Women and Family Welfare

In India, the basic units of society is the family. Women play a special role in family and its welfare. As daughter, sister, wife and mother and grandmother she perform roles that are complicated and difficult to perform. She plays important roles as producers of food, managers of natural resources, income earners, and caretakers of household food and nutrition security. Increases in women’s education and improvements in women’s status over the past quarter century have contributed to more than half of the reduction in the rate of child malnutrition. In many countries, increasing assets that women control also has a positive impact on the next generation, particularly on education and health. This book seeks to understand social status of women and analyses the associated social and cultural values affecting women’s life in and outside home. It describes the most recent developments in family welfare reform and welfare rights activism. It documents the impact of this historic change in public policy on the lives of poor single mothers and their children. The book argues that welfare reform has penalized single motherhood; exposed poor women to the risks of hunger, homelessness and male violence; swept them into low-paid jobs and left many former recipients unable to make ends meet. It explains all aspects of woman’s role in family welfare, which makes it a comprehensive book on the subject.