by Tristan Berchoux<\/em><\/p>\n Inequalities are omnipresent within Indian rural communities. They are perpetuated by the system of castes, which leads to a social stratification of India\u2019s population. Moreover, vulnerability to external stresses is also driven by gender discrimination, which follows on from the systemic marginalisation of women and the differences of power relationships that exist between men and women, especially in India. In order to get an overview of communities, social scientists have to face the challenge of getting access to the views of such marginalised groups. This blog presents some of the methods I implemented to address this issue during a research fieldwork conducted in the Mahanadi Delta in India during winter 2016.<\/p>\n show more<\/p> As part of our work associated with the characterisation of livelihood dynamics under the threat of external stresses, we\u2019ve conducted an in-depth fieldwork in the Mahanadi Delta in India. First, the fieldwork team interviewed members of governmental agencies, NGO representatives and academics in Bhubaneswar. Then, the team spent 6 weeks conducting Participatory Rural Appraisals (PRAs) in 10 rural communities in the Districts of Nayagarh, Puri, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara, spending 2 to 3 days in each community. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) was chosen as the main method for creating primary data as it enables rural communities to share, enhance and analyse their knowledge of life and condition. Different activities were used to cross-check the data collected and to cover all the aspects of livelihood systems, such as wealth ranking, seasonal calendar or community mapping. The PRAs were conducted by one researcher with the help of a translator and a facilitator who were trained before conducting the activities. The researcher monitored the evolution of the PRA and provided guidance to the translator and facilitator.<\/p>\n Focus groups conducted for each PRA activity were purposely held separately between men and women to capture gender differences and to give women, who suffer from a lack of recognition in India, the opportunity to express their opinions and issues. It enabled the women to express their opinions in an environment free from the power pressure of men, focus groups being conducted by a female translator. In some communities, implementing such an approach raised discussions amongst men, many arguing that \u201cwomen should not be consulted because they don\u2019t know anything\u201d. This example of the social pressure existing between genders was also felt between castes and we also conducted PRAs with Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) separately. This enabled us to gain access to the opinions of women and socially marginalised groups.<\/p>\n However, we were also confronted to the \u2018habitus\u2019 of social stratification: even with homogenous groups of socially marginalised groups (women, SCs\/STs), it appeared to be sometimes difficult to animate the focus group and to co-create the primary data. This lack of participation can be explained by the fact that such groups cannot express their opinions within the community and this pressure remains during focus groups. In order to get round this issue, we decided to add another activity during the PRAs. This activity, called photovoice (www.photovoice.org), is a participatory visual method that uses photography to initiate discussion within the focus groups. After a one-hour training course and the identification of a theme (\u201chousehold and community assets that are important for their livelihoods), participants were given a camera each for two days so they could document the theme. After the two days, we met in a focus group to review the photos and discuss them. This method was a real success and marginalised participants (women, SCs\/STs) got very involved. It led to very interesting discussions that had not been tackled within the previous activities and was a successful way to get the opinions of such groups out.<\/p>\n As a conclusion, it is necessary to extend the range of methods used in social sciences in order to capture the diversity of opinions that exist across the different social stratum within communities. As an example, we successfully used the visual method Photovoice to initiate discussion and get the opinion of marginalised groups such as women and scheduled castes and tribes. The challenge now is to integrate such methods in vulnerability assessment and to take such groups into account in the design of public policies.<\/p>\n show less<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0– On the use of participatory visual methods to engage with the marginalised within Indian rural communities by Tristan Berchoux Social issues in rural India Inequalities are omnipresent within Indian rural communities. They are perpetuated by the system of castes, which leads to a social stratification of India\u2019s population. Moreover, vulnerability to external stresses is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":271,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-the-countries","category-india","category-student-reporting"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8jyTh-f","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2610,"url":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/deccma\/2018\/11\/05\/exploring-the-impact-of-out-migration-and-how-it-impacts-womens-ability-to-adapt-to-weather-hazards-key-insights-from-the-indian-bengal-delta\/","url_meta":{"origin":15,"position":0},"title":"Exploring the impact of out-migration and how it impacts women\u2019s ability to adapt to weather hazards: key insights from the Indian Bengal Delta","author":"katharinevincent","date":"5th November 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"by Lindsay Jane Sian Roberts The vulnerability of delta environments is increasingly recognised, with a multitude of stressors threatening the lives of communities and re-shaping livelihood decisions. As a vulnerable and marginalised group, women experience this the most acutely. Migration is recognised as one of three sustainable livelihood strategies, alongside\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Delta"","block_context":{"text":"Delta","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/deccma\/category\/delta\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/deccma\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/181\/2018\/10\/Lindsay-334x233.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2720,"url":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/deccma\/2019\/04\/14\/reflections-on-research-ethics-in-deccma\/","url_meta":{"origin":15,"position":1},"title":"Reflections on research ethics in DECCMA","author":"katharinevincent","date":"14th April 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Sumana Banerjee, DECCMA India coordinator During the past 4.75 years, DECCMA created plenty of opportunities for interaction with communities. 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When researchers from universities in the UK visited delta communities in India, they had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Uncategorised"","block_context":{"text":"Uncategorised","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/deccma\/category\/uncategorised\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/deccma\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/181\/2019\/04\/fieldwork-700x435.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/deccma\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/181\/2019\/04\/fieldwork-700x435.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/deccma\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/181\/2019\/04\/fieldwork-700x435.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2402,"url":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/deccma\/2018\/08\/06\/what-is-life-like-in-the-indian-bengal-delta-new-video-clip-of-recent-fieldwork\/","url_meta":{"origin":15,"position":2},"title":"What is life like in the Indian Bengal delta? 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This short video clip provides insights into the nature of livelihoods in Dulki, how\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Delta"","block_context":{"text":"Delta","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/deccma\/category\/delta\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/TgOJwq4ub0E\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2285,"url":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/deccma\/2018\/05\/14\/deccma-gender-outputs-published-in-indias-economic-and-political-weekly\/","url_meta":{"origin":15,"position":3},"title":"DECCMA gender outputs published in India’s Economic and Political Weekly","author":"katharinevincent","date":"14th May 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"by Katharine Vincent The issue of India's Economic and Political Weekly published on 28th April 2018 features two papers from DECCMA researchers.\u00a0Asha Hans from DECCMA and Nitya Rao from ASSAR penned a piece \"Gender and climate change. 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DECCMA defines migration as \u201cthe process by which individuals or whole households leave their usual place of residence for another geographic location, usually crossing an administrative or national border and remaining for at least six months, usually as a result of a change in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Delta"","block_context":{"text":"Delta","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/deccma\/category\/delta\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/uFn1QOUsSQo\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/deccma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/deccma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/deccma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/deccma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/271"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/deccma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/deccma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1326,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/deccma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions\/1326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/deccma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/deccma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/deccma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Social issues in rural India<\/h4>\n
Methods to get the voices of marginalised groups out<\/h4>\n
Implementing PRA in a class and gender-based structure<\/h4>\n
Photovoice to increase participation during PRAs<\/h4>\n
Conclusion<\/h4>\n