Research has
been the mainstay of the Centre since its inception. As the following
accounts will amply attest, the Centre continues to be responsive to
contemporary problems and new questions demanding investigation, while
recognising the rigours and challenges of inter-disciplinary scholarship in
the broad field of women’s studies. While the Centre has, for practical
reasons, limited its choice of areas of research drawing on the competences
and interests of the faculty, the Centre’s resources and outreach in terms
of the range of topics addressed have been growing. In the following,
brief narrations of research projects and related activities have been provided.
The following Research projects were underway:
RESEARCH PROJECTS
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Electoral
Governance and Democratic Citizenship: A Study on Election Commission of
India
...
read more...
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Contemporary Debates on Citizenship in India
...
read more...
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Survey of Homebased Workers
... read more...
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Media
Censorship and the Postcolonial Regulation of Sexuality and Culture
...
read more...
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The Adverse Child Sex Ration in North-West India
...
read more...
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Gender and Local Governance in Two Cities
...
read more...
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Globalisation and
Women's Work: Dissaggregate analysis of NSSO data
...
read more...
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The Political and Social
Economy of care in India
...
read more...
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Conditions and Needs of Women Workers in Delhi
...
read more...
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Heterodoxy and
the idea of women as independent entities: A case study of Kannada
literature in the early medieval period
...
read more...
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Nationalism and B. G. Tilak
... read more...
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Multiple Vulnerabilities and Marginal Identities: Exploring Violence
in the everyday lives of Women with Disabilities in the City
...
read more...
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Work, Health and Family Life
...
read more...
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Alternate Report on the Status
of Young Child for the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
...
read more...
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Paradigm of Justice Delivery Mechanisms from the
Perspective of Women Litigants
...
read more...
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‘Old’ Self and
‘New’ Space? Women Migrants of Tamil Origin in France
...
read more...
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The Family
among the Banaras Weavers in the Wake of the current crisis
...
read more...
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Gender and
Migration
... read more...
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Women, Equality and the
Republic
...
read more...
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Gender, Status of
Profession and Migration: A Study of Nurses from Kerala in Delhi
...
read more...
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Electoral
Governance and Democratic Citizenship: A Study on Election Commission of
India
Researcher: Anupama Roy
Ongoing work on the
project on electoral governance and democratic citizenship,
continued, whose scope has been extended to turn it into a book
manuscript. Focussing on the Election Commission which has
emerged as a significant institution within the common political
space of democracy in India, the study concerns itself with the ways
in which such a space for democracy may be built through
appropriate, adequate and effective institutional and procedural
frameworks for political participation, consonant with the
democratic will and imagination of the people.
The process of writing
and collecting material continues simultaneously. One comprehensive
introductory chapter and parts of other chapters are in place. A
manuscript should be ready by the end of 2009. National archives
are being sourced for material relating to elections and the
election commission in the years immediately following independence.
News paper reports of specific elections, private papers in NMML,
Election Commission reports and documents, judgements and interviews
of officials will also be explored.
Contemporary Debates on Citizenship in
India
Researcher: Anupama Roy
Work
on a manuscript based broadly on Contemporary Debates on Citizenship in
India is continuing simultaneously. Papers emerging from this work have
been presented in seminars/conferences. These include Between Encompassment
and Closure: The ‘Migrant’ and the Citizen in India: The
legal-constitutional language of citizenship in India shows that citizenship
oscillates ambivalently between encompassment and closure. This paper maps
the amendments that have taken place in the citizenship laws in India,
sieving out in particular the category of the ‘migrant’, to identify moments
of encompassment and closure and demonstrate the shifts in the ideological
basis and institutional practices of citizenship in India.
‘Contradictory Cohabitation or Politics of Foreclusion: The IMDT Act
and the Ambivalence of Citizenship’ (co-authored).
Through an
examination of the Illegal Migrants Determination by Tribunals Act
1983, this paper examines how the lesson of otherness is continually
reproduced and re-inscribed in the practices of citizenship, through
legal measures and judicial pronouncement.
