Gender and poverty in India

A WORLD BANK COUNTRY STUDY If?3 1 Gender and Poverty in India ^rns e||~~~a "V.I   A WORLD BANK COUNTRY STUDY Gender and Poverty in India I The World Bank Washington, D.C  Copyright e 1991 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 First printing August 1991 Second printing January 1992 World Bank Country Studies are among the many reports originally prepared for internal use as part of the continuing analysis by the Bank of the economic and related conditions of its developing member countries and of its dialogues with the governments. Some of the reports are published in this series with the least possible delay for the use of governments and the academic, business and financial, and development communities. 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ISSN: 0253-2123 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gender and poverty in India. p. cm. -- (A World Bank country study) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-8213-1896-9 1. Sex discrimination against women--India. 2. Women--India- -Economic conditions. 3. Women--Employment--India. 4. Poor women- -India. I. International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. II. Series. H01742.G44 1991 305.42' 0954--dc2O 91-27720 CIP  ABSTRACT Despite their statistical "invisibility" in prevailing measures of labor force participation, women are vital and productive workers in the Indian economy. Their economic productivity is particularly critical for India's estimated 60 million households below the poverty line: studies show that the poorer the family, the more it depends for its survival on the earnings of a woman. In addition, women bear the children and take primary responsibility for household welfare and maintenance. Yet, as this report documents, India invests far less in its women workers than in its working men. Women also receive a smaller share of what society produces in terms of health care, education, and productive assets that could increase their returns to labor. Evidence is overwhelming that 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 and family. By contrast, men belong to the 'outside" where livelihoods are earned and political and economic power is exercised. Because of this dichotomy in the socially accorded domains of men and women, 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, shelter and family-planning help. But now, researchers, women's activists, and government departments are reaching a new consensus. They conclude that women need access to inRuts -- 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 economic actors -- actors with a particularly important role to play in efforts to reduce poverty. Within an integrative framework that recognizes the cultural as well as the economic dimensions of women's situation, this report analyzes the current role of women in Indian agriculture, dairying, forestry and the urban informal sector. In each case sector-specific policy and program recommendations are offered. Special attention is also given to women's health and education -- particularly as they relate to women's productivity. Finally, both government and NGO initiatives as they have evolved over the past several decades are reviewed and assessed. In addition to broad recommendations about overall approaches to integrating gender issues in India's development planning, the report suggests specific means by which women can gain wider access to the help, skills and tools they lack. iii  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 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. iv  CURRENCY AND OTHER EOUIVALENTS Currency 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.1.00 - 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 Years The Indian fiscal year runs from April 1 through March 31. v  LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS USED AEO: Agricultural Extension Officer AIWC: All India Women's Conference ANP: Applied Nutrition Program AP: Andhra Pradesh APO: Assistant Project Officer ]3DO: Block Development Officer CAPART: Council for Advancement of People's Action and Rural Technology C'DP: Community Development Program GEM: Country Economic Memorandum CSWB: Central Social Welfare Board CSWI: Committee on the Status of Women in India DANIDA: Danish International Development Agency I)EW: Tamil Nadu Corporation for Development of Women I)GET: 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 COI: Government of India COM: Government of Maharashtra COR: Government of Rajasthan ICAR: Indian Council of Agricultural Research ICSSR: Indian Council for Social Science Research IDBI: Industrial Defelopment 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: National 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 vi  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 TRYSEM: Training of Rural Youth for Self-Employment 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 vii   CONTENTS Page Executive Summary .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv PART A -- INTRODUCTION Chapter 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 PRODUCTIVE EMPLOYMENT Chapter 2: Overview: Where are Women Working? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Chapter 3: Women in Agriculture .... . . . . ...... . . . . . . . . 19 A. Introduction .... . . . . . . . .1.9.. . . . . . i . . . . . . 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. Introduction .... . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . 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 Design . . . . . . . . 67 ix  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 Informal 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 ..Ill 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 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 Variation in Nutritional Entitlements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 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 x  E. Early Marriage and High Fertility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 High 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 The Post 1975 Era ...................... . 160 B. Poverty Alleviation Programs: An Overview 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 Samakhya .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Women's Credit Fund ..................... . 187 D. Non-Governmental Efforts to Reach Poor Women . . . . . . . . . . 189 Significance of Non-Governmental Efforts . . . . . . . . . . . 189 History and Typology of Women's NGOs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 NGO Strengths and Limitations ................ . 192 xi  Government-NGO Interaction ..... . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 The Future 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 ..... . .. . . . . .. . . . . . . . 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 xii  Chapter 3: Women in Agriculture 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 Work ... . . . ..... . . . . . . . . 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 than 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 Figure 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 Agriculture (Selected Asian Countries) ... . . . .... . . . . . . . . 84 Table 7.3: Female Employment in the Industrial Sector in Asian Countries ... . . . . . ..... . . . . . . . . . 84 Figure 7.3: Female/Male Proportion of Work Force, I by Industry, 1971 and 1981 ... . . . ..... . . . . . . . 85 xiii  T7able 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 FPigure 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 I'able 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 Workers by Gender, 1961 and 1981 . . . . . . . 119 Figure 8.5: Education of Urban Workers by Gender, 1961 and 1981 . . . . . . . 119 ChaDter 9: Women's Health. Nutrition and Productivity Figure 9.1: Age-Specific Female/Male Death Ratios, Urban & Rural Areas . . . 124 Figure 9.2: Female-Male Ratio in India by Region, 1981 . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Figure 9.3: Female/Male Distribution of Children in Age Groups by Grade of Malnutrition .................. . 128 Figure 9.4: Female/Male Proportion of Children (0-5 Years) by Grade of Malnutrition ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 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: Infant 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 Chapter 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 Zable 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 Data . . . . . . . . . . 180 xiv  EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 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 work invisible. When women who collect fuel and fodder or work in dairy, poultry or kitchen- gardening are added 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 and take primary responsibility 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 working men. Women also receive a smaller share of what society produces. They are less endowed than men with health care, education and productive 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 unskilled. Unlike men, women lack the bureaucratic know-how to make the system work for them. And in general, they do not own land. iii. Evidence is overwhelming that 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 to the "outside," where livelihoods are earned and political and economic power 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, shelter and family-planning help. iv. But now, researchers, women's activists and government departments are reaching a new consensus. They conclude that women need access to inputs -- 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 suggests 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:  - xvi - (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/OUTSIDE" AND THE NEED FOR ACCESS 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/ outside dichotomy: women's association with reproduction and the family puts ithem 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. iLx. 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 in 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 and reduce women's dependency is to alter the economic environment. In a sense, this means that market forces should be allowed to influence the  - xvii - 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 families permitting women to sell their labor or take up opportunities for self-employment. WOMEN IN AGRICULTURE 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 demand-driven. xiv. In all likelihood, however, the increasing role of women is both a sign that deepening poverty is forcing women into the labor 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. 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  - xviii - these interventions in key sub-sectors such as dairy, sericulture, horticulture and forestry, which already employ large numbers of women and have significant potential for expansion. Agricultural Research and Technology Development 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 agricultural extension system largely bypasses 48% of India's self-employed farmers -- 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. 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.  - xix - Producer and Marketing Cooperatives 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 women'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 poor 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 Cooperatives and Forest Development Corporations in Gujarat and the Women's Thrift Associations in Andhra Pradesh suggest that where genuine cooperative structures can be established and where women producers are given equal access, the returns can be high. There should be a study on whether similar producer cooperatives for fruits, vegetables and forest products could increase output and organize processing and marketing for women producers. Institutional Finance xxv. 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 of 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. xxvi. There are two main approaches to improving women's access to credit: fundamental change in the banking system and the establishment of a special women's 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 to 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  - xx - 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 would concentrate on integrating them more fully into the IRDP and the rest of t'he formal banking system. Closer links with NGOs capable of organizing women borrowers 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 proved effective 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 b,lock they are serving instead of commuting from the district town. Finally, extension staff should be trained in group dynamics and business advisory skills. Closer links are also needed among IRDP, DWCRA and other programs in cLairying, sericulture and the like, where lack of capital prevents poor women from starting their own enterprises. xxix. 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 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 NGOs and other agencies for projects related to women. In addition, it would help enhance the capability of these organizations to run effective credit programs for women. The fund would be an autonomous body. Its governing board would reflect a public-private partnership with significant but minority  - xxi - 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 loan fund 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. Forestry 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. Many 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. WOMEN WORKERS IN URBAN AREAS 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 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.  - xxii - 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 suggest 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 wage 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 (NCSW). 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 (CEM) 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 various "avoidance maneuvers" have spurred the growth of the informal sector in which so many 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 jobs. In this view, creating conditions for more rapid growth is the most powerful anti-poverty instrument because it will increase demand for labor and raise wages. Among specific 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-informal duality. xxxix. 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 CEM to encourage labor-intensive rather than capital intensive investment are among the most ieffective short-term measures to insure that industrial growth directly  - xxiii - 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 the potential for growth and job creation in another. Policy changes necessary to improve formal sector industrial employment must be matched with efforts to promote both wage and self-employment in the informal sector. The remarkable vitality of the informal sector has been well documented, but there is a need for more precise understanding of its structure, dynamics and variety of workers as well as its complex relationship with the formal sector. xli. If women are to claim a larger share of new jobs generated over the long-term, especially in the formal sector and in non-traditional occupations, the current disparities in male and female access to education and technical training must be addressed immediately on a massive scale. Direct measures should also address other gender-specific constraints to women's employment. Most of these fall into the same broad categories as those proposed to support rural women. They include access to institutional credit and skill training, supportive services such as day-care for children, quality health and family planning services, group formation and advocacy to bring the needs and achievements of women to the attention of policymakers. In addition, urban women often face legal barriers regarding the hours and conditions of their employment which need to be removed. EDUCATION xlii. Little can rival female education as a means to weaken the inside/ outside dichotomy and expand opportunities for women. School attendance familiarizes girls with nonfamily social settings and increases their skills and confidence to engage in public discourse. Literacy offers the possibility of almost unlimited exposure to new information and new ways of thinking. It leads to better hygiene, improved nutrition practices and greater effectiveness in caring for family health and seeking timely medical help. This results in better health status for women, improved maternal competence, and lower infant mortality. Female education can also mean delayed marriage, better knowledge of contraception and ways to obtain it, smaller desired family size and higher potential earnings which increase the opportunity costs of child bearing. xliii. Even a little education greatly increases earnings. A literate woman who has not completed primary school commands higher wages than an illiterate woman. Middle school qualifications can double a woman's returns to labor (Prakash, 1983). An NSS survey found that technical training for literate women brings earnings three times those of illiterate women, though they, too, can double earnings with technical training. Education also  - xxiv - enables women to move out of agricultural labor and into manufacturing and service jobs. xliv. Despite marked progress over the last 40 years, female illiteracy remains very high. It is highly concentrated in certain regions and socioeconomic groups. Only 21% of rural females are literate -- less than half the rate for rural males and only one third that of urban females. Female literacy rates fall below 10% in 136 of India's 386 rural districts. Most of these districts are in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, which together, contain half of India's rural illiterate women. Female literacy is also low among scheduled castes (9%) and tribal populations (7%). xlv. To improve women's education, India faces a strategic choice. Should it focus on adult women or on girls? Studies indicate that it would be most profitable to increase the number of girls who enter and complete elementary school or eight years of education. This is broadly consistent with the approach set out in the 1986 National Policy on Education. It concluded that universal elementary education will be elusive without major efforts to enroll and retain young girls in school. xlvi. However, given the high dropout rates, poor quality of schooling and the fact that literate mothers are more likely to enroll and retain their children in school, it is important to ensure that non-formal education for young rural girls as well as adult education classes for rural women are also provided. While the main effort should be to increase the number of girls who enter and complete eight years of education, it may be necessary in the immediate future to focus on the acquisition of basic skills though five years of primary education or its equivalent in non-formal education. xlvii. Poor parents hold generally positive attitudes toward female education, but they remain reluctant to give up the immediate gain from daughters' labor and instead invest in her future productivity. There is an urgent need to create incentives and support services for such parents. One asset would be child-care facilities, perhaps linked to the local preschool child care centers (Anganwadis) of the centrally sponsored Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS). These facilities could relieve girls of their child care roles during school hours. Existing incentive schemes -- free textbooks, uniforms, scholarships -- need to be more carefully targeted, preferably to the 123 districts where the primary enrollment ratio for girls is below 50% and rural female literacy is also below 10%. xlviii. Improving the general quality of elementary education would raise female school attendance. Some actions are already being implemented under the new National Policy on Education. The noteworthy new program, Operation Blackboard, provides basic classrooms, blackboards and books but also recruits a second teacher, preferably a local woman. Since educated female candidates are scarce in many areas, the program permits flexible educational qualifications for this post. xlix. To ensure that all girls have access to some education, plans call for the strengthening of Non-Formal Education (NFE) to reach children who have  - xxv - never enrolled or have dropped out. Flexible timing and reduced hours of instruction help make this and other programs more accessible to girls who have to work. Since teachers are often inadequately trained and poorly monitored, it probably is unrealistic to expect NFE results to match those of formal school. It would therefore be better to improve the quality and reach of the formal system and incorporate flexible timing and shorter hours of instruction into that system. 1. Fresh efforts must be made to reach the huge numbers of adult female illiterates. One question is whether to concentrate on making them literate and numerate through programs such as the National Literacy Mission (NLM) or on training them in production-oriented skills. Training of Rural Youth for Self-Employment (TRYSEM), Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and vocational training programs are examples of the latter approach. Past results give little cause for optimism about either approach. li. Current efforts under NLM to hire more women teachers, improve teaching materials and establish resource centers may make adult literacy training more effective. Concentrating on the 123 districts mentioned above where female education indicators are the lowest would increase the impact of the limited resources available. lii. TRYSEM reaches rural women with vocational and technical training. Even so, the effort does not necessarily lead to increased wages or self- employment. Many other institution-based programs do not reach the illiterate poor even in urban areas. Moreover, the training offered is often in traditional female skills rather than in fields which could lead to upward job mobility. For women whose families depend upon their daily earnings, institutional training is rarely a viable option. Existing vocational and technical training institutes would probably best serve this clientele if they are used to provide training and technical backup to NGO staff involved in credit intermediation and microenterprise support work. Whatever the approach to vocational training, making adult literacy a component would raise the level of skills that can be taught. NUTRITION. HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE liii. The field of health illustrates in detail the need to regard women as critical agents in achieving development objectives rather than as beneficiaries of programs. Health and family planning issues are largely "inside" issues, and women are the quintessential "grassroots extension agents" to improve household sanitation, nutrition and health care. Their role in family planning is crucial. liv. Higher female mortality and morbidity have already been noted as powerful evidence of the severe gender-based asymmetries in Indian society. Maternal mortality accounts for 12.5% of deaths among rural women between ages 15 and 45. The Indian maternal mortality rate (MMR) is about 50 times that in developed countries. But in fact, the risk of an Indian woman dying from a maternity-related cause is about 200 times greater because she faces 5 or 6 pregnancies, compared to 2 or fewer for a woman in a developed country.  - xxvi - 1v. Maternal mortality reflects women's poor nutrition, poor health status and high fertility. Poverty, early marriage, low literacy, and poor access to health services are among the underlying factors. Some common causes of maternal deaths, such as toxemia and septicemia, reflect inadequate health care available during pregnancy and delivery and the fact that over 80% of all births take place at home without any kind of trained medical attention. (For rural areas, the figure is 91%.) Other major causes of death are related to malnutrition; in particular, anemia affects over 60% of Indian women. 1vi. Gender is a significant determinant of nutritional status. Inadequate caloric and micro-nutrient intake afflicts women more than men. Gender differentials are established during infancy, with discriminatory breastfeeding. Girls are weaned earlier. They lack adequate supplementary nourishment, and the foods they get are of lower quality than those given to boys. Girls also receive lower quality health care. The result is higher morbidity and mortality among girls than among boys. Most girls who survive Eail to achieve full growth potential. That leads to obstetric complications and, maternal death during childbearing years. Lvii. The relationship between a woman's economic productivity and her own and her family's health status is complex. Women's employment has lpositive effects on household health: it increases income available for health care and food and enhances women's control over how income is used. Women's gspending priorities differ from those of men and are more oriented toward fEamily welfare. Female employment is also associated with lower fertility and ,the health benefit that entails for women and their children. Lviii. A woman's employment outside the home may reduce the time she has fEor good child care and feeding practices. Among the poor, especially in urban areas, the nuclear family is the norm and alternative adult caretakers are often not available. Efforts to increase women's labor-force participation can help improve nutrition in the most vulnerable households. But such efforts will be most effective if they are linked to the provision of child care facilities. Lix. Many of the measures needed to improve women's health and niutrition and to lower their fertility lie outside the health field -- in education and the productive sectors. India needs a perspective broad and deep enough to allow the fundamental issue of women's status in society to emerge as a common factor linking a number of sector-specific manifestations of poverty. lx. As one example, the health sector requires improvements in service-delivery and quality. But the problem of low demand for health and family-planning services is unlikely to be solved without improvements in women's status through female employment and literacy. Obviously, this will take time. lxi. In the short term, concrete measures need to be taken to make the existing health services more accessible and responsive to women who are still largely confined to the "inside." The major supply-side recommendation is to  - xxvii - develop female community-level health workers to reach women in the domestic setting. These workers need better training in the technical and the interpersonal aspects of their work. They also need more focused and clearly defined job descriptions, with a shift of emphasis from meeting targets and filling out registers to spending more time with clients during home visits. Concentrating on pregnant women and households where a child has just been born would reduce worker caseloads. Greater emphasis on reaching women in groups would expand village coverage. Above all, health workers need to have the problem solving skills, motivation and a mandate to respond to women's specific health concerns rather than to deliver centrally determined messages and target-driven services. Under this approach, most health-care priorities would be determined locally by women users. lxii. An improved outreach system could tackle the most wide-spread causes of female morbidity and mortality. One example is anemia. Distribution of iron-folate tablets through female health workers or in the ICDS child care centers, or along with temporary birth-control devices, is a possible approach. Similarly, in family planning, client-centered care could focus attention on the health of the mother and her child rather than concentrating on reduction of the mother's fertility. lxiii. Finally, programs should target adolescent girls. This is the age when at least some of the interlocking causes of women's poor health and low status can be averted. Preventing early marriage and early child-bearing and providing education or vocational training at this stage can redirect the course of a girl's life. GOVERNMENT. NGOS AND WOMEN Government Initiatives lxiv. Government programs for women's development in India began as early as 1954. Initially they were conceived in the traditional framework: they concentrated on women on the 'inside,' focused on motherhood and family- care roles and dealt with social services such as primary health and education. The shift from conceiving women's development programs only as social welfare to encouraging full participation in mainstream economic activities began with the 1974 report of the Committee on the Status of Women in India. It has gathered momentum with later measures. In the 1970s, the government dealt with women's development issues as part of wider categories of poverty alleviation. It was only in the 1980s that the government began to acknowledge that women constitute not just a segment but the core of India's poor. As such, women need special programs. In recognition of this, the Sixth Five Year Plan (1980-85) targeted women with both mainstream poverty alleviation programs (for example, the Integrated Rural Development Program or IRDP) and programs specifically designed for them (for example, Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas or DWCRA). lxv. A review of government programs indicates, however, that higher-level understanding and concern for women's issues is considerably attenuated by the time programs are implemented on the ground. Women's  - xxviii - components of development packages are prone to the normal ills of government programs: misidentification of beneficiaries, inadequate coverage of remote areas, absence of linkages needed to make an economic activity successful, and leakage due to corruption, collusion and political favoritism. In addition, women's programs have seen indifferent performance due to women-specific reasons. Among these are the use of a "household" approach in poverty alleviation, which can stop women from receiving such benefits as IRDP loans; inadequate recognition of women's special needs or constraints; the attempt to implement programs through male-orientated delivery structures and the failure to promote non-traditional economic activities for women. lxvi. By contrast, there are examples of women's programs which have done well. These are relatively small, operating at the level of a few districts or a state and concentrating on a few subsectors or functional activities. Generally, the more successful programs have worked in partnership with specialized parastatal or nongovernmental agencies that have a prior record of achievement in the economic subsector (the Cooperative Federations in dairying) or in functional activity (NGOs in women's credit). The use of such intermediary agencies has enabled programs to bypass some disabilities of traditional delivery systems. The limitation, however, is that such agencies exist in relatively few regions and sub-sectors. A nationwide program spanning many subsectors cannot be based on them. lxvii. The Indian government showed its increasing concern about women's issues in a variety of initiatives in the latter half of the 1980s; these will influence future actions related to women's development. These initiatives include setting up the National Commission on Self-Employed Women and Women in the Informal Sector (NCSW); formulating a National Perspective Plan for Women (NPPW); launching new programs targeted to women, such as Support to Employment Programs for Women (STEP); and establishing new institutions such as the network of state level Women's Development Corporations (WDCs). Also on the anvil is the proposal for a women's credit fund to lend to catalyst programs through governmental, parastatal and non- governmental organizations. NGO Initiatives lxviii. One heartening feature of women's development during the 1980s was the increasing role played by NGOs. Their participation in the process has spanned a variety of levels: acting as grassroots program implementing agencies; providing training for mobilizers and members of local women's organizations (Mahila Mandals) and DWCRA groups and working with the state and central governments and commercial banks in pilot projects. They have also done field research and critiqued policy, as was the case with the NCSW, which had a majority membership from among NGOs. For all their good work, however, NGOs constitute a small developmental force in the face of the country's size. One study estimates less than 15% of all NGOs work with women, while the proportion of exclusive women's NGOs is much smaller. On average, India cannot count even one NGO per district working with women. Poorer regions and rural areas suffer the greatest lack.  - xxii - lxix. NGOs have problems in drawing and retaining high quality personnel; that limits their influence over mainstream institutions. Another factor that constrains them is dependence on foreign funds or government grants. Few NGOs use bank loans, although many help the poor to obtain bank loans, under the IRDP, or to get funds from government programs. Often, however, local politicians and bureaucrats do not welcome NGO involvement with government programs. And while government policymakers seek NGO cooperation in program implementation, they are less enthusiastic about NGO input in program design or evaluation. In spite of these obstacles, many NCOs collaborate closely with the government while retaining their own independence, flexibility and grassroots orientation. Any plan to foster a greater role for NGOs should be sensitive to these special issues. A CROSS-SECTORAL STRATEGY: LOCAL DEMAND STRUCTURES lxx. A promising strategy for new initiatives is the organization of women into groups. Group formation is particularly powerful in weakening the inside/outside dichotomy. It provides women a legitimate forum beyond the private domestic sphere and a more audible voice in demanding services and inputs. Membership in a group can initially substitute for the individual woman's lack of bureaucratic know-how and her unfamiliarity with public discourse. It permits a gradual building of her capacity to interact effectively with public, non-kin systems and with structures that increasingly attempt to redistribute economic opportunity in contemporary India. Most important, groups can transform women from beneficiaries, who must be grateful for largesse, into clients with long-term reciprocal relationships with the institutions that serve them. lxxi. The creation of strong demand groups is the essential complement to supply-side efforts to improve the lot of women. But it will involve some uncomfortable changes for those in the delivery system. They will be forced to become more responsive to local priorities and to replace centrally determined prescriptions with more flexible planning in content and services. Targets and messages from the top will give way to location-specific problem solving. lxxii. The need to build greater responsiveness to the local conditions and special priorities of women has been discussed repeatedly in segments of this summary. The changes recommended for the agricultural research and extension system, the dairy co-operative system, the community health and family welfare system and the education system: all these proposals call for an enlightened transfer of power that will make women more independent economic beings. The formation of self-determined local groups can be one of the most meaningful steps in that process.   PART A: INTRODUCTION ChaRter 1: GENnER AND THE PROBLEM OF ACCESS A. Introduction 1.01 Analysis of the structure and causes of poverty is, in less elegant 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 bundles of goods -- all the intertwined determinants and outcomes of socio-economic differentiation among individuals within the family, groups within the community, and regions within the country -- can be mapped in terms of access. 1.02 This report looks at how gender affects various dimensions of access within the family and beyond. It draws from a series of more in-depth background papers which have documented the nature and extent of women's involvement in key sectors of the Indian economy, assessed the level of returns they are currently getting, and identified some of the critical constraints women face in increasing their access to and productivity in these sectors. The subsequent analysis is based on three fundamental observations which emerge forcefully from the background studies. 1.03 First, women are important productive workers in India's national economy. Even though the "statistical purdah" imposed by existing methods of measuring labor force participation renders much of their work invisible, women make up one third of the labor force. When women engaged in the collection of fuel and fodder, or in dairy, poultry or kitchen garden production for the family, are added to women in the conventionally defined labor force, the female labor force participation rate rises from 39% to 51% -- only 13 percentage points lower than the male participation rate of 64%. 1.04 The second critical observation is that the poorer the family. the greater its dependence on women's economic productivity. Women's labor force participation and proportional contribution to total family income increase as household economic status decreases. Thus, enhancing women's economic productivity is a 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, and second, as numerous studies have shown, Indian women contribute a much larger share of their earnings to basic family maintenance and increases in women's income translate more directly into better child health and nutrition status. 1.05 The third observation -- strongly supported by all the studies -- is that, as a society, India has invested, and continues to invest, far less in its women workers than in its working men. Women are less endowed with productive resources in terms of education, health and productive assets -- all of which could bring them higher returns to their labor.  -2- B. Women's Access to Resources 1.06 More than three-fourths of all Indian women are illiterate. In rural areas and certain regions of the country, female literacy rates are even lower -- particularly in the five most populous states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh where 89% of the districts have less than 5% female literacy. Enrollment rates are also significantly lower for girls, reflecting parents' reluctance to forego the immediate gain from their daughters' labor input (care for siblings, other household maintenance work, or income-earning work) to make a long-term investment in her future productivity. 1.07 Outside the formal education system, girls and women also have fewer opportunities to acquire either traditional skills or modern technological know-how that could increase the returns to their labor and enhance their income levels. Ninety percent of rural and 70% of urban women workers are unskilled. Women's socialized discomfort in public settings, coupled with the prevailing gender ideology which isolates them from commercial, legal, administrative and political structures associated with the public domain, means that women also lack the "bureaucratic know-how" which most men are able to acquire to "make the system work" for them. Training as a master weaver in Tamil Nadu, skill in pesticide application or diesel pump maintenance in the Punjab, membership in a bidi worker's cooperative in Maharashtra, dealership for a government fair price shop in Andhra Pradesh: very few women are able to enter these paths to higher productivity. 1.08 Patterns of female mortality in India also present compelling evidence that women enjoy lower levels of welfare with less access than men to adequate health care and nutrition. While the normal distribution of population prevailing in most parts of the world reveals a higher proportion of women than men, in India the situation is the reverse: the 1981 Census showed that there were 935 women for every 1000 men. Mortality rates among Indian women are higher than those among men up to the age of 35, but the most dangerous periods for female survival in India are between the age of one month and four years and the span between age 15 and 34 when women are in their peak child-bearing years. Deaths of young girls exceed those of boys by almost one-third of a million every year in India (Chatterjee, 1990:4). If females survive childhood, they then face the hazards associated with bearing, on average, between 5 and 6 children during their reproductive years. With 80% of births occurring at home without any kind of trained medical attention (91% in rural areas), it is not surprising that maternal deaths are 50 times higher in India than in developed countries and account for 12.5% of female mortality in the 15-45 year age group. 1.09 Studies of health care usage invariably show that far fewer women than men utilize existing services -- despite women's higher morbidity. The greater prevalence of illness among Indian women is, in turn, associated with their lower consumption of food within the household and their consequent lower nutrition status. Women's lower nutrition, higher morbidity and lower utilization of health care are not only evidence of their differential access to the most basic goods and services. These gender-based asymmetries are also contributing factors to India's high child mortality and persistent high birth  - 3 - rates. Poorly nourished, poorly cared-for mothers give birth to low-birth- weight, high-risk infants. Thus, in addition to reducing a woman's productivity as a worker, poor health also reduces her ability to perform her reproductive roles and affects the productivity, indeed the very survival, of the next generation. 1.10 Added to this pervasive lack of human resource endowment, women also have little access to ownership of land or other productive assets because of the traditional patrilineal transmission of property. Without title to land as collateral, women have also been largely excluded from institutional credit and thus unable to secure tools and capital for self- employment except through the more costly informal credit system. C. The Inside/Outside Dichotomy 1.11 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. It is also closely connected to the very meaning of male and female in the Indian world view. Part of the cultural definition of the female in India is her association with the inside, the home and courtyard where the family is cared for. This is in contrast to males who belong outside in the fields and the bazaar where livelihoods are earned and economic and political power is transacted. Since education, health care and labor force participation all involve interaction with the "outside", girls and women face special barriers in these areas. 1.12 For every individual and every family there is a "map" of the appropriate domains of women and men. The 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 their community and region. Although the actual practice of purdah, or female seclusion, is rigidly observed only by wealthier families in certain communities (notably among certain Muslim groups and high caste Rajputs) primarily in the northern regions, withdrawal of women from the labor force remains one of the most important symbols of high economic and social status in 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 -- albeit with certain restrictions, like the bright headcloths that completely veil the faces of Rajasthani women construction workers as they carry headloads of bricks and shovel sand. There are numerous other social norms and restrictions which serve as symbolic "boundaries" to maintain the ideology of seclusion even while women are physically in public space. 1.13 These boundaries may vary for the same woman at different stages of her 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. The mapping of the inside and the outside for each  - 4 - individual woman is subject to change, therefore, and the definition of certain spaces as "inside" (and hence appropriate) is really a conceptual rather than a physical matter. For example, a woman working in her family's fields as an unpaid family laborer is in a very different social space from the woman working beside her in the same field as a wage laborer. Far more important than the actual location of a woman's work is whether it is done for the family or for the market. Involvement in monetary transactions with non- family 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. It thereby also removes an important source of prestige/status not only for the men, but ironically also for the women of the family or community involved. 1.14 Women's culturally defined role on the "inside" explains much of their labor force behavior and their restricted access to education and health care. It is linked with women's child-bearing role and their preeminent responsibility for child care and running the household. It affects the time women have available, their commitment to labor force participation and their mobility in seeking employment, education or health care. But it is more than this. It is part of a pervasive gender ideology which affects the kind of work women seek and the kind they are considered suitable for. It affects inheritance patterns and, thus, the kind of productive assets available to support self-employment. It also affects families' decisions about educating daughters to prepare them for the job market and, more generally, to endow them with the "bureaucratic know-how" they need to cope with the increasingly complicated administrative structures involved in gaining access to social services and economic opportunity on the "outside". D. Access. Productivity and Poverty 1.15 Differential female access, then, affects both the inputs and the outputs of development. Until recently, most governmental policy interventions aimed at redressing the imbalance have focused on increasing women's access to certain outputs -- such as food, shelter, clean water, and especially health and family planning services. Certainly this has been where the Bank's involvement with women's issues in India has been concentrated. 1.16 A consensus is now emerging, however, among key government departments, women activists and researchers that, while the state can and should continue to try to influence women's access to outputs, it is only through better access to key inputs (education, training, credit, land, etc.) that significant changes will occur in the cultural ideology and related economic structures which determine the gender-based patterns of distribution and constrain the full realization of women's productive potential. 1.17 The use of a simple input/output distinction can, however, be misleading. It is perhaps more useful to differentiate two kinds of inputs where the relevant distinction is between welfare inputs, which provide for basic survival and maintenance of the status quo, and development or productive inputs, which provide for growth and change. But whether the goal is stimulating growth in the Indian economy as a whole or helping the poorest households emerge from poverty, whether it is reducing population growth or  - 5- encouraging gender equality: increasing women's economic productivity is a necessity. Whatever the complex socio-cultural causes for the observed patterns of gender-based differential access, the most effective and appropriate policy interventions which the state can make to alter these patterns are those that help increase women's ability to earn and control a secure livelihood. 1.18 Implicit in this formulation is the hypothesis that women's ability to make (or withdraw) an identifiable economic contribution to the family will alter patterns of female access: it will loosen the resource or income constraints faced by the family, and it will set in motion a shift in the family's short-term and long-term allocation preferences to a more egalitarian pattern. Moreover, it will engender changes in the self- perception of the individual woman and increase her "bargaining power" -- i.e., her ability to realize her individual preferences within the family. E. Women's Access to Productive Employment 1.19 Patterns of female labor force behavior and access to services result at least in part from the powerfully interlocking complex of social, cultural and economic factors characterized here in terms of the inside/outside dichotomy. Occasionally these factors contradict or cross-cut one another, providing some scope for internal adjustment and change -- though the over-arching ideology tends to remain intact or change only very slowly. But there are also exogenous factors, having to do with historical and macro- level economic and political processes which affect patterns of female access. If the objective is to change current patterns (as one key means of increasing women's productivity, reducing their dependency, and ultimately changing the prevailing gender ideology), then it is necessary to examine these macro- level forces as well. They can present important opportunities for opening up existing religious, familial and traditional economic and political structures which tend to reinforce each other and maintain existing patterns. 1.20 A major force of change at work in the Indian economy is rapid population growth. It increases the competition faced by both men and women in the job market and the stress on education and health service infrastructure. At the same time, a slow shift has begun of male workers out of the low-paying agricultural wage sector into manufacturing and services. Men -- sometimes with their families, sometimes alone -- are also moving into the urban areas in search of these kinds of jobs. Since the growth of employment opportunities in the formal sector has been very slow, the majority of these urban migrants (and especially the women among them) are compelled to find employment in the highly competitive urban informal sector. There have also been changes in the complex sets of incentives and regulations which have governed (or attempted to govern) formal sector industrial production. These changes -- which will affect the ancillary informal sector occupations that  have grown up in response to previous regulatory structures -- plus changes in the behavior and preferences of Indian consumers are among the many forces at work altering the employment opportunities in India's growing non- agricultural informal sector. 1.21 There have also been major changes in agricultural technology over the last 20 years. Although there has been some degree of labor displacement in some regions and for some tasks, on the whole agricultural modernization in India has not only increased productivity, but has also increased the aggregate demand for labor in the agricultural sector -- and for female labor in particular. Yet agricultural growth has slowed over the past decade and has always varied greatly among different regions, resulting in high levels of agricultural unemployment -- especially for women -- in some areas. 1.22 Throughout this report, the central concern is to understand how low-income households and individual women within these households are responding to these kinds of changes. The family is one of the key arenas where socio-cultural values and economic systems interact with macro-economic and technological forces and are ultimately translated into behavior. With their traditional values or world view as a reference base, families use their experience and new information about their environment to make decisions about what to do with their resources -- including the labor of each family member. It is at the household and intra-household levels that the trade-offs between economic necessity -- or, in some cases, new economic opportunity -- and social status are made, that the boundaries between "inside" and "outside" are shifted and, ultimately, that the social construction of gender is re- negotiated. 1.23 The use here of the term "negotiate" is deliberate. It reflects the realization that the "household" or "family" is not -- as it is widely assumed to be -- a homogeneous unit whose members all share the same clefinition of utility. Instead, the household is recognized as comprising individuals whose age and gender and individual human resource endowment confer on them different roles, powers and obligations and whose attitudes and motivations may not be identical to those of the (usually male) household head. 1L.24 Nevertheless, although the data presented here have been disaggregated by gender, most of the discussion in this report stops short of intra-household analysis. In terms of female labor deployment and investment Ln female health and education, household behavior is treated here as if it were the result of consensus. Some of the background papers have, to the extent possible, attempted to consider the household within a bargaining framework and have examined available data on how women's decision making or "bargaining power" in the household responds to variations in socio-economic status, type of labor force participation, education levels, etc. The paucity Of adequate data and the innate complexity of these linkages combine, however, to make this level of analysis inappropriate for the present broad policy assessment. Nevertheless, if the presence of important gender-based intra- household variations in power -- and sometimes in motivation -- is kept in mind as one observes existing household level responses to change, these responses should be able to point towards policies that will best increase not only the productivity of women's work, but the returns to them as individuals.  - 7- F. Structure of the Report 1.25 This overview -- even in its consideration of women's health and education -- focuses on women as economic actors. The first section of the report looks at women's current and potential roles in a several sectors of the Indian economy. The discussion begins with agriculture, the sector that employs 84% of India's working women. The report first examines the considerable regional variations in women's agricultural role and how this role has been affected by the process of agricultural modernization. Two sub- sectors which are currently important in the Bank's lending operations and where women are important as producers (i.e., dairying and forestry) are then reviewed in greater detail. Finally, women's access to agricultural extension is briefly explored. 1.26 The report then looks at the sectoral and occupational distribution of women's work outside agriculture. Since the focus of the report is on poor women, and since only about 6% of the economically active women in India are in the relatively privileged formal sector, this discussion concentrates on women in the informal sector. Some preliminary mapping of this difficult to measure and poorly defined sector is attempted, and a number of sub-sectors employing large numbers of women are discussed. 1.27 Turning to the social sectors, the review documents women's disturbingly low levels of access to education. Sharp regional and urban/rural variations are highlighted, and strategies are recommended to target limited educational resources so as to move more rapidly toward the Government's goal of universal elementary education and gender parity in literacy rates. An attempt is also made to trace the linkages between female education and higher productivity, more effective health-seeking behavior and lower fertility. 1.28 Women's health, including the high differentials between male and female mortality and morbidity and the gender-specific health problems that affect Indian women, is discussed next, along with the low levels of female usage of health and family planning services. The concern in this section is primarily with how women's health status affects their productivity -- and how women's work role and the level of returns to their labor in turn affect their health status and that of their families. 1.29 The next section is concerned with the institutional context of efforts to improve women's access to productive resources and supportive services. The evolution of government's policy framework for dealing with gender issues in development is reviewed and its main programs for reaching women are briefly described and assessed. The efforts of the voluntary sector which have been particularly important in pioneering new approaches to women's development in India are also discussed.   - 9 - PART B: WOMEN'S ACCESS TO PRODUCTIVE EMPLOYMENT Chagter 2: OVERVIEW: WHERE ARE WOMEN WORKING? 2.01 Even a brief glance at the available macro-level data on the activity patterns of Indian women reveals the strength of the inside/outside dichotomy. Table 2.1 presents a rough "map" of women's work, developed from the 1983 round of the National Sample Survey (NSS).1 This map juxtaposes the conventional dichotomy between labor force and non-labor force activity with several continua which seek to refine the useful, but somewhat arbitrary, dichotomous distinction and to reflect more accurately the diverse ways people and families pursue their livelihoods in a developing economy. Figure 2.1 The Continuum of Women's Work in India Male/Female Occupational Breakdown (1983) Women's Work |~~~~~ ~r ,l vonvento na La o C oce PaPartat Women j ~~~~~~~~Mn's Work Menvnfoa 1iii 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% _ Reg. WgeISlry l Casual Labor r= Self Empimt. Unpd. Fam. Lbr. EID Expanded Dom. Conv. Dom. CM] Ed. of Self Old Age/othera fCod. .3) (Cod 92) Source. Calculated from Sarvekshanas Vol. IX, No. 4, April 1988, Table 1. See Technical Note for complete ret. 2.02 Not surprisingly, a much larger portion of the female population (66%, compared to 37% for males) is not in the conventional labor force (see See Annex 1 for detailed notes on derivation of the table.  Table 2.1: THE CONTINUUM OF WOMEN'S WORK (1983) Row (A) (B) (1) LABOR FORCE ACTIVITY NON-LABOR FORCE ACTIVITY X Total Population Within/Outside Labor Force 49.14 50.86 X Male of Respective Category 66.12 36.96 X Femal of Respective Category 33.88 63.04 X Total Male Population 63.55 36.65 X Total Female Population 34.18 65 82 (2) Main Workers Marginal Workers Unemployed X Total Pop. Within Labor Force 87.34 10.70 2.06 X Male of Respective Category 71.66 19.01 76.24 X Feml of Respective Category 28.34 80.99 23.76 X Total Male Within Labor Force 94.55 3.08 2.37 X Total Female Within Labor Force 72.97 25.59 1.44 (3) Paid Labor LA Market-Oriented Labor Lb New Standard /c Force Force Labor Force Work That (4) Work That Produces Work That Produces Goods and Services Builds I Cash Income for Self-Consumption and Sale Human Capital Non-Work FH (5) Regular Casual Self- Unpaid Expanded/d Conventional Education Age Rentiers Others wage Labor Employment Family Domestic Domestic of Self (Code (Code 96) (Code Salary Labor (Code 93) (Code 92) (Code 91) 94,95) 97,98) (5. 1) X Total Population 6.96 13.79 17.42 10.46 5.81 12.33 18.46 13.26 0.37 1.14 X Total Male Population 11.72 16.05 26.72 8.29 0.49 0.42 22.82 11.80 0.46 1.23 X Total Female Population 2.00 11.43 7.72 12.71 13.90 24.76 11.35 14.79 0.29 1.05 (5.2) X Total Population Uithin/OutsiLd Labor Force 14.32 28.36 35.82 21.50 11.30 24.02 35.92 25.81 0.73 2.22 X Male to Respective Activity Category 85.92 59.41 78.31 40.48 4.35 1.72 63.11 45.39 62.16 54.87 X Female to Respective Activity Category 14.08 40.59 21.69 59.52 95.65 98.28 36.08 54.61 37.84 4.07 (5.3) X Total Male Population Within/Outside Labor Force 18.66 25.57 42.56 13.21 1.33 1.12 61.33 31.07 1.22 3.30 X Total Female Population Within/Outside Labor Force 5.91 33.76 22.79 37.54 17.16 37.43 21.02 22.36 0.44 1.59 La Persons ln wage or salary employment for whlch vorkers are paid in cash or kind. Lb Includes (a) plus activity on a family farm or in a family enterprise or business that sells some or all of its products. le Includes (a) and (b) plus all activities involving production of primary products and processLng of primary products by the producer irrespective of whether goods and services are sold. Unlike (b), this definition includes 'all food 'production' and food 'processing' including animal tending and milking, threshing in the home compound, processing and preparing food for presentation and storage and unpaid gathering of food or fruit .. whether or not market-related exchanges occur' (Anker at &I 1988:31). d4 This is a special category developed by the NSS in an attempt to capture a larger portion of women's non-monetized economic work. The definition of 'Code 93" is as follows: 'domestic activities combined with free collection of goods (vegetables, roots, firewood, cattle food, etc.), dairying, poultry and kitchen gardening for the family, tutoring of children, sewing tailoring or weaving for household use.' Source: National Sample Survey, 1983 round. See Technical Note for details.  - 11 - Table 2.1, Row 2).2 However, in Figure 2.1 where the labor force/non-labor force dichotomy is replaced with a continuum of work based on the NSS occupational categories which include household production and domestic work (see Row 5 in Table 2.1), a different picture emerges: almost 75% of the females over age 5 are working compared to around 64% of the males. 2.03 Rows (3) and (4) of Table 2.1 -- for which NSS data are not available -- are the conceptual core of this "map". They present two continua: one based on progressively more inclusive conceptual definitions of the labor force, and the second based on the product or outcome of the work and its relation to the market economy. 2.04 The dimension which this second continuum attempts to capture is difficult to measure and even more difficult to juxtapose against standard economic classifications of work. For example, a further distinction, between work that produces goods and work that provides services, would be conceptually useful: it is more difficult to attribute market value to "services" like caring for one's own children and preparing food for the family which are further to the "inside" or "private" end of the spectrum than to activities where the outcome is a product such as milk or firewood. The provision of services would, thus, tend to align itself more readily with the category of "conventional domestic work" in row (5) -- but the fit is imperfect. Likewise, the "production of goods and services" category could be further sub-divided into those activities where goods and services are for sale in the market and those that are for consumption by the household. The problem here is that very often the destination of the product is mixed: some of the rice crop is sold and some consumed by the family. Hence, the alignment of the various sub-categories of row (4) with other categories set out in Table 2.1 remains problematic and is set out here primarily as a heuristic device. 2.05 However, Figure 2.2 clearly shows that (leaving aside education and non-work activities) women become increasingly prominent as one moves from the "outside" market-oriented (and government-regulated) categories of work to the "inside", subsistence-oriented, non-monetized categories. Men predominate in the first three categories where workers receive cash income. But the picture changes for unpaid work. While women are only 27% of the paid workers, they are 60% of the unpaid family workers. The latter category is the single largest female "occupation" in the conventionally defined labor force, employing 38% of all working women (see Figure 2.3). While the participation of men in this mode of work tapers off sharply after age 20, a large proportion of the female work force continues as unpaid family workers throughout their lives (see Table 2.2). 2 Moreover, as the data in row (2) of Table 2.1 show, 26X of the women who are in the labor force are 'marglnal" workers who were engaged in conventional labor force activities but intermittently (i.e., less than 183 days in the year). Only 32 of the male workers were in this category. Women's relationship to the labor force is, thus, much more contingent and uncertain than that of that of men.  - 12 - Figure 2.2 Male/Female Composition of Various Categories of Work (1983) outside inside 100% 75% 50% - 25% 0% Wage Casual Self- Unpaid Expanded Conventional Salary Labor Employed Family Work Domestic Domestic Produces Cash Income F M Produces Goods & Services for Consumption or Sale Sources: Calculated from Sarvelkehana. Vol. IX, No. 4, April 1966, Table 1. 2.06 Among those who are remunerated for their work in cash, the category employing the largest number of women is casual labor: it accounts for 34% of the women in the conventional labor force (see Figure 2.3). A substantial proportion of casual laborers (41%) are women (see Figure 2.2). In contrast to these people who have no long-term relationship with their employers and whose wages and conditions of employment are not effectively regulated, regular wage/salary workers earn higher incomes and have much greater job security. These are the formal sector workers who have the sought-after "permanent' jobs in government service, large-scale industry and business. Although certain skilled and well capitalized self-employed individuals (such as shopkeepers and small-scale producers) may actually earn more than most formal sector workers, the latter are generally considered the most economically secure and are sometimes referred to as the 'labor aristocracy" of India. While 19% of the male work force fall into this category, only 6% of the female work force are regular wage/salary workers (see Figure 2.3), and women make up only 14% of the total in this group (see Figure 2.2). 2.07 Clearly, men are concentrated in the market-oriented side of the continuum of work and women in the statistically less visible, non-monetized subsistence production and domestic side: they account for 60% of the unpaid family workers, and 98% of those engaged in domestic work (see Figure 2.2). It is important to remember, however, that lack of precision in defining and  - 13 - Table 2.2 UNPAID FAMILY WORKERS IN THE LABOR FORCE, BY SEX AND AGE, 1983 (%) Rural Urban . Age Males Females Males Females 5 - 9 46.70 52.25 31.18 42.00 10 - 14 39.10 43.49 28.89 25.88 15 - 29 23.75 35.55 13.27 18.06 30 - 44 5.56 33.00 2.43 14.31 45 - 59 1.92 33.73 0.79 17.40 60+ 3.53 27.45 2.99 18.79 All Ages 13.36 34.88 6.87 17.22 Source: NSS, 38th Round, Report No. 341, Table 49. Figure 2.3 Occupational Breakdown of Labor Force Participants (1983) In Labor Force Outside Labor Force Men Men Casual Labor Ecucation of Salf Rag Wage/Salary 1g% Expanded Dorn 1% Unpd Fain Lbr. 13% Conv. Domestic Self -Emplmnt. 43% Old Age/Others Women Women 36t C-asual Labor 34% ~~~~~~~Education of Self 21% Epended Dorn Self-Employmnt. 6% 23% 38% ~~~~~~~~Conv Domestic24 npd Fern Lbr ~38% Od Age/Others Sbome Caklmaltd From aerv.ka5ana, IV gX o4 19E os. Table I b.0 %4qZlo l Noe I, omleter*f.  - 14 - measuring what is meant by "subsistence or household production" and "domestic work" can result -- and has resulted -- in very misleading answers to the question of where Indian women are working. 2.08 Conventional definitions of economic activity would suggest that most Indian women are "housewives" -- but as the definitions and methods of measurement become more precise this picture comes into better focus. According to the 1981 Census, only about 14% of the women in India are in the labor force; when the broader definitions of work and the more intensive survey methods of the NSS are used, this percentage increases to around 39% (see Table 11). Yet even this figure is acknowledged to miss a significant portion of women's gainful economic activity in the subsistence sector. 2.09 NSS therefore introduced a new, additional activity code (code 93) in its occupational classifications for the 32nd round (1977/78). This new code allowed the survey respondent to distinguish between the performance of conventional "domestic activities" (code 92) and "domestic activities and also free collection of goods (vegetables, roots, firewood, fish, cowdung, cattle feed, etc.), maintenance of kitchen gardens, orchards, etc., work in poultry or dairy, sewing, tailoring, weaving, etc., for household use, water collection and tutoring of children" (code 93). The results are shown in Figure 2.1. 2.10 For ordinary labor force participation statistics, the NSS does not include code 93 activities, but when this new category is counted, the share of women in the workforce is significantly larger (see Table 2.3). The gap between male and female participation decreases from 38% to around 14% in the rural areas. Interestingly, the inclusion of code 93 activities has much less effect on estimates of female work force participation in the urban areas where opportunities for subsistence production are much more curtailed. Table 2.3 WORK PARTICIPATION RATES, 1983/84 (CONVENTIONAL AND EXPANDED CONCEPTS) Labor Force Rural Urban ConceRt Male Female Male Female Conventional 63.22 38.74 57.71 17.31 Expanded la 63.83 50.97 57.88 25.06 k Includes persons engaged in 'Code 93" activities. Source: Kalpagam, 'Women in the Labor Force: An Analysis of NSS Data," 1988.  - 15 - 2.11 Even with the refinement represented by the introduction of code 93, however, it is unlikely that any large-scale survey can adequately reflect the complex patterns of "gainful activity" by which women -- and many men -- in the poorest families earn a livelihood. For that it is necessary to rely on micro-level studies. A survey in Nalgonda district, Andhra Pradesh, for example, revealed significant undercounting of workforce participation rates in the 1971 Census: while the Census rates were 64% and 36% for men and women, respectively, the detailed survey revealed that in fact 93% of the men and 78% of the women were workers and that women were nearly half (46%) the total working population (Mies, 1987:50). 2.12 Another study showed, however, that in some regions where cultural proscriptions on women working in non-domestic activities outside the home are strong, even a careful micro-level survey of male and female work participation can fail to capture the actual extent of women's gainful activity. Table 8 shows that the special survey was able to pick up female workers in Rajasthan who had been missed by the Census, but in West Bengal even the intensive survey yielded almost the same low female participation rate -- because the nature of much of women's work in West Bengal made it very easy to classify it as "domestic" and because the respondents' own ideas about the proper role of women led them to perceive it as such (Jain, 1985:215- 248). 2.13 In such a context, the most reliable means of capturing women's actual work patterns is a time allocation study, because it does not depend on any a priori definition of work. If collected carefully and based on either observation or repeated short duration recall, time allocation data not only avoid both enumerator and respondent bias, but can also reflect the multiplicity of tasks undertaken and the seasonal, and even daily, movement in and out of the conventional labor force which characterizes the livelihood strategies of the poor and particularly of poor women. 2.14 The study of Rajasthan and West Bengal villages cited above (Jain, 1985) collected such time allocation data. These are retabulated to permit comparison with Census and NSS data and presented in Tables 32 and 33. For Rajasthan, the basic pattern of higher female participation in conventionally defined "economic activity" noted earlier is confirmed. The time allocation data for West Bengal reveal, however, that women in this sample are actually spending substantially more time in work that would count as labor force participation than is evident from either the Census or the special survey. While the Census shows male participation rates for the three West Bengal districts to be nearly nine times the female rate, the comparison of actual time devoted by men and women to what the Census defines as economic activity shows (for example, in the 19-34 age group) a differential closer to three to one. 2.15 These data also permit a comparison of men's and women's total "work burden" -- which includes the time spent in both expanded economic activities (roughly comparable to NSS activity code 93) and conventional domestic activities. As has been found in other such time use studies carried out in  - 16 - South Asia (Acharya and Bennett, 1981; Cain, 1979; Batliwala, 1983; Khan et al., 1982), women spend more time working than men. 2.16 To conclude this brief examination of where Indian women work, NSS data are fitted against three different definitions of "work" (see Table 2.4). Figure 2.4 based on Table 2.4 permits us, for a moment, to expand the concept of "work force" to include domestic work and to assess female activity patterns from this perspective. Panel A shows the distribution of women's work when conventional labor force definitions are used: women reporting unpaid domestic work as their primary occupation (55% of the female population age 5 and above) are considered to be outside the labor force (in Panel B). Among those considered in the labor force, agriculture clearly dominates, followed by informal and finally a small portion of formal sector non- agricultural workers. Table 2.4 ALTERNATIVE CALCULATIONS OF WOMEN'S WORK PARTICIPATION Conventional Expanded I Expanded II Labor Non-Labor Labor Non-Labor Labor Non-Labor Force Force Force Force Force Force Domestic work - 54.59 53.31 - 40.27 - Agriculture 80.56 - 37.62 - 50.66 - Non-Agr. Informal 14.75 - 6.88 - 6.88 - Non-Agr. Formal 4.69 - 2.19 - 2.19 - Notes Expanded I: uses a conventional definition of agricultural work which excludes agricultural activities classified by the NSSO under expanded domestic work (NSS Code 93), such as kitchen gardening, dairying, etc. Expanded II: uses an extended definition of agricultural work to include agricultural activities classified by the NSSO under expanded domestic work (NSS Code 93). Source: Calculated from Sarvekshana, Vol. IX, No. 4, April 1986, Table 1. 2.17 If, however, the concept of "labor force participation" is expanded to include women engaged in unpaid domestic work as in Panels C and D, this gives a very different perspective on female activity patterns -- depending on where the line is drawn between domestic work and agricultural work for the family. Panel C shows the distribution when domestic work is incorporated into the labor force definition, but when the conventional definition of agricultural work is retained. This excludes from agricultural work such activities as kitchen gardening, poultry rearing, dairying, and fuel and fodder collection for the family -- which have been classified as "expanded domestic" (or code 93) activities by the NSS. In this scheme, domestic work is still the main occupation, employing 53% of the re-defined female "work force". Agriculture is the second largest employer, but its share drops because "housewives" are included in the workforce total.  - 17 - Figure 2.4 Distribution of Women's Work (1983) Conventional Calculation Non-Labor Force Labor Force Domesti 4N-Ag Formal 55% NA.Ifra A B Expanded I Calculation Expanded 11 Calculation Domestic work 53% Domestic work _40~~4% N-Ag Formal 2% N-Ag. Formal N-A2 Informal 2% 7% N-Ag. nformal 7% Agriculture Agncult 38% A 51% D I~~~~~~ll *rwCi"u^ I.. WI 141PIX 4. A.IU M1,1. T.IX I. 2.18 Finally, if, as in Panel D, the definition of agricultural work is extended to include farm-related activities that are reported under code 93 as "expanded domestic work", a different picture emerges: agriculture is revealed as being the major occupation of "working" women in rural India, reported by 51% as their usual activity. Conventional domestic work takes second place, reported by 40% of the women. Summing up, it is evident that the majority of adult women in India are not simply "housewives", but in fact farmers.   - 19 - ChaRter 3: WOMEN IN AGRICULTURE A. Introduction 3.01 This review of Indian women's labor force status begins with agriculture -- because of the importance of this sector in the overall economy, and because of the centrality of women's monetized and non-monetized work within the sector. Agriculture accounts for 37% of India's GNP and, according to NSS data, employs 70% of the working population and about 84% of all economically active women. 3.02 Women make up a substantial portion of the agricultural labor force in India -- though Figure 3.1 indicates that the two available macro level data sets provide substantially different estimates. Census figures in Panel A show that 31% of the agricultural labor force are women. However, in Panel B when the more detailed NSS data are used and workers engaged in kitchen gardening, dairying and other farm related "code 93" activities are also included, women make up 46% of those involved in agriculture. 3.03 Interestingly, the source of the discrepancy between NSS and Census estimates is not in the enumeration of wage workers. Both data sets show that women make up about 44% of the agricultural wage workers in India. The difference comes in the enumeration of those who are self-employed in the family farm enterprise. According to the Census, only 23% of those classified as cultivators are women. The NSS figure for the proportion of women cultivators is very close -- 24%. However, NSS contains an additional category, "agricultural helpers", who provide unpaid labor to the family farm enterprise as their main occupation. Sixty-one percent of the agricultural helpers are women, hence, when the two categories (cultivators and agricultural helpers) are combined, we find that 48% of those working on the family farm enterprise are women. (See Technical Note, Attachment VI, page 242.) 3.04 In fact, as noted in Chapter 2, the actual levels of female involvement in agriculture are even higher. A number of recent studies indicate that available macro-level data sets -- even the NSS -- seriously under-estimate the actual role of women in India's household-based, semi- subsistence agriculture. One such study, by the IL, shows that by expanding from narrower definitions (see row (3) of Table 2.1) and using a simplified activity schedule instead of the standard "yes or no" questions, the labor force participation rates for the same sample of rural women in central India varied from 3% to 90% (Anker et al., 1988). (See Table 3.1.) This strongly suggests that there are very few rural women in India who are not in some sense "farmers" -- working as wage laborers, unpaid workers in the family farm enterprise, or some combination of the two. B. Household Socio-Economic Status and Women's Role in Agriculture 3.05 Although almost all rural women are involved to some extent in agriculture, the nature and extent of their involvement varies widely and is strongly influenced by the economic status and the caste and ethnic background of their household. There is a very clear labor hierarchy, and it is  - 20 - Figure 3.1 Male/Female Composition of Agricultural Labor Force According to Census & N.S.S. Panel A: Census Data (1981) Agricultural Cultivators All Agricultural Workers Fenl e 23% Female 31% Male 77% Agricultural Wage Workers ,, ~~~~~~~Female 44% Male 69% \ Male % ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~al 6 Panel B: National Sample Survey Data (1983) Agricultural Wage Workerm All Agricultural Workers Femae 44% Female 46% Male 66% Self-employed Agricultural Workers \ \~~~~~~~~~Fml 448% Male 54% _ Agicultural Culivators MalAeirbulturai Heipers F*mab ~24% \_ Male 39% Sources: psnal A Calculated from Census of India. 1981, Part B, 'Special Report and Tables,' based on 6% amplo data, Roglstrar General 4 Conaus Commission ior India, Now Dehli, 1984, pp 6-9. 24-27 (tables). I. Bee Teohnical Note. Attachment VI, Rows 6-7, p 242.  - 21 - consistent with the gender ideology discussed earlier: the more a woman's work permits her to remain on the "inside" (i.e., in the domestic sphere), the higher its status and that of the household. Of course, as indicated in the schematic presentation of the hierarchy of labor in Figure 3.2, all Indian women are involved in domestic work. But as the economic status of their household decreases, they must combine this domestic work with other kinds of work more and more exposed to the "outside". Table 3.1 FEMALE ACTIVITY RATES UNDER DIFFERENT LABOR FORCE MEASURES (based on key word questionnaire and activity schedule) Key Word Activity Labor Force ConceRt Ouestionnaire Schedule 2aid labor force 3.1 12.7 Market labor force 6.6 31.8 ILO labor force 15.7 88.3 Extended labor force 15.8 90.9 Source: Anker, Xhan and Gupta (1988), Tables 4.2 & 4.5. Figure 3.2 HIERARCHY OF WOMEN'S WORK Schematic Representation of Hypothesized Female Occupational Status in Farm Production by Land Holding Category Poor< ---------------------------------- >Rich Land Holdins Class Occunational Status Landless M rainal Small Mod Large Inside Conventional Domestic * * * * x (High Status) Work (Code 92) A Expanded Domestic * * * X Work (Code 93) Agricultural Work on X X Own Farm (Unpaid Family Work) V r Agricultural Work for X X outside Others (Wage Work) (Low Status) X - Primary Activity * - Secondary Activity 3.06 This schematic representation is confirmed by both macro- and micro-level empirical data. Table 9, from the NSS, shows a clear inverse relationship between household economic status and female labor force  - 22 - participation: households in the second lowest expenditure class had a female participation rate of 37%,l while it was only 24% for those in the top group. Moreover, the poorer the household, the greater the probability that its women will work as wage laborers rather than as somewhat more prestigious unpaid family workers. Among the landless, women in the agricultural labor force are nearly three times as likely to work as wage laborers than as unpaid family workers; in families with 20 acres or more, none of the women work for wages '(see Table 10). :3.07 Micro-level time allocation data based on an intensive study of :L55 rural households in Madhya Pradesh (Sen, 1988) permit a more precise empirical verification of this schematic labor hierarchy (see Table 30). These data have been rearranged in Figure 3.3 to reveal the distribution of women's time between various kinds of work at different "locations" on the Lnside/outside continuum in households from different economic classes. In a way not possible with NSS data, this provides a detailed "map" of how households with different asset levels deploy their female labor. :3.08 Housework is important for women in all economic groups. At the aggregate level, 58% of women's time is spent in conventional domestic activity -- but among the top two groups housework absorbs 96% and 79% of women's work time, respectively. For the middle income groups, women's input into agricultural production as "unpaid family labor" assumes major importance, absorbing about 50% of women's time. This tapers off among marginal farmer households and drops steeply in the two lowest economic strata luntil it accounts for only 5% of women's work time among landless wage laborer households. As expected, when one considers the "outside" and work for wages, the opposite pattern emerges: substantial wage work (absorbing 16% and 38%, respectively, of their total work time) is found only among women in the two groups least endowed with land assets. 3.09 Female labor participation rates are noticeably higher among scheduled caste (SC) and scheduled tribe (ST) populations than among the rest of the female population: 27% of scheduled caste women and 43% of scheduled tribe women were in the labor force, compared to only 20% of the remaining women. Since SC/ST populations tend to be concentrated in the lower income and land-holding groups, labor force behavior of SC/ST women can to a certain extent be explained by economic factors. There also are, however, important socio-cultural characteristics of both groups which act independently to increase female labor force participation. Among the lower castes and former "untouchables' -- and especially among the tribal groups -- much less importance is attached to mechanisms for maintaining female sexual purity (and thereby caste purity) through restricting women's contacts with non-kin and their general mobility in the public sphere. In other words, the inside/outside dichotomy is much weaker in ST/SC populations, and there is 1 However, women in the very lowest income groups, those whom Lipton calls the 'ultra poor", show lower participation rates -- probably because many of them subsist at levels of poverty so deep that their nutritional and general health status precludes manual labor which is the only work they are qualified for. Lipton reports that NSS data for the 32nd Round showed that for "casual laborers (already the main victims of both poverty and conventional unemployment) ... illness-related absence from work reduced their labor- input by a further 5X of worked time for rural men and 6X for rural women' (1983:11).  - 23 - Figure 3.3 Women's Work Patterns by Economic Status (1980) Percent of Women's Time P 100--- n 80 d 9 I 60 o 40 -- - U t 8 20 - e LWL MF/E MF S/MF/E S/MF LF/E LF LL/E LL Poor -------------Rich Wage Agriculture B Own Agriculture = Domestic Household Economic CategorlesA LWL * Landless Wage Labor SM * Small/Medium Farmer LL/E Landlord/Entrepreneur MF/E * Marginal Farmer/Entrepreneur LF/E * Large Farmer/Entrepreneur LL * Landlord MF * Marginal Farmer LF * Large Farmer SM/E * Small/Medium Farmer Entrepreneur Source: Sen, Ilena, 1986. less social stigma attached to female participation in the labor market.2 3.10 There is considerable inter-state variation in the distribution of female agricultural laborers between scheduled caste, scheduled tribe and other women. For India as a whole, about 17% of female agricultural laborers are from scheduled tribes, but in Orissa, West Bengal, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh this figure ranges roughly between 30% and 40%. Census data from 1961 and 1981 show that there has been overall growth in the proportion of tribal women among female laborers (from 12% to 17%), while the percentage of scheduled caste women has declined somewhat (from 33% to 30%). Overall, however, the combined SC/ST proportion of female agricultural laborers has increased from 44% to 47% over this period. This means that scheduled caste and tribal women account for nearly half of all the female agricultural laborers, although they make up only about a quarter of India's rural female population. 2 Raju (1982) reports however, that despite the fact that ST/SC participation rates are generally higher, district level ST/SC and non-ST/SC female participation rates are positively correlated and the correlation is statistically significant. She argues that ST/SC and non-ST/SC women respond similarly to regional ethos or cultural patterns irrespective of their position in the caste hierarchy. In Madhya Pradesh, for ex mple, she notes that in the northern districts the participation rates of ST/SC and non- ST/SC vomen are both very low - and in fact, in Baster and the adjacent area, the ST/SC female participation rates are actually lower than the rates for non-ST/SC women.  - 24 - C. Regional Variation in Women's Agricultural Role The North-South Divide 3.11 In addition to the influence of caste and household economic status, a number of regional factors also act as powerful determinants of rural household strategies for the deployment of female labor. They fall into two broad sets. One set includes factors which affect the economy such as the lbasic agro-ecological endowment in terms of topography, rainfall, climate, soil type, etc., which in turn, determine traditional farming systems and crop choices. Another important economic variable is the degree of development of rural infrastructure (i.e., roads, irrigation, markets, extension, credit) which affects the extent to which new crops and practices can be and are adopted. Variations in the availability of non-farm employment, in the relative importance of subsistence versus commercial agriculture and, related to this, the proportion of wage to family labor are also important. All of these factors affect the regional incidence of poverty which, as already noted, is probably the most powerful determinant of female labor force behavior in India. 3.12 The second set of regional factors comprises socio-cultural variables. It includes the inter-related structures of kinship and religious belief as they affect the way women are valued as well as the strength and articulation of the inside/outside dichotomy between the social domains of women and men. There have been a number of such regional mappings of women's socio-cultural status as it relates to the economic and agro-ecological variables. The broadest map which brings out the most powerful contrast is the basic North/South divide between cultures rooted in the Aryan and the Dravidian traditions, respectively. Both the North and the South are dominated by the strongly patrilineal ideology of Hinduism in which sons are critical to salvation in the next world and to economic viability and continuity in this one. The primary spiritual and social role for a woman is to be given away by her natal family as the most meritorious of all religious gifts, the pure virgin or kanya dan, to another family of the same caste and to produce sons for that family. In the South, these beliefs are tempered somewhat -- perhaps in part because of the marriage system featuring inter- generational exchange of women (i.e., cross-cousin marriage). By contrast, women in northern India are married into families with whom they have no genealogical links (for at least 7 generations), preferably into a distant village where support expected from their natal kin after marriage 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 marry as "outsiders" who need to be closely controlled. 