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CONTENTS
Editorials
• Message from the Director - Prof. Shagufa Kapadia ................................................................. 3
• Message from the Guest Editor - Aparna Vijayan...................................................................... 4
Spotlight
• UN Women’s Leadership and Political Participation ................................................................. 6
Perspectives
1. Understanding the Dialectics of ‘Change’ – Antara Chakrabarty .............................................. 7
2. Women in State of War – Fiona Dias......................................................................................... 8
Contributions
1. Women in Politics and Women Empowerment – Divya Vasava ............................................... 9
2. Women’s Representation in Indian Legislaturesafter Emergency 1975-77 – Krishna Mishra ........................................................................... 12
3. Women Politicians since 1975 – a Bollywood Way – Nalanda Tambe ................................... 17
4. Women in Politics – Nimisha Amit Mishra ............................................................................. 19
5. Women in Politics: Representation and Empowerment – Parvin Sultana ............................... 21
6. Declivity of Women – is it Politically “Correct” – Shikha Sharma ......................................... 24
Book Review
• The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India – Nidhi Shendunikar–Tere ..... 26
Current Statistics
• Political Participation and Indian Women – Raakhee Suryaprakash ....................................... 28
Insight
• Reimagining Politics of Gender: Legacy of Dr. Sharmila Rege – Rahul Mane ....................... 32
• drlgp A_¡ fpS>L$pfZ - rkÝ^p’® drZepf..................................................................................... 35
Bibliography 37
WSRC News
• Activity Report .......................................................................................................................... 38
• New Arrivals - Documentation Center ...................................................................................... 41
Quotable Quotes 44
Guest EditorAparna Vijayan
FreelancerM.A. (Political Science)
The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda
Hon. DirectorProf. Shagufa Kapadia
ProfessorDepartment of Human Development and Family Studies
Faculty of Family and Community SciencesThe Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda
Publication Co-ordinationGeetha SrinivasanLibrary Assistant
Women’s Studies Research CenterThe Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda
Khushbu SutharProgram Officer
Women’s Studies Research CenterThe Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda
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Message from the Director
Greetings from the Women’s Studies Research Center!
“In a gentle way you can shake the world,” Mohandas Karamdas Gandhi.
Mahatma Gandhi was successful in mobilizing women to enter into politics and in fact believed that women’sparticipation in politics is imperative and inevitable. For Gandhiji women’s emancipation was an integral partof the goal of svaräj, which for him represented both personal autonomy and religious and political freedom.By urging women to step out of their domestic spheres, he helped them find a new dignity and place in publiclife, a new confidence, and a new self-view that they could themselves act against oppression. From passiveobjects, women could become active subjects or agents of reform, not only of their own predicament but of thewhole society.
In bringing out this issue on Gender and Politics, the Women’s Studies Research Center draws attention to thecurrent scenario of women’s representation and participation in politics and leadership roles, and the genderissues therein. I thank the guest editor AparnaVijayan and all the authors for their contribution to this significanttheme.
Shagufa Kapadia, PhDHonorary Director, WSRCProfessor of Human Development
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Message from the Guest Editor
The term gender refers to the socio-cultural constructs of values, behaviors and attitudes associated with thedifferent sexed categories such as men, women and the third gender. Rising above the physiologicalcharacteristics, these socio-cultural values attributed to them on the basis of their perfomativity constitute theterm, gender. To comprehend gender and the roles it play is significant through a gendered lens as far as theanalysis of various social, cultural, political and economic machineries in society function. Placing gender inthe analysis of these conventional societal constructs has become inevitable in order to not just understandhow deftly it destabilizes the stability of our mainstream discourses, but also to know how the marginalizedsections (be it of any gender) are perceived in a broader social perspective seeking to address their justiceconcerns.
Now talking about the term politics: The dominant self enters into a perennially conflicting relationship withthe other and strives to maintain or ‘secure’ this relational hierarchy; which is made instrumental using thestate and the non-state machineries. The domain of politics encompasses the public as well as the privatespheres and juxtaposes socio-cultural and economic environments under its direct or indirect influence. Itforms the substance, the essence and one of the dynamic forces by which the society, economy, culture andother physical and meta-physical entities get strongly influenced by, if not, just be dependent on. With such adescription of politics, it is evident how all these entities remain in constant flux and function with dynamicity.Inherent in such a power-philic struggle-laden structure, the questions regarding marginalization, subjugation,justice, order, profit, identity and violence emerge out and present a latent picture of the indelible imprintsthese concerns leave on the society, especially on the sections finding themselves at the receiving end of thisstruggle.
One such section constitutes women, the third gender, the effeminate men and the like who are crucified by thestereotypical framework of the society on the lines of ‘gender’. This is why, to comprehend the InternationalSystem, International Relations, State Politics, and the entire chain of epistemology and ontology guidingpolitical studies, gender becomes one of the lenses. Viewing these segments using gender as the lens give us anidea on the extent, magnitude, the gravity and the intensity with which a political relationship convenientlyinvades the social, cultural, economic and other spheres to decapacitate the already justice-deprived ones.
Gender, a political category in itself, is thus, studied with a skewed understanding or deliberately left unnoticedto suit conveniently the needs for rights and justice. Politicization of gender has seemed to inordinately createthe need for radical changes without allowing them to happen. One of the major causes leading to such anepistemological paradoxicity is the inherent threat lying within the mainstream political discourse, which getsthreatened due to its analysis keeping gender as the foreground.
The mainstream political discourse which is silent on sexuality, sexual rights and gender has largely beenconcocted by the imbalances associated with gender in a number of ways, creating lesser chances of claimingjustice from the state. Right from participation to representation and now, empowerment, the discourse relatedto gender has been laden with lot of socio-cultural biases. One rarely includes third gender, in discourses, leaveaside inclusion of provisions for them in the legal system.
There has been sexualization of the deprived groups, which strips them of any moral claims to ‘substantive’welfare. This indicates the heightening of actual denial of rights said in constitution and denial of receivingjustice; as a major mode of social exclusion. The implications of the liberating potential of such rights, once
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Aparna VijayanFreelancerM.A. (Political Science)The Maharaja Sayajirao University of [email protected]
their meaning is fixed by law, becomes always problematic because of its predilection towards certainty andexactitude. The mainstream politics strengthens this singularly universal law (read measures adopted likeinstituting the women’s reservation bill) whose discourse is predicated upon the assumption that justice can beattained once and for all by fixing identities, categorizing them and adopting a distorted approach of protectionismor mobilizing greater differentiation by doing that. Nevertheless such a bill, as argued by many, at least helpsmaking cosmetic changes within the system as far as providing opportunities to deprived categories areconcerned.
Equality, for instance, might be explicitly enshrined in the Indian constitution, but Indian women’s, thirdgender’s and effeminate men’s and all those stereotypically subsumed categories’ lives continue to remaincharacterized by pervasive discrimination due the wide lacunae generated between ‘formal equality’ and‘substantive equality’ that plagues justice. Here’s an attempt at realizing that it is precarious to address both‘equality’ and ‘gender differences’ following both these equality models , because, any attempt at correctingthe fallacies embedded in the social fabric is thwarted by a rigid conception of the bills and laws and a closedsocial conditioning.
I sincerely thank Prof. Dr. Shagufa Kapadia for having recognized the need to raise this issue of gender andsexuality, in order to understand how the existing political framework addresses, or fails to address it, especiallyin the light of violence and regressive attitude against women and other marginalized categories.
Hope this newsletter encourages more fruitful discussions and initiates a necessary inclusion of gender inanalyzing the state and society.
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The 2011 United Nations (UN) General Assembly resolution on women’s political participation notes, “Womenin every part of the world continue to be largely marginalized from the political sphere, often as a result ofdiscriminatory laws, practices, attitudes and gender stereotypes, low levels of education, lack of access tohealth care and the disproportionate effect of poverty on women.”Individual women have overcome these obstacles with great acclaim, and often to the benefit of society atlarge. But for women as a whole, the playing field needs to be level, opening opportunities for all.UN Women’s leadership and political participation programmesa) The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women upholds women’s
right to participate in public life.b) The Beijing Platform for Action calls for removing barriers to equal participation.c) The Millennium Development Goals measure progress towards gender equality in part by the proportion
of women in parliamentary seats.d) Provide training for women political candidates to help build their capacities, and offer civic education
and sensitization campaigns on gender equality.e) Encourage young men and women to engage in advocacy around making gender equality measures central
to public policymaking.f) Work towards fair access to political spheres— as voters, candidates, elected officials and civil service
members.g) Collaborate with UN country teams and work with civil society on programmes so that elections uphold
women’s rights, including to vote and campaign free from electoral violence.How we make a difference1. Kenya: In the 2013 elections, the number of women legislators rose to more than 20%, more than double
compared to the previous elections. UN Women contributed to this result by providing training to nearly900 female candidates in all 47 counties and running a Campaign for Women in Leadership to encouragevoters to vote for women.
2. Pakistan: In 2012 UN Women supported women’s voter registration. The National Database and RegistrationAuthority registered more than 40 million women, representing 86% of the female population, increasingfrom 44 % four years earlier. For the first time, the Election Commission, supported by UN Women andUNDP, has a system to collect voter turnout data by sex, which will aid in pinpointing obstacles to women’scivic rights.
3. Timor-Leste: After the 2012 elections, Timor-Leste had the highest proportion of women legislators inAsia. At 38 %, it exceeded the one-third quota mandated by law. UN Women in partnership with UNDPhas been instrumental in supporting an active women’s parliamentary caucus, civil society groups and thenational gender unit to promote women candidates.
4. Zimbabwe: A new constitution that is strong on women’s rights was signed into law in Zimbabwe, whichresulted in women gaining 35 % of the seats in the 2013 July elections, compared to a previous 17 % in2008. Behind the breakthrough was the Group of 20, a constitutional gender equality lobbying groupcomprising activists, politicians and scholars supported by UN Women.
Source:Retrieved from http://www.unwomen.org/~/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/library/publications/2013/12un%20womenlgthembriefuswebrev2%20pdf.ashx
UN Women’s Leadership and Political Participation
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Understanding the Dialectics of “Change”Antara Chakrabarty
Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences, 3rd SemesterTata Institute of Social Sciences, Tuljapur
In the recent times ‘gender’ has been more or lessequated with ‘women’, ‘female’ etc., and their issues.For a layman, Gender Studies has no place for thestudy of man and his wonders. A social scienceapproach in the end would pursue to see through alarger picture wherein the dynamics of anatomicdifferences as a whole play a role, and not just femaleissues. Till a few years back, brain perceived genderrelations only as a binary pole indicating man andwoman. Although the present buzz is beamed withthe protests for the rights of the LGBTQIA. Slowlyand gradually, when the notions of patriarchy wereunveiled,the instances of being born to a typicalIndian family, father as the breadwinner became verymundane. With economic power comes in dominanceand finally leading to the penning down of a way oflife. So, to start with something as dynamic as‘gender’ within the context of socio-culturaldiscourse, patriarchy and feminism remain the key-words.
As Simone de Beauvoir in her book ‘The SecondSex’ explains, “One is not born a woman, but ratherbecomes one” has much to speak when the prevalentdiscourse of being a woman is largely discussed.Only to speak of a yardstick i.e., man and theextension as woman are being largely debated bythe present day feminists. The times that have beencalled as biased and the notions of physical strengthbeing more to men is the highest form of argumentadvocating patriarchy, in my opinion. An urge tobring about a change in this age old process ofpatriarchy is itself a tough task. The perceptionsemerge not only from the belief system but religionas a whole has much to speak in this regard.Hinduism, even after having much worshipped
goddesses, has discriminated women for years. Evenif there are innumerable goddesses who areworshiped, they are most of the time tied with majorgods in congenital terms. This is another instance ofhow a simple thing can be looked the other wayround. Saba Mahmood in his ‘Politics of Piety’speaks of the prolonged feminists’ intervention inthe religious practices of Islam where women areyet to be at par with men. The very ideas of secular,democratic and liberal thoughts have been subjectto a greater debate where the public and private areseen as two poles. To see this in a larger picture, thethinking of an urban feminists’ revolution to bringabout a change standing against patriarchy is in itselfan end product of a patriarchal world. In the longprocess of dialectics, the synthesis emerging out ofthis thesis might lead to an anti-thesis of some sortbut in the end the synthesis will be again in favor ofmen. Therefore, falling in a cyclical trap of strugglesand ideas seem to be inevitable. Two decades of mylife has come across news relating to rape, sexualviolence and such ignominious acts and to my belief,this shall continue. Philosophers and thinkers shallcome up with theories from time to time but a changecan be brought when worked in the rudimentarylevel. As Fanon puts up, decolonization in itself isviolent, so in a way, for me change can be broughtwhen there is something grave imposed. But imposedon whom? Unless the whole system of juridicalprocess does not change, altering people’s mind interms of anything concrete and substantial, itbecomes impossible. To think of a world wherewomen is liberated from the excesses of men’sdomination can be brought out where ‘gender’ isitself questioned. The process of classification notonly brings in hierarchy but also a sense of alter egowhere ‘I’ and ‘they’ are made bold.
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Whether it is gender or sex, in the end it adds up tothe hegemony that is practiced by a section. So, inmy opinion, I shall be free when the steps leading tothat edge of major aim of equality is documented bya violent revolution by women, the oppressed
genders and all those deprived sections. In thisprocess, millions shall be suppressed but there willremain a few, writing the future of time wheredifferences shall be respected and philosophers,greeted.
