The Social Science Spectrum is a peer-reviewed journal published by the Society for Scientific Aptitude, dedicated to promoting scientific aptitude and liberal education in society. The journal welcomes original contributions from scholars and researchers across the broad spectrum of social sciences, including economics, demography, gender studies, anthropology, political science, sociology, history, and related interdisciplinary fields. socialsciencespectrum@gmail.com
Is Financial Inclusion of Education Providers Cognizant: A study based on University employees
Financial inclusion is recognized as one of the major goals of development and its importance is increasingly felt in the current scenario. The government efforts are largely directed towards increasing the banked population; thereby ignoring a considerable section of population and narrowing the concept of financial inclusion. Hence, the present study extends the existing studies to education providers, i.e., university employees working in close proximity to financial services and potential labor force. The study based on a primary survey of 150 employees of University of Rajasthan reveals that modern means of banking do not enjoy universal acceptance. Saving and investment behavior of employees is governed by precautionary motive and non-financial assets. A financial inclusion index constructed using PCA reveals that employees aged 41 years and above, less educated and earning up to 50000 per month depicted low financial inclusion. Informal sources particularly media emerged as the major source of information resulting into less informed financial decision-making. Thus, the study highlights limited role of education for high level of financial inclusion and cautions against preconceived notion of considering a specific sub-group as the need of interventionsFinancial inclusion is recognized as one of the major goals of development and its importance is increasingly felt in the current scenario. The government efforts are largely directed towards increasing the banked population; thereby ignoring a considerable section of population and narrowing the concept of financial inclusion. Hence, the present study extends the existing studies to education providers, i.e., university employees working in close proximity to financial services and potential labor force. The study based on a primary survey of 150 employees of University of Rajasthan reveals that modern means of banking do not enjoy universal acceptance. Saving and investment behavior of employees is governed by precautionary motive and non-financial assets. A financial inclusion index constructed using PCA reveals that employees aged 41 years and above, less educated and earning up to 50000 per month depicted low financial inclusion. Informal sources particularly media emerged as the major source of information resulting into less informed financial decision-making. Thus, the study highlights limited role of education for high level of financial inclusion and cautions against preconceived notion of considering a specific sub-group as the need of interventions
Role and Barriers of Integrated Child Development Service in Bihar, India
Children face a lousy situation due to lack of food and nutrition in the early age of life, the most crucial period when social, emotional, language, cognitive, physical/motor development and life-long learning are laid. The results by analysing NFHS data portrayed that only nine per cent of children aged 0-71 months had availed any services from AWCs, whereas the health check-ups (0.7%) and measurement of weight at AWC (0.5%) services were least likely to be accessed in Bihar (2005-06), while it improved significantly in the latest round of the survey. Poor sections of the society have a better access to the services provided by AWCs. Atmosphere of the AWCs is not up to the mark and requires quality improvement. Poor registration in them is not only due to lack of infrastructure but also to cultural and ecological factors. Children are without basic amenities, poor lighting, and hot humid conditions. If the AWCs get basic amenities, children would be more attracted to join them. With the provision of electricity, workers would be able to take audio and video classes under pre-schooling. Intervention for nutrition also requires multi-sectoral attention.
Intimate Partner Violence-Driven Fatal Injuries among Women in India: Empirical Evidence from National Family Health Survey 2015-2016
Increasing evidence of violence against women in India is reported in recent studies. However, there is lack of evidence on violence-driven injuries among women in India. The current study examines the prevalence and risk factors of violence against women and violence-driven injuries in India using the fourth round of National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) data, conducted during 2015-16. Descriptive statistics, bivariate and multivariate analysis were carried out to see the associations of injuries and sociodemographic factors. The prevalence of lifetime experience of violence-driven injuries are: cuts or bruises were the most common injuries (21.4%) of IPV, followed by severe burn (7.8 %), eye injuries/sprains/dislocations/burns (5.4%), and deep wounds/broken bones/broken teeth/any other serious injuries (3.4%). Overall, 24.6 per cent of the of IPV victims have experienced some kind an injury in lifetime. Older women aged 35-49 years (OR = 1.247; CI=1.096-1.419), having 5 or more children (OR=1.244; CI=1.010-1.532), belonging to scheduled castes (OR=1.363; CI= 1.212-1.533) and belonging to Muslim society (OR=1.229; CI=1.075-1.405) were significantly more likely to have violencerelated injuries than their counterparts. The study demonstrated that considerable proportion of women experienced violence and violence-related injuries. Risk factors identified were women’s lack of education, alcoholism, having more than one child and poor socio-economic household status. Violence-driven injuries are among the most prominent public health problems which need urgent attention and strategic interventions to prevent them.
