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This paper reports preliminary findings on students enrolled in a massive open online course, who were also assigned to work in groups. Part of a larger study on the effect of groups on retention and completion in MOOCs, the paper provides students' demographics (i.e., location, gender, education level, and employment status), and motivation for taking the course. Findings show that women outnumbered men and that students mostly enrolled into the course because of a friend. Indeed, research on MOOCs demonstrates that men outnumber women and that educational pursuit and professional development are the main motivators for taking MOOCs. Yet, this paper shows that when group work is included in a MOOC, women participate more. Furthermore, for students assigned to groups in a MOOC, friends are the principal incentive for enrolling into the course. These results are discussed in light of previous research, and implications for teaching and learning in online environments addressed.

Creation of knowledge workers holds key for success of a country. Unfortunately, many of the countries though having chain of human resources yet are unable to transform human resources to their advantage as they face multiple challenges like poverty, poor economy, poor infrastructure, limited access to education and inadequate technological growth. Fortunately, India is one of among such countries in the recent past which has improved its position in the world forum and has taken a big stride by transforming human resource into knowledge workers. The entire credit goes to government of India, their schemes and most importantly the people working tirelessly in the higher education institutions. But, the percentage is very low. The reason is higher education of India is plagued with several challenges like poor quality of teachers, poor infrastructure, poor libraries and poor educational resources. Unless high quality of education both in terms of infrastructure and academic is not provided and sustained in all higher education institutes, it will be difficult to match with global world. One way it could be done at least in academic front is developing and disseminating quality educational material among the institutes of higher education. National Knowledge Commission has recommended that problems of educational material to a large extent can be reduced by Open Educational Resources (OER) and Open Access (OA). The easy and widespread availability of high quality educational material will change the paradigm of teaching and learning and thus improve the quality of education. Government of India has started several innovative programs and schemes like SHAKSHAT, NMEICT, NPTEL, OSCAR, E-grid etc. related to developing and disseminating educational resources. The national and global level are tremendous but it comes with many challenges specifically in a country like India which has a diversified population. The present paper will try to focus on the opportunities and challenges with respect to OER in Indian higher education.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the experiences of middle-class working mothers from the ITES (Information Technology Enabled Service) sector in India during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their experiences of work from home are studied in the backdrop of the ideal worker model at work and the adult worker model at home. Further, the study aims to identify the need for sustainable, inclusive practices for working mothers in Indian organizations to break the male breadwinner model in middle-class households. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative approach to collect data from 39 middle-class mothers working in MNCs in four metro cities in India. The semi-structured, in-depth interviews focused on their experiences of motherhood, care and work before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings: The pandemic made it evident that the ideal worker model in organizations and the adult worker model at home were illusions for working mothers. The results indicate a continued obligation of the "ideal worker culture" at organizations, even during the health crisis. It made the working mothers realize that they were chasing both the (ideal worker and adult worker) norms but could never achieve them. Subsequently, the male breadwinner model was reinforced at home due to the matrix of motherhood, care and work during the pandemic. The study concludes by arguing the reconstruction of the ideal worker image to make workplaces more inclusive for working mothers. Originality/value: The study is placed in the context of Indian middle-class motherhood during the pandemic, a demography less explored in the literature. The paper puts forth various myths constituting the gendered realities of Indian middle-class motherhood. It also discusses sustainable, inclusive workplace practices for mothers from their future workplaces' standpoint, especially in post-pandemic times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims to discuss the effectiveness of male and female teachers in relation to demographic factors like marital status, training, location and medium of instruction. These issues have important implications to understand and evaluate teachers' effectiveness especially in view of the changing sex ratio of school teachers. Correlation, t-test, and ANOVA were employed on a sample of 482 teachers comprising 245 males and 237 females. Overall, male and female teachers exhibited insignificantly different effectiveness however variations were noticed with respect to different demographic factors. The paper concludes by arguing that since the quality of education being delivered, generally, has been considered as a function of teachers' degree of effectiveness, there is a need for both substantive and methodological focus on gender specific responsibilities and requirements, in order to take out maximum from male and female teachers to produce high degree of effectiveness in their profession.

