Universalization of Elementary Education: Challenges, Issues and Efforts

The Indian education system is perhaps the largest system in the world catering the need of millions of students of different socio-economic background. Education is globally acknowledged as the most powerful means of empowerment. Education is utmost important for every child irrespective of its gender. It is disheartening that, even in current modern scenario, some people are still against the education of the girl children. Every child has the right to receive elementary education however, Due to many factors girls are forced to leave school while others never have been provided an opportunity to enroll in schools. Among children not attending schools there are more girls than boys and among illiterate adults, there are more women than women. Many girls continue to dropout that adversely affects the efficiency of the education system and respective progressive expectations. The unfinished task in terms of un-enrolled and out-of-school girl child is the manor challenge. Rigorous and continuous efforts are required to bring and retain girl children under the purview of education system. The community and government schemes in this direction, can jointly play a vital role in bringing and retaining girl children to schools for primary and secondary education. To understand the problems and challenges faced by girls at elementary education level the author conducted a study in education zone Magam. The zone progressed significantly but still it has many areas of concern that are primarily responsible for un-fulfilment of the goals of universal literacy. There are number of problems which become hindrance in the way of education of girls but whatever the reason is if significant efforts were taken this problem can be then tackled easily. So, the authors hope that this study can help us to illuminate some of the complexities around education of the girls at elementary level and bring new insight to policy makers and educational practitioners

Gender Equality in Elementary Education: A Dream or Reality

For centuries girls were not treated equal to boys in many ways. The education of girls has become one of the most important concerns of 21st century not only at local level but also at the national level. Efforts by the government are on to ensure gender equality but government initiatives alone would not be sufficient to achieve this goal. Society must take initiative to create a climate in which there is no gender discrimination and girls have full opportunity to receive good quality elementary education without any barrier. The female literacy rate is also lower than the male literacy rate. The ground reality is deprivation and exploitation of girls especially from rural areas and those belonging to deprived sections of the society. Education is a powerful tool of social transformation. Hence, education for girls has to be paid special attention. Greater access for education must be ensured in the educational system. Gender sensitivity must be developed. A watch has to be kept on dropout rate of girls and corrective measures should be taken to check the dropout rates. There is no denying the fact that education of girls have made considerable progress in almost every aspect, but they still have to struggle against many handicaps and social evils in the male dominated society. The study found that there are 222 children in the age group of 06-14 years who are out of school from a single education zone. Taking this thing into consideration it seems a dream to achieve 100% literacy rate at elementary level if time bound steps are not taken to solve this problem. Hence, the study will help all stakeholders to become aware of the present situation and issues prevailing in the education zone Khag and can play an active role in solving these problems effectively and fruitfully.&nbsp

Socio-psychological Issues in the Novels of Chaman Nahal

This paper deals with the partition between India and Pakistan. After partition how people became mentally sick and psychologically depress. Chaman Nahal depicted a photographic detail the catastrophic episode that was enacted on the Indian soil immediately before and after the declaration of the British decision in June 1947 to vacate India after partitioning it. Nahal showed how people of Pakistan have been living together with peace and harmony, but after the partition world is shaken by the creation of Pakistan. Keywords: human psyche, massacre, bloodshed, partition, trauma, anguish, rape, violenc

TRADITIONAL HERBAL BASED DISEASE TREATMENT IN SOME RURAL AREAS OF BANDIPORA DISTRICT OF JAMMU AND KASHMIR, INDIA

Objective: Plants have been traditionally used for hundreds of years as a source of medicine by indigenous people of different ethnic groups inhabiting various terrains for the control of various ailments afflicting humans and their domestic animals. Today not only the medicinal plants but also their associated traditional knowledge is threatened due to a range of both natural and anthropogenic factors. In this backdrop, urgent ethnobotanical investigations and subsequent conservation measures are required to save these resources from further loss. Present study was designed with the sole purpose of eliciting the firsthand precious wealth of information on the traditional medicinal uses of plants practiced by the people residing in far flung and remote areas of the Bandipora district of Jammu and Kashmir, India.Methods: Frequent field trips and plant collections were made from various far flung and remote areas of the Bandipora district from March 2012 to September 2012. The district is floristically rich with sizable population of tribal communities and forest dwellers. Methods used to document the traditional knowledge included interviews and discussions with local knowledgeable persons, herbal healers called Bhoris†and Tribals (Gujjars and Bakkerwals).Results: A total of 25 different plant species belonging to equal number of genera and 21 different families were found to be used as effective remedies by the local people in their day to day life to cure various human and livestock ailments. Angiosperms comprised the highest number (23 species) followed by one pteridophytic and one gymnospermic species.Conclusion: Traditional uses of medicinal plants against different ailments plays a significant role in meeting the primary health care needs of the local people especially rural communities of the study area. The information on traditional uses of plants could serve a useful source for pharmacologists, phytochemists, botanists and to those interested in the development of alternative therapiesKeywords: Traditional knowledge, ailments, Bhoris, tribals, Bandipora

