 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar IAS Academy for the date 25th of November 2019. In our today's analysis, we shall be seeing some important news articles like the National Commission for Minorities, then about the recent NSO survey and such other news articles which are displayed here along with the page numbers of Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Trivandrum and Hyderabad editions along with the page numbers displayed here. We handed to notes in the PDF format and the timestamping of all the news articles taken up for today's analysis is given in the description section and also in the comment section for the benefit of the smartphone news. Let us now move on to our analysis. This news article is based on the opinion of Chad person of the National Commission for Minorities on the Ayodhya verdict. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. As we know earlier this month, the Supreme Court gave its verdict on the disputed land in Ayodhya which is located in Uttar Pradesh. In its judgment, the Supreme Court has asked the central government to formulate a scheme within three months. It had asked to set up a trust to manage the property and construct a temple. Then the Supreme Court had also asked the government to allot five acre plot to Sunni Central work board to construct a mosque in a prominent and suitable place in Ayodhya. And we discussed in detail about this judgment and the complete history of the disputed land in our 10th November analysis, so just have a look at it for further subject clarity. Now in this news article, the Chad person of the National Commission for Minorities had said that filing a review petition against the Supreme Court verdict will not be in the interest of Muslims and such a move might harm the unity between the two communities. The Chad person also urged the Muslim side to respect the judicial verdict and to accept the five acre alternative land that is to be given for constructing a mosque. Now this news article says that the Chad person of the National Commission for Minorities requested the Muslims and Hindus to help each other in building the temple and the mosque respectively. So such a move would prove to be a milestone in strengthening the social harmony between the two communities in our country. So this is all you need to know about from this news article. In this context, now let us discuss in detail about the National Commission for Minorities from exam point of view. Now know that in order to strengthen the cause of the minorities, the United Nations promulgated a particular declaration in December 1992, it is the declaration on the rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities. This declaration proclaimed that the states shall protect the existence of the national or ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic identity of the minorities within their respective territories that is within their country and the states should also encourage the conditions for promotion of that identity. So in line with this declaration, the government of India set up the National Commission for Minorities under the provisions of National Commission for Minorities Act 1992. So we can also call this National Commission for Minorities as a statutory body because it has been formed under the provisions of a particular statute that is an act which is the National Commission for Minorities Act of 1992. Here you have to note one thing before the enactment of this National Commission for Minorities Act of 1992, a commission for minorities existed. The name was the Minorities Commission. It functioned as a non-statutory body. Now post the enactment of this act, the Minorities Commission was renamed as the National Commission for Minorities and it became a statutory body. See the act was enacted in the year 1992, but the first statutory National Commission for Minorities was set up on May 1993. So know this from knowledge point of view. Now if you see initially five religious communities were notified as minority communities by the Union government. Those five religious communities are Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, then Buddhists, then Zoroastrians and in the year 2014, Jains have also been notified as minority community. So as of now, there are six religious communities who have been notified as minority communities by the Union government. Now let us see the composition of this commission. This commission includes a chairperson, then a vice chairperson and then five other members. The five members including the chairperson should be from minority communities. And all the members are nominated by the central government. The members shall be persons of eminence, ability and integrity. Now if you see the term of office of the chairperson and the members of this commission, all of them shall hold office for a term of three years. Next let us see the removal process. The central government has the powers to remove the chairperson or a member of this commission based on these conditions. When a person becomes an undischarged insolvent or when the person is of unsound mind and he has been declared so by a competent court, then if a person refuses to act or becomes incapable of acting or if a person has abused the official position in the opinion of the central government and also some other related conditions. So these are some of the conditions based on which the central government can remove the chairperson or a member of this commission. Now let us see the important functions of this national commission for minorities. The first function is that it shall evaluate the progress of the development of minorities under the union and the states. Then it shall monitor the working of the safeguards that are provided in the constitution for these minorities and also in the laws that are enacted by the parliament and the respective state legislatures. Then this commission can also look into specific complaints when the rights of the minorities are deprived and it can also look into complaints regarding the safeguards of the minorities and it can also look into such other complaints that are related to