The home ministry explained the delay on the need for “removal of errors/inconsistencies”. It said data on 25 categories were withheld, including offences such as rape during communal riots, laws related to cows, hate crimes and attack on journalists and RTI activists, because the data were “unreliable” and “prone to misinformation”. 

At the same time, the NCRB released data in new categories/classifications such as anti national elements, circulating false/fake news/rumours, chit funds, cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act and Mental Health Act, noise pollution and defacement of public property. 

The yearly ‘Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India’ report, which includes crucial data on suicides by farmers/agriculture labourers and students in addition to accidental deaths, has not been released by the NCRB for three years now, the last publication having been for 2015.

Holding back of data “unduly delays the progress of research in the area of Criminal Justice and policy”, G S Bajpai, professor of criminology and criminal justice, and chairperson of the Centre for Criminology & Victimology at the National Law University (NLU), Delhi, told IndiaSpend in an interview, along with Ankit Kaushik, research associate at NLU.

G S Bajpai, 57, is also as the registrar at NLU, Delhi, and has authored 17 books, more than 80 papers, several monographs and project reports. He is a columnist with leading newspapers in the country. He is a member of the Standing Committee on Research Methodology for Research Projects of the Bureau of Police Research & Development of the home ministry, and has contributed in police training research and courses.

Ankit Kaushik, 27, has worked on an Indian Council of Social Science Research project on the ‘Status of Crimes Against Women’ and on a University Grants Commission project on the ‘Impact and Implementation of Juvenile Justice Act, 2000’. He has been a part of the consultative processes with the National Investigation Agency as well as the Bureau of Police Research and Development on behalf of the university.

Excerpts from our email interview:

What are the most important findings of the latest NCRB data for you?

It is not the actual statistics that are of interest to me immediately, but the NCRB’s reclassification of old offences and inclusion of new offences that is of importance. The exercise by NCRB has culminated in several new offences such as cyber bullying of women/children etc. as well as repackaging of existing offences such as morphing, data theft etc. An examination of the basis of such reclassification and creation of offences is extremely fascinating and the same must be subjected to critical analysis by scholars of criminal law, criminologists, lawyers and policy makers.

Data on lynchings, and crimes against journalists and activists, have not been included. Your comments? As a public institution, is the NCRB obligated to share these data with the public?

The official stance of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for not including the data on mob lynchings and attacks against journalists has been that the data received from the police stations are unreliable as the definitions are prone to misinterpretation. Whereas it would be redundant to comment on the official stance without verifying the veracity of the MHA’s claim, it is certainly acceptable that in the absence of any official definition of mob lynching, data collection of the same would indeed be an uphill task. However, the same logic should have applied to other offences which have been created or re-classified by the NCRB since no official definitions are available for many of the newly classified offences such as fake news or fake profile.

If the data is unreliable, I doubt anything good can come out of sharing it, but then the NCRB should have refrained from sharing other data based on unreliable definitions either.

The data now include new heads such as crimes by anti-national elements. Your comments?

NCRB’s attempt at reclassification can generally be subjected to much criticism for being haphazard and unprincipled. It is rather futile to repackage old offences under new headings without any substantive changes in the offences themselves. The new offences and the classifications, in and of themselves, suffer from the lacuna of being undefined either in academic or legislative discourse. The head of ‘anti-national’ elements too suffers from the same vice. Until and unless the contours of the term ‘anti-national’ are defined, it would be unfortunate for the same to be given any kind of official recognition within criminal justice administration.

The Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India report has not been released for three years now, with its last publication for 2015. Your comment?

Any delay on the part of the NCRB in coming out with the statistics unduly delays the progress of research in the area of Criminal Justice and policy throughout the country and beyond. Studies had to rely on outdated official data for much of the past two years. It is unfortunate, therefore, that the delay in the publication of the report on Accidental Deaths and Suicides is even greater than the delay in the publication of the Crime in India Statistics as well as Prison Statistics.

Are you aware of any attempts to get the undisclosed data revealed through the Right to Information Act, and their results?

NCRB being a public body, the RTI Act is applicable to the same. In fact, a list of Central Public Information Officers can easily be found on its website. Additionally, the NCRB regularly makes disclosures under the RTI, which are also available for public access on its website. I am, however, currently unaware of any figures of the number of RTIs filed with the NCRB.

What are the challenges in collecting and publishing crime data in India? How can the process be improved? How can the process be made consistent so that data can be compared across time periods?

Data collection is perhaps the greatest challenge for publishing any report on crime in India. NCRB itself voiced discontent about insufficient cooperation by West Bengal and Bihar police. It would be much harder for any private researcher to solicit such information. The process can be significantly streamlined by creating a central database that automatically updates the macro-level data on crime in India in real time. The same can be done by ensuring that the relevant data from each FIR [First Information Report] uploaded online is automatically added to the central database. This would do away with the requirement to solicit information from each police station on an annual basis.

As for making the process consistent so as to compare data across time periods, in methodical terms, the same requires foresight as well as the ability on the part of the NCRB to adjust the previously recorded data in accordance with the novel methods. Substantively, however, it would be impossible to maintain such consistency because society generally defines and redefines both the offences as well as its gravity and punishment differently over a period of time. What may have been considered to be a serious offence in 1860 may be completely acceptable behaviour today and vice versa.

Are there any other heads you think should be included in the report, going ahead?

The report lacks a victimological perspective entirely. Crime in India cannot be studied merely from the perspective of the offence and the offender. An equally important part of the offence itself is the person or body against whom it is committed. The victims of crimes including witnesses deserve an entire chapter dedicated to describing the victims as well as analysing their issues.

Reports (here and here) suggest under-reporting of crimes/cases. What measures are required to address these challenges?

Under-reporting of crimes/cases can largely be attributed to two kinds of issues–the first are institutional, and the second are societal.

Institutional issues can be tackled through positive steps taken by the State to protect victims and witnesses as well as providing the victims with assistance–both legal and material–so as to embolden them to report the offence. Another institutional issue is the NCRB’s reliance on the ‘Principal Offence Rule’ under which only the offence with the highest punishment from amongst all offences in the FIR is taken into account by the NCRB. So in an FIR relating to rape and murder, the NCRB will count only murder and not rape. The same leads to automatic under-reporting of offences, not by the victims, but by the NCRB. Perhaps the NCRB should be asked to place lesser reliance on the rule.

Societal pressures too stop the victims of crimes from coming forward. The pressures include the threat of social stigma, unequal power structures within society or even direct threats from the accused themselves. These can be resolved through a combination of social awareness and sensitisation programmes and institutional reforms to provide protection and assistance to the victims and witnesses, in addition to taking the impact of the crimes upon the victims into account.

