India’s smallest Union Territory, Lakshadweep is an archipelago consisting of 36 islands with an area of 32 sq km. It is directly under the control of the Centre through an administrator.
The Capital is Kavaratti and it is also the principal town of the UT. Pitti island, which is uninhabited, has a bird sanctuary.
ITS SOCIETY-
The society in all islands is matriarchal. The religion is Islam of the pristine Shafi school of law. When Islam came to the islands is debated. Fishery is the main occupation here. It is ruled by a lieutenant governor, Praful Khoda Patel.
THE ISSUE- GOONDA ACT:
The people of Lakshadweep have also opposed the administrator of trying to interfere in the traditional life by introducing a ban on buying or selling beef products, The Goonda Act being introduced in the island that has negligible crime rate and revoking of restrictions on alcohol for benefit of tourism also have attracted criticism from the islanders, Other initiatives by the administrator include panchayat rules designed to restrict the population growth in a territory where, according to the National Health and Family Survey-5 (2019-20), the total fertility rate is 1.4 (which is far behind the national average of 2.2) and relaxing prohibition, extant in the Union Territory because of public demand, Deliberations of the IDA wanted that Lakshadweep, with its land ownership constitutionally protected, be opened to international tourism not as a means of generating wealth for investors from the mainland but to bring prosperity to the islanders.
THE DECISION-
A clear policy must include conservation and natural resource management arrived at after wide consultation, eminently possible within the existing infrastructure of the Union Territory, and also taking into account climatic compulsions.
Maldives is hardly a suitable model. Water bungalows — an expensive concept and also hazardous to the coral favored by the NITI Aayog, would collapse in Lakshadweep’s monsoon.
The Government should recognize the need to develop policies for enhancing employment opportunities, environment-friendly management of fisheries, sanitation, waste disposal and widening access to drinking water, with the youth, having acquired a modern education, preferring salaried jobs over pursuing traditional occupations.
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