Women's Role in Modern World

Women's Role in Modern World

Shilaja Nagendra

ABD PUBLISHERS ]aipur, India

ISBN: 978-81-8376-160-4

First Published 2008

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CONTENTS

l. Empowering Modern Women

1

2. Women and the Communication Technology45 3. Women's Development through Liberalisation

63

4. Women and the Economic Liberalisation

93

5. Employment Opportunities in Modern World

137-

6. Women in 21st Century

181

7. Women in Social Changes

223

8. Challenges of Women Empowerment

271

Bibljography

305

Index

307

"This page is Intentionally Left Blank"

CHAPTER 1

EMPOWERING MODERN WOMEN More than 800 million women are economically active worldwide-in agriculture, small and microenterprise, and, increasingly, in the export processing industries that drive globalisation. Over 70 percent of these women live in the developing regions of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Women's unemployment rates remain high relative to those of men, and when employed, they are paid less than men for the same work. It is not surprising, then, that women constitute 60 percent of the rural poor. Limitations on women's legal rights and participation in civil society are widespread. Political leadership positions are still largely occupied by men although women have increasingly provided dynamic leadership in the nongovernmental (NGO) and small enterprise sectors. Legal restrictions on women's land and property ownership continue to hamper women's ability to acquire productive assets and to reduce their vulnerability when family or other crises affect them. Girls' education has been shown to have a dramatic impact on women's earning power and on families' welfare but progress toward gender equality in education still lags, both in absolute terms and relative to those of boys. Conflict and crisis have a disproportionate impact on women, who are frequent targets of rape and other forms of sexual violence, branding, maiming, and displacement. Not only does such violence impede women's ability to

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WOllEN'S RoLl!: IN MODERN WORLD

live full and productive lives, but it restricts their contributions to family, society and economic development, often leading to starvation, trafficking, disease, the disintegration of families, ostracism of the victims, and ultimately mental, medical and economic consequences of untold proportions. Promoting a stronger and more productive role for women in development demands a broad and flexible approach. USAIO's approach to gender integration is to design programmes that take both women's and men's participation into account. When this is done development programmes are more effective. WOMEN EMPOWERMENT IN INDIA

Since India became independent in 1947, the democratic government has tried to introduce measures to empower women. Yet the expected measure of success has not occurred due to reasons like bureaucratic delays, political compulsions, social and cultural constraints and the continuing poverty of the masses. Obtaining some measure of economic self-sufficiency and irldependence is a prerequisite to any advancement of womeh at a social, cultural and political level. Only then do the discourses on feminism become relevant to their lives. The silver lining in the cloudy sky has been the development of several grassroots movements initiated by women themselves, especially those from the lower sections of the society. Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad is an entrepreneurial organisation resulting from one such movement by women. It is primarily a cottage industry" urban in its origin, which has eventually spread to the rural areas and to the other cities and. towns in several states of India. A study of the manner of its origin, growth and spread gives an insight into the selfpropelling process of econom~c empowerment of women that is taking place. It also gives rise to several questions. Since it involves the basic housekeeping and cooking atHlities of women, does it reinforce the

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3

traditional concept of woman's work being primarily centred on home? How far have these women, many of them illiterate, been able to gain the power of agency over their lives? The concept of trusteeship (the worker also being the owner), first enunciated by Mahatma Gandhi, is the basic philosophy professed by the organisation. How far has this concept sustained itself as a working proposition in the past forty years? Lastly, has the organisation contributed to bring a constructive change in the lives of the people in and around its orbit of work? This paper probes the functioning of the organisation to find an answer to these questions in the final analysis. The source materials for this Iresearch are the official files, annual reports, the in-house monthly newsletter published in English from 1979, newspaper articles, a biography and oral interviews of women working in the organisation. Mahila (in Hindi) means women, griha is house, udyog is work/industry, li.ijat is tasty (in Gujarati) and papad is a flat, thin, dried roll of kneaded flour mixed with spicy ingredients, like the tortilla. Papad has a reasonably long shelf life, can be toasted or fried in oil and it serves as a snack or is taken along with food. Throughout India, there have been varieties of papads made and stored at home. Hence, if anyone chose to make it on a large-scale, the market for the product was assured. It all began on 15 March 1959, as a united effort by seven women at making papad, on the terrace of their flats in an old, large, residential building, one of the five buildings known as Lohana Niwas in Girgaum, a thickly populated area in South Bombay. They were Jaswantiben Jamnadas Popat, Parvatiben Ramdas Thodani, Ujamben Narandas Kundalia, Banuben N. Tanna, Laguben Amritlar Gokani and Jayaben V. Vithalani and one more whose name is not available. Of them, only Jaswantiben is now around to tell the tale of those early days. She has studied till second class, though she did not pass the

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second class examination. She was in her early twenties with two young children in 1959. She explained how one Laxmidasbhai had started the making of papads but was soon running into a loss. These seven women, who were friends, decided to take over his venture along with its loss amounting to Rs.80, which they paid to him. Buying the needed ingredients, the measures of which she explained during the interview, they rolled out the papads. After drying and packing them in a plain plastic bag, they gave them to a known merchant in Bhuleshwar. Gradually they bought a cupboard to keep their stores and utensils in the terrace. During the first year, they had to stop production during the rainy season, as it rains in Bombay for over four months. But by the next rains they had the stove and a cot over it, where they could dry the papads. They tried using coal for heating, but it coloured the papads. Being very thin, they would dry very soon. In fact, one of them told that it has been so standardised that it now takes only fifteen minutes to dry. The quantity of flour also increased with time from one seer (unit of weight) to three to six and so on. The broken papads were distributed to the neighbors. In three months, there were about twenty-five women working in their group. In two years, there were over a hundred to hundred and fifty women working with them. Jaswantiben said that they got them through word of mouth and later through advertising in the local vernacular newspaper. In six months, with the profit that they made, they bought half a 'tola '(gram) of gold for each one of them. This was to become a standard practice of the organisation, extending to this day. Two m~n, whose wives were among the first seven women, helped them in. keeping accounts. The Lohana Niwas was renting rooms . to tenants and as rooms got vacated, they took them on rent and so they soon had four to five rooms, and eventually eight rooms for their -puIposes. By the end of the third year, the kneaded"~flour was distributed among

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5

the three hundred and odd women, to take it to their homes in the morning and bring the dried papads in a day or two, since the terrace could no longer accommodate so many of them. Lijjat, the name suggested by Dhirajben Ruparel, was chosen in a contest held for the purpose, with prize money of Rs.5/-. Chhaganlal Karamshi Parekh, popularly known as Chhaganbapa, one of the reputed elders of the Lohana community, became their guide and philosopher, a little after a month or two of their commencing operations. He told them not to make two different qualities of papads as they were doing originally (in order to sell the inferior one at a cheaper rate) but to make one standard papad and asked them never to compromise on qUality. From the beginning, the women had decided that they would not approach anyone for donation or help to run the organisation, even if they incurred losses. Again, it was Chaganbapa who emphasised to them the importance of running it as a business enterprise and of keeping an eternal watch on every facet of its working and maintaining proper accounts. The salient features of the organisation were laid in these first few years, as will be shown through its later developments. There are no written documents for these years, only the oral testimony of the women, who set up the unit in those days. Initial attempts to start branches in Malad in Bombay in 1961 and Sangli in Maharashtra in 1966 were unsuccessful. However, in 1962-63, the annual sales of papad rose to about Rs.1.82 lakhs. In July 1966, the institution registered itself under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 as a society. On Chaganbapa's recommendation, U.N.Dhebar, Chairman, Khadi and Village Industries Commission (~VIC), Government of India personally inspected the institution in July 1966. In September, a formal recognition was granted to it as a unit belonging to the 'Processing of cereals and pulses industry group' under the Khadi and Village Industries Act. The KVIC granted a working capital of about eight lakhs of rupees and tax

6

WOIlU'S RoLK IX MODKRlf WORLD

exemptions.The institution was registered under the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950 as a Public Trust. In the General Body Meeting, the member-sisters adopted the first written constitution. Thus the formal organisation of the Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad was completed by the seventh year of its existence. In spite of, or rather because of, its simple origin, Lijjat grew as a concept and the reason for its rapid growth was due to its basic philosophy and pragmatic approach. It was a voluntary organisation of the sisters. From its inception, the member-sisters had started sharing the profits or losses among themselves. It was in their interest to strive for the growth of production and sale and to run the business wisely.Thus the organisation grew on the basis of collective ownership. Its essence was to provide for self employment, dignity of labor and earning capacity for women, working from their homes. With time, this was consciously developed as a discourse and an ideology, based on the concept of Trusteeship, as conceived by Mahatma Gandhi. Trusteeship considers all assets as belonging to the society and thus business becomes a refined form of service. Hence, the ownership of any business devolved on everyone engaged in its functioning. In other words, there are no employers or employees and all membersisters' became owners of the institution. This idea was frequently emphasised in all meetings, gatherings and newsletters, year after year, all through the forty years of its existence. All decisions were based on consensus and any sister-member had the right to veto any decision taken by the organisation. All profits had 'to be shared in a judicious way depending on the needs of the person and her contribution to the business. This is a concept which is very difficult to practice and Lijjat is an experiment in this direction. 'There was a general feeling that the sisters understood this philosophy and were undertaking more responsibilities to ensure the success of the endeavor. This also provided for mobility of labor and access to

EIIPO~o MODERR WORLD

7

going up the ladder, in terms of responsibility and position in the organisation. The present President, Mrs. Jyoti J. Naik, started her career at the age of ten by rolling out papad during the day and studying in the night school, through which she passed the S.S.C. examination. At fifteen, she was a storekeeper, then rose to become Sanchalika, in charge of a branch having five hundred sister-members and eventually the President of the organisation. Another central philosophy, practiced from the very beginning, was that the Institution would never accept any charity or donation from anybody. This helped in a large measure to develop the self-confidence of the membersisters and to retain the independence of the institution from any outside agency influencing the policies of the organisation. A corollary to this was the concept that the organisation was not meant for 'poor sisters', meaning that the objective was to remove wrong notions of pity, sympathy or charity. Most of them came from the lowest economic sections of the society, yet this philosophy gave them a sense of pride in themselves and their capability to earn their livelihood independently. Only women could be members, and thus owners, of the organisation and the few men, like the acdountants in the offices or drivers of buses and vans, who were employed, as the salaried staffs were not members of the institution. Thus Lijjat, as it evolved, was very much more than a mere cottage industry providing gainful employment to women. It was 'a symbol of women's strength' as its logo proclaimed, a concept, a view and way of life and at its core was women, conceived beyond the particularities of their work, providing for their growth beyond the confines of the existing borders. Through its discursive practices, it helped to create an Indian slant to the discourse on feminism. Organisa.tion and management

Member-sisters owned the enterprise. Any woman,

8

WOMEN'S RoLli: IN MODItRl'f WORLD

irrespective of caste or reJigion, willing to work in any capacity could become a member by signing a pledge of devotion to the basic tenets of the organisation. It was a commitment to earn 'legitimate' honest income, through work on a cooperative basis. Initially even younger girls could join, but later eighteen was fIxed as the minimum age of entry. Renouncing of membership was entirely voluntary. No one could be asked to leave unless she had violated the tenets of the organisation. Men could only be salaried employees and no.t members of the organisation, since membership implied ownership. The central offIce at Bombay was responsible for coordinating the activities of the various branches. It shifted from Girgaum, which saw the beginning of the institution, to Kamal Apartments in Bandra, a suburb of Bombay. The purchase of the premises was initiated by the end of 1987 and the registered office shifted to Bandra with effect from July 1988. The Central OffIce dispatched raw materials to the branches and conducted business with the various exporters and suppliers. All branches were to send their accounts to it on a regular basis,' since it was here that the final auditing of accounts was done. The offIce housed the accounts and the advertisements departments. The running of the organisation was entrusted to the Managing Committee of twenty-one members, including the President, the Vice President, two secretaries and two treasurers. :rhey were all chosen from among the member-sisters on the basis of consensus once every three years, thus acknowledging their leadership qualities. Any member-sister could write her willingness to be a managing committee member and be selected by due process. There were a few salaried employees, both men and women. There was decentralisation of authority in the day to day running of the branches throughout India. Yet in view of its ever-increasing expansion in size, it was made clear that all the outstation branches and persons connected with it must, without fail, take the approval of

EMPOWERING MODERN WORLD

9

the Managing Committee of the Institution, before committing to commerce any new project or starting a new product. Sanchalik as, selected through consensus by the member-sisters from among themselves once every three years, were placed in charge of each of the branches of the institution and its different divisions. The Sanchalik as could be transferred to different branches. To manage its affairs, each branch had a committee of eleven member-sisters, again chosen by consensus. There were Branch Coordination Committees and Area Meetings of the various branches in a region or a state. At the all India level there were the Annual General Meetings attended by member-sisters from all the branches and divisions, from allover the country. The responsibilities of every office-bearer and member- sister were laid down in the constitution and were modified with changing times and increasing growth of the organisation. Active participation by the member-sisters in the running of the institution was sought through open meetings with the sisters at the Head Office on all days from 12 to 1 p.m .. The responsibilities of attending and conducting the area meetings were to be delegated to other members in the branch, by respective Sanchalik as. It was in these meetings that the practical difficulties, with regard to supplies, production and inter-personal relationships, were discussed. The area meetings became less important with time. The Sanchalikas, along with the accountants and cashiers, were to verify the inventories of inputs and finished goods at theit respective branches and divisions. An important decision of the Managing Committee in Feb. 1988, placed the responsibility of handling all cash amounts, sales proceeds and other receipts only by the sisters and not by accountants or any other staff member at any branch in Bombay or out station. 'One sister in each branch' was 'to take the entire responsibility of handling the cash amount and go to the bank to deposit it. This is significant because many among the membersisters had had very little school education and they learnt through direct experience.

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WOMEX'S ReLE IX MODEM WORLD

Each branch was to act as a self-administering unit, sharing its profits and losses among its member-sisters. Thus they were all directly responsible for the profitable functioning of their branch. In case of mismanagement or loss due to negligence, the concerned Sanchalika or other member-sisters would be relieved of their membership, if the charges were severe or be relieved of the responsibility of the position that they had mismanaged, though they could continue to perform other functions. In case of losses due to fall in standards of quality, the member-sisters bore the loss by reducing their vanai (daily rolling charges). Similarly when any branch was financially doing well, they not merely increased their rolling charges but a~so obtained additional rolling charges in terms of cash, varying anywhere between Rs. 300/- and Rs. 3000/-, or as gold coins, gold rings or gold chains of a particular weight and purity. Several issues of Lijjat Patrika, from 1979 to 2000, enumerate the names of the branches as well as the names/numbers of the member-sisters, who took these additional rolling charges along with the specific amount in rupees or grams of gold. It is important to note that all member-sisters, irrespective of their position in the organisation, received the same amount. In the past three years, the additional rolling charges have been given in money and not in gold. The application of the concept of trusteeship is witnessed in this practice of equitable distribution of profitt loss among all the member-sisters, who were also owners of the organisation. The daily routine in all the branches began early in the morning by five. The sisters arrived at their specific branches by the institution's transport from their homes with the papads that they had prepared the previous day and got their rolling charges paid. All payments were made on a daily basis. Flour was kneaded using a specific formula, divided by kilogram weight to be taken home for that day's rolling and drying. 'Veteran members took home as much as 25-35 kgs per

EMPOWERING MODERN WORLD

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day. Wages were cut for papads that didnot meet the standard quality. Finished papads were brought back to the unit for weighing and packing. 'Each member-sister was expected to roll out at least three kilograms of kneaded flour per day. There were groups of women designated to perform each core function through the day, like preparation and distribution of the raw material, packaging, payments etc in each of the branches. They were fetched from their homes, along with the prepared papads, by buses or vans early in the morning and left back in their homes with the kneaded flour to be rolled for that day. There are frequent references to he purchase/disposal of vans or buses by the various branches. Branches and Divisions, Sales and Export In May 1968, the first branch of the institution was founded in Valod, in Gujarat. Initially, a few membersisters. from Girgaum went by turns and stayed at Valod, for a couple of months at a- time, to train the new member-sisters who joined in the new branch. Once they had learnt the ropes of running it, they were entrusted with the administration of the branch.This was the basic manner in which branches in Bombay and in other states of India were opened, through the ensuing years.

