Conceptual and Methodological Issues of Poverty and Vulnerability: An Ethnographic Study from the South

Abstract

There is a great need to understand, analyse and critically apprise conceptual and methodological issues of poverty and vulnerability and its underlying relevance in the today’s fast changing rural/urban spaces of south India. To pursue this academic and epistemological endeavour, we tried to use the existing literature largely and later tried to relate it to our own regional case for argument and discussion. This has given us a scope to look at the issues and parameters involved to see how poverty and its contiguous factors reflect upon the real people’s lives and livelihoods of marginal groups in south India. Poverty should be seen in the form of loss of livelihoods, lack of access to resources, basic needs and non-availability of resources and services to the vulnerable sections of the society. Taking the case of Sugalis, one of the semi-nomadic tribe, of Rayalaseema region of south India it is argued in this paper that poverty and vulnerability coexist and strengthen each other and poverty can be understood by analyzing the real life situations and strategies adopted by the people to manage their lives. Present Paper based on an empirical research by using anthropological tools of research.