Effects of Orphanhood on Child Development

Effects of Orphanhood on Child Development 3. REVIEW OF LITERATURE â€Å"A solid family environment is essential in paving the way for the realization of future dreams and aspirations of children.† —Nelson Mandela â€Å"The suffering of children is not in itself what is revolting, but the fact that it is undeserved†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ if we cannot make a world in which children no longer suffer, at least we can try to reduce the number of suffering children† Albert Camus: â€Å"L’ Homme Revolte†. Children must be protected not because they are innocent but because they are powerless Mason Cooley A research literature review is a written summary of the state of existing knowledge on a research problem. The task of reviewing research literature involves identification, selection, critical analysis, and written description of existing information on a topic. 11 The various attributes of orphans, orphaning and orphanages are considered in separate sections 1. DEFINITIONS OF ORPHANS AND VULNERABLE CHILDREN The word orphan is derived from the Latin word orbus meaning bereft or to suffer the loss. Today, it applies to a child whos either or both of the parents are dead.12 According to UNICEF the definition of an orphan is anyone between the ages of 0 and 17 years who has lost at least one parent or both the parents.13 Vulnerable children are those who belong to high-risk groups who lack access to basic social amenities or facilities. â€Å"Vulnerable† is analogous to the word â€Å"affected†. They include street children, orphans, child prisoners, child laborers, the children of sex workers and, confusingly, children who are orphaned by AIDS or have an HIV-positive parent14. Historically such orphans have been reared by close relatives or in institutions meant for other deprived children like them. Indias commitment to the cause of children is an old as its civilization. The child is believed to be a gift of the Gods, which must be nurtured with care and affection, within the family and the society Unfortunately, due to socio-economic and political factors, the incidence of neglect, abuse and deprivation, particularly in the poverty afflicted sections of the society, has gradually increased . The category of socially handicapped children includes within it those children who are destitute, abandoned, deprived, neglected, victimized, vagrant, and even delinquent children observes.15 Khandekar feels that the term deprived children implies deprivation of many aspects, such as economic, social, familial, emotional and moral.16 Bose opines that the category of children in need of care and protection s a wider scope which includes children whose parents are extremely poor, children of working women with low income, exploited, runaway children, child beggars, vagrants, delinquents, etc.17Thus we see a little agreement on the specifics of who can be include into the category of orphan children. Bose vehemently advocates that the juvenile delinquents too be included the class of orphan children. They have even been called neglected juveniles and described as one who is a destitute, who is left alone, abandoned, forsaken, in utter want, without resources, deprived, in a state of extreme poverty, being without food, shelter etc. The working group appointed by the Department of Social Welfare, Ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India in 1969 listed the following circumstances to define orphans, although there are other terms such as socially handicapped used interchangeably: a) a child, whose parents are not able to look after with proper care and control. b) a child, without any living parents, who is not being looked after by any other near relatives on whom there is a moral or social obligation to look after. c) a child who has no home or settled place of abode, without any ostensible means of subsistence. d) a child whose surviving parent is a lunatic. e) a child deserving special protection, from parents who indulge him / her in prostitution, drunkenness or anti-social behavior. f) a child whose parents have forced him into beggary, acrobatics or performing tricks for the purpose of earning or any other kind of child labor. g) a child who is uncontrollable.18 Further the Planning Commission of India in the 10th Five year plan has brought all these children under a common category called as — children in difficult circumstances and included under this category are street children, abandoned children, orphaned children, child laborers, children who have been physically or sexually abused, children in conflict with law, children with HIV/AIDS, children of terminally ill parents, children of parents serving prison terms, children victims of natural disasters, terrorist attacks, immigration etc, for the purpose of devising need based policies and welfare programmers.19 2. BURDEN OF ORPHANHOOD IN INDIA The estimated number of orphans who need care and protection in India would give a better perspective of the magnitude of the problem on our hands .Though the exact quantum of dependent children is not known, approximations are available. In India 31 million children have become orphans due to all causes as by 2009.2 Every 2.2 seconds a child loses a parent somewhere in the world. By 2015, It is projected that there will be 400 million orphaned children worldwide.20 Moreover, it would be difficult to estimate the number of children who are abandoned, neglected, deprived of parental or family care due to innumerable other reasons such as family feud, parental desertion, illegitimate pregnancy, natural disasters. 