“We don’t need Afghan-style burqas to disappear as women. We disappear in reverse – by revamping and revealing our bodies to meet the externally imposed vision of beauty” – Robin Gerber Existentialists argue that everything we are today is the result of our choices, and we build our own values with the available choices and resources that society gives us.[Read More…]

In a country where the culture of arranged and forced marriage is the norm, marrying for love is an exception, and divorce or choosing to remain single is associated with social stigma; it can be argued that a financially empowered woman is better positioned to reverse these traditional social dynamics and bring about social change in the right direction. However,[Read More…]

  International Day of Rural Women–15 October The empowerment of rural women and girls is essential to building a prosperous    equitable and peaceful future for all on a healthy planet — UN Secretary-General, António Guterres Gender inequality is not only a pressing moral and social issue but also a critical economic challenge. India has a larger relative economic value at stake[Read More…]

  In an ashram perched high on a hill above the city of Guwahati is a small exhibit commemorating the life of India’s most famous son. Alongside a bed  where Mahatma Gandhi himself  slept is a display reminding visitors of something the man himself said in 1921: “Of all the evils for which man has made himself responsible, none is so[Read More…]

    Women and girls play a lesser recognised role as drivers of growth and progress and powerful agents of change. Gender remains a critically important and largely ignored lens to view development issues across the world. Gender inequality is not only a pressing moral and social issue but also a critical economic challenge. India has a larger relative economic value at[Read More…]

   The poor themselves can create a poverty-free world all we have to do is to free them from the chains that we have put around them -Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus When I first initiated livelihood finance projects through women collectives called as self help groups, more than two decades back, I encountered stiff resistance from the local elders who[Read More…]

Pride and dignity would belong to women if only men would leave them alone. Egyptian Proverb Gender inequality is not only a pressing moral and social issue but also a critical economic challenge. India has a larger relative economic value at stake from advancing gender equality than any of the ten regions analyzed in a McKinsey Global Institute report, The Power of Parity:[Read More…]

  Woman must not accept; she must challenge. She must not be awed by that which has been built up around her; she must reverence that woman in her which struggles for expression. – Margaret Sanger Providing women with more and better opportunities to fulfill their social, economic, and political roles is now deemed so essential for reducing poverty and[Read More…]

A few kilometers outside Ahmedabad in Gujarat, I visited a Mahila Shakti Kendra about a year ago. I was amazed at what I saw and heard. In a community building, right in the center of a buzzing market, was a decent sized room. There were info graphics on the wall, a group of women of all ages having a charcha.[Read More…]

  We live in a world in which women living in poverty face gross inequalities and injustice from birth to death. From poor education to poor nutrition to vulnerable and low pay employment, the sequence of discrimination is very hard, but all too common. They face significant constraints in maximizing their  But there are also silvery strands in this dark[Read More…]

If you’re in trouble, or hurt or need – go to the poor people. They’re the only ones that’ll help – the only ones. ― John Steinbeck The Indian women farmer, almost never publicly acknowledged, reviled by superstition and patriarchy, and increasingly troubled by entrenched social and cultural mores and taboos bears the real burden of farm labour. Nearly 98 million[Read More…]

When I first initiated livelihood finance projects through women collectives called as Self Help Groups, more than two decades back, I encountered stiff resistance from the local elders who couldn’t believe that their women could attend a meeting without a male chaperone. There were some who felt that since I was a male, I had no customary sanction to interact[Read More…]

The transformation of women’s roles is the last great impediment to universal progress. Indian women haven’t always had much by way of social agency or power whereby they could formulate strategic choices, and   control resources and decisions that affect important life outcomes. This   , however, hasn’t stopped them from elbowing past certain patriarchal structures to powerful effect. The introduction of[Read More…]

It has  been more than  20 years since the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts – termed as post-Independent India’s most revolutionary exercise in democratic decentralization and devolution of power – were passed by the Parliament, mandating one-third seats in all local governments be reserved for women. The biggest significance of women’s reservation was that it unlocked the power, talent[Read More…]

A mother is a school. Empower her and you empower a great nation.   -Hafez Ibrahim, Egyptian poet  The real tragedy of the poor, particularly the women among them, is that their voice is unheard in forums, even at those which are exclusively devoted to their problems. As the Madagasy proverb goes, “poverty won’t allow him to lift his head, dignity[Read More…]

Money is the seed of money, and the first guinea is sometimes more difficult to acquire than the second million. —Jean-Jacques Rousseau The 21st century poses many challenges that require new ways of thinking, none more important than the economic role of women in a rapidly changing world. Over the last several decades, it has become accepted wisdom that improving the[Read More…]