The book ‘Women and Development: Contemporary Essays’ provides a well grounded note of various issues of women’s live in Indian patriarchal social setup. It is a compilation of eleven essays, some are published and others are a fresh, which focused on women’s status from the perspective of disparity in education, in land and political rights to their transition to modernity and empowerment. They cover a range of topics from women’s legal entitlements to the roles they play in the society as a house wife or as a bread winner. The volume accounts women’s situations and experiences, both negative and positive, related to equality and disparity, power and powerlessness, discrimination and deprivation, struggle for rights, empowerment and their social transition and show how these scenarios are affecting the women equally and differently. Women, in the Indian tradition bound society, have been exploited in various ways from time immemorial which are also covered in this unique volume. Overall, the book displays the experience of women, either as a woman or a widow or as a disabled woman in their social lives. Milan Banik (b.1966), M. A., Ph. D (Economics) from Gauhati University, Gauhati, is a specialized scholar in Rural Development, Finance and Credit. Since 1994, he started teaching Economics at the undergraduate level at Rukasen College, Bakalia, Karbi Anglong, which is affiliated to Assam University, Silchar. A dozen of his articles have already been published in journals of national and international repute including Kurukshetra, Man and Development and in edited books. Also, he has presented a number of research papers in seminars/conferences. His areas of research interest include finance, rural development and women empowerment.