Religious education and hermeneutics: the case of teaching about Islam

This article attempts to do three things: the first is an exploration of the ways in which Islam is presented in an essentialist way (with a focus on Religious Education (RE) in England and Wales), leading to stereotypes and unsubstantiated generalisations. Secondly, it provides a critique of essentialism, and finally a case is made for the role of hermeneutics in the teaching and learning of Islam

The Adoption and Impact of Soil Conservation in the Hilly Region of Meghalaya

The paper has assessed the factors affecting the adoption of soil conservation measures and their impact on crop productivity, income and income distribution and employment generation using data from 240 households in the hilly region of Meghalaya, India. Binary logistic regression model, paired t-test, Gini index and Lorenz curve were employed to achieve the desired objectives. The factors which were found to significantly affect the adoption of soil conservation by the farmers included age, sex, education, farm income, off-farm income, access to credit, slope and training. Adopters found a positive percentage change in the average yield over the non-adopters in all the selected crops with the highest percentage change in carrot (24.81 per cent) followed by maize (22.37 per cent), cabbage (13.60 per cent), potato (11.80 per cent), and French bean (8.08 per cent). In both the adopters and non-adopter categories, the majority of the farmers belonged to the income group of Rs. 30001- Rs. 60000 (39.17 per cent and 48.33 per cent respectively) followed by Rs. 60001- Rs. 90000 (35.83 per cent and 30.83 per cent respectively). Adopters had an additional income of Rs. 16,723.65 per household which was significant when compared to the non-adopters. Additionally, the Lorenz curve and Gini index (0.28 for adopters and 0.38 for non-adopters) depicted a comparatively even income distribution among the adopters. Per farm employment showed a significant difference of 285.95 man-days and 243.18 man-days in adopters and non-adopters, respectively. Thus, in view of increasing climate change, it can be suggested that adoption soil conservation measures could be one of the adaptation strategy for sustaining crop production which will enhance the livelihood of resource poor farmers dwelling in the ecologically fragile regions such as the hilly region of Meghalaya

Livelihood Assessment of Households in Wetland of Manipur: A Micro-Level Study

The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance known as Ramsar Convention was held at Denmark with an objective to protect and conserve wetlands’ ecosystem dependent upon it. The North Eastern Hill Region (hereafter; NEHR) of India is also a home to three Ramsar sites, viz., Deepor Beel in Assam, Loktak lake in Manipur and Rudrasagar in Tripura. It has been reported that people of Manipur are socially, economically, culturally and ecologically linked with the Loktak lake. It has been the source of water for domestic uses, generation of hydro-electric power, irrigation, habitat for several plants used as food, fishing ground for local people, fodder, fuel, medicines, biodiversity, recreation, etc. In the above context, the present study has aimed to assess the livelihood of households in wetland of Manipur and also to identify the determinants of livelihood strategy on the basis of livelihood assets. Primary data were collected from four villages under Moirang block of Bishnupur district. Livelihood assessment framework comprising human, physical, financial and social assets indicators were estimated. The households were then classified based on the estimated indices. Furthermore, multinomial logistic regression model was applied to understand the determinants of livelihood strategy on the basis of different livelihood assets. It was reported that maximum number of the households has moderate human (44.44 per cent), financial (44.44 per cent ) and social assets (39.68 per cent). However, 42.86 per cent of the households were having low physical assets. Overall, 46.03 per cent of the households has moderate livelihood assets, followed by high livelihood assets (30.16%) and 23.81 per cent of the households belong to low livelihood assets. Moreover, the households’ livelihood in Ramsar site Loktak, were characterised based on four different components and it has been found that 100 per cent households engaged themselves in Component-1, 47.62 per cent in Component-2, 42.86 per cent in Component-3 and 9.52 per cent in Component-4. The multinomial logistic regression model estimated further explained that financial assets were the most important asset in adopting the livelihood strategies whereas; social assets could increase the chance of adopting other livelihood strategies apart from fishing in the study area. The study concluded that proper management strategy of the area by the Government of Manipur has to be encouraged along with in depth research, interventions, action plans, proper monitoring and evaluation by different universities like Central Agricultural University (Imphal), Central University (Manipur) and other government and non-governmental organisations. Loktak Lake is a base for ecological and economic security, thus payments for ecosystem services for sustainable water management has to be encouraged and implemented