Future Research and Training

The Centre’s agenda for research includes current key population issues. These include urbanisation, migration, environment, public health and reproductive behaviour. These initiatives will provide an opportunity to students as well as teachers to sharpen their research skills and dredge up their knowledge of empirical studies with expertise in data analysis. Another major research project under consideration is Socio-demographic Mapping of Punjab. This survey will be designed with a vision to establish benchmark indicators on socioeconomic and demographic conditions of the people of Punjab at district and provincial levels. Survey findings will be helpful in identifying information about the pace of demographic transition vis-a-vis the developmental momentum in the stratified districts of Punjab. It will further help identify future requirements of labour force and highlight the dependency ratio in selected districts of Punjab.

The Centre, by conducting various surveys, will develop a substantive database which will be used by faculty, staff and students for further analysis, preparation of theses and dissertations, classroom instruction, and for planning of programmes or development of policies. Though the database will serve the entire campus, it will be most useful for those working in social sciences, such as population sciences, economics, sociology, psychology, as well as medicine, public health, education and information technology, and public policy.

This Centre is also planning to start short courses in the fields of gender studies, reproductive health, criminology, and demography, quantitative and qualitative techniques of population data analysis. Training workshops will also be conducted in data analysis techniques, presentation of data, communication skills, teaching methodology and human resource management.