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Pictorialism emerged in the last quarter of the nineteenth century as a global aesthetic movement that argued for photography's artistic status on par with other plastic arts more powerfully than ever. Archives from South Asia demonstrate the movement's thriving life in the subcontinent with Calcutta emerging as a centre and its bilingual amateur photographer-writers as major participants simultaneously engaging in globally circulating specialist discourses on pictorialism and popular discussions of their practice aimed at public pedagogy. By looking into Bangla periodical press this paper investigates how Bengali pictorialists used popular Bangla magazines in the early twentieth century to establish their distinct voice regarding what counted as artistic photography as they engaged with a non-specialist mass readership. Mass-circulated Bangla articles were not vernacular translations of knowledge and practices produced in metropolitan locations and disseminated in transregional languages like English. Vernacular was an extension of Bengali amateur photographers' participation in global photography, as they remained grounded in their historical specificity. These amateur photographers were bilingual intellectuals who wrote in English for a global public and in Bangla for a Bangla-reading publics and refraining from translating culture as they moved across languages. Indeed, articulations in vernacular didn't mean a venularization of practice; they indicate plurality of belonging and affiliation that crafted the pictorialist aesthetic of the Bengali amateurs. By unpacking this intellectual history, this paper decenters the Euro-US-centric history of pictorialism towards writing an interconnected history of the artistic movement, while also complicating the category of modern Indian art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During colonial times, dioramas were commonly used to portray the diverse peoples of India. They depicted essentialised human types through plaster models in rural settings, engaged in typical activities, and dated back to the exhibition of human beings in universal expositions held in Calcutta, Delhi and London. Since Independence, there have been determined efforts to move away from colonial stereotypes and to decolonise government-funded museums in India. Meanwhile, Adivasi artists are finding their own way out of the curatorial confines of the museum. This paper describes how Indian museology still struggles to exorcise the ghosts of the Victorian museum and India's own internal colonialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sex work can offer a quick way of making money and is the only profession in which women may earn more in fewer hours when compared to other available jobs. However, most studies with sex workers in India are based on socially biased assumptions about sex work; that is, women are either coerced or trafficked into sex work. Limited attention has been paid to the voices of non-brothel-based sex workers in India. Drawing data from a larger ethnographic study conducted between December 2009 and July 2010, this paper analyses how women sex workers operating from non-brothel-based sex work settings in Kolkata, India, foresee their future. Unlike the popular 'victim imagery' of women sex workers in the Global South, this study found that women are not passive recipients of the trade; instead, they employ agency - sometimes transgressing the normative boundaries and at times reinscribing these boundaries to secure a future for themselves and their families. Therefore, to promote HIV preventive behaviour programmes reaching out to sex workers, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) must proactively inquire about women's future plans and assist them in materialising their future goals, which are mostly concerned with their children's future, a life free of stigma/shame, and financial security in old age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is based on ethnographic field work conducted in Kolkata during 2019–2021 with queer and trans people during the COVID pandemic. This article develops a new framework of queer patchworks and discusses the various ways through which queer and trans communities are navigating survival during these non-normative times. This paper particularly responds to how digital media is being used by individuals and organisations as a form of witness, belonging, intimacy and care. Queer people in India live within different forms of marginality and precarity, homophobia, caste violence, unemployment and homelessness. This article brings together patchworks of whatsapp texts, broken zoom conversations, cooking gossip and addas on the banks of river Hooghly as a nod to these new realities which are reshaping queer identities; thus, offering new ways to also acknowledge, accommodate and 'queer' what counts as knowledge. A particular focus was moving away from totalising narratives and instead examine the tensions of being queer in contemporary India alongside the many contradictions. In turn, this engenders wider questions about queer desire, nationalism and belonging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Narratives on children's independent mobility (CIM) from developing countries remain limited and under-researched. This is the first paper from India that examines CIM across three urban neighbourhood typologies, taking a case of Kolkata. The study reports from the comparative analysis of the data provided by 384 parents of children aged 7–12 years from four schools on their CIM licence scores and neighbourhood perception. Logistic regression was employed to examine the association of CIM with the built environment (BE) and social environment (SE) variables of the neighbourhood. The results reveal that older children (10–12 years) were found to enjoy higher CIM licences irrespective of their gender. Low-rise neighbourhood inheriting an organic spatial growth fosters higher CIM than planned mid-rise or high-rise neighbourhoods. When all variables were taken together, the influence of neighbourhood social cohesion and safety on CIM was found to override the influence of BE variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 1960–1973, the Ford Foundation and the Calcutta Metropolitan Planning Organization (CMPO) engaged in a unique partnership that produced the Basic