Readings in Indian Sociology: Volume III: Sociology of Childhood and Youth [1 ed.] 9788132113829

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Sociology of Childhood and Youth

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Readings in Indian Sociology Series Editor: Ishwar Modi Titles and Editors of the Volumes Volume 1 Towards Sociology of Dalits Editor: Paramjit S. Judge Volume 2 Sociological Probings in Rural Society Editor: K.L. Sharma Volume 3 Sociology of Childhood and Youth Editor: Bula Bhadra Volume 4 Sociology of Health Editor: Madhu Nagla Volume 5 Contributions to Sociological Theory Editor: Vinay Kumar Srivastava Volume 6 Sociology of Science and Technology in India Editor: Binay Kumar Pattnaik Volume 7 Sociology of Environment Editor: Sukant K. Chaudhury Volume 8 Political Sociology of India Editor: Anand Kumar Volume 9 Culture and Society Editor: Susan Visvanathan Volume 10 Pioneers of Sociology in India Editor: Ishwar Modi

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READINGS IN INDIAN SOCIOLOGY VOLUME 3

Sociology of Childhood and Youth

Edited by Bula Bhadra

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Copyright © Indian Sociological Society, 2013 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. First published in 2013 by Sage Publications India Pvt Ltd B 1/I 1, Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area Mathura Road, New Delhi 110 044, India www.sagepub.in Sage Publications Inc 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320, USA

Indian Sociological Society Institute of Social Sciences 8 Nelson Mandela Road Vasant Kunj New Delhi 110 070

Sage Publications Ltd 1 Oliver’s Yard 55 City Road London EC1Y 1SP United Kingdom Sage Publications Asia-Pacific Pte Ltd 3 Church Street #10-04 Samsung Hub Singapore 049483 Published by Vivek Mehra for SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd, typeset in 10.5/12.5 Adobe Garamond Pro by Boson ITech Pvt. Ltd., Kolkata and printed at Saurabh Printers Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available

ISBN: 978-81-321-1382-9 (PB) The SAGE Team: Shambhu Sahu, Sushant Nailwal, Thomas Mathew, Asish Sahu, Vijaya Ramachandran and Dally Verghese Disclaimer: This volume largely comprises pre-published material which has been presented in its original form. The publisher shall not be responsible for any discrepancies in language or content in this volume.

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Dedicated to the Pioneers of Indian Sociology

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Thank you for choosing a SAGE product! If you have any comment, observation or feedback, I would like to personally hear from you. Please write to me at [email protected] —Vivek Mehra, Managing Director and CEO, SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd, New Delhi

Bulk Sales SAGE India offers special discounts for purchase of books in bulk. We also make available special imprints and excerpts from our books on demand. For orders and enquiries, write to us at Marketing Department SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd B1/I-1, Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area Mathura Road, Post Bag 7 New Delhi 110044, India E-mail us at [email protected] Get to know more about SAGE, be invited to SAGE events, get on our mailing list. Write today to [email protected]

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Contents

List of Tables ix Series Note xiii Foreword by Professor K.L. Sharma xvii Preface and Acknowledgements xix Introduction by Bula Bhadra xxi Section I: Child and Childhood

1. Social Class and Educational Aspirations in an Indian Metropolis 3 Vimal P. Shah, Tara Patel, and William H. Sewell 2. Education and the Emerging Patterns of Political Orientations: A Sociological Analysis 23 Ehsanul Haq 3. Adolescent Thieves and Differential Association 46 K.S. Shukla 4. Culture and Fertility: Son Preference and Reproductive Behaviour 67 Ashesh Das Gupta 5. Sex Preference and Contraceptive Use in Manipur 79 L. Ladusingh, N. Minita Devi and Kh. Jitenkumar Singh 6. Disappearing Daughters and Intensification of Gender Bias: Evidence from Two Village Studies in South India 92 T.V. Sekher and Neelambar Hatti

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Section II: Young and Youth

7. The Attitudes to English and Use of It by Students of Three Different Mother Tongues: Hindi, Kannada and Tamil 119 Aileen D. Ross and Suraj Bandyopadhyay 8. Perception of the Female Role by Indian College Students 132 Khadlid Ahmed Kazi and Rehana Ghadially 9. Social Class and Occupational Aspirations of College Students 142 Ambarao T. Uplaonkar 10. Youth Aspirations vis-a-vis National Development: Participate or Emigrate? 160 Narsi Patel 11. The Use Psychotropic Drugs among College Youth in India: An Appraisal 170 Prabha Unnithan, D.R. Singh and M.Z. Khan 12. Problems of the Youth of North-East India: A Sociological Inquiry 185 A.K. Nongkynrih 13. Youth in Techno Global World: Predicaments and Choices 203 Rajesh Gill Index About the Editor and Contributors Appendix of Sources

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219 224 226

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List of Tables

Chapter 1 Table 1 Post-High School Educational Aspirations of S.S.C. Students, by Sex 8 Table 2 Percentages of S.S.C. Students Aspiring to a College Degree, by Socio-economic Status and Sex 11 Table 3 Percentages of S.S.C. Students Aspiring to a College Degree, by Academic Performance and Sex 12 Table 4 Socio-economic Status, Academic Performance, and Sex 12 Table 5 Percentages of S.S.C. Students Aspiring to a College Degree, by Socio-economic Status, Sex, and Academic Performance13 Table 6 Means, Standard Deviations, and Intercorrelation Coefficients of Socio-economic Status, Academic Performance, and Educational Aspirations of S.S.C. Students by Sex 15 Chapter 2 Table 1 Number of Selected Students, Teachers and Parents 27 Table 2 Number of Selected Parents, Their Occupational Backgrounds and the School to Which They Send Their Children28 Table 3 Total Scores Secured by National Value in All the Classes (I to XI) 31 Chapter 3 Table 1 Subjects’ Perception of the Characteristics of the Associates 49 Table 2 Distribution of the Subjects According to Type and Stated Instigating Sources for Committing Serious Offences 51

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Table 3 Factors in the Continuance of Friendship between the Subject and the Criminal Companions 53 Table 4 Distribution of the Subjects in Regard to Type and Stated Frequency of Visits to Home 55 Table 5 Distribution of the Subjects Regarding Type and Usual Leisure Time Mates 56 Table 6 Distribution of the Subjects According to Type and Approximate Time Spent in Association with Those Possessing Known Delinquent Proclivity 56 Table 7 Distribution of the Subjects by Type and Stated Predominant Characteristic of the Oldest Associate 57 Table 8 Distribution of the Subjects According to Their Type and Stated Preferred Idols 58 Table 9 Distribution of the Subjects, by Type and Their Stated Confidants59 Table 10 Willingness of the Subjects to Participate in Other Offences When Pressed by Associates 60 Table 11 Distribution of the Subjects by Type and Stated Actual Participation in Other Offences When Pressed by Associates 62 Chapter 4 Table 1 Son Preference and Fertility (Hindus) Table 2 Mean Fertility of HSP, LSP and NPS Categories and ‘t’ Values (Hindus) Table 3 Son Preference and Fertility (Muslims) Table 4 Mean Fertility of HSP, LSP and NPS Categories and ‘t’ Values (Muslims) Table 5 Son Preference and Fertility (Christians) Table 6 Mean Fertility of HSP, LSP and NPS Categories and ‘t’ Values (Christians) Table 7 Son Preference and Fertility (Sikhs) Table 8 Mean Fertility of HSP, LSP and NPS Categories and ‘t’ Values (Sikhs)

70 70 71 71 72 72 73 73

Chapter 5 Table 1 Contraceptive Use by Sex Composition and Residence 84 Table 2 Contraceptive Use by Sex Composition and District of Residence86

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List of Tables

Table 3 Contraceptive Use by Sex Composition and Literacy Table 4 Effect of Sex Preference on Contraceptive Use Chapter 6 Table 1 Range of Dowry in a Village in Mandya District (1970) Table 2 Range of Dowry in Village M (2005) Table 3 Ideal Family Size According to the Respondents in Village M Table 4 Value Attached to the Children by Parents in Village M Table 5 Vokkaliga Parental Perception about the Future of Their Children in Village M

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88 89

101 102 106 106 106

Chapter 7 Table 1 Students Reporting Proficiency in English in the Three Capital Cities Considered Together 122 Table 2 Students Reporting Proficiency in English in the Cities of Madras, Bangalore and Jaipur 122 Table 3 Students Reporting Very High Proficiency in English in Relation to Their Use of It at Home, as Medium of Instruction at School and in Social Situations in the Cities of Madras, Bangalore and Jaipur 123 Table 4 Students Reporting Very High Proficiency in English in Relation to Their Use of It at Home, as Medium of Instruction at School and in Social Situations in the Cities of Madras, Bangalore and Jaipur 124 Table 5 Students’ Preference for English as Medium of Instruction at College and as the Official Language of the Central and State Governments Compared to Their Sex, Urban or Rural Background, Proficiency in English and College City 127 Table 6 Students’ Preference for English as Medium of Instruction at College and as the Official Language of the Central and State Governments Compared to Their Proficiency in English129 Chapter 8 Table 1 Percentage of Male Subjects Imagining Themselves to Be in a Given Situation 15 Years Hence

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136

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Table 2 Percentage of Male Subjects Accepting a Wife Doing a Given Type of Work 137 Table 3 Percentage of Male Subjects Accepting a Given Circumstance as a Reason for Their Wife to Work 137 Table 4 Percentage of Female Subjects Imagining Themselves in a Given Situation 15 Years Hence 138 Table 5 Percentage of Female Subjects Choosing a Given Type of Work139 Table 6 Percentage of Female Subjects Opting for Marriage or Career139 Table 7 Percentage of Female Subjects Choosing a Given Reason to Work 140 Chapter 9 Table 1 Percentage Distribution of the Students Occupational Aspirations by Religion and by CICB 149 Table 2 Percentage Distribution of the Students Occupational Aspirations by Caste and by CICB 152 Table 3 Percentage Distribution of the Students Occupational Aspirations by Sex and by CICB 155 Table 4 Social Background and Occupationl Aspirations (Coefficient of Simple and Partial Correlation and Determination)156 Chapter 11 Table 1 User—Types According to the Sex of the Respondents in the Study-Centres 176 Table 2 The Prevalence Rate of Individual Drugs in the Study Centres179 Table 3 Prevalence Rates of Individual Drugs According to the Sex of the Respondents 180

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Series Note

The Indian Sociological Society (ISS), established in December 1951, under the leadership of Professor G. S. Ghurye at the University of Bombay celebrated its Diamond Jubilee in 2011. Soon after its foundation, the ISS launched its biannual journal Sociological Bulletin in March 1952. It has been published regularly since then. The ISS took cognisance of the growing aspirations of the community of sociologists both in India and abroad to publish their contributions in Sociological Bulletin, and raised its frequency to three issues a year in 2004. Its print order now exceeds 3,000 copies. It speaks volumes about the popularity of both the ISS and the Sociological Bulletin. The various issues of Sociological Bulletin are a treasure trove of the most profound and authentic sociological writings and research in India and elsewhere. As such it is no surprise that it has acquired the status of an internationally acclaimed reputed journal of sociology. The very fact that several of its previous issues are no more available, being out of print, is indicative not only of its popularity both among sociologists and other social scientists but also of its high scholarly reputation, acceptance and relevance. Although two series of volumes have already been published by the ISS during 2001 and 2005 and in 2011 having seven volumes each on a large number of themes, yet a very large number of themes remain untouched. Such a situation necessitated that a new series of thematic volumes be brought out. Realising this necessity and in order to continue to celebrate the Diamond Decade of the Indian Sociological Society, the Managing Committee of the ISS and a subcommittee constituted for this purpose decided to bring out a series of 10 more thematic volumes in such areas of importance and relevance both for the sociological and the academic communities at large as Sociological Theory, Untouchability and Dalits, Rural Society, Science and Technology, Childhood and Youth, Health, Environment, Culture, Politics and the Pioneers of Sociology in India.

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Well-known scholars and experts in the areas of the chosen themes were identified and requested to edit these thematic volumes under the series title Readings in Indian Sociology. Each one of them has put in a lot of effort in the shortest possible time not only in selecting and identifying the papers to be included in their respective volumes but also in arranging these in a relevant and meaningful manner. More than this, it was no easy task for them to write comprehensive ‘introductions’ of the respective volumes in the face of time constraints so that the volumes could be brought out in time on the occasion of the 39th All India Sociological Conference scheduled to take place in Mysore under the auspices of the Karnataka State Open University during 27–29 December 2013. The editors enjoyed freedom not only in choosing the papers of their choice from Sociological Bulletin published during 1952 and 2012, but they were also free to request scholars of their choice to write forewords for their particular volumes. The volumes covered under this series include: Towards Sociology of Dalits (Editor: Paramjit S. Judge); Sociological Probings in Rural Society (Editor: K. L. Sharma); Sociology of Childhood and Youth (Editor: Bula Bhadra); Sociology of Health (Editor: Madhu Nagla); Contributions to Sociological Theory (Editor: Vinay Kumar Srivastava); Sociology of Science and Technology in India (Editor: Binay Kumar Pattnaik); Sociology of Environment (Editor: Sukant K. Chaudhury); Political Sociology of India (Editor: Anand Kumar); Culture and Society (Editor: Susan Visvanathan); and Pioneers of Sociology in India (Editor: Ishwar Modi). Sociology of Childhood and Youth (edited by Bula Bhadra with a Foreword by K. L. Sharma) is the third volume of the series titled Readings in Indian Sociology. Bula Bhadra maintains that prior to the 1980s children and young people were on the margins of sociology. In the 1980s, a growing number of European and American scholars called attention to the relative absence of children and young people in the knowledge of the social sciences. They argued that children and youth should be studied in their own right, as full social actors, rather than being framed primarily as adults-in-training or as problems for the adult social order. This volume is truly the first of its kind which provides the sociological articulations on the Indian child and young along with the accompanying multi-faceted discourses on childhood and youth situating it in the historical experience of India. The volume is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on selected pertinent issues in relation to the reality of child and childhood in India. In the second part articles reflect on lived experience of young people focusing on meeting grounds and diversities of youth in India. This volume will be welcomed as a groundbreaking effort for opening doors for critical

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Series Note

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thinking and new-fangled works in an area which is one of the most challenging and motivating concern of contemporary India and also for our sociological imagination. It can hardly be overemphasised and can be said for sure that this volume as well as all the other volumes of the series Readings in Indian Sociology, as they pertain to the most important aspects of society and sociology in India, will be of immense importance and relevance to students, teachers and researchers both of sociology and other social sciences. It is also hoped that these volumes will be received well by the overseas scholars interested in the study of Indian society. Besides this, policy-makers, administrators, activists, NGOs and so on may also find these volumes of immense value. Having gone through these volumes, the students and researchers of sociology would probably be able to feel and say that now ‘We will be able to look much farther away as we are standing on the shoulders of the giants’ (in the spirit of paraphrasing the famous quote by Isaac Newton). I would like to place on record my thanks to Shambhu Sahu, Sutapa Ghosh and R. Chandra Sekhar of SAGE Publications for all their efforts, support and patience to complete this huge project well in time against all the time constraints. I also express my gratefulness to the Managing Committee Members of the ISS and also the members of the subcommittee constituted for this purpose. I am also thankful to all the editors and all the scholars who have written the forewords. I would also like to thank Uday Singh, my assistant at the India International Institute of Social Sciences, Jaipur for all his secretarial assistance and hard work put in by him towards the completion of these volumes. Ishwar Modi Series Editor Readings in Indian Sociology

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Foreword

A

n edited volume on Sociology of Children and Youth by Professor Bula Bhadra will become a significant contribution to the Indian sociology as this volume would fill up the void in the study of children and youth. Professor Bhadra’s discrete selection includes articles published in Sociological Bulletin from 1971 to 2012. Of the two parts, the first one is on child and childhood and the second is on young and youth, which also indicates the genealogical sequence of children and youth. Anthropologists have studied child-rearing practices, basic personality formation, national character and so on, particularly among the tribal communities. Some scholars have also attempted child-rearing practices and personality attributes in India. The present collection of articles brings out understanding and analysis of children and youth in metropolises, towns and villages. Role of education, gender, class, occupation and aspirations for achievement has been the main concern in the articles incorporated in the volume. Professor Bhadra argues that the studies of children and youth must occupy an important place like other fields of inquiry and knowledge in the discipline of sociology. Some government agencies and NGOs have compiled comprehensive statistical profiles of both children and youth, but there are hardly any systematic studies of children and youth relating to socialization and upbringing of children, impact of culture, neighbourhood, parental background, formal institutions, child labour exploitation, deviance, sexual abuse, childcare, rehabilitation and so on. Some scholars also argue that there are no agreed definitions of ‘child’ and ‘youth’. Professor Bula Bhadra has raised some important issues in her ‘introduction’, such as exploitation of children, role of the UN agencies and approaches to the study of children and youth. The articles on delinquency, aspirations of school and college students, gendering of sex roles, family planning, use of drugs and so on hint at the

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process of shaping the children and youth in Indian society. Most of the articles, however, bring out that preference for a male child persists despite significant strides made by women in education, employment and participation in public life. The editor expresses her concern on account of the scant attention paid to this important field of sociological investigation. This volume would certainly inspire students and teachers to engage themselves in studies and research, which in turn may earn a mainstream space for the sociology of childhood and youth in the discipline of sociology in particular and social sciences in general. K.L. Sharma Vice-Chancellor Jaipur National University Jaipur.

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Preface and Acknowledgements

I

ssues and practices relating to children and young people have been on the margins of mainstream Indian sociological concerns and interests. It is now well attested that the dominant paradigms in sociology either completely excluded ‘child and childhood’ as objects of meticulous research or dealt with them as subordinate or mute categories. Unfortunately, the institutionalisation of sociology of childhood and youth is still in its nascent stage in the level of university teaching and research in India. There is a serious absence of systematic knowledge building in this area. At best, one or two lectures are delivered on the problem of Child Labor or on Child Abuse as part of a Social Problems course. In actuality, sociologists have been caught off guard when criticisms started to pour about the fact that there has been very little sociological imagination regarding Indian children and youth even though there is so much to explore and explain. Though the attention shown to young people and youth is little better compared to children and childhood but it is still enormously wanting. The experiences and lives of youth are still predominantly dealt with from social problem perspective considering youth as passive recipients. And, often children and young people have been described in homogeneous manner without recognising that there are multiple childhoods and multiple youths, thus disregarding the intersectional dimension entirely. In short, the nuances of these two groups of people in India are yet to be documented by researches in any significant way. Ergo, it is heartening that the series on Diamond Decades of Indian Sociology has kept its unearthing effort to explore new and often marginalised areas through Sociological Bulletin, the official journal of Indian Sociological Society (ISS). The articles published in the Sociological Bulletin on one hand are meagre, on childhood and youth, to say the least, for the

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journal started its journey as early as 1952; and, on the other hand, so many pertinent dimensions of lived experience of children and young people of Indian society are just simply absent. In fact, it was quite difficult to find suitable, meaningful articles on childhood and youth in the first two decades of the publication of this journal. However, the best part is, though few in number, the selected articles are very relevant in terms of their context, focus and importance for comprehending specific aspects of childhood and youth in India. The efforts of ISS, especially of the current President Professor Ishwar Prasad Modi deserve heartfelt congratulations for continuing the efforts which started with Golden Jubilee volumes with much dexterity. I am extremely grateful to Professor Modi for giving me this opportunity to delve into this challenging endeavour. I owe my sincere thanks to Professor K. L. Sharma for agreeing to write the Foreword and providing such a scholastic preamble to this volume. I would like to say a special thanks to my UGC research scholars Ms Saheli Chowdhury and Ms Chandrabali Dutta, and my project fellow Ms Oindrila Mukherjee for enriching me with their works on children and youth along with their constant assistance and support for this volume. I like to express my warm appreciation and love to my daughter Sompurna’s ways of teaching ‘stuff’ to her mother so that her mother could understand how children and young people really think and act. Her agency role reinforced my realisation that this volume could play a catalytic role for opening doors for critical thinking and new-fangled works for and with children and young people rather than on them. Finally, the authors whose essays are reproduced here will be pleased to witness that their contributions have become part of a collective effort which will pave the way for future productive initiatives. Bula Bhadra Professor Department of Sociology University of Calcutta

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Introduction Bula Bhadra

Prelude Prior to the 1980s, children/young people were on the margins of sociology. That is, both sociology of childhood and sociology of youth have attracted relatively belated interest within the discipline of sociology, to say the least. Either these areas were parts of parental discourse or exclusive concern of developmental psychology and/or indistinctly outlined within the discipline of education. In youth studies, the evolution of familial and educational structures has gradually led to the construction of a new category of individuals: ‘young people’ where youth is represented as a transitional period between childhood and adulthood. In fact, the definition of youth itself is constantly in a state of flux; age boundaries are becoming more blurry with some aspects of adolescence starting earlier and other aspects of youth continuing well into the 30s. Strangely enough, in India, Rahul Gandhi, son of late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, is portrayed as a youth leader in his mid-40s. Current relevant literature made attempts to simplify the understanding of this very heterogeneous category, and attention has frequently been devoted to the pathways to adulthood that they experience and youth is represented as a transitional period between childhood and adulthood. Thus, sociologically speaking, youth refers to a ‘category’ rather than a ‘group’; the difference being that a category has diverse or heterogeneous elements unlike a group which is sociologically similar in its composition. New concepts are even appearing in reference to the extended period between adolescence and adulthood, such as ‘emerging adulthood’ or the ‘young adult’. In earlier sociological accounts children/young people1 were subsumed into accounts of the family or the school—in other words, into the major

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sites of socialisation. Children were, therefore, most visible when they were being socialised. Socialisation, which is mainstream sociology’s explanation for how children become members of society, and how children progress from incompetent to competent adulthood through the process of acculturation and/or socialisation. In socialisation theory there was no view of children as active social agents; rather, children/young people were seen (if they were seen at all) as passive recipients of socialisation. Here child is rather appropriated by society, trained to become a competent and contributing member by playing primarily a passive role. In addition, socialisation theory failed to see the child as existing in the present—instead, the focus is on what children/young people could become. It has been said that socialisation theory ignores children’s role in socialising both themselves and others. One classic example was Talcott Parsons, an influential American sociologist of the 1950s and 1960s, who theorised social systems as smoothly functioning wholes. The society, for Parsons, was an ‘intricate network of interdependent and interpenetrating roles and consensual values’ (Parson and Bales, 1955: 36). In his view, the child is a threat to the society; he or she must be appropriated and shaped to fit in. When children are born, he wrote, they are like pebbles thrown into a social pond. First the family and then schools and other institutions shape the growing child, who comes to internalise the values and rules of adult society. Sociologists in this time period focused on children/young people not only as learners but also as threats (research on juvenile delinquency emerged in the 1950s) and as victims of adults (child physical abuse became a topic in the 1960s, and child sexual abuse in the 1970s). With the further development of sociological theory, the functionalist model of socialisation lost favour, and some theorists suggest social reproduction of class inequalities in terms of access to resources and its consequences. These theorists (Bernstein, 1981; Bourdieu and Passeron, 1977) provided much required acknowledgement of the effect of social conflict and inequality on the socialisation of children. But this model also underestimates the active and innovative capacities of children/young people and, thus, simplifies complex social processes and fails to take account of the child/young people as a competent social actor. Both functionalist and reproductive models neglect the point that children do not just internalise the society they are born into. Thus, what was missing from sociology, then, was an account of the socially constructed nature of childhood and youth which would focus on children/young people as social actors rather than passive ‘becomings’. The deliberations on these narrow versions of the child/young people offered by academic discourses and methods of enquiry prompted in the

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1980s a growing number of European and American scholars to call for attention to the relative absence of children/young people in the knowledge of the social sciences. They argued that children should be studied in their own right, as full social actors, rather than being framed primarily as adultsin-training or as problems for the adult social order. But it was undeniably the credit of the French historian Philippe Aries, who first highlighted the socially constructed character of childhood beginning in the early 1960s. He argued that childhood did not exist in the Middle Ages as they were not granted a special or distinctive social status (1962: 125). According to Aries children/young people only participated in societal activities just as the adults did because of the lack of awareness that children/young people require a different and specific kind of social experience. They were depicted as little adults and there was thus no difference in rearing them. The dawning of consciousness about children/young people as being different and particular has gradually developed from 17th century onwards along with social, political and economic institutionalisation of the thought of children’s needs. Though his account of childhood has by now been widely criticised methodologically and empirically, his broad framework and his ideas remain foundational to childhood studies. As Heywood (2001) argued that Aries’ analysis provided scholars with a platform from which to ‘mount a radical critique of thinking about children in their own society’ (2001: 12). Aries’ contribution was profoundly significant in that it recognised that childhood cannot be considered as an ‘unproblematic descriptor of a natural biological phase’ (James and James, 2004: 13). In short, therefore, childhood, a developmental stage of life course, being common to all children at one and the same time, is also fragmented by the heterogeneity of children’s everyday lives. The manner in which childhood is analysed, understood and socially institutionalised varies considerably across and between cultures and generations in regard to children’s everyday lives and actions. Likewise, in connection with child-specific needs and competencies articulated and made comprehensible in law and social policy along with social interactions between children and adults. Thus, the social construction of childhood is portrayed ‘as the complex interweaving of social structures, political and economic institutions, beliefs, cultural mores, laws, policies and everyday actions of both adults and children , in home and on the street’ (ibid). The social construction approach, which draws on social interaction theory and includes children’s agency and daily activities to interpret children’s lives, became the dominant paradigm (see James and Prout 1990/1998; Jenks 2005; Qvortrup 1994, 1; Woodhead 2009), especially from mid-1990s of the last century.

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Breaking the Ice Institutionally: UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) The discourses on the child and young people and childhood and youth culminated in the recognition of the social fact that children and young people are persons and not sub-persons. Before UNCRC 1989, it was 1924 Declaration of the Rights of the Child which came to be known as the ‘Declaration of Geneva’. Recognising that ‘mankind owes to the child the best that it has to give’, the five simple principles of the Declaration established the basis of child rights in terms of both protection of the weak and vulnerable and promotion of the child’s development. The Declaration also made it clear that the care and protection of children was no longer the exclusive responsibility of families or communities or even individual countries; the world as a whole had a legitimate interest in the welfare of all children. In 1946, the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations recommended that the Geneva Declaration be reaffirmed as a sign of commitment to the cause of children. The same year, the United Nations established a specialised agency—UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) with a mandate to care for the world’s children. The UNCRC was adopted by the United Nations in 1989. Since then, children’s rights have become a significant field of study. The Convention appealed to the ‘academic responsibility’ of scholars in various disciplines, which gave the academic interest ‘a timely impetus’ (Verhellen, 1998: 97). Today, scholarly works on children’s rights is almost inconceivable without considering the Convention as the bearer of the children’s rights debate. Taking cue from the reality of children’s rights and considering it as a social phenomenon arising from constitutive human action (Cotterrell, 2005; Stammers, 1995; 1999; Tarulli and Skott-Myhre, 2006), social constructions of children’s rights found in the UNCRC have generated a new genre of literature (see Reynaert et al. 2009). Since the adoption of the UNCRC, the academic discourse on children’s rights has been preoccupied with highlighting the childhood image of the competent child vis-à-vis the image of the incompetent child, characterised by considering children as objects in need of protection because of their vulnerability. Aided by UNCRC, the children’s rights movement presented an alternative pedagogical model for dealing with the children. Here, children are represented as social actors, as active agents and autonomous, independent human beings in constructing their lives in their own right (for example King 2007; Matthews and Limb 1998; Miljeteig-Olssen 1990; Wilcox and Naimark 1991), thereby criticising the ‘tutelage status’ of the child protection movement. Thus, at this juncture of the children’s rights paradigm is the acknowledgment of the child as an autonomous subject, meaningful

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in its current ‘child-being ’, and the slogan became ‘bring children back into society ’ (Verhellen 2000). This brings to the fore indubitably that that UNCRC imposes legally binding norms on state parties who ratify the Convention, by which society becomes accountable for realising children’s rights. The competent child with participation rights also took root in policymaking. Melton (2005a) describes the UNCRC as a transformative instrument guiding policy. The Convention offers a judicial framework to rethink childcare policies in the direction of ensuring children’s dignity (Melton 1991, 2005b; Miljeteig-Olssen, 1990). Jupp (1990: 131) and describes this as a ‘landmark in a century long struggle for social reform’. After UNCRC, it became imperative that states not only have to take steps to provide child services and childcare facilities (access to child services) but should also guarantee that child services and childcare facilities meet certain standards (quality of child care). The relevant literature on the impact, potentialities, loopholes and problems of implementation of UNCRC is massive, which is not within the purview of this brief write–up, but it can be asserted that the works on UNCRC unquestionably demonstrate a preoccupation with children’s rights wand a changing image of childhood that considers children as autonomous human beings. However, there is divergence on the notion of desirability of the shift towards autonomy for children. Various scholars point out the risks of a rights tradition emphasising individuality and autonomy (Federle, 1994; Freeman, 2007). To conclude, it can be said that the academic discourses on children’s rights since the adoption of the UNCRC in 1989, three themes dominate contemporary scholarly works on the UNCRC—(i) autonomy and participation rights as the new norm in child rights practice and policy; (ii) children’s rights versus parental rights and (iii) the global children’s rights industry analysed from the perspective of ‘educationalisation’2 (Reynaert et al. 2009: 528–9). Unfortunately, relevant literature on Indian children’s rights is almost absent from sociological and social science viewpoints, although some works exist in the legal realm.

Childhood and Youth Studies: Issues, Practice and Imaginations Children and Childhood In both contemporary and classical sociological theory, one can hardly find any trace of that particular form of social agent, children, or of that special feature of social life, childhood. (Turmel 2008: 16)

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As mentioned earlier, until recent decades, children were silenced, their voices unheard and their experiences largely concealed in the knowledge created by sociologists, anthropologists and historians. Critical perspectives on the marginalisation of children were inspired by earlier political movements on behalf of other subordinated groups such as colonised peoples, racial-ethnic minorities, women and members of alternative sexualities. These movements challenged the contours of traditional knowledge, showing that the standpoints and interests of the dominant were embedded in frameworks for studying topics as diverse as labour, politics, social organisation, families and embodiment. These critical approaches helped open attention to the silencing of children and to the goal of bringing them to voice. The theme of ‘voice’—voicing experiences, claiming the right not only to speak but also to be listened to—has become a metaphor for political recognition, self-determination and full presence in knowledge. There are especially close analogies, and complex connections, between movements to bring children, and to bring women, more fully into knowledge. Seemingly passive women and children were also clumped together by phrases such as ‘the immigrants sent for their wives and children’, which assume that the actors are adult males and that women and children are essentially baggage to be carted, sent for or left behind. Framing women and children as social actors—as participants in processes of labour, politics, revolution, migration—has challenged male and adult-centred assumptions and provided fuller, more illuminating knowledge. A good example of the upturning of conventional perspectives can be found in Enid Schildkrout’s classic 1978 article where he observed that children rarely entered descriptions of social systems and proposed that they should be understood as children rather than as the next generation of adults. Reversing the familiar equation of children with dependence, Schildkrout asked, ‘[W]hat would happen to the adult world (other than its extinction) if there were no children? And in what ways are adults dependent upon children? What is the significance of children in maintaining the relative status of men and women?’ (1978/2002: 342) Drawing upon fieldwork among the Hausa, a Muslim society in Nigeria, Schildkrout described how income-earning women, confined to their households by purdah, depended on children to purchase materials and to deliver and sell the final products at the market. This arrangement—with spatially mobile children—actively contributed, on the one hand, to patriarchal–economic practices but also, on the other, made possible women’s earning opportunity. The ‘new sociology of childhood’ intended to ‘de-naturalising’ age categories and relations and attempted to theorise age as a structural and

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discursive dimension of social life, analogous to and intersecting with gender, racial-ethnicity and other lines of difference with an emphasis on historical changes and cultural variation. In this social construction of age and relations, childhoods are socially located and children are construed as social actors, agents and cultural creators. The ‘new’ continues here as a statement of breaking from functionalist theories of ‘socialisation’ and staking out territory that was previously relinquished to developmental psychology and notions like child development. A fully historical, sociological and anthropological approach has solidified and scholars to pay closer attention to children as social actors with varied lives and experiences, gained momentum in the 1980s and 1990s. This critical approach to adult-centred frameworks was enhanced by increasing criticisms of knowledge organised around the outlooks and interests of the powerful. Scholarly attention to women and people of colour helped inspire calls for research that would bring children more fully into knowledge. Critical examination of age relations, childhood and categories such as child and adult was also spurred by a theoretical approach called social constructionism, which involved digging beneath categories that are taken for granted to examine the varied ways in which they have been organised and given meaning. A unitary category like the child is especially ripe for examination because it encompasses a wide range of ages and capacities, with an ambiguous and often disputed upper boundary. International political and economic changes of the late 20th century also heightened awareness of the varied lives and circumstances of children. Global economic restructuring strengthened ties among geographically distant nations, with increasing circulation of commodities, labour, information and images. In many parts of the world, these changes forced children into new conditions of poverty and increased their numbers among refugees and among those who work in highly exploitative conditions. Televised images of children living in situations of war, violence, poverty and famine have undermined the assumption that children are an innocent and protected group, safely ensconced in families and schools. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, on the one hand, was the work by James and James (2004), which sought to build upon the pioneering original explanation of the socially constructed nature of childhood that framed the new paradigm of childhood studies (James and Prout 1990/1998) and its subsequent elaboration (James et al. 1998). James and James set out to develop and expand this paradigm by seeking to identify some of the missing elements in the analysis of the relationship between structure and agency and to specify some of the mechanisms connecting the two through which social change and social continuity occur in relation to childhood.

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They developed the notion of the cultural politics of childhood—the combination of national and therefore cultural contexts, social practices and political processes through which childhood is uniquely constructed in different societies at different times—and identified the pivotal role of law as the institutional embodiment of social practices, both in the construction and the regulation of childhood. On the other hand, Jens Qvortrup, a Danish sociologist, coordinated an ambitious comparative study of the living conditions of children in 13 European countries plus Israel, Canada and the United States. The researchers relied, in part, on the techniques of demography—that is the use of statistical methods to study the size, structure and distribution of particular populations. Defining children as a category spanning the ages of birth through 14, the research team compared the age structuring of national populations. They found, for example, that from 1950 to 1990, the proportion of children declined in all 16 industrialised countries, with the greatest decline in Finland and the least in Israel. They also analysed comparative information about the size and composition of the households in which children resided, patterns in the employment of children and in children’s daily duties at home, the amount of time children spent in school and in organised activities outside of school, the legal and health status of children, and the proportion of social resources, such as income and housing, that were allocated to children in each national economy. Guided by a view of childhood as a position in social structure, this comparative study emphasised relations among legal, political, economic, health, educational, family and other institutions. Research on the social construction of childhood has focused not only on the institutional arrangements that shape children’s lives but also on beliefs about the nature of children or particular groups of children, such as infants or girls entering puberty. Studies have shown that street children in Brazil have been portrayed as threats to the social order (a discourse the police have used to justify arrests), as victims (the discourse of social welfare agencies) and through a discourse of children’s rights used by activists who argue that children should participate in changing the conditions of their lives (Hecht, 1998). Social scientists who study discursive constructions of children and childhoods have analysed not only the ways in which meanings are made but also their effects in the world. For example, sociologists and anthropologists often puzzled about the gap between the stated goal of public education in industrialised countries—to open equal opportunity for all children—and the reality that schools, by and large, reproduce social class and racial inequalities. Although teachers may try to use even-handed practices and to focus on children as individuals,

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assumptions about social class and race are embedded in processes of sorting and tracking. In the United States, for example, some schools provide special resources for children deemed to be gifted, a discourse that appears to represent an objective and natural difference, but that embeds social class and racial assumptions. Ann Ferguson (2000) studied the consequential use of another discourse—‘bad boys’—in the daily world of a multiracial middle school in California. Assuming that low-income African American boys were especially prone towards misbehaviour, teachers monitored them more closely than other students. To sustain a sense of dignity in the face of this negative control, the boys sometimes engaged in acts that the adults saw as defiance. The spiral of labelling, conflict and discipline reproduced patterns of inequality. Children are discursively constructed not only by experts and the media but also by corporations that design and sell goods to an expanding child market. Marketing campaigns target groups that are narrowly defined by age and gender, promoting particular conceptions of childhood. Actually market-driven ideas about the pace of growing up enter into negotiations between children, parents and teachers over issues such as what clothing can be worn to school; Ann Solberg (1995), a Norwegian sociologist, coined the term social age to refer to negotiated conceptions of being older or younger, a more flexible construction than chronological age. The concept of children’s agency has been used in varied ways. A flourishing body of research on children’s everyday lives emphasises their capacities as experiencing subjects who are capable of autonomous action and cultural creation. William Corsaro (1997) has observed preschools in the United States and in Italy, documenting children’s use of ideas from the adult world as they created distinctive peer cultures. He coined the term interpretive reproduction to emphasise children’s participation in cultural production and change. Solberg (1995) found that 10-year-old Norwegian children and their employed mothers had quite different perspectives on children taking care of themselves at home after school. The mothers worried that their children came home to an ‘empty house’, but some of the children spoke instead of coming home to a ‘welcoming house’, with independent access to food, television and the telephone. There is no doubt that children have agency in the sense of the capacity to experience, interact and make meaning. From this perspective, the division between children and adults or teens is somewhat arbitrary and continually negotiated. Recently, Adrian James, one of the stalwarts of Childhood studies in UK wrote: ‘Childhood studies is approaching a crossroads, reaching a point in its history and development when searching questions must be asked about how the field is now perceived and whether there is any longer a

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shared understanding of what was once a unified project.’ That is to say, ‘a fracturing of the field is inevitable with different agenda, different paths and ‘thinking afresh about the nature of childhood studies and reconstructing it’ (2010: 485–7). In 2005 Qvortrup asserted that the increasing emphasis on the plurality of childhoods was obscuring the overriding importance of childhood as a social category and its structural significance in terms of generation and intergenerational relations. Thus, the global cultural politics of childhood became an area of contention as well as a focus of interdisciplinary sociological research. ‘The new discourses of childhood understand the child as being. The child is conceived of as a person, a status’, as Chris Jenks said that ‘any analysis of childhood must rigorously attempt to open up the boundaries that have been placed around the experience’ (1996: 11) as ‘the recognition is that childhood and “the child” are indeed complex phenomena; understanding them properly, and not just partially, compels any disciplinarian to consult researchers from other disciplinary fields, and to develop efficient forms of communication and collaboration with them’ (Alanen 2012: 419). A few articles have appeared in the journal Childhood on India in recent years, like Sarada Balagopalan’s article on ‘Children’s lives and the Indian context’ (2011) where she has highlighted multiple childhoods. In this connection it is necessary to remember what BühlerNiederberger wrote while comparing researches from 10 countries that in childhood sociological research all the influential books are written in English, and some have been translated into other languages. But no books not written in or translated into English were listed among the most influential ones. So there is not only a global, but also a hegemonic influence shaping childhood sociological research all over the world. (2010: 377)

This, of course, is again a serious problem as it has always been in other sub-fields of sociology, especially from the point of view of ex-colonies and developing countries (see Nieuwenhuys, 2009).

Young and Youth At the end of the first decade of the 21st century, and in the context of rapid technological change and extensive economic and social uncertainty, the lives and identities of young people continue to be the subject of a broad range of scholarship which is as stimulating as it is important. The over-arching questions indubitably are how are scholars contributing to the

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sociology of youth engaging with themes of generational issues, identity, transition and culture and above all young people’s own perceptions? The challenges in front of the researchers are the choice of apposite conceptual and methodological tools to understand adequately the complexities of contemporary young lives. And what sorts of re-assessments or new conceptualisations might be necessary in order to adequately explore the contemporary life-worlds of young people today? Of special significance here are derived understandings of youth as located on the pathway between childhood and adulthood and, as part of this, the notion of adulthood as ‘destination’. In this regard, a brief mention must be made to adolescence which becomes culturally defined as a life stage when full-time education replaces full-time employment as the primary activity of young people. In reality the growing public concern over the problem behaviours exhibited by children led to the social invention of the concept of adolescence. This emerged as a new interim social status between childhood and adulthood (Jensen and Rojek, 1998). The concept of adolescence has also been referred to in the literature as youth or juvenile status which further adds to the confusion around terminology in the field of juvenile justice (Agnew, 2001; Ferdinand, 1991). The fact of the matter is globally, research on adolescence flourished in the last three decades of the 20th century. According to David Bakan (cited in Jensen and Rojek, 1998), the concept of ‘adolescence’ was an American discovery and if we look at the sub-field of sociology of crime and deviance, it can be attested that it was the work of a group of researchers of Chicago school who highlighted juvenile delinquency within the context of social disorganisation theory framework. The vast majority of studies on youth are focused on the problematic features of adolescence and explicitly on problem behaviour. A review of the leading journals on adolescence points out that at least half of all articles were principally about youthful misbehaviour and maladjustment: delinquency and violence, substance abuse, school problems, mental health and the like. This focus is especially prominent in the literature on early adolescence when youth engage in behaviours defined as ‘high risk’ (Bahr et al. 1998; Barber 1992; Bogenschneider Wu et al. 1998; Buehler et al. 1998; Christopher et al. 1998; Dryfoos 1998; Perkins et al. 1998). A far smaller share of the literature concerns measures of conventional behaviours (Crockett and Crouter 1995) to adolescent success or to adult roles. Here, as Howard Becker (1973) explained that most youth (like many adults) engage in behaviours that may have more complex meanings depending on both their context and consequences, for example, why should learning to drive safely is regarded as a positive development, whereas learning to drink responsibly is seen as a negative event?

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Hence, it seems that the boundaries of childhood, youth and adulthood are hazy, imprecise and are always changing. In this context, the use of the concept of ‘social generation’ has been suggested as a way of moving beyond this impasse. As the sociology of youth is made up of multiple theoretical and empirical focuses, much of the current discourses can still be seen as focusing either on changes in young people’s transitions to adulthood or young people’s self-understandings and culture. Sociology of Youth has a long history, in focusing on these transitions and cultures even though there have been a lot of modifications as far as the utilisation of these concepts and the dominant metaphors have certainly changed over time. The 1970s and into the 1980s saw the rise of youth unemployment in a number of Western countries and a rethinking of the concept of transition. This rethinking drew on the ‘structural’ sociological approaches of the time and focused researchers’ attention on the way that social position constrains young people’s transitions (Cohen 1997; Wyn and White 1997). Likewise, a new way of thinking about subjective orientations, focused on youth cultures, emerged as a major alternative sociological approach to youth (Bennett, 2000). This subcultural approach brought to the fore the way those groups of working-class young people (mostly young men) appropriated meaning through the cultural resources available to them and used these and refused to accept constrictions and rejoiced their own cultural expressions (for example Willis, 1977). While focusing on young people’s subjective experience and shared meaning-making, this work theorised youth culture in reference to a body of theory centred on structural constraint and class inequality. By the 1990s, a new set of economic and social conditions was shaping the experience of youth; a new proliferation of literature was growing on the distinctive experiences of young women. The post-school education lengthened significantly, particularly for women, manufacturing work declined to be replaced by service work and often casualised employment, and young people increasingly deferred marriage and family formation. In different ways, Giddens (1991), Beck (1992) and Bauman (1998 and 2000) argued that considerable changes have occurred in the principles by which modern society is organised. Control over uncertainty and risk comes to seem significantly less possible yet appears to be appreciably more valuable. This same process of increasing complexity and speedy change is seen to mean that institutions such as the family, employment and community potentially become more fragmented, and personal life comes to appear less predictable. Using a social generation approach to move beyond the binary between young people’s cultural expressions and transitions, let me focus on the premise that young people today are

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growing up in a world that is significantly different, and is experienced as different, from the world in which their parents grew up. These changing conditions have again reshaped the way transitions and youth cultures are conceptualised. A major area of discussion over the past two decades has centred on the multiplication of the number of possible pathways of transition and on rapid change in the timing and synochronisation of transitions to various markers of adulthood (Côté 2000; te Riele 2004). A second area of interest has been how young people make choices about their future and shape their identity in the face of more intricate and prolonged transitions in an arguably ‘post subcultural’ and individualised world (Andres and Wyn 2010; Brannen and Nilsen 2002; Harris 2002; MacDonald and Marsh 2005; Threadgold and Nilan 2009). The focus of contemporary youth research is shaped adding a focus on social change and complexity to the long-standing concerns with the variable outcomes of transition to adulthood for differently positioned young people (for example Ashton and Field 1976; Roberts 1968). The focal point of youth research is shaped not only by changes in the experience of youth, but also by the conceptual resources deployed and by the history of past research, or at least the way that this history is told in the present. Much contemporary youth research can be seen as a continuation of these ‘twin tracks’ of youth studies. In many ways, this focus on how social change has impacted on youth cultures, and on the way young people think about the present and the future, shows continuity with the long-standing interest in how young people make sense of their experience and actively shape their lives (Hall and Jefferson 1976; McRobbie and Garber 1976; Willis 1977), but this focus on change and complexity also marks the potential for a fruitful convergence of approaches. Recent efforts at overcoming the ‘false binary’ (even if it has been real in some of its consequences for the field) between the two approaches to youth research has frequently taken the form of calls for ‘middle-ground’ conceptual approaches, particularly in research focused on both youth transitions and youth culture (Woodman 2009). This has emerged as a response to critiques of the over-emphasis on structure in youth-transitions research post-1960s and a perceived over-emphasis on agency in many studies of youth culture (Evans 2002; Lehmann 2004; Roberts 2003). These middle-ground approaches draw on concepts such as ‘bounded agency’ or ‘structured individualisation’ as a way of overcoming historical divisions (Brannen and Nilsen 2002; Lehmann 2004; Roberts 2003; Rudd and Evans 1998). Indeed, conceptualisations converge in the critique of each tradition’s bias and through an engagement with theories of individualisation. Engaging with and critiquing these claims about the opening of the

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biography to new uncertainties is a central aim in many studies within contemporary youth sociology across the two traditions and, thus, offers an opportunity to break with the past. But the problem with finding a ‘middle ground’ between youth transitions and youth cultures is that approaches often remain trapped within a conceptual model that distinguishes between structural, historically specific conditions and young people’s subjective experience of the times in which they live. The ‘middle-ground’ solution also has the drawback of failing to confront what many youth researchers now acknowledge, that the boundaries of childhood, youth and adulthood are blurred, indistinct, porous and changing. Under these conditions it could be argued that, in late modernity, the notion of transition has become relatively meaningless as a conceptual tool because of the increasing lack of synchrony of transitions across life domains. The leavings and arrivals associated with residence, employment, studying and personal relationships no longer add up to a clear status or to acknowledged rites of passage with regard to life stage. Indeed, research from a number of countries finds a clear trend towards the de-standardisation of the life course (for example Heinz, 2009; Shanahan, 2000). While there are clear signs of convergence between the ‘transitions’ and ‘cultural’ perspectives in the sociology of youth, as yet there is no conceptual framework that is accepted by those aligned to either tradition. The major strength of a social generation approach is that it has the capacity to reveal local variations on global patterns: it enables us to understand the significance of subjectivities and the unevenness of capacity across groups (gender, class and race) and across time and place to enact these subjectivities. Since modern-day ‘childhood’ and youth are increasingly saturated by technology i.e. from television to the Internet, video games to ‘video nasties’, camcorders to personal computers, mobile phones to micro-laptops and to electronic toys, this brief overview remains rather incomplete if the ushering and penetration of new technology in the lives of children and youth is not referred to. Children and young people engage with and exercise competence in a whole range of technologies in the home, at school and in the public social world on a daily basis. In fact, it is almost impossible to imagine their lives without new technologies and at one and the same time there is no arena which does not use or apply these new technologies one way or the other. A new proliferation of literature has been born during the last 20 years in both Europe and North America on new sociology of childhood/ youth along with interface between new technology and children/young encompassing a variety of facets starting with the impact of introduction of computers at the educational institutions to mobile internet and mediated

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interaction as a new social relation. Turkle, wrote that computers significantly change people’s relationships and daily lives, especially among young and cyberspace is currently offering space for fun. It offers an opportunity for experimentation that is frequently absent from the rest of our lives (2011). Turkle explained that it was ‘Technology (that) proposes itself as architect of our intimacies’ (2011:1). The release of iPhone and other smart phones has revolutionized telephone services and surprised even those who are no longer taken aback by any technological breakthroughs, as pointed out by the survey published in MTV’s 2008 Young Universe Dossier. The rising popularity of the internet and the ever increasing amount of time adolescents spend online pose challenges to parent-child relationship, the very notion of family and its role as well as the overall process of growing up as children/young people (Subrahmanyam et al. 2009). To Tom Boonaert and Nicole Vettenburg (2011) the internet is just not a source of information but also help develop new digital skills that enable children to cope in a digitized society. The two important kinds of use of internet among children and young are Education and Entertainment. However these two uses, that is education and entertainment overlaps so much that the term ‘Edutainment’ was coined to describe software that seeks both to educate and entertain (Demner 2001). For some, internet acts as a double edged sword which represents both ‘risks’ and ‘opportunity’ for children and young adult. Chatting over internet, accessing social networking sites and spending hours in the computer among adolescents have become the most popular leisure—time activity which leads them to develop the habit of Compulsive Internet Use (CIU) or Internet addiction (Eijnden, Spijkerman, Vermulst, Rooij and Engels 2009). Children and young people’s use of diversified new media technologies enable a paradoxical reframing of leisure by complicating the distinction between leisure and work. A ‘digital/net generation’ and a ‘participatory media culture’ has transformed their private space of home in to a site of multi-media culture. This space of home is now very much open to new forms of public and community engagement by converting children’s/young people’s domestic leisure practices as sites of cultural production. Here, the children are agency ranging from ‘nurtured beginners’ to ‘nurtured cybernauts’ (Tapscott 2009; Davies and Eynon 2013). Sonia Livingstone (2008) in her in-depth studies shows that the impact on children/youth of social networking sites by enabling communication among ever-widening circles of contacts, by inviting convergence among the hitherto separate activities of e-mail, messaging, website creation, diaries, photo albums, and music/ video uploading and downloading. The very language of social relationships is being reframed; today, people construct

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their ‘profile’, make it ‘public’ or ‘private’, they ‘comment’ or ‘message’ their ‘top friends’ on their ‘wall’, they ‘block’ or ‘add’ people to their network, and so forth. It seems that creating and networking online content is becoming, for many, an integral means of managing one’s identity, lifestyle and social relations. Danah Michele Boyd (2008) explains how teens negotiate self representation and impression management in social networking sites. For Buckingham (2006) Computer games, the Internet, and other new communications media are often seen to pose threats and dangers to young people, but they also provide new opportunities for creativity and self-determination. Marika Luders (2009) shows how Personal media are important social symbols that indicate social success along with mammoth potentiality of creating an integration of online and offline spaces. This brief review of works done on children, childhood and young and youth is almost structurally compelled to exclude India as, unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge, we have very few works done on children and youth though youth especially is utilised as social and political capital by all political parties, media and NGOs.

Children and Childhood in Sociological Bulletin There is no doubt that children and childhood is still a much uncharted territory in India’s sociological imagination. There has been almost a complete silence about child and childhood in sociological discourses in India. The dominant paradigms in sociology either completely excluded ‘child and childhood’ as objects of meticulous research or dealt with them as subordinate or mute categories. There is not a single sociology department in India of any university which offers a paper or a course on sociology of child and/or childhood. At best, a few lectures are delivered on the problem of child labour or on child abuse as part of a Social Problems course. Children even now remain as an add-on agenda if they are discussed in mainstream sociological discourses or at best passive recipients and empty vessels who are in need of instructions. But, interestingly and encouragingly enough, there have been writings on children in Sociological Bulletin, the official journal of Indian Sociological Society though miniscule in comparison to articles on caste, village studies, religion, civil society or even gender which was a neglected terrain for a long time. The rationale behind the choice of the articles was simple and straightforward: as the collection is on the reflections on ‘Sociology of Children and Childhood’, the preference has been given to those papers which mostly focused on manifold aspects of the

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children and childhood in their surrounding social context and its associated sociological implications in Indian society. K. S. Shukla’s article on ‘Adolescent Thieves and Differential Association’, published in 1976, is a part of his extensive work on the adolescent property offenders (16 to 21 years) from two urban centres Gwalior and Indore in Central India. The paper describes the nature of association of 200 adolescent property offenders during different stages of growth and, by inference or implication, it provides empirical test for the theory of Differential Association of Edwin H. Sutherland. The study is based upon interviews of the adolescents in both the cities. The selected offenders fell in three categories: (i) freely moving offenders with prior record of conviction, (ii) without any record, (iii) convicted offenders and under-trials in the police custody or in the jails. The bases of classification of the adolescents were source of livelihood, modus-operandi and frequency of theft, skill, efficiency, ability to fix up cases, self-conception and attitude towards society and the criminal world, potentialities and experience. The author also studied police records of both the cities regarding adolescents so as to get an idea of the prevailing crime situation. The records presented a picture of the intensity, trend, variety, direction and other differentials like age, sex and caste. This information not only helped in piecing together the crime picture, in order to have a gestalt of the entire situation, but also in the collection of the background information of the selected offenders. This being a sensitive issue, the author argued that special care was taken to exclude, as much as possible, the cases from custodial institutions emerging out of incarceration. Due to the spatial mobility of the offenders, the chance sample was his choice. They were interviewed with the help of an interview-guide, in a wide variety of places, such as hotels, lonely places, open streets, apartments of the subjects, police stations, jail premises and other suitable spots. The findings demonstrate that the surrounding interactional environment presents both anti-delinquent and pro-delinquent parameters. Exposures favourable to violation of law were made at the intimacy associations other than the immediate neighborhood or school. This process has been found being further reinforced by a variety of delinquency-generating factors that almost incessantly operate upon the subjects. They initiate them into professional techniques of undertaking various property offences and, eventually, crystallise and sustain in them tangible pro-delinquent behavioural patterns. The frequency, duration, priority and intensity aspects of the theory of differential association find considerable support from the empirical findings. This article, as mentioned earlier, is a classic example of the application of theories of Chicago school that highlighted the

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problematic features of adolescence and explicitly on their non-normative problem behaviour. The article by Shah, Patel and Sewell on ‘Social class and educational aspirations in an indian metropolis’ is on social class and educational and occupational achievements and inequality. This paper examined the relationship of socio-economic status and educational aspirations of 5,201 S.S.C. students enrolled in a stratified sample of high schools in Ahmedabad, a metropolis in western India. The data were collected by means of an eightpage questionnaire administered to all S.S.C. students who were present at the time of data-collection in the sample high schools. The questionnaire contained items concerning the socio-economic status of the students’ families, educational and occupational aspirations and perceptions of the sources influencing their plans and aspirations, attitudes of their significant others (parents, teachers and peers) towards higher education, and a short form of a scale for measuring attitudes towards modernisation. The major conclusions of this empirical work were that it seems that quite a large number of the aspirants for college education, especially males, desire to join college, presumably, as a temporary activity in the prevailing conditions of a high rate of unemployment and difficulties in finding a suitable white-collar job in the urban areas. Similarly, the girls who desire to join college but do not aspire to college graduation probably desire some college education before marriage. A lack of appropriate selection mechanisms and facilities for sorting out and counselling youth in the choice of post–high school alternatives may be a major factor leading many of them to desire college education as a part-time or an ancillary activity. Further, both socioeconomic status and academic performance are related to the post–high school educational aspirations of both males and females. When academic performance is controlled, significant social class differences are found in the educational aspirations of both males and females, although such differences are greater among females than among males. This research work was conducted in late 1960s and authors reported that India still needs to plan for more imaginative approaches to reduce, if not to eliminate completely, social class differences in educational aspirations of its young adults. This article was in complete tunning with the then dominant paradigm of treating adolescent children as problem-creators. The next paper is almost on the same issue with empirical location difference—‘Education and the emerging patterns of political orientations: A sociological analysis’ by Ehsanul, Haq focused on the political role of the family and the school and the impact of their role-performance on political orientations of school children. The study also highlighted on

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the differential emerging patterns of their orientations as a consequence of structural inequality. The study is based on the data collected from three representative schools belonging to three major types of schools in Delhi: Government School, Government Aided School and the Public School. The selection of these schools takes into account the differences in terms of socioeconomic background of students, their exposure to mass-media, social milieu in and outside the school, adequate population size, and content of the school textbooks and the historical tradition of the rejected schools. It was a multi-method study applying questionnaire, interview schedule, observation and content analysis for a random sample of 600 respondents (308 students, 128 teachers and 164 parents). The findings suggest that the politically more aware students belong to the rich, elite and public school background. They are articulate, economically secure, privileged, stable, conformist and more class conscious. This type of situation tends to generate moderation and retreatism rather than militancy; routine rather than rebellion. Contrary to this, the politically less aware students belong to the poor, and the mass-based schooling system. They are inarticulate, economically insecure, deprived, unstable, non-conformist and less class conscious. This type of situation tends to develop militancy and aggression rather than moderation and retreatism. Thus, two differential patterns of political orientations are the consequences of the two different conditions existing at the family and school levels. He, therefore, concludes that the negative consequences of political socialisation are the results of preserved inequality in terms of enormous cultural differences, occupational gap and the dual system of schooling catering separately to the rich and to the poor in India. A stratified society and a stratified pattern of schooling reinforce each other. These two studies, although not talked about, are based on the theoretical departure point that instead of promoting equality, education maintains inequality in the interest of dominant class. It plays a mediating role between individual’s consciousness and society at large. Although Marx, Engels as well as Lenin never prepared a separate theory of education, but in terms of dialectical understanding, education and capitalist commodity production are two productive sides of capitalist mode of production (Ivkovic, 1999). Although Gramsci, Althusser and Bernstein discussed the role of education in reproducing ideological hegemony and control, it was Pierre Bourdieu who systematically considered culture and education as central in creating and recreating differences between social classes in a capitalist economy. He made the sub-discipline of sociology of education as a science understanding the contribution of education in reproducing structure of power relationships, symbolic relationships between the classes and in the distribution

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of cultural capital among classes (1977). These articles, unlike the first one, do not relate theory to empirical data, but the underlying message comes clear that both political orientation and career/occupational achievements of children/young people are socially conditioned and is basically an outcome socio-economic factors and power relations. The next three articles are epistemologically and ontologically very significant as the trio highlights one of the worst crises of Indian social reality, that is from ‘son preference’ to ‘get rid of girls’. The indiscriminate killing of girl children beginning with murdering of female foetuses is now a feature of our lived experiences of daily life. The first of this trio is by Ashesh Das Gupta entitled ‘Culture and fertility: Son preference and reproductive behaviour’. This paper explores the impact of son preference, which is identified by the author as a strong cultural value, on the reproductive behaviour of married couples belonging to the Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Sikh religious communities in Patna. The study was conducted in the city of Patna in the early 1990s. With the help of the Son Preference Scale, the respondents were categorised into three broad groups, expressing three different levels of preference for male issue. Thus, respondents scoring more than 6 points (in the 10-item Son Preference Scale) have been placed in ‘higher’ son preference (HSP) category, those scoring points between 5 and 1 have been placed in ‘lower’ son preference (LSP) category, and those scoring no point have been placed in the category of no preference for son (NSP). Furthermore, the respondents were classified into lower and higher fertility groups, with women having three or more children placed in ‘higher’ fertility group and those with two or less than two children placed in ‘lower’ fertility group. The findings show that the son preference value is a potential promoter of higher fertility in all the four religious communities, though this value operates differently in different religious communities. The percentage of respondents having higher son preference has been found to be the highest among the Hindus (61 per cent), followed by the Sikhs (54 per cent), the Muslims (52 per cent) and the lowest among the Christians (44 per cent). Furthermore, a good number of respondents from higher socio-economic group have shown a strong preference for the male issue. It is unmistakably evident that having a ‘girl child’ is considered as a predicament and the dominant value here is not on having a child but a boy child. Therefore, infertility cannot be considered from a gender-neutral perspective in India. Child, per se as part of a ‘family’ is not worth much irrespective of gender in this deep-rooted patriarchal culture of Indian society. Interestingly, the second one in this group is on ‘Sex preference and contraceptive use in Manipur’ by L. Ladusingh, N. Minita Devi and Kh.

