thethinkingsombrero

[thethinkingsombrero]

Starting point of data analysis: Is this a myth?

For weeks now, I have been struggling to write down a sensible and a “coherent” first draft of my empirical chapters. I write this post, with an important quote, in the hope that other distraught PhD students find timely inspiration and are able to get their foot into the door. The following quote from the academic Christina Hughes on the process of analyzing qualitative data, expresses the “eureka” moment that she encountered while working through her drafts. The moment came from a comment on a question posed by her supervisor. Her work is on stepfamilies. I have edited some of her text into one long para, to help the reader make sense of her process.

I have written elsewhere about the role and importance of the supervisor in the construction of a PhD (See Hughes and Burgess 1993).

My initial drafts focused on individuals as unedited histories of their lives. The early writing of these chronologies was the beginning of a more formal ordering of data, but within a structure which replicated the personal and individual view I had of each stepparent. It is at this point that I should stress that the development of the analytical framework for my research on the stepfamily owes much to the insight of my supervisor.

In particular, sections of the drafts, included one cited above with regard to Jane and Polly, were returned to me with the comments, ‘Is this a myth?’ or ‘Myth seems important here’. Such comments should not have surprised me. The literature on stepfamily is replete with stories about the wicked stepmother.

Thus the question, “Is this a myth?” was a turning point in the analytic process. It marked the time when I stopped searching in the dark and began to gain a clear view of the major theme of the research.

Strauss comments that when analyzing field data the question, “Whats the main story here?” is a kind of motto (1987:35) to be repeated often. In this simple format, there is an element of truth - it sums up the technical task I experienced when analyzing the stepfamily data. The notion of a ‘main story’ however, unfortunately, also serves to reduce the painstaking process which is inevitable in analytical thinking, and to suggest that analyzing data creates no more than a quasi-fictional tale.

There are many paragraphs and sentences that I have skipped in between but I hope that I have been successful in putting across the central point: ask your data the question, how does your thesis findings defy myth? The themes that emerge once you begin to answer that question, therein lies your answers.

If you maybe interested, this is the reference: Hughes, C. “From field notes to dissertation”. pp. 35-46. In: Analyzing Qualitative Data. Bryman, A; Burgess, R. 1994. Routledge. Here is the author’s bio and there are some helpful notes on the research process, reflecting her keen and thoughtful engagement with it.

[thethinkingsombrero]

Beginning of a new conversation on labour laws in India

State building is a continuous activity; governments and their agendas shape the direction of policy from time to time.  The Modi government’s recent statements on the labour laws contradicts the populist agenda that support industry that it is eager to please. In this blog post, I will superimpose Modi’s statements from the recently convened Indian Labour Conference on July 20,2015 from this news story against the amendments recommended in the Labour Laws at the Union and State levels from here. 

Statement 1: Apprenticeship

If we want to move ahead, we need to give opportunities to our youth. Giving opportunities to apprentices is the need of the hour.

Statement 2: Social Security

We have come up with three important schemes to ensure social security for even the unorganised labour. It is my effort to simplify the laws so that even the poorest are able to understand their rights and avail them.

Statement 3: Dreams

If a labourer doesn't give wings to his own dreams, he will not able to fulfill the dreams of others.

In complete contrast to these statements, some critical amendments have been implemented in the Factories Act, Labour Laws Act, Apprenticeship Act.

Firstly, The amendments in Factories Act allows doubling up overtime from 50 to 100 hours, from 75 to 125 hours for projects of public-interest. Aimed to improve productivity, this law opens up the door for exploitation of labour at the hands of contractors as this article portrays. PM’s Statement 2 guarantees social security but disempowers factory workers through the recommended amendment.

Secondly, Amendments in Apprenticeship Act drops punitive action such as imprisonment against employers who do not follow the legislation and now they will not be obligated to employ the apprentices that they train in their workshops. PM’s Statement 1 highlights the need for apprentices but the amendment that he recommends relinquishes responsibility of it from the owners.

Thirdly, Labour Laws Act with the amendments now allows for small companies with 10-40 employees to be exempt from fulfilling the norms of hiring labour, including filing taxes or meeting the guidelines of minimum wages. The State of Rajasthan has already passed some of these amendments in their Parliament in November 2014 last year as this news report shows. They have added more, including a draconian amendment that demands 30% membership of labour unions (15% earlier) to legitimize the union. PM’s Statement 3 that emphatically acknowledges the dreams of labourers contradicts their real stand through this legislation. If their rights are not even acknowledged, their wings are automatically clipped.

