Who Represents India’s Women?

On average, Indian women work longer hours than men, as their day consists of a more diverse array of tasks relating both to the maintenance of their livelihoods (public sphere) and homes (domestic sphere). In rural India, this could take the form of both working in the fields and performing domestic duties such as cooking, [...]

Another Victory for Sex Workers

In a prior post, Vinay wrote about a groundbreaking event - the establishment of the first ever bank run for and by sex workers in Kamathipura, Bombay.
As a follow up to that post, OneWorld South Asia reports today that the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India has recently introduced a life insurance scheme for sex [...]

Social Intrapreneurs

SustainAbility’s new publication, “The Social Intrapreneuers: A Field Guide for Corporate Changemakers,” features a case study on Hindustan Unilever’s Shakti project.  SustainAbility defines the social intrapreneur as:
Social intrapreneur, n. 1 Someone who works inside major corporations or organizations to develop and promote practical solutions to social or environmental challenges where progress is currently stalled by [...]

TC-I Tidbits

Your daily dose of headlines:

Science & Tech: The Indian government has successfully launched 10 satellites simultaneously to significantly expand its presence in space.
Women’s Rights: PM Singh asked local officials to fight the killing of female children by parents, and also turned to the health ministry to develop a grassroots effort to combat this trend.
Education & [...]

TC-I Tidbits

Today’s news seemed light, but here are some highlighted stories:

Government: The Centre is contemplating the implementation of real-time population data recording starting in 2011 in lieu of the decennial census. They are also considering the passage of a bill that would forbid sexual harassment of women in the workplace. In Delhi, calls for public transportation [...]

TC-I Tidbits

Health:

At a pharmaceutical advisory forum, the Minister for Chemical and Fertilisers announced that India will reduce the cost of medicine by almost 5 percent and develop injections for live threatening infections.
Worried about the growing trend of obesity amongst children in the country the Ministry of Women and child Development in India is planning to soon [...]

MFIs tend to lose focus as they ‘evolve’

A new report released by the Women’s World Banking (WWB) observes that as many microfinance institutions transform from non-profits to traditional financial intermediaries, they tend to shift away from their original focus on helping poor women and instead focus on making larger loans a la a traditional financial institution. The results were disheartening as the [...]

Headlines Digest

Gender Budgeting: In order to promote the concept of gender budgeting at all levels of governance, the Ministry of Women and Child Development is developing manuals on this topic. This is part of a larger movement to address gender specific barriers.
Education: Proctor & Gamble’s global philanthropy program, “Live, Learn, and Thrive” has partnered with Child [...]

NGO helps HIV positive women reintegrate into the workforce

One of the most effective ways in ensuring that individuals maintain a decent standard of life is to provide them with the necessary tools to establish independence and self-sufficiency in their lives. Sanmitra aims to do just that by helping women that are HIV positive reenter the mainstream workforce. The NGO also targets sex workers [...]

Soap Operas and Social Change: UNICEF gets it

There has been considerable discussion with regard to the role of Cable television in influencing womens’s status in India. Not long ago a couple of economists from the NBER used panel data in India and found that introduction of Cable TV increases autonomy among women, reduced incidence of domestic violence, increased female school enrollment and [...]

Midday Newsfeed

Agriculture: PM Singh to visit Bihar to begin implementation of statewide agricultural development plan.
Hogenakkal and Water: The decision of Tamil Nadu’s CM to delay decision on project has been questioned for having political motivations. The Times of India takes a look back on four decades of controversies surrounding water supply and transport. Looking forward now, [...]

Guest Post: Making LifeSpring come alive

The following is a guest post by Jason Ye, a MD/MBA student at Columbia University and an InSITE fellow alongside yours truly. Jason visited India during his spring break on a project organized by Columbia’s International Development Club and worked on pro bono consulting project with LifeSpring Hospitals. Go here for a post on this [...]

The Unintended (and seemingly unrelated) Effects of Climate Change

India’s coastlines extend a distance of 7,500 kilometers and are contiguous with 8 states, including Orissa, West Bengal, Andra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa, and Maharashtra. In 2 recent posts entitled, “Predicting a Shift: Climate Migrants” and “Mumbai in 2100: Underwater“, we spoke to the displacement risk faced by coastal inhabitants as a result [...]

Kavita Ramdas speaks on women’s rights

Kavita Ramdas, the current President and CEO of the Global Fund for Women sat down with Britt Bravo of Have Fun Do Good, to speak on women’s rights across the globe.
“I think there are many different ways in which you define leadership. As a feminist, and as a feminine feminist, I truly believe that we [...]

Midday Newsfeed

Some newsworthy headlines of interest:

Entrepreneurship: Himachal Pradesh to adopt an open door policy to encourage entrepreneurs to work within the state. In a similar effort to attract more high tech companies, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved a plan to create Information Technology Investment Regions (ITIRs).
Women’s Rights and Security: The Indian Border Security [...]