The mandate of the Committee was massive, to assess the status of women in India in all aspects of their lives, keeping in mind the diversities (class, caste, religion, ethnicity, region, abilities, age groups etc.), complexities and paradoxes that prevail in our society.

THERE is enough evidence to show that often, development policies adopted by governments have widened the disparities amongst sections of people.

The drive for a rapid development in the education of women came largely from a perception summed up aptly in .the following statement by Mayhew: "women