For the sake of argument, these are progressive laws since they focus on reforming a system that is largely “informal”, “unclear” and “slow”. Moreover, the government intends to lure industry to make more investments. I do believe that the growth of industry positively influences the fortunes of the poor, but herein lies the problems with the amendments that the government sneakily recommends:

As industry prospers, the rights-based framework to protect the informal labour needs to tighten. Countries like Norway thrive on a welfare framework that supports industry as well as rights-based institutions. If the Modi government’s skewed policy framework has to continue, the casual labourers - that consist of a majority in small and medium-sized factories - will find themselves in the most precarious conditions of existence.

Before Modi’s speech at the ILC, the demands of labour union leaders went unheeded, as this news story showed. Some of their demands included setting a ceiling for minimum wages, signing the ILO conventions, among other things.

In the end, the government’s agenda caters to industry - Foucault refers to it as economic rationality to explain political outcomes. The shift of power from the welfare State to neoliberal actors is slowly taking form in India, one that reduces the subaltern to statistics. Nevertheless, as it stands right now - the popular vote still lies with Modi government, resonating the empty rhetoric that middle class India identifies with. 

[thethinkingsombrero]

Cities and slums: how is legislation influencing slum residents?

It is impossible to imagine mega cities in the developing countries without slums. They remain an intrinsic part of the urban infrastructure and urban imagination. Yet the character of slums is varied, the demographics of each slum are unique. There are different types of slums (See the discussion on squatter settlements v/s slums*), and the residents of these slums are legally recognized under their tenure status. There are certain guidelines of tenure, how long you have occupied the land, that provides the slum dweller legality to the land. Nevertheless, it is recognized that slum dwellers despite the tenure system live without justice even as they form major votebanks. Towards the end of this post, I will discuss how the latest proposal from the Maharashtra Government fits into the neo-liberal framework of the State, alienating the rights of the slum dwellers even further.

My parent’s home in the mega city of Mumbai has seen many house helps (usually a female) over the last 3 decades, each from a different slum community, painting a different picture of her surroundings and her family’s access to basic services such as water and education. Our newest house-help Anita narrated a curious incident that happened to her slum a few days ago. The water from the taps had run dry in April, one of the hottest months of the year. She pointed out that the newly elected Member of the Legislative Assembly or MLA had promised them regular water supply during summer but failed on his promise. Her neighbor, secretary of the Slum’s Committee went knocking on the local party headquarters but was told that the water supply to their community was illegally supplied. In order to get access, they needed to apply for access through formal channels. Anita asked me with a laugh, “how will slum communities get access through formal channels, tell me?”  The rhetoric resonated with me. If slums are informal settlements, with informal channels of access - why is there no political will to permanently streamline their rehabilitation through the tenure system?

Here is an example of how this Slum Redevelopment Scheme that tried to marry the interests of big builders with slum dwellers but met with severe reports of corruption and scams run by builders. The eviction drives are severe enough with slum dwellers living in utter squalor but the legal system - wheeled by the then government - provides them no respite, with land cases dragging on for years. The current neo-liberal climate** favors legislative reforms that benefit the corporate builders more than the poor, despite some local advocacy initiatives that try to overturn eviction decisions as in this case. Finally, the latest law on slums that is waiting to be introduced by Maharashtra State will prove to be the harshest movements from the State.

This law simply gives builders and developers more authority to expedite evictions of slum dwellers without the right tenure papers****. The Chief Minister of the State wants to turn Mumbai slum-free by 2022! To be sure, I do believe that redevelopment of slums and vulnerable housing complexes is a necessary pathway to sustainable development but the real question is - will the most vulnerable, the new unskilled migrant, be protected? The answer is a resounding no. The matter of rehabilitating slum residents, as distinct as they stand, is not an easy one but the lack of political will to righteously resolve it or even allow an open dialogue between the different stakeholders about it as suggested here, seems to become clear with this latest proposal.

* In Baud and Nainan’s paper ( 2002:485), they point out that the instead of the earlier plan of mainstreaming slums into urban living by providing them basic rights, the current legal framework is trying to evict the squatter settlements “the trespassers on public land” out of the city. Therefore, the nature of slums in megacities like Mumbai vary significantly, based on the tenure of their residents.

** By neo-liberal climate, I strictly imply the nexus of public land with the free market economy, where it is no longer the State’s primary responsibility or duty to ensure shelter for its citizens.

