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Objective Design and analyze a transdisciplinary training and organization experience on cancer, where experts from multiple disciplines and actors with different horizons converge on a diagnosis and intervention horizon on multiple scales.Method A 140-hour diploma course with more than 60 speakers and 50 relevant actors around cancer was designed and implemented. A 20-hour transversal workshop was developed, using the Design for Transition methods as mediation of collaborative strategies for the construction of diagnoses and interventions in complex and conflict situations.Results It was possible to build a series of maps with a common view of stakeholders, concerns, conflicts, root causes, ideal scenarios and potential models of intervention,based on diverse participant's input. The visual resources generated were able to function as guides and structures that made possible the identification of biocultural factors that facilitate or impede implementation of strategies and interventions. Infographic material functioned as transdisciplinary mediations that enabled a diverse political (multiple-actors) and pedagogical (multiple-epistemologies) space to act upon an economic and ecological context (material interdependence of actors and environments).Conclusion The Design for Transition methodology catalized transdisciplinary work by enabling cancer experts and social actors interactions. Through visual mediations such as maps, infographics and tables, it was possible to synthesize and use a shared diagnosis and thus advance towards more inclusive interventions that recognize the biocultural complexity of this pandemic. ; Objetivo Diseñar y analizar una experiencia de formación y organización transdisciplinaria sobre el cáncer, en la que expertos de múltiples disciplinas y actores con diferentes horizontes convergen en un diagnóstico y un panorama de intervención en múltiples escalas.Método Se diseñó e implementó un diplomado de 140 horas con más de 60 ponentes y 50 actores relevantes en torno al cáncer. Se llevó a cabo un taller transversal de 20 horas, usando como mediación las metodologías del diseño para la transición, que proponen estrategias para la construcción de diagnósticos e intervenciones en problemáticas complejas y conflictivas.Resultados Se logró construir un mapa de actores, preocupaciones, conflictos, causas-raíces, escenarios ideales y modelos potenciales de intervención con base en un trabajo colegiado. Se generaron recursos visuales que funcionan como mapas y estructuras donde se ubican los factores bioculturales que facilitan o impiden la efectiva implementación de estrategias de intervención. Las infografías y tablas funcionaron como mediaciones transdisciplinarias en tanto que posibilitaron que el espacio político (múltiples actores) fuera también un espacio pedagógico (múltiples epistemologías) situado en un contexto económico y ecológico concreto (interdependencia material de actores y ambientes).Conclusión Con la metodología del diseño para la transición se logró catalizar un trabajo transdisciplinario entre expertos y actores sociales en torno al cáncer. A través de las mediaciones visuales como mapas, infografías y tablas, se logró sintetizar y usar un diagnóstico compartido y avanzar así en intervenciones más incluyentes que reconozcan la complejidad biocultural de esta pandemia.

This article describes childhood burn injury as a barometer of social inequalities, due to class or gender. Although the issue is not explicitly located within the Hind Swaraj scholarship, the occurrence of burns provides an opportunity to investigate the profound impact of social obstacles to individual, familial and even community safety. This article outlines the case for childhood burns, as a manifestation of what is also often termed accidental injury, to thus be described within Hind Swaraj terms. It describes the interactions between the contextual, environmental and individual contributors to childhood burn injuries in South Africa. The article highlights the centrality of these factors to understanding the selective occurrence of burns but also to the formulation of burn prevention and control measures.

Among the Naai, a backward (OBC) community of Uttar Pradesh, the status of women is still very low, according to this study of the Naai of Tharauli village of Siddharthnagar, a district on the northeastern border of Uttar Pradesh. These women suffer from restrictions on mobility and are denied participation in decision-making, and the domestic violence inflicted on them has social acceptance. The evil of child marriage is also prevalent in this community. The majority of these women are ignorant about their rights, and social resistance also prevents them from getting their legitimate share. The women of this community confine themselves to the boundaries of the family and are not allowed to evolve and have access to the modern world

In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interest of the child shall be a primary consideration.

