Old scourge: Editorial on women around the world still becoming witchcraft victims

 

An anti-witchcraft legal framework that promises unbiased investigation, stiff penalties and protection of women can end this scourge. But India seems to have come up short on that front

Witch-hunting, unfortunately, remains a palpable reality even in these modern times. With its roots in misogynistic prejudices that target vulnerable women, such as widows, those belonging to marginalised castes or are economically disadvantaged and those perceived to be a threat to patriarchy, witch-hunts are common across large geographical swathes. The 2023 annual report of the United Nations Human Rights Council states, for instance, that every year, thousands of women become witchcraft’s victims in Africa, India, Papua New Guinea and other nations. The findings of a recent survey conducted in Bihar by the Nirantar Trust, a research and advocacy organisation, offer a miniaturised view of this global menace. Out of 145 women studied across 114 villages in 10 districts, 78% of respondents had faced severe mental harassment, 32% were subjected to verbal abuse, and 28% experienced social ostracism. Disrobement, forceful consumption of faeces, head shaving and sexual violence were also perpetrated on 'daayans'. At least 75,000 women in the state live under the constant threat of being accused of practising witchcraft. These figures are consistent with national statistics. The National Crime Records Bureau data showed that more than 2,500 women had been killed on charges of witchcraft since 2000 in India and nearly 85 people were killed in witchcraft-related murders in 2022 alone; Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha account for a majority of such killings. While 97% of the victims profiled belonged to the backward castes or had tribal backgrounds, 75% of them were aged between 46 and 66, indicating a vicious 'Othering' of women past their reproductive age. Strikingly, more than 50% of the victims held leadership roles and 42% considered that their improved financial status had incurred the envy of relatives and neighbours who accused them of being witches. The Bihar survey threw up surprises as well: 83% of the victims were married and lived in joint families. This shatters the belief that marriage as an institution protects women from societal violence.

A robust anti-witchcraft legal framework that promises unbiased investigation, stiff penalties and protection of women can end this scourge. But India seems to have come up short on that front. Only seven states have legislations either criminalising witchcraft or black magic whereas a Union legislation is yet to become a reality. Awareness campaigns — Jharkhand's Project Garima and Assam's Project Prahari are examples of community policing initiatives — must be made more stringent and replicated across the country to ensure women’s safety.

Source: The Telegraph, 16/12/24

Centre Preparing National Policy to Boost Women’s Workforce Participation

 The Government of India is developing a national policy to enhance women’s participation in the workforce, which focuses on creating a supportive environment through improved care services. Several ministries are collaborating on this plan.

About the Care Economy

The “care economy” encompasses all activities associated with caring for individuals, which includes both paid and unpaid tasks. Direct activities involve feeding and nurturing, while indirect tasks include cooking, cleaning, healthcare, and education.

Employment Drop After Marriage

A recent World Bank report marks a concerning trend. Women’s employment rates in India drop after marriage. Specifically, the rates decrease by 12 percentage points, which is about one-third of their pre-marriage employment levels.

The new policy aims to establish caregiving systems and facilitate women’s entry into the workforce. One proposed initiative includes a specialised training programme for child caregivers. Additionally, the plan may offer childcare support for women in informal jobs.

Existing Support Schemes

The Ministry of Women and Child Development operates the ‘Palna’ scheme, which provides daycare services for children of working parents. It targets children aged 6 months to 6 years. Services include health, nutrition, growth monitoring, immunisation, and early education. To date, 1,000 Anganwadi daycare centres have been established.

Data from the Labour Ministry reveals key participation rates. In 2021-2022, rural women showed higher workforce participation at 36.6%. In contrast, urban women’s participation was lower at 23.8%. This disparity marks the need for targeted policies.

Important Facts for Exams:

1. Care Economy: The care economy includes all activities related to caring for individuals. It encompasses both paid and unpaid tasks. This sector plays important role in workforce dynamics.
2. Palna Scheme: The Palna scheme offers daycare services for children of working parents. It caters to children aged 6 months to 6 years. This initiative supports working mothers and promotes early childhood development.
3. Anganwadi Centres: Anganwadi centres are community-based childcare facilities in India. They provide essential services like health monitoring and early education. These centres are very important in supporting rural families and children’s development.

Go deeper: Editorial on research flagging 82 Indian districts on unwanted pregnancy list

 

This makes it evident that demographic signifiers like higher income & education & better access to healthcare need not always secure women’s lives, choices or right over their bodies.

The findings of a study, the first-ever district-level examination of unintended pregnancies from nationwide data, have been revealing and significant. Published in the journal, BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, the research has revealed that as many as 82 districts of India have a rate of unwanted pregnancies that is higher than the national average. Three of Bengal’s districts — Birbhum, Malda and North Dinajpur — figure among these hot spots, as do 30 districts in Bihar, 14 in Uttar Pradesh, 8 in Madhya Pradesh, 6 in Delhi, 4 in Haryana and 3 each in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. The regional variations throw up intriguing questions. India’s northern states, known for their combination of low literacy — Bihar’s literacy rate is 61.7% while Uttar Pradesh’s is 73% — conservative social norms, and lower individual agency for women, offer a potent cocktail of social factors that often leads to unwanted pregnancies. But Kerala and Delhi, educated, urban, economic hubs, that were expected to buck such regressive trends, also found themselves amidst the geographical clusters that have a rate of unintended pregnancies higher than the national average. This makes it evident that demographic signifiers like higher income and education and better access to healthcare need not always secure women’s lives, choices or their right over their bodies. The cultural preference for a male child remains a formidable opponent to the forces of progress even in urbanised geographies that are relatively affluent. Given the pervasive culture of violence against women, it is also worth asking whether women whose pregnancies are the result of sexual assault and other crimes receive the same kind of access to healthcare and support as their peers.

