CENTRE FOR WOMEN'S DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

Continued working on the project on electoral governance and democratic citizenship, whose scope has been extended to turn it into a book manuscript. Focussing on the Election Commission which has emerged as a significant institution within the common political space of democracy in India, the study concerns itself with the ways in which such a space for democracy may be built through appropriate, adequate and effective institutional and procedural framework for political participation, consonant with the democratic will and imagination of the people. The research emphasises the specificity of the Election Commission which lies in its historical emergence as an institution designed to ensure a fundamental rupture that independence from colonial rule was to bring in its wake, and also in the statutory independence that has been given to it in the constitution. The study relocates bare facts of the legal-constitutional �meta-rules� and procedural-institutional design �governing� elections in the specific socio-political and historical contexts in which they originate and unfold. Apart from outlining the institutional and statutory frameworks of electoral governance and the debates thereon, the work shall also examine how in its actual unfolding, the Election Commission has sought a balance between frameworks of universalism and differentiated-universalism, in the ways in which it has addressed interests of groups and regions in contexts of conflict and political/democratic deficit, in specific elections such as Gujarat (2002), Assam (1986 onwards) and Jammu and Kashmir (2002), and the debates on electoral reforms, electoral designs and representation of specific groups including women and religious minorities.

Democratic Citizenship: From Proportionality to a Continuum Approach to Political Participation
Researcher: Anupama Roy

The research paper consists of three parts, the first examines the idea of representative democracy and the manner in which feminists have sought to craft democratic politics by seeking a continuum between representation and participation; the second looks at the global experience and experiments in electoral designs and political reservation for women; and the third, examines the debates on women�s political participation and representation in India along with election data to identify possible patterns in women�s political participation.

Survey of Homebased Workers
Researcher: Indrani Mazumdar

To collaborate in a study on the Conditions of Homebased Workers in India conducted by the Centre of India Trade Unions with the support of ILO, particularly in preparing the questionnaire and in analysing the data of a survey of home-based workers in 10 states. Data entry has been completed and is being analysed. The survey covered 3,300 homebased workers of which 82.5 per cent were women workers.

Gender and Migration
Researcher: Indu Agnohotri and Indrani Mazumdar

Issues and questions related to women and migration have been a continuing concern and area of research for the Centre. In the formative stages of the action research programme directed at organizing peasant women in Bankura, seasonal agricultural migration by the women of Bankura had emerged as an important issue from the field. This was followed up by a series of exploratory studies on Migrant Labour: Gender Dimension in 1988. Since then, the field has expanded considerably, particularly in the context of liberalization and globalization and new questions have emerged. The present project proposes to widen the field of research on gender and migration towards developing a grounded and empirically validated understanding of the varied forms and contours of women�s migration in India including seasonal or circular as well as more permanent settlement oriented forms of migration by women � whether as direct labour migration or indirect and associational. A proposal for a large multi-region, multi-route and multi-sector based study project on women and migration in India (including several regional field surveys) is under preparation.

A pilot study is presently under way as a preliminary mapping exercise on the basis of direct observation in the field including some qualitative interviews and discussions with migrant women as well as activists/scholars with local expertise in select states. So far, pilot investigations have been undertaken in Bankura/ Medinipur, Bardhaman and Kolkata (West Bengal), Chhapra and Siwan (Bihar), Bolangir and the Chilika area (Orissa). The aims of the pilot study are:

a) Clarifying and deepening our understanding of the range of issues and the local contexts involved in carrying forward a survey on women and migration;

b) Gathering background information for the purposes of identifying the areas, terrains, methods, and possibilities for the more detailed surveys;

c) Contextualising the field and preparing in depth research questions and methodology;

d) Establishing contacts with individuals and groups, with scholars/ collaborators;

e) Preparing a preliminary background paper on women and migration in India.

Adverse Sex Ratio in North - West India
Researcher: Mary E. John, Rajni Palriwala, Ravinder
Saraswati Raju and Alpana Sagar

This is an on going collaborative study being undertaken with Action Aid India since 2004. The study aims to examine the accelerated decline in child sex ratios in five districts of North West India � Kangra (Himachal Pradesh), Morena (Madhya Pradesh), Dholpur (Rajasthan), Rohtak (Haryana), and Fatehgar Sahib (Punjab).