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Jitenkumar Singh. The popular notion is that Manipuri women occupy a high status in the family and society, not only for their contribution to the economy of the household, but also for their major roles in the society. According to the authors also, the Manipuri women are in a better position than their counterparts in other parts of the country, both educationally and in terms of their position and roles in the society. Absence of dowry for marrying daughters and companionship the daughters provide to their mothers preclude daughters being viewed as liabilities. The data for this study were collected from sampled representative areas of all eight districts of Manipur, of which three are in the valley and five, in the hilly region. A target sample of 1,000 currently married women were distributed among the eight districts proportionate to their population size. A twostage sampling design was adopted: using systematic sampling procedure. The authors’ research reveals that, in Manipur, there is moderate son preference across residence and socio-economic background, but not at the cost of balance sex composition of a boy and a girl. Son preference is stronger in rural and hill areas, possibly because of the nature of livelihood in these residence backgrounds. Irrespective of their socio-economic and residence background, women are not at all satisfied with having ‘only daughters’, though ‘only sons’ is acceptable to some extent. Had there been no sex preference, contraceptive use would have risen to the highest rate at any parity, invariant of sex composition of children. The low rate of contraceptive use for the sex composition of children dominated by daughters and the high rate of its use for the sex composition of children dominated by sons at any parity confirm the presence of sex preference in Manipur. This is alarming and intriguing at the same time as it seems Manipur is catching up with the ills of patriarchal values of the mainstream Indian society. The last article by T.V. Sekher and Neelambar Hatti, on ‘Disappearing daughters and intensification of gender bias: Evidence in two village studies in South India’, is a logical culmination of son preference as they coined it so sharply that it is now ‘get rid of girls’ with the help of technology of sex determination tests and widespread facilities of abortion. The study based on two villages from low fertility regions of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The desired family size and the desired gender composition of children are on a convergence level. The authors have analysed how fertility decline has actually increased sex bias instead of reducing which was the anticipation. That is, the norm of small family size and reduced fertility became catalytic to ‘get rid of girls’. As the authors have unmistakably stated in their concluding observations that these two village studies illustrate that daughters are rarely able to substitute sons for the parents. Particularly among peasant

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communities blessed with new technology and its cheaper availability, these two low-fertility regions exhibit strong son preference. It was a focus group study coupled with observation. Finally, the authors have reported that the communities which did not practice dowry have now started in a big way as the daughter became the symbol of dowry payments. The law here is manifest only as legislation but not as in practice and, thus, gender justice is only gendered injustice (see Bhadra, 2006) aided by gendered new technology and associated patriarchal social practices.

Young and Youth in Sociological Bulletin Compared to children and childhood, young and youth and their lived experiences have captured the imagination of sociologists of India a little more. That is why there are six articles selected for the section on Children and Childhood and seven articles are selected for section on Young and Youth. There is no denying the fact that children are still considered passive recipients by the majority sociologists in India and left to the domain of psychologist for any repair/therapy, and so on, they require to make them competent adults. And childhood also is a social fact which exists in absentia for majority children and thereby as well missing in most of our sociological imagination. However, it must be stated in all honesty that reflections/ deliberations on India’s young and youth are also compared to works on caste, religion, family, marriage, kinship, and villages is almost zilch or at best insignificant and negligible. Amidst this the articles in Sociological Bulletin were a ray of hope and were clearly evincive of dynamic aspect of sociological imagination of some Indian sociologists. The articles which have been chosen bring to the fore the changing contexts within which young people build their lives in Indian society. The article ‘Attitudes to English and use of it by students of three different mother tongues: Hindi, Kannada and Tamil’ by Ross and Bandyopadhyay is an excellent example of exploration of new territories of the relation between language and youth identity with special reference to English and three regional languages Hindi, Kannada and Tamil. Their purpose was to find out how and why English language is being maintained even though there are regional languages after about a quarter of a century of independence. ‘Maintenance’ was measured by the number of students speaking it and their proficiency in that language. The cities chosen were Bangalore, Jaipur and Madras, the capital cities, respectively, of the States of Mysore, Rajasthan and Madras. The original study was based on the

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answers of 1,254 fourth-year college students in the summer of 1965 to a questionnaire based on their language experiences at home, school and college and their mother tongues were Tamil, Kannada and Hindi. Data were gathered from colleges in the capital cities of Madras, Bangalore and Jaipur, and from two other non-capital cities and small towns in the southern states. Their findings showed that the extensive use of English as medium of instruction in primary and/or high school was found to be the most important factor in attaining proficiency in English for it was an influential factor irrespective of the city in which the learning took place. It was found to be next in importance that speaking English at home when the students were young and/or at the present time was one of the major reasons for English maintenance. However, speaking English every day and most often with friends was not found to be highly associated with proficiency in all of the cities. In other words, it was the variable most affected by outside contingencies, and so not a constant influence in learning English. When they looked at the way in which the different variables are associated with the students’ desire to retain English in three important areas of life, it was found that proficiency in the language is more highly associated with the desire to retain English at these three levels which were medium of instruction at college, official language of the centre and also of the state. The conclusions drawn from these data are that whereas the school and home are the main agencies that generate proficiency in English, it is the mastery of the language which becomes the key factor in determining the students’ attitudes towards English. In other words, proficiency in English leads to a preference to retain it. In fact, a higher proportion of the students from the two southern cities had been exposed to English in these three areas than the students from Jaipur. This article was a pioneering effort in sociolinguistics which is still typically untried in mainstream sociology of India. Actually this article was written in mid 1970s when only a scanty attention was paid to patterns of youth language change and adaptation. The findings of this work corroborates with a recent study done on the city of Kolkata’s youth in terms of displacement of native languages in relation to English.3 ‘The use of psychotropic drugs among college youth in India: An appraisal’ by Unnithan, Singh and Khan emphasised the need to develop a synchronised and comparable database with respect to the use of psychotropic drugs among college students as the phenomenon became a source of concern at every level. They aimed to develop an estimate of the prevalence rate of drug use among the college/university students in the country as a whole by collecting especially data from Bombay, Delhi and Madras (metropolitan areas) as well as in Hyderabad, Jabalpur and Jaipur (non-metropolitan areas),

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and the Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (a wholly residential university), that is from seven urban centres. A confidential self-report questionnaire has been administered in a group-setting interrupting normal instructionwork in the class. The data thus collected have been processed separately by each study centre. The findings show, as a whole, that the incidence of the use of psychotropic drugs among the college youth in the country does not appear to be so large as to cause alarm at least in the late 1970s. It is mostly the traditional substances like alcohol and cannabis that dominate the drug scene. To a good extent, these drugs may have linkages with several sociocultural practices. Therefore, the authors suggested towards containing the problem of the non-medical use of psychotropic drugs, whatever its extent, a viable social intervention programme would do well to direct its thrust on restructuring social norms and practices. One of the most important conclusions the authors drew that the incidence of psychotropic drugs among male students is far more than among female students: for every two male students on drugs there is only one female student. They opined that, in part, this may be attributed to the differential role expectations in society which discourage the use of intoxicants by women more than that by men. But authors also noted that the female–male ratio noticeably varies with the study centres. The difference is least in Bombay (3:4) and the highest in Madras (3:23). Moreover, the drug preference also varies: it is tobacco, alcohol and painkillers for men; and painkillers, alcohol and tobacco for women. Notwithstanding this, the womenfolk are ahead of men in the use of painkillers. This article is again within the perception and paradigm of problematic features of adolescence /youth behaviour model taking its cue from Chicago School of Social Disorganisation framework. But full credit goes to the authors for indigenising the paradigm and its application. Kazi and Ghadially’s ‘Perception of the female role by Indian college students’ was in a sense a pioneering attempt in late 1970s as they investigated empirically whether college men and women with ‘traditional’ and ‘non-traditional’ attitudes towards sex-roles differed in terms of the importance they attached to marriage and age of marital partner, the wife’s educational and career aspirations. They administered a questionnaire part of which dealt with perception of sex-roles, importance of marriage and their educational and career plans. The questionnaire was adopted from the one originally developed and used in a cross-cultural study at Rutger’s University, USA. A sample of 193 male and 286 female college students drawn from the disciplines of arts, commerce, engineering, home science, law, medicine and pure sciences. The mean age of the respondent was 22.0 years. Some of the findings are, for example, when women respondents were asked to choose

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between a career or marrying a man of their choice who disapproves of a working wife, 27.1 per cent of non-traditional girls and only 7.5 per cent of traditional girls opted for career; whereas 26.9 per cent of traditional and only 11.9 per cent of non-traditional girls opted for marriage. Nearly twothirds of traditional and non-traditional girls opted for marriage but hoped to change husband’s mind later. Another classic finding was when asked their reasons for working outside the home after marriage, 29.9 per cent of traditional girls, as opposed to only 10.6 per cent of non-traditional girls, stated insufficient family income. 45.1 per cent of non-traditional girls and only 18.2 per cent of traditional girls said they work in order to pursue a career. According to the authors, the overall picture that emerges from the findings is that a young college student with non-traditional attitudes towards sex-roles considers marriage to be less important, believes that women seek education to develop intellectual capacities, is less concerned about society’s norms of age of marriage partner, emphasises compatibility between partners and consistently more prone to accepting a working wife. The non-traditional woman aspires to higher education, seeks education to develop intellectual capacities and prepares for a career, is less concerned about society’s norms of age of marriage partner and emphasises maturity as an important quality in her husband and wishes to combine career and family (1979: 69). This work of late 1970s was really significant because, on the one hand, it unleashed the sociological imagination for innovative kinds of researches which were outside the traditional arenas of caste, religion, kinship, and village and, on the other, developed an intersectional type of analysis by combining youth, gender and socio-economic aspects of Indian social reality which stands as a rare example in those days and even today when the application of intersectional approach is still in its infancy in India.4 The article by Uplaonkar, ‘Social class and occupational aspirations of college students’, aimed to examine the influence of social class on the occupational aspirations of students in higher education. To be specific, the objective was to analyse the extent to which social class vis-à-vis traditional groups, such as religion, caste and sex, is adapting to the avowed goal of the Indian Constitution, namely, equality of opportunity. The data for the present study were collected by administering a printed semi-structured questionnaire in English and also in Kannada, the regional language of Karnataka state, to the respondents. The findings unfolded that an analysis of the influence of class status on the occupational aspirations of college students, after controlling for the effect of religion, caste and sex (separately), revealed that class status by itself did not exercise any significant influence on the occupational aspirations of the respondents. Traditional groups, on the contrary, did influence

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the occupational aspirations of college students through class status as an intervening variable or factor. However, an analysis of the data by applying simple and partial correlation method revealed that class position made a major contribution to the occupational aspirations of the students. Viewed in terms of statistical finding, it is the class status rather than the traditional groups or ritual status, which is beginning to influence the occupational aspirations of college students. It means that modern India is providing a greater degree of scope to individuals for upward mobility on the basis of their class position. But author cautioned that such a conclusion would be unwarranted as the equality of opportunity guaranteed by the Indian Constitution to every citizen, regardless of religion, caste or sex, has not become a reality in practice. And, furthermore, modernisation only benefitted the already existing privileged and elite groups and the process of modernisation itself is particularistic, inequitable and discriminatory. Three comments are in order for the author’s attempt to liberate the social reality of Indian society from the clutch of caste–caste paradigm. One, it is a commendable effort and ushered a new era of research in studies on social class and its impact on occupational aspirations of young people in India after three decades of independence. Second, at same time, the study did not neglect the traditional aspects like caste and religion and tried to correlate and intersect them with class. Finally, the study did also focus on aspirations of women students and this was really, in a true sense, an intersectional methodological attempt, although only with quantitative approach. The data for the women students reveal that about 48 per cent of the women students had low occupational aspirations which implies that they had taken to college education as a status symbol or just to keep themselves busy until their parents found suitable bridegrooms. It means that, by and large, women students had low occupational aspirations, at least according to this study. The objective of Narsi Patel’s article on ‘Youth aspirations vis-a-vis national development: Participate or emigrate?’ was to assess youth’s identification with national life, their perceptions of economic changes, the extent to which they were caught up in chain migration (having close relatives living abroad), their occupational background and the relationship of these factors with their aspirations to stay or go abroad. The respondents were young people in the final year of high school and they were selected on the rationale that this was the time in their life crucial for making career decisions. The paper focused on the social fact that an overwhelming majority of the youth, chose seeking livelihood in the country to going abroad. Their identification with national development was more guided by their valuation of emigration as a loss to the country. Those few who were inclined to go abroad considered emigration as a gain for them as well as the

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country. According to the author, a consensus seemed to develop among the young people as regards the advantages of migration that there was a world out there to count on for education, cultural revitalisation and economic improvement. The Participate emphasised the former, the Emigrate the latter. Going to stay abroad was not considered by these people as breaking all bonds with the national heritage or culture. This study of youth aspirations reveals an underlying desire on the part of the young to redefine national development, not entirely as a task of toiling within the nation, but as the enrichment of national heritage. In that sense, the distinction between the Participate and the Emigrate, made for the expediency of an empirical analysis, fades. Both groups express, perhaps unknowingly, a unity of effort: working from within and outside. Finally, the findings tend to confirm the observation that neither the rich and secure nor the dismally poor show a propensity to emigrate, for different reasons; it is the people pressed in the middle who are mobile. This study reflected the ambiance of ‘brain-drain’ controversy as it was in its peak in 1980s. The ushering of globalisation put a semicolon if not a full stop to this discourse. The article on the ‘Problems of the youth of North-East India: A sociological inquiry’ by A. K. Nongkynrih is a unique one as it does not confine itself within the limits of students’/youth movements, but provides a mapping of the discourses on the problems of the youth in the region. The author stated this in very clear terms and collected information from the fieldwork on the current status of the programmes for HIV/ AIDS Prevention and Care for the young people of four states of the NorthEastern Region from both female and male youth. The second source of data for the paper came from the field notes of the North-Eastern Region Community Resource management Project for Upland areas in Assam and Manipur in 2004, and this study assesses implementation of projects and problems faced by youth. The author also highlights the discourses on the definitional contours of youth. He successfully explains the different departure points of popular (which is dependent on media portrayal) and academic discourses on youth; the former is within the paradigm of problems of youth behaviour and youth subculture and, though sympathetic, yet it stigmatises youth, reminiscent of once again of Chicago school researches of 1930s to 1950s. The academic discourse attempts to perceive the problems of youth by focusing on a variety of factors that have impact on the lives of youth emanating mainly from the structural conditions of society and do not really try to label or stigmatise the young people, that is do not view them as predicament of society. The academic discourse, in essence, is in tune with theories starting from symbolic interactionism (labelling) to political economy to identity construction.

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Rajesh Gill’s paper on ‘Youth in techno global world: Predicaments and choices’ has represented the contemporary situation within the context of globalisation. Gill fittingly considers youth as a highly differentiated segment of population, especially in a ‘transitional society’ like India. The author opines that although globalisation seemed to have offered a whole lot of choices on life-chances and life styles but the access and capabilities to exercise these choices remain extremely skewed among the youth. He discusses the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), development of social networking sites and associated virtual sociality and asserts that Indian youth’s take on all these are a very mixed blessing. According to him, while globalisation intensely tempted youth towards greener pastures, these destinations vary to a great extent on the differential competence, both ascribed and achieved by young men and women to seize these opportunities. Additionally, globalisation structurally stepped up the process and pace of individualisation but on the other extreme, left these globalised individuals in anxieties, in risks and also being alone. To put this in Sherry Trurkle’s language, these young people are ‘alone together’. Gill makes this point amply clear that globalisation has come with potentialities and predicaments; but in a country like India, the predicaments still far outweigh potentialities. Since the potentialities and choices globalisation offered are clearly dependent on urban–rural, rich–poor, literate–illiterate, skilled–non-skilled, etc., etc., the tilt towards making rich further rich is very much there. The uneven and assorted benefits are thus no way devoid of biases, discrimination and sometimes super exploitation. This article is really a timely critical commentary on one of the most vital aspects of young people’s lived experiences in the burgeoning globalised knowledge society of India.

Concluding Remarks: Mainstreaming the Marginalised(?) In conclusion, one can just start with this bare fact that sociology of childhood and youth is the weakest link in Indian sociological endeavors. It can be said that the focus on children is generally consumed by India’s dismal performance in controlling and/or eradicating child labour. As a whole, there cannot be any congratulatory remark for us sociologists in India for neglecting this issue for such an elongated time. We have woken up only recently about our children and youth. But if this is any consolation, then it can be said that we have followed them, the Europeans and Americans as usual, as they were very late too—to cite a few examples, SAGE journal

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Youth and Society was started in 1969, which is also a latecomer compared to others, and the journal Young by SAGE debuted as late as 1993. The Journal of Youth Studies published by Routledge started only in 1998. In this connection, though with a few articles only but still, Sociological Bulletin is probably the only journal in India where sociologists have truly reflected, even if sometimes in a so-called traditional fashion, on social aspects of childhood and youth. This to me is a ground-breaking effort for opening doors for critical thinking and newfangled works in an area which is one of the most challenging and motivating concerns of contemporary India and also for our sociological imagination. That the everyday lives and the lived experiences of our children and their childhood(s) and young people and their youth(s) do need sociological attention, description, exploration and, above all, explanation has passed all caveats. This volume takes the first footstep towards a sociological articulation and interrogation of India’s sociological imagination on children and youth. If this volume can trigger off a new proliferation of literature not only in English but also in vernaculars on children and childhood, young and youth of India, the discipline and the profession will certainly have something to celebrate on that historical juncture.

Notes 1. In this section, children and young people are used synonymously. 2. Educationalisation refers to the institutionalisation of childhood whereby increased attention is being given to the pedagogical aspects of the daily life of children (Depaepe, 1998). 3. See for details, Dutta, C and Bhadra, B. 2012 “Youth Language(s): A Sociolinguistic Enquiry of Native Language Displacement vis-à-vis Popular Linguistic Patterns in the 21st Century Kolkata”, E Journal of the Indian Sociological Society, 1: 63–89. 4. Social life is considered as too complex to make fixed categories. The concept of intersectionality emerged in response to the inability of various singular analyses of structural inequality to recognize the complex interrelation between forms of oppression. Thus the concept of intersectionality provides an analytical tool to study, understand and respond to the ways in which gender, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, religion, age and different abilities do intersect and expose different types of discrimination. See for details, Crenshaw, Kimberlé. 1991. Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color. Stanford Law Review 43, 1241–1279; Mc Call, Leslie. 2005. The Complexity of Intersectionality. Signs 3, 1771–1800; Anthias, Floya, and Nira Yuval-Davis. “Contextualizing Feminism: Gender, Ethnic and Class Divisions.’’ Feminist Review 15 (1983): 62–75.

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References Agnew, R. 2001. Juvenile delinquency: Causes and control. Los Angeles: Roxbury Publishing Company. Alanen, Leena. 2012. ‘Editorial: Disciplinarity, interdisciplinarity and childhood studies’, Childhood, 19 (4): 419–22. Andres, L. and J. Wyn. 2010. The making of a generation: Young adults in Canada and Australia. Toronto: Toronto University Press. Aries, P. 1962. Centuries of childhood. London: Jonathan Cape. Ashton, D. and D. Field. 1976. Young workers. London: Hutchinson. Bahr, S. J., S. L. Maughan, A. C. Marcos and B. Li. 1998. ‘Family, religiosity, and the risk of adolescent drug use’. Journal of Marriage and the family, 60: 979–92. Balagopalan, S. 2011. ‘Introduction: Children’s lives and the Indian context’, Childhood, 8 (3): 291–97. Barber, B. K. 1992. ‘Family, personality, and adolescent problem behaviors’. Journal of marriage and the family, 54: 69–79. Bauman, Z. 1998. Work, consumerism and the new poor. Buckingham: Open University Press. ———. 2000. Liquid modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press. Beck, U. 1992. Risk society. London: SAGE. Becker, H. S. 1973. Outsiders, studies in the sociology of deviance. New York: Free Press. Bernstein, B. 1981. ‘Codes, modalities, and the process of cultural reproduction: A model’. Language in society, 10: 327–63. Bhadra, Bula. 2006. ‘Gender justice or gendered justice? A sociological exploration or revelation’, in N. K. Chakrabarti and S.Chakraborty (eds.): Gender Justice (40– 64). Calcutta. Bourdieu, P. and J. C. Passeron. 1977. Reproduction in education, society and culture. Beverly Hills, CA: SAGE. Brannen, J. and A. Nilsen. 2002. ‘Young people’s time perspectives: From youth to adulthood’, Sociology, 36 (3): 513–37. Buehler, C., A. Krishnakumar, G. Stone, C. Anthony, S. Pemberton, J. Gerard, B. K. Barber. 1998. Journal of marriage and the family, 60: 119–32. Bühler-Niederberger, D. 2010. ‘Childhood sociology in ten countries current outcomes and future directions’, Current sociology, 58 (2): 369–84. Christopher, E. S., M. Madura and L Weaver. 1998. Premarital sexual aggressors: A multivariate analysis of social, rational, and individual variables, Journal of marriage and the family, 60: 56–59. Cohen, P. 1997. Rethinking the youth question: Education, labor and cultural studies. Basingstoke: Macmillan. Corsaro, William A. 1997. The sociology of childhood. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press. Côté, J. 2000. Arrested adulthood: The changing nature of maturity and identity. New York: New York University Press. Cotterrell, R. 2005. ‘Law in social theory and theory in the study of law’, in A. Sarat (ed.): The blackwell companion to law and society (2nd edn, 14–29). Oxford: Blackwell.

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Crockett, L. J. and A. C. Crouter (eds.). 1995. Pathways through adolescence: Individual development in relation to social contexts. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Davies, C. and Eynon, R. 2013. Teenagers and technology. London: Routledge. Depaepe, M. 1998. ‘Educationalisation: A key concept in understanding the basic processes in the history of Western education’, History of Education Review, 27 (1): 16–28. Dryfoos, J. 1998. Safe passage: Making it through adolescence in a risky society. New York: Oxford University Press. Dutta, C. and Bhadra, B. 2012. “Youth Language(s): A Sociolinguistic Enquiry of Native Language Displacement vis-à-vis Popular Linguistic Patterns in the 21st Century Kolkata”, E Journal of the Indian Sociological Society, 1: 63–89. Evans, K. 2002. ‘Taking control of their lives: Agency in young adult transitions England and Germany’, Journal of Youth Studies, 5 (3): 245–69. Federle, K. H. 1994. ‘Rights flow downhill’, International Journal of Children’s Rights, 2 (4): 343–68. Ferdinand, T. N. 1991. History overtakes the juvenile justice system. In Sharp & Hancock (eds.), Juvenile delinquency: Historical, theoretical and societal reactions to youth (2nd edn, 65–75). New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Ferguson, Ann Arnett. 2000. Bad boys: Public schools in the making of black masculinity. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Freeman, M. 2007. ‘Why it remains important to take children’s rights seriously’, International Journal of Children’s Rights, 15 (1): 5–23. Giddens, A. 1991. Modernity and self-identity: Self and society in the late Modern Age. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Hall, S. and T. Jefferson. 1976. Resistance through rituals: Youth subcultures in post-war Britain. London: HarperCollins Academic. Harris, A. 2002. ‘Young Australian women: Circumstances and aspirations’, Youth Studies Australia, 21 (4): 32–7. Hecht, Tobias. 1998. At home in the street: Street children of northeast Brazil. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Heinz, W. R. 2009. ‘Youth transitions in an age of uncertainty’, in A. Furlong (ed.): Handbook of youth and young adulthood. London: Routledge. Heywood, C. 2001. A history of childhood. Cambridge: Polity Press. Ivkovic, M. 1999. ‘Marxist theoretical and methodological approach and orientation in sociology of education’, Philosophy and Sociology, 2 (6): 225–33. James, A. and A. L. James. 2004. Constructing childhood: Theory, policy and social practice. New York: Palgrave macmillan. James, A., C. Jenks and A. Prout. 1998. Theorizing childhood. UK: Polity press in association with Blackwell publishers. James, Adrian L. 2010. ‘Competition or integration? The next step in childhood studies?’ Childhood, 17 (4): 485–99. Jenks, C. 1996. ‘The post modern child’, in J. Brannen and M. O’Brien (eds.) (13–25). London: Falmer Press. Jenks, C. 1996/2005. Childhood. London: Routledge. Jensen, G. F. and D. G. Rojek. 1998. Delinquency and youth crime (3rd edn). Illinois: Waveland Press Inc.

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liiBula Bhadra Jupp, M. 1990. ‘The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: An opportunity for advocates’, Human Rights Quarterly, 12 (1): 130–6. King, M. 2007. ‘The sociology of childhood as scientific communication: Observations from a social systems perspective’, Childhood, 14 (2): 193–213. Lehmann, W. 2004. ‘For some reason, I get a little scared: Structure, agency, and risk in school–work transitions’, Journal of Youth Studies, 7 (4): 379–96. MacDonald, R. and J. Marsh. 2005. Disconnected youth? Growing up in Britain’s poor neighbourhoods. London: Palgrave. Matthews, H. and M. Limb. 1998. ‘The right to say: The development of youth councils/forums within the UK’, Area 30 (1): 66–78. McRobbie, A. and J. Garber. 1976. ‘Girls and subcultures’, in S. Hall and T. Jefferson (eds.): Resistance through rituals: Youth subcultures in post-war Britain (209–22). London: Routledge. Melton, G. B. 1991. ‘Preserving the dignity of children around the world: The UN Convention on the rights of the child’, Child abuse and neglect, 15 (4): 343–50. ———. 2005b. ‘Treating children like people: A framework for research and advocacy’, Journal of clinical child and adolescent psychology, 34 (4): 646–57. Miljeteig-Olssen, P. 1990. ‘Advocacy of children’s rights: The convention as more than a legal document’, Human rights quarterly, 12 (1): 148–55. Nieuwenhuys, O. 2009. ‘Editorial: Is there an Indian childhood?’ Childhood, 16 (2): 147–53. Parsons, T. and R. F. Bales. 1955. Family, socialization and interaction process. New York: Free Press. Perkins, D. E., T. Luster, E. A. Villarruel and S. Small. 1998. ‘An ecological, riskfactor examination of adolescents’ sexual activity in three ethnic groups’, Journal of marriage and the family, 60: 660–73. Qvortrup Jens, et al. (ed.). 1994. Childhood matters: Social theory, practice, and politics. Aldershot, UK: Avebury. Qvortrup, J. (ed.). 1994. Childhood matters. Aldershot: Avebury. Reynaert, Didier, Maria Bouverne-de-Bie and Stijn Vandevelde. 2009. ‘A review of children’s rights literature since the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child’, Childhood, 16 (4): 518–34. Roberts, K. 1968. ‘The entry into employment: An approach towards a general theory’, Sociological Review, 16: 165–84. ———. 2003. ‘Problems and priorities for the sociology of youth’, in A. Bennett, M. Cieslik and S. Miles (eds.): Researching youth. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Rudd, P. and K. Evans. 1998. ‘Structure and agency in youth transitions: Student experiences of vocational further education’, Journal of youth studies, 1 (1): 39–62. Schildkrout, Enid. 1978/2002. ‘Age and gender in hausa society: Socio-economic roles of children in Urban Kano’, Childhood 9 (3): 342–68. Shanahan, M. J. 2000. ‘Pathways to adulthood in changing societies’, Annual Review of Sociology, 26: 667–92. Solberg, Anne. 1995. ‘Negotiating childhood: Changing constructions of age for Norwegian children’, in Allison James and Alan Prout (eds.): Constructing and reconstructing childhood. London: Falmer.

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Stammers, N. 1995. ‘A critique of social approaches to human-rights’, Human Rights Quarterly, 17 (3): 488–508. ———, N. 1999. ‘Social movements and the social construction of human rights’, Human Rights Quarterly, 21 (4): 980–1008. Tapscott, D. 2009. Grown up digital. New York: McGraw Hill. Tarulli, D. and H. Skott-Myhre. 2006. ‘The immanent rights of the multitude: An ontological framework for conceptualizing the issue of child and youth rights’, International Journal of Children’s Rights, 14 (2): 187–201. te Riele, K. 2004. ‘Youth transition in Australia: Challenging assumptions of linearity and choice’, Journal of Youth Studies, 7 (3): 243–57. Threadgold, S. and P. Nilan. 2009. ‘Reflexivity of contemporary youth: Risk and cultural capital’, Current Sociology, 57 (1): 47–68. Turkle, S. 2011. Alone together. New York: Basic Books. Turmel, A. 2008. A historical sociology of childhood. Cambridge University Press. Verhellen, E. 1998. ‘Children’s rights: Education and academic responsibilities’, in P. D. Jaffé (ed.): Challenging mentalities: Implementing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Ghent Papers on Children’s Rights No. 4. Ghent: Children’s Rights Centre, University of Ghent. ———. 2000. Convention on the rights of the child. Background, motivation, strategies, main themes. Leuven and Apeldoorn: Garant Publishers. Wilcox, B. L. and H. Naimark. 1991. ‘The rights of the child: Progress toward humandignity’, American Psychologist, 46 (1): 49. Willis, P. 1977. Learning to labor. Farnborough: Saxon House. Woodhead, M. 2009. ‘Child development and the development of childhood’, in J. Qvortrup et al. (eds.): Handbook of Childhood Studies, London: Palgrave. Woodman, D. 2009. ‘The mysterious case of the pervasive choice biography: Ulrich Beck, structure/agency, and the middling state of theory in the sociology of youth’, Journal of youth studies, 12 (3): 243–56. Wyn, J. and R. White. 1997. Rethinking youth. Sydney: Allen and Unwin. Yuval-Davis, Y.2012. The Politics of Belonging: Intersectional Contestations. London: Sage.

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SECTION I Child and Childhood

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1 Social Class and Educational Aspirations in an Indian Metropolis1 Vimal P. Shah, Tara Patel, and William H. Sewell

I

n any society, the educational system plays an important role in the training, development, and allocation of its manpower resources. Ideally, it sorts people according to their interests and ability, channels them into streams of training which develop their interests and potentials, encourages them to aspire to adult roles that are in keeping with their talents, and imparts such types and levels of information, knowledge, and training to individuals as are necessary to enable them to fulfil the demands of their occupational roles on one hand, and to meet with the society’s needs for trained manpower resources on the other hand (Sorokin 1927; Parsons 1959; Sewell and Shah 1967). In a developing country like India, the educational system becomes a powerful instrument of economic and social change for accelerating the process of transforming its traditional and agrarian ways and means of living into those of a modern and industrial society. After a period of about two decades of planning, India is still far from obtaining, for a large section of its people, the coveted fruits of economic and social equality, and there is a growing feeling among concerned people that a large portion of its expanding and developing educational facilities continues to benefit the already “privileged” strata. The Education Commission observes that “It is the responsibility of the educational system to bring the different social classes and groups together and thus promote the emergence of an egalitarian and integrated society.

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But at present, instead of doing so, education itself is tending to increase social segregation and to perpetuate and widen class distinctions. Instead of trying to provide good education to all children, or at least to all the able children, from every stratum of society, it is available to a small minority which is usually selected not on the basis of talent but on the basis of its capacity to pay fees” (Ministry of Education, Government of India 1966: 10). Even in the Western countries, an important and consistent finding in the area of stratification research is that the children of higher social-class origins are more likely to aspire to high educational and occupational goals than are the children of lower social-class origins (Sewell and Shah 1967: 2n). Similar results are also reported regarding the relationship between social class and educational and occupational achievements. In a study of socio-economic conditions of students admitted to vocational, technical, and professional schools in 1965, the Education Commission found that “the students admitted to the more important of these institutions generally tend to come from urban areas and from good schools or from well-to-do homes” (Ministry of Education, Government of India 1966: 119). However, what we lack in India most is reliable evidences about the nature and strength of the relationships between social class and educational and occupational aspirations and achievements.2 Many factors other than the ability of the student influence his eventual educational experiences and attainments. These include differences in the level and quality of education available in the country, region, or community in which he lives; differential access to educational facilities according to his social class status; differences in his motivations, values, and attitudes; and differences in the willingness and ability of his parents and significant others to provide the financial and psychological supports necessary for the maximization of his talent potentials (Sewell and Shah 1967; 1968a; and 1968b). The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship of socioeconomic status and educational aspirations of 5,201 S.S.C. students enrolled in a stratified sample of high schools in Ahmedabad, a metropolis in western India.

Purposes and Statistical Procedures The specific purposes of this paper are as follows: (1) To examine the various levels of aspiration for higher education of a sample of 5,201 S.S.C. students enrolled in high schools in Ahmedabad;

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(2) To examine the relationships of sex, socio-economic status, and academic performance to educational aspirations; (3) To examine the relationship of socio-economic status to educational aspirations, controlling for academic performance, for males and females separately; and (4) To obtain relative estimates of the magnitudes of the independent effects of socio-economic status and academic performance on educational aspirations of males and females separately.

Various statistical procedures will be used in this paper to accomplish the above purposes. For purposes (1) to (3), bivariate and multiple cross-tabular analysis will be employed. In addition, means, standard deviations, and intercorrelation coefficients will be used to obtain measures of central tendency and association for socio-economic status, academic performance, and educational aspirations. For purpose (4), the method of path analysis will be used to obtain a measure of independent effects of socio-economic status and academic performance on educational aspirations.3 Throughout the analysis, tabulations will be made separately for males and females because of known differences in their propensity to pursue higher education as well as likely differences in the influences of socio-economic status and academic performance on their educational aspirations.

Sample Design The data for this study come from a questionnaire survey of 5,201 students enrolled in the S.S.C. (high school senior) class of a stratified sample of all high schools in Ahmedabad.4 Like any major industrial and growing metropolitan city in a developing country, Ahmedabad has ecological areas manifesting contrasting social characteristics. It was, therefore, considered necessary to select a sample of high schools from several ecological strata in Ahmedabad, and then collect data from all students in the S.S.C. class of the sample high schools.5

Data Collection The data were collected by means of an eight-page questionnaire administered to all S.S.C. students who were present at the time of data-collection in the sample high schools. The questionnaire contained

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items concerning the students’ family socio-economic status, educational and occupational aspirations, perceptions of the sources influencing their plans and aspirations, attitudes of their significant others (parents, teachers, and peers) toward higher education, and a short form of a scale for measuring attitudes toward modernization (Smith and Inkeles 1966: 372–373). While most of the respondents used the questionnaire in Gujarati, the non-Gujarati respondents used the questionnaire in English. Because of financial constraints, we depended on the voluntary assistance of local college teachers of sociology to contact the school authorities, to arrange for a mutually convenient time, and to administer the questionnaires to the students in the respective schools.6 Data were obtained from 52 of the 54 high schools in the sample.7 Three research assistants with M.A. degrees in sociology were trained for coding the questionnaires. The facilities available in a local research institute were utilized to put the data on IBM cards, and arrangements were made with a local commercial company to transfer the data on to a magnetic type. After initial checks for coding and punching errors, consistency-checks in the data, development of indices, and statistical analysis were carried out at the University of Wisconsin Computing Center, Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.A.

Measurement of Variables The variable socio-economic status is a combination of several objective and subjective indicators of the status of the student’s family of origin. The students were asked in the questionnaire to indicate their caste, total annual income of the family, father’s education, mother’s education, father’s occupation, their parent’s ability to support their higher education, and individual as well as overall status of their family in terms of caste, occupation, and income and wealth. For developing scores based on these items, the sum of the standard scores of the items was first obtained. Items with missing data for any individual were excluded from that individual’s sum of the standard scores of the items. Since a given student’s score can thus be based on an unequal number of items, the scores obtained were adjusted by multiplying each score by the ratio of the total number of items in the scale to the number of items in a given individual’s score. If the data for a given individual were missing

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for all items in the scale, the mean score of the scale (exclusive of all individuals with missing data) was substituted. The resulting score values were then transformed into a scale with a range from 0 to 99. The variable academic performance is a combination of the percentages (rounded to first decimal point) of marks obtained by the respondents in (i) the annual examination of the Xth standard, and (ii) the terminal (mid-year) examination of the XIth standard.8 The procedure used in developing the scores on socio-economic status was also used to obtain the respondents’ scores on academic performance. For the purposes of cross-tabular analysis, the sample is divided into halves (of approximately equal size) labelled as low and high categories of socio-economic status and academic performance. However, the full range of scores from 0 to 99 on both these variables is employed in the correlational analysis. The variable educational aspirations is based on the student’s response to a question concerning the maximum level of higher education he desired to obtain. The responses of the students, originally coded into eight categories, are combined, for the purpose of initial cross-tabulation in this study, into five categories, namely, No answer, No further education, Some vocational or technical school training, Some college education, and At least a college degree. For the purposes of using this variable as a dependent variable in the cross-tabular analysis, this variable is defined as a dichotomous variable, namely, Do not aspire to a college degree (0), and Aspire to a college degree (1). The full range of 0 to 8 scores on educational aspirations is employed in the correlational analysis.

Results and Discussion The post-high school educational aspirations of the S.S.C. students in Ahmedabad are shown in Table 1, for males, females, and the total sample separately. Only 1.5 percent of the students have not responded to the question concerning their post-high school educational aspirations, an additional 4.6 percent of the students do not aspire to obtain any post-high school education and the remaining students aspire to obtain some kind of post-high school education. In the state-wide final examination held in March-April, 1969, 72.5 percent of the respondents succeeded in obtaining the high school

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Table 1 Post-High School Educational Aspirations of S.S.C. Students, by Sex* Level of Educational Aspirations

Males %

Females %

Total %

1.  No further education

3.7

6.0

4.6

2.  Some vocational or technical school training

7.8

4.5

6.6

3.  Some college education

12.2

23.3

16.3

4.  College graduation

75.1

64.0

71.0

1.2

2.2

1.5

Total (%)

100.0

100.0

100.0

(N)

(3,283)

(1,918)

(5,201)

5. N.A.

*The chi-square for the sex-differences in this table is significant at the 0.001 level.

diploma. It may be expected that an additional ten to fifteen percent of the respondents will be able to graduate from high school at the subsequent examinations which are held every six months. Considering such a failure rate at the final S.S.C. Examination the figures of 71.0  percent respondents desiring to obtain a college degree and of 16.3 percent respondents desiring to obtain some college education suggest that almost all respondents who might eventually graduate from high school desire to obtain some post-high school education. Such a phenomenonally high proportion of Ahmedabad students aspiring to post-high school education, therefore requires some explanation. This explanation is provided partly by the data of this study and partly by some additional supporting evidence from other sources. First, even if we exclude those who aspire to some vocational or technical school training and those who want to obtain only some college education, 71.0 percent of the students aspire to obtain a college degree. Judged by the trends in the Western countries, this is still a very high proportion of a cohort of the high school seniors aspiring to college graduation. However, this high proportion of the aspirants for a college degree does not seem unrealistic when countries, there is a very high drop-out rate during the primary and secondary school years in India, which suggests that the process of socio-economic and intellectual selection operates at a very early stage in the Indian educational system.9 Consequently, most students who have been able to reach the final year

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of high school aspire to college education more or less as a continued stage in their education. Further, while most studies in the Western countries have attempted to inquire about the respondents’ next year plans to attend or not to attend college, the respondents in this study were asked a general question as to the maximum level of higher education they desire to attain. Thus, the responses in the study refer to “aspirations” rather than “college plans” for the next year or in the near future. Second, about 23.0 percent of the students aspire to some vocational or technical school training or some college education. More specifically, almost one-fourth of the female students and about half that many of the male students do aspire to some college education but they do not aspire to college graduation. It seems that most of the male students in this group are not really the aspirants for college education, but they desire to join college presumably as a temporary activity in the prevailing conditions of a high rate of unemployment and difficulties in finding a suitable white-collar job in urban areas. The girls who desire to join college but do not aspire to college graduation are probably wishing to obtain some college education while they are waiting to be married. This presumably is the major reason for the high percentage of female students, almost twice that of the male students, who aspire to join college but do not aspire to a college degree. Thus, about one-fourth of the girls and about one-eighth of the boys seem to be desiring to use college simply as a waiting ground until they find some employment or a marriage-partner. Third, there is almost a complete lack of facilities to provide guidance for vocational school training and for university education in most of the Ahmedabad schools. In addition, the increasing emphasis on a college degree even for low-level clerical jobs in the government and commercial organizations seems to have lowered the already low prestige of vocational school training as compared to university education. The high school graduates seem to be just drifting toward university education without due consideration to the available opportunities for vocational training in keeping with their interests and ability. Further, expansion of the higher educational facilities, special facilities for morning and evening classes, the system of external examination, and the use of the regional language as a medium of instruction and examination, all of these factors have made it possible for most students who want to pursue college education to do so. Although higher education is expensive by Indian standards, it seems most high school graduates in

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India can manage to pay for college expenses while they are waiting for employment or marriage opportunities. The system of education and examination is such that most students can take college education as a part-time or an ancillary activity. Considering all of these factors, it seems that the relatively high proportion of aspirants for a college degree in this study reflects a realistic phenomenon in the Indian milieu. Finally, it may also be noted that the percentage of the female students aspiring to join college is the same as that for the male students; however, the percentage of the male students aspiring to a college degree is much higher than that of the female students. This difference in the proportions of the male and the female students aspiring to a college degree bespeaks of the differences in the roles of males and females in the Indian society, Although the absolute number as well as the proportion of females employed in white-collar and professional occupations is much higher now than ever in the past, most educated women in the Indian society still view their household role as primary and their occupational role as secondary, occasional, and part-time, and consequently do not consider a college degree as important to their future as do males. As most readers will have already observed, the percentages of males and females desiring college education are so high that there is a little variance in the dependent variable to be explained in terms of individual and background characteristics. Considering this fact, as well as the peculiar nature of the educational system in India, it seems best to define aspirations for a college degree as the dependent variable. Consequently, in the remaining portion of this paper the cutting point used in examining the relationship of socio-economic status to aspirations is whether or not a student aspires to a college degree. In Table 2, the percentages of S.S.C. students aspiring to a college degree are given for males and females in each category of socio-economic status. The relationship of socio-economic status to educational aspirations of these students is positive and statistically significant. Only about 60 percent of the students from the low socio-economic status category as against 82.5 percent from the high socio-economic status category aspire to a college degree. When the data are examined separately for males and females, the relationship of socio-economic status to educational aspirations continues to be positive and statistically significant. Specifically, 66.1 percent of males and 43.3 percent of females from the low socio-economic status category aspire to a college degree

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Table 2 Percentages of S.S.C. Students Aspiring to a College Degree, by Socio-economic Status and Sex* Socio-economic Status

Males

Females

Total

Low

66.1 (1,905)

43.3 (726)

59.8 (2,631)

High

87.6 (1,378)

76.7 (1,192)

82.5 (2,570)

Total

75.1 (3,283)

64.0 (1,918)

71.0 (5,201)

*The chi-square for each column in this table is significant at the 0.001 level.

as against 87.6 percent of males and 76.7 percent of females from the high socio-economic status category. The social class differences in the educational aspirations of females are, however, much greater than those for males. Further, both sex and socio-economic status are positively associated with educational aspirations, and thus while 43.3 percent of females from the low status category aspire to a college degree, 87.6 percent of males from the high socio-economic status category aspire to a college degree. Before we can accept the hypothesis of a positive and strong relationship between socio-economic status and educational aspirations of boys and girls in India, it is necessary to determine whether this relationship is an artifact of the relationship of socio-economic status to academic performance and of academic performance to educational aspirations. That there is a strong and statistically significant relationship between academic performance and the educational aspirations of the students is clear from Table 3. While 60.9 percent of the students in the low academic performance category aspire to a college degree, 81.4 percent of the students in the high academic performance category so aspire. Such differences in educational aspirations on the basis of academic performance or ability will be expected in any system of education designed to increase “contest” mobility as against “sponsored” mobility, to use Turner’s (1960) terminology. When these data are examined separately for males and females, it is observed that the relationship between academic performance and educational aspirations continues to be positive and

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Table 3 Percentages of S.S.C. Students Aspiring to a College Degree, by Academic Performance and Sex* Academic Performance

Males

Females

Total

Low

65.9 (1,579)

53.3 (1,047)

60.9 (2,626)

High

83.6 (1,704)

78.1 (871)

81.4 (2,575)

Total

75.1 (3,283)

64.0 (1,918)

71.0 (5.201)

*The chi-square for each column in this table is significant at the 0.001 level. Table 4 Socio-economic Status, Academic Performance, and Sex* Socio-economic Status

Males

Females

Total

Low

49.3 (1,905)

37.7 (726)

46.1 (2,631)

High

55.4 (1,378)

50.1 (1,192)

53.0 (2,570)

Total

51.9 (3,283)

45.4 (1,918)

49.5 (5,201)

*The chi-square for each column in this table is significant at the 0.001 level.

statistically significant for both males and females. Thus, 53.3 percent of females from the low academic performance category aspire to a college degree in contrast with 83.6 percent of males from the high academic performance category. Further, as in the case of socio-economic status, the percentage difference between the low and the high categories of academic performance is greater for females than for males. In order to examine the relationship between socio-economic status and academic performance, the percentage distribution of the students with high level of academic performance in each socio-economic status category is given in Table 4, for males and females separately. It is found from these data that there is a disproportionate distribution of students with a high level of academic performance in the two categories of socioeconomic status. Thus, in the low socio-economic status category 46.1 percent of the students achieve a high level of academic performance

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whereas in the high socio-economic status category 53.0 percent of the students achieve a high level of academic performance. Similarly, a disproportionate distribution of the students with a high level of academic performance is found for both males and females in the two categories of socio-economic status. It may also be noted that the percentage difference in the distribution of the students with a high level of academic performance is greater for females than for males in the two categories of socio-economic status. The data presented so far show not only that both socio-economic status and academic performance are positively related to the educational aspirations of males and females, but also that there is a disproportionate distribution of males and females with a high level of academic performance in the two categories of socio-economic status. Consequently, it is necessary to control for academic performance while examining the relationship of socio-economic status to educational aspirations. This is done in Table 5, in which the percentages of students aspiring to a college degree are presented according to socio-economic status, sex, and academic performance simultaneously. Several conclusions should be made from the data presented in this table. First, the relationship between socio-economic status and educational aspirations continues to be positive and statistically significant even when differences in academic performance are taken into account. In other words, the higher the level of socio-economic status, the higher is the proportion of males and females in each category of academic performance who aspire to a college degree. More specifically, among the students with a low level of academic performance 35.2 percent of females Table 5 Percentages of S.S.C. Students Aspiring to a College Degree, by Socio-economic Status, Sex, and Academic Performance*

Socio-economic Status

Males

Females

Academic Performance Low High

Academic Performance Low High

Low

57.0 (965)

75.4 (940)

35.2 (452)

56.6 (274)

High

80.0 (614)

93.7 (764)

67.1 (595)

86.3 (597)

*The chi-square for each column in this table is significant at the 0.001 level.

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and 57.0 percent of males from low socio-economic status families in comparison with 67.1 percent of females and 80.0 percent of males from high socio-economic status families aspire to a college degree. Similarly, among the students with a high level of academic performance 56.6 percent of females and 75.4 percent of males from low socio-economic status families in contrast to 86.3 percent of females and 93.7 percent of males from high socio-economic status families aspire to a college degree. Second, the social class differences in educational aspirations are greater among females than among males in each category of academic performance. Third, the social class differences are greatest among females with a low level of academic performance and least among males with a high level of academic performance. Fourth, the relationship between academic performance and educational aspirations continues to be positive and statistically significant for both males and females, even when the differences in their socio-economic status are taken into account. More specifically, in the low socio-economic status category, 57.0 percent of males and 35.2 percent of females from the low academic performance category aspire to college graduation in comparison with 75.4 percent of males and 56.6 percent of females from the high academic performance category. Similarly, in the high socio-economic status category, 80.0 percent of males and 67.1 percent of females from the low academic performance category aspire to college graduation in comparison with 93.7 percent of males and 86.3 percent of females from the high academic performance category. Thus, the higher the level of academic performance the higher the proportion of both males and females in each category of socio-economic status who aspire to a college degree. Finally, although sex, academic performance, and socio-economic status—all influence the educational aspirations of the S.S.C. students in this study, the percentages of those aspiring to a college degree indicate that the differences are least in terms of sex, greater in terms of academic performance, and greatest in terms of socio-economic status. The results of the cross-tabular analysis are useful in mapping out the separate and joint effects of socio-economic status and academic performance on the students’ educational aspirations. However, since we had to use only dichotomies of these variables in the cross-tabular analysis, it is still necessary to examine measures based on the full range of scores on these variables. For this purpose, the means, standard deviations, and intercorrelation coefficients of socio-economic status,

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Table 6 Means, Standard Deviations, and Intercorrelation Coefficients of Socio-economic Status, Academic Performance, and Educational Aspirations of S.S.C. Students by Sex Intercorrelation Coefficients Variable

Mean

S.D.

(1)

(2)

(3)

–

.054

.354

–

.221

Males (1)  Socio-economic Status

41.7

13.1

(2)  Academic Performance

37.8

23.4

(3)  Educational Aspirations

5.6

2.2

(1)  Socio-economic Status

47.4

12.1

(2)  Academic Performance

36.5

22.9

(3)  Educational Aspirations

4.8

2.1

–

Females –

.170

.425

–

.319 –

academic performance/and educational aspirations, computed by using the full range of scores on these variables, are given in Table 6. Several observations should be made on the data of this table. First, the mean score on socio-economic status is much greater for females than for males, and its standard deviation is greater for males than for females. This supports the common knowledge that, because of the differences in the male and the female roles in Indian society, most females who pursue higher education come from high-status families while there is a considerably more spread in the social status of males who go on to higher education. Second, the mean score on academic performance is slightly lower for females than for males and its standard deviation is slightly less for females than for males. This, in conjunction with the first observation made above, seems to suggest that a larger proportion of females than of males with low academic performance but high social status have been able to continue their study up to the final year in high school. Third, the mean level of post-high school educational aspirations is higher for males than for females. Fourth, the coefficient of correlation between socio-economic status and academic performance, for both males and females, is the lowest among the relationships examined in this paper, although this relationship is slightly stronger for females than for males. Fifth, the coefficient of correlation between socio-economic

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status and educational aspirations, for both males and females, is the largest of all of the relationships examined in this paper, although this relationship is stronger for females than for males. And finally, the relationship of academic performance to educational aspirations is much stronger for females than, for-males. All of these latter observations support the observations made from the cross-tabular analysis presented earlier, namely, that sex, academic performance, and socio-economic status—all the three variables are positively related to the post-high school educational aspirations of both males and females, and that both socio-economic status and academic performance are more strongly related to the educational aspirations of females than of males. We now turn to the final question regarding the magnitude of the relative influences of socio-economic status and academic performance on the educational aspirations of both males and females. This is shown in the path diagrams given in Figure 1. We find from the path diagrams that socio-economic status and academic performance together explain only a small proportion of the variance in the post-high school educational aspirations of either males or females. Socio-economic status and academic performance jointly explain about one-sixth of the variance in the educational aspirations of males and about one-fourth of the variance in the educational aspirations of females. Further, for both males and females, the independent influence of socio-economic status on educational aspirations is greater than that of academic performance, although the magnitude of the independent influence of both socio-economic status and academic performance on the educational aspirations of females is greater than that of males. Obviously, however, there is still a need for considering the influences of other variables (such as school and community contextual variables, the respondents’ attitudes and values toward higher education, the influence of their significant others on their aspirations, and of course the availability of funds for higher education) on their educational aspirations (cf. Duncan, Haller, and Portes 1968; Duncan, Featherman, and Duncan 1968; Sewell, Haller, and Portes 1969; and Sewell, Haller, and Ohlendorf 1970.) Finally, it may be pointed out that the magnitudes of the explained variance in educational aspirations of the S.S.C. students in Ahmedabad compare very well with the results of similar studies in the Western countries. For example, in a Wisconsin study (Sewell and Shah 1967: 18) of 9,007 high school seniors, the path coefficients measuring the

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Figure 1.  Path Diagrams Showing the Independent Influence of Socio-economic Status and Academic Performance on Educational Aspirations, for Males and Females Separately* *In this figure, the determination of the relationship between socio-economic status and academic performance is not analyzed, and therefore, only the zero-order correlation coefficient between socio-economic status and academic performance is shown on a curved line. One-way arrows leading from each of the independent variables to the dependent variable are shown by straight lines to indicate that these relationships are analyzed assuming a recursive and closed system composed of all standardized variables. The quantities entered in the figure are the numerical values of path coefficients, or the beta-weights as they are commonly known. The residual path is shown above the dependent variable.

relationships of socio-economic status and intelligence to college plans were Pvl = .32 and Pv2 = .34 for males and Pvi = .37 and Pv2 = .23 for females, respectively. While the path coefficient for the relationship between intelligence and college plans of males in the Wisconsin study is greater than the path coefficient for the relationship between academic performance and educational aspirations in the present study, the

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Vimal P. Shah, Tara Patel, and William H. Sewell

same general pattern of relationships of social class and intelligence (academic performance) to educational aspirations occurs in both studies. Notwithstanding the differences in the samples and measurement of variables in these studies, and despite great differences in the educational system, social structure, and cultural milieu of the United States and India, such striking similarities in the pattern of relationships of social class and ability to educational aspirations seem to indicate promising possibilities for developing models based on cross-cultural studies in the areas of stratification and sociology of education.