Jaswantiben said that it was easy for her to go for the required few months to Valod, because she had her mother-in-law to hold fort at home ever since she started to work in 1959. The first branch that opened; in any particular state of India, took care of the other branches that opened in the state, especially in their initial stages. Later, they were allowed to manage their own affaires. Thus from the very beginning, the member-sisterS'" were entrusted with responsibility for the proper functioning of the institution .. The central office was the main promoter of these branches and had the overall responsibility. The pace of growth of the organisation is evidenced in the opening of

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W~MEN'8 RoLE IN MODERN WORLD

several branches in different parts of India. The 21 branch was inaugurated at Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh in Nov. 1979,21 branch at Borivili, Mumbai in March 1996, 21 branch in Baroda, Gujarat in April 1997 and 21 branch in Rahuri, Maharashtra in Dec.1998 and 21 branch in Veerayatan, R~gir, Bihar in Dec. 1998. A part from making papads, the institution noon started to diversify in allied or other areas that seemed feasible as a cottage industry. Of these, the Cottage Leather Division (1979), the Match. Industry DiVision (1979) and Agarbathi (Incense sticks) Division were eventually closed down, as they were not via~e. ' The processing- of those ingredients that were needed to make or to sell the papad, were the first to begin functioning. E.g. the Khakra Division in 1974, the Flour mills in 1975 (to grind lentils etc), Masala (Spices) Division in 1976, Printing Division in 1977 and Polypropylene Packing Division in 1978. In 1979, the institution entered into the production of Bakery Products. A very significant field of diversification, started by the Lijjat institution, was in the making of soaps. In 1988, the Managing Committee ga~ approval to the launching of the new Detergent Powder Division at Dahisar, near Bombay.The soap industry had shown a consistent growth of 15% per annum since 1983 and it was likely to continue. The synthetic detergents were cheaper and more efficient then ordinary soap. The raW" materials were locally available. The proce~ . enabled manual production and so was ideal as an appropriate technology to provide employment for rural women. These were the reasons for entering this field of production. Like the papads, soaps had a ready market and availability of labor and raw materials. It was proposed to initially start 20 centres on an all India basis. It was estimated 'that about 2000 to 2500 sisters will get direct benefits as earning members ant face wage, employment, credit and property discrimination and if they were not excluded from decision-making within the family and in hometown organisations. Another deterrent for poorer women is that traditional banks tend to charge hefty user fees. Some institutions are working to lower transfer costs and are enabling women to retain control over their remittances and further their uses for productive

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activities and development. These include Fonkoze, the Haitian alternative bank whose clientele is 96 per cent women; ADOPEM in the Dominican Republic, an affiliate of the Women's World Banking Network; the Inter American Development Bank (IADB); and the Bangladeshi Ovhibashi Mohila Sramik Association (BOMSA), established by returning migrant women. The inteIllational community has also been looking more closely at the issue of female migrant remittances in order to understand how best to maximise their contributions for socio-economic development. This includes recent efforts by INSTRAW and UNFPA to strengthen research and policy dialogue. Women's Rights Beyond financial remittances, the social remittances of migrant women (ideas, skills, attitudes, knowledge, etc.) can also boost socio-economic development and -promote human rights and gender equality. Migrant women' who send money transmit a new definition of what it means to be female. This can affect how families and communities view women. Women abroad also playa role when it comes to promoting the rights of their counterparts back home. A good example of this is the vigorous lobbying undertaken by Afghan expatriate women to promote greater female participation in the new constitution of their home country. In Belgium, Congolese expatriates supported their countrywomen in the struggle for increased National Assembly repres~tation in the first-ever free elections in the Democratic' Republic of the Congo. Women living abroad often acquire attitudes, opinions and knowledge that can lead to enhanced family health in the home country. A World Bank report attributes improved child health and lower mortality rates to the health education that female migrants receive while living abroad. This was found to hold true for families in Guatemala, Mexico and Morocco. Furthermore, these

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health benefits are more likely to result when mothers migrate as opposed to fathers. Collective remittances-those pooled by diaspora associations-are rarely aimed explicitly at improving the lives of women. One exception is the Netherlands Filipino Association Overseas. Members provide collective remittances to support poor women through micro-credit programmes and the development of small enterprises. Another is an association of Mexican expatriates in the United States that sends funds to Michoacan State in Mexico. The local Government uses these donations to train women to produce school uniforms that are then sold to the Chamber of Commerce for distribution throughout the country. In general, however, as research into Latin American migrant hometown associations in the United States demonstrates, migrant women are often excluded from decision-making both on the sending and receiving end. Men manage most of the associations in host and destination countries, while women take on secretarial, fund raising and event organising roles. As more women migrate abroad, increasing numbers are establishing their own migrant networks that are transferring skills and resources and are sparking transformations in traditional notions of appropriate gender roles. In Germany, self-organised immigrant women's groups have been instrumental in battling trafficking, fighting racism .and advocating for the independent legal status of migrant spouses. Women's groups also successfully lobbied authorities to make forced marriage illegal among the country's 2.5 million Turkish immigrants. Through 10M's Migration for Development in Africa programme, Guinean women living overseas are assisting impoverished women back home to develop and establish micro-enterprises. Since 1993, African women living in France have formed a network of migrant associations that aims to facilitate integration into host societies and improve the quality of life in countries of origin.

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Seizing Opportunities, Overcoming

Obs~cles

The experiences of migrant women are as diverse as the backgrounds they come from and the communities to which they move. While migration has many benefits, it does not come without challenges. Right from the start, discriminatory immigration policies can limit legal migration channels. This relegates many women to the most vulnerable labour sectors or a~ dependents of male migrants. In the worst cases, they may wind-up as trafficking victims. Most women migrants come from countries where discrimination against females is deeply embedded in the social and cultural fabric. This places many at a disadvantage which can in turn result in inadequate access to information regarding work opportunities in destination countries, costs, benefits and steps necessary to migrate legally and safely. Soliciting the aid of another person or smuggler may place a woman in considerable debt and danger. During transit, female-and, in particular, unauthorised-migrants risk sexual harassment and abuse. They may be coerced into providing sexual favours in exchange for protection or permission to pass through frontiers. For example, researchers conducting a study of migrant women travelling alone through Central America en route to Mexico found that males perceived them to be "ready for anything". Male migrants often forced female migrants to have sex with border authorities in order to guarantee safe passage for the entire group. In 2005, Medecins Sans Frontieres reported that security officers and fellow migrants were sexually abusing sub-Saharan African women and minors while they transited through Morocco to Spain. Women along the, Moroccan-Algerian border are also vulnerable-particularly to smugglers and traffickers intent on sexually exploiting them. Unsafe abortions are not uncommon, and incidents of pregnant women being deposited and abandoned at the Moroccan-Algerian

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border were also registered. Anecdotal evidence suggests that as many as 50 per cent of female migrants making the trip from West Africa to Europe via Morocco are either pregnant or are travelling with small children. Many give birth unattended in the forest for fear of being deported should they seek medical services. Upon arrival in the destination country, female migrants are doubly disadvantaged-both as migrants and as women-and sometimes triply so, when race, class or religion are factored in. Those suffering abuse and violence may have no idea of what their rights are, and may fear repercussions if they contact the police or seek support services. Women also have ,PriOrity needs in the area of reproductive health and rights, but legal, cultural or language barriers mean that many have difficulty accessing information and services. Discrimina.tory Policies

Sometimes discrimination is inadvertent, while in other situations, women may dominate in certain migration streams such as nursing and domestic work, but specific needs and rights may go ignored. Some policies result in the exclusion of female migrants altogether. Other policies-often well meaning and aimed at increasing employment opportunities-nonetheless ignore multiple work, family and community responsibilities. In the absence of childcare and extended family networks, these can prevent women from partaking in skills training or other educational opportunities open to migrants. A country's particular labour needs directly affect to wilat degree men and women are likely to find work abroad and whether they can migrate legally. Traditionally, policies that invited migrants on a temporary basis to fill gaps in specific sectors tended to favour male-dominated occupations. Since the 19th century discovery of gold and diamonds in South Africa, for example, male migrant~ have been in high demand. In South Africa, citizens of the 14 Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries are most

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likely to find legal work wi!hin the mining industry, where 99 per cent of employees are men. No equivalent employment sector that facilitates entry for women exists. By contrast, South African commercial farmers prefer female workers from neighbouring countries, but because cross-border migration is typically irregular, female labour migrants remain unprotected by existing laws. While industrialisation in Asia has required labourers for construction, manufacturing and plantation work, women have been more likely to fill the demand for domestic and childcare support. When destination countries prefer skilled candidates, implications for migrant women can cut both ways. Women of low socio-economic and educational status can be at a serious disadvantage. They are more likely to wind up toiling in informal, irregular and seasonal jobs, with fewer possibilities to obtain work permits or citizenship entitlements. In France, for example, one study found that women constitute two-thirds of those refused citizenship on the grounds of insufficient linguistic knowledge. Entry for skilled workers can also be based on criteria, such as proof of years of uninterrupted work, language or of income and educational level. These unintentionally discriminate against women. On the other hand, the demand for skilled labour can also open up opportunities for better-educated women to migrate, as was the case during the 1980s when Australia shifted from a preference for manual labourers to that of professionals. Governments sometimes restrict female migration in order to "protect" women. Such bans on female migrants have been in place, for example, in Bangladesh, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Nepal and Pakistan. Bangladesh government data show that less than 1 per cent of thQse emigrating between 1991 and 2003 were women. This was largely owing ~ greater restrictions and bureaucratic hurdles that made it more difficult for women to emigrate. These, needless to note, only increase the likelihood that women will resort to irregular methods.

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A case in point: According to the Asian Development Bank, the Gulf States and South-East Asia are home to considerable numbers of undocumented Bangladeshi women. Government policies, however, have recently begun to change. In 2005, Bangladesh lifted the ban and, in the same Yf!ar, the Nepalese Supreme Court ended the requirement of parental or spousal consent for a woman under the age of 35 to obtain a passport. Labour laws tend to exclude certain sectors of the economy in which women migrants predominate-such as domestic work and the entertainment industry. This leaves many female migrant workers dependant on employers for legal status, basic needs such as housing and food, and the payment of due wages, which employers may arbitrarily withhold in order to ensure compliance. In addition, government efforts to curtail immigration and thus restrict it to temporary, short-term contracts means that many women are unable to change employers. This can trap them into abusive situations, outside the public view, and, in many cases, beyond the purview of public policies. Rights, terms of employment and working conditions vary according to the labour laws and immigration policies in each receiving country. In many countries, for example, the rights of domestic workers are neglected, and many spend years abroad before ever seeing their families. Host country regulations often prohibit lowskilled migrants from bringing family members with them. This is prompting calls for family-friendly policies that will support female migrant workers. Italy and Spain are among the very few countries that grant unskilled workers the possibility of family reunification-a privilege usually reserved for "skilled" migrants. They are also among the few countries that have actively furthered domestic worker rights, largely owing to the vigorous lobbying on the part of women's organisations. Dependency Gap

Women who migrate under family 'reunification schemes

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usually enter as dependents and may enjoy only limited access to employment, health care and other social services. In countries that distinguish between the rights of migrants to work or to reside, women entering as dependents may only be able to work illegally. Dependent status can also result in "brain waste". This occurs when skilled female migrants remain unemployed or are able to find work only in occupations far below their qualifications. Furthermore, if the marriage founders, or if the relationship is abusive, migrant women may find themselves trapped by threats of deportation or the loss of custodial rights. Children also suffer from the absence of material and emotional support when fathers abandon the family or the marriage dissolves. Granting abused women migrants independent legal status, such as Sweden and the United States have done-rather than keeping it contingent on male relatives or husbands-helps protect their rights and frees them from violence. Work and Wages

The proportion of immigrant women who are in the labour force varies by country, yet unemployment is generally higher for immigrant women. In many cases this is true in comparison to native men and women-as well as fellow male migrants. For example, in 17 OECD countries, unemployment rates for foreign women are substantially higher than the rate for native women. Among immigral1.ts from SADC countries living in South Africa, 38 per cent of female immigrants were unemployed as compared to 33 per cent of female natives, 30 per cent of male natives and 23 per cent of male migrants. Where migrant women face high unemployment rates and discrimination, many are forced to take whatever work is available. This can contribute to host population perceptions that migrant women are "unskilled", though many may actually be better qualified than their work implies. In some cases, however, migrants may be offered

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the opportunity to move up the pay scale: In the United Arab Emirates (UAF), Filipina domestic workers are increasingly being employed as drivers-a job with higher salaries and greater benefits. Relative to the status of women in their home countries, newcomers may earn higher wages. Compared to women in the receiving country, however, they are likely to be far worse off. Lower earnings can lead to impoverishment and can negatively impact families left behind owing to less remittance income. Data from the 2000 United States Census Bureau shows that 18.3 per cent of the foreign-born women live in poverty, compared to 13.2 per cent of the native-born women, and that 31 per cent of the female-headed migrant households are poor. Low wages can also affect family reunification for female migrants who are the sole sponsors of relatives. This is because many countries, such as Canada and the United States, require proof of sponsorship based on income and economic self-sufficiency. Low wages can have dire implications for older migrant women-especially for those who are underemployed, undocumented, widows or working in jobs without benefits. Pension plans and other social programmes in receiving countries, such as Canada and the United States, are pased on long-term paycheque contributions. In additidn, a lifetime of irregular labour means many older migrants are without savings for retirement or health care. In many European countries, pension entitlements are based on years of work and residency. The increasing number of older migrants within the region is sparking particular concern for the needs of elderly immigrant women.

Health Problems The health of any migrant is affected by gender, sociocultural and ethnic background, type of occupation and legal status, as well as the degree to which he or she can cover costs and access services, transportation and health insurance. Prior exposure to relevant health

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education and services will also affect a migrant's capacity to make informed health decisions. If a migrant cannot speak the language, she or he is more likely to encounter problems accessing health care. Low-paying and exploitative labour also has an impact, as does the degree to which the migrant and his or her communi.ty are integrated into the mainstream society. Discrimination and racism on the part of healthcare providers only adds to cultural and linguistic barriers. Both the host country itself and immigrant women will benefit from improved access to reproductive health information and services-including pregnancyrelated services and the prevention and treatment of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. However, migrant women often come from countries where poor health is a fact of life. Many possess little information regarding health matters and tend to be poorer and less educated than their native counterparts. Health status may be further compromised by the stress of adjusting to a new country and/or violence and sexual exploitation. Pregnancy-related problems among migrants have been a major problem throughout the EU, where studies have found that migrants receive inadequate or no antenatal care and exhibit higher rates of stillbirth and infant mortality. One United Kingdom study found that social exclusion and being non-white were among the main predictors of severe maternal morbidity. Immigrant women often have a higher incidence of unplanned pregnancies owing to poor access and a lack of information regarding contraceptives and how to obtain them. Research in Latin America shows that migrant women report more unintended pregnancies, have lower contraceptive u-se and generally utilise reproductive health services less often than do non-immigrants. Throughout Western Europe the story is the same. In Germany, researchers attribute low contraceptive use to the fact that programmes are geared towards German

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speakers and that immigrants often come from countries where family planning information is simply not available. Socio-cultural pressures may also prevent migrant women from accessing services for fear of being discovered by family members. Higher abortion rates among immigrants reflect women's limited decision-making power and lack of access to quality family planning services. In Spain, requests for abortions tend to be twice as common among immigrant women-especially those from North and subSaharan Mrica. In Norway, non-western women account for more than one quarter of all abortion requestsalthough they represent only 15 per cent of the population. In one Italian region, a study found that foreign-born women were three times more likely to undergo an induced abortion than local women. Socio-cultural factors

Socio-cultural factors can influence migrant reproductive health status, including pregnancy and childbirth outcomes and access to family planning services. Women from more traditional backgrounds are often embarrassed when dealing with male medical personnel-a problem when it comes to accessing reproductive and obstetric health-care services. In Denmark, studies show that poor communication between migrants and health-care providers, coupled with insufficient use of trained interpreters, is a key cause of poor and delayed gynaecological care. In Sweden, one study found that young, single immigrant women with children were more likely to register late at prenatal care centres. The study concluded that training staff in trans-cultural skills and providing them with interpreters could result in improved care. In Sao Paulo, doctors report that maternal and infant mortality rates among Bolivian migrant women are far higher-the latter by 3 to 4 times-than among local women. Migrants often decline caesarean section-a

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lifesaver in the event of obstructed labour-because in some indigenous cultures it implies a loss of femininity that can prompt the husband to desert his spouse. In response, the Municipal Health Secretariat is working to refine its programme, including providing outreach in the Quechua and Aymara languages. Nonetheless, despite increased risks and obstacles to accessing health care, exposure to new childbearing and female decision-making norms can be empowering. Indeed, in some cases, female migrants gain access to reproductive health information and services for the very first time. More and more countries are working to improve the reproductive health of migrant women. In a study conducted among Myanmar immigrants in two Thai provinces following the 2004 tsunami, researchers discovered that one in four mothers delivered without a skilled birth attendant; 55 per cent of all infants had not been immunised and only half of all married women were using contraception. The survey also found that fully 50 per cent of all adults interviewed lacked basic knowledge about HIV, despite the relatively high incidence (30 per cent) of unmarried males who reported paying for sex without consistently using condoms. In response, the NGO World Vision, with UNFPA support, recently expanded a programme serving immigrant communities. To date, project personnel have established mobile health clinics, a health education campaign and have hired Burmese-speaking medical staff. Over time, Australia, Canada and Sweden have also developed broad-based policies that work to tackle cultural and linguistic barriers, not only through culturally sensitive provider training and recruitment measures, but also by promoting the social and political integration of immigrants and refugees. This approach is proving effective: In these countries, studies have shown equal pregnancy outcomes for immigrant and native women.

