Evaluate the extent to which the government has contributed to any four of the issues below:
1.3.1 social grants
1 3.2 nutrition
1.3.3school fees
1.3.4 health care 1.3.5 housing
Answers
Answer:
Contributions of the government on the following issue:
1. Housing Needs:
- The government of India has come up with various schemes to provide housing to the section of people who can afford it themselves. This policy of providing housing to the needy is deemed as ‘Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana’. Under this scheme the government also offers to provide loan in a very subsidized interest rate, so that the housing as the basic need is available to all.
- Along with the above mentioned scheme from Central Government, various state government also have their own housing schemes to provide housing at a nominal rate. Some of these projects are Delhi Development Housing Scheme, Tamil Nadu Housing Board Scheme, Maharashtra housing and areas development authority etc.
2. School Fees:
- The government of India is promoting the idea for ‘Education for all’ and with respect to this, it has made negligible to no fees structure in the public schools running in our country. As per the Indian Constitution, it is the fundamental right of every children between the age group of 6 to 14, to have education. In the past few years, our country has seen a significant improvement in the achievement rate of primary education among the children.
- In addition to the negligible fee structure in public schools, the govt has also introduced various laws to regulate the fees taken by the private schools of the country.
Few of such regulatory laws are as follows:
Right to Education Act, 2009
Regulation of Collection of Fee Act, 2009 [Tamil Nadu Government ]
The Karnataka Education Act, 2007
3. Health Care: “Healthy mind resides in a healthy body”
Everyone of us is familiar with the above quote and understand the importance of a healthy body & mind in our life. A healthy person also poses a healthy mind and spends an eventful life. Likewise the health of the people of a country denotes how healthy and beautiful the country is.
- One of the most important player in ensuring the healthiness of the population of a country is its government. It is the primary responsibility of the government to ensure that the best possible healthcare services are available to each and every citizen of the country, cheaply and easily.
- In this respect, our government is also performing very well in ensuring the availability of healthcare services to its citizen.
Following are few of the strategies and measures taken up by the government of India towards the healthcare sector:
National Health Mission: This is a policy taken up by the government of India to provide the healthcare requirements to the rural and under privileged parts of the country. There are various initiatives taken up under the National Health Mission and following are few of them:
- Rogi Kalyan Samiti/Patient Welfare Committee: It is a management structure where a group of people creates an organisational body which supervises the working of a hospital or healthcare unit.
- Janani Suraksha Yojana: This policy provides facilities for institutional delivery of pregnant woman and Neo-natal care to provide better and healthy life for new born babies. Cash assistance is also provided to under-privileged families to take care of the babies well being.
Healthcare Promotion and Advisories: The government of our country also spreads awareness using mass communication methods, like cinema, television etc. , regarding various deadly diseases like AIDS, Diabetes etc. It also spreads awareness among the people regarding the dangerous effects of various habits like smoking, tobacco etc. The government also organises various social events for spreading awareness of healthy lifestyle, like ‘World Yoga Day’, ‘World Diabetes Day’ etc.
4. Nutrition:
One of the main focus areas of health care is the prevention of diseases, which can be made possible with a healthy diet. This is possible by having a balanced diet and supplying enough nutrients to the body. To cater this field of nutrition, the government has started of various schemes, policies and support programs. Following are some of the support programs run by the govt to fulfill the nutritional needs of its citizens.
- Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme: In this program, children below 6 years of age, pregnant and lactating mothers, and women in the age range of 15-44 years are provided with required supplementary nutrition, health check ups etc.
- Mid day Meal (MDM) Program: This is also a special program run by the government of India, which provided a one time meal (lunch) to the students attending primary school. This program helps in providing the required nutrients for the Chile in its growing years.
- Along with the above mentioned programs, various other programs like Wheat based Nutritional Program (WNP), National Nutritional Anaemia Prophylaxis Program (NNAPP), Balwadi Nutrition Programs (BNP) etc, are also run by the government.