Pioneering Metallurgy: The origins of iron and steel making in the Southern Indian subcontinent Telangana Field Survey Interim Report 2011

A chapter from this report ("From the macroscopic to the microscopic: some scientific insights") is in ORE: http://hdl.handle.net/10871/17744British Council UKIER

Census 2011 and Child Sex Ratios in Tamil Nadu: A Comment

Abstract. Inspired by Narayana (2008), published in this journal, this comment revisits the conclusion of a policy-driven decline in daughter elimination in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu using recently released data from Census 2011. Consistent with Narayana's work we find evidence to support the conclusion that government and NGO interventions have played a role in reducing gender differences in survival

Tamil Nadu and the Diagonal Divide in Sex Ratios

Between 1961 and 2001, India’s 0-6 sex ratio has steadily declined. Despite evidence to the contrary, this ratio is often characterised in terms of a diagonal divide with low 0-6 sex ratios in northern and western India and normal 0-6 sex ratios in eastern and southern India. While unexpectedly high rates of female infant mortality have been reported in Tamil Nadu, it is still regarded as lying outside the ambit of states with unusually low 0-6 sex ratios. Based on an analysis of patterns in sex ratio at birth, infant mortality rates and under-5 mortality rates for Tamil Nadu, this paper traces the development of daughter deficit in the state and examines the validity of the diagonal divide in sex ratios across India. We find evidence of daughter deficit in more than half the state’s districts with a majority of the shortfall arising before birth. The evidence presented here, combined with earlier work on declining 0-6 sex ratios outside northwestern India, suggests that the diagonal divide is no longer an appropriate distinction

From the macroscopic to the microscopic: some scientific insights

The full report in which this chapter appears is in ORE: http://hdl.handle.net/10871/1416

Daughter Elimination: Cradle Baby Scheme in Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu’s two decade old Cradle Baby Scheme tries to ensure that female babies who would otherwise have been killed are given up for adoption. Civil society activists are not happy with the scheme because they feel that it only encourages parents to abandon female babies and is not a substitute for tackling the crime of sex selection and female foeticide. However, until the girl child is welcome in families, such a scheme will be needed

Tackling female infanticide and sex selection in Tamil Nadu a failure?

This response to "Declining Child Sex Ratio and Sex Selection in India: A Demographic Epiphany"? (EPW, 18 August 2012) argues that contrary to the assertion in that article, state and non-governmental organisation interventions seem to have played an important role in reversing the decline in the 0-6 sex ratio in Tamil Nadu

Ensuring daughter survival in Tamil Nadu, India

The south Indian state of Tamil Nadu is a relatively recent entrant to the list of Indian states exhibiting the phenomenon of "missing girls". A substantial proportion of these missing girls may be attributed to the differential survival of girls and boys in the 0-6 age group due to daughter elimination in the form of sex selection, neglect and infanticide. Notwithstanding the state's relatively recent history of daughter elimination, the government and NGOs in Tamil Nadu have been active in terms of data collection to track gender differences in survival and in introducing interventions to prevent daughter elimination. Against this background, this paper has two aims. First, it provides a temporal and spatial analysis of patterns of daughter deficits in Tamil Nadu over the period 1996 to 2003. Second, it undertakes an examination of the modus operandi, underlying assumptions, strengths and weaknesses of various interventions and assesses their effect on daughter limination

Bare Branches and Drifting Kites: Tackling Female Infanticide and Foeticide in Tamil Nadu, India

A well-known feature of demographic trends in several East and South Asian countries is the continuing decline in the proportion of females to males, which is evocatively captured in the phrase ‘missing’ women as coined by Sen (1990).1 In contrast to the female-male population ratio in Europe and the United States which is about one, and the sex ratio at birth which typically lies between 944 and 962 females per 1000 males, unusually low female-male population and sex ratios at birth have been recorded in Bangladesh, China, India, Nepal, Pakistan and South Korea (United Nations 2004)

The significance of wootz steel to the history of materials science

The melting of steel proved to be a challenge in antiquity on account of the high melting point of iron. In the 1740s Benjamin Huntsman successfully developed a technique of producing steel that allowed it to be made on a much larger commercial scale and was credited with the discovery of crucible steel. However, Cyril Stanley Smith brought to wider attention an older tradition of crucible steel from India, i.e. wootz or Damascus steel, which he hailed as one of the four metallurgical achievements of antiquity. Known by its anglicized name, wootz from India has attracted world attention. Not so well known is the fact that the modern edifice of metallurgy and materials science was built on European efforts to unravel the mystery of this steel over the past three centuries

Minerals and metals heritage of India (NIAS Backgrounder No. B8-2013)

The minerals and metals heritage of India covers a period of over ten thousand years and extends beyond the current national boundaries of the Republic of India