Summary This study of 5,201 S.S.C. students enrolled in a stratified sample of 52 high schools in the Ahmedabad Metropolitan Area, Gujarat, India shows that 87.3 percent of the students aspire to some college education. It seems that quite a large number of the aspirants for college education, especially males, desire to join college, presumably, as a temporary activity in the prevailing conditions of a high rate of unemployment and difficulties in finding a suitable white-collar job in the urban areas. Similarly, the girls who desire to join college but do not aspire to college graduation are probably desiring some college education before marriage. A lack of appropriate selection mechanisms and facilities for sorting out and counselling youth in the choice of posthigh school alternatives may be a major factor leading many of them to desire college education as a part-time or an ancillary activity. Further, both socio-economic status and academic performance are related to the post-high school educational aspirations of both males and females. When academic performance is controlled, significant social class differences are found in the educational aspirations of both males and females, although such differences are greater among females than among males. Consequently, while 35.2 percent of females with low academic performance from low socio-economic status families aspire to a college degree, 93.7 percent of males with high academic performance from high status families have such aspirations. The independent influence of socio-economic status of the students’ families is much greater than that of academic performance on their educational aspiration. The results of this study indicate that after having had a programme for financial assistance to children from underprivileged communities for about a period of two decades, and to children from economically depressed

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families in more recent years, India still needs to plan for more imaginative approaches to reduce, if not to eliminate completely, social class differences in educational aspirations of its youth. Finally, the similarity in the pattern of relationships of social class and ability to educational aspirations found in this and a Wisconsin study points out the possibility of developing models based on cross-cultural studies in the areas of stratification and sociology of education.

Notes 1. The research reported in this study was financed by W. H. Sewell, Vilas Research Professor, University of Wisconsin from the research funds granted to him by the Vilas Trust. The writers acknowledge the services of the University of Wisconsin Computing Center and wish to thank N. H. Kapadia, Secretary, Ahmedabad Head Masters’ Association and the principals of high schools for their cooperation in data collection; D. B. Desai, H. C. Doshi, V. Joshi, U. S. Kanhere, E. J. Masihi, H. H. Pate!, R. Patel, S. I. Patel, A. R. Shan, N. P. Shukla, and P. Valand for their assistance in fieldwork; Kadambari Dave, Mahendra Mehta, and Bhadra Vora for their assistance in coding; and Keith Billingsley and Victor Jesudason for their assistance in computer analysis. This is a revised version of the paper presented at the Tenth All-India Sociological Conference held at Hyderabad in December, 1970. 2. Except for an earlier pioneering study by I. P. Desai and five other studies by his students, the Education Commission of the Government of India has been principally responsible for encouraging interest in a sociological analysis of education (Gore, Desai and Chitnis (eds.) 1967). 3. Path analysis provides a convenient and efficient method for determining the direct and indirect effects of each of the independent variables in a causal chain composed of standardized variables in a closed system. These effects are expressed in path coefficients which are the partial beta-weights of all of the preceding independent variables on the successive dependent variables in the system. This method assumes a complete system including, if necessary, residual variables to represent unmeasured influences, which are assumed to be uncorrelated with the measured ones (Boudon 1965; Duncan 1966; Li 1955 and 1956; Wright 1934, 1960a, and 1960b). 4. Ahmedabad is the sixth largest metropolitan city and was, until recently, the capital of Gujarat State. According to the 1961 census, the percentage increase, during the 1951–60 decade, in the population of Ahmedabad city was the highest (45.8%), and the literacy rate in Gujarat was the second highest (Kerala having the highest rate) in India. For the purpose of a sampling frame, a list of all recognized high schools imparting instruction upto the S.S.C. level in Ahmedabad was prepared using the following four sources, none of which by itself provided an adequate sampling frame: (a) A membership-list of the Ahmedabad Head Masters’ Association; (b) Complete postal addresses of about 80 high schools obtained from the local telephone directory;

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Vimal P. Shah, Tara Patel, and William H. Sewell (c) Electoral roll for the Head Masters of the High School Constituency, published by the Gujarat University; (d) A list containing the names and addresses of the full-fledged and other high schools obtained from the office of the Education Inspector, Ahmedabad District.

5. On account of the nonavailability of an uptodate street map of Ahmedabad City, a bus-route map published by the Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Service and another map published by a book-store were used to plot the location of all high schools in the Ahmedabad Metropolitan Area. Then, nineteen geographical strata were demarcated such that a minimum of five and a maximum of nine high schools were included in one stratum. While it is desirable to use some objective indicators like density, nature of housing conditions, socio-economic and occupational structure of the various localities of the city in determining ecological strata, in absence of any such data the authors were obliged, in determining these nineteen strata, to rely heavily on their own experience and knowledge about the various localities of the city. The high schools in each of these nineteen areas were alphabetically arranged and serially numbered. Using a table of random numbers, approximately one-third of the high schools from each stratum were selected. The high schools selected by this procedure were compared with the schools in four categories (co-educational high schools, high schools for boys only, high schools for girls only, and high schools with certain special characteristics) to determine the representativeness of the sample. Because some categories were not adequately represented, ten high schools were added to the list of forty-four high schools which had been originally selected using a stratified random sample design. 6. A letter introducing the investigators and describing briefly the purposes and nature of the research project and signed by Mr. N. H. Kapadia, Secretary, Ahmedabad Head Masters’ Association was sent to the principals of all high schools in the sample. Then a convenient day and time were fixed for administering the questionnaire to all students in one of their regular class hours. The investigators, after introducing themselves and explaining the purpose of the study, asked the students to answer the questionnaire in a question-by-question manner. They also drew their attention to the details asked in some questions (e.g., details about father’s occupation, and performance in high school). 7. The two schools which did not cooperate in this research had about 40 students in their S.S.C. class; these schools do not have any special characteristics and constitute a small numerical loss. Consequently, it seems reasonable to assume that there could be no significant bias in this study on account of the non-inclusion of these two schools. 8. It was found that several students had not responded to these questions and that many others had indicated only approximate numbers and percentages. Consequently, more accurate information was obtained directly from the records of the sample high schools. The analysis reported in this paper is based on the data obtained from the high school records. Past studies concerning the relationship of socio-economic status to educational aspirations have shown a positive and statistically significant relationship of measured intelligence to both socio-economic status and educational aspirations (Sewell and Shah 1967). Since no high schools in Ahmedabad administer any

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tests of intelligence regularly, it was necessary to use academic performance as a surrogate for a standardized test of academic ability. 9. In a state-wide survey of all high school seniors in Wisconsin, 37.4 percent of males and 29.5 percent of females planned on college, and 43.7 percent of males and 30.7 percent of females were found to have attended college during a period of about seven years following their graduation from high school (Sewell and Shah 1967: 9). While at least 85 percent of the Wisconsin age-cohort are enrolled in the senior year in high school, the estimated enrolment in India in 1960–61 was about 5 percent of the corresponding age groups in the higher secondary classes as against about 13 percent of the corresponding age groups enrolled in the lower secondary classes (Ministry of Education, Government of India 1966: 100).

References Boudon, Raymond 1965 “A Method of Linear Causal Analysis: Dependence Analysis,” American Sociological Review, 30: 365–374. Clark, Burton R. 1960 “The Cooling-Out Function in Higher Education,” American Journal of Sociology, 65: 569–576. Duncan, Otis Dudley 1966 “Path Analysis: Sociological Examples,” American Journal of Sociology, 72: 1–16. ———, David L. Featherman, and Beverly Duncan 1968 Socio-economic Background and Occupational Achievement: Extension of a Basic Model. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, Population Studies Center. ———, Archibald O. Haller, and Alejandro Protes 1968 “Peer Influences on Aspirations: a Reinterpretation,” American Journal of Sociology, 74: 119–137. Gore, M. S., I. P. Desai, and Suma Chitnis (eds.) 1967 Papers in the Sociology of Education in India. New Delhi: National Council of Educational Research and Training. Li, C. C. 1955 Population Genetics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ——— 1956 “The Concept of Path Coefficient and Its Impact on Population Genetics,” Biometrics, 12: 190–210. Ministry of Education, Government of India 1966 Report of the Education Commission 1964–66. Delhi: Government of India Press. Parsons, Talcott 1959 “The School Class as a Social System: Some of Its Functions in American Society,” Harvard Educational Review, 29: 297–318. Sewell, William H., and Vimal P. Shah 1967 “Socio-economic Status, Intelligence, and the Attainment of Higher Education,” Sociology of Education, 40: 1–23. ——— 1968a “Social Class, Parental Encouragement, and Educational Aspirations,” American Journal of Sociology, 73: 559–572. ——— 1968b “Parents’ Education and Children’s Educational Aspirations and Achievements,” American Sociological Review, 33: 191–209. ———, Archibald O. Haller, and Alejandro Protes 1969 “The Educational and Early Occupational Attainment Process,” American Sociological Review, 34: 82–92. ———, Archibald O. Haller, and George W. Ohlendorf 1970 “The Educational and Early Occupational Status Attainment Process: Replication and Revision,” American Sociological Review, 35: 1014–1027.

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Smith, David Horton, and Alex Inkeles 1966 “The OM Scale: A Comparative SocioPsychological Measure of Individual Modernity,” Sociometry, 29: 372–373. Sorokin, Pitinm A. 1927 Social Mobility. New York Harper and Brothers. Turner, Ralph H. 1960 “Sponsored and Contest Mobility and the School System,” American Sociological Review, 25: 855–867. Wright, Sewell 1934 “The Method of Path Coefficients,” Annals of Mathematical Statistics, 5: 161–215. ——— 1960a “Path Coefficient and Path Regressions. Alternative or Complementary Concept?” Biometrics, 16: 189–202. ——— 1960b “The Treatment of Reciprocal Interaction with or without Lag in Path Analysis,” Biometrics, 16: 423–445.

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2 Education and the Emerging Patterns of Political Orientations: A Sociological Analysis* Ehsanul Haq

T

his study is concerned with the sources and the consequences of political socialization in India. The enquiry into this aspect of the political function of both formal, as well as, informal education is important because it provides an understanding of what elements of political culture are being introduced, internalized and modified, and what patterns of political orientations are emerging. This function is performed by a number of agencies where formal education is considered to be one of the important sources which provides an input support to the system of polity. This role of education has neither been properly explored nor available studies take this into account in its totality. However, the studies conducted in India and elsewhere have broadly reflected two conflicting views regarding the political role of education. One view is that the family is the most important sources of influencing political values of children. Greenstein (1968) is the main advocate of this view. The other view focuses on the potentiality of the school as another source of politicization. The main exponents of this view are Hess and Torney (1969). The nature and role of these

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Ehsanul Haq

agencies are shaped by the type of social structure in which they exist. For example, in a class-oriented society, they tend to be stratified leading to a differential patterns of politicization or political roleperformance. For illustration, in France, elites attend the Lycee; in Germany, the Gymnasium; in Soviet Union, the Senior or Complete Secondary School; in U. K., the Grammar School; in India, the Public School.1 Such a pattern of schooling as a result of the type of society in which it is exhibiting has a very strong impact on socialization in general and politicization in particular (Entwistle, 1971 and Tapper, 1971). Edger Litt’s study (1968) supports this fact. In order to examine this impact, he chooses different communities in his work on “Civic Education, Community Norms and Political Indoctrination.” He finds that political role of different schools is highly governed by the nature and political needs of the community in which they function. For instance, Alpha Community stresses the need for higher political participation, consciousness, awareness, decision-making and critical evaluation of the working of the government. The Beta Community stresses the need for moderate political participation and responsibility of citizens but does not emphasize the dynamics of decision-making. The Gamma Community is simply concerned with the elements of democratic form of government without stressing the importance of political participation. Edger Litt (1968), as well as, Greenstein (1965) have pointed out that these differences in political orientation of these communities are reflected in the functioning of their respective schools, specially in the textbooks prescribed for children through which school reinforces what the community desires. The present study focuses on this dimension and examines the political role of the family and the school and the impact of their roleperformance on political orientations of school children. The study also focuses on the differential emerging patterns of their orientations as a consequence of structural inequality. Taking this into account, we divide the paper into the following sections: I Research Setting. II Sources of Political Orientations. III Consequences, Emerging Patterns and the Implications.

The study is based on the data collected from three representative schools belonging to three major types of schools in Delhi:

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Government School, Government Aided School and the Public School.3 The selection of these schools takes into account the differences in terms of socio-economic background of students, their exposure to mass-media, social milieu in and outside the school, adequate population size, content of the school textbooks and the historical tradition of the rejected schools. Our survey of the selected schools in particular and other schools in general reflects broadly two different the family and the school conditions to which students belong. These different conditions which have bearing on the process of politicization are as follows: 1. The government school are controlled by the Department of Education, Government of India. The aided schools are privately managed but the Government has sufficient control over them because they get 95 per cent of financial aid from the Government and only 5 per cent from other sources. These non-public schools4 have uniform syllabus. The public Schools, on the other hand, have their own financial sources (mainly fees and donations). They are privately controlled and managed by different bodies. The Government has least control over these schools. 2. The students drawn to the non-public school belong mainly to lower administrative and petty business class back ground of parents who have comparatively low education, low level of politicization, lesser specialized knowledge and lower monthly income (Rs. 200–1,000). They are mostly from lower and middle castes and belong to both rural and urban areas. The students drawn to the public school mainly belong to higher administrative, professional (Income Rs. 1,000–3,000) and big business class parental (Income Rs. 2,000–10,000) backgrounds. Their parents are highly educated and belong to mostly the upper and middle castes and urban background. (See, Table 2). A study conducted by Prof. R. P. Singh (1972) supports this fact. He points out that 87.2% public School students in India are urban based, 88.5% of them belong to rich business, official and professional type of home environment and only 6.9% of them to lower socio-economic background. 3. The home conditions of the children who attend the non-public school are disorganized and least effective in terms of proper socialisation. Their parents have localistic orientations. They are localized, adapted to the community and send their children to mainly these schools which are essentially neighbourhood and local schools with limited catchment areas, with Hindi as medium of instructions and minimum tuition fees. On the other hand, the public school children are exposed to an organized and academically conducive home conditions. Their parents are exposed to the

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Ehsanul Haq world outside their locality. They are cosmopolitan in their orientations. They send their children to the public schools which are essentially cosmopolitan, standard, expensive and elite schools with widespread catchment areas and English as medium of instructions. 4. The school milieu of the non-public schools as well as public schools is similar to that of the home conditions to which the children of respective schools belong. The conditions at the non-public schools are miserable. The selected schools particularly do not regularly and in a systematic way organize even the school programmes, such as, every day ritual of pledging allegiance to the national flag, singing patriotic songs and national anthem, etc., as well as, national and international celebrations, such as, Independence Day. Gandhi Jayanti, U. N. Day, Human Rights Day, the like. The selected public schools on the other hand, organize not only these programmes well but also the Student Council and the House System for giving training in leadership position, decision-making, active participation in co-curricular activities of the school, parliamentary form of government, national, as well as, international understanding. 5. The non-public school students are poorly exposed to the mass-media and have parents and teachers who are politically less informed and articulate. The public school students, on the other hand, are well exposed to the media and have comparatively more politically informed and articulate parents and teachers. The above characteristics of the existing conditions show that the selected schools represent different classes and distinct cultures. On the one hand, we find a small group of efficient, elite based, privately managed, high fee charging, English medium schools catering to the needs of the upper classes and, on the other hand, we have a bulk of mass-based, government maintained, low fee charging, Hindi medium, low standard and mismanaged schools catering to the needs of the lower classes (See, Haq: 1981:45–46).

After the location of representative schools, a representative sample of students, teachers and parents was selected. We have chosen male students5 of class XI only, because we wanted to examine the endproduct of politicization taken place at various levels of schooling. We have selected more or less a uniform size of sample from representative schools on the basis of a random sampling. The Table 1 shows the details of total sample of 600 respondents (308 students, 128 teachers and 164 parents). We have selected about 50% student of the total enrolment in class XI and about 50% parents of the total number of selected students. We have included all the students of class XI of the Aided School (only 112 could be contacted) because of the limited number

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1066

1230

3685

Aided School

Public School

Total

512

183

117

212

Total Enrolment of Students in Class XI

308

90

112

106

No. of Selected Students

150

60

41

49

Total No. of Teachers (VI–XI)

Source: Table is based on the figure collected in 1973–74 from the Directorate of Education, Delhi.

1389

Govt. School

Selected Schools

Total Enrolment of Students in Class (VI–XI)

Table 1 Number of Selected Students, Teachers and Parents

128

50

38

40

No. of Teachers Who Completed Questionnaire

164

60

46

58

No. of Selected Parents Who Completed the Interview Schedule

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Table 2 Number of Selected Parents, Their Occupational Backgrounds and the School to Which They Send Their Children S. No.

No. of Parents

Occupational Background

1.

58

Lower administrative services with low salary

2.

46

Petty business with low income

3.

40

Higher administrative and professional services with high salary

4.

20

Big business with high turn-over

School Type Non-Public School

Public School

of students in this class. We have also included all the teachers in the sample because hopefully they would have influenced the political orientations of students at one stage or the other. However, the Table shows the number of only those respondents who were interviewed and had competed the questionnaire. Among the selected parents of the government school children, most belong to lower administrative services and rural areas while most of the parents of aided school children belong to the families petty business and urban areas but they are localized in a congested slum area. All the selected parents of the public school children are urban-based, scattered in different posh areas and belong to higher professional, administrative, big business class backgrounds. The Table 2 gives the details of their occupational background.

Sources of Data We have collected data through questionnaire, interview schedule, observation and content analysis. The questionnaire (for teachers) and interview schedule (for parents) deal with political orientations. The student questionnaire covered background information; political understanding of local, national and international levels; their preference and commitment to politics; their expected or actual participator)’ behaviour towards political activities; and the degree of exposure to mass-media. The questionnaire and interview schedule were pre-tested on 5% of the total sample of respondents. The content analysis of school textbooks has

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been done in the light of some of the values including the Constitutional values.6 In order to minimize the element of subjectivity, the political content of the textbooks was analysed and scores were given by a panel of three judges including the author. They were requested to identify the relevant passages in the books. For example, a book entitled Social Studies: Our Country India, published by the NCERT for class IV deals with various values. The book explains to children that “Our country is a big country. Our people speak different languages. They have different faiths and customs. But all are Indians. We have one Constitution, ore National Flag, one National Anthem and one National Emblem. These are the symbols of our National Unity” (P. 77). This passage promotes the value of ‘fraternity’ and ‘a sense of belonging to the nation.’ Similarly, another book entitled A Textbook of Civics and Indian Administration, published by the Orient Longman and prescribed in the public school for the class IX, highlights some of the important aspects of political culture, such as, ‘Fundamental Rights,’ ‘Welfare and Secular State,’ ‘Qualities of Good Citizens,’ ‘Political Rights,’ ‘Common Good,’ ‘Democracy and Dictatorship,’ ‘Party System of Government,’ etc. Such aspects of the textbooks were identified. However, in a particular passage there may be conflicting and overlapping themes which may create measurement problem but scores were given to specific aspects of the political content of the passage relevant to the values. The weightage of values has been examined in terms of how many times they have been mentioned in the prescribed textbooks of various subjects like History, Civics, Hindi, and English. After rating, an average of frequencies given by the judges was taken and the figures rounded off in order to examine variations, if any, in scores secured by the values. With the help of information collected through questionnaire and interview schedule, we have examined the level of political orientations of teachers, parents and students in terms of the percentage of their correct responses which were put into Low (0–33%), Medium (34–66%) and High (67–100%) in order to see the relationship and potentiality of various sources of political orientations. The political orientations develop through political socialization. Our democratic political culture demands three important political orientations from citizens in terms of which political objects could be classified. These are: political awareness, political commitment and political

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participation.7 The political awareness includes informatory contents of the questionnaires and interview schedules in terms of constitutional values, national political parties, countries favouring the policy of military alignment and non-alignment, etc. The nature of the questions vary according to respondents. The political commitment consists of questions regarding their preferences of certain ideology or political party. Similarly, we have examined their political participation in terms of participatory behaviour in political activities.

II The political orientations among the School boys develop through political socialization, the function which is performed by various sources which transmit political values and make them politically aware, committed and participant. These are some of the essential prerequisites of a democratic polity. The sources as shown below are some of the important agents through which this function is performed. 1. ——————

Textbooks

2. ——————

Teachers

3. ——————

Parents

4. ——————

Mass-media

} } }

Students

EDUCATION  AND  THE  EMERGING  PATTERNS 34

We have examined the role of school textbooks within the framework of some of our national values. The textbook plays an important role in preparing the young for a desired political order by transmitting political values (See NCERT Report 1970: 15–16; Almond and Verba 1963; Anderson 1966; Massialas 1969; Coleman 1965; Rudolph 1972; Shah 1971 and Damle 1967). Here we have made an attempt to examine the relevance of school textbooks to the values mentioned in Table 3. We assume that students may be properly politically informed if the values are systematically incorporated into the textbooks. Therefore, we raise the questions whether there is any systematic effort made to incorporate our democratic values into the textbooks and whether there is any correlation between the age of students and the nature of values

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internalized. Our analysis shows that the School textbooks of History, Civics and Geography prescribed in the public as well as non-public schools are less relevant to our national values because no systematic and consistent effort has been made to incorporate them into the textbooks and the scores which they obtain, on an average, are much lower than the minimum limit of 33 percent as shown in the Table 3. These values have not been given proper weightage. For example, as shown in Table 3, ‘a sense of belonging to the nation’ secures an average score of 17.9% in the textbooks prescribed in the non-public schools and 19.61% in the public school textbooks but “secularism” secures only 8.40% and 6.38% respectively. There is a considerable difference in the weightage given to these values. Similarly, other values have quite insignificantly been represented. For example, ‘equality of opportunity,’ ‘distributive justice,’ ‘individual liberty’ and ‘protection of minority rights,’ secure only 10.05%, 8.00%, 6.18% and 2.88% in the non-public school textbooks and 7.35%, 7.84%, 4.41% and 1.96% in the public school textbooks respectively. If we observe class-wise distribution of scores, we Table 3 Total Scores Secured by National Value in All the Classes (I to XI) Govt. Schools S. No. National Values

Govt. Public School

%

Scores

%

% Difference

125

25.77

83

40.69

−14.92

1.

Citizenship

2.

A sense of belonging to the Nation

37

17.90

40

19.61

−1.71

3.

Fraternity

54

11.10

16

7.84

+3.26

4.

Equality of opportunity

51

10.50

15

7.35

+3.15

5.

Political participation

44

9.27

8

8.92

+5.85

6.

Secularism

41

8.40

13

6.38

+2.02

7.

Distributive justice

39

8.00

16

7.84

+0.16

8.

Individual liberty

30

6.18

9

4.41

+1.77

9.

Protection of minority rights

+0.92

Grand Total

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Public Schools

Scores

14

2.88

4

1.96

435

100.00

204

100.00

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may find again an unsystematic effort made to incorporate these values. For instance, all the values, on an average, secure 15.67% and 12.98% in the non-public school textbooks prescribed in class VI and XI respectively while it is only 6.84% and 1.47% in the public school textbooks prescribed in the same classes. This shows that the textbooks do not take into account the age factor, mental maturity and comprehension, and the course content which is highly differentiated at higher stages where students are quite mature to understand the deeper meanings of the values.8 However, our analysis takes us to the following conclusions. Firstly, in the textbook writing no purposive and systematic efforts have been made to incorporate our democratic values with a view to develop basic political orientations to the core values enshrined in our Constitution. Secondly, there is no correlation between the age of students and the nature of values internalized. This implies that the textbook writing has ignored the logical argument that comprehension of national values is improved with mental and physical maturity of students (Merelman 1970: 59). EDUCATION  AND  THE  EMERGING  PATTERNS 54

Here the purposive and systematic efforts do not mean that the amount of emphasis given to the values should be the same in all the classes. It must vary from one class to another in accordance with age and mental maturity but the emphasis should be given on all the values within a class. What aspects of a value are to be emphasized at what stage will certainly differ. Our analysis, although not an exhaustive but preliminary and exploratory, shows that the courses, specially in civics and social studies have to be restructured and made more systematic, purposive and relevant to the national values so as to effect greater impact on political orientations of school children. The responses given by students also confirm the fact that the textbooks are less relevant as most of them expressed their unawareness of the presence of these values in the textbooks. This implies that the textbooks play a nominal role in making students politically aware of their national values. There may be other comparatively more important sources of politicization. Therefore, we do not suggest that the presence of these values into the textbooks will be a Sufficient but certainly a necessary condition to affect the political

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attitudes of students if the values are properly incorporated and consciously taught about. The teachers and the parents are comparatively more important Sources of developing political orientations among the school boys (See, for instance, Zeigler 1967 and Davis 1968). The following paradigm shows the level of their political orientations which correspond to that of the boys of the respective schools. The paradigm shows that the public and non-public school teachers do not differ in terms of the level of their political commitment but they do differ in terms of the level of their political awareness and participation. The public school teachers are more politically informed as compared to non-public school-teachers. For example, more than 50% public school and less than 30% non-public school teachers are aware of the ideological bases of various political parties which they prefer. Such differences may be attributed to a general lack of awareness, poor school milieu, lack of initiative to acquire knowledge, nature of role-perception, greater exposure to local situation and to the socio-economic and psychological factors in the case of non-public School teachers while better school milieu, accessibility to current literatures, greater exposure to a wider situation, motivation to acquire knowledge and the type of working conditions in the case of public school teachers. Contrary to the level of political awareness, the public school teachers are less politically participant as compared with non-public school teachers. For example, we find a large number of non-pubic school

Paradigm Political Orientations of Teachers & Parents of Public and Non-Public Schools Political Awarences

Political Commitment

Political Participation

Public School

Non-Public School

Public School

Non-Public School

Public School

Non-Public Public

Teachers

M

L

H

H

L

H

Parents

H

L

H

H

M

H

Respondents

Note: In this Paradigm we have combined Government and Aided schools into the Nonpublic School because the teachers and parents who send their children to these schools have the same level of political orientation. The paradigm is based on averages of correct responses which are put into a simple scale: 0–33% as Low (L), 34–66% as Medium (M), and 67–100% as High (H).

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teachers are members of the registered Government School Teachers’ Association (GSTA), Government Aided School Teachers’ Association (GASTA) and Adyapak Parishad. These associations have sympathy with various political organizations. As against this, the public school teachers who feel institutional constraints on being politically active are simply members of unrecognized teachers’ associations of their respective schools, although an attempt is being made to have a recognized association of public school teachers in Delhi. The non-public school teachers are also comparatively more active in other forms of participation, such as, campaigning and canvassing activities of their associations;, participation in Metropolitan Council’s election in Delhi, strike and demonstration as modes of action to affect governmental decisions. 75% teachers of the non-public schools supported the general strike of 6th November, 1973 started in connection with the rising prices of consumer goods. Similarly, in 1979, an organized attempt was made by these teachers to paralyse the school system in Delhi to press their demands for an increase in their basic salary and more promotion avenues for them. Such attempts show a comparatively higher level of political participation, polymorphic behaviour and the emerging trend of activism among the non-public school teachers because of a number of factors, such as, deteriorating; school conditions, lack of opportunities, feelings of powerlessness, low political efficacy, lack of status recognition, job dissatisfaction, etc. Here the factors of localism and cosmopolitanism also seem to play their roles. The non-public school teachers are localized and adapted to the. existing conditions because of their longer duration of stay. They can, therefore, be easily organized and mobilized to participate, specially in local politics. The public school teachers are not local people. They seem to be less interested in local politics. They have short duration of stay and most of them are not registered as voters. They are neither localized nor completely adapted to the local conditions and, therefore, they are neither easily organized nor mobilized to participate in local politics. They are rather cosmopolitan type with comparatively higher level of political awareness as compared to localistic orientation of non-public school teachers who belong to the neighbourhood schools. The parents were another source of developing political orientations among the school boys (see, Davis, 1965). The above paradigm shows the level of political orientations of parents which also correspond to that of the boys of the respective schools. The Parents, like the teachers,

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also do not differ in terms of the level of their political commitment but they do differ in terms of their political awareness and participation. The public school parents are more politically informed as compared to non-public school parents. For example, 96.7% public school and only 7.3% non-public school parents are aware of the ideological bases of various Communist parties. Such differences are attributed to the type of existential conditions to which they belong (see, for instance, Black, 1961:53 and Davis, 1965). The public school parents belong to a higher socio-economic background. They are exposed to mass-media and national, as well as, international matters. They are not local people. They are widespread in posh areas in Delhi. They are highly educated, socially conscious, well informed, articulate and cosmopolitan in orientation. The non-public parents, on the other hand, belong to poor socio-economic background. They have a sense of deprivation. They are insignificantly exposed to the media and the world outside their locality. They are local people, inarticulate and poorly informed. They are less educated, less socially conscious and more localistic in orientation. The participatory behaviour of the parents shows that those who are highly educated, more politically aware and coming from upper socio-economic background are less politically participant as compared with those who are less educated, less politically aware and having lower socio-economic background. The former category of parents occupy superordinate positions in the hierarchy of statuses and actively participate in decision-making processes because of their knowledge and training. Their position itself involves political operations. Therefore, they do not take much interest in any organization for extending their interpersonal relationships. The latter category of parents occupy subordinate positions. They are powerlers, confronted with problems and suffer from complexes. Therefore, they channelize their interest into political activities like voting, strikes, demonstrations, etc., to exert their influence through their numerical dominance. For example, their voting pattern shows that 75.6% non-public school and only 41.7% public school parents voted in 1972 national elections and 70.0% former and only 27.0% of the latter category of parents participated in strike and demonstration. The level of participation and responses of these parents who send their children to different schools show that the non-public school parents are more of aggressive and militant type without corresponding level of political awareness. The higher sense of political participation among them shows a polymorphic tendency and the possibility of the

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emergence of leadership from the lower and middle classes. However, these parents in particular seem to be monomorphic type because they want to exert their influence on local areas in which they live but they do not reflect the potentiality to lead a movement to affect the wider society and bring about drastic changes. The public school parents, on the other hand, have a comparatively lower level of political participation but higher level of political awareness. They are more moderate and retreatist type because they very rarely participate in political activities. But they reflect a polymorphic behaviour because they are oriented to the world outside their locality and want to exert their influence on the wider society by involving in decision-making process rather than in political activities. The next and equally important source is the mass-media through which certain symbolic transfer of values takes place and individuals are socialized. The political socialization which is an aspect of genera] socialization process is one of the social responsibilities of the media to which a child is exposed (Peterson, 1956 and Hyman, 1963:128–148). The media, such as, newspaper, radio and television, is not only a decisive factor of mobilization of power but also an agent of developing political orientations and making each individual politically aware and responsive citizen. In a government resting on public opinion, media plays an important role in furnishing the people with the information to enrich their political understanding. Our study shows that those respondents who are more exposed to the media are more politically informed. For example, the non-public school teachers who have low level of political awareness, very casually listen to radio and watch television and only about 50% of them subscribe to newspapers. They mostly prefer to Subscribe to Nav Bharat Times, a Hindi newspaper which is more locally circulated. The public school teachers who are comparatively more politically aware, are more exposed to the media and more than 70% of them subscribe to newspapers, specially the Times of India, an English newspaper which is widely circulated. Similarly, the non-public school parents who have low political awareness, are less exposed to the media and only about 22% of them subscribe to newspapers, specially the Nav Bharat Times which caters for the needs of the local people. The public school parents who have higher level of political bareness are more exposed to the media. They have their own televisions and radios and more than 80% of them subscribe to Newspapers and different periodicals, Specially the Times of India, Hindustan Times, the Times,

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etc. We observe the same pattern of political awareness and the massmedia exposure among the boys who belong to different schools and different parental backgrounds.

III In the preceding section, we have examined the sources of political orientations of school boys. Here we intend to see the impact of these sources and the consequences or the emerging patterns and the implications. The following paradigm summarizes the preceding section and explains the relationship between the sources and the consequences. All the sources do play their role in determining the political orientations of school boys but the family seems to be the most important because it determines the kind of school one attends and the degree and nature of mass-media to which he is exposed. As a result of differential family and Sources and Consequences (Political Awareness)

Type of School Teachers

Main Source and Levels of Political Awareness

Consequences of Political Awareness

Parents

Level of Exposure

Media

Students

Typology of Students

Public School

M

H

H

H

“Articulate”

Non-Public School

L

L

L

L

“Inarticulate”

Sources and Consequences (Political Awareness) Main Sources and Levels of Political Participation

Consequences of Political Participation

Type of School

Teachers

Parents

Students

Typology of Students

Public School

L

M

M

“Moderate”

Non-Public School

H

H

H

“Militant”

Note: For typology construction, we have taken into account only political awareness and participation because the respondents differ in terms of these dimensions and not in terms of political commitment.

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the school backgrounds, we observe different patterns in political orientations of school boys. The typologies of these patterns explained below show mainly two sets of roles: “Articulate-Moderate” (HPA-MPP) and “Inarticulate-Militant” (LPA-HPP). The former is the product of the upper class and public school background while the latter is the product of lower and lower middle class and non-public school background. The other aspects of these roles namely “Articulate-Militant” (HPA-HPP) and “Inarticulate-Moderate” (LPA-MPP) are not emerging because of the reasons explained below. 1.  “Articulate” (Higher level of Political Awareness) (HPA) 2.  “Inarticulate” (Lower level of Political Awareness) (LPA) 3.  “Moderate” (Medium level of Political Participation) (MPP) 4.  “Militant” (Higher level of Political Participation) (HPP) Moderate

Militant

Inarticulate

+−

++

Articulate

−−

−+

Articulate

+

Inarticulate

−

Militant

+

Moderate

−

The “Articulate-Moderate” signifies a set of roles where students would play a maximal role in political discussions or debates because they are more politically aware and articulate. They are exposed to local, national and international problems. However, these students who have sufficient political knowledge are of retreatist and moderate type in terms of political participation, although they may be an effective instrument of change because they are highly aware. They are cosmopolitan in their outlook, although of reformist and conformist type who do not like to negate the existing system. This pattern is very much similar to that of their parents. However, the “Articulate-Moderate” are not “ArticulateMilitant” type because they are not discontented. They are from well-off family background and hence do not feel deprived and, therefore, they are not militant and aggressive type of individuals. They avoid indulgence in politics which might affect their career and future prospects.

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They are not muscle-activist type with interest in “street-politics” and mass-politics but brain-activist and ideologue type with greater interest in “class-politics.” We may observe a similar orientation among those university and college students who are articulate and who come from public school and who belong to well-off socio-economic background. The same attitude can be observed among officials, professionals and university intellectuals as compared with Karamcharis and those who belong to lower administrative services. They hardly indulge in any direct political action, such as, strikes, demonstrations, etc., but they are actively involved in decision-making and ideological discussions. The public school students who are drawn from such a background of highly educated and affluent urban elite groups are also highly politically aware but not so much of politically participant. These students in particular and the students of similar background in universities and colleges and also the upper class educated elites in general might become active participants in leading a value-oriented movement which can bring about a meaningful change in the society and cause enduring influence on political, as well as, wider social systems if they become more politically participant, sacrifice their class interest and identify themselves with the masses, express their ideas freely, attract the people at large to get the mass support, and leave behind their attitude of status-quo. Only if they acquire these qualities, they can become an effective instrument of change like those urban-based English educated Indian elites who played significant role in our national movement. The “Inarticulate-Militant” signifies a different set of roles where students would play a minimal role in political discussions or debates because they are inarticulate and less politically informed. They are less exposed to national, as well as, international scenes which Merton calls the “Great Society” (Merton, 1968:455). However, these students who do not have sufficient political knowledge, reflect a militant and violent orientation. They may also not be an effective instrument of change in spite of their higher sense of political participation, aggressive behaviour and non-conformist orientation because they lack political knowledge, the necessary condition to make participation meaningful. Since, these individuals are localistic, exposed to the locality to which they belong, they seem to be more monomorphic type, although they reflect a radical polymorphic orientation because they want to negate the existing system and exert their influence on the wider society bringing about drastic changes in order to have equitable distribution of opportunities.

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Therefore, these individuals are not “Inarticulate-Moderate” type because they are discontented and socio-economically and culturally deprived. It is because of this reason that they adopt a coercive, violent and aggressive attitude and not a moderate, reformist, conformist and retreatist orientation towards political participation (Lipset, 1967:57). These individuals who show a militant attitude without sufficient political awareness and knowledge ran easily be misguided and used by politically minded people who can easily practice their policy ‘catch them young’ on such rebellious youngsters and use them as muscle-activities. It is mostly this exploited group of students in particular and the people in general who are mobilized and drawn into collective action to participate in ‘street-politics,’ such as, rally, demonstration, strike, physical violence, etc. They are more concerned with their immediate local problems and, therefore, these individuals may be more active in leading a norm-oriented movement which is primarily concerned with immediate social problem (Lipset, 1971:87). It is also possible that they lead a society-oriented movement which is concerned with wider issues but this may happen only if such individuals become more politically aware and conscious because they reflect a polymorphic orientation and potentiality to change but with limited political awareness. However, the “Articulate-Moderate” and “Inarticulate-Militant” role-types are the consequences of two different existential conditions representing the elite and the mass cultures of our society. The Indian society has historically been a stratified society. It has perpetuated cultural inequality. For example, we had broadly Brahmanic and nonBrahmanic traditions in our old society; nobility and rest of the people during the Islamic tradition: and British rulers and the Indian ruled during the British time. In the present day society, we have preserved the same tradition of two types: the culture of the privileged elites, decisionmakers, advice-givers and verbally articulate and moderate citizens on the one hand, and the culture of the ruled masses, deprived people, decision-followers, advice-seekers and verbally inarticulate citizens on the other. The continuance of this type of tradition of inequality is against the principles of citizenship (Marshall, 1963:67–127). The schooling system in India is not above the existing tradition of this type. It also reflects inequality catering to the needs of different classes. The politically more aware students belong to the rich, elite and public school background.

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They are articulate, economically secure, privileged, stable, conformist and more class conscious. This type of situation tends to generate moderation and retreatism rather than militancy; routine rather than rebellion. Contrary to this, the politically less aware students belong to the poor, and the mass-based schooling system. They are inarticulate, economically insecure, deprived, unstable, non-conformist and less class conscious. This type of situation tends to develop militancy and aggression rather than moderation and retreatism. Thus, we find that the two differential patterns of political orientations are the consequences of the two different conditions existing at the family and school levels. The following paradigm explains the relationship between the differential conditions and the differential patterns of political behaviours. (Please see p. 55). These consequences have certain implications for the system of polity in particular and the society in general. The differential patterns are not desirable for a coherent democratic culture because democracy needs citizens who are politically aware and informed; politically conscious and committed; and politically participant and active. These may be considered as some of the prerequisites of a modern democratic system. The political socialization function being performed by various sources is unable to provide a systematic result because of stratified existential conditions and, therefore, the emerging patterns will have a negative impact on the democratic system where the articulate, privileged and active few will continue to represent the collective consciousness of inarticulate, deprived and passive masses. This will maintain the edge between the two, perpetuate the hierarchical political cultures and prevent the essential unity between them. The negative consequences  of political socialization are the results of preserved inequality in terms of enormous cultural differences, occupational gap and the dual system of schooling catering separately to the rich and to the poor. At present, we have a stratified society and a stratified pattern of schooling. They reinforce each other. The school has the potentiality but it reinforces what family, the primary institution, does. If this institution is stratified and differentiated, the political socialization function being performed by such an institution will also be differentiated. Therefore, one alternative, to have a uniform pattern of politicization, is to reduce the class character of the family or to abolish the class-oriented family system. But this is a difficult task at present and, therefore, the

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Chapter 02.indd 42

Differential Conditions

{

Poor Family Condition

Rich Family Conditions

Poor Schooling

Schooling Better

Deprivation

Gratification

Family, Schooling and Behaviour Characteristics

Inarticulate

Articulate

Insecurity and Instability

Security & Stability

NonConformity

Conformity

Militancy

Moderation

}

Differential Political Behaviour in the Society

42 Ehsanul Haq

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second alternative would be to establish a uniform system of schooling in order to minimize educational inequality and reduce the differential consequences. It will not be so difficult to abolish dualism in education through legislation and by establishing a common pattern of schooling, so as to minimize the effects of family and to promote an integrated democratic culture in order to build a strong and unified democratic system in India.

Notes * This paper was presented in the 16th All India Sociological Conference, held at Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu (29–31 Dec. 1982) for the panel on “Special Sociologies.” 1. The public school in India is a privately managed system. Similar to the public school system in England but the latter was not exclusive in character while its counterpart in. India during the British time was exclusive and inaccessible to the masses. It still caters mainly to the needs of those who are higher in terms of class position. 2. These communities are: Alpha, Beta and Gamma. They are upper middle class, lower middle class and working class communities with higher, mode rate and little political activities and consciousness respectively. 3. In order to maintain anonymity, the names of the selected schools are not given. 4. We have combined government and aided schools into non-public schools because they more or less reflect the same existential conditions. 5. Female students could have been included in the sample but in order to restrict the size, we have chosen only the male students. 6. The values taken into account are: Citizenship, A sense of Belonging to the Nation, Fraternity, Equality of Opportunity, Political Participation, Secularism, Distributive Justice, Individual Liberty and Protection of Minority Rights. 7. These orientations are parallel to cognitive, affective and evaluative orientations as devised by Almond and Verba (1972:15). Their classifications of political objects in terms of these orientations are based on the contributions of Parsons and Shils (1951:53). To them, cognitive orientation includes knowledge and belief of political system, its roles, its inputs and outputs. Affective orientation refers to the feelings about the functioning of political system and the evaluative orientation refers to the judgements and opinions about political objects based on knowledge and feelings. 8. At an early age, young children first recognize subjects along an undifferentiated, unstructured, good-bad dimensions. The child’s comprehension and structuring of democratic values improve with age and mental maturity. See, for instance, Piaget, 1965:135; Weinstain, 1957:166–74; Merelman, 1970:62; Greenstein, 1968:6; and Haq, 1976:1–16. However, our analysis shows that neither any correlation has been maintained between the age of students and the nature of values internalized nor any attempt has been made as to what weightage should be given to what values, to what dimensions of the values and at what stage of learning.

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References Anderson, C. A. 1966 “The Modernization of Education” in M. Wiener (ed.) Modernization: The Dynamics of Growth, New York: Basic Books. Almond, G. A. and Varba, S. 1972 The Civic Culture, New Jarsey, Princeton Univ. Press. ——— 1963 “Education and Politics,” International Encyclopaedia of Social Science, New York: Crowell-Collier. Bhatia, C. M. and Seth, V. K. 1975 “Hierarchy in the System of Schools: Political Economy of Education.” Sociological Bulletin, Vol. 24, No. 1. Black, Max 1961 The Social Theories of Talcott Persons, Prentice-Hall. Coleman, J. S. (ed.) 1965 Education and Political Devolopment, Princeton Univ. Press. Damle, Y. B. 1967 “The School and College as a Social System.” in M. S. Gore, I. P. Desai and S. Chitnis (eds) Papers in the Sociology of Education in India, New Delhi: NCERT. Davis, R. 1968 “Political Socialization in the Schools,” Harvard Educational Review, Vol. 36, No. 3. Davis, James C. 1965 “The Family’s Role in Political Socialization,” The Annals of American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, Vol. 361. Entwistle, A. 1971 Political Education in a Democracy, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Geenstein, F. I. 1968 “Political Socialization,” International Enclyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, New York: Crowell-Gollier. Greenstein, F. I. 1965 Children and Politics, Yale University Press. Haq, Ehsanul 1981 Education and Political Culture in India, New Delhi: Sterling Publishers. ——— 1976 “Sociology of Curriculum: The Role of School Textbooks in Nation Building,” Indian Educational Review, Vol. II, No. 1. Hess, R. D. and Torney, J. V. 1963 The Development of Basic Attitudes and Values Toward Government and Citizenship, Chicago Press. Hyman, H. H. 1963 “Mass Media and Political Socialization: The Role Patterns of Communication,” in Lucian Pye (ed.) Communication and Political Development, Princeton Univ. Prees. Lipset, S. M. 1971 Student Politics, New York: Basic Books. Litt, E. 1965 “Civic Education, Community Norms and Political Indoctrination,” American Sociological Review, Vol. 28, No. 1. Massialas, B. G. 1969 Education and the Political System, London: Addison-Welsey Publishing Company. Marshall, T. H. 1963 Sociology at the Crossroads and Other Essays, London: Heinemann Educational Books. Morton, R. K. 1963 Social Theory and Social Structure, The Free Press. NCERT 1970 Report of the First Meeting of the National Board of School Textbooks, New Delhi: NCERT Publication (April 5–6, 1969 and May 3, 1970). Parsons, T. and Shifs, E. A. 1951 Towards a General Theory of Action, Cambridge, Harvard University Press. Peterson, T. 1956 “The Social Responsibility Theory of the Press,” in F. S. T. Peterson and W. Schram, Four Theories of the Press, Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Piaget, J. 1965 The Moral Judgement of the Child, New York: The Free Press.

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Pye, L. W. 1965 “Introduction: Political Culture and Political Development,” in L. W. Pye and S. Verba (eds.) Political Culture and Political Development, Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press. Shah, B. V. 1971 “Problems of Modernization and Education in India,” in A. R. Desai (ed.) Essays in Modernization of Underdeveloped Societies (Vol. 2), Bombay: Thacker & Co. Rudolph, S. H. and Rudolph, L. I. (eds.) 1972 Education and Politics in India: Studies in Organization, Society and Policy, New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Singh, R. P. 1971 The Indian Public School, New Delhi: Sterling Publishers. Tapper, T. 1971 Young People and Society, London: Faber and Faber. Weinstain, E. A. 1957 “Development of the Concept of Flag and the Sense of National Identity,” Child Development, Vol. 28, No. 1. Zeigler, H. 1967 The Political Life of American Teachers, Prentice-Hall.

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3 Adolescent Thieves and Differential Association1 K.S. Shukla

T

he major plank on which the theory of differential association, propounded by Edwin H. Southerland (1942) rests, if restated, is that criminal behaviour is learned in communicative interaction within intimate personal groups. The essentials of this theory are (i) criminal behaviour is learned; (ii) it is learned in interaction with other persons in a process of communication; (iii) the principal part of learning occurs within intimate personal groups; (iv) the learning includes (a) techniques of committing the crime, which are sometimes very complicated, sometimes very simple, (b) the specific direction of motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes; (v) the specific direction of motives and drives is learned from definitions of the legal codes as favourable; (vi) a person becomes a criminal because of an excess of definitions favourable to violation of law over definitions unfavourable to violation of law, this is the principle of differential association; (vii) differential association may vary in frequency, duration, priority and intensity; (viii) the process of learning involves all of the mechanisms that are involved in any other learning; and (ix) while criminal behaviour is an expression of general needs and values, it is not explained by those general needs and values since non-criminal behaviour is also an expression of the same needs and values (Sutherland and Cressey 1955: 77-79). Therefore, it may be inferred that criminal behaviour may involve satisfaction of needs but may not be caused by them.

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Method of Study To formulate an effective design, a pilot survey in two cities was conducted. In drawing the requisite sample the police records of both the cities regarding adolescents were thoroughly studied, so as to get an idea of the prevailing crime situation. The records presented a picture of the intensity, trend, variety, direction and other differentials like age, sex and  caste. This information not only helped in piecing together the crime picture, in order to have a gestalt of the entire situation, but also in the collection of the background information of the selected offenders. To avoid any bias emerging out of incarceration, special care was taken to exclude, as much as possible, the cases from custodial institutions. Due to the spatial mobility of the offenders, the chance sample was relied upon. The selected offenders fell in three categories (i) freely moving offenders with previous record of conviction, (ii) without any record, (iii) convicted offenders and under-trials in the police custody or in the jails. The subjects were studied through case study method and were observed in open2. They were interviewed with the help of an interviewguide, in a wide variety of places, such as hotels, lonely places, open streets, apartments of the subjects, police stations, jail premises and other suitable spots, with utmost care to induce the subjects to come out with maximum factual information. More often than not, recording of the data thus gathered, has been done afterwards in order to sustain the uninhibited flow of interviews. In addition to the interviews, attempts have been made to supplement the data through non-participants observation and subjects were also observed during free play activities. The types of theft we deal with are those planned on conscious plane. They are learned and demonstrated in socio-cultural context. The commission anticipates the purpose, the means and the knowledge of its significance. We attempt to discuss, with empiricals support, the process and forms of thievery, a sub-cultural activity aimed at violation of convention, property norms, conducted at resolving the practical problems of the actor. The compulsive thievery symbolically present in the behaviour of some psycho-neurotics who had been hospitalized was not taken into

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account due to their non-rational participation, meagre percentage and relative jurisdictional insignificance. The study, therefore, exclusively encompasses the common varieties labelled as crime by the society and the agencies of the criminal justice system, with the objective of its relevance to the students of criminology and law enforcement personnel. The theft has been mostly found to be a structured activity—starting from a casual indulgence but gradually moving to increasing sophistication, aided by technology, and training, reinforced by group participation to end up with a career.

The Structure of Differential Association The opinions in regard to family were positively prejudicial. Moreover, the associations with peers had been found to be of longer duration and intensity than that of the family members. These associations, therefore, have been considered to be of greater significance in the learning process from the differential associational perspective. Notwithstanding the accepted sociological typology relating to groups, it is generally accepted that the ‘intimate personal groups’, apart from familial setting, would ordinarily include friendship groups existing in the neighbourhood, school, work-place or elsewhere in a given community and provide a plethora of definitions both favourable and unfavourable to violation of law. These would, therefore, be taken to be the contingent infrastructures in shaping the conduct norms of the incumbents. These structures may possess both the conforming as well as deviant members with conforming or deviant aspects of life with a prominent emphasis on either of them, and depending upon the priority and intensity of association, one may either turn towards accepting conforming or deviant role models. As already indicated, the present concern is the analysis and explanation of companionship variable in regard to frequency, duration, priority and intensity which are significant in understanding the expression ‘excess’. Among these four enumerated variables, the last two, namely, priority and intensity, call for a little elaboration. The first two as modalities of association are obvious and need no explanation. ‘Priority’ is assumed to be important in the sense that conformist behaviour developed in early childhood may persist throughout life, and also that delinquent behaviour developed in early childhood may persist

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throughout life. ‘Intensity’ is not precisely defined but it has to do with such things as prestige of the source of a criminal or anti-criminal pattern and with emotional reactions related to the associations. (Sutherland and Cressey 1955: 78-79). These are some of the aspects that have been brought into focus within the framework of peer group association of primary reference.

Background of Associates: Conformists or Deviants? At the outset, analysis of the nature of environmental forces/factors behind the friendship associations that were operative on the subjects was made. This was done to evaluate their differential impact in determining criminogenesis. To assess the nature and characteristics of these intimate interactional forces, criminogenic or non-criminogenic, the subjects’ own assessments were taken into consideration. They were asked to describe as to what they considered of them in this regard. Although no social segment is perhaps conceivable as exclusively ‘delinquent’ or, for that matter exclusively ‘law abiding’, yet, it may be said that one tends to identify, in terms of his own perceptions and experiences, social entities with different conduct models. It would be significant to note here that the subjects in general were set for primary delinquency at the family level itself on account of deviant pressures. At the companionship level, therefore, it was more a matter of reinforcemant and more delinquent direction of the drift. The data that has been presented in Table 1 describes the estimation of the conduct norms of the intimate personal group of the subjects, made by them. Table 1 Subjects’ Perception of the Characteristics of the Associates (In Percentage) Environmental

Law-abiding

Delinquent

Mixed

Total (N = 200)

Neighbourhood

31.0

8.5

60.5

100

School

27.5

13.0

59.5

100

Others

8.0

63.5

28.5

100

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It has been found that the associational structure of the neighbourhood and the school have been described, by most of the subjects, as of mixed character, offering almost even opportunities for internalization of deviant and conventional conduct norms. It is significant to note that the delinquency perception of the residents in the immediate environment—neighbourhood and school was more diffused, as a vast majority of them perceived the members of the neighbourhood as decisively ambivalent. However, the perception was clear in case of the interacting members under the category of ‘others’, with whom the frequency of contact was much more. The social constellations grouped under the category of others include those located near market places, cinema houses, railway and bus station rendezvous, where for most of the time interaction between the subjects and others takes place. In this context, the evaluations in regard to deviant or conforming character of the association has been highly distinct. A sizeable section (63%) finds them to be predominantly delinquent; and most of them were free in expressing their preferences. Only 8% could perceive these associations as non-delinquent. The data, thus, to an extent, bring home the fact that the external environment surrounding the subject, broadly speaking, has not been conducive to internalization of legally acceptable conduct and secondly, that the subjects have, for major part of their early lives, mixed with groups that have been in varying degrees, marked by positive bias towards deviant norms. The deviant models in most of the cases were present in the family itself.

Types of Delinquents and Sources of Instigation As stated in the beginning only contacts with conditions having favourable definitions to violation of law in most of the cases, could not be considered as sufficient condition for participation in deviant activities. These contacts, however, made the delinquent modes accessible and extended to the subjects opportunities of choice between delinquent and anti-delinquent modes. Since the neighbourhood had been directly or indirectly permissive towards delinquent sub-culture, the learned delinquency, in favourable circumstances, could be conveniently given practical shape. At this level itself, the perception and contact were transformed into action of primary and secondary delinquent types. The push

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factors, the normative flexibility towards delinquent learning and the permissiveness of the neighbourhood, would not have automatically led towards deviant action unless there were factors like situational motivation and the role intermediaries. Except in a few cases where a situational and accidental introduction with criminal role model augmented a sudden take off to delinquency, the subjects on the whole had definite and persistent interaction with deviant intermediaries contributing to the learning process and instrumentalising the learning into delinquent behaviour. These interactions have been the sources of instigation and most pertinent variable of delinquent actions. These roles were played by different sets of people. Information gathered in this regard, therefore, has been found markedly significant. Only 4% of the subjects met the delinquent companions inadvertently. 7.5% subjects adopted the criminal modes under the mediation of family members who have been delinquent themselves. These intermediaries were mostly the sibs. It would be seen from Table 2 that all the three types of the subjects, e.g., professionals, habituals and occasional, barring minor variations, have been instigated to participate in delinquent activities by the peers (88.5%) in different interactional situations, that is, streets, shops, playgrounds, places of recreation, custodial institution, etc. Breckenridge and Abbott pointed out (1917: 34-35) Table 2 Distribution of the Subjects According to Type and Stated Instigating Sources for Committing Serious Offences (In Percentage) Types (3) Instigating Source Friendship circle/playmates

Professional

Habitual

Occasional

Total N = 200

13.5

17.0

10.5

41.0

Schoolmates

7.5

14.0

−

21.5

Occupational mates

3.5

7.5

10.5

21.5

Professional offenders

1.0

3.0

0.5

4.5

Family members

2.0

4.0

1.5

7.5

Inadvertent accidental association

2.0

1.0

1.0

4.0

29.5

46.5

24.0

100.0

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“not only are most delinquent offences committed in groups but most of the lone offenders are influenced by companions”. A larger percentage of them were playmates and schoolmates with frequent and prolonged interaction. In some cases, initially, the subjects have been unaware of the intention of the go-between; the group on the contrary, purposely accepted this new member in their associational fold. The subject could learn the meaning of the friendship only after he was inextricatably involved with the activities of the group. The subjects were victims of connivance and tricked into entering the delinquent setup. These are the cases where action almost preceded learning and the learning was reinforced by successive actions. They were made to enter the life of crime. The subject, through various persuasive and directive means, was often instigated or often coerced to commit an offence at school or place of employment and later on was given assistance to get out of the difficult situation. The anticipated protection was a sufficient basis for increasing alliance which gradually developed into fraternity. Some of the subjects simply emulated other delinquents who were co-inmates in custodial institution. These were the cases of home abandoning type, the pavement sleepers, the destitutes and the vagrants or even young persons found near the scene of crime or with those who were in the bad books of the police, and had experience of police or judicial custody under section 109 Cr. P.C. The career criminals already present in the custodial institution, find an opportunity of selection or recruitment. They initiate the process of induction almost on a psychological plane. The hostile reactions against the police and lawful society were persistently reinforced. Their innocence was “established” and police action termed as persecution or brutal action. Provocative statements were made to win immediate or subsequent alliance. Predominant role of the intimate personal groups is found essential both for setting favourable attitude for committing crimes against property and communicating techniques of theft. It is empirically accepted that for a steady course in property offences, particularly in house-breaking and pocket-picking, optional acquaintance with relevant techniques is a prerequisite. The data collected in this respect, i.e., the sources that initiated the subjects in the ‘technique’ have been found closely following the distribution presented in Table 2. The subjects have been, in most of the cases, oriented to the techniques for

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committing property offences and committed the first offence outside the family in the company of the members of the intimacy groups, who initiated the learning process. This activity, in the beginning, has been more for the thrill of the daring venture, but, later on, in a significant majority, the pecuniary purpose was more emphasised. It has been observed that the primary delinquency may not augment habitual indulgence or a career. Even after the first successful attempt, the boys may break off for one reason or the other. In the present study, the first serious offence has not been found necessarily sufficient for further incrimination. A number of factors, operating singly or jointly, have been responsible for providing continued motivation in favour of criminal associations. Prominent among these have been (Table 3) the initial experience, the pecuniary returns, the intensity of relationship and the identification with the criminal associations of neighbourhood situation, defence, pressure of the companions, workplace, and school and the family conditions. The major factors influencing the continuance were professional interests and common habitat. Significantly 4.5% of the subjects have been obliged to maintain pro-delinquent links as a matter of ethics; they received timely financial assistance from the delinquent friends when family members declined to help. A disparity has been noticed between the preference and actual commission in respect of group participation. A large majority of the Table 3 Factors in the Continuance of Friendship between the Subject and the Criminal Companions (In Percentage) Factors of Continuance

Types of Delinquents Professional

Habitual

Occasional

Total N = 200

Family member

2.0

4.0

1.5

7.5

Neighbourhood

13.0

17.5

7.5

38.0

Schoolmate

2.0

6.5

1.5

10.0

Saviour

1.0

2.0

1.5

4.5

Same Profession

9.5

13.0

9.0

31.5

Others

2.0

3.5

3.0

8.5

29.5

46.5

24.0

100.0

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subjects indicated that they were continuing in the profession as a group due to the constraints of the circumstances, while 95% of the subjects preferred to commit the offence alone. It is obviously more satisfying and egoistic to do something adventurous alone. But they had to defer this preference in practice as a majority of them found the help of the group indispensable. To be loner is not an easy task. Only the professionals and habituals equipped with sophisticated techniques of action and defence and vast experience, could venture to operate alone. The loan indulgence certainly extends the privilege of possession of the entire booty and reduces the chances of apprehension. But even then for one reason or the other, they had to rely on others. And then there are many more activities other than the commission of theft, where the group is needed. More than half of the subjects (55%) indicated that on most of the occasion, they had set aside their preference and taken one or more companions along with them. They realised that it was difficult to execute the plan alone. In the cases of the house-breakers (23%), the group participation is all the more essential, because of the distinct division of labour. The group, however, has to be small and compact unit, and every member well-versed in the performance of the individual roles.

