This paper explores mainstream print media depictions of women’s work
during COVID-19 and associa... more This paper explores mainstream print media depictions of women’s work during COVID-19 and associated lockdowns in India. Specifically, it aims to understand perceptions of educated upper- and middle-class women regarding remote working arrangements during the pandemic. It delineates two broad themes that emerge from an analysis of selected articles in four national dailies; first, many women regarded these arrangements as mutually beneficial for women employees as well as their workplaces, and its counternarrative characterised by women having to juggle paid and care work with little support from the family, market or state. The paper then unpacks the arrangement of work from home that emerges in the media analysis and offers a critique of the simplistic and binary understanding of flexibility, choice, and agency sustained by the neoliberal and postfeminist framing of pandemic work arrangements. Our analysis provides a feminist critique of these dominant perceptions that invisibilise the complexity and heterogeneity embedded within women’s experiences. Finally, the paper reiterates the urgent need to consider the structural factors that undermine gender equality across work and home; and pushes for a rethink of neoliberal and postfeminist notions of ‘flexibility’, ‘choice’ and ‘agency’ through the intersecting lenses of gender, labour, care work, and time.
Following a 13-year drafting process, the adoption of the DHRD was hailed as a "milestone" by the... more Following a 13-year drafting process, the adoption of the DHRD was hailed as a "milestone" by the international human rights community. The term "human rights defender" (HRD) encompasses those who, "individually or with others, act to promote or protect human rights"
This special issue is edited by a group of committed decolonial feminist researchers, thinkers, a... more This special issue is edited by a group of committed decolonial feminist researchers, thinkers, and practitioners – Julia Schöneberg, Lata Narayanaswamy, Montserrat Algarabel, and Lina Abou-Habib and the editorial team comprising Shivani Satija, Anandita Ghosh and Mahima Nayar. Though they each occupy different, and perhaps even contradictory, disciplinary, political, activist, and personal positions, they are deeply committed to decolonising knowledge processes while bringing development theory, knowledge creation, and practices closer together. Together, our team set out to reflect collectively and critically on ‘decolonising knowledge’, taking seriously both the privilege and responsibility afforded to us by having a space such as the journal, to curate in ways that challenged settled academic publishing norms so that we may ‘know’ differently.
Volume 31, 2023 - Issue 1: Women human rights defenders, 2022
This issue of Gender & Development focuses on themes related to women human rights defenders (WHR... more This issue of Gender & Development focuses on themes related to women human rights defenders (WHRDs). One of the main intentions of this section is to bring together academic and activist resources on the powerful work done by WHRDs. This section lists relevant resources such as journal articles, policy briefs, research reports, journalistic pieces, books, and webinars related to the powerful work by human rights defenders (HRDs) in both the global South and North.
This paper analyses the contested nature of the redevelopment of historic red-light neighbourhood... more This paper analyses the contested nature of the redevelopment of historic red-light neighbourhoods and their impact on social–moral–economic relations, using the case study of Kamathipura in Mumbai, India. Specifically, this article highlights the contested nature of the attempted redevelopment of a historic, inner-city ‘red light’ neighbourhood showcasing two kinds of interconnected violence—slow (such as deterioration of infrastructure and dilapidated neighbourhoods due to state neglect) and spectacular (such as massive and planned urban restructurings and spatial transformations)—both founded on a moral argument for sanitising and commodifying space. While redevelopment plans remain largely on paper, the speculation seizes the neighbourhood and restructures social–moral–economic relations causing great harm to vulnerable groups, while leaving several others in a debilitating limbo. We argue that the moral stigma attached to historically marginalised red-light neighbourhoods creates a paradoxical situation where it both prevents sustained municipal intervention and catalyses large-scale redevelopment proposals that mask the insidious violence of neglect by the state. We develop this argument through an in-depth field study drawing from interviews, focus group discussions and life histories conducted between 2014 and 2019 with a range of groups working and living in Kamathipura, one of Asia’s largest and oldest red-light areas located in the island city of Mumbai. This paper traces the complex interlinkages between different forms of violence(s) and the moral regimes that enable and facilitate them through contested claims to the neighbourhood and its uncertain future.
