Alaka M Basu
Biographic Data
| ID | 255576 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alaka M Basu |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alaka M |
| FAMILY NAME | Basu |
| SIGNATURE | BASU A M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Cornell University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3346-5467 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 35 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 198 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 35 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1984 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Bride price, dowry, and young men with time to kill
Rising numbers of young unmarried men in India reflect a marriage squeeze that goes beyond the shortage of brides created by sex-selective abortion. We describe a decline in men's marriageability caused by their falling economic prospects at the same time as families of brides are increasingly seeking grooms with stable employment. We group young men into those without jobs or much education, those with education but no work, and the privileged f…
Hopes, dreams and anxieties
While rapid fertility decline in India in the last two decades has received considerable attention, much of the discourse has focused on a decline in high parity births. However, this paper finds that, almost hidden from the public gaze, a small but significant segment of the Indian population has begun the transition to extremely low fertility. Among the urban, upper income, educated, middle classes, it is no longer unusual to find families stop…
Literacy and Mothering
© 2014 ALAKA MALWADE BASUCornell University and United Nations Foundation, Washington, [email protected]
Demography for the Public
This article explores the idea of what may be called Public Demography, wherein the practitioners and interpreters of the discipline of population studies inform (and sometimes inflame) the popular discourse on population-related matters. It looks at the representation of demographic research and policies in one form of public engagement, namely fiction - literature being an important way of transmitting the substance of a technical field of stud…
Navtej K. Purewal
Mara Hvistendahl, Unnatural Selection
Over-demonizing the international population movement
(Mis)counting Hiv/Aids in India
The Emotions and Reproductive Health
It is surprising that social demography has so little to say on the emotional underpinnings of demographic behavior. The central proposition of this essay is that emotions are particularly important for understanding the problems of reproductive health. This understanding allows one to consider the usual determinants of personal autonomy, or access to knowledge or services, but also to take into account the fact that much sexual and reproductive …
Ultramodern contraception
The measured success of family planning policy in the developing world rests on increases in the ‘modern’ methods of contraception. By extension, ‘traditional’ methods of contraception are equated with traditional mentalities and insufficient motivation to control fertility. But contraceptive use differentials in India suggest that in fact it is the most ‘modern’ women (those with a college education and living in urban areas) who are the most li…
The Millennium Development Goals Minus Reproductive Health
Low levels of maternal education and the proximate determinants of childhood mortality
Popular perceptions of emerging influences on mortality and longevity in Bangladesh and West Bengal
Relatively little is known about how environmental and pathological threats to human survival and longevity are perceived by the public. In this study in rural Bangladesh and West Bengal, India, which used individual interviews and focus-group discussions to investigate the changing costs of and motivations for reproduction, respondents were questioned about their perceptions of changes in mortality. The findings show that, while child mortality …
Why does Education Lead to Lower Fertility? A Critical Review of Some of the Possibilities
Spatial Variation in Contraceptive Use in Bangladesh
This article promotes a more complete understanding of social change by analyzing spatial patterns of contraceptive use in Bangladesh and the contiguous state of West Bengal in India. Multilevel analyses that control for variations in individual- and household-level correlates show an important role for cross-border influences only in those districts that share a common language across the border. The districts that are positive outliers in contr…
Fertility Decline and Worsening Gender Bias in India
Gender in population research
In this paper I discuss some of the health policy implications of an increasing trend in population research and in its interpretation and presentation - a trend to 'political correctness' - defined not in the popular, often derogatory, sense, but as an ideological commitment to certain principles. For one of these commitments, that to the notion of gender equality, greater strength and legitimacy is today commonly sought by tying it to other les…
Conditioning Factors for Fertility Decline in Bengal
This article argues that looking solely for the immediate causes of reproductive change may distort our understanding of policy options by failing to take into account the historical and cultural factors that affect not only the impact of policies and programs but their very nature and existence. The article examines the historical origins and spread of "modern" ideas in Bangladesh and the state of West Bengal in India. It concludes that a coloni…
Kindreds of the Earth
Kindreds of the Earth: Badaga Household Structure and Demography. Paul Hackings. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1999. 302 pp
Fertility Decline and Increasing Gender Imbalance in India, Including a Possible South Indian Turnaround
