Topic Of The Day:-“Why ABBA must go: on Aadhaar”
In a sickening way, October 2017 was like October 2002.
Fifteen years ago, in Rajasthan’s Baran and Udaipur districts, there was a spate of starvation deaths. The government of the time made up fanciful stories to deny that the deaths had anything to do with hunger or government failure. In October 2017, the death of an 11-year-old Dalit child, Santoshi Kumari, of Jharkhand, was widely reported. She had been pleading with her mother to give her rice as she slipped into unconsciousness and lost her life. The government insists that she had malaria but in video testimonies, her mother, Koyli Devi, says she had no fever. After Santoshi’s death, more hunger deaths have been reported, of which at least one, Ruplal Marandi, is related to the government’s Aadhaar experiment. The starvation deaths in 2002 became the springboard for positive action on many fronts, which included the passing of judicial orders and even political action. Since then, there has been a perceptible improvement in programmes of social support including, but not limited to, the Public Distribution System (PDS). In Baran, it led to a recognition of the vulnerability of the Sahariyas — a tribal community in Baran — and a special PDS package consisting of free pulses and ghee being announced. Similar action is required today. Instead, the government remains in denial. The Food Ministry in Delhi issued an order in late October that is silent on the crucial issue of reinstating wrongly cancelled ration cards and makes token concessions (with no guarantee of implementation).
Targets and the reality
For months, the Central government has been insisting on 100% Aadhaar “seeding” across schemes such as the PDS, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and pensions. Seeding refers to the practice of entering Aadhaar numbers for each household member on the ration card. It is a pre-requisite for the Aadhaar-based Biometric Authentication (ABBA) system, the practice of using an electronic point of sale (PoS) machine to authenticate each transaction. The government has made seeding and the ABBA mandatory in the PDS. As explained below, the distinction between seeding and the ABBA is important. In their zeal to achieve 100% Aadhaar-seeding targets, some field functionaries just deleted the names of those who did not submit Aadhaar details. Others waited till the deadline and then struck off names. The government claims that all of these were “fake”, detected due to Aadhaar, thus saving crores of rupees. Santoshi’s family was one such example. According to the State Food Minister, their ration card was cancelled in July because they failed to seed it with Aadhaar.
MEANINGS AND WORDS
1) Assert
Meaning: State a fact or belief confidently and forcefully.
Example: “the company asserts that the cuts will not affect development”
Synonyms: Declare, Maintain
2) Diminish
Meaning: Make or become less.
Example: “the new law is expected to diminish the government’s chances”
Synonyms: Decrease, Decline
Antonyms: Increase
3) Lustre
Meaning: A gentle sheen or soft glow.
Example: “the lustre of the Milky Way”
Synonyms: Gleam, Glimmer
Antonyms: Dullness, Darkness
4) Worrisome
Meaning: Causing anxiety or concern.
Example: “a worrisome problem”
Synonyms: Worrying, Alarming
5) Esteem
Meaning: Respect and admiration.
Example: “he was held in high esteem by colleagues”
Synonyms: Respect, Admiration
Antonyms: Disrespect
6) Troublesome
Meaning: Causing difficulty or annoyance.
Example: “schools are removing troublesome pupils”
Synonyms: Annoying, Irritating
Antonyms: Simple, Cooperative
7) Delineated
Meaning: Describe or portray (something) precisely.
Example: “the law should delineate and prohibit behaviour which is socially abhorrent”
Synonyms: Describe, Present
8) Plotting
Meaning: Secretly make plans to carry out (an illegal or harmful action).
Example: “the two men are serving sentences for plotting a bomb campaign”
Synonyms: Plan, Arrange
9) Perverse
Meaning: Showing a deliberate and obstinate desire to behave in a way that is unreasonable or unacceptable.
Example: “Kate’s perverse decision not to cooperate held good”
Synonyms: Awkward, Difficult
Antonyms: Accommodating, Cooperative
10) Roster
Meaning: A list or plan showing turns of duty or leave for individuals or groups in an organization.
