Ajeet Pankaj | Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, Amarkantak , India (original) (raw)
Papers by Ajeet Pankaj
The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 2022
Dalit women in India experience gender in an entirely different way from upper‐caste women becaus... more Dalit women in India experience gender in an entirely different way from upper‐caste women because, along with gender discrimination, Dalit women face caste discrimination. Their experience of gender discrimination intersects with their caste identity, which intensifies their suffering. Dalit women experience gender‐based discrimination and social exclusion and stigma. Drawing from the Tamil movie Karnan, two Bollywood movies—200‐Halla Ho and Article15—and the Netflix web series Azib Dastan‐Geeli Pucchi (an anthology), we endeavor to answer several questions: What patterns exist in the gender‐ and caste‐based humiliation of Dalit women? How do gender and caste intersect in the humiliation and social exclusion of those women? How is their experience of gender‐based discrimination different from that of upper‐caste women? How do Dalit women assert their agency and struggle against gender and caste oppression in society? What kind of resilience do they rely upon to negotiate gender and caste discrimination? What inspires and motivates them to fight for their dignity? Despite the challenges and hurdles, how are these women achieving their aspirations?
Journal of Asian and African Studies
Through delineating the struggles and challenges of Dalits in making of the Dalit middle class, t... more Through delineating the struggles and challenges of Dalits in making of the Dalit middle class, this article seeks to argue that the struggle and aspiration of Dalits to live a dignified life and urban as a space of ‘liberation from caste’ represents a high point in making of the new Dalit middle class. However, existing literature about the Dalit middle class revolves around identity, provision of reservation in education, employment and cultural assertion, but many unfolded narratives of the Dalit middle class exist. This article attempts to reveal the struggle and challenges of the new Dalit middle class to achieve the status of the middle class. Keeping this in mind further, this article aims to explore the transformations in everyday life of the new Dalit middle class regarding consumer behaviour and lifestyle. Besides this, the article provides a detailed narrative of the new Dalit middle class and about their experience of caste and class in the city.
Community Development Journal
Drawing upon empirical evidence and using Sarah Banks’s concept ‘ethics work’ as a conceptual app... more Drawing upon empirical evidence and using Sarah Banks’s concept ‘ethics work’ as a conceptual approach, the article examines the ethical dilemmas facing community development practitioners during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article attempts to understand the everyday experience of community development practitioners working with Dalits, women, and labour migrants in India. Further, given these communities’ social and economic vulnerabilities, the article tries to comprehend how practitioners’ engagement with these communities during the COVID-19 response exposed them to various ethical dilemmas. The article also traces negotiation and navigation strategies for dealing with ethical dilemmas and delivering services in the community during the COVID-19 pandemic in ways that promote human dignity.
Outlook Magazine , 2022
Suresh, a 45-year-old migrant, worked in a small unit in Mumbai, manufacturing electronic meters... more Suresh, a 45-year-old migrant, worked in a small unit in Mumbai, manufacturing electronic meters. The catastrophic effect of Covid had shut down the unit, which resulted in his losing the job. Since the first wave of the pandemic, Suresh has been at his native village near Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, where he returned during the lockdown in May 2020, after he lost his job in Mumbai, his address for a decade. He was jobless for almost a year but was hopeful life would get back on track after the government revoked the lockdown. Instead, the Covid second wave amplified the catastrophes, leaving Suresh with no option but to look out for alternative opportunities. With the help of his family members and friends, he started a book and stationery shop at his village
Outlook Magazine , 2022
When the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government assumed power and the Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray b... more When the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government assumed power and the Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray became the chief minister, he delicately kept alive the Marathi asmita issue but subtly sugar-coated his party’s anti-migrant politics with an aim of changing the face of the party. The way the Thackeray government handled the migrant crisis during the Covid pandemic, many believed that the Sena was trying to engage in accommodative and assimilative politics to clean up the party’s image. Therefore, it is important to find answers to some of these questions: What kind of effort did Thackeray make to change the anti-migrant image of the Shiv Sena? How did Covid-19 and the migrant chaos help the party to project itself as an inclusive and accommodative political outfit of the state? How did migrants benefit due to the Sena’s changing political narrative?
