Nearly 65% of adults in the Arab region remain excluded from formal financial systems, according to a new report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). The Annual SDG Review 2025 paints a sobering picture of persistent financial exclusion that is undermining the region’s ability …
Land resources are limited and finite. There is bound to be conflict over land use. In a developing country like India, land use planning is applied at four broad scale: national, state, district and village (or small watershed). Different kinds of decisions are taken at such level, where the methods …
Markets for ecosystem services are being promoted across the developing world, amidst claims that the provision of economic incentives is vital to bring about resource conservation. This article argues that equity and legitimacy are also critical dimensions in the design and implementation of such markets, if social development goals beyond …
>> A report released on May 7 by the pressure group, Media Matters for America, says minorities and women get less space in prime-time news programmes in the us. The three-week study said most of the hosts and guests on the shows at msnbc, Fox News and cnn were white …
This paper examines the impact of the variation in stocks of three resources, namely, water, forests and fodder biomass, on resource collection time of rural households in India, especially women. Using household level data from 543 households across 60 villages in the Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh, the estimate reduced …
The commitment to provide free and compulsory education for all children up to fourteen years of age is enshrined in the Indian Constitution. Though successive national plans have recorded significant improvements, the final goal of providing quality education for all even after fifty years of planned development still eludes the …
why are humans the only primates without fur? The answer, new research suggests, could be the rampant practice of infanticide among stone-age women, who killed their furry children and reared only those born
The article discusses the solution to plastic bag pollution problems in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. When plastic bags clog the waterways they create bacteria-infected cesspits that further contaminate the already unclean water. SOS Addis, a non-governmental organization (NGO) that was created by Ethiopians, started out by training 25 …
women who get beaten up at home are more vulnerable to asthma than those not subjected to domestic violence, a study says. The findings have been corroborated by social scientists working on domestic violence in India. Domestic violence is a significant trigger for asthma, the researchers reported after a cross-country …
neanderthal, a species of the Homo genus, disappeared from Earth about 35,000 years ago. Homo sapiens who had the same ancestors as them, continued to live on. The reason behind their sudden disappearance has intrigued scientists for a long time. Anthropologists have propounded three theories explaining their disappearance. One group …
using bio-fuel for cooking could lead to cardiovascular diseases and cancer, says a research team from Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute, Kolkata. The team found that biomass smoke causes the activation of neutrophils and monocytes (white blood cells) and platelets. Platelets are blood cells that help in blood coagulation. These clump …
The site under review introduces us to the work of the Gender and Space Project. Undertaken by the Mumbai-based Partners for Urban Knowledge Action and Research, the project focuses on gender as a category to examine the ordering and experience of the city and its varied spaces, particularly public spaces. …
The third National Family Health Survey (nfhs) was carried out during 2005 and 2006. Preliminary findings reveal: Child n In Madhya Pradesh, 60.3 per cent of the children under three are underweight. This is the highest in the country: the problem exists in both urban and rural areas. 53.5 per …
Women are more at risk of contracting avian flu than men, states the Egyptian health ministry. The statement came after an appraisal of the gender ratio of avian flu infected people in the country. Most avian flu deaths in the country were found to be among women and a total …
TWO years after the Asian tsunami, as the images of devastation fade off from global public memory, the disaster persists for villages along the coastline of Sri Lanka's Southern Province. Survivors here have new houses, boats, fishing nets and roads, but face a severe scarcity of drinking water. Unlike flooded …
Metropolitan slums in diverse nations like India have always been homes to rural migrants from a variety of linguistic, religious and regional backgrounds and reflect a unique cultural dynamism. This paper seeks to address some of these issues through a brief report of the author's findings regarding the changing patterns …
This World Disasters Report focuses on how women, the elderly, minorities and people with disabilities are discriminated against in disasters. It says aid agencies and governments should make more effort to avoid discrimination in their relief and recovery programmes.
A health camp conducted in Sama, 60 km north of Bageshwar in Uttaranchal in November, revealed that anaemia, chronic infections, gout, tuberculosis and rheumatoid arthritis are the common ailments there. And, 80 per cent of the 250 people who had come for the check up, suffered from these. Most women, …
Pesticides, common environmental exposures, have been examined in relation to breast cancer primarily in occupational studies or exposure biomarker studies. No known studies have focused on self-reported residential pesticide use. The authors investigated the association between reported lifetime residential pesticide use and breast cancer risk among women living on Long …
