In its fourth year, Amrita’s UNESCO Chair strives to promote international, inter-university cooperation and networking to enhance institutional capacities and collaborative work. It was in the fall of 2016 that Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham (University) and UNESCO inaugurated India’s first-ever Chair on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment.
The Center for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham is a research-focused academic center for promoting gender equality and fostering women’s empowerment with a special focus on technology and other innovative methods. This center offers diverse courses on key focus areas, pilot radical ideas, and collaborate with leading universities and institutions to advance the initiatives. The center acts as a major resource center for the implementation of various development projects undertaken by Amrita University and its parent organization, MA Math.
The CWEGE mission is built upon the three pillars of education, implementation, and action research.
The CWEGE research agenda continues with a system’s thinking-based approach to mapping women’s vulnerabilities throughout rural India. The approach remains focused through the lens of six dimensions ((i) safety and security, (ii) economic vitality, (iii) education, (iv) political, social and cultural environment, (v) environmental quality and (vi) health), and how they intersect with the different context levels of women’s lives. Our primary focus over the last six months has been improving and refining our data collection strategies, engaging with subject matter experts in the areas outlined above in order to ensure quality of research, and planning an expansion of our original pilot field venture.