3.13 One reflection of the North/South variation in women's position is the differing rigidity in observing the practice of purdah (i.e., female seclusion). Although not based on a systematic sample, the data collected by the Committee on the Status of Women in India (GOI, 1974) reveal a pronounced contrast between North and South in the proportion of women who veil before males and elders even within the family (see Figure 3.4). Higher dowries, and strong evidence of female infanticide or more generalized "daughter neglect", resulting in severely skewed regional sex ratios, have also been documented  - 25 - Figure 3.4 Observance of Purdah in the Family Regions & States Eastern Assam Bihar Orissa West Bengal Southern Andhra Prad Karnataka Kerala Tamil Nadu Central Madhya Prad Uttar Prad Western Gujarat Maharashtra Northern Haryana PunJab Himchl Prad Jammu& Kashmr RaJasthan 0 20 40 60 80 Percent of Women who Veil in the Family Source; Government of India, 1974, 'Towa,rd E1.1ty', p 411. Tabl 11l.4.D for the North (Miller, 1981). The regional pattern of differential female survival is strikingly illustrated in Figure 3.5 which presents Miller's (1989) district level data on juvenile sex ratios (JSR).3 Even more disturbing is the trend suggested by the comparison of 1961 and 1971 data. 3.14 Fertility rates, which have shown a recent decline in the South, are much higher in the North, reflecting greater conservatism about women's use of health and family planning services and stronger "son preference" which makes families reluctant to begin practicing family planning until they have at least one and preferably two sons.4 Female literacy is also lower in most of the North (except for Punjab where female literacy has risen and fertility has shown a marked decline). There is also the recently recognized phenomenon of "dowry death" or "bride burning" -- murders or induced suicides of newly married women who do not 'adjust' to married life or cannot meet the demands of their husband's family for further dowry payments. This too -- along with the recent glorification of sati (widow burning) -- appears to be much more prevalent in the North. 3.15 The sharp contrasts in the valuation (and, hence, the survival) of women can be related to their traditionally less visible role in crop production in the wheat-producing North than in the South where women play a 3 The juvenile sex ratio is the number of boys per 100 girls under 10 years of ags. 4 See also the discussion of female sex ratios, health care and nutrition status in Chapter 9.  - 26 - Figure 3.5 Increase in Share of Rural Districts with Higher Mortality of Girls than Boys by Region (1961 to 1971) Northern (Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashimr, Puniab,Rajasthan) in 1961 60% Share of Districts with Higher Mortality of Girls than Boys in both 1961 and 1971. _ Additional Share of Districts with Higher Mortality of Girls than Boys in 1971. Remaining Share of Districts VWhere Boys Mortality is Equal 17% to or Greater than Girls in 1971. UNt Higher mortality of girls Is implied where the juvenile sex ratio in 1971 (the number of boys under 10 years another 17% of age per 100 girls) is 105 or more Western Central Eastern (Gujarat and Maharashtra) (Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh) (Assam, Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal) in 1961 another I 1i annotSu71e n I1 In 1971 w 1F 1 13% ~ ~ ~~~~~~2 83%\X nte 8 < / Southern (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu) 98% Source: Miller, 1989, figures 1 and 2.  - 27 - critical role in rice production (Miller, 1981). These relationships have been explored further by use of the wet/dry dichotomy in cropping systems (Bardhan, 1982) and of more specific regional classifications, based on agro- ecological zones and a more detailed range of cropping systems (Sen, 1986; Agarwal, 1986; and Chen, 1988). The discussion below follows Agarwal and focusses on three of the five major regions -- the East, South and North -- where patterns in the relationship between women's socio-cultural status and the nature of their participation in the agricultural economy are most pronounced.5 Female Labor Force ParticiRation 3.16 Female labor force participation Table 3.2 rates range from 47% in Maharashtra to 4% in Kashmir (see Table 3.2). While the rice/wheat FEIMLE LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION, distinction highlighted by Miller is generally BY STATE, 1983 confirmed by these data, there are important (Main Workers Only, in Z) variations which suggest that many other Eastern Realon factors are at work in determining female Bihar 17.53 participation. The highest overall Orissa 26.79 participation rates are in the South -- but West Bengal 11.16 also in the western and central states which Southern Region Andhra Pradesh 46.63 are not all rice producers, but have large Krnataka 37.58 semi-arid areas (as do most of the southern Kerala 23.87 states) suitable only for coarse grain Tamil Nadu 43.81 production or, with irrigation, for industrial Central Region crops such as sugarcane and cotton. The wheat Hadhyr Pradesh 17402 producing North, and specifically the leading Western Regi "Green Revolution" states of Haryana and the Gujarat 35.14 Punjab, have very low rates of female Maharashtra 47.16 participation. But so do the agriculturally Northern Resion stagnating rice producing states of Bihar and Haryana 18.30 West Bengal. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~Punjab 7.00 West Bengal. >Eiachal Pradesh 46.03 Jamnmu & Kashmir 4.53 3.17 Female participation is low, Rajasthan 40.40 thus, in the most prosperous northern states All India 28.85 which have the smallest percentage of their population below the poverty line (15% in the Source: NSS 38th Round; Sarvek- Punjab and 25% in Haryana), but also in the shana, Vol. IX, Nos. 4, April 1986, Table 1. eastern states of Bihar and West Bengal where the incidence of poverty is extremely high (57% and 53%, respectively). Interestingly, in the two northern states where subsistence agriculture is still dominant, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh, women's participation rates are also extremely high. Temporal change in these broad patterns is shown in Table 11. 3.18 Similar regional patterns emerge in Figure 3.6 from the data on the proportion of agricultural workers in the total female population (see Table 17) and in Figure 3.7 from the data on each state's and region's 5 For a more detailed discussion of regional variations using a modified five-zone classification, see 'Changing Patterns of Female Labor Deployment: Household Level Responses to Agricultural Modernization in India' which was prepared as a background paper for the present review (Bennett, 1990).  - 28 - contribution to India's female agricultural wage labor force and own-farm workers (see Table 18). The prominent role of women in the agricultural production systems of the South is again apparent: more than one sixth of all fEemale agricultural laborers in India are found in Andhra Pradesh, and the southern states as a group account for 41% of the total. All the Northern 'States together contribute less than 3% of India's female wage workers. Census data on sex ratios in the agricultural wage labor force in Figure 3.8 show that female agricultural laborers actually outnumber male laborers in Andhra Pradesh (and Maharashtra) and are approaching parity in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu (and Madhya Pradesh) (see Table 19). Figure 3.6 Women Working in Agriculture As % of Total Rural Female Population (1983) Regions & States Assam Eastern Bihar Orissa West Bengal Andhra Prad Southern Karnataka Kerala Tamil Nadu Central Madhya Prad Uttar Prad Western Gujarat Maharashtra Northern Haryana Punjab Himchl Prad Jammu& Kashmr Rajasthan All India 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% Source: Sarvekshana, Vol. IX, No. 4. April 1986, Table 1. ]Wage Laborers vs. Cultivators 3.19 Perhaps one of the most important regional variations affecting women's agricultural role is the degree of dependence on hired versus family labor. At the national level, about 41% of rural households earn most of their livelihood from cultivating their own farm, while about 31% are primarily dependent on wage work. In the South and East, however, the share of wage dependent households is much higher, reaching 42% in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, 39% in West Bengal and 37% in Bihar (see Table 20). In the South and East, families that operate farms are much more likely to hire labor, while land-holding families in the North tend to rely more on their own labor. The ratios of cultivators using family labor to those using hired labor have been reported at 2 to 1 in the Punjab and 4 to 1 in Haryana, as compared with only 1 to 1 in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu and 1 to 2 in Kerala (Rudolph, 1988:343).  - 29 - Figure 3.7 Distribution of Female Agricultural Laborers in Rural Areas by Region & State (1983) Wage Workers Andhra Pradesh 17% W.Bengal & Assam 5% Karnataka 9% Bhr9 Kerala 3% All North States 3% TamilI N adu 12 % iiiiiiiiiiii. l 3 ~~~~Maharashtra 16% Madhya Pradesh 11%Gurt6 Uttar Pr%a?es%) g% Cultivators/Family Helpers 0 ~~~~~~W.Bengal & Assamr 1% Orissa.4r %a tw 8 9r~~~~~Ote North States 3% Kanata &era7%....'' ' . , / Riti3Xif3iiiiiiiiiiYMaharashtra 13% Madhya Pradesh 16% \_ Uttar Pradesh 15% Regions: gg Eastern ESouthern Li Central ERl Western ElNorthern Source: N88, S8th Round, Sarvekehana. April 1986, T.ble 1.  - 30 - Figure 3.8 Gender Ratio of Agricultural Laborers (Females per 100 Males) (1981) Regions & States Eastern Assam Bihar Orlssa West Bengal Southern Andhra Prad Karnataka Kerala Tamil Nadu Central Madhya Prad Uttar Prad Western Gujarat Maharashtra Northern Haryana Punjab Hlmchl Prad Jammu& Kashmr Rajasthan All Indla 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 source: Census of India, 1981 3.20 The ratio of cultivators to wage laborers in the female agricultural workforce shows a similar regional pattern in Figure 3.9 (see Table 14). In the Punjab less than one third of the women in agriculture are wage workers (and in Himachal Pradesh less than 1%), while in the southern states roughly two thirds are wage workers. The contrast is clearly depicted in Figure 3.10 which shows the share of wage workers and cultivators, respectively, in the total female population of each state: wage workers predominate in the South and East, while cultivators predominate in the most of the northern and western states. 3.21 Since women cultivators and women wage laborers face very different incentives and constraints, their interest in and needs from agricultural extension services are likely to be quite different. Of course, it needs to be stressed again that many rural women combine various forms of agricultural labor force participation over the course of a season or even a single day: a woman reported as a wage worker might also devote part of her labor to own-account cultivation if her family owns any land or livestock assets. Thus, in terms of her need for agricultural extension, information and training, even a woman categorized in macro-level surveys as a wage laborer may desire information that will allow her to increase the productivity of her own part-time activities as a cultivator.  - 31 - Figure 3.9 Cultivators/Family Helpers to Wage Workers in Female Agricultural Work Force (1983) Regions & States Wage Workers E Cultivtrs/Fam Helpra Eastern Assam Bihar Orissa West Bengal Southern Andhra Prad Karnataka Kerala Tamil Nadu Central Madhya Prad Uttar Prad Western Gularat Maharashtra Northern Haryana Punjab Himchl Prad == Jammu& Kashmr _ m _ = = Rajasthan All India 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% aou.. NUSC. 3th Rouad, Srvekehna.. April 166. Table 1. Figure 3.10 Percent of Rural Women Working in Agriculture as Wage Laborers or as Cultivators (1983) Regions & States | Wage Laborers m Cultivators Eastern Assam Blhar Orlssa West Bengal Southern Andhra Prad Karnataka Kerala Tamil Nadu Central Madhya Prad Uttar Prad Western Gujarat Maharashtra Northern Haryana Pun jab Hlmchl Prad Jammu& Kashmr S Rajasthan All India 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% Souroe: Sarvekshena, Vol. IX, No. 4, April 1986, Table 1. (based on NOS)  - 32 - 3.22 The predominance of wage workers among women in the South and East does not mean that reaching women with extension (and credit) is less important there. But it does call attention to an important, but often -- overlooked client group in the northern states: women working as unpaid family laborers. Because of the greater strength of the inside/outside dichotomy in the North and the increasing technical and managerial complexity of farming -- especially in states such as the Punjab and Haryana -- the importance of using the existing extension system to get this new information to women farmers in these states is even more important. These issues are explored in some detail in Chapter 6. D. Agricultural Modernization and Household Strategies for Female Labor Degloyment Gender and the Changinp Composition of the Labor Force 3.23 Census data show steady growth in the proportion of women in India's agricultural work force over time. While slightly more than one in four agricultural workers were female in 1971, by 1981 almost one in three were female. Figure 3.11 shows that in every state but Uttar Pradesh the sex ratio of agricultural workers shifted in favor of women (see also Table 25). Figure 3.11 Gender Ratios of Agricultural Workers (Females per 100 Males) Regions & States Eastern Assam Bihar_ Orissa West Bengal Southern Andhra Prad ....__.______._ Karnataka Kerala __ Tamil Nadu Central Madhya Prad - Uttar Prad Western Gujarat6 Maharashtra Northern Haryana Punjab HimchIPrad Jammu& Kashmr Rajasthan All India 0 20 40 60 80 SouroO: C*Cesus of India. 1061  - 33 - Looking specifically at wage workers, the same trend is evident: there has been an increase in both the absolute numbers and the proportion of women. In every state but Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the percentage increase for females has been greater than for males (see Table 16).6 This trend is clearly displayed in Duvvury's revealing maps of the sex ratio of agricultural laborers in 1961 and 1981 which show a sharp increase in the number of districts where female laborers outnumber male laborers (1989:104-105, Maps VII and VIII). Except for Kerala, in almost the entire South, and indeed almost all of India south of the Ganges, women outnumber men in the agricultural wage labor force. 3.24 These findings are consistent with a number of micro-level studies from various parts of India showing that modern agricultural technologies appear to have increased the per hectare absorption of female labor.7 Most studies show, in fact, that the increase in female labor use associated with technological change has been greater than the increase in male labor use (Joshi & Alshi, 1985; Acharya & Panwalkar, 1988; Chand, Sidhu & Kaul, 1985; Harriss, 1988). Together with male migration into non-farm employment, agricultural modernization appears, thus, to be an important factor behind the rising proportion of women in India agriculture. 3.25 In at least one respect this may be considered a positive development: more rural women are finding paid employment in agriculture. Since increasing the capacity of this sector to provide employment is a major policy objective, this trend can be viewed with some satisfaction. 3.26 At the same time, since agricultural wage labor is generally viewed as the least desirable form of employment, taken up by only the poorest, an increase in the share of the female workforce in this category relative to men and relative to other possible female occupations can also be considered a negative sign: an illustration of women's disadvantaged position in the economy and an indication of increased economic disparity and poverty (variously labelled "proletarianization", "pauperization" or "immisarization") which is pushing a growing number of women into agricultural wage work who previously were not in the labor force or were self-employed as cultivators or artisans. Implicit in this interpretation is the by now familiar view that for women to work for pay is a downward movement and a sign of distress. 3.27 Sen (1983a), Bardhan (1987), Agarwal (1986) and others have drawn attention to the long-term (1901-1981) trend evident in the Census data towards an increase in the proportion of laborers to cultivators in the total population (see Table 6). This shift has occurred for both male and female workers, but the proportion of female workers engaged in agricultural wage labor has always been larger than the proportion of male workers in this category and has risen more steeply -- especially in the last two decades. Currently, 46% of the female workers are dependent on agricultural wage work, compared with 20% of the male workers. 6 Although beginning from a much lower base, the increases in Haryana (1001) and in the Punjab (700X) are striking. 7 Technologies which appear to have increased the demand for female labor inolude irrigation, the use of bio-chemical H'YV technologies and even some degree of tractorization -- though not the use of mechanical threshers and other types of mechanization.  - 34 - 3.28 There is, however, an important discrepancy between the Census anid the NSS data with regard to the composition of the female agricultural labor force. The Census data for 1971 and 1981 (in contrast to all previous years) show a clear preponderance of laborers over cultivators in the rural female working population (see Table 6). The NSS data for 1977 and 1983 show tlhe opposite: a much larger share of the female working population is engaged as cultivators working on their own family farms (see Table 14). In the NSS data, the female pattern is at least roughly parallel, thus, to the male pattern in terms of the proportionality between laborers and cultivators -- and similar to the female pattern in the pre-1971 Census data. 3.29 Census and NSS data are in agreement, at least, on the direction of the shift in the composition of the female agricultural labor force in the short term: both show a decrease in the proportion of working women dependent on agricultural wage labor. Indicating a reversal of the long-term trend noted (above), the Census shows a decline of almost 5% from 1971 to 1981 and the NSS data indicate a decline of about 2% between 1977/78 and 1983. There may be some uncertainty about the current balance between female agricultural laborers and self-employed cultivators and family helpers, but it seems clear at least that, along with the growing numbers of female wage workers in agri- culture, there has been even greater growth in the number of women working on their familiest farms. In fact, Census data suggest that 41% of the new f.emale employment created during 1971-1981 was self-employment in agriculture, with agricultural wage work accounting for 36% of the increase (Suri, 1.987:18). 3.30 The composition of the rural female workforce is of special interest because, as noted above, high female participation in agricultural wage work can be an important indicator of the prevalence of poverty. Positive correlations have been established, for example, between the incidence of female agricultural labor and state-level agricultural stagnation (Chatterjee, 1984) and district-level indicators of poverty such as area under coarse grains, low incomes of agricultural households and inequality in land diistribution (Sen, 1983b). These findings have led some observers to the conclusion that rising female agricultural labor force participation is a supply driven phenomenon resulting from increasing poverty. 3.31 Female agricultural laborers are indeed among the poorest in India, with the lowest wage levels (about three fourths the male rate) and highest unemployment (18%). With 61% of them below the poverty line, female casual laborers (comprising agricultural as well as non-agricultural workers) in rural areas have the highest incidence of poverty of any occupational category, male or female (see Table 27). 3.32 More recent analysis has shown, however, that the incidence of female agricultural labor is positively correlated with district-level agricultural growth rates and (contrary to the theory that commercialization pushes women out of agricultural employment) with the share of gross area planted to cash crops (Duvvury 1989:88). Further support for a more optimistic interpretation of the increase in female agricultural wage laborers is provided by the 1970-1985 wage data analyzed by Jose (1988). If the increase were primarily supply-driven, wage rates would tend to stagnate or,  - 35 - in particularly over-crowded markets, even decline. Instead, in every state but Maharashtra real wage rates increased for both men and women -- and the rate of increase has been faster for women than for men (see Table 3.3). As a result, male/female wage disRarities have decreased (see Figure 3.12). At the all India level rural women's earnings were only 52% of their male counter- parts' in 1972, but had risen to 69% of male earnings in 1983 (Banerjee, 1988:16).s Table 3.3 AGRICULTURAL WAGE RATES FOR MALES AND FEMALES, 1970/71 AND 1984/85 X Change in Ratio of X Change in 2 Change in Money Wage Rate of Female to Male Female to Male Real Wages of Wage Rates in Agricultural Labor Agricultural Wage Ratio Agricultural Labor 1984185 (Rs) 1970171-1984185 Money Wages 1970/71- 1970171-1984/85 Realon/Ststa Male F lg Halo Female 1970171 1984185 1984/85 Male Female Eastern Rbaloa Assam 12.87 10.65 22S.00 239.17 79.16 82.70 3.54 20.06 25.43 Bihar 9.88 9.16 274.24 326.05 81.73 92.70 10.97 45.90 65.48 Orissa 8.42 5.99 284.47 304.73 67.59 71.21 3.62 40.62 48.14 West Bengal 10.59 8.39 162.13 254.01 58.71 79.19 20.48 3.84 40.08 Southern 1e2lo' Andhra Pradesh 10.41 7.64 285.55 289.80 72.82 73.44 0.62 45.09 46.33 Karnataka 7.31 5.93 198.37 252.98 68.31 81.07 12.76 3.56 22.91 Kerala 16.86 12.34 265.73 339.15 61.07 73.20 12.13 31.57 57.70 Temil Nadu 8.83 5.05 249.01 255.63 55.86 57.18 1.32 18.46 21.25 Cmntralb Reson Madhya Pradesh 8.53 7.11 296.74 361.69 71.74 83.40 11.66 44.72 68.25 Uttar Pradesh 10.54 8.24 287.50 329.17 70.84 78.21 7.37 31.45 45.12 Western Region Gujarat 12.58 9.80 309.77 320.60 75.84 77.95 2.11 51.60 55.81 Maharashtra 9.46 6.07 233.10 229.89 64.74 64.18 -0.56 22.64 21.58 Northern Renion Haryana 19.35 14.99 191.42 278.53 59.64 77.47 17.83 0.05 29.94 Punjab 18.13 14.91 183.72 265.44 63.85 82.25 18.40 -2.57 25.51 Eimachal Pradesh 12.55 11.25 205.35 223.28 84.73 89.58 4.85 4.91 10.92 Rajasthan 12.63 7.63 242.28 305.85 50.93 60.38 9.45 12.90 33.85 Source: A. V. Jose, 'Agricultural Wages in IndLa," (Tables 3, 4, 5, 6, 10 and 11), EPW, June 25, 1988. 8 The aggregate data however, sk harp interstate variations in a) overall wage levels, b) the degree of male/fmale disparity and c) the rate at which the male/female wage gap is closing. In 1985 female wages ranged from a high of nearly Rs. 15 per day in Haryana to a low of just one third that amount (Rs. 5.05 per day) Ln Tamil Nadu. Although he was not able to disaggregate the data for gendr, Jose found that real wages were closely linked to the level of output per worker which in Punjab was six tims what it was in Tamil Nadu (ia. Rs. 10,709 vs. Rs. 1,512). While the gender wage gap has narrowed in all states except for Maharashtra, there are large variations in the extent of the iMprovemnt which do not seem to be linked in any straight-forward manner to worker output or overall levels of agricultural growth or poverty levels. In West Bengal as well as Haryana there has been an improvemnt of around 20X while in others like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat there has been less than 3X improvement over the 1970 to 1985 period. A recent examination of the Rural Labor Enquiry data for 1964-65 and 1974-75 by Krishna Murthy (1988) showed that, despite a sLmllar overall decrease in malelfemale wage disparities over that period, there still remained a number of states where for certain agrlcultural operations, the wage gap for scheduled caste and scheduled tribe women had actually Increased. Clearly, more detailed analysis is needed to explain these phenomen -- particularly the som5what anomalous Increase In the gender wage gap In Maharashtra -- where large proportion of women are reported to have found employment under MGS.  - 36 - Figure 3.12 Female Agricultural Wages as a Share of Male Agricultural Wages in 1970/71 and 1984/85 Regions & States 1970/71 1984/85 Eastern Assam Bihar Orissa West Bengal Southern Andhra Prad _ Karnataka Kerala Tamil Nadu Central Madhya Prad Uttar Prad Western Gujarat Maharashtra Northern Haryana Punjab Himchl Prad Jammu& Kashmr Rajasthan All India 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Sou.e.: A.V. Jose *Agricultural Waves In India.. EPW. Jun* 25. 1*S8. op. A40-58 3.33 There also is evidence from NSS data that there has been an overall increase between 1977/78 and 1983 of 18% in the number of work days per year by women (Banerjee, 1988:49). For rural female casual laborers, there was a 43% increase (from 3.7 to 5.3 days per week) in the number of days per week that they could find gainful employment.9 3.34 These findings, supported by evidence from several micro-level studies (Harriss, 1988; Walker & Ryan, 1988) of shorter work days, suggest that the increase in female agricultural wage workers may in fact be demand driven. Despite the very real socio-cultural barriers to paid manual female work, more rural households are deciding to deploy their female members as agricultural wage laborers. At the same time, although most of the cost-of- cultivation studies from around the country show that the use of hired female labor grew the most with the adoption of the wheat and rice HYV technology, there has also been an increasing demand for female family labor -- especially 9 In urban areas, there was an increase of 75X, from 3.6 to 6.3 days per week.  - 37 - among small and marginal farm families.'0 As already noted, there has been an even greater growth in the number of women working as unpaid laborers on their own families' farms than in the number of female agricultural wage workers. Spreading Poverty or Changing Opportunities? 3.35 The increasing importance of women in the agricultural labor force may represent a response to rural impoverishment which is forcing households to move against the cultural grain and send their women out to work. It may also be a response to new economic opportunities, both in agricultural and off-farm employment, which are causing households to abandon traditional gender-based labor deployment strategies. There is no simple explanation. The pronounced regional variations in the nature and extent of women's work participation in agriculture reflect socio-cultural and economic differences in the reasons for female participation. 3.36 The dynamics behind the macro-level patterns vary among regions and agro-ecological zones -- and among different socio-economic groups within the same region. A detailed mapping of the constraints and incentives to female labor force participation among different strata in different regions is not possible here. But these dynamics can be illustrated by means of a brief assessment of some of the forces at work behind the varied patterns of female labor force behavior in three very different regions. 3.37 The East. The eastern region -- Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal (and in fact most of eastern Uttar Pradesh) -- is characterized, inter alia, by low agricultural productivity and the highest incidence of rural poverty in India. Agricultural modernization and rural infrastructure development lag behind most of India (see Table 24). Rainfed rice cultivation predominates. This means, inter alia, sharp fluctuations in employment availability: seasonal fluctuations have been reported of up to 40% for female employment and 15% for males (Bardhan, 1979). Although wages are not as low as in some other regions and the male/female wage gap is actually among the lowest in the country, person-day unemployment is high overall and especially high for women." In West Bengal, female unemployment rose by 14% between 1977 and 1983 -- more than double the increase for any other state (see Table 22) -- and because fertility has not dropped, this will worsen further. 10 A particularly dramatic increase in the use of female labor is noted in the study of HYV cotton in MNharasthra by Joshi and Alshi (1985). While the use of male labor rose by 80X with the introduction of the new cotton varieties, female labor input went up by 157X. Although much of this increase was due to greater increase of female wage labor (especially on larger holdings), small farm families appear to have inducted a substantial number of their own female members into cotton production. With traditional varieties, even for smallholders, the use of female family labor had been insignificant, and among large holders this remained true with BYV cotton. But for smallholders, after the shift to new cotton production technologies, 301 of the total female labor used was contributed by female family members. A similar increase in the use of female family labor among small farm families with the introduction of modern technologies has been noted in the Bank-assisted Chambal irrigation and command area development project (Sisodia, 1985): among marginal farmers, the use of female family labor more than doubled, from 66 hours per hectare in 1977 to 142 hours in 1983. 11 The incidence of person-day unemployment is defined as the ratio of unemployed person-days in the labor force to the total number of person-days by persons in the labor force.  - 38 - 3.38 As noted earlier, the conviction that women should be confined to the domestic sphere is fairly strong in the East. Although not manifest in its harsher forms such as the high differential female infant mortality and skewed sex ratios of the North, the inside/outside dichotomy is nonetheless clearly evident in the low female labor force participation rates. Where iLrrigation and HYV rice cultivation have been adopted in the East, these technologies have, as elsewhere, increased the overall absorption of female labor. But for landholder women, the additional work is in processing and supervision; field labor is still left to hired hands (Ghosh & Mukhopadyaya, 1L986). And in the East, this generally means tribal and Scheduled Caste women: in West Bengal ST/SC women account for 44% of the female population, but 74% of the agricultural wage workers (Bardhan, 1979:II-2). For non-ST/SC groups, resistance to women's involvement in field crop work, whether paid or unpaid, remains strong, and the low rates of agricultural growth in the region have not challenged traditional patterns of labor deployment. 3.39 The South. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu present a marked contrast to the situation prevailing in most of East India. Although rice cultivation prevails in both regions, the availability of Lrrigation and the use of modern varieties is much more extensive in the South. Use of tractors has not reached the high levels evident in the Punjab and Haryana, but other types of farm mechanization and indicators of rural infrastructure development (such as credit, roads, electricity, etc.) show substantial progress compared to the eastern states. Diversification into non-foodgrain commercial crops such as oilseeds, cotton and sugarcane has also occurred. In all southern states except Kerala, growth of foodgrain lproduction has been higher than in the East -- although, apart from Andhra Pradesh, it has been below the national average. Poverty levels are not uniform within the region and have varied more or less inversely with growth: in Tamil Nadu, a high percentage of the population is below the poverty line (comparable with the "poorest" eastern states), while the incidence of poverty in Andhra Pradesh is nearly 10% lower than in Tamil Nadu (see Table 26). 3.40 The traditionally high labor force participation rates of women in the South have risen further with agricultural modernization. Between 1971 and 1981, more than a million additional agricultural laborers joined the female work force in both Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh and about 720,000 in Karnataka (see Table 16). Yet -- leaving aside the notoriously high levels in Kerala (38%) -- unemployment for women from agricultural households is even higher in the South than in the East: in 1977/78, unemployment among women in this group was 28% and 24% in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, respectively, compared with 15% in Bihar and 12% in West Bengal (see Table 23).12 Wage levels are also very low throughout the South (except Kerala). A female agricultural laborer in Tamil Nadu in 1985 was paid about Rs 5/day -- roughly one third of the daily wage of a woman laborer in the Punjab or Haryana (see Table 3.3). Moreover, the gender gap in agricultural wages has not decreased noticeably: women in Tamil Nadu, for example, still earn only a little more than half of what men make in a day. 12 Because fertility rates have dropped in the South, but not in the Eastern or Central states, the latter are soon likely to face an even more crowded labor market than the South.  - 39 - 3.41 In both Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu the spread of the HYV technology has led to increased female labor use, but the increase was statistically significant only in Andhra Pradesh (Agarwal, 1984). Moreover, the increase in Andhra Pradesh was contributed entirely by hired female labor. Indeed, a major difference between the two states was that the use of unpaid female family labor decreased in Andhra Pradesh with the introduction of modern technology, while it increased in Tamil Nadu. In Andhra Pradesh the "hierarchy of labor" is evident: higher income from HYV cultivation appears to have led to withdrawal of family women from field cultivation even among smallholders. In Tamil Nadu family women withdrew from work on their families' own fields only in households operating more than 4 ha of land. 3.42 The picture of the rural labor market in Tamil Nadu that emerges from a number of studies (Harriss, 1988; Nagaraj, 1988; Guhan and Bharathan, 1984) is that rising non-agricultural rural employment -- such as in silk weaving, small-scale manufacturing and services -- and migration to urban areas for employment have been at least as important as the introduction of HYV technologies in absorbing the growing rural labor force. But women are not moving into these new occupations at the same rate as men. 3.43 In the town of Dusi in North Arcot, Tamil Nadu, for example, where there has been a rapid expansion in the silk weaving industry, 81% of the men in the wage labor market are employed in weaving, while 84% of the women remain in agriculture (Guhan & Bharathan, 1984). Even more striking is the occupational pattern of those employed in weaving: 68% of the men in the industry are working as highly skilled, well paid weavers, compared with only a little more than 2% of the women; the rest of the women are working as helpers. Both males and females enter the weaving industry as helpers during childhood, but males generally graduate to weaving once they acquire sufficient skills. Women, by contrast, if they stay in weaving after marriage, do so almost exclusively as assistants and then only as unpaid family workers, not as wage workers outside the home. Boys' work in the weaving industry serves as a kind of apprenticeship during which they learn skills which will increase their future earning capacity, while girls are deployed as weaving assistants "not so much to acquire skills, but to supplement family income" (Nagaraj, 1988:130). 3.44 Another example of growing rural non-farm employment with women in the low-skill, low-wage jobs is the case of Vandam, a dry and agriculturally backward village in Tamil Nadu. Since the 1960s, a spinning mill has opened and small-scale match manufacturing industry has grown up. In contrast to Dusi where women have remained mainly concentrated in agriculture, both male and female wage workers in Vandam have diversified into the non-farm, non- household sector. However, although the share of those employed in manufacturing is roughly equal for men and women, the overwhelming majority (89%) of the women in this sector are employed in low-paying, labor-intensive match making -- while not a single woman is employed in the modern spinning mill. Conversely, only 21% of the male manufacturing workers are in the match industry, but 63% have found jobs in the spinning mill. Moreover, the incidence of child labor in the match industry is high and 80% of the child workers are girls. In Dusi, where child labor (at least for boys) can serve  - 40 - as an apprenticeship leading to skilled employment, there is roughly an equal number of male and female children in the labor force. In Vandam, on the other hand, where employment in match manufacturing does not lead to skill acquisition, but merely supplements family income, most of the child laborers are girls (Nagaraj, 1988). 3.45 Non-farm wage employment -- especially skilled and formal sector work -- seems to be even further to the "outside" and in the male domain than agricultural labor. Indeed, non-farm employment is far less accessible to women than to men: it often involves travel to physically distant towns and to markets; it may require that women interact with non-kin and participate in non-traditional social and economic structures or direct cash transactions; and it often requires new kinds of skills. In addition to the constraints on their physical and social mobility, women also face the constraints of lower literacy levels and of prejudices about their lack of mechanical ability. If these constraints are found to be operating so powerfully in the South where the inside/outside dichotomy is relatively less rigid, it is likely that their effect will be even greater in other regions. 3.46 The North. In the Punjab and Haryana, foodgrain production rose at average annual rates of 5.9% and 3.6%, respectively, from 1967 to 1982. In both states, infrastructure is highly developed and the modern technologies has been widely adopted (see Table 24). Both states are predominantly wheat producers -- though irrigated rice production has increased rapidly. The marketable surplus of foodgrains is high, as is the production of cash crops such as cotton, sugarcane and oilseeds. Both states also have expanding industrial sectors, with the Punjab showing the highest value added per worker of any state in the union for rural industry. Growth in net state domestic product and per capita income have been high. The incidence of poverty is low (13% in the Punjab and 17% in Haryana), and in both states, interestingly, the rural incidence of poverty is actually lower than the urban (see Table 26). 3.47 Both the Punjab and Haryana have similarly low levels of female labor force participation as the eastern states. In fact, the Punjab has the lowest rate in the country at 3.9%, while Haryana is considerably higher at 16.5% but still below the national average of 29%. It is worth noting that two indicators of women's "invisible" participation (Parthasarthy, 1988:26) are very high in both states: the number of "marginal" workers and the percentage of the female population engaged in "activity code 93" or "expanded domestic" work (i.e., fuel and fodder collection, dairying, etc.). When main and marginal workers are considered together, the Punjab and Haryana both have a female labor force participation rate of about 31%. And in both states, 30% of the female population are engaged in "expanded domestic" activities. This suggests that many women in fact enter the labor force during the peak seasons and even more are involved in non-field crop production activities for the family which are not reported as economic activity. Indeed, a comparison of the all-India data on female work participation with data for female marginal workers and for women working in "code 93" activities (see Figure 3.13) shows that -- not only in Haryana and the Punjab, but throughout India -- wherever female participation in the labor force is low, women's marginal and domestic  - 41 - work is high.13 3.48 Absolute numbers of female agricultural wage laborers are very low in Haryana and the Punjab (see Figure 3.10). It is not clear whether the general demand for agricultural labor, and for female labor in particular, has increased or decreased recently. Trends in per-hectare labor absorption and person-days of employment between 1972/73 and 1977/78 showed a reduction in overall labor absorption in both states, suggesting that they might have entered the second, labor-saving, phase of the agricultural modernization process -- with high levels of mechanization, pesticide use, etc. (Bhalla, 1987). Census data interpolations show a different trend, however: although labor intensity per gross cropped hectare has declined in the Punjab, the gross cropped area has increased such that overall labor application has increased (Banerjee, 1989:W14). Moreover, the change in sex ratios for agricultural workers between 1971 and 1981 in both states indicates that women are meeting more of the increasing labor requirements in agriculture. 3.49 Since the 1971 data are generally acknowledged to have severely undercounted women, relying on Census data for trend analysis of female work participation is risky. Apparent upward movement over the 1971-1981 decade could merely be a correction of the previous undercounting. The apparent trend toward increased female agricultural employment in the Punjab is confirmed, however, by a study of changes in labor use for a state-wide sample of 200 farms between 1971/72 and 1980/81 (Chand, Sidhu and Kaul, 1985). During this period, HYV varieties were widely adopted, cropping patterns changed from the traditional wheat/maize rotation to a wheat/paddy combination, cropping intensity increased from 140% to 161%, tractor use increased by 12%, and the number of tubewells rose by 21%. Aggregate labor use increased by only 8.6% and, although the male share continued to be far larger, male labor use decreased by 9 hours per hectare per year and from around 90% to 80% of the total. Female labor use, on the other hand, more than doubled (from 90 to 185 hours per hectare per year), and most of that was hired rather than family labor.14 13 Nagaraj (1988:21) reports a strong inverse relationship (correlation coefficient: -0.72) for state- level Census data between female work force participation rates and the percentage of marginal workers in the total (main plus marginal) female workforce. Using NSS data, he found an even stronger negative relationship (correlation coefficient: -0.95) between the number of women in 'code 92" (conventional domestic work) and 'code 93" (expanded domestic) activities and the female workforce participation rate. From this latter finding he deduces that women's workforce participation is lower in states like Haryana and the Punjab because their domestic work burden is higher. This is a dubious inference, however, because codes 92 and 93 reflect residual activities: they do not record the domestic work of women who are in the labor force and therefore recorded elsewhere. In other words, the domestic work of women who are in the labor force remains "invisible" even in the NSS data. They carry out this work in addition to their labor force activities. And, as is clear from the data in Sen's Madhya Pradesh time allocation study (1988), women from all economic levels, whether they are in the formal labor force or not, spend at least half of their time in domestic activities (see Figure 3.2). The main difference between economic strata is whether women spent the remaining work time in additional domestic work or in labor force participation -- in what Papaneck has termed 'status production' (i.e., the luxury of more elaborate meals, religious observances, ironed clothes, etc.) -- or economic production. 14 Data from the early "expansionary" phase of the green revolution in Haryana provide an interesting case: households seem to have responded to new economic opportunities in a way that undermined the "labor hierarchy" and moved against traditional patterns of female labor deployment. Women from smallholder households were actually shifted from the more prestigious unpaid family work to wage work for others (Bhalla, 1987). To understand fully the dynamics of this shift against the cultural grain, it would be important to know the caste status of the households where the women took up wage work, what male and female wage labor rates were, and whether the men in those households had, as Bhalla suggests, moved into more or less full-time cultivation of their own small holdings or whether they, too, were drawn into the new agricultural wage work or non-farm employment.  - 42 - Figure 3.13 Comparison of Female Labor Force Participation Rates with Marginal and "Code 93" Work (1983) Regions & States Eastern Assam Bihar % Main Workers Only C ,S% Female Workers Orissa Orissa in Marginal Work al West Bengal W % Female Population in 'Code 93' bl Southern Andhra Prad Karnataka Kerala Tamil Nadu Central Madhya Prad Uttar Prad Western Gujarat Maharashtra Northern Haryana PunJab Himchl Prad Jammu& Kashmr Rajasthan All India 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120% a1 Marginal Workers work less than 183 days per year Sources: Sarvekshana, Vol. IX. No. 4. b/ 'Code 93' activities Inolude dairy & kitchen gardens, April 1988. Table 1; Kalpagam 1987. and fuel & fodder collection for the family.  - 43 - 3.50 These findings suggest that in the face of new economic opportunities households may change their female labor deployment strategies. Even in the North, where cultural barriers to women's participation in the paid labor force are particularly high, families at the lower end of the economic spectrum may opt for a two-pronged strategy: send their women out to take advantage of new wage employment opportunities in agriculture, while the men master the new agricultural production technologies (often requiring education levels and entrepreneurial skills which remain unattainable for most women) and apply them on their family holdings. 3.51 A somewhat similar pattern of family labor supply has been observed in response to a very different kind of economic opportunity: the Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS). Wage rates offered by EGS were too low to attract the men in most families, so women were sent for EGS work and men stayed to work the family holdings or seek other wage work at market rates (Dandekar and Sathe, 1980). Given the general male/female wage differentials and the fact that EGS seems to have been reasonably effective in adhering to the state government's commitment to equal wages for men and women, EGS work offered the highest returns to labor a woman could expect. Not surprisingly then, unofficial surveys of labor site attendance showed that as many as 80% of the EGS workers were women. In such situations, the household "utility" of the added income derived through unorthodox female labor deployment strategies outweighs the benefits of safeguarding the family's social status by keeping the women out of the wage labor market. 3.52 There can, of course, be no definitive answer for all of India as to whether women's increasing share of the agricultural labor force is caused by the push of household income levels which have fallen below subsistence levels or by the pull of new wage-earning or self-employment options. Both forces are at work -- to varying degrees in different parts of the country and among different socio-economic groups. It is very clear, however, that women's increasing importance in the agricultural wage labor market, whether the result of poverty or of prosperity, has important implications for intra- household dynamics and for women's control over what they produce and their influence on the allocation of family resources. E. The Intra-Household Dimension 3.53 Hence, although an over-simplification, an inverse correlation between a woman's status in the community (based on the economic status of her household and, consequently, the kind of work she has to do) and her status within the household, presented schematically in Figure 3.14, finds considerable empirical support. Evidence suggests that wage employment may actually imRrove a woman's bargaining position within her family. Female agricultural wage workers may have more say in determining intra-household resource allocation than women who perform domestic work or unpaid family labor in more prosperous households. Agricultural laborer households have a less pronounced gender hierarchy and less concern with concepts of female purity and ideals of female seclusion; patrilineal ideology also becomes less central if there is no land or other property to pass on in the male line (Bardhan 1986:2207). Female wage earners may have a better position within  - 44 - Figure 3.14 MATRIX OF VARIATION IN WOMEN'S STATUS WITHIN THE FAMILY AND IN THE COMMUNITY, BY HOUSEHOLD'S ECONOMIC STATUS Poor<---------------------------------------->Rich Household TVe Female Wage Subsistence Commercial Headed Labor Cultivator Cultivator Women's Status: Indicator: (Marainal/Landless) (SmalllMarainal) (Large) In Faily - Extent of Women's Highest High Medium Low Decision-Making - Proportion of Total Household Income Contributed by Women In CanmrLty - Strength of Insidel Lowest Low Medium High Outside Dichotomy - Household Economic Status the family because their contribution to the family has more visibility and their independent earning capacity gives them more bargaining Rower (Parthasarthy, 1988:29). 3.54 Important documentation of the actual contribution to household income made by female wage work in landless and near-landless households has been provided by Mencher (1988) reporting on 20 rice cultivating villages in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Although women's lower wage rates and fewer days of paid employment meant that their annual incomes were generally between one half and one third of their husbands' earnings, women's contributions to the household budget was greater in six of the 20 villages and about equal in another five (see Table 28). On average women contributed 98% of their earnings toward family maintenance while men contributed only 78%, keeping substantial amounts for personal uses. This pattern is not confined to the South. Micro-level studies from the Punjab and Himachal Pradesh (Sharma, 1980), Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Assam (Dasgupta and Haiti, no date; Gulati, 1981) and Andhra Pradesh (Meis, 1986) all report similar patterns of household budget management: men are expected to (and do) keep aside a part of their earnings for personal consumption and entertainment expenses, while women contribute almost all their earnings to family maintenance. 3.55 All of these studies also confirm that women wage workers have a greater say over family resource allocation than women who do not bring in outside income; none, however, establishes this relationship statistically. A more focused study of 40 agricultural laborer and cultivator households in a dry backward region of Andhra Pradesh, found, however, that women who worked 15 A country-wide sample of 1,331 rural households also suggested this kind of linkage. Although the Household level mechanisms were not clear, it found that, if male employment rates rise (Rosenzqieig and Schultz, 1982). And in Tamil Nadu, the withdrawal of women from the labor market was found to reduce their status and role in household decision-making (Earriss, 1979). There may of, course, be very little leeway in a poor laborer family for actual decision-making.  - 45 - for wages had a greater role in household decision-making -- particularly over the allocation of food -- than those who did not. It further found that female labor market participation had a statistically significant positive effect on the energy intake of young children -- suggesting that women's paid employment not only brought more income into the family, but gave women more control over its disposal (Bidinger, 1986:72). 3.56 A study of six villages in the semi-arid regions of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra found that, controlling for per capita consumption expenditure, children of mothers who participated in the daily hired-labor market had significantly higher intake of certain key nutrients than other children (Walker and Ryan 1988:29). A study of near-landless rural families in Kerala which found that maternal income had a significant positive effect on child nutrition (weight for age), while income from other family members showed a slight negative correlation, points in the same direction: The importance of women's role in the allocation of resources for child welfare is also observed in the effect of wage income on child nutrition. ...where mothers are not in the labor force, increasing wage income has no incremental benefit on child nutrition. However, for those mothers who are in the labor force, it is their own wages that primarily account for the positive wage income effect on child nutrition (Kumar, 1978:46-47). 3.57 Unfortunately, no reliable country-wide data are available to allow an examination of variations in the nature and level of input into household decision-making between "non-working" housewives, women who do farm work as unpaid family helpers, and women who perform agricultural (or non- farm) wage labor in rural areas. It is very likely, however, that the first two categories, and especially the "pure" housewives, have much less say in crucial domains of family resource management (ranging from the choice of crops to decisions about household consumption, health care and family size) than women who bring in outside income. 3.58 Findings of an earlier study on decision-making in Nepali villages support this hypothesis. Analysis of time allocation data found that the individual woman's participation in employment outside the village had a significantly positive effect on her decision-making power over resource allocation in the household, while participation in domestic activity had a significantly negative effect, and work in subsistence agricultural production for the family had no significant effect. Summed up, confinement to the "inside' domestic sphere was found to reduce women's decision making power, unpaid family work was neutral, and access to the "outside" increased it (Acharya & Bennett, 1982:39). 3.59 If -- as is likely -- this holds for rural India, specific efforts have to be made not only to increase employment opportunities for women laborers, but also to reach rural housewives and unpaid female family workers with agricultural extension, credit and other information and support services for productive self-employment. Unless such access is created/improved for these "women on the inside", the process of agricultural development will fail to achieve maximal productivity from self-employed cultivator families and  - 46 - certainly will not achieve the best possible increase in welfare or quality of life for individual family members. 3.60 One of the advantages of small and marginal cultivators is that of "committed" labor (Rudolph, 1988:345). Family members working for their own farm enterprise are "self-exploiters". They work more diligently than hired laborers -- especially laborers hired on a casual basis. It is also known, from NSS data and many other sources, that the labor. input of female family workers is extremely high on small and marginal farms. Moreover, agricultural wage workers and smallholders are two target groups for rural poverty alleviation strategies. Smallholders also are an important clientele for agricultural research and extension efforts. 3.61 However, unless women in smallholder households are taught the necessary skills that go with the new technologies, unless they are exposed to the new parameters affecting the management of modern farm production, and unless they are brought into the process of allocating what is produced, they will not be fully committed workers. There is ample evidence from Africa, Asia and elsewhere (Dixon, 1985; Jones, 1986; Peters, 1986; Carloni, 1987; Benson and Emmert, 1987) that where women are only expected to provide additional labor for new agricultural practices without seeing clear advantages according to their own priorities (which are not necessarily identical to those of the male household head), they can actually retard or even prevent the adoption of these new practices. Where and when women have actually done so, it has generally been for reasons that were found to be highly rational once the women's own decision-making parameters were taken into consideration.  - 47 - Chapter 4: WOMEN'S ROLE AND POTENTIAL IN THE DAIRY SECTOR A. Growth and Change in India's Livestock/Dairy Sector 4.01 India has the largest cattle and buffalo population in the world, estimated at 200 million and 75 million, respectively, and accounting for about one sixth of the world's cattle and half the world's buffaloes. The livestock sector accounts for around 18% of India's agricultural output. Two thirds of this in turn derives from dairy activities. The production of milk and its derivative products such as ghee (clarified butter), koya (milk solids), etc., has always been the primary reason for Indian farmers to keep buffaloes. Cattle, on the other hand, were traditionally kept primarily for their draft power; their milk was viewed as a by-product -- less important than dung which has always been, and continues to be, a critical source of fuel and fertilizer in rural India. 4.02 There has been a major change in the Indian dairy sector in the last few decades: milk production in 1981 was up 92% over 1951 levels, and the growth rate was estimated at about 4% per annum. Although both the size and productivity of the national herd have gone up (with an increase from 688 grams of milk per day per animal in 1951 to 972 grams per day in 1981), population growth has kept national per capita milk availability at about the same level (see Table 37). With growing demand, particularly in urban areas, dairy production has become an increasingly important aspect of agricultural diversification and source of self-employment and increased income for landless and land-poor households. B. Women's Role in Dairy Production 4.03 Reliable data on employment in dairying -- for men or women -- are difficult to obtain. Since most of this work is performed in the non-market sector, usually intermittently in combination with many other farming tasks, it is missed by the Census (because it is not performed for wages) and undercounted in the NSS (because it does not generally meet the time criterion for unpaid family labor). Unlike those who work as family agricultural laborers on field crops, most family dairy workers do not spend the entire day exclusively in dairy activities. Despite these difficulties, the 1985 Dairy India yearbook reported estimated employment figures of 5 million men and 75 million women in dairy production, implying that 85% of those employed in dairy are women. (A later edition of Dairy India estimated that 93% of those working in dairy production to be women.) These estimates contrast sharply with the 1981 Census data for (paid) livestock production workers which showed only 13% of a total of about 1.8 million employed in this work to be women. 4.04 While it is known that the Census underestimates women's role and Dairy India may have overestimated it, farm-level studies confirm the substantial role of women in livestock management and dairy production. One detailed time allocation study found that village women in Gujarat were spending 2.6 hours a day, or 18.5% of their work day, in dairy production for the household. The time spent and the tasks performed by women vary in different parts of the country, depending on differences in the prevailing  - 48 - gender ideology regarding women's work and the fit of dairy production in the farming system. 4.05 In addition to feeding, grazing, tending and milking the animals, there are also the important tasks of collecting and processing dung. Dung is collected by women and in many parts of the country also composted and carried out to the fields by women. Dung provided an estimated 38% by weight (17% by energy value) of applied plant nutrients in India in 1975. The preparation of cooking fuel by mixing dung with twigs and crop residue is an exclusively female activity -- and one crucial to the operation of the household in most of the Indian plains where trees and other sources of energy have become increasingly scarce. Micro-level studies document a range in women's contribution to the total labor involved in household dairy production and livestock management from 34% in Madhya Pradesh to 60% in West Bengal, 66% in Haryana and 69% in Himachal Pradesh (see Tables 40, 34, 42 & 35). 4.06 The household's economic status also determines the amount and type of dairy work a woman does. Unlike women's labor in crop activities which declines with increasing land holding size, dairy work tends to follow an inverted U-shaped curve: it increases with increasing farm size and then declines somewhat as certain tasks are shifted to hired laborers in the better-off households. Data from Andhra Pradesh show that women from small farms are most heavily involved in livestock work, followed in most districts by landless women and finally by "other" women from larger farms (Mitra, 1987). Women from better-off households spend the least time, and even that is largely for supervising hired help and making milk products; none of these women spent time collecting fodder, feeding, cleaning or actually milking the animals (see Table 36). 4.07 This is consistent with the data in Table 42 which show that in the wealthier and agriculturally more advanced regions of Haryana some of the high-income households have shifted the burden of livestock care to servants (Kaur, 1988).1 In the backward regions of the state nearly 90% of the women reported that they were solely responsible for animal care, but only about half of the women in the advanced regions had the entire responsibility for this work. The same pattern appears in the NSS data on women's involvement in dairy activities by size of land-holding: the percentage of women working in household dairying, poultry or kitchen gardening rises steadily up to holdings of 10 acres and declines again on larger holdings (see Table 31). In Himachal Pradesh, interestingly, a different pattern prevails: perhaps because there are very few landless and also very few families with large holdings where women are withdrawn from agricultural work, farm women's time devoted to livestock care increases in steady correlation with farm size (see Table 35). C. Operation Flood 4.08 Critical to the growth of commercial dairying in India has been Operation Flood (OF). Beginning in 1970, this program, operated by the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), has developed an effective 1 The report does not indicate whether the servants are male or female.  - 49 - organization for the production and marketing of dairy products in a large part of the country. Village-level producers' cooperatives, based on the model developed in the 1940s and 1950s at Anand, in Kheda district, Gujarat, are the core of the three-tier structure which has evolved: these Dairy Cooperative Societies (DCSs) are organized into a union of producer co-ops at the district level and a federation of unions at the state level. By restricting membership to actual milk producers, middlemen and traders are eliminated and replaced with a member-controlled system for performing the marketing and processing functions. OF has established an effective system for collecting, testing, transporting and processing the milk from rural areas for sale in urban markets. And, crucial to the involvement of small rural producers, it has also been able to ensure regular payments and to deliver a package of supportive services (such as veterinary care, artificial insemination, compound feed supply, etc.) to increase productivity. 4.09 From its inception, one of the goals of OF, in addition to increasing aggregate milk production, was improving income levels for the rural poor by ensuring that small producers had equal access to membership in cooperatives and to dairy support services. Promoting dairy production was recognized to be a potential means for improving rural income distribution, since even landless households could participate. Livestock distribution is, of course, far from egalitarian: data for 1977 show that the average number of cattle per operating household was 1.99 for marginal farmers, while the large holders averaged 9.24 animals (see Table 38). Only 7 out of every 10 marginal households owned a milk cow, compared with about 3 to 4 per household for the large farmers. Few of the poorest households in rural India own dairy cattle or buffaloes (see Table 4.1). Nevertheless, nearly half the rural households in India own milk animals, generally small herds of one to three adult animals. About 21% of the households owning milk animals are landless, and 30% are marginal farmers. 4.10 GOI's Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP), which offers a combination of credit and subsidy for the purchase of productive assets by families below the poverty line, has helped many landless and marginal farmers to purchase milk animals. A substantial portion of the loans advanced have been for livestock, but evidence from a recent study on the distribution of OF project benefits suggests that lack of credit for intitial purchase of dairy animals remains a major constraint to the ability of OF to reach the poorest households. In its sample of villages in Madhya Pradesh, the study found that OF had failed to help an appreciable portion of landless and near landless households aquire cattle and take up dairying as an additional income generating activity (Mergos and Slade, 1987:108). 4.11 Another concern has been the nutritional impact of modern dairying on the poor. There is some evidence, for example, that the consumption of milk in dairy producer households declines with commercialization. The Madhya Pradesh study showed, however, that the increased income earned from the sale of milk was used to purchase additional protein and calories which more than offset the reduction resulting from milk sales (Mergos and Slade, 1987:131). Overall, the study found that, although OF benefitted all households owning milk animals, there were probably some additional benefits to large-scale producers who could retain some portion of their production for sale to  - 50 - Table 4.1 OWNERSHIP OF DAIRY ANIMALS BY HOUSEHOLD ECONOMIC STATUS, 1977/78 Percentage of Cumulative Percentage Households Owning Decile Group of Distribution of Dairy Dairy Animals in Households Animals Each Decile Bottom lOX 1.0 4.7 10 - 20 4.9 16.2 20 - 30 12 0 34.4 30 - 40 20.4 38.3 40 - 50 30.5 44.5 50 - 60 40.8 49.4 60 - 70 54.4 62.4 70 - 80 65.9 52.8 80 - 90 83.9 82.3 90 - 100 100.0 73.8 Overall 100.0 47.7 Note: Households classified by value of assets owned. Source: Reserve Bank of India, Department of Statistics, All India Rural Debt Investment Survey. private traders at higher prices (Mergos and Slade, 1987:108). 4.12 Regional data on milk production and consumption indicate that the pattern of regional imbalance noted in Chapter 3 for food crop production also holds for dairy production. The prosperous northern region (including the major dairy states of the Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan) produces 45% of the nation's milk, though it has only 28% of the population. Per capita milk consumption in the North is more than double that in the East and has risen by 57%, while consumption in the East has dropped by 36%. 4.13 Despite these concerns, most evaluations, including the Bank's own, have found that Operation Flood, along with subsidized funding for cattle purchase for poor households under GOI's anti-poverty programs, has had a positive impact on poverty and social objectives. D. Reaching Poor Women Producers 4.14 In theory, Operation Flood and IRDP should have made it equally possible for poor men and poor women to gain access to dairy animals and to participate in the cooperative dairy system. It is a central tenet of India's dairy cooperative movement that membership is open to all producers regardless of economic status, caste or gender. Moreover, IRDP has earmarked 30% of its 2 Larger landowners clearly enjoy other advantages as well. Since, for example, crop residues, and often even fodder crops, are available from their own land, they incur lower cash costs in milk production. Marginal farmers and landless producers, on the other hand, have to maintain their animals at social cost (e.g., on coraon resource pastures or vith fodder obtained from common resource forest land) or purchase fodder from the landed: in the first case their output is reducedl in the second they incur high costs (Jodha, 1973).  - 51 - lending to women. Why then, despite women's major role in dairy production, are so few women members of the primary producers' cooperatives? In 1981, only 10% of the co-op membership in Andhra Pradesh and 1.1% in Bihar were women, for example. More recent figures indicate that women make up 17% of the total country-wide membership and constitute less than 3% of the DCS board members. Why has less than 15% of the IRDP credit (for livestock and all other purposes) reached women borrowers even after special targeting for women was introduced into IRDP? 4.15 All the constraints to women's access to public programs and commercial transactions with the "outside" which have been outlined earlier are operative in the dairy sector. The common pattern is for women to handle most of the production aspects and for the men to assume the cooperative membership and control the cash income. There are a number of problems associated with this traditional "inside/outside" division of labor. Some affect the overall efficiency of dairy production, others affect the welfare returns to the family and to the woman producer herself. Women, for example, do not usually gain access to training in modern livestock management and dairying techniques which is available to men through the co-op structure. Instead, they must learn second-hand through the men or continue with traditional practices, both of which lower their efficiency and reduce returns to investments in training. Non-member producers also miss the chance to be trained in the responsibilities and rights associated with cooperative membership and to benefit from the exposure provided by Farmers Induction Training and other member activities. 4.16 For women from poor households the greatest disadvantage is, however, that they have no control over dairy income which is collected by the male household member. In cases where the women used to deal with traditional milk traders who came to the household compound, they lose what small degree of economic autonomy they had when marketing arrangements are formalized through the cooperative structure. The fact that milk payments to cooperative members in many villages are, for efficiency reasons, now made less frequently and, hence, in larger sums, has apparently increased the likelihood that at least some of the money is diverted by the men before essential household expenses are met. In short, for non-member women producers, Operation Flood has too often meant more dairy work but no increase, and sometimes even a decrease, in their access to dairy income. 4.17 It is evident that in order to attain the objective of equal access to membership for all producers, special measures need to be taken under the umbrella of Operation Flood. Fortunately, there now is a considerable body of experience gained by a number of NGOs and parastatal agencies which have experimented with various provisions that would allow women producers to participate fully in the "white revolution". Their experiences vary -- in the intensity of the intervention, the emphasis on reaching women from the poorest and socially most disadvantaged groups, the scope of the coverage, and the structure of their approaches. But from what they have learned it is possible to assemble and cost out the required package of inputs, services and procedural changes needed to "give women an even playing field" in the dairy sector.  - 52 - E. NGO Initiatives 4.18 Many NGOs have worked with women and dairying.3 The two discussed here as broadly representative examples are the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) in Ahmedabad district of Gujarat and Bhagavatula Charitable Trust (BCT) in Andhra Pradesh. 4.19 SEWA Ahmedabad. SEWA, registered as a trade union in Ahmedabad city, is an organization of poor working women.4 The effort to establish women's dairy cooperatives began in 1979 and was undertaken by SEWA's rural branch, SEWA-Jaagao, in cooperation with the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). SEWA's experience in establishing the four women's cooperatives which now exist documents the special difficulties involved in incorporating poor and especially disadvantaged scheduled caste women into cooperative dairy production. A special 'pre-cooperative" phase had to be built into the organizing process to foster solidarity among the women and educate potential members in cooperative rules and management. Special screening and clear membership criteria also proved necessary to avoid domination of the cooperatives by women from the local elite. In addition to credit for the purchase of a dairy animal, training in livestock management had to be provided for many of these women from families with little or no land who had never owned a cow before. The need for mechanisms that would allow poor women to develop fodder plantations on wasteland/commons or on their own small homestead plots also became apparent. 4.20 Beyond the initial organizing work, SEWA's main role was to act as an intermediary between NDDB, the District Cooperative Registrar, the commercial banks and the various government functionaries charged with administering IRDP and other government schemes and services. These services (including the supply of improved animals, feed, veterinary care, artificial insemination services, training, and marketing) are theoretically available to all through the various government schemes -- but poor women producers need initial assistance in making the system work for them. 4.21 Bhagavatula Charitable Trust (BCT). Many of the same organizing and intermediation functions characterize the BCT women's dairy program in Andhra Pradesh. But one especially innovative and successful element has been the training of village women para-vets. The first para-vet training was held in 1984 when 33 women from 17 villages were trained for three months in cattle physiology, animal care and feeding practices, milk testing and, most significantly, in basic veterinary care. These women, many of them illiterate, now serve as para-vets in their own villages where they appear to have had considerable impact on villagers' knowledge and attitudes about dairying and animal husbandry. The women treat an average of five animals per week and have treated and contained serious epidemics in the area. They are 3 Among them are Vidhyayak Sansad in Maharashtra; Amari MKndali in Gujarat; Weavers, RIDA, Suchi, and the Chittoor and Krishna District Rural Women's Dairy Associations in Andhra Pradesh; the Community Service Guild and CODES in Tamil Nadu; Samita Gram Seva Sanathan in Bihar; and SUTRA in Himachal Pradesh (Srinivasan, 1988). 4 Sea Chapter 10, par- 10.61 for further discussion of SEWA.  - 53 - paid a fixed salary, initially by BCT and now by the Mahila Mandals (local women's organizations) which they serve. They meet regularly to exchange experiences, and a veterinary doctor provides in-service training and back-up support. 4.22 In addition, BCT has developed cooperative fodder farms which are gradually handed over to the Mahila Mandals for management. The profits from the fodder production are shared on a 50-50 basis between the women laborers who tend the farm and the respective Mahila Mandal. F. Parastatal Agency Initiatives 4.23 APDDCFL. Part of the Operation Flood network, Andhra Pradesh Dairy Development Cooperative Federation Limited (APDDCFL) was the first of the state-level dairy cooperative organizations to become involved in a major effort to integrate women producers into the cooperative structure. Moving from 10% female membership in 1982 to 18% in 1988, this Federation now has 17,000 women members organized into 210 Women's Dairy Cooperative Societies (WDCS) and 73,000 women members in mixed-gender Dairy Cooperative Societies. With support from the Ford Foundation, APDDCFL designed and carried out a project to organize women as members of dairy producer cooperatives in three districts (Nalgonda, Chitoor and Krishna) and to improve their access to all the inputs considered essential to increase their productivity. Many of the program elements are already familiar; they include: direct membership for women producers in village-level cooperative organizations; - provision of credit to poor women for the purchase of milk animals through revolving funds allocated to cooperatives and by linking up with IRDP and the Drought-Prone Areas Program (DPAP); - development of a guality herd of cows/buffaloes to supply poor women with more productive animals; - training of illiterate village women as gara-veterinarians as one mechanism of ensuring basic veterinary care at the village level; - provision of training in aspects of cooperative management as well as milk production and livestock management; and - development of fodder farms to be managed by the cooperative, and sale of fodder at reasonable prices to those women who need it. 4.24 The key instrument for reaching women producers have been the Women Extension Supervisors (WESs). Although their salaries were supported by the Ford Foundation grant, the WESs were hired as APDDCFL staff. They were trained in general cooperative management and in dealing with women's particular problems in dairying. The 30 WESs now deployed have proved extremely successful. They have lived in rural areas, using mopeds for mobility, and have been able to organize and provide training and supervision to 121 women's cooperative societies. They have also been involved in  - 54 - organizing Women's Dairy Cooperative Societies (WDCSs) and encouraging women milk producers to join. 4.25 One of the activities of the WDCSs is to persuade men in households where women are the producers but men have been the cooperative members to transfer their membership to the women. These women then join the Igrowing ranks of female members in mixed-gender cooperatives. 4.26 In Chitoor district, a Rural Women's Dairy Association has been formed as the apex body for all the WDCSs in the district. The project provided a Rs 500,000 revolving fund to the Chitoor Rural Women's Dairy Association to help poor women obtain loans for cattle. Funds have been provided to the village cooperatives which in turn have deposited them with lbanks to guarantee livestock loans to potential women producers. As repayments are made, credit is extended to other women. 4.27 The Andhra Pradesh project has attracted considerable attention nationally and from NDDB. Currently the project is monitored by a committee consisting of representatives from APDDCFL, GOI (Department of Women and Child Development), NDDB, voluntary organizations, the Government of Andhra Pradesh, and Women's Dairy Cooperative Societies from the three projects districts. Based on the success of the initial pilot project, APDDCFL prepared a project proposal in 1987 to extend the coverage to the entire state. The proposal calls for one Women's Extension Supervisor per 10 Women's Dairy Cooperative Societies and one woman veterinary doctor per union if there are at least 50 WDCSs in the union. It also includes provisions to train women para-vets on the BCT model. 4.28 It is expected that the expanded project will be financially supported by the State and Central Governments -- but this support has not yet been confirmed. Although the Ford Foundation has made a supplementary grant to continue support in the three pilot districts and the Dutch government is funding the same basic model in Prakasam district, the women's dairy project has yet to be fully integrated into the mainstream operations of APDDCFL. Only when its operating costs have become part of the regular budget of the Federation can the project's success -- and the commitment of NDDB and the State and Central Governments -- be fully assessed. 4.29 Bihar Women's Dairy Project. Such commitment is evident in GOI's Department of Women and Child Welfare which has provided support to the Bihar Women's Dairy Project. Begun only in 1987, the project is closely modeled on the APDDCFL experience and emphasizes the organization of women's cooperative societies, revolving credit funds and linkages with IRDP for livestock loans for assetless women, community fodder development, feed subsidies, and herd improvement. Para-vet training for village women is also part of the package, along with technical training and cooperative management training for women producer members. 4.30 Once again the Women Extension Officers are critical. Forty have been trained, and in less than two years they have organized 6,900 women into 170 women's cooperative societies that have already begun pouring milk regularly. The percentage of women members has risen from 1.1% (or only 6  - 55 - women) in the 6 participating districts to 14% in the entire Federation. This is particularly impressive in view of the socio-cultural environment in Bihar which is much more conservative than in Andhra Pradesh and where women's labor force participation rates are among the lowest in the country. For many of the women who received training under the project, it was the first time they had left their marital village unattended by male relatives. Caste barriers, which are extremely rigid and highly politicized in Bihar (and have erupted on several occasions over the last decade in violent "caste wars"), were also broken during the training when women from different communities lived together and discovered common problems during class discussions. 4.31 While the long-term impact of the project can only be assessed at a later stage, early developments are encouraging and suggest further possibilities for cooperation between NDDB, parastatal organizations and non- government organizations in other states so that Operation Flood II can increase its ability to reach poor women dairy producers. External aid donors such as the Bank can -- and should -- play an important role in fostering the replication of such successful models.   - 57 - Chapter 5: WOMEN AND FORESTRY A. Introduction 5.01 To understand the importance of women in India's forestry economy and that of forest resources for India's women, some conceptual clarifications are needed. Forests tend to be thought of as sizeable stands of trees or those tracts that are classified as forest by the government (categorized into reserved, protected, unprotected, village and private forests). Economic planners think of forests primarily in terms of the value of the timber they contain and the other commercial products they produce. Increasingly, however, forests are also recognized as essential to the stability of complex agro-climatic and ecological systems. Estimates that India lost 34% of its forest cover between 1974 and 1984 raise serious concerns about not only the national, but the global environmental impact of this depletion. 5.02 While the following discussion is concerned with forests as they are viewed by forest departments, economists and environmentalists, the central concern here is the perspective of women in low-income households. For them, the forest means a reservoir of natural resources essential for the survival of the household. It means not only trees, bushes and scrub -- whatever their variety and size and wherever they grow, whether in the "proper" forests, or on wastelands, along roads, on common property land, private farms or even in urban areas -- but also fuel, livestock fodder, building materials and a host of other products for domestic use and/or for sale in the market. 5.03 This definition makes it possible to consider the relation between women and forests not only in forest-dwelling tribal communities or in forested hill areas, but also in the agricultural regions of the plains which have poor forest cover and even in urban areas where poor women are dependent on biomass for cooking purposes. While certain problems are common to women in all four environments, the variations in farming and livelihood systems developed to utilize forest resources in these different environments mean that even responses to common problems vary. In addition, there are certain constraints -- and certain economic potentials -- that are confined to specific socio-economic groups in specific environments which need to be considered separately. 2 5.04 One common problem for women in all these different regions and groups is deforestation. It has increased the time and/or cash costs of securing the fuelwood necessary to transform raw foodstuffs into meals. The rural woman's "domestic" chores encompass the primary responsibility for fuelwood (and dung) collection. Children help, and in some communities 1 This discussion in based on material presented in greater detail in the recently published PRE working paper by Ravinder Kaur, Women and Forestry in India (June 1991) 2 The PRE working paper, by Augusta Molnar and Gotz Schreiber, Women and Forestry: Overational Issues (May 1989), discusses the important interlinkages between women and forest resources in considerable detail.  - 58 - (notably among some tribal groups) men may also assist, but the impact of deforestation and fuelwood scarcity falls mainly on women.3 Numerous recent studies document the increasing amount of time and effort women must spend in this task and its impact on nutrition, health and the schooling of children (see, for example, A. Agarwal, 1985; B. Agarwal, 1985; Batliwala, 1983; Nagbrahman and Sambrani, 1983). 5.05 There are conflicting theories as to who is responsible for the destruction of forest resources and the consequent fuel and fodder crisis. Forest Departments tend to blame the people's insatiable demand for fuelwood and fodder. Many environmentalists maintain, conversely, that governments are the main agents of destruction because they view forests simply as revenue- generating resources and therefore sacrifice local welfare to the interests of industry and commercial loggers; in this view, forests are being depleted primarily by industrial interests in collusion with the Forest Departments, rather than by the activities of local villagers. 5.06 Whatever the combination of causes, it is evident that the important economic buffer which common property resources (CPRs) have traditionally provided to the rural poor is being rapidly eroded. It has been documented (Jodha, 1985) that poor rural households are much more dependent on common property forests and pastures (see Table 47) than are better-off households. NSS data also show that the amount of time women spend in "free collection' of fuel and fodder and other materials is inversely related to the size of landholding (see Table 31). B. Firewood Consumption 5.07 In India's rural areas, firewood accounts for 68% of total household energy use. Of this, around 13% is purchased, 64% is collected, and 23% is homegrown (see Table 43). Some village studies show even higher shares (up to 80%) of firewood in total rural energy consumption (e.g., ASTRA, 1981). Aggregate demand for firewood in India has been estimated at 131 million tons a year and is projected to reach 150 million tons by 1990 (Huria and Acharya, 1983). The Planning Commission, which estimated a demand of 133 million tons for 1982, pointed out that recorded annual production from forest lands is only about 15 million tons. 5.08 Although a sizeable portion of total household energy needs is met from sources such as agricultural residues, dung, leaves, grass and bushes, the huge gap between aggregate demand and officially recorded production indicates the seriousness of the fuelwood shortage -- but also the extent of unrecorded fuel extraction from India's diminishing forests. Illicit extraction by unscrupulous commercial operators is clearly a major factor in the disappearance of India's forest, but much of the unrecorded exploitation is done by rural women -- for their own household use or for sale. S In a study of two villages in the Garhval hills of Uttar Pradesh, for instance, Swaminathan (1982) noted that in 86X of the households sappled, only women went out to collect firewood.  - 59 - 5.09 A number of village studies have been conducted on the quantity of fuelwood consumed by households. Table 44 shows an average consumption of almost 7 kg per day for the sample of households in five different regions, with a range from about 4 kg to 11 kg (Dasgupta and Maiti, 1986). Another study, covering three villages in different parts in Gujarat, calculated that each household (with an average size of seven) consumed up to 10 kg a day of firewood (Nagbrahman and Sambrani, 1983). Such estimates are not always comparable, however, because some refer to firewood only while others calculate firewood equivalent and include agricultural wastes and cow dung. 5.10 Environment affects the type of fuel used. In forest and semi- forest areas, mainly firewood is used; in the hills, firewood is combined with crop by-products and wastes; in the plains, less firewood is used and there is greater dependence on crop residues and animal dung. Village studies document the variations in the use of household energy sources (see Table 45). In the desert regions of North India, where crop production is low, one study found that 85% of biomass energy came from firewood and dung; in hill areas, the share of these fuels dropped to 72%; and in the plains, where crop production is relatively high, firewood and dung contributed only 63% of the total. 5.11 Not surprisingly, land ownership is a major determinant of access to firewood and other biomass fuels. One study found that families owning less than 1 ha used no firewood, those owning 1-2 ha used an average of 0.2 kg per day, but those with more than 2 ha averaged 2.3 kg of firewood use daily. Where no communal wood resources remain accessible, the poor are forced to burn lower-quality crop and animal residues, diverting organic fertilizer from agricultural use. Alternatively -- if this alternative is indeed open to them -- they have to buy fuel: "...there is increasing evidence that poor men and women are beginning to pay for non-wood fuel, when fuel is scarce. In Gujarat, for instance, women daily wage laborers may take some portion of their wages in burnable agricultural residues as well as cash or foodstuffs" (Molnar, 1986:28). 