Suchergebnisse

This article reports on a small exploratory study of adolescent girls' experiences of sexual harassment and abuse while attending secondary school in Karnataka State, South India. In South Asia, public discussion of sexual matters, especially relating to children, is largely taboo, and the study uncovers a hidden aspect of schooling, which presents a further barrier to increasing girls' educational participation in India. Data from open-ended interviews and a participatory workshop in two schools revealed that girls were vulnerable to sexual harassment both within the school grounds (mostly by male pupils) and while travelling to and from school (by older boys and adult men), especially on public transport. For some girls, sexual harassment reduced their desire to continue their schooling, for others it increased their fear of being withdrawn if parents came to hear of any incident. Given the reluctance in patriarchal societies to address the abuse and exploitation of women and girls, the authors suggest that further research into this issue is urgently needed.

This article describes an NGO project intended to empower scheduled caste women working in the silk-reeling industry in India through the provision of microfinance. It documents the impact that the project had on their economic and social status over a period of time and highlights the negative consequences of excluding male relatives from playing any meaningful role. It suggests ways in which the project might have been made more male inclusive while still empowering women. At the same time, it acknowledges that even if the men's hostility to the project had been overcome, the women's micro enterprises were unlikely to have been viable commercially. This is because the project insisted that the women operate as a group in what was a high-risk area of economic activity, with no clear strategy as to how their work could be sustained. (DSE/DÜI)

This edited volume reviews the conflict between economic prescriptions for improved education in the developing world and local cultures. Among the issues reviewed are: conceptions of culture and economics in development and education literature, economic considerations of school systems to promote cultural goals, the differentiation of schools from other sites of cultural reproduction, learning experiences of various cultural groups, and the cross-cultural work of development agencies