Indian Town Research Articles

Listing the Shared Built Heritage of Shimla: A Colonial Hill Town in India

Shimla, a hill town in north India, possesses a unique cultural heritage manifesting layers of history. Shared built heritage of Shimla represents the 'shared' parts of history that include structures influenced by the colonial style. The diversity of building typology is under constant threats of urbanization and is exposed to degradation and extinction. Heritage listing as a tool for documentation aids to identify the shared built heritage and create repositories of the unrecorded history before it gets lost in the wraths of modern-day challenges. The study presents an account of the shared built heritage in Shimla using primary and secondary sources of data collection. Data was collected through a series of open-ended questions to various stakeholders, compiled in meticulously prepared inventories and represented graphically. The study contributes to defining a process for categorizing the different typologies of existing shared built heritage that aid in integrating these within the urban management plans.

A Study of Psychological Aspects of Food Delivery Personnel during Covid times

The Covid-19 induced lockdowns had severe effects on service industries and their employees. The researchers have primarily focused on the healthcare workers, their mental well-being and the evolving consumer behaviour in retail industry. Yet, the impact of the pandemic on the frontline retail employees especially those engaged in the food delivery is an under-researched area. In this qualitative study, the authors research the changed working conditions and the related occupational stress of the food delivery personnel from five major cities and towns in India. The findings have been categorised under three themes: perceived threat (source of anxiety and stress), self-protective behaviour (fear related) and perceived benefits (Coping behaviour).

Indigenizing Philosophy on Stolen Lands: A Worry about Settler Philosophical Guardianship

Indigenizing Philosophy on Stolen Lands: A Worry about Settler Philosophical Guardianship

Residential segregation and public services in urban India

Urban India is characterised by a high degree of intra-city spatial inequality in the availability of public services like piped water and sewerage. We unpack the political channels that link residential segregation with access to public services. ‘Micro-segregation’, or neighbourhood residential sorting within a ward (the elementary administrative and political unit in urban India), enables segregated neighbourhoods to better organise and petition public services. Political competition further amplifies these demands from segregated neighbourhoods. The state’s response to such demand is, however, modulated by both in-group favouritism and outgroup discrimination. States’ ability to indulge in such favouritism and discrimination is in turn contingent on how the caste composition of a ward is different from that of the city as a whole –‘macro-segregation’. We combine large-scale quantitative analysis using neighbourhood-level national census data for all towns in India with at least 0.3 million residents, and multi-year qualitative fieldwork in Bengaluru, a metropolis of over 10 million residents, to delineate the interactions between these demand-side and supply-side channels. While macro-segregation is negatively associated with piped water and sewerage, micro-segregation has a positive association.

Examining the influence of spiritual practices on quality of life among older urbanites in an Indian town

ABSTRACT Spiritual practices are supposed to be helpful for living with good ‘Quality of Life’ in old age. Here, firstly, the Quality of Life (QoL) of older urbanites of an Indian town has been evaluated by using WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire and the daily spiritual experience has been assessed by Daily Spiritual Experience Scale (DSES) according to the need of the respondents. The relationship between Spiritual practices and Quality of Life has been observed through Pearson correlation and the influence of spiritual practices on QoL has been assessed by regression analysis. The Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) has been conducted to understand the principal spiritual factors affecting QoL of elderly people. Results show that practising spirituality insists most older people to remain hopeful about their life with good mental health.

Co-Production or Contested Production? Complex Arrangements of Actors, Infrastructure, and Practices in Everyday Water Provisioning in a Small Town in India

This paper critically analyses complex arrangements of actors, infrastructure technologies and practices to argue that co-production of urban service delivery entails a mutual, but contested dependence of state and non-state actors. We present two empirical cases based on in-depth qualitative fieldwork highlighting the role of Councillors regulating formal hydraulics and the fragile, volatile relations of private water provisioning in Baruipur Municipality, a small, peripheral town in the Kolkata Metropolitan Area. Characterised by groundwater arsenic, iron risks and heterogeneous urban waterscape, our analysis shows that powerful socio-political intermediaries shape everyday provisioning and access, ‘re-politicisation’ complicating notions of collaborative alliances, equitable benefits and sustainable, material improvements. While gaps in piped water provisioning in the global South cities do find nascent community-led, collective service delivery efforts, in a socio-political context where water is understood as a public right, a state provision, does the continued reliance on the state allow joint service delivery to manifest?

