Government Role in Public Facilities, Water, Sanitation and Social Welfare

The Mid Day Meal Scheme is a school meal program in India designed to improve the nutritional standing of school-age children nationwide.

Family planning helps control population growth, which is a key factor in reducing the burden on resources and alleviating poverty at the household and national levels.

Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY):
* Launched in the year 2000
* 2 crores poorest families out of BPL families under TPDS ( targeted) are identified.
* 35 kg of foodgrains are to be made available to each eligible families at highly subsidised rates.
* Wheat to be supplied at Rs. 2 per kg.
* Rice to be supplied at Rs. 3 per kg.
* Rs. 3500 crore subsidy on this scheme.

Food Corporation of India(FCI): FCI was set up on January $14$, $1965$ having its first District office at Thanjavur- rice bowl of Tamil Nadu - and headquarters at Chennai under the FCI Act $1964$ to implement the following objectives of the National Food Policy.
(i) Effective price support operations for safeguarding the interests of the farmers.
(ii) Distribution of food grains throughout the country for Public Distribution System.
(iii) Maintaining satisfactory level of operational and buffer stocks of food grains to ensure National Food security.

Procurement of food grains at support price by government has many social and economic objectives like stability in price of food grain, profitable remuneration to farmers and to support in building public stocks of food grains.

National Food Processing Policy was formulated in April $7, 2005$.
Vision document has been prepared as-increase in processing levels of
perishables from $6$% to $20$%, increase in value addition from
$20$% to $34$% and share in Global trade from $1.6$% to $3$% by
the year $2015$.

The Planning Commission of India historically defined the poverty line based on a minimum daily calorie intake. For urban areas, this threshold was set at 2100 calories per day, while for rural areas, it was 2400 calories.

Micro-credit: Micro-credit is the provision of thrift, credit and other financial services and products of very small amount to the poor in rural, semi-urban and urban areas for enabling them to raise their income levels and improve living standards. The micro-credit institutions are those which provide these facilities.
Self Help Groups: A self-help group is a registered or unregistered group of micro-entrepreneurs having homogeneous social and economic background voluntarily coming together to save small amounts regularly, to mutually agree to contribute to a common fund and to meet their emergency needs on mutual help basis. The group members use collective wisdom and peer pressure to ensure proper end-use of credit and timely repayment thereof.

The Indian government provides subsidies for essential commodities to support the poor and farmers. Fertilizer, kerosene, and LPG are all heavily subsidized items in the Indian economy.

Self Help Groups (SHGs) have been instrumental in India for providing micro-finance by pooling small savings from members and facilitating bank linkages, which empowers rural poor individuals.

In India employing children in begging for illegal gains is an offence both legally and morally. It obstructs the development of child while ruining the future prospects for him/her. Children are being forced to work in hazardous employment which deteriorate their physical health while their intellectual development is halted by not being able to go to school at enjoy freedom at the tender age.

The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO Act) was enacted by the Parliament to provide and strengthen legal provisions for the protection of children from exploitation and sexual offences. This Act recognised child as the person below the age of 18 years and provide punishment for several cognizable sexual offences against children. The act punishes even the attempt to commit any such act which comes under the definition of sexual offence. Touching body or any part thereof with sexual intent, forcing child to touch part of his or her own body or any other person, indulging child in sexual activity etc are recognised as sexual offences for the purpose of this Act.

Under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act in India, child labour is defined as the employment of children below the age of 14 years in hazardous or non-hazardous occupations.

The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO Act) was enacted by the Parliament to provide and strengthen legal provisions for the protection of children from exploitation and sexual offences. This Act recognised child as the person below the age of 18 years and provide punishment for several cognizable offences against children.

According to the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act in India, the legal minimum age for marriage is 21 years for males and 18 years for females. Marriage below these ages is considered child marriage.

