This research investigated a particular Government of India policy, known as the Integrated Child Development Scheme (or the ICDS). The ICDS operates amongst the poorer sections of the population in India, for pre-school children in the age range of 0-6 years. The IeDS policy, although it states that it is for 'all' children, does not in practice, address the question of disabled children. The research examined why and how such a major social policy in the country has omitted the disabled child from its agenda. It examined the socio-cultural attitudes towards disability in the Indian subcontinent and explored the wider historical, political and ideological framework in which Indian social policy for the disabled exists and within which the IeDS policy and practice may have become embedded. Data collection included exploratory field visits; focus group discussions; triangulations by follow-up interviews; semi-structured interviews; analysis of historical and current documents. The investigation concludes with the finding that various factors have led to disabled children being left out of the IeDS programmes. In the specific context of the IeDS, although it may have been the intention to include disabled children in the term 'all' children, there is a gap between policy stated and policy enacted, as the IeDS does not include them, in practice. The findings indicate that, due to ill-defined policy objectives during the policy formulation stage, policy remains silent on the issue, not clarifying that 'all' means disabled children as well. Implementation strategies for the inclusion of these children therefore are not worked out, which leads to the non-inclusion of disabled children from the programmes. In the wider context, the findings indicate that the national policy concerning disabled children lacks cohesion and does not give clear directives for the implementation of inclusion to take place. The Government's conceptualisation of disabled children is full of ambiguity and confusion: governmental reliance on voluntary organisations to deliver services ensures a micro-level coverage and indicates a lack of philosophical commitment to the integrated education of disabled children. Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) and their concentration on the delivery of services move the issue away from 2 a rights approach, leading to a disempowerment and depoliticisation of the disabled group. This takes the matter out of the public domain, making it a politically weak group and placing it within a charity framework. Negative attitudes, ignorance and a lack of awareness that prevails towards disability have also contributed to an overall ideological and cultural entrenchment in the subcontinent, contributing to marginalisation. The absence of a clear policy directive has left this segment of the population at a critical age out of the programmes of the ICDS.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

While many scholars have analysed the impact of culture, beliefs and norms on foreign policy, few have connected domestic political identities to international politics. This thesis makes this agenda explicit by showing how domestic policy sources directly impact upon a state’s external security policies. Rather than focusing on material factors (such as military expenditure or economic growth), I instead combine work concerned with constructed identities in international relations with accounts from social psychology of how identities develop and evolve over time. Relying upon empirical evidence from party documents and extensive interviews with over 60 members of India’s security community, this PhD thesis investigates how the identities, norms and ideologies of different political parties have influenced India’s foreign policy behaviour. Employing an analytical framework consisting of multiple composite norms, I find that; 1) there has been a consistent approach to how Indian foreign policy has developed since 1947; 2) the 1998 to 2004 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance inculcated several substantive changes to India’s security policy, especially relating to nuclear transparency, a tilt towards the US, greater regional pragmatism and the use of realpolitik; 3) these normative changes continued into the post-NDA period, and produced an irrevocable gear shift in India’s accepted and evolving security practice. By confirming and explaining the impact of domestic political identities on India’s foreign policy behaviour, this research makes a significant original contribution to the study of Indian security.

The population of India is made up of an infinite variety of castes, religions and language groups which have lived side by side in an intricate division of labor for hundreds of years. Many customs and much of the social structure, historically isolated from modern technological and industrial developments, have remained essentially unchanged. Such deeply embedded ideologies and patterns of relationship and behaviour do not respond easily to change. The urban centers in India are a study in contrast between the old and the new, survival of the rural past and innovations from the West. The vast majority of the inhabitants in the cities are recent migrants from rural areas. Although the rate of urbanization is low, it nevertheless involves the movement of large numbers of people because of the high population base of the country. In 1971 the urban population was 108.8 million out of a total of 548 million. It has been estimated that if the present rate of rural-urban migration continues, millions more can be expected to be added to the already overcrowded urban areas. A result of this migration has been the continued growth of the urban slums which receive the bulk of in-migrants and provide them with the only available shelter. The migrant is ill-equipped to define his role in the largely alien urban environment; he has responses to his old culture of the village and conflicts and tensions within the new urban context. For him it is not only a physical survival but also a survival in the largely alien socio-economic and cultural environment. The government's neglect of these communities has led to their physical deterioration and social and cultural stagnation with the result that once a migrant has moved into the slum, he is forced by circumstances beyond his control to live out the rest of his urban life in it. This study examines the process and patterns of rural-urban migration. It outlines the social, cultural, economic and political effects of the urban environment on the migrants and illustrates their inability to have any control over the environment in which they must live. It describes the nature and problems of the Indian slum and points out the inadequacy of the existing government concepts and policies to ameliorate this situation and the necessity of designing the kind of environment that can cope with the high population and the scarcity of economic resources. It is the contention of this thesis that slums are an important feature of the Indian urban environment: they have provided the migrant with the only available shelter, have fostered group associations and have provided many of the essential ingredients necessary for the acculturation of the rural migrant into the urban environment. It is the purpose of this study to show that if the physical environment of the slum can be revitalized it then has the potential to serve as a cultural bridge between the urban centers and the traditional rural hinterland. In other words, urban slums are envisaged as communities which can function as ecological, sociological and cultural zones of transition between the urban environment and the rural areas. Proposals are made for revitalizing the slum environment and for creating a new organic community for the future migrants to the cities. There are seven basic conclusions of this study: the first is that rural-urban migration is not only an integral part of industrialization, urbanization and economic development but also a major means for achieving social change. The social and cultural differences between the urban centers and the rural areas can be bridged through the processes of the shuttle and reverse patterns of migration. The second conclusion is that under conditions of rapid modernization and urbanization, slums are functional and in this sense normal. The problem lies not in the existence of these settlements but in the fact that they are uncontrolled and that their forms are often distorted. The third conclusion is that existing government policies on low-income housing and slum clearance are clearly inadequate to deal with the problem. All prevailing ideas of slum clearance as a solution to the problem should be abandoned. The fourth conclusion is that any solution intended for the improvement in the standard of living of the slum dwellers must be commensurate with the limited economic resources of the country. The fifth conclusion is that any comprehensive program aimed at improving the environment of the slum must be based on the resources most readily available - the labor of the community dwellers themselves. The objective should be the encouragement and stimulation of local community participation. The sixth conclusion is that any housing program for the low income slum dwellers must benefit large numbers of people. It follows, therefore that for any slum housing program the total community living environment is the critical variable and NOT the individual housing unit. The seventh and final conclusion is that all possible housing stock in the slums must be preserved. Government policies must be directed towards expanding the total housing stock and NOT towards replacing slum housing with standard public housing. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate

No description available.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Criminology / Master / Master of Social Sciences