Cheating an ugly issue - some stats

HIGH SCHOOL: A 2002 survey from Rutgers' Management Education Center, which polled 4,500 high school students, found that 75 percent of these students had cheated. UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOL: In a major study of both college and high school students by Duke University's Center for Academic Integrity, more than 70 percent of the students surveyed admitted to having cheated at least once on exams in the previous GRADUATE SCHOOL: More than half (56%) of M.B.A. candidates say they cheated in the past year, concludes a study by the Academy of Management Learning and Education of 5,300 students in the U.S. and Canada. With 54% of graduate engineering students, 50% of students in the physical sciences, 49% of medical and other health-care students, 45% of law students, 43% of graduate students in the arts and 39% of graduate students in the social sciences and humanities readily admitting to cheating, something must be done to correct course. REAL LIFE************************************************************************ We see cheating in real life. Recently in the last 5 years at least 60 major corporations have restated their financial statements. Many times the motivation was not from an honest mistake or carelessness but rather a need to have higher earnings to generate higher stock values for shareholders. Sports is notorious for cheating. Baseball and Barry Bonds...done. Now taxes how about that....yup. Enough said.

NRI Marriages

This continues my series on Indian American Issues and Women's Issues. Doing research for my own information. Source: NGO Seva in California "Nearly two in every ten NRI marriages are faked or end up in a divorce, cautions a legal counsellor from Fermont, USA, who is here to lobby for an Indian law to protect the victims of NRI marriages and financial frauds"

American Statistics

1. Crime: America's safest city, Brick Township, NJ Key stat: 55.9 incidents of crime per 100,000 residents.This small city near the Jersey shore recorded the lowest rate of violent crime of any town of 75,000 residents or more, according to Morgan Quitno Press, an independent research publisher in Lawrence, Kansas, which used FBI statistics in its analysis. More than a million vehicles were reported stolen by law enforcement agencies in the U.S. every year, yet most adults leave their car doors unlocked. Easy target for theives- 55% door unlocked, 34% windows open, and 6% key in cars USA: 8 million illegal immigrants estimated to be in the United States, about 400,000 have been identified and ordered deported. (Sep 18,2003 report) USA: Identity stolen of nearly 1 in 8 adults-more than 27 million people have been victims of identity theft during the last five years, the Federal Trade Commission reports. In 2002, 9.9 million people were victims of identity theft, costing them $5 billion and businesses and financial institutions almost $48 billion 2. Health & Mortality Dec. 01, 2006: Minnesota was deemed the healthiest U.S. state for the fourth year in a row. States making the most improvement in the past year were Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin and Kansas, the report found, while those with the biggest declines were New Mexico, Idaho and West Virginia. Since 1990, America is a healthier place but from year 2000 dramatic increase in obesity, a rising number of Americans -- 46.6 million in a country of 300 million -- without health insurance, and smoking by 21 percent of U.S. adults More than 15 percent of Americans ages 6-19 are overweight. Mortality Rate of Accidents - Two deaths per 10,000 vehicle accidents in the US. According to the US Department of Labour, taxi driving is the most dangerous job in the country as these drivers are 60 times more likely than other workers to be killed on the job 3. Education & Technology USA, in 2003, 23 million households had high-speed access, up from 16 million the year before US Census Bureau report says 66.7 per cent of Asian households in the US have Internet access as against 59.9 per cent white households and 36 per cent each of Hispanic and African-American segments. More than two thirds of Americans use the Internet and 90% of all Internet users have e-mail. 80% check e-mail every day, and 50% check every week 4. Business and Global Online travel to reach $71 bln by 2006 40% of U.S. households are expected to own at least one digital camera by the end of 2004 In 2003, Sino-US trade amounted to over $180 billion, while Indo-American trade was a mere $18 billion. A record 51 million international visitors came to the USA every year , the second-most visited country in the world behind France's 75 million foreign tourists; Canada and Mexico continue to provide about half the USA's visitors. Nearly $2 billion worth of trade crosses the Canada-U.S. border every day, and Canada-Mexico trade is worth $15 billion a year It's estimated that $1 billion US in trade crosses the Canada-U.S. border every day. In the year 2004, US government provided $2.4 billion in food and cash and humanitarian relief ... That's 40 percent of all the relief aid given in the world last year. 5. American Society USA: According to the survey, 60 percent of singles aged 40-69 are women, a majority of them divorced. Forty-two percent of the men and 24 percent of the women had never been married . USA: At the beginning of the twentieth century the divorce rate in America was under ten percent. By 2005 the divorce rate was just under fifty percent according to the 2004 American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau. USA: Of the 293.66 million people in the US, 95.81 million (32.6%) are non-whites or Hispanic In USA. USA: Average American household income around $42,000 a year but a credit-card debt in 2001 skyrocketed, topping $8234 per household USA: Last year, about 1.56 million people filed for personal bankruptcy, compared with 875,000 a decade earlier. In 2003, bankruptcy filings peaked at 1.63 million.

