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YOJANA June 2012 1

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YOJANA June 2012 1

C O N T E N T S

WOMEN AND PANCHAYATI RAJ

Nupur Tiwari ..................... ........................ ....................... ...............36

DO YOu KNOw?

SOME FACTS ABOUT DOMESTIC

VIOLENCE ACT, 2005 ............................................ ...................... 41

WOMEN SELF HELP GROUPS

Kahnu Charan Dhir .........................................................................42

BEST PRACTICES

PEARL IN THE SAND TARA DEVI

Dilip Bidawat ..................................................................................47

SHODHYATRA

ELECTRIC PAINTING BRUSH....................................................50

AMENDING ARCHAIC LAWS TO EMPOWER WOMEN

Moushumi Das Gupta .....................................................................52

J&K wINDOw ..........................................................................56

RETHINKING POLICY ON CHILD SEx RATIOS

Mary E John ......................................................................................5

NCW: TWENTY YEARS OF EMPOWERING WOMEN

Mamta Sharma ..................................................................................9

STREE SHAKTI

Rashmi Singh ..................................................................................13

NORTH EAST DIARY...............................................................18

EMPOWERING WOMEN IN AGRICULTURE

Amrit Patel ......................................................................................19

EMPOWERED WOMEN, EMPOWERED NATION

Shahin Razi .....................................................................................24

WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT ACROSS INDIAN STATES

Arundhati Chattopadhyay ...............................................................29

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YOJANA June 2012 5

OW SHOULD we

approach the whole

question of se ratios

and the counting of

girls? This is a very

important question to ask at a time

when the child se ratio has dropped

from 927 in 2001 to an all time low

of 914. Even the Secretary in the

Home Ministry said in the wake

of the Census 2011 results that the

government must re-eamine its

policies. But rst, what has been

the story so far and what can we

learn from Census 2011?

Child Sex Ratios in India since

1991

In order to begin a discussion

of Indias child se ratio patterns,

a Table has been prepared drawing

from both earlier Census gures and

the provisional gures available.

The difference in successive

decades has also been included

for easy reference. The break-up

of the country into the regions of

the North-west, North-central,

West, East and South offers a quick

Rethinking Policy on Child Se Ratios

WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT

Mary E John

CONCERNS

Rather than

only worry about

balancing numbers,

what is required

are state policies

that actually

seek to create the

conditions formeaningful life-

chances, beginning

with those of girls

and women

overview of broad patterns in the

last two decades. (One might keep

at the back of our minds not just that

this period happens to correspond to

the so-called era of neo-liberalism,

but also that it spans roughly a

generation.) At the national level,

the decline of 18 points in 2001

has now been followed by a further

decline of 13 points. As more

families are having fewer children

(registered by the reduced fertility

rates) there is therefore an ongoing

gendering in their se composition.

To put it briey, practices leading

to fewer girls in the 0-6 age group

have been spreading more thinly

over the last decade over a much

larger proportion of the country.

The circle is widening.

The gures from 1991 have beenincluded in order to recall why the

Census 2001 made such headlines

a decade ago. This was when the

child sex ratio (CSR) rst dropped

below that of the overall se ratio:

While the child se ratio fell from

943 in 1991 to 927 in 2001, that of

the overall se ratio rose from 927 to

The author is Director, Centre for Women's Development Studies (CWDS), New Delhi.

H

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6 YOJANA June 2012

933 in the same period (a clear sign

that life epectancy among women

was increasing signicantly). It

was in 2001 that several states in

north west India witnessed plunges

in their child se ratios with

Punjab leading the way by dropping

below the 800 mark, while other

states such as Himachal Pradesh

eperienced huge declines for the

rst time. Secondly, 2001 made

history (especially at the district

level) because of evidence of child

se ratios falling below the 950

mark (taken as the general norm

the world over) in other parts of

the country outside the north-west,

such as Goa, urban Orissa, and

even pockets in the North-East. In

the North-west these patterns were

put down to the intensication of

practices of se selection at birth in

regions with known prior histories

of female infanticide and higher

female mortality; elsewhere, a

smaller proportion of families were

now resorting to similar practices

probably for the rst time.

Moving on to Census 2011,

the state gures point to a clear

difference between the north-west

and the rest of India. It would

appear that there has been a peaking

(or plateauing) of the practice of

se selection in states like Gujarat,

Haryana, Delhi and Himachal

Pradesh, with small improvements

from very low levels in Chandigarh

and Punjab. (Notice that none of

the north western states have fallen

further, though they have by no

means come back to 1991 levels,

which were themselves well below

the 950 mark.) Punjabs rise from

798 to 846 (48 points) according

to 2011 gures makes it now look

more like its neighbours, but only a

district wise analysis would reveal

where the real changes are. In states

like Delhi and Gujarat roughly

the same proportion of families

are resorting to se selection as

was true a decade ago (since this

is a comparison of the number

of girl children born and alive

between 1996-2001 and 2006-

2011). In Punjab the severity of

the practice has thus only eased

slightly. According to a news report

mentioning district level data for

the state of Haryana, the district of

Kurukshetra (which had the worst

CSR of 771 in 2001) now has a

CSR of 817, similar to the trend

for Punjab. However, many more

districts (Jhajjar, Mahendragarh,

Rewari, Bhiwani, Faridabad,

among others) have worse CSRs

than in 2001.

Whatever the improvements

(if that is the right word) in north-

west India, CSRs are falling in

large parts of western, central and

eastern India Maharashtra, Goa,

Table: Child Sex Ratios (0-6 years) Censs 1991,

2001, 2011, Select States

State (Females per 1,000 males)

1991 2001 difference

2001-1991

2011 difference

2011-2001

INDIA 945 927 - 18 914 -13North-west

Himachal P 951 896 -53 906 +10

Punjab 875 798 -77 846 +48

Haryana 879 819 -40 830 +11

Chandigarh 899 845 -46 867 + 22

Delhi 915 868 -47 866 2

North-Central

Uttar Pradesh 928 916 -12 899 -17

Madhya P 952 932 -20 912 -20

west

Gujarat 928 883 -45 886 +3

Rajasthan 916 909 -7 883 -16

Maharashtra 946 913 -33 883 -30

Goa 964 938 -26 920 -18

East

Bihar 959 942 -17 933 -9

Jharkhand NA 965 943 -22

West Bengal 967

Nagaland 993 964 -29 944 -20Orissa 967 953 -14 934 -19

Soth

Andhra P 975 961 -14 943 -18

Karnataka 960 946 -14 943 -3

Tamil Nadu 948 942 -6 946 +4

Kerala 958 960 +2 959 -1

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YOJANA June 2012 7

Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar

Pradesh, and even Andhra Pradesh

has joined the ranks from among

the southern states. (Of course, the

state of Tamil Nadu is well known

for its history of female infanticide

and se selection in districts likeSalem and Dharmapuri so it

remains to be seen what a more

disaggregated picture of that state

would reveal.) In other words, the

state wise gures demonstrate a

widening of the circle even if the

numbers are not dramatic well

beyond the so-called prosperity

belt of north-west India, to the

poorer states. A recent news report

on UP, for instance, highlights thespread of se selection to eastern

towns and districts where it was

hardly known before. (The only

state whose gures are so strange

that there is every reason to doubt

them is Jammu and Kashmir,

where the Census was undertaken

after a gap in 1991, in 2001 and

2011. According to the provisional

figures the CSR has plummeted

from 941 to 859, namely 82 points;along with this, J&K is the only

state in the whole country to have

registered a positive increase in

its fertility during this period.

Whatever the form that the ongoing

conict is taking, such gures are

hard to make sense of, and require

further investigation.)

It is likely that the improvements

in the north-west are related to

efforts at monitoring the use of sedetermination testing, in contrast

with its spread elsewhere. But it

would be wrong to equate the two,

since the picture is more comple

than that. The very fact that the

CSRs are falling in such a wide

variety of states from Goa in the

west, which is not associated with

high levels of poverty, to poor states

like Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh,

and then again with a heterogenous

state like Maharashtra witnessing

one of the steepest declines in 2011

of 30 points, make it absolutely

necessary to wait for the time when

a more contetual micro levelunderstanding can be undertaken.

To give an eample of such

contetual analysis during the

previous decade, in a study

conducted by a group of researchers

(John et al 2008) during 2003-05

in ve of the lowest CSR districts

of north west India, it became

evident that within this broad belt

where child se ratios had dropped

severely, local contets werenonetheless extremely signicant.

