WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND DEVELOPMENT –THE WAY AHEAD
----Editors:Prof.Saheb Bhau Ohol,Onkar Nath Mishra,Jaya
Kumari Pandey,Abhishek Kumar Chintu and Nakul Bhardwaj.(Publisher-Globus
Press,NewDelhi,2013),pp 392,Price-1495/-(HB)
This book contains
selected topics in the field of development
issues related to women entrepreneurship,empowerment,micro finance,self
help group etc.It has covered a broad
range of issues including programmes to promote women entrepreneuship and
development.
BARRIERS
OF EMPOWERMENT OF DALIT WOMEN
Dr.
Debes Chandra Bhaumik (International Institute for Development Studies, Kolkata)
Dr.
Asim Kumar Karmakar (Jadavpur University)
JEL-
J15, J16, H53
Key
words- Dalit women, Empowerment of dalit women
Introduction
Dalit women are mostly deprived, socially
excluded, less literate , absentee of property rights, and less empowerment
socially and economically. They are ignorance about women entrepreneurship.
They are poverty stricken having minimum access of maintaining standard of
living. The total number of dalit women in India is 80.517 million or
approximately 48% of the total dalit population, 16% of the total female population
and 8% of the total Indian Population.
They make majority of unorganised
labourer in urban settings and landless labourers in rural area. They face
discrimination on a daily basis, as a dalit, as women and as a poor while they are in extremely vulnerable
position. Systemic violence against dalit women can be seen as a mechanism to
keep dalit in a subordinated position. It is built in to the total structure of
the dominant society, which does not acknowledge the basic human rights of dalit
in general
and dalit women in particular. In this paper, we are
interested to discuss about the notable social, economic and political barriers
of attainment of empowerment of dalit women.
The
Barriers for empowerment
[A]
Educational barriers-
The 2001 Census , particularly female literacy rates, increased by 14.8 % in 2001 as compared to
11.7 % in 1991. The gap between male (75.
8 %) and female (54.1%)
literacy rates is 22 %. In 2001,
illiterates numbered close to 296
million of which 190 million were
women. 34.6% of the world’s
non-literate population resided in India in 2003-04.
In
2001, the gender gap in the literacy rate for SC was 24 % (male and female were
66% and 41.9% respectively) and for 12 % for STs (male and female literacy
rates were 59.2 % and 47.1 % respectively). In BA courses, there are 3.39 % Schedule caste, 1.38% Schedule tribe,
and 40 % non-dalit women.
Ø At the levels of Graduation and above Muslim women are 48
% worse-off compared to Muslim men and 33% worse-off than Non-Muslim Women.
Ø In science
courses , 2.8 % were dalit women, 0.58% were Schedule tribe, 34 % were non-dalit
women.
Ø In post-graduate
and doctoral levels, there were 38% (MA) and 34% (MSc) for non-dalit women,
the percentages for dalit women are 3.8% and 2.9% and 1.3% and 0.48%
respectively.
Ø In professional
fields like medicine , there are 2.9 % dalit women and 1.1% ST women
compared to 34% non-dalit women. In BEd courses, the figure for dalit women is
4.4 % and ST women 1.4 % and non-dalit women is 40 %.
According
NSSO , 61st round data, out of 124680million population,16203
million was ST(12.99%),20284million was SC(16.26%),46348million was OBC
(37.17%),and 41759 was higher class (33.49% ) respectively in 2004-05.Particularly,in
2004-05,the classification of dalits in urban area were 29.78% are
illiterate,34.05% are primary lebel,25.83% are secondary level,4.91% are higher
secondary level and 5.43% are graduates and diploma engineers respectively. On
the other hand, in rural area, 47.9% dalits are illiterate, 33.29% are primary
level, 15.26% are secondary level, 2.1% are higher secondary level and 1.45%
are graduates and engineers respectively. Therefore, low status of education is
the first and foremost barrier of empowerment of dalit women.
