Research Radio

Debates over caste-based reservations in India consistently make  front-page news. Dominant political parties and the judiciary perform  vital roles in ensuring the implementation of this measure to address  historic and enduring injustices, social exclusion, and deep-seated  inequality in favour of Savarna castes in India. How well has the  judiciary fared in ensuring that reservations are implemented?

This week on Research Radio, Sameena Dalwai and Aabhinav Tyagi join  us to discuss their work on the Indian judiciary and reservations. Dr  Dalwai is with the Jindal Global Law School, Sonipat. She writes in  Marathi and English on caste, gender, sexuality, cultural nationalism,  and the law. Aabhinav teaches political science at Scottish  International School, Shamli. He hosts a new podcast called “The  Gobarment.” We’ll be discussing their EPW article titled “Impact of Uttarakhand's Reservation Judgment on Women.” This episode was recorded in July 2020 and, therefore, does not comment on recent developments on reservations.

Audio courtesy: The last ones by Jahzzar [CC BY-SA 3.0].

Let’s turn back the clock to a century ago. We’re in 1923 and the  Bombay Legislative Council has just passed a resolution enabling Dalits to access public places like wells and water tanks. Four years later in  1927, however, Savarnas continued to prevent Dalits from accessing drinking water. On 20 March that year, Babasaheb Ambedkar led a public demonstration where Dalits collectively drank water from a public tank in Maharashtra’s Mahad district. While these were landmark acts,  Savarnas continue to prevent Dalits, and particularly Dalit women, from accessing drinking water. We’ll learn more about this, and the important shifts brought under the colonial, post-colonial, and liberalisation periods in India.

Deepa Joshi joins us to discuss her work on access to water. Dr Joshi is with the International Water Management Institutes and Research  Program on Water, and Ecosystem where she is the Gender, Youth, and  Inclusion Lead. We’ll discuss her EPW article “Caste, Gender and the Rhetoric of Reform in India's Drinking Water Sector.

Audio courtesy: The last ones by Jahzzar [CC BY-SA 3.0].

Government school teachers are often blamed for the poor state of public education in India. Some scholars and commentators claim that they are incompetent, absent from classrooms, and overpaid, particularly when compared to teachers in the private sector. We’ll investigate if this is true.

Protiva Kundu joins us this week to discuss the state of India’s public education system by focusing on teachers. Dr Kundu is with the  Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability where she leads research on the financing of education. We’ll discuss her EPW article where she analyses data from six states to understand if teachers are the ones who are letting our system down. In the second half of the podcast, we’ll also discuss the landmark National Education Policy, 2020 and we’ll focus on its impact on teachers. Also, have a look at the interactive feature we made based on the article: http://bit.ly/teachers-epw. 

Audio courtesy: The last ones by Jahzzar [CC BY-SA 3.0].

The strict lockdown announced last March was followed by an increase in violence against women and girls by cis-men, and particularly violence in the ostensibly sacred and safe space of the home. Today we’ll ask—how can domestic violence be prevented?

Audio courtesy: The last ones by Jahzzar [CC BY-SA 3.0].

“Wash your hands with soap for twenty seconds and wear masks." Such reminders have become ubiquitous since the start of the COVID-19  pandemic. Hospitals are supposed to be the flag bearers of hygienic practices to curb the spread of infectious diseases. Today, we’ll ask if public hospitals in India are hygienic.

We will speak to Payal Hathi and Nikhil Srivastav about how caste-based-discrimination by Savarnas negatively affects the health of patients and leads to exploitative work conditions for hospital cleaners. Payal Hathi is with the Research Institute for Compassionate  Economics (r.i.c.e) and is a graduate student at the University of  California, Berkeley. Nikhil Srivastav is also associated with r.i.c.e. and Research And Action for Health in India (RAAHI). We will discuss their article “Caste Prejudice and Infection: Why a Dangerous Lack of Hygiene Persists in Government Hospitals."

Audio courtesy: The last ones by Jahzzar [CC BY-SA 3.0].

Two decades ago, a survey found that only about one in four Adivasis in Tamil Nadu's Gudalur town were literate and the rate among women was  even lower. Adivasi student enrollment in specialised public schools was extremely low and the conditions of the schools were far from adequate. “Non-Adivasi teachers and staff showed little empathy or  concern for the Adivasi children,” write the three guests for today’s episode. This grim picture has transformed significantly in much deeper ways than the brush-stroke statistics shared above. We’ll learn about the story of this transformation.