State of the World's Girls 2007

Source: BBCNEWS Study: Plan International - The study collated statistics from around the world looking at the lives of girls under the age of 18. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/14_05_07_girlsreport3.pdf My 2 cents: These numbers are sobering and should be a wake up to many people who have lived better lives with more education that there is still a lot to be done. In my opinion, these numbers reflect a pattern of devaluation for a valuable resource in India. My life experiences have shown me that many people living in these cultures are unaware that they are discriminating. Looking at these numbers I don't think tradition or the old ways has done much to help the girls. ______________________________________________________ From the mouth of the girls... “There is a need to bring change in the attitude of the men-folk and they should treat girls and women equal with boys and men.Girls should get organised in each village and insist on getting equal opportunities for education as well as recreation and in the decision making in the family.” Vandana, 15 years, India “Parents must bring up their girls as an asset not a liability. They must give her equal rights, opportunities and privileges as the male child. A girl who has been a victim must be supported and needs tremendous care, rehabilitation and counselling.” Girl, 17, India 1. Early Marriage and Pregnancy In some countries, most girls marry before their 18th birthday:

• India (50%),
• Nepal (60%)
• Niger (76%)

Over 80 million girls in developing countries will be married before their 18th birthday.

Girls are infected by HIV/AIDS in disproportionately high rates – three quarters of the 15-24 year-olds infected with HIV, are young women and girls.

Pregnancy is the leading cause of death for young women aged 15 to 19.

Arranged Marriages - Mass Early Marriage - One example:

Rajasthan, India - The custom survives of giving very small children away in marriage. On the auspicious day of Akha Teej, the mass solemnisation of marriages between young boys and girls is performed. From the parents’ point of view, this is the tried and tested way of organising the passing on of property and wealth within the family. A small but significant proportion of the children involved are under 10, and some are mere toddlers of two and three years old.The girls then go on to live with their husbands when they reach puberty.

2. Abortion by gender selection:

In India, a study of 1.1 million households came to the conclusion that: “Based on conservative assumptions, the practice accounts for about 0.5 million missing female births yearly.” It continues: “Anecdotal evidence suggests that access to ultrasound is fairly widespread, even in rural areas, and although prenatal sex determination has been illegal since 1994 the law is often ignored.” Over the past two decades, this “translates into the abortion of some 10 million female foetuses.”