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Data on HIV infection rates among international migrants are scarce. The alarming "feminisation" of the pandemic, however, is well documented and speaks to what can transpire when the rights of women are neglected en masse. Physiological, social and cultural factors mean that women and girls face particularly high risks of contracting HIV and other STIs throughout the migration process. Undocumented migrant women who become stranded in transit countries en route to their intended destination and are unable to work may be forced into "survival sex" in exchange for basic commodities or food. This increases the likelihood of infection. Sexual violence makes them even more vulnerable. In one South African study, female migrant farm workers from Mozambique and Zimbabwe were found to be particularly susceptible to HIV infection owing to sexual violence. About 15 per cent of those surveyed reported having been raped or knowing someone who had been raped or sexually harassed while working on farms. Most were too fearful of losing their jobs to report violence. According to interviewees, male Zimbabweans were the main perpetrators. The vulnerability of migrant women is borne out by some grim statistics. According to UNAIDS, in France, 69 per cent of all HIV diagnoses attributed to heterosexual contact during 2003 occurred among immigrants-65 per cent of whom were women. In Costa Rica, one service organisation found that 40 per cent of the women treated for sexually transmitted infections were immigrants. In Sri Lanka, the Government reported that, for every one male migrant that tested positive in 2002, there were a corresponding seven females. Although the causes behind this gross disparity have not been established, researchers suggest that sexual abuse by employers and exploitation in so-called domestic worker "safe" houses could be factors. To minimise the risks of infection, the Government has established HIV / AIDS awareness pre-departure orientation sessions aimed at migrant women.

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Seasonal and circular migration, whereby individuals leave their homes and then return home, can also contribute to HIV transmission. One study undertaken in Senegal revealed that migrants have unprotected sex while abroad and then infect their wives upon return. Women without adequate support from migrant husbands also turn to sex work for survival while their spouses are abroad. When male migrants become infected with HIV, remittances often dry up-either through job loss or because they have to spend more of their income on health care. According to UNAIDS, women may resort to transactional sex or will migrate themselves in order to make up fer lower remittances and provide for family members. A country with one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world, Botswana is witnessing decreased remittances from husbands with AIDS-related illnesses. This leaves women-usually older-shouldering the care of orphaned children. Gender-based violence

Gender-based violence is the ultimate manifestation of unequal relations between men and women. Owing to their status as women and as foreigners, migrant women face disproportionate risks of physical abuse and violence at home, in the streets or in their places of work. So profound is the problem, that the UN Secretary-General now issues reports exclusively focused on the topic. Gender-based violence is not only a violation of human rights, but also threatens health, productivity and social and economic integratitm into the host society. Some immigrants also come from cultures that maintain halmful practices such as female genital mutilation/ cutting, forced marriages and so-called "honour killings". While there is a notable dearth of data on violence against migrant women, smaller studies indicate a high incidence of abuses. In Mexico, a recent study revealed that 46 per cent of migrant women had suffered from

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some sort of violence, with 23 per cent reporting that customs officials were the main perpetrators; federal police followed next at 10 per cent; judiciary and municipal police at 10 per cent; and, finally, the armed forces at 6 per cent. According to the Sri Lanka Bureau for Employment, in 2001, over 1,600 women reported harassment in their workplaces overseas. TRAFFICKING

Because of its underground nature, experts caution that trafficking data is rough and hard to gauge. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that at least 2.45 million trafficking victims are currently toiling in exploitative conditions, and that another 1.2 million are trafficked annually, 1?oth across and within national borders. The US Department of State numbers are similar: between 600,000 and 800,000 women, men and children are trafficked across international borders each year-most for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation. Of these, the majority-up to ~O per centare women and girls. Up to 50 per cent are children. Trafficked women are usually forced into prostitution and sex tourism, commercial marriages and other "female" occupations such as domestic work, agricultural and sweatshop labour. Human trafficking is the third most lucrative illicit business in the world after arms and drug trafficking and is a major source of organised crime revenue. The industry generates an estimated US$7 to $12 billion annually-although real numbers are difficult to come by. These numbers, however, reflect profits only from the initial sale of persons. The ILO estimates that once victims are in the destination country, traffickers net an additional US$32 billion a year-half generated in industrialised countries and almost one third in Asia. Trafficking constitutes the dark "underside" of globalisation. The opening-up of national borders and international markets has led not only to increased international flows of capital, goods and labour, but also to the globalisation of organised crime.

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Improved information technologies and transportation allow transnational syndicates to operate as never before. The majority of victims are migrants in search of a better life who are usually lured by the false promise of a decent job. Increasingly restrictive immigration policies limit the possibility of legal entry, which is in turn driving more and more would-be migrants to unwittingly entrust themselves to traffickers. Although trafficking differs from other types of migration, there is considerable overlap with both regular and irregular migration where it involves violence, confinement, coercion, deception and exploitation. A mail-order bride, for example, may enter the country legally but subsequently be forced into labour; a domestic worker can end up trafficked for purposes of sexual exploitation. Trafficking also intersects with smuggling. Unlike the latter, however, trafficking contains an element of coercion or deception while the relationship between migrants and smugglers is based on consent and usually ends upon arrival at the destination. In actual practice, however, distinctions can be fuzzy, and there are cases that contain elements of both. Trafficking victims need safety, support and care while undergoing social and economic reintegration once their ordeal has ended. Not only do they have to deal with the depression that often ensues, but also social stigma-especially in cases of sexual exploitation. According to the Report of the Secretary-General on Trafficking in Women and Girls, various countries are taking measures to support victims. Belgium and the United States, for example, provide some financial assistance. Telephone hotlines are available in some countr;es, including Bangladesh, Denmark, Italy, Lithuania, Turkey, the US and Uzbekistan. China, Indonesia, Portugal and the United States, among others, also offer access to legal services. Various countries provide social programmes, including psychological and medical care, and have established

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shelters and crisis centres-although these fall short of need and tend to be underfunded. One UNFPA-supported shelter run by the 10M in Bosnia-Herzegovina, for example, delivers reproductive health services to trafficked women and girls. Owing to fears of corrupt police and possible arrest and deportation, trafficked women often prefer to approach NGOs rather than state-based agencies. In the Philippines, the NGO Visayan Forum Foundation is a private/public partnership that operates shelters for trafficked persons and works with the police, shipping companies and the port authority to identify traffickers. In Colombia, the Medellin-based Espacios de Mujer provides psychological, social and health services as well as educational and income-generating opportunities. Medellin serves as one of the key transit points for women trafficked in and out of Colombia. According to the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, "the lack of rights afforded to women serves as the primary causative factor at the root of both women's migration and trafficking". To fight trafficking effectively, underlying causes such as poverty and the lack of equal opportunities need to be addressed. Women who lack economic security are ea~y prey if they are willing to leave their country in search of work elsewhere. The elimination of discrimination against women is thus not only a human rights priority, but also key to putting an end to trafficking. Effective prevention requires a comprehensive approach. This involves education and includes awareness-raising campaigns, community involvement, poverty reduction initiatives and the creation of livelihood opportuni1:ies. It also involves more equitable income distribution and the rebuilding of societies following conflict. Legal reforms that allow equal rights to own and control property and land will help cut the risks associated with the trafficking of women in rural communities.

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There are many examples of development programmes aimed at reducing the vulnerability of poorer communities. The Asian Development Bank regards trafficking in women and children as a major challenge to its mission of poverty reduction. It provides emergency loans, assistance for post-conflict reconstruction and social protection to those most at risk. In Myanmar, the Government offers poor women and girls vocatiollal training and loans to ju'mp-start mini entrepreneurial ventures, while in Kyrgyzstan, authorities are assisting unemployed nationals residing in small towns and rural areas. In 2005, the Government of Nepal reported that it was establishing a National Rapporteur on Trafficking in the offices of the National Human Rights Commission. Many governments, NGOs and UN organisations have embarked on community awareness-raising effortsincluding those that target poor rural areas where girls and women are most likely to be recruited. In Brazil, the government launched a campaign, including through the radio and signs posted at airports, to alert women departing from states where the risks of trafficking are particularly high. A one-month campaign in Bangladesh sought to educate community members about trafficking and related crimes against women, and to sensitise them on issues related to the reintegration of victims. MODERN APPROACH TO GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT

In June 2000, the United Nations (UN) held a Special Session of the General Assembly to assess the progress achieved by the nation states in implementing the Fourth World Conference on Women Platform for Action. The session called Women 2000, or more popularly Beijing+5, was one of a series of 5-year reviews on the UN Conferences and Summits that took place during the first half of the 1990's. Beijing+5 culminates 25 years of women's activism which began with the UN declaring 1975 as the International Year of Women and the four world conferences that followed: Mexico City, 1975;

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Copenhagen, 1980; Nairobi, 1985; and Beijing, 1995. These years witnessed the increasing mobilisation of women worldwide and their growing political presence and power, not only at women's conferences, but throughout the UN system. They also witnessed the changing and deepening of the focus and critique women were bringing to economic issues. The agenda evolved from a WID (Women in Development) approach to GAD (Gender and Development) to mainstreaming gender in all policy and programs to an emphasis on empowerment and Human Rights. This evolution charts developments in the analysis of women's social and economic experiences and progressively, in more global ways, to address the inequities embedded in women's experience. The shift from WID to GAD was particularly important because it transformed the women's agenda. The WID agenda focused on two main goals: to generate discussions and research on the role of women in development; and to institutionalise a women's focus within development agencies and governments with the mandate to integrate women into development. The WID solution, integrating women into the development process, did not question the kind of development that was being fostered by the donor nations from the industrialised North. Furthermore WID focused on women and generally ignored the consequences of different social realities, that is, the gendered worlds of women and men. The GAD approach uses gender, rather than women, as an analytic category to -understand how economic, political, social and cultural systems affect women and men differently. Gender is understood as the social roles, expectations and responsibilities assigned to women and men because of their biological differences. It is an ideological and cultural construct that shapes women's and men's realities. The GAD approach signals three important departures for WID. First, it identifies the unequal power relations between women and men. Second, it reexamines all

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social, political and economic structures and development policies from the perspective of the gender differentials. And third, it recognises that achieving gender equality and equity will demand "trans formative change." The GAD approach demands transformative change in gender relations from household to global politic and policy and within all the mediating institutions, such as governments, the World Bank, the IMF and the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Based on this analysis, women and pro-equality development practitioners advocated mainstreaming gender analysis into all policy and programming both in design and impact assessment. Gender mainstreaming was formally adopted as a transformative strategy at the Beijing Conference. Beyond GAD and gender main streaming, women today are demanding the full exercise of theirhuman rights and are developing a rights-based approach to economic policy. In a recent June 2000 special edition of World Development, Diane Elson and Nilufer Cagatay advocate "a rightsbased approach to economic policy which aims directly at strengthening the realisation of human rights, which include social, economic and cultural rights, as well as civil and political rights. Such an approach goes beyond viewing gender concerns as instrumental to growth, as is sometimes the case, because it recognises women's agency and their rights and obligations as citizens." This approach clearly illustrates a profound political shift that became evident at the Fourth World Conference on Women, where women were no longer focused on a narrow range of so-called women's economic issues, but were demanding voice in all arenas of economic policy making. As Noeleen Heyzer of UNIFEM succinctly stated it: "This conference was billed as a World Conference for Women. It became a Women's Conference on the state of the World." The representatives of the 185 nation states which negotiated the Platform for Action did not fully understand or embrace that shift. Nor did the majority of the delegates to Beijing +5 if one judges from the

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recommendations put forward in the Outcomes Document. The United Nations has been a catalyst for the emergence of the Global Women's Movement. The various conferences and summits since 1975 have provided venues for women to gather, especially in NGO Forums (non-governmental organisations), amplifying their voice in international political debates. Conference and summit documents have provided a moral and political platform for women's activism in struggling for their human rights, political/civil and social/economic/cultural. However, UN conference documents are not and cannot be the sole road map for women to achieve their rights because they are inherently flawed. UN conference documents are political, negotiated in the self-interest of nation states; therefore, the women's agenda is always in danger of co-optation. Granted, in recent years more and more women and men, with a pro-equality agenda, have been on national delegations. They have struggled valiantly to keep the agenda focu~('d on women's needs and agendas, but in the final decisld f~ their positions are dictated by the self-interest of tl'le nation state they are representing. It can b@ il1ustl ated that the advancement of women is in the best interests of nation states, but that reality is not universally understood nor accepted. In all settings, it is still the predominately male-dominated agendas that prevail. For example, in the Beijing +5 process, the U.S. women delegates worked with their pro-equality counterparts from the South and the NGO community to ensure that the paragraphs on globalisation included the negative effects of global economic integration, leading to wider economic disparities, greater feminisation of poverty and increased gender inequality. The Out~omes Document, as it is called, recognises that the effects of global economic integration and debt have inhibited countries ability to provide social protection and social security to its citizens and to fulfill its commitments to the Beijing Platform for Action.

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In its final statement at the closing of Beijing +5, the U.S. government took reservations on globalisation language, stating: "These paragraphs characterised globalisation and debt as significant obstacles to achieving gender equality. National governments had primary responsibility for social and economic development and for ensuring the equality of women. Most aspects of equality for women had no direct link to international economic and financial issues." It was not in U.S. self-interest to recognise that global economic integration which it is fostering has serious consequences for the well-being of many nation states and their citizens, particularly women. The reality of women's experience was coopted to meet the U.S. economic agenda. A second problem with UN negotiated documents is that they are non-binding on nation states, multilateral institutions, such as the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO, or on NGOs. They do provide a kind of political and moral position for women to lobby their governments, but that is all. This observation is not meant to deny the real progress that women have made over the last 25 years based on the advocacy work they have pursued after a UN conference. It is, however, to sound a cautionary note on the expectations that should be brought to a document. Finally the greatest weakness that pervades· all UN conference documents is the lack of analysis. They describe problems, but they fail to analyse the roots of the problems, so, often the proposed solutions are either inadequate or unworkable. For example, the Beijing +5 Outcomes Document clearly describes the negative effects of the continuing debt crises and global economic integration, but it offers no or very weak recommendations to address the causes of these negative effects. It directs most of its economic recommendations to national governments, while basically ignoring the external constraints that current

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macro economic policies place on governments that inhibit their abilities to respond to recommendations. This problem is repeated in the current World Development Report 2000/2001: Attacking Poverty, published by the World Bank. The report admits that its traditional prescriptions of balanced budgets, sound currency and free trade have failed to significantly reduce poverty around the world, but it does not analyse why its prescriptions have failed, nor does it offer any alternative solutions. Instead it addresses the need of giving more power and more income security to people in poverty in time of crisis, without asking why these crises continue to occur. The reason for this lack of analysis and effective solutions is directly related to the political agendas and the power dynamics of multilateral institutions. AGENDA FOR WOMEN'S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Beijing +5 took place within a changing political context. Cracks were beginning to show in the great venture of globalisation and its driving force, global economic integration. The gaps between the so-called "winners and losers" were growing as the poverty ratio between the rich and poor both among and within countries was widening. The Asian financial crisis, while it had sobered policy makers, had devastated national economies and plunged people back into poverty. A small but growing chorus of economists were challenging the Washington Consensus, that body of economic policies enshrined by the World Bank and the IMF in its stabilisation and structural adjustment policies.The Third Ministerial Meeting of the WTO in Seattle had collapsed under both internal and external pressures. A global citizens' anti-globalisation movement was growing as was evidenced in Seattle, in Washington, DC at the World Bank and IMF spring meeting. at the G-7 meeting in Okinawa, at UNCTAD X and other multilateral meetings, and most recently at the Bank and Fund annual meeting in Prague. Moreover, there is a growing political analysis of the levels of power that are propelling

