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Pages: 645-649
Farhat Jabin (Department of Psychology, Magadh Mahila College, Patna University, Patna, Bihar)

Diabetes is a chronic serious metabolic disease, common worldwide. The prevalence is increasing rapidly and the number of affected people is expected to be around 366 million by the year 2030. Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in our country. Diabetes is a chronic disease without a cure; however, with proper management and treatment, diabetics can live normal, healthy lives. In the present research an attempt was made to study the relationship between happiness and life-satisfaction among insulin dependent and non-dependent diabetic patients. The study was carried on by formulating hypotheses that (a) - Insulin dependent and non-dependent diabetic patients would differ significantly in terms of their happiness. (b)- Insulin dependent and non-dependent diabetic patients would differ significantly in terms of their life-satisfaction. (c)- Happiness would be positively correlated with life-satisfaction among insulin dependent and non-dependent diabetic patients. For empirical verification of these three hypotheses a study was conducted on a sample of 100 diabetic patients (50 insulin dependent and 50 non-dependent diabetic patients) from Indira Gandhi institute of cardiology (IGIC) Patna by employing incidental sampling technique. Their age ranged from 45-55 years. They were matched as far as possible in other respects. Oxford happiness scale developed by Michael Argyle and Peter Hills (Oxford University) was used for measuring happiness. Life satisfaction scale developed by Ashok Pratap Singh (Department of psychology) Banaras Hindu University was applied to check the life satisfaction of insulin dependent and non-dependent diabetic patients. For the analysis of the obtained scores t-ratio and co-efficient of correlation were computed. The findings on the whole indicated that there is not any significant difference between the happiness and life satisfaction among insulin dependent and non-dependent diabetic patients. Insulin dependent and non-dependent diabetic patients do not differ significantly in terms of their happiness and life-satisfaction. Happiness is positively correlated with life-satisfaction among insulin dependent and non-dependent diabetic patients. The findings of the present research reveal that happiness is the predictor of life satisfaction. It plays an important role in improving the quality of life among diabetic patients.
Pages: 650-653
Lata Pujar and Krutika Chanda (Department of Human Development and Family Studies College of Community Science, University of Agriculture Science, Dharwad, Karnataka)

Aptitude is a condition or set of characteristics regarded as symptomatic of an individual's ability to acquire with training some usually specified knowledge, skill and set of responses. Aptitude tests in today's competitive world; it helps school students throughout their lives and has a really huge impact on their outlook towards life. This study is taken on school students to know their potential so that it helps them in choosing their career and to select the different streams for their future. Hence the study was undertaken with objectives to know the aptitude of urban and rural school students and to know the differences on aptitude dimensions. The samples were selected from two urban and two rural schools among which were 40 urban and 40 rural school students were randomly selected from 9th and 10th standards. The data was collected using differential aptitude testing developed by Bennett et al. (1993) on verbal reasoning, numerical ability, abstract reasoning, mechanical reasoning and scholastic aptitude. The results indicated that significant difference was observed between urban and rural school student. Among urban group most of the students belonged to high level of aptitude dimensions like verbal reasoning, numerical ability, abstract reasoning, mechanical reasoning and scholastic aptitude. There was significant difference between boys and girls with dimensions of aptitude among rural and urban school students.
Pages: 654-656
Deepika Chamoli, Rita Kumar, and Abha Singh (AIPS, Amity University Noida, Uttar Pradesh)
Neil Kobrin (Founder Academy of Mindfulness, California)

Present research aims to study the processing speed index of children at metropolitan city (Gurgaon- sea level) and remote area (Ladakh- very high altitude ). It has been hypothesised that there will be significant difference in the processing speed index of children residing at metropolitan city and remote area. For this purpose processing speed index of 30 students is assessed with the help of Coding performance subtests of Malin's intelligence battery (an Indian adaptation of Weischler's Intelligence battery). 15 students from a public school from a metropolitan city are assessed on coding subtest and same procedure is replicated in remote area of Ladakh. Result findings reveal a significant difference (p=<0.01,t=3.12) in the mean of processing speed index at metropolitan city (Gurgaon-sea level) and remote area (Ladakh-very high altitude). It shows that the processing speed index in children residing in metro city is more than the children of remote area.
Pages: 657-662
Atrayee Saha (Department of Sociology, School of Social Sciences, Centre for Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)