**** Is tenure system even a sustainable system? How legitimate is the system of acquiring the right tenure papers? This is yet another dimension to slum rehabilitation that needs another blog post.

[thethinkingsombrero]

Backwardness and reservations

     Affirmative action (AA) is common in many diverse societies of republic states. AA refers to public policy that supports educational and employment reservations awarded to a cross section of the state’s population that are either socially or economically disadvantaged. But these programs are not necessarily successful as this post succinctly argues. Not only are there limited empirical studies to demonstrate their impact, but they tend to favor the development of the rich in the said backward communities. In India, affirmative action in the form of reservations are classified on caste/sub-caste and religious grounds. These social groups have been historically backward, unable to respond of human development and progress across the centuries. A critical point that highlights the problems of implementing AA in India, as in other countries is the inability of these programs to adapt to social change. For instance, in my thesis I have noted how some O.B.C (Other Backward Classes)** communities that access AA benefits are benefiting from immigration to Gulf countries, and in the present day India form a wealthy social group. They have access to development but AA policies have not adapted to their change of economic status, continuing to award them advantage of AA.

     Therefore the question is, in the case of India : do historically disadvantaged caste groups equal to backwardness in the present times?  It is no secret that affirmative action is commonly used in India by legislators as a tool to lobby for votes. Even as the caste-based beneficiaries serve as votebanks, the legislation with its archaic definitions of backwardness results in faulty targeting. Therefore the time is ripe in India to redefine backwardness. A new statement from a bench of the Supreme Court seems to be heading in that direction.

“Backwardness is a manifestation caused by the presence of several independent circumstances, which may be social, cultural, economic, educational or even political. New practices, methods and yardsticks have to be continuously evolved, moving away from a caste-centric definition of backwardness. This alone can enable recognition of newly emerging groups in society, which would require palliative action.” (Quoted from here)

In fact, this statement from the judiciary is in tandem with the Evaluation report submitted to the Union ministry and headed by leading demographer/sociologist Amitabh Kundu. Nevertheless, inaction on the front of affirmative action has been a common malaise in India, as noted in other countries***. In fact, I would go as far as to say that the decadence in development policy of redefining the Poverty Line (PL) and AA lie on the same bed of political inaction. New social groups fall in and out of poverty, the deserving beneficiaries continue to be left out of development programs but the policymakers remain unmoved. Said Jaffrelot (here) wisely, “ While a politician thinks about the next election, a statesman thinks of the next generation.”

** This paper presents important empirical data on 1) how O.B.Cs are legally classified for AA programs 2) how their economic situation is rapidly changing

*** The case of AA for African Americans has been paralleled with the case of India in Gupta (2002:100). Reference: Gupta, D. 2002. Interrogating caste: Understanding Hierarchy and Difference in Indian Society. Penguin Books India.

[thethinkingsombrero]

Of new legislation, rickshaw-pullers and migrants (what else?)

There is an interesting piece of legislation that was recently approved in India’s Upper House. The introduction of battery-operated/e-commerce rickshaws have paved the way to the country finally taking small steps towards grappling with climate change. While the legislation is a step in the right direction, there is a tiny detail in this article, a quote from the minister that brought to my attention - the absolute disconnect between the masses and the policymakers

“A man pulling a rickshaw is an inhuman practice. It must stop,” he said, adding that the government would offer attractive loans to people to buy e-rickshaws.

There is no one reason not to gaff at this statement. First off, this inhuman practice has been practiced for generations. Secondly, the poor are pulling rickshaws voluntarily. Thirdly, a majority of the rickshaw pullers are outside of the purview of formal financial institutions. These are a class of rural migrants (I am already assuming here that a majority of rickshaw pullers are circular migrants) who live in the cycle of debt, who have had little or no visibility in national news. The minister announces special interest rates for SC/ST/OBCs too, without acknowledging the fact that the ones who will participate in this venture are laborers who are eligible for the loans in the first place.

There is continued reason to cheer the new legislation that supports sustainable means of growth in India, but it appears (if has not been empirically proven time and again) that their implementation is often flawed. I will not delve into this too deeply, but suffice to say that their scrapping the education clause as conditions for driving the e-commerce rickshaws (8th std pass - I mean really? what happened to skills as a parameter?) demonstrates how far off the scale are we. While China at least acknowledges the migrants through a hukou system of registration, the system is all muddled up for rural labor in urban centres in India. This is again a completely tangential argument, knowing that the legislation above does not clearly point at WHO they are catering to, to begin with. But my point is, shouldn’t it be there?

