As hemlines rise proportionately to the mercury, summertime is a man’s paradise in Moscow and most cities of the former USSR. Compounded by the unique blessing that the Russian female species have been endowed with in terms of longer than usual femur and tibia/fibula structures, plainly their legs go on forever.Like high boots and a form flattering wardrobe, a lady needs a shapely figure and a more than outstanding pair of legs to pull off wearing a mini…combinations for which there are no shortage of in Russia and CIS.As in the swinging 60’s when the miniskirt attitude reflected that of the pill and free love, the miniskirt is as much an icon of ingrained sexual liberation in today’s Russian woman less all the fanfare. The miniskirt provokes the spirit of Free Love distilled into an intoxicating endorphin cocktail shot straight into the libido of every red blooded man it crosses. Just as the 60’s rise of the miniskirt made tights and panty-hose more popular, due to the low fit of today’s stocking fashion, Russia’s miniskirt has adapted to feminine requirements to create an ever increasing level of testosterone in the men of Russia. Following this, Russian ladies employ all their feminine wiles to make their legs fit for the finest fashion in the shortest skirts.Pictures say a thousand words, and today’s Russian lady lets her figure and attitude do the talking, looking men straight in the eye while daring and welcoming the first move. The modern fashion favored by today’s Russian woman is a sophisticated and arousing blend of the slinky stretch miniskirt, the skin-tight and ultimately revealing microskirt, and the flirtatious fun of the cheerleader outfit. There are no little girl ’60’s, Chelsea or androgynous looks in modern Moscow. It’s strictly dress to kill taking no prisoners with figures to match the seductive intent. The aim is to magnetize the eyes and make an impression, even if it means having a man walk into a lamp-post.A whole host of materials, including leather, denim, velvet and lace, makes the mini-skirt a truly versatile and thrilling garment of beauty. Here Spandex and leather are stretched to the limit with suggestive frills fit to bend the male imagination. And the rainbow of flashy colors also adds to the heady mix of style and seduction: red, green, purple and gold all make their own individual statements of character. Of course, black usually transmits the biggest impact with its simple contrast to midnight and milky white skin.The effect of a short-skirt is instantaneous on any man with a pulse. Perhaps it comes down to the amount of the body left up to one’s imagination. Or it could be because of a fantasy that has previously established itself deep in the mind of a particular guy. Or it could come down to the primal notion of leather and some ingrained instinct that draws a man to a supple, smooth surface.More skin, more curves, more daring than their Western counterparts…Russian women have led the way in a sexual revolution of their own with their skirts the ultimate symbol of unflinching boldness. Of course this is how the world of Russian femininity is and should be…Flirtatious and daring, competitive, confident, assertive and intrepid.

A STUDY OF FACTORS INFLUENCING WOMEN’S ENTRY INTO HIGHER EDUCATION.

INTRODUCTION

            Inducement of social change as one of the fundamental functions of education has been spelt out in the report of the Indian Education Commission (1964-66) thus:

            “The realization of the country’s aspirations involves changes in the knowledge, skills and values of the people as a whole.  If this ‘change in a grand scale’ is to be achieved without a violent revolution there is one and only instrument that can be used – Education”.

EDUCATION :-

            Education is the nourishment of the mind with knowledge this is practiced purposefully and productively.

            Education disciplines the mind, sharpens the intellect and refines the spirit.  It shapes and polishes a rough unknown diamond into a multifaceted kohinoor  sparkling with scintillating brilliance.  Its the development of integrated personality that unfolds itself to the highest wisdom.  Its a continuous process.

            The philosopher President Dr.Radhakrishnan (1948) said, “There cannot be educated people without educated women.  If general education has to be limited to men or women, that opportunity should be given to women from them it would most surely be passed on to the next generation”.

HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN :-

            Higher education is defined as the education attained after the completion of 12 years of schooling.  Higher education for women has gained a wider role and responsibility all over the world.  Today, in the 21st century, we cannot afford to ignore the importance of higher education for women any longer.  The reason for its need and urgency is that there is no biological difference in the systems of males and females.  Unfortunately, this important task of higher education of women has remain neglected for centuries.  Need for higher education among women assumes all the more importance or the 3rd world countries, where colonialism has remained a great force hindering education for the general masses and for the women in particular.

OBJECTIVES OF HIGHER EDUCATION FOR WOMEN:-

            To provide society with competent men and women trained in agriculture, arts, medicine, science and technology and various other professions, who will also be cultivated individuals in built with a sense of social purpose.

            To strive to promote equality an social justice and to reduce social and cultural differences through diffusion of education.

NEED FOR HIGHER EDUCATION FOR WOMEN : MALE AND FEMALE :-

            Higher Education may also be viewed in terms of the needs of its consumers.  The term consumer is very wide and heterogeneous.  It includes young and old of both sexes.  Theoretically the need for Higher Education for both males and females is the same.  But its sometime argued that males and females are different in their social and cultural needs.

            The basic argument which is given for women Higher Education is not that Higher Education for women is different from that of men.  Our main thrust is that in the field of Higher Education, women should also be equal partners.  Our past experience shows that so far Higher Education has remained restricted only to men.  It should now widen its horizon and include women also.  The commission on the Higher Education for women, University of Madras in 1979 rightly observed: “for Women and men college education is necessary for character formation, ability to earn, creative self expression and personal development”.

MAIN FACTORS INFLUENCING WOMEN’S SUCCESS / FAILURE IN COMPLETING HIGHER EDUCATION :-

Success :

a)                  Women are strongly motivated to succeed in the education stream.

b)                  The merit basis of the education system permits females to excel.

c)                  Prejudice against women’s education has been reduced. Higher Education has come to be considered equivalent to a bride’s “dowry”.

d)                  Women’s universities promote women’s Higher Education.

e)                  Women’s expectations for education based employment are high.

f)                    Some Higher Education courses provide scholarship facilities for women.

g)                  Female students have been provided with residential facilities in some areas.

Failure :

a)                  Female students have difficulties in access to transport facilities in general.

b)                  Sexual harassment as well as occasional student violence hinder female students completion of higher education.

c)                  Marriage in many cases leads to early withdraw.

d)                  Gender stereotyping inhibits completion of studies.

e)                  Financial constraints can cause withdrawal from the education stream.

f)                    Part-time work to earn living interferes with studies.

SIGNIFICANCE OF PRESENT STUDY :-

            The objective of the Indian Society as has been laid down in the constitution is to achieve a democratic, socialistic and egalitarian society.  In such a society women are supposed to perform their roles at par with men.  Their status structurally needs to be equal with men.

            Broadly speaking, knowledge which is imparted through Higher Education provides skills to its practitioners.  Our understanding is that by acquiring skills the women raise their status in comparison with men and also the status of the group to which they belong.

            In order to understand the status of women, or for that matter to understand any social issues, it is necessary to combine at least 3 perspectives viz. the perspective from policy, the perspective  from statistics and the perspective from culture.

·              The present study is aimed at finding the various reasons for women seeking entry into higher education.

·              It aims at looking at the reasons for seeking entry into higher education by women from the perspective of men, teachers, parents and the women themselves.

·              It bring about an awareness among women as to the various avenues open to them in Higher Education and thus mark the beginning of a major process of empowering women.

·              To find out the problems hindering the pursuit of Higher Education by women.

·              Make suggestions for finding solutions to the above problems in a rational and free manner.

·              To suggest ways  of enhancing women’s entry into colleges, including professional course.

·              To explore areas of Higher Education where women have not yet stepped in or are a monopoly of men.

·               To suggest suitable measures to make higher education for women universal i.e. free of cost, time and distance effective.

PROMOTING HIGHER EDUCATION FOR WOMEN

The social context of educational policy has to be improved.

Family and personal counseling at the secondary education stage can be provided.

Higher education can be made skill oriented.

Nontraditional curricula for women can be established.

Recent declines in state support for non-traditional higher education has to be reversed.

Institutions can be made physically accessible i.e. Locate them near the potential clientele, improve transport system etc.

Higher Education  Institutions have to be made more women-friendly i.e. Physical Changes, curricula changes, social changes.

Women’s representation on institutions decision-making bodies can be increased.

Equal opportunity commissions for higher education institutions should be established.

The number of women teachers in co-educational institutions of higher education should be increased.

Stipends, Scholarships and fellowships can be linked to affirmative action programmes.

Women need to be recruited into administrative training programmes for institutions of higher education.

A large role for women’s study centres can be provided.

Institutions of higher education should provide placement services.

Barriers to women’s career entry should be removed, example: employers should be sensitized to the value of flexitime, day-care centres etc.

Sexual harassment in the educational environment should be addressed.

A large number of female secondary education graduates usually are not able to enter university.  To accommodate that population it would be benefited to strengthen the role of vocational training institutions.  Post secondary vocational training institutions should take action to promote entry of women into vocational training lines traditionally considered male preserves.

            Affirmative action quotas has to be provided to promote women’s admission into higher institutions, where such quotas exist, should be reviewed periodically to ensure their continuing relevance.

            Where quotas are provides for specific disadvantaged groups like disabled persons, people from remote or rural areas, members of indigenous minorities, a minimum share should be reserved for female members of those groups.

            Distance education and open learning institutions and techniques should be promoted, particularly to extend higher education opportunities to women in rural and remote areas, which will take into account their needs.

 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH :-

            The present study is limited only to women students seeking higher education up to undergraduate level in a few professional and non-professional colleges of Chennai city.  The following suggestions are given for further investigation.

1.                  A similar study may be conducted among the postgraduate level or research level students.

2.                  A similar study may be undertaken throughout Tamil Nadu State.

3.                  A comparative study of factors influencing entry of women in higher education can be made between a developing and developed country.

4.                  A similar study may be attempted for various issues relating higher education of women.    

Read more on Nadi Shodhana Pranayama and Best Eye Vitamins and Instant Breast Enhancement

It is the result of human wisdom and insight on makeup, psychology, ethics and spirituality collected together and skillful over thousands of years for the well being of humanity.The basic idea of yoga is to unite the atma or individual soul with the paramatma or the Universal Soul. According to Yoga philosophy, by cleansing one`s brain and controlling one`s thought processes one can return to that primeval state, when the individual self was nothing but a part of the Divine Self.

Of course, atheism, the idea of rejecting God’s existence, has always existed from ancient times. But the rise of this idea actually began in the 18th century in Europe with the spread and political effect of the philosophy of some anti-religious thinkers. Materialists such as Diderot and Baron d’Holbach proposed that the universe was a conglomeration of matter that had existed forever and that nothing else existed besides matter. In the 19th century, atheism spread even farther. Thinkers such as Marx, Engels, Nietsche, Durkheim or Freud applied atheist thinking to different fields of science and philosophy.

The greatest support for atheism came from Charles Darwin who rejected the idea of creation and proposed the theory of evolution to counter it. Darwinism gave a supposedly scientific answer to the question that had baffled atheists for centuries: “How did human beings and living things come to be?” This theory convinced a great many people of its claim that there was a mechanism in nature that animated lifeless matter and produced millions of different living species from it.

Towards the end of the 19th century, atheists formulated a world view that they thought explained everything; they denied that the universe was created saying that it had no beginning but had existed forever. They claimed that the universe had no purpose but that its order and balance were the result of chance; they believed that the question of how human beings and other living things came into being was answered by Darwinism. They believed that Marx or Durkheim had explained history and sociology, and that Freud had explained psychology on the basis of atheist assumptions.

However, these views were later invalidated in the 20th century by scientific, political and social developments. Many and various discoveries in the fields of astronomy, biology, psychology and social sciences have nullified the bases of all atheist suppositions.

In his book, God: The Evidence, The Reconciliation of Faith and Reason in a Postsecular World, the American scholar Patrick Glynn from the George Washington University writes:

The past two decades of research have overturned nearly all the important assumptions and predictions of an earlier generation of modern secular and atheist thinkers relating to the issue of God. Modern thinkers assumed that science would reveal the universe to be ever more random and mechanical; instead it has discovered unexpected new layers of intricate order that bespeak an almost unimaginably vast master design. Modern psychologists predicted that religion would be exposed as a neurosis and outgrown; instead, religious commitment has been shown empirically to be a vital component of basic mental health…

Few people seem to realize this, but by now it should be clear: Over the course of a century in the great debate between science and faith, the tables have completely turned. In the wake of Darwin, atheists and agnostics like Huxley and Russell could point to what appeared to be a solid body of testable theory purportedly showing life to be accidental and the universe radically contingent. Many scientists and intellectuals continue to cleave to this worldview. But they are increasingly pressed to almost absurd lengths to defend it. Today the concrete data point strongly in the direction of the God hypothesis.1

Science, which has been presented as the pillar of atheist/materialist philosophy, turns out to be the opposite. As another writer puts it, “The strict materialism that excludes all purpose, choice and spirituality from the world simply cannot account for the data pour in from labs and observatories.”2

In this article, we will briefly analyze the conclusions arrived at by different branches of science on this issue and examine what the forthcoming “post-atheist” period will bring to humanity.

