has fortified the mainstream development planners' approach, so it is useful to have an alternative account based on 'hands-on' experience and interview data.However, while one may appreciate the attribution of therapeutic value to many ritual acts (at once fortifying the spirit, healing the body, and creating social solidarity within the community of women), the author would surely agree that not all of women's ritual practices are physically and spiritually benign and women-centred. Yet to pick and choose those that are effective by the standards of modem Western (if alternative) medical practice, or politically correct by the criteria of contemporary feminist discourse, is to negate the very project of a 'holistic' understanding of female bodily processes. This is a conceptual issue that this book has opened up, but not fully confronted. And it is one of immediate practical concern to a generation of Indian women who, having lost confidence in traditional birthing procedures, now stand vulnerable and exposed to the authority of the modern medical system, and the interventionist power of the modern state. from four continents-North and South America, Africa and Asia have contributed papers. Sadly, a paper from India is missing. The country papers are flanked by two sections containing several papers which set the agenda, discuss the overall situation and recommend strategies for the future.Ours by Right makes very good reading. It is highly recommended for anyone interested in human rights, not just for data but as an impetus to fresh thinking. The book is also important because it states loudly and clearly that women's rights are human rights, that they occupy the centrestage of the struggle for human rights. In other words, women's rights are not a side issue of interest only to women, like the women's hour on television or radio. This is of course not the first time this perception has been articulated, but it bears, indeed needs, repetition as often as possible. For example, when a national agitation to amend the Indian law on rape was underway in the 1980s, one was told by men that it was not their issue-they could support us from outside. An outspoken woman activist was then forced to say, 'of course it is your business-every man is a
ome months ago, this news made the headlines: Korean steel giant S POSCO had offered to set up a new steel plant at Paradip (a misspelling ofpradeep or light) and had signed agreements with the Orissa government. The media and governments alike hailed POSCO as the saviour of Orissa. It was reported that about $12 billion would be invested in the state; that the steel plant would create a number of subsidiary projects (iron mines, port); that 12 million tonnes per year of steel would be produced; and that 48,000 jobs would be generated.Yet, no one said how many thousands of square miles of land would be acquired, not just for the industrial areas but the huge townships that would inevitably come up around each one of them. It was not mentioned how many people stood to lose their homes and livelihoods, how much forest flora and fauna and water resources would be destroyed. Many questions were left unspoken, let alone answered.
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