The other side of self-employment : household enterprises in India

Non-farm household enterprises are important for a number of reasons to do with poverty and employment creation. They could either be the first unit of microentrepreneurship or a coping strategy for the poorest. Either way, over 11 percent of India's prime working age population is self-employed in these enterprises. Moreover, they are important also because they are most likely to be informal business ventures and deserve study on all these grounds. Based on data from the Indian National Sample Survey, 50th Round, this paper analyzes the characteristics of individuals operating non-farm household enterprises. It addresses the question -do high skilled and highly educated workers set up these enterprises or are they operated by individuals with low levels of education, working in low status occupations? To what extent are the occupations in household enterprises segregated by sex? Through descriptive, bivariate and multivariate techniques, it demonstrates that household enterprises comprise a highly heterogeneous set of occupations. In rural areas, they are likely to be absorbing the supply of educated labor from among those who do not have access to land. In urban areas, self-employment in household enterprises could be more in the nature of a survival strategy for individuals with lower levels of education. Moreover, they are segmented along religion, caste and gender. Muslims, upper caste individuals and men are more likely to be self-employed in them.Banks&Banking Reform,Work&Working Conditions,Labor Law,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Skills Development and Labor Force Training

Minority status and labor market outcomes : does india have minority enclaves ?

This paper uses data from the 61st Round of the National Sample Survey to understand the employment outcomes of Dalit and Muslim men in India. It uses a conceptual framework developed for the US labor market that states that ethnic minorities skirt discrimination in the primary labor market to build successful self-employed ventures in the form of ethnic enclaves or ethnic labor markets. The paper uses entry into self-employment for educated minority groups as a proxy for minority enclaves. Based on multinomial logistic regression, the analysis finds that the minority enclave hypothesis does not hold for Dalits but it does overwhelmingly for Muslims. The interaction of Dalit and Muslim status with post-primary education in urban areas demonstrates that post-primary education confers almost a disadvantage for minority men: it does not seem to affect their allocation either to salaried work or to non-farm self-employment but does increase their likelihood of opting out of the labor force - and if they cannot afford to drop out, they join the casual labor market. Due to the complexity of these results and the fact that there are no earnings data for self-employment, it is difficult to say whether self-employment is a choice or compulsion and whether builders of minority enclaves fare better than those in the primary market.Labor Markets,Labor Policies,Population Policies,Educational Policy and Planning,Access to Finance

Why are educated women less likely to be employed in India? Testing competing hypotheses

In this paper we use the Indian National Sample Survey data for 1993-94 to examine the relationship between women's education and labor force participation. While it has been recognized in the literature that education is associated with lower labor force participation for women in South Asia, the reasons behind this association are less well understood. Two competing theories potentially explain this phenomenon - one based on cultural factors and the other on labor market options. Cultural arguments suggest that women's withdrawal from labor force is associated with improvement in the social status of the family. Higher status families choose to educate their daughters, but at the same time, restrict their independence through labor force withdrawal. In contrast, structural arguments suggest that educated women - like educated men - prefer white collar jobs. Since formal sector jobs only comprise 7 percent of all jobs, opportunities for these desirable jobs is limited, resulting in labor force withdrawal of women. We propose empirical tests to examine whether job availability or patriarchal controls play an important role in shaping this relationship. Our results suggest that cultural factors appear to be less important than lack of employment opportunities.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Primary Education,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Gender and Education,Environmental Economics&Policies

Framing local conflict and justice in Bangladesh

The institutional landscape of local dispute resolution in Bangladesh is rich: it includes the traditional process of shalish, longstanding and impressive civil society efforts to improve on shalish, and a somewhat less-explored provision for gram adalat or village courts. Based on a nationally representative survey, qualitative evidence from focus groups, and a telephone survey of 40 Union Parishad chairpersons (a little less than 1 percent of the total Union Parishads), it provides both an empirical mapping of local conflict and justice and pointers to possible policy reforms. It suggests a number of opportunities for strengthening local justice and argues that the village courts may pose a useful bridge between Bangladesh's informal and formal justice institutions.Gender and Law,Judicial System Reform,Legal Institutions of the Market Economy,Legal Products,Public Sector Corruption&Anticorruption Measures

Nutrition in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)

The purpose of this Special Issue “Nutrition in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)” is to increase knowledge regarding the role of dietary composition and effects in IBD, describing the prevalence of malnutrition in IBD and the effect on clinical outcomes, discussing methods of nutrition risk screening and assessment in IBD, and reviewing mechanisms through which diet and dietary components may affect disease severity. The articles focus on the following areas: Dietary Composition/Therapy Interventions in Ulcerative Colitis and effects on outcomes; Dietary Composition/Therapy Interventions in Crohn’s Disease and effects on outcomes; Nutrition Risk Screening and Assessment in IBD; Mechanisms of Diet in the pathogenesis of IBD

Assessment of the utility of repeat tuberculin testing: a prospective study of adolescents in a high tuberculosis prevalence setting in South India