Cosmology: The Collapse of the Concept of An Eternal Universe And the Discovery of Creation

The first blow to atheism from science in the 20th century was in the field of cosmology. The idea that the universe had existed forever was discounted and it was discovered that it had a beginning; in other words, it was scientifically proved that it was created from nothing.

This idea of an eternal universe came to the Western world along with materialist philosophy. This philosophy, developed in ancient Greece, stated that nothing else exists besides matter and that the universe comes from eternity and goes to eternity. In the Middle Ages when the Church dominated Western thought, materialism was forgotten. However in the modern period, Western scientists and philosophers became consumed by a curiosity about these ancient Greek origins and revived an interest in materialism.

Immanuel Kant: Proposed the idea of a universe without a beginning or an end. He was terribly wrong.

The first person in the modern age to propose a materialist understanding of the universe was the renowned German philosopher Immanuel Kant—even though he has not a materialist in the philosophical sense of the word. Kant proposed that the universe was eternal and that every possibility could be realized only within this eternity. With the coming of the 19th century, it became widely accepted that the universe had no beginning, and that there was no moment of creation. Then, this idea, adopted passionately by dialectical materialists such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, came into the 20th century.

This idea has always been compatible with atheism. This is because to accept that the universe had a beginning would mean that God created it and the only way to counter this idea was to claim that the universe was eternal, even though this claim had no basis on science. A dogged proponent of this claim was Georges Politzer who became widely known as a supporter of materialism and Marxism in the first half of the 20th century through his book Principes Fondamentaux de Philosophie (The Fundamental Principles of Philosophy). Assuming the validity of the model of an eternal universe, Politzer opposed the idea of a creation:

The universe was not a created object, if it were, then it would have to be created instantaneously by God and brought into existence from nothing. To admit creation, one has to admit, in the first place, the existence of a moment when the universe did not exist, and that something came out of nothingness. This is something to which science can not accede.3

By supporting the idea of an eternal universe against that of creation, Politzer thought that science was on his side. However, very soon, the fact that Politzer alluded to by his words, “if it is so, we must accept the existence of a creator”, that is, that the universe had a beginning, was proven.

This proof came as a result of the “Big Bang” theory, perhaps the most important concept of 20th century astronomy.

The Big Bang theory was formulated after a series of discoveries. In 1929, the American astronomer, Edwin Hubble, noticed that the galaxies of the universe were continually moving away from one another and that the universe was expanding. If the flow of time in an expanding universe were reversed, then it emerged that the whole universe must have come from a single point. Astronomers assessing the validity of Hubble’s discovery were faced with the fact that this single point was a “metaphysical” state of reality in which there was an infinite gravitational attraction with no mass. Matter and time came into being by the explosion of this mass-less point. In other words, the universe was created from nothing.

John Maddox: His prophecy about the Big Bang utterly failed.

On the one hand, those astronomers who are determined to cling to materialist philosophy with its basic idea of an eternal universe, have attempted to hold out against the Big Bang theory and maintain the idea of an eternal universe. The reason for this effort can be seen in the words of Arthur Eddington, a renowned materialist physicist, who said, “Philosophically, the notion of an abrupt beginning to the present order of Nature is repugnant to me”.4 But despite the fact that the Big Bang theory is repugnant to materialists, this theory has continued to be corroborated by concrete scientific discoveries. In their observations made in the 1960’s, two scientists, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, detected the radioactive remains of the explosion (cosmic background radiation). These observations were verified in the 1990’s by the COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer) satellite.

In the face of all these facts, atheists have been squeezed into a corner. Anthony Flew, an atheist professor of philosophy at the University of Reading and the author of Atheistic Humanism, makes this interesting confession:

Notoriously, confession is good for the soul. I will therefore begin by confessing that the Stratonician atheist has to be embarrassed by the contemporary cosmological consensus. For it seems that the cosmologists are providing a scientific proof of what St. Thomas contended could not be proved philosophically; namely, that the universe had a beginning. So long as the universe can be comfortably thought of as being not only without end but also without beginning, it remains easy to urge that its brute existence, and whatever are found to be its most fundamental features, should be accepted as the explanatory ultimates. Although I believe that it remains still correct, it certainly is neither easy nor comfortable to maintain this position in the face of the Big Bang story 5

An example of the atheist reaction to the Big Bang theory can be seen in an article written in 1989 by John Maddox, editor of Nature, one of the best-known materialist-scientific journals.

In that article, called “Down With the Big Bang,” Maddox wrote that the Big Bang is “philosophically unacceptable,” because “creationists and those of similar persuasions… have ample justification in the doctrine of the Big Bang.” He also predicted that the Big Bang “is unlikely to survive the decade ahead.” 6 However, despite Maddox’ hopes, Big Bang has gained credence and many discoveries have been made that prove the creation of the universe.

Some materialists have a relatively logical view of this matter. For example, the English materialist physicist, H.P. Lipson, unwillingly accepts the scientific fact of creation. He writes:

I think …that we must…admit that the only acceptable explanation is creation. I know that this is anathema to physicists, as indeed it is to me, but we must not reject that we do not like if the experimental evidence supports it. 7

Thus, the fact arrived at finally by modern astronomy is this: time and matter were brought into being by an eternally powerful Creator independent of both of them. The eternal power that created the universe in which we live is God who is the possessor of infinite might, knowledge and wisdom.

Physics and Astronomy: The Collapse of the Idea of a Random Universe and

The Discovery of the Anthropic Principle

A second atheist dogma rendered invalid in the 20th century by discoveries in astronomy is the idea of a random universe. The view that the matter in the universe, the heavenly bodies and the laws that determine the relationships among them has no purpose but is the result of chance, has been dramatically discounted.

For the first time since the 1970’s, scientists have begun to recognize the fact that the whole physical balance of the universe is adjusted delicately in favor of human life. With the advance of research, it has been discovered that the physical, chemical and biological laws of the universe, basic forces such as gravity and electro-magnetism, the structure of atoms and elements are all ordered exactly as they have to be for human life. Western scientists have called this extraordinary design the “anthropic principle”. That is, every aspect of the universe is designed with a view to human life.

We may summarize the basics of the anthropic principle as follows:

The speed of the first expansion of the universe (the force of the Big Bang explosion) was exactly the velocity that it had to be. According to scientists’ calculations, if the expansion rate had differed from its actual value by more than one part in a billion billion, then the universe would either have recollapsed before it ever reached its present size or else have splattered in every direction in a way never to unite again. To put it another way, even at the first moment of the universe’s existence there was a fine calculation of the accuracy of a billion billionth.

The four physical forces in the universe (gravitational force, weak nuclear force, strong nuclear force, and electromagnetic force) are all at the necessary levels for an ordered universe to emerge and for life to exist. Even the tiniest variations in these forces (for example, one in 1039, or one in 1028; that is—crudely calculated—one in a billion billion billion billion), the universe would either be composed only of radiation or of no other element besides hydrogen.

There are many other delicate adjustments that make the earth ideal for human life: the size of the sun, its distance from the earth, the unique physical and chemical properties of water, the wavelength of the sun’s rays, the way that the earth’s atmosphere contains the gases necessary to allow respiration, or the Earth’s magnetic field being ideally suited to human life. (For more information on this topic, see Harun Yahya, The Creation of the Universe, Al-Attique Publishers, 2001)

This delicate balance is one of the most striking discoveries of modern astrophysics. The wellknown astronomer, Paul Davies, writes in the last paragraph of his book The Cosmic Blueprint, “The impression of Design is overwhelming.”8

In an article in the journal Nature, the astrophysicist W. Press writes, “there is a grand design in the Universe that favors the development of intelligent life.”9

The interesting thing about this is that the majority of the scientists that have made these discoveries were of the materialist point of view and came to this conclusion unwillingly. They did not undertake their scientific investigations hoping to find a proof for God’s existence. But most of them, if not all of them, despite their unwillingness, arrived at this conclusion as the only explanation for the extraordinary design of the universe.

In his book, The Symbiotic Universe the American astronomer, George Greenstein, acknowledges this fact:

How could this possibly have come to pass [that the laws of physics conform themselves to life]? …As we survey all the evidence, the thought insistently arises that some supernatural agency—or, rather Agency—must be involved. Is it possible that suddenly, without intending to, we have stumbled upon scientific proof of the existence of a Supreme Being? Was it God who stepped in and so providentially crafted the cosmos for our benefit?10

By beginning his question with “Is it possible”, Greenstein, an atheist, tries to ignore that plain fact that has confronted him. But many scientists who have approached the question without prejudice acknowledge that the universe has been created especially for human life. Materialism is now being viewed as an erroneous belief outside the realm of science. The American geneticist, Robert Griffiths, acknowledges this fact when he says, “If we need an atheist for a debate, I go to the philosophy department. The physics department isn’t much use.”11

In his book Nature’s Destiny: How the Laws of Biology Reveal Purpose in the Universe, which examines how physical, chemical and biological laws are amazingly calculated in an “ideal” way with a view to the requirements of human life, the well-known molecular biologist, Michael Denton writes:

The new picture that has emerged in twentieth-century astronomy presents a dramatic challenge to the presumption which has been prevalent within scientific circles during most of the past four centuries: that life is a peripheral and purely contingent phenomenon in the cosmic scheme.12

In short, the idea of a random universe, perhaps atheism’s most basic pillar, has been proved invalid. Scientists now openly speak of the collapse of materialism.13 The supposition whose falsity God reveals in the Qur’an, “We did not create heaven and earth and everything between them to no purpose. That is the opinion of those who disbelieve…” (Qur’an, 38: 27) was shown to be invalid by science in the 1970’s.

The nation that was founded and called America, was always destined to be a special place. For those who manufactured this concept, a plan was developed. It called for a pseudo-religious base with freedoms underpinning the early nation. It would be deistic in theology and gnostic in practics. This would serve their interests. They would run the nation and accomplish their goals under the radar of this religious base. What they did not expect to happen was the early Puritans and other groups who came here with a real belief and experience. The phrase is born again. These early Christians, were really believers and followed the Lord with a pure heart. Although, there were troubles, the religious fixture in America took root. Today, we still have these two forces. One is creating a Zion in America, the other is seeking a city whose builder and maker is God. One is a gnostic, the knowledge seeker. The other is a born again believer with knowledge of the Most High God. Then we also have those who dont believe in either of these things.

The issues get confused again and again. For many believers Gnostic belief is not understood. Some early believers followed this heresy. For them, the seeking of higher knowledge out side of The Lord was the goal. They believed in Christ, but to them it was a Christ spirit. They clearly could not understand with the mind what the heart accepted by faith. That Christ Jesus was both man and God. So they developed the Gnostic belief to explain this. This Christ spirit came and went out of Jesus Christ, they believed. It came after Christ was born. Then left when he died on the cross. Then came back to resurrect the body and ascend to heaven. Since then, many Gnostics have believed this Christ Spirit is the same one in Buddha, Mohammed , Ghandi, and other men who they feel were like Jesus. The New Age movement is about this same thing. Developing this Christ spirit in men and women everywhere. The early apostles battled this heresy as it took root in the early stages of the church. The Gnostics believed that knowledge was the key. That if Christ got knowledge from God, they could as well. Gnostics would seek knowledge in the regions of the supernatural. I call this the meta physical. They believed that angels, watchers, and even demons could impart knowledge to them so they could be as Christ. This is where the idea of man being a god came from. Straight from those who thought they could develop this as Christ did. Thus becoming a God.

So too, the early Masons had the knowledge idea. They formed the nation and its principles with the idea of a perfect society based on knowledge. Knowledge gained from past civilizations. From Egypt, Solomon, Kabbala, Witchcraft, and other sources this was gathered. Today, the nation of America stands as a superpower. But it is quite short of what we would call a perfect society. It also has drifted from the original constitutional republic to what is deemed a democracy. In addition, Zionist America will be turned into the New World Order as it proceeds with the early ideals of those who created it. For people today who have known the America of our forefathers, it no longer exists. That America today is gone. The Zionist, New World order is in charge today. Its agenda is world domination. Its tool, knowledge and power.

The building of this empire has seen cracks in its foundation which have been appearing for a long time. Many thought the end result would put this Zionist America at the top. Instead, it will be swallowed up in the New World Order. The goal was never to rule the world by one nation alone called America. But to rule the world, through a New World Order, that is by a system of Government run by elitists who by knowledge and power have the final say in all things. In the end, the concept of this knowledge of a new perfect man-made order will be ruled by the son of perdition. Before he does this, many things will happen in America. The end result will be, the America as you have known it will cease to exist. I have said that phrase many times in the past, going back all my life. I have known this. I knew the time would come as this. It is almost here.

