JUDICIARY: AWAITING REFORMS

JUDICIARY: AWAITING REFORMS

   January 23, 2021       Ankur Jangra

---

"JUSTICE अर्थात न्याय"... Today let's just walk through an important institution of this country that is responsible for upholding justice i.e the JUDICIARY. Indian Judiciary has shown some exceptional character by giving certain landmark historical judgements like the Basic structure doctrine, decriminalization of section 377 and 497, office of CJI under the ambit of RTI and many more.

No doubt it truly has been the guardian of the constitution and the saviour of the common people since ages but now, its in dire need of reforms. Reforms for reducing the huge number of cases pending, eradicating the corruption, timely filling of vacancies of judges and advocates, gender sensitization of judges and improving women participation in the judiciary, clear criteria and transparency for the appointment of the judges, strengthening the technological infrastructure, and apparently an internal reform to acknowledge the constructive criticism positively.

Just like we have three levels of government( centre, state, local), similarly, we have lower courts which are Subordinate courts, Session/District courts, High courts, and the topmost in the hierarchy, the Supreme court. Talking about the number of judges, a report by the law ministry states that India has 19 judges per 10 lakh people on average, which means 1 judge is responsible for giving justice to 52,600 people. Isn't it unfair? The supreme court of India currently has 34 judges including the Chief Justice of India(CJI) of which only two are women. Also, there have been only 8 women who were appointed as a judge to the Supreme court whereas there hasn't been a single woman CJI until now. Filtering down to the high court, only 7.2% of the judges are women whereas the high court of 6 states(Manipur, Meghalaya, Telangana, Tripura, Uttrakhand, Patna[Bihar]) don't even have sitting women judges. Something which is always in talks is the Collegium system of judiciary. The collegium consists of the CJI and four seniormost judges of the Supreme court, which is responsible for the appointment and transfers of the judges. The decision of the collegium is final and there are no other set criteria as such. This brings out the opaqueness in the appointment system of the Indian judiciary.

A few months back, an RTI application towards the famous PM CARES fund was rejected by the government stating that the fund does not come under the ambit of RTI. People fairly criticized this move saying that it was their right to know how and where their money was spent. When people start using tools like RTI to keep a check on the government, indeed the country is developing. But parallelly, don't you think, it's our right to have information about our judicial system too? Since, the RTI has come into force, except for the recent judgement( wherein SC quoted that office of CJI is a public authority and it does come under the ambit of RTI), Judiciary has tried to immune itself from the act, quoting it as a threat to its independence. Often it's transparency is questioned when the collegium system is talked about. The judiciary must understand that there does exist a state between transparency and opaqueness i.e translucency, at least towards which it must start the journey. And we must understand that as much as the politicians, bureaucrats and other government officials are answerable to the common citizens of this country, so is the judiciary. The independence of the judiciary has to be respected but indeed it must not forget that its there to serve the people of this country. 

The history is witness that the people of this country belonging to different sections have come together to stand against many rules and regulations of multiple governments which they feel won't be in their or country's favour. May it be India against corruption campaign led by Anna Hazare, the controversial citizenship amendment act or even the current farm laws, people have come forward to show their support to multiple protests that have taken place( or basically let governments know that हमे फर्क पड़ता है). There's a possibility that either of us might also have been a part of a protest too. But, have you ever heard about people protesting to see some changes in our judicial system? Try googling, it's possible that even google would let you down this time. Fact is that people who have come forward are some of the lawyers or few activists but there has never been a protest at a huge level.

Democracy runs on 3+1 organs viz Legislature, Executive, Judiciary and the most important public participation. The fathers of our constitution added a basic right to assemble and protest peacefully to the big book. Because even they knew, public participation is one of the most vital aspects of decision making. The right to protest acts as a mechanism for checks and balances towards the governmental decisions and we the people of this nation have used this tool very effectively towards both Executive and Legislature except for the fact, somehow we forgot that Judiciary is also an important organ of the government. One must not forget that not everyone commits a crime but most of us are the victims many times. And we must not forget that a judge hears both the accused and the victim wherein you will also be a part of the judicial cycle. So avoiding it and moving ahead is not a solution. 