Survey of Homebased Workers
Researcher: Indrani
Mazumdar
The
collaborative study with the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) on
Conditions of Homebased Workers in India conducted with the support
of ILO was completed in 2007. The CITU survey covered 3,300
homebased workers across 10 states. Probably the largest ever survey
of homebased workers in the country, what was unique was the
coverage of 4 metropolitan cities, 41 towns and 43 villages, though
it was based on organizational outreach rather than any statistical
sampling method.
The
detailed analysis of the data generated by the survey was analysed
under the following sections: 1.Gender Characteristics, 2.
Industries and Sectors, 3. Incomes, hours of work and wage rates, 4.
Employment Relations, 5. Markets, 6. Education and Training
mechanisms, 7. Social and economic status of homebased workers, 8.
Social Security, 9. Organisation, 10. Experience of Tsunami.
Highlights of survey findings
82.5
per cent of the workers were women. 86 per cent were piece rated
wage workers, i.e., home workers according to the definitions of the
ILO Convention.
48 per
cent of the workers gave deficit incomes as their reason for doing
homebased work, another15 per cent referred to job loss or
unemployment (their own or husband’s). Only 8 per cent quoted
tradition or hereditary occupation, while 5 per cent quoted social
and family restrictions on working. Surprisingly, only 3 per cent
stated that they were working at home because they could combine
work with childcare and domestic responsibilities. In many cases it
would be a complex of reasons including the lack of availability or
access to better quality employment, but what stood out in the tenor
of the replies of the majority of workers is the harshness of the
pressure of poverty.
Textiles and related products (34 per cent), food processing (14 per
cent), and beedi (11 per cent) were the largest industry segments.
Particularly striking was the fact that among women, the proportions
of textile workers were less than for males. The average monthly
earnings from homebased work was found to be as low as Rs.538/-.
Much of
the literature on homebased work has been focused on the export
connection. However, this survey revealed that only 5 per cent of
the workers were working for export markets. Beedi and agarbatti
were the most completely integrated into a national supply and
marketing network. Food processing also appears to be moving towards
wider markets. Piece rates paid to beedi workers were exactly the
same in Bengal and Delhi, indicating integration into a unified
national market. On the other hand, some of the traditional
occupations – bamboo/palm leaf products, pottery, etc. were almost
solely within localised circuits. Handloom production for local
markets was however shown to be virtually extinct. Somewhat
surprisingly, even religious products such as sacred ashes were
destined for other places.
Media Censorship and the
Postcolonial Regulation of Sexuality and Culture
Researcher: Karen
Gabriel
A new
research project is being prepared and conceptualized on issues
surrounding censorship.
The project aims to examine the various issues, aspects and
mechanisms that are involved in the study of the fraught field of
censorship, particularly as these pertain to the regulation of
sexuality and culture. It will do so systematically, identifying and
analyzing the various sites and mechanisms that are mobilized in the
business of censorship. It will address the many problematic and
contentious issues that censorship inevitably raises particularly in
the postcolonial context of the Indian nation-state.
Some Key Areas:
(a)
Understanding the Terms
(b)
Theories and Models of Censorship
(c)
The Case of Cinema, the case of other Media
(d)
History of Media Censorship
(e)
The Mechanisms of Media Censorship under Indian Law
(f)
Understanding Censorship and how it works as an Enterprise
Some Broad Aims/ Questions:
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1) |
What does censorship mean in the
present post colonial and modern multi-media
context? |
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2) |
Identifying and analyzing the several sites of
dissemination, noting their distinct if
occasionally overlapping frames. |
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3) |
To expand on an analytic matrix with
which the relationships between sexuality,
culture, the AV media and other satellite areas (such as
identity) may be understood. |
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4) |
To locate these within the contexts of
globalization and liberalization |
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5) |
New Challenges |
The collection, sieving
and analyzing of secondary material is in progress.
