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Heiliger Rausch, berauschte Heilige
No full textDie Hymne RV 10.136 beschreibt die Fähigkeiten und Attribute des Muni, eines religiösen Experten der vedischen Zeit, der durch die Kenntnis verschiedener ritueller Praktiken einen veränderten Bewusstseinszustand bei sich herbeiführen konnte. Durch eine Analyse einzelner Aspekte der Hymne zeigt der Autor, dass die auf diese Weise vom Muni erreichten und bewusst verursachten rauschhaften Zustände in der vedischen Kultur der Sphäre des Übernatürlichen und des Heiligen zugeordnet wurden
Right to Work? Assessing India's Employment Guarantee Scheme in Bihar
No full textIndia’s 2005 National Rural Employment Guarantee Act creates a justiciable 'right to work' by promising up to 100 days of wage employment per year to all rural households whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. Work is provided in public works projects at the stipulated minimum wage. This study asks: Are the conditions stipulated by the Act met in practice? How much impact on poverty do the earnings from the scheme have? Why might that impact fall short of its potential? How can the scheme bridge that gap? The bulk of the study focuses on the scheme’s performance in one of India’s poorest states, Bihar, where one would hope that a scheme such as this would help reduce poverty. The study finds that the scheme is falling well short of its potential impact on poverty in Bihar. Analysis of the study’s survey data points to a number of reasons. Workers are not getting all the work they want, and they are not getting the full wages due. And participation in the scheme is far from costless to them. Many report that they had to give up some other income-earning activity when they took up work. The unmet demand for work is the single most important policy-relevant factor in accounting for the gap between actual performance and the scheme’s potential impact on poverty. The study finds that there is very low public awareness of what needs to be done to obtain work. The study uses a randomized control trial of an awareness intervention—a specially designed fictional movie—to show how knowledge of rights and processes can be enhanced, as a key step toward better performance. While the movie was effective in raising awareness, it had little discernible effect on actions such as seeking employment when needed. This suggests that supply-side constraints must also be addressed, in addition to raising public awareness. A number of specific supply-side constraints to work provision are identified, including poor implementation capacity, weak financial management and monitoring systems
Pakistan Country Opinion Survey Report (July 2012 - June 2013)
No full textThe Country Opinion Survey for FY2012 in Pakistan assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Pakistan perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Pakistan on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Pakistan; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Pakistan; 3) overall impressions of the WBG s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Pakistan; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG s future role in Pakistan
Climate Change, Groundwater Salinization and Road Maintenance Costs in Coastal Bangladesh
No full textThe potentially-adverse impact of salinity on paved roads is well-established in the engineering literature. The problem seems destined to grow, as climate-related changes in sea level and riverine flows drive future increases in groundwater salinity. However, data scarcity has prevented systematic analysis for poor countries. This paper assesses the impact of groundwater salinity on road maintenance expenditures in the coastal region of Bangladesh. The assessment draws on new panel measures of salinity from 41 stations in coastal Bangladesh, and road maintenance expenditures, income, road network length, and road surfaces from 20 coastal municipalities. In a model relating maintenance expenditure for paved roads to groundwater salinity, municipal income, and road network length, large and significant effects are found for salinity. The regression model is used to predict the effect of within-sample salinity variation on road maintenance expenditure share, holding municipal income and road length constant at sample mean values. Increasing salinity from its sample minimum to its sample maximum increases the predicted road maintenance expenditure share by 252 percent. The implied welfare impact may also be substantial, particularly for poor households, if diversion of expenditures to road maintenance reduces support for community sanitation, health, and other infrastructure related programs
What is South Asian Knowledge Good For?