Introduction of the land reforms, adoption of scientific technologies, opening of agricultural production to the global market has resulted in a shift of agriculture from being predominantly based on food grain production to cash crop and horticultural production in the recent times. The growth-led story of Indian agriculture does not touch upon the fact that the caste and class inequality continues galore in the rural economy. Agrarian structure has transformed from being based on the age-old 'master-serf' or 'patron-client' relation to one that is based on 'profit-making' incentive, where the agricultural and landless labourers are no more tied to the landlords or the landowners. Persistence of social inequality is seen from the fact that the small and marginal farmers and landless and agricultural labourers who traditionally belonged to the lower castes continue to remain economically deprived and most often fall in debt-trap in order to increase production levels. With the help of several field studies, I have showed in the paper that introduction of the Bt technology, introduction of the new seed varieties and patenting policies and increase in the local power lobbies has affected the development in the agrarian sector and has not done much to change the social milieu of the rural economy. I also show that much of the profit gained from agricultural growth is enjoyed by the big farmers and large landholders who traditionally belong to the upper castes or the dominant landed castes and also dominate the local power structure in the rural areas.
Pages: 663-668
Sraboni Chatterjee (Department of Psychology, Bijoy Krishna Girls College, Howrah, Kolkata, West Bengal)
Mandabi Bhattacharyya (Department of Psychology, Indira Gandhi Open University)
Phooljani Ghosh (Department of Psychology, Victoria Institution College, Kolkata, West Bengal)

A sample of 100 female workers (50 were domestic workers &50 belonging to self employed groups) was selected for the present study. The variables selected for the study were anxiety (both state & trait) and anger expression. Results revealed interesting findings that significant differences were found only in case of anxiety, anger out and anger temperament. Basically the insecurity regarding job status and flow of wage structure at the end of month made these two subsamples distant from each other. Due to excessive conflict and pressure of family domestic female workers sometimes were abounding to suppress their feelings and hence becomes the worst victim of anxiety. Self employed individuals though suffer from inadequacy feelings but due to better economic homeostasis able to manifest their anger when needed as a result may develop comparatively better personality pattern.
Pages: 669-671
Puspa, P. Punia, and V. Singh (Department of Textile & Apparel Designing, COHS, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana)

Physical property of control and treated samples were tested to analyze the effect of karanja extracts on the samples. The fabric samples were conditioned. Samples were cut from scoured cotton fabric with 54 warp yarns (ends) and weft yarns (picks) per inch were (ASTM 123 test method) and sample size were 2"×2". The tests were performed for different types of samples viz. control (scoured), samples treated with leaves and seed extracts in viscous and dry state; and samples treated with an antiseptic containing chloroxylenol. The samples were subjected to test for bulk (cm3/gm) physical property test. It was concluded that as the concentration of extract increased, bulk of all treated samples (including standard) also increased significantly. A significant percentage increase in bulk was observed in all treated samples as compared to the control sample at 1% level of significance.
Pages: 672-674
Punam Midha and Ankita Budhiraja (Department of Psychology, Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, Haryana)
Dhyuti Sachdev (Department of Applied Psychology, S.P.M. College, Delhi University, Delhi)

Modern era is an era of advance technology. Human agency is key, because the technological effects depend upon how people decide to use it. In the contemporary digital world, the millennial can never think of the world without the internet, consequently youngsters invest more efforts to be in touch with their closer ties and thus reap maximum benefits while interacting with others. They feel happy and empowered while living in a virtual world. With these notions in mind the present researcher decided to conduct a study to highlight the level of happiness and internet usage among adolescents and to explore the relationship between these two variables while controlling other confounding variables (such as socio-economic factors) leading to happiness. A purposive sample of 60 adolescents, 13-18 years old both male and female was drawn from schools of Rohtak city, Haryana (India). Their happiness level was measured by Argyle et al. questionnaire of Oxford Happiness and internet usage was assessed by Young's Internet Addiction test. The levels of happiness and internet usage were analyzed by computing descriptive statistics and their correlation was found by using Pearson r. The findings and their implications have been discussed in the paper.
Pages: 675-682
Damanjit Sandhu, Gurveer Kaur, and Kirandeep Kaur (Department of Psychology, Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab)