Women in State of WarFiona DiasFreelancer
M.A. (Political Science)Dept. of Political Science,
The Maharaja Sayajirao University of [email protected]
A modern state is associated with autonomy,sovereignty, the capacity to reason and objectivity.It is a superior entity whose main aim is to protect.The western brand of masculinity is often explainedin this manner too. Thus a state can be called a systemof power where everything representing the notionof masculinity is revered overtly or covertly, makingit anything but gender neutral. Rather it manipulatesgender to achieve its main purpose i.e. security. Thisis proved and made obvious when a state is at war.
When a state enters into a war, it does so to protectthe weak and feminized class, i.e. citizens who don’tbear arms in the battle field. A more ‘selfless’ statewill fight wars to rescue this feminized class. As aresult, the state plays a dual role of protector anddefender whenever needed. A country at war is theultimate masculine entity, whose domination andcontrol is usually exerted not only on its own citizensbut also on the citizens of the enemy state. It justifiesand condones its actions on the basis of this logicwithout any care of the adverse effects they have.Although entire communities suffer theconsequences of armed conflict, women and childrenwho are at the bottom of hierarchy often face theworst of the atrocities. Rape and sexual abuse is themost common outcome of war. Violence againstwomen range from murder, mutilation, sexual
slavery, forced pregnancy, forced sterilization,starvation, humiliation and displacement. State’semployment of violence against women and men asa tactic of war (sexual violence) has rarely beenbrought out in the discourses of conflict studies. Thestate of war has seldom been deliberated upon theselines, thereby sidelining the politics concerningwomen’s position in such a context.
It is a known fact that beneath the political constructof war, the larger message of domination and theatrocities perpetuated according to gender, gainsauthority. Yet violence against women is publiclytolerated. This is because war legitimizes many actsof violence and often disregards human rights ingeneral. The notion that women’s rights are violatedis often ignored, as it is secondary to other issuesthat emerge during wars and conflicts.
So, how do we solve this problem?
Acknowledging that the modern nation state isconstructed as a masculine notion is the first step,for only then can we begin to deconstruct and replacethis notion with a more gender-sensitive if notgender-neutral state. Solving conflicts through peace-building processes and using extensive conflictprevention methods which reduce the acts of violencethat women face is the second step. It is even more
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important that peace building and conflict preventionmethods are gender-sensitive. There is a need forpolitical, social, economic and psychologicalempowerment of women during times of peace andthat is even more necessary during and after war.According to the UN Security Council Resolutionon Women, Peace and Security there needs to begender sensitivity in emergency aid andreconstruction processes during and after armedconflicts. There is also a need to change the way westudy wars and conflicts in international politics.Instead of treating it as the impersonal sphere of ‘highpolitics’ where statistics gain weightage, we need toinclude the actual personal experiences so that statescan recognize and respond to these problems. Sincethe logic of state and citizen is built on the logic ofmasculinity and femininity, it is imperative to rethink
and reconstruct the notion of citizenship in a waythat removes the slave-like subjugation that stateimposes during times of conflicts.
Every now and then, the word “gender-sensitive” ispreferred over gender-neutral. This is because inorder to achieve the latter, the state system wouldhave to collapse, and a new order would have to beestablished, which at this moment seems impossible.Yet a state can undoubtedly evolve to become gender-neutral, and that starts by being gender-sensitive,especially if the state is a democratic state. This isthe only way we can reduce atrocities that womenall across the world face during wars and conflictsand give them the safety and dignity that they deserveby the virtue of being a human being.
References:Bunch, C. (1990). Women rights as human rights: Toward a re-vision of human rights. Human Rights Quarterly, 12.Tanwar, R. (1998). Women: Human rights, religion and violence.Nirmal Book Agency.Young, I.M. (2005). The logic of masculinity protection: Reflections on the current security state. Women and Citizenship.
Women in Politics and Women EmpowermentDivya Vasava
Assistant ProfessorFaculty of Social Work,
The Maharaja Sayajirao University of [email protected]
Abstract
In any society population of women is close to halfof the total population. For ages, no matter to whichnation they belonged, women in general have beensuffering from agony, distress, discrimination &apathy. Women tend to be confined to domesticchores and restrict their participation and decision-making to private sphere of life. No doubt, theposition and status of women of today have improvedquite significantly. If we look at the public politicalspace, we find an increasing participation of womenin this sphere. Considering India (here), this has
materialized to a greater extent due to the PanchayatiRaj system.
This paper highlights women’s increasingparticipation in politics and illustrates instancesmanifesting empowerment of women, which is madeinstrumental through Panchayati Raj.
Keywords: women in politics, empowerment.
Introduction
Since times immemorial, the question concerningrecognition to women has remained prevalent and
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dominant till today. However the political concernsrelated to status of women in society have undergonechanges in its discourses with time. From conferringa superior status to women in scriptures, associatingthem as perfect home-makers, to their increasingindependence in public and private realm now, theyhave been tagged all along. Despite changes ineconomic independence, real freedom at social andpolitical (both public and private) levels are a farcry. Having said that, they are in front, leading thecountry, making mile stones and becoming a sourceof inspiration for many.
No modern society can claim to be progressivewithout the inclusive role of women in all walks oflife, leading to socio-economic change anddevelopment. The following paper deals withwomen’s political representation and participation.
The concept of Panchayati Raj had been introducedin the year 1959. Bringing women into politicsthrough the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) wasan act of bridging the gap and discrimination. TheIndian government has raised reservations for womenin all tiers of the Panchayati Raj system from 33%to at least 50%. India probably became the firstcountry to reserve 50% seats for women at LocalSelf Government (LSG) level after the Union Cabinetapproved a proposal for a Constitutional AmendmentBill for increasing quota for women in Panchayatsat all tiers. In the recent years there have been explicitmoves to increase women’s political participationat top level. The inclusion of women in PRIs hashelped change women’s perceptions aboutthemselves.
An International Labour Organization (ILO) Studyshows that “while women represent 50 % of theworld adult population and a third of the officiallabour force, they perform nearly two- third of allworking hours, receive a tenth of the world’s incomeand own less than one per cent of world property”.Therefore, reservation for women is not a bountybut only an honest recognition of their contributionto social development.
The Contextual Evidence to prove women liberationcan be enumerated as under: -
1. Women have responded overwhelmingly andparticipated with full enthusiasm in the elections
and in the proceedings of the PRIs, thusexploding the myth that women weredisinterested in politics and public life.
2. The women representatives generally got thesupport of the families during elections and alsoin the performance of their new political roles.Marginalized sections like the Scheduled Castes(SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) saw womenfrom their groups as representatives of theinterests of their group in the political arena,while the better-off sections saw women fromtheir own groups as helping to consolidate theirpositions.
3. The self-esteem of women has gone uptremendously, and that is an observation thatholds true across the board. The stepping up ofwomen into the public realm has long-termimplications for gender relations in society andthe family.
4. While the presence of women in theseinstitutions over the last eight to nine years hasnot transformed the power structure in the ruralareas in any significant manner, and vestedinterests have tried to use the provision forwomen’s reservation to consolidate theirposition, the overall experience has beenpositive. Thus women are engaging in powerstruggles, which used to be dominated by men,sometimes as actors and at other times as pawns.However, participation in the public realm forwomen means that marginalized groups andcommunities are finding a legitimate space toarticulate their interests and aspirations, and thewomen of these groups are being able to marka politically motivated presence, althoughslowly.
Let us understand how we can empower women toactively participate and involve themselves in thedecision-making process. Empowerment calls for awilling participation, pertinent for the formulation,implementation and evaluation of the decisionsdetermining the functions and well-being of oursocieties; for which favorable conditions are neededto be created. Here are some of the suggestions forthe better involvement of women in Panchayati Raj:
1) An important requirement for bringing about
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empowerment of women is to bring about anattitudinal change in both men and women. Thefeeling that women are meant for householdactivities and bearing children needs to bereplaced by a feeling of equal partnership ofwomen and men. To inculcate this, they shouldbe imparted education for bringing about socialand political awareness among both.
2) Studies on women in politics have emphasizedthe contact with the outside in the politicalprocess. There could be 2 ways of doing it.Firstly, interaction between enlightened ruralwomen and illiterate elected women leaders beencouraged. Secondly, these women could betaken out to the urban areas and their interactionwith elected educated urban womenrepresentatives be arranged.
3) There should be increased emphasis on ensuringthe participation of women in the meetings ofPanchayat at all levels. This is needed topromote and enhance their leadership qualitiesand self- confidence. It will help them performbetter in Panchayat to ensure their participationin the meetings. Attendance of all women mustbe made compulsory from Gram Panchayat toZilla Parishad.
4) Incentives play a vital role in ensuring theparticipation of elected representatives indecision-making. It has been noticed that thereare very active and enlightened women leadersat all levels of Panchayat, ensuring an overallrepresentation of women in general. Suchleaders need to be encouraged by publicizingand acknowledging their leadership qualitiesand honouring them in public meetings. It willencourage other women and their success storiesand good practices would prove inspirationalto them and others in society.
5) The women should also been couraged toorganize themselves collectively. It can beeffectively used as instruments to mobilizewomen of the village. Some successful women’sorganizations can also act as a catalytic agentfor encouraging women’s participation in socialand political activities. The government shouldalso provide financial support and infrastructureto some of the successful women organizationsto take up the responsibility of encouraging thewomen elected representatives in delivering,performing, and voicing opinions. Thus, thefocus must be on deliverance and making amark.
References:
Barik, B. & Sahoo, U. (2008). Panchayati raj institutions and rural development. Jaipur: Rawat Publications.
Baviskar, B. & Mathew, G. (2009). Inclusion and exclusion in local governance: Field studies from rural India. New Delhi: SagePublications.
Bhatt, Acharya S. (2011). Rural women, panchayati raj and development. New Delhi: Mohit Publications.
Pal, M. (1998). Woman in panchayat: Experiences of a training camp in Uttar Pradesh. Economic and Political Weekly, 33(4),150-152.
Patil, R. & Jadhav, M. (2005). Women sarpanch in Sangawde gram panchayat in Maharashtra: Whether the challenges are met?Journal of Shivaji University, 39, 37-46.
Ramesh Chandra. (2004). Liberation and social articulation of dalits. New Delhi: Gyan Publishing House
Sachar, R. (2003). Women’s reservation bill - A social necessity, national obligation. PUCL Bulletin, 1.
Singh, S. (2002). The new panchayati raj- rural transformation in the state of Haryana. Jaipur: Aalekh Publications.
Webliography:
1) www.wedo.org/wp.../women-local-self-governance-in-indian-context.doc.
2) www.womenempowermentinindia.com/status-of-women-in-india/
3) www.mkgandhi.org/intro_autobio.htm
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Introduction
India is one of the oldest civilizations in the world.India is the world’s largest democratic country andthe second largest populace (BBC News, 2014).Constitution of India promises equal rights, justice,liberty and fraternity to its citizens. Politicalparticipation and voting in election is the driver ofour democracy. In democracy, men and womenshould enjoy equality of liberty and decision-makingin terms of voting and political participation. Ourconstitution has adopted many measures to upgradetheir education, socio-economic status and politicalrepresentation.
Indian democracy envisions to safeguard welfare ofwomen through many articles of Constitution suchas 14, 15, 15(3), 16, 39(a), 39(b), 39(d), 39(A), 42,46, 47, 51(A) (e), 243 D(3), 243 T(3), 243 T(4)(Central Statistical Organisation, 2005). Sinceindependence, the government of India hasformulated many laws to protect women. Indianwomen were deprived of their right of equality vis-à-vis men. Our constitution prohibits discriminationamong men and women but the position of womenremains unequal, according to a United Nationsreport.
As per the Census 2011 report, there were 940females per 1000 of males. Census 2001 revealedthat there were 933 females to that of 1000 males(Census2011.co.in, 2014). Since decades, India hasseen a decrease in sex ratio but, the last two decades
has seen a slight increase in sex ratio.
Women equally deserve privilege to shape theirfuture and share responsibilities for themselves, theirfamilies and their country. In this context, it will benotable to analyze the status of Indian women inpolitics through their participation and representationin State Assemblies and LokSabha. This is necessarybecause pressure groups of women legislators areconsidered as capable of influencing policy debatesregarding development issues of women. This articleseeks to discuss about Women’s Reservation Bill andwomen’s representation in political institutions.
The role of Constitution and Parliamentaryinstitutions is to strengthen the power of weakersections which include Scheduled Castes (SCs) andScheduled Tribes (STs), Other Backward Classes(OBCs), women and tribes (adivasis). The debateon reservation is ‘unusual’ in terms of women’srights. The Women’s Reservation Bill first appearedin 1996 as the 81st Amendment Bill in Parliamentwhich proposed 33% seats for women. At that time,lots of questions were raised in Parliament but insuccessive Parliaments this issue got drifted due topolitical reasons.
Evolution of gender and caste reservation
A) Most of the countries in the world failed to giveequal representation to women in politicalinstitutions. Countries like Rwanda, Andorra,Cuba, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland
Women's Representation in Indian Legislaturesafter Emergency 1975-77
Krishna Mishra Research Assistant
Mudra institute of Communications,Ahmedabad
“Woman is the companion of man, gifted with equal mental capacities. Shehas the right to participate in very minutest detail in the activities of manand she has an equal right of freedom and liberty with him”
– Mahatma Gandhi
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have nearly equal representation in politics(www.ipu.org, 2014). Even women in WesternEuropean and North American countries arefighting for economic independence andpolitical participation (Narayan, Sheth, Yadav& Kishwar, 2008). In this context, Indiansituation is far from satisfactory.
