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Are considering a degree in Women and Gender Studies? Here is a list of 17 Indian institutes that offer women-gender studies courses.
Are considering a degree in Women & Gender Studies? Here is a list of 17 Indian institutes that offer women & gender studies courses.
Women and gender studies give us an insight into the history, philosophy and the regulation of humans from a gendered perspective. We thereby understand how our society works and work towards a more inclusive society.
This makes it a very attractive field for young scholars to understand gender with regard to social, political, and economic issues. In this article we have shortlisted 17 Indian Institutes that offer women & gender studies courses from all over India.
Below are some Indian Universities and their objectives with regard to the Gender Studies based courses they offer:
Aligarh Muslim University:
Course offered: BA hons in Women’s Studies
AMU offers a 3-year Bachelor’s in Women’s Studies with the goal to develop critical thinking on social issues and analyse how gender, race, ethnicity, class, caste and sexuality contribute to the construction of social, cultural and organic experiences for all genders.
With the help of this course, students can aim for higher education in Women’s Studies or other fields in Social Sciences and Humanities. They can also join NGOs and fellow organizations working towards gender equality.
The course fee is approximately ₹7000 to 25000.
University of Rajasthan:
Course offered: PG Diploma in Women’s Studies
UniRaj now offers a 1-year Postgraduate Diploma in Women’s Studies, which is divided into 2 semesters for students who have already graduated in a related or unrelated subject. The course aims at exploring the nature, scope and evolution of Women’s Studies and the issues and challenges it ensues.
The course fee is approximately ₹1500.
University of Lucknow:
Course offered: MA in Women’s Studies
Lucknow University offers a 2-year Post Graduate course in Women’s Studies to create an environment encouraging all individuals in the society to develop a just society that is inclusive, violence-free and discrimination while promoting the socio-economic empowerment of women by creating awareness.
The goal of the Course is to empower women in India to live with dignity, so they can contribute to society as valued partners in the sustainable development of the nation.
The total fee is approximately ₹32000 to 44000.
University of Madras:
Course offered: MA in Women’s Studies, Certificate in Women’s Studies
Started in 2013, the Department of Women’s Studies in Madras University offers a 2-year Postgraduate course and 1-year graduate certificate, respectively.
The Department seeks to highlight the role and contribution of women in society by developing a multidisciplinary curriculum, interdisciplinary research, collaborating with academic institutions domestically and abroad to promote cross-cultural research, networking with organizations and conducting skill development programmes for women to enhance employability, capacity building, awareness and other need-based programmes across different strata of society.
The average course fee for all courses is approximately ₹1000 – 3000
Indira Gandhi National Open University:
Course offered: Diploma in Women’s Empowerment and Development, MA in Women’s & Gender Studies, PG Diploma in Women’s & Gender Studies
IGNOU’s School of Gender and Development Studies offers a 1-year Graduate Diploma and 2-year Postgraduate course and 1-year Postgraduate Diploma in Women and Gender studies. The School aims at achieving gender justice and equity through analysis of human, social, cultural and economic development.
The programmes have been developed under two streams: Gender and Development Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies. Other focal areas include Women’s Studies, Literature, Law, Science, Agriculture and Arts and Media among others.
The average course fee is approximately ₹3000 to 14000 per year.
Banaras Hindu University:
Course offered: PG Diploma in Gender & Women’s Studies
The 1-year course is offered now by BHU. The central concern of this paper is to offer a broad outline of the nature and growth of the women’s movement in the modern age, covering issues pertinent to women’s emancipation, dignity and status.
Further, it seeks to familiarize students with major historical developments of women’s movement in their fight for freedom and equality. The paper is divided into four modules with a chronological canvas of the development of various women’s movements across the world in different socio-cultural and political conditions.
The average course fee is approximately ₹1 lakh.
University of Hyderabad:
Course offered: MA in Gender Studies
Hyderabad University offers the 2-year Postgraduate course under their Centre for Women’s Studies which aims at main streaming gender issues in teaching and research, creating a space for women to come together, facilitating gender analysis on critical issues.
