The questionnaires from the field were received, checked and stored by the data processing personnel. They checked: 1. The completeness of the questionnaires 2. The correct bubbling 3. The correct number of questionnaires per household, if total males + total females > 8 as the questionnaire ONLY accommodated maximum of 8 household members. 4. The reference number appears in all the 10 pages of the questionnaires.

Population and Housing Census

The Muslims of Burma: A Study of a Minority Group . By Moshe Yegar. Wiesbaden: Verlag Otto Harrassowitz, 1972. xiii, 151 pp. Illustrations, Appendices, Bibliography, Indices. DM 38.00.

Burma Redux: Global Justice and the Quest for Political Reform in Myanmar Ian Holliday (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2011/New York: Columbia University Press, 2012) Not surprisingly, give...

Burma Redux: Global Justice and the Quest for Political Reform in Myanmar

Introduction Historically, education has been seen as a tool of human-capital creation, especially in developing countries. The development theorists’ case for compulsory education is based primarily on the link between mass education and economic growth (rates of return from education) as well as on the link between female education, fertility rates and public health. In short, the better educated a population, the healthier the population will be and the better developed the country will become. The role of the State has always been central in delivering education and the prime role of the state education system is to underpin the fulfilment of broader societal development goals. These goals could predominantly be economic, political, social or cultural, determined by the national, regional and international contexts. There is, therefore, an obvious need to adjust the content of education in a given context to changing societal conditions and needs over time. Underpinning the role of the State in education is the acceptance, since the end of World War II, of education internationally as a public good and the idea that the State has a responsibility towards its citizens in providing at least a basic level of education for all.

Evolving education in Myanmar: the interplay of state, business and the community

military strategy. This includes the Liberation War of 1971, and the designation of women as Birangonas, or war heroines, after that war, as well as violence in the Chittagong Hills Tract. This work depicts a state of affairs where impunity is often a result of institutional responses to sexual violence, or indeed the silence and failure to respond. Dina M. Siddiqi for instance in her essay, ‘Gendered States: A Review of the Literature on Sexual Violence and Impunity’, links impunity with the actions of NGOs and states whose responses to rape are often not based on the needs of the victim and, rather, concerned with patriarchal notions of purity and honour. This is particularly striking in the accounts provided by the authors of mass abortions that took place following the Liberation War of 1971 and where children born of rape were given for adoption by international agencies. The lack of appropriate record-keeping of such events and the details of such victims and children, as highlighted in Amena Mohsin’s essay on ‘The History of Sexual Violence, Impunity and Conflict: The Bangladesh Context’ further emphasise the work’s overall contention that responses to sexual violence need close consideration of the longterm impact of such violence. This critical work seeks to illustrate how sexual violence is closely related to both the creation and perpetuation of the nation in South Asia and how the structures and language of statehood perpetuate sexual violence. The authors extend discussion in this field into broader causes of sexual violence and its impunity in Bangladesh including economic precariousness, tourism, indigenous occupants’ loss of land and other structural factors. The work also raises important issues about the ethics and methodology of conducting such work. The way in which stories of rape are presented within this book itself illustrate how difficult and complex a task it is to parse the histories of sexual violence and add insight into how these issues may be resolved. The work is notably also not entirely academic in tone. It features poetry and photography by Kabita Chakma and Shahidul Alam respectively. These relate to Kalpana Chakma, a woman from the Chittagong Hills Tract whose disappearance in 1996 caused her to become a symbol of resistance to state violence. Photography of her personal possessions, books and writings provide a poignant reminder of the issues and matters at stake. Ultimately, the work calls for scholars and activists to build on these long-term efforts and to continue research in other under-investigated areas. These include sexual violence committed on the basis of caste, transgender identity or occupation and how development policies have also contributed to a culture of impunity against sexual violence.

Understanding reform in Myanmar: people and society in the wake of military rule

The Socio-Economic Atlas of Myanmar focuses on the analysis and evaluation of regional differences in geographical conditions, natural resources, infrastructure and, in particular, the socio-economic development in the states and regions of the country in the current transformation process of Myanmar. The Atlas is based on international literature, statistical data, qualitative research and spatial information in a Geographic Information System on Myanmar. The spatial analyses aim to increase the state of knowledge about Myanmar both within the country and abroad, and to support decision-making on spatial development policy.

Aye Aye Myint

Papers

Socio-Economic Atlas of Myanmar