NATIONAL WORKSHOP ON

GENDER AND
DEVELOPMENT

Organised by: Women’s Studies and Development

Centre, University of Delhi in collaboration with
Institute of Social Studies Trust (ISST), New Delhi

February 11th-16th, 2019

RAPPORTEUR’S REPORT
Compiled By: Niyati Sharma

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 Workshop Participants

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 Contents:
1. Executive Summary…………………………………… 4
2. Objectives and Methodology of the Workshop……….. 8
3. Introduction and Keynote Address …………….………9
4. Detailed Highlights of the Themes Discussed……….....14
I. Gender and Economy………………………………………………14
II. Gender, Law and Feminist Engagements With Jurisprudence……..17
III. Theoretical Frameworks on Gender and Development……….........19
IV. Gender and Health………………………………………….............21
V. Gender and Education………………………………………………24
VI. Gender, Violence and Media………………………………………..28
VII. Gender and Policy Dimension………………………………………30

5. Valedictory Address……………………………………33
6. Detailed Feedback and the Road Ahead.……………...35
7. Appendix I List of Participants....……………………...39
8. Appendix II List of Resource Persons.......……………..44

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 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
 Total no. applications received: 74 Total no. of selected applicants: 32

 Participant profile: multi-disciplinary group coming from the fields of Economics,

History, Political Science, Gender Studies, Sociology, English, Development Studies,
Psychology, Social Work, Law, Geography, Education, Population Studies, Public
Administration, and Mass Communication among others. Apart from young research
scholars, senior faculty members were also part of the workshop.

 No. of participants from University of Delhi: 12

 No. of participants from other universities in Delhi: 07 (AUD, JamiaMiliaIslamia, SAU)

 No. of outstation participants: 13 (Jammu and Kashmir, UP, West Bengal, Himachal
Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Kerala)

 Speakers’ Profile: The workshop saw the contribution of both academics as well as grass-
root activists. Experts ranged from the fields of Law, Gender and Development,
Economics, Public Policy, Media, Education as well as members from women’s
organisations working on the ground.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THEMES DISCUSSED:

Introduction and Orientation to the Workshop by Dr.Manjeet Bhatia (WSDC) and Dr.Rajib
Nandi (ISST) was followed by Keynote Addressby Devaki Jain, founder ISST sharing her
experiences of working as a feminist economist and scholar both at the domestic as well as
International level. She noted the importance of thinking about gender studies and feminism as
highlighting issues of socio-economic political rights and justice and how it could pose a
challenge to hegemony of ideas by creating a new vocabulary to raise women’s concerns as well
as contextualise meanings of concepts like Development. She also traced a history of how
women’s movements travelled from popular discourse to reference work of mainstream
scholarship.

Keynote Address by Devaki Jain, Founder ISST

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1. Gender and Economy:

 Globalisation of 1990s changed the terms of engagement with gender in India to make it
more women-centric, using terms like empowerment of women as opposed to earlier
concerns with women as part of development and nation-building framework, as
exemplified by the Towards Equality report of 1975.

 Historically, women’s economic role remained largely an issue confined to conceptual

fields of academic research, never becoming issues of political mobilisation.

 Issues around women’s work were discussed in terms of defining and measuring it.
Alternative methods like “Time-Use Survey” were identified as crucial for gaining a
comprehensive picture of women’s work.

 Contrasting the data from NSSO and “Time-Use Survey” highlighted how
representations of women’s participation in workforce depended upon the method of
counting, with NSSO data undercounting women involved in economically productive
activities while Time-Use Survey depicting a more accurate representation.

 Women working in informal sector were found to face additional problems, double
burden of earning and providing care, lack of access to proper conditions of work,
discriminations over caste as well as continuing gender-stereotypes.

2. Gender, Law and Feminist engagements with jurisprudence:

 Discussions broadly focussed on CEDAW, the recognition of women’s rights as human

rights at the World Conference on Human Rights held at Vienna in 1993 and recognition
of rape as a war crime at the international level and laws in India like Domestic Violence
Act 2005.

 Practical problems in accessing the legal redressal mechanisms and attitudes of legal
machinery towards women were also discussed.

 The focus of Law’s language was found to be more on the criminal remedies like
punishments and deterrence, instead of the restorative side of justice, hence “protection”
not “empowerment” remains on the agenda of the State.

 The tremendous transformative power of the Indian Constitution was discussed. Recent
judgements around homosexuality, section 497 and Hadiya case and documents like the
Verma Committee report’s Bill of Rights were interpreted as creating a space to talk
about rights to intimacy, choice of partner, sexual freedom and autonomy.

3. Theoretical frameworks on Gender and Development:

 Under this, frameworks of gendered analysis like Harvard analytical framework, the
Moser framework, Social Relations Framework among others were understood through
interactive sessions and group activities.

 Various approaches to women’s development were discussed like the welfare and anti-
poverty approach (or Women in Development), efficiency approach (Women and
Development), and equality and empowerment approach (Gender and Development).

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  Practical and Strategic Gender needs were discussed and the intersectionality between
various concepts like class, caste, gender, market, state, family was highlighted through
an innovative group activity.

4. Gender and Health:

 The discussion traced the relationship between gender and health and offered feminist
critique of gender-neutral claims of medical science textbooks.

 Socio-cultural, economic as well as political determinants of health need to be factored in

when making health policies.

 Group Activity: Based on fact sheets from case studies of Malaria and TB, participants
applied the Gender and Health Analysis Framework to analyse and present the
differential impact of diseases on men and women.

 Differential impact was analysed in terms of biological factors, access and control over
resources, access to healthcare and social factors, for example, stigma attached to
particular diseases.

 Discussions also highlighted that though women’s child-bearing ability is a biological

fact; her relegation to the sphere of child-rearing is a socially constructed gender role.

5. Gender and education:

 Education was realised to be a double-edged sword which could reinforce as well as

transform gender stereotypes and norms, deeply tied to power systems.

 Factors leading to drop-outs, education paradoxes were identified along with practical
problems in access to quality education like poverty, lack of teachers, mobility and
infrastructure issues among others and their varied impact on boys and girls.

 Role played by textbook and pedagogic processes in construction of gender identities

showed the links between gender, education and politics of knowledge.

 The way forward was identified as inclusion of gender in text-books and curriculum
across educational institutes, taking into account diversities of lived experiences and
contexts.
6. Gender, Violence and Media:

 The discussion with grassroots activists revealed the deep-seated nature of patriarchal
mind-set across societal institutions. The intersectionality of caste, class, gender, politics,
economy, culture, education and health came into sharper relief.

 The case of Haryana represented the insensitive attitude of police in rape cases and the
operation of strong caste networks in protecting perpetrators of crime. Rajasthan’s
protests against the dilution of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, depicted the
praxis of feminism and Dalit activism.

 Informal nature of interaction in workspace and extreme competitiveness in the field of

media and a general environment of economic insecurity were identified as precluding

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 complaints against harassment. In this backdrop, MeToo movement was discussed as
offering a catharsis and solidarity.

7. Gender and Policy dimension:

 Gender budgeting and gender mainstreaming were discussed.

 Gender budgeting was identified as a necessary corrective to gender-blind policies and

budget allocations.

 The five steps framework was discussed as a tool for deepening gender budgeting. Its
scope was identified as a continuous process, engaging with policy at all stages of
formulation, implementation as well as evaluation.

FEEDBACK AND THE ROAD AHEAD: RESEARCH SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE

 Participants appreciated innovative group activities and interactive sessions that helped
them in opening up and resonate on the discussions under consideration.

 Themes like Gender and Environment, women in knowledge and service sector were
identified for inclusion in the future.

 A sharing of sources on research methodologies and theories was recommended.

 Making certain technical terms more accessible in meaning to bridge the gap between
scholars within and outside certain disciplines.

 Further possible directions for inter-disciplinary research were identified especially at the
level of grassroots in terms of how gender is implicated in socio-economic and political
life.

 Need for a balance between quantitative and qualitative research.

 Research towards gender and equity in the times of increasing per capita income.

 Idea for a future workshop on understanding and equipping students with research tools
like research mapping in collaboration with IIT Bombay was floated for which the
response was positive.

 A Possible introduction of a course on Gender and Development at the Masters level in

University of Delhi under WSDC.

 A reader based on the proceedings of the workshop.

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OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY OF THE WORKSHOP
OBJECTIVES: The workshop aimed at introducing issues around gender and development from
an inter-disciplinary perspective, especially the interlinkages between economic, social, political
factors in understanding gender and development by facilitating a dialogue between academics
and activists. It introduced:

Concepts of “paid” and “unpaid” women’s work

Theoretical Frameworks of Analysis
Approaches to Women’s Development
Relationships between Gender, Education and Health and the deeper economic
implications arising out of it
Concept of Gender-Mainstreaming and Gender-Budgeting

Throughout the discussions, the role of State, Culture, factors like Class and Caste, in issues of
Gender and Development were reflected upon.

METHODOLOGY: the workshop involved lectures, panel discussions, case-studies analysis,

short-films, group activities and interactive sessions. Experts from both academics and activists
working on ground were invited to share their insights. Participants were involved in interactive
sessions where they were required to apply gender analysis frameworks and make presentations
among other interactive group activities.

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 INTRODUCTION AND KEYNOTE ADDRESS
INTRODUCTION

Dr. Bhatia introducing and welcoming participants

The workshop began with an introduction from Dr.Manjeet Bhatia, Associate Professor and
Head, Women Studies Development Centre (WSDC). She traced the history of the Centre and of
the journey that Women’s Studies in general had gone through. The basic challenge of having a
physical location dedicated to the centre highlighted the struggles of carving out a space to even
begin talking of Gender and Development. Following the mandate from UGC and lobbying with
academics across departments, refresher courses for training the faculty were started in 1997 and
it was believed that with the faculty trained in gender, the classroom environment would change
and gender would enter even if by way of examples. This was a quantum jump for women’s
studies. Further, a vacuum of language was filled by providing ways in which to raise issues of
gender. The centre had come a long way since then and now engaged in refresher courses for
teachers, courses for researchers, graduation courses and advance courses. She noted that
because women’s studies have connections with the women’s movement both domestically and
internationally, it has the kind of rich resource base drawing from across fields and disciplines,
otherwise not available in conventional departments. With that in mind, she highlighted the aims
of the workshop as bringing to table experts from various disciplines and fields to bring out
different perspectives and nuances in understanding complex realities of gender and related
aspects. Through the collaboration with the Institute of Social Studies Trust (ISST), the
workshop aimed at bridging the gap between gender studies and the discipline of economics.

