About Us

Knowledge is meant to trigger change. Information gathered help in creation of knowledge. This may be done collaborative and channelling several local information hubs together as a central point. In South Asian region a lot of efforts are going on in women’s related issues both at academic and non-academic level. Women’s Studies are closely linked with all women related issues, their status and also with women movement. Centre for Women’s Development Studies (CWDS) is a path maker in this respect and CWDS Library has witnessed to all these social changes and have a huge collection related to women movement, women’s studies in the form of grey literature, articles, books, annotated bibliographies, statistics, theses, dissertations, occasional papers, conference documents, reports, newspaper clippings, policy documents and audio-visuals. While serving the patrons from the different parts of the world, there is always a strong need felt for one umbrella virtual knowledge centre on women’s studies connecting all South Asian Regions with the rest of the world.

We are aware that a huge amount of information resources is available on women’s studies brought out by research institutions, government bodies, NGOs, universities, mass media and experts. But a large amount of these resources are scattered, disaggregated and often difficult to locate and access.

By increasing the accessibility and availability of these resources through internet it will definitely be used by the larger community of scholars working in the area of women’s studies across the globe. We understand and appreciate that the participation will be two way, the users will also be a partners by sharing and enhancing the collection of the gateway and we hope many women’s organisations will become partners of the gateway as a joint collaborator so that their resources will also be highlighted and accessed by the wide range of users.

The CWDS is an autonomous research institute supported by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICCSR). The Centre remains committed to change in the lives of women through theoretically-informed and empirically-rich research and interventions based on inter-disciplinary perspectives. It undertakes research in the field of Social Science from a Women’s Studies perspective by engaging with development processes, institutions, social practices and policies. The faculty have diverse academic interests and are also actively engaged in advocacy and policy interventions.

The Vina Mazumdar Memorial Library (VMML) named after the Late Prof. Vina Mazumdar is an integral part of the Centre. The CWDS Library is a specialized resource centre for a comprehensive collection of published and unpublished material relating to Indian women. The Library through its collection aims to provide an overall perspective regarding the situational analysis, current issues, development policies, programmes and schemes relating to women and strives to fill in the information gaps in these areas.