Design, Simulation and Analysis of Components for Electric Auto Conversion

In this paper we discuss the design, simulation and analysis of an electric conversion kit which would be able to convert an IC engine auto rickshaw to a pure electric vehicle. Retrofitting an old auto rickshaw not only eliminates the tailpipe emission from the vehicle but also helps to reduce the carbon footprint involved in manufacturing a new vehicle. For the purpose of understanding demands for an auto rickshaw to run in Indian city roads and towns we’ve conducted a survey among 33 auto rickshaw drivers from 3 different towns in Kerala which helped us to identify the most commonly used auto rickshaw model, and requirements for an auto taxi such as range for battery, power required for motor and other modifications that have to be carried out. And from the results we have designed a battery pack according to the requirements and a mounting plate which mounts the motor and the transmission to the frame of the vehicle and simulated a linear static load test on the mounting plate and a thermal analysis on the cell of the battery pack, an air cooling system for the battery pack was also designed to prevent thermal runaway of the cells during high loads. CAD designs and its simulations were done with the help of Fusion 360 and Altair Hyperworks.

Comity at the Crossroads: How Friendships between Moravian and Native Women Sustained the Moravian Mission at Shamokin, 1745–1755

ABSTRACT From 1745 to 1755 Moravian missionaries maintained a presence in the Indian town of Shamokin, both pursuing their desire to minister to its inhabitants and fulfilling a request by the Oneida chief Shikellamy to operate a blacksmith shop serving the needs of the Iroquois. Though the exchange of goods and services at the smithy contributed to the civil relations between the Moravians and the Indigenous inhabitants, a close reading of the Shamokin Mission Diary reveals that it was the friendships forged between Native and Moravian women in the early years of the mission that integrated the Moravians into the community at Shamokin and won them friends. As an examination of the relationships and impact of the women present at Shamokin in this period, this article situates itself within existing research on Moravian missionary activity and gender relations in colonial Pennsylvania.

Poblamiento y dinámica demográfica de San José del Álamo (Viesca) y los asentamientos de La Laguna (1731–1825)

This text analyzes the population and demographic dynamics of San José del Alamo and its jurisdiction in the area known as La Laguna in the current southwest of the state of Coahuila. The Alamo Indian town arose when the colonization project of the Tlaxcalans of Parras was imposed on that of the powerful landowner Marquis de Aguayo. The first years were difficult but the population of La Laguna had moderate growth despite the constant incursions of enemy Indians. By 1825 the Alamo and nearby haciendas were already established and their demographic structure was similar to that of other consolidated settlements in the Mexican northeast.

Comparative Evaluation of the Nutritional Status and Habits of Students Studying in Private and Government Schools in a Semi-Urban Town in India –Kumbakonam Urban Rural Epidemiological Study - KURES -1

Malnutrition is a universal and an ever-rising problem due to changes in the lifestyle and eating habits among the children. The malnourished children are prone to illness. Hence, we planned to conduct a study in school children, both in Government set up and a private set up, to review their nutritional status and the influencing factors. Two thousand students in the age group of 8-17 years were interviewed for their food habits, asking them to fill up a proforma along with anthropometric measurements. Among the children interviewed 72% were malnourished, but only 0.06% were obese. The nourishment was significantly better in private school children but still 58% were underweight. There was a strong liking for fast food among children from both the groups. The playing time was less than an hour in a majority of students. Conclusion: There is an alarming census of underweight children in a semi-urban Indian town, but obesity is not that alarming, with an incidence rate < 1%. There is an urgent need to promote games among children of all socioeconomic status. A blanket ban on fast food items in the school campus is the need of the hour. Undernourished children form majority of students going to school in India. This includes children attending private paid schools. The incidence of obesity is still so low so that any community level action on the same is presently not needed in India.

‘IN ANY CASE WE ARE SUFIS’: THE CREATION OF HIJRA SPIRITUAL IDENTITY IN SOUTH ASIA

Providing spiritual ‘safe spaces’, the Sufi shrine-world throughout the Indian Subcontinent is generally open to those who do not identify with conventional gender categories. Ajmer Sharif Shrine (dargāh) in the northern Indian town of Ajmer in Rajasthan is renowned for being particularly ‘inclusive’. It accepts all pilgrims without discrimination, including the so-called ‘third gender’, often referred to as hijras or kinnars, terms that transgress the socially-defined binary gender divide. Marginalized, and often socially stigmatized, these groups are naturally drawn towards liminal spaces such as Sufi dargāhs which encourage the transcendence of socio-religious boundaries. This paper explores certain typological aspects of traditional Sufi ritual and belief that make it particularly receptive to hijras, and the way in which hijras in turn appropriate and reconfigure Sufi religious belief to negotiate the tension between the liminality of their lived experience and the exclusive duality of the society around them. As well as utilizing fieldwork undertaken at the 808th

