The Sex Ratios Of India

The Sex Ratios Of India Indias growth story has been incredible. The stock markets are doing well. Corporate India is optimistic about India being able to sustain the current growth rate for a considerable period of time. Indian companies are making their presence felt through cross-border mergers and acquisitions. Services and manufacturing sectors are booming. Growth in agriculture may be sluggish as compared to the other sectors, it growing nonetheless. Urban India believes that India is going to surpass the United States of America in a span of fifteen years. However, fundamental problems like malnutrition and corruption still plague our country. But the urban, educated, middle class are not affected by malnutrition and have learnt to live with corruption. There is one problem besides corruption and malnutrition; which is prevalent across all sections of the society and all of them all guilty participants in making this problem a widespread one. The urban, educated, middle class; despite being educated, do not seem to realise the long term effects of their actions. This problem, if unchecked, has the potential to apply the brakes on Indias growth. The birth of a boy child is celebrated, while the birth of a girl child is, well; tolerated. And sometimes, the girl child is killed even before she is born. Sex ratio is the number females in a geographic region per 1000 males. Most developed economies of the world (except China) have healthy sex ratios, with more number of females than males 1. A sex ratio 952 females per 1000 males is considered healthy. The national average as per the 2001 census is 933. Delhi has a modest 915 according estimates in the year 2009 2. As per the 2001 census, Rajasthan averages 922, while Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh average 964 and 978 respectively. Kerala being the most literate state also has the healthiest sex ratio of 1058 per 1000 males 3. However states like Punjab has a dismal sex ratio of 795 per 1000 males, which is alarming 4. The state of Maharashtra too is a cause for concern. With more working women being visible in Maharashtra, there is a misconception that Maharashtra is better off, but facts state otherwise. The juvenile sex ratio is 869 girls to 1000 boys, as on March 2010 11. If India has to continue on the growth path, the burgeoning menace of female foeticide cannot be ignored. But is the common man on the road concerned? No. Why? For one, the common man believes that it is not his problem; but of the feminists, the NGOs, the government, and so on. For another, he believes that the problem is societal, not personal; and hence it cannot affect him. (The common man I am talking about is a reference to the numerous people I have met so far in my life. Gender imbalance is the least of their problems.) Is the problem societal? Crime against women is on the rise and the increasing imbalance between males and females will aggravate it 5. A survey conducted by Jagori, based in Delhi concluded that women face harassment in public places on a continuous basis 6. Since most of the cases of harassment go unreported, the awareness of the magnitude of the menace is abysmally low. An article written by Kalpana Sharma, No girls please, were Indian, (The Hindu, 29 August 2004) calls this problem an epidemic with huge social costs associated with it. My understanding of the articles I have referred to is that gender imbalance would lead to an increase in restlessness among men. Women would become easy targets to vent their frustration. Is the problem personal? We Indians have developed a very wrong mindset. Unless a problem affects us personally, we do not seem to bother. Should women care? Women craving for sons, who have never faced harassment should realise that even they can be vulnerable. Should men care? States like Punjab and Haryana are facing a very grave situation. Due to their heavily skewed sex ratios, there are not enough brides for the grooms within the community. A study notes that 20% men may remain unmarried 6. Another study notes that marriage has beneficial effects on health and survival, with men reaping maximum benefits. Therefore, men run the risk of shorter life expectancy 7. Why is that we do not want daughters? Daughters have always been considered as paraya dhan. Parents consider having a daughter as an expense, a luxury they cannot afford. Taking care of her, educating her, and marrying her off to a suitor, all require huge sums of money. Any property she inherits or assets that she creates go the family she marries into. Families who own large pieces of land have owned such lands for generations. Such families would always want their first child to be male for the purpose of inheritance and keeping the land within the family. Even today marrying off a daughter is considered the biggest responsibility a parent can possibly have. Fears for her sexual safety and security make parents to marry off their daughter as early as possible. Why is that we want sons? The answer is dowry. Though the practice of dowry is made illegal in 1961, it is an open secret that the practice is prevalent even in 