Organizational Resistance to Participatory Approaches in Public Agencies: An Analysis of Forest Department's Resistance to Community-Based Forest Management

The organizational resistance of public agencies to participatory approaches is analyzed by means of a case study involving the implementation of community-based forest management (CBFM) in India. Both exogenous and endogenous causes of resistance are identified, and a theoretical model proposed. The model consists of two dimensions of resistance to change (structural resistance and cultural resistance) and three categories of causal factors (organizational, personal, and environmental factors). The model is empirically tested using the perceptions of senior and middle management level members of the state Forest Departments (FDs) of four states in India, collected through a questionnaire survey. The empirical findings are used to suggest strengthening of public management theories on four aspects: the distinction between structural and cultural resistance; inclusion of extra-organizational processes; the distinction between individual and organizational learning; and the need to differentiate between the impacts of the legislative and executive wings on public agencies' organizational resistance. The results are used to suggest some specific measures to deal with the organizational inertia in public agencies.     

Multiple perspectives on the meaning of revenue

The full range of the meaning of revenue emerges from seriously considering how people understand revenues from various perspectives. Explicit discussion of revenue meanings may contribute to improving our understanding of revenue-related phenomena. Insights can be gained from considering revenues from various perspectives. Revenue conceptualizations examined here range from the most immediate one, the notion of resources, to policy devices, mediation of relationships, measurements of political situations, and values. These discussions show that a variety of meanings are associate with revenues and that revenues are at least as fundamental to public budgeting as expenditures.     

Sexual Dimorphism in Ulna: An Osteometric Study from India

Determination of sex constitutes the most important element during the identification process of human skeletal remains. Several sex‐specific features of human skeleton have been exploited for sex determination with varying reliability. This study aims to obtain sexual dimorphic standards for ulnae of the north Indian population. Eight measurements were obtained on a sample of 106 ulnae (males‐80, females‐26) in the age range of 25–65 years. The sexual dimorphism index and demarking points were calculated for all the variables. The data were then subjected to stepwise and direct discriminant function analysis. The best discriminator of sex was the maximum length (84.9%) followed by radial notch width (84%). In stepwise analysis, these two variables were selected and provided an accuracy of 88.7% (M‐87.5%, F‐92.3%). The proximal end provided a classification rate of 81.1% (M‐80%, F‐84.6%) with selection of the notch length and olecranon width.     

Repeated Abuse during Childhood and Adolescence Leading to Suicidal Behavior in an Adolescent: A Case Report

Children in all societies are often neglected, maltreated, abused, intentionally or otherwise by their parents, siblings and in school. One of the most important and preventable long term consequences of childhood abuse is the development of suicidal tendencies in adolescence or adulthood. We report such a case of childhood abuse leading to repeated suicidal attempts in an adolescent. Individual and family therapy, coupled with other specific interventions, has helped the teenager and his family lead a normal life. Thus, proper treatment and counseling will be helpful to cope with difficult family and social situations.     

Birth and death in a new land attitudes to infant death in colonial Australia

The goldrush colony of Victoria, Australia, was a favoured destination for aspirational emigrants from nineteenth-century Britain. Yet the persistence of high rates of infant mortality blighted the happiness of many first and second generation immigrant families alone in a new land. Drawing on birth, death and inquest records this paper interrogates the experience of infant death amongst the poorest families in the capital city popularly known as ‘Marvellous Melbourne’ during the second half of the nineteenth century. Although few infants died alone, the familial and community networks in which they were enmeshed were not always committed to their survival. While the paper argues that there was a hierarchy of value which determined the degree to which the death of a child would be welcomed or mourned, it also contests popular notions that evil baby farmers and unfeeling mothers were a major cause of infant death.     

Technical change and dualism within agriculture in India

The dichotomy between subsistence and market‐oriented farmers in many developing countries is a well‐recognized fact. There have been empirical studies in India of the differences between subsistence and market‐oriented or ‘commercial’ farmers; and interest is now developing in the impact of the new agricultural policy on dualism within agriculture. While the theoretical literature deals extensively with dualism between a traditional agricultural sector and an advanced industrial sector, dualism within the agricultural sector itself is less discussed.¹

However, this dualism has become of increasing practical importance in India with the introduction of the ‘New Strategy for Agricultural Development’ in 1966–67.² This policy concentrates on raising output per acre very sharply, especially for the food crops, by the use of new high‐yielding varieties of seeds and complementary inputs. In the beginning, at least, these measures are to be confined to a small part of the total acreage under food grains. Critics have also alleged that they have been confined to the larger farmers, thus accentuating the existing inequality of agricultural incomes, and that this inequality must have several undesirable social, economic and political consequences. But these consequences have not been elaborated, partly for lack of data, but partly also because the theoretical implications of technical change for a dualist development of agriculture have not been adequately discussed. The first object of this paper is to examine the changes in income distribution within agriculture when technical progress is confined to the commercial sector. Thereafter we show that if dualism cannot be directly attacked by such measures as land reform, the second‐best policy from the point of view of maximizing output may in fact be to encourage the use of ‘new’ inputs, such as fertilizers, in the commercial sector.     

Irrigation and water management by the Damodar valley corporation

The Damodar river rises in the state of Bihar in eastern India, and flows south‐east for 336 miles to join the Hooghly‐Bhagirathi 30 miles to the south of Calcutta. The Damodar serves one of the most important coalbearing regions of India in its upper reaches, while downstream its waters feed important agricultural districts near Calcutta. Consciously modelled on the Tennessee Valley Authority in the USA, the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) wasset up by the government of India in 1948, principally to provide flood control and irrigation to the valley and generate hydroelectric power. The plan was to impound 5–3 million Acft of water with the help of seven dams in its upper reaches and a barrage downstream to control the flow down the river and the canals. Ultimately, only four dams were built in 1950–59 (with a barrage in Durgapur), which together can impound 1–2 million Acft. Of this, only 0–47 million Acft has been earmarked for irrigation. In the first decade of its operation (i.e. 1958–68) DVC irrigation stabilised the cultivation of aman rice, which is the main crop of the most important crop season (i.e. the kharif or monsoon) in the area. The other two crop seasons, i.e. winter (rabi) and summer (boro) have been neglected, the boro particularly. This paper seeks to measure, with reference to the first decade of its operation, how much of the Damodar flow has been controlled by the DVC system and whether sufficient water is available in the river and in the reservoirs to provide irrigation in more than one crop season in the valley.     

Caste and Credit: A Woeful Tale?

This paper examines caste-based differences in farmers’ access to bank loans in rural India. We investigate whether banks practice taste-based discrimination on the basis of caste. In order to identify potential discrimination, we consider loan applications and approval decisions separately. We find significant inter-caste differences in application rates, and evidence of discrimination against Scheduled Tribe borrowers at the approval stage. To rule out the role of statistical discrimination, we simulate unobserved credit histories with various distributions. Evidence for taste-based discrimination persists despite accounting for unobservables. However, we find that this discrimination does not affect small farmers.     

Regional inequalities,economic growth and liberalisation: A study of the Indian economy

In this article we examine the pattern of regional inequalities in India during 1970–92. Trend analysis shows that inter‐state inequality is rising in India in almost every sphere of economic activity, particularly in the unorganised industry.