The success of Indian enterprises and professionals in the computer and information technology (CIT) domain during the twenty year has been spectacular. Entrepreneurs, bureaucrats and technocrats are now advancing views about how India can ride CIT bandwagon and leapfrog into a knowledge-based economy in the area of entrepreneurship distance education on-line. Isolated instances of remotely located villagers sending and receiving email messages, effective application of mobile communications and surfing the Internet are being promoted as examples of how the nation can achieve this transformation, while vanquishing socio-economic challenges such as illiteracy, high growth of population, poverty, and the digital divide along the way. Likewise, even while a small fraction of the urban population in India has access to computers and the Internet, e-governance is being projected as the way of the future. There is no dearth of fascinating stories about CIT enabled changes, yet there is little discussion about whether such changes are effective and sustainable in the absence of the basic infrastructure that is accessible to the citizens of more advanced economies. When used appropriately, different CITs are said to help expand access to entrepreneurship distance education, strengthen the relevance of education to the increasingly digital workplace, and raise technical and managerial educational quality by, among others, helping make teaching and learning into an engaging, active process connected to real life. This research paper investigates on the impact of computer based online entrepreneurship distance education in India. (Contains 2 tables.)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of demographic, social and personal dispositional factors on determining the entrepreneurial inclination. Specifically, the author examined the role of gender, age, stream of study, family business background and six psychological traits of locus of control, tolerance for ambiguity, propensity to take risk, self-confidence and innovation in differentiating entrepreneurs from non-entrepreneurs. Design/methodology/approach: As university students constitute pool of potential entrepreneurs, participants for the study consisted of 274 students from two new and upcoming universities in an emerging economy of India. The sample included students from both business and non-business schools. Data were reported and analysed using descriptive statistics, frequency distribution, t-test and stepwise logistic regression Findings: The study results suggest that the traits of locus of control, tolerance for ambiguity, self-confidence and innovativeness were significant in differentiating entrepreneurs from non-entrepreneurs. At the same time it was also observed that need for achievement and risk-taking propensity were not found to be significantly different for these two groups which was contradictory to the expectations. In addition to these six psychological traits, the study results also underlined the role of family background and school in predicting entrepreneurial inclination. Practical implications: The study carries huge public policy implications for education system in India which largely prepares the students for jobs in public and private sectors rather than entrepreneurship. Originality/value: The study discusses some of the missing links in the entrepreneurship research by providing new insights from India.

In this paper, an adapted version of the Dimensions of Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ) was employed to investigate the perception of academic staff on learning organization culture in Indian higher education institutions. The questionnaire was sent to 700 faculty members of different universities using a non-probability purposive sampling technique. The results showed that there exists a significant and positive correlation amongst the constructs of learning organization culture, knowledge performance and research performance. Further, the results showed that knowledge performance is a statistically significant predictor of research performance. Thus, the empirical findings of this study will contribute to the literature on learning organization culture in higher education institutions, particularly with respect to the Indian scenario, an area where empirical studies are scant.

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) recently reported that the world's population is shifting to its cities. India is no exception. Throughout the country, an increasing number of migrants are leaving agricultural lifestyles in search of economic and educational opportunities, often relocating to non-notified slums. Despite the fact that many families move in search of better schools, in reality, children living in non-notified slums lack access to high-quality early childhood educational opportunities, a situation that can disadvantage them throughout their lives. This paper describes an intervention implemented in an Indian non-notified slum in which local residents were recruited to run preschools. The authors reflect upon initial data that both elucidate the challenges associated with serving transitory early childhood populations and suggest that the programme shows promise as a scalable model appropriate for addressing them.

Demographic surges and economic growth have created an exploding demand for higher education in the Global South--a demand that low- and middle-income countries cannot realistically meet with traditional institutions alone. In India, the demand increasingly is being met by online education. Recently, MOOCs--with their potential to scale up rapidly at low marginal cost--are increasingly popular, primarily for professional training. The focus of this paper is to explore how this solution may play out, using data on enrollees in MOOCs in India. The picture that seems to be emerging in India is one in which MOOCs are able to fill in some of the gaps of an underperforming higher education system and provide opportunities that students are eager to employ. However, the fact that so many of the Indian MOOC students have already passed through the Indian higher education system suggests that MOOCs are not primarily a higher education tool--but rather, mostly serve professional-training needs. MOOCs hold the promise of filling at least some part of the gap between demand and the quality of education for students from the Global South. In those areas, MOOCs can be a critical part of the education landscape where a mix of online, private, and public education can comprise a diverse ecosystem of educational options. A list of resources is included.