The Adverse Child Sex Ration in
North-West India
Researcher:
Mary E. John
This collaborative study by a team of
five researchers was undertaken in response to a request by Action
Aid India with subsequent support from the South Asia Office of the
International Development Research Council, Canada, initiated in
2003 and set to conclude by June 2008. Involving micro level
studies in select rural and urban contexts using both quantitative
and qualitative methodologies, the research sites were located in
Morena (Madhya Pradesh), Dholpur (Rajasthan), Kangra (Himachal
Pradesh), Rohtak (Haryana), and Fatehgar Sahib (Punjab), all of
which have seen major declines in their child sex ratios between
1991 and 2001. During 2007-08 five state reports were finalized and
a national seminar organized in December to share the main findings
of the study.
The individual reports provide a
detailed profile of the urban and rural sites selected for both
survey and ethnographic study by locally based field researchers.
The total number of households surveyed was 6500. While the Morena
and Dholpur sites were characterized by high levels of poverty and a
strong rural ambience even in some of the urban sites, Kangra and
Fatehgar Saheb, on the other hand, reveal significant signs of
urban-rural convergence, with Rohtak in between. Patterns in the
family size and the number of boys and girls preferred are
correspondingly also diverse, both in terms of desired and revealed
preferences. And yet, from the late 1980s and especially the 1990s,
changes are palpable as the small family norm begins to take hold
among groups where it was absent before, or becomes strengthened
elsewhere. This change goes hand in hand with patterns of greater
masculinisation. Decisions about having children are taking on the
form of a deliberate strategy, structured by a combination of
factors, some more unintended than others. As a consequence,
planning the family becomes effectively planning for sons and only
secondarily allowing for the birth of a daughter.
A composite report is being prepared
drawing from the more detailed survey and ethnographic data, which
provides a summary of the main findings, an account of the changes
taking place, and the factors involved. This will be published by
Books for Change in August 2008. A book is also planned. (Members
of the research team include Alpana Sagar, Rajni Palriwala, Ravinder
Kaur and Saraswati Raju.)
Gender and Local Governance in
Two Cities
Researcher:
Mary E. John
This study was initiated while the
researcher was in the Women’s Studies Programme at JNU, and
concluded during 2007-08 in the form of a lead article in EPW
(September 2007). The study focused on reservations based on caste
and gender in urban local bodies, which have been relatively
neglected in the face of the strong identification of
decentralization with the revival of the panchayats. Drawing from
134 interviews among men and women councillors in the Delhi
Municipal Corporation and the Bangalore City Corporation,
significant differences emerged between the two municipalities,
including their caste and gender politics. The study focussed on
two interrelated issues, the problem of so-called “proxy” women and
the “critical mass” rationale for reservations – whether for women
or other excluded groups. While the proxy issue is far more complex
than what existing critiques would allow, the question of whether
women constitute a political identity or force has no easy answers.
Moreover, the urban structures of local government offer several
challenges compared to that of the panchayats, including the
dominance of political parties, the high stakes – including
financial – of the municipal system, the influential role of various
organisations and local leaders, and the career paths of the
councillors themselves. Women’s organisations, among others, have
shown much less interest in interacting with urban councillors,
given some of these complexities. And yet, the study suggests that
the urban situation might hold important lessons for thinking about
the relationships between women, politics and power.
Globalisation and Women's Work:Dissagregate analysis of NSSO data
Researcher:
Neetha Narayana
Pillai
This is an ongoing study which analyses the dynamics of women’s
employment through the disaggregate analysis of the last three
rounds of NSSO employment and unemployment data. The study analyses
the employment pattern of women in the context of structural changes
in the economy with a view to identify the emerging areas of women’s
work and to outline some of the new developments or changes that are
taking place. It focuses on specific sectors/sub- sectors which are
perceived as potential/emerging areas of women’s employment, which
would enable in-depth probing into sectoral specific employment
issues of women and thus could be linked to the larger macro
economic transformations.