Malnutrition and its Associated Factors among Slum Living Adolescents in Uttar Pradesh, India
Malnutrition is one of the major public health problems worldwide. Adolescence is known to be a second opportunity for growth as it facilitates catch-up growth for children experiencing nutritional deficits in their early life. The present paper examines the prevalence and risk factors of nutritional status among adolescents (12-19) living in the slums of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, using a cross-sectional study of 590 sample households in 2015. As a part of this investigation, adolescents’ underweight and stunting status were examined to determine nutritional status using the WHO growth reference. This study performed bivariate analyses to elucidate differentials in nutritional status and fitted logistic regression models to examine the effect of different socio-economic factors on the likelihood of an adolescent’s malnutrition status. About 46 per cent of the adolescents exhibited stunted growth and 10 per cent were severely stunted. About one-fourth of the respondents were underweight and 7 per cent were severely underweight. Reinforcing the existing public health programmes is critical for enhancing the nutritional level among adolescents. Further, school, community and media-based programmes need to become effective platforms to reach adolescents at a stage in their lives when lifelong nutrition patterns are formed.
Menstrual Hygiene Practices among Women Aged 15-24 years in India: Evidence from NFHS-4
The study assesses the prevalence of menstrual hygiene habits and the factors influencing them among Indian women aged 15 to 24 years. It utilises the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) data collected from women who have menstruated in the age group of 15-24 years. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were carried out with the selected socioeconomic and demographic factors associated with the use of hygienic methods during menstruation. The analysis shows that 57 per cent women practised hygienic methods in India and more than 60 per cent used cloth during their menstruation to prevent the blood stains from becoming evident. Place of residence, year of schooling, caste/tribe, wealth index, region, marital status, structure of the house and exposure to mass media were statistically significant with the use of hygienic methods. A significant proportion of adolescent females does not practise good menstrual hygiene. It is crucial that young girls are taught the value of keeping their bodies clean throughout their menstrual periods in order to lower their chances of developing reproductive tract infections.
Association of Marital Violence with Contraceptive Use in India
Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) against women is a global issue (a prominent social determinant of health) and a significant public health concern. Ever married women’s ever experience of spousal physical or sexual violence has declined from 37 per cent in NFHS-3 to 29 per cent in NFHS-4. However, there has been almost no change in women’s experience of spousal physical or sexual violence in the 12 months preceding each survey (24% in NFHS-3 and 22% in NFHS-4). The infliction of physical violence has multi-dimensional implications. On the one side, it has a long trail of ill-effects for the victims ranging from physical, reproductive and mental health outcomes and, on the other side, it has far-reaching consequences for family planning in India. The paper throws light on the hidden factors that are obstacles to the use of contraception with any violence by using the data of women’s file from NFHS-4 (2015-16). We used binary logistic regression, multinomial logistic regression and bivariate analysis for all the objectives. The key finding of the paper is that limiting methods are used more than spacing methods by women experiencing physical, sexual or emotional violence. Coordinated efforts can be undertaken to increase awareness about the adverse impact of domestic violence on contraception.
Measuring and Decomposing Inequalities in Mental Disorders among Elderly in Five Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Evidence from WHO-SAGE, Wave 1
The paper aims to quantify the extent of inequalities among the older population in India, China, Ghana, Russia and South Africa. Though studies show prevalence of mental disorder among these countries, little is known about relative contribution of explanatory factors for health-related inequality in mental disorders among elderly. Data from Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE), WAVE-1 (2007-10), has been used for analysis. Finding portrays that though inequality prevails more in China, Indian older population suffers more from mental disorders compared with the other selected countries. Further, decomposition analysis reveals that age, urban residence, male sex and education (high school or more) show significantly more importance in order to explain relative contribution in inequality for mental disorders. In contrast, relative contribution of employment is very less. The lower value of unexplained CI shows that selected explanatory factors significantly explain the existing inequalities. In essence, results indicate that inequalities are artefacts of existing inequalities through place of residence, gender, education and economic factors, which need instant attention of policy makers to promote mental well-being through active and healthy ageing.
