Journal of Administrative Development

ROLE OF ANTI-HUMAN TRAFFICKING UNITS IN COMBATING HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN INDIA: A SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

Upendra Tripathi, Sapna K. Sharma, Indra Pratap, Alok Kumar Gaurav — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The Government of India has collaborated with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and started a project to strengthen its existing anti-human trafficking enforcement mechanism in April 2016 with a purpose of raising awareness, imparting training and building capacity among the law enforcement personnel. Under this project, the union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) paves the way for the establishment of Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs) within the State police departments to curb human trafficking. AHTUs started a National Mission Mode Project against all forms of human trafficking in India by integrating all associated stakeholders, such as, police, prosecution officers, civil society etc. It became the primary agency to investigate cases of human trafficking. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), by the end of year 2021, 768 AHTUs were functional in 270 districts in India. This study analyses the metadata reported by NCRB in their ‘Crime in India Report’ from 2016-2021and found that the conviction rate is too low to make any difference in combatting human trafficking effectively.

REDEFINING BIO-MEDICAL WASTE MANAGEMENT: A PATH AHEAD IN INDIA

Rohan Prabhakar Dahivale, Dhanshri Rohan Dahivale — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In any nation majority of hospitals, surgical centres, health facility providers, pathological laboratories, and blood banks are the foremost sources of bio-medical waste. Apart from these sources mortuary centres, human and animal medical research centres, nursing homes, and autopsy centres also significantly contribute to bio-medical waste generation. Typically, in developed countries ‘per hospital per day’ between 200 to 500 gm of harmful bio-medical waste is generated. In underdeveloped countries, this generated quantity is much higher with the existence of other key issues like non-separation of non-hazardous and hazardous bio-medical waste. In this paper, the researcher makes an attempt to discuss a few global factual questions confronted by existing BMWM systems and the current scenario in India.

PERCEPTION ABOUT WILLINGNESS TO PAY TO PREVENT INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION: A CASE STUDY OF UTTARAKHAND

Sukhwinder Singh — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Industrialization has brought economic growth and development to many regions across the globe, including the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR). However, it has also resulted in an increase in environmental pollution, posing serious threats to the delicate ecosystems of the Himalayas. Understanding public perception regarding willingness to pay (WTP) to mitigate industrial pollution is crucial for sustainable development and effective policy implementation. The purpose of this study is to determine the WTP for a pollution-free environment in the Indian hill state of Uttarakhand using the Contingent Valuation (CV) approach. Data for this study was collected through structured questionnaire and results reveals that 71.2 % of respondents were prepared to pay for improved environmental standards. 21.3 % were not willing to pay, as they consider it as a responsibility of either the government or industrialists to manage the industrial pollution. As a result, this paper will offer guidelines for creating an effective policy framework and raise awareness among all stakeholders on how to manage industrial pollution in Rudrapur. According to the study, effective outreach programmes for industrial pollution management could be offered by social institutions, financial institutions, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and the government as a part of their social responsibility.

ACADEMIC STRESS AND ITS IMPACT ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: A STUDY OF COLLEGE STUDENTS

Basu Dev Garg — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Normal stress is helpful for individuals to keep them active and productive. But experience of high levels of stress over a prolonged period may cause many mental and physical problems. Stress among college students being an important concept needs to be addressed properly, failing which consequences may be serious. This study is primary data based and it has been collected from college students using Google form. Chi square test has been used to test the significance of hypotheses. This study concludes that problem of money to meet academic expenses was moderate academic stressor and grade /marks in the final exam, study for competitive exams, problem of understanding lectures through online mode, expectations of parents about career goal and poor time management were nearly moderate academic stressors among college students. Academic stress irritates college students, distract them from study and affect their overall academic performance adversely.

GENDER RESPONSIVE BUDGET – AN INNOVATIVE TOOL OF WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

Sanjeev Chaddha — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Gender discrimination, violence against women, female foeticide and infanticide remains a major issue around the world. Even after 75 years of its independence, India has been consistently ranked poorly on the Gender Gap Index (GGI) achieving a rank of 101 out of 135 countries. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) promulgated by the United Nations look at balancing the social, economic and environmental sustainability and clearly outlines that all the goals are interdependent. The SDG Goal 5 in the Agenda 2030 promulgates gender equality and the empowerment of all females. Apart from this Goal, the eight of the seventeen goals of the SDGs talk about the welfare and protection of females. Gender Budgeting deals with formulation of gender-centric laws, rules, regulations, policies, programmes.; budgeting and allocation of scarce resources; implementation of the laid down policies; continuous feedback, monitoring, course correction and studying the impact of such policies; and subsequent follow-up to eliminate gender differences. Gender budgeting has a number of benefits like reduction of gender disparities, assessment of the requirements of women, better utilization of resources, understanding impact of budget etc. The Gender Budgeting faces a number of challenges which hampers its effective implementation. These include low budgetary allocation, skewed allocation, technical challenges, absence of gender disaggregated data etc. As the Secretary-General of the United Nations warned, “change is coming at a pace that is too slow for the women and girls whose lives depend on it”. Over the next 10 years, the world comity must come together as one so as to create an effective ecosystem for the empowerment of women. The Govt. of India and a number of Indian State Govt. have made considerable efforts to adopt this unique novel concept for emancipation of the women in our society. The commentary article tries to decipher the concept of Gender budgeting, its importance, various challenges it faces, effective implementation of the concept and the way forward.

ROLE OF CIVIL DEFENCE IN COVID-19 MANAGEMENT IN UNION TERRITORY, CHANDIGARH (INDIA)

Purva Mishra, Kartic Sharma — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Civil defence is a voluntary force of citizens, who respond during any unforeseen situation in the locality. India enacted The Civil Defence Act, 1968to provide basic training to its citizens regarding counter war measures. Later, in 2009 the responsibilities of the civil defence corps were increased, when government amended The Civil Defence Act 1968and added disaster management as well. This paper highlights the role of civil defence in health delivery services and its effectiveness, and the coordination between civil defence organization and Chandigarh Administration in Covid-19 management in Chandigarh. The study is based on meta-analysis of statistical data pertaining to Covid-19 management available at national as well as Chandigarh administration levels. The findings of the study revealed that during the pandemic, civil defence organization played an important role in patient care, para-medical duties including ambulance services, medicines and food distribution, hospital ward maintenance, awareness campaigns, vaccination camps, cremations and para-policing duties like law and order maintenance, traffic management etc. However, as far as the effectiveness of these health services is concerned there are many flaws in it such as inadequate infrastructure including shortage of health care institutions, beds, ambulances, medical equipments, doctors, nursing staff and other medical staff, poor primary health services, high cost of medicines, preference of branded drugs over generic drugs, absence of periodic training to officials etc.