3. CAUSES OF ORPHANING 3.1 BROKEN HOMES, PARENTAL DISHARMONY , PARENTAL LOSS / DEPRIVATION BROKEN HOMES, PARENTAL DISHARMONY A large proportion of delinquent and neglected children come from broken homes. Desertion, divorce, illegitimacy, cruelty, drunkenness and drug abuse by the parents are some of the common denominators among the neglected children.21 Broken Home is one which is rendered incomplete by the absence of one or both parents Parental separation or divorce often have an altogether different aspect where in the child is presented with a conflict of loyalties which is sometimes played upon usually by the contesting parents introduces new problem of adjusting to step parents and their attitudes.22 There is also a type of home which is thoroughly noxious without being broken. The members of the family go on living together, a life punctuated by quarrels, hatred, brutality, alcoholism, irresponsibility etc and emotional turmoil resulting from domestic discord, parental neglect or rejection may drive the child to retaliatory aggression.23 Ganga et al in their study of 225 inmates of an orphanage in Thanjavur documented that in 43.5% of the children, father had more than one wife, and father had left home in 14.6% while mother had left in 12.9%.24 Manjushree and Srinivasan noticed that of the 73 neglected children, in 8 children frequent quarrels between father and mother was observed.25 Thilagaraj in his study of neglected children documented that 37.5% of the parents were unhappily adjusted, parental separation/ desertion was seen in 12.6%. In 10% each, either both the parents had died or one parent had died and there was remarriage or there was no remarriage.26 Singh and co-workers while studying parental image in delinquents observed that in all cases of their study sample, parents had cordial and harmonious relationship.27 PARENTAL LOSS / DEPRIVATION The presence of a human figure is essential to develop social responsiveness. Because, if the child is constantly exposed to inanimate means of stimulation, the feelings of attachments to inanimate objects might generalize to human figure.28 The effects of long-term or permanent separation form one or both parents are complex. When the separation occurs as early as three months after birth, the infants emotional upset seems to be primarily a reaction to the environmental change and strangeness, and he /she usually adapts readily to a surrogate mother-figure. But once attachment behavior has developed, the emotional hurt of separation may be deeper and more sustained. The child may go through a period of bereavement and have greater difficulty in adjusting to the change. It would appear that the age at which the infant is most vulnerable to long term separation or loss is from 7 months to 5 years. The long term consequences of such a loss appear to depend not only on the time of its occurrence, but also on factors such as the child in question, his previous relationship with parent and the quality of subsequent parental care.29 MATERNAL DEPRIVATION : In a pioneering study, Bowlby (1960) summarized the effects of maternal separation on children from 2 to 5 years of age who were hospitalized for prolonged periods. He cited three stages of their separation reaction: 1) Initial protest characterized by increased crying, screaming and general activity 2) Despair which included dejection, stupor, decreased activity and general withdrawal from the environment, and 3) Detachment following the childrens discharge from the hospital and re ¬union with their mothers in whom the children appeared indifferent and sometimes even hostile towards their parents.30 According to Howells separation and deprivation are not synonymous terms. He states that separation of the child and parent, means that the child is physically parted from its parents and has an existence independent of them. On the other hand, deprivation is a term which indicates that a loss is suffered, and when applied to the child, it is used in the following two senses: 1) Occasionally it is used to denote that the child suffers the loss of its parents, or permanent parent substitute. This usually coincides with physical separation of parent and child (to prevent confusion with the term separation the usage deprivation should be avoided). 2) Frequently it is used to denote that the child is deprived of the necessary care for its emotional growth and so suffers the loss of parenting Separation, then involves the physical absence of the parent, but not necessarily of parenting. Deprivation involves the loss of parenting but not necessarily of parents. Thereby, he has drawn a distinction between parents as an entity from parenting, that is, the emotional care given by them to the children.31 Bowlby comments that in the young childs eyes father plays second fiddle, but is of an indirect value as an economic and emotional support to the mother.30 True enough, this is the impression carried over by the social, psychological and psychiatric literature. The facts however may be different. The father may share parenting, often equally, sometimes pre-dominantly and sometimes subordinately. Few facts are available. Nevertheless, the available literature indicates that the father has an important role to play in maintaining the stability of the family group and in supporting the role of the mother. He has also a significant influence on the psychological development of boys and girls. The fathers masculine model (aggressiveness, leadership and objectivity) is necessary for the boy if he is to emancipate himself from the feminine model prevailing at home and develop the qualities of maleness that will make him acceptable to his peers.32 The various causes for parental loss described in the various studies, parental deaths due to a number of causes, outnumber all other causes. Fosteer G and colleagues in their study observed that 12.8% of children under 15 years old had a father or mother who had died; 5% of orphans had lost both parents.33 Bhagath and Fraser in their study on neglected children found that paternal death was discovered in 40% whereas maternal loss was seen in 15%.34 Presley et at reported parental loss in 49. 2% of 140 neglected children, with 21% maternal loss and 25% had lost both the parents.35 Approximately 23% entering the foster care in the United States of America have lost one or both the parents in a survey carried out by Simms M D et al.36

