SOCIAL CAPITAL AND DEVELOPMENT AMONG GORKHALI

WOMEN IN NORTH EAST INDIA

Sangeeta Rai

Department of Social Work

Submitted

in fulfillment of the requirement of the

Degree of Philosophy in Social Work of Mizoram University, Aizawl

SOCIAL CAPITAL AND DEVELOPMENT AMONG GORKHALI

WOMEN IN NORTH EAST INDIA

SANGEETA RAI

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WORK

MIZORAM UNIVERSITY
 Mizoram University
June, 2019

DECLARATION

I, Sangeeta Rai, hereby declare that the subject matter of this thesis is the record

of the work done by me, that the contents of this thesis did not form basis of the award of

any previous degree to me or to do the best of my knowledge to anybody else, and that

the thesis has not been submitted by me for any research degree in any other University/

Institute.

This is being submitted to Mizoram University for the degree of Doctor of

Philosophy in Social Work.

Date: 2019 (SANGEETA RAI)

Place: Aizawl, Mizoram Department of Social Work
Mizoram University
Aizawl- 796004

([Link]) (KANAGARAJ EASWARAN)

Professor & Head Professor & Supervisor
Department of Social Work Department of Social Work
Mizoram University Mizoram University
Aizawl- 796004 Aizawl- 796004

i
 DEDICATION

To my Parents
Mr. & Mrs. Mani Kumar and Kalavati Rai
My Siblings
Bijaita and Pratima Rai
My Husband
Mr. Sughosh Chhetry
To all my Relatives
and
My Dear One Who are in Heaven
Bishnu Kumar Rai
Poktor Sahi
Juk Maya
Manoj Sahi
Anup Rai
Suman Rai
Rajdhan Gurung

This humble work is a sign of my love to you!

ii
 MIZORAM UNIVERSITY

June, 2019

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the thesis “Social Capital and Development among Gorkhali

Women in North East India”, submitted by Ms Sangeeta Rai for the award of Doctor of

Philosophy in Social Work is carried out under my guidance and incorporates the

student‟s bonafide research and this has not been submitted for award of any degree in

this or any other university or institute of learning.

Date: 2018
Place: Aizawl, Mizoram

(KANAGARAJ EASWARAN) (C. DEVINDERAN)

Professor & Supervisor Professor & Head
Department of Social Work Department of Social Work
Mizoram University Mizoram University
Aizawl - 796004 Aizawl - 796004

iii
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to acknowledge my indebtedness and render my warmest thanks to

research supervisor, Prof. Kanagaraj Easwaran, who made this work possible. His

friendly guidance and expert advice have been invaluable throughout all stages of my

research.

I would also aspire to express my gratitude to Prof. C. Devinderan, Head of

Department, Department of Social Work, for extended discussions and valuable

suggestions which have contributed greatly to the improvement of my thesis.

The thesis has also benefited from comments and suggestions made by Dr. Grace

L. Sailo, Assistant Professor, Department of Social Work and who have read through the

manuscript. Dr. Elizabeth H. and Dr. Henry, Assistant Professor, Department of Social

Work, for their endure support. I take this opportunity to thank them. I am highly oblige

in taking the opportunity to sincerely thanks to Prof. Kalpana Sarathy (Tata Institute of

Social Sciences, Guwahati Campus) who has always been an inspiration for me.

The persons with the greatest contribution to this research are my family. Special

thanks are due to my Dearest Ama, Baba, Didi, Baini, Bhena and my Husband for their

continuous support and understanding. My thanks are extended to my friends

Ramengmawii, Malsawmtluangi, Vanalalhriati, Lalrinzuali and Zoramsanga for always

being there at my weakest. My gratitude to Smriti of Shillong and Samuel, Ph.D Scholar,

Department of Social Work for their help in my work.

Last but not the least, my deepest thanks to all the Gorkhali people especially

women of North East India for their altruistic support in my research.

SANGEETA RAI
iv
 CONTENTS
Chapter Page No.

Declaration i

Certificate iii

Acknowledgement iv

Contents v

List of Tables vii

List of Figures ix

List of Abbreviations x

I. Introduction
1.1 Social Capital 1
1.2 Overview of Literature 5
1.3 Statement of the Problem 10
1.4 Chapter Scheme 11
II. Review of Literature
2.1 Social Capital 13
2.2 Social Capital and Social Support Networks 24
2.3 Social Capital and Women Development 37
III. Methodology
3.1 Profile of Study Areas 50
3.2 Methodology 83
IV. Social Structural bases of Gorkhali Households
4.1 Demographic Characteristics 89
4.2 Family Structure 92
4.3 Social Structure Bases of the Community 94
4.4 Economic Characteristics 96
4.5 Patterns of Living Conditions 98

v
V Social Capital And Development of Gorkhali Women
5.1 Social Support Network and Social Capital 102
5.2 Development of Gorkhali Women 135
5.3 Social Capital and Women Development 144
VI Constraints to Development of Gorkhali Women
6.1 Development of Gorkhali Women: Challenges, and Constraints 149
6.2 Emic Understanding of Women Development 159
VII Conclusion
7.1 Summary of Findings 180
7.2 Conclusion 195
7.3 Implications 196
Appendices
Bibliography xi
Interview Schedule xxiii
Particulars of the Candidate xxx
Bio- Data xxxi

vi
 LIST OF TABLES

Table Page No.

4.1 Demographic Profile of Respondents 91

4.2 Family Structural Bases of Respondents 94

4.3 Social Structural Bases of Respondents 95

4.4 Economic Structure of the Communities 97

4.5 Pattern of Personal Assets 98

4.6 Annual Household and Personal Income 99

4.7 Pattern of Monthly Personal Expenditure 100

5.1 Demographic Composition of Personal Social Support Networks 106

5.2 Social and Economic Composition of Personal Social Support Networks 110

5.3 Respondent‟s Relationship and Closeness with their Alters 112

5.4 Patterns of Social Support 113

5.5 Heterogeneity in Social Support Networks of Respondents 115

5.6 Homophily in Social Support Networks of Respondents 118

5.7 Structural Hole Measures: Personal Social Support Networks 123

5.8 Intercity Variation in Social Capital 127

5.9 City and Level of Social Capital 128

5.10 Jati Hierarchy and Social Capital 130

5.11 Jati Hierarchy and Level of Social Capital 131

5.12 Dimensions and Indicators of Social Capital: Inter Correlation Matrix 133

5.13 Correlates of Dimensions and Indicators of Social Capital 135

vii
5.14 Inter City Differences in Indicators of Women Development 137

5.15 City of Domicile and Level of Women Development 138

5.16 City of Domicile and Level of Women Happiness 140

5.17 Inter Jati Differences in Indicators of Women Development and Happiness 141

5.18 Jati Hierarchy and Level of Women Development 142

5.19 Jati Hierarchy and Level of Happiness 144

5.20 Demography, Women Development and Happiness 145

5.21 Social Capital, Women Development and Happiness 147

6.1 Perceived Challenges of Gorkhali Women 152

6.2 Pattern Differences in Perceived Problems of Women: Spearman's rho 152

6.3 Strategies Used to Manage Problems 154

6.4 Pattern Differences in Strategies: Spearman's rho 155

6.5 Perceived Constraints to Development of Gorkhali Women 156

6.6 Pattern Differences in Constraints: Spearman's rho 157

6.7 Suggestions for Development of Gorkhali Women 159

6.8 Pattern of Differences in Suggestions for Women Development: Spearman‟s 159

rho

viii
 LIST OF FIGURES
Figures Page No.

3.1 Social Map of Guwahati Settlements 60

3.2 Social Map of Mawprem Shillong Settlements 70

3.3 Social Map of Aizawl Settlements 79

5.1 City of Domicile and Heterogeneity 116

5.2 City of Domicile and Homophily 119

5.3 City and Structure 120

5.4 City and Network Structure 121

5.5 Jati Hierarchy and Constraints 122

5.6 Social Support Network of a Typical Gorkhali Woman in Guwahati 123

5.7 Social Support Network of a Typical Gorkhali Woman in Shillong 124

5.8 Social Support Network of a Typical Gorkhali Woman in Aizawl 124

5.9 Jati Hierarchy and Happiness 143

ix
ABBREVIATIONS

1. APL : Above Poverty Line

2. ACPLC : Assam Carbon Product Limited Company
3. BPL : Below Poverty Line
4. CCI : Civic Community Index
5. CDO : Community Development Organization
6. FGD : Focus Group Discussion
7. FPC : Female Forest Protection Committees
8. FPC : Forest Protection Committees
9. HLM : Hierarchical Linear Model
10. IPI : Institutional Performance Index
11. IQV : Index of Qualitative Variation
12. LSD : Least Significance Difference
13. NELS : National Education Longitudinal Survey
14. NGO : Non Governmental Organisation
15. NRM : Natural Resource Management
16. OBC : Other Backward Classes
17. OECD : Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
18. SC : Schedule Caste
19. SCR : Social Capital Resource
20. SMPC : State Management and Policy Centre
21. ST : Schedule Tribe

x
CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Educate your women first and leave them to themselves; then they will tell

you what reforms are necessary for them. In matter concerning them, who are

you?

Swami Vivekananda.

The present study attempts to assess the relationship between women

development and social capital in the context of North East India where the

Gorkhas are in minority.

The concept of „social capital‟ has captured the attention of an

extensive range of scholars and professionals in varied social science

disciplines and practice areas. It has gained currency in the social sciences as

a paradigm for capturing the contributions of social fundamentals in elucidating

a wide variety of individual and collective behaviours. In the earlier days, the

capital was known only in terms of physical and monetary assets. But with

the expansion of human awareness with regards to concepts of capital there

emerged the two capitals which are the human capital and the societal capital.

According to Fukuyama (1997), the word „social capital‟ was original

applied by Jane Jacobs‟s in his model work which was “The Death and Life

of Great American Cities,” in which she examined the dense kind of social

networks which existed in the earlier days and about the official and unofficial

institutions surrounded by and in the outer place of the community. Glenn

Loury (1977) who was an economist and as well as Ivan Light (1972) a

sociologist engaged in the word “social capital” to depict the dilemma of

financial development involving among cities in the nineteen seventies where

1
the African Americans absence the associates of faith and communal

connectedness surrounded by their own societies that existed for Asian

Americans and other cultural associates. This kind of absence keeps on

progressing to a certain period in amplifying the qualified deficiency of black

small kind of black business expansion. In the radiance of the author‟s

conceptualization, Fukuyama defined social capital as „the presence of a

particular set of informal values or norms which are shared among members of

a group that enables cooperation within them‟.

In the nineties, the term was put recognizable into a border procedure

by the sociologist James Coleman (1988) and the political scientist Robert

Putnam (1993). Coleman (1990) described social capital as a „social structural

resource‟ that serves as „a capital asset for the individual.‟ He commenced

social capital to the societal sciences by asserting that the associations formed

in the middle of human beings are responsible for the understanding of the

societal well-being. Robert D. Putnam (2000) depicts the intention of physical

capital which may be understood much towards the human and the objects

belonging to physical capital. It not merely ascribes to the possessions of

individuals but on the contrary, social capital refers to the associates among

individuals‟ social networks and the standards of mutuality and dependability

that awaken from them. Accordingly in that manner, social capital can be

understood to be intimately connected to what several authors have called

„civic virtue.‟

According to Bourdieu (1986), „social capital is the combination of the

substantial or potential resources which are linked to the tenure of a sturdy

network of more or less institutionalized relationships which are of mutual

2
familiarity and recognition which assist them to credit from that network.‟ The

continuation of network associations is notordinary or societal specification. In

fact, it is conventionalised once and for all governed by the operation of

association, counting on the family assembly, kinship associations which are

the attributes of a societal association. To the World Bank (1998) the ideas of

social capital are extended as the associations, relationships, and regulation that

express the number and amount of an involvement in the society's activities.

The escalating number of studies shows that societal togetherness is significant

for societies to extend the economies in a maintainable approach. Social capital

is not precisely the element that undergo under the rules and regulations of the

society other than that, it is the accessory that restrain them collectively.

Midgley & Livermore (1998) assumed social capital as a valuable perception

for advanced social work. There has been a parallels scope between the

community social workers emphasizing on the construction of a healthy

community where the intentions of 'bonding' and 'bridging' can be supported in

the ground of social capital.

Development signifies the procedure of expansion, maturity,

completeness, enhancement and optimistic change passaging to a greater degree

of excellence in life. The eventual goal of development is enhancing the well-

being of the people. The term „development is a post-second world war

concept used to examine the economic and social changes that took place in

Africa, Asia, Latin America, and South-eastern Europe‟ (in Caputo, 2008). The

modernization and dependency presumption were efficiently determined during

the nineteen fifties and sixties. The basic requirements and structural adaptation

programmes as second aspects from the seventies to eighties and in the early

3
twenties works on the most important needs interrelated to the Millennium

Development Goalsand Washington Consensus. It is a normally a recognized

fact that women have a substandard position in gender associations and

undergo social structural inequalities in their day by day lives. For the reason

that, the development of women was observed as a part of a development

plans that comes forward in the year 1969 for the enhancement of women‟s

matter. The main purpose was to assimilate women into the international

economy by uplifting their eminenc in the best probable manner. The Gender

and Development approach recommended supplementary on the relations of

gender instead of just taking into consideration of women‟s matter in

severance.

According to the 2011 census, the population of female constituted 48.5

percent in India and the literacy rate of females is 64.63 percent. The rate of

contribution of females in the workforce was only 25.51 percent in the

financial sector. From the mentioned information, it is apparent that the matter

of women development is one of the important topics to undergo further

research. Women development can turn out to be more dependable and

valuable only when an environment is shaped for them which will

mechanically impact their opinion and the system of their living to develop

andenhanced their identity. Women in countryside locations are still abandoned

on a large scale and reliance on the native social capital can encourage them

to develop. Women acquire additional mutual supportive relations because of

their participation in the local associational activities. The improvement in their

social capital can obtain direct associations with adult education given that the

community development particularly in countryside locations is often defined as

4
a social learning procedure. The improvement through peer group‟s education

can socialize and generate social capital by demonstrating on existing

community networks and determinations. As a result, women development

studies with regards to the social capital are appropriate in the developing

world.

Development was to have been a post-colonial mission, an option for

accepting a an approach of growth in which the complete world remade itself

on the approach of the colonizing contemporary west, devoid of having to

experience the overthrow and exploitation that colonialism entailed. The UN

International Year (1975) and International Decade for Women (1975-1985)

manifestly show a transfer in international concentration from the primary my

opic and pessimistic views held in the direction of women‟s involvement in

development to positive and border ones. The available policy has embellished

the women in distinctive ways. On the other hand, stakeholders are an

apprehension in the process of social capital to consider the degree of

connections that are presence among women in their specific areas, and what

kind of helping services they may bring about. This possibly would assist

policy to develop strategies to amplify official and unofficial support services

and connections in the community, and notify decision making concerning the

allocation of possessions to services for women.

1.1 Overview of Literature

This section presents an overview of the literature which is relevant to

the present study and identifies some research gaps.

According to Julia Hauberer (2010), Bourdieu and Coleman are the

pioneering theorists of social capital as they have introduced the term social

5
capital systematically. Four major theoretical currents in the social capital

literature were noted by Hauberer (2010). They are rational choice theory used

by Coleman (1988), civic engagement theory pioneered by Putnam (1983),

Ronald S. Burt (1997) network approach (structural hole), and Nan Lin‟s

(1999) social resources perspective.

Along with the ever-increasing popularity of the social capital concept,

numerous instruments have been put forward to measure it such as name

generators, resource generators and position generators (Van der Gaag, 2005;

Lin and Erickson, 2008). The name generator or interpreter is solitary of the

oldest measurement methods for social capital which has been examined by

several researchers. The switch over kind of name generator projected by

McCallister & Fischer (1978) ultimately initiates its widest application. Of

particular note amongst these is the position generator approach developed by

Lin (in studies of Lin and Dumin, 1986; Lin, 2001). This dimension is the

enclosure of indicators projected for all three dimensions of social capital that

have been established as crucial for measurement (Flap, 2002; Lin, 2001b): the

taking place of alters, the possessions of these alters, as well as the

accessibility of these possessions to a fundamental individual. It is also one of

several social capital measurement instruments premeditated to enclose the

„general‟ sphere of life of an individual in the modern world without taking

into account about the specific areas of objective accomplishment, sphere of

life, or subpopulations. OECD (2001) summarised social capital as networks

reciprocal with shared norms, values, and understandings that support co-

operation within or among groups.

6
 Social Capital is a relevant subject for research as the investigation of

the role and contribution of social capital has been a growing area of research

as well as an imperative focus for many international development agencies

such as the World Bank, the Inter American Development Bank, and the

United Nation Development Program. The international evidence reported, for

instance, in the National Economic and Social Forum (2003) suggests that the

States and nation, the regional and even communities, that benefit from a high

level of social capital, as associational life and public participation, tend to

prolong higher levels of assistance and trust, less dishonesty, and social

exclusion levels, and also higher level of competence in their Government

functions. Instead of enchanting into account the macro-economic policy the

presumption concern more on the number of public organizations (Anirudh,

2002). On the other hand, Vermaak (2009) tries to depict the understanding of

social capital as an accretion of resources which can cause a better

understanding of amalgamated social procedure in the developing world.

When we come to the Indian context, social capital has been

conceptualized as an input into the process by which institutions for

development are created and which can establish the sustainability or otherwise

of processes aimed at achieving maturity at local levels (Chopra 2002). The

concept has been used to an organisational factor strengthening the dynamics

of development at micro and macro levels. Atthe micro level, the people have

strong bonding social capital and at a macrolevel,the bridging and linking

social capital are strong through development and execution programmes for

the well-being (Choden & Indira, 2015). Parecki (2011) stress out that the

homogeneous social capital prevents especially females from learning to read

7
while the heterogeneous social capital creates an environment favourable to

female literacy. The levels of literacy in the states of India were compared to

the levels of heterogeneous and homogeneous social capital.

There are studies examining the function of social capital at the

watershed development and in forest protection which took place at the micro

level (D‟silva and Pai 2003; Mukherjee 2002). Renata Serra (2001) assessed

the possibility of measuring social capital at the level of the states and

elucidating the differential presentation of states in India in development. The

female forest protection committee‟s mostly have higher level of social capital

because of the fact that there before now exists the tradition of community

cohesion and a more developed network of relationships based on cultural

norms (Sarker and Das, 2004). Women social networks have greater

homogeneity comparative to men who endow with an imperative basis of

oportunity for creatinga sustainable shared ecological accomplishment (Agarwal,

2004).

The character of social capital in power at the micro level has also

been the focus on various studies (Jayal and Pai, 2001). Niraja Gopal Jayal

(2001) explored the connection between social capital and democracy work in

the framework of pastoral prominence society in the central Himalaya. Sudha

Pai (2001) studied the responsibility played by social capital in the democratic

presentation of Panchayati Raj institutions in the segmented societal perspective

of Uttar Pradesh. There are some studies which spotlight on the social

processes that facilitate to construct social capital (John and Chathukulam 2002;

Mohapatra 2001) Bishnu N Mohapatra (2001) explored the associations and

relations that give mount to social capital rendezvous and connectedness in a

8
diminutive village in Puri district of Orissa‟s. John & Chathukulam (2002)

assess the importance of organisational rebellion i.e. the dense network of

associational life is helpful in people cohesion. The concept of

cooperativisation, and also the fundamental structureof Gandhian philosophy,

has been challenging in modern world and connecting in rural women‟s

improvement has turned them into prevailing patterns applied fortuitously in

development circles, regardless of the local surroundings (Dutt & Samanta,

2006).

The overview of the literature on social capital and women development

suggests few research gaps. Firstly, social capital as an explanation to

development has not been adequately utilized in the context of North East

India. Only a few studies were reported (Rai and Easwaran 2013, Khawlhring

and Easwaran 2007). Secondly, though the concept of social capital is relevant

to women development it has not yet been studied. Thirdly, the development

of women belonging to ethnic minorities has not been adequately probed in to

in the context of North East India. Fourthly, in conceptualization and

operationalization of social capital attribute based indicators were used while

personal network indicators were rarely used in the context of Indian literature

(see Rai and Easwaran 2013). Fifthly, to conceptualize and operationalize social

capital, the position generator and resource generators were rarely utilized to

conceptualize and operationalize social capital in the Indian context. In the

lone study where we find structural hole conceptualisation of social capital and

name generator were used to measure personal networks. The present study

addresses these research gaps by assessing the interrelationship between social

9
capital and development of Gorkhali women in three north eastern cities

Guwahati, Shillong, and Aizawl.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The Gorkhas had been living in different part of India over 200 years.

The Gorkhali speaking people have settled in different parts of India especially

inthe North Eastern part of India. In 1814-1816, the First and the Second

Anglo-Gorkha War between the Gorkha Kingdom and British India was fought.

The first war was won by the Gorkha Kingdom but unfortunately, they lost in

the second one. The British realized the bravery of the Gorkhas from the war

which they had fought with their only weapons „Khukuri‟. From that time

onwards the British rulers started appointing the Gorkha Rifles and till date

Gorkha Rifles exist in both India and Britain. After the second Anglo-

Gorkhawar, the British rulers annexed one-third of the Gorkha Kingdom into

India which includes the areas of Kangra, Dharamshala, Kumaon, Garhwal,

Sikkim, Darjeeling, Terai etc. Henceforth, since 1816 when the „Treaty of

Sugauli‟ was signed by British India and the Gorkha Kingdom, all the settlers

of these attached territories became Indian whether they want it or they have

to. The Gorkhalis settling in Northeast India are distinguished by a high level

of integration with the local indigenous communities amongst whom they have

lived for centuries. They start their settlements in the early eighteen century in

the north eastern part which includes Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur,

Nagaland, Tripura, and Arunachal Pradesh. A vast majority of the Gorkhali

population came to these places because of their service in the army. The land

was given to them by the British government which leads them to settle into

these areas. Thus settlement of Gorkhali people could be located in the tribal

10
majority states of Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland, and Arunachal

Pradesh. Their settlements are also seen in the non-tribal states of Assam,

Manipur and Tripura too.

The Gorkhali community continues to be patriarchal and its social

organization is hierarchically organized on the basis of the jati system. Further,

it is increasingly differentiated by occupational diversification and class

structure. The present study attempts to assess the relationship between social

capital and women developmentin the tribal and non-tribal contexts of North

East India wherein Gorkhalis constitute the ethnic minorities.

In this context, social capital will be conceptualized from a personal

network perspective. Name generators were used for the collection of network

data and operationalise social capital. For assessing women development the

study used objective and subjective indicators. For the objective measurement

of well-being economic indicators were used and a subjective measure of

happiness was also used. As a prelude, the study attempts to explore the

cultural and social structural context of women development among the

Gorkhalis from their own perspective.

The results of the study will be useful for the policy makers and social

workers at multilevel to formulate appropriate policies and intervention

strategies for promotion of development among women of ethnic minority

communities in the North East Region.

1.4 Chapter Scheme

The study is organized into the following seven chapters.

Chapter I: Introduction

Chapter II: Review of the literature

11
Chapter III: Methodology

Chapter IV: Social Structural Bases of Gorkhali Households

Chapter V: Social Capital and Development of Gorkhali Women

Chapter VI: Constraints to Development of Gorkhali Women

Chapter VII: Conclusion

12
CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
 CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Review of literature helps in identifying substantive, theoretical,

methodological, conceptual issues and addressing them in the context of the

present work. In this chapter, a review of available works on social capital,

women development, and social support networks are reviewed in three

sections.

2.1 Social Capital

Fukuyama (1997) argued that social capital is a significant and

relatively not intervening factor in examining certain characteristics of the

world economy. In contrast to the related concept of human capital, there is

less agreement of what social capital is, how to measure, from where it

comes, and mostly how to get further. He defined social capital as the

presence of the particular set of informal esteem which is mutually assessed

among the members of an assembly that enables them to cooperate with those

people. The values and norms that they share may not sometimes indicate

social capital. While it does not mean that there is no social capital but it

may not be strong enough. It is limited within a group of people in the same

community. Two aspects to build social capital are at one person level and at

the societal level including the public. In the former level, it can be built

through focusing on investment in education and training for the collaboration

of skills. It will help to build corporate cultures, in order to administer the

workers into the way of norms that will enhance their readiness to collaborate

with each other and build a sense of group identity. If they work together

13
jointly for a common cause than they can make more suggestion for the

policy for the public as well.

The American sociologist Coleman (1988) commenced social capital to

the sociable sciences by asserting that the relations formed among human

beings are responsible for the reconciliation of vigorous social institutions. He

assumes that well-endowed social networks and foundations are the

commodities of friendly systems with an elevated extent of social resources. It

can accordingly be contrasted with corporeal capital in way intellect manner

that it is a generative and financial expansion which has an enhanced

possibility of prospering in social systems with well-built community networks,

powerfully built relations and a far above the ground of communal

commitment. His outlook of the studied topic also concentrates on the

reciprocal action connecting individuals who reached in the structure of faith,

anticipations, agreements, rules, and collective knowledge. Therefore not merely

the reciprocal action of persons alone, it can also be seen that the resulting

impressions of social assets can be viewed as existing information for the

collective person and for the one being. Social capital is one of those forms

of capital which reduce the value over time. Like human capital and physical

capital, social capital disparages if it is not resumed. Social associations expire

away when it is not continued; opportunity and indebtedness weaken in excess

of an incident; and norms reliable on the usual statement. He categorized

social capital as two elements where one element an aspect of social structure

and the other as resources. Social actors exercise control over those resources

and in order to extend their control, they occupy exchanges of resources.

14
These social relationships act as an important function in promoting the actions

of individual actors, and the form the basis of social capital.

Putnam (2000) commences the ideas of bodily capital which refers to

bodily objects and human being capital. It attributes to the properties of

possessions, on the contrary, social resources ascribes to the contacts

surrounded by folks-societal networks and the standards of mutuality and

reliability so as to blend up from them. So with that intention, the studied

topic can be assumed in the direction of intimately connected to what a

number of people have called public values. The differences between these are

that the former calls for attention while the latter is capable when embedded

in social connections. Putnam at the same time argues that the parallel level of

networks is a principle to social culture and with the purpose of these

connections are parallel levels of community organizations. His ideas have

feasible diligence, which can be seen in an article on American democracy

which was much discussed and debated.

According to Bourdieu (1986), the mentioned theme is the combination

of the extensive or probable resources which are concurrent to tenure of a

sturdy set of connections of additional or a lesser amount of organization

relationships which are of reciprocated familiarity and acknowledgment which

assist them to credit from those networks. These relationships may be available

only in the form of material or of figurative exchanges which help to hinder

them. Social capital is relatively irreducible to the economic and cultural

capital controlled by a gifted agent, or even by the whole mass of agents to

whom he is connected. It cannot be independent because the exchanges of

networks reciprocally acknowledge the recognition of a minimum of objective

15
homogeneity, and because it exercises a multiplier effect on the capital he

acquired in his own right. The subsistence of network connections is not a

natural or social given, in fact, it has been established once and for all by the

first act of institution, including the family group, kinship relations which is

the characteristic of a societal organization.

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (2001) also

describes the studied topic networks as actual-world connections between

groups or individuals. It has recognized some significant behavior in which the

topic is different from other types of resources. To begin with, the subject is

relation based to a certain degree than the possessions of several entities, while

various other forms of principal can moreover be in the right place or be set-

asides by personal or in large number. What is most important is that the

topic is shaped by collective reserves of period and attempt, other than in a

smaller amount of straight approach that is the human being or formed

monetary speculation. Moderately the theme is the consequence of

chronological, intellectual and societal causes which furnish get higher to the

rules, principles and societal relations with the purpose of conveying people

collectively in networks whichever effect in combined accomplishment. It can

be differentiated commencing some of the erstwhile forms of resources within

so as to it enlarges if applied, throughout strengthening the networks,

regulations, and principles, and reduces if not applied. It requires an assortment

of positive attempt to be built up incrementally but can be promptly

diminished.

The three most important diverse proportions of relationsare described

by Woolcock and Putnam (2000) which are bonding, bridging and linking. He

16
depictsthe first concept as the connections that one person have with the

erstwhile person who are alike with them, which may refer to the kindred

surrounded by the appendage of families and edifying assemblies. The second

concept refers to those kinds of connections person have with the other person

who is not much like them. These kinds of people may be the one who is

from a different social and financial group of people, from a diverse age

group or a way of life. Then, the third concepts are those connections people

encompass or are in supremacy. It enables persons and a societal group of

people to get possessions, information, and knowledge from official or informal

organizations further than the instantaneous societal circles. If there is no

balance between the above mention three concepts then community

segmentation can take place. For instance, the control of the first concept can

lead to a society with the intention of forcefully secured with conviction and

supportive regulations, but at the same time have low trust and cooperation

their group, which may persist into a narrow interest and discriminate the

outsiders. Henceforth, these three concepts may enlighten the personal

understanding of comprehension of the range of social networks and its

application in a community directly or indirectly through interaction. Although

these three dimensions of social capital have been identified in these studies,

the more advanced statistical framework should be identified for its

measurement.

Vermaak (2009) estimates that the main objectives of social capital are

to contribute to the prevalent discussion with related to the deliberate topic as

an accumulation of possessions. It applied speculative sights of the topic and

pick one case from countryside communities to redefine the topic as

17
possessions that may perhaps be used to accomplish an extensive range of

village requirements, mainly those of countryside communities in the embryonic

earth. By means of every sight of Bourdieu, Coleman, and Putnam these study

discusses various significant facts of the topic consequently to highlight a

general idea of numerous distinct elucidations with regards to the thought and

to produce innovative way in the direction of possessions, especially

possessions for accomplishing the requirements of these countryside people.

Keeping in mind Bourdieu‟s indulgent of the topic and its critiques, Vermaak

headed for the depiction of the understanding of social capital as an

accumulation of possessions is able to cause to an enhanced thoughtfulness of

composite community procedure in the embryonic earth. Social capital may be

regarded not only as an expedient for humanity but also as an influential

expedient for helping the person to avail improvement in excess of people. It

is not merely seen as a resource for the person or their main assembly. On

the condition that social capital is implicit as revenue of societal relations, then

it is possible to build a connection involving social capital and specific places

and societal actions further the relatives. Rural communities may not have

reached the same means at the same time as in industrialized places and ought

to depend profoundly on native social capital. So, if social capital is applied at

a base level, it can provide sensible habits of constructing social capital in

pastoral areas of the embryonic world. Women in pastoral places are

motionlessly abandoned on a great extent and dependence on native social

capital can give power to women. Women take part more in mutual

compassionate kindred and they involve in confined associational performance.

The improvement in social capital will be capable of having straight relations

18
with the education of adult people given that the development of community

especially in countryside places is frequently distinct as a social knowledge

procedure and education of peer groups can circulate and create social capital

by illustrating on breathing networks of the community and their

determinations. Therefore, social capital ideas are suitable for communities of

countryside mostly in the developing world, and the studies recommend that an

expedient means of social capital is an encouraging and suitable thought for

enclosure in enlargement efforts.

According to Anirudh (2002), a new bottom-up dynamic of development

is projected by social capital theory to replace those failed efforts that were

deliberate to deliver economic and social benefits from the top down. Instead

of taking into account the macroeconomic policy or design of state institutions

as the major concerns of public policy, consideration needs to be directed

equally. When it comes to the formal and informal social capital, what matters

more for social capital are attitudes and behaviors of diverse kinds that might

be exhibited even without being sustained of any formal organization.

Particularly in the rural areas of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, it was found

that informal rather than formal relations that have the most value for citizens.

Most collective action in the sixty-nine villages that the author observed occurs

within shared helping connections that move towards jointly and diffuse as the

requirement rouse. The only continuing support for the occurrence and

usefulness of these connections exists in the kind of pictures that individual

have in their mind with regards to their residential places. The villagers along

with their neighbors come boldly to assist each other when needed, and it is

identified that such kind of support will be obtainable and even acknowledged.

19
The characteristics of social organizations that encourage cooperation, including

norms, networks, and social trust, are hardly absent in these communities.

Therefore, the formal organizations are, definitely, not much in evidence in

these contexts of social capital.

A study made by Grootaert and Bastelaer (2001) indicated that

dimension of the usefulness of the present studied topic ought to embrace

indicators interrelated to supremacy, organizations; confined connections and

organizations; faith, regulations, and principles. Secondly, the topic has to

employ both pertaining to quality and quantity methods and lastly, it should

include inputs and outputs. The former include the membership of local

organizations and institutions while the latter describes trust and devotion to

rules and regulations, combined accomplishment. It was also recognized that it

would be preeminent to endow possessions so as to construct social capital. To

invest indeveloping the expertise and capability of the leaders in their areas

should be the most excellent way to build social capital in a community. To

put together the capability of little organizations and hold up combined

depiction would be best to acquire possessions and attach in conversation with

the administration; as well as to embrace the evaluation of social capital as an

element of setting up of a provision in the enhancement processes. There are

also many studies, which focused on the certain proportions of the present

studied topic and their parameters.

Kusakabe (2012) present studyinvestigates the three aspects of social

capital, which are bonding, bridging, and bracing which play in achieving

sustainable development. The observation is established on the qualitative

information mostly lying on the case study of the Japanese region people in

20
order to examine the process of social capital gathering proceeding towards

collective action. The first kind of connections that makes individual closely

related are effective standard and obtains unity within their areas but there are

limitations to access to a variety of outside connections. The second span

connection among the individual helps to observe the connection and know

how to sustain in sequence performs other than it is pathetic in gathering

cooperative achievement in the course of unity creation. The third social

capital is understood as bracing social capital as connecting resources which

can execute similar problem framework. This framework joins the structure

arrangement by concerning different connections beyondthe specific residential

areas, therefore building it achievable for a supportive action to take place.

Though it is not possible to make proper conclusive judgment through this

case study alone, it has been found out that implementing the generation of an

aggregate of the three aspects of the discuss social capital networks may help

the local government to make an effort to achieve the required policy goal of

social capital.

Boateng‟s (2010) study depicts the function and influence of three types

of the dimension of social capitalas aboveamong the Liberian women residing

in Ghana. Qualitative studies have been used to examine the well-being of the

respondents where the result specified that the women belonging to the

Liberian refugee have built comprehensive first social capital, in the outline of

cooperation among the groups and unity where they are doing things in a

group to help each other. Their possessions social capital had been restricted

only to relatives and associates residing in urbanized places outside their local

areas. When it comes to the first and the other social capital the refugee

21
women had a shortage of authority, where together the capitals are significant

for them to develop new ideas and favorable opportunities. There is a need to

assist them to develop the two studied social capital by executing an enduring

type of skill development and enlightening projects surrounded by the

encampment and by rendering resources for slight measures of investment. To

such an extent, it would, in turn, donate to their individual suitability and

incorporation into the nation.

