South Asia

With the ruefully anticipated breakdown of the Mullaperiyar dam in Kerala as the central issue, this article debates the decommissioning of large dams in India. Drawing on other examples of dam breakdown and decommissioning cases from India and the USA, the author argues that dams that have failed to deliver on their promises or are in an unsafe condition should be selectively decommissioned.

The full article is available here:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09614524.2013.772563

The global financial crisis is envisaged to have impacted some Southern countries, including India, less severely than most countries in the North. India's expected economic growth of over nine per cent was brought down to just over five per cent. In the aftermath of the crisis, a positive growth figure itself sent optimistic signals. But in a country where nearly 80 per cent of the population – mostly in rural areas – lives on under US$2 a day with a high level of social and economic vulnerability, the effects of the crisis threaten to push many into deprivation. Yet, scattered evidence suggests the emergence of savings-led self-help groups for women amongst the poorest and socially excluded communities to overcome financial vulnerabilities. Grounded in participatory methods, the focal point this is the individual rural woman driving the well-being and the poverty agenda. The paper considers if there are lessons that can be drawn from this micro-level shift for the larger global crisis.

The full article is available here:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09614524.2013.772115

This paper documents the exclusion from formal assistance of 43 Bangladeshi ultra-poor female heads of household, which forces women to rely on overstretched forms of informal assistance that are not culturally prescribed and are often experienced as shameful. Experiences of helplessness reinforced by dominant views of the ultra-poor as going nowhere discourage women from seeking out formal assistance. In order to overcome the effects of being deemed “beyond reach”, scholars and providers of aid must attend to persistent forms of neglect and exclusion in formal aid programmes, including the false assumption that the ultra-poor easily access prescribed informal social supports.

The full article is available here:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09614524.2013.772118

Who controls the income earned by members of women's self-help groups (SHG) from group activities – the women or their husbands? The answer indicates one dimension of the level of economic empowerment attained by SHG members. This paper examines whether identity of the person controlling the income earned depends upon the political party ruling the municipality where the SHG is situated. Two parties are considered – the Left Front, a coalition comprising of Leftist parties, and the Indian National Congress. This paper is based on a field study of 240 SHG members in six municipalities in West Bengal, India.

The full article is available here:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09614524.2013.750644

The paper attempts to find out fertility differential by husbands' occupational status and income level in Dhanbad district, Jharkhand (India). The mean number of children ever born (MCEB) is used to measure fertility, and monthly income as the income variable. Older and younger cohorts of women were examined separately for assessing fertility differential. MCEB was found to be high for women with husbands employed as labourers with a low monthly income. This was true for both the cohorts, but fertility levels were much higher among the older cohort. Low MCEB was found with increasing income of husbands and for those in private jobs.

The full article is available here:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09614524.2012.714352

The development field as a site for research and practice has largely escaped critical scrutiny in development studies. Accounts of the conceptualisation of the field have not been complemented with an examination of the practices that maintain the field as a site conducive to development. This paper draws on experiences working with small, local NGOs in India to examine how the field is maintained, and the underlying logic that underpins the relationship between developers and “developees”. In problematising the field, I draw attention to overlooked ethical and political implications of participatory development.

The full article is available here:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09614524.2013.753411

A major challenge for the research community is to take knowledge or evidence generated from research to the practitioners for translation into tangible practice. This paper describes how an indigenous Bangladeshi NGO addressed this challenge and made use of research in developing two of its most successful projects – the oral therapy extension programme and a grants-based programme for improving the lot of the ultra-poor. A study of the projects reveals that early involvement in identifying research issues and designing studies, communication between researchers and practitioners, relevance and timeliness of research, and customised dissemination were the key factors underpinning success.

The full article is available here:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09614524.2012.696584

Microfinance has been evolving as an indispensable tool of poverty eradication and rural improvement. At present, almost all the commercial banks have delved into the microfinance foray and offer various lucrative schemes designed for the rural poor, specifically, to carry out their own small economic activities. This paper attempts to study the extent to which the commercial banks are participating in the microfinance business. An empirical study has been carried out in the state of Punjab. The objective is to analyse the nature and extent of microfinance services provided by the banks in the rural areas of Punjab. The study also highlights the bankers' perceptions of microfinance.

The full article is available here:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09614524.2012.696092

Development practice should be centred on human relations governed by a spirit of cooperation, kindness and compassion, rather than on purely economic concerns. The Sarvódaya Shramadána movement, a grassroots Buddhist-based development movement in Sri Lanka, emphasises that development practices should be more closely aligned with religious resources and principles in order to achieve a balanced and sustainable development process.

Religious and secular ideologies are hotly debated within Indian educational circles, partly in response to neo-liberal trends in educational provision, which have encouraged non-state providers, including religious organisations, to increase their involvement. The paper explores similarities and differences between educational providers affiliated with different faith traditions in Maharashtra, with respect to their educational activities and the extent to which their ethos and practices are pro-poor.