Population and poverty

Used the data from sample survey conducted in Anhui JC county, this paper has found that sexual knowledge, attitudes, subjective construction factors, social factors are related with risk sexual behaviors. And subjective construction factors are the most significante. Due to the lack of stable sexual partner in the marriage, rural forced male bachelors are more likely to have muti-sexual partners. The types of their sexual partners are diverse, including girlfriend, females in the marriage, widows/divorced females, sex worker and male. Their sexual behaviors are significant different by age, which means that the proportion of younger who have had different risk sexual behaviors is higher than that of older. However, condom uses in forced male bachelors are lower than in migrants. This is tantamount to put a bridge between high-risk group and general people, and connect them together. Binary logistic regression analysis shows that sexual knowledge, attitudes, subjectve construction, and social factors are associated with risk sexual behaviors, in which subjective constructionion factor is most significant. This means that the risk which forced male bachelors are facing is the interactive result of the chioces of their own.

Child wellbeing has mostly been identified and measured using uni-dimensional approaches which overlook the multidimensional nature and severity of child deprivation. This study uses a multi-dimensional measure of child deprivation that enables comparison of levels in child deprivation across countries. The study uses DHS data and the focus is on four East Africa countries (Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda). Deprivation is assessed for three age groups (0-4, 5-14 and 15-16) using five dimensions: basic health, water and sanitation, nutrition, education, and social protection. Results at uni-dimensional level show that child protection and health dimensions have the highest deprivation level while nutrition and water/sanitation have the least deprivation level. Children aged 0-4 are least deprived while children aged 15-18 are the most deprived. Results at multi-dimensional level show that Rwanda has the least deprivation level while Uganda has the highest among the three age-groups. The findings demonstrate that child deprivation is high in the region and is a function of multiple health-related dimensions. In order to reduce deprivation, there is need to roll out complex (multi-dimension) intervention programs across the study countries.

Bhumisuk Khananurak, Nucharee Srivirojana
ASEAN countries decided to issued a Joint Declaration on the Attainment of the MDGs to reduce gap among ASEAN countries and fulfill the ASEAN Economic Comminity which will occure in 2015. This study, therefore, intend to compare poverty eradication in ASEAN countries using Thailand as case study for reducing poverty problem. Data from household socio-economic survey provided by National Statistical Office and ASEAN Statistic provided by ASEAN Secretariate during 1990-2010 were employed to compare poverty situation in ASEAN countries using the national poverty line. The result revealed that Thailand rank the second in ASEAN countries after Malaysia in achieving poverty eradiation. Continuous decline in poverty was due to the economic recovery, government assistance on cost of living, social benefit programs. In order to counter poverty eradication and reduce income disparity in ASEAN countries, most of the ASEAN countries should cooperate and support in exhcanging information and technology, knowledge among each other to increase productivity. Moreover, central organization to manage resources in ASEAN countries should be set up to make ASEAN become one community to create equality, improve quality and sustainable growth in these areas.

With the outbreak of the HIV scourge in Uganda in the early 80s, AIDS has had its turn on numerous individuals in Uganda. While so many studies have examined the effect of HIV/AIDS on the population, very few studies have analyzed the major factors heightening the HIV prevalence rate in Uganda, which among others include complacency and poverty. Basing on the primary data collected, the results revealed that, respondent (who were mainly youths) were more afraid of pregnancy other than contracting HIV/AIDS (73%). Results also showed that, 59% of the respondents were highly prone to contracting HIV/AIDS due to poverty. The results also go ahead to show that more females engage in risky sexual behaviour compared to males. Results therefore emphasize need for heightening the campaign on Behavioural change communication especially among the youths, and by so doing, this will help to eventually halt the mother to Child Transmission of HIV/AIDS.

The relationship between migration and urban poverty has been extensively investigated in the literature, and yet it is difficult to speak of generally accepted conclusion on the matter. It is against this backdrop that this paper provides an explanation by examining 64th Round of National Sample Survey (2007-08) data for evidence of whether there are linkages between poverty and migration status and migration types in urban India. The households in urban India have been categorized into non-migrant, forced migrants, employment related migrants, post employment migrants and other migrants. Monthly per capita expenditure and a composite index of food insecurity as derived from PCA have been used as proxy for poverty at household level. Besides k-means analysis, MCA and multivariate regression analyses have been used in this study. Findings throw light on the much debated topic on the relationship between food insecurity and migration status. Levels of food access significantly vary across migration-types even after controlling for socio-economic factors. Findings reveal that there are three distinct groups within migration-status in terms of vulnerability. Results show that except for forced migrants and early job seekers, migrant households are better-off than non-migrant households in urban India.