Findings emerging from the study have been presented in various
seminars/conferences. On the basis of the suggestions received
during an internal presentation, the scope of the study was extended
to include caste and religion in understanding women employment
patterns and its changes. A paper which analyses unpaid employment
of women across religious groups was also presented in a seminar. A
draft manuscript of the study is expected to be ready by March 2009.
The
Political and Social Economy of care in India
Researcher:
Neetha Narayana
Pillai
This is an ongoing study conducted at the behest of the UNRISD Programme
on Gender and Development. The aim of the study is to understand a) the
different institutional sites -- states, markets, families/households,
and communities -- where care takes place b) to see how the provision of
care in all these sites is distributed by gender and c) how the
provision of care (both paid and unpaid) relates to poverty and social
exclusion. The focus of the study is on the care for children.
The project is planned as a report consisting of six chapters. Of
these two chapters have been completed and were presented in a
seminar organized by UNRISD. These chapters are made available at
the UNRISD website. One of these chapters ‘Analysis of Time Use
data’ analyses time spent on care work by individuals across various
social and economic parameters. This chapter also contains a section
on valuation of care work where value of care work is compared with
some major macro economic variables. The field work of the project
has also been completed and writing based on the field work data is
progressing.
Conditions and Needs of Women Workers in Delhi
Researchers: Neetha
Narayana Pillai and Indrani Mazumdar
The
study was initiated at the behest of the Delhi Commission for Women
in March 2008. The major objectives of the study are to: 1.
Undertake an in depth analysis of the various factors that
contribute to women workers’ specific vulnerabilities and to
discriminatory and exploitative practices (including sexual
harassment) in five important segments of the female workforce. 2.
Identify the specific and practical needs for enhancing protection
of women workers in these segments, particularly in the private
sector. 3. Review and explore the effectiveness or ineffectiveness
of available mechanisms and practices currently used for redressal
in relation to sexual harassment in the workplace and the reasons.
4. Prepare a series of guidelines towards evolving more effective
mechanisms for social protection and redressal of grievances of
women workers. Fieldwork for this project would start in May 2008.
Heterodoxy and the
idea of Women as independentEntities:
A Case Study of
Kannada Literature in the early Medieval Period
Researcher:
Parimala V. Rao
The study attempts to
contextualise the representation of women in the early Kannada
literature in relation sources from inscriptions. The analysis of
nine Kannada texts composed during c.850-1250 AD forms the core of
the study. It evaluates the conflict between Brahmanism and Jainism
regarding the space provided to women in society during early
medieval Karnataka. During this period, Karnataka witnessed the
rise of the Yapaniya sect of Jainism, which defended the
spirituality of women and their ability to attain salvation. The
Prakrit grammarian Acharya Sakatayana (c.814-867 CE) the founder of
the Yapaniya sect was from Karnataka. He was the first to formulate
logical arguments in support of women’s ability to attain
salvation. The influence of the Yapaniyas is echoed in the Kannada
literary works of this period. The study analyses the contributory
factors for the rise of this sect. The study also concentrates on
the Jaina Agama texts like Sutraprabharta (c.150 AD). These texts
provide evidence on the debates regarding the spiritual space
provided to women in the early medieval period.
The project proposal has
also been submitted to ICHR for funding.
Nationalism and B. G. Tilak
Researcher: Parimala Rao
As part
of a parallel project on nationalism and the role of Bal Gangadhar
Tilak, a paper ‘Nationalism and the Visibility of Women in Public
Space: Tilak’s Criticism of Rakhmabai and Ramabai’ for the journal
the Indian Historical Review is being prepared.
Multiple vulnerabilities and Marginalidentities: exploring violence in the
everyday
lives of Women with Disabilities
Researcher: Renu Addlakha
Work continued on
this exploratory study that aims to
map the contours of violence in the lives of a representative sample
of women with disabilities in Delhi.
Using a broad operational definition of violence extending beyond
molestation, rape, dowry and abuse to incorporate the whole range of
social, economic, cultural and sexual discriminations and prejudice
that undercut the lives of persons with disabilities, the project
aims to unravel what it means to be a woman with a disability at
home, in educational institution, in special institution, in
clinical settings, at the workplace and other public spaces.
