WATERING THE NEIGHBOUR'S GARDEN: THE GROWING - CICRED

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S. SUDHA –S. KHANNA –S. I. RAJAN –R. SRIVASTAVA
pregnancies and births, dates of children’s births, use of health care
during pregnancy and delivery) were ascertained. This was followed by
an in-depth qualitative interview shaped by a topic guide to explore the
following areas:
• Marriage practices including expenses and payments
• Inheritance issues by gender
• Men’s and women’s economic and household activities and related
ideologies
• Male and female education and gender role attitudes
• Ideal family size and sex composition
• Knowledge, attitudes, and use of NRTs.
The length of interviews was determined by interview dynamics
and emerging information, and averaged about one and a half hours.
Data were reviewed weekly by the senior investigators, emergent
themes highlighted, and interview guides revised accordingly. The
research team held weekly meetings to monitor interview experiences
and emergent themes, and enable all team members to participate in
the research process. This also promoted inter-interviewer consistency
and reliability.
Interview documents were drafted in English and translated into
Malayalam. Appropriate translations for specific terminologies were
discussed for conceptual accuracy and intelligibility to respondents.
Interviews were conducted in Malayalam or English depending on the
participant’s preference, and were transcribed and translated into
English by the research staff who stayed close to the spirit of the
original language(s); thus the transcripts and the excerpts quoted here
are often in ‘Indian English’.
4.2. Participants
Nayar participants were recruited via personal introductions
compiled by the research staff (initially among acquaintances),
augmented by snowball techniques. We included men and women
(interviewed separately by male and female interviewers respectively) in
three researcher-constructed age groups (older: age 60+, midlife: 40 to
59, and younger adults: 18 to 39). We recruited from three broad
socioeconomic strata (higher, middle, and lower) with added efforts to
find additional members of groups whose numbers appeared low by
seeking introductions in specific neighbourhoods. In each household
we interviewed the first adult available. In some households more than