For this double issue we have compiled relevant journal articles, policy briefs, research reports... more For this double issue we have compiled relevant journal articles, policy briefs, research reports, journalistic pieces, books, podcasts, and webinars that cover themes ranging from the gendered implications of the care crisis, the need for a gender-responsive recovery that integrates care work, as well as the value of community-led approaches in addressing the needs of the most vulnerable. We hope this section will help scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and partners involved in activism and movement building to further develop an understanding around these topics and expand the boundaries of scholarship, policy, and practice.
This paper argues that self-authored depictions of illness, disability, trauma and bodily hurt by... more This paper argues that self-authored depictions of illness, disability, trauma and bodily hurt by marginalised individuals have deep agentic potential, particularly when these experiences are retold within empathetic online spaces on their own terms and in their own words. This is seldom possible in mainstream institutional settings which are structured by hegemonic norms and where the marginalised are often spoken for. Through an analysis of selected writings in Skin Stories, an Indian collective feminist media publication that publishes gendered articulations of disability, illness and healing, this paper explores the potential of marginalised writings in reclaiming control over one’s bodily narrative, sharing knowledge and forging spaces of empathy and connection. It analyses ways in which authors through “intimate vulnerable retellings” of everyday as well as traumatic bodily events/processes like ongoing illness, lifelong chronic pain and sudden disability reclaim and own narratives of bodily vulnerability. These retellings are analysed as interconnected, shared experiences that bear deep knowledge and challenge medicalised understandings. By acknowledging “bodies as knowledge” rather than “bodies as data” these retellings could potentially supplement and enrich medical approaches in managing and understanding chronic pain and illness specifically in India, thereby piecing together experience, knowledge(s) and expertise.
Community radio (CR) is a participatory form of radio where communities own, manage and run their... more Community radio (CR) is a participatory form of radio where communities own, manage and run their own radio stations, creating engaging programming in their local language/dialect. The People’s Power Collective (PPC) is an NGO that specialises in CR capacity-building and training, working across isolated regions in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand. When the COVID-19 outbreak sent India into a total lockdown (in March 2020), the isolated communities of Uttarakhand struggled with poor state communication, fake news and many unanswered questions. In order to address this issue, the PPC coordinated with five CR stations in Uttarakhand – Kumaon Vani, Mandakini Ki Aawaz, Pantnagar Janvani, Radio Khushi and Radio Zindagee – to create the Umeed Network. The Umeed Network’s mission over the past months has been to: 1. Build awareness of COVID-19, its symptoms, precautions, treatment and recovery. 2. Disseminate daily updates on government directives and community relief policies. 3. Respon...
This covers various kinds of violence in the private and public spheres faced by women in the fou... more This covers various kinds of violence in the private and public spheres faced by women in the four villages. It concludes with issues for further research and some policy suggestions.
This paper deals with the phenomenon of witch-hunting among indigenous peoples in peninsular Indi... more This paper deals with the phenomenon of witch-hunting among indigenous peoples in peninsular India. It looks at this phenomenon in a number of different contexts: the struggle over domination in the sphere of rituals, and also contestation in more mundane spheres, such as control over land and property and new forms of accumulation.
This paper analyses crime against women and children in Delhi based on two data sources, the Nati... more This paper analyses crime against women and children in Delhi based on two data sources, the National Crime Records Bureau and an empirical data set of the Perceptions Survey of the Delhi Human Development Report, 2013. Using the NCRB data, the paper analyses trends in the rate and composition of crime against women and children from 2004-2006 to 2010-2012, including charge sheets and convictions. Results from the Perceptions Survey highlight the spatial nature of crime in the state, the differential experience of crime by social groups, as well as men and women. A key finding is the high vulnerability of children to crime in the city. What emerges from the comparison of secondary and primary data is the simultaneous existence of incidence of crime on the one hand and perception of crime and violence on the other. A combination of various data sources is important to capture both incidence and perception in order to gain a more holistic and in-depth understanding of crime and violen...
Rohit Vemula’s death, the latest of the Dalit student suicides, has driven home the cruel implica... more Rohit Vemula’s death, the latest of the Dalit student suicides, has driven home the cruel implications of caste discrimination once again. It shows that Dalit, tribal, women and minorities are not ...
