Empowering women in villages: All-women village councils in Maharashtra, India

Critical Asian Studies

Volumn 29, Issue 2, 1997, Pages 31-45

  Gala, Chetna ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

PANCHAYAT; VILLAGE COUNCIL; WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT;

AGRICULTURAL WORKERS; AGRICULTURE; ARTICLE; ASIA; CASE REPORT; CASE STUDY; DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS; DEMOGRAPHY; DEVELOPING COUNTRY; ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT; ECONOMIC FACTORS; ECONOMICS; EMPLOYMENT; FEMALE; GOVERNMENT; HEALTH CARE MANPOWER; HUMAN RESOURCES; INDIA; LABOR FORCE; METHODOLOGY; POLITICAL FACTORS; POLITICS; POPULATION; POPULATION AND POPULATION RELATED PHENOMENA; RESEARCH; RESEARCH REPORT; RURAL POPULATION; RURAL POPULATION--WOMEN; SOCIAL CHANGE; SOCIAL EVOLUTION; SOCIOECONOMICS; SOUTHERN ASIA; STUDIES; WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT; WOMEN'S RIGHTS; WOMEN'S STATUS;

AGRICULTURAL WORKERS; ASIA; CASE STUDIES; DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS; DEVELOPING COUNTRIES; ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT; ECONOMIC FACTORS; GOVERNMENT; HUMAN RESOURCES; INDIA; LABOR FORCE; POLITICAL FACTORS; POPULATION; POPULATION CHARACTERISTICS; RESEARCH METHODOLOGY; RESEARCH REPORT; RURAL POPULATION--WOMEN; SOCIAL CHANGE; SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT; SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS; SOUTHERN ASIA; STUDIES; WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT; WOMEN'S STATUS;

AGRICULTURE; ASIA; DEMOGRAPHY; DEVELOPING COUNTRIES; ECONOMICS; EMPLOYMENT; GOVERNMENT; HEALTH MANPOWER; INDIA; POLITICS; POPULATION; POPULATION CHARACTERISTICS; RESEARCH; RURAL POPULATION; SOCIAL CHANGE; SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS; WOMEN; WOMEN'S RIGHTS;

INDIA, MAHARASHTRA;

EID: 0031448583     PISSN: 14672715     EISSN: 14726033     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/14672715.1997.10409689     Document Type: Article

References (13)

1. The three women's panchayats were studied during 1991–93 as part of a project sponsored by the Norwegian Agency for International Development (NORAD); during this period two visits of ten days each were made to Yenora, Metikheda, and Vitner. See Gala Chetna, The Empowerment of Women: The Shetkari Sanghatana Experience in Maharashtra (Report to NORAD, 1993), which this article is based on. The three women's panchayats are three of seven elected in Maharashtra before 1992. By 1995 there were at least four other all-women panchayats in Maharashtra in non-Shetkari Sanghatana areas; the best known of these, Ralegan Shindi, was also studied for the NORAD project but is mentioned only briefly in this article
2. Manikyanba, P., 1987. “ The Participatory Predicament: Women in Indian Politics ”. In The Changing Division of Labor in South Asia, Edited by: Bjokman, James. Delhi: Manohar. in
3. Gandhi's ideal of village self-sufficiency is put forward in his first major book, Hind swaraj (Indian home rule), originally written in Gujarati Gandhi Mohandas, Hind swaraj Ahimsa Publications Baroda 1965 though “gram swaraj” (village self-rule) became a slogan only later
4. See Omvedt Gail, Dalits and the Democratic Revolution Sage New Delhi 1994 for a general assessment of the relationship of the dalit movement to Gandhism
5. Government of India, Department of Social Welfare. 1974. Towards Equality: Report of the Committee on the Status of Women in India 324–324. New Delhi
6. Chathukulam, Jos. Jan. 1991. “ Panchayat Raj in Kerala: Tortuous Road ”. In Economic and Political Weekly Jan.
7. Raja, Saketh. Jan. 1988. “ Karnataka: Era of Janata Democracy ”. In Frontier Jan., Calcutta C. M. Ramachandra, “Aborted Experiment: Blow to Democracy in Karnataka,” Frontline (Madras), 14 Feb. 1992; B. K. Chandrashekar, “Backwards, Forward: Karnataka's Pan-chayats and the 73rd Amendment,” Frontline, 2 July 1993; Amal Ray, “Caste and Zilha Parishad Elections in Karnataka,” Economic and Political Weekly, 2 July 1987
8. See the United Nations Development Program Human Development Report, 1995 Oxford University Press New York 1995 62 62
9. For discussions, see Johnson D., Gale Agriculture in the Liberalization Process Liberalization in the Process of Economic Development Krause Lawrence, Kihwan Kim, University of California Press Berkeley, CA 1991 in and Romeo Bautista and Alberto Valdes, eds., The Bias against Agriculture: Trade and Mac-roeconomic Policies in Developing Countries (San Francisco, CA: International Centre for Economic Growth and International Food Policy and Research Institute, 1993)
10. See Omvedt Gail, Reinventing Revolution: The New Social Movements and the Socialist Tradition in India M. E. Sharpe New York 1993 chap. 5
11. Joshi, Sharad. 1986. The Woman Question, 2–2. Pune: Shetkari Prakashan. English translation, Available from Shetkari Prakashan, Angar Mala, Ambethan, Tal. Khed, Dist. Pune, India 410501
12. See Patankar Indumati, Women Fight Village Elections Manushi 1985 in no. 25 and Chetna Gala, “The Ladies Panel,” Manushi, no. 28 (1986). A discussion of the Shetkari Sang-hatana campaign for 100 percent women's panels is in Gail Omvedt, “The Farmers' Movement,” in Space Within the Struggle, ed. Ilina Sen (New Delhi: Kali for Women Press, 1990)
13. Most communist groups, however, while emphasizing class struggle in contrast to the Sanghatana Shetkari, middle and rich have also worked to unite agricultural laborers and peasants against the village bosses, classified as “landlords.” There are differences, sometimes determined by local conditions, in the degree to which they have a narrow or broad base