In Hawkins & Maurer‟s (2009) study, it has been found that in the

preceding decade, the current deliberate subject has been examined globally in

the tragedy and social work fiction, predominantly in conditions of ancient

domination and inadequate financial capital of in the variety of communities of

underprivileged people. Applying a study of quality grounded presumption

approach, the various types of three social capitals likewise the above-studied

capital has been analyzed through alens of social work studies. The present

study attempts in the direction to comprehend how inhabitants utilize their

three forms of the topic studied to endure from hardships in the specific areas

of the people. The findings of the study highlight that the resident who is

found with low level of incomes counted lying on, built ahead, and broke

down all levels of three constitutes of capital for one person, its relatives, and

specific survival areas. The respondents described a procedure from end to end

which close connections were imperative for instant sustain, but the second and

the third social capital is an accessible route to continued lasting existence and

larger neighborhood and specific areas stimulation. Therefore, social workers

can furnish the groundwork to facilitate clients attached to and able to furnish

their optimistic social capital as an endurance instrument, determination to

22
build potency and as a determination for reconstruction. Hence, the social

professional workers should play the role of administrator for helping them to

be able to make a distinction between positive and negative social capital.

Further, it helps to examine the conceptualization and operationalization of

social capital to understand it in a better way and how it can affect

individuals and communities as a whole.

Nath, Inoue & Preety (2001) examines the status and configuration of

social capital and its contribution to forest resource management and to the

livelihoods of Bangladeshi native ethnic groups in the forest environments.

They draw on empirical data from three villages related with two participatory

forestry projects. Components of social capital were related with both enhanced

livelihood of villagers and better forest conditions. From the studies, it has

been found out that non-government organizations stepped in to engage in

recreation is an essential character inside the configuration of the studied topic

among the villagers. While NGOs shaped bonding social capital among the

villagers, it further prolonged their networks through the configuration of

bridging social capital that helped them to capture numerous local government

social development services. The high social capital was established to be

related even to better forest condition. The result of the study recommends

involving NGOs along with erstwhile stakeholders for greater success in such

participatory forestry projects and for the development of the livelihood of the

native people.

The author tried to examine the reciprocity involving among the present

studied topic and „Ubuntu‟, which is an African public viewpoint and have

indirectly suggested that every person live because the others execute, and then

23
the essential communication connecting individuals included support and

collaboration, to the degree that the ones remaining lives are significant to any

person‟s life. The consideration and apprehend of the specific people which

arejustified on Ubuntu are tremendously strong as a result where each person

can live only within a specific area and hence the endurance of the one‟s

society is his endurance. Social capital which is examined as the amount of

the relationship between acquaintances and municipal involvement of an

individual is made to be confirmed which is very important in promoting both

communal and financial improvement. The study came to a conclusion that the

well-built connection existing among Ubuntu and the studied topic highlights

the prospective value of the previous one for the societal and financial

enlargement of the sub-Saharan peoples. Without a doubt, the African

administrations have to encourage Ubuntu as important tools to fight for

destitution and conflicts (Migheli, 2017).

2.2 Social Capital and Social Support Networks

According to Maruthakutti (1994), every person has possessed personal

connections. The person who is in their connection and how those people are

associated with each one depicts somewhat regarding them and impacts the

way they think and execute. The individual network analysis attempts to

segregate the effect the social environment has on people and how they use

the variability from one person to another to explain the variability in

something we want to predict. It is a way of operationalizing social context.

The effects of personal networks are concerned with the types of people in the

network – that is, what the network is composed of, such as family, co-

workers, neighbors etc. The associations connecting the people in the personal

24
association – with the intention of the pattern or construction of those relations

are not emphasized. Two personal networks with roughly the same composition

in terms of the characteristics of the network members can have very different

effects on the person when the structures differ.

Lin (1999, 2005) assumes a network principal element presumption of

social capital to clarify how such kind of theory should help to resolve a

number of widespread crucial issues. In order to have an enhanced

consideration of social capital, it is essential to get acquainted with the thought

of capital and to place it in the form of distinct theoretical types of capital.

According to him, capital is both a concept and a theory. As a concept, it

depicts the investment and tenure as a means of resources in a given society.

A theory of capital, it indicates a mechanism by which such esteem resources

are produced, reproduced, and gathered. Social capital is characterized by

resources inserted in one‟s social networks, which can be used or mobilized

through connections in the networks. Lin had carried out two approaches

which can be used to appraise the effects of social capital - how they can get

that resource and how they make use of such resources. Earlier, access to

social capital has been measured with a name-generation method where the

main question asked is “Whom they knew usually and discuss their problems

with” and the respondent is asked to give a list of names of those who give

such assistance. The relationships among the respondents can provide to know

the density of the network, and for analyzing the data for social resources

through their names. It has been found out that it is favorable for different

societies, populations, or returns, and for combining additional measures for

analysis (e.g., gendered or ethnic social capital). On the contrary, the position

25
generator measurement has had a very recent history; still, more work remains

to sharpen its adaptation to various individual, societies and its capacity to

sample characteristics positions from different classes of the system at hand.

Networks furnish the necessary state to approach and use of inserted resources

because without networks; it would not be possible to entrap the embedded

resources.

Coleman (1988) talks about network closure where he mentions that

close networks have densely knit membership, making individuals highly

responsible for their performance. They build relationships of trust and shape

norms. One can see applications of responsibility in high-risk job environments

that work with teams. The team members must trust each other, as well as

have a way to identify when someone is behaving in a way that is not

acceptable by the group. Network density among the group members has the

positive influence in each and every individual. The kind of involving together

with people in collaborative activities can lower down the outlay of giving

assistance to many peoples, making the detachment of the curriculum more

gainful for them. He discusses the relationship between the deliberate topic and

social networks substance. The former capital is not always described by

networks or form alone, in fact, it is the value of both form and content. He

defined structural hole presumption where the former capital is conceptualized

by the middleman most favorable in an association. The principal ground is to

facilitate that a replacement is further complicated to bargain and not as much

worthwhile at what time it is sheltered into other interactions. The interruption

between replace relation (structural holes) are a commercial determination to

the dealer the course of information among people on another side of the

26
structural hole, and organize the form of venture that brings reciprocally people

on the contradictory side of the structural hole. The person with kindred to

otherwise incoherent societal groups is located for commercial achievement,

building the kind of connection between the associations where it is imperative

to do so.

Ronald S. Burt (1997) chooses a person's name generators for the

present studied topic research. He used the primary data which was collected

from the network perspective on a possible illustration of distinct senior

managers. In order to illustrate how they organize associations into kinds, and

its contribution to the studied topic in a distinguished manner. Since the study

is conducted among the different group so the author has to use the stratified

random sampling methods to conduct the survey to get the primary

information. Manager‟s kind of relationships into two extents of determination,

viz., a familiarity which is close vs. isolated and action which is recurrent

contact with new acquaintance vs. unusual contact with old friends. He gives

reverence to the two filling which is the individual dialogue. Commercial

power which includes the kind of power of the superior and the kind of

power of the indispensable individual. Thus by differentiating the first

generators for their ability to made strength as indicators of the studied topic.

Burt computes the network structure of constraint as of diverse kinds of

relationships and then associates the structure constraint with advance support.

Therefore, the association is established to be well-built for the associations of

individual relations. It was nothing for the association of the authority

relationships and the closest form of individual and administrative relations

communally. From the result of the study, he suggests that the first generator

27
is one of the most excellent approaches for the research design in studies

associated with social capital.

Burt (2001) in his comparative research confirmed that people occupying

positions related to educational success and employment in professional

occupations will be likely to belong to different social networks. Instead of

people occupying positions related with poor educational attainment and

unemployment, or employment in inadequately paid unskilled occupation, Burt

identifies that the groups, which were weakly, connected with their alters there

are opportunities for holes in the network. He calls them merely as structural

holes individuals who span the holes they have a structural benefit of

circulating in different flows of information. These positions are regarded to as

brokers who are useful for information and or bridges on both sides of the

holes.

Grootaert (2004) in his studies incorporated a measure of social

networks whose main objectives were to focus on the three items-size of the

network. He emphasized his studies by directing attention on the internal

multiplicity of the population and secondly, by the economic position of the

members selected for the study. And lastly, by the degree to which the

network been provided was assisted when required by the actors. The study

found out that there were a lot of differences in the population and had been

engaged with different aspects of economic indicators. The educated people had

occupied a high position due to which they were richer with more resources.

For that reason, the authors concluded that with the support of networks, the

wealthy resources and enhanced knowledgeable households are more probable

28
to involve themselves in groups headed for increasing their networks for the

benefits of again themselves only.

Granovetter (1985) says that social networks indicate necessary

information, support, and guidance through strong and weak ties. He

distinguishes between strong ties and more broadly tied relationships or weak

ties. Weak ties customarily exist between colleagues, acquaintances, and strong

ties are found among family circles, a group of relatives, close friends, and

kin. The presence of these ties are not always divided by those sets of

relationships, but rather different measures of such as the occurrence of

contacts, closeness, intimacy, and reciprocity. He recognized that we may feel

strong ties are natural and more valuable, but it is weak ties that have more

accomplished embedded resources. The information that we get requires

connection to spread and it is the weak tie connections which allow us to

make those relationships. Thus, individuals with abundant weak-ties will have

more opportunity to gain more information. He claims that there is a failure

even in the new institutional economics to identify the significance of concrete

personal relations and networks of relations. Granovetter's concept of

embeddedness is an attempt to analyze economic systems of social and

organizational connections, not simply as a structure that leaps to accomplish

an economic function, but as a form with history and continuous that gives it

an independent influence on the strengthening of the system.

Hassan & Birungi (2011) manuscript have investigated the parallel

association between the present research topic and the household level of

poverty. It adopts a mutual way effect connection between the two areas in

this article. In the paper, education has been the input resolution of earnings

29
as it enlarges the likelihood of the combination of social connections. Social

capital has been conceptualized in terms of members of the particular areas

and erstwhile associations, which has a positive outcome on individual house

earnings and consequently diminishes scarcity to a certain extent. The results

of the study further show that on individual house earnings and well-being of

the society is positively correlated. The households who have higher income

from any source are the one who contributes much to the welfare of the

society. The one who has the high income is mostly the educated households.

These higher income groups made use of their social capital or group

involvement activities for the welfare of the society. Thus, the findings suggest

that government strategies must be strengthened to enlarge on individual house

earnings that lead to a deliberation of the existing societal institutions which

should lead to a better way and to encourage associational development,

execution and therefore help to reduce poverty.

Li, Pickles & Savage (2005) devoted the three kinds of measurement

for the studied topic of the present research which is locality attachment,

social connections, and public contribution. The first and the second types of

measures refer to the social non-official kind of networks and the least one to

social official networks. Two-parameter item response theory was used to

analyze the social capital where the societal and civilizing factors of the three

aspects of the studied topic and convince on social category of trust were also

studied. The findings show that societal and civilizing situations have an effect

on the social type of capital production. Those individual who is within the

underprivileged groups were extra probable towards the depiction of social

capital commencing not strong ties and those in privileged groups were further

30
probable to do so from an unofficial societal obligation. It was found that the

unofficial social networks groups have more neighborly closeness and disposed

to encourage a larger number of trusts that do of the formal civic commitment

groups. Thus, it is clear that the diversity of different social kind of capital

has to be identified and official access to societal organizations alone should

not be the main factor.

Ravanera & Rajult (2010) focal points are on the consequence of

relative‟s structures on social kind of capital exhibited by some sort of

connections: an unofficial connection with relatives, acquaintances, neighbors

and colleagues; vast relationships with confined people, civic groups, and

within general population; plus, thirdly relationships through institutions. The

data is analyzed with the help of a reliability test and factor analysis by using

the bivariate and multivariate methods. The distinctions are found on the

practice of social capital surrounded by women residence where children are

not in presence in a variety of marital activities. The women residence with

the presence of children as a whole and the step whereas the only one parent

families were all examined. The results show that unbroken families have

greater social capital than in only one parent surroundings. The married

mothers have greater unofficial networks, which arealso parts of further

primitive and intended associations. They have larger relatives trust, which may

be in the locality, in addition, they also have a superior conviction in

administrative sectors. Nevertheless, the family structure can be regarded as an

authorization for social capital has been proved. However, this finding of the

study attributes an extraordinary way of measuring the present topic in the

provisions of networks where the information can be used for interpreting the

31
relationship between the two areas mentioned and therefore what it has been

found out is that, the preceding as a fundamental factor of the latter.

McPherson, Lovin, and Cook (2001) depict comparable kind of

connection where the study uttered precisely the principle structures of network

and the homophiles that bond the composed of wedding, companionship, job,

help, exchange of knowledge, and erstwhile types of connection. The findings

point towards that the respondents‟ personal kind of networks is consistently

associated with many social statistical characteristics, the manner of acting, and

within relationships attributes. Homophilous networks confine people's social

worlds which have commanding implications for the necessary information they

have to acquire, the behavior they structure, and their participation. Homophily

associated with race and ethnicity makes the strongest feature in their personal

environments, whether with age, religion, educational accomplishment, jobs, and

gender subsequent in approximately that mode. Location, families, associations,

and biological position in social systems all makeup homophilous relations. The

results suggest that more studies can be concentrated on the fundamental

ecological processes that connect to organizations, associations, communities,

social movements, and many other social forms. The impact of different

networks on homophily where the motion of networks changes with time and

develop other social beings.

Zucker (1986) says that the study of homogeneity plays a fundamental

role in developing trust in human beings. Homogeneity within a specified

community is the main feature in the promotion of trust because individuals

are prone to trust more who are comparable to them. From this point of view,

interactions between people are important aspects to persuade trust.

32
Consequently, the trust will be greater in the more open community that

recompense collaborative behaviors and weight interactions along with people.

Nevertheless, in the closed community comprised by strong family ties and

mutual norms, and where social interactions among people are more formal,

interpersonal trust is less construct, and high level of more trust will coexist

with low levels of less trust. As a result, it has been found that the different

aspects of trust prejudiced by the psychological process allow recognizing

somebody as comparable to us. It is for this reason, that the variables such as

age, race, family status, gender, and knowledge encompass an imperative role

in its development

Choden & Indira (2015) conducted a study in Mysore district,

Karnataka where they computed social capital empirically in the framework of

Tibetan settlements. In the initial set, the study deals with the demographic

particulars which include information relating to the education, occupation, and

gender of the respondents was asked. In the second set, the dimension of

structural social capital was done by using the alternative parameters like

membership in groups and networks, extent of participation, nature of decision-

making process, density and effectiveness of the groups, etc. while in the last

set, the cognitive social capital deals with the dimension among the members

by using alternative indicators of cognitive social capital like the presence or

absence of the following character among the members of altered social

networks-the degree of solidarity, collaboration, trust, consistency, cooperative

action, exclusion and divergence, etc. It was found that voluntary involvement

of time and money had brought the high-income and low-income group people

collectively in the camp, which enhances cohesiveness and reciprocity among

33
the universal masses. Trust was observed as an important driver of long-term

development and was used as an effort for the development of the Tibetan

community. At the micro level, the members have strong bonding social

capital, reflected by the stupidity of local institutions and the reliance of the

respondents on these community-based institutions. But at the macro level, the

Central Tibetan Administration serves as a justifiable social capital builder of

the six million Tibetan promotes all the bridging and linking social capital, by

planning and executing programmes for the well-being of the Tibetans in their

settlements and across the world

According to Alexander. al. (2008) proposes a technique for examining

the associates between the present research topic and the personal level of

networks at the personal level. They illustrate a social capital resource (SCR)

name mention generator technique that put to use the tangible of SCR seeing

that the beginning of a frequent question these approach for an analyzing the

social kind of network and the other one is the egonet method. An assessment

between an older and younger group was conducted. The division of alters

athwart the four fields of social capital endorse the differences connecting

younger and older is different. This kind of people reported regarding the

equivalent amount of alters; nonetheless, the former people have a better

inconsistency to the extent of the topic studied resources. The former group

reports a smaller number of connections under the political affairs and

economics field of the same which was large. The latter group has an

extensive than usual variety of connections as of which to assemble the same

resources. The former will put forward a bigger number of connections than

the latter individual. There were patterns of distinction, with the former

34
individual having larger inconsistency across the fields of the same. The size

of the connection appears to be greater among the former people other than

that there was no outline in the levels of multi-state of being abandoned. The

pilot study suggests that the connection size and the multi-state of being

abandoned is an imperative factor to come across at the number of questions

applied in a name mention generator method than the unambiguous substance

of the questions for the further research.

Lubbers, Molina & McCarty (2007) investigated whether personal kind

of networks has an impact on the cultural uniform identifications of migrants

in Spain. Data intended for the current study was composed of the networks

of individual especially among the migrants of Spain in the form ofa

structured interview and also questionnaire method. Personal networks

perspective allows for measuring communication in a wide-ranging way. The

current study provided a transverse way to measure the connections among the

types of individual networks that migrants form in Spain and ethnic self-

identification. The results of the study established that the structure and

composition of the kind of network are associated with self-identification.

Primarily it has been found that cultural uniform identifications were found

among respondents who had compact networks, little figures of subclause and

little size of the native people in their network. The respondents who

renowned their cultural uniform identifications have the higher level of

percentages of relatives especially. The determination of bonds and the

proportion of migrants were not associated with ethnic identifications. Thus, it

suggests thatas soon as the relational embeddedness in Spain expands the

ethnicity becomes less prominent and therefore it is substituted with broad

35
identifications. Consequently, it is predominant when a higher proportion of the

native population and the migrants living in this place explain this

consequence. It was found that both the person and their characteristics of

network supplement to an indulgent of cultural uniform identifications of the

migrants.

Beaulieu & Hartless, 2001 used social capital as a structure for probing

into the endorsementof educational achievement among the public school going

students in persuade of relatives and society [Link] also tries to investigate

more completely the function ofsocial capital in the society for influencing

educational execution further than that endorsed to relative‟s social capital. The

study was conducted by means of data from the National Education

Longitudinal Survey (NELS). A two-level hierarchical linear model (HLM) and

a generalized linear mixed model were used to extend the analysis of the

school going students at a multilevel. The school going respondents whose

mother or father attended college have the higher level of scoring on their

achievement in school. Family earnings normally have a strong effect excluding

the students residing with a solitary parent earned considerably higher scores

than the students from all the other lower earnings family. A weak family

environment leads to the small amount of support for academic growth. Higher

per-student expenditures convert into enhanced academic performance. The

students residing in a locality with a high minority proportion have lower

merged values and were less probable to spare time in school. Accordingly,

both the process is the main factors disturbing high school students‟ learning

accomplishment. Hence, the findings of the study recommend that policies

intended to encourage the educational accomplishment must increase in length

36
with regards to the school and also pursue out to reinforce the social capital

inboth areas.

2.3 Social Capital and Women Development

Duraj (2010) conducted a study among Polish rural women. The

constituents of a variety of social capital mechanism are related to social trust-

weak but statistically considerable correlations exist between social kind of

trust and the network of virtual contacts, trustworthiness, ethical rigor and local

patriotism. The older the women, the more the level of trust was produced

towards their neighbors and the local authorities. They are the one who is

strongly attached to their place of living. The higher the intensity of education

of women, the larger the number of individuals who are members of

organizations and the smaller the number of individuals who are strongly

attached to their set of living. The qualitative, as well as the quantitative

research, show that active leaders are usually women who in their families

undergo social activity guidance offered to them by their mothers. The rural

women only to a small degree participate in the formal structures of the socio-

political life while their contribution in the socio-political life is of an informal

nature.

Harell (2009) findings highlight that only a lesser proportion of women

encompass university degree and are the parts of the labor organization, and

they are also in a higher earnings group. They are further probable to account

for attending a religious service weekly. Men emerge to have more social

capital with regards to be a part of the political association above women. On

the other hand, the equal or better levels of other types of social capital are

higher among women, predominantly when it comes to further unofficial

37
volunteering performance. But differences come out across individual level

where men illustrate a greater likelihood to voluntarily instruct the safeguarding

for an institute, at the same time women are further probable to be concerned

in extra caring aspects of performance, which are given that care or sustain in

the course of an association, or helping in delivering food to the needy person.

Women are again further probable to declare that they have unofficially

volunteered in their specific areasin comparison to men. Therefore, it can be

said that the pathway of women indulgence in the family and society are one

way or another dissimilar than men‟s pathway of life.

Caiazza & Putnam (2008) paper attempted to study the correlation

involving among the social capital and the eminence of women‟s by and large.

The authors examined the following factors in their paper with reference to

employment and income. It has been found out that there are higher scarcity

rates other than further financial equal opportunity, which leads to the higher

per capita earnings, and higher levels of learning were largely allied with

improved eminence for women. Social capital has also been considered as the

principal variable extensively interrelated with the well-being and the health of

women‟s. It has the strong correlation to women‟s enlarged financial self-

sufficiency where the more equality, additional economic autonomy women

used to have. Therefore, the performance of women is enhanced in states

where they enclose a high level of social capital. Thus, the findings of the

paper propose that improving relations among the group of the locality would

improve the status of women and it would motivate them to become

empowered and vigorously worthy individual of the locality. The improvement

in education and the approach of their earnings would strength the individual

38
to dedicate their available resources to the benefit for the public activities.

Therefore the development of women possibly be further enriched where public

involvement is large in number, and it has beenfound out to be subordinate

where people are deprived off and incoherent from their localities.

Rustagi (2004) illustrate the intricacy of the relation of gender

expansion with the help of an analysis of person‟s indicators wrapping issues

of women‟s education, involvement in work, and also in the decision

executing. A number of women work is acknowledged and compensated, at the

same time most of it is not compensated and residue to be unpaid. The

number of female involvement tariff in work is still low here in India and it

has been noticed that the share of women‟s in the planned division of service

is simply seventeen percent. The school drop-out rate among the females is

still high and hinting an extremely small preservation amount of girls which

are at the initial level of schooling. If not the improvements acquire in the

educational position of women‟s, their probability of participating in the

societal, financial and political areas will always stay behind imperfectly.

However, the degree of women‟s mobility and their inability to make choices

reflect that women‟s freedom of movement is very low. This investigation put

forward the effectiveness of the types of methodology for the development of

women and research in distinguishing the spheres of gender retardation and

potential intervention approach that can establish to be successful in enhancing

the situation of women.

There has been an extensive indication in the studies that social capital

contributes to the eradicate poorness, a however indication of how expansion

actors can construct the dynamic social capital for the needy people left

39
sparse. The current paper tries to depict the role of NGO in strengthening the

social capital which was meant for the needy women as a factor of a

progressive programme during 2006–2012, undertaken in rural areas of Jessore

District, Bangladesh. The study used qualitative aspects to deal with the data.

The NGO and the respondents of the study edged the three types of social

capital viz., bonding, bridging, and linking to develop the living standards of

the respondents and their families, concurrently varying gender associations

surrounded by the individual house and their specific areas. The women

involved in the activities of NGO initiates them to develop their learning skills

and attitude to face the world for their betterment. Illustrating the studied

strategies, the study presents a self-motivated structure for reinforcingthe topic

for the development of the community, providing speculative insights into the

methods for undertaking consequently. Further research should concentrate on

the mention strategies whether the edged of the social capital can be studied

to eliminate the inequality prevails with regards to masculinity. Therefore, the

study suggests a design to eradicate indigence through value formation, and the

realization of women's enlargement by the women‟s so that they can become

agents of change for themselves and for the community as a whole (Seferiadis,

Cummings, Maas, Bunders, and Zweekhorst 2017).

This paper examines the interchange between men/women, social capital

and awareness about politics. The study reveals that the relationship between

the first and the second capital is positive. Nevertheless, when the first group

acquires the roughly equal amount of the second capital, men persistently

execute betterthe third types of knowledge than women. The involvement of

women‟s in association and interpersonal connections are considered by their

40
larger homogeneity and the amount of presence of the kins. This investigation

has found out that woman involvement in the relative's connection, household

work and the communal based organizations is larger in number, whereas

men‟s involvement in the association and the connections lead to turn round

the financial and compelling performances. Women‟s involvement in that kind

of relationships makes them limited to get in getting in touch with a diverse

group of both men and women. Therefore, women only commence illustrating

close only when they fit into the kind of job where they can be involved in

the decision making as an individual. Unfortunately, the deficient in knowledge

would ultimately make them vulnerable which translate into a lack of power.

Boateng (2010) conducted a study among Liberian refugee women and

assumes that the international community and the social work profession

encompass accountability to the migrants. This revision examines the purpose

and contact of what we called bonding, bridging, and linking types of the

social capital on the state of being healthy and happy of Liberian women

residing in an encampment in Ghana. From the investigation of the study, it

has been exposed that the first discussed capital is strong among the women.

They had experienced the first arrival to the refugee camp where they had

found a warm welcome from their fellow people, group participation had made

the bond stronger and through that, they were being able to make friends. The

networks within the community turned out to be a strong bond for them and

their development. But at the same time, they lack the second and the third

capital, in cooperation with which increase the competency to determine

innovative and creative opportunities and associations. Ultimately, the paper of

the current study challenges the migrant‟s people in advocating their issues in

41
relation to the making of policies. Therefore, it would facilitate to strengthen

and generate all the above three capital been studied for the development of

women as a whole.

Mitchell‟s (1997) paper examines the nature and implications of the

changing paradigms of gender in the economic developmentin Latin American

which contributes to the planning of an extra concrete approach toward the

development of needy women. The studies highlight that the consequence of

new theoretical frameworks and research methods for women to make their

participation noticeable in the monetary and social life of communities. The

studies that probe the surroundings of women's work in both the two are

giving rise to urging for a reconceptualization of the term work itself. The

work of the women would compose of official income work, unofficial salaried

work and not paid domestic work and societal related work so to more

accurately replicate the reality of women's lives by enlarging in the society as

well. Thus, this leads to recognition of the worth connecting the three methods

viz., micro, meso and the macro intensity of examination. The analysis

examined that Latin American societyfollowed the patriarchal outline of

relationships from the traditional period which greatly involves inequalities of

authority, gender, and resource allocation which encourage men above women

and is replicated throughout society. The importance of family is personified as

a powerful reliable group, wherein the foundation of a broad classification of

societal relations in which authority is highly demanding and planned on the

origin of sexual characteristics and dominance. Therefore, from the studies, it

has been recognized that the theory and practices of development also support

men against women.

42
 Agarwal‟s (2000) paper demonstrate to what extent theorganization for

natural resource management (NRM) emerge to be involving, reasonable and

well-organized from the viewpoint of gender. The author also tries to

interrogate potential of gender which makesthe social connections and its

implication different. The findings of the study argued that an abandonment of

sexual category may critically deform the examination and procedure on the

cooperative action in universal and environmental accomplishment. It could lead

to a misuse of the NRM organizations from objectivity and competence

standpoints, signifying the success still where the serious level of inadequacy

continue living on the relationship of the respondent. The inability to see the

power of the respondent's involvement in the decision-making process would

result in the deficiency of the betterment of the localities as a whole. Even

though the respondents are obviously more conservationist than that of men,

the focus of respondent‟s social networks has the knowledge of successful

collaboration. Their higher reliance on these networks and their possibility

leads to superior group homogeneity comparative to the other group, and these

could endow with an essential basis for developing sustainable environmental

cooperative achievement. The studies also outline the cause that can restrict or

assist the respondent‟s participation in official environmental management

associations where tentatively taking the explanation of gender develops an

important way to a conceptual perceptive of collective action and

environmental institutions. Therefore, it would release up innovative areas for

investigation in terms of gendered inspirations and principles, distinction in

constraints to environmental development, and suitable organizational structures

for successful development.

43
 Norris and Inglehart (2003) research found that women and men

participate in associational activities can be segmented, and therefore it tries to

examine substitute explanations for these diversifications. When it comes to the

organized caused, there the author observed the imbalanced allotment of

resources with regards to their communal and demographic classifications in

the localities. On the other hand, in the cultural interpretation, it has been a

highlight that the sentiments and importance of both men and women convey

to social commitment for their own people. Whereas, the bureau accounts

concentrates upon the function of unofficial connections viz., family,

acquaintance, and colleagues. That is why, the paper suggests that the

involvement of women in the organizational activities is less for the reason

that they cannot, they do not want to involve, or for the reason that nobody

invites them. The gender break in organizational activities appears to be more

strongly associated with the last and the second last factors of connections

than to the many deep-rooted first and second diversifications in both the

categories.

Parecki (2011) sought to find why female literacy varies across states in

India. In order to deal with the answer, the present study deliberates the states

of managing the social capital through the spousal aggression and the age of

females‟ initial marriage. The above data exhibited showed that the instruments

of the first capital have a sturdily foretell literacy factors, furthermore, the

second capital has accurately foretold privileged in the same manner. With

these exhibitions, it reveals the connection between literacy and social capital.

The first capital confined females from education while the second capital

facilitates an environment encouraging to female education. States with the

44
high level of the second capital have favorable female literacy factorsat the

same time states with high level of first capital have unfavorable female

literacy factors. In India, the levels of literacy were compared to the levels of

the first and the second capital. Therefore, the studies suggest that there is an

opportunity of connections outside the house for women‟s associations. It

would help to enlarge the network to build the civilizing regulations which had

always delight women as creative individuals of the locality traditionally

towards the philosophy of womanhood for their upliftment. Until and unless,

the second capital is enhanced in India, the respondent‟s educational attainment

will not be possible. This is why the respondent in India countenance

challenges of education in their society. So from the above findings, it is

essential to reinforce the social capital in order to connect the respondents with

people from the outer place beside house which can turn out to be the

solution for the advancement of India.

Sarker and Das (2004) say that the dimensions of social capital has

taken place at the regional decentralized organizations in association with the

forest protection committees (FPCs) of female and the FPCs, where almost all

members are below poverty line and are dependent on food-livelihood safety

from jungle resources, in Bankura district of West Bengal. The study observes

whether social capital is important for the successful development outcomes in

female FPCs compared with the FPCs where women‟s involvement is

negligible. The finding displays that the culture of community harmony and

developed network of relationship based on customs and values, absence or

poor presence of old systems and latest disunity and common identity on

social and economic issues are the basic factors for shared successes that

45
bestow in building trust amongst communities and provide carolled actions

creating an inner dynamic of the development of social capital. The research

says that the level of social capital is higher for all female FPCs because all

these pre-existing old characters of community harmony, common identity,

common trust and harmonized actions for development are more present in

each of the female FPC compared with that of joint FPCs.

Martin, Balocnit, and Venus (2013) say that the dynamics of household

decision-making and into the varying appropriation of duties and authority

within Kalinga households in Tabuk City. It focuses to bestow extra

information on the perceptions of the defendant with regard to causes

underlying combined husband-wife decision-making attributes and those

following the autonomous or independent decisions of either husband or wife,

and whether defendant's characteristics such as sex, education of husbands and

wives along with employment of wives influence decision-making attributes

inside Kalinga households. The rate of occurrence and percentages were used

to prove the attributes of decision-making. The findings of this study show

that the Kalinga household is generally patriarchal ever since the father usually

dominates decision-making in the house. The power of husbands was most

prominent in decision-making areas such as family finances and on political

issues. On the other hand, decisions concerning children are seen as mutual

responsibilities of husbands and wives. Increasing education between husbands

and wives encourage combined decision-making attributes in most sectors of

household decision-making. Hence, the study suggests that gender and

development activities should be strengthened and implemented in all

46
government sectors and should be brought to the grassroots levels to assure

gender mainstreaming.

Sikod (2007) says how the transformation in the gender segregation of

labor hits women‟s decision-making power, and whether the long-established

distribution of labor, which provides women less freedom to labor-augmenting

possessions which causes the delay in development. From the studies, it has

been clear that changes are taking place in women's monetary position, and

these changes are impacting their decision-making authority within the

household. The intra-household relationships are being requested and gender

roles within the household redefined. Although, men are still the ruler of the

house and they are the pivotal decision-makers. Women who are involved in

family income activities participate more in the decision-making role in the

house than those who are mostly involved only in household activities. What

this implies is that the woman‟s earning power is imperative to her bargaining

power with her husband over the household issues: it is how some of the

powers of the man are captivated. Therefore, the result shows that

empowerment seems to be a very slow process for women, therefore, there is

a need of government policy to empower women by various activities, projects,

and programmes, and to assist their reach to labor-augmenting resources.

Fonjong (2001) indicates women's involvement in development through

non-governmental activities in Cameroon where it was found that women play

a pivotal role in the development of community at all steps. Unfortunately,

they work from a lower level in both traditional and state institutions.

Women's empowerment is at present an important national issue ofconcern and

both state and international efforts at mainstreaming women in development

47
have so far formed mixed results. The grassroots' approach of NGOs has been

helpful in reaching women at all levels. Their interventions have enhanced

women's approach to health, credit, training, employment, and family decision-

making, where they provide opportunities for women to switch over ideas. But

their wilful gender needs have not met until now such as women's approach to

political involvement and control. The local NGOs and civil society are better

placed to take the initiative here but, unluckily, they lack the essential human

and material resources to take the lead. Therefore for that basic changes

towards women's empowerment in Cameroon will not be possible without an

incredible change in male attitudes and help from the government and other

agencies.

Healy & Hampshire (2008) say that despite grand coverage of social

capital theory in the social science literature there has been less discussion of

their use in social work practice. The study brings in a teamwork model of

the social capital structure that incorporates a dual focus on local community

networks and the role of the organization of government, nongovernment

sectors and business in the formation of social capital. The paper concludes

with a consideration of how a synergy approach can be applied in, and

developed through, social work practice. Social capital is a pragmatic concept

for progressive social work. There are parallels between community social

workers stress on community building and the ideas of 'bonding' and 'bridging'

advocated in the social capital field. Similarly, concepts of advocacy and

policy activism bounded within the linkage shapes of social capital which are

also widely accepted ideas within progressive forms of social work. Social

capital is an important concept in modern public policy and debate and so it

48
is vital that social workers have an understanding of its origins and uses. This

paper also argued that social capital has a character with well-established

themes in progressive social work, particularly its dual emphasis on local and

institutional change. They acknowledge criticisms of social capital proposed by

progressive analysts and they contend that these insights are useful for

promoting critical and reflective approaches to the social capital formation. The

authors believe social workers dedicated to working alongside service users for

social justice have much to expand from the new emphasis on social capital in

public and academic debate and much to add to the grounded and critical

development of this idea.

49
CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY
 CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

The preceding chapter presented a review of the literature on social

capital and women development. In this chapter, the profile of the study area

is presented. The first section describes the setting of the present study. In the

second section, the methodological aspect of the present study is described.