The data collated from this study also have uses other than challenging — dismantling — prevalent assumptions. For instance, the information that has been unearthed could help policy zero in on areas where the use of contraception is low and then resolve the problem. Equally important is the data’s potential to identify future courses of further research. The fact that as many as eight out of Kerala’s 14 districts show a high propensity of unintended pregnancies should lead to follow-up queries about why a state with the best maternal and childcare indices has failed to check undesirable conceptions. Resources and manpower should not be constraints for future research projects in this direction: the answers would have a bearing on national welfare.

Source: The Telegraph, 7/11/24

Women on wheels: Editorial on the importance of intelligently devised welfare schemes for women

 In a democracy, public welfare is not a matter of benevolence. It entails the rights of the people. Indeed, the democratic compact between a government and the citizens who elect it is predicated upon the State’s ability to bring wide swathes of the population, especially those on the margin, within the ambit of welfarism. The prime minister of the mother of democracies, though, has, on numerous occasions, been sceptical about the efficacy of such targeted welfarism. He has described political commitments towards the greater good, especially those framed by the Opposition parties, as examples of sops — rewdis. It is true that political populism is often packaged with the glitter of welfare in this country. All political parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party, pander to such competitive electoral populism. But a blanket dismissal of welfare programmes is not prudent either. When the State gets a targeted welfare initiative right, the consequences can be truly illuminating. One such initiative that seems to be actually working — transforming ground realities — is the Congress’s programme of guaranteeing free bus rides for women in Karnataka, one of the five guarantees in the Congress manifesto that played a pivotal role in catapulting it back to power in that state. Recent reports suggest that freed from the shackles of immobility and dependence, women in Karnataka are going places — literally and metaphorically — like never before. Since the scheme’s introduction, Karnataka’s four bus corporations have seen a 30% jump in passenger count with 1.10 crore daily passengers, of which nearly 60% are women. Crucially, this endeavour is also helping women reclaim public spaces that are still largely divided along gender lines.

Women voters — numbering 47.1 crore and forming nearly half of all eligible voters in the country — are a force to reckon with in India. The BJP’s recent victory in the assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh was attributed largely to its popularity among women voters. Unsurprisingly, political parties have begun tailoring welfare schemes for this electorally important constituency. The Aam Aadmi Party, for instance, promised Rs 1,000 per month to all women above 18 years of age for the 2024-25 fiscal year in the national capital and the BJP made a similar pledge in Madhya Pradesh. But it is important to remember that all welfare policies need not be emancipatory. Some, in fact, can reinforce discrimination. An interesting study by scholars at O.P. Jindal Global University, for instance, found that in states with lower female literacy rates — the BJP is often the party of choice in these — there is a disproportionate focus on policies which, while helpful, end up keeping women at home; even the financial dole is usually taken away from women by male or other family members. Conversely, states with higher female literacy rates tend to focus on policies that are enablers of women’s agency, mobility, employment and education. The Kanyashree Prakalpa in West Bengal, which reversed high female dropout rates at the middle- and high-school levels in the state, is one case in point. 

Intelligently devised welfare measures that assure basic amenities like healthcare, education and employment for women are a necessity in a deeply inequitable and patriarchal country like India. The demonisation of welfarism by conflating it with populism is a sinister ploy to absolve the State of its commitment to collective betterment.

Source: The Telegraph, 11/05/24

Women vulnerable to alcohol abuse

 Women are more vulnerable to many sided health hazards of alcohol. According to the WHO status report on health and alcohol, “there is evidence that women may be more vulnerable to alcohol-related harm from a given level of alcohol use or a particular drinking pattern.

omen are more vulnerable to many sided health hazards of alcohol. According to the WHO status report on health and alcohol, “there is evidence that women may be more vulnerable to alcohol-related harm from a given level of alcohol use or a particular drinking pattern. The vulnerability of females to alcohol-related harm is a major public health concern because alcohol use among women has been increasing steadily in line with economic development and changing gender roles and because it can have severe health and social consequences for newborns….

However, for health outcomes such as cancers, gastrointestinal diseases or cardiovascular diseases, the same level of consumption leads to more pronounced outcomes for women.” The vulnerability of women may be explained by a wide range of factors. For example, women typically have lower body weight, smaller liver capacity to metabolize alcohol, and a higher proportion of body fat, which together contribute to their achieving higher blood alcohol concentrations than men for the same amount of alcohol intake. Women are also affected by interpersonal violence and risky sexual behaviour as a result of the drinking problems and drinking behaviour of male partners. Moreover, alcohol use has been shown to be a risk factor for breast cancer.

Also many societies hold more negative attitudes towards women’s drinking alcohol than men’s drinking, and especially towards their harmful drinking, which, depending on the cultural context, may increase women’s vulnerability to social harm. Finally, women who drink during pregnancy may increase the risk of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), and other preventable health conditions in their new-borns. In some cultures women have been protected from alcohol consumption by strong traditional values. For example, in the WHO region which includes India and nearby countries only 5 per cent of women consume alcohol whereas in the WHO region where the USA and nearby areas are included, more than 50 per cent of women consume alcohol. Imagine the public health and social disaster that could result if alcohol consumption by women in India reaches the level of the USA. Yet, promoting alcohol consumption among women as a sign and symbol of liberating modern trends is widely practiced in India. According to the WHO, alcohol consumption in adolescents, especially binge drinking, negatively affects school performance, increasing participation in crime and leads to risky sexual behaviour. The WHO quotes growing scientific evidence that has demonstrated the special harmful effects of alcohol consumption prior to adulthood on brain; mental; cognitive and social functioning of youth and increased likelihood of adult alcohol dependence and alcohol related problems among those who drink before physiological maturity. The WRVH says especially in the context of youth violence that drunkenness is an important immediate situational factor that can precipitate violence. In a Swedish study on youth-violence, about three-quarters of violent offenders and around half the victims of violence were intoxicated at the time of the incident. Several surveys indicate high end rapidly increased consumption of alcohol amongst youth. What is particularly worrying is high consumption at a very tender age which is likely to be very harmful for the brain and also lead to much higher risk of alcohol dependence in later years.