On the basis of a critical examination of the report of the high-level committee on the social, economic and educational status of Muslims in India (also known as the Sachar Committee Report) and the Justice Ranganath Misra Commission Report, the article foregrounds issues relating to the perceived appeasement, marginalisation, discrimination and social exclusion of Muslims in India. Despite being the largest religious minorities group in the country, the reports show them to be the most deprived of India's social groups and communities, with an appalling social, occupational and economic profile. Whereas a very large section of the Indian Muslim population is being left behind in the drive towards development, they equally bear the wrath of right-wing Hindu fundamentalist groups that perceive them as anti-nationalists and cultural outsiders. These identity-related issues offer us an opportunity to address the public policy challenges of 'mainstreaming' and inclusiveness of a minority group in a multicultural national setting. Specifically, this article looks at the ways and means of enhancing diversity in different spaces by way of public policy interventions and the challenges therein. Viewed thus, the article proposes to anchor the conceptual richness of the debate surrounding pluralism, democracy and citizenship to the realist world of public policy-making. In a related vein, it goes beyond an understanding of the formal processes and procedures of the acquisition of citizenship rights and focuses on substantive sources of mainstreaming and political exclusion. In the process, it revisits our conceptualisation of the cultural ingredients of a democratic nation-state, albeit from the perspective of a numerically preponderant (but otherwise powerless) minority. Through its analytical focus on the largest religious minorities group in India, the article intends to illuminate the complex political debates about minority rights in a democratic polity.

Walter Fernandes, Veronica Pala, Gita Bharali and Bitopi Dutta, The Development Dilemma: Displacement in Meghalaya 1947–2010. Guwahati: North-Eastern Social Science Research Centre, 2016, 396 pp., ₹600, ISBN: 978-81-89762-56-8.

The recognition of disability as a human rights and developmental issue encouraged social scientists to study the phenomenon of disability more scientifically and objectively. Concerns raised by both disabled and non-disabled academicians and disability rights activists in the First World lead to a greater response from academia. The issue of disability thus, over the years, became a critical part of the agenda for public policy and social science studies. A section of western sociologists understood that, by and large, the onus of disability did not lie with affected individuals but rather on society which was responsible for their activity and for imposing restrictions. Unlike western academia, however, the issue of disability has not found space in India. Its absence from the subject matter of Indian sociology has created a gap in the discipline's understanding, creating the risk to exercise sympathy and charity rather than a sociological sensibility which sees disability as a human rights issue to be dealt with at the level of rehabilitation and social work. The present article seeks to locate disability as an indispensible part of the curricular of the Indian sociology discipline; rejecting the 'charity' outlook favoured by sections of academia, policy makers, bureaucracy, activists and the general populace towards disabled people.

One wonders why child labour is so rampant belying states' claim for proper protection of child rights. Is it because of the inferior quality of education that the community does not feel attracted to send their children to school? Or is it because of insensitive/non-responsive/non-functional nature of social protection system that the child rights are infringed/encroached upon in India? Or is it because of parents' and communities' ignorance about legal and social implications of this phenomenon that the children are allowed for labour either in the agricultural land or in a factory or hotel, etc.? Or is it because of certain structural inconsistencies and poverty in Indian rural society that children are forced to move out of their villages/districts in search of some remunerative jobs? It is this context of crisis and conflict, enrooted in the very answers to the aforesaid questions, that this paper has tried to examine, based on the findings of the study conducted in the rural zone of three districts—Jaunpur, Mirzapur and Sonbhadra—of Eastern Uttar Pradesh during the year 2011–12 and our revisit of the study area in the year 2013.1 Broadly, three variables were considered to assess the status of child rights in the area under study: (i) quality of education, (ii) child labour and (iii) social protection structures.

Peasants across the country are opposing development projects which displaced them from their land, habitat, livelihood and environment. They are questioning the paradigm of development itself which is so heavily loaded against them. The law on land acquisition is central to the understanding of this hostility to development. Their resistance is rooted in the conceptual frame and design of the land acquisition act which empowers the government to acquire land of citizens without their consent on payment of meagre financial compensation and creates no obligation to provide alternative land, assured employment and a dignified rehabilitation to rebuild their broken lives. The recent changes proposed by the government in the law to undo this injustice would fail to persuade the agitating peasants to part with their land willingly.

Successful implementation of policy is very low in Bangladesh, but the ban on two-stroke engine vehicles in Dhaka was an exception. The ban involved large-scale changes as well as a high-goal consensus. It secured support from all quarters, including three categories of stakeholders who had to suffer its consequences-vehicle owners, vehicle drivers, some 13,000 strong, who wielded significant political clout, and commuters who used these vehicles as taxis to move about in the city. Several actors and factors played a vital role in making the implementation of the policy a successful one. Public interest litigation, political will, support of opposition parties, role of the media, and commitment of implementing agencies, were all important, but it was political will and government efforts to mobilise support that were critical.

