Accession Update 

 01-07-2014 to 31-07-2014

 Vol:1, Issue no-3

Psychology

·       Burkitt, Ian: Social Selves: Theories of self and Society. Los Angeles. Sage Publications, 2008 (155.2 B97S)

·       Peplau, L.A. & Taylor, S.E. (etd): Socio-Cultural Perspectives in Social Psychology: Current Readings. New Jersey, Prentice Hall, 1997 (302 P36S)

·       Baron, R.A. (et al.): Social Psychology (12^th edn). Delhi. Pearson, 2009 (302 B26S)

·       Hall, Calvin S. (et al.): Theories of Personality (4^th edn). New Delhi. Willey India, 1998 (155.2 H16T)

Sociology

·       Harrington, Austin: Modern Social Theory: An Introduction. Oxford. Oxford University Press, 2005 (301 H33M)

Social Conflict

·       Horowitz, Donald L.: The Deadly Ethnic Riot. London. University of California Press, 2001 (303.623 H82D)

·       Sarat, Austin & Culbert, J. L. (etd): States of Violence: War, Capital Punishment and Letting Die. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, 2009 (303.601 S16S)

·       Varadarajan, Siddharth (etd): Gujarat: The Making of a Tragedy. New Delhi. Penguin Books, 2002 (303.6 V29G)

·       Cashman, Greg: What Causes War?An Introduction to Theories of International Conflict. New York, Rowman & Littlefield, 2014 (303.6 C28W)

·       Gopin, Marc.: Holy War, Holy Peace: How religion can bring peace to the Middle East. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2002 (956.05 G52H)

·       Sarat, Austin & Kearns, T.R.: Law’s Violence. USA. The University of Michigan Press, 1995 (340.1 S16L)

·       Chesterman, Simon.: Just War or Just Peace? Humanitarian Intervention and International Law. Oxford. Oxford University Press, 2001 (341.584 C 33J)

Social Interaction

·       Beck, Ulrich: World At Risk. Cambridge. Polity Press, 2007 (302.12 B38W)

·       Zinn, Jens O: Social Theories of Risk and Uncertainty: An Introduction. New York. Blackwell Publishing, 2008 (302.12 Z7S)

Social Development

·       Mohanty, Manoranjan (etd): India Social Development Report 2010: The Land Question and the Marginalized. New Delhi. Oxford University Press, 2011 (303.44 M70I)

·       Apffel-Marglin, F. (etd): Interrogating Development: Insights from the Margins. New Delhi. Oxford University Press, 2010 (303.44 A68I)

Dalit

·       Thorat, Sukhadeo: Dalits in India: Search For a common Destiny. Los Angeles. Sage Publications, 2009 (305.568 T41D)

·       Sharma, Aradhana: Logics of Empowerment: Development, Gender and Governance in Neoliberal India. London. University of Minesota Press, 2008 (305.568 S34L)

Culture

·       Szeman, Imre & Kaposy, T. (etd) : Cultural Theory: An Anthology. New York. Wiley-Blackwell, 2011 (306 S99C)

·       Newbigin, Eleanor: The Hindu Family and the Emergence of Modern India: Law, Citizenship and Community. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, 2013 (306.85 N47H)

·       Sharma, Aradhana & Gupta, Akhil (etd): The Anthropology of the State: A Reader. New York. Blackwell Publishing, 2006 (306.2 S34A)

·       Walby, Sylvia: Theorizing Patriarchy. Oxford. Blackwell, 1990 (306.858 W13T)

Urban Development

·       Hillier, Jean & Rooksby, Emma: Habitus: A Sense of Place (2^nd edn). England. Ashgate, 2005 (307.76 H65H)

·       Drakakis-Smith, David: Third World Cities (2^nd edn). London. Routledge, 2000 (307.76 D74T

Ethnicity

·       Mann, Michael.: The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, 2005 (305.8 M 30D)

Political Science

·       Aloysius, G. : Nationalism Without A Nation in India. New Delhi. Oxford University Press, 1998 (320.54 A44N)

·       Wellman, C.H. : A Theory of Secession: The Case For Political Self-Determination. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, 2005 (320.15 W29T)

·       Reynolds, Andrew (etd): The Architecture of Democracy: Constitutional Design, Conflict Management and Democracy. Oxford. Oxford University Press, 2002 (321.8 R41A)

Human Rights

·       Mokhtari, Shadi: After Abu Ghraib: Exploring Human Rights in America and the Middle East.

Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, 2009 (323 M70A)

·       Ignatieff, Michael: Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry. Princeton. Princeton University Press, 2001 (323 I2H)

International Relation

·       Roeder, Philip G. & Rothchild, Donald: Sustainable Peace: Power and Democracy after Civil Wars. London. Cornell University Press, 2005 (327.172 R75S)

Economics

·       Szenberg, Michael (ets): Samuelsonian Economics and the Twenty First Century. Oxford. Oxford University Press, 2006 (330.1 S99S)

·       Sandhney, Akaler: In Search of Famine: A Film by Mrinal Sen. Calcutta. Seagull Books, 1983

·       Agarwal, Bina (etd): Capabilities, Freedom and Equality: Amartya Sen’s Work From a Gender Perspective. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2007

·       Schmid, A. Allan: Conflict and Cooperation: Institutional and Behavioral Economics. New York, Blackwell Publishing , 2004 (330 S21C)

Economic Development

·       Deepak, Nayyar: Liberalization and Development. New Delhi. Oxford University Press, 2008 (338.9 N31L)

·       Basu, Kaushik: Analytical Development Economics: The Less Developed Economy Revisited. Oxford. Oxford University Press, 1998 (338.9 B31A)

·       Leftwich, A Dresner, Simon: The Principles of Sustainability . New York. Earthscan, 2002 (338.927 D76P)

·       drian: States of Development: On the Primacy of Politics in Development. Cambridge. Polity Press, 2000 (338.9 L44S)

·       Mitra, Ashok: Terms of Trade and Class Relations: An essay in Political Economy. New Delhi. Chronicle Books, 2005 (332.55 M68T)

·       Bardhan, Pranab: The Political Economy of Development in India. New Delhi. Oxford University Press, 1984 (338.9 B23P)

·       Mookherjee, Dilip & Ray, Debraj: Readings in the Theory of Economic Development. Oxford. Blackwell, 2001 (338.9 M74R)

Globalization

·       Moore, Mike: A World Without Walls: Freedom, Development, Free Trade and Global Governance. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, 2003 (382.71 M76W)

Labour

·       Sen, Amartya: Employment, Technology and Development. Oxford. Oxford University Press, 1999 (331.11 S29E)

·       Agarwala, Rina: Informal Labour, Formal Politics and Dignified Discontent in India. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, 2013 (331.1172)

·       Molankal, GM.: Bricks of Burden:Women in Brick Klin Industry in Barack Valley Assam. New Delhi. Manak Publications, 2011 (331.48667 M71B)

·       Agarwal, Bina: A Field of One’s Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, 1996 (333.31 A24F)

Natural Resource

·       Krishna, Sumi: Genderscapes: Revisoning Natural Resource Management. New Delhi, Zubaan, 2008  (333.7 K97G)

Decentralization

·       Bandyopadhyay, D.: Empowering Panchayats: Handbook for Master Trainers. New Delhi. Concept Publishing House, 2003 (352.17 B21E)

·       Singh, Satyajit & Sharma. P.K.: Decentralization: Institutions and Politics in Rural India. Oxford. Oxford University Press, 2007 (352.283 S48D)

Ecology & Environment

·       Delmas, M. A. & Young, O.R (etd).: Governance For the Environment: New Perspectives. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, 2009 (363.70526 D33G)

·       Faber, Daniel: Capitalizing on Environmental Injustice: The Polluter-Industrial complex in the age of Globalization. New York. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2008 (363.7 F11C)

·       Kosek, Jake: Understories: The Political Life of Forests in Northern New Mexico. London. Duke University Press

·       Dobson, Andrew,: Justice and the Environment: Conceptions of Environmental Sustainablity and Theories of Distributive Justice. Oxford. Oxford University Press, 1998 (333.7 D49J)

·       Jongman, R.H. G. (etd): Ecological Networks and Greenways: Concept, Design, Implementation. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, 2004 (577 J58E)

·       Rootes, Christopher (etd): Environmental Movements: Local, National and Global. London. Frank Cass, 1999 (363.7 R82E)

·       Redclift, Michael : Development and the Environmental Crisis: Red or Green Alternatives? London. Routledge, 2011 (333.7 R27D)

·       Ambasht, R.S. & Ambasht, N.K. : A Textbook of Plant Ecology (15^th edn). New Delhi. CBS Publishers, 2008 (581.7 A45T)

Social Work

·       Rutter, Lynne & Brown: Critical Thinking and Professional Judgement for Social Work (3^rd edn.) Los Angeles. Sage Publications, 2012 (361.3 R98C)