The aim of this study was to investigate prevalence and gender differences in consumption of cyber pornography among adolescent pupils. This study was conducted using a representative sample of 344 (172 males & 172 females) adolescent pupils (aged 15-18 years). Cyber pornography use inventory (CPUI) was used to get the data from the sample. Descriptive statistics and t-test were used to analyze the data. Results of the study revealed that a large number of adolescent pupils (82.7%) consumed cyber pornography and there existed significant gender differences between male and female adolescent pupils in context of cyber pornography consumption. Results also revealed that male adolescent pupils were more likely to consume cyber pornography in comparison to female adolescent pupils.
Pages: 683-685
Manoj Kumar (Department of Geography, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, Haryana)

Haryana, from being a food deficit state in 1966, at the time of its inception, has now emerged as a major contributor to the national pool of food grains. The development of agriculture in Haryana is very closely associated with the expansion of irrigation and introduction of modern agriculture technology. Agriculture occupies the most prominent position in the state's economy as it is providing livelihood for more than 75 percent of the state's population. India is predominantly an agriculture oriented country where about 70 percent of population lives in villages and is actively engaged in diverse agricultural pursuits. Since 1990s the agricultural activities in the state are getting diversified. Poultry is emerging as an important economic activity in rural areas. Poultry is well known to the village farmers since time immemorial. The present study has utilized the secondary data collected from the office of Animal Husbandry and Dairying Department of Haryana. In this study reveals that egg production of Haryana state is continuously increase. The district wise analysis shows that highest eggs are produced in Panchkula district i.e. 37 percent of total egg production of Haryana state. On the other hand, Jind, Ambala, Sonipal, Karnal, and Yamunanagar districts also contributes significant amount of egg production in the state. Faridabad, Palwal, Rewari, Sirsa, Mewat, and M/ Garh districts have very low eggs production in the state.
Pages: 686-688
Ankita Budhiraja and Punam Midha (Department of Psychology, Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, Haryana)
Dhyuti Sachdev (Department of Applied Psychology, S.P.M. College, Delhi University, Delhi)

Humans are at core social beings whose survival depends on interactions with others. The powerful communication depends on one's body language, tone and mirror neurons, which are no doubt conspicuously missing during digital interaction. Such electronic interactions don't carry the same emotional weight as a face to face tangible interaction. The most adverse effect of digital revolution can be seen on teenager's “Empathy Map'', whose level of empathy is dropping at fast pace since last two decades. They are being converted from human teens to cyber teens. With this changing scenario, the present study is an attempt to explore the levels of empathy, sympathy and internet usage among teenagers and further to find out the relation of empathy and sympathy with internet usage. A purposive sample of 60 teenagers both male and female aged 13-18 years old from various school of Rohtak city, Haryana (India) was drawn. Their empathy and sympathy were measured by using Vossen et al. test of Adolescent Measure of Empathy and Sympathy and internet usage was assessed by Young's Internet Addiction test. Descriptive and correlational statistics were computed to find out the levels of empathy sympathy and internet usage and the correlation of empathy- sympathy with internet usage respectively. The results have been discussed in detail in the research paper.
Pages: 689-692
Dnyaneshwar Parmesheshwar Pawar (Department of Psychology, Bhonsala Military Collage, Nashik, Maharashtra)

Our sense of right and wrong is one of the distinct advantages human beings carry as a result of evolution. Sigmund Freud stated that superego, the center of morality, is one of the three parts of human mind. The other two being ego and id. Freud believed that its elderly in the family who develop superego among their children by teaching them what is right and wrong in practical life. Sex is often regarded as a basic need besides hunger and thirst. Unquestionably, we share sexual needs, among other primary needs, with lower animals. But as a result of nature's advantage bestowed upon human beings, their brain is far more developed in important areas of functioning like, decision making, reasoning, selection, problem solving and creativity. In addition to all these higher order mental functions, humans are good in perceiving right from wrong things. This ability is also called moral ability. The present paper discusses the nature of morality from social perspective and its relation with a heinous crime like rape. Some of the ideas of morality given by great thinkers like Durkheim are discussed while the possibility of controlling increasing incidents of rape in India is also discussed.
Pages: 693-697
Satwant Singh (Department of Social Work, Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab)

India has passed a number of constitutional protections and laws on child labour, before and after its independence from colonial rule. The Constitution of India in the Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles of State Policy prohibits child labour below the age of 14 years in any factory, mine, restaurant or engagement in any other hazardous employment. But every form of child labour including ragpicking is prevalent in almost all the regions of the country. The practice of child ragpicking is a worst form of child labour that has not been duly recognized by law makers in India. Therefore, the present study aims at the investigation of the legislative provisions for child labour in India with special reference to child ragpicking thereof.
Pages: 698-702
Shoaib Hasan and P.S.N. Tiwari (Department of Psychology, DDU Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh)
A. P. Singh (Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi, Vishwa Vidyalaya, Wardha, Maharashtra)