Development Plan, a bold strategy for the development of the world's 'most troubled city.' The Ford-CMPO partnership brought together leading planning experts from the United States and India and resulted in innovative and abortive development plans and programmes, and was beset by the economic and political crises that came to define post-Independence Calcutta. This paper provides a detailed history of the Ford-CMPO partnership and highlights the myriad of political dilemmas that challenged the project and that provide a window in the politics of planning and urban development in post-Independence India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Cities are the physical embodiment of power, capital and state control. Yet urban centres are heterogeneous and multiple counter-cities are created within the bounds of the city – contesting the mainstream logic of capital accumulation and hierarchical relationships of power. While one may first envision counter-cities as large sites of protest and consciously alternative communities, everyday counter-cities are also possible. This article combines three theories to develop a framework of everyday counter-cities, drawing together subaltern urbanism, prefiguration and reciprocal relations of care. This paper uses this framework to analyse qualitative research conducted with communities in two informal settlements of migrant communities in Kolkata to explain how these seemingly ordinary places form counter-cities. This paper draws on these examples to argue that a counter-city founded on an ethos of care and anticipatory action for the future is possible, even within situations of high income disparity and inequality. • Everyday subaltern communities create counter-cities based on hope and care. • A counter-city illustrates reciprocal care, prefiguration and subaltern urbanism. • A counter-city represents the intersection of social relations, space and temporality. • Migrant communities in Kolkata are ostracised but resist the label of 'slums' of despair. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the origins of the Calcutta journal of natural history (1841-1848) and the search from the 1830s for a permanent curator for the collections of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Edward Blyth (1810-1873) was appointed, even though John M'Clelland (or McClelland) (1805-1883), who founded the Calcutta journal of natural history, had acted as part-time curator of the collections for two years before Blyth's arrival in Calcutta. An analysis of the Society and the journal allows reconsideration of the significance of natural history in India in the mid-nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the impacts of store attributes on consumer-based retailer equity (CBRE) dimensions. Design/methodology/approach - A mall-intercept survey was undertaken using a systematic sampling of department store shoppers of age 18 years and above in Kolkata, a metropolitan city in India. A survey questionnaire was used to collect data from busy shopping malls or retail stores located in different places of Kolkata. The impact of store attributes on CBRE dimensions was explored using stepwise regression analysis. Findings - Results revealed that different sets of store attributes affect various CBRE dimensions differently. Originality/value - This paper is probably the first to explore the link between store attributes and CBRE dimensions in an Indian and department stores contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This multi-disciplinary paper brings together two bodies of evidence that, to our knowledge, have not before been combined: literature about the efficient functioning of the East Kolkata Wetlands in the production of fish is juxtaposed against scientific research that documents the heavy metal pollution of those Wetlands caused by industries such as tanneries. Our primary question is whether it is safe to eat the fish (and other produce) of the Wetlands; a related issue is to assess the strengths and limitations of traditional knowledge. In discussing what the farmers know and what the scientists know, we have placed our work in the context of a framework developed by Richards in 1979. Our conclusions suggest that the expertise of the farmers and the expertise of the scientists can be brought together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informal settlements are an important source of affordable housing and economic activity in developing cities. Research shows that informal settlements are at high risk from natural hazards and the effects of global climate change. Conditions within such settlements are diverse, however, and it is important that we understand the variation in risk across households. In this paper, we study the uneven terrain of risk to localized hazards in informal settlements in Kolkata, India. Our research question is, which factors predict household exposure to monsoon rain hazards? We surveyed 414 households living in low-lying informal settlements on the city's periphery. Using a variety of predictors, we estimate binary logistic models for two outcome variables tied to monsoon rain: home flooding and home leaking. We find that household exposure varies significantly across our study population and follows predictable patterns based on socio-economic and infrastructure variables. The home flooding model results show that households with higher incomes are less likely to flood, but in situ births increase exposure. Households living in structures made of more permanent materials are less likely to flood, as are households living near infrastructure. The home leaking model shows that households with relative financial stability are less likely to leak, as are those that have been living in the settlement for longer periods of time and whose houses are made of better quality materials. These findings indicate that extensive risk in informal settlements is unevenly experienced and that policies intended to reduce disaster and climate risk should focus on the lowest-income households, the provision of infrastructure, and security of tenure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Indian adolescents exhibit unhealthy food behaviours and inactive lifestyles which increase their risk of developing obesity and associated negative health consequences. The family food environment represents a vital setting to nurture healthy