·       Faherty, Vincent E.: Worldcraft: Applied Qualitative Data Analysis. London. Sage Publications, 2010 (361 F12W)

·       Baldock, John (ets): Social Policy (4^th edn). Oxford. Oxford University Press, 2012 (361.25 B17S)

Public Health

·       Jacobs, Miriam & Dinham, Barbara (etd): Silent Invaders: Pesticides, livelihoods and Women’s Health. London. Zed Books, 2003 (362.1082 J14S)

·       RowitZ, Louis. : Public Health Leadership: Putting Principles into Practice. Burlington. Jones & Bartlett, 2014 (362.1068 R93P)

·       Beaglehole, Robert & Bonita, Ruth: Public Health at the Crossroads: Achievement and Prospects. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, 2004 (362.1 B36P)

Science

·       Ashall, Frank: Remarkable Discoveries. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, 1994 (509 A80R)

·       Barnett, Vic: Sample Survey: Principles & Methods (3^rd edn). London. John Wiley & Sons, 2002 (519.52 B26S)

Social Enterprise

·       Chen, Martha (ets): Membership Based Organizations of the Poor. London. Routledge, 2007 (362.552 C33M)

Health

·       Wassertheil-Smoller, Sylvia: Biostatistics and Epidemiology: A primer for Health and Biomedical Professionals (3^rd edn). New York. Springer, 2003 (614.4672 W22B)

·       Park, K.: Park’s Textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine (22^nd ed). Jabalpur. Banarsidas Bhanot, 2013 (613 P16P)

·       Mould, R.F.: Introductory Medical Statistics (3^rd edn). Bristol. Institute of Physics Publishing, 1998 (610.072 M84I)

·       Dryden, Winden & Reeves, Andrew: Handbook of Individual Therapy (6^th edn). Los Angeles. Sage Publications, 2007 (616.8914 D80H)

Geography

·       Longley, P.A. (ets): Geographical Information Systems: Principles, Techniques, Management and Applications (2^nd edn). New Jersey. John Wiley & Sons

Literature

·       Benjamin, Walter: Reflections: Essays, Aphorisms, Autobiographical Writings. New York. Schocken Books, 2007 (834.912 B44R)

History

·       Bayly, C.A.: The Birth of the Modern World 1780-1914: Global Connections and Comparisons. New York. Blackwell, 2004 (909.8 B35B)

·       Carr, E.H. : What is History? London. Penguin Books, 1987 (901 C22W)

·       Bridget & Allchin, Raymond: The Rise of Civilization in India and Pakistan. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, 1996 (934 B83R)

·       Miller, Randall M. (etd): Religion and the American Civil War. Oxford. Oxford University Press, 1998 (973.7 M62R)

