Devendra
Kothari PhD
Population
and Development Analyst,
Forum for population Action
Since 1911, the March 8th is celebrated around
the world as International Women's Day.
Many groups around the world choose different themes each year relevant to
global and local gender issues. The UN declares an
International Women's Day theme for 2013 and it is “A promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women”. And this is very crucial for India.
The
condition of women in India has undoubtedly improved since independence.
Well-dressed women in Western attire driving scooters or cars to work are now
an everyday sight in cities. Women doctors, lawyers, police
officers and bureaucrats are common.
However, the extent of this improvement is limited and mainly confined to the
middle classes living in big cities. As a result, the gender gap in India
runs deep, as revealed by the Global Gender Gap Report 2011, released by the
World Economic Forum.[1] India ranks pathetically at 113 among the 135
countries considered, indicating India is simply not doing enough for its
women. Further, India’s ranking has
been falling steadily since 2006 when the Index was launched. In 2006, India
was ranked 98th. That is a shameful reflection of the condition of the women in
a country that is on a growth song. Available data indicate that the lack of education, poor health and
living conditions still haunt women. It appears that India is simply not doing
enough for its women to improve access to resources and freedom of movement
especially for those who make around 75% of its total female population. The situation is really worst in India's
heavily populated four large north Indian States of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar
Pradesh, where, in parts, there is a deep-rooted mindset that women are
inferior and must be restricted to being homemakers and child bearers. There is an urgent need to rethink
as how to expedite the process of empowerment with innumerable obstacles.
The
post aims at formulating a “feminist agenda” to empower women living in highly
patriarchal and traditional surroundings. The agenda is based on the
premises that no doubt efficient policing, stringent punishments and legal
measures may “end violence against women”
but they cannot eliminate growing gender inequality which is a main reason
behind growing crime against women in India
unless and until the mindset of
the society is changed. For this,
women must have a supportive environment where she can exert herself. It is argued that the “feminist agenda" as outlined in
the following pages, if implemented as a package and backed by a proper
monitoring system, will help in
achieving gender equality and women empowerment in India.
What we mean by the “feminist agenda” for empowering women? The observation of
the theatre personality and social
activist, Shabana Azmi, appropriately sums this up: “I believe men and women
are different not better, nor worse. And the difference needs to be celebrated.
For far too long, solutions of all problems have sought to be resolved from
male point of view. One has to take women‘s perspective into account, since
women think differently”. One has to recognize that women don’t need
patronage. They need supportive environment for elevating themselves and reducing the gender gap.
Empowerment covers a large canvas where a woman is enabled
to negotiate better space for herself in the family, society and polity. The
ability of women to make decisions that affect the circumstances of their own
lives is an essential aspect of empowerment. In other words, improving the decision
making power in day-to-day activities could be another way to accelerate the
process of women empowerment. The post examines some ground level indicators, obtained from
National Family Health Surveys, Census of India and other published documents, which
could help in developing feminist agenda. For this, the post analyses the
prevailing situation in some major States of India, namely: Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya
Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan
and Tamil Nadu and try to learn what one can learn. These States are at the
different levels of women empowerment measured in terms of
decision-making power.
During the National Family Health
Survey-3 (2005-06), currently married women were asked who made
decisions about their own health care, major household purchases, purchases for
daily household needs, and visiting their own family or relatives to measure
the level of women empowerment.[2]
Using these data, the selected States have been arranged in descending order,
as shown in column 2 of Table 1. Only 37% of currently married women
participated in making all four of these decisions in the county as a whole. However,
women’s participation in decision-making varied from 49% in Tamil Nadu to 23%
in Rajasthan among the 17 major States of India having population more than 25
million in 2011. In fact, Rajasthan recoded the lowest rank in the country: only
two in ten currently married women in Rajasthan participated in decisions about
their own health care, large household purchases, purchases for daily need, and
visits to her family and relatives, whereas every second woman in Tamil Nadu
participated in all these decisions.
Table 1 clearly indicates that the
level of decision-making (col. 2) does increase with greater use of reproductive
health services like Ante Natal Care (col. 3) and family planning (col. 4) that
is use of reproductive health services. At the same time higher level of female
literacy (col. 5) and opportunity in wage employment outside the agriculture (col.
6) have a positive impact on decision-making. Finally, higher proportion
of households with toilet (col. 7) and drinking water (col.
8) facilities within the premises have expected
positive association with the decision- making process.
Table 1: level of decision making (women empowerment) depends
upon use of reproductive health services, level of literacy and wage
employment, and living conditions, some selected States of India.
|
State
|
%
of married women who
participate
in all
four decisions*
|
Use of RCH services*
|
Literacy & employment
|
Living conditions#
|
|||
|
% of Pregnant women received 3+ ANC visits
|
% of women
using modern contra-captives
|
% of Females literate#
|
% females workers in wage employ-
ment $
|
% of house-
holds
with piped water#
|
% of
House-
Holds
with
latrine#
|
||
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
|
Tamil Nadu
|
49
|
96
|
60
|
74
|
28
|
80
|
49
|
|
Maharashtra
|
45
|
75
|
65
|
75
|
25
|
70
|
53
|
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
41
|
85
|
67
|
60
|
28
|
70
|
50
|
|
India
|
37
|
52
|
49
|
65
|
19
|
43
|
43
|
|
Madhya Pradesh
|
29
|
41
|
53
|
60
|
21
|
23
|
29
|
|
Chhattisgarh
|
27
|
54
|
49
|
61
|
23
|
21
|
24
|
|
Rajasthan
|
23
|
41
|
44
|
53
|
12
|
41
|
34
|
|
Sources: * NRHM-3
(2005-06); # Census of India 2011; $ Statistics on Women in India 2010,
NIPCCD, New Delhi.
|
|||||||
Table
1 indicates that use of reproductive health services and participation of women in wage employment in
non-agricultural sector coupled with higher level of female literacy are
effective action areas in empowering women. The table
reveals that Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan recorded the very low use of reproductive health services (Cols.
