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Background: Common mental disorders (CMD) cause a range of health, social and economic burden, and disorders like depression and anxiety are more prevalent among women. Prevalence and factors contributing to increased vulnerability for CMDs have regional variation. Identification of factors contributing to the vulnerability is essential to both psychiatric epidemiology and in addressing mental health challenges in the community. Methods: This cross-sectional study aimed at understanding the burden of CMD and its association with social determinants of mental health. Women hailing from urban slum attending the outpatient family care facility for their medical problems constituted the sample. Data was collected using a clinical research form with variables such as sociodemographic profile, health profile, and psychosocial profile. The questionnaire had specific questions on indicators of poverty, certain stressors, and support system. Presence of CMD was assessed using Clinical Interview Schedule-Revised (CIS-R), a standard tool for CMD research in primary care settings. A cut off score of 12 and above was considered for detecting CMD. Research ethical principles were adhered to and data was analyzed using SPSS 21.0. Results: Among 172 women, 77 (44.8%) were diagnosed to have CMDs. Univariate analysis revealed a significant association between age, marital status, living arrangement, educational level, difficulty with buying food, presence of debt, chronic medical illness, husband's alcohol use, marital satisfaction, experiencing abuse, family support, religious participation, and a diagnosis of CMD. Multivariate analysis showed high burden with nuclear family arrangement, difficulty to buy food, experiencing abuse and, low burden with higher educational level, family support, and religious participation. Conclusion: Considering the high prevalence and the treatment gap of CMDs in primary setting, family-physician should be sensitized for detection and management of CMDs. Social interventions targeting poverty, women's education and empowerment, and support system are likely to decrease the burden of CMDs in this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been significant progress in educational attainment in India since its independence. Yet the achievements are low in comparison to countries in similar stages of development. The situation is worse among groups who have a history of exclusion. Children from these groups have lower enrollment and higher dropout rates than national averages. Yet some of them are able to overcome these limitations and show academic resilience. Using data from the Indian Human Development Survey (2005), we study the role of the different child, household, and school-level factors associated with academic resilience among these children. Further, to understand the mechanism through which group membership affects resilience we also study the indirect effect of group membership mediated through those factors. We find that the protective factors vary across the different disadvantaged groups. The main effect of group membership is through structural factors like poverty and maternal education. Yet, the child level and household level factors play an important role in most cases. Schools fail to play the expected role of being the source of resilience among those who face the strongest burden of structural factors. For some, the schools are the main site where they experience most of the adversities of group memberships. The results highlight the need for educational policy, which addresses the importance of schools as drivers and determinants of academic resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Girl child marriage remains widespread in India despite implementation of several policies and programmes to eliminate the practice. This study examines the effects of girls' educational attainment and household poverty on the prevalence of female child marriage at the district–level in India. Data are drawn from the 2015–16 National Family Health Survey. Multiple linear regression models were employed to assess the factors of girl child marriage. The results indicate that girls with no schooling and primary level of education are having higher probability of getting married at an early age. However, likelihood of girl child marriage starts declining with secondary level of education. Moreover, higher secondary and higher level of education significantly reduces the prevalence of girl child marriage. Similarly, moving from poorest households to richest households significantly decreases the probability of child marriage. The results suggest that increasing opportunities for girls' education and financial supports to the poor families could be effective strategies towards eliminating the practice of girl child marriage in India. Highlights • Girls' secondary and higher level of educational attainment and betterment in household economic condition significantly reduces the risk of girl child marriage. • Urbanization, religion, women autonomy, and region also have significant influence on the prevalence of girl child marriage. • Increasing opportunities for girls' education and providing financial incentives to the poor families could be an effective strategy to eliminate the practice of girl child marriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low attendance and high drop-out rates of children are among the common phenomena observed in the Indian education system. These problems are especially prominent in the urban slums of Mumbai. Not only do these slums lack basic amenities but most of the educational institutes are also located at distances of more than two kilometers from here. This paper attempts to arrive at an empirical understanding of the reasons for the low educational attainment among the children in these slums while trying to examine the situation with regard to the prevalence of child labour practices specifically in the Ambujwadi slum in the western suburb of Mumbai city. It has been found that apart from economic reasons for not attending school such as lack of accessibility to and affordability of education and the low incomes earned by the households, the other reasons as to why the children in Ambujwadi either do not attend school at all or choose to drop out at an early stage for taking up work are the lack of protection, non-availability of adequate local educational institutions and non-supportive government policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the educational status and other socioeconomic and socio-demographic factors as key determinants of causal attributions for poverty in India. The questionnaire used by R. Nasser and K. Abouchedid was administered to a sample of high school and university students from public and private institutions in India. Results revealed that Indian youth had a higher tendency of believing that poverty is due to structural factors. It was also indicated that the socio-demographic factors of age and educational status were significant indicators of what individuals believe are the causes of poverty.

• Higher educational attainment and urban residence significantly reduce the risk of male child marriage. • In all of the states and UTs, early marriage among men is concentrated in poor only. • Education, caste, and residence contribute significantly to the inequality in early marriage among men. • Achieving further improvements in reducing early marriage among boys requires confrontation of the barriers embedded in laws, policies, and in social norms and values. The practice of child marriage still prevails in many communities of India, especially those are governed by customary and traditional practices. Although girls are excessively affected and form the vast majority of the victims of child marriage, boys are also subjected to early marriage. Much has been discussed about the child marriage of girls, but surprisingly early marriage of boys has received very little attention in India. This study attempted to explore the various reasons associated with early marriage among men and also investigate the region-wise inequality in India with the help of the concentration curve. Estimates of decomposition analysis for quantifying the contribution of various explanatory variables for early marriage among men were also presented. This study utilized data from National Family Health Survey-4 with a sample size of 71,666 ever-married men. Men who had higher education levels were 46% less likely to marry before the age 21 than men who had no education [OR: 0.54, P < 0.01]. Rajasthan (51%) witnessed the highest percentage of early marriage among men, followed by Madhya Pradesh (50.4%) and Uttar Pradesh (49.1%). It was found that education, caste, residence, and wealth status explain nearly three-fourths of the observed inequality in the occurrence of early marriage among men. It is suggested that for reducing the incidences of early marriages among men requires confrontation of the barriers embedded in laws, policies, and in social norms and values. It would be appropriate for policy-makers to direct their efforts to specific regions and communities where the prevalence of early marriage among men is still higher and an accepted norm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]