Articles by Leela Gulati

While ageing of the population represents demographic achievements in lowering birth and death rates, it also poses challenges in care of the elderly. The experience of Kerala is instructive for the rest of India as Kerala is a few years ahead on the demographic path. This article analyses data on ageing, gender differentials in ageing and widowhood.

The Brick Worker Revisited Leela Gulati Mitu Gulati Revisiting Jayamma, the brick worker, after 20 years raises interesting questions about the way competitive markets are supposed to work and the assumption of rationality in economic (and social) behaviour, WE'VE known Jayamma for over 20 years now. We first got to know her when one of us was studying the lives of poor women in the brick industry [Gulati 1980]. Many years after the first project, we were examining the problems of poor widows [Gulati and Gulati 1993], and went to speak with Jayamma again. This time we were collecting data for an empirical study, and hadn't intended to do any case studies. As we were writing our article, with its broad generalisations about the problems the widows, based on 30 to 60 minute interviews with dozens of them, it struck us that Jayamma's life story had a different insight to provide from these short interviews that focused on widowhood alone. An insight that indicated the problems of widowhood were often ones that stemmed from problems that arose much before widowhood.

Insights from Kerala Experience Leela Gulati With the process of aging considerably more advanced in Kerala, it is there that the problems aging poses, including those linked specifically to the preponderance of women among the aged and the incidence of widowhood, will have to be faced first. But with the rest of the country likely to catch up in due course, the experience and insights gained in Kerala in grappling with these problems could be very useful. The problems connected with aging which Kerala currently faces have, therefore, to be tackled as national problems and solutions thought of nationally.

Leela Gulati Based on a study of thirty-seven households from villages on the outskirts of Trivandrum from which migrant workers have gone to the Middle East, this paper assesses the socio-economic impact of male migration on those members of the households, especially women, who are left behind.

Male Migration to Middle East and the Impact on the Family Some Evidence from Kerala Leela Gulati This paper is divided into two parts. Part I gives a brief background of the extent and pattern of recent migration to the Middle East from India as a whole and from the State of Kerala in particular. In Part II, the paper goes on to discuss the impact of this migration, male dominated as it has been, on the family as such. The paper concludes with some general observations.