The
low educational status of SC and ST produced low human development indices and
high human poverty indices. In 2000,the human development indices of SC and ST
were 0.303 and 0.27 which marginally stepped up to 0.328 and 0.27 respectively
in 2004-05.On the other hand, the human poverty indices of SC and ST were 41.47
and 47.79 in 2000 which increased to 46.88 and 54.56 in 2004-05 respectively.
[B] Gender Budgeting
Gender
Budgeting is defined as the application of gender mainstreaming in the
budgetary process. It encompasses
incorporating a gender perspective at all levels and stages of the budgetary
process and paves the way for translating gender commitments to budgetary
commitments and carrying out an assessment of the budget to establish its
gender differential impact.
In
other words Gender Budgeting looks at Government budget from a gender
perspective to assess how it addresses the needs of women not only in
traditional areas like health, education etc but also in so called ‘gender
neutral’ sectors like Transport , Power, Telecommunications, Defence etc. It does not seek to create a
separate budget but seeks to put in place affirmative action for meeting
women’s specific needs, thus bringing into effect gender responsive Budgeting.
The
Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) in 2004-05 adopted the mission
statement of ‘Budgeting for Gender Equity’. A strategic framework of activities
to implement “Budgeting for Gender Equity” disseminated to all Departments
identifies areas for gender mainstreaming including quantification of
allocation of resources for women in Union/ State/ Local Budgets, gender audit
of polices of Governments, impact assessment of various schemes,
analyzing
programmes and strategies, institutionalizing generation and collection of
gender disaggregated data, consultations and capacity building etc. The MWCD
has requested Ministries to set up Gender Budgeting Cells to undertake review
of the public expenditure and policy, guide and undertake collection of gender
disaggregated data, conduct gender based impact analysis, beneficiary needs
assessment and beneficiary incidence analysis. As a result of these efforts 43
Ministries/ Departments have set up Gender Budget Cells as a nodal agency for
all
gender responsive budgeting initiatives.
Mid
Term Appraisal of the Tenth Plan notes that while “the Department of Education
has confirmed a flow of funds of 42.37 per cent of the gross budgetary support
to the WCP, the Ministry of Labour, which had reported flow of 33.5 per cent of
its budget to the WCP in the Ninth Plan, has reported flow of funds of only 5
per cent of its budget during first three years of Tenth Plan.” The essential
earmarking of 30% funds for women under the WCP for all Ministries at the
Centre and the States is, at the very least, a good exercise as it forces the
policy makers to start thinking on the lines of gendered-impact of policies.
This commitment of resources is both vital and necessary. In 2005-06 this
exercise covered 10 Departments and the total magnitude of Gender Budget (i.e.,
women specific allocations) was recorded at 2.8% of total Union Government
expenditure. In 2006-07, 24 Departments of the Union Government were included
under this exercise and the magnitude of Gender Budget went up to 5.1% of total
budget estimates.
The
following paragraphs indicate the various possibilities and potential of
engendering some important national polices.
[i]
The fiscal and monetary policies will need to be analyzed from a gender
perspective as both have tremendous potential to have malefic or benign
influence on the lives of women. Indirect taxation impinges heavily on women as
the tax incidence, by and large, affects important items of sustenance which
are generally highly price inelastic and even a small price rise in such items
will have a negative impact on women; again the subsidy needs a re-look to ensure
that withdrawal of subsidies do not adversely impinge on women.
[ii]Monetary policy has
to be viewed from a gender angle, especially in the case of credit and loan
facilities and easy access of women to financial instruments and attractive
saving options.
[iii]Agricultural policies are of prime importance in gender budgeting exercises as there
is a growing feminization of agriculture in recent years with out migration of
men moving to urban areas in search of work. It is estimated that 75% of all
female workers and 85% of all rural female workers are in agriculture. Women
constitute 40% of the agriculture force and this percentage is rising. The
number of women headed households in the agricultural sector is also
increasing. The prosperity of agriculture therefore will largely depend on how
effectively these women are empowered. Enhancing women’s’ rights to land,
providing infrastructure support to women farmers and advancing legal support
on existing laws are some of the policy interventions needed.