5.12 Being forced to resort to different fuels changes the nature of cooking and the time required. Less efficient fuels may need constant tending, precluding other work. They may also need more preparation before use. Faced with firewood scarcity, rural households are compelled to make complicated decisions about family labor allocations, alternative fuels and the household energy economy, and these may have significant impact on the workload and education of children -- especially girls (Cecelski, 1984). 5.13 Fuelwood supply can influence the type, quantity and quality of food consumed. Evidence shows that poor families are compelled to shift to less nutritious foods which take less energy and time to cook. Many "lean season" foods, like forest roots and tubers, may have to be abandoned because they can be made edible only by long cooking; this in turn reduces the forests' important role in providing the poor with a security buffer in periods of unemployment or food shortage.  - 60 - 1C. Declining Fodder SuDDly 5.14 The depletion of India's forests and the degradation of common property grazing lands has also affected the availability of livestock fodder. Raising animals for milk and meat production is central to the livelihoods of many farm households in India. As discussed in Chapter 4, women play a major role in the rural livestock economy (see also para. 5.29), and there is a crucial linkage between dairy production and forestry. But the demand for fodder is also acute among those involved in raising small livestock such as goats in India's vast semi-arid regions. In fact, as a constraint on aggregate household income among the poor, the shortage of fodder may be even more serious for women than the shortage of fuelwood. 5.15 Throughout most of India, the major source of animal feed is tree fodder. For the landless and smallholders in particular, access to grass and tree fodder from common property resources (CPRs) is essential to the viability of their dairy activities, the maintenance of their draft animals and their meat and wool production from sheep and goats. A study of 80 villages in 7 states found that income from CPRs, including fodder, accounted for 14-23% of total household income from all sources. The use of CPRs for grass fodder was disproportionate for the rural poor: 100% of the rural poor collecting 3 to 6 different kinds of products from the CPR, compared with only about one fifth of the better-off villagers depending on CPR grass fodder resources (Jodha, 1985). 5.16 As already noted, a common constraint faced by all the efforts to increase the productivity of poor women in dairying is the scarcity of fodder. Large areas of common-property grazing lands, which traditionally supported dairy cattle, have changed drastically in their vegetative composition (i.e., species mix) and are now only suitable for sheep and goats. There also has been a dramatic decline in the number of animal watering points on grazing CPRs over time (Jodha, 1986). Unfortunately, the original design of most social forestry activities led to heavy emphasis on timber tree planting and has had little positive impact on grass and other livestock fodder production. 5.17 Recent research casts serious doubt on the widely held opinion of foresters that India's "wastelands" -- i.e., her vast areas of degraded forest lands and of common-property grazing and foraging areas -- are highly unproductive providers of grass. A study of CPRs in one block in eastern Rajasthan found that villagers perceive their common land as much more productive than do foresters. When woodlots have been established under social forestry projects, women claim that they have lost a valuable source of grasses (Brara, 1987). Even when the newer plantation models include grasses, the range of grass species grown tends to be far more limited than before the planting scheme; hence, women rightly complain that grass fodder becomes available all at once, rather than different species reaching peak production at different times throughout the rainy season. The women would prefer a rotational closure system that would allow regeneration of the traditional grasses and sustain a variety of local grass and tree species so as to maximize fodder output, rather than timber production.  - 61 - 5.18 There has been a major shift, however, in tree planting models for degraded public and community land under social forestry programs in the past few years. Forest Departments are introducing wider spacing of timber trees, establishing grass cover as well, and including fruit and fodder trees to the range of species planted. For these models to be effective, women and men must become strong community decision-makers in devising management models that allow for fodder lopping at optimal times to maximize quantity and quality of fodder and ensure year-round fodder availability. Such management systems are possible: in Haryana, villagers in expansion sites to the Sukhomajri model have protected the catchment area of small water harvesting structures and have obtained harvesting contracts from the Forest Department for the grass to support their local dairying efforts (Stewart, 1989). D. Women's Time Allocation 5.19 Time allocation studies document the impact on women's time of the fuelwood and fodder shortage (see Table 46). Unfortunately, many of these studies are less than fully reliable. To some extent, the wide range (from 45 minutes to 5 hours) in the time women spend each day in fuel collection is explained by factors such as proximity to forests or other sources of fuel, type of farming system, etc., which affect the time spent gathering fuel. 5.20 Some of the variation may be accounted for, however, by differences in the methods used to arrive at daily estimates -- yet often the methodology is not clearly set out in studies which highlight the extremes presented by the data. Most studies, for example, depend on the recall method which is most reliable when used in reference to activities in the previous week and declines sharply in accuracy when longer time spans are covered. Answers are also likely to vary according to the season in which the interview is conducted. Trips to collect fuel are often more frequent before the monsoon (or in the hills before the winter snows), because women are stocking supplies for the coming season; the time expended is greater, thus, but may not be representative for the entire year. Where firewood is also collected for sale, the frequency of trips is also higher; often studies do not separate out trips made to collect wood for sale. Women also often gather several products on their trips: fodder is almost always collected together with fuel, and leafy vegetables, fruits and seeds, for home consumption or for the market, are also collected. Yet, few, if any, studies make adjustments in their time allocation data for such "dual purpose" trips by women to the forests. 5.21 This is not to say that the rural energy crisis is not severe and that the task of fuel collection has not become a much greater burden for women. But, given the many agricultural and animal husbandry tasks of rural women, not to mention their conventional domestic chores, it is difficult to see how households could survive if -- as some of the published studies suggest -- every woman had to spend five hours just in household fuel collection every day. 5.22 Women in urban areas, of course, spend less time collecting fuel. The data in Table 43 show that only 15% of the firewood, 12% of the dung and 29% of the "other" household energy sources used in urban areas are collected  62 - (compared to 64%, 26% and 61%, respectively, in the rural areas). But the scarcity of firewood has meant higher prices, and an increasing share of the family budget of poor urban households must go for fuel. An estimate for Bangalore city, for example, shows that the poor spend 17% of their income on firewood (Reddy and Reddy, 1983). E. Forestry and Female EmRloyment 5.23 Clearly, deforestation has affected the domestic economy of poor households with greater severity, and its impact has fallen primarily on women since they have the main responsibility for fuel and fodder collection for the household. Yet, it is also true that there has been a "domestic bias" in much of the analysis of women's relationship to forest resources and management. This has obscured women's essential role in the non-domestic or commercial forest economy. In fact, forests are as important a source of income and employment to women -- particularly poor women -- as they are a resource from which women provide for household subsistence needs. Indeed, women in forest regions of Orissa have been reported to consider not lack of fuelwood, but lack of work and the consequent inability to buy food as their greatest problem. For these women, deforestation means loss of jobs. In addition, certain government policies and features of the production and marketing arrangements for forest products have also reduced women's employment and income. 5.24 Women's employment in forestry can be classified into three main types: (a) direct wage employment in production and/or harvesting of forest products, with wages paid in either cash or kind; (b) self-employment; and (c) secondary employment in forest-based industries where workers are paid wages or piece rate. 5.25 Wage an_d Salaried REloyMent. What direct employment there is for women in forestry is provided primarily by the public sector -- generated by the states' Forest Departments under their regular activities or through special programs such as social forestry. Forest Departments employ women as wage laborers in development work (nursery operations, soil working or plantation establishment), maintenance work (watering, weeding, applying fertilizers and pesticides, and guarding/protection) and harvesting activities. Except for heavy logging, women do all types of forestry work, including pit digging and earth work, and are widely recognized to be more proficient at nursery work. In social forestry projects women have proven to be much more adept at such tasks as filling poly bags, planting seeds and watering seedlings. 5.26 Women and men are officially entitled to the same wage, but in practice women often receive a lower wage than men -- consistent with the wage differentials prevailing in the private sector. Data on hourly earnings indicate that harvesting (specifically wood collecting) is the most poorly paid activity. Nursery work is the most sought-after, because it provides steady employment. 5.27 Although government-sponsored social forestry programs may have had the effect of causing a shift towards male-controlled cash crop trees  - 63 - rather than of significantly improving fuel and fodder availability as originally intended, they have, to a limited extent, benefitted poor women by providing employment. The Hadhya Pradesh Forest Department reported that during 1984/85 as many as 2 million women worked in its social forestry program nurseries, plantations and other works (CWDS, 1987:99). However, as Olsson's study of the Orissa social forestry project shows, only 30% of the total work-days generated in 1985/86 went to women (see Table 49).4 5.28 The number of women employed in the higher ranks of the Indian Forest Service (IFS) is minuscule. The first IFS graduating class to include women was that of 1984. Women have, however, been recruited as lower-level extension workers in several states, including West Bengal, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Orissa and Bihar. In most cases they have been recruited as forest guards or as motivators, but in Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh they have been recruited specifically for extension work.5 On the whole, women recruits have been reported to be quite effective, especially in extension work: they contact more women than male extension workers do, and they appear to have no difficulty in talking to male farmers and were found to have made as many contacts with them as their male counterparts (Molnar, 1986:30). In view of the successful involvement of Mahila Mandals in woodlot establishment in Himachal Pradesh, a policy decision has been made in this state to recruit women forest guards and higher level staff as well as local extension workers (World Bank and USAID, National Social Forestry Project Mid-Term Review, June 1988). 5.29 Self-Employment. Of much greater importance than women's wage employment in forestry is their self-employment and indirect employment in a wide range of forest-based enterprises. One of these, particularly important for women from the plains and hill areas, is raising animals for milk, meat and wool production and draft purposes. Women's major role in livestock production (particularly dairying) and the crucial linkages between this enterprise and forestry have been discussed in Chapter 4. 5.30 Another activity undertaken by the poor wherever forest resources are available, but especially important in tribal areas, is headloading, It has been estimated that two to three million people are headloading wood regularly, with many more involved seasonally, supplying approximately half of the firewood consumed in urban India (Agarwal, 1983). A sample survey in Bangalore indicated that about 300 people bring headloads of firewood into the city daily; at an average of about 25 kg per load, the total amount of firewood coming into the city in headloads was 7.5 tons a day (Reddy and Reddy, 1983:1759). It is not uncommon to see people collecting headloads for sale even in metropolitan cities. In Delhi, thousands of tons of firewood are reported collected every year from forested areas within the city (Agarwal and Bhatt, 1983). Headloading -- carried on by both men and women -- is a symptom 4 This low figure could also reflect the fact that foresters in some cases may record female laborers as males and keep the wage difference, either pocketing it themselves or using it to stretch limited project budgets when allotted funds are inadequate to do the required job (G. Campbell, personal communication). 5 In Madhya Pradesh in 1984185, 11 of the 234 extension officers were women, and 54 of the 981 non- gazetted posts for Van Sevlkas were women (CWDS, 1987:99).  - 64 - of lack of employment or alternative sources of income. It is prevalent where employment is seasonal and the incidence of poverty is high. But it exists not only because of an oversupply of labor: it also points to a demand for fuelwood that must be satisfied through increased biomass production. 5.31 Non-Timber Forest Products. The other major source of both self- employment and indirect employment in forestry is the collection, processing and sale of a wide range of non-timber forest products (NTFPs), also known as minor forest products (MFPs). These include bamboo, cane, grasses, oilseeds, fibers (such as hemp and silk), gums and resins, dyes, medicinal plants, spices, honey and wax, nuts, sandalwood, leaves, and seeds for propagation. Although the designation "minor" may give the impression that this sub-sector is not of economic importance, in 1986 NTFPs accounted for almost two fifths of total Forest Department revenues and three fourths of net export earnings from forest produce (Commander, 1986). 5.32 The majority of workers involved in the NTFP economy are women -- particularly tribal women. About 70% of NTFP collection takes place in the central tribal belt in the five states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. The National Review Paper (1987) estimated employment for women in forest-based enterprises at approximately 571,851 million days. About 90% of this employment is in small-scale enterprises. Female participation is particularly high in enterprises that depend on the application of local skills and village-level technology for collection, extraction and processing of products and where the production can be pursued as a self-employment venture or as a cottage industry or household enterprise. 5.33 Although the share of women in some larger enterprises, such as the match industry, may be high, the total female employment in such industries is less than half that of small-scale enterprises. Women are, in fact, the mainstay of small-scale forest-based enterprises (see Table 48). Perhaps the largest employer of women in this sub-sector is the bidi (indigenous cigarette) industry where women are employed to collect the tendu leaves and to roll the cigarettes -- mostly at home on a piece-rate basis. Estimated employment is on the order of 106 million person-days in collecting and 675 million person-days in processing (see Table 50). According to the 1981 Census, bidi manufacture is the second largest employer of women outside agriculture and the only industry employing more women (55%) than men. 5.34 Women face numerous constraints in trying to operate in the NTFP economy. Some relate to the forest resources and women's access to them. Deforestation itself is a major problem because it reduces the supply of NTFP and increases the time needed to collect it. Second, partly in response to the increasing pressure on forest lands, the Forest Departments have attempted to control the access to these areas and products -- even to forest-dwelling tribal groups whose traditional rights are thereby eroded. Moreover, in their efforts to regenerate forests, Forest Departments have made little, if any, attempt to learn from local women and men about the many non-timber products these forests yield; instead, in an effort to provide raw material for industry, they have often promoted monoculture reforestation efforts. While these may be more "efficient" in terms of timber production, they change the species composition of the forest and eliminate species which produce valuable  -65 - NTFPs, thus reducing not only the biological diversity and stability of forest areas, but perhaps even the net economic value of the forest. Certainly, they reduce the economic value of the forests to traditional residents. 5.35 Often too, the raw materials that are produced in government forests are made available at subsidized prices to organized industry, while local, small-scale and cottage producers must pay more and sometimes have difficulty obtaining supplies at all. Increasingly, NTFP exploitation is organized by contractors who have successfully bid for the rights sold by the Forest or the Land Revenue Department. As the contractors develop more sophisticated market linkages, they undertake more and more of the processing as well as collecting, thereby displacing women entrepreneurs engaged in processing and establishing themselves as intermediaries between the primary collectors and the market (Blaikie, Harriss and Pain, 1985). One study found that basket makers in Bangalore paid Rs 200 for a ton of bamboo, while organized industry paid only Rs 15 per ton (Gadgil, 1983:12). Similarly, the Uttar Pradesh Forest Corporation charged the paper industry a lower price for bhabbar grass than the traditional rope makers who also needed the grass (Gupta and Chaudhry, 1988). 5.36 A second set of constraints women (and tribal communities in general) face in maximizing income from NTFP collection and processing concerns lack of sophistication in marketing, trading networks and processing technologies, etc., as well as lack of access to capital. Despite the substantial demand for NTFP, the primary producers almost invariably have access only to local markets and to intermediaries. Many types of NTFPs must be sold immediately after collection, forcing the collectors to accept whatever price is offered since they have no storage facilities or means to transport their products to other markets. Often the absence of local processing facilities deprives the primary producers of the chance to increase the value-added of their products and thus derive greater income from them. For example, although Bihar is the largest producer of lac, industrial products based on lac are mainly produced in West Bengal (NRP, 1987:28). Factors which producers may not be aware of can also reduce their earnings: the chironju fruit, for instance, which the tribals sell with the seed for Rs 3-5/kg to traders, retails for Rs 50/kg once the traders have had it de- seeded (Chand and Bezborauh, 1980:136). FAO has evaluated a range of forest- product processing enterprises and concluded that the small-scale entrepreneurs are often equally or more efficient than the larger processing industries (Arnold, Chipeta and Fisscha, 1987). 5.37 The National Commission on Agriculture recommended in 1976 the creation of Forest Development Corporations (FDCs) to deal directly with the tribal collectors of NTFPs. The intent was to organize collection and marketing through FDCs so as to ensure reasonable returns to the primary collectors. In some states this has happened. The Gujarat Forest Department has worked with tribals, supplying raw materials for traditional basket work at reasonable rates, assisting with marketing, and returning the profits for reinvestment in the local area. Other states had even earlier introduced Forest Laborers' Cooperatives with the idea of entrusting forest exploitation to local cooperatives. These have done well in some areas. In Dangs district of Gujarat, for example, all timber extraction is done by these cooperatives  - 66 - which are entirely controlled and run by tribals. The cooperatives are paid for their labor and, in addition, receive 20% of the net proceeds after the produce is marketed through their own depots (Gadgil, 1983). 5.38 In most states, however, the FDCs have not succeeded in improving the situation of primary collectors. Some states have nationalized the more lucrative forest products; others have acquired monopoly rights to them. ]However, since the primary objective of most state governments has been to imaximize their own revenues, state regulation has not really helped the primary workers and forest dwellers. In fact, the agents appointed by the states have usually been front men for industrialists or contractors. In many cases, the policy of nationalization has been reversed and the old system of working through contractors has been resumed openly (National Committee on the Development of Backward Areas, 1981, in NRP, 1988:44.) 5.39 Where the NTFP economy is controlled by middlemen, traders and agents or even the Forest Corporations, the forest dwellers and actual collectors derive only a wage or a very negligible income from even the potentially most lucrative items. Under other arrangements, primary producers can make substantial profits. In addition to the efforts of the Gujarat Forest Department cited above, other examples of successful interventions have been those of GOI's Khadi and Village Industries Corporation (KVIC) which has been successful in maintaining female participation in traditional forest- related industries and introducing credit facilities and organized marketing. Several examples of effective NGO efforts to improve women's returns from forestry-based activities have also been recorded (A. Agarwal, 1985; IBRD, 1986), 5.40 The potential of the sericulture subsector to generate significant self-employment for women has already been recognized in the Bank- supported National Sericulture Project. The emphasis and growth in the subsector has been on mulberry silk, which is concentrated in the southern states. There is considerable scope for reaching poor tribal women in the eastern and central regions through expanding the scope of future lending to include tasar in addition to mulberry silk. Tasar sericulture, in addition to having the advantage of self-targeting the poorest in the least developed regions, also has positive features from the environmental point of view, since it involves tree plantation on marginal or wastelands. Good institutional infrastructure exists in this sector for research, extension, seed multiplication and training, due to earlier efforts under the Swiss funded Inter-state Tasar Project. Significant work has also been done by NGOs to promote pilot projects in tasar sericulture (Mahajan, 1989:11) 5.41 In Bankura, West Bengal, for instance, women were organized to afforest wasteland with arjun and asan trees as a basis for tasar silk production. On the women's plots, 90% of the plants survived, compared to 55% in nearby government plantations. The women were initially organized by a Delhi-based research organization, the Centre for Women's Development Studies (CWDS), but have now taken the initiative themselves and organized their own society, Gramin Mahila Saramik Unayan Samiti (GMSUS). They have now diversified their income-earning activities: one enterprise, for example, makes traditional sal leaf cups and plates, but with a "modern" polythene  - 67 - lining which increases their market price. The women have proved to be adept at operating the new plate-making equipment and have learned to repair it. F. Gender Issues in Forestry Policy and Project Design 5.42 It is evident that both the general policy framework and the design of existing social forestry projects have largely failed women. Failure to help women meet household subsistence needs for fodder and fuel has been compounded by failure to understand, or even perceive, women's need to earn income, and there has been no serious attempt to expand opportunities for female employment in the forestry sector. 5.43 Broadly speaking, policies that would benefit the poor and vest responsibility and control for forest resources with local communities would also benefit women. However, when new forest assets are created, women's rights to them must be explicitly set out and enforced. (The involvement of NGOs would be very useful here.) Also beneficial to women would be attention to the need for better NTFP marketing systems from primary collectors to final users. No national policy governs this important area, and even the social forestry programs have not brought NTFP within their purview, concentrating instead on traditional components of forestry handled by Forest Departments. 5.44 Related to this is the proposal that for forest dwelling tribals, their forests could be detached from the Forest Department and alternative institutional arrangements put in place to help safeguard, develop and exploit their forests (Agarwal and Ghatt, 1983b). The tribals could replant denuded land and control the produce of the forest. Such an effort however, would need to solve the problem of determining which tribals are the forest dwellers and which are assimilated. Also, if actual transfer of land tenure were involved this could result in eventual alienation to outsiders or control by others. What the tribals need are clear rights to forest produce and the establishment of management systems that are to their advantage. One possibility is a cost-sharing arrangement whereby the Forest Department has a stake in giving tribals increased access to forest and yet tribals also get their due. The key here, of course, is to ensure that the new structure is actually managed by the tribals and does not become yet another organ for central or state-level control. 5.45 There are a number of specific measures that could be taken to improve the design and workings of social forestry projects. The essential thrust of all of them is: involve the women. Women have an essential role to play in plantations -- in planning for them, choosing species and in actually doing the planting and protecting. Similarly, in planning community woodlots and other such plantations, women's reliance on multiple forest products must be taken into account. If adequate substitutes for lost fuel, fodder and other forest resources are not available, the remaining resources must not be depleted through cash crop plantations on commons -- especially if, as in the past, these are controlled by men. While women laborers have formed the majority of nursery workers, in only a few cases have women been targeted for the establishment of private nurseries.  - 68 - 5.46 The distribution of seedlings at subsidized rates, combined with the standardization of rates at which the Forest Department will buy back seedlings from farmer-run nurseries, has also worked to the disadvantage of women. Pole species like eucalyptus or casuarina are much less costly to raise than more fragile multi-purpose fruit or fodder tree seedlings. This policy encourages nurseries (both governmental and private) to raise more pole species since they will receive more cash per seedling raised than for the species preferred by women. 5.47 The failure of fuel-efficient cook stoves which were not based on women's needs attests to the necessity of involving local women in their design and dissemination (Cecelski, 1984; Molnar, 1986). It may also be possible to interest low-income urban women in more efficient stoves if their time constraints and cooking habits are taken into account. Similarly, since women and children must increase their fodder gathering activities if animals are to be stall-fed rather than grazed, their understanding and support is essential if such strategies are to be adopted.  - 69 - Chapter 6: WOMEN AS CLIENTS FOR AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AND RESEARCH A. The Institutional Framework 6.01 Realizing the productivity gains that could be made through the development and transfer of new agricultural technology, GOI and the state governments have made significant investments in developing the country's agricultural research and extension system. The system is a complex multi- layered web, consisting of government ministries and departments at the central, state and district level, 26 State Agricultural Universities (SAUs), numerous crop- or discipline-specific research institutes and 127 regional research stations (RRSs), established to respond to the many distinct agro- ecological environments of the country. Under the Indian Constitution, agriculture is a state subject, allowing state governments the freedom to undertake programs independent of the central government. This has permitted some degree of inter-state variation in approach and allowed some states to experiment with innovative means of reaching women through the extension system. 6.02 However, since nearly 60% of the outlay for agriculture (including extension and research) comes from the center, GOI retains considerable responsibility for research and extension programs. Through its Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MOA) and its Directorate of Extension (DOE), GOI oversees country-wide extension activity. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), also overseen by MOA, is the national apex body responsible for the organization and management of agricultural research. ICAR exercises its mandate through a network of 57 central research institutes, through its financial and technical assistance to the SAUs and through the coordination of a number of centrally sponsored efforts to link research and extension such as the Lab-to-Land and the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) programs. 6.03 At the state level, the institutional framework for extension comprises primarily the extension wing or directorate of the state's Department of Agriculture (DOA) which works through the District Agricultural Officer at the district level and a pyramidical staffing structure down to the Taluk/Tehsil and village level. The states' Departments of Horticulture, Animal Husbandry, Fisheries, Forestry, etc., also carry out extension, but with little if any coordination with the DOA extension system. Agricultural research is carried out by the SAUs which are also responsible for undergraduate and post-graduate training in agricultural sciences and related disciplines. To facilitate greater location-specificity in research, each state is divided into several agro-ecological zones, and the SAUs operate (with support from ICAR) one Regional Research Station (RRS) in each zone (127 for India as a whole). 1 Farmer Training Center.  - 70 - 6.04 Beginning in 1965, and with assistance from the Bank, most of the major states have reorganized the agricultural extension services operated by their respective Departments of Agriculture (DOA) along the lines of the Training and Visit (T&V) system. One of the aims of this effort was to establish a single line of command from the Director of Agriculture down to the field extension staff. Another major objective was to ensure that the Village Extension Worker (VEW), formerly charged with a wide range of tasks, work exclusively on extending a set of simple messages developed by the research establishment to guide each season's field crop production. Emphasis was placed on regular fortnightly visits to "contact farmers" in each village on the VEW's circuit, coupled with regular in-service training for the VEW. Cither key goals of the extension reform included: institutionalizing a strong and direct linkage between agricultural research and extension; matching the research-to-farmer extension process with a farmer-to-researcher feedback loop; strengthening the supervision of field staff; and providing strong professional backstopping for extension workers by deploying Subject Matter Specialists (SMSs) in the field. 6.05 The revised agricultural extension system, now operative in 17 states, has by and large been able to achieve these major objectives -- though iLn some states there is continual pressure to add non-extension tasks to the VEWs' workload. It has been less successful, however, in achieving the hoped- ifor feedback loop where VEWs would relay farmers' problems back to the scientists and thereby influence the research agenda towards the solution location-specific problems. The extension system still works in a top-down fashion. The VEWs are better at delivering messages than at listening to farmers, and the same is true for the SMSs and Agricultural Extension Officers (AEOs) who supervise the VEWs. The system has therefore failed as yet to develop into a responsive mechanism for solving farmers' real-life problems. This is especially true for small and marginal farmers on rainfed land: most of the technologies developed by the research establishment for extension tend to be for irrigated conditions with little attention to production costs or to the role of the particular crop in the overall farming system. 6.06 There is also general consensus that the system still fails to reach women farmers (IBRD, 1988; Mahapatra, 1987). Despite genuine attempts to make the contact farmers "representative" of the different socio-economic groups resident in their village, in most states this has not resulted in the inclusion of women farmers. Yet, as noted earlier, (see para. 3.03 and Figure 3.1) 48% of those self-employed in agriculture (as cultivators or unpaid family workers) in 1983 were women. Even in states which have set targets of at least one female contact farmer per village (i.e., Orissa and Tamil Nadu), the women selected have usually not been "agriculturalists" but simply members of prominent local families, often with only limited contact with active women farmers (Mahapatra, 1987). The general assumption seems to be that whatever information women need about agricultural technologies will reach them through their male relatives. There has been no systematic investigation of patterns of cross-gender family communication, but evidence suggests that information that does reach women farmers this way is not always accurate or complete (Mahapatra, 1987; Ansuri, 1987).  - 71 - 6.07 The overwhelming prominence of males at both the field and the administrative levels of the extension systems is evident from Table 51. At the All-India level, only 0.025% of the staff employed in agricultural extension were women. Only in Kerala (where there are a large number of female agricultural graduates and the state law on equal employment opportunities for women is enforced) is there a significant percentage (46%) of women on the field-level extension staff. However, the Kerala case also shows that female field staff alone are not the answer. Without a clear indication from their superiors that reaching women farmers was a goal of the entire extension service, the female VEWs made no attempt to enlist female contact farmers or work with women producers. Instead, they considered it a point of prestige to reach men. As a result, there are almost no female contact farmers in the Kerala system (Ansuri, 1987). B. Which Women and Why 6.08 The present agricultural extension system largely bypasses 48%2 of India's self-employed farmers -- the ones who are women. Fortunately there are a number of states where the inefficiency of such an extension system has been recognized. With support from DANIDA, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and, most recently, Orissa have been experimenting with various modifications of the extension system to make it more effective in reaching women farmers. Before examining these different models, it may be useful, however, to specify which women are likely to be the main clients of agricultural extension and why it is important to reach them. 6.09 As set out in Chapter 3, there are at least three distinct ways in which women in India are involved with agriculture. Depending on the socio-economic status of their family and certain other regional factors, they may work as: (1) paid laborers, (2) "self-cultivators" doing manual labor on their own fields and homesteads as unpaid family laborers, and (3) managers of certain aspects of agricultural production (i.e., labor supervision, particularly in the South) and participants in post-harvest processing. In only a very small percentage of rural households, among the very wealthy, are women "just housewives" with no responsibilities for the family farm enterprise. 6.10 Since increased skill on the part of the first group (daily laborers) rarely translates directly into increased wages, the second and third groups (cultivators and managers) are the primary female clients for agricultural extension. There are, however, two exceptions for agricultural laborers which may be worth noting. One is skill in the use of mechanical equipment (sprayers, threshers, pumps and even tractors) which does bring higher wages, and the second is the growing phenomenon of contract labor. 2 According to calculations based on the 38th round of the NSS in 1983, 48X of those who were self- employed as cultivators or unpaid family laborers in agriculture were women. See Technical Note, Attachment VI, Row 5-7, page 242.  - 72 - 6.11 While it is unlikely that training women in the use of mechanical equipment would be sufficient in itself to overcome the culturally-based perception of those jobs as inappropriate for women, it is a necessary first step. As male labor increasingly moves out of agriculture, employers may become more willing to hire trained women -- at least for tasks like spraying and pump operation. Contract labor in agriculture is on the rise because it reduces the farm operator's labor management burden and can result in higher hourly wages for an efficient worker. Though most reports indicate that men are organizing these contract teams (often including female family members), there is increasing evidence of female teams organized by women "contractors" - who work along with the others but make twice the regular wage for their quality control and supervisory skills (Walker and Ryan, 1988). 6.12 There will obviously be regional differences in the cultural acceptance of women in semi-skilled jobs operating mechanical equipment and in the demand for female contract labor teams, but these possibilities suggest that in some parts of India female laborers may indeed be a potential client group for extension. Moreover, there is great interest among female laborers in lessening their dependence on seasonally fluctuating labor markets through ventures in self-employment such as dairying, poultry-rearing, etc., which can lbe undertaken with little or no land. This has, in fact, been the major thrust of the IRDP program which has relied on a combination of subsidy and credit in its effort to create productive assets that would increase self- employment among the poor. At present, the focus of the DOA extension system on field crop production (primarily foodgrains) and the lack of coordination with other specialized departments (forestry, livestock, horticulture, etc.) has meant that it has had little technical support to offer for either men or women who have taken IRDP loans. 6.13 As noted earlier, the categories of laborer, unpaid family worker and farm manager are not water tight. The majority of rural women probably span at least two categories, combining manual own-farm cultivation with occasional wage labor and/or management tasks. In any case, the major female client group for extension is the women engaged in farming their own family land who need both practical skill training and better knowledge as a basis for farm management decisions. On the face of it, the reason the agricultural extension system needs to reach these women is simple: they are doing a large share of the agricultural work, and if they can learn how to do it more efficiently, yields should increase and their family income should rise. 6.14 But there is another, equally compelling reason -- related to the intra-household bargaining process. Evidence cited earlier suggests that women who do farm work as unpaid family laborers tend to have less decision- making power and ability to influence the allocation of household resources than female wage laborers. This is related to the overwhelmingly male ownership of land and other productive assets and to the fact that woman's unpaid family work goes into a joint or communal product which, unlike daily wages, is difficult to associate with an individual worker. This is not to suggest, however, that to improve women's status and decision making power, unpaid female family workers should be transformed into wage laborers. Not only could India's agriculture sector hardly absorb the massive increase in female wage workers that this would entail, but such a shift would certainly  - 73 - not be welcomed by rural women themselves who see not only greater individual prestige but greater family income security in own-farm cultivation. While female wage workers may have more say over family spending decisions, overall family resource levels in laborer households are so low that this hardly represents greater empowerment for these women: "Below a certain level of affluence, there is no question of 'choosing' how to spend money; control of budget does not confer privilege, only responsibility" (Sharma, 1980:110). 6.15 Instead, two strategic thrusts emerge to help increase the bargaining power of unpaid female family workers. One is support for measures that would increase female control over income from a range of non-field crop agricultural self-employment enterprises in which women have traditionally been involved. Some of these measures have been discussed in Chapters 4 and 5 on dairy and forestry, but there are many other land-based enterprises that women can take up if they have access to extension support and to credit. For example, major opportunities for farm women exist in the poultry sub-sector in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Haryana and Punjab. In addition to extension service, this sub-sector requires significant investments in backward and forward linkages (hatcheries, feed plants, vaccines, veterinary care, bird dressing and marketing facilities, etc.) (Maharjan, 1989). 6.16 The primary concern here is the second approach: use of the agricultural extension service to ensure that women cultivators are sufficiently informed about new technologies so that they can share in farm management with their male relatives. Since modern farming is a business requiring family resource allocation decisions, women need to have knowledge that will allow them to participate in these decisions effectively. Extension can therefore be an important tool to weaken the negative effects of the inside/outside dichotomy which is particularly strong for women working as unpaid family laborers. Otherwise, the process of agricultural modernization moves farm management ever farther from women's traditional sphere. Increasingly, technology choice involves weighing new and complex sets of possibilities and constraints; increasingly, it depends on non-traditional information to which men have much easier access. Agricultural extension is no substitute for literacy and more broad-based education, but it can create access to information and new ways of thinking for women in at least one important dimension of their lives. C. Reaching Women with Agricultural Extension 6.17 Traditional Approaches. Prior to the introduction of the T&V system, the traditional approach to female farmers was through training provided by the Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs; Farmer Training Centers) under the state DOAs. At each center, ten groups of 25-30 women were taught for 5- 7 day residential courses each year. Village-based training courses were occasionally organized by the KVK staff for women who could not come to the KVK. One-day demonstration camps for seasonal operations were also organized in the villages as follow-up to the institutional training. In addition, KVK staff were also supposed to organize trained farm women into women's groups (called Mahila Mandals or Charcha Mandals) so they could disseminate what they had learned to other women in the village.  - 74 - 6.18 The effectiveness of this program varied widely among states, but in most cases its reach was limited: most active farm women could not spend 7 days in a center and had little interest in the training which tended to be oriented toward home science rather than agricultural production. Those who attended were often elite women who tended to dominate the Mahila Mandals they were encouraged to form on their return. As a result, these groups (with some important exceptions) did not develop into effective channels for transfer of technology -- and certainly did not became focal points for social change. Most states (except Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh) discontinued the program when the T&V system was introduced. 6.19 Similar programs were also organized by the extension wings of the SAUs as part of the centrally sponsored Lab-to-Land program. Since these programs are basically home science oriented (food preservation, nutrition, child care) and are conducted in only a few "adopted" villages, their impact is limited (Mahapatra, 1987:11). 6.20 RWADP,. One notable exception is the Birsa Agricultural University Rural Women's Agricultural Development Project in Bihar which has deployed Women Project Development Officers (WPDOs) to work in close coordination with the university's Farming Systems Research (FSR) project. Since the aim of the FSR project is to find ways to improve the income of poor tribal families in the drought-prone Chotanagpur plateau, the WPDOs focus their work on ways to enhance the agricultural productivity of the tribal women. From tribal backgrounds themselves and already trained to the post- graduate level at the Xavier Institute of Social Sciences, the WPDOs receive further training to improve their knowledge of agriculture and have served as a vital source of feedback to the scientists at Birsa Agricultural University. Extending new technologies suggested by the scientists to Mahila Mandals (women's groups) established in each village, the WPDOs have helped the women take up lucrative vegetable gardening using simple dug wells to provide irrigation during the dry season. A study of 30 farming families covered by the program shows an increase in cropping intensity of almost 50% between 1981 and 1987. Annual household income has increased five-fold -- from an average of Rs 3,000 to Rs 14,990 -- in the same period (Singh & Baha, 1988). 6.21 Extension for Women Farmers (DANIDA). Efforts to modify the DOA extension system so that it is able to serve women farmers have thus far focused on training and deploying female staff to serve in what has been in India a very "male" profession. All three projects of this type -- in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Orissa -- have been supported by DANIDA, but a number of other donors have come forward recently with grant support for similar efforts in other states (see Table 52). 6.22 The fact that most of these project proposals currently appear to be "stalled" at the state level is cause for concern, but is perhaps understandable. Often in deficit and with limited revenue sources, state governments may be reluctant to undertake pilot projects involving the deployment of a new cadre of staff such as women extension workers: once the project is complete and foreign funding withdrawn, the state governments are still committed to maintaining the workers and in fact would probably be under  - 75 - pressure to expand the cadre to permit statewide coverage. Where political and administrative decision-makers continue to view programs for women as welfare expenditure rather than productive investment, support for incorporating women into the extension system is not likely to be popular when it involves large-scale increases in staffing levels. 6.23 WYTEP. The DANIDA-supported project that has been on the ground the longest is Karnataka's Women and Youth Training and Extension Project (WYTEP) which began in 1982. 130 women have been hired and trained as Assistant Agricultural Officer (Farm Women) in eleven pilot districts. Graduates of either agricultural science or home science,3 the AAO(FW)s are senior to the (mostly male) VEWs, but follow a similar work pattern. Each AAO(FW) is responsible for four "intensive villages" which she visits regularly every two weeks and another four villages which are visited once a month. The WYTEP program differs from the "pure" T&V approach in that it combines field visits to individual contact farmers with institution-based training at the KVKs located in each district. These have also been strengthened under the program, and each center annually conducts 15 to 20 training courses of ten days each for groups of about 30 women selected from small and marginal farm families in a cluster of villages. 6.24 The AAO(FW) is responsible for recruiting the trainees and assisting the KVK staff in designing and carrying out training which her field experience tells her will be relevant to these women -- many of whom are illiterate. She then identifies some of these trained farm women to become contact farmers and tries to link up where possible with existing Mahila Mandals in the villages she covers. Over a period of 5 to 6 months she provides village-based follow-up training (with assistance from KVK staff) and during her regular fortnightly/monthly visits tries to either establish or re- establish viable groups of interested farm women who can then continue to receive extension support from the regular VEWs. 6.25 The AAO(FW)s are, thus, a kind of vanguard who work intensively in a limited area for a time to organize women so they can then become clients of the VEWs under the regular extension system. The Pre-Evaluation Study carried out in 1987 found that much of the AAOs' success depended on whether they were able to work through existing Mahila Mandals and suggested that the AAOs' 'social mobilization" skills be strengthened so they could organize new neighborhood women's groups where none exist (Srinivasasmurthy, 1987). It also found that the women trained under the WYTEP program maintained contact with the AAOs and were able to exert greater influence on family farm management decisions. Most of them reported that neighbors and friends had also shown interest in what they had learned. Male family members were positive about the AAOs; many of them not only asked her for advice, but even attended the village-based follow-up training. 3 Not surprisingly, the Pre-Evaluation Study found that those MOs who were agricultural graduates were better prepared professionally for their job than their colleagues (and even those of their superiors) who had been trained in home science.  - 76 - 6.26 The weaknesses of the program relate primarily to the feedback linkages between the AAOs and the KVK staff and the research establishment. Apparently, much of the KVK training is based on technologies suited for irrigated conditions, while most of the small and marginal farm women targeted by the program are working on rainfed land. Despite the trainees' interest in rainfed farming practices, neither the KVK staff nor the research scientists have shown much flexibility in departing from their current emphasis on capital-intensive technologies for irrigated cropping. Similarly, insufficient attention has been given to training and extension support in other farm activities like dairying, horticulture and post-harvest technologies which are of special interest and importance to women. One way to remedy this would be to post trained female SMSs charged specifically with monitoring feedback from the women's groups and preparing appropriate technical messages in subjects of interest to them (Ansuri, 1987). Since in maany states the VEWs tend to remain largely unoccupied during the lean season, this period could be used to extend these messages to women (Mahapatra, L987:10). 6.27 TANWA. The WYTEP model, combining center-based and field-based training and individual and group contact, is essentially also applied in the Tamil Nadu Women in Agriculture (TANWA) Project which began in 1986 in six diistricts. Research carried out during project preparation found that it was difficult for many poor women in the target group to attend center-based training, and TANWA has therefore placed more emphasis on field-based training. To promote better linkage between the 30 TANWA Agricultural O3fficers (Farm Women) and the regular extension staff (which seems to have lbeen a problem for WYTEP), three AAOs from each district participate in the fortnightly and monthly coordination meetings organized by DOA at the sub- divisional and district levels. 6.28 Although the first performance appraisal of the TANWA project is not yet available, initial indications appear favorable. Judging by the increased demand from women farmers for gypsum, seed treatment chemicals and pesticides, their adoption of new technologies has been enthusiastic. DOA reports that a large number of farm women in the TANWA districts now regularly visit the District Agricultural Office to make inquiries and purchase inputs from the Taluk-level depots. Whether or not the efforts of the TANWA staff are being fully integrated into the DOA extension system in a sustainable manner is yet to be seen. 6.29 OFWTP,. The third and most recently initiated project supported by DANIDA is the Orissa Farm Women's Training Project (OFWTP) which began only in 1988. Unlike the other two projects, the Orissa project is hiring women to work as VEWs at the village level within the regular DOA extension system. By 1991, the bulk of the village extension to women in the pilot districts is expected to be carried out by female VEWs working in parallel with the male VEWs. While this may permit the most thorough and sustained coverage of female farmers, it may be far more expensive than most State DOAs can afford. 6.30 It will be important, therefore, to study all three approaches to find out which offers the most cost-effective means to meet the needs of poor women farmers. According to a recent Bank-sponsored review of agricultural  - 77 - extension for women in India, the emphasis in all three projects on hiring female functionaries in order to reach women may not be necessary in all parts of the country. Male VEWs in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu report that after a period of regular visits to the village, women are no longer shy or hesitant to approach the VEWs. Although at first the VEWs were bound by the traditional interaction patterns, once the technical know-how of the VEW was established, it was permissible to bridge the social distance between men and women (Mahapatra, 1987). This was confirmed by women themselves who said that, after a period of acquaintance, the VEW could even contact women individually in their homes. Interestingly, however, they felt that it would be difficult for a man to organize women into groups for any kind of training. 6.31 The main finding of the review was that there could be no single strategy for reaching women that would work in all regions or with all tyPes of women: There is a need to recognize the various categories of women and their needs in the agricultural sphere and to be able to develop appropriate strategies and methodologies to reach them. Hence, while some areas would require trained women to reach women farmers, others may require women as motivators initially and still other areas may require the present male officials trained in women's issues to disseminate technology to women (Mahapatra, 1987:9). 6.32 The Kerala case certainly demonstrates that deploying female field staff alone does not guarantee success. No matter what the gender composition of the staff, there is a need to send a clear message to staff at all levels that reaching women farmers is a priority for the extension system as a whole. The apparent difficulties of WYTEP's AAO(FW)s in getting support from the KVK and district-level extension staff indicate the dangers involved when serving women is seen as the sole responsibility of a special "women's component". To avoid this it is necessary to have not only support from the senior DOA officers (which is manifestly there in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Orissa), but also a program to train extension (and research) staff at all levels in what women are doing, why they need to be reached, and how to reach them. 6.33 Concerning the issue of how to reach women clients, there is a need to use a variety of approaches rather than to rely exclusively on person- to-person contact. This would include television and particularly radio which has been very successful in some states. More use should also be made of demonstrations and printed materials (illustrated leaflets, posters). Although in many areas the majority of the women farmers may be illiterate, they value written information and can usually find someone from their group or a school child to read materials for them when they need to recall the information. For neo-literate women such material would be a valuable means to hone their new reading skills. 6.34 Another strategic issue that emerges from this discussion is the importance of combining the individual contact farmer approach used in the standard T&V system with group contact -- either through established women's  - 78 - groups or through groups organized by the extension agent. The latter would not be easy, however. Skill in the formation of genuinely self-led groups requires carefully trained and motivated staff. Otherwise, as with many of the existing Charcha Mandals and Mahila Mandals, the groups may be dominated by local elite women and be of little interest to busy women farmers. Where extension staff have not been given the training and/or time to build effective groups, they could be encouraged to link up with other field-level workers -- from community development or social welfare departments and especially from local NGOs -- who generally work through groups. Instead of relying primarily on contact farmers as the channel of communication, the VEUs' field circuit could also include "Contact Groups" to whom s/he would provide regular extension support if requested. 6.35 As with forestry, it appears that many of the measures that would make the extension system more relevant to women are the same that would make it more responsive to the poor -- in this case, small and marginal farmers of either sex. Needed is a shift of focus from increasing foodgrain yields to attention to other components of the farming system as well as greater emphasis on low-cost, sustainable technologies for rainfed conditions. For women farmers, of course, there would need to be special attention to dairying, horticulture and those aspects of the local farming system that are particularly women's responsibility. The recommendation to broaden the sectoral coverage of the extension system emerged strongly from the Bank's 1988 review of agricultural extension in India. 6.36 There seem, however, to be two serious structural obstacles to this necessary shift. One, mentioned earlier, is the resistance to integration -- or even coordination -- between different departments who fear that merging their extension activities into the DOA system threatens their autonomy. The other problem is rooted in the orientation of India's agricultural research establishment towards increasing foodgrain yields rather than the productivity and sustainability of the farmer's production system as a whole. The substantial achievements of the Green Revolution in the ecologically favored irrigated regions have long obscured the very significant production/income increases possible under rainfed conditions.4 Likewise, there has been little professional reward to agricultural scientists for making the necessary shift from a crop or commodity focus to a farming systems focus, a shift which is essential to increasing the profitability and sustainability of small holdings on marginal lands. As a result, there has been little new technology developed for those "secondary" agricultural activities that help to diversify, protect against risk, and provide slack- season employment for members of smallholder families -- and which are also often areas of particular interest to women. 6.37 This suggests that, unless some of the underlying structural problems are addressed, the gains from current attempts to make the existing research and extension system accessible to women will be limited. This is especially true if these efforts remain as special projects staffed only by women rather than part of the general extension system and therefore the 4 See IBRD, India: Review of Rainfed Farming and Watershed Development, IBRD Report No. 7138-IN, 1988.  - 79 - responsibility of male staff as well. Rather than separate (inevitably underfunded) extension for women, re-orientation of the entire system is needed to focus on the family farm enterprise as a whole. Such a Locus would encompass all the components and their complex inter-relations and would serve all the family members (male and female) whose labor and management input are vital to the success of the enterprise. From this altered perspective, "meeting, training and communicating with farm women (is an) integral part of agricultural extension as well as of policy for agricultural production' (Ansuri, 1987:5).   - 81 - Chapter 7: WOMEN OUTSIDE AGRICULTURE: RURAL NON-FARM ACTIVITIES AND THE URBAN INFORMAL SECTOR A. Introduction 7.01 Under the right policy scenario, continuing agricultural modernization and diversification could generate substantial increases in employment, income and even empowerment for Indian women. However, the manufacturing and service sectors have been growing much more rapidly than agriculture, and the potential for further rapid and sustained growth in these sectors is substantial. Moreover, the already very small size of the average Indian farm holding means that the capacity of the agriculture sector to absorb growing numbers of people seeking gainful employment is limited. As arenas for future female employment and more rapid socio-cultural change, the non-agricultural sectors are therefore becoming increasingly more important and may in fact offer even greater potential for women. At the same time, most of these sectors are also far less accessible to women than to men. Indeed, while the proportion of non-agricultural workers in the male labor force has increased, the proportion of women workers employed outside agriculture has declined (see Table 7.1). Table 7.1 DISTRIBUTION OF MALE & FEMALE WORXERS BY INDUSTRY, 1961 AND 1981, ALL INDIA (X of Total Workers) Female Male 1961 1981 1961 1981 Crop Agriculture 79.58 82.29 64.86 63.48 - Cultivators 55.72 37.50 51.45 43.66 - Agricultural Laborers 23.86 44.79 13.41 19.82 Livestock, Dairying, Fishing; Mining, Quarrying 2.01 2.06 3.12 2.98 Manufacturing, Processing, Servicing, Repair 9.17 7.58 11.26 12.03 - Household Industry 7.84 4.44 5.70 3.18 - Other 1.33 3.14 5.56 8.85 Construction 0.40 0.68 1.41 1.81 Services 8.84 7.39 19.33 19.69 - Trade & Commerce 1.38 1.75 5.29 7.28 - Transport, Storage & Communication 0.11 0.29 2.28 3.29 - Other Services 7.35 5.35 11.76 9.12 TOTAL 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 - Primary Sectors 81.59 84.35 67.99 66.46 - Secondary Sectors 9.57 8.26 12.68 13.84 - Tertiary Sectors 8.84 7.39 19.33 19.69 Note: 1981 data include both main and marginal workers. Source: Calculated from Indian Census, 1961 and 1981, by Duvvery, 1988.  - 82 - 7.02 In the discussion of the inside/outside dichotomy and the continuum oif women's work from conventional domestic to wage work (see Chapter 2), it was suggested that non-farm wage employment is even further to the "outside' and in the "male domain" than paid agricultural labor. The reasons include men's greater ease interacting with strangers in the non-traditional settings which characterize many of the new employment opportunities in manufacturing and services, and men's greater social and physical mobility. Men's higher levels of literacy and skill training are also useful and often essential qualifications for entry into non-agricultural occupations, especially in urban areas and the more modern sub-sectors. For these same reasons, coupled with women's more constrained access to credit and other assets needed to start and sustain a micro-enterprise, most forms of non-agricultural self- employment (except perhaps for household manufacturing) are also less accessible to women. Figure 7.1 Female Employment in Different Sectors (Selected Asian Countries) India Indonesia t Agriculture ^ ~Services 8-l A5% = ndustry 7% I~~~~~~~~~~~ndustry 12% Korea - Rep. Philippines Agriculture 46% Agriculture 35% Industry 17% industry 23% evices Services I ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~48% l gawe.dLO Wwbook f L&bm "Satet I osriowa bammaT= " Ca*Ia of indh. Oft B. Female Employment Outside Agriculture 7.03 Figure 7.1 shows that in terms of the sectoral composition of the female work force, India is still in the early stages of structural transformation (Jose, 1987). As in most other South Asian countries (except Sri Lanka), by far the largest share of female workers in India continues to be employed in agriculture (see Table 7.2). Growth in women's share of  - 83 - employment in industries and services in India has lagged far behind not only that in the Southeast Asian countries, but (except for Nepal) even behind the other South Asian countries. Moreover as is evident in Figure 7.2, India is Table 7.2 SHARE OF AGRICULTURE IN FEMALE EMPLOYMENT IN ASIAN COUNTRIES Time to which Share of agriculture Country daa correspond in female employment (X) Bangladesh 1970s 70.0 Hongkong 1980s 1.8 India 1980s 81.1 Indonesia 1980i 51.0 Japan 1980s 13.4 Korea - Republic 1980s 43.3 Malaysia 1980s 43.5 Nepal 1980s 95.7 Philippines 1980s 32.2 Singapore 1980s 0.8 Sri Lanka 1980s 35.9 Thailand 1980s 67.4 Source: ILO Year Book of Labour Statistics, various issues; Census of India, 1981. one of the few countries where women's share of employment in the more modern sectors has actually decreased as growth in female agricultural employment outpaced female job creation in the remainder of the economy (see Tables 7.3 and 7.4). Among the reasons suggested to explain this are the obsolescence of many of the non-agricultural occupations and technologies that had been dominated by women and the movement of men into the new, mechanized technologies and factory jobs that replaced these (Krishnaraj, 1985; Datar, 1958; Mitra et al., 1979; 1980). Also cited is the failure of the industrialization process to create enough employment for the growing labor force, coupled with employers' preference for men in those formal sector jobs that have been created.1 Manufacturing 7.04 Between 1911 and 1961 the ratio of female workers to male workers in manufacturing declined from 489 to 225 per 1000. In the factory sector, the female share of total employment fell from 17% to 10.6% (Krishnaraj, 1985:5-6). This decline was also observed between 1950 and 1974, when for seven groups of industries (food, tobacco, textiles, chemicals, non-metallic minerals, electronic goods, and others) the share of female workers fell from 11.4% to 9.5% (Acharya, 1978, cited in Krishnaraj, 1985). 1 Krishnaraj notes, however, the opposite tendency recently in some industries where unionization has been accompanied by labor problems. Management has in some cases shown a preference for female workers whom they believe to be more "docile". This has apparently happened in Kerala where women constitute 70X of the work force in large-scale factories and 56X in the smaller decentralized ones (1985:24).  - 84 - Figure 7.2 Female Employment Outside Agriculture (Selected Asian Countries) 3 Early 1970's 1980-1985 India Nepal Thailand Philippines Sri Lanka Bangladesh Malaysia Indonesia Korea Rep. Singapore Hong Kong 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Source: ILO, Yearbook of Labour Statilstic various Issues. Table 7.3 FEMALE EMPLOYMENT IN THE INDUSTRIAL SECTOR IN ASIAN COUNTRIES (Percentage Share of Employment in Industry) Years to which Early Early Early Country data correaDond 1960s 1970s 1980s 1985 Bangladesh 1974, 1983184 .. 4.2 27.9 Hongkong 1960, 1970, 1980, 1985 48.7 58.6 54.5 46.1 India 1971, 1981 .. 8.1 6.6 Indonesia 1971, 1980 .. 10.9 11.5 Japan 1960, 1970, 1980, 1985 20.0 25.6 25.8 27.7 Korea - Rep. 1960, 1970, 1980, 1985 6.2 15.1 21.4 23.9 Malaysia 1970, 1980 .. 8.1 15.6 Nepal 1971, 1981 .. 0.5 0.2 Philippines 1960, 1970, 1985 20.9 19.6 .. 11.7 Singapore 1957, 1970, 1980, 1985 16.3 27.8 40.8 32.1 Sri Lanka 1963, 1971, 1981 9.2 8.8 8.0 Thailand 1960, 1970, 1982 2.9 4.3 7.7 8.1 .. - not available. Source: ILO, Year Book of Labour Statistics, various issues.  - 85 - Figure 7.3 Female/Male Proportion of Workforce by Industry, 1971 & 1981 100%- - - 75% 50%-- 25% 0%- ---- 1971-81 1971-81 1971-81 1971-81 1971-81 1971-81 1971-81 1971-81 I & II III IV V (a V (b VIl IX All Industry Codes: - Female M Male I & II - Cultivators & Agr. Laborers V a) - Household Industry IX - Other services IlIl - Livestock, Forestry, Fishing, etc. V b) - Other than Household Industry IV - Mines & Quarries Vil - Trade & Commerce 7.05 Recent census data suggest that this declining trend may have been reversed in the 1971-81 decade. There was a slight increase in the share of both household and non-household industry as employers of rural women (Table 7.5). For urban areas the share of non-household industry went from 12.9% to 14.3% of female employment and there was a small increase in the share of household industry as well. Figure 7.3 shows that the ratio of female to male workers has also increased in both household and non-household industries. 7.06 Between 1911 and 1961, only four industries -- food, beverages and tobacco; textiles; wood and wood products; and ceramics -- accounted for over 90% of women's employment in manufacturing (see Table 57) (Sinha 1972, cited in Banerjee, 1988). Since then, two notable developments have occurred in this regard: a 5% drop in the combined share of these four industries (mainly caused by declines in the textile industry) and the emergence of some new industries in the miscellaneous group and in the chemicals, metallurgical and engineering groups as important employers of women (Banerjee, 1988:21). Female employment has grown in rubber, plastics, petroleum and coal products as well as in chemicals and chemical products (see Table 53). In textiles, where women have moved into the silk and semi-synthetic sub-sectors, and throughout the manufacturing sector generally, there has been a shift of women towards newer products and more modern sub-sectors which previously did not have high proportions of female workers (Banerjee, 1988).  - 86 - Table 7.4 FEMALE EMPLOYMENT IN THE SERVICES SECTOR IN ASIAN COUNTRIES (Percentage Share of Employment in Services) Years to which Early Early Early Country data correasond 1960s 1970s 1980s 1985 Bangladesh 1974, 1983184 .. 22.1 14.5 Hongkong 1961, 1971, 1981, 1985 39.2 31.9 41.8 51.2 India 1971, 1981 .. 8.1 6.7 Indonesia 1971, 1980 .. 21.9 33.1 Japan 1960, 1970, 1980, 1985 36.3 47.0 58.6 59.0 Korea - Rep. 1960, 1970, 1980, 1985 21.4 24.4 28.6 46.7 Malaysia 1970, 1980 .. 19.4 29.1 Nepal 1971, 1981 .. 1.3 2.7 Philippines 1960, 1970, 1985 32.6 39.8 .. 47.9 Singapore 1957, 1970, 1980, 1985 65.1 51.9 54.8 63.4 Sri Lanka 1963, 1970, 1981 28.1 13.9 19.5 Thailand 1960, 1970, 1982 9.3 11.6 18.0 20.0 .. - not available. Source: ILO, Year Book of Labour Statistics, various issues. 7.07 While this might be read as a positive sign, indicating the imovement of women into more highly skilled formal sector jobs, it needs to be interpreted with caution. Industrial classification data amalgamate workers employed in firms varying widely in size, technology levels and employment conditions. Women tend to be concentrated in those parts of the production process and in those units (often in rural areas) that use labor-intensive techniques which are often indistinguishable from women's traditional home production tasks. In industries with a high share of women in the work force, the capital/labor ratio and the output/worker ratios are both well below the Indian averages (Banerjee, 1985:154), suggesting that the recent demand for female labor in modern industries does not really mean that (women) are now being absorbed in modern processes. All that it implies is that for some reason modern industry is adopting traditional techniques and organization for some processes and women are being absorbed in those. Women may get a preference for this because their supply price of labor for such jobs may be relatively low compared to that of men who would have to learn these skills afresh (Banerjee, 1985:163). 7.08 This observation is confirmed by a recent article on the linkages between a sample of large scale, small scale and informal sector industries on the outskirts of Bombay. The numerous informal sector units which have grown up in close proximity to large scale plants to recycle their waste products are reported to have "a high proportion of female workers engaged in tasks (such as sorting and cleaning) that are extensions of household work (Shaw, 1990:M21)".  - 87 - Table 7.5 DISTRIBUTION OF FEMALE MAIN WORKER BY INDUSTRY FOR ALL INDIA (1971-81) Industry Code Rural Urban Sex Ratio Sex Ratio 1971 1981 1971 1981 (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) 1+11 Cultivators and agricultural laborers 25 32 26 28 III Livestock, forestry, fishing, hunting and plantation orchards and allied activities 23 21 14 14 IV Mines and quarries 18 20 11 7 V a) Household industry 27 38 26 33 V b) Other than household industry 15 16 6 7 VII Trade and commerce 8 10 4 6 IX Other services 14 16 19 22 All sectors 23 29 12 13 -----------------------------------------------------------------------__----__-- Sources: Census of India 1971, Series 1. Pt IIB (i) General Economic Tables, Table B.1 (Pt A), page 18.2. Census of India 1981, Series I, Pt II, Special Report and tables, based on 5 percent sample data, Tables B1, B3 and B7, pp 2-3, 6-9 and 24-29, 1983. Presented in Banerjee, 1989, page WS13, Table 5. 7.09 Among the twenty non-agricultural industrial categories (major groups) which employ the most females, the number of women employed exceeds that of men in only one: manufacture of beverages, tobacco and tobacco products -- mainly due to the predominance of females in the bidi industry. Categories in which women form a large, but not dominant portion (i.e., between 35% and 50%) of the work force are: tea plantations (48%); domestic services (47%); coffee plantations (42%); manufacture of wooden and cane boxes, etc. (40%); and laundry services (35%) (see Tables 55 and 56). 7.'10 Indeed, even when women work for larger formal sector firms, they themselves often remain in the informal sector. Two phenomena explain this seeming contradiction: Where formal sector firms employ women, they are generally hired as casual laborers and remain, therefore, in the informal sector (Mukhopadyay, 1988). NSS data for 1983/84 show that only 20% of the women, but more than half of the men in urban manufacturing were regular wage workers. Large and medium-scale industries have increasingly adopted the "putting out" system: certain steps of the production process are contracted out on a piece-rate basis to home-based or micro- enterprise workers who, since they are not covered by the labor laws, can be paid less and do not entail long-term employment obligations (this important phenomenon is examined in Section C below).  - 88 - 7.11 A third significant aspect of changes in female employment in manufacturing has been the rise in almost all states, but particularly in the South, in the share of women workers employed in non-household industry. This itrend is mirrored in the declining importance of household industry generally and as an employer of women in particular (see Table 7.1). To some extent, this has been due to the decline of traditional home-based craft industries -- particularly cotton textiles. But it also reflects the transition from hand-pounding of rice and home processing generally to mechanized mill lprocessing of agricultural produce. Although female employment in food lprocessing has increased, this is mainly due to gains in urban areas in miscellaneous food products such as jams, juices, canned foods, packaged snacks and convenience foods, etc. (see Table 53). As more capital-intensive processing methods are introduced, women are losing their former pre-eminence in edible oil and cashew processing in rural areas and in coffee processing in urban areas (Banerjee, 1988:21). This displacement is one aspect of the (otherwise favorable) agricultural modernization process which has had a negative effect on female employment (Mencher, 1983; Agrawal, 1986; Salhuddin, 1986; Duvvury, 1988). Services 7.12 From 1961 to 1981, there was a decline in the relative importance of the service sector as an employer of women. The share of women workers employed in services decreased from 7.35% to 5.35% of the total female labor force (see Table 7.1). In rural areas, services account for only 3% of total female employment -- but in cities this sector is the single most important source of employment, accounting for 37% of all urban women workers in 1981. 7.13 It is notable that the female/male ratio has been rising in a number of sub-sectors at both ends of the spectrum from professional to unskilled service workers (see Table 61). There has been an increase in better-paying jobs for educated women in health, public administration and education (which grew by 60%). Perhaps related to this increase in the number of professional women, there are more jobs for unskilled personal service workers in domestic and laundry services. Women's employment in domestic services grew by 40%, and as men left for better-paid, higher-status jobs, the sex ratio in domestic services moved from 60 to 88 between 1971 and 1981 (Banerjee, 1988). 7.14 This is confirmed by a study commissioned by the Catholic Bishops Conference which estimated that 78% of the domestics in 12 cities surveyed were female and that in Bombay 90% were female (School of Social Work, 1980, cited in Everett and Savara, 1988:5). The better-paid, higher-status jobs such as cook and driver are usually filled by men, while women take the cleaning and general domestic service jobs. Moreover, the structure of domestic service is changing. In upper class households servants are often life-long family retainers. But the middle-class families, whose women are now working in increasing numbers, cannot afford full-time, live-in servants. Instead, they hire a woman to come in several hours a day for sweeping, dish- washing, cleaning and laundry, and sometimes shopping, cooking and other chores as well. Since such a part-time servant generally works for several families each day, the relationship is much less personal and this type of work probably also demands higher levels of physical energy output (Everett and Savara, 1988).  - 89 - 7.15 A thorough study of 400 women in Calcutta's informal sector showed that between 1953 and 1976, as other kinds of non-traditional employment opened up for women, the share of urban female workers employed as domestics fell from 70% to 56%. Although wage levels for women in domestic service were better than for many other informal sector occupations, the low social status of this work made other jobs more attractive, particularly for younger women. While 90% of the working women over 45 were working as domestics, only 33% of those under 25 reported this occupation (Banerjee, 1985). Regional Patterns 7.16 For the most part, female labor force participation in the non- agricultural sectors follows the same broad regional and state-level patterns evident in the agricultural labor force. Female participation is highest in the South and in those states (such as Orissa and Madhya Pradesh) and Union Territories where the share of tribal populations in the total population is high. This is evident, for instance, in Figure 7.4 which shows female employment in household and non-household industries. The all-India female employment rate in household industry in 1981 was 27%, but in the Southern states women account for between half and 35% of the household industry workers. Similarly, in the Southern states women are between 14% and 24% of the non-household industrial sector, as against the national average of only 9%. In the Northeastern states, with their strong tradition of women weaving for household consumption and local sale, as much as 91% of the rural household industry employment was female (see Table 58). Figure 7.4 Female Percent of Total Employment Household & Non-Household Industry (1981) Regions & States Household 1 Non-Household Eastern Assam Bihar Orissa West Bengal Southern Andhra Prad Karnataka Kerala Tamil Nadu Central Madhya Prad Uttar Prad Western Gujarat Maharashtra Northern Haryana Punjab Hlmchl Prad Jammu& Kashmr Rajasthan All Indla 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% *uftee i Cen u of Indie. 1S81; MAukbopadhyal'.IIls. Table 1S.  - 90 - 7.17 Figure 7.5 shows that, like female agricultural wage workers, women working in non-agricultural own-account enterprises are heavily concentrated in the South. Data for Kerala are not available, but the three states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu account for nearly 44% of all Indian women workers in this category (see Table 60). Figure 7.5 Distribution of Female Non-Agricultural & Own-Account Workers, by Region & State (1983) Andhra Pradesh 16% Other East States 1% W.Bengal 8% Karnataka &Other So. 11% Maharashtra 9% Tamil Nadu 17% Gujarat & Other West 4% ~~~Uttar Pradesh 11% Madhya Pradesh 11% Regions: S Eastern IS Southern E Central 1J Western ] Northern Soure, HSU1 8Sth Round, SaryCkehanO. April 18sil Table 1. S*e Annex I for *Oplte flo*,n.e. 7.18 West Bengal in the economically lagging East presents something of an anomaly. Although it has one of the lowest female participation rates in agriculture (7%), women seem to participate in household industry where they account for about 21% of total employment. In 1981, less than half the female labor force in West Bengal was employed in agriculture (see Table 13). Figure 7.6 shows that the only other state with a similar distribution of women workers is Kerala where only 51% of the female work force are in agriculture and both industry (23%) and services (20%) account for substantial shares. The breakdown between household and non-household industry also shows that Kerala and, to a lesser extent, West Bengal are the only states where a significant proportion (14% and 8%, respectively) of the female work force are employed outside of household industry in the manufacturing sector (see Table 13).  - 91 - Figure 7.6 Distribution of Female Work Force By Main Sectors (1981) Regions & States M Agriculture l Industry W Services Eastern Assam BiharMEN = Orissa West Bengal Southern Andhra Prad Karnataka Kerala Tamil NaduNad Central Madhya Prad Uttar Prad Western ura Maharashtra Northern Haryana PunJab Himchl Prad Jammu& Kashmr Rajasthan All India M l 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% Source: Duv,ury 41(s), Table 7. C. Women in the Urban Informal Sector 7.19 There are two other important cross-cutting distinctions concerning women working outside agriculture. Both are critical to policy formulation because they help sharpen the focus on the characteristics and needs of particular groups of poor women workers. The first of these is the rural/urban divide. The focus in the preceding chapters has been on rural women (though it is worth noting that agriculture is the third largest employer of urban women), and there has been some discussion of opportunities and constraints to rural non-farm employment for women (see paras. 3.40- 3.43). Urban women workers, their characteristics, and the complex and highly competitive environment in which they must earn a living will be the main focus of the rest of this chapter. 7.20 The second important distinction is that between the formal and informal sectors of the economy. As mentioned above, those with permanent jobs in the formal sector are relatively privileged and not appropriate to the central concern here with poverty. The term "informal sector" (IS) broadly refers to an economic environment in which actors are unprotected (in so far as protection derives from the state) and therefore presumed to be insecure. It is also an environment in which actors are virtually unregulated and therefore free to respond to market forces -- and to be buffeted by them. For  - 92 - the majority of informal sector workers, and especially those who are women, their low initial skill and asset endowments and the asymmetrical power relations they confront mean that the freedom to respond to market forces encompasses only a very limited set of choices. 7.21 Although women in urban areas enjoy better health and are better educated than their rural counterparts, their participation in the labor force is much lower. 1981 Census data showed an urban female labor force participation rate of about 7%, compared to the rural rate of 16%. The generally more reliable NSS estimate for the most recent (38th) round (1983/84) shows considerably higher rates in both cases, but a similar gap between the urban (17%) and the rural (39%) female participation rates. Some of this difference is due to the greater importance of subsistence production and the potential for women to work as unpaid family helpers in the Indian agrarian setting. The permeability of the boundary between work and non- work, between the "inside" and the 'outside", that exists in the rural environment is less in evidence in the market-oriented urban economy. 7.22 This may mean that, indeed, fewer women are economically active in the cities because the barriers to be crossed to enter the urban labor force are not only conceptually more absolute (i.e., because almost all workers work for wages), but the need for mobility, bureaucratic know-how, literacy, modern skills and the ability to link into non-traditional work situations may also be more acute in the fast-paced, competitive urban labor market. Since women are at a disadvantage in all these areas, this may well constrain their labor force participation -- even though the greater need for cash and the relative lack of opportunity for alternative non-market household production may make female entry into the labor force desireable to poor households. 7.23 It is also possible that poor urban women are in fact economically active, but in an informal economy which is captured even less well by official statistics than the rural subsistence economy. Numerous micro-level studies carried out in poor urban areas show actual female participation rates of around 40%. Moreover, the few longitudinal studies available show that women's participation is increasing much faster than men's. Such findings suggest that problems of measurement and definition may make changes in urban female participation rates implied in macro-level data less than reliable. Defining the Informal Sector 7.24 The ILO (1972) has described the informal sector as characterized by: ease of entry; reliance on indigenous resources; family ownership of enterprises; small scale of operation; labor-intensive and adapted technology; skills acquired outside the formal school system; and unregulated and competitive markets. Although this list is useful in describing certain frequently encountered aspects of the informal sector, any attempt to map the informal sector in India would have to encompass exceptions to almost every one of these characteristics. In fact, the two most salient characteristics of the informal sector in India are its vulnerability and its diversity. A recent report on an ongoing study of women in five different informal sector occupations in Bombay noted that "the term IS is an unsatisfactory way of  - 93 - characterizing a variety of economic activities that have in common what they lack: a formal wage contract regulating the conditions of employment in the large scale or formal sector" (Everett and Savara, 1988:1). 7.25 The National Commission on Self-Employed Women and Women in the Informal Sector (1988) uses the following occupational categories: - land-based occupations (e.g., agriculture, forestry, dairying, small animal husbandry, sericulture); - mining; - tobacco and bidi workers; - other home-based workers (e.g., handloom, handicrafts, garments); - vendors and hawkers; - construction workers; - domestic workers; and - factory piece-rate workers. This is a useful starting point which recognizes the diversity of the informal sector. But it still masks a wide range in the degree of worker vulnerability within and among occupational categories. Much work remains to be done to develop an adequate conceptual framework which will encompass the diversity of the informal sector and yet provide useful "recommendation domains" for policy formulation. 7.26 Basically, the informal sector can be characterized either with respect to the enterprise or with respect to the employment characteristics of the worker. Informal sector enterprises may be classified by their size (intermediate, small or tiny), by sector (e.g., manufacturing, trade, transport, services, banking/money-lending), by their relation to the formal sector, by their technology (traditional or modern; with or without electricity), by location (i.e., household and non-household manufacturing; urban or rural), and by specific productive activity as in the National Commission's classification given above. Workers in the informal sector can be classified on a continuum from true self-employment through dependent production to wage employment. There is obviously some ovarlap in these two means of classification. For example, wage workers predominate in some enterprises and self-employed workers in others. In agriculture, by far the largest informal sector occupation, women are substantially employed as both wage workers and own-farm workers. 