Daily current affairs – April 28/2020

GS – 2

International

Ladakh as Chinese Territory:

• The World Health Organization has recently showed the parts of Ladakh as Chinese territory in its map. The region has been shown as dotted line and colour code.
• The regions of Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan occupied Kashmir has been shown as dotted line. Dotted lines suggest that the region is a disputed territory.
• This is the first time a UN body has shown Ladakh region in different colour. This new map of WHO differs from the standard depiction of the UN by not showing parts of Jammu and Kashmir those are under actual control of India.
• The region that is actually under the control of India has different colour.
• India – China: Pakistan had given up its power over the PoK (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) in 1960s.
• Today China occupies 37,000 square kilometre in Ladakh.
• Later Also, China included parts of Arunachal Pradesh within its territory earlier this month.

Hunger Crisis:

• The United Nations recently has warned of “hunger pandemic” due to COVId-19.
• The other factors that are to contribute to the crisis include wars in Syria, crisis in Lebanon and desert locusts destroying crops in East Africa.
• The UN says that around 300,000 people are expected to lose their lives due to lack of food for a period of three months.
• The World Food Programme (WFP) is currently in need of 1.9 billion USD in order to stockpile food in countries that are at risk of starving.

Objectives of WFP

• To save lives during emergencies and protect livelihood
• To support nutrition and food security to build livelihood in fragile regions of the world
• To help countries in becoming self sufficient.
• To reduce inter-generational cycle of hunger
• To achieve Zero-Hunger by 2030.

Government policy and Interventions

Threat of Chakmas and Hajongs:

• Chakmas and Hajongs communities in Arunalchal Pradesh these people are not included in the part of of PM Gareeb Kalyan Ann Yojana; Each person who is covered under the National Food Security Act gets an additional five kg wheat or rice for free, in addition to the 5 kg of subsidised foodgrain already provided through the Public Distribution System (PDS).
• One kg of pulse per household is also provided for free, according to regional preferences.
• Their ration cards were illegally and arbitrarily seized by the state government in October, 1991. 
• As a result, they are forced to buy food items at normal or hiked prices while other vulnerable sections are paying Rupees 5 per kg as per the economic package.
• Since the members of the communities have become legal citizens of India, denial of food violates the Right to Life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.

Chakmas and Hajongs:

• These are ethnic people who lived in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, most of which are located in Bangladesh.
• Chakmas are predominantly Buddhists, while Hajongs are Hindus.
• They are found in northeast India, West Bengal, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
• They fled erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in 1964-65 and came to India and settled in Arunachal Pradesh.
• Reasons: Chakmas lost their land to the development of the Kaptai Dam on the Karnaphuli River, Bangladesh.
• Hajongs faced religious persecution as they were non-Muslims and did not speak Bengali.
• In 2015, the Supreme Court directed the Centre to grant citizenship to Chakma and Hajongs who had migrated from Bangladesh in 1964-69.
• The order was passed while hearing a plea by the Committee for Citizenship Rights of the Chakmas.
• They did not directly come into the ambit of the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA) because Arunachal Pradesh is among the states exempted from the CAA since it has an inner line permit to regulate entry of outsiders.
• Currently, Chakmas and Hajongs are citizens by birth as per Section 3(1) of the Citizenship Act and the eligible portion of their population exercise the right to vote as citizens of India (they were given voting rights in 2004).
• However, 4,637 pleas of the survivors of migration during 1964-1969 are still pending with the Centre even as some of the applicants have died.