India - Gender and poverty in India : issues and opportunities concerning women in the Indian economy

Repokw No. W07241N. Gende'r and Poverty in India: Issues and Opportunitiles Concernilng Women in the Indian-Economy June 14, 19!I Asia Co0untry Departrnent IV Asia Regional Office and Women irn Development Division, Population and Human Resources Departrnent FOR OFFICIAL USF ONLY  This report was prepared by Lynn Bennett (team leader and principal author), Monisha Behal, Meenakshi Chakraverti, Meera Chatterjee, Ravinder Kaur, John Kurrien, Manoshi Mitra, Vijay Mahajan, Indu Hemawasam, Maitreyi Das, Gautam Mody, Swapna Mukhopadhyay, and K. Satyanarayana. Noemi Dacanay, Linda Reese, Elmer Sanders, Carmen Severino, Audrey Sloan, Belinda Smith, Radha Subramanyiam, Mila Villar and Geri Wise provided technical and production support. Benjamin Patterson and Indra K.C. prepared the graphics. G6tz Schreiber coordinated and guided the preparation of this study.  FOR OFFICIUL USE ONLY CURENCANI OTHER 1HOUIVAENT Prior to June 6, 1966: US$1.00 Rs.4.7619 Rs.1.00 US$0.21 From June 6, 1966 to mid-December 1971: US$1.00 - Rs.7.50 Rs.1.00 US$0.13333 Mid-December 1971 to end-June 1972: US$1.00 - Rs.7.27927 Rs.l.00 - US$0.1374 After end-June 1971: Floating rate Rate December 1990: US$1.00 Rs.18.073 Rs.1.00 - US$0.0553 Rate May 30, 1991: US$1.00 Rs.20.762 Rs.1.00 - US$0.0482 Rupees values have been converted into dollars by using the prevailing exchange rates indicated above up to 1970/71. For subsequent years the following average rates in rupees per US dollar have been used: 1971/72 : 7.444 1972/73 : 7.706 1973/74 : 7.791 1974/75 : 7.976 1975/76 : 8.653 1976/77 : 8.939 1977/78 : 8.563 1978/79 : 8.206 1979/80 : 8.076 1980/81 : 7.893 1981/82 . 8.929 1982/83 : 9.628 1983/84 : 10.312 1984/85 : 11.887 1985/86 : 12.237 1986/87 : 12.787 1987/88 : 12.968 1988/89 : 14.477 1989/90 : 16.663 The Indian fiscal year runs from April 1 through March 31. This document has a restricted distribution and may be used by recipients only in the performance of their official duties. Its contents may not otherwise be disclosed without World Bank authorization.  LIST OF ABREVIATIONS AND ACRONMS AEO: Agricultural Extension Officer AIWC: All India Women's Conference ANP: Applied Nutrition Program AP: Andhra Pradesh APO: Assistant Project Officer BDO: Block Development Officer CAPART: council for Advancement of People's Action and Rurai Technology CDP: Community Development Program CEM: Country Economic Memorandum CSWB: Central Social Welfare Board CSWI: Committee on the Statws of Women in India DANIDA: Danish International Development Agency DEW: Tamil Nadu Corporation fur Development of Women DGET: Directorate General of Employment and Training DOA: Department of Agriculture DOE: Directorate of Extension DRDA: District Rural Development Agency DWCRA: Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas DWDA: District Women's Development Agency EGS: Employment Guarantee Scheme GOI: Governient of India GON: Government of Maharashtra GOR: Government of Rajasthan ICAk: Indian Council of Agricultural Research ICSSR: Indian Council for Social Science Research IDBI: Industrial Development Bank of India IFAD: International Fund for Agricultural Development IRDP: Integrated Rural Development Program ISST: Institute for Social Studies Trust ITI: Industrial Training Institute JRY: Jawahar Rozgar Yojana KVK: Krishi Vigyon Kandra MOA: Ministry of Agriculture MPWF: Multi Purpose Worker (Female) NCSW: National Commission for Self-Employed Women and Women in the Informal Sector NABARD: National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development NGO: Non-Government Organization NIRD: National Institute for Rural Development NPPW: National Perspective Plan for Women NREP: National Rural Employment Program NSSO: National Sample Survey Organization NVTI: N.ational Vocational Training Institute NWDB: National Wasteland Development Board PRADAN: Professional Assistance for Development Action RLEGP: Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Program RRS: Regional Research Stations RVTI: Regional Vocational Training Institute SAU: State Agricultural University SEEUY: Scheme for Employment of Educated Unemployed Youth SEPUP: Self-Employment Program for the Urban Poor SEWA: Self-Employed Women's Association SMS: Subject Matter Specialists  STEP: Support to Employment Programs for Women TRYSEK: Training of Rural Youth for Self-Emplojment T&V: Training and Visit System UN: United Nations UNICEF: United Nations Children's Emergency Fund UP: Uttar Pradesh VEW: Village Extension Worker VLW: Village Level Worker WCF: Women's Credit Fund WDC: Women's Development Corporation WDP: Women's Development Project WEP: Welfare Extension Project WWF: Working Women's Forum  GENDER AND POVERTY IN INDIA: ISSUES AND OPPORTUNITIES CONCERNING VOEN IN THE INDIAN ECONOMY Tabe Pfj_on=rnt Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i PART A -- INTRODUCTION Cbapter 1: Gender and the Problem of Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 A. Introduction ......... . . .....1. B. Women's Access to Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 C. The Inside-Outside Dichotomy .. 3 D. Access, Productivity and Poverty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 E. Women's Access to Productive Employment . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 F. Structure of the Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 PART B -- WOMEN'S ACCESS TO PRODUCTIyE EMPLOYMET Chapter 2: Overview: Where are Women Working? . . . . .9 Chapter 3: Women in Agriculture ..19 A. Introduction ..19 B. Household Socio Economic Status and Women's Role in Agriculture 19 C. Regional Variation in Women's Agricultural Role . . . . . . . . 24 The North-South Divide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Female Labor Force Participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Wage Laborers vs. Cultivators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 D. Agricultural Modernization and Household Strategies for Female Labor Deployment .... . . .... . . . . . . . 