minorities. Here you also need to know that several states have set up their own state minority commissions. Some of the states are like the state of Andhra Pradesh, then Assam, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, etc. Now the functions of all these state commissions are to safeguard and protect the interests of the minorities as provided in the constitution and as in the laws enacted by the parliament and the state legislatures. So now in this context, let us see some of the important safeguards that have been provided in the constitution of India for the minorities. The first and foremost here is the preamble. Now if you read the lines given in the preamble, it declares the state to be a secular one and if you see this is of special relevance for the religious minorities. Next article 14, this article 14 ensures a right to equality before the law and equal protection of the laws for all. Next we have article 15 which provides for the prohibition of discrimination. So there shall be no discrimination against the citizens on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or the place of birth. And next if you see we have article 16 class 4 which authorizes the state to make any provision for the reservation of appointments or posts in favor of any backward class of citizens which in the opinion of the state is not adequately represented in the services under the state. So this article indirectly speaks about the reservation to the backward classes and the minorities. Next we have articles 25 to 28, all these articles ensures the right to freedom of religion including the right to freely profess, then practice and propagate religion, then the right to establish and maintain institutions for religious and charitable purposes etc. And next if you see there are also articles which are mentioned in the constitution for the linguistic minorities but today our topic is based on the religious minorities. And for knowledge purpose know that for the linguistic minorities we have article 350a and article 350b. So this is all about the discussion of this news article. In this news article we have discussed in brief about the recent Ayodhya verdict and the comments made by the chairperson of the National Commission for Minorities. So in the context of this news article we have seen in detail about the National Commission for Minorities from exam point of view. And finally about some of the important provisions in the constitution which directly or indirectly discusses about the religious minorities. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is about the findings of the survey which was conducted by the National Statistical Office and this survey refutes some of the claims made by the Prime Minister of India. Now let us see what is this survey about and what are the claims that this survey refutes in our discussion. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given you for your reference. See this recent survey which was conducted by the National Statistical Office which comes under the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation was on drinking water, sanitation, hygiene and housing condition. And this survey was a part of 76th round of National Sample Survey. And this survey was carried out between July and December 2018. Now this news article tells that this survey refutes the claims of the PM. If you see a Prime Minister declared India as open defecation free on 2nd of October 2019. He said that India achieved this status because of the efforts by his government which is nothing but the Swachh Bharat Mission. Now let us see in brief about Swachh Bharat Mission. Know that it was launched by the Government of India on 2nd of October 2014. And if you see the Mission Coordinator for this particular mission is the Secretary Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation which comes under the Ministry of Jal Shakti. If you see it as two submissions, one is the Swachh Bharat Mission Graman and the other is Swachh Bharat Mission Urban. Together both these missions aim to achieve a Swachh Bharat that is a clean India or we can tell 100% open defecation free India by the year 2019. So that it will be a fitting tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary. Now if you see the open defecation free status is defined by two conditions that lead to the termination of fecal oral transmission of infections. The first condition is that there should not be any visible fecus found in the environment of a village. And the second condition is that every household and public or community institutions should be using safe technology option for the disposal of fecus. So an area can be declared open defecation free. If the people living in that particular area have 100% access to toilets and there is 100% usage of those toilets. So this is how the open defecation free status is defined. Now let's come back to the news article. The findings of this NSO survey contradicts the claims of the Prime Minister. As per this survey only 71.3% of the households in the rural areas and about 96.2% of the households in the urban areas had access to littering that is toilets. But according to the news article the central government has claimed that 95% households in the rural areas had access to toilets. So these findings show that rural India is still far away from achieving the open defecation free status. But the survey also points out that this much Bharat scheme has helped to achieve a great progress in terms of toilet access and its usage in the rural areas. Here you have to note that several states have been declared open defecation free by the central government over the last few years. Some of the states are like the states of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and also the state of Tamil Nadu. But the survey found that many of these states are far from achieving this open defecation free status. Now let us see some data that is given in the news article. This news article tells that almost 42% of the rural households in the state of Jharkhand had no access to a toilet when that particular state was declared open defecation free. And if you see in the state of Tamil