A phrase which our parents and grandparents usually said to us, "बेटा कोर्ट कचहरी से जितना दूर रहो उतना फायदा", is a harsh truth but we must not forget that just like every human has flaws, the people sitting in our courts are also the humans. The system indeed will overhaul someday. In spite of everything, don't forget few words from one of my favourite movie Jolly LLB 2, "आज भी हिंदुस्तान में जब कहीं दो लोगो के बीच झगड़ा होता है या विवाद होता है, तो एक दूसरे से क्या कहते है पता है?  I will see you in court".

Read More

FITNESS

FITNESS

   November 21, 2020       Ankur Jangra

---

Make a workout routine, eat healthy, make sure you are adding breathing exercises too, take adequate amount of sleep and most importantly, stick to the plan.

"Physical fitness is a state of health and well-being, and more specifically, the ability to perform aspects of sports, occupations, and daily activities." Well, that's how a Wikipedia definition looks like. But, fitness is not just about physical well-being, but also more about mental and emotional fitness, which we usually tend to ignore. It's a complete package which we need to pay attention to. 

What does it take to keep yourself fit? Good food + Good sleep + Good Workout. Trust me, each component has equal weightage. 

• Good Food: A food which is apt in nutritional value which means adequate consumption of Carbohydrates, Proteins, fats, minerals and vitamins.

• Good Sleep: Averagely 7 to 8 hours of sleep 

• Good Workout: Atleast an hour of physical activity(anything which you love to).

Some Facts:

A World Health Organization study says that every 1 in 4 people in the world do not workout on daily basis and parallely Mintel agency report states that 64% of indians too do not workout on daily basis. These are alarmingly dangerous figures. 

Myths and False assumptions over Indian diet:

I have heard many people blaming our so called "desi" diet as a faulty one. Trust me, 5 years back, I too believed the same.  But later on, I realised that it's not actually our diet which is faulty but our lifestyle which has been degraded over the years. I have a grandmother who is in her 80s now. She can still wash her clothes, manage her food, work with the plants in the garden, eat anything I offer her and still stay fit. If you observe, you will definitely find many similarities in our grandparent's diet. Well how is it? Did they eat something different than what we call the typical "desi diet"? No. The only difference is that they used to work hard the whole day, either it was the farm or any household chore. So why do we blame the same diet? Have you ever given a thought to our current lifestyle? Thanks to internet, everything is just a click away. If we ponder a little, we will realise that it's the amount of physical activity we lack to put in. 

Workout doesn't mean that it's mandatory to get to a gym and start lifting heavy weights. Nope. A workout has to be something which you enjoy. It can be either gym, any sport say football, volleyball, badminton, running or cycling(and many more). Options are as many as you like. It also varies as per individual's age, body type, metabolism, etc. You cannot expect a person in fifties to exercise like the one in twenties. All that changes is the type and numbers of hours one trains. 

FITNESS DURING CORONA & SOME LEARNINGS:

 

Since the world has been struck by the novel coronavirus, things have changed, and so has the definition and importance of fitness. During the early days of lockdown, it was difficult for most of us to adjust to the new normal. May it be irregular sleep cycles, eating habits, or our fitness routine, everything was disturbed. Well, I also went through the same. So one day, I gave a thought to what was going wrong and came to a conclusion that, everything was near about the same except for the fact that my workout was missing. It was just a couple of days since I resumed my workout, I started to feel good. I was able to sleep well, eat well, did not have a bloated stomach, and the most important thing, I felt lively.

I have had the same experiences before as well. I have observed that the days I am working out, I am a very different individual. My personality is different, my decision making is smart, I am able to concentrate more on my studies, my health is good and most importantly, I am able to sleep as good as a kid. I remember when we were kids, we used to play a lot, well we could play the whole day to be frank. And that's something what we need to recollect. We need to get back that kid who used to wait for 5 pm in the watch to set out and play the best games of his/her life. A daily workout not only gives you a good physical outlook but also gives you an implicit confidence that you carry with your personality.