The massive spurt in rural labor migration has led to urbanization in contemporary India. While r... more The massive spurt in rural labor migration has led to urbanization in contemporary India. While research on gendered migration of informal labor focuses on male-outmigration and views women as "passive followers," this study draws on the narratives of women domestic workers in Delhi to explore how they emerge as breadwinners within their households and how this sudden transformation of employment status impacts their position in their households. Further, it reimagines empowerment as an intimate engagement process for the women involving constant renegotiations of unequal power relations, gendered roles, responsibilities, beliefs, and values. Thereby, I examine how female domestic workers construct their identities in a socio-cultural environment where choices are limited for them.
This paper explores mainstream print media depictions of women’s work
during COVID-19 and associa... more This paper explores mainstream print media depictions of women’s work during COVID-19 and associated lockdowns in India. Specifically, it aims to understand perceptions of educated upper- and middle-class women regarding remote working arrangements during the pandemic. It delineates two broad themes that emerge from an analysis of selected articles in four national dailies; first, many women regarded these arrangements as mutually beneficial for women employees as well as their workplaces, and its counternarrative characterised by women having to juggle paid and care work with little support from the family, market or state. The paper then unpacks the arrangement of work from home that emerges in the media analysis and offers a critique of the simplistic and binary understanding of flexibility, choice, and agency sustained by the neoliberal and postfeminist framing of pandemic work arrangements. Our analysis provides a feminist critique of these dominant perceptions that invisibilise the complexity and heterogeneity embedded within women’s experiences. Finally, the paper reiterates the urgent need to consider the structural factors that undermine gender equality across work and home; and pushes for a rethink of neoliberal and postfeminist notions of ‘flexibility’, ‘choice’ and ‘agency’ through the intersecting lenses of gender, labour, care work, and time.
Following a 13-year drafting process, the adoption of the DHRD was hailed as a "milestone" by the... more Following a 13-year drafting process, the adoption of the DHRD was hailed as a "milestone" by the international human rights community. The term "human rights defender" (HRD) encompasses those who, "individually or with others, act to promote or protect human rights"
This special issue is edited by a group of committed decolonial feminist researchers, thinkers, a... more This special issue is edited by a group of committed decolonial feminist researchers, thinkers, and practitioners – Julia Schöneberg, Lata Narayanaswamy, Montserrat Algarabel, and Lina Abou-Habib and the editorial team comprising Shivani Satija, Anandita Ghosh and Mahima Nayar. Though they each occupy different, and perhaps even contradictory, disciplinary, political, activist, and personal positions, they are deeply committed to decolonising knowledge processes while bringing development theory, knowledge creation, and practices closer together. Together, our team set out to reflect collectively and critically on ‘decolonising knowledge’, taking seriously both the privilege and responsibility afforded to us by having a space such as the journal, to curate in ways that challenged settled academic publishing norms so that we may ‘know’ differently.
Volume 31, 2023 - Issue 1: Women human rights defenders, 2022
This issue of Gender & Development focuses on themes related to women human rights defenders (WHR... more This issue of Gender & Development focuses on themes related to women human rights defenders (WHRDs). One of the main intentions of this section is to bring together academic and activist resources on the powerful work done by WHRDs. This section lists relevant resources such as journal articles, policy briefs, research reports, journalistic pieces, books, and webinars related to the powerful work by human rights defenders (HRDs) in both the global South and North.
This paper analyses the contested nature of the redevelopment of historic red-light neighbourhood... more This paper analyses the contested nature of the redevelopment of historic red-light neighbourhoods and their impact on social–moral–economic relations, using the case study of Kamathipura in Mumbai, India. Specifically, this article highlights the contested nature of the attempted redevelopment of a historic, inner-city ‘red light’ neighbourhood showcasing two kinds of interconnected violence—slow (such as deterioration of infrastructure and dilapidated neighbourhoods due to state neglect) and spectacular (such as massive and planned urban restructurings and spatial transformations)—both founded on a moral argument for sanitising and commodifying space. While redevelopment plans remain largely on paper, the speculation seizes the neighbourhood and restructures social–moral–economic relations causing great harm to vulnerable groups, while leaving several others in a debilitating limbo. We argue that the moral stigma attached to historically marginalised red-light neighbourhoods creates a paradoxical situation where it both prevents sustained municipal intervention and catalyses large-scale redevelopment proposals that mask the insidious violence of neglect by the state. We develop this argument through an in-depth field study drawing from interviews, focus group discussions and life histories conducted between 2014 and 2019 with a range of groups working and living in Kamathipura, one of Asia’s largest and oldest red-light areas located in the island city of Mumbai. This paper traces the complex interlinkages between different forms of violence(s) and the moral regimes that enable and facilitate them through contested claims to the neighbourhood and its uncertain future.
