WHERE ARE WOMEN....?WOMEN IN

DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES:THEORY AND PRACTICES IN INDIA

Author:MIRA KAPIL DESAI

 

ABSTRACT---Women constitute half the world. Women have been prevented for a long time from being a part of the mainstream society. At a point in time, they did not even exist or figured in the design of "Mankind". The "visibility" of women IS a recent story. As far as development processes are concerned, the role and contribution made by women in any society has 'now been recognized without doubt and the issue remains of what role is expected of her. This paper is divided into two parts. The first part deals with concepts of development, women in development, approaches to and impact of development on women. The second part illustrates the case of Indian women and examines how planning processes have affected women.

 

       Women constitute half of the world. As far as development processes are concerned, the role and contribution made by women in any society has been now recognized without doubt; yet the issue remains of what role is expected of her. Development as a concept has evolved over a period of time. Current development dialogue reflects disillusionment with macro-growth theories and techno-economic models. The globalization has led to furthering of that process. The current concerns are more humanistic and micro-centered. It has now been accepted that the development policies of the governments have done little to improve upon the status of women and gender relations in the society. The paper in the first half elaborates the theoretical discourses of WID-WAD-GAD in the context of inclusion of women in development processes. It illustrates how women gradually became part of development discourse in form of WID, became visible through WAD interventions and later made their way through GAD approach. The Paper examines theoretically the perspectives to Women In Development (integrating women in development), Women And Development (making their role and work visible) and Gender And Development (addressing male-female positioning in the society) with difficulty and solution for each of the approaches as well as nature of development interventions for each of them. The second half of the paper relates to the experiences of women in Indian planning processes illustrating the policy/programmes in each five year plan--from the first to the ninth. The outlay of four crores in the first plan has gone up to 2000 crores Rs. in the eighth plan. But it needs to be examined from the point of view of the development approaches (Welfare, Equality, Anti-poverty, Efficiency, Empowerment), historically naming role of women, analysis of secondary status attempted by the respective approach, on-going programmes/policies, institutions created in India over the years and their impact on status of women in the society. The paper concludes with comments by various authors/researchers about the impact of policies on women in India and issues still remaining unresolved after fifty years of independence. Though women’s life expectancy, literacy, political space and awareness about their legal rights have increased, little has been achieved as far as sex ratios, gender violence, property rights etc. are concerned. Women still constitute the powerless, illiterate, poor segment of Indian society. The satisfaction being that the growing number of them are challenging and changing their ‘positions’ more as an individual leading towards women’s movement. The paper links the

theory of approaches towards women in development processes and account of Indian women’s experiences of state initiated development interventions.

Part I : Women in Development: TheoryDEVELOPMENT REDEFINED:

       “The term ‘Development’ implies change, movement, progress, growth and the achievement of potential. The concise Oxford Dictionary (1964:281) defines development as “gradual unfolding; fuller working out; growth; stage of advancement”. Development is defined in United Nations and other documents as “the process by which distributive equality is achieved... . Equitable allocation of access and benefit is intrinsic to true development... Development implies a continuous never ending process” (Sohoni, 1994).

       “Development” has meant different things at different points of time. As a concept it has evolved with time. The popular notion of “development” meant growth of the economy in terms of its gross national product. Agrarian economies were viewed as primitive –“ underdeveloped” nations that were renamed as “developing” now – which has to achieve development through modernisation, industrialisation and capitalist development. It was believed that once incomes grow in the economy, benefits would automatically trickle down to poor households and also across all the members of the household. The model continues even today.

       In the present model of development, a few industrialised countries like USA and Japan control, misuse and consume the main resources of the world. In the third world, a few rich people control the resources and decision-making power. The large majority of the people remain powerless and poor. For the poor in the Third world, development has meant less and less control over their own resources and lives. Their existence has become precarious. There has indeed been progress and development, but only for the few. The rest are paying for this development by sacrificing their lives, cultures (and) values (Bhasin, 1993, 2).

       Underlying the current “development dialogue” is a general disillusionment with macro-growth theories and “techno-economic” models of development. The deepening crisis in the developed world is precipitating the reappraisal of development goals and policies in the Third World countries also. The growing problems of poverty, unemployment, inequality and rural stagnation compel a shift in focus, to the need for a more humane strategy of development and narrowing of disparities in income and levels of living and distributional equity within and between nations. The new vision of development defined in terms of satisfaction of basic minimum needs, better and more humane conditions of life, freedom from exploitation and minimization of constraints, has led to re-examination of past goals and strategies and to a search for alternatives based on the historical experience and the cultural context of particular societies. Midway through the second development decade, one notices continuous search alternatives in goals of development, which take note of indigenous values (Sharma, 1986).