Importance of Proximity to Outpatient Care Facilities in Rural India
The paper illustrates the additional travel and associated burden while accessing outpatient care services in Rural India. Analysis based on the 75th round of National Sample Survey (2017-18) on ‘Health Care Consumption’, showed that only 54 per cent people in rural India were able to avail outpatient care within their locality in comparison with 94 per cent in urban India. The need to travel outside their rural locality is lowest for those seeking care from private clinic/doctor (62%), followed by those seeking government facilities (56%). The utilization of outpatient services from their localities were more for non-chronic ailments (62%) than for chronic ailments (46%). Those seeking health care outside their locality reported higher out of pocket expenditure and had higher loss in household income due to outpatient treatment. Results indicate the achievement of the long-standing goals set for establishing adequately staffed PHCs and CHCs in rural areas and a provision to provide incentives to set up health facilities in remote rural areas is essential to ensure equitable access to basic health care in here. Since the establishment of specialized care in all the rural areas is financially not viable, the solution suggested here is to compensate the rural population for travel and other related costs.
Post-abortion Complications and Treatment-seeking Behaviour among Women in India
Studies on abortion, post-abortion complications and their treatment seeking behaviour is limited in Indian context mainly because of the stigma and taboos associated with abortion. The present study attempts to find out the place of abortion, post-abortion complication and determinants of treatment-seeking behaviour of post-abortion complications in India. Using the data from NFHS-4 and employing both bi-variate and multivariate analyses, it found that more than half of the abortions happened in private health facilities, one-fifth in public facilities and about one-fourth outside the health facilities. Post-abortion complication is higher in the northern region, followed by the central region. Fifteen per cent of women did not go for treatment for post-abortion complications mainly because they can’t afford the treatment and social stigma. Therefore, these women should have a priority in policy. As there is social stigma attached to abortion in India, its reporting is a matter of concern. To minimize this, awareness about abortion to the people should be created and women educated.
Adult Out-Migration and Multi-Dimensional Well-Being of Elderly Parents ‘Left Behind’: A Cross-Sectional Study of India
Obtaining data from a nationally representative survey of old age population—Building a Knowledge Base on Population Ageing in India (BKPAI) comprising 9852 older adults, the present study empirically evaluates different dimensions of wellbeing among Indian elderly individuals left behind by their adult migrant children. We focus on five different dimensions of well-being among elderly, viz., physical, psychological, subjective, social and housing. Data were analyzed using propensity score matching technique. Findings suggest that the elderly individuals with adult migrant children were more likely to attain better physical and subjective well-being whereas the migration of adult children showed adverse effect on the psychological and social well-being indicators. However, results did not show any statistically significant association between migration and housing wellbeing of left behind elderly. Given the rising proportion of ageing population in India combined with an increasing trend in rural-urban adult migration, our findings suggest that the policy-makers should pay more attention to the migration status of adult children to keep track of the psychological and social welfare among Indian older adults.
A Review on Interventions to Improve the Maternal Care during Pregnancy and Childbirth in Rural India
Most of the maternal deaths occur in developing countries and India contributes to onefifth of this maternal mortality. Many of these deaths are preventable through effective interventions. The present study aims to address the gap in the effect of improved quality of care in pregnancy and childbirth through a review of existing literature. Its focus on displaying the evidence of interventions on care during pregnancy and childbirth in rural India and to compile the existing evidence of the effectiveness of these interventions which may be helpful for policy making. The search strategy was to identify relevant articles in the database like MEDLINE, PubMed, Popline, and Cochrane. A total of 264 abstracts from 2005 to 2018 were identified from the database search. After reviewing the abstracts against inclusion and quality assessment, 16 articles were found suitable for review. The review shows that community-level interventions focusing on women, frontline health workers and family members through knowledge enhancement, use of mobile technology and upgrading health facilities resulted in improvement in the utilization of maternal practices. This review found evidence that community health workers were effective in delivering health promotion or education or preventive intervention for maternal services in rural India.