32 Gender and the Changing Composition of the Labor Force . . . 32 Spreading Poverty or Changing Opportunities? . . . . . . . . 37 E. The Intra-Household Dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Chapter 4: Women's Role and Potential in the Dairy Sector . . . . . . . 47 A. Growth and Change in India's Livestock/Dairy Sector . . . . . . 47 B. Women's Role in Dairy Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 C. Operation Flood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 D. Reaching Poor Women Producers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 E. NGO Initiatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 SEWA Ahmedabad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Bhagavatula Charitable Trust (BCT) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 F. Parastatal Agency Initiatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 APDDCFL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Bihar Women's Dairy Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54  Chapter 5: Women and Forestry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 A. Introductior. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 B. Firewood Consumption ..... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 C. Declining Fodder Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 D. Women's Time Allocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 E. Forestry and Female Employment .... . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 F. Gender Issues in Forestry Policy and Project Oesign . . . . . . 67 Chapter 6: Women as Clients for Agricultural Extension and Research . . 69 A. The Institutional Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 B. Which Women and Why? .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 C. Reaching Women with Agricultural Extension ... . . . . . . . 73 Chapter 7: Women Outside Agriculture: Rural Non-Farm Activities and the Urban Informal Sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 A. Introduction ..... . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 B. Female Employment Outside Agriculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Manufacturing ...... . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . . 83 Services ....... . .. .. . .. .. . .. .. . .. . 88 Regional Patterns ..... . .. . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 89 C. Women in the Urban Ir.formal Sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Defining the Informal Sector .... . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Measuring the Informal Sector .... . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Female Employment ..... . . .. . . . . . . . . .. . . . 95 Women Workers and Women's Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Impact on Household Income and Decision-Making . . . . . . . . 100 D. Policy Implications .102 E. Areas of Intervention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Institutional Credit .104 Skill Training .106 Advocacy, Supportive Services and Organization . . . . . . . . 107 PART C -- WOMEN'S ACCESS TO SOCIAL SERVICES Chapter 8: Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 A. Educational Opportunities for Girls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Female Literacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 School Enrollment of Girls .111 Backward States and Backward Districts . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Secondary and Higher Education .113 B. Factors Affecting Girls' Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Parental Attitudes and Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 School System Factors .115 C. Special Efforts to Promote Female Education . . . . . . . . . . 116 D. Education and Employment .118 E. Education of Older Cohorts .120 Adult Literacy Training .120 Technical and Vocational Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 F. Conclusions and Recommendations .122  I Chapter 9: Women's Health, Nutrition and Productivity . . . . . . . . . 123 A. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 B. Women's Health Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Sex Ratio and Mortality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Cause of Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 C. Gender, Nutrition and Productivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Variatior, in Nutritional Entitlements . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/ Women's Work and Household Nutrition . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Other Benefits to Health of Women's Work . . . . . . . . . . . 135 D. Female Education: An Important Determinant of Health . . . . . 135 E. Early Marriage and High Fertility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 H!7h Fertility and Mortality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Women's Education & Economic Status, Fertilty & Mortality . . 142 Adolescents as Targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 F. Social and Economic Phenomena Linking Nutrition, Health and Fertility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Economic Utility of Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Women's Seclusion: The Inside-Outside Dichotomy . . . . . . . 144 G. Women's Access to Health Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Differential Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 Available Health Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Impediments to Women's Access to Health Care . . . . . . . . . 151 H. Areas for Intervention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 Specific Health Sector Interventions Recommended . . . . . . . 