Mainstream literature on organising usually assumes formal hierarchical structure, clear lines of reporting, supervision and well-defined rules as mandatory for efficiency and efficacy. Rigid rules could, however, negatively impact involvement, satisfaction, motivation and performance as they would not take into consideration the complexities of human behaviour. This article argues that collective or non-hierarchical organising empowers the individual participants involved in the process, but such organising experiments are rare and seldom documented. The article analyses a few women’s collectives from around the country, particularly focusing on Bailancho Saad, in Goa, which turned 25 years old on 12 October 2011. It also draws on the experiences of Saheli in New Delhi and Forum in Mumbai, both of which are older. These organisations, ideologically opposed to hierarchy as well as patriarchal and dominating power structures, work for women through seemingly egalitarian processes and ‘participatory’ styles of functioning. In this article we look at some of the strengths of collective organising by analysing their outcomes.

Crimes against women (CAW) in India have been rising despite faster economic growth, higher education attainment, and increasing numbers of women in the economic sphere. This article explores the reasons for the incidence of reported CAW in India. We study five CAW (rape, kidnapping, cruelty, dowry deaths, and molestation), across 35 states and union territories, 594 districts, over three decades (1991–2011). We use panel fixed-effects regression models to explain crime. Our results confirm the importance of female literacy rates, female paid workforce participation, and female–male ratio in understanding crime. We find that these commonly-used socioeconomic variables have nonlinear effects on CAW. Our findings improve upon earlier results that have not explored either spatial distribution or nonlinearity in India. These findings could have significant implications for the policies aiming to reduce CAW.

Discussions around Goa’s unique cultural identity and debates around the need for a special status for the state of Goa within India are not new. Reasons ascribed to this have oscillated between Goa’s colonial history, the geography of being nestled in the Western Ghats with a long-indented coastline, the tourism industry and the friendliness of the local people. This article based on an ethnographic study of the Kunbi-Gawda tribal community in Goa explores the tribal contribution to the framing of Goa’s cultural identity. Using the tribal icon of dress, namely the dhentulli this article illustrates how Kunbi-Gawdaization is the current cultural identity of the State as tribal icons are used in the imaging of Goa.

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Social equity is a critical component of social justice and is measured in multiple ways. Conventionally, researchers use literacy levels, workforce participation, political participation and representation, corporate presence, and demographic parity as indicators of social and economic equity. We add law enforcement outcomes to this literature by examining the demographic profiles of convicts in prisons in India for each state and compare it with that of the population of the respective state. To test whether entrenched social inequities have permeated into the law enforcement system, we use three indicators of social identity–religion, caste, and domicile–to create a social equity index (SEI). This is a composite index combining caste, religion and domicile similar in method to the Human Development Index which combines income, education and health. Our indicators are not considered in other popular development indices and is a conceptual innovation. Our paper innovates by combining prison data and census data at the state level over the two latest census rounds (2001 and 2011). We use a spatial panel analysis as well as a distributional dynamics approach to test for bias and transitions over time at the state level. We find that entrenched social hierarchies are mirrored in conviction outcomes and that social identities influence law enforcement. In contrast to earlier studies, we find that states that are conventionally considered to perform poorly in terms of economic and human development have done better in terms of social equity than economically advanced states.