[thethinkingsombrero]

Methods and data collection

In Maxwell's text on qualitative methods, there is an important distinction on the relationship between data collection and research questions that need to be re-iterated. The terminologies that are often used in quantitative methods contrast much of the practice in qualitative techniques. Maxwell's text is especially relevant today, where there is a sudden rush to enter mixed-methods and quantitative methods without having understood the essence and details of qualitative methods of data collection.

There is no necessary similarity or deductive relationship between your research questions and the methods you use to collect your data (including your interview questions); the two are distinct and separate parts of your design. This can be a source of confusion, because researchers often talk about "operationalizing" their research questions, or of "translating" the research questions into interview questions. Such language is a vestige of logical positivist views of the relationship between theory and data, views that have been almost abandoned by philosopher's (Philips, 1987). The practical consequence of this philosophical shift is that there is no way to logically or mechanically convert research questions; your methods are the means of answering your research questions, not the logical transformation of the latter.

He explains clearly and succinctly the no-nonsense relationship between the research questions and the methods. It is really strange that during my formative courses in research methodology, this worldview was never given much emphasis. On the contrary, one of my favorite professors often used the term "operationalization" in my qualitative methods class very frequently and that confused me completely. In the world of fieldwork, where reflexivity is key - the intention to operationalize the research questions is extremely problematic. Moreover, the above text from Maxwell highlights the potential problems of interpreting the research questions in the methodology, such that the nuances of the research can be captured. Below, he skillfully provides solutions on how to frame interview questions after having framed the research questions.

Your research questions formulate what you want to understand; your interview questions are what you ask people in order to gain that understanding... The development of good interview questions requires creativity and insight, rather than a mechanical translation of the research questions into an interview guide...

This lack of isomorphism between questions and methods also holds for observations and other methods. As with interviews, you need to anticipate what information you will actually be able to collect in the setting studied, using particular observational and other methods, and if possible you should pretest these methods to determine if they will actually provide this information. Your data collection strategies will go through a lengthy process of focusing and revision, even in a carefully designed study, to make sure that they are providing the data that you need to answer your research questions and to address any plausible validity threats to these questions

The above texts provide a lot of important insights on how to formulate interview guides that reflect the depth of the research questions, but of course, since every research is unique, they leave the discussions on the decisions of fieldwork up to each fieldworker. The greatness of much of the work from Maxwell is the way in which he authoritatively explains and describes the distinction of qualitative research design, but does not step into the realm of grounded theory or phenomenology. These kinds of texts help not only beginners but also advanced scientists who look for clarity and practical ideas on how to effectively conduct research that is interpretative but also exploratory in nature.

Reference: Maxwell, J. 1996. pp. 63-85. "Methods: What will you actually do?" In: Maxwell, J. Qualitative Research Design: An interactive approach. Sage Publications: USA.

[thethinkingsombrero]

[thethinkingsombrero]

Euskadi and permanent out-migration trends

I have a friend, let's call her Ana. She is from the economically backward and agriculturally rich region of La Huelva in Andalucia. She migrated from the south of Spain to Euskadi a few years ago in search of employment and a good life. She was armed with a degree in communication and film studies. After having spent 4 years working as a camera person with an overseas TV channel in Bilbao, she lost her job to the "crisis" and has been unemployed for a year now. For a lack of a better job options, she took up several odd jobs - from hand washing dishes in an Italian restaurant to working in a bar next door. She has a brilliant and a creative mind but these days, her days are spent in looking out for more odd jobs of handing out brochures alongside applying for new media jobs that allows her to emigrate to Latin America. She appears cynical of her job prospects in Euskadi but since she can't return home to la Huelva, she continues to languish in the informal economy and get hard cash to pay her bills without having to pay taxes.

Here is an article - one of several others - that highlight the desperate state of youth unemployment and rising inflation in the Basque region (Euskadi henceforth) of Spain. The article from El Correo talks about how 4 of every 10 out-migrants, between the age groups of 18-34 years, from Euskadi do not return home.The story of Ana is one of many others that remains common to the ears in Bilbao. The region, which has a long standing tradition of development and urbanization - that long attracted many Spaniards from within the country for employment - is gripped by alarming lack of opportunity and growth. How this situation would affect the the blue collared immigrants is a completely different argument. That the perception of people towards "Latinos" and "Moroccans" has been radical and uncompromising is well acknowledged, but here is an account on how the "crisis" has radicalized it. The article very rightly notes that while many other countries in Europe such as the United Kingdom and Greece, perceive expats as responsible for the crisis, the immigrants in Euskadi are often seen as "victims" or sufferers.