The paper highlights key challenges facing the Government of India's welcome initiative of Universalisation of Secondary Education. The challenges identified are in five areas: political will and social commitment, policy design and implementation, quality, inequality and governance. Five broad questions are raised for deliberation and debate. First, how adequate is the level of political will and social commitment to universalise secondary education? Second, how realistic and implementable are this designs of the recent initiatives announced by the Government of India? Third, are the planned measures to improve the quality of education adequate to produce the desired outcomes? Fourth, are the recommended interventions to reduce inequality likely to produce equitable outcomes by 2020? And finally, are the measures planned by the initiatives to improve governance sufficient and appropriate?

To what extent have NGO microfinance programmes for adivasi households promoted livelihoods and reduced poverty and vulnerability among them? This question is analysed with the help of primary data collected from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu states. Although adivasi households have joined microfinance groups, made small savings and availed credit facility, microfinance activities have not significantly improved livelihoods and reduced vulnerability. In the absence of savings products to meet expenses on housing and marriage, and access to formal social security services such as health insurance, adivasis are forced to borrow from informal sources. This places them into inextricable debt traps, undoing whatever positive impact that microfinance programmes may have. To avoid such a situation, meaningful savings products and access to social security are needed.

This document is limited to rehabilitation of oustees of projects in rural areas. The idea, initially, was to prepare a draft enactment of Development Planning, Minimum Displacement and Just Rehabilitation. However, considering the efforts made by the relevant groups and movements as well as the National Rehabilitation Policies of the government in 2003 and 2006, it was decided to call this document National Policy only. It can be converted into a draft enactment with ease, as and when required. This document is based on the structure of the 2006 NRP because the government itself has accepted the need to have a proper R&R. There are substantial changes, incorporations made in the 2006 NRP by taking into consideration the comments of NAC, NBA and other organizations/NGOs/Movements. This document may require yet another effort to make it precise and to tie all the loose ends, wherever they occur. In the Preamble itself, the essential principles of rehabilitation have been mentioned. Several changes have been made in the definitions; certain new definitions like that of'Development planning' and 'prior informed consent' have been added. Acquisition of the land and private purchase of land have been put at par when they result in physical displacement of 100 or more families en masse in plain areas, or 25 or more families en masse in tribal or hilly areas, DDP blocks and areas mentioned in Schedule V and Schedule VI of the Constitution of India. The Requiring Body may be State, Corporation or a private company. The burden of rehabilitation remains equal on all of them. In the SIA and EIA, many changes have been made. The finalization of SIA and EIA reports will be after hearing is granted to the affected persons. Gram sabhas/NGOS/mass movements have been included in the multi-disciplinary expert group. The final clearance to the project is given by the National Rehabilitation Commission. The role of the Administrator and the Commissioner in R&R has been clarified. The preparation of R&R has been ensured in consultations with gram sabhas and affected persons and families. After declaration of the affected zones, there is a provision for survey by the expert teams. The gram sabhas and the affected people have been given the right to raise objections on the findings of the survey. There is also a provision for appeal before the Commissioner against the decision of the Administrator. The Draft R&R scheme has to be endorsed by gram sabhas. The land-based rehabilitation is one of the important components. Affected persons, who have not been granted rehabilitation benefits, have been given various opportunities to stake their claims, upto the National Rehabilitation Commission. There is a time limit fixed for the concerned authorities to take a decision. The land for rehabilitation should be available simultaneously with the availability of land for the project. Benefits of R&R have been enumerated in Chapter VIII. Chapter IX contains the dispute redressai mechanism and Chapter X, the Monitoring Mechanism by the National Resettlement and Rehabilitation Commission.

Health is an essential requirement for the development and welfare of individuals as well as populations. Health is often viewed as a domain distinctively divided into two separate worlds: clinical medicine and public health. Fundamentally, clinical medicine operates with the individual as the unit of observation and intervention, while public health has the population as the unit of study and service. While the health system is charged with the prime responsibility for delivering care, it is also necessary to recognise and respect the role of the community, not merely as a beneficiary but as an active contributor to agenda-setting, implementation and monitoring. To ensure that a wide range of health services reach all entitled persons in the population, we need to design and deliver a strong Universal Health Coverage programme, which is best delivered when public financing accounts for a major portion of the health expenditure. Since health is profoundly influenced by social, economic, environmental and commercial determinants, it is imperative that these determinants are shaped to enable, rather than erode, health. Public health has emerged from the communion of medicine and social sciences. It is now a multi-disciplinary confluence of life sciences, quantitative sciences, social sciences and management sciences. Public health research must be multi-disciplinary, to assist the development and delivery of enlightened public policy through multi-sectoral pathways.