Women And Human Development: A Case Study Of Manipuri Muslim Women

Abstract

Religion is always considered as the primary force influencing every aspect of Muslim women’s lives. Such misconceptions usually leave Muslim women invisible. Most of the research studies on Muslim women deal with certain issues like personal laws and education. And such studies are concentrated mostly in Muslim dominated states of India. The paper is a comprehensive study of Manipuri Muslim women within a theoretical framework of human development and capabilities approach. The paper tries to study different dimensions of human development – livelihood, education and health which play important roles in shaping the well being of Muslim women in Manipur. It seeks to deepen the human development discourse by looking beyond basic indicators to more complex and wider networks of the community, civil society (like women’s organizations) and the direct and indirect actions of the state.

Human development is a process of enlarging people's choices. In principle, these choices can be infinite and change over time. But at all levels of development, the three essential ones are for people to lead a long and healthy life, to acquire knowledge and to have access to resources needed for a decent standard of living.[i]  If these essential choices are not available, many other opportunities remain inaccessible. Additional choices, highly valued by many people, range from political, economic and social freedom to opportunities for being creative and productive, and enjoying personal self respect and guaranteed human rights.[ii] The human development paradigm values human life for itself. It values life because of its built-in assumption that all individuals must be enabled to develop their human capabilities to the fullest and put those capabilities to the best use in all areas of their lives.[iii] The human development paradigm is concerned both with building up human capabilities (through investment in people) and with using those human capabilities fully (through an enabling framework for growth and employment).[iv]

Endnotes:

[i]Human Development Report 1990, United Nations Development Programme (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1990) p. 10

[ii]Ibid.

[iii]Mahbub ul Haq, Reflections on Human Development (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996) p.17

[iv]Ibid, p.21