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The Hindu
4 days ago
- Science
- The Hindu
Access to non-farm business and irrigation significantly reduces climate change-induced rural migration, says IIT Madras study
Researchers from the Statistical Department of IIT Madras have studied data from the India Human Development Survey (IDHS) and found that access to non-farm business and irrigation significantly reduces rural migration that is caused by drought, which in turn is climate change induced. The IDHS study is a nationally representative, multi-topic panel survey of thousands of households in urban and rural areas across the country. The findings of the study led by Sabuj Kumar Mandal, Professor of Economics, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras, and Gauri Sreekumar, Researcher, IIT Madras, were published in the Indian Economic Review. Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Mandal said that they used data from Round I (2004-2005) and Round II (2011-2012) data of the IHDS for nearly 2 years and studied 80,000 households. 'The impact of drought on the migration among rural farm households was estimated using the Difference-in-differences method, a statistical technique used in economics and quantitative research to study the differential effect of a treatment group versus a control group in an experiment.' 'We have used climate data from the India Meteorological Department for drought and rainfall information. People migrate from one state to another, like from West Bengal and Odisha to Tamil Nadu. Erratic rainfall, which is less than the long-term average, leads to crop failure and then very volatile agricultural income causes such migration,' he explained. Ms. Sreekumar said that to reduce the risk imposed by drought, families turn to non-farm activities to reduce the dependence of households' income on crop yields. This income is used to purchase crop and livestock inputs, improve skills and production technologies, thus increasing agricultural productivity. In turn, the income helps to prepare for disasters and compensate for any income loss. The study also found that households' participation in agriculture/milk/other cooperatives, non-government organisations, credit/savings groups, self-help groups, and other such associations could check migration. Farmer-based organisations and more agricultural extension services could be established by the Government. The team has suggested that alternative livelihoods like unskilled jobs be created near their villages. In the next stage, the researchers plan to study the behaviour and psychological farmers that drive farmers to migrate and reasons of those who do not.
India Today
11-07-2025
- Health
- India Today
NIT Rourkela study reveals health toll on parents of children with disabilities
A recent study by researchers at NIT Rourkela has brought attention to a pressing issue that often goes unnoticed, how raising children with developmental disabilities takes a serious toll on the physical and emotional well-being of parents, especially by Dr Ramakrishna Biswal, Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, along with senior research scholar Abhijit Pathak, the study explores how continuous caregiving can cause exhaustion, health problems, and emotional work was published in the Asia Pacific Journal of Social Work and Development. Surveying over 400 parents of children with autism, ADHD, cerebral palsy, and multiple disabilities, the research found that the daily caregiving demands often lead to chronic headaches, fatigue, pain, ulcers, and a feeling of being emotionally worn impact on physical health, the study shows, is not just a result of stress, it can also make stress harder to manage, creating a feedback loop that further weakens a caregiver's capacity. STUDY URGES CAREGIVER SUPPORT FOR BETTER CHILD DISABILITY The researchers used the biopsychosocial model, which looks at how health is shaped by physical, psychological, and social forces together, not in findings reveal that while physical health is a key factor, financial pressures and social isolation also play major roles. Many parents, especially in India, struggle with stigma, lack of awareness, and minimal access to support on the findings, Dr Biswal said: 'Disability rights are increasingly recognised, but caregivers remain overlooked. Raising such children is not just a parental duty, it's a shared responsibility of the entire community.'The team recommends including caregiver health checks and stress support within paediatric disability services. They also suggest setting up community-based centres where families can access medical, mental, and financial help in one its heart, the study sends a clear message: when caregivers are supported, children thrive. Without that, families are left to cope alone, and too often, they do so in silence.- Ends
Time of India
26-05-2025
- Health
- Time of India
PCOS affects women's speed of response by 50 pc, accuracy by 10 pc: IIT Bombay research
Mumbai: Polycystic Ovary Syndrome or PCOS impacts women's focus by decreasing speed of response by about 56 per cent and accuracy by about 10 per cent, researchers from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay) said. PCOS is an endocrine disorder in women, with symptoms like irregular or absent periods, polycystic ovaries, and increased levels of male hormone (androgen). The findings emphasise the need to understand PCOS as a complex medical condition that not only affects physical but also cognitive health. In their recent study, Maitreyi Redkar and Prof Azizuddin Khan from the Psychophysiology Laboratory, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Bombay found that women with PCOS are slower to react and more easily distracted than their healthy counterparts. They assessed women with attention tasks after dividing them in two groups, 101 women with PCOS and 72 healthy women. "The cognitive experiments are specifically designed to capture the subtle millisecond-level differences in how individuals respond to critical stimuli. These minute delays reveal significant impairments in attention, which may impact our real-life functioning. In the specific context of focused attention, it is not just about concentrating on the task at hand to respond at the right time, but also inhibiting irrelevant distractors," said Prof Khan, who led the research. Researchers used two task-based tests, the Flanker Task and the Posner Cueing Task, to test PCOS and healthy individuals for accuracy and response time. It was found that women with PCOS showed over a 50 per cent slower response and made about 10 per cent more errors than the healthy ones in the focused attention test. Similarly, PCOS women performed about 20 per cent slowly, with 3 per cent extra errors in the divided attention task. Among the two types of attention, PCOS women performed poorer in focused attention, the research revealed. The hormonal imbalance associated with PCOS could lead to decreased alertness and longer reaction times. Along with elevated androgen levels, the participants with PCOS had insulin resistance that is linked to attention. Insulin resistance causes poor glucose metabolism and affects brain cell (neuron) activity, leading to poor performance in focused attention tasks. "PCOS is a heterogeneous condition, which means that its symptoms and severity vary depending on the hormonal profile, metabolic health, mental health and socio-environmental conditions of the individual. Despite the variability in PCOS symptoms and their severity, the impairments in the core cognitive abilities of attention and processing speed seem to be prevalent across women," Prof Khan said. While the challenges of low accuracy and slow response time seem daunting, playing brain games focusing on attention and memory can improve response time and accuracy, the research revealed. "Increasing physical activity levels, maintaining a nutritious diet, and reducing weight are beneficial not just for PCOS symptoms but also for cognitive health. Even improving sleep hygiene contributes significantly to improving attentional accuracy and reaction time," Prof Khan added.
