Women′s Livelihood Rights: Recasting Citizenship for Development - Hardcover

The book looks at women’s resource based livelihood in the wider context of development viewed through lens of citizenship rights... The book will be of interest to a wide variety of readers including research institutions, NGOs, donor agencies, practitioners and students working in the field of gender, environment, development and natural resource management. The editor and contributors deserve compliments of the readers for their endeavour. A useful contribution.

(Indian Journal of Public Administration)

The book is not simply about the constraints on women. It is rather an anthology of compelling stories of grassroots struggles by women for their livelihood and citizenship rights...the introduction by Sumi Krishna provides the reader with a good historical and theoretical understanding of development, livelihood and citizenship...there should be no doubt about the utility of the book. With its fresh perspectives and insights, it is sure to be useful for research institutions, NGOs and individual researchers working in the field of gender and development, natural resource management and livelihood policy.

(Indian Journal of Gender Studies)

The essays in this volume provide a rich wealth of information and analysis....a rich grounded set of studies that provides analyses that will be informative to scholars interested in development, gender and equity as well as to activists and policymakers in the field of economic development.

(The Book Review)

Women’s Livelihood Rights is a good body of research that reads the gaps and fissures in the implementation of policies laid down for the betterment of women. An interdisciplinary book, it dexterously weaves together a historical perspective on varied dimensions of women’s livelihood, development and citizenship. (The Tribune)

The book weaves together a historical perspective on different dimensions of livelihood, development and citizenship. It argues that the concept of citizenship must include ways of life and livelihood to enable women to take their legitimate space as productive human beings.

(The Asian Age)

A significant contribution in a valuable compilation indeed. (Statesman)

The strong message across this volume is that feminist policies have to network strategicaly with other struggles in order to counter the resistance of traditional and contmporary patriarchal structures, and to work towards recasting ciizenship for a gender-positive development that ensures women’s livelihood rights.

(Development Alternatives)

This interdisciplinary book looks at women`s natural resource-based livelihoods in the wider context of development viewed through the lens of citizenship rights. Unravelling the patriarchal social fabric and policy structures in India, it argues that the concept of citizenship needs to be extended to include recognition of ways of life and livelihood, so that women take their legitimate space as productive human beings, entitled to dignity as a political right, and not merely to protection and welfare.

The editor weaves together a historical perspective on varied dimensions of livelihood, development and citizenship. Drawing upon rich field-based researches in 13 states across India, the authors deal with complex and inter-related themes: the need to recognise women`s right to resources and their livelihood and employment strategies; the challenges of democratic governance and of restructuring institutional systems to make them responsive; and the role of women`s collective agency in development.
Reflecting upon and critically analysing context-specific issues in several less-studied locations, the book shows that there is much to be learnt from empathetic interaction with the collective struggles of poor women, and from action and dialogue on the ground. Further, it suggests that feminist politics has to network strategically with other struggles to counter the resistance of traditional and contemporary patriarchal structures, and to work towards recasting citizenship for a gender-just development that ensures women`s livelihood rights.