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| Gender
Policies – Contemporary Issues
|
 Round Table Discussion
on "Gender Policies in India - Contemporary
Issues" by Dr. Vasantha Bharucha - Former Economic Adviser,
Ministry of Commerce, GOI; Ms. Benita Sharma - Master trainer for
MWCd on Gender budgeting & Visiting Faculty at International
Training Centre; Dr. Reena Ramachandran - Director General J.K.
Business School & Former Chairman Hindustan Organic Chemicals
and Mr. Virendra (Sam ) Singh - Former President & MD of South
Asia Dupont and Chairman of NGO - Pardada Pardadi in Espire, Rai
Foundation, A41, MCIE, Mathura Road, New Delhi - 44.
23rd December
HIGHLIGHTS
- As per the World Bank report, the economies that narrow the
gender gap and improve the status of women grow faster while societies
that discriminate on the basis of gender pay a significant price
in the form of greater poverty, slower economic growth, weaker
governance and a lower quality of life.
- Though consideration and discussion of gender issues is now
a common currency in govt, NGOs, the private sector and of course
the mainstream politics, but it is a pity that very often such
discussions and analysis on gender issues get separated from broader
social, political and economic developments.
- We have a deficit of 3.5 crore women - females as compared to
the number of males. There are 933 women for every 1,000 men.
- As an economist, because we would have thought that when the
demand is more and the supply is less, the commodity has a greater
price. In other words, it should command premium or value. In
this particular aspect, we see the reverse in India or around
the globe, where we find that in spite of this clear imbalance,
there is a certain social, economic or political bias, which is
causing so many other problems, including legal issues.
- We also find that there is an index of son preference, which
is available in India. It was very interesting to know that there
is an index for this too. This index reveals that what we generally
call BIMARU states are at the top of the ranks, when it comes
to son preference.
- The social discrimination against women results in poor healthcare
or lack of medical attention because one considers expenditure
on the female child as not rewarding. It is not looked upon as
an investment, as an expenditure on a male child is considered.
- It also results in terms of lack of medical care and education.
We have other problems too, like sexual abuse, physical violence
and so on.
- In India we have had legislations to address issues relating
to gender. These legislations form two major parts; one is legislation
in terms of crime against women, which are covered under the Indian
Penal Code. There are certain provisions regarding what are covered
under the Indian Penal Code.
- We also have special laws, which take care of gender issues.
These relate to the Commission of Sati Act.
- Under gender budgeting, we aim at least 30% of all budgets to
pertain to women-related sectors, be it education, health or other
heads.
- Invariably, we find those who have programmes will not get the
money, while those who do not have any worthwhile programmes siphon
off the money.
- We also have monitoring and overseeing government action. We
have enough committees and enough commissions, which handle implementation
of programmes, policies, identifying projects and so on. But as
it happens in all cases, the implementation is always weak and
monitoring is hardly existent.
- Other issues are economic issues, poverty reduction, gainful
employment for women, equal pay for equal work, equal opportunities
for women to progress even in other aspects such as science and
technology and so on.
- If we come to political empowerment for women in India, we already
have good legislations in place and very fortunately, this is
something that has been implemented very well in India. The 73rd
and 74th amendments to the Constitution in terms of strengthening
grassroots governments through the Panchayat Raj institutions
are milestone legislative initiatives.
- Most of us are aware of the efforts being made to give one-third
or 30% reservation for women in parliament. Though we succeeded
at the panchayat raj level as I'd mentioned earlier, we don't
seem to be seeing eye-to-eye with regard to even 30% reservation
for women in parliament. Currently, we have less than 10% reservation
for women in our political system at the national level.
- There is also a corollary to women's empowerment. That is in
urban areas, it is normally said that if it is to be empowerment
then the men need to be empowered because the women are already
empowered. Now the reverse is going on. Earlier it used to be
said that behind every successful man there is a woman but now
the reverse is also true, that behind every successful woman there
is also a man who is supportive, otherwise the woman could not
have been successful.
- We need to introduce new models for development to substitute
the existing systems, because whatever existing systems are in
position are not addressing the need as well as the urgency of
the issue. We, therefore, need to think totally drastically in
a different way, in order to have new role models, or newer models
for development, addressing general issues.
- Gender is socially constructed roles, which the society expects
both man and woman to enact. While gender roles are something
that can be changed over time and space, sex is biological, one
is born with it. While we talk about gender, we are so conditioned
into thinking that the gender role is the right way that we tend
to make women subservient.Unless we understand the difference
between gender and sex, the policies of the government will continue
to perpetuate the gender stereotypes.
- When we talk about gender budgeting, we are not talking about
schemes only for women. What we are actually talking about is
looking at the entire budget of the country. Thus, when we talk
about gender budgeting, we are talking about the entire budget
of the country and how it impacts men, women, boys and girls differently.
Sex is different. We cannot take them as one category.
- Gender cannot be mainstreamed. If those responsible for mainstreaming
gender are not given allocations, we know that no programme can
function unless you have money to make it work.
