26-Jan-2023: Supreme Court Eases Norms for Passive Euthanasia
Changes in Guidelines for Passive Euthanasia in India
- Living will attestation: Notary or gazetted officer attestation is sufficient instead of judicial magistrate
- National Health Digital Record: Living will to be a part of it for easy access by hospitals and doctors
- Medical board permission denial: Family members can approach high court for a fresh board of medical experts
Passive Euthanasia
- Meaning: Withholding or withdrawing medical treatment to allow a person to die
- In contrast to active euthanasia, it involves active intervention to end a person’s life
- Legalisation in India: 2018 Supreme Court judgement on ‘living will’ allows an adult in conscious mind to refuse medical treatment or embrace natural death under certain conditions
- Guidelines available for terminally ill patients
Different Countries with Euthanasia
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Netherland, Luxembourg, Belgium |
Allow both euthanasia and assisted suicide for unbearable suffering with no chance of improvement |
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Switzerland |
Bans euthanasia but allows assisted dying in the presence of a doctor or physician |
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Canada |
Announcement to allow euthanasia and assisted dying for mentally ill patients by March 2023. Decision widely criticised and may be delayed. |
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United States |
Different laws in different states. Euthanasia allowed in some states like Washington, Oregon, and Montana. |
23-Dec-2022: Union Cabinet approves revision of pension of Armed Forces Pensioners/family pensioners under One Rank One Pension w.e.f. July 01, 2019
The Union Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has approved revision of pension of Armed Forces Pensioners/family pensioners under One Rank One Pension (OROP) w.e.f. July 01, 2019. Pension of the past pensioners would be re-fixed on the basis of average of minimum and maximum pension of Defence Forces retirees of calendar year 2018 in the same rank with the same length of service.
Beneficiaries:
The Armed Forces Personnel retired up to June 30, 2019{excluding pre-mature (PMR) retired w.e.f. July 01, 2014} will be covered under this revision. More than 25.13 lakh (including over 4.52 lakh new beneficiaries) Armed Forces Pensioners/family pensioners will be benefitted. Pension for those drawing above the average shall be protected. The benefit would also be extended to family pensioners, including war widows and disabled pensioners.
Arrears will be paid in four half-yearly instalments. However, all the family pensioners, including those in receipt of Special/Liberalised Family Pension and Gallantry Award Winners, shall be paid arrears in one instalment.
Expenditure:
The estimated annual expenditure for the implementation of the revision has been calculated as approx. Rs 8,450 crore @31% Dearness Relief (DR). Arrears w.e.f. July 01, 2019 to December 31, 2021 have been calculated as over Rs 19,316 crore based on DR @ 17% for the period from July 01, 2019 to June 30, 2021 and @31% for the period from July 01, 2021 to December 31, 2021. Arrears w.e.f. July 01, 2019 to June 30, 2022 have been calculated as approx. Rs 23,638 crore as per the applicable dearness relief. This expenditure is over and above the ongoing expenditure on account of OROP.
Background
The Government took a historic decision to implement OROP for the Defence Forces Personnel/family pensioners and issued policy letter on November 07, 2015 for revision of pension w.e.f. July 01, 2014. In the said policy letter, it was mentioned that in future, the pension would be re-fixed every 5 years. Approx. Rs 57,000 crore has been spent @Rs 7,123 crore per year in eight years in the implementation of OROP.
7-Feb-2022: Benefits of One Rank One Pension Scheme
The Government took a historic decision of implementing One Rank One Pension (OROP) for Defence Forces Personnel with effect from 01.07.2014. In this regard, Government issued orders on 07.11.2015 and detailed guidelines along with rates of pension were issued on 03.02.2016 for implementation of OROP. OROP implies that uniform pension be paid to Defence Forces Personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service, regardless of their date of retirement, which implies bridging the gap between the rates of pension of current and past pensioners at periodic intervals. Salient features of the OROP are as follows:
- Pension of the past pensioners would be re-fixed on the basis of pension of retirees of calendar year 2013 and the benefit will be effective from 01.07.2014.
- Pension will be re-fixed for all pensioners on the basis of the average of minimum and maximum pension of personnel retired in 2013 in the same rank and with the same length of service.
- Pension for those drawing above the average shall be protected.
- Arrears will be paid in four equal half yearly installments. However, all the family pensioners including those in receipt of Special/Liberalized family pension and Gallantry award winners shall be paid arrears in one installment.
- In future, the pension would be re-fixed every 5 years.
- Personnel who opt to get discharged henceforth on their own request under Rule 13(3)I(i)(b), 13(3)II(i)(b), 13(3)III(iv) or Rule 16B of the Army Rule 1954 or equivalent Navy or Air Force Rules will not be entitled to the benefits of OROP. It will be effective prospectively.
In the financial year 2016-17 budget allotment of Rs 12,456 crore was made for OROP payments. No separate allotments have been made in other years. A total of Rs 10,795.40 crore have been disbursed as arrears for implementation of OROP to Defence Forces Pensioners/ Family Pensioners. However, OROP is not paid as a separate element. It is integrated part of pension. As such amount of additional expenditure incurred is not available.
6-Nov-2020: Five years of historic decision to implement OROP
Government of India took the historic decision to implement One Rank One Pension, OROP by issuing an order on 7.11.2015, benefit effective from 01.07.2014, despite huge financial burden demonstrating its commitment to the welfare of ex-servicemen. Armed Forces Personnel retired upto 30.06.2014 were covered under this Order. Keeping in view the magnitude and complexity of Defence pension, extensive consultations were held with experts and ex-Servicemen before issue of Government order on implementation of OROP.
