Women\'s Empowerment in India: Philosophical Perspectives

Contents: Foreword. Introduction. I. General philosophical perspectives: 1. Towards women\'s empowerment/Abha Singh. 2. Empowerment of women: what it should mean?/Tandra Patnaik. 3. Women\'s empowerment: retrospect and prospect/Shyam Narayan Chaudhary. 4. Gender discrimination, globalisation and the problem f women\'s empowerment: a Marxist perspective/R.K. Singh. 5. Problems and prospects of women\'s empowerment/C.D. Jha. 6. Gender discriminations: a feminist critique/Ravi Kumar Sinha. 8 to 13 Articles in Hindi. II. Socio-philosophical perspectives: 14. A critical survey of status of women in ancient India/Indu Kumari. 15 and 16 articles are in Hindi. 17. Gender issue and the Mughals/Damodar Singh. III. Contemporaneity: Subsection (a). Social problem: 18. Plight and prospect of divorcees and widows in Hindu society/Kanupriya. 19. The rights of women in Islam/M.R. Kazimi. 20. Female foeticide: factors and solutions/Rekha Singh. 21. Article in Hindi. 22. Gender discrimination: a stigma on Indian society/Nirmala Kumari Jha. 23. The status of women in India and the role of education/B.V.S. Bhanusree. 24. Contribution of Sister Nivedita in empowering the women of modern India/Rashmi Rekha. 25 to 27 articles are in Hindi. 28. Woman elite today/Yogini G. Nighoskar. 29. Article in Hindi. Subsection (b): Political issues: 30. Situating women in early nationalist discourse: problems and prospects/Prabhakar Prasad Singh. 31. Gender difference and participation of women in political process/Y.V. Satyanarayana. 32. A response to our politics for the "better half"/D.N. Mallik. 33. Cross-currents in ongoing process for political empowerment of women in India/Anil Kumar Ojha. IV. Social thought perspectives: 34. Women\'s empowerment: the Vedantic perspective/S.B.P. Sinha. 35. Women\'s empowerment and Swami Vivekananda/Swami Brahmeshananda. 36. The Gandhian approach to women\'s empowerment/Anima Kumari. V. Ethical perspectives: 37. Empowerment of women and gender equality: a critique of issues in applied ethics/Sadanand Prasad Singh. 38. An analysis of women\'s right to maternity in the biological, social and ethical perspectives/S.K. Singh. 39. Female foeticide: an ethical issue/M.P. Chaurasia. VI. Existential perspectives: 40. Gender inequality: an existential analysis: with special reference to Simone de Beauvoir/Shiva Bhanu Singh. VII. Feminist perspectives: 41. Feminist ethics and empowerment of women/Asha Mukherjee. 42. Women\'s empowerment and gender justice/S. Shyam Kishore Singh. VIII. Medico-technical perspectives: 43. Sri Sarda Devi: a symbol of women empowerment through spirituality/Rashmi Rekha. 44. Violence against women from womb to tomb/Rangila Sinha. 45. Gender discrimination: a socio-medical problem/Ram Udaya Sinha. 46. Gender Bias--female foeticide and infanticide/K.K. Singh. List of contributors.

"This anthology is mainly a collection of papers presented in 3 day  National Seminar on Women\'s Empowerment, sponsored by the Indian Council of Philosophical Research, New Delhi and organised in the Department of Philosophy, B.R. Ambedkar Bihar University, Muzaffarpur in March 2002. A few more thematically relevant papers have been included in different parts of this book with a view to selecting some more important perspectives other than those initially incorporated and delineated in the seminar.

In Indian society women have been subjected to neglect and torment for long because of various factors. The independence of India and adoption of parliamentary system of democracy have failed to bring the desired significant change in the status of women. They are still suffering at the hands of stronger sex and also that of their own kind. Demand of dowry, killing of or suicide by the women, female foeticide etc. are the evils of our society to which women are subjected to even in the 21st century. This is detrimental to our peace, prosperity and harmonious growth. It is the responsibility of philosophers to provide solutions of the evils of the society. The writers have endeavoured to portray and examine the factors responsible for pathetic conditions of women and put forward various suggestions to improve their lives. Now, it is for the reader to judge how far the authors have succeeded in their attempts."