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the global economic process. Whereas, the multilateral institutions, specifically the World Bank, the IMF and the World Trade Organisation (WTO), are the key implementers of the policies, it is the powerful nations, specifically the G7/8 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, the U.S. and Russia) with the expanded European Union (EU) who shape the agenda. Transnational Corporations (TNCs) exert great pressure on these governments to ensure a favorable economic and political environment for business. The UN's political power is overshadowed and often ignored or compromised. Furthermore, the new Global Compact between business and the UN could well more deeply compromise the abihty of the UN to act democratically and with any integrity. W9men's economic advocacy in the future will need to' address the major power brokers, if its agenda of human rights, equity and sustainable social development is to 'be realised. So the economic agenda must include national political agendas of the South, the North and TNCs. The scope of women's economic agenda includes the transformation of macroeconomic policies and institutions, national policies and priorities, social relations and household dynamics. The goal of the economic agenda defined in negative terms is the eradication of poverty; in positive terms, the goal is economic rights and security for women, their families and communities. MACROECONOMICS ISSUES

The key macroeconomic issues include eradication of poverty, debt, SAPs (stabilisation and structural adjustment policies), trade, investment, finance and ODA (overseas development assistance).Poverty Eradication, Debt and SAPs Eradication of poverty has a growing moral imperative in the current unequal world, where amidst the flourishing of some economies and peoples, some 2.8 billion, almost half of the 6 billion people on

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earth, live on less that US$2 a day; 1.2 billion live on less than US$l dollar a day. South Asia and Sub-Saharan Mrica are the two most impoverished regions.Women continue to be a majority within the poverty population. Critical to the poverty eradication is debt cancellation and the redirection of the economic resources now absorbed in external debt servicing to poverty reduction and the provisioning of social and public services. Beijing +5 Outcomes Document, as did the Beijing Platform for Action, identifies the servicing of external debt as a contributing factor to the growing impoverishment of women: The impact of globalisation and structural adjustment programmes, the high costs of external debt servicing and declining terms of international trade in several developing countries have worsened the existing obstacles to development, aggravating the feminisation of poverty. Negative consequences of structural adjustment programmes, stemming from inappropriate design and application, have continued to place a disproportionate burden on women, inter alia, through budget cuts in basic social services, including education and health. However, the solution offered is the Cologne initiative for an enhanced HIPC (heavily indebted poor countries). Support the Cologne initiative for the reduction of debt, particularly the speedy implementation of the enhanced heavily indebted poor countries debt initiative; ensure the provision of adequate funds for its implementation and implement the provision that funds saved should be used to support anti-poverty programmes that address gender dimensions. The Cologne initiative is the agreement the G7/8 made at their annual meeting in 1999. Its effectiveness in reducing debt and alleviating poverty is seriously criticised by NGOs. A recent analysis by Oxfam International identifies the promises of the enhanced HIPC as grossly exaggerated. NGOs across the world, including women and women's groups, have been active in the Jubilee 2000

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campaign to cancel debt to the least developed countries. This effort needs to be continued and enlarged, if poverty reduction for women, families and communities is to be realised. NGOs from the G7/8 and the other members of the EU have a responsibility to lobby their governments for realistic approaches to debt relief. For their part, Southern NGOs and women's groups need to lobby their governments to ensure any resources freed by debt relief address the poverty needs of a country, particularly the poverty needs of women and children. Moreover, HIPC does not address the debt problems of middle income countries, who also carry crippling debt servicing obligations. These countries need to be brought into debt reduction strategies. As major donors to the IFIs, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, the G7/8 and extended EU, are the key policy decision makers. However, the Bank and the Fund are the primary players in crafting policy implementation for countries. Women have been critical of and borne the burden of stabilisation and structural adjustment programs (SAPs) since the early 1980s. Whereas, SAPs are identified as one of the contributing factors to women's poverty in the Outcomes Document, neither an economic rationale for discontinuing SAPs nor an alternative to SAPs is addressed. Rather the document offers diffuse solutions of women's participation in decision-making and implementation of policies to eradicate poverty. The new Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) is a current example of participation being fostered by the Bank and the Fund, but it is not without its critics. From a human rights perspective, participation in the PRSP process reduces participation to a policy option rather th~n recognising it as a human civil/political right. Feminists emphasise the political nature of the PRSP. The process was developed in response to strong "global civil society" pressure against debt and against the current global economic system that continues to generate poverty.

CHAPTER 7

WOMEN IN SOCIAL CHANGES Each child should be able to dream of becoming the leader of his or her country. This pinnacle of aspiration means that every other position of authority and decision making is also accessible. Boosting the representation of women in decision making at all levels of government raises the chances that girls will believe they, too, can eventually have a say. When government is truly representative of the society it serves, its decisions will also fully serve society. For example, if more women are involved in decision making, this may result in more family-friendly policies because of women's primary responsibilities for children. However, experience shows that women have to make up a sizeable proportion of any decision-making group in order to reach a "critical mass" and represent their unique priorities and concerns and become a genuine and effective voice for substantive change. Compared to Western countries, the communist countries of Europe and the Soviet Union were quick to grant womert legal rights and favour important attainments for them in employment, education, health care, and childcare. However, the socialist state also claimed control over the issue of gender equality. As in the case of many other areas, the politics of gender equality was suppressed, and there was little public discourse to shape and advance women's equality and a fairer sharing of power, including in the household. In effect, women were unable to exercise ownership over

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women's issues. Public discussion was monopolised by official ideology. The communist legacy in the representation of women in politics must also be overcome. The former governments featured "elected" parliaments, but all candidates were designated by the ruling communist party. In this system, quotas ensured seats for women, but little power for them. The highest share of women "elected" to parliament was 34 percent-in Romania under the dictatorship of Ceauc;escu. In reality, women were picked to fill the "workers and peasants" quotas as well-killing two political birds with one stone-and were rarely "re-elected". The real power remained with the male-dominated "nomenklatura". The token representation of women in public life is well illustrated by a biting description referring to Albania. "Women were often seen on platforms at solemn meetings, serving the same function as the potted plants - decoration." Real power was held by the communist party. Though women did have the formal right to belong to the highest organ of the party-the political committee, their participation in this top body never exceeded 5 percent in any country during the 1960s and 70s. In 1989, there were no women on the political committees of the USSR, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria and only two women of the 15 members in Hungary, two of the 16 in Poland, and two of the 21 in Romania. Under communism, civil institutions were limited because the state did not tolerate free association among citizens. Social, political and economic change was usually initiated by the party. Civil associations, such as youth groups, were often supplanted by state-sponsored and state-controlled organisations. There was also little incentive to form interest groups since the authorities were not democratically elected and therefore were not accountable to the people. With the introduction of democratic mUlti-party elections, the number of women in national parliaments has been drastically reduced across the region. Partly

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this is the outcome of the abolishment of quotas for women in elected bodies. In the West, the Nordic countries have led the way with a consistently high representation of women in parliament. This is the fruit of progressive attitudes and of voluntary quotas applied by political parties for their own candidates. After 1998 elections, the Netherlands and Germany joined the ranks of the Nordic nations among countries with women making up more than 30 percent of the members of parliament. In the former Soviet Union, the significant decrease in the number of women parliamentarians began with reforms instituted by Gorbachev in the 1980s. In the 1989 elections, quotas were partially lifted, and the share of women deputies halved, falling from 31 percent in 1984 to 16 percent. There is some evidence that in the countries of the former Soviet Union, women also have less chance than men of winning a free political (;ompetition. In 1996, in Lithuania, a country with a high number of women parliamentarians, women made up 20 percent of candidates, but only 17-18 percent of those elected. Political parties are a crucial part of the new civil society in the region, but they are no exception in terms of gender inequity. Women usually make up a smaller share of party members than men, and the representation of women on party executive committees is invariably less than their share in the membership. In Hungary in 1992, for example, women made up 25 percent of the membership, but less than 5 percent of the executive of the Hungarian Democratic Forum, which led the coaljtion government after the first democratic elections. The same was true of political parties in Slovenia, where in 1998, for instance, women constituted 60 percent of the membership of the Christian Democrats, but accounted for less than 20 percent of the leadership positions. This unwritten, but common practice discourages the active participation of women in politics by limiting their potential, thereby perpetuating a cycle of inequality: if women are unable to acquire

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leadership experience they will remain less likely to become elected leaders. Imposed quotas are a discredited strategy in these former communist countries, but there is pressure for proactive measures by government to promote gender equality in politics. In Russia, it is being debated whether the law on equal opportunity should authorise the imposition of quotas among all elected posts. The deputy speaker of the Senate in Poland, a woman, told the UN Status of Women Commission that all democratic countries should have a law requiring equal gender status in order to surmount existing barriers like gender stereotypes and traditions within political parties. The law would mandate a parity threshold whereby no fewer than 30-40 percent and no more than 60-70 percent of elected positions would be held by each gender. There are political parties in a number of Western democracies that have voluntarily adopted such balancing mechanisms for their own candidates-a positive measure arguably quite different in spirit and outcomes from the quota system of the communist governments since it has been generated from the bottom up within the parties. Participation in Government Posts It is one thing for women to be elected to parliament and

another for them to rise to senior decisicm-making positions such as cabinet minister, deputy minister or secretary of state. The representation of women among top government decisiori makers is low in the transition countries. In 1996, in only four countries did women make up more than 10 percent of government ministers, and only Slovakia was close to the OECD average. In nine countries, there were no women ministers in 1996. in Hungary, after the 1998 elections, there was only one woman iIi the cabinet. Women ministers can shape decision making, but can also act as important role models in society. Adding the shares of women in sub-

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ministerial positions-deputy ministers, secretaries of state and their deputies-gives a statistically more positive picture of women's presence in government decision making across the region. The gap between Central and Eastern Europe and the three CIS sub-regions is clear. Unlike Central and Eastern Europe, all CIS sub-regions and most CIS countries fall far below the non-Nordic OECD average. In Russia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan, the first, second and fourth most populous countries in the entire region, the share of women in senior government positions is strikingly low. There seems to be no statistically significant relationship in the transition countries between the proportion of women in parliament and the representation of women in senior government positions. Kyrgyzstan, with a relatively high share of women in senior government positions (11 percent), has a low proportion of elected female deputies-l petcertt in one chamber and 5 percent in the other. In Kazakhstan, by contrast, the proportion of women in parliament almost doubled, from 7 percent in 1990 to 13 percent in 1995, but representation in top posts remained slim. In the Baltics, Lithuania has a high percentage of women deputies, but a low share of women in government decision-making positions. The link between women's share among legislators and senior government positions is stronger for OECD countries (correlation coefficient = 0.45, compared to 0.06 in the transition region). This may be explained by the fact that in OECD countries there has been a steady (although non-linear) growth in the numbers of women parliamentarians in the last 50 years, and this process has created a stronger precedent for the attainment of government positions by women. Hopefully, the transition countries will not take such a long road to fairer representation for women. Overall, there has been little vocal demand for increased political participation for women, and even some women politicians have claimed that, because of the

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transition cnS1S, this is not an appropriate time to deal with women's issues. In 1990, the Czech ambassador to the UN, a woman, said "feminism is a flower on democracy"; in other words, a stable democratic system must be in place before issues of women's equality can be addressed. Nonetheless, women's equality might be more solidly integrated into the foundations of a developing democracy. Yet, as some commentators note, the political transformation promised by transition has so far built upon, rather than levelled, existing gender inequality. Women also appear to have lost ground during the transition in another important area of public leadership: the judiciary. In Kyrgyzstan, women held 31 percent of the positions in the justice system in 1985, but only 8 percent a decade later. In Moldova, there were 13 women judges on the Supreme Court in 1990, but only seven in 1994. Not only are these posts prestigious, but judicial decisions affect the political, economic and social life of a nation. The influence of the judiciary is bound to grow in the newly democratic societies of the region, and it is important that women be represented equitably in these centres of influence. Similarly, women are poorly represented in top positions in foreign affairs and international relations.

Women in Economic Decision Making A role in high-level economic decision making is as important to women's participation in society as is equitable representation in political bodies. Leaders in business and industry help set the direction of economic policy and development and are part of the power elite in any country; there is often an overlap and career interplay between top economic and political positions. Economic leaders include the executives of national public bodies dealing with economic matters, senior managers of enterprises, senior managers of international and regional financial institutions, and the leaders of

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trade unions and professional and business organisations. Women's low representation in key economic positions under communism more genuinely reflected their lack of influence in decision making than did their share among parliamentarians and in other government bodies. Women directors at large state enterprises were rare. In Hungary in the mid-1980s, for example, almost 90 percent of top managers were men. Women managers tended to have positions in sectors of lower strategic importance. Women make up the majority of public-sector employees, but are scarce at senior levels. In the Czech Repu blic in 1997, only 7 percent of the directors of stateowned enterprises were women. Much of the new private sector in the region consists of former state enterprises that have been privatised. A sample of directors of large private organisations and companies in the Czech Republic found a ratio of one woman to every 10 men. In Russia, almost half of the women managers are employed in retail trade and in the hotel and restaurant industry, but even in these sectors women account for only onefourth of the managerial posts. Women in the region have been, in some ways, in a good position to benefit from the economic liberalisation of the transition. They are not only educated and experienced in the workplace, but are concentrated in fields of study and business with strong growth potential. Still, men have often been able to leverage their advantages under the old economic system to their profit in the new marketplace, entering the more promising professions and occupying top-level posts. In Russia, the share of women employed in sectors of the economy where the pay prospects have improved with marketisation-trade, credit and financial institutions, insurance, the hotel ·and restaurant industry - shrank by 15-17 percent between 1990 and 1996. It is generally difficult to find internationally comparable data on the

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gender distribution of high-level economic managers in the region. WOMEN IN THE NEW CML SOCIETIES

Decisions about development in democratic countries are not taken solely by top-level political and economic leaders. They are also shaped by civil society, including lower level administrators, entrepreneurs, households as economic actors, special interest groups, trade unions, social movements, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and the news media. Experience shows that a strong civil society can provide a sound foundation for economic and political development in the transition countries. How women participate in this process is vital for women's well-being and, no doubt, for the success of the transition itself. Just as participation in local politics and NGOs can help women develop political and social power, the acknowledgement and cultivation of women's work in the household economy and small entrepreneurship can help establish a broad base of economic power. Women in Local Government

Democracy is new in much of the region, but where data are available they show that women are consistently more well represented in local governments than in national governments. There are many reasons for this greater success, not least of which may be that local politics is literally closer to home. Women may be more likely to participate because it is easier to combine family responsibilities with local political work, and issues tend to have a more immediate impact on families and their communities. The lower cost of local political campaigns means women can afford to compete more readily and political parties may be more willing to invest the smaller sums in women candidates. There is also evidence that the belief that politics is a tough business unsuitable for women may not extend to local government, perhaps inherbecause this is seen 'more

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as a community activity. Local media may sometimes be less inclined to play up the gender angle in politics and more inclined to portray female candidatf!s as individuals in the community. In all but two of the 11 countries for which data are available, the proportion of women elected to local governments is higher than that of women elected to national parliaments. In Latvia, the share of women in local councils is about 40 percent, more than double that in the national parliament. The difference is also great in Hungary, Bulgaria and Moldova. In Romania and Azerbaijan, the proportion of women elected to local governments is slightly less than the success rate of women in national elections. The high share of women elected to local bodies in many countries is especially significant because, during transition, countries are moving away from the heavily centralised governments of the communist era. Local governments are becoming more and more responsible for the provision of public services, such as education and social care, though the economic recession accompanying transition has left many of them with few resources. Indeed, local governments have often been put on the frontline of the transition crisis in that they have been given the responsibilities but not the resources to provide public services. The vigorous participation of women in local politics is proof that women are intensely interested in taking up decision-making positions. Data on the number of female mayors are less encouraging, underlining the continuing exclusion of women from top political jobs eve!) at the local level. In Hungary, Bulgaria and Estonia, 10-13 percent of mayors are women (including the major of Tallinn, Estonia's capital); in the Czech Republic and Moldova somewhat less, and only 2-4 percent in Romania and Lithuania. In Russia, only one of 89 regional governments (that is, oblasts, republics, or autonomous districts) has a woman governor. Civil organisations are an indispensable part of democratic societies and constitute an increasingly

