Households In Delhi Research Articles

Socioeconomic Vulnerabilities of Migrant Labour Households in Delhi

The paper discusses the precarity of employment for vulnerable workers, and the laws and policies meant for protecting the interests of migrants. To provide a more complete picture of the migrants belonging to the marginalized and vulnerable sections, field work was carried out in two slums of Delhi to gauge their socioeconomic conditions, nature of employment, and living conditions. The employment structure in Delhi has also been examined, using secondary data, to gauge the pattern of informal employment. The figures reveal a very sordid picture, as a majority of the workers in Delhi do not have any social security or legal protection of their jobs, and work under terrible conditions. While the social security system has been expanded to cover informal workers, migrant workers are still excluded, as the institutional structure of these schemes is creating problems in being accessible to migrants. All these factors point towards the complete lack of visibility of migrants for decades from the policy framework. There is an urgent need to develop strategies that reduce the vulnerabilities of migrants in the cities and help alleviate their miseries.

Do job aspirations cause job choice? Insights from women entering male‐dominated occupational training in India

AbstractMotivationThe participation rate of women in India's labour force is not only one of the lowest in the world, it has also been declining. To increase women's employment, some observers argue for reducing occupational gender segregation so that more women enter non‐traditional jobs.PurposeI ask how aspirations for non‐traditional jobs are formed among young women in Delhi. The aim was to enable policy‐makers to foster occupational aspirations for non‐traditional jobs so women could enter jobs considered to be men's work, reducing gender segregation and increasing women's participation in the labour market.Methods and approachI interviewed 72 young women from low‐income households in Delhi, following a semi‐structured guide. These young women were training either in jobs seen as the preserve of men—taxi drivers, electricians, and electronics mechanics—or in traditionally female work in beauty salons.FindingsContrary to conventional wisdom, young women's entry into non‐traditional training in Delhi was not a result of their occupational aspirations. Rather, entry into training saw them aspire to the jobs for which they trained.Policy implicationsTo increase women's entry into jobs dominated by men, policy‐makers do not need to influence young women's occupational aspirations. Instead, they should focus on factors that directly affect job entry—for example, having training centres close to where these young women live—and provide opportunities for young women to train.Traditional concepts of occupational aspirations, generally derived from the global North, do not apply in the same way to young women in India. My study raises questions about these conceptions of aspirations and prompts future studies to assess whether they apply in other parts of the global South.

Consumption and perceptions associated with Nutri-Cereals: Major, minor, and pseudo millets—A study of urban households in Delhi, India

Worldwide, millets, also known as nutri-cereals are regarded as nutritionally rich grains, but they are less explored. Millet grains have nutrient-dense properties and immense health benefits to offer. The emphasis on nutri-cereals is particularly relevant in the case of urban population due to changing dietary patterns and rising incidence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as hypertension, obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disorders. The millet-based foods can play a crucial role in providing health benefits to urban communities facing such health challenges. To understand the consumption pattern and associated factors in the urban context, a cross-sectional study was conducted covering 574 middle-income households in different localities of Delhi, India. It was found that consumption of nutri-cereals was substantially lower, except for pearl millet and buckwheat. Most nutri-cereals, including finger millet, foxtail millet, proso millet, barnyard millet, kodo millet, little millet, amaranth, and sorghum, had a consumption rate below 50% (ever consumed), indicating their limited inclusion in household diets. The two prominent factors associated with household millet consumption include the health benefits and cultural significance of these nutri-cereals, as well as the practice of cooking and serving them at home, along with other health considerations.

Examining the Impact of Location Characteristics on Job Accessibility for Households in Delhi Using Structural Equation Modeling

Examining the Impact of Location Characteristics on Job Accessibility for Households in Delhi Using Structural Equation Modeling

Food Marketing and Parent’s Attitude for Children’s Food Habits

Food marketing to children is recognized worldwide as contributing to many health-related problems in children. Much of the research in this area has been carried out in the US, the UK, and other developed countries that are fighting the obesity epidemic and other related health problems. But now this phenomenon is, however, not restricted to the developed world only, it is trickling down to the developing countries, such as India. Therefore, it is pertinent that necessary measures are devised and implemented so that Indian children may not face the same situation. At present, when governmental regulations are less forthcoming, and marketers are enjoying the potential offered by a vast and untapped market for western foods, it becomes imminent for the parents to intervene and protect their children from common effects of food advertising. Therefore, the present paper seeks to review food marketing and parents’ concern for the food habits of their children. Design: Data were drawn as of consumption and action in the child, a population-based. Setting: children from 5 middle and high schools and households in Delhi. Surveys Participants: A total of 200 children in results age of group 4 - 12. Variables Measured: region, Type of foods adds, Household Income, Parents’ education, Media, Eating at the restaurant, Favorite, foods, Household situation, Obesity, Diabetics, and cardiovascular. Analysis: Microsoft excel models with pie charts were used to guesstimate links between TV advertising and junk food consumption, adjusting in favor of demographics.

