Education is accorded a high priority in development policy in most countries, including India.

Education is a fundamental requirement for enhancing overall quality of individual and societal life.

It is now common practice to infer the social status of women from their demographic characteristics. Yet it is not so easy to read through demographic progress, in terms of declines in mortality and fertility, to make unambiguous judgments about trends in women's social standing.

The statement, tucked away in one of the many thick Agrawal Samaj magazines I had been perusing, made me smile.

Pregnancy outcome in any given community-the probability of a pregnancy terminating in a full-term, healthy live birth-is a powerful indicator of the health status of its women, and of the quality of health care available to them during pregnancy and birth.