Outlook Magazine, 2022
Even after 75 years of Independence, caste-based inequality, discrimination, and exclusion prevai... more Even after 75 years of Independence, caste-based inequality, discrimination, and exclusion prevail in almost every sphere of society. Now the country must revisit Dr Ambedkar's apprehensions about the contradictory world between political and socioeconomic lives.
Community Development Journal , 2022
Drawing upon empirical evidence and using Sarah Banks’s concept ‘ethics work’ as a conceptual app... more Drawing upon empirical evidence and using Sarah Banks’s concept ‘ethics work’ as a conceptual approach, the article examines the ethical dilemmas facing community development practitioners during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article attempts to understand the everyday experience of community development practitioners working with Dalits, women, and labour migrants in India. Further, given these communities’ social and economic vulnerabilities, the article tries to comprehend how practitioners’ engagement with these communities during the COVID-19 response exposed them to various ethical dilemmas. The article also traces negotiation and navigation strategies for dealing with ethical dilemmas and delivering services in the community during the COVID-19 pandemic in ways that promote human dignity.
Journal of Migration Affairs, 2019
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, 2016
Social exclusion has been identified as an obstacle for Dalits in every sphere of society, which ... more Social exclusion has been identified as an obstacle for Dalits in every sphere of society, which deprives them of access to resources. It has multiple forms which exclude Dalits from labour market and which creates adverse impact on their means of living. This article provides a theoretical and empirical perspective on the study of caste-based discrimination in the sphere of resource accessibility and consumer market discrimination. It sets the stage for addressing some of the key questions surrounding discrimination in consumer market and labour market, by highlighting the ways in which the caste system persists through various forms of discrimination. It specifically looks into the plight of discrimination in various labour markets in terms of access to employment, wages and employer behaviour at workplace. It also examines the consequences of discrimination in labour market on Dalits, that is, labouring class and caste relation in the local market. The article, in its essence, co...
The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 2021
O uso medicinal de plantas é comum entre idosos, como parte da prática terapêutica popular, isto ... more O uso medicinal de plantas é comum entre idosos, como parte da prática terapêutica popular, isto é, do tratamento geralmente empregado pela população como alternativa para curar doenças. A partir disto, esta pesquisa quantitativa transversal, através de um questionário autoaplicável, avalia o uso tradicional de plantas por idosos em uma unidade de saúde localizada em São José do Pinhais-PR. Foram verificadas as principais plantas utilizadas e indicadas pelos participantes do estudo, bem como as recomendações de uso. Apesar do conhecimento empírico dos idosos, a falta de aconselhamento profissional qualificado para trabalhar com fitoterapia, como de farmacêuticos, pode levar a interações medicamentosas com efeitos adversos, intoxicação e outros riscos à saúde.
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, 2019
Dalits constitute one-fifth of the total Indian population and, being located at the bottom of th... more Dalits constitute one-fifth of the total Indian population and, being located at the bottom of the caste hierarchy, suffer from the acute problem of discrimination and exclusion in every sphere of society. Despite various government affirmative actions and policies, Dalits experience discrimination, which in turn lead to inaccessibility of welfare services among them. Based on the author’s engagement in field work for data collection,1 this article highlights that discrimination in welfare programme is not only caused by favouritism and corruption but also linked to the sociopolitical structure of the state and society. Through a dense analysis of the process of social exclusion in availability, accessibility and affordability of welfare programmes, this article examines the role of the state and society in the context of discrimination against Dalits in welfare programmes. This article deals with discrimination and exclusion of Dalits during the identification of beneficiaries and ...
IOSR Journal of Computer Engineering, 2013
The self configuring dexterous autonomy of MANET imposes some network challenges constrained to t... more The self configuring dexterous autonomy of MANET imposes some network challenges constrained to traditional dynamic routing behaviour. So as working with different mobility and traffic patterns with normal management schemes may lead some minor pitfalls to some important network performance parameters and hence can degrade the whole network performance. Here, Our aim is to make some DSR and MAC based cross layer optimizations and testify it on different mobility and traffic scenarios so as to justify the robustness of our proposed improvement.