Thus for instance, while Fatehgar

Sahib in Punjab demonstrated the

presence of families with just one

son (especially among Jat Sikhs and

urban upper castes), and families in

Kangra and Rohtak strived for two

children (but very few with only

girls), in the districts of Dholpur

and Morena signicant forms of

child neglect leading to high ratesof mortality among girls in larger

families went hand in hand with the

growing practice of se selection.

The Debate so Far

In order to ge t a be t te r

perspective on adverse se ratios,

let us recall the decade of the 1980s

when practices of amniocentesis

for se selection became the subject

of the rst campaigns by womensgroups and health activists in

Maharashtra, Delhi and Punjab.

At that time, this issue garnered

little public support, indeed, it

was not even clear to most people

what the problem was. Today we

might be in the opposite situation,

where the se ratio has become the

symbol for gender discrimination

as such, and few are interested

in anything beyond it. One must

underscore, therefore, the etent

of activism and analysis both in

India and abroad, and the range of

organisations, from local groups,

the state, religious organisations,international bodies, and so on,

who are closely monitoring these

gures. In a more self-critical vein,

the child se ratio has become a

veritable academic and advocacy

industry in its own right.

The results of the Census 2011

have therefore been highly awaited,

if from varying perspectives. Some

scholars have offered predictions

of likely patterns, drawing fromthe National Family Health

Surveys (the most recent being

NFHS III, 2005-06), as well as

the Sample Registration at Births

(SRBs) made available every

year. Signicant differences have

also been crystallising.. Has there

been too great or too little a focus

on the PCPNDT Act? Counter

intuitively, could there be reduced

son preference even though thenumbers are skewed? Is the problem

one of mindsets out of synch with

modern values of equality, or, does

modernity itself have a lot to do

with what is happening? On the

one hand, some advocates believed

that the main focus ought to be the

criminalisation of unscrupulous

medical practitioners, while others

warned of how the very advocacy

against se selection was turninginto a problematic campaign against

abortions per se. While some

predicted heightened practices of

female genocide, others saw

signs of a turn-around.

There is something curious

about much of this debate and the

positions that have been taken.

On what basis would we, after all,

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8 YOJANA June 2012

epect change to happen? Planning

the size and se composition of

ones children is surely at the

conuence of a range of processes,

from stretching limited resources,

wanting the best for ones children

with the effect of heightening theburden of having them, etreme

socio-economic volatility, varying

individual morality, the kinds of

technologies available, and the

nature of gender disparities across

classes in contemporary society.

Much has been said about signs of

reduced son preference as more and

more families say that they want

a girl and a boy. But what if this

preference actually translates into

the statement at least one boy, and

at most one girl? Moreover, what

kind of structural changes are we

witnessing such that epectations of

a turn around could have a genuine

basis?

As already mentioned, the

Secretary to the Home Ministry

went on record to say that , in the

face of this further decline in the

child se ratio, the state shouldre-eamine its policies.There has

been far too much focus on the

need to restore the balance to the

skewed numbers. What is forgotten

is that, in a growing population

like ours with its hypergamous

marriage market, male privilege has

beneted over generations from an

ecess of marriageable women in

any given cohort. In other words,

there has been an invisible structuralimbalance at work in most parts of

the country outside the north west,

but which was never considered

to be a problem to be corrected.

Indeed, the peculiar case of Kerala

with its positive se ratio but highly

discriminatory practices against

women is a case in point. Secondly,

in all the focus on se ratios, fertility

and literacy, little attention is given

to what is arguable the most critical

indicator of the status of gender in

our country. The most recent round

of the National Sample Survey (64th

Round, 2007-8) has the stunning

revelation that, after twenty yearsof unprecedented economic growth,

the total proportion of women in

any kind of paid work is no more

than 15 percent. Another way of

putting this would be to say that 85

percent of all women are destined to

nd their future through structural

forms of dependency. This does

not even begin to discuss the

nature of the work that constitutes

the 15 percent. Therefore, rather

than only worry about balancingnumbers, what is required are state

policies that actually seek to create

the conditions for meaningful life-

chances, beginning with those of

girls and women. q

YE-50/2012

,)

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YOJANA June 2012 9

A T I O N A LCOMMISSION forWomen (NCW) hascompleted 20 yearso f s u c c e s s f u l l yempowering women.

The NCW tirelessly worksround the year for empowermentof women. An ape nationalorganization, NCW was constituted

on January, 31, 1992 as a statutorybody in pursuance of the NCW Act,1990 to safeguard the interests ofwomen in India.

NC W has a wide ma ndatecovering almost all aspects ofwomens development and playsa pivotal role in studying andmonitoring all matters relating tothe constitution and legal safeguardsprovided to women. It reviews theeisting legislations and suggestsamendments wherever necessary

to meet any lacunae, inadequaciesor shortcoming in such laws andalso suggests fresh legislations.It looks into the complaints andtakes suo-moto notice of casesinvolving deprivation of womensrights, etc, of women in order toprovide them support, legal careand assistance. It also monitorsthe proper implementation of all

NCW: Twenty Years of EmpoweringWomen

WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT

Mamta Sharma

PROSPECTS

Empowerment

of women will

also bring down

atrocities against

women as they will

have the strengthand knowledge to

stand up for their

rights

the legislations made to protectthe rights of women, so as toenable them to achieve equalityin all spheres of life. The primarymandate of the Commission is toreview the constitutional and legalsafeguards provided for women,recommend remedial legislativemeasures, facilitate Redressalof grievances and advise thegovernment on all policy mattes

affecting women.

Strctre and Fnctions ofNCw

As per NCW Act, there is tobe one Chairperson, one MemberSecretary and Five non-officialmembers in the Commission. Thefunctions of the Commission aremainly divided in to four cellsnamely Complaints & InvestigationCell, Legal Cell, NRI Cell andResearch and Studies Cell. Almostall the activities of the Commissionare undertaken through thesecells.

T h e C o m p l a i n t s a n d Investigation Cell is the core unitof the Commission. It processesoral/written complaints / newspaperreports and takes suo-motocognizance of cases under Section

The author is Chairperson, National Commission for Women.

N

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10 YOJANA June 2012

10 (1) 7 94) of the NCW Act, 1990.For serious crimes, the Commissionconstitutes Inquiry Committeeswhich make on the sport inquiries,eamine various witnesses,collect evidence and submitreports with recommendations.

Such investigations help inproviding immediate relief andjustice to the victims of violenceand atrocities. The Commissionmonitors the implementation of therecommendations of the InquiryCommittees by taking up thematter with the concerned StateGovernments/Authorities.

In keeping with its mandate,the Commission initiates varioussteps to improve the status of

women and works for their socio-economic empowerment. TheCommissions Chairperson,Members and ofcers visit variouspar t of the co untry to at ten dmeetings/seminars/workshop/public hearings, organized by NCW/Non Government organizations(NGOs) ;Women Study Centresof Universities and investigatesvarious cases of atrocities committedagainst women. Besides, theyvisit jails, hospitals to know the

plight of women prisoners andwomen patients respectively andrecommend to the concernedauthorities for their redressal.They attend legal awareness campson legal rights of women etc;organised by NGOs/Women studycentres of the Universities to gainfirst hand knowledge about theproblems faced by women there soas to suggest re medial measuresand to take up the issues with theconcerned authorities.

Redressal of Complaints

The Commission receives a largenumber of complaints and also takessuo-moto cognizance in severalcases to provide speedy justice byconstituting Inquiry Committees.The commission sponsors legalawareness programmes, ParivarikMahila Lok Adalats and organizesseminar/workshop/consultation and

takes up publicity against femalefoeticide, violence against women,child marriages etc. in order togenerate awareness among womenabout these issues.

In complaints related to seualharassment at work place, theconcerned organization / departmentis urged to constitute an internalComplaints Committees as per theHonble Supreme Court Judgementin Vishaka Vs. State of Rajasthan(AIR 1997 Supreme Court 3011).The complaints received relate tovarious categories of crimes againstwomen such as domestic violencedowry demand and harassment,torture, murder, kidnapping/abduction, complaints against NRIs/

NRI marriages, desertion, bigamy,rape, police apathy, harassment/brut al it y, crue ll y by hu sband,deprivation of women rights, genderdiscrimination, seual harassment /harassment.

