Articles by Amit Thorat

The caste (jati)-based practice of untouchability in India, shifting the focus from the victims of this practice, the ex-untouchables (Dalits), to the perpetrators, the non-Dalits is examined by identifying and disaggregating communities that continue to practise untouchability. The second wave of the India Human Development Survey data has been used to generate a socio-economic profile of those who practise untouchability in India, and check the hypothesis that households with a wider network outside the community than with one within the community are less likely to practise untouchability, and uses a logistic regression model to measure this effect at the all-India level.

Through the use of new survey data, the experiences and perceptions of discrimination among Dalits and Muslims have been quantified. One important result is that many respondents report experiencing discrimination at school and in interactions with government officials. These results are even more worrisome when we consider that self-reports of discrimination perhaps underestimate the true extent of the problem.

Taking on the argument that malnutrition in India is caused by forces that respond only partially to policy interventions, this article points out that it is important to look at the role of disease conditions - shaped by inadequate water, poor sanitation, and insufficient public health measures - in poor nutrition. Moreover, the relationship between disease and food intake is multiplicative rather than additive, and omission of disease conditions from the discourse biases any arguments made about income, caloric intake and nutrition. A holistic view shows that there is room to hope that the nutritional status of children in India will improve with the right policy emphasis.