156 PART D -- THE INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT OF EFFORTS TO REACH WOMEN Chapter 10: Government and NGO Efforts for Women's Development . . . . . 159 A. Government Programs: A Historical Overview . . . . . . . . . . 159 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Early Post Independent Efforts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 Tne Post 1975 Era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 B. Poverty Alleviation Programs: An Oveirview and Assessment . . . 161 Program Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Programs to Promote Self-Employment through Subsidized Credit 162 IRDP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 SEEUY and SEPUP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 Programs for Self Employment Targetted Towards Women . . . . . 170 STEP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 DWCRA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Programs for Group Formation and Training in Productive Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Mahila Mandals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Women's Development Program (WDP), Rajasthan . . . . . . . 175 TRYSEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Vocational Training Program for Women . . . . . . . . . . 178 Wage Employment Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Scheme . . . . . . . . . 179 Rural Employment Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 C. Policy and Program Initiatives for the 1990s . . . . . . . . . . 182 National Perspective Plan for Women . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 Shramshakti: Report of the National Commission for Self-Employed Women and Women in the Informal Sector . . . . . . . . . . . 184  Women's Development Corporations (WDC's) . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Mahila Sauakhya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Women's Credit Fund. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 C. Non-Governmental Efforts to Reach Poor women . . . . . . . . . . 189 Si6nificance of Non-Governmental Efforts . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Histury and Typology of Women's NGOs .......... . . . 193 NGO Strengths and Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 Govermnent-NGO Interaction. .... ..... . 194 The .ture Role of NGOs in Women's Development in India . . . 195 Epilogue ........... 196 PART E -- PRIORITIES FOR ACTION Chapter 11: Summary and Strategic Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . 199 A. Women's Access to Resources and Markets . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 B. Household Responses to Change in the Indian Economy . . . . . . 200 C. Women Workers in Rural Areas... . ....... 201 Economic Policy Implications for Rural Women . . . . . . . . 202 Agricultural Research and Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 Agricultural Extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . I . . . . . 204 Forestry ........... 205 Off-Farm Rural Employment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 Producers' Cooperatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 Institutional Finance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 D. Women Workers in Urban Areas ........... 211 Economic Policy Implications for Urban Women . . . . . . . . 213 E. Women's Access to Social Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 Education. .......... 216 Nutrition, Health and Family Welfare . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 F. Evolving Government and NGO Approaches to Women in Development . 223 Government Efforts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 NGO Involvement .............. . 225 A Cross-Sectoral Strategy ... . . . ..... . . . . . . . 225 G. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 Technical Note .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 Bibliography .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243 Statistical Appendix ......................... . 275 Text Tables and figures: Chapter 2: Overview; Where are Women Working? Figure 2.1: The Continuum of Women's Work in India Male/Female Occupational Breakdown, 1983 . . . . . . . . . 9 Table 2.1: The Continuum of Women's Work (1983) . . . . . . . . . . 10 Figure 2.2: Male/Female Composition of Various Categories of Work, 1983 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Table 2.2: Unpaid Family Workers in the Labor Force, by Sex and Age, 1983 .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13  Figure 2.3: Occupational Breakdown of Labor Force Participants, 1983 13 Table 2.3: Work Participation Rates, (Conventional and Expanded Concepts) 1983/84 . . . . . . 14 Table 2.4: Alternative Calculations of Women's Work Participation . . 16 Figure 2.4: Distribution of Women's Work, 1983 . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Chapter 3: Women-injxip A%ulreE Figure 3.1: Male/Female Composition of Agricultural Labor Force According to Census and NSS . . . . . . . . . 20 Table 3.1: Female Activity Rates under Different Labor Force Measures . . . . . . . . . . 21 Figure 3.2: Hierarchy of Women's Vork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Figure 3.3: Women's Work Patterns, by Economic Status (1980) . . . . . 23 Figure 3.4: Observance of Purdah in the Family . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Figure 3.5: Increase in Share of Districts with Higher Mortality of Girls thar. Boys by Region (1961-1971) . . . . . . . . . . 26 Table 3.2: Female Labor Force Participation Rates by State, 1983 . 27 Figure 3.6: Women Working in Agriculture as a Percentage of Total Rural Female Population (1983) . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Figure 3.7: Distribution of Female Agricultural Laborers in Rural Areas by State and Region, 1983, (for Wage Workers & Cultivators/Family Helpers) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Figure 3.8: Gender Ratio of Agricultural Laborers, 1981 (Females per 100 Males) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Figure 3.9: Cultivators/Family Helpers to Wage Workers in Female Agricultural Work Force . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Figure 3.10: Percent of Rural Women Working in Agriculture as Wage Laborers or as Cultivators, 1983 . . . . . . . . . 31 Figure 3.11: Gender Ratio of Agricultural Workers, 1971 and 1981 (Females per 100 Males) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Table 3.3: Agricultural Wage Rates for Males and Females, 1970/71 and 1984/85 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Eigure 3.12: Female Agricultural Wage as Share of Male Agricultural Wage in 1970/71 and 1984/85 . . . . . . 36 Figure 3.13: Comparison of Female Labor Force Participation Rates with Marginal and "Code 93" Work, (1983) . . . . . . . . . 42 Figure 3.14: Matrix of Variation in Women's Status Within the Family and in the Community by Household's Economic Status . . . 44 Chapter 4: Women's Role and Potential in the Dairy Sector Table 4.1: Ownership of Dairy Animals by Household Economic Status, 1977/78 . . . . . . . . . . 50 Chapter 7: Women Outside Agriculture: Rural Non-Farm Activities Table 7.1: Distribution of Male and Female Workers by Industry, All India, 1961 and 1981 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Figure 7.1: Female Employment in Different Sectors (Selected Asian Countries) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Table 7.2: Share of Agriculture in Female Employment in Asian Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83  Figure 7.2: Female Employment Outside Agric-l1ture (Selected Asian Countries) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Table 7.3: Female Employment in the Industrial Sector in Asian Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Figure 7.3: Female/Male Proportion of Work Force, by Industry, 1971 and 1981 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Table 7.4: Female Employment in the Services Sector in Asian Countries 86 Table 7.5: Distribution of Female Main Work by Industry, 1971 & 1981 87 Figure 7.4: Female Percent of Total Employment. Household & Non-Household Industry (1981) . . . . . . . . 89 Figure 7.5: Distribution of Female Non-Agricultural & Own-Account Workers, by Region & State, 1983 . . . . . . . 90 Figure 7.6: Distribution of Female Work Force by Main Sectors, 1981 91 Table 7.6: Households with Women Workers in Six Urban Samples, 1988 96 Chapter 8: Education Figure 8.1. Male/Female Comparative Literacy Rates, 1981 . . . . . . . 109 Figure 8.2: Male/Female Rural Literacy Rates, 1981 . . . . . . . . . . 110 Figure 8.3: Trends in Male/Female Enrollment at Primary Level (Class I - V) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111 Table 8.1: Nine Educationally Most Backward States By Age-Specific Enrollment Rates, 1978 . . . . . . . . . . 112 Table 8.2: Percentage Change Between 1971 and 1981 in numbers and WFPR of Boys and Girls Below 14 Years (Rural Only) . . . . 114 Figure 8.4: Education of Rural WGrkers by Gender, 1961 and 1981 . . . 119 Figure 8.5: Education of Urban Workers by Gender, 1961 and 1981 . . . 119 Chapter 9: Women's Health, Nutrition and Productivity Figure 1.1: Age-Specific Female/Male Death Ratios, Urban & Rural Areas 124 Figure 9.2: Female-Male Ratio in India by Region, 1981 . . . . . . . . 12' Figure 9.3: Female/Male Distribution of Children in Age Groups by Grade of Malnutrition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.3 Figure 9.4: Female/Male Proportion of Children '0-5 Years) by Grade of Malnutrition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Figure 9.5: Female/Male Distribution of Children in Income Groups by Grade of Malnutrition (For a Rural Sample in N. India) 129 Table 9.1: Irfant Mortality by Mother's Education . . . . . . . . . . 136 Table 9.2: Mean Age at Marriage of Females by Education Level Rural and Urban, 1981 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Figure 9.6: Age-Specific Fertility Rates 15-19 Year Olds, Urban and Rural . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Figure 9.7: Determinants for Use of Health Services . . . . . . . . . 146 ChaRter 10: Government and NGO Efforts Women's Development Table 10.1: Physical and Financial Achievements Under the Scheme of Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA) since its inception up to 1987/88 . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Table 10.2: Physical Achievements Under the Scheme of Training of Rural Youth for Self-Employment (TRYSEM) in 1986-87 . . . . . . 177 Table 10.3: Percentage of Women Working for EGS According to Different Sources of Date . . . . . . . . . . 180  INTRODUCTION i. Women are vital and productive workers in India's economy. They make up one-third of the labor force -- though a 'statistical purdah" imposed by existing methods of measuring labor renders much of their. irk invisible. When women who collect fuel and fodder or work in dairy, poultry or kitchen- gardening are addeA to those in the conventionally defined labor force, women's participation rate totals 51% -- only 13 percentage points below the rate for men. Women also bear the children an6 take primary resi)onsibility for domestic maintenance. Significantly, studies show that the poorer the family, the more it depends on the economic productivity of a woman. ii. India invests far less in its women workers than in its workiag men. Women also receive a smaller share of what society produces. They are less endowed than men with health care, education and produetive assets that could increase their return to labor. Women's nutritional levels are lower than men's; more women than men die before the age of 35. Three fourths of Indian women are illiterate. Ninety percent of rural and 70% of urban women workers are urskilled. Unlike men, .