The Routledge Handbook of Refugees in India
India's Migrant Workers and the Pandemic, 2021
The International Journal of Community and Social Development
The International Journal of Community and Social Development
This article explains the contemporary context that influences the policies and practices of comm... more This article explains the contemporary context that influences the policies and practices of community work in India. The transformation in the policy arena and welfare approach underlines the influence of neoliberal governmentality. We observe that neoliberalism as a political–economic approach is persuading socio-economic decisions and increasing market influence. Precisely, we are tracing the policy trajectory vis-à-vis informal sector workers who have adverse implications for their social security and social protection. By illustrating the current policy and legislative approach, we explain an uneasy relationship between neoliberalism, governmentality and welfare. The changes through new labour codes have restrained the minimal protection that was available to the workers. By granting significant flexibility to the employers at the cost of workers, neoliberal policies accentuate the predicament of precarity. Besides, recent policy changes have impacted community engagement with ...
Social Work with Groups
This narrative is based on my previous experience and telephonic discussions with Dalit (Dalits a... more This narrative is based on my previous experience and telephonic discussions with Dalit (Dalits are an ex-untouchable caste of India, who have been subject to discrimination and exclusion historically and placed at the bottom on the Indian social system) migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic. The narrative aims to highlight the life and trajectory of Dalit migrants preand during the pandemic. In addition, the narrative illustrates their everyday strategy as a group in response to the pandemic. Further, the narrative describes various means and methods of Dalit migrants to advance community solidarity, which has helped them to survive and escape the city, to return to their villages.
Social Science Press, 2021
A large section of labour migrants is engaged in manual labour in informal sectors, such as stree... more A large section of labour migrants is engaged in manual labour in informal sectors, such as street vendors, construction workers, service providers, and rickshaw pullers. Still, due to the lockdown, they became unemployed, which resulted in a shortage of food and other essentials required to survive in the city. Most of the labour migrants have a similar story; they were employed in a small unit, which shut down; some got their wages, some were just given enough money to reach home; the contractors and employers asked them to go back to their home, but they were not able to pay the rent and buy food without earning. They had no choice but to depart; with their lives packed in a small bag, they started walking.1 This is perhaps a classic example to understand the lack of accountability of the state to the labour migrants in the neoliberal regime. State’s minimum accountability, lack of social safety net, and hostility to labour’s solidarity and resistance resulted in labour migrant being ‘disposable, individualised, and powerless.
The International Journal of Community and Social Development, 2021
This article explains the contemporary context that influences the policies and practices of comm... more This article explains the contemporary context that influences the policies and practices of community work in India. The transformation in the policy arena and welfare approach underlines the influence of neoliberal governmentality. We observe that neoliberalism as a political-economic approach is persuading socioeconomic decisions and increasing market influence. Precisely, we are tracing the policy trajectory vis-à-vis informal sector workers who have adverse implications for their social security and social protection. By illustrating the current policy and legislative approach, we explain an uneasy relationship between neoliberalism, governmentality and welfare. The changes through new labour codes have restrained the minimal protection that was available to the workers. By granting significant flexibility to the employers at the cost of workers, neoliberal policies accentuate the predicament of precarity. Besides, recent policy changes have impacted community engagement with the poor and vulnerable. Through an analysis of neoliberal policies and strategies of governmentality, this article underscores the challenges for community engagements.
Journal of Social Work with Groups , 2020
This narrative is based on my previous experience and telephonic discussions with Dalit (Dalits a... more This narrative is based on my previous experience and telephonic discussions with Dalit (Dalits are an ex-untouchable caste of India, who have been subject to discrimination and exclusion historically and placed at the bottom on the Indian social system) migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic. The narrative aims to highlight the life and trajectory of Dalit migrants preand during the pandemic. In addition, the narrative illustrates their everyday strategy as a group in response to the pandemic. Further, the narrative describes various means and methods of Dalit migrants to advance community solidarity, which has helped them to survive and escape the city, to return to their villages.