Nadu this gap was 37% and then in Rajasthan which was 34%. And if you see the state of Gujarat was declared open defecation free back in October 2017. That is before two years. But this news article is telling that, near to 25% of the rural households in the state of Gujarat have no toilet access even enough. Next, this news article also mentions yet another data which was given by the Swachh Bharat Abhyan Graman. In October 2018, the Swachh Bharat Abhyan Graman mission had said that 25 states and union territories had been declared open defecation free while toilet access across the country touched 95%. But in reality, almost near to 28.7% of the rural households had no toilet access at that time. And note that the 71% access to toilets in the rural areas. So you can see there is a gap in the data. But this 71% data which we have saw is quite a significant improvement because in the year 2012 only 40% of the rural households had access to toilets. Now it is almost near to double. As we know, India can be declared open defecation free when it ensures 100% accessibility to let trans, that is toilets, and when it ensures 100% usage of those toilets. This means apart from the government's efforts, there should be some individual efforts made by the people where the people should be willing to use the toilets. Now according to this survey, that is the NSF survey, among those households which had access to let trans, only about 94.7% of the males use these toilets regularly and only about 95.7% of the females in the rural areas use these toilets regularly. Whereas if you see in the urban areas, the usage was near to 98% for both males and females. So from this data, we can tell that the usage of toilets by the females is more when compared to the males in the rural areas, whereas the usage pattern is more or less the same in the urban areas. See here, if you don't confuse with the accessibility to toilets, it is about the usage of toilets, that is the usage of the infrastructure that is available. So from this particular data, you can see that the efforts of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan to change the behavior is more or less a success. But there is still certain percentage of population whose behavior needs to be changed. But overall we can see that when the infrastructure is made available, people are willing to go for a change. So you can use the data from this survey in any of your mains examination or in your essay to quote as an example to tell that when infrastructure is available, people are willing to change. That is, there is a behavioral change. Now let us come back to the news article again. In the last part of this news article, it tells that the next big challenge lies in the disposal of the fecal sludge. Because more than 50% of the rural Indian households with toilets have septic tanks. Whereas another 21% of the rural Indian households with toilets used single pits. Here you can tell that both the structures are more or less the same, but the septic tanks are huge in size, whereas the single pits are small in size. And both of them produce fecal sludge and this particular fecal sludge has to be cleaned often and they have to be disposed of safely. This news article also tells that only 10% of the toilets were built with the twin leech pit system, which was pushed by the Swach Bharat scheme. Now this twin leech pit system composes the waste on its own, that is the fecal sludge on its own without any need for cleaning or disposal. So just know the difference in brief. So this is all about the survey results and we saw how the survey results are contradicting the claims made by the prime minister when he declared India as open defecation free. But nevertheless, we can see that there is a behavioral change in the usage of toilets by the Indian population. Now to conclude our discussion, let us see about National Statistical Office in brief. See this National Statistical Office functions under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. It is responsible for conducting large scale sample surveys in diverse fields on all India basis. If you see the data is primarily collected through nationwide household surveys on various socioeconomic subjects and the data is also collected through annual survey of industries and such other methods. Now besides these surveys, the NSO collects data on urban and rural prices. And NSO also plays a very important role in the improvement of crop statistics. How means it supervises the area enumeration and crop estimation surveys of the state agencies. So this is all about the National Statistical Office that you need to know from exam point of view. And this is all about the discussion of this news article. In this news article, we have seen the survey of the National Statistical Office, how it contradicts the claims made by the Prime Minister and finally about the National Statistical Office in brief. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article mentions few facts about access to health in our country. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. See the main focus of this news article is the health care system in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Today we will be focusing on the existing flaws or drawbacks in the primary health care system throughout India. And in the coming days in a similar news article, we shall discuss the steps taken by the central government in addressing these flaws. Now this news article mentions that the doctor-patient ratio is the worst in the state of Uttar Pradesh. So what is this doctor-patient ratio? Kindly note that the term doctor-patient ratio is interchangeably used for doctor-population ratio. See the World Health Organization has prescribed that the doctor-population ratio is 1 is to 1,000. That is, there has to be one doctor for 1,000 persons in a community. Now what is the status of this doctor-population ratio in India? As on 2019, the doctor-population ratio in India is 1 is to 1,456, which means for every 1,456 persons, there is one doctor available. So we can see there is a below-average doctor-population ratio. Now in addition to this below-average