ANALYZING THE MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR ALIGARH

Due to rapid increase in the population over the last year few decades, urbanization, industrial growth and rising in the living standards. The rate of generation of municipal solid waste in Indian cities and town have also accelerated. In India, the urban local bodies popularly known as the municipal councils are responsible for management of activities related to public health. The bodies are doing their best but are not able to achieve the desired target. We find variety of waste leading the city to more unhygienic and haphazard growth of urban area particularly in the last 20 years. Municipal solid waste is a part of solid waste, and the waste that arises from human and animal activities are solid so it is discarded as useless/unwanted. The purpose of this study is to identify the various types of municipal waste and their sources. The sole purpose of this study is: ➢ To examine the physical and chemical composition of the municipal waste. ➢ To consider in general terms, the elements involved in the management of waste. ➢ Engineering aspects in the management of municipal solid waste. ➢ Reuse and recovery of the material from the municipal solid waste. There should be sustainable waste management strategies which are lagging behind. Present working model is PPP (public private partnership) to sustain the waste management so that the city appears cleaner and more hygienic. The paper aims to study the quantity and properties of municipal solid waste generated in municipality of Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India. The MSW generated is heterogeneous; composition of waste varies from place to place. Study was conducted during year 2018-2019, 2019-2020 of study period at seven different zones in Aligarh. The study and suggestions take place on the information collected to improve current MSW scenario in Aligarh. The study shows that the average solid waste produced by Aligarh is 460 metric tons per day with per capita generation equals to 400 - 450 grams/day.

Integrated socio-environmental and techno-economic factors for designing and sizing of a sustainable hybrid renewable energy system

Hybrid renewable energy systems (HRESs) are penentrating into the distributed energy market, which is being proved to be more economical than extending grid-electricity through long distance thereby incurring transmission losses. But, the major concern is the accountability issues resulted from socio-environmental factors that are still the hindrace to the sustainability of the HRES. In this paper, two major socio-environmental factors, viz. land cost and carbon emission penalty are integrated with the important techno-economic factors for designing and sizing of an HRES that comprises PV, biogas generator, and pumped hydro storage (PHS) system. The approach is applied for remote area electrification of an Indian town. The component level modeling of the HRES is performed considering the ambient conditions of the location. In this work, for the first time GOA based meta-heuristic optimizer is developed for solving the optimization problem. The simulation results obtained using GOA are compared with the famous meta-heuristic PSO algorithm to understand the robustness of the former optimizer in terms of computational efforts and statistical performance based on skewness and kurtosis of the total net present cost (TNPC). It is found that the contribution of the socio-environmental factors in the present case is 6% of the TNPC as compared to 94% in regard to techno-economic factors. Comparision of the two optimizers demonstrate shorter computational time and lower cost in respect of GOA. The higher kurtosis value of the TNPC obtained through GOA optimizer indicates the capability of this optimizer to escape from local minima with a greater capability to approximate the global optimum. From GOA, the optimal size of the HRES is obtained as 57.5 kW (341 m2) of PV system, 8 kW of BG plant, 378.4 kWh of energy storage and 33 kW of converter size. On comparing the optimized cost of the present HRES with a very recent work under similar load condition, the present design is found to exhibit lower value of cost of energy.

Identity tensions of women with two leadership positions in India

AbstractIdentity narratives enhance the understanding of women’s leadership, but there exist very few in‐depth analyses of negative identity tensions that influence agency. In this study, we examine the negative identity tensions of well‐to‐do women from small towns in India, who hold two leadership positions: organizational and social movement. We borrow from the discourse on well‐to‐do women’s participation in social movements in India to draw on the notions of identity, perceptions of feminism, and patriarchal challenge. Our data are derived from 49 in‐depth interviews with women leaders. Findings from qualitative analysis and creation of a composite narrative show that negative identity tensions arising from two leadership positions are gendered in nature. Furthermore, agency is (i) contingent on one’s reflection on challenges, (ii) rooted in an underlying principle, and (iii) practiced through the mechanisms of “managing femininity,” a concept that is widely discussed in the Western paradigms of postfeminism and neoliberalism. This paper contributes to the feminist dialog on the global South in the context of gender, class, and geographical location intersection by revealing certain non‐Western ways of managing femininity. However, in the process, the hegemony of Indian men remains intact.

