Basic Entitlement Research Articles

Committed for Social Change: Analysing the Role of Frontline Health Workers During Pandemic in Rural Odisha

The frontline health workers take health services directly to communities where access is either absent or often limited. The Aanganwadi workers and Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA), among the most prominent frontline workers, act as essential to providing health facilities by bringing services to people’s doorsteps. They create awareness, provide nutritional support to children and mothers, promote universal immunisation, provide escort services for Reproductive and Child Health and so on. With the rise of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), ASHA and Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) have been expected to do supplemented work along with their regular duties. They are engaged in contact tracing, providing food supplements at the doorstep, screening the returning migrant workers, reporting suspected COVID-19 cases, doing door-to-door surveys and ensuring quarantine or isolation. However, they remain the least paid as Corona warriors and are exposed to Corona. The research found that AWWs and ASHAs are denied fundamental dignity and basic rights such as the right to recognition as workers, the right to the minimum salary and basic social security measures, which are the basic entitlement of the frontline workers in the State. The article critically analyses their role and rights during the pandemic.

Enhancing food-related agency in refugees and asylum seekers: A driver to resilience and regenerative empowerment

The paper argues the importance of food in the contexts of "forced migration" and the promising impact of enhancing food-related capabilities on refugees' em-powerment and social inclusion. To support the argument, the Author presents a pilot project based on research-action and providing food training for 39 refugees hosted in Piedmont. The research findings show that a participatory approach to training that values prior culinary learning, and the use of narrative interviews elic-iting food stories, may favour empowerment and social inclusion. Recovering food-related agency within refugees' unfinished journeys contributes to an em-powerment going beyond a sedentarist model of integration, namely a one-way and singularly place-bound demand of adaptation. Food agency is a basic enti-tlement that proves to be a major source of well-being for forced migrants, as well as a regenerative occasion for both healing ‘refugee gaps', and providing a more sustainable approach to resources.

THE CYBERNETIC WHEATBELT

John Kinsella’s poetry returns again and again to the landscape of the Western Australian wheatbelt. The wheatbelt is a region that was suddenly and violently re-made by capital in the service of cereal and fibre production during the course of the twentieth century. Despite this radical repurposing of land and the wholesale eradication of an ancient biome, the new farming zone quickly took on the halo of a natural landscape within state and nationalist ideologies. Against the backdrop of this event, Kinsella’s wheatbelt can be viewed as a comprehensive deconstruction of the forces that have led the wheatbelt to where it is now and which still provide the material conditions of its existence. In this essay, Kinsella’s Divine Comedy: Journeys Through a Regional Geography (2008) is considered as exemplary of his wheatbelt poetry. The essay explores the basic conceits that animate Kinsella’s poetics of critique. It argues that Kinsella’s poetry offers a strategic intervention into the claims of “capitalist realism,” which is Mark Fisher’s term for the foreclosure of alternatives to profit-driven patterns of production and consumption. Capitalist realism, in the context of the wheatbelt, asserts that whether we like it or not, one cannot argue against the basic entitlement that productive imperatives (and its agents) have to use land as they see fit. This essay attempts to detail the kinds of ways that Kinsella’s poetry tries to fracture this claim to common sense that capitalist production monopolises. What it finds, somewhat counter-intuitively, is that Kinsella’s poetry draws together two things which are traditionally regarded as antinomies – the machine and the organism. In this respect, Kinsella’s poetry is distinctly different from conventional ecopoetry, which tends to uphold the distinction between an authentic nature and a corrupting technology. Kinsella’s Divine Comedy makes use of the tripartite layering of Dante’s eschatology to evolve new topologies of being in the wheatbelt, and indeed, being in the world. Further still, the essay makes the claim that Kinsella delivers us a “cybernetic wheatbelt,” which refigures nature as a communicative machine.

Industry and Inferiority in School Children Enrolled through Quota for Weaker Sections and Disadvantaged Groups: An Eriksonian Perspective

<p>A significant milestone in the landscape of Education in India was arrived at with the coming of The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (Ministry of Law and Justice, 2009). One of the highly debated provisions of the act has been that unaided private schools shall admit in class 1, to the extent of at least 25% of the strength of that class, children belonging to weaker section and disadvantaged group and provide free and compulsory elementary education.</p><p><br />While it was hoped that the act would lead to radical transformation in the Indian school system and become an effective instrument for any child to demand their basic entitlement, it has been recognised that it is not sufficient to allow access. The implementation of the act will be considered truly successful only if it addresses the issue of making children of marginalised communities „visible‟ within classrooms.</p><p><br />This study is a qualitative exploration of the experiences of 8 children enrolled under the EWS quota in private unaided schools of Delhi NCR. Using a phenomenological approach, the interview data has been thematically analysed in the light of the stage of Industry versus Inferiority as outlined by Erik Erikson‟s psychosocial approach to identity development. The study reveals complex layers of experiences, some facilitative and some detrimental, indicating the need for careful planning and monitoring of implementation, as well as stronger teacher preparation for the creation of truly inclusive climate in schools.</p>