The purpose of this article is not just to point out the severity of the crisis on the lives of the drifting and cynical youth of this fast-aging region but also to analyze the weakening social security nets during the crisis of this magnitude. While the socialist state ensures that they get their unemployment benefits, why is real job creation so slow? There have been confirmed and unconfirmed news reports that highlight the strength of the informal economy - that generates revenue, provides temporary employment and fails to address the fiscal deficits of the economy. The consequences of the mass out-migration is a deeper crisis than a merely economic one:  this "crisis" is a huge existential cyst for the country's youth where not only are they running away from lack of opportunity in their country but also a lack of belief in their own systems. The common explanation that the common man uses to describe their current state is,

We enjoyed the benefits of economic growth very quickly and unreasonably, now we are paying for it

And so they are moving: architects, engineers, linguists, creative minds, they are moving to Scandinavia and Germany, leaving behind families and uncertain futures, language and culture. This is not only the lost generation, it is the bitter generation that is immigrating to find a new direction for themselves.

[thethinkingsombrero]

Kindle for Life

This post is only aimed at an audience that uses, plans to use or involves aficionados of the reading tab Kindle. I am certain that everyone who has had a lot of reading to do alongside a long commute to work prefer to carry a lot of the paperwork with them. I have commuted a lot through the years (closer to 3-4 hours daily, that's right) while I was a student at the university in Mumbai. Having always carried a book in my backpack as well as random paperwork, I realized that commuting and physical books are incompatible activities, taking a serious toll on my enthusiasm for reading. In contrast, Kindle PaperWhite is a smartly designed, extremely handy tab that has proved to be an asset like no other. Having used it rigorously for over a year now, there are a few observations I list down here that allow me to use it to its most optimal advantage:

Amazon v/s PDF: It was a recent discovery that Amazon now allows Kindle rentals. An excellent option for academics! Academic books that are compendiums of articles or chapters, require less than a week to cross off your list. In fact, renting books for a month also gives you a sense of urgency to get through it. The second point that I want to make here is about pdfs v/s kindle downloaded books. I often do the former only to realize that it is very inconvenient. "The font's too small and can't be adjusted" "it is impossible to navigate the footnotes" and even while they seem petty problems, its definitely a way to dissuade you from going to the pdfs on a tiring day.

Simply featured: Smartphones have reduced our interaction to technology to touch but since I am a traditionalist when it comes to books, it helps that the Kindle paperwhite helps to retain the old character of the book. It is not a substitute for a real book, merely an alternative but nonetheless, knowing that you don't do much on the Kindle except read, helps me use it for what it is: a reading tab. I know that if it had a strong browser, it would remain my inventory of maximum unread books but since it has rather simple features, I fish out the Kindle with an agenda to read or make notes of my previous reading. It's awesome like that. 

I can come up with numerous examples of how the Kindle is an instrumental factor in bringing reading back in fashion. It is commonplace to see people use it on flights or trains. Having said that, I really wish that they could have Kindle-d many of the academic books on Amazon and kept the price brackets several notches lower. I think the success of the Kindle lies in its growing users and different "kinds" of users across continents. Even while we wait until that happens, I will continue to promote the product to a like-minded audience. However I hear that Nook is a great competitor too. Interesting to imagine how the reading tab market unfolds in this decade.

[thethinkingsombrero]

[thethinkingsombrero]

Immigration through boats: Locating the central narrative

The immigration stories from Europe of the arrival of undocumented migrant families via boats are nothing short of bone-chilling. To me, their most striking feature is that they are extremely recurrent across media platforms with recurrent potential solutions but mostly existing in consistent policy inertia. This article uses one such front page story, analyzing how it reflects the role of different stakeholders in this complex movement of people from developing countries to Europe and the challenges they pose to them.

