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2010, Volume 26, DecemberEDITORIAL: Live-in Relationship, Om S. Verma
EDITORIAL: Live-in Relationship Dr. Om Verma This is in continuation of earlier part of this Editorial published in June-2010 issue. Although Supreme Court of India has granted the legal status to Live-in Relationship, but what happens if one partner decides to walk out. Could the other partner be left homeless. Will the children born into live-in relationship be recognized by the law. Will it empower women with the Right to Inheritance, Right to maintenance, and Right to demand Alimony. Will the law give the same standing status to live-in relationship as that of Marriage. Answers to these questions are changing on a regular basis. The law on live-in relationship around the World vary from country to country. In UK, both parents are financially responsible for the children whether they were married, co-habiting or separated. Parents do not generally have the inheritance rights over each other’s property unless they are in the Will. This, however, can be contested. Live-in couples are not legally obliged to support each other financially even if they are sharing a house or raising a family together. Unlike married couples, they are not entitled to receive Maintenance from their partners even if they have lived together for a number of years or given up their career to look after the home and children. In China, there is no legal procedure required to end a live-in. Children born out to wedlock have equal rights to those born to parents who are married. Contracts are made between couples in a live-in relationship. In the United States of America, partners in a live-in relationship do not have the right to inherit each other’s property. However, property can be willed to each other. Couples can agree to a cohabitation Agreement which outlines their financial responsibilities towards each other as well as remedies for a split. Some States have common Marriage-laws. These refer to legal marriage by default due to an unmarried couples actions. According to recent federal data, in the US, proportion of births outside Marriage has risen to almost 40 percent. France and Italy have already granted the legal rights to unmarried couples. In India, Supreme Court has now (21 October, 2010) come to a summary judgement which says that the relationships in the nature of Marriage and relationship in Live-ins both are quite different from each other. Four important grounds are laid for live-in relationship to be recognized as a relationship in the nature of Marriage. When a live-in partner satisfies these 4 conditions in addition to living together under one roof, only then a deserted woman can seek Maintenance. This judgement is drawn the Ruling of a California Court in the US which had ordered similar relief by invoking the doctrine of a “Palimony”. These 4 conditions are:
It is still not clear the children born out to a live-in relationship will have any inheritance rights or whether either party will have any legal protection. Supreme Court has only nodded at the idea of live-in relationship declaring them to be as good as marriage and when one partner walks out he/she can claim Maintenance and Alimony. This idea, however, has recently been contested in a Delhi High Court case (Arvind Yada Vs Renu Sharma, dated 19 January, 2011) wherein a 18 years old unmarried girl chose a path for herself to live with a married man. The court protected their live-in relationship but alerted them that they will not be entitled to claim Maintenance and Alimony in case one of them later walks out of this wedlock. It is so because they do not qualify condition No. 3 of live-in relationship. They both must be unmarried.
Farm Field Schools and Farmers’ Empowerment in Mozambique: A Pilot Study; 1-13. C. Dzeco UTAD, Centre for Transdisciplinary Development Studies, Portugal
Empowerment is a key element of popular participation in rural development projects. In this sense, it is crucial to know the different approaches capable of or with the potential to generate empowerment. This paper presents the results of a study done in the district of Boane, Mozambique, with the objective of evaluating the impact of the Farm Field Schools approach in terms of farmer, organizational and community empowerment. Data were collected through interviews of both farmers and extension agents. The results show that this approach has contributed to empowering the participants, strengthening the interactions and relationships among farmers, as well as between farmers and extension agents, to develop farmers’ problem analysis and decision-making capacities, and to promote collective action. However, it was not successful in promoting the relationships between farmers and researchers. Overall, FFS seem to be more promising in promoting empowerment at the individual and organizational levels.
Adoption of water saving practices in the region of West Macedonia; 14-25. Michailidis and S.A. Nastis
E. Loizou and K. Mattas The use if irrigation water for agricultural production requires innovative and sustainable research and an appropriate transfer of water saving technologies. The main aim of this paper is to explore the irrigating behavior of farmers examining factors affecting their decision to adopt novel water saving practices. In order to achieve the above aim both summary statistics and multivariate methodologies are employed. In particular, a two-step cluster analysis was used to explore the different adoption levels of water saving practices and a categorical regression model was estimated to explain this variation. Data were collected through a survey addressing 400 irrigators, carried out in 2008 in a typical Greek rural area. Results show that although respondents have already adopted several water saving practices that current irrigated agriculture cannot be sustained in a sustainable manner.