The practice is more common among educated families than poor households. In one clinic in India, a woman waits for an abortion. She has two daughters aged 11 and seven years, and has had nine abortions in the hope of having a son. “Dr Geeta gives everyone a son. I hope she will give me one as well,” she says fervently. When asked the reason for her desperation, her voice cracks, “I want a son as we have a big business. I want what my husband has built from ‘scratch’ to go to his own blood. I can’t think of adoption. My daughters will marry and go away; our son would stay and look after the family. 3. Nutrition: In India, under-nutrition is the underlying cause for about 50 per cent of the 2.1 million deaths of children under five each year. The numbers of girls and boys under five who are underweight is similar in all regions except South Asia, where 47 per cent of girls are underweight compared to 44 per cent of boys. In India, 60 to 70 per cent of adolescent girls are anaemic. 4. Uneven domestic house workload: Surveys in six states in India showed that women typically spend 35 hours a week on household tasks and caring for children. Men only spend four hours in these tasks. In many countries, a girl begins her domestic duties at a very young age; duties that a boy is simply not expected to undertake. These are often arduous, fetching or carrying water from many miles away, pounding rice or maize, sweeping, cleaning, looking after siblings from early morning until late at night. In South Asia, women and girls spend three to five hours more than men in a week on activities such as fetching wood and carrying water, and between 20 and 30 hours a week more on housework. Another study of a number of countries in the South, including Kenya, South Africa, Pakistan and India found that “girls spend much more time than boys on non-economic work, and these differences become substantial among those who are not enrolled in school”. It also noted that: “Young men in urban Pakistan and urban India and in rural Kenya appear to spend little time performing domestic chores whether or not they are in school.” This domestic labour on the part of girls and young women is often not counted as ‘work’ – and yet in the 1990s a study in Australia suggested that the value of such ‘domestic’ work is equivalent to 58 percent of GDP. 5. Education Even once they have arrived at school, girls face problems that may be the cause of high dropout rates. The situation is often worse in rural areas than in urban ones: for example, a study in India found that 41.3 per cent of rural girls in the 10-14 age group dropped out of school, compared to 16.6 per cent in urban areas. This is especially significant as India is 70% rural still. 6. Unequal Earning Capacity: The International Labour Organisation reports that telecentres and fax booths have created a quarter of a million jobs in India in the last four years alone, a huge proportion of which have gone to women. However, although many women are software programmers, very few are in hardware design. Nor are many involved at policy level; mostly they are involved at quite a low level. Income to estimated male earned income, 1991-2003, selected countries Source: UNDP Human Development Report, 2006 Canada 0.63 Chile 0.39 China 0.64 Côte d’Ivoire 0.32 Indonesia 0.45 India 0.31 Japan 0.44 Kuwait 0.37 Lebanon 0.31 Russia 0.62 South Africa 0.45 Sweden 0.81 Uganda 0.70 Thailand 0.59 US 0.62 UK 0.65 7. Violance against women Nearly 50% of sexual assaults worldwide are against girls aged 15 years or younger. Those living in the conflict zones are particularly at risk. Worldwide it is a problem..but in India it is interesting to see evidence of it also is influenced by caste. One five-year study in four Indian states found that 23 per cent of female Dalits interviewed had been raped, 43 per cent had experienced domestic violence, 47 per cent sexual harassment, 55 per cent physical assault and 62 per cent verbal abuse. Of all the cases studied only 0.6 per cent ever made it to court, due to obstruction by the police (who often harbour caste prejudices themselves) or by the dominant castes. Many Dalits simply accept that no-one is going to help them and don’t even attempt to seek justice. “Violence against children, especially girls, has crossed all limits... People feel that a girl is meant to be used – either as a doormat, a maid, a birth-giving machine or as a source of physical pleasure. Something CONCRETE seriously needs to be done to change the current scenario because now a girl does not feel safe even in her own house, let alone the streets.” Girl, 16, India

GDP, IT, Education, and India - scary statistics

Some new numbers and statistics..... (Is it brain drain or is it there's not enough jobs for educated people in a farming economy. Only 3% of Indian GDP comes directly from IT sector. Of course these are 2003 numbers and India is changing very dramatically. A feb 2007 article estimated that Indian economy will hit over $1 Trillion as soon as 2008. 2006 numbers with nearly $800 Billion. http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/25/business/rupee.php ) Also got recent numbers on GDP by sector 2005: I am glad to see agriculture is seriously down from even 5 years ago when it was still enormous part of the GDP. agriculture: 18.6% industry: 27.6% services: 53.8% There's another sad statistic (60% of the Indian population is dependant on agriculture which presents 18.6% of GDP) With only 4% of the educated Indians driving so much growth in India..I wonder what would happen in India invested more than it does in infrastructure and education. Comparison numbers: Investment in Education India 2.5% US 7.9% College Educated Population India 4% US 27.7% ___________________________________________________________ Source: http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/nov2006/gb20061102_285971.htm This article is from 2006 and ran in businessweek. Only 4% of Indian population has a college degree. Contrast that with the Indian American high numbers of education in my prior post!!! http://beautytobe.blogspot.com/2007/03/desi-pride.html Keeping India Poor "And then there's the other India of some 800 million in big cities, medium-size towns, and villages. They are promised everything by some 70 or more political parties in a continuous democratic exercise at the polling booth in numerous and shifting vote-getting political alliances. This is in a country where only 1.5% of women have college education and which has a gross underinvestment in education. " "This group has demonstrated what a mere 4% of the population with college education can do in a short period of less than 20 years of lower taxes and a more open economic system, when allowed to be entrepreneurs, innovators, and professional competitors inside India and to function around the world as exporters, importers, manufacturers."