Even while this constant narrative on immigration as a safety valve that reverberates through a lot of the NYT articles, the article dated 1st December in the iNYT outlines new data on the "kind" of people who take up this journey. The article states that the Syrian refugees who arrive on the Italian coast are professionals and middle-class folk who arrive there to escape the poverty and lack of opportunity in their country. Moreover, they immigrate in high risk conditions to Italy but in reality seek asylum in countries with better employment prospects and social security nets such as Sweden and Germany. Furthermore, there is some descriptive information on the smuggling agents who facilitate the risk averse waterways from source to destination and the high bandwidth of casualties against the economic costs of the travel by sea to travel north strongly disfavors them and their security. While this information that the article portrays is definitely illuminating (even though their sources seem inadequate), the debate on immigration is back to where it started. Why do people immigrate? There are quotes from immigration officers across the 1st Dec iNYT article quoting them state that managing the exodus of migrant ships that reach their coasts at Sicily, irrespective of the red tape concerning asylum seekers, their focus remains providing immediate and emerging humanitarian help in whichever way they can that often contradicts their protocol. Not only is the policy for incoming migrants unaligned to deal with the exodus (it can be even be said that it is in fact, obtuse and ineffective, catering neither to the migrants nor the residents) but it remains uncoordinated with the local law enforcing authorities.  Many short term reprieves can be achieved including legalizing routes of migration and taking stock of the migrant smuggling mafia followed by creating new and clear norms for seeking asylum, providing basic living facilities (See SPHERE) for arriving migrants, moving the dialogue from, how can we save the boats from being capsized? - to - what can the governments and the state do jointly to address their uncertain livelihoods? Surely economic migrants prove to be a tough call for authorities to address but that dialogue can be negotiated when there is better transparency from the EU on the asylum terms. At a time when the public institutions in countries such as Italy and Spain are starting to collapse and employment terms for locals and residents continue to remain severe, there seems to be an even greater need to openly dialogue on the future of immigrants arriving on the coasts via boats. A new question to address this age-old dilemma of boat migrants, will help tackle the dynamics of the problem better. Moreover, it is certain that there is a much larger integration dialogue between new immigrants and residents that remains unattended as policy hangs in limbo. 

[thethinkingsombrero]

INGOLD, T. (2008) Anthropology is Not Ethnography, Proceedings of the British Academy, 154, 69-92, The British Academy.

[thethinkingsombrero]

The "Well-meaning" Benefactor

The subject of humanitarian funding in India is a critical one. There is a constant ethical battle that NGOs face in order to determine if they can/want to/should obtain funding from agencies/organizations/individuals for their projects. The typical questions revolve around religious/cult led funding agencies, funding from political groups, individual charities, NRI funds. The truth is, not only are these the most common sources of funding in India but they are also the most unreliable ones. To be clear, I am not promoting funding without any kind of a vision either (ideology well, that's a different space altogether). Needless to add, the state of humanitarian funding in India is in a state of turmoil at this point the economy declared to be in a "short-term depression" if the current state of 63 rupees to a dollar is anything to go by. The impact of the falling rupee on the large-scale humanitarian projects makes for another debate of course, another set of variables that help determine why they fail.  However the point I'm trying to make is this, humanitarian aid remains the nerve-center for severe volatility that occurs in the economy.

The long-term prospects for how aid evolves, will remain critical in a country like India where much of the humanitarian work addresses vulnerability during disasters. (Middleton and O'Keefe, 1998 "Disasters and Development": The Politics of Humanitarian Aid - is a great reference for further reading) However this post is not about discussing the politics of aid, nor is it about discussing the emerging concerns of donor agencies in India (that can make another post altogether in the aftermath of the Uttarakhand disaster) neither about interests of multilateral agencies and their function in the larger platform for risk reduction during disasters, all of which make for important points of discussion. This post is about a chance encounter I had with a "benevolent" benefactor on my local Mumbai train ride. It was important to put in context the idea of funding in India because it occurs to me that very often it is the key to the success or failure of a field project, irrespective of the competency of the managers, teamwork, field conditions - the whole circle begins with who pays and what returns they expect from it.

I was traveling with my mom's colleagues on the train to Karjat (its in the greater Mumbai region) and we come across this conspicuous woman adorned in heavy gold jewellery, a bald head covered by a white cloth and a huge beaded necklace that belongs to Hindu saints/followers of a particular cult. She also had light eyes and looked oddly out of place as she started chatting up people in the coach, engaging each and every one of them in a conversation. She then began to talk to me about how this was a first ride on a local train for her. She said that she followed a guru who had an ashram (religious shelter) and her niece (who was seated opposite us) was taking her to it. After a few minutes as we moved on to talking about personal stuff, she revealed to me that she lived in California, was a Shia Muslim married to a Hindu Gujarati and was here for a purpose - she wanted to "uplift" a village and was looking for ideas on which village to "uplift". While I was stunned to find her real motivation, I wondered what her idea of upliftment was. How can a person with such little knowledge of the country and its problems single handedly handle a task of uplifting the lives of a village? She said that she will get them a fine school and a competent doctor from outside so they are self-sufficient. I gaped at her gall and told her in the nicest way I could that they already had doctors and schools in their village but they did not go to them and that, they were no longer subjects in the larger development scheme, they were participants in it. I asked her to probably think about funding NGOs that specialize in education or health in particular field areas so that the investment would see progress. She looked offended at that suggestion. Her voice turned cold, "I'm not going to allow some bunch of robbers take control of my investment, this is my turn to give to the society. I will do it directly along with funds from other people who also want to donate but through a reliable channel". I got the message and shut up. I learnt later from my mom that there was another such "well-meaning" benefactor that followed them on one of their projects too, to see if she can fund something but then refused when she was asked to donate white money.