Body Mass Index is a gross estimate for the amount of fat in your body. The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) is a large-scale, multi-round survey conducted in a representative sample of households throughout India. The Fourth National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) was carried out in 2014-2015. NFHS-4 is the first survey in the NFHS series that has collected data from all 29 States and all 7 Union Territories. Body Mass Index (BMI) is a person’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters. A high BMI can be an indicator of high body fatness. The NFHS 4 data shows high obesity among adults in India. The latest survey shows that the proportion of overweight women in India at 20.7% is only 2% points lower than the proportion of underweight women. More percentage of women have a lower BMI or are underweight  than needed compared to men.

Formation of Child Right Clubs in government as well as private schools can help in wearing children and their guardian of their rights and privilege. They can volunteer for removing child labour and sending more and more child to school.  Organisation of children Gram Sabha can effectively hear the child related issues and reach at the conclusion. The children below 18 years can without hesitation express their issues and can seek their solution at the grassroot level. Formation of Balika Sanghas in all angan wadi of the state can facilitate and provide education to girls aged 11 - 18 and can deal with several unspoken and untold issues faced by girls at this age of transition into adult.

Human trafficking is the practice of trading women, children and men for the purpose of fixed labour, slavery, sexual exploitation or otherwise. Women and children are trafficked in larger percentage than men. 

A healthy mind resides in healthy body. One should eat food rich in minerals, proteins, vitamins etc. A balanced diet is a diet which consist of proper nutrition. A proper nutritious diet keeps us healthy and fit. These are essential for development of body and in efficiently of these salts and mineral chance of occurring diseases becomes higher. If these requirement are not fulfilled it is called invisible diet.

National Food for Work Programme was launched on November 14, 2004 in 150 most backward districts of the country with the objective to intensify the generation of supplementary wage employment. The programme is open to all rural poor who are in need of wage employment and desire to do manual unskilled work in exchange for food grains. Food grains are provided to the states free of cost. However, the transportation cost handling charges and taxes on food grains are the responsibility of the states. The collector is the nodal officer at the district level and has the overall responsibility of planning,  implementation, coordination, monitoring and supervision.

Aam Admi Bima Yojana(AAMY):
(i) Launched on October $2$, $2007$
(ii) Insurance to the head of the family of rural landless, household in the country is provided against natural death, as well as accidental death and partial/permanent disability.
(iii) The premium to be charged under the scheme is Rs. $200$ per annum per member, $50%$ of which is to be contributed by the Central Government, and Remaining $50%$ by State Government.

Public Facilities are facilities in the form of institutions that are accessed and utilised by public at large. Some facilities are provided either by Government or Private entity or both. Private companies provide schooling facilities and there are several educational institutions in India run by private companies. Long distance transportation facility for public, and Private Hospitals for medical facilities are also provided by private companies.

Public facilities are related to the basic needs of the people. So these facilities are provided by the government at the lower prices for the welfare of the people. It is the prime duty of the government to provide these facilities at a price which can be afforded by everyone.

The Government has the responsibility of providing 'Public Facilities' to all its citizens. The important characteristic of a public facility is that once it is provided, its benefits can be shared by many people. For instance, a school in the village will enable many children to get educated. Similarly, the supply of electricity to an area can be useful for many people. 

Government works for the welfare of people. In Democracy the structure of government is mostly Socialistic and welfare kind. The facilities that are available to the public at large and can be availed by everyone are called public facilities. The Government provides the facility of Healthcare, water, sanitation essentially to the public for preventing any kind of monopoly on them and making sure that no one is left behind is access to these facilities. These are less profitable and consume a huge amount of money.

The public facilities provided by government are the roads, banking services, electricity, drinking water, etc. But bottled drinking water is not provided by the government.

Facilities that are provided by private companies in the market are for obtaining more and more profits. They provide these facilities in different packaging and attractive labeling for high prices. These prices are affordable only for the rich class people.

The right to life is a moral principle based on the belief that a human being has the right to live and, in particular, should not be killed by another human being.