Rights and Minorities: The Case of Indian Muslims

Rights are inalienable in nature. They are the basic entitlement of every citizen in democracy. They guarantee the minimum basic need of an individual in a society. Rights have been recognized fundamental to every human being for their survival in society as well as in a nation. It is the guarantee of the State to provide and safeguard the rights of its citizens. Rights have been well documented in several International forums as well as in the constitution of countries. Minorities occupy a special place in any country of the world. India as a country believes in unity and diversity and boasts about its religious pluralism. Indian constitution has provided several safeguards for the minorities to bring them into mainstream and to protect them from arbitrary discrimination of the majority. Muslims in India are recognized as the largest minority and there strength is more than the total strength of all other minorities in the country. Despite such a sizeable share of the population, they are largely backward and poor in all aspects of development. This paper discusses the concepts of rights recognized at International forums as well as in the constitution of India, and discusses the prevailing condition of Indian Muslims despite all the safeguards and rights available to them.

International Labour Standards and Islamic Teachings: The Principles of the Basic Entitlement Package for Migrant Workers in Arab Countries

This article discusses the means of protection for migrant workers entrenched in the notions of social justice of both international law and Islam, and how these tools may be implemented in the creation of a solid basic entitlement package for migrant workers in Arab states. The study also shows how international conventions and recommendations on labour and decent work are no different from the Islamic principles and how they constitute a moral obligation on part of the Arab countries to implement such measures.

How Common is Peer Disagreement? On Self‐Trust and Rational Symmetry

In this paper I offer an argument for a view about the epistemology of peer disagreement, which I call the “Rational Symmetry View”. I argue that this view follows from a natural (if controversial) conception of the epistemology of testimony, together with a basic entitlement to trust our own faculties for belief formation. I then discuss some objections to this view, focusing on its relationship to other well‐known views in the literature. The upshot of this discussion is that, if the Rational Symmetry View is correct, much of the action in the epistemology of disagreement relates—not to how one should treat those one regards as an “epistemic peer” in the sense popular in that literature—but rather to who one should treat as such.

Denunciation: a new threat to access to health care for undocumented migrants.

In February last year I went to a European meeting on the care of destitute migrants.1 There are estimated to be 2.6 to 6.4 million across the European Union (0.5% to 1% of the population of the EU)2 and half a million such undocumented migrants in the UK.3 The hospitality industry in the south east of England depends heavily on them, so that one person's illegal immigrant is another person's helpful waiter.4 The situation of these migrants in the UK has recently been described in good qualitative research.5 As the conference was running, thousands of migrants were landing on the Italian island of Lampedusa to avoid the Libyan crisis. I will first review what is already established about access to health care for undocumented migrants, then describe a new threat highlighted at this conference; denunciation. The current situation regarding the health care of legal migrants in the EU has been well described by two officials from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM): > ‘European countries face a threefold situation of: (i) constant migrant flows, (ii) health services and practices that are largely inaccessible or unused by migrant populations and often ill-suited to migrants' needs and (iii) higher vulnerability of migrants and their children to ill health due to negative socioeconomic circumstances. On the other hand, protection of migrants' health and their access to quality health care are recognised as: (i) a human right and a basic entitlement according to EU values; (ii) vital to migrants' integration and critical to reduce poverty and (iii) essential for social cohesion, good public health and the wellbeing of all.’6 Where the migrant is legal the EU is committed to improving access …

From exclusion to inclusion: young queer workers' negotiations of sexually exclusive and inclusive spaces in Australian workplaces

Equal participation in paid employment is regarded as a basic entitlement within human rights discourse. Recent organizational studies highlight how the workplace can operate as a socially divided space for queer (or non-heterosexual) workers, depicting the workplace as a problematic site of sexuality-based discrimination and abuse. The aim of this paper is to locate the experiences of young queer workers as newcomers to the Australian labour market and to shed light on how young queer people negotiate sexually exclusive and inclusive workspaces. The findings from this qualitative study were developed from a series of interviews with 34 young people (18–26 years old) who primarily identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or queer (LGBQ) and were employed in a diverse range of industries. Based on their stories, this paper will argue that workplaces can function as both sexually exclusive and inclusive spaces. Within exclusive spaces, young people experienced a series of symbolically and materially violent practices that reinforced the boundaries of sexual normalcy in the workplace. Within inclusive spaces, young people gave weight to everyday ‘micro-practices’ of inclusion over wider workplace policy and procedures. Findings from this research hold significant implications for informing organizational change.

