Women in Social Change: Visions, Struggles and Persisting Concerns captures the evolution of key debates on women’s rights in independent India. Authored by eminent scholars and emerging experts of their time, the articles encapsulate developments which have given the women’s rights movement and women’s studies imaginative new models. They also indicate fundamental concerns that have endured over decades. The articles have been grouped into categories that cover diverse themes such as the conceptualization of women’s rights and laws pertaining to the same, changing notions of women as workers, women’s political participation and cultural representation, and, finally, the impediments, roadblocks and violence experienced by women. The editor’s introductions provide critical historical context for the juridico-political paradoxes and internal contradictions that confront the women’s rights movement today. The sectional introductions place each article in a larger context, pointing out the importance of their approach, methodology and salient arguments.

The series ‘Social Change in Contemporary India’ brings together key texts published in the prestigious journal Social Change, from 1971 till present times. These writings, most of which are considered canonical, address important issues in health, education, poverty and agriculture, with special focus on the disadvantaged groups. The essays will help readers identify key points in the history of policymaking in India and major discourses and debates and their impact.