I have to confess that I had not been particularly optimistic about aid and that it's not always wise to trust unprofessional NGOs/incompetent government field offices to deliver the goods, so to speak. However, this was flawed and needs a rethink. Funding agencies and field organizations work hand-in-glove, one can't exist without the other. And importantly, their agendas have to be in sync. 

[thethinkingsombrero]

Hinduism in Maugham's book

The following passage is taken from a book of Somerset Maugham's called "The Razor's Edge" (P: 309) that re-iterates the important nuances of the Occidental narrative of Hinduism. The following passage is a dialogue between the author and his American friend Larry who travels to India in search of his belief for God after having fought in the war.

"What eventually happened to your friend from the rosered city?"

"Two years later I was down south at a place called Madura. One night in the temple someone toughed me on my arm. I looked around and saw a bearded man with long black hair, dressed in nothing but a loincloth, with the staff and the begging-bowl of the holy man. It was not till he spoke that I recognized him. It was my friend. I was so astounded that I didn't know what to say. He asked me what I'd been doing and I told him...

.. He was looking to make a pilgrimage on foot to the holy places of India. I asked him how he ate and how he slept.He told me that when anyone offered him shelter he slept on the veranda but otherwise under a tree or in the precincts of the temple....

... Then he said goodbye to me-it was funny to hear a guy in a loincloth say, "Well, so long old chap" - and stepped into that part of the temple where I couldn't follow him.

I stayed in Madura for some time. I think it's the only temple in India in which the white man can walk freely so long as he doesn't enter the holy of holies. At nightfall it was packed with people. Men, women and children. The men, stripped to the waist, wore dhoties and their foreheads, and often their chests and arms, were thickly smeared with the white ash of burnt cow dung. You saw them making obeisance at one shrine or another and sometimes lying full length on the ground, face downwards, in the ritual attitude of prostration. They prayed and recited litanies. They called to one another, heatedly argued with one another. There was an ungodly row, and yet in some mysterious way God seemed to be near and living"

[thethinkingsombrero]

Local innovation in a village in Dungarpur district. August 2011

Story: We noticed that the school was in session but these two school kids were hanging out near the school with their new recycling project. The idea that they worked on was; to create a replica of a mud tractor from used materials at their homes.They described the mechanism in the following steps.

1 - to break upon a hole in a used plastic bottle and fill up mud in it.

2- Having done that, the next step is to create a mechanism that places the bottle on top of a broken rod with wheels sought from a broken kick-scooter owned by the boys.

3- The last step is to tie the bottle with the rod such that it is mobile and can throw out the filled mud on to the ground.

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I asked them how they were going to use it? In response, they told me that they would plant many saplings at once using this new "technology". The bottle could carry seeds, water and mud.

It got me thinking of bright young minds and what they could do to revolutionize innovation in rural India.

[thethinkingsombrero]

The "Gulf" Dream for rural Indians" - What is its future?

My interest in unskilled rural labor from India immigrating to the Middle-Eastern countries for long-term employment was piqued during a summer of early 2010. And this incident that I shall narrate along with the latest labour law of Nitaqat - urged me to write on the latest developments on the issue that needs more attention from social scientists, economists and policymakers alike.

It was a hot afternoon in the Khojawada panchayat of Udaipur district. The NGO that had arranged for my accommodation for the night, seemed to have the only semblance of safe shelter in the village as I entered it. It was a poor village, I decided with a large tribal proportion in the otherwise-mixed village and with 45% of the population registered under the BPL scheme of the government.

