Village In Kerala Research Articles

Assessment of Trace Element Concentrations in Groundwater Sources of a Rural Village in Kerala, India

Water is an essential part of all living organisms. India is already experiencing the effects of the impending global freshwater crisis in terms of water quantity and quality. The study, which was carried out in a rural village (Villiappally Gramapanchayath) in Kerala, sought to quantify the level of trace elements in the ground water and to determine how they affected the quality of the water suitable for human use. Twenty-two public wells that are used by the residents for their everyday needs are sampled in the pre-monsoon for the analysis. ICP-MS was used to analyse the water samples for the presence of the heavy metals Zn, Pb, Fe, Cd, As, and Al. The acquired value from ICP-MS analysis is compared with BIS standard values of drinking water quality. From the analysed heavy metals, cadmium and iron in some of the wells are exceeding the permissible limit of BIS. HPI of each well is carried out and find out that DW1, DW2 and DW14 is not fit for drinking purpose. By analysing the Metal Index (MI) out of 22 wells, 9 wells are pure in quality and others are slightly to moderately affected. Certain metals in different wells shows slight greater concentration than the permissible limits of BIS. These might be taken into account for a safer drinking water.

Land Ownership and Well-Being of Women in a Village in Kerala

This article scrutinises to what extent land ownership improves the well-being of women, focusing on a village in Kerala, a South Indian state known for its land reforms ‘model’ that provided land to the tiller and ownership rights to tenants. However, have these radical land reforms actually succeeded in providing ownership rights to women, thereby contributing to their well-being? We ask in this intensive village study to what extent these admittedly radical land reforms provide adequate land rights to women in Kerala in terms of such ownership translating into absolute and effective rights.

Linguistic Divide in between self and other: A Critical Analysis of Standardisation of Language: A North Kerala Village Study

This study examines the linguistic experiences of three caste categories in a community in North Kerala in an effort to comprehend how caste is embodied in language. It examines how linguistic inequality is caused by language standardisation and how people who speak non-standard languages deal with the issue without forsaking their mother tongue. Through a comparative comparison of three caste groups, including the scheduled caste (SC), other backward class (OBC), and the general category (GEN), the study was carried out in Thachankunnu in Kerala (GEN). The participants' direct experiences with the educational institutions are used to analyse the causes and effects of linguistic discrimination. The theoretical frame of the register has been used as the basis of analysis. The study found that participants experienced job loss and linguistic inequality in class participation, demonstrating the existence of language-based discrimination. In various contexts, dialect shifting is regarded as a means of concealing the social status and identity of vernacular language speakers. Identification of the value of mother tongue, language diversity, and resistance to deprivation all play essential roles in achieving language uniformity.

Performance evaluation of grid-connected photovoltaic system for Kuttiady village in Kerala, India.

To combat the adverse environmental effects of fossil fuel burning for power generation and to conserve it for strategic use, new, clean, and renewable energy sources are being utilized for power generation. The study presents techno-economic analysis of a grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant to partially meet the energy consumption of the people of Kuttiady village in Kerala, India. The proposed 2315.5kW installed capacity PV is found to be feasible for the village and can produce 3878.3 MWh of energy annually while the demand is 4044.86 MWh at a plant capacity factor of 19.1% and cost of energy of 290.73 $/MWh. The performance of the proposed PV plant measured in terms of final yield (4.59h), reference yield (5.64h), and performance ratio (82%) is compatible and even higher with many such plants in India and other countries. Economic sensitivity analysis is also performed by varying the interest, discount, and inflation rates to check their effect on cost of energy, benefit cost ratio, and payback period. As the interest and discount rates decrease, the cost of energy and payback period also decreases while benefit cost ratio increases. The proposed plant can help in avoiding around 785 tons of greenhouse gases entering the local atmosphere of the Kuttiady village.