3.1 The Setting: Profile of the Study Area

The present study was conducted in three cities, of North East India

namelyGuwahati which is one of the main cities of Assam, Shillong capital of

Meghalaya and Aizawl the capital of Mizoram. The details of the studied

settlements have been discussed below:-

The word „Gurkha‟ and „Gorkha‟ are synonymous with „Nepali‟ and

derived from the hill town and Gorkha district from which the country Nepal

expanded. The name „Gorkha‟ may be traced to the medieval Hindu warrior-

saint Guru Gorakhnath who has a shrine in Gorkha. A person is known as

„Nepali‟ who has the citizenship of Nepal and the people residing in Nepal are

also Gorkha as a community who has a similar custom, language and belief as

that of the Gorkhas in India. To end the misconception of Nationality and

Community, the Government of India had issued a notification on 23rd August

1988 explaining that the word “Nepali” means a citizen of Nepal and the

word “Gorkha” means a community. Before Nepal‟s emergence as a nation in

the latter half of the 18thcentury, the designation Nepali was largely applied

only to those belonging to the Kathmandu valley. Prithvi Narayan Shah, the

founder of the ruling house of Gorkha wanted to bring diverse religious ethnic

groups together under one nation. He conquered the Kathmandu valley and it

50
became the capital of modern Nepal. From that time onwards, all ethnic

groups highly regard themselves as Nepali only. In one article written by

Pradhan (2008), which highlights the differences between the Gorkha and

Nepali, it is the two sides of the same coin. The word Nepali is directly

linked with the people of Nepal and in order to segregate and safeguard the

Gorkha identity in India, it is better to use „Gorkha‟ to have a distinct

bifurcation.

The Anglo Nepalese War 1814-16, between the expanding Gurkha

power of Nepal and the British ruler of India, is of immense historical

importance for the Gurkhas settled in India as the conflict not only brought in

territorial expansion for the British rulers of India but also established a bond

which never snapped hereafter between the British and the Gurkhas. The bond

that grew between the two led to the induction of the Gurkhas in the British

Indian Army and if one studies the relationship between the two after the war,

i.e. the Anglo Nepalese War, one finds that it basically deals with issues

relating to the recruiting of the Gurkhas in the British Indian Army. After the

war, a treaty called the „Treaty of Sugauli‟ was signed between the two

countries and this led to the permanent settlement of the Gorkhas in India. It

has been found that by 1900, the Gorkhalis formed more than 50% of the

total population in North East India mainly Sikkim and Darjeeling, strong

enough in the past century to form a government in one and demand a

separate homeland in the other. The Gorkhali migration in Northeast India,

once it began, followed a dynamic of its own. According to the 1941 Census,

Nepalis provided 45 percent of immigrants to India.

51
3.1.2 Guwahati Settlements

The historical name of Assam is Kamarup. In the ancient Age, Nepal

and Kamarup comprised a single domain. Matsyendranath, a great spiritual

leader of Kamarup, is said to have gone to Nepal and settled there. This

ancient link between Nepal and Assam was revived in modern times in the

19th Century. In the early days, the Gorkhas were cattle herders in the Assam

valley, their grazing grounds spread from Baralimara to Bhavani Devithan.

Bura Chapari of Tezpur was declared a professional grazing reserve in 1881.

In 1920, the Gorkhas were ordered to vacate the land, but, after public

pressure, the order was revoked in 1933. After the success of tea gardens in

Assam, the Assam Company began bringing in laborers from 1853. After

passing several legislations in 1863, people from Nepal and other communities

were given the freedom to enter the tea plantation in Assam. The Gorkha

population in Assam naturally increased. Labourers were hired not only in tea

gardens but in the other fields also. In 1889, oil was explored at Digboi and

Gorkhaswere employed from the very beginning of the enterprise. Since the

native people feared to enter the dense forest of Digboi, the British employed

the Gorkhali for the operational work. Places surrounding Digboi viz., Itabhatti,

Rashtrapati, Nalapatti, Muliabari, Topabasti, Agreement Line, GoruPhatak were

all originally inhabited by Gorkhas. During the First World War, when the

native people fled from Digboi, the Gorkhas were appointed as security

personnel at the oil fields. In 1923, Jit Bahadur Pradhan was authorized to

recruit laborers for the refineries. He brought in hundreds of Nepali workers,

particularly from North Bengal.

52
 In Assam settlements, one city called Guwahati settlements was selected

for the purpose of the study. From Guwahati settlements, two localities were

selected which were Devkota Nagar and Birkuchi. The detailed profiles of the

two settlements are discussed below.

[Link] History of Devkota Nagar and Birkuchi Settlements

The Gorkhali people had resided in Guwahati from the 18th century but

were very less in number. The one who resided there were mostly from the

army background family, cow rearers, and grazers. After the retirement from

the army in the early 19th century, they started their settlements for which they

required land. An organization called Gorkha Panchayat was formed to fight

for their land rights, in which the first president was Mr. Pahar Singh Gurung

(L) and the general secretary was Padam Bahadur Chhetry. Due to lack of

land for the Gorkhali people to perform their rituals, they started a Bhajan

Kirtan association and through this, they performed their rituals to a certain

extent. With the help of the above-mentioned associations, they started to work

for land and finally, the land was given to them by the British officials. The

Gorkhali people constructed a Mandir at the given land. The Mandir was

constructed in a kucha form due to the limited amount of money. After the

completion of the Mandir in the year 1932, Radha Krishna Murti was placed

in the Mandir and it was named as Gorkha Thakur Bari.

In the early 19th century, there were lots of Gorkha ex-serviceman in

the town but in the middle of the 19th century, many of them returned to

Nepal. However, many Nepali people from Nepal migrated to India as well.

From the illustration of the timeline, it becomes clear that the earlier migrants

to India identified them as Gorkha but after the migration that took place in

53
the mid 19th century, they called themselves Nepali. The name of the

organization had also been renamed from Gorkhali to Nepali as well. Soon

after the migration, the name of Gorkha Thakur Bari was changed into NMPS

in the year 1955. Cow rearing and grazing were their main occupation due to

which two associations were formed in 1960. One is Brithathar Guwahati

Gopalak Sanstha and the other one is Brithathar Guwahati Doodh Bewasai

Sanstha. The Other Backward Status (OBC) was also given to them circa 1960

and due to this status, the education level among the Gorkhali population also

increased. In 1967, a Gorkha student union came into existence and they

started working for the development of the students. Between 1988 and 2002,

NMS and NSK worked for the construction of a Mandir in a pucca form. The

Mandir was completed in the year 2002 and is now being used by the people

of Guwahati to perform their rituals. The Gorkha community demanded an

Autonomous Council in the year 2003 but they did not succeed in their

demand. Instead of an Autonomous Council, they were given a development

council by the government of Assam in 2009.

From the timeline, it was found that the Gorkhali people of Devkota

Nagarhad no electricity at the time of their settlements. They could not recall

the exact year when electricity was initiated in their locality, so they mostly

use the birth date of their family members to recall past events such as when

people started living in their locality and when marriages took place in their

area. The Gorkha started their settlements in Devkota Nagar from the earlier

part of the 19th century where it was found that in those days, there were no

settlers in the area and the Gorkhas were the first one to settle there. It was

earlier known as „Ara Katne Basti‟ in the Nepali language which means wood

54
cutters locality or area. After a long period of time, the locality was named as

the Nepali Basti where the Gorkhas initiated their livelihood. A Puja used to

take place in underground areas in the earlier days. The Goddess name was

Sheila Devi and Saraswati Devi and the people still continue to perform the

puja twice a year. The local people believed that if they did not perform the

pujas on time, all sorts of undomesticated animals such as Lions, tigers, and

foxes used to howl and therefore the rituals are still practiced in their areas.

For the performance of such rituals, the Shila Devi Mandir Samiti was formed

in 1957. Badagaon Nepali Vidhyalaya was the first school in Devkota Nagar

which was started in 1959. During that time, there were only five students and

Nava Sapkota was the first student who still resides in the locality and was a

participant of this timeline. Before the school was established in the very

locality, classes were given to the children under the tree on the ground. From

1962 onwards, the community people started to perform Durga Puja. In 1977,

the Nepali Basti was renamed as „DevkotaNagar‟. Prior to the eighties, road

construction was started. They used to collect money as a contribution to the

construction of a road in their locality and the amount they received was only

four paisa. Each and every members of the family came forward for voluntary

work once a week, every Friday.

DNMS was regarded as the oldest women association in Guwahati

which was formed in 1982 and there were around 70 DNMS members within

the locality. In the year 1982, the community started having electricity with

the help of Assam Government and SSS was organised for the welfare of the

people of the locality to preserve their culture and to strengthen their unity.

The first President of this association was Naba Sapkota and general secretary

55
was Dilip Singh. The initiatives for building Middle School took place with

the help of the locality peoples in the year 1988. Post office came into the

locality in 1992. Tiger and leopard were seen in the community and the

people enjoyed playing with the leopard during those times. Tigers and Foxes

are still found there in the locality, but the Tigers do not attack people as

such. The people earn their daily bread through grazing and cow rearing and

for this purpose, they had to visit jungles in search of grass where they used

to come in contact with the tiger and with the intention to save oneself they

(tiger) only attack people. In the year 2004, a man was attacked by the tiger

for the first time.

After the completion of their middle level of education the locality

people have to go out of their locality for higher studies, so the community

people worked hard for establishing a high school in the community. The high

school came into existence in 2005. In the year 2010, the statue of late

Mahakavi Devkota was placed in the main center of the community.

When we come to Birkuchi settlements, it has been indicating that

during the early nineteen there were only a few houses in Birkuchi and Hit

Bahadur Adhikari was the first person to live over there. They had also

mentioned that before independence they had already been there and had also

stayed underground at that time. A large number of the population had shifted

from Silpukhuri, Chandmari (Guwahati) to Birkuchi for their livelihood, mainly

cow rearing and grazing in 1950 onwards. Soon after the formation of Assam

GorkhaSamela in Guwahati, its unit was formed in Birkuchi at around 1955.

As the population increases, the land was given to them by Mr. Ganesh

Bahadur Karki for the areas of the school. After two years, they begin to

56
conduct teaching under the shed of the tree. With an increase in the number

of students‟ enrollment, they started establishing a small house and continue

the teaching system. The number of students enrolled at that time was around

60.

In the year 1965, drastic changes took place in the community. They

begin to celebrate Durga Puja, the festival of Teej and Bhanu Jayanti as a

group in the community. Bhanu Jayanti is the birth date of late Bhanu Bhakta

Acharya who was one of the greatest poets, had written many books and

made a great contribution to the Gorkhali community. Their locality has been

recognized as a municipality from the Panchayat system under Guwahati

Council in the same year. The school runs by the community people became

government school in the year 1970 and they extended to middle school in

1973. In 1975 onwards, road development took place due to Assam Carbon

Product Limited Company (ACPLC). Soon after the construction of proper

roads in the community, the Assamese people started to enter into the locality

and start residing with the Gorkhali people as well.

El dorado club was formed by the community people in 1976. The club

exhibits as an Anganwadi center for the people of the community where they

can take their child for pre-school. An adult education was also given to the

needy people and once in a week which is on every Sunday art classes was

conducted for the children. The club is still functioning till the date.

Raghunath Chaudhary High school was established in the year 1979. In the

earlier days, Raghunath Chaudhary used to give keen interest to the community

who had worked hard for them and the school was named after him. A land

for the construction of Mandir was given to the community by Mr. Suraj

57
Prasad Baral in 1980. The people of the community worked extremely hard

for the construction of Shiv Mandir and it was completed in 1990. After the

completion of Mandir in their community, the people used to perform religious

rituals in that Shiv Mandir, which became much more convenient for them.

Nepali Mahila Samiti was established in 2004 for the welfare of women so

that they can work together for their well-being and welfare of the community.

In the year 2014, Canara bank came into existence which became helpful for

the community and leads towards development as well.

[Link] Social Map of Devkota Nagar and Birkuchi Settlements

As mentioned earlier, in order to understand the community in a better

way participatory rural approach of Social Map, Timeline and Services and

Opportunities Map was employed and conducted in the community. The social

map was made by the community leaders with the one who had already been

settled there from many years ago who knew the community in a better way

than the others and it was facilitated by the researcher(see figure 3.1). Devkota

Nagar situated in a small hilly area not very far from Maligaon, is the main

area from where they used to purchase their needs. The main houses of the

Gorkhali settlers were located alongside the main roads. The statue of late

Mahakavi Devkota was placed in the main area of the community. He had

contributed a lot to the Nepali literature, which is why it was named after his

name as Devkota Nagar.

Bishnu Devi Mandir and Shila Devi Mandir were situated in the upper

part of the main roads. The Mandir was well constructed with pucca buildings

and there used to be lots of visitors who came to perform pujas over there.

Baragaon Nepali High School was established in the main center of the

58
community along with primary and middle school. Sayapatri Sankritiyakala

Sangam association had their own small hall in the community where they

used to perform meetings and other necessary activities related to the

community. Besides the community hall, there is a community library which

was established by the community members for their own people. The

community people had their own post office situated in the community. Next,

to the community, there was still a bunch of Gorkhali locality which goes

through Devkota Nagar community.

From the Social Map of Birkuchi settlements, we can see that there are

around 100 houses in the community and the houses are located close to each

other. They are living in a homogenous group and not in a scattered form.

Despite the smaller size of the Gorkha locality, the population of the Gorkha

is higher than the Assamese people but are living integrated with each other in

one community. Mandir is situated in the main center of the community with

a small hall attached to it which was the main point to organized every

program by the locality people itself. Mandir had played a very vital role in

gathering people to work together for the welfare of the community.

With the help of the ACPLC, the construction ofroad from the highway

to the locality area had developed. They now do not face problems regarding

roads within the community and can move easily from one place to another.

From primary to higher level of the school had been established inside the

community and to access the higher education they had to go out of the

community to a place nearby.

59
 Figure 3.1 Social Map of Guwahati Settlements

[Link] Services and Opportunities Map of Devkota Nagar and Birkuchi

The Services and Opportunities Map (see figure, 3.3) showed Devkota

Nagar location which is situated near to Maligaon locality. It is largerin area

and is the main sites for the Devkota Nagar people to approach for every

requirement. The localities have their own government and private school. They

also have a government Nepali school. Most of the children are admitted in

their own locality school and the one who went out of their locality are less

in number. For higher studies, they have to approach Maligaon where high

schools and colleges are situated. For medical health facilities, they have to go

towards Maligaon but for minor cases, they can get medicine from their own

locality. Banks are under Maligaon areas and most of the administrative work

can be done from this area itself. The road construction from Maligaon to

Devkota Nagar is in a poor condition and people find it difficult to cross

through. For traveling they have to go all through the Maligaon highway for

taking any vehicle.

60
 The Services and Opportunities Map of Birkuchi showed the important

center such as Government Health Center. The Registrar Office is located

within the community itself which become easier for them to access. The

important health centers such as clinic, hospital, and pharmacy are nearby the

community which is about only three kilometers far, called Narangi. If they

had to approach the big hospital for severe cases, Guwahati Medical Hospital

is there which about six kilometers far from the community. Primary, Middle,

and High school are there in the community but in order to continue their

higher studies, they need to go out of the community and have to spend a

large amount of money in transportation.

Guwahati Medical College, Narangi College, S.R College, Junior

College, Hindi College and Cotton College are the few colleges in Guwahati

where the people of the community go for further studies. These colleges are

about three to six kilometers distant from the community. Education facilities

are sufficient enough for the people of Birkuchi where they can study from

their home and not by staying in the hostels. The Electricity Department where

they pay their bills just a couple of minute walk from the community and the

site office of the Revenue Department is also located in the same distance.

The Police Station and sabzi Bazar where they can buy their household needs

are only two and a half kilometers far. The main shopping center is located at

a distance of six kilometers from the community.

[Link] Daily Activities and Seasonal Calender in Mawprem and

Barapather

The women of Devkota Nagar used to get up at around five to six

o‟clock in the morning and the first thing they do is to make breakfast for the

61
family members, clean the house and then take a shower to perform the puja.

If they are working women then they had to rush for their work as soon as

they complete the morning work at home. Till noon women are usually busy

in their office work and then on working women were busy with the

household work. They used to make lunch for the family and serve them as

soon as they returned from their work and schools. The working women

returned home after work at around 3pm in the evening and then make their

lunch, have it and spend most of their time by reading the newspaper. Later

in the evening, they take care of their children and the head of the family.

Also, their evening time was spared for doing some community work like

working for the association and whatever is required. From 8:00 pm onwards

they had to prepare dinner, served and do the household work. After 10:00 pm

onwards they watched TV serials, take rest which is soon followed by bed-

time. These are the way that women spend their time daily and the same

routine continues everyday.

January is the month of the festival and religious rituals for the

Gorkhali women of Devkota Nagar. Makar Sakranti is a Hindu festival

celebrated in almost all parts of India and Nepal in a myriad of cultural

forms. It is a harvest festival. It marks the transition of the sun into the

zodiac sign of Makara Rashi on its celestial path. The Gorkhali and Assamese

people used to celebrate the festival grandly together. They used to make

different varieties of eatables and share it with the people of the community.

It is the time of admission in schools and institution for their children.

Saraswati puja and Holi festival come in the month of February where puja is

done in the school; Saraswati is the goddess of education. Holi was celebrated

62
as a group in the community and sometimes they used to have a feast to

celebrate the festival as well. March is the birth month of the Lord Rama

which is known as Ram Navami and women do participate in the

accomplishment of puja. „Chaite Dashain‟ is one of the festivals of the Gorkha

where the married daughter come over to celebrate this festival. All the

married women eagerly wait for this occasion and enjoyed to the fullest at

their respective houses.

April „Baisakh‟ is the first month according to the Nepali calendar and

also the month of „ama ko mukh herne ausi‟, where they used to perform

thanksgiving to their mother. May is regarded as a pleasant month and the

occasion of Buddha Purnima. In the month of June, women are busy helping

their children for the preparation of their exam. Parents especially women said

that exam of their children is like an exam for them as well, as they are the

one who is busy helping their child to learn and accomplish their task. When

it comes to studies the Indian parents are the most supportive, they would be

there 24/7hrs for their children. During study hours, they would treat their

child like a prince and princess and won‟t let them do even a single piece of

work. This is the sacrifice of a mother which is still practiced among the

Gorkhali women. Summer vacation starts from the month of July and the

parents make use of this free time and pay a visit to their near and dear

ones. Whereas, the agricultural families become incredibly busy in plowing at

the field.

All the schools in their areas re-open from the month of August and as

usual, the duty of women starts over again. For working women, it‟s the time

63
to prepare for the progress report card apart from their daily household routine

and other school work.

„Teej‟ is the festival for married women where they fast for the long

life of their husbands. During this time of the year, the married women used

to visit their parent‟s house and spend time with them. As a community,

women used to celebrate in the group and used to perform puja. Since Teej is

a festive of women, the community organized programme where only women

and girl child use to participate and perform dramas, dances, sing a song as

well. Teej is one of the greatest occasions for women where they can share

their happiness and sadness with their fellow women and enjoy the festival to

the fullest. After Teej, comes Bishwakarma puja, after this puja, the people

again have to start preparing for Durga puja. During the last week of

September „Navratri‟ starts and they are involved with Mandir functions and in

performing the religious rituals. Women spend their time buying new clothes

for their family including them. Meanwhile, they have to spend time cleaning

their houses for the upcoming festival.

October and November is the month of the festival where Durga Puja

and Diwali come under this two month. They used to go to Mandir and do

puja. Visits their relatives for greetings; spend time with their friends, relatives,

and family members. Carol during Diwali is one of the cultures of the

Gorkhali people. December being the last month of the year, children are busy

with their exams followed by a short winter vacation. It is the month toget-

together and people usually enjoy their vacation by going out for a picnic with

friends and relatives, also they welcome the New Year with a hope for the

great year ahead.

64
 On the other hand, the Gorkhali women of Birkuchi used to wakeup

around 5:30 am and take a shower and performed puja. After that, they used

to make breakfast for the family members serve them and then clean the

house. With all the completion of household work, they used to take rest and

watch television. At around 12 they used to make lunch for the family and

serve them as soon as they return from their respective work and schools. The

evening time isspared for doing some community work like working for the

association and whatever is required. At around five in the evening, they used

to have some tea and light snacks. From six to nine o‟clock, they prepare

dinner for the family. By ten o‟clock they used to have their dinner and

finished the household work. The time they went to sleep is mainly at around

eleven at night. These are the daily routine for the women and the same

continues everyday.

January is the month of celebration, festival and religious rituals for the

Gorkhali women of Birkuchi. Women used to performed religious rituals and

thanks God for the blessings and pray to have a fruitful year ahead. They go

out for a picnic with their family and neighbours to welcome the New Year

with joy. The Gokhali and Assamese people used to celebrate Makar Sakranti

grandly together where they make a different variety of eatables and share

with the people of the community. Mothers are usually busy due to the

ongoing exams of their children in the month of February which continues till

March. By April, children‟s exams get over and the Bihu festival gets started.

„Behu‟ the festival of Assamese is celebrated alongwith all the Gorkhali

women,they also used to take part in the function. The Gorkhali people also

participate in food making competition and they used to have a great time.

65
This way the bond becomes strong between the Assamese and the Gorkhali

people. May is the month where no marriages take place and the women are

tension free from marriage during this month.

Soon after that, the month of June comes, where summer vacation

starts and they can again take rest to a certain extend. From the month of

July women used to be quite busy in community work. They have to collect

donation for „Bhanu Jayanti‟ programme which is celebrated in an auspicious

manner. August is the month for the women, where the festival „Teej‟ falls.

They spend time with their parents, participated in the community programme,

performed religious rituals and perform many recreational activities. In the

month of October, „Navratri‟ started and they are busy with mandir function in

performing the religious rituals. Women used to spend their time buying new

clothes for their family and for themselves. Mass cleaning before the big

festival is a must for every family. October and November are the months of

the festival when the people celebrate Durga Puja and the festive of lights,

Diwali. During Durga Puja, the people visit mandir and worshipped God.

Apart from the mandir celebration, they take this opportunity to pay a visit to

family, friends, and relatives; and are a fun-filled get-together. The Gorkhalis

sing Carol during Diwali which is one of the cultures of the Gorkhali people

where they used to have lots of fun. December the last month of the year

ends with joy and family togetherness. The people said that one has to let go

the year happily so that the New Year will bring a prosperous year for us.

3.1.3 The Gorkhali Settlements in Shillong

The history of Gorkha settlements in Shillong is essentially linked with

the British dispersion and inroad into the Khasi and Jantia Hills and the

66
establishment of Shillong as their administrative center. The entrance of the

Gorkhas in Shillong was however started with the transmit of the military in

1867 when the 44th Sylhet Light Infantry moves into their new quarters in the

Cantonment. While tracing through the historyof the 8th Gorkha Regiment it

had found out that in 1867 when Captain Kalu Thapa (a Gorkha soldier) who

had merged into Shillong with 44 Sylhet Light Infantry. He was questioned by

his Commanding officer about Shillong, like how does it looked like in those

days and then Captain Thapa replied, „there wasn‟t a rat‟ which means that it

was sparsely populated. Shillong in 1867 could not have shown any similarity

to the charming cantonment and civil stations known to many of the 8th

Gorkha Rifles soldiers. It must be wrong to say that the Gorkhas came to

Shillong after 1867. Thus, it can be said that the settlement of Gorkhas in

Shillong must be prior to 1824 as the first temple; the Gorkha Thakur bari

(Radha Krishna) Mandir was established in the year 1824 by Subedar Jai

Chand Thakur.

Gorkhas constitute at present, one of the important population groups in

the state of Meghalaya. They came primarily in search of a living as soldiers,

porters, herdsmen, and marginal farmers. The Gorkhas were employed in the

British army and after their retirement from the armed forces. The Assam

Rifles alone established 40 re-settlements colonies to settle as many as 30000

Gorkha ex-soldiers in the north eastern region. The British government

provided lands on rent to the Gorkha ex-servicemen in and around Jhalupra,

Shillong. The Syiem of Hima Mylliem also leases the land in Mawprem by

issuing Patta to Gorkhas at the beginning of the 19th century. The population

of the Gorkhas was then spread all over the city. Therefore, the important

67
aspects of the Gorkhas settlement in Shillong were the establishment and

development of institutions of their own through which the Gorkhas tried to

preserve their cultural and ethnic identity.

[Link] History of Mawprem and Barapather Settlements

Captain KaluThapa was the first Gorkhali to enter into the land of

Shillong with the 8th Gorkha Rifle Battalions. After his retirement, he settled in

lower Mawprem with his family. After the emergent of the Gorkha rifles, a

Mandir named Gorkha Durga Mandir was established in the year 1872 which

was one of the oldest Mandir in Meghalaya. During that period there were

around twenty Gorkha households residing over there. Jay Chand Thakur

bought land near Gorkha Pathsala which was worth Rs 96 in the year 1984

and settled over there. A major earthquake took place in 1897 which destroyed

the town to a very large extent and only the All Saints Church was saved at

that tremendous incident. From 1901-10 the cutting of road from Meghalaya to

Guwahati took place. Till 1944, there was no highway road and people have

to walk by foot inorder to go from place to place. After that, they had good

relations with the greater Assam and the construction of highway took place.

Thakurbari is a Radha Krishna Mandir and its construction was accomplished

in 1905 and in the same year UPS was established. British recognized Mr.

Mani Singh from Manipur as an appointed teacher in UPS where the British

student also went there for study in 1928.

In 1937, another school called Non-Army Churamuney Nepali School

which was meant only for the girl child and not from the army background

was established. The name of the school was renamed as NKPS latter. In

1946, Gorkha School was started and a higher secondary school in 1956.

68
ASMS was formed in 1964 and is one of the oldest women associations in

Shillong. From the year nineteen forty-one onwards the tribal people of

Meghalaya became Christian. In nineteen seventy-one, a war between Khasi

and Bengali took place and the Bengali people dominated the town. And in

the same manner, a communal conflict took place between the Khasi and the

Gorkhali people in 1987. It had also been reported that at the time of war the

Khasi people used to come to the Gorkhali people house and used to stay

there. They found safer with them since they were close with them at that

time. From 2002 onwards, the people of the community realized the

importance of women for the upliftment of the society. They started to revive

women Association which were already existing and work together for the

development of themselves and the community. The history of the two

localities of Shillong cities cannot be rewritten into two separate parts because

the people of the locality are settled in a very close homogeneous group. The

locality that they are living are not far from the other and the Gorkhali people

are living in a close group. Due to which the history of both the localities

viz., Mawprem and Barapather are discussed jointly.

[Link] Social Map of Mawprem and Barapather Settlements

The social map of the two localities in Shillong which are Mawprem

and Barapather are discussed below. The two localities are situated closely

where they can share many facilities and roads with each other. The main

roads in Shillong are very congestedand the sub-way the same. The Gorkhali

people in Mawprem and Barapather are residing in a very close group where

they can work mutually for their community. They have their own Mandir in

the locality where they can perform puja together and a time to get together

69
to praise their Bhagwan. They have a total number of three Mandir in their

localities. The locality is situated in the main areas where there are schools

and colleges. It is not difficult to approach each other where the connectivity

is smooth. The school and playground are there in the middle of the locality

where they can use it anytime as it belongs to the Gorkha community.

Figure 3.2 Social Map of Mawprem Shillong Settlements

[Link] Services and Opportunities Map of Mawprem and Barapather

Settlements

The two localities of Shillong viz. Mawprem and Barapather are

situated closely where they can share many facilities of the locality jointly. It

is located not so far from the main areas of Shillong which mean the market

areas. They have to travel for around four kilometers to go shopping and for

much administrative work they can get up to that time only. Their locality is

not so far from each other their time spends on transportation is the same for

both. The localities have their own Rural Bank in their areas and one State

Bank of India ATM. Health care centre is also there where they can get the

basic need. For further medical treatment, hospital is available which just

twenty minutes walk from their locality is. If one is willing to go to the

70
central hospital despite the distance, they can save more money and the

treatment is more favorable.

The localities have a private Roman Catholic and Nepali School in their

own areas which is why it is more convenient for their children to go to

school. Colleges are also there and they can opt either for a local college or

distant college according to their convenience. The Gorkhali people have their

own school, Gorkha Pathasala School and Nepali Kanya Pathsala Secondary

School. The name of their colleges which is in their locality is B.B.S College.

These areas have their own police sub-station due to which it is safer than the

other localities. There is also a graveyard in their locality to bury their loved

ones who died. The localities are well developed with fine infrastructure and

they get whatever they need within their locality itself. With regards to the

Gorkha locality development, the Shillong city is one of the most developed

areas as compared to the other two areas.

[Link] Daily Activities and Seasonal Calendar in Barapather Settlements

The Gorkhali women of Shillong wake up early between six to eight

the morning and the first thing they do is to perform puja. The one who does

not have time to perform puja in the morning will do the same in the evening

depending on their convenience. After that, they have to make breakfast for

their family and also have to iron their dresses. A separate tiffin has to be

made for their children and their husband. Although they do not work outside

they have to get everything ready for their family. They have to drop their

children to school who are still under primary level and have to pick them up

after class as well. The one who do not have children undergoing a primary

level of school have more spare times than the other group. After the

71
household work, women have some free time for themselves where they can

visit their friends, family and can get their personal work done. They used to

spend their time knitting, weaving and stitching. They have to make lunch for

their family and after that have to drop their children for tuition and

vocational classes that they opted. Soon it will continue with the evening tea

and watching television. The time from six to eight is the time to make

dinner and to have it. After nine they become free, it‟s the time for family

conversation where they can share the daily activities that they had done so

far. After that, they used to watch television, relax and time to sleep. This

way, women spend their whole day in their household works and then visiting

near and dear ones.

January is the month of vacation where they can spend their time

mostly with their family and visits their relatives who live outstation. Women

spend their time on gardening and used to cook plenty of foods where they

can happily eat together with the family members. Gathering around a warm

and toasty wood fireplace is very common among the people of Shillong due

to its cold weather. February is the month of school admission, women are

busy with kids admissions and go shopping to complete their necessary

requirements. They have to buy a new uniform for them and have to stitch as

well. They have to look after all their children requirements for their entrance

into the new session of school.

In the month of March, they are once again busy in their children's

school activities and with their family. It is also the month of worshipping and

performing pujas. Then comes the month of marriage which is April where

they used to attend the maximum number of marriages within and outside their

72
locality. Attending marriages also gives them benefit to meet and greet with

family, friends, and relatives. May is the month of parent-teachers meet where

they have to participate and have to make some points to contribute for the

meeting. Since, it is the time where they can share their opinion and can give

a suggestion for further betterment of their children/teacher teaching/learning

processes. June which is the middle month of the year is a season to prepare

their children for terminal examination and after that, in the month of July,

they used to declare the result. They get time for vacation and spend time

with their families.

August is the month of pujas where they used to celebrate „Sawan‟ and

“Shiv Parvati” puja. They used to fast and women enjoy the most in this

puja. It is the time to get together with their friends and perform the puja

collaborate with them in their locality. September the festival of „Teej‟ comes,

where women again fast and visits their maternal parents. October and

November is the month of religious function and again women are busy

buying new clothes for self and their children. During the last month of

November and the first week of December, they have to get their children

ready for the final examination. After that declaration of result, one has to

attend the annual function of the school. Then comes marriage session and

vacation, which is one of their favorite time of the year.

3.1.4 The Gorkhali Settlements in Aizawl

The Gorkhas have been in Mizoram at least for acentury and a half. In

1865, Colonel T.H. Lewin wrote, “I had formed a high opinion of the little

Gurkhas, who under Col. Macpherson, had done the fighting of the expedition,

and I obtained permission to send to Nepal and get immigrants from there to

73
colonize this frontier waste." Gorkha colonies were established on the Myani

River, a northern affluent of the Karnaphuli, now in Bangladesh. Colonel

Lewin wanted to establish a number of villages along the "frontier waste"

between the plains and the hills so that a well-defined boundary between the

local and British territories could be established. Colonel Lewin records that

“the country where the villages were located had previously beenuninhabited,

for fear of the marauding Lushais, and my idea had been to establish there a

good stockade villages of courageous, stiff people like the Gurkhas, who

should serve as the buffer between the Mong Raja‟s territory and the

independent Lushais to the east.” After the construction of stockades at

Lungdai and Aizawl, peace was restored in most of the hills.

The government needed manpower-traders, masons, dak-runners,

chowkidars, farmers and others-for which they turned to the Gorkhas, fearing

that the natives were not yet fully docile. The Gorkhas also reached Mizoram

as personnel of the Frontier Police Battalion. It is also recorded that by 1891,

hundreds of people freely moved across the frontiers of Manipur and

Chittagong hill tracts. The Gorkhas were not among them; however, they were

imported by the British themselves. There is a case recorded in 1872 when the

Gorkhas rescued the kidnapped Mary Winchester, daughter of the manager of

the Alexandrapore Tea Garden, from the hands of Lushai Chieftains. This act

of loyalty won the Gorkhas trust of the British, who recommended that they

settle in the area for good. The Surma Valley Military Police Battalion, later

known as 1stAssam Rifles, was raised at Changsil in the north Lushai Hills by

General Tregears in 1889. Its ranks were mainly filled by Gorkha soldiers.

74
 The Gorkhas, after their retirement from the army and the police forces,

accepted the Lushai Hills as their homeland. Today, they form the most

socially organized Gorkha community in northeast India. In Aizawl, they have

settled as groups of households in different localities (Vengs in Mizo). The

prominent localities where Gorkali households settled are Maubawk, Zotlang,

Bawngkawn, Thuampui, Zemabawk, Durtlang, Tanhril, Dinthar, Bazar, and

Khatla. It could be noted here that in some settlements land was given to

them by then the British Government. In these settlements, though they

constitute a minority, they have the sizeable population for socio-cultural

interaction. The study was done in two localities of Aizawl namely

Bawngkawn locality and Maubawk locality respectively.

[Link] History of Bawngkawn and Maubawk Settlements

Gorkha people start their settlements at Bawngkawn in the early 19 th

century with a number of 17 households. The name of that 17 households are:

Jamuna Devi, Jakhapani (Haldarni), Man Bahadur Thapa (Maudare), Keshav

Rana, Dal Rai (Rodanga), Hiramani, Lilu Thapa, Dal Bir Rana, Meghuram

Bhaju, Mom Bahadur Thapa, Budhini, Thane Gharti, L.B. Thapa, Dilaram

Jaishi, Premlal Jaishi, Rabilal Jaishi and Gonosiama. In the early nineteen

century, the main occupation of the Gorkhas in Bawngkawn was cow rearing.

There used to be lots of cowdung in the locality due to which it was named

as „Bawngpui Kawn‟. Later the name Bawngkawn was given. The Gorkhas

started their settlements in the early part of the nineteen century, they were

the first settlers in Bawngkawn and only in the late 40‟s Mizo people begin

their settlements next to the Gorkhas.

75
 Meghuram Bhaju settled in Bawngkawn at around 1900 who was one

of the first settlers in the locality. Earlier he was the land owner of present

Greenwood hospital and Mandir areas, where there used to be a big Thingdawl

tree and the pujas were performed by them at that very same place (Thapa,

2007). A Mandir committee was started in the year 1968 and for the

construction of mandir, the land was given to them by Meghuram Bhaju. He

donated the land to mandir where he used to perform pujas near the „Maina‟

tree. There was no school in the locality till 1951.