The NGO used to run the only hospital that existed in the village with an operating room and a small diagnosis center and a retired physician who would visit thrice a week from Udaipur city (5 hours away). One of the nurses told me about the oft-anemic cases of pregnant women at the hospital and their feeling of helplessness in the absence of adequate nutrition for these poor women. After a short look around the hospital, I went for a walk in the village. Knowing the acute drought-proneness of many blocks of the district of Udaipur, I was surprised to find that some fields were lush with new harvests including wheat and pulses such as tuvar, red chillies and cumin. The farmer Kunnu working on this field told me that they have had consistent rainfall in the last 3 years even though there was no existing canal irrigation. Kunnu started to talk to me about his land soon after. Even though he owned only 3 bigha zameen, he sows in his brother's piecemeal land since many years but he had recently passed away. I then became aware of the history of this village that seemed to unravel little by little** during my conversation with Kunnu.

Kunnu's brother used to migrate locally for a few years to make some extra money for the family before he found out about the job opportunities to work in the Gulf countries. He was willing to work in low-level employment for any amount of money when he found a "sponsor" looking for labour for a new construction site. He remitted an incredulous amount of Rs. 30,000 ($500) one month for their sister's marriage but nobody knew his living conditions till he came back home really sick, after having spent two years in Dubai, as he told his brothers and wife. When they took him to a doctor, they were told that he was surviving on one kidney which had suddenly failed. That is when the organ transplant trade became clear to Kunnu, his brother had sold a kidney for $500 dollars! Kunnu's family belonged to the OBCs (an apparent backward class that received benefits under reservations), a wealthier caste in the village but it was clear that most of their wealth has been a consequence of immigration remittances from the "Gulf countries" such as Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia.

Here is a recent report from ILO on labour bondage and working conditions of unskilled labour in the unorganized market. Here is another link to an anthropological account on labour camps in the Gulf. The worldview of this post is humanitarian however this example should not lead to excessive generalizations. The impact of remittances on human development on men that migrate has been noteworthy but the question that begs to be answered is, at what cost? Similarly we only make a case for uneducated unskilled workers in this post, the situation for other immigrants from the semi-skilled/skilled groups is dramatically different with relatively fewer risks to livelihood.The purpose of the field example was to capture the journey of rural labour from underdeveloped parts of India to intensely discriminative work environments in the Gulf countries. It needed to be captured from my fieldwork experiences, therefore the build-up to the central argument.

In this section, we will talk about the Nitaqat law that shook up "the Gulf Dream" for many immigrants. The discussion on immigration issues of unskilled labor actually began with this news report I came across.  I found another stark reality that let to the idea of virtual widows in Kerala here, a state in India where nearly 30-32% of the GDP consists of remittances from the Gulf countries as documented here. What are the alternatives to a situation that demands governments to interact to find solutions to such a decrepit system of employment? For a non-economist like me - employment in rural India represents a large system of unorganized markets with frictional employment (workers in between jobs) and underemployment (skilled workers working in unskilled or semi-skilled work) as the central characteristics. On the other hand, the employment market in the Gulf is seemingly more secure, ensuring better returns - it appears to be a kind of a magic formula. Google India on a quick search springs up multiple options on packing attendants, construction labour with no money deposits and free sponsorship provided under the kafila system. However, this apparent dream run for rural immigrants seems to have come to a standstill.

How does the new Nitaqat law in Saudi Arabia intersect this dream formula for rural immigrants? The new law works at two levels: one, it promotes at least 10% job reservation for locals and second, such a law is a tool to force out a lot of illegal immigrants without proper papers all at once. Local newspapers in India are full of stories of Indian embassy issuing ECs to immigrants such that they can leave the country as early as possible without the possibility of deportation (thus ruining of their chances of immigrating for work again). If early numbers are to be believed, 18,000 Indian illegal immigrants have already acquired their ECs and fled the country. This has been a dramatic turnaround for immigrants from deprived regions of South-East Asian countries. There are several questions in terms of the impact of such a law on the future of employment, not just in the source country but also in the host country. Similarly, will Nitaqat spur implementation of similar laws in the other Gulf countries and create imbalances in the labor market of both countries? It is hard to tell which way the wind will blow. It is also hard to tell what the impact of such a mass deportation would have on India where the domestic market is clearly unprepared to accommodate the surplus labor. 

**First few visits to any village during my PhD fieldwork continued to be an experience in village communities in general.

[thethinkingsombrero]

"Time is free, but its priceless. You can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it but you can spend it. Once you've lost it, you can never get it back."

A quote from the front page of one of my fieldwork diaries.