In India, the right to water is not enshrined as a fundamental right in the national Constitution. But courts at both state and federal level have interpreted Article 21 of the Constitution, the right to life, as encompassing the right to safe and sufficient water and sanitation.

This is the old method of rain water storage and recharge. In olden days people built deep step wells into the ground. These deep step wells are called the Bawris. During rainy season these wells are filled with water. The water is stored in these wells for a long time because they are very deep and the evaporation of water becomes less. 

'Every drop counts' is the slogan related to the importance of water. Water is very important for humans as well as for animals. But fresh water is less than one percent of water available on the Earth.

Cutting trees to check water loss due to transpiration is not help in conservation of water. For conversation of water we use drip irrigation, planting more trees, water treatment plant and many more methods.

Total sanitation campaign is operating approximately in 559 districts. Sanitation is a program in which promotion of hygiene through the prevention of human contact with hazards of wastes especially faeces, by  proper treatment and disposal of the waste, often mixed into wastewater. These hazards may be physical, microbiological, biological or chemical agents of disease.

In India, where the right to water is not enshrined as a fundamental right in the national Constitution, courts at both state and federal level have interpreted Article 21 of the Constitution, the right to life, as encompassing the right to safe and sufficient water and sanitation.

The Constitution of India recognises the right to water as being a part of the Right to Life under Article 21. This means that it is the right of every person, whether rich or poor, to have sufficient amounts of water to fulfil his/her daily needs at a price that he/she can afford. In other words, there should be universal access to water. 

A government budget is the annual financial statement that outlines the government's estimated receipts and expenditures for the upcoming fiscal year.

India has one of the largest number of cases of diseases such as diarrhoea, dysentery, cholera. Over 1,600 Indians, most of them children below the age of five, reportedly die everyday because of water-related diseases. These deaths can be prevented if  people have access to safe drinking water. 

The General Assembly (legislative part) of the United Nations on 28 July 2010 recognised the Human Right to water and Sanitation as the basic Human Right. This Human Right has been recognized through several treaties and conventions. The first resolution was passed by UN General Assembly and UN Human Right Council in 2010. In India, the right to water and sanitation is covered under Article 21 (Right to life and liberty) of the Constitution.

• Ninety-seven percent of the water on the earth is salt water. Salt water is filled with salt and other minerals, and humans cannot drink this water. Although the salt can be removed, it is a difficult and expensive process.
• Two percent of the water on earth is glacier ice at the North and South Poles. This ice is fresh water and could be melted; however, it is too far away from where people live to be usable.
• Less than 1% of all the water on earth is fresh water that we can actually use. We use this small amount of water for drinking, transportation, heating and cooling, industry, and many other purposes.

Government works for the welfare of people. In Democracy the structure of government is mostly Socialistic and welfare kind. The facilities that are available to the public at large and can be availed by everyone are called public facilities. The Government provides the facility of Healthcare, water supply, roads, railways, and sanitation essentially to the public for preventing any kind of monopoly on them and making sure that no one is left behind is access to these facilities. These are less profitable and consume a huge amount of money. These facilities constitute the infrastructure of the nation.

The Kerala High Court in Attakoya Thangal v. Union of India recognized the fundamental importance of the right to water. In this case, the petitioners claimed that a scheme for pumping up ground water for supplying potable water to the Laccadives (now known as the Lakshadweep Islands) in the Arabian Sea would upset the fresh water equilibrium, leading to salinity in the available water resources and causing more long-term harm than short-term benefits.

World Water Day is an annual event celebrated on March 22. The day focuses attention on the importance of fresh water and advocates for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.

Water table refers to the Groundwater. Depletion of water table means scarcity of the groundwater. The Population rise led to the increasing demand for water and for settlement and establishment forests are being cut which is resulting in depletion of water table. The lands have been acquired for building or expanding cities which ultimately decreasing groundwater reservoir.