Dr. Sheela Suryanarayanan, Associate Professor, Centre for Women’s Studies, University of Hyderabad (UoH), has obtained an award of ≈ Rs 1800000 for a Research Project under “Punyashloka Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Special Call for Women-Led Research on Women-Led Development”. The research titled “The Role of Mothers as Agents of Sustainable Development and Custodians of Cultural Heritage in National Progress.” aims to examine the present-day meanings on empowerment and motherhood that women derive from cultural heritage in two States of India. The research includes content analysis of select ancient popular Indian texts in the context of women empowerment and motherhood.
Dr. Sheela Suryanarayanan
The research aims to collate, analyse and archive local heritage of popular significance such as; texts, art, paintings, folk songs, poems, stage dramas, rituals and festivals and examine women’s interpretation and its meanings derived in present-day context to develop contextually relevant concepts of women empowerment and motherhood that emerge from the Indian knowledge system. The project aims to quantify the significance of ‘Indian Knowledge System’ for Women Empowerment with women’s present-day standpoint experience. The research is innovative since it positions women’s subjectivity and role as agents of sustainable development in India to develop decolonialised frameworks of analysis and contextual understanding of motherhood and women empowerment.