Inorder to pursue education, the people of the locality had to go to

Chaltlang the nearby locality. It was hard for the parents to manage the

transportation cost for their children and they were still poor to manage

between the household works and school. Instead of sending their children to

school, helping their parents in the household works and grazing was much

more beneficial for the parents. So some people of the locality felt the need

to start their own school in their locality itself. Land for school was given by

Meghuram Bhaju and soon after the construction of the school was started.

The school was established in the year 1952 and was named as Gorkha

Primary School which was not meant for the Gorkhas only, since, the Gorkhas

was large in number at that time and the Mizo people in minority. The Mizo

people who settled at that time came to learn the Gorkhali language just like

the Gorkhas and share the school with them as well.

Maubawk is situated in the southern part of Aizawl, within the urban

area; it is surrounded by neighbouring communities such as Khatla, Bungkawn,

Lawipu. This community is one of the oldest communities in Aizawl and has

been established in the year 1903 during the British rule in Mizoram. The

76
Britisher‟s allowed a group of soldiers to live in Maubawk temporarily by

making a house for them with bamboo called „Bawkte‟ and after that, the

community was named as Maubawk community. There are lots of different

tribe living in the locality and the Gorkhas are the one who has settled first

in the community.

The Gorkhali people of Maubawk start their livelihood in the locality

from the year eighteen sixty. The prominent settlers in the locality were Mr.

Mahavir Sahi, [Link] Sahi, and [Link] Bahadur Sahi. At that time there

were fewer numbers of Mizo people and the Gorkhali people resided happily

with them. The Gorkhali people settled in Maubawk after their retirement from

their jobs, primarily army. From nineteen hundred years onwards their

population starts increasing where people of other locality started staying in

Maubawk. In the year nineteen thirty-four the people of the locality build a

temporary Mandir for their locality Gorkhali people. It was made up of

bamboo and the materials that they get it from the forests. They could replace

the roof of the Mandir with tin in the year nineteen sixty-three where they use

wood for its body as well. The land was also donated to them by their own

fellow people.

In the year 1970, when the government changed the border of Assam,

many Gorkhali people shifts to Assam from Mizoram and then the population

of Gorkhali people become less in the cities. The one who left the cities goes

by leaving memories for the locality people and the Gorkhali people of

Maubawk continued their living. They stay in the locality homogeneously and

in order to maintain the unity of the locality, they form associations and then

work simultaneously for their community upliftment.

77
[Link] Social Map of Bawngkawn and Maubawk Settlements

Bawngkawn is one of the biggest localities in Aizawl where it is

situated not far from the main areas of Aizawl. The Gorkhali people are living

in a homogeneous group near the main roads, the upper part of the locality

and a little bit far from the main areas. The locality is well developed

recently and they do not have to go to the main market for shopping since

they have their own big market and able to get their needs to a certain

extend. They have their own banks in the locality. Shiv Mandir is located in

the main hilly areas of the locality where the Gorkhali settlers are

concentrated. The locality has many big showrooms of two wheelers and four

wheelers vehicles and it has become the most industrial areas next to the main

bazaar in Aizawl. Due to the industrial areas, the locality is well equipped

with road and the stairs are also in good condition.

Maubawk has a good locality structure and most of the houses are

situated near the main roads. It is not a big locality, in fact, a small with an

evergreen locality. They have their own Mandir in their locality which is

situated in the center. The roads are good which leads to the „tlawng‟ river of

Mizoram. But the sub-road which is used for connecting locality people is not

in good condition which needs to renovate well. Due to the scarcity of water,

they make use of the river water which is located in their locality. The

government school is located in the heart of the locality but the private school

is located outskirt which is very much near to the other locality. There is a

Public Health Engineering office in the locality and also a small market for

selling vegetables. The Gorkhali people live as a group in the locality.

78
 Figure 3.3 Social Map of Aizawl Settlements

[Link] Services and Opportunities Map of Bawngkawn and Maubawk

Bawngkawn settlers have their own areas bank in their localitywhich is

the state bank of India where the majority have their account and the locality

people are making best use of it. One hospital is also there in their locality

and for further health treatment, they can also go to their nearby hospital

which is not far from their locality which is about four to five kilometers. For

administrative works, they have to travel four kilometers away from their

locality. Government and private schools are there in their areas. One Gorkhali

primary school and one high school are also there in their locality. Two

colleges are situated in their locality itself which is beneficial for the students.

For the university, they have to approach the main University of Mizoram

which is located at a distance of about fourteen kilometers and the other

autonomous university is not far from their locality which is situated next to

their locality only. For traveling outstation, they can get the vehicle from their

locality itself.

79
 The locality of Maubawk is not so near the main bazaar areas, they

have to take the vehicle to go to many places. For health-related issues, the

nearest hospital to their area is Aizawl hospital whereas the Government Civil

hospital is at a distance of about forty minutes ride by car. For education

purpose, the people of the locality have to go four to ten kilometers from

their locality and the main university is fifteen kilometers far. With regards to

the administrative work, the main offices are four kilometers and for financial

related work, they have to approach banks of the same distance. For paying

water, electric and television bills, they get it done within their locality. Main

market areas are located at about five kilometers away and for petty needs;

they can get it from their locality.

[Link] Daily Activities and Seasonal Calendar in Bawngkawn and

Maubawk

Women usually get up early in the morning at around 5:30 am and the

first thing they do is prepare food for the family. Since the Government has

changed the school starting time a bit early than usual timing, women had to

complete the meal as early as possible. They have to serve the family

members and make the tiffin ready for them. Only then they used to have

their own meal and do the cleaning part. And if they are working women,

they had to rush to work only after the completion of household works.

During day time they used to spend time with their nearby friends and by

doing the important works of the house. Sometimes women used to spare their

time in voluntary works for the community and for their association. Also,

they had to prepare lunch for their family during day time if they stay at

home and had to serve them as well. They got some time to rest and soon

80
after that, they had to start preparing food for dinner. When all the other

family members return back home, they have their dinner together. Night time

is the best time for them to take rest and watch television. They used to sleep

at around 10:00 at night.

The seasonal calendar was conducted among the unemployed women of

Bawngkawn because the number of employed women is less in number

comparing to unemployed women. Like they have mentioned, that first week

of January is the month of vacation for their school going children so they are

free from all the daily works which they had to do everyday hurriedly.

February and Marchare the month of examination for their children, the mother

has to stay up with their children for moral support and help them in their

studies in every possible way. Vacation starts from the last week of March

and April for the school going children and at that time, women used to be

quite free from their busy schedule and enjoy their time visiting their relatives

and friends. From May to August is the rainy season and women are found to

be busier in their household work, they do not get time even to go out from

the house. In the meantime, they used to be involved in the social activities of

their community and spend time working for their women association.

The month of September to November is a festive season and are quite

busy celebrating the events with their family and friends. During the month of

September, they used to celebrate Bishwakarma Puja, soon after this puja the

next preparation is to celebrate the grand Durga puja and Diwali. This festival

is one of the greatest celebration for the Hindu and everyone, especially

women will try their best to give their children new clothes and shoes so that

they enjoy the festival to the fullest. Buying new stuff has almost become a

81
tradition which is why the children used to ask for it whenever this occasion

comes. But at the same time, some parents found it difficult to manage the

festival due to financial problem. Thus, this festival brings happiness to the

rich whereas sadness for the poor family.

The last month of the year is December where the women said that it

is the month where they used to get some Christmas vacation. Since their

children used to be free they spend time doing the household work, family get

together and go out for some trips. Aizawl women spend most of their time

with their family, looking after their children and their neighbor's friends. They

do participate well in the activities also. The women of Maubawk are mostly

unemployed and the rate of employment is very low due to which the

activities that they perform are mostly the same. They get up early in the

morning and first used to drink tea and have to make for the whole family.

Then they have to prepare a meal for them and for the one who has to go

out for works and schools. After the entire family members leave for their

respective work, the women have to continue their household work.

During day time they get some spare time for themselves which

includes going to the market. At the mean time, they use to visit their near

and dear ones. If they are at home then they need to make lunch for the

family and have to entertain their home visitor. In the evening they have to

prepare a variety of food for dinner and continue to be in the kitchen. Some

of them used to perform puja at home in the evening who do not have time

to do in the morning. After that, each and every member of the house gather

together and has their dinner. Once they are done with dinner, they relax and

spend their time mostly with family by watching television.

82
 The seasonal calendar was conducted among the unemployed women of

Maubawk. As they talk January season it is the month of the holiday of their

school-going children so they found to be free from all the daily works which

they had to do everyday impulsively. The month of examination for their

children is February and March where the mother has to stay with their

children for moral support and help them in their studies. Last week of March

and April is the period of vacation for the school going children and at that

time women used to be quite free and enjoy their time visiting their relatives

and friends. May to August is the month of the rainy season and spend most

of their time at home. In the meantime, they are involved in the social

activities of their community and spend time working for their community.

The month of September to November is the most awaited season for

every family. Everyone is busy celebrating the events with their family and

friends during this time of the year. Thus, festival sometimes brings happiness

to the family, especially for the children. The last month of the year is

December where the women assumed that it is the month where they used to

get some holiday due to Christmas. Since their children used to be free they

spend time doing the household work, family get together and went out for

some trips. Aizawl women spend their valuable time mostly with their family

in looking after their children and with their neighbors.

3.2 Methodology

In this section, the methodological aspects are presented in four sub

sections. The first two subsections present the research problem in terms of

objectives and hypotheses. In the third section, the research design is presented

while in the fourth subsection, chapter scheme is presented.

83
 3.2.1 Objectives

The following are the objectives of the present study.

1. To understand the cultural and social structural context of the Gorkhali women

in North East India from an emic perspective.

2. To probe into the demographic, social and economic structural characteristics

of Gorkhali women in North East India.

3. To assess the social capital endowment of women from a personal network

perspective.

4. To assess the development of Gorkhali women in North East India.

5. To assess the relationship between social capital endowment and development

of women.

6. To suggest measures for social work practice and social policy advocacy to

promote women development in North East India.

3.2.2 Hypotheses

In order to provide focus the following hypotheses are formulated for

the study:

1. There is intercity variation in the social capital endowment of Gorkhali women

in North East India.

2. There is interjati variation in the social capital endowment of Gorkhali women

in North East India.

3. There is intercity variation in the development of Gorkhali women in North

East India.

4. There is intercity variation in the happiness of Gorkhali women in North East

India.

84
5. There is interjati variation in the development of Gorkhali women in North

East India.

6. There is interjati variation in the happiness of Gorkhali women in North East

India.

7. There is a direct relationship between social capital endowment of Gorkhali

women and women development.

8. There is a direct relationship between social capital endowment of Gorkhali

women and women happiness.

3.2.3 Research Design

The present study is descriptive in design and cross-sectional in nature.

The study is based on primary data collected mainly through field survey with

structured pre-tested personal interview schedule from the three major city

cities of North East India. It also employs participatory and case study

methods to supplement the quantitative data.

[Link] Sampling

The unit of the study was individual while the respondents were the

adult Gorkhali women. The population of the study comprised of all the

Gorkha women in North East India. A multi-stage sampling procedure has

been used to select the cities, localities, households, and woman.

The first stage is a selection of the city. The three major cities of the

region viz. Guwahati, Shillong, and Aizawl have been chosen purposively for

the present study. The second stage is a selection of the Gorkhali settlements.

The researcher has collected the socio-economic details of the Gorkhali

settlements from the community leaders in all the three cities. In each of the

cities, one core and one peripheral locality have been selected purposively. The

85
third stage is a selection of households. The lists of households of the selected

localities have been compiled. From these lists, using systematic random

sampling 50 households were drawn. In the selected household one married

woman between the age group of (20-60 years) was selected at random and

interviewed. Thus, the total sample size was 300.

3.4.3 Tools of Data Collection

Structured personal interview schedule was used for collecting data for

the purpose of the present study. Before the actual data collection, a pilot

study was conducted in all the settlements and in the light of that findings,

the structured personal interview schedule was framed. It has been pre-tested

again in all the settlements i.e. in Guwahati, Shillong, and Aizawl. The final

survey was conducted in all the selected localities between the months of

September and November 2013.

The interview schedule contains fourteen sections with a number of sub-

sections. The major sections of the interview schedule are a demographic

profile, socio-economic profile, social capital and women development (see

appendix).

For the measurement of social capital the name generator, interpreter,

and interrelator instruments have been used. From the social network

perspective, social capital has been operationalized in terms of three

dimensions. The first dimension composition social support network

composition is measured with two composites of scores of homophily and

heterogeneity. The second dimension network structure which is a composite of

degree (size) and density of social support networks. The third dimension is

the structural hole is composite of effective size and constraint. The aggregate

86
scores of each of these dimensions were derived from factor analysis with

principal component analysis and from further factor analysis the measure of

social capital was derived.

3.4.4 Operationalization of Social Capital and Women Development

For operationalizing women development, economic indicators and

happiness were used. An economic indicator such as assets personally owned,

monthly personal expenditure, personal savings, and annual personal income

have been used. Factor analysis was used to derive an aggregate weighted

composite score of women development. All the four items have more than

0.33 factors loading in the first factor.

The happiness of women is measured with the help of a modified

Oxford Happiness questionnaire. It was having 29 items. Factor analysis with

principal components method was used to select items from these 29 items.

Only the items having more than 0.33 loading in first factor were included in

the final measurement. Thus, only twelve items were selected and the other

items were discarded. The weighted regression score derived from factor

analysis was considered as the composite measure of women happiness.

The reliability of Happiness has been assessed with the help of Alpha

and Guttmann‟s split half methods. The Guttman Split-Half Coefficient was

worked out to 0.622 while Alpha was computed to 0.75.

In order to understand the community contexts and women‟s challenges,

the participatory methods such as social map, services and opportunities,

seasonal calendar and daily activities schedule were conducted. In addition,

case studies and focus group discussion are carried out for depth understanding

of the developmental challenges of Gorkhali women.

87
3.4.5 Data Processing and Analysis

The data was collected through quantitative and qualitative means.

Reverse scoring was undertaken for some of the items in happiness index

scale. The quantitative data collected through the field survey was entered into

a master chart after coding and further fed into an excel sheet. It was later

imported into SPSS for statistical analysis. The data was cleaned and checked

for errors and missing data. The data were processed with the help of

computer packages of Microsoft Excel. For Personal Network Analysis, E-NET

software was used. SPSS was used to analyze the conventional attribute based

socio-economic data. The personal social network measures derived from E-

NET such as socio economic composition, heterogeneity, homophily, structure

hole etc., were analyzed with the help of SPSS. Factor analysis with principal

component analysis was used for aggregation and weighting of the indicators

and dimensions of social capital, women development, and happiness. To

analyze the attribute data cross tabulation, averages and percentages were used.

One way analysis of variation, Pearson‟s chi-square test, Cramer‟s V,

Spearman‟s rho, and Karl Pearson‟s product moment correlation coefficients

was also used for analysis of data.

This chapter has presented the setting and methodological aspects of the

present study. In the light of that, the next chapter presents a discussion on

the social background of respondents.

88
CHAPTER IV

SOCIAL STRUCTURAL BASES OF GORKHALI HOUSEHOLDS

 CHAPTER IV

SOCIAL STRUCTURAL BASES OF GORKHALI HOUSEHOLDS

The previous chapter describes the settings of the respondent‟s

community and the methodology of the present study. In this chapter, an

attempt has been made to examine the demographic, social, as well as

economic structural bases of the households and their members in the three

Gorkhali settlements in North East India. It has been presented in four

subsections viz. demographic characteristics, family structure, social structure,

and economic structure.

4.1 Demographic Characteristics

The demographic profile includes age-group, educational status and

marital status of the Gorkhali women in North East India (see table 4.1) with

the total population of three hundred. In respect to the age-group of the

members of the three localities, age group was classified into three categories

namely early adulthood (18-35), late adulthood (35-59), and old age (60

above). It has been found out that more than half of the respondents fall into

the second category i.e. late adulthood. The Gorkhali women of Aizawl have

the highest number of late adulthood respondents with 63%, decrease towards

Shillong with 61% and Guwahati with 54% of respondents which are the least

one. Whereas in the second category which is the late adulthood, here it has

been found out that the respondents in Guwahati have the highest of the two-

third population followed by Aizawl and Shillong respondents respectively.

Only some of the respondents fall under the old age category with only 1% in

both locality viz., Guwahati and Aizawl while Shillong had a little more

respondent with 4% as compared to the other two localities. As a whole, the

89
mean age of the Gorkhali women among the three cities were 40 years and

that of the standard deviation was 55 years to its upper limit and 25 years to

its lower limit.

The educational status of the respondents has been classified into six

levels viz., illiterate, primary (1-4), middle (5-7), high (8-10), higher secondary

(11-12), and graduate above. The number of education of the respondents was

highest in the high school level of education. The Gorkhali women of

Guwahati and Aizawl have the highest level of high school education (32%)

while Shillong women the least one (23%). The second category is the middle

school level where there is only a slight difference in their percentages. Here

we can see that the respondents of Aizawl (35%) have the highest per cent

followed by Guwahati (31%) and Shillong (14%) respondents. Shillong has the

lowest level of high and middle education as compared to Aizawl and

Guwahati respondents.

In the higher secondary Shillong have the highest number of

respondents followed by Guwahati and Aizawl. In the same manner, the

Gorkhali women of Shillong with two-fifth of the population have a higher

level of graduate and above education than the other two groups which counts

only one-fifth. Whereas Aizawl has the lowest level of higher secondary and

graduate above education although there were only slight differences between

the Gorkhali women of Aizawl and Guwahati. Therefore, the mean years of

education of the respondents were nine standard and the standard deviation was

four standard to graduate level of education.

The marital status of the community is classified into four groups viz.,

unmarried, married, divorced/separated and widow. The majority of the

90
respondents were under the married category in all the three cities which

means almost all the Gorkhali women were married. The second highest group

is the widowed group with a total number of eleven percentages of the

population. The widowed respondent was highest in Guwahati respondents

(15%) followed by Aizawl (11%) and Shillong the least one (7%). The

unmarried respondents were high in Shillong respondents followed by Aizawl

and Guwahati respectively. Whereas, the percentage of divorced/separated

respondents was very less in all the three cities which was only one percent

each in the three areas.

Table 4.1 Demographic Profile of Respondents

City
Total
[Link] Characteristic Aizawl
N = 300
Guwahati Shillong n=
n = 100 n = 100 100
1 Age Group
Early Adulthood (18 – 35 Years) 45 35 36 116
Late Adulthood (35 -59) 54 61 63 178
Old Age (60 and Above) 1 4 1 6
Mean Age 38 ±10 41±22 40±10 40±15
2 Educational Status
Illiterate 6 5 4 15
Primary (1 - 4) 3 11 8 22
Middle ( 5 - 8) 31 14 35 80
High School (9 - 10) 32 23 32 87
Higher Secondary (11 - 12 ) 12 22 9 43
Graduate and Above 16 25 12 53
Mean Years of Education 9±4 9±4 8±3 9±4
3 Marital Status
Unmarried 2 5 4 11
Married 82 87 84 253
Divorced/Separated 1 1 1 3
Widowed 15 7 11 33
Source: Computed Mean ± S.D

91
4.2 Family Structure

The family is one of the subsystems of a society. The structural

attributes of family viz., type of family, the size of family, aform of family

and gender of the head of the households are discussed in this section (see

table 4.2).

The first component of the structure of thefamily is its type. There are

two types of family observed in the contexts of Gorkhali community in and

outside Mizoram. They are mainly joint and nuclear types of family. As

regards this, nuclear family constitutes the higher percentage in all the

settlements as compared to the joint family. Aizawl respondentshave the

highest number of the nuclear family which was 73% followed by Shillong

with 71%and Guwahati has the lowest one with 62%. Whereas with regards to

thejoint family the result was opposite with the former one. The Gorkhali

women of Guwahati have the highest number of the joint family followed by

Shillong and Aizawl Gorkhali women respectively.

The second element of thefamily structure consists of its size. The size

of the family has been classified into three categories viz., small (1-3),

medium (4-6) and large (7 and above). The medium size of the family was

the most dominant category and constitutes more than half of the population in

all the settlements which were followed by the small and large size of the

family. The respondents of Aizawl had the highest number of medium size of

family 68% followed by Shillong with 61% and Guwahati the least one with

53%. While in the small size of the family the respondents of Guwahati had

the highest number with 38% and Aizawl with the lowest at 24%. The large

size of the family was less in all the three cities as compared to the other

92
two categories. But it was high among Guwahati Gorkhali women followed by

Shillong and Aizawl Gorkhali women. Therefore, the mean size of the family

was four and the standard deviation was two.

The third structural element of family studied is the form of family. In

the context of Gorkhali respondents, the three forms of family are found

namely stable, broken and reconstituted families. Almost all the respondents of

the three cities fall under the stable form of family. The Gorkhali women of

Guwahati have the highest level of a stable family with 98% and Aizawl with

a slight difference of 97% where Shillong Gorkhali women have a least one

with 91 per cent. The number of respondents with the constituted form of

families was again high with Shillong respondents which wereeight percent and

it was lowest in the other two cities respondents. The broken family was very

low in all the three cities with only one per centof the respondents belongs to

Guwahati and Shillong whereas we can see that the number was nil among

Aizawl respondents.

The last element of the family structure was the gender of the head of

the three Gorkhali cities household. Gorkha community is a patriarchal family

where man is the head of the family. In the findings we found women headed

family as well mainly due to the reason of widowhood and divorce. With

reference to the head of the family in regards to the gender, it was found out

that male-headed households are dominant in all the three cities. The Gorkhali

women of Shillong and Aizawl have the highest ratio of the male-headed

family (79 per cent) each and that of the Gorkhali women of Guwahati have

less than the other two cities (66 per cent). On the other hand, the

93
respondents of Guwahati have the highest female-headed family and it was

same as the respondents of Shillong and Aizawl (21 percent) respectively.

Table 4.2 Family Structural Bases of Respondents

City
Total
[Link] Characteristic Guwahati Shillong Aizawl
N = 300
n = 100 n = 100 n = 100
1 Type of Family
Nuclear 62 71 73 206
Joint 38 29 27 94
2 Size of Family
Small(1-3) 38 27 24 89
Medium( 4 -6) 53 61 68 182
Large(7 and 9 12 8 29
Above)
Mean size of family 4±2 5±2 5±2 4±2
3 Form of Family
Stable 98 91 97 286
Broken 1 1 0 2
Reconstituted 1 8 3 12
4 Gender of Head
Male 66 79 79 224
Female 34 21 21 76
Source: Computed

4.3 Social Structure Bases of the Community

The social structural characteristics such as religion and community are

discussed below (see table 4.3).

Gorkha community belongs to Hindu religion and the result shows that

the majority of the population belongs to Hinduism and only a few of them

had been converted to Christianity. In Guwahati community, 100% of the

respondent belongs to Hindu religion with no Christian religion. In the same

manner, we had found out that only 2% of the respondents belong to

Christianity in Shillong and the other 98% were Hindu. Therefore, the number

of the Christian religion was high in Aizawl with 14% as compared to the

other two communities. The Christian Gorkhali respondents do take part in the

94
community activities except on the religious activities. As we know that

religious and community activity are very much related to each other due to

which in many circumstances the Christian Gorkha respondent is not being

able to participate actively.

Table 4.3 Social Structural Bases of Respondents

City
Total
[Link] Characteristic Guwahati Shillong Aizawl
N = 300
n = 100 n = 100 n = 100
1 Religion
Hindu 100 98 86 284
Christian 0 2 14 16
2 Jati Hierarchy
Brahmana 43 48 8 99
Chhetry,Shahi,Pradhan,Ghart etc 41 27 38 106
Rai,Limbu,Thapa,Tamang etc 16 23 36 75
Bishwa,Sarki,Damai etc 0 2 18 20
Source: Computed

The social structure of the community was analyzed in terms of Jati

hierarchy. The jati system has been categorized into four order viz., Brahmana

at the highest level and in the second level are Chhetri, Pradhan, Gharti,

Shahi/Thakuri etc. The third level is Rai, Limbu, Thapa, Tamang, Gurung etc.,

and at the bottom, there were Bishwa, Sarki, Damai, Lohar, Sunar etc. The

above classification is not the so-called classification given by the prominent

people, in fact, it has been classified by the researcher according to the jati

which is very much prevalent in the present world within the studied

communities. From the findings, it has been found out that the most dominant

category is the second category and followed by the Brahmana community

with the least differences. Where Guwahati had the highest second category

respondents (41%) followed by Aizawl (38%) and Shillong with the least one

(27%). Shillong had the highest Brahmana community respondents (48%) and

Aizawl with little of 8% respondents only. On the other hand, Aizawl had the

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highest third category group (36%) and in the same way highest low category

group (18%) whereas Guwahati least in both the category with 16% and 0%

respectively. Guwahati and Shillong population has been concentrated in the

first and second category community while Aizawl population in the last three

groups.

4.4 Economic Characteristics

The discussion on economic characteristics is presented in terms of

dependency, primary occupation, secondary occupation, socioeconomic category,

and annual personal income (see table 4.4).

The dependency rate was very high among the respondents (70%) as

compared to the earner rate (30%). It was highest with 72% of the Shillong

respondents and only one per cent gap with Guwahati respondents which was

71% where Aizawl had a little of 67% respondents. While on the contrary,

Aizawl had the highest earner respondents (33%) despite Guwahati and

Shillong. Thus, there was not much distinction in dependency rate among the

settlements and it was analyzed that Aizawl had the highest earner rate and

Shillong with the highest dependent rate.

The primary occupation has been categorized into six groups viz.,

Skilled Labourer, Government Worker, Petty Business, Pensioner, Wage

Labourer, Cultivator, and Large Business. As we mentioned above, the

dependency rate was high (70%) which leads toward the low level of primary

occupation. Respondents with skilled occupation were high in Shillong (14%)

followed by Guwahati with fewer differences (12%) and much lesser with

Aizawl respondents (9%). From the thirty per cent of the earner rate, the

remaining around 18% of the respondents had been employed under

96
 government workers, petty business, wage laborers, and pensioners. For many

respondents, they had to depend on their pension sum as their primary income.

Only a small per cent of the respondents had large business as their primary

occupation (2%) only. There were no respondents who have hada secondary

occupation as their income to support the family and themselves.

The socio-economic category of the household indicates its position in

the class structure. It consists of two categories namely poor (BPL) and non-

poor (APL). The majority of the respondents belong to the non-poor category

and a very few of them are under the poor category. In all the three

settlements, the non-poor category had crossed ninety percent of the population

and only around six per cent of the respondents belong to the poor category

according to the findings.

Table 4.4 Economic Structure of the Communities

City
Total
[Link] Characteristic Guwahati Shillong Aizawl N = 300
n = 100 n = 100 n = 100
1 Earner/Dependent
Earner 29 28 33 90
Dependent 71 72 67 210
2 Primary Occupation
None 68 72 67 207
Skilled Labourers 12 14 9 35
Petty Business 10 3 8 21
Govt. Workers 7 3 8 18
Pensioner 2 3 6 11
Wage Labourers 1 3 2 6
Large Business 0 2 0 2
3 Secondary Occupation
None 100 100 100 300
Socio Economic
4 Category
Poor(BPL) 4 8 7 19
Non-poor (APL) 96 92 93 281
Source: Computed

97
 4.5. Patterns of Living Conditions

In this section, the living condition of the community such as personal

assets, household income, personal income, and personal expenditure are

discussed below.

4.5.1 Personal Assets

In this study, the personal assets of the settlements include different

kinds of materials viz., television, house, radio, furniture, jewels etc., (see table

4.5).

Table 4.5 Pattern of Personal Assets

City
Total
[Link] Guwahati Shillong Aizawl N = 300
Characteristic
n = 100 n = 100 n = 100
Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D
1 House/Buildings 12000 45014 89000 348994 125000 447750 75333 331069
(30) (73) (89) (75)
2 Jewels 25120 20517 21310 21468 13200 11324 19877 18953
(63) (17) (9) (20)
3 Car 0 0 8000 54458 0 0 2667 31563
(0) (7) (0) (3)
4 Television 1170 3496 880 4646 660 2212 903 3586
(3) (1) (0) (1)

5 Two-wheeler 0 0 1850 9147 0 0 617 5335

(0) (2) (0) (1)

Refrigerator 410 1970 200 2000 700 2549 437 2191

6
(1) (0) (0) (0)

7 Household Utensils 510 2209 290 2066 300 1059 367 1847
(1) (0) (0) (0)

8 Household Furniture 470 1642 120 624 490 1755 360 1439
(1) (0) (0) (0)

9 Washing machine 0 0 100 1000 180 1274 93 935

(0) (0) (0) (0)

10 Transistor 20 200 30 300 0 0 17 208

(0) (0) (0) (0)
Assets Personally 39700 54203 121780 382698 140530 454261 100670 345996
11 Owned (100) (100) (100) (100)

Source: Computed Figures in parentheses are percentages

As regards the pattern of personal assets, the most predominant form of

assets of the respondents was house/buildings and jewels in all the settlements.

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 Aizawl had the highest house/buildings personal assets and Guwahati had the

least one. The mean amount of personal assets in the former settlements were

Rs 125000 and that of in the latter was Rs 12000 respectively whereas a

number of jewels are a little bit lesser than that of house assets. The mean

value of jewels which was highest among Guwahati respondents Rs 25120 and

least among Aizawl respondents Rs 13200. The total amount of the personal

assets owned by the respondents are quite high and again here also Aizawl

respondents had the highest personal assets (Rs 140530) followed by Shillong

(Rs 121780) and Guwahati (Rs 39700). Therefore the mean amount of the

three settlements as a whole was 100670, while, the standard deviation for the

same was Rs 245326 to its lower limit and Rs 446666 to its upper limit.

4.5.2 Annual Household and Personal Income

In this section, income has been divided into two patterns namely

annual household income and annual personal income of the settlements (see

table 4.6).

Table 4.6 Annual Household and Personal Income

City
Total
Sl. Guwahati Shillong Aizawl
Characteristic N = 300
No n = 100 n = 100 n = 100
Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D
Annual Household 2577 215236 371820 416463 313360 459384 314293 380550
1 Income 00
Annual Personal 3800 81677 55340 146450 92320 438973 61887 271344
2 Income 0
Source: Computed Figures in parentheses are percentages

The former one was much greater than the latter one. Shillong

respondents had the highest annual household income (mean value Rs 371820)

despite the other two settlements while Aizawl respondents had the highest

annual personal income (mean value Rs 92320). On the contrary, Guwahati

respondents had the lowest annual household income (mean value Rs 257700)

99
and annual household income (mean value Rs 38000) as well. The total mean

annual household income of the three settlements respondent was 314293 and

that of the annual personal income was 61887. Thus, the former one had a

standard deviation of Rs 66257 and Rs 694843, whereas, the latter one had Rs

209457 and Rs 333231 respectively.

4.5.3 Pattern of Personal Expenditure

Expenditure is what someone is paying for something. The opposite of

income and an amount of money spend. The items of monthly personal

expenditure have been classified into five parts viz., transport &

communication, mobile phone bill, cosmetics, recreation, health, and personal

care (see table 4.7).

Table 4.7 Pattern of Monthly Personal Expenditure

City
Total
Guwahati Shillong Aizawl
[Link] Component N = 300
n = 100 n = 100 n = 100
Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D
Transport & 2203 1697 3140 6295 1695 1541 2346 3901
1 Communication (30) (27) (23) (27)

2 Mobile Phone Bill 1607 1229 2865 5435 2430 3053 2301 3693
(22) (25) (33) (26)
3 Cosmetics 1367 1331 2490 5112 1907 1028 1921 3130
(19) (22) (26) (22)
4 Recreation 1273 1367 1923 4089 723 713 1306 2562
(18) (17) (10) (15)
Health and Personal 800 610 1065 2074 680 463 848 1282
5 Care (11) (9) (9) (10)

Monthly Personal 7250 4825 11483 21934 7435 4767 8723 13355
6 Expenditure (100) (100) (100) (100)

Source: Computed Figures in parentheses are percentages

Since we had mentioned all the income part of the respondents in the

above statement and now in this section, we are going to explain the monthly

personal expenditure part. The expenditure of the respondents was high in the

100
transport and communication sector followed by mobile phone bill and the

least one with the health and personal care. Shillong had a high expenditure in

transport and communication sector (mean value Rs 3140) while Aizawl with

the least amount (mean value Rs1695). Women spend high in this sector

because they had to visit their maternal family and had to be in touch with

them through mobile phones. While they spend less on health and personal

care because they were still young and healthy to a certain extent. The total

mean monthly personal expenditure of all the settlements was Rs 8723 and

that of the standard deviation was Rs 4632 to its lower limit and Rs 22078 its

upper limit.

In this chapter, the demographic, social and economic background of the

respondents across the three major cities of North East India has been

described. In the next chapter, the results on analyses of social capital and

women development will be discussed.

101
CHAPTER V

SOCIAL CAPITAL AND DEVELOPMENT OF GORKHALI WOMEN

 CHAPTER V

SOCIAL CAPITAL AND DEVELOPMENT OF GORKHALI WOMEN

In the previous chapter an attempt has been made to discuss the socio-

economic background of the respondents belonging to three major cities of

North East India. In this chapter an attempt has been made to discuss the

results of analysis of social capital, women development and relationship

between social capital and women development. This chapter has been

presented in terms of three sections. The first section discusses the results of

analysis of social capital. In the second section, the women development has

been discussed while the third section is devoted to discuss the bearing of

social capital on development of Gorkhali women in the North East India.

5.1 Social Support Network and Social Capital

Social capital in the present study has been conceptualized from the

perspective of the social network. Personal Network analysis or egocentric

network analysis is used in the present study to assess social capital. Data on

egocentric networks of the social support of the respondents were collected

with the help of name generators and interpreters embedded in the interview

schedule. The social support networks of the respondents were analyzed for

their composition and structure. E-Net software (Borgatti, 2006) was used to

analyze the egocentric social support network composition and structure. The

statistical summary measures personal network derived from E-Net were further

analyzed with the help of SPSS.

In this section, the findings of an analysis of social support networks of

women respondents in terms of composition, structure and social capital

endowment are discussed. The section is presented in terms of three broad

102
sub-sections. The first sub-section is devoted to discussing the composition of

social support networks. The second sub-section presents a discussion on the

structural aspects of social support networks. In the third sub-section,

discussion on the social capital endowment of Gorkhali women in North East

India is presented. In this sub-section, the results of testing of the first and

second hypotheses are also discussed.