Problem Solving in Extension: Moving Toward a Twenty-First Century Model; 26-33. Terrence Thomas & Cihat Gunden In its effort to improve the quality of life for all individuals, the challenge is for Extension to engage individuals, organizations and communities in solving emerging problems that will more fully improve the quality of life of all individuals. Bringing diverse stakeholders together to find solutions to emerging problems entail solving complex socio-technical problems and collective action problems that require collaboration, negotiation, and careful definition and structuring. Too often in this situation, a Type III error is made solving the wrong problem. This is usually because too much emphasis is placed on generating a solution without first identifying the right problem. The crucial task for Extension, therefore, is to identify and define the right collective action problem. We propose an integrated problem-solving model that could prove useful in assisting Extension to address complex collective action problems that are likely to arise in the new reality of the twenty-first century.
Maternal Health in India: An Overview; 34-44. Heena K., Bijli, Assistant Professor (Community Resource Management & Extension)
Ratna Tewari, Professor & Head Health promotion of the poor is an emerging concern for policy research and action worldwide. In India, most of the population is rural and they live under poor health conditions, especially women who are the poorest of the poor. Early marriage is a common cultural practice and a woman is pressurized to undergo several pregnancies, starting for adolescence. This results in maternal deaths and women’s poor reproductive health status. Gender has been ignored as a critical dimension of reproductive health, and in health and family planning programmes. This paper highlights the importance of maternal health in India by stressing on factors such as socio-cultural aspects, maternal mortality, quality of health services, unmet need for family planning and the neglected health needs of adolescents. Reduction of maternal mortality rates by three quarters is one of the Millennium Health Development Goals that India is committed to achieve by 2015. The recently launched National Rural Health Mission is making commendable efforts in strengthening the public health system in India. Implementation of all the existing health programmes has to be strengthened with an increased spending on the health. The paper further suggests the need to bring together holistic concerns for linking health to family and gender by addressing adolescents’ health needs, expanding health infrastructure and empowering women. Civil society and other stakeholders could contribute towards maternal health in order to make human development sustainable.
An analysis of constraints in Empowerment of Rural Women; 45-50. Letha Devi G and P Khandekar
Women as a significant human resource play their role effectively if they are provided equal opportunities and status as of other gender. They need to be enabled to use improved technology in their daily activities for which relevant education and training are to be imparted in the same measures, as available to men. Empowerment enables women to have more access to knowledge and resources, greater autonomy in decision making, greater ability to plan their times, free them from the clutches of irrelevant customs built and practices. This study was conducted in Rural Bangalore district in 4 villages covering 180 respondents (wives of household heads) selected by random sampling. A semi-structured schedule was used to collect data from rural women. Various constraints, which were observed in empowerment of rural women, were social constraints, political constraints, economic constraints and psychological constraints. The main reason for poor empowerment of rural women was noted as “lack of knowledge”.
Oyeyinka, R. A, Ajayi, M.T. & Bolarinwa, K. K.
This study assessed a staff development programme for extension staff of ADP and Agricultural Research Institues in Edo State, Nigeria. Data were collected from 65 respondents using a structured questionnaire. Results revealed that the majority of the respondents were males (76.9%) and married (87.8%). Many of the respondents had Ordinary National Diploma Certificate (49.2%) and have worked for over 10 years (60%). Majority of the respondents had not gone for training within the last five years in areas such as programme planning (67.7%), evaluation (70.8%), market Information service (64.6%), and ICT (61.5%). Major constraints to staff development were inadequate funding, training facilities, lack of sponsors, poor planning of training activities, high cost of training and inadequate training needs assessment. There was no significant difference in staff development among institutions. Regular training needs assessment with more funds allocated to staff development were recommended.
NEWS, VIEWS, AND REVIEWS YOUCAN USE; 59-73. Dr. O. S. Verma This is Second Instalment in the series of Healthcare Tips. First instalment published in June-2010 issue highlighted the use of three important healthcare practices: Alcoholic Drinks, Coffee and Cancer elimination alternatives. Before, we further enlist healthcare-tips, it is imperative to record the reactions received on these three topics.
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