doctor-population ratio, there is also a huge variation in the distribution of doctors who are working in the urban and the rural areas. If you see for around four doctors in the urban area, there is only one doctor in the rural area. That is the urban to rural doctor density ratio is around 3.8 is to 1. This news article also states that the primary health center infrastructure in the state of Uttar Pradesh is also the worst. This is because considerable number of the primary health care centers in the state of Uttar Pradesh are working without electricity and there is also no regular water supply and sometimes the primary health care centers are not accessible at all because of the absence of all-weather motorable approach routes. So these are some of the points that require attention for the primary health care system as a role for India, though this news article is pertaining to the state of Uttar Pradesh. So if you want to list out the negatives of primary health care infrastructure, then maybe you can mention all these points that we saw. Now let us see the scenario with respect to the primary health centers at the national level with the help of rural health statistics 2018. See the total number of functioning primary health care centers in India is around 25,000. To be exact, it is 25,743. Out of these primary health care centers, around 3.2 percentage of the primary health care centers do not have electric supply and around 25 percentage of the primary health centers which are without power supply are in the state of Uttar Pradesh. So we can tell that approximately 0.8 percentage of the primary health care centers that do not have electric supply are located in the state of Uttar Pradesh when compared with the total primary health care centers. Also if you see around 5.1 percentage of the primary health care centers in India do not have a regular water supply. So this is also a sorry state of affairs in India that too for the health facilities because water is definitely required to maintain the sanitation. Now in case of provisions such as all whether motorable approach roads, telephone and computer facilities, you may go through the data which is given here in this image. See the data here are not directly taken from the government source. This information is taken from a large chunk of data and that has been presented in a simple manner for the benefit of our subscribers and viewers. So this is all from the view of infrastructure in material terms. Now let us have a look at the lack of number of doctors at the primary health centers. Of the sanctions strength of around 34,417 doctors at the national level around 8,572 posts light vacant in the year 2018. That is approximately 25 percentage of the posts light vacant in the year 2018. This means thousands of people depending on these sanctions strengths of doctors are left unattended. So we can also tell that the non-filling of vacancies has led to the increase in the workload on the existing doctors in the nearby primary health centers. So this is also yet another reason which has led to the deterioration of efficient health service delivery. So who are the main authorities who must be held responsible for this? The authorities are mainly the state government. This is because public health and sanitation, hospitals and dispensaries comes under the state list in schedule seven of Indian constitution. Therefore all the administrative and personal matters about the primary health centers lie with the state governments. This also includes the recruitment of doctors at the primary health centers. So here the main culprit is the state government. And we saw that this news article also talks about rural health statistics of 2018. Know that this report was released by the statistics division of the ministry of health and family welfare and not by the ministry of statistics and program implementation. So just remember this. So this is all about the discussion of this news article. To summarize this news article we have seen in brief about the doctor population ratio then about the primary health care center scenario in the state of Uttar Pradesh. And the reasons why the primary health care infrastructure is not so good in India. And finally we saw the data related to the recruitment process of the doctors and the huge backlog in the recruitment process. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is about the progress on the Ken Betwa River interlinking project. This project involves transferring surplus water from the Ken River in the state of Madhya Pradesh to the Betwa Basin. And it aims to irrigate around about 3.64 lakh hectares in the Bundelkhand region of both these states. That is the states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. In this context first let us see about the interlinking of rivers under the National Perspective Plan. Then we shall be seeing about the details of Ken Betwa rivers from geography point of view. And finally the advantages as well as the challenges of implementing this particular project. Now coming to the National Perspective Plan. See for a country like India which is largely dependent on monsoon, proper utilization of water is necessary. Therefore to harness the water resources, the then ministry of water resources which is now the ministry of Jal Shakti and the Central Water Commission formulated a National Perspective Plan for Water Resources Development in the year 1980. Now this National Perspective Plan aimed at interbasin transfer of water from the surplus basins to the deficit basins with a view to minimize the regional imbalances and also to optimally use the available water resources. And if you see this National Perspective Plan has two components. One is the Himalayan Rivers Development Component and the other is the Peninsular Rivers Development Component. For more details about this National Perspective Plan refer to our 19th November analysis because very recently we saw about this National Perspective Plan. Now let us see about Ken Betwa Interlinking Project. Here you need to know that both these rivers Ken Betwa and also the rivers of Chambal Sindh are all the right bank tributaries of