Ever wondered who is updating the CSR Facebook page, searching for the latest statistics on crimes against women, or assisting our core team in envisioning, coordinating and facilitating our projects and programs?

We are always very proud of our enthusiastic young interns in the CSR office. Over the years we’ve had interns join us from both across the country and across the world – from Punjab, Jharkhand, and Maharashtra in India to Scotland, Germany, Canada and Georgia. They’ve worked on a variety of projects such as Walk a Mile in Her Shoes, the I Stand for Safe Delhi campaign, Human Rights Defenders training workshops and numerous research projects. We’d like to introduce you to some of our current hard working interns!

Meet Maia Barkaia, Research Intern at Centre for Social Research, from Sokhumi, Georgia.

Research Intern Maia working hard at work in the CSR office

What brought you to New Delhi?

I am currently working on a Ph.D in Gender Studies (looking at the intersections of gender and religious identities) through Tbilisi State University. Over the past few years, my studies have been related to India and, as I read more about women’s struggles and feminism in India, I decided to immerse myself in some practical work in additon to my more theoretical experiences. I had the privilege of joining Centre for Social Research as an intern this August.

Describe a typical day at CSR for you…

My day at CSR is quite busy, but interesting. During the day I’m looking through different academic articles related to the project that the  research team works on, processing data, and writing reports on the studies that have been carried out.

What is the most shocking thing you’ve learned about women in India since starting your research at CSR?

While reading CSR reports and  research projects about pre-natal sex selection and sexual harassment, I was  profoundly shocked by the sheer scale of discrimination against women in India.

What do you enjoy doing when you’re studying or working?

I like that there is such a wide variety of things to do in Delhi. I love attending different cultural programs and public meetings, roaming in the streets of Old Delhi, visiting friends in Jawaharlal Nehru University and exploring new and exciting places outside of the city.

This is part two of a two-part series. Read part one here.

Last week, we looked at the women who are stepping into the limelight within the Indian corporate sector to become managers, against all the odds. Sadly, a recent Centre for Social Research study on Women Managers in India highlighted several major factors still inhibiting their goals and aspirations.

In other words, representation of women at the top level of management is proportionately low compared to men in India. A solid glass ceiling prevents women from moving upwards in their careers and if companies are serious about striving toward greater diversity in their management, systematic changes are needed. In response to its findings, the CSR Research Division has outlined the following key recommendations for change:

The major barrier for the promotion of women managers in India is insensitivity towards women’s social roles and responsibilities. Active changes to the recruitment system, company policies, legislation and increased opportunities and training for women employees are needed in order to reach more proportionate gender representation in Indian corporate management.

This is part one of a two-part series. Read part two here.

“Women are fragile.” “Women are indecisive.” “Women are too emotional.” “Women are inexperienced.”

These are some of the stereotypes with which many still view women in the workplace in India today. Such pre-conceptions consequently stand in the way of success for even the most capable and talented women in their professional lives. Centre for Social Research’s recent study, Women Managers in India, has revealed unsettling explanations for the distinct lack of power and authority which remains a reality for the majority of professional women in management positions in three of India’s most rapidly developing cities. During 2009-2011 our Research team surveyed 264 women managers in Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore in order to examine the underlying factors which impede women’s professional success, as well as uncover how and why women continue to struggle to prove their worth in what is often described as ‘a man’s world’.

Women managers–those that supervise 13 or more members of staff–face a variety of gender-based challenges in different corporate sectors such as health, media, finance and hospitality in India. However, views on what these challenges are differ widely between corporate levels and sectors.

The resounding opinion is that while many women are confronted with male ego, which eventually results in a loss of opportunities, they are also subjected to other factors which make the workplace an uncomfortable environment for women and constitute serious obstacles to gender equality. For one, 72% of the companies audited did not have any gender-specific policies to encourage female staff into leadership positions, suggesting that there is no intention of moving towards greater representation of women in management in the private sector. Women-specific forums for reporting grievances or gaining support on how to further one’s career do not exist either, sustaining an unwelcoming atmosphere for women in a male-dominated workplace.

