THE SITUATION OF WOMEN THE SITUATION OF WOMEN

THE SITUATION OF THE MARGINALIZEDTHE SITUATION OF THE MARGINALIZED

COMMUNITIES WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TOCOMMUNITIES WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO

SOUTH INDIASOUTH INDIA

- Prof. Fatima Ali Khan, Center for Women Studies (Retd

director), Earlier with Dept. of Geog., Osmania University,

Hyderabad

27-7-2005

Good morning to all of you, I am happy to be here today. It is always pleasure to talk

to audience working in the field. I am grateful to Mr. Satya Bhoopal Reddy for giving

this opportunity.

When we talk of status of women, the very fact that we need

to talk the status of women. How many interventions we are

making? There had been such a vibrant voluntary sector, some

change is coming about. Some issues which never talked

about are being discussed now.

It is complex issue to discuss the status of women, we really have to go a long way.

Legal support is coming up. The changing attitude is a slow process. The whole

picture is far more complex.

The under-valuation of women is reflected in the under valuation of their work

Women work longer hours than men in nearly every country.

Invisible contribution of women is about 11 trillion dollars every year.

The UNDP’s Gender Development Index was developed.

Women’s contribution was never an issue. Their contribution should be accounted. It

has nothing to do with the level of development in any country.

Gender Development Index is a mile stone. The economic growth rate of a country is

high, everything is not fine. Literacy rate is 60% -----------everything should be broken

down.

Countries with higher GDI than HDI include – Thailand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Cuba and

Jamaica of the world 1.3 billion population 70% are women.

In developing countries ¾ no of men’s work is paid while women’s work is unpaid and

unrecognized.

Women work longer hours:

Women’s work time is more in both developed and developing countries. In urban

areas relatively the work time is comparatively less as compared to the rural areas

where it is very high. Even in countries like Italy etc.

Women’s work remains unaccounted and under valued.

Does women’s work get into GDP or not, the fire wood collection does it get

accounted. Therefore the women’s work is under valued. Only 35% of the women’s

work get accounted into the national income. The status of the women remains low.

76% of the mens work gets represented into the national income. In industrial

countries also the situation is similar.

Graph 1 Employment - Workers

Even in the non-agricultural sector the women are paid less for the same amount of

work. Level of development doesn’t automatically translate into better status of

women. More variation in the developed countries too.

Seats in parliament only 10% represented. Women’s political participation why it is

important. Policies are all made by men.

Women are totally absent from mainstream of social focus

Committee to the report of 1974 in India. GoI set up national Committee on the

status of women which gave their report –

The sex ratio is one hard statistics to know the status of women. The sex ratio is

declining. 1n 2001 the sex ratio is 927.

The most developed states have very low sex ratio, like Punjab, haryana.

Another alarming thing is child sex ratio: In some states the child sex ratio is lower

than the overall sex ratio. They are eliminating the girl child. The four southern states

also the situation is becoming bad to worse.

Literacy rate and sex ratio: there is gap between rural and urban. In Kerala it is high.

In Rajas than in one of the districts there is only 8% literacy (Barmer Dist). In MP it is

only 26%. We have districts with less than 25%, 25 to 55% and

Map of India with sex ratio. Best sex ratio is in parts of Orissa, AP, TN and Kerala

about 971 (1991).

Urban sex ratio, is lower. The men migrate to urban centers.

The higher the level of development, the more the imbalance.

Detailed data on enrolment etc was not taken.

Data / tables

Sex Ratio

The sex ratio in India

Sex ratio in AP

Karnataka Sex ratio

In Punjab and Haryana the status is very poor the sex ratio Is very less for both

Literacy rate

Similarly the female literacy is also very less as compared to male.

In AP also slightly better than the national average.

Karnataka began worst than AP but now slightly better than AP.

The difference in the rural is more.

Total workers by sex

Change in the definition of the work. Among the urban areas women workers are

single digit. In rural areas women workers are more. In AP and Karnataka there is

decline in the female workers. In Haryana and Punjab very few urban women workers

are there. All women should be paid workers, which will make them independent and

empower them.

Q: To interpret this data, because there is less job opportunities in Punjab and

Haryana or any historical reasons.

Q: atrocities on women increasing and sex ratio decreasing

Q: Attitude is not changing according to development , they want only male child

Q: Any information on dalit and tribal and sex ratio compared to general category

Q:Is womens status is like that in all communities or different

Q: Did you discuss with women and any suggestions on the sex ratio, literacy etc

Q: Application of under valuation of women in national income.

Q: In GDI what more things need to consider to arrive

Q: Globalisation and status of women

Q: Poor countries gender inequality

Q: Work of women not being counted in national income

Q: Dalit movement was inclusive, whether women’s movement was also inclusive in

nature

Explanation:

When we look at sex ratio and literacy levels it is not by itself. The status of women is

lower, how do we explain it, we need to show in some way. We are trying to use

some sort of statistical anlsysis to show the status of women, increasing or

decreasing. Most of the women don’t have anything in their name. Spatial pattern is

observed and most of the resources are not in womens hand. Children sent to school,

there are ways and means to measure, but census data is comparable as it is done

with rigidity. It is possible to do a comparative study. Even the employment data.

There are many ways of doing it.

Sex ratio it is conducted on the same day all over the country. Women are

disappearing. Even at birth it is becoming abnormal. There are lots of technologies to

prevent the girl child birth because they think they are not economical. Women are

not given that much freedom. With in dalits the women have greater freedom

although their overall status is backward. We can have laws, rules – like china 1 child

– girls are killed before they are born.

Womens movements – they come with lots of efforts, part of 1970 international

movement. Dowry deaths were taking place at that time. The same momentum

cannot be sustained. If it has achieved something, we can slightly do it differently.

SHGs strength is in numbers, tied it up with credit. The strength is minimized, by

giving some amount as Revolving Fund. We are not giving time for change, with

targets etc.

Literacy movement – Children working there. If a child not in school we should

question. Education compulsory for both girls and boys. Some dignity and equality

will hold the gril child. Not allowing her to take birth, schooling etc many hurdles are

there.

In market economy, everything need to be paid in money, anyone gets money will

have higher status. The labor charges paid to some people to do all the domestic

work. Women are performing roles which are invaluable.

A lot of effort is put in to account what is the status of Women status.

Globalization is looking for cheap labor, womens work is supplementary. Womens

work is getting worse. Trying to eliminate child labor. Globalisation is bad for all the

weaker sections. It is only good for those accumulating wealth.

In community has its own cultural barrage. Caste is specific to India. In the overall

context. All upper caste women need not have a better status. They don’t have

freedom of movement, the resources are nominally in the name. There are broad

pictures and trends.

The womens movement is much more defused, the womens reservation and things

are not moving.

Materialism and access to higher level of affluence, if there is nothing there is

equality. But the larger material things we possess, for sake of law. Status of women

in public domain and domestic domain, the domestic domain is really a weak point, it

is like the tip of an iceberg. In public domain we could bring in some laws and

question them.

SHGs and empowerment – SHG a group coming together, not giving time to take off.

How sustainable the change is? The money is spent but not much change. The

groups will collapse if the govt support gets withdrawn.

Womens control over their income, somethings get surfaced. So they are treated like

slaves. Women look after the sick, old people, care of children etc. Men also network,

their power, spend more time outside.

Sex ratio will be in favor of women if not equal.

Transcript by Dr. N. Sai Bhaskar Reddy, saibhaskarnakka@gmail.com