Delinquents and Their Familial Association For analysing the variables of frequency and duration of association with pro-delinquent groups, the following attributes have been taken as indicators of their inclination towards a particular group. In addition, these provide scope for interpretation regarding their characters. This approach has the advantage of analytical manageability. Therefore, the variables of frequency and duration of association have been given operational frames to bring out evidence for composite variables. The association with pro-delinquent groups has been taken as a composite variable and measured through operational frames. These frames are frequency of home visits (deductive indications of increasing opportunity for frequenting delinquent associations in low frequency situations); leisure-time mates (indicators of pull of the pro-delinquent associations, assuming, on the basis of data analysed earlier, that associations outside the family are generally disposed to delinquent behaviour); and,

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the oldest associate and the time spent with pro-delinquent companions (both showing duration). In the following account analysis of some of these aspects has been attempted in order to ascertain the push-factors that operate upon the subject, and drive them away from home. These may indeed be thought of as being the function of several cognitive as well conantive processes. While recognising the fact that there could be equally strong pull factors from the gangs operating on the subjects, the present analysis, however, restricts itself to the degree of dissociation or withdrawal from borne or discontinuity in association between the family members and the subjects since, as has already been indicated earlier, the subjects were associated with delinquent companions, who not only helped in solving the adjustment problems but also provided in different interactional situations, new, exciting and thrilling experiences of life. It has been found that more than 7% of the subjects maintain poor or no relationship with homes. Only 5% of the subjects were maintaining tangible links with their homes, and they were depending upon companionship for specific purposes only. At the other extreme of the continuum, were those who have virtually abandoned their homes. These were 10% of the sample. It would be further noticed that professionals and habituals find the home less engaging as compared with the occasionals. Table 4 Distribution of the Subjects in Regard to Type and Stated Frequency of Visits to Home (In Percentage) Types of Delinquents Frequency Most of the day

Professional

Habitual

Occasional

Total N = 200

–

3.0

2.5

5.5

A few hours in a day

2.0

12.5

8.0

22.5

Twice or thrice in a week

8.0

19.0

10.0

37.0

Twice or thrice in a month

5.5

5.0

1.5

12.0

Twice or thrice in a year

6.0

6.0

1.0

13.0

Virtual stoppage since long

8.0

1.0

1.0

10.0

29.5

46.5

24.0

100.0

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Table 5 Distribution of the Subjects Regarding Type and Usual Leisure Time Mates (In Percentage) Types of Delinquents Professional

Habitual

Occasional

Total N = 200

26.5

42.0

21.0

89.5

Family members

2.5

4.5

3.0

10.0

Other acquaintances

0.5

−

−

0.5

29.5

46.5

24.0

Leisure-Time Mates Friend(s) from outside family

100.0

Table 5 indicates the structure of associational pattern and the areas from where the leisure time mates of the subjects are usually drawn. It is worthwhile to quote Reiss and Rhodes (1964: II) here: “Boys generally choose close friends whose law abiding or delinquent behaviour is similar to their own”. The Table 5 shows that as much as 80% of the leisure-time mates are other than family members.

Delinquents and Their Peer Groups Attempt has been made to approximate the time presently spent by the subjects in the company of those with known delinquent proclivity. Table 6 brings out significant information in this respect. Table 6 Distribution of the Subjects According to Type and Approximate Time Spent in Association with Those Possessing Known Delinquent Proclivity (In Percentage) Types of Delinquents Professional

Habitual

Occasional

Total N = 200

Major part of the day

25.5

32.0

7.5

65.0

Some part of the Day

3.5

11.0

8.5

23.0

Small part of the Day

0.5

3.5

8.0

12.0

29.5

46.5

24.0

100.0

Duration

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Table 7 Distribution of the Subjects by Type and Stated Predominant Characteristic of the Oldest Associate (In Percentage) Predominant Characteristic Delinquent

Types of Delinquents Professional

Habitual

Occasional

Total N = 200

18.5

21.0

4.5

44.0

Law-abiding

2.0

5.0

5.5

12.5

Mixed

3.0

4.5

1.5

9.0

No response

6.0

16.0

12.5

34.5

29.5

46.5

24.0

100.0

It has been found that 65% of the subjects spent major part of the day in the company of those who may be described as established delinquents. Obviously, the home resistance would turn out to be weak. Increasing association with the delinquent models was logical in the case of professionals and habituals. The occassional were a mixed group. The companionship attendance in general has been found to be directly related to professional obligations and inversely related to home resistability. Taking tenacity of friendship as the operational measure of duration of association, the study has attempted to probe into the predominant characteristic of the existing oldest associate of the subjects (see table 7). About one-third of the subjects (34.5%) could not specifically mention anyone of his companions as his existing oldest associate. They could not make an intimate friend due to physical separation of the friend, excessive physical mobility, discordant temperament etc. Among those who responded, more than two-thirds (44.00) stated that their oldest mate was involved in multifarious delinquent activities. 12.5% said that their oldest associate was law-abiding. It could be accordingly inferred, on the basis of available data, that the subjects, particularly the professionals and the habituals, have been interacting with deviant or pro-delinquent associates for a prolonged duration. In the following analysis an effort has been made to assess the priority in regard to anti- or pro-delinquent association. The analysis is based

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upon the assumption that priority accorded to groups outside the family implies preference for pro-delinquent associations; and this assumption is partly supported by the earlier analyses. Apart from this, the theoretical construct of priority in the present work has been broken into certain operational variables including perceived characteristic of leisure-time mates, preferred idol and confidant of the subjects. So far as the distribution of leisure-time mates of the subject is concerned, it has already been seen that nearly 80% of the subjects were found drawing leisure-time mates from outside the family (Table 5). It would be found that this data provides a great deal of information about the attitudinal predisposition and preferences of the subjects in regard to their selection of the companions. Efforts have been made to collect information about the preferred idols, that is, the person whom the subjects tried to emulate in their day-to-day conduct. As could be seen from Table 8, the models from outside the family outnumber those from within the family, although the difference is not very clearly marked. (It may be reiterated here that the information has been collected through interviews and, therefore, it may not be fully free from biases. It is probable, as per interviewers observation, that the actual number of the subjects with preferred idols from outside family, may be even higher). It is relevant to point out that there are several considerations governing the subjects’ choice of idols from outside the family circle. It has often been reported that young ones easily join groups with ‘identical values’ (Mckay 1963: 32), that similarity in conduct norms leads to ‘homogeneity in conduct norms’ and later leads to ‘homogeneity in Table 8 Distribution of the Subjects According to Their Type and Stated Preferred Idols (In Percentage) Type of Delinquents Professional

Habitual

Occasional

Total N = 200

20.0

25.5

6.5

52.0

Family members

9.0

21.0

17.0

47.0

Others

0.5

0.0

0.5

1.0

29.5

46.5

24.0

100.0

Preferred Idol Friend(s) from outside family

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group composition’ (Festinger 1950: 4–6) and that with the rise in group uniformity, perhaps with the spiralling effect, increases the dependence of individual members on the group’ (Cohen 1955: 68). Closely related to the variable of preferred idol is another variable, namely, the role of confidant in the existing life-scheme of the subjects. The conceptual status of a confidant is of a person with whom one would feel comparatively free in sharing one’s personal secrets either for receiving expert advice or for securing appreciation or approval. ‘Approval and disapproval from peers is of greater concern to many youngsters than the reactions of their parents’ (Parsons 1942: 604–6). The findings (Table 9) in this context are in line with our earlier data (Table 8). However, the variation is more marked and significant. It can also be noted that, as compared with the occasionals, the professionals and the habituals contribute a larger proportion to the category of those having confidants from outside family. The degree of intensity of relationship between the subjects and their delinquent models in the present interactional context has a positive valence. Similar to earlier analyses of the variables of learning delinquency, the intensity too has been assessed in terms of certain operational variables. It has been assumed that the degree of intensity of relationship in interpersonal associations would be demonstrated by the tenacity of associations, willingness to participate in activities sponsored by the associates and/or the group or others. Participation in the activities that have a stamp of approval from other members is taken to be more significant in the context of propertyoffender in India. Among these, there obtains an unwritten sub-cultural Table 9 Distribution of the Subjects by Type and Their Stated Confidants (In Percentage) Types of Delinquents Professional

Habitual

Occasional

Total N = 200

21.5

25.5

13.0

60.0

Family members

6.0

17.0

11.0

34.0

Others

2.0

4.0

–

6.0

29.5

46.5

24.0

Confidant Friend(s) from outside family

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code of conduct (which is generally adhered to) that a regular offender of a particular delinquent mode should not take another line of offence. A property offender generally identifies himself with the profession and the people who are involved in this profession as pick-pockets, as has been generally evident during the course of field work, would normaly avoid to secure pecuniary gains by resorting to cheating. From among those who were their oldest companions, more than 67 per cent have had a delinquent career. Over a period of time, he is not only an ideal member, but he turns out to be a confidant in respect of his professional and personal problems. Since the subjects conceived a delinquent image of the preferred idol and are emotionally related to him, the intake of delinquency is almost a normal process. We have already seen that among our subjects, of those who could present a total ‘moral’ image of their oldest mate, 67% turned out to be delinquents. They were mostly members of the intimacy groups other than the family. The intimacy of relationship, prolonged association and delinquent conception of the mate are indications of the degree of intensity of relationship and exhibit the causality behind the learning of delinquency on the part of the subjects. This could be taken to indicate the tenacity of pro-delinquent association of the subjects and provide tacit evidence in respect of intensity in inter-personal relationship. The responses collected as to the volitional disposition of the subject to participate in offences other than the theft, when pressed by the associates, to a considerable extent reveal the intensity of relationship (see Table 10). Table 10 Willingness of the Subjects to Participate in Other Offences When Pressed by Associates Mode of Delinquent Activity Pocket Picking

House Breaking

Pilfering

Total N = 200

Willing for selected offences

11.5

18.0

1.5

31.0

Any offence

11.0

14.0

0.5

25.5

Not willing

12.0

23.5

8.0

43.5

34.5

55.5

10.0

100.0

Responses

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43.5 per cent of the subjects unequivocally discount the possibility of their participating in offences other than their existing delinquent sphere even when pressed by associates. But, the rest 56.5% showed their willingness to yield to the pressure of the companion. Out of them, 31% said that they could go in for selected offences and 25.5% of the subjects seem to be ready for any other offence from gambling to homicide. It is strikingly clear that the variations over mode of delinquent activity have wide disapproval among the pilferers as only 5% of them showed willingness to participate indiscriminately in different offences as against 31.9% of the pocket-pickers and 25.2% of the house-breakers. Though the sub-sample is too small for any dependable generalization, yet in a limited manner it shows that pilferers tend to stick more to their particular line of delinquency. The few who showed willingness for occasional change of the mode of delinquency, had an effective rationalization. They did not consider these indulgences as deviant at all; these were the spontaneous responses in group situations. Our observations, however, produced a contrary picture to what was portrayed by the subjects, vis-a-vis, the above query. The practice was different from what was professed. They tried to rationalise a moral image of themselves; the main mode, however, was known to the observer. The pressure to participate in a variety of delinquent acts was used as a defence mechanism. 78% of them have been found freely participating in indiscriminate variety of offences in the company of others. Some 20% were detected offering initial resistance, but yielded in some selected offences. Barely 2% seem to stick to their main verbally articulated mode. Needless to say that they were occasionals. The subjects participation in other delinquent activities was found related to his income, temperament, type, potentialities and status in the group. At times, along with the pressure of companions, such participations were held to be motivated by short-run hedonism associated with similar temporary fun or excitement (Table 11). Intra-group proportions in respect of participation in varied offences, were found to be 77.8% for the professionals, 80.7% for the habituals and 75% for the occasionals. It is justifiable to infer that the subjects, almost irrespective of the type of delinquent activity, were normally responding to the occasional demands and have increasingly participated in offences other than those of their usual line. There was no trace of constraint at all. The participation was volitional. This

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Table 11 Distribution of the Subjects by Type and Stated Actual Participation in Other Offences When Pressed by Associates Type (Percentages) Professional

Habitual

Occasional

Total N = 200

Participation in selected offences

6.0

8.5

5.0

19.5

Varied offences

23.0

37.5

18.0

78.5

No participation

0.5

0.5

1.0

2.0

29.5

46.5

24.0

100.0

Participation

propensity is a clear indication of significant degree of intensity of the relationship that exists between the subjects and their delinquent associates.

Age Factor in Companionship Affiliation The age composition of the companions, it was found, was not a determining factor in developing affinity. The group maintained a significant heterogeneity in this regard. An offender of 16 years was found to be sufficiently intimate with offenders of 40 years of age. In friendship generally what mattered more were the qualities like skill, performance, tact, economic potential, accommodating nature, trustfulness, obedience, physique, appearance and ability to ‘fix up’ cases. A very large group of our subjects (61%) indicated that they could be very friendly and adjust with persons of all age groups, while 16.5% indicated that they were at home and secure in the company of older persons. 14.5% subjects preferred the company of same age-group, as in the homogeneous group they could be more expressive and free. Only 8% companions showed predilection for the companions of younger age group, because in their view it was easier to exercise control over them. Those who showed higher adjustment potential for all age groups were mostly professional pocket-pickers and occasional pilferers. Since professional pocket-pickers were more mature, intelligent and successful careerists, they could easily manage to gain a reasonable status even

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in a heterogeneous group. They, therefore, had no complexes and the age factor posed no restriction to them. The occasional pilferers on the contrary, being beginners, were less demanding in terms of status. They could easily be obedient to elder and fraternal to younger member. Moreover, as they were apprentices their status in the profession did not permit them to antagonise or be assertive. Their training was influenced by their relationship with others; the trainers were mostly elders. Because of these factors, they were more popular and assimilative, simple, adjustable, responsive and less inhibitive members of group. The subjects of all categories, for most of the time, preferred to remain with the group. The preceding analysis provides some insight into the nature and extent of intensity in relationship the subjects were having with prodelinquent associations.

Conclusions The present empirical analyses, in the light of salient aspects of the theory of differential association, demonstrate that the surrounding interactional environment presents both anti-delinquent and pro-delinquent parameters. It has been observed that the inter-actional environment of the young property offenders under study has been more or less full of associations recurringly offering definitions favourable to violation of law. The major proportion of these exposures were made at the intimacy associations other than the immediate neighbourhood or school (see Table 2). This process has been found being further reinforced by a variety of delinquency generating factors that almost incessantly operate upon the subjects. They initiate them into professional techniques of undertaking various property offences and, eventually, crystalize and sustain in them tangible pro-delinquent behavioural patterns. Likewise, the analysis relating to the clarification of the concept of “excess of definitions” has been found to be significant. It has been observed that the subjects had merely a feeble attachment to the family and the leisure-time mates of most of the subjects have come from outside the family. Not only these mates have been found delinquents, but also they have been conceived so by the subjects. The pro-delinquent associations, therefore, have been tenacious and most of the subjects have been spending the major part of their time with pro-delinquent

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companions. The operational aspects of relationship have been found supporting delinquency factors in regard to frequency and duration variables. The  analysis relating to the third variable, namely, priority, has been found valid. The preferential disposition toward pro-delinquent associations over family members has been evident. And, the oldest associate has been a delinquent model. Likewise, the dimension of intensity has also been significantly strong. This has been indicated by the qualities of the oldest mate, who possessed predominantly delinquent characteristic and had profound influence on the subjects. The willingness along with actual participation of the subjects in offences other than property offences when pressed by companions are also indicators of the intensity of relationship between the subjects and the companions (see Table 11). It is justifiable to suggest that the initial assumptions that the young property offenders are excessively exposed to delinquent associations and that the excessive exposure is the function of the frequency, duration, priority and intensity, stand substantiated. These aspects of the theory of differential association find considerable support from the empirical findings. The property offences are basically learnt in association. In the learning process, two different consecutive situations were involved: (a) Primary delinquency stage: (i) Developing a favourable attitude towards the profession which predisposes the learning of delinquent modes through different motivational processes; and, (ii) action learning (reinforcement) which is almost a simultaneous process, and includes loners, tricked or coerced to take up delinquency and the emulated ones (primary deviants, destitutes, beggars, vagrants, etc.). (b) The secondary delinquency stage: Strong delinquency attitude and primary delinquency are already present and lead towards learning serious delinquent modes and developing rationalizations thereof (development of gang delinquency of professional and habitual nature).

The analyses, however, have, it must be recorded, their own limitations. The process of reducing the theoretical variables into operational variables for investigation can suffer from some degree of ambiguity or over-emphasis. Besides, these operational variables have been frequently based upon assumptions which are often only circumstantially tested. Thus, though the data presented here largely support the theory of differential association, they succeed only marginally in demonstrating its empirical validity and call for a more controlled enquiry.

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Notes 1. The author is indebted to Dr S. S. Srivastava, Kashi Vidyapeeth, Varanasi, and Dr M. Z. Khan, Deptt of Criminology and Forensic Science, University of Saugar, Saugar, for their critical comments and suggestions. The present paper is a part of the extensive work on the adolescent property offenders (16 to 21 years) from two urban centres Gwalior and Indore in Central India (Shukla, 1970). The paper describes the nature of association of two hundred adolescent property offenders during different stages of growth and by inference or implication it provides empirical test for the said theory. The study is based upon interviews of the subjects in both the cities. 2. Direct and indirect help of the police had to be sought in establishing initial contacts with the gang leaders and hardened criminals, as no other method was found suitable. However, in these cases, techniques of rapport were more extensively used to mitigate the police bias. 3. The bases of classification were source of livelihood, modus-operandi, frequency of theft, skill, efficiency, ability to fix up cases, self-conception, attitude towards society and the criminal world, potentialities and experience. The following chart shows the comparative statement of characteristics of the three categories of subjects. Habitual

Professional

Theft a habit and repetitive behaviour

Theft a profession

Theft as well as other sources of income

Major source of income

Partial dependence on conformist world for earning money. Affiliates with non-conformist world for support, approval and associations. Faith in the legitimacy of conformist world

Not dependent on conformist world, particularly in regard to earning money. Little faith in the legitimacy of conformist world

Do not wait for the favourable circumstance and can create circumstances for the act

Circumstances for theft are easily manipulated

Theft is irresistible activity. Partly scared of being called a thief due to social fear

Perfect identification with a theft, strong rationalizations and no fear of social stigma.

Marginal outer social control and the inner controls are minimum

Minimum familial and social control-inner and outer

Tries to mix or associate with delinquent world* and lacks guts to fix up cases; less agile and efficient

Resourceful, able to fix up cases, Swift, agile and efficient. Believes in group criminality but prefers to operate alone

No specific modus operandi. Techniques and tools applied in the commission of an offence

Modus operandi is guaranteed. Skill and craftsmanship used in the commission of the act. Techniques and tools innovated or developed

*Delinquent World: Associations where activities involve violation of Criminal Law.

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References Breckenridge, S. P. and Eddith Abbott 1917. Delinquent child and the home, New York: Russel Sage Foundation. Cohen, A. K. 1955. Delinquent boys: culture of the gang, New York: Free Press. Festinger, L. 1950. “Informal social communication”, in Festinger et al., Theory and experiment in social communication. Ann Arbor: University Institute of Social Research. McKay, H. D. 1963. “Differential association and crime prevention”, Social Problems, VIII(1). Parsons, Talcott 1942. “Age, sex and social structure”, American Sociological Review, VII(4). Reiss, A. J. and Rhodes, A. L. 1964. “An empirical verification of differential association theory”, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 1(1). Shukla, K. S. 1970. “Adolescent thieves: A crimino-sociological study of 200 offenders in Gwalior and Indore”, (Unpublished Ph. D. Dissertation), Saugar, University of Saugar. Sutherland, E. H. 1942. “The development of the concept of differential—association”, Ohio Valley Sociologist, 15(1). Sutherland, E. H. and Gressey, D. R. 1955. Principles of criminology, (5th ed.), New York: Lippincott.

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4 Culture and Fertility: Son Preference and Reproductive Behaviour1 Ashesh Das Gupta

H

uman reproductive behaviour, though a biological process, is conditioned largely by the socio-cultural milieu of couples. The value system of the society, which provides the basic element of cultural milieu, influences the behaviour patterns of the members (including their reproductive behaviour) by setting the desired goals for their life. It is in this context that a strong preference for son may be treated as a cultural value, something viewed as highly desirable, in many parts of the world, including India. Since the expectations of the parents and those of the society from the male issue are cultural, preference for son and its implications for the fertility behaviour of couples may vary from one culture to another and, at times, within the same society from one community to another. Indian society, with a long history of coexistence of various culturally heterogeneous groups, provides an interesting case for a comparative study of the impact of son preference on the reproductive behaviour in four major religious communities—the Hindus, the Muslims, the Christians and the Sikhs.

The Background In most developing societies with an agrarian economy, for various socioeconomic and cultural considerations, a pronounced preference for son may be observed. Such preference is generally considered to be an

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important factor underlying high level of desired as well as actual fertility in these societies. Son is preferred for maximising several economic and non-economic activities, such as contributing to family’s resources by working in the family farm, providing support to the parents in their old age, carrying out certain religious rites, helping the family in the village factional politics, and so on. The role of male children in family farms has been reported from many countries in South and South-East Asia, such as Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal and Taiwan (see Muller 1976; Cain 1977; Nag et al. 1978; Bardhan 1988; Basu 1989). Recent studies have found a strong preference for male issue to be almost pervasive in Indian society (see Parasuraman et al. 1994; Murthi et al. 1995; Arnold 1996; Arnold et al. 1998). It is a common belief that a strong preference for son is a barrier to the adoption of birth control measures, as couples may continue to reproduce if they are not satisfied with the sex composition of their offspring. However, the available studies do not show a consistently strong effect of son preference on fertility control (see Das 1984, 1987 and 1989; Bairagi and Langsten 1986; Haddad et al. 1996; Arnold 1992 and 1997).

The Study Though the literature on the role of son preference value on human reproductive behaviour is quite rich, rarely has any effort been made in India to ascertain the relative impact of son preference value on various religious and ethnic communities. India, being a multi-religious and multi-ethnic country, provides a fertile field for comparative studies on the relationship between son preference and fertility. Keeping this in view, the following two hypotheses have been tested in this paper: 1.

Son preference has a positive influence on reproductive behaviour of various religious communities. 2. Preference for male issue influences the reproductive behaviour of the four religious communities differentially.

The study was conducted in the city of Patna in the early 1990s. According to the 1991 Census, the Patna Urban Agglomeration had

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a population of 10,98,572,2 of which the Hindus constituted about 85 percent, the Muslims about 13 percent, and the Christians and the Sikhs constituted about 0.40 and 0.70 percent respectively. The sample for the present study consisted of 400 respondents living in Patna Urban Agglomeration, of which 200 respondents were Hindus, 100 were Muslims, and 50 each were Christians and Sikhs. The sample was drawn by following the principle of quota sampling based on the researcher’s knowledge of the socio-economic and religious composition of the universe. Data were gathered with the help of an interview schedule. The level of son preference (the independent variable) was measured with the help of a 10-item attitude scale.3 Fertility (the dependent variable) was measured in terms of completed fertility (total number of live births to women who have completed their reproductive period). Thus, the respondents for the present study constituted of only those married women who were either in the age group of 45 years and above or those who have deliberately terminated their reproductive capability by undergoing sterilisation.

The Findings With the help of the Son Preference Scale, the respondents were categorised into three broad groups, expressing three different levels of preference for male issue. Thus, respondents scoring more than 6 points (in the 10-item Son Preference Scale) have been placed in ‘higher’ son preference (HSP) category, those scoring points between 5 and 1 have been placed in ‘lower’ son preference (LSP) category, and those scoring no point have been placed in the category of no preference for son (NSP). Furthermore, the respondents were classified into lower and higher fertility groups, with women having three or more children placed in ‘higher’ fertility group and those with two or less than two children placed in ‘lower’ fertility group. Table 1 presents data for the Hindu respondents. It shows a definite trend with 83 (68.03%) of the 122 respondents in HSP category belonging to higher fertility group, and only 39 (31.96%) belonging to lower fertility group. On the other hand, in LSP category, 28 (56 %) out of 50 respondents belong to lower fertility group, and 22 (44%) belong to higher fertility group. Finally, out of 28 respondents in NPS category,

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Table 1 Son Preference and Fertility (Hindus) HSP Category

LSP Category

NPS Category

Total

1–2

Son Preference and Fertility

39 (31.96%)

28 (56%)

20 (71.42%)

87

3 and above

83 (68.03%)

22 (44%)

8 (28.54%)

113

Total

122

50

28

200

x = 18.65, df = 2, Significant at .01 level. 2

Table 2 Mean Fertility of HSP, LSP and NPS Categories and ‘t’ Values (Hindus) HSP Category

LSP Category

NPS Category

3.38

2.78

2.28

1.76

1.77

1.44

HSP – LSP

LSP – NPS

HSP – NPS

‘t’ value

2.14

1.38

3.66

Df

170

76

148

Level of significance

.05

Not significant

.001

 SD

20 (71.42%) belong to lower fertility group, and the remaining 8 (28.57%) belong to higher fertility group. Thus, the Hindu respondents show a definite trend of fertility going up with increasing level of son preference and vice versa. The Chi-square test confirms the relationship between the two variables to be positive at a highly significant level. Furthermore, the mean fertility of the three son preference categories indicates an apparent trend with HSP category showing the highest mean fertility, followed by LSP and NPS categories (see Table 2). The ‘t’ ratio values confirm that the difference between the mean fertility of HSP and LSP, and of HSP and NPS to be significant. Table 3 presents the distribution of Muslim respondents in terms of their level of son preference and fertility. It shows a clear difference between the overall distribution of lower and higher fertility groups, with only 18 percent respondents in lower fertility group and 82 percent in high fertility group. Furthermore, in HSP category 46 (88.46%) respondents belong to higher fertility group and only 6 (11%) belong

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Table 3 Son Preference and Fertility (Muslims) Son Preference and Fertility

HSP Category

LSP Category

NPS Category

Total

1–2

6 (11.53%)

4 (13.79%)

8 (42.10%)

18

3 and above

46 (88.46%)

25 (86.20%)

11 (57.89%)

82

Total

52

29

19

100

x = 18.65, df = 2, Significant at .01 level. 2

Table 4 Mean Fertility of HSP, LSP and NPS Categories and ‘t’ Values (Muslims) HSP Category

LSP Category

NPS Category



4.50

3.98

3.28

SD

2.42

1.54

1.82

HSP – LSP

LSP – NPS

HSP – NPS

1.20

1.40

2.34

‘t’ value Df Level of significance

79

48

69

Not significant

Not significant

.05

to lower fertility group. It is remarkable that even in LSP category, 25 (86.20%) out of a total of 29 belong to higher fertility group. Finally, in NPS category 11 (57.89%) out of 19 respondents belong to higher fertility group and 8 (42.10%) belong to lower fertility category. Thus, here one finds that the son preference variable does have an important bearing on fertility performance of the couples. Nevertheless, those Muslim couples who do not cherish any preference for son issue still have a higher fertility than their Hindu counterparts. Table 4 shows that in the three son preference categories fertility rises with the increasing level of son preference. However, the difference at the level of mean fertility of the concerned categories is not significant. The ‘t’ value finds significant difference only between HSP and NPS categories. Table 5 presents the distribution of Christian respondents as regards their levels of son preference and fertility. It shows a positive association between son preference and fertility: Out of 22 respondents

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Table 5 Son Preference and Fertility (Christians) HSP Category

LSP Category

NPS Category

Total

1–2

Son Preference and Fertility

3 (13.63%)

4 (23.52%)

6 (54.54%)

13

3 and above

19 (86.36%)

13 (76.47%)

5 (45.45%)

37

Total

22

17

11

50

x = 6.43, df = 2, Significant at .05 level. 2

Table 6 Mean Fertility of HSP, LSP and NPS Categories and ‘t’ Values (Christians) HSP Category

LSP Category

NPS Category



4.04

3.14

2.59

SD

1.75

0.85

1.31

HSP – LSP

LSP – NPS

HSP – NPS

2.11

1.27

2.78

‘t’ value Df

37

26

31

Level of significance

.05

Not significant

.01

in HSP group, 19 (86.36%) belong to higher fertility group and only 3 (13.63%) belong to lower fertility group. In lower son preference category, 4 (23.52%) belong to lower fertility group, while 13 (76.47%) belong to the higher fertility group. Thus, a good number of respondents with lower son preference belong to higher fertility group. In NPS category, respondents are almost equally distributed in lower and higher fertility groups. However, the value of Chi-square test indicates that the observed relationship between the two variables is statistically significant. Table 6 reveals that the mean fertility is the highest in HSP category and the lowest in NPS category, with LSP category occupying the intermediate position. This distribution goes on to form a positive association between the two variables. Moreover, the statistically significant difference observed in the mean fertility between HSP and LSP categories and between HSP and NPS categories corroborates the positive correlation between the two variables.

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Table 7 presents the distribution of Sikh respondents in terms of their level of son preference and reproductive behaviour. Out of 28 respondents belonging to HSP category, as many as 25 (89.28 %) have higher fertility and only 3 (10.71%) have lower fertility. In LSP category, the percentage of respondents having lower fertility is higher (33.33%) than it is in HSP category (10.71%). However, even in LSP category, a higher percentage (66.66%) have higher fertility. In NPS category, 60 percent of the respondents belong to lower fertility category and 40 percent to higher fertility category. Thus, on the whole, the pattern of relationship between the level of son preference and fertility observed in other three communities is observed in the Sikh community, too. The positive relationship between the two variables is further supported by the value obtained by the Chi-square test, which has been found to be highly significant. Table 8 shows that the mean fertility of the three son preference categories among the Sikhs reflects that the level of fertility goes down Table 7 Son Preference and Fertility (Sikhs) Son Preference and Fertility

HSP Category

LSP Category

NPS Category

Total

1–2

3 (10.71%)

4 (33.33%)

6 (60%)

13

3 and above

25 (89.28%)

8 (66.66%)

4 (40%)

37

Total

28

12

10

50

x = 11.11, df = 2, Significant at .01 level. 2

Table 8 Mean Fertility of HSP, LSP and NPS Categories and ‘t’ Values (Sikhs) HSP Category

LSP Category

NPS Category



4.16

4.28

2.70

SD

2.21

1.71

1.60

HSP – LSP

LSP – NPS

HSP – NPS

1.62

0.17

2.67

20

38

36

Not significant

Not significant

.05

‘t’ value Df Level of significance

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with the decreasing level of son preference. This is in accordance with the trends observed among other three religious communities. Finally, the difference between the mean fertility of HSP and NPS categories among the Sikhs has been found to be statistically significant, a finding which has also been observed in the other three religious communities and which, to a large extent, corroborates our hypothesis.

Conclusions and Policy Implications Following are some conclusions that may be derived from the above analysis: 1. In all the four religious communities, the percentage of respondents belonging to higher fertility group (3 and above) is highest among those who are in the higher son preference category and vice versa. This establishes a positive correlation between the two variables. 2. The positive correlation between the two variables is further supported by the difference observed in the mean fertility of the three son preference categories in all the four religious communities. It is highest in HSP category and lowest in NPS category, in all the four communities. Furthermore, in all the four communities, the difference between the mean fertility of HSP and NPS categories is found to be highly significant. 3. In all the four communities, the observed relation between the dependent and independent variables is found to be statistically significant. Hence, it may be concluded that the first hypothesis concerning the positive correlation between son preference and fertility is established. 4. Finally, the percentage of respondents having higher son preference has been found to be the highest among the Hindus (61%), followed by the Sikhs (54%), the Muslims (52%), and the lowest among the Christians (44%). This finding is corroborated by the National Family Health Survey Subject Report which observes that ‘in general the effect of son preference is weaker among Muslims than among Hindus . . .’ (Rangmuthia et al. 1997: 25). The report further says that In every state except Kerala, son preference has some effect on fertility for Hindus, and the effect is statistically significant in 14 states. Women who are not Hindus or Muslims often exhibit strong son preference in parity progression in states with sufficiently large samples of these women. Most notable is the case of Punjab where Sikhs have very strong preference for sons (Ibid.: 25–26).

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5. Conversely, the Christian community has the maximum number of respondents (22%) expressing no preference for male issue, while the Hindu community has the lowest number (14%) of such respondents. This distribution, thus, confirms the second hypothesis as well.

Many explanations may be put forward in support of the observed positive correlation between the level of son preference and fertility. First, couples with higher son preference will tend to reproduce late in their married life to have the desired number of male issues and are thus less prone to adopt birth control measures till they have the desired number of male issues. Second, during the course of fieldwork, the present researcher came across a good number of respondents in all communities, excepting the Christians, who expressed a strong desire to have at least two sons. ‘One son’, some of them observed, ‘is like an earthen pot which may break at any time’. Thus, the desire to have at least two sons has resulted in undesired pregnancies and ultimately a larger family than what they had originally planned. Finally, the incidence of highest percentage of respondents expressing son preference among Hindus may be attributed to the following facts: (a) sons are believed to be essential for transmitting family name and property, (b) the complicated rules of endogamy and exogamy compel the parents to marry their daughters generally outside their villages,4 (c) the religious reason that son must perform the sradha rites, which is believed to save his parents from going to hell,5 and (d) the practice of receiving dowry at the marriage of a son (May and Heer 1968). Conversely, such values do not prevail among the Christians. Moreover, a higher percentage of respondents living in urban centres or in nuclear neolocal families, their being educated,6 and other such factors perhaps account for the lowest level of son preference observed among the Christian respondents. Thus, it has been found that preference for son is almost a universal value in India, though different religious communities cherish this value at different levels of intensity. This value has also been a potential source of higher fertility and a great stumbling block in the way of fertility transition in the desired direction. A fact which needs special attention is that a good number of respondents from higher socio-economic group have shown a strong preference for the male issue. In other words, it means that correlates of low fertility have been found not to be strong enough forces to counter the preference for the male issue. Furthermore, queries have revealed that old-age security and desire for salvation have been the

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two most important considerations for preferring the male issue. Hence, any effort to minimise or counter this strong cultural value must seek alternative arrangements for the aged. This can be achieved by providing and protecting old parents with various welfare schemes like pension, health and old-age insurance, old-care homes and the like. Along with welfare schemes for the aged, there is an urgent need to improve health care facilities for children. This will help bring down the infant mortality rate, which is a vital precondition for fertility transition, as the parents will be more assured of the survival of their children. Finally, schemes to provide maximum employment or, at least, a minimum income, to the lowest strata of society, along with strict measures prohibiting child labour, will also help counter the values assigned to son preference and thus create a new cultural condition for fertility transition.

Notes 1. This is an expanded and revised version of the paper presented at the 8th Annual Conference of the Indian Association for the Study of Population held at Lucknow on 25–27 March 1995. 2. According to 2001 Census, the population of Patna Urban Agglomeration is 17,07,429. 3. The Son Preference Scale used in this article included the following 10 items. The respondents were asked to endorse the statements in terms of a three-point response category.

(1) Son provides helping hand in economic activities. Yes  (2)



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Undecided (0)

(2) Son is the potential source of receiving dowry.

     Yes (2)

No (1) No (1)

Undecided (0)

(3) Son provides economic and social security to parents during their old age. Yes  (2)

No (1)

Undecided (0)

(4) Son is the medium of achieving salvation. Yes  (2)

No (1)

Undecided (0)

(5) Son helps maintain lineage. Yes  (2)

No (1)

Undecided (0)

(6) Son helps in enhancing prestige in the community. Yes  (2)

No (1)

Undecided (0)

(7) Son provides manpower and physical strength in village feuds. Yes  (2)

No (1)

Undecided (0)

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(8) Son helps in meeting family obligations. Yes  (2)

No (1)

Undecided (0)

(9) Son is a good friend during one’s old age. Yes  (2)

No (1)

Undecided (0)

(10) To have a son is a psychological satisfaction in itself. Yes  (2)

No (1)

Undecided (0)

4. Hence, if no son is alive, the possibility of economic and emotional support from daughters is considered both limited and undesirable. 5. There is a strong belief, especially among the Hindus, that a man achieves salvation when his last rites are performed by his putra (son). Etymologically, the term putra in Sanskrit means ‘Punnamnarkat trayate iti’, that is, one who rescues a person from put or hell is putra (Bahadur 1961: 167). 6. Analysing the relationship between the level of education and fertility, it was found that the distribution of respondents in different educational categories—that is, higher, middle and lower—among the Christians was 24 percent, 32 percent and 50 percent respectively.

References Arnold, Fred. 1992. ‘Sex preference and its demographic and health implications’, International family planning perspectives, 18 (2): 93–101. ——— 1996. ‘Son preference in South Asia.’ Paper presented at the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) Seminar on ‘Comparative Perspectives on fertility Transition in South Asia’, Islamabad, 17–20 December. ——— 1997. ‘Gender preferences for children: Findings from the demographic and health surveys.’ Paper presented at the 23rd General Population Conference of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP), Beijing, 11–17 October. Arnold, Fred et al. 1998. ‘Son preference, the family-building process and child mortality in India’, Population studies, 52 (3): 301–15. Bahadur, Radhakanta Deb (ed.). 1961. Shabda, Kalpa, Drumah (Vol. III). Varanasi: Choukhamba Sanskrit Series Office. Bairagi, R and Ray L. Langsten. 1986. ‘Sex preference for children and its implications for fertility in rural Bangladesh’, Studies in family planning, 17 (6): 302–07. Bardhan, Pranab K. 1988. ‘Sex disparity in child survival in rural India,’ in T.N. Srinivasan and Pranab K. Bardhan (eds.): Rural poverty in South India (472–82). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Basu, Alka M. 1989. ‘Is discrimination in food really necessary for explaining sex differentials in childhood mortality ?’, Population studies, 43 (2): 193–210. Cain, M.T. 1977. ‘The economic activities of children in a village in Bangladesh,’ Population and development review, 3 (3): 201–07. Das, Narayan. 1984. ‘Sex preference pattern and its stability in India: 1970–1980’, Demography India, 8 (1 & 2): 108–19.

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Das, Narayan. 1987. ‘Sex preference and fertility behaviour: A study of recent Indian data’, Demography, 24 (4): 517–30. ——— 1989. ‘A simulation model to study the effect of sex preference on current fertility’, Demography India, 18 (1 & 2): 49–72. Haddad, Lawrence et al. 1996. ‘Food security and nutrition implications of interhousehold bias: A review of literature’ (Discussion paper No. 19). Washington DC: Food Consumption and Nutrition Division, International Food Policy Research Institute. May, D.A. and D.M. Heer. 1968. ‘Son survivorship motivation and family size in India: A comparative simulation’, Population studies, 22 (2): 199–210. Muller, E. 1976. ‘The Economic value of children in peasant agriculture’ in Ronald G. Ridker (ed.): Population and development: The search for selective interventions (98–153). Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. Murthi, Mamta et al. 1995. ‘Mortality, fertility and gender bias in India’, Population and development review, 21 (4): 745–82. Nag, M. et al. 1978. ‘An anthropological approach to the study of economic value of children in Java and Nepal’, Current anthropology, 19 (2): 293–306. Parasuraman, Sulabha et al. 1994. ‘Sex composition of children and fertility behaviour in rural Maharashtra’, in K.B. Pathak, U.P. Sinha and Arbind Pandey (eds.): Dynamics of population and family welfare (57–71), Bombay: Himalaya Publishing House. Rangmuthia, M. et al. 1997. ‘Son preference and its effect on fertility in India’, National family health survey subject report, No. 3: 25–26.

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5 Sex Preference and Contraceptive Use in Manipur L. Ladusingh, N. Minita Devi and Kh. Jitenkumar Singh

Introduction

P

reference for sons is pervasive in traditional and patriarchal societies. Sons are considered by parents as productive assets for agricultural work and security for old age, while daughters are regarded as liabilities, particularly in those states of India where dowry system is in vogue. The most important reason for son preference in patriarchal societies is the continuation of family lineage. Although preference for sons over daughters is pronounced, couples prefer to have at least one child of each sex to fulfil their socio-cultural obligations and psychological needs (Nag 1991). The existence of sex preference for children is also documented in the case of South Korea (Arnold and Kuo 1984) and China (Arnold and Liu 1986), countries which share a tradition of Confucian patriarchal value system, and Bangladesh (Bairagi and Langsten 1986), a predominantly agricultural country. However, the degree of son preference varies substantially across countries depending on such factors as the level of economic development, social norms, cultural and religious practices, marriage and family systems, level of urbanisation, and the nature of social security.

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There is an increasing recognition in demographic literature that sex preference for children has a strong bearing on the contraceptive practice by couples. Couples who have an abiding preference for sons or for a balanced number of sons and daughters will continue bearing children if they are not satisfied with their sex preference for children. As such, satisfied couples are more likely to adopt contraception for discontinuation of childbearing. Thus, data on the sex composition of children can be used to examine the effect of sex preference on contraceptive prevalence. The present study is an attempt to empirically verify this theoretical relation between sex preference and contraceptive use in the state of Manipur.

The Tribal Communities of Manipur Manipur, the easternmost state of India, bordering Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), has unique geographical, demographic and sociocultural characteristics. The state has three ethnic groups: the Meiteis of the valley, and the tribal Nagas and Kukis of the surrounding hills. These ethnic groups are predominantly Mongoloid in their physical characteristics, and they all speak Tibeto-Burma group of languages. According to T.C. Hodson (1908), ‘Meithei’ is a combined appellation of Siamese ‘Tai’ and Kochin Chinese ‘Moy’ (Moy + Tai = Moytai = Moitai = Meitei) and the ‘Meitheis’ belonged to the ‘Moi’ section of the great ‘Tai’ race. The tribes of Manipur who are now grouped under the Naga fold are among the earliest inhabitants of the hills of Manipur. The origin of the word ‘Naga’ is unknown, but it is supposed to have been derived from the Sanskrit word Nanga and applied in derision to the people for their paucity of clothing. The British came to know them for their famous headhunting practice (Kabui 1995). The ‘Kuki-Chin’, or simply ‘Kuki’, is both a linguistic group and an ethno-cultural entity. To its immediate neighbours in Bengal and Tripura, ‘Kuki’ refers to hill people or mountaineers. In modern Burmese, ‘Chin’ means a ‘basket’, and some scholars interpret ‘Kuki-Chin’ as a ‘man with a basket’. Kukis are concentrated in the Chin Hills of Myanmar with some distribution in India and Bangladesh. The Meiteis, the Nagas and the Kukis had inbuilt affinities in the course of the ethno-genetic process. In the living folk traditions of Manipur,

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they are said to be brethren. In historic times, the tribes and principalities of Meiteis had amalgamated through conquest and other arrangements into a full-fledged nation equipped with a centralised administration, market, cultural complex and external relations with neighbours. In 1947, Manipur became a part of the Indian Union. For the different communities—Meiteis, Nagas, Kukis, and Muslims—living in Manipur, the family line is carried on solely by descendents on the male side, and daughters have no social right to inherit the family name. Among the Meiteis there are instances of parents giving a boy’s name to a girl child (such as, ‘Chaoba’) in the hope of getting a boy, and parents with only male issues giving a girl’s name (such as, ‘Tombi’) to their sons. Traditionally, sons are considered advantageous for two reasons: family lineage and old age support, even if productive utility of sons is limited. However, the daughters are not considered as liabilities, as the marriage system accepts love marriage, and dowry system is not prevalent in the state. Although son preference is still common, this preference often exists side by side with parents desiring to have at least one child of each sex. Educationally, girls are given equal opportunities as the boys and women are empowered for household decision-making. Manipuri women occupy a high status in the family and society, not only for their contribution to the economy of the household, but also for their major roles in the society. In fact, ‘Ima-Keithel’, the only market in the country exclusively ‘manned’ by women, is the symbolic trademark of the capital city, Imphal. However, women are more engaged in the unorganised sector, and male dominance in the society persists. The Kuki women are valued for their labour. The manner of obtaining a wife is either by paying the bride price, or as in the old Jewish fashion, by serving for her in bondage for a term of years; but no great value is placed on her rectitude (Roy Burman et al. 2004). While the idea of religion is similar among the tribes, the Kukis believe more in spirits having charge of their forest, hills and rivers, than in household deities, and that the best sacrifice a man can make to them is the heads of his enemies. Kukis are considered to be the most intelligent of all tribes in Manipur. The family is the basic social institution in the Naga society. Naga families are usually closely knit with bonds of affection and respect. The Naga society is patriarchal and descent is traced through the father’s side.

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The Naga administrative system covers almost all conceivable needs of a human being from birth to death. Every village is the custodian of its tribal laws. Feast time and festivals are times of added warmth, elaborate cooking, unhurried celebrations, music and dancing.

Data and Methods The data for this study were collected from sampled representative areas of all eight districts of Manipur, of which three are in the valley and five, in the hilly region. A target sample of 1,000 currently married women were distributed among the eight districts proportionate to their population size. A two-stage sampling design was adopted: using systematic sampling procedure, first villages/towns were selected from the districts, and then the households from the villages/towns. The data were collected during March 2000–November 2001. The analysis that follows is based on 983 completed structured questionnaires. The data have been weighted by design weight for ‘sampling’ and ‘non-response’. The survey included questions about desired and current family size and sex composition, contraceptive use, complete pregnancy history, and a host of socio-demographic background particulars of currently married women. In this study, an attempt is made to assess the presence of sex preference for children by examining the current use of any contraceptive method in relation to the sex composition of surviving children. The measure adopted for this assessment was briefed by the question ‘What would happen to contraceptive use if all sex preferences were to disappear suddenly?’ To measure the presence of sex preference for children, Fred Arnold (1985) has formulated the index IP ?

?i Ci* Pi ?i Pi

where Ci* equals the maximum contraceptive use rate at each parity i, and Pi equals the number of women at each parity i. It is assumed that all couples at each parity will act in the same manner as those couples who are currently most satisfied in terms of the sex composition of their children. If the sex of the child made no difference, couples with one girl would be equally satisfied as couples with one boy, and hence they would have the same rate of contraceptive use.

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Arnold’s index is an improvement over previous measures in many respects. First, it can handle any type of sex preference (boy preference, girl preference, balance preference, or any combination of these). Second, the method can be used with a number of behavioural and attitudinal measures related to fertility and family planning. Third, it automatically adjusts for the current level of the independent variable. Fourth, the data needed to calculate this measure are widely available. The method requires data on only the number of living children by sex plus any fertility-related dependent variable such as, for example, contraceptive use.

Contraceptive Use by Sex Composition In order to assess the presence of sex preference for children, we shall analyse the pattern of contraceptive use by sex composition of surviving children, considering residence and other socioeconomic background of currently married women from whom the data have been collected. Of the 983 currently married women, 897 (91.2 percent) have at least one child and 265 of them are presently using contraceptives, giving a contraceptive prevalence rate of 29.5 percent. The distribution of currently married women in rural and urban areas of Manipur is 541 and 356 women respectively, and the number of women using contraceptives in the corresponding areas is 113 and 152, resulting in contraceptive prevalence rates of 20.9 percent and 42.4 percent in rural and urban areas respectively. Table 1 provides the rural and urban distribution of contraceptive use by sex composition of surviving children. The first column depicts the sex composition of surviving children. In both rural and urban categories, the first column (Columns 2 and 5) shows the number of women and the second column (Columns 3 and 6) the percentage of women who are actually using any method of contraception. The third column (Columns 4 and 7) of both categories depicts the percentage that would use contraceptives in the absence of sex preference of children. For example, in rural areas, 25.5 percent of women with one boy and one girl are using contraceptives, compared with 12.5 percent of those with two daughters. If the sex of the child made no difference, women with two girls would be equally satisfied as women with one boy and one girl, and hence they would have the same rate of contraceptive use.

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Table 1 Contraceptive Use by Sex Composition and Residence

Sex Composition of Living Children

Rural

Urban

In the Percentage Absence No. of Using of Sex Women Contraceptives Preference

In the Percentage Absence No. of Using of Sex Women Contraceptives Preference

One child One boy

37

18.9 (7)

18.9

34

11.8 (4)

14.7

One girl Two children

33

6.1 (2)

18.9

34

14.7 (5)

14.7

Two boys

24

20.8 (5)

25.5

18

33.3 (6)

54.1

Two girls

24

12.5 (3)

25.5

12

16.7 (2)

54.1

One boy & one girl Three Children

51

25.5 (13)

25.5

61

54.1 (33)

54.1

Three boys

9

1.1 (1)

46.9

10

30.0 (3)

71.0

Three girls

6

0.0 (0)

46.9

5

0.0 (0)

71.0

More boys

32

46.9 (15)

46.9

31

71.0 (22)

71.0

More girls Four children

47

23.4 (11)

46.9

50

64.0 (32)

71.0

4

0.0 (0)

39.3

2

50.0 (1)

83.3

Four boys Four girls

5

20.0 (1)

39.3

6

66.7 (4)

83.3

Two boys & two girls

34

26.5 (9)

39.3

18

83.3 (15)

83.3

More boys

17

35.3 (6)

39.3

12

50.0 (6)

83.3

More girls Five or more children

28

39.3 (11)

39.3

9

66.7 (6)

83.3

4

0.0 (0)

17.9

1

0.0 (0)

25.9

Only boys Only girls

2

0.0 (0)

17.9

3

0.0 (0)

25.9

Boys = Girls

15

13.3 (2)

17.9

–

0.0 (0)

25.9

More boys

84

17.9 (15)

17.9

23

21.7 (5)

25.9

More girls Total

85

11.8 (10)

17.9

27

25.9 (7)

25.9

Ip = 27.9%

356

42.4%

Ip = 50.7%

541

20.9%

Note: Figures in parentheses indicate the number of women.

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With this assumption, the figures in the third column (Columns 4 and 7) in each parity for both rural and urban categories are obtained. On the whole, it is found that sex preference has marginal effect on contraceptive use in both rural and urban areas: the contraceptive use increases marginally from 20.9 percent to 27.9 percent in rural and from 42.4 percent to 50.7 percent in urban areas in the absence of sex preference. Table 1 reveals a preference for sons, particularly at higher order parities in both rural and urban areas. Among women with one child, those with one boy (18.9 percent) reported using contraceptives three times more as compared with those with one girl (6.1) in the rural areas. For the same residence background, for women with two children, 20.8 percent of those who have both sons are using contraceptives, as compared with 12.5 percent of women who have both daughters. The preference for one son and one daughter is the most acceptable sex combination of children: a quarter of the women of parity two with this sex composition reported using contraceptives. As the parity increases, two patterns of contraceptive use emerge. First, women with more number of boys are more satisfied in terms of sex composition of children, as reflected in higher percentage of women going for contraception once they have more boys than girls. Second, a pronounced preference for balance in the sex composition of children is evident from the next higher percentage of women using contraceptives when they have balance sex composition of children. From the present analysis of percentage of women adopting contraceptives at each parity by sex composition of children, it is clear that women with ‘only daughters’ are less likely to be satisfied with the sex composition of children, and most probably they may proceed to have subsequent children. Similar pattern of preference for sex composition of children among urban women is also evident from Table 1. Preference for sons and balance in sex composition is more in urban areas than in rural areas. Ignoring rural-urban categorisation, in the absence of sex preference for children, contraceptive use among currently married women rises substantially, from 29.5 percent to 46.7 percent. Table 2 presents the results of a similar analysis by district of residence. Imphal, Thoubal and Bishnupur are the three valley districts, Tamenglong, Senapati, Chandel, Ukhrul and Churachanpur are the five hill districts. Over 60 percent of the population lives in the valley, which constitutes only about 10 percent of the total land area of the

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Table 2 Contraceptive Use by Sex Composition and District of Residence

Sex Composition of Living Children

Hill Districts

Valley Districts

In the Percentage Absence No. of Using of Sex Women Contraceptive Preference

In the Percentage Absence No. of Using of Sex Women Contraceptive Preference

One child One boy

32

15.6 (5)

15.6

39

15.4 (6)

15.4

One girl

31

9.7 (3)

15.6

36

11.1 (4)

15.4

Two boys

18

27.8 (5)

54.2

24

25.5 (6)

31.3

Two girls

17

11.8 (2)

54.2

19

15.8 (3)

31.3

One boy & one girl

48

54.2 (26)

54.2

64

31.3 (20)

31.3

Three boys

10

30.0 (3)

66.7

9

11.1 (1)

52.8

Three girls

8

0.0 (0)

66.7

3

0.0 (0)

52.8

More boys

27

66.7 (18)

66.7

36

52.8 (19)

52.8

More girls

46

50.0 (23)

66.7

51

39.2 (20)

52.8

Two children

Three children

Four children Four boys

4

0.0 (0)

60.0

2

50.0 (1)

50.0

Four girls

5

60.0 (3)

60.0

6

33.3 (2)

50.0

Two boys & two girls

31

45.2 (14)

60.0

21

42.9 (9)

50.0

More boys

10

60.0 (6)

60.0

19

31.6 (6)

50.0

More girls

22

45.5 (10)

60.0

15

46.7 (7)

50.0

Only boys

2

50.0 (1)

50.0

3

66.7 (2)

66.7

Only girls

3

0.0 (0)

50.0

2

0.0 (0)

66.7

Boys = Girls

12

16.7 (2)

50.0

3

0.0 (0)

66.7

More boys

61

16.4 (10)

50.0

46

26.1 (12)

66.7

Five or more children

More girls Total

65

13.8 (9)

50.0

47

14.9 (7)

66.7

452

31.0%

Ip = 50.9%

445

28.1%

Ip = 44.1%

Note: Figures in parentheses indicate number of women.

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state. People in the hill districts are mostly Scheduled Tribes, and are Christian by religion. Meiteis (who are Hindu converts) and Muslims live in the valley. In terms of infrastructure—transport, education and healthcare—there is inequality in favour of the valley districts. Both the hill and the valley districts reflect more satisfaction in having sons than daughters: a higher percentage of women with more number of boys have adopted contraception. Slightly over 15 percent of women with ‘only son’ are using contraceptives, compared with below 12 percent of women with ‘only daughter’ using contraceptives. The preference for sons is also stronger in the hill districts than in the valley districts. Balance in the sex composition is most desired by the majority of women having two children: the contraceptive prevalence rates in the valley and the hill districts are 31.3 percent and 54.2 percent respectively, and these figures are more for women with children of one sex only. For women with three children, those who have only daughters are least satisfied in terms of sex composition of children, as none of these women are ready to accept contraception. At four and higher order parities, no definite pattern of sex preference is noticeable either in the hill or in the valley districts. This may be attributed to the fact that, once women have larger number of children, the preference for certain sex composition of children gradually diminishes. The results of a similar analysis by literacy in dichotomised categories— illiterate and literate—are shown in Table 3. As expected, more women who are literate are using contraceptives at different parities. Among illiterate women, those who have daughter as the only child are not at all satisfied, though ‘one daughter’ as the only child is acceptable to some extent among literate women. In the case of women with two children, the most preferred sex composition is a boy and a girl: the percentage of contraceptive use is 47.0 for literate and 24.1 for illiterate women. The corresponding figures for women with two sons are 31.3 percent and 10.0 percent respectively for literate and illiterate women. When women have three living children, ‘all daughters’ is not acceptable in both groups, and ‘all three sons’ is also not acceptable among illiterate women, though it is acceptable to literate women. When they have children of both sex, literate women preferred to have more number of boys than girls. At higher order parities, women in the literate category seem to bother more about discontinuation of childbearing rather than sex composition of children, probably because they realise that a desired sex composition of children at higher parities is not feasible.