WOMEN ENTERED:        The liberal assumptions about the ease with which modernization approach would integrate poorer sections of third world nations with the mainstream of development were soon questioned, when it became apparent that the benefits of development and modernization were not reaching the most needy. Part of the critique was provided by the

growing women’s movement, which brought into focus the subordinate status of women, and the unequal participation of women in the development process. The pioneering work of Danish economist and planner Esther Boserup Women and Economic Development published in 1970 played a crucial role in revealing the special and particular ways in which changes over the last couple of centuries were affecting the lives of women. Boserup highlighted the adverse impact of the modernization process on women and its failure to address the needs and roles of women as distinct from those of men. Examining empirical evidences from Asia and Africa, she concluded that technological innovations in the agrarian and industrial sectors benefited men over women, displacing women from their traditional productive labour, entrenching the sexual division of labour and restricting women’s access to benefits and resources provided by development.

       Influenced by Boserup’s work, several studies and researches were conducted. It was recognised that, with development, the gap between the relative status of men and women was widening. It was also realised that the adverse impact of development on women was due to the inability of planners to positively account for both roles of women, the productive and the reproductive, as a result of which women were unable to benefit from the development process. (Subramanian, 1993)

WHY WOMEN?        Women are the poorest among the poor (no matter how poverty lines are drawn); the most economically vulnerable (no matter what the nature of the crisis) and are almost always to be found lowest in the occupational ladder of the Indian economy (even around the world) and the last in line as the recipients of benefits derived from modernisation and industrialisation. (Ahooja Patel K, 1979) Even National Perspective Plan for women has observed, “… for the majority of women in the country (India), there is more work than wages, more load than capacity, more compulsion than choice”.

       The role of women in development is most intimately related to the goal of comprehensive socio-economic development, and is a strategic question for the development of all societies. Any development strategy, which neglects the need for enhancing the role of women cannot lead to comprehensive socioeconomic development, and is a strategic question for the development of all societies. The point of departure is to recognize the role of women as a dynamic factor and a valuable asset for the overall process of development – it is not a burden or cost nor a mere humanitarian concession to a disadvantaged group (Kalbagh, 1991, 23).

WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT:       Three major factors accounted for the international and national focus on women in development (WID):

  • The focus on the population “crisis” and the realization that women in developing countries, as reproducers, could be involved as the primary players in the population control programs of the “overpopulated” developing countries.This was marked by the International Population Conference held in Romania in 1974.

• Women’s role in subsistence production and responsibility for reproduction and family welfare, was recognised as a crucial channel for the provision of basic needs for

the family.

• The need was also felt for researching the lives of poor women in developing countries, in order to foster an understanding of poverty, in the light of the failure of the trickle-down approach in removing poverty.

       Other events like the organisation of the UN Decade for women (1976- 85), the UN Conferences at Mexico City (1975) and the Nirobi (1985), played a crucial role in bringing together women from different parts of the world, across North-South barriers to evolve a common agenda for development (Subramanian, 1993).

       The issues of Women In Development (WID) or Women And Development (WAD) have become an important concern for both academics and development planners and policy makers. The slow realisation that the development process itself had a differential impact on women and men from different strata as revealed by selected macro-indicators and micro-studies, particularly women in the lower strata, has resulted in an emphasis on “integrating women in the development process” (Sharma, 1986, 108).

APPROACHES/ PERSPECTIVES TO WID:

       The policy approaches to women in development are elaborated in Table-1.

       WID approaches of welfare and equity economic self reliance have been criticised for their blindness towards conditions of women’s oppression and their position in the society. WAD approaches of efficiency focussed on women as instruments of development with no explicit recognition of the need for women’s development, or of their subordination. Gender And Development (GAD) approach of empowerment and equality views women as participants in the development process in the light of their oppression and subordination while empowerment approach views collective action as remedy to resolve the situation.

TABLE-1: DIFFERENT APPROACHES/PERSPECTIVES TO WID

APPROACH CONCEPTS TYPE OF

DEVELOPMENT (EXAMPLES) Problem Solution

Welfare

Women’s poverty/specialneeds, socio-economic status.Women as vulnerable group.