The Commission was madeNational Level Nodal Co-ordinatingAgency in 2009 to receive andprocess all complaints from Indiaand abroad related to Indian Womendeserted by their overseas Indianhusbands resulting from cross country marriages and a NRI Cellwas inaugurated on September24, 2009. The complaints relate todeprivation of womens rights orany issue involving grave injusticeto women. Since its inception, 933cases have been registered in NRICell till March, 31, 2012. A need wasfelt to review the MOIA Scheme forproviding legal and nancial helpto the deserted women in foreignlands. The amendments proposedby the Commission regarding thescope of the scheme to be widenedwere taken seriously by MOIAand the scheme has been modiedaccordingly.

Recent Initiatives

The Commission has takena number of initiatives to createawareness among women andtheir capacity building to eercisetheir right for dignied life and

sensitizing the police personnel.Some of these initiatives includeViolence free home-a womensright, Jago as well as MOUssigned with other organizations forpartnership.

Mahila Adhikar Abhiyan,has been launched in Rajasthansuccessfully in 2011, Street Playsinitially in few states namelyRajasthan, Punjab and Participationin Vatsalya Mela etc.

The Commission has also broughtout a number of publications.Some of them are Chalo GaonKi Ore, Meera Didi Se Poocho,Seual Harassment at work place,Problems relating to NRI Marriages Dos and Donts, The Nowhere

Brides, Handbook on Laws relatingto Dowry and Domestic Violence,Do not Fear Do not Bear Do notAdmit, Abandoned Indian WomenTrapped in NRI Marriage and theWay Out, Bahut Hua Ab Aur NahiSahna etc.

NCW concentrates not only onwomens empowerment but alsoon their growth and developmentincluding health care and education.In order to bring down atrocities

committed against women, thereshould be interaction betweenNCW, the police and the Media.Rashtra Mahila, a monthly newsletter of the Commission, highlightsthe activities of the Commissionas well as successful stories withregard to complaints lodged beforethe Commission and also importantcourt and Government decisionsaffecting women.

A number of foreign delegationshave visited NCW to have an insightabout the working of NCW and itsrole in safeguarding the interestsof women and also understand thestatus of Indian women in politicsand their empowerment.

Consltations, Pblic ContactProrammes and ResearchActivities

The Commission undertakespromotional and educational

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YOJANA June 2012 13

N A recent vi si t toR a j a s th a n , d u r in gth e c o u r s e o f m yinteraction with localcommunity womenata Panchayat Ghar,

prob lems re la ted to eclus ionfrom the BPL list, lack of adequateteachers in the neighbouringschool, and problems in accessing

government schemes such asthe Indira Awas Yojana werevoiced. The panchayat secretaryaccompanying me for the visitadvised the women that discussionwas supposed to be on womanempowerment issues and notthese matters which were differentdepartmental concerns and notthat of the national mission forwoman empowerment. Thisofficial probably reflected the

largely perceived notions ofwomen empowerment whichviewed empowerment f romnarrow denitions, often as onlyrhetoric. Increasingly however thelinkage of woman empowermentto good governance and largerdevelopment of the nation isgetting acknowledged with a need

Stree Shakti

WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT

Rashmi Singh

INITIaTIVES

Womens concernshave to be keptat the centre ofpublic policy,developmentalplanning and

governance, with

recognition of theirrole as critical

growthagents andas ambassadors of

social change

for multi stakeholder response anda multi disciplinary approach.

This paper attempts to bring outnuances of streeshakti and womanempowerment by highlightingsome pioneering governmentprogrammes, namely the StreeShakti, and Mission Convergencein Delhi , and the Nat iona lMission for Empowerment of

Women (NMEW), Governmentof India. The uniqueness ofthese programmes is in theirmulti-disciplinary and cross-sectoral approach with mantraof convergence fully embeddedin design and philosophy.

Stree Shakti literally meaningwoman power is a visible nametoday adopted by some NGOsas their brand names, as also

some government programmesand initiatives. A national awardinstituted by the Ministry ofWomen and Child Development,Government of India is also calledStree Shakti. However the name hasbecome largely synonymous witha larger public private communitypartnership programme in Delhi

The author is Eecutive Director, National Mission for Empowerment of Women, Ministry of Women and Child Development,Government of India. The views of the author are personal.

I

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14 YOJANA June 2012

which started in the form ofStreeShakti camps and later evolvedinto a network of Stree ShaktiKendras all over the city. Theproject focussed on reaching outto poor women and providingthem, social, economic and legal

empowerment, through access tohealthcare facilities, non-formaleducation, vocational trainingand awareness on legal issues.It became one of focus areas ofBhagidari: a Citizen Governmentpartnership initiative of thegovernment, with NGOs becomingkey instruments for communityoutreach. An Evaluation of theproject undertaken by the Institutefor Human Development, Delhi

(2006)brought out interestingobserva t ions . These campssuccessfully bridged the gapbetween community and publichealth system and in three yearsnearly 2 lakhs women had beenbenetted. Camp volunteers werethe main agents of spreadingawareness as they conducted pre-registration survey, and collectedhea l th re la ted informat ion.Beneciaries reported satisfaction

on account of easy contact withdoctors, satisfaction with doctorsbehaviour and free availabili tyof medic ines . Convergenceaspect stood out strongly sincethe initiative brought variousdepartments together on a commonplatform- health department,ICDS for Nutrition awareness,and other like State AIDS ControlSociety, TB society, Legal ServiceAuthority, Training & Technical

Education, Education etc. Useof school buildings as venue ledto spin off benefit of schoolsturning into community hubs.The Evaluation Report reectedthat the project clearly broughtchanges for better in the livesof deprived women throughdecentralized delivery process,and increased level of awarenessamongst women regarding quality

of life. Skill development trainingswidened the income generationopportunities. Legal awarenessincreased and women came outin the open to ght against dowryrelated, family-related and otherinjustice. Increase in number

of SHGs opened opportunitiesfor accessibility to market andnance. It was pointed out thatthe major strength of this set upwas the conceptual acceptancethat women find it difficult tocome out of household choreeven if opportunities are thereand hence bringing services totheir doorstep was important.It was also observed that theintervention constantly neededgrowth and modification withchanging needs and situation in covering the untouched andnewer dimensions of womensempowerment.

Some of the other majorrecommendations were to havedistrict nodal NGOs, creatingannual baseline to determinearea-wise target group, spacingcamps to be organised quarterly

rather than monthly, strengtheningl i n k a g e s , s e t t i n g c o n c r e t eindicators and measurable goals,and institutionalizing a system ofthird party evaluations.

These suggestions weretakenforward in the year 2008 whenMission Convergence, Delhiwas started with an attempt tobring convergence amongsthosts of government schemes

and programmes meant for poor.The groundwork of Stree Shaktiserved etremely useful in givingthe new initiative a bottom upapproach. The scope of MissionConvergence was much largercompared to Stree Shakti but someof the key elements remained thesame. The Mission adopted ahorizontal vision cutting acrosssectors and departments against

the conventional approach ofgovernments functioning indepartmental mode or movingthrough vertical channels acrossdepartments. Bhagidariwas takento another level, with priority foraction at the bottom of the pyramid

in active collaboration with Non-Governmental organizations withstrong eld presence. The focuswas on women and reachingout to families through women.Slums, JJ colonies, resettlementcolonies, and other vulnerable

locations became the target areasfor intervention. The programmewas recognized for its pioneeringwork in inclusive governanceand community engagement bythe Commonwealth Associationfor Public Administration andManagement (CAPAM) and alsobecame the recipient of the UnitedNations Public Service Award.

For effective implementationin mission mode, a SpecialPurpose Vehicle called SamajikSuvidha Sangam was set up inMay, 2008 involving governmentfunctionaries from 9 departments

and social sector eperts. Morethan 120 local NGOs becamepartners and served as etendedarms of government for mobilizingpeop le at gr ass roo ts to avai lpensions, and other social securityschemes, besides public servicesin health, education, legal aid, andskill training.

