Gender Justice and Women’s Economic Empowerment
Gender equality is a cross-cutting priority within DAHRD’s work. We work with civil society organisations and partners in India to address the structural barriers that limit women’s participation in economic, political and public life. Our approach goes beyond documenting discrimination: we seek to strengthen women’s agency, access to opportunities and meaningful participation in decision-making processes.
A particular focus of our work is women’s economic empowerment in the context of EU–India economic relations and the EU–India Free Trade Agreement (FTA). We examine how trade, investment and economic policies can affect women differently and advocate for women to participate meaningfully in, and benefit from, the opportunities created by closer EU–India economic cooperation.
Our engagement with European institutions, including the European Parliament, has addressed persistent gender inequalities in India, including women’s limited representation in leadership and decision-making positions, unequal access to finance, markets and economic opportunities, and their underrepresentation in the ownership, management and governance of businesses and enterprises. We advocate for a gender-responsive approach to EU–India trade relations that considers not only economic growth but also who has access to new opportunities, who participates in economic decision-making and who ultimately benefits from trade and investment.
Our work also engages with international mechanisms for gender equality and accountability. DAHRD has contributed a civil society submission to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), examining India’s implementation of its obligations under the Convention and highlighting structural barriers affecting women’s equality, participation and access to rights and opportunities.
We also examine the gendered consequences of policies that may appear gender-neutral. During a field mission to Assam, we documented the impact of eviction and displacement policies on affected communities, with particular attention to the disproportionate consequences for women. These included increased economic insecurity, loss of housing and livelihoods, reduced access to resources and services, and limited participation in decisions directly affecting their lives and communities.
Our gender work also extends to the digital sphere, where women and women human rights defenders are frequently exposed to gender-based harassment, hate speech, intimidation and other forms of online abuse that can restrict their participation in public life. Through our digital rights work and our engagement with the Appeals Centre Europe, DAHRD documents and challenges harmful or inconsistent platform content-moderation decisions, brings forward cases involving online harms and uses these cases to identify broader patterns of gendered digital abuse and platform accountability gaps. This work allows us to connect individual cases with wider systemic questions concerning platform governance, access to remedy and the ability of women to participate safely and equally in digital public spaces.
Across these areas, DAHRD pursues a gender-transformative approach that seeks to address not only individual instances of inequality but also the institutional, economic, social and digital structures that reproduce women’s exclusion. Working in partnership with local organisations and women-led initiatives, we seek to strengthen women’s voice and agency, expand their participation in policy and economic decision-making, and promote more equitable access to resources, finance, markets, leadership opportunities and digital spaces.
In the context of EU–India relations, our objective is to contribute to trade, investment, digital and development policies that do not simply reproduce existing inequalities, but create greater space for women to exercise economic and political agency, influence decisions and participate fully in the opportunities generated by deeper EU–India cooperation.