B) The Constitution of India ensured thereservation to uplift the weaker sections ofsociety, so that, it provides reservation inelectoral representation to SC/STs. This wasnecessary to empower the weaker and backwardsections of the society which were suffering dueto caste system since many centuries.
C) Government of India formulated the MandalCommission after emergency in 1979 to studyplight of backward classes. This Commissionwas (officially declared from 1st January 1979,through Article 340 for Article 15 and 16) wasformulated to suggest ways through whichreservations for OBCs can be recommendedbased on their backwardness in representation(Recommendations of the Mandal Commission,1993). The Mandal Commission recommenda-tions were accepted by Indian Government in1989. Through this quota, OBC got beneffitedin eduational institutes and jobs in public sector.
Rationale for women’s reservations
The reservation or quota should be provided for allunderprivileged classes of society. Historically,Indian women also form major portion (nearly 50%)of the population who were denied democratic rights,development share, freedom to speak for themselvesand political power to influence policy making.Today, India ranks 136th in terms of GenderInequality Index (HDR, 2013).
The Indian Government has taken 46 years post-independence to introduce Women’s ReservationBill. Even after 65 years of independence, womenare waiting to see the Bill passed. The debate aboutWomen‘s Reservation is not qualitatively differentfrom that of debates related to the backward andweaker sections of the society. But this is ‘different’in a sense that of the sheer size of its population andits degree of deprivation in many contexts. Thus asmentioned above, reservation issue holds great
significance not only for ‘Gender Equality’ but alsofor nation‘s holistic development. This ‘qualitativedifference’ is necessary to be understood becausedevelopment and empowerment of women form amajor step towards achieving equality indevelopmental gains.
Journey and struggle of Women’s ReservationBill
In 1993, a constitutional amendment was passed inIndia. The Article 243 (D) of the Indian Constitutionmandated that at least one third of the seats in threetiers of the Panchayati Raj System to be reservedfor women through elections (Empowerment ofwomen through Panchayati Raj Institutions, 2010).The Women’s Reservation Bill (81st ConstitutionalAmendment Bill) was first introduced on 4th Sept.1996 by the United Front Government. This Bill wasreintroduced on the 26th of June 1998, in the 12th
LokSabha as the 84th Constitutional Amendment Billby the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Onceagain in 1999, in the 13th LokSabha, NDAreintroduced and then in 2002 it saw the same fate.In 2003, it was introduced twice. But, the thenGovernment had made no efforts to pass this bill.Once again in 2004, the United Progressive Alliance(UPA) Government showed some ray of hope, but ittoo failed. This Bill is still struggling and the processis still going on. The current Bill which wasintroduced by UPA is 108th ConstitutionalAmendment Bill, 2008 (Singh, 2010). In 2010, theCabinet cleared the Bill and it was passed byRajyaSabha.
The questions which emerged to deal with thewomen’s representation were as follows:
How many Indian women are able to vote inGeneral Elections?
How many women do actually fight in GeneralElections?
What is the degree of representation of Womenin Indian LokSabha after emergency?
Is the number of Women MPs in 2014 LokSabhacapable to influence the course of Women’sReservation Bill?
Will this Reservation Bill change the status ofwomen in contemporary Indian society?
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Female voting participation in India
As per Indian constitution, women have voting rightssince the first election held in 1951-52. But they donot have enough representation in the parliament,considered our population and electoral strength. In2014 election, the number of voters increased by 4.7times compared to the first election which was heldin 1951-52. The number of registered voterstremendously increased from 2009 general elections.As per the data of Election Commission of India,(Feb. 2014) there are 81, 45, 91,184 registeredelectors in country. Out of the total registered votersin the country, 42, 66, 51,513 are male and38, 79, 11,330 are female voters. The members of‘Other’ category are also included which constitute28,341 registered voters in 2014 (Pib.gov.in, 2014).Women constitute 41.4% of the total registered
voters in India. It is noteworthy that the States like -Kerala, Goa, Meghalaya and some of the UnionTerritories have more number of female voters ascompare to males (Pib.gov.in, 2014).
Picture of an increasing women’s politicalparticipation and representation in LokSabha
In India, the women’s participation in politics wason a decline since the days of freedom movement.The quantity and the quality of women’sparticipation in elections as compared to men havelowered in range. Women’s participation was 30times lesser than men till the 9th general elections.After emergency, the women’s representation inelections till 1989 was really poor. Then from the10th election in 1991, the condition of politicalparticipation saw some improvement. But therepresentation of women in LokSabha has basicallybeen stagnant.
Data is drawn from election results declared after 1977—after culmination of internal emergency.
Year of Total No. Total No. Total No. Total No. Total No. Percentage PercentageElection of seats of males of Females of male of Female (%) of (%) of
Contested Contested Members Members male FemaleElected Elected MPs MPs
1980 542 4486 143 501 28 94.84 5.16(7th election)
1984 (8th) 514 5150 162 472 42 91.83 8.17
1989 (9th) 529 5962 198 500 29 94.52 5.48
1991 (10th) 524 8342 326 484 37 92.94 7.06
1996 (11th) 543 13353 599 503 40 92.64 7.36
1998 (12th) 543 4476 274 500 43 92.09 7.91
1999 (13th) 543 4364 284 494 49 90.98 9.023
2004 (14th) 543 5080 355 498 45 91.72 8.28
2009 (15th) 543 1489 134 333 43 92.09 7.91
2014 (16th) 543 7,578 668 482 61 88.77 11.23
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If we see the figures, in 1980 after emergency thepercentage of female MPs was 5.16 which was veryless and got improved in 1984, which is 8.17%. In1984, the total number of female MPs elected was42 which were very high compared to 1980 results,i.e. 28 women MPs. After this in 1989, it got declinedby 5.48% of female MPs. The data of 1991, 1996and 1998, which is the 10th, 11th and 12th elections,the growth percentage of female MPs were almostthe same. The increase in proportion of women MPsout of the total strength in LokSabha continues to bevery low, that is 7.06% (10th LokSabha), 7.36% (11th
LS) and 7.91% (12th LS) respectively. This presentsa depressing trend in figures of women MPs inLokSabha.
Talking about 13th election held in 1999, there was aslight increase in women’s political participation.The total number of elected female MPs was 49 andthe percentage was 9.023. But again the percentageof elected female MPs declined in the 14th electionheld in 2004 amidst lots of campaigns and mediaawareness. There were only 45 elected femalemembers and the percentage was 8.28. In 2009, itdeclined by 0.37%. The total number of womenelected was 43 and the percentage was 7.91. In thelatest 16th election of 2014, the percentage of femaleselected improved by 11.23%, and the number offemales MPs elected improved up to 61(Eci.nic.in, 2009).
In this LokSabha, there are only 61 women out of543 seats. To represent more than half a billionpopulation, we have only 61 female MPs inLokSabha. Lack of consensus and political tacticsabout Women’s Reservation Bill have become a topicof endless debates. But once passed, the Women’sReservation Bill will bring about a sea change inour society. There were times when the SC/ST andOBC classes were exploited and were considereduntouchables in almost all parts of the country. Thegovernment’s step towards reservation has in a largeway proved meaningful as a corrective measure. Ithas helped reduce the feeling of being discriminatedand hatred in the SC/STs and OBCs.
Similarly, if there would be more women inParliament like the male counterparts, their role indecision-making could apparently increase whichcould lead to a gradual improvement of their status,providing them much-needed recognition.
Education and good family environment matter a lotin case of success of any person, be it men or women.Poor and the middle class women have lack ofinformation about the basic rights just because oftheir lack of education and ignorance. For improvingthe status and participation of educated and capablewomen in Parliament, increase in the number ofwomen voters becomes essential. On the other hand,the number of women standing for elections alsoneeds to increase. The increase in the number offemale voters and women candidates for electionscan give an impetus to the Women’s Reservation Bill.
Why is reservation necessary? Reservation can bethe fastest way of increasing the number of womencontestants elected. If the number of womenincreases in Parliament, they will perform the majorrole in taking strategic decisions. Despite manyarguments and debates, Reservation Bill will favourlimited women as it happened in some countries likePakistan, Afghanistan and Nepal. These are thecountries where women have high share of seats inParliament due to the introduction of reforms andquota laws (Tandoh-Offin, 2010). In Pakistan, thequota system has proven as the fastest way toensuring women’s good amount of representation inParliament (Ghosh, 2014). In nearly 16 countries,there is equal participation of women and men indecision-making processes, with particularemphasison political participation and leadership (Equalparticipation of women and men in decision-makingprocesses, with particular emphasis on politicalparticipation and leadership 2005).
Therefore Women’s Reservation Bill is an essentialstep to reconstructing the electoral system. Manywomen groups have suggested views on endorsementand have run campaigns to spread awareness aboutwomen’s rights (Thakur, 2014). The gender-relatedissues are the most crucial factors which affectwomen’s parliamentary representation (Norris &Inglehart, 2001).
Conclusion
In effect, it is essential to improve and increase thewomen’s participation and representation intoconstitutional bodies. The electoral andparliamentary reformation is not only essential butit is a high priority urgent agenda. The goal of women
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References:
BBC News. (2014). India country profile. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-12557384
Census 2011. (2014). Sex ratio of India. Retrieved from http://www.census2011.co.in/sexratio.php
Central Statistical Organization. (2005). Women and men in India 2004. New Delhi: Ministry of Statistics and ProgrammeImplementation, C.S.O., Government of India.
Election releases page (2014). Retrieved from http://www.pib.gov.in/elections2014/eleRelease.aspx?opt=1&relid=105124
Empowerment of women through panchayati raj institutions. (2010). Retrieved from http://nlrd.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Empowerment-of-Women-Through-Panchayats1.pdf
Equal participation of women and men in decision-making processes, with particular emphasis on political participation and leadership.(2005). Retrieved from http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/egm/eql-men/FinalReport.pdf
Ghosh, P. (2014). Where the boys are: Vastly underrepresented, Indian women demanding greater participation in politics. Retrievedfrom http://www.ibtimes.com/where-boys-are-vastly-underrepresented-indian-women-demanding-greater-participation-politics-1565797
HDR. (2013). India still ranks low in gender inequality index. Retrieved from http://www.undp.org/content/dam/india/docs/In-the-News-2013/UNDP_India_in_the_news_1503201317.pdf
Narayan, J. (et.al.) (2008). Enhancing women’s representation in legislatures. Reservations for women. 6, 332.
Norris. P. & Inglehart. R. (2001). Cultural obstacles to equal representation. Journal of Democracy,12(3), 126-140.
Rajgopalan, S. (2014). 2014 Elections: Parties that ignore women’s rights aren’t worth your vote. Retrieved from http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/standpoint-2014-elections-parties-that-ignore-women-s-rights-aren-t-worth-your-vote-1961722
Recommendations of the mandal commission. (1993). Retrieved from http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/1869/14/15_appendix.pdf
Singh, R. (2010). Women’s reservation (108th constitutional amendment) bill. Retrieved from http://www.isidelhi.org.in/wl/article/rakesh1602.pdf
Tandoh-Offin, P. (2010). Women’s legislative representation and gender equality: What works in the absence of a “CriticalMass” (Policy Studies). Clemson University.
Thakur, A. (2014). Women voters in India want to stand up and be counted. Retrieved from http://blogs.reuters.com/india/2013/01/21/women-voters-in-india-want-to-stand-up-and-be-counted/
Welcome to election commission of India. (2009). Retrieved from http://eci.nic.in/eci_main1/ElectionStatistics.aspx
Women in politics (2014). Retrieved from http://www.ipu.org/pdf/publications/wmnmap14_en.pdf
empowerment through reservations is nowhere in sight as we see the trend in successive LokSabhas. It is clearthat immediate, continuous and concerted efforts will be required to improve the status of women in Indiansociety and Parliament. India needs women leaders and MPs who can change the way, the society perceiveswomen. It is essential to pass legislations that can at least provide basic recognition to women and make heractive participation inevitable, where the women leaders will be able to contribute substantially to the societyat large.
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Women Politicians since 1975– a Bollywood Way
NalandaTambeFreelance Journalist
Women [email protected]
Bollywood and Politics have reigned in India since times immemorial.
Today, we can see a common man either talking aboutpolitics or about films and superstars. Both areas areintrinsic to people’s lives and they give completionto it. Both these spheres defining a major part of ourlives are dynamic and constantly discussed upon.Media becomes the communicator which connectsa common man to outer world, changing every nowand then.
However, Indian political system has witnessed manycrucial phases in the past right from the period ofIndependence and to explain one such post-independence era would be that of 1975 when thethen Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhiimplemented the state of Emergency. Also on theother hand Indian cinema was on the path of growthwherein newer concepts like widow remarriages,women empowerment, encouragement to girls’education etc. were not only introduced but graduallyaccepted wholeheartedly. The whole post-independence period was characterized by frequentchanges shaping consciously the cultural andpolitical environment of India.