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 Orientation by Dr.Rajib Nandi

Dr.Rajib Nandi, Research Fellow and Office-In-Charge, ISST while welcoming the participants
talked about the history and vision of ISST. It was formed in 1980 as a charitable trust with the
focus on gender as a cross-cutting theme in research. Its core agenda being pursuit of research,
capacity-building and community-level outreach activities with the aim of influencing policies
from gender equitable outcomes. With its cause towards equity and well-being towards poor
marginalised sections, ISST positions itself at the interface of research, action and policy. He
highlighted the approach of ISST in designing the workshop as different from more academically
oriented workshops, with its emphasis on interactive sessions, group-activities and case-study
analyses and to bring experiential knowledge to have a bearing upon the sessions. He shared his
hope of the workshop being beneficial for the participants as well as for the organisers as it
offered an opportunity for a dialogue between academic researchers, scholars and ground-level
activists involved in various programmes.

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 KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Keynote Address by Devaki Jain, Founder ISST

The Keynote Address by Devaki Jain, founder ISST, marked the beginning of the workshop. The
address shared her experiences worth a lifetime working as a feminist economist and scholar
both at the domestic as well as International level. An important insight coming from her was
that gender studies and feminism needed to be looked at as not just highlighting women’s issues
but issues of socio-economic political rights as well as justice. In that sense, feminism and
philosophy were conjoined twins as a gendered lens turned everything we know in the realm of
moral philosophy on its head.

From the founding of the ISST to working with the government system to collaborations across
global gender movements, some foundational challenges to dominant inherited knowledge were
posed. There were challenges ranging from contesting narrow definition of “gender” and “work”,
critique of data collection methods not taking into account women’s work as valuable
contributions to the economy, to challenging the hegemony of ideas through creation of a
vocabulary to raise important issues and entering reference work of mainstream scholarship.
ISST, CWDS and SNDT Women’s Studies Centre were the three earliest and prominent
women’s studies centres in the 1970s before courses on gender were offered in universities. The
aim was to transfer their knowledge into mainstream academic curriculum in Economics,
Sociology, Political Theory and other disciplines.

Gender biases of “language” were revealed through unpacking the terms “major and minor forest
produce” where produce which is collected by women like berries, wood etc was categorised as
minor produce. Ironically, it was found that in developing countries, a greater economic value

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comes from minor-produce and thus calling it minor distorts its contribution. She noted
thatnomenclature can change interpretations and power-relations and hence gender-
relations. For example, at a conference that ISST held at Bangalore, most of the participants
agreed that instead of calling informal sector as “informal”, it should be referred to as the major
mode of employment or the “first-sector”. However, it didn’t happen but had it been successful,
the approach towards policy and legislation as well as wages would be very different. Thus,
language was seen as important to how one perceived a phenomenon.

The critique of data-collection methods came in the form of a study done by ISST in
collaboration with the NSSO that concentrated on showing the flaw in the number of female
participation rate in the workforce in the NSSO 32nd round. ISST went deeper to profile, describe
and interrogate women’s work. The study tried to differentiate between what could be considered
as contribution to the economy in the household and what was considered as consumption in
Economics. Comparing the data from two agro-climactic zones to see how environment (dry-
farming in Rajasthan and wet-farming in West Bengal) impacted women’s work participation,
the theory that women in Bengal do not participate in work activities, was contested. Women
were not only engaged in “gainful activity” within the house which was not considered as work,
but children above the age of 5 too were involved in what could be considered as gainful activity.
The difference in data by NSSO and ISST was in fact the result of methodology of data
collection with NSSO using conventional questionnaires and ISST using a Time-Use
Survey. As a result, attention was drawn to the fact that micro-studies could reveal what
macro-studies could not as well as highlighting that household duties, now known as care
work, were also economic contributions.

ISST and Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) challenged the
hierarchy of given knowledge and concept of the Global North. The response was to formulate
alternative frameworks for looking at Gender and Development issues corresponding to the
realities of different developing regions as a result of which committees for regions were set-up.
She shared her learning experience from being a member of The South Commission under Julius
Nyererethat suggested macro-economic framework drawing from specific experiences from local
economies instead of simply learning from the Global North.

To tie it all up and bring it to the present, Devaki Ji’s closing remarks on the increasing claims
over feminism by women and girls and the LGBTQ in practical as well as the online
domain in terms of online networks, highlighted the growing sensitisation towards Gender
as well as a broadening of the term Gender itself. She also highlighted that there was a tilt
in these online networks towards the issues of sexuality and violence against women as
compared to networks engaging with economics and politics. However, the international
society of feminist economics flourishes and many more academics explore the present ideas and
questions in relation to the social sciences. They go beyond seeking equality and affirming rights
to interrogating and reconstructing knowledge.

She highlighted further challenges for feminists in India who need to draw from this well of
knowledge internationally and from our own roots. Despite networking and interaction with
State and internationally, the feminist movement in India has not been able to bring down walls

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in theoretical, policy and legal dimensions. Part of the challenge is not only to bring to notice the
exclusion but offer well-defined, well-researched alternatives.

Following important points emerged from the interaction between the participants and Devaki
Jain:

A common concern over construction of gendered identities and particular kind of

masculinity within the family, the embedded nature of patriarchy in kinship, history and
culture, and possible ways of negotiating with it.
Even though there is a discourse around sexuality, it is very concentrated in some
sections of the society and largely it remains a taboo to talk about sexuality and sexual
health.
Challenges still faced by women studies centres like WSDC in terms of infrastructure,
limited resources and faculty members
Advocating change in public policy

Interaction with Devaki Jain

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DETAILED HIGHLIGHTS OF THE THEMES DISCUSSED
I. GENDER AND ECONOMY

Mary E. John, senior fellow from Centre for Women’s Development Studies (CWDS) traced the
relationship between gender and globalisation. She situated this understanding of gender and
globalisation within the historical context and traced the women’s question from the
colonial moment in Indian history. Here, earliest questions over Sati, schooling, age of consent
and marriage were linked to the colonial civilising mission not necessarily with women’s
agency. Also, only cultural concerns found an expression here, not economic. The first signs of
thinking about economic issues were apparent in a report written in the late 1930s by the
stalwarts of the women’s movement of that time which had some remarkable ideas including
paid house-work; single women’s rights and so on. The report found no place after
Independence. Post-independence, the women’s question resurfaced again but this time under the
umbrella of development and nation-building in the 70s and 80s as exemplified by the Towards
Equality report of 1975. The history of decolonisation and birth of a new nation did not
suppress the women’s question but provided a framework to talk about it which was a
nationalist framework and where the Nation-State had to be a key player in delivering
development. The data from the 70s in terms of women’s workforce participation, political
participation, the sex ratio, was all showing a decline to the extent that some questioned whether
women were becoming a minority. It is in this context that the moment of globalisation in the
1990s changed the official thinking about women’s economic condition. The language of
engagements with gender changed—with terms like empowerment, equality coming to the
fore. It was women-centric and looked at the state as no longer the sole provider. International
processes and Market came into the picture. Women as a category got recovered and
international players like World Bank recognised the contributions of women without being paid
and saw it as a proof of their efficiency. The new criterion of the 1990s was to give credit to
the poor woman, seen as a more efficient economic actor instead of men who would squander
away the money in things like drinking. However, it made efficiency the central theme with
women representing better returns to investments instead of thinking in terms of reducing
exploitation. There was a flip side to it as globalisation brought out gender peculiarly. Even
though feminisation of work took place, employment rates were exploitative. However, there
was no clear consensus in the women’s movement with different people taking different
positions. Some were of the opinion that even if feminisation of work happened at exploitative
rates, it was still better than having no employment at all for poor women.

Neetha N. Pillai, Professor and Acting Director CWDS, highlighted the lack of attention on
the question of women’s employment. She traced for us the question of women’s
employment from the period of planned development where the focus was on large
industries. Data from 1960s onwards showed a decline in women’s employment and the
reasons were attributed to the transformation of household and small-scale industries
where women outside of agriculture on other small-scale industries like tobacco processing
saw a decline. The decline was noted by reports like the Dantwala Committee Report on
unemployment and Bhagwati Committee on employment highlighting the need for disaggregated

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data on women.Women were incorporated in some development programmes but the focus on
women was from the perspective of poverty alleviation and anti-poverty measures. Their
employment issues were never a priority. The Towards Equality Report not only highlighted the
absence of women from economic sphere but also asked important question of where the women
were in terms of their larger participation in agriculture and unorganised sector.With a change in
international context, debates around how to incorporate women in larger development models
and new-investigation and actions for women’s development took centre-stage. As a result, a lot
of studies emerged around under-counting of women, alternative methods of measuring work
and definitions of work. But, economic participation of women never became issues of
political mobilisation as they remained largely in the conceptual fields of academic
research. Within the larger development models, women were drawn in the beneficiary oriented
welfare models and began to be seen as subjects of State welfare. 1980s and especially post-
liberalisation period saw a boom in self-employment programmes, self-help groups
andmicro-financing as well as programmes of skill development and training from the
State’s side but the underlying perspective largely remained as that women as family-
bearers and carers. No attempt was made to disturb gendered market relations and gendered
division of labour within the family. At a more conceptual level, the debate over invisibility of
women’s work continued but was more around the informal sector. The preoccupation with
informal sector shifted the focus from classical model of development which was dualistic to a
much more diffused understanding of sectors. Home-based work became a primary object of
discussion. In contemporary times, the decline in employment is sharper and is across social
groups. Within the decline, it must be seen that women are taking piece rate work in informal
sectors or are involved in agricultural work. Another discourse has emerged around the service
sector as an alternative for women’s employment. Within it, paid domestic work and education
sector see increases but they are not able to match the decline. Volunteers at ASHA or
Anganwadis are not given a status of workers as those activities are seen as an extension of their
house-related care-work and not work as such. Programmes are struggling to recruit women and
keep them in their jobs as development models continue looking at women as cheap labour.

Discussions around “unpaid” work of women and the care economy through case studies
raised questions like who cares and why and found that women’s child-bearing and caring
responsibilities are looked at as innate and natural. It also identified the gaps in policies as a
result of lack of recognition of care work and conditions of workplace which put undue burden
on women in case of lack of care infrastructure that would assist women in their care
responsibilities. It led to the double burden on women further involved in informal sectors—
responsibility of earning as well as caring.Further it was discussed that the definition of
“care” also needs to be expanded and see how even men, the State, the Market and the
larger community can provide care and not just women, hence, a redistribution of care-
work.For example, paternal-leave and maternal leave could be balanced to challenge the gender
stereotype. Time-use method, through case studies, was found to be a more useful way of
measuring women’s work by noting the hours of work put in by individuals doing different kinds
of activities, which revealed women actually put in more hours per day in work, work harder and
do more physically strenuous activities.

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Several models to understand different kinds of care work were discussed like the Care
Diamond which looks at care regimes in different countries and who provides care services,
with India falling under “gender and familialism”. Another model was that of the three Rs
(Recognition, Reduction and Redistribution) by Diane Elson. Nancy Fraser’s addition of
Representation was also discussed, making a model of the four Rs.