This Zionist America, that men have clamored for, has caused many problems. There are leaders today who see this as a white Judeo Christian nation. That all our problems stem from the white man oppressing the colored peoples of all nations. One who foments this view is a staunch bigot himself, although he is black, he is a bigot, none-the-less. His name is Louis Farakhan. In a recent speech before the Navajo nation he urged people of color worldwide to come together, adding that uniting of people of color would outnumber white people 11 million to 1 million. This is just one small comment on Farakhans radar quotes that foment white hatred and colored supremacy. God created men of all colors to be brothers in Christ. Since blacks cannot overthrow the whites by themselves, he is pushing a cross-cultural agenda.

Now, I am neither racist, nor a Zionist. I am looking for a city, however, whose builder and maker is God. His home will be Zion. This Zion will not be a tarnished man-made city full of sin and debauchery. It will be adorned as a bride for her husband and will descend from heaven to the earth [see Revelation]. Many Christians, though think of Jerusalem, Israel, and even the USA as Zion. Zionist America is a term I use for those who are putting together this man made society built on knowledge. For them, a perfect working society will be achievable. The problem, too many problems. Oh, yes, another problem, man is imperfect. He will never create that perfect Utopian society.

While facing many obstacles, this agenda to create Zion is on track. For them putting America as you and I have known it into the framework of the New World Order is first. There is already the formation of the North American Federation. You might have heard of it. Put together with the Council on Foreign Relations help, the advisory board created the idea. Among the ideas would be to create a new currency called the Amero replacing the dollar. Next they would erase all borders between the USA, Canada, and Mexico. They would impose a supervisory board with power to overrule national sovereignty. There would be free access of citizenry, trucks, and imports between all nations. The people of Canada and Mexico would also be put on our Social Security system with all its rights. There would also be large amounts of money pumped into Mexico to build it up. All the while, America is sinking in debt. Especially the middle class. By the time it is done, Mr and Mrs middle class will be gone. America bankrupt, and bought out by this New Agenda. It is also suggested that the rights and freedoms you and I cherish would be lost. This new federation would also, according to some, fall inline with global governance. This includes the dissolution of state sovereignty. There are many more aspects to this. I suggest you go to the cfr.org website for more information.

As those in charge proceed, Zionist America and Building up the New World Order will be seen as a triumph for men. When it is accomplished Zion will be ruled by men and not God. Zion will be that place of power, where just as Satan wanted to ascend to the Most High God and rule, men will try to duplicate. For them with enough knowledge, man can do anything he wants to. With enough knowlege, men can be as Gods. They can rule those who have no knowledge. This will be a place where selfish, power hungry men will serve one power mad person called the ’son of perdition’. Within this framework, mans final Utopia will be created. Call it Zion, the New World Order, or Utopia. Whatever you call it, it will use men and suppress people. It will be totally evil in its creation and goal. This is coming, and America will be swallowed up whole within it.

In the past studies on public policy were dominated by researchers and students of political science who largely concentrated in the institutional structure and philosophical justification of government.  The focus was rarely on policies themselves.  Past studies hardly recognized the role of organizations towards the formulation of policy.  Yet, the policy is an important element of political process.

          It is important to understand the concept of public for a discussion in public policy.  We often use such terms as ‘Public Interest’, ‘Public Sector’, and ‘Public Health’ and so on.  The strategy point is that public policy has to do with those spheres, which are so labeled as public.  Public dimension is generally referred to public ownership or control for public purpose.  The public comprises that domain of human of human activity, which is regarded as requiring governmental intervention or common action.  However, there has always been a conflict between what is public and what is private.

          Like the idea of public, the concept of policy is not a precise term.  Policy denotes, among other elements, guidance for action.  It may take the form of – (a) A declaration of goal; (b) A declaration of course of action; (c) A declaration of general purpose – and (d) An authoritative decision.

          Unfortunately the policy itself is something, which takes different forms.  There is thrust to designate policy as the outputs of the political system, and in a lesser degree to define public policy as more or less interdependent policies dealing with many different activities.  Studies of public policy areas, on the contrary, have intended to focus on the evaluation of policy decisions in terms of specified values a rational rather than a political analysis.

          Taken as a whole, policy may be defined as a purposive course of action taken or adopted by those in power in pursuit of certain goals or objectives.  Public policies are formulated by authorities in a political system, namely elders, executives, legislators, judges and the like.  These are the persons who engaged in the daily affairs of the political system, are recognized by most members of the system as having responsibility for those matters.  The actions taken by them are accepted as binding most of the time by most of the members so long as they act within the limits of their roles.

Significance of the Study:

          A public policy may cover a major portion of its activities, which are consistent with the development policy.  Socio-economic development or self-reliance or similar broad principles of guidance for action may be adopted as a developmental policy or national goal.  A public policy may be narrow, covering a specific activity, such as family planning.  A public policy may be applied to all people in a country or it may be limited to a section of its people.  Besides, each level of government – central, state and local – may have its specific or general policies.  Then there are ‘mega policies’, which are general guidelines to be followed by all specific policies.  Mega policies form a kind of master policy, as distinct from concrete discrete policies, and involve the establishment of overall goals to serve as guidelines for the larger set of concrete and specific policies.

          Public policies in modern political system are purposive or goal oriented statements.  Again, a public policy may be positive or negative in form.  In its positive form, it may involve some form of overt government action to deal with a particular problem.  On the other hand, in it is negative form.  It involves a decision by public servants not to take action on some matters on which a government order is sought.  Public policy has a legal coercive quality that citizens accept as legitimate.  This legal coercive quality of public policies makes public organizations distinct from the private organizations.

          Policy making is closely related to decision-making.  However, it is not the same as decision-making.  Policy-making does involve decision-making, but a decision does not necessarily constitute a policy.  Decision-making often involves identification of a problem, a careful analysis of possible alternatives and selection of one alternative for action.  Generally decisions are taken by the administrators in their day-to-day work within the distinct framework of policy.  The policy decisions eventually taken thus provide a sense of direction to the courses of administrative action.

          Policies are distinct from goals and can be distinguished from the latter as means from ends.  By goals or objectives one means the ends towards which actions are directed.  It is reasonable to expect that a policy indicate the direction towards which action is sought.  Policies involve a deliberate choice of actions designated to achieve these goals and objectives.  The actions can take the form of directives to do or refrain from certain action.  Public policy is about means and ends, which have to have a relationship to each other.  To say that policy-making involves a choice of goals or objectives is to argue that it deals with values.

Statement of the Problem:

          The present study is designed to probe into “Performance of DRDA Projectc in Vizianagaram, inrespect to the Public Policy and Populist Measures” Policies as well as objectives are chosen under the influence of values.  Decision-makers often act on the basis of their belief or perceptions of the public interest concentrating what is proper or morally correct public policy. Studies of Supreme Court indicate that judges are influenced by policy values in deciding cases.

          Policy-making must be distinguished from planning.  Broadly speaking a plan is a programme of action for attaining definite goals or objectives.  In this sense, a plan is a policy statement and planning implies policy-making.  Oten the goals or policies of a plan are not stipulated in plan documents.  They may be stated only in a very general or vague terms, or are found to be internally inconsistent or contradictory.  A national development plan, broadly speaking is a collection of targets or individual projects which, when put together, may not constitute an integrated scheme.

          Allocation of resources for investments and showing of targets indifferent sectors of the economy are considered to be at the core of planning.  However, it has been aptly stated that a plan needs proper policy framework.  Targets cannot be achieved just because investments are provided for.  They have to be drawn within the framework of policies.  Successful policies make for successful plans and administration.

          Administration involves co-operative effort by a number of people to achieve some purpose whether private or public, large or small, ‘it consists in the systematized ordering of affairs and the calculated use of resources, aimed at making those things happen which we want to happen and simultaneously preventing developments that fail to square with our intentions.

Phiffmer has defined administration ‘as the organization and direction of human and material resources to achieve, desired ends’.

          According to Marshall E, Dimock, ‘Administration is now so vast an area that a philosophy of administration is come close to being a philosophy of life’.

          The administration process has a number of distinct phases such as Organization, Personnel, Financial, Management, Policy making, Planning, Direction and Control Policy has to be decided before anything can be attempted to be done.

          Policy means a decision as what shall be done and how, when and where.  The most common social and political usage of the term policy refers to a course of action or intended course of action conceived as deliberately adopted and perceived or oriented to be perceived.  A policy is concerned not only with what is (i.e., positive principle) but also with what should be (i.e., normative principle).  Policy is a comprehensive term and connotes a set of intended actions.  Policy is defined as a course of action selected by the government, an institution, a group or an individual among alternatives in the light of given conditions to guide and usually to determine present and future decisions.  In the words of Terry a policy is a verbal, written or implied basic guide to action that is adopted and followed by a manager.  Dimock defines policies as the consciously acknowledged rules or conducts that guide administrative decisions.  According to Koontz and D.Donnell ‘Policies are general statements or understandings, which guide or channel thinking in decision making of subordinates’.  The term public policy refers to the policies made and implemented by government with a view to achieve certain goals.  Public policy means the functioning of government.  Public policies intend to attain definite objectives of government.  For instance eradication of poverty is a goal.  Rural development, urban development and industrial developmental policies are shaped to attain that broad goal.  David Eastern defines public policy as ‘Authoritative allocation values to the society’.  Public policy is when the government actually chooses to do or not to do some scholars’ claim to see differences between specific action and overall programme of action towards a given goal.  They insist that government action must have a goal in order to be leveled as ‘policy’.  Laswell and Kaplan defined Policy as ‘A projected programme or goals, values and practices’.

          The issue of implementation assumes importance in the context of policy analysis as it takes into account of what happens to policies in terms of their actual results on the ground, as making policies is not enough but a sincere effort to implement these policies is equally important.  It is relevant to quote Woodrow Wilson who said, ‘it is getting harder to name a constitution than to frame one’.  Running is the implementation aspect of government activity. 

Many implementation studies while analyzing public policies point out variety of factors.  Firstly different kinds of uncertainties often accompany programmes: Space, inputs, technology and even staff may not be available at specific time and locations, impending the take-off of the programmes.  Secondly, resources may fall short of the requirements and may not be flowing in time.  Thirdly, there are well-known organization problems affecting programmes implementation and within a department a new programme may not be welcome by all.  A new programme may demand a new organization, which takes time to take shape.  Fourthly, as experience tells, leadership makes or destroys an organization and its programmes.  Specially, when new programmes are launched in any sector, leadership to a large extent determents the outcome.  Fifthly, many government programmes cut across departments and therefore, success depends on inter departmental co-ordination.  Sixthly, under ‘privatization’ philosophy, government programmes are contracted out to third parties like NGOS and private agencies.  Success in that event would dependent on the performance of the ‘outside agencies’.

Formulation of Public Policy:

Every administrative department receives periodic reports, returns, statements, accounts and statistics from its various sub-agencies regarding their various activities.  These are consolidated together and recorded by the departments and are available for use as data for the formulation of policy.  Whether modern emphasis on planning, statistics have become a important tool for administration.  Many departments have special machinery for the collection of statistics relating to their activity, helpful for policymaking.  For example in India, the ministries of Finance, Commerce, Industry, Food, Agriculture and Labour have their own statistical sections and a central statistical organization attached to the cabinet Secretariat National Sample Survey, The Bureau of Public Enterprises.  Directorate of Industrial statistics and various other organizations are working for the collection of information and statistics.  The data so collected are properly processed, organized and interpreted to certain facts essential for policy-making.

          The identification of major policy making organs of India is not a sure proof of their compulsory involvement in the policymaking.  If the Prime Minister’s Office proposes a policy, it may not be thoroughly discussed and in the process, some organs may even get completely bypassed.  Behind policymaking, there are much interest, many factors, many perceptions and the map is not necessarily the same or similar even with the same or similar problems emerging again.  According to Krishna Menon ‘Policies are seldom framed the way, we read in books.  What we read in Sir Ivor Jennings’s works and other treaties is hardly observed while making policies.’

The Indian Context:

          Public Policies in the developing nations have acquired critical significance in view of the complex challenges being faced by them on the one hand and their propensity to effect shifts in the regime on the other.  Among the new nations, India has embraced upon new tasks of social re-construction, economic modernization, political participation, welfare, providing liberty, equality and rights in the life of the millions of people.  In order to achieve these objectives the constitutions of India reiterated its commitment to welfare state with an emphasis on secular, socialist, federal, parliamentary and democratic ideologies.  Further, it has also derived an institutional framework to act as infrastructure to oversee the fulfillment of the said objective.  The social, economic and political philosophy of Indian Constitution is orchestrated in the Preamble, Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles of State Policy, which lays down an egalitarian ideology as a part of liberal democratic constitutional order. (14)

          C.D.Deshmukh, the Finance Minister while moving a resolution on 20th December, 1954 on the economic situation of India observed, ‘the broad aim of public policy is set out in the Directive Principle in the Constitution.  These are presents, the will of the nation and not the creed of any individual or any party or the dogma of any section.  And so long as they remain in the Constitution, they must govern the overall policy not only of this government, but whatever government there may be in future’. Indeed, the articulations in them are the potential stuff out of which public policies at both levels of government in the federal system are to be made.  The view that the Directive Principles of State Policy are largely ornamental being un-enforceable by the judiciary is not valid.  Current judicial thinking is that the Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles are complementary to each other and mutually re-enforcing.  The formal provisions of the Constitution do not provide sure clues to either the direction of public policymaking or its contents.  Yet, the Socio-economic provisions of the Constitution can be made to operate only by the political process and dynamics of the land.

