Women, poverty, and productivity in India

/0595 8la*1 Economic Development Institute *v^; of The World Bank Women, Poverty, and Productivity in India Report No. 10595 Lynn Bennett FRLE COPY AN EDI SEMINAR PAPER * NUMBER 43  I I I  EDI SEMINAR PAPER * No. 43 Women, Poverty, and Productivity in India Lynn Bennett The World Bank Washington, D.C.  Copyright e 1992 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / THE WORLD BANK 1818 H Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20433, U.S.A. All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America First printing March 1992 The Economic Development Institute (EDI) was established by the World Bank in 1955 to train officials concerned with development planning, policymaking, investment analysis, and project implementation in member developing countries. At present the substance of the EDI's work emphasizes macroeconomic and sectoral economic policy analysis. Through a variety of courses, seminars, and workshops, mostof which are givenoverseas incooperation with local institutions, the EDI seeks to sharpen analytical skills used in policy analysis and to broaden understanding of the experience of individual countries with economic develop- ment. Although the EDI's publications are designed to support its training activities, many are of interest to a much broader audience. EDI materials, including any findings, interpre- tations, and conclusions, are entirely those of the authors and should not be attributed in any manner to the World Bank, to its affiliated organizations, or to members of its Board of Executive Directors or the countries they represent. Because of the informality of this series and to make the publication available with the least possible delay, the manuscript has not been edited as fully as would be the case with a more formal document, and the World Bank accepts no responsibility for errors. The material in this publication is copyrighted. Requests for permission to reproduce portions of it should be sent to Office of the Publisher at the address shown in the copyright notice above. The World Bank encourages dissemination of its work and will normally give permission promptly and, when the reproduction is for noncommercial purposes, without asking a fee. Permission to photocopy portions for classroom use is not required, though notification of such use having been made will be appreciated. The backlist of publications by the World Bank is shown in the annual Index of Publications, which is available from Distribution Unit, Office of the Publisher, The World Bank, 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20433, U.S.A., or from Publications, Banque mondiale, 66, avenue d'Iena, 75116 Paris, France. At the time of writing Lynn Bennett was senior anthropologist in the Women in Development Division of the World Bank's Population and Human Resources Department. She is currently serving as regional women and development coordinator in the Environment and Social Affairs Division of the World Bank's Asia Technical Department. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bennett, Lynn, 1945- Women, poverty, and productivity in India / Lynn Bennett. p. cm. - (EDI seminar paper ; no. 43 Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-8213-1880-2 1. Women-India--Economic conditions. 2. Women-Employment- India. 3. Poor women--India. 4. Women in development-India. I. Title. II. Series: EDI seminar paper (Washington, D.C. : 1988) no. 43. HQ1742.B45 1991 305.4'0954-dc2O 91-24769 CIP EDI Catalog No. 870/014  Foreword EDI's training activities include a number of cross-sectoral themes such as the role of women in development and the reduction of extreme poverty among the poorest segments of society. Both of these topics examine the issue of access-who gets what and why. This publication analyses the relationship between gender and access within the family and beyond. It is a synthesis of a larger and more detailed World Bank study of women's involvement in key sectors of the Indian economy, the returns they are getting, and the critical constraints they face in increasing their access to and productivity in these sectors. Amnon Golan, Director Economic Development Institute . .  I I  Contents Tables and Figures vii Preface it Acronyms and Abbreviations xi 1 Introduction: Gender and the Problem of Access 1 2 The Inside/Outside Dichotomy 4 3 Regional and Socioeconomic Variations 6 4. Access, Productivity, and Poverty: The Intrahousehold Dimension 15 5. Household-Level Responses to Changes in the Indian Economy 18 6. Women in,Rural Areas 22 The Feminization of the Agricultural Labor Force: Poverty or Opportunity? 23 Economic Policy Implications for Rural Women 24 Agricultural Research and Technology 27 Agricultural Extension 28 Producers' Cooperatives 29 Institutional Finance 30 Forestry 33 7'. Women Workers in Urban Areas 36 Nonagricultural Occupations and the Urban Infomal Sector 36 Econom,ic Policy Implications for Urban Women 39 8'. Women's Access to Social Services 43 v  vi Contents Education 43 Nutrition, Health, and Family Welfare 48 9. DifferentApproaches to Women in Development S6 Govemment Initiatives 56 NGO Initiatives 57 Group-based Initiatives 58 10. Conclusion 59 References 63 Statistical Appendix 69  Tables and Figures Tables 1.1 Rural lIabor Force Participation by Occupation and Gender, 1981 and 1983 2 3.1 Women's Work in Farm Production by Land-Holding Category 10 3.2 Female Labor Force Participation by Household Expenditure, 1983 11 3.3 Female Labor Force Participation in Rural Households by Size of Cultivated Land Holding, 1983 12 4.1 Women's Status Within the Family and Within the Community by Type of Household 16 6.1 Agricultural Wage Rates by Gender, 1970/71 and 1984/85 25 6.2 Dependence on Common Property Resources in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh by