Includes bibliographical references and index.

Politics of women's reservation in India/M.R.Biju -- The numbers dilemma: success stories and manipulative mechanisms/P. Manikyamba -- Women's reservation bill: politics and perspective/ Snehalata Panda -- Women in Panchayati Raj institutions: political empowerment through capacity building/K. Subha, B.S. Bhargava and Mangala A. Nayak -- Political participaiton of women in SAARC region / Anand Mathur -- Tribal women: the gender issues / Zenab Banu -- Socio - economic life of tribal women and children / Dipankar Mandal and Bhola Nath Ghosh -- Empowerment of women and law / B.P.Tiwari -- Rural credit and empowerment of women under self help groups: a study of Ranga Reddy district / H.D. Dwarkanath -- Islam and sexual equality/ Asghar Ali Engineer -- Gender-learning perspective of computer related attitudes/ Vanathi Vembar -- Information and communication technology for women empowerment/ Mary Cherian -- Empowering women by safeguarding their human rights: international standards and Indian law/ Amita Agarwal -- Women grassroots participatory structures in decentralized educational administration: creating space and building capacities/M. D. Ushadevi -- Women's empowerment in India: chaning socio-political equations/ M.R. Biju.