Aug 05 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

End Education's Licence Raj

Rahul Bajaj and Sanjay Bhargava





Heavy hand of government has killed learning and teaching at all levels

The education system in our country is largely dysfunctional, from schools to universities. And this dysfunctionality is because of the system, not despite it. Our system is now designed to produce bad quality.
Unless we face up to this fact we will continue to produce unemployables.There are three wings of the system. Government run, government aided and private. Government run institutions at the central level like IITs and central universities are OK because they get very good students and are well funded. State government run and aided institutions are mostly declining. Private ones are proliferating in quantity to meet the unmet need ­ and cater to those running away from the collapsing government run and aided system ­ but are also mostly of poor quality.
In response to poor quality institutions in both government and private sectors, private tuitions have become the way to ensure clearing of exams. Consequently, in most institutions little teaching or learning is going on.
This sets in motion its own set of consequences. Teachers, especially in government and government aided institutions, indulge in a second vocation of tuitions or something else.
In most government aided institutions teacher jobs are sold. The going rate in Maharashtra for a college teacher exceeds Rs 20 lakh. What quality can be expected from such institutions and teachers?
In aided institutions, though teacher salaries are good, funds for running the institution are scarce. In Maharashtra this is 5% of the salary grant, barely covering even the electricity bills.
Government stranglehold on education is complete. Irrelevant systems exist which largely delay appointment of teachers and institutions' expansion, increase costs, and create black money.
For example, all teachers in private colleges are to be paid government teacher salaries, even as the fees prescribed cannot cover such salaries. In fact, their actual salaries are half of the prescribed level. Institutions get them to sign on the higher amount and the rest is black money. These inflated salaries are used to justify higher fees! All parts of the system are culpable. Governments running a licence raj and making rules that are supposed to improve quality but only increase costs and cause delays, managements who are not education but money minded, teachers who do not want to work or upgrade themselves, and students who are seeking degrees, not learning.
University governance structures and the teachers being elected for them have led to universities being controlled by `politicians' rather than academics. Universities often dilute academic standards so that colleges can function without adequate facilities. Also, evaluation is error prone because a coterie of bad teachers is usually doing the evaluation at breakneck speed. In Nagpur University, 250 colleges were functioning without teachers and yet students enrolled in them are being allowed to sit for exams.
Even the much vaunted Pune University had over 70 such colleges.
Then there is the R word, criticism of which is taboo. It is not a co incidence that better quality education is available in institutions of national importance like IITs or in minority run institutions ­ where reservations are not applicable to faculty. Should we, for the benefit of a few teachers, dilute the educational standard of a multitude of students?
There is a new scheme ­ Rashtriya Ucchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) ­ that would move the bulk of allocation of funds to colleges from UGC to state governments.
This may result in badly run institutions controlled by politicians cornering most of the funds.
The mother of all whimsicality of course was the four year undergraduate course at Delhi University. All this has created a situation where honest institutions find it hard to operate and dishonest institutions flourish.
There is, however, a way forward. And we say this with con fidence because we run government aided A grade institutions.
Essentially, the solutions in our view lie in, first, lifting the heavy hand of government from education. Decisions on starting and expanding an institution should be left to institutions, especially for institutions with a good track record.
Second, disband `electoral' institutions in universities and empower `academic' vice chancellors. Third, give government aid to A grade institutions and stop giving it to non A grade institutions. Fourth, move to a tenure track mode of selecting teachers, as in the US and Europe. At present, they are simply confirmed after a year. Given the bad quality of governance, this has the potential of turning away good teachers from teaching altogether.
Fifth, get the corporate sector involved in starting or supporting institutions from schools to universities. It is in their enlightened self-interest and they should use their CSR funds for this purpose.
The important thing is to face reality and make real progress.
A hunger for education amongst the disadvantaged is palpable. Education is the route for social mobility. And they are going to great lengths for it, making great sacrifices for it. We must not let them down. With a new dispensation in power let us hope there is serious reform of the education system. One, like that done to industry in 1991, is long overdue.
Rahul Bajaj is President and Sanjay Bhargava is General Secretary of Shiksha Mandal, Wardha, a Bajaj Educational Trust.

Call for Papers: IJREM, Vol.3(1), AUG, 2014

Call for Papers: IJREM, Vol.3(1), AUG, 2014

CALL FOR PAPERS: IJREM, VOL.3(1), AUG, 2014

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH EXCELLENCE IN MANAGEMENT

(ISSN: 2278-7089)

(http://sri-india.in)

IJREM call for papers that are either subjective or objective in nature. The papers should basically belongs to the management arena spanning across various specializations like; marketing, finance, Production, HRM, systems and etc.. The papers also can be related to certain conceptual aspects like Behavioral Sciences, Psychology, and Organizational Studies and etc.
The nature of the contributions can be: (1) Research based: scholarly papers having literary and empirical value (2) Review papers: with appropriate number of references and systematic citations (3) Short communications & letters to the editor: contextual, trendy and timely. (4) Book reviews. Papers must belong to the following broad areas/sectors (the areas mentioned under are not strictly exhaustive):
(1) Health Care Management; Clinical Psychology & Patient Satisfaction
(2) Education Management & Administration
(3) Agriculture Marketing,
(4) Food & Beverages 
(5) Software & ICT
(6) Retail Management & Marketing
(7) Hotel Management
(8) Socioeconomic & Cultural Studies
(9) Industrial Marketing
(10) International Business
(11) Management Communication
(12) Innovation & Creativity
(13) Strategic Management
(14) Consumer Behavior & Psychology
(15) Organizational Behavior & Development
(16) Securities & Stock Markets
(17) Wealth Management & Financial Planning
(18) Financial & Non-Financial Markets
(19) Managerial Economics (Micro & Macro)
(20) Banking & Non-Banking Services
(21) Insurance Management & Products
(22) International Financial Markets
(23) Performance Management
(24) Industrial Training & Development
(25) Production & Operations Engineering & Technology
(26) Lean Management
(27) Supply Chain & Distribution Management & Technology
(28) Knowledge Management
(29) Business Applications of Neural Networks
(30) Business Statistics, Business Analytics & Research Methods
(31) Any other articles related to business studies & commerceThe interested individuals are cordially requested to send a copy of their manuscript in attachment to submissionsijrem@gmail.com or submissions@sri-india.in
IJREM call for papers to publish in Vol. 3 and Issue-1, which is expected to be published in August, 2014.