Going beyond the Numbers: A Narrative Literature Review of Child Sex Ratio in India
Declining child sex ratio (CSR) is an important demographic feature in South Asian countries, particularly in India. In recent decades the situation has become alarming. Literature on changing CSR in India has traversed through various narratives. Straight forward explanations to decline in CSR have been elusive. Diverse disciplines have highlighted different aspects of CSR. For instance, while demographers focus on spatial and temporal aspects, sociologists emphasised women’s status and autonomy, economists underline the economic value of children. This paper examines the narratives from the existing literature to help clarify the issues that shape the changes in CSR. The purpose of this paper is to review and thematise the relevant literature. For this the relevant literature was chronologically arranged to temporally map the scholarship and debates. Apart from underlining the significance of examining the influence of social factors in CSR, the study found that over time, the role of technology and policy surrounding it started occupying more and more space in the landscape. This conceptual clarity and new insights form the scope for the future research and further studies.
Prasad, Anirudh (2016). JP’s Vision of Rural Reconstruction and Entrepreneurship Development. Bihar Vidyapeeth, Patna. 40p. Price not mentioned.
This booklet was brought out to commemorate the 117th birth anniversary of Jayaprakash Narayan, popularly known as ‘JP’. It contains five sections.
Health Care in Corporate Social Responsibility of Tata Steel
After the Industrial Revolution, the aim of an enterprise was only to earn maximum profit. Thinking has changed since then. Now it is believed that it should contribute to the development of the area of its operations. The Government of India has also made it mandatory. Tata Steel is following this policy from the very beginning of its establishment in early 20th century. It has contributed to the improvement of public health in the area of its operation and beyond.
Prescription Pattern of Antibiotics for Treatment of Acute Illnesses in India: Evidence from IHDS-2
This paper examines the extent of use and socio-economic determinants of antibiotics for treatment of acute illnesses in India. The study uses IHDS-2 (2011-12), a nationally representative sample survey, for analysis. Four acute illnesses are included in the study: fever, cough, cough with short breath and diarrhoea. Bivariate analysis and logistic regression are used to examine the relationship between acute illness and antibiotic use. The overall prevalence rate of acute illness was around 17.4 per cent and was the highest for fever (15.6%) followed by cough (11.7%). Around one-fourth of the patients with acute illness were prescribed antibiotics. The prescription of antibiotic was the highest for cough with short breathe (32.8%), followed by diarrhoea (~27%). The odds of antibiotic prescription were 14 per cent (OR=1.14; 95% CI: 1.04-1.26) and 35 per cent (OR=1.35; 95% CI: 1.11-1.63) higher among individuals aged 5-14 years and 70 or more years compared with children aged less than 5 years. Individuals from the richest quintile were 56 per cent (OR=1.56; 95% CI: 1.42-1.72) more likely to be prescribed antibiotics compared with the poorest quintile individuals. The odds of antibiotic prescription for acute illnesses were 39 per cent lower among private doctors/nurses (OR=0.61; 95% CI: 0.58-0.65) as compared with government doctors/nurses. A higher prescription rate for acute illness, especially diarrhoea, majority of which doesn’t require antibiotic therapy indicates that there is a need of awareness programmes and routine surveillance system for antibiotic use along with existing surveillance of antibiotic resistance.
Neighbourhood Characteristics and Residential Satisfaction: A Study of Greater Mumbai City
This study assesses the level of residential satisfaction and its major determinants in different housing typologies of Greater Mumbai City using primary data collected from 450 households in five different housing typologies (i.e., high-rise buildings, old colonies, chawls, slums and slum-rehabilitated buildings). For analysis of data, Bi-virate tables, One-way ANOVA test, Pearson correlation and OLS regression were done. Results indicate that despite being proximate to one another, the housing typologies have different levels of satisfaction with their dwellings. Slum and chawl neighbourhood shows low residential satisfaction compared with other housing types. The OLS regression exhibits that duration of residence, family type, household ownership and household congestion are significant determining factors for residential satisfaction. Housing development should direct the designing of houses to culturally fit for the community people living in them. The study recommends finding out more ways to make dwelling places, especially slums, Slum rehabilitated houses and chawls more satisfying for sustainable development.
