While modernising influences affect many facets of the lives of millions of Indian families, there remain deep-rooted socio-cultural practices and traditions that survive and become engendered in new institutional mechanisms. Labour market policy is but one example where age-old ethnic affiliations distort governmental efforts and find new ways of expressing themselves. Efforts over the past decade to slow the rate of population growth, by encouraging adoption of modern family planning methods have failed to tackle son preference and have caused the sex ratios at birth to be worse than at any other time in the nation's history. This is particularly so in urban India, even among the more educated populace, and it is worsening. This thesis sets out to assess the way in which such gender considerations affect family formation decisions, primarily concerning the quantity and quality of children, with an appreciation of the dynamic nature of the problem. First we assess how fertility preferences and past child outcomes affect the demand for family planning and how behaviours associated with the greater autonomy of women impact upon this process. The empirical work makes use of data from the latest round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) for India, 1999, for the state of Uttar Pradesh, in a simultaneous equation framework, in an effort to take account of the joint determination of many of the variables inherent in modelling such dynamic processes with cross-sectional data. We find that although women's autonomy has been held up as a means of achieving lower fertility, the two do not necessarily go hand in hand, unless coupled with the wider participation of women. Unless the primary social and economic motivations for preferring sons are tackled and dismantled through legislation and through changes to social attitudes, superficial policies to promote the well-being of women will have little real impact and may lead to worsening female child outcomes. One of the policies heralded to achieve the deeper goal of gender equality has been the promotion of education of female children, who as a group lag well behind their male counterparts on both literacy and numeracy rates. We thus turn our attention to investigating the way in which household time allocation decisions are made, focusing on the parental choice of each child's main activity; to go to school, to work in the home, or in the formal labour market, in an effort to understand how the household's opportunities and resource constraints, along with social norms impact such decisions. While some state governments are offering cash incentives to families to keep their female children in school and unmarried, significant labour market discrimination against women continues and constrains the value of this government investment. Making use of the same NFHS data for Uttar Pradesh, we estimate each child's trinomial time allocation with competing speci cations and then compare the results. The standard multinomial logit model is estimated initially but imposes some fairly tight assumptions on behaviour and the resultant data, that are unlikely to hold in the present application. A Mixed Logit model is then estimated that is able to bring greater flexibility and descriptive richness than is possible with the standard Logit model. Estimation results are compared and con firm the ability of the Mixed Logit to capture more fully the unobserved heterogeneity inherent in the data and to allow for correlation in the errors across children of the same family that is not permitted within the standard logit setup.

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The present study challenges the negative and static stance of the recent literature on Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state of India, and espouses a balanced and moderate approach. The existing literature focuses only on human development and ignores the underlying social, political and economic changes taking place in the state. It ignores the decline in credit to the state. The present study synthesises and amalgamates various streams of literature on the state to fill the gap. It uses bank credit and its role in UP’s economic development as a tool to explore the changes and structural and regional shifts in the state. It examines bank credit to various regions, districts, occupations, rural and urban populations, large and small borrowers and gender in UP. This study explores credit in a multi-dimensional framework as a route to growth, development, inequality, globalisation, urbanisation, and empowerment. The study further explores the relationship between bank credit and the state’s human development. As a critique of the existing literature, the study examines whether UP is really lagging behind other states of India. Through a twin indicator approach, broadly grouped into income and non-income, the study shows that the state does lag on income front. The non-income indicators analysis, however, shows that a number of other states including high-income states are lagging. The study eschews the watertight categorisation of east and west UP as pursued in the existing literature, and adopts a broader regional classification. This showed that, although gradual, change has occurred in UP. The overall findings of the study suggest that structural and non-structural constraints characterise the development of the state. The multiple roles of credit have generated growth, helped in poverty reduction, but also influenced regional inequality and rural-urban inequalities, and widened the gap between small and large borrowers in the state. The empowerment of women through credit from commercial banks remains a distant goal as women receive less than 20 per cent of the total credit. Another significant finding of the study is that the income and non-income factors are strongly correlated, for instance, the strong negative relationship between income and the Human Poverty Index. The study, therefore, underlines the need for increased economic growth to achieve better economic and human development outcomes.

The present study challenges the negative and static stance of the recent literature on Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state of India, and espouses a balanced and moderate approach. The existing literature focuses only on human development and ignores the underlying social, political and economic changes taking place in the state. It ignores the decline in credit to the state. The present study synthesises and amalgamates various streams of literature on the state to fill the gap. It uses bank credit and its role in UP’s economic development as a tool to explore the changes and structural and regional shifts in the state. It examines bank credit to various regions, districts, occupations, rural and urban populations, large and small borrowers and gender in UP. This study explores credit in a multi-dimensional framework as a route to growth, development, inequality, globalisation, urbanisation, and empowerment. The study further explores the relationship between bank credit and the state’s human development. As a critique of the existing literature, the study examines whether UP is really lagging behind other states of India. Through a twin indicator approach, broadly grouped into income and non-income, the study shows that the state does lag on income front. The non-income indicators analysis, however, shows that a number of other states including high-income states are lagging. The study eschews the watertight categorisation of east and west UP as pursued in the existing literature, and adopts a broader regional classification. This showed that, although gradual, change has occurred in UP. The overall findings of the study suggest that structural and non-structural constraints characterise the development of the state. The multiple roles of credit have generated growth, helped in poverty reduction, but also influenced regional inequality and rural-urban inequalities, and widened the gap between small and large borrowers in the state. The empowerment of women through credit from commercial banks remains a distant goal as women receive less than 20 per cent of the total credit. Another significant finding of the study is that the income and non-income factors are strongly correlated, for instance, the strong negative relationship between income and the Human Poverty Index. The study, therefore, underlines the need for increased economic growth to achieve better economic and human development outcomes.