Example: “next week’s duty roster”
Synonyms: List, Register
11) Puisne
Meaning: (in the UK and some other countries) denoting a judge of a superior court inferior in rank to chief justices.
12) Propriety
Meaning: The condition of being right, appropriate, or fitting.
Example: “they questioned the propriety of certain investments made by the council”
Synonyms: Rightness, Correctness
Antonyms: Impropriety
13) Converge
Meaning: Tend to meet at a point.
Example: “a pair of lines of longitude are parallel at the equator but converge toward the poles”
Synonyms: Meet, Cross
Antonyms: Separate, Diverge
14) Fraternity
Meaning: A group of people sharing a common profession or interests.
Example: “members of the hunting fraternity”
Synonyms: Profession, Association
15) Perception
Meaning: The way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted.
Example: “‘He wouldn’t have accepted,’ said my mother with unusual perception”
Synonyms: Insight, Sharpness
16) Sidestepping
Meaning: Avoid dealing with or discussing (something problematic or disagreeable).
Example: “he neatly sidestepped the questions about riots”
Synonyms: Avoid, Evade
Antonyms: Tackle
17) Susceptible
Meaning: (of a person) easily influenced by feelings or emotions; sensitive.
Example: “they only do it to tease him—he’s too susceptible”
Synonyms: Impressionable, Vulnerable
Antonyms: Doubtful, Dubious
18) Tumult
Meaning: A loud, confused noise, especially one caused by a large mass of people.
Example: “a tumult of shouting and screaming broke out”
Synonyms: Rumpus, Commotion
Antonyms: Silence
19) Overshadow
Meaning: Be more impressive or successful than (another person).
Example: “he was always overshadowed by his brilliant elder brother”
Synonyms: Outshine, Eclipse
20) Substantive
Meaning: Having a firm basis in reality and so important, meaningful, or considerable; Having a separate and independent existence.
Example: “there is no substantive evidence for the efficacy of these drugs”
21) Sickening
Meaning: Causing or liable to cause a feeling of nausea or disgust.
Example: “a sickening stench of blood”
Synonyms: Repulsive, Repellent
Antonyms: Wholesome, Delightful
22) Starvation
Meaning: Suffering or death caused by lack of food.
Example: “thousands died of starvation”
Synonyms: Famine, Want
23) Fanciful
Meaning: Over-imaginative and unrealistic.
Example: “ever more fanciful proposals were raised”
Synonyms: Imaginative, Inventive
Antonyms: Literal
24) Unconsciousness
Meaning: The state of being unconscious.
Example: “someone gave me a crack across the head and I slipped into unconsciousness”
Synonyms: Insensibility
Antonyms: Consciousness
25) Springboard
Meaning: a thing that lends impetus or assistance to a particular action, enterprise, or development.
Example: “an economic plan that may be the springboard for recovery”
26) Perceptible
Meaning: (especially of a slight movement or change of state) able to be seen or noticed.
Example: “a perceptible decline in public confidence”
Synonyms: Noticeable, Detectable
Antonyms: Imperceptible, Inconspicuous
27) Reinstating
Meaning: Restore (someone or something) to their former position or state.
Example: “the union threatened strike action if Owen was not reinstated”
Synonyms: Restore, Rehabilitate
28) Concessions
Meaning: The action of conceding or granting something.
Example: “this strict rule was relaxed by concession”
Synonyms: Admission, Acceptance
Antonyms: Denial, Retention
29) Struck off
Meaning: To remove a doctor, lawyer, etc. from an official list so that they are no longer allowed to work in that job, usually because they have done something dishonest or illegal.
Example: Company directors can be struck off if they are caught employing illegal workers.
Synonyms: Remove
30) Seed
Meaning: The cause of a feeling or situation, or the early stages of it.
Example: From these early seeds of their friendship, they grew into lifelong companions.
Synonyms: Beginning