Indo-pak Peace Process -Challenges and Opportunities

Relations between India and Pakistan have been strained by a number of Historical and political issues, and are defined by the violent partition of British India in 1947, the Kashmir dispute and the numerous military conflicts fought between the two nations. Consequently, even though the two South Asian nations share historic, cultural, geographic, and economic links, their relationship has been plagued by hostility and suspicion. After the dissolution of the British Raj in 1947, two new sovereign nations were formed—the Union of India and the Dominion of Pakistan. The subsequent partition of the former British India displaced up to 12.5 million people, with estimates of loss of life varying from several hundred thousand to a million. India emerged as a secular nation with a Hindu majority population and a large Muslim minority while Pakistan was established as an Islamic republic with an overwhelming Muslim majority population. Soon after their independence, India and Pakistan established diplomatic relations but the violent partition and numerous territorial disputes would overshadow their relationship. Since their independence, the two countries have fought three major wars, one undeclared war and have been involved in numerous armed skirmishes and military standoffs. The Kashmir dispute is the main center-point of all of these conflicts with the exception of the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971, which resulted in the secession of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).There have been numerous attempts to improve the relationship—notably, the Shimla summit, the Agra summit and the Lahore summit. Since the early 1980s, relations between the two nations soured particularly after the Siachen conflict, the intensification of Kashmir insurgency in 1989, Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests in 1998 and the 1999 Kargil war. Certain confidence-building measures — such as the 2003 ceasefire agreement and the Delhi–Lahore Bus service — were successful in deescalating tensions. However, these efforts have been impeded by periodic terrorist attacks. The 2001 Indian Parliament attack almost brought the two nations on the brink of a nuclear war. The 2007 Samjhauta Express bombings, which killed 68 civilians (most of whom were Pakistani), was also a crucial point in relations. Additionally, the 2008 Mumbai attacks carried out by Pakistani militants resulted in a severe blow to the ongoing India-Pakistan peace talks. key words Kashmir dispute terrorism delhi Lahore bus service paece tradin

Role of Diversity-Focused HR Practices in Mitigating Deviant Workplace Behavior: A Review

Organizations in today's scenario are faced with a large number of HRM challenges resulting from workforce diversity. Workforce diversity has become one of the most pertinent management issues in organizations from all sectors and changing workforce has required organizations to change how they think about HRM. It is quite evident that all organizations are impacted by diversity either directly or indirectly, which has made it significant for organizations to manage diversity for which HRM plays a very significant role. Thus, due to the diverse nature of workforce, it has become significant for organizations to make their HR practices diversity-oriented so that deviant workplace behaviors are reduced to minimal. It is believed that employees will not indulge in deviant workplace behaviors when they perceive their organizations to be adopting adequate and diversity-oriented HRM methods and practices. Given this contention, the purpose of this paper is to examine the role that diversity-focused HR practices play in mitigating the deviant workplace behaviors in organizations. An extensive literature review on the said constructs was conducted where both variables were studied independently and the relationship that both variables exhibit together was also studied. A systematic review of the literature was carried out with the keywords like diversity management, diversity-focused HR practices and deviant workplace behavior from several electronic databases like Google scholar, emerald insight, Springer, Taylor, and Francis

Solar cycle variation and its impact on critical frequency of F layer

The ionosphere exhibits the variability over different time scales. In the present paper we present the long term solar activity variations of mid latitude ionosphere. To accomplish this study we have considered a famous Australian station namely Hobart (42.88°S, 147.32°E), which falls in the mid latitudinal region. The variability has been examined over the previous three solar cycles i.e, 21, 22 and 23 solar cycles. To characterize the long term variability of the solar activity we have used four indices namely sunspot number (Rz), solar radio flux (F 10.7cm), Mg II core to wing ratio and solar flare index. Similarly, for ionospheric variability we have the critical frequency of F2 layer (foF2). From our study, we found that the long term changes in the solar activity indices which are closely and synchronously reflected in the ionospheric foF2. To quantify the magnitude of association between the long term solar activity variations and the ionsopehric variations we have performed the single regression analysis and computed the correlation coefficients between the two types of indicies, and found that there exists an extremely strong correlation between the two types of indices for all the three solar cycles. Hence, it has been concluded that the ionospheric foF2 is strongly influenced by solar activity with an 11-year variability

Bayesian Analysis of Location-Scale Family of Distributions Using S-PLUS and R Software

The Normal and Laplace’s methods of approximation for posterior density based on the location-scale family of distributions in terms of the numerical and graphical simulation are examined using S-PLUS and R Software

Prenanthes violaefolia Decne. (Asteraceae)-a new report from Kashmir Himalaya, India

AbstractObjectiveTo enumerate the diversity of important medicinal plants used traditionally by the local populace in biodiversity rich temperate Himalayan ranges of Bandipora district, Jammu and Kashmir, India.MethodsMethods used to explore the plants with medicinal value and to record associated ethnomedicinal knowledge included semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and walk-in-the-woods with local knowledgeable persons, traditional practitioners called “Bhoeris” and tribals (Gujjars and Bakkerwals).ResultsDuring plant exploration in this floristically rich Himalayan region, a very interesting and less-known species of the genus Prenanthes L., (Asteraceae) was recorded. On examination, the species was identified as Prenanthes violaefolia Decne., which represents a first report from Kashmir Himalaya, India.ConclusionsPrenanthes violaefolia could serve as an important source of new potent compounds provided that it is subjected to thorough phytochemical and pharmacological investigations