Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is a plausible policy instrument to provide casual employment to the rural population in India, especially women, Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) groups. This study aimed to analyse the recent trends in the financial and physical progress of the MGNREG scheme in Haryana, India. It also explored how much the benefits of the MGNREG scheme have reached SCs, STs and women. The study was based on secondary data from the MGNREGA official website for 2016–2017 to 2020–2021. The results indicated that the performance of the Haryana state was not satisfactory at all in achieving the objective of providing a minimum of 100 days of employment because only a small fraction of households could complete 100 days of work from 2016–2017 to 2020–2021. Further, the participation of SC/ST households in the MGNREG scheme reduced over the years. It also found a year-on-year increase in women person-days during the first four years between 2016–2017 and 2019–2020 and slightly declined to 48.80% in 2020–2021. However, it was more than the statutory limit of 33% stipulated by the MGNREGA each year.
Debating with the Reservation Policy for Muslims in Higher Education
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
This article attempts to understand and analyse the nature of the state’s affirmative action policy to include Muslims in higher education in India. In analysing so, it tries to shed light on the Scheduled Castes’ status for Arzal or Dalit Muslims to ensure their representation in higher education. It also strives to map the reservation policy for the backward Muslims and argues that various castes among Muslims are not included in the OBC list. This article also seeks to highlight the debate regarding the minority status of Muslim higher educational institutions. This article argues that although the Indian constitution does not provide reservation based on religion, Muslims, in general, and Pasmanda Muslims, in particular, are at the periphery as far as their representation in higher education. In other words, the state uses differential treatment as far as providing Scheduled Castes Status for Arzal Muslims; the state and its apparatus use the thin and narrower meaning of Article 30 of the Indian constitution while addressing the minority status of Muslim higher educational institutions and the article also aims to elucidate the allocation of seats for Pasmanda Muslims in Muslim minority higher educational institutions.
This article attempts to understand and analyse the nature of the state’s affirmative action policy to include Muslims in higher education in India. In analysing so, it tries to shed light on the Scheduled Castes’ status for Arzal or Dalit Muslims to ensure their representation in higher education. It also strives to map the reservation policy for the backward Muslims and argues that various castes among Muslims are not included in the OBC list. This article also seeks to highlight the debate regarding the minority status of Muslim higher educational institutions. This article argues that although the Indian constitution does not provide reservation based on religion, Muslims, in general, and Pasmanda Muslims, in particular, are at the periphery as far as their representation in higher education. In other words, the state uses differential treatment as far as providing Scheduled Castes Status for Arzal Muslims; the state and its apparatus use the thin and narrower meaning of Article 30 of the Indian constitution while addressing the minority status of Muslim higher educational institutions and the article also aims to elucidate the allocation of seats for Pasmanda Muslims in Muslim minority higher educational institutions.
Book review: Yogesh Maitreya, Water in a Broken Pot: A Memoir
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
Yogesh Maitreya, Water in a Broken Pot: A Memoir (Haryana: Penguin Random House India Pvt. Ltd, 2023), 312 pp. ₹499, ISBN: 9780670095186 (Hardcover).
Yogesh Maitreya, Water in a Broken Pot: A Memoir (Haryana: Penguin Random House India Pvt. Ltd, 2023), 312 pp. ₹499, ISBN: 9780670095186 (Hardcover).
Book review: The Concept of Active Defence in China’s Military Strategy by Amrita Jash
China Report, Ahead of Print.
Amrita Jash, The Concept of Active Defence in China’s Military Strategy (Pentagon Press, 2022), pp., 320, ₹643, ISBN-13: 9789390095308. (Hardcover)
Amrita Jash, The Concept of Active Defence in China’s Military Strategy (Pentagon Press, 2022), pp., 320, ₹643, ISBN-13: 9789390095308. (Hardcover)
Dalit Consciousness Movements in Uttar Pradesh: A Literary Survey
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
This article examines the Dalit movements and transition in the way of protest of Dalits for their economic, political, social and legal rights. India’s deprived sections are known as Dalits and are the most marginalized groups in India. They had always raised their voices and protested movements in one or another way against the inequality and discrimination they have faced. This article is a literary survey and narrates the history of the Dalit movement in Uttar Pradesh till the contemporary period. The article is divided into three parts in three different eras, that is, their emancipation in medieval history and before the post-colonial period, then the Dalit movement in the post-colonial period, and after independence and rise of the Bahujan Samaj Party, and the last Dalit movement in the contemporary period.
