Kiran Prasad

Paper: Feminist Genius: Straddling Creativity, Capability and Leadership Everyday

Abstract 

Despite rapid economic growth in the post-reform period and all the flagship programmes of the government, India ranks very low on narrowing the gender gap in education, health, economic participation and equal pay for equal work. There is an alarming fall in the participation of women in the workforce in the country and it is found that less than 15 per cent of the women are in any form of paid work. At present India is among the few countries of the world where female labour force participation is shrinking. How is the Feminist Genius straddling the complex intersection of creativity, capability and leadership in the midst of such challenges? In this context, the role of the National Mission for Empowerment of Women (NMEW) is crucial in strategic communication for inter-ministerial convergence of gender mainstreaming of programmes, policies, institutional arrangements and processes of participating ministries which have largely hitherto operated independently and in a stand-alone manner. The Mission must bring in convergence and facilitate the processes of ensuring economic and social empowerment of women with emphasis on health and education, reduction in violence against women, generating awareness about various schemes and programmes meant for women, and empowerment of women in difficult circumstances. Sustainable development in India can be a reality only when there is gender equality and justice based development that accords top priority to the welfare of women.

Kiran Prasad, Professor of Communication and Journalism, Sri Padmavati Mahila University, Andhra Pradesh, was a Commonwealth Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for International Communication Research, University of Leeds, UK and Canadian Studies Research Fellow at Carleton University, Canada. She is recipient Best Teacher Award, Govt. of A.P. and has published twenty-two books including Gender and ICTs: Future Directions in Bridging the Digital Divide (2016), and Transforming International Communication: Media, Society and Culture in the Middle East (2014). She is the Secretary for Communication Education (2013-2016), Asian Congress for Media and Communication (ACMC), Philippines, and series editor of Empowering Women Worldwide, published by the Women Press, New Delhi.