2010. We have men in the south proudly telling each other that they have a market value in the marriage market 9. There are men among the rural folk who consider getting married simply to rake in dowry and use it to fund their businesses. Dowry in todays world has taken many convenient forms like a fully furnished apartment, high-end electronics, a four-wheeled vehicle, and huge sums of money. The trend of son preference cuts across socio-economic factors like caste and economic status 6. As a result, dowry related harassment is rising. Other than financial concerns, there are other benefits in having sons. India is a patrilineal society. Sons continue the family lineage (gotra), while daughters lose their gotra of birth and join the lineage of their husbands. This essentially means that sons are the only legitimate descendan ts in the system. Therefore, sons are a source of prestige for a family. As a consequence of these deep seated norms, girl children under the age of 5 face severe neglect in terms of nutrition, immunisation, and clothing. They also face discrimination with regard to schooling. Sometimes female infants are killed within a few days of their birth. With the advent of technology, the trend of sex selective abortion or female foeticide has risen to unprecedented levels. Thirty years ago, these methods were not known. The Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act (PNDT) Act prohibits doctors and clinics from using pre-natal diagnostic techniques, such as scans, to determine the sex of a foetus. First offenders would face a penalty of up to three years of imprisonment and a fine of 10,000 and repeat offenders would risk a five-year imprisonment and a 50,000 fine. The act also prohibits any advertising for diagnosis facilities. The act notwithstanding, the awareness of sex selective abortions were popularised with the mushrooming o f unregistered, illegal, small clinics by advertising the benefits of sex selective abortions through messages like It is better to pay a small amount today for a sex-selective abortion than a larger amount later for your daughters dowry. The government, on its own, has not been effective in enforcing the act. The government has a myopic take on the issue. Since this issue cannot be treated as a plank to garner votes, the long term after effects of sustained gender imbalances on demography are not being considered seriously 10. All hope is not lost. Many NGOs have launched sting operations, such as luring doctors into revealing the sex of a foetus. While often receiving wide publicity, these initiatives are proving somewhat less effective for legal reasons, as proof of criminal wrongdoing is often difficult to establish. But they nonetheless have had an unmistakeable impact on clinic operators in some areas, who have come to realise that the Act can be implemented by non-official entities. Other than stings, NGOs have been also been instrumental in spreading awareness through campaigns like Save our daughters, Laadli 1 million signature campaign, FADA movement by Deepalaya, Jatha campaign by Jagruti, and recently, the programme Santulan by the Divya Jyoti Jagrati Sansthan, to name a few. Actress Gul Panag has taken up the cause in Chandigarh and has partnered with a city based NGO called Samsher Singh Foundation to fight female foeticide 8. Notwithstanding these initiatives, at a personal level, we must spread awareness of the issue. A growing India not only needs to debate on fiscal deficit and current account deficits but also on the daughter deficit. The issue needs to be talked about more often to make it relevant all the time. Changing the mindsets of a billion people will not happen overnight. The youth and newly wed couples need to be sensitised about the issue. I advocate certain fundamental changes in the way we think to bring about the change. The urban, educated, middle class can be targeted first with these ideas. After there is a considerable change in the mindset of the middle class, these ideas can be trickled down to the grassroots. The primary problems of lineage, inheritance, and girls being treated as paraya dhan need to be addressed. The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 gives women equal rights of inheritance of land and property. This empowers the women economically and treats daughters as equal financial providers. Second, sons are no more providing for the parents during their old age. Sons are moving out of their ancestral homes, are staying away from their parents and are starting families of their own. Parents of sons are also not assured of constant personal care from their sons in their old age. Now in such a context, it does not matter if the parents have sons or daughters: they are going to stay away anyway due to a variety of reasons and they will be playing roughly equal roles when their parents need them. Third, the concept of a patrilineal society needs to be done away with. The very notion that a daughter would be part of another family after marriage should be erased. Daughters, not jus t sons, can also be considered as legitimate descendants. The children of the daughter need not be thought