NLS Faculty Seminar | Presentations by Padmini Baruah and Dr. Anviksha Drall

At this week’s seminar, we have presentations by two NLS faculty  – Padmini Baruah (Pakeezeh), Assistant Professor of Law and Dr. Anviksha Drall, Assistant Professor, Social Science. The seminar will be held on April 30, 2025, in the Ground Floor Conference Hall at NLSIU’s Training Centre at 3:45 pm.

Presentation 1

Title: ‘How are we supposed to survive like this?’: A Tale of Two Women’ by Padmini Baruah (Pakeezeh)

Abstract

In contrast to my usual academic writing, this piece presents a narrative non-fiction account of two Bengali-Muslim women in Assam, both detained in the state’s infamous ‘detention camps’. Citizenship in Assam is typically reconstructed through court documents, newspaper reports, and statistics, with the socio-legal challenges well-documented. However, such accounts often miss the precarious lives behind these abstractions.
I trace the experiences of two women who have endured the arbitrary processes of foreigners’ determination. Momiron Nessa (name changed) spent ten years in detention at Kokrajhar despite providing seventeen documents proving her citizenship. Detained while pregnant, she lost her child, was mistreated, separated from her family, and was not informed of her husband’s death. Though now released, she remains tethered to a punitive legal regime, reporting weekly to a distant police station from her remote char settlement. Her story reflects extraordinary resilience against systemic violence.

The second account follows Sahera Khatun, who, along with her husband and two young children, spent eighteen months in the Goalpara detention centre. Although eventually recognised as Indian citizens, the family continues to suffer from the lasting economic and health impacts of their incarceration.

Through these narratives, I highlight the everyday realities and intergenerational precarities fostered by Assam’s citizenship regime.We look forward to seeing you.

Presentation 2

Title: ‘Earning beyond Agriculture: Why the source of non-farm income Matters for technology uptake?’ by Dr. Anviksha Drall

Abstract

Owing to agro-climatic fluctuations, farmers’ diversification into multiple non-farm jobs has witnessed an increasing trend in developing economies, with India being no exception. Earnings from non-farm sources are often reinvested in modern machinery and productivity-enhancing agricultural inputs. In this context, the study explores various channels through which the impact of non-farm earnings on the adoption of farming technology could differ across households, depending on their migration status and hence the source of earnings. The magnitude of these differential impacts is empirically estimated in the Indian context, accounting for additional remittances earned by migrant households alongside local non-farm income. The empirical analysis is based on household micro-level panel data from Indian states in the Semi-arid Tropics (SAT) and Eastern regions for the years 2010–14, using a fractional response model to estimate the differential impact of non-farm sector earnings on the intensity of technology adoption. The results confirm that non-farm earnings have a positive and larger income effect on technology adoption for migrant households compared to non-migrant households, and that the impact varies across farmer categories, with the highest effects observed among large farmers. The study concludes that specific policies are needed to enhance non-farm sector opportunities, particularly by recognising migration as a vital component of non-farm activities.