Further, aspects of informal economy and the position of women within it were discussed.
Identifying the kind of jobs that could fall under the informal sector (construction-workers, rag-
pickers, street vendors and so on),it introduced the concepts of home-based workers of
different kinds (self-employed, sub-contracted, piece-rate workers like garment workers)
and categories of work that overlap for example, a domestic cook may appear part-time
worker to the employer but for her it is a full-time work as she could be working at
different houses. It also identified the possible reasons for a large number of women in the
informal sector ranging from flexible working hours, mobility factors, ease of access, caste
discrimination and poverty, and its impact on women in terms of unequal burdens and
continuing gender-stereotypes. The nature of informal work was unrecognized, perceived
as unskilled and conditions dangerous, meagre and inconsistent in terms of pay, lack of
social security benefits and issues of leave, insecurity of job and discriminatory leaving no
easy access to report harassment or seek legal help.The challenges of informal sector were
discussed like lack of recognition by women themselves of their own work, lack of digital
literacy and awareness, lack of markets. Different ways of organising into collectives were also
discussed like trade unions, self-help groups like SEWA, women workers within central trade
unions like AIDWA, sector-specific unions like the National Domestic Workers Union, mixed-
gender unions, and cooperatives.

An interactive group activity involving in Empathy Mapping, Stakeholder Mapping and

Opportunity Mapping was held in which participants made presentations.

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II. GENDER, LAW AND FEMINIST ENGAGEMENTS WITH JURISPRUDENCE

MadhuMehra, founder and executive director, PLD, interrogated the complex relationship
between gender and law and how recognition of rights of women came to be internationally
recognised as human rights at Vienna in 1993. She traced the history of how internationally
the recognition of themes related to gender in the field of education, citizenship, employment and
so on were talked about but violence was the last one to be recognised and discussed, for
example, the CEDAW did not mention violence. 1985 Nairobi conference saw the agreement on
the fact that while there were laws and legal frameworks for equality and non-discrimination in
most of the constitutions around the world, the actual ground situation was very different.
Constitutions can provide frameworks, but the nuts and bolts of concrete action can be provided
by concrete laws and specific legal mechanisms. The Women and Development Network
organised parallel events in Nairobi from which sprang three large chapters in three different
regions of the world: Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD), Women
in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF) and Committee for Latin America and the
Caribbean for the Defense of Women’s Rights (CLADEM), devoted to law making and making
legal system more sensitive to women. The earliest efforts in India had started around the issues
of Dowry leading up to the Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961 but definitions of dowry were
diluted. Later phases saw tinkering with the definitions to make it broader.

It is in this context that even at the global level, the Vienna conference acknowledged women’s
rights as human rights. A global tribunal on violence against women was held in Vienna where
different kinds of experiences of violence were presented. At the end of it in 1993 a document
called for a mechanism within the UN for addressing the issues of violence against women
and in 1994, the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of
Violence Against Women, appointing Radhika Coomaraswamy as the UN Special Rapporteur
on Violence Against Women. This time also saw a huge participation by women from
Southeast Asia and East Asia on the matter of “comfort-women” in World War II to raise
the issue rape as a war-crime.

As a result, demands for laws against domestic violence within countries got picked up and there
was international pressure on countries to report what steps they were taking in this regard.
Internally also there was a recognition that the Dowry Law was not working and so a need for a
domestic violence law was recognised. The Protection of Women fromDomestic Violence Act,
2005offered an expanded definition of violence to include economic and psychological aspects
and extended it to all women not just “wives”.

The trajectory of sexual violence and responses from the law was also traced from rape to a
range of other related offences. The three cases of rape where the perpetrators were police, the
Mathura case, Maya Tyagi case and Rameeza Bee case, caused widespread agitation and
mobilisation and alliances to demand the accountability of the State. It was also the time when
the issues of consent were raised after the judgement on Mathura case where the Supreme
Court had rejected her rape because she didn’t shout and on that basis ruled that it could have
been consensual. In the light of this judgement, an open letter from 4 DelhiUniversity Law
Professors came out pointing that submission is not same as consent among other issues like

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custodial violence. As a result, in cases of custodial rape, the burden of proof has
shifted.Subsequently the Sexual Harassment of Women in Workplace Act was formulated and
the more contemporary Anti-Rape Laws were enacted in the aftermath of December 2012 Delhi
gangrape.

All that history revealed that the language of law has focussed more on the criminal
remedies with more focus on punishments, stricter deterrence, instead of the restorative
side of justice and so “protection” of women remains on the agenda but not
“empowerment”.

Another important session on Gender and Law was by Rukmini Sen, Professor from AUD. She
explained feminist jurisprudence not as something outside and separate from
jurisprudence as such but looked at jurisprudence through a feminist lens. She highlighted
the tremendous transformative power of the Indian Constitution and especially the articles
14, 15, 16, 19 and 21. The constitution lays down the path for piecemeal development and
creation of space broadening the issues of gender and agency as evident from a widening of the
interpretations of right to life. The importance of constitutional guarantees has to be understood
in the historical context in which the Constitution itself was emerging. The immediate context
was that of 1947 partition with huge loss of life and so protection, recovery and rehabilitation
were important concerns. A feminist lens would reveal how the Recovery and Rehabilitation Act
had underlying concerns of ‘Honour’, linked to women’s bodies as bearers of a community’s
honour. Further, she also highlighted how the preamble presented the aspirations of the
people and the larger society towards liberty, equality, justice and fraternity and so as part
of Constitution it provides the opportunity to keep contesting and pushing the boundaries
further.

In the more contemporary times, Supreme Court judgements of 2018 on section 377, section 497
and on Hadiya Case had some common themes running across them. A space was being created
to talk about rights to intimacy, choice of partner, sexual freedom and autonomy. The
Justice Verma Committee Report had in it a Bill of Rights, which built upon the Constitutional
provisions of Fundamental Rights, having six sub-themes, all relating to freedom and autonomy
of women and generating new understandings around the rights of women in terms of
access to secured places, right to bodily integrity, non-discrimination, access to shelter and
rights of the disabled women and pregnant women.

An interesting point emerging through discussions was the importance of realising

ourselves as Constitutional Citizens and arguing constitutionally. The lack thereof was
attributed to the neglect of Constitutional Studies in school education which does not put
emphasis on making people realise the power vested in them through Constitution in the most
substantive terms.

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III. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS ON GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT

The sessions on theoretical frameworks were led by resource person Mercy Kappen, Director,
Visthar Academy of Justice and Peace. Before addressing the various theoretical frameworks of
gendered analysis, a basic question was posed in terms of why to even think about such a
framework? It was important in a sense to go back to the basics and see how Gender Analysis
highlights the differences between and among women, men, girls and boys in terms of their
relative distribution of resources, opportunities, constraints and power in a given context. It also
allows us to develop responses that are better suited to remedy gender-based inequalities and
meet the needs of different population groups. This highlighted two important observations:

One, that a Gender Analysis Framework may not only help map the differences between
men and women but within those categories as well.
Two, it can provide the much-needed background for responding to gender-based
inequalities effectively by taking into account differential needs of different genders.

With that in mind, following were the frameworks introduced:

Gender Roles Framework (Harvard)

Triple Roles Framework or the Moser Framework (Caroline Moser)
Gender Analysis Matrix (GAM)
Equality and Empowerment Framework (Sara Longwe)
Capacities and Vulnerabilities Framework (CVA)
People Oriented Planning Framework (POP)
Social Relations Framework (SRF)

I.Some of these frameworks were discussed in detail like the Harvard Framework within
which three main tools/concepts were identified:

The socio-economic activity profile: who does what, when, where and for how long?
The access and control profile: who has access to resources like land, equipment, capital,
etc.; who has access to benefits like education, health, services, political power, etc.
Influencing Factors: the socio-economic context; influence of structural factors like
demography, culture, religion, attitude, legal parameters; opportunities and restrictions.
Programme cycle analysis: gender-sensitive project planning, design and implementation,
monitoring and evaluation.

II. Moser Framework was also discussed within which there were three concepts:

Gender roles identification: productive, reproductive, community roles

Gender needs assessment: Practical gender needs and Strategic gender needs
Impacts on women’s development

Within the Moser Framework, a detailed discussion over different gender needs took place.
Practical gender needswere identified as those needs which arise in the immediate sense
from concrete situations which can be responded to by short-term solutions for example access
to clean water, health care and so on but they do not question or challenge the subordination

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ofwomen or given gender-roles. They can be “given”, traced in the form of beneficiary-
recipient relationships, conform to the society and improve the ‘condition’ of the person. In
contrast, Strategic gender needswere identified as needs which are long-term in nature
arising out of women’s subordination and require long-term sustained responses. These are
needs that challenge their position in the society, challenge the nature of gendered relationships
between women and men and carry the potential of transformation. These needs focus on
empowering the women so they can “participate” as agents of change instead of merely
“receiving” benefits. Examples of such needs include access to education, control over one’s
bodies, control over resources, decision-making power and so on.

An important observation made in the interaction sessions was that gender needs and
gender training does not mean women only. It includes men as well and sees how men are
also differentially impacted by socially constructed gender-roles.

III. Social Relations Framework was briefly discussed as having five essential concepts:

Development as increasing human well-being

Social relations
Institutional analysis
Institutional gender policies
Underlying and structural causes

The framework looks at development as wellbeing, consisting of survival, security and

autonomy. It looks at how social relations have an impact upon gender relations and poverty and
most importantly, how institutions impact gender-inequalities. An institutional analysis has four
key institutional sites: State (legal, military, administrative organisations); Market (firms,
financial corporations, farming enterprises, multinationals); Community (village tribunals,
voluntary associations, informal networks, patron-client relationships, NGOs) and
Family/Kinship (household, extended families, lineage groupings)

This Social Relations Framework was understood through a group activity session to bring
out the complex interconnections and overlaps between various institutions and revealed
the intersectionality of gender.

Finally, various policy approaches to Women’s Development were discussed like welfare and
anti-poverty approach (or Women in Development), efficiency approach (Women and
Development), and equality and empowerment approach (Gender and Development):

The Welfare Approach primarily identified its purpose as supporting the role of
motherhood and provided services like family relief programmes, family planning,
nutrition and activities to meet the practical gender needs. The kind of change it brought
was non-challenging functional change. It was popularly used in 1950s-70s.
The Anti-Poverty Approach aimed at raising productions to integrate women into
development through providing training in technical skills for small scale income
generating activities to meet basic needs or practical gender needs. It also sought to bring
functional change and was used widely from 1970s onwards.

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 The Efficiency Approach came in as a result of failure to recognise women’s role in
production. It sought to ensure that development is more efficient and effective. It relied
on programmes to meet practical gender needs in the context of declining services. It
sought to bring functional change was used in post-1980s phase.
The Equality Approach recognised patriarchy as exploitative and oppressive and sought
to gain equity for women in development. It looked to reform structures to meet the
strategic gender needs and bring about a structural change by talking of equal rights and
opportunities. As a result it posed a challenge to gender norms and roles. It was popular
during 1975-85 (women’s decade).
The Empowerment Approach further brought in the importance of intersectionality by
recognising oppression not only by patriarchy but also by caste, class and other power-
relations. It looked at empowerment from the perspective of building new political,
economic and social structures and challenged exploitative structures and oppressive
processes. The programmes addressed strategic gender needs through mobilisation of
practical gender needs to confront oppression.

