About Us
Women's Research and Action Group (WRAG) is a non-profit organization, and is a registered public trust based in Mumbai.
We define WRAG as a research and advocacy-group with a gender, law and human rights perspective, working in partnership with movements, networks and community-based organizations.
Its work focuses on protecting and promoting social and legal status of women, especially those from underprivileged and marginalized communities, through community empowerment and the law. It consists of a group of young feminists who engage actively with the women’s movement and human rights movements in India and in the South Asian region, constantly re-examining and questioning established norms and ideologies within. It also focuses its activities towards situating women’s concerns and interests within a human rights framework.
History
WRAG was founded in April 1993 in the wake of the communal violence that shook Mumbai in 1992. After the violence, Muslim women, who have historically been subordinated by the politics of gender and personal law, became further marginalized by identity politics both within and outside the community. WRAG stemmed from the need to create space to raise issues of gender and identity that concern women from marginalized sections of society.
Vision
- to create a gender-just and secular society founded on the principles of equality, justice, and respect for rule of law, human rights, and democratic values; and
- to build a world where every woman, irrespective of her caste, class, religion, race, ethnicity, or any other factor, is able to live life to her fullest potential - free of fear, violence, and want.
Mission
- to work with individual women in the community, particularly those from marginalized sections of society, in order to bring about an improvement in her socio-economic and legal status within the family and society;
- to work at policy-level interventions aimed at creating a climate that is conducive to the promotion of women’s human rights, dignity, and secularism; and
- to remain proactive at efforts for justice and accountability with regards to violations of women’s rights.