Some innovative strategiesused to make convergence possible

were the use of common eligibilitycriteria and common applicationforms by different departments,common database of vulnerablethrough massive household andstreet survey which could be usedby different departments for bettertargeting of their schemes andcreate a more realistic and accurateestimate of poverty; creation ofsingle-window facilitation centres

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YOJANA June 2012 15

close to communities to assistwith linkages with governmentdepartments; decentralization anddevolution of power to the districts;computerization and networking ofall etension outposts; innovativeways of capacity development of

NGOs, government functionaries,and the target group; financialinclusion for women throughSHGs and individua l bankaccounts etc. A path breakingmeasure was adoption of newcriteria to identify the city spoor.Proy indicators of income usingspatial, social, and occupationaldimensions of vulnerability weredeveloped under the guidanceof eperts of national repute. A

separate survey was undertaken toidentify the homeless who werecategorized as most vulnerable,and special programmes wereinitiated to support this categoryespecially the destitute women.The strong gender focus in MissionConvergence became the strengthof the programme. One of the corepillars of the programme becameits emphasis on development ofhuman capital of women through

s trengthening measures for improved health, literacy levels,and skill building. The StreeShakti- Suvidha Kendras createdunder the Mission mobilizedwomen in their catchment areaand enrolled them under differentschemes and services, includingmobilizing them to join Self-helpGroups. The creation of databaseof 13 lack potentially vulnerablehouseholds provided a strong

empricial base for budgetaryplanning and higher allocationsacross different schemes of thegovernment. Delhi became thesecond state after Maharashtra tokick-start the UID programme,and as the registrar, I had thesatisfaction of getting the rstAadhar number in city for ahomeless, destitute woman onOctober 2nd, 2011 along with a bank

account in her name. The womansresponse was-now my dailyearnings will not be stolen fromthe pavement I slept. The surveyidentified various vulnerablecategories- such as physically andmentally challenged women, thoseaffected with debilitating diseases,in hazardous occupation, womenheaded households, destitutewomen etc.

The col labora t ion whichMission Convergence forgedwith civil society organizationswas significant in terms ofscale and impact. Sharing ofpower and authority with civilsociety organizations (CSOs)

demonstrated a new model ofGO-NGO collaboration. Theprogramme itself empowered theCSOs to question governmentsperformance and decisions, andinform policy.

On the national canvass toothere has been a wide recognitionof the need to break silos andcreate convergence mechanismsacross schemes and programmes.

The initiative came from the rstwoman president of the country,Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil toset up a Committee of Governorsin 2008 to study and recommendstrategies for speedy socio economicdevelopment and empowerment ofwoman. The Committee gave itsrecommendations in Feb.2009which was considered by a Groupof Ministers and thereafter theFinance Minister in his Budget

Speech announced:-(i) Setting up a High Powered

Committee of eminent personsand eperts to study the Statusof Women of India to enablethe Government to takeepeditious action;

(ii) Setting up a National Missionfor Empowerment of Women

for implementation of women-

centric programmes in a

Mission mode to achieve better

coordination and synergyamongst the participatingstakeholders;

(iii) Restructuring of theRashtriya

M a h i l a K o s h ( R M K ) , agovernment run micro nanceagency, to scale up its activitiesand to function as a singlewindow facilitators and serviceprovider for women Self-HelpGroups (SHGs).

As a sequel to this, Ministryof WCD has set up a high levelcommittee under Justice RumaPal. The corpus of RMK wassubs tant ia l ly enhanced and

structural modications introducedfor enabling the agency to serveas a more vibrant institution. TheNational Mission for Empowermentof Women (NMEW) was launchedby the Honble President on 8thMarch, 2010. During the launchof the Mission on InternationalWomens Day, 2010, the spirit ofthis new initiative for women wasvery comprehensively encapsulatedby the Honble President herself as

seen from the following ecerptfrom her speech on the occasionat Vigyan Bhawan:

T h e s o c i o - e c o n o m i cdevelopment of women is deeplyintertwined and if one dimensionremains absent, the outcome wouldsu ffer. Th e Mi ss ion , wi th itsobjective of ensuring that thebenets of schemes and programmesof the Central, as well as State

Governments, reach their intendedbeneciaries through convergenceand coordination, gives me hopethat it will bridge this gap betweenwhat is and what ought to be.But in order to make this a reality,the central Government, States,and civil society would need towork together. Every citizen ofthis country has a role to playin making it successful. I would

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16 YOJANA June 2012

regard this Mission as a gift tothe women of the country on theoccasion of International Womensday.

One of the primary objectivesof the Mission is to oversee gender

mainstreaming of programmes,policies, institutional arrangementsand processes of participatingMinis t r ies , ins t i tu t ions andorganizations, and undertakeawareness generation to fuel thedemand for benets under variousschemes and programmes. TheMission Authority is headed bythe Prime Minister, and has 13par tner minist ri es wi th WCDministry as the nodal ministry.

This Mission is an attempt toput wome ns concer ns at thevery core of public policy andgovernance with the goal of socialand economic empowerment ofwomen with particular emphasis onhealth, education and livelihood,progressively eliminating violenceagainst women, and reducinginformation gap between usersand providers of services andentitlements.

While reaching out to stategovernments through state missionauthorities, Mission is catalyzingstate actions for review of schemes,programmes and legislationswith a gender lens, and conductof gender audit and outcomeassessment. Technical supportis being provided to the statesthrough the National ResourceCentre set up as an inter-sectoral,

multi-disciplinary body at thecentre to draw up state action plansfor improving gender developmentindices, and setting up requisiteinstitutional mechanisms such asState Resource Centre for Womenwith funding support from thecentral government. A series ofregional conferences were held inFeb April, 2012 covering all statesand UTs for sharing best practices

on inter-sector convergence ofscheme & meant for women andto build capacities of practitionerson e f fec t ive s t r a teg ie s fo r convergence, while customizingthe same to regional perspectivesand challenges. Some of the

common grounds which emergedwere the need to have an integratedapproach to s imultaneouslyaddress social, economic, andpolitical empowerment, adoptinga life cycle approach, creatinggender focal points at all levels,instituting systems for collectingand using gender disaggregateddata, focus on gender sensitizationand public education on genderissues, increasing awareness

on government schemes andprogrammes, strengtheningcapacities, fostering womenscollectives as instruments of socialchange, rationalizing eistingschemes, institutionalizing andstrengthening partic ipatorygovernance framework, andcreating a robust system of ongoingmonitoring and review.

Amongst some of the tools forgender mainstreaming which this

Mission is focussing is GenderBudgeting (GB). The purpose ofGB is to ensure the translation ofGovernments policy commitmentson gender equity into budgetaryallocations. To institutionalizethe process of Gender Budgeting,Gender Budget Cells (GBCs) wereset up in all Central Ministries/Departments in 2005. These GBCsare envisaged to serve as focalpoints for coordinating gender

budgeting initiatives within theirMinistries and across Departments.C u r r e n t l y , 5 6 M i n i s t r i e s /Departments of Government ofIndia have set up Gender BudgetingCells. A signicant breakthroughis mainstreaming GB in Indiahas been the introduction of GBStatement (20) in the Union Budget2005-06. The GB Statement hasemerged as an important tool for

bringing together all informationon the allocations for women. Itserves as a reporting mechanismand provides an indication of thefunds owing to women. Over theyears, the number of Ministries/Departments reporting in the GB

Statement has gone up from 9(2005-06) to 29 (2011-12). Alsothe magnitude of GB allocationsas a percentage of total budgethas gone up from 2.79 percent in2005-06 to 6.22 percent in 2011-12. Ministry of WCD is the nodalagency for GB.

Conclsion

The approach of addressingissues related to empowerment of

women from a holistic and macro-point of view acknowledging thecross cutting linkages betweeneconomic, social and politicalidentity of woman presents anew hope. There is increasingrecognition that these factors aredeeply intertwined and if effortsin any one dimension remainsabsent or weak, the outcomeand momentum generated bythe other components cannotbe sustained, and that it is onlywhen all these three factorsare addressed simultaneouslyand made compat ible witheach other can women be trulyempowered. Therefore, for theholistic empowerment of women,all ministries and departmentswould need to energize synergisticmeasures through more effective useof tools such as Gender Budgetingand platforms such as the NationalMission for Empowerment of

Women. The gender convergencemantra also holds a key to inclusivegovernance and our cherisheddream of growth with justice andequity. Womens concerns haveto be kept at the centre of publicpolicy, developmental planningand governance, with recognitionof their role as critical growthagents and as ambassadors of

social change. q

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18 YOJANA June 2012

NORTh EaST DIaRy

LEVEL OF VIOLENCE COMINg DOwN IN NE

Though the level of violence in the entire North Eastern region is

coming down gradually over the years, the situation in Manipur

remains a cause of concern, while, inter-factional clashes

between militant groups in Nagaland is also causing concern.

