Gender Statistics and Development Policy: Women’s Work in India

Gender Statistics and Development Policy: Women’s Work in India Ratna M. Sudarshan Director, Institute of Social Studies Trust, New Delhi

Presentation Outline • Data • Policy • Evaluations • Indicators

Table 3: Characteristics of Workers 2004-05

Diagram 1 Work participation rates: All India

Gender Gaps in Wages received per day by Casual Labourers in India(Rs) Rural Ministry of Women and Child Development 2007

Gender Gaps in wages received per day by casual labourers in India(Rs)Urban Ministry of Women and Child Development 2007

Disparities in Agricultural Wages(Rs per Man day) Ministry of Women and Child Development 2007

INFLUENCING POLICY • Data and research findings • Women’s movement demands • Constitutional Commitments • Regional agreements: UNIFEM Regional Ministerial Conferences tracking progress on Beijing commitments • International Agreements – BPFA, CEDAW

CEDAW Concluding Comments • Need for more gender, minority and caste disaggregated data to monitor fulfillment of convention and provisioning for ST/SCs/OBCs/Minority Groups. • Recommended impact assessment of legislative reforms • Gender disaggregated data for domestic violence • Study impact of mega projects on tribal and rural women In addition, there were several recommendations made regarding reform for personal laws, communal violence, child marriage, child labour and female infanticide. The committee also made the following suggestions regarding women and employment. • Ensure rural women benefit from the NREGA • Proactive measures with credit and financial institutions for women

Official Responses • Poverty Eradication • Micro Credit/SHGs • Skills Training • Support Services – Including child care facilities, including crèches at work places and educational institutions, homes for the aged and the disabled; women-friendly personnel policies

EVALUATIONS: STEP: Economic empowerment as a route to all round empowerment • Support for Training and Employment Programme (1986) • Influenced by ShramShakti report, women activists Programme strategies were to • Provide skill training • Mobilize women into small groups, provide training, access to credit • Enable groups to take up employment and income generation activity • Provide services to improve working conditions ISST evaluation: Most of the project reports contained data on the number of women who joined the group and details regarding operationalities of credit and training. However, tracking of members post grant completion was not thorough. Authorities - particularly dairy sector – used milk collection and total output as primary indicators; mainstreaming women’s empowerment indicators difficult

ISST Evaluation 2006-7 • Work and the household • All beneficiaries women. • Poorest: risks of self employment high, no credit without collateral. • Family support needed to increase time on income earning activity • Men’s role: Uttarakhand - men managing payments, records, milk delivery. Women ‘feeling safer’ • Andhra Pradesh- men help with buying cattle, fodder, pouring milk, going to the vet, collecting money, attending meetings....but rarely with giving water to the animals, bathing animals, cleaning the shed • Karnataka - only 4 % of those who had received training started commercial cultivation of medicinal plants. Men take land use decisions? • Sensitising implementing agencies • Holistic conception –Technical training relating to animal care usually provided; not so legal literacy, awareness, nutrition etc • Examine institutions implementing programme; cannot achieve more than their understanding of objectives of the programme.

NREGA • Rural, wage work, 100 days at minimum wage; one third to be women • Range of participation 6 % to over 80 % • Managing care work • No creches in most places, despite the stated intentions of the Act. • In the absence of well functioning crèches or other institutional solution, families seek private solutions, which at times means that older girls stay home. • Choice of works • Gender sensitivity of the programme needs also to find reflection in the choice of works.

INDICATORS • There is a need for qualitative data to understand what is actually happening. • Also, it needs to be always kept in mind that in a country as large and diverse as India, the situation varies greatly from one village to another, leave alone state to state and region to region. It is not possible to design a programme that will be the best fit in all situations. Equally, therefore, the evaluation methods and process has to be adapted to the situation: • therefore, evaluations need to pay enough heed to • a. context • b. mediating institutions • c. assess outcomes in the light of these so as to make useful and relevant recommendations.

REFERENCES • Ministry of Women and Child 2007, A Handbook of Statistical Indicators on Indian Women 2007, available at http://wcd.nic.in/stat.pdf , accessed on 29th October 2008 • National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector, Report on Conditions of Work and Promotion of Livelihoods in the Unorganised Sector, Government of India, August 2007

Gender Statistics and Development Policy: Women’s Work in India