 There are no deadlines for submissions, the submissions are accepted throughout the year; however for August issue the following are deadlines:

Last date for submissions: 05, August, 2014

Feedback: 10, August, 2014

Expected date of publication: 15, August, 2014

For more details please visit: http://sri-india.in/publications

Lucky breaks: 3 Happy Accidents in Science

Oprah Winfrey once said, “I feel that luck is preparation meeting opportunity.”  It turns out that most of the scientific discoveries were strokes of serendipity made by scientists on an alternative quest. And we can take comfort in the fact that genius arrives not by choice but by chance to these inventors who have changed the world in one way or the other. Here are the three inventions that owe as much to luck as judgment and the science behind them!

The big bang 

It has been 50 years since the ground breaking discovery about how our universe was formed is known. But surprisingly it was not an ‘aha’ moment for the Nobel Prize winners Amo Penzias and Robert Wilson. Instead it was a story of frustration! They both were frustrated that their telescope which they used to observe the space was not functioning properly. It was giving this background noise which made them think if a pigeon was trapped inside it; it was polluting the data they were really after.

But, later they realized that this noise was actually traces of some of the earliest light also known as the cosmic microwave background radiation. How did the duo find this left over light from 13.7 billion years ago?

The science is that when the universe cooled enough from the initial hot and dense state, it allowed photons to flow freely throughout the cosmos. This light has been travelling since then and showed up as up as static on Bell Labs’ six-meter Horn Antenna radio telescope. The persisting light formed radio and micro waves that matched the predictions of the 1920 big bang theory.
Thus, this discovery was the first evidence that the universe started off compact and is expanding ever since! 

Stainless Steel

What can a wrong mixture of elements can do to humanity is called Stainless Steel. As the name suggests this form of steel is more resistant to corrosion than any other alloy steel with varying carbon percentage.

Although, steel was invented way before stainless steel, it was by accident that Harry Brearley a chemist discovered this most important metal in 1913. Harry was given a responsibility to develop a steel alloy that could withstand extreme heat inside a rifle barrel, while doing so, he started making different combinations of alloys using different combinations chromium and carbon. Accidently his eyes rolled onto a still shiny and bright metal piece that had sustained corrosion and dug up the formula for ‘rustless steel’ or stainless steel as we know it to be 12% chromium.

How did 12% chromium protect the steel from rusting?

When exposed to friction heat in the rifle barrel, this steel formed a sheet of oxygen around it and protected it from rusting. High chromium content steel sustained the routine acid test making Harry realize the potential of his discovery! 

The stainless steel that we use today has high amount of chromium and carbon. They both oxidize at the decarburization of melt at temperature greater than 122 degree Celsius when both the elements are in pure state. Thus, stainless steel is formed at all temperatures above 1800 degree Celsius when carbon oxidation occurs. 

Chromite, FeCr2O4, is extensively used for extraction of chromium in a stainless steel ore. A low carbon ferrochrome formed by the reduction of chromite with coke in an arc furnace is used to produce steel that is stainless and hard! 

Penicillin

No accident story is complete without Penicillin, and it is for Sir Alexander Fleming that we could survive small infections since 1929! This story is retold a million times, Sir Fleming went a vacation in midst of a never ending search for a magical drug that cures all diseases and came back to discover a mould growing on his petri dishes. When he left, the dishes were covered in colonies of bacteria, except around the area where the mold was growing.  And this area was free of bacteria like the mold had blocked the bacteria from growing any further. But do you know the science behind it? Let’s strain! 

Since Fleming was working with a particular strain of bacteria called as Staphylococcus, one petri dish which was accidentally left open had a mold growing on it, but what was unusual was that there was no bacterium around the mold. He took the ingredients of the mould and grew a pure fresh culture which was identified as Penicillium notatu. 

Later, while describing the filtrate and the broth culture he coined the term ‘Penicillin’ and grew it with gram positive as well as gram negative bacteria and fungi. The bacterium was lysed and penicillin was started to be used as a disinfectant since it was highly potent, has minimum toxicity and also plays a vital role in isolating Bacillus influenza.