What Is Video Conferencing

Video conferencing is a newer tool available to individuals and businesses, which allows people to communicate between two separate locations, via software that combines video and voice. This can be done as simply as a web camera and having conversations with friends and family. Businesses use this tool to improve many areas of the company. Travel expenditures, time, rentals, hotels, entertainment, etc, are all costs of traveling somewhere to conduct business. By using video and voice solutions, companies enable their geographically dispersed workforces to communicate and collaborate more effectively and productively over distances. Employees can collaborate from offices, meeting rooms, and even mobile devices. A variety of organizations are using these standards-based solutions to: ⠝â€" Gain a fast return on their investment as their teams easily collaborate â€Å"face to face† wherever they are ⠝â€" Cut the time, cost, and carbon emissions associated with gathering the right people in one place to solve problems ⠝â€" Apply saved resources, time, and energy to primary business and organizational challenges Businesses will sometimes use , simultaneous videoconferencing, which is having conversations among three or more remote points. This is becoming more popular now that DSL and broadband internet is widely available to the public. How this technology is used where I work This form of communication is not used widely in the housing industry as of yet; however, our company started using video conferencing when gas prices climbed past three and four dollars. This company has 37 properties, which it manages within a 200-mile radius. When gasoline prices climbed above $3.00/gal, with no end in sight, this company took steps to eliminate costs, and one-step is video conferencing. Since the implication of video conference, our regional manager shows up once a month (versus weekly) and there is a video conference every Tuesday. The company did not opt to change the methodology after gasoline prices subsided because the savings are very high. Because of this, the company has taken the monies that it has saved and invested them into improving areas of the company. Since the regional manager has the time available to him that he once spent driving, he has more time to address and review further issue that arise and project that need to want to be completed. This is the only work place that I have worked where such technology has been available. In one previous place (fast food), there was a thief, so the company installed video cameras that could be viewed remotely. In the maintenance field, it is necessary for the manager(s) to have visual reference of the items discussed. The electronic age has that made the communication end of my job easier. I am able to take a picture with a camera phone or digital camera and send that to a manager for visual representation. For example, my manager can print out a picture of what I sent him, turn his back to the camera in a video conference, and have a conversation about the issue at hand almost as if we are in the same room. Another benefit is I can get a faster response time than before, because I can send the information, and then discuss the situation shortly thereafter rather than whenever the next scheduled conference is. Message Types The message type that is in play here is face-to-face communication, in a digital form. All the characteristics that one has in a traditional face-to-face conversation are all present within video conferencing. One can see the body language and facial expressions the other person has and have the ability to compare that with the individual’s tone just like a typical conversation. Just as in a typical conversation, one is able to judge the appearance and level of professionalism of the other person. Because of the video conferencing, even when sending an email the level of professionalism is still there because of communication with these individuals in a digital and internet manner. I feel that video conferencing has improved my daily, weekly, and monthly life where I work. This innovative manner of communication has sped up response time on issues, saved the company thousands of dollars, and improved the work environment within the company. Employees, managers, regional manager, and owners now are able to know who is on the other end of the line when they are having a conversation; this adds a level of respect towards the other individual. Improving the quality of communication within an organization has been a benchmark for this company.

Luis Alvarez - A Profile of the Famous Scientist

Name: Luis Alvarez Born/Died: 1911-1988 Nationality: American (with antecedents in Spain and Cuba) About Luis Alvarez Luis Alvarez is a good example of how an amateur can have a profound impact on the world of paleontology. We put the word amateur is in quotation marks because, before he turned his attention to the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, Alvarez was a highly accomplished physicist (in fact, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1968 for his discovery of the resonance states of fundamental particles). He was also a lifelong inventor, and was responsible for (among other things) the Synchrotron, one of the first particle accelerators used to probe the ultimate constituents of matter. Alvarez was also involved in the later stages of the Manhattan Project, which yielded the nuclear bombs dropped on Japan at the end of World War II. In paleontology circles, though, Alvarez is best known for his late 1970s investigation (conducted with his geologist son, Walter) into the K/T Extinction, the then-mysterious event 65 million years ago that killed the dinosaurs, as well as their pterosaur and marine reptile cousins.  Alvarezs working  theory, inspired by his discovery  of a clay boundary in Italy separating geologic strata from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic Eras, was that the impact of a large comet or meteor threw up billions of tons of dust, which circled around the globe, blotted out the sun, and caused global temperatures to plunge and  the earth’s vegetation to wither, with the result that first plant-eating and then meat-eating dinosaurs starved and froze to death. Alvarezs theory, published in 1980,  was treated with intense skepticism for a full decade, but was finally accepted by the majority of scientists after scattered iridium deposits in the vicinity of the Chicxulub meteor crater (in present-day Mexico) could be traced to the impact of a large interstellar object. (The  rare element iridium is more common deeper in the earth than on the surface, and could only have been scattered in the patterns detected  by a tremendous astronomical impact.)   Still, the widespread acceptance of this theory  hasnt prevented scientists from pointing to ancillary causes for the extinction of the dinosaurs, the most likely candidate being the volcanic eruptions triggered when the Indian subcontinent slammed into the underside of Asia at the end of the Cretaceous period.