Coping COVID-19: Karur in the Past, Through the Present and into the Future

Karur, one of the oldest towns in Tamil Nadu, a southern state in India, embedded with its rich cultural history and heritage of over more than 2000 years can be considered a key textile hub in present times. Being perennially busy with home furnishings and garment exports, like any other “Textile” town of India or other textile players of the world, Karur was pushed into lockdown one after another from March 2020 for a few undecided months owing to the pandemic outbreak of the disease Covid-19 with a new class of corona virus, known as SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) being responsible for the occurrence of this disease. With uncertainty and a lack of clarity looming over their heads, many owners with the backing of their employees of the textile firms and industries jumpstarted their lives trying their best in beating the odds laid on themselves in quite successful ways backed with technical innovations. Though it happened for few, it didn’t realize for some. This paper attempts to track and research on some of the life stories of achievement and the unprecedented misery few were suddenly pushed into. While this town’s success stories as a meticulous process of change in its people’s mindset in desperate times toward themselves and those around can be studied to be implemented as a role model for other towns, the future lying in its unpredictability can never be ascertained thereby only making the successful solutions of those a base study of learning for the next.

Refining the shit flow diagram using the capacity-building approach – Method and demonstration in a south Indian town

In cities of the Global South, faecal sludge management (FSM) has arisen as an acceptable and economical alternative for managing excreta. Shit flow diagram (SFD) has emerged as the preferred tool for the planning and advocacy of FSM services. Besides context-specific challenges, FSM planning, especially the use of SFD is impeded by the lack of data related to on-site sanitation systems (OSSs) and lack of capacity at the local level. This paper sets out to demonstrate how the capacity-building approach can be extended to overcome these two challenges in planning FSM with a substantial share of the information collected through household surveys. We argue that even the resource-constrained towns in the Global South have access to college students, smartphones and open source applications and demonstrate how they can be harnessed to collect the data in a cost-effective manner. Using the data collected by 150+ university students, participants of a summer school, we prepare a SFD for Alleppey, a town in Kerala, India. We argue such repeated exercises by subsequent batches of students can help understand local problems, arrive at context specific solutions and monitor them to instill better accountability of local governments. We also identify two issues with the current SFD preparation process and find it is necessary to contextualise the output of the tool to use it for planning. We suggest that the methods demonstrated here be incorporated in the future refinements to the SFD tool to make it more useful for planning city-wide FSM services.

Evaluating the factors influencing purchase intention of electric vehicles in households owning conventional vehicles

In view of mitigating the threat of climate change due to emissions from transportation sector and to reduce the dependency on foreign countries for oil, many countries have started to develop policies for promoting sustainable and innovative transport technologies. Electric Vehicles (EVs) are considered as one of the best sustainable alternatives to Internal Combustion (IC) engine vehicles. In order to develop fiscal and non-fiscal policy measures for EVs, a thorough understanding about its public acceptability is inevitable for its successful penetration. Even though many policies are purposefully made for improving the EV adoption in developing countries such as India, its market share is still negligible compared to conventional vehicles. Therefore, a case study was conducted in a representative town in India by using a questionnaire survey. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was adopted to evaluate the influence of various attitudinal factors on EV purchase intention of the individuals. The results of the study revealed that, the attitudinal factors such as perceived benefits, social influence, price acceptance, performance, technological consciousness, and marketing, distribution and after-sales have positive effect on EV purchase intention. But, the factors like perceived barriers, policy attributes and perceived usefulness and ease of use causes an impeditive effect on EV adoption. People traveling short distances, having lower income, higher education and more experience with driving conventional vehicles is found to favor the adoption of EVs.

Association of Menstrual Patterns with Perceived Stress Score in College-Going Female Students of a South Indian Town

Background: A natural phenomenon involving the discharge of blood through the vagina from the uterus, occurring at more or less monthly at regular intervals during the reproductive life of females is called menstruation. A normal menstruation occurs for the first time in the adolescent period between 11 and 14 years of age generally, with a period length of around 7 days, with a normal cycle length ranging between 21 and 45 days with an average blood loss of 20–80 ml. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of 3-month duration (February 2019 to June 2019), in which 291 students from the various courses including medical, nursing, physiotherapy, and art and science students of a tertiary care hospital participated. Results: Two hundred and ninety-one students were included in the study, among which the age of the students was between 18 and 23 years of age with the majority of students between 20 and 21 years (43.99%). Most of them belong to rural backgrounds (40.55%) and majority of them are day scholars (86.25%). Discussion: This study was pointed to find a relation between stressful life events and menstrual patterns among college-going students of different courses of undergraduate college. Previous studies till now have reported a higher percentage of distress among postgraduates (32.8%) and resident doctors of hospitals (36.4%). Conclusion: Despite high levels of stress in undergraduate students, other factors can also play a significant role in maintaining their menstrual cycle.

Response to Jan Breman's Review Essay on Classes of Labour: Work and Life in a Central Indian Steel Town

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Review of: Jonathan Parry (in collaboration with Ajay T.G.) (2020) Classes of Labour: Work and Life in a Central Indian Steel Town

Review of: Jonathan Parry (in collaboration with Ajay T.G.) (2020) Classes of Labour: Work and Life in a Central Indian Steel Town