Asia / Asie

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    Draft ART (regulation) bill : in whose interest?; comment
    (Sama Resource Group for Women and Health, New Delhi, IN, 2009) Sarojini, N.B.; Sharma, Aastha
    Women and health rights activists have looked forward to the drafting of this Bill in light of the unregulated practice of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) and the increasing commercialization and commodification of women’s reproductive tissues. The Bill is based on the ‘National Guidelines for Accreditation, Supervision and Regulation of ART Clinics in India’ and is a welcome and much appreciated step, but unfortunately, it carries on the vestiges of the drawbacks present in the guidelines. This article comments on the draft legislation. Although a positive step, it fails to safeguard the health of women surrogates and their children.
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    Learning to live together : using distance education for community peacebuilding
    (Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver, BC, CA, 2009) Baksh, Rawwida; Munro, Tanyss
    The book brings together a range of community peacebuilding experiences that apply open and distance learning. The emphasis on community requires distance educators to change focus. The book addresses how to help a community articulate its own purposes for learning and then support it in achieving them. The role of radio, video and audio recordings to carry stories to larger audiences is explored. By raising expectations and challenging assumptions, use of these media can be catalysts that accelerate other processes of change.
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    Research study : gender, power relations and decentralisation in Pakistan
    (Rural Support Programmes Network, Islamabad, PK, 2008) Ummar, Fareeha; Khan, Virginia; Bibi, Shakila
    The research was premised on the assumption that women municipal Councillors would be in a position to engage with women community members and to pay special attention to their needs. It was thus intended to illustrate issues and factors that enable or impede the participation of women elected representatives in local government. There were 1,472 elected women Councillors in 5 Districts sampled in 2005. This study interviewed close to 24% of the elected women, selected at random. They represent both urban and rural areas and belonged to all three tiers of local government. The paper provides a detailed report on the research and survey responses.
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    Research study : gender, power relations and decentralisation in Pakistan
    (Rural Support Programmes Network (RSPN), Islamabad, PK, 2008) Ummar, Fareeha; Khan, Virginia; Bibi, Shakila
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    Making space : an enquiry into women's participation in local politics in Rajasthan; draft final report
    (UNNATI - Organisation for Development Education, Ahmedabad, IN, 2008) UNNATI - Organisation for Development Education
    Only six percent of membership in the Rajasthan state legislature are women, with two women parliamentarians. As elsewhere, only women from elite backgrounds, particularly those coming through dynasty, education and spousal links have managed to progress in politics. The report provides historical background as well as a development context in the marginalization of women. It provides details of women’s experiences in the political sphere, their constraints, and how to make space for women’s participation in politics alongside men. The paper provides a full bibliography.
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    Water rights as women's rights? : assessing the scope for women's empowerment through decentralised water governance in Maharashtra and Gujarat
    (Society for Promoting Participative Eco-system Management (SOPPECOM), Pune, IN, 2008) Kulkarni, Seema; Ahmed, Sara; Datar, Chhaya; Bhat, Sneha; Mathur, Yuthika; Makhwana, Dinesh
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    Decentralisation and promotion of women's rights in Nepal : exploring constraints, opportunities and intervention avenues; a final project narrative
    (Forest Resources Studies and Action Team (ForestAction)-Nepal, Kathmandu, NP, 2008) Chhetri, Ram B.; Bhattarai, Basundhara; Magar, Rama Ale; Timsina, Netra P.; Luintel, Harisharan; Regmi, Radhika
    This research examines the effectiveness of women’s participation in the context of state decentralisation processes in Nepal. It focuses on gendered social relations that shape women’s agency in the governance of public resources and services. This study analysed the depth and breadth of participation through which women exercise their agency in various policy and socio-cultural contexts of decentralization. In the study, men as well as women revealed that women committee members mostly listen to discussions led by men, and legitimise men’s decisions by signing the minute books when meetings close. This research also identified some processes and strategies that enhance positive impact of decentralization on women.