Fieldwork for this
project was started during 2007-2008. Using purposive and snowball
sampling methods, multiple in-depth interviews have commenced with
informants in different field sites. By interviewing women with
disabilities in different work sites (self-employed, informal and
NGO sectors and the government) and from different socio-economic
strata, it will be possible to explore the differential experiences
of vulnerability and marginalisation that characterise their lives.
Multiple interviews with 50 women with disabilities and smaller
sample of men with disabilities is planned. When this data set is
combined with an earlier research on sexuality, youth and disability
in Delhi, it would be possible to undertake a monograph on
disability, gender and violence in a life-cycle perspective in the
urban Indian context.
Till date multiple in
depth interviews have been conducted with a number of self-employed
persons with disabilities. The research design also involves
interviews with a smaller number of men with disabilities in order
to arrive at a comprehensive gendered perspective on disability.
Along with interviews analysis of the secondary literature has
already begun. Work on media representations and the legal discourse
on disability are also underway.
Work, Health and Family Life:
(A
Study of home based Agarbatti Workers in Gaya district of Bihar with
Special Reference to Women from Muslim and Dalit community)
Researcher: Sabiha Hussain
The study was undertaken in order to expand knowledge about the
relationships between Muslim women and work, given the under
representation of Muslim women among women workers in India. The
sites of the study were in selected villages in Gaya district,
comparing agarbatti workers from the Muslim community with Dalit
women. Broadly speaking, a range of factors – economic, cultural and
the specific dimensions of homebased work were found to be central
in structuring women’s relationship to work, families and their
health. While there are definite differences in Muslim and Dalit
women’s reasons for and experiences in undertaking this work, it is
necessary to explore these carefully rather than assume a
stereotypical notion of the specific influence of Islam. The
ideological frameworks, values, attitudes and perceptions attached
to women’s work have been explored, as well as their health, and
family life from a gender perspective and how these issues affect
their day to day life. Reasons for the preference of home based
economic activities by Muslim women were also explored.
The findings of the study show that work preferences are structured
by the class/ caste to which women belong, the prevailing gender
relations, their skill and education, their networks with other
women, the existence of women’s groups, the attitude of service
providers, women’s accessibility and awareness and so on. On certain
issues the relevance of living in Muslim concentrated areas became
significant – accessing information and forming collectives, and
especially in gaining access to government schemes including those
relating to micro-finance.
A report of the study has been prepared and will be revised for
publication.
Alternate Report on the Status
of Young Child for the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
Coordinator:
Savitri Ray
As part
of Forces network, CWDS has been preparing an alternate report on
Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD). This programme is
supported by PLAN International.
The
area of ECCD and its crucial significance for children has been
neglected in any discussion and policy analysis of the overall
status of children. The rationale for taking the initiative in
preparing the Alternate Report is to highlight the importance of
ECCD in the overall development of the child in India. The proposed
report will consist of two parts: one brief and concise report which
will be submitted to the UN CRC Committee and a second one which
will be a more comprehensive report on the status of the young child
in India, which will be used for advocacy among grassroots
organizations and policy makers. The report(s) will focus
specifically on the years from 2002- 2007.
The
broad themes that the report will focus on are as follows:
a) Health and Nutrition
b) Early Childhood Education
c) The
Situation of the Girl Child
d) The Social Economy of Care
e) An Overall review of the Policies and Programmes of the Government
of India, including
broad budgetary trends both at the Central and
State levels with specific focus on the
trends emerging in the last five years.
The earlier study on
The Missing Girl Child: National and Global Data will also become
part of the chapter on the situation of the Girl Child.
Paradigm of Justice Delivery
Mechanisms from the Perspective of Women Litigants: Empowerment or
Victimisation?
Researcher:
Shalu Nigam
This project looked at
the problems faced by women litigants in their attempts to obtain
justice through the legal system and a draft report of the study has
been prepared.
