Gender Myths that Instrumentalise Women: A View from the Indian Frontline

Religious fundamentalism and neo-liberal economic reforms are converting poor grassroots women in India into both agents and instruments in a process of their own disempowerment. Though these forces are not necessarily acting in concert, they are nonetheless reconstruct-ing both gender and other social power relations. While we have analysed this dynamic elsewhere (Dhanraj, Batliwala and Misra 2002), in this chapter we examine certain gender myths1 – or rather, myth complexes – that are being used to convert poor women into in-struments of both neo-liberal and fundamentalist agendas in India. The operation of these myths is analysed in the context of a government-initiated rural poverty alleviation pro-gramme in southern India and the Constitutionally-mandated reservation of seats for women in panchayats (local elected councils). At the outset, we wish to emphasise that we do not offer this critical analysis as academic observers, or deny our own participation in these processes. Indeed, the choice of examples is guided, at least partly, by our own involvement, and that of many close colleagues. We have both been complicit, through our past roles in grassroots activism, feminist training and advocacy, in promoting various gender myths and feminist fables that we have only recently