IV. GENDER AND HEALTH

Discussions on gender and health with Renu Khanna, Founder Trustee, SAHAJ, centred on
impacts of on health of men and women and other genders differently as well as the need to
problematize the relationship between gender and health. It began by offering a critique of how
medical science textbooks claim to be gender-neutral but in fact end up reinforcing gender
biases. It was also identified that socio-cultural, economic and political dimensions need to
be factored in while making health policies to better address the differential impact of
health issues across the gender categories.

Before beginning, the concept of health itself was problematized. Ill-health and wellness were
understood as a continuum withwell-being, especially mental well-being as the most
important component within it.

Gender was discussed as a system of beliefs in society giving rise to gender norms which define
gender roles for men and women. It further leads to sexual division of labour, allocating different
set of activities to men and women, which in turn lead to differential access and control over
resources and differential decision making power. It also leads to slotting of women health issues
into largely reproductive health issues with focus on women of a certain age-group beyond
which the attitude towards women is that of shocking neglect from State healthcare policies and
providers. For example, the attitude that a gynaecologist is required for only married
women of reproductive age reveals the relegation of women’s sexual health to the
dimension of reproductive role only. Or, the entire cosmetic surgery and beauty industry
offering various kinds of enhancement services to women that solidify bodily gender
expectations from women.

Feminists highlight that majority of clinical trials and experiments are done on the male-
body which at one level is in accordance with care towards women’s reproductive role but which

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at another level also have two deeply gendered implication. Firstly, since all knowledge is
derived from the male-body, it gets represented as “the” body or the reference point of
physical body and secondly, since research on female bodies is limited, the knowledge
about the female bodies is also limited which in turn have an impact on medical and health
policies.

It was found that since both men and women occupy different spaces in terms of work, they
are exposed to different set of vulnerabilities and risks, giving rise to different perceptions
of health needs. Differentiation of biological kind (anatomical, physiological, genetic) along
with social differences (roles and responsibilities, access and control, cultural influences and
expectations, subjective identity) were seen as giving rise to different health situations and
conditions which are:

Sex-specific
Have higher prevalence in either of the sexes
Different characteristics for men and women
Lead to different responses by individuals/family institutions depending upon whether the
sufferer is male or female.

Some examples were identified where men and women were exposed to differential risks. These
differential risks were further a result of biological as well as social factors. For example:

Women were seen as more prone to kitchen accidents due to social gender roles.
Men being more prone to pulmonary TB due to biological factors.
Differential symptoms of STDs in women which make them difficult to diagnose as a
result of biological factors.
Monogamous women getting HIV AIDS from their husbands.

Not only differential risks but differential outcomes and social consequences of certain diseases
were also highlighted, for example, having a TB of fallopian tubes could adversely impact a
woman’s marriage prospects, lead to infertility which is socially a taboo and for which a women
herself is blamed.

It was identified that across cultures and social groups around the world, almost always women
have less access and control over resources and are denied equal access to facilities like
education and training.

Links between gender, health and education were also discussed with women having
unequal access to education that feeds into low or no awareness about their health issues at
all which further reinforce the gender inequality. There is also low awareness in terms of
existence of health schemes. Ironically, the discussion also revealed the data that seemingly
“educated” classes also see dowry-related deaths which complicate the relationship
between education, gender and health.

An analysis of the State-funded healthcare schemes like the RashtriyaSwasthyaBimaYojna

(RSBY) was discussed and it was highlighted that most of these schemes are for
hospitalisation charges but an analysis of out of pocket expenditure shows that 65% of out

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of pocket expenditure is actually on OPD bill, not on hospitalisation. Another thing
highlighted was that these schemes rely heavily on private insurance. Most of these schemes do
not have sexual reproductive health or maternity concerns under them.

A Gender and Health Analysis Framework was shared based on which participants were divided
into groups. Based on WHO factsheets of TB and Malaria, each group was required to apply the
Gender and Health Analysis Framework, analyse and present their conclusions based on
evaluating risk factors and vulnerabilities; socio-cultural factors and access to and control
over resources.

Class in session

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V. GENDER AND EDUCATION

The sessions on Gender and Education were led by DiptaBhog, Founder, Nirantar and was
divided into two sessions. The first session dealt with the history of educational policies,
their impacts and challenges. The second session dealt with the core objective of education
and how it can be achieved. It also dealt with textbook and pedagogic processes and politics
of knowledge.

In terms of government policies and State initiatives, gender in education had been talked about
since 1990s. The 1986 National Policy on Education talked about education as a tool of
empowerment and the structural factors behind inequalities experienced by women and girls. In
1992 with liberalisation of the economy, Lawrence H. Summers, Vice President of the World
Bank gave an important speech where he argued that the best solution to the problems of poverty
is education of women and the girl child. He used the language of investment in the education of
the girl child for the first time. The District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) began in
1994 with attempts to bring back the girl child to the school. With it attempts of gendering
the curriculum also began which was not talked about earlier. By 2001, DPEP transformed
into an all-India Programme called the SarvaShikshaAbhiyaan (SSA) under which the
DakhilaAbhiyaans or admission drives were made along with attempts to increase the
participations of girls in the classrooms and bringing gender into textbooks. SSA also had a goal
of working towards gender equality.

From 2001 to 2010-11 the focus was on elementary education. From 2011 focus on
secondary schooling emerged. What emerged from the State’s engagement with gender and
education as well as further challenges were discussed. The formulation and re-formulation of
patriarchy with changing times and contexts and its over-lapping with class, caste,
community, language or even religion was also discussed. Education is deeply tied to all these
structures.A gendered lens to see why State and World Bank talks about educating the
adolescent girls revealed the nature of education as embedded in gendered-relations and
norms. For example, the outcomes of girl child education in terms of her marrying late,
having children after 18 years of age, survival of her and her child, her role of “caring” and
educating her child in a better manner show that concerns over educating girls are still
very much tied to their reproductive role in the society instead of educating her for her own
agency or empowering her to make meaningful decisions regarding her own life.Education
was thus identified as a double-edged sword which could reinforce gender norms and roles by
disciplining people into them as well as transform them.

Approaches to equality in education were discussed:

Formal Approach or Sameness model: based on neutral laws which treat women and
men the same, this approach sets uniform standards (usually male in nature) for accessing
rights. There is no recognition of difference, disparity and disadvantage related to
gender. It is not a gender-sensitive approach and does not look at the differential
infrastructural needs of different sections of society.

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 Protectionist Approach: It recognises differences but based on vulnerability and
inferiority. It further reinforces stereotypes and denies rights and agency. It does not
lead to social transformation. It provides protection but does not let one pose the
foundational question of why the world outside is insecure in the first place.
Substantive Approach: It recognises differences but affirms equality between men
and women. It places obligations to correct environment that disadvantages women. It
requires long term vision and initiatives in all fields of law, policy, programmes and
services. It aspires to lead to equality of opportunity, access, results through special
educational measures, for example, bridging courses to bring back students who leave
mid-way back into the education system. It rectifies the lack of agency of above two
approaches.

Coming to the contemporary times, the successes and paradoxes of education were also
discussed. Following were the successes:

In 1980s the gender parity index at primary level was 0.67 females for every male. That
increased to 1.01 in 2001
The relative educational access at secondary level has jumped from 0.88 in 2010-11 to
1.01 in 2014-15
Enrolment of girls at primary level increased from 285 lakh (453 lakh boys) in 1980 to
646 lakh (701 lakh boys) in 2010
Enrolment of girls at upper primary level increased from 68 lakh (139 lakh boys) in 1980
to 292 lakh (397 lakh boys) in 2010

Following were the paradoxes and disappointments with the education system (based on the data
by :

The problem of dropouts at primary level continues with differences between girls and
boys with percentage of boys being higher (21.2%) as compared to girls (18.3%). Within
girls, percentage of ST girls dropping out is higher (30%)
At secondary level, the dropout rates increase with girls 46.7 % girls dropping out (boys
48.1%) with again percentage of ST girls being higher (61.4%)
There was a gender-gap in literacy rates varying across different age groups
Studies on Ashram-Shaalas also reveal a persistent dropping out of ST students.
Access factors, language factors (even faculty is not trained in regional languages),
infrastructure factors, impoverishment and migration of poor in general and tribals in
particular as possible causes for dropouts.
In terms of Gender outcomes, education has not been able to make any significant
changes in the society. More girls are educated but it is not changing gender relations.
Sex ratio is worsening in some areas
Crimes against women have increased from 2015 to 2016, with a 12% increase in Rapes.
However, it is important to keep in mind that the number may also be increased due to
increased reporting. Nevertheless, on the whole the situation has not increased
Work participation of women has shown a stark decline in rural areas as compared to
urban areas and the gender difference between men and women is far greater.

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The biggest reasons of dropping out of education as per the data from NSS 71st round were
financial constraints and engagement in economic activities across genders and across
rural/urban areas. However, interestingly, only women in both rural and urban areas were
dropping out because of marriage.

Some important insights that emerged from the discussions were:

The State was letting its education system crumble and withdrawing investment from
education, so that the private players could come in as their numbers have increased
phenomenally in recent times. The result of it was that people are still ready to send their
children in private schools despite higher fees instead of a government school because of
lack of infrastructure, proper basic facilities and faculty. The question was why was it
happening and a possible cause was identified in the liberalisation and opening up of the
economy and market.
State is investing only so much that a basic level of education can be provided for the
production of skilled workers. So the question is also tied to economy.
Increasingly in India the goals of education are tied to developmental goals like
employment and particularly for women it is linked to HDI as well as international
pressures, for example the DPEP happened due to loan from World Bank.
The flip side of service economy was also discussed in terms of barely educated workers
providing services like goods delivery
Private schools are no better in performances than governmental schools. It is just the
image of big private schools that reinforce the stereotypes of better outcomes.

Second session on gender and education discussed the complex and intertwined realities of
gender and education and identified the main objective of education as transfer of knowledge.
Two main themes were discussed here: how did textbooks and pedagogic processes shape
or challenge construction of gender identities and how could we go beyond the framework
of “bridging the gap in our education policy and strategies” towards transformation.
Feminist scholarships and insights have entered college and university levels but they have not
entered school textbooks in the same way.

Omission of lived experiences and focus on definitions in textbooks was identified as

problematic.
Policy and reform’s approach to gender matters how it is understood and interrogated
Gender is not only about social/cultural attitudinal dimension but also about hard political
and economic realities of lived experiences.

A textbook analysis study of 1980 by Mr. Kalia found textbooks to be sexist showing women in
their traditional gender roles. However, he did not raise the question over the kind of men and
women present or absent from the book. The specificity of Indian context was not paid attention
to, especially in terms of diversity of caste, class, region etc.

