Against Neoliberal Assault on Education in India: A Counternarrative of Resistance.
The Indian State has been demonstrating its unwavering commitment to private capital and its neoliberal offensive. The education and health sector reflect its antipeople orientation along with other anti-working class measures such as the doing away with old pension scheme, privatisation of airports, neglect of farmers resulting in over 1.5 lakh suicides across country between 1997 and 2005 (Sainath, 2007), etc. On the education front the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a full Planning Commission held on 13 th September 2007 showed his commitment to privatisation by stating that “we also need to recognise the role currently being played by the private sector and the policy design must factor this in” (The Hindu, 2007). A leading weekly then revealed that the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has been trying to moot private partnership in government schools (Raman, 2008). These developments have been taking place along with number of measures that the government has been adopting (Kumar, 2008) to masquerade its real neoliberal face.
The crisis of elementary education in India
Introduction - Ravi Kumar Equality, Quality and Quantity - The Challenges of Education in India Dilution, Distortion and Diversion - Anil Sadgopal A Post-Jomtien Reflection on Education Policy Child Rights to Elementary Education - Vasudha Dhagamwar National and International Provisions Operationalizing the Constitutional Guarantee of Right to Education - Amarjeet Sinha Issues of Resource Crunch and State Commitment Marginalization of the Equity Agenda - Sadhna Saxena Educate Girls, Prepare Them for Life? - Karuna Chanana Inclusive Education in the Context of Common Schools - Madan M Jha A Question of Equity, Social Justice and School Reforms Terms of Inclusion - Geetha B Nambissan Dalits and the Right to Education Educational Deprivation of the Marginalized - Ravi Kumar A Village Study of the Mushar Community in Bihar Index
Cultural constraints on the delivery of HIV/AIDS prevention in Ireland.
HIV appeared in Ireland following an opiate epidemic in the early 1980s. Initially, however, the gay community mounted the only response to the spread of the virus while the implementation of early actions by the government was hampered by the constructions of the disease within Irish society. This paper considers the influence of the religious hierarchy in both the development of AIDS policy and in the shaping of public perceptions of the disease and those affected. A qualitative methodology is used to examine the role of such cultural constraints in an evaluation of the social context within which the prevention of HIV infection occurs. Three key issues pertinent to the policy context in Ireland are explored in depth. These are the role of the Catholic Church, the influences on health education programmes, particularly information giving, and the development of services and other interventions. These findings are discussed within the social and political contexts in which health policy is formulated.