Type of Household 34 Figures 3.1 Mortality of Girls and Boys by Region, 1961 and 1971 8 3.2 Observance of Purdah in the Family by Region and State 9 3.3 Women's Work Patterns by Household Economic Category, 1980 13 5.1 Gender Ratios of Agricultural Workers by Region and State, 1971 and 1981 19 vii  viii Women, Poverty, and Productivity in India 6.1 Female Agricultural Wages as a Share of Male Agricultural Wages, 1970/71 and 1984/85 26 7.1 Female Employment Outside Agriculture in Selected Asian Countries 37 8.1 Literacy of Men and Women by Population Sector, 1981 45 8.2 Age-specific Female/Male Death Ratios for Urban and Rural Areas 50 8.3 Female/Male Ratio by Region and State, 1981 50 8.4 Malnutrition of Children by Age and Gender 51 8.5 Malnutrition of Children (0-5 years) by Gender 52 8.6 Malnutrition of Children by Income Group and Gender 53  Preface This publication is based on Gender and Poverty in India, a 377-page report (World Bank 1991) prepared by Lynn Bennett (team leader and principal author), Monisha Behal, Meenakshi Chakraverti, Meera Chatterjee, Maitreyi Das, Indu Hewawasam, Ravinder Kaur, John Kurrien, Vijay Mahajan, Manoshi Mitra, Gautam Mody, Swapna Mukhopadhyay, and K. Satyanarayana. Gotz Schreiber coordinated and guided the preparation of the report and both Barbara Herz as Chief of the WNomen in Development Division and Dan Ritchie who was then Chief of India Country Operations, provided invaluable support and encouragement. Noemi Dacanay, Linda Reese, Elmer Sanders, Carmen Severino, Belinda Smith, Radha Subramanyiam, Audrey Sloan, Sally Sutphen, Mila Villar, and Geri Wise provided technical and production support. Benjamin Patterson prepared the graphics. ix  I I I I  Acronyms and Abbreviations CAPART Council for Advancement of Peoples Action and Rural Technology CPR Common property resources DCS Dairy Cooperative Societies DIET District Institutes of Education and Training DWC'RA Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas EGS Employment Guarantee Scheme GOI Government of India ICDS; Integrated Child Development Service IRDF Integrated Rural Development Program ITI Industrial Training Institute JSR Juvenile Sex Ratio NCAER National Council of Applied Economic Research NCS'W National Commission on Self-Employed Women and Women in the Infonnal Sector NDDB National Dairy Development Board NFE Nonformal education NGO Nongovernmental organization NIUA National Institute of Urban Affairs NLM National Literacy Mission xi  xii Acronyms and Abbreviations NPPW National Perspective Plan for Women NSS National Statistical Survey NTFP Nontimber forest products OF Operation Flood RRB Regional Rural Bank SC Scheduled caste SMS Subject Matter Specialist ST Scheduled tribe STEP Support to Employment Programs for Women TRYSEM Training of Rural Youth for Self-Employment VEW Village Extension Worker Currency Equivalents Rupee 25 US $1.00 Rupee 1 US $0.05  Introduction: Gender and the Problem ofAccess Analysis of the structure and causes of poverty is, in simple terms, the study of who gets what and why. It is the study of access and of constraints to access. The flow of productive resources, the creation of capabilities, the consumption of goods, the use of services-all of the intertwined determinants and outcomes of socioeconomic differentiation among individuals within the family, groups within the community, and regions within the country-can be mapped in terms of access. This publication considers the effect of gender on access within the family and beyond. It is based on a more detailed study (World Bank 1991) of women's involvement in key sectors of the Indian economy, the returns they are getting, and the critical constraints they face in increasing their access to, and productivity in, these sectors. Three fundamental observations emerge. First, women are vital and productive workers in India's national economy. They make up one-third of the labor force, though a "statistical purdah," imposed by current methods of measuring labor force participation, renders much of their work invisible. The official 1981 Census shows that of the rural, working-age population only 16 percent of women are economically active compared with 53 percent of men (see Table 1.1). The National Sample Survey (NSS) uses more careful data collection procedures and more inclusive definitions of economic activity. As the table shows, its rates of female participation are higher. For example, when women who work part time or those whose main activiiry is collecting fuel and fodder, or working in dairy, poultry, or kitchen garden production for the family are added to those in the conventionally defined labor force, the female participation rate rises to 1  2 Women, Poverty, and Productivity in India 51 percent, only 13 percentage points below the male participation rate (see Table 1.1).1 Added to this work is women's reproductive role: bearing children and taking primary responsibility for the domestic maintenance activities. Table 1.1 Rural Labor Force Participation Rates by Occupation and Gender, 1981 and 1983 (percent) Data source (definition) Males Females Main workers: 1981 53 16 1983 61 29 Main and marginal workersa 63 39 Main, marginal, and Code 93 workersb 64 51 a. "Marginal" or part-time workers are those who engaged in work defined as economically productive for at least 183 days in the year. b. "Code 93" encompasses activities such as fuel, fodder, and water collection, and work in dairy, poultry, or kitchen garden production for the family. This werk is not considered "economic activity" in conventional definitions of the labor force. Source: Census of India (1981); National Sample Survey (1983). Second, the poorer the family, the greater its dependence on women's economic productivity. There is an inverse correlation between household economic status on the one hand and women's labor