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powerful "third" sector that balances and acts in partnership with the public and private sectors. In almost all transition countries, political liberalisation has encouraged the formation of NGOs, social movements, grassroots groups, and media organisations; the longstanding repression of autonomous civil associations has largely evaporated. The number of NGOs is growing in the transition region, filling the space left by the retreating state and fulfilling the desire for a civil society. In today's world, civil associations are important incubators for leadership and are becoming bodies of consequence in society. They are therefore major vehicles in which women can gain experience, build skills and exercise influence. In Western democracies; a broad-based women's movement has been the primary force in advancing women's equality, in part by putting and keeping equality issues on the public and political agenda. Under communism, the state appropriated women's organisations and representation and turned the concept of the active promotion of gender issues into an empty, imposed ideology. This may explain "the signs in the region that both women and men are disenchanted with the words "feminism" and "gender equality" and have even developed "an allergy to feminism". However, as an observer has noted, top women decision makers in Poland may eschew the label "feminist" and yet still act as advocates and role models of equality for women. The distaste in the region for gender equality as a political concept raises an obstacle to the public discussion of women's rights. Still, a range of initiatives has sprung up to move beyond the communist women's associations which were frequently accused of poorly representing the political interests of women. One remarkable initiative is the Women's Party in Russia that gained 8 percent of the seats in the 1993 elections to the Duma. In the following elections, however, the party failed to pass the 5 percent threshold. Women's parties have also

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been created in other countries, for example in former Czechoslovakia, but none has gained political representation. In Western democracies, women's political parties are rare. Instead, equality issues have tended to be incorporated into the platforms of mainstream political parties. For many countries, the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995, was a catalyst for the organisation and mobilisation of new women's groups and organisations advocating women's equality - fresh alternatives to discredited national women's organisations inher-ited from the communist state. This UN Conference relied firmly on the promotion of NGO participation before, during and after the conference so as to make NGOs an effective partner in the conference discussions and outcomes. The Beijing Conference also acted as a catalyst for the new governments of the transition countries, stimulating recognition of and action on women's equality issues. For example, in Latvia and Lithuania, the process of collecting data to be presented at the conference helped establish official national machinery to promote the improved status of women. Contact with Western academics has encouraged the creation of gender studies programmes at universities. Women have also been active in the establishment of their own business associations. The range of issues serving as the focus of NGO activities is often quite similar across the region, with four prominent areas of interest: political concerns and rights, the promotion of business and professional activities, social services such as health care and education, and activism against violence against women and domestic abuse. There is, however, substantial variation in the strength and autonomy of the NGOs. International and Western NGOs have been active in the region, especially in Central and Eastern Eur{)pe. starting projects and supporting the formation of local associations, notably self-help groups, hotlines and shelters for battered women that deal openly w:th the

"'::",

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problems of domestic violence and sexual abuse. In Poland in 1997, there were reportedly 73 women's organisations and informal groups, including six religious associations, eight research centres and six political groups attached to political parties or trade unions. In FYR Macedonia, 154 of the 271 registered NGO activists are women. Women's NGOs are numerous in Russia, but appear to be less vigorous in other CIS countries. Established under Gorb.achev in the 1980s in an effort to stimulate discussion and debate, many women's groups have continued to develop autonomously since transition. For instance, housing groups have grown out of neighbourhood committees. Women of Russia and the Free Association of Feminist Organisations and Independent Women's Fora are examples of umbrella groups which have emerged in the 1990s. Women are active in ethnocultural affairs. For instance, the International Women's Organisation for Keeping and Developing the Culture of Turkic Nations was recently founded in Moscow. Women'~ business organisations are also becoming more active. In 1998 the Confederation of Businesswomen of Russia jointly organised a major conference, "Women and Management", with the International Institute of St Petersburg. In 1992, among women's groups, a "Group of Gender Expertise" of 15 independent experts was established within the highest legislative body of the Russian Federation. In Ukraine. observers have been more sceptical of women's groups and the Women's Party in Ukraine, arguing that these organisations are isolated from each other and from the great majority of Ukrainian women and that they have failed to challenge prevalent patriarchal values and attitudes. However, some of the newly formed women's organisations also appear to have high numbers of members, which is a reason for optimism. NGOs are often unregulated in the transition countries. This has meant that commercial businesses sometimes masquerade as not-for-profit organisations.

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Legislation and regulation are needed to define the differences between businesses and NGOs, so as not to discourage the growth of these important civic actors. Given the history of oppression of associations of citizens in the iormer communist countries and the current economic problems in the region, the development of this sector has been modest. However, the emergence of women's groups is positive, as is the fact that governments do consult such groups on new policies and legislation. The challenge now is to promote and support the growth of these new and necessarily tentative beginnings. For example, grassroots women's groups are typically the first to address violence against women. The Crisis Centre for Women in Moscow responds to about 200 calls per month and also carries out media campaigns and public education, despite limited and fragile financial resources. The initiative of such NGOs should be matched with action by many other actors in society, including, government and bUl~iness. Women's Participation in Private Business

The creation of new private-sector businesses - rather than the often disappointing privatisation process of state enterprises has been the driving force behind the growing number of enterprises, improvements in labour productivity and much of the economic recovery in the "successful" transition countries. It is also evident from the data that women are less likely than men to be private-sector employees, selfemployed or entrepreneurs. Still, there is now a significant block of women business owners in the region. The Czech data (22 percent) refer to self-employed persons who have employees. For many countries the data simply refer to persons who are "employers". Enterprises are important engines of economic growth in the region, and women's ownership of businesses, no matter ho'Y 1?ig...or how small, is an ~mportant form of economic decision making. Tbe seeding and cultivation of

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women-led businesses represent an effective strategy for building the economy and supporting women's equality. Entrepreneurial activities reflect risk-taking behaviour. The decision to start up a business can be prompted either by an entrepreneurial spirit, or by the more negative motivators of economic crisis and reduced employment prospects. The mass collapse of former job, wage and career prospects at state enterprises has placed many families in a desperate situation. Despite the poor traditions, the meagre experience and the limitations on family assets that could help in setting up and financing an independent enterprise, venture, or farm, the economic crisis has generated a wide range of coping activities 9.cross the region. In established market economies microentrepreneurship is particularly important to women who have limited access to power through conventional employment, such as women who face barriers because of education, age, ethnicity, or rural residence. In the transition region, women's entrepreneurship has taken varied routes. BUILDING BLOCKS OF WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

The transition has been expected to expand the opportunities available to the people of the region, women and men alike. However, gender equality of opportunity has not flourished and, in some areas, has even dimiI";shed. Much undeniably remains to be done to build up civil society and to cultivate an environment of gender equality in the region. At its 39th session in March and April 1995, the UN Commission on the Status of Women discussed a series of general policy recommendations to help promote women's equal representation in decision making. With regard to vertical discrimination, the commission recommended that the civil service set an example by promoting women to high ranks and that organisations: -

increase transparency in the selection for top posts;

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use gender-fair criteria, as well as affirmative action incentives; promote training in management skills; encourage the development of female networks. With regard to horizontal discrimination, it recommended that organisations: encourage the recruitment of women in postsecondary business education through subsidies and quotas; promote training in management skills; encourage "mentoring" by senior women; promote credit programmes targeted at women entrepreneurs, including the provision of incentives to financial institutions to support credit programmes aimed at women. In particular, there is a tremendous opportunity in the region to adopt and adapt such initiatives and practices in order to cultivate women's equal participation from the ground up. Some basic building blocks of womerl's empowerment are already in place in the transition environment. From this foundation, ladders of acce~s must be raised to enable women· to move on to higher levels of decision making and more political and economic participation. Education for Women

The importance of education to progress is evident in its inclusion, along with economic output and health, in the Human Development Index. An investment in human capital through education and training is critical to improving economic productivity in the transition countries, especially in the context of the increasingly knowledge-driven world markets. Similarly, education for women represents a direct investment in the ability of women to participate in society, especially in decisionmaking positions.

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Although there are several pathways to power, in democratic countries education is the broadest avenue. Fortunately, the transition countries have a legacy of good education systems for both girls and boys, and no evidence of a systematic gender gap at any level of education has appeared since the transition began. Tertiary education is especially important so that women can move into positions of political, economic and social leadership, and enrolment rates have mostly risen during transition. Development of Government Machineries

The Platform for Action of the UN Fourth World Conference on Women makes it clear that the state is crucial to the effort to advance women's equality through the development of "national machineries" for the advancement of women. In the former communist countries, there may be an "allergy" to state intervention in general and to the imposition of "equality from above" in particular, but government agencies that promote equal opportunity among citizens are a legitimate feature of democratic societies. In other words, government has an essential role to play in building and maintaining a culture of equality in the nation. The fact that a significant number of governments in the transition region have submitted national reports on the status ,of women in compliance with the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women is a positive sign. The participation of these national machineries in such an international milieu and in relevant conferences is important for the exchange of information -including information on best practices-and the reinforcement of commitments to progress in women's 'equality. The basic unit of a national machinery for improving the status of women is a central office or department within government with the mandate to coordinate the development of public policy so that a gender perspective is mainstreamed into all areas .)f public affairs. Such an

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office not only ensures that the needs and concerns of the half of the citizenry consisting of women are integrated into government laws, policies and programmes, but provides government leadership on women's issues, works in partnership with other levels of government and civilian actors, and supports the activities of non-governmental women's groups and equality-seeking organisations. Since the collapse of communism in the region, existing mechanisms have evolved and new mechanisms have been established to monitor women's issues. In Hungary, for example, a year after the Fourth World Conference on Women, an equal opportunities secretariat for women was created within the Ministry of Labour. Although agencies have been established in many other countries as well, an investigation in 10 countries found that in four of these countries there is still no government agency to promote gender issues. To be effective, national machineries clearly require political will, legal clout and adequate resources. Moreover, only tight collaboration with civil organisations and dialogue among all relevant players-government, business, trade unions, religious organisations, political parties, women's NGOs-can create an environment in which women are empowered. Women in Small Enterprises Government and international agencies can playa crucial role in supportini women as agents of change by encouraging the development of small- and medium-sized enterprises in the transition countries. Women have established or own about one-quarter of the new businesses in the region-a promising start, given the newness of entrepreneurial freedom and the high-risk environment for small businesses. The region has an historical deficit in small- and medium-sized enterprises. However, as recent experience shows, such businesses have become the spark plugs -.If new economic growth in Western countries.

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Because of the involvement of women as small-scale entrepreneurs, efforts to promote the development of small businesses in the transition countries could broaden women's access to economic decision making and power. The revitalisation of economies in the transition region can be accelerated if support is offered to the new small-enterprise sector in general and to women in particular. Such investments would payoff in terms not only of gender equality, but of fresh approaches to business as well. While women entrepreneurs have much in common with men entrepreneurs, they may envision different business opportunities, structure business differently, have different aspirations for growth, and even have nontraditional business goals and operating practices. The number of women who are managers and professionals in the transition region - relatively more than in many Western countries - shows that women stand out because of their strong potential as owners of new businesses. They therefore represent a good target for policies and programmes that aim to promote the growth of the small-business sector. Nonetheless, a survey carried out for this Report in 10 transition countries shows that public programmes promoting female entrepreneurship have been set up in only three of the countries (Russia, Romania and Estonia). In the other seven countries (the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, FR Yugoslavia, Ukraine, Georgia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan), no dedicated government programmes seem to exist to support the effort of women to engage in private economic activity. Much time, pressure and public leadership have also been necessary in many Western countries before financial institutions have begun to respond to the banking needs of small businesses. For example, the legislative mandate of the Business Development Bank of Canada, wholly owned by the Canadian government, was amended in 1995 to focus on supporting small businesses and targeting particular groups of entrepreneurs, including women.

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SOCIAL EMPOWERMENT OF SC WOMEN

The well being of people is unquestionably the ultimate object of all development efforts and the basic quest of human endeavour is always to seek a better quality of life. The quality of life of the citizens of a nation can be effectively improved only by raising the standards of living of the people on the street and in backward areas. Social empowerment in general and women empowerment in particular is very fundamental in achieving this goal. The institution of democracy provides a strong foundation for harmonising social and economic objectives. Thus within the broad democratic framework, there are great opportunities for synergying women and economic growth programmes to deliver better quality of life in tl~e shortest possible span of time. Importantly, economic empowerment has been considered instrumental for holistic development. In the changed context of rural development, there is more emphasis on sustainable development and promotion of microenterprises, which demand micro credit. Interestingly, women's crucial contribution in community development, social change and economic independence is highly stressed by many individuals, institutions and agencies. Against this backdrop, present chapter purports to review women's status and state initiatives for their development; conceptualisation of rural development, paradigms shifting there in and emerging issues of micro finance and development strategies. In India, the plight of women is no better than their counterparts in other developing countries. Despite the honour and reverence accorded to them as deities in mythology and personified tribute paid to them as in historical monuments, the ground realities remain opposite in a patriarchal society like Indian, there exists the unfounded belief that man is the bread winner of the family and hence the male child gets the best of limited facilities and resources within the family.

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The girl child is under constant risk of being aborted through the misuse of modern technology. She is mostly deprived of schooling for sake of taking care of siblings at home. Since she is to be married off soon, investing in her education is a liability. Despite the fact that women are massively involved in almost all sectors of economy, their work and earnings do not count. Their activities as producers of the household are not reflected in National Income Statistics, thus, making their contribution unaccounted for. In an effort to uphold cultural heritage, the past is glamorised and with it, the equality of women and enhancement of their role in development gets inhabited. In terms of every set of indices of development and socioeconomic status, women of all regions and strata have fared worse than men. In work, employment, earnings, education, health status and decision making powers, there is a clear differentiation between male and female entitlements. Women constitute 70 per cent of the world's poor population (1.3 billion). They produce 50 per cent of the food worldwide but receive only 10 per cent of the incomes. Women's access to and ownership of resources is less than that being enjoyed by men and even among those women who own some property. At the turn of 20th century, the Industrial Revolution brought about radical changes in societies the world over particularly societies, which were rooted in the agriculture. One of those· radical changes was the removal of manufacturer from households factories and shops. The work done at home offered li~e long educational socialisation, communication and other residential benefits to the family members. It kept the unemployment and crime rate low. The spirit of cooperation and respect prevailed. The Industrial Revolution took away this responsibility from women's, brought about a ruralurban dichotomy, particularly in agrarian societies and created a demand for some other educational agent outside homes. The educational agent, the school, was assigned two basic goals: (1) development of human resource

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(particularly men) with skills for the manufacturing sector; (2) undertaking partial responsibility of the home, namely value addition and moral education. It resulted in gender segregation and discrimination within all sectors; a majority of women lacking in productive and technical skills; science and technology and extension and training programmes provided primarily to men as women are conceived only as consumers/beneficiaries of the Industrial Revolution; and education system that caters only to academics through role learning and regurgitated evaluations, resulting in poor female enrollment and retention and consequently their illiteracy and poverty. In sum, it perpetuated a cycle of gender bias and poverty almost impossible to wipe out. Importantly, at the turn of 20th century, the communication revolution, which is technology intensive, has brought about another radical transformation again at the home front. PARADIGMS OF WOMEN'S DEVELOPMENT

Cardine Moser has identified five paradigms towards women's development in Third World countries. The first paradigm related to welfare approach is based on the traditional view of marking the women's role in development or the basis of customary gender division of labour. The second paradigm came in existence during 1975-85, when the decade was declared as the 'Decade of Women'. This approach was aimed at gaining equity and procuring her as active participant in development process. It further aimed at giving ~qual opportunities to women even by creating positive discrimination or reservation. The third paradigm was concerned with anti poverty, directed at poor women to ensure and increase their productivity. This is still being followed under the assumption that women's problems arise out of underdevelopment. The appnllach of rural development is increasingly confronting itself to the formation of Self Help Groups (SHG's), in stabilising and linking with viable socioeconomic activities for sustainable livelihood.

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This is seen as the only solution of poverty eradication, equity and development of women. The fourth paradigm is related with efficiency which depends on the belief that policies of economic stabilisation and adjustment rely on women's economic contribution to development and their economic participation is seen as a mechanism to achieve equity. The fifth paradigm is empowerment model, which envisages greater. Self-reliance among women their subordination is seen not only as a problem of men but also of colonialism and neocolonialism. This approach focuses on overall development and particularly on enhancing social and economic capabilities. In this task, a number of nongovernmental organisations are playing crucial role since government is seeking partnership to ensure sustainable, people's centered and decentralised development and governance. It is also well accepted that women's active role in ecological and environmental programmes may ensure sustainable development, since increasing ecological and environmental degradation has caused environmental crisis when women belonging to weaker sections of society are protesting against government policies and programmes which are causing development induced displacement, loss of sustainable livelihood and natural resources. The present paradigm of empowerment of women is not a woman in development but a gender and development. The women in development paradigm assumes that women have been left out in development process and hence need to be integrated to give benefit, gender and development paradigm recognises women's triple role i.e. in reproductioI}, production and community management. Therefore, the main objectives of development programmes in this context may be categorised as (i) initiate income generating' programmes; (ii) sensitise women about their rights, entitlements and legal framework; and (iii) take up capacity building measures.