Psychologist and researchers give many definitions and explore the concept of forgiveness. Forgiveness is distinct from other ways of dealing with personal insults or injury. Forgiveness is not condoning, excusing, exonerating, justifying, or pardoning an offender (Enright, 2001; Worthington, Witvliet, Pietrini, & Miller, 2007). Neither is forgiveness the same as reconciling a damaged relationship or restoring offenders to their former status (Sutton, 2010). In such a backdrop this review are under taken there themes. Forgiveness: effects, benefits, forgiveness and stress, coping mechanisms, physiological changes and health. Review indicate that forgivingness related to levels of stress, well-being, and depression (Lawler-Row & Piferi, 2006) and it helpful in the treatment of disorders such as anxiety, depression, substance abuse, disorders of childhood, eating disorders, mood disorders, personality disorders, and marital and family dysfunction. Further forgiveness has been hypothesized to be an emotion-focused coping strategy. It has been found to reduce anger and hostility (Al-Mabuk et al., 1995).
Pages: 703-705
Mahender Singh (Department of History, Dayanand College, Hisar, Haryana)

Layallpur was named after Sir James Broadwood Lyall (1887-1892) Lieutinant-Governor of Punjab. It was founded in 1892 as a market town and became the headquarters of the Lower Chanab colony, about 140 Km from Lahore. It was, and is, the headquarters of Layallpur district in the Sargodha division of Pakistan. In 1961 its population was 425, 248. Situated in the midst of a cotton, wheat and sugarcane producing area, Layallpur has grown into an important centre for textile, hosiery and flour milling industries. It is fondly called Manchester of area. Other chief products are vegetable oil, soap and sugar. It was one of the biggest wheat market of Asia. Layallpur is an important educational and cultural centre with six colleges affiliated to the University of the Punjab besides many schools. “The college was established subsequent to the colonization of the new Canal colonies and was designed with a two fold object, firstly, to give instructions in the sciences having its bearing on agriculture, and in general agricultural practice to students from amongst whom the new department hoped, later on, to recruit its officers, and secondly to provide the agricultural population of the province with an institution where the Sons of the agriculturists could acquire knowledge for the betterment of traditional agricultural practices. The college was a nucleus of cultural activities including college societies, clubs, college Majlis, college magazine, college dress, co-operative supply society, University Training Corps (in 1944 named as Officers Training Corps), sports club, Tutorial system, swimming tank etc. There was a large number of scholarships also for the needy and poor students. There was Sir William Roberts Trust also for providing financial help of the students. So much so, the college had a daily to provide milk facilities. In fact, the college was one of the best agriculture educational institutions in the world then.
Pages: 706-708
Md Intekhab Ur Rahman (Department of Psychology, B.N. Mandal University, Madhepura, Bihar)

There are so many social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr, Whats App, Imo and so on. It is becoming more and more obvious how the pressures of social media disproportionately affect teenager especially teenage girls. We can see it all around us. Academics and Psychology researchers have also become interested in this topic as many studies exploring the effects of social media services have been conducted in recent years. The purpose of these studies is to determine the effects of social media on how we communicate with each other, as well as the effects these networks have on our psyches. Predictably, there are positive and negative sides to the effects social media has on us. In the present investigation we have reviewed the related studies and on the bases of findings it is concluded that teenagers who engage with social media during the night could be damaging their sleep and increasing their risk of anxiety and depression. On the other side it is suggested that Facebook in particular provides opportunities for increased social capital, social interaction with others, and identity development.
Pages: 709-711
Rajesh Kumar and Surinder Kumar Vashisth (Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, Haryana)

This study is aimed at reviewing the growth and impact of Mahayana Sampradaya in India, which is purely based on secondary data including textbooks, journal articles, and documents from websites. During this process, it was observed that in Mahayana, the materialistic world was given priority rather than difficult philosophy. Eventually, priority was given to the well-being of a common man; as a result, the number of followers of Mahayana increased. Further, it was observed that in Mahayana, Gautama Buddha was considered like God and his idols, temples, and stupas, were made and worshipped. The results of the study conclude that the impact of Mahayana is not only in the religious field but can be seen clearly in the political and economic, and art and literature as well. In this state, each aspect of Indian people has got influenced.
Pages: 712-714
Renuka Joshi, Rashmi Tyagi, and Kanchan Yadav (Department of Psychology, D.A.V. (PG) College, Dehradun, Uttaranchal)