          India is committed for the establishment of Welfare State as has been reflected in the Constitution.  The basic aim of a Welfare State finds expression in the preamble and part IV of the Constitution as reflected through Directive Principles of the State Policy.  At aims to secure all its citizens.  Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, Secure and Protect social orders.  A peep into the provisions incorporated emphasis the determination of founding fathers of our Constitution.  It attempts to strike a balance between rural development and urban planning through well-coordinated administrative agencies.  No wonder, this determination has strengthened the concept of Welfarism in India.  Consequently, it gave rise to the concept of populist measures.  Hence, public policy analysis has to be examined from the angle albeit objectively.

Populist Measures:

          In pursuance of the provisions enshrined in Part –IV of the Constitution, as well as objective conditions of Planned Development and Leadership role necessitated introduction of a series of developmental programme, especially rural developmental programmes.  It arose due to competition among the political parties to retain power.  Various political parties as well as groups, which have conceived divergent social and economic policies which are both developmental and welfare oriented has been termed as populist policies, which act as important components of public policies.  Different populist strategies have been persuaded by different political parties including the regional ones.  Populist politics is in fact, the need of the hour, India is an old civilization but a new nation having backwardness in many spheres.  Many feel India is still ‘a nation in the making’.  India is perhaps the only major country whose leadership is determined to transform the traditional society into a modern and developed one.  The political process during 1970 witnessed an increased accent on populist policies, which are either incremental in nature or intended to pass on specific benefits to the target groups.  At the state level also, the parties and groups have tended to accept populist, welfare policies, not only as a sort of developmental strategy but also recognized this as politically expedient and electorally rewarding.  Series of antipoverty programmes of rural development such as 20-Point Economic Programmes, SFDA, NREP, DPAP, IRDI, Jawahar Rojgar Yojana etc., have launched in order to ameliorate the poorest of the poor.  Alternative policy approaches to the problems of growth, poverty and inequalities in the third world countries necessitated the need not for one or two isolated policies but for a package of complimentary and supportive policies. (15)  For many less-developed countries including India, a significant factor contributing to persistence of low level of living evolving into a culture of poverty is the highly unequal distribution of economic and political power between rich and poor.  All people have certain needs without which life is inconceivable.  These, life-sustaining necessities include basic human needs as food, shelter and protection, when any one of these is absent or in short supply, it assumes that a condition of under development exists.

          The Welfare State performs positive functions besides acting as a policeman entrusted with the maintenance of law and order in short it promotes human welfare.  Concept of welfare implies realizing the required socio-economic change, which will ultimately pave the way for the promotion of greatest happiness of greatest number.  Welfare schemes refer to guaranteed programmes intended to protect citizens against economic risks and insecurities.  It performs the divine rules of a father, a nurse, manager and an industrial entrepreneur.  The welfare functions of a state clearly point out that the state in modern times has become an instrument of socio economic change.  A Social welfare state is a society with a set of government programmes that protect the minimum standards of living of families and individuals against loss of income due to economic instability, old age illness and disability and family disintegration.  All modern welfare states through the details of their programmes differ in providing social welfare measures to their citizens.

          Social Welfare and its manifestations in the forms of social service, welfare and its manifestations in the forms of social service, social reform, social security etc., have come to be prominently used in the twentieth century.  However, social welfare in its rudimentary form did exist over in punitive societies in the desire of people to help one another on times of need and stress, which deeply ingrained in the human nature.  Moreover all the religions of the world enjoin upon their devotees and followers to practice compassion and exhibit concern for their fellow beings especially for those in distress and deprivation and to help them by giving a portion of their earnings in charity.  Thus through the ages and in all parts of the world, the humanitarian impulses have marked the beginning of social welfare.

Andrews, Rhys and others (2009) studied ‘Centralization, Organizational Strategy, and Public Service Performance’.  One of the core functions for public managers is the creation of appropriate structures that can provide system stability and institutional support for a host of other internal organizational elements, such as values and routines.

Anne Stevens (2009) studied Representative Bureaucracy – What, Why and How?.  Issues of representation have become increasingly salient in European countries with attempts to find mechanisms to increase the representation of women, including various types of quota and parity legislation. This article examines the extension of the idea to bureaucracies.

Chris Game (2009) studied Just over 100 years ago, 5 pioneering women and 1 quite exceptional one became the first legitimately elected female members of English county and county borough councils. While obviously important, the Qualification of Women Act 1907 that enabled their election was far from the only one to have influenced women’s electoral involvement in local government.

Craig R.Smith (2009) studied on ‘Institutional determinants of Collaboration: an empirical Study of County Open-space Protection (Survey).  In this article the author attempted to add to this burgeoning literature by arguing that institutions are an important component of collaboration because they signal to potential collaborative partners a policy commitment by the government. In credibly committing to a policy, governments can reduce uncertainty and gain cooperation without necessarily building trust via managerial behavior.

Dr.Pantricia Hamilton & Dr.Rosalyn Proops (2008) opined that Professionals are well aware of the difficult decisions they face. On the one hand, returning an abused child to abusive parents may literally be a matter of life and death; on the other, parents who lose their children feel devastated.

Money Control.com (ed.) (2009) studied ‘Two Populist Measures save Lalu a dull day’.  This article disclosed that When Lalu Yadav walked out this morning to present the interim Railway Budget for the last time in the tenure of the United Progressive Alliance, anybody would have expected him to not only come out with impressive statistics of the Railways’ scorecard but also balance profitability and populist measures with his characteristic élan — and not without a keen eye on the upcoming Parliamentary polls.

          Peter Riddel (2007) opined on ‘Lost of Populist Measures but little sense of an overall strategy’.  The Conservatives are in two minds about an early election. In one sense, they do not want one, since every spokesman and MP to whom the author accepted that the party could not win outright and almost certainly could not become the largest single party.

Prof.Gray King, Department of Government, Harvard University (2009) studied ‘Political Analysis’ that ‘The relatively new field of political methodology is growing exponentially; is improving empirical work in every field of the discipline; and is even making major contributions to empirical and methodological scholarship well outside the diffuse borders of political science. Political Analysis chronicles these exciting developments by publishing the most sophisticated scholarship in the field.

Sabina Siebert (2009) studied ‘Gender Balance in Scottish Local Authority Councils’.  Women make up over 40 per cent of community councilors in Scotland, however, evidence suggests that they are less likely to progress to local authority councils. This article investigates the barriers to wider engagement of women in participative democracy, and based on the analysis of empirical data suggests some ways of promoting a more equitable gender representation in Scottish local authority councils.

Sir Rodney Brooke (2008) examined ‘The Public Needs Confidence in Family Courts’.  He reported that that social workers are not accountable for their actions is not correct. As your article states, social workers have been required to register with the General Social Care Council (GSCC) since 2005. In registering, they sign up to a code of practice that sets out the standards they must work to. The great majority of the 93,000 registered social workers provide excellent services to high standards.

AFP South Asian Edition (2009) Article on ‘Populism Pips Economc Price on India’s Pool Trial’.  The Editorial disclosed that Four years of soaring growth is a record most governments would trumpet from the rooftops at election time, but India’s ruling party is giving the subject a wide berth ahead of this week’s polls.

CJ:Abhishek Behl (2008)KEEPING IN mind the general elections next year, Railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav today presented a populist Rail Budget offering reduction in train fares, a slew of new trains and concessions and a provision for special trains to cater to the needs of Indian masses.

Subramanian, Narendra (2007) studied ‘Populism in India’.  Populist political forces have played significant roles in Indian politics, and have varied in their vision of political community, in the social groups they targeted, in the policies they pursued, and in their impact on democracy. The Indian National Congress had populist aspects in the interwar period, and then again under Indira Gandhi’s leadership from the late 1960s to the late 1970s. Movements and parties that represented particular language and caste groups also employed populist rhetoric and methods of mobilization, and pursued populist policies.

Sudheendra Kulkarni (2009) made on ‘Why India is turning to Populism’.  Not being an expert in etymology, He opined that he do not know how the word ‘populism’ originated. However, keen observers of and participants in the discourse on India’s political economy know that ‘populism’ has travelled an interesting journey in our country. From being reviled as ‘bad economics’ since the advent of liberalization in the early 1990s by a section of the intelligentsia that had embraced the credo ‘West is Best’, it has now been honourably enshrined as an indispensable part of ‘good politics’ by mainstream political parties.

The Republic of India is a large country with a population of over one billion people spread over 3.28 million sq. km. It has a federal structure of 35 states and union territories divided into nearly 600 districts. India has 32 different languages and numerous dialects. In the 19th century, Britain had assumed political control of virtually all Indian lands. By 1947 the people of India declared their independence.  India is located in Southern Asia, bordering Burma, Bhutan, China, Nepal and Bangladesh along the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. India has a diverse landscape with flat to rolling plains along the Ganges River, deserts in the west and the Himalaya mountain range in the north.  The nationality of India is Indian with ethnic groups of Indo-Aryan comprising 72% of the population with Dravidian groups comprising 25%, and Mongoloid and others comprise the remaining 3%. Languages include Hindi as the national language which is the primary tongue of 30% of the population. There are 14 other official languages with English being spoken in business and political circles.  According to the United Nations, country-specific poverty lines are generally used due to variations between countries and is affected by local tastes and cultural norms. However, definitions are not particularly sensitive to more qualitative needs such as health care, housing and education. According to the ADB, in 1999 India had 26.1% of its population below the national poverty line with 27.1% represented in rural areas and 23.6% in urban areas. 

India’s economy encompasses traditional village farming, modern agriculture, handicrafts and a wide range of modern industries and support services. India is a major exporter of software services and workers.

Economic growth slowed in 2002, largely due to a drought-induced drop in agriculture. The industry sector showed increases, which is expected to continue in FY2003 and should lead to a moderate revival in GDP growth. Assuming normal monsoon conditions, the economy is projected to grow by 6% in FY2003 with agriculture and services increasing on average. Exports are expected to increase at over 15% in 2003, based on increasing world demand. Inflation will likely remain moderate at approximately 5%. The fiscal deficit is expected to remain at the average level of 9.5% of GDP during FY2003.  Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth averaged approximately 6% throughout the 1990s, however, it decreased to an average of 5% for FY2000 and FY2001. During FY2002 (ending March 31, 2003) GDP growth was approximately 4.4%. The general decline in GDP growth over the years is primarily attributable to a decrease in the service sectors growth and from external effects such as a global recession, drought, the impact of the government’s large fiscal deficit and slow progress of reforms in certain sectors. The Asian Development Bank forecasts a 6.3% growth in GDP in the FY2003 with agriculture and services increasing on average. 

GDP stood at approximately US$2.66 trillion in 2002 of which agriculture comprised 25%, while manufacturing and trade comprised 29.7%.  The Government provides welfare schemes for the social services sector and over the past 10 years has increased the budgeted amount four-fold for welfare schemes for Scheduled Castes, Other Backward Classes and minorities as well as welfare and development of scheduled tribes. The Government also provides separate allocations for People with Disabilities (PWDS) under separate schemes. Based on the Government’ economic survey conducted for outlays for the social sector for the fiscal year 2000, rural development, employment and poverty alleviation encompassed the largest share of social welfare schemes at 42% of total expenditures in the social sector.  According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the life expectancy at birth was 60 years for males and 61.7 for females. It is estimated by the WHO that as of 1992 there were 48 and 45 physicians and nurses, respectively for every 100,000 people living in India.  Total expenditures on health as a percentage of GDP in 2000 was 4.9% according to the WHO, while general government expenditures on health as a percentage of total general government expenditures in 2000 was 5.3%.  The WHO estimates that 3.9 million people were living with HIV/AIDS in 2000, while there were 350,000 deaths related to HIV/AIDS in the 15 to 49 year old population in the same time period. The total estimated adult prevalence rate was 0.8% of the total population.

Bansal, R;John,S and Ling PM (2005) made an article on ‘Cigarette Advertising in Mumbai, India: Targeting different Socio-economic groups, Women and Yough’.   

Despite a recent surge in tobacco advertising and the recent advertising ban (pending enforcement at the time of this study), there are few studies describing current cigarette marketing in India. This study sought to assess cigarette companies’ marketing strategies in Mumbai, India.

Rijo M.John (2006) studied ‘Household’s Tobacco Consumption Decisions’.  This article analyses consumption patterns, socio-economic distribution and household choice of a variety of tobacco products across rural and urban India. Using a multinomial logic model, we examine the choice behaviour of a household in deciding whether and which tobacco products to consume.

