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How People Vote? : Civic Literacy and Political Participation

By |May 4th, 2019|Books|0 Comments

How people vote in a liberal, open, competitive democracy is a big question in two senses. First, as Indian voters make up one-sixth of the world’s total electorate, their voting behavior considerably matters to the future of representative democracy everywhere. Second, as India faces so many challenges to its social, ideological and political cohesion, what people think about voting is significant to how India will evolve in the future. Political participation is central to the democratic system and civic literacy plays an instrumental role in it. This volume examines the impact of civic literacy on political participation, by studying voting behaviour in local, assembly and parliament elections in rural, semi-urban and urban areas of Gujarat.

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Marriage and Divorce: Changing Concepts and Practices

By |January 5th, 2019|Books|0 Comments

This volume explores the nature of social change in the fundamental institution of marriage in Indian society. It documents the churning going on in the conjugal bond with reference to gender inequality, patriarchy, domestic violence, divorce, separation, and remarriage under the impact of urbanization, modernization and globalization.The work includes fourteen papers divided into three parts. 

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Comments on Research Study of Status of Failed Students in Class X and XII Board Examinations in Gujarat

By |December 21st, 2018|Media Coverage|0 Comments

Summary:-National Seminar on “Suicide and Self-harm: Issues and Challenges”

By |December 20th, 2018|Seminar:-Summary|0 Comments

Brief Summary
By Kanchan Bharati & Dhananjay Kumar
Introduction
Global and national scenario of suicide locate it as an important public health problem that needs attention and prevention. The problem is however difficult as the reasons for suicide are multidimensional. Moreover, the phenomenon is not confined to a particular region or community or to any given period, but its appearance varies from region to region and from time to time. Hence, there is a need to understand patterns and underlying courses that make people to end their life and to provide solutions such tendencies. With this in view, the Centre for Culture and Development (Vadodara) organized a two day National Seminar on “Suicide and Self-harm: Issues and Challenges”.
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National Seminar on Suicide and Self-harm: Issues and Challenges

By |December 9th, 2018|Media Coverage|0 Comments

Interview with Electronic Media on the occasion of Seminar on National Seminar on Suicide and Self-harm: Issues and Challenges

By |December 8th, 2018|Media Coverage|0 Comments

Summary:- National Seminar on Procedural and Substantive Democracy in India

By |November 13th, 2018|Seminar:-Summary|0 Comments

Procedural and Substantive Democracy in India (September 07, 2018)

By Dr. Dhananjay Kumar

Introduction

Political scientists differentiate many types of democracies: representative, deliberative, participative, procedural, and substantive. This seminar took up the procedural and substantive types for deliberation: one related to the institutional, minimal, electoral democracy, and second, to the substantive or effective democracy. The former is viewed in terms of institutions of democracy, political parties and other associations or organizations, periodic elections, universal adult franchise, leadership, etc. It is rarely concerned with what happens beyond elections in the social space. Alternatively, substantive democracy is viewed in the light of its diffusions in various sectors of society, redistributive justice, human capabilities and entitlements (education, health, infrastructure, etc), social capital, associated factors of trust, values, and norms, civil society, human rights, and governance. However, in the Indian context, both types of democracy are complementary and interdependent. The successful functioning of the procedural dimension of democracy requires substantive democracy also.

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Summary:-National Seminar on Ecology, Environment and Religions

By |November 12th, 2018|Seminar:-Summary|0 Comments

By Dr. Kanchan Bharati

The relationship between man and nature is one of the most fundamental and most debated issues in the present day. Human beings are part of ecosystems, as well as its manipulators. We are dependent on, as well as responsible for the ecological health of the ecosystems we inhabit. The integrity and functionality of vital natural assets like forests, lakes, rivers, land etc., are increasingly being compromised in current times. Change in environment and ecology is more of a moral challenge. It calls us to examine how we use and share the goods of the earth, what we pass on to future generations, and how we live in harmony with interfaith traditions. With this vision, the Centre for Culture and Development (Vadodara) organized a two-day National Seminar on ‘Ecology, Environment and Religions: Key Issues and Challenges’.

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Concept Note:-National Seminar on Suicide and Self-harm

By |November 10th, 2018|Seminar:- Concept Note|0 Comments

Every year close to eight lakh people take their own life and there are many more who attempt suicide worldwide[1]. The mortality data about suicide available with World Health Organization (WHO) reveals that during the last several years the problem of suicide mortality has shifted from Western Europe to Eastern Europe and now seems to be shifting to Asia.[2] It is a global public health problem, particularly in Asia where high suicide rates in a few countries with large populations account for a majority of the world’s suicides.[3] For instance, almost thirty percent of all cases of suicide worldwide are committed in China and India alone.[4] Despite such compelling facts suicide receives relatively less attention in Asian countries than it does in the West, resulting in under-emphasis on related research and fragmented suicide-preventive approaches.[5],[6],[7]
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Concept Note:-National Seminar on Procedural and Substantive Democracy in India

By |September 6th, 2018|Seminar:- Concept Note|0 Comments

Introduction

Discourse on both the democracy and development in India denotes two contradictory points about their assessment, i.e., one, the democracy and development have succeeded; and, two these have failed. This applies to democracy and development when these are dealt with as interdependent or independent of each other i.e., whether they are compatible or not. This unit presents an overview of the assessment of democracy and development in India as two distinct phenomena and also in relation to each other.

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