river Yamuna as you can see in this picture. Now this proposed Ken Betwa Interlinking Project envisages diversion of surplus waters of the Ken River Basin to the water deficit Betwa River Basin as you can see in this picture. So this is the planned interlinking route. So there is a plan to build a 77 meter tall and a two kilometer wide Dhaudhan Dam on Ken River in the state of Madhya Pradesh. And from this Dhaudhan Dam the canal of length of about 230 kilometer is proposed to link with the water deficit Betwa Basin. Now we shall see the advantages of this particular project if it is implemented. Now the main utility of interlinking of both these rivers is that irrigating the Bundelkhand region of both these states that is the states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. And if you see this project will also provide drinking water supply throughout the route of this canal. So both these are the advantages of this particular project. Now let us see some of the challenges in implementing this Ken Betwa linking project. This particular project involves deforesting a portion of Panna Tiger Reserve which is located in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Now if the forest cover is removed and if that particular area is being used for interlinking of rivers then there will be an impact on the wildlife in this particular tiger reserve, especially the tigers. So losing the forest cover is one thing which amounts to environmental degradation and because of this there will also be impact on the wildlife. Next, this proposed interlinking project may submerge some of the villages to about 4,000 villages. So now all these villages will be affected if this project is about to be implemented. And if you see the villages have been protesting against this project on the grounds of the loss of their livelihood. The next challenge is regarding the sharing of the waters of this interlinking project. Both the states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh have expressed their concerns regarding the sharing of the waters for this project. So these are some of the important concerns about this Ken Betwa interlinking project which needs to be addressed so that the progress of the project can be made with mutual cooperation between the states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. So this is all about this news article analysis. In this news article we have seen about the need for interlinking of rivers under the national perspective plan, then about the details of the Ken Betwa rivers from geography point of view and finally the advantages and the challenges in implementing this particular project. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is about the data related to the implementation of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act of 1967. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is given you for your reference. This news article mentions that in the year 2017 in the state of Manipur around 330 cases were registered under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act of 1967 and there were about 352 arrests made under this particular law in that particular year. And this news article also draws attention to the state of Uttar Pradesh where even though the number of cases registered were less which was 109 that is which is around one third of the cases that was registered in the state of Manipur this particular state accounted for the highest number of arrests made under this UAPA Act in the year 2017. Now you need not remember all the values just know the trend like in which state the cases were high and in which states the number of arrests were high. So with respect to this UAPA Act you have to keep a tab on all these six states which I mentioned in this table. This is because throughout India these six states account for more than 90 percentage in terms of the number of cases registered and also the terms of number of arrests made. Next, know that the recent crime in India statistics has been released only for the year 2017. This report is released by National Crime Records Bureau. So the statistics for the year 2018 have not yet been released by National Crime Records Bureau. Another fact that is related to this 2017 with respect to UAPA Act is that the year 2017 has seen an increase of around 55 percentage arrests when compared to the year 2016. So this is one fact. Then the news article talks about the time period that was available for the law enforcement agency to carry out the investigation. Know that once a case is registered by a law enforcement agency then the police has to immediately arrest the accused. Then the investigation will begin after the arrest of the accused. And once the investigation is completed the police has to submit the charge sheet in the court of law. And after the charge sheet is submitted in the court of law the prosecution will begin in the court of law. Now this news article mentions that in terms of UAPA Act the law enforcement agency has to submit the charge sheet within a period of 180 days from the date of the arrest of the accused. See the normal time given under section 43D of this UAPA Act of 1967 is 90 days only. This provision however allows the court to extend the period of investigation from 90 days to 180 days if it is not possible to complete the investigation within that period of 90 days. This means once the maximum court permitted investigation period completes that is once the 180 days are complete from the day of arrest of the accused then the police have to submit the charge sheet in the court so that the prosecution may begin in the court of law. So this is about the time period which is available for the law enforcement agency to carry out the investigation and submit the charge sheet. Next the news article talks about the maximum punishment under this UAPA Act of 1967. The maximum punishment is death penalty and then life imprisonment followed by other term imprisonments and fine. So just know that the maximum punishment for the terrorist acts under this law is death penalty or death sentence. You may highlight this fact to mention in an essay paper or in some other GS