The problem of the declining overall sex ratio was first discovered in the late 1960s and 70s, followed later by a special focus on the misuse of amniocentesis and ultra-sound testing by women�s organizations and health activists. The 1991 and especially 2001 Census data pointed to steep declines and an increasing spread in skewed child sex ratios in particular. The point of departure of this study is the relative paucity of in depth ethnographic research compared to the wealth of statistical analyses available. The study aims to shed light particularly on the dynamic of family strategies and decision making regarding the composition and sex of children in heterogeneous socio-economic contexts, thus requiring comparative micro level analysis. Using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, the study has been conducted over phases, beginning with Kangra, Morena and Dholpur. During 2006-07 preliminary reports of these districts were prepared and the field research for Rohtak and Fatehgar Sahib completed. The study is set to conclude in 2007-08 with a composite book length report on all the five districts.

Women and Feminisms in Contemporary Asia
Researcher: Mary E. John

This is part of a larger effort to build new comparative linkages among women�s studies scholars in Asia. It involved guest-editing a special issue of the Routledge journal Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies on �Women and Feminisms in Contemporary Asia�. The issue has contributions from China, Thailand, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India, dealing with various aspects of women�s studies and feminism in these locations. The introduction provides a context for the relevance of contemporary Asia in thinking about women�s issues from fresh international perspectives. The journal issue is due to be published in August 2007.

Globalisation and Women's Work:Dissagregate analysis of NSSO data
Researcher: Neetha Narayana Pillai

The study analyses the dynamics of women�s employment through the disaggregate analysis of the last three rounds of NSSO employment and unemployment data. The study analyses the employment pattern of women in the context of structural changes in the economy with a view to identify the emerging areas of women�s work and to outline some of the new developments or changes that are taking place. While analyzing the disaggregate data, the study focuses on specific sectors/sub-sectors which are perceived as potential/emerging areas of women�s employment, which would enable in-depth probing into sectoral specific employment issues of women and thus could be linked to the larger macro economic transformations.

The Political and Social Economy of care in India
Researcher: Neetha Narayana Pillai

The UNRISD Programme on Gender and Development is conducting a multi-regional study on the Political and Social Economy of Care and India is one of the countries selected. The aim of the study is to understand a) the different institutional sites -- states, markets, families/households, and communities -- where care takes place b) to see how the provision of care in all these sites is distributed by gender and c) how the provision of care (both paid and unpaid) relates to poverty and social exclusion. The focus of the study is on care for children.

Heterodoxy and the idea of Women as independentEntities: A Case Study of Kannada Literature in the early Medieval Period
Researcher: Parimala V. Rao

The study takes a look at the position of women in the early medieval Deccan as represented in the early Kannada literature which were entirely composed by the heterodox Jains. Jainism opposed the denial of access to literacy for women by Brahmanas and concerned themselves with the question of the spirituality of women. It provided respite to women seeking spiritual salvation as well as an escape from domestic drudgery. The practice of co-education in the Jaina monasteries enabled women to have access to sacred texts, philosophy and theology.

There are gaps in the study of social formations in the Deccan and the domination of heterodoxy that guided it. Historical transformation is dominated in terms of political history based on the royal inscriptions. Little effort has gone into the study of the social transformations that took place either as a fall out of political transformation or independent of it. Some of the important questions that the study addresses are how did the conflict of interests of Brahmanism and heterodoxy affect questions related to gender? Did the spiritual equality translate into equality in the temporal world? Did the access to property and education assist women to assert themselves?

Education and the Nationalist Agenda
Researcher: Parimala Rao

This study discusses the nationalist agenda of perpetuating caste and gender inequalities by denying access to schooling to women and non-Brahmins in colonial western India. The nationalist opposition of Bal Gangadhar Tilak to the implementation of compulsory education was articulated as a loss of nationality for Indians while colonial higher education was upheld. During both the Swadeshi and Home Rule League movements inequalities were reinforced in the name of anti-colonial nationalism. This is being brought out as an Occasional Paper.