The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 2022
Dalit women in India experience gender in an entirely different way from upper‐caste women becaus... more Dalit women in India experience gender in an entirely different way from upper‐caste women because, along with gender discrimination, Dalit women face caste discrimination. Their experience of gender discrimination intersects with their caste identity, which intensifies their suffering. Dalit women experience gender‐based discrimination and social exclusion and stigma. Drawing from the Tamil movie Karnan, two Bollywood movies—200‐Halla Ho and Article15—and the Netflix web series Azib Dastan‐Geeli Pucchi (an anthology), we endeavor to answer several questions: What patterns exist in the gender‐ and caste‐based humiliation of Dalit women? How do gender and caste intersect in the humiliation and social exclusion of those women? How is their experience of gender‐based discrimination different from that of upper‐caste women? How do Dalit women assert their agency and struggle against gender and caste oppression in society? What kind of resilience do they rely upon to negotiate gender and caste discrimination? What inspires and motivates them to fight for their dignity? Despite the challenges and hurdles, how are these women achieving their aspirations?
Journal of Asian and African Studies
Through delineating the struggles and challenges of Dalits in making of the Dalit middle class, t... more Through delineating the struggles and challenges of Dalits in making of the Dalit middle class, this article seeks to argue that the struggle and aspiration of Dalits to live a dignified life and urban as a space of ‘liberation from caste’ represents a high point in making of the new Dalit middle class. However, existing literature about the Dalit middle class revolves around identity, provision of reservation in education, employment and cultural assertion, but many unfolded narratives of the Dalit middle class exist. This article attempts to reveal the struggle and challenges of the new Dalit middle class to achieve the status of the middle class. Keeping this in mind further, this article aims to explore the transformations in everyday life of the new Dalit middle class regarding consumer behaviour and lifestyle. Besides this, the article provides a detailed narrative of the new Dalit middle class and about their experience of caste and class in the city.
Community Development Journal
Drawing upon empirical evidence and using Sarah Banks’s concept ‘ethics work’ as a conceptual app... more Drawing upon empirical evidence and using Sarah Banks’s concept ‘ethics work’ as a conceptual approach, the article examines the ethical dilemmas facing community development practitioners during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article attempts to understand the everyday experience of community development practitioners working with Dalits, women, and labour migrants in India. Further, given these communities’ social and economic vulnerabilities, the article tries to comprehend how practitioners’ engagement with these communities during the COVID-19 response exposed them to various ethical dilemmas. The article also traces negotiation and navigation strategies for dealing with ethical dilemmas and delivering services in the community during the COVID-19 pandemic in ways that promote human dignity.
Outlook Magazine , 2022
Suresh, a 45-year-old migrant, worked in a small unit in Mumbai, manufacturing electronic meters... more Suresh, a 45-year-old migrant, worked in a small unit in Mumbai, manufacturing electronic meters. The catastrophic effect of Covid had shut down the unit, which resulted in his losing the job. Since the first wave of the pandemic, Suresh has been at his native village near Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, where he returned during the lockdown in May 2020, after he lost his job in Mumbai, his address for a decade. He was jobless for almost a year but was hopeful life would get back on track after the government revoked the lockdown. Instead, the Covid second wave amplified the catastrophes, leaving Suresh with no option but to look out for alternative opportunities. With the help of his family members and friends, he started a book and stationery shop at his village
Outlook Magazine , 2022
When the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government assumed power and the Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray b... more When the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government assumed power and the Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray became the chief minister, he delicately kept alive the Marathi asmita issue but subtly sugar-coated his party’s anti-migrant politics with an aim of changing the face of the party. The way the Thackeray government handled the migrant crisis during the Covid pandemic, many believed that the Sena was trying to engage in accommodative and assimilative politics to clean up the party’s image. Therefore, it is important to find answers to some of these questions: What kind of effort did Thackeray make to change the anti-migrant image of the Shiv Sena? How did Covid-19 and the migrant chaos help the party to project itself as an inclusive and accommodative political outfit of the state? How did migrants benefit due to the Sena’s changing political narrative?