7.27 Taken by itself, neither the enterprise nor the worker criterion is adequate to map out the actual contours of the informal sector and identify the most vulnerable workers. Even a large registered firm can employ casual workers who remain in the informal sector (Mukhopadhyay, 1988). In fact, the growing use of casual laborers reflects a common strategy used by formal sector firms to avoid legal and/or collective bargaining restrictions on retrenchments and to maintain flexibility in the size of their work force. 7.28 This blurring of the distinctions between the enterprise and the worker has been especially evident in GOI's policy toward the small-scale sector: there has been a basic assumption that small-scale and tiny units are  - 94 - owned and run by self-employed informal sector workers and that, therefore, concessions to small-scale enterprises would benefit informal sector workers. This is not necessarily the case, and in many instances small industries are in fact decentralized production units for formal sector firms. One observer has noted that these "wooly" assumptions are convenient for government which is without the means for reaching (or even measuring) informal sector workers who are very mobile; "supportive' policies are addressed at the production unit rather than at the worker, thus making it advantageous for large industries to decentralize (Banerjee, N.D.:11). Referring to her own study of women silk spinners in West Bengal, she writes that: the merchants who hired women for spinning raw silk paid them a pittance while they claimed large subsidies from the Silk Board of the Government of India on the grounds that is was a cottage industry. This is true of almost the entire handloom industry of India (Banerjee, N.D.:12). 7.29 This lack of conceptual clarity with regard to the definition and boundaries of the informal sector, together with measurement difficulties similar to those affecting the agricultural subsistence sector, has contributed to the "invisibility" of the informal sector and hindered the formulation and implementation of appropriate policy responses. Neither the size, nor the sectoral distribution are known with much precision, so that projections of growth or decline in individual sub-sectors or in the informal sector as a whole continue to be based on impressions and, where they exist, on micro-level studies. 7.30 Thus, although the industrial classification data were used above to examine some of the changes that have been taking place in female employment outside agriculture, even the most detailed three-digit classifications would comprise workers employed on a casual or permanent basis in both regulated and unregulated firms in that particular sub-sector. The man who has operated the steam press for a commercial dry-cleaner for 20 years and the woman who presses clothes for a few cents a piece with her coal iron beneath a tree in a middle-class neighborhood are both classified as "laundry workers", though one is a permanent employee of a regulated firm and the other is a self-employed informal sector worker/entrepreneur. Measuring the Informal Sector 7.31 As a first approximation, the residual category from the NSS data of all those not employed in regular salary and wage work is often used to estimate the size of the informal sector (GOI, 1974:157; Mukhopadyay, 1984:49). This would suggest that 94% of India's working women are in the informal sector (see Table 2.1). Another rough estimation, using 1981 Census data for employment in the organized sector (22.9 million)2 and for total main workers (222.5 million), implies that about 90% of India's total work force is 2 Public sector plus private sector workers. In the case of the private sector, reporting is compulsory for establishments of 25 workers and over. Reporting for the establishments with 10-13 workers is voluntary, and the extent of coverage Is not known.  - 95 - in the informal sector.3 It would be incorrect, however, to assume that all these workers are deprived and insecure -- because the informal sector also includes a number of well-established self-employed and professional people. 7.32 In terms of net value added, the informal sector makes particularly large contributions in agriculture, forestry and fisheries. In the Indian economy as a whole, two thirds of the net value added is generated in the informal sector (see Table 66). If agriculture, banking and public administration are excluded, the informal sector contributes about 56%4 of total net value added to the Indian industrial and service economy. However, as is to be expected, valued added per worker is lower than in the organized sector, and has been growing more slowly. 7.33 Some preliminary calculations with regard to female main and marginal workers in the informal sector are presented in Table 59. Predictably, given the importance of agriculture in rural areas, the vast majority (95%) of rural women work in the informal sector. Among urban working women this proportion is substantially lower (53%) -- but when the same calculations are made using NSS data (which generally capture a larger number of working women), the portion of informal sector workers among economically active urban women rises to 75%*5 Calculations based on the 1977 Calcutta Metropolitan District Census reports show that 60% of the women workers in that city were in the informal sector (Banerjee, 1985:23). Female Emplovment 7.34 As already noted, overall female labor force participation rates in urban areas are much lower than those in rural areas, but actual female participation rates in poor urban areas are likely to be much higher than those captured in official statistics, and women's participation is increasing far more rapidly than men's. In the late 1970s, 27% of the women in three Bombay slum communities were found to be economically active (Dalaya, 1978). A decade later, a study of 26,583 extremely poor pavement dwellers in Bombay found 43% of the women in the labor force (SPARC, 1986). In a sample of 480 families in a slum community in urban Pune, the female participation rate was around 35%, as compared with only 17% in the Pune urban agglomeration as a whole; a longitudinal follow-up study of the same sample showed that from 1976 to 1981 the number of working women had risen by 37%, while the number of working men had increased by only 5% (Bapat and Crook, 1988). 7.35 Especially informative are the data on formal and informal sector employment obtained by the National Institute of Urban Affairs in its on- 3 While suggestive, this calculation has a few obvious flaws: (i) marginal workers are left out; (ii) as with the NSS figures, the unorganized/informal 90X may include some well established self-employed and professional peoples and (iii) the 1980/81 data for the organized sector include some employment in establishments employing 10-25 workers; workers in such establishments are not covered by most labor legislation and may thus be considered part of the informal rather than the formal sector. 4 Based on data from India CEM, May 1989, Table 2.2 and StatLstLcal Appendix Table 66. S These calculations are based on the simplifying assumption that all organized (formal) sector women work in rural areas. Since most organized sector work takes place, in fact, in urban areas, this is likely to underestimate the share of IS workers among both rural and urban women.  - 96 - going study of women in the informal sector of two large and four medium- sized urban centers in different regions of India (NIUA, 1988:6-7). For the six cities combined, female participation in the formal sector was less than 1% in the poor urban areas sampled, but the proportion of the female population involved in informal sector activities was 30%. Total female participation in formal and informal sector work in the sample was 31% -- 49% for the women aged 15 and above (see Table 62). The survey also confirms that the importance of female employment is considerably greater if one considers the proportion of households dependent on women's work: 62% of all households surveyed had at least one female member in the work force, with particularly high numbers in the Southern cities: 93% of the households in Bangalore and 77% of those in Vishnakapatnam had at least one woman worker (see Table 7.6). Table 7.6 HOUSEHOLDS WITH WOMEN WORKERS IN SIX URBAN SAMPLES, 1988 Number of Number of Households Households With Urban Center Surveyed Women Workers Percentage Bangalore 1,435 1,337 93.17 Lucknow 1,867 1,060 56.78 Vishakhaptnam 1,074 831 77.37 Faridabad 1,496 657 43.92 Trichur 906 565 62.36 Puri 1,237 534 43.17 Total Sample 8.015 4.984 62.18 Source: NIUA Survey of Women Ln the Urban Znformal Sector, 1988. Women Workers and Women's Work 7.36 The Pune study cited above provides a rare opportunity to compare the kind of employment and the levels of remuneration obtained by a group of poor urban men and women. Of the 115 "new jobs" taken up by women over the five year period, 31 were in domestic service, 21 in miscellaneous casual labor, 14 in rag picking and 12 in petty vending (Bapat and Crook, 1988). Although the share of male slum dwellers employed in the relatively prestigious skilled (e.g., carpenters) and formal sector industrial jobs declined between 1976 and 1981, men's overall occupational status remained far higher than women's. Neither survey found any women employed in anything other than unskilled or traditional skilled informal sector work (see Table 64). Even when women and men work at the same skill level, female earnings are considerably lower (see Table 65). 7.37 The Calcutta study (see para. 7.15) provides comprehensive data on the characteristics of women working in the informal sector and on their  - 97 - working environment (Banerjee, 1985). As in the Pune study, about 70% of the households surveyed were below the poverty line. Illiteracy among the women surveyed was high, at 60%, but not as high as in the rural areas, and the age- specific data indicated steady improvement: only 19% of the 16-20 year olds were illiterate, compared to 100% of those over age 60. Family planning appeared to be related to education levels: two thirds of the illiterate married women of child-bearing age practiced family planning, compared with over 80% of those with primary schooling or above. 7.38 In contrast to earlier surveys in Calcutta, the majority of the working women were not from Scheduled Castes; indeed, quite a large percentage came from upper caste families. Forty percent were immigrants to the city. And the majority were currently married, rather than widows and divorced/abandoned women. Interestingly, in terms of monthly per capita income, the widowed and divorced or abandoned women were found to be better off than the married women -- especially the married women with children. 7.39 Wages were low, and for 50% of the sample they had remained stagnant for the preceding seven years. Most of these women compensated for the low wage levels by taking on more work: 36% held more than one job, and 30% worked more than 63 hours a week, usually seven days a week. The work environment is harshly competitive -- but it also is flexible, allowing a woman to hold several part-time jobs, to work extra hours or to do whatever else may be needed to generate enough income for her family's survival. 7.40 Although children are allowed informally (i.e., without any special facilities) at the mother's work place, neither this nor the flexibility in hours of work are socially motivated by concern for the working mother. It is, rather, a strategy that permits the small entrepreneurs who employ these women to retain their own flexibility. They, too, operate in a very competitive environment. With low levels of capital investment, they survive by continually modifying their products and production schedules in response to demand and to the availability of capital and raw material. To them it is an advantage to have workers they can call on to work longer hours when needed or fewer hours when demand is low. A steady contractual relationship with a particular group of workers would constrain the producer's responsiveness to market developments. And, because the skills required are minimal and the labor market is extremely crowded, one worker can easily be substituted for another. 7.41 This substitutability of workers may be one reason for the apparent absence of barriers to women entering new occupations in the informal sector. The movement of women into new manufacturing sub-sectors reflected in the aggregate statistics cited earlier (see paras. 7.6-7.7) is confirmed by the micro-level data. Women in the Calcutta sample have entered into printing, book binding, food processing, and bidi rolling -- all formerly "male" occupations. They have also moved into new areas such as electrical fittings, pottery, glass blowing, plastic goods, and rubber and leather products (Banerjee, 1985:42-43). 7.42 There is also considerable micro-level evidence of rapid growth in female employment in an industrial production arrangement which has emerged from the competitive arena of the urban informal sector -- the "putting out  - 98 - system" of industrial sub-contracting. Large and medium-sized formal sector enterprises contract out certain steps in the production process on a piece rate basis, thereby circumventing labor regulations and lowering overhead costs. In just three years, from 1971 to 1974, the percentage of women in the Calcutta sample employed in piece rate jobs rose from 10% to 18%. Much of the garment industry, which expanded rapidly in response to export incentives in the early 1980s, employs large numbers of home-based women workers. Some of this work is done in small workshops run by contractors; some is done in the wromen's homes. Such home-based work has obvious appeal because it allows the woman to remain on the "inside" where she can combine income earning work with her domestic responsibilities.6 7.43 However, the dispersed nature of home-based work and the fact that these women have few other options combine to make this one of the lowest paying categories of employment -- with wages even below those of agricultural laborers. Home-based workers in the Calcutta sample were paid lower piece rates for the same items than those who worked in sub-contractors' workshops (Banerjee, 1985:65). Also, since this form of industrial employment emerged in order to avoid governmental labor regulations and since the women involved prefer to think of themselves as "housewives" rather than workers, a large portion of this type of employment necessarily remains undetected in macro- Level statistics. 7.44 The phenomenon of home-based work had already been documented in Ihe case of the lace-makers of Narsapur in Andhra Pradesh and of the bidi makers in Allahabad (Meis, 1982; Bhatty, 1981). But its rapid growth and the high level of female labor involved only attracted major attention following a 1985 conference in Delhi where research findings were presented on women and home-based production. Textiles, garments (for export and well as domestic consumption) and food processing were a few of the industries where women's involvement in decentralized production was documented (Singh and Kelles- Viitanen, 1987). Some of the work performed under this arrangement, like lace-making, zari (embroidery with gold and silver threads) and chikan embroidery on muslin, involves high levels of skill.7 But almost anything requiring simple, labor-intensive operations can be produced in this manner as well. In addition to bidis, the on-going study of informal sector workers in Bombay mentions electronic items, electric plugs, safety pins, envelopes, napkins and plastic scouring pads as items produced on a piece rate basis by the women in the study sample (Everett and Savara, 1988:14). 7.45 In addition to wage workers and piece rate workers, there is a third category of women in the informal sector: the self-employed. These appear in a wide range of service and manufacturing occupations: vegetable selling and other petty trading and hawking, laundry service, rag picking, cart pulling, catering and food processing, and all sorts of petty manufacturing. Most of these occupations are, of course, also often carried out by workers who are not genuinely self-employed but who depend on others 6 Savara and Everett report that in their Bombay survey 90X of the women working in the informal sector said they preferred home-based work (1988.15). 7 This skill is not necessarily reflected in the piece rate level: the delicate work of the lace-makers earned them only Rs. 1 for eight hours of work.  - 99 - for the basic equipment and/or raw materials needed to carry out their trade. This is especially true for manufacturing, because the line between an autonomous household industry and home-based put-out work is easily blurred. 7.46 According to NSS statistics for 1983, the share of self-employment among women workers in the urban labor force was 37%. In manufacturing 46% of the women workers are self-employed -- but with 87%, the trade sector has the highest proportion of self-employment among women workers (see Table 54). 7.47 There has been an overall decline in the proportion of self- employed workers in the labor force between 1977/78 and 1983. This decline has been particularly marked for women: the percentage of self-employed in the female labor force fell by nearly 5%, compared with a drop of only 0.1% for men (see Table 54). The steepest decline has been in manufacturing where the share of self-employed female workers dropped by 15%. This is in contrast with both casual labor and regular wage/salary employment for women in manufacturing which rose by 11% and 4%, respectively. 7.48 Studies from different cities reveal a wide range, however, in the percentage of self-employed among poor working women. A recent NIUA survey of 900 women in the informal sector of three medium-sized Northern cities (Alwar, Ghasiabad and Wardha) found 61% of the women to be self-employed (NIUA, 1987:16). The NIUA study of six cities cited earlier (see para. 7.33) distinguishes between women running their own enterprises and those working as helpers in family enterprises (who, according to NSS criteria, would also be categorized as self-employed). About 31% of the 1,200 working women sampled from low-income settlements in the six cities operate their own enterprises, a mere 0.03% employ others, and about 8% help in family enterprises (see Table 63). This means that about 40% were self-employed, a figure not too different from the national-level NSS figure of 37% (NIUA, 1988a:13). However, this masks a considerable range in the importance of self-employment in the various cities -- from nearly 70% of the women workers in the Faridabad sample to only 13% of the women workers in Bangalore. In the Calcutta study, which used similar definitions, fewer than 10% of the women workers were self-employed (Banerjee, 1985:46). 7.49 Studies indicate that the highest earnings for women in the urban informal sector are for self-employed workers -- especially when they have capital to invest in their business (Banerjee, 1985:62; NIUA, 1987:41). Lack of access to institutional credit for micro-enterprises is a major constraint on the growth of self-employment among urban female workers. About 43% of the women surveyed in NIUA's six-city study reported that they had required initial fixed capital to carry on their occupation, and 63% said they needed working capital; yet only 6% reported seeking credit from banks for an initial investment,8 and less than 3% had sought loans for working capital (NIUA, 1988b:6-8). 7.50 Besides lack of capital/credit, other important factors constraining urban women's entry into self-employment ventures include the 8 It is not clear from the data presented how many of those who sought Institutional credlt were actually able to obtain it.  - 100 - higher risk of income fluctuation, the exposure involved in seeking out customers and obtaining raw materials, and the greater knowledge required of market conditions, etc. Impact on Household Income and Decision-Making 7.51 Although the proportions vary among and between occupational groups and cities in different regions, women working in the informal sector usually provide a substantial share of aggregate family income. In the Calcutta study cited, women earned over 40% of the family income in nearly half the cases and over 60% in a quarter of the cases (Banerjee, 1985:90). As the share of total income contributed by a woman increased, so did the likelihood of her control over the management of family income. Only 14% of the women earning less than a third of the family income managed the family funds, while 54% of those who earned more than 66% of the family income managed the entire income on their own. The correlation is far from perfect, however, and even in the latter group almost 30% of these primary providers left (or were compelled to leave) the management of family income to someone else (see Table 29). 7.52 About 20% of the women covered by the NIUA study in three Northern cities were the sole economic supporters of their households, some 25% earned over 90% of the household's income, and nearly half earned over 50% of the household income. Fewer than 10% contributed less than 20% of the household's total income (NIUA, 1987:68). A study of 80 Scheduled Caste sweeper women in Delhi found that, on average, women contributed 42.6% of total family income (Karlekar, 1986). Home-based garment industry workers in Delhi are also reported to contribute a major share of family earnings (Rao and Husain, 1987). The contribution of women workers in Bombay slums ranged from 39% of family income among the kanewalis who provide food and lodging to migrant mill workers to 52% among the fisherwomen, with an average of 42% for the entire sample of 200 women (Everett and Savara, 1988:11). 7.53 The National Commission on Self-Employed Women and Women in the Informal Sector (1988) was not able to calculate a national statistic on the contribution of women's income to the household's other earnings. The Commission members inquired about this, however, with the self-employed women workers they met during their study tours which included extensive field visits -- planned and unplanned -- with poor women workers throughout India. The Commission found that an "alarming number of families (survived) solely on the woman's earnings (from 20% to 60%) in every group ... encountered." 7.54 The linkage between women's contribution to household income and their "bargaining power" has been discussed in Chapter 3 with specific regard to rural women. The key question is whether a woman's income earning ability has a positive effect on her status in the family and particularly on her control over the utilization of household resources. Although there are many intervening cultural and economic factors, the data reviewed in Chapter 3 suggest a fairly strong link between rural women's ability to make a recognizable contribution to family income and their decision-making power within the family. The cash income of a female agricultural laborer is more easily identified (and usually also a larger share of total family income) than the contribution to household income of the unpaid family worker whose labor and management skills are "absorbed" in the family's overall farm  - 101 - production effort. Hence, women wage laborers generally have a greater say in household affairs. 7.55 Since most women working in the urban informal sector (except those working as unpaid family helpers) earn an identifiable income, it might be expected that, like agricultural wage laborers, they have greater say over household allocation than women who are not cash income earners. However, in the few studies of poor urban women which have looked at decision making in relation to women's work status and income contribution the findings are far from conclusive. 7.56 A study of poor working women in Calcutta found that most of the women turned their earnings over to the household head to manage and their employment had little effect on their status or decision-making power in the household (Standing, 1985). Although three fourths of the Balmiki sweeper women in the previously cited study in Delhi reported that their husbands' earnings were turned over to them and that they were responsible for day-to- day decisions, all reported that the major financial decisions on loans, purchases, travel and family labor deployment (including the woman's own employment) were taken by men: A Balmiki woman's earning ability led neither to economic independence, nor change in the traditional structure of male- female relationships within the family. An earning wife had no right to spend her salary on herself; all earning went into the common kitty for running the home. A man, on the other hand, invariably kept back some money for his personal expenses (Karlekar, 1986:90). 7.57 This contrasts with the finding that the ability of poor Muslim women in Allahabad to earn through bidi production improved their say in household decisions (Bhatty, 1981). A study of women's roles in three very poor families in Madras (Kalpagam, 1983) found men and women sharing the income earning responsibility and even some of the housework. Nevertheless, as in the very poor rural households studied by Mencher (1988), Meis (1986) and Sharma (1980), Kalpagam found that the "ultimate responsibility of running the household -- of every day getting at least a minimal amount of food for all, of entertaining friends and relatives, of finding funds for emergencies and then servicing that debt, lies with the women". Obviously, "gender relations within the family are much more complex than a straight-forward man- woman exploitation" (Kalpagam, 1983), and intense poverty may actually enhance solidarity between husband and wife. D. Policy ImRlications 7.58 Informal sector jobs provide work and income for the majority of urban women workers. Conservative estimates, based on Census data, suggest that 53% of the female urban labor force were in the informal sector in 1981; NSS data for 1983/84 imply that this share is 75% (see para. 7.33). Poor women are especially dependent on informal sector employment: in-depth studies in different locations showed that about 70% of the women working in the informal sector were below the poverty line (Banerjee, 1985; Bapat and Crook, 1988). Although there are important variations among different sub-sectors  - 102 - with regard to literacy, health problems, education levels and remuneration, these occur within a narrow range -- with averages that clearly indicate the disadvantaged position of women in the informal sector. For all of them, earnings and job security are low, hours long, lifetime earning profiles flat, and working conditions physically stressful and often unhealthy. 7.59 Governmental awareness of this situation has grown with the recent publication of Shramshakti, the report of the National Commission for Self- Employed Women and Women in the Informal Sector (see below, paras 10.46- 10.48). The response so far has focused primarily on recommendations to extend the regulatory protection accorded to formal sector workers to these disadvantaged women. Women's activist groups, many of whom contributed to the Commission's work, support this approach -- even though their own efforts usually extend far beyond this to the pursuit of women's empowerment through organization and through access to specific resources such as credit and health and family planning services. 7.60 Extending regulatory protection to informal sector workers has, tnfortunately, not proved effective in the past. The minimum wage legislation provides a salient case in point. This suggests a need for reconsidering what is really needed and what Government can realistically achieve. The Bank's 1989 Country Economic Memorandum (CEM)9 argues that existing labor regulations (especially restrictions on retrenchment) along with certain policies such as capacity licencing, incentives for relocation in backward areas, and reservation of products and subsidized credit for small-scale firms, etc. -- have to a large degree been responsible for the lack of employment growth in organized manufacturing. In fact, as discussed above, it has been the attempt to circumvent these very regulations that has led formal sector firms to use casual rather than permanent laborers wherever possible and to disperse production to small unregulated firms and home-based piece-rate workers through the "putting out" system. These "avoidance maneuvers" have spurred the growth of the informal sector in which so many women are employed -- but under such poor conditions. 7.61 Herein lies the dilemma. Even if it were possible to enforce existing labor regulations throughout the informal sector, such a move could be expected to have the same effect there that it has had in the formal sector: a shift to more capital-intensive production, labor shedding wherever possible, and a new spurt of even more elaborate maneuvers to obtain a flexible, low-wage work force. In a labor market crowded with unskilled workers, that low-wage work force will continue to exist. The formal/informal duality will remain and, in all probability, women will continue to be concentrated in the informal sector. 7.62 Although not with any particular reference to women, the 1989 Country Economic Report'0 proposes a strategy for breaking out of this dilemma that would stimulate the industrial sector to adopt more labor-intensive 9India, Poverty Employment and Social Services," Report No. 7617-In, May 10, 1989. 10 bld  - 103 - production methods and create more jobs. Underlying this strategic recommendation is the conviction that creating the conditions for more rapid growth is the most powerful anti-poverty instrument because it will increase labor demand and raise wages. A shift is recommended from the present 'defensive" job-saving approach to an active job-creating approach. Among the specific measures proposed is the gradual dismantling of all but a few basic and enforceable regulations to protect workers -- and applying these to all workers, thereby gradually weakening the formal/informal duality. 7.63 The critical question here is whether this approach would also increase the availability of jobs and ultimately raise wages and improve the quality of life for poor women. Overall growth in the economy is undoubtedly a necessary condition for any lasting improvement in the employment and income situation of poor women working in the informal sector. But, as the CEM recognizes, it will not be sufficient by itself to reduce existing disparities and distribute more equitably the benefits of growth. Given women's present education and skill levels, the restrictive social and family attitudes they confront and the time and mobility constraints they face, it is unlikely that they will get the new jobs which the suggested reforms would open up in the formal sector. 7.64 To ensure that accelerated industrial growth such as India has experienced over the last decade (a rate of over 8% p.a. in the 1980s) directly benefits the poor, the CEM recommended a set of policies to reduce the existing bias against labor-intensive rather than capital-intensive investment. Especially important for women, who are concentrated in the informal sector, is the removal of regulatory barriers which discourage ancillary relationships between small and large firms and inhibit expansion of successful firms in both the informal and small-scale sectors. Policies such as product reservation and subsidized credit which are meant to assist the small-scale sector in the belief that it is highly labor-intensive and will create employment for the poor are shown to act instead as incentives for SSI firms to remain small and invest in capital-intensive production. 7.65 However, in addition to changes in the macro-level industrial policy environment to promote employment growth, there may be need for additional measures to ensure that existing gender-specific constraints to female employment are also addressed. As an extension of efforts to increase the employment potential of firms of all sizes, it will also be important to enable poor women (and men) to create their own jobs -- through providing better access to education, credit, land, extension advice, technology, raw materials, markets and so on. If women obtain this access, they can and will create their own jobs, make these jobs more productive and therefore more remunerative. 7.66 Needed is an integrated view of the manufacturing and services sectors, sensitive to the ways in which policies enacted to regulate or benefit one segment of a sector affect the potential for growth and employment creation in another. In other words, it will be important that policy changes necessary to improve formal sector industrial employment be matched with efforts to support increased jobs and self-employment in the informal sector. The remarkable vitality of the informal sector in India is evident from the preceding discussion, but there is need for much more precise understanding of its structure and dynamics -- of the many different types of workers and  - 104 - occupations it comprises, of its complex relationship with the formal sector, and its responses to changes in the industrial policy environment. E. Areas for Intervention 7.67 The recommended course of action here is similar to that proposed for promoting the advancement of rural women: macro and sectoral policy measures to promote overall employment growth in both of formal and the informal sectors, combined with a number of specific actions to ensure women's access to the resources they need to partake of the benefits of such growth. Measures to improve the fundamental human capital resources of poor women through the provision of basic primary education and better health are dealt with in Chapters 8 and 9. Specific actions -- including measures to improve women's access to financial services, re-thinking of current approaches to training women in non-traditional skills, organization, supportive services and advocacy for informal sector workers -- are discussed below. Institutional Finance 7.68 Urban women live in an environment where there are many opportunities for self-employment in services, trade and petty manufacturing for those who have access to capital. Thus the demand for credit to start up micro-enterprises is high, but urban women face difficulties obtaining institutional credit similar to those of rural women. The major difference is that in urban areas there have been a number of women's NGOs in different cities that have developed strong demand structures and efficient credit delivery systems covering fairly wide and diverse populations of poor urban women. Although examples of successful rural-based efforts exist in neighboring countries, in India, there are few NCO efforts at credit delivery (or intermediation) for women that have achieved wide coverage in rural areas. 7.69 Until recently, the main source of institutional credit for poor urban women was through the government's Differential Interest Rate (DRI) scheme through which banks are required to lend 1% of their previous annual advances to the "self-employed poor" for productive ventures."1 The DRI scheme predates IRDP and does not involve any subsidies for asset purchase with the linkages that entails between the banks and the local district and block development authorities. Instead, credit is made available at a highly subsidized interest rate of 4%. 7.70 Since there is no assistance to the banks from the Department of Rural Development in identifying the beneficiaries and since the bank staff are both reluctant and unqualified to do this work (which requires fairly intimate knowledge of and continuous contact with urban slum neighborhoods), two alternative forms of intermediation have arisen.'2 The first type of intermediary can best be described as a broker -- though the banks prefer to 11 The anual family income of the borrover is to be less than Rs. 7,200 in urban areas and Rs. 6,400 in rural areas. 12 These two types of banking intermediaries were first identified and described by Everett and Savara in a number of articles based on empirical research carried out in Bombay slum comnunities over several years (1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987).  - 105 - call them "social workers". The broker may be either a slum community leader, a raw materials supplier/contractor or a politician -- or some combination of these. The second type of intermediary that has arisen are women's organizations such as the Self Employed Women's Organization (SEWA) in Ahmedabad and other cities, Annapurna Mahila Mandal (AMM) in Bombay and Working Women's Forum (WWF) in Madras and Bangalore. 7.71 Unlike the brokers, the women's organizations do not expect "fees" from DRI borrowers in return for their intermediation. Their support generally also includes assistance with marketing, advocacy with municipal authorities, training, etc. Although those brokers, who are traders or middlemen, may also supply raw materials and marketing support along with credit, the terms are not necessarily favorable to the borrowers who may end up functioning more as dependent producers than as genuinely self-employed entrepreneurs. The women's organizations are also much more strict about repayment than the brokers, with overdues averaging less than 10%, compared to 70% for the DRI scheme as a whole. Another important difference is that the women's organizations' approach to credit delivery usually includes a parallel emphasis on savings. Savings can be voluntary or compulsory; held in separate individual accounts or in jointly managed group accounts, but this element appears to be crucial.13 7.72 In September 1986, GOI initiated a new, urban, credit-based poverty alleviation program -- the Self-Employment Programme for the Urban Poor (SEPUP) -- on the model of IRDP (see also para 10.12). Although it is too early to assess this program after such a short period of operation, it seems likely that SEPUP will experience the same problems as IRDP: reluctant banks and political interference leading to low recoveries and a program which becomes a one-time transfer of funds to the poor rather than a system to recycle these funds through a permanent credit window open to those who repay. The SEPUP program will add to the basic DRI formula, cumbersome subsidies for asset purchase and government personnel to handle at least the client identification part of the intermediation process. While this may in some cases be preferable to the DRI "social worker'-brokers, SEPUP will still lack the ability to organize women into articulate groups, mobilize savings or provide the range of other non-credit support services which the women's NGOs have offered. 7.73 In sum, the only major shortcoming of the NGOs as credit intermediaries has been their limited coverage. AMM covers only a small fraction of the poor self-employed women who need credit in Bombay. WFF has spread from Madras to Bangalore and SEWA has affiliates in Delhi, Lucknow and other cities. And there are many other NGOs who are doing similar work organizing women for DRI credit. But this still leaves many poor women in other cities and towns unreached. SEPUP covers all urban centers with over 10,000 people. If efforts could be made through SEPUP to identify viable NGOs, seek out their involvement and streamline the interface between these NGOs and the banks, a workable partnership might evolve. 13 It is also worth noting that in some cases the women's organizations found that the transaction costs of DRI credit were too high. SEWA, for example, began its credit work with DRI funds but later decided to form its own cooperative bank. WWF lends its own funds as well as serving as an intermediary for DRI credit.  - 106 - Skill Training 7.74 The most important preparation which urban women need to be able to respond to wider range of job and self-employment opportunities is primary education and especially basic literacy. These fundamental human capital resources are discussed in detail in Chapter 8. 7.75 But in addition to formal education, there is also a critical role for vocational, technical and entrepreneurship training for women. It is not clear, however, whether the existing programs and institution-based approaches can really reach poor, generally illiterate informal sector women workers. 7.76 In addition to the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) recently established in Delhi and the three Regional Women's Vocational Training Centers (RVTIs) already in existence in Bombay, Bangalore and Tivandrum, three new RVTIs are to be set up in Hissar (Haryana), Calcutta and ura (Meghalaya). Although courses in electronics and business services have been introduced, most of the training imparted has been of the traditional, non-technical variety and has generated little additional income-earning potential for the trainees (Mukhopadyay, 1988). 7.77 The same problem besets the national network of Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs). Although the 1,887 ITIs throughout the country also enroll women, to improve their access 132 separate women's ITIs were established along with 98 separate women's wings in the general ITIs. Even with this, women comprise only 5% of the trainees, and the courses offered to women are almost exclusively in conventional "female" occupations such as cutting and tailoring, dress designing, embroidery and knitting, stenography, beautification and hair dressing, cooking, catering and home management. 7.78 Follow-up studies of female graduates have shown that only 25% are employed 18 months after successfully completing their training. The training provided is not sufficiently practice-oriented and does not leave the trainee with the necessary skill proficiency to perform well on the job. Another problem, apparently affecting female trainees especially, is the failure to match the training offered with the skills in demand in the job market. Regular location-specific assessment of market demand (and the flexibility to respond with appropriate training) should be part of the ITIs' mandate. At the very least, available macro-level data (such as those cited earlier indicating the new manufacturing and service jobs opening up to women) could serve as an interim guide for curriculum revision. 7.79 Another problem with the ITIs is that they are geared to women who have completed at least middle school education. A recent study showed that, in fact, 87% of the female trainees were already high school graduates. This places the ITIs far beyond the reach of most poor urban women. 7.80 A similar limitation effects the Entrepreneurship Development Program for Women operated by the Development Commissioner for Small Scale Industries, Ministry of Industry, and the training programs and facilities offered by the Department of Industrial Development and by the Entrepreneur Cell under the Office of the Director of Small Scale Industries which provides counselling to women entrepreneurs.  - 107 - 7.81 These efforts are aimed at bringing women into the modern small- scale manufacturing sector. While this is a commendable objective, it is necessarily targeted at women with educational and financial backgrounds which already place them well above the poverty line. Still unserved are the majority of urban women who are wage laborers or self-employed in traditional, family-based micro-enterprises. These women need more relevant, practical training geared to trainees with little or no formal education and closely tied to opportunities in the job market or linked with the credit and other support required to begin viable micro-enterprises. Institutional training may be an option for young, unmarried women, but for those with family responsibilities and the need to earn a daily income it is problematic. 7.82 It may be that the existing vocational and technical training institutes can be most useful to poor working women if they are used to provide training and technical back-up to NGO field staff involved in the kind of credit intermediation efforts described above. Advocacy. Supportive Services and Organization 7.83 Most of the other needs of poor women workers in urban areas have been identified and addressed by the women's NGOs. Their major advocacy achievement has been making women workers in the informal sector visible at the municipal, state and central level. Battles are still being fought in many cities over the right of women vegetable vendors and other petty traders to use traditional public spaces to ply their trade without harassment (Jhabwala, 1986). But in at least some cities and increasingly at the central level, the legitimacy of such informal sector workers, their major role in the national economy and the importance of the services they perform is being recognized as a result of such advocacy. The widely acclaimed report, Shramshakti, of the National Commission on Self-Employed Women and Women in the Informal Sector and also the recently prepared National Perspective Plan for Women are both testimony to this recognition. 7.84 Women in the urban informal sector also need certain supportive services to help them overcome the constraints imposed by their child care responsibility and their lack of mobility. Support needs to be provided to expand NGO efforts such as Mobile Creche which organizes (with support form the employer) child care facilities on the work sites of large urban construction projects. And as in rural areas, the potential of using the ICDS infrastructure to provide all-day child care for working mothers should also be investigated. 7.85 Like rural women, urban women producers could benefit greatly from co-operative organizations which would enable them to control the procurement of raw materials and the marketing of their products. Such structures would in many cases need to create linkages between rural producers of raw materials and intermediate products and urban women who would further process and market the finished products. This has been the success of the dairy cooperative structure -- though few women seem to be involved in the urban processing and marketing side. Other examples are difficult to find. However, on a much smaller scale, some of the urban NGOs have been able to organize women for procurement of raw materials and marketing. The problem for policy  - 108 - formulation is knowing whether the government can play a constructive role in the organization process -- other than through attempts to replicate the NDDB success and the provision of support to NGO efforts. 7.86 What needs to be recognized is that the "exploitative" middlemen, traders and brokers exist because they provide services which women producers need but cannot yet provide for themselves. Most government efforts to neliminate the middle men" by providing these services have not been effective, but have in many cases simply substituted inefficiency for exploitation. This is because more than just the services, what women workers need is to be trained and prepared to provide these services for themselves and to assume control over the backward and forward linkages of production. Since not even all NGOs operate according to this paradigm, it is difficult to expect this approach which is one of gradual divestment of control to be congenial to government programs.  - 109 - PART C: WOMEN'S ACCESS TO SOCIAL SERVICES Chapter 8: EDUCATION A. Educational ORRortunities for Girls Female Literacy 8.01 Almost 60% -- or 200 million -- of India's illiterates are girls or women. Figure 8.1 shows that 47% of the male population is literate compared to 25% of the females. Effective literacy rates (age 5 and over) are slightly higher (54% for males and 29% for females), but the gap remains (see Table 68). The male-female differential has declined somewhat between 1951 and 1981, but there still are far more illiterate females than illiterate males and three-quarters of the women in India still cannot read. Figure 8.1 Male/Female Comparative Literacy Rates (1981) Male m Female 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20%- 10% Total Rural Urban S.T. S.C. (Rural) (Rural) Sectors of Population Source: Census of India, 1981 8.02 Female literacy rates vary significantly between rural and urban areas, and rural females have the lowest literacy rates of any major population group (see Figure 8.1). The 1981 literacy rate for rural females aged 5 and above was half that of rural males and a little more than one- third that of urban females. Even in the 10-14 year age group, where female  - 110 - literacy is highest, the rural-urban gap persists: the literacy rate of rural 10-14 year old girls is less than half that of their urban counterparts. 8.03 Figure 8.1 also shows that female literacy is much lower among Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) populations: only 7% of the Tribal and 9% of the Scheduled Caste women in rural areas are literate. Enrollments for SC/ST girls are also low. Only 19% of SC girls are enrolled, less than half the enrollment of girls from the rest of the population. 8.04 Figure 8.2 shows the wide regional variations in female literacy. In the Fourteen (14) most populous states the literary rates for rural females range from a low of 6.4% in Rajasthan to 71.9% in Kerala (see Table 69). In all states except Kerala, more than two thirds of rural women are illiterate. Urban female literacy rates are consistently higher, ranging from 40% to 80%. Figure 8.2 Male/Female Rural Literacy Rates (1981) Regions & States Male Female Eastern Assam Bihar Orlssa West Bengal Southern Andhra Prad Karnataka Kerala Tamil Nadu Central Madhya Prad ___ Uttar Prad Western Gujarat Maharashtra Northern Haryana Punjab Hlmchl Prad Jammu& Kashmr Rajasthan All India 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% souro Conefve of WuGla. IS 8.05 Five populous states (Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) account for more than half of India's illiterate females. These five states contain 86% of India's districts where the rural female literacy rate is below 5%, 81% of those with rates of 5%-9%, and 64% of those between 10-14% (see Table 70). Illiteracy is especially widespread among rural women of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (see Table 71).  - 111 - School Enrollment of Girls 8.06 Enrollment ratios for girls have increased steadily from 1950 to 1985, from around 25% to 77% at the primary school level (see Figure 8.3) and from 4.6% to 38.1% in middle school. Although these rates of increase have been higher than those for boys, the enrollment rates for girls remain considerably below those of boys which are 108.8% and 65% in primary and middle school, respectively (see Table 72). As a proportion of total enrollment, girls' enrollment has also improved noticeably in this period, being about 40.2% and 35.5% of the total in primary and middle schools, respectively, in 1985/86. Figure 8.3 Trends in Male/Female Enrollment At Primary Level (Class I - V) (1950 - 1986) 120% 800% - 40% ,, 1950 1970 1975 '78 '81 '83 '85 /51 /71 /76 /79 /82 /84 /86 Boys *-Girls Soure.s. Ministry Of Education. *Enrolirnentra., Porcentage of.:ocrlepanding ae Proupma Plannin Commission. Draft Sixth FiV. exeed 100 In I me nstan cause piesen of fhilen Yea r Plan. 1360.66. both younger a older then indicated In the 0gle0s age goOupl. 8.07 Again, there are significant male-female, rural-urban and regional differentials. Only about half of all 6-13 year old girls who are eligible to attend elementary school are enrolled at present. According to the 1981 Census, less than one third of rural girls in this age group were actually attending school, compared with about two thirds in urban areas. 8.08 Enrollment rates increase with household income. National Sample Survey data from Maharashtra for 1980/81 showed that only 33.2% of children from the lowest income group went to school, compared with 93.1% of those in  - 112 - the higher income group. The lowest enrollment rates were reported for girls from economically and socially disadvantaged households: of these, less than one third were in school. The enrollment of Scheduled Tribe girls in middle school is as low as 19.2%. Backward States and Backward Districts 8.09 Nine states are considered particularly backward educationally: Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Together, they account for three fEourths of all non-enrolled children, especially girls. Rajasthan has the lowest level of elementary school participation -- more than 75% of 6-10 year old girls and about 90% of 11-13 year olds are not in school (see Table 8.1). There are, however, wide district-level variations in enrollment rates within these states. Table 8.1 NINE EDUCATIONALLY MOST BACKWARD STATES BY AGE-SPECIFIC ENROLLMENT RATES, 1978 (PERCENT) Age Group Age Group Rank Order Rank Order 6-10 Years 11-13 Years 6-10 Years 11-13 Years Girls Total Girls Total GLrls Total Girls Total 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Andhra Pradesh 50.03 60.17 20.82 30.07 15 16 18 20 Assam 55.11 63.72 30.42 37.90 14 13 13 16 BLhar 37.16 54.37 11.77 25.90 19 19 22 22 Jammu & Kashmir 40.81 58.33 26.94 41.35 18 17 15 13 Madhya Pradesh 32.41 47.71 18.68 33.74 21 21 19 18 Orissa 44.57 456.46 26.91 40.67 16 18 16 14 Rajasthan 23.01 45.22 11.94 29.07 22 22 21 21 Utter Pradesh 32.74 53.40 16.63 33.89 20 20 20 19 West Bengal 57.97 67.60 31.56 39.71 12 12 12 15 All India 51.28 64.13 29.29 41.72 Source: Figures computed from NCERT, 1980s. Fourth All-India Educational Survey: Some Statistics on School Education 8.10 District-level enrollment statistics have been provided in the 1989 Eighth Five Year Plan Working Group Report on Elementary Education. The gross primary enrollment ratios for girls range from 14% in Jaloria, Rajasthan, to 187% in West Khasi Hill, Meghalaya. Of the 416 districts, the participation rate for girls is less than half in 158 districts (see Table 70). As in the case of rural female literacy, the vast majority (85%) of these backward districts were concentrated in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. 8.11 Districts which have the lowest participation rates of girls in primary school tend to be the ones which have also the lowest rural female literacy rates. Among the 158 districts having a gross female primary enrollment ratio less than 50% and the 136 districts having a rural female literacy rate less than 10%, there are 123 common districts which are  - 113 - backwards in both respects. While these 123 districts are distributed in ten states, 87% are concentrated in the same five states (Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajastan and Uttar Pradesh). Any strategy of raising the basic education attainment of females in India (whether through adult literacy or primary education) should give priority to these 123 districts.' Secondary and Higher Education 8.12 Most Indian girls do not attend secondary school or college. Many in the 14-17 year age group are already married. The gross enrollment ratio of girls at the secondary school level is 15.4% -- and girls constitute only 10% of the total enrollment in rural higher secondary schools and 18% in urban high schools. Similarly, only 8.9% of rural girls were enrolled in colleges in 1981 and 34.5% in urban areas (compared with 30.9% and 50.2% of rural and urban males). Although the ratio of women to men in higher education increased between 1950-57 and 1980-81, it was only 37:100 in 1980-81 (see Table 74). Women's enrollment in professional courses is especially limited, being greater in education (92:100), than in medicine (33:100) and lower still in engineering, agricultural science, and so on. Higher education is mostly confined to urban upper and middle classes in India. 8.13 In sum, educational opportunities for girls and women at all levels need to be expanded, as at present the formal educational system is accessible to only a very small proportion of the female population. The retention of girls in schools, especially at the primary level, also needs,to be addressed, so that at the least all Indian girls receive the five years of primary schooling deemed necessary to achieve a minimum level of literacy. B. Factors Affecting Girls' Education Parental Attitudes and Considerations 8.14 The fact that more girls than boys are withdrawn from school reflects basic differences in parental and societal attitudes towards the education of their daughters. The majority of non-enrolled children or school drop-outs come from families who have very limited income and assets and low rank in the caste and occupational hierarchies. Their parents are illiterate or semi- literate. Girls of agricultural laborers, small farmers and artisan families are most likely to be withdrawn from school early, as well as daughters of urban slum families working in low status occupations or in the unorganized sector. The Working Group Report on Elementary Education for the 8th Fiv-Ye-ar Plan has (using other parameters) identified 54 "most backward' districts. It has recommended that these 54 districts should receive the most intensive attention and effort in the 8th Plan. All 54 districts appear in the list of 123 districts cited in this paper.  - 114 - 8.15 The need for child labor both within and outside the home is a major reason for girls not attending or dropping out of school. Many of these young girls are already participating in the work force.2 In 1981, 24.3% of 11-13 year old girls in rural areas and 9.3% in urban areas participated in the labor force. Most working girls are found in the primary sector, engaged in agriculture and allied activities. Less than 2% of these girl workers attend school as it is difficult for children to work and go to school. 8.16 Banerjee points out that between 1971 and 1981 there has actually been a sharp increase in female child labor in rural areas (1989:WS12). While tlhe absolute number of boys in the rural labor force went down by 8% the number of girls increased by 30% (see Table 8.2). Interestingly, the number of girls working on their own family farms (and therefore recorded as cultivators) went up much faster than girls working as agricultural labor. This suggests that small and marginal farm families who depend on family labor are deploying both adult and child female members to meet the increased labor demands of high-yielding technologies -- but deciding to send their sons to school. I'able 8.2 PERCENTAGE CHANGE BETWEEN 1971 AND 1981 IN NUMBERS AND WFPR OF BOYS AND GIRLS BELOW 14 YEARS-RURAL ONLY ------------------------------------------------------------__---------------__ States Percentage Increase Percentage Increase in WFPR in Numbers Male Female Main Main Cultivator Agriculture Workers Workers Female Female Male Female (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) ---------------------------------------------------------------------__------__ India a-) 8 30 (-) 17 22 36 12 Andhra Pradesh C-) 5 42 (-) 14 23 42 25 Bihar (-) 21 (-) 1 (-) 22 (-) 32 33 C-) 9 Gujarat (-) 16 (-) 4 (-) 13 (-) 26 (-) 25 (-) 10 Haryana (-) 9 81 (-) 17 79 116 74 Himachal Pradesh (-) 19 (-) 15 (-) 31 (-) 26 (-) 22 (-) 73 Karnataka 2 55 (-)9 41 50 50 Kerala (-) 6 (-) 33 (-) 50 (-) 37 0 (-) 46 Madhya Pradesh 8 50 (-) 5 33 59 15 Maharashtra 13 51 3 40 57 31 Orissa (-) 10 79 (-) 18 70 150 78 Punjab (-) 28 175 (-) 30 184 200 300 Rajasthan (-) 12 30 C-) 29 60 12 (-) 29 Tamil Nadu (-) 4 68 (-) 9 59 100 59 Uttar Pradesh (-) 4 (-) 21 (-) 19 (-) 38 (-) 29 (-) 50 West Bengal (-) 5 47 (-) 13 30 55 10 Source: Census of India, 1981, Series 1, Part III B (i) Main Workers, General Economic Tables, [Tables B11 and B12]; Presented in Banerjee, 1989, page WS 13, Table 4. 8.17 Although there are almost 40 million "non-working" girls who do not attend schools, these girls are expected to contribute to work within and outside the home. From an early age, both boys and girls take part in almost 2 See pares 9.71-9.72 for further discussion.  - 115 - all the activities that adults in their families are engaged in. Girls work longer hours than boys, spending more time on domestic work -- around half of their working hours -- on chores such as fetching water and fuel, cooking, sweeping, washing and sibling care.3 Thus, even though fewer girls than boys are regular wage earners, they make an important contribution to the maintenance of their families, so that the opportunity costs of their schooling are high. 8.18 In addition, the direct costs of education also deter families from sending their girls to school. Although school education in India is entirely free, expenses on books and learning materials, uniforms, and transport can be a heavy burden on poor families. Various state-administered programs offset some -- but not all -- of the costs to certain groups such as Scheduled Castes and Tribes -- but not to all poor families. 8.19 Another factor contributing to low education levels for girls is the small return anticipated from girls' schooling. While boys' education is viewed as an investment in families' socio-economic status and as old-age security for parents, girls are destined to be married into other families and hence yield no returns to their parents. Girls will be mothers and workers in occupations that require little formal education. Pubescent girls are withdrawn from schools because of the "social dangers" associated with male school teachers and students. Thus, socialization, gender roles and sexual mores all play important roles in depriving girls of formal education. School System Factors 8.20 Factors internal to the school system also determine girls' attendance at elementary school. These include inconvenient location of schools, absence of teachers, irregular functioning of schools, etc. About one-third of rural primary schools in India are single-teacher (multi-class) schools. Most primary schools in India lack basic minimum facilities and resources. Typically they have one room, few learning resources and a "low quality' teacher. The 1986 Fifth All-India Educational Survey data revealed that more than a quarter of the schools do not have a permanent building, and more than half do not have playgrounds and drinking water facilities (NCERT 1989: 28-35). The earlier 1978 NCERT survey indicated that only 60% of the primary schools had blackboards, and 29% had libraries (NCERT, 1982: 199-200) (see Table 75). Urban schools, though on the whole better equipped than rural ones, also suffer from a lack of buildings, facilities and teachers. 8.21 Despite a tremendous increase in the number of schools in post- Independence India, access to elementary schools is still far from universal. The shortage of middle-school facilities is also great. Almost 10% of rural settlements -- generally those with a population under 500 -- do not have convenient access to primary schools; and over 15% do not have a middle school 3A time allocation study in Rajasthan showed that younger girls worked 5.5 and older girls 7.7 hours doing the same kind of agricultural and household work as adults. Boys, on the other hand, spent only 1.8 and 3.6 hours, respectively.  - 116 - within 3 km. In habitations where female participation rates are likely to be low, access to primary and middle schools are even more limited, e.g., in Scheduled Tribe villages. In the absence of a transportation network that facilitates access to schools, location of schools is a critical determinant of girls' attendance. Concern for girls' security makes school location especially important. 8.22 Access to schools varies across regions, and there are also considerable variations in available facilities and resources. States' ranks in literacy generally agree with their ranks in physical conditions of their primary schools, which have an impact on retention of children in schools and the development of literacy and basic skills. Poor physical facilities deter children's attendance and render teachers helpless both in their teaching tasks and in their ability to motivate parents to send children to school. Teacher training is inadequate to the challenge of teaching poor rural and urban children. Absenteeism among teachers is common and particularly affects single-teacher schools and those in remote areas. 8.23 There is a particular scarcity of female teachers, another factor affecting girls attendance at school. Less than one-third of India's primary and middle school teachers are women. States with low levels of female enrollment in elementary school (including eight of the "nine backward" states) also have fewer women teachers. 8.24 Inadequate quantities of textbooks and learning materials are accompanied by variable quality and a mode of instruction exclusively devoted to completing the prescribed textbooks. The result is poor learning, literacy and numeracy skills. Achievement surveys show low acquisition of such skills among both girls and boys. Stagnation -- repetition of grades in school -- is a common phenomenon, due largely to ineffective teaching and irregular attendance by the children. Micro-studies corroborate national data to show that stagnation rates are higher for girls than boys. It is possible that the pressure on young girls to participate in domestic chores increases irregularity in attendance thereby increasing stagnation. Parents also cite "disinterest in learning" and "failure or lack of academic progress" as a reason for withdrawing daughters from school. Stagnation eventually leads to dropping out. National enrollment figures give an approximate combined drop- out and stagnation rate: of every 100 girls enrolled in Class I in 1974-75, 35 reached Class V and 23 reached Class VI compared with 42 and 32 boys reaching these levels, respectively. C. Special Efforts to Promote Female Education 8.25 In order to promote girls' education in India, the state provides incentives to poor girls to enroll in school. The provision of free textbooks, uniforms, meals, scholarships and day-care centers reduce the direct and indirect costs of education. Some of these "freeships" are targeted at Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe children and other socio- economically disadvantaged communities. 8.26 However, the coverage of these schemes is very limited and varies from state to state. There may also be a tendency for the incentives to be preferentially allocated to boys. No conclusive evidence exists to show that  - 117 - these schemes improve the enrollment and retention of girls, and "hard-core" non-attenders may be unaffected. India's recent (1986) Education Policy has recommended a comprehensive system of incentives and support services for girls and economically disadvantaged children. All girls from families below the poverty line will receive two sets of free uniforms, free textbooks and stationery and attendance incentives. Special residential or Ashram schools are to enable tribal children to attend schools, and day-care centers provided at schools are to encourage young girls who look after siblings to attend schools. The latter have had a positive impact on girls attendance at schools on the limited scale which they have been run to date and an extensive program of such centers may have a profound impact. The existing national early childhood care program, Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), is also to be coordinated with primary schools in the future. 8.27 Improving the quality of schooling is another major thrust of the National Policy on Education (GOI, 1986). This includes improving school facilities and learning resources, hiring more women teachers, and expanding non-formal education opportunities for girls. A scheme known as "Operation Blackboard" is already underway to meet the first of these objectives. It will provide essential facilities to all primary schools, including classrooms, toilets, blackboards, books and learning materials. All single- teacher schools will gain at least one more teacher, preferably a woman. A new system of District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs) is to be instituted to provide in-service training for teachers to offset poor pre- service training and teacher stagnation. 8.28 More women teachers are also to be recruited under the Non-Formal Education for Young Children Schemes, with special training courses offered to adult women to encourage them into the teaching profession. The National Policy of Education noted that to increase the numbers of women teachers substantially it would be necessary to recruit less qualified local women and give them special training to improve their skills (GOI, 1986). 8.29 Another major government initiative to increase literacy is the Non- Formal Education (NFE) program for young children. It offers the alternative of part-time education to children who are compelled to drop out of "formal school" and thus stands to benefit girls who account for the majority of drop- outs. Since 1980, special assistance has been given to the nine educationally backward states to provide NFE for girls. NFE classes are generally held for 2-3 hours in the evening for 9-14 year olds who have never attended or have dropped out of school. The curriculum is intended to be flexible and relevant to students' needs. Although there are many difficulties -- and deficiencies -- in implementation, there is ample evidence that NFE can successfully cater to the needs of poor children and especially girls. 8.30 In addition to the poor quality and quantity of textbooks, gender bias in teaching materials hampers equality of women's education. Thus, preparing unbiased educational materials is another effort required to improve women's status in India.  - 118 - D. Education and Employment4 8.31 There is an imperfect correspondence between educational attainment and employment status among women, as among men. Figure 8.4 shows that the majority of working women in rural areas of India (88.2%) are illiterate (see Table 76). Only 10.3% of the rural female labor force had completed middle school while 0.3% had a college degree or higher qualification in 1981. Rural working men are better educated -- while slightly more than half are illiterate, almost one-third have a higher educational qualification. However, in urban areas, more than a quarter of working women have a qualification from high school level or beyond, while 56.5% are illiterate (see Figure 8.5). 8.32 Work force participation rates are high at both ends of the education spectrum -- among illiterate women on the one hand and among those with college degrees on the other, although in urban areas the curve may be "J" rather than "U" shaped (see Table 77). In both urban and rural areas, literate women whose formal qualifications are less than high school have the lowest participation rates. 8.33 The distribution of the rural female work force by educational status suggests that with increasing education there is a shift away from the primary sector toward the tertiary sector (see Table 78). While almost 92% of illiterate women are in the primary sector, only 2.6% are in the tertiary sector. Among middle-school educated women the percentages are 67.8% primary and 17.2% tertiary sectors. After high school or college, tertiary sector eimployment is the normal -- 61.4% of rural women with high school degrees and 915.6% of those with college degrees work in the tertiary sector. It is likely that these women are from the "privileged" stratum of rural Indian society which can provide women with both the opportunity for formal education and motivation to secure non-manual white-collar employment. 8.34 The "enabling" quality of education, which allows women with primary and middle school education to enter secondary and tertiary occupations more easily than illiterate women, may be offset to some extent by the lesser "need to work" among women in middle- and high socio-economic groups as well as by traditional and purdah-practices common among the middle class. Importantly, a larger share of literate and educated rural women than illiterate ones enter into occupations outside the home, classified as "non-household" occupations Ln the secondary sector. Even modest levels of education decrease rural women's participation in the primary sector. Almost the entire difference is reflected in their differential participation as agricultural laborers: while 52.6% of illiterates are agricultural laborers, the proportion among literate women is 39.5%, 36.8% among primary-schooled women and 26.4% among those who have completed middle school (see Table 79). The pattern is broadly similar among urban women with higher levels of education, participation in the lprimary sector drops and that in the secondary and tertiary sectors increases. 4The relationship between vomen's education, their employmnt and their health and nutrition status and fertllity levels are also explored extensively in Chapter 9.  - 119 - Figure 8.4 Education of Rural Workers by Gender Male 1961 Female _lliterate 70% Primary 1% Illiterate - Literate Literate 96% (no level) (no level) 3 21% Primary Matriculation 8% 1% Male 1981 Female Illiterate 68% Matriculation 2% Illiterate 88% Middle Matriculation + 2% Primary 8% ~~~~~~~~~iterate 6% Literate (no level) Middle (no level) 11% Piay8% W4% Primary 16% *s*0... .1 Ia%, "SI a *&I. Figure 8.5 Education of Urban Workers by Gender Male 1961 Female j Illiterate _ .........Matriculation + 35% : . 15% Illiterate 81% .Matriculation + Primary Primary 20% 6%6%lv) iterate (no level) 8% Literate (no level) 30% Male 1981 Female Literate (no level) Illiterate Illierate L %Iiterate (n527r t 7%- 27% Primary 18% Middle Literate (no level) M atriculation + 14% Mariculation + Primary 33% 5% Prim Middle 5% 6.  - 120 - 8.35 Education increases income in an expected manner: women with even four years of education earn more than those without any education. The earnings of high-school completers can be one-and-a-half times greater than those of women without any education (Prakash, 1983). An NSS survey of urban workers found that the weekly earnings of illiterate females were less than half those of women with middle school qualification. Women who had received technical training earned more than three times as much as illiterate women. 8.36 Studies show that investment in primary education has the highest rate of return of any educational investment in India (e.g., Tilak, 1987). Both the crude private and social rates of return are highest for primary education and decline with increasing levels of education. Contrary to general belief, the crude rates of return for women are greater than for men at most levels of education because, although women earn less than men, the private and public costs of women's education appear to be lower. For similar reasons, the rates of return for backward castes are higher than for better- off socio-economic groups. As there is a synergism between gender and socio- economic level in need for education these findings would suggest that concentration on providing primary education to disadvantaged girls would provide high rates of return. Furthermore, efforts to remove labor discrimination against women and backward castes would considerably enhance private as well as social welfare. Education also contributes to agricultural productivity (Tilak, 1984). There may be a critical minimum level of education beyond which the relationship is quite strong. 8.37 A caveat to the foregoing discussing of education and employment is that while education may improve income and productivity, it does not guarantee employment. Unemployment rates in both rural and urban India are higher among those with the highest levels of education and lowest for illiterates (Sarvekshana, 1981). Nevertheless, it is clear that poor women benefit from modest levels of education and that the importance of basic education for modernizing agriculture and enhancing female occupational mobility is critical. E. Education of Older Cohorts Adult Literacy Training 8.38 The National Literacy Mission (NLM) launched in 1988 has set a target of 30 million adult literates by 1990, and an additional 50 million literates between 1990 and 1995. However, the experience of the National Adult Education Programme (NAEP) which preceded the NLM suggest that these numbers may be too ambitious. While the NAEP reached a high proportion of women, Scheduled Castes and Tribes who were its primary targets, it enrolled only 17 million adults out of a projected total of about 100 million adults between the 1979-1984 period. 8.39 Moreover, the results of the NAEP in terms of imparting literacy and numeracy have also been not encouraging. Put to simple reading, writing and mathematical tests, participants fared much worse than children in Class IV of some neighboring schools in Maharashtra -- with a mean score less than half and only 18% of the adults acheiving the mean score of the children. Women fared worse than men. When the "high achievers" were tested for retention 3-  - 121 - 4 years later, less than half had retained their skills and only about 10% had improved their skills. Thus, on-going efforts at adult education face the dual challenge of reaching larger numbers than the earlier NAEP, and also of improving teaching methods and materials so that participants in the program acquire reasonable competence in literacy and numeracy and manage to retain these basic skills. 8.40 The current National Literacy Mission aims to increase the number of female instructors in order to enroll large numbers of women in the program. However, Kurrien (1989) has suggested that the program has not been adequately targetted at eradicating rural female illiteracy, especially in some states Madhya Pradesh.5 An area-specific and population-specific strategy is proposed with a focus on the 136 districts where rural female literacy is below 10%. Suggesting some rethinking on the approach to promoting rural female literacy, this area-specific and population-specific strategy has also been recommended as the major thrust of the Eighth (8th) Five Year Plan in the recent official document, Draft Perspective Plan on Adult Education For The Eight Five Year Plan. As many of these areas also have low female school enrollment, efforts to improve rural adult female literacy would also aid universalisation of primary education. Special measures to improve the basic educational attainment of poor rural females need to be directed to districts which can be identified as particularly backward in terms of primary school enrollment for girls as well as adult female rural literacy. To make these and other educational and training inputs effective, an interventist approach like the Mahilya Samakhya program (see paragraph 10.80) empowering rural women to demand education and knowledge needs to tbe considered for adoption in these districts. Technical and Vocational Training 8.41 In India, a three-tier network of institutions spread throughout the country provide technical and vocational education -- the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) train craftsmen and provide trade-oriented courses to those with middle or high school qualifications, polytechnics train technicians and engineering institutions produce engineers and technologists. Separate women's ITIs have been established to encourage women. About 5% of ITI trainees are women, the total annual output being about 18,000 women. 8.42 A common criticism of ITIs is that course offerings for women are oriented to "conventional female occupations" (e.g., tailoring, knitting, hair-dressing, catering, etc.). Trainees experience long periods of unemployment after training and few actually choose to be self-employed in part because they do not receive adequate entrepreneurial training. Training in technical skills is also poorly regarded as ITIs lack modern equipment and up-to-date methods. These deficiencies must be made up if the ITIs are to provide relevant vocational training for women (see also paras. 7.74-7.82). 5 Of the 22,960 centers that have been approved, the largest number were in Uttar Pradesh (5,230), Gujarat (2,975) and Tamil Nadu (2,930). While Uttar Pradesh has one of the lowest rural female literacy rates in the country, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu are on the other end of the spectrum. Bihar and Madhya Pradesh have large numbers of rural female illiterates like Uttar Pradesh, but have only 320 and 600 approved adult education centers, respectively (CAPART, 1988:10).  - 122 - 8.43 A number of other schemes provide training courses for women, including TRYSEM (Training of Rural Youth for Self-Employment), DWCRA (Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas), KAVIC (Khadi and Village Industries Commission), and Nahila Mandals. However, there is a lack of awareness of these schemes and few women are employed as trainers so that participation is poor. These training programs also do not provide women stipends or support services which could offset competing demands on women's time, and facilities such as hostels are also inadequate. A failure to organize women to reap the benefits of these schemes as well as to put their training to use is perhaps the major drawback of such efforts. The training is not easily translated into self-employment, power to bargain for higher wages, or confidence to use available credit facilities, or market finished goods. Efforts to organize women are therefore crucial to making training useful. A major attempt to organize women to increase their access to information and participation in development is the Mahila Samakya program. Based on the successful Women's Development Program in Rajasthan, the Mahila Samakya has been introduced in ten districts of Gujerat, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh (see paragraph 10.80) F. Conclusions and Recommendations 8.44 In summary, female education in India must be enhanced through both the formal school system and non-formal schemes. Adults and school drop-outs are critical target groups in addition to younger school entrants. Adult literacy centers and non-formal education centers for young girls need to be increased to supplement greater efforts to enroll girls in primary and middle schools. Improving the quality of primary education would go a long way to increasing girls' participation. At the same time, non-formal education must be directed at girls whose need to work deprives them of the opportunity to attend formal school and provide them the equivalent of five years of schooling. Both these efforts can encourage greater participation through the provision of incentives to girls. 8.45 Similarly, the provision of basic literacy and numeracy skills to adult women will enhance their economic productivity and welfare. Production- oriented skill training can also enhance women's earning capacity and open up new avenues of employment. 8.46 Efforts to improve elementary school facilities, such as Operation Blackboard and District Institutes of Education and Training, deserve support as well as the expansion and upgradation of NFE centers and ITIs. The step to link day-care centers to primary schools can encourage girls' enrollment and recruitment of female teachers is a key ingredient. Incentives such as uniforms, books, meals and scholarships should be provided, particularly to girls from poor families. 8.47 Vocational training in rural areas needs to be increased and linked to appropriate post-training measures. "Ruralizing" ITIs and aiming training at illiterates or minimally educated women could help achieve diversification of women's employment.  - 123 - Chapter 9: WOMEN'S HEALTH. NUTRITION AND PRODUCTIVITY' A. Introduction 9.01 That women's health status affects their productivity, and thereby their roles in society and development, is almost too obvious a statement to require explanation. However, the nature and extent of this relationship are important to establish -- particularly in the context of poverty where women's work is essential for family survival or for improved quality of life. This chapter seeks, therefore, firstly, to document Indian women's health status in order that the set of constraints on their productivity which are related to ill-health be well understood. 9.02 While it may be equally obvious that productivity affects health, the effects of women's work, income or socio-economic status, broadly defined, on their own health and the health of their family have not been previously assessed in India. The second aim of this chapter is, therefore, to collate and analyze available information on the health effects of women's work, in order that efforts to enhance women's productivity be adequately informed of their potential impact on health. This two-way relationship is complex, often inseparable, and complicated by a host of intervening factors, such as women's education, marriage and fertility. Some attempts are also made to bring these to bear on the analysis of health and productivity. B. Women's Health Status Sex Ratio and Mortality 9.03 India is one of the few countries in the world where males outnumber females. The 1981 Census counted 935 females for every 1,000 males -- giving a "female-male ratio" (FMR) of 935. As in other countries, the sex ratio at birth clearly favors males (FMR - 952). In most human populations throughout the world, this biological imbalance is eliminated by the age of 1 year through the higher mortality of male infants. In contrast, in India, while the expected pattern of higher male vulnerability during the neonatal period prevails, thereafter more female infants die so that the male and female infant mortality rates are equal (104 per 1,000 live births in 1984). However, as higher female mortality continues through the early childhood years, a much higher death rate obtains among 0-4 year old females than males (43.0 and 39.5, respectively, in 1984). 9.04 Figure 9.1 shows the female/male ratios (computed from the ASDRs in Table 82) and rural/urban ratios of the age-and-sex-specific mortality rates. A point emerging from these age-and-sex-specific death rates which bears emphasis is that the gender gap in survival is greatest during the first five years of life when mortality is highest -- about 20 times greater than that of any other five-year age group (Table 84). Deaths of young girls in India exceed those of young boys by almost one third of a million every year. Every sixth infant death is specifically due to gender discrimination (Chatterjee 1990:4). Only after age 35 when women have past their peak child- bearing years do female mortality rates drop below male rates. 1 This discussLon is based on the background paper, Indian Women: Their Health and Economic Productivity by Neera Chctterje- which has been published as a World Bank Discussion Paper, No. 109, 1990.  - 124 - Figure 9.1 Age-Specific Female/Male Death Ratios Urban & Rural Areas Females per 100 Males ISO~~~~~~ 125 - ----[1-t 100 Age 0 5 10 15 2025 3035 4045 505560 6570+ Groups -4 -9 -14 -19 -24 -29 -34 -39 -44 -49 -54 -59 -64 -69 *Rural C] Urban Calculalte fromp.I *s-i .lItr.tIs. hMa1Ja^XXl. YYI.c1. Off 1.1 of the Aeglet,., Qoceral. dw Delhi. 1067. 9.05 This pattern of high female mortality is inversely related to women's social and economic value: the cultural preference for sons results in a bias against daughters which is manifest in their neglect and their consequent higher mortality in childhood. During adolescence and early adulthood, the "triple burden" of reproduction, domestic work and productive labor placed on women results in their lower survival. Women's survival prospects improve when they pass the reproductive stage, are established earners, and have social status as mothers-in-law. 9.06 Overall mortality is greater and the gap between male and female mortality is higher in rural than in urban populations. There are also marked regional variations in the sex ratio (Table 85). Figure 9.2 shows that at present, only Kerala has an FMR favoring females (1,032), and only five other major states have ratios over 950: Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Karnstaka, Orissa, and Tamil Nadu. (In Himachal Pradesh, male out-migration helps to improve the statistical appearance.) In several major states, such as Assam, Rajasthan and West Bengal, males outnumber females by almost 10%, and the situation is even worse in Haryana, the Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh. 9.07 These rural-urban and regional differences in mortality at the macro-level suggest that lower socio-economic status is associated with lower female survival. There also is evidence at the micro (household) level, however, that females survive better among poor families. This paradox is explained by the economic value of women relative to men, which is high in  - 125 - Figure 9.2 Female-Male Ratio in India by Region (1981) Regions & States Eastern Assam Bihar Orlssa West Bengal Southern Andhra Prad Karnataka Kerala Tamil Nadu Central Madhya Prad Uttar Prad Western Gularat Maharashtra Northern Haryana Pun jab Himchl Prad JammuS Kash mr Rajasthan All India 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 Females per 100 Males our*e: Census of India. 1091 individual poor families, but low in populations (i.e among the wealthy or in certain geographic regions where the inside/outside dichotomy is particularly strong) whose female labor force participation is restricted. (See paras. 9.27-9.32 below for further discussion of this complex relationship.) Cause of Death 9.08 Qualitative information on female mortality reveals only a few gender-specific biases in the causes of death (see Table 86). Among the youngest age groups, malnutrition is a frequent direct or underlying cause. Beyond the critical survival age of 5 years, poor nutrition is an associated cause of death, particularly in the form of anemia during the adolescent and early reproductive years. Anemia affects over 60% of Indian women, lowering their work performance directly, and indirectly through increased morbidity. Anemia also complicates childbearing, resulting in maternal deaths, low birth weight infants and lower child survival. 9.09 Maternal mortality is important in India because of the heavy reproductive burden borne by women. It accounted for about 2.5% of all female deaths in the country and 12.5% of deaths among rural women in the 15-45 year reproductive age group in 1986 (Office of the Registrar General, 1988). 