lifestyle behaviours in adolescents, with parents influencing their adolescents' dietary and physical activity behaviours. Yet, much of the existing evidence exploring parental influences predominantly focuses on mothers while fathers' engagement in instilling healthy dietary and physical activity behaviours is understudied, more so in the context of developing economies like India. Therefore, this qualitative study was designed to understand Indian fathers' views on instilling healthy behaviours in their children. Methods: Convenience sampling along with snowball sampling techniques were employed to recruit fathers of adolescents aged 10–19 years from Kolkata city, India. Informed by the research aim and review of literature, an interview guide was developed and pre-tested. Interviews were carried out either in person or virtually (Zoom/telephone) in English/Hindi/Bengali as per the preference of the participants. All interactions were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim, and translated to English for the purpose of data analysis. The transcripts were analysed thematically using NVivo software program. Themes were identified using both inductive and deductive approaches. Results: A total 36 fathers participated in the interviews. Seven main themes were identified: (i) Involvement of fathers in adolescent upbringing (i.e. engagement in meal preparation, food shopping, educational activities, physical activity); (ii) Family food environment (i.e. setting food rules, having meals with children, making food available); (iii) Challenges to instilling healthy behaviours in adolescents (i.e. adolescents' sedentary lifestyle and liking for unhealthy foods); (iv) Barriers to routine involvement in adolescent upbringing (i.e. time constraints due to paid employment, poor socio-economic status); (v) Adolescent nutrition education: (vi) Dual burden of malnutrition (i.e. awareness of malnutrition, no knowledge about government-led health programs for adolescents); (vii) Paternal knowledge. Conclusions: The emerging themes reveal that Indian fathers played a crucial role in instilling healthy dietary and physical activity behaviour in their adolescents through various parenting practices such as purchasing nutritious food, enforcing food rules, disseminating nutrition-related knowledge, and encouraging adolescents to participate in moderate-to-vigorous intensity outdoor sports. This provides strong support for the inclusion of fathers in sustainable family-focused lifestyle interventions to maximise the nurturing care required by adolescents as well as assist in normalising the representation of fathers in health and welfare policies designed for adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the distinct marriage customs of two Hindu Bengali communities in West Bengal: the Brahmins and the Poundra-Kshatriyas. It delves into the rituals, actions, and symbols integral to the marriage processes of these groups in Kolkata. The Brahmins, at the top of the caste hierarchy, have specific marriage rituals that affirm their caste status. In contrast, the Poundra-Kshatriyas, who are at the lower end of the hierarchy, follow different practices. The study compares these rituals and the significance of various traditional actions and changes, drawing on memoir interviews, genealogies, and case histories. It interprets these actions within the context of traditional activities, local terminology, rituals, beliefs, and marriage symbols. The research indicates that the observed differences in marriage customs between the two communities are historically rooted and reflect their social interactions and the material and symbolic aspects of their relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dyslipidemia is an important risk factor of cardiovascular disease, whereas menopause is a decrease in ovarian follicular activity at the end of reproductive age of the women, which is significantly influenced by hormonal changes brought on by menopause’s impact on serum lipids. This study was undertaken among pre- and post-menopausal Paundra Kshatriya women in Sonarpur, South 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India in order to determine the prevalence of dyslipidemia. 142 adult Paundra Kshatriya women (n pre-menopausal women = 96; n post-menopausal women = 46) were selected from a peri-urban setting of Sonarpur, South 24 Parganas, West Bengal. Anthropometry and arterial pressure data were recorded. Blood samples were collected from study participants who were on 12 hours fasting. 19.79% of pre-menopausal women and 17.39% of post-menopausal women had normal levels of lipids. Prevalence of dyslipidemia was slightly higher (82.7%) among the post-menopausal women compared to pre-menopausal women (80.2%). While high LDL cholesterol emerged as one of the prime causes for dyslipidemia among pre-menopausal women, hypercholesterolemia emerged as one of the prime causes for dyslipidemia among post-menopausal women. Regression analysis revealed a significant impact of 3 factors in pre-menopausal women and impact of 6 factors in post-menopausal women. Though Paundra Kshatriya women maintain a relatively less stressful and high physical activity lifestyle, they exhibited high levels of lipid abnormalities. The peri-urban population is undergoing lifestyle and dietary changes due to a close proximity to the urban centre, Kolkata. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes narrative therapy interventions with young people living in residential childcare institutions in Kolkata, India. It presents an analysis of the contexts of poverty, violence and oppression that shape young people's experiences before entering care, and the ideologies that shape their experiences within residential institutions. It then demonstrates the application of a narrative framework for working with young people in residential care through the stories of four young women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ongoing COVID‐19 pandemic has prompted researchers to rethink their fieldwork. My doctoral fieldwork plans, which involved conducting ethnographic research amongst Afghan refugees and migrants in New Delhi and Kolkata, were upended because of the recurring waves of the pandemic and the lockdowns/curfews that were imposed in their wake (2020−2022). Locked out of my field, my inability to conduct my research as planned amounted to a failure