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Table 3 Contraceptive Use by Sex Composition and Literacy Illiterate

Literate

In the Percentage Absence Sex Composition No. of Using of Sex of Living Children Women Contraceptive Preference

In the Percentage Absence No. of Using of Sex Women Contraceptive Preference

One child One boy

14

14.3 (2)

14.3

57

15.8 (9)

18.2

One girl

12

0.0 (0)

14.3

55

18.2 (10)

18.2

Two boys

10

10.0 (1)

24.1

32

31.3 (10)

47.0

Two girls

14

7.1 (1)

24.1

22

18.2 (4)

47.0

One boy & one girl

29

24.1 (1)

24.1

83

47.0 (39)

47.0

Two children

Three Children Three boys

7

0.0 (0)

52.9

12

33.3 (4)

60.9

Three girls

4

0.0 (0)

52.9

7

0.0 (0)

60.9

More boys

17

52.9 (9)

52.9

46

60.9 (28)

60.9

More girls

31

16.1 (5)

52.9

66

57.6 (38)

60.9

Four children Four boys

4

0.0 (0)

38.5

2

50.0 (1)

62.5

Four girls

3

0.0 (0)

38.5

8

62.5 (5)

62.5

26

38.5 (10)

38.5

26

50.0 (13)

62.5

Two boys & two girls More boys

9

33.3 (3)

38.5

20

45.0 (9)

62.5

More girls

17

35.3 (0)

38.5

20

50.0 (10)

62.5

Only boys

2

50.0 (1)

50.0

3

66.7 (2)

66.7

Only girls

2

0.0 (0)

50.0

3

0.0 (0)

66.7

Boys = Girls

10

10.0 (1)

50.0

5

20.0 (1)

66.7

More boys

65

15.4 (10)

50.0

42

28.6 (12)

66.7

50.0

34

17.6 (6)

66.7

Ip = 42.1%

543

37.0%

Ip = 49.7%

Five or more children

More girls Total

78 354

12.8 (10) 18.6%

Note: Figures in parentheses indicate number of women.

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Contraceptive Use by Socioeconomic and Residence Backgrounds In this section, we shall analyse the use of contraceptives by women belonging to different socioeconomic and residence backgrounds (see Table 4). Sex preference, particularly for sons, is prominent among illiterate women, as evident from the fact that contraceptive use would have increased by 23.5 percent in the absence of sex preference and if the women were satisfied with their present sex composition of children. Similarly, it would have increased by 22.1 percent in the case of women above 30 years of age. The increase in contraceptive use among women in the hill districts, non-working women and women in the valley, if they are satisfied with the present sex composition of children, would be 19.9 percent, 16.7 percent and 15.9 percent respectively. Above 10 percent gains are noticed among working and also among literate women. For women who are below 30 years of age and residing either in rural or urban areas, the increase in contraceptive use would be below 10 percent. Table 4 Effect of Sex Preference on Contraceptive Use Contraceptive Use

Background Characteristics of Women

Actual

In the Absence of Sex Preference

Difference

Hill

31.0

50.9

19.9

Valley

28.1

44.0

15.9

Rural

20.9

27.9

7.0

Urban

42.4

50.7

8.3

Illiterate

18.6

42.1

23.5

Literate

37.0

49.7

12.7

Not working

28.9

45.6

16.7

Working

30.1

42.7

12.6

= 30 years

25.1

34.0

8.9

> 30 years

32.3

54.4

22.1

Total

29.5

46.7

17.2

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Conclusion In a traditional male-oriented patriarchal society—as among the Meiteis, Nagas, Kukis, and Muslims in Manipur—preference for son is expected, particularly for family lineage. Persistence of agrarian economy with limited social security system is another factor which can magnify the preference for sons in the state. At the same time, the Manipuri women are in a better position than their counterparts in other parts of the country, both educationally and in terms of their position and roles in the society. Absence of dowry for marrying daughters and companionship the daughters provide to their mothers preclude daughters being viewed as liabilities. Our analysis reveals that, in Manipur, there is moderate son preference across residence and socioeconomic background, but not at the cost of balance sex composition of a boy and a girl. Son preference is stronger in rural and hill areas, possibly because of the nature of livelihood in these residence backgrounds. Irrespective of their socioeconomic and residence background, women are not at all satisfied with having ‘only daughters’, though ‘only sons’ is acceptable to some extent. Had there been no sex preference, contraceptive use would have risen to the highest rate at any parity, invariant of sex composition of children. The low rate of contraceptive use for the sex composition of children dominated by daughters and the high rate of its use for the sex composition of children dominated by sons at any parity confirm the presence of sex preference in Manipur.

Acknowledgements The authors thank the anonymous referee for her/his comments and suggestions for improvement of the paper.

References Arnold, Fred. 1985. ‘Measuring the effect of sex preference on fertility: The case of Korea’, Demography, 22(2): 280–88. Arnold, Fred and Eddie C.Y. Kuo. 1984. ‘The value of daughters and sons: A comparative study of the gender preferences of parents’, Journal of comparative family studies, 15 (2): 299–318.

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Arnold, Fred and Zhaoxiang Liu. 1986. ‘Sex preference, fertility, and family planning in China’, Population and development review, 12 (2): 221–44. Bairagi, R. and L.R. Langsten. 1986. ‘Sex preference for children and its implications for fertility in rural Bangladesh’, Studies in family planning, 17 (6): 302–07. Hodson, T.C. 1908. The Meithei. London. Kabui, G. 1995. ‘Genesis of the ethnoses of Manipur’, in N. Sanajaoba (ed.): Manipur: Past and present (22–45). New Delhi: Mittal Publications. Nag, M. 1991. ‘Sex preference in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan and its effect on fertility’, Demography India, 20 (2): 163–85. Roy Burman, B.K.; B. Choudhuri and K.K. Mishra (eds). 2004. Encyclopedia of Indian Tribes and Castes (Vols. 12: 3594–97 & 16: 4726–38). New Delhi: Cosmo Publications.

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6 Disappearing Daughters and Intensification of Gender Bias: Evidence from Two Village Studies in South India* T.V. Sekher and Neelambar Hatti

Having a daughter is like watering a flower in the neighbour’s garden. —Tamil proverb

C

onsiderable attention has been paid by researchers to different aspects of female deficit in India (Visaria 1971; Miller 1981; Sen 1990; Agnihotri 2000; Croll 2000; Bhat 2002; Kaur 2004; Patel 2007). The 2001 Census has generated further debate on the issue and has narrowed the focus to the changes in the juvenile or child sex ratio.1 Change in the sex ratio of children aged 0–6 is a better indicator of status of girl child in India. It also reflects the sum-total of intra-household gender relations. Why millions of girls do not appear to be surviving in contemporary India, despite an overall improvement in welfare and state measures to enhance the status of women? Why is daughter discrimination on the rise despite progress in female literacy and growing participation of women in economic and political activities? Is there a significant shift from perceived ‘son preference’ to deliberate ‘daughter discrimination’?

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While the 2001 Census shows that the overall sex ratio has marginally improved from 927 women per 1,000 men to 933 per 1,000 during the last decade, the number of girls to boys in the youngest age group fell from 945 to 927. The regional disparities also appear to have increased: the northern states generally exhibit a worsening trend in sex ratio as compared to the southern states. The census evidence suggests a clear cultural preference for male children, particularly among some North Indian states. The census lists ‘sex-selective female abortions’, ‘female infanticide’, and ‘female neglect’—typically through giving girls less food and medical care than boys—as ‘important reasons commonly put forward’ for this shocking anomaly. The new figures point to the use of new technologies to determine the gender composition. The accelerated fall in the child sex ratio after 1981 is largely due to the diffusion of prenatal sex-selection techniques in regions with well-entrenched gender bias (Bhat 2002; Hatti et al. 2004). Furthermore, as social norms are changing toward smaller families, the availability of and access to new reproductive technologies provide an easy way for parents to achieve such goals. One of the most remarkable changes in the 20th century has been the shift from high to low fertility and this has been described as the greatest single demographic change in the second half of that century (Caldwell 1993). The timing, onset, pace, and magnitude of this decline varies between countries. The 2001 Census indicated that, after a large spell of unprecedented population growth, India experienced a gradual decline in the fertility levels. However, there is also evidence that of a growing disparity between the north and the south, with the southern states having been more successful in controlling population growth.2 In a vast country like India with considerable demographic diversity and heterogeneity and varying levels of socio-economic development, the levels and phases of fertility decline vary significantly from one state to another (Bhat 1994; Sekher et al. 2001; Guilmoto and Rajan 2002). Several studies suggest that cultural factors have played an important role in determining fertility trends (Das Gupta, 1987; Basu 1992; Jeffery and Jeffery 1997). While attention has been drawn to the importance of cultural factors in studying demographic behaviour, few studies have examined in detail the relations between cultural and economic aspects. One important cultural (and economic) feature is the value attached to

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sons. It is important to further analyse the nexus of economic, social and cultural factors that underlie daughter discrimination, thus shifting the focus from son preference to daughter discrimination.

Fertility Decline and Adverse Sex Ratio In a significant article titled as ‘More than 100 Million Women are Missing’, Amartya Sen (1990) brought to focus the increasing gender discrimination by analysing the male-female ratio. He has argued that the problem of missing women is ‘clearly one of the more momentous, and neglected, problems facing the world today’ (ibid.: 9). B.D. Miller (1981), in her anthropological study on neglect of female children in North India, has illustrated the strong relationship between culture and mortality. It is the cultural bias against females in North India that brings into play neglect and mistreatment of unknown numbers of children. Many studies have illustrated how the decline in fertility will affect gender bias and greater imbalance in juvenile sex ratios (Das Gupta and Bhat 1997; Clark 2000; Bhat and Zavier 2003; Nanda and Veron 2005; Vella 2005). A substantial decline in fertility presupposes a desire for fewer children as well as access to the means to limit the family size. Both these conditions can be achieved with increase in social and economic development. It is generally accepted that the pace of demographic transition is closely associated with the levels of socio-economic development. However, there is evidence to show that, even in the poorer regions, substantial decline in fertility has occurred through political intervention, in the form of family planning programme. The social and economic development and governmental interventions, however, do not ensure any substantial change in the cultural ethos of the society. In South Asian societies, it is believed that a major barrier for decline in fertility was the prevalence of strong son preference, irrespective of social and economic development. It is also argued that with the increase in welfare and economic development, the influence of son preference would decline gradually. These assumptions are being questioned by some studies indicating that there has been an increase in son preference during the years of fertility decline. This occurs not only in poorer communities but also in populations where women have taken to education and employment and have

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achieved considerable social status. M. Das Gupta (1987) has found that excess female mortality for second and subsequent parity daughters was 32 per cent higher than their siblings for uneducated mothers and 136 per cent higher if the mothers were educated. Alaka Basu makes a similar observation: ‘although her capacity to increase the chances of survival of her children seems to increase with education, the typical Uttar Pradesh woman’s ability to treat her male and female offspring equally actually decreases’ (1992: 196). The existence of strong son-preference has resulted in the desire to prevent the birth of daughters by carefully balancing the desired family size and desired sex composition of the children. In other words, the decline in fertility partly explains the rising masculinity of many populations (Das Gupta and Bhat 1997; Croll 2002). It is hypothesised that as fertility declines, two opposing forces could affect the child sex ratio, what is called as ‘parity effect’, which leads to a reduction of sex bias and ‘intensification effect’, which increases it. Considering this dimension, there is a need to examine the influence of the mirror image of son preference, namely, the daughter discrimination. Does a strong son preference ultimately result in deliberate discrimination against daughters? Miller asserts that, ‘the problem is that son preference is so strong in some areas of India and amongst some classes that daughters must logically suffer in order that family’s personal and culturally mandated needs are fulfilled’ (1981: 25). Logically, this would mean that stronger the son preference, more intense the daughter discrimination. Rather than going through repeated pregnancies bearing daughters in an attempt to produce male progeny, the norm of small family size and reduced fertility seem to imply that unborn daughters are the first to be ‘sacrificed’. Generally, both infanticide and fatal neglect of female children seem to be supplemented by sex identification and sexselective abortion to achieve the desired family size and desired gender composition. Better opportunities for women’s education, increasing labour force participation, and greater exposure to urban life do not necessarily guarantee equal status for daughters. In many Indian communities, daughters are associated with a double loss. Firstly, a daughter leaves the natal family after her marriage and the benefits from investments made on her upbringing accrue to the new family, constituting a loss to her natal family. This is further compounded by the expenses of her marriage, particularly dowry, which are a heavy burden for the bride’s family.3 Sons, on the other hand, are considered as assets,

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deserving short and long-term investment. In rural India, the birth of a boy is thus a time for celebration while a birth of a girl, especially second or subsequent one, is often viewed as a time of crisis (Bumiller 1990). Besides economic considerations, there are cultural factors that support son preference. All these factors put together contribute to the firm belief that daughters cannot substitute sons. A general explanation for son preference is that sons can provide old age support. In India, a majority of the old parents live with married sons. The Indian context, characterised by high levels of uncertainty, where no institutional alternative to the family as a source of social insurance has emerged, parental decisions are likely to be powerfully motivated by their concerns about their own security in the old age. The existence of such an understanding and commitment between parents and sons, known as inter-generational contract, is one factor that appears to have remained unchanged through overall socio-economic changes. Sons are also important because they alone can perform the funeral rituals of the parents. Added to this, most women have very limited opportunities to contribute towards their parents’ welfare. This creates an apparent dichotomy between the value of a girl to her parents and that of a woman to her parents-in-law. It has also become more expensive to raise children as education has become more important and a necessity in a transforming society. The increasing cost of education and marriage of girls is a major drain on the household resources, which acts as a strong disincentive to have daughters. The underlying workings of female discrimination are undoubtedly highly complex. However, many broad factors have been identified which together create a situation where sons are preferred and daughters are neglected. The patterns of inheritance are typically patrilineal in India with property passing from father to son (Miller 1981; Agarwal 1994; Kabeer 1996). Upon marriage the bride leaves her natal home to live with the family of her husband. In this exogamous lineage system women are left out. They become dispensable essentially because they count for very little as individuals. In recent years, a major factor directly influencing the imbalance in child sex ratio is the widespread use of sex-determination technologies and sex-selective abortion. Misuse of sex-determination tests has been a subject of media attention for many years. Health activists and women’s organisations have voiced their concern forcing the government to act. In 1994, the Government of India banned the tests at the national level,

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with the Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act. This Act specifies that no prenatal diagnostic procedures may be used unless there is a heightened possibility that the fetus suffers from a harmful condition or genetic disease. It also states that no person conducting prenatal diagnostic procedures shall communicate to the pregnant woman concerned or her relatives the sex of the fetus by words, signs, or in any other manner. This Act was again amended in the light of the newer techniques of pre-conception tests and the amended law came into effect in 2003. Now, the Act is renamed as the Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex-selection) Act, 1994.4 This legislation has been a miserable failure in preventing the couples seeking sex-determination tests and abortions and the medical practitioners performing them. Female fetuses are liable to victimisation on the basis of their sex alone even before they are born. Only far-reaching social changes that aim at increasing female autonomy, female economic power and the value of the girl child are likely to make a significant impact on the demand for sex-selective abortion. Interestingly, there is no reliable statistics available on sex-selective abortion at the state or national level in India. An indirect estimate using the data from two rounds of National Family Health Survey5 (NFHS) indicates more than 100,000 sexselective abortions in India every year (Arnold et al. 2002). The evidence of substantial sex-selective abortion in states such as Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, and Maharashtra is consistent with the high rates of use of ultrasound and amniocentesis (Retherford and Roy 2003). How does fertility decline and son preference manifest at the village level, particularly in the context of widespread availability of sex-selection techniques at low cost? By studying two villages in the low-fertility regions of South India, we attempt to understand how these factors interplay at the micro-level with changing socio-economic conditions. The main objective of this field enquiry was to study the precarious situation of female children before birth (their chances of being born at all), at birth, and during the first six years of childhood. In order to gain an understanding of the dynamics it is essential to look into household and individual behaviour. Here, the main concern is how reproduction strategies and specific gender discrimination practices vary among households belonging to different socio-economic groups. It is important to understand how the desire for sons, whether strong or weak, is directly related to daughter discrimination and neglect. The focus group discussions (FGDs) and

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in-depth interviews were done to elicit information about the value of boys and girls, reproductive preferences and strategies. The qualitative research methods employed in the study provided very useful insights. A focus group, generally consisting of 8–10 persons with similar socioeconomic and demographic background, encouraged lively discussions on specific issues, moderated and facilitated by the researchers. The entire discussion was tape-recorded which helped in the preparation of detailed transcripts later. The focus group discussions provided not only experiences and opinions of the participants but also their perceptions on various issues. The information gathered through FGDs was supplemented with individual interviews. All these qualitative information was pooled together and synthesised to arrive at conclusions. The average time taken for an FGD was 90 minutes. The focus group discussions were conducted in panchayat offices, temples, anganwadi centres,6 and, in some cases, at the residence of the informants. Retaining all the participants till the end of an FGD was a challenging task. In general, villagers were very forthcoming in expressing their views and revealing their perceptions.

Mandya District: A Low Fertility Region of Karnataka Mandya district, located in the central belt of southern part of Karnataka, has been geographically classified as southern maidan (plains) region of the state. The district is compact with high population and village densities. More than 60 per cent of the total population of the district belongs to a single peasant community, the Vokkaligas (Gowdas). With the paucity of land for further expansion of area under cultivation, the long history of irrigation and its impact, and the Vokkaliga’s love for land and cultivation have been documented by social scientists (Epstein 1962, 1973; Srinivas 1976). There were fewer land transactions and the land values have increased considerably in recent decades. Landholdings of less than 2 hectare form nearly 85 per cent of all holdings. The large holdings with more than 10 hectares accounted for only 0.33 per cent of the total holdings and about 4.54 per cent of the total land held. Thus, marginal and small farmers were predominant in the district. The fortunes of a man generally depended upon the size of landed property of his father and the number of siblings with whom he would have to share the property.

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Agricultural land, with assured canal irrigation, is the backbone of the economy of the district. The major crops are paddy, sugarcane, ragi, and coconut. Sericulture and handloom weaving are the two other important economic activities, which provide work for thousands of families. The district recorded a population density of 355 per sq. km in 2001. The male literacy rate was 72 per cent and female literacy, 52 per cent in 2001.

Observations from the Study Village M Village M is located about 8 km from Mandya town (district headquarters). Coconut gardens and fields of sugarcane and paddy along with canals and streams surround the village. As per the 2001 Census, there were 637 households in this village with an average household size of 5. The literacy rate was about 60 per cent. The general sex ratio was 926 (females per 1,000 males) and the child (0–6) sex ratio was 732 in 2001, a considerable decline from 825 in 1991. The advent of irrigation brought overall changes in the pattern of cultivation and consequently, improved the economic condition of land owning families. Ownership of land implies regular food availability and income for the families. Therefore, land is the most important economic resource for the villagers. Most farmers use high yielding varieties of seeds and apply fertilisers. The availability of irrigation pump sets, tractors and power tillers in a way replaced significant part of agriculture labour. The easy availability of credit and marketing facilities also helped farmers. The access to the commercially vibrant Mandya town with many trade and industrial establishments also encouraged many villagers to take up employment in the town. However, fragmentation of land and unpredictability of agricultural production and prices made many of them sceptical, as narrated during FGDs: Fragmentation of land has taken place due to partition of the families, and everybody now having only smallholdings. So, parents don’t prefer more children in order to prevent further division of their land.

The population of the village has increased from 761 in 1951 to 2,921 in 2001. Nearly 70 per cent of the households were Vokkaligas, the dominant community in the village as well as in the district. Vokkaliga in the local language (Kannada) means ‘cultivator’, and, traditionally

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the Vokkaligas have been agriculturists. Undoubtedly, the Vokkaligas control bulk of the cultivable land in the village. According to the 2001 census, 36 per cent of the total workers were cultivators and 24 per cent were agricultural labourers in this village. Twenty-one per cent of the households belonged to the scheduled castes. We observed that dowry, wealth flow from bride’s family to groom’s family, has become a common practice in all castes and communities. The communities that did not practice dowry in the past have now started this in a big way. This has put a heavy burden on the girl’s family in arranging for dowry demanded by the boy’s family and also meeting the increasing marriage expenses. Having more children is a financial burden on the family in terms of sending them to school and in performing their marriages. Scarlett T. Epstein documents the emergence of dowry practice in two Mandya villages: In Wangala, it was Beregowda, one of the most enterprising peasants, who initiated change to dowry payments. He explained that three considerations had motivated him to take this step: first, he was keen to get an educated husband to his daughter. Second, his daughter had not been trained to work in the fields and far from being an economic asset she would be a liability as a wife; finally, he said, Brahmins had always given their daughters dowries (1973: 197).

Another study of a South Karnataka village describes the changes in dowry practices thus: The major change was the coming of dowry. In the early 1950s, the first dowries in Bangalore were paid by some Brahmin families. Not until the beginning of the 1960s did the first Brahmin landlord family in the study area provide a dowry and not until 1965 was this done by the first Vokkaliga (the major peasant caste) family. It is still not paid by Harijans [scheduled castes], although in the largest village they ceased paying the tera (bride price) five years ago, and the payment is still small among some of the backward castes. Nevertheless, they all anticipate its arrival. In all castes, the bride’s family now bears the major portion of the wedding costs, and it is they who seek loans and sell land’ (Caldwell et al. 1982: 707).

The observations from FGDs illustrate how dowry has emerged as an essential part of marriage negotiations: In our colony, Kamala has two sons. Her elder daughter-in-law has not brought anything, but the second daughter-in-law has brought a huge dowry. Therefore, the

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younger one receives more respect than the elder one. Including the husband and in-laws, threaten the elder one for not bringing dowry. I have seen them beating her also. Any time, she will be sent back to her natal home’. Boy’s parents consider it is their right to collect dowry. They never think about the economic position of the girl’s parents. They never realise it can happen to their daughter also. Some parents are forced to give their land as dowry. No marriage in this village has taken place without giving gold and cash to the boy’s family. I don’t want daughters. Even if I spend Rs 5,000 for abortion; it is better than spending Rs 500,000 on dowry.

Prosperous Gowda families are ready to pay even half-million to one million rupees as dowry, besides giving gifts in the form of gold jewellery, car, furniture, etc. Usually the girl’s family has to bear the entire marriage expenses. The dowry paid and the gifts given depend upon the qualification and employment position of the boy and landowning status of the family (see Tables 1 and 2). During our fieldwork, we came across young Vokkaliga couples having only one child, mostly male, and deciding to accept family planning. According to them, if they had more than one child it would be extremely difficult to provide good education and meet the cost of upbringing. As narrated in our focus group discussions, since land was limited, it was difficult to maintain the standard of living. Table 1 Range of Dowry in a Village in Mandya District (1970) Dowry Paid (Approximate)

Occupation/Education of the Son-in-Law

Cash (Rs)

Rich Vokkaligas

Educated, with a job in the city

3,000–4,000 Jewellery (Rs. 3,000) and cloth (Rs. 3,000)

Middle Class Vokkaligas

Educated

1,000–2,000 Jewellery and cloth (Rs. 3,000)

Poor Vokkaligas

–

Up to 1,000

Community

Items

Cloth and jewellery (Rs. 1,500)

Note: Based on the description and case studies presented by Epstein (1973: 94–99).

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102T.V. Sekher and Neelambar Hatti Table 2 Range of Dowry in Village M (2005)

Community/Caste Rich Vokkaligas

Middle class Vokkaligas and other castes

Poor labourers Scheduled Castes and other castes

Occupation/Education of Son-in-Law

Dowry (Cost) Cash (Rs)

Items

3–5 lakhs

Land, car, 100–130 grams gold, clothes, all other expenses towards marriage

Groom is employed in 2–3 lakhs government/private job and settled in the village.

Scooter, 80–100 grams gold, clothes and all other expenses towards marriage

Groom is in government/ private job and settled in the City

1–2 lakhs

Land, scooter, 60–70 grams gold, clothes and all other expenses towards marriage

Groom is in government/ private job and settled in the village.

Less than One lakh

Land, scooter, 60–70 grams gold, clothes and all other expenses towards marriage

Groom is employed in government/private job and settled in the city.

Groom is an agriculturist, 50,000 settled in the village.

60–70 grams gold, clothes and all expenses towards marriage

Landless agricultural labour (groom)

10–20 thousands

10–20 grams gold, and clothes and all other expenses towards marriage

5–10 thousands

10–20 grams gold and all expenses towards marriage. 101 articles like Vessels, etc.

Vodda* households Landless labour (groom)

Note: * Vodda is a scheduled caste community that migrated from Tamil Nadu and settled in the village in the 1960s. Source: FGDs carried out by the authors in 2005. Earlier in this village, scheduled castes never used to give dowry. After seeing Gowdas, they also started. Some people believe that paying more dowry is a prestige issue for the family. They sell their land or borrow money to give dowry. Even though girls with some education may try to oppose the payment of dowry in villages, they generally give in to the parental/family pressure as the marriage negotiations progresses.

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The discrimination in providing primary education to boys and girls was evident during the discussions with school teachers. Some people send their sons to convent school (better quality education) and daughters to government school (poor quality education). Why to spend on daughter? Son gets good education and will earn money for the parents. Daughter, one or another day, has to leave the house.

Generally, the Vokkaliga families are nuclear. After marriage, women have no right over the parental property, including land. The sons inherit all family assets. During our interviews and FGDs, we found that there was a strong preference for small families; interestingly, most of the couples had already accepted family planning. It was the Vokkaligas who, by accepting contraception, paved the way for other communities towards birth control. The type of fertility transition experienced in this village and other parts of the district has been unique, and one can see a strong relationship between population pressure on land and rapid fertility decline (Sekher and Raju 2004). The paucity of cultivable land and availability of irrigation have resulted in increasing land values. The landowning Vokkaliga desires to have only one or two sons to avoid further fragmentation of land. As mentioned by Epstein, They now appreciate that large number of children creates economic problems of future generations. But most of them still have a strong son preference. They continue procreating until they have at least one son. For example, Shangowda had one son after his wife had given birth first to two daughters. He and his wife then decided that three children are enough for them. A large proportion of villagers pursue the same strategy. In this too, old beliefs and customs persist in a changed setting (1998: 196).

The Vokkaligas consider land as the source of old-age security, along with the son. Alan R. Beals, while studying social change in a Mysore village 50 years ago, has stated that, Namhalli’s landowning group, while not threatened with starvation, has been faced, in recent years, with the problem of dividing a limited quantity of land among an ever increasing population. Within the village many solutions to this problem, ranging from abortion to the adoption of iron ploughs, have been tried. In almost every family in Namhalli, at least one child has been groomed for urban employment (1955: 98).

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The focus group discussions with women of the village illustrate the strong son preference and intense desire to limit the number of children: After having two daughters, my mother-in-law told me not to go for sterilisation. Then I thought, if I continue like this, it will be very difficult for me, and I may die. Then I went to a doctor and decided to have operation. I got operated immediately after the birth of my second child. My husband gave me full support in this decision. I have a daughter; my husband wanted at least one boy. My mother-in-law became sad and cried when I gave birth to a girl child.

During our fieldwork we observed that a majority of the young couples underwent sex-determination test, either in a private clinic or a nursing home. People from village M go to nearby Mandya town, where two nursing homes are known for conducting abortions. During FGDs among the Vokkaliga and scheduled caste women, we found that almost all were aware of the facilities available to find out the sex of the foetus. We also came across cases where some public health workers, particularly Auxiliary Nurse and Midwives, were providing information and advising village women ‘how to get rid of unwanted daughters’. Many women openly admitted that several doctors in Mandya city conduct both the test and the abortion. In a few cases, people went to places like Bangalore and Mysore. This was expensive for the family, but rich Gowdas were ready to spend money for what they consider a ‘good purpose’. For conducting sonography and disclosing the sex of the fetus, private nursing homes in Mandya charge between Rs 1,000 to 2,000 and, if a woman prefers to undergo an abortion, she has to pay an additional Rs 5,000. During our FGDs, many women justified persuading their daughters or daughters-in-law to opt for abortion saying that it is better to spend a few thousand rupees now than spending a million rupees later, thus avoiding all the future problems like education, marriage, dowry, etc. One woman said that had this facility (ultrasound) been available 20  years ago, she would have gone for it to reduce the number of daughters. She said (in Kannada), ‘Hecchu edi kere haal maadtu; Hecchu henninda mane haalaaitu’ (too many crabs destroy the lake; too many daughters destroy the house). In her efforts to have a son 20 years ago, she gave birth to three daughters. A few observations from FGDs are as follows: If one becomes pregnant, the family won’t tell she is pregnant. She is taken to find out the sex of the baby. If it is a girl, the foetus is aborted immediately. Everything is done in a secretive manner.

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Rame Gowda’s wife died during abortion. Poor woman, she has left behind two daughters.

Another woman explained (in Kannada) the necessity for having a son: ‘maga manege; magalu pararige’ (son is for our family; daughter is for others). When asked about whether they depend on their sons for protection during old age, most men and women said ‘yes’. Some of them strongly felt the necessity to have at least two sons. Krishne Gowda quoting a local (Kannada) saying substantiated his argument: ‘ondu kannu kannalla; obba maga maganalla’ (freely translated it means one eye is not enough to see, one son is not enough for the family). It is very evident that the practice of dowry has spread to all communities. The girl’s family is under pressure to meet a series of payments for the marriage, beginning with engagement and concluding with the bride actually going to reside in the groom’s house. In many communities, the practice of dowry was unheard of about thirty years ago, but it has now become an essential feature of the marriage. Apart from dowry, it is a well-established norm among all communities that all expenditures for conducting the marriage have to be borne by the girl’s family. Considering all these expenses and practically no return, many feel that having a daughter is a ‘real burden’ for the family. An old woman appropriately summarised (in Kannada) the situation: ‘Yavaga honnina bele eruthade, avaga hennina bele iliyuthade’ (whenever the price of gold goes up, the value of the girl goes down). The findings from the sample household survey (96 young male or female parents having at least one child in the age group 0–6) carried out in village M show the changing attitude towards the perceived value of sons and that of daughters. Out of 96 respondents, 66 are Vokkaligas and the remaining are from the scheduled castes. The son preference is strong among the Vokkaligas: nearly 77 per cent of them want either one son or two sons (and no daughters!). Only 18 per cent of them consider that their ideal family comprised of one son and one daughter (see Table 3). More than four-fifth of them felt that daughters were more expensive to bring up than sons and 71 per cent were apprehensive of the problems/difficulties associated with suitably marrying off their daughters (see Table 4). Nearly half of the mothers perceive that the future life of their daughters will be worse than their own. However, only 12 per cent of fathers felt that the life of their sons will be worse (see Table 5).

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106T.V. Sekher and Neelambar Hatti Table 3 Ideal Family Size According to the Respondents in Village M Community Ideal Family Size

Vokkaligas

Scheduled Castes

One son

30.3

17.4

Two sons

46.9

47.8

4.6

4.3

18.2

30.4

One daughter One son and one daughter Two daughters Total

–

–

100

100

Note: Figures in percentages. Table 4 Value Attached to the Children by Parents in Village M Communities Value of Boys and Girls

Vokkaligas Scheduled Castes

Sons are more expensive to bring up than daughters

21

24

Daughters are more expensive to bring up than sons

87

72

Will you face difficulty in arranging marriage for your son?

18

42

Will you face difficulty in marrying off your daughter?

71

89

Son will take care of you when you are old

63

74

9

12

Daughter will take care of you when you are old Note: Figures in percentages.

Table 5 Vokkaliga Parental Perception about the Future of Their Children in Village M Parental Perception

Men

Women 11 49 40

How do you think life will be for your daughter(s)?

Better Worse Like your own

NA

How do you think life will be for your son(s)?

Better Worse Like your own

39 12 49

NA

100

100

Total Note: Figures in percentages; NA = not applicable.

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Salem District of Tamil Nadu: A Low Fertility Region Known for Female Infanticide Salem district recorded the lowest child sex-ratio in South India in 2001. This district attracted considerable attention in the 1990s for the pre-valence of female infanticide (George et al. 1992). A study carried out based on available PHC (Primary Health Centre) records confirms the incidence of female infanticide in the districts of Salem, Dharmapuri, and Madurai (Chunkath and Athreya 1997). The worsening child sex ratios of 2001 Census have amply substantiated the still existing and rampant practice of female infanticide in parts of Tamil Nadu, despite overall socio-economic changes in Tamil Nadu (Sekher and Hatti 2007). In Salem district, the average household size was 4.0, with a literacy rate 65 per cent in 2001. Two major communities of the district are Vanniyars and Kongu Vellala Gounders. The Vanniyar originally formed the fighting force of the Pallavas and, hence, came to be called as ‘Padayachi’. Their community cohesiveness is remarkable. Some of them practice agriculture as their main occupation. The traditional occupation of Vanniyar is oil pressing and oil selling. The nuclear family is the most common form among them. Sons inherit property and the eldest son gets a greater share. Daughter does not have any right to the property unless they have no brothers. Vanniyars are categorised as Most Backward Caste and the state government has reservation policy for them. Kongu Vellala Gounder is an inhabitant of the Kongu region of the Tamil Nadu. Agriculture is the traditional occupation of this community. The other economic activities are animal husbandry, trade, industrial labour etc. They are hardworking agriculturists and specialised in horticulture.

Observations from the Study Village K According to the 2001 Census, the village K in Mettur taluk has 1,341 households, with a total population of 4,983 (2,676 males and 2,307 females). The average household size was 4.0. The overall literacy rate was 47 per cent. The general sex ratio was 862 and the child sex-ratio was 616 in 2001, a decline from 673, as recorded in 1991. Three major communities in this village are Vanniyar, Kongu Vellala Gounder, and scheduled castes.

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During our filed work we came across incidents of female infanticide in the village. Though some families, including women, were hesitant to talk about it, there were a few who openly justified the practice. Though the practice was more prominent among the Vanniyars, other communities also occasionally indulge in infanticide. On many occasions, though the mother of the child was not directly involved, the elder members ensured the elimination of female infant within a week after birth. The methods used for this purpose included feeding the child with poison, loosening the knot of umbilical cord, suffocating baby to death, feeding with paddy husk, and starving the baby to death. A more ‘modern’ method recently observed was the use of pesticides or sleeping pills. Some elders use the prediction of local astrologers (‘fortune tellers’) as a strong justification to get rid of the daughter who would ‘cause destruction to the family’. As one old woman, narrating the plight of her family said: ‘it is better they die than live like me’. Penn shisu kolai (female infanticide in Tamil) is justified for various reasons. Though many families tolerate the first girl, the subsequent daughters are really at high risk. The general observation that the female infanticide was confined to certain backward communities like Kallars has been proved erroneous. It has spread to communities like Gounder, Vanniyar, and Pallars. Our discussions in village K indicated that it was not only the poor who practised infanticide, but the rich and powerful in the village also resorted to penn shisu kolai. There were few police cases registered recently against parents for committing the infanticide. But, the arrival of sex-determination tests, has given a new method for those who can afford to pay. Many economically better off families admitted that they avoided the birth of another girl ‘with the help of doctor’. However, poor women in the scheduled caste colony said, ‘We cannot afford to pay for test and abortion. So we still practice infanticide, which is much cheaper.’ Our study clearly shows the practice of female infanticide was being substituted by female foeticide, particularly among the Gounders. The combined efforts of the state, NGOs, and some panchayat leaders have had some impact on reducing the incidence of female infanticide. Pregnant women already having a girl child used to be classified into high-risk category and were monitored closely by local NGOs. Among the Kongu Vellala Gounders, dowry was reported as the major reason to avoid having daughters. A few observations from FGDs are cited below: Parents of the bride borrow money from all sources; sometimes they sell their land to meet the marriage expenses.

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After paying so much dowry, they continue to demand more. If she fails to bring dowry, the husband and in-laws start harassing her. That is why many people don’t want daughters.

There has been a phenomenal increase in the amount of dowry transacted in the village. The landowning Gounder has to pay at least 80 sovereigns of gold, Rs 2 lakhs cash, and a car, as well as to meet all the lavish expenditure to conduct marriage. The manifold increase in dowry among all communities repeatedly came up in FGDs. The Vanniars are not far behind: the rates ranging between 40 to 60 sovereigns of gold, car or motorbike, and marriage expenses. Even the landless dalits (the poorest in the village and depending upon agricultural work for their livelihood) pay gold (5 to 10 sovereigns) and meet the marriage costs, which can easily exceed Rs 25,000. Borrowing money to meet these ‘unavoidable’ expenses has pushed many families into the trap of indebtedness, on the one hand, and social obligations, on the other. According to one dalit women, ‘having a daughter is a punishment for the sins committed in previous life’. In most of the marriage negotiations, the first criterion was how much dowry would be given. Modernisation ushered in the importance of material status, driving the need to be extravagant and to show off as a way of asserting one’s social standing. For well-off Gounders performing seeru (dowry) and the conduct of marriages of daughters became an important forum to display new found prosperity and to assert their status within their community (caste group) (Srinivasn 2005: 602).

This explains why daughters were unwelcome, resulting in a deliberate intensification of non-preference of daughters and consequent increase in son preference. Even the affluent families who can ‘afford’ daughters and can provide them with good education are sceptical because, as a local leader put it, ‘the higher the education of the girls, the higher the dowry’. It is also true that ‘an increase in the prevalence of dowry, which has raised the costs of bringing up children, and created a situation of financial distress, have also contributed to the fertility decline in some segments of population’ (Krishnamoorthy et al. 2005: 245). Marrying off a daughter without giving a decent dowry can have serious consequences for the natal family as well as for the daughter. One respondent expressed her worry thus: The in-laws may humiliate our daughter, demand more dowry, ill treat her and finally she may be forced to return to our home. How can we allow this to happen to our daughter?

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Apart from the demand at the time of marriage, the demand after marriage for more dowry, resulting in the fear of ill treatment of their daughter if the demands are not met, is a perennial worry for many parents. The inability to pay the amount of dowry demanded could also lead to a delay in the marriage itself and an unmarried daughter would pose many a problem for the parents.

Concluding Observations The two village studies clearly illustrate that, in the eyes of parents, daughters are rarely able to substitute for sons. Although the will for limiting the family size is evident across communities, ‘smart couples’ achieve the desired family-size and the desired sex-composition of children together. The new reproductive technologies that are available are employed by parents from all communities. Notwithstanding the extent of use, it is also an indication of the easy availability and affordability of sonography and abortion facilities despite the legal hinders such as PNDT Act. As narrated by a literate woman in Village M, ‘Had these clinics were available 30 years ago, many of us would never have seen this world!’ According to an NGO activist in Tamil Nadu study village, ‘the real culprits are the medical doctors who misuse the technology to increase their profits’. Though the ‘technological effect’ may mainly be responsible for the elimination of female foetuses, the powerlessness of village women in a patriarchal society is an equally important factor to be considered. Personal interviews with young women in the study areas reveal that, many a time, they were forced to undergo sonography and abortion, much against their wishes. In both study areas, FGDs show the tendency to identify the daughter with dowry payments. The continuing trend of increasing dowry demands, in cash and in kind, is a crucial factor in marriage negotiations as well as a ‘status enhancer’ within the community. The dowry had significant impact on how the parents value the worth of boys and girls, even today. Interestingly, the two peasant communities (the Vokkaligas and the Kongu Vellala Gounders) in the study villages have become increasingly affluent as major beneficiaries of access to irrigation and other inputs of modern agriculture. This affluence has meant a continuing rise in living

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standards, consumption, and aspirations. Besides acquisition of various trappings of modern life, one way of demonstrating their economic affluence, according to FGDs, was to get a ‘well-qualified son-in-law’, as this would enhance their status and standing within the community. This desire would, no doubt, gradually inflate the dowry demands of the boy’s family and also increase the wedding expenditure of the girl’s family. Hence, the increasing costs of education and marriage and a conviction that dowry rates can only move upwards compel the parents to seriously consider the investment in and return from a daughter as against the benefits that can accrue to the parents from investing in a son. Both the landed and the landless in our FGDs cite this as the most important reason for preferring sons over daughters. In both villages, the small family is the accepted norm, parents seem to make the deliberate choice between a son and a daughter: son would mean inflow of wealth, while daughter implies financial drain. The affluent communities, which not too long ago considered payment of large dowries as a symbol of their capability and status, now realise that such payments constitute a threat to their affluence, lifestyles, and aspirations, and, consequently, prefer not to have daughters. As a result of the growing affluence of the landowning communities, the cash flow among the landless agricultural labourers has also increased due to higher wages, most of which is being paid in cash than in kind. This fact coupled with the desire to imitate the customs of the higher castes in the village, a kind of sanskritisation process, has meant that the practice of dowry payment has permeated to the landless lower castes, thus increasing the expenses of marriage of daughters. Consequently, these communities also exhibit similar preferences to avoid having daughters, albeit to a lesser extent. The observations from the two low-fertility regions of South India and the survey data analysis show a strong preference for sons, particularly among the peasant communities. However, with the substantial decline in fertility in these regions, the son preference appears to have resulted in an increased as well as intensified manifestation of deliberate discrimination towards daughters. The widespread use of sex-selection techniques has provided an opportunity for couples to choose a son rather than a daughter. The increasing pressure on limited land, on the one hand, and the spiralling cost of bringing up children (particularly girls, due to dowry), on the other, parents prefer not to have daughters.

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The medical technology has come in handy for many for achieving the desired sex-composition and the desired family-size. The rapid fertility decline, not accompanied by changes in the cultural values and gender inequality, is in a way responsible for the intensification of gender bias and the deliberate attempt to deny the girls from being ‘born at all’. In other words, female foetuses are increasingly being ‘victimised’ on the basis of their sex alone, even among the affluent communities.

Notes * An elaborate version of this paper was presented at the International Conference on Female Deficit in Asia jointly sponsored by CEPED, CICRED, and INED and held in Singapore on 5–7 December 2005. We are thankful to the participants for their comments and suggestions. We are also grateful to Ms Preethi Bhat, Shri Sampath, Ms Shubhashree, Shri Gangadharappa, and Shri Ramachandra Bhat for assisting us in fieldwork. Grateful thanks are also due to the anonymous referee for her/his constructive suggestions. 1. The Census of India measures the sex ratio as number of females per 1,000 males, as opposed to the standard international norm of number of males per 100 females. Defining the sex ratio by covering children in the age group 0–6 may seem arbitrary, but the Census uses it for the purpose of literacy status, categorising the entire population into two groups: those aged 0–6 years and those 7 years and above. 2. For a detailed review of fertility transition in South India, see Guilmoto and Rajan (2005). Quantitative and qualitative analysis of fertility changes in four southern states have been made available under the South India Fertility Project (www.demographie. net/sifp). 3. In the era of globalisation and consumerism, dowry payment is more a rule than an exception. Many communities in South India, where the practice of dowry was totally absent earlier, have started making huge payments in recent decades at the time of marriage. In many families, even after the payment of dowry, there is continuing unidirectional flow of resources from a woman’s parental household to her in-laws. Dowry has emerged as a strategy to acquire higher standards of material life with adverse consequences to women’s status, including their survival. For a detailed description of the changing nature of dowry practices in South India, see Srinivasan (2005). 4. However, the first court-case and conviction under this Act did not happen until March 2006, when a doctor and his assistant in the state of Haryana were sentenced to two years in jail (The Hindu, Bangalore, 30 March 2006). 5. National Family and Health Survey, similar to Demographic Health Survey in other countries, comprises a nationally representative sample of households covering evermarried women in the age group of 15–49 years. This survey has been conducted thrice: first in 1992–93, then in 1998–99, and recently in 2005–06 (IIPS and Macro International 2007).

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6. The anganwadi centers are nursery schools for children aged 3–6 years which provide nutritious food under the Integrated Child Development Scheme of the Government of India. Almost every village has an anganwadi centre, which also provides a meeting place for pregnant and lactating mothers.

References Agarwal, Bina. 1994. A field of one’s own: Gender and land rights in South Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Agnihotri, S.B. 2000. Sex ratio patterns in the Indian population: A fresh exploration. New Delhi: Sage Publications. Arnold, Fred; Sunita Kishor and T.K. Roy. 2002. ‘Sex-selective abortions in India’, Population and development review, 28 (4): 759–85. Basu, Alaka. 1992. Culture, the status of women and demographic behaviour. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Beals, Alan R. 1955. ‘Interplay among factors of change in a Mysore village’, in McKim Marriott (ed.): Village India: Studies in the little community (78–101). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Bhat, Mari P.N. 1994. ‘Levels and trends in Indian fertility’, Economic and political weekly, 29 (51–52): 273–80. ———. 2002. ‘On the trail of “Missing” Indian females (I and II)’, Economic and political weekly, 37 (51 and 52): 5105–18 and 5244–63. Bhat, Mari P.N and Francis Zavier. 2003. ‘Fertility decline and gender bias in northern India’, Demography, 40 (4): 637–57. Bumiller, E. 1990. May you be the mother of a thousand sons: A journey among women in India. New York: Penguin Books. Caldwell, John. 1993. ‘The Asian fertility revolution: Its implications for transition theories’, in R. Leete and I. Alam (ed.): The revolution in Asian fertility: Dimensions, causes and Implications (299–316). Oxford: Clarendon Press. Caldwell, John; P.H. Reddy and Pat Caldwell. 1982. ‘The causes of demographic change in rural South India: A micro approach’, Population and development review, 8 (4): 689–727. Chunkath, S.R. and V.B. Athreya. 1997. ‘Female infanticide in Tamil Nadu: Some evidence’, Economic and political weekly, 32 (17): WS 21–28. Clark, Shelley. 2000. ‘Son preference and sex composition of children: Evidence from India’, Demography, 37 (1): 95–108. Croll, Elisabeth J. 2000. Endangered daughters: Discrimination and development in Asia. New York: Routledge. ———. 2002. ‘Fertility decline, family size and female discrimination: A study of reproductive management in East and South Asia’, Asia-Pacific population journal, 17 (2): 11–38. Das Gupta, M. 1987. ‘Selective discrimination against female children in rural Punjab, India’, Population and development review, 13 (1): 77–100. Das Gupta, M. and P.N. Mari Bhat. 1997. ‘Fertility decline and increased manifestation of sex bias in India’, Population studies, 51 (3): 307–15.

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114T.V. Sekher and Neelambar Hatti Epstein, Scarlett T. 1962. Economic development and social change in South India. Bombay: Media Promoters and Publishers. ———. 1973. South India: Yesterday, today and tomorrow—Mysore villages revisited. London: English Language Book Society and Macmillan. ———. 1998. ‘Researcher’s view’, in Scarlet T. Epstein, A.P. Suryanarayana and T. Thimmegowda: Village voices: Forty years of rural transformation in South India (89– 205). New Delhi: Sage Publications. George, Sabu; Rajaratnam Abel and B.D. Miller. 1992. ‘Female infanticide in rural South India’, Economic and political weekly, 27 (22): 1153–60. Guilmoto, C.Z. and S. Irudaya Rajan. 2002. ‘Spatial patterns of fertility transition in Indian districts’, Population and development review, 27 (4): 713–38. ———. (eds.). 2005. Fertility transition in South India. New Delhi: Sage Publications. Hatti, Neelambar, T.V. Sekher and Mattias Larsen. 2004. ‘Lives at risk: Declining child sex ratios in India’, Lund papers in economic history, No. 93. Lund, Sweden: Lund University. IIPS (International Institute for Population Sciences) and Macro International. 2007. National family health survey (NFHS—3)—India 2005–06. Mumbai: IIPS. Jeffery, Patricia and Roger Jeffery. 1997. Population, gender and politics: Demographic change in rural north India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kabeer, Naila. 1996. ‘Gender, demographic transition and the economics of family size: Population policy for a human-centred development’, Occasional paper 7. Geneva: UNRISD. Kaur, Ravinder. 2004. ‘Across-region marriages: Poverty, female migration and the sex ratio’, Economic and political weekly, 39 (25): 2595–616. Krishnamoorthy, S.; P.M. Kulkarni and N. Audinarayana. 2005. ‘Causes of fertility transition in Tamil Nadu’, in C.Z. Guilmoto and S. Irudaya Rajan (eds.): Fertility transition in South India (227–47). New Delhi: Sage Publications. Miller, B.D. 1981. The endangered sex: The neglect of female children in rural North India. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Nanda A.K. and J. Veron. 2005. ‘Child sex ratio imbalance, fertility behaviour and development in India: Recent evidence from Haryana and Punjab’, in I. Attane and J. Veron (eds.): Gender discrimination among young children in Asia (91–131). Pondicherry: French Institute of Pondicherry and CEPED. Patel, Tulsi. 2007. ‘Informal social networks, sonography and female foeticide in India’, Sociological bulletin, 56 (2): 243–62. Retherford, R.D. and T.K. Roy. 2003. Factors affecting sex-selective abortion in India and 17 major states. NFHS Series—No.21. Mumbai: IIPS and Hawaii: East-West Centre. Sekher, T.V. and K.N.M. Raju. 2004. Fertility transition in Karnataka (Monograph 5). Bangalore: Institute for Social and Economic Change. Sekher, T.V.; K.N.M. Raju and M.N. Sivakumar. 2001. ‘Fertility transition in Karnataka: Levels, trends and implications’, Economic and political weekly, 36 (51): 4742–52. Sekher, T.V. and Neelambar Hatti. 2007. ‘Vulnerable daughters in a modernising society: From son preference to daughter discrimination in rural South India’, in I. Attane and C.Z. Guilmoto (eds.): Watering the neighbour’s garden: The growing demographic female deficit in Asia (295–323). Paris: CICRED.

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Sen, Amartya. 1990. ‘More than 100 million women are missing’, New York review of books, 20 December 1990: 61–66. Srinivas, M.N. 1976. The remembered village. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Srinivasan, Sharada. 2005. ‘Daughters or dowries? The changing nature of dowry practices in South India’, World development, 33 (4): 593–615. Vella, Stephanie. 2005. ‘Low fertility and female discrimination in South India: The puzzle of Salem District, Tamil Nadu’, in C.Z. Guilmoto and S. Irudaya Rajan (eds.): Fertility transition in South India (248–81). New Delhi: Sage Publications. Visaria, P. 1971. The sex ratio of the population of India (Monograph 10—Census of India). New Delhi: Office of the Registrar General of India.

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SECTION II Young and Youth

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7 The Attitudes to English and Use of It by Students of Three Different Mother Tongues: Hindi, Kannada and Tamil Aileen D. Ross and Suraj Bandyopadhyay

T

o what extent can a foreign language, imposed on a country during a colonial period, maintain its position against strong forces promoting a new indigenous national language and the revival of many regional languages? English became the official language in India when the British were in power, through its use in the civil service, education, the professions, business and commerce. After Independence its position as the official language was threatened when Hindi was made the new national language and later when regional language groups began to push for more linguistic power (Roy 1962).1 That it has not disappeared over the twenty years since India obtained Independence implies that it may still be serving some important function. What is this function? Is it equally important for Indians in the different linguistic regions? It also implies that mechanisms still exist through which the language is being passed on to successive generations. What are these mechanisms? How effective are they in maintaining a language which was imposed from above, and, except for a small portion of the more Anglicized Indians and the small group

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of Anglo-Indians, never took roots amongst the large majority of the Indian people? A broad generalization has been formulated stating: “Language maintenance is a function of intactness of group membership or group loyalty, particularly of such ideologized expressions of group loyalty as nationalism” (Fishman 1964: 442). Does this apply to India? It is difficult to think of the English-speaking Indians as being a closely integrated group. Sociologically speaking, the one factor that binds them all is that they do speak English. An exception might be the Anglo-Indians, who may have a strong sense of loyalty to English. However, they are not numerically large enough, nor do they have enough prestige to maintain English except within their own group. What chance has a language to survive, then, when it no longer has an ‘intact group’ to maintain it, supported by ‘group loyalty’? Another broad generalization may indicate one of the main reasons why English still remains powerful in India. “When two languages are in competition the more prestigeful language displaces the less prestigeful language” (Fishman 1964: 444). In the present case, this might read: “The international prestige of English gives it strong support in comparison to the indigeneous Indian languages.” Moreover, its world-wide importance in the economic, political and scientific fields means that at least some members of each country must be facile in English. But is this reason strong enough to motivate one to learn English when one is not sure whether he will ever have to use it? Two other reasons may be more important motivating factors. Some linguistic groups, notably the Tamilspeaking Indians of Tamilnadu state, have felt that the rise of Hindi to the position of a national language has put them at a great disadvantage, particularly in regard to positions in the central civil services. They have thus tried to retain English as a barrier against Hindi. The other reason is that many ambitious parents feel that their children will not be able to attain the highest business, political or professional careers without a good knowledge of English. It is therefore still deemed important for their self-interests to see that they become fluent in that language. English, then, is still encouraged, but the degree to which it is accepted varies from one part of India to another. Various other factors may also be relevant. In this context, the present study explores the extent to which English is being maintained by samples of fourth year college students in the capital cities of three different States, each having a different regional language. “Maintenance” would be measured by the number

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of students speaking it and their proficiency in that language. The cities chosen were Bangalore, Jaipur and Madras, the capital cities, respectively, of the States of Mysore, Rajasthan and Madras.2 It was hypothesised that we would find English as being maintained to a greater extent in the Southern than the Northern cities. It was also hypothesised that English would be maintained to a greater degree in Madras than Bangalore. Finally, it was hypothesised that the students in the Southern capital cities would have a greater desire to have English as medium of instruction, and at the State and Central levels of government than those of Jaipur, and that the Madras students would be more favourable to this than those of Bangalore. The maintenance of English was tested on two levels, namely, how people were actually preserving it, and how they felt about preserving it. The first hypotheses were tested by the use of certain variables which were thought to be important in maintaining a language, namely, the use of English in the home, at school and in the students’ social life. These variables were chosen because each represented a different type of training and a different ‘approach’ to the language. The home has the advantage over the school in maintaining a ‘foreign’ language in that it may be spoken daily in a relaxed atmosphere where the child has little fear of being ridiculed, and so is able to experiment with the vocabulary. As we expected that the longer a child was exposed to a language the more proficient he would become. The students were asked two questions: “What languages did you speak at home as a child?” and “What languages do you now speak at home?” Schools and colleges have the advantage in language training in that they teach more systematically and precisely than do parents, and the child will learn to read and write as well as speak. Talking English every day, possibly with a wide variety of people as well as with friends, has the advantage of forcing the student to cover many more topics than in the home or class-room, and so it extends his vocabulary. Conversation with friends is usually of a more intimate and subtle nature, especially when it includes humour, and proficiency in this respect is perhaps the best index of a person’s bilingual ability. Several other minor hypotheses were tested, namely, that students who had grown up in cities or large towns would be more anxious to have English as medium of instruction at college, and as the official language of the State and Central governments, than those who had been brought up in villages; male students would want English at these three levels more than female students; and students who had a very high

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proficiency in English would prefer English at these three levels more than those whose proficiency in English was below average. Table  1 shows the students’ own estimation of their proficiency in English. A surprisingly large proportion of them rated their ability to speak, read and write English as very or moderately high. Only a relatively few rated themselves as moderately low or very low in this respect. Table 2 shows Table 1 Students Reporting Proficiency in English in the Three Capital Cities Considered Together Proficiency of English (1)

Percentage of Students (2)

Very high

68.9

Moderately high

13.1

Average

15.6

Moderately low

1.8

Very low

0.6 100.0 (n = 665)

Total

[The students’ claim to proficiency in speaking, reading and writing English was rated on a seven-point scale. Those coded with 6 or 7 points were said to have very high proficiency in English; 5 moderately high; 4 average; 3 moderately low and 1 and 2 were rated as very low.] Table 2 Students Reporting Proficiency in English in the Cities of Madras, Bangalore and Jaipur Percentage of Students Proficiency in English (1)

Madras (2)

Bangalore (3)

Jaipur (4)

Very high

76.1

77.0

37.2

Moderately high

10.7

11.0

22.5

Average

13.2

10.2

31.0

–

1.8

6.2

Moderately low Very low Total

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–

–

3.1

100.0 (n = 310)

100.0 (n = 226)

100.0 (n = 129)

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Table 3 Students Reporting Very High Proficiency in English in Relation to Their Use of It at Home, as Medium of Instruction at School and in Social Situations in the Cities of Madras, Bangalore and Jaipur Percentage of Students Reporting Very High Proficiency in English When

City (1)

English Was Spoken at Home During Childhood and/or at Present (2)

Madras

86.4

Bangalore

89.3

(125) (28) Jaipur

60.0 (25)

Total

83.1 (178)

Results of test for inter-city differences (χ2 at 2 df )

6.304(*)

Student Speaks English English Was the Medium of Instruction Every Day and/or Uses It Most Often with at Primary and/ Friends or High School (4) (3) 89.8 (59) 90.7 (118) 75.0 (12) 89.4 (189) 2.892(−)

80.4 (266) 89.8 (187) 47.2 (72) 77.5 (525) 45.285(**)

[Figures in brackets indicate the number of students in each cell; in this and other tables ‘**’ and ‘*’ show where the results are significant at 1% and 5% levels respectively, ‘−’ shows that a result is not significant at even 5% level.]

that this is more true for the students studying in Madras and Bangalore than in Jaipur. In that city, we find a much larger proportion of students who claim to possess average or below average proficiency in English. When we look at Tables 3 and 4 we see the way in which the three variables—speaking English at home, exposure to it at school and using it in social situations—are related to the proportion of students who claimed very high proficiency in that language. We find that a higher proportion of the students from the two Southern cities had been exposed to English in these three areas than the students from Jaipur. Table 3 also shows a high association between the use of English in the home, at

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Jaipur

Bangalore

Madras

City (1)

Madras (2) (−)

2.9

Bangalore (3)

(*)

−29.3

(**)

−26.4

Jaipur (4)

English Was Spoken at Home during Childhood and/or at Present Madras (5) (−)

0.9

Bangalore (6)

(−)

−15.7

(−)

−14.8

Jaipur (7)

Medium of Instruction at Primary and/ or High School Was English

Madras (8)

(**)

−9.4

Bangalore (9)

(**)

−42.6

(**)

−33.2

Jaipur (10)

English Spoken Everyday and/or Most Often with Friends

Differences between the Cities in the Percentages of Students with Very High Proficiency in English (t-test Results Indicated in Bracket)

Table 4 Students Reporting Very High Proficiency in English in Relation to Their Use of It at Home, as Medium of Instruction at School and in Social Situations in the Cities of Madras, Bangalore and Jaipur

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school and in social situations and high proficiency in that language. The only exception is in the case of Jaipur, where less than half the students who claimed very high proficiency in English used it extensively in social situations. Unexpectedly, we found that the three variables did not have the same importance in maintaining English in each city. For we had thought that if the use of English in the home was important in, say, Madras in promoting proficiency, it would be equally important in Bangalore and Jaipur. This, however, was not the case. The difference between the cities was of greatest significance in regard to the use of English in social situations, less in regard to its use in the home, and quite insignificant in regard to its use in school. This seems to suggest that the school plays a rather independent role, irrespective of the city in which it functions, whereas the location of the home has some relevance in promoting proficiency. The most important difference in the influence of the cities on proficiency in language, however, is seen in its use in social situations. To understand why this is so we must consider some of the different characteristics of the cities themselves. Only a few suggestions can be made in this short paper. One possible reason may be that, whereas Jaipur is situated in a Hindi-speaking region, and the other two cities are located in that part of India which is, generally speaking, pro-English and anti-Hindi, the ‘climate of opinion’ in regard to speaking English is more favourable in the latter than in the former cities (Roy 1962: 24).3 That is, students achieve prestige when they show ability in English in the South, but in the North, and this acts as a motivating factor to speak it well in public. Another reason for the difference in the climate of opinion to English in the three cities might be found in the linguistic composition of the three cities. The proportion of people who have other mother tongues than the regional language varies from city to city. Bangalore, a highly industrialized city, has attracted workers from many States. Only slightly over half of its population, 51.7%, have Kannada as mother tongue, and there are significant numbers of Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and Marathi-speaking people in that city.4 Figures for Madras show that it has a high proportion of Tamil-speaking citizens (i.e. 72.3%), a relatively large number of Telugu speaking-people, and some whose mother tongue is Urdu. Jaipur has the highest proportion of residents, 83.4%, who speak the regional language, Hindi. Urdu is the

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mother tongue of the second largest group. These two languages are so basically alike that people speaking one of them can communicate relatively easily with those speaking the other language. This means that about 94% of the population of Jaipur can communicate without the need of a common language. In the South, whereas Tamil, Kannada and Telugu have the same roots, they are different enough to make it impossible for people speaking say, Tamil, to be understood by a Kannada-speaking citizen. Urdu is an even more ‘foreign’ language, so there is much more need for a lingua franca for those living in Madras and Bangalore than in Jaipur. This linguistic composition of the population helps to explain the Southern students’ greater use of English in public, and with friends. For it is evident that students must share a mutual language if they wish to have friends, and, as the medium of instruction in the colleges is largely English, then it is the natural choice. In this way the desire to have friends becomes another motivating factor to learn English. Its use is also more practical in the affairs of daily life, for one may buy in the market from a Tamil or Telugu-speaking Indian, or have neighbours who speak these languages. The climate of opinion towards English, however, is best seen in the figures of Table 5, which show the extent to which the students desire to retain English at three important levels, namely, as medium of instruction in college, and as the official language of the Central and/ or State governments. Here we see that, whereas a very large majority of the Madras and Bangalore students wish to retain English as medium of instruction at college, only a quarter of the Jaipur students have that desire. A slightly lower but still high proportion of the Madras students wish to retain it as the official language of the Central government, and fewer, but still a high proportion want to keep it as the official State language. The Bangalore students also show a strong preference for English as medium of instruction and as the official language of the Central government. However, there is a sharp drop in the proportion of those wanting to retain it as the official State language. The figures for Jaipur vary significantly from the other two cities at each level. Only 25% want to keep it as the medium of instruction, but the proportion drops to 17% for those who wish it as the official language of the Centre, and this figure almost halves for those who want it as the official State language.

