TITLE:
Conceptual and Methodological Issues of Poverty and Vulnerability: An Ethnographic Study from the South
AUTHORS:
Eswarappa Kasi
KEYWORDS:
Poverty; Vulnerability; Resources; Ethnography; Sugali; South India
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Anthropology,
Vol.3 No.1,
February
28,
2013
ABSTRACT: There is a great need to
understand, analyse and critically apprise conceptual and methodological issues
of poverty and vulnerability and its underlying relevance in the today’s fast
changing rural/urban spaces of south India. To pursue this academic and
epistemological endeavour, we tried to use the existing literature largely and
later tried to relate it to our own regional case for argument and discussion.
This has given us a scope to look at the issues and parameters involved to see
how poverty and its contiguous factors reflect upon the real people’s lives and
livelihoods of marginal groups in south India. Poverty should be seen in the
form of loss of livelihoods, lack of access to resources, basic needs and
non-availability of resources and services to the vulnerable sections of the
society. Taking the case of Sugalis, one of the semi-nomadic tribe, of
Rayalaseema region of south India it is argued in this paper that poverty and
vulnerability coexist and strengthen each other and poverty can be understood
by analyzing the real life situations and strategies adopted by the people to
manage their lives. Present
Paper based on an empirical research by using anthropological tools of
research.