NDA’s Legislative Breakthroughs Include The Most
Progressive
As we approach our 70th Independence Day, two
bills, just passed first by the Rajya Sabha, and on their way to the Lok Sabha
for debate and ratification; are notable for their sensitivity and
progressiveness.
One decriminalises suicide attempts, holding in abeyance
Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code, that can put a suicide-attempt survivor,
despite the immense trauma already suffered, in jail for a year.
This was a statute unreformed from Victorian times, with
a tendency to ignore the immense problem, or even stigmatise it with moral
overtones. The bill not only treats attempted suicide as a mental health issue,
it brings mental health into the mainstream medical discourse.
It also mandates the provision of medical insurance for
the mentally ill also, for the very first time.
Of course, the infrastructure required to provide mental
health treatment and options, as specified in the bill, down to the district
and block levels, throughout the country, is not only woefully inadequate, but
has a lot of missing links as of now.
Still, the matter has received due recognition by
parliament, and this fact alone is not
only a milestone, but will undoubtedly strengthen the physical facilities and
resources to support it, as the time goes on.
Another bill, just passed by the Rajya Sabha also,
guarantees maternity leave of 26 weeks, or six-and-a-half months on full pay,
up from the earlier 12 weeks, or 3 months.
This will be a great boon for working women, themselves
recovering from child-birth, and also giving them the opportunity to take
proper care of their infants, in increasingly unitary urban families.
It will also go some way towards promoting greater
participation of women in the work force, and as a measure of gender equality,
even in establishments that have just 10 employees.
Creches too are now being made mandatory, for businesses and
offices, both in the public and private sectors, that employ 50 or more persons,
and not just women.
Both of these bills have been passed by the upper house,
where the ruling government is in a minority, and despite the fractious din of
a vibrant democracy.
They behove the aspirations of a civilised country in the
21st century, readying itself to take its place in the front rank of
nations.
The Mental Health Care Bill 2013, will, after its passage
by the Lok Sabha as well, replace the Mental Health Act of 1987.
It is the product of considerable work done in
parliamentary standing committee,that generated as many as 124 amendments to
the original bill, just passed by the Rajya Sabha, after several hours of
debate.
In 2007, India ratified the provisos of the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and this law,
has come about as a logical progression of that initiative.
It is decisively taking issues of mental health out of
the closet, where, shame-faced, they have tended to reside from British times.
Accurate statistics on mental health are however, and as yet, hard to come by,
in India.
Still, an estimated 6-7% of the population suffers from
mental health issues, with perhaps 1-2% with severe, but thoroughly treatable
conditions, using advanced psychiatric medicines and professional help. These
include spectrum conditions, such as mild to severe schizophrenia, and bipolar
disorder.
At least another 5% of the people suffer from potentially
self-harming clinical depression and anxiety disorders.
The World Health Organisation (WHO), opines that 25% of
the world’s population has had at least one mental illness episode in a
lifetime!
While the issue of rights and guardianship of people with
mental disabilities has not been reformed by this 2013 bill, there is quite a
lot on ‘guardianship’ in the existing 1987 Act. This will soon be subsumed by
the Rights of Persons With Disabilities bill 2014, pending in parliament.
The Maternity Benefit Amendment Bill of 2016, specifies
not only 26 weeks leave for mothers for their first two children, and 12 weeks
for further children, but also mandates 12 weeks leave for those who adopt a
child. The last provision has come about for the very first time to recognise
the needs of adopting mothers as well.
This new bill too will supercede the Maternity Benefit
Act of 1961, and go some way to increase the long term participation of women
in the work force. So what was only on offer in the ‘best HRD practices’
companies, will now be implemented across the board.
Recently, The Modi government pointed out that,
despite all the tumult, adjournments and obstruction in parliament, it has
passed 97 bills (70 legislative and 27 finance and appropriation bills),
already, in its 25 odd months in office.
The situation has improved substantially since the Budget
Session and now the Monsoon Session, that has seen the historic GST
constitutional amendment bill finally pass muster too.
The 16th Lok Sabha has passed 109 bills, and
the two houses together have seen 97 into the law books so far.
This, compared to UPA II’s 116 legislative and 63 finance
and appropriation bills seen into law between 2009-2014.
However, the continuity of governance and consensus,
witnessed by the passage of these far-sighted bills, indicates perhaps a new
maturity, surfacing in the upper house, after a period of partisan turmoil.
That laws aimed at the common weal, greater modernity,
and social justice, are backed by all parliamentarians is a welcome sign of
times changing for the better.
For: NationalistOnline
(898 words)
August 12th, 2016
Gautam Mukherjee
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