Women's Studies & Research Centre

Women’s Studies and Research Centre (WSRC), established in 2005, as a sister wing of the Department of Sociology, is supported by University Grants Commission (UGC)    focusing on women issues, gender inequality and discrimination in society. The Centre undertakes major activities namely Teaching, Training, Research and Extension / Outreach programmes. After completion of its assigned tasks successfully during X and XI plans, the centre had been upgraded and entered the second phase during XII plan period.

During the X and XI plan period, the centre has grown into a respectful position, offering multidisciplinary courses at UG, PG, M.Phil and PhD level. The centre, in collaboration with sociology department, has intervened in working with women at grassroot level under the MSW programme launched in 2010. Since its emergence, it has spontaneously provided a platform for comprehensive discussions on key women’s issues. Along with its educational activities, during X plan period, the centre has been actively involved in documentations, publications, advocacy programmes and networking with national and international agencies.

Since its inception, it has been dazzling like a shining star in the academic horizon, illuminating the society with its spreading wings to eradicate all the discrimination for women's development by empowering them in almost all the levels of lives. The Women's Studies & Research Centre believes that women's study is not merely a subject to be studied in the class room but to create a women friendly environment in the society where every woman irrespective of her place of birth and economic status, will get due opportunity to realize her identity. The major thrust area of research undertaken by the centre are reproductive health, gender budgeting, child marriage, women's sports etc. Centre has been playing its incessant effort to inculcate gender's perspective in almost all activities undertaken by Banasthali University.

 
Women’s Studies and Research Centre

S. No.

Name

Designation

Qualification

Specialization/Research Interest

Photo

Teaching Faculty

1.

  Prof. Manju 
  Singh

  Coordinator

  M.A., M.Phil, 
  Ph.D.

  Women  Studies, Research Methods, Tribal Studies


2.

Dr. Samapika
Mohapatra

  Associate
  Professor

  M.A., M.Phil,
  Ph.D., NET

 Women Studies, 

Sociology of Sports,

 Human Rights, Sociology of Aging, Slum Studies, Sociology of Education, 

  Exclusion & Inclusion, Social Work (Applied)


Technical Staff

1.

Mr. Anil Kumar Sharma

Technical Assistant

M.A., PGDCA

Computer Hardware


 

2.

 Mr. Hari Shanker Sharma Jangid

  Library
  Assistant

  B.A., B.Ed., 
 M.Lib., M.A.   (Sociology).

  Library Management

 

 

 

 


             

TEACHING

Saying in nutshell, under the teaching programme, WSRC aims to create awareness and to make the students familiar with women's issues and women's rights and to enable them to critically analyze women's issues on human rights perspectives.

 

ONGOING COURSES

  • Foundation Course entitled 'Women in Indian Society' for all undergraduate students (B.A./ B.Sc./B.H.Sc./B.Tech./B.B.A.)
  • One Compulsory Interdisciplinary Paper entitled Women's Studies' for all social science students at post graduate level.
  • P.G. Diploma in 'Women & Human Rights'
  • Specialization of ‘Women Empowerment’ in MSW course

The centre runs a Foundation course on ‘Women in Indian society’ for under graduate students of various disciplines. This course promotes an understanding among these students on changing status of women in India and their struggle for freedom on accessibility of their rights that influences their position in contemporary Indian society.


At the PG level, a compulsory interdisciplinary paper titled ‘Women's Studies’ has been included in the syllabi of social science students. This paper not only enables to develop knowledge on theoretical perspective among students but also generates awareness on factors instigating the changes among women folks in our country.

 

It is very praise worthy to mention that WSRC is providing support to run the P.G. Diploma course on 'Women & Human Rights', functioning under Department of Sociology. This course intends to empower women by helping them on how to access to their human rights and to make them self reliant in order to fight against all types of social discriminations against them.

In collaboration with department of sociology the centre is supporting the Master of Social Work (MSW), a two years programme, introduced for the students in July 2010. This programme aims to mitigate the emerging needs of all sections of society with particular emphasis on vulnerable sections including women.


PhD: The centre also provides opportunities to research scholars for pursuing their PhD focusing on various women centered issues. 


RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
With academic flavor, action research is encouraged by the WSRC, Banasthali University. It also welcomes interdisciplinary research and promotes scholarss for Ph.D. programme along with execution of various projects.