It was then when film industry took its first step totouch politics in a more magnanimous andmagnificent way. The first film of Gulzar, Aandhi(1975) portraying a woman protagonist (SuchitraSen) as a politician, was based on the life of IndiraGandhi. This film however underwent manycontroversies regarding its release and censorshipissues then and also was banned after 20 weeks ofits release (Salam, 2013).
Critics opine that although this movie was directedbrilliantly by using the best cinematographyhighlighting certain emotional scenes fantastically,
it failed to show or say, emphasize the politics in it.The movie revolved around the emotional attackswhich Suchitra Sen faces after meeting her husbandSanjeev Kumar after years of separation. Whilepolitics is shown as just a profession of the womanin this film, the main focus goes into highlightingher personal troubled love life. On the other side, anaspect of this film states that she aspires to becomea politician like her father and she moves on toachieve her dream. But at the same time again she ispresented in a bad light as she gets separated withher husband to live her life as a politician. Aconveniently structured platform was put on the forewhich side-lined the plot of a successful womanpolitician’s career.
Gradually politics-based films starring womenpoliticians started flashing on the silver screens ofBollywood, but when it came to Indian women; shehad to be portrayed as being quintessential by natureeven if she is a successful actress.
Certain kinds of generalizations and stereotypescame into play when it was concerned with ‘theother’.
In the film God Mother (1999) directed by VinayShukla, based on a real life story, the talented actressShabana Azmi played a wonderful lead rolejustifying the character of Santokben Jadeja who ranthe Mafia operations of Porbandar, Gujarat in thelate 1980s and early 1990s and later turned politician.The plot still remained against the womanprotagonist as she can be a good daughter, sister,wife, and mother but not a mafia leader. Such kindsof women characters are appreciated by people onlyon screens and have lesser support than otherwise
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when it comes to reality. Today if a girl wants tojoin politics, she is bombarded with thousands ofquestions by society. A prominent reason guiding thisis the conditioning that leads to portraying womenas being restricted and brought up in a protectiveenvironment.
The film Satta (2003) demonstrates a bold wife(Raveena Tandon), who fights elections on behalfof her husband. In this Madhur Bhandarkar film,again many sacrifices and traumas are portrayed inher life as allegations are put forward by her in-lawsof having affairs with other men which wasapparently possible due to her active public life.Moralizing women in our country is a daily affairand hence when it comes to symbolizing them aspoliticians, it becomes harder to accept such a reality.
Seeing the other side of a coin, if it is politics versuslove then the latter always wins in Bollywood.Instances of the same are in movies like Rajneeti(2010) and Ranjhana (2013) where politics comessecondary when compared with love. The whole plotcirculates around the love story sidelining thesignificance of politics in women’s decision ofsetting priorities. In Rajneeti, Katrina Kaif doesn’tseem to be passionate about being a politician unlessher husband (Arjun Rampal) dies in a bomb blast.Throughout the movie she is shown entangled in herone-sided love for Ranbir Kapoor, younger brotherof Arjun Rampal. Apart from this, the movie portrayssome scenes towards the end wherein she swears asa political leader and campaigns but its effects don’tseem more appealing, owing to element of sacrificein love made for Ranbir Kapoor, dominating the plot.
Also in Ranjhana, the love story takes over the movieand Sonam Kapoor’s dream of becoming a political
leader is side-tracked. Indian film industry depictswomen as politicians but at the same time it doesn’tfail to include love and Bollywood Masala into it toincrease the viewership. Though, at face value thatcan be provided as a justification for attractingaudience’ viewership, it also has a strongerconnection with the societal conditioning and deep-seated conventional values regarding women. Firstly,politics is shown as the profession of womenprotagonist which gets overlooked to a great extentas her love life emphasizing tragedies, emotions andsacrifices is focused extravagantly. Secondly, eitherthey are portrayed harshly but in a positive rolefighting for the justice or as a corrupt politician usingpeople for her selfish interests.
In films like Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola (2013)and Gulab Gang (2014), women politicians (ShabanaAzmi and Juhi Chawla) are portrayed in negativeroles, as corrupt. In any situation, whatever may bethe role, a woman has to struggle to show herimportance – this remains the flavor of the silverscreen. Since its inception 100 years ago, commercialcinema has always been one of the biggestindigenous industries in India and remains so in thepost-globalization era, when the Indian economy hasentered a new phase of global participation,liberalization and expansion. Issues of community,gender, society, social and economic justice, secularnationhood and ethnic identity are nowhere moreexplored in the Indian cultural mainstream than incommercial cinema. From the black and white filmsto colour movies, even if the Indian cinema hasevolved in a big way, today it continuous to retainits basic essence – entertain, entertain and entertain(Kaur, 2013). Hence, there is a necessity of changein perception and attitude towards women for a betterand safe society.
References:
Kaur, J. (2013, June 13). India & you - The world’s window to India. Retrieved from Media India Group in Cinema: https://mediaindiagroup.wordpress.com/tag/women-in-100-years-of-indian-cinema/
Salam, Z. U. (2013, May 24). Aandhi (1975). Retrieved from The Hindu: http://www.thehindu.com/features/cinema/cinema-columns/aandhi-1975/article4742988.ece
Sharma, G. (2011, March 8). Bollywood’s iconic portrayal of women. Retrievedfrom The Times of India: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/Bollywoods-iconic-portrayal-of-women/articleshow/7646781.cms
Verma, E. (2013, August 27). Ladies special: Changing role of women in hindi cinema. Retrieved from Pandolin: http://www.pandolin.com/ladies-special-changing-role-women-hindi-cinema/
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Women in PoliticsNimisha Amit Mishra
FreelancerM.Sc. (Home Science)
(Extension & Education)Banaras Hindu University
amitcb2gmail.com
“There is no chance for the welfare of the world unless the condition ofthe women is improved. It is not possible for the bird to fly on one wing”.
- Anonymous
Women constitute nearly 50 percent of the populationof the world, but when it comes to their representationat higher level of political positions in thegovernment; they account for only less than 10percent. Poor representation of women is not specificto the political domain alone but is also reflected inthe administrative as well as managerial positionswhere women constitute only 14 percent of their totalpopulation.
The landmark, 73rd Amendment to the Constitutionof India has definitely sought to empower women interms of numbers. From the miniscule figure of 2-4percent in majority of Indian states, the amendmenthas for the first time brought 30-40 percent ruralwomen in decision-making.
The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments in 1993have created space for women in politicalparticipation and decision-making at grass-root levelby reserving one-third of the seats all over thecountry. Today women occupy more than 42 percentof seats in local bodies. Around 14 states have nowpassed legislation reserving at least 50 percent seatsfor women.
In the aftermath of successive elections to PanchayatiRaj Institutions (PRIs) in various states of the countryseveral studies have been conducted evaluating theexperiment of women representation andparticipation in Panchayat. These comprise boththeoretical and practical analysis of participation interms of role of elected women members in
Panchayat, their socio-economic characteristics,reasons for women to contest, women’s awarenessin Panchayati Raj etc.
One group of studies shows that PRIs headed bywomen have not only made an impact on grass-rootgovernance, it has also shattered many of thesupposed myths such as inability to handle powerand responsibility outside their homes. There isvisible improvement in the administration anddelivery of services at Gram Panchayat level mainlyor of greater focus on the basic needs of people,greater transparency, greater reliance on horizontallinkages and greater participation of peopleparticularly women members of the community.
The 15th LokSabha elections held in 2009 delivereda record of 59 women as Members of Parliament,the highest since Independence raising theirparliamentary participation to 10.9% in the countryand in the 16th LokSabha elections held in 2014delivered a record of 61 women as Members ofParliament, raising their parliamentary participationto 11.2% in the country.
Equality of rights between men and women must beenshrined as fundamental principle. Legal, economicand cultural barriers that prevent the exercise ofequal rights should be identified and removedthrough policy reforms.
This gender inequality which is of concern to theissue of human development the world over is also
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manifested in many other forms. Women often worklonger hours as compared to men, but much of theirwork is undervalued rather putting it straight,unvalued and unrecognized. To top it all, the threatof violence accompanies them from cradle to grave(Human Development Report 1995 (iii)).
Regional variations regarding the number of womenin political decision-making do exist which rangefrom 37.6 percent in the Nordic countries to a paltry3.5 percent in Arab World. In countries, wherewomen are well represented in political ground, theyare in a position to address the issues, able to amendand make laws of significance through policyreforms concerning their gender in their favour.
No wonder Nordic countries have better quality oflife, better education and medical facilities andlonger life span all which confirm that women inpolitics look more towards holistic and all-rounddevelopment.
Women across the globe have fought for equality,dignity and freedom against what they call inequality,oppression and subordination. Stereotypical rolesassigned to women and men have conditioned themabout their capabilities. Women’s political decision-making have been viewed as inevitable in dealingwith various forms of oppression, and so, inimproving their status we need to rejuvenate allefforts to add new dimensions to these traditionalroles of women.
The public-private sphere politics has affectedrepresentation and participation of women indefining a political environment. At least with aprocedural provision of reservation, the amount ofrespect given to participation in public politics haschanged substantially, thus acting as one of thesources of encouragement.
Gender discrimination will really be diminishedwhen women are connected with the economy ofour nation. Major companies like Sodexo India,Fluor Engineering, and Pitney Bowes GlobalTechnology etc. follow a practice of replacing afemale employee with another female.
Sodexo India has set a target to take total percentageof women employees from the current 16 percent to20 percent by the end of financial year 2015.
The process of bringing in women to the mainstreamof political decision-making process has begun withthe reservation of 33 percent of seats at the lowestlevel of governance viz PRIs and local bodies. Thereare no such provisions either in the State Legislaturesor Parliament. However even after much debate, thebottleneck over reserving seats for women inParliament to 33 percent is vivid and the proposalhas remained in limbo for long time.
In other words, despite the gradual increase innumber of women participating in the election,women still constitute a very small percentage oftotal number of contestants.
The participatory upsurge witnessed among womenas voters in the 1990’s reached its peak in the generalelections held in 2014.Their participation in theelectoral process as voters has steadily increasedfrom 46.6% in 1962 to around 65.7% this year. Thedifference among voter turnout among men andwomen as wide as 16.7% in 1962 has narrowed to1.5 percent in 2014.
The reservation for 33 percent seats for women inPRI’s in 1990’s gave women a sense of sharing powerwith men equally. It acted as a catalyst and got muchneeded momentum which resulted in upsurge ofwomen voters. The highest voter turnout amongwomen in the selection could be due to many reasonsbut the intense voter awareness campaigns ofelection commission and door-to-door campaigns bypolitical parties are the most plausible determinantsto explain this phenomenon.
Freedom struggle saw active participation of womenwho fought shoulder to shoulder along with men.Mahatma Gandhi was one person who played animportant role in promoting participation of womenin politics. Gandhi was one of the strongestproponents of getting women participated in freedomstruggle and to connect women with the main streamand national spirit.
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Post-Independence, there has not been much doneto accommodate women in the public sphere, or leavealone any level calling for political decision-making.Overworked with the family structure, structural andsocial constraints and private obligations, skilldevelopment among women took a backseat. Thelack of will and political awareness led to their
ultimate exclusion from mainstream, mostlyconsensual.
We already have means but either we fail to see thelight of the day which calls for an active approachcoupled with mass awareness to improve and sharpentheir potential.
References:
Rai, P. (2014). Imbalanced participation of women. Reuters.
Singh, R.K. (2013). Participation of women in gram panchayats: A review of literature. Women’s Link, 19(3), 19-25.
Singla, P. (2007). Women’s participation in panchayati raj. Jaipur: Rawat.
Women in Politics: Representation and Empowerment
Parvin SultanaAssistant Professor
Goalpara College, [email protected]
Women’s representation and their presence in active politics are seen as a potential to ensure political engagementof women. Apart from an increase in political awareness amongst women, their presence in large number inlegislatures will ensure that women’s policy issues are more likely to reach campaign agenda. It will alsoensure that more women-friendly policies are passed in the legislature.
The need to look into the existing institutional mechanisms to ensure women’s empowerment is a must forpatriarchal societies. In countries like India, women are systemically kept out of mainstream. Gendered spacesoften tend to push women back to private spaces where their discrimination and exploitation go unnoticed.Sexual violence, dowry deaths, domestic violence etc. continue despite having a large number of laws toprohibit them. Hence having women in powerful political position would serve a symbolic purpose to do awaywith myths like “politics is a man’s game”. It would put women in charge of issues that affect them.
Indian society continues to represent contradictory trends. While India has only 11% women in the Parliament,UAE has 22.5% and the representation of women leaders in grass-root levels has reached almost 50%. Panchayatshave been the bedrock of heralding more women into politics. Malnourished, suppressed, uneducated, violatedand discriminated against, the Indian women have the odds stacked against them. Still they have come out andparticipated in electoral politics in large number in these elections.
While women leaders in Panchayats are often called proxies of their husbands or other male members of theirfamilies, the very presence of a larger number of women in Panchayats is encouraging. They have also taken
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initiatives on crucial fronts like education, health,sanitation etc. Studies, however, show that onlywhere there has been the inception of reservation,have more women succeeded in getting into activepolitical participation at least procedurally, if notsubstantive always. This points out to our need toinstitutionalize women’s presence at almost everylevel for providing better chances of representation.
There has been a tendency of political parties to keepwomen in the margins. Women candidates are oftenfielded in constituencies where the chances ofwinning are slim. When women win they are oftenrelegated to the women’s wing of the party, and madeto concentrate on what are seen as specificallywomen’s issues such as dowry and rape cases. Suchcompartmentalization instead of making women’sissues mainstream pushes women back to certainconstraining boundaries.