Atypical paralytic rabies — A case-study from Kerala, India

Rabies, though endemic in India, has been a disease of low public health priority throughout the years. Being a non-notifiable disease together with limited diagnostic facilities, it often ends up in under-reporting of cases, especially atypical rabies. Failure of complete rabies Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) with Immunoglobulin has been rarely reported. We report a case of atypical rabies in a 60-year-old man from a rural village in Kerala, who presented with fever, paralysis of limbs, fluctuating consciousness, phonophobia and without classical signs of hydrophobia and aerophobia 22 days after dog bite. The case is supplemented with supportive Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) findings and corneal imprint smear Fluorescent Antibody Test (FAT). The death of the patient on the 28th day of exposure despite early PEP with rabies vaccine and immunoglobulin is suggestive of PEP failure. The case study stresses on the need in making rabies a notifiable disease in the study setting, encouraging disease specific investigation, ensuring availability of vaccine and immunoglobulins with adherence to standardized treatment protocols.Deviations from the recommended protocol for Animal bite management, such as delay in seeking PEP, lack of or improper administration of rabies immunoglobulin (e.g. missing out bite sites), lack of or improper primary wound care, and/or poor-quality rabies vaccine, may lead to death.

The Persistence of Political Power: A Communist ‘Party Village’ in Kerala and the Paradox of Egalitarian Hierarchies

This article combines political analysis with ethnographic fieldwork to theorise Communist party’s construction of political allegiance and their persistence of power in the democratic context at a local village level in the state of Kerala in India. We provide an inaugural scholarly conceptualisation of an empirical phenomenon, known in Kerala popular parlance as ‘party gramam’ or the ‘party village’, as the focus of analysis. As we explain, a ‘party village’ is an administrative unit where a particular political party dominates not simply electorally but in all lived experience. We posit that the concept of ‘party village’ is of specific value in our understanding of various forms of current (Communist) politics. The original ascendancy of communism in the village (as in many regions of Kerala) during the twentieth century was due to its progressive ideological challenge to feudal structures of class and caste oppression. However, in democratic post-independence India, the overwhelming dominance of Communist Party in the 'party village' presents the paradox of a party with an egalitarian ideology having adapted to a persistent Hindu caste hierarchy. After situating our work within the conceptual problematisations of political party competition, and in conversation with wider communist studies literature, we provide a background to the politics of Kerala and explain the unique phenomenon of ‘party villages’ in Kerala. We then provide an insight into the social and economic structures of one such village, explaining the salience of these structures in relation to political allegiances. Next, we illustrate the paradox of continued caste hierarchies in a Communist Party village, and the multiple ways in which Hindu religion and caste structures are important to performing individual identity in social settings. We dissect the various means through which the grassroots Communist Party apparatus in the village maintains its dominance by adapting itself to regressive caste hierarchies for political profit at the same time as laying claim to having challenged them. In our concluding section, we place our village observations in the longer frame of historical north Kerala village politics, noting the changes over time and offering theoretical perspectives upon them. In this sense, through a mix of empirical observation with historical context and theorisation, we highlight the importance and the implications of unconventional democratic dynamics more generally.

Engendering Political Labour: Findings from a Kerala Village

Literature on Indian politics has largely under-examined the role of the family in shaping party politics with the exception of the studies on dynasticism. There is a paucity of research that looks at the complex ways in which intimate lives and party politics are intertwined. This article contributes to the existing feminist analyses of Indian party politics by conceptualizing politics and political labour in a way that does not exclude the role of the family. It presents the case study of a village in northern Kerala, which has been witnessing heightened political conflicts to show how personal experiences and family disputes get politicized. As domestic and political spheres bleed into each other, political parties become hugely dependent on feminine ideals and women’s everyday labour, affects and sociality to survive electoral competitions. Yet, the patriarchal family and masculinized local party leadership use gender ideologies to celebrate hypermasculine political participation, undervalue women’s labour and limit their political aspirations.

