ASET Colloquium

At the cost of the girl child

by Dr. Satish Agnihotri (Centre for Technology Alternatives in Rural Areas (CTARA))

Friday, August 26, 2016 from to (Asia/Kolkata)
at AG-66
Description
Abstract: The debate on ‘missing women’ in India has evolved quite rapidly within the last decade. From the stage of denial of the problem, there was a grudging acceptance particularly with clear evidence of the declining child sex ratio. This was followed by locating the ‘epi-centres’ of the problem among the urban and the prosperous followed by the rural non-poor and eventually the rural poor. The epidemiology of the problem also laid bare role of determination of the sex of the foetus and its consequent elimination. Population census of 2011 highlights the spread and intensification of the problem. Besides this, anecdotal and descriptive evidence has begun to emerge regarding disturbing consequences of the ‘female deficit’ which needs systematic compilation. Hence the need to revisit the ‘causes and consequences’.


About the Speaker:

Dr. Satish B. Agnihotri, formerly a career bureaucrat, is now Professor at IIT Bombay at the Centre for Technology Alternatives in Rural Areas (CTARA). He has also been appointed as the Head of the newly set up Centre for Policy Studies. He retired as Secretary (Coordination & Public Grievances), Cabinet Secretariat where he also held the charge of Secretary (Security), Secretary Performance Management and Chairman, National Chemical Weapons Authority. Prior to this he was Secretary, Ministry of New & Renewable Energy. He has been a member of the Dhirendra Singh Committee on ‘Make in India in Defence Sector’, Co-Chair of the Raman Puri Committee on Quality issues in Ordnance and also the Chairman of the MNREGA Awards Committee - 2016. 

He held other important assignments such as Director General (Acquisition) in the Ministry of Defence of the Government of India, Additional Secretary cum Financial Adviser in the Ministry of Agriculture, Director General of Shipping in Mumbai and JS in the Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India.  

He has also worked as Secretary, Women and Child Development in Odisha and has also worked with UNICEF, Kolkata as Consultant on Child Nutrition and Health. He was the founder Chief Executive of the Odisha Renewable Energy Development Agency.

Dr Agnihotri is an IAS officer of Odisha cadre from the 1980 batch.  He has done his Master’s degree in Physics followed by M.Tech in Environment Science and Engineering from IIT, Bombay.  He later did an MA in Rural Development followed by a Ph.D on sex ratio patterns in Indian Population from School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia, Norwich UK.

His research on declining sex ratios in India has been approvingly cited by scholars including Prof. Amartya Sen. His book “Sex Ratio Patterns in the Indian Population” (Sage, 2000) has been widely acclaimed. His current research interests include Child Malnutrition, declining sex ratios in India and renewable energy. He also writes satire and science fiction in Hindi. His book “Tahan Tahan Bhrashtrachaar” has been published by Rajkamal, New Delhi and in Marathi as “Zopi Gelaa Kumbhakarna” by Parchure Prakashan, Mumbai.

He hails from Dharangaon, Jalgaon District in Maharashtra.
Material:
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Organised by Dr. Satyanarayana Bheesette
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