The earliest approach in response to such studies from NCERT was to add more women,
reverse gender roles, include “great” women in addition to “great men”. However, their
attempts did not challenge the overall structure of education and did not revisit concepts.

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Feminist analysis of concepts of power, gender, nation, tradition and modernity, body and
labour in textbooks wasundertaken by Nirantar. They analysed the disciplinary framework of
Political Science textbook. They identified the common problems in the framework of Civics
textbooks:

Communicating particular abstract ideas likecitizenship and democracy in a very

formalistic way, with no history of formation and no context. In a bid to simplify dense
concepts, they were completely watered down and robbed of their radical potential.
Factual details like duties and powers of president and so on passed down in a manner of
commandments.
Presenting the State’s idea of ideal citizen as a compliant, dutiful and disciplined citizen.
Ideal nation like family which cares for one another
Within this framework, women come in as development targets (HDI concerns) in a
language of helping them
Depictions of reformers as saviours and women as subjects of reform. There was no
analysis of “why” certain cruel practices existed in society. It distanced ideas like
participation, rights, democracy.

The main changes brought about in the nature of textbooks were in terms of:

Conceptual core, pedagogic elements and a balance of ideal and real images of concepts
like democracy were included instead of simple dualistic images.
Bringing in diversities of context and lived experiences. For example, depiction of
different kinds of families and different images of family as opposed to the traditional
image of grandparents, parents and two children.
Connecting pedagogy and content in the sense that attention was brought to the gradual
introduction of concepts to allow for a gradual building up of capacity of students to
absorb the content. Building from our lives to larger concepts and institutions.
Building and understanding the agency of individuals both great and ordinary in dealing
with structures of oppression and negotiating with them.
Impacts of gender on both boys and girls by way of examples were explained
Integrated the intersecting identities of gender, caste, class and religion.

In the course of discussions, questions on importance of local histories and language in

curriculum were also raised.

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VI. GENDER, VIOLENCE AND MEDIA

The experiences of grassroots activists shared under this theme brought out the interlinkages
between gender, violence and other aspects like caste, class, and religion and showed the
different ways in which these categories intersect at the ground level.

Coming from Haryana, Activist JagmatiSangwan highlighted that as per NCRB data, Haryana
represented one of the severe cases of violence against women, especially brutal gang rapes. She
further noted that cases of violence against women should not be reduced to only a demand
for death penalty or stricter punishments. No doubt they form an important part of the justice
mechanism. But, if society really has to make some progress on the gender and violence
front, it needs to realise the interlinkages of violence with other socio-economic cultural
and political factors that underpin gender relations. The problem has to be seen in a holistic
perspective.

As a result of growing exposure from education as well as internet, the aspirations and ambitions
of girls to progress ahead have increased. The educational infrastructure of schools falls short of
meeting such requirements and so students generally and girls in particular have to rely on
coaching centres and such institutes. These coaching centres are targeted by anti-social elements
having degenerate patriarchal mind-set having no fear of law and order mechanism. In an
environment devoid of compassion towards girls, these coaching institutes provide spaces for
interaction, friendships and attachments which don’t necessarily mean consent from a woman
toward sexual relations. Men with patriarchal mind-setinterpret themselves as having a right over
women and hence claim over their bodies. Sometimes there are cases where women go along
with their trusted male friend and find more men waiting who indulge in crimes like gang-rape.It
was also discussed that majority of sexual violence crimes against women and children are
committed by those known to the victims. Women from Dalit community are further
vulnerable under caste hierarchies. There is a great acceptance of violence against women in
our society and are on least priority for the police. She also highlighted the insensitive and
inhumane attitude of police towards survivors of violence in such cases. Strong caste
networks and pressures lead to manipulations of investigations by both police and medical
professionals. Such violence against women also depicts a backlash from a patriarchal
society which wants to put women back in their places. There are interlinkages between all
levels of power from Khap Panchayats to the Centre. It was noted that the way forward
requires a democratisation of family and other spaces where aspirations of women are
given equal opportunity to bloom.

Another instance of linkage between gender and caste got reflected in Kavita Srivastava’s talk.
Srivastava, a Human Rights Activist, shared her experience in light of the protests in Rajasthan
against the dilution of SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. She set her talk in the context of
values of the Indian Constiution and exhorted us all to go back to the Preamble of the
Indian Constitution and pose the question, who are “we” in “we the people” that Preamble
begins with? The struggle of claims is getting sharper and so are the exclusions. In the present
times there is a growing awareness around the rights of people and State’s obligation in
safeguarding them. According to her, we are losing out on sovereignty because there is an

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extreme centralism in the economy and politics. If the Oxfam report tells us that only 1% people
control 75% of the wealth or 9% of the people control 50% of the wealth, where is the
Sovereignty? It looks like the East India Company all over again. Similarly, where is the
socialism mentioned in the Preamble in terms of the collective control of resources? She noted
that we have increasingly moved away from that in the context of global corporate capitalism.
Similar is the case of secularism. The glorification of hate and violence is a dangerous situation.
She highlighted an important point that we as society have forgotten to reject this kind of
politics.

The importance of seeing gender and caste together was underscored by the fact that caste
is produced through endogamous marriage and it is through the subordination of women
that caste furthers itself in terms of denying women agency in expressing their choice in
partner or their sexuality.

Hence, the history of Dalit assertion is important to be looked at from the lens of this intersection
between caste and gender as well as reassertion of caste to counter the rise of Dalit
consciousness. The narrative that most cases registered under section 498A and the SC/ST
Prevention of Atrocities Act are fake;and the subsequent dilution of the said Act revealed gender
and caste biases in the attitude of legal machinery. Seen in this light, the peaceful protest against
the dilution of SC/ST Act on 2nd of April 2018 by men and women coming together in a
decentralised manner depicted the praxis of feminism and Dalit activism. They claimed the “we”
in “we the people” of the Preamble to Indian Constitution.

Rajalakshmitalked about the kind of gender concerns arising out of an informal workspace
and with the kind of cut-throat competitiveness in the field of media. Solidarity is difficult
to come by as the nature of job is isolating and lonely. Importantly, she linked many of the
issues arising in media to larger concerns of economic insecurity.

The biases of media were discussed in terms of coverage of issues and how loyalty to the
country is subsumed under the loyalty to a particular government. For example, the
mainstream media was shown as not covering many activities that served to directly challenge
the present NDA government like the protests by teachers and students against the UGC. On the
other hand, the discourse of MeToo, even though cathartic in nature,was identified as
symptomatic of a trend where protests happen online in the domain of social media and
WhatsApp but when called upon to show solidarity on ground, no one appears.

Difficult question were raised in terms of effectiveness of the media in successfully making a
change in gender situations and a general atmosphere of media managed news was noted
where debates in leading news channels appear pre-managed and staged

All the above mentioned issues have to be looked at in light of the larger economic context
where wealth created by the masses at the bottom is being consumed by a private few at the top,
leading to a widening disparity between and across sections of society. One cannot talk of sexual
harassment without putting oneself under a risk of losing one’s livelihood.

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A common theme emerging from the interaction between participants and all the panellists was
that of intersectionality of all dimensions of lived experience as well as that of issues: gender,
caste, class, religion, media, violence, market, economy and the State.Important questions were
raised over Female Genital Mutilation as a site of cultural control over women’ bodies.
Discussion took place over access to safe space for women both in public and private sphere.
Caste and gender biases were analysed in the context of MahilaThanas whose powers were
limited.

VII. GENDER AND POLICY DIMENSION

Under this theme, two main elements were discussed in detail:

Gender and policy debates

Gender Budgeting for Gender Mainstreaming

Sarojini G Thakur, Chairperson ISST talked about gender and policy debates. She began with
tracing the international background from 1975 to 1995 which saw many international
conferences of women with 1995 seeing a seminal document called the Beijing Platform of
Action. Along with this and the emphasis on gender the UN started looking at the Human
Development Reports and measuring gender inequality through an index (Gender Empowerment
Index as well as Gender Inequality Index to rate countries). The international convention
CEDAW to which India is a signatory and the International Development Agenda to which India
has subscribed, were discussed. Within the Sustainable Development Goals, goal 5 is about
gender equality having several targets.

The discussion then moved on to a deeper understanding of the term “Empowerment” and
whether the policy initiatives have led to it.Empowerment was understood to be a condition
where women could have agency in asserting their rights and making meaningful choices
and decisions regarding their own lives. These concepts were important for looking at policy
approaches.

Using a gender lens proves a corrective to the errors of gender-blind policies that “assume”
what people want as part of a top-down approach instead of asking the people as part of a
bottom-up approach. For example, our view of health and women’s health tends to be
circumscribed by the role of sexual and reproductive health not really looking at other illnesses
and morbidities that affect us all. A gender lens can then help in creating Gender sensitive
policies. Gender sensitive policies can be of three kinds: Gender-neutral (do not change the
balance of Gender-relations), Gender-redistributive (intended to transform existing
distributions), Gender-specific (intended to meet targeted needs of either of the gender).
One important thing to be kept in mind was thinking of gender not only in terms of women and
excluding men but to think of it in a relational way. For example, not only poor women but poor
men also don’t have access to credit.

Coming to India, the international commitments were discussed (as already mentioned) as well
as domestic commitments. The domestic commitments involved Constitution, National and

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State polities for women and Three Year Action Agenda and India at 75 Strategy of NITI
Ayog.

Progress achieved till now was highlighted in terms of:

Constitutional provisions and enabling legislative framework

Improvements in life expectancy, decline in fertility rates, infant mortality rates and
maternal maternity ratio, improvements in literacy levels
Policies and programmes to improve condition/position of women
Greater awareness and sensitisation to women’s issues across judiciary, bureaucracy and
media
Effective NGOs and the strength of a very strong civil society movement which has
impacted on issues related to violence, livelihoods etc. The amount of research, advocacy
and change they have brought are immense.

Despite progress, challenges were identified and worsening situations in some areas were
discussed for example in the area of sex-ratio. Even though the NFHS data shows much more
equality, nothing could be decisively said before the census of 2021. Further challenges were
also identified in terms of lack of implementation of property rights, gaps in access to
secondary and tertiary education and health, differences in male and female
responsibilities for household care, inadequate political representation in the national
sphere and lack of agency and voice.

While looking at policies one must be aware that India cannot be seen as homogenous and so
there are bound to be variations in the impacts of Central Programmes meant to address all states
uniformly as people’s needs vary from state to state.

Various examples of programmes falling under different policy approaches were looked at since
the 1950s:

Welfare Approach: community development, short stay homes, adult education and
mahilamandals
Efficiency Approach: DWCRA, STEP, women in agriculture and forestry
Empowerment Approach: NRLM/Kudumbshree, 73rd and 74th amendments to Indian
Constitution giving space in structures of local governance
Social Protection Approach: MNREGA, social assistance (childcare support and
pensions), cash transfers (betibachao, betipadhao), scholarships for girl children, mid-day
meal schemes

Professor Asha K Mehta discussed Gender Budgeting and Gender Mainstreaming. Gender
budgeting was identified as a process of incorporating a gender perspective at all stages of
policy: formulation, implementation and evaluative monitoring as well as on follow-up
corrective action. Gender budget can analyse any budget in terms of its impact on women and
men, girls and boys and also its impact on the rich and poor, caste, tribe and so on.