Their key areas of work lie under women’s education, globalization and new economic policy, women and governance, women’s issues (both private and public).
The average course fee is approximately ₹8700.
Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS):
The Master of Arts under Women’s Studies is a 2-year Postgraduate Course which was launched in 2009, after concretizing on earlier experiences of teaching and research in Women’s Studies at TISS.
The course claims to have an organic link with the women’s movement along with struggles of all marginal groups in society, and is engaged with various academic disciplines to evolve a critical perspective on gender in society as well as in knowledge production.
The average course fee is approximately ₹88000.
Panjab University:
Course offered: MA in Women’s Studies and Development, PG Diploma in Women’s Studies
The 2-year Postgraduate course and 1-year Postgraduate Diploma respectively is available under the Department cum Centre for Women’s Studies & Development. The Department seeks both to interpret women’s experiences and change their conditions, through transformation of consciousness, social reforms and modes of action.
It seeks to interrogate the system of socio-economic-political and cultural subordination surrounding women, as well as influence, reshape and recast dominant ideologies. It seeks to be a catalyst that leads to transformation of an unjust, inegalitarian society into one where gender justice and equality are the norm.
The average course fee for Masters is approximately ₹ 8000 – 9400 and for Postgraduate Diploma it is ₹ 9000 to 11000.
Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University:
Course offered: MA in Women’s Studies, PG Diploma in Women’s Studies and Development
The 2-year Postgraduate course and 1-year Postgraduate Diploma is designed to provide an overview of the significance of women’s studies and the major issues concerning them. It seeks to create awareness of the factors and influences which led to the marginalization and the goal is to sensitize students on gender issues in the context of globalization, society, family and workplace.
The courses provide an opportunity for students to engage in research using feminist methodology and explore practical realities of gender concerns in today’s society. It prepares them to discover ways to effectively address concerns of women based on knowledge and insight into women’s issues. The average course fee for both courses is ₹ 32400 to 200440.
Bangalore University:
The 2-year Postgraduate course aims to familiarize students with key concepts, issues, and debates in Women’s Studies. To make them aware of the Women’s exclusion from knowledge and need for Women’s Studies as an academic discipline. It deliberates on the prevailing strategies of the growth of Women’s Studies in India and abroad.
The average course fee is approximately ₹15940.
University of Calicut:
The aim of the 2-year Postgraduate course is to impart knowledge about the basic aspects of Women’s Studies both theoretical and applied to enable students to critically analyse the socio-cultural, political and economic reasons for the position of women as a group in society.
The course provides theoretical, research and practical dimensions essential for the understanding and addressing the issues of gender inequality prevailing in our society.
The average course fee is approximately ₹ 950 – 7600.
Bharathiar University:
The 2-year Postgraduate course offered under the Department of Women’s Studies carries out research and activities in the community.
Their thrust areas are domestic violence, human rights in international perspective, matrimonial property rights, drug abuse awareness, gender budgeting training, gender sensitization, gender equality and equity, gender audit, gender champion, empowerment of destitute/marginalized women, cybercrime, drug abuse prevention, women welfare laws in India, women and health, women and media, women and bio-diversity, menstrual hygiene, breast cancer, cervical cancer, breastfeeding, women entrepreneurship, significance of feminist research methods, women in agriculture.
The average course fee is approximately ₹8800.
University of Mysore:
Course offered: MA in Women’s Studies, PG Diploma in Women’s Studies, Ph.D. in Women Studies (Course Work)
The 2-year Postgraduate course, 1-year Postgraduate Diploma and Doctorate in Women’s Studies is based around the objective to teach Gender and Women’s Studies in Academic Institutions Training faculties in gender training Institutions Gender sensitive development functionaries both in Government Organizations, Non-Government Organizations and Corporate sector Researchers in the field of Gender/Women’s Studies.
The average course fee for both courses is ₹5300 to 64000.
Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University
Course offered: MA in Women’s Studies, PG Certificate Course in Women’s Studies
The 2-year Postgraduate course and 1-year Postgraduate Certificate course in Women’s Studies is offered under the Tarabai Shinde Women’s Studies Centre, which focuses on women’s studies as an academic discipline that developed out of the need for the feminist movement to understand women’s secondary status in society.
The courses in Women’s Studies can help students get employment in education, research, journalism, NGO’s, government jobs in the Department of Women and Child Development and Department of Human Resource Development. It aims to play a vital role in the Fight for Equality through a feminist approach which was started by Late Mahatma Phule, Savitribai Phule, Tarabai Shinde, Periyar and Dr. B.R.Ambedkar etc.
The average course fee is approximately ₹6000.
Global Open University:
Course offered: M.A. in Women’s Studies
The 2-year Master of Arts (M.A) Degree in Women’s Studies offered by The Global Open University, Nagaland has been designed to meet the demands of the growing needs of experts in the fields of women’s empowerment, rural and urban entrepreneurship for women, education for women, women and child development etc. The average course fee is approximately ₹6000 to 24000.
S Kula Women’s College:
Course offered: Certificate in Women’s Studies
The 6-month graduate-level certificate course is offered under the Women’s Study Centre in S Kula Women’s College in Nambol, Manipur.
The objectives of the Centre are women empowerment through value-added education, to upgrade courses on women’s studies, conduct training programmes on women’s studies, spread awareness/sensitization programme about legal aids on women’s rights, research works on the topics related to women’s issues as well as documentation, compilation, publication and dissemination.
Information on course fee is currently unavailable.
Women and gender studies continues to grow as a wide field and enables its learners to understand the society they live in better, while also introducing more spaces where the same knowledge can be professionally applied.
Gender studies challenges traditional views of sex and gender, and thereby students can learn how such binaries are harmful to various groups of people. The study of gender provides a superior understanding of society and how it impacts all those in it by providing an organized framework to tackle social issues.
The future of gender studies is definitely bright as more and more universities integrate it into their curriculum.
The fee and programme structure in these Indian Institutes that offer women & gender studies courses are subjected to change and updating. Please cross-check before proceeding.
Image source: Still from the film Raanjhanaa, edited on CanvaPro
I am Ria from New Delhi. I'm a student of political science and law and I have a lot to say apparently. read more...
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Neena was the sole caregiver of Amma and though one would think that Amma was dependent on her, Neena felt otherwise.
Neena inhaled the aroma that emanated from the pan and took a deep breath. The aroma of cumin interspersed with butter transported her back to the modest kitchen in her native village. She could picture her father standing in the kitchen wearing his white crisp kurta as he made delectable concoctions for his only daughter.
Neena grew up in a home where both her parents worked together in tandem to keep the house up and running. She had a blissful childhood in her modest two-room house. The house was small but every nook and cranny gave her memories of a lifetime. Neena’s young heart imagined that her life would follow the same cheerful course. But how wrong she was!
When she was sixteen, the catastrophic clutches of destiny snatched away her parents. They passed away in a road accident and Neena was devastated. Relatives thronged her now gloomy house and soon it was decided that she should be married off.
Women today don’t want to be in a partnership that complicates their lives further. They need an equal partner with whom they can figure out life as a team, playing by each other’s strengths.
We all are familiar with that one annoying aunty who is more interested in our marital status than in the dessert counter at a wedding. But these aunties have somehow become obsolete now. Now they are replaced by men we have in our lives. Friends, family, and even work colleagues. It’s the men who are worried about why we are not saying yes to one among their clans. What is wrong with us? Aren’t we scared of dying alone? Like them?
A recent interaction with a guy friend of mine turned sour when he lectured me about how I would regret not getting married at the right time. He lectured that every event in our lives needs to be completed within a certain timeframe set by society else we are doomed. I wasn’t angry. I was just disappointed to realize that annoying aunties are rapidly doubling in our society. And they don’t just appear at weddings or family functions anymore. They are everywhere. They are the real pandemic.
Let’s examine this a little closer.
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