[ Day 16 – Synopsis ] 75 Days Mains Revision Plan 2022 – GS1 Full Syllabus & Ethics

NOTE: Please remember that following ‘answers’ are NOT ‘model answers’. They are NOT synopsis too if we go by definition of the term. What we are providing is content that both meets demand of the question and at the same time gives you extra points in the form of background information.

GS 1 Full Syllabus

Q1. What are the main drivers and causes of desertification and land degradation? Discuss the socio-economic impact of such changes. Suggest a few measures to mitigate the same. 15M

Introduction

According to the UNCCD, Land degradation refers to any reduction or loss in the biological or economic productive capacity of the land resource base resulting from a combination of Natural and Anthropogenic factors.

India lost 31%, or 5.65 million hectares (mha), of grassland area in a decade. The extent of degraded land in India is over 105 million hectares or about 32% of India’s areas.

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                           According to UNESCO, more than 75 per cent of Earth’s land areas are substantially degraded and one-third of the world’s land surface is threatened by desertification, and across the world, it affects the livelihood of millions of people who depend on the benefits of ecosystems that land provides.

Causes and Drivers of Desertification and land degradation

• Anthropogenic causes
• Unsustainable Agricultural practices – Unsustainable Agricultural practices like improper crop rotation practices, overuse of fertilizers, unbalanced water management practices, and Intensive Irrigation practices are the main drivers of land degradation and desertification in Agricultural land.
• Deforestation – When the land that is cleared is steeply sloping or has shallow or easily erodible soils and where the clearance is not followed by good management, Deforestation becomes the first cause of land degradation.
  • Deforestation furthermore contributes to water erosion, wind erosion, soil fertility decline and salinization.
• Overcutting of vegetation- Cutting of natural forests by humans for forest products, timber and fuelwoods at the expense of natural regrowth reduces the water holding capacity of the soil. That reduces the productivity of forest lands.
• Overgrazing- Excessive grazing by domestic animals increases the loss of vegetation and reduces the soil’s ability to hold moisture.
  • It not only causes decrease in quality and quantity but also becomes the leading cause of wind erosion and water erosion in dry lands.
• Increasing urbanization – Driven by increasing population pressure has increased the diversion of land.
  • Expansion of agriculture practices in forested areas, rising industries etc. are further accelerating deforestation.
• Climate Change – Human-induced Climate change decreases soil moisture capacity in various regions. The decline in soil moisture increases the need for irrigation in agriculture and even desertification.
• Natural causes
• Soil erosion – Heavy rainfall which leads to surface runoff and removal of topsoil causes soil erosion.
• Forest fires – Natural fires though not effectively clear the affected areas, do make forests less resilient to future damages.

Socio-economic impacts desertification and land degradation

• Food insecurity – Land Degradation and desertification in addition to drought cause a decline in productivity of land, soil degradation raising the issue of food shortages.
• Acute food insecurity soars to five years high in 2020 – 155 million people experienced acute food insecurity, an increase of 20 million people from 2019.
• Climate change – Deforestation, and forest fires reduce the forest’s ability to capture carbon, a greenhouse gas (GHG) that is the biggest factor in worsening global warming. In addition, droughts caused by climate change are majorly affecting World’s drylands and people depend on them.
• For example, soil erosion by water causes global losses of as much as 42m tonnes of nitrogen and 26m tonnes of phosphorus every year.
• Economic impact – According to The Economics of Land Degradation report, the cost of ecosystem services lost through land degradation is estimated at approximately 6 trillion USD per year or loss of more than 10% of the annual global gross product.
• Loss of biodiversity- Desertification and land Degradation negatively affect Biodiversity. Biodiversity loss may reach 38–46% by 2050. Over 1 million species are threatened by extinction largely because 75% of the land surface has been altered.
• Water scarcity – As desertification is rising, it is expected to rose water crisis tensions especially since the dryland population is more vulnerable to water stress.
• According to UNCCD – With the existing scenario, almost half the world’s population will be living in areas of high water stress by 2030.
• In addition, water scarcity in some arid and semi-arid places will displace between 24 million and 700 million people.
• Migration – In some countries, land degradation has led to massive internal migrations, forcing whole villages to flee their farms for already-overcrowded cities.
  • 50 million people are at risk of displacement in the next 10 years if desertification is not checked.
• Increased risk of zoonotic diseases – The rising trend in zoonotic diseases like COVID 19, is driven by the degradation of our natural environment and biodiversity loss.

