Sabina Bano

Women and Development in Urban India: a Study in Gender Geography: a Case Study of Varanasi City, U.p, India Sabina Bano

People are at the centre of all development debates. They are both agents of development and recipients of its fruits. The contributions of both men and women are important in this. But the fruits of development are distributed unequally among males and females. Further, the roles and responsibilities of women are restricted to specific spheres of development. Therefore, development is often considered as gendered. The society which is structured on patriarchal lines is responsible for marginalizing women in all spheres of society. This study is innovative because few attempts have been made by the social scientists so far to study the gender discrimination which severely limits the expansion and utilization of women?s capabilities. The study is valuable for rationalizing inputs and for making rational efforts for any developmental planners and agencies to bring women in the development process and recognize their works. Concluding the research work it has been found that there is an urgent need of gender sensitive approach to deal the critical targets of religious and cultural groups to check the lopsided policies and programmes as has been done hitherto in India.