposedly prepared by Justice Samuel Alito With the sole intention of overturning the Court’s ruling on Roe vs Wade and a 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood vs Casey. In the “Opinion of the Court”, Justice Alito is said to have written that “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start” and that it must be overruled. “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s representatives”, he is said to have added.    Chief Justice Roberts would want a full-scale investigation into the leak which would most certainly involve the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); and there is an element of uncertainty as to whether the top court will stay on schedule for a decision in June/July. The argument that the first draft need not necessarily be the final word on the subject has had few takers, with both supporters and opponents in a no-holds barred slanging match, with at least one conservative commentator describing the leak as amounting to an “insurrection” against the top court. The political angle There is, undoubtedly, a political angle to this, especially in the run-up to the mid-term elections of November 8 which is about six months away. More immediately, the leak will be seen as having an impact on the primaries that are scheduled in the next few weeks. In a national poll by Marquette Law School in January 2022, 72% were opposed to overturning Roe vs Wade as opposed to only 28% who were in favour. And Democratic lawmakers have once again come together to call for codifying Roe vs Wade into law – a task that is easier said than done given that the Democrats do not have 60 votes in the Senate and dissension within their ranks on getting rid of filibuster as a procedural tool.    “… the repercussions will be significant,” argued Aditi Vaidya of the Center for Health Systems and Policy in the School of Medicine of Tufts University this February. “The removal of the constitutional right to abortion will be felt most among low income people, people of color and rural communities across the country, As history so clearly tells us, banning abortion does not stop them from occurring, it pushes them underground, limiting access to safe abortions,” she added, pointing to dangerous methods, unqualified persons in procedures and online pharmacies peddling abortion pills. Some data Even as the heated debate has just started and is one that will intensify in the weeks ahead, statistics speak of about 6,30,000 reported abortions in the United States in 2019, down 18% from 2010; 57% of the women were in their twenties; African-American women had the highest rate of abortions, of 27 per 1,000 women aged between 15 years and 44 years. These are telling statistics that the Republicans and the Democrats need to keep in mind as they wrestle for political points.