Missing Women and Bare Branches: Gender Balance and Conflict

The emerging subfield of “security demographics” examines the linkages between population dynamics and the security trajectories of nation-states. For the last 5 to 10 years, researchers have examined the security aspects of such topics as the demographic transition, the sub-replacement birth rates of developed economies, the proportion of young men as compared to older men in the population, the effects of legal and illegal immigration, and the effects of pandemics such as AIDS and drug-resistant tuberculosis. This paper aims to add the variable of gender balance to the discussion: are societies with an abnormal ratio between men and women less secure

Determinants of neonatal mortality in rural India, 2007-2008.

Background. Despite the growing share of neonatal mortality in under-5 mortality in the recent decades in India, most studies have focused on infant and child mortality putting neonatal mortality on the back seat. The development of focused and evidence-based health interventions to reduce neonatal mortality warrants an examination of factors affecting it. Therefore, this study attempt to examine individual, household, and community level factors affecting neonatal mortality in rural India.Data and methods. We analysed information on 171,529 singleton live births using the data from the most recent round of the District Level Household Survey conducted in 2007–08. Principal component analysis was used to create an asset index. Two-level logistic regression was performed to analyse the factors associated with neonatal deaths in rural India.Results. The odds of neonatal death were lower for neonates born to mothers with secondary level education (O R = 0.60, p = 0.01) compared to those born to illiterate mothers. A progressive reduction in the odds occurred as the level of fathers’ education increased. The odds of neonatal death were lower for infants born to unemployed mothers (O R = 0.89, p = 0.00) compared to those who worked as agricultural worker/farmer/laborer. The odds decreased if neonates belonged to Scheduled Tribes (O R = 0.72, p = 0.00) or ‘Others’ caste group (O R = 0.87, p = 0.04) and to the households with access to improved sanitation (O R = 0.87, p = 0.02), pucca house (O R = 0.87, p = 0.03) and electricity (O R = 0.84, p = 0.00). The odds were higher for male infants (O R = 1.21, p = 0.00) and whose mother experienced delivery complications (O R = 1.20, p = 0.00). Infants whose mothers received two tetanus toxoid injections (O R = 0.65, p = 0.00) were less likely to die in the neonatal period. Children of higher birth order were less likely to die compared to first birth order.Conclusion. Ensuring the consumption of an adequate quantity of Tetanus Toxoid (TT) injections by pregnant mothers, targeting vulnerable groups like young, first time and Scheduled Caste mothers, and improving overall household environment by increasing access to improved toilets, electricity, and pucca houses could also contribute to further reductions in neonatal mortality in rural India. Any public health interventions aimed at reducing neonatal death in rural India should consider these factors

Utilization of Reproductive and Child Health Services and Client Satisfaction from Urban Primary Health Centers by Recently Delivered Women Living in Urban Slums of Lucknow, India

Background: Due to rapid urbanization, there is an increase in population in slums often lacking access to basic health services. Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the utilization of reproductive and child health services by recently delivered women and their children residing in catchment areas of urban PHCs, to evaluate their level of satisfaction and to determine the factors associated with utilization of these services by recently delivered women. Settings and Design: The study was conducted in the catchment areas of urban primary health centre of Lucknow. Methods and Material: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 320 women having children less than 24 months in the slums covered under selected U-PHCs, sampled through a multi-stage random sampling technique using a semi-structured questionnaire. Statistical analysis used: SPSS-26 and MedCalc software were used for data analysis. Results: Utilization of RCH services by recently delivered women from UPHC was 39%. About 24% of recently delivered women availed ANC services from UPHC and 56.7% utilized family planning services and 95.8% immunization services for children. Child care services for diarrhea and ARI were availed by 9.9 and 3.1% of women, respectively. Satisfaction regarding maternal care and immunization services was seen in 84 and 95.8% of women. Poor satisfaction regarding child care was seen in 56.5% of women. Conclusions: The utilization of RCH services was found to be poor in the study population. Most recently delivered women were satisfied with all services except child care

Foreign Labor Trends Report: 2006 India

An overview of recent trends in India\u27s labor market, government, economy and trade

Cooking practices, air quality, and the acceptability of advanced cookstoves in Haryana, India: an exploratory study to inform large-scale interventions.