9.10 Approximately 120,000 women die of a maternity-related cause every year in India. The WHO has estimated that about half a million maternal deaths occur worldwide every year, 99% of which are in developing countries, and over half of which are in South Asia (WHO, 1986). If India's maternal mortality  - 126 - rate were on par with that of a Western country, the figure would be only 2,400 for the entire population; and if both the maternal mortality and fertility rates in India were on par with the West, only 600 maternal deaths would occur annually. Thus, while the MMR is about 50 times higher in India than in developed countries, the actual risk of an Indian woman dying from a maternity-related cause is more than 200 times higher due to her larger number of pregnancies (5 or 6, compared with 1 or 2 in developed countries). An estimated 15% of deaths among women in the reproductive age-group (15-44 years) are maternal deaths in India. 9.11 It is likely, however, that maternal deaths are under-reported, and the official MMR an underestimate. The incompleteness of vital registration in India, and unrepresentativeness of the national "Causes of Death" Survey (see below) contribute to this, although technical and social reasons also prevail. Micro studies often report considerably higher maternal mortality rates. For example, a recent community-based survey in a district of Andhra Pradesh found an MMR of 830 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, and estimated that 36.4 percent of female deaths in the reproductive period had a maternity-related cause (Bhatia, 1986). 9.12 Maternal mortality is clearly only the tip of the iceberg of preventable female deaths in India. It is a reflection of women's poor nutrition, poor health status and high fertility. Poverty, low rates of female literacy, and poor access to or utilization of health services are among of the underlying factors. Several common causes of maternal deaths are related to malnutrition, particularly to anemia, while other serious causes, such as toxemia and septicemia, reflect the inadequate health care available to women during pregnancy and delivery and in the postnatal period. 9.13 Among other maior causes of female deaths, the most important are: respiratory diseases such as tuberculosis, pneumonia and bronchitis; fevers related to malaria and typhoid; gastro-enteric and other infectious diseases. While the disease distribution pattern is similar for males and females of different ages and in different areas of the country, there is evidence that women are more susceptible than men to those diseases that cause death, explaining their higher mortality. Interestingly, when men and women in the same household are compared, female morbidity (prevalence of illness) is usually found to be higher than that of males: one explanation for this is that fewer female illnesses are medically treated, as women's access to health care is limited (see paras. 9.78-9.93 below). 9.14 While the most important health problems of Indian women arise from general diseases which affect both men and women, some female-specific problems add to their sickness load. Besides pregnancy-related conditions, gynecological infections are common among all classes of women, and social issues -- such as infertility, rape, wife-beating or bride burning -- rebound on women's health. A variety of occupational diseases related to working postures, exposure to toxins, crowded working conditions or physical stress affect large numbers of women working in agriculture and industry. Many of these conditions are exacerbated by -- and in turn exacerbate -- malnutrition, anemia and child-bearing. The low status of Indian women workers makes it difficult for them to mobilize to remove these occupational hazards, and protective legislation remains inadequate and ineffective. The low wages paid to women also perpetuate the poor working conditions and their ill health.  - 127 - C. Gender. Nutrition and Productivity Variation in Nutritional Entitlements 9.15 The poor nutrition levels of the Indian population have been documented by NSS data collected in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the major states. In a representative year (1979), 41% of households were "calorie inadequate," ranging from 23% in Andhra Pradesh to 65% in Uttar Pradesh (National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau, 1980). The proportion of individuals who had inadequate caloric intakes was consistently higher at the national and state levels, suggesting that there is inadequate distribution within households. 9.16 Not surprisingly, calorie inadequacy is greater among children than among adults. Some 80% of children below age 13 had intakes below those recommended for their respective ages. Gender-specific data are not available from this source for the under-13 age group, but more than 80% of the 13-18 year old girls consumed less than the recommended calories. Among women over 18, 60% of those engaged in sedentary activity and almost 70% of those engaged in moderate activity had intakes below recommended levels. Over 75% of pregnant and 80% of lactating women in sedentary activity and 100% of moderately active pregnant or lactating women failed to consume recommended levels. Table 87 shows the regional variations in the nutrient intakes of women during adolescence and adulthood. Intakes of iron and vitamin A are also low compared with recommended amounts. 9.17 Gender is, thus, a significant determinant of nutritional status, accounting for lower caloric intakes and consequent poorer nutritional status among females. Gender differentials in nutritional status are established during infancy, with discriminatory breastfeeding and supplementation practices. Girl infants are breastfed less frequently, for shorter durations, and over shorter periods than boys. Weaned earlier, they may not receive adequate supplementary food and are given lower-quality foods than boys. Anthropometric data with which to document these disparities are scarce because they are so difficult to collect. Although somewhat dated, Levenson's (1974) study of a sample of under-fives in the Punjab found there were more girls than boys among both the moderately and severely malnourished for all age groups (Figure 9.3; Table 94). This disparity was greatest among the infants and diminished progressively. Nevertheless as shown in Figure 9.4, the cumulative result was that over 70% of the severely malnourished were girls. Other studies of male/female differentials in nutrition in the Punjab (e.g. Wyon and Gordon, 1971; Kielmann et al, 1981; Das Gupta, 1987)support these findings.  - 128 - Figure 9.3 Female/Male Distribution of Children In Age Groups by Grade of Malnutrition W Normal z Mild Moderate Severe Age Groups L Gender Infants M F Toddlers M F Pre-Schoolers M F 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% Proportion of Grades of Malnutrition Source: 'Nutrltion In Punlab,' CARE, Now Delhi, 1974. Figure 9.4 Female/Male Proportion of Children (0-5 Years) by Grade of Malnutrition Male m Female M/F Proportion 100% 75% 50% 25%- --- 0% Normal Mild Moderate Severe Grades of Malnutrition Source: 'Nutrition In Punjab.' CARE, New Delhi, 1974.  - 129 - 9.18 The situation is usually exacerbated by poverty. For example, a study in Tamil Nadu found that male children were breastfed for five months longer than female children on the average, but that male children in land- owning families were breastfed almost ten months more than female children in agricultural laborer households (McNeill, 1984). The differential feeding of girls is accompanied by lower levels of health care (discussed in paras. 9.82- 9.93 below), so that they are simultaneously exposed to higher rates of malnutrition and longer periods of more severe morbidity, ultimately resulting in their significantly higher mortality. The fact that poverty has a greater negative effect on the nutritional status of girls than boys is evident in Figure 9.5. Twenty-one percent of the girls in low income families suffered severe malnutrition compared to 3% of the boys in these same families (Table 95). In fact, the low income boys fared better than upper income girls. Figure 9.5 Female/Male Distribution of Children in Income Groups by Grade of Malnutrition (For a Rural Sample in Northern India) I e u Normal = Mild =Moderate _ISevere Income Group & Gender Lower Income M Upper Income M F 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% Proportion of Grades of Malnutrition Ore: Levinson, F.J. (1974) 'Morinds: An Economic Analysia of Malnutrition among Young Children In Rural India' Cambridge 9.19 Although the evidence that girls and women in low-income groups have worse nutritional status than boys and men may appear to contradict the finding that male-female mortality differentials are higher among the better off (para. 9.3), the explanation lies in the different roles that social and economic factors play in determining malnutrition and mortality. Among the poor, as resources (such as food) are limited, females receive a smaller share than males; but as they have a relatively high economic value, they may be maintained above the "survival line". Among the better-off, inadequate  - 130 - reisources are a less of a constraint to female survival than their social devaluation, so that while the unwanted are allowed to die, the nutritional status of survivors is more equal to that of males. 9.20 The negative, synergistic effect of femaleness and poverty on nutritional status is further borne out by regional analyses. A "mapping" of household dietary intake studies in different parts of the subcontinent shows that nutritional equity between males and females is lower in North India and improves towards the South. In Rajasthan, a northern state, all children unider 12 and all adult women are deprived of their equitable nutritional shares relative to adult males as well as to recommended intakes. The gender differential disappeared among adults in the western states of Gujarat and Maharashtra (except for lactating women) and in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu (Harriss, 1986). However, in all areas, pre-school girls tend to be worse off than boys. In the East the situation is similar to tlhat in the North, but the nutritional deprivation of women appears to be economically rather than culturally mediated. In essence, the social and economic value of women underlie regional variations in nutritional status and male-female differences in nutrition. 9.21 A major consequence of the nutritional deprivation of females is their failure to achieve full growth potential. The National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau's data on Indian women's heights and weights show that between 12% and 23% of 20-24 year old women in the states surveyed had heights below 145 cm, and between 15% and 29% had weights below 38 kg (NNMB, 1980). Below these levels, women are at high risk during their childbearing years of obstetric complications, maternal death or bearing low-weight infants. Continued restriction of food due to social customs, poverty and/or rituals and taboos, despite high energy expenditure on work and during pregnancy and lactation, depletes women's physical resources so that premature death ensues. T'he lower survival of low-birth-weight children in turn encourages high fertility among women (see below) with its consequent stress on the individual woman's and society's scarce resources. 9.22 It is in the arena of nutrition that the two-way effects of female productivity on health status are most evident. Women exercise nutritional effects on their households through the acquisition of food or of income to purchase food from work. Thus, women's employment. income and decision- mnaking power over the utilization of their income are key determinants of household health. At the same time, the North-South dichotomy in nutritional levels and differentials suggests that where females have high economic value -they receive larger shares of food and health resources: where their economic value is lower. they remain at considerable disadvantage. Regional analyses of health indices other than nutritional status, such as mortality rates or sex ratios, discussed in Chapter 3 (para. 3.11) further substantiate this aspect of the relationship. 9.23 Two particular aspects of women's economic value have been specifically related to health status: labor force participation and inheritance of property, including payment of dowry. Bardhan (1974) first hypothesized that greater demand for female labor in the rice-growing Southern region of the country supports higher female survival rates, compared with  - 131 - wheat cultivation in the North. Analysis of sex ratios in different regions shows a clear relationship between high labor force participation rates among 15-34 year old women and young girls' survival (Miller, 1981). However, in some areas where female work participation is low, such as West Bengal, Assam, Orissa and Kerala, the sex ratios are not unfavorable to females, as culture protects females, despite economic backwardness. (Refer paras 3.13 and 3.35- 3.47.) 9.24 Rosenzweig and Schultz (1982) provided further evidence of a relationship between women's work and improved female survival through a two- stage regression analysis of an all-India sample of rural households, first demonstrating a correlation between rainfall and female employment, and then a negative correlation between female employment and the male-female survival differential. Higher female employment in wetland cultivation areas decreased the difference in the survival rates of males and females. Female employment was more significant than present wealth or parents' educational status in explaining variations in sex-specific survival rates. Significantly, a rise in male employment exacerbated the difference between boys' and girls' survival in favor of boys. 9.25 Regional differences in female survival are also related to the payment of dowry, a practice more prevalent in the North than in the South. High dowry and marriage expenses are associated with adverse sex ratios (Miller, 1981). There also is an inverse correspondence between female work participation and dowry -- the lower the former, the higher the latter. Thus, in areas where female work participation is low, a daughter's value is considered to be below the cost to parents of her upbringing and marriage, including dowry payments. (The value of domestic labor is not considered, as it is perceived to accrue to marital and not to natal families.) The low value attached to young girls underlies lower investment in their education in areas where female work participation and survival are low, marriage costs high, and early marriage and early childbearing the norms (see below). 9.26 From the available evidence, it is unclear whether female survival is different among the poor and the not-poor. Alice Clark's (1983) social-historical analysis of Gujarat suggested that female survival was lower among landholding groups because female infanticide was blatantly practiced to prevent land fragmentation. There is evidence that the persistence of female infanticide in small pockets of the country even today is related to the inability (or unwillingness) of families to accumulate (and part with) dowries for daughters, but as this appears to be true among both landed groups (such as the Rajputs in Rajasthan) as well as agricultural laborers (e.g., the Kallar community in Tamil Nadu), it does not help us get at the issue of differential female survival among the poor/not-poor. 9.27 Miller (1981) distinguished between propertied and unpropertied groups in the North and suggested greater discrimination against females among the better off largely because of the practice of hypergamy and high dowries. However, because of the intrusion of social factors (e.g., caste) in her analysis, the influence of the purely economic cannot be readily assessed. Furthermore, her distinction between propertied and unpropertied groups did not hold good for differential female survival in the South.  - 132 - 9.28 Longitudinal data from a village in Uttar Pradesh (Wadley 1989:38) show that the survival chances of girls in poor families have actually declined over the last 18 years while those of girls in better off families have improved. The ratio of male to female mortality among landless laborers and substance farmers has declined from .88 during the period from 1952-1971 to .70 during the period 1972-1984. Meanwhile the ratio of male to female mortality among the rich has increased from .72 in the period 1931-1951 to .84 fEor the period 1952-1971 to .91 in the period 1972-1984. Wadley suggests that lpart of the reason for the apparent devaluation of girls in poor families is that local agricultural employment opportunities for women have deteriorated and so the poor are more dependent now on male earnings from wage labor in the district center. Women have lost their former economic importance as agricultural wage workers. Further, it also appears that among the poor, boys are being sent to school while girls are not, so there has been an increasing gender gap in education. In contrast, amongst better off families, both girls and boys are being sent to school so this important source of gender disparity is decreasing. 9.29 In general, however, where they are able to get work adult females may survive better among landless laborer families, as Krishnaji's (1987) analysis of data from the Rural Labour Enquiries suggests. His findings are roughly consistent with the theories that: (a) higher female survival obtains where the economic value of women, relative to men, is high, e.g., in laborer households, and (b) among the propertied, women are less valued and therefore fewer in number, because they take wealth out of the household in the form of dowries which may derive from land sales. Low adult FMRs may also be brought about in landed households by the presence of unmarried brothers who remain so specifically to prevent land fragmentation. 9.30 Similarly, from Census data, female:male ratios appear most favorable in the small landholding families and in the lowest expenditure classes, and least favorable among the best off. 9.31 The most important conclusion from these findings is that where economic improvement is not accompanied by improvements in the specific economic 'value' (i.e., earning capacity) of women, it may have an unusually adverse effect on female survival, because the cost of daughters (i.e., dowry) goes up among the socio-economically better-off. What is important to ensure higher female survival is the actual economic contribution of women to household income, and not just labor force participation that may disguise underemployment or low wages. Female work must be "visible," sustained, and generate earnings equal to those of males. (This issue is also germane to the effects of women's work on overall child survival, discussed below.) Needless to say, economic advancement of women must go hand in hand with social development so that women do not simply become more valued commodities in a game of barter among families, as appears already to be the case among middle-class but tradition-steeped families. Women's Work and Household Nutrition 9.32 There is considerable evidence from around the world that women's employment has the potential to benefit household nutrition through increasing  - 133 - household income. For example, daily nutritional adequacy in agricultural labor households in Kerala was found to be related more to women's than to men's employment (Gulati, 1978). On days when both the male head of household and his wife were employed, their nutritional shortfalls in terms of calories were 11% and 20%, respectively, while on days on which the woman was unemployed the shortfalls increased to 26% and 50%. A strong association between child nutrition and mother's income has been observed in low-income households, but no significant association with father's income. Female children were particularly dependent on their mother's wages (Kumar, 1978). 9.33 Women's employment may also exert influences on household nutritional status by increasing women's decision-making power. A number of studies reviewed in Chapter 3 indicate that where women exercise such control, they spend their incomes on food and other basic needs (while men, apparently tend to spend portions of their income on liquor, cigarettes, etc., according to Mencher and Sardamoni, 1982). Another a study of women participants in Maharashtra's Employment Guarantee Scheme reported that the nutritional status of children was better when women received the cash or grain payments directly. Thus, enhancement of women's "decision-making roles" would need to be an intermediate step between increased earning and positive effects on household health. In addition, of course, the decisions which women make would need to be those which increase 'health-producing' goods or services for the household, and allocate these in favor of women and children. 9.34 In their study of a village in Andhra Pradesh, Bidinger et al. (1986) found that employment ("household" and "female") was a major factor affecting the equitable allocation of food resources and the total energy intakes of children under 6. Whether on- or off-farm, female employment was a more important determinant of the dietary intakes of children than income or landholding size. This implied that working women had more say in how income was spent and in food distribution within the family. The researchers believed this was so, "as male members (saw) them as more competent." 9.35 The seasonality of women's agricultural work, which arises from its task-specificity, makes households that are dependent on women's work for their nutritional adequacy especially vulnerable. Seasonal variations in food availability often exaggerate differentials in food intake between men and women. (When more food is available, it appears to be preferentially allocated to males, thus increasing the gap.) In households with low average food availability, women and children are especially at risk during lean periods and may fall below the survival line, as the shortfalls in caloric intake would be particularly drastic. Even among slightly better-off households, discrimination against females in the allocation of food renders them more susceptible to malnutrition. Pregnant or lactating women often lose weight during peak work/low food seasons, and infants may be summarily weaned at such times. The availability of off-season employment and food-for-work schemes may mitigate these detrimental effects of agricultural seasonality on nutritional status to some extent. 9.36 Of particular concern in this context are low wage rates for women which entail long working hours to earn a meager living. In order for women's work to improve household nutrition and health status, the wages received must  - 134 - compensate the energy costs to the household of the work performed. If women engage in physically grueling work (eg. in mining or the construction industry) to earn only a few rupees a day, the energy costs of their labour may not be offset by the 'energy' from the small amounts of food they can purchase with the income received, either for the household as a whole or for themselves. In other words, if the income received by women for their work is inadequate to compensate for their energy output, it would not constitute an increase in household welfare but, rather, a net drain on household resources. Included in women's energy expenditure calculations would be the 'costs' of travelling to work, so that locational characteristics of employment are important in assessing the net value of women's work. 9.37 Alternatively, women may receive an adequate wage which is spent on providing energy for other members of the household but not on refilling their own, resulting in a net transfer of human energy, a problem of intra- household allocation. There is no information available on the nutrient consumption of working vs. non-working women (all other things being equal). A key question is: when women participate in the labour force, does household f-ood allocation change? 9.38 There are, thus, a number of characteristics of women's employment, such as the wage rates, location of work-sites, time spent on work, the energy cost of the work, or the provision of child care facilities, which may also affect the nutritional impact of her work. These factors determine the extent and nature of the tradeoff between women's productive and domestic roles. In a detailed study of an Andhra village, Bidinger et al. ('1986) found that, among medium -- and big -- farm families, women who hired amd supervised labor had little time for child care, which precipitated some of the severe malnutrition observed among children in such households. In this context, the necessity for women in landless and small-farm families to work is significant because of the consequent lack of choice afforded the poor iEamily. Among the poor in particular, the additions to household nutrition made possible by women's employment may not totally offset the detrimental effects on child feeding and care of women's absence from the home. 9.39 In the context of inadequate protective legislation, lack of enforcement of existing legislation and inadequate child care facilities, women's employment in the organized sector may also be inimical to child health because of mothers' time away from home. Only among certain occupational groups, and for very limited numbers, are there viable arrangements for care of infants and young children. "Mobile Creches" are available for women in the construction industry in a few metropolitan areas, and legislation calls for creches/day care centers to be provided to women in the plantation sector, in factories and mines, but these remain inadequate. The majority of women workers in agriculture are not served by any facilities, ieven though the Integrated Child Development Services Scheme (ICDS) now covers about one third of the country. ICDS provides a part-time alternative for rural women, but remains underutilized due to structural and social constraints. In urban areas, self-employed women lack adequate access to institutional child care as well as to the traditional joint family system.  - 135 - 9.40 In summary, a few important points can be reiterated. First, a large proportion of poor households are exposed to malnutrition because their lack of resources results in an effective demand for food which fails to meet nutritional requirements. Second, both economic and cultural factors result in differential food allocation between men and women, and between boys and girls. Under conditions of extreme food scarcity, families attach least priority to their small children, particularly their daughters; in other situations as well, males may be preferentially allocated available food. Third, there is evidence that women's wages have a positive effect on nutrition within households, so that efforts to improve women's participation in wage work would serve to improve consumption levels (of "basic needs") among the poor, perhaps to a greater extent than if the same wages were paid to men. However, the possibility that women's time away from home may adversely affect child health brings home the need for strategies to increase women's employment to be linked to the provision of support facilities required for child care, and to efforts to improve women's access to health care. Other Benefits to Health of Women's Work 9.41 Women's participation in the labour force also brings about changes in awareness and attitudes which may have longer term implications for family/child health. In addition, increased contact with the outside world enhances access to services including health and education programmes which are likely to improve health. Mother's nutritional knowledge, which is an important factor influencing child nutrition is likely to increase, as well as knowledge about health care, family planning, etc. 9.42 While the foregoing discussion examines income/food and time as inputs into child health, the important component of health care has not been discussed. Unfortunately, the many studies on women's work and child nutritional/health status which have been reviewed have ignored women's access to health services as a factor that may mediate the relationship between women's employment and child health and nutritional status. Although it is possible that health care as a factor is subsumed under child care activities, it is likely to be a far more important determinant of child health than is currently acknowledged in the literature on women's employment. D. Female Education: An Important Determinant of Health 9.43 The strong linkages between female education and better health are well known. At the macro-level, cross-national studies show high correlations between female literacy and life expectancy at birth, higher than any other factor (United Nations, 1983). A review of studies from around the world supports the inverse relationship between infant mortality and mothers' education (Cochrane, 1980). Analyzing Nigerian data, Caldwell showed that mothers' education was a more important determinant of child mortality than mothers' age, place of residence, or socio-economic status, fathers' education or occupation, income, or even access to health facilities (Caldwell, 1975 and 1979; Caldwell and McDonald, 1981). In Bangladesh, D'Souza and Bhuiya (1982) reported that mortality rates among 1-3 year-olds with mothers having no education were five times higher than among those whose mothers had seven or  - 136 - more years of schooling. Table 9.1 clearly shows that a similar relationship holds in India. Table 9.1 INFANT MORTALITY RATE BY MOTHER'S EDUCATION Education level Rural Urban Literate 90 53 Primary and above 64 49 Literate below primary 105 59 Illiterate 132 81 Source: Survey of Infant and Child Mortality, 1979, Office of the Registrar General, Ministry of Home Affairs, New Delhi, 1981. 9.44 The mechanisms whereby women's education results in lower child mortality have been the subject of some speculation. As child health and survival are enhanced by better hygiene, improved nutrition and feeding practices (of the child as well as of the mother) and timely medical intervention, education may improve women's practice of any of these. Levine (1980) has suggested that schooling is a form of "assertiveness training" which enables women to take independent decisions and act on them. Although intra-household decision-making processes regarding health are still largely unknown and unexplored, the assumption is that an educated woman can take greater responsibility for her children's health and is permitted to pursue appropriate strategies by other household members. D'Souza and Bhuiya's (1982) in-depth investigation in Bangladesh showed that household decision- making processes do indeed change with the education of women; the result is that greater shares of household resources are available to children and women. 9.45 It is worth recalling here that within the household women are the main health care providers. Traditionally, intra-household tasks related to health and nutrition have been exclusively the preserve of women (e.g., provision of nourishment, maintenance of hygiene, care of children and of the sick, and so on). Because of these multiple responsibilities, one might assume that women make the decisions concerning health matters within the household, but there is little empirical evidence of this. Moreover, there is a major and very disturbing discontinuity with regard to women's role in health care provision: while they provide health care inside the household, their own access to health care outside is severely limited. 9.46 The issue of women's education has been discussed at length in the context of child health, and it would be reasonable to assume that it would have a similar positive effect on their own health. For example, one of the  - 137 - most important correlates of female education is reduced fertility. Education may also benefit both women's and children's health through its impact on child-bearing behavior (see the section on Fertility, below). 9.47 Particularly when it comes to child nutrition, mothers' knowledge may be more important than income. Sen and Sengupta's (1984) study of two villages in West Bengal showed that children of literate mothers fared better in terms of nourishment than those of illiterate mothers. However, these authors contend that "literacy and prosperity go hand in hand," as the beneficial effect of mothers' education was greater in the village where there was a higher degree of "urban integration." In Das Gupta's (1987) study of Punjabi villages, women's education was associated with reduced child mortality. However, she found that education increased the discrimination against higher birth-order girls, perhaps because more educated women desired smaller families with only one daughter.2 Bairagi (1980) studied the relationship between child nutrition and factors such as family income, maternal education, and birth order. He found that income was not the only constraint on nutritional status, even in the lowest income group. Maternal education significantly influenced nutritional status, as did the child's sex and birth order. A literate mother used scarce resources more effectively for her child's welfare than did an illiterate mother with higher income. 9.48 A general conclusion emerging from these findings is that while a minimum level of income is necessary to ensure child nutrition and health, income alone is not sufficient to guarantee child survival. This strongly highlights the need to emphasize women's employment and women's education as strategies for improving health. Educated mothers and earning mothers are both believed to have greater autonomy which is reflected in better child care practices, including use of health services. 9.49 A few studies in India support the view that female literacy goes hand in hand with reduced mortality and perhaps better use of health facilities. Krishnan (1975) found literacy an important variable to explain differences in mortality rates in 11 states. He examined overall death rates in terms of literacy, doctor-, hospital- and bed-population ratios, per capita incomes, urbanization, and per capita expenditures on medical and health services. While literacy was the most important factor, the health service ratios also had some explanatory power. (Health expenditure as such was not found to be particularly significant.) Later, Krishnan (1976) and Nair (1980) showed that the infant mortality rates in different regions of Kerala (the state with the highest female literacy rate in the country) were positively correlated with the size of the catchment areas of health centers: i.e., infant mortality was lowest where access to health facilities was easiest (the lowlands) compared with areas of difficult access, or small catchment (the highlands). Comparing different districts of Kerala, Zachariah and Patel (1983) showed that infant mortality was most influenced by mothers' education, that household expenditure was also significant, but water and sanitation 2 In the Punjab, a girl's education may also increase rather than decrease the size of the dowry required to marry her off, because education is not clearly perceived as enhancing a woman's economic value.  - 138 - facilities less so. Social factors such as caste and demographic ones such as birth order were also important. 9.50 Kerala is clearly India's best example of the effects of women's literacy on health (although there are other, lesser known, successes -- such as Goa). Besides a range of health measures (e.g., vaccinations, sanitation, improved midwifery training, and health services) introduced in this state in the early part of this century, female education in Kerala is most widely associated with its impressive mortality and fertility declines. Indeed, it is because of high literacy that public health measures are believed to have been effective. Literacy made people more aware of health problems and possibilities, allowed their participation in popular campaigns, and created a demand for health services, which in turn stimulated supply. 9.51 Women were major participants in these processes. They exercised influence on the health and welfare of their families and succeeded in bringing about affirmative action in the sphere of public health institutions. The education system in Kerala was also used to further health and hygiene directly, through mandatory vaccination of school children, the teaching of health science subjects, training of teachers in hygiene, and channelling of girls into the health professions, particularly nursing. A crucial aspect of female education in Kerala is that general education was closely integrated with health education. At the same time, women's higher social status enabled them to make use of their learning within the household (despite low economic development levels relative to other parts of India) and to utilize health services which were spatially well-distributed. Trained birth attendance was an early feature of Kerala's demographic transition. 9.52 The influence of female education on health service utilization is also important in urban settings where health services are relatively accessible, as in Kerala. Khandekar (1974) found that within middle and low income groups in Bombay, education had an impact on the utilization of MCH services. Education affects perceptions of health needs, knowledge of health services and capacity to acquire them. Significantly, where a perception of need exists (as in the case of "nutrition" by the respondents in Khandekar's study) utilization of the relevant service seems to follow. 9.53 In view of the evidence that literacy can bring about better health, the current low levels of female literacy and school enrollment discussed in Chapter 8 have disturbing implications. The persistence of regional differences in literacy is particularly troubling, especially if one assumes a lag time between improvements in literacy and health development. Table 80 presents the time required for different states to achieve comparable standards of literacy. Women in rural areas, and especially those from the disadvantaged Scheduled Castes and Tribes (see Table 81) will have limited access to health facilities as long as they lack even primary education. These trends have special significance for health because, as noted earlier, the synergism between gender and socio-economic backwardness creates greater health needs, while that between socio-economic deprivation, gender and illiteracy could mean even greater handicaps in terms of use of health services.  - 139 - E. Early Marriage and High Fertility 9.54 Marriage and childbearing affect women's health status directly, as well as indirectly through associated socio-cultural norms and practices. They also affect women's education and employment, which exert considerable influence on household nutrition and health (as discussed above) and are affected by women's education and employment. 9.56 Indian women have one of the lowest mean ages of marriage (HAM) in the world -- 18.3 years (1981) -- with lower averages obtaining in rural areas and in some states (particularly in the North). These low ages are reflected in the proportions of girls married among younger age groups: almost 8% of all 10-14 year olds, and 44% of the 15-19 year olds. Almost universal marriage obtains by the age of 24 years among women in most states. Early marriage is both a cause and effect of women's low status, low levels of schooling and formal employment. It inevitably leads to early childbearing which is detrimental to the health of young girls who, as we have seen, are already at considerable risk of malnutrition and debility, and are not yet fully grown; and the concomitant prolonged childbearing places a great burden on older women's physical and (families') economic resources. 9.57 Thus, a critical target group for action on fertility in the context of women's health is the youngest age group of adolescent (teenage) girls. The all-India mean age of marriage (MAM) for women is, in fact, very close to the prescribed legal minimum age for marriage of 18 years -- but in several states the MAMs are below this minimum (see Table 88). As is the case with other indicators of women's status, the states in the South and West have higher MAMs than those in the Hindi-speaking belt in the North. Kerala has the highest MAM for females (21.8 years) and Rajasthan the lowest (16.1 years). These means suggest that in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, a sizeable proportion of female marriages takes place below the legal age, and that even in Maharashtra, Orissa, Karnataka, West Bengal and Gujarat, where the means are within 1.5 years of the legal minimum, a large number of marriages are transacted early. In the states with high MAMs (e.g., Kerala) -- and lower proportions of women married at any given age or altogether -- high rates of female education and labor force participation play major roles. 9.58 Among the correlates of a higher age at marriage, female literacy is paramount. As Table 9.2 shows the MAM for girls increases considerably with education, Srivastav (1986) found that the literary level of the population as a whole and especially that of females, was particularly important in influencing age of marriage. Interestingly, however, educated fathers appeared to exert a greater positive influence than educated mothers on delaying daughters' marriages. 9.59 Other factors such as per capita income, level of urbanization, non-agricultural employment and mass media, are also important (Srivastav, 1986). State-level analyses show that women's participation in agriculture has a negative correlation with female age at marriage because higher participation rates are indicative of more traditional communities. Thus, where women are married early, they are not only deprived of schooling and the  - 140 - Table 9.2 MEAN AGE AT MARRIAGE OF FEMALES BY EDUCATION LEVEL, RURAL AND URBAN, 1981 Age in Years Rural Urban All 16.5 .17.6 Illiterate 16.3 16.8 Literate: Primary 17.1 17.4 Middle 17.8 18.1 Matric 19.3 19.8 Graduate 21.5 21.9 Source: Census of India, 1981, Series 1, India, Part II-Special, Report and Tables Based on Percent Sample Data, Office of the Registrar General, Ministry of Rome Affairs, New Delhi, 1983. benefits this may bring to health awareness, but they are exposed to the double energy demands of heavy agricultural work and of early, frequent and prolonged childbearing. 9.60 Early marriage is tantamount to early childbearing because young married women are under considerable societal and familial pressure to prove their fertility. This is demonstrated by prevailing age-specific marital fertility rates (see Table 89). In 1978, 17.5% of rural and 19.7% of urban 15-19 year-old women bore a child (Office of the Registrar General, 1982). The 15-19 year age group accounted for 8% of births in rural areas; over one- third of all births occurred to women under 24 and two-thirds to women under 29 (Office of the Registrar General, 1983). The average Indian woman spends 16 of her 30 reproductive years in pregnancy and lactation. State-level age-specific fertility rates for the 15 to 19 year age-group are shown in Figure 9.6 (see Table 90). Although the general positions of states are similar to those they occupy for other indicators, such as mean age at marriage, the rates are vastly different across the states, ranging from 28 in Punjab to 125 in Andhra Pradesh -- i.e., while less than 3% of 15-19 year- olds in the Punjab had a child in 1984, over 12% of those in Andhra Pradesh did. 9.61 A recent study on "growing up in rural India" (Ranjana Kumari et al., 1988) demonstrated the manner in which female puberty, education, marriage and employment prospects are intertwined. In-depth interviews with 400 adolescent girls and their parents in several north Indian villages, revealed the social restrictions placed on young girls after puberty, and the consequent drop-out from school. Parents considered education beyond the primary stage quite superfluous for their daughters. Irrespective of educational status, caste or income, the girls were engaged in domestic tasks, and many in income-earning occupations. Over one-fifth of the girls (aged 10- 16 years) were already married, and another one-quarter were about to be  - 141 - Figure 9.6 Age Specific Fertility Rates 15-19 Year Olds, Urban & Rural (1984) Regions & States Urban Rural Eastern Assam Bihar Orissa West Bengal Southern Andhra Prad ........__ Karnataka __ Kerala Tamil Nadu Central Madhya Prad Uttar Prad Western Gularat _ = Maharashtra Northern Haryana Pun jab Himohl Prad Jammu& Kashmr Rajasthan All India 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 15-19 Year Olds in 1000 Bearing Children $Oureeo *Family Wellare Programme In India 'arbeok. 1O-8?7.' NOW Delhi 1985 married. The majority of girls knew little about the physical changes of puberty, sex, pregnancy, child-rearing or child health care. High Fertility and Mortality 9.62 Early marriage and early childbearing have impact on both fertility and mortality. Early, frequent and prolonged childbearing are associated with higher risks of malnourishment, ill health and mortality to both mothers and infants. First births and those over four are particularly problematic. Many first births occur before the mother has reached age 20, and girls who are married young are also more likely to have high-order births. Infants born to women married before the age of 18 have almost twice the risk of death compared with infants of women married after age 21 (Office of the Registrar General, 1981) (see Table 91). India's high rural infant mortality rate reflects the high proportion of births (20-25%) which have a birth order of five or higher. 9.63 Another known correlate of high infant mortality is rapid childbearing, or closely spaced births. The mortality of infants born within a year of a previous birth is twice as high as that of infants born after two years of a previous birth (200 and 100, respectively) (Chosh, 1987). A two- year spacing between births could reduce India's aggregate infant mortality rate by 10% and child mortality by 16%. It would also reduce maternal deaths  - 142 - by lowering maternal nutritional depletion and susceptibility to disease. Child loss shortens the interval between births and aggravates the nutritional deprivation of the mother. It is also related to maternal competence, an intermediate variable through which socio-cultural and socio-economic factors such as education and employment exert additional influence on women's nutritional status, morbidity and mortality. The compound effects of women's low education, low employment and early marriage are a larger number of births, closely spaced, more nutritionally depleted women, and a larger number of maternal and child deaths. Women's Education and Economic Status. Fertility and Mortality 9.64 The effects of education and per capita expenditure on fertility are profound. Illiterate women have considerably higher fertility than do literates -- more than twice as high among 15-19 year olds and 30% to 50% higher among other age groups in rural areas, with as much variation among urban groups (Office of the Registrar General, 1982). While their higher fertility is in part due to a lower mean age at marriage, other factors, such as higher desired family size and higher child mortality rates, are also important. Literacy results in fewer higher-order births, with considerable differences between women having less than primary-level education and those with five or more years of schooling. 9.65 Female education is also related strongly and inversely to infant mortality. In 1979, illiterate mothers experienced 145 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, while those with "some education" had an infant mortality rate of 101, and those with primary education had 71 deaths per 1,000 infants born. As child health and survival are enhanced by better hygiene, improved nutrition practices and timely medical intervention, education may improve women's practice of any of these. Educated women may have greater roles in household decision-making and may be permitted by other household members to pursue appropriate strategies, with greater shares of household resources becoming available to women and children. 9.66 That both fertility and mortality are influenced simultaneously by factors such as education is shown by an all-India survey of 5000 households (NCAER, 1987). The strongest differentials in the number of children ever born and in the percent surviving were by the education of the mother. A sharp fall in fertility occurred among women with six or more years of education, compared with those with five years or less. Survival of children increased from 80% among those with no education to 90% among those with 6+ years of schooling. Husband's education showed a very weak and unsteady pattern of association with fertility and mortality. Economic status also influenced both fertility and mortality, with sharp differentials occurring in survivorship, particularly between the highest (86%) and lowest income groups (66%). It is noteworthy that the survivorship of children born to women with six or more years of education is higher (90%) than those of families in the highest income group (86%). 9.67 Clearly, Indian women's reproductive roles exercise a disproportionate influence on their social status and also on their health. The inter-relationships between female education, employment, delayed  - 143 - marriage, reduced fertility, and reduced child and maternal mortality are intricate and strong. Childbearing is risk-laden in the presence of high levels of infection and malnutrition, and high fertility further exacerbates female morbidity and mortality. There is considerable evidence that delayed childbearing, wider spacing of births and bearing fewer children enhance child health and survival. Thus, the issues of women's health, women's control over reproduction, and child health are tied to women's social and economic status. Adolescents as Targets 9.68 Low levels of schooling and paid employment deprive women of knowledge -- including health knowledge -- and access to incomes that could purchase health goods and services, and early and frequent childbearing place a burden on women's physical and (families') economic resources. Early motherhood results in inadequate growth, undernutrition, anemia and the hazards of childbirth. Girls who bear children before the close of their own adolescent growth spurt may remain physically underdeveloped and, hence, at greater risk of obstetric complications and maternal death and of bearing low- birth-weight infants. Pregnancy is a further nutritional stress, and anemia complicates pregnancy, as noted above. Low birth-weight results in low infant survival. A girl's growth may be so severely interrupted by childbearing that she remains stunted for life. Ultimately, small mothers bear small babies who (if they survive) grow into small mothers. 9.69 To redress these issues, the critical targets are adolescent girls who must be provided educational and vocational opportunities. A delay in marriage and childbearing could reduce the number of children they bear, improve their prospects of surviving maternal mortality, enhance survival of their infants, and increase the overall well-being of their families. F. Social and Economic Phenomena Linking Nutrition. Health and Fertility 9.70 Besides interacting with maternal and child health and mortality in the biological ways discussed above, fertility is also related to nutrition and health in ways defined by prevailing social and economic factors. At a general level, low socio-economic status simultaneously engenders ill-health, undernourishment and high fertility while increasing social-economic levels result in improved levels of nutrition and health, and diminished fertility. The effects of a major constituent of socio-economic status, i.e., education have been discussed in some detail in Chapter 8 and in the earlier sections of this chapter; and those of women's employment have been linked with mortality, health, and fertility. In this section a few other aspects are explored which are particularly important in the context of women's health and their productivity. Economic Utility of Children 9.71 The economic utility of children is known to influence fertility and, as discussed above, also affects health and nutrition, particularly the nutritional status of females. The inter-relationships are complex, and only a brief overview of the issues is attempted here.  - 144 - 9.72 Children are perceived to have economic value in societies such as India's because they contribute labor to home-based production and domestic work, and because they provide parents with security in old-age. One study has even established that the number of children was positively associated with land acquisition by families over a ten-year period (as was women's participation in the labor force (NCAER, 1987). The participation of young girls in work has been documented, and contrasted with that of boys. An important issue is that while girls contribute work, boys are preferentially involved in wage work and hence are valued more, which is reflected in their higher consumption levels. The nutritional and health consequences for girls, and their implications for adult female health and reproductive success have been drawn above. 9.73 The 'net negative value' of young girls who do not bring in much cash income in early life and take away family wealth in the form of dowry in adolescence (or shortly thereafter) is the opposite of the perceived wealth from young boys wage work and support to parents in later life. Both are the bases of the preference for sons, a significant factor underlying high fertility and the high mortality of female infants and children (including infanticide, and more recently feticide). Besides the resultant low social status of females, the physiological consequences for women of repeated pregnancies in the hope of bearing sons have been delineated. There are also consequences for the mother's health of having to nurse and care for more children. It is significant that respondents in the NCAER (1987) study perceived the advantages of fewer children as financial or beneficial to children's health, but less frequently in terms of the benefits to mothers' health. Only rarely was 'less work for the mother' seen as an advantage. 9.74 The economic value of children also has implications for schooling. Investment in boys' education is considered worthwhile because it is investment in their future contribution to family wealth. The higher participation of young females in household work is reflected in their lower school participation rates, and schooling Rer se is considered more a liability than an asset in the case of girls (who must be protected from males, and for whom a suitable groom must be found. A more educated groom requires a higher dowry.) The long-term consequences of low female education can be interpolated from the discussions on the ameliorating effects of literacy on high mortality and fertility. Women's Seclusion: The Inside/Outside Dichotomy 9.75 The preferential investment in males and imposition of constraints on female consumption and activities are born of the prevailing system of patriarchy which is most obviously manifest in the practice of purdah. At one level, purdah "protects" women's virtue by restricting contact with males, but, more detrimentally, it confines women to the household, with considerable implications for nutrition, health and fertility. Women perform all domestic tasks from an early age, with the nutritional consequences described above. By menarche, they are withdrawn from school to minimize contact with males, and are thus deprived of the education which can have profound effects on their own health and that of other household members. They are also thereby deprived of school meals, school health check-ups and other direct health inputs. Early  - 145 - marriage is another "protective" mechanism - but it increases the length of the reproductive period and, hence, fertility. 9.76 The patriarchal system prescribes that women's major role is bearing children, particularly sons. The consequences for health and nutrition of early, frequent and prolonged child bearing have been described above. Principles of seclusion proscribe women from seeking health services, particularly from male personnel. They cannot initiate discussion or action related to family planning, because sexual matters are in the male domain. They have limited access to information and resources, and their spatial mobility is constrained. Their work participation is circumscribed, which constrains earning and the advantages to health that higher incomes can bring. Their economic contribution is also downplayed, which consequently reduces their entitlements. And so on. 9.77 Pervading all these interactions is women's subordinate role in decision-making, whether it be on food allocation within the household or on the use of contraception. In essence, a woman's status is determined by her reproductive performance, particularly the birth of sons. Thus, a young wife is under considerable pressure to bear a child, and reproduction does not cease unless the family is guaranteed one or two living sons. Only with age and after bearing a number of children does a woman acquire status as a mother-in-law. At this stage of the life cycle women exert considerable influence on younger women (daughters-in-law), and on household matters as varied as feeding, family-building, employment or expenditure. G. Women's Access to Health Care 9.78 The issue of women's access to health care is a complex one -- because it is both the outcome of women's status in society, including society's response to their health needs, and a determinant of women's health and productivity and, so, ultimately, of their status. One can view this relationship, however, as a simple feedback loop between women's social and economic status and access to health services. Improvements in one will fuel improvements in the other, with the ultimate desired effect of women's complete physical and mental well-being. 9.79 Four sets of factors influence women's access to health care, broadly termed need, permission, ability and availability (Chatterjee, 1983): * Need is the extent of ill-health among women, as shown by data on female morbidity and mortality. * Permission is the result of social factors which dictate whether women can seek health care outside the home, as well as define women's roles as health care providers within the household. * Ability is determined by economic factors which enable women to meet the costs of health care, offset the opportunity costs of seeking health services, or even judge whether there are any benefits to health care. * Availability refers to extant health services for women.  - 146 - Figure 9.7 Determinants for Use of Health Services Need~ Perceived 1er/ssio Need Permission Ability Availability RourCt: Chatterise, 1i8s 9.80 A model of the interaction of these factors shows how they result in women's use of health services (see Figure 9.7). This model suggests that permission and ability interact with need to result in demand for health services. Where this demand overlaps with availability (i.e., supply), use of health services occurs. In the Indian context, while need is large, it is qualified by perceptions of illness and women's conditioning to tolerate suffering, i.e., perceived need is smaller. Severely constrained permission and ability restrict demand by women for health services. Effective demand -- or use of health services -- is further reduced by the inadequate fit between rLeeds and services available. 9.81 The preceding discussions of mortality and morbidity have highlighted the effects of these social and economic factors on women's health. The issue of improving women's access to health care amounts to a need to make women's use of health services commensurate with their health needs. This section first considers issues on the demand side and then supply-side issues which are critical to this aim. )ifferential Treatment 9.82 Despite higher morbidity and malnutrition among females, they receive less health care than males. As discussed above, cause-specific mortality data reveal that female mortality from the common, major diseases is  - 147 - consistently higher than that of males. Although these diseases are easier to recognize and are diagnosed more frequently among females, they are also fatal more often among females because of failure to treat them. 9.83 Several micro-level studies also support this interpretation directly with comparisons of male and female treatment rates. Dandekar's (1975) early survey covering 37,000 people in rural Maharashtra revealed that although higher percentages of girls were ill than boys, lower percentages received medical treatment in the under-15 group. Among adults as well, a greater proportion of ailing women than men received no treatment, and those women who were treated received mostly home remedies or traditional medical care, while men received treatment at institutions. 9.84 Large differences in treatment of girls and boys were also observed in the Narangwal study in the Punjab (Kielmann et al., 1983). While 48% of female children were treated in the first 24 hours of their ultimately fatal illnesses, 64% of boys were. Das et al. (1982) observed that girls in the Punjab are taken to less qualified doctors than are boys, and Das Gupta (1983) found that expenditure on medicines was higher for boys than girls, particularly during infancy and among better-off families. Among infants, about two-and-a-half times more expenditure was incurred on medicine for boys. Among all 0-4 year olds, the ratio of expenditures for medicine for boys to that for girls was 1.2 to 1; it was higher among the landless (1.55 to 1) than among the landed (1.10 to 1). (Das Gupta also found that, in all groups, expenditure on clothing was one-third to one-half greater for boys than girls, another significant 'care' factor.) In fact, in the Punjab, better and more timely medical treatment may be the most important factor explaining high survival among males compared with females, as earlier studies showed (Singh et al., 1962; Kielmann et al., 1983). 9.85 Miller (1981) lists several studies of hospital admissions in different parts of the country which demonstrated higher ratios of male to female admissions in hospitals in the North (i.e., 2.1 to 1) compared with the South (1.3 to 1), although boys were favored in all areas. This is explained by the cultural belief that scarce resources of time and money should not be spent on girls or women who must 'tolerate pain and suffering which are their lot.' 9.86 Hospital and clinic attendance records iinvariably show a preponderance of males receiving treatment. The proportion of medical treatment provided to women is lower whether one considers out-patient attendance or indoor admissions. For example, in Safdarjung Hospital, Delhi, only 35% of admissions were female (Ghosh, 1985). Similarly, Khan et al. (1983) reported that a larger number of males were treated at the Primary Health Centers they studied in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan. A study of Primary Health Centers in Rajasthan revealed that five men received medical treatment for every woman (Murthy, 1982). 9.87 These findings are even more significant in the light of reports from household surveys that more women than men report illness. In Uttar Pradesh, Khan et al (1983) found more episodes and longer durations of illness among women than men in the 20 families they studied closely. They noted that, despite this, female morbidity is likely to have been under-  - 148 - estimated because women were "shy" to reveal illnesses or purposely down- played them to avoid disrupting domestic duties and avoid seeking medical care. As this study and others have noted, the result is that women tend to seek medical help only at advanced stages of illness, which greatly reduces their chances of survival. This is corroborated by hospital data which show that case fatality is higher among female patients admitted. In a study of two Bombay hospitals, the proportion of females admitted who died was somewhat higher than for males (Kynch and Sen, 1983). 9.88 These low treatment rates exist despite the availability of free government health facilities in both rural and urban areas. Khan et al. (1982) found that in the Uttar Pradesh villages they studied, treatment was sought from the nearby Primary Health Center (PHC) or government health facility in only 9% of female illnesses. The vast majority of women simply used traditional remedies. A household health survey in Madhya Pradesh found that while treatment had been sought for about half of all reported 'current serious illnesses,' only 15% of patients had approached government facilities, the remainder seeking private allopathic or traditional care (Jesudason and Chatterjee, 1979). Besides the actual costs plus opportunity costs of travelling to and waiting around public health centers, poor knowledge of the health services available appeared to be a serious constraint to their use. Only one-third of the women respondents knew the location of the nearest sub- center and about 40% the location of the nearest PHC. Knowledge of the working timings of these facilities was even poorer. Only a quarter of the women had actually ever visited the local sub-center and less than 20% the PHC itself. 9.89 Nor do women attend sub-centers or PHCs for antenatal care or for *.elivery (Jesudason and Chatterjee, 1979; Jeffery et al., 1984; Khan et al., 1982, 1983). The latter group of researchers have reported that between 3 and 11% of pregnant women interviewed in Bihar, U.P. and Rajasthan received MCH services such as antenatal check-ups, tetanus toxoid, iron fortification, birth attendance, or post-partum family planning counselling (Khan and Prasad, 1983b; Mehta et al., 1986). In Kerala, almost 40% of women received the first three of these services, but fewer obtained the last two. The best coverage rates were found in Gujarat where 35-43% of women received the various services. 9.90 Official statistics maintain that three-fourths of deliveries in rural areas are conducted within homes with the help of female relatives, friends or traditional dais, but micro-level studies generally report proportions closer to 90-95% (e.g., Jeffery et al., 1984). Dyson and Moore (1982) have pointed to geographical differences in birth attendance by trained personnel: it is lowest in the North and North-West, and highest in the South. This pattern coincides with the status of women in the different regions and is inversely related to mortality. However, a recent study by Ramalingaswami (1987) in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh found that only 2% of women in tribal villages and 24% in non-tribal villages were delivered by an Auxiliary Nurse-Midwife (ANM) or at a hospital, and 16% and 62%, respectively, received tetanus toxoid in the prenatal period. In contrast, over 95% of all women had been approached for family planning, and everyone knew about the malaria worker. Ramalingaswami concluded that while great differences exist in the  - 149 - reach of government services in rural areas, where there is a desire to reach women (e.g., for family planning), the services succeed in doing so. 9.91 Mother's Access to Child Health Care. In the absence of more robust, national data on women's use of health services, one must make use of indirect indicators. One such indicator is infant mortality. In a 'bio- social' sense, the infant is an integral part of the mother-child dyad. Thus, infant mortality can be a useful yardstick of mothers' (Note: not women's) access to health care, health knowledge and also health goods. 9.92 The use of infant mortality as a proxy for women's access to health care is also appropriate from the point of view of the health system as women's health services in India have been largely subsumed into Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Services. While the practice of universal marriage and tendency of rural Indian women to bear a child as soon as possible after marriage may render the terms "mother' and 'woman" almost synonymous after the age of 25 years, the assumption of maternity is clearly unsatisfactory from the standpoint of women's health. (However, this issue is discussed separately below.) 9.93 Data from the Survey of Infant and Child Mortality (Office of the Registrar General, 1981) show that infant mortality is highest where medical facilities are unavailable, and trained birth attendance is low. The availability of services stimulates their use by mothers at least for the purposes of child health care. Household economic levels and female education are important mediators in this process. Available Health Services 9.94 In order to understand the many supply side impediments to women's access to health care, it is necessary to set out briefly the structure of public sector health care delivery which operates in India. In this system, women's health has been considered synonymous with "Maternal and Child Health" (MCH). Over the past four decades, the planning of MCH services has received considerable attention as the need to reduce excess mortality and morbidity among mothers (sic) and children has been consistently recognized. The pyramidal health service structure which has been established in both rural and urban areas has incorporated MCH services at all levels. While the following services are reportedly established throughout the country, serious problems of implementation have hampered their effectiveness. 9.95 At the village level, briefly-trained Volunteer Health Guides (VHGs) have been entrusted with providing basic treatment of common ailments, health education, and some simple disease control tasks such as chlorination of drinking water sources. In addition, traditional birth attendants (dais) are trained to provide pre- and post-natal care and to conduct modern, aseptic deliveries (using pre-packed sterile delivery kits). Both these workers are to provide referral services to the next level. 9.96 Multi-Purpose Workers (MPWs) at Sub Health Centers (1 per 5,000 people or roughly five villages), particularly Female MPWs (MPW-Fs), or Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs), as they were earlier known, provide pre- natal, intranatal and post-natal services, basic child health care and family  - 150 - planning services. Ninety percent of health problems are intended to be dealt with at or below this level, the remaining 10% being referred to Primary Health Centers (PHCs). 9.97 Until recently, the norm was 1 PHC per 100,000 people (or one per Community Development Block).3 The current norm is 1 PHC per 30,000 people, which is proposed to be established by the end of the Eighth Five-Year Plan and one Community Health Center (CHC) per 100,000 people. At the PHC, two or three Medical Officers are assisted by a paramedical staff of 15 to 20 persons, including Public Health Nurses (PHNs), Lady Health Visitors (LHVs), Block Extension Educators (BEEs), and so on, to provide both center-based and outreach services to the villages in their jurisdiction. The proposed CHCs are to have specialist facilities in obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, etc. The system of specialist care extends upwards to secondary and tertiary facilities in the form of Taluk, District and Sub-Divisional hospitals and larger municipal hospitals in the cities. 9.98 In the establishment of this health system, the major strategies for the provision of MCH services have been: (1) the training of Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (now Female MPWs) and their deployment at Sub-centers; (2) the pirovision of specialized medical services, e.g., in Obstetrics and Gynecology, at PHCs, including the posts of one female Medical Officer and two certified nuarses; (3) the establishment of maternity beds in hospitals at all levels; and (4) the training of village dais and VHGs to provide domiciliary services. The system consists, thus, of a combination of fixed facilities (2 and 3) and outreach schemes (1 and 4) which are intended to deal with the majority of health needs. 9.99 MCH services are also rendered at the village level by a trained Anganwadi Worker (AWW), together with health staff, under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme. ICDS combines basic health care with supplementary nutrition for children and pregnant or lactating women and preschool education services. The nutritional feeding provides a small subsidy to families of undernourished children, and the day care services can relieve women for a few hours each day of the burden of child care. In addition, ICDS provides another forum for the delivery of health services and health education, with the potential of reaching into village homes. Other than the AWW, the health services are delivered by the same network of health workers and centers described above. Impediments to Women's Access to Health Care 9.100 Despite these opportunities, some major conceptual inadequacies and a host of practical ones have prevented the health system from dealing successfully with women's health issues. These are briefly identified below. 3There are vast differences among the states in the density and reach of the existing health care structure, reflected in a variety of indlcators that relate key health services to population (see Table 93).  - 151 - Critical Practical Problems 9.101 Auxiliary Nurse Midwives. Although the ANM is the key women's health functionary, many problems hamper her effectiveness. Inadequate facilities (and other social/personal problems) dissuade ANMs from residing at their village headquarters, so that they are not always available to women when they are needed or even to the extent planned. In their outreach mode, they are unable, for these and other reasons (e.g., geography), to cover their target populations with the range of services entrusted to them. 9.102 There are shortages of ANMs to staff Sub-Centers in most states. Their wages are low and working conditions poor. Young and inexperienced when they first enter service, ANMs remain professionally underdeveloped for lack of adequate in-service training and supervision. They are diffident, physically insecure, and often exploited by male members of their communities. These problems compound to keep their status low which prevents them from dealing effectively with the women they must serve. The problems of low pay and low status also affect other women health workers, including village HGs and Anganwadi Workers in the ICDS scheme. Besides the need for improvement on these fronts and for accommodation, safety and proper infrastructure, ANMs, as well as other female health workers, require psychological and motivational support. 9.103 One of the foremost problems faced by ANM's MCH work is the health system's emphasis on peripheral workers having to meet family planning targets (so that higher-level facilities can in turn meet theirs, e.g., PHCs, District Health Officers, etc.) The fact that failure to do so is punishable, results in little other MCH work being done (leave alone women's general health care). There are neither incentives nor penalties (and no targets) associated, for example, with distribution of iron-folate tablets, antenatal check-ups, or even immunization (on which there has been a great deal of emphasis recently). 9.104 Within the family planning subsector itself, the heavy emphasis on sterilization has ignored the social demands on women and denied them access, for example, to birth spacing methods. The application of "the small family norm" to poor rural household where there is a high risk of child death on the one hand and a high demand for children on the other, requires re-examination. In this context, women's paramount concern would be to ensure healthy children and their own health. Contraceptive services need to take the place of abortion, for which women still go to village "quacks." Where adopted, family planning services require follow-up and clear linkages with health care. 9.105 Trained Dais. Despite its coverage of every village in the country, the Trained Dai scheme has fallen short of expectations. This is in part because of the low social status of dais in certain communities, where they are regarded primarily as sweepers who clean up after childbirth. This has denied them the potential of becoming true community health workers (even for obstetrics alone). There are also systemic inadequacies with respect to the quality (and quantity) of their training and their support. As a result, three-quarters of births in rural areas and one-third in urban areas continue to be attended by untrained persons. This program has been typically supply- oriented, failing to create demand for the special skills of trained birth  - 152 - attendants; hence, it has encountered numerous problems emanating from traditional beliefs and practices surrounding childbirth. 9.106 In the recent past, two innovations have been introduced in limited areas which appear to have had some impact. One has been the provision of safe delivery kits to mothers so that at the time of delivery, whether a dai is present or not, the umbilical cord can be cleanly cut and cared for, in order to reduce the risks of neonatal tetanus. The other is the provision of additional incentive money to dais to attend and report births. However, the potential to reduce maternal deaths, which depends largely on referral to more skilled personnel and facilities, is not being met. 9.107 Village Health Guides. The Village Health Guide (VHG) scheme has been limited in its ability to reach women because of the failure of most states to recruit female VHGs. In addition, VHGs are paid only a token honorarium and, hence, do not take their work seriously. In some areas, e.g., iin blocks covered by ICDS, other village-level health workers fill the void to some extent, but a rationalization of the system has yet to take place. Key Conceptual Inadequacies 9.108 MCH services cover women in the reproductive age group (15-45 years) and their children under five -- and they view women only as mothers or potential mothers. Particularly at health centers, the general health problems of women have been subsumed into disease categories which are dealt with by general health staff rather than MCH staff. However, in the rural Indian context, women's lack of "permission" is largely rooted in strictures against contact with male health personnel. Therefore, for attention to non- maternal aspects of women's health, the interactions of MCH staff must be increased to include all women, regardless of their reproductive status (including female children and adolescents who are at a cultural disadvantage), and to address the general health problems of women which underlie high female mortality. 9.109 The location, nature and quality of services must be made commensurate with existing health problems and needs. To date, the planning of services has been norm-based rather than need-based. Because of the uniform use of general population denominators despite cultural and geographic variations, the availability of health services for women cannot be inferred from the usual statistics of health facilities and manpower. Data on allocations for, or expenditures specifically on, women's health services are also not available nor deducible. Hence, calculations of actual health service coverage are currently difficult to carry out. In order to make the system more responsive to women's needs, it is necessary to gather information on the general health problems of women, other women-specific health problems, women's utilization of health services, and women's attitudes to health problems and services through community-wide surveys. 9.110 Severe regional differences in manpower and service availability need to be addressed. Besides the shortage of ANMs discussed above, the country's output of certified nurses is also far below requirement, and the majority of them work in urban areas. In a peculiar reversal of rational health manpower policies, there are two doctors for every nurse in India.  - 153 - Almost four times the current number of nurses are required. However, there are insufficient numbers of women doctors. While some women will approach male doctors for general complaints, the examination or treatment of gynecological or obstetric problems require the presence of a woman doctor. Thus, with the inadequacy of "lady doctors" at the PHC level, most women- specific diseases are neglected. In general, the North-Central states (Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan) suffer from the greatest shortages of health personnel and facilities. These are also the states with the highest mortality, lowest literacy and greatest poverty. In particular, health resources in these states need to be channeled to the primary health sector and to women's health care. 9.111 While the major responsibility of the health system lies in thus extending availability, it must also help bring about changes in the areas of ability and permission. Outreach workers fail to reach into homes, to overcome the constraints of lack of permission and ability facing most rural women, and to impart preventive and promotive health care. Since institution- based care currently remains inaccessible to the majority of women and children and since the purpose of outreach schemes is specifically to overcome the constraints faced by women in approaching (socially or physically) distant health centers, these workers must be deployed in such a way as to provide services "at the doorstep." 9.112 There have not been adequate efforts to improve awareness of health services and to create demand for them (i.e., to encourage their use) through information and education. Little knowledge exists of preventive services such as immunization or antenatal care, and health education is rarely taken seriously by providers or clients. "Access" has also to do with perception: the public must be educated about health and disease and about prevention and treatment, especially of women's problems, in order for services to become accessible to them. 9.113 The attitudes of service providers and policy-makers towards women require considerable change. They must view women as producers -- not just reproducers. Women's health has been regarded as a welfare issue, their economic roles largely being ignored. For that matter, inadequate attention has been paid even to their roles as unpaid domestic workers, providing health care within households. At the level of the health center, one result of failing to consider women as workers is the delay in giving them attention, which is ubiquitously reported by household surveys of women's experiences of health service provision. This greatly increases the opportunity costs to women of seeking health care so that they are discouraged from doing so. Visit routines of outreach workers also often fail to take into account the fact that their clients may be out to work -- so that coverage is further reduced. 9.114 Although designed to cater to pregnant and nursing women, national nutrition programs such as the Integrated Child Development Services Scheme (ICDS) fail to induce women to attend -- mainly because they ignore the social strictures against women eating in public, their need/inclination to share food with other household members, their lack of time, etc., i.e., their household context and roles (see Chatterjee, 1988, for a fuller discussion). Women who do attend supplementary feeding programs may face substitution at home, i.e., they may be denied their household share of food. Thus, the  - 154 - mechanics of supplementary feeding schemes must pay greater attention to the household situation, if pregnant women are to receive even the very small supplement of 500 calories envisioned for them. 9.115 In sum, attention must be paid to overcoming constraints to women's access to health care in the social arena which restrict women from approaching health services, in the economic arena which heighten the opportunity or actual costs of seeking health care, and in the service arena which restrict availability of appropriate health services. Together, health, nutrition and family planning services will improve the balance of women's energy obtained and that expended in production and reproduction. H. Areas for Intervention 9.116 The National Health Policy enunciated in 1982 has identified goals for the reduction of mortality among different age groups, though these are not separately specified for males and females (GOI, 1982). The infant mortality rate is to be brought down from 125 per thousand in 1978 to 60 per thousand by the year 2000. The crude death rate is targeted to come down from 14 to 9 per thousand during this period. The maternal mortality rate should decline from over 400 per 100,000 live births in 1978 to under 200 in 2000. All pregnant women are to receive antenatal care, and all deliveries are to be conducted by trained birth attendants. A hundred percent of pregnant women and school children are to be immunized against tetanus, and 85% of the relevant target groups are to receive DPT, Polio, BCG and DT immunizations. As a result of these improvements in health, life expectancy for both males and females is expected to increase to 64 years by the year 2000. 9.117 The health policy also puts forward goals of a net reproductive rate (NRR) of 1 and a crude birth rate (CBR) of 21 per 1000 by the year 2000. It is also expected that the average number of children per family would decrease from 4.4 (in 1975) to 2.3 in 2000 in order to stabilize India's population. 9.118 While the National Health Policy recognizes the failure of the existing health system to reach women, especially in rural areas, it does not specifically discuss women's health issues, nor does it recognize the importance of improving women's health in the context of increasing national productivity. It aims to rectify the problem of inadequate reach through a comprehensive primary health care approach, with special attention to maternal and child health services and to nutrition and immunization programs. It lists women as target beneficiaries for several specific services such as antenatal care, immunization, etc. 9.119 In fact, increasing women's access to health services is critical for the achievement of the postulated mortality, morbidity and fertility reduction goals. The policy's underlying strategy (the "primary health care approach") and its priority areas (e.g., nutrition) call for a woman-centered approach to health care delivery. If its goals are to be achieved, there is a need to work on both the supply and demand sides to improve women's access to health care.  - 155 - 9.120 There are a variety of possible points of intervention. They can be readily identified by referring back to the four sets of factors which determine women's access to, and use of, health services -- i.e., need, permission, ability, and availability. 9.121 The most important interventions are perhaps those focussed on reducing need, i.e., reducing the disease burden on women so that their need for health care is lessened. Obviously, this entails improving women's access to health-producing goods, such as food, water, housing, clothing, and sanitation, directly. Indirectly, access to these goods must be increased by improving incomes, especially women's incomes and/or the share of household income that is controlled or managed by women, or expended on them. Other related measures include those which reduce environmental health hazards and occupational health hazards. 9.122 Key interventions focussing on enhancing Rermission are: increased education of girls (for its impact in the longer term) and, for more immediate impact, general education of the public about women's health needs, the "value of women," etc., which will loosen social strictures on women approaching health services (and may also change perceptions of need). Increasing the availability of female-delivered health care close to homes is another essential and potentially-effective intervention in this regard. Indirectly, the issue of permission will also be positively affected by measures that improve women's ability (see below). 9.123 Increasing women's ability to utilize health services can be achieved through a combination of measures that (a) lower the opportunity costs of seeking health care, (b) reduce the direct costs of health care, and (c) increase incomes of health care seekers, particularly of women. The opportunity costs of obtaining health care for women can be reduced, for instance, by ensuring more efficient provision of services so that time is not wasted at health centers; by ensuring that wages are not lost while health care is sought/obtained; by providing easily-accessible child care facilities (creches); etc. The direct costs of health care can be lowered, for example, if health services or health insurance are provided by formal sector employers; if services are made available closer to homes so that little money is spent travelling to health centers; and so on. Increasing incomes is essential for more sophisticated health service costs to be affordable. 