Background Although there has been a favorable trend in the Infant Mortality Rate in India in the last decade, the country is still unlikely to meet the Millennium Development Goal #4. Of significance, there has been minimal improvement in the early neonatal mortality rate, which is an indicator of quality of perinatal care. In the efforts to address this aspect, a range of efforts and interventions have been considered. One such effort is in addressing and reducing hypothermia in neonates. Two low tech strategies, professional mummying/swaddling (PM/S) and ‘Kangaroo mother care’ (KMC), are seen as critical in the continuum of neonatal care. Objective: This study compared the effects of KMC and professional mummying/swaddling (PM/S) on select neonatal outcomes (temperature and weight) in a postnatal hospital unit in Chennai India. Methodology: This quasi-experimental study used a repeat measures time series approach monitoring weight and temperatures for neonates across the two interventions. Results: Significant findings were found in the retention of temperature which indicated that the KMC intervention aligned with higher neonatal temperatures than the PM/S interventions. Further, neither maternal or neonate indicators were found to impact significantly on weight or temperature changes in either group. Conclusions: KMC was found to provide a viable and meritous alternative to PM/S as a thermoregulatory strategy for full term neonates in a low resource setting. The study suggest that ongoing research will be necessary to ascertain the optimal approaches and potentials in both methods with such culturally diverse populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational access in developing countries has improved significantly in recent years, but less evidence is available on learning and learning progress in comparative perspective. This paper employs data from Young Lives to examine levels and trends in cognitive skill development and the links to enrolment in school across the four study countries for pupils aged five to 15. Non-continuous patterns of enrolment are linked to lower learning levels in all countries, as are key indicators of home background disadvantage. Large differences in learning and learning progress are also found between the four countries' education sytems, with "learning gains" being typically highest in Vietnam and much lower in India (Andhra Pradesh) and Ethiopia. Inequalities linked to prior learning and home backgrounds are wide in Peru, while in Ethiopia and India relatively low levels of learning progress are a more general concern. In Ethiopia, both enrolment and quality improvements remain priorities for policy, while in India high levels of primary school enrolment, at younger ages than in the other study countries, suggest that comprehensive quality improvements may be required, nonetheless with a focus on disadvantaged pupils and those with low attainment in the early years.

In this paper we follow a lead provided by Basu and Basu ["The Greying of Populations: Concepts and Measurement," Demography India 16, pp. 79-89], in order to advance a class of "agedness" indices which, because they have been motivated by analogous considerations in the poverty measurement literature, can find application in that area of enquiry as well. The properties of the proposed indices are discussed, and illustrations of empirical application are provided. The note is intended as a contribution to the larger enquiry into the measurement of development indicators.

The impact of socio-economic factors on the Mutual Funds' investment pattern in India with reference to the frequency and time period of investments of retail investors is attempted. The paper also recognizes the financial objectives and, proposes a model facilitating the investment behavior of the retail investors. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Chi-square test were conducted to evaluate both the significant demographic impact on investment patterns as well as the pertinent perception of the investors towards particular mutual fund/s selection. The study reveals that mutual fund is now being considered as one of the important investment options among the investors irrespective of their gender and age. The findings further support the impact of educational and income levels on the preference of investment in mutual funds. The study also reveals that the investors are inclined more towards this investment avenue mainly due to its ease of investing, higher returns and the minimum risk associated with investing in mutual funds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The banking and financial sector of India is presently on its way towards an era of digitalization. This has led to several disruptions in the financial services sector and the conventional way of maintaining banker-customer relationship. This paper makes an attempt to identify the most tech-savvy person in a family who conducts online financial transactions. Further, it tries to study the role of demography and hedonic motivation to embrace a culture of digital transactions. The study was exploratory as well as descriptive in nature, with a sample size of 1200 individual household units. For the analysis of data gathered from the field survey, counts, percentage, chi square test and logistic regression has been used. The study found that children are the most techno-savvy entities in a family, and they are the ones who mainly perform online financial transactions. And among the various demographic variables considered, it has been found that age and education level of the respondents have a significant impact on the hedonic motivation to adopt online banking. These identified variables can be used as the predictors of hedonic motivation that leads to adoption of online banking. The study also found that respondents in the younger age groups have more hedonic motivation towards adoption of online banking transactions. Further, in terms of educational qualification, respondents with higher level of educational qualifications have more hedonic motivation towards adoption of online banking. These observations can be important inputs for policy makers and marketers while taking key decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the absense of direct estimates of fertility indicators such as total fertility rate (TFR) and childbearing indices, it is customory in the field of demography/Population studies to derive the same using some suitable indirect procedure. In this paper an attempt has been made at first to introduce a new regression methodology for estimating indirectly the maternal childbearing indices from the only given information on TFR. Secondly, using the regression models provided here and using an indirect estimate of TFR of districts in India a set of childbearing indices for disricts in India are derived and they are further used in understanding the fertility transition in India by districts during the time period of 1997 to 2011. Finally, it is shown successfully in this paper by an analysis of the findings that the regression models as well as the estimates of childbearing indices of the district in India are found to be very useful in understanding the fertility transition in India during the study period of 1997 to 2011. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Age structure of a country is inextricably mixed with the economic growth through demographic dividend. In this paper, the extent of demographic dividend is arrived at by distinguishing support ratios from 2004-2050.1 While encomiums are galore about the benefits and blessings of demographic dividend, its sustainability is at stake as little health and employment dividends are forthcoming out of it. The paper empirically proves that the health scenario of the country is in serious jeopardy. On unemployment, it invariably finds that there is an absolute decline in employment since 2011-12 which doesn't bode well for India.2 These corroborate the fact that realisation of dividend is illusory. The paper, therefore, pitches for spectacular spike in the allocation for health and education sectors and their prudent spending sans much ado so that population dividend can make its edifice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Studies in Population is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines the extent of vulnerability and resilience to fight against Covid-19 virus in India. The vulnerability indices are constructed for the domains of hospital infrastructure, demography, housing, and health for all 36 states and union territories. An overall vulnerability index is constructed as the weighted average of domain-specific indices. The results reveal that vulnerability to coronavirus varies significantly across the states. The hospital and health vulnerabilities contribute most to the overall vulnerability in each state. As on 29 March 2021, the cumulative corona cases are the highest in Maharashtra, followed by Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. The resilience to fight against the virus is weak in India. The lockdown imposed in India has severely affected jobs and incomes. The government should enhance fiscal spending to strengthen the national resilience and administer safe vaccination program not only to stop the spread of virus but also bring life to the normal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In India, incidence of burn injuries is quite high due to widespread illiteracy, old customs like dowry and use of kerosene for lighting and cooking; poverty, overcrowding and unemployment, other social & emotional factors, lack of safety measures at industrial setup & lack of adequate healthcare services. Although, mortality in cases of burns has been reduced considerably by modern advance healthcare services, yet death due to burns is not an uncommon event. The study was carried out with the aim to study the various demographic parameters related to deaths due to burns such as age, sex, occupation, socio-economic status, marital status, locality and source of fire. It was a 1.6 years prospective study of cases of burns autopsied at the mortuary of Gandhi medical college, Bhopal. The relevant information was obtained from inquest papers, history provided by relatives of the deceased and postmortem examination. On data analysis, it was found that incidence of burns was found to be higher higher in females (55.0%) as compared to males (45.0%). young adults between the age group of 21-30 years have been the major victims of burns (41.00%). In both sexes, majority of the burn cases were married (74%). Most of the burn cases belonged to middle class, were housewives (51 %). and from rural areas (75 %). Hence, steps need be taken by Govt., NGOs and medical professionals to reduce the mortality due to burns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migration influences the society, polity, geography, culture, demography and economy in different ways and degrees. From the global macro level to the rural micro level via nation-states and other politico-spatial formations it exerts influence at all levels. This paper is based on the field survey conducted in two cities i.e., Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh (the destination) and Barpeta in Assam (the source). The experiences from the field survey demonstrate that people from a particular religious minority from rural Barpeta have been migrating since last two decades to Lucknow and they have found their livelihoods in waste. It is a kind of long distance rural-urban migration. There are mixed reasons to migrate. Hence, it is a kind of complex yet interesting situation where a certain linguistic community has migrated to a distant land, chosen to indulge in a menial job and the state is indifferent to include them in mainstream development policies because of their contested identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The changing population age structure has a significant influence on the economy, society, and numerous other aspects of a country. This paper has innovatively applied the method of compositional data forecasting for the prediction of population age changes of the young (aged 0-14), the middle-aged (aged 15-64), and the elderly (aged older than 65) in China, India, and Vietnam by 2030 based on data from 1960 to 2016. To select the best-suited forecasting model, an array of data transformation approaches and forecasting models have been extensively