Full Coverage: Gender

31.03.2008 A state level tribal women leaderÂ’s summit was organised by Centre for Youth and Social Development (CYSD) at Bhubanewar, Orissa in eastern India. Several women tribal leaders and stakeholders representing government and civil society emphasised the need to empower tribal women with decision-making and elevate their social status.

31.03.2008 A young village girl from Rajasthan has become a role model for her community by protesting against her own marriage as a child, a tradition generally accepted as norm in rural India. For her act of heroic defiance, Congress Kanwar was given the National Bravery Award on the Indian Republic Day on January 26.

28.03.2008 A handbook released by SANHITA, a womenÂ’s group in eastern India, tries to address the dynamics of sexual harassment at work, an issue that is often hidden and yet present in all kinds of organisations. The book, through its testimonies of womenÂ’s experiences, is a somber attempt to integrate a human rights perspective within the workplace.

25.03.2008 A recent all-India survey reveals that self-help groups have instilled confidence and given women necessary exposure to first contest panchayat elections and then take up more challenging assignments. These female members are no longer dependent upon their husbands to take key decisions.

21.03.2008 In an era when women are still struggling to find an equal footing, the Kotha tribe in Tamil Nadu in southern India is an exemplary model of gender equality and a progressive social system. The tribeÂ’s matrilineal ethos ensures property rights and dowry free marriages for women.

20.03.2008 Researchers from India and UK have developed an inexpensive way to measure maternal mortality by using traditional birth attendants to record all live births, stillbirths and deaths of women in two Indian states. Making proper identifications as against estimating have helped avoid missing maternal deaths.

19.03.2008 Women's rights advocates shed light on sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo -- in some villages as many as 90 percent of women have been raped -- and explain how local women leaders are fighting back.

17.03.2008 Participation of Indian women in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is an important intervention towards their empowerment. A recent survey of the scheme in western India reveals that single women have been denied its benefits due to conventional definition of male-headed households that treat them as dependents, says journalist Kiran Bhatty.

17.03.2008 Tired of living in a world governed by marriage laws formulated and implemented by men, Muslim women in India have come out with their own Nikahnama. It recognises their right to seek divorce and other entitlements so that they are the masters of their own destiny.

14.03.2008 Dalit women in Andhra Pradesh in southern India are gearing up to fight for their land rights. To turn a recent government order into reality, the campaign backed by ActionAid India and Dalit Samakhya has filed over 25,000 applications to put unused land into productive use.

13.03.2008 WASHINGTON, Mar 13 (OneWorld) - Activists working to improve lives and livelihoods around the world gathered in the United States capital Wednesday to launch a new initiative to bring water and sanitation facilities to schools that currently lack them.

11.03.2008 As a staunch communist and the first woman journalist from West Bengal in eastern India, Vidya Munsi has been at the forefront of activism for over 65 years. The 89-year old crusader was the guest of honour at a recent poster exhibition on the Indian womenÂ’s movement.

11.03.2008 To mark the International Women's Day, Indian anti-poverty network Wada Na Todo Abhiyan has released a report highlighting the recommendations of the Women's Tribunal Against Poverty held in October last year. The charter against poverty reinforces the demand for women's access to power, resources and services.

11.03.2008 MumbaiÂ’s Sangini Women's Co-operative Bank is a beacon of hope for the sex workers of Kamathipura. By providing a monetary buffer to its red-light district clients, this small Indian bank seeks to change the lives of these women for the better by making them less vulnerable to debts.

11.03.2008 It was not easy to convince a Muslim dominant district in underdeveloped Bihar to allow teenage girls to attend classes on reproductive and sexual healthcare at the local madarsa. Azad India Foundation (AIF)Â’s efforts have however earned support even from the local clerics.

10.03.2008 Gender equality is of major importance, say a majority of people from both Muslim and western nations. A survey released in Washington on the eve of International Women's Day revealed this opinion across 16 nations. Barring India, there was also a global consensus that it is the responsibility of governments to promote women's rights.

08.03.2008 A new study by International Labour Organisation says that the number of employed women has grown by almost 200 million over the last decade reaching the figure of 1.2 billion. Decent and productive employment is crucial in the process of creating greater equality between men and women, says the report.

07.03.2008 Illiteracy among women will only worsen the already serious problem of digital divide, says WomenÂ’s Literacy and Information and Communication Technologies: Lessons that Experience has Taught Us, a book by Commonwealth of Learning. The study highlights policy as well as implementation strategies in the use of ICTs for womenÂ’s literacy.

07.03.2008 Gender inequality and the lack of sanitation and drinking water are woven into a vicious trap. As women and their daughters spend hours collecting water, they cannot go to school, work and earn; while poor sanitation lead to ill health and loss of privacy. WaterAid is working to make womenÂ’s voices heard in the politics of water.

04.03.2008 British author Valerie Mason-JohnÂ’s new book Broken Voices has series of interviews with dalit women, recounting their horrific experiences of caste-based injustice and discrimination. During her five-month stay Valerie lived, ate and worked together with these women to get the feel of what it is like to be an untouchable in India.