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Paper short abstract:

SOCIAL EXCLUSION AND FEMALE IN DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES Count Me In. Each of these three words is loaded with myriad meanings: of numbers, of definitions, of movements and communities that include and exclude. Included is upper caste,heterosexual, married, able-bodied, upper-class; excluded is everything else.

Paper long abstract:

SOCIAL EXCLUSION AND FEMALE IN DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES

The concept of social exclusion is both the most advanced and multidimensional

framework for deconstructing social injustice. The social exclusion framework builds on the best conceptual and analytical tools created over the past decades - human development, gender analysis, power analysis, the social construction of sexuality and mental health, among many others. More importantly, however, social exclusion is a framework that is particularly tailored for action, and for activists. It bridges the gap between theory and practice since it emerged out of action - out of trying to understand

why, even with the best intentions, good policies and program mes did not reach some people, or why some groups were able to hoard resources and opportunities while others were left out.

Count Me In. Each of these three words is loaded with myriad meanings: of numbers, of definitions, of movements and communities that include and exclude. Included is upper caste, heterosexual, married, able-bodied, upper-class; excluded is everything else. Important is violence against the included; ignored is violence against everyone else. Every social group in the world has specific traditional cultural practices and beliefs, some of which are beneficial to all members, while others are harmful to a specific group, such as women. These harmful traditional practices include female genital mutilation; forced feeding of women; early marriage; the various taboos or practices which prevent women from controlling their own fertility; nutritional taboos and traditional birth practices; son preference and its implications for the status of the girl child; female infanticide; early pregnancy; and dowry price.