- Provision of support- Services of health,    nutrition, child care   etc.

- Maternity clinics - Health Clinics - Immunization - Health/nutrition    education.

EconomicSelf- reliance (Anti-poverty)

women as under-employed/unproductive/ dependent/lackin productive skills.

- Promote self-   Reliance and   independence    Provide productive

   skills - Encourage women   productive

-Income generating   projects for women:   women's clubs,   soap making, rice    field, school   uniform making etc.

   enterprise

.Efficiency

Women as previously‘overlooked resource’ in development planningWomen as under developed human capital.

- Identify actual   productive roles of    Women.- Support women   with skill training   and improved    technology. - Invest in previously

   over-looked    resource.

- Integration of    women in   development    planning. - Mainstreaming of    women’s   development - Extension advice   women’sfarmers,   appropriate   technology. - Increase women’s    access to factors of    production.

Equality

- Structure of inequality- Discrimination against women in schooling,credit,access to land etc.

- Equality of   opportunity for   women in    schooling,access to   the factors of   production.

- Affirmative action   to promote equal   opportunity. - Revise development    planning so women   are equally    beneficiaries in   development   process.

Empowerment(GAD)

- Unequal gender relations.- The patriarchy, patriarchalresistance

- Conscientisation- Mobilization - Solidarity - Collective action

- Grassroot projects - Support for    women’s collective    action- Project concerned    with    democratization and    political action.

Source: UNICEF, based on C. Moser (ICECD, 1994)

       There have been common weaknesses of four main policy approaches – welfare, equity, anti-poverty and efficiency – as noted by Subramanian (1993). They are:

a) Focus on women’s reproductive (welfare) or productive roles (antipoverty) exclusively, without        comprehensively incorporating an understanding of women’s dual burden. b) Focus on integration of women in existing structures and development processes, without deep       critique of the structures themselves. c) Perceive women as a homogeneous category, without recognition of the divisions of class, caste,       race etc., which also play a role in shaping women’s experiences of oppression. d) Not to question the gender-based division of labour, and accept the artificial private/public        divide as given, without addressing issues of sexuality or intra-household inequalities etc.         which are instrumental in shaping women’s life experiences.

IMPACT ON WOMEN’S STATUS: Krishnaraj (1988, 21) comments that to discuss the impact of development on women’s status in the society is to confront the fact that women’s oppression is inextricably bound up in an exploitative world system of which development, as at present defined, is a part.

       The growing body of feminist literature that examines the effects of development policies on women and challenges the assumptions underlying their formulation is built on the work of both feminists and women in development scholars and practitioners in individualized as well as third world countries. The critiques range from questioning the idea of integrating women into development, to advocating a new ethical framework in which the development process should be placed, to challenging both the concepts advanced by development researchers and agencies and methods used by the social sciences in gathering

the data from which development programmes are designed (Bunch & Carrillo, 1990, 74).

       Macro level economic policies have adversely impacted women and families, especially those in poverty. The restructuring of the economy is driving women into insecure employment, unemployment, unprotected home-based production and dangerous working conditions. Diminishing social security systems and services are becoming the reality of women’s daily lives. Inequalities of life, nutrition, health, education and opportunities for a full and productive life increased from region to region within nations. Poverty increased both in absolute and relative terms and the number of women living in poverty increased in all regions as quoted in the draft platform for Action for Beijing.

       It has been experienced that economic development radically influences not only women’s role in family and society but also their work and even fertility. As Krishnaraj puts it; “The basic feature of development is to introduce new and modified technologies that change the occupation and other social organizations in the society in order to enhance total productivity of human and non-human resources. The new jobs and new income earning openings tend to be taken by men even if some of these displace jobs previously done by women. The process occurs because of the inability of women to move out to new openings. These inabilities come from the difficulty of physical movement and lack of endowment in new education and skills. At both the points, discrimination is inherent due to the existence of male authority within the family and outside; and women’s special responsibility for childcare and family care resting solely on women. This has intensified the dichotomisation of the relationship between men and women, leaving women relatively worse off than men even though both sexes are hard hit by the impoverishment of large sections of society. (Krishnanraj, 1988, 51)

Part II : Indian Women in “Development” ProcessHISTORICAL BACKGROUND: After the attainment of independence, it was felt that social and economic upliftment of the masses required Government assistance to strengthen the services rendered by voluntary agencies. The Theory and Practices in India administrative structure inherited from the colonial government was clearly not equipped for this task. The central government therefore created a new agency – the Central Social Welfare Board in 1953 to promote welfare and development services for women, children and other underprivileged groups– by providing assistance to voluntary agencies, improving and developing welfare programmes and sponsoring them in areas where they did not exist (Government of India, 1974).