As a measure to uncover the dark figure of crime, victimisation surveys have emerged as one of the viable solutions where countrywide samples are taken to determine the unreported instances of victimisation, if any, suffered by people. India is a non-starter as far as the victimisation surveys are concerned. It is highly recommended that victimisation surveys be institutionalised as an alternative to official statistics of crime.

(Mallapur is a senior analyst with IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy: India Spend

The post NCRB’s Reclassification Of Old Offences, Inclusion Of New Categories Problematic: Expert appeared first on SabrangIndia.

On August 5, 2019, as national attention was focussed on the revocation of special status for Jammu and Kashmir, parliament’s lower house, the Lok Sabha also passed, with almost no debate, The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2019.

The surrogacy bill prevents single parents, same-sex couples, divorced or widowed persons, transgender persons, live-in partners and foreign nationals from using a surrogate mother. While single parents and foreign nationals can adopt a child, this option for the others is ambiguous, as we discuss later.

One of 35 new bills passed in 37 days over June and August by the Lok Sabha, the bill prohibits commercial surrogacy and allows “altruistic surrogacy”, the process of getting another woman to bear your child if no charges or monetary incentives are involved, except for medical expenses and insurance coverage. The bill now awaits assent by the Rajya Sabha, the upper house.

Experts and activists said banning commercial surrogacy will also take away the livelihoods of women who rented out their wombs and would deny women rights over their own bodies. The new bill also provides for a new layer of government certification and regulation. Some said they intended to suggest modifications and called for further public debate.

While there are no precise data, India has now emerged as a global hub for commercial surrogacy 17 years after the start of what is now an unregulated industry estimated to be worth about $2.3 billion (Rs 16,465 crore) per year, employing thousands in more than 3,000 clinics nationwide.

When there was no regulation, single people, those in live-in relationships, same-sex couples–from India and abroad–could rent a womb to conceive a child in India. This is now restricted to married, Indian hetrosexual couples.

Experts said they had indeed suggested reforms but not “a complete umbrella ban”, as Manasi Mishra, head, research and knowledge management, Centre for Social Research (CSR), a women and girls rights advocacy, put it. She said a regulatory framework with “civil society involvement in monitoring could have been a better alternative”.

“By banning it, (the) industry will go underground,” said Manasi Mishra.

“Considering the Supreme Court jurisprudence [here and here] on live-in relationships, children of live-in couples are considered legitimate,” said Gargi Mishra, a gender rights lawyer at Sama, a Delhi-based resource group working on issues related to women and health. “Now, by denying surrogacy to these groups–single parents, homosexuals, transgenders–you are denying them their rights, making it a regressive or limited view of what a family is.”

Surrogacy had “great emancipatory potential”, said Gargi Mishra, for people who could not otherwise have children.

New definition for surrogate mothers
Surrogacy is defined in the new bill as “a practice whereby one woman bears and gives birth to a child for an intending couple with the intention of handing over such child to the intending couple after the birth”.

Surrogacy is permitted for “intending couples” with proven infertility; they should be Indian citizens, married for at least five years and without a child, whether biological, adopted or surrogate. The woman should be 23 to 50 years old and the man 26 to 55 years.

Proven infertility through diagnosed medical conditions should indeed be the only criteria to permit surrogacy, said Manasi Mishra from CSR. “We cannot permit the rich, famous and celebrities to have surrogate children because of cosmetic reasons and just because they can afford it,” she said.

The bill says central and state governments will appoint an “appropriate authority” to issue “certificate of essentiality” and “eligibility certificate” to the intending couple. It provides for a National Surrogacy Board and State Surrogacy Boards, which will advise government on policy issues, supervise and lay down codes of conduct for surrogacy clinics.

The bill defines a surrogate mother as “a close relative”, genetically related to the “intending couple”, a married woman with a child of her own, aged between 25 and 35 years and can be a surrogate only once in her lifetime.

Focus on a genetic child, traditional family
If the bill becomes law, same-sex couples, single-parents and live-in couples will not be allowed to opt for surrogacy, as they currently can.

Criticism of the bill has been evident on social media:

“These restrictions are written into the Bill, so yes, they will indeed take effect,” Madhavi Menon, director, centre for studies in gender and sexuality at Ashoka University, told IndiaSpend.

Manasi Mishra from CSR said commercial surrogacy in India had made surrogate children vulnerable to paedophiles, organ-transplant rackets and trafficking.

“On the other hand, we may raise the question: Why there is so much obsession about having (one’s) own genetic child through surrogacy?” asked Manasi Mishra. “Why would these couples, who are so desperate, not prefer adoption over surrogacy? Isn’t this a double-standard?”

‘An exercise in moral policing’
The surrogacy industry was not illegal but un-regulated. But it will, in effect, be illegal if the new bill becomes law because only altruistic surrogacy will be allowed, said Ashoka University’s Menon.

“Like all professions, surrogacy too needs to be regulated,” said Menon. “But the two questions we need to ask are: why ban surrogacy rather than regulating it? Secondly, why regulate only surrogacy when every single profession in India is steeped in exploitation and in need of regulation?”

“The response to both these questions, I think, is the nature of the demographic(s) involved.” said Menon. “Governments in power always like controlling women and their bodies.

“The Bill is largely an exercise in moral policing and social engineering. Banning surrogacy will only take away from women yet another means of their livelihood.”

“Women are once again being asked to use their bodies for the greater good without getting paid for it,” Menon wrote in Scroll.in on August 6, 2019. “Motherhood will be mystified as sacred, and women will be punished for being independent.”

Some said the ban should be followed by modification of adoption processes, so single people and homosexual couples can have children.
“But that is not followed,” said Harish Iyer, a gender and LGBTQ rights. “By banning commercial surrogacy they have made comments on homosexuals saying this is against Indian ethos… it is outright discriminatory to gay people.”

Can same-sex couples, live-in partners, single parents adopt?
A single parent can adopt a child, according to the ministry of women and child development’s Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), the nodal agency for child adoption in India. However, a single male cannot adopt a girl child, while a single female can adopt a child of any gender, according to the eligibility criteria, which read: “Any prospective adoptive parents, irrespective of his (sic) marital status and whether or not he has biological son or daughter, can adopt a child subject to” these criteria.

Through a circular on October 11, 2018, addressed to ‘Authorised Foreign Adoption Agencies’, the CARA withdrew a decision made four months earlier disallowing adoption by a single parent with a live-in partner in a long-term relationship.