Editorial (2009) an article on ‘Socio-economic Issues in India’.   Constitutionally India is a secular state, but large-scale violence have periodically occurred in India since independence. In recent decades, communal tensions and religion-based politics have become more prominent, coinciding with a rise in Islamic terrorism.

          Vannhim (2009) studied ‘Gender Inequality in India’.  In this study the author opined that “No nation, no society, no community can hold its head high and claim to be part of the civilized world if it condones the practice of discriminating against one half of humanity represented by women” That was a sentence from the speech of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at national conference to oppose gender inequality in 2006, but in reality this situation is becoming worse and worse, especially when the widespread practice of aborting female fetuses happens every day everywhere without people’s care and strict law.

The socio-economic position helps an individual to assert his or her position in the society.  Educational levels, occupational positions and income earnings do influence the behavioral pattern of individuals.  These achievements instill confidence individuals and stimulate them to take part in the societal and political activities.  Astrictive qualities like case and religion have also a greater role to play, especially in Indian situation in determining the status of a person.  The lower caste status is a barrier in the way of an individual to achieve his or her goal.  An attempt would be made by the researcher to enquire into the socio-economic indicators of Vizianagaram District and present on analysis of populist measures that have emerged in the course of undertaking the present study.

Socio-economic Profile of Vizianagaram District:

          No two districts can be said to be same in terms of land, area, size of population, strategic location, natural resources, cultural patterns, social structures, political dynamics and economic development.  The Republic of India occupying the central sector of the Asian subcontinent is the sub-continent of Asia and is the second most populous nation and seventh largest country of the world having 439 districts.

          Andhra Pradesh is a state of India having 23 districts and Vizianagaram is a district of Andhra Pradesh.  Andhra Pradesh is divided into four natural regions viz., Andhra, Rayalaseema and Telengana regions.

Historical background:

          The history of Vizianagaram District is connected with hoary past of Kalinga, one of the Political divisions of ancient India.  Only in modern times, the upper part of Kalinga was gradually merged into Orissa State and the lower part into Andhra Region.

          After abolition of the Zamindaris in 1948, Visakhapatnam district was found to be unwidely for administrative purposes.  Consequently, Srikakulam District was carved out in 1950, bifurcating it from Visakhapatnam District.  The Constitution of Vizianagaram District in 1979, by transferring the taluks of Parvathipuram, Kurupam, Salur, Bobbili, Badangi and Cheepurupalle from Srikakulam District and some taluks of Visakhapatnam, forms the latest development in the history of the district.

Geographic Profile of Vizianagaram District:

          Vizianagaram District was formed as 23rd district in the State on 1st June, 1979 with headquarters at Vizianagaram in terms of G.O.Ms.No:700/Revenue(U)Department, Dt.15th May, 1979 with portions carved from Srikakulam and Visakhapatnam District.

          The district is a part of the Northern Coastal plains of Andhra Pradesh State and lies between 17° – 15’ and 19° -15’ of the Northern Latitude and 83° – 0’ to 83° – 45’ of the Eastern Longitude.  It is bounded on the East by Srikakulam District, on the West and South by Visakhapatnam District, on the South-east by Bay of Bengal and North-West by Orissa State.

          The District was formed with 9 taluks viz., Viianagaram, Gajapathinagaram, Srungavarapukota and Bhogapuram taluks from Visakhapatnam district, Bobbili, Parvatipuram, Salur, Kurupam and Cheeprupalli from Srikakulam District.  In December, 1979, 3 more taluks were added by creating Nellimarla, Viyyampeta,  Badangi and GummaLakshmipuram duly bifurcating the taluks of Vizianagaram, Srungavarapukota, Bobbili and Kurupam respectively making the total taluks to 13 and these taluks have been further subdivided into 52 Firkas.  For administrative convenience, the district is divided into 2 Revenue Divisions viz., Vizianagaram and Parvathipuram.  In may, 1985 the taluks and firkas were replaced with 34 Revenue Mandals in the District.

Population:

          The population of this district as per the Census Reports is – Census 1981 18.04 Lakhs, 1991 21.10 Lakhs and 2001 22.49 lakhs of population.  This clearly indicates that gradual increase is found from one Census to Census.  The Male population in 1981 Census is 8.99 Lakhs, followed by 1991 10.55 Lakhs and 2001 11.20 Lakhs.  Whereas the Female Population is in 1981 Census reported as 9.05 Lakhs followed by 1991 Census 10.55 Lakhs and 2001 11.30 Lakhs.  From the above it can be concluded that the gradual increase in population in respect of Female category is higher than Male Population. 

          Further, out of the total population 22.49 Lakhs of this District as per report of Census 2001 that Scheduled Caste population is 2,38,023 (1058%).  Out of total population of Males 11.20 Lakhs, the SC Male population is 1,19,116 (10.63%), where out of 11.30 Lakh Population female the SC Female is 1,18,907 (10.52%).

Agriculture:

          The major agriculture in this district is Rice, Groundnut, Mazie, Sugar Cane, Bazra, Koraa, Redgram etc.  Out of which, the major cultivation is preferred to Sugar Cane in view of the demand from Sugar Industries in this district.  Cultivating Mesta, Rice, Groundnut, Mazie are preferred by the Farmers. The Farmers are preferred least to cultivate Bazra, Korra, Redgram.

Land Assigned for Agriculture Purpose:

          Out of Ac.3512.00 land, assigned to Scheduled Caste people Ac.745.00 (21.22%), Scheduled Tribe people Ac.1042.00 (29.67%), Backward Class People Ac.1586.00 (45.16%) and other community people Ac.139.00 cts. (3.95%).

          District administration includes all the agencies of the government, the individual officials, functionaries and public servants.  It comprehends all institutions for the management of public affairs in the district, all the corporate bodies such as Panchayats of different kinds, Panchayats, Municipal councils of every kind.  Thus district administration provides the principal point of contact between the citizen and the process of government.  It is the cutting edge of tool of public administration and this is what constitutes its vital significance in the nation’s government.

Factors of Development:

          Development is affected by a number of factors like natural resources, environment technology and economic growth, which are interactive and interdependent.  Environment, including natural resources like land, water, forest, fisheries, minerals and economy comprising among other things, production, consumption and distribution activities are interactive and are interdependent.  The report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), says our common future was the first major international initiative that enhanced the awareness of policy makers about the complexity of relationship between environmental problems, economic growth and needs of people, rich and poor.

          After independence, India has adopted the strategy of planned development as the Constitution declared India a Democratic Socialist State having commitment to socio-economic justice through the democratic process and organized planning.  Planning is needed both at the individual, district, state and national levels.  Its need is bring realized both by socialist as well as capitalist countries.  In developing countries it is increasing being realized that without planning it is impossible to have economic development and solve nation’s economic problem on the one hand and to industrialize the country on the other.  Planning is needed for ending poverty and unemployment.  It is a rational process of human behavior.  Planning both at administrative, social and economic levels is increasingly occupying a important and significant place in our social, economic and political set-up.

          The first Five-Year Plan of (1951-52 to 1955-56) had a twofold objective.  It attempted to correct the disequilibrium in the economy and ensure all round balanced development.  It further aimed to raise national income and achieve steady improvement in the living standards over a period of time.  The plan accorded highest priority to agriculture, including irrigation and power projects, transport and communication.

          The Second Five-Year Plan of 1956-57 (1956-57 to 1960-61) aimed at the establishment of socialistic pattern of society in India.  It projected to achieve 25 percent increase in the national income by giving priority to rapid industrialization with particular emphasis on basic and heavy industries.  It broadened the horizon of employment opportunities to reduce inequalities in income and wealth and to achieve more even distribution of economic power.

          The Third Five-Year Plan 1961-62 (1961-62 to 1965-66) aimed at securing marked advance towards self-sustaining growth and secure an increase in the national income over 5 per cent per annum, to increase it by about 30 percent.  It aimed to achieve the target by giving priority to self-sufficiency in food grains and increase in agricultural production to meet the requirement of industry and exports.  It also targeted to expand basic industries like steel, chemicals, fuel and power and to establish machine-building capacity for requirements of further industrialization.  It aimed to utilize fully the manpower resources of the country and ensure a substantial expansion in employment opportunities.  It further aimed to establish progressively greater equality of opportunities and bring about reduction in disparities of income and wealth and a more even distribution of economic power.

          Mid 60’s was one of the critical periods in the history of Five-Year Plan in India.  Series of crisis left many economists to ponder over the effectiveness of planning in India.  The first among the series of crisis was the Indo-Pak war of 1965.  The was ravaged Indian economy needed some kind of a special effort by the economic planners in the country.  The first two decades of development planning in India saw the implementation of rural development programmes like community development projects National Extension Services, Land Reforms and Co-operative Farming.  Although it was initiated with much fund fare it did not benefit the targeted groups i.e., the rural community.  In 1968 the Planning Commission organized a number of studies on the problems of small farmers in different areas.  The small Farmer Development Agency Scheme (SFDA) 1971 was launched with a view to provide special preferential arrangements for the supply of inputs to the potentially viable small farmers.  During the Fourth Five-Year Plan along with the SFDA another agency called the Marginal Farmers and Agricultural Labourers Development Agency (MFAL) was introduced to help the sub-marginal and landless workers.  While SFDA covered the entire district, the MFAL was confined to blocks and tahasils.  The Fourth Five-Year Plan 1969 (1969-70 to 1973-74) aimed at raising the standard of living of the people through programmes which at the same time designed to promote equality and social justice.  The Plan laid particular emphasis on improving the conditions of the less privileged and weaker sections of the society especially through the provision of employment and education.  Efforts were also directed towards reduction of concentration and wider diffusion of wealth, income and economic power.

          The twin objectives of the Fifth Five Year Plan 1974-79 (1974-75 to 1978-79) were the removal of poverty and the attainment of Self-reliance.  It envisaged 4.37 percent overall growth of gross domestic product, expansion of productive employment, a national programme of minimum needs, emphasis on agriculture, key and basic industries producing goods for mass consumption, extended programmes of social welfare and an equitable prices.

          During the Fifth Five-Year Plan period, the 20-Point Programme was launched on 1st July, 1975 as precursor to ‘Garibi Hatao’ programme to alleviate the conditions of the poorer sections of the society.   A revised programme was annulled on 14th July, 1982, which has been under implementation from 1982-83 onwards.  The coverage of the progrmme has been broadened to include a number of major areas of social concern such as provision of safe drinking water, health facilities, family planning, expansion of education, equality for women, justice to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.  It aimed to generate new opportunities for youth, housing for the under privileged sections, enhancement of agricultural production and productivity reduction in income inequalities, removal of social and economic disparities, raising quality of life and protection of environment.

          The new 20-Point Programme of 1986 prepared under the guidance of Late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in the light of experience gained in the implementation of the 20-point programme of 1975 and 1982.  In general it aimed at and improving the quality of life of the people.  It is not a declaration of intention but charter of emancipation for poor.

          The Sixth Five-Year Plan of 1980-81 (1980-81 to 1984-85) has been formulated after taking into account the achievement and short comings of the past three decades of planning.  Janata Government had fixed its own targets but before the plan could be implemented the government went out of power and the Congress (I) government prepared its own plan.  The plan aimed at removal of poverty and to make the country self-reliant, though it was recognized that the task of this magnitude could not be accomplished in a short period of five years.  The main strategy was to strengthen the infrastructure for both agriculture and industry to create conditions for growth in investment, output and exports and provide through special programmes designed for the purpose.  The objective of the plan document is envisaged to create opportunities for employment, especially in the rural areas and unorganized sector and meet the minimum basic needs of the people.  Further, the document aimed at to achieve the objectives through the involvement of the people in formulating specific schemes of development at the local level.  It was further aimed to secure speedy and effective implementation and to attain a growth rate of 5% per annum and gross domestic product at 3.3% per annum.

          The Seventh Five-Year Plan 1985-86 (1985-86 to 1989-90) came into operation on 1.3.1985 and covered plan period from 1985-89.  It main strategy is removal of poverty, providing social justice, economic expansion and technological development and bringing about a sharp reduction to the rate of population growth.  It laid stress on agriculture by introducing land reforms, irrigation, drainage and management of multiple cropping.  It also wanted to self-reliant industrial economy and has the fullest human resources development.  It wanted to put stress on anti-poverty programmes.  The main aim of the plan is to remove illiteracy, unemployment, and poverty and provide food, clothing and shelter, health, education and other basic amenities through Minimum Needs Programme.  According to some critics there was nothing new in the strategies and programmes however, a new hope seemed to have been created by the reconstitution of the Planning Commission and liberalization of imports in order to give a boost to development and hike the customs revenue.

          The development of agriculture should inevitably have to be given priority.  Problems of crop combination perspective, land and water management, productivity, agro-processing industries, backward areas development diversification of technology to modernize stagnant agriculture needed carefully formulated plans for solution of problems.  It was argued that the agricultural sector should receive preference over the industrial sector in view of the size, nature and demographic and other peculiarities of the country.  It was believed by many, if India aims to enter into 21st Century, it has to put emphasis on faster growth of industries.  It would help to achieve the projected target of providing increased employment.  A notable feature of the plan document was it tried to redefine the role of small industries.  It emphasized for setting up or agro-industrial development in rural areas.  Through this the document aimed to achieve the goal of self-reliance.