that could not be redeemed, especially because of time constraints. Using autoethnographic vignettes of my encounters in the lead up to the eventual suspension of in‐situ fieldwork, I critically reflect on how I approached and felt towards failures in/of field and how these encounters speak back to the discourse on failure in academia. In doing so, this article advocates for the need to revisit failures simply for what they are, without necessarily demanding and/or (self) expecting that we recast them as stepping stones towards success. By challenging the neo‐liberal desire to re‐present failures in a productive light, I argue we can make greater room for more supportive discussions around failures without committing ourselves to the task of having to find triumph in (every) adversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is about the experiences of three Chinese men who were involved in smuggling between India and China during the Second World War. Chen Mengzhao's rise as a leading figure in India-China smuggling in Calcutta uncovers the hidden links between the black markets in India and China during the Second World War. Gao Wenjie disguised himself as a Chinese army officer and utilized this fake identity to facilitate his smuggling business. Wang Li-an was sent to Calcutta to undertake smuggling for a Chinese government department. In telling these stories, this article argues that most smuggling in modern India and China was undertaken in transnational contexts that resulted in transnational effects. Ironically, the Nationalist government's state-building project to contain India-China smuggling ended by facilitating it. This project was further perceived by the British authorities as a Chinese conspiracy against India's sovereignty. The misunderstanding between the Chinese and British authorities led to the end of Chinese immigration to India in 1945. Overall, this article provides a new perspective to make sense of the tensions between the Chinese, Indian, and British governments during the Second World War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: World Health Organisation has described obesity as one of the most neglected public health issues. Initially, obesity was only a problem in high-income countries; however, at present, it is rising in middle and low-income countries as well, rapidly in India, especially in the urban areas. In the light of the increasing prevalence of obesity in India, it was worthwhile to study perception, risk factors and health behaviours in adult obesity holistically. Methods: This study resorted to a concurrent mixed methods approach, collecting and combining quantitative survey (n = 120) and qualitative interview data (n = 18). Female and male aged 25–54 years with a waist circumference of 80 cm and 90 cm or higher, respectively, and a BMI of 25 or higher were selected from Kolkata, India. Kolkata was chosen as the study area since it ranked 7th out of 640 districts, the highest among the five major urban cities in India, with around 41% of the female and 43% of the male population aged 15–49 years with a BMI of 25 or higher. Results: Participants confirmed that lifestyle was one of the main reasons for obesity. They believed that family history, social relations, behavioural factors, urbanisation, and time-poor were significant risk factors of obesity. Interview participants expanded that technology, lack of health education and self-care, and digital marketing of food influenced the risk of obesity. Participants confirmed that they wanted to lose weight to feel healthier. Most respondents claimed that they engaged in lightly to moderate-intensity physical activity. However, a discrepancy in opinion was observed between survey responses and interview participants' views on dietary behaviours. Participants confirmed that they rarely consulted health professionals and that the family had a minimal role in preventing obesity. Interview participants expanded that people should make better lifestyle choices at an individual level to prevent obesity. Conclusions: Health education is fundamental. Making better lifestyle choices is crucial, which would help increase the lifespan and health span and decrease the risk of diseases. In addition, social support and better policies are required to prevent the disease and any related complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the way the intersection between gender, class and family values is reorganised in relation to state policies that enable propertied citizenship through home-ownership. Focusing on ethnographic data from Kolkata, India, it discusses how women realise propertied citizenship in exchange for care work rather than through employment as developmentalist and liberal feminist discourses suggest. Here the way women's lives are envisaged and represented through investment in high levels of educational attainment is in contrast to low levels of employment, symptomatic of what I call 'liminal states' – a gendered state of immaturity and dependence on kin. Home-ownership as a means of 'empowerment' configures the home as the economic and affective focus of gendered care work, which reproduces Berlant's 'cruel optimism', whereby the desire to own a home and the practices of homemaking hamper autonomy and restrict the efficacy of agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the twenty-first century, land use changes, massive expansion of urbanization, population growth, economic crisis, environmental issues are the main challenges of developing countries. Climate change and its effects on human health are the major concerns for the different age groups of the population. The study delved into the causes associated with climate change and climate change-related myriad health impacts on the study population. This study has used a concurrent mixed-method research design. The quantitative and qualitative data were collected from the study area. Perception and knowledge about climate change and its consequences on health was based on a quantitative approach of Bi-variate analysis and Chi-Square test and Fisher's exact test; this study also used qualitative data analysis. Study results show that most respondents pointed out that temperature increases throughout the year and 90% of the respondents reported that rainfall pattern has also changed. Similarly, 65% of respondents agreed in their statements in favour of increased natural calamities in this region. The study findings show that more than 40% of population faces dengue fever and 10% of people also suffer from malaria. More than 60% of the urban population suffered from asthma. Similarly, more than 70% of the population also got affected by cold and cough due to weather variability. Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and In-depth interviews of the participants also affirmed the fact that climate variability induced diseases and health problems in Kolkata Metropolitan areas. Urban residents perceived that excessive urbanization contributes to the changes in regional climate and human health. The study will encourage the policy-makers and local government to mitigate adverse health effects driven by climate change in the Kolkata Metropolitan Region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overweight and obesity in adolescent girls are considered a leading global public health issues in recent times. There is a need to evaluate the potential socioeconomic and behavioural factors behind adolescents' overweight and obesity in different environmental settings. The present study aims to understand the prevalence of overweight and obesity among urban adolescent school girls and to determine the association between selected socioeconomic and behavioural factors and overweight/obesity. This is a cross-sectional study using a multistage stratified cluster sampling with a sample size of 1041 adolescent girls aged 10 to 18 years from schools of Kolkata, India. Overall prevalence of overweight and obesity were 18.9% and 23.7%, respectively. The prevalence of overweight and obesity was higher among those adolescent girls whose parents had completed higher education (49.5%) and had higher monthly per capita household expenditure (48.4%). Stepwise binary logistic regression analysis confirmed that the probability of being overweight/obese tended to be in adolescents who slept less than 7 hours per day (p<0.001). Overweight/obesity was also higher among those children whose fathers were fatty (p=0.002), taken medicines three months before the survey (p=0.008), and watched television and mobile phones for more than 1 hour a day (p=0.039). Rapid change in modern lifestyles is seemingly decreasing sleep duration in adolescents with subsequent negative impact on their health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In India, relatively little is known about sex worker mothers' beliefs regarding sexual health communication with their children. Using qualitative data collected in Kolkata, India, this study used the Parent Expansion of the Theory of Planned Behaviour to examine sex worker mothers' beliefs about sexual health communication and factors shaping these beliefs. Sex worker mothers' beliefs about sexual health communication were shaped by societal norms and collectivising processes often driven by Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC), a sex workers' collective in Kolkata, India. Specifically, we found that challenging stigma, assuming ownership over one's body and health, and making relevant material resources and knowledge accessible and meaningful were key in supporting mothers to overcome barriers around sexual health communication. These collectivising processes shaped mothers' beliefs about sexual health communication and facilitated their ability to engage in it. Future research, policies and programmes should consider the far-reaching impact of community-led structural interventions on sex worker mothers and their children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent times, the increasing healthcare spending due to the rising health awareness signifies the importance of identifying the appropriate factors that influence patient satisfaction, weight assignment to these factors, and measurement of patient satisfaction becomes important. However, devising a robust objective weighting method for weight assignment of the factors and an analytical method for determining patient satisfaction scores has not been paid enough attention. Motivated by these issues, this work focuses on devising a robust objective weighting method for weight assignment of the factors that influence patient satisfaction, an analytical method for determining patient satisfaction, and real‐life implementation. We first propose a joint weighting methodology to allocate the weights to the factors by integrating the weights determined by different objective weighting methods, namely, mean weight, SD, entropy, criteria importance through intercriteria correlation, and preference selection index‐based approaches. Next, using the weights of these factors, we design a modified weighted aggregated sum product assessment method to determine a single patient satisfaction score by integrating the scores obtained from the weighted sum model and the weighted product model. The proposed methodology is applied to a real‐world dataset provided by a large healthcare provider and diagnostic clinic in Kolkata, India, to exhibit the real‐life implementation. The theoretical insights obtained through non‐parametric tests highlight the significant difference between joint weighting‐based and single weighting‐based methods. The context‐specific insights signify that the patients suffering from arthritis and hyperlipidaemia exhibit lower satisfaction. Also, the patients suffering from dengue express lower satisfaction than the patients suffering from malaria. Additionally, the healthcare provider should focus on improving the service quality of the departments such as ophthalmology, ENT, and dietician. