Countering Gender Violence : Initiatives Towards Collective Action in Rajasthan/Kanchan Mathur. New Delhi, Sage, 2004, 380 p., $37. ISBN 81-7829-379-X.

    Contents: Introduction. 1. Gender-based violence : changing perspectives. 2. Violence and gender relations in Rajasthan: an overview. 3. Moving from private to the public state response to gender violence. 4. Struggles and strategies: reflections from Roop Kanwar to Bhanwari. 5. Women's development programme: critical areas of concern. 6. Changing attitudes: a tough challenge NGO efforts in Rajasthan. 7. Conclusion: countering gender violence: emerging possibilities and alternatives. Glossary. Bibliography. Index.

    "This book studies the phenomenon of violence which, while being meted out to individual women, is systemically rooted in the social pattern of gender relations. Addressing gender violence requires challenging the means by which gender roles and power relations are defined and articulated in society. The book focuses on ways through which these relations can be altered in favour of women. Taking a cue from feminist perspectives on violence, this book:

• Looks at women's lives as they have been moulded by notions of patriarchy, sexuality and women's labour within a feudal social structure. 
• Analyses how modes of repression-expressed in a lack of choices, notions of honour, shame, and valour and chastity--shape social relations, especially those of gender.
• Examines the key role played by three major NGOs in breaking the silence surrounding the lives of women in rural Rajasthan; and offers the first in depth analysis of the women's development programme of the Government of Rajasthan.
• Provides well-documented case studies comprising first-hand narratives of critical actors in the women's struggle in Rajasthan.
• Uses an innovative research tool, the participatory research methodology, which facilitates women's ability to express and analyse their experiences and to reflect on the environment in which they live.

    The author concludes that strategies for countering gender violence must emerge from women's collective and shared experience of both subordination and empowerment.

    Insightful and thought-provoking, this book will interest students ands scholars in the fields of women's/gender studies and sociology, as well as activists, NGOs, women's groups and human rights organisations."

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