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Gender and development approach stress as the need for gender analysis and identification of strategic gender needs before initiating any appropriate action for empowering women. It is seen that gender inequality retards economic growth. There is growing evidence to suggest that several aspects of gender relations, the gender based division of labour, disparities between males and females in power and resources, and gender biases in rights and entitlements act to undermine economic growth and reduce the well being of men, women and children. It is commonly held that, investments in female education and health tend to increase the incomes of families; educated women who know more about health and hygiene, are also able to practice this knowledge; better educated women are able to adapt newer technologies, hold on to new opportunities, and cope us with economic shocks. Women's- development has come a long way from the earlier welfare orientation. In the welfare approach, women were taken as vulnerable sections of the population, whose situation could be ameliorated; through the provisioJ.1 of support services like health, nutrition and childcare. The economic self-reliance puts emphasis on income generation projects for women; the equality model put the blame on inequality and promoted affirmative action to promote equal opportunity. The present approach of empowerment looks at unequal gender and power relations and uses conscientisl}tion, mobilisation, solidarity and collective action. The empowerment approach arises from a strong commitment to women's rights and capacity to make their own decisions about development strategies, under the credit for empowerment. The SHG offers the canvas to conduct social intermediation, provide women the opportunity to acquire the ability and entitlement to their own lives, set their own agenda, gain skills, solve problems and .develop autonomy. Significantly, the member of SHG's may exhibit the following outputs, resulting from their activities:

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acquisition of literacy and numerically skills;

(ii) awareness of basic legal rights; (iii) awareness of projects and state development activities; (iv) critical political consciousness; electoral process, societal analysis and gender issues; (v) enhanced social status as perceived by self and other's; (vi) freedom from exploitation, money lenders, landlords etc; (vii) active role in organisation of group and other political bodies, viz. Panchayat; (viii)ensuring literacy and education of girl child; (ix) health consciousness;

(x) restructuring of women's time utilisation; and (xi) enhanced decision making powers within the

household. The status of women in a complex society like ours, is not uniform. Within Indian subcontinent, there have been infinite variations of the status of women, differing according to the cultural milieu, family structure, caste, class, occupation, property rights etc. All these factors are significant determinants of variations in her position in different groups. Scheduled caste women who constitute sizeable population of India is SUbjected not merely to gender bias, but also to indignities arising out of the age old tradition of untouchability, marginalisation and exploitation from which incidentally the entire social group of SCheduled Castes suffer. The deep-rooted social discriminations have compelled this section of population to lead a life of bare subsistence level, both in respect of economic terms and human dignity. As per 1991 census, the scheduled caste female population of 66.29 million represents 16.43 percent of the country's total population, which is 403.36 million of the Scheduled caste female population, 81.46 percent i.e.

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54 million live in rural areas and 18.54 percent i.e. 54 million live in rural areas and 18.54 percent i.e. 12.29 million live in urban areas. Although the SC's are listed in 24 states and 4 union territories, the SC female population to the extent of 99.83 percent is reported from only 18 states, each having more than 0.1 million SC female individuals. These states in descending order of numerical strength are: Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Punjab, Orissa, Haryana, Gujarat, Kerala, Assam, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Tripura. The sex ratio, as per 1991 census, among the scheduled castes has been reported to be 922. There is wide variation in the sex ration among SC's across the states of India. The children in age group 0-6 years constituted 19.63 percent of the SC population as against 17.94 percent for the general population. The SC population have more children than the general population, which appear to show a higher birth rate. Importantly, early marriage among scheduled castes population is generally a reflection of their overall socioeconomic status in society. These include mass illiteracy, negligible participation in modern economic activities, excessive participation in agricultural and allied pursuits and lower income. The SC women are prone to occupational health problems associated with degraded working environment, mental stress, long hours of work, lifting of heavy weights, contact with hazardous "and infected material and inconvenient postural conditions of work etc. Besides, they suffer from malnutrition, anemia, post delivery complications, tuberculosis, early child bearing and constant enforced deprivations. The general in ability and occupational health problems result in constant ill health and mortality among this class of women. Education & Employment Education and employment have direct bearing on

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economic empowerment, therefore, brief detail of women's education and employment scenario is given here. Education has been a very important part of Indian social and cultural life from the earliest times. The malefemale combined literacy rate in 1901 was 5.9 per cent, the female literacy rate being only 0.6 per cent. Right up to the 1941 census, it had increased only up to 7.30 per cent, whic4 was a little less than 50 per cent of the total literacy rate of 16.10 per cent. The gender gap works out to 100 per cent. Over the six census conducted in India since Independence, the literacy rate for females has increased from 8.86 per cent to 54.16 per cent which means that about half of the women are still illiterate. The literacy gap between male and female is still quite high, though during 1981-2001 there is significant change in literacy rates among females, as compared to their counterparts. Only 30.62 per cent women living in rural areas were literate in 1991 though most of the developmental efforts were directed towards this end. In 2001, literacy rate among women in rural areas was recorded to be 46.70 per cent while it was recorded quite high among males. There is a wide gap in literacy rates between rural and urban areas. Moreover, gender literacy gap is quite high in rural areas. Lower literacy rates in rural areas are primarily due to the more conservative nature of village society. This brings down the total literacy rate of the country. Lower male literacy rates in the villages are primarily due to the physical nature of the work required for agricultural labour and migration of literate men to towns. In 2001 literacy rate among women in these states were found about 50 per cent. 68.2 per cent Hindu women, 71 per cent Muslim women, 37.3 per cent Christian women, 54.9 per cent Sikh women, 24 per cent Jain women, 68.4 per cent Buddhists, 29.4 per pent Zoroastrians and 71.5 per cent other women were not found to be literate in 1987-88.

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In 1991, 23.76 per cent Scheduled Castes women and 18.19 per cent Scheduled Tribes women were found literate. Bihar and Punjab were the main states-where female literacy rate among Scheduled Castes community was recorded below 10 per cent. Similarly, female literacy rate among Scheduled Tribes was recorded below 10 per cent in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan. During 19992000, enrollment rates among females were recorded 85.2 per cent at primary level, 49.7 per cent at upper primary level, and 72.0 per cent at elementary level. Enrollment rates in these levels were recorded higher ru:nong boys as compared to girls. Interestingly, gender disparity has been reported in enrollment, retention and drop outs. Higher education has remained still a far cry for majority of the people in India and more so for women. The participation of women in higher education is found to be very low i.e. about 33 per cent at university and college level.' Education is the key instrument for women's development despite the fact that education could also be used to perpetuate subordinate status of women through systematic institutionalisation, traditional social customs and reinforcing the gender belief system. Since education plays a dialectical role and acts as a catalyst in the long term, it has to be viewed as liberating instrument and efforts have to be directed towards removing barriers to women's access to education in general and quality education in particular. According to 1991 census, only 23.29 percent of SC females are literate, as against 52.21 percent general literacy rate in the country. There has been sharp variations in the literacy rates in the rural and urban areas with high rate of gender disparity among the scheduled castes. Although the literacy rate among SC wome":l has gradually increased over the years, the literacy gap between them and non-SCjST female continued to widen. Based on 1981 census, there were 48 districts within the country where the SC female literacy rate is less than 1 percent, stooping to as low as 0.48 percent in Barmer

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district of Rajasthan. Besides, there were some Scheduled Caste community which have hardly any literate female among them. There has been overall increase in the enrollment of children to SC at all levels over the years. But simultaneously a serious impediment, which arrests literacy, is the phenomenon of drop out, wastage and stagnation. From 1980-81 to 1995-96, there has been progress of enrollment both in primary level and junior high school level. However, rate of progress in primary school level has been higher as compared to Junior high school level: The drop out rates among SC girls are higher as compared to non-SC girls and it higher in higher secondary levels and secondary level as compared to primary level. Women's economic empowerment is absolutely essential for raising their status in society. However, there persists the acute malefemale disparity in the opportunities available. The total workforce of women is only 89.77 million, out of which substantial percentage are marginal workers. As far as the rural urban divide of female employment is concerned, the situation can be gauged from data available from 1991 census. A very small percentage of women out of total popUlation are employed and the ratio of female employment to male employment is extremely iniquitous. It may be stated that the majority of them are concentrated in the unorganised sector where work is irregular, wages are limited and there are hardly any labour rights under the various labour laws. Thus it may be noticed that the ratio of female to male workers concentrated in' the unorganised sector is also unfavourable to women with. 95.79 per cent women workers concentrated in this sector as opposed to 89.77 per cent male workers. An overwhelming majority of women are engaged in the unorganised sector. About 79 per cent of the total women workers are in the agricultural sector, 49 per cent of them are occupied as agricultural labourers and 30 per cent as cultivators.

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It is ironical to note that in 1911 the proportion of women in the female work force (33.7 per cent) as well as proportion in the total workforce (34.4 per cent) has substantially declined, to 16.4 per cent and 22.3 per cent respectively in 1991, Hirway and Roy have remarked that though relatively more women participate in work in rural areas than in urban areas, yet rural females enjoy much lower occupational diversification, very poor employment status and high unemployment rates. Furthermore, the rural female worker was experiencing negative occupational diversification. This is an alarming situation, where economic independence of women seems to be seriously impaired. Women's work is characterised by features such as high labour, high intensity, seasonal work and low skill. In the organised sector, more women are employed in the public sector than in the private sector. For the private sector, the highest number of women are employed in Assam followed by Kerala while in the public sector Tamil Nadu is on the top, followed by Maharashtra. The data shows that the rate of growth of women's employment is much higher in the public sector while it has grown very slowly in the private sector. Women are now being employed in higher number in factories, plantations and mining & quarrying. It is to be nc.. ted that women's employment is declining in which is commendable, looking at its hazardous nature of the occupation. The share of employment of women in Central government services is very low as compared to men. As an overwhelming percentage of women are employed in the agricultural sector, it was the responsibility of the Agriculture Department to give them land rights, technical skills for increasing their productivity especially as marginal farmers. The Ministry of Agriculture devised a scheme in 1993 for forming. 'Farm Groups' in various states, which included 4200 women. Another scheme called Training of Women in Agriculture' was also formulated in the same year. Till the end of the Eighth Five Year Plan 1.89 lakh

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women were trained for improving agricultural practices. The Ministry also organised 6800 groups of women, spread over the country for training them in agro-based industries. The Department of Women and Child Development by sanctioning exclusive women's dairies acted as a catalytic agent for the coming into effect of exclusive women's cooperative dairies. Under the poverty alleviation programmes launched by the ,Ministry of Rural Development, a large number of women were benefited. Women's share accounted for 37.56 per cent in selfemployment programmes (TRYSEM and IRDP) and their share in total number of man-days generated under employment programmes was recorded 27.69 per cent. Though women's share in rural employment has increased significantly, it is still much lower as compared to their share in population and engagement in agricultural and non-farm activities. Again, Swashakti, Swayamsidyha and Swalamban are the three major projects oriented towards econolnic empowerment of women. The approach of the projects is based on formation, stabilisation, entrepreneurship development and promotion of income generation activities. As per Annual Report of the Development Commissioner, Small Scale Industries, out of total new units registered in 1987-88, percentage of women entrepreneurs is 13.03 only. Most of the units owned and or managed by women en trepreneurs belong to the small and tiny category. Therefore, all the hurdles and hardships generally encountered by the small scale industry is present in the development orbit of a woman entrepreneurs. It is most unfortunate that in spite of massive spread of technology and education, people do not at ease wherever a women ventures into the hitherto exclusively male domain of industry and business enterprises. Entrepreneurship development among women may be Viewed from the view points of

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(i)

creating the environn,.p.nt needed for healthy and sound entrepreneurship and (ii) organising more and more rational motivational campaigns for the woman entrepreneur where she takes on this challenging !"ole and likes to adjust her personality needs, family and social life and economic independence.

The experience demonstrates that the development of women entrepreneurship is constrained by the following factors: (i) lack of motivation, their aspiration level is lower than males; (ii) women lack self confidence; they have low self esteem; (iii) lack of full knowledge about available business opportunities, (iv) they also lack complete information about procedure of various institutions, requirements and sources of assistance for this purpose and; (v) they lack managerial competence to run manufacturing/ processing units on sound principles of business management. Despite the obvious obstacles, a few women can be seen pursuing the profession and realising remarkable degree of success. Entrepreneurship leads to the women being the leader of the organisation. The scheduled caste women are the worst victim of the prevailing poverty deprivation syndrome in the ·country. Poverty forces them very often to work and earn less remunerative menial jobs; and sometimes work even in odd situations detrimental to their health and personality development. Employment opportunities for SC women are very rare and whatever are there, they provide meager income just for subsist once. A sizeable population, amongst SC's still follow age-old occupations and Jajmani system. Such identified traditional occupation, included menial jobs and unclean occupations like leather work, skinning,

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flaying, disposal of dead animals and scavenging. Nearly 86 percent of SC female working force is employed in the primary sector of economy based on land and other natural resources like water and forests. Among them are included agricultural labourers (66.52 percent) followed by cultivations (17.53 percent), those engaged in livestock, forestry, fishing etc. (1.50 percent) and those in mining and quarrying (0.38 percent), while in SC female population, about two third (66.52 percent) of main workers are reported to be as agricultural labours, wherever in total female work force agricultural labours are only 44.24 percent. In secondary sector i.e. related broadly to manufacturing, the disparity between the working force of SC's and non-SC/ST, ~s not very glaring. About 7 percent SC females were found engaged in secondary sector, i.e. mainly in household industries and artisan work. Services sector 7 percent SC females were found engaged though most of them were reported to be engaged in unorganised sector of economy. Most of the SC females are either self employed or wageearner where the implications of labour laws are nominal. Gender Equality and Women Empowerment

Gender equality and women empowerment are the buzzwords, entrusted with different interpretations to suit varied socio-political perspectives. The rhetoric of gender equity and women's empowerment has acquired an important place in government policy, non-governmental advocacy, media and academic research. The terms, women empowerment and gender equality determine the direction of diverse discourses on women, locally, nationally, internationally. The action plan, as recommended by International Conference on Population and Development at Cairo incl:uded: i) establishing mechanism for women's equal participation and equitable representation at all levels of the political process;

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promoting the fulfillment of women's potentials through education, skills development and employment, giving paramount importance to the elimination of poverty, illiteracy and ill-health among women;

iii) eliminating all practices that discriminate amongst women and assisting them to establish and realise their rights; iv)

adopting measures to improve women's ability to earn income beyond traditional occupations, achieve economic self-reliance and ensure their equal access to the labour market and social security systems;

v)

eliminating violence against women;

vi) eliminating discriminatory practices by employers against women; vii) making it possible through laws, regulations and other appropriate measures for women to combine the roles of child-bearing, breast-feeding, and childrearing with participation in the workforce; vii) strengthening policies and programmes that improve, ensure and broaden the participation of women in all spheres of life as equal partners and improve their access to all resources needed for the full exercise of their fundamental rights. The Beijing Conference was the first significant milestone in the journey towards ensuring gender equality and women empowerment. The goals of the Conference were; (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v)

sharing power equally; obtaining full access to the means of development; overcoming poverty; promoting peace and protecting women's rights; inspiring a new generation of women to work together for equality and equity.