Today, the world is aging, the climate is getting changed drastically, the pollution levels are continuously increasing, the mean sea levels are on rise and health problems are growing on daily basis. We need to take a pause and think about it now. They said 2020 was a bad year and fortunately it's about to end. Now is the right time to start preparing for our new year resolutions which we can't afford to lose this time. Make a workout routine, eat healthy, make sure you are adding breathing exercises too, take a good sleep and most importantly, stick to the plan. Remember one thing that it's a slow and gradual process, and quitting won't speed it up.  

Rest, the quote sums it all.

Read More

PREAMBLE

PREAMBLE

   October 22, 2020       Ankur Jangra

---

Preamble basically is a short summary of our big book. Since the big book is way too technical and can't be easily understood by every individual, Preamble helps us understand what the constitution of India means, and what its basic principles are.

Before you begin, I request you to go through some lines shown in the image above. Read at least twice. For those who aren't still aware, those are the same lines that we have gone through in our school days. Yes, it is the Preamble. I still remember, while going through the index page of my NCERTs, I used to see these big bold lines. I never actually paid much attention to it. Thought these were just a few lines meant to increase the number of pages in tiny NCERTs. Fortunately, now that I have been able to understand the essence of preamble a little, I would like to enlighten you through the same. But before that, I request you to read my previous blog on "Indian Constitution: The Big Book" to relate it better.  

The preamble was based on the objectives resolution developed by our first prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Originally, the words SOCIALIST, SECULAR, and INTEGRITY were not part of our preamble. These were added in 1976 during the era of emergency. In my previous blog, I had mentioned that preamble is a part of our constitution. Now one might think, what was the need of having it given that we already had such a bulky constitution. So Preamble basically is a short summary of our big book. Since the big book is way too technical and can't be easily understood by every individual, Preamble helps us understand what the constitution of India means, and what its basic principles are. 

The preamble tells us the true owners of our constitution i.e WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA. It's we the people from which our constitution derives its authority. WE, THE PEOPLE includes every single individual who is a citizen of India irrespective of sex, caste, race, or religion. In India, multiple welfare schemes have been running since independence. The nature of the Indian government, which is of a welfare state, demarcates the SOCIALIST tilt of our country. Since a major portion of our population is poor, the state i.e the government(both centre and state) comes ahead to provide a helping hand. In times of COVID, you might have seen many governments providing free meals, free shelters, very low-interest credits to migrants or poor workers, all this shows that either its the time of crisis or not, the government will always be present so that the poor aren't under looked. And Yes, there exist multiple aspects under socialism other than the welfare state concept too (which would be covered in future blogs). Moving on to religion, as per our constitution, we are a SECULAR state which means the state does not have a religion and the state shouldn't discriminate between religions. We also have separate laws governing different religions. 

There are few principles on which our constitution is based. And those are Justice, Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. And these are the four keywords that are holistically implemented by the Fundamental Rights, Directive principles of state policies, and the Fundamental Duties. Justice is an important concept in a society especially in a diverse one like India(since Ek Ghar me jyada bartan honge to obviously bajne ki awaz to ayegi hi). Liberty plays a major role in the development of an individual. Just think if you do not have the liberty of either thought, expression, belief, faith, or worship, your development would be incomplete. Similarly, it's important to maintain Equality in society so that there is no discrimination especially to those which belong to the weaker section. And lastly, Fraternity is included to maintain a sense of brotherhood in our multi-diverse country. 

A Real-life application of preamble:

Elections. While exercising our Universal Adult Franchise, everyone must do a critical analysis of all the political parties. This critical analysis can be done using the principles of the preamble. You can consider parameters like Religious harmony, is Justice(social, economic, political) prevailing, Equality exists or there is more division, are our liberal thoughts, expressions, faith or beliefs getting compromised, and so on. If every individual voter ponders over these parameters before casting their votes, indeed we will be true to ourselves as well as our democracy. 

Lastly, in a country like India where we have the largest number of malnourished children, millions of unemployed, a rising number of crimes, and environmental conditions getting degraded day by day, it is important for us to contribute to the development of our society. If we are true to ourselves and lead our lives on the principles of preamble, we indeed will be able to shape India into a true SOVEREIGN, SOCIALIST, SECULAR, and DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC.