[iv]Policies
for the Non farm sector and information is another highly important area
that has to seriously reviewed keeping in view the gender perspective.
[v]Poverty alleviation programs should essentially focus on women as they are economically
more disadvantaged than men and chronically poor.
[vi]The
existing public distribution system has failed to deliver the required
food grains to the vulnerable groups on time in the requisite quality and
quantity.
[vii]
Public policy with respect to migration is another area for
consideration.
[ix]The
possibilities of gender differentials for social security insurance schemes
is another area that need to be examined, as there is an urgent need for low
cost and gender friendly insurance systems that cater to the specific life
cycle needs of women.
[x] Environmental concerns
also warrant gender mainstreaming.
[xi] Disaster management policy should become gender sensitive as experiences have shown
that women are most affected by disasters whether manmade or natural.
[xii] Media policy needs
to be gender proactive.
[xiii]Research and Development should also be geared with a view to identify technological
needs of women and develop and adapt technology especially to reduce the drudgery
of women, facilitating her health and also income generating activities.
Gender
Budgeting exercises more meaningful and effective, if the following approach
can be followed by the Cells for extending gender outcomes.
[a]Assessing
budget allocations and proposing for additional allocations for gender related
schemes / components ;
[b]Analyzing
and reviewing policy, strategies, programmes and schemes from the perspective
of women as also improving the status of women, identifying constraints and
taking into view their needs and requirements
[c]Identify
constraints in flow of funds to women through expenditure tracking studies
[d]institutionalize
generation, collection and compilation of gender disaggregated data through
various mechanisms right form the grass root level and ensure that this should
be an inbuilt part of the programme/ scheme.
[e]Identify
data gaps and design the future steps for building gender disaggregated data
[f]Monitoring
of spending and service delivery
[g]Assessing
the extent to which women are benefiting under the schemes and programs of the
Ministry
[h]Assessing
beneficiary incidence
[i]Identification
of areas where existing schemes can be further engendered and Initiating new
initiatives, innovative ideas and schemes for gender benefit. In addition to the
above, which will primarily be the responsibility of the individual sectoral
Ministries/ Departments, the Planning Commission and the Finance Ministry should
enable assessment of national level gender outcome assessment through:
[j]Spatial
mapping of gender gaps and resource gaps by Planning Commission
[k]Gender
audit of public expenditure, programmes and policies
[l]
There is a need to collect gender disaggregated data at national, state and district
levels. Standardisation of data is also necessary to facilitate comparison not
only at national but also international levels. The data should flow on a
regular basis and should be compiled, collected and analysed periodically.
[C] Occupational barrier
Both the SC,ST including women are
heavily engaged in the cultivation, agricultural labour , household work and
industries because of educational backwardness and poverty. Of them, the women marry
early and engage themselves in household and cultivation work including other
labour activities. The girls who are educated up to HS/BA, are not quite
acquinted with entrepreneurship, service or political/professional positions so
as to empower themselves to higher levels. Besides, gender deprivation, social
oppression and low skill forced them to do habitual and traditional works. The
Table- 1, classify the occupational distributional patterns of SC and ST during
1971 and 1991 census respectively where the readers can verify the attainment
of human development in case of occupation . In Table-2, the sector-wise
occupation of SC and ST confirm that their roles in industry especially medium
and big industries are bare minimum. The secondary sector occupation has
increased only one percent from 1971 to 1991 which showed that dalits are not
transformed into more entrepreneurial activities.
