Ilina Sen, teacher, author and activist has left behind a rich legacy of work and warmth that will continue to inspire women’s and human rights activists and students
Sen exemplified how grounded struggles for feminist change and rich academic scholarship that centred on working-class and Adivasi women’s experiences could be combined.
Girls and women’s access to and experience of education is obstructed by male-preferencing power structures that guide perceptions about domestic labour, marriage, and safety.
The dissolution of the Planning Commission and expiry of the Twelfth Plan has imperilled the futures of the centres for Women's Studies, and Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy across public universities in India. These centres were borne out of struggles for inclusion and continue to operate at the margins of the academic set-up. A critical appraisal of Women's Studies has been undertaken here to locate its relevance in contemporary times.
On the historic occasion of 8 March, several organisations and individuals in Delhi have come together to commemorate 100 years of International Women’s Day, to collectively celebrate the achievements of women’s struggles all over the world, to draw strength from the struggles and sacrifices of o
Women’s Struggle: A History of the All India Women’s Conference 1927-2002 by Aparna Basu and Bharati Ray; Manohar, Delhi, 2003; Second Edition, pp 172 + Appendices, Rs 550
Gender relations in some adivasi (tribal) societies are relatively more egalitarian than among other communities but enormous changes are now taking place in their resource base and livelihoods. How does this affect the women's spaces in the domestic and public spheres? This paper explores the process of change as a scattered semi-nomadic group of adivasi foragers come together to form a village settlement. Focusing on one family, and one woman among them, it reflects upon whether and how an indigenous democratic fabric and relative gender egalitarianism may be retained in the face of structural changes in the adivasi life worlds. Using a personal narrative, shaped by different 'dialogical levels', the paper traces the dialogical stages through which the 'story' unfolds. It suggests that the narrative as a qualitative research tool may be used to interrogate women's political spaces and to bring the family into development discourse.
One of the main offshoots of the phenomenal growth of satellite TV has been the media focus on women both as a key target audience as well as the main protagonists. The portrayal of women and the family has accentuated the women movement's growing concerns over the discriminatory nature of the family. Media research must go beyond auditing media content and quantifying acts of omission, bias, stereotyping, violations and distortions and consider how media is able to create a day-to-day communication with a cross section of the audience and in particular, with women, using tried and tested symbols, identifiable associations, safe narrative structures and a mundane and everyday situational framework.
