EDITORIAL

It is indeed a matter of great satisfaction and pride that the annual journal of our Department Social Trends is going to see the light of the day soon. It required a bit of stretching of our capacity to have this happen but there is no denying the fact that we can move forward only by stretching out limits. Now that the first number of the first volume is out we would be facing the challenge of not only keeping it afloat but also raise the standard of the journal. With collective efforts on the part of faculty, scholars and friends we would face whatever challenges that come by our way.

We see Social Trends as a good platform for the young scholars where they can try their hands in scholarly writing and gain experience and confidence, which would help them in growing as mature scholars in future. The idea behind the title of the journal is that in a given point in time we go through multiple trends of social change and transformation, only a few of them are articulated in social science language. The task of the social scientists in the given circumstances is to articulate the trends that are not yet articulated. Another reality is that there are always ‘trends’ and not ‘a trend’ of social transformation; such trends are not only multidimensional and multidirectional they could often be conflicting in nature. As an illustration, while masculinisation of family by the practice of female foeticide is captured as a dominant trend the counter trend of parents living for their daughters is also a reality in urban India.

The papers in this number are the outcome of a national seminar we had organised in the Department in 2012 under the DRS –I (SAP) of the UGC. Dr. Saswati Biswas deserves special credit for organising the seminar and for putting efforts to collect complete revised papers from the paper presenters. The papers address gender question from a feminist perspective. We would thank the members of the Advisory Committee of the journal for their kind consent to be the members of the Committee. We would look forward to their critical constructive suggestions in raising the standard of the journal.

Sanjay K. Roy

ARTICLES