force participation and their proportional contribution to total family income on the other. Thus, enhancing women's economic productivity is an important strategic necessity for improving the welfare of the estimated 60 million Indian households still below the poverty line. This strategy recognizes two critical facts. First, women's earnings increase the aggregate income levels of these poor households. Second,, Indian women contribute a much larger share of their earnings to basic family maintenance than do men. Increases in women's income translate more directly into better health and nutrition for children. In the short term, women's earnings have an immediate positive effect on the incidence 1. For discussion of concepts and methods used in estimates of female labor force participation rates in India, comparisons with micro-level surveys, and detailed time allocation studies, see World Bank (1991), chaps. 2 and 3.  Introduction: Gender and the Problem ofAccess 3 and severity of poverty at the household level. In the long term, there are important intergenerational effects on the quality of human capital. The third observation is that, as a society, India invests far less in its women workers than in its working men. Women also receive a smaller share of what society produces. Women are less endowed than men with education, health care, and productive assets that could increase their returns to labor. The disparity between male and female literacy and enrollment rates is vast: more than three-fourths of Indian women are illiterate-twice the proportion of illiterates among men. Ninety percent of rural women workers and 70 percent of urban women workers are unski[lled. Women also generally lack the bureaucratic know-how that most men are able to acquire to make the system work for them. Women have L ittle access to land and other productive assets. Their lack of land as collateral largely excludes them from institutional credit, rendering them unable to secure capital and tools for self-employment. India's women also have less access than do men to health services and nutrition. Mortality rates among women are higher than those among men up to the age of 35. The two most dangerous periods for female survival are early childhood (between the age of one month and four years) and the peak child-bearing years (from age 15 to 35). The high mortallity of female children reflects the cultural preferen-e for sons and the related neglect of daughters. During adolescence and early adulthood, women's "triple burden" of reproduction, domestic work, and productive labor contributes to their lower survival rates. Despite women's higher morbidity, associated in turn with their inferior nutritional status, far fewer women than men use health services. These gender-based asymrnetries in nutrition, morbidity, and access to health care are contributing factors in India's high child mortality rates and persistently high birth rates.  2 The Inside/Outside Dichotomy The evidence is overwhelming that access-who gets what-is closely related to gender in Indian society. In fact, the question of access is fundamental to the social construction of gender. Control over access to the labor and fertility of women and over women's access to people and institutions outside the family is one of the key currencies for establishing the status and prestige of individuals, families, and groups in India's hierarchical society. Indeed, the very meaning of male and female in the Indian world view is closely connected to access. Part of the cultural definition of the female is her association with the inside, the home and courtyard where she cares for her family. In contrast,, males belong outside, in the fields and the bazaar where livelihoods are earned and economic and political power is wielded. Education, health care, and labor force participation involve interaction with the "outside," where girls and women face special barriers. T'he definition of the "inside" and the precise boundaries of where a woman can operate vary greatly according to the economic status of the household, its place in the caste hierarchy, and the social norms prevailing in the community and region. The actual practice of puirdah, or female seclusion, is rigidly observed only by relatively wealthy families in certain communities (notably among certain Muslim groups and high caste Rajputs primarily in the northern regions). Nevertheless, withdrawal of women from the labor force remains one of the most important symbols of high economic and social status throughout Indian society. Among the poor who cannot afford the luxury of female seclusion, women have always entered the labor force when they could find work. Yet there are numerous social norms and restrictions that 4  The InsidelOutside Dichotomy S serve as symbolic "boundaries" to maintain the ideology of seclusion even while women are physically in public space. One example is the bright headcloths that completely veil the faces of Rajasthani women construction workers as they carry headloads of bricks and shovel sand. These symbolic boundaries vary at different stages of a woman's life: a middle-aged woman with grown children may vend her vegetables in the local rural market without causing comment, but if she had done the same as a young bride she would have brought shame to herself and her husband's family. Far more important than the actual location of a woma,n's work is whether it is done for the family or for the market. A woman working in her family's fields as an unpaid family laborer is more socially acceptable than a woman working in the same field as a wage laborer. Involvement in monetary transactions with nonfamily members definitely places women on the "outside." It also removes (or at least weakens) one of the most powerful means through which men mediate and thereby control