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When it comes to the care and wellbeing of orphaned children, attachment is an important construct to consider. Not only may it help influence how an orphan child will integrate, or fail to, within the setting of a group foster care home, attachment patterns may also have a bearing in the nature of relationships they will have as an adult, after leaving the care of the home. Attachment is doubly important in the context of orphan children due to their histories of often having experienced loss or abandonment or witnessed significant trauma, including loss of loved ones. These factors have been described as leading to orphans having attachment challenges, with many being unnaturally avoidant or overly trusting. And yet, attachment theory as we know it is deeply rooted in a Euro-American understanding of child development. Specifically, attachment in the Western context is idealised and romanticised, built upon a pair-bond between one primary caregiver and one child. This paper, using data from research conducted among orphans in New Delhi, India, explores attachment relationships among 89 children across 11 group foster care homes in collaboration with the organisation Udayan Care. The study aims to shed light on the relationships that Udayan orphans have formed with non-parental figures, and in many cases, non-adults. This study is based on two questionnaires: The Inventory of Peer and Parent Attachment-Revised (IPPA) administered for children 9 to 18 years old, and the Randolph test of attachment for children ages 4 to 8 in the sample. Our findings indicate that this sample tends to display a stronger sense of attachment to their peers than to their mentor mothers or caregivers. In addition, greater attachment is seen to mentor mothers than to caregivers. These results raise important questions, notably, what does attachment to peers rather than to caregivers mean for later functioning? And are these children more vulnerable because they are not closely attached to caregivers? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disability prevents an individual from performing to the fullest potential. It is multidimensional. Disability may be physical, mental, social, personal, and environmental or a combination of these. The elderly experience an increased burden of disability, especially in areas where there are limited resources and rapid urbanization. Comparison of reported disability is difficult because several definitions and scales are in use. We used the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule version 2.0 (WHODAS 2.0) to study the prevalence of disability, and its association with sociodemographic factors among elderly persons residing in an urban resettlement colony, New Delhi, India. The WHODAS 2.0 provides continuous summary scores, where higher scores indicate higher disability, and vice versa. Elderly persons aged 60 years and above were selected by simple random sampling in this community-based cross-sectional study. Trained interviewers administered the semi-structured interview schedule and WHODAS 2.0. The prevalence of disability was 7.4% (5.8% - 9.3%) among the 931 participants. The prevalence was higher among females than males. Female sex, elderly aged 70 years and above, and those who were illiterate had increased risk of higher disability scores. Participants who were in government or private service had 50% decreased risk of having higher disability scores. The burden of disability was high among elderly persons residing in this resettlement colony. Community-based holistic interventions are required to mitigate the disability, and to improve the functioning of elderly persons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In the new Sustainable Development Goal 4, quality of education defined as equity and inclusion alongside traditional learning outcomes, has replaced the narrow goal of access to primary education stipulated in the Millennium Development Goal 2. Since 2000, considerable progress has been made towards improving access to school for children in India, yet questions remain regarding not just children with disabilities’ access and acquisition of basic learning skills, but also completion of learning cycles. Methods and findings: Between November, 2, 2011 and June 20th 2012, we interviewed 1294 households about activity limitations and functioning difficulties associated with a health problem among all family members using a validated screening instruments, as well as questions about access, retention and barriers to education. We found that vulnerable children, particularly children with disabilities are less likely to start school and more likely to drop out of school earlier and before completing their high school education than non-disabled children, showing that the learning process is not inclusive in practice. The gap is wider for girls, economically deprived children, or children from households where the head is uneducated. Conclusions: Firstly, in order to fill the existing knowledge gap on education of children with disabilities in line with SDG4, not only is there a necessity for relevant data with regards to learning outcomes, but also an urgent requirement for more innovative information pertaining to relational aspects of learning that reflect inclusion. Secondly, a stronger understanding of the implications of early assessment would further promote equity in education. Finally, research should tackle learning as a complex and dynamic phenomenon. Education needs to fulfil its instrumental value, but must also re-claim its intrinsic value that often gets watered down in the journey from policies to implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]