Cancer and Conjugality in Contemporary Delhi: Mediating Life between Violence and Care

This article tracks the entanglement of cancer and patterns of conjugality in Delhi. Building on fieldwork with about 120 households in Delhi, it describes how the disease put pressure on already fraught marital biographies, revealing durable fissures in household relations. Often, these shifts in the distribution of conjugal vulnerability opened cracks that allowed long histories of domestic violence to seep through. In subtle ways, women could accrue a delicate agency through their practices of care. But at the same time, they continued to inhabit the vulnerable space of affinal homes. This article describes how in these arrangements, care and violence followed each other closely in their tracks. Building on these insights, the article deepens and shifts how anthropologists have understood the social life of the cancer. Specifically, anthropologists writing about the disease have demonstrated the ubiquity of a biotechnical imaginary of hope and survivorship in the Global North. This article develops an anthropology of cancer from the Global South that takes seriously the work of palliation and reconciliation, in the process provincializing Global North imaginaries of hope and survivorship.

Encouraging urban households to segregate the waste they generate: Insights from a field experiment in Delhi, India

Despite the Solid Waste Management Rules (SWM), 2016 stating that waste generators should segregate their waste before it is collected; most households in Delhi continue to be non-compliant. We conduct a study in 15 localities of Delhi to understand whether information, norms and economic incentive would have an effect on households’ compliance to rules. The study uses field experiments to elicit the impact of the interventions.We find that even low cost interventions such as information on segregation and its benefits are effective in changing household waste segregation behaviour. We also find that a combination of information and economic incentives play an important role in inducing the households to begin segregation at source. The efficacy of incentive highlights the importance of defining a differential user fee - lesser amount for those who segregate and a higher amount for those who do not segregate. The field observations also show that the garbage collector could nullify the actions of the household, thus highlighting the importance of educating the garbage collector as well. Our findings can inform Municipal officials and agencies involved in collection and transportation of waste, to induce households to segregate at source.

Analyzing the “energy-efficiency gap”

PurposeThe key purpose of this paper is to quantify the size of the energy-efficiency gap (EEG) for air conditioners at the household level in Delhi. Most of the studies in the EEG tradition broadly define EEG as the difference between the actual and optimal level of energy efficiency. The optimal level of energy efficiency is defined at the societal level (that weigh social costs against social benefits) and the private level (that weigh private costs against private benefits).Design/methodology/approachThe authors base the empirical results in this study on the basis of the primary data collected through in-person interviews of the high-income urban households in Delhi in 2014-2015. The sample of 101 households was collected through purposive random sampling. The survey data include information on type and number of AC possessed, hours of operations, socioeconomic characteristics and awareness and habits of households.FindingsUsing primary data of 101 high-income urban household, the paper finds that average EEG is about 10 per cent of total electricity demand of ACs at the household level. The maximum current saving potential measured as a difference between hypothetical energy consumption, if everyone adopts five star ACs, and actual energy consumption is estimated about 14 per cent of the total electricity demand of ACs. Results from the ordinary least squares regressions demonstrate that individual’s habits, attitude, awareness of energy-efficiency measures and perceptions significantly determine the size of the EEG. Among other things, authors’ empirical analysis shows that information can play a central role in guiding investment in energy-efficient technologies. From the analysis of improving access to understandable information about cost savings, payback period and emission reduction, it is found that full information leads to the significant reduction in the size of the expected private energy-efficiency gap from 10 to 2.98 per cent at the household level.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper tests the significance of non-economic and non-social factors in determining the size of the EEG. Apart from socioeconomic factors such as income, occupation and education, individual’s energy-conserving habits and attitudes, awareness of energy-efficiency measures and perceptions are other important factors found to have a significant negative impact on the size of the EEG. This is particularly important for the designing of information programs by policymakers for promoting energy-efficiency choices in view of the change that is required in the behavior and attitudes of the households.Originality/valueIn this study, authors try to estimate the size of the EEG of ACs for the high-income urban households in Delhi. The private energy-efficiency gap estimated at 10 per cent of the household demand for ACs indicates existing saving opportunity for the private households. It is found that provision of comprehensive information about cost savings, payback period and emission reduction reduces the size of the EEG significantly from 10 to 2.72 per cent at the private level. This highlights the existence of limited and incomplete information in the market about the possible costs and benefits of energy-efficiency investments. This paper tests the significance of non-economic and non-social factors in determining the size of the energy-efficiency gap. Apart from socioeconomic factors such as income, occupation and education, individual’s energy-conserving habits and attitudes, awareness of energy-efficiency measures and perceptions are other important factors found to have a significant negative impact on the size of the EEG. This is particularly important for the designing of information programs by policymakers for promoting energy-efficiency choices in view of the change that is required in the behavior and attitudes of the households.