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Research conducted with diverse groups of sex workers in India as well as around the globe have shown that decriminalizing sex work can promote the health, safety, and security of sex workers. Nonetheless, in many countries, including India, legislations criminalizing buying of sex—that is punishing clients of sex workers—have gained momentum with the accompanying rationale of rescuing/saving women trapped in sex work. Such legislations ignore the reality that sex work is an economically viable vocation for a majority of women, men, and transgender people in India—especially when compared to low-paying jobs with long, fixed hours of work. Consequently, such legislations have also not deterred people from choosing sex work as a livelihood option. In addition, little information is available about the community-based harm reduction responses. Methods : We as scholars—who have separately conducted field-based ethnographic research with diverse groups of brothel- and non-brothel-based sex workers in Kolkata India between 2009 and 2016–-share our findings about the impact of criminalization on varied groups of sex workers in India. In addition, we provide a critical analysis of the several community-based strategies—ranging from self-regulatory boards, stakeholders-NGOs negotiations, NGO-police partnership, and drop-in-centers—adopted by the sex worker organizations to mitigate the harms associated with sex work in Kolkata, India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Kolkata and rural West Bengal and engaging with literature on mobile phones in the global South, and on gender and sexuality in India, this article seeks to understand the incongruence between widespread mobile phone use in India and commuting domestic workers' own accounts of their mobile phone use. It illustrates the important role that mobile phones play in enabling commuting workers (who are mostly women) to find work and manage relationships, but also how commuting workers play down their mobile phone use, guarding against suspicion from husbands, sons, and others. Such suspicion reflects the stigma around women's mobility/sexuality, connected to ideas about women's 'honour' and the perceived risks associated with women's work and journeys. When workers' mobile phone use is, then, perceived to be 'inappropriate', or if workers transgress norms and expectations relating to ideas about women's 'honour' in other ways, they can face (further) surveillance and abuse, their access to phones thereafter often being controlled by men. Contributing to gendered analyses of mobile phones in the global South, the article shows how phones can at once create new possibilities and freedoms for commuting domestic workers while at the same time reinforcing gendered power relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pallisentis (Pallisentis) nandai Sarkar, 1953 is a freshwater fish parasite restricted to the Indian subcontinent in the Ganga River and its tributaries. It was described from the leaffish, Nandus nandus (Hamilton) from the Ganga River delta at Calcutta. We recovered variant specimens from the same host species from the Ganga near its headwaters at Bijnor about 1500 km away. Our specimens were clearly identifiable as P. nandai but varied considerably from those in the original description, especially in the size of proboscis hooks, receptacle and lemnisci. The original description was incomplete (missing line drawings of female trunk and reproductive system, male trunk, complete proboscis, hooks and hook roots) and inaccurate (proboscis, hooks, receptacle wall), and some measurements were lumped together for both sexes. We provide a complete description and include new morphological information including the first description of para-receptacle structure in the genus Pallisentis Van Cleave, 1928, scanning electron microscopy and microscope images, molecular analysis, and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDXA) of hooks and spines of our specimens for the first time. Additional details of proboscis hook roots, trunk spines, micropores and micropore distribution are described. The unique metal composition of hooks (EDXA) demonstrated a considerably high but variable level of sulphur and negligible level of calcium in collar and trunk spines and hook tips, but a higher level of sulphur and calcium at the hook basal arch than at the hook tip and edge. A comparison with the EDXA pattern of another species of Pallisentis, P. İndica Mital & Lal, 1976, were considerably different. The phylogenetic position of P. nandai within Eoacanthocephala was generated to assess the molecular characterization based on 18S and ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 ribosomal DNA sequences. Maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference analyses placed P. nandai in a clade with other Pallisentis species under the family Quadrigyridae. This is the first report based on molecular evidence for P. nandai. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study provides a snapshot of the level of degradation of economic and living conditions of middle-class households of Kolkata and its neighbourhood during 'lockdown'. It is based on an on-line survey of households of students of five purposively-selected colleges carried out during the second half of May 2020. The survey reveals that inflow of regular normal income had ceased altogether for over 40% of the sample households. About 15% of the households suffered from outright job loss or complete denial or withholding of wages and salaries payments of their members in paid employment and another about 27% reported complete closure of small businesses run by them. The normal-times income had altogether ceased for over a half of the households of the lowest income group. Predictably, the worst hit group was the wage labourers. Over four-fifths households with their prime earning member in wage employment reported job and earnings related problems, with over a fourth reporting job losses. Households with self-employed prime earners too were severely affected, with about three-fourths of them reporting such problems. Even the households with regular-salaried prime earners were badly hit. About a half of them reported job and earnings related problems. The results suggest that food grains distribution through the Public Distribution System (PDS) played a decisive role in averting an imminent famine-like situation. About 60% of the sample households were found to have procured food stuff from the PDS. Among the wage-labourers' households, well over 80% reported dependence on the PDS, with ostensibly a large proportion of them receiving food altogether free. Despite free food grains distribution, about 5% of the sample households could not arrange three meals a day for all its members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescents develop food habits that affect both their present and future health. Underpinned by the stakeholder theory, this study was designed to explore the perspective of parents and nutrition educators regarding urban Indian adolescents' food habits. Thirty-two educators and 280 parents from five