Theories and common sense both suggest that elderly poverty is severe worldwide nowadays, including in US and elsewhere that had experienced poverty reduction in the second half of 20C with improving elderly social welfare. This is so even in Taiwan, a traditionally low-inequality society, where family supports is still crucial, though under change.
Other events work toward the opposite direction. First, the baby-boomers are now aging, with much larger wealth than their parents, and are better in self support. Moreover, new elders enjoy better social welfare in Taiwan, and Korea as well, with recent implementation of old-age pension, which is an important anti-poverty instrument: in Japan, pension reduces elderly poverty rate from 64% to 17% in 2010.
This paper asks whether these new developments in Taiwan, which many countries have experienced or will experience, make differences in elderly poverty. Beyond fact finding of who and how much, we go deeper and ask how do public and private transfers help to reduce poverty for the elderly.
We present an integrated framework to discuss elderly poverty and how public and private transfers reduce such poverty. In particular, we provide a method to estimate intrafamilial transfers that are not available by other methods.

Despite the remarkable and rapid growth of economy in Asia during the past 10 years, poverty has still remained as a major problem in the region leading to a geographic shift in the location of poor populations: Poverty has been urbanizing. Over 900 million of the world’s poor still live in Asia and in this regard, Kazerun in Iran, as an Asian and developing city is not exceptional. According to the last National Census (2007), Kazerun is housing to over 80 thousand people. Nearly, 1⁄5 of the city population live in neglected settlements most with illegal building structures, substandard housing and insecure tenure. In this region, urban poverty plays an undeniable role in the pattern of city residency and shaping of informal settlements, not only for the rural-urban migrants but also for the city dwellers. In other words, being economically unfortunate has drawn some of the city inhabitants to live in poor areas. Moreover, they suffer from all aspects of urban poverty: cultural, political, provision of public infrastructures and so on which are all due to the lack of income that has forced them to live in poor districts.
Key words: population, urban poverty, informal settlements

Despite the acknowledgment that participatory approaches in development can help in the understanding and designing of development programmes and policies, discourses about poverty and development especially among the rural poor continue to be dominated by those who are considered to be non-rural and non-poor. Using qualitative data collected from residents of Makueni district of Eastern Kenya, this paper seeks to reverse this approach by discussing the community’s perceptions of poverty and development in their context. This data, collected through household interviews, focus group discussions with community members and key informant interviews with community leaders reveals the meanings, indicators and categorizations of poverty and development as well as the best possible approaches to adopt for poverty alleviation and development programmes in this community. This study finds that definitions of poverty and development go beyond the monetary measures and vary according to context. In Makueni, water is considered the biggest priority. Respondents also highlight the pathway to development given adequate water supply. Findings of this study emphasize the need to approach development in different contexts as separate entities, involve the beneficiaries in identifying their most felt needs and involving them in development.

The objective of this paper is to investigate whether the UC scheme in Thailand was associated to significant changes in the health consumptions and preventive activities of the general population. In order to isolate the impact of the UC reform on the variables of interest and to rule out other effects from long-run relation, we focus our analysis on the period just before and the period just after the introduction of the UC. The data are drawn from the 2001 and 2003 rounds of the Health and Welfare Survey (HWS). A differences in differences approach with Kernel matching was used, defining people working in the informal sector as the treatment group. Results show that: 1) preventive activities increased, 2) Inpatient care use increased, 2) outpatient care use was unaffected by the UC, 4) there was a switch from traditional to formal medicine. Furthermore, we find a significant reduction in out-of-pocket expenditure. Results show no clear sign of Moral Hazard and opportunistic behavior and confirm that the Thai UC as a successful story.

Delhi, the national Capital of India attracts millions of poor migrants from the hinterland and most of them find shelter in slums and squatter settlements as they are unable to afford formal housing. Slum development has become the matter of politico-economic concern for Delhi Government, especially, after the Commonwealth Games (2010) because of large scale removal of slum from the city core to the periphery and its adverse impact on the living environment of the urban poor. Environmental Vulnerability Index (EVI) has been constructed (using Census of India, 2001 and 2011 data) for identifying vulnerability zones and 400 households have been surveyed from these zones. This composite index has been computed by using following variables, viz., Percentage of households having none of the specified assets, household living in informal houses and slums, household without electricity, potable drinking water and sanitation, household having no access to banking service, safe cooking fuel or LPG. Various statistical methods like Binary Logistics, Cross-tabulation, SD, Mean and Chi-Square have been applied for primary analysis. Main findings reveal that slum households located in the core city have legitimacy, tenure security, better living environment, better housing amenities, sound health and positive behaviour psychology than those