31 | P a g e
Answering the question of “why” the Gender-Budget, it was highlighted as the instrument for
fulfilling the obligations of the State and a political statement of the priorities set by the
government in allocating resources.

Tools for deepening Gender Budgeting were also discussed like the Five Steps Framework;
Participatory Planning and Budgeting; and Spatial Mapping.Within Five Steps framework,
following were the steps:

Step 1: An analysis of the situation for women and men and girls and boys (and the
different sub-groups) in a given sector
Step 2: An assessment of the extent to which the sector’s policy addresses the gender
issues and gaps described in the first step.
Step 3: An assessment of the adequacy of budget allocations to implement the gender
sensitive policies and programmes identified in step 2.
Step 4: Monitoring whether the money was spent as planned, what was delivered and to
whom.
Step 5: An assessment of the impact of the policy/programme/scheme and the extent to
which the situation described in step 1 has changed.

Participatory Planning and Budgeting recognises the importance of participation of women

(and men) while planning and budgeting because women’s priorities in the use of public funds
may be different from those of men. Capacity building of stakeholders including women from
marginalised groups is seen as important for active involvement in decision making and
budgeting

Spatial mapping of social infrastructure was also discussed as an important tool for deepening
Gender Budgeting:

It highlights resources available in different geographical areas and gaps

Helps to assess resources required taking into account size of population and norms for
availability of facilities
Helps correct regional imbalances within states and districts

In the end, certain questions were identified that every Department must ask itself while
formulating policies and budgets:

What are the Goals and Objectives that my Department seeks to achieve?
How do they contribute to the National Goal of achieving Gender Equality?
What are the needs and priorities of women, especially those who are poor, in my
Department’s domain of work?

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 VALEDICTORY ADDRESS

Professor Agnihotri’s Valedictory Address

Bringing the workshop to its logical conclusion, Professor SatishAgnihotri’s insightful remarks
around the study of intra-household resource allocation and sex-ratio patterns among SC, ST and
non-SC, non-ST women highlighted the importance of thinking beyond disciplinary
boundaries, a common theme of the workshop. While sharing his experiences as a scholar at
Masters and PhD level, he learnt:

The importance of mastering theory, data and analytical techniques equally

The need for innovative thinking in terms of combining frameworks that otherwise
don’t come into dialogue with one another through explaining his treatment of Amartya
Sen’s Entitlement Approach and Capabilities Approach

The benefit of bringing multi-disciplinary insights into one’s analytic research, as

shown by his experience of drawing from mathematical physics in terms of vector-vector
mapping

Importance of tools of analysis like GIS mapping and combining quantitative and
qualitative analysis in not only knowing if a policy is gender-blind or gender-sensitive
but also asking where and how it is so.

33 | P a g e
Prof.Agnihotri further noted gender inequality as being a subset of various other forms of
inequalities like those of area (rural-urban), economic, political, inequalities based on
disabilities and so on. These inequalities do not add up but multiply. Thus, intersectionality was
another common theme, converging with the insights of workshop.

He also mentioned the need to understand inequality as a component of safety where higher
female workforce participation cannot act as a safety provision unless the workplace is safe. The
conditions of unsafety have entered the womb itself from domestic and public spheres in light of
sex-selection technologies and easier availability of such services. Analysis of NSSO data
showed that as the capacity for per capita expenditure increases, so does the unsafety

He traced the importance of historical context in analysis by describing an article by Marathi

writer MangalaSahu which brought out how historically female priesthood, fertility rights and
economic independence were gradually subjugated.

The role of Capitalism was also highlighted in the emerging inequalities. The predatory and
acquisitive nature of capitalism in combination with patriarchal forces was seen as more
likely to subjugate not just women but every disadvantaged section especially in present
scenario where nation-based capitalism has transformed into international capitalism. Within it,
technology’s flip side was also discussed where subjugation of women happens in cyber-
space as well.

Lastly, on judicial pronouncements, he highlighted the need for continuously exposing of the
gap between the rhetoric of the State and its actual practice. He charted some paths for
further research in the economic dimension to show rising per capita income can go hand in hand
with gender-discrimination without necessarily changing gender roles and division of labour or
analysing the trends of feminisation of poverty. In the end he floated the idea of a workshop in
collaboration with IIT Bombay to equip students in tools like research mapping.The workshop
came to a close with Professor Agnihotri distributing the certificates of participation.

Distribution of Certificates

34 | P a g e
 DETAILED FEEDBACK AND THE ROAD AHEAD
DETAILED SUBJECTIVE FEEDBACK, compiled by KamalikaMukhopadhyay

After the six days workshop the participants truly felt that overall the workshop was organized
well in terms of arrangements, logistics, sessions, food etc. It had resource persons from diverse
background which made it interesting and benefitted the participants in having a deeper insight
of various issues through the topics covered by them and further discussions with the resource
persons. The workshop was able to bring out the debates surrounding the field based realities.
The flow of the workshop allowed participants to engage in fruitful discussion. They were glad
to receive the content and materials prior to the workshop which really proved to be useful for all
of them. On the whole the programme schedule of the workshop fulfilled the needs and
expectations of everyone. The purpose of the workshop was successfully achieved. The
important feedback and suggestions given by the participants are mentioned briefly under the
following headings.

1. Learning Outcomes / Purpose of the Workshop –

The workshop helped in understanding various ideas related to gender and development through
a multi-disciplinary approach. It helped in enhancing knowledge of research area. Participants
got to learn new methods and understand different approaches of development. The power point
presentations, case studies and films had a great impact on the participants. They have been able
to form a connecting link between theory and practice. Some of the important learning outcomes
that were really useful are mentioned below:

 Understanding of gender budgeting from the perspective of gender lens

 Gender analysis framework
 Differences between paid and unpaid work
 In-depth discussion and critical debates on Gender and Law and Gender and Work
However, the participants felt that the discussion time for panel discussion should be increased
and it is also desirable to have more discussion on research methodologies. Participants feel that
the workshop provided them with an interactive platform to engage with each other as well as
with the resource persons. The sessions were informative and the objectives were effectively
fulfilled to a great extent.

2. Effective Aspects of the Workshop and Aspects which require Improvement

The effective aspects of the workshop as stated by most of the participants are mentioned below:

 Narration based on actual field experience by the resource persons was effective
 Group activities gave a chance to put theoretically gained constructs into real life
scenario. It helped in a more easier and holistic understanding
 Sessions on ‘Gender and Education’, ‘Gender and Violence’ and ‘Gender and Law’ were
found to be extremely informative and valuable
 Theoretical concepts of Gender and Gender Budgeting were effectively taught
 Power point presentations, sessions for short films and case studies were helpful
The aspects that require some improvement according to the participants are listed below:

35 | P a g e
  Strong emphasis was given on working and non working poor women of rural and urban
area, some discussions on middle class urban women and transgender would be effective
 More discussion on research methodology on feminist study would be helpful
 Discussion on Gender and Environment, Gender and Modernity and in Urban Spaces
 More in depth discussion on sociological, anthropological and political understanding
 Issues pertaining to LGBTQI could have been incorporated
 Providing platform to the participants to share their own perception about gender and
identity

3. Important Reflections related to Conceptual Debates and Arguments around

Gender and Development
Participants agreed that the conceptual debates and arguments around gender and development
were explained effectively. The most important reflections that participants felt were really
useful for their learning and gave them a deeper insight also found it helpful for further research
is briefly stated below:

 Oppression of vocabulary as explained by Devaki Jain

 Various approaches of gender mainstreaming
 Role of nation state with respect to gender and the pivotal role played by the constitution
 Care work of woman and women work participation rate being an absolute
miscalculation given the complete exclusion of care work
 Women’s work being invisible and its implications and rethinking the definition of work
 Basic difference between Practical Gender Needs and Strategic Gender Needs
 Theoretical framework and approaches of development and various factors affecting
gender development and gender budgeting
 Acquired new concepts or terms like gender equity, SNA, time use survey etc
 The understanding of whole issue of gender in relation to class, caste, race and other
identities of the individual
 The need of appropriation of gender socialization at the grass root level which will help
in bringing a change through various gender sensitized policies and legislation
 The talk on ‘Gender and Policy Debates’ was informative and helped in building clarity
in many of the conceptual issues
 The difference between formal and substantive equality
 Gender issues and the state’s role in sexual violence against women in conflicting areas
 Concept of equity and gender sensitive development

4. Specific Feedback
Participants felt that the flow of the workshop was good and some of the resource persons were
brilliant in explaining the concepts and engaging with the participants in an interactive manner.
The group activities were designed in a participative way.

However the participants felt there could have been more resource persons from feminist
academician particularly political scientists and from women studies faculty. Also to have

36 | P a g e
resource person on psychology and psychiatry to explain gender dimensions of identity,
socializations and guilt. They felt the need of more discussion on theoretical aspect. Materials on
women and work across different sectors of economy would have proved to be useful.

5. Sessions Most Liked and Least Liked

Majority of the sessions were mostly liked by all the participants unanimously. Devaki Jain’s
session had set the tone and others elaborated and developed the theme. The sessions which were
most liked and appreciated by majority of the participants are stated below:

 Panel discussion on Gender and Violence, as all the speakers spoke from the grass root
approach and explained very well.
 Session on Constitutional Equality and Feminist Jurisprudence due to its content,
conceptualization and the whole manner in which the narrative was delivered evoked
interest among the participants.
 Session on Theoretical Frameworks on Gender and Development. The approaches of
development policy and different gender analysis framework with examples were
explained in a great manner. The group activity of social matrix was helpful in
understanding the real situation of rural woman. The activity learning approach was
actually interesting.
 Session on Gender and Education was also motivating.
 Session on Gender Mainstreaming provided new insights.
 Session on Introduction to Women’s Unpaid Work was liked as it covered many topics
like unpaid work, care work as well as women in informal sector and their conditions.
The documentaries which were shown depicted the ground realities which women have
faced as well as are still facing in current scenario.
The sessions that participants felt require some improvement and hence were not liked so much
is mentioned below with the specific reasons:

 ‘Measuring Women’s Work’ was least liked by the participants in terms of

conceptualization and presentation. There was too much of mathematical data into the
presentation which became a constraint for many participants as they were from diverse
backgrounds. Hence they found it difficult to relate due to usage of too many technical
terms and statistics. The session was data driven as per many participants.
 Panel discussion on Gender and Globalization, Gender and Economy and Gender and
Law was not understood well since these are vast topics. It is desirable to cover them
separately.