Read More

INDIAN CONSTITUTION: THE BIG BOOK

INDIAN CONSTITUTION: THE BIG BOOK

   October 12, 2020       Ankur Jangra

---

Constitution- It can simply be defined as a set of rules and regulations in order to run an organization, family, society, country, or maybe any other grouping. It can be both written as well as not written. Constitutions have been existing for ages in some form or the other. Today lets have a walk through some of the glimpses and special features about our constitution. As a responsible citizen of our country, it's important for us to know at least a little about the book by which we are governed.

Historical Making of the Book

Ok, so let us start from scratch. India was a colony back then in 1919 when the colonial government passed the Government of India Act, 1919 famously known as the Montague-Chelmsford reforms. It had few provisions which actually became part of our constitution later. Meanwhile, a negative remark came from a very famous personality back then that Indians were not qualified to draft a constitution on their own. In response came a famous Nehru Report(by Motilal Nehru, not Pandit Nehru). Although it was also a controversial one yet, it had many features which are still the part of our constitution like- Fundamental Rights including equal rights for women, universal adult suffrage, linguistic provinces/states(for example current states organization- Gujarat for Gujarati speaking, Tamilnadu for Tamil speaking, Maharashtra for Marathi speaking and so on), etc. Post-Nehru report, came the most important act i.e the Government of India Act, 1935. Most of our constitution is based on this act. 

After a tussle of almost 10 years came the D-Day i.e 9th of December, 1946 when the constituent assembly first met. For those who don't know, the constituent assembly was basically a sitting of few indirectly elected people who were given the task of setting a framework for governing independent India. 

There were many committees which were made with some assigned particular task. One such committee was the Drafting Committee which was headed by none other than the father of our Constitution Dr. B.R.Ambedhkar. Drafting Committee, as the name suggests was given the task of making the constitution. It took almost 3 years to compile the constitution of our country and after lots of debates and discussions, finally, on 26th November 1949, the constitution was adopted and came into force from 26th January 1950 which we celebrate as the Republic Day. 

Did you observe one thing? It took almost 3 years to make the big book. The reason our constitution is the bulkiest constitution in the world. Now one might have a thought that how come the makers of our constitution got so many ideas to add in the big book. The answer to this is that many constitutions did exist back then. So basically our big bookmakers played smart. They borrowed many features from the constitutions of different countries. Few such examples are- the Fundamental Rights borrowed from the USA, the Directive Principles of State Policy borrowed from Ireland, the Parliamentary form of government from the UK, and the list goes on. 

Many famous policymakers and political thinkers had criticized that the Indian Constitution is nothing but a copy and paste of multiple features of multiple constitutions, basically just a borrowed one. We can't say that they are wrong but at the same time, not completely correct as well. During that time, if there existed many successful constitutions, then what's wrong in borrowing some from it. The intelligence played a major role here. For a country with multiple diversities and people of different ethnicities, it's not easy to define a set fixed standard that could be applicable and followed by everyone. Our constitution makers were smart enough that they took the best out of the rest and compiled into a single unit. 

The constitutions are either rigid, flexible, or both. A rigid Constitution means it is very difficult to add something/amend the constitution i.e the process of amending the constitution is very complex. And a flexible constitution means as and when one thinks, an amendment can be made. The Indian constitution is a perfect blend of rigidity as well as flexibility. As per the need of the situation, it can set its gear as it wants. But the same is not the scenario in comparison to most of the nations. For example, the US constitution is very rigid in nature i.e it is very difficult to add an amendment to it since it is based on the principles of complete federalism and the UK constitution which in contrast is very flexible. 

Certain provisions which form the part of the Basic Structure of our constitution(Fundamental Rights, DPSPs, Independent Judiciary, etc) are not easier to amend. Consider one of our fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression, now this cannot be taken away by amending the constitution since it is the very basic part of an individual's personality and wholly for a democracy. So in this case our constitution acts as a rigid one. Now consider another example for changing the name of the states. This can be done easily since this is not going to have any impact on individuals or our country and here our constitution acts as a flexible one. 