       Since 1950 India has adopted planned development interventions through Five Year Plans. ‘Plans & Prospects for Social Welfare in India 1951-61’ of the Planning Commission records, “Social Welfare Services will intend to cater to the special need of persons and groups who by reason of some handicap – social, economic, physical or mental are unable to avail of or are traditionally denied the amenities and services provided by the community. Women are considered to be handicapped by social customs and social values and therefore social welfare services have specially endeavoured to rehabilitate them.” Three major areas for women’s development – education, social welfare and health – were defined by the Planning Commission.

       In post-independent India, the State was assigned an important role as a redistributor of resources and creator of mechanisms to regulate and protect the interests of vulnerable

groups. The traditional structures and institutions which legitimized inequalities however were incorporated in the new political response to the issue of gender equality as a policy of correction (in legal, political and educational spheres) based on the assumption that this would bring about significant changes in women’s participatory roles. An overview paper on policy presented at the Third National Conference on Women’s Studies, noted that “internationalization” of women’s question during the decade and the crucial findings of the CSWI (GOI, 1974) succeeded in giving women visibility on the policy front” (Sharma, 1992).

PROGRAMMES “FOR” WOMEN? Intensive advocacy from the early seventies, release of “Towards Equality– Report on the Status of Women in India” coinciding with the beginning of the UN decade for women, sixth five year plan (80-85) including a chapter on “women and development” for the first time, setting up of Department of Women and Child Development under Ministry of Human Resource Development in 1985, are some of the landmarks of women’s development scenario in India.

       GOI (1974) report elaborates about programmes for women from two different points-of-view. One, considering the area of operation and secondly as per the nature of the programmes.

Programmes for Women Welfare & Development:i) As per Area of Operation:

1. Programmes in rural areas — for e.g. welfare extension projects, family and child welfare     projects, organizing of Mahila Mandals, training, schemes for work.2. Programmes in urban areas — welfare extension projects and working women’s hostels.3. Other programmes — grant-in-aid to voluntary agencies, condensed courses of education for     adult women, adult literacy and social education for women, craft training centres, socio-economic     programme, nutrition programme, social defence programme, border area programme, homes    for women.

  ii) As per Nature of Programme:

 

1. Programmes under statutory obligations – for e.g. SITA (Suppression of Immoral Traffic Act) 1956, Maternity Benefit Act 1961 and other protective laws2. Programmes for development – programmes providing essential services, opportunities to     women for development. For e.g. education, health, maternity and child welfare,    family planning, nutrition, socioeconomic plans and certain community organizational programmes. 3. Programmes for special groups – for e.g. aged, widows, destitute etc, which vary from state to state.

       With reference to programmes for women, it has been experienced that “the ambivalence within state policies is a manifestation of the same contradictions inherent in the ideological debate on the constitutional equality for women…….participatory development, distributive and gender justice, interventions and special provisions for welfare represent one pole; regulated growth, management, control (or decontrol) represent the other pole. Both use

democracy, people’s participation, as the catch word although with significant differences in operative styles and mechanisms” (Sharma, 1992).

       It has been noted that with every successive scheme or programme unable to deliver what it originally set out to do, success stories become increasingly uncommon, resulting in a radical change in the language of development. Disillusionment with the supply oriented and target driven programmes gave way to planning for demand generation (women’s development programme, Rajasthan), organizing beneficiaries (OB Scheme of CAPART, 1980), education for empowerment; formation of women’s collectives (Mahila Samakhya, 1988), mobilization and awareness generation programmes (Total Literacy Mission 1989 and Lok Jumbish 1992) etc…” (Ramachandran, 1993).

       “An observation of various reports and analysis of the schemes for the development of women indicate that there are approximately 82 schemes for the development of women. Out of these 82 schemes, only 30 schemes are exclusively for women while the remaining are for both men and women. The total allocation for these 82 schemes is approximately Rs.575 crores (51 schemes with allocation of less than Rs. One Crore) per year. These schemes fall under the four local categories:

1. Economic Development (including general/vocational/ specific training) 2. Welfare3 Public good/ services (including education, health, nutrition, supportive service) 4. Awareness” (Goela, 1992).