Birth rates in India have been in a definite decline since about 1985. However, contrary to our assumption that fertility declines in this region hinge on improvements in the status of women, declining fertility seems to be going hand in hand with worsening population sex ratios. This article examines the evidence for a causal connection between fertility decline and increasing gender imbalance by looking at differences in fertility and in gender…
The Methods and Uses of Anthropological Demography
Introduction: Approaches to Anthropological Demography 1. Methodological Advances in Studying the Social Context of AIDS in Africa 2. Participant Observation in Demographic Research: Fieldwork Experiences in a Ghanaian Community 3. Using Qualitative Data for Understanding Old-Age Security and Fertility 4. Anthropological Insights into the Links between Women's Status and Demographic Behaviour, Illustrated with the Notions of Hypergamy and Territo…
Girls' Schooling, Women's Autonomy and Fertility Change in South Asia
Women and Structural Change
The 'Politicization' of Fertility to Achieve Non-Demographic Objectives
Aside from the potential impact of population growth processes on the politics of life perceptions about population growth and the determinants of fertility can play an independent political and policy role. Population research does not only explain the political impact of fertility but can also contribute to the impact through the focus of its research agenda and the ways in which it disseminates its findings. The increasing trend of voicing dem…
Women's Position and Demographic Change
Is Discrimination in Food Really Necessary for Explaining Sex Differentials in Childhood Mortality
In this paper the assumption is questioned that it is the intra-household distribution of food which is an important cause of the observed sex differences in childhood mortality in much of South Asia. An analysis of data from a recent field study as well as a fresh look at information from secondary sources, leads to the conclusion that, at present, the causal link from malnutrition to mortality is ambiguous at best. Other possible real-world det…
Low levels of maternal education and the proximate determinants of childhood mortality
Fertility Decline and Increasing Gender Imbalance in India, Including a Possible South Indian Turnaround
Birth rates in India have been in a definite decline since about 1985. However, contrary to our assumption that fertility declines in this region hinge on improvements in the status of women, declining fertility seems to be going hand in hand with worsening population sex ratios. This article examines the evidence for a causal connection between fertility decline and increasing gender imbalance by looking at differences in fertility and in gender…
Conditioning Factors for Fertility Decline in Bengal
This article argues that looking solely for the immediate causes of reproductive change may distort our understanding of policy options by failing to take into account the historical and cultural factors that affect not only the impact of policies and programs but their very nature and existence. The article examines the historical origins and spread of "modern" ideas in Bangladesh and the state of West Bengal in India. It concludes that a coloni…
Cultural Influences on Health Care Use
While health care services are increasingly being seen as a major proximate determinant of decreased mortality in a population, it also seems to be the case that the mere provision of services does not lead to their better utilization. However, in general, it is difficult to explore differences in utilization because the availability of services itself varies so greatly. This report presents the results of a study in India of two distinct regiona…
The 'Politicization' of Fertility to Achieve Non-Demographic Objectives
Aside from the potential impact of population growth processes on the politics of life perceptions about population growth and the determinants of fertility can play an independent political and policy role. Population research does not only explain the political impact of fertility but can also contribute to the impact through the focus of its research agenda and the ways in which it disseminates its findings. The increasing trend of voicing dem…
The Emotions and Reproductive Health
It is surprising that social demography has so little to say on the emotional underpinnings of demographic behavior. The central proposition of this essay is that emotions are particularly important for understanding the problems of reproductive health. This understanding allows one to consider the usual determinants of personal autonomy, or access to knowledge or services, but also to take into account the fact that much sexual and reproductive …
Ultramodern contraception
The measured success of family planning policy in the developing world rests on increases in the ‘modern’ methods of contraception. By extension, ‘traditional’ methods of contraception are equated with traditional mentalities and insufficient motivation to control fertility. But contraceptive use differentials in India suggest that in fact it is the most ‘modern’ women (those with a college education and living in urban areas) who are the most li…
The Methods and Uses of Anthropological Demography
Introduction: Approaches to Anthropological Demography 1. Methodological Advances in Studying the Social Context of AIDS in Africa 2. Participant Observation in Demographic Research: Fieldwork Experiences in a Ghanaian Community 3. Using Qualitative Data for Understanding Old-Age Security and Fertility 4. Anthropological Insights into the Links between Women's Status and Demographic Behaviour, Illustrated with the Notions of Hypergamy and Territo…
Cultural Influences on the Timing of First Births in India
In this paper I comment on the unexpected finding from primary and secondary data that, although the age at effective marriage is significantly lower in North India compared to the southern part of the country, mother's age at first birth is very similar in both regions. That is, the first birth interval is much longer in the North. Standard socio-economic and biological reasons for this difference are found to provide incomplete and unsatisfacto…