-men lack the bureaucratic know-how to make the system work for them. And 4 general, they do not own land. iii. Evidence is ovetwhelming .hat in Indian life, access -- who gets what -- is closely tied to gender. Access is connected to the very meaning of male and female : part of the culture's definition of the female is her association with the "inside' -- the home. By contrast, men belong tc the "outside," where livelihoods are earned and political and economic powei is exercised. Because of this dichotomy, governmental policy aimed at improving the lot of women has viewed them largely as passive beneficiaries of social services and anti-poverty programs. Women were targeted for certain outputs -- food, stelter and family-planning help. iv. But now, researchers, women's activ .'.s and government departments are reaching a new consensus. They conclude tha' yomen need access to inut -- education, training and other agents of growth and change. These inputs would enable women to realize their productive potential. In this view, women must be seen as -- and helped to be -- economic actors. v. The following summary considers in more detail women's current place in Indian agriculture, forestry, urban work, education, health and family care. It examines the record of government and nongovernment organizations (NGOs) in aiding women. It iuggests specific means by which women can gain wider access to the help, skills and tools they lack. One promising strategy for new initiatives is the organization of women into "demand groups." vi. Making women more productive -- hence, more effective income earners -- will reduce their dependency and enhance their status. It will also:  isLi - (1) Reduce fertility and slow population growth; (2) Improve child survival; (3) Increase the share of family income allocated to food and health care for children; (4) Raise household incomes, especially in families below the poverty line; (5) Increase aggregate labor productivity and speed growth in key economic sectors. vii. Economic success for women will improve their own lives and those of all Indians. "INSIDE/OUSIDE" AND _HE NEED FOR ACC viii. Indian women's access to goods and services, to productive assets, and to factor markets (including the right to sell their own labor) is contingent in a way that men's is not. This is part of the social construction of gender in India. It is embedded in the interlocking religious, economic and kinship structures which define the social domains of females and males. These domains can be characterized in terms of an inside- outL.ide dichotomy: women's association with reproduction and the family puts them in the private "inside" sphere; men interact with the markets, governments and courts in the public "outside" sphere. Women's links with the outside are mediated by male relatives. The extent to which households are able to limit contact between their female members and the commercial and political spheres -- most explicitly through female seclusion -- is traditionally one of the most important criteria for establishing social rank. ix. The strength of the inside/outside dichotomy varies considerably by region and household socio-economic status. On the whole, the barriers to women's access to resources and markets are greater in the North than in the South. They are stronger among caste Hindus than among scheduled tribes and castes and stronger among landowning cultivators than among landless laborers or marginal farm families. For women, a kind of "hierarchy of labor" assigns the highest prestige to conventional domestic work for the family, less prestige to work i; the family's fields, and the lowest to manual wage work which takes women to the public sphere and involves them in market transactions. x. Governmental intervention in the private domain where gender relations are rooted is problematic. The most effective -- and perhaps the only legitimate -- means by which public policy can affect household processes  - i - and reduce women's dependency is to alter the economic environment. In a sense, this means that market foices should be allowed to influence the boundaries of culturally acceptable women's activity. xi. The changes in economic environment that can best aid women are those that facilitate their unmediated access. Women need better access to human capital -- education, skill training, extension advice; to factor markets -- credit and land ownership; to technology and raw materials; and to social organization -- membership in cooperatives, users' groups and village government. The most powerful governmental interventions would be policies to alter the incentives and disincentives to familh A permitting women to sell their labor or take up opportunities for self-employment. WOMEN IN -AGRIOULE xii. Agriculture accounts for 37% of India's Gross National Product (GNP) and employs over four fifths of all economically active women. The past two decades have seen a dramatic increase in women's share of agricultural employment. This has been due in part to the introduction of new agricultural technologies, which permit greater use of female labor, and to the movement of men to non-farm employment. xiii. Since agricultural wage labor is considered the least desirable form of employment, taken up only by the poorest, some observers have concluded that women's growing participation has been supply-driven, the result of rural poverty. Recent analysis shows, however, that the incidence of female agricultural labor is positively correlated with agricultural growth rates and with share of area planted in cash crops. Moreover, agricultural wages have risen, and the gap between male and female agricultural wage rates has narrowed. This suggests that the growth in female wage work is in fact demaukd-driven. xiv. In all likelihood, however, the increasing role of women is both a sign that deepening poverty is forcing women into the laber market for family survival and an indicator that new economic opportunities are inducing households to move against the cultural grain to send women out to work. The dynamics behind the macrolevel patterns vary among regions and agro-ecological zones and also among different socio-economic groups within the same region. Differences in ecological endowment, growth rates, infrastructure development, incidence of poverty, extent and nature of sociocultural barriers to women's labor-force participation and other factors all interact to determine local patterns. xv. There are also important differences among states in broad agricultural policy. Specific opportunities to integrate women into mainstream agricultural and other economic programs need to be identified and worked out at the state level. But whether change is taking place because of poverty or prosperity, the strategic principles which should underlie new initiatives are essentially the same.  - iv - xvi. The primary recommendations for integrating women more effectively into the rural economy include modification of the research and extension systems, provision of direct access to institutional credit, and direct membership in viable producer cooperatives. The third proposal is to focus these interventions in key sub-sectors such as dairy, sericulture, horticulture and forestry, wiich already employ large numbers of women and have significant potential for expansion. Agriculturail Res-e-arch nbd Tegnology Devel -opelt xvii. Lacking land, female wage laborers will benefit from agricultural intensification and diversification that raise overall labor demand and reduce seasonal employment fluctuations. Among the measures to increase such demand are a shift to less water-intensive crops and wider distribution of available irrigation water in semi-arid regions; expansion of commercial crops like cotton, which require high female labor input and for which demand is buoyant, and diversification into high-value non-cereal crops, vegetables, fruits, nuts and non-timber forest products. xviii. Female cultivators, who work on family land, will benefit more from laborsaving agricultural technologies that reduce their own investment of time and the need for hired labor. In this regard, their interests run counter to those of female agricultural wage workers. Even so, a shift in research priorities, from larger foodgrain yields to agricultural diversification would help both wage workers and cultivators, especially those on marginal holdings. Research on sustainability, risk and cost reduction and the links between various components of the family farm operation should lead to improved productivity. And since the role of women is greater in regions with harsh topography and climate, research on farming under rainfed conditions will also aid women farmers. Agricultural Extension xix. The present agricltural extension system largely bypasses 48% of India's self-employed tarmers -- the ones who are women. This is unintentional, but it is nonetheless inefficient. Making extension services more accessible and responsive to women farmers is clearly necessary to increase returns on investment. xx. Most pilot projects seeking to reach women farmers have deployed additional female extension workers. This may not be universally necessary; in most regions, men on the field staff should be able to do the job until more women are gradually recruited into the extension service. Nonetheless, male Village Extension Workers (VEWs) may require female "spearhead" teams to help them organize groups of women farmers. There is a need, too, for specially trained female Subject Matter Specialists (SMSs) to monitor the needs of women farmers, communicate with research scientists and prepare special advice to solve women's problems with the best technology available.  e Vy e xxi. Perhaps the most important need is to make the extension system more relevant to women by broadening its coverage to include livestock, forestry, horticulture and sericulture. Integrating the extension efforts of different departments should increase the availability of specialized personnel who can give guidance in the sectors where women producers are especially important. ProduCer and MArke4ngA2poeratJves xxii. In most of India's nearly 60,000 village-level dairy cooperatives, men are the members, even though women do most of the production work. This exclusion of women has two negative results. Although milk production has risen, women often have less direct access to income from milk sales now than they had in the precooperative setting. And women producers have not had access to cooperative training in improved dairy and livestock management practices. xxiii. Two major initiatives -- by the dairy parastatals in the Operation Flood network in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar -- have succeeded in establishing viable all-women dairy cooperatives and in securing woman's membership in mixed-gender cooperatives. By linking up with sources of credit for livestock purchase and modifying certain membership regulations, these efforts have also opened up dairying as a source of self-employment for landless women. The lessons learned from the Bihar and Andhra Pradesh experience should now be extended to other states. xxiv. The history of most cooperative ventures in India has shown them to be highly vulnerable to local political interests and therefore, not an effective means for enabling peor producers (male or female) to improve their strength in the marketplace. It is unlikely that the vitality of the cooperative movement can be restored as long as most cooperatives remain virtual extensions of the state. Nevertheless, the success of NDDB and other examples such as the Forest Laborers Cooperativres and Forest Development Corporations in Gujarat and the Women's Thrift Associations in Andhra Pradesh suggest that where genuine cooperative structures can be escablished and where women producers are given equal access, the returns can be high. There should be a study on whether si.milar producer cooperatives for fruits, vegetables and forest products could increase output and organize processing and marketing for women producers. Inatitutional Finan xv. Access to credit is the key to almost every form of productive self-employment for poor women. Because of their lack of land as collateral, however, women remain locked out cf the formal financial system and severely constrained in their ability to acquire capital assets, productive resources or adequate working capital. Underlying the disturbing asymmetry between male and female access to financial services is an even more disturbing aspect of India's rural credit system: persistent poor loan recovery, not only in the Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP) where clients are below the poverty line, but in all types of rural lending.  