       

Government of India 1974, pointing out on implementation of programmes for women’s welfare and development,

 

especially by Central and State Departments, remarks, “Two things….clearly emerge:

a) These programmes even when they have common objectives, are supervised and implemented     by many Government departments without any effective machinery to co-ordinate their functions.b) Government departments, by and large, are not at all clear in their understanding of what     constitutes welfare or development of women. Some adopt a comprehensive view, some a very      limited one. A few regard improvement of earning power as essential for any development.     Most are, however, content to adopt a some-what charitable approach to welfare and equate    it with assistance to women in distressed condition” (GOI, 1974, 309).

 

       An examination of the Five Year Plans reveals that in spite of the policy emphasis on welfare or investment in human resources, the share of investment in the social services in terms of actual allocation has been steadily declining in successive plans. The objectives emphasized in the various plans, as well as the share of allocations indicate that among programmes specifically designed for women’s development, the order of priorities up to the fourth plan has been education, then health and lastly other aspects of welfare because it was generally assumed that all other programmes will benefit women indirectly, if not directly. (GOI, 1974, 308)

       On the other hand Government of India (1984) remarks that India’s development efforts through successive five year plans, have contributed a great deal towards commendable improvements in the health indices of the country. As a result of these efforts the death rate is now one third of what it was in 1921 and the life expectancy has gone up from 24 years in and around 1901 to about 51 years in 1981.

APPROACHES TO WOMEN’S DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA: The policies have shown shift from welfare to empowerment and it certainly has shown that the Indian state has taken cognizance of women as a specific sector that needs to be “integrated” into the mainstream of the economy and development. This also has been pointed out in National Perspective Plan 1988-2000 A.D. for Women in India.

       Approaches of Indian government towards women’s development have been elaborated in Table 3 in the light of discussions done in the first part of this paper.

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO WOMEN? There have been varied observations and remarks about what development process has done to women in India.

       The researches on women in the past, done primarily by social historians, ideologists, sociologists and anthropologists had been concentrated on women in the elite classes of the society. Inadequate understanding of women’s problems and needs, often caused by ignorance of realities of lives of the masses of women and their multiplicity of roles in society has resulted in ambiguities and exclusion of women in planning and administration of development, thereby of equality, justice, dignity and autonomy— remarks CSWI report (GOI, 1974).

       Confronting to the notion—“ Impoverishment and marginalisation of women in the economic, social and political sphere has occurred due to lack of participation/integration into the main stream of development” (Srinivasan, 1995) notes,” In the absence of a critique of what development really entails for women, without sincere evaluation of the devastation of development and modernization all talk of integration into mainstreams becomes an attempt to Theory and Practices in India whitewash grim social and economic realities. Women are not a homogeneous lot and the policy does not seem to realize that… And now after nearly fifty years of such devastation, the state wishes to lure women to join hands and participate in the destruction of their life support systems. Marginalisation and impoverishment have occurred because of the prevalent development paradigm. How will women’s participation in it halt the process?

       The Government has their version to the issue. The Agenda item-1 at the National Conference on Women and Development (GOI, 1979) remarks, “The questions that arise and need to be answered while seeking strategies and instruments for women’s development in the country are numerous. First of all, we have to consider whether women’s issue and their need of their integration and development are accepted as national issues or can be left for limited efforts possible within the financial and other resources of individual states and Union Territories. This becomes pertinent specially in the context of the fact that most of the sectors

in which planned intervention and measures are needed for women’s development like health and education, by and large, fall within the responsibilities of the state Governments…… Another connected question is related to the difficulties encountered from time to time in people’s acceptance of the need of specific measures for women’s development…. It is still not accepted by quite a few people that there is a need of special consideration of the target group of women who should be enabled to participate in the development as participants as well as beneficiaries.”

       And Sharma, 1992 argues that the state’s response to women organizing themselves is complex and at times ambivalent and one can discern contradictory impulses. The state is not a monolith; it plays both a regulatory and facilitative role. The state recognizes the need to protect workers such as the release of bonded labour, minimum wages, access to forest resources and so forth as a law and order problem.

ISSUES AWAITING ANSWERS: The masses of our women do not have to be persuaded that they must work. They have always worked and they understand very well that work is their only means of survival. Their displacement from the traditional economic functions has been caused by development… if the present trend continues, even agricultural development will result in more displacement of women workers — a process which cannot be adequately balanced by development of industries and services (Mazumdar, 1975).