This article examines the Dalit movements and transition in the way of protest of Dalits for their economic, political, social and legal rights. India’s deprived sections are known as Dalits and are the most marginalized groups in India. They had always raised their voices and protested movements in one or another way against the inequality and discrimination they have faced. This article is a literary survey and narrates the history of the Dalit movement in Uttar Pradesh till the contemporary period. The article is divided into three parts in three different eras, that is, their emancipation in medieval history and before the post-colonial period, then the Dalit movement in the post-colonial period, and after independence and rise of the Bahujan Samaj Party, and the last Dalit movement in the contemporary period.
‘Sick Guardians of Public Health’: A Qualitative Inquiry into Caste, Occupation and Health among Sanitation Workers of Solid Waste Management, Mumbai Municipal Corporation, India, from a Social Epidemiology Lens
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
Research studies conducted worldwide reveal the disadvantaged health conditions among sanitation workers. Higher disease burden is prominent among Mumbai municipal corporation sanitation workers who mainly belong to Scheduled Castes, the lowest point in the hierarchical social structure. Sanitary work is affixed to these caste groups. This study deciphered the mechanisms and pathways where caste, occupation and social environment affect and modulate workers’ health, imbibing the eco-social approach to health. We analysed in-depth interviews of 15 sanitation workers from three sanitation posts, one from three wards. Five volunteers with a contract-based non-governmental organisation and two supervisors as key informants were included in the sample (N = 22). The findings explain mechanisms and pathways to embodiment through eco-social approach where the biology of workers is shaped by historical life trajectories of their castes and decent-based occupation, the ecology and the susceptibilities, cumulating and impacting their health and overall well-being.
Research studies conducted worldwide reveal the disadvantaged health conditions among sanitation workers. Higher disease burden is prominent among Mumbai municipal corporation sanitation workers who mainly belong to Scheduled Castes, the lowest point in the hierarchical social structure. Sanitary work is affixed to these caste groups. This study deciphered the mechanisms and pathways where caste, occupation and social environment affect and modulate workers’ health, imbibing the eco-social approach to health. We analysed in-depth interviews of 15 sanitation workers from three sanitation posts, one from three wards. Five volunteers with a contract-based non-governmental organisation and two supervisors as key informants were included in the sample (N = 22). The findings explain mechanisms and pathways to embodiment through eco-social approach where the biology of workers is shaped by historical life trajectories of their castes and decent-based occupation, the ecology and the susceptibilities, cumulating and impacting their health and overall well-being.
The political life of Muslim caste: articulations and frictions within a Pasmanda identity
Social mobility and politicisation of caste among the Rayeens of Uttar Pradesh
Reified monuments, counter memorials and anti-memorials: contested colonial heritage in Melbourne – commemorating John Batman
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Australia: No party convergence where we would most expect it
Party Politics, Ahead of Print.
Classic spatial theory expects parties to converge on the same ideological position given certain assumptions. Many of these assumptions fail to hold in most countries, which may account for why this prediction frequently fails to materialise. Due to a unique combination of institutions, Australia presents the best chance for the theory to work: all votes must flow to either of the two major parties, parties approximate unitary actors, and elections see turnout as high as any democracy. If convergence should happen anywhere, it should be in Australia, and many argue that Australian parties indeed fulfil this prediction. However, in contrast to much of the literature, we do not find Australian politics to be unusually centrist. Based on five measures of ideology, we do not find convincing evidence that Australia’s party system is any more convergent than any other.
Classic spatial theory expects parties to converge on the same ideological position given certain assumptions. Many of these assumptions fail to hold in most countries, which may account for why this prediction frequently fails to materialise. Due to a unique combination of institutions, Australia presents the best chance for the theory to work: all votes must flow to either of the two major parties, parties approximate unitary actors, and elections see turnout as high as any democracy. If convergence should happen anywhere, it should be in Australia, and many argue that Australian parties indeed fulfil this prediction. However, in contrast to much of the literature, we do not find Australian politics to be unusually centrist. Based on five measures of ideology, we do not find convincing evidence that Australia’s party system is any more convergent than any other.