Measures to be taken to mitigate land degradation and desertification –

• Land Degradation Neutrality – LDN seeks to maintain natural capital and the ecosystem services that flow from it. LDN is about keeping land in balance which provides the basis for keeping food, water, carbon and biodiversity in balance as well.
• Sustainable Agriculture practices – Adoption of Zero budget natural farming, Organic farming, permaculture farming, covering crops etc that takes care of the Environment and land needed.
• Sustainable management of natural resources especially the conservation of fertile soils and water resources.
• Integrated land-use planning – including the effective and sustainable management of water resources, livestock and agricultural activities.
• Reforestation – Commit to reforestation to regenerate vegetation cover, reactivate moisture circulation and generate biodiversity.
• Awareness – Promote climate change education to raise awareness, in particular by showing the consequences of desertification and ways to prevent it.

Conclusion

We need a positive transformation, a positive change in the fundamental attributes of natural and human systems. We need to follow the Response Hierarchy method i.e, Following the Avoid, Reduce and Reverse of land degradation method.

Additional points :

Land degradation in India

Q2. Elucidate the factors driving feminization of agriculture in India. Is it good for rural society? Discuss the challenges faced by women in the agricultural sector. 10M

Introduction

                           Feminization of agriculture refers to the increasing participation of women in agricultural activities. According to the Economic Survey (2017-18), the agriculture sector is undergoing feminization. The sector employs 80% of all women workforce in India, with 33% being agriculture labourers and 48% being self-employed farmers.

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Factors driving feminization of Agriculture in India.

• Urban Migration – According to the Economic Survey 2017-18, a rise in the migration of men from rural to urban areas has resulted in the feminization of agriculture.
• Agricultural crisis – Indian agriculture is suffering from several crises such as declination of plot size, inflation of food price, a relative increase of cost of production to farm incomes, farmer suicides
  • These agrarian crisis forced rural men to seek livelihood opportunities outside agriculture and migrate to urban areas in search of work, leaving women for agricultural work.
• Poverty – The prevalence of poverty especially in rural India, is one of the major driving forces for the feminization of agriculture. Even women work as unremunerated workers in family fields.
• Fragmentation of land – The study found that there was an inverse relationship between the size of land holdings and the involvement of women in agriculture and a positive relationship between land holding size and women’s participation in non-farm activities.
• Low-paid work – Women are more willing to accept low-paid irregular work, are easy to hire and fire and certain jobs are typified as women’s work.

Challenges faced by women in the agricultural sector.

• The disparity in land ownership – Most women are landless and do not have a say in what can be grown in the lands they are working on.
• Though 70-75% of women workforce were participating in agriculture, only 14% of women have their land holdings as per Agriculture census 2015-16.
• Lower economies of scale – As per Agri-census 2015-16, close to 90 per cent of women-owned landholdings fall in the category of small and marginal landholdings.
• Due to the small landholding size, these women farmers are also not able to harness the benefits of economies of scale.
• Increased work burden – With the feminization of agriculture, rural women are much more overburdened with work involving 15-16 hours a day with labour-intensive, monotonous activities like marketing, meeting family requirements
• Gender bias in credit facility – Women’s role in land and livestock management get little recognition by the government and as a result they remain deprived of agricultural policies, schemes, and formal support systems like credit, extension services, insurance and marketing services.
  • Discrimination in wage payment is an additional challenge for women in agriculture.
• Limited access to resources -Due to limited access to resources, and lack of land titles in their name, women is unable to meet collateral requirements to get loans from financial institutions.
• Inadequate access to markets – Women in agriculture tend to produce small quantities of production and have poor access to organized marketing and cooperatives. Therefore, women sell mainly to private traders and have low bargaining power.
• Biased innovation / Mechanization of agriculture – Most of the technological innovations in Agriculture like modern inputs, and machines are difficult to handle by women alone.
• Traditional obstacles like Education, Gender discrimination.