According to the annual report of the Ministry of Home Affairs

(MHA), as many as 498 civilians and 79 security force personnel were

killed in acts of violence by militants in the North east region in 2007,

but the gure is gradually coming down and last year, 70 civilians and

32 security personnel were killed by militants. The report said that 31

persons were killed in Assam last year by militants as compared to 65 in the previous year.

The report said that talks with militant groups like both factions of the DHD and KNLF have been

concluded and peace accords would be signed shortly, while, talks are also on with pro-talk faction of the

ULFA, NDFB(P) are going on.

The MHA report said that Manipur continues to be affected by activities of large number of militant groups.

The militant groups are divided on ethnic lines with competing demands. However, casualty of civilians

and security forces has declined in the last few years.

The report further said that surrender of militants in the North East has increased in the last few years and

compared to 524 in 2007, as many as 1122 militants surrendered last year. q

Year Killin of

SF

Killin of

civilians

2007 79 498

2008 46 466

2009 42 264

2010 20 94

2011 32 70

HYBRID RICE CuLTIVATION IN ASSAM

Assam Government has set an ambitious target of epanding

area under hybrid rice cultivation to 20 percent of the totalrice producing area to increase production. At present, 2.4

percent or 62,743 hectares of the total area of 27.30 lakh hectares

are under hybrid rice farming and this was epected to be enhanced

to 5.46 lakh hectares by implementing a new scheme at a cost of

Rs 417 crore during 2012-13.

A plan has been chalked out to bridge the huge gap between rice

productivity in the State and the National average by popularizing

hybrid farming as with increase in productivity, the net income of farmers will also increase.

It is estimated that by epanding the area under hybrid cultivation to 20 percent of the total rice, yield

would increase to 36.70 lakh MT during 2012-13. Agriculture department has set an overall target of riceproduction of 78.30 lakh MT in 2012-13, and the yield from hybrid cultivation would account for nearly half

of it while covering only one-fth of the total rice cropland, he said.

The productivity rate was estimated to be 6,765 kg per hectare with winter rice and summer rice

accounting for 15.85 lakh MT and 20.85 lakh MT respectively, agriculture department sources have said.

At present (2010-11), the productivity of rice per hectare in Assam is 1,983 kg as against national average

of 2,240 kg, the sources said. q

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YOJANA June 2012 19

N D I A W A S

fortunate to host the

Global Conference

o n W o m e n i n

Agriculture in New

Delhi between March 13 and 15,

2012. The conference with the

goal of Empowering Women for

Inclusive Growth in Agriculture

was sponsored by Indian Councilof Agricultural Research (ICAR)

and New-Delhi based Trust for

Advancement of Agricultural

Science (TAAS) jointly with the

Global Forum on Agricultural

Research (GFAR), and the Asia-

Pacic Association of Agricultural

Research Institutions (APPAARI),

among others. Her Ecellency

Smt. Pratibha Patil, President

of India in her va ledic tory

address emphasized the need

to empower women with new

knowledge and skills to bring

women into the mainstream of

agricultural development and

reduce gender disparity. Today,

Empowering Women in Agriculture

WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT

Amrit Patel

PERSPECTIVE

Major attributesthat contribute

to women

empowerment are

education, social

equity and status,

improved health,

economic or

fnancial stability

and political

participation

much of the scientic knowledge

and technologies does not reach

rural women for various reasons.

This needs rectication. Research

system must also seek the inputs

of women as they have historically

been the source of much traditional

knowledge and innovations. While

appreciating the efforts of the

National Agricul tural ResearchSystem for bringing women in the

fore front of agricultural research

and development, she suggested

forming Mahila Kisan Mandals

in every village to educate women

on different aspects of agriculture

and related activities. This paper

briey reviews the concern for

women in agriculture at global

level and in India, initiatives taken

by the Government of India to

enhance the understanding and

working of women in agriculture

and suggests the need to empower

women in agriculture in real sense

of the broad-based denition of

empowerment.

The author is a former Dy. Gen. Manager, Bank of Baroda and currently International Consultant, Rural Credit, based inMumbai.

I

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20 YOJANA June 2012

Accord ing to Food and

Agriculture Organization (2011),

women farmers account for

more than quarter of the worlds

popu la tion. Women compri se ,

on an average 43 percent of

the agricultural work force indeveloping countries, ranging from

20 percent in Latin America to 50

percent in Eastern Asia and Sub-

Saharan Africa. Yet women have

less access than men to agricultural

related assets, inputs and services. If

they have easy, timely and reliable

access to productive resources as

men, women can increase yield by

20 percent to 30 percent, raising

the overall agricultural output in

developing countries by 2.5 percent

to 4 percent. This gain in production

can reduce the number of hungry

people in the world by about 12

percent to 17 percent, besides

increasing womens income.

T h e r e i s n o w g r o w i n g

realization and commitment of

the global community to achieve

more sustainable and broad-based

agricultural growth by addressing

gender related issues in agriculture

through national, regional and global

initiatives and partnerships. There is

also greater degree of coordination,

consultation and convergence

of initiatives undertaken by

international institutions, viz. FAO,

Global Forum on Agricultural

Research, Consultative Group onInternational Agricultural Research,

regional forums and many National

Agricultural Research Systems.

Improving the role of women in

agriculture has been at the forefront

of a Washington based International

Food Policy Research Institutes

research for the past 15 years.

IFPRI has committed to working

on gender issues and its recent

gender work includes the book

Engineering Agricultural Research,

Development and Etension and

the Womens Empowerment in

Agriculture Inde (WEAI).WEAI,a new tool developed by IFPRI,

the US Governments Feed the

Future Initiative, the USAID and

the Oford Poverty and Human

Development Initiative measures

the empowerment, agency and

inc lus ion of women in the

agricultural sector. The WEAI is

a composite measurement tool

that allows researchers to identify

women who are disempowerdand understand how to increase

autonomy and decision-making in

key domains.

Indian scenario

As fa rmers , agr icul tura l

workers and entrepreneurs, women

constitute the backbone of Indias

agricultural and rural economy.

Yet, together with children they

remain one of the most vulnerable

groups. Women shoulder the entire

burden of looking after livestock,

bringing up children and doing

other household chores. The etent

of health hazards faced by farm

women in farm activities include

(i) 50 percent in transplanting and

26.5 percent in harvesting under

farm activities (ii) 50 percent

threshing, 33 percent drying and

67 percent parboiling under post-

harvest activities and (iii) 47 percent

shed cleaning, 23 percent fodder

collection and 27.5 percent milking

under livestock management.

Their hard work has not only

been unpaid but also remained

mostly unrecognized. They perform

on a daily basis the most tedious and

back-breaking tasks in agriculture,

animal husbandry and homes. They

are invariably paid lower wages

than men for the same agricultural

work. Land ownership titles are

most often in a mans name. Men

often either take or dictate thedecisions concerning farming and

women have to compulsorily carry

out. Farm produce is marketed

commonly by men and that gives

them complete control over

household nance. More and more

women are taking to farming as

men are migrating to urban areas

for work. But they are not getting

access to credit as they do not have

pattas. Only 11 percent womenhave access to land holdings, that

too, mostly as small and marginal

farmers.

With grossly inadequate access

to education and technology, a host

of other socio-economic factors

have an adverse impact on the

lives of women farmers in recent

years. Despite their eagerness they

have often not been able to takeadvantage of opportunities from

new technologies, innovations

and markets. The constraints and

opportunities that women face in

agriculture vary across the agro-

ecological and geographical regions

of the country depending upon,

among others, the socio-economic-

cultural contet. Despite many

policy reforms and interventions at

the macro level gender issues havenot received the priority attention

they deserve.

Indias Initiatives

Recognizingthat enlightenment

of women will change the face

of rural India Indias initiatives

to empower women include the

following.

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YOJANA June 2012 21

It has reserved one-third of

the seats in village panchayats for

women.

Acknowledging the role of

women in agriculture India has

been the rst country in the world

to set up a National Research

Centre for Women in Agriculture

(NRCWA) in Bhubaneshwar way

back in 1996.