independent, English-speaking, secondary schools in Kolkata, India completed a paper-based instrument consisting of both closed and open-ended measures. Qualitative data were subjected to thematic analysis informed by the Template Analysis Technique. Descriptive and cross-tabulation analyses were employed to assess quantitative data. Three quarters (75%) of the respondents were dissatisfied with the ubiquitous consumption of energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods and sugar-sweetened beverages as well as the low intakes of healthy foods like fruits and vegetables among urban Indian adolescents. Six reasons were advanced for such unhealthy consumption including i) Proliferation of fast food retail outlets; ii) Hyper-palatability of fast food; iii) Marketing of fast food on electronic and social media; iv) Diminished household cooking practices; v) Lack of food knowledge; vi) Tendency to seek peer group acceptance. Both parents and educators suggested some healthy eating strategies aimed at improving the food and nutrition situation in Indian secondary schools to foster healthy eating among pupils. These included: i) Restrictions on the sale of unhealthy foods in school canteens; ii) Increased availability of attractive and palatable nutritious foods; iii) Discussion of the advantages of consuming healthy foods and inclusion of food preparation techniques in the school curriculum; iv) Home Economics coursework to be made mandatory for students. The findings suggest that Indian parents and teachers are likely to support changes to the food and nutrition curricula and to school food provision to foster healthy eating among adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Indian spider species of the genera Apodrassodes, Herpyllus and Sergiolus are revised, mostly based on the type material available in the National Zoological Collection, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata. The following new combinations are recognised: Coillina yogeshi comb. nov., transferred from Apodrassodes, Scotophaeus goaensis comb. nov. and Zelotes calcuttaensis comb. nov., both transferred from Herpyllus, Hitobia lamhetaghatensis comb. nov., Hitobia meghalayensis comb. nov., Hitobia poonaensis comb. nov., Hitobia singhi comb. nov. and Poecilochroa khodiar comb. nov., all transferred from Sergiolus. The Chinese species Coillina baka syn. nov. is synonymised with C. yogeshi comb. nov. All images of the examined type material as well as supplementary descriptions are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces plastic recycling networks in Kolkata, India, as a case to illustrate the contradictory entanglement of economic and environmental change in urban informal contexts of the Global South. In light of the prevailing environmental critique of informal plastic recycling in India, this article discusses plastic recyclers' environmental impact and contribution as well as the potential to enhance the environmental and economic performance of their business. Network and chain approaches in the emerging field of Environmental Economic Geography are combined with the notion of social metabolism to conceptualize the entanglement of environmental and economic processes as well as socio‐environmental inequalities entailed in recycling networks. The analysis reveals the impact that the heterogeneity and fluctuation of plastic waste supply has on the economic organization of recycling networks, giving rise to distinct forms of governance in its intermediate and down‐stream segments. Such an integrated perspective also serves to explain why environmental upgrading is hard to achieve under prevailing circumstances by plastic recyclers in Kolkata. Based on an assessment of the social and political conditions of informality under which plastic recyclers operate, the adoption of common assumptions about ecological modernization imbuing parts of Environmental Economic Geography is called into question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understandings of sex and intimacy carry important implications for individuals' behaviours and health. In many research studies, sex is narrowly defined as penile-vaginal intercourse, which may exclude the experiences of sexual and gender minoritised individuals. Likewise, sexual intimacy, or intimacy related to sexual experience between two or more people, is under-researched. Even less is known about how sexual and gender minoritised individuals in countries such as India understand these concepts. This qualitative study included focus group discussions and interviews conducted in three urban areas in India - Chennai, Bangalore and Kolkata. Data were analysed thematically. Participants described sex as a context-dependent experience, acknowledging that their definitions might not capture others' characterisations. Participants reported numerous barriers to intimacy, especially for transgender and other gender minority individuals. We discuss the implications of simplistic definitions related to gender and sexuality for future sexuality research and public health in settings such as those discussed here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many believe that the first slum (settlement) upgrading projects were launched in the 1960s. In fact, arguably the world's first began in Calcutta in 1876 and ran until 1910. It was sui generis. Like recent programmes, Calcutta's prioritized sanitary infrastructure over dwelling repairs; unlike them, it lacked resident participation. Inspired by sanitary initiatives in Britain, it was motivated by public health concerns, especially for Europeans; unusually, it had precise geographical foci. It involved the extension of sewers; of water lines to standpipes, wash stations, and public latrines; the filling in of tanks (ponds) used for washing and cooking; the closing of domestic wells; street cleaning and street widening. It was modestly effective but had the unanticipated effect of encouraging piecemeal redevelopment at higher densities. Locally and internationally, it was soon forgotten so that similar programmes had to be reinvented. In that respect, it exemplifies a common pattern of policy amnesia. Abbreviations: AR: Administration Reports of the Commissioners of Calcutta; Calcutta: The Municipal Press; BC: Bustee Committee, Minutes; BMP: Bengal. Municipal Proceedings; IOR: India Office Records, British Museum; SC: Report of the Commission