The identity of woman
. . . I have been standing all my life in the direct path of a battery of signals the most accurately transmitted most untranslatable language in the universe I am a galactic cloud so deep so invo- luted that a light wave could take 15 years to travel through me And […]
Locating key debates in Early Childhood Care and Education: insights from Indian scholarship
As part of our ongoing research to generate contextually relevant understandings of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) in India, we interviewed 11 specialists with extensive research experience in the country [1]. Broadly, their expertise is situated in childhood studies, early years education and development, psychology, sociology, special educational needs, and language and literacy. Our […]
Shiksha Aur Bhookh (शिक्षा और भूख)
“देखन में छोटन लगे, घाव करे गंभीर”, बिहारी जी की ये एक पंक्ति आज से एक साल पहले से मेरे जेहन में घर सी कर गयी है| यह कहानी कही न कही इन्ही पंक्तियों को सत्य करती दिखाई देती है|हाथ में सब्जी की टोकरी लिए हुए, बाज़ार में खड़ी एक बच्ची का सब्जी बेचना भले […]
The Many Faces of Participatory Methodologies
At our recently concluded annual seminar, Prof. Rajagopalan, of the International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore (IIIT-B), mentioned that the idea of “participative approaches” has gained currency within development work and literature. Stating this, he pointed to how participatory approaches are seen as the panacea for all ills that plague development-related work. A significant point […]
Fitting into My Own Shoes: Reflections from the Field
Reflexivity is customary in social anthropology and resultant epistemology. George Herbert Mead defines reflexivity as “turning back of the experience of individual upon (her – or himself)”. Reflexivity is always retrospective and hence this blog post is about what I was looking for in the field, what I found and how I perceived it then […]
Fitting into my own shoes: Reflections from the Field
Reflexivity is customary in social anthropology and resultant epistemology. George Herbert Mead defines reflexivity as “turning back of the experience of the individual upon (her – or himself)”. Reflexivity is always retrospective, and hence this blog post is about what I was looking for in the field, what I found and how I perceived it […]
Reflections on Fieldwork
One of the new aspects of my job at CBPS, which I have enjoyed, has been field work. The GrOW project, in particular, has provided me many opportunities to do field work. Previously, I had either worked on secondary or primary data, which I had played no role in collecting. This experience led me to […]
Do Women in India Require Empowerment?
A blog post in three parts. Part One: A question. Do women in India require empowerment? This was a question posed to me on a recent trip to Bihar. I said yes. But the answer is actually very simplistic to what we see in the field. This question is attached to a larger group of […]
Block Experience in Kashmir
As part of my Masters programme, I was placed with Borderless World Foundation in Kupwara, Kashmir for block placement in April-May 2010. The organisation runs homes for girl children in three districts – Kupwara, Budgam and Anantnag. They had also started a home in Jammu by then and had started with the intention of caring […]
The Cost effectiveness of Radio Programs in Primary Schools of Karnataka
Centre for Budget and Policy Studies recently undertook a study called Cost effectiveness of the Radio Programs in the state of Karnataka. This blog has been written from experiences the author had while conducting the impact evaluations of the Radio programs in 20 schools of Karnataka. Radio Programs (Interactive Radio Instructions) have been the chosen […]