3 and 4) as well as low level of female literacy and participation in the wage employment (Cols. 5
and 6), and these had an adverse impact
on decision making power of women. On the other hand, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra
and Andhra Pradesh with higher use of reproductive health
services as well as greater participation in wage employment recorded the
higher ranking in the women empowerment (Col. 2). As such, the State Governments have to undertaken effective initiatives to promote reproductive
health services as well as the participation of women in the wage employment.
Table 1 also indicates that other
factors creating obstacles in improving the status of women are poor living
conditions including lack of drinking
water and inadequate sanitation facilities, and non availability of smokeless
cooking fuel like LPG and electricity. Absence of these
facilities increases women’s workload as well as their physical and mental
fatigue. Our earlier analysis clearly indicates the living conditions are equally
important in empowering the women.[3]
All these ground level variables have a
significant impact not only on the decision-making power of women (Col. 2) but
also on the quality of life of women measured in terms maternal mortality rate (Col. 3),
number of unwanted births per women (col. 4), per cent of births of order four
or higher (Col. 5), proportion of employed women who are paid in cash for their
work (Col. 5), and percentage of women who have a bank account that they
themselves use (Col. 6), as shown in Table 2. The table indicates that maternal
mortality rate varies from 318 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in
Rajasthan to only 94 in Tamil Nadu. Similarly, level of unwanted fertility that
is difference between the total fertility and wanted fertility ranges from 0.3
children in Andhra Pradesh to 1.0 child in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.[4] The consequences of unintended
pregnancy are serious, imposing significant burden on women and families, and
in turn slowing down the process of women’s empowerment. Unintended pregnancy
breeds powerlessness and
powerlessness breeds subordination
(quality of obedient submissiveness)
and subordination breeds unintended pregnancy[5].
Table 2: level of decision making (women empowerment)
and quality of life indicators, some selected major States of India
|
State
|
%
of women who
participated
in all
four decisions*
|
Maternal deaths/lac live births 2007-09
(MMR)#
|
Number of unwanted births/ woman*
|
% of birth order four or higher*
|
% of employed women earning cash*
|
% of women who had bank account that they
use*
|
|
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
|
|
Tamil Nadu
|
49
|
97
|
0.4
|
7
|
90
|
16
|
|
|
Maharashtra
|
45
|
104
|
0.4
|
12
|
70
|
20
|
|
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
41
|
134
|
0.3
|
8
|
84
|
18
|
|
|
India
|
37
|
212
|
0.8
|
25
|
64
|
15
|
|
|
Madhya Pradesh
|
29
|
269
|
1.0
|
31
|
59
|
9
|
|
|
Chhattisgarh
|
27
|
269
|
0.6
|
28
|
45
|
8
|
|
|
Rajasthan
|
23
|
318
|
1.0
|
34
|
48
|
8
|
|
|
Sources: * NRHM-3
(2005-06) and # Registrar General of India.
|
|||||||
In conclusion,
there are quite a large number of issues which need to be addressed to
streamline the existing women empowerment programs in India especially in the
poor performing States as well as initiate actual work at the ground level. To
initiate the measurable actions at the ground level, female education and women
centred reproductive health services should be given top priority. Other
factors need attention are making access to affordable LPG cooking fuel for
rural women, providing safe drinking water, and sanitation and enhancing the
opportunity for wage employment. We have to accept the fact that things are not going
to change overnight but because of this we cannot stop taking action either. At
this junction the most important step is to initiate ground level actions
however small it might seem. They should be focused on creating enabling
environment where women can take decision about themselves, and that will be a
starting point in our efforts to empower women in India.
[1] The Global Gender Gap Index, introduced by the World
Economic Forum in 2006, is a framework for capturing the magnitude and scope of
gender-based disparities and tracking their progress. The Index benchmarks
national gender gaps on economic, political, education- and health based
criteria, and provide country rankings that allow for effective comparisons
across regions and income groups, and
over time. For details, see: The Global Gender Gap Report 2011, World Economic
Forum, Geneva, Switzerland, 2011.
[2] For further information,
see: Sunita Kishor and Kamla Gupta. 2009.
Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in India. National Family Health Survey
(NFHS-3), India, 2005-06. Mumbai: International Institute for Population
Sciences; Calverton, Maryland, USA: ICF Macro.
[3] See post on: “Quality of life and living environment in India”
dated September 30, 2012 by the author at the link: kotharionindia@blogspot.com. Also
see article by the author “West Bengal: Household amenities with special reference to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and their implications”, UNICEF
West Bengal, Kolkata, 2012
[4] The highest
unwanted fertility of 1.6 children per woman was recorded by Bihar in the
country as a whole, as per NFHS-3.
[5] Kothari, Devendra.
2012. “Empowering Women in India through better Reproductive Healthcare”, in Sheel
Sharma and Angella Atwaru Ateri (eds.) Empowering Women through Better
HealthCare and Nutrition in Developing Countries, New Delhi: Regency
Publications, 2012, pp 68-86.