 
RESEARCH PROJECTS

Completed Projects

 

  • 'Culture of Femininity’, Sports & Formal Education: A study of Female Students’ participation in Sports in Banasthali Vidyapith, Rajasthan.
  • Child Marriage in Rajasthan: Some realities
  • Contents of Women’s Studies in Various Social Science Disciplines with Special reference in different universities of Rajasthan
  • A Bio-Bibliographical approach in Indian women writings in English
  • Safe Motherhood And Access To Resources Among Nomadic Populations In Desert Regions In Rajasthan, India And The Negev, Israel - A Comparative Perspective.
  • Reproductive Health Behavioral Pattern among Rural Women in Rajasthan.

·         “Trend report on Status of Women in Rajasthan: An analysis of Gender Development Indicators”.

 

On-going Research Projects

  • A Study on Socio-Economic Status of Nomadic Gadia Lohar Women in Rajasthan (With special reference to Sanganer Block, Jaipur).

·         Utilization of available health services for women in Tonk District of Rajasthan’. 

 

SOME BROAD AREAS IDENTIFIED FOR FUTURE PROJECTS

  • Women & Tourism: A comparative Study between Northern & Eastern India
  • Women and Human Rights
  • Media, Sports & Women
  • Gender Budgeting Component in women's development plans: A comparative analysis of national & regional level plans
  • Media & women
  • A gender analysis of Indian Sports Policies
  • Women & Literature
  • Portrayal of women in folk culture :A comparative analysis of Northern & Eastern region of India
  • Changing values among women
  • Problems of Muslim women in Rajasthan
  • Women’s participation in Local self governance

 


ACTIVITIES AT A GLANCE

  • International Jubilee Conference on Women's Education (JCWE)
  • Vision and Mission of Women's Universities in a Global Society (November 11-13, 2008)
  • Orientation Workshop on CEDAW (15-16 October, 2008)
  • Orientation Workshop on 'Women's Leadership and Political Participation (31st oct., 2009)
  • A three days exhibition was organized by the centre to celebratem International Women’s Day under Jagriti Programme (March 11-13, 2011)
  • World AIDS Day was celebrated by Red Ribbon Club members of WSRC
  • WSRC and Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Legal Studies jointly organized National Seminar on “Protection of Consumer Rights in Digital Era” (30th March, 2014).

 

LECTURE SERIES
From time to time, WSRC has organized lecture series. The eminent academicians like Prof. Mohini Anjum, Prof. Rajiv Gupta, Prof. Pam Rajput, Prof. Usha Thakkar, Dr. Y.L.Thekre, Prof. Harish Doshi, Dr. Archana Dassi, Dr. Pratibha Jain Mishra,
Prof. S. C. Rajora, Mr. Rune Haaland, Prof. Sanjeev Bhanawat, Prof. S. P. Gupta, Prof. Rajiv Gupta, Mr. Rajpal Singh Chouhan, Prof. Rajesh Mishra, Mr. Anil Tripathi have been invited by the centre to Banasthali University who have delivered their memorable thought provoking lectures before the audiences. 

 

FACULTY ENRICHMENT PROGRAMME

·         Three days Workshop on “Research Methodology: Quantitative Method” (4th to 6th October 2013).

  • One day Workshop on “Gender Sensitization” (7th December 2013).
  • One day Workshop on “Social mapping” (23rd February 2014).
  • One day Workshop on “Domestic Violence” (29th March 2014).
  • One day Workshop on “Sexual Harassment at Workplace” (30th March 2014).

 

STUDENTS' ACTIVITIES

  • WSRC organized an Extempore for students on “Status of Women in India” in the month of November 2013 where students got the opportunity to share their views and ideas related to the issue.

 

  • Students from different courses participated in an essay competition organized on 19th February 2014 titled “Role of Television in Women Empowerment” where these students provided with an opportunity to express their opinions and ideas regarding media.

 

  • A Debate titled Mass Media promoting women’s security was organized for students on 4th April 2014. Students from different disciplines actively participated in this debate and got a platform to express their feelings and ideas on this issue.

 

STUDENTS WORKSHOP

·         Two days Workshop was organized on Techniques of PRA Skills” on 23rd & 24th February 2014.

·         On 26th February 2014 one day Workshop was organized on “Application of SPSS Software”.