Outlook Magazine, 2022
Even after 75 years of Independence, caste-based inequality, discrimination, and exclusion prevai... more Even after 75 years of Independence, caste-based inequality, discrimination, and exclusion prevail in almost every sphere of society. Now the country must revisit Dr Ambedkar's apprehensions about the contradictory world between political and socioeconomic lives.
Community Development Journal , 2022
Drawing upon empirical evidence and using Sarah Banks’s concept ‘ethics work’ as a conceptual app... more Drawing upon empirical evidence and using Sarah Banks’s concept ‘ethics work’ as a conceptual approach, the article examines the ethical dilemmas facing community development practitioners during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article attempts to understand the everyday experience of community development practitioners working with Dalits, women, and labour migrants in India. Further, given these communities’ social and economic vulnerabilities, the article tries to comprehend how practitioners’ engagement with these communities during the COVID-19 response exposed them to various ethical dilemmas. The article also traces negotiation and navigation strategies for dealing with ethical dilemmas and delivering services in the community during the COVID-19 pandemic in ways that promote human dignity.
Journal of Migration Affairs, 2019
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, 2016
Social exclusion has been identified as an obstacle for Dalits in every sphere of society, which ... more Social exclusion has been identified as an obstacle for Dalits in every sphere of society, which deprives them of access to resources. It has multiple forms which exclude Dalits from labour market and which creates adverse impact on their means of living. This article provides a theoretical and empirical perspective on the study of caste-based discrimination in the sphere of resource accessibility and consumer market discrimination. It sets the stage for addressing some of the key questions surrounding discrimination in consumer market and labour market, by highlighting the ways in which the caste system persists through various forms of discrimination. It specifically looks into the plight of discrimination in various labour markets in terms of access to employment, wages and employer behaviour at workplace. It also examines the consequences of discrimination in labour market on Dalits, that is, labouring class and caste relation in the local market. The article, in its essence, co...
The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 2021
O uso medicinal de plantas é comum entre idosos, como parte da prática terapêutica popular, isto ... more O uso medicinal de plantas é comum entre idosos, como parte da prática terapêutica popular, isto é, do tratamento geralmente empregado pela população como alternativa para curar doenças. A partir disto, esta pesquisa quantitativa transversal, através de um questionário autoaplicável, avalia o uso tradicional de plantas por idosos em uma unidade de saúde localizada em São José do Pinhais-PR. Foram verificadas as principais plantas utilizadas e indicadas pelos participantes do estudo, bem como as recomendações de uso. Apesar do conhecimento empírico dos idosos, a falta de aconselhamento profissional qualificado para trabalhar com fitoterapia, como de farmacêuticos, pode levar a interações medicamentosas com efeitos adversos, intoxicação e outros riscos à saúde.
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, 2019
Dalits constitute one-fifth of the total Indian population and, being located at the bottom of th... more Dalits constitute one-fifth of the total Indian population and, being located at the bottom of the caste hierarchy, suffer from the acute problem of discrimination and exclusion in every sphere of society. Despite various government affirmative actions and policies, Dalits experience discrimination, which in turn lead to inaccessibility of welfare services among them. Based on the author’s engagement in field work for data collection,1 this article highlights that discrimination in welfare programme is not only caused by favouritism and corruption but also linked to the sociopolitical structure of the state and society. Through a dense analysis of the process of social exclusion in availability, accessibility and affordability of welfare programmes, this article examines the role of the state and society in the context of discrimination against Dalits in welfare programmes. This article deals with discrimination and exclusion of Dalits during the identification of beneficiaries and ...
IOSR Journal of Computer Engineering, 2013
The self configuring dexterous autonomy of MANET imposes some network challenges constrained to t... more The self configuring dexterous autonomy of MANET imposes some network challenges constrained to traditional dynamic routing behaviour. So as working with different mobility and traffic patterns with normal management schemes may lead some minor pitfalls to some important network performance parameters and hence can degrade the whole network performance. Here, Our aim is to make some DSR and MAC based cross layer optimizations and testify it on different mobility and traffic scenarios so as to justify the robustness of our proposed improvement.
