Department of Women's Studies

The Beijing Declaration at the Fourth World Conference on Women (1995) point 13 says, ‘Women’s empowerment and their full participation on the basis of equality in all spheres of society, including participation in the decision-making process and access to power, are fundamental for the achievement of equality, development and peace’. In India, the principle of gender equality is contained in the Indian Constitution, legal system and government policies. However, there is still a wide gap between these principles and the reality of the status of women in many communities across India. This is revealed by low female literacy rates and high maternal mortality rates, particularly in low performing states and in rural areas. Through the activities of the Department of Women’s Studies (DWS), Indian Social Institute is committed with the mission of providing a dignified and decent human existence for women, by enhancing their capacities in terms of awareness-generation, participation in decision-making processes, income-generation, raising questions to development paradigms and searching for alternatives. The vibrant indicator of discrimination against Indian women is the skewed sex ratio. Poverty, early marriage, malnutrition and lack of health care during pregnancy are the major reasons for both maternal and infant mortality. The Institute contributes towards gender equality through research, training, publication, doing editorial work for the quarterly journal, “Women’s Link”, conducting national and international seminars, workshops, collaborating with organizations and conducting sessions on gender issues both within and outside the Institute.

Ongoing Projects

Dalit Women in Social Conflict: The Case of Haryana

The project proposal was re-worked in terms of - causes, consequences and role of state/non-state actors. As part of this research, literature review, questionnaires, guidelines for Interview has been prepared. In addition, networking with NGOs was required to get assistance for field investigators and local contacts at field level for the project in Gurgaon district and Hisar district of Haryana. Field visits were conducted for Case Studies and FGDs, as part of a pilot study in Gurgaon district to examine how social conflict issues affect Dalit women in rural communities of Haryana. In the field, village meetings were conducted, data collection was done in identified villages, and interviews were conducted with stakeholders.