Few features of our constitution are: 

1. Secular state character

2. A federal system with Unitary bias

3. Parliamentary form of Government

4. A mixture of Parliamentary Sovereignty and Judicial Supremacy

5. Independent Judiciary

6. Universal Adult Franchise

7. Single Citizenship

8. Democratic Decentralisation- 3 tiers of government

When the constitution was made, many political experts argued/predicted that India being a country of multiple diversities and ethnicities, it's constitution would fail. Today, our constitution consists of a Preamble, 25 parts, 12 schedules, and more than 400 articles and stand strong and united even after 70 years. Until now, it has been amended 104 times. The fact that our's is such a diverse country, it is the constitution that binds us all together under a single roof. Our constitution acts as a parent that guides its children when they are young and once they mature, it lets them modify itself i.e transition them from one generation to another with a new set of rules and regulations as per the changing times.  A dialogue from the movie "Article 15" starring Ayushmann Khurrana, which said, "Uss Kitab Ki Chalani Padegi, Ussi Se Chalega Desh", stands true today and for generations to come.

JAI HIND!!

Read More

74th DAY OF INDIAN INDEPENDENCE

74th DAY OF INDIAN INDEPENDENCE

   August 15, 2020       Ankur Jangra

---

On this day of independence, we must promise to give our future generations a society which is empowered-socially, economically, politically, and technologically, where we rank top in the gross happiness rankings, are culturally more diverse and last but not the least we are united and integrated as always.

"At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom," said the first prime minister of India Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Yes, we were free and independent from the people who ruled us for 200 years. The freedom struggle was long and a difficult one. Our forefathers had sacrificed a lot of blood, aspirations, and lives for what we are today. I wish you all a very happy Independence day. This day is very special for every Indian irrespective of the community we belong to. 

Talking about independence, it was an outcome of multiple stakeholders ranging from Mangal Pandey who lit the ignition of 1857 revolt; Rani Lakshmi Bai, Annie Besant; social reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Grand Old man of India Dadabhai Naoroji; the trio LAL-BAL-PAL; revolutionaries like Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Subhash Chandra Bose; the Gandhian Camp along with Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel and many more. The list is never-ending if one starts counting. It was the collective effort of all the freedom fighters which helped colonial India become Independent.

India was born as a start-up in which frankly, nobody was interested in providing an Angel Funding. With a huge population and diversity, the pioneers of the world said India would not be a successful country and will disintegrate into chunks of small nations soon. On the contrary, here we stand, a country with the longest constitution of the world which hasn't failed even once; a country with the fastest growing and the 5th largest economy of the world. Once India was a huge finished good exporting country but the colonialists slowly converted us to a mere exporter of raw materials. All the finances and expenditures of the colonial government were paid from the Indian revenues. Dadabhai Naoroji coined this as a theory of the Drain of wealth. 

Few Achievements

India was an agricultural economy in the 1950s, from being pathetically dependent on the USA for food grains to the largest food supplier of the world, our agricultural economy has outgrown. A lot of this is credited to our former PM Lal Bahadur Shashtri for unleashing the path of the Green revolution. Even today, Indian is one of the few countries where most of the subsidies and government schemes are related to the development of farmers and agriculture. Politically, there have been numerous reforms ranging from empowering local bodies(Panchayati Raj Institutions/Urban Local bodies) towards more decentralized governance; inclusive development considering Civil society organizations as major stakeholders, and more. There have been numerous reforms for the socio-economic development of the socially and economically backward classes of SC/ST/OBCs establishing equality in the society. Judiciary has played a major role in giving equal status and opportunities to women and other sections of the society by landmark verdicts like decriminalization of section 377 of IPC(LGBTQ community), scrapping of section 497 of IPC(Adultery), women's claim in parental property and more. 

In the global world, India's stature has risen from being a neglected one to a major pillar in international politics. Recently India was also elected for the non-permanent seat of the UN Security Council. Since the cold war era, India has followed a non-alignment policy(NAM) due to which it is called the voice of poor and developing countries. Countries look up to India for major reforms in the UNSC and global forums. From FATF's grey list to protecting the borders from neighbors the world sees India as a major voice of Asia countering neo colonialistic policies.