BackgroundIn India, approximately 66% of households rely on dung or woody biomass as fuels for cooking. These fuels are burned under inefficient conditions, leading to household air pollution (HAP) and exposure to smoke containing toxic substances. Large-scale intervention efforts need to be informed by careful piloting to address multiple methodological and sociocultural issues. This exploratory study provides preliminary data for such an exercise from Palwal District, Haryana, India.MethodsTraditional cooking practices were assessed through semi-structured interviews in participating households. Philips and Oorja, two brands of commercially available advanced cookstoves with small blowers to improve combustion, were deployed in these households. Concentrations of particulate matter (PM) with a diameter <2.5 μm (PM2.5) and carbon monoxide (CO) related to traditional stove use were measured using real-time and integrated personal, microenvironmental samplers for optimizing protocols to evaluate exposure reduction. Qualitative data on acceptability of advanced stoves and objective measures of stove usage were also collected.ResultsTwenty-eight of the thirty-two participating households had outdoor primary cooking spaces. Twenty households had liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) but preferred traditional stoves as the cost of LPG was higher and because meals cooked on traditional stoves were perceived to taste better. Kitchen area concentrations and kitchen personal concentrations assessed during cooking events were very high, with respective mean PM2.5 concentrations of 468 and 718 µg/m3. Twenty-four hour outdoor concentrations averaged 400 µg/m3. Twenty-four hour personal CO concentrations ranged between 0.82 and 5.27 ppm. The Philips stove was used more often and for more hours than the Oorja.ConclusionsThe high PM and CO concentrations reinforce the need for interventions that reduce HAP exposure in the aforementioned community. Of the two stoves tested, participants expressed satisfaction with the Philips brand as it met the local criteria for usability. Further understanding of how the introduction of an advanced stove influences patterns of household energy use is needed. The preliminary data provided here would be useful for designing feasibility and/or pilot studies aimed at intervention efforts locally and nationally

Local characteristics of and exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in four indian megacities

Public health in India is gravely threatened by severe PM2.5 exposure. This study presents an analysis of long-term PM2.5 exposure in four Indian megacities (Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai) based on in-situ observations during 2015–2018, and quantifies the health risks of short-term exposure during Diwali Fest (usually lasting for ~5 days in October or November and celebrating with lots of fireworks) in Delhi for the first time. The population-weighted annual-mean PM2.5 across the four cities was 72 μg/m3, ~3.5 times the global level of 20 μg/m3 and 1.8 times the annual criterion defined in the Indian National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). Delhi suffers the worst air quality among the four cities, with citizens exposed to ‘severely polluted’ air for 10% of the time and to unhealthy conditions for 70% of the time. Across the four cities, long-term PM2.5 exposure caused about 28,000 (95% confidence interval: 17,200–39,400) premature mortality and 670,000 (428,900–935,200) years of life lost each year. During Diwali Fest in Delhi, average PM2.5 increased by ~75% and hourly concentrations reached 1676 μg/m3. These high pollutant levels led to an additional 20 (13–25) daily premature mortality in Delhi, an increase of 56% compared to the average over October–November. Distinct seasonal and diurnal variations in PM2.5 were found in all cities. PM2.5 mass concentrations peak during the morning rush hour in all cities. This indicates local traffic could be an important source of PM2.5, the control of which would be essential to improve air quality. We report an interesting seasonal variation in the diurnal pattern of PM2.5 concentrations, which suggests a 1–2 h shift in the morning rush hour from 8 a.m. in pre-monsoon/summer to 9–10 a.m. in winter. The difference between PM2.5 concentrations on weekdays and weekend, namely weekend effect, is negligible in Delhi and Hyderabad, but noticeable in Mumbai and Chennai where ~10% higher PM2.5 concentrations were observed in morning rush hour on weekdays. These local characteristics provide essential information for air quality modelling studies and are critical for tailoring the design of effective mitigation strategies for each city

Money management and control in the Indian joint family across generations

Studies of money management and control will have more cross-cultural relevance if the family context of money across generations is taken into account. The study of money management and control in middle-income nuclear and joint family households in urban India illustrates the importance of examining money flows within the wider family context because there is a two-way flow of money beyond the married couple - between parents and adult children, siblings and other members of the extended family. In the three or four generational joint family, control and management at the household level is not necessarily duplicated for the constituent couples. We draw on open-ended interviews of 40 persons from 27 urban middle-income households in North India, between November 2007 and January 2008, to show that the male control of money is the dominant pattern. This pattern is linked to the ideology of male dominance that is found among the middle, lower middle and struggling households, particularly in non-metropolitan households. The upper-middle-class households predominantly in metropolitan households show a pattern of joint or independent control. The focus is on the couple's money decisions within the context of the wider famil