5.1.1 The composition of Personal Social Support Networks:

The composition of social support networks of respondents refers to the

characteristic attributes of the alters in social support network. Alters are those

who provide support or related to the actors (respondents). The composition of

the personal networks of the respondents was analyzed in terms demographic,

social, economic characteristics, respondents relationship with their alters,

respondents closeness and types of social support. In this section, discussion on

the results of the statistical analysis of network measures is presented in six

subsections. The first subsection presents the demographic composition of

personal social support networks. In the second subsection, the social and

economic composition of the social support networks is discussed. The type of

relationship and closeness in social support network are discussed in the third

subsection. In the fourth subsection, the type of social support received is

discussed. In the fifth section, the results of the analysis of heterogeneity

measures are discussed. In the last section, discussion on the homophily

measures is presented.

[Link] Demographic Composition of Personal Social Support Networks

The personal social support networks of the respondents are connected

with different groups of people and have been analyzed with the demographic

103
composition (see table 5.1). The demographic composition of the respondent‟s

networks is discussed in terms of gender, age and education. As these

attributes areconverted into percentages at the group level, the variation in

them was discussed with one-way analysis of variance. For post hoc

comparison least square difference was used wherever there are significant

differences.

As regards gender, the personal social support networks are by and

large composed of women and a few alters were men. There is no significant

difference between the Cities in terms of the percentage of women in the

social support networks. The computed F ratio for the intercity variation (2.59)

in the percentage of women in the social support networks was not even

significant at 5 per cent level.

However, the percentage of men in the social support networks of the

respondents significantly differed between the three major cities of North East

India. The computed F ratio (10.83) for intercity variation in the percentage of

men was significant at 1 per cent level. The Gorkhali women in Shillong had

a greater percentage of men in their personal networks as compared to those

in Guwahati. On the other hand between the percentage of men in social

support networks of the respondents in Guwahati and Aizawl, there is no

significant difference. Likewise, there is no significant difference in the

percentage of men in the social support network of the respondents in Shillong

and Aizawl.

It had been found out that the male networks were significant where

the computed F value was 10.83. Guwahati and Shillong respondents have

104
differences in the male networks as compared to Aizawl respondents. Besides

those female networks was not significant at all.

The age of the alters in respondents social support networks is

measured in terms of minimum, maximum, total and average at the individual

network level. As Mean and Standard deviation of them were computed and

intercity differences were assessed with one-way ANOVA and LSD. The age

of the alters in the social support networks of the Gorkhali women varied

significantly between the three cities. On the whole, it ranged from 32 years

to 53 years. The minimum age of the alters was highest in Aizawl (35 Years),

closely followed by Shillong (32) and Guwahati (29). The intercity differences

in minimum age between Aizawl and Guwahati, Aizawl and Shillong, as well

as Guwahati and Shillong were significant at 5 per cent level. Likewise, the

average age of the alters in the social support networks of the respondents

were also significantly different across the three cities Aizawl, Shillong, and

Guwahati. The mean age of the alters in the social support network was

highest in Aizawl, followed by Shillong and Guwahati. Between all pairs of

the cities, there was a significant difference in the mean age.

The third characteristic is education which was measured in terms of a

number of years. The mean years of education of the alter in the social

support networks across the cities ranged from 6 to 12 years. In the minimum

number of years of education of alters there is no significant intercity variation

while in maximum, total, and an average number of years of education of

alters there were significant variations between the cities. The average mean

years of education of alters in the social support networks of the respondents

105
 was higher in Shillong (10 Years) as compared to that of those in Guwahati

and Aizawl (10 Years).

Table 5.1 Demographic Composition of Personal Social Support Networks

City
Total
Guwahati Shillong Aizawl
[Link] Characteristic N = 300 F
n = 100 n = 100 n = 100
Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D
1 Gender
Male 15a 18 22b 22 19ab 22 19 20 10.83**
a a a
Female 85 18 78 22 80 23 81 21 2.59
2 Age
Minimum 29 8 32 8 35 10 32 9 11.89**
a ab b
Maximum 51 10 53 11 55 13 53 11 10.42**
a a
Total 208 80 193 90 153 77 185 85 3.14*
Average 39 7 42 7 44 9 42 8 3.22*
3 Education
Minimum 6a 4 7a 4 6a 3 6 3 1.36
a a
Maximum 12 3 13 2 11 3 12 3 10.98**
a a
Total 52 23 48 25 31 17 44 24 25.18**
a a
Average 9 2 10 2 9 2 10 2 8.54**
Source: Computed ** P <0.01 *P < 0.05 Mean ± S.D
Note: Means followed by the same superscripts do not significantly differ

[Link] Social and Economic Composition of Personal Social Support

Networks
The social and economic composition of personal social support

networks is analyzed in terms of Jati hierarchy, ethnicity, religion, and socio-

economic category (see table 5.2).

The first social characteristic of social composition studied here isjati

hierarchy. Among the Gorkhas in North East India, the society is organized in

terms of a number of the endogamous tribe like Jati groups. They are ordered

into four hierarchical categories. On the top, we see the Brahamanas. The next

in the order is the Jatis of Chhetry, Shahi, Pradhan, Gharti etc. In third place,

the tribe‟s like Rai, Limbu, Thapa, Tamang etc. are placed. The jatis such as

Bishwa, Sarki, Damai etc. are placed in the lowest ladder of jati hierarchy.

106
 The jati composition of the social support network of the respondents

reflects the social hierarchy in Shillong and Guwahati. Most of the alters in

the social support networks of the respondents in Shillong and Guwahati

belonged to the BrahmanaJati which occupies the top of the hierarchy. In these

two states then comes the next category in the jati hierarchy i.e. Chhetry,

Shahi, Pradhan, Gharti etc, which is followed by Rai, Limbu, Thapa, Tamang

etc. The respondents of the jati group of Bishwa, Sarki, Damai etc., were

occupying the next position. Those who don‟t belong to these categories are

still lesser in the social support networks as alters. In the social support

networks of the respondents from Aizawl, the mean percentage of the

Brahmanas was less yet for other categories the order was intact.

All the four jati categories had significant intercity differences and only

the last category i.e. others was not significant. The average percentage of

Brahamana alters in the social support networks of the respondents is higher in

Shillong (42%) and Guwahati (41%) as compared to Aizawl (7%). Between

the former two, there is no significant difference in the percentage of the

mean percentage of Brahamana alters in the respondent's social support

networks. The percentage of alters in the social support networks belonging to

the Chhetry, Shahi, Pradhan, Gharti etc. the category was highest in Guwahati

(37%), followed by Aizawl (32%) and Shillong (26%). However, between

Guwahati and Aizawl, the mean differences in the percentage of the alters

belonging to the second level is not significant. Likewise, between Shillong

and Aizawl also there was no significant difference in the percentage of alters

in the social support networks of the respondent.

107
 The percentage of Rai, Limbu, Thapa, Tamang etc. who belong to the

third layer of jati hierarchy among the Gorkhalis is higher in Aizawl (36%) as

compared to Guwahati (15%) and Shillong (18%). Between the respondents of

the latter two cities, there is no significant difference in their presence of the

members of the third layer of the jati hierarchy. A similar pattern of intercity

variation in the presence of the Jatis of the fourth layer viz., Bishwa, Sarki,

Damai etc. could be observed. The percentage of them in the social support

networks of the respondents as alters is highest in Aizawl (17%), followed by

Shillong (4%) and Guwahati (2%) could be observed. However, between the

respondents of the latter two cities, there is no significant difference in their

presence of the members of the fourth layer of the jati hierarchy

The second characteristic of the social composition of a social support

network of the respondents taken up for discussion is ethnicity. In the context

of the three north eastern cities studied eight ethnic groups were found among

the alters of the personal networks of the respondents. They were Gorkhali,

Assamese, Khasi, Bengali, Muslim, Punjabi, Manipuri and Mizo. A vast

majority of the alters in the social support networks of the respondents

belonged to the Gorkhali ethnic group invariably across the three cities studied.

Hence, the presence of the members of the other ethnic groups was found to

be was marginal. Only 9 per cent of the alters in the social support networks

of the respondents belonged to the other ethnicities.

Interestingly, in the respondents, social support networks the presence of

the majority ethnic groups such as Assamese, Khasi, and Mizo could be seen

in the respective states. In the social support networks of the respondents in

Aizawl, the presence of the majority ethnic group is greater (6%) which is

108
followed by Khasis in Shillong (5%) and Assamese (5%). However, on an

average of 1 to 2 per cent of the alters in the social support networks of the

respondents belong to the Bengali community.

The third characteristic of the social composition of a social support

network of the respondents is religion. The alters in the social support

networks belong to three religious groups viz., Hindu, Christian, and Muslim.

A vast majority of the alters in social support networks of the respondents

belongs to the Hindu religion and only a few of alters in the social support

networks of the respondents were Muslims (5%). The respondents of Guwahati

(99%) have the highest alters in social support networks which is the first

category of religion followed by Shillong (93%) and Aizawl (86%)

respectively. Aizawl (26%) respondents have the highest Christian alters

percentage in social support networks follow by Shillong (13%), on the

contrary, Guwahati has no alter in this category. Henceforth, on an average 1

to 5 per cent of the alters in social support networks of the respondents

belong to the Muslim religion.

In the fourth characteristic observed is the socio-economic category of

the alters in the social support networks in the three cities correspondingly.

The socio-economic category has been classified into two group‟s viz., poor

and non-poor category. The result of the analysis highlight that the majority of

the respondents alters in social support networks belong to the non-poor

category and only a few of them are under the poor category. In all the cities

a vast majority of the alters in the social support network belong to the non-

poor category. There is a significant difference in the socio-economic category

composition of the alters in the social support network of the alters. In Aizawl

109
 (99%) most of the alters in the social support networks belong to the non-poor

category. Likewise, in Shillong (98%) and Guwahati (97%), most of the alters

belonged to the non-poor category.

Table 5.2 Social and Economic Composition of Personal Social Support Networks
City Total
Sl. Guwahati Shillong Aizawl N = 300
Characteristic
No n = 100 n = 100 n = 100 F
Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D
Jati Hierarchy
1 (Community)
a
Brahmana 41 33 42 a 35 7 20 30 34 45.2**
a
Chhetry,Shahi,Pradhan, 37 30 26b 28 32ab 35 32 32
Gharti etc. 3.6*
a a
Rai,Limbu,Thapa, 15 24 18 27 36 37 23 31
Tamang etc. 15.8**
a a
Bishwa,Sarki,Damai 2 8 4 12 17 31 7 21
etc. 16.3**
a a a
Others 6 12 10 16 8 17 8 15 1.9
2 Ethnicity
Gorkhali 92 15 89 17 91 20 91 17 0.6
Assamese 5 10 1a 4 0a 2 2 7 14.2**
Khasi 0a 2 5 10 0a 0 2 6 21.5**
Bengali 2 9 3 8 1 9 2 9 1.5
Muslim 0 4 1 5 0 2 1 4 2.0
Punjabi 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 1.9
Manipuri 0 2 0 0 1 4 0 2 1.0
Mizo 0a 0 0a 3 6 15 2 9 14.6**
3 Religion
Hindu 99 4 93 16 86 27 93 19 13.5**
Christian 0 1 6 13 12 26 6 17 13.4**
Muslim 1 4 2 7 1 5 1 5 1.1
Socio Economic
4 Category
Poor 3a 8 2a 7 0 a
3 2a 7 2.9
Non-poor 97 a 8 98 a 7 99 a
10 98 a
9 0.5
Source: Computed ** P <0.01 P < 0.05

Note: Means followed by the same superscripts do not significantly differ

[Link] Patterns of Relationship and Closeness in Social Support Network

The first characteristic illustrates the type of relationships of the

respondents with their alters. Six types of relations viz., kin, friend, neighbor,

community leader, land lord/lady and none were found. Of this kinship,

110
friendship and neighborhood were the three major sources of social support to

respondents. Among the three types of relationship, Kins constituted the

majority of the alters in the social support networks of the respondents (see

table 5.3).

The social support networks of the respondents are concentrated with

the kins or relatives of the respondents. Among the three cities, the Gorkhali

women of Aizawl (65.5%) have the highest percentage of alters in social

support networks followed by Shilong (51.6%) and Guwahati (45.8%)

respectively.

The second highest percentage of alters in the social support networks

of the respondents were the friends of the respondents. The result is exactly

the opposite of the kin relationships where in this friend relationship it has

been found out that Guwahati (37.5%) have the highest alters in social support

networks of the respondents precede by Shillong (19.7%) and Aizawl (18.4%).

The third highest percentage of alters in the social support networks of

respondents are their neighbours Aizawl the highest followed by Shillong and

Guwahati. The same kind of findings has been found out in Li, Pickles and

Savage (2005) studies, where the unofficial social networks groups have more

neighbourly closeness than the official groups. Whereas in the last three

relationships which are the community leader, landlord and the none group,

Shillong Gorkhali women have the highest social support networks as

compared to the other two cities.

The second characteristics of the alters in the social network of

respondents is the closeness of the Gorkhali women with them. The level of

closeness of their relationship is measured with the five-point scale Viz., not

111
 close at all (0), not very close (1), somewhat close (2), close (3) and very

close (4).

The respondent's closeness with their alters in social support networks is

analyzed with minimum, maximum and the average at the network level. The

results show that the respondents had a very close relationship with the alters

in their social support networks. The closeness measure ranges between 3.4

and 3.9 (Close to Very close). The overall average 3.7 shows that most of the

respondents were very close to their alters. There was intercity variation in

closeness between the respondents and their alters. The respondents in Aizawl

are closer to their alters as compared to those in Shillong and Guwahati while

between the latter there is no significant difference found.

Table 5.3 Respondent’s Relationship and Closeness with their Alters

City
Total
Guwahati Shillong Aizawl F
N = 300
[Link] Characteristic n = 100 n = 100 n = 100
Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D
1 Relationship
Kin 46.8 a 29.4 51.6 a 30.4 66.5 33.0 55.0 32.0 11.0**
Friend 37.5 29.5 19.7 a 23.1 18.4 a 26.5 25.2 27.8 16.2**
Neighbour 13.9 a 16.9 20.4 25.2 11.0 a 21.1 15.1 21.6 5.2**
Community Leader .9 a 3.9 4.5 12.3 1.7 a 7.3 2.4 8.7 5.1**
a b
.2 2.0 3.0 10.0 1.3 a 5.7 1.5 6.8
b
Land Lord/Lady 4.5**
.7 a 4.4 .7 a 4.7 .1 a
1.4 .5 3.8
a
None 0.7
2 Closeness
Minimum 3.4 a .6 3.2 .7 3.6 a .7 3.4 .7 10.1**
a a
Maximum 3.8 .4 3.9 .3 4.0 .0 3.9 .3 10.4**
a a
Average 3.6 .4 3.6 .4 3.9 .2 3.7 .4 17.4**
Source: Computed ** P <0.01 P < 0.05

Note: Means followed by the same superscripts do not significantly differ

112
 [Link] Patterns of Social Support: Type of Support Received

In this subsection, the patterns of types of social support received by

the Gorkhali women respondents as well as their trust with their alters in the

social support network in the three cities have been discussed (see table 5.4).

Three types of social support viz., emotional, financial and informational

were assessed. Among the three types of social support, the emotional social

support is at the top followed by financial, and information support

respectively in all the cities. There is no difference in the pattern between the

respondents across these three cities of north east India.

However, there is the difference in the availability of the support. The

F ratios of intercity variation in emotional (13.8), financial (14.8) and

informational (9.8) support are significant at 1 per cent level. The percentage

of alters offering emotion support in the social support network is highest in

Guwahati (74.9%) followed by Aizawl (65.8%) and Shillong (57.4%). However,

the percentage of alters offering financial and informational support are highest

in Aizawl followed by Shillong and Guwahati.

Table 5.4 Patterns of Social Support

City
Total
Type of Guwahati Shillong Aizawl
[Link] N = 300 F
Support n = 100 n = 100 n = 100
Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D
1 Emotional 74.9 20.4 57.4 24.9 66.8 25.2 66.4 24.6 13.8**
2 Financial 28.3 a 24.1 35.2 a 23.5 48.2 30.9 37.2 27.6 14.8**
3 Information 20.8 22.2 29.1 23.4 37.4 32.7 29.1 27.3 9.8**
4 Trust 15.9 17.5 25.0 21.8 32.0 26.7 24.3 23.2 13.0**
Source: Computed ** P <0.01 P < 0.05

Note: Means followed by the same superscripts do not significantly differ

113
[Link] Heterogeneity in Social Support Networks of Respondents

The heterogeneity in social support networks of the respondents has

been assessed with respect to the demographic, social and economic

characteristics of the alters. When the characteristics are categorical variables as

in case of gender, ethnicity, jati, and socio-economic category the heterogeneity

of the social support networks were measured with two viz., Het (Herfindahl,

Hirschman, Blau heterogeneity measure) i and IQV (Index of qualitative

variation)ii. On the other hand, the heterogeneity of the alters in the social

networks is measured in terms of standard deviation (SD) when the variables

are continuous. In the present study age and education were continuous

variable assessed in terms of a number of years. Het and IQV measures are in

the range of 0 and 1. The value closer to zero indicates that the network is

homogeneous while its proximity to 1 show that it is perfectly heterogeneous.

In the present subsection, the heterogeneity of alters is assessed for gender,

age, education, community, ethnicity, religion, and socio-economic category (see

table 5.5).

The social support networks of the Gorkhali women respondents were

found to be homogeneous in all most of the demographic, social and economic

characteristics. The only exception being the Jati of the alters. Both the

measures of heterogeneity are closer to 1 in all the three cities viz., Aizawl

(0.56), Shillong (0.71) and Guwahati (0.68).

Of the seven measures heterogeneity in social support networks of the

respondents only three characteristics viz., jati, religion, and socio-economic

category have significant intercity variations. In jati heterogeneity of the alters,

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 Shillong (0.71) had the highest index value followed by Guwahati (0.68) and

Aizawl (0.56) respectively (see figure 5.1).

Table 5.5 Heterogeneity in Social Support Networks of Respondents

City
Total
Characteristic/ Guwahati Shillong Aizawl
N = 300
[Link] Measure n = 100 n = 100 n = 100 F
Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D
1 Gender
a a a
Het .19 .20 .25 .20 .22 .22 .22 .21 2.06
a a a
IQV .38 .41 .50 .41 .44 .43 .44 .42 2.07
2 Age
a a a
SD 7.81 3.77 7.82 4.48 8.07 5.53 7.90 4.63 0.10
3 Education
a
SD 2.32 1.24 2.35a 1.47 2.03a 1.39 2.23 1.37 1.69
Community
4 (Jati Hierarchy)
Het .40a .21 .41 a .22 .30 .25 .37 .23 6.18**
IQV .68 .34 .71 .36 .56 .44 .65 .39 4.48**
5 Ethnicity
a
Het .11 .19 a .15 a
.22 .10 a
.18 .12 .20 2.15
a a a
IQV .20 .33 .26 .37 .18 .35 .22 .35 1.44
6 Religion
Het .01 .06 .09 a .17 .10 .18 .06a .15 10.97**
IQV .02 .12 .17 .32 .20 .35 .13 .29 11.10**
Socio Economic
7 Category
a
Het .04 .11 .02ab .09 .01b .04 .02 .09 3.06*
a
IQV .07 .23 .05ab .18 .01b .09 .04 .18 3.06*
Source: Computed ** P <0.01 P < 0.05

Note: Means followed by the same superscripts do not significantly differ

Therefore, between them there are significant variations could be

observed. The jati heterogeneity of the alters is higher is Shillong as compared

to Guwahati and Aizawl and between the latter two the alters in the social

support networks of the respondents belonging to Guwahati have greater jati

heterogeneity. As the religious homogeneity, it is highest in Guwahati (0.01) as

compared to Shillong (0.09) and Aizawl (0.10) and between the latter two

cities, the religious homogeneity is greater among the alters in the social

support networks of respondents in Shillong. As regards the socio economic

115
diversity, it is highest among the alters in the social support networks of the

respondents in Aizawl as compared to those in Guwahati. Between the social

support networks of respondents in Aizawl and Shillong, there is no significant

difference in the homogeneity among the alters in the social support networks.

However, there is no significant difference between the socio-economic

homogeneity among the alters in the social support networks of the

respondents in Guwahati and Shillong.

Figure 5.1 City of Domicile and Heterogeneity

[Link] Homophily in Social Support Networks of Respondents

Homophily is another measure of the composition of social networks. It

measures the similarity of the actors and alters in their specific attribute or

characteristic. Monge and Contractor (2003) summarized two main lines of

reasoning that support the theory of homophily, including Byrne's (1971)

similarity-attraction hypothesis and Turner's (1987) theory of self-categorization.

The similarity-attraction hypothesis predicts that people are more likely to

interact with those with whom they share similar traits. The theory of self-

categorization proposes that people tend to self-categorize themselves and others

116
in terms of race, gender, age, education, etc., and that they use these

categories to further differentiate between similar and dissimilar others.

The homophily in social support networks of the respondents has been

assessed in terms of three measures viz., average Euclidian distance,same

proportion, and E-I indexiii. Same Proportion and E-I index were computed for

categorical attributes such as gender, jati, ethnicity, religion and socio economic

category. The average Euclidian distance was computed for continuous

variables such and age and years of education. E-I Index varies between -1

(homophily) and +1 (heterophily) while the same proportion varies between 0%

(heterophily) and 100 per cent (homophily). Their indices were analyzed for

their intercity variation with one-way analysis of variance and LSD (see table

5.6).

The social support networks of the respondents across the three north

eastern states are homophilous in terms of gender, jati, religion, ethnicity and

socio economic category. Only in age and education, heterophily could be seen

in the social support networks of the respondents. In age and education, there

seems to be heterophily. In age, the average squared Euclidian distance was

worked out to 194.5. Similarly, the average squared Euclidian distance value

for education was worked out to 18.1 years. On the whole, in terms of gender

81 per cent of the alters in the social support networks were of the same

gender as that of the respondents. The E-I index was worked out to -0.5. In

Jati terms, most of the alters in the social support network belong to the same

category as that of the respondents. The E-I index was worked out to -0.1. In

terms of ethnicity, 91 percent of the alters belongs to the same ethnicity as

that of the actors (respondents). The E-I index was worked out to -0.80. More

117
 than 90 per cent of alters of the respondents belongs to the same religion as

that of the respondents. The overall E-I index was worked out to -0.8. In the

socio-economic category, 92.3 of the alters belonged to the same strata as that

of the respondent. The overall E-I index was worked out to -0.8.

Table 5.6 Homophily in Social Support Networks of Respondents

City
Total
Characteristic/ Guwahati Shillong Aizawl N = 300
[Link]
Measure n = 100 n = 100 n = 100 F
Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D
1 Gender
a b ab
Same Proportion 85.3 17.6 78.2 21.6 80.40 21.49 81.3 20.5 3.2*
E-I -0.7 0.4 -0.6 0.4 -0.60 0.43 -0.6 0.4 3.2*
2 Age
a a
Average Euclidian 136.9 140 201.2 175.0 246.11 279.59 194.6 210.7
Distance 7.0**
3 Education
a a a
Average Euclidian 14.5 16.5 21.1 25.5 18.66 21.27 18.1 21.5
Distance 2.4
Community
4 (Jati Hierarchy)
a a a
Same Proportion 53.8 30.8 58.4 29.3 55.82 36.08 56.0 32.1 0.5
E-I -0.1 0.6 -0.2 0.6 -0.11 0.72 -0.1 0.6 0.5
5 Ethnicity
a a a
Same Proportion 91.9 15.2 89.2 16.6 91.38 18.10 90.8 16.7 0.7
a a a
E-I -0.8 0.3 -0.8 0.3 -0.83 0.36 -0.8 0.3 0.7
6 Religion
Same Proportion 99.3 4.2 92.0 17.9 85.44 27.55 92.3 19.8 13.2**
E-I -1.0 0.1 -0.8 0.4 -0.71 0.55 -0.8 0.4 13.2**
Socio Economic
7 Category
a a a
Same Proportion 93.4 20.9 91.3 26.1 92.35 25.83 92.3 24.3 0.2
a a a
E-I -0.9 0.4 -0.8 0.5 -0.85 0.52 -0.8 0.5 0.2
Source: Computed ** P <0.01 P < 0.05

Note: Means followed by the same superscripts do not significantly differ

Intercity variation in homophily could be observed in terms of gender,

age, hierarchy, religion and socio-economic category. On the other hand, no

such significant difference could be observed in homophily with regard to

education, jati, ethnicity or socio-economic category. The social support

networks of the respondents from Guwahati are more homophilous as compared

118
to those in Shillong. But they are not significantly different from those in

Aizawl. However, between Shillong and Aizawl, there is no significant

difference in gender homophily. The social support networks of respondents in

Shillong and Aizawl are more homophilous as compared those in Guwahati in

age. In terms of religion, the social support networks of the respondents in

Guwahati are more homophilous as compared to those in Aizawl and Shillong.

Between the latter two, those in Shillong have more homophilous social

support networks as compared those in Aizawl (see figure 5.2).

Figure 5.2 City of Domicile and Homophily

5.1.2 Structure of Personal Social Support Networks

In this section structure of the relationship between the actors and alters

is discussed in terms of two set of indicators. The first set of measures is

called by Stephen Borgatti (1998) as standard external ego-network measures

for social capital at the individual level. Two of such measures viz., size, and

density are discussed here. They second type of measures is structural hole

measures proposed by Burt (1992) viz., effective size and constraint. Intercity

variations in these measures are discussed as under. These measures were

computed in each of the respondents and analyzed for their intercity variation

(see table 5.7).

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 The degree is the first measure of the structure of social support

network of the respondents. Size/ Degree is the number of alters that an ego

(respondent) is directly connected. It is supposed to have positively related to

social capital. The more people one has relationships with, the greater the

chance that one of them has the resource she needs (Borgati 1998). There

was a significant intercity variation in the size of social support network. The

size of a social support network of the respondents was highest in Guwahati

(5.57) followed by Shillong (4.73) and Aizawl (3.7) respectively. The mean

differences in the size of social support networks between Guwahati and

Shillong, Shillong and Aizawl, as well as Guwahati and Aizawl were

significant (see figure 5.3).

Figure 5.3 City and Structure

The second measure of the structure of social support network is

density. It measures the proportion of pairs of alters who are connected (Burt,

1983). The relationship of density with social capital is negative. If all the

alters of an actor are tied to each other, they are redundant (Borgatti 1998).

There is no significant intercity variation in the density of the social support

120
network of the respondents. It was worked to 0.48 in Guwahati and Shillong.

It was 0.47 in Aizawl (see figure 5.4).

Figure 5.4 City and Network Structure

The structural hole means the separation between nonredundant contacts.

Nonredundant contacts are connected by a structural hole. Nonredundant means

contacts that lead to people outside your current network. A structural hole is

a relationship of non-redundancy between two contacts. The hole is a buffer,

as an insulator in an electric circuit. As a result of the hole between them, the

two contacts provide network benefits that are in some degree additive rather

than overlapping (Burt, 2015). Burt has proposed two measures of the

structural hole as indices of social capital. They are effective size and

constraint. These two are assessed for their intercity variation.

Effective size is the third measure of structure and social capital

discussed here. Effective size is the number of alters, weighted by strength of

tie, that an ego is directly connected to, minus a "redundancy" factor. The

contribution of effective size to social capital is positive. The more different

regions of the network an actor have ties with, the greater the potential

information and control benefits (Burt, 1992). There is no significant intercity

121
variation in the effective size of the social support networks of the respondents.

It was highest in Shillong (1.19) closely followed by Guwahati (1.17), and

Aizawl (1.15).

Figure 5.5 Jati Hierarchy and Constraints

The constraint is the fourth measure of social capital discussed here.

Constraint measures the extents to which all of the ego‟s relational investments

directly or indirectly involve a single alter (Burt, 1992). The contribution of

constraint to social capital is negative. The more constrained the actor, the

fewer opportunities for action (Borgatti 1998). The results of one-way analysis

of variance indicate that there is significant intercity variation in structural

constraint in the social support networks of the respondents. It was highest in

Aizawl (0.82), followed by Shillong (0.72) and Guwahati (0.62) respectively.

Between Aizawl and Shillong, Shillong and Guwahati, as well as Aizawl and

Guwahati significant mean differences in constraint, could be observed (see

figure 5.5).

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 Table 5.7 Structural Hole Measures: Personal Social Support Networks
City
Total
Guwahati Shillong Aizawl
[Link] Measure N = 300
n = 100 n = 100 n = 100 F
Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D
1 Degree 5.57 1.86 4.73 1.95 3.70 1.43 4.69 1.92 25.97**
2 Density 0.48 a 0.08 0.48 a 0.07 0.47 a 0.10 0.48 0.09 0.42
a
3 Effective Size 1.17 0.69 1.19 a 0.73 1.15 a 0.48 1.17 0.64 0.11
4 Constraint 0.62 0.19 0.72 0.22 0.82 0.22 0.72 0.22 20.82**
Source: Computed ** P <0.01 P < 0.05
Note: Means followed by the same superscripts do not significantly differ

Typical egocentric social support networks with the average degree,

density, effective size, and constraint are depicted in Figures 5.6, 5.7 and 5.8.

Figure 5.6 Social Support Network of a Typical Gorkhali Woman in

Guwahati

Figure 5.6 shows a typical social support network of a Gorkhali woman

in Guwahati. The size (degree) of 6 alters. Its density was worked out to 0.5.

It means that the network has only half its potential connections. Its effective

size was computed to 1 while constraint was 0.5. The effective size of the

network seems to be very low while the constraint seems to be high.

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Figure 5.7 Social Support Network of a Typical Gorkhali Woman in Shillong

Figure 5.7 depicts a representative social support network of a Gorkhali

woman in Shillong. The size of the social support network was worked to 5.

Its density was computed to 0.5. The effective size was worked out to 1 while

its constraint was 0.7. As compared to the former network its size was smaller

while density was same. Though the effective size of this network and that in

Guwahati was same, the constraint is higher.

Figures 5.8 Social Support Network of a Typical Gorkhali Woman in Aizawl

The above figure number 5.8 visualizes a typical egocentric social support

network of a Gorkhali woman in Aizawl. The size of the network was worked

124
out to 4. The density of it was worked out to 0.5. Its effective size was 1

while constraint was 0.8. As compared to the typical social support networks

in Guwahati and Aizawl, the social support network of Gorkhali women in

Aizawl are smaller and more constrained though the effective size was similar.

5.1.3 Social Capital Endowment

In the earlier two sections, the composition and structure of social

support networks have been discussed in a discrete fashion individually. In this

section an attempt has been made to aggregate them and discuss their intercity

and inter jati variation.

Social capital in the present study is measured in terms of

compositional and structural measures of networks. The compositional measures

include homophily and heterogeneity while the structural measures include size,

density, effective size, and constraint. As homophily, heterogeneity and

structure involve a number of indicators factor analysis with principal

components method has been used to derive weighted aggregate factor scores.

Weighted aggregate scores of homophily and heterogeneity were factor

analyzed and network composition measure was derived. Factor analyzing size

and density measures network structure score was derived. Similarly, factor

analyzing the constraint and effective size structural hole was derived. Factor

analyzing the network composition, network structure and structural hole social

capital measure was derived (tables derived from factor analysis presented in

the appendix). These all summary measures of social capital were analyzed for

their intercity and inter jati variations.

This subsection is presented in terms of six clauses. The first clause

presents the intercity variation in social capital, intercity differences in levels

125
of social capital has been discussed in the second clause. The relationship

between jati hierarchy and the social capital endowment is discussed in the

third clause. In the fourth clause, inter jati differences in levels of social

capital is discussed. In the fifth clause, the patterns of relationship between the

dimensions and indicators of social capital are discussed. The demographic

correlates of the social capital endowment of Gorkhali women have been

discussed in the last clause.

[Link] Intercity Variation in Social Capital

The first hypothesis of the present study reads that there is intercity

variation in the social capital endowment of Gorkhali women in North East

India. This hypothesis has been tested with one-way analysis of variance of

social capital measure derived. The computed F ratio for intercity variation in

Social Capital (1.32) was not even significant at 5 per cent level. Hence, the

null hypothesis that there is no intercity variation in the social capital

endowment of Gorkhali women in North East India has been accepted (see

table 5.8).

However, in both of dimensions viz., Composition of Social Support

Network as well as Structure of networks significant intercity variation could

be observed. In a composite measure of the composition of social support

network and its both constituents homophily and heterogeneity, significant

intercity variation could be observed. The composite index of the composition

of social support networks of the respondents was in case of Guwahati (0.24),

followed by Aizawl (-0.03) and Shillong (-0.21) respectively. Between

Guwahati and Aizawl, the mean difference was not significant. It means that

the social support networks of the respondents in Guwahati and Aizawl are

126
 more diverse as compared to those in Shillong. Composite homophily was

highest in Guwahati (0.28) which is followed by Shillong (-0.07) and Aizawl

(-0.22) respectively. Between the latter two cities, there is no significant

variation in homophily. Thus the respondents in Guwahati have higher

homophily as compared to those in Shillong and Aizawl.

Similarly, a significant intercity variation could be observed in the

structure of social support networks and both of its measures viz., structural

hole and network structure. In the structural index of social capital, the

respondents in Guwahati (0.28) had the highest score, followed by Shillong

(0.00) and Aizawl (-0.30). There are significant mean differences in the

structure of social support networks between Guwahati and Shillong, Shillong

and Aizawl as well as Aizawl and Guwahati. In terms of network structure,

social capital was highest in Guwahati (0.30), followed by Shillong (-0.2) and

Aizawl (-0.31). In terms of structural hole, social capital was highest for the

respondents belonging to Guwahati (0.26), followed by Shillong (0.01) and

Aizawl (-0.30).

Table 5.8 Intercity Variation in Social Capital

Guwahati Shillong Aizawl
[Link] Measure n = 97 n = 97 n = 90 F
Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D
1 Composition 0.24 a 0.75 -0.21 0.95 -0.03 a 1.21 5.33**
Homophily 0.28 0.66 -0.07 a 0.95 -0.22 a 1.25 6.94**
Heterogeneity -0.13 a 0.79 0.30 0.91 -0.17 a 1.20 7.25**
2 Structure 0.28 0.94 0.00 1.05 -0.30 0.93 8.47**
Network
Structure 0.30 0.95 -0.02 1.01 -0.31 0.96 9.14**
Structural Hole 0.26 a 0.94 0.01 a 1.08 -0.30 0.89 7.52**
Social Capital -0.02a 0.83 0.12a 1.03 -0.11a 1.12 1.32
Source: Computed ** P <0.01 P < 0.05

Note: Means followed by the same superscripts do not significantly differ

127
 [Link] Inter City Differences in Levels of Social Capital

The composite social capital measure was classified into four groups

using visual binning method (Mean ± SD) available in the transformation menu

of SPSS package. The four levels are Very Low (<= -1.00000), Low (-.99999

- .00000), Moderate (.00001 - 1.00000) and High (1.00001+). The differences

in the levels of social capital between the three cities have been discussed

here (see table 5.9).

