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Conference 2024

Inequalities and Mobilities in Rural India: Recent Trends and Methodological Challenges

Date: 25-26 November 2024
Location: CSH, 2, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Road, New Delhi-110011, India
Contact: workshopinequalities2024@gmail.com



Synopsis

Rural India still accounts for more than 60% of the Indian population, yet it is undergoing major and rapid transformations, such as the spread of peri-urbanisation and internal migration, the explosion of land speculation, financial and consumer markets, the reconfiguration of kinship and socialisation patterns and the ongoing degradation of natural resources. These trends are actively helping to reconfigure the dynamics underlying inequalities (economic, social, environmental and spatial inequalities) and mobility (income, social and occupational mobility). However, they are insufficiently addressed by social and development policies, whether at Indian or global level (MDGs), in large part because they are poorly measured by national or international data. Local or regional surveys, conducted over time among the same populations, are much better suited to understanding, contextualising and explaining phenomena and processes than standardised national and international surveys are unable to address.

The aim of this conference is to bring together recent work using original data to both measure and understand the dynamics underlying contemporary inequalities and mobilities in rural India. It will focus on themes that are still under-studied or whose transformation requires constant attention. These include for instance the diversification of labour and migration (internal and external), the transformation of kinship, socialisation patterns and social networks and the changing nature of social identities (gender, class, caste, ethnicity, religion, location, age and so forth), the uneven advances in education and access to skills, the radical changes in consumption patterns and rise in household indebtedness, the important shifts in land ownership and use, the diversity of rural-urban interlinkages and local ecosystems and their unequal exposure to climate change. Far from operating in silos, these different aspects are intertwined, and it is precisely this intertwining that innovative first-hand data can explore. Far from being confined to local or regional scales, these different trends are shaped by and constitutive of macro trends, national and global, which micro studies must take into account and which they can inform in return.

The aim of this conference is to discuss recent findings, their implications for public policy and the methodological issues involved. While small-scale and longitudinal studies are particularly well-suited to understanding the processes underlying inequalities and mobilities, they also pose a number of challenges (comparison over time and space, free access to data, etc.).


Programme

Monday, November 25th 2024

Welcome words from the partners (9:15am to 9:30am).

Introductory session (9:30am to 10am). The tradition of village survey in India
— I. Guérin, Himanshu, G. Venkatasubramanian, M. Vijaybaskar

  • Tea break (10:00am to 10:15am).

Session 1 (10:15am to 1pm). Social mobility
Chair: J. Nordman

  • Social Mobility Across Caste and Class in Palanpur (1958-2015): Insights from a Mixed-Method Study (F. Bolazzi).
  • Climbing Up, Sliding Down: Social Mobility among Dalits in Tamil Nadu (T. Ranganathan).
  • COVID-19’s Impact on Poverty, Inequality, and Mobility in Rural India: Evidence from a Village Study in Karnataka (B. Satheesha).

Lunch break (1pm to 2pm).

Session 2 (2pm to 5:30pm). Agrarian changes
Chair: S. S. Jodhka

  • Farm Technology and Agrarian Inequalities: A Panel Study of a Western Uttar Pradesh Village (S. Baksi).
  • Intermediaries and Inequalities: Some Thoughts from Fieldwork in and around Agricultural
    Markets (M. Krishnamurthy).
  • Tea break (3:45pm to 4pm).
  • Caste, Diversification, and the Contemporary Agrarian Question in India: A field perspective (S. Yadav).

Dinner (8pm).

Tuesday, November 26th 2024

Session 3 (9:30am to 1pm). Employment, health and inequalities
Chair: P. Jha

  • Inequalities in access to healthcare services: A study of elderly women in rural Puducherry (C. Aruna).
  • Diversification of Occupations and Income, 2006-2023: Evidence from a two villages in Uttar Pradesh (A. Das).

Tea break (10:45am to 11am).
Chair: B. Agarwal

  • Unveiling Inequalities in Rural South India: A Decade of Household Income and Wealth Imbalances (A. Natal and C. J. Nordman).
  • Implications of the definitions adopted at the 19th International Conference of Labour Statisticians (2013) for labour market estimates in India (S. Chandrasekhar).

Lunch break (1pm to 2pm).

Session 4 (2pm to 4pm). Rural finance
Chair: G. De Neve

  • Perspectives on Microfinance Regulation and Debt Distress in India (I. Ghosh).
  • The Indebted Woman: Kinship, Sexuality, and Capitalism (I. Guérin, S. Kumar, and G. Venkatasubramanian).

Tea break (4pm to 4:30pm).

Concluding session (4pm to 5pm). What happens next?
–M. Vijaybaskar, Himanshu, B. Harriss-White.

Wednesday, November 27th 2024

Side event — CSH-AFD Film screening (6pm). One Side of the Road, directed by J. Nordman

The screening will take place at the Alliance Française de Delhi and will be followed by a discussion between Rama Devi, Mayur Kuduple (CSH) and the director. For more information on the event, see the dedicated page.

Synopsis: A road runs through a village in Tamil Nadu, acting as a frontier between homes and a gateway to the wider world, reinforcing segregation for some and mobility for others. Between 2019 and 2022, four Dalits share their struggle for survival: debt, harsh working conditions, violence, and discrimination. These testimonies reveal their daily lives amidst the pandemic and its economic impact on rural India.


Participants

Speakers
Organisers

Pictures


Venue

CSH, 2, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Road, New Delhi-110011, India


Partners


Poster


Files