However a welcome trend of greater turnout offemale voters is a fact. Female voters’ turnout hasbeen steadily rising. According to MukulikaBannerjee this assertion is a result of the realizationthat while in every sphere women are told to behavein a particular way, voting is one instance in whichwomen get to register their own opinion. This is alsoaccentuated by empowerment of women. Anotherreason has been the reservation of seats for womenin Panchayats. It has actually led to politicization ofwomen.
Women have a poor 11% representation in IndianParliament which puts it in 108th rank among 188countries, way beyond India’s neighbors likePakistan and Bangladesh. “According to VibhutiPatel, economist and President of Women PowerConnect, highly patriarchal societies likeAfghanistan also have a reservation mechanism inplace. She further asserts that proper representationis possible only through a quota regime. ManyEuropean Union (EU) countries like France, Belgiumand Germany and other countries like Egypt, Iraqand Nepal have provided quotas for women legally,using systematic legislative provisions”.
While quota system continues to be contentious, in
patriarchal societies they seem to be a good first step.
While the goal of gender equality has been laudedin many international agreements, includingMillennium Development Goals (MDGs), manygovernments lack meaningful female participation.Increased female representation in governmentalinstitutions and decision-making bodies is crucial forthe overall empowerment of women. The 1995Beijing Fourth World Conference on Womenrecommended that the international community andthe civil society take strategic action in order toreduce inequality between men and women in power-sharing and decision-making. But the process hasbeen slow and has achieved uneven resultsworldwide.
While some countries have reached up to 30% seatsfor women, it is mainly due to the availability ofquota system. But such mechanisms have theirlimitations. According to United Nations (UN), noquantitative analysis is available to measure thelength and breadth of women’s participation indecision-making owing to mere increased statisticalfacts of representation. How far has it led toempowerment of women is a question worth asking.Moreover, securing parliamentary seats throughquotas is only the first part of a long process ofrecognizing women. There is a tendency of politicalparties to treat quotas as ceilings and not floors.Hence number of women is often limited to what isallowed by quota system. There is no activeencouragement to raise the representation, except forsome women of certain particular familybackgrounds who find it easier to get a grip easily inpolitics.
The voters are equally worthy of blame for the lowrepresentation of women in India. To bolster that,political parties continue to have the notion thatwomen cannot be relied upon to win elections,despite India’s history of the presence of strongwomen leaders on the political front. Since‘winnability’ is the only criteria for political parties,it is not surprising that they tend to field far fewerwomen than men as candidates for an election. Even
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Indian voters have a bias against women candidatesat least at the local Gram Panchayat elections. AHarvard University survey of such local body pollsin West Bengal found villagers consistently ratingwomen candidates below men. The generalmisogynist perception has been that women leadersare not as effective as men in taking decisions andframing policies.
Gender inequality starts from the attitudes of people.The way to mitigate this discrimination is through
affirmative action, i.e. to include more women inpolitical process. The first step can be quota systemfor women candidates. Such implementation showsa clear change in voters’ outlook on the effectivenessof women voters. Hence while starting withreservation; there is also a need for sensitization ofpeople regarding such issues. Only then can weexpect women to participate in politics meaningfullyand representation will translate into empowermentof women.
References:
Kably, L. (2013, Nov 26). Women have only 11% representation in India’s parliament. The Times of India.
Karp, J. A. & Banducci, S. A. (2008). When politics is not just a man’s game: Women’s representation and political engagement.Science Direct Electoral Studies, 27, 105-115.
Patel, A. (2014, April, 16). India’s politicians aren’t listening to women. BBC News India
Representation in the political process. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.globalization101.org/representation-in-the-political-process.
Sarangi, S. & Jha, C. K. (2014, April 22). Gender bias in Indian elections. The Hindu Business Line.
Women’s participation in politics: India ranks 98th. (2011, March 8). The Hindu.
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Declivity of Women – is it Politically “Correct”? Shikha Sharma
FreelancerM. A. (Political Science)
Youth Coordinator,Sahiyar (Stree Sangathan), Baroda
In the era of globalization and modernization, thedevelopmental criteria are not only limited to theglobalized structure but also affects the day to daylives of individuals and activities. We must then,indeed, talk about a situation wherein women areaffected or say, neglected in reaping the benefits ofdevelopment, and in social terms, progress. When adecision regarding “her” is taken by the male memberof the family, when she is bound to be fragile andcompletely dependent on her father, husband andlater on her son, when a woman is not allowed totake decisions but everyone has the right to debateabout her, a common concern of justice underliesthem, wherein social, cultural, political andpsychological barriers don’t allow her to think outof the shell, the soaring truth is comments made onwomen, on her chastity by the politically “correct”claimants. Provocative, insensitive and baselesscomments on incidents of grave concern such asrapes, sexual assaults etc. showcasing errantcomments and portraying deplorable standards havebecome the order of the day. Their derogatorycomments victimize the victims instead ofrecognizing the accused and punishing them. At atime when the rape survivors are already fightingwith problems like social censure, delayed justice,societal pressure; it is shameful to witness thesecomments and attitude adding fuel to the fire ofmisogyny.
The question here is who entitled them to make suchderogatory comments on women. It seems like it isa trending fashion when the public speakers andpolitical leaders dastardly go on with their rants. Inpublic sphere it presents a ruptured image of awoman.
More or less such kinds of impulsive comments showthe rigidities of a patriarchal system convenientlymarginalizing woman and disallowing her to beexpressive, contemplative and free.
Centuries have come and gone and women havevulnerably suffered much discrimination at variouslevels, be it sexual abuse, physical and psychologicalviolence within the family, humiliation, rapes,emotional threats, trafficking and control over speechand action.
While the highlighted crimes grab eyeballs, non-highlighted ones vanish with time. The recent sourceof National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) suggeststhat there are 43.6% cruelty by husband or hisrelative, 18.6% assault on women with intent tooutrage her modesty, trafficking and abduction15.7% and rape 10.2% , dowry death 3.8% and soon… the unending list stays.
The recent news article in TOI “One rape every thirtyminutes in India” on 29th July 2014, as reported by aCommonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI)analysis, showed cases between 2001 and 2013. Itsaid that 2,64,130 rapes were reported in 28 statesduring the 13-year period; an average of almost 56rapes per day. It’s hard to digest the fact that manyvictims are being ignominiously raped or sexuallyassaulted which do not even grab any focus like thatof “Nirbhaya”. This should force one to thinksensitively.
Policies and schemes are made to eradicate manysuch severe issues. But are they truly reliable? Whilesome have shown productive results, there are other
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schemes which have not yielded the desired results.Schemes like Sabla, Ujjwala, and Indira GandhiMatritva Sahyog Yojana (it is a conditional cashtransfer scheme) are some of the major schemessuccessfully working towards improving health andnutrition status and facilitating access to learning andpublic services through guidance at AnganwadiCenters. Ujjwala aims at preventing trafficking andprovides rescue and rehabilitation to the victims oftrafficking. On the other hand, schemes like Swadharaddress the vulnerabilities of women by providingshelter, food, clothing, clinical and legal aids.Pressure groups with lot of struggles manage to bringin such schemes and substantial resources have beenallotted for the same, however little impact is visible.
Most of all, the marginalized women themselves areunaware of such schemes.
These problems of patriarchal structures of society,economy and polity can only be eradicated bychallenging them collectively. A radical constructivethought-process and mindset is needed. Depictionof women in vulgar ways using diverse tools likelanguage, media and similar overt and covertpropaganda machinery, should be thoroughlydiscouraged so much so that the survivors of crimedon’t feel deplorable. Women who survive and fightback should be revered. It calls for an immediateand intense moral excavation of self-respect.
References:
10 Bizzare comments made by politicians on women. (2014, June 8.). The Times of India.Shukkur, S. (2014). Gender justice in India. Paper presented at Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam.Women and children. (2014). Mathrubhumi Yearbook Plus
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BOOK REVIEWThe Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India
The partition of India – into two separate statesnamely India and Pakistan on the basis of religionon the eve of the Indian sub-continent’s freedom fromBritish rule is remembered as a cataclysmic eventthat transformed the lives of innumerable people inunprecedented ways. The after effects of the divisionof Indian sub-continent can be felt even today as wereel under tensions, running along the lines ofreligion, ethnicity, language and community. Thepartition was not simply a division of land andproperty or a demarcation of lifeless boundaries; itwas rather an event that had far reachingconsequences on the life and history of people ofSouth Asia. Works on partition related history havemajorly documented statistical details such as thenumber of people killed, dislocated, maimed orrendered homeless. The versions of partition thathistorical accounts offer to us are often laid out withdisconnected figures, official accounts and statistrepresentations that are plain manifestations of anattempt to providing an empirical reality. Memoriesof the partition majorly revolve around the creationof two independent states and the enmity amongmajor religious communities. These serve asimportant yet a skewed picture of the poignancy ofthe scenario as a whole, and somehow relegatepeople’s experiences to the background.
It is this limitation in the historical representationthat Butalia’s seminal and first of its kind workaddresses, as it traces the voices and stories of peoplewho were impacted by the creation of India andPakistan. The politics surrounding the partition wasnot merely about two newly-created states, their
The other side of silence: Voices from the partition of IndiaUrvashi Butalia. Penguin Books, New Delhi, 1998. pp. 371, Rs- 1440/-
disputes and theircontradictory and hate-filled versions of the‘other’. The partitionwas about ‘people’ –people on both sides whohad to leave their homesand undertake anextremely painfuljourney of dislocation,search for a new identityto an unknown land –purportedly created intheir very name.Butalia’s work on this historical event stand out fromamong the enormous literature on this issue for avery simple reason that it looks at partition from theprism of people and their sufferings. Employing aqualitative, interview-based, oral historical approach,the focus is on smaller and invisible players ofpartition, whom mainstream history and politics havesidelined – namely ordinary people, women,children, schedule castes (pp – 11). Rarely wouldyou discover a work on partition that so effortlesslyweaved the stories and sufferings of common peopleon both sides of the border. Surprisingly, though themost affected lot in the partition were the people ofIndia and Pakistan, their accounts and experienceswere found missing from mainstream partitionliterature. This, in essence, is the triumph of theauthor’s attempt in relocating, re-describing andreproducing the phenomena of partition from the lensof those, for whom it served as a life-changing event.Presently, there have been many attempts carried out,at recording the voices of the generation that went
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through this trauma of partition, in the form ofprojects that have used technology to build a recallvalue to that era. However, Butalia’s work whichwas published in the year 1998 stands out as a braveand singular attempt at charting the unknown, untoldand unfrequented ‘histories’ and politics of the event.
In a narrative that is told through the use of storiesand personal accounts, Butalia offers to the readers,a gendered telling of the partition (pp – 16). Her workseeks to constantly regenerate an alternate methodof historicizing partition, by questioning themainstream and the macro accounts of historyfurnished from the dominant official statistperspective. She asks if there is some way in whichhistory can make space for the small, the individualvoice (pp – 13). Along with the use of interviews asprimary data sources, she has also looked atsecondary sources such as the government records,newspaper reports, memoirs and diaries; to come upwith a comprehensive and eye-opening reality of anevent that still continues to shape the ongoingdiscourse on religion, communalism and identity inthe sub-continent. Thus the prime focus or theundercurrent of the narrative is to destabilize andshatter the concept of an objective history. It thereby,seeks to unsettle the illusion surrounding partitionhistory that has been usually studied and recorded.
She also successfully shatters the illusionsurrounding history and objectivity. How canpeople’s experiences, their sufferings be presentedobjectively? Would it not be a disservice to thetrauma they underwent? These and other disturbingquestions are raised throughout the work, eventuallypersuading the reader to question one’s ownunderstanding of the partition.
The work also comes across as an extremely personalaccount, laced with narratives of those who actuallywitnessed the partition and struggled to deal withthe bitter reality of having to leave their homes. Thesedirect accounts of what people went through bring,to the reader, an ‘alternative’ understanding of thepartition: something that we may not find in officialversions of the same and history textbooks. The effortis to uncover the silence shrouded in speech, memory,healing, pain, violence, identity and even a disregard
of the ‘uncomfortable’ associations with partition.Butalia talks about a deliberate amnesic dealing ofevents that constituted partition which convenientlysidelined certain questions. She says, “Who wouldwish to remember the gender-based violence thataccompanied the creation of India and Pakistan - therape, the abduction and the forceful conversion ofcountless women, the rejection of womenrehabilitated back to their homes, the abandonmentof young children and the consequent erosion of thevery fabric of a society and its culture.’’ These areamong the few questions that are vividly dealt with,in the book. At the heart of this work lies theuncovering of an indescribable silence that persistsin society – a silence that has been marginalized andneeds to be addressed. A total of eight chapters inthe work deal with the memories and experiences ofsections that were ‘othered’ in the realm of partitionand its consequences, namely – women, children,marginalized sections of the society like Dalits andscheduled castes. These experiences have been aptlycaptured throughout the work.
Through a journey in which the author has uncoveredthe many silences surrounding the partition, the mostsignificant one deals with notions associated withwomen’s honour and the violence inflicted on them,on account of it. There is no doubt that the partitionwas violent, but the most affected of all were womenon both sides.