vi ?-vi. There are two main approaches to improving women's access to credit: fundamental change in the banking system and the establishment of a special womengs credit fund. The first approach would give banks more autonomy and responsibility and allow interest rates that would make it profitable to serve the rural poor. It would also be necessary te enforce the repayment ethic by protecting the credit system from political pressures to write off loans to certain broad interest groups. And changes would be needed in the concept and structure of the IRDP so that instead of a subsidized one- time dose of credit for those below the poverty line, there would be ongoing access to the formal financial system in return for repayment. xxvii. If such banking reforms could be achieved, then efforts for women wiould concentrate on integrating them more fully into the IRDP and the rest of the formal banking system. Closer links with NGOs capable of organizing women borro,eers into groups would be one important step. Experience in India and in neighboring countries suggests that a group approach, with individual loans but group liability and more emphasis on group and individual savings may be key to lowering lending costs and raising repayment rates and returns to individual borrowers from IRDP funds. Fundamental modifications are needed in the Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA) program, which attempts to organize women into groups to get training and IRDP loans. The requirement that groups include at least 20 members should be dropped to permit the kind of small, locality-based, homogeneous groups that have prove.d effectiwe elsewhere in delivering financial services to the poor. Group cohesion through regular meetings, selection of leaders, and regular contribution to a group savings fund -- and perhaps even a successful round of borrowing and repaying into the group fund -- should precede any disbursement of IRDP credit. Loans should be extended individually, as they are now, but the group should be held accountable for repayment; additional loans to the whole group should be stopped if one member defaults. xxviii. Cohesive, self-regulating groups cannot be established and nurtured if untrained government functionaries must cover large areas and meet targets for the number of groups they have formed and loans they have disbursed. One proposal is to use NGOs as motivators, since they generally have local knowledge, interpersonal skills and the commitment needed for working with the poor. Moreover, there are several steps that can be taken to improve the performance of government workers themselves. First, the monitoring of DWCRA needs to include not merely the number of groups formed and loans given but also such data as attendance at meetings, level of savings contributed by members, and any collective actions taken by the group. Second, it should become mandatory for extension workers to reside in the block they are serving instead of commuting from the district town. Finally, eutension staff should be trained in group dynamics and business advisory skills. Closer links are also needed among IRDP, DWCRA and other programs in dairying, sericulture and the like, where lack of capital prevents poor women from starting their own enterprises. uxxix. The other chief option to increase women's access to financial services is to establish a special credit fund for poor women. Several larger women's NGOs have been involved in formulating the objectives and structure of  - vii - such a fund. Whether it should be set up and what form would appropriate are still under discussion. xxx. As envisioned in this report, the fund would onlend to NCOs and other agencies for projects related to women. In addition, it would help enhance the capability of these organizations to run eTfective credit programs for women. The fund would be an autonomous body. Its governing board would reflect a public-private partnership with significant but minority representation of government and public financial institutions. The majority of members would be from NGOs and the private sector. To have significant impact, the fund would need initial capitalization in the range of Rs. 100 crores (approximately $60 million). This level of resources would enable it to attract high quality personnel. The fund would have two types of support available. One would be a XQanu which would provide credit to NGO and other agencies to be onlent to poor women. This loan capital would be available at unsubsidized rates so as to fully cover the cost of funds, transaction costs and losses due to default. The fund would also make grants to client agencies to increase their capacity to provide social organization and enterprise support to women borrowers. Foraestr xxxi. Women are the chief fuel collectors for Indian households, and one important fuel source is forests. But women also use forests as wage workers, or as self-employed suppliers of wood and non-timber products -- bamboo, oilseeds, spices and nuts. This fact is not sufficiently understood at