Social research

Though two thirds of India's population resides in villages, urban areas are preferred while setting economic, social and political agendas. "People think of a village as a homogenous entity where people have similar levels of prosperity or poverty, which is not true," says R Ramakumar, professor, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). Ramakumar has worked on several research projects that focus on rural transformation. One such project looked at the long term agrarian transformation of villages in Maharashtra in term of factors like land, assets, caste relations and housing. "Land ownership patters have changed significantly over the last 50 years. While the people who owned land in the past have increased their share, the real losers have been the Dalits and Other Backward Classes (OBC)," says Ramakumar. The increase in mechanisation has affected employment, especially among men resulting an increase in the percentage of women agricultural labourers. "About 15-20 per cent of farmers in the state have negative incomes," he adds.

TISS is a hot hub for a number of such social research projects which look at significant sections of the society that do not always find voice in the mainstream. For example, Bino Paul, professor, TISS focuses on the work conditions of labourers across India. According to him, although urbanisation of the society and several government schemes have pushed up the wage rates, the increase is illusory. "While nominal wages grew at a rate of six per cent, the real wages hardly grew as a result of rising consumer prices," cites Paul in his report. He singles out low education attainment, low female labour participation rates, expanding informal work and lack of social security coverage among labourers as barriers to inclusive growth in the country.

According to Sandhya Iyer, professor, TISS, poverty may form an important part of government policies but its understanding is dogmatic. "There must be a clear understanding of why a certain area has not been able to develop," she says. Throughout her various projects, Iyer attempts to look at rural development through the lens of human development. "Maharashtra's story is not uniform, some villages in Ahmednagar closer to Nashik and Pune have developed to an extent but ones near Aurangabad have deteriorated," she says. The central argument of most projects in this area suggests that every domain of development should be connected. "You many introduce employment schemes for a particular region but then food security might be a problem. All of it needs to be streamlined," explains Iyer.

Another research project at TISS focused on the work life and welfare of manual scavengers in the country. "According to the Manual Scavengers Act 1993, only people who carried waste load on their heads were classified as manual scavengers. During our study we expanded the definition of manual scavenging," said Shailesh Darokar, professor, TISS who was part of team that carried out a comprehensive survey on the topic. The final report played a significant part in amending the Act in 2013 and broadening the classification criterion. Out of almost seven lakh manual scavengers in the country, the government says it has rehabilitated 32,000. However the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India disagrees stating that they have only been liberated i.e. taken away from the job without giving them an alternative. Darokar believes that it is shameful for a 21st century India to still have so many people depend on a livelihood which involves cleaning other people's waste in shockingly unhygienic and unsafe conditions. "Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have all tackled this problem better than us. Until we make this problem a part of our development discourse and psyche, nothing will change," he says.

One common factor that finds mention in most of the research projects at TISS is the need and importance of inclusive development. "There may be industrial development at a state or national level, but the real question is whether it has helped in local development across the country. If it has not, then such development only increases inequality at the social and economic level," concludes Iyer.