A Social Science Approach Using Big Data for City Planning

Cities bring about economic dynamism through positive economic externalities; however, the concentration of people in dense locations has its costs — epidemics, social unrest, pollution, and congestion are some of the ills of cities. As cities evolve, they experience stress, and fault lines appear; the ability to pulse a city and provide early warning of these fault lines can prove advantageous for policymakers in managing and planning for cities. This paper outlines a research program that developed a city scanning tool to measure cities and detect aberrations as they surface. We aggregated data from various industry partners, governmental agencies, and public online sources to develop the measurement metric and applied social science theories to analyze and interpret the results. The results of this study contribute to information system (IS) research by showcasing the role IS research in city planning and for societal good

Divorce and Separation in India

In India divorce and separation are perceived to be relatively rare events. While quantitative data are lacking, there is a rich multi-disciplinary literature on various aspects of marital stability in India. This article draws on this literature to contextualize the key aspects of marriage and the socio-cultural and legal systems that influence durability of marriages in India. The article then presents estimates of prevalence, trends, and variations in divorce and separation using data from a large nationally representative survey. Finally, using education as a broad measure, the article investigates the impact of social changes on durability of marriages between 1987 and 2007. The findings reveal an upward trend and significant variations in divorce and separation by region, religion, rural and urban residence, and number and sex of children. Marriage among bettereducated women is more durable and the difference between less-educated and better-educated women has widened over time.Accepted versio

Perspectives on old age in India

About 8 % of India’s population is over the age of 60, a fi gure similar to that of Indonesia but lower than China’s 12.4 %. In absolute numbers, however, there are more than 93 million elderly in India and this number is projected to increase to about 296 million by 2050 (United Nations 2013 ). This chapter presents important demographic, economic, social, family, health and policy perspectives on ageing in India. Unless stated otherwise, ‘elderly’ in this chapter refers to those aged 60 and above.Accepted versio

One-person households in India

<b>Objective</b>: The objectives of this article are: 1) to estimate the prevalence of one-person households in India; 2) to examine the demographic, social and economic characteristics of these households, and 3) to analyse the determinants of one-person households. <b>Methods</b>: Data from the Indian censuses are used to gauge the prevalence of one-person households. In addition, data from the third round of District Level Household and Facility Survey (DLHS-3), a large and nationally representative data, are used to examine the characteristics of one-person households and to estimate the odds of staying in such households. <b>Results</b>: The prevalence of one-person households in India is low compared to that in other parts of Asia. While the prevalence of OPH is low, the number of such households is large, and expected to grow in the next few decades. The results presented reveal important social, economic and demographic differences between one-person and multi-person households. Elderly females and young migrants who live alone are potential vulnerable groups. The results are situated within the socio-cultural and demographic contexts of India

Marriage and fertility dynamics in India

It is widely acknowledged that age at marriage has a significant influence on fertility, particularly in the countries where child-bearing occurs within marriage. However, the complexities of marriage/fertility relationship are poorly understood, especially during fertility transitions. This paper investigates the complex relationship betiveen marriage and fertility by examining age at marriage, marital fertility and birth interval dynamics in India, using data collected in nationally representative surveys in 1992/1993 and 2005/2006. The decline in fertility during this period could be attributed to changes in marital fertility rather than to changes in marriage age. Women marrying late tend to have shorter first birth interval than women marrying at a younger age. However, the second and higher birth intervals are longer among those marrying late.Published versio

Female schooling and marriage change in India

This study examines the influence of schooling on entry into marriage for women using panel data from the Indian censuses. Both schooling levels and marriage age increased in India between 1981 and 2001. While results from the cross-sectional data show that schooling is positively associated with delays in entry into marriage, results from the panel models suggest schooling to have a limited influence on marriage timing, especially during the 1981-1991 period. But schooling had a significant, albeit modest, influence during the 1991-2001 period. The findings suggest that the association between schooling and marriage seen in the cross-sectional analyses might have been due to unobserved factors influencing both schooling and marriage. Indeed, secular changes in marriage age were more important than changes in schooling levels in determining the timing of marriage before age 20. Further, the results from instrumental variable models suggest that the relationship between schooling and marriage is not endogenous: improvements in schooling levels are independent for the most part from changes in marriage age.Accepted versio

Social demography and pandemics

All the three components of demographic change—births, deaths, and migration—are deeply affected by pandemics. While deaths are the most obvious, pandemics leave an imprint, over the short and long term, on all the three demographic components. The demographic impacts are social in the sense that different social groups are impacted differently. Social demography is useful to uncover and understand social aspects of population dynamics including issues related to inequality, inequity, and differentials in demographic outcomes. In this commentary, I reflect on the social demographic implications of COVID-19 pandemic (the pandemic from now on) in AsiaAccepted versio

Timing of first birth in India

This study examines the timing of first birth in India using data from the third round of National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) conducted in 2005-6. Transition to motherhood occurs at a relatively early age in India. Though age at marriage has a significant influence on timing of first birth, the relationship is far from linear with women marrying at a very early age having a late age at first birth. Despite wide variations in fertility levels among the states, the relationship between marriage age and age at first birth is remarkable similar. Education has a limited influence on the first birth interval. Much of the influence of education on timing of first birth is because educated women delay marriage. In India timing of first birth exerts only a modest influence on completed fertility at both the aggregate (state) and individual level

Culture, modernization, and politics : ethnic differences in union formation in Kyrgyzstan

The unique cultural and political history of Central Asia has produced intriguing ethnic variations in union formation. We use data from a survey of 1,535 young adults conducted in 2005 in northern Kyrgyzstan to examine ethnic patterns of entry into marriage versus cohabitation. To reflect the historic-cultural and political realities of Kyrgyzstan, we subdivide ethnic Kyrgyz into two categories based on the degree of linguistic Russification—more-Russified Kyrgyz and less-Russified Kyrgyz—and compare them to each other and to respondents of European origin. The results of the multinomial discrete-time logit models show significant differences among the three groups. Thus, Europeans were most likely to enter cohabitation whereas less-Russified Kyrgyz were least likely to do so, net of other factors. The three groups were lined up in the converse order with respect to probability of entering marriage, but upon breakdown by gender this ordering was present only among women. In contrast, among men, more-Russified Kyrgyz were less likely to marry than both less-Russified Kyrgyz and Europeans. We interpret these findings in light of long-term historic-cultural and demographic distinctions as well as more recent politically induced cleavages in Kyrgyzstan.Accepted versio