·         One day Workshop was organized on “Social Case & Group Work” on 26th March 2014.

·         A two days workshop was organized on “Follow-up of SPSS Application” on 29th & 30th March 2014.

·         On 31st March 2014 a Workshop was organized on “Application of RTI”.

·         A three days Motivational workshop on “Personality Development” was organized for Social science students from 26th to 28th September 2014.

 

EXTENSION ACTIVITIES
Training programme: From time to time the WSRC has conducted various training programmes for different target groups which are as follows.

 

·         Legal Awareness for students and the faculty

·         Entrepreneur skill development for poor & needy women

·         Capacity building for grass root women leaders

·         Stress management for teachers and students

·         Human Right Awareness

·         Creating awareness on social evils eg: child marriage, nukta, gender discrimination etc.

  

COMMUNITY ACTION

  • Training the rural women for 'Khadi Weaving'.
  • Health Camp for poor women in adjacent villages.
  • Campaign for prevention of illiteracy and unhygienic practices in rural areas.
  • Reproductive Health Awareness Programme for rural poor women.

 

ADVOCACY

  • For prevention of child marriage
  • For shunning unhygienic practices during the child birth
  • For human-rights-concerns especially protecting rights of girl child
  • For prevention of illiteracy and blind belief among rural especially rural women
  • Against the trend of declining child sex ratio and sex selective abortions
  • For Total Sanitation Programme.
  • Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana.

COUNSELING

  • Career Counseling for the students of Banasthali University
  • Mental Health Counseling for Students
  • Health (Physical & Mental) counseling for the faculty & wardens
  • Health counseling for the rural poor living nearby the Banasthali University


MAGAZINE
Magazine 'Srijan .... A new Vision' - Volume-IV


FACILITIES
WSRC Library, Banasthali University

The WSRC library is a specialized resource centre for a comprehensive collection of published and unpublished materials helpful for academic scholars, researchers, students, policy makers and administrators and activists. The library through its collection aims to provide an overall perspective regarding the situational analysis, current issues, development policies, programmes and schemes relating to women and strives to fill in information gaps in these areas. Presently, the Library has a collection of 1250 on women studies.


Journals and newsletters, articles, bibliographies, directories, papers and monographs, publications of international, regional and local organizations, government policies/ reports/ schemes, seminars/ workshops / conference papers and reports, audiovisual cassettes, CDs, poster on women's issues are available in the WSRC library.
 

DOCUMENTATION
Audio visual Documentation : With the assistance from Community Radio, the WSRC has been successful in documenting on various women's issues like Purdah system, child marriage, women's empowerment & women's education and the contributions of rural women in the field of national reconstruction and songs highlighting women's achievements in various fields and there by institutionalizing them as role models for others.


WSRC has systematically documented articles, news paper cutting in different folders in the name of 'Women and Reproductive Health', 'Women in Sports', 'Cultural Ideology of Gender', 'Women and N.G.O', 'Women and Change', 'Women and Religion', 'Social problems relating to women'. Women and Law, Women and Demography, 'Women and Environment', 'Women and Profession', 'Women and Politics', 'Women and Entrepreneurship, - Women in Cooperatives' Women and Higher Education, Women and Policy, Women and Movement, Women Empowerment etc.


PARTNERSHIP
WSRC, Banasthali has made partnership with 'The Institutes for Desert Research' Ben Gurion University, Israel, with 'Sweet Brail College' Virginia, U.S.A. for research in women's studies and for the scholar exchange programme.


The WSRC has also made clustering with various other departments like dept. of Computer Science & mathematics, Dept. of Pol. Science, History, textile, English, Home Science, Management, Krishi Vigyan Kendra within the Universities itself. Apart from this, the centre have been working in clustering and networking with other universities, National and International research institutes, Government Institutions & functionaries, NGOs with similar academic and research interests. Besides this the centre has been inherently working by keeping link with the following international institutions.


INTERNATIONAL LINK:

  • British Council, New Delhi 
  • College of Economics & Commerce, Seoul, Korea 
  • Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, Osun State NIGERIA 
  • Kyorin University Hachioji Campus Tokyo, Japan 
  • Institutes for Desert Research, Ben Gurion University 
  • Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL 
  • University of Peradeniya Peradeniya Sri Lanka
  • University of Buffalo, Buffalo, NY
Notified Under Section (3) of University Grants Commission Act.
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