Economic empowerment is a necessary condition for enabling women to seek justice and eqUality. Without economic strength, women cannot be able to exercise

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their guaranteed rights. It is, therefore, necessary to seek participation of women as equal partners with men in all fields of work, equal access to all positions of employment, equal opportunities for work related training and full protection of women at work place. Economic empowerment of women, including reduction of female poverty require programmes that focus on identifying, developing and promoting alternative approaches to increase women's access to and control over the means of making a living on a sustainable and long term basis. It necessitates supporting their existing livelihood, widening choices and building capacity to take advantage of new economic opportunities.' Its strategies to advocate that the government undertakes legislative measures to speed up women's participation in economic life, including the right of equality in property ownership and inheritance and access to credit, financial service and assistance in entrepreneurial development. The basic requirements of women's empowerment strategy are; i)

introduction of special measures to increase the proportion of women involved in decision making;

ii)

establishment of specific training programmes, especially for women living in extreme poverty, to improve their condition;

iii) creation of equal employment opportunities for educationally, technically and professionally qualified women by dismantling the forbidding walls of silent discrimination in their recruitment and related process; (iv) encouragement to women's entrepreneurship and other self-reliant activities, particularly in the informal sector; (v) integration of gender perspective into all economic structuring; (vi) elimination of all forms of discrimination in employment, including wages and breaking down of gender based occupational segregation;

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(vii) initiation of measures to improve working conditions of women in the informal sector, particularly, by encouraging them to organise so that they know their rights and are able to obtain necessary support to exercise them; (viii) mobilisation of banking sector to increase lending on easier terms to women entrepreneurs and producers, especially in the rural areas; and (ix) activisation of enforcement machinery to ensure that the interest of women workers are protected, especially in the informal sector where large scale discrimination persists. As the largest democracy in the world, India has enjoyed the freedom to continuously experiment with a numiJer of forms, structures and modes of organisations to achieve women's equality. The state is seen as the prime mover in bringin~ about this social change and is charged with the responsibility of ensuring the fundamental rights to equality and freedom of the sexes and prohibition of discrimination on this ,.ground. The replacement of institutional structures and formations from time to time, their modifications, renewal as well as organic growth have come about as responses to emerging concepts on women's issues. During the last six decades, development planning for women straddled theories as disparate as welfare, development, equality, efficiency & empowerment. The institutional structures have undergone changes in response to these evolving concepts and have changed from welfare to empowerment and beyond, in response to experiences of social reality at the field level as well as factors governing external environment. Today, the state has accepted women as active agents, participating in development programmes and schemes & thereby achieving their own Development. The gender dimension on the development approaches at conceptual level came from uncovering several distinct areas of gender bias. Their subordinate status meant

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development benefits; be it education, health, income, employment did not rest them in same measure as men. All pervasive sexual division of labour that assigned the task of family maintenance and child care to women meant their inability to participation in many activities outside the home, whether social, economic or political. July, 1946, the All India Women's Conference adopted an Indian Women's Charter of Rights that demanded full civil, legal rights, equal opportunities in education, employment, policies etc. In 1947, the National Planning Committee, set up in 1939 by the Indian National Congress, had' constituted a special women's committee which submitted its report on ''women's role in a planned economy', their rights and development. Importantly, in 1974, report of the committee on the status of women reiterated many earlier demands with emphasis on the poor, the unorganised and rural women. Its most significant contribution was the extensive documentation of the conditions of women, which had deteriorated in the three decades after independence. SimilarlYI various UN documents, resolutions, conventions especially Beijing Conference, also gave preeminence to state action to enforce and monitor women's rights by establishing a special national machinery for women. A comprehensive plan for women was fortnulated by the D~partment of Women & Child Development, called 'The Perspective Plan For women 1988-2000'. A National Commission for Women was established with a view t~ ensure women's rights and entitlements. From 19th century, the role of the state in defining and influencing the status of women has informed many struggles for their equality. The state, its policies and programmes continue to be the focus of much of the energies of the women's movement in postindependence India as well. From 1970's, the women's movement has tried to establish an autonomous identity for itself and attempted to bring

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about changes through the process of influencing and pressurising the state and its structures. The trends in planning in India show that in the first Five Year Plan, most of whose members had liberal education and also participated in the national struggle for independence wanted to give women the rights of self centralisation to the fullest extent. They laid down very progressive parameters of higher education, the need for women to get employment and to function in a protected labour environment. The Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth plans carried forward on the same strategies. It was only in the mid seventies, in preparation to celebrate the International Women's Year in 1975 that a committee to survey the status of women was set up 1971. From the Sixth Plan onwards, a new exercise in planning stressed on women development and Department of Women & Child Development, GO! was set up in 1985 with a separate minister in-charge. National Commission for Women, a National Creche Fund, a National Credit Fund, a National Women's Fund, Mahila Samridhi Yojana and Indira Mahila Vikas Yojana were set up. This acted as an effective nodal unit for monitoring activities relating to women's development in various ministries of the government and taken for review and its' recommendations. The strategy for women's development has been multi-dimension and multisectoral. AlthoUgh many schemes have been made for women in different ministries and departments, the agencies for executing them have been the same and they give women a certain consideration. Since 1980's, there has been an effort to give women an integrated approach and to provide health, family welfare, nonformal education and create aWareness of their rights and skill training at the same time. Several states have launched the projects for women empowerment, development and welfare. These projects are financially supported by foreign agencies, and implemented with the vital role of NGO's and voluntary sector.

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Importantly, women empowerment programmes emphasise on SHG's formation, its stabilisation and linking with viable micro enterprises. While formulating the First Five year plan, it was envisaged that the programmes under various sectors of development would benefit all sections of the population including SC's, ST's, OBC's and minorities. But, unfortunately, it never happened. Therefore, special programmes under Backward classes sector were formulated keeping in view the special requirements of SC's, ST's and OBC's. The second Five year Plan promised to ensure that the benefits of economic development accrue more and more to the relatively less privileged classes of society in order to reduce inequalities. The Third Five Year Plan advocated the principles to establish greater equality of opportunity and to reduce disparity in income and wealth. The Fourth and Fifth Five Year Plan envisaged basic goal as rapid increase in the standard of living of the people through measures, which also promote equality and social justice. The Sixth Five Year Plan marked a shift in the approach to the development of Scheduled Castes. The Special Component Plan (SCP) launched for the Scheduled Castes expected to facilitate easy convergence and pooling of resources from all the other development sectors in proportion to the population of SC's. In the Seventh Five Year Plan, SCP for SC's was strengthened, while the other schemes for the welfare and development of SC's continued. There was substantial increase in the flow of funds for development of SC's under SCP from state plans, Central Plans, Special Cultural Assistance and Institutional Finances resulting in the expansion of infrastructure facilities and enlargement of their coverage. Priority in the Plan was given to the educational development of SC's. In the Eighth Five Year Plan national level apex bodies have been set up to act as catalytic agents in development schemes for employment generation and financing pilot projects.

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The Ninth Five Year Plan envisaged the empowerment of socially disadvantaged groups as agents of socioeconomic change and development through creating an enabling environments conductive for the SC's, OBC's and minorities. The Plan has adopted three pronged strategy of (i) social empowerment; (ii) economic empowerment; and (iii) social justice. The nationwide popular scheme of Post-Matric scholarships (PMS) for SC students after its revision in 1997-98 extends its scope for enhancing the income limit of parents of the beneficiaries and for extending some additional benefits to persons with disabilities amongst SC's. Scholarships are given to eligible SC students, which include provIsIOns of maintenance allowance, reimbursement of compulsory non-refundable fees, thesis typing/ printing charges, study tour charges, book allowance for students pursuing correspondence courses etc. The scheme of Pre-matric scholarship for the children of those engaged in unclean occupations introduced in 1977-78 aims at motivating the children of scavengers, sweepers, flayers and tanners to pursue education and also for controlling school drop outs amongst them thereby weaning them away from the obnoxious practice of scavenging. The scheme of hostels for SC boys and girls launched in 1961-62 provides hostel facilities to students studying in middle secondary and higher secondary schools, colleges and universities. Under the scheme, central assistance is provided to states and UT's including universities and NGO's, for construction of new hostels and also for extension of existing hostel buildings for SC students. However, the maintenance cost of these hostels is to be borne by the state/UT's. The scheme of Special Education Development Programme for Scheduled Castes Girls belonging to Very Low Literacy Districts introduced during 1996-97 aims at establishing special residential schools for SC girls who are first generation learners in low literacy pockets where the traditions and environment are not conductive to

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learning. The scheme covers 48 districts of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh where the literacy of SC girls was less than 2 percent in 1981 census. Book Bank scheme for SC students launched in 1978-79 aims to supply text-books to SC students for pursuing Medical, Engineering, Veterinary, Agriculture, Polytechnic, CA, MBA, Bio Sciences and Law Courses. Similarly, the scheme of upgradation of merit of SC students launched in 1987-88 aims to provide remedial and special coaching to SC students studying in Classes IX to XIII. While the remedial coaching aims at removing deficiencies in school subjects amongst the SC students, special coaching aims at preparing them for competitive examinations for entry into professional courses like medical, engineering etc. Importantly, the coaching and Allied scheme for SC/ST students was launched in 196061 for improving the knowledge and attitude by providing special coaching through Pre-Examination Training Centre and thus for preparing them to compete with others in the competitive examinations. The economic empowerment schemes for SC's include: . . (i)

Revitalise the National Scheduled Castes Finance & Development Corporation (NSFDC) and National Safai Karmachari Finance Dev~lopment Corporation (NSKFDC) to play an effective catalytic role in promoting employment, income generation activities with both backward and forward linkages;

(ii) Special efforts through various training pr.ogrammes to upgrade the traditional skills, equip them with modern technology so as to meet the market demands;

(iii) enforce special legislative measures to ensure payment of minimum wages and equal wages, with no gender discrimination in the informal or unorganised sector;' (iv) motivate the Private and the Corporate sectors to invest in the welfare and development of the weaker

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sections as they form a potential force in country's human resources; (v)

endow every landless SC family with a minimum piece of land; restoration of land ownership and effective implementation of protective legislation;

(vi) involve NGO's in promotion of small and lift irrigation projects, especially in the drought prone, dry and hilly areas to ensure food security at the village level; (vii) sensitise the financial institutional to pay special loans on differential rate of interests. Besides, certain allocation has been fixed in the general programmes of economic development, which include Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana, Swarn Jayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana, Indira Awas Yojana, Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme, Central Rural Sanitation Programme, Swarna Jayanti Sahari Rojgar Yojana etc. being the most powerful instruments to enSl're social justice to socially disadvantaged groups, efforts were being directed to this end with much more vigour and force during the Ninth Plan. Further implementation of the reservation policy in and in services for SC's is being strictly observed to fill up all the reserved vacancies promptly. Besides, legal measures have been resorted to for the protect or the interests of SC's. The National Commission for SC's and ST's is also committed towards this aim. GROWTH OF MICRO-CREDIT

Globalisation and economic liberalisation have opened up tremendous opportunities for development and growth resulting in the modifications of livelihood strategies. However, these changes are making the marginalised and poor sections of society more vulnerable in the absence of adequate safety net. Keeping in view the widespread rural poverty, there is need not only to ameliorate the economic conditions of marginalised and disadvantaged social groups, but also to transform the social structures.

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In the context of rural women, their economic condition becomes more vulnerable due to unequal distribution of resources. Poverty and deprivation increase gender inequality, which favours a policy for empowerment of women by increasing their access to credit through SHG's so as enable them to acquire the capability and assets that can help facilitate realise strategic gender needs. The SHG's can be built on social capital of the local community especially women to carry out thrift and credit activities to initiate micro-income generating activities to eke out a sustainable livelihood. During the recent past, the new type of institutions have been promoted to meet the credit needs of those groups who have been excluded from formal credit markets. SHG's are mostly informal groups whose members have a common perception and impulse towards collective action. These groups promote savings among the members and use, the pooled resources to meet their emergent needs including the consumption needs. Sometimes, the generated internal savings are supplemented by external resources/loans by NGO's and banking institutions promoting them. SHG's are thus able to provide banking services to their members, which though may not be sophisticated yet are cost effective, simple, flexible, accessible to the members and above all, without any default in the repayments. The linking of SHG's to banks helps in overcoming the problem of high transaction costs to banks in providing credit to the poor, by transferring some banking responsibilities, such as loan appraisal, follow up, recovery etc. to the poor themselves. In the rural context, SHG's have facilitated the poor, especially the women to overcome the existing constraints grappling the formal credit institutions. These groups provide considerable social protection and income opportunities to their members. These institutions have sought to explore new ways and alternatives based on value-system, introduce new relationships and take into

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account the social and economic aspects of collective living and livelihood improvement. Besides, they also help facilitate the poor women to overcome the difficulty of providing collateral guarantee to raise the finance to initiate micro-income generating activities. Due to better performance, the SHG's have acquired a prominent status to maximise social and financial returns. Since late 1970's, there have been increasing realisation, that one of the obstacles preventing the poor from improving their lives was the lack of access to financial sources. Attempts have been made to develop more sustainable and reachable financial systems, in place of previously discredited schemes of direct credit to meet women's expressed needs for improved access to credit, particularly to small loans, multi production strategies and thereby to improve the livelihood of their families, thrift credit or SHG's have been promoted, both by the governments, as well as NGO's and other donor agencies. Micro-credit has been advocated as the new Panacea for reduction of poverty. Its potential for economic empowerment of women has also been variously looked at. Importantly group formation is crucial to the empowerment process as women draw strength from number. The group provides: (1) confidence and mutual support for women striving to social change; (2) a forum in which women can critically analyse their situations and devise collective strategies to overcome their difficulties; (3) a framework for awareness training, confidence building, dissemination of information and delivery of services and for developing communal self relian..:e and col1~ctive action; and (4) a vehicle for the promotion of economic activities. Poverty in India is predominantly rural in charac\er and is more pronounced among vulnerable groups like SC's, ST's and Women. These social groups belong to landless

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and small farming classes, experience unemployment and are dependent on wage employment. Mostly they are engaged in low productivity activities of agriculture and allied sector. Therefore poverty alleviation needs increase in agricultural productivity and transfer of substantial proportion of labour-force from farPl-sector to non-farm sector including other more productive employment areas (Srinivasan) . The most commonly adopted poverty alleviation approaches have been state-driven, donor-funded and top down. The development agencies and governments which have striven for poverty alleviation, designed their programmes and projects on certain assumptions in the external expert stance. However, many cultural, economic and political barriers effectively prevent the poor from having any real stake in development activities. Therefore, reaching the poor requires working with them to learn about their needs, understanding how development decisions are made in their communities and identifying institutions and mechanisms that can get opportunities and recourses into their own hands. This can happen through investments in human capital such as education and health, investments in social capital such as local level institutions and participatory process and support for community based development efforts planned and implemented from bottom up (Srinivasan). Interestingly, the Self Help Groups Linkage Programme has been showing faster progress as well as high rate of success. The initiative in this regard has been taken by the NABARD, by sponsoring an Action Research Project in 1986-87. It attempts to bring together four trends and derives strength from the positive environment created by these independently of each other. These are (Srinivasan); 1. 2.

maturing and expanding SHG movement initiated by the NGO sector; focus on micro-credit to the poor as a strategy for poverty alleviation;

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ongoing national policy commitment to improve access to finance for the poor; policy environment ~through financial sector reforms to increase banking out reach.

Self Help Groups form the social capital which facilitate financial linkage of poor borrowers with formal financial institutions (FFI's) in India. The basic principles on which the SHG' s function are (Srinivasan); The SHG is a network of members who fulfill locational criteria. They are resident in the area and are homogeneous. They have rules/norms regarding their functioning. Savings first, credit thereafter. Personalised services suiting the requirements of the members are ensured. SHG's hold regular meetings to ensure participation of members in the activities of the group. SHG's maintain accounts. Group leaders are elected by members and rotated periodically. Transparency in operations of the group and participatory decision making ensure that the benefits to members are evenly distributed. Market rates of interest on savings and credit are charged. Group liability and peer pressure act as substitutes for traditional collateral for loans. SHG's Groups The Self Help Groups are voluntary associations of people formed to achieve both social and economic goals. The concept of micro-financing rural poor for self-employment was started by Prof. Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh and is now being followed in more than 52 countries around the ,globe. Many international NGO's such as,

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Foundation for International Community Assistance (FINCA), Americans for Community Cooperation in other Nations (ACCION), Women's World Banking, Freedom from Hunger etc. are executing various projects, through their partners mostly in developing countries. The concept of SHG mainly revolves around the reasons that may lead to the genesis of self-help as a way to mitigate the problems faced by a set of people. According to Morton the development of contemporary forms of SHG's is generally ascribed to Alcoholic Anonymous, which was initiated in 1935 in USA. As per Kingree, the concept of SHG's can be traced to collection of people to informal groups with an aim to overcome the problems related to a particular negative status. Jacobs and Powell reported that SHG's have proliferated in recent years, serving more people and addressing many types of status related problems. Social scientists have forwarded various definitions for SHG. .... '

Rural credit delivery system in India is affected' with many a problems most noticeable being sipho~ing off subsidies and concessions meant for poorest of the poor by not so poor, poor credit discipline among the borrowers resulting in low recovery of dues, high transactions cost involved in serving large number of small borrowers who frequently require low quantum of c edit and costly proposition of providing saving facilities to scattered rural populace. Price Water House Report has also stated that rural credit delivery system is also burdened with low quality loans, high levels of over dues, substantially high proportion of nonperforming assets resulting into non-viability and un~sustainability of the rural banking industry. A study conducted by the World Bank has also conclusively revealed that lack of people's participation in developmental activities does not foster entrepreneurial abilities, which results in low take off of developmental projects. The growing realisation among the rural poor to collectively pool their small savings so as to create a corpus of funds to cater to their emerging credit needs