Multiple vulnerabilities and Marginalidentities: exploring violence in the everyday lives of Women with Disabilities
Researcher: Renu Addlakha

This ongoing project concerns women with disabilities, who are among the most neglected and disempowered section of the population. It aims to map the contours of violence in the lives of a representative sample of women with disabilities in Delhi. In addition to molestation, rape, dowry, sexual harassment etc., exclusion, isolation, overt discrimination and prejudice constitute routine but very powerful assaults on the self. Using such a broad operational definition of violence, the project will seek to explore what it means to be a woman with a disability at home, in educational institutions, in special institutions, in clinical settings, at the workplace and other public spaces.

Some research questions that the project addresses are:

What are the specific forms of violence (physical, verbal and psycholgical) to which women with disabilties are vulnerable?
What are their experiences of violence in different social spaces and contexts?
What precautions do they take to protect themselves in different social spaces and contexts?
Is it just physical/mental impairment which make a woman with a disability an easy target?
Who are the main perpetrators of violence against women with disabilities?
How does one distinguish between violence against women in general and disability-specific forms of violence in particular?
How is violence against women with disabilties represented in the media (print and electronic media including films)?
Are there specific legal provisions to protect women with disabilities against violence and abuse?

The secondary literature research has been undertaken and is nearing completion. Preparations for field work are underway. One aspect of the project, looking at media representations of disability, is being prepared as an Occasional Paper.

Disability, Subjectivity and Sexual Identity
Researcher: Renu Addlakha

Drawing on prior fieldwork, this study focusses on the invisible dimension of the sexual needs and aspirations of persons with disability. Using qualitative data, notions of sexual identity among urban youth have been explored through case studies of college students. Gender emerges as a key analytical category in perceptions of sexuality among young men and women with visual and locotomor disabilities. While not making claims to capture the complex reality of disabled sexuality in India, some key issues in a hitherto largely under-researched domain are highlighted. The study is being brought out as a journal article and Occasional Paper.

Work, Health and Family life: a Study home based Agarbatti Workers in Gaya district of Bihar
Researcher: Sabiha Hussain

This ongoing study was conducted in the rural areas of Gaya district of Bihar. The main purpose was to examine the ideological framework, values, attitudes and perceptions attached to workers, their health, and family life from a gender perspective and how these issues affect their day to day life with limited choices and options. The study sought to find out other sources of their livelihood, and reasons for the preference of home based economic activities both by Muslim and Dalit women. The issue of the labour of girl children in this industry and its impact on the over all development of the girls was another aspect of the study. To meet this end, 200 girl children up to 14 years were interviewed. Examining occupational health in the light of the debates around the whole issue of home based workers, their social security and needed policy intervention from a gender perspective is also a major objective of the study.

The Missing Girl Child: National and Global Data
Researcher: Savitri Ray

This study involves analysing the World population data covering the period 1950-2000. The data is released by the UN�s Population Division - The 2002 Revision. The preliminary results of the data reveal that the phenomenon of �missing girl child� is also found in other continents including more developed regions. The findings were discussed in a Brainstorming meeting organized by CWDS and UNIFEM. It was decided to undertake this exercise with a view to disseminate the information in forms easily comprehensible to a wider public.

The first part of data processing for all the regions is over. In the mean time the World Population prospects 2004 have also come out, and an updated version would be incorporated. In addition, data on Infant mortality and Fertility is also being processed for selected regions and countries.

Paradigms of Justice Delivery Mechanisms with the Perspective of Women Litigants: Empowerment or Victimization
Researcher: Shalu Nigam

This ongoing project aims to look at the problems faced by women litigants when they seek justice within public domain for their `private� grievances. This is with a view to understanding the problems they face so that the law could be amended in a way to help in the process towards gender justice. The Project is based on the information collected from both women and men approaching the court as litigants in matrimonial case proceedings.

Writing of the research report is in progress which will not only look at the criminal justice system in relation to domestic violence cases but also attempts to analyse the legal system, including civil cases as well as cases relating to maintenance, custody, divorce, restitution of conjugal rights and other related issues. It will also dwell on the larger social aspect of litigation and its implications for women litigants. Chapter 3 and 4 out of 7 chapters have been worked on. These chapters focus on the laws available, their lacunae and problems in implementation.