The notion of ‘purity’, ‘honour’ and ‘protection ofone’s faith’ was attached to women. Not only werewomen subjected to violence from outsiders, theywere also a victim of violence within families. Manywomen readily gave up their lives in order to protectpatriarchal notions associated with family andreligious honour. A severe critique of this practice issubtly expressed in Butalia’s work.
The book is based on the theme of partition-basedviolence and attaches importance to personalexperiences of the same. It however fails toadequately present that side of the partition whichprovided hopes to millions of people as they passedthrough this juggernaut. The bonds and friendshipsthat got nurtured during this period and stayed on
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with people even as barbed wires separated themare brought to the fore only towards the end of thebook. If the partition was about people whomercilessly killed each other, then it was also aboutpeople who crossed religious barriers to lend ahelping hand to the ‘other’. It is this narrative ofhumanity that is missing in the narration of eventsthat sought to refurbish the histories associated withthe partition. The articulation of a bitter reality leadsto losing sight of a glimmer of hope that sustainshuman bonds even today.
As an event, the partition shall remain ever etched
in the body politic of India and Pakistan. It willcontinue to affect the lives of people and shape theiridentities in times to come. It will also determinethe future course of relations between the twonations. While some may view it with extremenegativity; the reality of partition has to be eventuallyaccepted and lived with. It is time that we reconciledwith this reality. Even today, the partition of Indiacontinues to be explored from varying scholarlydimensions – history, literature, sociology andpolitics. It is, however, works such as this that bringsout the underlying sentiments of people who wereassociated with this momentous event.
Contents:
Beginnings – Blood – ‘Facts’ – Women – ‘Honour’ – Children – ‘Margins’ – Memory
Reviewed by:Nidhi Shendurnikar-Tere
Senior Research Fellow (UGC-SRF)Dept. of Political Science,
The Maharaja Sayajirao University of [email protected]
Political Participation and Status of Indian Women
Raakhee SuryaprakashFounder-Director
Sunshine [email protected]
As India and the world battle the pandemic of violence against women and a societal backlash against themtaking up non-traditional roles as well as due to residual patriarchal and misogynistic attitudes ingrained intothe societal psyche, one needs to look at checks and balances to this dangerous attitude. One way perhaps, inwhich this backlash could be controlled if not curbed, is to allow more empowered women voices into decision-making and the male-dominated and power-drenched arena of politics.
According to United Nations (UN) “equal participation of women in decision-making is a question of justiceand democracy. . . . to reflect everybody’s need.” Thus in addition to caste, communal, and religious politics,come gender politics.
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Indian women have been involved in ushering inchange and development in India throughout history.Indian women were a major part of the freedomstruggle – the Civil Disobedience, the Dandi March,the Quit India Movement; they even trainedalongside Subhash Chandra Bose’s Indian NationalArmy (INA) in the Rani of Jhansi Regiment. Despitea regressive environment, Indian women managedto secure the right to vote and shape India’sconstitutional right when the nation was born in1947. Nearly 67 years down the line, despite poorrepresentation and the repeated shelving of theWomen’s Reservation Bill we have had a womanPresident, a woman Prime Minister, and manywomen Chief Ministers (at present there are 4 womenChief Ministers among India’s 29 StateGovernments: Gujarat, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, &West Bengal). Personally I think our greatest politicalvictory other than securing the right to vote has beensecuring 33 percent reservation in Panchayati RajInstitutions – India’s local grass-root institutions.Though procedural, it’s a victory nevertheless,celebrated annually since 1994 as Women’s PoliticalEmpowerment Day on April 24th. DespiteSarpanchpatis and the rubber-stamp nature of someof these women winning from reserved seats is still
a foothold. The taste of power could in time trulyempower rural Indian women.
In national politics:
• Menaka Gandhi, prominent animal rightsactivist, and elder daughter-in-law of theCongress first family, and now prominentBhartiya Janta Party (BJP) member was swornin as Indian Union Cabinet Minister for Women& Child Development.
• The youngest Union Minister is BJP VicePresident Smriti Irani with the portfolio HumanResource Development (HRD).
• The oldest minister is Ms. Najma Heptulla –the Minister for Minority Affairs.
• The powerful Cabinet rank portfolio of ExternalAffairs belongs to BJP senior leader Smt.Sushma Swaraj.
• Sumitra Mahajan, is the second woman leaderto be elected Speaker of the LokSabha from BJPand the first woman Speaker being Ms. MeiraKumar from the Congress Party.
• Ms. Anandiben Patel is the current ChiefMinister of Gujarat.
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Internationally only 5.9 percent of heads of the stateare women. Yet when women are in position ofpower, at many instances, actions that are beneficialboth to society and the environment are taken.Sustainable development and women’s leadershipare linked. Cases such as that of Nobel Peace Prize-winner Wangari Maathai who won for hercontribution to sustainable development, democracy,and peace. The first Tang Prize (touted to be Asian“Nobel”) winner was former Norwegian PrimeMinister Gro Harlem Brundtland known as the“godmother” of sustainable development standssignificant.
According to Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, Food andAgriculture Organization (FAO), “In manydeveloping countries, women are the backbone ofthe economy, yet women farmers do not have equalaccess to resources and this significantly limits theirpotential in enhancing productivity.” Butencouraging experiences can be found, such as inBrazil, where women have joint title to land, as partof innovative land reform policies, giving them equal
ownership of land with their male partners, whetherthey are married or not. According to FAO, providingfemale farmers access to the same resources as mencould reduce the number of hungry people in theworld by 100-150 million people. And when womenearn more and have better rights, they tend to investmore in the health and nutrition of their families.Across rural China as well, women are slowly butsurely stepping out of their traditional roles and intopositions of power. The United Nations DemocracyFund is sponsoring pilot projects to develop skillsin women taking on leadership roles.
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky founder of theTheosophical Society, whose internationalheadquarters is in my home town Chennai said, ‘‘wayback in the nineteenth century that the world willthrive only when its women do’’. Similarly, “Indiawill become a superpower when her women areempowered.” Here’s hoping that women across boardfind their voices in political and economic decisions-ushering in a better world built by sustainabledevelopment.
When gender comes into play in conjunction with regional politics then there are some unique results: TamilNadu went to polls on Women’s Political Empowerment Day 2014! Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha’s from AllIndia Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) won 37 out of the Tamil Nadu’s 39 LokSabha seats.Another similar story is the 33 seats that the Trinamool Congress (TMC) won in West Bengal led by ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee.
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References:
China: Women leaders. (n.d.). Retrieved from the UN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3jX3jVFVak
Nierenberg, D. (n.d.). The future of family farming: Empowerment and equal rights for women and youth. Retreived from http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/forum/discussions/family-farming/.
Suryaprakash, R. (2014). India’s women – Struggling for equality in peace & conflict. Paper presented at the Conference on Womenin War, Sarajevo June 7-8, 2014. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVYmmmtINb4
UN Women. (2014). Retrieved from Facebook page posts, https://www.facebook.com/unwomen.
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Reimagining Politics of Gender: Legacy of Dr. Sharmila RegeRahul Mane
Research AssociateMudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad
[email protected],[email protected]
As we mark the first death anniversary of SharmilaRege (7th October 1964 - 13th July 2013), there arepressing issues at hand which require attention fromthinkers and readers of Women’s Studies and beyond. Dr. Sharmila, through her entire life fought foropening up a dialogue about the “silenced” spacesin Indian history, society and democracy at large.Her constant investigation of Indian caste system,Indian higher education and her constant search for“Conscious Praxis” in Indian pedagogy makes herunique figure amongst contemporary Indian thinkers.She not only questioned and bulldozed-embeddedalliance of prejudice, ignorance but also providedammunition in terms of future road-map through herscholarship, provocative dialogue and persistentguidance to hundreds of students.
Dr. Rege through her scrutiny of contemporary Indiaand its educational practices provided lenses toimagine the plight of not only Dalit Women but alsoprivileged upper caste women, working women andlesbians. She marshalled individual and communitystandpoints to argue for each deprivation and aimedat integrating all those investigations into one grandnarrative which believed in “enlightened offense”rather than waiting for “inert empowerment” astraditional academia in India got used to regardingwomen issues with its fragmented understandingabout “WHO WOMEN OF INDIA ARE” and“TO WHOM THEY REPRESENT”. In doing so, shehad redrawn maps and boundaries between “publicand private”, “reason and emotion” with legitimacyto “personal experience” as a legitimate area ofintellectual engagement (Rege, 1995). What isunique about her contribution is that at a time whenthe Indian society started to understand what
globalization and its impact might do to our society;she started challenging us about our ownunderstanding of our perspectives about genderissues, lying at the core of it all; even in scholarlydomain (Rege. 2003). Through this approach,Dr. Rege has argued for addressing ‘old questionsof visibility’ and also ‘the need of conceptualizingdifferences’. Also, she highlighted role of migrations,environmental crisis, cultural impacts of capital, roleof Information and Communications Technologies(ICTs), distinct patterns of stratification inaggravating women`s issues and effectively genderissues.
Traditional scholarship of feminist studies has dealtwith epistemology, methodology and method toorganize knowledge, investigate issues at hand andfurther intervene in contemporary debates to buildup a theory of knowledge regarding women’s issues.Though aim of research is contribution to knowledgeand application of the same to solve specific problem,larger aim of research in the realm of critical realismis visualized as “emancipatory mission”. Evolutionof Feminist/Women’s Studies has successfullyestablished the notion that “personal is not social,it’s political.” Sprague (2005) has identifiedchallenges in methodologies in this field of studiesin terms of “abstract generalization and logicalobjectification” as the cornerstones. Sprague alsoidentified methodological schizophrenia troublingthe enquiries of this scholarship. I think, Dr. Regedid rise to the occasion to fill in this massive vacuumand thus helped the global scholarship to defeat thelarger “intellectual schizophrenia”. So, what is sounique about Dr. Rege`s work that it stands amongstthe legends of the writers? Let us understand it asfollows.
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After Harding‘s (2004) elaboration about StandpointEpistemology, Dr. Rege‘s work stand out with herunique insight about historical realities of Indian sub-continent. These realities—differentiated and variedin nature; hold mirror to worldwide scholarship onfeminism, women‘s studies and lately gender studies.Her legendary work actually remains in thedevelopment and consolidation of Dalit FeministStandpoint by using Sharad Patil‘s epistemology ofMarxvaad, Phule-Ambedkarvaad (Rege, 2000). Shehad deployed “powerful resource of intersectionalityof caste, class and gender domination”, as describedby herself in 2000. While maintaining that it is notan individual or subjective position but as acontingent “transformation of complex subjectpositions”, Rege clearly outlines the challenges wehave to face in contemporary times about layers andlayers of “graded inequality” of women & genderissues across the different sectors of life. In thisarticle, my effort is to open up towards those differentlayers. I may not contribute something substantial,but wish to think aloud on this moment as weremember Dr. Rege.
Historically Collins, Frierie, Hooks, Sprague &Hayes; through their writings resisted“objectification” of the masses and “abstractgeneralizations” about the situation of thecommunities in development discourse. In a waycontribution of these scholars really convinced usthat knowledge is not guaranteed reflector ofcontemporary reality. Rege argued that we shouldapproach culturally loaded subjectivity ofinvestigators to arrive at their explanations about theinteraction of religion, gender, caste, politics, andother equally important issues. She challengedtraditional and contemporary scholarship and thusengineered a new era to teach us how one shouldapproach the women`s issues to begin with and howto reflect upon the embedded structures which havenot been presented with conjectures in truly Indiancontexts, let alone refutations.
Nancy Hardstock, Donna Haraway, Dorothy Smith,and Patricia Collins demolished the superficialapproaches to understand the “Women”. They
showed limitations of positivism in a way that, itfailed to come out of logically grounded positionsof materiality of bodies. Thus began the era touncover, unravel, and deconstruct the rootedness ofwomen in different cultures, geographies, regions.Rege changed approaches towards Women`s Studies.Dr. Rege`s originality lies in the fact that shetranscended all abstract, symbolic and metaphoriccriticisms and came out with anthropologicallygrounded critic of Women`s Studies and made astrong case to usher into Gender Studies. Sheexposed “hidden women” towards sociological gaze(Rege, 2003). Her focus of investigation was:
a) Absence of women in cognitive structures ofdiscipline
b) Focusing on differential sex roles and genderinequalities in society
c) Moving towards conceptualization of gender associal structure
d) Realization of intrinsic linkages between genderand other matrices of social inequalities
By using major four interrogative techniques derivedfrom realizations expressed above, she successfullybuilt up a discourse around social stratification ofgender and further she deepened that by introducingdebates about inevitability of gender as a site,medium, agency for all emancipatory struggles.While constructing the building blocks of thispedagogy, she led from the front in confrontingdivisions between public and private, between reasonand emotion. She formulated and spread the waysthrough which this pedagogy can be practiced(Rege 1995).
These pedagogical practices are:
• Enduring connectedness to the living andconcrete
• Emphasis on participation and interaction
• Collaboration and co-operation
• Teaching with a vision
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Dr. Rege’s untiring and dedicated efforts are yieldingfruits. In a recent monograph, Menon (2012)expresses: “To see feminist is not to stabilize, it is todestabilize. The more we understand, more ourhorizons shift.” In this book, Menon mentions threedifferent types of movements namely ecological,human rights and political led by Medha Patkar, IromSharmila and Mayawati respectively. Thus, Menonis making a case to include dimensions other thaninert “womanness” to expand gender debate which I
think originally Dr. Rege strived to do. Rege helpedus to understand that differential identities are locatedhierarchically as dominant or subordinate, both ofwhich are product of different times and differentspaces. Truly; there are no better words to rememberDr. Rege than how her mentor Dr. Dhanagaredescribed after her demise, “Pursuing Knowledgefor Social Transformation”. Let us expand ourmental horizons to understand what she stood forand what her writings envisioned for.