Table 5.9 City and Level of Social Capital

City
Total
Shillong
[Link] Level of Social Capital N =
Guwahati n = Aizawl
300
n = 100 100 n = 100
1 Very Low (<= -1.00000) 9 13 20 42
(9.3) (13.4) (22.2) (14.8)
2 Low (-.99999 - .00000) 43 31 34 108
(44.3) (32.0) (37.8) (38.0)
3 Moderate (.00001-1.00000) 35 39 22 96
(36.1) (40.2) (24.4) (33.8)
4 High (1.00001+) 10 14 14 38
(10.3) (14.4) (15.6) (13.4)
Total 97 97 90 284
5
(100) (100) (100) (100)
6 Pearson Chi-Square 12.17
7 Cramer's V 0.146
Source: Computed Figures in parentheses are percentages

The distribution of social capital among the respondents in the area

was found to be normal. On the whole, most of the respondents are located in

either moderate or low levels of social capital. Most of the respondents living

in Shillong have either a moderate or high level of social capital endowment.

On the other hand, most of the respondents from Guwahati as well as Aizawl

have a social capital endowment at low or moderate level. From the pattern of

distribution of social capital endowment also we could not see any significant

association between the City and level of social capital. The computed chi-

128
square value was not significant even at 5 per cent level. Even here also the

first null hypothesis of the present study has been validated.

[Link] Jati Hierarchy and Social Capital

The second hypothesis of the present study reads that there is inter jati

variation in the social capital endowment of Gorkhali women in north east

India. To test this hypothesis one way analysis of variance was used. The

independent variable was Jati Hierarchy and the dependent variable was

composite social capital measure (see table 5.10). The computed F ratio was

inter jati variation in the social capital was not significant at 5 per cent level.

Similarly in the composite measure of social capital also there is no

significant inter jati variation in social capital. But in one of its components

homophily, there is significant inter jati variation could be observed. Brahmana,

Rai, Limbu, Thapa, Tamang etc, and Bishwa, Sarki, Damai etc., had more

homophilous network composition as compared to Chhetry, Shahi, Pradhan,

Gharti etc. In the composite measure of heterogeneity, no significant variation

could be observed.

On the other hand in composite measure structure, the significant

variation could be observed. The Brahmana had greater social capital

endowment as compared to Bishwa, Sarki, Damai etc., respondents. Between

Chhetry, Shahi, Pradhan, Gharti etc., and Rai, Limbu, Thapa, Tamang etc., no

significant difference social capital endowment could be observed. Also

between Rai, Limbu, Thapa, Tamang etc., and Bishwa, Sarki, Damai etc., we

could see any significant difference in social capital endowment rooted in the

structure of social support network.

129
 In both the measures of structure viz, network structure and structural

hole significant inter jati variation could be observed. In both these measures

respondents belonging to Bishwa, Sarki, Damai etc., jatis have lesser social

capital endowment as compared to all others. However, among the so-called

higher jatis there is no significant variation in the social capital endowment.

Table 5.10 Jati Hierarchy and Social Capital

Jati Hierarchy
[Link] Measure Level I Level II Level III Level IV F
Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD
a a 0.90 0.03 a
1 Composition 0.08 0.97 -0.11 1.12 0.11 a 1.04 0.76
a 1.02 0.00 a
Homophily 0.21 0.84 -0.16 1.13 -0.20 a 1.08 2.65*
a
Heterogeneity 0.07 0.97 0.04 a 0.92 -0.05 a 1.09 -0.39 a 1.07 1.28
2 Structure 0.17 a 0.90 -0.01 a 1.03 -0.08ab 1.10 -0.58b 0.94 3.21*
a 0.97 a 0.88 -0.10 a 1.15
Network Structure 0.18 -0.01 -0.56 1.00 3.29*
a
Structural Hole 0.16 0.82 -0.01 a 1.09 -0.06 a 1.06 -0.59 1.10 3.03*
a
Social Capital 0.01 0.81 0.08 a 0.94 -0.03 a 0.93 -0.36 a 1.02 0.99
Source: Computed ** P <0.01 P < 0.05

[Link] Jati Hierarchy and Level of Social Capital

Jati hierarchy is supposed to have a significant effect on social capital

embedded in the composition and structure of social capital of the Gorkhali

women. There is evidence to support such a proposition. The computed

Pearson‟s chi-square value was not significant at 5 parent level. Nor the

Spearman‟s rho ordinal correlation was significant at 5 per cent level (see

table 5.11).

Most of the respondents belonging to the highest Jati group (Brahmana)

have either low or moderate level of social capital endowment. A similar

pattern of distribution of respondents could be observed with regard to the

Chhetry, Shahi, Pradhan, Gharti etc., (level II) and Rai, Limbu, Thapa, Tamang

etc., (level III) and Bishwa, Sarki, Damai etc., (level IV) groups of jatis.

However, a greater proportion of respondents belonging to the lowest jati order

130
Bishwa, Sarki, Damai etc., (level IV) have a very low level of the social

capital endowment as compared to the others.

Table 5.11 Jati Hierarchy and Level of Social Capital

Jati Hierarchy
[Link] Level of Social Capital Total
Level I Level II Level III Level IV
1 9 15 12 6 42
Very Low(<= -1.00000)
(9.3) (14.9) (17.6) (33.3) (14.8)
2 Low (-.99999 - .00000) 40 34 28 6 108
(41.2) (33.7) (41.2) (33.3) (38.0)
3 Moderate (.00001 - 38 35 19 4 96
1.00000) (39.2) (34.7) (27.9) (22.2) (33.8)

High (1.00001+) 10 17 9 2 38
4 (10.3) (16.8) (13.2) (11.1) (13.4)
Total 97 101 68 18 284
5 (100) (100) (100) (100) (100)
6 Pearson Chi-Square 11.51
7 Cramer's V 0.12
8 Spearman rho -.09
Source: Computed Figures in parentheses are percentages

Chhetry,Shahi, Rai,Limbu, Bishwa,Sarki,Damai

Brahmana
Pradhan,Gharti etc Thapa,Tamang etc etc
Level I Level II Level III Level IV

[Link] Patterns of Relationship between Dimensions and Indicators of

Social Capital

In the previous clause, the results of the variation in social capital have

been discussed with reference to two factors city of domicile of women and

their location jati hierarchy. Social capital in the present study has been

conceptualized and operationalized in terms of ego centric social network

concepts. The indicators of the composition of a social support network, the

structure of the social network, and structural hole were used to measure social

capital endowment of the women respondents belonging to the Gorkhali

community in north east India. In this clause, discussion on the

interrelationship between these dimensions of social capital and their composite

131
of social capital has been attempted. Karl Pearson‟s product moment correlation

was used (see table 5.12).

The composite measure of social capital has found to have a significant

correlation with all its dimensions composition, the structure of social support

network and structural hole and its indicators.

The first dimension of social capital is the composition of the social

support network. It is a composite of composite measures of heterogeneity and

homophily. As expected both the indicators have a significant relationship with

the composition of social support network. The composite heterogeneity is

negatively associated with composition while the latter has positively related to

it. Social support network Composition is negatively correlated with social

capital. The components of the composition of social support network are

significantly related to social capital. Homophily was having a negative

relationship with social capital while heterogeneity has a positive relationship

with the composite measure of social capital. The positive relationship of

heterogeneity to social capital has been expected by Burt (1997).

The second dimension of social capital in the present study is the

network structure of social support which is a composite of the degree (size)

and density of the network. Both these indicators were significantly related to

network structure. The size of the network has a positive relationship with the

network structure of social capital while density has negatively related. As

expected by Burt (2001) the size of the network has negatively related the

composite of social capital while density has a negative relationship. Network

Structure was found to have a positive relationship with the composite social

capital.

132
 The third dimension of social capital in the present study is a structural

hole. Two of its indicators by Burt have been considered. They are effective

size and constraint. In the composite structural hole, the former had a positive

relationship while the latter had a positive relationship. With the composite

social support measure, the structural hole had a positive relationship. As

expected by Burt the effective size has a positive relationship with social

capital while constraint has a negative relationship.

Table 5.12 Dimensions and Indicators of Social Capital: Inter Correlation Matrix
Variable
Variable
Va01 Va02 Va03 Va04 Va05 Va06 Va07 Va08 Va09 Va10 Va11

Va01 1 .87** -.87** -.182** -.33** -.29** -.208** -.29** -.12* -.19** -.77**
Va02 .87** 1 -.51** -0.04 -0.07 -0.12 -0.07 -.16** -0.09 -0.05 -.61**
Va03 -.87** -.51** 1 .30** .50** .39** .32** .35** .11* .31** .74**
Va04 -.18** -0.04 .30** 1 .71** -.71** .96** .70** -.88** .99** .76**
Va05 -.33** -0.07 .50** .71** 1 .39** .61** .28** -.33** .66** .53**
Va06 -.29** -0.10 .39** -.71** .39** 1 -.76** -.21** .64** -.74** -.55**
Va07 -.21** -0.07 .31** .96** .61** -.76** 1 .83** -.83** .99** .77**
Va08 -.29** -.16** .353** .71** .28** -.21** .83** 1 -0.04 .78** .60**
Va09 -.12* -0.09 .114* -.88** -.33** .64** -.83** -0.04 1 -.86** -.68**
Va10 -.19** -0.05 .311** .99** .66** -.74** .99** .77** -.86** 1 .77**
Va11 -.77** -.61** .742** .76** .53** -.55** .77** .60** -.68** .77** 1
Source: Computed ** P <0.01 P < 0.05

Va01 Va02 Va03 Va04 Va05 Va06

Composition Homophily Heterogeneity Network Structure Degree

Va07 Va08 Va09 Va10 Va11

Structural Effective
Density Constraint Structure
Hole Size

[Link] Demographic Correlates of Dimensions and Indicators of Social

Capital

To study the relationship of demographic variables such as age,

education, mean years of adult education with dimensions and indicators of

133
social capital Karl Pearson‟s product moment correlation coefficients have been

used (table 5.13).

The results of the correlational analysis of demographic variables with

dimension indicate that education is a major determinant of the social capital

endowment of Gorkhali women. The respondent‟s education is significantly

correlated with all the dimensions of social capital and thus with the composite

measure of social capital. It had a positive relationship with a composite

measure of the social capital endowment of Gorkhali women. Structural hole

and network structure had a positive relationship with the education of

Gorkhali women. Size of the social support network and effective size

important indicators of each of these dimensions had a positive relationship

with the education of the respondents though density and constraint have a

significant relationship with it. The first dimension of social capital viz., the

composition has negatively related to the education of the respondents. The

indicator of composition homophily had a negative relationship with the

education of respondents while heterogeneity of the respondent had a positive

relationship.

Next, to the education of the respondent the household mean years of

adult education emerges as a significant variable associated with Gorkhali

women‟s social capital endowment. Years of education of respondents is

positively related to the composite social capital measure. Though with both

the Structural Hole indicators, it did not have a significant relationship, it has

a significant relationship with degree and density of social support networks. It

has a positive relationship with heterogeneity though it did not have a

134
 significant relationship with homophily. It has a positive relationship with the

first dimension of social capital i.e. the composition of social support networks.

Table 5.13 Correlates of Dimensions and Indicators of Social Capital

Mean
Annual
Years of Size of
[Link] Dimension Age Education Household
Adult Family
Income
Education
1 Composition 0.113 -.172** -.240** -0.039 -.134*
Homophily 0.061 -0.085 -.148* -0.056 -.126*
Heterogeneity -.135* .214** .269** 0.011 0.107
Network
2 Structure -0.069 0.1 .179** -0.05 0.039
Degree -0.071 .232** .274** -0.038 0.084
Density -0.019 .168** 0.113 0.003 0.047
3 Structural Hole -0.082 0.11 .203** -0.043 0.05
Effective Size -0.09 0.107 .144* -0.041 0.022
Constraint 0.012 0.005 -0.09 0.012 -0.034
4 Structure -0.076 0.106 .193** -0.047 0.045
5 Social Capital -0.115 .126* .244** 0.007 0.112
Source: Computed ** P <0.01 P < 0.05

5.2 Development of Gorkhali Women

Women development is the process of increasing the well-being of

women. The well-being of women can be assessed with the help of objective

indicators and subjective indicators. Women development is objectively

measured with the help of economic indicators and subjective rating of their

happiness. Four economic indicators viz., the value of Assets Personally Owned

by the respondent, Annual Personal Income of Women, Monthly Personal

Expenditure of Women, and Personal Savings of Women were factor analyzed

with principal component analysis and a composite factor score was derived. A

modified version of Oxford Happiness questionnaire was used to assess

happiness. The items in the Oxford happiness questionnaire were factor

analyzed to derive a composite score of happiness (see appendix). Both of

these objective and subjective measures are analyzed for inter-city and inter jati

135
variations. They were classified into four levels and the association between

city and jati hierarchy and levels of women development and happiness were

further analyzed.

This present section is presented two sub sections. The first sub-section

presents the city of domicile and women development while the second section

explores the relationship between jati hierarchy and happiness of Gorkhali

women.

5.2.1 City of Domicile and Women Development

The present subsection is devoted to discussing the variation in the

levels of women development and happiness. This subsection is presented in

four clauses. The first clause discusses the intercity variation in women

development. In the second clause, the results of analysis of the association

between city domicile of Gorkhali women and women development is

discussed. In the third clause, intercity variation in women happiness is

discussed. In the fourth clause, the association between the jati hierarchy and

levels of women happiness is discussed.

[Link] Intercity Variation in Women Development

The third hypothesis reads that there is intercity variation in the

development of Gorkhali women in North east India. To test this hypothesis

one way analysis of variance was used. The independent variable was city

while the dependent variable was composite women development (see table

5.14). The computed F ratio (1.70) was not even significant at 5 per cent

level. Hence, the null hypothesis that there is no intercity variation in the

development of Gorkhali women in North east India has been accepted.

136
 Analysis of variance of the individual indicators of women development

reveals that of the four indicators of women development took only one

indicator shows significant intercity variation. In Monthly Personal Expenditure

of Women, there is significant intercity variation could be observed. The F

ratio (3.26) was significant at 5 per cent level. Respondents in Shillong (Rs

11483) had significantly greater income as compared to those in Guwahati (Rs

7250) and Aizawl (Rs 7435). Between these two cities, there is no significant

difference in personal expenditure could be found. In other indicators of

women development viz., Assets Personally Owned, Annual Personal Income of

Women, Monthly Personal Expenditure of Women, and Personal Savings of

Women there is no significant intercity variation could be observed.

Table 5.14 Inter City Differences in Indicators of Women Development

City
[Link] Indicator Guwahati Shillong Aizawl F
n = 100 n = 100 n = 100
121780a 140530a
1 Assets Personally Owned 39700a ± ± 2.43
± 54203 382698 454261
55340a 92320a
a
2 Annual Personal Income of Women 38000 ± ± 1.05
± 81677 146450 438973
Monthly Personal Expenditure of
3 Women 7250a 11483 7435a 3.26*
± 4825 ± 21934 ± 4767
a
4 Personal Savings of Women 20112 20045a 13940a 0.22
± 101680 ± 62795 ± 54161
5 Women Development -0.14a 0.12a 0.02a 1.70
± 0.66 ± 1.24 ± 1.00
a a
6 Happiness of Women 0.14 0.05 -0.19a 2.86
± 0.98 ± 0.96 ± 1.04
Source: Computed ** P <0.01 *P < 0.05 Mean ± S.D.

Note: Means followed by the same superscripts do not significantly differ

137
[Link] City of Domicile and Level of Women Development

Women development has been classified into three levels using Mean ±

SD with the help of visual binning technique. To study the association

between the city of domicile and level of women development cross tabulation,

chi-square and Cramer‟s V were used (see table 5.15).

The results of cross-tabulation of city and level of women development

show that there is an association between city and women development. This

is contrary to the results of one-way analysis of variance reported in the

earlier section. The computed Pearson‟s chi-square (9.4) and Cramer's V (0.13)

were significant at 5 percent level. The respondents from Shillong had a

slightly better level of women development as compared to those in Aizawl

and Guwahati.

Table 5.15 City of Domicile and Level of Women Development

City
[Link] Level Total
Guwahati Shillong Aizawl
1 Low (-.99 - .00) 83 74 83 240
(83) (74) (83) (80)
Moderate (01 -
2 1.00) 15 19 8 42
(15) (19) (8) (14)
3 High (1.01+) 2 7 9 18
(2) (7) (9) (6)
4 Total 100 100 100 300
(100) (100) (100) (100)
5 Pearson Chi-Square 9.437*
6 Cramer's V 0.125*
Source: Computed Figures in parentheses are percentages
** P <0.01 *P < 0.05
Most of the respondents could be located at the low level of women

development in all the three cities of North East India. However, the

proportion of the respondents with a low level of women development is

higher in Guwahati (83%) and Aizawl (83%) as compared to those belonging

to Shillong (74%). At a moderate level, greater proportion of respondents from

138
Shillong (19) could be seen as compared to those in Aizawl (8) and Guwahati

(15).

[Link] Intercity Variation in Women Happiness

The fourth hypothesis reads that there is intercity variation in the

happiness of Gorkhali women in North east India. One way analysis of

variance was used to test this hypothesis. The independent variable was city

while the dependent variable was composite women happiness score (see table

5.14). The computed F ratio (2.86) was not even significant at 5 per cent

level. Hence, the null hypothesis that there is no intercity variation in the

happiness of Gorkhali women in North east India has been accepted (see table

5.14).

[Link] City of Domicile and Level of Happiness of Gorkhali Women

The composite score of happiness of women has been classified into

four levels using Mean ± SD with the help of visual binning technique. To

study the association between the city of domicile and level of women

development cross tabulation, chi-square and Cramer‟s V were used (see table

5.16).

There is no significant association between the City of Domicile and

the Level of Happiness of the respondents. The computed Pearson‟s chi-square

(4.36) and Cramer's V (0.09) were not even significant at 5 per cent level.

Most of the respondents irrespective of the city of domicile have a moderate

level of happiness. At a low level, more than one-third of the respondents

could be noticed across the cities. At very low and high levels more than one-

tenth of the respondents could also be noted across the city of their domicile.

139
 Table 5.16 City of Domicile and Level of Women Happiness
City
Total
[Link] Level Guwahati Shillong Aizawl N=300
n=100 n=100 n=100
Very Low (<= -
1 1.00) 10 12 18 40
(10) (12) (18) (13)
2 Low (-.99 - .00) 32 33 36 101
(32) (33) (36) (34)
Moderate (01 -
3 1.00) 46 43 36 125
(46) (43) (36) (42)
4 High (1.01+) 12 12 10 34
(12) (12) (10) (11)
Total 100 100 100 300
5 (100) (100) (100) (100)
6 Pearson Chi-Square 4.357
7 Cramer's V 0.085
Source: Computed Figures in parentheses are percentages
** P <0.01 *P < 0.05
5.2.2 Jati Hierarchy and Women Development
The present study aims at knowing the bearing of jati hierarchy a major

form of social structure on women development and happiness. Inter jati

variation in women development and happiness has been explored in this

subsection. This subsection is presented in four clauses. The first clause

presents the inter jati variation in women development. Discussion on the

association between the levels of jati hierarchy and women development is

discussed in the second clause. In the third clause, the discussion is inter-jati

variation in the happiness of Gorkhali women is presented while in the last

clause the association between the levels of jati hierarchy and women

happiness is discussed.

[Link] Inter Jati Variation in Women Development

The fifth hypothesis reads that there is inter jati variation in the

development of Gorkhali women in North East India. To test this hypothesis

140
one way analysis of variance has been used. The dependent variable was a

composite measure of women development while the independent variable was

jati. The computed F ratio (0.15) was not significant at 5 percent level. Hence,

the null hypothesis that there is no inter jati variation in the development of

Gorkhali women in North East India has been accepted. The F ratios

computed for inter jati variation in Assets Personally Owned (2.42), Annual

Personal Income (1.05), Monthly Personal Expenditure (3.26) and Personal

Savings (0.22) are not even significant at 5 percent level (see table 5.14).

[Link] Jati Hierarchy and Level of Development of Gorkhali Women

Having seen that there is no mean difference in indicators of women

development and their composite index between the jati groups at different

levels of hierarchy, an attempt here is made to see the association between jati

hierarchy and level of women development. Cross-tabulation of jati and level

of women development is shown in table 5.17.

Table 5.17 Jati Hierarchy and Level of Women Development

Jati Hierarchy Total
[Link] Level
Level I Level II Level III Level IV
1 77 86 60 17 240
Low (-.99 - .00)
(77.8) (81.1) (80.0) (85.0) (80.0)
16 14 10 2 42
2 Moderate (01 - 1.00)
(16.2) (13.2) (13.3) (10.0) (14.0)
6 6 5 1 18
3 High (1.01+)
(6.1) (5.7) (6.7) (5.0) (6.0)
99 106 75 20 300
4 Total
(100) (100) (100) (100) (100)
5 Chi-Square 0.88
6 Cramer's V 0.038
7 Spearman rho -0.03
Source: Computed Figures in parentheses are percentages
** P <0.01 *P < 0.05
Chhetry,Shahi, Rai,Limbu, Bishwa,Sarki,Damai
Brahmana
Pradhan,Gharti etc Thapa,Tamang etc etc
Level I Level II Level III Level IV

141
 The chi-square (.881) and Cramer's V (0.04) values are not even

significant at 5 per cent level. Hence, there is no association between Jati

Hierarchy and level of Women Development. Irrespective of location in jati

hierarchy a vast majority of respondents are at low level of women

development. At a moderate level of women development, more than one-tenth

of the respondents in each of the jati group could be found. At a high level

of women development, a very few in each of the category could also be

observed.

[Link] Inter jati Variation in Women Happiness

The sixth hypothesis of the present study reads that there is inter jati

variation in the happiness of Gorkhali women in North East India. This

hypothesis is tested with the help of one-way analysis of variance. The

independent variable was jati hierarchy while the dependent variable was the

composite score of women happiness (see table 5.18).

Table 5.18 Inter Jati Differences in Indicators of Women Development and Happiness
Jati Hierarchy
Sl.
No
Indicator Level I Level II Level III Level IV F
Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD
Assets Personally
a a a a
1 Owned 85515 313306 101321 356383 115213 339683 117700 473275 0.12
Annual Personal
a a a a
2 Income 51455 147606 87358 426610 49600 84091 24600 82081 0.54
Monthly Personal
a a a a
3 Expenditure 8331 6196 7754 6447 10640 24155 8605 9268 0.73
a a a a
4 Personal Savings 23606 102142 12676 51450 13027 25559 37600 134256 0.91
Women
a a a a
5 Development -0.01 0.88 -0.04 0.92 0.04 1.04 0.10 1.70 0.15
a ab b ab
6 Happiness 0.2 1.0 0.0 1.0 -0.2 1.0 -0.2 0.7 3.2*

Source: Computed ** P <0.01 *P < 0.05

Note: Means followed by the same superscripts do not significantly differ

Chhetry,Shahi, Rai,Limbu, Bishwa,Sarki,Damai

Brahmana
Pradhan,Gharti etc Thapa,Tamang etc etc
Level I Level II Level III Level IV

142
 The computed F ratio (3.2) was significant at 5 per cent level. Hence,

the null hypothesis that there is no inter jati variation in the happiness of

Gorkhali women in North East India has been rejected. And the alternative

hypothesis that there is inter jati variation in the happiness of Gorkhali women

in North East India has been validated. Between the respondents of Brahmana

jati and those of Rai, Limbu, Thapa, Tamang etc., group there is a significant

difference. The members of the former group have greater happiness as

compared to those of the latter group (see figure 5.9).

Figure 5.9 Jati Hierarchy and Happiness

[Link] Jati Hierarchy and Level of Happiness of Gorkhali Women

To study the association between the jati hierarchy and levels of women

happiness analysis of cross breaks has been used. Pearson‟s chi-square and

Cramer's V were also used (see table 5.19).

The results of the chi-square test and jati hierarchy shows that there is

no association between jati hierarchy and level of happiness of Gorkhali

women. The computed chi-square (10.68) and Cramer‟s V (0.109) were not

even significant at 5 percent level.

143
 Most of the respondents in each of the jati groups either have a

moderate or low level of happiness. About one-tenth of them in each of the

jati group have a very low level of happiness. More than one-tenth of the

respondents belonging to the Brahmana and Chhetri jati groups have a high

level of happiness. On the other hand, a few of the respondents belonging the

lower jati groups of Rai, Limbu, Thapa, Tamang and Bishwa, Sarki, Damai

etc., have a high level of happiness.

Table 5.19 Jati Hierarchy and Level of Happiness

Jati Hierarchy
[Link] Level Total
Level I Level II Level III Level IV
Very Low (<= - 10 13 15 2 40
1
1.00) (10.1) (12.3) (20.0) (10.0) (13.3)
2 28 35 29 9 101
Low (-.99 - .00)
(28.3) (33.0) (38.7) (45.0) (33.7)
Moderate (01 - 46 45 26 8 125
3
1.00) (46.5) (42.5) (34.7) (40.0) (41.7)
4 15 13 5 1 34
High (1.01+)
(15.2) (12.3) (6.7) (5.0) (11.3)
Total 99 106 75 20 300
5
(100) (100) (100) (100) (100)
6 Chi-Square 10.68
7 Cramer's V 0.109
8 Spearman rho -0.165*
Source: Computed Figures in parentheses are percentages
** P <0.01 *P < 0.05

5.3 Social Capital and Women Development

The present study hypothesises that social capital endowment of

Gorkhali women has positively related to women development and happiness.

An important related question is that arises here is that how the demographic

background of the women respondents relates to the women development and

happiness. This present section addresses these issues. To address these issues

Karl Pearson‟s coefficients of correlation have been used (see table 5.20 and

5.21). The present section is organized into two subsections. The first section

144
presents a discussion on the demographic determinants of women development

and happiness. In the second section, the relationship between social capital

and women development as well as happiness is discussed.

The seventh and eighth hypotheses of the present study have been

tested in this section.

5.3.1 Demographic Determinants of Women Development and Social

Capital

Demographic characteristics viz., the age of respondent, mean years of

adult education of household, education of respondent, size of family and

annual household income are considered for their association with women

development and happiness (see table 5.20).

Age of the respondent had a significant relationship with neither women

development nor women happiness. Mean years of adult education of the

household of the respondent had a consistently positive relationship with

women happiness and development. Likewise, the respondent‟s education has

directly bearing on women happiness and development. Size of the family has

no relationship with women development but having a positive relationship

with women happiness. Similarly, the annual household income of the

respondent had positively related to women development and happiness.

Table 5.20 Demography, Women Development and Happiness

Women
[Link] Demographic Variable Happiness
Development
1 Age 0.101 -0.052
Mean Years of Adult
2 Education .252** .162**
3 Education .238** .167**
4 Size of Family 0.041 .173**
5 Annual Household Income .477** .119*
Source: Computed ** P <0.01 *P < 0.05

145
5.3.2 Social Capital, Women Development and Happiness

The present study seeks to understand the relationship between social

capital and well-being of Gorkhali women. The seventh and eighth hypotheses

are focusing on this relationship. The seventh hypothesis of the present study

reads that there is a direct relationship between social capital endowment of

Gorkhali women and women development. This hypothesis was tested with the

help of computation of Karl Pearson‟s product moment coefficient between

composite measures of social capital and women development (see table 5.21).

The computed correlation coefficient (0.057) was not even significant at 5 per

cent level. Hence, the null hypothesis that there is no relationship between

social capital endowment and women development among Gorkhali women in

north east India has been accepted.

Women development has no significant relationship with a structural

hole and network structure dimensions of social capital. None of the indicators

of social capital in these two dimensions are significant at 5 per cent level.

Both the indicators of network structure size and density have no significant

relationship. Nor the indicators of structural hole effective size and constraint

have any significant relationship with women development. However, the

composition has a negative relationship with women development. One of the

indicators of social support network composition viz., homophily has a negative

relationship with women development while heterogeneity has no significant

relationship.

146
 Table 5.21 Social Capital, Women Development and Happiness
Women
[Link] Variable Happiness
Development
1 Composition -.119* -0.091
Homophily -.155** -0.058
Heterogeneity 0.05 0.10
2 Network Structure -0.046 0.061
Degree -0.028 .139*
Density 0.033 0.083
3 Structural Hole -0.022 0.049
Effective Size 0.012 0.016
Constraint 0.047 -0.028
4 Structure -0.034 0.056
5 Social Capital 0.057 0.083
6 Women Development 1 0.019
7 Happiness 0.019 1
Source: Computed ** P <0.01 *P < 0.05

The eighth hypothesis of the present study reads that there is a direct

relationship between social capital endowment of Gorkhali women and women

happiness. This hypothesis was tested with the help of Karl Pearson‟s product

moment coefficient (see table 5.21). The computed correlation coefficient

between women happiness and social capital (0.083) was not even significant

at 5 per cent level. Therefore, the null hypothesis that here is no relationship

between social capital endowment and women development among Gorkhali

women in north east India has been accepted.

None of the dimensions of social capital composition, network structure,

and structural hole have any significant relationship with women happiness.

However, only one indicator of the network structure of social capital i.e.

degree (size) of social support network has a positive relationship with social

capital.

Thus, social capital endowments of Gorkhali women have no significant

bearing on their economic development and happiness. Not only that there is

147
no significant relationship between women development and happiness could

also be observed. The correlation coefficient between women development and

happiness (0.019) found to be not even significant at 5 per cent level.

In this chapter an attempt has been made to discuss the findings of an

analysis of social support network, the social capital measures derived from

social network, women development, and the relationship between social capital

endowments of Gorkhali women on the one hand and women development and

happiness on the other. In the next chapter, an attempt is made to present a

discussion on the challenges to the development of Gorkhali women

development in North East India.

148
CHAPTER VI

CONSTRAINTS TO DEVELOPMENT OF GORKHALI WOMEN

 CHAPTER VI

CONSTRAINTS TO DEVELOPMENT OF GORKHALI WOMEN

In the last chapter, an attempt has been made to describe the

composition and structure of social support networks as well the social capital

endowment and their bearing on the development of the Gorkhali women in

North East India. In this chapter, an emic understanding of their developmental

challenges has been discussed. This chapter has been presented in two sections.

The first section is devoted to the development of Gorkhali women: challenges,

and constraints. The second section discusses the lived experiences of Gorkhali

women.

6.1 Development of Gorkhali Women: Challenges, and Constraints

In this section, the challenges, management strategies, constraints and

strategies for their development have discussed from an emic perspective. This

section has been presented in four subsections. The first section presents the

perceived challenges to Gorkhali women in North East India.

6.1.1. Challenges of Gorkhali Women

This section describes the challenges faced by the Gorkhali women in

their respective cities. They have perceived a total number of eight challenges

viz., identity crisis, ethnic discrimination, jati inequality, religious conversion,

lack of awareness of rights, language, adjustment and lack of awareness. The

list of the problems is highlighted on the basis of their perception to the

situation that they have faced and are still facing. The information collected by

the researcher is analyzed with Smith‟s Salience where the mean rank of the

problems is mentioned (see table 6.1 and 6.2).

149
 From the above eight problems, it was found that identity crisis

occupies the first rank in order of frequency. Ninety-six percent of both

Shillong and Aizawl Gorkhali women perceived that identity crisis is the main

problem of their people but Guwahati Gorkhali women scored less among the

cities. In the second rank is the ethnic discrimination where Shillong has the

highest rank and Guwahati the least. The local people look down on the

Gorkhali people and if any problem arises where Gorkhas are involved, then

they are asked to go back to their motherland, Nepal. Official works are often

delayed by the local people and behave in a different way with the Gorkhas.

On the contrary, Jati inequality is found to be high in Guwahati and

least in Shillong. Although the community leader used to indicate that Jati

based discrimination is a presence in Gorkha society but women mention that

it still exists. Openly they used to say that we consider that all people same

only but at the time of marriage they would like their child to marry from

their Jati only. If a majority of women got married to a man from other Jati,

they are not completely accepted and used to face challenges from their in-

laws and society. Religious conversion holds the fourth rank with Shillong the

highest and Guwahati the lowest from the three cities. There is a slight

difference between Shillong and Aizawl which are Christian state in the

majority. If an individual converted into other religion that thing would lead to

family problems. When a Gorkha man got married to women from other

religion then he used to convert into his wife religion which leads to a family

identity crisis, whereas with related to women these kinds of cases are rare.

The head of the family decision of conversion brings about dejection among

children. Another reason is due to the unfavourable economic condition of the

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Gorkhali which is why they have to convert because they used to get support

from the missionaries.

The fifth rank is the rights of the Gorkhali women because when they

are being discriminated they cannot even speak against them to safeguard

themselves. They belong to the land since they had the rights but still do not

know how to made use of it during the time of discrimination. Guwahati

women highly feel that they are not aware of their rights while this was found

the least among Shillong women. Language and adjustment was placed the

sixth and seventh rank which is high in Aizawl and low in Shillong. Most

newly married women from outside the study areas face problems in dealing

with the local language, especially in Aizawl. They cannot go out by

themselves for shopping and cannot even do some official work by themselves.

They become dependent on their husband and family members due to which

they cannot work independently. This is because, in Aizawl, most of the

people use only Mizo language for communication. Women have to

compromise so many aspects of their life in order to become a good wife and

daughter-in-law. They have to change their eating, working and sleeping habits

soon after they get married. They cannot live as they used to in their own

home. The last rank is the lack of awareness of their problems. Gorkhali

women themselves cannot even identify their problems and are not aware of it.

Guwahati women gave the highest rank and Shillong showed the lowest.

From the above discussion, it may be inferred that Gorkhali women,

belonging to a minority group in India, face more challenges with regards to

identity crisis which leads to discrimination in all the three cities. With regard

to this, the women of Shillong and Aizawl have higher salience than those

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 from Guwahati. Whereas the women of Guwahati have a high level of

awareness of how they are deprived of their basic requirements as being the

daughters of the land.