9.124 Finally, the problem of availability can be tackled by increasing health services that cater to women's health needs (broadly defined), providing these services at locations where and at times when women can utilize them, and improving the quality of these services. SRecific Health Sector Interventions Recommended 9.125 The health sector as a societal institution needs to concentrate on improving the availability of affordable and cost-effective health services. More specifically, the above assessment of women's health and nutrition issues in India suggests that there should be a focus on the following:  - 156 - (a) Village-level health care activities carried out by trained dais, VHGs and AWWs should be improved and extended to encompass women's basic health needs in addition to currently planned antenatal care, birth attendance, postnatal care and child care services. In this context a simple and effective measure that can and should be implemented with rigor is the provision of iron-folate supplements to women of all ages (and children) in a concerted drive against anemia, a major cause of women's high morbidity and mortality and low productivity. (b) Sub-centers should be staffed with ANMs trained and equipped to handle almost all women's health complaints. These workers should be deployed to provide para-medical services regularly at the village level in an efficient and organized peripatetic manner. (ANMs, or MPW-Fs, would also be key personnel in the detection and monitoring of treatment of cases of severe anemia.) This is the most important level of health care provision for rural women in terms of an achievable balance between Rhysical accessibility and technical skills. However, the full potential of ANMs can only be realized through vastly improved training (of all varieties) and much greater systemic support. In particular, ANMs must be allowed/encouraged/required to pay attention to women's health, and not just to family planning. Larger numbers of these workers are required; there is, thus, scope for the establishment of new and innovative foundation training institutes. (c) MCH care should be strengthened at (old and new) Primary Health Centers to cater to all health needs of all women (and their children), making services readily available to them, and coordinating basic health care with preventive measures such as immunization and with more complex services such as those for nutrition improvement. While the establishment of the new Primary Health Centers (to cover 30,000 people each) will take time, there is a need to develop an efficient referral system from village to sub-center to PHC (and beyond). (d) The range of community-based services should be enlarged to include girls between the ages of 5 and 15, and provisions for this age group should also be made, for example, in school health programs. (e) As Community Health Centers are to be developed as referral institutions, appropriate arrangements should be made for women's surgical and medical emergencies -- with facilities in general medicine, gynecology, obstetrics and pediatrics. While there is a need for adequate staff (medical and auxiliary) and equipment at this level, greater attention should be paid to strengthening the lower levels of the system and rationalizing the use of services throughout the system. (f) Health statistics units should be established at the district level to collect data on morbidity, mortality and fertility, with special reference to women (and children), and to analyze these  - 157 - data in order to feed them back rapidly into local health planning and program evaluation. (g) All these steps will require increased allocations to "expanded MCH," particularly to ensure adequate provisions for personnel, for their training and for better administration and supervision. Earmarking a larger MCH budget within the general health and family welfare budget is called for. (h) Within the context of nutrition programs (e.g., ICDS, Tamil Nadu Integrated Nutrition Program, etc.), greater emphasis on women's nutritional supplementation, health care and health-nutrition education is required, with time set aside by workers specifically to motivate and cater to women (for example, through home visits and center-based activities), particularly those in low-income families. To strengthen the health components of these programs, improved linkages between the village-level workers and the sub- center MPWs are required, as is integration at higher levels in the service and administrative structures. In addition, strengthening of the child care component of ICDS could also benefit women's health and productivity. (i) It has already been suggested that the ICDS Anganwadi could be used to improve female school attendance by providing a place where older sisters would leave their siblings while they attend school. In a similar manner certain changes in the hours and timings of the Anganwadis would also enable poor working mothers to be assured of safe care for their pre-school children while they work. This would increase the likelihood that the mother's earnings result in improvements rather than deterioration of the health and nutrition status of her children. The utility of such services would be greater if care were also available for children under three who are the most vulnerable when their mothers are forced to work outside the home. Since children under three require much more intensive care, this would entail higher Anganvadi staffing levels and thus raise program costs. However, since there is also increasing concern in the public health community that the ICDS program is not adequately reaching the under-threes, these increased costs may be judged worthwhile. (j) Now widely acknowledged, the need to reorient the family welfare program to birth-spacing methods is paramount, with the objective of improving the availability of these methods. Ensuring the availability of safe, hygienic and humane MTP services could also decrease female morbidity. (k) These improvements on the supply side should be accompanied by the promotion of demand for services from women by putting forward a 'service for all' image of the health system, to overcome the gender gap in the treatment of illness. Efforts must be made to encourage early contact between women who are ill and the health service provider at the appropriate level.  I  - 159 - ChaRter 10: GOVERNMENT AND NGO EFFORTS FOR WOMEN'S DEVELOPMENT A. Government Programs: A Historical Overview Introduction 10.01 In the first twenty years after independence Indian economic policy makers were primarily concerned with overall economic growth. The third decade of independence witnessed an increase in concerns for equity and poverty alleviation. But even at this stage, gender issues were subsumed by poverty related concerns. As a result, policies and programs specifically aimed at women were limited in scope and resources. It is only in the last ten years or so that it has been recognized that though women constitute an overwhelming majority among the poor, programs of economic and social development are structurally biased in favor of men. This bias is now being increasingly acknowledged and corrective policies and programs are being formulated. 10.02 The approach to women's issues can be seen as a continuum from specialized welfare programs concentrated mainly in the social sectors to mainstream development efforts in both the directly productive and the social sectors. Over the last two decades governments, NGO's and donor agencies have become more aware of the actual nature of women's role in the developing economies, and how that role affects a range of fundamental issues. This has resulted in a number of important changes in the approach to assistance for women, with a shift along the continuum from welfare to development. Another important dimension of the change has been the move away from separate women's programs to the systematic incorporation of a "gender perspective" into the entire portfolio of development projects across all sectors. The reasoning has been that special women's programs are inevitably under-funded and also contain the danger of encouraging investments in "parallel systems" for women which are not always necessary. If the constraints to women's participation in mainstream development programs can be identified and measures to overcome them incorporated as part of the normal project design, these extra investments (though undoubtedly more substantial than those previously directed to special women's programs) will have a much larger payoff both for the women involved and in terms of the project's ability to achieve its own sectoral objectives. 10.03 In this chapter GOI's past and current efforts to direct assistance to its female citizens will be examined in relation to these fundamental changes in thinking related to women's development. As is evident from the preceding chapters on women's health and education, there are a number of government programs which involve women and some specifically directed to women in these sectors. In addition, the government also supports limited welfare programs for indigent women. Although in many of the programs discussed in this chapter, welfare measures are mingled with purely economic approaches, the main focus of this chapter is on government programs and NGO efforts which are aimed at directly enhancing women's economic productivity and helping them move out of poverty. Many of these efforts are part of mainstream programs directed at all the poor, regardless of gender, but with either special provisions or components for women.  - 160 - Early Post-Independence Efforts 10.04 Post-Independence efforts to improve the situation of women began with the Community Development Program (CDP). The CDP was launched in 1952 to promote agricultural development and to provide villages with welfare services. Initially, the program made no special provision for women, but in 1954 the decision was made to appoint two Gram Sevikas (female village-level workers) in each block, working under the guidance of a Lady Social Education Organizer (later designated Mukhya Sevika, or "main female worker"). Nahila Mindals, or "women's groups" were to be the village-level forums for organizing women. The CDP, however, clearly considered women as housewives and marginal workers. The Central Social Welfare Board (CSWB) was established in 1953, to fund and support the activities of voluntary organizations in the f:Leld of social welfare. In 1954, the CSWB introduced the Welfare Extension Project (WEP). Services under the WEP included child care, supplementary feeding for children and pregnant women, a nutrition and health care program, arts and crafts training and "social education". The scheme's underlying middle class bias, with its view of women as housewives and a focus on physical welfare of women was a major reason for failure. In addition, shortages of funds and personnel and poor training of CDP workers have been cited as a reason for failure (Mehra, 1983). The Post-1975 Era 10.05 Through the mid 1970s, there was no major change in the programs f'or rural women. The year 1975 may be considered a watershed in the development of government policies and programs for women in India. In late 1974, the Committee on the Status of Women in India (CSWI) submitted its report, Towards Equality. The report presented the generally disadvantaged position of women, as evidenced by a declining sex ratio, lower life expectancy for women than for men, higher infant mortality for female c:hildren, high maternal mortality, declining female labor force participation and higher illiteracy among women. Several major commissions and reports lssued policy recommendations and/or statements on women's development during the next five years. There also was some progress in the field of research and data collection. The Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), which had provided research support to the Commission on the Status of Women in India, initiated a research program on women. The Planning Commission directed the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) to collect information on women's work in its 32nd round (1977-78). A new category of "marginal workers" (i.e., persons working less than 183 days per year in a given activity) was introduced in the 1981 Census, with the subsequent "discovery" that large numbers of previously invisible women workers were in this category. 10.06 These advances in awareness and policy led to the formulation of certain programs targeted at women, in addition to the existing programs in primary and adult-education; maternal and child health and nutrition services. The Sixth Plan (1980-1985) introduced some major changes in programs for women. For the first time in the planning history of India, the Plan document included a chapter on women and development. The Plan emphasized economic independence for women, along with access to health care and family planning  - 161 - services. It stipulated that women were to form at least one third of the beneficiaries under the scheme of Training of Rural Youth for Self-Employment (TRYSEM). A program intended specifically to help women take up and conduct income-generating activities was introduced in 1982. Named Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA), this program was funded jointly by GOI and UNICEF, and ran initially in 50 districts of the country. In addition, a number of state governments made efforts of their own to promote women's development. B. Poverty Alleviation Programs: An Overview and Assessment Program Categories 10.07 Concern for poverty alleviation peaked in India in the 1970s. Mrs. Indira Gandhi's call "Garibi Hatao" ("Abolish Poverty") coincided with increasing evidence that the previous decades' development strategies aimed at industrialization, infrastructure development and intensive agriculture, while contributing to overall economic growth, did little to increase the per capita incomes of the lowest three deciles of the Indian population. Among multilateral agencies too, growth with redistribution, became the key priority in the 1970s. It was in this milieu that poverty alleviation programs originated. It is useful to recall this history briefly because in the changed policy environment of the 1980s, poverty alleviation programs have increasingly been judged on the criteria of allocative efficiency, whereas they were initially conceived to address redistributive concerns. 10.08 With the understanding that the pace of overall economic growth was inadequate to significantly increase the per capita incomes of the lowest three deciles, Indian planners designed programs to directly "attack" poverty. From the very outset, however, it was clear that these programs were to be complementary to the gains in the economic condition of the poor which would come about due to overall growth. Indeed, the availability of resources for these programs is predicated on at least a moderate level of economic growth. In addition, growth in the rest of the economy is essential to generate demand for the goods and services that the poor produce. 10.09 With this background, poverty alleviation efforts in India are usually conceived as a three pronged effort: - promoting self-employment among the poor; - providing lean season wage employment; and - addressing minimum needs such as nutrition, health, sanitation, housing and education. 10.10 There has been a major debate among Indian planners and academics regarding the relative efficacy of these strategies. (See, for example Rath, 1985; Dantwala, 1985 and Hirway, 1985). It is now widely recognized that any one of these three approaches alone is inadequate and what is needed is a well-orchestrated set of programs to address the varying needs of different categories of the poor. One such overall strategy is to concentrate on promotional efforts for self-employment among the entrepreneurial poor, while providing better targeted wage employment opportunities to the remaining able-  - 162 - bodied poor who do not have the skills for, or do not wish to take the risks related to, self-employment. This would leave a third segment of the poor, who are unable to work in wage employment due to physical disability, disease, old age, etc. This segment is best served through social security programs involving cash transfer payments (see Bagchee, 1987). 10.11 The following sections describe and assess the set of poverty alleviation programs belonging to the first two categories which are currently being implemented by the GOI and some of the state governments. A few of these programs are exclusive to women, while others have specific targets for women as a proportion of the total beneficiaries and some do not specify any quota for women. The programs can be seen to span a continuum from self- employment to wage-employment, as follows: * Programs to Promote Self-Employment through Subsidized Credit: - Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP) - Scheme for Self-Employment of Educated Unemployed Youth (SEEUY) - Self-Employment Programme for the Urban Poor (SEPUP) * Programs for Self-EmDloyment Targeted towards Women: - Support to Employment Programs for Women (STEP) - Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA) * Programs for GrouD Formation and Training in Productive Skills: Mahila Mandals Program * Women's Development Program (WDP) of the Government of Rajasthan - Training of Rural Youth for Self Employment (TRYSEM) - Vocational Training Program for Women * Wage Employment Programs: = Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) of the Government of Maharashtra - National Rural Employment Program (NREP) and Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Program (RLEGP), now amalgamated into the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY) grograms to Promote Self-Employment through Subsidized Credit IRDP 10.12 The Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP), launched in 1979, is by far the largest credit-based poverty alleviation program of the Government of India -- and it may well be the largest such program in the world. The IRDP provides a loan through commercial banks to households officially identified to be below the poverty line, to finance purchase of an asset which serves as the basis for self-employment. The assets for which Loans are commonly disbursed include pumpsets, milch animals, draft animals, carts, equipment for cottage industry, provisions shop, repair center etc. The loan for the asset is subsidized by the government through an initial  - 163 - capital subsidy of between 25% to 50% depending on the occupational and economic status of the beneficiary. To date, real expenditures under the IRDP have been estimated at Rs. 77 billion, approximately US$ 6 billion. (Pulley, 1989:1). IRDP has a target of 30% female beneficiaries. 10.13 A recent Bank study (Pulley, 1989) has made a thorough examination of the credit-related dimensions of IRDP. While some of the conclusions of this important study are discussed in this section, the main focus here is on filling major gaps in the Pulley study, related to the importance of non- credit inputs and the institutional dimensions of promoting self-employment. 10.14 The importance of the availability of credit, for fixed as well as working capital, in promoting self-employment has been widely and correctly recognized. In a recent study, it has been shown that improving the availability of credit in rural India greatly improves rural non-farm employment and output. A 10% increase in formal credit was shown to contribute an 18% increase in rural non-farm employment in the study. (Khandker and Binswanger, 1989). 10.15 It is less commonly acknowledged, though, that credit is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for self-employment. First, to be successfully self-employed, an individual has to have a certain level of entrepreneurial ability, which includes the ability to take commercial risks in expectation of profit, the ability to identify and capitalize on economic opportunities, the ability to convert information into a competitive advantage and the ability to improvise and innovate. It is incorrect to assume, as the IRDP does, that every poor person has these abilities. Nor would mere provision of credit foster these abilities. It requires systematic investment in enhancing the overall awareness level and self-confidence of the individual. If the potential self-employed person is poor, this requires overcoming a variety of socio-economic handicaps. If the person is a woman, additional social and psychological barriers have to be overcome. 10.16 Second, for self-employment, a person needs to possess a marketable skill. The major exception to this is petty trading where even a relatively unskilled person can make an entry. It is no surprise that many successful credit programs have concentrated on meeting the working capital needs of those engaged in occupations such as vegetable vending or rice husking. There is a limit however, to the number of people who can be self- employed in such ventures. This number can be substantial in urban areas and in populous and rich rural areas, but is not significant elsewhere. For individuals in other occupations, marketability of the product is the important consideration. Many traditional artisans and craftsmen, for example, are highly skilled, but the demand for the products they can produce is limited or dwindling. Handloom weavers in India are the largest group of such persons. Provision of credit to weavers does not solve the problem of competition from the powerloom and the mill sector, nor of greater consumer preference for power-woven fabrics. The coupling of the TRYSEM (Training of Rural Youth for Self-Employment) program with the IRDP was done in recognition of this constraint, but its efficacy has been doubtful due to the limited period of training and choice of already saturated activities (e.g. weaving, tailoring) for training by local officials.  - 164 - 1.0.17 The third important constraint in promotion of self-employment is the prevailing pattern of control over potentially productive resources. This includes land, both cultivable and non-cultivable wasteland; water resources, for both irrigation and fisheries; forests and minor forest produce; and such 'minor' resources as dead animals, which constitute a resource base for ilayers and leather workers. An example mentioned earlier (para. 5.35) is the woman who wishes to be self-employed as a rope-maker, but finds she has to contend with the existing system of annual auction of bhabar or sawai grass by the forest department to large contractors, who in turn find it profitable to truck the grass to an urban paper mill, rather than sell it in small lots to rope-makers. Examples of this kind can be given from virtually any sub- sector which has a potential to generate livelihoods for the poor. The IRDP envisaged getting around such problems through the organization of "functional groups of beneficiaries". That brings us to the fourth, and perhaps the most significant constraint on self-employment. 10.18 For any economic activity to be viable, it needs a minimum scale of operations. One of the conceptual flaws in the IRDP approach of extending credit to a single household at a time is the severe under-estimation of the incremental income foregone when a self-employed person works alone rather than as a member of a group. Let us take the example of dairying, an activity for which as many as 30% of IRDP loans are given. In the absence of a village-level milk co-operative, an owner of one or two buffalo has no recourse but to sell the milk to the local dudhiya, who in turn, sells milk collected from ten or twenty households to tea-shops and sweet-makers in nearby towns. As a result, the primary producers often get a lower price for their milk depending on the season and distance from the market. On the input side, an individual buffalo-owner incurs higher costs per kilogram of cattle feed, due to high transaction costs. Veterinary services such as artificial insemination and disease prevention and cure are also either inaccessible or involve high costs. (See Mergos and Slade, 1987 for a detailed comparison of profitability of dairying and access to services in villages with and without dairy cooperatives). The net result of all this is to reduce the intrinsic viability of the activity. 10.19 The obvious question is, given these disincentives of working alone, why do producers not come together spontaneously? This has to do with the social dynamics among producers. Where they belong to the same occupational caste, there is often a significant amount of coming together within a village or across a group of villages. Unfortunately, traditional occupations must often contend with challenges which are too big for such "caste panchayats". For example, in the case of chamars or leather-workers, consumer demand has shifted from handmade leather footwear to PVC shoes; while simultaneously raw material supply, in this case, raw hides, has dried up due to demand pull from mechanized leather tanneries. The adverse changes at both ends are beyond the control of the traditional caste groups of chamars, although there are cases where they have successfully sought to protect their right to flay dead animals for hides (see PRADAN, 1988a). For the newer occupations, traditional caste groups do not exist and producers often live too far apart to make co-operation practical. In both cases, significant external inputs are necessary to bring together the self-employed in an activity-based functional group and give them the necessary cohesion and  - 165 - "know-how" to bring about changes in the existing pattern of resource use, or to lobby for activity-specific infrastructure. Numerous well-documented micro-projects exist to show that this is a complex process with a long gestation period and one which requires high quality community organization inputs. (See, for example, Matthai, 1983). 10.20 Those who make credit the pre-eminent input for self-employment assume that the other requirements, delineated above, either exist or will be fulfilled through an "invisible hand". A prominent example of this approach is a review of the Ford Foundation's portfolio of programs related to livelihoods employment and income-generation in six developing countries, including a large sample from India. (Tendler, 1987). Tendler commends six "success stories", including SEWA and the Grameen Bank, for adopting what she calls the 'minimalist credit' approach. However, according to her analysis, this approach worked because the economic activities of the clients supported by the organizations shared certain common traits, such as: (i) clients were already engaged in the production or trading activity (ii) though assistance was often through groups, collective production was not required or was minimal (iii) economies of scale were not significant, so competition from large industry was minimal (iv) markets were already in place and little marketing assistance was required (v) supplies of inputs were assured (vi) products/services, such as irrigation water or garbage collection, had high social value and (vii) powerful consumers provided support to the producers/organizations. It does not require much analysis to arrive at the conclusion that these special traits are missing or reversed in the case of self-employment by the rural poor. 10.21 As against Tendler's analysis, it is interesting to note what the organizations she studied have to say about the "minimalist credit" strategy for promoting self-employment. Describing the objectives of the SEWA Bank, a recent document states: "The objectives of this bank, which are an outcome of practical experience are: (i) providing facilities for savings... (ii) providing credit... (iii) extending technical and management assistance in production, storage, procuring, designing and sale of goods and services. This includes services to buy raw materials, equipment, tools and implements; establishing direct links with industries, wholesalers and producers...; guidance in marketing their goods; accounting services to members individually and to groups (iv) providing facilities to rescue their jewelry from pawnbrokers... (v) deposit linked group insurance." (SEWA, 1989: 40). 10.22 From SEWA's own account, its approach seems to be much more comprehensive than "minimalist credit". Similarly, the Grameen Bank has the following lessons about the role of non-credit inputs:  - 166 - "The possibility of low or negative rate of return because of crowding and concentration of women in certain lines of activities with which they are already familiar cannot be ignored altogether. There may be a lack of demand for their goods and services due to market saturation. Such a situation may be avoided if appropriate investment and marketing counseling is introduced by the Grameen Bank on the basis of continuous research made on the relative profitability of different activities. But this may not be sufficient until and unless there are external economies and facilities created by the Government in favor of the poor". "In the year 1983, milch cow raising topped the list of activities pursued by women loanees. Their access to veterinary facilities (in whatever form available) is so limited that they are to hopelessly witness the death of their livestock and hence loss of their investment if there is epidemic cattle disease". 'In some areas, some of the women loanees tried to raise poultry birds on commercial basis with all seriousness and sincerity of purpose. But they miserably failed in their efforts and incurred loss due to the absence of facilities for undertaking such activities. Even where the facilities are available,it is not easy for them to get the same under the existing system of power structure and bureaucratic practice." (Latifee, in ESCAP, 1985: 19) 10.23 The above excerpts from SEWA and Grameen Bank support the contention that credit is a necessary but not sufficient condition for successful self-emRloyment by the rural Poor, as envisaged under the IRDP. Many other complementary inputs and services are needed, such as: - identification of potential economic activities - conducting feasibility studies - selecting individuals with entrepreneurial ability - training of the potential self-employed in marketable skills - infrastructure (power, built-up sheds, transportation, etc.) - technical assistance for technology adaptation or upgradation - establishing market linkages for inputs and outputs - organizing producers into groups for sharing common facilities - providing enterprise management assistance in the early stages 10.24 The IRDP envisaged the identification of economic activities by the beneficiaries themselves, supplemented by suggestions from the block sextension staff and bankers. It is unfortunately not always true that the poor know best what livelihood to take up. Given a choice, they often opt for a familiar activity even if it is saturated or has no scope for growth. They also do not possess information about new livelihood opportunities opening up due to overall growth in the economy. This leads to the crowding effect reported by the Grameen Bank. The block officials are in no way qualified to suggest new activities with confidence, because they lack the training and exposure to promoting entrepreneurial activity. On the other hand, bankers, some of whom do have the skills and exposure to enterprise promotion, do not  - 167 - find it worth their while to spend any more effort on the IRDP than the minimum required to meet the target. The net result of this has been a standardized portfolio of activities in most blocks, with three or four traditional activities such as dairying, pump-sets and provision shops, accounting for a majority of the loans. 10.25 The selection process of borrowers for IRDP loans does not take into account the entrepreneurial capability of the potential self-employed person. Instead, the selection is made on the basis of routinized application of IRDP guidelines which require the selection of the poorest first. Even the provision that 30% of the borrowers be women is often fulfilled in a round about manner by first selecting a male borrower and then asking him to bring his wife for signing the loan papers. Coupled with the selection of borrowers is the choice of activity. Block officials and bankers tend to have pre- conceived notions about what the poor can do, and the few times a potential borrower does suggest a new or preferred activity, it is generally not accepted. Of course, the whole process is vitiated, in addition, by considerations of subsidy, harassment in the purchase process and the 'cut' to be paid to officials. Interventions in improving the selection process, though intensive training and supervision, have significant pay-offs. Another alternative is to involve NGOs in the process on a formal or informal basis (see PRADAN, 1988b). 10.26 It was also envisaged under the IRDP that imparting of skill and a minimal level of entrepreneurial ability could be done through TRYSEK (see paras. 10.28-10.30 below). In practice, the TRYSEM training period of six months often proves to be too little for learning new skills, and the stipend is inadequate to attract trainees not resident within commuting distance of the training center. As there is a dearth of trainers and training facilities, the ones which exist are repeatedly used, thus creating an oversupply of trained individuals in a single skill in a small area. A common example of this is tailoring for women and bicycle repair for men. As a result, trainees graduating from TRYSEM may get an IRDP loan for an activity in which they are inadequately trained, for which there is an over-supply locally but no assistance to reach outside markets, and no availability of ongoing technical or enterprise management assistance. The IRDP envisages provision of technical assistance through line departments (such as department of veterinary services) and marketing assistance through specialized agencies (such as dairy cooperative unions). The experience of IRDP shows, however, that these linkages have not worked out in practice. Too often the activities of the various agencies and institutions are carried out at the minimal level necessary to fulfil the numerical target. 10.27 As regards the impact of the program on women, studies conducted on the impact of IRDP reveal that the target of including 30% female beneficiaries has not been met. According to official sources, there were only 9.8% women beneficiaries in 1985-86 and 15.13% women in 1986-87. Thus, although some progress has been made, women's access to credit under IRDP, is still only half the 30% target and even further from being equal with men. This is not only due to the lack of motivation on the part of the field staff but also because of the "household approach" taken in the program, which stipulates that only the head of the household can borrow through the IRDP  - 168 - (NCSW, 1988: ii). Therefore if a woman's husband as head of the household, has taken an IRDP loan -- or if he has defaulted on any earlier loan from the bank, the woman is not considered eligible for credit under the IRDP, even though, she may well be the main source of income for the family. The National Commission for Self-Employed Women and Women in the Informal Sector (NCSW) in its report, Shramshakti, states that one of the major problems of IRDP is that women are not being considered eligible for loans because their husbands have defaulted with the bank due to illness, alcoholism or allied reasons. Since the problems which caused the man to default are the same reasons for his failure to support his family, it is doubly important for the woman to be granted a loan to support herself and her family. The bank's refusal to consider the woman's request, indicates that despite all the evidence to the contrary, women are still not being considered economic contributors. 10.28 A study conducted in 1987 by the National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD) on the impact of IRDP on 175 female beneficiaries in four states showed that in all of the states the average incremental annual income from the IRDP assets was over Rs. 2000. This suggests that women are usually able to put the credit received to productive use. Further, a study conducted in U.P. to determine what factors explain differences in the productivity of investments over the longer term showed that female borrowers were better at repayment of the loan than their male counterparts (Pulley, 1989: Annex 1, p.1). Even where the beneficiary was classified as a male, the follow-up survey revealed that wherever the female spouse managed the investment, the rate of recovery was better. Productive activities for women have not been separately identified and the NIRD study cited above, mentions that handloom, vegetable vending, tailoring, knitting, and livestock breeding predominate among women. The question has been raised as to why women have confined the choice of economic activities under the program, to a select few. Have these activities been voluntarily chosen by women because they are not aware of other viable activities or is their "choice" a reflection of the fact that bank officials present these traditional activities as the only ones under which women can obtain credit under the program? Further, the fact that credit is given in kind rather than in cash limits the discretion available to women (or men) beneficiaries when applying for credit. 10.29 Although there is no specific regulation against it, IRDP loans are rarely given for land purchase. Yet for landless women, a small parcel of land for cultivating vegetables, fodder, fruit, trees, cereals, etc. represents the soundest form of economic security. The idea of giving out small parcels of land to landless women is not an attempt at land reform. What is being suggested instead is for the woman to buy land just like any other asset, using an IRDP loan. Assuming that the number of IRDP beneficiaries is of the same order of magnitude as at present, and a parcel of one acre of land is required per beneficiary, we are talking of between 200 to 400 aces of land per year per block. This is not large enough to create a demand pressure on the land market. Yet, land is the most secure asset, for which the banks will lend easily and cultivation is an economic activity in which the women already are well-versed. The ownership of land will add significant value to their labor and also provide secondary benefits such as improving family nutrition, generating additional cash income and providing  - 169 - green fodder for milch animals, which at present is the main constraint on landless families' ability to practice dairying. The funding for such a program can be separately earmarked within the overall structure of the IRDP. 10.30 Some other problems encountered by women under IRDP, are pointed out in Shramshakti (NCSW, 1988: lxii). In M4anipur, women were reportedly unhappy with the village headman's selection of beneficiaries for IRDP loans. They had demanded instead, for the selection process to be granted to the H4ahila Handals' jurisdiction. This has in fact been recommended by the NCSW. The Manipur women's group further suggested that the banks' policy to limit applicants to a 16km radius be changed in the cases of hilly areas so that rural women from remote villages in the hills were not deprived of access to loans through IRDP. Women in Himachal Pradesh suggested raising the income limit for eligibility for loans, since the cost of living especially for those in the rural hilly areas was much higher and the income limit affected their ability to get loans. 10.31 For poor women (or men) to be able to be successfully self- employed, it is necessary to orchestrate all of the inputs mentioned above, in addition to credit, into a single package which is accessible to them. There are many sub-sectors of the economy with promise for generating self- employment opportunities for the poor. Potential sub-sectors include horticulture (including fruits, vegetables and flowers); livestock rearing other than dairying, including pig rearing, sheep and goat rearing, poultry and duck rearing and rabbit production; fisheries, including brackish water prawn cultivation; minor forest produce collection and processing; food- processing; wood, fibre, metal and mineral based production; and specialized handlooms and handicrafts. This list is by no means exhaustive. What is n-eeded, however, is some agency to scan the possibilities in a given location and systematically develop the potential activities. It is important to concentrate on a few sub-sectors. This enables the promotional agency to develop a cumulative expertise and in-depth knowledge about a sub-sector and have a steeper learning curve in new locations. SEEUY and SEPUP 10.32 The Scheme for Employment of Educated Unemployed Youth (SEEUY) is of much smaller magnitude than the IRDP. Under this scheme, educated youth in rural and semi-urban areas can get a loan from the bank of up to Rs. 25,000 for setting up a productive enterprise. The loan is composite in the sense that it covers both fixed asset purchase and working capital requirements. Typical loans are for setting up small agro-processing units, fabrication and repair workshops, and transport services. Unlike the IRDP, the subsidy under SEEUY is paid towards the end of the loan repayment, as an incentive. There is no separate target for women in this scheme. 10.33 The Self-Employment Program for the Urban Poor (SEPUP) is an urban equivalent of IRDP. Introduced in September 1986, this program is implemented through selected branches of public sector banks, and covers all cities/towns with populations exceeding 10,000. People eligible for assistance under IRDP are not eligible under this scheme. Assistance cannot exceed Rs. 5000 per family; the subsidy forms 25% of the loan amount. There does not appear to be  - 170 - any special provision for women. Within six months of the introduction of this program, a little over 300,000 beneficiaries had been granted loans. No breakdown is available on the number of women benefited by this program. 10.34 In summary, access of women to credit under IRDP and other self- employment programs has been severely limited by a number of constraints. These include: lack of motivation on the part of the field staff to reach women, the failure to identify productive activities specially suited to women, and the disqualification of women from receiving credit if their husbands have defaulted on previous loans. To improve the ability of the nation's largest poverty alleviation program to assist poor women, some fundamental changes need to be brought about in the program concept, the delivery system and the support structures. We discuss next certain programs which tried to bring about some of the desired changes. These include STEP and DWCRA. Programs for Self-Employment Targeted towards Women: STEP 10.35 In the Seventh Plan, Rs. 450 million was provided for the Support to Employment Programs for Women (STEP) program under the Department of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Human Resources Development to provide technical, institutional, organizational and social support to poor women working in selected sectors such as agriculture, dairy farming, small animal- husbandry, fisheries, trade and village industries, handlooms, handicrafts and sericulture. The program is implemented through existing institutions such as cooperatives or voluntary organizations which are to mobilize women and employ female workers to provide extension services. The program focuses on households whose income is below the poverty-line, including migrant laborers, unemployed, female-headed households, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities and crisis-stricken groups. The intermediary institutions are to ensure linkages with the mainstream economy and economic viability. Supportive services are to be provided through existing programs wherever possible. 10.36 Four projects that have been funded under STEP are: The Bihar Women's Dairy Project (see paras. 4.29-4.31), the Bihar Women's Tasar Project, and the Tamil Nadu sheep-rearing and khadi industry projects being implemented through the Women's Development Corporation of that state. Though the Bihar Women's Dairy Project was not specifically targeted towards poor women, about 25% of the women covered came from Scheduled Caste communities, and about 50% from small and marginal farmer households. STEP has a potential to reach the poorest women which should be tapped more widely and the program should be enlarged to cover more women from the backward areas. The involvement of NGOs in the program is a key to this and should be encouraged on a wider scale. The program also needs to diversify to more sectors and regions. Its dependence on existing sectoral institutions need not be thought of as a weakness, given the number of sectors where specialized institutions already exist which could use additional funds to support the extra efforts needed to incorporate women in their mainstream programs.  - 171 - DWCRA 10.37 It was in recognition of the fact that rural development programs were not reaching the poorest women that the Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA), was launched as a sub-component of IRDP. DWCRA was started as a pilot project in 50 selected districts in all states in 1982-83 and was extended to one district in each Union Territory during 1985-86. Twenty-four additional districts in the states were covered during 1986-87. Over the Sixth Plan period, 3,308 groups covering 52,170 women were formed under DWCRA. In 1986-87, 5,545 women's groups were formed against a target of 7,500. Table 10.1 depicts the physical and financial achievements under the program since its inception up to 1987-88. Table 10.1 Physical and Financial Achievements under the scheme of Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA) since its inception upto 1987-88 ----------------------------------------------------------------__-----------__---------------------- Year Financial Physical Outlay Expenditure Targets Achievements --------------------------------------------------------__-------------------__---------------------- (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) ---------------------------------------------------------------------__------__---------------------- 1982-83 2:00 - Groups Members - - 1983-84 2:00 0.26 Groups 1035 536 Members - 8785 1984-85 5.05 1.36 Groups 5000 2772 Members - 43385 1985-86 6.31 6.31 Groups 5000 6008 Members 100000 95104 1986-87 10.05 7.86 Groups 7500 5545 Members 150000 96117 1987-88 12.03 NA. Groups 7500 N.A Members 150000 --------------------------------------------------------------------__-------__---------------------- Note: The target groups of DWCRA are the same as IRDP i.e. families having an annual income of less than Rs. 48001-, and the methodology of reaching them, is through a 'group' rather than individual beneficiaries. The scheme seeks to provide income generating activities to women which will have a positive impact on the economic and nutritional status of the family and it also attempts to provide an organizational support in terms of receiving system for the assisted women, so that they can become effective recipients of services available in that area. The scheme is under the administrative control of the Department of Rural Development. NA. Not available. Source: Department of Rural Development, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, New Delhi. 10.38 The objective of the program is "to organize women in socio- economic activity groups with the dual objective of providing self-employment opportunities and social strength to them" (Seventh Plan Document). DWCRA's aim therefore, is to organize women into groups for the effective utilization of credit under IRDP. Besides providing financial support for income generating activities, DWCRA also aims to increase women's access to other government programs and welfare services. The scheme envisages formation of a  - 172 - group of 15 to 20 women. While the common interest that brings the group together may or may not be income generation, the support provided by DWCRA is intended to enhance the income generating capability of the women in the group. Mukhya Sevikas and Gram Sevikas in the development blocks are expected to spend adequate time in educating the women and to give special attention to problems of the women's groups and discuss the proposed solutions. Each group is expected to identify a group organizer, who will take the responsibility of liaison work. 10.39 A grant of Rs. 15,000 is given to each group for a revolving fund to be used for purchase of raw materials, marketing, childcare, etc. This amount is shared equally by the Central Government, State Government, and UNICEF. To provide groups with a central place for carrying on economic and other activities, multi-purpose community centers are being constructed in DWCRA blocks, the cost of which is being met out of RLEGP funds and interest earnings of the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA). UNICEF provides assistance for equipment and supplies, up to Rs. 50,000 per center. DWCRA shares and builds upon the administrative structure used by IRDP. Provision has been made for additional functionaries to effectively implement DWCRA, the cost for which is met by UNICEF. The development blocks are provided funds for an additional Gram Sevika in addition to existing two Gram Sevikas and the Mukhya Sevika/Social Education Organizer. 10.40 Although there have been successes with DWCRA in some states where experienced and committed NGOs took on the implementation of the program, putting more emphasis into making the DWCRA groups more participatory, overall the program has not succeeded in establishing viable groups. It is reported that women in most DWCRA groups do not even decide on their own income- generating projects and depend instead, on district and state level offices to identify the activities and even for project officers to select the individual women to be included in these activities. Although community involvement, group formation, collective production and marketing are the essential elements of the program, it has been noted that in practice, some DWCRA groups merely go through the formality of becoming a group, coming together only to sign the loan applications (PRADAN, 1988a). 10.41 With its emphasis on the group approach, DWCRA provides a sound method for women to come together in their attempt to set up profitable income generation activities. However, the program implementation staff lack a clear understanding of what is involved in the formation of viable self-led groups and an adequate methodology to achieve this objective. In actual practice, it is found that groups are often created hastily, merely to receive the income generation subsidy and the training they are given is often inadequate for learning a new skill-based income-generating activity. As currently implemented, DWCRA does not appear to be an effective means of getting productive capital to women, nor does it appear to be very successful in increasing women's self-confidence in the conduct of economic transactions. If the program is to succeed, the staff need to invest more time in the group formation processes and in helping to establish linkages with other support services required to run an income generating activity. DWCRA groups have had successes when implemented with the assistance of experienced NGOs precisely because they provide these inputs.  - 173 - 10.42 One of the factors which comes in the way of forming effective groups is the large size (twenty) envisaged under DWCRA. Coupled with the fact that each woman should be eligible under the IRDP criteria, this makes it difficult to form groups of twenty women from the same village. Groups across villages, even when the villages are neighboring, are difficult for women because of the time, distance and social reasons. As inputs by extension workers in group formation processes are minimal, such groups tend to degenerate into a "list", with the women meeting occasionally to fulfil formalities such as filling out loan applications. The large size of the groups can be a problem also when an activity is selected with a limited market potential, making it impossible to employ all of them productively. Some project staff sought to link women with government supply business for such items as chalk sticks, school mats and paper envelopes. But even with large government orders, only a few groups could be fully employed. 10.43 Many changes need to be made in DWCRA for it to be made into an effective vehicle for promoting self-employment among the rural poor women. First, smaller groups must be allowed, with a number as small as four or five being acceptable. Second, to establish cohesion and trust among group members, collective activity should be started first. One of the most attractive options in this regard is savings, with each woman contributing on a weekly or fortnightly basis to a common pool, to be used after a while to give loans to members. While it takes a certain amount of initial input from extension workers, once it takes off, this activity can be managed by the women themselves. Once a group shows signs of being cohesive and functional, for example, by achieving a certain minimum level of savings and also a certain level of borrowing and repayment by its members. its members should be considered eligible for loans for acguiring assets. Loans should be extended individually, as now, but the group should be held accountable for repayment, with additional loans to the whole group stopDed if one of the members defaults. Wherever feasible, groups should be formed using NGOs as motivators, because of their greater ability to work with the poor. The features of group revolving funds and infrastructure grants are good and should be continued. However, they should be granted not as a matter of course but when a group shows signs of functional cohesion. 10.44 The monitoring of DWCRA also needs to be changed from merely reporting the number of groups formed of individual loans given, to measuring group process variables such as the number, regularity and attendance at meetings; level of savings contributed by members and the growth rate; level of loans given out by the group from its savings and the extent of repayment; any other collective actions taken by the group, etc. It should also be made mandatory for the extension workers to reside in the block they are serving instead of commuting from the district town. Training of extension staff in group process dynamics and in business advisory skills is also desirable. Programs for Group Formation and Training in Productive Skills: Mahila Mandals 10.45 The Nahila Handal Program began in 1954 as the women's component of the Community Development Program, with the objective of providing women with training in better methods of household management. It was modelled after  - 174 - the American extension service home economics program. The Ford Foundation assisted in the initiation of the program, by providing a grant for a training project for women extension workers. The Mahila Mandals were to initially serve as the forums through which Gram Sevikas imparted certain skills such as sewing, knitting and kitchen gardening and to organize women for collectively running their own Mahila Mandals. The program was to provide initial support in the form of funds, equipment, personnel and access to other appropriate agencies from whom the women might require assistance. 10.46 During the late 1970s and early 1980s, case studies of successful Mahila Mandals indicate that their success was largely dependent on assistance from sponsors such as UNICEF or other foreign or local voluntary organizations. Chakraborty (1985), points out the following handicaps which traditionally beset the Mahila Mandals: - lack of clarity in objectives; - difficulties in identifying target groups; - neglect of economic activity or training in productive skills; - lack of properly qualified field staff; - failure to mobilize effective and sustainable support of menfolk; - little encouragement of local initiative for identification of needs, etc. 10.47 Mahila Mandals, as organizations and as a concept, have gained importance recently. This is partly due to the fact that several associations of very poor women have successfully engaged in viable economic activities. Assam's Mahila Mandals, based on economic activities of weaving, agriculture and home garden projects have become inspiring examples to other organizations in the country. In Manipur, the Mahila Mandals have, for some time been pressing demands to be given the power of selecting women beneficiaries for IRDP loans. In the Kutch area, Mahila Mandals run tailoring programs and assist village women in obtaining work in the Free Trade Zone industries at Kandla. Through Mahila Mandals in the Garhwal area of U.P., women have organized protests against mines which are causing land slides in catchment areas. In Punjab, the Mahila Mandals focus on dairy cooperative projects and have made articulate demands about their needs for more funds, training and buildings. In Himachal Pradesh the Mahila Mandals are very active and they have, apart from income generating activities, taken up conciliation of family disputes and issues of alcoholism. 10.48 The NCSW, in the section of their report dealing with the problem of alcoholism, recommends, "Mahila Mandals should be given powers, parallel to the Panchayat, so that their opinion can influence the local power structure" (NCSW, 1988: 305). The NCSW observes that the Mahila Mandals have not been able to involve a majority of the poor women in the village in their activities, although they have tremendous potential to do so. Therefore the Commission recommends: The village Mahila Mandal should be vigorously utilized in the implementation of the poverty alleviation programs of the Government. The village Mahila Mandal should be  - 175 - entrusted with the responsibility of identifying IRDP beneficiaries. The list submitted by the village Mahila Mandal should carry enough weightage at the decision making level. The village Mahila Mandal may also be entrusted to prepare a list of work-sites and proposed programs under NREP, TRYSEM, RLEGP, Social Forestry and the like ...... The Government must give recognition to the Mahila Mandals. There will be resistance from the local officials and vested interest groups against the Mahila Mandal getting active, so a strong sustained support will be absolutely necessary from the Government. The Mahila Mandals may make mistakes, they will take time to prepare themselves for this role, but once they become active, they will be in a position to energize the mass of women workers. The Commission recognizes that this is the only way to involve village women actively in the development process. (NCSW, 1988: 295) Women's Development Program (WDP), Rajasthan 10.49 The Government of Rajasthan (GOR) launched its Women's Development Program (WDP) in 1984. Though initially it came under the GOR Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, it now comes under the Directorate of Women, Children and Nutrition, Ministry of Social Welfare. This program is being implemented in six districts. At the district level, there is a District Women's Development Agency (DWDA), chaired by the District Collector. Each DWDA has a Project Director who is assisted by a Project officer. A female block level functionary (Pracheta) coordinates the activities of female village level workers (Sathins). WDP is financed at the state level and in five districts by UNICEF. In the sixth district, funds are provided under the GOR Tribal Development Program. 10.50 The articulated objective of WDP is "to empower women through communication of information, education and training and to enable them to recognize and improve their social and economic status" (Government of Rajasthan, 1984). The activities pursued by local women's groups range from demanding hand-pumps, organizing protests against eviction of female vegetable vendors to build a supermarket, fund-raising activities for construction of a health and nutrition center for the village, to forcing public discussion of male alcoholism, equal remuneration for women and abolition of dowry. Through the mechanism of intense personal interaction between the implementors and the poor women, WDP strives to change the self-image of women and also to increase women's awareness of and access to existing development programs. WDP presents a possible model for women's development through groups formation. The Sathin organizes regular jajams (monthly meetings) to be attended by village women, where they can discuss their problems and seek solutions. There is a strong component of training at all levels and an effort to disseminate information to workers through the usage of popular local idioms. An overnight camp based on a single issue and conducted at the district level helps to fulfill the women's need for information and training.  - 176 - 1LO.51 Current estimates of WDP costs are not available. However, estimates from the original project documents (although they may under- estimate current costs), provide some notion of expenditure on the project. :For 1984-85, recurring expenditure was expected to be Rs. 4.2 million. This was to cover all administrative costs, including the cost of training and retaining Sathins. WDP does not have a target of poor women to be reached nor is it evaluated in terms of number of women reached, so the cost per beneficiary is difficult to compute. In lieu of computing such a figure, one can interpret the cost to be the cost of providing a Sathin, or, alternatively, the cost of providing the program in a district. The WDP spends Rs. 42,000 per Sathin per annum, or Rs. 840,000 per district. 10.52 The implementation of the program involves maintaining a delicate and sometimes problematic balance between district government officials and NGO staff. The project director under the DWDA in each district is a staff member of the local NGO group which shares implementation responsibility with the State. In terms of replicability, one of the key issues will be to retain the flexible character of the program and adapt it to different cultures, areas and problems. Each effort at replication will necessarily imply an innovation. Also, it presupposes a relation of trust between NGOs and the Government. The WDP's major lacuna has been its limited involvement in income- generating schemes. It is essential to link WDP with the credit, training and asset-creation schemes and for WDP personnel to be in closer touch with other development functionaries from the district level downwards. In so doing, the energies generated by the conscienization of women will be directed towards their economic empowerment. TRYSEM 10.53 Started in 1979, the scheme for the Training of Rural Youth for Self-Employment (TRYSEM) aims to provide technical and entrepreneurial skills through a training institution or a master craftsman in animal husbandry, tailoring, carpentry, agriculture, handicrafts, horticulture, etc. A minimum of 30% beneficiaries in TRYSEM are to be women. The structure for implementation of TRYSEM is the same as for IRDP. The BDO invites applications from eligible youth in the area. The DRDA identifies possible vocations and prepares an inventory of training facilities. Trainees are selected by a committee chaired by the BDO which include representatives from training institutions, banks, khadi and village industries and local governing institutions, or panchayats. The trainees get a stipend for the period of the training and for the raw materials. On completion of the training, the trainee is expected to establish an enterprise, with equipment purchased through an IRDP loan when necessary. The costs of implementation of TRYSEM are met out of IRDP funds earmarked for 'infrastructure, etc". 10.54 TRYSEM has done well in the matter of reaching women. Thirty- five percent of the 940,000 youths trained under the program in the 6th Plan were women. In 1987-88, the percentage of women trainees rose to 43%. Table 10.2 lays out the number of youths trained under the program in 1986-87 and the percentages of trained women, by state/union territory. The main criticism of TRYSEM performance relates to the limited demand for the skills it imparts and the inadequacy of the entrepreneurial training offered. The  - 177 - Table 10.2 Physical achievements under the scheme of Training of Rural Youth for Self-Employment (TRYSEN) in 1986-87 ------------------------------------------------------------------__---------__------ Number of Trained Youth S1. States/ -------------------_--__________________________ No. Union Territories X of SC/ST X of women of trained to trained Total SCISTs Youth Women Youth Total -----------------------------------------------------------------__----------__------ (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) ---------------------------------------------------------------------__------__------ States 1. Andhra Pradesh 7102 3845 54.1 3986 56.1 3162 2. Assae 2293 NA NA NA NA 1596 3. Bihar 9504 3968 41.7 5445 57.3 4751 4. Gujarat 6850 2676 39.1 1480 21.6 3430 5. Haryana 1899 705 37.1 276 14.5 245 6. Himachal Pradesh 1645 735 44.7 651 39.5 750 7. Jammu & Kashmir 2481 NA NA NA NA 1120 8. Karnataka 4790 727 15.2 410 8.5 830 9. Kerala 3472 1192 34.3 2137 61.5 1276 10. Madhya Pradesh 13244 6883 51.9 2963 22.3 5499 11. Maharashtra 7281 2879 39.5 2137 29.3 4643 12. Manipur NA NA NA NA NA NA 13. Meghalaya 24 NA NA NA NA - 14. Nagaland 200 119 59.5 150 75.0 NA 15. Orissa 6210 3227 51.9 1413 22.7 2672 16. Punjab 4388 2278 51.9 3981 90.7 2693 17. Rajasthan 5691 2663 46.8 2802 49.2 2140 18. Sikkim 256 132 51.5 226 88.3 NA 19. Tamil Nadu 3812 956 25.1 850 22.3 834 20. Tripura 1054 570 54.1 921 87.4 202 21. Uttar Pradesh 13915 4260 30.6 5960 42.8 8861 22. West Bengal 3353 1040 31.0 707 21.1 725 Union Territories 23. Andaman & Nicobar Is. - - - - - - 24. Arunachal Pradesh 180 180 100.0 113 62.7 101 25. Chandigarh 135 13 9.6 - - 11 26. Dadra & Nagar Haveli 104 104 100.0 74 71.1 53 27. Delhi 582 173 29.7 438 75.2 105 28. Goa Daman & Diu 1043 44 3.1 978 69.7 907 29. Lakshadweep - - - - - - 30. Mizoram 871 871 100.0 89 10.2 104 31. Pondicherry 232 48 20.7 152 65.5 23 ---------------------------------------------------------------------__------__------ All India 102971 40288 39.1 38339 37.2 46733 NCSW points out the lack of follow up in TRYSEM projects. The Commission reports that receiving training in skills whose market is beyond the women's own control has not been useful. Lack of backward and forward linkages; provision of limited, stereotyped training to women, as in tailoring and knitting, with no tie-up either to raw-material supply at the front end, or marketing at the back, can only create frustration for the women. The NCSW found that training in upgrading women's existing skills has proved to be the most successful approach under TRYSEM.(NCSW, 1988). These shortcomings combine to reduce the effectiveness of the program in achieving its goal of preparing participants for self-employment. Although no gender breakdown is available, only 49% of TRYSEM trainees during the Sixth Plan were able to establish themselves in self-employment activities. 10.55 TRYSEM provides a good opportunity to train rural women and upgrade their skills. The program needs to improve the ability of the block staff responsible for implementation to assess local demand before training is  - 178 - offered and to ensure that training is given in conjunction with other support facilities like credit, raw materials, markets etc. Especially for women who are starting up new micro-enterprises, training in the technical skill needs to be supplemented by initial assistance in developing business skills. In addition, establishing linkages on fair terms with suppliers of inputs and services and buyers of output is critical to the success of these enterprises. 'ocational Training Program for Women 10.56 The Vocational Training Program for Women was set up by the Central Government in 1977, with assistance from the International Labor Organization and the Swedish International Development Authority. It is the responsibility of the Directorate General of Employment and Training (DGET, Ministry of Labor). Under this project, the Central Training Institute for I]nstructors (Women) in New Delhi was upgraded to a National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) for women and three Regional Vocational Training Institutes (RVTI) were set up at Bombay, Bangalore, and Trivandrum. Three additional RVTIs are being established at Hissar (Haryana), Calcutta (West Bengal) and Tura (Meghalaya). Altogether, five new RVTIs are to be set up during the Seventh Five Year Plan. Training facilities are provided for basic skills, advanced skills and instructor training. The skills in which training is offered include: dressmaking, secretarial practice, electronics and business services. The largest number of seats sanctioned in the basic skills category are for secretarial practice and electronics. At the advanced level, dressmaking has (by far) the largest number of sanctioned seats, followed by secretarial practice. Since 1977 and through 1986, about 5000 women have been trained by these institutes. In 1986-87, the Employment and Training budget (Rs. 88.26 million) included Rs. 10.52 million (12%) for women's training. In addition to the NVTI/RVTIs, women may receive vocational training at Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) which are under the administrative control of state governments. According to The Annual Report of the Ministry of Labor, in addition to the 698 general (coeducational) ITIs, there are 104 ITIs exclusively meant for women. The total capacity of these special women's institutes is about 15,000. Under the Seventh Plan, the Center is to provide financial assistance to the states for further ITIs/wings for women in the co- educational institutes. 10.57 The Bank has recently decided to fund the improvement and expansion of the existing vocational training program. In an analysis of the problems and issues in vocational training, the Staff Appraisal Report of the Bank concluded the following: Traditionally, ITI training for women has been concentrated in trades such as cutting and tailoring, embroidery, needlecraft, and secretarial training. Employment in most of these fields is at best stationary and graduates do not have good employment or earnings prospects. Unfortunately, little training has been provided for women in high-growth industries or high-tech trades. A survey of about 200 women ITI graduates from traditional trades found that within 1-3 years after graduation, an average of only 27% were employed, while 48% were unemployed, and 25% were undergoing further training. By trade, about 12% of the  - 179 - embroidery and needlecraft graduates, 23% of tlhe cutting and tailoring graduates, and 100% of secretarial practice graduates, were employed. More marketable skills need to be provided to women if their labor force participation and earnings are to be increased. There is a strong demand for hiring more trained women in industry, especially in electronics, telecommunications, computing science and software development, drafting, and chemical analysis in testing laboratories. In general, employers have a preference for hiring women in types of work involving precision. 10.58 Women comprise less than 25% of the total enrollment of vocational and technical training institutions. Of the 190,000 apprentices, women total only about 4,000. Lack of access to relevant industrial training for women is a major contributing factor to this imbalance. A special feature of the project is that it will pay particular attention to promoting training for women in modern sector and high-tech trades. It will support the expansion and upgrading of training for women at the craftsmen and advanced levels and related teacher training. It will aim also to increase the share of women in these training programs from 5% to 10% and to have a major impact on enhancing the job prospects for women in emerging growth fields. The main shortcoming of the vocational training program, the NVTI/RVTI and ITI is the stipulation of the minimum qualification for all of the training institutes. Entry into the training program is limited to those who possess a high school certificate (matriculate), which means that the program is not accessible to very poor (mostly illiterate) women. Wage Emloyment Programs 10.59 While the promotion of better opportunities for self-employment among the poor through asset creation and training programs remains a central GOI policy goal, the government acknowledges that the problem of vast unemployment and under-employment in the rural areas has to be tackled in the short-run through wage employment programs. For those among the able-bodied poor who do not have the skills for or wish to take on the risks associated with self-employment, wage employment programs are part of an essential "safety net" to ensure a base level of income and food security. Some of the wage employment programs are discussed below with reference to their impact on women. Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) 10.60 The EGS was introduced by the Government of Maharashtra (GOM) in 1972, but was almost immediately merged into relief programs due to severe drought conditions in 1972-73 and 1973-74. The scheme effectively began in 1974; in 1977, the State Assembly passed the EGS Act, which came into effect in 1979, and which puts GOM under statutory obligation to provide unskilled work to all of the rural unemployed who demand work under the scheme. At the state level, the Ministry of Planning, GOM is responsible for EGS. Planning and implementation of projects occurs at the district level, under the supervision of the District Collector. Blueprints of projects are kept on file at this administrative level. The District Collector is assisted by  - 180 - revenue officers at the sub-divisional and block levels. The Tehsildar (block Level revenue officer) keeps track of employment trends, assesses the need for EGS work, and assigns people to ongoing or new projects. She is assisted by a local committee, comprising local politicians and two laborers' representatives, one of whom is supposed to be a woman. The work guarantee under EGS is applicable at the district level. Typically, if the number of lpeople asking for work in an area exceeds 50, a project will be initiated within 5 kilometers of the central village. If work is provided more than 5 lkm. away, then arrangements are to be made for shelter, water, first aid and access to ration shops. In the event that work is not provided within 15 days of an initial request, an unemployment compensation of two rupees per day is to be given. Wages are provided on a piece rate basis. Though initially wages 'were set below local wages to avoid labor diversion, recently this policy has lbeen dropped and wages are aligned with the Maharashtra state minimum wage. 10.61 The EGS is more than just a relief program, since it is based on the acceptance of the principle of the right to work under normal circumstances. In the Sixth Plan period, the program generated 798 million person-days of work. The most important achievements of EGS are firstly, that it provides a statutory "guarantee" for employment, and secondly that it has a very high female participation rate. In a study done by Acharya and Panwalkar, of a matched sample of 100 EGS and 100 non-EGS households, it was found that the average per-capita income was Rs. 790 and Rs. 600, respectively. The income was derived from agricultural activities as well as from wage sources. EGS households earned more from wages than non-EGS households. It was found that the EGS provided an additional Rs. 327 of wage earnings per household. It was further found that women contributed more than half of the wage income in EGS households, while in non-EGS households women rarely participated in wage activities at all. For most of these women, there was little or no availability of such wage labor opportunities in the vicinity. 10.62 The impact on women workers of the EGS was studied by the Institute of Social Studies Trust (ISST, 1979), which surveyed the female participation rate for Bhandara, Ahmadnagar and Dhulia, using Planning Department records, muster-rolls and on-site interviews. The findings revealed a greater percentage of female than male participation in varied types of activities under the EGS. On-site interviews revealed a higher share for women than official data. The reason for this was, that "gangs" of workers (assigned a particular piece of work) usually had more women than were recorded in the registration data (see Table 10.3). Table 10.3 Percentage of Females Working for EGS According to Different Sources of Data Planning Department Muster Rolls Interviews Ahmadnagar 58 % 72-77 % 80 % Bhandara 52 % 50 % 49 % Dhulia -- 56 % 53 %  - 181 - 10.63 The issue of provision of creches was also studied by the ISST, which concluded that though important, it is not the most pressing need for women. In most cases creches did not exist or were very ineffective in terms of infrastructure and care. More important to women is continuous, assured work, although the establishment of creches would increase the participation of women in the intense reproductive age range of 15-30. EGS stipulates that men and women are to be paid equal wages. However, the actual system of payment mostly goes against women, since it is based on a "piece rate" to the group which has completed the job, to be shared equally. Payment made by the gang headmen is usually on the basis of "contribution". Since women's work is Nevertheless, the general awareness of the government directive for equal pay has served to greatly reduce the gap between male and female wages in EGS. 10.64 In a Bank-sponsored study, Slade (1989) concludes that with the recent alignment of EGS wage to the State minimum wage, wage employment on public works becomes a preferred activity. This is especially true in the case of Maharashtra, which promises work throughout the year, and with no maximum per family. The study anticipates that the recent decision by the Maharashtra Government to increase the statutory minimum wage substantially may result in a 40% increase in mandays generated, and a 70% increase in costs, to Rs. 4.5 billion. These increased costs may not be fiscally sustainable. Rural Employment Programs (NREP, RLEGP and JRY) 10.65 The Central Government's main wage employment programs are the National Rural Employment Program (NREP), and the Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Program (RLEGP). These programs have been modeled on the Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) discussed above. Recently, these two programs have been amalgamated by the government in the new program entitled Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY), which will be dealt with later on in the paper. The major difference in the EGS is that it offers a guarantee of employment which is absent in NREP/RLEGP. The RLEGP also includes a "guarantee" in its title and mandate but this is different from the statutory guarantee in the EGS, since the RLEGP guarantee is little more than an administrative guideline to provide 100 days of employment to landless households. The NREP was launched in 1980 and in the Seventh Plan it aims to generate annually about 300 million person days of employment in rural areas, through the creation of durable community assets. RLEGP, started in 1983, is similar, except that, while NREP is funded by the Center and the states in a 50:50 ratio, RLEGP is totally Center-funded. The annual planning and approval of work projects, is done by the DRDA's and the nodal level for implementation is the block. In NREP, efforts are to be made to make the Panchayati Raj institutions responsible for implementation. Wages are aligned with the minimum wages and are paid partly in kind (foodgrains). Funds are earmarked for social forestry, roads, and rural housing, etc. Although there are no specific targets for employing women, preference is supposed to be given to them. 10.66 Despite the directive to give preference to women who want work, official estimates indicate that women constitute only 17% of the wage employees in NREP and 15% in RLEGP. Women are often discriminated against in  - 182 - wage-employment programs and generally only find work in times of scarcity. The government directive to give preference to women has no supervisory mechanism. Lack of childcare facilities is an added obstacle to women's involvement in wage-employment programs. In order to involve more women in wage-employment programs, a structure should be set up to ensure that women who wish to be employed under the programs are guaranteed employment. Women's groups and NGOs can be asked to play a major role in this. The establishment of worksheds for women and childcare facilities in wage-employment work sites was recommended in the NCSW report. 10.67 The Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY) is an amalgamation of the two major national public works schemes, the RLEGP and the NREP, discussed above. The intention of the government in launching this new anti-poverty scheme, is also to increase wage employment in rural areas by creating durable community assets (rural works). The JRY is expected to be similar in style and size to iLts predecessors and generate annually about 700 million mandays of work, i.e., around 1 percent of national employment. All districts of the country are to be covered by the JRY although allocations are to reflect the incidence of poverty in each district. The scheme is to be funded 80% by the central government and 20% by the states. Central funds are to be allocated directly to Panchayats through the Block administration, bypassing State governments, the intention being to increase the independence of local government. The workers are to be paid statutory minimum wages, which often exceed the market wage. Works selection will be the responsibility of the Panchayats. On average, half the budget is to be spent on unskilled labor the rest on skilled labor and materials. There are, however, no special provisions to ensure greater participation of women or to extend any facilities to women which would enable more of them to work in the JRY schemes. 10.68 The previously cited Bank study on poverty alleviation programs (Slade, 1989) has noted that the important feature of these programs is that they can be expanded or contracted during times of unanticipated relative abundance or scarcity, as was demonstrated during the drought of 1987-88. 'Thus, they are "able to offer an income safety-net to the poorest in times of economic distress without the dependency-inducing effects commonly associated with social welfare schemes. Depending on the wage rate offered (and the blend of cash and food in the wage), they are also substantially self-targeting to the poorest. They can also be targeted to the areas of greatest need.' C. Policy and Program Initiatives for the 1990s National PersRective Plan for Women 10.69 The National Perspective Plan for Women 1988-2000 (NPPW) was issued by the Government of India in the fall of 1988. This document is the first major effort since 1974, when the Report of the Committee on the Status of Women in India was published, to undertake a thorough and forth-right evaluation of women's programs and the status of women in India. The purpose of the document is to assess the extent to which women have been integrated into India's development and make recommendations towards the "equity and social justice for all women". The NPPW notes that the history of Indian development has demonstrated that allocation of more funds for women within  - 183 - the existing structures of development does not ensure more efficacious development of women. At the same time it warns against a "parallel sub- stream of women's development ..... [which] will only perpetuate discrimination and subordination". What it envisages is a combination of approaches which includes the creation of new structures to absorb women into the fold of progress and the enhancement of women's component in existing development programs. 10.70 The NPPW provides a situational review, an overview of policy statements in the Five Year Plans, an overview of Central programs for women, sectoral reviews, general recommendations and specific sectoral recommendations. The sectoral reviews cover: rural development and agriculture, employment, supportive services, education, health, legislation, political participation, media and communication, and voluntary action. The NPPW recommends that special allocations be made for women in mainstream programs and projects, with emphasis on both employment and basic services. Programs should converge at the block level to form a comprehensive package of services for women. The NPPW also places great emphasis on reservations for women in various fields. However, while quotas for women in credit programs are both desirable and necessary, the experience of reservation for women on elected bodies has not been very successful since the women elected, especially in local government, have generally not been representative of the interests of poor women. 10.71 The NPPW emphasizes the intervention strategy of training and recommends a number of measures to make current efforts more effective. An apex training body is suggested in the form of establishment of a National Resource Center for Women which is to conduct research, training and information dissemination for women's development. With regard to the development bureaucracy, the NPPW suggests the setting up of Departments/Directorates of Women's Development in all states. It also calls for two implementing bodies at the state level: Social Welfare Boards for welfare/supportive services, and Women's Development Corporations for economic programmes. It suggests a women's unit in the Central Planning Commission, and women's cells in ministries concerned with the development of women. 10.72 Other recommendations put forward by the NPPW include: - improved access to credit for women in the unorganized sector; - agricultural growth for employment generation; - provision of social services at employment program work sites; - consideration of possible adverse impact on women before adoption of technologies; - expansion of non-formal education and education of women laborers at the expense of their employees; - promotion of rural entrepreneurship; - inclusion of literacy-imparting components in existing rural development programmes; - increased involvement of voluntary sector; - encouragement of voluntary action in rural areas; - simpler rules/paperwork for voluntary action funding; and - coordination between voluntary agencies.  - 184 - 10.73 The NPPW generated considerable attention from women's groups and NGOs in India. The groups acknowledged the importance of the plan which is the first major document on the subject since the Sixth Plan chapter on women. There is some disagreement with some of the recommendations. For example, some groups feel that the NPPW's call for women's cells in all ministries may duplicate the work of the Department of Women and Child Development. But others contend that if properly staffed and given strong mandates, such cells could lead to more genuine integration of women's needs and potential into mainstream development. One feature of the NPPW that has caused concern among women's organizations has been the enhanced role it visualizes for the Government. The absence of a national debate during the formulation of the NPPW and the lack of adequate consultation with NGOs has accentuated this feeling. An empowered committee is reviewing the plan to determine which of the NPPW's recommendations can be acted on through administrative decisions and which would require legislative measures at the state or the central level. Shramshakti: Report of the National Commission for Self-EmRloyed Women and Women in the Informal Sector (NCSW) 10.74 We have already made extensive reference to this report, yet it represents such a major landmark that it needs to be discussed per se. For the first time in India, a study was commissioned about women in the informal sector and the report is a detailed account of most of the occupations of women in the informal sector. The NCSW was chaired by Ela Bhatt, the founder of SEWA, and a member of parliament and it had a majority of members from outside the government. 10.75 The methodology of data collection by the NCSW was unusual, comprising the following steps:(i) the commission itself toured various parts of the country and directly spoke to women workers in both planned and spontaneous meetings (ii) task forces were formed, each chaired by a member and charged with compiling data and preparing a report on various subjects; and (iii) studies were commissioned to persons who are researchers, grass- roots workers, and specialists in various areas of women's development. In addition to the numerous points quoted throughout this chapter the NCSW made the following contributions: - The study is based on first-hand accounts of poor women workers, forming valuable empirical data on their problems, as they perceived them. - The geographical coverage of the NCSW was extensive, ranging from Manipur to Rajasthan and from Kerala to Himachal Pradesh. Regional variations taken into account and summary generalizations are avoided. - The report has made a thorough analysis of the laws affecting women and the changes needed. - Important analyses, models, and recommendations are offered in the vital area of organizing women for development.  - 185 - - It provides a detailed tabular presentation of the health hazards that women in the informal sector are exposed to, having implications for broader health policy. - Occupations such as rag picking and street vending which were not considered 'work" have been made visible to policy makers, and the social and economic problems faced by women workers in such occupations have been documented. 10.76 The report generated considerable acclaim from activists and government functionaries concerned with women's development. The report has important implications not only for policy related to women's development but also for sectoral policies in general. It also brings out the important fact that due to significant regional variations in socio-economic conditions, a single, nationwide policy for women's development is not likely to be effective. Women's Development Corporations (WDCs) 10.77 The long term objective of the Seventh Plan with respect to women's development was to create greater employment opportunities for women so as to bring them into the mainstream of national development. Based on early state-level initiatives in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, the Department of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Human Resource Development, formulated a scheme to assist other state governments to establish Women's Development Corporations (WDCs). The WDCs were intended to provide an institutional base for the promotion of women's economic advancement, in contrast to the traditional programs run by the state Departments of Social Welfare, whose focus has been the provision of welfare services. 10.78 The scope of the WDCs is to identify women entrepreneurs, prepare viable projects, facilitate the availability of credit from banks and financial institutions, establish marketing linkages, provide training in technical skills in conjunction with polytechnics and the ITIs, and in financial management through relevant institutions, and provide technical consultancy services. They are also charged with the promotion and strengthening of women's co-operatives and organizations. The focus of WDCs is to be poor and needy women including single women and female-headed households. Safeguards are sought to be provided to ensure that women who are relatively better off do not appropriate the advantages under this program. The funds for WDCs are to be drawn from existing schemes of the state and central governments. Loans are to be given to groups of women or women's cooperatives from IRDP funds and the responsibility for their recovery rests with WDC's field staff. Funds for training, research, evaluation etc. are to drawn from the Departments of Rural Development, Women's Development, CAPART etc. The stress is on the fact that WDCs shall only facilitate the setting up of income-generating units, but not directly set up their own. Wherever the corporation has to set up a unit directly, it shall form a cooperative and hand over the management of the unit to the cooperative. 