Feminization of Agriculture is beneficial for rural India which is facing various socio-economic problems, provided the above problems need to be addressed as soon as possible. Feminization of agriculture is essential to increase the Agricultural sector’s contribution to Indian GDP and to double the farmer’s income as reports indicate agricultural yields can grow by 20-30% if women get the same access to productive resources as men.

Way forward

• Cultivator status to women helps them to access multiple agricultural schemes that are only reserved for landowners.
• Creation and promotion of women-led micro-enterprises.
• Capacity building, training and access to credit.

Ethics:

Q3. What do you understand by “freedom of Conscience”? Explain the importance of such freedom in guiding attitudes of the state. 10M

INTRODUCTION:

Conscience refers to the inner voice. Conscience is what people think is right and the basis on which they decide what is right and wrong. For instance, a Doctor might refuse to do abortion as he/she believes its against their conscience.

Freedom of conscience is the political-economic-social conditions which enables one to exercise their freedom to decide what’s right and act upon it. For instance, a person can practice any religion of his/her choice based on his/her conscience.

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IMPORTANCE OF FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE IN GUIDING ATTITUDES OF THE STATE:

1. CONSTITUTION MAKING: While drafting the constitution, freedom of conscience can be an integral part of the people’s rights, which ensures that the State would protect and nourish such freedom.

1. Eg: Under Article 25 of the Indian Constitution, all people have freedom of conscience and the right to profess, practise and propagate any religion subject to the norms of public order, morality and health.

1. RESTRICTION ON POWERS OF STATE: According to the UN Human Rights Commission, freedom of conscience is at its heart but still larger than the freedom of religion or belief. It covers all ethics and values a human being cherishes, whether of religious nature or not. There are no admissible limitations to this freedom, as long as personal convictions are not imposed on others or harm them.

1. DIRECTIONS FOR STATE ACTION: Protecting the freedom of conscience can act as the guide for governance decisions of the state.

1. Eg: The Supreme Court of India had declined to stop the screening of the film PK stating that people have enough conscience to decide on what is obscene nudity and what’s not.

1. PRACTICING RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE IN STATE POLICY: Freedom of conscience largely encomapasses a person’s choice to practice, propagate and profess their own religion. In a multi-religious country, protecting this freedom becomes paramount to the state’s policy.
   1. Eg: Ashoka practiced religious toleration in ancient multi-religious Indian subcontinent and protected people’s conscience on religion , Akbar’s Din-i-ilahi principles used as a framework of Governance .

1. PROTECT MORAL REASONING: of the citizens which is paramount to the lifeblood of any democracy. Such moral reasoning helps the citizens make the right political decisions of their choice.
   1. Eg: In a multi-party democracy, the people have the right to select any party or any person based on their judgment of who is right or which party has the right stand.
2. IMPOSE REASONABLE RESTRICTIONS: so that the conscience is limited when other’s freedom of conscience is harmed.
   1. Eg: Removal of Goddess Kali poster from Canadian Museum on the basis that it hurts the freedom of conscience of Hindu population, removal of spokesperson from the ruling party in India who made derogatory remark on Prophet Muhammad etc.
3. ENCOURAGING CONSCIENTIOUS ACTIONS: like empowering people to take conscientious decisions, but not forcing them to do so.
   1. Eg: Allowing passive Euthanasia by Indian State, allowing abortion on medical grounds in Ireland republic etc.

CONCLUSION:

According to the UNHRC, freedom of conscience makes us realize that there are numerous perspectives to everything in life and that this explains our cultural and religious diversity. Imbibing the freedom of conscience in State policy and action results in protecting and nurturing this cultural and religious diversity.

In turn, the nation would thrive in all aspects including economic, geopolitical, geo-strategic and social spheres. Such a thriving nation would make a mark and become one of the super power poles of the world, like the Mauryan Empire under emperor Ashoka in ancient times and Mughal Empire under emperor  Akbar in Medieval times.

Case Study: 20M

Q4. Mohith is a person with strong moral principles. He is interested in politics and reforming the society through honest administration. For the upcoming elections, he has supported Raju who has promised development and reforms in administration. Mohith has actively volunteered for Raju and has spent the past year gaining political support for Raju.