The present study was conducted to examine the effects of Parental encouragement on social maturity of adolescent girls and boys from class 9th to 12th standards. 2x2 factorial design was used. Data was collected from 120 high school students divided into 60 boys and 60 girls. Parental encouragement scale developed by Sharma (1987) was used to asses the parental encouragement, and Social maturity scale developed by Nalini Rao (1986) was used to assess the social maturity. Mean, SD, and F test were used for statistical analysis of obtained scores. Results indicated significant difference between High and Low parental Encouragement on total social maturity, communication and cooperation among adolescent boys and girls.
Pages: 715-717
Priyanka Mishra and A. K. Srivastava (Department of Psychology, Bundelkhand University, Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh)

This study was aimed at determining whether there are differences in health conscious lifestyle between normotensives and hypertensives. From a small community sample of adults from Noida, 20 individuals with normotensives were selected and compared with a sex and age matched group of 20 individuals having hypertension and having clinic Blood Pressure (BP)> or 140/90 mm hg were tested on measures of health conscious lifestyle derived from standardized questionnaire. Results of independent t test revealed significant differences between normotensives and hypertensives and were in line with the hypothesis. The null hypothesis stand rejected and normotensives were found to be significantly higher on health conscious lifestyle comparatively than hypertensives.
Pages: 718-721
Divya Kalia and Sheema Aleem (Department of Psychology, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi)

The Cyber Victimization Scale (CVS) for adolescents was developed to screen and assess the cyber victims. The goal of this study is to analyse the factor and criterion validity and the reliability in a sample of adolescents from Delhi/NCR. For this purpose, extensive literature review, focused group interviews and a survey was conducted on a sample of 100 school students, aged 16-18 years, studying in grade 11th and 12th. Next, pilot data was collected on a sample of 200 adolescents to establish factor structures using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) in SPSS software 21.0. Using the final scale of 10 items falling under three factors (forms of cyber victimization, traditional bullying, & routes to cyber victimization), data was collected on a sample of 1010 adolescents and victims (n=127) were screened out. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed using Smart PLS software 2.0 on a randomized sample of 249 adolescents (Victims=127; Non-Victims=122). It is concluded that CVS is a valid and reliable self-report tool of identifying cyber victimization in adolescents.
Pages: 722-726
Namita Mohanty and Swagatika Mohapatra (Department of Psychology, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha)
Jitendra Mohanty (Department of Management, KSOM, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha)
Prabhudarsan Sahoo (Department of Psychology, Nayagarh Autonomous College, Nayagarh, Odisha)

The present study examined the effects of cultural identity and gender on academic anxiety, self-concept and academic performance of high school tribal and non-tribal adolescent students. The research adopted a 2 (Cultural identity) x 2 (Gender) factorial design. The sample consisted of 200 subjects, 100 tribal and 100 non-tribal high school students. There were 50 boys and 50 girls each from the tribal and non-tribal category. Results revealed that girls experienced higher academic anxiety than boys and non-tribal students had better self-concept than their tribal counterparts. In academics boys performed better than the girls. Moreover, a significant positive relationship between academic anxiety and self-concept of tribal students indicated that in spite of having higher self-concept, tribal students experienced greater academic anxiety. Results were interpreted in terms of differential exposure and experiences to socio-cultural as well as educational practices prevalent in tribal and non-tribal societies.
Pages: 727-730
Sangeetha R. Mane (Department of Social Work, Karnatak University, Dharwad, Karnataka)

HIV/AIDS is a life-threatening illness that people are afraid of contracting. The various metaphors associated with AIDS have also contributed to the perception of HIV/AIDS as a disease that affects “others,” especially those who are already stigmatized because of their sexual behaviour, gender, race, or socio-economic status, and have enabled some people to deny that they personally could be at risk or affected. HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination is, therefore, the result of interaction between diverse pre-existing sources of fear of contagion and disease. HIV is a chronic illness that has Physical, Emotional, Social, Spiritual and developmental consequence. HIV positive peoples experience multiple crises. In this ever-changing course of HIV disease, including AIDS, represents a continuous series of unexpected stressors, requiring repeated crises intervention appropriate for people who are HIV infected. People with HIV may experience episodic trauma over the course of the illness and consequently move in and out of equilibrium. Crisis intervention should be offered at every hazardous juncture. The study has conducted on crisis interventions and coping skills among PLWHAs getting treatment in ART centre in Hubli-Dharwad Corporation Area. Dharwad, Karnataka is one of the high prevalent states. The descriptive method of study was used. The quantitative method employed in this study was simple statistics expressed in frequencies and percentages; which explains crisis and coping skills of the respondents. 290 PLWHAs clients consented to be in the study group.
Pages: 731-736
Stuti Singh (Department of Psychology, University of Allahabad, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh)

