Sudheesh Ramapurath

How do the needs of indigenous communities transform over time, and how can these same communities integrate themselves into a rapidly changing society?

We sat down with Sudheesh Ramapurath, an ethnographer and a DPhil candidate at the University of Oxford, to talk about his research on Land and Livelihood struggles in India, his homeland. More specifically, Sudheesh’s research focuses on the struggles of the Paniyas, a community that is part of India’s indigenous peoples, the Adivasis. Sudheesh analyzes how, over time, starting from pre and post-independence periods right up to the modern day and age, the Paniyas are still living under the poverty line.
Why? What do they want? What do they need? What is the role of research?
What changes are needed?

We met Sudheesh Ramapurath, during the conference: Overcoming Inequalities in a Fractured World: Between Elite Power and Social Mobilisation, organized by The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD).

The title of his presentation was :

Persistence of Poverty in an Indigenous Community
in Southern India: Bringing Agrarian Environment to
the Centre of Poverty Analysis.

Find out more about UNRISD here: http://www.unrisd.org