of as children of another family. In the United States of America, a child can take the surname of either parent. Though it is not a norm here in India, the government is not stopping us from doing so. Now with respect to dowry, young men need to be sensitised about the issue. They need to be told that the fact that they are proud to have a market value is detestable. They need to be taught that it is unethical to think of dowry as an opportunity for instant money. Traditionally, parents of the girl perform her wedding and bear all the expenses. This has to change. Parents of the boy should also shoulder the burden of performing the wedding and share the expenses with the parents of the girl; it is after all the wedding of their son, what is the shame in bearing the expenses of their own sons wedding? Better still, the boy and the girl should be made accountable for the expense s incurred. It their own wedding, why make their parents shoulder the entire responsibility for the expenditure? The fundamental assumptions which would make these changes work are that the urban, educated middle class are liberal in their mindsets, love their sons and daughters roughly equally, and have inflated egos. By hitting on their egos, by enquiring about their capability to fund their own sons wedding, these changes can be driven home. It would too naive to think that by making these changes, we would quickly achieve a healthier sex ratio. These changes are easier said than done, because they are too radical. Even the urban, educated, middle class would find it difficult to digest and assimilate these changes because the existing norms have been around for centuries. Small successes should be celebrated and propagated. It would take years for these changes to provide material results. Eventually, when these changes produce results, one cannot rest because these changes will still have to trickle down among the rural and poorer sections of the society. For India to be an economic superpower, all sections of the society should have a healthy sex ratio within their communities. It is a long and arduous journey ahead. (I have quoted references for most of the facts, results of a survey or study, and certain opinions by authors like Banashri Savanoor and Kalpana Sharma stated in this article. Everything else is either a culmination of my readings on the subject or purely my personal opinion. I shared my ideas on this subject with my colleagues where I worked and they appreciated them. Their feedback was that these ideas are logical, but making it practical would be very difficult.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_sex_ratio http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Delhi-sex-ratio-takes-a-nose-dive/articleshow/6555979.cms http://www.iloveindia.com/population-of-india/sex-ratio.html http://www.e-pao.net/GP.asp?src=20..280810.aug10 http://legalserviceindia.com/article/l292-Female-Foeticide.html http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-120929-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html http://www.economist.com/node/16789152 http://www.bollywoodworld.com/bollywood-news/gul-panag-to-fight-against-female-foeticide-110519.html I have drawn such a conclusion from my personal experience. I hail from Hyderbad, and it is common knowledge that certain communities like the Reddys, and the Gouds are known for their exorbitant dowries. The talk of a market value for men started during my college days. It was one of the most discussed topics in most circles. When I graduated and started working in Mumbai, there was a small Telugu community within the workplace, and I was shocked to hear the term market value, again; among older men. The very notion of a human being, man or woman; being treated like a commodity enrages me. I have been reading up on this topic from quite a long time and has become close to my heart. That is why I have chosen this topic. My views on the bias against the girl child and the PNDT are a culmination of my readings on the subject. Facts and advertisements for the clinics have been taken from PC-PNDT Handbook for the public, http://pndt.gov.in/index2.asp?slid=6HYPERLINK http://pndt.gov.in/index2.asp?slid=6sublinkid=58HYPERLINK http://pndt.gov.in/index2.asp?slid=6sublinkid=58sublinkid=58 . The views on the government are entirely personal. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/as-law-crawls-maharashtra-sex-ratio-drops-more/649580/1

Wedding Toasts †Perhaps Others Have Said it Best Essay -- Wedding Toa