the policy making level. No serious attempt has been made to expand opportunities for female employment in the forestry sector. Problems facing women are particularly acute because recent deforestation has made it harder than ever to gather forest products. xxxii. There is great need to modify general forestry policy, and the design of watershed management and social forestry projects. Broadly speaking, policies that would vest responsibility and control for forest resources with local communities would help women. Their reliance on multiple forest products should influence future planning. When new forest assets are created, women's rights to them should be explicitly set out and enforced. Women would also benefit from better marketing connections between primary collectors of forest products and final users. At present no national policy governs this area. xxxiii. Nany specific measures could be taken to improve the design and workings of social forestry projects. The essential thrust for all of them should be: involve women. Women have an essential role to play in plantations -- in planning and choosing species and in planting and care. M1EN ORKJER AES xxxiv. India is one of the few countries in Asia where women's share of employment in the secondary and tertiary sectors has fallen in the last  v Vill - decades. Growth in female agricultural employment has outpaced female job creation in the rest of the economy. Among the reasons are the obsolescence of many nonagricultural occupations and technologies dominated by women and the movement of men into new mechanized jobs that have replaced these. Women's lower levels of education, the stereotypes about their ability to master mechanical and technical skills and their lack of training have been major barriers to upward mobility. More fundamental, however, have been regulatory and labor policies that have slowed overall employment growth in the industrial sector. xxxv. At the same time, there has been vigorous growth in the informal sector which has become the major source of employment for urban women. Conservative estimates based on Census data suggeLt that more than half of the female urban labor force works in the informal sector; National Sample Survey (NSS) data imply that this share is as high as 75%. In poor urban households, almost all working women are employed in the informal sector. The variety of occupations ranges from rag picking to construction work and spans the continuum from wake employment outside the home through homebased piece-rate production to genuine self-employment. For all the women involved, earnings and job security are low, hours long, lifetime earning profiles flat and working conditions hard or unhealthy. xxxvi. Governmental awareness of this situation has grown with the recent publication of a comprehensive report by the National Commission for Self- Employed Women and Women in the Informal Sector (NCSV). Unfortunately, the response so far has focused on extending regulatory protection covering formal-sector employees to these disadvantaged women. Such efforts have not proved practicable in the past. Indeed, the Bank's 1989 Country Economic Memorandum (CEN) argues that existing regulations have, to a large degree, been responsible for impeding employment growth in manufacturing. It has been the attempt to circumvent these regulations that has led formal.-sector firms to use casual labor rather than permanent employees and to disperse production to small, unregulated firms and homebased piece-rate workers. These 'arious "avoidance maneuvers" have spurred the growth of the informal sector in which so manV women work -- but under such poor conditions. xxxvii. Even if it were possible to enforce existing labor regulations throughout the informal sector, this would probably have the same effect that it had in the formal sector: a shift to more capital-intensive production, labor-shedding where possible, and yet more elaborate maneuvers to obtain a flexible, low-wage work force. In a labor market crowded with unskilled workers, a low-wage work force will continue to exist. The formal-informal duality will remain, and women will continue to be concentrated in the informal sector. xxxviii. Although the 1989 CEM makes no particular reference to women, it proposes a strategy of stimulating the industrial sector to adopt more labor intensive production methods and create more sobs. In this v3ew, creating conditions for more rapid growth is the mos. powerful anti-poverty instrument because it will increase demand for labor and raise wages. Among specific  -i - measures suggested is the gradual dismantling of all but a few basic and enforceable regulations to protect workers. Applying these regulations to all workers would weaken the formal-infomal duality. xxixR. The critical question is whether this approach would increase jobs, raise wages and improve the quality of life for poor women. Sustaining the strong growth that Indian manufacturing has experienced over the last decade is essential to any long-term improvement in the employment and income of urban women. Policies such as those recommended in the CEN to encourage labor-intensive rather than capital intensive investment are among the most effective short-term measures to insure that industrial growth directly benefits the poor. Women concentrated in the informal sector would also benefit from removal of the barriers which currently discourage ancillary relationships between small and large firms and inhibit expansion of successful firms in both the informal and small-scale sectors. xl. In addition, it will be important to enable poor women, as well as men, to create their own jobs by providing better access to land, credit, raw materials, technology and markets. India must develop an integrated view of the manufacturing and service sectors, sensitive to the ways in which policies enacted to regulate or benefit one segment affect tI