       Being rooted in the dominant administrative culture, the specific needs of an awareness and collectivization programme are not addressed. As a result, even programmes with tremendous potential get lost in the maze of

administrative procedures. Almost eleven years after it started, staffing, training needs and support structures of DWCRA are yet to be satisfactorily worked out… the critical bottleneck is invariably one of appointing, motivating, supporting and retaining committed persons. Where the administration is gender blind, it refuses to acknowledge the specific needs (Ramchandran, 1993).

       The programmes for women which boast of community participation as a key also at times treat women as secondary objects not even subjects. “Hence what appear to be successful cases of “participative” community development, may exclude half the community – the women. Women’s effective participation will need both membership in decision-making bodies and their views being given weight. This also holds for Panchayats. Reservation provides the possibility of a voice for women, it does not guarantee it” (Agarwal, 1997).

       So, the answer to the question, “Where are Women?” may not be a very straight one. Though women’s life expectancy, literacy, political space and awareness about their legal rights have increased, little has been achieved as far as sex ratios, gender violence, property rights etc. are concerned. Women still constitute the powerless, illiterate, poor segment of Indian society, the satisfaction being that the growing number of them are challenging and changing their “positions” more as an individual and through the women’s movement.

REFERENCES Agarwal B “Women Still Poor and without Power”, Times of India, August 14, 1997, 13.

Ahooja P. K. Women in Industry in Developing Countries, Mainstream 17.28, 1979, 11-14.

Bhasin K. “If this is Development then Women Refuse to be Integrated into It” Readings on Gender and Development,        Compiled with introduction by Initiatives:Women in Development, Bangalore, Mimeo, 1993.

Bunch C. & Carrillo R. “Feminists Perspectives on Women in Development” Tinker I. ed., Persistent Inequalities,        Women and World Development, New York: Oxford University Press, 1990, 70-82.

Goela U. “Programme for the Development of Women in Government of India Mishra L. ed., Women’s issues:        An Indian Perspective, New Delhi: Northern Book Centre, 1992.

GOI Towards Equality, Committee on Status of Women in India, Chapter VIII, Policies and Programmes for        Women Welfare and Development,

Theory and Practices in India New Delhi, 1974, 306-346. GOI Agenda papers of National Conference on        Women and Development, New Delhi: Women’s welfare and Development Bureau, Department of Social        Welfare, 1979.

GOI Manual on Integrated Child Development Scheme, New Delhi: NIPCCD, 1984, 4.

GOI National Perspective Plan, Report of Core Group set up by Department of Women and Child Development,       New Delhi. 1988.

ICECD Reading Material for gender sensitization workshops compiled by International Centre for Entrepreneurship and        Career Development, Ahmedabad, September 1994.

Krishnaraj M. Women and Development: SNDT Women’s University, The Indian Monographs on Sociology        Experience, Pune: Shubhada Saraswat Prakashan, 1988.

Mazumdar V. “Women in Agriculture”, Indian Farming No 8, New Delhi: ICAR, 1975.

Ramchandran V. Falling through the Cracks: Management of Women’s Empowerment Programmes in India, Mimeo, 1993.

Sharma K. “Women and Development: Research and Policy Perspective” Gupta A. K., Women and Society: the        Developmental Perspective, New Delhi: Criterion Publication, 1986.

Sharma K “Grassroots Organizations and Women’s Empowerment: Some Issues in the Contemporary Debate”,        Samyashakti, 6.1991-92, 28-44.

Sohoni K N Status of Girls in Development Strategies, New Delhi: Haranand Publications, 1994.

Subramanian R “Gender policy: A Module for Training”, Reading on Gender and Development compiled with        introduction by Initiatives: Women in Development, Bangalore, Mimeo, 1993.

ContributorMIRA KAPIL DESAI: Has done her bachelor in commerce(1988) and double masters in ‘development communication’(1990) and ‘distance education’(1994) besides certificate course in women’s studies (1997)from RCWS, SNDT Women’s University. She is currently working on her doctorate on Influence of Transnation Television on Two Lingustic Communities in Mumbai. She has worked as communication and social researcher. She has worked with Development and Educational Communication Unit, ISRO, EMRC and Mahila Samakhya Gujarat.She has also freelanced with The Times of India, Doordarshan, CERC, DECU/ ISRO and a few other private projects. Is teaching at the Post Graduate Department of Extension Education, SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai since 1997.