Background -Under-nutrition is associated with sub-optimal or false -negative tuberculin responses, while BCG vaccination may produce false-positive reactions. The two-step tuberculin test may be of value in populations where under - nutrition is highly prevalent in young children as in India, to help identify individuals who could potentially boost their immune response to the second test, thus preventing them from undergoing further serial testing and preventing their misclassification as converters. We studied the factors that were associated with a sub-optimal response to the initial tuberculin skin test (TST) as well as an enhanced response following two-step testing in a cohort of adolescents. Materials and Methods - Adolescent subjects aged 11-18 years who attended high-schools and junior colleges in Palamaner Taluk, South India were recruited. Baseline demographic, clinical and anthropometric data were collected. A tuberculin test using 2 TU of RT23 was administered. Those who developed a sub-optimal response (less than 5mm) to this test were subjected to a second test 1-4 weeks following the initial test. Chi-square test and multiple logistic regression were used to test the association between the various categorical variables-demographic, socio-economic and clinical with sub-optimal and enhanced responses following two-step testing. Results- A total of 6643 participants were recruited, of whom 6608 underwent initial TST screening. Nearly 30% were under-nourished, and only about 62.3% had a BCG scar. 1257 (19%) developed a sub-optimal response to the initial TST (less than 5mm). Younger age {AOR 1.96 (1.31- 2.93)}, under-nutrition {AOR 1.22 (1.06-1.39)}, presence of BCG scar {AOR 0.74(0.65-0.85)} and higher socio-economic class {AOR 0.77(0.66-0.89)} were associated with a sub-optimal response. With repeat testing within 1-4 weeks of the first test ( N=1098), an enhanced response ( greater than or equal to 10mm, with an increment of 6mm or more over initial test) was seen in 47(4.3%) of the participants. With the sole criterion of greater than or equal to 6mm used to define an enhanced response, 145 (13.2%) developed such a response. A history of exposure was linked to an enhanced response at this cut-off {AOR 5.86 (1.15-29.76)}. A history of exposure was associated with development of an enhanced response; both at initial as well as at repeat testing {unadjusted OR 2.56 (1.15-5.54)}. Conclusion- The two-step tuberculin test may be useful in undernourished populations, to identify potential boosters and prevent their misclassification as converters during further tuberculin testing.Master of philosophy in international healthMAMD-INTHINTH39

Changing norms about gender inequality in education : evidence from Bangladesh

Using a recent household survey for two cohorts of married women, this paper examines norms about gender equality in education for children and adults. Among the main findings are that gender education gap norms have changed: younger generations of women are more positive about female vs. male education, both as pertaining to child and adult education outcomes. Perhaps the strongest result is that Bangladeshi women are more likely to espouse attitudes of gender equality in education for their children and less so about gender equality among spouses. It is also easier to explain norms regarding children's education and more difficult to explain norms about equality in marriages. The authors believe that question on relative education of boys and girls captures the value of education per se, while the question on educational equality in marriage captures the norms regarding marriage and the relative worth of husbands and wives. The effect of education in determining norms is significant though complex, and spans own and spousal education, as well as that of older females in the household. This indicates sharing of education norms effects or externalities arising from spousal education in the production of gender education gap norms within marriage as well as arising from the presence of older educated females in the household. Lastly, the authors also find associations between gender education gap norms and household poverty, information processing and religion, though the evidence here is more mixed.Gender and Development,Population Policies,Primary Education,Gender and Law,Access&Equity in Basic Education

The interaction of Light with Matter and Light with Light

This work consists of two fields of study involving the interaction of light with matter and light with light. The frst part explores the interaction of a superintense laser pulse with an ultrathin solid density foil. The radiation pressure exerted by the laser pulse can be so strong that, in principle, the whole foil is accelerated. This results in the generation of dense, high-flux and collimated and quasimonoenergetic ion beams. However, the onset of transverse instabilities damages the foil, thus resulting in ion spectral broadening. Simple analytical modeling is supported by particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations to strategize methods for instability suppression and ion-beam quality improvement. The second part puts forward a method for detecting the purely quantum electrodynamic process of elastic scattering of real photons in vacuum. Monte-Carlo simulations are used to study the feasibility of detection of this yet undetected process. An experimental setup comprising of a high energy gamma-ray beam colliding with an extreme ultraviolet (XUV) pulse or a free-electron laser (FEL) is utilized. This clean and controllable setup exploits the high gamma photon energies and large laser photon flux for enhancing the probability of scattering events

HIV-1 Activates T Cell Signaling Independently of Antigen to Drive Viral Spread

open access articleHIV-1 spreads between CD4 T cells most efficiently through virus-induced cell-cell contacts. To test whether this process potentiates viral spread by activating signaling pathways, we developed an approach to analyze the phosphoproteome in infected and uninfected mixed-population T cells using differential metabolic labeling and mass spectrometry. We discovered HIV-1-induced activation of signaling networks during viral spread encompassing over 200 cellular proteins. Strikingly, pathways downstream of the T cell receptor were the most significantly activated, despite the absence of canonical antigen-dependent stimulation. The importance of this pathway was demonstrated by the depletion of proteins, and we show that HIV-1 Env-mediated cell-cell contact, the T cell receptor, and the Src kinase Lck were essential for signaling-dependent enhancement of viral dissemination. This study demonstrates that manipulation of signaling at immune cell contacts by HIV-1 is essential for promoting virus replication and defines a paradigm for antigen-independent T cell signaling

A closer look at child mortality among Adivasis in India

The authors use data from the National Family Health Survey 2005 to present age-specific patterns of child mortality among India's tribal (Adivasi) population. The analysis shows three clear findings. First, a disproportionately high number of child deaths are concentrated among Adivasis, especially in the 1-5 age group and in those states and districts where there is a high concentration of Adivasis. Any effort to reduce child morality in the aggregate will have to focus more squarely on lowering mortality among the Adivasis. Second, the gap in mortality between Adivasi children and the rest really appears after the age of one. In fact, before the age of one, tribal children face more or less similar odds of dying as other children. However, these odds significantly reverse later. This calls for a shift in attention from infant mortality or in general under-five mortality to factors that cause a wedge between tribal children and the rest between the ages of one and five. Third, the analysis goes contrary to the conventional narrative of poverty being the primary factor driving differences between mortality outcomes. Instead, the authors find that breaking down child mortality by age leads to a much more refined picture. Tribal status is significant even after controlling for wealth.Population Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Early Child and Children's Health,Adolescent Health,Early Childhood Development