For example, in the UK, binge drinking thrice or more a month is reported among 33 per cent of adolescents in the 15-16 age groups. Binge drinking levels affecting between 25 to 40 per cent of youth are quite common now. Among elderly people the possibility of alcohol reaching and affecting sensitive organs including brain, liver and muscles is higher compared to younger people. The WRVH report says that reducing the availability of liquor can be an important community strategy to reduce crime and violence as research has shown alcohol to be an important situational factor that can precipitate violence. In a 4-year study conducted in New Zealand, crime rates in situations of high and low availability of alcohol were compared.

This study revealed that crime rates fell significantly for two years in areas of reduced alcohol availability. According to a report prepared by the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, USA (NCADD), alcohol and drugs are implicated in an estimated 80 per cent of offences leading to incarceration in the USA such as domestic violence, driving while intoxicated, property offences, drug offences and public order offences. Alcohol is a factor in 40 per cent of all violent crimes and according to the Department of Justice, 37 per cent of about 2 million convicted offenders currently in jail report that they were drinking at the time of the event. Alcohol, more than any illegal drug, was found to be closely associated with violent crimes including murder, rape, assault, child and spousal abuse.

About 3 million violent crimes occurred each year in the USA in which victims perceived the offenders to have been drinking and statistics related to alcohol use by violent offenders show that about half of all homicides and assaults are committed when the offender, victim or both have been drinking. This report by NCADD points out that alcohol is often a factor in violence where the attacker and the victim know each other. Two thirds of victims who were attacked by an intimate (including a current or former spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend) reported that alcohol had been involved. More than 1 million are arrested for driving while intoxicated in a year in the USA. Drinking and drugged driving is the number one cause of death, injury and disability of young people under the age of 21.

Keeping in view all health and social impacts it is clear that the high levels of consumption of alcohol and various intoxicants is very harmful. In developing countries like India as well in some of the poorest countries and regions, millions of families are being devastated economically too because of the consumption of alcohol and intoxicants, both in terms of the money they pay for intoxicants and also in terms of the ruin of health. The various stages of the cycle of manufacture, sale and consumption of various intoxicants also involves very heavy ecological costs. Hence there is a very strong case for public campaigns being carried out with continuity and sincerity in rural as well in urban areas to reduce the consumption of alcohol and other intoxicants as much as possible

Bharat Dogra

Source: The Statesman, 16/03/24

A Woman's Place

 

On International Women's Day, the people of Ireland had to decide against the 'women in home' provision of the Constitution. In India, PM Modi cut LPG cylinder prices to benefit 'Nari Shakti'

Last Friday, Ireland put to vote that portion of the 1937 Constitution that describes the place of women in society. Article 41.2 states two things. First, that the State recognises how "by her life within the home, woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved". And second, that "mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home". The referendum was scheduled on March 8, which is International Women's Day.

Cornered

The man who played a key role in introducing the 1937 Constitution was Eamon de Valera, who also founded the Fianna Fail party. In 1936, when the Constitution was being redrafted, there was a lot of concern among women’s groups and for reasons all too obvious. The 1927 Juries Act made it difficult for women to sit on juries. The 1929 Censorship of Publications Bill prohibited advertisement of contraceptives. Women were paid lower salary and pension rates. Mary Kettle, who had consistently fought for the rights of women, said of the marriage bar in Ireland’s civil service: "women from their entry until they reach the ages of 45 or 50 are looked on as if they were loitering with intent to commit a felony --- the felony in this case being marriage"

Nari Shakti

It took the Joint Committee of Women's Societies and Social Workers, which was concerned about women’s representation in the Senate, six months to get an audience with De Valera. Journalist Gertrude Gaffney said in response to the draft Constitution in her 1937 column in the Irish Independent: “He [de Valera] dislikes and distrusts us as a sex and his aim ever since he came into office has been to put us into what he considers is our place and keep us there.” And what according to him was their role? As he himself said in a radio address to the nation about the Ireland of his dreams on St Patrick’s Day, 1943: “... a land whose countryside would be bright with cosy homesteads, whose fields and villages would be joyous with the sounds of industry, with the romping of sturdy children, the contest of athletic youths and the laughter of happy maidens...” Incidentally, De Valera's mother Catherine Coll had been a nurse, while his wife Sinead was a mathematics teacher by training and also wrote books for children. His youngest daughter Sile de Valera was a politician and held ministerial posts.

Upala Sen

Source: The Telegraph, 10/03/24

Why do we celebrate Women’s Day on March 8?

 

Women’s Day was a result of several socialist movements, which demanded voting rights for women and better working conditions. Here is a brief history.

March 8 was marked as Women’s Day by the United Nations in 1975 and officially recognised as such two years later. While countries across the world have since celebrated the day, its roots go much further back.

The UN’s official website says that the first National Woman’s Day was first observed in the United States on February 28, 1909. The Socialist Party of America designated this day in honour of “the 1908 garment workers’ strike in New York, where women protested against working conditions.” Around 15,000 women marched that day for shorter hours of work, better pay and voting rights, the International Women’s Day (IWD) website says.

For many years after that, the last Sunday of February would be marked as Women’s Day. But these were not isolated events, they came amid what is now seen as the First Wave of Feminism. Additionally, some critics believe that the focus on this event overshadows similar initiatives made in erstwhile Soviet and Communist countries. Here’s their brief history.

Early feminism in the US and Europe

The New York protest was preceded by many events that marked a shift in the fight for women’s rights. First Wave Feminism (from the mid-19th century to the 1920s) saw the very first campaigns for equality in terms of voting rights, pay and other fundamental issues in the West.