Wedding Toasts – Perhaps Others Have Said it Best To the Bride From her Groom Never above you. Never below you. Always beside you. To the bride and groom (before the wedding) Here's to the bride that is to be, Here's to the groom she'll wed, May all their troubles be light as bubbles Or the feathers that make up their bed! Anonymous To the bride from her groom "Drink to me only with thine eyes, And I will pledge with mine; Or leave a kiss within the cup, And I'll not look for wine." Ben Jonson "Grow old with me! The best is yet to be, The last of life, For which, the first is made." Robert Browning I have known many, Liked not a few, Loved only one I toast to you Irish toast "Wherever I roam, whatever realms I see, My heart untravelled fondly turns to thee." Oliver Goldsmith Because I love you truly, Because you love me, too, My very greatest happiness Is sharing life with you. Every day you look lovelier and lovelier, and today you look like tomorrow. To quote John Keats's immortal line, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever." Here's to you, my beautiful bride." "Were't the last drop in the well, An I gasp'd upon the brink, Ere my fainting spirit fell, 'Tis to thee that I would drink." Lord Byron The world is happy and colorful, And life itself is new. And I am very grateful for The friend I found in you. Anonym... ... Here are some words to live by: Love to one, friendship to many, and goodwill to all. May you live to learn well, and learn to live well. Remember that if you ever put your marital problems on the back burner they are sure to boil over. Unkown "Marriage is our last, best chance to grow up." Joseph Barth "A happy marriage is still the greatest treasure within the gift of fortune." Eden Phillpotts "Happy marriages begin when we marry the one we love, and they blossom when we love the one we married." Sam Levenson "Seek a happy marriage with wholeness of heart, but do not expect to reach the promised land without going through some wilderness together." Charlie W. Shedd

Reflective Statement Essay

How I create a positive learning environment A positive learning environment are trust, open communication and shared learning experiences.Trainer is one who can create a positive learning environment, which will allow the students to feel comfortable, safe and engaged – something that all students deserve. I applied some factors that build a positive learning environment. Adult learners require the learning to be relevant, are highly motivated, need active involvement in the learning process, a variety of learning experiences, positive feedback, need to be recognized as individuals with unique experiences, to maintain their self-esteem. A positive learning environment requires the involvement of learners – to ask questions and feedback, encourage discussions, group and individual activities, group discussions, visual aids, role plays. The effective trainer helps to create the positive learning environment when using a variety of techniques for providing positive feedback. To provide positive feedback is to give verbal praise, to use positive responses during questioning, recognize appropriate skills. Be sure to treat the participants as individuals when using participant names, to involve all participants as often as possible, to treat participants with respect, to allow participants to share information with others, to maintain the self-esteem of learners with reinforcing practices and beliefs embodied in the activity, providing corrective feedback in an appropriate manner, providing training that adds to their sense of competence and self-esteem, recognizing participants accomplishments. The feedback I received from learner participants The feedback I receive is very positive. The learners rated all of the activities very highly. Content – is rated 4.6 from 5 which is Excellent. Organization – is rated 4.0 from 5 which is Very Good. Use of instructional aids – is rated 4.4 from 5 which is near Excellent. Creating interest in topic – is rated 4.8 from 5 which is Excellent. Involvement of participants – is rated 4.4 from 5 which is near Excellent. Met my needs – is rated 3.8 from 5 which is near Very Good. Suitable to my level of experience – is rated 4.2 from 5 which is Very Good. Interesting – is rated 4.4 from 5 which is near Excellent. Included sufficient examples – is rated 4.6 from 5 which is Excellent. Understandable -is rated 4.2 from 5 which is Very Good. This lead to conclude that activities provides interesting information. The feedback I received it is very useful and helping me to understand where I can develop my lessons in further. My perceptions of the effectiveness of the activity I felt engaged and that the content of the learning material was interesting and meaningful. The explanations given helped me to clarify and remember ideas, and the activities gave a way to remember the information in a clear way. That makes a difference in understanding the material, because I can see the strategies in action instead of just reading about them. The results of the team work activities are beneficial towards learning process and helps enhance learning process. Looking at the picture as a whole, one of the most valuable things is just sharing experiences with other participants. Because you just learn so much from each other. I think the whole focus behind the effectiveness of the activity it has made me reflect a lot more on my own practice and future development. 2 recommendations to improve my future performance