paper on questions regarding death penalty. Next the news article discusses about the accountability and transparency issues that are existing at the level of Rajya Sabha in parliament. See there were around five questions that were asked by a member of Rajya Sabha to the union home ministry. One of the questions was how many of the under trial persons are still in jail for more than five years under the UAPA Act. Here the term under trial refers to a person who is accused under a law but prosecution that is trial as began in the court of law. And if a person remains as under trial for three years it means the trial has started in the court three years ago but there is no conclusion on that particular trial yet. For this question which was asked by the member of Rajya Sabha the answer was not given by the minister of state of the ministry of home affairs. In fact no response was given to this question. So this shows that there are certain transparency and accountability issues even when a question is put in the parliament by a member of Rajya Sabha. So this is all about this news article. So in this news article we have seen certain data related to the implementation of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act of 1967 about those states which had more number of cases and in those states where the higher number of arrests were made and then also about the time period that was available for the law enforcement agency to carry out the investigation and submit the chart sheet and finally about the transparency and accountability issues. Now if you remember there was a recent current affairs with respect to this UAPA Act of 1967 which were the amendments made to this particular act in the monsoon session of the parliament three months back in the month of August. So one of the major amendment was even individuals can now be declared as terrorists. This is just for you to revise the major current affairs with respect to a particular topic. So whenever you are studying about UAPA Act try to know these recent amendments and also some data related to this particular UAPA Act. So based on this act persons like Masood Azhar Afiz Sayed and Dawood were all declared terrorists. Let us move on to the next news article. Now see this news article. This news article is about Indian soft shell turtles. The news article tells that these turtles were found abandoned on roadside. If you remember we saw a news article on 18th of November where the news article was on illegal trade of certain endangered species. We saw slow loruses then Indian star tortoise and also soft shell turtle. But if you remember we told that we do not know which exact species of soft shell turtle the news article is actually mentioned. So from the earlier news article we can see that there is an active illegal trade which is happening in the state of Telangana. In continuation with that news article we shall see today's news article. It tells that the Indian soft shell turtles were found abandoned at Moolakalapalli Mandal in the state of Telangana. Now what you need to know from this news article is that as already told whenever you are studying a particular species try to know about its protection status under IUCN sites and Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. Now know that Indian soft shell turtle is categorized as or listed as vulnerable species under the IUCN red list of threatened species. It is based on the assessment done in the year 2000. Next if you see the Indian soft shell turtle is listed under appendix one of sites that is the convention on international trade in endangered species. And next if you see the Indian soft shell turtle is listed under schedule one part two of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. And if you remember during our discussion on 18th of November where we saw about Indian star tortoise we mentioned that it was listed under appendix two of sites but it is actually appendix one of sites. So we request the viewers to make a change because in the month of August 2019 the status of Indian star tortoise was upgraded from appendix two to appendix one. So kindly make a change. And this news article also tells that the rescue turtles were immediately shifted to Kinarasani reservoir. Now know that this reservoir is located on Kinarasani river and this river is an important tributary of river Godavari. This is all about the discussion of this news article. This news article is about Teyem. The news article tells that the State Human Rights Commission has taken a Suomotu case in connection with a video in which Teyem performer was seen beating up the devotees during the temple rituals. So in this context let us see in brief about Teyem. See Teyem is the popular ritual art form of Kolathanadu which is the Estwell Kingdom of Kannur. So it is a popular ritual art form of the state of Kerala. If you see this Teyem dance is performed in front of the village shrine groves and in the houses as ancestor worship. Usually if you see the Teyem period is from the months of October November and it comes to a close by the end of June. In this ritual art form, man assumes the form of God and he dances. So the people consider Teyem as mediums of gods or goddesses and they seek blessings from the performers. Here the performer is called as a Kolakaran or Koladari and as a part of a ritual they also beat up the devotees. So this is the bone of contention where the State Human Rights Commission of Kerala state has taken a sumo to case against this act. If you see the Center for Cultural Resources and Training which comes under the Ministry of Culture categorizes this Teyem of Kerala as a form of dance drama or folk theater and it has also mentioned certain other dance drama and folk theaters. Let us see them now. One is the Nautanki folk theater which is practiced in the states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Next is the Bhava of Gujarat and then the Tamasha of Maharashtra. Then we have the Bengali Jhatra and also the Yakshagana of Karnataka along with Teyem of Kerala. So all these narrate the legends of local heroes, kings and deities in one form or the other. So just remember all these