PM Ayushman Bharat Scheme

Recently, a residents' group in Noida has requested PM to extend the benefits of health care scheme Ayushman Bharat to senior citizens retired from the private sector with no medical facilities.

• Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) was launched in 2018.
• The two pillars of this scheme are

1. Ayushman Bharat (AB) - 5 lakhs health sub-centres will be converted into health and wellness centres.
2. National Health Protection Mission (NHPM) – It provides health cover of Rs. 5 lakhs per family, per annum, reaching out to 50 crore beneficiaries.

• Coverage - The scheme will aim to target over 10 crore families based on SECC (Socio-Economic Caste Census) database.
• The benefits of the scheme are portable across the country for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation.
• Also, a beneficiary covered under the scheme will be allowed to take cashless benefits from any public/private empanelled hospitals across the country.
• Funding - It is a centrally sponsored scheme and the expenditure incurred in premium payment will be shared between central and state governments.
• With an out-of-pocket expenditure of nearly 60% in healthcare, the scheme is a saviour for economically weaker sections.
• Approximately 50% of Ayushman card recipients are women and over 47% of the authorised hospital admissions have also been availed by women.

Domestic Workers

• Domestic work is the fastest-growing sector of women and girls’ employment in urban India.
• Official estimates show that as of 2012, 39 lakh people were employed as domestic workers, of which at least 26 lakh were women.
• Most people come from marginalised castes and underprivileged locations.
• There is no dedicated law or policy to regulate people working in the domestic work sector. 
• In 2019, the Labour Ministry drafted a National Domestic Worker Policy that would regulate placement agencies and include domestic workers under existing laws.
• They would have the right to minimum wage, access to social security, protection from abuse and exploitation, pension schemes, health and maternity benefits.
• But the policy has not been implemented as of 2023.

ILO Conventions on Domestic Labour

• ILO has defined domestic work as a “modern slavery” practice, where domestic workers, including minors, “remain vulnerable to abuse, exploitation, forced labour and trafficking”.

Palermo Protocol is a UN protocol on human trafficking.

• ILO 189 - In 2011, India voted in favor of the landmark International Labour Organization Convention (ILO) 189 on domestic workers.
• But it was not ratified by India as of now.
• India is also not a signatory to Conventions
  • ILO 182 - Worst Forms of Child Labour
  • ILO 189 - Decent Work for Domestic Workers

Recently, Conference on Women's Reservation Bill was held in New delhi.

108th Constitution Amendment Bill, 2008

• It seeks to reserve 1/3rd of all seats for women in the Lok Sabha and the State Legislative Assemblies.
• The allocation of reserved seats shall be determined by such authority as prescribed by Parliament.
• 1/3rd of the total number of seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes shall be reserved for women of those groups in the Lok Sabha and the legislative assemblies.
• Reserved seats may be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in the state or union territory.
• Reservation of seats for women shall cease to exist 15 years after the commencement of this Amendment Act.
• The bill asks for 33% reservation for backward groups within the 33% quota for women.

Status of Women Reservation in India

• National average – The national average of women in all state assemblies remains around 8%.
• Rankings – India ranks 144 out of 193 countries in the representation of women in parliament according to Inter-Parliamentary Union’s report.
• India has a fewer percentage of women in the lower House than low GDP countries like Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Recently, U.S. introduced a Bipartisan resolution that recognizes the McMahon Line as the international boundary between China and India in Arunachal Pradesh.

McMahon Line

• The Line serves as the de facto boundary between China and India in the Eastern Sector.
• It specifically represents the boundary between Arunachal Pradesh and Tibet, from Bhutan in the west to Myanmar in the east.
• China has historically disputed the boundary and claims the state of Arunachal Pradesh as part of the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR).
• The McMahon Line was drawn during the Simla Convention of 1914.
• Simla Convention is a convention between Great Britain, China, and Tibet.
• The line includes Tawang in the British Empire.

Recently, Government of India has asked the 20 worst-performing cities for completing the Smart Cities Mission as the deadline was June, 2023.

• Smart city is defined as a one that makes optimal use of all the interconnected information available to better understand and control its operations and optimise the use of limited resources.

Smart Cities Mission

• It was launched in 2015 under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
• The Mission is operated as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme.
• Objective- To promote cities that provide core infrastructure, clean and sustainable environment and give a decent quality of life to their citizens through the application of smart solutions.
• 100 cities have been selected to be developed as Smart Cities through a two-stage competition.
• Area based development- It includes city improvement (retrofitting), city renewal (redevelopment) and city extension (greenfield development).
• Key focus areas
• Construction of walkways, pedestrian crossings, cycling tracks
• Efficient waste-management systems
• Integrated traffic management and assessment
• Assessment of indices- It also assesses various indices to track urban development such as the Ease of Living Index, Municipal Performance Index, City GDP framework, Climate Smart Cities assessment framework, etc.