In addition to the lack of institutionalised support for existing and aspiring women managers in Indian firms, gender inequality is clearly visible in the workplace. Special facilities such as flexible working hours and medical benefits are usually only available to men and not women. Given the traditional views surrounding family and marriage and the perceived importance of a woman’s role in the home in Indian society, young married women especially struggle to balance their careers and family lives. This is due to an insensitive approach toward women’s family obligations and related disagreements over maternity benefits and leave. According to our survey, 18% of study participants complained of conflicting roles, responsibilities and complaining in-laws who wanted the daughter-in law to quit her job.

But why is there a lack of understanding about the responsibilities and needs of a young working mother? In India, when women attempt to maintain a balance between time spent at home and at the office, their efforts are often misinterpreted as a lack of commitment to their job.

However, for many women starting out in their career or already working their way up the ladder, the real problem does not lie in commitment to their job but in the individual challenge of finding sufficient drive to reach the upper management level. As a result, women become complacent with the position they are holding at work, and their zeal for more responsibility and success begins to fade. While 63% of women in entry-level positions in Delhi expressed their aspiration to reach the top, only 48% of mid-career women expressed the same. Many women with such goals admitted that they were unaware of how to fulfill their ambitions or lacked confidence. While not expressly addressed in the study, there’s likely a direct link between these figures and the lack of support and encouragement for women in the workplace in corporate Indian organisations.

On April 25 and 26, members of our research team, including Head of Research Dr. Manasi Mishra, were invited to participate at key speakers at the second Beti Bachao (Save the Girl Child) conference in Panipat, Haryana state. Beti Bachao was founded last year in Ambala by activists from 14 Indian states and meets annually to strengthen the campaign.

Organised by the Alliance for People’s Movement (NAPM) and Asha Parivar, the conference was jointly inaugurated by Chaudhary Virendar Singh, General Secretary of All India Congress Committee; Manimala, social activist and writer; Veena Behen from Gandhi Global Family; and eminent Pakistani peace activist Saeeda Deep. More than seven hundred people from across India participated in the conference.

By Michelle Tan, Intern – Research Department.

Dressed in a plain brown Saree, a 44-year-old woman from a remote rural village in Ambala (Haryana state) peered at us curiously when we knocked on the broken, rusty gates of her house. “Namaste,” my colleague Amrita said. “We are from Centre for Social Research and would like to conduct a quick survey with you. Can we come in?” The woman nodded her head shyly, smiled at us and then excitedly beckoned us into the front yard of her house.

To say that she lived in a “house” might be somewhat of a misnomer, especially since her “house” was in fact really a shed, and there were half-laid stones and bricks strewn everywhere. The walls were Grey and incomplete, and construction had obviously long been in progress. We sat down on the only piece of furniture to begin what we had initially imagined would be a typical conversation on female foeticide—or, as typical as a conversation on female foeticide could be. What we didn’t expect was that our host would so warmly and immediately open up to us, revealing her most personal experiences of sexs election, discrimination and the ordeal she went through when standing up against it.

Already a mother of one boy and two girls, our host was pregnant for the fourth time when her in-laws and husband found out from a sonogram that she was once again expecting a girl child. Angered by the news, the family adamantly insisted that she should undergo an abortion. They, like so many in India, believed that a girl child was a waste of family resources. A girl, they argued, was of no particular value and as a result of dowry, she would also be impossibly expensive. But unlike many mothers who silently suffered, our host was strong-willed and refused to give up her child or undergo an abortion. She was henceforth disgraced and expelled from her family, slammed in the face with a quick divorce. Shamed by the scandals of their daughter, her parents put her up for a second arranged marriage. She married again, but her husband died young in the Indian army, and she became a widow. At the moment, she continues to bravely and independently support four young children on her own—an incredibly rare, brave and admirable feat especially in rural India.