References:
Harding, S. (2004). Standpoint theory as a site of political, philosophic, and scientific debate. In S. Harding (Ed.), The feministstandpoint theory reader, intellectual and political controversies (pp. 1-15). New York: Routledge
Menon, N. (2012). Seeing like a feminist. New Delhi: Zubaan Books
Rege, S. (1995). Feminist pedagogy and sociology for emancipation in India. Sociological Bulletin, 44(2), 223-239
Rege, S. (2000). Real feminism and dalit women. Economic and Political Weekly, 35(6), 492-495.
Rege, S. (2003). Sociology of gender: The challenge of feminist sociological knowledge. New Delhi: Sage Publications.
Rege, S. (2003). More than just tacking women on to the ‘Macropicture’: Feminist contributions to globalization discourses. Economicand Political Weekly, 38(43), 4555-4563.
Sprague, J. (2005). Feminist methodologies for critical researchers: Bridging differences (Gender Lens Series). Walnut Creek, CA:AltaMira Press.
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Ðepfbpv$ `Z 1921dp„ A¡k¡çbgu_p kæe, 1938dp„ d„Óu `v¡$,1937dp„ k¡ÞV²$g g¡Ækg¡V$f, 1942dp„ qX$a¡Þk L$pDÞkug_p kæeA_¡ 1946dp„ õhpõ\ d„Ópgedp„ drlgp fpS>L$pfZuAp¡_u r_dÏ„L$p¡L$fhpdp„ Aphu lsu. 1947dp„ cpfs_u ApTpv$u bpv$_p fpS>L$pfZdp„drlgpAp¡_u k„¿epdp„ `l¡gp L$fsp h^pf¡ Å¡hp dþep¡ lsp¡.fpS>L$pfZ_u kp\¡ kp\¡ AÞe n¡Óp¡dp„ Z rhL$pkdp„ drlgpAp¡ yê$jkdp¡hX$u \hp_p âepkp¡ L$fu flu lsu.ApTpv$ cpfs_p â\d drlgphX$pâ^p_ sfuL¡$ 1966dp„ C[Þv$fp Np„ uA¡ `v$cpf k„cpþep¡ lsp¡.A_¡ spS>¡sfdp„ S> 2009dp„ cpfs_p â¡kuX$ÞV$ sfuL¡$ ârscp `pV$ug¡v¡$i_¡ k¡hpAp¡ Ap`u R>¡. 2014_u dp¡v$u kfL$pfdp„ `Z drlgpAp¡_¡ep¡Áe õ\p_ Ap`hpdp„ Apìey„ R>¡. Äepf¡ õ`uL$f_u S>hpbv$pfu `ZkyduÓp dlpS>_ A¡L$ drlgp_¡ ky fs L$fpC R>¡.
rhðdp„ cpfs buÅ¡ A¡hp¡ v¡$i lsp¡ S>¡_y„ kyL$p A¡L$ drlgp_p lp\dp„lp¡e. kp¥ â\d drlgp hX$pâ^p_ sfuL¡$ kugp¡_ v¡$i_p kufudphp¡c„X$$f_pCL¡$A¡ 21du Sy>gpC 1960 \u 27du dpQ® 1965 ky u v¡$i_uk¡hp L$fu lsu. Ðepfbpv$ 24du ÅÞeyApfu 1966_p fp¡S> cpfs_pâ\d hX$pâ^p_ S>hplfgpg _l¡ê$_p yÓu C[Þv$fp Np„ uA¡ â\ddrlgp hX$pâ^p_ sfuL¡$_u S>hpbv$pfu k„cpmu 11 hj® A_¡ 90qv$hk ky u k¡hpAp¡ `Z Ap`u lsu. `f„sy 1975 \u 1977 ky u21 drl_p L$V$p¡L$V$u gpv$hp_p r_Z®e bpv$ C[Þv$fp Np„^u_¡ kÑpNydphhp_p¡ hpfp¡ Apìep¡ lsp¡. `f„sy 1980dp„ afu A¡L$ hMs s¡d_¡kÑp `f L$bÅ¡ L$fu hX$pâ^p_ sfuL¡$ k¡hpAp¡ Ap`u.
C[Þv$fp Np„ u_p hX$pâ^p_ bÞep R>u ¼epf¡e drlgpAp¡ fpS>L$pfZdp„`pR>u `X$u _\u. A¡ hps AgN R>¡ L¡$, drlgpAp¡_¡ v¡$i_u k¡hpL$fhp_p¡ dp¡L$p¡ Ap`hp_u S>ÁepA¡ s¡d_u `pk¡ `n_p L$pe®L$f sfuL¡$S> h y L$pd g¡hpdp„ Aphsy„ lp¡e R>¡. 1947 \u 2014 ky udp„fpS>L$pfZdp„ drlgpAp¡_u k„¿epdp„ _p¢ `pÓ h^pfp¡ Z Å¡hp dmuflep¡ R>¡. lpg_u dp¡v$u kfL$pf lp¡e L¡$ `R>u rh`n lp¡e s¡dp„ kyódpõhfpS>, kp¡_uep Np„ u, ddsp b¡_®Æ, d¡_L$p Np„ u, õd©rs Cfp_u,dpephsu, Ap_„v$u$b¡_ V¡$g S>¡hu A_¡L$ drlgp fpS>L$pfZuAp¡ DÃQõ\p_¡ b¡ku v¡$i_u k¡hp L$fu flu R>¡.
cpfsue A„L$ipõÓ rhcpN_u A¡L$ ^pfZp A_ykpf cpfs_pfpS>L$pfZdp„ 1947 _u kfMpdZudp„ 2014dp„ 160V$L$p S>¡V$gp¡ h^pfp¡Å¡hp dmu flep¡ R>¡. l¡gp_p kdedp„ drlgpAp¡_¡ Of-L$pd dpV¡$ S>ANÐe_u NZhpdp„ Aphsu lsu. S>¡\u drlgpAp¡ Of_u Qpf qv$hpgp¡hÃQ¡\u blpf Aphhpdp„ X$fsu lsu A\hp s¡d_¡ dep®v$p _X$sulsu. `f„sy ApS>_u hps S> L„$CL$ Sy>v$u R>¡, ApS>_p AÛs_ eyNdp„drlgpAp¡ `Z Aæepkdp„ yê$jp¡_¡ `R>pX$u flu R>¡. s¡_u kp\¡ kp\¡kfL$pf Üpfp Z drlgp ki[¼sL$fZ_u hpsp¡ A_¡ rhrh^ ep¡S>_pAp¡kp\¡ Aph¡ R>¡. Ðepf¡ kfL$pfdp„ Z drlgpAp¡_¡ s¡V$gu S> S>hpbv$pfukp¢`hpdp„ Aphu flu R>¡. lpg_p dp¡v$u kfL$pf_p d„Óu d„X$mdp„A¡Q.Apf.X$u du_uõV$f sfuL¡$ õd©rs Cfp_u, A¡¼V®$_g Aa¡f du_uõV$fsfuL¡$ kyódp õhfpS> A_¡ d¡_L$p k„S>e Np„ u_¡ bpm A_¡ drlgpL$ëepZ rhcpN_u S>hpbv$pfu kp¢ hpdp„ Aphu R>¡.
36
a¡¼V$ apCg
ApTpv$ cpfs
➣ dpN£V$ Apëhp (fpÄe kcp_p X¡$àeyV$u Q¡f`k®_, 1964)
➣ C[Þv$fp Np„ u (hX$pâ^p_, 1966)
➣ C[Þv$fp Np„ u (rhv¡$id„Óu, 1967)
➣ hu. A¡k. fpdpv¡$hu (dy¿e Qy„V$Zu Ar^L$pfu, cpfsue Q|„V$ZuApep¡Áe, 1990)
➣ kp¡r_ep Np„ u (rhv¡$i `n_p _¡sp, 1998)
➣ ârscp `pV$ug (â¡kuX$ÞV$, 2007)
➣ NyS>fps_p â\d drlgp Nh®_f : ipfv$p dyM®Æ (1978)
➣ NyS>fps_p â\d drlgp dy¿ed„Óu : Ap_„v$ub¡_ `V¡$g(2014)
➣ dlpfpô²$_p â\d drlgp Nh®_f : rhS>ep gÿdu „qX$s(1963)
➣ Ap„ °âv¡$i_p â\d drlgp Nh®_f : ipfv$p dyM®Æ (1977)
➣ Ap„ °âv¡$i_p â\d drlgp N©ld„Óu : kbusp CÞÖ f¡Í$u
➣ Apkd_p â\d drlgp dy¿ed„Óu : A_hpfp s¥dyf (1980)
➣ rblpf_p â\d drlgp dy¿ed„Óu : fpbX$u v¡$hu (1997)
➣ qv$ëlu_p â\d drlgp dy¿ed„Óu : kyódp õhfpS> (1998)
➣ qv$ëlu lpCL$p¡V®$_p â\d drlgp Qua S>õV$uk : gugp i¡W$(1978)
➣ rldpQg âv¡$i_p â\d drlgp Nh®_f : i¥gp L$p¡g (1995)
➣ rldpQg âv¡$i_p â\d drlgp Qua S>õV$uk : gugp i¡W$(1991)
➣ fp^pbpC kyåbpfp¡e¡_ (k¡ÞV²$g g¡Æõg¡V$f, 1937)
➣ b¡Nd S>lp_Apfp i¡l_hpT (_¡i_g qX$a¡Þk L$pD[Þkg_pkæe, 1942)
➣ fpS>Ly$dpfu Ad}s L$p¡f (õhpõ\d„Óu, 1946) ApTpv$cpfs
➣ L$Zp®V$L$_p â\d drlgp Nh®_f : hu. A¡k. fpdpv¡$hu(1999)
➣ L¡$fm_p â\d drlgp Nh®_f : Äep¡su h¢L$V$pQgd¹ (1977)
➣ L¡$fm lpCL$p¡V®$_p â\d drlgp Qua S>õV$uk : A¸_p Q¡ÞX$u(1959)
➣ dÝeâv¡$i_p â\d drlgp dy¿ed„Óu : Ddp cpfsu (2003)
➣ Ap¡fuõkp_p â\d drlgp dy¿ed„Óu : _„qv$_u ks`pW$u(1972)
➣ „Åb_p â\d drlgp dy¿ed„Óu : fÆÞv$f L$p¥f cË$pg(1996)
➣ fpS>õ\p__p â\d drlgp dy¿ed„Óu : hky„^fp fpS>¡(2003)
➣ fpS>õ\p__p â\d drlgp Nh®_f : ârscp pV$ug (2004)
➣ spdug_pXy$_p â\d drlgp dy¿ed„Óu : Å_L$u fpdQ„Ö_(1989)
➣ spdug_pXy$_p â\d drlgp Nh®_f : apsudp rbhu (1997)
➣ DÑfpM„X$_p â\d drlgp Nh®_f : dpN®¡V$ Apëhp (2009)
➣ DÑfâv¡$i_p â\d drlgp Nh®_f : kfp¡Æ_u _peXy$(1947)
➣ DÑfâv¡$i_p â\d drlgp dy¿ed„Óu : kyQ¡sp ¾$u`gp_u(1963)
➣ `òud b„Npm_p â\d drlgp Nh®_f : `ÚÅ _peXy$(1956)
➣ `òud b„Npm_p â\d drlgp dy¿ed„Óu : ddsp b¡_®Æ(2011)
rb°V$ui C[ÞX$ep_p drlgp fpS>L$pfZuAp¡
➣ A¡_u b¡k„V$ (fpS>L$ue `n_p hX$p, 1917)
➣ X$pµ. dyÐ\ygÿdu f¡Í$u (g¡Æõg¡V$uh A¡k¡çbgu_p kæe,1921)
➣ rhS>ep gÿdu „X$us (d„Óu, 1938)
37
Abhilasha, K. & Kidwai, S. (1994). Illusion of power: The woman’s vote. New Delhi: Friedrich – Ebert -Stiftung.
Brenner, J. (2006). Women and the politics of class. New Delhi: Aakar.
Chopra, J.K. (1993). Women in the Indian parliament (A critical study of their role). New Delhi: Mittal.
Jha, A.K. (Ed.). (2004). Women in pachayati raj institutions. New Delhi: Anmol.
Jones, K.B. & Jonasdottir, A.G. (Eds.). (1990). The political interests of gender: Developing theory and researchwith a feminist face. New Delhi: Sage.
Kaushik, S. (2004). Voices of women in panchayati raj. New Delhi: Friedrich - Ebert -Stiftung.
Kaushik, S. (1996). Panchayati raj in action: Challenges to women’s role. New Delhi: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.
Kaushik, S. (1993). Women and panchayati raj. New Delhi: Har-Anand.
Kaushik, S. (n.d.). Knocking at the male bastion: Women in politics. New Delhi: National Commission forWomen.
Meenaghan, T.M., Kilty, K.M., & McNutt, J.G. (2009). Social policy analysis and practice. Chicago: Lyceum.