For this double issue we have compiled relevant journal articles, policy briefs, research reports... more For this double issue we have compiled relevant journal articles, policy briefs, research reports, journalistic pieces, books, podcasts, and webinars that cover themes ranging from the gendered implications of the care crisis, the need for a gender-responsive recovery that integrates care work, as well as the value of community-led approaches in addressing the needs of the most vulnerable. We hope this section will help scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and partners involved in activism and movement building to further develop an understanding around these topics and expand the boundaries of scholarship, policy, and practice.
This paper argues that self-authored depictions of illness, disability, trauma and bodily hurt by... more This paper argues that self-authored depictions of illness, disability, trauma and bodily hurt by marginalised individuals have deep agentic potential, particularly when these experiences are retold within empathetic online spaces on their own terms and in their own words. This is seldom possible in mainstream institutional settings which are structured by hegemonic norms and where the marginalised are often spoken for. Through an analysis of selected writings in Skin Stories, an Indian collective feminist media publication that publishes gendered articulations of disability, illness and healing, this paper explores the potential of marginalised writings in reclaiming control over one’s bodily narrative, sharing knowledge and forging spaces of empathy and connection. It analyses ways in which authors through “intimate vulnerable retellings” of everyday as well as traumatic bodily events/processes like ongoing illness, lifelong chronic pain and sudden disability reclaim and own narratives of bodily vulnerability. These retellings are analysed as interconnected, shared experiences that bear deep knowledge and challenge medicalised understandings. By acknowledging “bodies as knowledge” rather than “bodies as data” these retellings could potentially supplement and enrich medical approaches in managing and understanding chronic pain and illness specifically in India, thereby piecing together experience, knowledge(s) and expertise.
Community radio (CR) is a participatory form of radio where communities own, manage and run their... more Community radio (CR) is a participatory form of radio where communities own, manage and run their own radio stations, creating engaging programming in their local language/dialect. The People’s Power Collective (PPC) is an NGO that specialises in CR capacity-building and training, working across isolated regions in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand. When the COVID-19 outbreak sent India into a total lockdown (in March 2020), the isolated communities of Uttarakhand struggled with poor state communication, fake news and many unanswered questions. In order to address this issue, the PPC coordinated with five CR stations in Uttarakhand – Kumaon Vani, Mandakini Ki Aawaz, Pantnagar Janvani, Radio Khushi and Radio Zindagee – to create the Umeed Network. The Umeed Network’s mission over the past months has been to: 1. Build awareness of COVID-19, its symptoms, precautions, treatment and recovery. 2. Disseminate daily updates on government directives and community relief policies. 3. Respon...
This covers various kinds of violence in the private and public spheres faced by women in the fou... more This covers various kinds of violence in the private and public spheres faced by women in the four villages. It concludes with issues for further research and some policy suggestions.
This paper deals with the phenomenon of witch-hunting among indigenous peoples in peninsular Indi... more This paper deals with the phenomenon of witch-hunting among indigenous peoples in peninsular India. It looks at this phenomenon in a number of different contexts: the struggle over domination in the sphere of rituals, and also contestation in more mundane spheres, such as control over land and property and new forms of accumulation.
This paper analyses crime against women and children in Delhi based on two data sources, the Nati... more This paper analyses crime against women and children in Delhi based on two data sources, the National Crime Records Bureau and an empirical data set of the Perceptions Survey of the Delhi Human Development Report, 2013. Using the NCRB data, the paper analyses trends in the rate and composition of crime against women and children from 2004-2006 to 2010-2012, including charge sheets and convictions. Results from the Perceptions Survey highlight the spatial nature of crime in the state, the differential experience of crime by social groups, as well as men and women. A key finding is the high vulnerability of children to crime in the city. What emerges from the comparison of secondary and primary data is the simultaneous existence of incidence of crime on the one hand and perception of crime and violence on the other. A combination of various data sources is important to capture both incidence and perception in order to gain a more holistic and in-depth understanding of crime and violen...
Rohit Vemula’s death, the latest of the Dalit student suicides, has driven home the cruel implica... more Rohit Vemula’s death, the latest of the Dalit student suicides, has driven home the cruel implications of caste discrimination once again. It shows that Dalit, tribal, women and minorities are not ...
