[Reader-list] Join a Research Project at TISS on Ethnic and Religious Diversity

[Chandni Parekh]

>From Tanya

>From an HT Article -

TISS invites citizens to be part of research project... Pooja Domadia

Those who are interested in conducting research, but do not have the  necessary 
training will now have a platform to study the changing trends  in the ethnic 
and religious diversity of the city. The Tata Institute  of Social Science 
(TISS), Partners for Urban Knowledge Action and  Research (PUKAR) and Max Planck 
Society have come together to form an  urban observatory at TISS where research 
data will be collected. 


The project, titled Urban Aspirations, will focus on the changing trends  in 
ethnic and religious diversity. Citizens can be a part of this  project without 
any formal qualification. The only decisive factor will  be the level of 
commitment shown by them. 


"We don't have any limitation for participation and anyone who has a  keen 
interest and knowledge about their community can join us," said  TISS director, 
S Parasuraman.

Researchers will also use existing data collected by TISS to provide a  complete 
picture.  This data includes the history, recent trends and  community 
representation in the city. The collected research will be  converted into 
official research papers, which will be available for  public use. 


"We will digitise the knowledge and research on our website for public use," 
said Parasuraman.

Financial assistance in the initial period will be provided by  Germany-based 
Max Planck Society, which conducts research on humanity  and social sciences 
around the world. Funds from other external sources  will be collected later on. 


PUKAR has been conducting a community-based participatory research for the last 
six years. 


They have involved people from the lower strata of society and taught  them 
research methodologies that would be handy in this project. 


"We want to change the mentality that only scholars and academicians can  
conduct research. We have bare foot researchers who specialise in the  knowledge 
of their own community, and they may or may not be  educationally very 
qualified," said Anita Patil Deshmukh, executive  director, PUKAR.