This collection of articles reflects in essence the dark brooding face of Kerala: the violence faced by women of all classes, castes and communities, experienced within families, at workplaces, and several institutions. What the studies also do emphatically is to extend what is already being established over several years now: that in addition to a socio-economic paradox, there exists a gender paradox where an extremely poor status of women coexists with proud female development indicators such as high literacy, higher life expectancy, and low infant mortality. The development situation in Kerala is thereby contextualized as each of the studies focuses on different types of violence, locating them in the socio-economic structure as well as the patriarchy and misogyny that are so deeply embedded in Kerala’s socio-cultural milieu. The depiction of violence against women elucidates the locations from which they are reported, either through the researcher’s eye as s/he speaks through a household survey, or the voice of a counsellor in a feminist organization, or a police officer as an agent of the state intervening to protect women’s rights, or through the lens of development experience.
These diverse voices provide a multi-dimensional understanding of violence inflicted on and suffered by women, children, the disabled, and the poor. Among others, the examples of dalit and tribal women’s experiences of displacement and dis-enfranchisement at the centre of Kerala’s development, provides an added dimension to the gender specific violence faced by them.