Govt will consider job for kin of Covid-hit contract worker: Min
He said there was no bar on giving a job to dependents of a contract employee, but since the family of such employees have been given Rs 50 lakh as compensation, whether it can still be done or not will have to be examined.
Chaudhary Sujit Mer Singh of the Congress, who had raised the issue, said dependent of one health employee killed of infection during Corona duty in Chhindwara has got a job in his place and the family also received a compensation of Rs 50 lakh. Following this, Shukla assured him to look into the issue.
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These include increasingly unsustainable proportions of people in the above-60 age group and a shrinking of the working-age (15-59 years) population, leading to labour shortages, higher dependency ratios, higher taxation to fund the cost of healthcare for the large numbers of the elderly, and changes in social structures and relationships. Individuals like Musk believe that collapsing birth rates can lead to the disappearance of entire populations, and present a bigger threat to civilisation than climate change. India's overall TFR stood at 1.91 in 2021. This is less than the 'replacement level' of 2.1, or the number of children that a woman would need to have to replace herself and her partner in the next generation. This figure assumes there will be no in- or out-migration, which is not the case in reality. India's lowered TFR is the result of decades of government investment in family planning, changing social attitudes about family sizes, rising costs of raising children, and improvements in the education of women. Many of these factors are common to other countries that have seen a decline in TFR. The only major region in the world with a high TFR today is sub-Saharan Africa, where medical advances have reduced child mortality, but fertility remains high due to cultural reasons, poverty, and the lack of decision-making powers for women. As countries around the world grapple with declining fertility rates, many, like China, have introduced subsidies and tax incentives to encourage couples to have more children. One reason for this is the understanding that the rising cost of living is a major deterrent to parenthood. 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Two, the withdrawal of the welfare state in major Western economies in the 1980s and 1990s, which led to 'loss of trust in others, loss of a sense of the value of service (altruism), decline of community…and fear of failure or of being left behind'. Both processes deprioritised having children as a mandate for living a good life, McDonald concluded. 'The solution to low fertility…lies in providing a greater sense of assurance to young women and young men that, if they marry and have children, they will be supported by the society in this socially and individually important decision,' he wrote. McDonald also argued that incentivising policies have failed in countries like Japan and Singapore because they targeted particular types of women (like high earners) rather than reforming societal institutions. What more can governments do to address the situation? Guo Yanhong, deputy head of China's National Health Commission, said the new childcare subsidy 'works in tandem with related policies regarding childcare, education, employment, taxation and housing', Xinhua reported. Supporting childbirth requires a comprehensive policy package, including financial support, parental leave, and cultural measures, Guo said. Also, cultural shifts happen over a long time, and are often intangible and difficult to detect. Monetary support is something governments can directly control. Anne Gauthier, professor of comparative family studies at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, told the BBC that behind the higher-than-European-average TFR of France could be the generous social policies followed by the French Ministry of Families over the decades. However, countries such as Finland, which have some of the most progressive policies for parental leave after childbirth, as well as subsidies, continue to see low TFRs. While the specific context may be different in each country, it would seem that throwing money at the problem of falling TFRs can only do so much. Accompanying changes in how society treats the raising of children, and how people see work and fulfilment, are important as well. Rishika Singh is a Senior sub-editor at the Explained Desk of The Indian Express. She enjoys writing on issues related to international relations, and in particular, likes to follow analyses of news from China. Additionally, she writes on developments related to politics and culture in India. ... Read More
