Concept Pub. Co.

Day care for young children in India; issues and prospects.

Datta and Konantambigi, both affiliated with Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, collect 16 papers addressing macro and micro issues concerning day care for young children in India. Identifying the child care needs of women in urban, semi-urban, and rural contexts, Indian contributors in social work and education assess the effects of day care on children, then present descriptive studies of day care in different settings: agricultural communities, women in the unorganized sector, women workers in mines, and urban middle class settings. There is also material on key issues such as training, quality, advocacy, and networking. The book will be of interest to policy makers, program planners, and students. Distributed in US by South Asia Books. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Educational ethics.

Guha (ethics, phenomenology, and existentialism; Ranchi U.) presents the fourth of six volumes in his series presenting a major research project he conducted on applied ethics in the context of India from 1997 to 2000. In it he considers not only ethical matters concerning in educational professions and practice, but also the teaching of ethics. A final chapter asks whether the entire enterprise of educational ethics actually helps people be good. The price is converted from Indian rupees. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Karnataka government and politics.

It is blessed with natural resources and has evolved into a modern state, even a model state in India's federal system. It is also politically complex. These 28 papers give readers an opportunity to observe the workings of state government and a regional society from the inside, as contributors explain Karnataka's geography, emergence as a modern state, political culture (as "a soft state"), the office of the state's Chief Minister and the evolution of its Office of the Speaker, the judiciary, the opposition from 1995 to 1998, the functions of the Public Service Commission, its government secretariat, urban government, the Panchayati Raj, the representation of women in government, district administration, the socioeconomic bases of politics, the party system and elections, citizen participation, changes in planning, new social movements, the impact of language, minorities, demands for separate states, land reform and the press. Price converted from Indian rs. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Victims of social injustice; a study of women landless labourers.

Kumar (social work, Jamia Millia Islamia-A Central University, New Delhi) and Varghese (social work, Delhi U.) present findings from a study of a marginalized segment of India's unorganized agricultural workforce employed for seasonal work by farm owners, based on data collected from 750 women in three states. Coverage includes an overview of female landless labor worldwide; a demographic and social profile of the study's subjects; harassment, wage differential, indebtedness, and other problems they face; the subjects' experiences with relevant programs of Indian governmental and non-governmental agencies, and their opinions about what the role of these agencies should be; and recommendations for improving the welfare of these workers. The indices contain several UN and Indian regulatory documents related to the topic. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)