Andrew Jacksons Life - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 6 Words: 1751 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2019/08/06 Category People Essay Level High school Tags: Andrew Jackson Essay Did you like this example? INTRODUCTION A man with such a basic life, but such big ideas and dreams. From being a prisoner of war, to President. Andrew Jackson had a very rough childhood, but was a well rounded leader in both military, and Presidency. All of his actions had great impact on the Americas during his life span and after. Childhood/Early Life Jacksons life all started march 15, 1767. There is no record of a place of birth but both North and South Carolina claim he was born in their states. It is said the Waxhaws region was his original birth place but this can not be confirmed. As a child, he received very little to no formal education. When he was young his mother and brother died in 1780-1781 due the the British invasion of the Carolinas, which soon lead to his lifelong hatred towards the british over his lifespan. When he was 13 years, old he enlisted in a local militia and saw combat in the American Revolution. He was captured as a prisoner of war and made a servant by British officers. The scar across his face was sought after he refused to clean a officers boots, which resulted in him getting struck across the face with a saber. Some theorize that this incident was the cause for his hatred of the British, but this cannot be confirmed. After the war, Jackson along with his one surviving brother, contracted smallpox in a war camp prison. Jackson survived, unfortunately his brother did not. Having no one to go to, he soon moved to Charleston to live out the rest of his youth, with the help for his uncle giving him lump sums of money. He eventually went back to school to further his education at Passyunk Square neighborhood in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Jackson was always interested in the legal field. He ended up making his own private practice as a prosecuting attorney. He would soon marry Rachel Donelson Robards and have 10 children, then marry again this time to Lisa Marie Presley. He was known to be very rambunctious, fearless, and temperamental. The temperamental part of him led to him fighting over 103 duel, which he claimed was because he was defending his wifes honor. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Andrew Jacksons Life" essay for you Create order Military life President Madison commissioned Jackson as Major General of U.S. Volunteers in December 1812. During the war of 1812, he took troops to fight against indians on the southern frontier to fight against British forces. Jacksons men were getting beat badly and were outnumbered from fighting, which caused for his troops to try and desert him in battle, but Jackson put them at gunpoint and said he would kill them if they try and desert him. After a long painful battle then won this war against the British. This earned him his nickname of Ol Hickory and Hero of New Orleans from his determination and toughness. In October of 1813, he led his troops to march to Fort Mims (present day southern Alabama), due to the fact it was under attack by a hostile faction that went by the name of Red Sticks. War of 1812 Jackson was known as the only president that fought in both the revolutionary war and war of 1812. In the summer of 1814, Jackson commissioned his troops to move towards Alabama to attack the british. Most of his army consisted of inexperienced volunteers, free black men, riflemen from two different states, and the louisiana militia. The odds were very much against them. For every one soldier jackson had, there were two british soldiers. Even though this battle was uneven, Jacksons forces held their ground across a long barrier they made. On the day of January 8th, 1815, the british did a full scale attack on jackson. The british troops suffered mass casualties, around 8,600, and would be defeated. This led to nickname, the hero of New Orleans, which would later impact Jacksons election and presidency. Road to the presidency Jacksons war efforts and political involvement made him a more popular vote in his election. He served in the senate in 1797, and 1823 to 1825. He was also in house of representatives from 1796 to 1797. He formed a strong bond with Radicals and was named territorial governor of Florida after war of 1812. In 1822, Tennessee Legislature nominated him for presidency which prompted his avocation for public office.personally During Jacksons election he did not want to personally represent himself in any other state than Tennessee. He had a very clear point which made people understand him when he spoke of cleansing the government corruption and bringing it back to its earlier values. Historians believes the election of 1828 was recognized, and still is one of the most malicious and corrupt in the history of America. Jackson won the popular votes, but not the electoral college votes to be elected. The result was a tie for the election between Adams and Jackson, which called for the House o f Representatives to choose. John Q Adams was elected by Henry Clay, and speaker of the house. Jackson had his suspicions about the election. He thought the two had a gentlemans agreement. When Adams took office, he made Clay Secretary of State, and this confirmed Jacksons theory. When it came time for elections Jackson would win against him, even