Decomposing the Socio-Economic Inequalities in Utilization of Antenatal Care in South Asian Countries: Insights from Demographic and Health Surveys
Even after encouraging maternal and child wellness programs at worldwide level, lower-middle income nations have not reached the goal set by the UN yet. This study attempts to fill the gap and examines the associations and inequalities between socio-economic, demographic factors and utilization of full antenatal Care in South Asian countries. It uses data from DHS of the selected countries, and Oaxaca decomposing is applied for socioeconomic inequalities in utilization of antenatal care. Findings from the multivariate analysis show that mother’s age at the time of birth, birth order and interval, mother’s education, mass media exposure and economic status are significant determinants of the utilization of antenatal care services in South Asian countries. In terms of specific outcomes with regard to inequality in ANC, the distance from the line of equity to the line of concentration curve is greatest in Pakistan followed by India and Nepal.
Institutions, Events and Theory: A Comparison of the Monetary Policy Reforms of 1844/45 in England and Sweden
The paper analyses the role of ideas, past experience and crises in the process leading to theoretical and political disputes and the changes of monetary and banking policy in Sweden in 1844/45. It also analyses the role of institutional settings and types of actors involved in the decision-making process. A comparative approach is deployed. Policy changes at the time in the poor and peripheral Sweden is contrasted with the well-known developments in England. The results suggest that current events and past experience were important factors. Purely theoretical considerations played a somewhat lesser role in determining the policy-change. Institutional peculiarities and country characteristics did not significantly alter the core outcomes, but certain specific features. Probably an influx of ideas, policies and experiences from England also influenced policy choices in the case of Sweden,
A Rawls-Sen Approach to Spatial Injustice
This paper outlines a guiding principle to address spatial inequalities and injustice in terms of distribution, recognition and participation. The result suggests the emergence of a contractarian principle designed to deal with geographically distributed inequalities, allowing for a monitored market economy applicable not only to cities but to all types of territory. This guiding principle is based upon the 1998 Nobel Laureate in Economics Amartya Sen’s concept Capability Deprivation and a territorialisation of the liberal philosopher John Rawls’ second principle for achieving Social Justice.
Cost of Being at Borders: North-Eastern Region of India
North East Region (NER) is a perfect case to visualize the development gap between mainland and marchland. Peculiarity of the region lies in sharing 98 per cent of its border with the foreign countries. This region is natural resource endowed, especially with spices. Even then it shares less than 3 per cent of India’s GDP which is an indication of the low standard of living of the people. The present study attempts to find if this region is paying the cost of being at borders? It argues that lack of infrastructure, means of communication, transportation and mobilization of resources in particular convert it into marchlands as far as pace of economic activities is concerned. At the same time, in the absence of appropriate trade policy formulation, interdependence of the people on the two sides of the political boundaries is getting translated into informal trade practices and sometimes even illegal trade practices. The paper seeks to examine how the lack of infrastructure development has adversely affected the integration of the region with the rest of India and thereby has exacerbated its development problems.
Burden of Tobacco-related Cancers in India and its States, 2015-2025
Tobacco use is a significant contributor to the cancer burden, which is preventable. It relates to around a quarter to two-third of cancers in males and up to half in females. For planning and effective implementation of anti-tobacco programmes, the knowledge of burden of tobacco-related cancers (TRCs) is essential. This paper assesses and projects the burden of TRCs in India and its States for the period 2015-2025 by using the data of National Cancer Registry Programme (NCRP) of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). Cancer incidence rates generated by Population-Based Cancer Registries under the NCRP and population of India and its States as projected by the Registrar General of India formed the sources of data for this study. The best possible assessment of incidence rates was made for the States and Union Territories using the limited data available. The regression method was applied to assess the trend and project the rates for the study period. Overall burden of TRCs in India was estimated at about 365 thousand in 2015 and projected to increase to 506 thousand by 2025, an increase of more than one-third. A sizeable portion of this burden is due to tobacco use in men. Analysis showed regional diversity in the burden of diverse types of TRCs. There is an urgent need to initiate focused tobacco prevention measures to combat this threat.