[E] Barriers of commitment for empowerment
Accomplishing ‘inclusive
growth’ is also envisaged through the economic empowerment of
SCs who are living in
economic backwardness. Available data suggest that 36.8 per cent rural SCs and
39.9 per cent urban SCs lived below the poverty line (in 2004–05) in contrast
to the 16.1 per cent rural non-SC/ST and 16 per cent urban non-SC/ST
population. Various employment-cum-income generating schemes are being
implemented with a view to improving their economic conditions and for making
them economically self-reliant. The schemes are: The National Scheduled Castes
Finance and Development Corporation (NSCFDC),it needs to focus their activities
mainly towards financing Micro-Finance Institutions (MFIs), Self- Help Groups
(SHGs), and the Mahila Samridhi Yojana (MSY), State Channelizing Agencies
(SCAs) , the National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation
(NSKFDC), State Scheduled Castes Development Corporations (SCDCs),etc.
Commitment for Social Empowerment in 11th
plan
• Establishing requisite number of primary schools with
proper school buildings, hostels, and water and toilet facilities (particularly
for girls’ schools).
• To set up residential high
schools for ST boys and girls at suitable places.
• Timely distribution of
fellowships, scholarships, textbooks, uniforms, and school bags to students.
• Evaluation of the
ICDS/anganwadi schemes for tribal areas and removing their shortcomings.
• Emphasis on adult education to
be paid adequate attention.
• Ensuring affordable and
accountable primary healthcare facilities to STs and bridging the gap in rural
healthcare services through a cadre of ASHAs.
• Ensuring that the PESA Act
functions as instrument of self-governance, preparing and implementing schemes
in Scheduled Areas.
• Efforts to conserve the
eco-system along with stress on economic programmes for PTGs. Formulation and
execution of a national plan of action for tribals. Provision of drinking water
supply to the uncovered tribal areas.
• Construction of rainwater
harvesting structures: Electrification and telecom coverage in tribal villages.
Setting up of the National Institute of
Tribal Affairs (NITA).
• Effective operationalization of
the provisions of the Fifth Schedule needs to be done urgently. The Tribes
Advisory Council (TAC) to be proactive while functioning as an advisory body to
the state government in matters relating to STs.
For Economic Empowerment
• Efforts to revitalize and
expand the agriculture sector: To open training centres to impart skill
development training to tribals in diverse occupations.
• Ensuring better coordination at
higher levels and efficient delivery at the field level by lending agencies,
such as NSTFDC and TRIFED.
• Scheme for quality improvement,
higher productivity, and regeneration of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) species.
Recruitment of ST women in posts of forest guards, foresters, and forest
rangers by lowering educational qualifications.
• Infrastructure development in
the Fifth and Sixth Scheduled Areas through utilization of grants available
under Article 275 (1) of the Constitution.
For Social Justice
• Steps to prevent exploitation
through the effective implementation of SC/ST (POA) Act, 1989.
• Amendment to the Land
Acquisition Act, 1894; Forest Act, 1927; Forest Conservation Act, 1980; Coal
Bearing Areas (Acquisition and Development) Act, 1957; and the National Mineral
Policy, 1993. Displacement and rehabilitation of tribals also emphasized.
• Plugging of loopholes in implementing laws for preventing
alienation of tribal land: Effective follow-up actions of the National
Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy, 2007.
All these commitments
are not sufficient for sustainable development of dalit women to empower them socially
and economically in the changing society.
Table-1
Occupational Distribution of Labour Force (%)
Source-Tilak, Bharti, 2007
Table-2,
Sector wise occupation of SC and ST.(%)
Source-Tilak, Bharti,2007
[D]
Barrier of Poverty
At the all-India level the poverty ratio for the
rural areas was 37.3 percent in 1993-94 and it
declined to 27.1 percent by 1999-2000. The
corresponding ratios for the urban households
were
32.4 percent and 23.65 percent respectively. The poverty ratios for SCs and STs
were
significantly
higher both in 1993-94 and 1999-2000.
It may be observed that as
against 27 percent of all population living below the poverty line in the rural
areas in 1999-2000, 36 percent of SC population and 46 percent of ST population
lived below the poverty line. There was a decline in the poverty ratio of 27%
for all population, 25% for SCs and 12% for STs as compared to 1993-94. This
implies that the poverty ratio declined faster for all population than for SCs
and STs, though between the SCs and STs, the decline has been more rapid. The
decline is larger in rural areas than in the urban both in cases of poverty
lines and in income gap ratios.