As early as 1848, Americans Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott staged the first women’s rights convention in New York, after they were denied a chance to speak at an anti-slavery convention. Mott was a staunch campaigner against slavery, while Stanton was a renowned feminist in her own right. In her 1892 speech titled ‘The Solitude of Self’, she laid down the reasons why women deserved to have equal rights:

“The strongest reason for giving woman all the opportunities for higher education, for the full development of her faculties… is the solitude and personal responsibility of her own individual life.”

“No matter how much women prefer to lean, to be protected and supported, nor how much men desire to have them do so, they must make the voyage of life alone, and for safety in an emergency, they must know something of the laws of navigation… It matters not whether the solitary voyager is man or woman; nature, having endowed them equally, leaves them to their own skill and judgment in the hour of danger, and, if not equal to the occasion, alike they perish.”

In Europe, too, socialist feminist movements had begun to take shape.

The IWD website notes, “In 1910 a second International Conference of Working Women was held in Copenhagen. A woman named Clara Zetkin (Leader of the ‘Women’s Office’ for the Social Democratic Party in Germany) tabled the idea of an International Women’s Day. She proposed that every year in every country there should be a celebration on the same day – a Women’s Day – to press for their demands.” Zetkin was a well-regarded speaker, who saw workers’ movements as the only way for women to have their rights. The Guardian noted in a report that her obituary in the Manchester Guardian termed her the “grandmother of communism”.

With over 100 women from 17 countries in attendance at the conference, Zetkin’s suggestion was accepted. In 1911, more than “one million women and men attended IWD rallies campaigning for women’s rights to work, vote, be trained, to hold public office and end discrimination” in countries across Europe. Thus, there was a growing recognition for having a day of commemoration.

Why March 8?

Russian women protested the possibility of a World War (1914 to 1918) on February 23, 1913, as per the Julian calendar that was then in use in Russia. According to the Gregorian calendar, which was much more widely accepted elsewhere, that date translated as March 8. The day thus became the global benchmark and rallies began to be held on the day in many countries.

Another such Sunday fell on February 23, 1917, as per the Julian calendar. On this day, Russian women protested against the ongoing war and shortages of food and other essentials under Czar Nicholas’s regime.

Historian and activist Rochelle Ruthchild of Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies told Time Magazine how the 1917 protests were unique: “Women were mostly the ones on the breadline, and were the core protesters,” she said. 

She added, “In fact, male revolutionaries like [Leon] Trotsky were upset at them, as these disobedient and misbehaving women were going out on this International Women’s Day when they were meant to wait until May,” which is when Workers’ Day is marked.

The protests would also help galvanise public opinion against the monarchy and just a few days later, the Russian Revolution removed the Czars and a communist state was established. Women also gained the right to vote in Russia that year, while white American women got it in 1920. Women of colour faced hurdles and would only be able to vote after the 1965 Voting Rights Act was passed.

In 2011, the Barack Obama administration also decided to proclaim March as ‘Women’s History Month’.

“This year, we commemorate the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, a global celebration of the economic, political, and social achievements of women past, present, and future. International Women’s Day is a chance to pay tribute to ordinary women throughout the world and is rooted in women’s centuries-old struggle to participate in society on an equal footing with men. This day reminds us that, while enormous progress has been made, there is still work to be done before women achieve true parity,” the then-US President said in a statement.

Source: Indian Express, 8/03/24

The Great Gender Divide: Globally, young women are becoming more liberal than men, but what about India?

 

There is evidence globally of a growing gender divide on ideological lines. In the past decade, young women are becoming more liberal. What about India?Not so long ago, we’d look at generations as a whole. Millennials think this about that, or this is what Gen Z believes. Now it turns out that around the world, men and women under the age of 30 have increasingly divergent views. Women have become more liberal in the past decade; men of the same age, more conservative. “Gen Z is two generations, not one,” writes John Burn-Murdoch in the Financial Times [gift link]. “In countries on every continent, an ideological gap has opened up between young men and women.” American women have become more liberal since the 1990s, finds a new Gallup poll and the shift is more evident among young women and senior women—up by 11 points.

When it comes to comparisons with men, women aged 18-30 are 30 percentage points more liberal than men of the same age.

There’s a similar gap to be found in Germany. In the UK, the gap is around 25 percentage points.

Using data from the Gallup poll, analysis of general social surveys of Korea and the British Election Study, FT reports even starker divisions outside the west – in China, for instance and South Korea.

“As long as Korean men continue to dominate management and socialise with other men, they are immersed in cultures of self-righteous sexism,” writes Alice Evans, a visiting fellow at Stanford who is working on her book, The Great Gender Divergence. South Korean women, on the other hand, are increasingly feminist. “Inspired and emboldened, they have shared stories of abuse and publicly supported each other.”

The India story

“The first signs of a challenge to the status quo are now visible,” write Rahul Verma and Ankita Barthwal of the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) in this 2020 article published in Mint, Is India on the Cusp of a Gender Revolution? The change is being driven largely by young, educated women. Looking the 2020 You-Guv-Mint-CPR Millennial survey, Verma and Barthwal examine gender preferences across marriage, parenting, professional space, friendship and politics.

The similarities in career aspiration, they say, are “driven at least in part by the greater equality of opportunities between men and women.” It signals the “weakening of gendered norms in dictating career choices of women.” For instance, when it comes to dream careers, men and women with the same educational qualifications have strikingly similar aspirations.

But differences are emerging as well.

For instance, an equal number of men and women want to get married, but more women than men—70% to 62% of the 10,005 respondents across 184 towns and cities interviewed online--said they’d prefer love marriages. Women also want to marry later; 19% said after the age of 31, only 14% of men said they’d rather marry after that age. Women also want fewer children than men: 65% of men wanted two children, among women, 58%.In terms of friendships, it’s women who are more likely than men to have friends outside of identity circles like caste, religion or gender. Just 13% of women said they had no friends outside their caste (20% for men); 15% of women said they had no friends outside their religion (21% for men), and 18% had no friends outside their gender (25% for men). This actually is remarkable when you consider the restrictions and policing of women’s mobility and movements.