          Human Development has been the ultimate goal.  The effort of the plan was directed towards achieving employment generation, population control, literacy, education, health, drinking water.  In addition provision for adequate food and basic infrastructure were the other priorities.  As a welcome step, the planning process in India seeks to make people’s initiative and participation a key element in the process of development.

Working of DRDA in Vizianagaram District:

          District administration is defined as the management of public affairs within a territory marked off for the purpose. After Independence, the District Administration was made a partner in the development process in which the Collector emerged as the overall agent of the State Government occupying a cardinal position.  As the implementation of the development programmes, the task was onerous calling for missionary zeal, scientific foresight and all pervading spirit of selfless service.  With the introduction of Panchayati Raju, structure had emerged at the district level where the Collectors Association with the emergent system and the role assigned under it varied from State to State.  The role of Collector in development administration does not find a clear and precise definition.  Except in the fields of revenue, law and order and natural calamities, his role, as a coordinator seems to be nebulous.  In recent years though the Union and State Governments have launched several special projects, the Collectors face gnawing problem of inter-sector transfer of funds. 

          The execution of Five-Year Plans for rural development is ultimately the responsibility of the District Administration, where in the District Collector plays a key role.  Originally, he was in charge of collection of revenue, and then he was entrusted with administrative and some judicial responsibilities for maintaining law and order.  Now he is also responsible for the development work in his district.  There is no limit to what a District Magistrate can get close so it is felt that it is too much to load him with developmental work.  The task of implementing development programmes is very difficult and time consuming.  It required patience, tack, dedication and vision.  So, it requires a specialized cadre of men and women who should have dedicated their lives to developmental work.

          To reduce the burden of Collector of supervising developmental work, the developmental functions of Collector were vested in the name of ‘Project Officer’ to lookafter ITDA Projects for implementation in Tribal Agency areas and in plains the responsibilities have to be given to the respective departments.  It was ultimately decided to set one single integrated organization.  The task of the organization was to oversee and effectively implement poverty alleviation programme.  Consequently District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) was set up in 1980, with Collector as the Chairperson. 

          While analyzing the function of DRDA it can be point out that the overall charge of the planning implementation, monitoring and evaluation of all anti-poverty programmes in the district can be divided into broad areas.  Firstly, to keep the district and Mandal agencies informed of the basic parameters and the requirements of the programmes and the task to be performed by all these agencies.  Secondly, to coordinate and oversee the surveys, preparation of prospective plans and annual plan of the blocks and finally prepare a district plan.  Thirdly to monitor and evaluate the programmes implementation by government and governmental agencies to ensure its effectiveness.  Fourthly to secure inter-sectoral and inter departmental co-ordination and co-operation.  Fifthly, to give publicity of the achievements made under the programs and disseminate knowledge and build up awareness about the programmes.  Sixthly to send periodical returns to the state government in the prescribed formats.  Coming to the functions of DRDA in Vizianagaram District it can be had the clear picture and to assess the analysis of the anti-poverty programmes of rural Development, which are implemented in this district.

BRGF (Grameena Rojgar Yojana):

          The funds under this scheme in 2007-08 under 11th Plan period have been released under the approval by the High-Power Committee of BRGF Planning.  The aim of this scheme is to meant to eradicate the disparity regional developments and provide funds where there is deficiency to meet the executions for developmental activities.  In this scheme 50%, 30% and 20% grants have been allocated to Gram Panchayats, Mandal Prajaparishads and Zillah Praja Parishads and four Municipalities respectively.

Fashion Technology Project:

          The Fashion Technology Project  under Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarajgar Yojana Scheme is started by the Government of India under the SGSY –II Scheme to enhance the additional income to the Self-employment Societies.  To meet the objective of this scheme has been estimated to a tune of Rs.1215.32 Lakhs.  Out of which an amount of Rs.218.02 Lakhs being the first phase and  the Government of India and Rs.72.67 as its share to bare the expenditure under this scheme.  The scheme will be continued for three years i.e., from October, 2006 to September, 2010.  Accordingly, for about 7000 Self-financed groups will be given training Embroidery, Garments Clothes preparation.  In the first phase an amount of Rs.86.00 Lakhs was spent for four months training to the Instructors in NIFT Institute i.e., 30 Women trained in advanced garment production, 40 Women trained in preparation of Surface Armamentation.  The District Rural Development Agency has procured the necessary machines and tools from East Godavary District with reasonable rates.  The DRDA make efforts through this scheme, 780 members after completion of their training have already been recruited in various Garment Industries and still 680 members are going to be completed within the next couple of months.  Further, DRDA has provided 300 Machines in TTDC and Mahilapranganam, 150 machines in Nellimarla, Garividi, Cheepurupalli and 100 Machines in S.Kota Mandals for the purpose of training the unemployed Women.  The DRDA make necessary arrangements to train the unemployed Women of 300 members in Bobbili Mahilapranganam, Dwakra Bazar, Vizianagaram in Surface Armamentation. (Source: DRDA, Vizianagaram District).

A.P.Housing Board Limited:

          During 2007-2008 under the I.A.Y (Indira Avasa Yojana) Scheme is sanctioned for Rs.1080.75 Lakhs provided to 4,323 Schedule Caste and Scheduled Tribe community peoples have benefitted.  Accordingly, 4,174 dwelling houses have been constructed and completed and an amount of Rs.939.15 has been spent for this purpose in all 34 mandals in Vizianagaram District.

Prime Minister Gram Shadak Yojana Welfare Activities:

          The objective of the scheme is to provide better transportation facilities connecting to National High Way Roads.  Accordingly priority was given for development of road facilities in all the rural areas.  The total road formation works were taken place 203.38 Kms. in this district and an amount of Rs.2867.04 Lakhs have been made being expenditure.

Integrated Waste Land Development Programme (IWDP):

          The IWD Programme was introduced during 1999-2000 with an object to utilize the waste lands for cultivation purpose.  Under this scheme Rs.2670.00 Lakhs has been allocated from 1999 – 2000 to 2006 – 2007 so as to utilize the 48500 Hectares of land spread over all 34 Mandals in Vizianagaram.  Accordingly, an amount of Rs.1640.76 Lakhs (61.45%) was spent for the development of 31416 (64.77%) Hectares of waste land was taken for use of agriculture purpose.

Micro Irrigation Development Programmes:

          As per the policy of A.P., State Government that Electrical Motors/Diesel Engines will be supplied to the farmers with 70% subsidy for the purpose of Drip Irrigation.  Accordingly, Rs.50,000/- to each farmer family is eligible to purchase the water machines.  Where, SC and ST community farmers may be allowed to pay 10% of the loan being their subscription and 20% per cent being margin money will be met by the respective SC/ST Corporation and the rest of money will be provided being loan to each farmer.  Accordingly, 1617 Farmer families are utilizing the above facility for the use of 3154 hectares of land in this district under Micro Irrigation Development programme.

Drinking Water Supply in Rural area under ARSWS Scheme:

          According to DRDA statistical information that out of 2874 villages in  Vizianagaram district drinking water was provided to 1600 (55.67%) villages and the rest of 1274 (44.33%) villages are yet to be provided drinking water.

A.P. NEDCAP:

          The objective of this scheme is to implement and development of Bio-gas Plants and their proper utilization so as to saving the Coal, Petroleum, wood and such other natural resources utilization particularly in rural areas and to protect the health of rural female.  This scheme is meant for low category farmers as well as Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe farmers.  Out of the cost of a Bio-gas plant unit of Rs.9750/-, an amount of Rs.5500/- is given to each farmer being the subsidy and the rest of the amount has to be borne by the farmer being the loan subject to repay the same to the government in an easy instalment basis.  As per the NEDCAP, Vizianagaram 500 units have been provided and Rs.48.75 lakhs was accorded to that extent.  Out of which 27.50 lakhs was given being subsidy and Rs.21.25 lakhs being the share of the individual.

GRAM PANCHAYATS:

          The basic assessment of a nation’s development is depending on Village in all aspects.  Keeping this into consideration, the grants have been released to the Gram Panchayats to meet the developmental activities in the respective villages in Vizianagaram District.  Out of the total grants of Rs.14.35 lakhs released by the Government of India, an amount of Rs.13.06 lakhs (91%) was spent.  Further, an amount of Rs.10.37 lakhs (79.4%) for Sanitation, Rs.2.67 (20.44%) for Drinking Water and Rs.0.02 Lakhs (0.153%) for other purpose was spent.

SARVA SIKSHA ABHIYAN (SSA):

          Rajiv Vidya Mission (SSA) Scheme functioning in this district is to provide necessary facilities to the Schools in Rural and Urban localities so as to attain the national objective that to provide ‘education for all’ as the Constitution slogan  to provide education to all the children upto 14 years.  During Academic Year 2006 -2007, an amount of Rs.1249.99 Lakhs was provided for the construction of 540 additional classrooms.  Out of which 363 classrooms constructed and the expenditure to a tune of Rs.1140.92 lakhs was made and the additional amount of Rs.109.07 lakhs is still needed to meet the construction of remain 177 classrooms.

          During the financial year 2007-2008, an amount of Rs.806.20 lakhs was estimated being the expenditure for the construction of 278 classrooms to provided to the needy schools in rural and urban localities.  Accordingly the Director of Rajiv Vidya Mission, Government of A.P., has accorded to start the execution.  However, 150 classroom constructions was executed with an amount of Rs.297.25 lakhs being grant released and Rs.508.95 lakhs is yet to be released to complete the remaining 128 classrooms construction in respective schools in this district.

          The SSA has also accorded for Rs.7.20 lakhs for providing minimum facilities in urban areas i.e., providing drinking water, 18 constructions of Lavatories etc.  According to SSA 6 Lavotories have been constructed with provision of safety drinking water in 4 schools with a cost of Rs.11.50 lakhs and the rest of 12 lavatories construction is under progress.

          The objective of SSA is to provide ‘Education for All’.  Accordingly to provided education 2617 children between 6 – 8 years age.  The SSA has also spent an amount of Rs.22,00,900/- during 2007-2008 being remuneration paid to the 183 Para Teachers paid at the rate of Rs.1500/- each per month.

          The Home based Education Scheme is also introduced by SSA during 2007-2008 so as to provide education to 288 physically handicapped children at their residence and 20 mandal resource persons are engaged at an amount of Rs.5000/- p.m. being remuneration.

          Similarly, the SSA, Vizianagaram has also provided Rs.44,44,502/- during 2006-2007 for 39 Bridge Courses to be provided to the Child Labour education so as to meet the constitutional objective.

CONCLUSIONS:

According to Subramanian, Narendra (2007) Populist political forces have played significant roles in Indian politics, and have varied in their vision of political community, in the social groups they targeted, in the policies they pursued, and in their impact on democracy. The Indian National Congress had populist aspects in the interwar period and then again under

THE EVOLVING SPIRITUAL PSYCHE

Not to be confused with the dissolvable created psyche, a physical created persona that we call the individual I or self.

Each individual, each family, each tribe, each nation, the whole human race, every form of life-intelligence, has an individual spiritual psyche. That spiritual psyche or essence, also functions as a karmic key-signature within the interactive archetypal spiritual intelligence of primordial Nature processing life. We should understand, that the evolving spiritual psyche of the human being…but not its dissolvable physical created psyche, contains a divine potential to be eternal within Creation. A divine potential that is subject to our continuing spiritual evolution as human beings during life. That is where the equation of ‘evolve or perish’ comes into human affairs in the divine plan of evolution and the spiritual plot of life.

In the spiritual interactive workings of primordial Nature, life functions as individual intelligence being processed and evolved through the ‘cause & effect’ influence of its created karma. Karma, that is a ‘cause & effect’ creative equation out of brain structured species that fuels the activity, direction and expression of life. Karma, that is a perpetuating product (creative influence) that comes out of our human thoughts & desire to create our destiny. Karma, the cause of the continuing physical re-birth cycle of the spiritual essence of the human being & linked to actions & unrequited desires from previous lives. Karma, that enters the spiritual workings of Nature to interact with its primordial archetypal intelligence orchestrating life. Therefore, orchestrating the biology of life, orchestrating the human mind and body, orchestrating the genetic structure & chemistry of life, orchestrating the evolution of life. Comprehend all the branches of brain structured life, have a interactive common denominator in the archetypal primordial intelligence of Nature that underwrites it and processes its individual karma for the purpose of evolution & survival.