The massive spurt in rural labor migration has led to urbanization in contemporary India. While r... more The massive spurt in rural labor migration has led to urbanization in contemporary India. While research on gendered migration of informal labor focuses on male-outmigration and views women as "passive followers," this study draws on the narratives of women domestic workers in Delhi to explore how they emerge as breadwinners within their households and how this sudden transformation of employment status impacts their position in their households. Further, it reimagines empowerment as an intimate engagement process for the women involving constant renegotiations of unequal power relations, gendered roles, responsibilities, beliefs, and values. Thereby, I examine how female domestic workers construct their identities in a socio-cultural environment where choices are limited for them.
This book presents an in-depth analysis of the forms and nature of violence against Dalit women a... more This book presents an in-depth analysis of the forms and nature of violence against Dalit women and explores the root causes of the widespread prevalence of such violence despite the existence of stringent laws prohibiting it. The book investigates the social and political functions of caste and gender-based violence, examines the ways in which victim-survivors respond to violence and explores the role
This book brings into focus the deep contradiction that exists between economic development and g... more This book brings into focus the deep contradiction that exists between economic development and gender equity in the country with a particular emphasis on Punjab and Haryana, two of the most prosperous states displaying the lowest sex ratios since the last two decades. It explores various indicators operating in varying social contexts wherein a strong gender bias prevails. The author attempts to understand the influence that these social indicators,
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Papers by Shivani Satija
during COVID-19 and associated lockdowns in India. Specifically, it aims to
understand perceptions of educated upper- and middle-class women
regarding remote working arrangements during the pandemic. It delineates
two broad themes that emerge from an analysis of selected articles in
four national dailies; first, many women regarded these arrangements as
mutually beneficial for women employees as well as their workplaces, and
its counternarrative characterised by women having to juggle paid and
care work with little support from the family, market or state. The paper
then unpacks the arrangement of work from home that emerges in the
media analysis and offers a critique of the simplistic and binary understanding
of flexibility, choice, and agency sustained by the neoliberal and
postfeminist framing of pandemic work arrangements. Our analysis provides
a feminist critique of these dominant perceptions that invisibilise
the complexity and heterogeneity embedded within women’s experiences.
Finally, the paper reiterates the urgent need to consider the structural
factors that undermine gender equality across work and home; and
pushes for a rethink of neoliberal and postfeminist notions of ‘flexibility’,
‘choice’ and ‘agency’ through the intersecting lenses of gender, labour,
care work, and time.
disciplinary, political, activist, and personal positions, they are deeply committed to decolonising knowledge processes while bringing development theory, knowledge creation, and practices closer together. Together, our team set out to reflect collectively and critically on ‘decolonising knowledge’, taking seriously both the privilege and responsibility afforded to us by having a space such as the journal, to curate in ways that challenged settled academic publishing norms so that we may ‘know’ differently.
during COVID-19 and associated lockdowns in India. Specifically, it aims to
understand perceptions of educated upper- and middle-class women
regarding remote working arrangements during the pandemic. It delineates
two broad themes that emerge from an analysis of selected articles in
four national dailies; first, many women regarded these arrangements as
mutually beneficial for women employees as well as their workplaces, and
its counternarrative characterised by women having to juggle paid and
care work with little support from the family, market or state. The paper
then unpacks the arrangement of work from home that emerges in the
media analysis and offers a critique of the simplistic and binary understanding
of flexibility, choice, and agency sustained by the neoliberal and
postfeminist framing of pandemic work arrangements. Our analysis provides
a feminist critique of these dominant perceptions that invisibilise
the complexity and heterogeneity embedded within women’s experiences.
Finally, the paper reiterates the urgent need to consider the structural
factors that undermine gender equality across work and home; and
pushes for a rethink of neoliberal and postfeminist notions of ‘flexibility’,
‘choice’ and ‘agency’ through the intersecting lenses of gender, labour,
care work, and time.
disciplinary, political, activist, and personal positions, they are deeply committed to decolonising knowledge processes while bringing development theory, knowledge creation, and practices closer together. Together, our team set out to reflect collectively and critically on ‘decolonising knowledge’, taking seriously both the privilege and responsibility afforded to us by having a space such as the journal, to curate in ways that challenged settled academic publishing norms so that we may ‘know’ differently.