THE ROAD AHEAD

Keeping in line with the tone of the workshop, several directions were identified into which
further research could go forward. Some possible steps for future include:
Research towards gender and equity in the times of increasing per capita income.

37 | P a g e
 Idea for a future workshop on understanding and equipping students with research tools
like research mapping in collaboration with IIT Bombay, for which the response was
positive.

A Possible introduction of a course on Gender and Development at the Masters level in

University of Delhi under WSDC.

A reader based on the proceedings of the workshop.

38 | P a g e
 APPENDIX I- LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

Women’s Studies and Development Centre, (Advanced Studies)

UNIVERSITY OF DELHI
List of Participants

Total of Application Received DELHI UNIVERSITY DELHI STATE PARTICIPANTS OUT STATION PARTICIPANTS NO. OF MALE/ FEMALE Selected Candidates
PARTICIPANTS PARTICIPANTS
74 12 07 13 03/29 32
Six-day National Workshop on Gender and Development
(11 – 16, February, 2019)
Venue: WSDC Conference Room

SR. NAME OF Contact SUBJECT GENDE NEME OF THE INSTITUTION MAIL ID Remarks
NO. PARTICIPANT/ DECIPLINE R
PLACE
1 AkankshaBady 9419254949 English F Research Scholar, [email protected]
al 7889888351 SMVD University, Katra,
Jammu &Kashmir

2 Alka A. Dubey 8449722224 English F Research scholar, [email protected]

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University,
Agra, UP

3 Amrit Kaur 9810819914 History F Teaching Faculty, [email protected]

Basra Delhi College of Arts &
Commerce, University of
Delhi

39 | P a g e
 4 Anandita 7431095554 Political F Assistant Professor, (Stage II) [email protected]
Biswas Science Department of Political
Science,Diamond Harbour
Women’s University,
West Bengal

5 Aparajita 9818750931 History F Assistant Professor from [email protected]

Bhattacharya Department of History,
Dyal Singh College,
University of Delhi

6 ArshiShowkat 7006956576 Social Work F Research scholar, Department [email protected]

of Social Work, Jamia Milia
Islamia

7 Ashvina Basnet 9142334942 Social Work F Research scholar, Delhi [email protected]

School of Social
Work,University of Delhi
8 Diksha Singh 9839926612 Sociology F Senior Research Fellow,
Department of Sociology [email protected]
Banaras Hindu University,
Varanasi

9 Gurumayum 8376981592 Social Work M Research Scholar, [email protected]

Richie Sharma Department of Social Work
University of Delhi

10 Mahak 9796628710 Sociology F Research Scholar, [email protected]

Mahajan Ph.D ,School of Humanities
and Social
Sciences(SHSS),Indian
Institute of Technology (IIT),
Mandi, H.P.

40 | P a g e
 11 Mansi Mehta 9868210977 Economics F Research Scholar, [email protected]
Ambedkar University Delhi

12 MoumitaDey 9674985695 Geography F Research Scholar, [email protected]

Department of Geography,
University of Calcutta,
West Bengal

13 NeelamSukhra 9810339921 Social Work F Professor, (Permanent [email protected],

mani Faculty in Department of [email protected]
Social Work,
JamiaMilliaIslamia
14 Neethu S Biju 9074103538 Pol.Science F Ph.D Research Scholar, [email protected]
Department of Humanities
and Social Sciences,
(IIT) Madras Chennai,
Tamil Nadu – 600036

15 Neha Goyal 9910435875 Economics F Research Scholar, [email protected]

Department of Economics,
Aligarh Muslim University,
UP.
16 Nidhi Mishra 9810981336 Education F Ph.D Scholar, [email protected]
CIE,
DU
17 PrakritiPriya 9971524102 Pop. Studies F Ph.D Research Scholar, prakritipriya01@gmai
working under the l.com
supervision of Prof. Anuradha
Banerjee in the Centre for the
Study of Regional
Development,
JNU, New Delhi

18 RinkiMavi 8800902627 Pol. Science F Ph.D. Scholar, [email protected]

Department of Political m

41 | P a g e
 Science,
University of Delhi

19 Riyaz Ahmad 9419947172 Accounta M Research Scholarand [email protected]

Mir bility and Academic Counselor
9697929009 Transparen in IGNOU,Department of
cy in Political Science, University of
Jammu and Kashmir District Baramulla,
Kashmir Jammu &Kahmir- 190006

20 Sabreena 7506049837 Economics F Research Scholar, [email protected]

Khan 9350911688 Department of Economics ,
JamiaMilliaIslamia,
New Delhi

21 Sanchita Joshi 9871158817 Economics F Doctoral Fellow, [email protected]

FMS
Faculty of
ManagementStudies,
University of Delhi

22 Santosh Bharti 9910039144 English F Assistant Professor, [email protected]

Delhi College of Arts : www.mylifemycelebration.com
and Commerce,
University of Delhi

23 SapnaGoel Economics F Ph.D., 1st year Research [email protected]

9971058730 Scholar,South Asian
University,New Delhi
24 Savy Singh 9899989122 Psychology F Research Scholar, [email protected]
Pursuing PhD in Psychology
from Department of
Psychology
University of Delhi

42 | P a g e
 25 Shailaja Menon 9968058908 History F Assistant Professor, [email protected]
School of Liberal Studies /
School of Undergraduate
Studies, Ambedkar
University,
26 ShivaniKatara 9205269749 Sociology F PhD Scholar, [email protected]
Dept. of Sociology, DSE
Delhi School of Economics,
DU
27 SimranPreet 9796298296 Gender F Assistant Professor [email protected]
Kaur Studies and S O L & L, SMVD University,
Film J&K
Studies

28 SnehLata 9813247292 English F Asstt. Prof. &Incharge [email protected]

Sharma Dept of English
Ch. Bansi Lal University,
Haryana
29 Sonam 7982112532 Economics F Assistant Professor, [email protected]
Economics
Hansraj College, DU
30 SruthiVijayakri 9995276007 Public F PhD research scholar, [email protected]
shnan Administrat pursuing Ph.D from Central
ion and University of Kerala,
Policy Kasaragod,
Studies Thiruvananthapuram
31 Sumit Sharma 9858117121 English M Assistant Professor, [email protected]
Govt. Degree College,
Banihal, J&K
32 UrbaMudasir 8130604378 Pol. Science F Research Scholar, [email protected]
Malik 9419001545 Jawaharlal Nehru University

33 Nisha [email protected]

43 | P a g e
 APPENDIX II- LIST OF RESOURCE PERSONS

National Workshop on Gender and Development

(11th Feb- 16th Feb 2019)
Resource Persons

Aasha K. Mehta
Visiting Professor, IHD
Aasha Kapur Mehta is currently a Visiting Professor at Institute of
Human Development (IHD). She previously worked as Professor of
Economics (Economic Policy) at IIPA (Indian Institute of Public
Administration). She has done her M.Phil. from Jawaharlal Nehru
University with MS and PhD from Iowa State University, USA. Her
areas of interest include poverty, deprivation, disparities, indicators
and issues related to vulnerable groups.
She has been awarded with numerous awards such as Predoctoral
Fulbright Scholar; McNamara Fellow (World Bank); Phi Kappa Phi
(overall excellence in academics); Gamma Sigma Delta (excellence in
agricultural economics). She has also been recognised as an Associate
of the University of Birmingham (2001) and Gender Economist, Skoch
Development Challenger Award 2012.

[email protected]

Anshul Chhatrapati
Journalist
Anshul Chhatrapati is a journalist in Sirsa (Haryana). He is the editor
of the National Hindi daily called the "Poora Sach". The daily exposed
the Dera Sacha Sauda Founder-Head, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and
the incriminating evidence of activities inside the sect’s headquarters.
He continues to fight for justice.

[email protected]

44 | P a g e
 Anweshaa Ghosh
Research Analyst, ISST
Anweshaa is a Research Analyst at the Institute of Social Studies Trust
(ISST), New Delhi. She has been working as a researcher on women’s
informal labour for over 8 years. Her past research and publications
have been around women’s claims-making, unpaid care
work, domestic workers and sex workers.

[email protected]

Devaki Jain
Feminist Economist
Devaki Jain is a feminist economist, activist and Founder of ISST. She
graduated in Economics from Oxford in 1963 and taught at Delhi
University for 6 years. Since then, her academic research and
advocacy, influenced largely by Gandhian Philosophy, have focussed
on issues of equity, democratic decentralisation, people-centred
development and
women’s rights.

She was one of the founders of a wide range of institutions such as

Development Alternatives for Women for a new Era (DAWN) - a third
world network of women social scientists who provided an alternative
framework for understanding the location of advancing the cause of
poor women of the South. Indian Association of Women's Studies
(IAWS), Kali, Feminist Publishing House.
[email protected]

Dipta Bhog
Founder, Nirantar
Dipta works on issues of education and gender and has over three
decades of experience of engaging with rural communities and groups.
She works independently at present, but is founder member of
Nirantar, A Centre for Gender and Education, a feminist
organisation based in Delhi. From working on rural women's literacy,
she moved to engaging with the school system through developing
school curricula for Delhi Government and at the national level with
National Council for Education, Research and Training (NCERT).
Dipta has curated and conducted courses on gender and education.
She conceptualised and coordinated a national study titled, Textbook
Regimes: A Feminist Analysis of Nation and Identity, to critically analyse
language and social science textbooks. Her more recent areas of
research and training concern policies and practices related to
Adolescent girls and the development of creative tools in the form of
graphic books and installations to generate discussion on the links
between gender, sexuality, schooling of girls and policy initiatives.
[email protected]
Gurpreet Kaur
Research Consultant, ISST
45 | P a g e
 Gurpreet’s MPhil thesis was in Women's and Gender studies from
Ambedkar University Delhi that centred on creating a 'critical'
understanding of women empowerment, specifically through field
work in the rural villages of Hoshangabad district in Madhya Pradesh.
She has presented her work at various national and international
conferences across the country and has also published her work as
part of an online journal. She has her Masters in Psychology.

Her research interests lies at understanding the question of woman

and gender at the cusp of development, philosophy, psychoanalysis
and feminist politics. Currently at ISST, she is involved in working on
'Gender and Economic Policy' discussion forums funded by the
Heinrich Boll Stiftung (HBF) and a research study on the Home-based
workers in Delhi, funded by the FES Stiftung and WEIGO.

[email protected]

Jagmati Sangwan
Activist
Jagmati Sangwan is an Indian activist against honour killing and Khap
panchayats in Haryana. She was the General Secretary of the All India
Democratic Women's Association and was a central committee
member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) but was later
expelled after she opposed the alliance with the Indian National
Congress in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, 2016.
She was a volleyball player who was in the part of the Indian team that
won bronze at the Asian Volleyball Championships.