This spiritual knowledge of Nature, is what is missing in our existing incomplete physical understanding of life, ourselves and Nature. That is why those indiscriminately experimenting on Creation and its components, can be said to be spiritually blind and divorced from Nature with their science creativity. Because in blindly re-arranging and meddling with life and the atom, incomplete Science is unknowingly usurping Laws that underwrite ‘order out of chaos’ in life and Creation. That means Science, is creating and accumulating a ‘cause & effect’ karmic influence that interferes with the self-referral function of spiritual Laws of Nature. Laws that are processing the spiritual and physical evolution of life through its created karma. Self-referral laws (energies) that are processing ‘order out of chaos’ in the primordial archetypal spiritual intelligence that underwrites life. Laws that are the divinely structured & orchestrated Government of the spiritual archetypal intelligence of impersonal Primordial Nature.

When the negative karmic influence out of our human creativity reaches ‘critical mass’ in primordial Nature’s workings, its devolution influence will trigger the status quo intelligence of this Creation to manifest and restore the human disturbed equilibrium & divine function of Nature and its Laws. In that automatic status quo authored process of the restoration of evolution, life starts again. As it has in the past on this Planet when the duel physical & spiritual evolution of life has stagnated. But obviously not through our human cause & effect, as our species had yet to come into existence. But this pending avoidable cataclysmic restoration of evolution, will definitely be down to our human species and its accumulating ‘got it wrong’ creativity causing the devolution problem. A human created karmic problem that has stagnated the spiritual evolution of our species as a ‘cause & effect result.

To dissolve that mankind created devolution problem and evolve further with our spiritual evolution, we need to acquire the spiritual means to dissolve its karmic influence and stay in sync with the spiritual intelligence that underwrites life. We need to come out of our existing primordial structure of physical consciousness and acquire a spiritual one. We need to comprehend that all life is being processed for the purpose of evolution by higher intelligence of greater magnitude than human intelligence. We need to acquire that spiritual consciousness and operate intuitively out of its universal intelligence with our creativity & karma as human beings. We can identify that higher intelligence as the ‘Cosmic Mind’, the progenitor of physical Creation and life. A divine intelligence that is the active spiritual intelligence of the uninvolved Creator. We could also call that composite divine intelligence, the Cosmic Spirit, or the Holy Spirit in religious terminology. That is authored and underwritten by transcendent abstract Absolute Intelligence, the intrinsic manifested substance of Creation and that Religion has called God.

Comprehend spiritual intelligence and absolute intelligence are eternal intelligence. Unlike biological human intelligence and its obvious physical dissolvable limitations. A logic that some very intelligent human beings, are going to have to come to grips with in our current hotchpotch make it up as you go along understanding of Creation. Because existing Science, for all its acquired physical knowledge, has not got a clue as to what makes life and Creation tick. Therefore, they do understand what not to do with their gifted human intelligence in the life re-arranging laboratory. Or that ten billion dollar plus atom trashing machine in the ‘got it wrong’ scientific quest to find the God particle. Because God is not a physical particle, but a transcendent intelligence that seeds creation and all that is in it. That seeds all the different strata (dimensions) of Creation of which ‘physical creation’ is but a part of its interactive whole. Creation, that was definitely not created to be trashed by the human being, in the ego sourced delusion of creating scientific progress and conquering new frontiers.

Governments also come in for special mention in this spiritless department. They also have no intuitive connection to the spiritual Laws of Nature in their activity, legislation and governance, only the human ego and the created ideology of Big Corporate Money Making Business. That, under the glorious banner of the unstoppable Global Economy, is destroying the future of this Civilization with unconscionable greed. Because money and what it buys, has become the all-consuming holy grail of our got it wrong Civilization. In that human authored delusion, we are blindly polluting everything on this living Planet out of human conceit and irreverence for life and calling it progress. A greed propelled progress that the powerless majority have no say in. Only the gifted few creating and fuelling those realities we all have to live have the say in that progress. Because they are creating it…but without an Upstairs issued licence.

This delusion we are calling progress, is unknowingly stagnating our spiritual evolution and destroying the future of our Civilization out of unchecked greed, overpopulation and synthetic toxic pollution. It is a devolution progress fuelled by influence we have no comprehension of in our existing structure of ego consciousness. Paradoxically, those who are creating & contributing to its growing influence, are made blind by its karmic influence. It is contagious influence that instigates irrational all-consuming behaviour in our species. It is a euphoric karmic influence that drives greed and a insatiable ego authored desire to conquer and acquire power. It is a human created accumulating devolution karmic influence, that instigates spiritual self-destruction and terminates the evolution of the spiritual psyche of the human being.

Manuscript (6)

SCIENCE – WHATS THIS?

(I times D) plus the square root of (M) times (LN plus CM) equals H.`

Clue – each letter represents a word.

Warning for the problem-solver: The content contains a spoiler to the equation.

Its product (H) is the logic out of a word equation sourced to spirituality, not a number equation sourced to physical mathematics. Yet, it could be equally expressed by mathematical logic. Thus the logic to be found in words, is the same logic to be found in a math’s equation –merely expressed differently from different locations in the human brain.

Pure logic, can also be expressed through harmonious uplifting musical notation, art and architecture when linked to a positive psyche. That coherence of expression out of positive human creativity, is the subtle appeal of the Masters works to the physical senses of perception of their audience. Thus as pure logic transposed through human creative expression, its expression is appealing to the mind of human beings in all its many diverse expressions, including mathematics. Expressions of creativity that all originate from the source of thought and its reflection as an impulse of creative intelligence emanating from the spiritual source of life and the absolute intelligence that seeds it.

It could be said that pure logic (perfect coherence), is a reflection of the ‘order out of chaos’ function of the self-referral Laws of Nature. Spiritual laws that are the government of the negative & positive primordial archetypal intelligence that underwrites the biology & expression of life. Coherence of expression and creativity that should come naturally to a human being, when its conscious thought process is intuitively connected to those self-referral spiritual Laws through the unconscious mind…the spiritual psyche of the human being. When the human mind goes out of sync with Nature, then conscious thought & creativity has no anchor to those intuitive self-referral spiritual laws structuring order out of chaos & coherence in life. In that karmic sourced debilitation of thought, the mind loses the natural ability to intuitively know what is supportive of Life & Nature and what is not supportive of Life & Nature. In its place comes delusion, denial, negative structured creativity & logic and the inability to understand right from wrong. Therefore what compliments the individual, society, life, nature and evolution and what does not compliment the individual, society, life, Nature and evolution.

For example, the negative structured logic of…

The self-destructive suicide bomber and fanatical terrorist.

Those decimating the atom to see what makes it tick.

Those creating and selling weapons of mass destruction.

Those indiscriminately re-arranging life in the science laboratory.

Those saturating life with synthetic chemical pills and toxic pollution.

Those governments selling off publicly owned infrastructure to generate immense wealth for the few and fuel greed & inequality in Society.

Those allowing all-consuming Global Big Business to dominate, own and trash the World to fuel the global economy and unconscionable greed.

Those allowing trans-national Corporations to buy and own another Nations resources to generate money and immense wealth for those with a piece of the action.

Those saturating Society with mankind’s pathological behaviour and calling it entertainment, art and freedom of expression.

All the above human created realities (ideologies), are being driven by human logic & reason that has no connection to the coherent value of the self-referral Laws of Nature. Because the not understood common denominator of those human lived ideologies, is that they are all self-destructive to life and Nature and the spiritual purpose of evolution. Yet, not seen as being destructive by those in the driving seat of those human created ideologies. Comprehend when divorced from the spiritual roots of life with our human thought and creativity, we become blind to the consequences of our human actions. In that karmic sourced debilitation, we delude ourselves with our misplaced logic & reason and therefore in what we are calling progress. When trapped in that human created delusion, megalomania, narcissism, self-aggrandizement, greed & acquisition go into overdrive in Society. Activity that is illogically called success, accomplishment and progress on a level playing field.

The human created cause of the delusion:

When the negative archetypal intelligence of primordial Nature gains dominance in the collective consciousness of a Civilization, then abuse of power, ruthlessness, manipulation, exploitation, corruption, degradation of sexuality, crudeness, loss of dignified expression, irrational behaviour, intolerance, belligerence towards law & order, a couldn’t care less attitude towards social responsibility, lack of manners, dignity and respect for others, growing behavioural & psychological disorder and a do what you like anything goes mentality flourishes in Society. Sanctified under a very abused freedom-of-expression edict with a no morals code tagged on for good measure in our Media liberated Civilization. All those human created devolution karmic influences, become dominant in a dysfunctional Civilization divorced from its spiritual roots. A karmic sourced debilitation, that prevents the self-referral function of the Laws of Nature to maintain ‘order out of chaos’ in our human logic, reason, expression, creativity and consciousness…and therefore in what we are calling progress.

Clarification: When our human consciousness becomes lost from the coherent value of the Laws of Nature, harmony and positive life supporting values go out the back door in human Society. Negativity, disunity, ambivalence, depression, psychological disorder, social disorder, health disorder and dissent become dominant, especially in the born disadvantaged of Nations. Violent self-destructive illogical behaviour gains ascendancy in Society and it begins to unknowingly self-destruct with its social & spiritual evolution. This growing unrealised entropy in our Civilization, is directly linked to what we are calling progress and the greed, corruption & negative logic that is propelling it. It is time to understand what has caused this Civilization to become self-destructive without realising it. Because there is no escaping the invisible karmic influence behind it, its contagious influence unconsciously debilitates everyone trapped in the primordial structure of ego consciousness. It is a human created devolution influence, that prevents us clearly realising or agreeing on the destructive damage we are unwittingly inflicting on this planet out of our so-called progress.

The evolve or perish bottom line.

It is time to dissolve this delusion we are calling progress and create a coherent unified harmonious world in the process. The first step, is to incorporate the twice daily practice of transcendental meditation into our daily routine and acquire some humility for a change…and not Darth‘s brownie points out of worshiping ourselves for our material accomplishments and so-called progress. The solutions to all our human created problems will come to us if we do just that…as well as acquiring some Upstairs brownie points to replace those Darth acquired brownie points for a change. It is that simple a solution to dissolving the contagious delusion we are calling progress and have become lost in as a global civilization. Because progress divorced from the spiritual roots of life in its material content, is progress divorced from the spiritual Laws of Nature structuring order out of chaos in Creation.

The spoiler: Individuality times diversity plus the square root of the mass times the Laws of Nature plus collective meditation in Society, equals automatic coherence in our human consciousness. Therefore the means to evolve further with our spiritual evolution and collect our harp at the end of the human day with our progress…also known as Heaven in Upstairs circles.

Manuscript (7)

BULLSEYE TIME

About the unknown spiritual system of Nature that underwrites life and about the unknown ‘cause & effect’ our human creativity has on its negative and positive primordial archetypal intelligence. A report to the Boot Camp detention room memo for all those in the driving seat of progress. Location www.alfsworldgripes.com and don’t forget to put the ego into neutral and bring your ear plugs?

E.coli the human terminating bug?

Nipah the human terminating bug?

Mad Cows Disease the human terminating bug?

Plus, a lot of other human terminating malignant disorders percolating in the interacting primordial archetypal intelligence of Nature that physical life and its biology has manifested out of.

Was it a Monkey?

Was it a Pig?

Was it a Rat?

Was it a Mouse?

Was it a Bat?

Was it a Sheep?

Was it a Cow?

Q: Was it related to the exploitation and mistreatment of animals and disrespect for Nature & Life by ‘got it wrong’ powerful human beings?

A: BULLSEYE.

Because what quality of karmic influence comes out of human thoughts, creativity, deeds and actions, enters the interactive spiritual workings of primordial Nature that underwrites & orchestrates the biology & chemistry of life. When it is accumulating negative destructive not life-supportive karmic influence, then impersonal primordial Nature responds out of its automatic dictum of ‘as we sow so do we reap’ with our human creativity in its physical & spiritual workings. By cranking up its negative archetypal intelligence to dissolve the dysfunctional species responsible. Aids is classic example, as are all sexually transmitted diseases. Diseases created & triggered out of the wrong sexual activity of our ‘got it wrong’ human species.

Comprehend we have not solved the cause of Aids with viral drugs either. Its terminating bug has merely gone into hibernation from those chemical synthesized drugs and is invisibly re-grouping and re-creating itself. Because we have not dissolved the perpetuating human created ‘cause & effect’ destructive karmic influence that created its malfunction in Nature’s archetypal intelligence. We have only arrested its manifested physical aberration with those synthetic drugs, not dissolved its quantum located karmic cause. In fact, we have become even more conceited in our ‘do what you like’ sexual & procreation re-arranging scientific laboratory affairs. Especially in the cloning, genetic reconstruction, life re-arranging, test tube meddling, harvesting of eggs & sperm & IVF departments of incomplete science. We must understand that existing incomplete Science, is not infallible or invincible in the intelligence that underwrites life.

That Science means well and has done much for mankind is not in contention, But, it only has half the information of life up on the blackboard…the physical part, not the spiritual part that underwrites it. Yes, medical Science has and can create miracles with its acquired physical knowledge & dedication but, it is doing so with a blindfold on. It is time to remove that blindfold before creating anymore miracles. Because some of those laboratory created miracles, are short term gain for long term loss not only for the human species, but all of life.