Gender, Status of Profession and Migration: A Study of Nurses from Kerala in Delhi
Researcher: Sreelekha R.Nair

This study seeks to explore the gender implications of migration and the processes subsequent to it within the urban settings of Delhi and its relation with the perceived low status of nursing as a profession. The study looks at the choice of profession, migration and formation of neighbourhoods by Malayali nurses at an informal level in Delhi. Initial research questions of the study on status of the profession of nursing and migration, especially as single women seeking work are found to be important. Issues related to these dimensions of my study are also marked as relevant by those within the profession.

Two occasional papers have come out of the project in collaboration with scholars who are working on different aspects of the same issue. (1) A Profession on the margins: Status issues in Indian nursing, Occasional Paper no. 45, CWDS, in collaboration with Ms.Madelaine Healey of La Trobe University, Australia, 2006. (2) Transcending Boundaries: Indian Nurses in Internal and International Migration, in collaboration with Ms. Marie Percot, Laboratoire d�Anthropologie Urbaine (UPR34 CNRS), France.

Draft of a manuscript of around 200 pages based on the fieldwork of the above study is ready. Organisation of the chapters is as follows:
1) Introductory Chapter

2) Beyond Well-Being: Development of Nursing in Kerala

3) Choice of Nursing: A Life Strategy

4) Status of Nursing and Nurses in Kerala and India

5) Migration: Delhi as a Transit Residence

6) Identity: Professional, Gender and Ethnicity

7) Concluding Chapter.

Paid Work and Women's Empowerment

Researcher: Sunny Jose

The study examines critically, mainly through the review of the existing empirical evidence, the association between women�s paid work and empowerment in India. A review of empirical studies suggests a largely positive association between women�s paid work and dimensions of autonomy or empowerment in India. That being said, it is important to add that, besides complementing the quantitative evidence, qualitative studies underline that a complex process underlies the association, and thereby raises a number of further issues for consideration. This is being prepared as an article and Occasional Paper.

Improving Women's Nutrition in India:What Role can Paid Work Play?
Researcher: Sunny Jose

This study examines whether women�s participation in paid work enables them to attain better nutrition. The analysis suggests that women who participate in the workforce have lower nutrition than those who do not participate. The nutrition of participating women does not register any significant improvement, even if they earn an income. The findings, which emerge in four Indian states Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, despite their varying economic and social settings, raise a number of issues which call into question the presumed one-to-one association between paid work and women�s nutrition.

Gendering of Communal Violence in India: The Historical Productionof Backwardness
Researcher: Vasanthi Raman

The study has been completed and has been written as a volume to be published as a book. The title of the book is: The Warp and the Weft: Understanding Community and Gender in the Tana Bana of Banaras Weavers.

1.   Introduction
2.   The Construction of Hindu Banaras
3.   Banaras Muslims
4.   Banaras Muslims Today: Men and Women in the Warp and Weft of the Sari
5.   Communal Violence and its Impact in the Nineties
6.   Of Home and the World: The Homes and the Worlds of Banaras Women
7.   The Vanishing World of the Julahas: The Current Crisis and its
      Consequences
8.   Oral Testimonies
9.   Conclusion
Appendices

Women and Political Conflict in South Asia
Researcher: Vasanthi Raman

Work has been undertaken as part of a collective endeavour at the South Asia level, initiated and supported by the Society for International Development South Asia Network (SIDSAN). A volume is being brought out as the culmination of a series of workshops on the impact of political conflict on women in diverse situations in the region. The researcher is one of the editors and has contributed an article �Gujarat 2002: When the State Declares War on its Citizens�. The paper deals with the impact of the genocidal attacks on the minorities, specifically Muslim women, their responses and attempts to seek rehabilitation and justice.

Researcher: Joy Deshmukh-Ranadive

This project is an exercise in oral history. Based on interviews with Ela Bhatt, Prema Purao and Jaya Arunachalam, the study explores their views on a range of issues ranging from micro-credit, local self-governance, changing meanings of development, social mobilization, workers movements and women�s empowerment. The interviews have been transcribed and a draft report has been prepared.