How immigration laws sanction domestic violence in South Asian American homes

Wow, reading this article made me feel so sad. I really hate it when people take advantage of someone vulnerable..particularly women. I read the statistic somwhere that 1 in 4 South Asian women in this country have been subject to abuse. Not cool! Read the full article on: http://www.abcdlady.com/11-2004/art1.php "Federal law does not allow women in Geeta’s situation to work professionally, or petition for a green card individually even if they are in an abusive relationship. Also, there currently is no requirement in the fiancé-visa application process for a criminal background check on a U.S. citizen marrying an Indian-born woman, nor are these women told of how to guard against their immigration status being used against them. " The woman is held hostage by threats that the hubby won't fill out the forms needed for her to get a more permanent visa status. Sad situation. Where can they go for real help? I think a criminal check is very important!!! Also a financial check! Shows a pattern of life events.

Desi Pride

Namaste. I am proud of my Desi Indian culture. "Desi" is a term we South Asians use to refer to ourselves globally. Here are some hard US Stats from recent census studies. I wish for completeness I could also find some statistics on our political influence as far as fund raising, donation, and key players in both parties and major lobbyists. But here's what I have got. HIGH EARNERS Asian Indians are the fastest-growing and most affluent ethnic group in the United States, with a median annual household income of $66,000, which is almost 50% higher than the national average. Their estimated annual buying power exceeds $50 billion. Indians own 50% of all economy lodges and 35% of all hotels in the country, which have a combined market value of almost $40 billion. They are the single largest foreign physicians group in the country, accounting for 15% of all foreign medical graduates and nearly 5% of all U.S. physicians. Indians fuel America's technology sector. A University of California, Berkeley, Study, reported that one-third of the engineers in Silicon Valley are of Indian descent, while 7% of valley high-tech firms are led by Indian CEOs. SECOND LARGEST IMMIGRANT GROUP AFTER MEXICANS The Indian population in the United States presently tops 2 million and they are among the fastest growing ethnic group in the country. India is the second largest source of immigration to the United States, second only to Mexico, and it is by far the largest source of non-immigrant H1 visa professionals, equal almost to the rest of the world combined. India is also the largest source of foreign students in the United States, overtaking China, which has traditionally held that spot. The Indian foreign student population is the fastest growing student segment in the country, rising 22% in 2002. GROWING IN STRENGTH Indians are among the fastest growing ethnic groups in the United States. Between 1990 to 2000, the Indian population grew 133%, which is 10 times the national average of 13%. They are the third largest Asian group, behind only Chinese and Filpinos, and are growing at a far faster pace -- 5 to 7 times – than the two groups. If current trends hold, Indians are set to become the largest Asian group by the end of this decade. HIGHLY EDUCATED AND VALUED IN THE WORKPLACE Indians have the highest educational attainment of all ethnic groups, including Whites. Almost 67% of all Indians have a bachelor's or higher degree (compared to 28% nationally). Almost 40% of all Indians have a master's, doctorate or other professional degree, which is five times the national average. Of the Indian work force, almost 50 percent are employed in managerial and professional specialties. Another 33 percent work in technical, sales, and administrative support occupations. Nearly 8,000 Indian Americans serve as faculty members at colleges and universities throughout the United States.