Articles by Nitya Rao

​Groundwater has played a pivotal role in transforming the rural agrarian landscape, augmenting rural livelihoods and improving household well-being. What role does the growing prevalence and importance of groundwater play in intra-household relations, particularly the gendered divisions of labour and use of assets? The impacts of failed borewells on gendered vulnerabilities, identities and well-being have been explored. Research indicates that groundwater usage in semi-arid regions has increased the short-term resilience of communities in the region, but has simultaneously increased gendered risks, especially for smallholders, by promoting unsustainable livelihood trends and risky coping strategies to groundwater shortages.

The Justice Verma Committee has highlighted the urgent need for establishing the rule of law and good governance, and has also sought to address the roots of social and gender inequality in the country. There is a need to address structural inequalities that perpetrate and perpetuate violence, such as rape, and for women's rights to have both political and social legitimacy.

A survey of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan schools in Sahibganj district of Jharkhand reveals that the SSA, despite its emphasis on decentralisation and inbuilt flexibilities, is not making much headway in a socially and economically differentiated setting. This reflects a perception of poor quality of the SSA and also a lack of understanding by the programme of social relations and structural constraints.

Despite the existence of tenancy laws that seek to protect adivasi rights to land in the Santhal Parganas, recent years have seen the considerable transfer of land from adivasis to contractors mainly through privately negotiated, temporary lease arrangements. This has serious implications for the employment and health of local populations as well as for the sustenance, in the long term, of common property resources and local livelihoods. At the same time, siltation and flooding in the upstream and lower reaches of the Masanjore dam have rendered cultivable land in several villages useless. As most of the adivasi population in the region depends on agriculture for its livelihood, the need to revise and rethink development strategies is of utmost importance.

As the Indian Agricultural Research Institute observes its centenary this year, this article explores the motivations behind its establishment. It also seeks to explore the current state of agricultural research in the country by a primary research study in Jharkhand's Dumka district.