Women, gender and society in India : emerging issues from Jammu and Kashmir

The book is a compilation of 24 papers which take a fresh look at the issues faced by the women in Jammu and Kashmir Not only the gendergap in accessing education, health, economic and political participation remains very wide, the gap between rural and urban population in respect of economic opportunities and access to social services also continues to exist, as reflected in the various papers of the book.

In the first chapter of this book, Sindhu Kapoor gives us an overview of the status of women in Jammu and Kashmir from 1885 to 1925 under Maharaja Pratap Singh. This paper which is an insight into the status of women of that period, brings out the reality of hard life being followed by the women of State in general and that of Kashmir, followed by Jammu in particular.

Pirzada Athar Hussain's paper entitled "Marriage, Money and Divorce in Islam: An interaction and integration of customary law of Kashmir valley" is research-based study which focuses on the generation to generation transformation of traditions like divorce and thus continuing with the uniformity of customary law and its accepted familiarity within the mediaeval Islamic period of primitive Islamic-Arab tribe.Women in our society need to have a good socio-economic status and this can help them in empowerment. The next three chapters of the book are based on the socio-economic studies of the women on Jammu region. While Shashi Prabha focuses on the socio-economic status of women of Kot Bhalwal area of Jammu district, the focus of Romika Sudan's paper is the socio-economic status of Dalit women in R.S. Pura. Nehs Vis chapter is based on the women inmates of J&K State and is an attempt to explore the socio-economic and educational profile of women inmates lodged in various J&K prisons. All the three papers aim to understand the extent to which the low socio-economic and educational background has contributed to the status of women in their respective areas.

Women's health issues dominate the discourse in next four research papers in the book. These chapters focus of various aspects of mental health, female foeticide, issues related to menopause etc. Piyali Arora and Manu Arora focus on women and mental health while Bharti Prabhakar researches on the health status of women in Self Help Groups. Monica Narang and Beenish Zubair Soherwardy explore the regulation of female foeticide and its impact on women. Madhulika Bhagat works on the herbal remedies for the management of menopausal symptoms.

Sarika Manhas and Arpana Langeh talk about the changing dynamics and complexities of parenting with regard to single mother families and Anupa Sharma explores motherhood as an input for social maturity among children in poverty settings, in her chapter.

Syed Naser Ali Shah's chapter on women in policing tries to analyze the challenges faced by women police personnel while performing their duties. Through their narratives, the author has tried to look into various areas of concern in a male dominated profession particularly in the police department. Moreover an attempt has been made to identify the reasons of less employment of women in police department.loedmam ales

tarli ai griluas nafto dol admom ylimal art must millogga soal Mehnaz Tabassum's paper on women and saffron cultivation is a case study of Kishtwar district where women contribute significantly to agricultural economy through saffron cultivation. Women of Kishtwar are a store house of traditional knowledge of saffron cultivation. Likewise, women's knowledge of planting, harvesting, preserving practices and understanding of the sustainability is also enriching the development process, ni m an art tromoyoqms ni mselt glad mo silood or to analqaro send Two women whose contributions in their own fields are immense, are the protagonists in next two research papers. Shubhra Jamwal writes about English author Mary Wollstonecraft while Kusha Sharma, Anu Salaria and Vivek Sharma have discussed the role of Savritibai Phule as gender equality protagonists.

The next two research papers by Chitvan Wazir and Sunil Kumar focus on the women in war-ravaged Afghanistan and the implications of the prolonged Afghan civil war on Afghan women. The book also has research papers on other themes like violence against women, gender discrimination and women's right to enter places of workship.

Overall, the book is an effort to provide an insight into women's issues. This book could not have been possible without the cooperation of all the contributors who took their precious time out to write their research papers for this book. I am thankful to all of the from the core of my heart for contributing to the success of this book. I have no words to express my thanks to my friend Dr. S.D. Singh Jamwal for being my perennial source of inspiration and never giving up on me. Thanks are also due to Mr. Sanjay Arya for publishing this book and always pushing me to write more and more books.