The NRCWA, Bhubneshwar

has been engaged in developing

methodologies for identification

of gender implications in farming

systems approach and developing

women specic technologies under

different production systems. Mostimportant research projects in the

area of gender study on agriculture

and house economy, among

others, include (i) development of

etension methods for farm women

in Easter India, (ii) standardization

of women specic eld practices

(iii) occupational hazards of farm

women (iv) improvement of storage

practices of seeds and grains (v)

reducing drudgery of women inagricultural operations through use

of improved tools and techniques

(vi) management of coastal agro-

eco system affected by super

cyclone (vii) involving women in

aquaculture to ensure nutritional

and economic security (viii)

mobilizing Self-Help-Groups to

pursue income generating activities

in agriculture and animal husbandry

and access to marketing outlets,enhance knowledge on various

aspects of family life with emphasis

on increasing decision-making

capabilities, improving skills.

S t r a t e g i e s u s e d f o r

empowerment of women include

development of technology kits

and media mi for dissemination

of knowledge; development of

software; organizing stimulation

programmes; conducting outreach

programmes through media of mass

communication; adoption of one

village by each AICRP centre and

using Participatory Rural Appraisal

techniques for sus ta inable ,self-reliant and people centred

development that is socially just,

economically viable, efcient and

ecologically sound for empowering

rural women.

Empowerment process is

strengthened through educational

i n t e r v e n t i o n s , t r a n s f e r o f

technologies, feasibility trials and

knowledge sharing.

The NRCWA, other ICAR

ins t i tu te s and KVKs have

concentrated their researches,

inter alia, to relieve women of

the drudgery by providing time

and labor saving tools. Besides,

vocational trainings are being

conducted to impart skills necessary

to undertake different avocations.

KVKs have trained more than

200,000 farm women, girls and

women etension workers.

The strategies used by AICRP

on Home Science have encouraged

women to play key role in micro level

planning, designing community

infrastructure for information

dissemination and mobilization of

community resources (human and

material) to gain benets from the

projects.

Empirical evidence suggests

that women have moved from

beneciaries to active partners in

shaping empowerment.

Recognizing the role of women

in agriculture Dr Swaminathan

has proposed to move the Women

Farmers Entitlement Bill, 2011 in

the Rajya Sabha that seeks, inter

alia, access to water, credit and

inputs, pattas for women farmers as

a policy reform to create enabling

environment.

India seized an opportunity to

host Global Conference on Women

in Agriculture which has called

for a radical reorientation of the

agricultural research agenda to

overcome the eisting gaps and

to face the emerging challenges

of sustainable development and

livelihood of resource poor small

holder farmers, especially the

women farmers. The conference

aimed at developing a Framework

for Action to integrate and empower

women for inclusive growth and

development through an enduring

global partnership programme on

gender in agriculture.

Measres

In order to effectively empower

women in agriculture following

enabling measures need to be

initiated.A s s e r t i v e i n t e r v e n t i o n s

by various departments and

Governments are required to

ensure that more and more women

get access to land holdings. A

Gender in Agriculture Platform for

Gender in Agriculture Partnership

(GAP4GAP) as recommended by

the conference is required to be set

up with hubs in different countries

and regions of the country to work

in this direction. ICAR has a key

role to address gender concerns

through such platform.

To implement Action Points

for full empowerment of women

in agriculture that emerged out

of conference deliberations, viz.

enhanced visibility for role of

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22 YOJANA June 2012

women, generation of knowledge

and evidence for support and

contetualization of global issues to

suit local needs. More policy support

and institutional mechanisms are

required to achieve desired results.

Collective action for empowermentof women is required so that they

come together on a single platform

to march further.

About 36 percent girl students

are studying in various courses

of State Agricultural Universities.

They need to be appropriately

trained, their capacity built up and

motivated to act as facilitator to

empower women in agriculture.

Focused attention should be

given to ve-point programme as

recommended by Dr. Swaminathan,

that can make farming intellectually

stimulating and economically

remunerative for women as well

as rural youths, includes (i) land,

water and gene care (ii) technology

and inputs (iii) credit and insurance

(iv) post-harvest managementand (v) remunerative marketing

opportunities. All these can make

farming intellectually stimulating

and economically remunerative.

The concepts, innovations and

technologies being generated at

NRCWA and other ICAR institutes

need to be forthwith disseminated

widely for the benefit of rural

women. Regrettably this is movingat a slow pace.

New programmes should be

planned with adequate resources for

mobilizing women, forming groups,

improving capacity and capability

in technical, organizational and

commercial (business micro-

enterprises) sector and support

systems (credit, inputs, markets).

These should be prepared jointly

in consultation with women, other

organizations (public, private and

voluntary) that can potentially

complement and supplement the

efforts of the State Department ofAgriculture.

Banks in India have as on March

31, 2010 have assisted eclusively

38,97,797 women SHGs under their

SHG-Bank Linkage programme

and 25,13,152 women SHGs

under the Government sponsored

programme, viz. Swarnjayanti

Gram Swarozgar Yojana. Most

women of these SHGs have been

agricultural workers, small and

marginal farmers, with substantial

working eperience in agriculture

and animal husbandry. Efforts

should be focussed on training them

and empowering them as women in

agriculture.

women Empoerment

While it is heartening to note

that NRCWA, KVKS and ICAR

Institutes have undertaken several

researches and facilitated women

in agriculture, there is simultaneous

need to empower them in real sense

of women empowermentas is being

briey discussed here.

Empowerment in the literature

refers to the act of bestowing

po wer and au thorit y on some

one. Thus, women empowerment

refers to the conferring of leverageto women who are otherwise

deprived. This includes granting to

women effectual decision-making

power/authority and the power to

influence others decisions along

with economic, social and civil

freedom. Empowerment, by its very

denition, implies an increase in the

ability to eercise power. In India,

as in most developing countries,

women are believed to be and

treated as inferior to men. Moreover,

as the lives of women and men are

embedded in a matri of unequal

gender relations, a decrease in the

gender inequality is necessary foran outcome of empowerment for

women. In other words, changes

such as increased income, skills

and self-confidence, may be

better understood as enablers that

promote womens empowerment.

However, the women, in order

to be signicantly empowered to

achieve their perceived goal, rstly

need authority at home, which

in most cases they do not have.The process should, therefore, be

carried out concurrently at home

and outside. Within the family they

must have equal say as men and

so should be the case at work. The

most etensive element of women

empowerment is providing them

with social rank, status and justice.

Major attributes that contribute

to women empowerment are

education, social equity and status,

improved health, economic or

financial stability and political

participation. In India, a whopping

56 percent of the women are

illiterate as against a considerably

24 percent in case of men, evincing

the striking inequality. This has

to be signicantly enhanced in a

five year time-frame. Educating

the girl child is now an integralpart of the Right to Education Act

in force which should, therefore,

signicantly enhance the women

literacy level at par with men

in a five year time-frame. This

apart adult literacy programmes

should be initiated in villages to

contribute to the education in female

literacy. q

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24 YOJANA June 2012

ndia has been workingtowards empoweringhe r women eve r since independence,and especially sincet h e 1 9 9 0 s . T h e

government and non- governmentsectors have both been pushingahead with programmes aimed atimparting education to women,

giving them better health care,providing them with means oflivelihood and opportunities toparticipate in the decision makingprocess at home and in the society.Special attention is being paidto improve the lot of the girlchild giving her better chancesof survival and opportunities forliving a life of fulllment.

The 73rd Amendment to ourconstitution in 1993 was a major

milestone in this direction. Theamendment, besides makingprovision for reservation of seatsfor scheduled castes and tribesproportionate to their populationin the panchayat area, also ensuredreservation of not less than onethird of these reserved seats for thewomen. The impact of reserving

Empowered Women, Empowered Nation

WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT

Shahin Razi

REVIEW

The empowermentprocess encompasses

several mutuallyreinforcing

components butbegins with and

is supported

by economicindependence,which implies access

to and controlover production

resources

one third of seats for women inthe Panchayati Raj Institutions(PRIs) has been fruitful, and hasempowered women both politicallyand socially. At present, there areapproimately 260,000 panchayatrepresentatives in India, out ofwhich around 75,000 are womenmaking it the largest number ofelected women in the world.

The Womens Reservation Bill2010, approved by the Upper ofHouse of Parliament is anothermajor step, basically aimed atgiving more political space to thewomen and ensure their activeparticipation in the developmentprocess.

While reservation in panchayatsor Parliament is important, the realchallenge is to ensure that women

are involved in the decision makingprocess at home, and in the society.The challenge will be to developtheir capacity so that they canperform their roles properly.