The advent of the internet has dramatically changed our life, positively as well as negatively. Internet addiction is one such negative consequence of it. The present study aims at exploring how personality, loneliness, and affect (positive & negative) predict internet addiction among University students. Four psychological tools were used to measure the variables taken in the study. Internet addiction was measured by Online Cognition Scale (OCS), Personality was measured by Eysenck's MPI (Short), Loneliness was measured by UCLA Loneliness Scale (UCLA-LS), and affect was measured by PANAS. Cronbach's alpha of these scales on the present sample was: OCS (0.88), UCLA-LS (0.79), PANAS (Negative Affect 0.68, Positive Affect 0.77), and MPI (Extraversion 0.33, Neuroticism 0.58). Data were collected from a sample size of 182 participants of undergraduate and postgraduate classes. They are between the age group of 18 to 25 years. Their mean age is 19.76 years. Multiple correlation indicate a significant correlation (0.34, p<0.001) among all the variables chosen in the study and all the predictors explained significant variance in the internet addiction. Loneliness and Negative Affect emerged as the significant predictors of internet addiction in the present study.
Pages: 737-740
Tanwinder Singh Jeji (Department of Defence and Strategic Studies, Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab)

The growing demand for energy and the rising environmental concerns due to the excessive use of fossil fuels like coal and oil in India have turned natural gas into a preferred fuel for India's energy policy makers. At present, natural gas forms only a small part of India's energy mix. With mounting international pressure to reduce emissions, a majority of energy consuming sectors will have to opt for this environmentally cleaner form of energy, which will lead to increase in its demand manifold. India does have enough reserves of natural gas to support this growing demand. Hence it had been planning to import natural gas through overland pipelines from countries like Turkmenistan, Iran and Myanmar. These nations are rich in natural gas reserves and their close geographic location to India provides ideal scenario for the energy trade. But given to the regional geopolitics, especially between India and its immediate neighbours, all these proposed pipelines have failed to succeed so far. This research paper analyses India's pipeline policy and the impact of regional geopolitics on them.
Pages: 741-743
Poonam Vats (Department of Psychology, Mata Sundri College for Women, University of Delhi, Delhi)

Participation means that people are closely involved in the economic, social, cultural and political process that affects their lives. Women are a major force behind people's participation in the life of society as they play a leading role in the emergence of groups, organizations and movements worldwide. Levels of political awareness of women are conditioned greatly by the political culture of the area, the approach of political parties towards them, and the quality of the local leadership. Political socialization is the gradual learning of the norms, attitudes and behavior acceptable to an ongoing political system. Political participation of women can be defined as the degree of equality and freedom enjoyed by women in shaping and sharing of power and in the value given by society to this role of women. This paper attempts to throw light on factors which play a major role in political participation of rural women depicting the role of family, peer, education, party affiliation etc. The implication of this paper would be to recognize the contribution of rural women to politics and in the decision making process by identifying the factors that affect their participation in politics. It would help in strengthening the democracy by closing gap between the decision makers in government and social movements where women prevail.
Pages: 744-745
D. P. Singh (Department of Social Work, Punjabi University Patiala, Punjab)

The discourse around gender equality has been largely approached by looking women as individuals in isolation without much realization on the gender-transformative approaches. This view eventually has resulted in a huge gap in the forward movement of achieving the desired impact in the optimum time. There is also a need to settle as to what gender means and what does equality mean. Equality is not about being same nor does gender means just about two sexes. Equality is about maintaining a balance, mutual respect and promotion of horizontal rather than vertical structures of power distribution. The whole idea is to break down those barriers that have historically been inimical to women in the patriarchal realms. The contemporary gender equality movements should include the missing gender in the equality perspective by doing away with gynocentricity and developing a realization that gender equality cannot be achieved without making it possible for both sexes to evolve and giving each other more but not absolute freedom of choices. Respecting and acknowledging the rights of others on the gender spectrum like the LGBTs has to be central theme in an inclusive discourse.
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