with all of Adams supporters accusing him of going to be a napoleonic ambitionist and a tyrant who would use the presidency all for his own benefit. Presidency The build up to Jacksons political stance was accompanied by his military work. He was apart of the election of 1824 and was up against three different candidates, William H. Crawford, Henry Clay, and John Quincy Adams. Elected on March 4th of 1826, he served till 1837. While in office, he oversaw multiple projects. His main goal had to deal with the indian Removal Act. Which ordered the removal of thousands of Cherokee indians across the Trail of Tears to there reservations. They had to cross over nine different states for a total of 2,200 miles . He was the first democrat elected president. He is considered one of the first presidents that was for the people and wanted to represent them. He was the leader of the executive branch,and was known to rule with a iron fist. He was known as the first Tennessee man to be elected into the house of representatives. There was one known assassination attempt on him, January 30, 1835 by the house painter Richard Lawrence. There were tw o shots fired, neither shot went off, this gave Jackson a chance to beat him over the head with his cane. The Trail of Tears In 1830 congress was pressuring Jackson to pass legislation on removal of Native Cherokee indians in Georgia, which was land allocated to them due to the treaty signed in 1791. The treaty was named the Hopewell Treaty. This all changes at the discovery of gold and settlement purposed by white men. Georgia tried to reclaim the land but was taken to supreme court and ruled in favor of the Cherokee people. Then on May 28, 1830, Jackson passed the Indian Removal Act to force Native Indians to move to unsettled lands just west of the Mississippi River in exchange for their lands. This land persided in the states border. The bank war and jacksons involvement This dispute began with the his campaign in 1833 to eradicate the Second Bank of America. This dispute went on throughout his presidency, as Jackson had soon won national support for his cause. Where as in 1832, Jackson vetoed a bill that called for the early renewal for the second banks charter. He was not fond of the banking system, and acted harshly to reduce the banks economical powers. He had opposition form fellow cabinet members and went through two secretaries of treasury until he got what he wanted. On October 1st 1833, he announced that the federal funds would not be deposited into the second bank but rather place them in various state banks. The president of the second bank had ideas around jacksons genius plan, he decided to call back loans and contracting credit. In the end, the second banks charter ended up expiring in 1836 and Jackson official won the bank war. Abolishment and the American System The American System and economic policy lasted from 1816 to 1828. This called for certain tariffs on imported goods, which limited federal funding for certain infrastructure. This american system idea had success, but still was a flaw with internal conflicts. Abolishment of Slavery in the South was mostly about the treatment of slaves and their rights. Southern states were against abolishment and were fully dependent on slave labor, unlike the northern states. The first priority of Jacksons was to preserve the state of union before his conflicts with opposing slavery. Life after presidency After his two terms in office in 1829 to 1837, Jackson was was looking forward to having a quiet retirement from the political view. Though, even after his two terms were up his political views and stances carried on throughout Martin Van Burens terms for office. He had say in the annexation of texas and abolishment of slavery. Although his term was long over, his work did get completed by political followers in office. This all stopped when William Henry Harrison took office on March 4 ,1841. At last, his age and also illness were bearing down on him. His health has been declining for many years, and he eventually died from natural causes on June 8th, 1845. He passed away at his final resting place and home at the Hermitage. The Hermitage was his house in Nashville, Tennessee. It is now a National Museum where you can go in and learn all the interesting facts about Andrew Jackson and his life. Jacksons end result In conclusion, the life line of Andrew Jackson was a rough and challenging time. He went through many difficult times as a child. He went into the militia at a young age and then eventually went back to school to finish his education. He also had some very great accomplishments. Not just as President, but even when he had success an attorney. After time he finished his education and created his own private practice of law. He then went on to getting married and having 10 children. All while going through political battles over elections and with Congress.He went on to being in the election to run for The President of the United States. He was up against four candidates and won. Not to mention that when paper currency came along from all of these efforts he got his place on the U.S. 2 dollar bill.