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underlined the emerg-=-nce of SHG's and other group related saving and credit activities in many developing countries such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, Bolivia and India. The SHG movement h India is basically aimed at utilising the SHG's as an 'intermediatory' between the banks and the rural poor to help drastically reduce transaction costs for both the banks and the rural clients. NABARD with its head quarters at Mumbai, is an Apex Development Bank in India for financing and promoting agriculture, small scale industries, cottage and village industries, handicrafts and other rural crafts so as to promote integrated rural development. In wake of banking sector reforms invoked in early 1990's the role of commercial banks in providing credit to rural poor came under intensive debate vis-a.-vis the sustainability of entire banking operation for providing banking servicesboth in terms of savings and credit-to the rural poor. Sheokand has indicated that as the rural poor's share ill availing formal sector credit got further marginalised, NABARD, in 1992 launched the SHG-Bank linkage programme with the policy backup of the Reserve Bank of India. According to Shanmugam the SHG-Bank linkage programme initiated by NABARD, in active collaboration with Non- Governmental Organisations (NGOs), aimed at enhancing the coverage of rural poor under institutional credit thereby focusing on poverty alleviation and empowerment. Prior to this, NABARD's initiative in promoting active partnership between banks and SHGs was encouraged by the findings of a study conducted in 1988-89 by NABARD in collaboration with member institutions of Asia Pacific Rural and Agricultural Credit Association (APRACA), Manila. The study covered 43 NGOs involved in promoting savings and credit SHGs in 11 states of the country. As per a NABARD report the scheme on SHGs was made applicable to RRBs and co-operative banks of the country in 1993 and in April'96, RBI advised the banks that lending to SHGs should be considered as an

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additional segment under priority sector advances and it be integrated with mainstream normal credit operation. Rao & Dasgupta have commented that the SHG-bank linkage programme has gained considerable movement in southern region of the country, though the northern states too are also now catching up fast and an overwhelming (78%) of the listed SHGs are Women Self Help Groups (WSHG's), that is the SHGs which constitute of only women members. Since the inceptions of NABARD promoted SHG linkage programme there has been an appreciable increase both in formation of SHG and their linkage with the banks. The concept and importance of SHGs has been accepted and adopted by policy makers and they will form the backbonp. of rural poverty alleviation strategies, implemented by Government of India. Self Help in essence is forging 'collaborative' ties between individuals who need each other's co-operation in solving their day-to-day crisis. Lawson & Anderson have defined collaboration "as a process of pooling resources, linking and allying with one another to develop innovative, new responses for tackling social problems including poverty. Bailey & Koney, Weil and Parsloe have pointed out that collaboration is necessary to address social issues that require multi-agency approach to alleviate them. SHGs are one such medium to achieve social collaboration. 'Collaboration' differs from 'co-operation' in the sense that cooperation facilitates support and assistance for meeting the goals that are specific to an individual stakeholder, whereas collaboration insists on goals that are mutually agreed upon based on an established value base to which all stake-holders have a commitment. According to Hord collaboration proposes joints sharing and decision making in the interest of change, as well as changes in relationships to facilitate these ends. He has also indicated that motivation to engage or refrain collaboration are necessarily influenced by differences among stakeholders in expertise, status, empowerment and access to external and internal resources.

CHAPTER 8

CHALLENGES OF WOMEN EMPOWERMENT As a concept, "gender" is not synonymous with "women". The concept developed out of the recognition of the historical, social, political and economic oppression and marginalisation of women, made possible by the construction of male and female identities and roles flowing from a masculine value system based on dynamics of power and domination. The significance of the concept of gender is that in making visible women's subordination in the power differential between men and women, there arises the potential for the construction of new and transformed relations among women and men. This implies changes for both men and women, and changes in the social and material world they share. Both women and men, from this perspective, must have the right and opportunity to challenge oppression by rejecting or transforming prescribed roles within society. This inCludes the right of women and men to challenge and transform outdated and dysfunctional sexual divisions of labour, and develop new norms of human relatio.ns and social solidarity. Given women's historic subordination, it also implies that women must have the opportunity to engage in prucesses of personal and collective growth that permit women to challenge the diverse forms of subordination that affect them, and develop the capacity to take power

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and control over their own lives, their organisations, and their specific cultural, economic, political and social context. An integral and indispensable element of this concept of women's empowerment is autonomy. Autonomy signifies the capacity and freedom to decide, to give one's opinion, and to act. It is the result of a process of humanisation of relationships previously based on subordination, oppression and domination. Autonomy, then, signifies the authentic possibility of a woman to define herself for herself, and by herself, and not as an appendix of others - be it the State, the Church, political parties, or any other organisation that regiments the lives of women without taking into consideration their essential being as individuals and persons-nor as a depersonalised function of the family and the community. This conceptualisation does not isolate women's roles and identities from the rest of society, but it does require an understanding of the social manipulation and domination to which women have historically been subjected. Neithe.r does it put into question the necessity and desirability of reJationships of reciprocity, but posits that true reciprocity i1? based on egalitarian and humanised relationships among free and autonomous people, women and men. Asymmetrical power relations between men and women must be understood in their appropriate historical and cultural contexts, and within the dynamics of continual change and reinvention that occur in all vibrant and living cultures. Within the contemporary social context in most countries in the world there exist important and dynamic elements that promote empowerment, autonomy and a transformation of genderbased roles and relations among women and men. These possibilities create the circumstances to construct new parameters for a better quality of life for everyone, and ought to be supported. INTERNATIONAL TRENDS IN GENDER EQUALITY

From militarisation to globalisation, a fast-changing

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global terrain is dictating new challenges and new ways of approaching the women's rights agenda. The events of September 11 th have undoubtedly ensured that the issue of global conflict and militarisation will figure more prominently on the agenda of the women's movement. 'Reeling from the horror of these events and the escalation of military interventions, in addition to antiIslamic sentiments, the international feminist community is currently mobilising to show a different type of leadership in the post-September 11th world. Challenges of Global Conflicts Building on previous peace-building efforts, the women's movement is rallying around a call for peace and justice - demanding that the perpetrators of these crimes against humanity are brought to justice through transparent judicial means using the full weight of the international human rights systems. Most women's groups are making the claim that military interventions will only exacerbate the violence and insecurity instead of fostering security on our planet. If anything the peace movement is swelling, adding amongst its ranks, in particular, the analysts and activists whose most recent efforts have focused on trade, investment and the negative effects of the global economy. While joining support with other civil society groups in much of these peace efforts, the international feminist community is specifically making the connections between the terror imposed on the U.S., with patriarchy, the broader effects of glo balisation, increased militarisation, and religious extremism. Statements sent by email around the planet by women's rights leaders outright condemn the attacks, but many acknowledge almost an inevitability of the violence borne from increasing gaps between the rich and poor, as well as protracted military interventions by the U.S. in many parts of the world. These tensions have fuelled hostility particularly in the Global South towards the West/North, very often

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with religious leaders exploiting this resentment to mobilise the marginalised. Increasingly, therefore, the women's movement is blaming the current global disorder on a crisis in leadership - a leadership that has allowed such suffering to exist, as well as hatred to thrive. Whether it is hate against abortion providers, a particular ethnic group, religion, nationality, or race, our leaders have allowed it to flourish often for political, but more often, economic gain. Little is still known about women's peace-building approaches in response to violent conflict and even less effort is made to include gender analysis as an explicit component of peace-building initiatives. To some extent this has to do with the fact that leadership and capacity has to be built amongst women to bring gender sensitivity and awareness into the development of alternative approaches to conflict resolution and peace building. More challenging, this work requires us to both name and stop the internalisation of hatred of 'the other'. Given the current global environment, and the dearth of women's voices in the mainstream media and policy circles in response to it, gendered approaches to peacebuilding will likely become an important issue and approach for gender equality work in at least the immediate future, if not longer. Religious and Cultural Extremisms Religious extremism is closely associated with the current ~ituation of conflict and insecurity whereby religion is used to gain and mobilise politicat power and exert social control. Very often, the control of women and the denial of women's rights is dictated by religious leaders whether Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, or Muslimthereby denying or undermining women's education, reproductive rights, sexuality, ownership of resources, or mobility. In addition, as the international network of Women Living Under Muslim Laws has noted "it is very clear that fundamentalist movements often stoke each

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other's fires, either through collaboration or through confrontation". Since feminist advocacy for sexual and reproductive rights made significant achievements at the Cairo conference on Population and Development, there is a dramatically strengthened conservative backlash led by the Christian "right" with the Muslim fundamentalists at the United Nations. At recent preparatory meetings for the Special Session for Children's Rights or meetings of the Commission on the Status of Women, these rightwing forces have been active in huge numbers, with hundreds of their young people "bussed in", and using many tactics to intimidate feminist delegates. Women's groups around the world, therefore, are increasingly concerned about the ways in which extremist religious, cultural and ethnic forces have been gaining ground. With their networks, financial resources, and close ties to political power, many feminists see these political/religious movements as a foe so formidable it will take an immense amount of advocacy, consciousness raising, resources and political power to stand up to them. Networks like Women Against Fundamentalisms recognise that a multi-pronged strategy to countering the power of fundamentalist groups is necessary. They suggest that gender equality advocates will have to challenge governments who fund religious schools or impose religious practice and education, while defending individuals and women's organisations against attacks by furidamentalists. Similarly. Catholics for a Free Choice are leading a major campaign to change the Roman Catholic church's status at the UN from its current almost "state" ranking, to the status of a nongovernmental organisation in order to radically weaken its voice and political power at the UN. On the other hand. like in other areas of gender equality work, an insider-outsider approach is recommended whereby gender equality advocates are building alliances with progressive religious

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organisations, and interpreting religious texts from feminist perspectives. Other work in this area focuses on reclaiming women's own identity and spirituality as a means towards empowerment and greater control over their lives. In any case, as religious (as well as ethnic or cultural) extremisms intensify around the world, greater emphasis on understanding it, advocating against it, and developing alternative approaches to counter it, will likely become a more central priority to gender equality work in the coming years. Furthermore, it will become even more critical for the movement, as described below, to make the links between poverty, religious extremisms, and militarisation. Challenging the core conditions that breed and encourage extremisms - such as lack of democracy, ignorance, corruption, and of course, poverty and economic marginalisation-by ~ffectively offering an alternative vision and leadership to the one being proposed by extremists, will be essential in the long-run. Wome and Economic Injustice

Trade liberalisation, advanced technology, and economic integration all have contributed to a new global economy. Efforts to liberalise trade, open up markets and deregulate industries have been part of the dominant economic strategy pursued by governments and transnational corporations all over the world. While these processes are not new, the sheer speed and reach of global integration today is at levels never witnessed before. Furthermore the impact on women's lives-with regards to employment, access to healthcare, use of technology, and struggles for a livelihood-has been 'both profound and diverse. Globalisation is radically transforming both the issues women's organisations are addressing and the strategies used to address those issues. While the sites of struggle for the women's movement have traditionally been related to the household, the

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workplace, and the state, women now must engage with supra-national actors including international financial institutions and private sector corporations. For example, economic reforms means that capital can flow much more easily than in the past across national boundaries-as a result women have needed to understand how this affects their employment opportunities and the structure of their local economies. Also, because globalisation has often required the rollback of state social protections for formal and informal workers, the sick or elderly, and the environment, gender analysts and activists in different regions are finding themselves facing the same issues of additional reproductive burdens, increasing insecurities, environmental degradation, and increasing disparities between the privileged and the most vulnerable. In terms of strategies, because international financial institutions, trade regulating bodies and transnational corporations now dictate policies that would formerly have been the purview of the state, more and more gender equality work is shifting to focus on influencing these actors in addition to (or instead of) making demands on the state, a shift which requires new tactics and an understanding of economic values and language. Within much of the work on globalisation from a gender perspective one can find essentially two distinct approaches: WID / GAD approaches and economic justice strategies. The first strand has been characterised in terms of welfare, economic self-reliance, efficiency, equality and empowerment, having evolved over time to focus on relations between men and women and working towards the goal of equitable, sustainable development. Common to this strand are micro credit and gender main streaming projects that focus on enhancing economic opportunities and providing protections in the face of vulnerabilities. Economic justice approaches are quite distinct, having developed out of socialist feminist and liberation movements. Economic justice approaches more commonly

WOME.'S RoLl: III MODEM WORLD

tackl~ the multi-dimensional causes of women's poverty and disempowerment and focus on the policies of international financial institutions (including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and regional development banks), the global trading regime and agreements as regulated by the World Trade Organisation and regional trading agreements, and the larger questions of gender and economic processes. This analysis is situated within a. framework of a critique of North-South relations and the neo-liberal economic agenda, and also attempts to take account of the gender, class and race dimensions of social and political relations in a holistic way. What seems more evident of late, is an increasing number of feminist researchers, activists, and practitioners working towards both understanding and achieving economic justice in the context of globalisation. In the past five years alone, the numbers of networks and organisations that are researching and advocating gender justice with economic justice have grown in numbers and impact. A large part of this work however, still focuses· on the impact of globalisation. There is a growing consensus that feminists must concentrate on the much tougher agenda of developing viable alternative economic models.

Inequality in Decision-making Gender equality advocates are also emphasising that governance vrocesses are integral to efforts for poverty eradication, women's rights, and economic justice. This means that there is much greater attention being given to women's participation in decision-making processes a~ well as accountability and transparency of governance structures at local, national, and international levels. For gender equality advocates, a focus on governance is based on the belief that only when the organisations and processes of power and decision-making are held to account for women's rights will equality ever be a reality. Many countries have witnessed a trend towards decentralisation of power, functions, responsibility and

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accountability to grassroots communities while at the same time women have won constitutional rights to onethird of the seats in India and Bangladesh. Similarly, gender or women's budgets are being developed around the world in order to institutionalise priorities for women's rights within government spending. Feminists' concerns for good governance go beyond democratising governments to market institutions that dictate global economic reforms. In fact, some feminist leaders point to the paradox where democracy may be expanding, but social and economic rights are shrinking as globalisation diminishes the power of parliaments. Recent activism and demonstrations by anti-globalisation protesters have revealed the need for the multilateral system and the international community to increase the opportunities for dialogue with civil society organisations on the governance of the global economy. As globalisation continues to have dramatic effects on the rights of women around the world, many recognise that gender perspectives will need to be better articulated and advocated. Women's organisations and networks will need to be fully engaged and taken seriously in these global processes-whether at the World Bank, World Trade Organisation, or high level United Nations meetings like the Financing for Development process. What is even more critical is that women do not just squeeze their issues into the margins of these agendas, but instead actually articulate what the agenda should be. Constraints in Access to Teclinology

Globalisation and increased corporate control has also brought about a transformation in technologies at a speed that none of us could have predicted. Within the gender and development and women's rights community, leTs, or information and communication technologies have been heralded as a boon to the movement by creating the means for alliances and coalitions across great distances as e-mail and the internet make it

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possible to plan campaigns and share data almost immediately, wherever there is access. On the other hand, the communication revolution and increased corporate control of the media is leaving behind or marginalising many women, and further strengthening the hegemony of the English language, so issues of access and a "digital divide" will be of growing concern to the women's movement. Moreover, policy debates related to the future control over sharing of information, the media, and communication technologies have until now not considered gender issues, but more gender advocates are recognising the importance of influencing this field. The production of new reproductive technologies (such as a controversial anti-fertility vaccine) as well Sls new bio-engineered organisms (such as genetically modified foods) by corporations is raising new, but very complex, issues with regards to women's safety and bodily integrity. In other words, with the new advances in genetics, technology can now happen inside the body. Testing is most often conducted on women in the South where fewer enforceable civil and regulatory protections exist. While this work is in its infancy, as the entire social justice and scientific communities come to grips with the implications and ethics of these new technologies, a growing number of gender equality advocates are ringing the alarm bell and naming new technologies as central concerns to the human rights of future generations. Other advances in human genetics beyond those relating to reproductive technologies have also been largely neglected by the feminist community. Even more difficult technologies, such as biotechnology, neuroscience, robotics, and nanotechnology (e.g. mechanical antibodies) are quickly coming into our reality and our markets. The implications of these new technologies are profound and far reaching and are inextricably linked to other forces at play in the world today ... globalisation, economic change, militarisation and health care. Thus

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far, decisions about these technologies have been left largely to the private sector, with little or no analysis by feminists or even basic government assessment. It will be critical in the coming years to address these questions head on while there is still time to take a measured and careful look at the changes facing the world through these new technologies. Threats of HIV / AIDS

Given the overwhelming magnitude of the AIDS CrISlS, and its impact on women, this issue is increasingly acknowledged as a priority in the gender and development and women's rights community worldwide. While the me