The study concentrated
on an analysis of the narratives of women who, as victims of
domestic violence, approach the courts under Section 498A of the IPC.
Through their
experiences the processes and functioning of state institutions
becomes visible. The broad findings indicate that while the law has
provided a unique context for women to negotiate claims of
injustice, its concrete functioning disqualifies their experiences
of violence. It is the institution of marriage rather than the
victim that is at the heart of protection by the legal machinery
constituted by the police, lawyers and the judiciary, and others
involved in the actual implementation of the legal process.
Further, procedural lacunae often have the effect of re-victimising
the complainant who is compelled to surrender herself before the
authority of the law. While there is ample scope for the
subjectivity of the agents of the law in its actual operation,
women’s agency and her need for practical solutions are overshadowed
– at most the system provides for punishment. Finally, the study
revealed that far from a growing misuse of the provisions of Section
498A as the public is being led to believe, the law is severely
under-utilised, with existing impediments performing a powerful
demotivating function.
In the face of the new
Domestic Violence Prevention Act of 2005 that has attempted to
address some of the problems in the prior law, the study will
therefore provide a benchmark regarding problems in the prior
structures of laws meant to provide justice to women litigants.
‘Old’ Self and ‘New’ Space? Women
Migrants of Tamil Origin in France
Researcher:
Sreelekha Nair
The researcher is on
extra ordinary leave (October 2007-June 2008) to pursue a project of
nine months as Hermes Post Doctoral Fellow at the
Maison
des Sciences de
l’Homme,
Paris, attached to Centre national recherché
scientifique.
|
During this period a short study of women migrants of Tamil
origin in France has been undertaken. It is organised
around the following questions: |
|
1) |
How do women negotiate with the new space related to
economic activities? |
|
2) |
How do women negotiate their space within the migrant
community, especially when there is a strong sense of
ethnic, cultural identity among the migrants with
concomitant conventional roles? |
|
3) |
Do women, as active agents of migration, recreate the
cultural context of the original community which is often
idealized? |
|
4) |
How do they keep their ties with their places of origin? |
|
5) |
What roles do social networks play in the above processes as
well as in migration? |
This study will form a complement to the larger study on nurses from
Kerala in Delhi which is being completed.
The Family Among the Banaras
Weavers in the Wake of the Current Crisis
Researcher: Vasanthi Raman
The
researcher is on extraordinary leave from the CWDS and has joined
the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla as a Fellow from
November 2007 to October 2008. During this time she is working on a
monograph on The Family of the Banaras Weavers in the Wake of the
Current Crisis.
The deep crisis in the
handloom industry (and now even the powerloom industry) constitutes
the context of this study. The crisis in the handloom sari industry
has been brewing since the early nineties; since 1995, the impact of
the crisis became visible and it has acquired full-blown proportions
since 2003.
While earlier the
artisanal family was impacted and determined by the market, the
family continued to remain as the unit through which negotiations
with the public domain took place. Now with the full scale
penetration of market forces, and the sari weaving industry on the
verge of oblivion, individual members of the artisanal family are
poised to face the world of the public and the market as
individuals, with perhaps almost no cushion of the family left.
While some of the questions have emerged in the course of previous
work, the rapidity of change over the last three to four years has
thrown up the following areas which need to be further explored:
1)
The structural changes that are taking place in the Banaras
weaver’s family and the
direction of change;
2)
The livelihood options that are being exercised both by the family
as a whole and by the
individual men and women in the family;
3)
The impact of these options on the gender and generational relations
of the family;
4)
The subjective dimensions of the life choices on the family members.
The study would be based
on ethnographic work based on interviews with selected families in
Banaras both among the poor weavers who have been the principal
victims of the present crisis as well as among the well-to-do
business and entrepreneurial sections.
Gender
and Migration
Researcher:
Indu Agnohotri and Indrani Mazumdar
Drawing on the pilot
investigations by Indu Agnihotri and Indrani Mazumdar, a proposal
for a three year research project on Gender and Migration:
Negotiating Rights – A Women’s Movement Perspective was prepared
and the project commenced from March 2008. The CWDS faculty team
leading the project are Indu Agnihotri (Project Director), Indrani
Mazumdar (Assistant Project Director), N. Neetha and Sabiha Husain
(part time Associates).
