School of Geography - Theses

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    Municipal solid waste management in Indian cities: towards a joint public, private and community partnership
    Singh, Sanjeev ( 1998)
    Inadequacies in the waste management systems in Indian cities have been evident from its impact on the urban environment. The role of private sector and the community in waste management in urban India has been neglected by the respective governing bodies. This thesis first, examines the environmental impact of the waste management systems in Indian cities. Second, it suggests how the private sector and the community might be involved together, with the government, in improving the waste management services. Taking two case studies, Mumbai and Banglore, this study demonstrates that how the waste management systems operate in these two cities. It is argued that involving private sector and the community (through non government and community based organisations) can improve the operation and monitoring of waste management services in Indian cities. This study also suggests a model for operating and monitoring waste management services in Indian cities.
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    Labour, class and community: an ethnography of the Rabi Das of Krishnagar, India
    Ganguly-Scrase, Ruchira ( 1993)
    This thesis provides an ethnographic account of social change in an urban neighbourhood in West Bengal. The residents known as the Rabi Das, originally from Bihar, settled ? the town of Krishnagar approximately one hundred and fifty years ago and have been engaged mainly in tanning and shoe-making. My study explores the way in which Rabi Das social and economic organisation has been transformed over the last four decades. Previously segregated at the margins of Bengali society, the Rabi Das were drawn closer to the dominant Bengali culture since the early 1940s when a group of Gandhian social reformers began mobilising them. The work of Gandhian social reformers gave impetus to change and shaped many of the experiences of the Rabi Das. The Rabi Das are also profoundly effected by the broader economic changes that have taken place. In the past, as artisans, they reproduced themselves through their transmission of skills and an ideology of work, but are now faced with economic redundancy. They cannot see their way out of the economic malaise brought about by the introduction of cheap, mass produced plastic footwear which has replaced the hand-crafted shoes. A central feature of Rabi Das community is conflict between the old and the young. The decline of artisan activities and craftsmanship has heightened the generational divide among men. In the past it was the older men who taught the craft and thereby exercised authority over younger men. The changing authority relations have also altered gender relations, giving rise to increased tensions between men and women. Gender relations have assumed a new dimension as a result of the changes in women's work. The disappearance of home based subsistence activities has reinforced a repressive domestic ideology, despite the fact that women nowadays enter the labour force routinely. The maintenance of male honour in the community has become increasingly tied to the confinement of women. On the whole, divisions within the community give the Rabi Das a sense of "disintegration". Once constituting a cohesive entity bounded by authoritarian leadership, the Rabi Das now experience jealousies, overt conflict, petty squabbling, and competition amongst themselves. Paradoxically, however, they are still forced to rely on family, kin and patrons to ensure a measure of security. Solidarity within the communityoperates on a superficial level. The young people who reject the constraints laid in the name of their community also blame it for failing them. They constantly denigrate it verbally. Despite causing a great deal of conflict between men and women, the confinement of Rabi Das women has been held up as a symbol of respectability counterposed to that of neighbouring Bengali women. Moreover, young people are increasingly identifying with other Bengali youth (in opposition to their parental culture). The differential aged and gendered processes and responses of people serve to highlight the complex web of emerging social relations. My study reveals that whilst old communal solidarities have been destroyed new links have been forged across other boundaries. It becomes apparent that the Rabi Das as a whole neither hold a coherent value system in opposition to the dominant Bengali culture nor do they entirely concur with the dominant norms in Bengali society.