employed, and a large number of comparisons have been made between the aforementioned methods. The best-suited model for each country is identified considering the root mean squared error and mean absolute percent error values from the compositional data. As noted in this study, first and foremost, it is predicted that by the year 2030, China will witness the disappearance of population dividend and get mired in an aging problem far more severe than that of India or Vietnam. Second, Vietnam's trend of change in population age structure resembles that of China, but the country will sustain its good health as a whole. Finally, the working population of India demonstrates a strong rising trend, indicating that the age structure of the Indian population still remains relatively "young". Meanwhile, the continuous rise in the proportion of elderly population and the gradual leveling off growth of the young population have nevertheless become serious problems in the world. The present paper attempts to offer crucial insights into the Asian population size, labor market and urbanization, and, moreover, provides suggestions for a sustainable global demographic development., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

This paper is the result of an exhaustive review of some basic sectors to identify the trends in the journey of nations to economic development. A knowledge and understanding of the past trends in the evolution of developed countries would help us to craft the strategy for betterment in terms of social and economic growth. We have attempted to answer in this paper two questions, viz.: What the developed countries did and what the developing countries must do in order to become competitive. The paper has been largely India-centric in respect of developing countries, even though reference to China has been made frequently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demographic debates in the decades following the 1960s have shaped much of the discourse on population ageing across the world. This paper traces these discourses and research agendas that led to the understanding of demographic transitions in the developed and developing world. The policies were mostly articulated by demographers from the US and ageing was seen more as a challenge for the West. The questions addressed in this paper are that apart from the predictable and unchanging vulnerabilities of ageing voiced earlier by anthropologists and social workers in the 1940–1950s, what were the new risks being articulated by development experts? Once a diffused 'world' agenda was articulated and largely left adrift without resources, what were its afterlives? How did experts in various parts of the world redeploy the global ageing agenda and plan to assert various other alignments? Where did China and India figure in this? The paper locates the debates on India and China in the afterlives of the World Assembly on Ageing held in Vienna in 1982. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural common property resources (CPRs) in dry tropical areas of India form an important part of people's livelihood strategies, to adapt to harsh, stressful and high risk bio-physical conditions. However, despite their utility and contributions, CPRs have been neglected and declined in the recent decades, following economic, demographic and institutional changes. This has led to community's general disregard of rapidly degrading CPRs. Despite this general trend the CPRs are being productively rehabilitated by small user groups through focusing on specific CPR units in place of addressing the aggregates of CPRs. The paper reports this change by synthesizing the information collected from over 80 villages during 1982-85 and revisits during 1993-2003 to some of the earlier studied villages, in seven states falling in arid and semi-arid regions of India. The paper suggests the need for using the disaggregated approach to complement the usual aggregated approaches for better understanding of the dynamics of CPR change and their better management under the changing circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aging or ageing is a natural process of becoming older and older. In India, as well as in countries, the population of older people is increasing rapidly. In developing countries, as more and more homemakers are now getting into economic activities, it has become stressful for this traditional elderly caregiver to devote adequate time and effort. This changing demography is now reflected in the national policy for elderly, which suggested the provisions for the institutionalized elderly-care, apart from the voluntary and community sector. Against this background, the present paper makes an attempt to have a qualitative survey on socio-economic and psychological issues of elderly people of Bhubaneswar, India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Collegium Antropologicum is the property of Croatian Anthropological Society and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

There is a regular discussion which goes on about demographic dividend and how India is going to be benefited due to its natural advantage of growth in population of young people. The demographic structure appears favourable to India. As on today, India is the youngest country in the world which has the largest number of young working population. However, there are many other challenges and barriers in reaping this so called demographic dividend. In this paper certain issues related to benefits of demographic dividend that India may face are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While rapid fertility decline in India in the last two decades has received considerable attention, much of the discourse has focused on a decline in high parity births. However, this paper finds that, almost hidden from the public gaze, a small but significant segment of the Indian population has begun the transition to extremely low fertility. Among the urban, upper income, educated, middle class, it is no longer unusual to find families stopping at one child, even when this child is a girl. Using data from the India Human Development Survey of 2004–2005, we examine the factors that may lead some families to stop at a single child. We conclude that the motivations for this very low fertility are likely to be a more extreme form of those for low fertility rather than reflecting the qualitative change in ideologies and worldviews that is hypothesized to accompany very low fertility during the second demographic transition. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Demography is considered as the major influencing parameter for landuse and landcover (LULC) change. LULC dynamics is invariably associated with various forms of land and ecological degradation. Identification of drivers and mechanism of LULC dynamics is also crucial for alleviation of land degradation. This paper investigates the spatio-temporal dynamics of LULC and demography and their inter-relationship in the different administrative blocks located within parts of Subarnarekha watershed, Jharkhand state, India, which comprises a large concentration of tribal population. The investigation was conducted in two successive time gradients i.e. 1987-2000 and 2000-2013 corresponding to the pre- and post-state formation in order to assess the impact of urbanization on the LULC dynamics and demographic characteristics subsequent to the formation of the state. Three indices viz. Net Change Ratio, Annual Rate of Change and Single Index of Dynamic Extent were used to determine the spatio-temporal dynamics of five major LULC categories viz. builtup, builtup with vegetation, cropland, dense vegetation, and sparse vegetation with scrubs, while the demographic parameters used are namely Population Density, House Hold Density and percent Tribal Population. The analyses revealed considerable increase in the builtup area from the pre-state to post-state period and distinct pattern of association between the demographic parameters and different LULC categories. The percent tribal population exhibits significantly high correlation with dense vegetation, whereas the population density and household density exhibit strong correlation with the builtup category. The findings are insightful and can be implemented towards sustainable development of the land resources in the study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Census is considered to be a scientific exercise. However, it leaves a deep impact on religious and ethnic identities. This is because through census enumeration not only are boundaries of communities fixed, but also actual size and growth are known. This adds a new sense to the identities of the religious communities in the sphere of democratic politics. In India, the census was started around 1872 during the British rule, seven decades after the first census was held in Great Britain in 1801. The question on religion was included right from the first Indian census, unlike the British census which only included it in 2001. This paper shows that the inclusion of the question on religion, and the consequent publication of data on size and growth of population by religion during British rule, invoked sharp communal reactions. The demographic issues found a core place in the communal discourse that continued in independent India. The paper argues that the demographic data on religion was one of the important factors that raised Hindu–Muslim consciousness and shaped the Hindu and Muslim relationship in both colonial and postcolonial India. As a result, several demographic myths have found a place in the communal discourse shaping the political imagination of India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare the new Census 2011 results with the results of the previous Censuses and assess the progress in trends of population growth, literacy rate, and sex ratio imbalance and also to highlight the critical socioeconomic issues based on short-term trends and patterns. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is structured in a "commentary and perspective" format. The paper assesses key demographic and socioeconomic features of India's population using 2011 Census data, and compares progress in population and social trends with the results of previous Censuses. The paper also uses data from the National Family Health Survey (2005-2006) and the United Nations World Population Prospects (2008) to complement Census results and understand the underlying reasons for the progress or deterioration in critical demographic and socioeconomic indicators. Findings – The provisional results of the 2011 Census data reveal a mixed bag of insights. On the positive side, there has been steady progress in population stabilization and a swift ascent in female literacy since 1991. These encouraging trends, among others, represent major driving forces of demographic and economic returns for India in the coming decades. However, on the negative side, the 2011 Census reveals a deplorable deterioration in the female-male ratio of the child population aged 0-6 years, despite India's enforcement of targeted policy measures following the 2001 Census. The country needs to take careful stock of this issue, as its advancing demographic transition and changing socioeconomic circumstances are rapidly translating into an adverse trend of girl child discrimination. Originality/value – This study compares India's most recent two Censuses and provides original analytical insights into India's progress in population stabilization and development, and the setbacks it faces in terms of gender inequalities. Region and state-wise analyses are additional contributions based on disaggregated state level data from the recent two Censuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the demographic and socio-economic cor-relates of utilization of integrated child development services (ICDS) among children. Using data from the National Family Health Survey-3 (2005-2006), an attempt has been made to find out differences in the level of utilization according to social class and household economic conditions. This paper found that the utilization was far from satisfactory cutting across social class, household economic status and other attributes. The article pre-sents findings that could help evolve new strategies to improve the utilization of ICDS services, and potentially reduce persistent undernutrition in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]