Publications & Resources
Our faculty, students and researchers work together everyday to contribute to a better world by grappling with urgent problems we are facing in India. We conduct rigorous work to produce high quality learning resources and publications to contribute to public discourse and social change. Here, we feature a sample from our work for everyone to access. You can explore featured resources, policies, and the latest publications from the University.
To explore all the work of our University, please visit our publications repository.
University Working Paper Series
An intervention into the debates on ‘work-in-education’ and skill development in India
in Azim Premji University
- Published
- Authors
Abstract
The paper analyses the debates surrounding ‘work’ as part, or as an outcome, of school education in India and argues that these have not reckoned adequately the socioeconomic reality of the corresponding times. The outcome of education depends on ideas and resources shaping its provisioning, and the use by the people. Colonial rulers provided a liberal schooling which did not aim at ‘schooling for all’ or imparting skills as part of schooling. Such an education was attractive to those children who were not working in agriculture or artisanal occupations for their livelihood or who belonged to a ‘rentier’ class. The lower opportunity cost of time for these children and the probability of getting a job in the colonial administration enabled this small section of society to opt for such a liberal schooling. It is in this context that Gandhi wanted to use work (or agricultural and artisanal skills) as a pedagogical tool for education. However, the majority of children who were bound to do such work then did not view formal schooling, which aimed at imparting these ‘skills’, attractive.
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University Working Paper Series
What we ate then and what we eat now : a grandmother’s tale
in Azim Premji University
- Published
- Authors
Abstract
Malnutrition levels in India remain a major public health challenge. According to the fourth round of the District Level Household Survey (DLHS‑4, 2012 – 13), almost 30 percent of all children under the age of 5 are underweight in most states. This is a serious cause for concern for several reasons: low weight-for-age has been associated with a range of disadvantages, including a higher risk of dying due to several disease conditions among young children; changes in the autonomic nervous system; higher risk of hypertension and insulinresistance in adulthood; adverse impacts on brain development, cognitive ability and school achievement; and behavioural problems such as anxiety and hostility later in life.
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University Working Paper Series
Social and Environmental Transformation in the Indian Peri-Urban Interface – Emerging Questions
in Azim Premji University
- Published
- Authors
Abstract
Urban spaces emerging as nodes and drivers of global capital are recognized as centres of economic growth; while the rest of the geography is consigned to the residual category commonly referred to as ‘rural’. Diversity and increasing numbers of urban centres do not seem to alter this dichotomous perception of urban-rural landscapes and this dichotomy extends to policies and institutions. Nevertheless, the diversity in expansion and extraction pattern of the urban core is reflected in the way it transforms and interacts with its peripheries, fostering types of interfaces that depict urban and rural characteristics and processes to various extents.
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