Gender

I am giving a presentation at 12 in Seminar Room C today in Gender Relations Centre Seminar Series. The title of the seminar is: ‘On the Question of a Right to Mine: Women, Gender and Work in Coal Mining in India’. I am sure it will be of interest to some RMAPpers.

The seminar illuminates the ‘difference/equality’ question in the area of women’s work, and explores a grey area in feminist theory – that of women’s specificity as workers in their biologically based attributes and ’sameness’ in terms of their demands for gender equity.

Gender is indeed a multi-layered complex reality, and feminist scholars have been digging through these layers, to ‘unearth’ women’s contributions in various aspects of life. When gender confronts mining, many articulations of everyday life assume different - even metaphorical - significance. To get a glimpse of the complexities lying at the intersection of gender and mining, read the recently published article in Feminist Review (download here: period-leave-feminist-review.pdf).

The Gender and Water Network (GWN) website has been updated recently with valuable background information on linking Gender and Water.

The aim of gendering water is ‘To achieve equity and equality among women and men in sustainable water resources development and management at all levels’. The mission of GWN is to promote women’s and men’s equitable access to and management of safe and adequate water, for domestic supply, sanitation, food security and environmental sustainability. The GWN links students, professionals and researchers with interest related to gender concerns in water resource management. GWN was established by Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt in 2003 after the success of the Fluid Bonds Workshop held at ANU to celebrate the International Year of Freshwater.

You are invited to visit the website, and join the Network to receive updated information on gender perspectives in everyday water use, or visit the Gender and Water Community Blog for a collection of most recent and pressing issues related to gender and water including events and publications.

I am pleased for this opportunity to introduce myself to the RMAP Blog community. I am Professor in Social Geography in India’s premier institution– Jawaharlal Nehru University, named after the first prime minister of independent India. I remember the day I had joined the Centre for the Study of Regional Development in the University most vividly as if the event has taken place only yesterday.

My main interest in terms of academic engagement with teaching and research is in gendered geographies in the spheres of labour market and social development, particularly literacy, education and skills, and social space.

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I’ve recently published an article that deals with the relationship between illegal fishing and young men in Palawan, Philippines. I argue that those involved in illegal fishing activities, such as cyanide fishing for the live fish trade, are usually macho young men who are keen to show off their masculinity.

 The article can be viewed here; I’d be interested if anyone had any comments or feedback.