Contents Preface ix 1. The Indian State and the Women's Problematic: 1 Running with the Hare and Hunting with the Hounds -R.B.S.Verma, H.S.Verma and Nadeem Hasnain PART-I Women's Problematic and Conduct of the State 2.Gender in the Making of the Indian Nation-state 81 -Maitrayee Chaudhuri 3. The Spinning Wheel (Charkha) as a 'Dear Forgotten Friend' 102 of Widows (?): Reading The Erasures of a Symbol -Sadan Jha 4. Lakshmi and the Scientific Housewife: A Transnational 125 Account of Indian Women's Development and the Production of an Indian Modernity -Kim Berry 5. Reservation for Women in Union and State Legislatures:163 A Perspective -Snehlata Panda PART - II Examining Diagnosis, Commitment and Nature of its Actualization 6. Towards Equality: An Overview of a Milestone 193 Report in Retrospect -H.S. Verma 7.Commitments, and Their Operationalisation: Assessing Policy222 Formulation, Programme and Organization Design of Women Empowerment in India -H.S. Verma 8. Women and Development in India-1970s-1990s250 -Sadhna Arya Indias country Reports on CEDAW : Separating facts from Fiction in the History of Women's Empowerment Written by the Indian Politico-Administrative Class 273 -H.S. Verma 10. Integration of Rural Women with Agriculture 33 and Rural Development -S.P. Jain 334 PART - III Assessing the Impact of Initiatives Undertaken by the State in Different Sectors 11. Women's Empowerment in India and Its States: 379 Evidence from the NFHS -Sunita Kishor and Kamla Gupta 12. Women's Self-Help Groups, Poverty Alleviation and Empowerment 426 -S. Galab and N. Chandrasekhara Rao 13. Laws Against Domestic Violence: Underused or Abused? 453 -Madhu Kishwar 14. Political Empowerment of the Women: Case of Orissa PRIs 464 -Snehalata Panda PART - IV Efforts Initiated by Communities and Autonomous Organizations 15. Women and Empowerment: Shri Manila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad 475 -Malathi Ramanathan 16. The SEWA Organizational Model: A Contemporary Appraisal 500 -H.S. Verma 17. Grassroots Developments in the Empowerment of Women 529 in India: A Case Study of Agency and Control -Malathi Ramanathan 18. The Empowerment of Women: Grassroots Women's 559 Networks and the State -Sangeetha Purushothaman 19. Private Concerns in Public Discourse: Women-Initiated 593 Community Responses to Domestic Violence -Nandita Bhatla and Anuradha Rajan PART - V Women's Empowerment: Where Do We Go from Here? 20. Challenges Before Women's Movement in a Changing Context 613 -Maithreyi Krishnaraj 21. Action for Change 639 -Neera Desai and Usha Thakkar Index 657