We left that day, humbled and in awe of this incredibly strong woman. Her story serves as a painful and grave reminder that female foeticide, for all its supposed allegations and denials, is still a real and pervasive reality in much of Indian society today. Her story reminds us that women who transgress from the norm and elect to stand up against their family to save a female fetus risk losing their livelihoods, if not their lives. Her story stands out not only because she was empowered in spite of lacking a formal education or any privileges whatsoever, but also because she spoke with no complaint and no expectations of sympathy. That’s where she stands victorious: because this one woman in her plain brown Saree does not see herself as an object of pity, but as a woman in her totality who can and will get her due in her own right.

View more photos from the April 5-7 baseline study in Ambala at Centre for Social Research’s Flickr account.

Yesterday, our Research team held a Community Watch Group meeting as part of our Meri Shakti, Meri Beti project at the anganwaadi (daycare) centre in the Manav Chowk and Kotwali Sarai areas of Ambala, Haryana.The meeting brought together over 30 women from the local community as well as young girls and boys.

Major issues discussed included the need for educating boys and girls so that they know more about their rights and duties as community and family members. Many women called for recruiting more men to Community Watch Group meetings to enlist their help in spreading awareness about pre-natal sex selection (female foeticide) and the need for equality between genders.

Community Watch Groups meetings are an important part of our team’s work on violence against women, female foeticide and overall efforts to promote gender equality. They represent an important opportunity to interact with local communities and share ideas on how best to move forward on these issues.

The second Interface workshop under our comprehensive Meri Shakti Meri Beti project was held at the Panchayat Bhawan of Kurukshetra, Haryana state on March 4, with thanks to our funders: WomenPowerConnect and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Bahari Mohalla(community) residents of all ages attended the meeting with aaganwadi (daycare) and ASHA workers, and students from Kurukshetra University and the Kurukshetra College of Education. The designated “Expert Group” included Dr. Sushma Saini, Chief Medical Officer, and Ms. Deepshikha Kaushik, Domestic Violence Officer.

Initiating the workshop, our own Dr. Manasi Mishra spoke about the wider social and economic implications of pre-natal sex selection (female foeticide). To successfully address pre-natal sex selection, the status of women must increase by changing the deeply patriarchal mindset in communities and families. Chief Medical Officer Dr. Saini pointed out that ultrasound technology was invented to assist medical treatment and not to perpetuate a social malice like female foeticide. Other speakers, including members of the local community, spoke about the high cases of domestic violence in parts of Haryana and the importance of taking more responsibility to care for girl children.

To date, the Meri Shakti, Meri Beti project to reduce pre-natal sex selection has organised over 40 Community Outreach Programs, nine Community Watch Group meetings, two Expert Group meetings and one Interface Workshop in the Kurukshetra district of Haryana state.

To view more photos from event, visit Center for Social Research’s Flickr account.

Continuing in our efforts to fight female foeticide, our Research department led an Expert Group Meeting in Kurushetra, Haryana as part of the Meri Shakti, Meri Beti project last week. We were honoured that our meeting was attended by both local community members and figures from the local medical community, including the Chief Medical Officer of the Civil Hospital, Kurukshetra Dr. Sushma Saini; PC/PNDT Officer Dr. K.K.Sharma; Family Welfare Officer Dr. Madhu Sharma; and the Superintendent of the Civil Hospital, Dr. Lajya Ram.

The main purpose of the meeting was to look into how ultrasound machines are actually registered, and how portable machines are being used and transported. We also discussed the follow-up of two long-pending legal cases, heard community members’ concerns about 3 new area clinics, and talked about the level of awareness amongst doctors to combat pre-natal sex selection.

Dr. Manasi Mishra, our Head of Research and the Meri Shakti, Meri Beti project coordinator, also highlighted some of the recent initiatives by the Haryana government in fighting female foeticide. They have introduced cash rewards of Rs. 5 lakhs, 3 lakhs and 1 lakh ($11,200, $6,700 and $2,235 USS) for best sex ratio state districts. Additionally, informers who can provide information relating to illegal practises will receive a Rs. 5,000 ($110 USD) reward. However, some argued that the prize money awarded from the government is much too meagre, and no one will ever risk his life for it.

Overall, the meeting provided a valuable opportunity for medical professionals to exchange ideas and discuss the problem of female foeticide: It’s heartening to be able to join forces with committed medical professionals who are as determined to end this practise as we are.