Changement social en Inde du Sud

Part of ’Population et espace’ project

Objectives

The wealth of information on South Indian society derived from the SIFP database has fuelled the development of additional research projects on social change in South India. The programme " Population and Space in South India " offered its support to numerous students and colleagues, most notably four doctoral students from France.

The main themes explored for these research projects included :

• Maternal health in a rural area of Rayalaseema, Andhra Pradesh : a study of health infrastructures and behaviour (V. Chasles).
• Impact of urban proximity on village modernization and development in Tamil Nadu : modelling based on econometric and geostatistical techniques (S. Oliveau).
• Religious circulation in South India : a study of the Sabarimala pilgrimage in Kerala based on a large-scale survey and spatial analysis (R. Delage).
• Gender discrimination in Salem district : a study of the anthropological and spatial contours of infanticide and foeticide in a subregion of Tamil Nadu (S. Vella).

Further studies based on the SIFP database concerned the population-environment nexus in Kodagu, Karnataka, and the geography of irrigation in South India.

A recent activity of the programme was the hosting of an international seminar devoted to gender discrimination in Asia. The seminar organized by I Attané and J Véron (Ined, Paris) was held in November 2003 in Pondicherry and attended by scholars from China, Taiwan, Korea and Pakistan. It was followed by a field trip to Salem district where gender discrimination is especially rife.

Materials and Methods

Statistical and geographic materials are mostly derived from the SIFP GIS. Additional materials have been collected during surveys conducted in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Methods used by participants vary according to phenomena studied and the scale of analysis (from micro- to macro-level). They include qualitative and questionnaire surveys, spatial analysis, statistical analysis, geostatistical and econometric modelling.

Funding

• French Institute of Pondicherry
• Wellcome Trust.
• Institut National d’Etudes Démographiques et CePeD, Paris.
• Programme d’échanges franco-indien, Paris et New Delhi.
• Bourses Aires Culturelles, Paris.
• IRD, Laboratoire Population-Environnement-Développement, Marseille.

Team

• Dr. CZ Guilmoto, DR (IRD/IFP)
• Virginie Chasles, doctorat, Rouen
• Rémy Delage, Bordeaux.
• Sébastien Oliveau, doctorat, IFP et Paris I
• Alexandre Philippe, maîtrise, Rouen
• Aurélie Varrel ; maîtrise, Paris X
• Stéphanie Vella, doctorat, Bordeaux

Main Outputs

Seminars

• Gender discrimination at the early stage of life in East and South Asia, organised by I. Attané and J. Véron, Pondicherry, 24-27 November 2003.

Books

• Mapping out social change In South India. A geographic information system and its applications

Christophe Z. Guilmoto, Sébastien Oliveau, Virginie Chasles, Rémy Delage, and Stéphanie Vella, 2004, 117 p. (PPSS n° 31)
Language : English. 200 Rs (7 €)

This paper summarizes the stages of a GIS project applied to the 75.000 localities of South India. The emergence of GIS technology in a country like India comes up against many scientific, technical or institutional problems. The georeferencing of villages, for instance, required consi-derable effort because of the unavailability of reliable printed maps. Similarly, systematic examination of the census data has underlined their shortcomings and called for corrections of all kinds. This article chronicles some of these concrete and theoretical difficulties.

The second part of the paper is devoted to cartographic and geostatistical applications to various fields of interest : geography of Sabarimala pilgrimage, health care in Andhra Pradesh, impact of urbanization on Tamil villages, sexual discrimination in Tamil Nadu, irrigation in South India or spatial autocorrelation measurements.

Keywords : India, space, GIS, geostatistics

• Gender discriminations among young children in Asia

Edited by Isabelle Attané & Jacques Véron, IFP/CEPED, 2005, 314 p. (CSS n°9)
Language : English. 400 Rs (15 €)

Subsequent to the demographic transition, Asian countries have been experiencing deep-rooted changes in family structures. In this context, the question of gender relations within the family, and more generally within society, is crucial, in view of the increase in discriminatory practices towards women.

Asia is the “black continent” for women. This book focuses on the intensity of female discrimination, from a demographic perspective, in the earliest stages of life, and more specifically around birth, in China, India, Pakistan, the Republic of Korea and Taiwan. These societies share cultural characteristics that are not favourable to women ; a son is needed to perpetuate the family line and ensure social and biological reproduction of the family. Son preference may also be related to economic constraints.

Keywords : gender relations, female discrimination, son preference, selective abortion

• GUILMOTO, C. Z., & VAGUET A., eds., 2000. Essays on Population and Space in India, French Institute, Pondichéry, 260 p.

• RAMAKRISHNAN, P.S. , CHANDRASEKHARA, U. M., ELOUARD, C., GUILMOTO, C. Z., et al. eds, 2000. Mountain Biodiversity, Land Use Dynamics, and Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Oxford and IBH, New Delhi, 353 p.

• DELAGE R., & HEADLY Z., eds, 2003. Identités et territoire en Inde, synopsis of the AJEI workshops in Kolkata.

Chapters in books

• GUILMOTO, C. Z., 2000, Mapping Girl Child Neglect in Rural Tamil Nadu (1991 Census Data), In Sabu M. George and P. Phavalam, eds., Female Feticide in Tamilnadu, Report of the State Level Consultation at Chennai, Society for Integrated Rural development, Madurai, 38-43.

Articles

• GUILMOTO, C. Z., OLIVEAU S., CHASLES V., DELAGE R., & VELLA S., 2004. A geographical information system in South India : Theory, implementation and thematic applications, Pondy paper in Social Sciences, French Institute, Pondicherry.

• CHASLES, V., 2003. Entre sacralité et impureté, l’ambivalence de la maternité en Inde, Espace-Population-Société, n° spécial sur les questions de genre.

• GUILMOTO, C. Z., 2002. Irrigation and the Great Indian Rural Database. Vignettes from South India, Economic and Political Weekly, March 30, XXXVII, 13, 1223-1228.

• VARREL A., 2002. Itinéraires du travail domestique en Inde : les filles d’Erayiur, Revue Tiers-Monde, 70, avril-juin.

• VELLA, S., 2003. Ethique et pratiques reproductives : les techniques de sélection sexuelle en Inde, Autrepart, 28, 147-163.