In the field of technology, India has achieved a lot too. Major contributions of ISRO and DRDO like manufacturing indigenous weapons, being a nuclear power, major space missions like Mars Orbiter  Mission, and Chandrayaan, the technological industry has grown. India has developed a huge IT sector, which has helped in the development of new generation technologies like the Internet of things, Artificial Intelligence. Thanks to technology due to which we are actually able to survive during the pandemic. 

India has also emerged as an important player in the management of COVID19. In spite of having a low expenditure on health, India has been able to keep the fatalities as low as 1.96% and a recovery rate of 70.76% until now. With a population of more than a billion and high population density, it is actually not easy to keep the numbers this low. India has helped other nations by providing essential medical equipment like PPEs, ventilators, and hydroxychloroquines. 

Where do we lag and need reforms:

In spite of so many reforms in agriculture, we hear a lot about farmer suicides and poor ranking in the global hunger index(102/117). More reforms have to be done for promising a better socio-economic future for our farmers. The government should focus on Direct benefit transfers, elimination of intermediaries, promoting livestock farming, aquaculture, and other allied sectors for doubling the farmer's income. With high levels of malnourishment, more has to be done towards food security. Talking about the weaker sections, "Most of the persons who are engaged in manual scavenging, unfortunately, more than 95% of them belong to the weaker sections". Are those people the only ones who need to bear this responsibility? Think!

In the society we live which is still patriarchal, we hear frequently about critical issues like rape and domestic violence. Now is the time for gearing up from Women Development to Women-led Development. Gender equity has to be established in society by increasing the role of women in every aspect may it be technology, governance, or education. The New Education Policy has to focus on the holistic empowerment of the youth, the taboo about sex education has to be eliminated. If a parent wants her girl to be safe, strong and empowered, they also have to make sure they are imparting the same knowledge to their sons. 

The political empowerment of India would be mature when voting behavior is changed. The vote base has to improve. That one vote matters a lot in our vibrant diverse democracy. Communal harmony has to be maintained by the development of scientific temperament(as said by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and Dadabhai Naoroji). In Bhagavad Geeta, Lord Krishna says that religion guides an individual for better code and conduct of life and it has to be updated/modified with changing times. Secularism is one of the core philosophies of our constitution and it has to be sustained with peace and harmony.

In spite of the political tussles between the centre and state governments in our country, the fight towards the novel Corona Virus marks a hall of fame for Cooperative federalism, which the fathers of our constitution aspired for. May it be the wars, famines, communal riots, natural/manmade disasters or politicization of sensitive issues, we as a nation have outperformed every time. In the end, on this day of independence, we must promise to give our future generations a society which is empowered-socially, economically, politically and technologically, where we rank top in the gross happiness rankings, culturally diverse and last but not the least we are united and integrated as always. Former PM late Atal Bihari Vajpayee once said, "SATTA KA KHEL TO CHALEGA, SARKAREIN AAYEGI ... JAAYENGI... PARTIYAN BANEGI... BIGADEGI… MAGAR YE DESH CHALTA REHNA CHAHIYE, IS DESH KA LOKTANTRA AMAR RAHNA CHAHIYE".

JAI HIND!!!

Read More

WORK FROM HOME

WORK FROM HOME

   July 16, 2020       Ankur Jangra

---

Work for the nation, meditate for your mind and exercise for your health because pandemics will come and go but WFH is always going to stay from now on.

Designed by Atul Patil

According to Wikipedia, work from home can be defined as a work arrangement in which employees do not commute or travel to the central place of work. Not so common term for work from home is Telecommuting. Work from home is trending for the past 4 months, courtesy Coronavirus. IT industry already had the experience of it but other sectors like education, healthcare(Telemedicine) and more are getting equipped with it slowly. 

Talking about the legality of the term, there is no legal provision for Work from home in our country i.e there are no set of rules and regulations that industries could follow as a template. 