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Table 5 Students’ Preference for English as Medium of Instruction at College and as the Official Language of the Central and State Governments Compared to Their Sex, Urban or Rural Background, Proficiency in English and College City Percentage of Students Preferring English as Background Characteristics (1) Sex

Male

Medium of Instruction at College (2) 74.8 (456)

Female

76.6 (222)

63.5

(456) 57.6

(222)

(456)

0.259(−)

3.257(−)

10.667(**)

68.9

50.7

(540) Rural χ (at 1 df ) Very high

68.8 3.978(*) 86.0 (460)

Moderate or low

52.2

(540) 65.2 (138)

(540) 40.6 (138)

0.682(−)

4.542(*)

78.2

57.2

(450) 53.1

(458) 30.3

(207)

(207)

(208)

χ (at 1 df )

88.296(**)

42.828(**)

44.197(**)

Madras

90.2

88.3

71.1

2

(315) Bangalore

84.2 (278)

Jaipur

25.9 (135)

χ (at 2 df ) 2

Overall

(456)

44.3

77.0

(138)

City where studying

70.4

of the State (4)

χ (at 1 df )

2

Proficiency in English

of the Centre (3)

Urban

2

According to where brought up

Official language

224.510(**) 75.4 (678)

(315) 70.6 (228) 17.0 (135) 221.682(**) 68.1 (678)

(315) 41.7 (228) 8.1 (135) 156.717(**) 48.7 (678)

[Figures in brackets indicate the number of students in each cell.]

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It can thus be seen that the Madras students are much more strongly in favour of maintaining English than students of the other two cities, and the students of Bangalore are far ahead of Jaipur in this respect. It appears, then, that our first hypothesis that the students in the Southern capital cities would have a greater desire to maintain English than the students in the Northern city, and the Madras students more than the Bangalore students, is supported by our data. In this sense, the “Southern” cities have their internal variations and should not be bracketed as such. The second hypothesis, based on the expectation that those brought up in cities would be more cosmopolitan in outlook than those who had grown up in small towns, and would therefore have a greater desire to keep English as medium of instruction at college, and as the official language of the two governments, was borne out in the first two instances. There was no significant difference, however, in their desire to have English as the official language of the Central government. The third hypothesis, that male students would prefer English at these three levels more than female students was not maintained except in respect to the State government, for the female students showed a keener desire to have English at that level than the men. Finally, very high proficiency in English was highly associated with approval of retaining English in each city. Therefore, proficiency more than any of the other variables tested becomes the common and the most important factor in motivating students to retain English. In summary, the extensive use of English as medium of instruction in primary and/or high school was found to be the most important factor in attaining proficiency in English. For it was an influential factor irrespective of the city in which the learning took place. Speaking English at home when the students were young and/or at the present time was found to be next in importance. However, speaking English every day and most often with friends was not found to be highly associated with proficiency in all of the cities. In other words, it was the variable most affected by outside contingencies, and so not a constant influence in learning English. When we look at the way in which the different variables are associated with the students’ desire to retain English in three important areas of life we find that proficiency in the language is more highly associated with the desire to retain English at these three levels (Table 6). The conclusions drawn from these data are that, whereas the school and

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3.753 (−)

χ2 (at 3 df ) in case χ2 at 1 df is not significant at 1% level

86.5 (74)

Moderate or low

1.636 (−)

91.5 (236)

Very high

χ2 (at 1 df )

Madras (2)

Proficiency in English (1)

23.552 (**)

61.5 (52)

89.8 (176)

Bangalore (3)

11.650 (**)

14.8 (81)

41.7 (48)

Jaipur (4)

Medium of Instruction at College

2.327 (−)

0.061 (−)

89.2 (74)

91.2 (228)

Madras (5)

7.832 (*)

5.610 (*)

57.7 (52)

74.7 (174)

Bangalore (6)

Official Language of the Centre

9.232 (**)

17.3 (81)

41.7 (48)

Jaipur (7)

Percentage of Students Preferring English as

13.589 (**)

5.580 (*)

60.0 (75)

74.5 (236)

Madras (8)

15.377 (**)

6.075 (*)

26.9 (52)

46.0 (174)

Bangalore (9)

Official Language of the State

5.979 (−)

2.410 (−)

4.9 (81)

12.5 (48)

Jaipur (10)

Table 6 Students’ Preference for English as Medium of Instruction at College and as the Official Language of the Central and State Governments Compared to Their Proficiency in English5

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home are the main agencies that generate proficiency in English, it is the mastery of the language which becomes the key factor in determining the students’ attitudes towards English. In other words, proficiency in English leads to a preference to retain it.

Notes 1. Roy (1962) gives a comprehensive account of the rise of Hindi in the different linguistic States in India. 2. The original study is based on the answers of 1,254 fourth year college students in the summer of 1965 to a questionnaire based on their language experiences at home, school and college. Their Mother Tongues were Tamil, Kannada and Hindi. Data were gathered from colleges in the capital cities of Madras, Bangalore and Jaipur, and from two other non-capital cities and small towns in the Southern States. This enabled us to compare the different ways in which the students wanted to maintain English in cosmopolitan atmosphere of the city areas as compared to those attending colleges in the more rural atmosphere of small towns. Number of Students in Sample State

Sample Size

Capital City

City

Town

Madras

531

Madras

320

Madurai

150

Vaniambadi

Mysore

577

Bangalore

236

Mysore

154

Tumkur

Rajasthan

146

Jaipur

146

−

Total

1254

702

61 187

− 304

248

This paper, however, deals only with the data collected in the three capital cities. 3. Roy claims that some Indians want to maintain English because it was never regarded as a “foreign imposition, associated with foreign rule and to be discarded like foreign cloth. It was on the contrary taken as the one relieving feature of British rule, to be carefully nursed, developed and used for the delectation of the mind. Hindi on the other hand was regarded (in the South) as a North Indian imposition to be resisted and discarded.” This helps to explain the prestige of English in Southern India, and why it has been used as a lingua franca instead of the regional languages, such as Tamil and Kannada. The use of English was probably more important in Bangalore as it was a cantonment during part of the British period. 4. Census of India, 1961. Vol. I, Part II-C(ii), Language Tables. Only the languages spoken by 1% or more of the population in the city are shown. Percentage of the population speaking different languages: Madras-Tamil, 72.3%, Telugu 14.4%, Urdu 6.0%

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Bangalore-Kannada 51.7%, Telugu 17.5%, Tamil 16.2%, Urdu 9.7%, Marathi 2.5% Jaipur-Hindi 83.4%, Urdu 13.6%, Punjabi 2.7%. 5. For the purpose of this table all the codes of the item denoting the “below average” and “average” proficiency were lumped into one category while the three other codes representing the “above average” proficiency were treated exactly. Unlike Madras, the (obtained) value of x2 for Jaipur led to a more sensitive test of significance as follows: χ2

Source

df

Linear regression

1

5.035 (*)

Deviation

3

1.028 (−)

Overall value

4

6.063 (−)

A test similar to that done for Jaipur becomes more effective: Source

df

χ2

Linear regression

1

9.088 (**)

Deviation

3

1.257 (−)

Overall value

4

10.345 (**)

Since the overall obtained value of x2 for Madras would not be significant even at 1 df, the splitting of overall obtained x2 would not provide any additional evidence.

References Fishman, Joshua A. 1964. Language Loyalty in the United States the Maintenance and Perpetuation of non-English Mother Tongues by American Ethnic and Religious Groups. Stanford: United States Office of Education. Roy, N. C. 1962. Federation and Linguistic States. 1962. Calcutta: Sri Gouranga Press Private Ltd. Census of India, Vol. I, Part II-C (ii) Language Tables. 1961.

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8 Perception of the Female Role by Indian College Students Khadlid Ahmed Kazi and Rehana Ghadially

Introduction

U

ntil recently the most widely accepted assumption concerning sex-roles was that they were innate and by-products of a biological predisposition. This assumption has been questioned by social scientists. The most recent research evidence1 indicates that the sex role system is the result of socialization and therefore open to change. The contemporary scene is characterized by a re-definition of the female role accompanied by appropriate adjustments in the male role. It has been found across several cultures, that females are more egalitarian than males in their attitudes toward marriage roles (Arkoff 1964; Ghadially 1977). Previous studies show that the female career role has become increasingly accepted as the norm. However, the males reported difficulty in acknowledging this ideal in their own behaviour (Dorn, 1970). In a study done on Indian college women more than 50% of them aspired for a career (Ghadially, 1977). As more and more women hope to have a career, the conflict between home and work is inevitable. Freedman (1965) found that most college women were not inclined

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to value conventional feminine characteristics or behaviour. Almost every student indicated she would like to many and over half the senior students said they desired careers. Career-oriented interviewees foresaw various amounts of conflict between the two aspirations. In a longitudinal study Angrist (1972) labelled all women who aspired to combine family life and career as careerist. A careerist usually chooses a male-dominated occupation and views domesticity and child care as matters to be delegated to others, if necessary. The non-careerist intends to centre her life totally on her family and to work only in case of financial need. The purpose of the present study was to investigate empirically whether college men and women with “traditional” and “non-traditional” attitudes toward sex-roles, differ in terms of the importance they attach to marriage and age of marital partner, the wife’s educational and career aspirations.

Method Subjects Subjects consisted of 193 male and 286 female college students drawn from the disciplines of arts, commerce, engineering, home science, law, medicine and pure sciences. The mean age of the subjects was 22.0 years. The mean number of years the subjects had received formal education was 13.9 years. The mean family income of the subjects was Rs. 1989.

Procedure The subjects were administered a questionnaire part of which dealt with perception of sex-roles, importance of marriage, their educational and career plans. The questionnaire was adopted from the one originally developed and used in a cross-cultural study at Rutger’s University2. Perception of sex-roles was measured by twenty-one Likert-type items with a minimum score of 1 indicating a “traditional” position and a maximum score of 4 indicating a “non-traditional” position. The items covered the areas of personality traits and sex-role behaviour at work and

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home. In order to compare “traditional” and “non-traditional” subjects, the sample was divided into three groups of approximately 160  each. Those with scores above 2.63, were classified as “non-traditional” whereas those below 2.38 were classified as “traditional”. The remaining subjects (with scores between 2.33 and 2.63) were dropped in order to emphasize the differences between the “traditional” and “non-traditional” subjects. By this procedure, the final sample consisted of 326 students of which 49 males and 114 females constituted the “non-traditional” group, and 86 males and 77 females constituted the “traditional” group.

Results and Discussion Marriage and Age of Marital Partner In practically every society marriage is offered as a desirable goal for men and more so for women. The importance of marriage was examined for both the sexes. Though marriage was less important to non-traditional subjects, compared to traditional subjects the trend did not approach significance. It is interesting to observe that 21% of girls think marriage is of little importance. More traditional girls than non-traditional ones think that marriage is very important whereas more non-traditional girls feel that marriage is of moderate importance. Non-traditional girls are looking for sources of self-fulfillment and security other than marriage. It is a step away from the binding influence of home and family and promises an alternative life style for women. A greater number of non-traditional boys (74%) and girls (21%) as compared to traditional boys (28%) and girls (10%) were prepared to marry older women and younger men respectively. The difference between non-traditional and traditional subjects was stronger for males than females. In general, men were more willing to marry older women than women were willing to marry younger men. The reasons cited by males for not wanting to marry older women, a significant difference was obtained for only two viz. opposition by society and not having much in common. 29.5% of traditional males as opposed to 6.5% of the nontraditional males cited social reasons whereas 56.7% of non-traditional males compared to only 35.9% of traditional males mentioned incompatibility as grounds for not wanting to marry older women. Coming to girls, 41.9% of non-traditional girls as opposed to only 30.1% of

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traditional girls mentioned insufficient maturity as a reason. 34.2% of traditional women as opposed to 18.1% of non-traditional girls quoted social reasons for not wanting to marry younger men. The traditional subjects of both the sexes were more concerned about conforming to the society’s present norms while the non-traditional subjects did not consider societal pressure an important factor in making personal decisions. Non-traditional male and female subjects did not agree on their reasons for not conforming with the existing norms regarding ages of partners. Female subjects thought insufficient maturity of younger men to be crucial whereas males found incompatibility to be important. This indicates a sex difference in the qualities emphasized by objects in their marriage partners.

Education and Career With new concepts in sex-roles, one expects a change in the educational patterns and career commitments of women. It was found that 17.4% of non-traditional girls aspired for doctoral studies compared to only 6.8% of the traditional girls. Only 22.0% of non-traditional girls as compared to 44.6% of traditional girls aspired for bachelors degree. This supports the idea that a non-traditional girl wishes to pursue higher education and views it as a means for career and greater economic independence in the future. It has been shown that the higher the educational level achieved the more likely a woman is to work (Ginzberg 1968). It may be noted that college men in general aspire to higher educational levels than non-traditional women. Similar findings were obtained by Coates and Southern (1972) among American college students. On the question why women attend universities, the reason most frequently mentioned by “non-traditional” men was developing intellectual capacities. The traditional men, on the other hand, mentioned ‘finding a suitable marriage partner’—most frequently. More non-traditional girls cited preparation for a career as a reason why women attend universities, whereas more traditional girls mentioned developing intellectual capacities. This finding supports an earlier study (Ghadially, 1977) in which 50% of the college girls said they would like to be remembered as brilliant students. The above mentioned two reasons were cited by nearly twice as many girls as boys. On this issue, the thinking of nontraditional men and traditional women is alike. Probably education is

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viewed as helping a woman become an enlightened wife and mother. Traditional men continue to think of a girl’s education as only a means for finding a highly qualified and well-placed husband. They assess her future status not in terms of her educational accomplishments per se, but as some thing derived from the man she marries. It is only the nontraditional woman who sees education as means of achieving economic independence. This difference in their perception of the women’s intentions and desires could lead to conflict in later years. The male subjects were asked three questions concerning the career of their wives. Firstly, the respondents imagined themselves 15 yrs. from now, drawing an adequate salary. 57.6% of traditional males and only 33.3% of non-traditional males imagined themselves married to a woman who would be a full-time wife and mother. 14.3% of nontraditional males as opposed to only 2.2% of traditional males imagined themselves married with children and wife working full time (Table 1). In the second question, the respondent was asked to assume that his wife is trained in the occupation of her choice, they have children and he earns enough so that she doesn’t really have to work unless she wants to. All the situations where the wife was working, were acceptable to a greater number of non-traditional men (approximately 50%) than traditional men (approximately 28%). 73.89? of non-traditional men as compared Table 1 Percentage of Male Subjects Imagining Themselves to Be in a Given Situation 15 Years Hence Percentage of Non-traditional

Percentage of Traditional

Married with wife being a full time housewife

33.3

57.6

Married with children and wife working part-time

28.6

27.2

Married with children and wife working full-time

14.2

2.2

9.5

3.3

14.3

9.8

Situation

Married without children and wife working full-time Be a bachelor Chi-Square: 9.42 (P 0.05).

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to 89.4% of traditional men found it acceptable for a qualified wife to look after home and family. The differences were significant (Table 2). The third question concerned with various circumstances under which they would be willing to let their wives work. In each of the circumstances, it was found that the percentage of non-traditional males permitting their wives to work was significantly greater than the percentage of traditional males who did so (Table 3). In their study of college men’s attitude towards motivation of women for seeking employment Table 2 Percentage of Male Subjects Accepting a Wife Doing a Given Type of Work Percentage of Non-traditional

Percentage of Traditional

Chi-Square

Part-time

68.2

47.6

4.13 (P 0.05)

Full-time

24.4

10.7

3.23 (NS)

Club and Volunteer work

43.2

23.3

4.60 (P 0.05)

Sports and other activities

48.8

20.9

9.30 (P 0.01)

Part-time until children are in school, then full-time

57.8

27.9

9.93 (P 0.01)

Concentrate on home, family and children

73.8

89.4

4.05 (P 0.05)

Type of Work

Table 3 Percentage of Male Subjects Accepting a Given Circumstance as a Reason for Their Wife to Work Circumstances

Percentage of Percentage Non-traditional of Traditional

Chi-Square

Husband’s income insufficient

81.0

65.4

2.51 (NS)

To improve the standard of living

46.3

35.4

0.96 (NS)

To give her a change to make new friends

63.4

29.3

11.83 (P 0.01)

To fulfill her desire for financial independence

68.0

29.6

15.95 (P 0.01)

To fulfill her desire to pursue a career

81.8

45.0

14.33 (P 0.01)

To work outside till they have children

57.5

35.4

4.51 (P 0.05)

Under any circumstances

22.6

6.2

5.21 (P 0.05)

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after marriage, Hewer and Neubeck (1972) found that those reasons, which were related to the traditional and nurturant role of women, were found to be most acceptable. The responses to the above three questions indicate a greater willingness on the part of the non-traditional males to accept an educated wife working and participating in activities outside the home. Despite her education, traditional boys preferred her to stay at home and look after the family. Also the non-traditional males granted more freedom to their wives in her career plans than the traditional males. Similarly, female subjects were asked four questions regarding career. In the first question they were asked to imagine them-selves fifteen years hence. A greater number of non-traditional girls (77%) than traditional girls (47%) saw themselves occupied with Part-time or full-time career, with or without children. 40% of traditional girls and only 11% of nontraditional girls thought they would be a full-time housewife (Table 4). Epstein and Bronzaft (1972) found that nearly 48% of college women anticipated having a career, marriage and children within 15 yrs. and a very small percentage chose to be either unmarried career women or married career women without children. Earlier in this study, it was noted that approximately 21% of the women thought marriage was of little importance. In the light of this observation, it is not surprising that nearly 13% of all the women expect to be single and actively involved in their jobs (Table 4) In the second question, they were asked to place themselves in the position of an educated and qualified wife with children and husband’s Table 4 Percentage of Female Subjects Imagining Themselves in a Given Situation 15 Years Hence Percentage of Non-traditional

Percentage of Traditional

Being a full-time wife and mother

10.5

39.6

Married with children and working part-time

40.4

36.3

Married with children and working full-time

28.1

6.6

Situation

Married without children and working full-time Unmarried and actively involved with a job

8.8

4.4

12.3

13.2

Chi-Square: 22.57 (P 0.001).

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salary adequate. Nearly 67.5% of non-traditional girls, as opposed to only 28.9% of non-traditional girls, opted for home and family. Whereas, nearly 68.4% of non-traditional girls, as opposed to only 29.4% of traditional girls were inclined to pursue a full-time or a part-time career (Table 5). A similar trend was reported when women subjects were asked to choose between a career or marrying a man of their choice who disapproves of a working wife. 27.1% of non-traditional girls and only 7.5% of traditional girls opted for career; whereas 26.9% of traditional and only 11.9% of non-traditional girls opted for marriage. Nearly twothirds of traditional and non-traditional girls opted for marriage but hoped to change husband’s mind later (Table 6). Table 5 Percentage of Female Subjects Choosing a Given Type of Work Percentage of Non-traditional

Percentage of Traditional

Part-time

22.8

15.9

0.66 (NS)

Full-time

8.8

2.6

2.02 (NS)

Club and Volunteer work

1.8

3.9

26.16 (0.01)

Sports and other activities

0.9

0.0

0.20 (NS)

Part-time until children are in school, then full time

36.8

12.0

0.03 (NS)

Concentrate on home, family and children

28.9

67.5

Type of Work

Chi-Square

12.02 (P 0.01)

Table 6 Percentage of Female Subjects Opting for Marriage or Career Percentage of Non-traditional

Percentage of Traditional

Chose marriage

11.9

26.9

Chose marriage now and hoped to change husband’s mind later

61.0

65.6

Chose career

27.1

7.5

Response Category

Chi-Square: 13.14 (P 0.01).

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Table 7 Percentage of Female Subjects Choosing a Given Reason to Work Percentage of Non-traditional

Percentage of Traditional

Chi-Square

Husband’s income insufficient

10.6

29.9

10.05 (P 0.01)

To improve the Standard of living

19.5

29.9

2.20 (NS)

0.9

1.3

0.20 (NS)

To fulfill a desire for financial independence

15.9

14.3

0.01 (NS)

To fulfill a desire to pursue a career

45.1

18.2

To work outside till they have children

7.1

11.7

0.69 (NS)

Under no circumstance

0.0

2.6

1.00 (NS)

Circumstances

To make new friends

13.60 (P 0.01)

When the female subjects were asked their reasons for working outside the home after marriage, 29.9% of traditional girls as opposed to only 10.6% of non-traditional girls, stated insufficient family income. 45.1% of non-traditional girls and only 18.2% of traditional girls said they work in order to pursue a career (Table 7). While the non-traditional girls aimed at a career in future, the traditional girl wished to work only to supplement her husband’s income, subordinating her interests to her family. The responses to the, above four questions clearly indicate that while, a non-traditional girl seeks economic independence and greater fulfillment through a career, the traditional girl intends looking after home and family. Comparing the expectations of men and women, it was observed that the number of women intending to pursue a career, part-time or full-time, is far greater than the number of men willing to accept working wives. In their study also, Entwisle and Greenberger (1972) found that the attitudes of men towards women’s work-role were consistently more conservative than those of women.

Summary The overall picture that emerges from the findings is that a young college student with non-traditional attitudes toward sex-roles considers marriage to be less important, believes that women seek education to develop intellectual capacities, is less concerned about society’s norms of age of

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marriage partner, emphasizes compatibility between partners and consistently more prone to accepting a working wife. The non-traditional woman aspires to higher education, seeks education to develop intellectual capacities and prepares for a career, is less concerned about society’s norms of age of marriage partner and emphasizes maturity as an important quality in her husband and wishes to combine career and family.

Notes 1. For a comprehensive analysis of the origins and maintenance of the sex-role system see Writz, S. 1977. “Sex-Roles: Biological, Psychological and Sociological Foundations” Oxford University Press, New York. 2. Personal Contact with Dr. (Mrs.) L. Murty.

References Angrist, S. 1972 Variations in Women’s Adult Aspirations During College. Journal of Marriage and the Family. 34(3): 465–468. Arkoff, A. Meredith, G. and Iwhara, S. 1964 Male Dominant and Egalitarian Attitudes in Japanese, Japanese-American and Caucasian Students, Journal of Social Psychology. 64: 225–229. Coates, T. J. and Southern, M. L. 1972 Differential Educational Aspiration Levels of Men and Women Undergraduate Students. Journal of Psychology. 81: 125–128. Dorn, D 1970 Idealized Sex-Roles among Young People. Journal of Human Relations. 18(1): 789–797. Entwisle, I. R. and Greenberger, E. 1972 Adolescents’ Views of Women’s Work Role. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. 42(4): 648–656. Epstein, G. F. and Bronzaft, A. L. 1972 Female Fresh men View Their Roles as Women. Journal of Marriage and the Family. 34(4): 671–672. Freedman, M. B. 1965 The Role of the Educated Woman: An Empirical Study of the Attitudes of a Group of College Women; Journal of College Student Personnel. 6(2): 145–155. Ghadially, R. 1977 Career-Oriented and Non-Career Oriented College Women. Indian Journal of Social Work. 38(1): 45–50. Ghadially, R. 1977 Attitudes Toward Marriage-Roles among Indian College Students. Unpublished. Ginzberg, E. 1968 Paycheck and Apron Revolution in Woman-power, Industrial Relations. 7: 193–203. Hewer, V. H. and Neubeck, G. 1964 Attitudes of College Students toward Employment among Married Women. The Personnel and Guidance Journal. 42(6): 587–592.

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9 Social Class and Occupational Aspirations of College Students1 Ambarao T. Uplaonkar

Modernisation of Indian Society (1) British Rule

T

he British conquest of India may be said to have been indirectly responsible for the beginning of an era of modernisation in terms of rationalism, liberalism, secularism and humanism. Although the British colonised India and exploited Indian wealth for their own advantage, they laid the infrastructure necessary for the social change we regard as modernisation. For instance, the British established a net-work of transport and communication links—roads, bridges, railways and telephones—which facilitated spatial mobility. They established mills and factories and thereby provided alternative avenues of employment. The growth of industries, in turn, led to the growth of towns and cities. The British also introduced a formal English education based on principles of equal access for all sections of society. It was through this system of education that liberal values—of equality and secularism—were imparted to the Indian educated elite. Consequently, it was for the first time that the traditional Indian society began to

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experience changes under the impact of British rule. The new economic forces, for instance, steadily eroded the traditional division of labour based on caste. Similarly, English education questioned the very foundations of traditional values of inequality based on birth, sex and colour. In short. British rule paved the way for the emergence of a class structure which was expected to be different from the traditional social structure based on the caste system.

(2) India as a Welfare State After Independence, the founding fathers of India’s Constitution defined the goals of modernisation in terms of a welfare state. Democracy, socialism and secularism became the guiding principles of the welfare state. Individuals and groups came to be regarded as the human potential of the nation. The welfare state enjoined to conserve, protect and improve the talents, abilities and capacities of individuals and groups, especially the weaker sections and the under-privileged, such as the Scheduled Castes and Tribes, minorities, women and children, by providing social services in such fields as education, health, housing and employment. Under Article 38 of the Directive Principles, it is laid down that the State shall strive to promote the welfare of the people by securing and protecting, as effectively as it may, a social order in which justice, social, economic and political, shall inform all the institutions of national life. Article 16(1) guarantees “equality of opportunity” and Article 16 (2) forbids discrimination in employment. The idea of a welfare state is more fully defined in Article 41 of the Constitution, which runs as follows: “The State shall, within the limits of its economic capacity and development, make effective provision for securing the right to work, to education, and public assistance, in case of unemployment, old age, sickness, disablement and other cases of underserved want”. In short, the welfare state that India is envisaged to be, hopes to build a strong egalitarian and dynamic society by drawing talent from all strata of society, not excluding the lower castes and classes, women and minorities which hitherto were deprived of that opportunity and whose talent, therefore, remained untapped, undeveloped and unharnessed for the general good of the people.

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144Ambarao T. Uplaonkar

(3) Strategies of Modernisation In pursuance of the goals of a welfare state as enshrined in the constitution, a number of welfare and developmental programmes were undertaken by the government. To begin with, the process of modernisation initiated by the British was strengthened and accelerated with a slant on or bias towards social welfare. The Five Year Plans (I, II and III) made a general attempt to raise the standard of living of the people through increased production and acceleration of the growth of the national economy by rapid industrialisation, with particular emphasis on the development of basic and heavy industries. In 1952, the Government of India initiated a programme of Community Development, the main objective of which was to improve the economic conditions of the rural people by spreading the knowledge of better farm techniques and by instilling in them the desire of self-help and co-operation. Further, to accomplish the stated objectives of education in the Constitution viz., universal free elementary education and extension of greater educational facilities to the backward castes and tribes, rural people and women-folk, the government of India took steps to establish, in towns and villages, schools and colleges which had been hitherto confined only to the cities. Consequently, new criteria of differentiation based on social class—income, occupation and education—began to replace caste as a factor determining social differentiation, and as such influenced the formulation of occupational aspirations and goals of people. It remains for us now to explore the extent to which social class is acting as an agent of modernisation. To be specific, we would like to know, whether or not social class influences an individual’s or a group’s behaviour independent of traditional groups. Are there distinct class differentials in the occupational aspirations of college students? Do low class students with low caste status aspire for low occupations? Does class emerge as the main factor of influence on the occupational aspirations of college students in a society where modernisation is largely an extension of colonial heritage? It should be stressed that the role of social class in motivating social mobility in college students, by way of determining their aspirations, should be viewed in the broader context of the traditional groups—religion, caste and sex—on the one hand, and higher education on the other.

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Objective and Hypothesis (a) The aim of this paper is to analyse the influence of social class on the occupational aspirations of students in higher education. To be specific, the aim is to analyse the extent to which social class vis-a-vis traditional groups, such as religion, caste and sex, is adapting to the avowed goal of the Indian Constitution, viz. equality of opportunity. (b) Hypotheses of the Study The hypotheses of the study are as follows: (i) The higher the social class, the higher the level of occupational aspirations when the effect of religion is controlled; (ii) The higher the social class, the higher the level of occupational aspirations, when the effect of caste is controlled; (iii) The higher the social class, the higher the level of occupational aspirations, when the effect of sex is controlled: and (iv) The higher the social class, the higher the level of occupational aspirations, when the effect of religion caste and sex is controlled at one point of time.

II. Methodology (1) Universe The universe of the present study consisted of all the pre-university second year students (1300) studying in all the colleges of Gulbarga City (Karnataka) during the year 1979–80. The data for the present study were collected by administering a printed semi-structured questionnaire in English and also in Kannada, the regional language of Karnataka State, to the respondents.

(2) Social Class The social class of the respondents was measured by constructing a composite Index for Class Background (CICB). The index consisted of the respondents’ Family Class Status (father’s education, occupation and income), Kin’s Class Status (educational and occupational status of kin-members such as grand parents, uncles and siblings), Peer’s Class Status (intimate peer’s father’s occupational status), Neighbourhood Class Status (educational and occupational status of the neighbours

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with whom the respondent interacted frequently), and Rural-Urban Background (village, town and city). In order to construct the composite index for social class (CICB), first scores were given to education, occupation, income and rural-urban background and then the total scores of all individual indexes of each respondent were added together and then percentiles were computed. Accordingly, each respondent was divided into three status categories—high medium and low. The reliability of the index was tested by applying the method of item analysis (Edwards, 1969: 1952–54). First, all the respondents were arranged in a descending order according to their CICB scores. Then 200 respondents (about 20 per cent of the population—1300) with the highest scores from the top, and the lowest scores from the bottom were sorted out as high and low groups, respectively. The differences in the ranks of the high and low groups in their individual dimensions of the CICB viz., FGS, KCS, PCS, NCS and rural-urban background, were tested for their significance by the student’s ‘T’ test which yielded high values beyond .001 per cent level. Further the application of the Karl Pearson’s Product Moment (R) also yielded a high measure of correlation between different components of the index. For measuring the association between independent and dependent variables, the statistics Gamma was used. Further, to test the hypotheses rigorously, statistics such as Karl Pearson’s Product Moment—simple and partial correlation was used.

(3) Ranking of Religion and Sex Religion per se refers to spiritual values which are neither high nor low. Therefore, religions cannot be classified into high and low categories. Hence, it is a nominal variable. However, sociologically, religion is a ritual system, which also implies a secular dimension. Religion, as a social system, has both ritual and secular dimensions. The former crystalises into the latter. Although religions are not hierarchically arranged in any society, nevertheless they are perceived as high or low through their class status. Muslims in India are a backward community. Their socio-economic and educational status is low. Unlike the Hindus, the Muslim response to introduce reform in their social institutions has been discouraging. Thus taking into consideration their mobility orientations towards modern education, they have been ranked low, although

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such a ranking is arbitrary. Sex may be classified both nominally and ordinally. Viewed in terms of their lower roles and status, women have been ranked lower than men.

III. Social Background Characteristics A large proportion of the respondents were in the age group of 16–20. The mean age for the population was 18.98. Hindu and Muslim students did not differ appreciably in their mean age. However, the upper and middle caste students were younger than the lower caste students. Boys were slightly older than girls. A majority of the students in the population were Hindus. While 52 per cent of the Hindu students were from such castes as Lingayats, Marathas, Reddys, Kurubas etc., 26 per cent were from lower castes (S. Cs. and S.Ts) and 22 per cent were from upper castes (Brahmin). The data further revealed that Hindu and Muslim students did not differ considerably in their social class background. However, a majority of the upper and middle caste students came from a higher social class background. A majority of the women students also came from a higher social class background. These findings show that a majority of college students in our study were Hindu males and belonged to upper and middle castes and upper class background.

IV. Social Class and Occupational Aspirations (1) Religion Religion as a social institution means a set of ritual values, pure and impure; sacred and profane in varying degrees. The degree of combination of sacred and profane in a given religion is the result of its response to the demands of environment in the process of social evolution. Thus religions vary in their tradition-modernity make-up or mix or ability to adapt to the changing demands of social life. Indeed Yinger (1970: 288) has shown how every aspect of religion can vary from class to class: beliefs, rites, aesthetic expressions of religious emotion, the structure and leadership of religious organisation and every other phase or process

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148Ambarao T. Uplaonkar

of being religious may be different from one class to another. Thus, religion has a significant bearing on the growth of social class in a society. Muslims are, by and large, a poor community in India. Their socioeconomic and educational status is low. The Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India conducted an All India study in 1977. The study revealed that a majority of Muslims belonged to low class status, while a majority of non-Muslims belonged to middle class status. It is worth noting that the representation of Muslims in modern education and white-collar occupations is very low. Studies have revealed the comparatively low enrolment of Muslims in schools and colleges (Sharma, 1978; Khan. 1978). The share of Muslims in employment in public sectors is abnormally low. For example, in the Indian Foreign Services, which is considered the most prestigious of services, the number of Muslims in 1965 was reported to be about a dozen out of a total of 270 officers. In the Administrative Services, which is now the topmost grade of service inside India, out of a total of more than 2,000 officers, there were only 111 Muslims; a disproportionately low 5 per cent, when the Muslims constituted about 11 per cent of the total population of (in 1971) India. Similar findings have been reported by Khan (1970), Subramaniam (1971), Malhotra (1973) and Imam (1975). However, there are differences of opinion about the reasons for the low class status of Muslims in India. It has been pointed out that the chief reason for the low class status of Muslims in India is rooted in the community’s conservative social and cultural ethos and the actual minority complex of its members (Shah, 1968; Zakaria, 1971; Rahman, 1972; Krishana, 1978; Baig 1974). On the other hand, Moin Shakir is of the view that Muslim backwardness in India is largely due to the real or imputed discrimination practised by Hindus against the Muslims: “The fact is that there are highly organised vested interests belonging to the majority community. They exercise a powerful influence on the administration and succeed in pushing the minority interests to a subsidiary position (1971). It is, however, difficult to ascertain the reality of discrimination, in practice, by Hindus against the Muslims. It is also difficult to categorically pronounce whether the tenets of Islam are “rigid”, for rigidity is relative to models of modernisation, elite or mass. Instead of blaming a given tradition as rigid, it is necessary to examine the very models and strategies of modernisation. This only shows that elite models and strategies borrowed from the western context as part of a planned social change would not suit traditional societies. Observation of planned social change in India has shown that the socio-economic and educational measures

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undertaken by the government after Independence have not facilitated the growth of a middle class among Muslims. “For continuing progress in literacy and education there has to be a continuing formation of middle and lower-middle class segments with literate and educated occupations, with adequate facilities for the necessary education and also adequate job opportunities” (Kamat, 1981). “The question whether they (Muslims) are ultimately ready or willing to make the necessary investment of time, energy and resources in education is likely to depend upon whether they see this investment as commensurate with what education can give or gives them in return” (Ahmad, 1981: 1459). In short, the response of social class to modern occupations depends not only on its religious dimension, but also on the prevailing system of education which is supposed to bring about social change. In the following paragraphs we shall examine the part played by social class in influencing the occupational aspirations of Hindu and Muslim students. From Table 1 it can be discerned that there was a positive correlation between levels of occupational aspirations and levels of CICB among both Hindus and Muslims. To substantiate, 68 per cent of those of the low, 38 per cent of those of the middle and 65 per cent of those of the high CICB Hindu students had low, middle and high occupational aspirations, respectively. Table 1 Percentage Distribution of the Students Occupational Aspirations by Religion and by CICB Religion Hindu

Muslim

Occupational Low

Middle

High

Aspiration

CICB

CICB

CICB

Low

Middle

High

Total

CICB

CICB

CICB

Total

Low

68

31

13

39

95

63

17

54

Middle

26

38

28

28

3

23

13

11

6

31

33

33

2

14

70

32

Total %

100

100

100

100

100

100

100

32

Total No.

421

330

351

1102

57

64

100

100

% Total

38

30

32

100

29

32

77

198

High

√ = 0.699

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√ = 0.867

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150Ambarao T. Uplaonkar

It may be further noted that the occupational aspirations of the middle and high CICB Hindu students correspond to their respective CICB proportions in the universe. Thus it could be said that, by and large, there was a greater degree of differentiation on class axis among Hindu students. Data for the Muslim students reveal that a majority of the low (95 per cent) and middle (63 per cent) CICB had low occupational aspirations, while a majority of the high CICB (77 per cent) had high occupational aspirations. In other words, of the 198 Muslim students, only 77 (39 per cent) had high occupational aspirations. This shows that class status by itself did not make an independentdent on the occupational aspirations of Muslim students. It appears that low and middle class Muslim students did not perceive higher education as an investment for future white-collar jobs in the organised sector. Their reluctance and unpreparedness may also be due to the real or imputed fear that they would not be recruited in white-collar jobs however good their performance night be.

(2) Caste Caste per se refers to the ritual role and status that the individuals and groups are supposed to acquire by birth. Thus individuals and groups are ranked as high or low by virtue of their ritual (inherent) qualities of superiority and inferiority. As a social institution, caste has a secular or class dimension. A higher ritual status corresponds with higher class status. Thus ritual and class dimensions constitute the caste system in varying degrees. In the traditional Indian society there was a high measure of association or linkage between caste and class. Members of higher caste had also higher class status. Thus one’s ability to achieve status in society was largely restricted to one’s ritual status. For instance, twice-born castes such as Brahmins pursued ritually high and clean occupations which, in turn, required a high level of formal education (Ghurye, 1961). The other twice-born castes, namely Khastriyas and Vaishyas largely supervised land and engaged in trade and commerce. The non-twice-born castes largely engaged in agriculture and/or allied occupations such as carpentry, gold smithy, blacksmithy, oilpressing etc., which were ranked low, both in class and ritual hierarchy, compared to those occupations pursued by the twice-born castes. The untouchable castes pursued

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degraded (menial) occupations which were ranked very low in the class and ritual hierarchy. In short, class status was largely influenced, if not totally determined, by ritual status. Thus there was a close consistency between caste and class status.2 British rule in India initiated a process of modernisation through English education which was open to all and a limited measure of industrialisation and urbanisation which opened new avenues of status achievement for the non-Brahmin castes. However, the major benefits of modernisation accrued mainly to Brahmins followed by the rich trading and peasant castes, especially in Karnataka (the Old Mysore State). On the other hand, the poorer sections among the peasant castes and the untouchable castes could not respond to English education. This was due to the lack of a literary tradition combined with the shortcomings of poverty and rural residence which came in the way of these castes in exploiting the new educational system. Besides, the immediate utility of the new system of education could not be perceived by them, particularly by the lower castes, for the reason that they did not sec in English education any direct expansion of their traditional work or skills: the new system of education was as alien as the traditional (Gurukula) system (Chauhan, 1967). The available data with regard to the impact of modernisation, in terms of socio-economic measures and educational facilities, on the system of stratification after Independence, show that the upper castes continue at the top of the class hierarchy while the lower castes, except a small elite group, are found at the bottom of the hierarchy (Gist, 1954: Savani, 1956: Driver, 1962: Subramanium, 1971). Sociologists have argued that modernisation after Independence, whether in the field of agriculture, industry or education, has not improved the lot of the common masses, but helped the upper classes (Dube, 1958: 82–83: Mandelbalm, 1960: 18). It is pertinent, therefore, to analyse the modernising effect of social class on the occupational aspirations of college students with different caste statuses. Data presented in Table 2 reveal that by an large, there was a correlation between levels of occupational aspirations and levels of CICB categories in the caste, except the middle CICB in the high caste. This gives an impression that there were social class differences in the occupational aspirations of the various caste groups. In other words, caste hierarchy was beginning to become open. However, a deeper analysis of the data reveals a different picture. For instance, of the low caste

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216

75

Total No.

% to Total

4

High

100

27

Middle

Total %

69

CICB

Aspirations

Low

Low

Occupational

17

49

100

41

51

8

CICB

8

23

100

69

22

9

CICB

High

√ = 0.876

Middle

Low

100

288

100

14

30

54

CICB

Total

31

179

100

9

36

65

CICB

Low

37

212

100

30

39

31

CICB

32

180

100

69

19

12

CICB

High

√ = 0.654

Middle

Middle

Caste Status

100

371

100

37

28

35

CICB

Total

Table 2 Percentage Distribution of the Students Occupational Aspirations by Caste and by CICB

11

26

100

4

15

81

CICB

Low

28

69

100

25

29

46

CICB

61

148

100

44

25

16

CICB

High

√ = 0.681

Middle

High

100

243

100

44

25

31

CICB

Total

152Ambarao T. Uplaonkar

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respondents (288). 216 or 75 per cent were from the low CICB, and of the low CICB (216), 69 per cent had low occupational aspirations. In other words, a majority of the SC students who came from a low class status had low occupational aspirations. Notwithstanding the efforts of the government of India to uplift the status of the SC students through the policy of protective discrimination—reservation in education and occupation, the SC students have not shown a significant upward rise in their perception. The policy of protective discrimination, it is argued, seems to have had an adverse effect on the process of upward mobility of the SC students. Reservations conditioned the educated elites among the untouchables to look upon the administration, bureaucracy as their reference group. When they cannot get into it they can hardly take an entrepreneurial role in trade, commerce and other areas (Roy-Burman, 1974). In an earlier study by the present author (Uplaonkar, 1977), it was found that SC youths hardly took advantage of the opportunities provided by the government for small scale industries. It is not enough if mere educational, economic and occupational concessions are provided to the SC students,’ what is needed is a purposeful and innovative planning of the educational system so as to prepare a large number of the SC students for middle level vocations. Data with regard to the middle castes show two extreme trends: (i) of the middle castes students (571), 31 and 31 percent came from low and high CICB, but their respective representation of aspirations in the low (65 percent) and high (69 percent) were” far more than their actual proportions in the universe. This means, lower class students of the middle caste status had fewer chances of improving their status in society, (ii) On the other hand, it was a small proportion of the upper class middle caste students who were able to rise high in the occupational hierarchy. An examination of the data for the uppercaste students reveals interesting and important findings. For example, of the total (243) 11 and 28 per cent were drawn from the low and middle CICB, respectively. However, a majority of them (81 and 46 per cent) in their respective CICB categories had low occupational aspirations. In other words, about 40 per cent of the upper caste students were aspiring for low occupations. It will be seen further that of the total upper caste students, 61 per cent came from a high CICB, but it was only 44 per cent of them that had high occupational aspirations. This clearly indicates that the

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154Ambarao T. Uplaonkar

Brahmin students are beginning to realise that prestigious posts in the government are increasingly becoming difficult and beyond their reach.

(3) Sex The roles and statuses of men and women are defined in terms of ritual ideology. In India, the social status of women has been lower than that of men. Women were, and are even now, considered ritually low, and therefore were not entitled to certain privileges. Women were denied, for instance, the right to formal education, especially among the caste Hindus; they were also not supposed to take up occupations outside the house. Their main role was conceived in terms of wife and mother and not as earning members. With the advent of science and technology industrialisation and urbanisation, a process of secularisation has begun to take place in the educational and occupational spheres. Further, the acceptance of a welfare state after Independence ushered in a new era of modernisation with respect to women’s education and occupation. Women’s role is no longer restricted to the twin functions viz., of child bearing and rearing, but stands extended to careers and gainful employment. In other words, besides the role of bearing and rearing of children, exploitation, and channelisation of women’s energies and skills into careers and gainful employment has become the key-role of modernisation. This education is supposed to provide different avenues of careers and gainful employment to women, depending on their social background-caste, class and rural-urban background. Even so, the efforts of the government and social agencies have not succeeded in improving the status of women compared to that of men. To illustrate, the proportion of literate males rose to 34 per cent in 1961 and 39 per cent in 1971. The proportion of female literates, on the contrary, remained significantly low, a mere 13 per cent in 1961 and 19 per cent in 1971. According to the 1971 census, about 52.5 per cent of all men, as against only 12 per cent of all women, were enumerated in the work force. It needs to be pinpointed here that the whole process of planning geared to raising the social status of women has been conceived and attempted through formal education and white-collar jobs. The prevailing system of education, especially that of higher and professional education, facilitates women students mostly with the upper class background.

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A large proportion of women students in general education (Arts courses) do not perceive any occupational opportunity. In short, the system of education provides occupational mobility to only a small proportion of upper class women with avenues for white-collar jobs in organised sectors, while a large proportion of them with lower and middle class background either do not find any access to the system or a majority of those enrolled in higher education are left unprepared for any independent occupational role or self-employment. As a result, the majority of women have to be content with the traditional role viz., bearing and rearing. Hence, their low social status. In the following paragraphs we shall examine the part played by class status in relation to men and women in influencing their occupational aspirations. It will be seen from Table 3 that there was a correlation between levels of occupational aspirations and levels of CICB among the men students. For example, 69, 40, and 81 per cent of those of the low, middle and high CICB men students respectively, had their corresponding levels of occupational aspirations. However, the low CICB men students seemed to have lower occupational aspirations compared to their proportion (44 per cent) in the universe. On the other hand, the middle and high CICB men students had higher occupational aspirations compared to their proportions in the universe. This means, it was Table 3 Percentage Distribution of the Students Occupational Aspirations by Sex and by CICB Sex Male

Female

Occupational

Low

Middle

High

Aspirations

Middle

High

CICB

CICB

CICB

CICB

CICB

CICB

Total

Low

69

25

4

37

96

65

29

51

Middle

25

40

15

27

4

25

29

24

6

35

81

36

−

10

42

25

Total %

100

100

100

100

100

100

100

100

Total No.

432

282

261

977

46

110

167

323

% Total

44

29

27

100

14

34

52

100

High

√ = 0.82

Chapter 09.indd 155

Total

Low

√ = 0.742

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156Ambarao T. Uplaonkar

the middle and upper class students among men who had opportunities to rise in the social hierarchy. Data for the women students reveal that about 48 per cent (14 and 34 per cent from low and middle CICB, respectively) of the women students had low occupational aspirations. That means they had taken to college education as a status symbol or just to keep themselves busy until their parents found suitable bridegrooms. The data further reveal that although 42 per cent of the high CICB women students had high occupational aspirations, nevertheless, this proportion is lower than their population in the universe (52 per cent). It means that, by and large, women students had low occupational aspirations.

(4) Application of Simple and Partial Correlation Method Finally, an attempt was made to explore rigorously which of the social background variables-religion, caste, sex and social class (CICB)—had a decisive and significant influence on the occupational aspirations of the respondents by applying simple and partial correlation method. (i) Zero Order Correlation: From Table 4 it will be seen that there was less correlation between traditional groups such as religion, caste Table 4 Social Background and Occupationl Aspirations (Coefficient of Simple and Partial Correlation and Determination) Occupational Aspirations Variable

Simple Corr.

Partial Corr.

Religion

.0512 (0029)

1308 (017)

Caste

.2339 (07)

.1964 (038)

Sex

1481 (0219)

4172 (174)

CICB

5984 (.23)

6617 (4378)

Note: 1. The correlation values between social background and Occupational aspirations are significant at .001 level. 2. Figures in brackets are R 2.

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and sex and occupational aspirations. For example, religion made only 0.29 per cent of contribution to the occupational aspirations of the respondents. That means, Hindu students did not differ substantially in their occupational aspirations from the Muslims. Similarly, the contribution of sex to the occupational aspiration was low (2.19 per cent). However, caste status seems to have had an important bearing on the occupational aspirations of the respondents (7.00 per cent). This indicates that upper castes have higher occupational aspirations than lower. However, it is important to observe that social class (CICB) had greater influence (25.00 per cent) on the occupational aspirations of the respondents. These data show that class and caste status were making significant contribution to the occupational aspirations of the respondents. The application of the simple correlation method, however, does not show which of the social background variables mainly influenced the occupational aspirations of the respondents. This could be achieved by applying the partial correlation method. (ii) A partial correlation analysis of the influence of social background variables in terms of religion, caste, sex and social class (CICB) showed that social class played a larger part in determining the occupational aspirations of the respondents (43.78 per cent), while the influence of sex came next (17.4 per cent). It becomes clear that men respondents from the upper class had higher occupational aspirations than the students from the lower class and the women.

Summary and Conclusion The aim of this paper was to find out the influence of social class vis-avis traditional groups such as religion, caste and sex on the occupational aspirations of students in higher education. An analysis of the influence of class status on the occupational aspirations of college students, after controlling for the effect of religion, caste and sex (separately), revealed that class status by itself did not exercise any significant influence on the occupational aspirations of the respondents. Traditional groups, on the contrary, did influence the occupational aspirations of college students through class status as an intervening variable or factor. However, an analysis of the data by applying simple and partial correlation method revealed that class status made a major contribution to the occupational aspirations of the students. Viewed in terms of

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statistical finding, it is the class status rather than the traditional groups or ritual status, which is beginning to influence the occupational aspirations of college students. It means that modern India is providing a greater degree of scope to individuals for upward mobility on the basis of their class status. Does this mean that modern Indian society is becoming relatively open and thereby providing equality of opportunity? Such a conclusion would be unwarranted. Although class is based on the principle of achievement, it may, nevertheless, be considered an ascribed status in as much as achievement itself is largely restricted to ritual status. This is mainly because social planning initiated by the government of India through elite models and strategies—socio-economic and educational—has been in favour of the dominant community (Hindus), upper castes and classes and men. In other words, the modernisation process in India is a conservative force. It is a drag on the Indian society. The equality of opportunity guaranteed by the Indian Constitution to every citizen, regardless of religion, caste, or sex, has not become a reality in practice. Or, it might be said that the modernisation that we have been witnessing is only such as to contravene the principles of secularism and social justice. “In societies where the nature of modernisation is particularistic, inequitable and discriminatory, it results in strengthening and consolidating the position of the traditionally privileged and elite groups and weakening the position of the expropriated, it thus increases the gulf between the higher and lower strata. The indices of modernisation— education, occupation, power and cultural styles of life—support the view that modernisation . . . so far has been confined to the privileged castes and class families. Consequently, modernisation does not result in distributive justice, as the role differentiation is confined within the upper segments of the (Indian) society” (Sharma, 1970: 1542).

Notes 1. This paper is based on findings, of the author’s thesis: “A Study of Occupational Aspirations, as Related to Social Background of Students in Higher Education in a Middle Sized City in Karnataka” which was submitted to the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Bombay. I am grateful to professor, MS. Gore, former Director, TISS, Bombay, who supervised the thesis. 2. It should be pointed out that the lower castes which improved their class status (economic or occupational) in course of time, staked then’ claim for a higher ritual status by adopting the customs and traditions of the upper castes.

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References Ahmad, I. 1981 “Muslim Educational Backwardness An Inferential analysis”, Economic and Political Weekly, September 5. Baig, M. R. A. 1974 The Muslim Dilemma in India, Delhi: Vikas. Chauhan, B. R. 1967 “Special Problems Regarding Education Among the Scheduled Castes” in M. S. Gore et al (ed.), Papers in the Sociology of Education in India, NCERT. Driver. T. 1963 “Caste and Occupational Structure in Central India”, Social Forces, Dec. Ghurye, G. S. 1961 Caste, Class and Occupation, Bombay: Popular. Edwards. A. I. 1969 Techniques of Attitude scale Construction, Bombay: Vikas. Gist, N. 1954 “Caste Differentials in South India”. Am. Soc. Rev., 19, (April). Dube, S. C. 1938 Indian Village, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd. Govt. of India, Ministry of Home Affairs. 1977 Urban Tensions (Contemporary Muslim Attitudes and their place in Indian Society), Delhi: Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Imam, Z. (ed.). 1975 Muslims in India, New Delhi: Orient. Krishna, P. S. 1978 “Education of a National Minority: A case study of Muslim Community in Delhi”, New Delhi: Kamalakar. Kamat, A. R. 1981 “Literacy and Education of Muslims; A Note”, FPW, June 6. Malhotra, I. 1981 “What Ails Indian Muslims”, The Illustrated Weekly of India, Bombay, April, 22. Rahman, H. 1972 “Muslim Education in 19th Century-Bengal”, Quest, No. 76, May-June. Roy-Burman, B. K. 1977 “The Problem of Untouchables” Seminar (177), May, 1974, Reprinted in Tribe, Caste and Religion, (ed), R. Thaper, Macmillan. Shah, A. B. 1968 Challenges to Secularism, Bombay: Nachiketa. Shakir, M. 1972 Muslims in Free India, New Delhi: Kamalakar. Sharma, K. D. 1978 “Education of a National Minority”. Delhi: Kamalakar. Sharma, K. L. 1969 “Modernisation and Rural Stratification”, EPW Vol. V, No. 37, Sept. 12. Yinger, J. M. 1969 The Scientific Study of Religion, London: MacMillan. Sovani, et al. 1956 Poona: A Survey of Poona, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics. Subramanian, V. 1971 Social Background of India’s Administrators, Govt. of India. Uplaonkar, A. T. 1977 “A Study of Self-Employed Industrial Entrepreneurs”, The Indian Journal of Social Work, Vol. 38, No. 2. Zakaria, R. 1970 Rise of Muslims in Indian Politics, Bombay: Somayya.