Hopes, dreams and anxieties
While rapid fertility decline in India in the last two decades has received considerable attention, much of the discourse has focused on a decline in high parity births. However, this paper finds that, almost hidden from the public gaze, a small but significant segment of the Indian population has begun the transition to extremely low fertility. Among the urban, upper income, educated, middle classes, it is no longer unusual to find families stop…
Popular perceptions of emerging influences on mortality and longevity in Bangladesh and West Bengal
Relatively little is known about how environmental and pathological threats to human survival and longevity are perceived by the public. In this study in rural Bangladesh and West Bengal, India, which used individual interviews and focus-group discussions to investigate the changing costs of and motivations for reproduction, respondents were questioned about their perceptions of changes in mortality. The findings show that, while child mortality …
Gender in population research
In this paper I discuss some of the health policy implications of an increasing trend in population research and in its interpretation and presentation - a trend to 'political correctness' - defined not in the popular, often derogatory, sense, but as an ideological commitment to certain principles. For one of these commitments, that to the notion of gender equality, greater strength and legitimacy is today commonly sought by tying it to other les…
Birth Control by Assetless Workers in Kerala
The Domestic Servant as Family Planning Innovator
This paper reports on the relatively low fertility of female domestic servants in India. domestic servant have fewer numbers of ever-born and living children than women working in other occupations and women who are unemployed. This low fertility, which appears to be volitional, may have its roots in the incompatibility between the servant's reproductive and the productive roles, as well as in the changing values generated by continued exposure t…
Over-demonizing the international population movement
The Millennium Development Goals Minus Reproductive Health
How pervasive are sex differentials in childhood nutritional levels in South Asia
This paper considers the assumption that there are widespread sex differentials in the household allocation of food in South Asia. From primary field data and a critical review of the existing literature, it concludes that we have no reason to believe that girls in this region invariably get an unfair deal in the matter of nutrition, even in those areas where sex differentials in child mortality are the most acute. Too much of the research to sup…
How economic development can overcome culture
Ignorance of Family Planning Methods in India
Interviews wih women in six villages in India and with educated, working women selected to be trained as interviewers in five states, and evidence from formal studies are discussed to support the conclusions that (1) the low overall rates of contraceptive use in India are at least partly due to low levels of knowledge about different methods of birth control, especially of the modern reversible methods; and (2) the low use of all methods except s…
Ignorance of Family Planning Methods in India
Interviews wih women in six villages in India and with educated, working women selected to be trained as interviewers in five states, and evidence from formal studies are discussed to support the conclusions that (1) the low overall rates of contraceptive use in India are at least partly due to low levels of knowledge about different methods of birth control, especially of the modern reversible methods; and (2) the low use of all methods except s…
Birth Control by Assetless Workers in Kerala
Household influences on childhood mortality
In recent years there has been a spate of cross‐sectional research, mainly Unking maternal education and child mortality experience, to suggest that family factors, centering around maternal attitudes, knowledge, and abilities, are important determinants of childhood mortality levels. This paper examines another line of evidence to support this hypothesis—that derived from secular trends in mortality. By examining differences in the age structure…
How economic development can overcome culture
The Domestic Servant as Family Planning Innovator
This paper reports on the relatively low fertility of female domestic servants in India. domestic servant have fewer numbers of ever-born and living children than women working in other occupations and women who are unemployed. This low fertility, which appears to be volitional, may have its roots in the incompatibility between the servant's reproductive and the productive roles, as well as in the changing values generated by continued exposure t…
Is Discrimination in Food Really Necessary for Explaining Sex Differentials in Childhood Mortality
In this paper the assumption is questioned that it is the intra-household distribution of food which is an important cause of the observed sex differences in childhood mortality in much of South Asia. An analysis of data from a recent field study as well as a fresh look at information from secondary sources, leads to the conclusion that, at present, the causal link from malnutrition to mortality is ambiguous at best. Other possible real-world det…
Cultural Influences on Health Care Use
While health care services are increasingly being seen as a major proximate determinant of decreased mortality in a population, it also seems to be the case that the mere provision of services does not lead to their better utilization. However, in general, it is difficult to explore differences in utilization because the availability of services itself varies so greatly. This report presents the results of a study in India of two distinct regiona…