The Routledge Handbook of Refugees in India
India's Migrant Workers and the Pandemic, 2021
The International Journal of Community and Social Development
The International Journal of Community and Social Development
This article explains the contemporary context that influences the policies and practices of comm... more This article explains the contemporary context that influences the policies and practices of community work in India. The transformation in the policy arena and welfare approach underlines the influence of neoliberal governmentality. We observe that neoliberalism as a political–economic approach is persuading socio-economic decisions and increasing market influence. Precisely, we are tracing the policy trajectory vis-à-vis informal sector workers who have adverse implications for their social security and social protection. By illustrating the current policy and legislative approach, we explain an uneasy relationship between neoliberalism, governmentality and welfare. The changes through new labour codes have restrained the minimal protection that was available to the workers. By granting significant flexibility to the employers at the cost of workers, neoliberal policies accentuate the predicament of precarity. Besides, recent policy changes have impacted community engagement with ...
Social Work with Groups
This narrative is based on my previous experience and telephonic discussions with Dalit (Dalits a... more This narrative is based on my previous experience and telephonic discussions with Dalit (Dalits are an ex-untouchable caste of India, who have been subject to discrimination and exclusion historically and placed at the bottom on the Indian social system) migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic. The narrative aims to highlight the life and trajectory of Dalit migrants preand during the pandemic. In addition, the narrative illustrates their everyday strategy as a group in response to the pandemic. Further, the narrative describes various means and methods of Dalit migrants to advance community solidarity, which has helped them to survive and escape the city, to return to their villages.
Social Science Press, 2021
A large section of labour migrants is engaged in manual labour in informal sectors, such as stree... more A large section of labour migrants is engaged in manual labour in informal sectors, such as street vendors, construction workers, service providers, and rickshaw pullers. Still, due to the lockdown, they became unemployed, which resulted in a shortage of food and other essentials required to survive in the city. Most of the labour migrants have a similar story; they were employed in a small unit, which shut down; some got their wages, some were just given enough money to reach home; the contractors and employers asked them to go back to their home, but they were not able to pay the rent and buy food without earning. They had no choice but to depart; with their lives packed in a small bag, they started walking.1 This is perhaps a classic example to understand the lack of accountability of the state to the labour migrants in the neoliberal regime. State’s minimum accountability, lack of social safety net, and hostility to labour’s solidarity and resistance resulted in labour migrant being ‘disposable, individualised, and powerless.
The International Journal of Community and Social Development, 2021
This article explains the contemporary context that influences the policies and practices of comm... more This article explains the contemporary context that influences the policies and practices of community work in India. The transformation in the policy arena and welfare approach underlines the influence of neoliberal governmentality. We observe that neoliberalism as a political-economic approach is persuading socioeconomic decisions and increasing market influence. Precisely, we are tracing the policy trajectory vis-à-vis informal sector workers who have adverse implications for their social security and social protection. By illustrating the current policy and legislative approach, we explain an uneasy relationship between neoliberalism, governmentality and welfare. The changes through new labour codes have restrained the minimal protection that was available to the workers. By granting significant flexibility to the employers at the cost of workers, neoliberal policies accentuate the predicament of precarity. Besides, recent policy changes have impacted community engagement with the poor and vulnerable. Through an analysis of neoliberal policies and strategies of governmentality, this article underscores the challenges for community engagements.
Journal of Social Work with Groups , 2020
This narrative is based on my previous experience and telephonic discussions with Dalit (Dalits a... more This narrative is based on my previous experience and telephonic discussions with Dalit (Dalits are an ex-untouchable caste of India, who have been subject to discrimination and exclusion historically and placed at the bottom on the Indian social system) migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic. The narrative aims to highlight the life and trajectory of Dalit migrants preand during the pandemic. In addition, the narrative illustrates their everyday strategy as a group in response to the pandemic. Further, the narrative describes various means and methods of Dalit migrants to advance community solidarity, which has helped them to survive and escape the city, to return to their villages.