women's relationships with society at large. Women who work for pay in the marketplace lessen the prestige/status not orily for the men, but ironically for themselves and for their community. Women's culturally defined role on the "inside" explains much of their labor force behavior and their restricted access to education and health care. Their childbearing role and their responsibility for child care and the household affect the time and the mobility women have to seek employment, education, and health care. Moreover, a pervasive gender ideology affects the kind of work women seek and the kind they are considered suitable for. It affects inheritance patterns and thus the productive assets available to support self-employment. The ideology of gender in India also affects families' willingness to invest in educating their daughters to prepare them for the job market. More generally, women lack the bureaucratic know-how they need to gain access to social services and economic opportunities on the "outside."  3 Regional and Socioeconomic Variations As mentioned earlier, the inside/outside boundaries for womern vary by region and by the socioeconomic status of the household. Several regional factors influence household strategies for the deployment of female labor. One is the regional economy such as the basic agro- ecological endowment (topography, rainfall, climate, soil type, etc.). This, in turn, determines traditional farming systems and crop choices. Another important economic variable is the physical and institutional infrastructure (roads, irrigation, markets, extension, credit), which affects the adoption of improved agricultural technology (see Statistical Appendix Table 1). Variations in the availability of nonfarm employment, in the amount of subsistence versus commercial agriculture, and in the proportion of wage to family labor are also important (see Statistical Appendix Tables 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6). All of these factors affect the regional incidence of poverty, and poverty is probably the most powerful determinant of female labor force behavior in India (see Statistical Appendix Table 7). Sociocultural variables as well as economic variables vary by region. These variables include the interrelated structures of kinship and religious belief. Both the North and the South are dominated by the strongly patrilineal ideology of Hinduism. Sons are needed for salvation in the next world and economic viability and continuity in this one. A woman's primary spiritual and social role is to produce sons for another family of the same caste. Her natal family gives away to this famiily the most meritorious of all religious gifts, the pure virgin or kanya dan. In the South, patrilineal ideology is tempered somewhat, perhaps because of the marriage system among some groups featuring intergenerational exchange of women (i.e., cross-cousin marriage). By contrast, wvomen in northern India are married into families with whom they have no 6  Regional and Socioeconomic Variations 7 genealogical links for at least seven generations. Preferably these women marry someone from a distant village where support expected from their natal kin after marrfiage will be minimal. Even more than in the South, brides in the North are likely to be viewed by the close-knit joint family into which they man-y as outsiders who need to be closely controlled. On the whole, the barriers to women's access are greater in the North than in the South. Female labor force participation rates are lower, and femalz land ownership is far less common in the North (see Statistical Appendix Table 8). Health indicators, such as female infant mortality, and over-all sex ratios are more heavily biased against females in the North. This is strikingly illustrated in Figure 3.1, which presents district- level data on juvenile sex ratios (JSR).1 Even more disturbing is the increase in the mortality of girls suggested by comparison of the 1961 and 1971 data in the figure. Female literacy is also lower in the North than in the South. Purdah, high dowry payments, and violence against women are all much more prevalent in the North (see Figure 3.2). There is alsc, a strong correlation between these various indicators of women's low status and the high fertility rates that prevail in most of the North. Given the link between female seclusion and socioeconomic (and ritual) status, it is not surprising that the constraints on women's access appear to be stronger among caste Hindus than among scheduled tribes and castes-and stronger among land-owning cultivators than among landless laborers or marginal farm families. Across regions, there is a very clear "hierarchy of labor" that assigns the highest prestige to conventional domestic work for the family inside the home and courtyard. Somewhat lower prestige is attached to collecting fuel and foddei' for the family or helping to cultivate the family fields. And the lowest value is attached to manual work for others because it necessitates not only a woman's physical presence in the public sphere but her involvement in market transactions (see Table 3.1). This schematic representation is confirmed by both macro- and micro- level dlata. The data in Table 3.-2 show a clear inverse relationship between household economic status and female labor force participation: the households in the second lowest expenditure class had a female 1. A juvenile sex ratio is the number of boys per 100 girls under ten years of age.  8 Women, Poverty, and Productivity in India Figure 3.1 Mortality of Girls and Boys by Region, 1961, 1971 Northern (Haryana, Himachal, Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan) 17% 66% Western Central Eastern (Gujarat and Maharashtra) (Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh) (Assam, Bihar, Orissa, and West Bengal) 13% 6% 0 t %