But more than half-a-centuryafter independence, shacklesremain tightly bound aroundwomens feet. It begins at birth as

The author is Associate Professor, P. G. Department of Economics, Jamshedpur Womens College, Jamshedpur.

I

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the evidence of female foeticide andgender bias in the richer states ofPunjab, Delhi and Haryana shows,sparing neither the villager northe urban sophisticate. From suchinauspicious beginnings comesthe sorry story of seual assaults,

dowry harassment and deaths,biased healthcare, low literacy,discrimination at the workplaceand subjugation at home thedismal list is endless and difcultto escape.

Women have always had lowerstatus than men, but the etent ofthe gap between the sees variesacross cultures and time. In 1980,the United Nations summed up theburden of this inequality : Women

who comprise half the worldspopulation, do two thirds of theworlds work, earn one tenth ofthe worlds income and own one-hundredth of the worlds property.

Statistical data of women allaround the world :

l Of the worlds 1.3 billionpoor, nearly 70 percent arewomen.

lBetween 76-80 percent of theworlds 27 million refugees arewomen and children.

lWomen hold only 10.5percent of the seats in worldsparliament.

lOf the worlds one billionilliterate, two thirds arewomen.

lTwo thirds of 130 millionchildren world wide, who arenot in school, are girls.

lIn most countries, women

work approimately twice theunpaid time men do.

lR u r a l w o m e n p r o d u c emore than 55 percent of allfood grown in developingcountries.

lThe value of womens unpaidhouse work and communitywork is estimated at 35 percentof GDP world wide.

lHIV is increasingly affecting

women. Today, about 42percent of the estimated casesare those of women.

l20 million unsafe abortionsare performed every yearresulting in the deaths of70,000 women.

The Story of the girl Child inIndia :

Foeticide

lKilling of girl foetus is stillrampant in prosperous stateswith Indias se ratio for girlsbeing 927 for 1,000 boys.

lHowever only 125 cases offoeticide were registered in2006 !

Schoolin & Edcation

lFewer girls are enrolled intoschools than boys, both atprimary and upper primarylevels.

lAbout 50 percent girls of thetotal number of enrolment dropout before reaching Class VI.

lOnly 36.22 percent girlsc o m p l e t e s e c o n d a r yeducation.

Health & NorishmentlOn the total infant mortality

cases, 59 percent are girls.

Marriae

lIn low-income groups, 49.78percent girls are married beforeattaining the legal marriageage of 18.

Labor

lThere are more girls than boysas child labourers.

lA number of girl childs aretrafcked for prostitution aswell as for domestic help.

lHighest child labour is amongscheduled tribes and Muslimsfollowed by scheduled cates.

Kidnappin

lT h e r e a r e r e g u l a r a n d increasing numbers of cases

of kidnapping of the girlchild.

Concept of Poverty

There is a general consensus thatpoor can be dened as those whoare deprived of basic human needs

required for their well being. It is awell known fact that the majority ofwomen in the third world countriesare deprived of the basic needs dueto so many social customs and malesupremacy.

Feminization of Poverty

In 1995, the Human DevelopmentReport quoted that out of 1.3 billionpoor people living in developingcountries. 70 percent are women.

Poverty among rural women isgrowing faster than among ruralmen. Over the past 20 years, foreample, the number of women inabsolute poverty rose by 50 percentas against some 30 percent forrural men. Women in India form89 percent of the informal andunrecognized sector. Womenswork participation rate is higher inrural areas, women make up for onethird of the labour force of Indiaand 90 percent of the rural and10 percent of the urban womenworkers are unskilled.

women in India

Constittional garantee : TheConstitution of India guaranteesto all women, equality (Article14); no discrimination by theState (Article 15(1)); equality ofopportunity (Article 16); equalpay for equal work (Article 39(d));renounce practices derogatory to

the dignity of women (Article 51(a)(c)). The Constitution also allowsthe State to make special provisionin favour of women and children(Article 15(3)); and securing justand humane conditions of workand maternity relief (Article 42).The Government of India declared2001 as the Year of WomensEmpowerment and the NationalPolicy for the Empowerment of

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26 YOJANA June 2012

Women came into force from2001.

w o m e n f a r m e r a n dAricltre : India has been anagrarian country. Women constituteabout 66 percent of the agricultural

work force. Around 48 percentself-employed farmers are womenand 64 percent of the informalsector work force depending onagriculture is women. Rural womenhave, since many centuries, beenputting in unfathomable, unbearableand inadequately paid joylessdrudgery to earn for their familieslivelihood and provide food securityto countrys 1.13 billion people.The plight of most rural womenhas been pathetic since they have

to collect rewood, fetch drinkingwater, search fodder to feed cattle,work on their meager land to raisecrops and work as labourers onother farms, take care of childrenetc. Hunger and deprivation affectabout 260 million people in thecountry. India is home to 40 percentof the worlds underweight childrenand ranks 126 out of 177 countriesin the UNDP Human DevelopmentInde.

Self-Help grops : Self-HelpGroup Linkage Bank programmehas covered 3.47 million SHGsand 45.1 million households. Morethan 90 percent SHGs comprisewomen borrowers. Women, despitetheir unbearable hardships andcommitments to their children forfood, health and education, havebeyond doubt demonstrated theirloyalty to nancing banks throughover 95 percent repayment of loans.

Despite this, they have difcultiesto get long-term loans and adequateloan of high value.

E l e c t e d w o m e n -Representatives : The developedeconomics of USA and Europehave already demonstrated strictcompliance with laws concerningwomens rights and status throughmost effective Law and Orderenforcing machinery and efcient

judicial system. Since India isepected to emerge as a supereconomic power the publiclyelected women representatives(eisting and future) in PRIs, StateLegislative Assemblies, Parliamentand Rajya Sabha may need to

demonstrate serious concern andcommitment to strengthen Lawand Order enforcing machineryat all levels, make it effective andaccountable specically in respectof following aspects in whichcases it has proved to be grosslyineffective.

weak Enforcement : Althoughchild marriage has been bannedsince 1860 and the Child MarriageRestraint Act was passed in 1929,

it is still a common practice. Theworst feature of the child marriagehas been the child widows arecondemned to a life of great agony,shaving heads, living in isolation andshunned by the society. Accordingto UNICEFs State of WorldChildren, 2009 report 47 percent ofIndias women aged 20 to 24 weremarried before the prescribed legalage of 18 years, - 56 percent in ruralareas. About 40 percent of worlds

child marriages occur in India. TheImmoral Trafc (Prevention) Actwas passed in 1956, yet cases ofimmoral trafcking of young girlsand women have been increasing. In1961, Government of India passedthe Dowry Prohibition Act. Thoughall medical tests determining these of the child have been banned,India has a high male se ratio.The chief reason is that manygirls die before being born orreaching to adulthood. This is

attributed to the female infanticideand se selective abortions. Thedowry tradition has been one ofthe main reasons for se selectiveabortion and female infanticide.The Indecent Representation ofWomen (Prohibition) Act waspassed in 1987. However, severalincidences of its violation do occuroff and on. The Protection ofWomen from Domestic Violence

Act (2005) came into force onOctober 26, 2006. Yet the incidenceof domestic violence is higher inlower socio-economic classes.Police records show high incidenceof crimes against women. TheNational Crime Research Bureau in

1998 reported that the growth rateof crimes against women wouldbe higher than population growthrate by 2010. Many cases are notregistered with police due to thesocial stigma attached to rape andmolestation cases or inaction onthe part of police. Ofcial statistics(1990) showed a dramatic increasein the number of crimes againstwomen related to molestation andseual harassment at work place.

Female-headed Hosehold :According to 1992-93 year data,while only 9.2 percent of householdsin India were female-headed, about35 percent of the households belowpoverty line were female-headed.

Land and Property Rihts :In most Indian families, womendo not own any property in theirown names and do not get a shareof parental property. Some of thelaws discriminate against women,when it comes to land and propertyrights. Married daughters, whenfaced with marital harassment, haveno residential rights in the ancestralhome.

Edcation : Studies confirmthat female literacy has a signicantinuence in improving social andeconomic status of women. Thefemale literacy rate is woefullylower than that of male. Compared

to boys, far fewer girls are enrolledin schools and many of them aredrop out.