Developing a Course in Women's Studies
Course Coordinator: Indu Agnihotri

From its inception, the Centre has been addressing the question of the invisibility of women and women�s concerns within Indian academia. This was done both through the setting up of the IAWS and, at the level of the UGC, through the Standing Committee on Women�s Studies. At the CWDS� initiative the UGC agreed to the introduction of an inter-disciplinary Refresher Course in Women�s Studies in recognition of the need being felt to incorporate new ideas and research findings within the academic curricula. Between 1997 and 1999, the CWDS conducted Refresher Courses in Women�s Studies with the School of Women�s Studies Jadavpur University, and the Academic Staff College of Jawaharlal Nehru University and an Orientation Course with IT College, Lucknow, on the basis of collaborative teaching. In the meantime faculty members have also individually been lecturing as Guest Faculty/Resource Persons in a number of Refresher Courses/Training Programmes being conducted in Delhi and outside. Members have also been involved in Course/syllabus design for various University Programmes.

While noting the success of these efforts in the course of discussions in the Faculty and the EC, it was felt that the Centre must think of both independent as well as collaborative teaching programmes. In this context the Faculty proposed a 2-week Certificate Course, Women�s Studies: An Introduction, for graduate and post-graduate level students in Delhi. The objective of the course was to sensitize small groups of students to the different ways in which available resources can be utilized to develop critical perspectives. The first fully in-house course was thus held between July 4, 2006 - July 15, 2006, drawing upon the Centre�s diverse resources including the teaching faculty, action research, library and documentation and the photo archives.

The Theme Outline of the Course were Perspectives in Women�s Studies; Women�s Movement; Historical Process and the Construction of Gender; Caste Class and Gender; Patriarchy; Citizenship Equality Rights; Women and Panchayats ; Family Kinship and Diversity; Law and Social Change; Women�s movement and Law; Women Work and Economy; Understanding Development; Women�s Education; Identity Formation; Fundamentalisms; Understanding Social Dimensions of Health and Disability; Representing Women; Information sources for Women�s Studies; Action Research. The Course comprised lectures/ audio-visual/ power point presentations/ interactive sessions/ discussions.

The response and participation were quite encouraging. 22 students (including three male students) completed the course and the feedback was very positive. The majority were BA/MA students for whom an introductory course was appropriate. Participants were required to write and present short papers on an individual or group basis. Participants felt the course had focused on very relevant issues, throwing up several new ideas for them and that it had also helped them to relate to their core disciplines with greater interest. They also wanted a more advanced course, in addition to what was being offered and wanted to keep up contact with the Centre and be involved in its activities with a follow-up plan. The Faculty review also endorsed the idea of developing a more long-term teaching Programme, as well as intermediary/more specialized /thematic courses.

Team: Indu Agnihotri, Indrani Mazumdar, Anupama Roy, Sabiha Hussain and Meena Usmani with other Faculty members.

Women, Equality and the Indian Republic
Researcher: Indu Agnihotri

This ongoing project has been an exercise focused on the compilation of documents from the viewpoint of negotiating women�s right to equality in the Indian Republic. Begun in 2002-03 with financial support from the DCWD, the project has been steered by a Task Force comprising Prof. Vina Mazumdar, Ms. Nirmala Buch and Ms. C.P. Sujaya, subsequently joined by Dr. Kumud Sharma and Dr. Indu Agnihotri in the course of 2004-05. Indu Agnihotri and Vina Mazumdar have been coordinating the work of the task force.

The material collected has been organized under a broad framework that is both chronological and thematic. The project involves searching out relevant documents, editing and excerpting, computerization and a major introduction to each volume. During the last year the final details of the project as a whole were cleared with the Ministry. Two volumes are with Pearson Education for publication, and are due out by September 2007. These include the reprint of Towards Equality (with a new introduction), and the volume on Education. A third volume �Changing Terms of Discourse: 1975-2005� is nearing completion. The remaining four volumes are in the final stages of document selection, compilation and the writing of introductions.