Scotland's High Road to Lifelong Learning: A Foreigner's Observations

The final report on lifelong learning of the Scottish Parliament's Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committee is distinctive in being one of the few national lifelong learning policies of such breadth, which apparently express a deep and long-term national commitment to lifelong learning. The Committee's core proposal to make a standard basic entitlement to lifelong learning available to every citizen may have its greatest effect in increasing the demand for post-compulsory education from under-represented groups, since as the Committee observes, one of the challenges in redressing the relatively low participation of under-represented groups is to increase their aspiration to study at the highest level. However, the Committee qualifies its recommendation that part-time learners be entitled to the same fee and loan arrangements as full-time learners, thus undermining one of the main points of a lifelong learning policy to encourage a seamless transition between, if not integration of, study and family, work and civic engagement. The breadth and ambition of the Committee's proposals is also its main challenge, and the development of priorities and measures to assess progress will be crucial to the policy's success.

Candidate for Area 1 Trustee

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article INFORMATION ON THE CANDIDATESFull AccessCandidate for Area 1 TrusteeJack S. Brandes, M.D., Ph.D., Jack S. BrandesSearch for more papers by this author, M.D., Ph.D., Fellow, 1970Published Online:6 Dec 2002https://doi.org/10.1176/pn.37.23.0032About the CandidateJack S. Brandes, M.D., Ph.D.Fellow, 1970•. Full-Time Private Practice, 1986- ; University Health Network, Toronto General Hospital, Associate Staff, 1986-•. Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, 1974-•. Ontario District Branch: Deputy Representative, 1981-85; Representative, 1985-88, 2001- ; Legislative Representative, 1988-•. Member, APA Nominating Committee, 1993-94•. International Advisor to DSM-IV, 1990-93•. Ontario Medical Association, Section on Psychiatry: Member, 1984-90; Chair, 1986-88Candidate’s ViewsAPA has several critical matters to address:DeprofessionalizationBurgeoning demands for mental health care in America coupled with the helping attitudes and openness of the professional psychiatric community have led to the downloading and outright transfer of many aspects of diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation to nonphysicians. Social workers, psychologists, mental health care workers, HMOs, and drug companies not only have stepped into the breach but also have demanded greater scopes of practice for themselves. Yet, psychiatrists are left with the burden of legal and ethical accountability for the care of patients. Psychiatrists need to show effectively how our skills, training, and experience qualify us for the authority to make clinical decisions so that we can continue to accept the professional accountability expected of us. I regard this as a major task for the years ahead.Fragmentation One response to the loss of professional status and the invasion of “competitors” into our field has been to take refuge in practice niches that seem to allow us to retain a sense of authority in order to cope with our considerable burden of accountability. This has led to an estrangement between practitioners who discover themselves split into factions: town and gown, researcher and clinician, inpatient and outpatient psychiatrists, doctors of the brain and doctors of the mind, managers and the managed. APA has suffered losses because of this divisiveness. We need to rejoin one another and learn to value our collective contributions to patient care.DemoralizationPsychiatry and its major organizations continue to struggle with the ethical dilemmas resulting from the restrictive and inadequate treatment options created by profit-driven managed “care.” As a consequence, we are becoming transformed from professionals into workers with accountabilities that no similar group faces! Other professions challenge psychiatry’s basic entitlement to treat both body and mind. As a result, our members are often discouraged, professionally disenfranchised, and unsupported, leading to increased stress and demoralization. APA needs to provide leadership and support in these areas in order to regain the trust and allegiance of its members.Over the years, APA has reached out and supported the development of marginalized members of our profession and groups representing both our patients and the public at large. APA has lobbied for better insurance coverage and nondiscriminatory access to treatment. These efforts continue to be important and valuable. Now we must address the state of the profession lest we cease to function as one.I am honored to be asked to stand for election as Area 1 trustee. My involvement in APA in both my district branch and the Assembly has given me a clear understanding of the difficulties and tasks that we all face. As a Canadian and member of a smaller district branch in Area 1, I have had the opportunity to participate in the struggles faced by two health care systems and to contribute to the position of medicine and psychiatry. I can understand the difficulties we face and act to ameliorate them.Thank you for your consideration. Exercise your right to vote!Primary Loci of Work and Sources of IncomeWork: 100%—Private practice of psychiatryIncome: 100%—Private practice of psychiatry ISSUES NewArchived

Towards measurable criteria for the equitable sharing of international water resources

Equity is key to the allocation of international water resources. Six possible criteria and allocation algorithms that operationalise the equity concept, are developed and applied to the Orange, Nile and Incomati rivers. The criterion that considers all (blue and green) water resources and that uses the basin population as the main allocation variable yields the most equitable water allocation. Two important variables are identified over which the riparian countries should reach consensus: 1. The value of green water relative to blue water. 2. The fraction of reserved water, which is defined as the basic entitlement of each riparian country. These findings are based on approximate data and have therefore a limited validity. With this caveat it is suggested that the approach developed in this article may help de-politicise negotiations between riparian countries and provide fresh perspectives that may unlock stalemates during negotiations.