No full textThis paper is the text of a lecture delivered in Heidelberg as part of a festive celebration in the Alte Aula on May 8, 2012 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the South Asia Institute. Exploring the dichotomy between knowledge about South Asians produced in the Western university and knowledge produced by South Asians in history, it goes on to argue for the importance of the latter to human well-being no less than to true education. Additionally, it provides an outline of the development of South Asian studies in the US in order to point up the distinctiveness of the South Asia Institute
Does Involvement of Local NGOs Enhance Public Service Delivery? Cautionary Evidence from a Malaria-Prevention Evaluation in India
No full textUsing data from an experimental supportive intervention to India's malaria control program, this paper studies the impact of leveraging local non-state capacity to promote mosquito net usage and recommended fever care-seeking patterns. The supportive activities were conducted simultaneously by three nongovernmental organizations in two endemic districts in the state of Orissa. The study finds that program impact varied significantly by location. Examining three potential sources of this variation (differential population characteristics, differential health worker characteristics, and differential implementer characteristics), the analysis provides evidence that both population and nongovernmental organization characteristics significantly affected the success of the program. The paper discusses these findings as they relate to the external validity of development policy evaluations and, specifically, for the ability of the health system to benefit from limited non-state capacity in under-resourced areas
Universal Health Coverage for Inclusive and Sustainable Development: Country Summary Report for Bangladesh
No full textBangladesh is a low-income country with gross national income of $1,940 per capita in purchasing power parity (PPP) in 2011. It has made great strides in economic and social development outcomes, particularly in health, and is on track to achieving most of the health-related Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets. Under-five mortality has been cut by half in the last decade (to 46 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2011). It has also strongly invested in and promoted family planning programs since the 1950s. Fertility rates have fallen sharply to 2.2 births per woman in 2011. But despite this drop, its population is projected to grow to 202 million by 2050 (Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat 2013). About one-third of the population is still poor. Bangladesh spends about 3.8 percent of GDP on health, while public spending accounts for one-third of total health expenditures (THE). Out-of-pocket (OOP) spending constitutes about 60 percent of THE, with evident implications for financial protection, especially among the worse off. The country faces multiple challenges in improving efficiency and quality across health, human resources for health (HRH) being a key bottleneck at all levels. However, it provides an example of a country that is in the initial phases of exploring mechanisms to improve health services coverage and financial protection to its population, with a commitment to achieving universal health coverage (UHC) by 2032, and one that has innovative approaches to addressing key health care issues, including equity and citizen engagement
Private School Participation in Pakistan
No full textPrivate schooling is an important feature of the educational landscape in Pakistan and is increasingly a topic of public and government discourse. This study uses multiple rounds of national household sample surveys to examine the extent and nature of private school participation at the primary and secondary levels in Pakistan. Today, one-fifth of children -- or one-third of all students -- go to private school in Pakistan. Private school students tend to come from urban, wealthier, and more educated households than do government school students and especially out-of-school children. Important differences exist across Pakistan s four provinces with respect to the characteristics of private school students relative to government school students, as well as in the composition of private school students. Private schooling is highly concentrated, with a few districts (situated mainly in northern Punjab province) accounting for most of the private school students. Private school participation among children varies largely from one household to another, rather than within households, and to a greater extent than does government school participation. The spatial patterns of private school supply are often strongly correlated with the spatial patterns of private school participation. In the 2000s, private school participation rates grew in Punjab, Sindh, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces and across socioeconomic subgroups, contributing in particular to the growth in overall school participation rates for boys, children from urban households, and children from households in the highest wealth quintile. Nevertheless, the composition of private school students has become less unequal over time. This trend has been driven mainly by Punjab province, which has seen declines in the shares of private school students from urban households and households in the highest wealth quintile
The Education Resilience of Out-of-school Children in Bhutan: A Methodology and Pilot Study
No full textAccessibility and quality of education is a much-debated issue today. In Bhutan this is especially a concern for the population scattered across the extreme mountainous terrain of the country. Difficult access and spatial isolation leads to an unequal distribution of the quality services in Bhutan. It is also an issue for children in urban communities despite the easy access to schools. Poverty and disability hold children back from enrolling in and completing school. Hence, the education resilience in these vulnerable communities can differ accordingly even despite the fact that the government provides free basic education in Bhutan. We define resilience as the ability of students, education institutions, and communities to achieve positive education outcomes in spite of adversities, such as the marginalization, isolation and poverty that exist in pockets in Bhutan. This report presents the results of our pilot study. We consulted with education policy makers and implementers at the national level, and communities, parents and children themselves at the local level, to conduct an in-depth analysis of the risks and the assets (strengths, opportunities and resources), that exist in schools, homes and in communities. Accordingly, recommendations are also made in this report with a view towards filling the gaps and enhancing the relevance of education policies and programs based on the evidence collected from the field during the study
Infrastructure Gap in South Asia: Infrastructure Needs, Prioritization, and Financing
No full textIf the South Asia region hopes to meet its development goals and not risk slowing down or even halting growth, poverty alleviation, and shared prosperity, it is essential to make closing its huge infrastructure gap a priority. Identifying and addressing gaps in the data on expenditure, access, and quality are crucial to ensuring that governments make efficient, practical, and effective infrastructure development choices. This study addresses this knowledge gap by focusing on the current status of infrastructure sectors and geographical disparities, real levels of investment and private sector participation, deficits and proper targets for the future, and bottlenecks to expansion. The findings show that the South Asia region needs to invest between US2.5 trillion (at current prices) to close its infrastructure gap. If investments are spread evenly over the years until 2020, the region needs to invest between 6.6 and 9.9 percent of 2010 gross domestic product per year, an estimated increase of up to 3 percentage points from the 6.9 percent of gross domestic product invested in infrastructure by countries in the region in 2009. Given the enormous size of the region's infrastructure deficiencies, it will need a mix of investment in infrastructure stock and supportive reforms to close its infrastructure gap. One major challenge will be prioritizing investment needs. Another will be choosing optimal forms of service provision, including the private sector's role, and the decentralization of administrative functions and powers