Editorial introductions

Editorial introductions

Assertion, Negotiation and Subjugation of Identity: Understanding the Tamil-Malayali Conflict in Munnar

Social identities play a critical role in the various phases of conflict. Existing literature often examines the role of social identity of groups in inducing conflict in heterogeneous societies. This article puts forward the view that the role of identity is not limited in terms of inducing conflict, but it also plays a vital role in influencing the dynamics of conflict. Based on this conceptual framework, the article outlines the conflict dynamics observable in the Kannan Devan Hills village in Kerala, where several factors, over the course of time in the last century, have led to the perception of conflict between the Tamils and the Malayalis. As a major objective, the article identifies the issues and processes of social interaction between the two groups that necessarily influence the nature of the conflict. The article identifies that the conflict between the two communities, though mostly latent, can be seen through three important aspects: assertion, negotiation and subjugation of identities. Through assertion of identity, the conflict is perceived over ethnic lines, whereas the process of negotiation and subjugation of identity constantly undermines the ethnic nature of conflict to specific grievances, thus giving insight into the dynamic nature of the conflict.

Editorial introductions

Editorial introductions

人間とモノの協働行為としての農の仕事 : 南インド、ケーララ農村における有機農業の事例を通して( 動くアッサンブラージュを人類学する)

人間とモノの協働行為としての農の仕事 : 南インド、ケーララ農村における有機農業の事例を通して( 動くアッサンブラージュを人類学する)

Soil microarthropods as indicators of soil quality of tropical home gardens in a village in Kerala, India

The cosmopolitan distribution of soil microarthropods and their various degrees of adaptation make them suitable tools for assessing soil ecosystem health. In this study, the microarthropod abundance of 25 home gardens in Kerala state located in South West coast of India was studied during summer and north east monsoon season of 2014. The soil microarthropods were categorized into six groups: collembola, coleoptera, hymenoptera, araeneae, acari and diplopoda. Their numbers varied from 0 to 28 per 1000 cm3 and were more abundant in the rainy season than in summer. The occurrence of these microarthropods was positively correlated to soil moisture and organic carbon and had negative correlation to soil temperature and soil pH. The presence of eu-edaphic and epi-edaphic microarthropod fauna was used to derive the soil quality index of each home garden and soil quality classes were defined. Out of the 25 home gardens, two were of good quality, 21 were of medium quality and two were of poor quality. The study supports the scope of applying the indicator value of soil microarthropods in future studies related to soil quality, management and conservation of tropical home garden ecosystems, which are facing threats of removal of canopy and unscientific land management practices.

Editorial introductions

Editorial introductions

A Dictated Space? Women and Their Well-being in a Kerala Village

The mainstream theories on development try to understand the empowerment of women through select indicators relating to education and health. Kerala provides a suitable setting to understand how far higher levels of literacy, enrolment in higher education, favourable sex ratio, small family and access to health care facilities translate into empowerment of women defined in terms of their role in decisionmaking within a household and freedom of physical mobility. Our findings based on the micro-level study of a village in Kerala reveal that remarkable achievements measured by conventional indicators have failed to elevate women from their subordinate status within a household. The analysis of Kudumbashree, a state-sponsored woman-centric poverty alleviation programme, also reveals that women’s access to community programmes has failed to empower them. Such an apparent paradox is explained through a complex process of gendering at three levels: education, employment and access to economic resources. Social norms, the dowry system, the patrilineal system of inheritance and patrilocal residence also affect such a gendering process. The choices that a woman/household makes regarding her education, activity pattern and community participation are very much shaped by a gendered social structure where a man is associated with ‘outside activity’ and woman with ‘inside activity’.

Adaptation to coastal hazards: the livelihood struggles of a fishing community in Kerala, India.

This case study examines the coastal hazard adaptation strategies of a fishing community in a village in Kerala, India. It shows that formal adaptation strategies are highly techno-centric, costly, and do not take into account the vulnerabilities of the fishing community. Instead, they have contributed to ecological, livelihood, and knowledge uncertainties. The adaptation strategies of the fishing community are a response to these uncertainties. However, they may not lead to the fishing community's recovery from its vulnerability contexts. This case study is primarily qualitative in nature. Data were collected through in-depth interviews. Insights reveal that when actors with diverse values, interests, knowledge, and power evolve or design their respective adaptation strategies, the resulting interface often aggravates existing uncertainties associated with hazards. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that local discourses on coastal hazards are livelihood-centric and socially constructed within the struggle of the fishing community to access resources and to acquire the right to development.

