1st Edition
Empowering Marginalised Women in Remote Indian Villages An Impact Study
Saikia, Chalmers, Michael and Orrell explore the impact of social education on gender inequalities in rural Tamil Nadu where highland women’s lives are damaged by discrimination, marginalisation and deprivation. Social education refers to agent-oriented learning experiences focused on power relations designed to help oppressed people regain their humanity in the struggle for empowerment.
The book begins with the recognition that wellbeing is dependent on access to opportunities given that gender parity in tertiary education has not transferred to good jobs. This implies education is a necessary but insufficient indicator of wellbeing in the absence of empowerment. Hence, it investigates interconnections between empowerment (self-efficacy, social action, and human rights) and multiple dimensions of wellbeing (living standards/ livelihoods, physical and mental health, and education). It articulates how such hopes and expectations are empirically founded, thereby presenting some of the answers that readers need to move from grievance to a future that is more conducive to friendships and mutuality.
A vital resource for scholars, students, researchers, and professionals interested in development studies, human rights (law and social science), anthropology of development, gender in development, public health administration, governance/ public administration, and welfare economics.
1. Scope of an Investigation in India of Marginalised Women’s Struggle for Equality.
2. Rationale for Including Inequality in Women’s Wellbeing Approaches.
3. Research Sites, Women, and Concepts Involved in a Study of the Struggle for Equality in Rural India.
4. Research Processes Involved in a Wellbeing Inquiry of Rural Women’s Struggle for Equality in India.
5. Outcomes of a Quality-of-Life Study of Marginalised Women’s Struggle for Equality in India.
6. What the Indices Reveal in a Study of Marginalised Women’s Struggle for Equality in India.
7. Prologue of an Investigation of Marginalised Women’s Struggle for Equality in India.
Biography
Udoy Saikia is a Professor at the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences in Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia.
Jim Chalmers is an Associate Professor (Adjunct) at the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences in Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia.
Dency Michael is the Executive Director of The Kodaikanal Grihini Trust and former Director of the Grihini Program.
Janice Orrell is a Professor Emeritus of Flinders University and Adjunct Full Professor of Higher Education and Assessment in Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia.
“I fully endorse the underlying assumption of this book that measurement of development (wellbeing) must be multi-dimensional and allot equal value to non-economic and economic aspects of “progress”. The authors posit a fresh critical thesis by arguing that education is a necessary but insufficient indicator of wellbeing, in the absence of empowerment”.
Anne Benjamin, Honorary Professor of Australian Catholic University, Honorary Fellow of the University of Western Sydney, Fellow of the Australian College of Educators and Fellow of the Australian Council of Educational Leaders.