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10 Youth Aspirations vis-a-vis National Development: Participate or Emigrate?1 Narsi Patel

Emigration and Development

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eople’s migratory impulse is older than their desire to settle in a well-defined territory. Migrations are related to the uneven development of resources. The strong migrate to extend their control over resources. Their dominance turns a self-reliant economy into a dependent one and the impoverished natives into nomads. The weak migrate essentially to redress their grievance of underdevelopment. The imbalance in development may occur between nations as well as within the country, both spurring out-migration. During the British colonial rule, the indenture system was instituted in India to recruit labourers for sister colonies soon after the abolition of slavery in 1833. This form of emigration mainly from Bihar and Tamil Nadu hardly benefited the indentured labourers of India. This system of semi-slavery created a national resentment and was eventually discontinued. The Indian communities so formed were constrained through immigration and other laws to remain in labor force and rarely reaped the fruits of their labor. The other stream of emigration of “free passengers” flowed from Gujarat and Punjab generally toward the same colonies (Patel, 1974). They fulfilled the British needs for lower administrative staff and retail business “in the bush”. If they were a little better

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off than their counterparts of indenture ancestry, it was because of their “sojourner”’ status combining savings abroad with farm life in India (Patel, 1972). Emigration after independence continued from Gujarat and Punjab in the form of chain migration. Once abroad, the emigrants proceeded to attract others in an effort to complete their family and reconstruct their community. But because of immigration restrictions almost everywhere. England was the only country open, and that too for factory labor alone. In the late sixties and seventies, emigrants stemming from different parts of India, were either professionals or relatives of Indian immigrants, heading for the shores of North America. The immigration law reforms of 1965 in the United States gave such an impetus (Keely, 1971). The relationship of emigration with national development may be viewed in terms of economic gains through remittances and other investments, sharing of scientific and technological expertise, and the easing of the population pressure. It may also be viewed negatively as a “brain-drain”. The experience with the system of indentured labor left a permanent scar on the national psyche. The free passenger type emigration brought a significant but localized development to the two regions but was inconsequential to the nation as a whole in view of the enormity of population problems. In the post independence era the early FiveYear Plans prompted the massive construction of heavy industries, highways, bridges, dams, and canals placing a high demand for engineers, scientists and administrators in the country. This was the time when an emigrating professional was considered as betraying the mission of nation-building. The labeling of “brain-drain” persisted even after the developmental activities stabilized and the job market lagged behind the ever increasing cadre of professionals. A new awareness in the Third World places the onus of development not entirely on the country. In this context of world polarization between penury and plenty, emigration of the better educated is likely to be taken as a resource to bargain with the developed nations for other scarce resources.

The Research Problem and Setting Sociological evidence suggests that migration proceeds toward the area of greater opportunities. Micro level studies of rural migration to urban areas point to uneven development in both developed and

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developing countries (DeJong and Gardner, 1981). Similarly, macrolevel models of emigration from developing nations to to the metropolitan countries of the West refer to differential opportunities (Bonacich and Hirata, 1980). Within this theoretical framework, one can hypothesize that changes in the opportunity structure within the home community or society are likely to slow down, if not entirely halt, out-migration. Changed conditions such as perceived improvement in the national economy and greater identification with national development are expected to affect emigration aspirations. My observations have led me to believe that conditions in India have improved in the last decade. Almost every village is electrified, has a school, and affords mechanical transportation to markets and hospitals. The literacy rate is higher, infant mortality down, life expectancy longer, and chronic diseases have almost disappeared. The Green Revolution has brought abundance beyond the imagination of the grandfather generation, although it is felt that its benefits have been less than equitable. While I proceeded to test the hypothesized negative correlation between perceptions of national development and aspirations of emigration, I was aware that the youth would perceive improvements in India in relativistic terms. That is, in their assessment even if India made tremendous strides, so had the Western countries; not only that, the gap in differential opportunities had widened. The present study formed a part of a project broader in scope intended to provide a data base for my on-going research on the Gujarati diaspora. For that reason it was not tight in design as it could have been. The objective of this paper was to assess the youth’s identification with national life, their perceptions of economic changes, the extent to which they were caught up in chain migration (having close relatives living abroad), their occupational background, and the relationship of these factors with their aspirations to stay or go abroad. The selection of youth in the final year of high school was based on the rationale that this was the time in their life crucial for making career decisions. Five high schools within, a 20-mile radius in Surat and Bulsar districts of Gujarat were covered. These high schools and this area had sent a great number of migrants for three generations. But they were not atypical of the region and certainly not atypical in terms of emigration. A structured questionnaire, printed in Gujarati, was administered to

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all the seniors present on the day of the survey in 1979 (n = 489). The analysis was done on return to the United States.

Analysis Completion of high school education is a turning point in the life of the young. Asked about plans after the public examination for the Secondary School Certificate, an overwhelming majority (three out of four) among those answering (407 out of 489) mentioned further study in college; of the remaining, half indicated going abroad and the other half seeking jobs or joining father’s occupation. It was assumed that many did not even enter high school or dropped out of it. These achievers realized that higher education was the ladder of social mobility. But going abroad was also eyed as guaranteed uplift. A more crucial question, which became the basis for data analysis reported here, pertained to whether the high school senior would seek livelihood in the native land or go abroad. Of 489 students completing the questionnaire, 3 did not answer this question and hence much of the analysis was for n = 486. Those answering the former were 72.6%; those answering the latter were 27.4%. In this paper their responses were used to classify them into “Participate” and “Emigrate” groups.

Loss or Gain The data left little doubt that there were two divergent views of emigration. The question as to whether leaving the country of one’s birth, growth, and education is a loss for the country or a gain for the individual and indirectly for the country, brought a clear-cut distinction between the two groups. Over seven in ten of the Participate said leaving the country is a loss for the country compared to only four in ten of the Emigrate. Again far fewer Participate viewed emigration as a gain for both the individual and the country than the Emigrate (27.2% vs. 58.6%. Chi Square = 45.61: d.f. = 3; significance = .0000). The interpretation of emigration as “brain drain” has come about for specific reasons. Educational opportunities in the Third World countries like India have expanded more dramatically than job opportunities. “Western nations like England, the United States, and Canada practiced

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discrimination for long, and when they reformed their immigration policy, they stood to gain mainly from surplus professionals of the Third World. But the oversupply of talents working abroad is now considered a “brain-loan”. A more cynical characterization of immigration from the Third World as “reverse colonization” is at least amusing. The negative valuation of emigration by the Participate reveals their own ideological commitment to national wellbeing. They seem to convey that the emigrants’ prospects of social mobility and the spill-over benefits to the homeland do not necessarily translate into nation-building. On the other hand, the Emigrate tend to defend their aspirations by justifying the individual gain as identical to national gain. For them, what is good for the emigrant is good for the country.

Economic Assessment It was hypothesized that differential perceptions of economic improvement would reflect on the high school seniors’ aspirations to make a living in the country or emigrate. They were asked whether the economic situation in the country after independence had deteriorated, remained the same as before, improved somewhat, or greatly improved. Surprisingly, the Participated evaluation of the situation was only a little more positive than the Emigrate’s and the difference was not statistically significant (Chi square = 3.35; d.f. = 5: significance = 6465). A large majority (3 in 4) of both groups thought the economy had improved somewhat. What, according to them, would be the benefits of going abroad? Economic advantages were cited more often by the Emigrate than by the Participate (39.5% vs. 31.7%). For the Participate educational advantages outweighed all others in contrast to the Emigrate (33.2% vs. 29%). The other advantage ranked third by both groups similarly in this open-ended question was getting to know other societies, learn from their way of life, customs and traditions, and learn through travelling (the Participate 26.8% vs. 29% ). Besides these advantages, helping the country with earnings and the introduction of science and technology was cited more often by the Participate than by the Emigrate (8.2% vs. 3.3%). The difference in their perceptions of advantages was significant (Chi square = 22.77; d.f. = 3; significance = .001.

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The length of time for which they might like to go abroad was significantly shorter for the Participate, whereas the Emigrate were inclined to go abroad permanently. Of the Participate 59.2% were inclined to spend five years or less in contrast to only 21.8% of the Emigrate. Of the latter 45.9% would want to go abroad permanently as against 12.2% of the Participate (Chi square = 82.56; d.f. = 5; significance = .0000).

National Awareness Are the young in tune with the national scene? Academic performance of the high school seniors was not asked but a battery of questions regarding their knowledge of political leadership gave a clue in the matter. They were asked to name the President, the Prime Minister of India, the member of Parliament from their region, and the Chief Minister of Gujarat State. The Participate outscored the Emigrate : 86% vs 70% answering 3 to 4 names correctly. The difference was statistically significant (Chi square = 22.22: d.f. = 4; significance = .0005). Perhaps the reference groups of close relatives and friends living abroad divided the attention of the Emigrate from the immediate national focus, more so than in the case of the Participate.

Reference Groups It was expected that the aspirations of the young would be influenced not only by near and dear ones but by others who might set an example for a successful participation in national life. They were asked how many persons they knew who could have gone abroad but did not and achieved success in this country. There was a significant difference between the two groups. Of the Participate, 51.9% named 2 or more such persons as against 35.4% of the Emigrate (Chi square = 30; d.f. = 9: significance = .0004). Having family members, relatives, and friends living abroad certainly affected the aspirations of youth. Among the Participate, 74.5% did not have any family members living abroad, 62% did not have any relatives, and 85.3% did not have any friends in contrast to 52.6%, 37.6%, and 69.9% of the Emigrate respectively. By comparison, far more Emigrate had family members, relatives, and friends living abroad (47.4% vs.

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25.5%; 62.4% vs. 36%; 30.1% vs. 14.7% respectively). The two groups showed significant differences in all three matters. Obviously having close relatives and friends abroad oriented the youngsters to follow in their footsteps.

Occupational Background Father’s occupation was viewed as having a bearing on the aspirations of youth in that the prospects and problems of a specific occupation would confer a positive or negative orientation toward participation in national life. The distribution of students according to their father’s occupation showed agriculture as the largest (36%), non-government the next largest (28.4%), followed by business (13.7%), para-professional (7.6%), crafts (6%), government (4.9%), labour (2.5%), and finally professional (4%). This distribution however, does not represent the size of occupational groups in the region. Agriculture might very well be over one-third also in the regional population, but labour, which is in all likelihood more than half of the regional population, is underrepresented by far in the student survey. It was only in agriculture that the proportion of the Emigrate (33%) superseded that of the total survey sample (27.4%). The only other category in which this was found was government (29.2%). Seniors with non-government background reflected the average inclination to emigrate (27.5%). The Emigrate fell below the average in all other occupational categories. In other words, if the Emigrate were one in three in agriculture, followed by those in government, they were about one in four in non-government and business, and one in six in para-professions, crafts, and labor. The findings tend to confirm the observation that neither the rich and secure nor the dismally poor show a propensity to emigrate, for different reasons; it is the people pressed in the middle who are mobile. This region is a farm belt. Historically, there has been pressure on land; surplus population is restive; efforts at land reform scare peasant proprietors. These factors have conspired to encourage emigration, as is evident in chain migration. People in unskilled labor are trapped in the situation. They lack in knowledge, contacts, skills, and the means necessary to break out. On the other hand, the lack of enthusiasm for going abroad among persons in business and para-professional circles was

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most probably due to the feeling that they were well-placed and further mobility would rock the boat.

Overview An overwhelming majority of the young preferred seeking livelihood in the country to going abroad. Their identification with national development was more guided by their valuation of emigration as a loss to the country. Those few who were inclined to go abroad considered emigration as a gain for them as well as the country. However, the two groups were similar in their assessment of the national economy. Population pressure on agriculture and immigrant reference groups provided the greatest stimulus to the urge to emigrate. A consensus seemed to develop among the young as regards the advantages of emigration that there was a world out there to count on for education, cultural revitalization, and economic improvement. The Participate emphasised the former, the Emigrate the latter. The terms “participate” and “emigrate” are not used lightly. India is the youngsters’ country of birth and cultural identity. No researcher would want to raise the specter of “love it or leave it.” Youngsters take for granted, as they do air and water, that India is where they live and will work and die. For many, there is no question of choice. For some, there is no other choice. A few have a choice and India is the country in which they want to live. Choosing the country to make a living is, sociologically speaking, participating in the nation’s life. However, the youngsters are aware that a few of their countrymen have settled in East and South Africa, New Zealand, Fiji, Panama, Trinidad, England, the United States, and Canada. Some have seen a few of them returning from a lucrative stint abroad—the “sojourners,” and also those settled abroad coming occasionally for a short visit— the ‘“immigrants.” They are conscious of the fact that the school they attend, the temple they worship in, the hospitals, the village waterworks are built from the donations of the “cultivators abroad.” They tend to view the emigrants, not as deserters or traitors, but as explorers in making a successful career abroad and at the same time helping the homeland. For them, emigrating is not the end of the world or breaking all bonds with the national heritage. In this region known for steady emigration, the issue : “participate or emigrate” represents the sentiment of either live in it and love it or leave it and still love it.

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The findings indicate, in no uncertain terms, that the young minds are no longer confined to the narrow bounds of the village world; they no longer think of themselves or their country as isolated and perpetually stuck to the “situation.”’ They accept their life as intricately woven in the national fabric. They have opened up to the possibilities that they have nothing to lose but gain, and their country can gain, from the intercourse with the outside world. This study of youth aspirations reveal an underlying desire on the part of the young to redefine national development, not entirely as a task of toiling within the nation, but as the enrichment of national heritage. In that sense, the distinction between the Participate and the Emigrate, made for the expediency of an empirical analysis, fades. Both groups express, perhaps unknowingly, a unity of effort : working from within and outside. They point to the concern for the redistribution of world resources—the same concern that was recently debated at the North-South Cancun Conference held in Mexico and the 44 Third World Nations’ South-South Conference held in India. The hypothesized negative correlation between youth identification with national development and emigration needs to be revised and viewed in a wider context of unbalanced opportunities among nations. In that perspective emigration would be redefined as a step toward the redistribution of world resources, with positive connotations for national development.

Note 1. Revised version of a paper presented at the Tenth World Congress of Sociology, Section on Sociology of Youth, Mexico City, Mexico, August 14–21, 1982. Acknowledgements; Research is partly supported by Faculty Research Committee and data partly analyzed by the Computer Center, Indiana State University. Cooperation of Dr. Harish C. Doshi of South Gujarat University, Surat, India and of teachers and students of the five high schools surveyed is appreciated.

References Bonacich, Edna and Lucie Cheng Hirata 1980 “The political economy of the new immigration from Asia.” Paper presented at the American Sociological Association, New York City.

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DeJong, Gordon F. and Robert W. Gardner (eds.) 1981 “Migration Decision Making: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Micro level Studies in Developed and Develop­ing Countries”, New York: Pergamon Press. Keely, Charles B. 1971 “Effects of the Immigration Act of 1965 on selected population characteristics of immigrants to the United Slates.” Demography, Vol. 8, No. 2. Patel, Narsi 1972 “A passage from India”. Society, Vol. 9. ——— 1974 “Sociology of Indian minorities in the Third World”, International Review of Modern Sociology, Vol. 4.

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11 The Use Psychotropic Drugs among College Youth in India: An Appraisal Prabha Unnithan, D.R. Singh and M.Z. Khan

Introduction

T

hrough time and space, the use of mood-altering substances has been known to human societies (Taylor, 1966; Andrews, 1975). India, of course, has not remained untouched by this phenomenon (Kumarappa, 1952; Wilson, 1973). At various points of time, the drugs which have enjoyed a measure of popularity are alcohol, cannabis (including bhang, ganja and charas), opium and tobacco (Kurien, 1949). This is not to say that the use of intoxicants has always enjoyed social approbation. Buddhist, Jain, Muslim and even British rulers had attempted to curb or contain the use of intoxicating drugs (Kumarappa, 1952). In post-Independent India, the prohibition of ‘intoxicating drinks and drugs’ has been a national policy duly enshrined in the Constitution; and, as is well known, several states in the country have experimented with ‘prohibition’. But all these attempts have had a somewhat indifferent success. Perhaps, in order to deal with the problem effectively, we need to look for alternative methods based on systematic study of drugs and drug users. In this context, certain sections of society have been regarded Particularly vulnerable to “the bane of drug addiction” (Yost, 1954

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These mainly include industrial workers, slum-dwellers and youth, particularly college-going boys and girls (Salmon and Salmon 1977). In fact, it is the use of psychotropic drugs by the students which has aroused much concern and alarm (Carey, 1968; Khan and Unnithan, 1979). This is not altogether without justification. The period of youth is seen to be highly susceptible to deviations and aberrations including the abuse of drugs (Hurlock, 1974). Coupled with this is the fact that newer and more potent addictive substances, are making their appearance day after day in the market which youthful curiosity would find only too difficult to resist. Further, the youth are thought of to be the carriers of future human life; and the students are regarded as forming ‘the core from which leadership in all walks of life will eventually emerge’. What affects them, therefore, should cause genuine concern among all those who recognize the importance of the present for the future. It is, therefore, not surprising that the problem of drug abuse amongst the college youth in India has not escaped the attention of social researchers. Banerjee (1963) has studied the phenomenon of druguse among the students in Calcutta and has estimated a prevalence-rate of 37.4 per cent (sample size, 1132). While studying the phenomenon among the students from four colleges in Bombay, Chitnis (1974) has disregarded the use of alcohol and tobacco, and has arrived at a prevalence-rate of 19.7 per cent. Mohan and others (1977) have reported a prevalence-rate of 34.2 per cent in a sample of 225 college students in Delhi having English school background with tobacco and alcohol ranking as the most popular substances. Dube (1972) has found, in Agra, an overall prevalence-rate of 56.2 per cent. It may be noted that his sample includes mainly the ‘fifth year students’, both medical and non-medical. Focussing on the students in Chandigarh, Verma and others (1977) have reported a prevalence-rate of 18.9 per cent. It would be readily seen that the problem of drug use among college students has attracted much research attention and, as a result, a considerable body of knowledge has accumulated. Side by side, it would also be noticed that the studies referred to earlier have not only been conducted at different points of time but they have also employed varying definitions of drug, drug-use and drug-users, and differing research procedures. Quite a few of these studies have not included alcohol and tobacco within their scope. Others have confined themselves to certain

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‘elitist’ sections of student population such as the boys and girls from English medium schools, or medical students. From this stem three methodological problems. Owing to differing criteria relating to habitforming drugs and their use, a dependable prevalence-rate becomes difficult to work out. Closely related to this is the problem of comparability: on the basis of such studies, probable regional differences cannot be ascertained satisfactorily. Lastly, this kind of data-disparity does not allow the building up of any sort of prevalence-rate of use of addictive drugs in the country as a whole. These data-limitations have told in no small way on the efforts directed at evolving a viable social policy regarding the containment of the misuse of drugs.

Present Paper The foregoing discussion brings out the need to develop a synchronised and comparable database with respect to the use of psychotropic drugs among college students. It is gratifying to note that the Department of Social Welfare, Government of India, have responded to this need and, consequently, have initiated a multi-centred research programme (GOI, 1977). In this, an attempt has been made to maintain uniformity in approach, concepts, sampling strategy, methods of data collection and analysis. Conducted at the colleges and/or universities in Bombay, Delhi and Madras (metropolitan areas) as well as in Hyderabad, Jabalpur and Jaipur (non-metropolitan areas), and the Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (a wholly residential university), these studies have focused on a large body of students during the academic year 1976–77. The synchronous nature of these studies should, to a great extent, eliminate the problems which arise from the time-differential. Likewise, since they follow a similar approach and research procedure, their findings are relatively more amenable to a comparative analysis, and to the evolving of a reasonably dependable profile of the nature of drug-use among college youth in the country. Exploratory in character, the present paper attempts to delineate the nature and extent of drug use among the college youth. In other words, it aims to develop an estimate of the prevalence-rate of drug-use among the college students in the country as a whole. Towards this, the data collected at the seven aforementioned urban centres have been

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utilised. Indeed, the prevalence of psychotropic drugs or certain drugs varies as much in time as it does in space. Stated differently, a certain drug is likely to be more popular in one region while another drug may be dominant in another region. As such, efforts need to be made to bring into focus all those habit-forming drugs which are found to have a modicum of popularity with students in different study-centres—with a view to identifying probable regional variations. Besides, many studies underline significant sex-differences in relation to drug-dependence. To be specific, males are reported to be given to alcoholism and other addiction more than females (Marwell, 1966; Yates, 1970; McGlothlin, 1975). This has been found to be equally valid for the college youth. For example, Hurton and Leslie (1960) emphasise sex-differences in relation to the use of alcohol, and Bergersen (1968) and Clarke and Levine (1971) arrive at similar findings in relation to the use of marijuana and hashish. It would, therefore, be of more than passing interest to examine the phenomenon of drug use so as to outline probable sex-differences. With these issues in view, the present paper attempts to look into: (a) the regional differences in terms of drug-use amongst the college students as reflected in the findings of the studies conducted at the different study-centres; (b) the popularity of different habit-forming drugs amongst the students; and (c) the sex-differences in relation to the general prevalence-rate as well as the use of individual drugs. At this stage, it may be clarified that these studies, as also the present paper, regard drugs as those substances which are taken for their “psychotropic or psychoactive properties as defined by their capacity to alter sensation, mood, consciousness or other psychological or behavioural functions” (Canadian Government Commission of Inquiry, 1970). In keeping with this, these studies have focused themselves on eleven drugs (see Table 2) which are commonly used by the students. In respect of the term drug use/abuse, the definition given by the United Nations Social Defence Research Institute has been followed: It refers to “all drug use not indicated on generally accepted medical grounds” (1976). It may be added that, in determining the general prevalence-rate, the frequency of the use of the drug(s) has been taken into consideration disregarding such variables as dose or occasion. Moreover, all the eleven drugs have been assumed to be similar in implications for the present purposes. As mentioned earlier, the present paper is based on the studies conducted at seven urban centres (Government of India, 1977). In these

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studies, towards achieving a representative sample, the colleges in the study-centre concerned have been stratified generally on the basis of (1) the courses of study they offer (professional courses like Agriculture, Medicine and Engineering; or non-professional courses like Arts, Commerce and Science), (2) the level of courses (undergraduate and postgraduate courses) and (3) sex-composition of the colleges (boys’, girls’ or coeducational institutions). From each stratum one or more institutions have been selected depending upon the number of students in the stratum concerned. Next, from each selected institution, classes/ sections (clusters) have been randomly picked up. The students in these clusters have been the principal informants for the study. This kind of multi-stage cluster sampling (a total number of 24,937 students have been covered) should give the data a measure of dependability. For collecting information from the sampled students, a commonlyagreed-upon questionnaire has been developed, initially in English and subsequently rendered into the relevant regional language. Following tryouts and modifications, this anonymous and confidential self-report questionnaire has been administered in a group-setting interrupting normal instruction-work in the class. The data thus collected have been processed separately by each study-centre. As the substantive concern has been the use of psychotropic drugs, the students have been asked to indicate their position on either of the eight categories as defined by the frequency of the use of individual drugs: (i) never used, (ii) tried earlier but discontinued, (iii) using less often than once a month, (iv) about once a month, (v) about once a week, (vi) several times a week, (vii) daily, and (viii) addicted— ‘cannot do without the substance’. For reasons of simplicity and directness and in keeping with the present purposes, these user groups have been merged to form three categories: (1) non-users, (2) former users, and (3) current users. It may be further pointed out that, in estimating the general prevalence-rate, no distinction has been maintained between the eleven drugs thus studied. Accordingly, if a given student has been taking drug A and has never tried drug B, he has been classified as user. This has been done so as to secure an overall estimate of the incidence of the use of psychotropic drugs by the students. Thus, towards realising the objectives of the present paper, the findings of the aforesaid seven study-centres have been relied upon. The relevant data-components from these studies have been collated and, wherever necessary, summed up.

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Findings Prevalence rate: Constituting some kind of a ‘macrostruture’, the college youth are often thought of as having social norms and behavioural patterns which transcend regional boundaries. In a way, they are exposed to a socio-cultural environment which cuts across regions. Furthermore, the curricula they pursue and the cocurricular activities they usually engage in also act as yet another homogenising factor. Besides, colleges and universities are open, at least theoretically, to everyone; they do not cater to the educational needs only of the local populace but also of the outsiders. In most of them, a sizable section of the students is seen to have come from far off parts of the country. This kind of spatial mobility further adds to the socio-political homogeneity. There are some of the factors because of which the college youth in the country may tend to be an identifiable or even a homogeneous group. Are they also similar or homogeneous in terms of their drug behaviour? It may be noted that the laws discouraging the use of intoxicants are more or less similar in the States throughout the country. So is the case with the excise laws. A point of dissimilarity which may well be kept in view relates to ‘prohibition’. As is well known, prohibition has been experimented in the country but seldom on a uniform basis; that is, only some States or, even within a State, some districts have been brought under prohibition laws. In any case, during 1976–77, non of the States in which the study-centres were located was under prohibition. Keeping these considerations in view, the incidence of the use of psychotropic drugs among the college students in different study-centres may be looked into. Table 1 presents the relevant data. It would be seen that the largest proportion of students, including both boys and girls who had never experimented, reportedly, with any psychotropic drug (non-users) is in Hyderabad (77.8%). In this, Hyderabad is closely followed by Jaipur and Madras. Apparently, the students in these urban centres are not much given to habit-forming drugs; perhaps the socio-cultural milieu in these centres is not favourable to the use of intoxicants. The proportion of the students who had experimented earlier with drugs but have discontinued with no intention to resume (former users), is found to be the highest in Jabalpur (14.1%), with Delhi and Varanasi taking the second and the third places, respectively. At this juncture, it may be pointed out that the dividing line between a former user and a current user is often

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Table 1 User—Types According to the Sex of the Respondents in the Study-Centres (Percentages) Centre

Bombay

Delhi

Hyderabad

Jabalpur

Jaipur

Madras

Varanasi

Grand Total

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Sex

Non-users

Former Users

Current Users

Total (N)

Male

51.5

8.1

40.4

2,334

Female

66.0

4.9

29.1

1,817

Total

57.8

6.7

35.4

4,151

Male

42.2

16.2

41.6

2,000

Female

62.9

9.6

27.5

1,991

Total

52.5

12.9

34.6

3,991

Male

67.6

6.0

26.4

414

Female

86.5

4.0

9.5

489

Total

77.8

4.9

17.1

903

Male

46.2

18.3

35.5

3,012

Female

78.0

5.2

16.8

1,403

Total

56.4

14.1

29.5

4,415

Male

73.3

4.5

22.2

3,092

Female

91.1

2.2

6.7

989

Total

77.6

3.9

18.5

4,081

Male

66.1

4.1

29.8

2,157

Female

92.9

3.2

3.8

1,423

Total

76.8

3.7

19.5

3,580

Male

51.5

12.5

36.0

3,391

Female

77.8

6.9

15.2

461

Total

54.6

11.8

33.5

3,852

Male

55.8

10.6

33.6

16,400

Female

76.4

5.5

18.1

8,573

Total

62.9

8.9

28.2

24,973

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seen to be very thin. The study centres which have a large proportion of former users may be expected to have correspondingly a large proportion of current users. But this is not what comes up when we examine the category of current users. Bombay has the largest proportion of current users (35.5%). In this, Delhi (34.6%) and Varanasi (33.5%) closely followed Bombay. It is worth noticing that Jabalpur which has the largest proportion of former users does not stand out in respect of current users and, likewise, Bombay which has an insignificant proportion of former users, comes to have the largest proportion of current users. This suggests that the categories of former users and current users are not necessarily inter-connected. Interestingly, Bombay and Delhi are the urban conglomerations which are often described as highly cosmopolitan in character and, in contrast, Varanasi is often regarded as a highly traditional place. But Varanasi is also a residential educational centre having a large segment of students who live on the campus. In keeping with the objectives of the paper, an attempt may now be made to look into the drug-scene which emerges when all the studycentres are considered together. Towards this, attention may be turned to the data presented at the bottom of Table 1. It would be observed that more than half of the men-students and three-fourths of the womenstudents are non-users of psychotropic drugs. In contrast, one-third of the men-students and less than one-fifth of the women-students have reported using one drug or the other. Thus, taken together, only 28.2% of the students, including both males and females, have been using intoxicants. Whether the prevalence-rate of the use of psychotropic drugs has assumed alarming proportions, is a question which calls for a few more details, and, as such, it would be dealt with later in the paper. Prevalence of Drugs: It may be reiterated that the present paper is concerned with a fairly diverse range of drugs. These include traditional organic drugs and modern synthetic psychedelics; ‘soft’ drugs and ‘hard’ drugs; and depressants and stimulants. Besides, in order to have a close look at the drug-scene outlined earlier, it is necessary that the prevalencerate of different drugs is brought under focus. At the outset, a reference may be made to the availability of the drugs under discussion. Indeed, the supply of drugs in the study-centres, as elsewhere, is both legal and illegal. As a matter of fact, the supplies syphoned in through the illicit trade channels may often exceed those through legal trade and may even cost the consumers less, as the traders manage to evade excise duty and other taxes. Nonetheless, it is difficult to provide any estimate

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of the nature and extent of illicit drug traffic. Speaking of legal trade, the distribution and sale of cocaine and raw opium are banned in the country. The sale of country-liquor as well as factory-made liquor and of cannabis drugs is controlled and regulated. So is the case with the synthetic drugs: they are retailed by the licensed pharmacists and druggists. However, the distribution or sale of products like heroin and lysergic diethylamide acid (LSD), notwithstanding their prohibitory cost, is not permissible. With this backdrop, we proceed to examine the popularity of different drugs amongst the students. On going through Table 2, it would be seen that the most popular intoxicant is alcohol (10.2%) which is closely followed by tobacco (9.9%) and analgestics or painkillers (9.2%). The other drugs which attract attention are cannabis drugs and tranquillisers. The rest, including amphetamines, barbiturates, cocaine, LSD, opiates and pethidine, have relatively insignificant prevalence. Next, we may examine the pattern of popularity of drugs in different study-centres. A reference, again, to Table 2 would show that alcohol, tobacco and painkillers are by far the most used drugs; and in terms of popularity, they only change place in different studycentres. For example, alcohol appears to be most popular in Bombay, and painkillers, in Jabalpur. In the case of Varanasi, the cannabis Delhi, Hyderabad and Jaipur; tobacco, in Madras and Varanasi; and painkillers, in Jabalpur. In the case of Varanasi, the cannabis drugs rank among the three most popular intoxicants among which alcohol does not figure. It may be noted that the cannabis drugs, though not among the three most popular drugs, have a large number of enthusiasts in Jabalpur. It would be recalled that Bombay, Delhi and Varanasi have been found to be in the fore in the use of habit-forming drugs. This factor may be re-examined in the light of the data presented in Table 2. Indeed, Bombay has the largest proportion of alcohol users. Yet if we take all the drugs separately and concentrate on the three study-centres which have their highest incidence, a somewhat different position emerges. Varanasi occupies the first position in the use of amphetamines, barbiturate, cannabis, cocaine, LSD, opium and pethidine; the second position in the use of tobacco; and the third position in the use of alcohol and tranquillisers. The largest proportion of the students who use painkillers is in Delhi which also occupies the second position in the use of alcohol, opiates and pethidine; and the third position in the use of amphetamines. Similarly, Madras has the largest proportion of students who

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0.05

1.0

Tranquillisers

12.6

Painkillers

8.1

0.4

Opium, Morphine, Heroin

Pethidine

0.07

L. S. D.

Tobacco

0.4

0.05

0.6

Carbiturates

Cannabis

0.2

Amphetamines

Cocaine

15.1

Alcohol

Bombay (N-4151)

2.9

10.5

0.2

20.9

0.5

0.2

0.03

1.3

0.6

0.3

12.2

Delhi (N-3991)

2.6

5.3

0.2

2.8

0.2

–

0.1

0.8

0.6

0.05

8.6

Hyderabad (N-903)

1.2

10.8

0.1

15.1

0.3

0.2

0.2

8.5

0.7

0.2

9.4

Jabalpur (N-4415)

Table 2 The Prevalence Rate of Individual Drugs in the Study Centres (Percentage)

1.2

9.2

0.2

2.3

0.2

0.2

0.09

0.9

0.1

0.05

9.7

Jaipur (N-4081)

1.1

15.2

0.05

1.4

0.4

0.4

–

1.5

1.5

0.4

9.4

Madras (N-3580)

2.5

15.1

0.9

13.8

0.9

0.9

0.6

11.9

1.8

1.3

10.4

Varanasi (N-3852)

1.5

9.9

0.3

9.2

0.1

0.3

0.1

2.8

0.7

0.5

10.2

Total (N-24973)

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use tobacco; the second largest among those who use amphetamines, barbiturates, LSD, and pethidine. Viewed from this standpoint, these three study-centres, namely, Varanasi, Delhi and Madras, clearly surpass Bombay. Sex Differences: The present data abundantly support the findings arrived at elsewhere that males outdo females insofar as the use of psychotropic drugs is concerned. There are seen, however, wide variations over the study-centres (see Table 1). For example, in Bombay, the female-male ratio of the students who are on drugs is 3:4. As against this, in Madras, it is only a little over 3:23. It may be noted that Jabalpur, after Bombay and Delhi, has a large number of women-students who are given to drugs; in contrast, Varanasi has a very large proportion of men-students. It would be thus justifiable to infer that the problem of non-medical use of drugs is serious in Bombay, Delhi and Jabalpur in relation to women-students; and in Delhi, Bombay and Varanasi, in relation to men-students. Nonetheless, the preference of female-users for individual drugs needs to be looked into for possible variations. Table 3 brings out that Table 3 Prevalence Rates of Individual Drugs According to the Sex of the Respondents (Percentages) Substance Alcohol

Males (N = 16400)

Females (N = 8573)

Total (N = 24973)

13.3

3.4

10.2

Amphetamines

0.6

0.2

0.5

Barbiturates

1.0

0.2

0.7

Cannabis

4.1

0.3

2.8

Cocaine

0.2

–

0.1

L. S. D.

0.4

0.05

0.3

Opium, Morphine, Heroin

0.6

0.1

0.4

Painkillers

8.6

9.9

9.2

Pethidine

0.4

0.1

0.3

Tobacco

14.4

1.3

9.9

1.8

0.9

1.5

Tranquillisers

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alcohol, painkillers and tobacco are the drugs most commonly used by both males and females. But the order of preference differs among the sexes. In relation to males, the preference-order is found to be tobacco, alcohol and painkillers; and in relation to females, painkillers, alcohol and tobacco. Conversely, the drugs which find least preference among males include cocaine, LSD and pethidine, and among females, cocaine, opiates and pethidine. Are there any drugs in the use of which females compare with males? There is only one conspicuous instance: in the use of analgesics or painkillers, the women-students do not only compare well with their male-counterparts but, as a matter of fact, surpass them. It may not be a digression to point out that the non-medical use of the painkillers, particularly, by women may not be always unjustifiable: they may use the painkillers to relieve a variety of psychosomatic symptoms, albeit without medical advice. This apart, in the use of intoxicants as a whole, womenfolk are outnumbered by men by one to two. Apparently, the use of psychotropic drugs has not percolated among women-students to the extent it has in men-students.

Conclusions For long, quite a few psychotropic drugs have been in use in India. Not too infrequently, they have been used during the celebration of festivals and special occasions. This is beside the convenient ‘escape door’ which their use provides to the disillusioned, frustrated and dejected. As a product of their social milieu, the college youth are bound to have some truck with intoxicating drinks and drugs. This is what is brought out by the present multicentred study: about 28 per cent of the students covered by the study are given to psychotropic drugs. This prevalence-rate differs as much between males and females as it does between regions. For example, the college youth in Hyderabad, Jaipur and Madras do not appear to be very favourably disposed, towards drugs; as compared to this, those in Bombay, Delhi and Varanasi are much involved in drugs. Incidentally, the study-centres which have a large proportion of ‘nonusers’ also have a large proportion of ‘former users’ and, as a logical corollary, a small proportion of ‘current users’. The seeming proximity of the categories of former users and current users of psychotropic drugs is not supported by the data: the study-centres that have a large proportion of former users are not having a corresponding proportion

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of current users. Besides, the data suggest that the cosmopolitan atmosphere of a city like Bombay or Delhi, and the residential character of an educational centre like Varanasi, may have something to do with the use of habit-forming drugs by the students. Apparently, traditional drugs like alcohol, tobacco and cannabis enjoy considerable popularity with the college youth. The so-called modern drugs like barbiturates, heroin or LSD are seen to have only negligible prevalence. Perhaps, traditional drugs are firmly entrenched; or else, the modern psychedelics are too expensive to be within the reach of college youth. The only exception to this is the instance of analgesics or painkillers which have been in use by a sizable section of the students, mostly by girls. Apart from this, the data bring into focus some significant regional variations in the incidence of various psychotropic drugs. Although alcohol and painkillers are found to be almost uniformly popular, there are quite a few variations which deserve to be highlighted. Alcoholic beverages are very popular in Bombay and Delhi; tobacco, in Madras and Varanasi, Painkillers, in Jabalpur; and cannabis drugs, in Varanasi and Jabalpur. A mild trend is thus in evidence that tobacco is popular more or less, in all the study-centres; alcohol in southern and western India (Bombay, Hyderabad and Madras); and cannabis drugs like bhang, ganja and charas in northern India (Varanasi and Jabalpur). When attention is paid on the overall prevalence of psychotropic drugs, the study-centres of Bombay, Delhi and Varanasi are seen to 184 be in the front line. This order, however, undergoes a change when the maximum use of all the eleven drugs thus studied is considered: Varanasi, Delhi and Madras have been indicating the maximum use of various drugs. Viewed from this angle, the study-centre of Bombay loses its ‘prominence’. Incidentally, this also underscores the widespread popularity of alcohol among the college youth in Bombay. This has a pointed significance in view of the fact that in recent years Bombay has seen much of prohibition. Corroborating the findings of the studies conducted in India and elsewhere, the present analysis also shows that the incidence of psychotropic drugs among men-students is far more than among women-students: for every two men-students on drugs there is only one women-student. In part, this may be attributed to the differential role-expectations in society which discourage the use of intoxicants by women more than

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that by men. However, the female-male ratio noticeably varies with the study-centres. The difference is least in Bombay (3:4) and the highest in Madras (3:23). Moreover, the drug-preference also varies: it is tobacco, alcohol and painkillers for men; and painkillers, alcohol and tobacco for women. Notwithstanding this, the womenfolk are ahead of men in the use of painkillers. To recapitulate, the incidence of the use of psychotropic drugs among the college youth in the country does not appear to be so large as to cause alarm—at least at present. It is mostly the traditional substances like alcohol and cannabis that dominate the drug-scene. To a good extent, these drugs may have linkages with several socio-cultural practices. Therefore, towards containing the problem of the non-medical use of psychotropic drugs, whatever its extent, a viable social intervention programme would do well to direct its thrust on restructuring social norms and practices.

References Andrews, G. (ed.) 1975 Drugs and magic. Panther. Bannerjee, R. N. 1963 “Prevalence of habit forming drug and smoking among college students—a survey”. Indian Medical Journal, 193. Bergersen, B. 1968 “Oslo-ogdum brack Av marihuana og hasgist”. (The use of mahihuana and hashish among youth in Oslo) Tidsskrifts Fo Samfunns for skining 9, pp. 208–232. Canadian Government Commission of Inquiry. 1970 The Non-medical Use of Drugs. Penguin. Carey, J. T. 1968 The College Drug Scene. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall. Chitnis, S. 1974 “Drug on college campus” Bombay: TISS, MS. Clarke, J. W. and Levine, E. L. 1971 “Marijuama use, social discontent and political discontent: A study of high school youth”. American Political Science Review, 65, pp. 120–130. Dube, K. C. 1972 “Drug abuse in northern India”. Bulletin on Narcotics, 24, 49. Government of India 1977 Drug Abuse in India. New Delhi, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Harwell, G. 1966 “Adolescent powerlessness and delinquent behaviour”. Social Problems, 14, pp. 32–47. Hurlock, E. B. 1974 Developmental Psychology. New Delhi: Tata-McGraw-Hill. Hurton, P. B. and Leslie, G. R. 1960 The Sociology of Social Problems. New York: Appleton— Century Crafts. Khan, M. Z. and Unnithan, N. P. 1979 “Association of socio-economic factors with drug use among college students in an Indian town”. Bulletin on Narcotics. Kumarappa, B. 1952 Why Prohibition? Ahmedabad, Navjivan. Kurien, T. 1949 Towards Better India or a Study in Prohibition Madras, Vardachary.

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McGlothlin, W. H. 1975 “Drug use and abuse: A paper”. National Institute of Mental Health, U.S.A. (unpublished). Mohan, D. et. al. 1977 “Prevalence and pattern of drug abuse among Delhi University students”. Indian Journal of Medical Research, 66, 627. Salmon, R. and Salmon, S. 1977 “The causes of heroin addiction: A review of the literature”. International Journal of the Addictions, 12, pp. 937–952. Taylor, N. 1966 Nature’s Dangerous Gifts, Dell. United Nations Social Defence Research Institute 1976 Investigating Drug Abuse. Rome: UNSDRI. Verma, V. K. et. al. 1977 “Drug abuse amongst college students in India”, Indian J. of Psychiatry, 19, 1. Yates, A. J. Alcoholism and Drug Addiction: Behaviour Therapy. New York, Macmillan. Yost, O. R. 1954 The Bane of Drug Addiction. New York, Macmillan.

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12 Problems of the Youth of North-East India: A Sociological Inquiry A.K. Nongkynrih

Introduction

T

his paper seeks to understand the problems of the youth of NorthEast India beyond the confines of students’ movements or youth movements. It has two objectives: (i) to analyse the discourse on the problems of the youth, and (ii) to examine the sources of these problems. Given the limited availability of information on the subject, I have consulted and used the available secondary materials and my field notes on the views and opinions of the youth, women, and male elders. The field notes are drawn from the preliminary study of the Current Status of Services/Programmes for HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care for the Young People of Four States of the North-Eastern Region (Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Nagaland) conducted in 2001. The participants of the group discussions were youth (both male and female). The second source of field notes was an assessment study of the NorthEastern Region Community Resource Management Project for Upland Areas conducted in two districts of Karbi Anglong and Ukhrul of the states of Assam and Manipur respectively in 2004. This latter study examines the project implementation and the challenges faced by the youth in general. The participants of the focus group discussions here were youth (male and female), women, and male elders.

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Background of the North-East India Generally, the term North-East India or North-Eastern Region is used by writers, media persons, academics, the government and the public. According to M.N. Karna (1999: 90), the term region has two broad facets: the physical and the social. The North-East India fits in the description of region in terms of the physical facet as it is a particular geographical territory of the nation-state and is rich in natural resources. As regards the social facet, it includes diverse ethno-linguistic groups; diverse customs, beliefs and practices; and, politically, it is divided into seven states (namely, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura). Each state comes under specific provisions of the Constitution of India. By the national standards of economic measurement, the region has been considered economically less developed. When using or applying the term North-East India or North-Eastern Region the physical and the social meanings are implied. The British colonialists became politically interested in the region and entered it after 1826. Gradually, part by part, they annexed and colonised the region and its population. The entry of new forces— organised religions and the modern bureaucratic organisation of the nation-state—introduced new policies, programmes and activities such as the modern system of political administration and the political modernisation of societies; modern education and higher learning, which contributed to the creation of educated persons; the market economy and the commercialisation of natural resources; the modern institutions, which created new type of occupations; and the idea of modern association, which, in turn, led to the formation of new types of organisations in the region. The new forces implanted and created a complex process of social transformation in the region, producing different outcomes for different groups of the region.

Definitions of Youth Youths are like sign-posts because they reflect the situation of the society, the region, and the nation. Who is a youth or how do we define youth? According to UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation), the youth constitutes people between 15 and

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24 years of age. The Government of India defines youth as persons in the age group of 15 to 35 years of age (Ministry of Youth and Sport Affairs 2003: 1; see also Amarjeet Singh 2002: 11). The age-set in both these definitions of youth is based on the principle of age and it is counted with the date of birth as the point of reference. It is a modern construction, because a person is a youth on the basis of the birth certificate issued by the authorised bodies of the nation-state. It is observed that the definition of youth by the UNESCO and the Government of India is common as both take into account the age as the factor; the variation is only in the age-set. There are societies where the age is not the basis for defining youth. Generally, in such societies, for example, the societies of the North-East India, the generational principle is taken into account. In such societies, social actors are placed according to the generational principle; the members of the society are addressed to by specific social terms, and such terms denote their generation. By knowing the term, one knows the generation of the person and her or his place in the society. One of the generations of the society is the young people or the youth, and a specific term is used for this particular population group: the KhasiJaintia society addresses the youth as Samla or Khynraw, the Sumi-Naga as Lhotimi, the Ao-Naga as Lanor, the Rongmei-Naga as Chabuan; the Garo as Chadambe, the Mizo as Tleirawl, the Hrangkhawl as Ratlai, the Paite as Taulai, and the Adi as Yaming. These terms denote that the social actors referred to are unmarried persons with little burden of domestic and social responsibility; their physical strength is recognised and utilised in collective activities. The generational principle categorises persons in general and the youth in particular and such practices continue till date. However, because of modern education in the region, the birth certificate has become a compulsory document for the individual to possess as a proof of one’s age. Thus, the definition of youth can be separated into two groups: the rational-legal and the social. The former focuses on the youth as an individual in terms of specific age-set and the latter takes the youth as one of the collective categories of the population based on the generational principle. In the context of the societies of the North-East India, both the rational-legal and social definitions apply; the former is used when engaging with modern institutions and the latter is used in the social life of persons.

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The Public Discourse on the Problems of the Youth According to Peter Worsley (1970: 380), behaviour in human societies is governed by rules and norms: there are appropriate and inappropriate ways of acting whether one is talking about a classroom during a lesson, running a marathon, or dancing at a disco. It is observed that cases of ‘inappropriate’ action of social actors get attention in the public domain through newspapers or television channels. In the opinion of F. James Davis (cited in Hubbard et al. 1975: 23), newspapers often influence public opinion regarding crime trends by increasing coverage of certain types of crime. Whether we agree or disagree with such reports or the way in which newspapers or television channels present and narrate stories of ‘inappropriate’ behaviour of some social actors of the society is not the issue. The issue is newspapers or television channels are the medium through which the public are informed. The North-East India is one of the examples where the media feed information to the public domain and generate public discourse on varied issues. One of the issues which the media has been paying attention in the North-East India is the problems of the youth. The media in general and the local and vernacular newspapers in particular are the major source of information. Various problems of the youth are reflected in such newspapers, and problems such as dropping out of school education, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, smoking, theft, crime, suicide, unemployment, and violent behaviours are few examples. Members of the public are informed and in most cases public opinion is formed on the basis of such information. It is observed that the public discourse usually perceives and accepts that problems at the local level or state or region are associated with the youth. Through the media and in various public fora the public discourse has been stressing the followings: i. the youth face many problems, ii. ‘problems’ are related with the youth, and iii. the youth of the North-East India themselves are a ‘problem’ to the state and the society.

To illustrate the point, on various occasions statements are made in public that young people joined the underground movements or that the

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youth are ruining their lives by engaging in unproductive and unhealthy lifestyles because either they are poor or they are unemployed. Therefore, the central government should provide more funds to the state governments to create more employment opportunities. The public thinks that by solving the problem of unemployment of the youth other related problems would be automatically solved. If one examines this kind of assertion and deduction one finds that it is based on common sense and not on objective or systematic analysis. Commonsense seems to take precedence over scientific understanding in public discourse. The other expression of the public discourse on the problems of the youth deals with the public feelings towards problems. Based on media information or commonsense discussions on the problems of the youth, the public shows two kinds of feelings: one, the sympathy-empathy expression to the youth with problems such as unemployment or dropping out of school or disability, and two, ‘labelling and stigmatisation of persons’ in the case of youth with problems such as drug-dependency or HIV/AIDS or alcoholism or deviant behaviour. It seems that the public can handle the first type of problems, but it finds it difficult to handle the second type of problems. To the public, the only way to overcome the difficulty in handling problems of the second type is labelling: terms such as ‘misguided youth’ or ‘anti-social elements’ are used in the public discourse. Labelling is accepted because the state can take legal action: action in the form of punishment or inflicting injury and harm on the labelled youths. Punishment is seen and accepted socially as the ultimate mechanism of controlling problems, ensuring the maintenance of social order and for setting examples to the rest. The public defines what is socially acceptable and what is not; what is not acceptable is punished. The position taken by the public on some of the problems has precluded serious attempts to understand such problems objectively.

The Academic Discourse on Problems of the Youth The academic discourse on the problems of the youth is drawn from a wide range of writings and examples from the field. These writings reflected the varied issues concerning youth. For a pointed discussion,

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here I have selected the relevant aspects and arranged them in groups. However, such groupings are in no way to be treated as isolated units; the problems discussed are interrelated.

Education, Employment and the Youth Modern education and educational institutions are producing large numbers of graduates and technically skilled humanpower every year. As a result, the North-Eastern region is experiencing a high growth rate of educated youth. Amarjeet M. Singh (2002) narrates the problem of unemployment faced by the educated youth of Manipur. He identifies limited employment opportunities as the key issue. He further elaborates that even when employment opportunities are available, the youth have to practice nepotism to get a job, and one of the youths he interviewed said, ‘to get a job or such facilities is like being in an auction market. Only the highest bidder gets the job, and those who cannot afford are out of the job market’ (ibid.: 110). Similarly, when I interviewed the educated youth from the four states (namely, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Nagaland), their refrain was we have completed our graduation and are unsuccessful in finding employment. Being unemployed we have to depend on and live with our parents. Many of us in our localities are in similar situation and we do not know what to do. Over the years we have seen many of our friends who could not bear the boredom and anxiety started substance–abuse or consumption of alcohol and some have lost their lives.

The number of educated youth in the region is increasing, but the growth in employment opportunities is commensurate to absorb them. The issue of education and employment was placed before the village elders from the Karbi Anglong and, in general, they said, It is important to send our children to schools and colleges so that they can be educated. On the other hand these young people who have completed higher education or those who dropped out half way are not interested to work on the farm like we did when we were young. They are interested in government jobs or other kinds of job. This is becoming a problem because modern education has changed them and few young people are interested to work on the farms, after our generation what is going to happen to food production.

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One adult added that I sent my son to school with the intention that after his education he will be a better farmer since he will have more knowledge than me. It is the other way round because of his education he does not participate in farming activities but sits at home applying and waiting for a government job. He is useless right now to the family. I should not have sent him to school because he could have been more useful to himself and to us by engaging in farming of the land.

If being educated does not guarantee productive and gainful employment, what is the situation of the youth with only basic education or those without any formal education? Irabot N. Singh (1995: 113) brings out the challenges faced by the youth in the urban and the rural areas of Manipur. He narrates that most of such youth are not engaged in productive activities on a full-time basis. Such youth have enough time to loiter around in the localities without doing anything. In the rural areas, occasionally, such youth are a problem and especially in the post-harvest period. They would spend the whole day drinking and gambling, and would end up quarrelling and fighting. Their urban counterparts too, because of limited employment opportunities, have enough time to waste. Some of them are addicted to alcohol and they steal bicycles to make money. There is another group of youth, those who have dropped out of education. There are many factors for dropping out of education. Mothers of school dropout youth in the districts of Ukhrul and Karbi Anglong said that they were economically poor and illiterate and could not support the education of their children. There are also cases where the children themselves have refused to continue their education. The women and youth from Ukhrul district further elaborated that the dropout youth are living in the villages without any alternative or guidance, and many of them are drifting to bad habits and this is becoming a nightmare for the elders to handle. P. Tado (2006) in his assessment of youth who dropped out of education narrates the situation in Arunachal Pradesh. He points out that local politicians have, without any hesitation, made use of youth by providing them with cash to carryout assigned tasks. Once the task is accomplished, the youth are left to fend for themselves. In the process, such youth lose interest in their studies and drop out. Such youth become unfit for any white-collar jobs. While discussing with another

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group of youth from the four states mentioned earlier, I found that they had to discontinue their studies because their parents could no longer afford to support them. After discontinuing their studies half-way, they said, ‘neither do we possess any skills nor productively engaging in work. We feel rejected, bored, frustrated and depressed’. Unemployment is seen as a major issue by persons I interacted with. The way the government is responding to the issue is paradoxical: on the one hand, there is a section of the youth looking for productive and gainful employment and, on the other hand, the government has created ‘employment packages’ for rehabilitating those youth who had ‘surrendered before the authority’ after being in the insurgent movements. One community leader opined that, ‘does it not make other youth to think and act differently to enjoy the benefits of such “employment packages”?’ This kind of government policy is viewed as faulty because, under normal circumstances, employment opportunities are not provided to other youth. Broadly, one can argue that not all young people have equal access to education. There are those who have completed their higher education and there are those who had to drop out at various levels due to lack of resources or because of other social factors. However, both groups of youth are equally affected by limited employment opportunities and are not able to be gainfully productive in their lives. The central and state governments’ policy of providing easy access to employment to some youth and not to all is a poor reflection of the political responsibility of the government. The added dimension is modern education, which has not only been the agency in educating the youth, but it has also injected new set of values among the youth. The declining interest among youth, especially educated ones, in farming as a gainful and productive employment is fraught with danger.

The Family and Youth Some articles and views from the field highlight the family as a factor in relation to the problems of the youth. Jerry Thomas (1997: 306) has observed that there are two sections of youth: those who are hindered in their growth by the over-protective parents, and those who have been neglected by their parents. In both cases the process of growing up is

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adversely affected. He does not elaborate on this, but one can cite the example from A.H. Khaund’s narration: Jug (pseudonym) was 21 years old and the eldest child of the family. He comes from a low income group. He passed his school education with a second division and subsequently got a job in the intelligence branch. Once he started earning he gradually changed his life styles and got into the habits of consumption of locally made alcohol, smoking ganja and drugs. In the month of May 1977 he was put in jail and released the same year. He could not overcome his problems and the psychopathic ailment infected his life (1995: 58).

According to Khaund (ibid.: 56–59), Jug’s parents did not pay much attention to him. They recognised the condition of their son when it was too late to correct and too late for any help. There could be many such cases where the youth deviated from the normal life due to lack of care and attention from the family or parents. G.S. Aurora (1995), a sociologist who had worked in the Khasi-Jaintia hills, expresses similar views. He argues that the Khasi-Jaintia society is being affected by broken families and the number of such families is larger in this society than other societies of the region. It is the phenomenon of broken families that has produced juvenile delinquency and emotional disturbance among the youth (ibid.: 28). Aurora does not provide any data to show the magnitude of the problem he has identified. However, his point can hardly be disputed. In the focus group discussions with the youth from four states they complained about their parents. According to them, there is hardly any one who we can turn to and share our feelings. Our parents are always busy and have very little time to spend with us and so we had to take care of ourselves. In the process we spent time by roaming with friends or watching movies. Sometimes because of frustration we did things which are detrimental to our own lives.

