This is the first attempt to report the data on menopause from Uttarakhand, a state located in northern India. Computed age at the onset of menopause varied by approximately 2 years with different methodologies used. Socioeconomic status and lifestyles significantly affect the age at the onset of menopause. Most of the women rated menopause as a positive change in life.

Women's empowerment is a major concern in the developing world and is emerging as an important indicator of the development of a society as well as the status of women. In this paper, we study empowerment of women in families which have experienced the migration of their male members. A direct relationship between migration of a husband and a woman's empowerment is difficult to establish. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile examining whether women have experienced any change in their freedoms in terms of decision making, mobility and restrictions. Our measure of women's empowerment is based mainly on three indicators, viz. their decision-making powers, restrictions placed on them and their mobility. Analysis of these three indices of women's empowerment has been achieved through multinomial logistic regression models on data from India's 2005-2006 National Family Health Survey-3 (NFHS-3). The findings of this study show that out-migration of men has not had a significant impact on the emancipation of women. The common factors which increase the decision-making power and mobility of women and lessen the social restrictions placed on them are age, their educational attainment, marital duration, occupation and residence in urban areas.

Global capitalism made possible the expansion of economic processes that spread to all parts of the world and transformed many regions into economic areas reigned by the principle of free market. ASEAN integration facilitated such process in the region and as a consequence political and state boundaries do not only become porous but also transforms people and communities into either consuming subjects or commodities. Reviewing kinship mode of production as the characteristic nature of production systems of ASEAN communities, the paper argues for possible alternative production organizations and arrangements that are much more culturally attuned to traditional forms of economic life.

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