forms of dance drama or folk theater. Now have a look at the practice question. With this we come to the end of the analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion. Let us now move on to the practice questions discussion session. See this question. The question is consider the following statements regarding the National Commission for Minorities. They've given two statements and you need to choose the correct statements. Now look at the first statement. It speaks about the functions. It tells that one of its functions is to monitor the working of the safeguards for minorities provided in the constitution and in the laws enacted by the parliament and the state legislatures. This statement is correct. It is one of the function of the National Commission for Minorities. This National Commission for Minorities also has certain other functions like evaluating the progress of the development of minorities under the union and states. Then it has also a function to look into specific complaints regarding the deprivation of rights and safeguards of minorities, et cetera. So this first statement is correct. Now look at the second statement. It tells that it is a statutory body functioning under the Ministry of Minority Affairs. This statement is also correct. Know that the union government set up the National Commission for Minorities under the National Commission for Minorities Act 1992. Since it has been set up under the provisions of this particular act, it is called as a statutory body. And this statutory body, that is the National Commission for Minorities functions under the Ministry of Minority Affairs. So this statement is also correct. The question asks you to choose the correct statements. The correct answer is option C, both one and two. Now look at the next question. Consider the following statements. Both these statements are related to minority communities. Now look at the first statement. It tells that Sikhs and Jains are notified minority communities in India. This statement is correct. At present, there are six minority religious communities in India who are Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, that is Parsis and Jains. And Jains were notified as minority community in the year 2014. So this first statement is correct. Now look at the second statement. It tells that the state governments can notify a community living under its territory as a minority community. Here you need to know that as per Section 2C of the National Commission for Minorities Act of 1992, minority community refers to those communities which are notified as minority community by the central government. So this means that the state governments and the National Commission for Minorities do not have any authority to notify any community as a minority community in India. So the second statement goes wrong here. Now this question is asked you to choose the correct statements. The correct answer is option A, one, only. Now look at this question. Question is, consider the following statements. They've given two statements and you need to choose the correct answer. The first statement tells that the World Health Organization prescribed doctor to population ratio is 1 is to 1000. See this statement is correct as per World Health Organization. The doctor to population ratio needs to be 1 is to 1000. That is for every 1000 persons, there needs to be one doctor. So this statement is correct. Now look at the second statement. It tells that India has already achieved this ratio. Know that as per the government data, we have one doctor per 1,456 individuals. So this is below the limits mentioned by the World Health Organization. It means for every 1,456 persons, we are having only one doctor. So this is below average score when compared to the prescribed ratio which is 1 is to 1000. So we can tell that India has not achieved this ratio. So this statement goes wrong. Now this question is asked you to choose the correct statements. The correct answer is option A, one, only. Now look at this question. There are three statements in this question. Look at the first statement. It tells that Chambal, Betva and Cain rivers are the tributaries of Yamuna river. This statement is correct. Know that the rivers Chambal, Cain, Betva and Cain are the right bank tributaries of river Yamuna. Now look at the second statement. It tells that Ken Betva interlinking project aims to irrigate the Bandelkan region. This statement is also correct. The main utility of the interlinking of this project is irrigating the Bandelkan region which is located in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Also this project aims to provide a drinking water supply along the route of the canal that is to be constructed. Now look at the third statement. It tells that Panna Tiger reserve is located in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Know that Panna Tiger reserve is located in the state of Madhya Pradesh. So the third statement goes wrong. Now this question has asked you to choose the incorrect statements. The correct answer here is option B, three, only since only the third statement is incorrect. Look at the next question. The question is considered the following pairs. They have given the art form and the state and you have to choose the correct pairs from the pairs that I mentioned here. Now look at the first pair, Bhavai Gujarat. This pair is correct. Next pair, Yakshagana Telangana. This pair is wrong because Yakshagana is an art form which is practiced in the state of Karnataka not Telangana. Look at the third pair, Tayyam Kerala. Yes, this pair is correct. Tayyam is a ritual art form which is practiced in the state of Kerala, especially in the northern part of Kerala. Now this question asks you to choose the correctly matched pairs. The correct answer is option D, one and three, only because the second pair is wrong. With this, we come to the end of the practice questions discussion session and also to the end of today's session. If you like the video, do like, comment and share the video and subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for latest videos and updates. Stay focused and motivated friends. Thank you.