10.79 WDCs are currently functioning in 11 states, of which those in Punjab, Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu are reported to be successful.  - 186 - Information regarding their actual functioning is limited and there does not appear to be a fixed format for reporting by the WDCs. The Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu WDCs which were the first to be established and have provided the model for the national program are worth a special mention. The AP WDC, known as the AP Women's Cooperative Finance Corporation was established in 1975-76 in the cooperative sector. A woman can become a member of the corporation by purchasing a share valued at one rupee. The members are eligible to borrow 20% of the estimated financial outlay of the scheme as a margin money loan and are expected to get the remainder from regular credit institutions. As of June 1987, the Corporation had assisted about 95,000 women and disbursed about Rs.31 million as 20% margin money. Assisted schemes include: animal husbandry, preparation of pickles and jams, tailoring, coin industry, electrical shop, bakery, sericulture and basket making. Altogether, there are about fifty different kinds of activities that have been assisted. However, recovery of amounts due has been quite poor, estimated at 25% of dues in 1983- 84 and less than 11% in the three subsequent years. 10.80 The Tamil Nadu WDC or Corporation for Development of Women (DEW) was set up in 1983 with an authorized capital of Rs. 10 million. It's activities can be classified into three categories: (a) Employing women as wage-earners in its own units (b) Helping NGOs to set up units and (c) Helping women in self-employment schemes. In the first category DEW has an off-set printing press employing 75 women, an education aids manufacturing unit, employing 50 women, a screen printing unit with 25 women and is about to start an electronics assembly unit and another offset printing unit in Sivakasi (an area where use of child labor is particularly heavy). The government has involved 16 Sarvodaya NGOs in Tamil Nadu with women's employment programs, and is currently having dialogue with 16 others as well as the Indian Institute of Palm Leaf Technology. DEW is also charged with the implementation of DWCRA. Finally, DEW has a scheme for transfer of assets - milch animals and sheep units to women. Fifty per cent of the initial cost of the asset is met by a subsidy from DEW and the remaining 50% is a term loan from Banks repayable over a period of five years. Banks have expressed satisfaction over women's repayment performance. Recently, IFAD has decided to finance a project worth $30 million, in which DEW will onlend to poor women for income-generating activities in the agriculture and allied sectors. (See para 10.87 for more details). 10.81 The Punjab and Maharashtra corporations have taken the initiative in bringing together voluntary organizations and financial institutions to match grass-root organizations with sources of funds. They have also helped in establishing marketing facilities for voluntary agencies and women small- scale entrepreneurs. The NCSW reports, however, that the WDCs in most states are not satisfactorily reaching out to poor women and helping them to develop their productivity or income, although the WDCs have a better potential to do so than the State Welfare Departments. The NCSW recommended that the terms of reference of the WDCs should be expanded so that they could "play an effective promotional role emphasizing on poor women " (NCSW, 1988: 308). The NCSW also observed that the WDCs could play an important role in providing a range of inputs and services to poor women, taking over the functions of middlemen, contractors and moneylenders. (NCSW, 1988: lxi).  - 187 - Mahila Samakhva 10.82 Even though this program falls within the education sector, we discuss it here because of the complementarily of such programs of organizing and building the awareness of women and the economic programs aimed at self- employment discussed earlier. Mahila Samakhya is a "program for education for women's equality" and has been initiated in 10 districts of Gujarat, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. Mahila Samakhya is to have a network of resource facilities from the village, right up to the national level drawing from governmental as well as non-governmental sources. Emphasis will be on adult and non-formal education responsive to the needs expressed by the women. Training and interaction are to be as intensive as in the case of WDP. The Nahila Saakhya Society will be a registered society with a general council and an executive committee. The program will operate through the Mahila Sangha at the village level and have a District Implementation Unit. The former roughly corresponds to the Mahila Vikas Kendra, the village level forum and the latter to the District Women's Development Agency under WDP. What is significant in Mahila Samakhya is the intensive involvement of NGOs. Indeed, the District Resource Group which provides technical resource support is overwhelmingly non-government. The programs will be implemented as a central sector under which funds will be provided on a 100% basis to the Mahila Samakhya Societies registered in the three states. Also, funds will be made available to any NGOs who wish to replicate the program elsewhere. Women's Credit Fund 10.83 While the overall thrust of this report has been that credit is only one of the many inputs needed to promote self-employment among the poor, in the special case of women, credit is an over-riding constraint, as has been shown, for example, by the low coverage of women under the IRDP, inspite of special targets. This situation warrants the consideration of a proposal, mooted in the GOI circles some time ago, to establish a special credit fund for women. Several of India's larger women's NGOs have been involved in formulating the objectives and structure of the fund, but as yet the most appropriate form for such an entity and indeed, whether it should be established at all, are still under discussion. 10.84 As envisioned here, the Fund would onlend to NGOs as well as parastatal agencies for projects related to women. In addition to onlending, the Fund would provide assistance in enhancing the capability of these organizations in running effective financial service programs for poor women. The Fund would be an autonomously incorporated body. One suggested possibility is to establish the Fund as a "charitable trust" with trustees drawn from government, donors, banks and voluntary agencies reflecting a public-private partnership with significant but minority representation of the government and public financial institutions. The trust itself would be set up as a registered society comprising representatives of beneficiary groups. An advisory committee would provide technical support to the Fund. 10.85 For the Fund to have a significant impact, its initial capitalization should at least be in the range of Rs 100 crores (approximately $60 million). This level of operations would enable it to attract high  - 188 - quality personnel, which is a key to success. The Fund would onlend at an unsubsidized rate (perhaps between 16% and 24% per annum) so as to ensure an adequate spread to cover its costs as well as any losses due to defaults. A part of the surpluses of the Fund could be used to give grants to the client agencies for institutional capacity building activities. 10.86 Typical NGO clients of the Fund would be NGOs such as SEWA, Working Women's Forum, Annpurna Mahila Xandal, Mahila Vikas Sangh, MYRADA, Samakya and a host of others who run, or plan to run, financial service programs or small and micro-enterprise programs with poor women as the focus. Among the parastatals, the clients would include the state level Women's Development Corporations; state or district level credit cooperatives; state level development corporations in sectors which involve a large number of women such as dairy, poultry, fisheries, sericulture, minor forest produce, handloom and handicrafts, and specifically, the Khadi and Village Industries Commission affiliates; state level corporations for the development of scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and minorities (often these are different from each other); and backward area development corporations for areas such as Garhwal and Kumaon in UP, Santhal Parganas in Bihar and Vidharba in Maharashtra. As can be seen, the organizations are listed in decreasing intensity of focus on women and/or credit-sector specialization. All the client organizations of the Fund, particularly those currently not focused on women and/or financial services, will need significant inputs for building their institutional capability. This process would be facilitated by the Fund through grant funding, arranging for specialized training (such as in group formation and conducting feasibility studies) and initial technical assistance (such as in setting up strong accounting and information systems). Criteria for client institutions eligibility to receive lending capital from the Fund could include a history of successful lending and recovery -- say at least two years with a recovery rate of 90% or more -- and perhaps some level of savings mobilization from the intended women borrowers. 10.87 In order for the Fund to become a participant in mainstream development programs, it would be helpful for it to initially focus on key sub-sectors in which the Bank is already planning to lend, such as agricultural credit, sericulture, horticulture, dairying and fisheries, and inter-weave the women's focus into the projects being designed in those sub- sectors. The Fund would act as a 'single window" for funding catalyst activities in various sub-sectoral projects, such as the women's dairy cooperatives in Bihar, and be a resource institution for building the capacity of NGOs and parastatal agencies involved in women's credit activities. It would also be a repository of locally available expertise on women's related issues which could be used by the Bank in appraisal, project design and monitoring and evaluation. 10.88 A detailed study of NGOs and parastatal agencies with ongoing or potential activities in delivery of financial services to poor women will be needed before the Fund's client organization group can be identified and its characteristics and their capacity-building needs determined. Such a study would among other things, evaluate the potential of the organizations to act as credit extension agencies and their ability to operate without interest rate or capital subsidies. While it is generally true that both NGOs and  - 189 - parastatals are strapped for funds, it does not follow that they would welcome funding on commercial terms and under strict credit discipline. Many of these agencies' self-perception is of being a conduit for subsidies to the poor and this would have to change substantially before they, and the poor women they would lend to in turn, see these agencies as sources of credit rather than doles. The study would identify those agencies who are most likely to make this transition and provide an initial "client map' for the Fund in terms of geographical, sub-sectoral and ownership (private/cooperatives/NGO) variables. 10.89 A recent project in Tamil Nadu, being financed by IFAD for $30 million, is an example of how the Fund could operate. The IFAD Project, being implemented through the WDC of the state, DEW, in cooperation with the Indian Bank, involves lending to poor women for activities related to improving agricultural productivity, such as: soil and water conservation measures; installing irrigation systems and introducing new crop varieties; agave, custard apple, guava, coconut and mango plantation; mulberry cultivation for sericulture; fodder cultivation; calf, sheep and goat rearing; and cottage and rural industries. Some of the innovative features of the project include: involving NGOs in identifying beneficiaries and improving the selection procedure; establishing a geographical focus in clusters of villages around bank branches; forming beneficiary groups, using village women trained for this purpose, and encouraging savings by the beneficiaries; lending to individual group members on the basis of group approval and making repayment a group responsibility. The project also involves simultaneous inputs in social development of the beneficiaries, so that they can use their economic gains for overall improvement in their quality of life. 10.90 The IFAD/DEW project described above has many of the desirable features for projects that the proposed Women's Credit Fund may support. In addition to being a lending or refinancing institution, the WCF can play the important role of being a resource center for economic development issues related to women. This ties in well with some of the suggestions made in the NPPW. (see para 10.71). The main thing, however, is that for the Fund to make an impact on women's economic development, it needs to be conceived and implemented as a financially viable institution. This means that its interest rates cannot be very low, if it has to cover its operating costs and some amount of default losses which are to be expected. The Women's Credit Fund should also have the ability in its enabling charter to raise funds from the public through bond issues, just as the industrial development banks are able to do in India. This is a crucial factor in ensuring the long-term financial autonomy of the Fund. D. Non-Governmental Efforts to Reach Poor Women Significance of Non-Governmental Efforts 10.91 Although it is common to look towards the government to bring about change in the status of women and to formulate programs for their development, it should be recognized that the government only responds to broader social consensus on the issue. Hence it is important to recall the role played by various social movements in women's quest for equality and development. Early efforts to promote equality of social and economic status  - 190 - for women began as part of the various reform movements of the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Raja Rammohan Roy, the Bengali social reformer and founder of the Brabmo Samaj, was an ardent opponent of the practice of sati and favored the education of women and widow remarriage. Swami Dayanand Saraswati, the founder of the Arya Samaj, was also a proponent of the equality of women, as enshrined in the Vedic scriptures. Mahatma Gandhi professed the equality of women and many women played a prominent role in the freedom struggle. The All India Women's Conference (AIWC) was established as a national forum for women's issues in 1926, and campaigned incessantly for the rights of women to vote, to contest elections for public office and for fair treatment in the matter of property division. 10.92 India has a well-established tradition of voluntary, non- governmental effort in the field of social development in general, and women's issues, in particular. Many of the non-governmental organizations (NGOs), such as the AIWC, originated during India's freedom movement. Others, particularly Sarvodaya organizations were established in the 1940s or early 1950s, when there was widespread public support for these kind of efforts. Still others are of more recent origin, established in the wake of the increased interest in women's issues since the 1970s. While the collective reach of NGOs in terms of the number of women they serve, is small relative to the government programs, they nevertheless represent an important element in the overall picture related to women's development. This is because NGOs make up in terms of quality what they lack in quantity. 10.93 NGOs working with women have expanded in geographical spread, numbers, and budget over the last decade, following the International Women's Year and enhanced interest in women's issues. There are no good estimates regarding the number and financial position of NGOs. CAPART, the apex government body for supporting NGOs has over 3000 NGOs on its list. The Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI), published a directory of NGOs after an extensive survey and cross-checking with other directories. The IDBI directory lists 1001 NGOs, of which 144 state they have programs for women, although the number of exclusively women's NGOs is much smaller (IDBI, 1985). Beckman (1988) reports that there are perhaps a hundred thousand informal groups in India, of whom, some 50,000 are women's groups, most of them "unsung and fairly anonymous", except in the area in which they work. The proliferation of NGO's working on women's issues, a development of recent origin, is in a sense, an indictment of other institutions' indifference to women's issues. History and Ty2ology of Women's NGOs 10.94 The broader setting of the NGO movement in India needs to be explained briefly before we can attempt to classify the various efforts of women's NGOs on the basis of one or the other schema. Voluntary action in India can be said to have four sources of inspiration: religion, nationalism, ideology and professionalism. The women's NGOs movement can be seen to follow this schema, with a strong across-the-board influence of feminist thinking of the 1970s. Examples of religious inspired NGOs include the Young Women's Christian Association and the Mahila Jagaran Samiti. The nationalist stream is represented by the All India Women's Conference, led by women who were closely  - 191 - involved in the freedom movement. After independence, the Gandhian elements of this stream branched out into the Bhartiya Grameen Mahila Sangh and the Kasturba Trust, which works all over the country. The Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA), originated as the women's branch of a Gandhian trade union, but went on to become an independent trade union of women, when it took stands on certain issues that the parent body found to be too radical. Some radical leftist women's organizations generally became aligned with the left parties, while others retained their autonomous identity, such as the Progressive Women's Organization. Others became more focussed on women's issues and over a period of time gave up leftist leanings, such as the Annapurna Mahila Mandal in Bombay. Finally, in the professional category, we have organizations such as the Institute for Social Studies Trust founded by a woman socio-economic researcher; the Center for Women's Development Studies established by a woman social scientist; Karmika, a legal-aid and advocacy organization set up by a woman lawyer; and Manushi, a magazine devoted to women's causes, started by a feminist activist. 10.95 An alternate typology was put forward by PRADAN (1988b), based on the self-perceptions of voluntary agencies. The four types of voluntary agencies identified were as follows: Program Oriented Agencv The focus of such agencies is on implementing a variety of sectoral programs, giving varying degrees of importance to people's participation. The programs being implemented seek to improve the livelihoods or more generally, the quality of life of an identified constituency of disadvantaged people by enhancing their access to various goods and services. Social Action Oriented Agency Many agencies believe in enhancing the access of the disadvantaged to existing services and programmes of various public service agencies as the key to social justice. In their perception providing goods and services is the responsibility of the various public agencies created for this purpose. They see their role as enablers, educators and organizers so that the disadvantaged can successfully make demands on the public agencies. Social service and economic development may be taken as opportunities for education, training and organization but not as ends in themselves. Structural Transformation through Grassroots Action Such agencies are relatively small, often linked informally, with a focus on mass mobilization for wider social transformation. Their concerns are: how to mobilize the people through local issues and confront vested interests, how to spread grassroots action into a mass movement and how to change state policy through advocacy.  - 192 - Resource Center Agency Such agencies see themselves as resource centers for other voluntary agencies. They further fall into two categories: those that have graduated to this role through successful programmes on the ground and have acquired a certain expertise and size; and those who see this as their chosen role right from the outset. The concerns of such agencies are: how to train field level staff of voluntary agencies in various areas and how to build up closer relationships with recipient agencies and potential resource institutions. T'he PRADAN study goes on to point out that there is a general trend among voluntary agencies to span all of the above roles as time passes and the agencies gather experience in dealing with the disadvantaged communities, local delivery systems and power structures. 10.96 It will be useful to apply the typology presented above to the HOGOs working on women's issues. An agency such as SEWA began as a social action oriented agency, but over a period acquired the characteristics of both a program oriented agency ( as in the case of its credit operations through SEWA Bank) and a resource center agency (as in the case of SEWA Bharat, the all India umbrella organization promoted to support SEWA affiliates in other locations). The Center for Women's Development Studies, began as a resource center agency in New Delhi, conducting research and policy analysis and training, but then set up field operations in Bankura district where it implements a variety of programs. SPARC, a radical women's organization began its work organizing poor women in the slums of Bombay but later took up resource center functions such as training and documentation. ]NGO Strengths and Limitations 10.97 The ability of NGOs to change their approach, program portfolio or operating structure to suit localized needs in time and space without too many bureaucratic procedures, underlies their much talked of flexibility. Due to this flexibility, NGOs can deliver services at a lower cost with a higher degree of effectiveness than their government counterparts. In addition, NGOs with a social vision also perform certain critical functions such as organizing the poor around common problems, challenging vested interests, exposing inefficiency and corruption in public systems and innovating ways to reach services to the poor. They can also inter-weave the social aspects of a program with its technical or economic aspect with great skill, thus ensuring a more comprehensive form of development. 10.98 The Working Women's Forum (WWF), Madras, serves to illustrate these points. The WWF was established in 1978 by a charismatic woman, Jaya Arunachalam, who was earlier a political activist. She decided to use the route of voluntary organization over politics because she felt that mainstream party politics were not sensitive to women's needs. WWF organized women working in the informal economy of the city around social and economic demands. Its first program involved linking the women to commercial banks to avail of loans under an existing scheme under which poor people were eligible  - 193 - for loans at a differential (low) interest rate. (ref. para 7.69). As the organization enhanced its understanding of the problems of the women it was working with, WWF added programs in child care, health and family planning, building capability in these fields along the way. 10.99 There is a limit to the number of highly committed people that any NGO can draw, and the others come due to a variety of motivations, including the need to find employment. Particularly at the lower levels, NGOs suffer from this limitation of having to hire people from the residual job market, since the remuneration paid by NGOs is usually lower than both the private and the public sector. This often results in poorly trained, generalist staff with a limited degree of motivation performing the critical task of interfacing with the community. NGOs try to overcome this limitation by providing strong supervision, on-the-job training and exemplary leadership. Another major limitation of NGOs is their strong dependence on sources of funding external to the communities they serve. Since NGOs generally work with the poor, it becomes contingent upon them to seek resources from the outside, both for providing services to the community as well as for their own operating costs. Traditionally, with the exception of NGOs who did not accept foreign funding as a matter of principle, Indian NGOs were heavily dependent on foreign funds. The women's NGOs were, in addition dependent on grants-in-aid received from the central and state social welfare boards. A few NGOs raised resources from Indian philanthropic or charitable trusts. Still fewer NGOs generated revenues through fees-for-services, even though they offer services to which the poor do not have access otherwise or for which they pay high amounts relative to their income (e.g. private medical practitioners in rural areas or slums). The use of bank loans for making productive investments in income- generating projects is again an option used in a very limited way by NGOs, although some women's NGOs such as SEWA, WWF and Annapurna Mahila Mandal are pioneers in this respect. 10.100 In their concern for the poor, impatience with the public delivery systems and mistrust of the private sector, NGOs tend to launch programs without a full appreciation of the complexities involved. There can be many dimensions to this: related to technology, management, community dynamics, the local political economy or the regulatory environment. Often NGOs take the attitude of worrying about crossing the bridge when they come to it. While this attitude helps in promoting action without unnecessary delay, it also results in setting up programs which are under-conceptualized or whose assumptions are not validated. Generally, NGOs tend to under-estimate or even be suspicious of the need for professionalism in planning and implementation of programs, although some externalize this problem by using the services of resource center agencies which specialize in particular fields. The inability of NGOs to attract a larger number of higher quality human resources; a higher level of financial, particularly non-grant resources; and to make greater use of specialized knowledge for problem-solving, together act as major constraints on NGOs playing a more significant role in development.  - 194 - Covernment-NGO Interaction 10.101 Collaboration between the government and the NGOs began soon after independence, though it has been marked by ups and downs. In the last ten yiears, the ups came with the Janata government which encouraged NGO involvement in government programs. When Mrs Gandhi returned to power in 1980, she sought to tighten government control over the NGO sector. She established a commission of inquiry to investigate alleged misappropriation of funds and other malpractices of NGOs, mainly from the Sarvodaya group. The Foreign Contributions Regulation Act was also tightened in 1983, and the tax- incentives extended just a few years before to private sector companies for contributing to rural development efforts were withdrawn. At the grassroot level, many NGOs were harassed by local police and politicians during this period. There was another turn to this uneasy relationship between the NGOs and the Government when Rajiv Gandhi's government came to power in 1985. There was a renewed attempt by the Government to invite NGOs to collaborate in development programs. Bunker Roy, a well-known NGO activist, was appointed as Adviser to the Planning Commission. His proposal to set up a statutory council of voluntary agencies and establish a code of conduct, was vehemently opposed by a vast majority of NGOs as an attempt to increase governmental control over their activities. The Seventh Plan document contained a chapter on voluntary agencies, for the first time in India's history. The Council for Advancement of People's Action and Rural Technology (CAPART) was created as an apex body for channeling government funding to NGOs. Other bodies, such as the National Wasteland Development Board (NWDB) and the Central Social Welfare Board (CSWB) and the Ministry of Human Resources opened independent windows to f.und NGOs for specific programs. 10.102 As can be seen from the account above, the relations between the government and the NGOs have been marked by a certain amount of tension and miutual suspicion. The reasons for this are manifold: philosophical, political, operational and bureaucratic. At the philosophic level, the NGOs' conception of development (and there is no consensus about this among NGOs) is different from the government's. Since the 1950's, the Government assumed a pre-eminent role in development, though it was only since the 1970s that specific programmes for poverty alleviation were taken up. Few NGOs question that the government should be engaged in development, but differ considerably on strategy. At the political level, the government is ambivalent regarding ithe foreign funding received by NGOs. While the government probably welcomes the additional resources (estimated to be nearly Rs. 3000 million in 1984), it is worried that some of the money could be used for political destabilization, based on religious, ethnic and class considerations. At the operational level, clashes occur between NGO activists and government functionaries. In spite of this general picture, examples of successful working together of NGOs and government have multiplied in the latter half of the 1980s. Finally, bureaucratic procedures adopted by the government, even when its intention at the policy level is to seek NGO collaboration, tend to create friction with NGOs. For example, NGOs find the funding process of the government too cumbersome, straining their already limited capacity for administrative work. 10.103 Mainstream development institutions, whether national or multilateral, often make the well-intentioned but erroneous assumption that  - 195 - most NGOs will welcome playing a role in government development programs. It is in such a situation that a functional typology, like the one discussed in para 10.61 above, is useful in designing development programs with NGO participation in mind. The resource center agencies are the ones most likely to accept roles such as training, documentation, organizing workshops, and acting as financial intermediaries for smaller agencies. The program oriented agencies are more suitable for implementing government programs in the geographical areas of their operation. They would, however, need to be treated not as "sub-contractors" but as autonomous agencies with a stake of their own in ensuring the successful implementation of the program. As long as agreement in principle exists about the broad contours of the program, NGOs should be allowed a fair amount of flexibility in localized implementation. Finally, social action groups can be used in consultative roles, for often their critique of programs as they are implemented on the ground, provides valuable feedback. In sum, any attempt at seeking collaboration with NGOs must begin with a sensitive understanding of how NGOs see their own role and function, and carefully match this with the different types of development efforts of the government. The Future Role of NGOs in Women's Development in India 10.104 There is little doubt that NGOs will continue to be increasingly important institutions for addressing the multifarious tasks of women's development in India. The path-breaking efforts of the 1980s by women's NGOs have, at the least, established that. The interesting question now is: what can be done to enhance this role? For one, we must begin by acknowledging that for all their efforts, NGOs are very thinly spread in the country. The figures from the IDBI directory quoted in para 10.93 show that less than 15% all NGOs have any activities focussed on women, and the percentage of NGOs exclusively working with women is likely to be much smaller. Even more disturbing is the fact that geographically, most NGOs, including women's NGOs are located in the southern and the western regions. The northern region (where gender disparities are most pronounced) has a very low density of NGOs and the picture is only slightly better for the central region. Only in the eastern region does one find that a significant number of NGOs exist in an otherwise poor region. 10.105 It would not be too far off the mark to say that on a nationwide basis, there is not even one women's NGO per district. It is obvious that any attempt to establish NGOs from the top down in each block will be self- contradictory at best, and cynically destructive of voluntarism, at worst. It should be left to the voluntary sector to address the issue of fostering a wider presence. Attempts in this direction have been made, for example by SEWA, when it established SEWA Bharat, to assist women's groups in different parts of the country to become affiliated with SEWA and draw on its resources and experience. Though a step in the right direction, it did not receive as much of SEWA leadership's attention due to other pressing issues and has consequently remained stunted in comparison with SEWA's own stature. What is needed is a systematic attempt by the existing group of women's NGOs to come together and promote the identification, induction, training and deployment of women cadres, particularly from the rural and semi-urbanized areas. The voluntary sector, always known for the best of human resources it draws, needs  - 196 - a concerted attempt to draw many more to its fold and provide them with the field experience and material wherewithal to be effective social change agents. Epilogue 10.106 In this chapter, we looked at efforts undertaken for women's development by the government and by non-governmental organizations. While imuch has been attempted and significant progress already achieved, perhaps the more difficult part of the journey to women's social equality and economic well-being has still to be traversed. Broadly there are two strategies to achieve these goals: structural and incremental. The structuralists would like to see a greater balance of power between the genders as a pre-condition to socio-economic change. They are sure that nothing can be achieved without struggle. The incrementalists, on the other hand, do not wish to wait till power structures change. They seek interstitial opportunities in today's structures and work to widen the cracks and increase the leeway for women. They do not discount the value of struggle, but doubt its potential as the pre-eminent strategy for change. What we have discussed in this chapter can be broadly classified as the incrementalist strategy for women's development. 10.107 Within this dyadic framework, there is another dilemma for those concerned with women's development. There are those who argue that policies and programs focussed exclusively on women are the solution to closing the gap of opportunities. This philosophy lies behind some of the thinking, for example, of the NPPW recommendation for the creation of women's cells in each government ministry and agency. Programs such as DWCRA and Mahila Mandals also reflect this thinking. The alternative view is that to really make an impact, mainstream policies must be remolded to incorporate women's concerns. They point to the fact that an overwhelming amount of the government budget is earmarked for mainstream programs. Poverty alleviation programs, such as IRDP, TRYSEM, NREP and RLEGP are important vehicles to reach women but even more important are the sectoral programs of the government such as those for agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry and small scale industry. Unless these programs are designed to take into account the special needs and constraints of women -- as STEP has tried to do for dairying, sericulture and several other sectors -- no amount of specialized, women-only, programs can compensate for the lost opportunity. 0 10.108 The policy and program mix of the GOI, the state government and of the NGOs, reviewed in this chapter, shows a mix of both approaches is being adopted. While in the long run, "mainstreaming" women's concerns would bear the most results, policy makers recognize that targeted programs are useful in the short run in ameliorating some of the constraints women face. The appropriate strategy for an institution seeking to support the government or NGO efforts for women's development will be along the same lines. The strategy would press for long term change in the opportunity structure for women through investment in nutrition, health care, primary and higher education and training in productive, non-traditional occupations, while supporting programs directly benefiting poor women and also reorienting the delivery systems to the neglected half of their clientele. Efforts for reorientation should be made along the vertical cross-section of the delivery  - 197 - system, with policy makers who casually accept figures distorted by the "statistical purdah" being as important targets for the reorientation process as the male village level extension workers. Women's NGOs, of course, have a comparative advantage in working for some of these changes at the implementation level and their collaboration must be increasingly sought. More important, the insights of grassroot workers as well as of academic researchers must be brought to bear on policy. In this respect, no better example could have been set than by Shramshakti, the report of the NCSW. 10.109 One of the issues that is still unresolved, mainly due to lack of data, is that of the cost-effectiveness of these programs and the relative cost-effectiveness among them. While aggregate direct costs of the IRDP, TRYSEM, DWCRA, NREP and RLEGP are known, the figures are misleading due to absorption of administrative overheads at the center, state, district and block levels under the normal establishment, or "non-plan" expenses. At the other end, there is no systematic attempt at measuring the benefits of the poverty alleviation program in terms of the aggregate increase in the incomes of poor households or aggregate growth in the economy. Since the costs of programs targeted towards women, such as DWCRA and STEP, are incremental, they become visible, without any possibility of isolating the incremental benefits. What is known is that despite significant improvements over the last decade, women have received a far lower share of the benefits of the poverty alleviation programs, in comparison to their proportion in the population below the poverty line. The numbers are telling in this respect: only 15.9% of IRDP beneficiaries in 1986-87 were women, a number not too far from 17% for NREP and 15% for RLEGP. Given the increasing evidence that women constitute well over two-thirds of the population below the poverty line, the expense on programs targeting women or on measures improving the reach of mainstream programs to women, are likely to be cost-effective.   - 199 - PART E: PRIORITIES FOR ACTION Chapter 11: SUMMARY AND STRATEGIC RECOMENDATIONS A. Women's Access to Resources and Markets 11.01 Indian women's access to basic goods and services, to productive assets, and to factor markets -- even the right to sell their own labor -- is contingent in a way men's is not. This contingency is part of the social construction of gender in India. It is embedded in the inter-locking religious, economic and kinship structures which combine to define the social domains of females and males. These domains have been characterized in this review in terms of the inside/outside dichotomy: women's association with reproduction and family grounds them in the private "inside" sphere, while men interact with the markets, governments, courts, etc., 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 of human interaction -- most explicitly through the practice of female seclusion -- has traditionally been one of the most important criteria for establishing social rank in India. 11.02 The strength of the inside/outside dichotomy -- and, thus, the degree of contingency in women's relationship to resources -- varies by region and socio-economic status of the household. 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 female land ownership is far less common in the North. Health indicators, such as female infant mortality and overall sex ratios, are more heavily biased against females in the North. Female literacy is lower in the North. Purdah, high dowry payments and violence against women are all much more prevalent in the North. 11.03 As might be expected, given the link between female seclusion and socio-economic (and ritual) status, the inside/outside dichotomy and associated constraints on women's access also 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. There is a kind of "hierarchy of labor" which assigns the highest prestige to conventional domestic work for the family inside the home and courtyard, somewhat lower prestige to work in the family's fields, and the lowest to manual wage work for others which necessitates not only women's physical presence in the public sphere but involvement in market transactions. 11.04 There is a strong connection between a woman's access to the outside -- particularly to independent income -- and her control over the utilization of family resources on the inside. In fact, along with education. the ability to earn and control income aRRears to be one of the most Rowerful determinants of women's status in the family. Although overall resource levels are lower for poor households and those from scheduled caste and tribal groups, women's access to and control over the use of these resources is more egalitarian in such households. Yet even among these groups, the  - 200 - inside/outside dichotomy acts as a serious constraint on women's economic productivity and on their ability to secure education and access to health services -- because it determines the model of gender relations aspired to by these households and has a strong influence on the factor markets, the ,administrative and legal structures and the social services these women interact with on the "outside". 11.05 But governmental intervention into the private domain where gender relations are rooted is both practically and philosophically problematic. The most effective -- and perhaps the only legitimate -- means by which public policy can affect intra-household processes and reduce women's dependency is to alter the economic environment within which the continually shifting cultural "map" of the inside/outside domains is ultimately formulated at the household level. 11.06 This report argues that the required changes in the environment within which household economic strategies are evolved can best be brought about through efforts which facilitate unmediated access for women to investments in human capital. to the factors of production, to productive assets and Rroduct markets. and to social organizations that facilitate such access. The first includes education, health care, skill training, extension advice, etc. In the long-term perspective, in fact, access to education is probably the single most powerful tool to equip women for effective interaction with both the social service and productive dimensions of the "outside". Access to factor markets means access to credit, entry to and mobility within labor markets, and ownership of and secure utilization rights to land. (Of these, the issue of women's land ownership is the most problematic and likely to provoke the strongest resistance.) Access to productive assets involves technology, inputs and raw materials; access to product markets concerns both the ability to obtain essential goods and services and the ability to sell output at prices that reflect market values. Access to social organizations, finally, concerns membership in cooperatives, resource users' groups and the like -- but also to village governments. 11.07 Ultimately, the most powerful approach is the implementation of policies which alter the incentives and disincentives to families permitting women to sell their labor or take up opportunities for self-employment. In a sense this means that market forces should be allowed more room to influence the social construction of gender. To some extent, this has occurred as a result of certain direct interventions such as the Employment Guarantee Scheme in Maharashtra; but the major changes have been outcomes (largely unintentional) of broader economic policies such as those supporting agricultural intensification and commercialization which have increased the demand for female labor. B. Household Responses to Change in the Indian Economy 11.08 A major focus of this assessment has been to understand how low- income households and individual women within these households are responding to new constraints and opportunities in the changing Indian economy. Agricultural modernization is one source of change mentioned above. Rapid population growth is another which has meant more men and women entering the  - 201 - labor force, less arable land and fewer common property resources per person, and a health and education infrastructure that is increasingly stretched to provide even the most basic services. Although overall levels of urbanization in India are low (23%) compared to many other countries, a steady influx from rural areas has lead to rapid growth especially in large cities. 11.09 One of the factors behind urbanization is the slow shift of male workers out of the agricultural sector into better-paying jobs in manufacturing and services (though some of the non-agricultural employment opportunities which men have taken up have been in rural areas). Employment in the service sector --- especially in the public sector -- has grown. But labor regulations and incentive structures have favored capital-intensive rather than labor-intensive industrial production and impeded the development of small firms. Thus, few new jobs have been generated in the formal manufacturing sector. Instead, though its very nature makes it difficult to track, there appears to have been rapid growth in the volatile and highly competitive urban informal sector. These are some of the phenomena that have been examined in varying degrees of depth for their effect on the structure of female labor force participation in India. 11.10 At least since the beginning of the 1970s, female labor force participation rates have shown a small but unmistakable increase for all India and in most of the major states. This has been true in both urban and rural areas -- though both the starting point and the percentage increases have been higher in rural areas (13.1% to 16%) than in the urban areas (6.6 to 7.3%). The proportion of female to male workers has also increased -- though again the shift has been more noticeable in the rural areas. The sex ratio of workers has risen from 12 to 13 women per 100 males in urban areas and from 23 to 29 in rural areas. Is this a positive or a negative sign for women? Given the deep socio-cultural preference to keep women out of the labor force, the observed increase in the proportion of women workers has been interpreted by some analysts as a sign of economic distress. C. Women Workers in Rural Areas 11.11 The most dramatic change has been the increase in women's share of total agricultural employment. The sex ratio in agriculture moved from 25 to 32 between 1971 and 1981. This has been due to the combined effects of the introduction of HYV technologies (which appear to have lead to greater overall use of female than male labor) and the movement of men into non-farm employment. As noted in Chapter 3, the incidence of female agricultural labor has been positively correlated with agricultural stagnation at the state level and with district-level indicators of poverty -- suggesting that rising female agricultural labor participation has been a supply-driven phenomenon resulting from increasing rural poverty. 11.12 It remains true that female agricultural laborers are among the poorest sections of Indian society, with the lowest wage levels and highest unemployment. With 61% of them below the poverty line, female casual laborers in rural areas show the highest incidence of poverty of any occupational category, male or female. Because of their relative lack of mobility or marketable skills (90% of the rural female workers are unskilled, 88% are  - 202 - illiterate), these women are the most vulnerable to seasonal fluctuations in labor demand. Their low levels of nutrition (including almost universal prevalence of anemia) and frequent pregnancies make them especially prone to illness which keeps them out of the labor force even when jobs are available and limits their productivity. 11.13 More recent analysis has shown, however, that the incidence of female agricultural labor is positively correlated with district-level agricultural growth rates and (contrary to the theory that commercialization pushes women out of agriculture) with the proportion of gross cropped area planted to cash crops. These findings, coupled with the rise in real agricultural wages, the narrowing gap between male and female agricultural wage rates and evidence of shorter work days, suggest that the observed increase in female agricultural wage work may in fact be demand-driven. Despite the strong socio-cultural barriers to paid female manual work in India, more and more rural households are deciding to deploy their female members as agricultural wage laborers. 11.14 While much attention has been focused on the growing proportion of women among agricultural wage workers, there has been little notice of the even more rapid increase in the proportion of women cultivators. Women working as unpaid family workers in field crop production and other agricultural activities are an increasingly important -- and generally overlooked -- segment of the agricultural labor force. For the formulation of agricultural policy it is necessary to bear in mind that although there are some critical areas of overlap, women agricultural laborers and unpaid family workers to a certain extent fall in separate "recommendation domains'. Economic Policy Implications for Rural Women 11.15 The question remains: is the increase in rural women's labor force participation a sign of deepening poverty which has forced women into the labor market for family survival or an indicator of new economic opportunities which are inducing households to move against the cultural grain and send women out to work to raise family living standards? In a sense both answers are correct. The dynamics behind the macro-level patterns vary across regions and agro-ecological zones of the country -- and between different socio- economic groups within the same region. 11.16 In particular, the sharp regional variations in agricultural growth rates, levels of infrastructural development, and incidence of poverty strongly suggest that the impetus for shifts in female agricultural participation is very different in different regions. Added to this are the significant regional differences already noted in the extent and nature of socio-cultural barriers to women's participation. Local outcomes in terms of changes in women's economic role would be a result of the interaction of these two sets of factors. For example, the inside/outside dichotomy is strong in both the Punjab and Haryana in the North, but also in the Eastern states of Bihar and West Bengal. Female participation rates, historically low in all four states, have increased over the last two decades. But stagnating agriculture and pervasive poverty in the East suggest that the push of household economic necessity is primary there. By contrast, in the prosperous  - 203 - northern Green Revolution states, the major incentive is more likely to be the pull of higher wages and/or profits from the use of female family labor for commercial dairy and vegetable cultivation. 11.17 Knowing whether shifts in women's agricultural participation in a given region or state result from poverty or from the appearance of new economic opportunity is important in assessing the urgency for action and the need to target central resources. Such differences, coupled with variation in agro-climatic endowments, mean that there are important differences among states in the overall agricultural policy context within which initiatives for women must evolve. This in turn, indicates that specific opportunities to link women into mainstream agricultural and broader economic policies and programs need to be identified and worked out at the state level. 11.18 Nevertheless, the strategic principles which should form the basis for such state level initiatives for rural women are essentially the same whether impetus for change is poverty or prosperity. Both present important opportunities in terms of increasing the aggregate productivity of the Indian economy, improving household income levels for the poor and empowering Indian women. Beginning with the most impoverished group, female agricultural wage laborers, these broad economic strategies for rural women are set out below. Agricultural Research and Technology 11.19 Female agricultural labor in landless and near-landless families will benefit from research and infrastructure development to support agricultural intensification and diversification that will increase overall labor demand and even out seasonal fluctuations. For example, the major increases in irrigation coverage that would result from a shift recommended in the 1989 CEM1 to less water-intensive crops and wider, more careful distribution of existing irrigation resources in India's semi-arid regions would encourage female employment. Clearly, increasing female employment would not on its own be a sufficient decision criterion for policy choices on agricultural research or other matters; however, if other factors are equal, measures which are likely to increase the demand for female labor would merit special consideration. Such measures include: emphasis on commercial crops like cotton which require high inputs of specifically female labor and for which there is high domestic and international demand;2 support for diversification into market production of high-value non-cereal crops and allied enterprises such as dairying, vegetables, fruits, nuts and other non- 1"India: Poverty, Employment and Social Serviceas, Report No. 7617-IN, May 1989. 2Gulati (1989) in a recent sector report on incentives in cotton, wheat, rice and groundnut production, shows that the first three, but especially cotton, have been *disprotected" or, in effect, taxed during the 1980s relative to the prices that would have prevailed wLth free eixports. Beyond the loss of forelgn exchange pointed out by Gulati, regulation of cotton (Lntended in part to protect jobs in the Rhadi and handloom sectors) has probably resulted in the loss of potential female agricultural employment in cotton production.  - 204 - timber forest products.3 These are areas where women have traditionally played a major subsistence role and could with support for training where necessary, find remunerative wage employment as these sectors commercialize. 11.20 As noted earlier (ref. paras 3.40-3.43), rural women are not being absorbed in many of the jobs outside agriculture that are developing in the rural areas -- partly because these avenues of employment often require mobility and specific skills that women do not have, but also because women have not been socialized to seek out and adapt to non-traditional work situations. Although TRYSEM more than fills its quota of 30% for female trainees, by and large the training they receive is of a traditional nature (e.g., sewing and knitting) for which there is little commercial demand. Greater efforts to match training with local employment opportunities and to impart more generalized ability to interact effectively in non-traditional work settings would increase the actual economic pay-off of direct interventions like TRYSEM to women wage workers and women interested in self- employment. 11.21 For female cultivators there is naturally more interest in the development of labor-saving agricultural technologies which reduce their own time input and minimize the need for hired labor. To this extent their interests run counter to those of female agricultural wage workers. However, a shift in agricultural research priorities away from increasing per hectare foodgrain yields to support for agricultural diversification is of potential interest to both women wage workers and women farmers -- especially those on small and marginal holdings. Attention to sustainability, risk and cost reduction and how all the different components of the family farm enterprise fit together as a system should lead to the development of new technologies in previously neglected aspects of farm production that would be of particular interest to women in small farm families. Since the role of women seems to increase in the topographically and agro-climatically more difficult regions of the country, a reorientation of research away from ecologically favored irrigated regions to rainfed conditions (as recommended in the Bank's 1988 review of rainfed agriculture4 and supported by the 1988 agricultural strategy paper) should also increase its utility to women farmers. Agricultural Extension 11.22 The present agricultural extension system largely bypasses 48% of the India's self-employed farmers -- the ones who are women. This is unintentional -- but it also is highly inefficient. Making the states' agricultural extension services more accessible and responsive to women farmers is clearly necessary to increase the returns on government investment. 3Theae recomendations are all consistent with the Bank's 1988 agricultural strategy for India. 4" India: Review of Rainfed Agriculture ad Watershed Developmnt', Report No. 7138-IN, February 24, 1988.  - 205 - 11.23 Most of the pilot projects that have sought to reach women farmers have proceeded by hiring new cadres of female extension workers. However, evidence suggests that this approach may not be necessary everywhere (Mahapatra, 1987). In all but the most conservative areas, male field staff should be expected to do the job at least until more women are gradually hired into the extension service. However, male Village Extension Workers (VEWs) charged with reaching female clients will perhaps need initial assistance from female "spearhead" teams to help organize groups of women farmers. Necessary also are specially trained female Subject Matter Specialists (SMSs) charged with monitoring the needs of local women farmers, communicating these to research scientists and preparing special extension advice that responds to women's problems with the best technology available. 11.24 The key to reorienting the extension services toward both men and women farmers is building awareness among both the extension and the research staff at all levels about women's actual role in local production systems and the loss of efficiency entailed by not reaching them directly. This may be most difficult in the North because of the greater force of the inside/outside dichotomy there (which may also make female extension workers more of a necessity) and the increasing technical and managerial complexity of farming in states such as Haryana and the Punjab. But the need and potential impact is also particularly great in such areas. The extension system, especially if it works through local women's groups formed and supported by NGOs, producers' cooperatives, etc., presents an important opportunity to reach home-bound rural women whose access to services and resources is the most constrained of any group. Since normal male patterns of social interaction involve much greater exposure to new agricultural technologies and to the new parameters of agricultural decision making, agricultural extension can increase women's ability to participate effectively in the management of the family farm enterprise by helping to close the knowledge gap between women and men. Forestry 11.25 For the poor especially, forests and common property pastures are an essential resource base providing fuel, fodder and often food items central to family subsistence strategies. The study cited in Chapter 5 (Jodha 1983:8) documented that for laborers and small farmer households in a Rajasthan village, 42% of gross household income was derived from common property resources as compared to only 15% for larger farmer households. It is increasingly recognized that the responsibility for fodder and fuel collection in rural India rests largely with women. Therefore, although the estimate that India lost 34% of its forest cover between 1974 and 1984 raises deep concern about the eventual regional and even global impact of this depletion, rural women are already directly affected. They must walk farther and search harder to lop fodder for the cattle and to collect the brush and twigs to cook family meals. 11.26 Yet, for poor women, the impact of deforestation goes much further than the fuel and fodder crisis. In fact, there has been somewhat of a "domestic bias" in much of the analysis of women's relationship to forest  - 206 - resources and management which has obscured women's essential role in the non- domestic or commercial forest economy. 11.27 In addition to wage-employment in public sector forest-based enterprises or through special programs such as social forestry, women are also employed in large numbers in the collection, processing and sale of a wide range of non-timber forest products (NTFP's). For these women deforestation means loss of jobs. In addition certain government policies and features of the production and marketing arrangements for forest products have also reduced women's employment and income. 11.28 The potential of the sericulture subsector to generate significant self-employment for women has already been recognized in the Bank-supported National Sericulture Project. The emphasis and growth in this sub-sector has been on mulberry silk, which is concentrated in the southern states. There is considerable scope for reaching poor tribal women in the Eastern and Central regions through expanding the scope of future lending to include tasar in addition to mulberry silk. Tasar sericulture, in addition to having the advantage of self-targeting the poorest in the least developed regions, also has positive environmental features, since it involves tree plantation on marginal or wastelands. Good institutional infrastructure exists in this sector for research, extension, seed multiplication and training, due to earlier efforts under the Swiss funded Inter-State Tasar Project. Significant work has also been done by NGOs to promote pilot projects in tasar sericulture (Mahajan, 1989:11). 11.29 Broadly speaking, policies that would benefit the poor and vest responsibility and control for forest resources with local communities would also benefit women. However, when new forest assets are created, women's rights to them must be explicitly set out and enforced. (The involvement of NGO's would be very useful here.) Also beneficial to women would be attention to the needs for better NTFP marketing systems from primary collectors to final users. No national policy governs this important area which accounts for almost two fifths of total Forest Department Revenues and three fourths of net export earnings from forest produce (Commander, 1986). Even the social forestry programs have not brought NTFP within their purview, concentrating instead on traditional components of forestry handled by Forest Departments. 11.30 There are a number of specific measures that could be taken to improve the design and workings of social forestry projects. The essential thrust of all of them is: involve the women. Women have an essential role to play in plantations--in planning for them, choosing species and in actually doing the planting and protecting. Similarly, in planning community woodlots and other such plantations, women's reliance on multiple forest products must be taken into account. If adequate substitutes for lost fuel, fodder and other forest resources are not available, the remaining resources must not be depleted through cash crop plantations on commons--especially if, as in the past, these are controlled by men. While women laborers have formed the majority of nursery workers, in only a few cases have women been targeted for the establishment of private nurseries.  - 207 - Off-Farm Rural Employment 11.31 There are few promising possibilities for enhancing productive employment opportunities for rural women in the secondary and tertiary sectors (known as the Industry, Services and Business or ISB sector under the IRDP). Other than the collection of minor forest products mentioned above, the traditional occupations in rural areas for women include processing of cereals and pulses, spinning and weaving, and a variety of handicrafts based on local materials. Unfortunately, most of these are declining livelihoods because either the raw material is being bought up by urban industries who display greater cost-efficiency, or because the consumers prefer the output of the industrial sector for reasons of cost or quality or both. The newer products in demand need a higher level of skill, larger investment, a factory mode of production and the existence of infrastructure, conditions difficult to satisfy in most rural areas. In the short run, at least, it appears that this situation will prevail. Employment opportunities can be increased over the long run by promoting general growth in rural areas through investments in agriculture, irrigation, forestry, electrification and roads. Another possibility is to promote pilot projects for trying out innovative approaches to rural off-farm livelihood promotion. The Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) has been supporting such efforts by NGOs and state level technical consultancy organization (TCOs). NABARD, which should have been at the forefront of supporting such efforts, has only recently and reluctantly made some moves in that direction. 11.32 Promoting direct access to credit and direct membership in viable producer-cooperative structures are the two remaining strategic approaches recommended here for integrating women more effectively into India's rural economy. Both are equally relevant to women wage workers and cultivators. For female wage laborers these strategies open up opportunities for self- employment as an alternative to the seasonal and other uncertainties of local labor markets; for female cultivators they open the way to higher family income and greater control over that income. Producers' CooReratives 11.33 The membership of India's nearly 58,885 village-level dairy cooperative society (DCSs), is heavily dominated by men -- even though female family members do most of the dairy production work. Although there are now 1,086 all-women DCSs, gender disagregated data on membership for the remaining 57,799 are not available. We do know, however, that women constitute less than 3% of total DCS board members. This has meant that, although milk production has greatly increased under Operation Flood, women often have less direct access to income from milk sales than they did in the pre-cooperative situation. It has also meant that although special training programs for women have successfully been initiated by NDDB, in most states, women producers have had no access to the training in modern dairy and livestock management practices available to members. Two major initiatives by the dairy parastatal organizations sponsored under Operation Flood in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar have been successful in establishing viable all-women dairy co- operatives and obtaining membership for women producers in mixed cooperatives. By linking up with sources of credit for livestock purchase (in addition to  - 208 - lRDP), establishing a pre-cooperative stage and changing some of the regulations regarding membership, these efforts also succeed in opening up dairy production as a source of self-employment for landless and near-landless women. A recent Bank study of the distribution of Operation Flood project benefits in a sample of villages in Madhyra Pradesh where no such special efforts were made suggests that lack of credit for the initial purchase of dairy animals remains a major constraint to OF's ability to reach men or women iin the poorest households (Mergos and Slade, 1987:108). 1L1.34 Given the inherent viability of the national dairy cooperative structure now in place, the lessons learned from the Bihar and Andhra Pradesh experience on incorporating women dairy producers should now be extended to other states during Operation Flood II. Less certain, but deserving further investigation, is whether producer cooperatives in other sectors such as fruit and vegetable production (the latter now being attempted through the NDDB network on a pilot basis), silk and other non-timber forest products, etc., could achieve similar success in increasing production and organizing processing and marketing for rural producers. 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 poor 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 Women's Thrift Associations in Andhra Pradesh and the Forest Laborers Co-operatives and Forest Development Corporations in Gujarat, suggest that where genuine co-operative structures can be established and where women producers are given equal access, the returns can be high. Institutional Finance 11.35 Access to credit is the key to almost every form of productive self-employment for poor women because it is the major instrument available to redress, in the short run, the historical imbalance which the tradition of patrilineal land inheritance has caused in the distribution of productive assets directly available to men and women. Although some state governments (notably Tamil Nadu) and NGO groups have begun programs to register land jointly in the names of both husband and wife, the scope for such action is extremely limited.5 So fundamental to the structure of Indian society is the patrilineal transmission of land that even laws mandating equal inheritance for sons and daughters are routinely and legally circumvented in wills and through reference to the special legal codes which apply to various religious groups. 11.36 Since land has been the main source of collateral, women's lack of land ownership has barred them from access to the formal financial system, thus limiting their ability to acquire other productive resources such as 5Encouragemnt of joint tenure for husband and wife may, however, be possible in the Bank's proposed lending operations in housing finance,  - 209 - cattle, poultry, looms or working capital for trade in farm or forestry produce, food processing, etc. Credit is in a sense the gateway to almost every form of productive self-employment for poor women. 11.37 Because disbursement and repayment data are not disaggregated by gender, it is not possible to get precise national, state or institutional estimates of women's relative access to the formal credit system. National data are available, however, on the number of female beneficiaries (not actual disbursements) of GOI's credit-based poverty alleviation scheme, IRDP. They show that, although female coverage rose by 5 percentage points over 1985/86, less than 15% of the beneficiaries were women in 1986/87 -- barely half the target of 30%. An in-depth study of credit flows by gender in an Regional Rural Bank branch and a Commercial Bank branch in one district in Andhra Pradesh suggests that outside IRDP -- even in other government-sponsored credit programs -- women's access to credit is still lower. Disbursements to women ranged between 6% and 12% overall, but dropped to zero for agricultural term loans and agricultural cash credit. 11.38 Disturbing as the evident asymmetry between male and female access to credit is, it is embedded within an even more disturbing situation which pervades the agricultural credit sector in India: persistent low recovery. Repayment is low, not only in the IRDP program where clients are below the poverty line, but for all types of rural lending. A recent study found that arrears to commercial banks were 46% (Pulley, 1989). 11.39 In this situation there are two possible approaches to improving women's access to credit: 1) fundamental change in the overall banking system and 2) the establishment of a special women's credit fund. The first is philosophically more appealing, but far more difficult. It would entail giving the banks more autonomy and responsibility and allowing interest rates that would make it profitable to serve the rural poor. (At present, even with full on-time repayment, banks lose on every IRDP loan they make (Pulley, 1989).) It would be necessary to re-establish the repayment ethic by protecting the credit system from political pressures to write off loans to certain broad interest groups. Changes would also be needed in the concept and structure of the IRDP program so that instead of a subsidy-lead, one-time dose of credit for those below the poverty line, it becomes an entry point to on-going access to the formal financial system in return for repayment. The current emphasis on credit would be broadened to include convenient access to deposit facilities and other financial services as well. 11.40 If such reforms could be achieved, then efforts for women would need to concentrate on re-orientating the IRDP and integrating women more fully into the grogram. First, IRDP would have to shift from the mere delivery of credit to a more comprehensive strategy for promoting self- employment ventures by the rural poor. This strategy would, in addition to providing credit, need to make a variety of services available to the poor to help them set up a venture. The package of services provided would depend on the need of the venture and the level of general development of the area. These services would be provided by private operators in developed regions. In backward regions, the services may either be totally unavailable from the private sector, or be available at less than fair, often exploitative, terms.  - 210 - Sulch situations call for intervention by NGOs or public agencies specializing in providing services to enterprises in a given sub-sector. Attention should be paid to sustainability of common services in terms of both recovery of costs and management by the producers themselves in the long run. 11.41 Establishing closer links with NGOs capable of organizing women borrowers into groups is an essential step in reorienting IRDP. Experience in India and in neighboring countries suggests that the group approach with individual loans but group liability and more emphasis on group savings may be the key to cutting lending costs and raising repayment rates and returns to individual borrowers from IRDP funds. As mentioned earlier (para 10.43) there are some fundamental modifications 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 proved effective elsewhere in delivering credit 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 dLefaults. 11.42 Cohesive, self-regulating groups cannot be established and niurtured 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 wrorking with the poor. Moreover, there are several steps that can be taken to iimprove the performance of government workers themselves. First, the mronitoring of DWRCA 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, extension staff should be trained in group dynamics and business advisory skills. Closer links are also needed among IDRP, DWRCA and other programs in dairying, sericulture and the like, where lack of capital prevents poor women from starting their own enterprises. 11.43 Although less appealing than the "mainstreaming" approach, the second option of establishing a special credit fund for poor women may be more practical ... assuming that major reforms in IRDP and the financial system surrounding it are not seriously pursued. Several of India's larger women's NGOs have been involved in formulating the objectives and structure of the proposed Fund, but as yet the most appropriate form for such an entity and indeed, whether it should even be established, are still under discussion. 11.44 As envisioned here, (see paras 10.83-10.88) the Fund, would onlend to NGOs as well as parastatal agencies for projects related to women. In addition to onlending, the Fund would provide assistance in enhancing the  - 211 - capacity of these organizations to run effective credit programs for poor women. The Fund would be an autonomously incorporated body. Its governing board would reflect a public-private partnership with significant but minority representation of government and public financial institutions. The majority of the members would be from NGOs and also the private, profit-seeking sector. For the Fund to have a significant impact, its initial capitalization should at least be in the range of Rs. 100 crores (approximately $60 million). This level of operations would enable it to attract high quality personnel, which is critical for success. The Fund would onlend at an unsubsidized rate (perhaps between 16% and 24% per annum) so as to ensure an adequate spread to cover its costs as well as any losses due to defaults. A part of the surpluses of the Fund could be used to give grants to client agencies for institutional capacity building activities. 11.45 Of course there are significant dangers attached to the establishment of a separate fund for women. Since it would need to operate within the overall regulations which govern the financial sector in India, it would face many of the same constraints encountered by existing banks. Moreover, unless great care were taken to ensure that the fund was accountable to its clients through their equity participation and through the establishment of transparent management practices, there is some danger that it could itself become a channel for political patronage. Ultimately, the viability of the women's credit fund idea rests on the as yet untested hypothesis that poor women in India are a potentially profitable market niche for an institution that can respond efficiently to their needs. D. Women Workers in Urban Areas 11.46 Although women in urban areas enjoy better health and are better educated than their rural counterparts, their participation in the labor force is much lower. Census data show urban female labor force participation rates to be around 7%, compared to rural rates of 16%. The generally more reliable NSS estimate for the most recent round (38th) shows a similar gap between the urban (17%) and the rural (39%) rates for female participation. Some of this rural/urban discrepancy is due to the greater importance of subsistence production and the potential for women to work as unpaid family labor in the Indian agrarian setting. The permeability that exists in the rural environment between work and non-work, and between the inside and the outside is less evident in the market-oriented urban economy. 11.47 This may mean that, indeed, fewer women are economically active in the cities because the barriers to be crossed to enter the urban labor force are not only conceptually more absolute (i.e., one works to earn cash or one does not work), but that the need for mobility, bureaucratic knowhow, literacy, modern skills and the ability to link into non-traditional work situations may also be more acute in the fast-paced, competitive urban labor market. Since women are at a disadvantage in all these areas, this may well constrain their labor force participation even though the greater need for cash and the relative lack of opportunity for alternative non-market household production may make female entry into the labor force desireable to poor households.  - 212 - 1.1.48 It is also possible that poor urban women are in fact economically active, but in an informal economy which is captured even less well than the rural subsistence economy. Numerous micro studies carried out in poor urban areas show actual female participation rates of around 40%. Moreover, the few :Longitudinal studies available show that women's participation is increasing much faster than men's. This suggests that problems of measurement and definition may make changes in urban female participation rates detected in macro-level data sets less than reliable. 11.49 Changes in the sectoral distribution of urban women workers are equally difficult to detect. The service sector remained the single most important employer for urban women, accounting for 37% of women workers in 1981. Within that sector, women's employment in domestic service grew by 40% and as men moved to seek better paying, higher status jobs, the sex ratio moved from 60 to 88 between 1971 and 1981 (Banerjee, 1988). Yet a more intensive examination of 400 women in Calcutta's informal sector showed that between 1953 and 1976, as other kinds of non-traditional employment opened up for women, the proportion of urban female workers employed as domestic servants fell from 70% to 56%. The same study found that while 90% of the working women over 45 were working as domestics, only 33% of those under 25 reported this occupation (Banerjee, 1985). 11.50 The range of new occupations into which women in the Calcutta sample had moved included book-binding, printing, food-processing, electrical fittings, pottery, glass-blowing, plastics, rubber and leather products. This range is reflected, though imprecisely, in the macro-level industrial classification statistics which show an increase in female employment in a number of more "modern" manufacturing sub-sectors such as pharmaceuticals, plastics, ceramics, etc., which had not previously had high proportions of female workers. 11.51 While this appears to be a positive sign indicating that women are moving into more highly skilled, formal sector jobs, it needs to be interpreted with caution. The industrial classification data amalgamates workers employed in firms ranging in size, technology level and employment conditions (i.e. regulated and unregulated). Women tend to be concentrated in those processes and firms in each sub-sector where more traditional, labor intensive technologies are employed, and in industries where the proportion of women is high, the capital/labor ratio and the output/worker ratios are both well below the Indian averages (Banerjee 1985:154). Mukhopadyay (1988) makes the same observation about the difficulties of drawing conclusions from the industrial classification data pointing out that even when women are employed by larger formal sector firms, they are generally hired as casual labor and therefore remain in the informal sector. NSS data for 1983 showed that more than half the male workers in urban manufacturing were regular wage workers compared to only 20% of the women. 11.52 There is also considerable micro-level evidence of rapid growth in employment for women under the "putting out system" where large and medium scale formal sector enterprises contract out certain steps in the production process on a piece rate basis, thereby circumventing labor regulations and lowering overhead costs. Some of this work is done in small workshops run by  - 213 - contractors; some is done from the women's home. Such home-based work has obvious appeal because it allows the woman to remain on the "inside" where she can combine income-earning work with domestic responsibilities. However, the dispersed nature of home-based work and the fact that these women have few other options combine to make this one of the lowest paying categories of employment -- with wages even below those of agricultural laborers. Moreover, since this kind of work grew up in order to circumvent labor regulations and the women involved prefer to think of themselves as "housewives" rather than workers, a large segment of this type of employment must necessarily remain undetected in macro-level statistics. 11.53 Nevertheless, rapid growth is suggested by the previously cited Calcutta study which showed that the percentage of women in the sample employed in piece rate jobs rose from 10% to 18% between 1971 and 1974. The garment industry, which expanded under export incentives in the early eighties, employs large numbers of women home-based workers, as do the textile and electronics industries. 11.54 In addition to wage workers and piece-rate workers, there is a third category of women in the informal sector: the self-employed worker. This encompasses a wide range of service and manufacturing occupations, such as vegetable selling and other petty trading and hawking, laundry service, rag pickers, cart pullers, caterers and food processors, and all sorts of petty manufacturing. Of course, most of these occupations are also often carried out by workers who are not genuinely self-employed but who depend on others for the basic equipment and/or raw materials needed to carry out their trade. This is especially true for manufacturing since the line between an autonomous household industry and home-based outwork is easily blurred. 11.55 NSS data indicate that the share of self-employed workers in the urban labor force has fallen and the decline for women has been particularly sharp, dropping from 62% to 46% of the urban female workforce between 1977/78 and 1983. Once again however, some recent micro-level studies show that self- employment still predominates among urban women workers (NIUA, 1987; 1988). A number of studies show that the highest earnings for women in the urban informal sector are for self-employed workers -- especially when they have capital to invest in their business. Lack of access to institutional credit for women's micro-enterprises appears to be a major constraint on the growth of self-employment among urban women. Other factors include the greater risk of income fluctuation, the exposure involved in seeking out customers and raw materials, and the greater knowledge required of market conditions, etc. Economic Policy Implications for Urban Women 11.56 Informal sector occupations employ a large percentage of urban women workers. Conservative estimates based on the Census show that 53% of the female urban labor force was in the informal sector; using NSS data the proportion rises to 75%. Poor women are especially dependent on informal sector employment. Several in-depth studies conducted in different cities showed that about 70% of the women working in informal sector occupations were below the poverty line (Banerjee, 1985; Bapat and Crook, 1988). Although there are important variations between different sub-sectors with regard to  - 214 - literacy, health problems, education levels and remuneration, this variation occurs within a narrow interval with averages that clearly indicate the disadvantaged position of these women. For all of them earnings and job security are low, hours long, lifetime earning profiles flat, working conditions physically stressful and often unhealthy. 11.57 Governmental awareness of this situation has grown with the recent publication of the National Commission for Self-Employed Women and Women in the Informal Sector (NCSW)(see paras 10.73-10.75). The response has generally centered on extending the regulatory protection covering formal sector workers to encompass these disadvantaged women. Women's activist groups, many of whom contributed to the Commission's work, have also supported this view, though their approaches to the problems of poor urban workers have generally extended far beyond this to the support women's empowerment through organization and access to specific resources such as credit and health and family planning services. 1.1.58 The expansion of government protection to informal sector workers however, has not proved practicable in the past. The minimum wage legislation is one salient example. There is perhaps a need for some re-thinking of what is really required and what government can realistically achieve. It is the existing labor regulations -- especially the restrictions on retrenchment -- along with certain policies such as capacity licencing, reservation of products for small scale firms and incentives for re-location in backward areas, etc., that have to a large degree been responsible for the lack of employment growth in the formal manufacturing sector. In fact, as discussed above, it has been the attempt to circumvent these same regulations that has :Lead formal sector firms to use casual labor rather than permanent employees wherever possible and to engage in disbursed production through small tnregulated firms and home-based workers. These various "avoidance manoeuvres" have lead to the growth of the informal sector in which so many women are employed -- but under such poor conditions. 11.59 This is the dilemma. Even if it were possible to enforce existing labor regulations throughout the informal sector, such a move could be expected to have the same effect there that it had in the formal sector: a shift to more capital-intensive production, labor-shedding wherever possible, and yet more elaborate manoeuvers to obtain a flexible, low-wage work force. In a labor market crowded with unskilled workers, that low-wage work force will continue to exist. The formal/informal duality will remain, and in all probability, women will continue to be concentrated in the informal sector. 11.60 Although not with any particular reference to women, the 1989 CEM6 proposes a strategy for breaking out of this dilemma by stimulating the formal industrial sector to adopt more labor-intensive production methods and create more jobs. In this view, creating the conditions for more rapid growth is the most powerful anti-poverty instrument because it will increase demand for labor and raise wages. A shift is recommended from the current "defensive" 6"lndia: Poverty, Employmett and Social Services", Report No. 7617-IN, May, 1989.  - 215 - job-saving approach to an active job-creating approach. Among the specific measures proposed is the gradual dismantling of all but a few basic and enforceable regulations to protect workers -- and applying these to all workers, thereby gradually weakening the formal/informal duality. 