It’s too early yet to see a trend, cautions Verma. “We might have green shoots but I’m not yet seeing a trend,” he said. “Certainly, young women are becoming more politically inclined but women are still behind on a lot of parameters.” Two possible reasons are being offered for this gendered divergence. The first is the impact and fallout of the #MeToo movement. As women came forward to share their experiences of workplace sexual harassment, they found an online movement that gave them a democratic, open space. It helped create virtual networks around the world. And it primed women to speak up and create resistance on a range of issues. In Iran, for instance, the movement against enforced head scarves. But the movement also created a solidarity of women who found they could connect very quickly around the world and organise at least virtual sisterhood networks.

The second could be the roll back of hard-won rights with the most obvious being the back pedalling in the US in June 2022 on Roe v Wade, which ended the Constitutional right to abortion.

But, for me, there’s a third crucial reason. When it comes to challenging the status quo of patriarchal societies, where men are literally served hand and foot by an army of mothers, sisters, wives and daughters, those to gain the most are women. Men have everything to lose and women have everything to gain.

“There is a huge rise in aspiration among young women,” says Shrayana Bhattacharya, the author of Desperately Seeking Shahrukh Khan. But, “young men are not being able to adapt to these new aspiration. They are not being raised to cope with this new generation of aspirational women.”

So, while we might not yet be at a Venus/Mars divide, women are increasingly questioning the roles into which they have been slotted. Change is coming.

The following article is an excerpt from Namita Bhandare’s Mind the Gap. Read the rest of the newsletter here

Source: Hindustan Times, 18/02/24

SWATI (Science for Women- A Technology & Innovation) Portal

 In February 2024, the government has launched the SWATI (Science for Women- A Technology & Innovation) portal, a database highlighting accomplishments of Indian women in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics & Medicine) fields. The interactive portal was developed by the National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR) to address the gender gap in sciences.

Need for the Portal

Women comprise only 13-15% of researchers in STEMM in India, lower than most G20 nations. They are disproportionately clustered in junior roles indicating barriers to advancement. Lack of visibility further marginalizes women’s scientific contributions. Diversity in leadership and problem-solving suffers, hampering innovation ecosystems. The SWATI portal tackles this visibility gap.

Salient Features

The portal allows self-registration of profiles of women students, faculty and scientists across levels capturing expertise, qualifications, publications etc. The dashboard provides dynamic analytics on distribution of women in STEMM roles across states and institutions. It enables collaborations through expert outreach, forums and open access in English and Hindi.

Addressing Inclusion Challenges

Analysis of portal data can guide counseling programs and returnship policies tailored to states. Domain-specific polls enable targeted opportunity initiatives. Automated scholarship alerts empower women scientists. By highlighting challenges, SWATI can trigger interventions to maximize women’s potential.

Realizing the Vision

With women crossing 25% threshold in STEMM by 2030, increased visibility from the portal is expected to attract more girls to science careers. Connecting investors and corporates can boost commercialization. By lifting the veil of invisibility, SWATI could catalyze a watershed movement for gender parity in Indian science.

Return to theory

 

Women in India need to study both tradition and modernity to formulate a just social order. This is important as most media discussions are regarding making women's reservation bill a reality

The Indian Parliament recently passed the landmark women’s reservation bill, which guarantees a third of the seats in the lower House of Parliament and state assemblies for women. The bill was passed in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha during the special session of Parliament held on its new premises.

Following this historic moment, we should also focus on the women’s movement in the West and the contribution of feminist philosophers like Susan Moller Okin. Okin’s remarkable essay, “Reason and Feeling in Thinking about Justice”, exposes the various layers of discrimination against women in Western philosophy and society. She displays her expertise in identifying, approaching and dealing with archival material as she examines the politics of discrimination.

Indian women, too, need to return to theory and carefully evaluate the women’s reservation bill. The reason is twofold. First, to identify the underlying relation between texts and practices and acknowledge the contribution of feminism in the West. Second, to suggest the need to look, with an open and critical mind, at the theory and practices concerning women in Indian society.

Feminism in the West extended the modern ideals of individual rights, equality and rationality to criticise patriarchy in traditional society. It excavated and unearthed the surreptitious continuation of patriarchy in modernity and tradition. Okin’s essay takes up the challenging task of fighting against visible patriarchy in the classical philosophies and its continuation, albeit disguised, within modernity.

Okin closely examines the wri­tings of modern philosopher, Immanuel Kant, and the continuation of his impact on contemporary philosophers like John Rawls. She uncovers the underlying architecture in these influential writings and exposes how modern philosophers like Kant based morality on rationality.

They based morality on tangible rationality, moving away from the earlier practice in metaphysics where morality was founded on transcendental aspects like Plato’s Ideals or God in Christianity. This was a significant contribution to modern morality and is recognised in mainstream scholarship as one of the achievements of modernity.

However, what Okin explores is the other side, or the extensions of these foundations, by Kant. She points out that while he has not discriminated between the sexes in his major writings, he subscribes to the gender division in his minor pieces in earlier and later works.

Okin demonstrates that while founding morality on reason, Kant excludes non-rational aspects such as feelings and emotions from its domain. He insists that “no moral principle is based… on any feeling whatsoever.” According to Kant, modern morality is based exclusively on rationality. Thus far, there is no problem.

The problem arises when he links women with non-rational feelings and emotions, associating only males with rationality, which is the foundation of morality. Women’s “philosophy is not to reason, but to sense,” Okin quotes from Kant’s Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime. He states that a married woman is necessarily subjected to her husband and a legal minor. “To make oneself behave like a minor,” Kant says, “degrading as it may be, is, nevertheless, very comfortable.” In a tongue-in-cheek way, Okin states, “It is not difficult to tell, from such remarks, where women stand (perhaps it is more appropriate to say ‘where women sit’) on Kant’s moral scale.”

