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Accepted Paper:

I like love marriage but I will go for arranged marriage': Exploring the changing dynamics of love, sex and marriage in the lives of young Dalit women in India  
Juhi Sidharth (University of Cambridge )

Paper short abstract:

This paper is chiefly concerned with the processes through which 16-22 year old Dalit women make choices related to love, sex and marriage in the context of the liberalization of sexual culture in urban India. It draws upon data collected through in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observation for my doctoral research.

Paper long abstract:

Norms related to gender and sexuality are in a state of rapid transition in urban India today. This transition is being chiefly driven by the spread of liberal sexual culture through television, films and internet. Furthermore, the foray of young women in the job market and institutions of higher education has opened up spaces where they can explore their sexuality. This change, however, is fraught with dilemmas, contradictions and risks especially for young Dalit women living in slum areas that are marked by violence, poverty and unequal gender relations. This paper examines the complexity of processes through which these young women define, understand and experience love, sex and marriage in their lives. In the socio-economic environment of slums, meanings of love and marriage are deeply intertwined with poverty and violence. It also discusses how they are using their agency to accept and challenge traditional meanings of love, sex and marriage. Although anthropologists have researched the ways in which caste and religion shape gender and sexual norms and practices In India, young women's actual experience of these ideologies in their everyday lives has received insufficient attention. Drawing on the qualitative data collected for my doctoral research, this paper offers insight into the lived experiences of love, sex and marriage among young women living in the slums of Mumbai.

Panel P32
Marriage in South Asia: practices and transformations
  Session 1