The following could be set out as the advantages/prospects of WFH during COVID times:

1. Bridging the Technological Gap: Most of the government spending has been diverted to setting up Technological infrastructure in rural areas that lacked access to good internet(Bharatnet) and electronics.

2. Reduced Travel time & Accidents: According to World Road Statistics(2018), India recorded the highest number of road accidental deaths. Thanks to WFH that its ratio has declined/paused and the time of travel is also saved.

3. Less Carbon Emission and saving of Petroleum(whose prices are still rising): This would help India fulfill her Nationally Determined Contributions(NDCs) for climate change. Also, India imports more than 80% of its petroleum hence our Foreign Exchange could be saved.

4. Sectors other than IT getting equipped with WFH: In case of any future pandemics, sectors would be ready to tackle economic consequences. 

5. New COVID allowances coming up: Caring about individual problems like lack of internet, light issues, etc, companies are provisioning employees to have a network without disruptions, inverters, and equipments(chairs, tables) that comfort the way of working.

6. WFH, the only key to Education: Right to Education could have been at stake completely if WFH did not exist. Most schools and colleges have started online sessions either via video conferencing or Youtube.

7. Few savings by Corporate companies: WFH has saved the light bill and other infrastructure maintenance bills for companies.

8. Economic Benefits: Indian economy is floating on WFH. If it didn't exist, we would have had major economical setbacks.

And the following are the possible negatives/cons of WFH during COVID times:

1. Cybersecurity: Corporate companies need to have strong cybersecurity since most of the confidential data would be at stake if not taken care of.

2. Home is not always a happy place for everyone: Unfortunately, many women in the country are facing a shadow pandemic. Some women actually prefer going to offices to avoid such situations. Hence WFH may not be sweet to them.

3. Difficult for Few Employees back in rural areas: WFH requires few technological investments and for some employees that belong to rural areas, they might not be able to fulfill all these requirements(irrespective of money constraints) as it's not that easy to acquire a wifi connection in villages.

4. Educational Drawbacks: For some teachers teaching from home, especially those of Science which require experimental approach may face problems in explaining the concepts. Secondly, for so many years, teachers have been adapted to blackboard teaching. This sudden shift might be a cause of concern, especially for school teachers.

5. Increased working hours: WFH which was meant to establish a proper work-life balance is not the same. Employees whose average working hours were supposed to be 8 is no less than 10 and in some cases, the count goes on increasing(which unfortunately has become new normal). A study found that working too much may lead to lower productivity of the employee. 

6. Mental Health: With more workload and an increased number of hours, its not easy for a person to give fair time to his/her personal life. Working too much can take a toll on your mental health. A study found that workers who logged 11 hours per day were more likely to battle depression than those who logged 7 to 8 hours. 

The problems and prospects do exist in every situation. What's important is what more can be done to convert the problems into opportunities and prospects into success:

1. Meditation & Exercise: Fitness and mental calm is the most important thing that can help an individual maintain a proper balance in every aspect of life. Also, one thing that we should not forget in COVID times that it helps us build a good immune system. Junaid Ahmad(AIR 3 UPSC) once said "if you have a very good personal life, trust me you will have a very good professional life as well but vice versa may not always be true. "

2. Legislative Backing for WFH: It's important that the government should come up with a fixed set of rules and regulations like the number of working hours, remuneration for extra work, etc.

3. Don't Forget Children: For parents, it' important that they do look after the studies of their children. It's also important to engage in some activities(indoor games)/discussions with children.

4. Sleep: Indeed it's very important to take a good amount of sleep for better efficiency the other day and for a happy mood as well.

Women have been working from home for ages, no matter its corona or a national emergency. One should learn how they manage everything so well may it be work, household chores, or children. All we need to do is appreciate and contribute(help) a little. Also, all those working from home deserve applause since it's they who are also contributing in continuing the cycle of our economy. So, Work for the nation, meditate for your mind, and exercise for your health because pandemics will come and go but WFH is always going to stay from now on. We the people of this country have to make sure we use Work From Home for greater inclusion and as a perfect opportunity to bridge BHARAT(Rural) & INDIA(Urban).

Read More