The present study challenges the negative and static stance of the recent literature on Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state of India, and espouses a balanced and moderate approach. The existing literature focuses only on human development and ignores the underlying social, political and economic changes taking place in the state. It ignores the decline in credit to the state. The present study synthesises and amalgamates various streams of literature on the state to fill the gap. It uses bank credit and its role in UP’s economic development as a tool to explore the changes and structural and regional shifts in the state. It examines bank credit to various regions, districts, occupations, rural and urban populations, large and small borrowers and gender in UP. This study explores credit in a multi-dimensional framework as a route to growth, development, inequality, globalisation, urbanisation, and empowerment. The study further explores the relationship between bank credit and the state’s human development. As a critique of the existing literature, the study examines whether UP is really lagging behind other states of India. Through a twin indicator approach, broadly grouped into income and non-income, the study shows that the state does lag on income front. The non-income indicators analysis, however, shows that a number of other states including high-income states are lagging. The study eschews the watertight categorisation of east and west UP as pursued in the existing literature, and adopts a broader regional classification. This showed that, although gradual, change has occurred in UP. The overall findings of the study suggest that structural and non-structural constraints characterise the development of the state. The multiple roles of credit have generated growth, helped in poverty reduction, but also influenced regional inequality and rural-urban inequalities, and widened the gap between small and large borrowers in the state. The empowerment of women through credit from commercial banks remains a distant goal as women receive less than 20 per cent of the total credit. Another significant finding of the study is that the income and non-income factors are strongly correlated, for instance, the strong negative relationship between income and the Human Poverty Index. The study, therefore, underlines the need for increased economic growth to achieve better economic and human development outcomes.

The present study challenges the negative and static stance of the recent literature on Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state of India, and espouses a balanced and moderate approach. The existing literature focuses only on human development and ignores the underlying social, political and economic changes taking place in the state. It ignores the decline in credit to the state. The present study synthesises and amalgamates various streams of literature on the state to fill the gap. It uses bank credit and its role in UP’s economic development as a tool to explore the changes and structural and regional shifts in the state. It examines bank credit to various regions, districts, occupations, rural and urban populations, large and small borrowers and gender in UP. This study explores credit in a multi-dimensional framework as a route to growth, development, inequality, globalisation, urbanisation, and empowerment. The study further explores the relationship between bank credit and the state’s human development. As a critique of the existing literature, the study examines whether UP is really lagging behind other states of India. Through a twin indicator approach, broadly grouped into income and non-income, the study shows that the state does lag on income front. The non-income indicators analysis, however, shows that a number of other states including high-income states are lagging. The study eschews the watertight categorisation of east and west UP as pursued in the existing literature, and adopts a broader regional classification. This showed that, although gradual, change has occurred in UP. The overall findings of the study suggest that structural and non-structural constraints characterise the development of the state. The multiple roles of credit have generated growth, helped in poverty reduction, but also influenced regional inequality and rural-urban inequalities, and widened the gap between small and large borrowers in the state. The empowerment of women through credit from commercial banks remains a distant goal as women receive less than 20 per cent of the total credit. Another significant finding of the study is that the income and non-income factors are strongly correlated, for instance, the strong negative relationship between income and the Human Poverty Index. The study, therefore, underlines the need for increased economic growth to achieve better economic and human development outcomes.

Originally presented as the author's thesis. / Includes bibliographical references and index.

This thesis aims to study and compare gender discrimination in terms of son preferences in Kerala and Uttar Pradesh in India. It also aims to explain how son preferences appears in these states. This study uses Judith Butler’s (2007) and Yvonne Hirdman’s (2001) gender theories to explain the gender discrimination in the different states. Research shows that the son preference in India is strongly permeated in many parts of the country. This is mainly due to the deep-rooted patriarchal system that exists in India. The results show that this is particularly prominent in Uttar Pradesh than in Kerala. Previous research and the existing theories show that the strong son preferences that exists in the Indian society results in many women and young girls being discriminated. Through the gender perspective, this can be explained by the social constructions that are created in society. There are social and cultural norms and an unchanging cultural law that has been passed on for generations, where the roles of men and women in society are constructed and implemented. The social press on women, from both society and families to give birth to sons, leads to many devastating consequences and adversities for both women and young girls.

This thesis examines the revival of the sphoṭa doctrine in early modern Benares and Śeṣakṛṣṇa's Sphoṭattvanirūpaṇa as an influential work in that revival. The sphoṭa doctrine is the richest contribution of the grammarians to the philosophy of language, but its semantic significance was not highlighted until late, because its theological implication was stronger. Śeṣakṛṣṇa was a renowned Sanskrit grammarian who flourished in sixteenth-century Benares. He also wrote poetry and Dharmasastric works, and played an important role as a juridical authority. Despite his illustrious career, Śeṣakṛṣṇa encountered criticism for his works from contemporary critics. The only work he wrote solely on the philosophy of language was the Sphoṭattvanirūpaṇa. As the first discrete work on sphoṭa by a grammarian, the Sphoṭattvanirūpaṇa represented an important landmark in the later expositions of the doctrine of sphoṭa particularly because it renewed the later grammarians' interest in sphoṭa, which then resulted in a series of individual works of a similar sort. The revival of the sphoṭa doctrine in early modern Benares coincided with that of the philosophy of language, which was caused by a number of social and intellectual factors in different proportions and phases. Śeṣakṛṣṇa's Sphoṭattvanirūpaṇa emerged on the eve of that revival, and can be recognized as a pioneer work in terms of its revitalization of the grammarians' interpretation of sphoṭa after a period of dormancy, and its influence on later works on sphoṭa.

No description available.