“The policy on child adoption doesn’t say that a same-sex couple cannot adopt, nor does it say they can,” said Sunil Arora, governing council member, Maharashtra State Adoption Resource Agency and executive director Bal Asha Trust, a child-care and adoption agency.

Arora reasoned that since adoption through CARA is an online process and single women can adopt, their sexual orientation is not known. The system automatically allots a child, irrespective of a couple or a single parent based on their waiting list number, he said.

On August 8, 2019, IndiaSpend sent an email to CARA asking if it allowed adoption by live-in and same-sex couples. We will update this story if and when we receive their response.

“Though it is not mentioned, the unsaid thing is if you are a gay parent you cannot adopt, it is difficult,” said Iyer. “If you are a gay father they assume that you will abuse the child, thus aligning to the common myth that gay persons are child sex offenders. So when they do family screening (which comes after a child is allotted by CARA’s system), it gets stuck there.”

(Mallapur is a senior analyst with IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy: India Spend

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The bill, as passed–after some revisions since it was first placed before parliament in 2016–is meant to prohibit discrimination and make transgender life more secure, but transgender representatives and activists call it “regressive”. They have termed the day it was approved by the Lok Sabha as “Gender Justice Murder Day”.

“The transgender bill is regressive and half-hearted,” Harish Iyer, gender-rights activist, told IndiaSpend.

Here are activists’ main contentions:
 

• Instead of the freedom to determine their sexuality, India’s transgender people must now submit to a certification process involving a government official and doctor. 
• If transgender people are sexually attacked, their attackers face a maximum jail term of two years–against a minimum of seven years for women who are attacked.
• If young trans persons want to leave home because of pressure to conform to the sex they were born with, they can no longer join the trans community. They must go instead to a court, which will send them to a “rehabilitation centre”.

A trans person may require a certificate of identity to access a variety of social-welfare programmes that exist or might be offered, including those relating to food, healthcare, educational opportunities, insurance.

The 17th Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament, whose monsoon session ended on August 6, 2019, passed a record 35 bills, working 281 hours over 37 days. On average, a bill was passed every eight hours, but none was referred to a committee, with critics saying many approved bills had infirmities and required further debate. This story is the first in a series that will examine some of the most significant of these 35 bills.

The religious foundation for transgender rights

The Hindu concept of ‘ardhanarishwara’–an androgynous deity that comprises the merged forms of Shiva the destroyer and his female consort–forms the religious foundation for the acceptance of transgender people in India. But this pious underpinning of the lives of transgenders has subsumed their demands to be regarded as full citizens of a modern democracy, transgender representatives allege.

“When we appeared before a parliamentary committee, the level of ignorance was too much,” Grace Banu, a transgender-rights activist from Chennai, told IndiaSpend.

“One asked me if I had a penis,” said Banu, who was born male but now identifies and dresses as a woman. “As for the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] MPs [members of parliament], they only kept talking about us as ardhanarishwara.”

The first bill on transgender rights introduced by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s Tiruchi Siva in the Rajya Sabha in 2014, was “an ideal bill” in conformity with the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) judgement of the Supreme Court that year, said Ashok Row Kavi, founder and chairperson, Humsafar Trust, an advocacy. The bill was a private member’s bill, accepted and passed in the upper house in April 2015.

When the transgender bill was next introduced by the government in the Lok Sabha on August 2, 2016, as the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016, it was opposed on many counts, including the proposal for “screening committees” to decide who was a transgender and who was not, and the criminalisation of begging, a mainstay for a majority of transgender Indians.

“To the credit of the government, they took a lot of our inputs and redefined the initial draft of the bill which was extremely regressive,” Iyer said. “Earlier they defined trans people as ‘not wholly male nor wholly female’. Now they removed that and inserted the right definition of transgender.”
Although the screening committee has been removed, trans persons still need a certificate from a government doctor and the district magistrate.

“The pivotal point is you have to go to a committee or a doctor to get registered as a trans person,” said Iyer. “A trans person could be put through so many hardships, the kind of questions that would be asked–related to genital organs–which would not be asked of you and me.”
The bill must be cleared by the Rajya Sabha, parliament’s upper house, and the president of India, to become law.

Transgender representatives said they proposed about 100 amendments, but the bill that was first passed on December 17, 2018, had 27 amendments. It lapsed with the dissolution of the house before general elections in 2019. Those 27 amendments stayed in the latest version, which transgender organisations say annuls the progress enshrined in a five-year-old Supreme Court order.

The landmark Supreme Court judgement

The Supreme Court in 2014 recognised transgender persons as a ‘third gender’, affirming their fundamental rights under the Constitution.
The judgment in a case between the government of India and the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA)–known popularly as the NALSA case–gave transgender people the right to “self-identification” as male, female or third-gender and granted reservations in educational institutions as well as public employment.

The new transgender bill prohibits discrimination by “denial” of “services”, such as education, employment and healthcare, but omits mention of affirmative action in jobs.

The bill defines a transgender as “a person whose gender does not match with the gender assigned to that person at birth and includes trans-man or trans-woman (whether or not such person has undergone Sex Reassignment Surgery or hormone therapy or laser therapy or such other therapy), person with intersex variations, genderqueer and person having such socio-cultural identities as kinner, hijra, aravani and jogta [terms used in Indian languages for transgender people]”.

The marginalised status of transgender people was recognised by Justice K S Radhakrishnan, who said in the NALSA case: “Our society often ridicules and abuses the transgender community and in public places like railway stations, bus stands, schools, workplaces, malls, theatres, hospitals, they are sidelined and treated as untouchables, forgetting the fact that the moral failure lies in the society’s unwillingness to contain or embrace different gender identities and expressions, a mindset which we have to change.”

Recognition rescinded

The 2019 bill mentions self-identification by transgender people, as made possible by the NALSA judgement, but a district magistrate and a government doctor must determine if they medically qualify.

For a community that is discriminated against, these can be insurmountable hurdles, transgender representatives say.

“There is something wrong with the whole systemic approach towards the transgender community, which this bill is supposed to correct,” Kavi said. “The whole process needs to be drawn into the public health and the beneficiary system, which is missing.”

The first and second drafts were “totally regressive,” Kavi said. “It is not a perfect bill and needs far too many amendments and modifications,” he said.

The identification process

The bill says transgender persons must file an “application for certificate of identity” with the district magistrate (DM), who will then issue a “certificate of indentity.”

This certificate “shall confer rights and be a proof of recognition” of a transgender person’s “identity”.

