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Making Women Count for Peace: Gender, Empowerment and Conflict in South Asia

Led by Åshild Kolås
Jun 2012 - Jul 2016

With a focus on Northeast Indian experiences and a comparative look at Nepal, this project addresses the role of women in local governance and politics, particularly within the context of peace and security processes.

This is a collaborative effort by PRIO and six partner institutions in India and Nepal: Malaviya Centre for Peace Research (MCPR) at Banaras Hindu University, Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group (CRG), WISCOMP in New Delhi, North Eastern Social Research Centre (NESRC) in Assam, Nambol L. Sanoi College in Manipur, and National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) North-South in Nepal. Our goal is to investigate what women’s empowerment means in the context of protracted conflict without third party mediation in Northeast India, as well as a post-conflict setting with heavy multilateral and international involvement in Nepal. The project contributes new knowledge on processes of ‘disempowerment’ and ‘empowerment’ in conflict and peacebuilding, recognising the active but understudied and often unacknowledged role of women in conflict as well as peacebuilding.

This project is funded by the Research Council of Norway (INDNOR/NORGLOBAL).

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Members

Research Groups

Gender

Publications

Peer-reviewed Journal Article

Sharma, G Amarjit (2018) Politics of the Informal: Women’s Associational Life and Public Space in the Hills of Manipur, Economic and Political Weekly 53(8): 48–55.

Manchanda, Rita & Seema Kakran (2017) Gendered power transformations in India’s Northeast: Peace politics in Nagaland, Cultural Dynamics 29(1): 63–82.

Kolås, Åshild (2014) Mothers and Activists in the Hills of Assam, Economic and Political Weekly 49(43): 41–48.

Samaddar, Ranabir & Anjuman Ara Begum (2014) New Fault Line in Conflict? Women's Emergence as the Subject of Peace in the North-East, Economic and Political Weekly 49(44): 74–83.

Moral, Rakhee Kalita (2014) The Woman Rebel and the State: Making War, Making Peace in Assam, Economic and Political Weekly 49(44): 66–73.

Banerjee, Paula (2014) New Conundrums for Women in North-East India: Nagaland and Tripura, Economic and Political Weekly 49(44): 57–65.

Banerjee, Paula (2014) Women, Violence and North-East India, Economic and Political Weekly 49(43): 39–40.

Deka, Arunima (2014) Of Pills and Politics: Contraceptives and Women in Assam, Social Change and Development 11(1): 118–130.

Book Chapter

Kolås, Åshild & Torunn L. Tryggestad (2017) Introduction: Women, Peace and Security in Review, in Åshild Kolås, ed., Women, Peace and Security: from Civil War to Post-Conflict Reconstruction. Abingdon: Routledge (1-8).

Kolås, Åshild (2017) Introduction: Women, Peace and Security in Northeast India, in Åshild Kolås, ed., Women, Peace and Security in Northeast India. New Delhi: Zubaan Academic (ix-xxiii).

Upadhyaya, Priyankar (2017) Women’s Rights and Empowerment: The Indian Context, in Åshild Kolås, ed., Women, Peace and Security in Northeast India. New Delhi: Zubaan Books.

Shrestha, Gitta; Bishnu Raj Upreti & Åshild Kolås (2017) Women, Peace and Security: The Case of Nepal, in Åshild Kolås, ed., Women, Peace and Security in Nepal: from Civil War to Post-Conflict Reconstruction. Abingdon: Routledge (99–123).

Upadhyaya, Anjoo Sharan & Afreen Khan (2013) Millennium Development Goals and the Status of Nepalese Women, in Anjoo Sharan Upadhyaya, ed., Nepal in Transition to Democracy. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company.

Edited Volume

Kolås, Åshild (ed.) (2017) Women, Peace and Security in Northeast India. New Delhi: Zubaan Books.

Kolås, Åshild (ed.) (2017) Women, Peace and Security in Nepal: From Civil War to Post-Conflict Reconstruction. Abingdon: Routledge.

Conference Paper

Manchanda, Rita (2013) Changing Dynamics of Gender, Power and Peace: Challenges in Building a Transformative Peace in South Asia, presented at AISC-JNU Conference on Gender and Peacebuilding: Recasting Women's Agency, New Delhi, 12 December 2013.

Shrestha, Gitta; Åshild Kolås & Bishnu Raj Upreti (2013) Making Women Count for Peace: Gender, Empowerment and Conflict in Nepal, presented at the conference on ‘The Gender Dimensions of Armed Violence’, The Graduate Institute, Geneva, 25 February 2013.

PRIO Policy Brief

Upreti, Bishnu Raj & Åshild Kolås (2016) Women in Nepal’s Transition, PRIO Policy Brief, 11. Oslo: PRIO.

Kolås, Åshild (2015) Women's Empowerment in India: From participation to political agency, PRIO Policy Brief, 6. Oslo: PRIO.

PRIO Paper

Meitei, Leitanthem Umakanta (2016) Voyages of Women in Manipur: Towards a peaceful society, PRIO Paper. Oslo: PRIO.

Report - Other

Miklian, Jason (2013) Gender, Empowerment and Conflict: Experiences from Nepal, MWCP Worskhop Report. Oslo: PRIO.

Kolås, Åshild; & Legia Lyngdoh (2012) Gender, Empowerment and Conflict: Experiences from Northeast India, Workshop on Gender, Empowerment and Conflict. Oslo: PRIO.

Report - External Series

Gopinath, Meenakshi; & Nidhi Bhatnagar (2015) Women and Peacebuilding: Engendering Policy, WISCOMP Policy Dialogue, 3. New Delhi: WISCOMP - Foundation for Universal Responsibility.

Hansen, Julie Marie & Jenny Lorentzen (2017) Empowering Survivors of Sexual Violence in DR Congo, PRIO Gender, Peace and Security Update, 2017: PRIO.