Built Environment and Health Outcomes: Identification of Contextual Risk Factors for Mental Well-being of Older Adults

The increasing proportion of elderly people is an emerging demographic trend globally. As the effect of the built environment on mental well-being of non-institutionalized older adults has been less studied, the present study tries to identify the risk factors in the built environment and its impact on the mental health of older adults. A questionnaire based cross-sectional survey was carried out to procure information from 1896 respondents nested within the households in Delhi, India. Nearly 28% of the respondents were reported for being depressed, followed by calm & peaceful (23.6%), emotionally stable (27.9%) and happy (20.5%). Indoor and outdoor environmental factors exhibited a significant graded relation with mental health. Depressed/downhearted mental condition was significantly related with overcrowding (OR = 2.9, p < 0.001), exposure to noise pollution (OR = 3.2, p < 0.001) and fear of crime (OR = 2.2, p < 0.001) after adjusting significant confounders. Whereas, living in low rise dwelling, better housing condition and healthy physical and social environment were demonstrated a significant impact on positive mental health, including emotionally stable (p < 0.01), peaceful & calm condition (p < 0.01) and happy (p < 0.001). The prevalence of depression in older adults in the study area was fairly high and a cause of concern. Features of the urban built environment are significant predictor of mental health and many of them have deleterious effects. Intensive research that integrates different parameters of the built environment and their impact on mental well-being across varying geographic scales and life stages is much needed.

Segmenting Consumers in Food and Grocery Retail

This study was conducted for identification of the factors in consumer behaviour in retail buying, to identify the elements of pricing that influenced consumers, and to identify important non-pricing factors with respect to buying of groceries and consumer goods like staples (atta, rice, cooking oil, sugar, and so forth), personal care and toiletries (oil, shampoo, soaps), and fruits&vegetables. These items constitute a major part of the monthly grocery requirements of consumers, which is a part of food&grocery retail. The paper tried to ascertain the dimensions on which consumers can be segmented on the pricing factors. A survey of 450 households in Delhi&Faridabad found three clusters which have different characteristics. The study makes suggestions to retailers on the basis of the findings of the study.

Implications of end-user behaviour in response to deficiencies in water supply for electricity consumption – A case study of Delhi

Summary Over the past two decades, urban lifestyles have changed phenomenally. One aspect of this change is the increasing use of household appliances, which, in turn, influences water and electricity consumption in urban households. It is therefore necessary to revisit water supply norms in view of these behavioural changes. Increasing use of water-related appliances by the surveyed households in Delhi, India has lowered their water consumption but increased their electricity consumption (10–16 kW h a month). Also, longer working hours away from homes have shifted water demand from homes to commercial establishments and institutions. The per-capita water requirement to meet the basic needs for health and hygiene is approximately 76–78 L a day, of which bathing claims the largest share (32%). Nearly 70% of electricity consumption of a household is spent in coping with deficiencies in water supply. Strategies adopted by end users to save water were negatively correlated with those to save electricity. Household incomes have no influence on water consumption except in the case of those living in slums, who are forced to curtail their use of water even at the cost of health and hygiene; for the rest, coping with poor water supply amounts to spending nearly 50% more on electricity, defeating the purpose of subsidised water supply.

Development Amid Deprivation: Learning in Preparation for Adult Life among Low-Income Households in Delhi

This article provides an ethnographic account of childhood–adulthood transition and the opportunities for learning associated with childhood among low-income households in Delhi. The account is framed within a developmental theory of the life course that shows how daughter and son roles constitute apprenticeships through which children accumulate skills to help them make the transition and meet their responsibilities in adult life. Experiences of transition are gendered, given that opportunities for learning are embedded in family life for girls and work life for boys rather than in formal education. Although school enrolment in this community has increased, it is always under threat because of the relentless economic hardship that characterises everyday life and supports the transfer of poverty and inequality into another generation.

Governance in the Gullies: Democratic Responsiveness and Leadership in Delhi’s Slums

We use detailed ethnographic evidence to design and interpret a broad representative survey of 800 households in Delhi’s slums, examining the processes by which residents gain access to formal government services and develop their own (informal) modes of leadership. While ethnically homogeneous slums transplant rural institutions to the city, newer and ethnically diverse slums depend on informal leaders who gain their authority through political connections, education, and network entrepreneurship. Education and political affiliation are more important than seniority in determining a leader’s influence. Informal leaders are accessible to all slum dwellers, but formal government figures are most accessed by the wealthy and the well connected.