Mies, M., Bennhold-Thomsen, V., & Werlof, C. (1998). Women: The last colony. New Delhi: Kali for women.
Mahan, R. (1999). Women in Indian national congress (1921-1931). Jaipur : Rawat.
Menon, N. (2004). Recovering subversion: Feminist politics beyond the law. Delhi: Permanent Black.
Menon, N. (Ed.). (1999). Gender and politics in India. (Themes in politics series). New Delhi: Oxford.
Shah, G. (Ed.). (2005). Caste and democratic politics in India. (Essential writings in politics series). NewDelhi: Permanent Black.
Singla, P. (2007). Women’s participation in panchayati raj: Nature and effectiveness (A northern Indianperspective). Jaipur: Rawat.
Sridharan, D., & Rodic, V. (2004). Breaking the political glass ceiling: Women and local governance in SouthAsia. New Delhi: Friedrich- Ebert- Stiftung.
Varma, S. (1997). Women’s struggle for political space: From enfranchisement to participation. Jaipur: Rawat.
Yuval-Davis, N., & Werbner, P. (2005). Women, citizenship and difference. New Delhi: Zubaan.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Compiled by:Geetha Srinivasan
Library Assistant, WSRC
38
WSRC ACTIVITY REPORT(June 2014 – March 2015)
A. ACTIVITIES/EVENTS COMPLETED:
Consultation workshop on “Condition of Shelter Home for Women in India”
• One day Consultation Workshop On “Condition of Shelter Home for Women in India” incollaboration with Society for Women’s Action and Training Initiatives (SWATI) was organizedat WSRC on 10th May 2014. Various policies and plans regarding Shelter Home for Women inIndia were discussed and reviewed. On the basis of findings of the study ‘Situation analysis andrecommendations based on the study of shelter homes in Gujarat’, recommendations forimprovement of shelter homes in Gujarat were also discussed and finalized by experts present inthe workshop.
Workshop on ‘‘Commercial Surrogacy in Indian context: Issues and Concerns’’ by SAMA
• Three representatives from Women’s Studies Research Center participated in the Workshop on‘‘Commercial Surrogacy in Indian context: Issues and Concerns’’ which was conducted on 3rdJune 2014 at Vadodara by SAMA- a resource group for women and health. Challenges and concernsrelated to commercial surrogacy in India were discussed. The documentary film titled ‘Can wesee the baby bump please?’- directed by Ms. Surabhi Sharma was shown to the participants. Thedocumentary explores questions and concerns through the experiences of surrogate women.
Women’s Studies: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
• Interdisciplinary Teaching
Six weeks Part-Time Certificate Course on “Women’s Studies: Interdisciplinary perspectives”,was conducted from August 20 - October 8, 2014. The teaching faculty represented experts froma wide range of disciplines such as social work, human development, sociology, history, fine arts,media, political science, psychology, law, education, and health. Participants from differentbackgrounds and disciplines participated in the course.
Snapshots: Some of our Resource Persons for the Interdisciplinary Course
Dr. Shubhada Kanani, Sr. Technical AdvisorMPTAST (MPHSRP)
Ms. Neeta Hardikar, Founder, Director, ANANDI
39
Prof. N. Rajaram, Professor & Dean, School of SocialSciences, Central University of Gujarat, Gandhi Nagar
Mr. Sylvester Merchant, Project Director,Lakshya Trust, Vadodara
Certificate Distribution by Prof. Lajwanti Chatani,
Dept. of Political Science, M.S. University, Baroda
Presentations by the participating Students
WSRC Staff and the Participants along with Ms. Trupti Shah, Founder Member, Sahiyar (Stree Sangathan)
(cont.......)
40
B. ONGOING ACTIVITIES/EVENTS :
Gender Sensitivity Sessions/Advocacy
• The Women’s Studies Research Center conducts awareness sessions on Gender Sensitivity andSexual Harassment in the different faculties of the M. S. University of Baroda.
Courses Offered
• The Women’s Studies Research Center offers two choice based credit courses to students from allthe Departments in the fourth and sixth semesters. The course objective is to provide understandingabout women’s rights and laws in Indian society from different perspectives.
Research Projects
• Women with Disabilities in Gujarat.
• Sociocultural and Gender Determinants of Food Consumption Patterns
Documentation
• The Women’s Studies Research Center Library/Documentation Center’s collection is beingstrengthened with books, monographs, journals, reports, conference proceedings and non-bookmaterials from a wide array of disciplines.
Workshop
• A Workshop on ‘‘Theatre as a Medium to Understand Gender’’ in Collaboration with the Facultyof Performing Arts is planned from February 24, 2015 to February 28, 2015. The workshop willbe conducted by Ms Aditi Desai, who is a communication consultant and Director of a theatregroup called- Jashwant Thaker Memorial Foundation.
International Women’s Day Celebration
• As part of the International Women’s Day celebrations, a short film competition on the theme‘‘Girl Child’’ is planned in collaboration with the Faculty of Journalism and Communication. Theobjective of the competition is to generate awareness and sensitivity towards the girl child. Thecompetition is open to students, NGOs, as well as those who are interested in gender issues andfilm making.
41
Sr. Author Title of the Book Publisher Year ofNo. Publication
1 Ali, Latif. Betrayed: Escape from Iraq. Mehta Publishers 2009Shears, Richard.
2 Appadurai, Arjun. The future as cultural fact: Essays Verso Books 2013on the global condition.
3 Appadurai, Arjun. Gender, genre, and power in South Motilal Publishers 1994Korom, Rank J. Asian expressive tradition.Mills, Margaret A. (Eds.).
4 Bhagwat, Vidyut. Women’s studies: Interdisciplinary Diamond Publications 2012themes and perspectives.
5 ^mJ©d, à{_bm EM². ~mb _OXyar CÝ_ybZ… {H$ñH$m Xm{`Ëd ? amdV npãbHo$eZg 2012(qhÝXr)
6 Banarjee, Paula. Women in Indian borderlands. Sage Publications 2011Basu Ray Chaudhury,Anasua. (Eds.).
7 Brinkmann, Svend. Qualitative interviewing: Oxford University 2013Understanding qualitative research. Press
8 Carrell, Susan. Group exercise for adolescents: Sage Publications 2010A manual for therapists, schoolcounselors and spiritual leaders.(3rd Ed.)
9 Carretero, Mario History education and the construction Information Age 2012(et.al) (Eds.). of national identities: A volume in Publishers
international review of history education.
10 Centre for Women’s Journal of gender and justice. D.K.Printworld 2012Studies and Development Vol. 1 (2012)
11 Channa, SubhadraMitra. Gendering material culture: Rawat Publications 2013Misra, Kamal K. Representation and practice.
12 Channa, SubhadraMitra. Gender in South Asia: Social Cambridge University 2013imagination and constructed realities. Press
13 Chattopadhyay, Aparajita. Poverty and social exclusion in Rawat Publications 2013India: Issues& challenges.
14 Cunnigham, James. Using SPSS: An interactive Sage Publications 2012Aldrich, James. hands-on approach.
15 Deka, Meeta. Women’s agency and social change: Sage Publications 2013Assam and beyond. (SAGE studieson India’s North-East series)
16 Deshpande, Ashwini. Affirmative action in India. Oxford University 2013(Oxford India short introductions) Press
NEW ARRIVALS - Documentation Center
42
17 D’ Souza, Barnabe. From ecstasy to agony and back: Sage Publications 2012Journeying with adolescentson the street.
18 Dutt, Bishupriya. Engendering performance: Indian Sage Publications 2010Munsi, Urmimala Sarkar. women performers in search of
an identity.
19 Enarson, Elaine. Women, gender and disaster: Sage Publications 2012Chakrabarti, Dhar. (Eds.). Global issues and initiatives.
20 Flick, Uwe. An introduction to qualitative Sage Publications 2012research. (4thEd.).
21 Goodman, Jacqueline. Global perspectives on gender and Rawat Publications 2012(Ed.) work: Readings and interpretations.
22 Hermans, Hubert. Handbook of dialogical self-theory. Cambridge University 2012Gieser, Thorsten. (Eds.). Press
23 Jain, Devaki. Elson, Harvesting feminist knowledge for Sage Publications 2011Diane. (Eds.). public policy: Rebuilding progress.
24 Jain, Jasbir. Indigenous roots of feminism: Sage Publications 2011Culture, subjectivity and agency.
25 Johnson, Allan. The gender knot: Unraveling our Pearson Longman 2005patriarchal legacy.
26 Kabeer, Naila. Gender and social protection Routledge 2010strategies in the informal economy.
27 Kishwar, MadhuPurnima. Zealous reformers, deadly laws: Sage Publications 2008Battling stereotypes.
28 Lal, Ruby. Coming of age in Nineteenth-Century Cambridge University 2013India: The girl-child and the art of Pressplayfulness.
29 Magnusson, Eva. Gender and culture in psychology: Cambridge University 2012Marecek, Jeanne. Theories and practices. Press
30 Mehta, Lyla. (Ed.) Displaced by development: Sage Publications 2009Confronting marginalisation andgender injustice.
31 Mishra, Veerendra. (Ed.) Human trafficking: The Sage Publications 2013stakeholders’ perspective.
32 Mukherji, Shekar. Migration in India: Links to Rawat Publications 2013urbanization, regional disparitiesand development policies.
33 Munshi, Indra. (Ed.) The adivasi question: Issues of Orient Blackswan 2013land, forest and livelihood.
34 Naidoo, Kogi.Patel, Working women: Stories of strife, Sage Publications 2009Fay. (Eds.). struggle and survival.
35 Nelson-Jones, Richard. Basic counselling skills: A helper’s Sage Publications 2012manual. (3rd Ed.).
36 Oommen, T.K. Knowledge and society: Situating Oxford University 2013sociology and social anthropology. Press
43
37 Palriwala, Rajni. Uberoi, Marriage, migration and gender. Sage Publications 2008Patricia. Thapan, (Women and migration in AsiaMeenakshi. (Eds.). Series - Vol. 5).
38 Pandey, Gyanendra. A history of prejudice: Race, caste Cambridge University 2013and difference in India and the PressUnited States.
39 nQ>ob, Vwbgr. (gånmXH$) ^maV _o§ n[adma… g§aMZm Ed§ ì`dhma. amdV npãbHo$eZg 2011(qhXr)
40 Rao, Raj R.Sarma, Whistling in the dark: Twenty-one Sage Publications 2009Dibyajyoti. (Eds.). queer interviews.
41 Rege, Sharmila. Against the madness of manu: B.R. Narayana Publishing 2013Ambedkar’s writings on brahmanicalpatriarchy.
42 Sahni, Rohini. Prostitution and beyond: An analysis Sage Publications 2008Shankar, Kalyan.Apte, of sex work in India.Hemant. (Eds.).
43 Sayeed, Asma. Women and the transmission of Cambridge University 2013religious knowledge in Islam. Press
44 eoIa, gw_Z. Jw_ hmoVr bµS>{H$`m§§. (H$mì`-g§J«) EOwHo$eZb ~wH$ g{d©g 2013(qhXr)
45 Shwalb, David. (Ed.) Fathers in cultural context. Routledge 2013
46 Silvermann, David. (Ed.) Qualitative research: Issues of theory, Sage Publications 2011method and practice. (3rdEd.).
47 Singh, Kirti. Separated and divorced women in Sage Publications 2013India: Economic rights andentitlements.
48 qgh, dr. EZ. AmYw{ZH$Vm Ed§ Zmar ge{º$H$aU. amdV npãbHo$eZg 2010qgh, OZ_oO`. (qhXr)
49 Somayajula, Ulimiri Social inclusion and women health: The Women Press 2013(et.al.) (Eds.) Perspectives and issues. (Vol.1)
50 Somayajula, Ulimiri Social inclusion and women health: The Women Press 2013(et.al.) (Eds.) Perspectives and issues. (Vol. 2)
51 Swanborn, Peter. Case study research: What, why Sage Publications 2010and how?
52 Thapan, Meenakshi. Living the body: Embodiment, Sage Publications 2010womanhood and identity incontemporary India.
53 Valsiner, Jaan.Rosa, The Cambridge handbook of Cambridge University 2007Albert. (Eds.). sociocultural psychology. Press
54 Vepa, Swarna S. Bearing the burnt: Impact of rural Sage Publications 2009distress on women.
55 Walliman, Nicholas. Your research project: Designing and Sage Publications 2011planning your work. (3rdEd.).
56 Weinstein, Jay Alan. Applying social statistics: An Rawat Publications 2010introduction to quantitativereasoning in sociology.
57 Zama, Margaret Ch. (Ed.) Emerging literatures from Northeast Sage Publications 2013India: The dynamics of culture,society and identity.
44
o “The idea of perfect womanhood is perfect independence.” Swami Vivekananda
o “I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved.”Dr. B.R. Ambedkar
o “Liberty is a great celestial Goddess, strong, beneficent, and austere, and she can never descendupon a nation by the shouting of crowds, nor by arguments of unbridled passion, nor by the hatredof class against class.” Annie Besant
o “The more we sweat in peace the less we bleed in war.” Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit
o “We want deeper sincerity of motive, a greater courage in speech and earnestness in action.”Sarojini Naidu
o “The education and empowerment of women throughout the world cannot fail to result in a morecaring, tolerant, just and peaceful life for all.” Aung San Suu Kyi
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