Social Science Spectrum 

About: Social Science Spectrum is an academic journal. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Population & Health care. It has an ISSN identifier of 2454-2806. Over the lifetime, 87 publications have been published receiving 179 citations.

Role of Women’s Empowerment in Determining Child Stunting in Eastern India and Bangladesh

Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between women’s empowerment and nutritional status of children. Data from BDHS (2007) and NFHS (2005-06) were used to examine the role of women’s empowerment in determining child stunting in Eastern India and Bangladesh. Results revealed that stunting and chronic malnourishment were more among children in Eastern India than Bangladesh. Severe stunting was also more prevalent among children of Eastern India as compared with Bangladesh. Mother’s body mass index, mother’s age, sub-region, community, religion, wealth quintile and empowerment indicators (mother’s education and decision making power) had significant association with child stunting. While women’s empowerment played an important role to reduce child stunting mainly in Bangladesh, education, religion and sub-region had a strong effect on stunting in Eastern India. Policies related to educating and economically empowering women in both the regions may facilitate to improve the nutritional status of children and their health.

Poverty and the Politics of Poverty in Independent Zimbabwe, 1980-2017#

Abstract: The causes of poverty in Zimbabwe range from political, economic and social policies to the deployment and utilization of economic resources such as labour and natural endowments in a country where corruption is rampant among the political and economic elite. The paper firstly analyses the relationship between politics and poverty in economic development. Secondly, whilst the dominant political power-configuration of the colonial era provided the social and historical setting of the current poverty structure, it argues that both rural and urban poverty after independence in 1980 has as much to do with colonial as post-independence policies. Thirdly, it posits that while poverty theories are important in understanding the causes and nature of poverty, there is nothing that bears a more eloquent testimony to the existence of poverty in Zimbabwe than the voices of poor people themselves. Fourthly, poverty in Zimbabwe occurs in various forms and dimensions such as income levels, health, education, and employment. Any effort to mitigate poverty depends on the successful resolution of the political and economic policy landscape.

Rural-urban Differential in Utilization of Maternal Healthcare Services in India: A Decomposition Analysis

Abstract: India has made significant progress in reducing maternal mortality ratio (MMR). However, this average achievement masks the enormous rural-urban disparity in maternal health outcome. Using the third round of the National Family Health Survey, 2005-06, this study quantifies the contribution of selected predictors explaining the average rural-urban gap in use of full antenatal care, medical assistance at delivery,and post-natal care in India. Descriptive analysis and non-linear decomposition (Fairlie’s decomposition) technique are used to quantify the contribution of factors explaining the average gap. Result shows that there is a large gap in the use of the services between rural and urban areas with lower coverage of the services in rural areas. Economic status of the household is the largest contributor to the rural-urban gap in the use of the services followed by women’s education and exposure to media. Current working status of mother and religion are the factors which are minimising the rural-urban gap in the use of the healthcare services.

Infant Mortality in Northern and Southern Regions of India: Differentials and Determinants

Abstract: Using the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) 2005-06 data, this paper examines the differentials and determinants of IMR in northern and southern regions of India –which record two extreme levels (highest and lowest respectively). Inferential statistics,bivariate analysis and multilevel Cox proportional regression were used as the methods of analysis. The result suggests that IMR is more pronounced in the northern than southern region. This was observed across the factors taken into consideration in the study. Nevertheless, mother’s illiteracy, working status, and marrying and delivering first child at a young age were the major mother-related factors for a high IMR. Birth interval of less than two years, being of small-sized at birth, being a female child, and not breastfed at the time of survey were the main child-related factors for a high IMR. Further, poor economic condition, living in a rural area and not having access to basic civic amenities were the key household-related covariates of a high IMR. Female literacy, utilization of mother and child healthcare, and availing basic civic amenities at household level is essential to bring reduction in the IMR - without which achieving the recently crafted SDG 3 will be difficult for India.

The Swedish Welfare State Model : A Brief Overview

Abstract: The Swedish welfare state model has its roots in home turf as well as in the soil of othernations, mainly Germany and Britain. It took on its characteristic shape as the People’s Home in the 1930s, when national models to the left and right of the political spectrum in many countries were built around “the people”. At the time it was also labelled “the middle way” between capitalism and socialism. During the 1960s “record years” the Swedish welfare state grew rapidly. It stood at its zenith around 1970, hailed internationally as the Swedish model. However, the welfare state and the economy,closely intertwined, soon entered into a protracted structural crisis. In the early 1990s,Sweden experienced a deep and to a large extent home-made financial crisis and the Swedish model became a warning example in some quarters. Out of the crisis arose a revised model in which welfare services were still provided more or less “for free” (i.e.funded by tax money) while at the same time there were customer/user choice of and competition between public and private providers. Today this revised model is under attack due to the existence of “welfare profits”. It is also challenged by demographic developments – an ageing population and many immigrants lacking entry to the labour market.