After the certificate is issued, “if a transgender undergoes surgery to change (the) gender either as a male or female,” that person will have to make an application to the district magistrate for a “revised certificate”, the bill states.

The DM will, on the basis of “the application along with the certificate issued by the medical superintendent or chief medical officer, and on being satisfied with the correctness of such certificate, issue a certificate indicating (the) change in gender,” according to the bill.

“So the screening committee still exists but [the new bill] does not mention the word,” said Banu, the transgender representative.

Another lacuna is the “total absence and invisibilisation of trans men” [female to male transgender]”, said Kavi. “All the problems dealt with are those involving [those who go from] male to female.”

Trans men are born as women who want to become men, and sex-reassignment surgery is more difficult, said Kavi. It requires removal of the breast, Adam’s apple and a series of other operations. “But there is no mention at all about the facilities or help they should get,” he said.

Reservations and children

The new bill does not, according to activists, go into issues of livelihood, beginning from school.

While the new bill requires the government to “formulate welfare schemes and programmes to support livelihood” including “vocational training and self-employment” for transgenders, it ignores a key demand–public-sector job reservations, such as those for differently-abled people.

“The Supreme Court judgement said trans people are considered socially and economically backward,” said Banu. “In India, trans people are considered OBC [other backward castes], and, especially in Tamil Nadu, the MBC [most backward class] category. I am a Dalit, an Adivasi, a Muslim trans, how do I accept this OBC or MBC category reservation? It’s complete injustice.”

The issues with the bill begin from its failure to recognise the early stage of transgender life.

“The bullying of transgender or LGBT students in school is an issue which the govt is not addressing,” said Kavi. Bullying of trans persons, he said, is a systemic social problem in India, especially among children. Trans children are “significant in number though they are a minority”, and many are in school and not itinerant, as policymakers mistakenly think, he said.

Another contentious issue is the departure of transgender people from families that do not accept their non-binary or fluid sexuality.

“No child shall be separated from parents or immediate family on the ground of being a transgender, except on an order of a competent court,” says the bill. “If any parent or family member is “unable to take care of a transgender, the competent court shall by an order direct such person to be placed in rehabilitation centre.”

This also means that young people would no longer be able to decide if they want to join the trans community; a court would decide if they have to go back to their families or a rehabilitation centre. “In India, a lot of trans people have committed suicide, most are within 25 years of age,” said Banu.

The trans bill has also been criticised for a lack of attention to discrimination. Iyer cited the example of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POSCO) Act, 2012, which, for instance, explains how a police station should welcome children. “This bill lacks all of that, it does not show any plan of action and is half-hearted,” said Iyer.

(Mallapur is a senior analyst with IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy: India Spend

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More than 170 people died in floods in the states of Bihar and Assam, which affected more than 10 million people, India Today reported on July 24, 2019.

The Kaziranga National Park in Assam’s Golaghat district has reported the death of 204 animals including 15 rhinoceroses since July 13, 2019.

The states of Assam and Bihar are prone to floods every year due to heavy rains and the overflowing of rivers.

Satellite images released by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the US space agency, shows how “the Brahmaputra river rose out of its banks in many locations across India and Bangladesh”, flooding huge swaths of farmland.

Source: Lok Sabha

The 2018 deluge in the southern state of Kerala–one of the worst in 94 years–claimed 477 lives or 23% of all (2,045) deaths in rain-related natural calamities reported in 2018-19.

Bihar reported the most–970 or 15% deaths–followed by Kerala (756), West Bengal (663), Maharashtra (522) and Himachal Pradesh (458) over three years. These five states account for 51% of all deaths.

More than 200,000 livestock deaths have been reported and over 3.9 million houses/huts damaged due to rain-related natural calamities over these three years, government data show.

Rain-related calamities killed 496 people between April 1, 2019, and July, 18, 2019, or about five deaths per day, on average, with Maharashtra reporting the most (137), followed by Bihar (78).

Heavy rains, floods have killed more than 100,000 over 64 years

As many as 107,487 people died due to heavy rains and floods across India over 64 years between 1953 and 2017, according to Central Water Commission data presented to the Rajya Sabha (Parliament’s upper house) on March 19, 2018, IndiaSpend reported on July 17, 2018.

“The main reasons of floods have been assessed as high intensity rainfall in short duration, poor or inadequate drainage capacity, unplanned reservoir regulation and failure of flood control structures,” according to the reply.

More than 40 million hectares (12%) of India’s land is prone to floods, official data show. India witnessed 431 major natural disasters over three decades between 1980 and 2010, leading to loss of human lives, property and resources.

“About 48% of the flood prone area has been provided with reasonable protection against flood of a low to moderate magnitude due to technological and economic constraints. It is not possible to provide protection against all magnitude of flood,” the Central Water Commission states. 

India could see a six-fold increase in the number of people exposed to the risk of severe floods by 2040–to 25 million people, up from 3.7 million facing this risk between 1971 and 2004, IndiaSpend reported in February 2018, based on a study published in Science Advances, a peer-reviewed journal.

Not just India, most of South Asia prone to floods

About seven million people in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan (as much as the population of Hong Kong) have been displaced or had their lives disrupted by flooding in mid-July 2019, NASA reported on July 18, 2019.

Source: NASA Earth Observatory

The two images above, captured on June 28 (before) and July 14, 2019 (after), depict India’s eastern region showing water (navy and dark blue) out of river banks and on the floodplains. Clouds can be seen in white or cyan and vegetation-covered land in green.

Like NASA, The International Charter Space and Major Disasters depicts the before and after images of flood-affected areas in the state of Assam.

The Charter is a group of space agencies and space system operators–including the Indian Space Research Organisation–across the world that provide satellite images for disaster monitoring.

“Global climate change is likely to increase frequency and severity of flooding in South Asia  threatening agricultural production and increase uncertainty for small-scale farmers whose livelihoods serve the rural economy in these regions necessitating an integrated approach to overall risk reduction,” a December 2018 article titled Flood risk assessment in South Asia to prioritize flood index insurance applications in Bihar, India said.

Cities in South Asia such as “Dhaka, Karachi, Kolkata and Mumbai—urban areas that are home to more than 50 million people—face a substantial risk of flood-related damage over the next century”, a 2018 World Bank report titled South Asia’s Hotspots—The Impact of Temperature and Precipitation Changes on Living Standards, stated.

Mumbai experienced heavy rainfall in the first week of July 2019, with some parts receiving the second-highest rainfall in July in 45 years that brought the financial capital to a halt, claiming nearly 16 lives, IndiaSpend reported on July 2, 2019.

