Ministry of Human Resource Development

It is commonly known that scholarly work and teaching of Feminism and Women’s Studies in India has been heavily dependent on western feminist theory. Concepts, though adopted in India, have yet to be indigenized in terms of cultural determinants, location and history. Literature survey shows popular pamphlets with titles such as “What is Patriarchy? ” or “Women and Law, ” which have served a useful purpose for awareness raising through NGOs and community work force. However, within higher levels of the classroom, or for guiding high quality, academic research in India, interdisciplinary theoretical parameters have not been established. Commendable empirical analysis has been accomplished in specific areas such as literacy, population and health, but one misses the broader base which clearly identifies, with pedagogic indicators, the frames of 3 reference appropriate to a feminist discourse for India. Women’s Studies Centres and NGOs have made sporadic efforts in this direction. However, there is no consolidated body of theory and its demonstrable link with empirical research