A scholar and two educationists join us on Research Radio today. Amman Madan studied anthropology and currently teaches at Azim Premji University, Bengaluru. Dr Madan works on  promoting dialogue and justice through education. Rama Sastry has been a  passionate teacher who has taught marginalised children for four decades. B Ramdas has also been in the education space for four decades,  and along with Rama, is a trustee of the Viswa Bharati Vidyodaya Trust,  Gudalur, Nilgiris.

Before we hear from them, a little more  context: Rama and Ramdas, along with their colleagues, have worked to  actualise the transformative potential of education for Adivasi students  in the town of Gudalur, located in the Nilgiris. The town is home to  five Adivasi communities: the Paniyas, the Bettukurumbas, the  Mullukurumbas, the Kattunayakas, and the Irulas. They constitute about  10% of the population of Gudalur. And we’ll learn more about their  educational journey based on their article: "Social Movements and Educational Change: A Case Study of the Adivasi Munnetra Sangam." 

Audio courtesy: The last ones by Jahzzar [CC BY-SA 3.0].

South Asia has witnessed vibrant movements against patriarchy and the caste system. However, these struggles have historically been fought separately, and at worse, in competing ways. Despite this, Dalit feminists have underscored the need to view caste and patriarchal systems as functioning in tandem.

Rekha Raj joins us to discuss her article "Dalit Women as Political Agents." Raj is a Dalit feminist writer and activist. She is with the School of Gandhian Thought and Development  Studies at M G University, Kerala. 

Audio courtesy: The last ones by Jahzzar [CC BY-SA 3.0].

Despite having one of the largest food security programmes in the world, why are Indians overwhelmingly going hungry? Last October, India slipped to the 94th position among 107 countries in the Global Hunger Index, behind several neighbours including Nepal, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. We have a lot of ground to cover in this episode, and we’ll delve deeper into the public distribution system that seeks to cover 90 crore Indians.

Four economists will join us this week on Research Radio: Jean Dreze, Reetika Khera, Isabel Pimenta, and Prankur Gupta. Dr Khera is with the IIT Delhi, Dr Dreze is with Ranchi University. Isabel was formerly with the European Commission in the Directorate General for International Cooperation and Development, Brussels. Prankur is a PhD scholar at The University of Texas at Austin. We will discuss their article titled "Casting the Net: India’s Public Distribution System after the Food Security Act." Also have a look at the article "Aadhaar and Food Security in Jharkhand: Pain without Gain?" and a related feature "The Aadhaar Game: Can You Survive This Maze To Reach Your Food Ration?"

Audio courtesy: The last ones by Jahzzar [CC BY-SA 3.0].

At best, only three in ten Indians are vegetarians, and more realistically less than two in ten are vegetarians. Yet, India is often portrayed as a land of vegetarians in popular culture. Our guests will probe this representation, and reveal how vegetarianism varies across caste, religion, class, gender, state and time. 

We will speak to Balmurli Natarajan and Suraj Jacob about the politics of vegetarianism in India. Dr Jacob is a political economist affiliated with Azim Premji University, Bengaluru and Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum. Dr Natrajan is an anthropologist affiliated with William Paterson University of New Jersey, United States and Azim Premji University, Bengaluru. We will discuss their EPW articles titled "'Provincialising' Vegetarianism: Putting Indian Food Habits in Their Place" and "Deepening Divides: The Caste, Class and Regional Face of Vegetarianism."

Audio courtesy: The last ones by Jahzzar [CC BY-SA 3.0]. 

Indian society is suited to meet the needs of certain kinds of bodies over others that are deemed disabled. This is made clear in multiple ways: right from how buildings are designed to the types of appearances that are idealised. However, there are important ways in which people with disabilities have contested attempts to sideline their rights.

This week we’ll speak to Renu Addlakha about women with visual disabilities, and the women’s movement. We’ll also discuss how medical and legal systems inform our understanding of disability. Dr Addlakha is with the Centre for Women’s Development Studies or CWDS in New Delhi. She’s published several articles in EPW about the topics that we will be discussing today and here are two that we recommend: "Women with Visual Disabilities and the Women’s Movement" (http://bit.ly/women-disability) and "Disability Law in India: Paradigm Shift or Evolving Discourse?" (http://bit.ly/law-disability).

Audio courtesy: The last ones by Jahzzar [CC BY-SA 3.0].