Appointed under Section 28 of Act IV (B.C.) of 1876 to Enquire into Certain Matters Connected with the Sanitation of the Town of Calcutta; Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Press, 1885 [Sanitation Commission]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the political imaginaries contained within representations of urban climate futures? What silent but corollary rural dispossessions accompany them? I investigate these questions through the experience of migrants from rural coastal Bangladesh to peri-urban Kolkata. The threats posed to their villages by a variety of ecological disruptions (both loosely and intimately linked with climate change) drive their migration in search of new livelihoods. Their experiences suggest that the demise of rural futures is entangled with the celebration of urban climate futures. However, social movements in this region resisting agrarian dispossession point to alternative political imaginaries that resist teleologies of urbanization at the expense of agrarian livelihoods. Current work in both agrarian studies and urban studies theorizes these linked dynamics of rural–urban transition, seeking to understand them in relation to broader political economies. I bring these debates into conversation with one another to highlight the importance of attention to counter-hegemonic agrarian political imaginaries, particularly in the face of predictions of the death of the peasantry in a climate-changed world. It won't be possible to identify or pursue just climate futures without them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay draws from an ethnographic study on nurses and attendants in the city of Kolkata to re-turn to the question of women's consciousness and agency. I trace women's reluctance to participate in union activities both to the failure of formal mechanisms of collective bargaining in representing workers' interests, and to gendered norms that come in the way of organizing women workers. I explore how the performance of respectable femininity, legitimized by class and caste norms, inhibits women's participation in intensely politicized masculine domains. Though at first glance it may seem that women's reluctance to participate in union activities is gender neutral, I demonstrate that gender norms produce a social field that denies women political agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 (PWDVA) came into effect on 26 October 2006. The PWDVA introduced several legislative innovations that either are proclaimed as landmarks or remain underscored in the commentaries of the PWDVA. This article attempts to explore the landmark and the mundane PWDVA aspects by examining the implementation of the PWDVA through the relation between the formal legal sphere and the social sphere. It aims to examine how and in what ways has the formal domestic violence law fostered a legal culture engendering legal literacy of ordinary women and men. In doing so, the article explores how the implementation of the PWDVA responds to a particular sociocultural context of women experiencing violence at the hands of family members in India and offers a legal conception of domestic violence that is significantly different from the Western notion of domestic violence as interpersonal violence between two individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People living with HIV/AIDS (PLH) experience high rates of depression and related psychosocial risk factors that vary by gender. This study examines gender differences in depression severity among antiretroviral therapy (ART) patients (n = 362) from a large government ART clinic in Kolkata, India. Hypotheses for multiple linear regression models were guided by an integrated gendered stress process model focusing on variables reflecting social status (age, partner status), stressors (stigma), and resources (income, social support). Depressive symptoms were assessed with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS); 22% of the sample reached the cutoff for severe depression, 56% moderate, and 13% mild depression. Compared to men, women reported lower income, education (50% no formal education vs. 20% men), availability of emotional and instrumental support, and were less likely to be married or cohabiting (53% women vs. 72% of men). However, more women had partners who were HIV-positive (78% women vs. 46% men). Overall, depression severity was negatively associated with availability of emotional support and self-distraction coping, and positively associated with internalized HIV/AIDS stigma, availability of instrumental support, and behavioral disengagement coping. Interactions for instrumental support by income and partner status by age varied significantly by gender. Analyses stratified by gender indicated that: 1) Frequently seeking instrumental support from others was protective for men at all income levels, but only for high-income women; and 2) having a partner was protective for men as they aged, but not for women. These results suggest that gender disparities in depression severity are created and maintained by women’s lower social status and limited access to resources. The effect of stigma on depression severity did not vary by gender. These findings may inform the tailoring of future interventions to address mental health needs of PLH in India, particularly gender disparities in access to material and social resources for coping with HIV. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov registration #, registered April 2014. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Immigrants and the process of incorporation can elucidate what it means to be a member of a national citizenry and sociopolitical community. However, relatively little scholarship has focused on the potential of internal migration to highlight citizenship outcomes. This article presents fieldwork from Mumbai and Kolkata to show that citizenship status, rights, and belonging are more restrictive for Indian citizens who are internal migrants than for those who are not. It argues that development factors alone are insufficient explanations for citizenship outcomes in India, and shows that internal migrants experience a lesser citizenship status and curtailed citizenship rights because they are migrants rather than because of their impoverishment or because of the limited capacity of the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]