So, elimination of poverty for
the dalit especially women should be the important goal for achieving higher empowerment.
Table-3,
Income Gap of SC and ST
Source-Planning
commission
Table-4;
Population below the poverty line
[E]
Barriers of Finance, Investment and Property rights
Dalits are
deprived in budget allocation too. The total budget allocation under Plan
outlay for the year 2008-09 was Rs 243385.5 cr and under SC Sub Plan the
Government of India was liable to allocate Rs 40090.90 cr. Exclusively for
dalits (16.7% of the total plan budget) but it has allocated just Rs.11751.07
cr.(29% of the total due under the SCSP) for the welfare of SCs, which means
again SCs have been deprived by Rs.29801.89Cr.This exposes the stark
untouchability that is being practiced by the finance ministry and in the whole
union budget. And the process is going on.
Table-5,History
of exclusion in the budget.
Source-GOI
The figures of allocation in
Table-5, are a mute witness to the history of denial of exclusion. It is not
only for above three years, this trend was observed for the last 27 years since
the inception of SCSP in 1979-80.The amounts to willful negligence and those
responsible are liable to be punished
for this crime.
Dalit women have no right to
access of land holding for cultivation or homestead land for building houses.
Even they have no rights to hold other property as well by which they can face
a huge adverse impact barriers of property rights.
Regarding land, the
following recommendations were agreed on:
1. Land
earmarked for dalits by governments should be restored and registered in the
name of dalit women or jointly in that of dalit men and women.
2. Surplus
land should be earmarked for dalits in proportion to their populations in each
country.
3. Governments
should suitably amend laws in accordance with the optimum land ownership level
for the livelihood of an average family, implement land reform acts and
constitute and empower independent monitoring mechanisms with equal representation
of dalit women and men to ensure implementation of such legislation on a
time-bound basis, so that actual enjoyment of the land is the basis for
ascertaining success of land rights reform programmes.
4. Governments
should issue legal title to land possessed and enjoyed by dalit women and men,
with legal title issued to the name of dalit women or jointly in that of dalit
men and women.
5. Governments
should allocate sufficient budgets for purchase of land to be distributed to dalit
women.
6. Appropriate
policies should be designed to enhance the effectiveness of agricultural
practices, to build and strengthen capacities within dalit communities and to
provide market support.
7. Governments
should enact appropriate legislation to prevent displacement of dalits and
alienation of their land.
Dalit women have
been confronting with vocational training or any special training for entrepren
eurship to run a business or manufacturing or management of a service unit
which were forced them to be low empowerment .As a whole their status on
education is not favourable for achieving high empowerment. Therefore, the
access of bank finances for introducing a producing unit is rarely found in
favour of them.
[F] Other barriers
Dalit women have
been facing with innumerable barriers of empowerment or to live with equal
status against dalit men or simply other men. Of them, the child marriage is the
root cause of anti-empowerment system of dalit girls. Unless it is stopped, there
will be no sign of development of dalit women. Secondly, the forced Debdasi
System in India and abroad is the key element of prostitution under the
umbrella of God/Goddess which was introduced by the priests who were also the
representatives of the monarchy. Thirdly, the violence against the dalit women
is historical and are classified into domestic and external where the domestic
violence against the dalit women came from the family itself. Lastly, the
failure to prosecute rape cases of dalit women were not completely controlled
by the Government.
Until and unless
those barriers are omitted , the slow pace of empowerment of dalit women would
not be eliminated.
Conclusion
Indian Planning
Commission has a long way to go to empower dalit women which require not only to
increase plan outlay, but also requires structural transformation to step HDI and
GEM of dalit women abolishing all sorts of deprivation, social exploitation and
exclusion from the main stream of development pattern of the Indian economy. India government should frame a long
term sustainable planning which must introduce the evolutionary process of
development of dalits including gender un-biased. To pave the way of success, all
social, political and economic institutions must involve in this social change
co-operating with each other.
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