Table 6.1 Perceived Challenges of Gorkhali Women

City Total
Sl. Guwahati Shillong Aizawl N = 300
Challenge
No n = 100 n = 100 n = 100
% ̅ S % ̅ S % ̅ S % ̅ S
1 Identity Crisis 71 1 0.71 96 1 0.96 96 1 0.96 91 1 0.91
Ethnic
2 Discrimination 21 2 0.19 50 2 0.39 52 2 0.44 55 2 0.41
3 Jati Inequality 86 3 0.52 39 3 0.25 48 3 0.33 52 3 0.34
Religious
4 Conversion 29 4 0.18 54 3 0.27 44 4 0.25 45 4 0.25
Lack of Awareness
5 on Rights 50 5 0.19 36 5 0.13 40 6 0.11 40 5 0.14
6 Language 29 5 0.14 4 5 0.02 40 4 0.22 22 4 0.12
7 Adjustment 29 6 0.11 18 5 0.08 40 5 0.14 28 5 0.11
8 Lack of Awareness 57 6 0.11 36 6 0.06 44 7 0.06 43 6 0.07
Source: Computed ̅ Mean Rank S = Smith‟s
Salience

Table 6.2 Pattern Differences in Perceived Problems of Women: Spearman's rho

City
[Link] City Total
Guwahati Shillong Aizawl
1 Guwahati 1 .957** .927** .957**
2 Shillong .957** 1 .945** .950**
3 Aizawl .927** .945** 1 .994**
4 Total .957** .950** .994** 1
Source: Computed ** P < 0.01 * P < 0.05

6.1.2 Strategies Used to Manage Problems

The next section describes the strategies which can be used to manage

the above challenges faced by the Gorkhali women in North East India. The

respondents mentioned six strategies to manage their problems viz., knowledge

seeking, seeking guidance, social participation, social support seeking and

reliance of own strengths (see table 6.3 and 6.4).

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 The first strategy to manage their challenges perceived by the Gorkhali

women is to seek knowledge. Smith‟s Salience is 1 in all the three cities

where the Gorkhali women of Guwahati and Shillong women have a slightly

higher percentage than Aizawl. Improvement in women‟s education will lead to

women development. It will enhance women to identify their rights thereby

diminishing the identity crisis that they are facing. Through knowledge, they

will have the power and others will not be able to discriminate against them.

Guwahati women have the highest rank with the matter of the second rank

which is proper guidance wherein the other two cities felt the same way. The

Gorkhas are living as a minority group in all the settlements, and the women

felt was that they need very good and effective leaders to guide them and

especially teach the uneducated women how to behave in the community. They

have to guide their fellow women in terms of dressing and communication.

They believe that women play an important role in shaping the behaviour of

their children and family. Women guidance meant a lot for their children and

family to lead a happy and worthwhile life.

The other four management strategies are social participation, social

support seeking, the reliance on own strengths and seeking political support

which is written on the basis of their rank. In all these, Guwahati women rank

highest as compared to the other two areas. If women involve in group

activities then they will know more about the society, each other‟s needs and

how they can help each other for their progress. They will be able to interact

more with the local people and learn the local language easily. Also to work

together for their better relationship, this will reduce their differences and help

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 them to adjust easily. The Gorkhali women should be able to approach each

other for any support and this can be possible only if they are united.

Women play a vital role in teaching their children about religion

because children learn a lot from their mothers. They should always preserve

their culture by making it alive in their daily life. Mothers should make their

children go to temples so that children may develop an interest in their

religion and culture. Another suggestion was that women should try and

involve more in political issues so that they can stand for themselves and their

people. All the women of all three cities found education the highest strategy

for managing their problems. But we can see that with regard to seeking

political support, the women of Guwahati again are highest and those of

Aizawl are lowest. The main reason for these differences is that in Aizawl,

women do not have any expectation from the political party because they

cannot get any ticket for politics which is meant for the Mizo people only.

The situation is somehow the same in Shillong. But in Guwahati, the scenario

is completely different where there are Gorkha political leaders also.

Table 6.3 Strategies Used to Manage Problems

City
Total
Sl. Guwahati Shillong Aizawl N = 300
Strategy
No n = 100 n = 100 n = 100
% ̅ S % ̅ S % ̅ S % ̅ S
1 Knowledge Seeking 100 1 1.0 100 1 1.00 91 1 0.91 96 1 0.96
2 Seeking Guidance 88 2 0.7 52 2 0.42 52 2 0.43 58 2 0.47
3 Social Participation 88 3 0.6 52 3 0.32 57 3 0.34 60 3 0.37
4 Social Support Seeking 88 4 0.4 62 4 0.26 52 4 0.23 62 4 0.28
5 Reliance of Own Strengths 88 5 0.3 48 5 0.11 57 4 0.16 58 5 0.16
6 Seeking Political Support 88 6 0.1 24 4 0.07 9 6 0.01 27 5 0.06
Source: Computed ̅ Mean Rank S = Smith‟s Salience

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 Table 6.4 Pattern Differences in Strategies: Spearman's rho
City
[Link] City Total
Guwahati Shillong Aizawl
1 Guwahati 1 .899* .986** .986**
2 Shillong .899* 1 .868* .956**
3 Aizawl .986** .868* 1 .956**
4 Total .986** .956** .956** 1
Source: Computed ** P < 0.01 * P < 0.05

6.1.3. Constraints to Development of Gorkhali Women

Gorkhali women of North East India have indicated thirteen constraints

to their development viz., lack of education, lack of skills, inadequate

encouragement, lack of self-esteem, early marriage, lack of unity in the

community, inadequate sense of belongingness, lack of employment

opportunities, backbiting, landlessness, donation seeking NGO‟S, substance use

and self-employment (see table 6.5 and 6.6).

As of the thirteen constraints mentioned by the respondents, the lack of

education is ranked the first. The Gorkhali women of Aizawl show the highest

rank in terms of constraints whereas those living in Shillong and Guwahati

have lower constraints. The Smith‟s Salience is two for Aizawl Gorkhali

women and one for Guwahati and Shillong Gorkhali women. In the same

manner, skills development, encouragement in learning and developing self-

esteem of women record the same for Shillong women and least for Guwahati

women. Early marriage of women is more prevalent in Guwahati due to the

low level of education and therefore employment opportunities are fewer for

them. There is a lack of unity within the community and the sense of

belongingness is still low which is due to the ethnic discrimination.

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 The Gorkhali women of Guwahati feel that backbiting or gossiping

about each other is also one of the constraints for women development and

once women can overcome this negativity amongst themselves, they can start

motivating and building up each other. One of the reasons of backbiting is

that women in a locality have so much free time for gossip. The land issue is

mostly with the people of Shillong where there is difficulty in buying and

selling land and some of the Guwahati women face a similar constraint but in

Aizawl, this is not the issue. Substance abuse with regards to women can be

seen more in Guwahati and Shillong than Aizawl. Self-employed women are

very few in number and even from this small earner group, donations-seeking

from different organizations is still common and Gorkha women are obligated

to contribute.

Table 6.5 Perceived Constraints to Development of Gorkhali Women

City
Total
Sl. Guwahati Shillong Aizawl N = 300
Constraint
No n = 100 n = 100 n = 100
% ̅ S % ̅ S % ̅ S % ̅ S
1 Lack of Education 86 1 0.81 90 1 0.78 66 2 0.57 82 1 0.73
2 Lack of Skills 43 3 0.23 58 3 0.39 55 3 0.37 52 3 0.33
Inadequate
3 Encouragement 13 1 0.12 44 1 0.44 40 1 0.40 33 1 0.32
4 Lack of Self-Esteem 41 3 0.27 58 4 0.26 55 4 0.26 52 3 0.26
5 Early Marriage 47 3 0.27 22 5 0.07 25 5 0.09 31 4 0.14
Lack of Unity in the
6 Community 39 4 0.14 19 4 0.08 23 3 0.14 26 4 0.12
Inadequate Sense of
7 Belongingness 30 3 0.16 19 4 0.08 13 5 0.05 21 4 0.10
Lack of Employment
8 Opportunities 20 3 0.11 5 3 0.02 13 2 0.11 12 3 0.08
9 Backbiting 13 4 0.07 9 5 0.04 34 5 0.13 17 4 0.07
10 Landlessness 1 10 0.00 15 4 0.05 7 5 0.02
11 Donation Seeking NGOs 1 11 0.00 1 3 0.00 9 4 0.04 3 5 0.01
12 Substance Use 4 9 0.01 4 5 0.01 4 2 0.03 4 6 0.01
13 Self-Employment 1 2 0.01 1 2 0.00
Source: Computed ̅ Mean Rank S = Smith‟s Salience

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 In this section, it can be deduced that education is the main constraint

of women development. Therefore, women have to be educated for themselves,

their children and their families. The feeling of not being able to help their

children at homework after their school makes women vulnerable. They marry

at an early age due to which they cannot complete their education. Hence,

with a low level of education they cannot do anything and in addition, are

unskilled for jobs which are strong constraints to their development.

Table 6.6 Pattern Differences in Constraints: Spearman's rho

City
[Link] City Total
Guwahati Shillong Aizawl
1 Guwahati 1 .847** .796** .927**
2 Shillong .847** 1 .968** .982**
3 Aizawl .796** .968** 1 .957**
4 Total .927** .982** .957** 1
Source: Computed ** P < 0.01 * P < 0.05

6.1.4 Suggestions for Development of Gorkhali Women

A total number of ten suggestions have been given by the Gorkhali

women of North East India in accordance to their perceived problems. The

suggestions include education, unity in the community, women‟s rights

awareness, women‟s socio-political participation, understanding of women, skill

training, adult education, women‟s work participation, approachment, and

vocational education (see table 6.7 and 6.8).

Education has been identified as the main constraint as well as one of

the main strategies suggested for the development of Gorkhali women. They

exhibited ten suggestions from the constraints that they are facing as a

minority population. It was also observed that Shillong women ranked the

highest in giving suggestions to improve education whereas, in Guwahati, it

was the least. Guwahati women have a high opinion with regards to the

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importance of adult education, rights of the women, training for their skill

development and vocational skills and a similar trend is found among Shillong

and Aizawl women as well. Parents are very busy earning their living and do

not have time to help children in their studies. A girl child understands the

problems of the family better way than boy child so in many cases, girls have

given up their studies for the sake of their siblings and family needs. These

leads to early marriage with less education and later on, face challenges

socially and economically. Women must, therefore, be provided with

opportunities to continue their education through adult education programmes.

The Gorkhali women also get a lesser opportunity than the indigenous people

in training services for skill and so this needs to be challenged.

The unity of the Gorkhali population is a must as they are a minority

group and if they are not cohesive, they will be unable to advocate their own

rights and approach one other for any kind of support. Through social

involvement and participation, women can get encouragement for their

development and can also contribute to their community‟s development.

Women strongly believe that there is a need for a mutual understanding

between their in-laws for a family to be happy and healthy. In many cases,

the main reason of family breakdown is because of in-law issues. A supportive

and mature partner becomes a must to handle the balance between the partner

and the family. In order to make all the suggestions applicable, women

themselves play an important role in motivating and shaping themselves

through courage, positive attitude, determination, and hard work.

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 Table 6.7 Suggestions for Development of Gorkhali Women
City Total
Sl. Guwahati Shillong Aizawl N = 300
Suggestion
No n = 100 n = 100 n = 100
% ̅ S % ̅ S % ̅ S % ̅ S
1 Women Education 79 1 0.72 93 1 0.92 83 1 0.80 86 1 0.82
2 Unity in the Community 57 2 0.46 39 2 0.26 57 2 0.45 50 2 0.38
3 Women‟s Rights Awareness 64 3 0.44 20 2 0.14 40 2 0.30 40 2 0.28
Women‟s Socio Political
4 Participation 51 3 0.29 24 3 0.13 32 4 0.17 35 3 0.20
5 Understanding of Women 51 4 0.25 30 3 0.15 26 4 0.11 36 4 0.18
6 Skill Training 51 5 0.17 27 4 0.11 23 6 0.07 35 5 0.12
7 Adult Education 40 6 0.14 23 4 0.13 17 6 0.08 27 5 0.12
8 Women‟s Work Participation 47 3 0.31 2 5 0.02 2 2 0.02 18 3 0.12
9 Approachment 16 4 0.09 4 7 0.01 38 5 0.15 16 5 0.07
10 Vocational Education 29 7 0.05 20 6 0.04 15 8 0.02 22 7 0.04
Source: Computed ̅ Mean Rank S = Salience

Table 6.8 Pattern Differences in Suggestions for Women Development:Spearman's rho

City
[Link] City Total
Guwahati Shillong Aizawl
1 Guwahati 1 .717* .699* .926**
2 Shillong .717* 1 .738* .886**
3 Aizawl .699* .738* 1 .849**
4 Total .926** .886** .849** 1
Source: Computed ** P < 0.01 * P < 0.05

6.2. Emic Understanding of Women Development

In this section, an attempt is made to present the results of qualitative

data analysis. The first subsection presents the lived experiences of Gorkhali

women from the point of view of development. In the second subsection, the

results of the focus group discussion have been discussed.

6.2.1 Case Studies of Lived Experiences of Gorkhali Women

A case study is a comprehensive description of an individual or group

or institution. A total number of six case studies of Gorkhali women were

conducted in Guwahati, Shillong, and Aizawl so as to understand the

constraints to their development from their own perspective.

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Case I: A Married Women Professional

Smt. Nanu is a married woman of 50 years who is born and brought

up in Shillong. She is a teacher by profession living with her husband and

two children as a nuclear family. She earns around five lakhs annually and her

husband also holds a government job. At the time when she got married

which was around 27 years ago, she joined a large joint family of 35

members. Before her marriage, she used to have a job but had to quit after

marriage. Her in-laws were so conservative and did not accept their daughters-

in-law working outside the house. After marriage, she was involved fully in

household work and had to prepare food for 35 persons every day. Sometimes,

she even went to bed hungry as the food was insufficient for everyone. “Why

life is unfair to me was the thing that always came to my mind during such

times. Since I have a husband by my own choice, I have to get used to it

and go along with the flow of life. Life is not only about hanging around

with friends in a coffee shop, one day you have to go out and face the world

and making yourself more capable and independent by working hard” she

would encourage herself.

She also says “My husband was also aware of the things that I used to

do in the house the whole day and he began to feel sorry for me. From then

on, he started encouraging me to continue my studies and after the completion

of my studies, I got a job as a teacher. With all the obstacles he supported

me to study and could convince his elders for me to work outside. Luckily,

my husband has been so supportive because of which I am now a teacher. I

do not lose hope and will keep moving forward in life. A Homemaker is the

best person to make a house into a home but I do not just want to stay at

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home and stop at that point. In fact, I have a lot of things to do in my life

and only with courage, hard work and the support of my husband; I am now

at this point”.

In terms of the development of Gorkhali women, she says “Our

Gorkhali women are very busy in household works right from morning till

night. They get up early in the morning to make breakfast for their family,

then lunch and then dinner. These all constitute the daily routine of the

women but are not productive work at all but. Our women can do wonders

but they are not willing to do so at all. When their children grow up, most of

the women feel that they have to do something as they are free. However,

they cannot get any job because they are not educated and they do not have

the skills to do any kind of work.”

‘What I strongly believe is that if our generation passes on the

significance of education to the youngsters then only our Gorkha women’s

status will be better in all aspects. There are no constraints for the

development of our women but the only fact is that women lack the attitude,

motivation and support system.'

Case II: An Educated Young Married Home Maker

Smt. Tara, a young married woman of 29 years has a daughter and

lives with her husband in a joint family of five members. She had completed

her education upto graduation. She has been married for seven years and she

is a homemaker. She wants to work but her husband and her mother-in-law do

not allow her to do so. Her husband works in a reputed company and earns a

huge amount of money and so she is not permitted to work. For the past two

years, she and her husband and daughter has moved out and lived separately.

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Her husband has to go out of station due to work at least once a week and

spends more time outside the house. She has nothing to do at home except

for looking after her child. Most of the household work is done by her maid

servant and when her daughter goes to school, she is free and has to stay at

home the whole day without doing any productive work at all.

‘Malai pura bore lagcha diuso kei garne hudaina ani timilai yesto

dekhda ramro lagyo. Mero pani higher studies garne chahana thiyo. Behe

gareko baat ma kei garnu sakena budo ka family le bujhene malai ani maile

pani afno kura rakhnu chode.'

Smt. Tara feels bored and has always wanted to pursue higher studies

but she could not continue as she got married. She envies the work done by

the researcher as pursuing Ph.D. was also her dream. Her husband and her in-

laws do not understand her ambition to study more. And for an introverted

person like her, even discussing her dreams to them is difficult. From her

experience to date, what she feels is that Gorkha women should not marry at

an early age. Hence, they need to study more and focus on their goals first.

Case III: A Drop out Girl Becomes a Professional

Smt. Maya is a married woman of 59 years, born and brought up in

Guwahati. She is a teacher by profession and lives in a joint family. She

earns around five lakhs annually and her husband is also holding a government

job. She had to drop out of school while she was studying the tenth standard

as her mother passed away and her brother told her not to continue her

schooling because she is the eldest daughter and has to shoulder the

responsibilities of the house. She had to look after her siblings and also all

the household work. They used to have a cow which was their main source of

162
livelihood and she had spent most of her teenage life distributing milk in their

locality.

At the age of 19 years, she got married and became continuously busy

with her husband‟s family. She conceived three children and become busy

raising them. Then, after nine years she resumed her study which was a major

break through in her life as she had always been interested in her career and

was always keen to continue her studies. She gave extra effort to her study

and she learned English as a subject for three years since she was weak in

that subject. She, at last, completed her bachelor‟s degree in Hindi and had

undergone a training course to become a teacher. She has worked so much for

their community children through imparting education to them. Besides that,

she is also interested in writing and had received state and national awards for

her writing in Nepali. Smt. Maya is very active in women‟s associations and

also holds the position of President in Mahila Samiti (women association) in

their locality.

‘Mahila Sanstha haruleramrokaam gari ayeko cha, pahilagaun ka aymi

manche haruleafno naam pani lekhnu janeko thiyena. Sanstha le jor

diyekokaran le ahile ta afno signature pani dinu janeka chan'

The above statement means that in the earlier days, women cannot even

give their signature for personal use but with the efforts of women‟s

association, now they are able to do so. The low education status of women is

the main hindrance to their development and the people in their locality need

education the most. They are trying their level best to help each other in

every situation through this association.

163
Case IV A Young Educated Home Maker

Smt. Seema, 35 years of age who is married into a reputed joint family

where both the father-in-law and mother-in-law serve under the Government of

India. She married their only son who is a doctor and they have one child.

She got married when she was 25 years of age and before marriage, she had

already completed her studies. She has worked hard to get her degree and

after that, she got a job and supported her brother in his studies. She

continued to work and bear the expenditure of her family. She is a very hard

working woman and does immense work for her family. At the age of 25

years, she got married and continued her job. Her workplace is quite far from

their locality and had to travel for around 30 minutes on her scooter.

During the time of her pregnancy, while going to work, she underwent

a spontaneous abortion and had to quit her job. Her parents-in-law wanted her

to stay at home and take care of her health since it was their first grandchild.

Thereafter, there was no chance for her to work she became busy with her

household work and has to look after her child too. All her family members

would go out to work and she had to stay home with her child. Now her

child is quite grown up so she has gone to work voluntarily in their local

primary school where her mother-in-law is also working.

‘Maile ani mero ama baba le kasto jor garera padai ma yo mukam

payeko ho ani kaam pani gareko ho besi samei taka nabhaye pani. Yesto

mukam payera ahile school ma tyo pani voluntary kaam garda sarei pir

lagcha. Mero sasu ani sasura haru yesto padeko bhaye pani uni harule bujhi

diyena ki malai pani euta kaam garnu maan cha bhanera. Ghar ma kei paisa

ka kami chaina ani teibhara nei malai ta ghar mai basnu bhancha. Mero

164
buda le pani afno ama baba lai pura maan cha teseile unarko against kei

kura gardaina.'

According to Smt. Seema, her parents had given their best for her

education. She worked for a while but cannot continue after marriage.

Although she has a master‟s degree, she has to work in a school on a

voluntary basis which brings her morale down. Even though her in-laws are

educated, they do not allow her to hold a job. Since money is not a problem

in the family, they want their daughter-in-law to stay at home and look after

the house. “My husband loves me but cannot go against his parents and allow

me to work outside”. She states that money is not everything in life and one

must have a job in order to maintain her dignity and identity. “If one has to

stay in the house for a long time with a lot of free time, then one's mind can

lead to unnecessary and negative which is not favorable.

Case V: A Middle-Aged Contractor

Smt. Neetu is a middle-aged married woman and lives in a nuclear

family with her husband and three children. She has a step-mother-in-law who

is still young and so they could not remain in the joint family. Her husband

is a teacher and she is also working as a contractor. Before marrying, she did

not get a chance to study further and had to get married due to family

pressure. Her parents wanted her to marry when they were alive and she had

done what was told of her but she does not regret their decision till date

because her husband is a very understanding person and supports her in every

possible way. She is an independent woman and had been working even when

her child was very young. She had to sometimes travel out of the station but

165
her husband was always there to support her in household work and in

looking after their children also.

‘Katti Gorkhali aimy le contract haruta keta manche ka kaam ho

bhanera kaam garnu khochdaina. Tyo ekdam jhuto kura ho chori manche le

pani kaam garnu sakincha ani ahile maile pani garera dekhayeko chu. Padai

ta garnu parcha bhapani contract garnu ka lagi chai euta confident chayincha

ani tyo chai masanga cha bhannu chahanchu. Sabei Gorkhali aimy harule pani

yo kura chai jani rakhos ki kaam bhanda keta ya keti ka alag alag hudaina

sab ek ho ani afule sano thannu hudaina.'

Gorkhali women are not yet confident enough to work and undertake a

job in a society which is male-oriented. A job like a contractor is mainly

done by men in Aizawl and women are not comfortable with this kind of job.

What Smt. Neetu believes is that there is no difference in men‟s work and

women‟s work but the most important thing is that we have to accept any

kind of job. With confidence, we can do all kind of jobs as done by men.

One does not have to acquire higher education to do any kind of work; in

fact, confidence is the main factor to increase the level of development of

Gorkha women.

Case VI: Middle Aged Home Maker

Smt. Teena, a married woman of 42 years had studied up to eighth

standard and could not continue due to the poor economic condition of her

family. In addition, she did not have much interest in her studies. Earlier,

education was not given much importance as their main aim was to have an

education up to high school and after that, get married. The same thing

happened to her when she got married to her boyfriend at the age of 23 years

166
and now she is the mother of three children. Her husband is a wage labourer

and sometimes she used to help him in his work.

“It is very hard to run a family with one person‟s income where our

children have to go to school and there are many other needs to be fulfilled.

Although we can ask help from our family, it is not always possible. Since

we stay separately, we have to bear the responsibility of our own family but

my husband is not emotionally mature and does not care about these things. If

we got some money for our daily needs, it is enough for him and he does

not care about saving for the future.”

Smt. Teena says that they do not have any future plan and they just

went along with life. They got married at an early age without thinking about

the future and now they are suffering. Her husband started drinking alcohol

and this creates more problems in the family. In the earlier days, they used to

be happy with the small amount of money which her husband used to earn

daily. His income was sufficient for them to carry on their daily living but

alcohol has ruined their life. Smt. Teena told her husband not to drink but he

cannot quit his drinking habits and her words do not have any meaning for

him.

‘Mero buda raksi piunu lagyo bhane kaam ma jadaina ani ghar ka

kharcha kasari chalaune tes karan le ghar ma pani jhakra bhai rakcha. Kahile

kaso ta chodera jam jasto lagcha bhapani ke garne chora chori lai dekhda

maya le garda pani chodnu sakdaina. Maile nai chodera gaye bhane mero

buda ta khattam nai huncha. Hami Gorkhali aimi manche Mizo jasto hoina ki

kei bhayo bhane buda lai chodera jane sano kura ma nani lai tuda banaune.

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Ek choti behe garyo bhane maran le matra hamilai chuttaucha. Euta thulo

bishwas sanga baseki chu kunei din ta yo nasha lai chodcha bhanera.'

“When my husband starts taking alcohol, he stays at home and does

not go for work. If he does not go for work, then we cannot run our family

which is why we keep on fighting with these issues. Sometimes I just want to

leave all these things behind and leave him but because of my children, I

cannot do that. If I leave him, he will not be able to survive and it will be

like letting him die. We have intense faith in a marriage that once we are

married then only death will separate us. We, the Gorkha women have strong

faith in marriage and we are not like the Mizo women for whom divorce is

easy. The rate of divorce is much high among Mizo women than among

Gorkha women”.

Because of her husband‟s behaviour after drinking, Smt. Teena has to

take care of the family and at this point, she used to regret not studying when

she was young. She had to stop her schooling at an early age and get

married. Now due to her family problems, she has to work hard to earn their

daily living. Since she does not have any skills to work and all she can do is

to work as a labourer where women are not much preferred. She wants her

children to study and she hopes to give her best to educate them. She does

not want her children to face the same hardships she has undergone.

From the above cases, it can be identified that all the Gorkha women

from the three study areas face a lot of challenges in their life. Right from

their teenage years, they have to give up their studies due to family problems

and face more challenges after marriage mainly due to lack of education. Their

spouse plays a vital role in their development because an understanding partner

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supports a wife to continue her studies so that she can become an independent

woman. Some women are not as lucky and have to bear the burden of an

alcoholic spouse and conservative in-laws. As a whole, Gorkhali women need

education in order to address the challenges faced by themselves and their

families.

6.2.2 Focus Group Discussion (FGD)

FGD was conducted with the women from three study areas which are

Aizawl women (AW), Shillong women (SW) and Guwahati women (GW). The

women who participated in the discussions are mostly of middle age and

widows. They are of mixed groups where some are employed, self-employed

and house maker. Seven to ten women from each group participated in the

discussion. The participants were briefed about the objectives of the exercise

beforehand.

The main themes of the discussion are as follows:

i) Feelings and perceptions of being a woman in a patriarchal society

ii) Problems faced by Gorkha women within and outside the community

iii) Hindrances in the development of Gorkha women

iv) Strategies to overcome challenges faced by Gorkha women

[Link] Guwahati Gorkhali Women

“To be a woman is the best experience in this world” was a statement

made by the women to start the discussion. To be able to born as a Gorkha

woman is one of the fortunate things for them where the girl child is treated

as „Devi‟ (Goddess) in their culture. A girl child is being worshiped and girl

children are given a high place in the Gorkha community. The participants felt

like one of the fortunate women in this world where they enjoy their life to

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the fullest. They are allowed to work even after marriage if they have a good

family and enjoy full freedom making their culture still alive. Since Gorkhali

women are living in a male dominant community, they sometimes used to face

challenges in their lives mainly in decision- making. But many of them feel

that the family lead by men at home is more preferable than that of women

because the women themselves are not confident in leading a family. Women

want men to lead a family where women can give full support to them.

Another major problem is that women do not know their rights

especially when they face ethnic discrimination from the local people.

Nowadays people know the existence of the Gorkha people and their history

of how they were one of the first settlers of the mainland. However, there are

still lots of people who do not know about it and women must have the

knowledge in order to be accountable. The case of Guwahati is slightly

different with regards to an identity crisis and owning shops. The people of

Guwahati do not face problems related to donation collected by local people

because of their non-local identity but they willingly give donations at the time

of pujas. The people of Guwahati have OBC status and the situation is much

better but educated women are still very less in number.

Married women face a lot of challenges in their family and the major

problems they face is with their in-laws. They feel that husbands need to

understand them and the problems related to their in-laws will be solved

immediately. At the same time, the in-laws also have a problem related to

their daughters-in-law. They feel that their daughters-in-law accept only their

sons as a family but do not accept their in-laws in the same way. They want

their daughter-in-law to accept their whole family which is lacking in many

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marriages today. At this point, men play an important role in balancing

between their wife and parents. If men are emotionally mature, they can

handle this balance family life will be harmonious and happy. They feel that

the unity of the people is needed for their growth and also they need to be

united with the local people. The cooperation with the locality people is a

strong necessity for their development because, at the time of difficulties, they

can count on them.

According to women, education has been one of the main factors for

the hindrance of development. They have to educate themselves which is for

the betterment of the community as a whole. The other reason for the under-

development of Gorkhali women is gossiping and back biting. Due to lack of

education and employment, women have a lot of free time and use this to

gossip about others. They themselves know that it is not a good thing but do

so as a means of outlet and recreation. What they actually desire is to stop

gossiping and to be busy in some productive work which would be suitable

for them. They felt bad that some women indulge in alcohol and do not want

such behaviour in their society.

[Link] Shillong Gorkhali Women

Women of Shillong are happy to be born as a Gorkhali woman

although they faced many challenges in their earlier days in this male

dominant society. They love their life as women but when they have to

become fully dependent on men then their life becomes complicated. All

women are not lucky enough to have an understanding husband and therefore

most of the women have to undergo many challenges in their daily life.

Women are the one who always has to understand the family because they

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have that power and are also trained from an early age. They are the ones

who have to drop out of school because of family situations and have to look

after the family to become a good daughter, a good sister and an excellent

house maker.

The main problems they face as being Gorkha women is the problem

of identity crisis. Whenever there is an unwanted situation created by any of

the non-local residents, then they are asked to leave the Shillong. They are

often greeted by hurtful comments like, “Go back to Nepal, your homeland”.

There are also land issues in Shillong when it comes to buying and selling of

land but if they want to stay there without buying land, then they can stay

happily. It is difficult for the Gorkhali educated women to pursue their higher

studies because first preference is given to the local tribal people and then

only they are given a chance. Although they do have Central University, it is

difficult for them to get seats over there because first preference is given to

the tribal students. They do not have OBC status and they have to apply for

everything under the general category. The case of Aizawl and Shillong is

quite similar with regards to identity problems. Women face a lot of

challenges after marriage because they have to relocate to their husband‟s

house and start a life with a whole new set of individuals. They face lots of

adjustment problems and sometimes also quarrel with their in-laws. These are

one of the reasons for their separation with their spouse or with the family.

They need a very supportive husband who can understand them and help them

to adjust to every situation.

What they feel is that unity among the Gorkhali women is needed for

their upliftment and empowerment and development will come only when

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women learn to work as a team. They should always keep in mind that they

are part of a minority population and thus unity is the main tool for a better

position in society. The main hindrance for the development of Gorkha women

is a low level of education. Women get married at a young age and do not

complete their education. If they are not educated then they cannot get

employment and cannot contribute to their family income. They are very good

at looking after the family but they wish to do something useful for

themselves and contribute to their family as well. When their children are

young, they have to give full time and attention to them but as their children

are grown up, they need some kind of work to occupy themselves. Due to

lack of education, they become vulnerable and cannot do what they want. Not

having pursued their education is one of their biggest regrets to date, and

therefore wants their children to achieve the highest level of education.

Alcohol is always a problem for the lack of development among

women and men likewise. Some women are also consuming alcohol which

leads to family dysfunction. The main reason why women consume alcohol is

that of their husbands. Their husbands are alcoholics with no concern for their

family‟s needs and some wives become frustrated enough to drown their

sorrows in alcohol. There are also some women who consume alcohol although

their husbands do not do so. These kinds of women are very hard to handle

and they do not care for their family. The situation of a family where both

the parents indulge in alcohol is one where the children bear much suffering.

Since women are the main builders of a family, at least the mother should not

indulge in such behaviour.

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[Link] Aizawl Gorkhali Women

The importance of the girl child in a family is recognized by the

Gorkhali people and many of them prefer more girl child than a boy.

Although there is still a belief that boy child is better because they look after

their parents at old age. But still, the world is changing and so do their

beliefs. From their experiences, many women in today‟s world are looking

after their family and the Gorkha people are also changing their perceptions

towards the girl and boy child.

For Gorkha women in Aizawl, an identity crisis is one of the major

problems that they are facing to date. Due to their looks, they are not

accepted by the local people because the local people have Mongoloids looks

and the Gorkha people are the combination of different Jatis. The Gorkhali

people who have been living in Mizoram prior to 1956 years only can get the

citizenship of Mizoram and not the others. The Gorkha people who settled in

the land after that cannot get any beneficiaries from the State. If a Gorkhali

person or family owns a shop, then they become obligated to give donations

collected by local organizations.

With regards to OBC status, the situation is similar to the Shillong

people and the Gorkha women of Aizawl do not have any job expectations in

state government jobs. Although the Gorkhas have been living in the land

from their forefathers, they are still facing identity crisis and have to keep

reminding the local people that they too belong to the same land. They do not

have any other place to go because most of them are staying in the land that

they bought or received from the British Government. If asked where their

motherland is, they have no reply other than to say Mizoram. The relationship

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between brides and in-laws is much better in Aizawl even though there are

still some conservative and strict in-laws. When a woman gets married within

her community, they do not face too many challenges as most Aizawl

Gorkhali women are quite open-minded towards their daughters-in-law.

There is still a lack of unity within Gorkhali settlements where one

cannot bear to see the success of others and this becomes one of the main

reasons for the hindrance of development. The level of women education is

still very low in the Gorkha community and they have to really work on this

aspect for their development. The more the women are not employed, the

more time they spend time at home and in the society where lots of gossiping

and negative talk occurs. Women need to work in order to occupy themselves

and to do more productive things for themselves and their society. Aizawl

women say that the rate of divorce is less in Gorkha community because they

do not leave their husband at the time of crisis even though they may be

alcoholics. They keep on living with them for the sake of their family and are

of the perception that this long-suffering nature of women is a superpower that

leads to the betterment of their family.

From the above discussion, the Gorkhali women of the three cities

came to a concrete conclusion about the fact that those married women who

can handle their in-laws well are the one who can stay happy in their family.

Women should not take too much burden when it comes to marriages whether

their laws will be good or not and so on. What they believe is that if they

love their son and want to marry him, then they should be able to love their

family and accept them as well only after which a happy married life can

happen. There may be some exceptional cases where the in-laws or the women

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may not accept each other and becomes difficult to live together. But as a

whole, what they believe is that if „we keep on behaving well with them then

one day they can change their mind and understand us.‟

Education of Gorkha is most important for any kind of development.

Every Gorkhali should give the utmost importance to the education of their

children and their quality will help them to fight any kind of crisis. If they

are educated, then they will be employed in higher administration which will

automatically make them rise above others. Gorkha women need education as

a weapon for their growth. They realize that although they could not attain

higher education themselves, their children can have the best education. They

do not want their children to undergo the same circumstances that they are

going or have gone through. In spite of the fact that they do achieve get a

higher education before their marriages, they desire their partners to support

their wife in accomplishing their education even after marriages.

Women have to work together as a group to help each other to solve

their problems and to make a change in society. Women are already working

together as an association but these associations need to be strengthened not

only internally but outside their community as well. Working together with the

local associations within their own areas is one of the best ways to preserve

their identity. If the Gorkhali people are united among themselves and continue

their unity with the local people, this will lead to the development of the

Gorkhas.

The analysis of the above FGD findings with Gorkha women in North

East India are discussed as below:

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(i) Feelings and Perceptions of Being a Woman in a Patriarchal Society

The women of Guwahati perceive that being a woman is the best

experience in this world where Gorkhali women are fortunate as the girl child

is treated as „Devi‟ (Goddess) and given a high place in the Gorkha

community. But after marriage, if they do not get a good husband, then their

lives become miserable in the male dominant society. Women of Shillong are

happy to be born as a Gorkhali woman although they face challenges in their

earlier days. They love their life as women but it becomes miserable if they

have to become fully dependent on men. The importance of the girl child in a

family is recognized by the Aizawl Gorkhali people and many of them prefer

more female than male children although there are some who still prefer a boy

child as they can look after their parents at old age.

