We The People

On Children's Day on 14 November, a day celebrated to increase awareness of the rights, care and education of children, a time has come where the young ones are having to fight for their right to clean air to breathe. On this Children's Day, the young eco warriors say enough is enough.

Delhi last month declared a health emergency on November 2 when pollution levels registered an unprecedented spike. When the media attention was focused on the national capital, the city was not even among the top 10 most polluted cities in the country. The trend of pollution now seems to be spreading down South too. We are sitting on a ticking time bomb as far as public health is concerned. Is enough being done to check pollution?

The government is working on formulating guidelines to regulate social media citing "growing threats to individual rights and nation's integrity, sovereignty, and security" . While there is recognition for the need for security considering that the technological world is expanding at an unimaginable pace, there are also growing concerns about the use of technology for surveillance of citizens, especially those critical of those in power. The latest draft on intermediary guidelines has given rise to similar concerns. Companies say that it's impossible to give up encryption due to technical reasons as well as commitment to users. But this is not a demand being made by India alone. Many Western countries are also making similar demands. On this episode of We The People, we debate, how can privacy and security be balanced and what are the concerns that authorities should keep in mind while drafting these guidelines.

On Monday, Haryana and Maharashtra are going to vote. Economy, farmer distress, unemployment, drought, poverty are the major issues that the public of these two states have been talking about but what we have heard all through election campaigning is a discourse around the abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir, implementation of Assam's NRC all over the country and only very recently, the promise of giving Bharat Ratna to Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. On We The People, we ask just one simple question. Are local issues dead in elections? The problems may exist in real life, but do they simply not matter when voters go out and vote?

BJP MLA Nand Kishore Gujjar has written a letter to Union Minister Prakash Javadekar demanding that Season 13 of the reality show "Big Boss" be taken off air. He has alleged that the show is promoting "obscenity and vulgarity". This comes at a time when the government is considering regulation on over-the-top platforms. The big question is: who will decide what is offensive?

We take a look at the unfolding PMC Bank scam, where 70 per cent of the cooperative bank's loans were allegedly routed to HDIL- a Mumbai-based real estate developer.

On October 2, the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to announce a ban on some single-use plastic. Is this implementable? What will it mean for businesses and consumers during an economic slowdown? Some say banning its use when an alternative is not available could be difficult. Environment activists have welcomed the move. However, questions have arisen over the lack of an effective waste disposal system.

Home Minister Amit Shah has sparked an uproar with his comment that it is necessary to have a language which could represent India in the world and it should be Hindi. We are asking tonight - Is the stage being set for a new language struggle? Is the centre planning to make teaching Hindi compulsory?

On his Independence Day address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for a movement to make India free of single-use plastic, beginning on Gandhi Jayanti, which falls on October 2. However, plastic is everywhere and shopkeepers and customers continue to depend on single-use plastic. Is the target of a full ban on single-use plastic too high, or it can be achieved? Across the country responsible citizens are working on their individual capacity not to use such plastic and spread awareness.

There is no need for sex education in schools or to make it part of the curriculum under the new education policy proposed by the centre as it will have a negative impact on children, an educational body affiliated to the BJP's ideological mentor the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh said this week. As of now the National Education Policy draft, which was given to the Education Minister in May this year, states that sex education will be included in secondary school studies on topics like consent, harassment, respect for women, safety, family planning, and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.

We are asking tonight - Does sex education in our curriculum need an upgrade? As the country with the worlds largest youth population? Does the government need to wake up to the importance sex education? Are our policymakers blind to the fact that more teens are having sex, while few use birth control? Is India heading for a looming teen sexual revolution for which we are woefully under prepared? Is sex education is the need of the hour, for adolescents as well as adults, especially in rural and underdeveloped areas?