Migration and Maternal Health Care Services Utilisation in Uttar Pradesh, India
This paper examines the utilisation of maternal health care services among women belonging to migrant and non-migrant households in Uttar Pradesh. Data from the second round of India Human Development Survey (IHDS-II) conducted in 2011-12 have been used for this study. IHDS-II collected information from nationally representative sample of 42,152 households, with 13,952 women aged 15-49. This data provides straight-forward information on out-migration, remittances and maternal health care utilisation. Binary logistic regression and propensity score matching have been applied to fulfil the objectives of the paper. The results show that a vast disparity exists in the utilisation of maternal health care services among women belong to migrants and nonmigrant households. The logistic regression shows that full anti-natal care is almost two times higher for women from migrant households compared with women from nonmigrant households. This paper further estimates the impact of migration on maternal health care service utilisation by estimating the difference in outcome between exposed (women belongs to migrant households) and non-exposed or the matched control (women from non-migrant households) with the help of propensity score matching analysis. The results show that women of migrant households in Uttar Pradesh have 2.9 per cent higher probability of getting full antenatal care than women in non-migrant households. Globally, the emancipatory potential of migration is a fact. The role of remittances (both internal and international) on development in the sending communities is also widely accepted. Migration helps in improving the quality of life by increasing the family's expenditure on education, business, housing and other necessities.
Identifying Channels into Business for Somali-Swedes in the UK
Many Somali-Swedes have over the years moved on to the UK to start businesses. What channels do they use to enter into business in the UK? What can we learn from their stories? This article makes a contribution to the field of immigrant migration, integration and entrepreneurship by identifying and analysing what channels Somali-Swedes use to integrate into the UK labour market through entrepreneurship. The analysis is based on interviews, observations and field notes from Birmingham, Leicester and London. The results suggest that Somali-Swedes use different channels to start business in the UK, such as socialization, belonging, community, cultural bonds and heritage, informal banking, public flexibility, free business introduction and making use of experience
Electronic Health Records in Health and Disease
Electronic Health Records (EHRs) with portability facility were first developed in the United States of America and France to (i) empower citizens for health, (ii) enrich health personnel for diagnosis and treatment, and (iii) making available EHR for the judiciary. National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) is the legislation adopted by the Government of India for uplifting the health standard of the citizens in the line with the developed countries. Each health institution/healthcare provider needs to adopt Medical Data Management System (MDMS) to enhance the quality of healthcare and quality teaching, and to increase research in healthcare as a part of NDHM. As India is adopting EHR under the National Digital Health Mission, this note discusses the requirements for adopting centralised EHR.
Dorab Tata (1859-1932): A Giant among Industrialists
Dorab Tata was the topmost industrialist of his times. After his initial stint with Gandhi and Gokhale, he was close to the government and attempted to form a party of capitalists. His place in history is based on his contribution to India’s industrialization. His father conceived of a steel company and some other companies. Dorab brought them into fruition. Besides, he established some companies at his own. He was elected president of the Indian Industrial Conference and nominated as a member of the Indian Industrial Commission. He had a rich collection of art treasures and promoted games and sports. His charities too were praise-worthy.
Quality of Life of Elderly in Rural Murshidabad (West Bengal)
This study explains the quality of life among the elderly in rural Murshidabad. A community-based cross-sectional design was adopted for it. Descriptive statistics, boxplot, t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and linear regression were used for the analysis of data. The overall score of quality of life (QOL) was 41.92±7.69 where 38.53±9.12 for the physical domain; 40.28±8.12 for the psychological domain; 40.11±10.98 for the social relationship domain; and 47.59±7.69 for the environmental domain. The findings revealed that OQOL had a strong negative association with age of the elderly. Wealth status also had a significant negative association with all the domains of quality of life. Further, unemployed elderly had a lower QOL in each domain.