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    Women's land rights : policy brief
    (Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad, PK, 2008) Sustainable Development Policy Institute
    The research focuses on women’s rights regarding the inheritance framework of private agrarian land; it does not encompass private residential or commercial property. Women’s land ownership and control has important connections with empowerment. This policy brief presents key findings of the research, and situates women’s rights to land within legal, social, and policy contexts, and puts forth recommendations for future policy interventions that would help develop an equitable solution to the issue of unequal rights of women to own and control agricultural land. Findings indicate that women’s ownership has positive linkages with sustainable development, reduction of poverty, food security and environmental concerns.
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    Peasants land rights movements of Pakistan
    (Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad, PK, 2008) Salim, Ahmad
    This working paper documents information available on peasant movements which have occurred in the geographical terrain now called Pakistan. The author understands the colonial encounter as a project of exploitation, of subjugation and of resource-transfer for the benefit of imperial power. The paper provides historical details behind peasant initiatives that challenge this power locus, which includes many agricultural and ethnic communities involved in post-Partition struggles, as well as women’s land rights within these struggles. Land defines social status and political power in local contexts, and it structures relationships both within and outside the household.
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    Women's land rights in Pakistan : consolidated research findings
    (Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad, PK, 2008) Sustainable Development Policy Institute
    This research focuses on women’s rights vis-à-vis the inheritance framework of private agrarian land. It explores women’s landlessness, both the process and the outcome, and the systemic barriers in place. It does not encompass private residential or commercial property, or other possible means of land acquisition by women (like purchase or gift). Given that agricultural land value increases or decreases depending upon arable or non-arable land, it contains analyses from different field sites across the four provinces of Pakistan while capturing different geographical zones. There has been negligible research to determine how many women own or control land in Pakistan.
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    Land rights for Muslim women : review of law and policy
    (Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad, PK, 2008) Sustainable Development Policy Institute
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    Summary : peasant land rights movement of Pakistan
    (Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad, PK, 2008) Sustainable Development Policy Institute
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    Summary : land rights for Muslim women; review of law and policy
    (Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad, PK, 2008) Sustainable Development Policy Institute
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    Summary : gender and land reforms in Pakistan
    (Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad, PK, 2008) Sustainable Development Policy Institute
    The persistence of the power structures governed through land has remained largely unchallenged. This three-page paper provides a succinct overview of land reforms in Pakistan, and includes women’s rights which have typically been absent from the discourse. The question of land rights is assumed to be related to an undifferentiated homogenous category of landless poor peasants, ignoring the power relations and hierarchies within the poor, which place women below men, single women below married women, low caste Hindus below Muslim and etc. The first land reforms under the Provincial Tenancy Act (1950) granted peasants very modest concessions.
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    Planning families, planning gender : the adverse child sex ratio in selected districts of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab
    (ActionAid, New Delhi, IN, 2008) John, Mary E.; Kaur, Ravinder; Palriwala, Rajni; Raju, Saraswati; Sagar, Alpana
    This study explored the structural dynamic within families living in some of the lowest child sex ratio districts in India. The growing prevalence of the small family veers from one to three children with more families having one boy and one girl. However, study findings show that this is complemented by ‘choices’ that are heightening masculinisation and deepening an aversion towards daughters: significant numbers are having one son, two sons, two sons and daughter, but rarely “only” daughters. Any improvement in economic circumstances increases access to testing through ultrasound which enables planning and achieving the desired family. This is an exhaustive study of contributing factors in sex distribution.
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    Scientific report of findings : gender at work, Indian change catalyst program
    (Gender at work, Glen Echo, MD, US, 2007) Kelleher, David; Rao, Aruna; Sengupta, Anasuya
    This work links organizational and institutional change in terms of gender equality. It looks at approaches to changing organizations and institutional rules at individual, community and organizational levels. The project engaged four social change organizations in India in a process of learning and action. Each organization nominated a team that then attended a series of workshops and carried out a change project in their organization that significantly improved at least one aspect of the organization's capacity to promote gender equality.
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    Gender at work : Indian change catalysts; action learning program, May 2005 workshop report
    (Gender at work, Glen Echo, MD, US, 2006) Kelleher, David