A decade later, Howard Florey and Ernst Chain dug deep into Fleming’s research and isolated powdered penicillin from the mould in a process that involves freeze drying Penicillin and then subjecting it to ice evaporation under vacuum.  All the three researchers won the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1945. 

Besides being discovered by accident, there is one more thing common in these discoveries and it is keen observation.  All the scientists who are victims to these happy accidents had an eye for detail and keenly looked into the failed experiments and made progress.  We fondly call all the progress by accident, serendipity.

Aug 04 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Hysteria On English





Steel frame of India must not bend before frivolous UPSC language protest

The absurdity of demands made by aspirants towards the UPSC exam grows more apparent with their daily protests. Claiming that non-English-speaking students are being placed at a disadvantage, the aspirants’ demand – that the UPSC’s CSAT component, featuring eight to nine questions testing Class X-level English be dropped – has been rejected by the Arvind Verma committee. This panel states these questions test the most basic level of English, checking minimum standards an Indian administrative service officer must have. This is eminently sensible – and a recommendation the government must accept.Further, it is ridiculous for aspirants to start demanding how examinations or interviews leading to skilled professions be set. These protests only expose aspirants’ desire to drop sections needing creative cognitive and analytical skills – vital necessities for administrative officers. Instead, these aspirants apparently desire staying in their comfort zones, snuggling in known linguistic blankets and rote learning, not challenging themselves to learn even middle-school English, a crucial link language across India and much of the world. Their protests only emphasise why the Indian administrative service cannot be handed to the intellectually sluggish.

This government – elected on the promise of good governance – must not capitulate to such hysteria, fuelled by cynical political manipulation now.

What it must do is offer aspirants a far better level of English to Hindi translations in the UPSC exam papers, thereby ensuring a fair playing field. But what it must not do is alter the CSAT or water down the rudimentary level of English required by those representing the Indian state. This government must not go down in history as having changed the steel frame of India to a plastic one.

Aug 04 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

`2.3cr children in India malnourished'

Subodh.varma@timesgroup.com





Bihar Has Dubious Distinction Of Having Highest Percentage Of Under-Weight Kids: ICDS

About 2.3 crore children in India, up to 6 years of age, are suffering from malnourishment and are under-weight, according to a status report on the anganwadi (day care center) programme, officially known as ICDS. This staggering number amounts to over 28% of the 8 crore children who attend anganwadis across India.The status report includes state-wise data for underweight children. In Bihar, the proportion of under-weight children is nearly 50%. Andhra Pradesh (37%), Uttar Pradesh (36%), Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh (both 32%) are some of the other large states with a high proportion of children being malnourished.
Delhi reported that a shockingly high 35% of the nearly 7 lakh children who attend anganwadis were un derweight. This shows that the extent of poverty and malnutrition amongst the urban poor is comparable to rural areas despite all the advantages the cities offer.
In all the northeastern states except Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya, less than 10% of children were underweight children. Other large states with a comparatively low rate of malnutrition are Maharashtra (11%) and Tamil Nadu (18%).
There has been no comprehensive survey of children's malnutrition in India since the last National Family and Health Survey in 2005-06. That had estimated 46% of children in the 0-3 years age group as underweight after surveying a sample of about 1 lakh households across the country . The data from anganwadis pro vides a snapshot drawing upon a much larger base.
There were an estimated 16 crore children of ages up to 6 years in the country , as per the 2011 Census. Of these, about half seem to be attending the anganwadis going by the records of the programme. Most of those attending anganwadis belong to poorer sections. But large sections do not get access to it. A 2011 Planning Commission evaluation had said that there is a shortfall of at least 30% in coverage.
There are over 13 lakh anganwadis which look after the kids and provide `supplementary nutrition' to them.
As part of their duties, personnel at each anganwadi weigh the attending kids every month and keep a record.
TOI contacted anganwadi workers from several states to confirm the weighing procedures. Till recently, two weighing instruments were provided for each anganwadi center -one pan-type weighing machine for smaller babies and another hanging instrument with a hook at the bottom on which the child is hooked up through a belt or a garment.
In some states, like Delhi, there were cases where the hanging type machine was not in working condition and hence only children up to three years of age could be weighed.
In Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Kerala, workers said that they were weighing children up to 6 years.
Why is it that children's weight is not improving despite getting nutritional supplements at the anganwadis?
In many states, the quality of food given to children is very bad and they may not be eating it, according to AR Sindhu of the Anganwadi Workers' Federation. “Often this is the case where food provision service is outsourced to NGOs,“ she said.