[email protected]

Kavita Srivastava
Human Rights Activist
Kavita has been promoting, collectively with other social groups,
nonviolent ways of ensuring justice to survivors of atrocities
committed due to gender, class, caste, religious group or nationality.
Her accomplishments include work with the women’s movement in
Rajasthan, which has initiated laws against widow burning and
national guidelines against violence against women. She also
succeeded in taking the “Right to Food” issue to the Supreme Court in
2001. She is the national secretary of the Union for Civil Liberties.
Kavita Srivastava is a full-time human rights activist working to
protect people’s democratic and constitutional rights and to
work towards justice in instances of violations of people’s
rights.

[email protected]
[email protected]

46 | P a g e
 Madhu Mehra
Founding member and Executive Director of PLD
Madhu is a feminist lawyer, founding member and Executive Director
of PLD. She has contributed towards developing PLD as a legal
resource group on women’s rights as well as its collaborative work
methods. Her work on CEDAW and women’s human rights spans
India, South Asia and the Asia Pacific – as a trainer, technical advisor
and researcher. Her activism, work and writings cover issues relating
to sexuality, cultural identity politics, conflict, violence against women,
access to justice, and the CEDAW. She is affiliated with several leading
women’s rights networks in the Asia Pacific (APWLD and the IWRAW-
AP); and undertook the review of 15 years of the mandate of the of the
UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women.

[email protected]

Manjeet Bhatia
Associate Professor & Head- Women Studies Development
Centre (WSDC), University of Delhi
Manjeet Bhatia is truly an interdisciplinary academic as she holds
degrees in Pure Sciences, Political Science and Philosophy. She is a
Women/Gender Studies specialist, working for more than two
decades in this area. She teaches, trains and conducts research in her
present position as an Associate Professor and is presently heading
the WSDC. She has made several presentations in various, local,
regional, national and international academic seminars/conferences.
She is currently working on a major research Project- Changing
Gender Relations in New Middle Class in India (comparing three
metros).

[email protected]

47 | P a g e
 Mary E John
Senior fellow, Centre for Women’s Development Studies
(CWDS)
Mary E John is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Women’s
Development Studies in Delhi. She has been working in the fields of
women’s studies and feminist politics for many years. She was
Director of CWDS from 2006-2012, and before that was Associate
Professor and Deputy Director of the Women’s Studies Programme at
JNU, New Delhi from 2001-2006. She is a Ph.D. in Women’s Studies
from University of California. Her forthcoming book is called “Women
in the Worlds of Labour: Interdisciplinary and Intersectional
Perspective” co-edited with Meena Gopal, Orient Blackswan.

[email protected]
[email protected]

Mercy Kappen
Director, Visthar Academy of Justice and Peace
Mercy Kappen has been with Visthar since its inception.She has over
30 years of experience as a trainer, activist, and programme
coordinator. She has a strong foundation in critical pedagogy. Mercy
has been involved in designing and facilitating capacity-building for
mainstreaming gender and diversity in organizations and
programmes. She has served as visiting faculty at the Grail Centre in
Cape Town for the diploma in Training for Transformation and has
been a gender facilitator for CBM (SARO), Asia-Pacific Alliance of
YMCAs and the Federation of African Women in Media Zimbabwe,
among others.

[email protected]

Monika Banerjee
Research Fellow, ISST
Monika joined ISST as a Research Fellow in April 2018. She holds
aPhD and MPhil degree from the Zakir Hussain Centre for Educational
Studies, JNU, New Delhi. Her doctoral thesis focused upon examining
the modalities through which Central Government Policies related to
education get translated and transacted at a local contextual level.
Prior to this, Monika worked for some years in the development sector
in India as well as UK. She also worked for a year with the Ministry of
Women and Child as a Technical Consultant while pursuing her PhD.

Monika's interest lies in issues of governance, understanding social

policy processes in a comparative framework, visibility of deprived
and marginalised groups in existing policies and viability of such
policies in bringing change. Currently at ISST, Monika is associated
with a Gender Mainstreaming project, funded by the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation, which focuses on engendering policy processes and
public discourses through events and research

48 | P a g e
 [email protected]

Mubashira Zaidi
Researcher, ISST
Mubashira is a researcher at the ISST and has contributed to policy
research and analysis as well as evaluation of external and internal
projects. A few key research projects she has been part of at ISST
include, “When and Why Do States Respond to Women's Claims
Making: Understanding the Processes of Gender Egalitarian Policy
Change”, “Balancing unpaid care work and paid work: Successes,
Challenges and Lessons for Women’s Economic Empowerment
Programmes and Policies,” a cross regional study and the "Tribal
women’s empowerment through the Forest Rights Act, 2006 in
southern Rajasthan". Before ISST, Mubashira worked with women
survivors of violence in the slums of Dharavi, Mumbai, through
counselling, legal aid and building community support structures to
reduce violence against women. She has also worked with human
rights and advocacy organizations.

[email protected]

Neetha N. Pillai
Professor & Acting Director, Centre for Women's
Development Studies
Neetha N. is currently working as a professor and acting director at
Centre for Women’s Development Studies (CWDS). Earlier she was
Associate Fellow & Coordinator, Centre for Gender and Labour at the
V.V. Giri National Labour Institute. Her research interests are labour
and employment issues of women, domestic workers, labour
migration and gender statistics and data gaps. She has completed her
MPhil & PhD in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University.
She recently co-edited “Migration, Gender and Care Economy” with S.
Irudaya Rajan, Routledge, London.

[email protected]
[email protected]

49 | P a g e
 Rajib Nandi, Research Fellow and Office-in-Charge, Institute
of Social Studies Trust (ISST)
Rajib Nandi has an experience of more than twenty years in research
and evaluation and a doctoral degree in Sociology from Jawaharlal
Nehru University. He is associated with ISST since 1998. He has
worked on a range of research projects funded by the government, UN
agencies and other national and international donor agencies. The
research projects ranges from gender and development, women and
work, solidarity economy, livelihood issues, ICTs, to programme
evaluations and evaluative studies. His expertise lies in both
quantitative and qualitative research techniques and field-based
research. He has participated and acted as a resource person in
several training/evaluation workshops. Rajib is a founder and core
group member of Evaluation Community of India and a member of
Board of Directors, Community of Evaluators - South Asia.

[email protected]

Ratna M. Sudarshan
Trustee, Institute of Social Studies Trust (ISST)
Ratna M. Sudarshan was previously the Director of the ISST in New
Delhi, and is now a member of the Board of Trustees. She has worked
at the National Council of Applied Economic Research and been a
Fellow at the National University of Educational Planning and
Administration, also in Delhi. Her research has mainly focused on the
links between women’s work, the informal economy and education.
She has researched extensively on aspects of gender and development.
She initiated ISST’s work on feminist evaluation and continues to be
associated with this project. She has been a consultant to the ILO,
World Bank, SEWA Bharat, and other national and international
organizations, and is associated in an advisory capacity with
Uttarakhand Environmental Education Centre, Almora; Federation for
Education and Development, Jaipur; Sandhan, Jaipur, and other
organizations.
[email protected]

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 Renu Khanna
Founder Trustee, SAHAJ
Renu is a founder trustee of SAHAJ-Society for Health Alternatives
based in Vadodara (Gujarat), a community-based action research and
advocacy organization working on social accountability issues in the
areas of Maternal Health, Child Rights, Adolescents’ Development. As a
trainer, researcher and evaluator, she has also mentored several grass
roots organizations women’s and community health organizations in
India over the years. Renu is actively engaged in several pro-peoples’
networks, like the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (Indian chapter of Peoples
Health Movement), CommonHealth – Coalition for Maternal-Neonatal
Health and Safe Abortion, COPASAH (Community of Practitioners
on Accountability and Social Action in Health), Medico Friends Circle,
and others.

[email protected]

Rukmini Sen
Professor, Ambedkar University Delhi
Rukmini is Professor in the School of Liberal Studies at the Ambedkar
University Delhi and concurrently also teaches at the Gender Studies
Program of School of Human Studies. She has been involved in
designing and teaching courses on Law and Society, Relationships and
Affinities, Women’s Movements, Gender and Society, State Nation
Citizenship and Law
She has done her PhD from University of Calcutta, Kolkata. Her
teaching and research interests lie in the intersection between
sociology, law, policy making, social movements and gender studies.
Having been part of different women’s groups in Kolkata she has an
experience of trying to connect activism with academics. She has been
the Joint Secretary of the Indian Association of Women’s Studies
between 2008-2011, is in the panel of Experts of the National
Commission for Women, New Delhi since 2011, reviewing various
laws on women.
[email protected]

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 Satish B. Agnihotri
Professor and Head of CTARA, IIT Bombay
Mr. Satish is a retired IAS officer of Orissa cadre from the 1980 batch
and currently Professor and heading the Centre for Technology
Alternative for Rural Areas (CTARA) and Centre for Policy Studies
(CPS) at IIT, Bombay. He has been consistently working on various
areas such as Child malnutrition, Renewable Energy and Energy
Policy, Gender, Rural development and technology scale-up, Use of
Mapping Techniques in social Sector planning and Public Policy. His
research on declining sex ratios in India has been considered of high
significance.

[email protected]
[email protected]

Sarojini G Thakur
Chairperson, Institute of Social Studies Trust(ISST)
Sarojini Ganju Thakur is currently the Chairperson of Institute of
Social Studies Trust. She retired from the IAS (HP cadre -1977) as
Additional Chief Secretary in April 2011, where the last charges she
held included Environment, Science and Technology, Urban
Development and Social Justice and Empowerment. Subsequently till
2016 she was working as Chairperson, H.P. Private Educational
Institutions Regulatory Commission, a unique institution established
by the Government of H.P. to ensure that the quality of education
being imparted by a rapidly expanding private sector meets
prescribed standards and norms. In addition to education, her
principal interests and work are in the field of gender, livelihoods and
environment. Prior to her latest stint in H.P. government she worked
with the Commonwealth Secretariat in London from 2004-2008 as
Adviser and Head of the Gender Section and in DFID, India as a Rural
Livelihoods Adviser from 2001-2004. She has worked as Joint
Secretary in Govt of India in the Ministry of Women and Child
Development and also as Deputy Director in LBSNAA, Mussoorie
where she established the National Gender Centre and mainstreamed
gender training into inputs at the Academy.

[email protected]

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 Shiney Chakraborty
Research Analyst, Institute of Social Studies Trust (ISST)
Shiney is currently working as Research Analyst at ISST and has
submitted her PhD thesis in July 2018 at Centre for Economic Studies
and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Her doctoral thesis titled
"Gender Wage Discrimination in the Indian Labour Market, 1993-94 to
2011-12" provides a detailed description of the reasons of decline in
women's recognized workforce participation rate, magnitude and
evolution of employment pattern, occupational segregation and wage
gaps. She is presently working as a Research Analyst with Institute of
Social Studies Trust. Prior to this she was working as a Project
Associate at National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi.
Shiney’s areas of interest are women’s unpaid work, wage
discrimination, labour and employment and gender-related issues.

[email protected]

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 Group Photo of the Workshop Participants and Staff

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