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I scraped through my high school examination in 1986 in third division. So I couldn’t get a government job like others from a poor socio-economic background like I, who had done better. There was family pressure to follow tradition in rural Chhattisgarh and get married. I did not want to become the chattel of aContinue reading “The Man Who Launched a Thousand Feminists”

There are many hurdles to getting education for dalit women. Some are of a peculiar nature indeed. I had passed my Master of Social Work Examination in May 2008 from Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya Indore (DAVV) and then deposited the requisite fees for getting a hard copy of the degree. I was told that the degreeContinue reading “Right to Information”

Universally it has come to be accepted that Gender Based Violence is a major hurdle to women’s self realisation. The greatest tragedy is that most of this violence takes place within the home and goes unreported. In the public sphere even today a shameful aspect of most armed conflicts is the extra harm that itContinue reading “Violence as Stimulus”

I would like to dwell today on a very odd but devastating social peculiarity of development in the rural areas of my home state Chhattisgarh. In the nineteen seventies and early nineteen eighties the number of male educated Chhattisgarhis from rural areas getting government jobs increased to its peak before tapering off thereafter. By thisContinue reading “Social Peculiarities of Development”

After having finished my MPhil degree and got some freedom from rigorous studying I decided to bend my attention to doing some voluntary work to improve the bad lighting and sanitation situation prevailing in our residential colony. Our colony here in Indore is in a bad shape because the earlier elected President has defalcated fundsContinue reading “Woman of loose morals”

This International Women’s Day the burning issue is Women’s Unpaid Work. For thousands of years women have been taking care of the household but this important contribution to the perpetuation of the human race has not been adequately recognised by men. It all starts off with pregnancy. Then comes the crucial first year of postContinue reading “Women's Unpaid Work”

The livelihoods of the Bhil tribal people of Alirajpur district in Madhya Pradesh state of India were in a very precarious state by the early 1980s. However, this had not been always so. The average annual rainfall in this hilly area is 900 mm occurring in the monsoon period from mid June to mid October.Continue reading “Community Livelihood Action Against Climate Change”

Pulsewire has emerged as a powerful voice of global womanhood and it is indeed fitting that there are to be celebratory events to mark this much needed development. I for one have benefited immensely from the short time that I have been associated with this global feminist movement. 1) What does World Pulse/ PulseWire meanContinue reading “A Wire to the Pulse of Global Womanhood”

A noted Feminist Political Scientist in India Bidyut Mohanty has sent this news report on how women in Orissa state of India are fighting forest smugglers and corrupt forest department staff to protect their forests – On 17th March, 2010 some of the women from Minarbali Village in Koraput district of Orissa observed the illegalContinue reading “Women fight Forest Smugglers to Protect Forests”

I am returning to my journal after a gap of three weeks. In between I was busy with my final examination and thesis defence for my MPhil Social Work degree. One of the most difficult things for a grassroots activist who has come back to formal studying after a long hiatus is to put inContinue reading “Difficult Academics and Inspiring Performance”