- Therefore, when we are talking about gender budgeting, we are
not talking about a separate budget for women. We are talking
about analysing the entire budget from a gender perspective. It
is the analysis of actual government expenditure and revenue on
women and girls as compared to men and boys. It is the process
of conceiving, planning, approving, executing, monitoring, analysing
and auditing budgets in a gender-sensitive way.
- We talk about gender budgeting, we must lay stress on women's
priorities being reflected in the budget. Decision-making has
to be there; without it there is no point in having women anywhere.
- Once we analyse where the money is going, when we do an analysis
of the budget, we find out where the money is going. It helps
governments to target the available money to those most in need.
- Women's needs are different from men. and when we do gender
budgeting, we are actually identifying those needs.
- Gender budgeting is not merely an accounting exercise. We will
have to go much beyond. It is an ongoing process of keeping a
gender perspective in the formulation of policies, programmes,
implementation and review. Even activities have to be gender-sensitive.
- Beijing Platform for Action in 1995. Point 345 of this Action
Plan says that for all financial arrangements, the integration
of a gender perspective and adequate financing of specific programmes
should be guaranteed. India has also signed on to this. Point
346 says that government should make efforts to systematically
review how women benefit from public sector expenditures, adjust
budgets to ensure quality of access to public sector expenditures
both for enhancing productive capacity and for meeting social
needs. They should allocate sufficient resources including resources
for undertaking gender impact analysis.
- Also in gender budgeting, we pay a lot of attention to the care
economy. The care economy is the unpaid household and community
activities, which sustain rural life. It provides a labour force
for both the public and the private sectors. The UNDP did an analysis;
they said there were three sectors, the private sector, the public
sector and the unpaid care economy. And the unpaid care economy
was worth 13 trillion dollars. It was equal to that of what the
public sector and the private sector generates.
- Traditionally, economics looks only at that work for which one
is paid. Unpaid work is not given any importance. But policy must
look at different types of unpaid work.
- In policies, whenever the government is short of money, the
first thing to be cut is the public sector health, education etc.
These are considered the soft sectors. Who is affected most? Women
and children.
- Speaking of laws, we have a Domestic Violence Act. But for that
Act to work, we need shelter homes so that women who are abused
and have no place to go can go there with their children. They
need police personnel who are sensitised, doctors who would testify
that she has been assaulted and has not simply fallen down.
- The need of the government is that when you pay, you will get
better service, and the doctors will be accountable. In addition,
the government has the funds that will look after the running
of the hospital. But in actuality, there is an increase in women's
time burden, they have to queue in clinics and have to provide
substitute care for their children.
- We found that lot of children, because of complete lack of supervision,
take to a life of crime. Eventually, the state ends up paying
much more in terms of the criminal justice system. So we are not
really saving money.
- What we really need to understand that women's work is invaluable,
even if she doesn't receive cash in hand. If the husband has to
pay the wife for all the work she does at home, he would not be
able to afford it. This is what we forget and this is what gender
budgeting is trying to address.
- When the authorities design an airport, do they think about
what women need? For example, in Delhi, because of fog, flights
are sometimes delayed for hours. Suppose there is a woman with
two small children and she has to visit the toilet, where does
she leave her children? Or, if she needs to buy baby milk and
it is not available. What we really ask is identifying what a
woman needs. That's all we need to do in gender budgeting.
- All women basically encounter three different components in
which they need to deal with the men in their life. One is at
home; the second at the workplace and the third is the time and
space for herself as an individual.
- Policies apart, it is about how we make them work. That will
not happen unless we have people in decision-making positions.
Education, lower fertility rates, economic growth and changing
social dynamics are associated with more women entering the work
force. These are known facts.
- We see a five-fold gain in the numbers of women, which have
gone up in fifty years. This is the most important horizontal
segregation, which you spoke about which happens at this level
itself; the choice of subjects, which they have.
- We have analysed industry and have found that there are some
major barriers to women's advancement to the leadership positions.
Stereotypes still exist, as do preconceptions. Of course, we do
have a few role models but either they are inadequate or are not
adequately presented. There are no media stories to the extent
required in highlighting them, their case studies etc. This is
where the media should be playing a major role in sharing information.
- Coming to commitment to family and personal responsibility and
lack of mentoring; I think the most important part is inadequate
networking, mentoring and visibility. The reason why we highlighted
these is the major reason why the existing people are unable to
move up and advance. Unless we advance and attain a critical mass,
the question of going up the ladder does not arise. We therefore
need to create the critical mass. Gender budgeting is a very valuable
contribution to work in that direction.
- The second point is about the same vocational training and whether
it can be made nationally interchanging and interlinking. In the
matter of crafts, the examples of work done by artisans and craftsmen
of Uttar Pradesh on cushion covers, quilts and bed covers and
even on garments can be cited. This is special to UP. Similarly,
if other crafts and embroidery elsewhere in India, like the embroidery
in Jammu and Kashmir, different kinds of embroidery in Andhra
Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, zari embroidery in Gujarat can be mentioned;
if these skills can be merged and made to spread around in terms
of vocational training, we can, in a very short span of time,
have multiple centres with skills, which can carry out these vocational
programmes and also add to the marketing of the products and the
economy can flourish. First comes education, skill impartment
and training ad then creating products with training and reaching
that product to the ultimate consumer through a marketing outlet
and a showroom.
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