GENDER INEQUALITY AND DISCRIMINATION IN INDIA: Discourse and Dilemmas

Punitive patriarchy deeply entrenched in its socio-cultural norms has induced gender discrimination and sustained unfair gender practices in India over centuries. Instead of proscribing biased treatment towards women, Indian social structure promotes disparity, misogyny and stigmatization. The institutionalized sets of values and principles propagated by patriarchal dogmas continue to inflict miseries on women under the garb of socio-cultural practices. The fact-based data on Indian women and their ‘lived’ experiences as women in Indian society conforms largely to the imagery of an ‘object and inferior’ being and banish them from the larger process of economic and political inclusion in general.
The present book entitled Gender Inequality and Discrimination in India: Discourse and Dilemmas encompasses into various spheres of gender exclusion and inclusion emanating several thematic conversations by scholars who addressed ‘gender discrimination and misogyny’ as a dominant tool to subjugate Indian ‘women and womanhood’ as subterranean concern.
This edited collection of articles attempt to develop a wider gamut of understanding of the nature and importance of gender equality, gender roles and gender relations in the developmental processes, with a special focus on socio-political and cultural issues of post-globalised Indian society. This theoretical framework can be applied to promote gender awareness and equity in the developmental interventions; and impregnate organizational and institutional culture with newer insights. The book is weaved around ‘gender’ as a ‘core’ theme, predominantly from a feminist perspective.

Sumita Sarkar is presently working as Dean at IBSAR Group of Colleges, Navi Mumbai. She is a M.Phil & Ph.D. from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). Post Doctoral Fellow from London School of Economics & Political Sciences (LSE) under Asia Research Center (ARC) as Sir Ratan Tata Fellow (2008–09), UK. She has been a Visiting Professor Fellow at the Department of Sociology, Charles University, Prague, Chez Republic and Senior Research Fellow at Department of Anthropology & Sociology, Central European University (CEU), Budapest, Hungary. She represented IBSAR for International Collaborative MBA programme at Frostburg University, USA, (2010). During her perusal of M.Phil & Ph.D., she was awarded Dorabji Merit Fellowship (1996–99) and Ministry of Home Affairs Fellowship (2002–02). Her research interests are broadly based on gender and development studies. She has presented papers in Europe and in South East Asian international conferences and also has been a Visiting Lecturer at Kent and York University, UK. Based on her research initiatives, she has published several research papers in referred international and national journals.