Chapter 8

1.   B. D. Miller, The Endangered Sex. (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1981).

2.   Amartya Sen, Gender and Cooperative Conflict. UN University, WIDEN Discussion Paper No. 18; 1987. Naila Kabeer, Gender, Production, and Well-being: Rethinking the Household Economy. IDS Discussion Paper 288, 1991, Sussex.

3.   B. Agarwal, Field of One's Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994).

4.   Articles 14, 15, 16, guarantee equality before law, prohibition of discrimination and equal opportunities in matters of public employment. The Directive Principles enjoin upon the state to secure the rights to adequate means of livelihood for both men and women equally, and equal pay for equal work for both men and women. Further, there is a duty cast upon the citizens by means of article 51 A (e) to renounce practices which are derogatory to the dignity of women. Further, four enactments—the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, the Hindu Succession Act 1956, the Hindu Adoption and Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956, were important steps towards improving the status of women

5.   Geraldine Forbes, Women in Modern India, The New Cambridge History of India, IV 2. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 225-226.

6.   Government of India, First Five-Year Plan, p. 621.

7.   Veena Mazumdar, ‘Women: From Equality to Empowerment’. In Hiranmay Karlekar, ed. Independent India: The First Fifty Years (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998) p. 260.

8.   Second Five Year Plan, p. 602

9.   Towards Equality—Report of the Committee on the Status of Women in India, Government of India, Department of Social Welfare, Ministry of Education and Social Welfare, December 1974, p. 301.

10. Ibid., p. 265.

11. Policies Advocating Women's Concerns, at http://www.meadev.nic.in/social/women/concerns.htm

12. Plans of Action to cater to the overall development of the girl child were also drawn up by the state governments.

13. Policies Advocating Women's Concerns, op. cit.

14. Compilation of Ninth Five-Year Plan, 1997-2002, Vol. I. (New Delhi: Nabhi Publications, 2000), p. 650.

15. Economic Survey, 2002-2003, Ministry of Finance, Government of India.

16. Tenth Plan, Volume II Part I, Planning Commission, p. 245.

17. Census of India 2001, Paper 1 of 2001, Provisional Population Totals, p. 85.

18. See B. D. Miller, 1981, op. cit.

19. Amartya Sen, 1987, op. cit.; Naila Kabeer. 1991, op. cit.

20. S. Subramanian and Barbara Harriss-White, ‘Introduction’. In Barbara Harriss White and S. Subramanian, eds. Illfare in India (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1993), p. 33.

21. Status of Women in India, National Commission of Woman, 2000.

22. Towards equality, op. cit., p. 302.

23. Ibid., p. 305.

24. Susheela Kaushik, ‘Women in Panchayat Elections’. In S. N. Jha and P. C. Mathur, eds. Decentralisation and Local Politics. (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1999), p. 247. For further evidence, see Nirantar ‘Of Women, Politics and Panchayats’. In Rajiv Balakrishnan, ed. Participatory Pathways: People's Participation in Development Initiatives (Delhi: Pearson Education, 2007), pp. 113-127. Also see Mukta Banerjee, ‘Women in Local Governance: Macro Myths and Micro Realities’. In Rajiv Balakrishnan, ed. Participatory Pathways: People's Participation in Development Initiatives (Delhi: Pearson Education, 2007), pp. 128-141.

25. Nivedita Menon, ‘Elusive Woman: Feminism and Women's Reservation Bill’. Economic and Political Weekly (28 October 2000).

26. See Election Commission of India; CSO 2001a. In the 13th general elections while only 11.3 per cent of the male contestants won, 17.2 per cent of the female contestants won the elections.

27. Ibid.

28. Stephanie Tawa Lama-Rewal, Fluctuating, ambivalent legitimacy of gender as a political category. Economic and Political Weekly (28 April 2001).

29. Status of Women in India, National Commission for Women, 2001.

30. Women and Men in India 2001, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India.