Okin’s ingenuity lies in moving our gaze from the foundations of modern morality to its extensions. This is where the actual politics of modernity concerning women is exposed. These extensions include associating males with rationality and dissociating women from it. This disguised patriarchy has severe implications for women. While founding morality on reason is radical, excluding women from rationality and forcing them outside the domain of morality is deeply problematic.

The contribution of feminists like Okin lies in their scrutiny of the texts to identify these shocking extensions. Presenting this other picture of Kant and modernity shocked scholars of Kant and modernity.

In the context of the women’s reservation bill, Okin’s excellent philosophical work should inspire us to reflect on the dominant traditions in India and the West and to take this as a catalyst for understanding the claims and counterclaims about the status of women in India, both in text and in practice.

On the positive side, Okin does not seek parity with males by claiming that women, too, are rational. Instead, she sees virtue in moral ideals such as benevolence and parental love that are considered non-rational and excluded from the domain of morality. For children, the family is their “first [example] of human interaction,” if based on “equality and reciprocity rather than on dependence and domination,” it can shape their morality. And by extension, this can provide the basis for “larger communities within which people are supposed to develop fellow feelings for each other.”

Women in India thus need to carefully study both tradition and modernity and contribute to formulating a just social order. This is important as most of the discussions in the media are regarding the agency of making the bill a reality. Unfortunately, there is less about content and challenges before women in the changed scenario with more representation. Reading Western feminism is not to borrow or blindly imitate the West, making India its extension. While learning from the West, India must significantly modify modernity and tradition. What has been achieved is not enough, but how to take the unfinished other aspects is an open question. This also includes more significant problems such as corruption, exploitation and discrimination.

A. Raghuramaraju

Source: Telegraph India, 9/10/23

Gandhi and Women

 Women in the Phoenix Settlement, founded by Gandhi in 1904 in South Africa, were unrestrained by social taboos and had more freedom than their counterparts anywhere in India. With his experience of South Africa behind him, Gandhi was aware of the potential of women as satyagrahis. He also firmly believed that ‘women of India should have as much share in the winning of swaraj as men.

It is an undeniable fact that the culture of a nation is expressed in the importance it gives to the dignity and rights of its women. Apart from her reproductive function for the continuation of the race, a woman has played an extremely important role since the origin of the human species.

Because by her very biological function, she creates, cares, shares, and does not normally destroy. Many firmly believe that the Chinese revolution has been primarily a woman’s revolution. That is to say, it is China’s women, more than the peasants and workers, who have benefitted from the communist revolution.

The women of today’s China are fortunate, they have a taste of freedom. The women of today’s Russia enjoy an equal position with men. Since ages, Indian women were living in abject conditions, homebound, caught in the grip of fear, illiteracy and social discrimination.

Mahatma Gandhi was concerned about the emancipation and empowerment of women from the early stages of his life. He also felt that a country could not move forward unless there was an awakening among the country’s women.

However, in the formative years, he was deeply influenced by his mother Putlibai, who imparted in him a strong sense of personal ethics and compassion that is conveyed through his favorite prayer song (bhajan) written by the 15th-century religious reformer, Narsinha Mehta: ‘Vaishnav jan to tene re kahiye je peed parai jane re’ (A godlike man is one, who feels another’s pain, who shares another’s sorrow).

Indeed, motherhood was something that was natural to Gandhi. He was involved in a number of tasks that were considered largely feminine ~ nursing, cleaning, cooking and taking care of the ashram members. He firmly believed that the difference between men and women was only physical, and they play complementary roles.

He also expressed several times in his writings in ‘Young India’ and ‘Harijan’ that in many matters especially those of tolerance, patience, and sacrifice the Indian woman is superior to the male.

Gandhi’s views regarding the man-woman relation were very similar to Tolstoy’s. Tolstoy, while reviewing the famous short story entitled ‘The Darling’ written by the famous Russian author Anton Chekhov, made some profound observations. The author made fun of women who lacked originality, and were shadows of men and whose tastes would change with a change of husbands. Tolstoy did not agree with the observation.

He believed that women had their own uniqueness and that both men and women had equal abilities and rights, although they had different roles to play in society.

Gandhi was a keen observer of the women’s movement for voting rights in the UK, which at times did not practice the principled type of non-violence that he had advocated all along.

But he had tremendous faith in women’s inherent capacity for non-violence. In his words: “If non-violence is the law of our being, the future is with the women… who can make a more effective appeal to the heart than women? … God has vouchsafed to women the power of non-violence more than to men.

It is all the more effective because it is mute. Women are the natural messengers of the gospel of non-violence if only they attain high state.” Women in the Phoenix Settlement, founded by him in 1904 in South Africa, were unrestrained by social taboos and had more freedom than their counterparts anywhere in India.

With his experience of South Africa behind him, Gandhi was aware of the potential of women as satyagrahis. He also firmly believed that “women of India should have as much share in the winning of swaraj as men.”

In India, Gandhi’s first experiments with trying out the method of satyagraha was in Champaran district in Bihar in 1917. It was here that a few women such as Pravabati Devi, Rajbanshi Devi and Bhagawati Devi facilitated the entry of women into the freedom struggle.

These women led the fight against the purdah system. Social works gradually led to a political awakening among women. From Champaran Gandhi went to Kheda district (Gujarat) where peasants were protesting against unjust taxation. Gandhi was received with great enthusiasm by women everywhere.

In his historical march to Dandi on 12 March 1930, women came out in thousands. Women’s participation in large numbers in Gandhi’s mass movements was a kind of social revolution which made a breakthrough in their lives.

