Building a More Gender-Just and Equitable Society: Overcoming the Internal Contradictions to Self-Governance

T his chapter is about creating opportunities for men and women to build more just relationships and about transforming oppressive governance arrangements. The insights in it are derived from the experiences of Seva Mandir, a grassroots nongovernmental organization (NGO) in India that has been working closely with women and indigenous people for the past 40 years. The emphasis in our work has been to enable communities and women to play a more central role in dealing with their problems. The question of the inclusion of women is not new; over the past couple of decades, efforts have been made, both internationally and within India, to include women in social and political processes. These efforts have attempted to boost women's inclusion by building their capacities or by instituting affirmative action of various kinds. India can boast of some bold actions in this direction; the latest (now nearly 15 years old) is the reservation of one-third of the seats on all local councils for women, the third tier of Indian democracy. As a result of this provision, close to 1 million women hold elected office. Several civil society groups have also been active in promoting the cause of women's inclusion through the state. Civil society groups have driven the creation of Women's Development Agencies, the focus on women's rights to their bodies, and the environmental agenda (given that the degradation of the environment severely affects women, who bear most of the costs of fuelwood, fodder, and water shortages).