Health and Family Plannin :The average female life epectancyin India is low compared to manycountries. In many families,part icula rl y in rura l areas thegirls and women and mothersface nutritional discriminationwithin the family and are anaemic

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YOJANA June 2012 27

and malnourished. The maternalmortality in India is the secondhighest in the world. The healthprofessionals supervise only 42percent of births in the country.According to UNDP HumanDevelopment Report 88 percent of

pregnant women (age 15-49 years)were suffering from anaemia. Theaverage woman in rural areas haslittle or no control over her potentialfor reproductivity.

work Participation : Thoughthe country has a large percentageof women workers, there is aserious underestimation of womenscontribution as workers to nationseconomy. There are, however,fewer women in the paid work

force than those of men. In ruralareas, agriculture and allied sectoremployed 89.5 percent of totalfemale labour. Womens averagecontribution, in overall farmoutput, is estimated at 55 percentto 66 percent of the total labour.According to World Bank report,women accounted for 94 percentof total employment in dairy sector.Women contributed 51 percent oftotal employment in forest-basedsmall-scale enterprises.

Empoerin women

The Government of Indiaobserves three dimensional strategiesfor development of women, namelysocial empowerment, economicempowerment and gender justiceand has made development ofwomen as one of the principalobjectives of the ve year plans.

The Government has given

greater focus to issues relatingto women through creation of anindependent Ministry of Women andChild Development, initiation oflegislation that has taken the countrycloser to complete legal equalityfor women, gender budgeting andinitiation of programmes for greaterinclusion of women in all walksof life.

l The Government initiated the

protection of women fromDomestic Violence Act, 2005,which has given more effectiveprotection to women who arevictims of violence of any kindoccurring within a family andprovided them a civil remedy

to deal with such violence.l The Government initiated

the Hindus Success ionAct, 1955 to make HinduWomens inheritance rights incoparcenary property equal tothat of men.

lAmendments initiated bythe Government have beenenacted prohibited arrests ofwomen after sunset and beforesunrise, medical eamination of

persons accused of committingor attempting to commit rape,and mandatory judicial inquiryin case of rape while in policecustody.

lThe Government has introduceda bill in Parliament to amendthe Factories Act, 1948 inorder to provide exibility inthe employment of womenat night while requiring theemployer to ensure measures

for safety and protection, andthereby generate employmentopportunities for women.

Financial Focs

lT h e G o v e r n m e n t h a sintroduced gender budgetingfor improving the sensitivityof programmes and schemesto womens welfare. Thebudget ar y outlay for 100percent women-specif icprogramme has been rising

every year.lEnsuring that at least 33

percent of the beneciaries ofall government schemes arewomen and girl children hasbeen laid down as a key targetin the 11th Plan.

womens Reservation

lA bill for introducing onethird reservation for womenin legislatures was drafted. In

an effort to build a consensus,the Government held meetingswith all opposition partiesand with all UPA constituentparties. Discussions were alsoheld with womens groups andother stakeholders.

girls Edcationl2,180 residential Kasturba

Gandhi Balika VidyalayaSchools have been sanctionedand are providing elementaryeducation to 1,82,000 out ofschool girls.

Women ofcers in the Army

lAll ofcers, including thosein short service commission,are now eligible to holdsubstantive rank of captain,major and lieutenant colonelafter two, si and 13 years ofreckonable service respectivelyand tenure of short servicecommission ofcers has beenmade etendable from 10 yearsto 14 years, ensuring parity forwomen ofcers with their malecounterparts.

Fortunately, the s tory ofIndian women, like that of theirsisters elsewhere, has been one ofunvarnished courage and sheer grit.Each Womens Day that passes,despite the dingy statistics, thereis enough anecdotal evidenceof women who have grabbedtheir destiny into their own hands,epanding the envelope of theirachievement. We see these successstories everyday and everywhere atthe workplace, the arena of sportsand entertainment and, of course,the home.

Womens Empowerment- Acronymed WE depictsa unified force. The necessarythought difcult task of buildinga just and fairer nation is possibleonly with meaningful partnershipsbetween men and women. To movethe chariot of our country forwardboth the wheels men and womenhave to be strong and have to moveahead jointly. q

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YOJANA June 2012 29

MPOWERMENT is

a multi-dimensional

concept and relates to

the social attainment,

e c o n o m i c a l

par t ic ipat ion and

political participation of people.

Further, empowerment being an

ongoing process, there is no nal

goal. One does not arrive at a

stage of being empowered in some

absolute sense. It is always relative

and situation specic in context.

Because of its comple and dynamic

nature, defining and measuring

empowerment is a challenge in any

development study. More so in case

of women, who faced prolonged

discrimination that has resulted into

gender disparity in the society.

Hence, it is a challenge to denewhat empowerment means in

its own contet and to assess

whether and to what etent women

have been empowered. Some

studies suggest a linear cause-

effect model while others resort

to a more process-based approach.

The dynamic process might be

Women's Empowerment AcrossIndian States

WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT

Arundhati Chattopadhyay

INDICaTORS

It is important torealize that there issignifcant variation

in the degree ofsocio-economic

development amongIndian states.Hence it is not

feasible to developa single model forempowering Indianwomen or a singleblue print of state

policies

broken into key components for

a comprehensive understanding

of empowerment. Separating the

process into components (such

as enabling factors/parameters,

agency and outcomes) is useful

in identifying policy interventions

to support empowerment, and

for evaluating the impact of such

interventions. Success or failures

in development interventions may

partly be attributed to approaches

that recognise the underlying

factors/parameters responsible for

empowering women. Therefore,

utmost attention needs to be taken

in identifying the key empowerment

parameters.

Conceptual frameworks for

measuring womens empowerment

at the aggregate/macro level areless developed as compared to

household level. The accepted and

most commonly cited are Gender-

related Development Inde (GDI),

a gender-disaggregated Human

Development Inde (HDI) and

Gender Empowerment Measure

(GEM) by UNDP (1995).

The author is Deputy Director, National Productivity Council, Mumbai.

E

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30 YOJANA June 2012

India has made progress in

terms of gender development but

the achievements are not uniform

across states. This is reected in the

results of two earlier studies namely,

State Gender Development Report

(2005), by National ProductivityCouncil (NPC), New Delhi and

the report Gendering Human

Development Indices: Recasting

the Gender Development Inde and

Gender Empowerment Measure

for India (2009) by Ministry of

Women and Child Development

(GoI).

Lack of women empowerment

has repercussions not only on

women but also on their familiesand society at large. Therefore,

this research study has attempted

to identify the various factors/

parameters that are either helping

women in being empowered or

retards the process of empowerment.

Measurement of progress towards

women empowerment at the state

level needs to be dened in such

a manner that is standardisable,

and has a set of indicatorsthat are observable, objective

and measurable. In this way a

mechanism could be developed to

measure empowerment of women,

which would be comparable across

Indian states and over time.

This study eamines the socio-

economic and political factors

underlying and determining the

empowerment of women across 15

major Indian states namely, Andhra

Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat,

Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala,

Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,

Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil

Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West

Bengal. Both the earlier studies

(NPC 2005 and WCD 2009) ranked

Indian states on different women

related parameters/variables and

some parameters are common with

the present study. However, there

are differences in conceptualization

and performance measurement of

states in all the three studies. This

study has a longer time horizon

i.e., 17 years and time series datahave been used wherever available.

However, census data have been

used for some parameters like

literacy and NHFS data are used for

some health related parameters.

Methodoloy

A large number of factors

contribute towards empowerment

of women in socially comple

and tradition bound societies in

India. It is almost impossible to

track all of them in any one study.

Despite the well-known conceptual

and empirical constraints this

study identied 32 socio-economic

and political parameters that

have direct or indirect bearing

on the empowerment of women

(Table 1).

The parameters are selected

based on the availabili ty ofcomparable statistical indicators

and have been grouped under

three broad category (i) Womens

Social Attainment, (ii) Economic

Participation of Women and (iii)

Political Participation of Women.

Under womens social attainment

there are four sub factors viz.,

Demography, Womens educational

attainment, Womens health status

and access to healthcare andfinally domestic violence. The

classication of the parameters is

done based on their nature and not

based on any hierarchical order of

their relative importance.

In most of the cases, higher

value of the parameter reflects

corresponding higher level of

women empowerment. However, in

some cases (e.g. maternal mortality

ratio, domestic violence) higher

values imply correspondingly

lower ac