Gandhi is known to be one of the few people who encouraged women’s active participation in the freedom struggle – making him a rare promoter of woman’s liberation.

And his experience of participation by women in politics from his days in South Africa till the end of his life bears testimony to the fact that they never failed his expectations. In his letters and speeches to women, Gandhi repeatedly emphasized that women were not weak.

Addressing a meeting in Bombay in 1920, where women expressed their views on the atrocities committed in Punjab, Gandhi said: “I, therefore, want the women of India not to believe themselves weak. It is ignorance to call women weak, women who have been the mother of mighty heroes like Hanuman.” And he wrote in ‘Young India’ in 1930, “To call women the weaker sex is a libel; it is man’s injustice to women”.

Gandhi asked women to be fearless. As Jawaharlal Nehru wrote: “The dominant impulse in India under British rule was that of fear-pervasive oppressing, strangling fear; … It was against this all-pervading fear that Gandhi’s quiet and determined voice was raised: Be not afraid” (Discovery of India). Not only did he inspire women to be brave, he taught men too to respect women. Gandhi did everything to correct gender imbalances and bring women to the forefront in India’s social, economic, cultural and political mainstream.

Empowerment and uplift of women and the poor became his prime concern. He repeatedly pointed out that seeking freedom by imitating men would be a mockery of freedom. In his words: “Man and woman are equal in rank but they are peerless pair being supplementary to one another.”

As a result, women became prominent during the freedom struggle. Initially, many highly-educated women took part in the women’s movement launched by Gandhi, but as the movement spread among the masses, women from middle and lower class families ~ educated, uneducated and half-educated ~ came out and joined hands with each other to strengthen the movement.

Many observers of the Indian scene during those times were amazed at the phenomenon. Depicting the picture of those days Pandit Nehru wrote: “Most of us menfolk were in prison. And then a remarkable thing happened. Our women came to the front and took the charge of the struggle.

Women have always been there, of course, but now there was an avalanche of them, which took not only the British Government but their own menfolk by surprise” [Discovery of India]. With Gandhi’s inspiration, they took the struggle right into their homes and raised it to a moral level. Women organized public meetings, sold khadi and proscribed literature, started picketing shops of liquor and foreign goods, prepared contraband salt, and came forward to face all sorts of atrocities, including inhuman treatment by police officers.

They came forward to give all that they had ~ their wealth and strength, their jewelry and belongings, their skill and labour ~ for this unusual and unprecedented struggle. During the 40 years of his political career, Gandhi only found more reasons to deepen his faith in what he wrote. He never had a specific programme for women, but women had an integral role to play in his programmes.

For this reason, women participated in all programmes overwhelmingly. “Womanhood is not restricted to the kitchen”, he opined and felt that “only when the woman is liberated from the slavery of the kitchen, that her true spirit may be discovered.” It does not mean that women should not cook, but only that household responsibilities be shared among men, women and children. He wanted women to outgrow their traditional responsibilities and participate in the affairs of the nation.

He connected women with services and not with power. In his words: “If by strength is meant moral power, then a woman is immeasurably man’s superior.”

JAYDEV JANA

Source: The Statesman, 17/04/23

What we don’t know about working Indian women

 According to the recently released Global Gender Gap Report 2022, India ranks 135 out of 146 countries and it has slightly improved its position in the overall ranking compared to the last year.

According to the recently released Global Gender Gap Report 2022, India ranks 135 out of 146 countries and it has slightly improved its position in the overall ranking compared to the last year. However, India is one of the worst performers on gender equality in South Asia as only Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan perform worse in the region. This is largely due to the lowest gender parity in health and survival, poor representation of women in politics and a low labour force participation rate of women. Understanding women’s role in the workforce is critical to promote gender equality and realise economic growth in India. But the data to aid this understanding is missing, incomplete or inadequate.

In India, information about labour is collected and compiled by several agencies. The Census collects data every ten years from all Indians, while the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) collects it every five years from a large sample of households covering a wide range of variables. Considering the importance of labour force data, from 2017, the Government of India launched an annual statistics series called the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS). But women’s work is underreported in all these surveys. Women may not necessarily participate in the formal labour market, meaning their contribution to the household economy, and economic activity more broadly, remains invisible.

The most recent PLFS data showed that more than half of the women were engaged in different unpaid domestic activities and most of them were involved in household chores (such as cooking, cleaning, caring for the children and elderly) along with a decrease in uncounted activities like collection of vegetables, firewood, cattle feed, and sewing, tailoring, weaving. The previous NSSO reported significant engagement of women these kinds of activity, so the disparity needs a more detailed analysis. Perhaps the women had improved access to infrastructure like drinking water and fuel (as the government’s Ujjwala scheme had intended). But without more detail, any conclusions remain difficult.

To capture women’s work, the Central Statistical Office undertook the first national Time Use Survey (TUS) during January-December 2019. This survey interviewed participants about their recent activities and asked respondents to assess the amount of time spent at each. The TUS highlighted the inadequacy of conventional employment and unemployment surveys and the Census in measuring women’s unpaid work. And while concerns regarding the methodology were raised, it was described as the best available method in a country such as India with a low literacy level.

In India, work has been increasingly informal in nature. Given the huge size of the informal sector, it is important to collect data on the conditions of such work (for example paid leave and access to job contracts) but data is only available at the state and national level. Data should also be collected on the proportion of women workers who need social security benefits and those who are getting them. There is no data on the number of women workers who received training and were promoted to a higher position in regular employment, and the number of women cultivators and agricultural labourers who received agricultural machinery and agricultural extension training.

Similarly, there is no information on the number of cases registered against employers paying lower than minimum wages to women workers; percentage of women workers with ‘decent’ work conditions; the shortfall in access to working women’s hostels; creche facilities available at the workplace; and whether lactating mothers are allowed breaks to feed their children during work hours.

