Although women from almost 50% of the country’s population, their representation in the Parliament and State Legislatures has been depressingly low even after sixty years of Independence. So is the case with Maharashtra, one of the states in the forefront of Indian politics since the days of freedom struggle. The aim of the project is to study the status of political participation of women in Maharashtra and ascertain the reasons for the inability of the State’s women to enter the legislative Assembly in more numbers than at present. The inquiry also proposes to look into the present status of the All Women parties that were launched earlier. The study also touches on the socio-economic background of some of the women who could make it to the Assembly in the past and what criteria are followed by the political parties in selecting their women candidates.

Based on the premise that “there will be no climate justice without gender justice,”7 and vice versa, this introductory paper takes a preliminary look at the linkages between climate change, gender justice and the International Financial Institutions (IFIs)