The project aims at
exploring the motivations, compulsions and women’s experiences of
internal migration in India; analysing the direction of changes
effected in their personal and work lives; and identifying the new
possibilities and tensions generated by migration processes,
including its impact on family relations, economic structures and a
broad range of citizenship rights. It will bring into focus the
forms of labour migration by women; highlight the characteristics of
the select sectors where women migrant workers are concentrated and
the issues and policies that affect them as workers, as women and as
citizens. It will address issues requiring policy intervention to
safeguard the rights of women migrants, review the nature and
limitations of rights and representation available to migrants, and
facilitate a dialogue with policy makers towards bringing migrants
within the ambit of “inclusive growth”.
The project plan
envisages preparation of an initial background paper based on
detailed analysis of available macro-data and other studies,
identifying the data gaps as well as questions and issues that
require to be amplified with further field studies and information.
On this basis, a series of regional consultations are to be
organized with scholars, regional researchers, women’s
organizations, trade unions and NGOs as well as experienced field
personnel of the government.
Further investigations in
the plantation areas of Dibrugarh (Assam), North Jalpaiguri (West
Bengal), and the Salem/Dharmapuri/Namakkal/Erode/Tiruppur districts
of Tamil Nadu across 2007-08 are playing a role in preparation of
the background paper to enable a better grasp of the range of issues
to be followed up.
This project has received
special support through a grant from the IDRC, Canada.
Women, Equality and the Indian Republic
Researcher:
Indu Agnihotri
The project for
compilation of documents with regard to Women and Governance has moved
ahead and has, in fact, technically seen closure since December 2007.
Two volumes sent to Pearson Publishers have moved from the stage of
editing and review and are in the final stages of publication. Two more
volumes: Changing the Terms of Discourse, Gender Equity and the Indian
State, edited by Dr. Kumud Sharma and edited by Ms. C. P. Sujaya,
respectively, have been sent to the Ministry on completion. The volume
edited by Dr. Kumud Sharma has also been sent to the Publisher. The
remaining volumes, edited by Ms. Nirmala Buch on Rural Development,
Prof. Mohan Rao on Population and on the pre-independence period by Dr.
Indu Agnihotri are likely to be ready within the next few months.
Gender, Status of
Profession and Migration: A Study of Nurses
from Kerala in Delhi
Researcher:
Sreelekha R.Nair
This study seeks to
explore the gender implications of migration and the processes subsequent to
it within the urban settings of Delhi and its relation with the perceived
low status of nursing as a profession. The study looks at the choice of
profession, migration and formation of neighbourhoods by Malayali nurses at
an informal level in Delhi.
Initial
research questions of the study on status of the profession of nursing and
migration, especially as single women seeking work are found to be
important. Issues related to these dimensions of my study are also marked as
relevant by those within the profession.
Two
occasional papers have come out of the project in collaboration with
scholars who are working on different aspects of the same issue. (1) A
Profession on the margins: Status
issues in Indian nursing, Occasional Paper no. 45, CWDS, in
collaboration with Ms.Madelaine Healey of La Trobe University,
Australia, 2006. (2) Transcending Boundaries: Indian Nurses in
Internal and International Migration, in
collaboration with Ms. Marie Percot,
Laboratoire
d’Anthropologie Urbaine (UPR34 CNRS), France.
Draft
of a manuscript of around 200 pages based on the fieldwork of the
above study is ready. Organisation of the chapters is as follows:
1) Introductory Chapter
2) Beyond Well-Being: Development of Nursing in Kerala
3) Choice of Nursing: A Life Strategy
4) Status of Nursing and Nurses in Kerala and India
5) Migration: Delhi as a Transit Residence
6) Identity: Professional, Gender and Ethnicity
7) Concluding Chapter.
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