India’s middlemen: connecting by corrupting?

Much of India’s corruption involves middlemen: go-betweens who bring citizens’ cases to the attention of state officials, producing results – for a price. Citizens pay bribes, often for benefits for which they already qualify, and much (but not all) of that money is passed on to officials by the middleman. On its face such arrangements would seem to benefit no one but the middleman himself, but closer examination shows that middleman corruption involves much more than a discrete material transaction. There are important intangible dimensions: officials’ status is reaffirmed, while for citizens government takes on a comprehensible human face. These dimensions of corruption become all the more important over time, for both reputational capital and expectations are built up that shape future transactions. Most important, middlemen reduce transaction costs for citizens and officials alike. Thus, while middleman corruption falls far short of the ideal sorts of market, government and personal systems of “micro-coordination” assumed in many accounts of the effects of corruption, it may well be a better way of getting things done than most of the alternatives actually available. The analysis yields a more subtle but precise view of how cultural factors – especially mediating social institutions – figure into the study of corruption, and may suggest reasons why extensive corruption and solid economic growth have coexisted in India for decades.     

If They Grow It,Will They Eat and Grow? Evidence from Zambia on Agricultural Diversity and Child Undernutrition

Abstract

In this article we address a gap in our understanding of how household agricultural production diversity affects the diets and nutrition of young children living in rural farming communities in sub-Saharan Africa. The specific objectives of this article are to assess: (1) the association between household agricultural production diversity and child dietary diversity; and (2) the association between household agricultural production diversity and child nutritional status. We use household survey data collected from 3,040 households as part of the Realigning Agriculture for Improved Nutrition (RAIN) intervention in Zambia. The data indicate low agricultural diversity, low dietary diversity and high levels of chronic malnutrition overall in this area. We find a strong positive association between production diversity and dietary diversity among younger children aged 6–23 months, and significant positive associations between production diversity and height for age Z-scores and stunting among older children aged 24–59 months.     

Using morphometric and analytical techniques to characterize elephant ivory

There is a need to characterize Asian elephant ivory and compare with African ivory for controlling illegal trade and implementation of national and international laws. In this paper, we characterize ivory of Asian and African elephants using Schreger angle measurements, elemental analysis {X-ray fluorescence (XRF), inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS)} and isotopic analysis. We recorded Schreger angle characteristics of elephant ivory at three different zones in ivory samples of African (n=12) and Asian (n=28) elephants. The Schreger angle ranged from 32 degrees to 145 degrees and 30 degrees to 153 degrees in Asian and African ivory, respectively. Elemental analysis (for Asian and African ivory) by XRF, ICP-AES and ICP-MS provided preliminary data. We attempted to ascertain source of origin of Asian elephant ivory similarly as in African ivory based on isotopes of carbon, nitrogen and strontium. We determined isotopic ratios of carbon (n=31) and nitrogen (n=31) corresponding to diet and rainfall, respectively. Reference ivory samples from five areas within India were analyzed using collagen and powder sample and the latter was found more suitable for forensic analysis. During our preliminary analysis, the range of delta13C values (-13.6+/-0.15 per thousand and -25.6+/-0.15 per thousand) and delta15N values (10.2+/-0.15 per thousand and 3.5+/-0.15 per thousand) were noted.     

Frontiers of imagination: Feminist worlds

New Feminist scholarship in diverse disciplines, including the social sciences, suggests a distinctive female reality which finds itsbesr literary expression in contemporary speculative fiction by women. Feminist utopias, in particular, delineate alternative societies in which ‘female’ values predominate. In novels by Marge Piercy, Doris Lessing, Ursula Le Guin and many other women, readers may discover holistic and dynamic worlds different from both our current reality and the patriarchal tradition of utopian speculation. When women imagine the ‘good society’, dualistic divisions, often ranked hierarchically in current power structures, tend to disappear, Feminist speculative fiction heals such schisms as those between male and female, matter and spirit, public and private rights, ends and means, even technology and ecology. Although these ‘utopias’ are not perfect, nor intended to be, their depiction of more balanced and integrated societies affords a fresh perspective on traditional political and cultural problems. Ultimately, then, the newly released female imagination may provide us not only a fascinating literature but substantive directions for actual change.     

A Retrospective Impact Evaluation of the Tamil Nadu Empowerment and Poverty Alleviation (Pudhu Vaazhvu) Project

Community based livelihood interventions, which focus directly on increasing income and employment, have become an increasingly important component of large-scale poverty reduction programmes. We evaluate the impact of a participatory livelihoods intervention – the Tamil Nadu Empowerment and Poverty Reduction (Pudhu Vaazhvu) Project (PVP) using propensity score matching methods. The paper explores the impact of PVP on its core goals of empowering women and the rural poor, improving their economic welfare, and facilitating public action. We find significant effects of PVP on reducing the incidence of high cost debt and diversifying livelihoods. We also find evidence of women’s empowerment, and increased political participation.     

Youth Engagement and Suicide Risk: Testing a Mediated Model in a Canadian Community Sample

Suicide is a leading cause of death among adolescents in many industrialized countries. We report evidence from a mediation model linking greater youth activity engagement, spanning behavioral and psychological components, with lower suicide risk through five hypothesized intrapersonal and interpersonal mediating factors. Self-report survey data (15% French, 85% English) were gathered from a community sample of 5,015 Canadian adolescents participating in a mental health promotion program. Youth (M _age = 15.77, SD = 1.42, 50% female) were from two urban centers in southern Ontario, Canada. Youth engagement (youth’s most important type of activity, frequency of involvement, and psychological engagement), suicide risk predictive factors (self-esteem, current concerns, depressive symptoms, coping ability, and connections with others), and suicide risk (ideation and attempts) were assessed. Consistent with the hypothesized mediation model, enjoyment and stress in youth’s most important activity and various activity types were associated with the various hypothesized suicide risk predictive factors, which in turn were related to suicide risk. Implications for conceptualizations of youth engagement as a multidimensional construct and for suicide risk prevention efforts are discussed.     

A tale of targeted violence in Hashimpura: the Delhi High Court on recognition,relations and responses

On 31 October 2018, Justice Dr S Muralidhar (then) at the Delhi High Court convicted 16 members of the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) for, inter alia, the murder of 38 Muslim residents of Hashimpura, a neighbourhood in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh in the summer of 1987. In so doing, he described the events that unfolded in Hashimpura as the ‘targeted killing’ of ‘members of a particular minority community.’ The judicial recognition of targeted violence in contemporary Indian society forms the focus of the present article. The article contends that Muralidhar J’s reference to targeted violence paves way for the recognition of an important juridical concept that warrants further academic and legal engagement. By adopting a relational approach, I argue that the conceptual utility of the category of targeted violence lies in its ability to unmask the social relations that it implicates. Targeted violence is not aimed at individual actors, but social relations between perpetrators, individual victims and those who share the victims’ minority identity. Committed to the legal recognition of social experiences, I demonstrate how the category of targeted violence accurately reflects the experiences of and relations between different social actors. I further build a case for why and how legal and judicial responses to targeted violence ought to be informed and shaped by a recognition of its relational harms.