(ii) Problems Face by Gorkha Women

The Gorkha women as being part of a minority group in all the three

cities of North East India mainly face the problem of identity crisis problems

which is prevalent in all the study areas. The Gorkhali people do not have a

homeland in India due to which they have to struggle so much in their daily

life when it comes to identity. When they are asked to go back to their

homeland in times of communal crisis in their locality, they often become

clueless and have to clarify to the people how much they are also the settlers

of the land just as they are. They do not have any other place to go because

they have been living in the area from the time of their forefathers.

(iii) Constraints to Development of Gorkhali Women

Gorkhali women of the three different cities perceived that education of

women had always been the main constraint of development. They are literate

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but not educated due to certain circumstances. The women of Guwahati said

that the education of women is needed for their development and they are

facing challenges from their in-laws where they are not allowed to work

outside their homes after marriage. They want their daughters-in-law to stay at

home and look after the family. The Shillong women‟s constraint for

development is again education which is similar with the two cities. The

Gorkhali educated women face challenges in getting seats for higher studies

due to OBC status which is not given to them by the government like the

case in Aizawl. They mention that the indulgence of women in alcohol is also

the reason for their backwardness. Gorkhali women of Aizawl have constraints

with regards to their education and the less number of employed women. They

are denied employment opportunities because they do not have the OBC status.

The lack of unity is also a major constraint to the development of Gorkhali

women.

(iv) Policy Suggestions

The education of a girl child should not be neglected and full

investment must be made for their education is a suggestion made by the

Gorkhali women of all three cities. Through education, the Gorkhali women

can become aware of and can safeguard their rights from all the internal and

external factors. The family is the most important aspect of their development

because, without their support, women development is not possible. Since they

are living as a minority group in each of the three cities, unity among them

becomes a necessary weapon. The uneducated women can be uplifted through

adult education, skill development, and training.

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 In this chapter, an attempt has been made to look at the challenges of

women from the points of view of the respondents. In the next chapter, the

findings of the present study are summarised. The conclusion and implication

of the present study are also presented.

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CHAPTER VII

CONCLUSION
 CHAPTER VII

CONCLUSION

The present study probes into the bearing of social capital on the

development of Gorkhali women in North East India. It also tries to

contextualize the relationship between social capital endowment of women and

their development to the socio-cultural and structural context of the women

belonging to the minority ethnic group of Gorkhas in North East India.

Further, it also explores the challenges and constraints to the development of

Gorkhali women from an emic perspective. Social capital, in the present study,

has been conceptualized from the perspective of social network and

operationalized with the help of composition and structural measures of

egocentric networks. Women development has been conceptualized in terms of

objective economic indicators and subjective happiness. The study was

conducted in three major cities of North East India viz., Guwahati, Shillong,

and Aizawl. Qualitative and quantitative methods have been used to fulfill the

research objectives and hypotheses.

The previous chapter presented an emic understanding of the Gorkhali

women in North East India with regard to their developmental challenges. This

chapter has been presented in three major sections. The first section presents

the summary of the findings of the present study. In the second chapter, the

conclusion of the study is presented. The implications of the study are

presented in the third section.

7.1. Summary of Findings

This present section tries to summarise the findings of the present

study. It has been exhibited into seven sub-sections. The first sub-section is

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devoted to a description of the socio-cultural and structural context of the

Gorkhali women in the North East of India. In the second sub-section, the

social background characteristics of the Gorkhali women are discussed. The

third sub-section deals with the findings on the composition and structure of

social support networks of the Gorkhali women in North East are summarised.

The forth sub-section summarises the findings on the social capital endowment

of the Gorkhali women in the three cities. The fifth sub-section presents a

summary of the findings on the development of Gorkhali women in North East

India. The sixth sub-section presents the findings on the relationship between

social capital and Gorkhali women development in North East India. In the

seventh section, the challenges to Gorkhali women development in the North

East are summarised.

7.1.1 Socio-Cultural and Structural Context of Gorkhali Women in North

East India

The Gorkhas have been living in different parts of India over 200

years. The Gorkhali speaking people have settled in different part of India

especially in the North Eastern part of India. The study was conducted in

three cities of North East India viz., Guwahati, Shillong, and Aizawl. In all

the three cities the Gorkhali people have settled there prior to the eighteenth

century and lived together with the native people. The Gorkhali people used to

participate in the social, cultural and religious activities of the non-Gorkhali

people and the latter were taking part in the former‟s activities too. That close

and mutual kind of relationship was there at that time between the groups. But

time changes so do people and their relationships. Now the younger non-

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Gorkhali generation hardly knows about the good relationship of their

forefathers with the Gorkhali people.

It has been observed from the present study that the Gorkhali people

are residing in a homogeneous group and their location is more favorable

because of their early settlements in those areas. They give importance to the

establishment of Mandirs and Schools for their community people in their

respective areas as well as to creating welfare associations for themselves. The

Gorkhali women are working together as an association and help the needy.

They play a vital role in strengthening the connection with the non-Gorkhali

people of their respective localities by involving in the socio-cultural activities.

Gorkha society is patrilineal and jati based. Social relations in Gorkha

society are regulated by the norms of jati order and principles of patriarchy.

The woman‟s primary role is seen in terms of her domestic responsibilities.

Gorkhali women of the three cities are mostly unemployed and their standard

of education is generally low. Most of these women are busy in household

and family work which makes them happy. But at the same time, it does not

help them in their individual development since they are not doing any

productive work for themselves.

7.1.2 Social Structural Bases of Gorkhali Women in North East India

The social structural bases of Gorkhali women respondents have been

discussed in terms of demographic, social, economic characteristics and living

conditions.

The demographic structural bases of the respondents have been studied

in terms of characteristics of age, education and marital status. No significant

differences in these characteristics could be noted across the three cities -

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Aizawl, Shillong and Guwahati. Most of the Gorkhali women respondents in

all the three cities belong to Late Adulthood (35 -59) age group. Most of the

respondents were literates in all the cities and have crossed the middle school.

A vast majority of the respondents were married invariably in all three cities.

Family structural background of the respondents was explored in terms

of the type of family, size of family, a form of family and gender of head of

the family. In terms of these structural features of family, no significant

difference in the pattern could be observed across the three cities. As regards

the type of family, most of the respondents belonged to nuclear families while

a significant proportion of joint families are still found in all the three cities.

Small, medium and large size of families could be noted in all the cities.

Most of the respondents belonged to medium sized families invariably in all

the cities. As regards the type of family, a vast majority of the respondents

belonged to stable families across the three cities. Broken or reconstituted/step

families are rarely found among the Gorkhalis in North East India. As regards

the gender of head of the household, most of the respondents in all the three

cities belonged to male-headed families.

Social structural bases of the respondents have been discussed in terms

of religion and jati hierarchy. Almost all of the Gorkhali respondents belong to

the Hindu religion and only a few of them have converted to Christianity. The

proportion of converts to Christianity is greater in Aizawl. As regards jati

hierarchy, four groups could be observed among the Gorkhalis in North East

India. They are Brahmana, Chhetry, Shahi, Pradhan, Gharti etc, Rai, Limbu,

Thapa, Tamang etc, Bishwa, Sarki, Damai etc. The Brahmana is considered the

highest while the Bishwa, Sarki, Damai etc., group is considered as lowest. The

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respondents of Guwahati have the highest group of second jati hierarchy viz.,

Chhetri, Pradhan, Gharti, Shahi/Thakuri etc. However, there is the difference in

the pattern of distribution of respondents across the three cities. The pattern of

distribution is similar between Guwahati and Shillong. Only the first three jati

group‟s viz., Brahmanas, Chhetry and Rai, Limbu, and Thapa could be found

in these two cities while all the four groups were present in Aizawl.

Economic structural bases of the respondents were explored in terms of

dependency, primary occupation, secondary occupation, and socio economic

category. In terms of these economic structural characteristics, no significant

difference could be noted among the respondents across the three states. As

regards dependency, most of the respondents were dependents across the three

cities. Skilled labour, petty business and government service were the three

avenues for women employment among the Gorkhali women in the three

cities. Daily wage labourers or large business owners were rarely found among

the Gorkhali women in all these cities. However, most of the respondents

belong to the non-poor category invariably across the three cities.

Living conditions of women respondents were discussed based on

personal assets ownership, annual household income, annual personal income

and monthly personal expenditure where differences in the levels of living

could be noted among the women. The respondents from Aizawl have the

highest value of personally owned assets as compared to Shillong and

Guwahati respondents. Among the assets, house/building and jewels are the two

forms of assets owned by most of the Gorkhali women in all three cities. The

annual personal income of the Aizawl Gorkhali women is highest followed by

Shillong and Guwahati Gorkhali women respectively. Whereas, the monthly

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expenditure of the Gorkhali women is highest among the Shillong respondents

followed by Aizawl and Guwahati respondents respectively.

7.1.3 Social Support Networks of the Gorkhali Women in North East

India

Social support networks data were collected with the help of name

generators, interpreters and interpellators. Egocentric social support networks of

the Gorkhali women were analyzed for their composition and structure with the

help of E-Net software. They were further analyzed with the help of SPSS for

their differences in variation and pattern across the three cities. The

composition of the social support networks was analyzed in terms of the alters

(source of support) demographic and social characteristics. Heterogeneity in the

composition of the alters in the social support networks and the homophily

(similarity) of the actor (respondent) and alter have also been analyzed. In this

subsection, the findings are summarised.

The demographic composition of the alters in the social support

networks include gender, age, and education. As regards gender, the alters of

personal social support networks of Gorkhali women are by and large

composed of women and a few alters were men. The Gorkhali women in

Shillong had a greater percentage of men in their personal networks as

compared to those in Guwahati and Aizawl. Male networks were significant

whereas female network was not significant. The age of the alters in the social

support networks of the Gorkhali women varied significantly between the three

cities and as a whole. It ranged from thirty-two to fifty-three years of age.

The mean years of education of the alter in the social support networks across

the cities ranged from six to twelve years.

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 The social composition of the alters in the social support networks has

been discussed in terms of jati, ethnicity religion and socio economic category.

Social hierarchy in all the three cities could be observed through the jati

composition of the social support network of respondents. Most of the alters

in the social support networks of the respondents belonged to the Brahmana

Jati which occupies the top of the hierarchy which is followed by the second,

third and fourth categories respectively. A vast majority of the alters in the

social support networks of the respondents belonged to the Gorkhali ethnic

group invariably across the three cities studied and only a few of them come

from other ethnicities. In the same manner, a vast majority of the alters in

social support networks of the respondents belong to the Hindu religion and

only a few of alters in the social support networks of the respondents were

Muslims and Christians. The majority of the alters in social support networks

of the respondents belonged to the non-poor socio-economic category and only

a few of them were from the poor category.

Type of relationship, the closeness between the actor and alter, and type

of social support received were also discussed. Kins constituted the majority of

the alters in the social support networks of the respondents followed by friends

and neighbours across the three cities. There was inter-city variation in

closeness between the respondents and their alters. Aizawl respondents are

closer to their alters as compared to those in Shillong and Guwahati. Among

the three types of social support, emotional social support is at the top

followed by financial, and information support invariably in all the cities.

Homogeneity measures indicate the similarity among the alters in the

network in terms of their demographic, social and economic characteristics. The

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social support networks of the Gorkhali women respondents were found to be

homogeneous in most of the demographic, social, and economic characteristics.

There is heterogeneity in the composition of social support networks of the

respondents across the three cities of north east India. Homogeneity in social

support network was observed in terms of gender, education, religion and

socio-economic category of the alters. Homogeneity was observed only in case

of the alters‟ age and jati across the three cities.

As regards homophily i.e. similarity between the actor (respondent) and

alters (social support), the social support networks of the respondents were

similar across the three cities for most of the demographic, social and

economic characteristics. The social support networks of the respondents were

homophilous with regard to gender, jati, ethnicity, religion and socio economic

category. Heterophily in the composition of social support networks of the

respondents could be seen only in age and education.

7.1.4 Social Capital Endowment of the Gorkhali Women in North East

India

Social capital in the present study is operationalized in terms of

compositional and structural measures of networks. The compositional measures

include homophily and heterogeneity while the structural measures include size,

density, effective size, and constraint. As homophily, heterogeneity and

structure involve a number of indicators, factor analysis with principal

components method has been used to derive weighted aggregate factor scores.

The first hypothesis of the present study reads that there is intercity

variation in the social capital endowment of Gorkhali women in North East

India. This hypothesis has been tested with one-way analysis of variance of

187
social capital measure derived. Hence, the null hypothesis that there is no

intercity variation in the social capital endowment of Gorkhali women in North

East India has been accepted. However, in both of the dimensions viz.,

Composition of Social Support Network as well as the Structure of networks,

the significant intercity variation could be observed. In a composite measure of

the composition of social support network and its constituents - homophily and

heterogeneity, the significant intercity variation could be observed. Similarly, a

significant inter-city variation could be observed in the structure of social

support networks in both structural hole and network structure. The

distribution of social capital among the respondents in the area was found to

be normal. On the whole, most of the respondents are located in either

moderate or low levels of social capital. Most of the respondents living in

Shillong have either a moderate or high level of social capital endowment. On

the other hand, most of the respondents from Guwahati as well as Aizawl

have a social capital endowment at a low or moderate level. From the pattern

of distribution of social capital endowment, no significant association between

the City and level of social capital was found.

The second hypothesis of the present study reads that there is inter jati

variation in the social capital endowment of Gorkhali women in north east

India. In the composite measure of social capital, there is no significant inter

jati variation in social capital. Hence, the null hypothesis that there is no inter

jati variation in the social capital endowment of Gorkhali women has been

accepted. Jati hierarchy has no significant effect on social capital embedded in

the composition and structure of social capital of the Gorkhali women in North

East India. Most of the respondents belonging to the highest Jati group

188
(Brahmana) have either low or moderate level of social capital endowment.

However, a greater proportion of respondents belonging to the lowest jati such

as Bishwa, Sarki, Damai etc. have a very low level of the social capital

endowment as compared to the others.

The results of co-relational analysis of demographic variables with

dimensions and indicators of social capital indicate that education is a major

determinant of the social capital endowment of Gorkhali women. The

respondent‟s education is significantly correlated with all the dimensions of

social capital and thus with the composite measure of social capital. In the

same manner, the household means years of adult education of the respondents

is also positively related to the composite social capital measure.

7.1.5 Development of Gorkhali Women in North East India

Women development is the process of increasing the well-being of

women. The well-being of women can be assessed with the help of objective

indicators and subjective indicators. Women development is objectively

measured with the help of economic indicators and subjective rating of their

happiness. Four economic indicators viz., the value of Assets Personally Owned

by the respondent, Annual Personal Income of Women, Monthly Personal

Expenditure of Women, and Personal Savings of Women were factor analyzed

with principal component analysis and a composite factor score was derived. A

modified version of Oxford happiness questionnaire was used to assess

happiness. The items in the Oxford happiness questionnaire were factor

analyzed to derive a composite score of happiness (see appendix). Both of

these objective and subjective measures are analyzed for inter-city and inter jati

variations. They were classified into four levels and the association between

189
city and jati hierarchy and levels of women development and happiness were

further analyzed.

The third hypothesis is that there is inter-city variation in the

development of Gorkhali women in North East India. To test this hypothesis,

one-way analysis of variance was used. The independent variable was city

while the dependent variable was composite women development. In the light

of the analysis, the null hypothesis that there is no intercity variation in the

development of Gorkhali women in North East India has been accepted. The

one-way analysis of variance reveals that out of the four indicators of women

development, only one indicator which is Monthly Personal Expenditure of

Women shows significant intercity variation. The results of cross-tabulation of

city and level of women development show that there is an association

between city and women development. This is contrary to the results of one-

way analysis of variance reported in the earlier section. While most of the

respondents could be located at the low level of women development in all

the three cities, the respondents from Shillong have a slightly better level of

women development among the three.

The fourth hypothesis states that there is intercity variation in the

happiness of Gorkhali women in North East India. In the light of the one-way

analysis of variance, the null hypothesis that there is no intercity variation in

the happiness of Gorkhali women in North East India has been accepted.

There is no significant association between the City of Domicile and the Level

of Happiness of the respondents. Most of the respondents, irrespective of the

city of domicile, have a moderate level of happiness.

190
 The fifth hypothesis reads that there is inter jati variation in the

development of Gorkhali women in North East India. To test this hypothesis,

one-way analysis of variance has been used. In the light of the statistical

analysis, the null hypothesis that there is no inter jati variation in the

development of Gorkhali women in North East India has been accepted.

Irrespective of location in jati hierarchy, a vast majority of respondents are at

low level of women development. More than a tenth of the respondents in

each of the jati groups could be found at the moderate level of women

development. A small number in each of the categories could also be observed

at the high level of women development.

The sixth hypothesis of the present study states that there is inter jati

variation in the happiness of Gorkhali women in North East India. This

hypothesis is tested with the help of one-way analysis of variance. In the light

of the results of the analysis, the sixth null hypothesis that there is no inter

jati variation in the happiness of Gorkhali women in North East India has

been rejected while the alternative hypothesis that there is inter jati variation in

the happiness of Gorkhali women in North East India has been validated.

Between the respondents of first category jati and those of the third group,

there is a significant difference. The members of the former group have

greater happiness as compared to those of the latter group. There is no

association between jati hierarchy and level of happiness of Gorkhali women.

Most of the respondents in each of the jati groups either have a moderate or

low level of happiness.

The demographic characteristics viz., mean years of adult education of

household, education of respondent and annual household income had a

191
consistently positive relationship with women‟s happiness and development.

Whereas the size of the family has no relationship with women development,

it has a positive relationship with women happiness. The seventh null

hypothesis that here is no relationship between social capital endowment and

women development among Gorkhali women in North East India has been

accepted.

7.1.6 Social Capital and Gorkhali Women Development in North East

India

The present study seeks to understand the relationship between social

capital and well-being of Gorkhali women. The seventh and eighth hypotheses

focus on this. The seventh hypothesis of the present study states that there is

a direct relationship between social capital endowment of Gorkhali women and

women development. This hypothesis was tested with the help of computation

of Karl Pearson‟s product moment coefficient between composite measures of

social capital and women development. In the light of the correlational

analysis, the null hypothesis that there is no relationship between social capital

endowment and women development among Gorkhali women in North East

India has been accepted. Women development has no significant relationship

with a structural hole and network structure dimensions of social capital. None

of the indicators of social capital in these two dimensions are significant at 5

per cent level. Both the indicators of network structure size and density have

no significant relationship. The indicators of structural hole effective size and

constraint also have no significant relationship with women development.

However, network composition has a negative relationship with women

development. Homophily, one of the indicators of social support network

192
composition also has a negative relationship with women development while

heterogeneity has no significant relationship.

The eighth hypothesis of the present study states that there is a direct

relationship between social capital endowment of Gorkhali women and women

happiness. In the light of the results of the correlational analysis, the null

hypothesis that there is no relationship between social capital endowment and

happiness among the Gorkhali women in North East India has been accepted.

None of the dimensions of social capital composition, network structure, and

structural hole have any significant relationship with women happiness.

However, only one indicator of the network structure of social capital i.e.,

degree (size) of social support network has a positive relationship with social

capital. Thus social capital endowments of Gorkhali women have no significant

bearing on their economic development and happiness. It could also be

observed that there is no significant relationship between women development

and happiness.

7.1.7 Emic Understanding of Women Development

The present subsection summarises the findings of the emic

understanding of the challenges and constraints to the development of Gorkhali

women in North East India.

What factors constrain development among the Gorkhali women? What

can be done to promote their development? These are certain pertinent

questions raised in the present study. So as to answer these questions, a few

open-ended questions were included in the interview schedule. The responses

were analyzed with the help of percentages and Smith‟s salience. It was found

that there is no significant difference in the pattern of ranking of these

193
constraints and suggestions by respondents across the three cities of North East

India. Spearman‟s rank correlation coefficients were computed to see the

significance of differences in the pattern of ranking across the cities of

Guwahati, Shillong, and Aizawl. In the perception of Gorkhali women, low

education status, lack of skills, inadequate encouragement, lack of self-esteem,

early marriage, lack of unity in the community, inadequate sense of

belongingness, lack of employment opportunities, backbiting, landlessness,

donation seeking NGOs, substance use; and lack of avenues for self-

employment were the challenges faced by them. They have suggested

promotion of women‟s education, unity in the community, women‟s rights

awareness, women‟s socio-political participation, understanding of women by

men, skill training, adult education, women‟s work participation, accessibility of

leaders, and vocational education as measures for promoting women

development.

From the lived experiences of Gorkha women analyzed through case

studies, it could be observed that they face a lot of challenges in their life.

Right from their teenage years, they have to give up their studies due to

family problems and face challenges after marriage due to lack of education.

The spouse plays a vital role in the development of a Gorkhali woman

because an understanding partner would support her to continue her studies or

undertake employment so that she can become empowered. Wherever a

Gorkhali woman faces problems from her spouse and/or herin-laws, her

development is curtailed. As a whole, Gorkhali women realize the role of

education and employment to develop themselves to address their challenges.

194
 The participants of FGDs conducted with the Gorkhali women in the

three cities came to a concrete conclusion that married women who can handle

their in-laws well are the ones who can stay happy in their family. They feel

education of Gorkhas is of utmost importance for any kind of development.

Every Gorkhali should give priority to the education of their children which

will help them fight any kind of crisis. If they are educated, they will be

employed in higher administration which automatically will increase their

identity and status in the community. They also felt that women have to work

together as groups to help each other to solve their problems and to make a

change in society. Women are already working together as an association and

it was felt that these associations need to be strengthened not only within but

also outside their community. Being part of a minority group, Gorkha women

from all the three cities felt that identity crisis is another challenge faced by

them.

7.2. Conclusion

Gorkhali women in North East India suffer from low status in family

and community due to their low level of education and economic dependency.

Their well-being measured in terms of objective economic indicators show that

they are by and large, at a low level of development. However, their level of

happiness was mostly moderate. There is no significant relationship between

social capital endowments of Gorkhali women and their development or

happiness. Most of the Gorkhali women have a low level of social capital.

However, women well-being measured in terms both objective economic

indicators and subjective happiness is positively related to the household mean

years of adult education as well as the respondents‟ years of education.

195
 Women‟s education remains low because of the cultural expectations of their

roles primarily in terms of their domestic responsibilities. The patrilineal and

patriarchal norms prevent women‟s educational advancement as well as

economic participation. This, in turn, perpetuates a low level of economic

development of women as well as low level of social capital endowment.

Wherever Gorkhali women get an opportunity for educational advancement,

employment or entrepreneurial involvement, they are successful across the three

cities of North East India. Gorkhali women in these three cities feel strongly

about the need for their educational advancement and economic participation.

They expect their cultural ambiance to change in favor of their development

and empowerment.

7.3. Implications

In light of the findings and suggestions, a few policy suggestions and

suggestions for future research are put forward in the following two

subsections.

7.3.1. Policy Suggestions

1. For enhancing the development of Gorkhali women in North East India, the

most critical strategy would be to promote their human capital especially

educational advancement and skill development. Apart from promoting the

education of girl child, adult and continuing education also need to be

promoted among the Gorkhali women. Efforts need to be made to generate

awareness among the members of the Gorkhali community on the importance

of education of girl children and women. Efforts are also needed to bring

Gorkhali children and women closer to educational institutions.

196
2. Another important strategy for enhancing the economic development of women

is promoting the economic participation of Gorkhali women who are by and

large economically dependent on men. The cultural confinement of women to

the domestic walls needs to be changed. Self-employment and professional

employment need to be encouraged. Programmes for skill development and

entrepreneurial development programmes also need to be organized for women.

3. Encouragement of social participation of Gorkhali women is yet another

strategy for their development. Women‟s associations and self-help groups can

play a significant role in enhancing their human capital endowment in terms of

knowledge, skill, and capacity on the one hand and social capital endowment

on the other.

4. Gender stereotypes and prejudices permeate the Gorkhali community in North

East India. These stereotypes perpetuate the low social status of women in the

family and community. Also, Gorkhali women are confined within domestic

walls thus preventing their active participation in the economic, political and

social life of the society as active citizens. Efforts must be made to create a

favourable cultural climate in the Gorkhali community for women‟s education,

employment as well as social and political participation.

5. The major stumbling block in the progress of Gorkhali people in Shillong and

Aizawl is that their communities are neither included in ST/ST or OBCs lists

though jati system and therefore, inequality prevails among them. This prevents

them from accessing public educational institutions and government employment.

Hence, the Gorkhali community as a whole needs to be included in the OBC

list.

197
7.3.2 Suggestions for Future Research

1. Social capital remains a fertile field of research for social scientists

especially social workers. The theoretical and methodological

advancements can be tapped to understand the problems of

development in varied contexts of India.

2. The present study employed name generators to operationalize social

network conceptualization of social capital. The other two methods of

operationalizing social capital i.e. position generator and resource

generator can also be used to assess access and utilization of social

capital in the Indian contexts.

3. The problems of rural, urban and tribal community development can

be studied from the perspective of social capital rigorously with social

network methodological tools. The present study uses individual-level

indicators of social capital while community-level indicators of social

capital can also be further explored in the Indian contexts.

198
i
Herfindahl, Hirschman, Blau heterogeneity Measure is computed with the following
formula.

Where pkindicates the proportion of alters that fall in the category k.

ii
Index of Qualitative Variation (IQV) is a normalized measure of H so that it can
achieve maximum value of 1. IQV is computed with the following formula.

iii
Krackhardt and Stern (1988) have given a very simple and useful measure
homophily. Krackhardt and Stern‟s E-I index is computed with the following
formula.E-I index =

Where E is number of ties to members in different groups (external), I is number of

ties to members of same group (internal). E-I Index varies between -1 (homophily)
and +1(heterophily).

199
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xxii
 SOCIAL CAPITAL AND DEVELOPMENT AMONG GORKHALI WOMEN IN
NORTH EAST INDIA
Research Scholar Research Supervisor
MsSangeetaRai [Link] Easwaran
Ph.D. Scholar Associate Professor
Department of Social Department of Social
Work Work
Mizoram University Mizoram University

Household Interview Schedule

(Confidential and for Research Purpose Only)

I. Identification Information

1. Schedule No: 2. Date of Interview:

3. State: 4. Locality:

II. Profile of the Respondent

1. Name :

2. Community(Specify) :

3. Gotra( specify) :

4. Religion :

5. Types of Family : 1. Nuclear 2. Joint

6. Size of Family :

7. Forms of Family : 1. Stable 2. Broken 3. Reconstituted

8. Socio Economic Category: 1. Very Poor(AAY)[Link](BPL)[Link] (specify)

III. Family Profile

a. Kindly furnish the demographic details of the members of your family:

Marital Earner/
Sex
Status Relation
ID Name Age Community Educ
Dependent* to Head*
****
*** *

xxiii
**** 1 Male 2 Female
*** 1 Unmarried 2 Married 3 Divoreced/Seperated 4 Remarried 5 Widowed
** 1 Earner 2 Dependent
* 1 Head 2 Husband 3 Wife 4 Son 5 Daughter 6 Grandchildren 7 Others

IV. Please give us the details of the occupation of the earning members of
your family.
Sex I
Occupation
#Primary D ##Secondary Annual Income (Rs)
Primary Second

# [Link]. Officer [Link]. Workers [Link] 4. Wage [Link]

[Link] Business [Link] Business
## [Link] [Link]. Officer [Link]. Workers [Link] 5. Wage Labourers6.
Skilled Labourers [Link] Business [Link] Business

V. Kindly give us the details of assets personally owned by you.

Sl.N Numbe Value (In
Asset
o r (Rs)
a. Television
b. House/ Buildings
c. Jewels
d. Household Furniture
e. Household Utensils
f. Refrigerator
g. Vehicle
h. Others (Specify)

VI. Details of monthly expenditure of your family

Sl.N Monthly
Quantit
o Item Expenses(R
y
s)
a. Food Grains and Pulses
b. Greens Vegetables and Roots
c. Meat
d. Grocery and Edible Oil
e. Electricity
f. Clothing
g. Transport
xxiv
 h. Recreation
i. Drugs and Medical
j. Education
k. Alcoholic Beverages
l. Pan &Supari
m. Tobacco & Smoking
n. Others (specify)

VII. Please give me the details of personal annual expenditure

[Link] Item Annual Expenses
(Rs)

a. Clothing

b. Transport & Communication

c. Recreation

d. Cosmetics

e. Others(specify)

VIII. Please give me the details of personal Savings and Investments in

rupees
Sl.N
Form Savings(Rs)
o
a. Cash in hand
b. Friends and Relatives
c. Money Lenders
d. Commercial Banks (Including govt. loan)
e. Cooperatives
f. Post Office
g. LIC : Insurance Savings
h. Self Help Group(SHG)
i. Others(Specify)

xxv
 IX. Frequency of your participation in the community organisations.
Meeting Voluntary Work

[Link] Organisation Always Sometimes Rarely Never Always Sometimes Rarely Never

a. 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1

b. 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1

X. Social Network Capital: Name Generator

a. Do you know anyone with whom you share and discuss your personal
problems at the time of difficulty (outside work and home)?
[Link] Name Relation

b. In case you have some exigency whom will you approach for financial and
material support?
[Link] Name Relation

c. If you need to know something about education, health, employment, or

government whom will you approach for information and clarification.
[Link] Name Relation

d. Who keep(s) a spare key of your house or whom you leave your house
key when you are out of station?
[Link] Name Relation

xxvi
 e. Please give me the details of members in your network.
Community
How
[Link] Name Sex Age Education Ethnicity SEC Religion
close?**
(Specify)

** 0 Not at all close; 1 Not very close; 2 Somewhat Close 3 Close; 4 Very Close

h. Will the following pairs of members in your support group can talk to
each other when you are not present.
[Link] Name------------------------- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
1
2
3 Re55

XI. Please rate the following items in terms of agreement.

[Link] Strongly Strongly

Disagree Agree
Disagree Agree

a Ma ahile jun awastha maachu ma khasai santustachaina. (R) 1 2 3 4

I don‟t feel particularly pleased with the way I am. (R)
b Ma arubektiharu pratitibraruchirakchu. 1 2 3 4
I am intensely interested in other people.
c Malai lagcha kijeevan bastab mai upalabdhimulak cha. 1 2 3 4
I feel that life is very rewarding.
d Mero lagbhaksabaisanganyano bhawana cha. 1 2 3 4
I have very warm feelings towards almost everyone.
e Ma kahilekahimatraanandka anubhavgarerauthchu. (R) 1 2 3 4
I rarely wake up feeling rested. (R)
f Ma bastab ma jeevanpratiassawadichaina.(R) 1 2 3 4
I am not particularly optimistic about the future.(R)
g Malaidheraikuraharuramailolagcha. 1 2 3 4
I find most things amusing.
h Ma sadhaipratibaddharalagansilchu. 1 2 3 4
I am always committed and involved.
i Jeevanramro cha. 1 2 3 4
Life is good.
j Malailagdaina kisansarbasnukalagiramrothau ho. (R) 1 2 3 4
xxvii
 I do not think that the world is a good place. (R)
k Ma dheraihaschu. (I laugh a lot.) 1 2 3 4
l Ma merojeevan kaharek chizbata santustchu. 1 2 3 4
I am well satisfied about everything in my life.
m Malailagdaina ma aakarshakchu. (R) 1 2 3 4
I don‟t think I look attractive. (R)
n Mailegarnakhojekaramailegarekokuraharumaakehikehikhalipan 1 2 3 4
cha.(R)
There is a gap between what I would like to do and what I have
done. (R)
o Ma dheraikhushichu. (I am very happy.) 1 2 3 4
p Ma kehikuraharu ma sundartabhetchu. (I find beauty in some 1 2 3 4
things)
q Meroprabhava ruharupratisadhaiaananda purnahuncha. 1 2 3 4
I always have a cheerful effect on others.
r Ma jastasukaiawastaanusarafulai dhalnasakchu. 1 2 3 4
I can fit in (find time for) everything I want to.
s Malailagchabastab ma merojeevanko niyantranmaachaina. (R) 1 2 3 4
I feel that I am not especially in control of my life. (R)
t Malailagcha ma jastasukaikurakopanisamanagarnasakchu. 1 2 3 4
I feel able to take anything on.
u Malailagcha ma puranaroop ma manasikroop ma sajagchu. 1 2 3 4
I feel fully mentally alert.
v Ma prayakhushi ra santoshko anubhavgarchu. 1 2 3 4
I often experience joy and elation
w Malai nirnayalinateti sajilolagdaina. (R) 1 2 3 4
I don‟t find it easy to make decisions. (R)
x Merojeevankakhasaiarthathathaudeshyabhayejastolagdaina. (R) 1 2 3 4
I don‟t have a particular sense of meaning and purpose in my
life. (R)
y Malailagcha masanga shaktikopurna bhandarcha . 1 2 3 4
I feel I have a great deal of energy.
z Dherai jasoghatna harumaa mero ramroprabhav rahancha. 1 2 3 4
I usually have a good influence on events.
aa Ma arumanche harusanga ramaudaina. (R) 1 2 3 4
I don‟t have fun with other people. (R).
ab Ma khasaiswastharaheka anubhav gardaina. (R) 1 2 3 4
I don‟t feel particularly healthy. (R)
ac Ma sanga khasai bigatkaasukha danubhav haruchainan. (R) 1 2 3 4
I don‟t have particularly happy memories of the past. (R)

xxviii
 XII. Do you face any problem/ difficulty because you are Gorkhaliwomen.

[Link] Problem/Challenge How do you manage?

a.

b.

XIII. What are the main constraints to development of Gorkhali Women in

your area?

[Link] Constraints What can be done to develop Gorkhaliwomen?

a.

b.

xxix
 PARTICULARS OF THE CANDIDATE

Name Of Candidate : SANGEETA RAI

Degree : Ph.D
Department : Department of Social Work
Title of Thesis : Social Capital and Development among Gorkhali
Women in North East India

Date of Payment of Admission : 31st July 2013

Approval of Research Program

1. Synopsis Presentation : 14 & 15 Oct. 2013
2. Board of Studies : 17th Oct. 2013
3. School Board : 23rd Oct. 2013
4. Academic Council : 3rd Dec. 2013

xxx
 BIO-DATA
Name : SANGEETA RAI

Date of Birth : 7th June 1988

Father‟s Name : Mani Kumar Rai

Email ID : sangeewalling@[Link]
Permanent Address : Z/C 74, Zotlang, Aizawl Mizoram
Educational Qualification

CLASS BOARD/ YEAR OF DIVISION PERCENTAGE

PASSING
UNIVERSITY

HSLC MBSE 2003 First Div. 60 %

HSSLC MBSE 2006 Third Div. 46%

Bachelor of Arts (Economics) MZU 2009 Second Div. 47%

Master of Social Work MZU 2011 First Div. 67%

[Link] (SW) MZU 2013 A Grade 65%

xxxi