THE POWER OF SHAKTI

A widespread women movement is changing the image of India facing the 21st-century. Discriminated from birth, and even before, Indian women are beginning to claim for their place in society. Stories such as that of Savita, a nine-year-old 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 micro-credit systems are more active than ever in 2004, the International Year of the Indian Woman.