hi Philip
Thanks for your note>
I know about your work and I think we might have met once in a conference more than a decade ago.
In any case, i am just settling in Oxford and collecting my notes about the banjara.
One of the most curious bits about it all is that there is almoist no academic research on them. I double checked this with the Indian professor of history Meena Radhakrishna who worked on the issue of their classification as "criminal tribes" by british colonials and she confirmed it. Journalistic pieces and reports by the few social activists who are concerned with the plight of "these untouchable of the untouchables" note that Indian academics stay away from these people because of deep social .disdain.
The way I think to approach the issue of mother and child mortality is via a larger exploration of the posion of these people within the India hierarchical world. Issues of migration and world view or citizenship and human rights. But this is all very much opening ideas.
I really welcome your and any other reader of this exchange who is more familiar with the issues and the setting of this new research.
pnina