A Historical Analysis of Patriarchy in India
Researchers: Uma Chakravarti (Distinguished Fellow)

The term patriarchy, after some early hesitation, has begun to be used widely in feminist scholarship, both globally and in our region. In south Asia its relationship to an elaborate birth-based hierarchy has resulted in a complex working of patriarchy: feminist analyses in India have therefore begun to use various terms to qualify or enhance the referents of patriarchy such as �Brahmanical� patriarchy, dalit patriarchy, caste-based patriarchy, and tribal patriarchy. Following Ambedkar�s formulation of �graded inequality� as a way to describe the elaborate caste hierarchy and the notion of a scale, feminist analysis has used the term graded patriarchies to bring the range of patriarchal practices into a wider structure; the �embeddedness� of caste in patriarchy and of patriarchy in caste can thus be understood better.

The ways in which recent studies of gender relations in early India have used the analytical category of patriarchy, or skirted its use is significant. Either way scholars of ancient Indian society have created an impressive body of scholarship, examining critical historical processes and emerging institutions by gendering them sensitively, moving away from the Altekarian paradigm which had dominated the field of history in the context of women�s position in society for over half a century.

For a historical analysis of patriarchy in India it is also necessary to explore a range of texts from different strands of thinking to analyze critical moments in history: as historical writing stands today it is difficult to actually engender history as both sources and paradigms tend to only permit an add women and stir approach to women�s history. For a meaningful historical analysis of patriarchy in India it is necessary that the conventional paradigms of history, with its tilt towards the narration of power, or even economic processes, must give way to another paradigm which is centered on social reproduction. This might open up fruitful lines of enquiry. My study has explored the Mahabharata in terms of its complex textual rendering of a major transitional moment in history where issues of reproduction are central to the organizing of power. The Mahabharata in my study is viewed as reflecting a crisis of reproduction: a crisis of matching the norms of reproduction to the organization of states based on class, caste and gendered kinship systems which must necessarily privilege certain practices over others.

Rights of Widows Rights in India
Researchers: Rajni Palriwala

The object of the research was to bring together as much of the existing data as possible, both quantitative and qualitative, to present a picture of the condition and position of widows in north India today. This study was undertaken at the initiative of Widows� Rights International, London, who also provided the funding. Vina Mazumdar and Rajni Palriwala (Department of Sociology, University of Delhi) oversaw the work. The aim was prepare a document to be used either by widows� or women�s organisations in India or by CWDS or WRI itself to present a coherent argument for remedial intervention by the concerned governments or UN bodies to overcome the discrimination that widows in India suffer. As such the research needed to present data which is robust and verifiable. The three states of Chattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, and Rajasthan were selected keeping in mind the possibilities of data, the presence of organisations working in the field, and the contrasting sociological pictures these states provide. The report is now being edited and made ready for circulation.

One feature which has emerged clearly is that while widows form a sizable section in numbers and percentages, there is little large scale, disaggregated information or detailed ethnographic analysis available on their specific condition, particularly where economic, livelihood, household, health, and education issues are concerned. This is partly because they do not form a specific or important enough category in official programmes and policy concerns. More information is available where they do form such a category, as with war widows. There have been a number of studies which scholars have undertaken, and much documentation on demographic dimensions of widowhood, and norms regarding modes of behaviour and the construction of widowhood, property rights and (re-)marriage. However, there is little material on practices and strategies, so the initial picture of some variation with community (caste and religion) and region, cannot be explored with any rigour. Nor can differences or similarities over class or urban-rural location be traced.

Both the documentation and analytic studies reiterate a general picture of social isolation, stigmatisation, immiserisation, poor health and nutrition levels, and higher mortality rates cutting across region, community, or location. Access to property, livelihood, housing, and pensions are critical features in this. Strikingly, while there is a long list of state programmes, which would affect widows directly or indirectly, there is little or no data on people's knowledge and attitude with regard to them, or the actual implementation or effect of these programmes. This is part of the general lack of monitoring of government programmes or studies of their implementation. Indications are that few possible beneficiaries know of them or are able to access them, whether as a result of difficulties in navigating the corridors of government, distances from their home, attitudes of bureaucrats at all levels, lack of confidence and literacy, or social pressures. A draft report has been prepared.