Denial and Distress: Gender, Poverty and Human Rights in Asia

Front Cover
Extrait de la couverture : "According to the UNDP Human development report 1997 more than 950 millions of the 1.3 billion people who are income poor in the developing countries live in Asia. The world Bank estimates that women make up 70% of this total. But where is the rigorous research behind the claim that poverty is feminised? In [this book], the authors analyse the gender-differentiated impact of globalisation on women and men in the various parts of Asia and the Commonwealth of Independant States. They provide empirical evidence that not only is the incidence of poverty increasingly more severe among women than men, but that the dimensions of women's poverty and the cause or process of their poverty are different from those of poor men. The authors analyse the dilemma facing development agencies : should their focus be on gender and poverty? Or does that linkage serve to push issues of gender discrimination and human rights off the agenda? They argue that in the South and Central Asian context, gender poverty and human rights are intricately related. The challenge for development agencies in Asia is to address the deep-rooted gender-specific causes of poverty, rather than the symptoms : strengthening women's land rights and endowments, challenging inegalitarian kinship systems, enhancing women's democratic participation are all central to the dual goal of reducing the poverty of women, while at the same time promoting and protecting their human rights."
 

Contents

Is There a Feminisation?
11
Gender Specific Causes
50
Human Rights Violations Against
98
Emerging Vulnerable Groups
119
Implications for Policy
145
Glossary
160
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About the author (2003)

Ranjani K Murthy gained her MPhil in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex and Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Management from IRMA, India. She was Visiting Fellow at the IDS, University of Sussex, in 1994, and is currently a consultant (Gender/social dimensions) for multilateral organisations like UNDP, IFAD, WHO, UNICEF, and UNFPA and International/National NGOs including OXFAM, ACTIONAID and NOVIB.