Neelambar Hatti

Disappearing Daughters and Intensification of Gender Bias: Evidence from Two Village Studies in South India

Why are female children still at risk in India despite progress in education, increasing participation of women in economic and political activities, and an overall improvement in the status of women? Is there any significant shift from son preference to daughter discrimination? Based on a study of two villages from low-fertility regions of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, this paper attempts to understand the factors responsible for the increasing discrimination against girls, even before they are born. The widespread use of sex-determination tests and abortion facilities has given an opportunity for parents to acheive the desired family size and the desired gender composition of children. There is an intesification of gender bias particularly among the peasant communities. The rapid fertility decline, not accompanied by changes in the cultural values and gender inequality, has resulted in a deliberate attempt to get rid of girls. (Less)

The Corruption Bazaar; A Conceptual Discussion

Corruption is a salient feature of human condition in any organised society. Where risks are low and the returns are high, corruption is almost inevitable. Nevertheless, defining corruption is difficult, especially as there are forms of behaviour that break with the rules and mores of the organisation that may or may not be termed corruption. Many approaches implicitly assume corruption to be anomalous. This paper argues that corruption should not be seen from a moralistic position as deviation behaviour from Eurocentric, Weberian standards. Rather, it should be analysed through what we term the bazaar model of interpersonal behaviour, emphasising primarily economic motives, coupled with an inductive, inside-outside approach.

Intergenerational Interests, Uncertainty and Discrimination -I. Conceptualising the Process of Declining Child Sex Ratios in India

The article attempts to conceptualise the problem of Indias declining child sex ratios as a result of an ongoing process of societal change, with particular attention to the dynamic aspect of the problem. The rapid transformation of Indias social and economic fabric has been altering the institution ofthe family, as the young become disembedded from customary social relations. It is argued here that placing the uncertainty that this generates - understood as a fundamental inability to predict outcomes - at the centre of the conceptualisation puts the parental decision-making in its context of intergenerational interests. At the same time, it enables a dynamic analysis of how that structure changes as society transforms, thus creating circumstances in which there is little space for daughters.

Intergenerational Interests, Uncertainty and Discrimination -II: An Empirical Analysis of the Process of Declining Child Sex Ratios in India

This article is an empirical analysis of the problem of declining child sex ratios in India. The rapid transformation of the social and economic fabric in India is altering the institution of the family, as the young become increasingly disembedded from customary social relations. Case studies in Karnataka and Uttaranchal show how this transformation has lead to differing intergenerationai interests, thereby increasing parental uncertainty about the future. The uncertainty experienced by the older generation concerns apprehensions about future socioeconomic obligations and the younger generation becoming disembedded from those intergenerational interests. It is in the face of this uncertainty that the situational context of the social devices transmitted through centuries of gendered prescriptions is fallen back upon and receives renewed importance. This context is constituted by highly gendered norms wherein daughter discrimination is legitimised and rationalised.

The return of the "black books" : A unique, new source-material for reinterpretation of South Indian history

It would appear that all possible types of source material concerning pre-colonial and colonial Indian history had been found and analyzed only to be reanalyzed repeatedly, resulting in a number of macro-level studies. However, micro-level studies have been very rare. This may be so because many a historian of India believed that sources necessary for such studies did not exist as there was no tradition in India for keeping detailed economic accounts or even for that matter permanent local records of various legal and economic transactions. For scholars concerned with the early history of South India, the imposing inscriptions in stone have always been the primary source for studies on political, economic and social history.