Do Caste and Class Define Inequality? Revisiting Education in a Kerala Village

Is there a strong correlation between caste and class in access to education, especially higher education? This is the broader question addressed by the study in the context of Kerala, the southernmost state in India, with impressive conventional indicators in education. Micro-level insights based on the study of a village in Kerala show that old forms of inequalities have been replaced by new forms of inequalities in education. Notwithstanding Kerala’s impressive indicators, huge inequalities exist in the educational attainments of the population. The Scheduled Castes (SCs) are still at the bottom of the rankings in enrolment in higher education despite the adoption of a positive discrimination policy and educational subsidy by the state. This situation is explained through an examination of three issues: the perception of the lower employment potential of conventional or mainstream higher education; the educational polices of the state and disparate access to economic resources. The study concludes by offering a few policy recommendations to make higher education more inclusive for marginalised sections of society.

Exploring risk, resistance and the power of myths among coastal fishing communities in Kerala, India

This paper attempts to capture the socially constructed nature of risk by analyzing the discourses embedded in community beliefs, myths and experiential narratives regarding coastal hazards and fishworkers' livelihoods. This paper draws insights from the works of James Scott on power and resistance in the everyday life of marginalized populations. Qualitative data for the study was collected using semi-structured interview schedules, in-depth group interviews, oral histories and storytelling across twenty marine fishing villages in Kerala. A significant finding of the study is that the communal discourse of coastal hazards or kolu is an integral part of fishworkers' resistance against formal authority and scientific knowledge systems in coastal management. The myths and beliefs of fishworkers are expressions of their concerns about present forms of development and coastal resource management.

Governing disaster risk and 'survivability': the case of two villages in Kerala, India

Governing disaster risk reduction (DRR) seldom considers the communities' political and social rights. The access to resources as DRR strategy is not yet integrated into the current debate and practices of disaster risk reduction. This study takes two tsunami-affected villages in Kerala, India, to critically analyse the question of rights over natural resources as disaster risk reduction. The study villages are also in the mining zone of the state. Rehabilitation of tsunami victims has strengthened the mining industries in the area and it led to the exclusion of survivors from coastal common pool resources. Government is not having any legal barriers to handing over the coastal land for mining. This paper seeks to discuss the alienation of the community from common pool resources after rehabilitation and its impact on new ownership patterns. The study found that vulnerability increases after rehabilitation and lack of access to common property rights is posing threat to general perception of disaster rehabilitation.

Resilient and Resourceful?

In the backdrop of the popularization of social capital, it has become fashionable in development circles to highlight the resilience of the poor in the midst of stresses and shocks as well as their resourcefulness. Expressing scepticism, this article argues that social capital is a ‘conditional’ resource for the poor, availability of which is dependent on the presence of a ‘critical mass’ of other resources. The State plays a pivotal role in creating this ‘critical mass’. Household level case studies from a village in Kerala, India, on how the poor cope with vulnerable situations, are used to illustrate this point.

Multidimensional Poverty and Identification of Poor Households: A Case from Kerala, India

In this paper we compare and contrast the view on poverty of lay people, who are affected by the policies, with that of academics and policy‐makers. Drawing from fieldwork in a village in Kerala, India, and applying the ‘participatory numbers’ approach, we devise a ‘local method’ to identify poor households, based on the villagers’ poverty criteria. The local method is then compared with the official methods used by the national and the state governments. Based on the results, we argue for the need to take into account local dimensions of poverty, in addition to objective/universal dimensions, in the design of poverty reduction programmes. Our findings also suggest that effective risk‐mitigation strategies must be devised to help poor households cope with shocks and stresses as well as to prevent the vulnerable non‐poor from falling into poverty.