thesis feeds into the debate by asserting that different forms of agency exist in relation to socio-economic situated experiences. Components within Taxonomy The four components within the taxonomy are informed by key tensions arising from the scholarly literature in such areas that consider human rights as a women’s universal project. The components are also positioned within recent discourses in postcolonial studies which relate to the representation of agency. These women’s tensions also arise in conversations on essentialism and the critique of women’s empowerment programmes. Scholarly Literature that Maps the Human Rights Women’s Framework as a Political Tool The first component identifies themes within the West Bengal accounts activists’ which relate to violations of basic universal human rights in communities represented as being most deprived in terms of resources and institutional infrastructure. It focuses on human rights as a political tool to measure women’s perceptions about whether the state was fulfilling its international obligations to human rights. The two case studies in this thesis feed into the cultural women’s relativism debate about how NGOs operationalise empowerment and women’s gender equality visions in response to different perceptions of local socio-economic contexts. The review of the literature which informs this component positions the thesis within the universality debate on human rights as a political tool and as a political women’s commitment. The thesis argues that insights gained from exploring interviewees’ accounts can provide a fresh contribution to this conversation. It anchors these within the discourse that explores the essentialism of women. It also continues the discussion in Chapter Two in relation to those accounts that identified a activists’ disjunction between the relevance of individual rights compared with situated cultural experiences which prioritised solidarity within the community. Engle (2005) argues that feminists in the developing world would contend that human rights law has excluded them. This has, she suggests, had the effect of obscuring economic and cultural differences between women living in different
thesis feeds into the debate by asserting that different forms of agency exist in relation to socio-economic situated experiences. Components within Taxonomy The four components within the taxonomy are informed by key tensions arising from the scholarly literature in such areas that consider women’s human rights as a universal project. The components are also positioned within recent discourses in postcolonial studies which relate to the representation of women’s agency. These tensions also arise in conversations on essentialism and the critique of women’s empowerment programmes. Scholarly Literature that Maps the Women’s Human Rights Framework as a Political Tool The first component identifies themes within the West Bengal activists’ accounts which relate to violations of basic universal human rights in communities represented as being most deprived in terms of resources and institutional infrastructure. It focuses on women’s human rights as a political tool to measure perceptions about whether the state was fulfilling its international obligations to women’s human rights. The two case studies in this thesis feed into the cultural relativism debate about how NGOs operationalise women’s empowerment and gender equality visions in response to different perceptions of local socio-economic contexts. The review of the literature which informs this component positions the thesis within the universality debate on women’s human rights as a political tool and as a political commitment. The thesis argues that insights gained from exploring interviewees’ accounts can provide a fresh contribution to this conversation. It anchors these within the discourse that explores the essentialism of women. It also continues the discussion in Chapter Two in relation to those activists’ accounts that identified a disjunction between the relevance of individual rights compared with situated cultural experiences which prioritised solidarity within the community. Engle (2005) argues that feminists in the developing world would contend that human rights law has excluded them. This has, she suggests, had the effect of obscuring economic and cultural differences between women living in different