Men Folk Research Articles

Social etiology of violence against women in India

Religion, customs, age-old prejudices, etc. have put Indian women in a subservient and exploitable position in many domains of life. Low rates of participation in education, lack of economic independence, value biases operating against them, etc., have resulted in the women being dependent on men folk and other institutions of authority like the family, neighborhood and the society. They are usually ignorant of their rights and even if they are not, they do not have easy access to justice. The issues related to women are being raised and discussed in various fora, in the recent times. Of these, ‘violence against women’ is gaining more and more support and recognition, the world over. But despite the enactment of laws, formulation of reformative legal processes, provision of legal aid to the needy, extensive use of the provision of Public Interest Litigation, conduct of Family Courts, Women/Family counseling centers, etc., women in India have a long way to go in concretizing their Constitutional Goals into reality. The problem has to be visualized in a wider context and cannot be viewed in isolation from the status of women in the society. Legislation alone cannot by itself solve deep-rooted social problems; one has to approach them in other ways too. Therefore, what is required is not only a strong legal support network but also opportunities for economic independence, essential education and awareness, alternative accommodation and a change in attitude and mindset of society, judiciary, legislature, executive, men and the most important, woman herself. Restructuring society in terms of power and role relationship while emphasizing the egalitarian values is the need of the day.

Socio-economic conditions of Gaddi tribals: Findings from a survey in Kangra district, Himachal Pradesh

The pastoral Gaddi tribes of Himachal Pradesh were studied in four blocks of Kangara district. As many as 93% of the households in the sample had access to piped drinking water, 92% had electricity, and more than 90% were connected by roads. TV sets, newspapers and telephones were largely found in well to do families. The male literacy rate was found to be 80% and the female literacy rate, 63%. Women of this community are highly empowered; they express themselves freely, and 90% spend money or go to receive health services without the permission of their men folk. Only 9% of the households were landless. 63.5% were marginal holders. Though size of holdings is small, it was found to promote food security. It was also found that sub tribes like the Gaddi Rajputs, Gaddi Kapoors and Gaddi Bhatts had larger holdings than other sub tribes, notably Gaddi SCs. Likewise poverty was found to be higher among the SC Gaddis as compared to the non SC Gaddis.

Between Reality and Representation

During two decades of armed conflict in north east Sri Lanka, women have carved new spaces of agency and new roles as armed combatants, principal income generators or heads of household in the absence of men folk. Will they be pushed back ‘into the kitchen’ with a return to peace, also often indexed as a return to the pre-war gender status quo? This article focuses on women’s agency in post-conflict Sri Lanka, where a peace process has been ongoing for two years, and asks if and how a return of peace may affect women’s empowerment. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and analysis of the political economy of armed conflict, the article suggests that, contrary to nationalist imaginaries, the structure of the ‘new war’ in Sri Lanka may not permit a return to a pre-war gender status quo.

Men's Folk Songs in Judeao-[sic] Arabic from Jews in Iraq

Men's Folk Songs in Judeao-[sic] Arabic from Jews in Iraq

Studies on the thermal insulation effect of korean men's folk clothes

1. 1. The purpose of this study was to obtain basic data necessary to design Korean folk clothes with comfortable thermal properties by carrying out the human wearing test under various ambient-temperature environments, by calculating the thermal insulation effect (TIE) of the Korean men's folk clothes (KMFC) on the basis of both material (silk, ramie and polyester) and season and by performing a comparative study with western style clothes. 2. 2. The results of this study can be summarized as follows: (i) the factor having an effect of the KMFC on the TIE is the air layer rather than the performance of materials, and (ii) the TIE of the Korean folk clothes confers a greater thermal resistance of the lower part of the body as compared with western style clothes.