Women's Power and Social Revolution
How pervasive are sex differentials in childhood nutritional levels in South Asia
This paper considers the assumption that there are widespread sex differentials in the household allocation of food in South Asia. From primary field data and a critical review of the existing literature, it concludes that we have no reason to believe that girls in this region invariably get an unfair deal in the matter of nutrition, even in those areas where sex differentials in child mortality are the most acute. Too much of the research to sup…
Cultural Influences on the Timing of First Births in India
In this paper I comment on the unexpected finding from primary and secondary data that, although the age at effective marriage is significantly lower in North India compared to the southern part of the country, mother's age at first birth is very similar in both regions. That is, the first birth interval is much longer in the North. Standard socio-economic and biological reasons for this difference are found to provide incomplete and unsatisfacto…
Women's Position and Demographic Change
The 'Politicization' of Fertility to Achieve Non-Demographic Objectives
Aside from the potential impact of population growth processes on the politics of life perceptions about population growth and the determinants of fertility can play an independent political and policy role. Population research does not only explain the political impact of fertility but can also contribute to the impact through the focus of its research agenda and the ways in which it disseminates its findings. The increasing trend of voicing dem…
Girls' Schooling, Women's Autonomy and Fertility Change in South Asia
Women and Structural Change
Fertility Decline and Increasing Gender Imbalance in India, Including a Possible South Indian Turnaround
Birth rates in India have been in a definite decline since about 1985. However, contrary to our assumption that fertility declines in this region hinge on improvements in the status of women, declining fertility seems to be going hand in hand with worsening population sex ratios. This article examines the evidence for a causal connection between fertility decline and increasing gender imbalance by looking at differences in fertility and in gender…
The Methods and Uses of Anthropological Demography
Introduction: Approaches to Anthropological Demography 1. Methodological Advances in Studying the Social Context of AIDS in Africa 2. Participant Observation in Demographic Research: Fieldwork Experiences in a Ghanaian Community 3. Using Qualitative Data for Understanding Old-Age Security and Fertility 4. Anthropological Insights into the Links between Women's Status and Demographic Behaviour, Illustrated with the Notions of Hypergamy and Territo…
Fertility Decline and Worsening Gender Bias in India
Gender in population research
In this paper I discuss some of the health policy implications of an increasing trend in population research and in its interpretation and presentation - a trend to 'political correctness' - defined not in the popular, often derogatory, sense, but as an ideological commitment to certain principles. For one of these commitments, that to the notion of gender equality, greater strength and legitimacy is today commonly sought by tying it to other les…
Conditioning Factors for Fertility Decline in Bengal
This article argues that looking solely for the immediate causes of reproductive change may distort our understanding of policy options by failing to take into account the historical and cultural factors that affect not only the impact of policies and programs but their very nature and existence. The article examines the historical origins and spread of "modern" ideas in Bangladesh and the state of West Bengal in India. It concludes that a coloni…
Kindreds of the Earth
Kindreds of the Earth: Badaga Household Structure and Demography. Paul Hackings. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1999. 302 pp
Why does Education Lead to Lower Fertility? A Critical Review of Some of the Possibilities
Spatial Variation in Contraceptive Use in Bangladesh
This article promotes a more complete understanding of social change by analyzing spatial patterns of contraceptive use in Bangladesh and the contiguous state of West Bengal in India. Multilevel analyses that control for variations in individual- and household-level correlates show an important role for cross-border influences only in those districts that share a common language across the border. The districts that are positive outliers in contr…
Popular perceptions of emerging influences on mortality and longevity in Bangladesh and West Bengal
Relatively little is known about how environmental and pathological threats to human survival and longevity are perceived by the public. In this study in rural Bangladesh and West Bengal, India, which used individual interviews and focus-group discussions to investigate the changing costs of and motivations for reproduction, respondents were questioned about their perceptions of changes in mortality. The findings show that, while child mortality …
Ultramodern contraception
The measured success of family planning policy in the developing world rests on increases in the ‘modern’ methods of contraception. By extension, ‘traditional’ methods of contraception are equated with traditional mentalities and insufficient motivation to control fertility. But contraceptive use differentials in India suggest that in fact it is the most ‘modern’ women (those with a college education and living in urban areas) who are the most li…
The Millennium Development Goals Minus Reproductive Health
Sociology (33 works) · Population (25 works) · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences (24 works) · Demography (24 works) · Economics (21 works) · Global Maternal and Child Health (19 works) · Political science (18 works) · Economic growth (14 works) · Geography (14 works) · Fertility (13 works)