While linking a particular event to climate change requires extensive analysis, it is clear that the increasing rate of intense rainfall events over Mumbai and the Western Ghats is due to rising temperatures, Roxy Mathew Koll, climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, had told IndiaSpend.

Heavy rainfall events (more than 100 mm) in urban India have increased over the past 100 years; there has been an overall increasing trend of events exceeding 100, 150 and 200 mm since the 1900s, and an increasing variability in recent decades, IndiaSpend reported on August 29, 2017.

(Mallapur is a senior analyst with IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy: India Spend

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There are now more than 14,000 buildings in Mumbai that are over 50 years old and which, due to age-related instability and lack of maintenance, are at risk of collapse. One such building collapsed on July 16, 2019, in Dongri, south Mumbai leaving 14 dead and nine injured, as we reported on July 16, 2019.

The number of such buildings is estimated from tax records–those dating prior to 1969 pay cess to the Maharashtra government for maintenance. Their number has fallen–as they have, literally (either in redevelopment, demolition or collapse)–from 19,642 in 1969 to 14,207 today.

Their rents being frozen under the Rent Control Act at decades-old rates, their owners are reluctant to spend on their upkeep, as The Print reported on July 17, 2019. Residents keep staying despite the risk, for the low rents and because, often, ‘transit’ accommodation (for those having to vacate dangerous buildings, provided by the municipal corporation concerned) is not available.

A 2018 disaster management plan of the Mumbai municipal corporation had flagged these buildings, then 16,104, for vulnerability to collapse.

“Apart from the legal hurdles, paucity of funds has slowed down the work of Mumbai Repairs Board considerably,” the document states. “House collapse is therefore a regular phenomenon and in the absence of adequate ‘transit’ accommodation and emergency shelters become a major requirement in the event of house collapse.”

City densely populated, poorly planned
Mumbai–the city and its suburban regions–home to more than 12 million people–is the second most densely populated city (31,700 people per square kilometre) in the world, after Dhaka (44,500), the World Economic Forum reported in 2017. A large section of this population lives in slums, more than 40% by some estimates.

Mumbai is prone to natural and man-made calamities such as floods; tree falls; structural collapses; landslides; fires in slums, buildings, high rises, industrial units and transport vehicles; and even terrorist attacks.

The city’s vertical growth in the form of highrises and skyscrapers to accommodate its growing population has happened with improper planning and inadequate safety measures, experts say. Old structures are already vulnerable, as we said.

“Mumbai is an old city which is into a rehabilitation phase where the rehab component plays an important role,” Prabhat Rahangdale, chief fire officer, Mumbai Fire Brigade and director Maharashtra Fire Services, told IndiaSpend.

Forty-five emergency calls every day
The Mumbai Fire Brigade received 99,393 emergency calls in the six years ending 2018-19, of which 1.8% (1,830) were for house collapse, official data show. This averages to more than 300 house collapse calls every year. These are mostly regarding collapses of minor walls, parts of buildings, parapets or extensions, wooden structures in old chawls and their extensions.

Rescue calls number the highest among emergency calls–38,345 or 39%, and include the rescue of birds, animals and humans. These are followed by fire calls (30% or 29,829) and those such as oil spillage or tree fall requiring other services (29,056 or 29%).

City’s old and new infrastructure vulnerable
As the data show, fire calls increased 10% over a year to 2018-19. On average, over the last six years, Mumbai’s fire brigade received nearly 5,000 fire calls every year. Short-circuit was the most common reason, fire officials told IndiaSpend.

The city has the “biggest number of high rises still, you can see the old buildings and old infrastructures. These old buildings have old-age wirings, most of the electrical panels are below the staircases,” Rahangdale said.

Too many of these buildings do not have proper evacuation plans. “Many people die due to smoke and less due to fire. So to prevent that you need to have a proper evacuation plan and ways,” said M V Deshmukh, director, government affairs, Fire Safe India Foundation and a former fire adviser to the government of Maharashtra. Many high rises in Mumbai have a single staircase whereas any building above 15 metre is required to have two. “People at large do not know and they have no choice,” he said, “When you and I go to buy a flat we start number one with the budget, number two with the basic amenities like parking, gym, swimming pool. But people don’t bother whether this building is safe.”
The numerous slums are “combustible in nature”, Rahangdale said, adding, “And to add to that the use of gas cylinders and the blast cause most of the injuries and deaths.”

Improper city planning
By allowing cities to grow vertically, we “exploit the available infrastructure beyond its capacity,” Deshmukh said. “This is not [just] a challenge for the fire service, it is a challenge from many other perspectives–like ambient air quality management, water management drainage, sewage management, traffic management.”

Mumbai is home to more than 130 skyscrapers. Some of these range from 100 metres (30-storeys) to above 250 metres (70 storeys), while the fire brigade’s ladders range from 25-90 m only–sufficient only to reach up to under 30 floors. 

“If there is a 240-metre building or 300-metre building, in any part of the world there is no ladder which can reach up to that height,” Rahangdale said. “Internal systems like sprinklers, smoke detectors, pumps are an integral part of the building and has to be maintained properly.”

The Maharashtra Fire Prevention Act makes it the responsibility of the owner or occupier to provide fire prevention and life safety measures. The fire brigade’s inspection cells take “stringent action”, “but practically it is impossible to check each of the buildings,” he said. 

“Safety is not a law. It is a culture,” Deshmukh said. The National Building Code lays down several provisions for building construction and for access roads to it; which is between 6 and 9 metres.

“If you are going to construct 100-150 metre tower with hardly any space around it, obviously you are blocking your own arteries with no bypass. If there is only one lane going to that building, then it is bad planning,” Deshmukh said.

Six metres is good enough to mobilise fire trucks and fire engines on a road, Deshmukh said. “But when I open the ladders or fire trucks arms, hydraulic jacks, it requires 7.5 to 9 metres space. Then I require the turning circle inside the building. If I enter from one side I have to move out from the other side,” he said, pointing out how tightly-packed buildings hinder rescue services.

The access road to the building that collapsed in Dongri proved a major hindrance to rescue operations by the fire brigade and the National Disaster Response Force. Dongri is situated in south Mumbai, which houses several old structures and buildings which are more than 100 years old, and is criss-crossed by hundreds of narrow streets.

“The building [which collapsed] is in a narrow lane which is 1.5 to 2 feet wide [less than a metre], because of which the NDRF vehicles carrying the rescue equipment could not reach the site,” S N Pradhan, director-general of the National Disaster Response Force said. The team had to march on foot carrying the equipment.

