August 1, 2024

As part of the Samagra-Haqdarshak project (see Blog Post #5), I supported the team in the field as part of the data collection process. This was a rewarding and insightful experience. Due to delays in the IRB (Institutional Review Board) process — a mandatory component of any human subjects research, to ensure ethical research protocol — the original plan for full-scale data collection was delayed past my summer internship end date. However, I was still able to partake in some pre-testing pilots of our research instrument, on the outskirts of Delhi.

We took a taxi to Sanjay Colony, more than an hour south of central Delhi. Sanjay Colony is a settlement originally created by the government for refugees from the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. We conducted several interviews with former Haqdarshikas in their homes, each about one hour long. While the conversation was conducted in Hindi, I was able to follow along using the translated survey questionnaire in English and some quick back-and-forth conversation with my CSBC colleague, who has been conducting and managing fieldwork for over a decade. I learned a lot by observing how he introduced the survey, kept the respondents engaged throughout, and navigated sensitive questions by putting the respondents at ease.

We used a tablet to display the survey and record the responses. The pilots were very successful, helping us catch coding errors in our surveys, identify questions or response options that were not well-worded or well-designed, and generally get a sense of how Haqdarshikas would respond to the questions.

I came away with a few interesting observations, outside of the data we collected:

1. It was rare for the women to attend the interview alone. Our first interview took place around the respondent’s family, including her husband, mother in-law and two children. Our second interview took place around the respondent and her older brother. It stems from cultural custom, but made me aware that some of our questions (which were about her thoughts on support from her family) may be answered with bias given they were also in the room.
2. Fraudulent schemes can take a larger toll on the poor and consumer protection and awareness is very important. Both our respondents said that since they had ended their work as Haqdarshika agents, they were looped into a pyramid scheme, and lost thousands of rupees. Financial fraud can take a disproportionate toll on the poor because there is less financial slack to recover from the loss. While I don’t know much about this space, the prevalence of the problem (in India contexts and elsewhere), and the existing policy solutions, it did spark my interest in the issue.

I am grateful to have visited Sanjay Colony, spent time with our respondents who welcomed us into their homes and gave us their time.