Various Issues in India

Globalization, formal education and technical and skill training has been a strong contributing factor in improving the overall economic status of people. This has created varied job opportunities for the young population particularly in urban/ cities. In India by late sixties more and more women started working in formal sectors by opting to work out of their homes. The trend is growing and has brought many positive changes in their lives. Many of them are enjoying a better standard of living and areavailing better facilities and domestic support as compared to their previous generations. The preferred professions earlier times were comparatively less strenuous and more flexible in terms of working hours, less administrative responsibilities, safer working conditions and more adjustability in leaves and facilities. Earlier job preferred by women wereones in government and semi governments establishments which were considered to be safer ,providing more facilities like leaves and medical .

Despite all the difficulties faced by married working women, they have tried their best to strike an accordbetween their familylife and profession. They have made the best of efforts to take care of their families .Double income in the working class in cities has upgraded many families from lower income group (LIG) to middle income group (MIG) and the middle income group to the higher income group (HIG).

Another dimension of development is that although there has been overall improvement in the standards of the urban middle class,butit has brought in many health and social problems with it. Use of social media, mobiles and television viewing for long hours has increased. Participation in household activities has decreased and there is an overall reduction in physical activities by people of all the age groups.The eating habits of middle income groups have also changed drastically over the years . The main reasons are due to increase in purchasing power, easy access to a variety of new food items , and the influence of media and attitudinal changes towards home made fresh food . Too many advertisements on television and print media influences to a large extent the food and other materialchoices. Shift towards fast foods, Ready ToEat (RTE)foods and aerateddrinks is quite visible. Consumption of freshly cooked food has decreased .Use of food items rich in carbohydrates, fats and salt has also increased leading to obesity, high blood pressure, heart diseases, diabetes and manyother health and psychosocial problems. People of many urbanslums are also getting influenced and there is a drastic change in their eating pattern . In addition to this they suffer from manydiseases due to poor civic amenities. Social evils such as alcoholism, drug abuse and smoking have also gripped in a large population of all the income groups and use of these is gradually becoming a fashion among families of women ofmiddle and higher income groups.

To tackle emerging healthand social problems and for the general welfare and upliftmentof the masses in general and women and children in particular , the Govt. of India and other organizations has taken a number of initiatives . Programs and schemes have been initiated to improve the nutritional and health status. Personnel dealing with these programs and their trainers also being provided regular training to update and develop their skills through a well established training infrastructure run by governments and voluntary sectors.

In her website, the author has made an effort to document her observations and personal views based on decades of work experience in the field of women and child development. She has addressed some of the current social as well as emerging issues as mentioned in the above paragraph.