Traffic congestion
With 510 cars per kilometre, the most in the country, Mumbai reported the world’s worst traffic flow, as per a 2018 traffic index that assessed 403 cities in 56 countries. 

To work around traffic delays, the fire brigade has set up 17 mini-fire stations across the city for a quick response.

“In one-and-a-half-year, we established more than 17 mini-fire stations. The fire engine goes very fast, it reaches to the incident and the backup is given by the main fire station… It is very successful,” Rahangdale said, adding that another 10-15 mini-fire stations will be set up in one and a half-year. “The control rooms and vehicles are now GPS-enabled, which helps to estimate the time required and the shortest route to reach the place of incident,” he said.   

Illegal parking is another major hurdle, to prevent which the fire brigade is already working with the traffic department, Rahangdale said. The municipal corporation, in July 2019, increased the fine for illegal parking across the city, ranging from Rs 5,000 (for two-wheelers) to Rs 15,000 (for heavy vehicles); it can go up to Rs 23,250 for late payment.

(Mallapur is a senior analyst at IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy: India Spend

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The economic survey outlined India’s vision of becoming a $5 trillion economy by 2024-25. To meet this objective, India will need to sustain a real GDP growth rate of 8%, which can be achieved by creating a “virtuous cycle” driven by savings, investment and exports, supported by favourable demographics, the survey said. It emphasises on private investment as the key driver. 

The survey also talks about using: data as a public good, behavioural economics to foster economic growth, affordable and sustainable energy for inclusive growth and technology for welfare schemes.

Here are the highlights from the economic survey 2018-19:

(Mallapur is a senior analyst with IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy: India Spend
 

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Sri Lanka entered the lower-middle-income group in FY 1999, from the low-income category and continued for over two decades, before moving to the upper-middle-income group this year, the data show. India became a  lower-middle-income nation from low-income in FY 2009.

The World Bank classifies economies based on gross national income (GNI) per capita (current US$) calculated using what is called the Atlas method. The Bank uses four income groups: low ($1,025 or less; Rs 70,069 or less), lower-middle ($1,026 to $3,995; Rs 70,137 to Rs 2,73,098), upper-middle ($3,996 to $12,375; Rs 2,73,167 to Rs 8,45,955) and high ($12,376 or more; Rs 8,46,023 or more).

Of 218 economies, 80 are in the high-income group, 60 in the upper-middle, 47 in the lower-middle and 31 in the low-income group. The classification is updated on the first day of July every year. The GNI per capita used for this year’s classification is based on 2018 data.

Besides Sri Lanka, in 2019 six other countries–Argentina, Comoros, Georgia, Kosovo, Senegal and Zimbabwe–have seen classification changes based on income levels. Argentina is the only country that slipped from the high-income to upper-middle-income group. The rest moved up.

Source: World Bank, 2019

Here is how classifications are determined:
 

• A country’s GNI per capita, which can change with economic growth, inflation, exchange rates, and population. Revisions to national accounts methods and data can also influence GNI per capita.
• Classification thresholds, which are adjusted for inflation annually using the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) deflator.

There is an increase in thresholds from last year due to SDR inflation. The new thresholds, as of July 1, 2019, are:

Source: World Bank, 2019

The high-income threshold is also a deciding factor for lending rates since 2018-19, before which income classifications did not influence lending terms. “Surcharges are applied for lending rates of countries which have been categorized as high income for two consecutive years,” a World Bank release said.

India, its neighbours and BRICS

Maldives ($9,310 or Rs 6,36,432) and Sri Lanka ($4,060 or Rs 2,77,542) are the only two countries in South Asia in the upper-middle-income group.

India ($2,020 or Rs 1,38,087) along with Bangladesh ($1,750 or Rs 1,19,630), Bhutan ($3,080 or Rs 2,10,549) and Pakistan ($1,580 or Rs 1,08,009) fall in the lower-middle-income group, while Afghanistan ($550 or Rs 37,598) and Nepal ($960 or Rs 65,626) are among the low income group economies.

Source: World Bank, 2019

Among fellow developing economies—BRICS—India is the only country in the lower-middle-income group. The others–Brazil ($9,140 or Rs 6,24,810), Russia ($10,230 or Rs 6,99,323), China ($9,470 or Rs 6,47,369) and South Africa ($5,720 or Rs 3,91,019)–are in the upper-middle-income group.

Source: World Bank

(Mallapur is a senior policy analyst at IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy: India Spend

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On average, the 19 celebrity MPs logged 66% attendance compared to the 16th Lok Sabha average of 80%, an IndiaSpend analysis of parliament data shows. Only six celebrity MPs marked attendance of 80% or above. Bharatiya Janata Party MP and yesteryears’ star Hema Malini, who pretended to plough a farm during an election photoshoot, logged 39% attendance.

Of parliamentary debates, celebrity MPs on average participated in 22 against the 16th Lok Sabha average of 67, with only one MP reporting higher (participation in 107 debates). On average, celebrity MPs asked 101 questions, while all MPs together asked an average of 293. BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha, also a yesteryears’ film star and now with the Congress party, took part in no debate and asked no questions.

At the same time, celebrity MPs utilised their Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) funds better than all MPs’ average–87.6% compared to 82.9%, as on April 5, 2019. Each MP is allocated Rs 5 crore per year of their tenure for development to recommend works in the districts under their constituency to the district collector.

Film personalities are common in politics, and increasingly visible in campaigning as also contesting elections due to the attention they attract on social media.

Some of the prominent first-timer celebrities contesting the 2019 Lok Sabha elections include actors Sunny Deol, Urmila Matondkar and Prakash Raj and the singer Hans Raj Hans.

IndiaSpend assessed the performance of 19 such celebrities by their participation in parliamentary proceedings–debates, questions, private member bills, government bills, and so on.

These MPs were selected based on their profession as stated in their profile–‘Actor, Comedian’, ‘Actress in Film/Theatre/Television’, ‘Artist’, ‘Artist (Singer)’, ‘Bhojpuri Singer’, ‘Film Artist’ and ‘Performing Artiste’.

Source: Lok Sabha 1, 2, 3; MPLADS
Note: Attendance and business participation of a member of parliament as ministers is not accounted for. Babul Supriyo, BJP MP from Asansol, West Bengal, was appointed as the union minister of state in the ministry of urban development, and in ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation on November 9, 2014. On July 12, 2016, he was appointed as the union minister of state for the ministry of heavy industries and public enterprises. *Supriyo signed the attendance register for 15 of 33 sittings before he was appointed as the minister.
Ramsinh Pataliyabhai Rathwa, BJP MP from Chhota Udaipur, Gujarat, is a (fine arts) artist, hence not included in the list.

