SHAKTI THE POWER OF WOMEN

A widespread women movement is changing the image of India facing the 21stcentury. Discriminated from birth, and even before, Indian women are beginning to claim for their place in society. Stories such as that of Savita, a nineyearold girl who is forced to marry, may seem to come straight from the Middle Ages, but they are everyday happenings in India. Women unions and microcredit systems are more active than ever in 2004, the International Year of the Indian Woman.