The relation of family and youth can be captured from the case history of a youth which tells about his family relationships and the challenges faced by him (see Case 1). This young man is today a youth leader in his area and works with youth groups and associations. It is difficult to argue that the problems of the youth stemmed only from the family. This is because the information available is insufficient to generalise. However, one can point out that the family as a social

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Case 1: The Problem and Challenges as a Youth In my early childhood, I suffered from the fear of watching my mom and dad quarrelling most of the time. I was still very young when my parents kept me in a privately run school and hostel nearby my home. I never wanted to live there and yet had to spend my childhood and adolescence, that is, from class one to class ten. Maybe, my parents felt that it is the best choice for me. They did not realise that I needed them and that I felt neglected. Gradually, I dealt with my feelings of being neglected by spending time with hostel friends. The hostel has many kids of all ages and those in class nine and ten are considered as ‘seniors’ among students. In class nine, I became part of the senior group and that was when I learned about drugs, and as a youth I too was curious and wanted to try [the drug]. Many seniors of the hostel glamorised drugs and the joy one gets out of drugs. The school management or the hostel wardens did not have any knowledge that senior students of the hostel were abusing drugs. We were twenty of us residing in the same hostel, attending the same school and belonging to the same religious organisation. As part of the group, I too started abusing drugs. The abuse of drugs was to such an extent that out of twenty of us, ten of my friends died due to drug overdose, and I too became drug dependent by mid-term of class ten. I left the hostel and, for the next two years, I could not survive without abusing drugs. The village community and my family came to know about my habits; and the community leaders visited me and warned me to stop or face the consequences. I did not listen to the warnings and continued with the abuse of drugs, and I avoided public places. My lifestyle strained my relations with my parents and sometimes my dad was so angry with me that he would beat me up. This sort of relation created all kinds of commotion between my dad and mom and they blamed each other. The locality too blamed my parents for not disciplining me enough. In such a situation even my close kin-group shunned me from their homes and lives. I had no one to turn to and no one came forward to help me overcome my problem of drug-abuse. That is not all. Leaders of my church too avoided me and it also affected my parents’ social status. Despite my drug-dependency problem I did not give up my studies and appeared three times for the state-level matriculation examination and it was in the third attempt that I passed in the third division. My father was always in a state of anger with me, but he was also searching and looking for ways and means to get me out of the problem. It was luck, maybe, because one of our family friends lived in another city and I was taken there to live and study. The family friend that I lived with gave me love, care, and hope. It was the first time in my life I felt emotionally moved. However, I could not overcome

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my problem and felt so frustrated that I wanted to give up life. There were times when I stopped abusing drugs and the body reacted differently and my nose would bleed. It was a very painful experience; occasionally, I even thought of committing suicide. Luckily, the family that I lived with was so tolerant and would not give up on me. Every day the members encouraged me to fight by praying and believing in oneself. It gave me hope and one day during the family prayer, the father prayed with such emotion that it moved me. Following that day, I stopped abusing drugs and suffered terribly from the withdrawal symptoms and it took couple of months for full recovery. Gradually, I got back into studies and completed my honours degree and masters degree in sociology.

institution plays a key role in the life of the youth; and, as observed from the discussion, some of the problems of the youth can be associated with parenting. To draw more insightful understanding on the subject of parenting and the youth further sociological investigation is required.

The Socialising Institution and Youth Emile Durkheim said, when societies undergo transition from the mechanical stage to the organic stage, traditional norms and values become disrupted and uprooted. People become restless and dissatisfied and a new moral consensus about what people can reasonably expect from life would be needed (cited in Slattery 2006: 72–76). Durkheim’s point is significant to explain the problems of the youth in the region. Scholars from the region have highlighted that the problems of the youth are due to the loss of one of the socialising institutions, namely, the ‘youth dormitory’. The youth dormitory is designated by a specific term. The Zawlbuk of the Mizo was once an important institution of socialising the youth. It imparted and trained the youth on varied aspects of life-skills and inculcated in them social values. The Morung of the Naga, the Pa of the Wancho, the Nokpante of the Garo, and the Nodrang of the Dimasa Kachari (Aier 1995; Gassah 1995; Kapmawia 1995; Zathang 1995; Riba 2006) are a few other examples of the institution of youth dormitory. The youth dormitory prepares the youth for their future role as adults of the society, it rains them in shaping and handling of personal

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development through the system of group work and activities, and it is a mechanism of social control and avoidance of conflict with adult members. Caroline R. Marak (2006) discusses the importance of Nokpante and the impact of its loss on the Garo society. In the Nokpante, boys were trained in martial arts, sports and games, music and dance, oral literature and poetry, ceremonies, traditions, customary beliefs and practices, and the skills that a boy ought to know (such as farming, basketry, house construction, and wood carving). The process of modernisation of the Garo society led to the gradual loss of the institution and that affected the training and education of the boys under the supervision and care of the elders. Marak further elaborates that modern educational institutions (that is, the school system) have replaced the Nokpante, but are not as effective in socialising the young. Similar are the views of M. Riba (2006) about the impact of the gradual loss of the Pa among the Wancho of Arunachal Pradesh. He says that, due to acculturation processes and substitution of the Pa by schools and other modern institutions, the Pa is on the decline. In the state of Arunachal Pradesh many societies continue to practise the youth dormitory, but their continuity is being challenged by the entry and activities of modern organisations. Analysing the impact of social transformation on the Naga society, Anthony Patton (1995) argues that the Morung has become defunct. Children are educated in modern schools and they miss the education of their own society, and have gradually become alienated from their village. He also points out that young people no longer imbibe the teachings and values of their own people and as a result they have become strangers in their own land. A group of post-graduate students (males and females) I interviewed said, We agree that most of us have very little knowledge about the society we belonged to because we have been educated only about the modern world. There is a gap in the way we think and the way our parents would like us to be. We want to preserve the knowledge and social values of our society and also to incorporate the new. We feel that we are caught in between and it confuses us as young people.

The discussion highlights that many societies have lost the youth dormitory; the survival of the few that remain is at stake. The youth dormitory is one of the most important social institutions that trained

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the youth and ensured collective control on youth behaviour. In some societies, the youth dormitory has been replaced by educational institutions, religious organisations or youth clubs. The new institutions are re-socialising the youth with new set of values and norms. Such institutions, as expressed by some writers, are not able to provide the kind of supervision, guidance, and control as youth dormitories did. They are too preoccupied with providing modern information or their thrust is more on the organisational activities. As one youth who became addicted to substance-abuse said, in the school environment or in the village or in the organisational environment I am only told what I should do or how I should conduct and behave. As a young person I have many problems and some of the problems I had wanted to talk to someone but there was no one to listen to me.

In those societies where socialisation of the young used to be a collective activity of the village the family plays a secondary role. With the loss of the youth dormitory the responsibility of socialising the young has shifted from the community to family. Families have to socialise their children without the support of the youth dormitory and the traditional ways. This perhaps explains why families in the North-East are facing difficulties in socialising the young.

The Politics of Identity and Youth The colonial system of political administration and the modern bureaucratic organisation of the nation-state introduced the societies of the region into a new type of political modernisation. The new type of political modernisation created political consciousness in the society and led to the formation of local or ethnic-based pressure groups and regional political parties. Such groups and parties articulate their political position by taking the issue of ‘political identity’ as the main demand. The politics of identity becomes a political agenda and, over generations and cutting across diverse groups, this issue has been the most influential social agenda. In pursuit of such an agenda, many protest movements or students’ movements or regional movements have been organised. Such movements have produced different kinds of results in the region. Some movements have brought direct conflict between ethnic groups

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and the nation-state. Some movements have resulted in ethnic-group conflicts (the Naga versus the Kuki, the Karbi versus the Khasi-Jaintia, and the Karbi versus the Dimasa) and conflicts between ethnic groups of the region and the ‘illegal migrants’. The region has witnessed many turbulent political struggles and conflicts (Sharma 1997; Baruah 2005; Dutta 2005; Kumar 2005; Das 2006; Mawthoh 2006; Tado 2006). By being part of the society and because of social expectations many youths have been actively participating in such movements. Scholars of the region have been observing these movements and noted their impact on the youth. Lanu I. Aier (1995) states that political disturbance in the Naga society has caused anguish, restlessness, and uncertainty among its youth. U. Misra (2006) is of the opinion that those who kill or get killed each year are young people, people whose energy and enthusiasm could have contributed so much towards building a better nation. According to him, the main reason for the youth of the region to have taken onus upon themselves is the crisis of leadership. Older generations lack commitment and have created social vacuum which has been sought to be filled by the youth leadership. According to J. Thomas, if at times the youth present the picture of aggression is because they are not independent nor are they isolated from the society they belonged to. They are affected by what is happening in their societies and the dynamics therein. In most cases the youth are victims of forces far beyond their control and the entire blame is put on them (1997: 302–03).

The politics of identity is rooted in the social aspirations of the ethnic groups of the region. It is being pursued in the form of demands for autonomy, protection and includes many other issues. At the same time, political identity is such a sensitive issue and, at the level of the social life of these ethnic groups, it is intense. The issue is also very pervasive and every member of the group is equally affected by it. Over generations it has not only influenced the perception of the people, but also the political culture of the youth to the point that the degree of intolerance and violent behaviour among the youth population is rising. It should be noted that the collective interests of the ethnic group and the collective acceptance to pursue the political agenda subsume the youth in the political process. This is because, in many of the north-eastern societies, the youth is seen as and expected to perform the role of vanguards.

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The Youth with Disability There is another section of the youth which deserves special mention, namely, the youth falling under the category of Persons with Disability (PWDs). Information on this category of youth is limited and it is difficult to provide any hard data. At the state level, the report on a sample survey on disability in Meghalaya is available. Based on this report, I present the specific problems of the youth with disability. According to the report, the total number of PWDs in the state of Meghalaya is 2,123, and of this, 1,111 are male and 1,012 are female. Out of the total, 656 (31%) are in the age-group of 16–30 years— 376 male and 280 female. The report showed that majority of them were born with disability and others became disabled in the later stages of their lives. Problems of this particular category of youth are many: (a) very low access to education, (b) very low employment opportunities, particularly for those in the rural areas, (c) very low access to health care facilities and support; and (d) their families have little knowledge and skills to care for them (Bethany 2007). There are many case histories on PWDs and the challenges they encounter throughout their lives and Case 2 is but one illustration. With regard to the support for PWDs, the report cited that there are only about a dozen NGOs offer services to such persons and only two organisations are provide community-based rehabilitation programmes. Most parts of the state are without any support and the vulnerability Case 2: Not Born but Made Bahbah (a kinship term used in addressing the eldest male of the family among the Khasi-Jaintia society) is 20 years old and suffers from severe mental retardation. His father separated from his mother when Bahbah was still a child. His mother is a petty betel-nut seller and, with the meagre income she earns, she supports the family. When Bahbah was 3 years old (that is, in 1987), he had fits and fever; he was taken to hospital for treatment and medication only in 1991. From 1992 onwards his condition deteriorated and it is very difficult for him to be on his own. His mother cannot provide constant care and attention since she has to work and earn to meet two square meals a day. During the day he is left on his own and only in the evenings the mother is able to attend to his needs.

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of PWDs increases with every passing day. The state government has been addressing the varied problems of PWDs by implementing various schemes through the department of social welfare and NGOs. At the level of the society, families, or villages they find it difficult to support, as they have neither the infrastructure nor the skills for taking care of such persons.

Summary Based on the foregoing analysis a few points can be summarised. There are two ways of understanding the definition of youth: (i) the rational-legal definition of the nation-state and (ii) the social definition of the society. The former is based on the age counted from the date of birth of persons and the latter is based on the generational principle. These two definitions may or may not complement each other. On the problems of the youth, the public discourse focuses on two points: (i) sympathising with the youth on some problems and (ii) labelling the youth as the problem. The academic discourse tries to understand the problems of the youth by highlighting various factors that impact on the lives of the youth. There is a difference between the public discourse and the academic discourse. Both these discourses highlight that the youth of the region are facing varied problems. Irrespective of the nature of the discourse, the problems of the youth emanate both from the structure of the society and from the process of social transformation.

Acknowledgements The author is grateful to Professors V. Xaxa, C.L. Imchen, N. Jayaram, and Dr. D.V. Kumar for their comments and suggestions.

References Aier, Lanu I. 1995. ‘The Naga youth problems’, in A.C. Sinha (ed.): Youth movement in North-East India (70–85). New Delhi: Har-Anand Publications. Aurora, G.S. 1995. ‘Social problems of youth in the North-East India’, in A.C. Sinha (ed.): Youth movement in North-East India (15–29). New Delhi: Har-Anand Publications.

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Baruah, Sanjib. 2005. Durable disorder: Understanding the politics of North-East India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Bethany. 2007. Sample survey on status of disability in Meghalaya. Shillong: Bethany. Das, D.C. 2006. ‘Youth unrest in Bodo society’, in Sheila Bora and S.D. Goswami (eds.): Youth at the crossroads: A study of North-East India (209–20). Guwahati: DVS Publishers. Dutta, P.C. 2005. ‘Problems of ethnicity and security in North-East India’, in S.K. Agnihotri and B. Dutta Ray (eds.): Perspectives of security and development in North-East India (97–123). New Delhi: Concept Publishing House. Gassah, L.S. 1995. ‘Youth problems in the border areas of Jaintia Hills’, in A.C. Sinha (ed.): Youth movement in North-East India (118–23). New Delhi: Har-Anand Publications. Hubbard, Jeffrey C.; Melvin. L DeFleur and Lois. B. DeFleur. 1975. ‘Mass media influences on public conceptions of social problems’, Social problems, 23 (1): 22–34. Kapmawia, T.C. 1995. ‘Youth problems of Mizoram’, in A.C. Sinha (ed.): Youth movement in North-East India (101–06). New Delhi: Har-Anand Publications. Karna, M.N. 1999. ‘Language, region and national identity’, Sociological bulletin, 48 (1 and 2): 75–96. Khaund, A.H. 1995. ‘Some influencing factors that deviate children and cause problem’, in A.C. Sinha (ed.): Youth movement in North-East India (49–60). New Delhi: Har-Anand Publications. Kumar, Nikhlesh. 2005. ‘Identity politics in the hill tribal communities in the NorthEastern region’, Sociological bulletin, 54 (2): 195–217. Marak, C.R. 2006. ‘Youth unrest in Garo Hills’, in Sheila Bora and S.D. Goswami (eds.): Youth at the crossroads: A study of North-East India (150–64). Guwahati: DVS Publishers. Mawthoh, J. 2006. ‘Constraints and problems of internally displaced persons: A study of the plight of the Khasi-Pnar of Assam’, in Sheila Bora and S.D. Goswami (eds.): Youth at the crossroads: A study of North-East India (144–49). Guwahati: DVS Publishers. Ministry of Youth and Sport Affairs, Government of India. 2003. The national youth policy. New Delhi: Government of India. Misra, U. 2006. ‘Youth issues in North-East India: Problems and prospects’, in Sheila Bora and S.D. Goswami (eds.): Youth at the crossroads: A study of North-East India (3–8). Guwahati: DVS Publishers. Patton, Anthony. 1995. ‘The agony of the Naga youth’, in A.C. Sinha (ed.): Youth movement in North-East India (61–69). New Delhi: Har-Anand Publications. Riba, M. 2006. ‘The re-thinking of context: Youth dormitories in Wancho villages’, in Sheila Bora and S.D. Goswami (eds.): Youth at the crossroads: A study of North-East India (174–85). Guwahati: DVS Publishers. Slattery, Martin. 2006. Key ideas in sociology. London: Nelson Thornes. Sharma, Alaka. 1997. ‘The struggle of ethnic identity: The Bodo tangle’, in Proceedings of the North-East India Political Science Association: Ethnic issues at the grassroots level in the North-East India (25–31). Shillong: NEIPSA. Singh, N, Irabot. 1995. ‘Youth organisations in Manipur’, in A.C. Sinha (ed.): Youth movement in North-East India (110–13). New Delhi: Har-Anand Publications. Singh, M, Amarjeet. 2002. A sociological study of educated unemployed youth of Imphal East and West districts of Manipur (Unpublished PhD theses). Shillong: North-Eastern Hill University.

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13 Youth in Techno Global World: Predicaments and Choices Rajesh Gill

T

he criticality of the theme of this paper is evident from the fact that it focuses upon youth, primarily a transitional stage in lifecycle, under impact of globalisation, again a transitional phase, in transitional societies. It is for this reason that it has not been easy to formulate an argument on this theme. However, this challenge made me scan through diverse writings on the subject and I could lay my hands on some very interesting and revealing literature, which, apart from enlightening me on the contemporary challenges haunting the youth of today, also offered valuable conceptual tools to handle the subject with a greater clarity. In this paper, I shall be building upon the following argument. Globalisation has served on a platter a whole lot of choices to the people, in terms of career opportunities, educational options, accessories, consumer items, etc., greener pastures, to be precise; yet, the capabilities to exercise choices remain extremely skewed among the youth. Globalisation, on the one hand, has substantially expanded the horizons of the youth in terms of a craving for a western lifestyle, consumerist culture, and an eagerness to put everything at stake to reach out to the world; while, on the other, the enhanced choices thrown open by global world have left the youth baffled, often resulting in a wide cleavage between those capable to sail through the strides and those finding themselves incapable of exercising these choices due to physical, material, cultural, and political barriers.

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On scanning the literature on the subject one finds that, although the interface between globalisation and youth has been theorised quite methodically, with a rich conceptual apparatus to address the issue, yet only a part of these conceptual tools are fit to explain the predicaments of youth in the non-western societies. Being a highly differentiated population segment, its engagement with globalisation is bound to get mediated by the territorial, cultural, economic, and political identities of the young people, as experience has already shown, to whom globalisation manifests through qualitatively different encounters. Finally, I would like to argue that these differentiations notwithstanding, the youth in transitional societies aspires for greener pastures in the globalised world, though what these greener pastures mean to them may again be very different.

Youth as a Distinct Population Segment Deliberately, I have not used the word ‘group’ for youth, because by no stretch of imagination can it be called a group, in view of the immense diversity and heterogeneity lying within in terms of biography, access, skills, gender, and competence to grab the opportunities thrown by globalised world. As a sociologist, I take ‘youth’ as a sociological, rather than as a biological concept. The question is: why must the youth be studied as a distinct category? The answer comes in the form of interesting conceptualisations offered by philosophers and scholars. For instance, youth has been conceived as ‘the age of natural inebriation without the need of intoxicants’ which made Plato conceptualise it as ‘spiritual drunkenness’ (quoted in Hall 1904: 74–75). Countering the biological and scientific approaches, the social constructionist approach views youth in terms of ‘everyday social practice’, perpetually in the process of change, as the young keep making sense of the world in everyday life. Conventional approaches conceptualised youth in terms of ‘youth subculture’, characterised by deviant and non-conformist attitudes (Gordon 1947). Youth has been projected full of turmoil in the ‘storm and stress’ model of C. Griffin (1993) and that of ‘moral panics’ of J. Springhall (1998), who treats youth as a social group with a patterned history, with a great anxiety out of its engagement with popular culture and adult fears of corruption. The state of ‘moral panics’ evolves out of the disjuncture

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between reactions to social or cultural phenomena appearing out of proportion to the actual threat posed. The concept of ‘subculture’ is important in understanding the social lives of young people. In simple terms, a subculture can be seen as a group within a group. The social group frequently referred to as ‘youth’ has thrown up many subgroups over the years which come to be regarded as subcultures. Over time, these subcultures acquire names and identities such as teddy boys, skinheads, punks, and so on (Kehily 2007). However, recent postmodernist approaches to youth culture have rejected subculture theories. Instead, these argue that, with globalisation and commercialisation, youth have been mainstreamed, paving way to global and fluid youth formations, called ‘club cultures’ based on media and niche marketing of dance music as a youth culture for all (Redhead 1997). Instead, it is argued that we are all being mainstreamed now with an increased commodification and commercialisation of all aspects of social life closing down the separate space occupied by the youth in conventional societies. S. Thornton (1995), in a complementary approach to S. Redhead’s, suggests that, through engagement with different styles of dance music, young people define themselves in relation to their peers. Drawing on the work of Pierre Bourdieu (1984), Thornton develops the idea of ‘subculture capital’ to analyse the forms of taste and distinction that characterise the club scene. Later works have rejected the concept of subculture, trying to replace it with new terms such as ‘scenes’, ‘tribes’, and ‘neo-tribes’ (Maffesoli 1995). Recent studies of youth formations, however, emphasise that definitions of subculture cannot be fixed and, like other sociological concepts, are subject to change and redefinition. However, youth in transitional societies has to be understood in the light of many variations within this segment, making it impossible to treat it in terms of either youth subculture as a homogenous reality. While youth in such societies tends to be very actively engaged with the popular culture, this engagement varies substantially on the basis of a highly differentiated, rather an unequal access to the channels connecting the young people to the globalised world. For instance, the nature of the encounter these young people in transitional societies, namely, India, have with globalisation tends to vary substantially, depending upon whether they are from (a) rural or urban background, (b) metropolitan or small cities, (c) middle class, poor, or rich households, (d) English-speaking/westernised or vernacular/localised linguistic groups, and (e) a part of techno savvy,

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globally connected virtual communities or marginalised entities, completely strangers to the global mainstream. In fact, this reality makes an understanding of the youth extremely difficult because the points of reference in each of these cases are extremely divergent, the choices available to each one of them highly varied, and the ways in which they transform their encounters with globalised world into an opportunity, being extremely diverse. Yes, one thing that is uniformly shared by the youth in a transitional society, stuck by the glare of globalisation, primarily understood by them as carrying greater choices, more money, multiple alternatives, freedom from shackles of tradition, etc., is that all of them are looking for greener pastures. However, it is an altogether different question as to what these greener pastures mean to these different segments within the youth. For some, these may be closer, while for others, far from home. For some, these are achievable with a greater ease, given a better economic, cultural and political standing apart from the parental support, while for others, it may be a lone battle. In the context of India, for example, a young boy or a girl born in a poor family in a remote backward village may cherish the dream of moving to a city, as the ultimate destination, while for the other with greater fortune, the cherished destination may be in Australia or USA. The fact remains that globalisation has definitely tempted the young, rich and poor, rural and urban, illiterate and literate, equally, to make choices and liberate themselves from traditional identities and create new individualised identities. It is on this premise that I develop my arguments in the following discussion.

Predicaments Faced by Youth in the Techno Global World The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has revolutionised the societies in a major way, with a special impact upon the social communications, resulting in altogether novel kinds of interactive situations. As with all new technologies in the past, Internet has been invested with utopian hopes for a radically new communicative age as well as dystopic warnings of an electronic anomic ‘lonely crowd’ (Ray 2007). In the most captive depiction of the emergent impersonalised society by Georg Simmel, ‘stranger’ is a person who is ‘not passing through’ but ‘comes today and stays tomorrow’ within a particular spatial

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group but without belonging or rootedness. The stranger is someone who is potentially in transit but within a group and who confronts the dispositions of the group with an ‘objective attitude’ of both remoteness and nearness. Elaborating the invasion of money in contemporary city life, Simmel writes ‘Money, with all its colorlessness and indifference, becomes the common denominator of all values; irreparably it hollows out the core of things, their individuality, their specific value and their comparability’ (Simmel 1950: 414). These relations become even more apparent with the Internet user, who is a stranger, both spatially distant and also near through a combination of distance and proximity characteristic of global sociality, where space is both intimacy and the blasé attitude of detachment that, for Simmel, epitomised life in the modern metropolis. Internet intensifies this process since virtual communities offer windows for multiple selves, a ‘distributed self ’ that exists in many worlds and plays many roles at the same time (Turkle 1999). It is in this manner that the ICT has made space, especially the social space, totally different in its operation. Socially organised spaces characteristic of the conventional societies are gone and in their place have come telecommunicating, tele-shopping, e-shopping, computer dating, electronic job markets, automatic teller machines, and desktop publishing, mediating between local and the global. This raises the question, has space lost its meaning altogether? Do social relations today exist independent of organised social space? The answer to these questions is not that simple, especially in the context of societies like India, where one finds both the pre-industrial and the post-industrial realities co-existing. One would easily find here people surviving with their ‘distributed self ’ as well as those with their ‘intact selves’, well placed in the conventional set-up. It is established by now that globalisation means different things to different people. While the process has been hailed by some for making ‘sky as the limit’, the rise of individualism, secularisation of tradition and culture, or, to be more specific, de-traditionalisation, unlimited choices in life, and so on, it has, at the same time, invited severe protests, making a case for anti-globalisation. In Globalisation from Below, J. Brecher et al. (2000) propose building a world structured by human values other than greed and domination, in order to get rid of the extreme disparities caused by a consumerist culture. Apart from the economic disparities between West and the rest and the North and the South, and the global-local cultural conflict, terrorism, fanaticism, etc., generally projected as the

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consequences of globalisation, I consider the following economic and cultural challenges to be posing a still greater crisis, especially for the young people: (i) great uncertainties accompanying opportunities in globalised world, (ii) vicious circle of poverty dominating over technology and communication, (iii) a loss of community, coupled with the question, can virtual commu-nities replace the traditional community?, and (iv) multiplicity of choices to all, with unequal capacities to exercise these choices.

All these issues are interconnected and need to be understood simultaneously. Very interesting literature produced by Ulrich Beck (1992), Zygmunt Bauman (2001) and Anthony Giddens (1991) underlines the difference globalisation has made for an individual whose biography has to be self created by himself or herself and has to be self reflexive. Individuation means that each person’s biography is removed from given determinations and placed in his or her hands, open and dependent on decisions. The proportion of life opportunities which are fundamentally closed to decision making is decreasing and the proportion of the biography which is open and must be constructed personally is increasing. Individualisation of life situations and processes thus means that biographies become self reflexive; socially prescribed biography is transformed into biography that is self produced and continues to be produced. Decisions on education, profession, job, place of residence, spouse, number of children and so forth, with all the secondary decisions implied, no longer can be, they must be made. . . . . . . In the individualised society the individual must learn, on pain of permanent disadvantage, to conceive of himself or herself as the centre of action, as the planning office with respect to his/her own biography, abilities, orientations, relationships and so on (Beck 1992: 135).

As individuals, thus, the young men and women cannot afford to simply drift along in life, failing to identify and realise opportunities, putting themselves and those dependent to disadvantage. Beck calls it the “Risk Society” (ibid.), while Bauman and K. Tester point to the dangers of ‘social deskilling’ (2001: 114), signifying the loss of social support in decision making. Giddens moves on to argue that each one of us is responsible for our own ‘reflexive project of self ’ (1991: 244), in the process of formation of self-identity. Contemporary culture, therefore,

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increasingly demands an active building of self-identity. Whereas in the past this may have been part of the life phase understood as adolescence, increasingly it is a demand also made of adults. In a flexible and uncertain employment market, those without secure resources are expected to engage in lifelong learning, re-skilling and re-invention of self (Kehily 2007). In the process of individualisation, there is a distancing of the individual from tradition, apart from local and familial ties, that is, detraditionalisation (Heelas et al. 1996), resulting in a loss of traditional security. To use it in the present context of youth, it is meaningful to argue that while the ‘normal biographies’ defined by convention and birth continue to persist the young would create their ‘choice biographies’, which are entirely determined by them. Tariq Modood, a prominent commentator on South Asian communities in the United Kingdom, writes, Compared to their elders, the young are less likely to speak to family members in a South Asian language, or to regularly attend a place of worship, or to have an arranged marriage. Yet they do not cease to identify with their ethnic or racial or religious group, though they may redefine what that group is, say, from Pakistani to Muslim. . . . For identity has moved on from a time when it was largely unconscious and taken for granted . . . it is now more likely to be based on conscious and public projections. . . . Shaped through intellectual, cultural and political debates, such identities are fluid and susceptible to change with the political climate. However, to think of them as weak is to overlook the pride with which they may be asserted . . . and their capacity to generate community activism and political campaigns (Modood 2005: 69).

These interpretations of the youth in a globalised world trace the transformation from identity as a thing to identification as a process. Thus, surrounded by intense competition and uncertainties, the young have to make choices, with a constant pressure to make the right kind of choices, owning the responsibility for their self-created identities. This is bound to make youth in globalised world an extremely stressful and challenging stage of life, in contrast to the ‘taken for granted’ and ‘settled’ self-identity, lying out there. Thus, choice biography refers to a life pattern in which much more appears to be within the orbit of individual determination: things happen because we make them happen and if we do not exert agency, they may not happen at all.

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Critics of globalisation have often conceptualised the process antihuman and defaced due to the uneven benefits it is likely to spread within societies. No doubt, people in India talk on mobile phones, use Japanese cameras, drive Korean cars, drink foreign scotch, eat American pizza, and communicate through Internet. Many Indian call centres sell their services to American companies. But they are very few! What about the million who are totally faceless, dying out of starvation, who sell their blood and body for a day’s meal, live in slum pockets, and are victims of filth, illiteracy, and environmental hazards. To them, globalisation has no face. Protests against globalisation begin from the dilemma of rising expectations followed by rising frustrations. For today’s young men and women, globalisation has left a global economy that is out of control and is certainly against any political vision of a just world. We are consuming more than we are producing. And what we are producing are predominantly financial assets, that is, bubbles as we have seen in the Asia crisis and now in the global meltdown. When the bubble bursts, liabilities remain and a crisis starts (Dasgupta and Kiely 2006). The Third World countries have been destabilised as a consequence of the debt burden, of the collapse of national currencies, often resulting in the outbreak of social strife, ethnic conflict, and civil war. Today, the trans-national corporations own 50 per cent share of the world’s largest economic sales units. The giant companies entirely or partly control national economies all over the globe. We inhabit a global theatre of the absurd, a winner-takes-all world in which the wealthiest billionaires own as much as approximately half of the world population (Pieterse 2004). The greatest challenge facing the youth today as a result of anti human and neo liberal globalisation, therefore, lies in the fact that 40 per cent of the world’s economically active population is subjected to unemployment and underemployment. The conventional project of liberation attached as a corollary of globalisation is already under scanner. Has globalisation brought young people a new freedom to act or does it portend an uninvited, unwanted, and cruel fate for the deprived majorities? For, the clash continues between fear, anxiety, and uncertainty for the dejected majority, and freedom, comfort, and happiness for the few elites (Dasgupta 2004). Viewed thus, youth confront a situation where they are supposed to turn difficulties into opportunities, using their ‘head’ instead of ‘heart’,

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reacting less to emotional responses and more to money economy, flaunting a ‘don’t care’ attitude. In short, what one generates is a commercial interaction not only with professional rivals and colleagues, but even within family and peers. This commercialisation geared by a strong profit motive is more than visible in the health sector, with the slogan ‘Millions for Viagra, Pennies for Diseases of the Poor’. Multinational companies sell Viagra across the world because they save people addicted to sexual pleasure. Many people in the Third World depend on selling sex to satisfy pangs of absolute hunger. Western manufacturers sell their branded products by persuasive and misleading advertising and promotions, causing the poor to divert money away from essential items to expensive patented and branded items. Following observations noted in a WHO (World Health Organisation) Report underlines the predicament: Major depression is now the leading cause of disability globally and ranks 4th in ten leading causes of global burden of disease. . . . Globally, 70  million people suffer from alcohol dependence. About 50 million have epilepsy, another 24 million have schizophrenia. . . . One million people commit suicide every year while between ten to twenty million of them attempt it. Rare is the family that will be free from an encounter with mental disorders (WHO 2001: 1–45).

The more technology advances towards a virtual world the more touch and emotional health becomes important. Lesson of history is that the more affluent we become, the more stressed and emotionally vulnerable we feel. The virtual reality thus created through media leads to a crisis involving an identity fragmentation. Bauman has argued that the ethical paradox of the post-modern condition is that it ‘restores to agents the fullness of moral choice and responsibility while simultaneously depriving them of the comfort that modern self confidence once promised’ (1992: xxii). The more we crave belonging, the less satisfaction belonging provides. So, as western societies become increasingly secular, there is also a rise in the number of people converting to orthodox religions and a proliferation of new forms of belief that may or may not be religious, but which do involve a search for meaning. The term ‘belief without belonging’ has been coined by the British sociologist Grace Davie (1994) to capture the paradoxical process through which religious institutions lose their grip at the level of the social, while faith continues to be a feature of individuals’ identities. For minority ethnic

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and religious groupings, the same processes are in operation, yet ‘choice’ is complicated by ongoing practices of discrimination. Loss of community and rise of mass society is another major challenge posed by globalisation to the young people in transitional societies. George Ritzer (2000) addresses this issue in terms of ‘McDonaldisation’, with its dehumanising effects, resulting into loss of human interaction and loss of community. In view of the virtual society taking shape as a consequence of the IT revolution, new bases for social relationships have come up. Ferdinand Tönnies, Georg Simmel, Louis Wirth, Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Emile Durkheim had concluded long back that, as a society became more global, it would have lesser quantity and quality of community, best conceptualised by Simmel (1950) who noted that the individual is never more lost than when he or she is in the metropolitan crowd. Ritzer’s critique of the globalisation is a very interesting disposition equating the process with ‘globalisation of nothing’ (2003). He equates the process of globalisation with the rise in ‘non-places’, ‘non-persons’, and ‘non-things’, by which he means places, persons, and things sans the uniqueness, specificity, and substance. What dominates is characterised by a huge similarity that can be easily and effortlessly imitated into multiple images, like the credit cards, malls, food chains, the smiling receptionists, and so on. The irony is that there is a longing, especially among the youth, for these non-things and non-places, while the possession of ‘something’ coupled by an inability to access the former results into an acute deprivation.

Indian Youth and the Dilemma of Globalisation The task has become easier having understood the impulsive young people surrounded by a cruel competition and multiplicity of choices, with a pressure to make right kind of choices and without the protective cover of community and familial ties. Let us analyse as to how the young people in transitional societies like India react to such a globalised world. I would once again begin by reiterating that all these processes of change in the wake of globalisation tend to affect different sections among youth quite differently. In a society like India, the loss of community may not be experienced by rich and poor, or rural and urban youth in a similar manner. Similarly, de-traditionalisation and secularisation

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would not affect different categories of young people uniformly. Both ascribed and achieved identities co-exist for the individual, with varying relevance in different situation. In case of the rural, the poor and not so westernised youth, normal biographies may continue to be operational whereas in case of the rich, the mobile and the urban youth, choice biographies may be more relevant, providing them with new identities and social relationships. Freed from the constraints of collective habit, we have no choice but to choose, although Giddens concedes that many areas of life are governed by decisions, and who takes these and how, are matters of power (1994: 76). Young people—western and non-western, rural and urban, rich and poor, literate and illiterate—have definitely been engulfed by the mass culture. Hyper-consumerism has particularly enhanced the engagement of young men and women all around the globe with the popular culture. To use Ritzer’s (2003) terminology, this has, to a large extent, brought the non things and non places to the core, while the ‘some-thing’ (denoting the unique, the local, and the peculiar) stands abandoned. This often occurs as a result of a conscious choice on the part of young people, for whom it is extremely important to be a part of the popular culture. However, the manifestation of this encounter with the popular culture is mediated through the differential access to resources. As a consequence, while a rich young guy would get into the KFC (Kentucky Fired Chicken) and spend lavishly on enjoying the chicken (himself and with his friends), a poor young man from a city slum may visit the KFC, sit there for hours, without eating anything; and both would come out declaring themselves a part of the mass culture. I feel most uncomfortable with the western theorising on the theme of ‘virtual sociality’ that is based upon the premise that social relationships based on face to face and personal interaction have been largely substituted by the de-territorialised social networks through Internet. While this may be true of the western reality, it fails to explain the scene prevailing in less developed societies where the computer literate populations comprise only a small fraction of the total population. At the turn of the millennium, more than a quarter of the American population used the World Wide Web compared with one hundredth of one per cent of the population of South Asia (Keohane and Nye 2000). Although the number of Internet users increased globally from 16 million in 1995 to 360 million by 2000, yet South Asia represents only 5 per cent of the world’s population. Its use is concentrated in the developed world

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where 97 per cent of Internet host computers are located (DiMaggio et al. 2001). Even in the case of those middle class households owning personal computers, as in India, a large number possess them just like other electronic gadgets as status symbols, to be displayed in the drawing rooms, or at the most for playing games. Of the world’s total online community 84 per cent live in developed countries and the 35 countries with lowest levels of development have around 1 per cent of the world’s online population (Norris 2001). Only 20 per cent of the world’s population have access to telephones; although access to mobile phones is expanding rapidly, illiteracy in many parts of the world is an obstacle to Internet use (Misztal 2000). Most e-commerce is within the OECD countries and between 75 and 80 per cent of e-transactions are between businesses rather than with private customers (Perrons 2004). Disparities both within and between societies at different levels of development will persist; though it is argued that these would gradually perish as societies rise on the level of development. Experience in societies like India indicates a contrary picture in that development, particularly in the garb of privatisation and liberalisation, has, instead of reducing, enhanced inequalities of all kinds. Large populations at the bottom are still struggling hard to gain access to the basic necessities such as potable water, electricity, housing, and work, thus making ICT still a prerogative of a small section of the population. Globalisation and rise of mass culture have, no doubt, led to the loss of community, in that the young individual today has to build his own identity, taking his own decisions; yet, this is not uniformly true. The process of creation of identity of the self, which is depicted by Giddens (1991) as a more or less direct consequence of individualisation, actually means altogether different things to different categories of young people. For instance, while it may be very rewarding for an urban educated middle class young person to create his own biography, given the necessary access to the globalised world, a poor low caste young man from a remote village would find it nearly impossible to get rid of his ascribed identity and create a de-traditionalised identity, given a total lack of access to the globalised world, except the tempting images of it on the television screen. Hence, the very process of identity creation and decision making varies substantially within the youth. Globalisation has multiplied the choices for the youth in one more very significant area and that is related to gender identity. While born in a particular locale, traditionally, an individual obtained a gender

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identity and the cumulative effects of such an identity with life long repercussions, in a taken-for-granted manner, with a sanctity attached to it, globalised world today offers her/him choice biographies between heterosexual and homosexual identities. What was socially impossible, illegitimate, and immoral has been granted legitimacy mainly due to globalisation and the ICT revolution. The gay and lesbian movements, which were aberrations some time back, have gained the patronage of global human rights agenda, thus gaining legitimacy. It is no longer necessary today to seek legitimacy for a same sex marriage in one’s own society, because such a practice has been institutionalised by the globally respected organisations. The conflicts thus produced between the local and global cultures are most discomforting for the young men and women of transitional societies, thus adding to the existing confusions with regard to newly conceived relationships and identities. The limited application of the theoretical formulation of choice biographies on Indian youth, particularly the rural, is evident in view of the recent spurt in cases in which the caste (khap) panchayats have issued dictates against the individual choices made by young boys and girls in marriage. The frequent cases of honour killings in northern states of India, which otherwise happen to be very progressive in terms of economic prosperity, point out that choices still remain a prerogative of not only families but communities, while the individual must bow before them. Such has been the extent of community fury against individual choices that, in some cases, married couples with or without children have been ordered to treat each other as brother and sister under the dispensation of caste panchayats. Of course, the fact remains that resilience of caste and community remains the main lifeline of such violation of human rights and free choices. Again, more than the men, it is the young girls who are killed for having exercised their choice against the community norms, giving the phenomenon a complete gender twist. Scholars writing on the virtual community in the developed societies have been emphasising the transformative effects of Internet on the face-to-face and personalised relationships. They have been preoccupied with the question as to whether the emergent virtual sociability would successfully replace the community of the yesteryears. While these anxieties are justified in the context of developed societies, rightly called ‘wired societies’, there is another side to the story that needs to be explored. In countries like India, where the ICT revolution has raised the level of expectations of the young, more importantly of those on

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the margins of society, by whom I mean not only those who are poor, illiterate, and deprived, but even those with a low self esteem due to low IQ, unacceptable physical appearance, lack of ability for effective presentation, and so on, Internet has been performing another interesting function. In the garb of anonymity granted by the virtual identity created on Internet for a particular purpose, it has become possible for the young to hide their true identity and interact in the virtual world on the basis of fictitious identity, which gives them appreciation, compliments, sensual gratification, and social acceptability for which they had been starving and which could not have been possible otherwise. Internet has come as a blessing to millions of young in such transitional societies, who had been scared of socialising in person, for the fear of an outright rejection, squeezed between the constant pressures of outstanding performance, on the one hand, and the perpetual incapability, on the other. By presenting a false bio-data, pasting somebody else’s picture, and creating a virtual identity, these young people can be very often seen glued to computers, having successfully distanced themselves both physically and socially from the immediate, but a hostile social and physical reality. *** To conclude, while globalisation has intensely tempted the youth towards greener pastures, these destinations vary considerably due to the differential competence, both ascribed and achieved, among young men and women to grab the opportunities. Next, though globalisation has accelerated the process of individualisation, providing the young with huge choices in life, the exercise of choice is marked by existential limitations in the capacities of young people, often resulting in anxieties over the uncertainties that follow. While traditional identities continue, though having weakened, new identities have to be created by young men and women, reconciling the two, not only different but conflicting, too. Finally, as experience has shown, the patterns of reconciliation of the youth are going to be dictated to them by the culture industry. This may not, however, happen if the young men and women bring in human agency in the exercise of the enormous choices globalisation has placed before them. They may go on choosing some and rejecting others on the platter, as intelligent and thinking human beings, instead of mechanically submitting to the globalised agenda dictating not only the economic, but even their cultural, political, and personal

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preferences. The signs of human agency, especially among the youth, are clearly visible in the shape of civil society that is bulging primarily due to the strong intervention of electronic media. Persistently, though very gradually, Internet is proving to be the primary medium of communication, extremely inexpensive and fast, most suited in developing countries, and youth constitute its major beneficiary.

Acknowledgements The author is extremely grateful to the anonymous referee for her/his valuable suggestions, Prof. N. Jayaram for his feedback, and Shri Y.K. Singh for his inputs.

References Bauman, Z. 1992. Intimations of postmodernity. London: Routledge. ———. 2001. The individualized society. Cambridge: Polity Press. Bauman, Z. and K. Tester. 2001. Conversations with Zygmunt Bauman. Cambridge: Polity Press. Beck, U. 1998. World risk society. Cambridge: Polity Press. ———. 1992. Risk society: Towards a new modernity. London: Sage Publications. Bourdieu, P. 1984. Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste (translated by R. Nice). Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Brecher, J.; T. Costello and B. Smith (eds.). 2000. Globalisation from below. London: South End Press. Dasgupta, S. (ed.). 2004. The changing face of globalisation. New Delhi: Sage Publications. Dasgupta, Samir and Ray Kiely (eds.). 2006. Globalisation and after. New Delhi: Sage Publications. Davie, G. 1994. Religion in Britain since 1945: Believing without belonging. Oxford: Blackwell. DiMaggio, P.; E. Hargittai, W.R. Neuman and J.P. Robinson. 2001. ‘Social implications of the Internet’, Annual review of sociology, 27: 307–36. Giddens, A. 1991. Modernity and self-identity: Self and society in the late modern age. Cambridge: Polity Press. ———. 1994. ‘Living in a post-traditional society’, in U. Beck, A. Giddens and S. Lash (eds.): Reflexive modernization: Politics, tradition and aesthetics in modern social order (56–109). Oxford: Polity Press. Gordon, M. 1947. ‘The concept of the subculture and its application’, Social forces, 26 (1): 40–42. Griffin, C. 1993. Representations of youth. Cambridge: Polity Press. Hall, G.S. 1904. Adolescence: Its psychology, and its relations to physiology, anthropology, sociology, sex, crime, religion and education (Vol 2). New York: Appleton. Heelas P.; S. Lash, and P. Morris (eds.). 1996. Detraditionalization. Oxford: Blackwell.

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Kehily, M.J. (ed.). 2007. Understanding youth: Perspectives, identities and practices. London: Sage Publications. Keohane, R.O. and J.S. Nye. 2000. ‘Globalisation: What’s new? What’s not? (and so what?)’, Foreign policy, 118 (Spring): 104–19. Maffesoli, M. 1995. The time of the tribes: The decline of individualism in mass society. London: Sage Publications. Misztal, B. 2000. Informality. London: Routledge. Modood, T. 2005. ‘A defence of multiculturalism’, Sounding, 29 (March): 62–71. Norris, P. 2001. Digital divide: Civic engagement, information poverty, and the Internet worldwide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Perrons, D. 2004. Globalisation and social change. London: Routledge. Pieterse, N. 2004. Globalisation or empire? London: Routledge. Ray, Larry. 2007. Globalisation and everyday life. New York: Routledge. Redhead, S. 1997. Subcultures to clubcultures. Oxford: Blackwell. Ritzer, G. 2000. The McDonaldization of society. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press. ———. 2003. Globalisation of nothing. London: Pine Forge Press. Simmel, G. 1950/1936. ‘The metropolis and mental life’, in H.W. Kurt (ed. and translated): The sociology of Georg Simmel (17–25). New York: The Free Press. Springhall, J. 1998. Youth, popular culture and moral panics: Penny gaffs to gangsta rap. 1830– 1996. Basingstoke: Macmillan. Thornton, S. 1995. Club culture. Cambridge: Polity Press. Turkle, S. 1999. ‘Looking toward cyberspace: Beyond grounded sociology’, Contempo-rary sociology, 28 (6): 643–48. WHO (World Health Organisation). 2001. The world health report, http://www/who.int/ whr/2001/en/ (accessed on 19 November 2009).

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Index

adolescent property offenders, xxxv. See also criminal behaviour, study of African American boys, xxix Alpha Community, 24 attitudes toward sex-roles, study of accepting a given circumstance, percentage of females, 138 accepting a given circumstance, percentage of males, 136–37 choosing a given type of work, percentage of females, 139 education and female career role, 135–40 marriage and age of marital partner, 134–35 non-traditional vs traditional youngsters, 134–40 reasons to work, percentage of females, 140 subjects, 133–34 willing to let their wives work, percentage, 137 Beta Community, 24 bounded agency, xxxiii Brahmanic traditions, 40 child and childhood in sociological discourses, xxxiv–xl

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childhood, sociology of, xxii child rights, xxiv–xxv criminal behaviour, study of age factor in comparison affiliation, 62–63 assumptions, 46 category of offenders, 47 compulsive thievery, 47 condition for participation in deviant activities, 50–54 family, influence of, 54–56 friendship associations, factors behind, 49–50 group participation, influence of, 53–54 habitual vs professional, 65n3 homogeneity in conduct norms, 58–59 house-breakers, 54 intimacy of relationship, effect of, 59–60 intimate personal groups, role of, 52–53 method of study, 47–48 nature of environmental forces/ factors, 49–50 peer groups, influence of, 56–62 pressure to participate as a defence mechanism, 60–61 primary delinquency, 53

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220 criminal behaviour, study of (Contd.) primary delinquency stage, 64 priority aspect and, 48–49 secondary delinquency stage, 64 types of delinquents, 50–54 daughter discrimination, study of fertility decline and adverse sex ratio, 94–98 Mandya district, 98–106 regional disparities, 93 ‘Declaration of Geneva’, xxiv differential association structure of, 48–49 theory of, 46 emerging adulthood, xxi fertility decline and adverse sex ratio, 94–98 folk traditions of Manipur, 80–81 functionalist model of socialisation, xxii Gamma Community, 24 Gandhi, Rahul, xxi globalisation and youth, 203–4 dilemmas, 212–16 ICT revolution, impact of, 215 rise of mass culture, 214 Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), xlvi intimate personal groups, 48 Islamic tradition, 40 Kukis, 80–82 language and youth identity, relation between, xl–xli Bangalore students, English usage, 122–26 English as medium of instruction, 126–27 English as the official language, 129

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Sociology of Childhood and Youth English language, use and proficiency in, 119–25 influence of cities in promoting English, 125 Jaipur students, English usage, 122–26 Madras students, English usage, 122–25 percentage speaking different languages, 125–26, 130n4 regional languages, use of, 125–26 Mandya district abortion, practice of, 104 agricultural activity, 99–100 dowry practices, 100–102 fertility transition experienced in, 103 parental perception about sons and daughters, 106 population and economy, 98–99 sex-determination test, conduct of, 104 son preference and desire to limit the number of children, 104–6 women, rights of, 103 Manipur, study of sex preferences in Arnold’s index, 82–83 contraceptive use, effect on sex preference, 89 data collection and methodology, 82–83 district of residence, pattern of contraceptive use by, 85–86 literacy, pattern of contraceptive use by, 88 preferred sex combination of children, 85 rural and urban distribution of contraceptive use, 83–85 sex composition, pattern of contraceptive use by, 83–88 socioeconomic and residence backgrounds, pattern of contraceptive use by, 89

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index tribal communities of Manipur, 80–82 two-stage sampling design, 82 Manipuri women, xxxviii–xxxix marginalisation of children, xxv–xxvi Meiteis, 80–82 modernisation of Indian society British rule, 142–43 India as welfare state, 143–44 Naga society, 80–82 new sociology of childhood, xxvi–xxvii political role of education, 23 political socialization in India, 23 politicization in schools, study of, 25–26 “Articulate-Moderate” (HPA-MPP), 38–40 class-politics, 39 government schools, 25 home conditions of children and, 25–26, 42 “Inarticulate-Militant” (LPA-HPP), 38–40 mass-media, role of, 36–37 negative consequences, 41 non-public schools, 25–26 participatory behaviour of parents, impact of, 35–36 political awareness, 37 political orientations among boys, 30 political values, 30 sample, 26–28 school boys, political orientations of, 37 school textbooks, role of, 30–32 sources of data, 28–30 street-politics, 39 teachers and parents, influence of, 33–35 psychotropic drugs usage among youths, study, xli–xlii

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221 distribution or sale of drugs, 178 findings, 175–81 popularity of drugs, 178–80 prevalence rate, 175–77 sex-differences, 173, 180–81 study sample, 173–74 type of drugs, 177–80 vulnerable sections of society, 170–71 Salem district, prevalence of female infanticide in, 107–10 schooling system in India, 40–41. See also politicization in schools, study of sex preference among Manipuri women, xxxviii– xxxix, 80–89 village studies in South India, xxxix. See also son preference and reproductive behaviour, study of sex ratio in India, 112n1 social class on occupational aspirations, study of, xliii–xliv caste, influence of, 150–54 findings, 156–57 objective and hypotheses of study, 145 ranking of religion and sex, 146–47 religion, influence of, 147–50 sample for study, 145 sex, influence of, 154–56 social background characteristics of respondents, 147 social class of respondents, 145–46 statistical analysis, 156–57 social constructionism, xxvii–xxviii social construction of childhood, xxiii socialisation theory, xxii socio-economic conditions and education aspiration, study of

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222 academic performance, defined, 7 in Ahmedabad, 16, 19n4, 20n5 aspiration to college graduation, 8–9 data collection, 5–6 educational aspiration, defined, 7–8 education as a temporary activity, 9 of female students, 10 low socio-economic status vs high socio-economic status, 10–11 measurement of variables, 6–7 path coefficient for relationship between intelligence and college plans, 17–18, 19n3 percentage distribution with high level of academic performance, 12–13 percentages of S.S.C. students, 10–13 post-high school educational aspirations, 7–8, 15 purposes of study, 4–5 results and discussion, 7–18 sample, 5 social class differences in educational aspirations, 14 socio-economic status, defined, 6 statistical procedures, 5 vocational or technical school training, 9 Wisconsin study, 16–18, 21n9 son preference and reproductive behaviour, study of among Christian, 71–72 among Hindus, 69–70 among Muslims, 71 among Sikhs, 73–74 background, 67–68 findings, 69–74 gender bias and ‘get rid of girls’, xxxix ‘higher’ son preference (HSP) category, 69–74

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Sociology of Childhood and Youth hypotheses, 67–68 ‘lower’ son preference (LSP) category, 69–74 in Manipur. See Manipur, study of sex preferences in no preference for son (NSP), 69–74 in patriarchal societies, 79 perception of sex-roles, xlii–xliii policy implications, 74–75 sample, 69 site of study, 68–69 Son Preference Scale, 69, 76n3 structured individualisation, xxxiii techno global world, predicaments of youth in, 206–12, xlv–xlvi ICT revolution and, 215 transformative effects of Internet, 215 transition, notion of, xxxiv tribes of Manipur, 80–82 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), xxiv–xxv young and youth as a distinct population segment, 204–6 identification with national life, xliv–xlv problems in North-East India, xlv, 185–200 relation between language and youth identity, xl–xli, 119–27, 129 social class and occupational aspirations of college students, xliii–xliv, 145–57 in sociological discourses, xl–xlvi studies of, xxx–xxxiv in techno global world, xlv–xlvi, 206–212

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index use of psychotropic drugs among, xli–xlii, 170–81 young and youth identification with national life, study of, xliv–xlv analysis, 163 economic improvement, perceptions of, 164–65 India, as a choice for livelihood, 167–68 interpretation of emigration, 163 migration and emigration impulse, 160–61 negative valuation of emigration, 164 occupational background, 166–67 reference groups, 165–66 youth, sociology of, xxii youth of North-East India, problems of academic discourse on, 189–200 data sources, 185

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223 disability issues, 199–200 education level and unemployment issues, 189–92 family as a factor for problems, 192–95 importance of Nokpante, 196 North-East region, background, 186 political consciousness and protest movements, 197–98 public discourse on, 188–89 socialisation, issues related to, 195–97 youth, definition of, 186–87 youth dormitory, 195–96

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About the Editor and Contributors

The Editor Bula Bhadra is Professor at the Department of Sociology, University of Calcutta, where she has been a faculty for last 24 years. She did her MA and PhD in sociology from McMaster University, Canada. Her most significant pathbreaking contribution is Materialist Orientalism: Marx, ‘Asiatic Mode of Production and India.  She has extensively written in the area of Sociology of Gender in both vernacular and English. Her forthcoming book is on Bengali feminist writer Ashapurna Devi entitled Ashapurnar Tritoy: Ekti Naribadi Samajtattik Parjalochana (Ashapurna’s Triology: A Feminist Sociological Analysis. Lately, she is engaged in researches on sociology of children and childhood in India. At the moment she is engaged in a major research project of UGC on ‘The Impact of New Technologies in Children’s Everyday Lives’. She has been a visiting faculty in India and abroad.  

The Contributors Suraj Bandyopadhyay is from Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta. N. Minita Devi is from Thambal Marik College, Mayai Lambi, Manipur. Rehana Ghadially is from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai. Rajesh Gill is Professor, Department of Sociology, Pun jab University, Chandigarh.

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Ashesh Das Gupta is Professor of Sociology at Patna University. Neelambar Hatti is Professor Emeritus, Department of Economic History, Lund University, Sweden. Khadlid Ahmed Kazi is from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai. M.Z. Khan is from Institute of Criminology & Forensic sciences, New Delhi. L. Ladusingh is Reader, Lecturer, International Institute for Population Sciences, Deonar, Mumbai. A.K. Nongkynrih is Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong. Tara Patel is from Gujarat University. Aileen D. Ross is from McGill University, Canada. T.V. Sekher is Associate Professor, International Institute for Population Sciences, Deonar, Mumbai. William H. Sewell is from University of Wisconsin. Vimal P. Shah is from Gujarat University. K.S. Shukla is from Institute of Criminology and Forensic Science, New Delhi. D.R. Singh is from Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi. Kh. Jitenkumar Singh is Research Officer, RCH Project, International Institute for Population Sciences, Deonar, Mumbai. Ehsanul Haq Not known Narsi Patel Not known Prabha Unnithan is from University of Nebraska (the United States of America). Ambarao T. Uplaonkar is Research Scholar, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

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Appendix of Sources

All articles and chapters have been reproduced exactly as they were first published. All cross-references can be found in the original source of publication. Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce material for this volume. 1. “Social Class and Educational Aspirations in an Indian Metropolis,” Vimal P. Shah, Tara Patel, and William H. Sewell

Vol. 20, No. 2 (March), 1971: 113–133.

2. “Education and the Emerging Patterns of Political Orientations: A Sociological Analysis,” Ehsanul Haq

Vol. 32, No. 1 (March), 1983: 35–59.

3. “Adolescent Thieves and Differential Association,” K.S. Shukla

Vol. 25, No. 1 (March), 1976: 74–94.

4. “Culture and Fertility: Son Preference and Reproductive Behaviour,” Ashesh Das Gupta

Vol. 52, No. 2 (September), 2003: 186–197.

5. “Sex Preference and Contraceptive Use in Manipur,” L. Ladusingh, N. Minita Devi and Kh. Jitenkumar Singh

Vol. 55, No. 1 (January–April), 2006: 67–77.

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6. “Disappearing Daughters and Intensification of Gender Bias: Evidence from Two Village Studies in South India,” T.V. Sekher and Neelambar Hatti

Vol. 59, No. 1 (January–April), 2010: 111–133.

7. “The Attitudes to English and Use of It by Students of Three Different Mother Tongues: Hindi, Kannada and Tamil,” Aileen D. Ross and Suraj Bandyopadhyay

Vol. 23, No. 2 (September), 1974: 224–235.

8. “Perception of the Female Role by Indian College Students,” Khadlid Ahmed Kazi and Rehana Ghadially

Vol. 28, No. 1&2 (March and September), 1979: 59–70.

9. “Social Class and Occupational Aspirations of College Students,” Ambarao T. Uplaonkar

Vol. 34, No. 1&2 (March and September), 1985: 49–68.

10. “Youth Aspirations vis-a-vis National Development: Participate or Emigrate?” Narsi Patel

Vol. 34, No. 1&2 (March and September), 1985: 39–48.

11. “The Use of Psychotropic Drugs Among College Youth in India: An Appraisal,” Prabha Unnithan, D.R. Singh and M.Z. Khan

Vol. 29, No. 2 (September), 1980: 171–186.

12. “Problems of the Youth of North-East India: A Sociological Inquiry,” A.K. Nongkynrih

Vol. 58, No. 3 (September–December), 2009: 367–382.

13. “Youth in Techno Global World: Predicaments and Choices,” Rajesh Gill

Vol. 61, No.1 (January–April), 2012: 129–143.

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