Attendance below average

The 16th Lok Sabha sat for a total of 331 days from June 2014 to February 2019. The average attendance of all MPs was 80%, an analysis by PRS Legislative shows. Celebrity MPs, by contrast, had 66% attendance on average.

Among the celebrity MPs, actor George Baker reported the maximum (98%) attendance. Baker, an Assamese and Bengali film actor, is a nominated MP–nominated from West Bengal by the BJP as a member of the Anglo-Indian community on July 23, 2015. He assumed office on August 10, 2015, attending 223 of 228 days during his term.

BJP MP Sharadkumar Bansode from Maharashtra’s Solapur constituency, formerly a Marathi film actor and now an advocate, reported 93% attendance (307 of 331 days).

Logging a better attendance record were film artist and Bhojpuri singer Chhotelal (88%), Telugu film actor Murali Mohan Maganti (85%) and film and television actor Kirron Kher (84%).

Deepak (Dev) Adhikari, a Bengali film actor, from West Bengal’s Ghatal constituency who represents the All India Trinamool Congress, reported the least (11%) attendance. Other MPs in the list with low attendance include Bollywood film actor Hema Malini (39%), Bengali actor Tapas Paul (47%), Bengali actor Sandhya Roy (53%) and Punjabi actor and comedian Bhagwant Mann (56%).

Low participation in parliamentary business

From the celebrity list, BJP MP from Chandigarh, Kirron Kher, asked the maximum (335) questions, above the 16th Lok Sabha average of 293.

Telugu film actor Murali Mohan Maganti  from Rajahmundry in Andhra Pradesh was next with 267 questions, followed by Bhojpuri singer and actor Manoj Tiwari (258), George Baker (255), and actor Innocent (217) who is primarily known for his works in Malayalam cinema.

Moon Moon Sen, an actor primarily known for her works in Bengali cinema, Odia film actor Sidhant Mohapatra and Shatrughan Sinha did not ask a single question in their five-year terms.

Bhagwant Mann participated in the most debates, 107, above the 16th Lok Sabha average of 67.

Mann was followed by Murali Mohan Maganti (55), Kirron Kher (44), Innocent (40) and George Baker (33), all below the national average.
While Shatrughan Sinha did not participate in any debate, Moon Moon Sen participated in one, the least among the 19 celebrity MPs.

Better MPLADS utilisation

MPs in the 16th Lok Sabha utilised 85% of the developmental funds they were allocated, leaving 15% unutilised–Rs 1,806.08 crore of the total amount of Rs 12,051.36 crore, IndiaSpend reported on April 6, 2019.

Sandhya Roy reported the maximum (98.8%) utilisation of MPLADS funds among the 19 celebrity MPs, as on April 5, 2019, higher than the average.

Deepak (Dev) Adhikari (96.7%) was next in the celebrity list after Roy, followed by Satabdi (Banerjee) Roy (95.6%), an actor known for her work in Bengali cinema, Kirron Kher (91.2%) and Shatrughan Sinha (91.1%). Babul Supriyo reported the least (74.1%) utilisation of MPLAD funds.

(Mallapur is a senior policy analyst with IndiaSpend. With data inputs by Faizi Noor Ahmad, an intern with IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy: India Spend

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In November 2018, the government’s aim to skill 10 million youth under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY, or Prime Minister’s Skill Development programme) by 2020 was found to be 64% short of meeting the target. Just over 3.6 million people had been enrolled in PMKVY by November 30, 2018, government data showed. Among these, 3.39 million had received training and 2.6 million had received certification after training–66% and 74% short of the target, respectively.

There is a direct link between India’s underskilled workforce and high unemployment rates. Unemployment has been a key challenge for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. The unemployment rate for people aged 15 years and above in India was 3.4% in 2013-14, which saw a further increase to 3.7% in 2015-16, according to a government reply to the Lok Sabha on July 23, 2018, which did not provide data on numbers of unemployed.

The unemployment rate rose to a four year high (3.9%) in 2016-17, Business Standard reported on January 11, 2019, citing the labour bureau’s sixth annual employment-unemployment survey.

Post 2016-17, the government has not released employment data. But, about 4.75 million people are added to the labour force in India every year, an IndiaSpend analysis of labour bureau data over a period of four years from 2012 showed. Thus, over 20 million will have joined the workforce during the planned course of the PMKVY–double the numbers targeted by the programme.

The demand for skilled labour was estimated to be over 128 million between 2017 and 2022 in 34 sectors across industries, according to MSDE’s annual report, 2017-18. But less than 5% of India’s workforce is formally skilled, compared to South Korea (96%), Japan (80%), Germany (75%), United Kingdom (68%) and the United States (52%), according to MSDE’s annual report, 2015-16.

Funding for MSDE up in four years; but utilisation remains low
Unless skill development programmes receive impetus, the numbers of the unemployable will only rise. Recognising this, the NDA government set up a separate ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship on November 9, 2014. Till 2014, skill development and industrial training programmes were run by the ministry of labour and employment.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Skill India initiative on July 15, 2015, with PMKVY as the flagship programme. The first edition of PMKVY (2015-16) faced implementational challenges, IndiaSpend reported on July 24, 2017. The second edition (PMKVY 2.0) was launched in July 2016 to make it more effective and transparent, with an aim to skill 10 million youth over four years (2016-20), with a budgetary outlay of Rs 12,000 crore.

The ministry of finance allocated Rs 3,400 crore in 2018-19 (budget estimate) to the MSDE, an increase of 55% from Rs 2,198 crore in 2017-18 and a 237% increase over the last four years from Rs 1,007.47 crore in 2015-16.

The MSDE, however, had proposed a sum of Rs 7,696.54 crore for its 2018-19 budget estimate. The finance ministry approved only 44% (Rs 3,400 crore) of the proposed amount, the Thirty Fourth Report on ‘Demands for Grants (2018-19)’ of the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, presented in parliament on March 13, 2018, revealed.

Parliament committee warned in March 2018 that MSDE schemes may not meet targets, asked why no budget for R&D
“The Ministry of Finance has reportedly allocated an amount of Rs 3,400 crore considering expenditure trend, unspent balances available with the implementing agencies and availability of fund, implying thereby that owing to lack of requisite efficiency of the MSDE, in the previous years, the Ministry of Finance has made drastic reduction in the [budget estimate] BE for the year 2018-19,” the parliamentary committee noted in its report.