Ex-Servicemen had been agitating for implementation of OROP nearly for the 45 years, but the same was not implemented before 2015.
OROP implies that uniform pension be paid to the Armed Forces Personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service regardless of their date of retirement. Thus, OROP implies bridging the gap between the rate of pension of current and past retirees at periodic intervals.
A sum of Rs. 10795.4 crore has been disbursed to 20,60,220 Defence Forces Pensioners/Family Pensioners as arrears on account of implementation of OROP. The yearly recurring expenditure on account of OROP is about Rs.7123.38 crores and for about six years starting from 01.07.2014, the total recurring expenditure worked out to approximately Rs. 42740.28 crore.
OROP beneficiaries also got the benefit of fixation of pension under 7th CPC while calculating the pension by multiplication factor of 2.57.
19-Dec-2022: Migration of Youth from North-Eastern States
The Government has no data in this regard for the last three years. However, as per the Census 2011, there are 1,52,05,214 migrants in the North East Region (NER) states. Of these, 93.80% (1,42,62,490) are intra-state migrants and only 6.20% (9,44,050) are inter-state migrants. The all-India figure for inter-state migration is 11.90% and 88.10% for intra-state migration. The top three states to which inter-state migration from the NER States occur are West Bengal (39.56%), Delhi (7.66%) and Maharashtra (7.4%).
The Government has taken various initiatives to improve employment opportunities for youth including those in the NER. These include the interlinking of the ‘Udyam’, ‘e-Shram’, National Career Service (NCS), and the Aatmanirbhar Skilled Employee-Employer Mapping (ASEEM). Besides, the NCS portal of the Ministry of Labour & Employment (ML&E) has been integrated with State portals including most States of NER. 25 NCS centres for scheduled castes (SC) and scheduled tribes (ST) have been established, out of which 06 are in NER in addition to the 02 centres for the differently abled. NCS has also partnered with Microsoft and launched ‘DigiSaksham’, a joint digital skills initiative for employability through digital skills. M/o L&E has also launched the ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana’ (ARBY), to boost the economy, increase the employment generation in the post-COVID recovery phase and to incentivize creation of new employment along with social security benefits and restoration of loss of employment during COVID-19 pandemic.
Under the Skill India Mission, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) is implementing the Skill Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (SANKALP) under which, various interventions in States, including NER, are being made. These include institutional strengthening at State & district level; quality assurance of skill development programmes; and inclusion of marginalised population in skill development programmes. MSDE also implements the Accelerated Mission for Better Employment & Retention (AMBER) project that aims towards improved employment and retention of candidates post completion of short-term skill development training program. MSDE has issued the Notification of Common Norms (2015) wherein, 30% or the last tranche of base cost of all skilling schemes is being incentivised for placement. Under the Norms, an additional amount for skilling is provided in Special Areas including NER States. Further, post-placement support @ Rs. 1,500 per month for Special Areas including NER States is also provisioned. The Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE), Guwahati, under MSDE imparts 388 training programs such as Entrepreneurship Development Program (EDP), Skill Development Program (SDP), Entrepreneurship and Skill Development Program (ESDP) etc. During financial year 2021-22, 10,116 participants have been imparted training under various programmes.
For improving the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER), promoting higher education and for encouraging children belonging to economically weaker section of the NE region, the University Grants Commission (UGC), under the Ministry of Education (MoE) has launched the “Ishan Uday” scholarship scheme for NER. The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) facilitates expansion of educational development in NER by providing opportunities of higher education, training, skill development and other initiatives through its network of 09 Regional Centres (RC) and 535 Learners Support centres (LSCs) in the NER. Under the scheme of setting up of 20 Indian Institute of Information (IIIT) in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode, 03 such IIITs have been set up in NER. The North Eastern Regional Office of UGC provides financial support for construction of hostels for boys in SC/ST concentrated districts. The Department of Sports has established a National Sports University (NSU) in Imphal to focus on sports education and provide support to the sporting talent of the region.
The Ministry of Rural Development implements schemes, including in the NER, for creating employment and supporting livelihoods. These are the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM), Deendayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY), Rural Self Employment Training Institutes, National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP), and Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission (SPMRM)
The North East Handicrafts and Handlooms Corporation Ltd. (NEHHDC) under Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (MDoNER) provides handholding support to the artisans and weavers of the NER by skilling them and creating market linkages to enable them to continue their traditional skills and provide them gainful employment. The North Eastern Council (NEC) under MDoNER has launched the "Advancing North East" portal - a one stop solution for career and livelihood for the youth of NER.
The MoE has launched the ‘Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat’ programme which aims to enhance interaction & promote mutual understanding between people of different States/UTs including all States of NER. Ministry of Home Affairs has taken various steps such as issuance of advisories/instructions to the State Governments/UTs regarding action plan for providing security to people from NER, appointment of nodal officers in States/UTs to address the grievances of people from NER, and sensitization of enforcement agencies to take appropriate action in any case of harassment. A Special Police Unit for North East Region (SPUNER) has been set up by Delhi Police and a special helpline number 1093 and dedicated email, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for lodging complaint/grievances by people of NER has also been started. A three-member Monitoring Committee has been set up by Ministry of Home Affairs with two members belonging to NER for monitoring of issues and redressal of grievances relating to racial discrimination faced by people from NER residing in different parts of the country.
In order to safeguard the interest of the migrant workers, the Central Government had enacted the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979 which provides different safeguards against the exploitation of migrant workers.