In Search of Answers : Indian Women\'s Voices from Manushi

Contents: I. Introduction. 1. Indian women--the continuing struggle/Madhu Kishwar. II. Women\'s lives: 1. Family life of agricultural labourers and small farmers in Punjab/Berny Horowitz, Madhu Kishwar. 2. Drought--women the worst victims/Manushi editorial. 3. Women and water shortage in Tamil Nadu/Prahbha Rani. 4. Porter women in pune/Sulabha Brahme. 5. Coal mine women workers in Bihar a survey report. III. Women\'s Struggles: 1. Women in the Bodhgaya land struggle Manimala. 2. The Chipko movement part I--women\'s non-violent power/Sunderlal Bahuguna. 3. Part II--community opposes activists/Gopa Joshi. 4. Organising landless women in Maharashtra/Mira Savara, Sujatha Gothoskar. IV. Family violence: 1. Letters written at death\'s door. 2. All for love--of money/Tavleen Singh. 3. Women against dowry a Manushi report. 4. Is it a husband\'s right to kill?Alfie. 5. "It\'s only a family affair"/Kiran Singh. 6. Denial of fundamental rights to women/Madhu Kishwar. V. Caste, class and police violence: 1. Caste-Hindus attack dalits in Maharashtra/Vibhuti Patel. 2. Mass rape in Bihar by police/Darryl D\'Monte. 3. A case of police harassment/Vimla Farooqi. 4. Sangharsh vahini\'s struggle in Agra report by Agra Jan Sangharsh Sahyog Samiti. 5. Three brave women of Tamil Nadu/K. Manoharan. 6. Why can\'t we report to each other?/Manushi editorial. VI. Letters to manushi. VII. About manushi. An introduction. We shall re-examine everything.

"In search of answers offers a selection of the most incisive records--analysis as well as testimony--to have appeared in the journal in the first five years. Vividly portrayed are the living and working conditions and the day-to-day struggles of millions of ordinary Indian women.

"The articles explore why, even four decades after independence, women remain oppressed, and need to toil endlessly for basic necessities--food, fuel, and water. This culture of women\'s oppression is seen not as a hangover from a traditional past, but as rooted in modern economic and political developments of the last century or more.

"In this context critical issues are studied, such as the patriarchal bias of our social and legal system, women\'s near total disinheritance from property rights, the exclusive male control over land, the devaluation of women\'s labour, their marginal role in decision-making, and the violence they encounter from the family, society, and the police as agents of the state. "jacket)