Kerala women while establishing firm foothold in literacy and social status seem yet to identify their role in entrepreneurship. According to Employment Exchange data for 1997, 54 percent of job seekers were educated women.

This study is an attempt to broaden the discussion about the prevention of domestic violence against women informed by a rights based strategy.

According to Manusmrithi and other ancient Sanskrit texts, the ideal women are those who do not strive to break the bonds of control and dependency. Indian girls grow up hearing stories of virtuous women like Sita and Savithri considered epitomes of proper wives.

In the early debates on the desirability of artificial birth control in Malayalee society, artificial birth control was often opposed on the grounds that it undercut some of the crucial conditions for the usheringin of full-fledged modernity, which was frequently conceived of in

Literacy, together with non-domestic employment, which gave women access to independent sources of income, have been regarded as important indicators of women’s ‘status’, which affected fertility and mortality outcomes.

Shelter is one of the basic needs of human beings next only to food and clothing. ‘Housing’ is fundamental to the formation of individual capabilities and identities and family and community ties. It is as essential for a human being as air, water, food, and clothing.

This paper explores one of the key issues in current research on gender and development: the links between poverty and young women’s employment. Specifically, the following questions were addressed, in the context of Kerala: Which young women work for pay and why?

This paper is divided into two parts.

I was born and brought up in Shakthikula