WOMEN EMPOWERMENT AND DEVELOPMENT: Readings from Asia

The need for absolute gender equality is now a universally acknowledged guiding principle for policy makers and international bodies. In recent years, concepts like WAD (Women and Development) and GAD (Gender and Development) have gained increasing traction, with appropriate responses from policy planners.
However, a great gap still exists between policies and practice, as is evident from the several papers included in the current volume. Lack of gender equality and equity is all pervasive as illustrated by case studies in this book whether it be in China’s megacities or its rural countryside, inequalities exist in societies as diverse as those of Himalayan ascetics to the tribal forests and badlands in Central India and Odisha, from the fertile plains of Punjab to materially developed Japan. The papers also discuss policy implications contributing to women’s development and empowerment in a variety of settings, and argue for active state policies for women’s development and empowerment.

Sameera Maiti is Professor of Anthropology, and Dean of the School of Human Sciences, Sikkim University, Gangtok, Sikkim. She has been a National Fellow in Arts at the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, Government of India and a National Associate at the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla. She was the Charles Wallace Visiting Fellow to Queens University, Belfast and a Commonwealth Academic Staff Fellow to Oxford University. Her research interests broadly lie in the study of anthropology and art (including material cultures and performing arts); gender issues; developmental issues and their acceptance thereof by marginalised, rural, vulnerable and tribal communities; studies on exclusion, deprivation and inclusion; health and ethno-medicinal issues; and demographic issues.