11.61 The critical question, of course, is whether this approach -- clearly a departure from most "targeted" approaches to the problems of women in the urban informal sector -- would also increase jobs and ultimately raise wages and improve the quality of life for poor women. Overall economic growth is undoubtedly a necessary condition for any lasting improvement in the employment and income situation of poor urban women. But, as the CEM recognizes it will not be sufficient by itself to reduce existing disparities and distribute the benefits of growth more equally, Given women's present education and skill levels, the social/family attitudes they confront, and the time and mobility constraints they face, it is very unlikely that they will get the new jobs which the suggested reforms would open up in the formal industrial and service sectors. 11.62 To ensure that the strong industrial growth India has experienced over the last decade (over 8% p.a. in the 1980s) directly benefits the poor, the CEM recommends a set of policies to encourage labor -- rather than capital-intensive investment. Especially important for women, who are concentrated in the informal sector, is the removal of regulatory barriers which discourage ancillary relationships between small and large firms and inhibit expansion of successful firms in both the informal and small-scale sectors. Policies such as product reservation and subsidized credit which are meant to assist the small-scale sector in the belief that it is highly labor- intensive and will create employment for the poor are shown to act instead as incentives for SSI firms to remain small and invest in capital-intensive production. 11.63 However, in addition to changes in the macro-level industrial policy environment to promote employment growth, there may be a need for additional measures to insure that existing gender-specific constraints to female employment are also addressed. As an extension of efforts to increase the employment potential of firms of all sizes it will also be important to enable poor women (and men) to create their own lobs -- through providing better access to education, credit, land, extension advice, technology, raw materials, markets and so on. If women obtain this access, they can and will create their own jobs, make these jobs more productive and therefore more remunerative. 11.64 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 of a sector affect the potential for growth and employment creation in another. In other words, it will be important that policy changes necessary to improve formal sector industrial employment be matched with efforts to support increased jobs and self-employment in the informal sector. The remarkable vitality of the informal sector in India is evident from the discussion in Chapter 7, but there is need for much more precise understanding of its structure and dynamics -- of the many different types of workers and occupations it comprises, of its complex relationship  - 216 - with the formal sector, and of its responses to changes in the industrial policy environment. 11.65 The policy mix proposed here is similar to that required for rural women: policies to promote overall employment growth combined with special measures to insure that women have the resources they need to be part of that growth. Most of these special measures, fall into the same broad categories as those proposed to support rural women. A number of such specific action -- including measures to improve women's access to credit, re-thinking of current approaches to training women in non-traditional skills, organization, supportive services and advocacy for informal sector workers -- were discussed in some detail in Chapter 7. Equally essential are efforts to improve the fundamental human capital resources of poor women through provision of basic primary education and better health care discussed in Chapters 8 and 9 and summarized below. E. Women's Access to Social Services 11.66 Better female health and nutrition status and higher levels of female educational attainment are important in two ways: as outcomes of development and critical elements in the quality of life, they are valuable in themselves and indicate a more equitable distribution of what society produces; but as the means for women's increased economic productivity, they are also essential inPuts to development. Correcting the past deficits in women's stock of human capital can lead not only to higher levels of aggregate growth, but to better distribution of that growth across socio-economic groups and within the family. It can also have profound inter-generational impacts -- on the size of the population; the quality of the future labor force and the way women are valued by society. Education 11.67 There is little that can rival female education as a means of weakening the inside/outside dichotomy and expanding opportunities for women. School attendance familiarizes girls with non-family social settings and increases their skills and confidence to engage in public discourse. Literacy itself opens up the possibility of almost unlimited exposure to new information and, more importantly, to new ways of thinking and new perspectives on existing information. It leads to better hygiene, improved nutrition practices and greater effectiveness in caring for family health and seeking timely medical intervention. This results in better health status for the woman herself and improved "maternal competence" which leads to lower infant mortality. A mother's primary education brings infant mortality down to 71 per 1000 live births, compared with 145 per 1000 for infants born to illiterate mothers. And better child survival is one of the reasons that female education is so strongly linked to fertility reduction. Other factors associated with female education are latter age of marriage, smaller desired family size, better knowledge of contraception and ways to obtain it, and, perhaps most importantly, higher potential earnings which increase the opportunity costs of child bearing. As noted in Chapter 9, the fertility of illiterate women in different age groups is between 30% and 50% higher than that of literate women.  - 217 - 11.68 On the face of it, one would expect education to lead to similar improvements in women's labor force participation, thus further weakening the inside/outside dichotomy. While this relationship does hold at higher levels of education, primary and secondary education are actually associated with reduced female participation. This is related to the traditional "labor hierarchy" discussed earlier which favors withdrawal of women from the labor force into purely domestic work when economically feasible. Since it is the relatively better-off families who can afford to send their daughters to school, these educated girls are generally married off into higher status families where women are not sent out to work. When families can afford to educate their daughters through high school or above, another more modern set of values begin to come into play and women's careers themselves become a source of prestige to their families. 11.69 If women are in the labor force, then even a small amount of education greatly increases their earnings. NSS data on the earnings of urban female workers show that even literacy without completed primary schooling results in higher earnings, but middle school qualifications double women's returns to labor. Technical training for literate women resulted in earnings three times that of illiterate women; but, even illiterate women could double their earnings through technical training. Education also enables women to move out of agricultural labor and into non-household manufacturing and service occupations. 11.70 Despite its strong linkage to so many positive outcomes and the marked progress made over the last 40 years, female literacy remains very low in India. As noted earlier, this is especially the case in the rural areas where only 20.7% of the female population is literate -- less that half the rural male literacy rate and one-third the urban female literacy rate. In deciding how to effect rapid and substantial improvements in female educational attainment there is an important strategic choice to be made: does one target adult women who have missed the opportunity for formal schooling and are thus confined to a life of lower productivity, higher fertility and generally constrained access; or does one focus on school-age girls as the prime targets in the attempt to improve female educational attainment? 11.71 The choice here has been to concentrate on increasing the number of girls who enter and complete elementary school or eight years of education. Within this goal there is a further narrowing of focus to the five years of primary education and the acquisition of basic skills and knowledge. This approach is broadly consistent with the one set out in the National Policy On Education which has recognized that its aim of universal primary and elementary education can not be achieved without major efforts to enroll and retain young girls in school. 11.72 As noted in Chapter 8, female illiteracy is concentrated in certain regions and socio-economic groups. The lower overall literacy rates of rural women have already been noted. But more than half of India's illiterate rural women are in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The gross rural literacy rate for females is 18%, but in 136 of India's 373 rural districts -- most of them in these 5 states -- female literacy rates fall below 10%. In 27 districts female literacy is below 5%.  - 218 - Female literacy is also much lower among Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) populations: only 7% of the Tribal and 9% of the Scheduled Caste women are literate. Enrollments for SC/ST girls are also low. Only 19% of SC girls are enrolled, less than half the enrollment of girls from the rest of the population. Since resources are limited (and expenditure for primary education has fallen from 40% to 25% of the education budget between the 1st and the 7th Plan), sharp targeting of those resources to the geographic areas and socio-economic groups most in need must be a critical element in any plan to reduce female illiteracy. 11.73 Studies have revealed that in most parts of the population attitudes towards female education are positive. Yet despite their belief that education is good for girls, many parents do not send their own daughters to school because, especially among the poor, girls' labor is needed for agricultural and household production tasks as well as for domestic chores such as cooking and looking after younger siblings. In addition to the opportunity cost of the daughter's labor there are also the actual costs of clothes, school supplies and books which discourage poor parents. Yet families are often willing to forego the labor of sons and even incur cash expenses on their education: that is regarded as an investment in their own future security. Ideally at least, the son will remain with the family even after marriage and contribute to household earnings. In contrast, education for a girl only increases the cost to her natal family of getting her married since a more educationally qualified groom requires a larger dowry. Any economic benefit from her future earnings (should she be allowed to work) would accrue to her husband's family. 11.74 In light of these facts, there are three complementary approaches that can be taken to increase the number of young girls getting access to education. 11.75 The first involves a number of special support services aimed at reducing costs to parents and creating incentives for them to enroll their daughters. Perhaps most important are efforts to provide day care facilities at or near the school compound so that girls can be relieved of their child care roles during school hours. NCO experiments involving this approach have shown a positive impact on girls' attendance. Especially promising is the suggestion to link ICDS Anganvadis with primary schools by sharing a compound and coordinating hours. Incentive schemes already exist which provide free textbooks, uniforms, and even attendance scholarships to girls. The coverage however varies widely and not with any particular reference to need as measured by prevailing local female literacy rates. These schemes need to be much more carefully targeted, perhaps to the 136 districts where female literacy is below 10%. Finally, the use of meal programs as an incentive does not have clear positive effects on attendance and is, of course, extremely difficult to target only to girls. A small sample survey of households affected by the Chief Minister's Nutritious Noon Meal Programme in Tamil Nadu indicated that despite the noon meals, dropout rates were high (60%), especially for girls belonging to assetless scheduled caste households. Moreover, the review noted that "many studies reported that children were showing up at schools briefly at meal time" (Subbarao, 1987:15-18, cited in Kurrien, 1988)  - 219 - 11.76 The second set of measures to improve female school attendance are those aimed at improving the overall guality and effectiveness of elementary education. These measures which are already being implemented as part of the new National Policy on Education will probably do more to increase the aggregate demand for female (as well as male) education than all of the female-specific incentive schemes mentioned above. One of the new programs is Operation Blackboard which in addition to providing certain essential physical facilities (i.e. two large classrooms, toilets, blackboards, library books and other learning materials), will also recruit a second teacher -- preferably a local woman. Since in many of the areas where a woman teacher would be most necessary there are the fewest educated women candidates, special measures have been added to relax the educational qualifications for this post. 11.77 Another facet of the effort to improve the quality of elementary education is the establishment of 400 District Institutes of Education and Training (DIET) which would provide pre-service and in-service training which is badly needed to upgrade the basic teaching skills of village teachers. Other measures are aimed at improving the supervision of teachers and experimenting with greater community responsibility for and control over local schools. These measures, though not aimed specifically at girls, are essential if the quality of teaching is to improve sufficiently to motivate parents to send their daughters and to make school a rewarding experience once a girl is allowed to attend. 11.78 The third measure aimed at insuring that all girls become literate and have access to some education is the proposed strengthening of Non-Formal Education (NFE) to reach children in the 9-14 age group who have either never enrolled in school or who have dropRed out. Plans call for state governments to establish 184,000 NFE Centers to offer part time instruction of 2-3 hours in the evening or at a time of day convenient for working children. The central government is providing matching funds to the states (50% for mixed centers and 90% for girls' centers). While the flexibility of timing and the reduced hours of instruction help to make such non-formal programs more accessible to girls who have to work, the available evidence is that the teachers for these programs are often inadequately trained and poorly monitored. It may be questioned whether it is realistic to expect that "older working children can, through a part-time education imparted by poorly paid instructors, achieve in two years what the formal full time system manages in five years" (Govinda, 1988:37). Instead, it may be sounder to concentrate all efforts on improving the quality and reach of the formal system and incorporate the flexible timing and shorter hours of instruction into that system. 11.79 Although the priority has been placed on incorporating as many school-age girls as possible into the formal school system, there is also an urgent need to reach the tremendous numbers of adult female illiterates who face lives of continued low productivity and high fertility. Should priority be given to making them literate and numerate through programs like the National Literacy Mission (NLM), or to training them in production-oriented skills through programs like TRYSEM, the ITIs and the women's vocational training program? The latter approach with suggestions for modifications of  - 220 - current programs has been put forward under the economic policy measures outlined for both rural and urban women and hardly needs mention here again. What may be added is the suggestion that linking adult literacy components into such vocational training for those who are not literate could have a synergistic effect increasing the level of skills that can be taught and providing a functional context for literacy. Important here would be development of a high quality core curriculum that could be adapted to local linguistic and cultural differences and as appropriate, to the content of the vocational training. 11.80 As discussed in Chapter 8, prospects for adult literacy on its own are not encouraging. The NIM is taking steps to improve on this performance by giving better training and material to its teachers, hiring more women instructors and establishing Jana Shikshan Nilayams -- small centers which provide neo-literates from several neighboring villages with reading materials and other support. The problem is that the distribution of program inputs does not appear to bear much relation to the areas of high female literacy where the need is greatest. Like efforts to improve enrollment and retention of girls, NIM efforts to reach adult female illiterates should concentrate in the 136 districts where female literacy is below 10%. Since literate mothers are known to be more supportive of education for their daughters, this would also enhance efforts to draw young girls into the formal education system. Nutrition. Health and Family Welfare 11.81 Several strategic observations grow out of the examination of the relationship between women's health and productivity undertaken in this review. These observations suggest a broad policy approach within which the specific recommendations for improving the delivery of health and family planning services to women need to be situated. 11.82 The first observation is one that has emerged as a central theme of this review: the necessity of seeing poor women as agents rather than targets. Nowhere is the need to shift from viewing women as beneficiaries of programs and services to seeing them as critical agents in the achievement of sectoral goals more patent than in the health and family welfare sectors. Bearing and caring for children, nurturing family members through preparing food, cleaning and healing: these are the archtypical "inside" roles of women. To a large extent health and family planning issues are "inside" issues and women are the ultimate "extension agents" for any government initiative to improve sanitation, nutrition or health care at the household level. Though they have much less control in this realm, women are also critical frontline workers in family planning efforts. 11.83 The remaining observations draw out some of the policy implications of the complex two-way relationship between women's productivity and health. In one direction the relationship between women's health and her productivity is fairly straightforward and holds for men as well: women need at least a certain level of health and nutritional input in order to be productive workers. And it is from this point of view that health, like education, is viewed as human capital and therefore a factor in economic growth. The evidence presented in this review shows clearly that women's  - 221 - health and nutritional status is lower than that of their male counterparts, so low in some cases that it affects not only their productivity but, also their survival. 11.84 In the other direction -- i.e., looking at the effect of women's productivity on her own and her family's health -- there are more levels involved. On the first level, women's employment appears to have positive effects on health. It not only increases the net income available to the family for health care and food purchases, but it increases the woman's control over the utilization of household income. Mure research is needed, but evidence has accumulated in India and elsewhere that women have different spending priorities than men do and that these priorities are more oriented toward family maintenance. At low levels of income, the ability to implement those priorities has measurable positive health and nutrition effects for children. The increased control female income earners have over most aspects of household decision-making, combined with the greater opportunity cost of additional children, means that women's employment is also associated with lower fertility and the health benefits that entails for the woman and her children. 11.85 There may also be negative trade-offs between the woman's employment outside the home and the time she has available for good child care and feeding practices. Among the poor, especially in urban areas, the nuclear family is the norm; hence, alternative adult care takers are often not available. Evidence is scanty and conflicting, but the mother's earnings may not fully offset the negative effects of her absence from home on child feeding and care -- especially when the child is very young and alternative care is not available. 11.86 The productivity/health relationship also manifests itself in a more alarming way in the lower female survival rates prevailing in much of north India where women's lower labor force participation reduces their economic value. In terms of policy formulation this means that many of the measures needed to imRrove women's health and nutrition and to lower their fertility lie outside the health sector in education and in the productive sectors (Stout, 1989). Needed is a perspective broad enough and deep enough to allow the fundamental issue of women's status in society to emerge as a common factor linking a number of sector-specific manifestations of the poverty nexus. 11.87 Specifically for the health sector, this means that as much as improvements in service delivery and quality of care are needed, the problem of low demand for health and family planning services is unlikely to be solved without improvements in women's status through female employment and literacy. At the same time, it must be recognized that such changes are of a long term nature. And in the short term there are a number of concrete measures that can be taken to make the existing services more accessible and responsive to women who are still largely confined to the "inside". A number of these 'supply side" recommendations were set out in some detail in Chapter 9. The major thrusts are highlighted below:  - 222 - 11.88 One of the most important recommendations is to develoR the female community-level health workers who are the most likely to be able to reach women in their domestic setting. These are the Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs) or Multi-Purpose Workers (Female) (MPWFs), the trained Dais (traditional birth attendants) and Anganvadi Workers and the village-based health guides. All these workers need better training in the technical and the inter-personal part of their work. They also need more focused and clearly defined job descriptions with a shift from emphasis on meeting targets and filling out registers to spending more time with their clients on home visits. The MPWF needs to have the skills and motivation to respond to women's expressed health concerns rather than delivering centrally determined messages and target-driven services. 11.89 In other words, the same localized problem-solving ability and flexible approach that would improve the effectiveness of the VEW in the agricultural extension system is needed by field workers in the community health system. However, unless the number of families the MPWF is expected to visit is reduced (from the current 400-500 a month to around 250), it is physically impossible for her to spend enough time with each woman to develop the sustained, personalized relationship that is needed. The 1989 CEM recommends a reduction in the MPWF's workload through targeting to high risk groups (such as pregnant women) and through closer coordination with other community level health workers so that some tasks could be delegated. Once again, the similarity with the agricultural extension system, which badly needs co-ordination between extension agents working in different agricultural sub-sectors, is evident. What is less evident is how departmental rivalries can be overcome at the supervisory and planning levels to make such co- ordination possible at the field level. 11.90 While the approach recommended here would expect most of the health care priorities to be determined locally by women users, there are a number of interventions aimed at the most wide-spread causes of female morbidity and mortality that could be introduced through an improved outreach system. One of these is anemia control. Currently 60% of Indian women suffer from this condition which lowers their work performance and increases their risks during childbearing. Distribution of iron-folate tablets through the MPWF or in the Anganvadis, or along with access to temporary birth control methods would be a fairly straightforward measure to combat this problem. 11.91 More complicated would be a reduction in the number of unattended births and improvements in the home delivery care and referral system. Nationally, 80% of all births take place at home without trained medical attention (Shatrugna, 1988) and less than a quarter are institutionalized (Chatterjee, 1988). If the MPWF did concentrate on visiting pregnant women and was also able to build better, more responsive relationships with them over the course of the pregnancy, it is more likely that either she or the trained Dai would be summoned to monitor and assist. Upgraded training and improved identification and referral of high risk cases would also need to be part of this intervention.  - 223 - 11.92 Greater emphasis on reaching women in groups could also extend the coverage of the village-based health workers. In many NGO community health programs women's health groups have proved extremely effective. Members themselves often take over a large part of the health worker's motivational and logistical chores (such as getting children together for immunization or weighing) and enable her to convey information much more efficiently. Also for some particularly difficult aspects of public health work such as water and sanitation, women's groups are essential to evolve a workable consensus on needs and responsibilities. But group organization work takes time and special skills. If the MPWF is expected to do this work herself, her workload and training will need to be adjusted. Alternatively, she could be asked to provide health support services to groups organized by others and even for other purposes such as credit or literacy. 11.93 Another measure that would need to be part of the increased emphasis on responsive, client-centered care would be a shift of emphasis in family planning services from permanent to spacing methods. removal of targets and greater attention to the health of the mother and her child rather than just the reduction of her fertility (Stout, 1988). 11.94 A final suggestion is that there be a programmatic focus on reaching adolescent girls. This is the age when at least some of the interlocking causes of women's poor health and nutrition status and their economic vulnerability can be averted. Preventing early marriage and the resultant early child-bearing and providing education or vocational training at this stage can re-direct the course of a girl's life. Some opportunities such as nutritional intervention to assure that girls are able to take advantage of their adolescent growth spurt to catch up with shortages experienced in early childhood, come only at this time. Others such as literacy, familiarity with services and confidence to use them may be much more difficult and costly to provide at a later stage. The promise of such a focus has been recognized by health and family welfare planners. Whether the currently proposed programmatic response of adding several adolescent girls to work two days a week as Anganwadi assistants with ICDS is an adequate or even useful response has yet to be determined. It is necessary to enlarge the entire range of community-based services to specifically include girls between the ages of 5 and 15 and provisions of this age groups should also be made, for example, in school health programs. F. Evolving Government and NGO Approaches to Women in Development Government Efforts 11.95 Government programs for women's development in India began as early as 1954, but were initially conceived in the traditional framework, concentrating on the women on the "inside" focussing on their motherhood and family care roles and on social services such as primary health and education. The shift in conceiving women's development programs along the continuum from social welfare to full participation in mainstream economic activities began with the report of the Committee on the Status of Women in India in 1974 and gathered momentum through a series of measures thereafter. In the 1970s, however, women's development issues were subsumed by the wider concerns for  - 224 - poverty alleviation in the policy and plans of GOI. It was only in the 1980s that it began to be acknowledged that women constitute not just a special segment but the core of the poor in India and needed targeted programs. In recognition of this, during the Sixth Five Year Plan (1980-85), targets were specified for women in mainstream poverty alleviation programs such as the Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP) and programs specifically targeted ito women, such as Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA) were started. 11.96 Mainstream poverty alleviation programs can be categorized into those specially designed for women, such as DWCRA; those with specific targets for women, such as the IRDP and TRYSEM; and finally, programs which do not have any specific target for women, although theoretically open to women, such as the National Rural Employment Program (NREP). A review of these programs indicates, however, that the understanding and concern for women's issues at the policy and program formulation level is considerably attenuated by the time the programs are implemented on the ground. The women's components of development programs are prone to the normal ills of government programs, such as mis-identification of beneficiaries; inadequate coverage of remote areas; absence of forward and backward linkages necessary to make an economic activity successful; and leakages due to corruption, collusion and political favoritism. In addition, women's development programs have seen indifferent performance due to women-specific reasons which include: use of the 'household" approach to poverty alleviation, which more often than not shuts out women from receiving the benefits (e.g. loans under the IRDP); inadequate recognition of the special needs and constraints of women for participation in economic activities; an attempt to implement women's programs through the traditional, male-orientated delivery structures with none or marginal addition of women extension staff and no reorientation of the male staff; and a lack of attempt at promoting non-traditional economic activities for women either at the training stage or at the stage of giving loans. 11.97 In this not very encouraging overall picture, there are some examples of women's programs which have done well. These are relatively small, operating at the level of a few districts or a state, and concentrating on a few sub-sectors or functional activities. Generally, the more successful programs have worked in partnership with specialized agencies (parastatal or non-governmental), with a prior record of achievement in the economic sub- sector (such as the Cooperative Federations in dairying) or in the functional activity (such as NGOs in establishing women's credit groups). The use of such intermediary agencies has enabled these programs to bypass some of the built-in disabilities of traditional delivery systems. The limitation, however, is that such agencies exist in relatively few regions and sub- sectors, and a nationwide program spanning many sub-sectors cannot be based on them. 11.98 The increasing concern at the policy-making level in the GOI about women's issues is reflected in a variety of initiatives in the latter half of this decade, which will influence future actions related to women's development. These initiatives include the setting up of the National Commission on Self-Employed Women ad Women in the Informal Sector (NCSW); formulation of a National Perspective Plan for Women (NPPW); launching of new  - 225 - programs targeted to women, such as Support to Employment Programs for Women (STEP); and the establishment of new institutions such as the network of state level Women's Development Corporations (WDCs). Also on the anvil is the proposal discussed earlier for setting up a Women's Credit Fund, for the purpose of on-lending to catalyst programs for women's development through governmental, parastatal and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). NGO Involvement 11.99 One heartening feature of the scenario related to women's development in India over the 1980s has been the increasing role played by NGOs. Their participation in the process has spanned a variety of levels: acting as program implementing or facilitating agencies at the grassroots; providing training to women cadres of Nahila Mandals and DWCRA groups and in some cases to government staff in women's programs; working with the state and central governments and commercial banks in pilot projects; and doing field research, providing feedback and critiquing policy, as in the case of the NCSW, which had a majority membership from among the NGOs. For all their good work, however, NGOs constitute a minuscule developmental force in the face of the country's size. A study estimates less than 15% of all NCOs work with women, while the proportion of exclusive women's NGOs is likely to be much smaller. Thus, there is not even an average of one NGO working with women, per district in India. In addition to their overall small number, the geographical distribution is such that the poorer regions and rural areas have fewer than proportionate number of NGOs. 11.100 NCOs also have problems in drawing and retaining high quality human resources, which in turn, limits the NGOs access to knowledge resources and their influence over the mainstream institutions. Another factor that constrains NGOs is their dependence on foreign funds, or more recently government funds, mostly as grants. Few NGOs use bank loans, although many have begun to play the role of helping the poor get access to bank loans under the IRDP, or to funds with government programs generally. Often, however, NGO involvement with government programs is not welcomed by the lower bureaucracy and local politicians. Similarly, at the policy level, while generally NCO cooperation is sought in program implementation, it is not as welcome for program design or policy critique. In spite of these obstacles, many NCOs have collaborative relationships with the government, while retaining their independence, flexibility and grassroot orientation. Any attempt to foster greater collaboration with NGOs should be sensitive to these special characteristics of NCOs. A Cross-Sectoral Strategy 11.101 A strategy which has been recommended to support initiatives in a number of sectors is the organization of women into groups. This approach not only emerged in almost every sectoral study prepared for this review, but is also a central recommendation of the recently issued report (Sramshakti) of the National Commission on Self-employed Women and Women in the Informal Sector.  - 226 - 11.102 Group formation is particularly powerful in weakening the inside/outside dichotomy. It provides women a legitimate forum beyond the private domestic sphere and a more audible voice in demanding services and inputs to which they have previously lacked access. Membership in a group can initially substitute for the individual woman's lack of "bureaucratic knowhow" and her unfamiliarity with public discourse. It permits her to gradually build up her capacity to interact effectively with the whole range of public (i.e., non-kin) systems and structures that are an increasingly important part of attempts to redistribute economic opportunity in contemporary India. Most importantly, it can transform women (or any disadvantaged group for that matter) from "beneficiaries", who must be grateful for whatever one-time largesse they receive, into clients who are in a long-term reciprocal relationship with the institutions that serve them. 1.1.103 In this sense the creation of a strong "demand group" from previously passive beneficiaries or "target populations" is the essential complement to supply side efforts to improve delivery systems. It does however, often involve some uncomfortable changes for those at all levels of the delivery system: they are then forced to become more responsive to local priorities and to replace centralized formulas with more flexible planning of both the content and the mechanisms of delivery. Targets and messages from the top give way to location-specific problem-solving. In the course of this review the need to build in greater responsiveness to local conditions and to the special priorities of socially and economically disadvantaged groups has been highlighted for the agricultural research and extension system, for the diairy co-operative system, the community health and family welfare systems and the education system. At some fundamental level this has to do with an enlightened transfer of power: the formation of genuinely self-determined local groups is ultimately one of the most meaningful forms of decentralization. G. Conclusions 11.104 What emerges most forcefully from this review is that efforts to improve the position of Indian women need to focus on women as economic actors. There is compelling evidence that improving women's productivity can have important economic effects in terms of growth and distribution -- and that it should, in fact, be seen as an essential element in strategies for poverty alleviation. On another level of discourse, the report also suggests that increasing women's ability to earn and control a secure livelihood has positive effects on women's welfare and status -- and is ultimately the most powerful public policy tool available to alter the social construction of gender. In short, the two major policy conclusions which emerge from this assessment are that: (i) women are central to the success of Roverty alleviation efforts in the short as well as in the long term, and (ii) markset forces have great Dotential to influence gender ideology and to increase the perceived value of women. Both have to do with the complex linkages between gender, economic status and access and both have very clear program and policy implications.  - 227 - 11.105 With regard to the relation between poverty and gender, the evidence is overwhelming: women as a group are more vulnerable than men to the extremes of poverty and its consequences. It is also clear that, for poor households, the woman's capacity to work, her health, her knowledge and her skill endowments are often the only resources to call upon for survival. Women's labor force participation and their relative contribution to total family income are higher in households with lower economic status. The Roorest families are the most deRendent uRon women's economic productivity. 11.106 These realities mean that anti-poverty policies based on the perception of women primarily as a target group for poverty alleviation programs and social services are seriously flawed. They fail to recognize and, hence, to harness the strategic Rotential of women as critical actors in the process of moving their families out of poverty. This does not mean that gender-based targets have no place in direct poverty alleviation programs such as IRDP or even in mainstream production support services such as agricultural extension. But they are not enough; much deeper changes are needed in the structure and conceptualization of these efforts. Women are not, and must not be regarded as mere recipients of public support. They are, first and foremost, economic agents -- but faced with severe gender-specific constraints that limit their productivity and, hence, their ability to escape poverty. If programs restructure their approach to address these constraints, targets should be redundant. 11.107 Measures to enhance women's access to productive resources are critical, as direct and self-targeting means to reduce poverty. Current estimates are that 30-35% of rural Indian households are headed by women (GOI. 1988:10) and, thus, in most cases dependant exclusively on female income. Even where there is a male earner, women's earnings form a major part of the income of poor households. Moreover, the evidence reviewed here shows that women contribute a larger share of what they earn than men to basic family maintenance, and increases in women's income translate more directly into better child health and nutrition. 11.108 It is clear that economic incentives can weaken the 'inside/outside dichotomy". Increasing women's economic productivity affects their own status and survival in the immediate family and their valuation at the wider societal level. The mechanisms through which this takes place are not yet entirely clear. However, the evidence reviewed suggests that, in the short term, improvements come from the increased household "bargaining power" which a woman's ability to earn income brings with it. Direct unmediated - access to income drastically reduces a woman's dependency and thus strengthens her ability to realize her own preferences within the family. In the longer term, changed perceptions of women's economic value appear to change family resource allocation preferences by raising the opportunity costs of not investing in the welfare and economic productivity of women. This means that raising female earning power may be critical to increasing the effective demand for the education, health and family planning services necessary to improve women's welfare.  - 228 - 11.109 To sum up, the economic benefits of increasing female productivity would include: * increased aggregate labor productivity and accelerated growth in key sectors such as agriculture, where women are nearly half the labor force; and * increased household incomes, especially in families below the poverty line. 11.110 The social welfare benefits of increasing women's economic value (and thereby control over the allocation of household resources) would include: * an increased share of family incomes allocated to providing food and health care to children; * improved male and female child survival and increased family investment in daughter's education; * reduced fertility and slower population growth; and * greater gender equity.  - 229 - Technical Note: DERIVATION OF TABLE 2.1 1. Table 2.1 has three sources. They are: a. Sarvekshana, Vol. IX, No. 4, April 1986, Table 1, pp. S-125-S126, (Attachments I and II). b. National Sample Survey Organization, Government of India Report No. 315, 1983, Table 1. (Attachment III). c. Geeta Sen and Chirinjib Sen - "Women's Domestic Work and Economic Activity: Results from National Sample Survey", COS Working Paper: 197, 1984. (Attachment IV). 2. The number of estimated persons above five years of age (Rural-Urban, Male-Female) of each activity status category is used to calculate the percentage of the total population (of working age over 5). The total of estimated persons of each category above five years of age is from Sarvekshana, April 1986, Table 1 (Attachments I and II). Table 2.la Rural Male 224,458,500 - 38.48% Female 217,091,100 - 37.21% Urban Male 74,734,000 - 12.81% Female 67.070.000 - 11.50% 583.353.600 - 100.00% 3. Row (1) of Table 2.1 is calculated as follows: The percentage of the population within and outside the labor force (as defined by NSS, 38th Round) is calculated by multiplying the above ratios by the percentage of each population group classified by NSS as being within the labor force (status code 01-82) and outside the labor force (status code 91-99). According to NSS classification those in activity state code 01-82 are within the labor force; those in status- code 91-99 are outside. Thus, to calculate the Labor Force Activity for Rural Males 38.48 x 64.20 - 24.70 100 64.20 is the percentage of labor force activity (01-82) to the total population from Sarvekshana, April 1986, Table 1 (Attachments I and II).  - 230 - Making a similar calculation for the remaining three categories of Labor Force Activity (LFA) and all four categories of Non-Labor Force Activity, (NLFA) we have: Table 2.lb LFA NLFA Rural Male 38.48 x 64.20 - 24.7 38.48 x 35.80 - 13.78 Female 37.21 x 39.00 - 14.53 37.21 x 60.94 - 22.68 Urban Male 12.81 x 60.82 - 7.79 12.81 x 39.18 - 5.02 Female 11.50 x 18.36 - 2.11 11.50 x 31.64 - 9.38 Total 49.14 50.86 4. Row (2) of Table 2.1 is calculated as follows: Labor Force Activity is defined as the sum of total number employed (main workers), total number underemployed (marginal workers) and total number unemployed. First, the raw percentages of the above three constituents are calculated. These are then multiplied to the LFA ratio of the respective category. The aggregates are obtained by adding up. The raw percentages are calculated as follows: Main Workers: Main Workers x 100 Labor Force Activity Marginal Workers: Marginal Workers x 100 where marginal workers - Labor Force Activity LFA minus unemployed minus main workers Unemployed: Unemployment x 100 unemployed - Code 81+ Labor Force Activity Code 82 For Rural Males: Percentage Main Workers: 61.10 x 100 - 95.17 64.2 60.10 is the figure for main workers (NSSO, Report No. 315, Table 1, Page 8). Percentage Marginal Workers: 2.13 x 100 - 3.32 64.20 2.13 is the figure for marginal workers (NSSO, Report No. 315, Table 1, Page 8). Percentage unemployed: 0.97 x 100 - 1.51 64.20  - 231 - 0.97 is the sum of code 81 and 82 workers for Rural Males (Sarvekshana, April 1986, Table 1). The above percentages are then multiplied to the ratio of LFA Rural Males (i.e. 24.70 see Table 2.1b). Main Workers: 24.7 X 95.17 -23.51 100 Marginal Workers: 24.7 x 5 - 0.37 100 Underemployed: 24.7 x 3.3 - 0.82 100 Similar calculations are made for the remaining three categories. The sum of all four categories separately under the heads Main Workers, Marginal Workers and Unemployed gives us the aggregate figures in Table 2.1c below. Table 2.1c Rural Urban ----------%---------- M F M F oItal Total M F Main 23.51 10.56 7.21 1.59 42.87 82.74 71.66 28.34 Marginal 0.37 0.12 0.04 0.12 1.01 2.06 76.24 23.76 Unemployed 0.82 3.86 0.18 0.40 5.26 10.70 19.01 80.99 The last three columns of the above table appear in Row (2) of Table 2.1. 5. Row (5) of Table 2.1: Calculations have been made separately for column (A) and column (B). i.e. the percentage composition of LFA and NLFA has been calculated independently to distinct bases. 6. Row (5) Column (A) has been calculated as follows: a. LFA is reduced to the sum of total employed (main workers) and total under employed (marginal workers). The unemployed have been excluded as they do not fall within the framework of any "activity-industry". Besides, the classification in Row (5)  - 232 - Column (A) deals exclusively with economically productive activity. LFA is therefore reduced to a base of 48.13 from a total LFA base of 49.14 (see Table C.lb) i.e. LFA - unemployed - 48.13. For Rural Males: LFA - 24.70; Unemployment - 0.37; hence, employed males - 24.33 The rural-urban, male-female composition is as follows: Table 2.ld Rural Male 24.33 Female 14.42 Urban Male 7.39 Female 1.99 48.13 b. Activity Status Code 01.04 (working under an employer under obligation but work not specifically compensated by wage/salary) for which no industry code is provided has been included under Regular Wage/Salary Work and further under Agricultural Production. C. Activity Status Code 41 (worked as Casual Labor in Public Works) for which no industry code is provided is included under Casual Labor and further under Non Agricultural Production. d. The percentage composition of LFA by industry activity codes (for all four categories) is calculated by first obtaining a series of raw percentages: Rural Males Salaried - 6.81 x 100 - 10.77 63.23 Where 6.81 is the percentage of males above five years of age employed as salary/wage workers. 63.23 is the percentage of Rural Males in the labor force (excluding unemployed). (Sarvekshana, April 1986, Table 1.) The obtained value (10.77) is then multiplied to the ratio of LFA Rural Males (see Table 2.1d) to obtain the break up. The raw percentages are presented in Table 2.1e below:  - 233 - Table 2.le Rural Urban M F M F Salaried 10.77 3.1 44.65 26.23 Casual 28.83 34.69 14.77 27.27 Self Emp. 45.55 22.20 32.79 27.21 Unpaid 14.85 40.01 7.79 19.29 The table obtained by multiplying the percentages in Table 2.1d to the ratios in Table 2.1e is: Table 2.lf Rural Urban ----------%---------- M F M F Total Total M F Salaried 2.62 0.45 3.30 0.52 6.89 14.32 85.92 14.08 Casual 7.02 5.00 1.09 0.54 13.65 28.36 59.41 40.59 Self-Emp. 11.08 3.20 2.42 0.54 17.24 35.82 78.31 21.69 Unpaid 3.61 5.77 0.58 0.39 10.35 21.50 40.48 59.52 The last three columns of the above table constitute Row (5.3) column (A) of Table 2.1. 7. Calculations for Row (5.2) Column (B) have been made in a manner identical to the corresponding classification in Column (A). Tables similar to 2.le and 2.1f which were used to arrive at the aggregate figures are reproduced below. Table 2.lg Rural Urban Code M F H F 93 1.68 20.07 0.43 10.12 92 0.98 33.08 1.30 47.93 91 57.21 18.03 72.71 28.29 94,95 36.11 26.57 19.63 12.15 96 0.64 0.38 2.76 0.55 97-99 3.38 1.87 3.17 0.96  - 234 - Table 2.lh Rural Urban ----------%--------- Code M F M F Total Total M F 93 0.23 4.55 0.02 0.95 5.75 11.30 4.35 95.65 92 0.14 7.05 0.07 4.50 12.21 24.02 1.72 98.28 91 7.88 4.09 3.65 2.65 18.27 35.92 63.11 36.89 94,95 4.98 6.03 0.98 1.14 13.13 25.81 45.39 54.61 96 0.09 0.09 0.14 0.05 0.37 0.73 62.16 37.84 97-99 0.46 0.42 0.16 0.09 1.13 2.22 54.87 45.13 50.86 8. Row (5.4) of Table 2.1: Calculations for the sectoral distribution for each activity status has been made by first calculating the sectoral distribution for each of the four categories (rural-urban, male-female) separately using industry activity codes to obtain a raw percentage. These are shown below: Rural Males: Salaried Activity Status Activity Industry Usual Status 01-04 0.43 Salaried workers Agriculture 2.21 Salaried workers Non-Agriculture 4.17 6.81 The figures above are the mentioned activity status to total population from Sarvekshana, April 1986, Table 1. Agriculture: 2_6A x 100 - .138.7. 6.81 Non-Agriculture 4.17 x 100 - .61.23. 6.81 An identical series of calculations for the remaining three categories of salaried workers and for the remaining activity-status give us the required set of figures in percentages presented in Table 2.1i below. Each of these percentages is used to obtain the proportion of each category (between agriculture and non-agriculture) by obtaining the percentage of the ratios from the first four columns of Table 2.lf.  - 235 - Table 2.li Activity Status Salaried M F M F To.tal Total M F Raw %: Ag. 38.77 41.67 1.98 1.76 Non-Ag. 61.23 58.33 98.02 98.24 % Ratios: Ag. 1.02 0.19 0.07 0.01 1.29 18.72 84.20 15.80 Non-Ag. 1.60 0.26 3.23 0.51 5.6 87.28 86.25 13.75 Casual Raw %: Ag. 81.41 90.40 17.74 32.63 Non-Ag. 18.59 9.60 82.26 67.37 % Ratios: Ag. 5.71 4.52 0.19 0.18 10.60 77.66 55.66 44.34 Non-Ag. 1.31 0.48 0.90 0.36 3.05 22.34 72.46 27.54 Self Employed Raw %: Ag. 78.98 86.54 14.32 17.78 Non-Ag. 21.02 13.46 85.68 82.22 % Ratios Ag. 8.75 2.77 0.35 1.10 11.97 69.43 76.02 23.98 Non-Ag. 2.33 0.43 2.07 0.44 5.27 30.57 83.49 16.51 Unpaid Raw %: Ag. 92.82 92.99 13.99 21.18 Non-Ag. 7.18 7.01 86.01 78.82 % Ratios: Ag. 3.36 5.37 0.08 0.08 8.89 85.89 38.70 61.30 Non-Ag. 0.25 0.40 0.50 0.31 1.46 14.11 51.37 48.63 9. Detailed break-ups for the Extended Domestic Work (Code 93) are not available for the NSS 38th Round. NSS 32nd Round data have been used for this purpose, as the variation between the two rounds is small. To verify our assumption, the entire table was calculated for the 32nd Round (Attachment V) using the same approach explained above. By and large the variation is marginal. The variation between the percentage of self-employed women and unpaid family helpers is rather vast (a variation of over 25 percentage points) between the two rounds. However, the variation taking self employed and unpaid family labor as one category confirms the broad trend. The large variation appears to have occurred due to some technical failing at the point of the survey or the tabulation at NSSO. This view is strengthened by the fact that  - 236 - NSSO has not published any break-up's for self-employed and unpaid family labor but has clubbed them together as one category. The break- ups were obtained from Table No. 29 of NSSO, Report 298 (an unpublished report). These data have been used to calculate the entire table. While extended Domestic Work (Code 93) has been dealt with in great detail (especially, Sarvekshana January, 1981) for females, no break- ups of the constituents of Code 93 are available for males. 100% of males under Code 93 have been categorized as those engaged in economically productive activity. Firstly, males under Code 93 constitute only 0.33% of the total male population and thus, would not significantly influence Code 93 aggregate figures much less influence overall aggregate figures. Secondly, it appears very unlikely that a significant number of males would report activities such as tailoring or tutoring for the family as their main occupation. There appears to be some discrepancy in the detailed break-ups for Code 93 for women (Sarvekshana, January 1981, Table 3). Also the aggregate figures for Code 92 and Code 93 do not tally with the corresponding figures (NSSO, Report 298) that were used to calculate the entire table. The data for these break-ups comes from Geeta Sen and Chirinjib Sen - "Women's Domestic Work and Economic Activity: Results from the National Sample Survey" (CDS Working Paper 197, Table IV, Attachment IV). Calculation for Code 93 was made in a manner identical to the calculation for the sectoral distribution between agriculture and non- agriculture for labor force activity (Row (5.4), (5.5) Column A.) (See Attachment VI). 10. The calculations for family farm enterprise, non-agricultural production and agricultural productionl1, in rows 6 and 7 of Attachments V and VI, were done by adding the ratios of their constituents. Economically Productive Population has been used as the base. Economically Productive Population is defined here as Labor Force Activity + Economically Productive Activity within Code 93. l'Rows 6 and 7 were not included in the flnal version of Table 2.1 for this report but were calculated for the background paper on women in agriculture, 'Changing Patterns of Female Labor Deployment: Household Level Responses to Agricultural Modernization in India'. Bennett, 1990.  - 237 - Attachment I SARVEKSHANA, APRIL 1986 TAME (1): PiREWC U3A DlSTRBUTION OF POPULATION OF AGE 5 YEAUs & ABoVE,E BY ACTIVNIY STATUS (USUAL, ClURENNT WE & CURRENT DAY) AND SUEX ALL-INDIA RURAL activity codes usual status usual status current week current day (adjusted)* status status" status industry male femak male female male female male female El) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) 01-04 . . . . . X 042 004 0-43 0 05 0 41 004 X X 0 22-11 4*14 22 75 7-44 21-63 4 34 X X I I .1- . . . . I-9 6(05 116 6*05 1*16 6C21 134 X X 0 7 26 9 18 8-45 14*42 7 16 7 96 X X 21 . . . . . 1-9 0*94 1 08 0 94 1-08 0 99 1 18 X X 61 . , , . . 0 X X X X 0-38 0-15 X X 1-9 X X X X 0.09 0(41 X X 11, 21. 61 . . . . 0 29-37 13-32 31-20 21 86 29-17 12 45 28-47 11.28 1-9 6-99 2 24. 6-99 2-24 7-29 2-53 6-98 2-24 0-9 36-36 15-56 38-19 24-10 36-46 14 98 35-45 13 52 31, 71 . . . . 0 2 18 0 41 2-21 0 45 2-16 0 39 2-61 0-41 1-9 4 17 0 70 4-17 0-70 4-16 0-76 4.04 0-74 41 . . . .. . X 0*53 0 11 0 53 0-11 0-74 0-26 X X *.1 . . , . . 0 14 58 10-38 14 84 12-15 11-38 7 04 9-55 5-57 1-9 2-86 1 18 2-86 1-18 3-67 1-55 3-78 1 52 41, 51 . . . . 0-9 17-97 11 -67 18-23 13-44 15-79 8-85 13-33 7-07 01-71 . . . . X 6110 28-38 63-23 38-74 58-98 25-02 55-43 21-76 81 . . . . . X 1-45 0 51 0-97 0-32 1-84 0.91 X X 82 . . . . . X X X X X 0-77 0-64 X x 31, 32 . . . . X 1-45 0.51 0-97 0 32 2-61 1-55 4-79 2-52 01-u2 . . . . * X 62-55 28 -85 64 -20 39-06 61-59 26-57 60 -22 24 -28 91 . . . X 21i74 11 21 20-48 10-99 20-53 10 77 20-55 10-77 92 . . . . X 0 39 23-85 0 35 20 16 0-68 26-65 1 13 28-03 93 . . . . . X 0 70 18 35 0-60 12 23 0 85 16-91 1(30 17-62 94 . . . . . X 10-04 11-73 10 04 11-73 9 96 11-67I 95 . . . X 3-07 4-55 2 89 4 46 3-05 4 55 1 96 . . . . . X 0-25 0-25 0-23 0-23 0-25 0-22 . 16 54 18-95 97 . . . . . X 0-14 0.10 0-13 0o09 0-15 0-s0 I 93 . . . . . X 1-12 1-07 1 08 1-05 2-50 2-26J 9 . . . . . X X X X X 0-44 u-30 0-56 0 35 91-w99 . . . . X 37 45 71-11 35-80 60-94 38-41 73 43 39-78 75 72 Ol-99 . . . . X 100-00 100-00 100-00 100- 00 100 O00 100-00 100-00 * atiated persons (00) male: 2244585 femak :2170911 smple persons miae 19988 female : S6469 *A4jusomast is MAe by Incldins marioal wwks as in tb total wotk freM. *"i1, 71 incldes 01-04; 51:(1-9) icludes 41.  - 238 - Attachment II SARVEKSHANA, APRIL 1986 TABLE (1): PERCENTAGE DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION OF AGE 5 YEARS & ABOVE BY ACTIVITY STATUS (USUAL, CURRENT WEEK & CURRENT DAY) AND SEX. ALL-INDIA URBAN activity codes. usual status usual status current week current day (adjusted) status status* status industry male female male female male female male female (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) 01-04 . . . . X 0-11 0-01 0-12 0 03 0-12 0-01 X x 0 2-81 0-82 2-71 0-82 2-56 0-85 X X 11 . . . 1-9 s15*80 2 -23 16 -19 3-89 15 -65 2-37 X X 0 0-63 0 -72 0 63 0 -72 0-59 0-64 X X 21 . . . . . 1-9 3-28 1.51 3 -86 2-62 3 -27 1-64 X X 61 . . . . . 0 X X X X 0 -07 0-01 X Y 1-9 X X X X 0-29 0-06 X X 11, 21, 61 . . . . 0 3 -44 1 -54 3-42 1-54 3-22 1S50 3 -10 1-35 1-9 19-08 3 -74 20 -05 6 -51 19 -21 4 -07 18 -75 3-68 0-9 22 -52 5 -28 23 -47 8-05 22-43 5 57 21 85 5 -03 31, 71 . . . . 0 0 -39 0-05 0 -39 0 -05 0-36 0 -05 0-39 0)05 1-9 25-07 4 37 25-22 4-46 25-39 4 48 25-25 -; 37 41 . . . . . X 0-40 0-08 0-40 0-08 0-39 0-07 X x 51 . . 0 1-51 1-54 1-51 1-54 1-19 1-11 0*93 0-85 1-9 6-29 2-48 6-60 3-10 6-14 2-52 5-35 '-19 41, 51 . . . . 0-9 8-20 4-10 8 -51 4 -72 7 -72 3 -70 6 -28 3-04 01-71 . . . . X 56-29 13-81 57-71 17 -31 56 -02 13-81 53 -77 12-49 81 . . X 3-56 1-22 3*11 1 -05 3 -39 0-96 X X 82 . . . X X X X X 0-65 0 -37 X N 81, 82 . . . . X 3-56 1 -22 3 -11 1 05 4-04 1-33 5 -45 1 -72 01-82 . . . . X 59-85 15-03 60-82 18-36 60-06 15-14 59-22 14-21 '91 . . . . X 29-23 23 -26 28 -49 23 -10 28 -12 22-63 28 -18 22-63 92 . . . 0 -53 41-08 0-51 39-13 0-50 41-71 0 -72 42 -41 93 . . . . X 0 -21 9 43 0-17 8-26 0-17 8-19 0-19 8-29 94 . . . . X 5-04 5-76 5 -04 5 -76 4-84 5-60 95 . . . . . X 2 -73 4 -18 2-65 4-16 2-62 4 17 96 X 1 -14 0-46 1-08 0-45 1*13 0-42 11-41 12-3' 97 . . . . . X 0-15 0-07 0-15 0 -07 0-15 0-07 1 98 . . . X 1- 12 0 -73 1-09 0-71 2-19 1-96J 99. . . . . X X X X X 0-22 0-11 0-28 0-14 91-99 . . . . X 40 -15 84-97 39-18 81-64 39-94 84-86 40-78 8 -79 01-99 - . . - X 100-00 100-00 100-00 100-00 100-00 100-00 100-00 W,I-Wtl eismated persons (00) male :747340 femalce 6,707Pt sample persons male :49446 femalc . 440 _A*VgtW is Mbds by iNcld maga workes also in the total work fto 0)31, 71 iludu0O1-0; 51 (1-9)lludes 41.  - 239 - Attachment III NSSO, Report No. 315 Table (1): Percentage of persons of age 5 years and above usually working as obtained from the three NSS rounds for all-India by sex and residence status. Round & Type of Work Force* Rural Urban Male Female Male Female (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) 27-main & marginal 63.84 37.53 57.09 15.53 32-main only 62.25 28.82 56.22 14.03 32-main & marginal 64.06 38.48 57.48 17.80 38-main only 61.10 28.38 56.29 13.81 38-main & marginal 63.23 38.74 57.71 17.31 *27th and 32nd round estimates are based on all the four sub-round data while 38th round estimates are based on only the first two sub-round data.  - 240 - Attachment IV Geeta Sen and Chiranjib Sen - "Women's Domestic Work and Economic Activity: Results from the National Sample Survey", CDS Working Paper: 197, 1984. Table VI Women engaged in "free collection of firewood, cowdung etc." and "work in kitchen, garden, poultry, dairy etc" as Percent of engaged in domestic duties - all India Size Class Land Possessed (Acres) Firewood etc. Dairy etc. 0.00---without--owned---homestead----27--.12 0.00 without owned homestead .27 .12 O.00 with owned homestead .39 .18 0.01 - 0.49 .41 .25 0.50 - 0.99 .46 .36 1.00 - 2.49 .39 .34 2.50 - 4.99 .34 .35 5.00 - 7.49 .30 .35 7.50 - 9.99 .29 .36 10.00 - 14.99 .27 .33 15.00 - 19.99 .26 .33 20.00 & Above .24 .32 Total .36 .32 Source: Sarvekshana, January - April 1981, op cit., p. S124  CONTINUUM OF WOMEN'S WORK, 32nd ROUND (R) (199 (1) LABOR FORCE ACTIVITY NON-LABOR FORCE ACTIVITY % Total Pop.Within/Outside Lab.Force 50.17 49.83 % Male of Respective Category 65.62 37.13 % Fcnual of Respective Category 34.38 62.87 % Totl Male Population 64.02 35.98 % Total Female Population 35.31 64.49 (2) Main Workers Marginal Workers Un-eployed % Total Pop. Within Labot Force 87.54 9.99 2.47 % Male of Respective Category 71.38 17.56 55.65 % Female of Reapective Category 28.62 82.44 44.35 % Total Male Population 95.23 2.67 2.10 % Total Femalc Population 72.87 23.94 3.19 (3) Paid Labor Market Oriented Labor New Standard Extended Labor Force Force Labor Force Force (4) Work that Produces Cash Work That Produces Goods and Services for Work That Income Self-Consumption and Sale rinIds Capl Non-Work (5) Regular Casual Self- Unpaid Expanded Coventional Education Age Rentiers Others Wage Labor Employment Family Domestic Domestic of Self (Code 94, (Code 96 (Code 97 Salary Labor (Code 93) (Code 92) (Code 91) 95) 98) Work (5.1) % Total Population 6.55 13.62 26.42 2.94 5.57 11.58 16.49 15.22 0.29 1.32 % Total Male Population 11.08 15.30 34.77 2.38 0.34 0.26 20.66 13.52 0.35 1.34 Ft % Total Female Population 1.77 11.85 17.67 3.54 11.10 23.55 12.63 17.01 0.23 1.31 p (5.2) % Total Pop.Within/Outside Lab.Force 13.22 27.49 53.34 5.95 11.04 22.96 32.63 30.16 0.58 2.62 % Male of Respective Activity Category 86.86 57.70 67.59 41.58 3.09 1.14 64.45 45.64 62.07 51.91 % Female of Respective Activity Category 13.14 42.30 32.41 58.42 96.91 98.86 35.55 54.36 37.93 48.09 " (5.3) % Total Male Pop.WithinlOutsidc L.Force 17.44 24.08 54.73 3.75 0.92 0.70 56.65 37.08 0.97 3.08 % Tot. Female Pop.WithintOutside L.Force 5.09 34.07 50.66 10.18 17.01 36.10 18.45 26.08 0.35 2.01 4 Ag. Non- Ag. Non- Cul- Non- Ag. Non- Ktchn Tail- Ag. Ag. tiva- Ag. Hel- Ag. Ordon oting tors pers Help Dairy Tutor- etc. iag,ctc. (5.4) % Sectoral Dist.for Each Activity Catgy. 22.72 77.28 85.35 14.65 77.24 22.76 84.54 15.46 68.91 31.09 % Male of Respective Activity Category 88.44 86.40 55.57 70.05 65.03 76.26 40.24 48.89 4.49 0.00 % Female of Respective Activity Category 11.56 13.60 44.43 29.95 34.97 23.74 59.76 51.11 95.51 10.00 (5.5) % Total Pop.WithinlOutside Lab.Forcc 3.00 10.22 23.46 4.03 41.20 12.14 5.03 0.92 7.61 3.43 % Total Male Pop.WithinlOutside L.Force 4.03 13.40 19.80 4.28 40.68 14.06 3.07 0.68 0.92 - % Tot. Female Pop.WithinaOutside L.Force 1.02 4.07 30.54 3.53 42.22 8.44 8.80 1.38 11.55 5.46 (6) Family Farm Enterprise (6.1) % Total Economically Productive Pop. 50.09 % Male of Respective Category 54.03 % Female of Respective Category 45.97 (6.2) % Total Economically Productive Males 44.04 % Total Economically Productive Females 59.75 (7) Non Agricultural Prod. Agricultural Production (7.1) % Total Economically Productive Pop. 25.34 74.66 % Male of Respective Category 78.22 55.77 % Female of Respective Category 21.78 44.23 (7.2) % Total Economically Productive Males 32.25 67.75 % Total Economically Productive Females 14.32 85.68 Source: NSS, 32na Round.  CONTINUUM.QF WOMEN'S WORK, 38th ROUND (Row) 6) (1) LABOR FORCE ACTIVrrY NON-LABOR FORCE ACTIVITY % Toal Population WithintOutsidc Labor Force 49.14 50.86 % Male of Respective Category 66.12 39 96 % Fcmale of Respectivo Category 33.88 63.04 % Total Malt PopatIon 63.55 36.65 % Total Female Population 34.18 65.82 (2) Main Workers Marginal Workers Unemployed % Totl Population Within Labor Force 87.34 10.70 2.06 % Male of Respective Category 71.66 19.01 76.24 % Fcmale of Respective Category 28.34 80.99 23.76 % Total Male Population 94.55 3.08 2.37 % Totl Female Population 72.97 25.59 1.44 (3) Pai r Porcc Market Oriented L bor Force New Standard Extended LAbor Force Labor Force (4) Work that Produces Cash Income Work That Produces Goods and Services for Work That Self-Consumption and Sale Builds Non-Work Human Capital (5) Regular Wage Casual Self- Unpaid Expanded Coventional Education Age Renticrs Other Salary Work Labor Employment Family Domestic Domestic of Self (Code 94, (Code 96 (Code 97 Labor (Code 93) (Code 92) (Code 91) 95) 98) (5.1) % Total Population 6.97 13.79 17.42 10.46 5.81 12.33 18.46 13.26 0.37 1.14 % Total Malc Popuiation 11.72 16.05 26.72 8.29 0.49 0.42 22.82 11.80 0.46 1.23 % Total Femalc Population 2.0 11.43 7.72 12.71 13.90 24.76 11.35 14.79 0.29 1.05 (5.2) % Total Population WithlnlOutside Labor Force 14.32 28.36 35.82 21.50 11.30 24.02 35.92 25.81 0.73 2.22 f % Male of Respective Activity Category 5.92 59.41 78.31 40.48 4.35 11.72 63.11 45.39 62.16 54.87 % Female of Respective Activity Category 14.08 40.59 21.69 59.52 95.65 98.28 36.08 54.61 37.S4 45.13 (5.3) % Total Male Pop.Within/Outaidc Labor Force 18.66 25.57 42.56 13.21 1.33 1.12 61.33 31.07 1.22 3.30 U % Total Female Pop.Within/Outaidc LAbor Force 5.91 33.76 22.79 37.54 17.16 37.43 21.02 22.36 0.44 1.59 Ag. Non- Ag. Non- Cut- Non- Ag. Non- Ktchn Tailoring Ag. Ag. tiva- Ag. Hcl- Ag. Garden, Tutoring, tors pen Help Daiiry, etc. etc. (5.4) % Sectord Dist, for Each Activity Category. 18.72 87.28 77.66 22.34 69.43 30.57 85.89 14.11 69.39 30.61 % Male of Respective Activity Category 84.50 86.25 55.66 72.46 76.02 83.49 38.70 51.37 6.27 0.00 % Fecale of Respective Activity Categoty 15.05 13.45 44.34 27.54 23.98 16.S1 61.30 48.63 93.73 100.00 (5.5) % Total Population Within/Outside Labor Force 2.68 11.64 22.02 6.34 24.87 10.95 18.47 3.03 7.85 3.46 % Total Malc Pop.WithintOutside Labor Force 3.44 15.23 18.60 6.97 28.69 13.87 10.84 2.36 1.33 0.00 % Total Female Pop.WithintOutsidd Labor Force 1.22 4.69 28.64 5.12 17.49 5.30 33.21 4.33 11.67 5.49 (6) Family Farm Enterprse (6.1) % Total Economically Productive Population 47.68 % Male of Respective Category 51.74 % Femalc of Respective Category 48.26 (6.2) % Total Economically Productive Males 40.01 % Total Ecnoically Productive Females 59.85 t7) Non-Agricultural Prod. 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The Khanna Study: Population Problems in the Rural Puniab. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Zachariah, C., and S. Patel. 1983. "Trends and Determinants of Infant and Child Mortality in Kerala." Discussion Paper No. 82-2. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.  STATISTICAL APPENDIX  276 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 1. Cross Country Indicators of Women's Socio Economic Status . . . . 279 2. Estimated Population, by Sex, 1960 - 2000 . . . . . . . . . . . 280 3. Population by Age and Sex, 1961 - 1981 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281 4. Selected Demographic Characteristics, by States, 1971 & 1981 . . 282 5. Trends in Demographic Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 6. All-India Labor Force Composition by Activity Category and Gender, 1901 - 1981 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284 7. Employment: Distribution of Person-Days per Day for Persons Aged 5 Years and Above By Current Daily Activity . 285 8. Work Participation Rates, Census vs. Micro-Study . . . . . . . . 286 9. Female Labor Force Participation by Household Expenditure Class, 1983 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287 10. Female Labor Participation in Rural Households, 1983 . . . . . . 288 11. Female Labor Force Participation, by States, 1977/78 and 1983 . 289 12. Distribution of Female Workforce in Major States by Main Sectors, 1961 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 13. Distribution of Female Workforce in Major States by Main Sectors, 1981 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 14. Composition of the Agricultural Workforce, 1983 . . . . . . . . 292 15. Composition of the Agricultural Labor Force by Gender, 1977/78 and 1983 .293 16,. Male and Female Agricultural Laborers, 1971 and 1981 (Urban and Rural) .294 17. Percentage of Rural Females Working in Agriculture, 1977/78 and 1983 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 18. Percentage Distribution and Sex Ratio of Female Laborers and Cultivators in Rural Areas by State, 1983 . . . . . . . . . 296 151. Sex Ratios of Agricultural Workers in Rural Areas, 1981 . . . . . 297 20. Distribution of Agricultural Laborer, Cultivator and other Households in Rural Areas, 1983 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 21. Unemployment Rates, by Gender for Major States, 1983 . . . . . . 299 22. Rural Unemployment Rates, 1983 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300 23. Rural Unemployment in Agriculture, 1977/78 . . . . . . . . . . . 301 24. Indicators of the Spread of Improved Agricultural Technology Adoption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302 235. Changes in Gross Cropped Area and Agricultural Labor Intensity, 1971 - 1981 .303 215. Incidence of Poverty, 1977/78 and 1984/85 . . . . . . . . . . . 304 27. Share of Certain Categories of Persons in Rural Households Below the Poverty Line, 1977/78 .305 28. Relative Contributions by Males and Females to Household Maintenance .306 29. Women's Contribution to Family Earnings and Role in Family Income Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 30. Time Allocation to Work By Gender and Economic Status in a Village in Madhya Pradesh, 1979-80 .308 31. Rural Women's Work Time Allocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 32. Time Allocation to Work by Age and Sex in Rajasthan Villages . . 310 33. Time Allocation to Work by Age and Sex in West Bengal Villages . 311  277 34. Time Allocation by Males and Females to Agricultural and Allied Activities: Bhandrakona, West Bengal . . . . . . . . 312 35. Gender Division of Agricultural Work in Himachal Pradesh, 1983/84 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313 36. Women's Time Allocation to Dairy Production by Task, 1987 . 314 37. Milk Production, Productivity and Availability, 1951 - 1981 315 38. Number of Cattle per 100 Operating Households, April 1977 . 316 39. Ownership of Dairy Animals by Household Economic Status, Rural India, 1977/78 ..317 40. Female Labor Utilization Per Household on Livestock Tasks . . . . 318 41. Rural Women's Involvement in Dairy Activities . . . . . . . . . . 319 42. Responsibility for Animal Care in Haryana . . . . . . . . . . . . 320 43. Energy Consumption in the Household Sector, By Source, 1979 . . 321 44. Average Daily Rural Household Energy Consumption, 1983/84 . . . 322 45. Fuel Use By Type in Different Villages, 1983/84 . . . . . . . . 323 46. Time Spent by Rural Women Collecting Household Fuel . . . . . . 324 47. Villagers' Dependence on Common Property Resources . . . . . . . 325 48. Aggregate Annual Employment in Forest Activities, by Gender . . . 326 49. Female Employment in the Orissa Social Forestry Project . . . . 327 50. Estimated Employment in Bidi-Rolling from Kendu Leaf . . . . . . 328 51. Female Extension Staff in State Agriculture Departments, 1987 329 52. Status of Specific Projects on Women and Agricultural Extension ..330 53. Employment in Manufacturing (All India), 1971 and 1981 . . . . . 331 54. Distribution of Male and Female Urban Workers by Employment Status, 1983 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332 55. Non-Agricultural Industries by Size of Female Workforce (Major Groups) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333 56. Non-Agricultural Industries by Size of Female Workforce (Major and Minor Groups) ..334 57. Distribution of Female Workers in Manufacturing Industries, 1911 - 1981 ..335 58. Share of Female Employment in Total Employment In Household and Non-Household Industry by State, 1981 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336 59. Urban Women in the Unorganized Sector, 1981 . . . . . . . . . . 337 60. Distribution of Female Workers in Non-Agricultural Own-Account Enterprises and Female Employment Rates by Urban/Rural Location 1980 ..338 61. Indicators of Female Employment in Service Industries (All India), 1971 and 1981 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339 62. Urban Female Workforce Participation Rates, 1988 . . . . . . . . 340 63. Female Participation in the Informal Sector by Employment Status, 1988 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341 64. Employment Patterns by Gender in a Pune Slum Community, 1976 and 1980 ..342 65. Average Monthly Income by Occupational Sector and Gender in a Pune Slum Community, 1980 . . . . . . . . . . . 343 66. Net Value Added By Organized and Unorganized Sectors, At Current Prices, 1951 - 1981 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344 67. School Enrollment, By Age and Gender, 1950 - 1986 . . . . . . . . 345 68. Literacy Rates by Gender and Residence, 1981 . . . . . . . . . . 346 69. Effective Literacy Rates by State and Gender, 1981 . . . . . . . 347  278 70. Geographical Concentration of Rural Female Literacy, 1981 . . . 348 71. Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Literacy Rates, by Gender, 1981 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349 72. Gross Enrollment Rastes for Primary and Middle School by Gender, 1950 - 1981 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350 73. Nine Educationally Most Backward States By Age-Sppecific Enrollment Rates, 1978 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351 74. Progress of Higher Education of Women, 1970 - 1980 . . . . . . . 352 75. Physical Conditions of Primary Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353 76. Educational Status of Rural Workers, by Gender, 1961 - 1981 354 77. Educational Status of Urban Workers, by Gender, 1961 - 1981 355 78. Workforce Participation Rates of Urban and Rural Female Workers by Educational Attainment, 1981 . . . . . . . . . . . . 356 79. Rural Female Workers, by Industrial Category and Educational Attainment, 1981 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357 80. Decades Required to Achieve a Literacy Rate of 85% in Total Population or 100% among 5-14 year olds for Major States . . . . 358 81. Literacy Rates among Scheduled Castes and Tribes for Sex and Rural-Urban Residence (1981) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359 82. Estimated Age-Specific Death Rates by Gender (all India) 1984 . . 360 83. Ratios of Age-Specific Death Rates (all India) 1984 . . . . . . . 361 84. Estmated Age and Sex Specific Survival Rates (all India) 1981-85 . . . . . .Te. ..t. . r . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362 85. Sex Ratios by State and Union Territories, 1981 . . . . . . . . . 363 86. Deaths by Cause and Age-Sex Groups (all India) 1986 . . . . . . . 364 87. Mean Nutritional Intake of Women in Different Age Groups, 1979 365 88 Age at Marriage of Females and Males in Different States (Rural and Urban Areas) 1981 ..366 89. Mean Age at Marriage of Females by Education Level (Rural and Urban) 1981 . . . . .367 90. Age Specific Marital Fertility Rates, India, 1978 . . . . . . . . 368 91. Age Specific Fertility Rates among 15-19 Year Olds, 1984 . . . . 369 92. Infant Mortality by Mother's Age at Marriage . . . . . . . . . . 370 93. Average Population Covered by Key Health Personnel/Facilities in Different States, 1987 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371 94. Distribution of Male and Female Children Under 5 in different Grades of Mulnutrition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372 95. Distribution of Male and Female Children in Different Grades of Malnutrition by Income Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373  Tabia 1: Cross Country Indicators of lomn's Soclo-Ecenonic Status POPULATION LARO FORCE EDUCATION NEALTN .......................................... ........................................................._.._...................................................................................................... Fhales Fawkes woman's Woin In Femate School Enroltent gi Ratio of Life Maternat Total Population s/ Par 100 Hales Per 100 Males Participation Totat Agr. Feemes Per 100 Hales Women's Expectancy Hottatity Fertility (million.) Total tV Age 0-4 c Rate di Labor Force LEbor f/ Primry Secondary Literacy Rate at Rates Rate k/ to Men's h7 Birth i7 Per Woman Mid-1987 1965 19oS 1965 1985 X X of WA el s 1965 1986 1970 1986 1960 1965 1987 1980 17 1987 Na" 100% II F Nigh income Countries 717.2 104.0 104.0 96.0 95.0 1s7.0 40.0 I - I - 94.0 - .0 o 99.0 100. 0 73.0 79.0 I - I 1.8 Riddle Income Countries 1038.5 1100.0 100.0 I 97.0 96.0 I - I - I - I 78.0 88.0 88.0 96.01 - -I - - I - I 3.9 Low-Income Coistries 2822.9 96.0 96.0 I 96.0 94.0 I 42.0 I 30.0 I - I - 75.0 - 60.0 I S5.0 74.0 I 60.0 62.0 I - I 4.0 India A Chins 1866.1 94.0 94.0 194.0 94.0| - - - - 74.0o - 60.01 - -I 64.0 65.01 *p 3.2 Other Lou-income Contries 956.9 100.0 100.0 9W.0 97.0 | - I - I - | 49.0 15.0 I 45.0 59.0 I - - 53.0 55.0 I - I 5.6 East Asia 1512.7 96.0 96.0 95.0 95.0 53.0 I 35.0 I - I - 85.0 - 72.0 78.0 90.0 66.0 69.0 I * I 2.7 South Asia 1080.9 94.0 94.0 95.0 94.0 36.0 I 26.0 - 54.0 63.0 40.0 47.0 I 32.0 SS.O I 57.0 57.0 | - I 4.6 India 797.5 94.0 93.0 I 94.0 94.0 41.0 I 3z.0 I 19.9 I 57.0 64.0 9 40.0 48.0 9 31.0 57.0 1 58.0 58.0 j 500.0 3.1 Afghanistan - 95.0 - 196.0 - 121.0 I 18.0 1 - I 17.0 50.0 16.0 49.01 8.0 24.01 - - |640.0 | - Pakistan 102.5 93.0 91.0 96.0 95.0 111.0 I 10.0 I - 0 31.0 50.0 25.0 38.0 I 26.0 50.0 s5.0 54.0 I 600.0 I 6.7 q ongadnsh 106.1 92.0 94.0 I 98.0 94.0 I 20.0 1 1.e I 3.8 " 4.0 66.0 I - 45.0 I - - 51.0 SO.0 I 600.0 I 5.S Sri Lanke 16.4 93.0 98.0 9 97.0 96.0 29.0 I 25.0 I 27.8 8 86.0 93.0 1101.0 109.0 75.0 89.0 68.0 73.0 1 90.0 2.7 Nealt 17.6 9 98.0 95.0 I 100.0 94.0 60.0 I 39.0 I 39.2 I - 41.0 16.0 30.0 O 12.0 21.0 I 52.0 50.0 | 850.0 I 5.9 indonesia 171.4 1102.0 101.0 I 101.0 97.0 33.0 I 29.0 32.6 - 93.0 I 64.0 73.0 I 49.0 80.0 I 58.0 62.0 I 800.0 I 3.5 Matapia 16.5 I 97.0 99.0 I96.0 95.0 38.0 32.0 37.7 9 4.0 I - 8.0 e 81.0 82.0 68.0 72.0 I 59.0 1 3.8 *i b/ c/ d4 il of k/ source - MDR 1989 dV *e 1965 proJ*ctions frm Sivard R.. Wmen, A World Survey. It should be noted that these data are particularly probtemtic since concepts, definitions and dato collection methods very widely betueen coumtries. I/ ILO Veer look. Several Issues h/ omen _ Mmn tS and over able to read nd write as a percent of respective population of 1S nd over (Sivard - Women. A World Survey)  280 Table 2: ESTIMATED POPULATION, BY SEX, 1960 - 2000 Male Sex Males Females Total Surplus Ratio Year ('000) ('000) ('000) ('000) /a 1960 225,942 208,907 434,849 17,035 925 1961 228,715 215,520 444,235 13,195 942 1962 234,131 220,248 454,379 13,883 941 1963 239,689 225,404 465,093 14,285 940 1964 245,395 230,696 476,091 14,699 940 1965 251,224 236,100 487,324 15,124 940 1966 257,196 241,635 498,831 15,561 939 1967 263,271 247,265 510,536 16,006 939 1968 269,511 253,044 522,555 16,467 939 1969 275,918 258,977 534,895 16,941 939 1970 282,500 265,069 547,569 17,431 938 1971 289,019 271,100 560,119 17,919 938 1972 295,118 276,732 571,850 18,386 938 1973 301,346 282,480 583,826 18,866 937 1974 307,704 288,349 596,053 19,355 937 1975 314,195 294,339 608,534 19,856 937 1976 320,826 300,454 621,280 20,372 937 1977 327,596 306,695 634,291 20,901 936 1978 334,509 313,067 647,576 21,442 936 1979 341,471 319,667 661,138 21,804 936 1980 354,840 332,492 687,332 22,348 937 1981 362,835 339,986 702,821 22,849 937 1982 370,886 347,540 718,426. 23,346 937 1983 378,962 355,110 734,072 23,852 937 1984 387,035 362,642 749,677 24,393 937 1985 395,083 370,064 765,147 25,019 937 1990 435,306 408,143 843,449 27,163 938 1995 475,012 445,375 920,387 29,637 938 2000 512,862 482,533 995,395 30,329 941 /a Number of females per 1,000 males. Note: Estimates refer to March 1 of years indicated. Population data for the Census years 1961, 1971 and 1981 differ from the official estimates because they have been corrected for underenumeration. Source: IBRD estimates.  281 Table 3: POPULATION BY AGE AND SEX, 1961 - 1981 Age Age Age Age Age Age Age Age Year 2-4 5-14 15-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60+ Total 1961 Males 37,363 55,035 22,665 38,405 28,944 19,699 12,307 14,298 228,716 Females 36,834 53,446 22,189 36,788 25,205 16,931 10,827 13,000 215,220 Total 74,197 108,481 44,854 75,193 54,149 36,630 23,134 27,298 443,936 1971 Mates 46,758 74,948 28,688 45,944 35,790 26,098 16,590 14,204 289,020 Females 44,531 71,689 27,303 43,880 33,613 22,522 14,459 13,103 271,100 Total 91,289 146,637 55,991 89,824 69,403 48,620 31,049 27,307 560,120 1981 Males 53,152 91,039 37,690 56,881 42,875 34,552 23,618 22,363 362,170 Females 51,487 84,082 34,149 55,109 41,096 31,168 20,700 21,573 339,364 Total 104,639 175,121 71,839 111,990 83,971 65,720 44,318 43,936 701,534 Note: The Population figures differ from the official census estimates as they have been corrected for under-counting. Source: IBRD estimates.  Table 4: SELECIED DENOGRAPNIC CIIAACTERIStICS, BY SlATES, 1971 & 1981 Vitat Rates Urban 1981 Avg. of 1971481 Population Population Groewth Population 1961 workers (c) as X ............... 1981 (miltion) Density Rate 196t (X of total) Literacy Rate of totat pOPulation Crude Crude State/ Area ........ . (persoan 1971-81 Sex .. ....-.. . .. irth Death Unlion Territory ('000 eq.-.) 1971 1981 per eq.-.) (X p.e.) Ratio 1971 1961 note Feale Total MAIO Feeae Total Rate Rate Andhra Pradesh 275.1 43.50 53.55 195 2.10 1,026 19.3 23.3 39.3 20.4 29.9 57.68 33.54 45.76 31.5 11.6 Assn 78.4 14.63 19.90 (a) 254 (a) 3.09 (a)1,11O (a) 8.8 10.3 Ca)n.e. n.e. n.e. n.a. n.e n.e. 32.7 11.4 8ihar 173.9 56.35 69.91 402 2.17 1,057 10 12.5 38.1 13.6 26.2 50.18 13.5 32.35 38.4 14.7 Gujarat 196.1 26.70 34.09 174 2.46 1.061 28.1 31.1 54.4 32.3 43.7 52.91 20.66 37.27 35.1 12.4 maryn 44.2 10.04 12.92 m 2.55 1,149 17.7 21.9 48.2 22.3 36.1 49.93 10.61 31.63 36.8 11 UlIwchet Pradesh 55.7 3.46 4.z2 77 2.15 1.028 7 7.6 53.2 31.5 42.5 52.63 31.88 42.4 31.6 10.6 Ja 4 Kaslr 222.2 4.62 5.99 59 2.58 1,121 18.6 21.1 36.3 15.9 26.7 55.82 31.32 44.27 31.3 9.3 Karnatake 191.6 29.30 37.14 194 2.39 1.038 24.3 28.9 48.8 27.7 38.5 54.6 25.33 40.24 28.2 9.0 lKrala 38.9 21.35 25.45 654 1.77 969 16.2 18.7 75.3 65.7 70.4 44.89 16.61 30.53 26.2 6.9 Niya Pradeh 443.5 41.65 52.18 1t8 2.27 1,063 16.3 20.3 39.5 1S.5 27.9 54.46 30.64 42.92 37.4 15.6 _lharashtra 307.7 50.41 62.78 204 2.21 1.067 31.2 35 58.8 34.8 47.2 53.73 30.63 42.56 28.3 10 lnipur 22.3 1.07 1.42 64 2.63 1,030 13.1 26.5 53.3 29.1 41.4 4.8 39.49 43.2 29 6.6 Neghaolys 22.4 1.01 1.34 60 2.80 1.048 14.5 18 59.9 30.1 34.1 53.98 37.48 45.93 32.3 10.4 aaland 16.6 0.52 0.78 47 4.09 1,159 9.9 15.5 50.1 33.9 42.6 52.59 43.19 48.24 22.4 6.5 Orissa 155.7 21.94 26.37 169 1.85 1,019 8.4 11.8 47.1 21.1 34.2 55.86 19.81 38.01 31.8 14 Punjab 50.4 13.55 18.79 333 2.16 1,138 23.7 27.7 47.2 33.7 40.9 53.76 6.16 31.5 29.6 9.2 Rajasthan 342.2 25.77 34.26 100 2.87 1,088 17.6 21 36.3 11.4 24.4 50.9 21.06 36.61 36.8 13.3 Sikkim 7.1 0.21 0.32 45 4.14 1,196 9.5 16.1 44 22.2 34.1 57.11 37.64 48.24 n.a. n.a. Tmit Naled 130.1 41.20 48.41 372 1.63 1,024 30.2 33 58.3 35 46.8 56.56 26.52 41.73 28.2 11.7 Iripura 10.5 1.56 2.05 195 2.79 1,057 10.4 11 51.7 32 42.1 50.72 12.76 32.26 26.9 9.1 rz Utter Pradesh 294.4 88.34 110.86 377 2.25 1.130 14 17.9 38.8 14 27.2 50.76 8.07 30.72 39.5 16.4 West Seaet 86.6 44.31 54.58 616 2.10 1,098 24.7 26.5 50.7 30.3 40.9 50.3 8.07 30.17 31.5 11.3 And. A Nic. Ist. 8.2 0.11 0.19 23 4.98 1,316 22.6 26.5 58.7 42.1 51.6 56.6 10.8 36.8 33.8 8.2 Arunachat Prades 83.7 0.47 0.63 8 3.04 1,160 3.6 6.7 28.9 11.3 20.8 58.59 45.76 52.64 33.1 15.4 chandigawR 0.1 0.26 0.45 3961 5.67 1,300 90.7 93.6 69 59.3 64.8 54.72 8.95 34.83 26.7 2.7 Oader I V. NIveli 0.5 0.07 0.11 211 3.38 1,027 - 6.7 36.3 16.8 26.7 56.3 41.33 48.91 34.6 15.4 Delhi 1.5 4.07 6.22 4194 4.29 1,238 89.7 92.7 68.4 53.1 61.5 52.67 6.83 32.18 27.3 8.8 Coa, D_mn & Diu 3.8 0.86 1.09 287 2.39 1,019 26.5 32.4 65.6 47.6 56.7 48.2 21.93 35.19 17.7 7.8 Lakbakhjeap 0 0.03 0.04 1258 2.37 1,026 - 46.3 65.2 44.7 55.1 39.31 9.15 24.43 31 9.8 Nizor_ 21.1 0.33 0.49 23 3.99 1,088 41.9 24.7 64.5 54.9 59.9 52.18 37.85 45.3 n.e. n.e. Pondicherry 0.5 0.47 0.60 1229 2.50 1,015 11.4 52.3 65.8 45.7 55.9 47.16 13.51 30.47 24.8 8.3 Total 3,287.3 548.16 685.18 216 (d) 2.25 1,072 19.9 23.3 48.9 24.8 36.2 54.05 22.05 38.6 33.2 13.7 ... .. .................. ....... ............ ...... . .... ..... ... . .. .... ..... ..... .... . .... .... . .... ----- ---- --- ---- ... .. . . . .. . Note: ta) Based on projections. tb) Percente have been cQWutad on the total population inctusive of Age growp 0-4 years. tc) Includes both *min nd mrginal workers. Cd) Excluding Jina end Isair. Source: 1. Cenaa of Indio 1961. Final Population Totals. 2. censt of India 1981. Primary Canse Astrwct Cenral Population. 3. Cenehu of India 19B1. Per Population Statistics Sasd on 5 Percent Sple Sass. 4. Registered Genera Indio. Saple federation Butlitin. Decdbr 1962.  283 Table 5: TRENDS IN DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE POPULATION A. Population Average Compound Growth Rate of Population (millions) Population during Sex-Ratio Density X of Urban ------- ----------------------------- Previous Ten Years (Males per of Population Population Year Mates Females Total (X per annum) 1000 FemaLes) Per Sq.Km. to Total ...................... .. .... . ...... . .............. ..... ...... ............. ............... ............. ........... 1951 185 176 361 1.26 1,057 117 17.3 1961 226 213 439 1.98 1,063 142 18.0 1971 284 264 548 2.20 1,075 177 19.9 1981 348 324 685 2.26 1,071 216 23.3 1991 412 387 799 1.75 1,065 243 27.4 ......................................................................................................................... B. Fertility, Life Expectancy & 8irth/Death Rates ......................................................................................................................... General Fertility Average Expec- Birth Death Rate (per 1000) Total tation of Life Rate Rate Avg. for women of child Fertility at Birth (years) -- --.- Period bearing age Rate Males Females (per 1000 pop.) .. ...... ....... .... . ......................... ....... . ........ ......... ............... .... 1951/61 201 6.0 41.2 39.8 42.7 24.4 1961/71 192 5.8 46.7 45.4 42.0 18.8 1971/76 175 5.4 49.5 49.0 39.0 16.5 1976/81 154 5.1 51.0 50.0 36.5 14.5 1981/86(b)(c) 133 4.8 52.7 54.4 34.2 12.72 1986/91(b)(c) 117 4.3 54.4 56.8 30.9 11.39 ........................... ....................................................... ...... ........ ..... ........ ... .............. .................. ......... .. ........... .. C. All India Sample Registration Survey: Vital Rates (Annual rate per thousand) ............... ........................................ _.......................... Crude Birth Rate Crude Death Rate Infant Mortality Rate per 100 Live Birth ,....................... . .......... ....................... ......................... ................. ................................. Year Rural Urban Total Rural Urban Total Rural Urban Total ... ....... ..... ... ..... .......... ... ..... ... ................. ..... ....... ..... . ...... ..... 1970 38.9 29.7 36.8 17.3 10.2 15.7 136 90 129 1971 38.9 30.1 36.9 16.4 9.7 14.9 138 82 129 1972 38.4 30.5 36.6 18.9 10.3 16.9 150 8S 139 1973 35.9 28.9 34.6 17.0 9.6 15.5 143 89 134 1974 35.9 28.4 34.5 15.9 9.2 14.5 136 74 126 1975 36.7 28.5 35.2 17.3 10.2 15.9 151 84 140 1976 35.8 28.3 34.4 16.3 9.5 15.0 139 80 129 1977 34.3 27.8 33.0 16.0 9.4 14.7 142 67 129 1978 34.6 27.8 33.2 15.3 9.4 14.1 136 70 125 1979 34.3 28.3 33.1 13.9 8.4 12.8 n.a. n.a. n.a. 1980 34.6 28.1 33.3 13.5 8.0 12.4 n.a. n.a. n.a. 1981 34.7 27.2 33.2 13.6 7.9 12.5 n.e. n.a. n.a. ................................................................................... ................... (a) Projections by Registrar General of India, for March 1 of year shown. The projection yieLd somewhat lower values than do those produced by .orld Bank staff, which have a higher base to adjust for census umdsrcounmting. (b) Projections relate to mid-year of period. (c) For 1961-90 the projections as produced by Vorld Bank staff. Sources: 1. Office of the Registrar-General. 2. Planning Commission  Table 6: ALL-INDIA LABOR FORCE COMPOSITION BY ACTIVITY CATEGORY AND GENDER, 1901-1981 (IN %) Agricultural Total Non-Agric. Laborers Cultivators Ag. Workers Workers Total Workers Year Males Females Males Females Males Females Males Females Males Females 1901 12.39 25.81 53.22 45.54 65.61 71.35 34.39 28.65 100.00 100.00 1911 15.28 30.65 53.22 43.26 68.50 73.91 31.50 26.09 100.00 100.00 1921 13.51 24.95 56.36 50.57 69.87 75.52 30.13 24.48 100.00 100.00 1931 17.95 38.89 50.78 32.39 68.73 71.28 31.27 28.72 100.00 100.00 1951 14.95 31.39 51.90 45.42 66.85 76.81 33.15 23.19 100.00 100.00 1961 13.42 23.86 51.46 55.72 64.88 79.58 35.12 20.42 100.00 100.00 1971 21.35 50.40 46.24 29.69 67.59 80.09 32.41 19.91 100.00 100.00 1981 19.56 46.18 43.70 33.20 63.26 79.38 36.74 20.62 100.00 100.00 Source: (i) Ashok Mitra, The Status of Women - Literacy and Employment, ICSSR, - Programme of Women's Studies II, Allied Publishers, New Delhi, 1979, Table 019, pg. 41-42. (ii) Census of India, 1981, Series I, Paper 2 of 1983, Table 16.  Table 7: DISTRIBUTION OF PERSON PER DAY FOR PERSONS OF AGE 5 AND ABOVE --- ---- BY CURRENT DAILY ACTIVITY (a) lX) ---^--------Rural- ----------Urban ----------- ----------All India---------- Hate Female Total Male Female Total Male Female Total I. Working Persons in Labour Force 55.86 22.91 39.67 53.8 12.16 34.02 55.32 20.39 38.31 a. Uorking in own farm 29.48 12.18 20.99 3.26 1.50 2.43 22.99 9.67 16.50 b. Working in household non-farm 6.60 1.98 4.33 18.73 3.25 11.39 9.60 2.28 6.04 enterprise/profession c. Working as regular salaried eiployee/ 2.06 0.31 1.20 0.35 0.06 0.21 1.64 0.25 0.96 wage labour in farm d. working as regular salaried etployee/ 4.05 0.69 2.40 24.63 4.27 15.00 9.14 1.53 5.44 wage labour in non-farm/enterprise profession e. Working as casual labour