POLITICS, SECURITY & WOMEN IN SOUTH ASIA (PSW) INITIATIVE

Prajnya’s PSW Initiative comes into existence at a historical moment when women’s political rights and participation are almost universally valorised as desirable, and when the glass ceiling surrounding security policy and security studies is also being broken occasionally by women scholars, mediapersons and bureaucrats. The Initiative’s agenda steps beyond the need to advocate such participation and inclusion to documentation of women’s contributions, specialized training and policy analysis from a feminist perspective.

PSW’s main concern is with recognizing and documenting the participation and contribution of women to public affairs and the public sphere. As a corollary, PSW also studies and seeks to create awareness about the conditions (specifically, gender violence) that prevent women from being full citizens, undermining their humanity.

Initiative Map Below

PSW's Three-Fold Mandate:

I. To fill the data gap by creating a single-location clearing-house for quantitative, qualitative and archival data on women in the political and policy process.

II. To bridge the communication gap between researchers, activists, government and the public through networking and public education activities designed to facilitate communications and conversations between them.

III. To efface the capacity gap by giving women who enter the public policy sphere access to networks of expertise and specialized skill through briefings and training programmes.