The committee highlighted underutilisation of funds allocated to the MSDE in financial years 2016-17 and 2017-18. The ministry was allocated Rs 1,804.28 crore in its 2016-17 budget estimate, which was increased to Rs 2,173 crore under revised estimate, but utilised only Rs 1,553.09 crore. In 2017-18, the ministry was allocated Rs 3,016.14 crore (budget estimate), which was reduced to Rs 2,356.22 crore under the revised estimate, while the expenditure noted by the committee when it tabled its report in March 2018 was Rs 1,505.65 crore. The expenditure subsequently rose to Rs 2,198.01 crore by March 31, 2018, nearly 27% short of the MSDE’s budget estimate.

Reduction in the budgetary allocation in 2018-19 will “adversely affect various schemes” implemented by the ministry, the committee had cautioned. This has been evidenced by the PMKVY lagging way behind targets.

The committee had also asked the ministry to come up with a “fool proof action plan to avoid any pitfalls and a strong monitoring mechanism for optimal utilisation of allocated funds”.

In response, the MSDE submitted that it did not have “the minimum required staff to man essential functions” relating to disbursals under PMKVY-1. It further said, “The new scheme [PMKVY-2] involved various quality parameters which took considerable time for implementation. Therefore, the expenditure under the scheme could not be incurred as per expectations.”

The ministry added that it is “closely monitoring the expenditure trend and unspent balances with the implementing agencies at the year end. The expenditure during the early months of the financial year 2018-19 will be increased so that in case additional demand crops up, more funds could be sought in RE [revised estimate] 2018-19.”

The ministry’s quarterly report for quarter-1 (Q1) of 2018-19 did show an increase in expenditure. The ministry utilised 23% or Rs 770.29 crore of its Rs 3,400 crore budget estimate, as against 10% (Rs 300.94 crore) in Q1 of 2017-18 and 11% (Rs 201.89 crore) in Q1 of 2016-17.
The committee also pointed out that there was no separate allocation of funds for research and development (R&D) in the field of skill development, stating that this could be one of the reasons why India “is yet to come in the forefront of skilled manpower development”. It recommended that the MSDE come up with a separate budget head for R&D in their demand for grants.

Employment numbers of even those skilled under PMKVY at just 10% of the target
There has been improvement in the numbers of skilled labour in the past four years. Availability of employable talent in India has increased from 34% in 2014 to 47% in 2019, according to India Skills Report 2019, released by the Confederation of Indian Industry and talent assessment firm, Wheebox, in November 2018. The report assessed over 300,000 college students across India on parameters such as knowledge, skill aptitude and behavioral components.

But of the 1.84 million who had been trained and certified under the PMKVY short term training programmes by August 31, 2018, just over 1 million (1,009,638) had been placed in jobs. “The government had asked industry to provide jobs to personnel trained in their respective sector skill councils [industry-led, sector-specific councils for skills training set up and provided with initial seed funding under the MSDE’s National Skill Development Corporation], warning that future fund allocation to the council will be withheld and unutilised money will be taken back if there is no increase in hiring,” The Economic Times reported in January 2018.

IndiaSpend has written to MSDE for comments on January 23, 2019, with follow-up emails on January 24 and 25. We will update the article if and when we receive their reply.

“We need to set targets for percentage of people skilled, the way it’s done for literacy, on urgent priority,” Ashutosh Pratap, an expert on skills and employment who has worked with several central and state ministries, told IndiaSpend. Pratap added that the government’s priorities for skill development should include setting up a board akin to the Central Board of Secondary Education to “ensure sanctity of assessments of skill development”, as soon as possible. “We must also provide an incentive mechanism to ensure employers have more skin in the game,” added Pratap.

The average age of an Indian would be 29 years by 2020 [when PMKVY 2.0 runs its course], making India the world’s youngest country, with 64% of the population in the working age group, Sushma Swaraj, minister of external affairs said on January 21, 2019. The budget for 2019-20 must address the need to scale up skill development in face of increasing unemployment, if India is to benefit from this demographic dividend.

(Mallapur is a senior policy analyst with IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy: India Spend
 

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“Serious” criminal cases include attempt to murder, kidnapping & assault.

This is an increase from 11% (113 of 983) in 2013, the analysis show.

Crorepati candidates (assets more than Rs 1 crore) increased to 285, or 23%, from 213 (of 983 candidates analysed) in 2013.

ADR analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 1,256 of 1,269 candidates. The affidavits of 13 candidates were not analysed as they were badly scanned or complete affidavits were not available.
The elections are being held in two phases–the first phase was held on November 12, 2018 for 18 seats and the second phase polling will be on November 20, 2018 for 72 seats.

Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (J) has most candidates with criminal cases
Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (J)–founded by former chief minister Ajit Jogi–has the most (32%, or 18 of 56) candidates with criminal cases against them, followed by Congress (28% or 25 of 90), Aam Aadmi Party (21% or 17 of 83), Bahujan Samaj Party (9% or 3 of 34), Bharatiya Janata Party (7% or 6 of 90) and independents (7% or 39 of 556).

As many as 18 of 90 (20%) constituencies are called “red alert constituencies” where three or more candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.

Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (J) also has the most (29% or 16 of 56) candidates with serious criminal cases, followed by Congress (17% or 15 of 90) and AAP (16% or 13 of 83).  

Source: Association for Democratic Reforms

BJP has most crorepati candidates
Crorepati candidates (with assets more than Rs 1 crore) increased from 213 of 983 (22%) analysed in 2013 to 285 of 1,256 (23%) candidates in 2018.

BJP has the most (82% or 74 of 90) crorepati candidates among the major parties, followed by Congress (73% or 66 of 90), Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (J) (70% or 39 of 56), BSP (41% or 14 of 34), AAP (16% or 13 of 83) and independents (9% or 52 of 556).

The average asset per candidate is Rs 1.68 crore; 19 candidates have declared zero assets.

About 60%, or 753 candidates, have not declared income tax details (some are exempted from filing returns) and 67 have not declared their source of income; 276 candidates have not declared their permanent account number details.

The most (25% or 309) candidates have declared their education as 12th pass, followed by post graduate (214), 10th pass (175), 8th pass (151) and graduate (146); six candidates have doctorates and nine are illiterate.

In 2018, 125 (or 10%) candidates analysed are women, up from 81 (8%) of 983 in 2013.

(Mallapur is an analyst with IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy: India Spend
 

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