Comprehend that mankind is co-creator in this physical Creation. We are also King of the animal kingdom on the ladder of evolution with our human intelligence, conscious freewill and creativity. That human power, is a humungous responsibility in the primordial workings of Nature and the Laws that underwrite ‘order out of chaos’ in its interactive domain. That human power, is a double edged sword in the ‘as we sow so do we reap’ primordial workings of Nature & evolution. That human power, can turn into the sword of Damocles when we abuse it and degrade Creation & Life with our human creativity…especially in the sexual & procreation department.

Comprehend when we lose intuitive spiritual connection with the Laws of Nature with our human consciousness, we go off the rails of spiritual evolution and into devolution self-destruct mode with our logic and creativity. In boot camp terminology, we stuff up the system of life & evolution and create disorder & chaos in the spiritual intelligence that underwrites it.

Comprehend all disorder in Nature, is created by the human being and the human being alone. Thus are terminating life-destroying bugs, created from the destructive ‘cause & effect’ influence out of our total lack of respect for life and the thoughtless subjugation and exploitation of animals in particular. e.g. unnatural farming practices and indiscriminate blind experimentation on animals in the divorced from Nature science laboratory?

Q: Are we in big trouble on this living evolving Planet through human conceit & spiritual ignorance and no understanding of what makes life tick in all departments…including the mind.

A: You bet your boot camp boots we are.

Comprehend we cannot abuse, exploit, subjugate, degrade, change, re-arrange and experiment blindly on life, under the human ego dictum of creating scientific progress and conquering new frontiers. We are the personification of delusion and conceit, when we go around doing what we like on this living Planet in the name of progress. When we go around denying the existence of intelligence greater than our own dissolvable intelligence, we are denying the glaringly obvious. Because where has everything come from, if not from intelligence greater than our dissolvable human intelligence.

Comprehend when we go around denying the logic that ‘nothing comes from nothing’, we are the personification of delusion. We are now in big devolution trouble with our spiritual evolution out of its human ego sourced delusion and the Bard, had nothing to do with it. He knew what he was talking about, unlike most in the top end of town blindly creating our progress as well as our destiny. Thus there are more things not only inside, but also outside of heaven and earth than ever dreamed of in our existing human created understanding of life.

Serious boot camp stuff. Comprehend it is chaos that we are currently creating on this Planet out of our so-called progress. Comprehend that we cannot overpopulate this Planet as a species without self-destructing. It has finite resources that are not renewable, resources that we are re-synthesizing & gobbling up at an ever accelerating rate of consumption. A progress sourced to greed and ‘got it wrong’ human beings in the driving seat of that all-consuming greed. We must stop blindly polluting Nature with synthetic toxic pollution and indiscriminately re-arranging and experimenting on everything, with out understanding where that everything has come from.

Clarification: If we do not come out of our human immaturity and start understanding, respecting and working with the intelligence that created Life, then there is no future for our human species and a lot of other species on this shared Planet. In boot camp detention room terminology, we will self-destruct as a dysfunctional species and go out the back door of Creation. It is time to acquire the spiritual knowledge and means to avoid that human created dead-end destiny, because human beings create their destiny on the ladder of spiritual evolution, not God.

Manuscript (8)

QUESTIONNAIRE TIME

Compiled by Alf and completed by Stephen for other learned men (and women).

Please fill your own in and post it back here.

Part (1)

About contagious adult acquired unproductive habits in our children.

Are, smoking cigarettes & pot, taking chemical pills & sniffing grot and being lost in thrills & kicks as well as mental fits and blips from other promo saturated movie, television, entertainment copied behaviour in Society, predominant in the 70% of the 100% of young age groups due to the following…

1) Unable to read the ‘for adult entertainment and adult use only’ directions on advertisements, promo’s, glossy magazines, billboards, junk mail, CD & DVD covers, computer games, bongs, beverages, bottles, fast food wrappers and fizzy drink cans. Yes/No?

2) Too much pocket money to spend on the above and other must have status techno goodies with all mod cons and trendy twiddly bits. Yes/No?

3) Not enough school excursions to Hollywood and visits to Disneyland, Parliament House & Commercial Television Stations to dance with the stars. Yes/No?

4) Unable to express themselves any other way, but through copying script-writer & marketing genius instructed celebrities, film stars, sports stars, rock & roll stars and all the other human created stars that litter the communication highways…but not the heavens. Yes/No?

5) Too much adult pressure exerted on them to achieve and be crowned a winner and therefore a easily recognized up-market successful citizen in Society. Yes/No?

6) You have to be top at everything at School, or you do not receive enough brownie points and accolades to climb up the childhood ladder and claim lasting happiness and the jet setting money making top end of town created adult good life. Yes/No?

7) Poor home/social/education/communication environment, lack of mature parental love, good adult example, positive interaction and nurturing within childhood. Yes/No?

8).Unable to reach 21 fast enough to escape childhood for ever and become a successful commercial media, entertainment & product educated adult and a corresponding media accredited winner in Society to create news & closet information out of. Yes/No?

9) Cannot stop habitually worrying about all the above negatives. That have somehow been miraculously re-created into positives to acquire self-esteem and status recognition in Society. Yes/No?

10) Placating their acquired feelings of inadequacy, emptiness and unhappiness at not being able to measure up to media, education & adult expectations. Expectations coming out of a top end of town created playing field that does not understand the born disadvantaged players in the bottom end of town one little bit. Yes/No?

11) Unhappiness compounded by being written-off as losers and left behind in a top end of town created success/winning/product consumed/human worshiping Society on the script-writer & marketing genius deluded blink. Yes/No?

Q: Does the last statement, mean that Alf is advocating doom & gloom in the departure lounge for script-writers, marketing geniuses and the born gifted high achievers and so-called successful in life?

A: No, but Upstairs is. Because the gifted top end of town, have created a playing field for creating unhappiness and inequality in those who cannot possibly compete or keep up with them. Who were not born with the concentrated archetypal intelligence in their physiology that powers the activity, desires, intelligence, motivation and self-esteem of the successful top end of town. Who become lost, used, exploited, manipulated and psychologically damaged in ego & material driven ideologies to acquire self-esteem. Ideologies (created realities) that have no lasting spiritual foundation…only dissolvable material foundation to underwrite that all-important self-esteem.

So no, Alf is not recommending purgatory for the born gifted & successful in Society, but a trip to Boot Camp to acquire the Upstairs means to dissolve their delusion, earn their harp by helping others less fortunate and thus avoid purgatory in the finger pointing departure lounge. At the moment, no one is ever going to collect their harp. Least of all those in the driving seat of progress. Because the media acclaimed gifted & successful winning minority, are leading the unsuccessful losing majority in the wrong direction with their born mandate to create & direct progress. A material progress that has become lost from the spiritual roots of life and the coherent value of the Laws of Nature. That should underwrite progress…and not the ego, greed, pollution, big bucks, worshiping winners & material values and creating inequality & unhappiness in Society.

Part (2)

Are the majority of adult personality disorders, bad habits (subliminal thought patterns) and growing depression & unhappiness in Society due to the following….

1) Unable to understand Sigmund Freud and contemporaries. Yes/No.

2) Unable to find a dictionary to translate the make it up as you go along technical terminology used by the above. Affectionately called psycho babble in the bottom end of town on the receiving end. Yes/No.

3) Watching too many baddies and not enough goodies on the television and movies in childhood. Yes/No?

4) Pursuing unrealistic childhood dreams recommended by the cough, mutter and splutter successful top end of town. Yes/No?

5) Unable to acquire a piece of the 24/7 media relayed top end of town winning action and therefore, the big bucks, adulation and worshiped status that go with it. Yes/No?

4) The psychological residue from an unhappy desire frustrated inadequate childhood. Made worse by the media bombarded negatives that have been created into eulogised positives to acquire self-esteem & happiness. As listed in parts 1 & 2 of the Questionnaire. Yes/No?

Wow! this will cause an uproar and loss of earnings in the top end of town. It cannot be as simple as unhappiness at the root of the growing social devolution problem. Created from a decaying chaotic Civilization, that has fallen off the rails of spiritual evolution and is in self-destruct mode with its material & technological all-consuming progress. After all, we have all our books, expensive clinics, expert advice in glossy magazines and advertisements to prove otherwise. Even though we, the psychology profession & errant marketing geniuses, have not solved the unhappiness problem in Society yet, we are certainly making a good living. So keep coming, reading, buying products, taking pills, watching promo’s and dancing with the stars. We will save you from finger pointing St Peter in the departure lounge’…if you have money that is.

Signed complaint from 70% of the 100% to ?% of the 30% of the 100%. Its aint working, at least not according to the tea lady where I work. Plus, we aint got the money –youse got it all up your end of town.

 Endorsed by Stephen Gripes on behalf of Upstairs for those left behind downstairs.

This concludes manuscripts 5,6,7 & 8..

 To be continued….

It wasn’t that long ago when nutritional factors were regarded as being unrelated to fertility. We now know that body weight, location of body fat stores, usual diet, and supplement use all influence fertility. It used to be thought that the fetus was a parasite, extracting from the mother whatever nutrients it needed for growth and development regardless of the mother’s diet. (Some people still believe this is true today.) It is now commonly accepted that the fetus is not a parasite; it does not benefit while harming the mother. The nourishment of the fetus depends on the supply of nutrients from the mother’s diet and her nutrient stores. In order to ensure survival of the species, it is the mother who gets primary access to most nutrients if nutrient supply is low. A healthy mother can reproduce again.

In the past, women were said to have maternal instincts that would direct them to select and consume nutritious foods during pregnancy. This notion is as valid as the ancient Roman belief that if you wanted a child with dark eyes you should eat mice often. Other common ideas such as the recommendation that all women should take multivitamins and mineral supplements, restrict their salt intake, and diet to keep their weight low in pregnancy are no longer supported.

New information about nutrition and fertility, pregnancy, and infant feeding emerges constantly, and it is difficult for health care providers to stay current on all the advances. Unfortunately, many providers are not up-to-date on the low-tech, nondrug nutritional improvements that could benefit the women they serve.

Much of the earlier advice given to women about nutrition and reproduction was insufficiently supported by scientific research and heavily biased by unproven assumptions. As knowledge expands, so should the specific recommendations given to women about nutrition. Some advances in nutrition information slowly seep into health care; others seem to be kept secret. A number of nutritional measures can be undertaken to enhance the chances of conception for many women. It is also clear that a growing and developing fetus is vulnerable to the influence of energy and nutrients it receives from the mother, and that excessive vitamins and minerals from supplements may be as hazardous to fetal well-being as deficient amounts. It is now known that a woman’s intake of certain vitamins, such as folate, vitamin A, and vitamin D, very early in pregnancy can be related to the development of certain malformations in the baby. How much weight women gain in pregnancy, and the timing of the gain, have important effects on the risk of preterm delivery and the size and health status of infants at birth.One of the most striking advances in research concerns maternal nutrition and the subsequent risk of certain chronic diseases. It appears that a predisposition for heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and a number of other diseases and disorders may be “programmed” by inadequate supplies of energy or nutrients during pregnancy and early infancy. A large body of evidence indicates that newborns with optimal growth may be at lower risk for developing these health problems later in life.Well-nourished women are also less likely to experience miscarriages, or to develop iron deficiency, suffer constipation or fatigue, and other common problems of pregnancy. Babies born to well-nourished women are more likely to be born in robust health, to feed vigorously, to grow optimally, and to be alert and responsive. Although there is much more to be learned about the effects of nutrition on fetal growth, development, and subsequent health, the influence of maternal nutrition is being recognized, and the advantages of optimal nutrition are more extensive than previously imagined.One of the best things about nutrition is that the risks associated with poor eating habits can often be eliminated by fixing the weak link in nutritional health. It may be as simple as consuming more of your favorite fruits and vegetables, eating a breakfast cereal fortified with folic acid, or taking a low-dose iron supplement. By drawing up a pre pregnancy diet plan these steps can easily be followed. Some steps may be more difficult, such as gaining weight or cutting down on some of your favorite junk foods. But these gifts you give to your unborn baby will benefit you as well. Your reward may be a perfectly timed conception, higher energy levels during pregnancy, less intense side effects of pregnancy (such as nausea and vomiting, constipation, and heartburn), or a fully grown and developed newborn that is easy to care for.Despite the best efforts, not everyone who wants to become pregnant will, and not all pregnancies will end in healthy newborns. Although it is very important, nutrition is not the only factor that influences fertility or pregnancy. Problems arise due to a myriad of factors that can be identified but not always remedied. In addition, there are probably hundreds of causes of infertility and pregnancy problems that have yet to be identified. These many unknowns make it impossible to chart a course that guarantees conception and a healthy newborn. With so many mysteries, blaming oneself for problems of uncertain origin is unreasonable and should be resisted with all the strength the spirit can muster. Keeping this in mind, the best course to chart is one that is within your control.