Realizing the increased support for Raju, the candidate contesting against him has started distributing money and various freebies secretly. Mohith has come to know that Raju has also started distributing freebies and has the financial support from an influential contractor, who has been promised lucrative deals once Raju wins. Mohith has confronted Raju on this issue, but Raju identifies himself as a victim of the situation and has pointed out that modern-day politics is all about money as people are readily accepting freebies and are happy for it. However, Raju has assured Mohith of sticking to his vision of development and honest administration. Others supporting Raju also feel freebies are necessary and Raju is in fact a far better candidate than his competitors.

Given the situation,

1. Identify the ethical issues for Mohith in this situation
2. Do you believe Raju is right about modern-day politics? Is he a victim of the situation? Give your reasons.
3. Discuss the need for a strong political attitude in our country.

Introduction:

The case study emphasizes the practical difficulties that an honest politician and social servant would face in modern competitive democratic polity.

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Ethical issues involved:

• The main ethical issues involved are means and ends ethical dilemmas. On one side there is the Gandhian approach where the means must be pure and ethical to achieve the desired end result.
  • On the other hand , there is a Machiavallian school of thought which emphasizes on achieving the desired end by hook or crook.
• The other ethical issues involved are freedom of conscience for Mohith, corruption, violation of moral objectivism, consequentialism vs Universal ethics.
  • Moral objectivism is the position that certain acts are objectively right or wrong, independent of human opinion. It doesn’t depend on what anyone thinks is right or wrong. That is, the view that the ‘moral facts’ are like ‘physical’ facts in that what the facts are does not depend on what anyone thinks they are.
  • Consequentialism is a class of normative ethical theories which holds that the consequences of one’s conduct are the ultimate basis for any judgment about the rightness of that conduct.

Raju and Modern day politics:

• I do not believe Raju is the victim of modern day electoral politics. Also, the necessity to indulge in corruption and freebies is also not necessary to win in modern elections.
  • There are instances where honest politicians have been winning in their constituencies for a long period by being honest. This is particularly true in local elections.
• Indulging in corruption beforehand occupying the public offense is Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 states that “Expecting to be a public servant”.
  • If a person not expecting to be in office obtains gratification by deceiving others into a belief that he is about to be in office, and that he will then serve them, he may be guilty of cheating.
• According to APJ Abdul Kalam, “Where do the evils like corruption arise from? It comes from the never-ending greed. The fight for a corruption-free ethical society will have to be fought against this greed and replace it with ‘what can I give spirit.”
  • What Raju is doing is the exact opposite of this.
• Giving freebies would interfere with the freedom of conscience of the voters. Their decision may be based on who gives the maximum freebies rather than who would administer the office well. This would threaten the essence of democracy itself.
• In addition, it violates the concept of public financial prudence. This may result in irrational economic distribution hurting the public exchequer.
  • Also, the State might need to print more money to fulfill its obligation, thereby increasing The inflation would result in devaluation of currency, increase in taxes and thereby eroding the value of freebies itself.
• Former US President Abrham Lincoln Said, ‘If You Want to Test a Man’s Character, Give Him Power’. There is no guarantee that Raju would not indulge in corruption and focus on good governance as he has promised, once he is in power.
• Supporting Raju in his endeavor would violate the basic tenets of friendship– Honesty . One of the most essential features of any friendship is to guide the mate in the right path and inform them that the buddy is wrong.
  • This essential tenet was missing in the Duryodhana-Karna friendship in Mahabharata. Had this been present, the great war wouldn’t have happened in the first place. It’s the silence of a good man that hurts and bleeds the country most.
    • Draupadi’s vastraharan is the living example of this, which destroyed the whole Kuru family.

If the means are good, the end would essentially be good and fruitful. It’s on this ethical concept that India won its freedom. Look at our neighboring country Pakistan. Since the means by which it acquired freedom, the ‘Direct Action Day’ was unethical, they ended up being a failed state. Same would be the fate of Raju as well.

CONCLUSION:

Hence, instead of indulging in corruption and distributing freebies, Raju and Mohit can involve themselves in ethical practices to win the election. They can promise the contractor to promote ease of doing business, which would reduce their cost of business operations which would be far greater than the bribe amount. In turn, they might seek support for their cause.

In addition, they can promise the efficient and cost effective delivery of public services like health, education, good quality roads etc. which far outrun the benefits from freebies. Since already the freebies are distributed, it’s time to stop them and focus on empowering and educating the people about the negative effects of freebies and corruption.