Life Satisfaction of Highly Qualified Professionally Achieving Women Post Retirement

In this paper life satisfaction of highly qualified professionally achieving HQPA aging women post retirement is investigated Respondents were 306 HQPA older women who were surveyed in the city of Mumbai The Satisfaction with Life scale Silver Lining Questionnaire and Meaning in Life Questionnaire were used Results showed variations on life satisfaction as a result of certain independent socio-demographic variables and the type of careers that HQPA women retired from Findings have relevance for designing and promoting different types of activity engagement for HQPA older women This is a move away from the solely poverty focused approach to addressing issues of aging population in India Implications for practice with HQPA older women have also been discusse

Lifelong commitment to ascetic life and orders: Hindu women renunciants in India ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Abstract: Based on the survey of 3,699 Hindu women renunciants across six Hindubased orders/faith-based organisations in India that encourage women's renunciation and lifelong commitment to religious life and ascetism, this paper maps their profile, religiosity, spirituality, reasons for joining the order, fears, future plans, strategies of dealing with life in the order and strategies to enhance life quality, as well as their perceived meaning in life. Results of the logistic regression analysis showed that Hindu women renunciants with higher education and higher scores on religiosity and spirituality scales had joined the orders/FBOs by choice and personal inclination or commitment to faith and the charismatic teacher, had a greater propensity to get more involved in varied activities the orders/faith-based organisations, and perceived a higher meaning in life. Substantiating the gap of macro data on Hindu women's renunciation, this paper then stresses on newer nuances of this form of women's ascetism whose crux lies in challenging the prescribed cultural time-tables for women such as marriage and motherhood by emphasizing celibacy, that deem in-depth exploration. PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT Based on the survey of 3,699 Hindu women renunciants across six Hindu-based orders/faithbased organisations in India that encourage women's renunciation and lifelong commitment to religious life and ascetism, this paper maps their profile, religiosity, spirituality, reasons for joining the order, fears, future plans, strategies of dealing with life in the order and strategies to enhance life quality, as well as their perceived meaning in life. Results showed that Hindu women renunciants with higher education and higher scores on religiosity and spirituality scales had joined the orders/FBOs by choice and personal inclination or commitment to faith and the charismatic teacher, had a greater propensity to get more involved in varied activities the orders/faith-based organisations, and perceived a higher meaning in life. This paper substantiates the gap of macro data on Hindu women's renunciation and shows how they challenge the prescribed cultural time-tables for women such as marriage and motherhood

Renunciation, Feminism, and Social Service

This study examines feminist attitudes and social service motivation of 681 women of two prominent Hindu orders having a global presence. Ordained Hindu women believed that commitment to religious orders, celibacy, and social service countered patriarchy. City location, work profile versatility in the order, education, and duration of being ordained, significantly influenced their views and scores on the Feminist Perspective Scale and Public Service Motivation Scale. Two implications are foregrounded: the recognition of a cohort of women who perform social service as religious duty, and a different form of feminist care ethics located within a feminist theological premise. </jats:p

Feminist Social Work

Based on an analysis of the work done by a field action project addressing issues of violence against women which then went on to become a national state sponsored scheme, this article talks about the flavor of feminist social work that it has proposed in the Indian context. The dimensions of feminist social work and the nuances such as working with women, men, families, and communities and addressing the systems and structure have been discussed. Finally, what it means for social work education in Indian context has been deliberated. </jats:p

Contemporary Female Gurus, their Movements and Followers

Based on a random sample of 543 followers of a new religious movement called Mata Amritanandamayi Mission in India, this paper argues that these followers derived their sense of well-being through the gift of embrace by its iconic teacher Mata Amritanandamayi or Amma also known worldwide as the ‘hugging saint’. Followers are recipients of her embrace which is looked at predominantly as a healing touch as well as an expression of maternal love and proximity to the divine. I have studied the ways followers get associated with the movement and the roles they play, the images they have of Amma and their experiences and perceived efficacy of her embrace. The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being scale has been used to measure well-being. The efficacy of the embrace creates a habitus of Amma’s followers who have various positive experiences through the association. Simultaneously it also generates a collective memory and exclusive cultural identities for Amma followers.</jats:p

Spirituality in Rehabilitation Counseling of Adults With Physical Disabilities: Views of Practitioners Across Countries

The purpose of the study is to understand the views of practitioners across countries, on spirituality for rehabilitation counseling of adults with congenital and acquired disabilities. A survey of 1,269 practitioners in the field of disability across 15 countries was conducted. Results showed that practitioners had a favorable view of spirituality. Logistic regression results highlight several cross-country nuances in practitioners’ views toward spirituality for rehabilitation counseling, and more so, differentials in terms of adults with congenital and acquired physical disabilities. Practitioners who focused on a client-centered approach vis-à-vis those who diversified also into macro-level work of networking and advocacy, and specifically those who had high self-reported spirituality, proposed that for adults with congenital physical disabilities, spirituality enabled living with disabilities, as against a rationalization and justification of the disability. They favored mindfulness techniques as the modes of working with the clients and reported that by cultivating relational consciousness, spirituality enabled meeting the social goal of rehabilitation counseling. Furthermore, practitioners from affluent nations placed a premium on the deconstructing potential of spirituality and its facilitative role in enabling the clients themselves, and significant others, to transcend the ability/disability binary. The study foregrounds the importance of spiritually sensitive approaches in rehabilitation counseling. </jats:p