Coal Mining and Access to Livelihood Capitals: Mines and Non-mines Affected Villages in Jharkhand (India)
This study aims to evaluate the situation of livelihood capital utilisation, its major determinant and rising inequality in its utilisation during economic transformation. It uses primary data of 416 sample households from predefined compared groups (viz. mines exposed versus non-exposed villages) which was collected under the crosssectional research designed by a structured questionnaire. The principal component analysis, bivariate, logistic regression, iv-probit 2sls regression and concentration index (CI) are used to achieve the study objectives. The odds ratio shows that mines affected villages were less likely to utilise natural capital. Although it had a significantly higher likelihood to utilise social, physical, economic capitals compared with their counterparts. Besides, the odds of human capital do not show any utilisation differences between both residential settings. However, in the context of aggregate utilisation of ACI, there is a significantly higher likelihood for mines affected villages. The study applied iv-probit 2sls regression and found that mines generated income had significant influences over ACI. The CI coefficient shows that in mines affected villages social capital is equally utilised across all income class compared to other capitals. In a nutshell, finite nature of coal-generated income has no sustainability; hence, it shows an inverse association with livelihood sustainability.
Temporal and Spatial Discourse of Disability Divides in India: A District-Level Analysis
The study quantifies and compares the prevalence of each type of disability across gender, regions and social groups of India. A cursory glance across the districts (using GIS mapping) shows that the incidence of disability is distributed across every nook and corner. There is a marginal increase in the proportion of persons with disabilities (PWDs) in 2011 relative to 2001. Its prevalence is more among males than females. Its decadal growth is higher in the urban areas. Further, it’s more among scheduled castes (SCs). Although there is a significant improvement in data collection in the 2011 Census, concerns have been raised in the present study about the enumeration process. Close to one-third of PWDs belong to “any-other” and “multiple categories” which reveal lacunae in the estimates. Besides, there is an apparent underestimation of disability data because of deep-seated stigma among women and inadequate coverage of mental health issues in the country. Based on the estimates of the regression model, the findings suggest that improvement in educational standards among women, creating employment opportunities and improving average living conditions can significantly reduce disability. However, there is a growing elderly population and increasing age is associated with rising disability. As the burden of disability falls disproportionately across geographic regions and socioeconomic groups, public health policies should take this variation into account. Thus, providing access to basic capabilities to PWDs may be strategically important to reduce the challenges for the disabled.
Nigeria’s Electoral Process: Probing Nefarious Issues and Complications in the Polity
For over two decades, Nigeria’s electoral process has been languishing though there have been efforts by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). But those efforts have been thwarted. The continued poor showing and outcome have been sickening and disappointing. However, with a determination and tenacity aimed at probing issues and complications that are responsible for the drawbacks in the process, this paper examines the nefarious issues and their impact on the electoral process. Qualitative approach was adopted and secondary sources were employed with inferences drawn by qualitative analysis. Imperfection in the electoral process have been the result of corruption, electoral malpractices, electoral violence, vote buying and federal might. It offered potential ways seen as drives for improving the electoral process, one of which is the practical independence of INEC as recognized by the Electoral Act, 2010. The paper concludes that the issues and complications are antithetical to Nigeria’s electoral process.
The Culture of Migration in Kerala: An Inquiry
This paper attempts to understand the culture of migration in Kerala qualitatively, primarily in the light of Kerala-Gulf migration. It addresses three major arguments associated with the culture of migration in the context of Kerala. The first argument is that migration is widespread and has a historical presence in Kerala. The second argument is that the decision to migrate is influenced by the day-to-day experiences of an individual. The final argument is that families and communities consider migration a pathway to socio-economic well-being. Most people from Kerala are aware of the migration history, processes, costs, and benefits attached. Individuals and households make choices to migrate or not to migrate based on these cost-benefit analyses. The Kerala community defines its social space by factoring in migration and remittances, which are pivotal in achieving social status and prestige. The study concludes that migration became culturally accepted when individuals could not meet familial and social expectations, such as a middle-class lifestyle, a meaningful job, children’s education, and social mobility. Decisions related to migration are socially implanted and culturally informed. The culture of migration is dynamic and continuously evolving over time.