Improving access and quality for ethnic minority women— panel discussion

precede the care. In community clinics, the formula we use is 80% education and nurturing, 20% medical care. If you don’t do the education and nurturing and provide the love and affirmation for the patients, the medical care isn’t going to do what you’re hoping it’s going to do. We asked UCLA to do a study of our prenatal program to isolate the reasons our patients have so few low-birth weight babies. There wasn’t any magic formula. The people who were seeing the patients wanted to see them, cared about them, and gave individual attention to their individual needs. We don’t have fancy offices or fancy equipment, but each individual’s problems are identified and effectively addressed. It sounds like a simple formula, but it’s actually very hard to deliver for people who are poor, who are minority, or who speak another language. That’s the challenge that we face, but it’s really a labor of love. We have a great time doing it. Our approach seems to affirm the importance of the communities we serve, as well as the individual patients. The problems of racial and ethnic discrimination may be solved at least in part through this kind of local community delivery, and contribution from the ground level to policy discussions on quality care and health care access.

At Law: The Human Right to Health: A Right to the "Highest Attainable Standard of Health"

In recent years, human rights have profoundly influenced the fields of public health and health care.[1] During the AIDS epidemic, civil libertarians turned to the language of human rights to defend persons against stigma and discrimination.[2] During the Clinton administration's effort to achieve universal access to medical insurance, advocates claimed that health care was a human right. This rhetorical device elevated health care from a market commodity to a basic entitlement. The main sources of human rights law within the United Nations system are two treaty-based schemes: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The United States has ratified the ICCPR but not the ICESCR. The rights contained in the ICCPR are principally "negative" or defensive in character, affording individuals a sphere of protection from government restraint--rights to liberty and privacy and freedom of expression and association, for example. The ICESCR forms the foundation for "positive rights," that is, those requiring affirmative duties of the state to provide services--for example, the right to social security, education, work, and to "share in scientific advancement and its benefits." Scholars have developed a sophisticated understanding of civil and political rights but have failed systematically to examine the meaning and enforcement of social and economic rights.[3] Perhaps the most important social and economic entitlement is the right to health. Article 12 of the ICESCR requires governments to recognize "the right of everyone to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health." Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) also expressly recognizes a right to health: Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. Considerable disagreement exists, however, as to whether "health" is a meaningful, identifiable, operational, and enforceable right, or whether it is merely aspirational or rhetorical. A right to health that is too broadly defined lacks clear content and is less likely to have a meaningful effect. For example, if health is, as suggested by WHO, "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity," then it can never be achieved.[4] Even if this definition were construed as a reasonable, as opposed to an absolute, standard, it remains difficult to implement, and is unlikely to be justiciable. Thus it is important to develop a clear definition of the human right to health that helps clarify state obligations, identify violations, and establish criteria and procedures for enforcement.[5] To achieve this goal, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (CESCR), which monitors the implementation of the ICESCR, recently issued General Comment No. 14: The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health.[6] The General Comment represents the most authoritative statement on the meaning of the right to health. General Comment 14 proclaims that "health is a fundamental human right indispensable for the exercise of other human rights. Every human being is entitled to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health conducive to living a life in dignity." The right to health is not confined to health care, but embraces a wide range of socioeconomic conditions necessary for people to lead healthy lives, including the underlying determinants of health (nutrition, housing, uncontaminated drinking water, sanitation, safe workplaces, and a healthy environment). …

Intellectual Freedom and Economic Sufficiency as Educational Entitlements

This paper explores the historic philosophical contributions ofMill and Marx toward a comprehensive conception of intellectual freedomas a basic educational entitlement. In a perhaps surprising confluence,Marx's theory of a material base for freedom of thought is then extendedin a discussion of contemporary freedoms including, importantly,academic freedom and its implication for teaching, the profession andits training.

The Reagan administration's welfare retrenchment policy: terminating social security benefits for the disabled.

Large numbers of the permanently and totally disabled have had benefits terminated since 1980 as a result of a determined effort towards that end by the Reagan administration. This is an example of the process by which a major change in political ethos is translated into important changes in welfare benefit entitlement rules. It is also interesting since it seems to be the first instance of a large scale conscientious attempt of the executive branch to reach into and narrow the basic entitlement policy of the Social Security Administration. This normally would be done through joint executive, congressional and legislative action. This article presents the policy background of these events and reviews and analyzes the data about their consequences.