Background: India as one of the rapidly developing economies where health challenges are myriad at the population level has the highest number of maternal death in the world. Understanding risk factors for maternal mortality is paramount because maternal health is the basic indicator for the overall adequacy of healthcare of a country. This study was conducted to review on the various risk factors of maternal mortality and the multifarious challenges for maternal health in India. Methods: A literature search was conducted with PubMed and Google scholar using the key words of (“risk factors” AND (“maternal mortality” OR “maternal death”) AND India) for articles published from 1970 to May 2014. PubMed was primarily used for the systematic search. Findings: Twelve studies were identified for the final review of which six were case series studies, three were case studies and three were case control studies. Most of the studies were conducted in institutional settings from the five regions (North, South, West, Central and East) of India with different range of Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) estimates. Previous literature had highlighted socio economic disadvantages as important determinants for maternal mortality. The current review shows a complex interplay of four factors in general in India: social, obstetrical, behavioural and medical factors. Variables of both social demographic and economic factors such as median age of the women at childbirth, literacy rate of the female population and area of residences are put together in the social factors of this study. Compared to the causes, descriptions on behavioural risk factors were rather limited and so the requisite to examine the risk factors affecting maternal mortality is justified. Intervention strategies include conditional cash transfer scheme, voucher scheme, training of village health volunteers and training of auxiliary mid wives’. Conclusions: India has a unique social system of diversity and stratification. The pattern of maternal mortality in India is different and varied widely in zones or regions. The variations of challenges should be highlighted so as to give a clear grasp of the inequalities of maternal health as well as also help in reducing the MMR substantially. / published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Public Health

They say marriages are made in heaven, but in today’s digital, wired world, they are increasingly made online. But they still have to be solemnized in the offline world, especially in India, where the entire extended family is involved in the sacred process. It is this echoing sentiment in the Indian cultural code that is driving singles to matrimonial Web sites – creating a concept where tradition marries technology. And despite the constant evolution of these sites that include membership fees and increased risk of the misuse of personal information displayed in members’ profiles, there are more users now than ever before. / text

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Kalahandi district in Western Orissa has received extensive media attention in recent years in connection with reports of starvation deaths, child sales and Government neglect. This thesis attempts to identify the roots of hunger in Kalahandi and strategies implemented by people in the district to cope with this problem. It also analyses the performance of Government interventions implemented between 1985 and 1991 designed to promote food security, locating this analysis in a longer historical context. The study uses data collected over a seven month fieldwork period during 1992. Details of Government programmes were obtained through semi-structured interviews with Government officers and elected representatives at national and regional level. Published and unpublished Government data is used to construct time-series for variations in cropping patterns and production for a wide range of crop types over the period 1960 to 1988. Public responses to hunger and public opinion of state interventions are examined through semistructured individual and group interviews in five villages in different parts of the district. This thesis argues that the persistence of hunger in Kalahandi cannot be directly attributed to the failure of the Government to direct adequate finance and resources to relief and development programmes. It suggests that Government officers have at their disposal a wide range of well-formulated provisions to protect the vulnerable. However a range of factors limit the effectiveness of state interventions when guidelines come to be implemented in practice. In a wider context this study highlights the important role which NonGovernmental Organisations (N.G.O.'s), the media and the law courts may play in promoting food security; and the need to strengthen cooperation between the public, the administration and other key actors, including politicians and N.G.O.'s, in designing and administering measures to combat hunger.

published_or_final_version / Comparative Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Master / Master of Philosophy

This study analyzes the role the Supreme Court of India has tried to carve for itself in the Indian political system. An introductory section describes institutional characteristics of the Court and assesses its troubled attempts to define a proper doctrine of judicial review. Subsequent sections discuss Court rulings concerned with the "right to property" and affirmative discrimination for Untouchables. It is shown that the Court garnered strong support among educated and propertied segments of the population for its defense of an independent adjudication of issues arising out of agrarian reform legislation. It is also shown that the Court was capable of imposing flexible and effective standards over affirmative discrimination, despite the incapacity of elected leaders to resolve inherent moral and political problems arising out of the identification of beneficiaries. These outcomes bring into question the tendency of existing research to ignore as inconsequential the role played by judicial institutions in rapidly developing societies. Examination of cases concerned with property rights reveals that the Court was faced with genuine affronts to its integrity as an institution. These affronts came in the form of constitutional amendments which would have enabled elected elites to bypass altogether judicial imposition of constitutional limitations. The Court's reaction to this threat radically departed from the passive role usually assigned by analysts to the courts in the Third World. Giving itself the unique power to reject amendments to the Constitution, the Court projected a militant ideological defense of its proper function. This study carefully analyzes the political setting which made such a defense possible. It is suggested that the Court achieved a temporary triumph precisely because of the growing incapacity of alternate institutions to process difficult social demands. This explanation for judicial assertiveness is reinforced in the decisions concerned with affirmative discrimination. The rise of Supreme Court dominance over standards governing policies in this area is traced to conceptual and practical difficulties which courts seem uniquely equipped to handle. It is shown that non-judicial institutions were utterly unprepared to resolve inherent conflicts between group and individual rights implicit within caste-based affirmative discrimination. The Court could "resolve" such conflicts by deliberate obfuscation of legal categories identifying beneficiaries. Not faced with the practical implementation of programs under its scrutiny, the Court was required only to devise a legal language which would satisfy the need to legitimize such programs while keeping them limited to the genuinely needy. Detailed examination of these policy conflicts shows that it is possible for judicial institutions to articulate and act upon their own prerogatives in a country undergoing instability and institutional decay. Comparable research for other countries is suggested in the conclusion.

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No description available.