Governance in the Gullies: Democratic Responsiveness and Leadership in Delhi's Slums

We use detailed ethnographic evidence to design and interpret a broad representative survey of 800 households in Delhi's slums, examining the processes by which residents gain access to formal government and develop their own, informal, modes of leadership. While ethnically homogeneous slums transplant rural institutions to the city, newer and ethnically diverse slums depend on informal leaders who gain their authority through political connections, education and network entrepreneurship. Education and political affiliation are more important than seniority in determining a leader's influence. Informal leaders are accessible to all slum dwellers, but formal government figures are most accessed by the wealthy and the well-connected.

INFORMAL SECTOR, NETWORKS AND INTRA‐CITY VARIATIONS IN ACTIVITIES: FINDINGS FROM DELHI SLUMS

Based on a micro‐survey of around 800 slum households in Delhi this paper highlights the role of networks in accessing jobs in the urban labor market. Primarily three types of networks have been identified, which operate through kinship bonds, caste and ethnicity bonds, and formal channels like NGOs and employment exchanges. The type of networks used seems to vary across occupations. Based on a multinomial logit model the paper notes that given the differences in the nature of economic activities performed in different parts of the city, factors like networks and the urge to reside near the contact person and the work place make the urban labor market highly segmented. Hence, certain pockets within the city tend to get crowded by the growth of slums, and secondly inter‐spatial variations in terms of activities/occupations make slum population in the city a heterogeneous set, and thus their problems and need vary substantially. Hence, any uniform policy for clusters located in different zones may not be able to tackle effectively the problems of slum dwellers in the city.

Contribution of Appliances to Domestic Electricity Consumption

Metropolitan areas in developing countries have electricity consumption patterns similar to those of cities in developed countries. These areas have grown into pockets of concentrated electricity demand and their number is expected to increase with time. An important feature of these areas is the predominant share of domestic electricity consumption in the total electricity consumed. An attempt has been made, in this paper, to identify the various domestic appliance components in the total domestic electricity consumed in the case of one metropolitan area, namely Delhi. The ultimate objective is to draw “typical load curves” for various appliances for different consumption categories in the domestic sector. Data were collected from 400 households in Delhi on the usage pattern of appliances in the domestic sector. The results of the analysis on the contribution of different appliances to the domestic load curve are presented in this paper.

Who will return and when? An analysis of rural-to-urban migrants in India.

An analysis of temporary migration in India is presented. In particular, the author examines, within a multivariate context, the importance of various socioeconomic factors that influence the future plans of rural-urban migrants and their intended timing of return to the rural area. The data are from a 1975-1976 survey of 1,615 migrant heads of households in Delhi.

Rural-urban migration and family ties: an analysis of family considerations in migration behaviour in India.

The importance of family considerations in mobility decisions of rural to urban migrants in India was investigated by analyzing evidence on urban rural ties. The empirical basis was a survey of migrant heads of households in Delhi conducted from October 1975 to April 1976. Only 14% of the migrants in the sample were accompanied by family members when they moved to Delhi, and at the time of the survey 44% of the sample were living on their own as nonfamilial households. 82% of the migrants reported having family members living in the area. In 1/3 of these cases the rural household contained the wife of the migrant. Over 3/4 of the sample visited their origin regularly, and 2/3 were sending money. Migration decisions are discussed in the context of the mutlicentered family, and urban rural family links are classified into several distinct types, and the importance of visits and remittances to origin for each of these types are investigated. An econometric analysis of conjugal separation is presented, and the determinants of remittances are investigated. The salient methodological innovations are a 7-part typology of urban rural familial links and the use of logit analysis in the identification of the important determinants of conjugal separation. Nearly 4/5 of the migrants visited their place of origin. The proportion reporting visits was higher for migrants who had family members at place of origin, but as many as 60% of the migrants not having family links maintained contact with rural residents through visits. If migrants recognized mutual kinship rights and obligations dictated by the social system, they maintained close functional ties with their kin. Only 56% of unmarried migrants living as nonfamilial units reported visits to origin compared to 92% of those living with their nuclear unit. For migrants who reported presence of family members at origin, there was no significant difference between landowners and nonlandowners in the proportion who reported visits. Married migrants who had left their wives in the rural area were more likely to visit origin during the agricultural busy periods. A majority of the migrants maintained economic links with the rural area, and in early all these cases financial flows were from the urban to the rural area. Remittances tended to be related positively to urban earnings and needs of the rural household and negatively to obligations in the urban household. There was no evidence of ties weakening over time, but migrants who planned to settle in the city remitted less. To an extent conjugal separation was temporary and reflected husbands and wives making the journey at different times. Migrants were also inhibited from bringing their wives to the city if they owned land at origin or had migrated to obtain cash for specific needs. A part of the explanation also lies in varying regional cultural and environmental characteristics.