Module B deals with the Gendered nature of forced migration, victim-hood and gender justice. It is important to remember that women and children constitute some 80 per cent of the world’s millions of refugees and other displaced persons, including internally displaced persons. They are threatened by deprivation of property, goods and services and deprivation of their right to return to their homes of origin as well as by violence and insecurity. Of particular concern is the fact that sexual violence against uprooted women and girls is employed as a method of persecution in systematic campaigns of terror and intimidation and forcing members of a particular ethnic, cultural or religious group to flee their homes. Women and children continue to be vulnerable to violence and exploitation while in flight, in countries of asylum and resettlement and during and after repatriation. Women often experience difficulty in some countries of asylum in being recognized as refugees when the claim is based on such persecution.

At the same time refugee, displaced and migrant women in most cases display strength, endurance and resourcefulness and can contribute positively to countries of resettlement or to their country of origin on their return. Women make an important but often unrecognized contribution as peace educators both in their families and in their societies. They need to be appropriately involved in decisions that affect them.

The situation of the refugee population depends on host countries and the relationship shows how refugee populations are affected. It is important particularly for women who always form the bulk of most refugee populations. However most countries ignore this fact and continue to formulate gender “impartial” refugee policies. Such policies are based on male experiences of displacement and so they may affect women adversely.

This module, therefore, attempts to give an over view and analyse the following:

1. Forced displacement of populations is first and foremost forced displacement of women.
2. Displaced women, especially single women and children form a distinct category of victims
3. The common and specific features of women displaced due to conflict and those displaced due to development policies
4. Narratives of displaced women is important in forging appropriate state responses for their protection and care.

The course contents of Module B include UNHCR policies on refugee women and guidelines on the international protection for gender related persecution, as well as UNICEF policy recommendations on gender dimensions of internal displacement. There are also case studies of refugee women in different states of the region and the different regimes of care in place. Space has also been devoted to refugee women during partition and the violence inflicted on them as the reverberations of the partition of the subcontinent are still being felt by the states in the region. Moreover, abduction and rape of women by members of different communities was one of the particularly horrifying aspects of the partition, compelling India and Pakistan to sign the Abducted Persons Recovery and Restoration Act in 1949 which in turn affected women’s agency in decision making. Some of the highlights of this module, thus, are the voices of women victims of the Partition, as one of history’s many lesson and essays on immigrant women, racial and residential segregation, the needs and cares of widows, pregnant women and children, and some case studies regarding the repatriation and rehabilitation of refugee women.