The Annual Survey of Industries collects data on the organised manufacturing sector, but it provides gender-disaggregated data only for directly employed workers. There is no gender-disaggregated data for contract workers or their wages. Given the large increase in the proportion of contractual workers, and a sizable proportion of women among contract workers, gender-disaggregated data on India’s factory sector is required to understand the composition and characteristics of the workforce.

Migration for employment is another important aspect of economic empowerment. The inability of the official data to delineate the scope, scale and patterns of female labour migration has been central to making women invisible. In India, the Census and NSSO are the two official data sources on migration. However, they provide figures for long-term migration (migration for more than six months) and capture only one reason for migration. Usually, respondents give a social reason — marriage, migration with parents — as the primary reason for migration, which means that even if a woman also migrates for economic reasons, it is not captured. Also, the surveys do not differentiate between circular and seasonal migration and commuting for work, which is more common among women than long-distance, long-term migration.

Ownership of assets (land, housing and livestock) is an indicator of the status and power of an individual in a household but there is no gender-disaggregated data on asset ownership. Similarly, the gender dimension of access to basic amenities is often ignored in the official statistics. For all the data that is collected, the unit of analysis is the household, and often the only gender disaggregation is in terms of the sex of the head of household. The NSSO, National Family Health Survey and the Census collect information on whether a household has access to a latrine (owned/shared) but there is no information in any of these surveys on whether women use the latrine facility and whether they have access to it throughout their life. This is important as India is currently focusing on toilet building, but ensuring its use is not considered.

There is no data on whether people are also defecating openly despite having a latrine at home. Further, there is no information available on workplace amenities. In short, data on individual access to water and actual toilet use are two basic amenities that are particularly relevant to women’s lives and data on these two variables is absent. Surveys could also focus on individual access to these facilities.

India’s decline in women’s labour force participation could be due to social or economic factors influencing demand and supply. However, the available data does not allow analysis of the factors that lead occupations to becoming being segregated by gender and the ensuing wage discrimination. Information on hiring practices would help understand such disparities and formulate policies to ensure the presence of women in non-traditional occupations.

For a better understanding and analysis of women’s empowerment in India, adequate and good quality data is required. The TUS attempted to fill some of the gaps. Adding this survey method to forthcoming labour force surveys, or an independent TUS, would help to fill in missing data. The many reasons for migration, data collection on ownership, management of assets and business at the individual level instead of the household level are also recommended for women’s empowerment and gender equality.

Shiney Chakraborty 

Source: The Statesman, 9/03/23

Important tips for women leadership in today's time

 Being a leader is not always easy. It is about bringing together like-minded people to share a similar vision of a better future. It usually requires overcoming challenges, juggling competing agendas, and working with limited resources. Despite making the best efforts, sometimes you will have a downfall while at all other times, you will succeed.

These obstacles multiply many folds for women in leadership positions. This holds for the majority of working women, even though many women have risen to leadership positions and are making significant strides not only in their businesses, but also in the day-to-day operation of their companies by demonstrating deep knowledge, experience, and an air of confidence that makes them true role models.

Women possess a distinct leadership style that influences the decision-making process and how they lead their teams. Research shows that women tend to be more collaborative, communicative, and empathetic in their interactions. The diversity of perspectives that women bring to the table can lead to more creative solutions.

To help women leaders sustain and grow in their leadership roles, a few resourceful tips are mentioned below:

1. Prioritise your well-being - This is one of the most important things you can do as a female leader. Taking this approach, women leaders can take a broader look at mental and physical health, as well as happiness in general. Leaders who place a high priority on well-being are better able to manage the demands of their roles and make more informed decisions. Balance your work and personal lives by taking breaks, managing stress, and taking care of yourself.

2. Trust yourself in the journey: Effective leadership largely depends on self-belief and trust in one's abilities. An effective leader must possess a strong sense of self-confidence to make a positive contribution. When women leaders are confident in themselves and believe in their visions and goals, they can inspire others to believe in their strengths and abilities. It can lead to a more positive and productive working environment.

3. Build strong relationships: Women leaders should work to develop strong relationships with their team/s, it will facilitate creating a positive work environment. The best way to do this is through open communication, empathy, and respect. Women leaders should also invest in the growth of their team members, providing them with opportunities to learn and grow. In this way, leadership can gain trust, which results in a more motivated, engaged, and productive workforce.

4. Have a Flexible Attitude: One of the most essential qualities for women in leadership roles is their ability to adapt to change. Maintain a flexible attitude throughout your tenure as a leader to cope with a dynamic and changing workplace. Besides helping you grow; this will also bring a degree of diversity in you that is crucial for leaders.

5. Prioritise Work-Life Balance- Women leaders who prioritize work-life balance can serve as role models for their team members and colleagues, showing them that it is possible to be successful while also prioritizing self-care. Research has shown that employees who have a good work-life balance are more productive and engaged. To be able to successfully maintain a work-life balance helps in preventing burnout.

6. Enhance your leadership style: Everyone has a unique leadership style, so finding the one that works for a woman leader is crucial. It is not inappropriate to learn from other successful women leaders, but in that journey, it is equally important to remain true to yourself and your values. Women in leadership roles with strong values can have a profound influence on society and the community at large by creating an organization that is prosperous, and resilient, and in turn, help to create a better world for everyone.

7. Be open to diversity and inclusion: A diverse team with different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives can bring a lot of value to an organization. Women leaders should embrace diversity and inclusion because it leads to better business decisions, improved employee engagement, increased productivity, and entrepreneurship, attracting and retaining talent, promoting social responsibility, and meeting customer needs.

8. The road ahead: Based on my experience as the founder of a fast-paced HR tech organization, my advice to women leaders will be to network within their industry and build strong connections, it will help them to carve their path. Don’t be afraid to take risks: include experts from your industry in your team and take calculated risks. There is no one size fits all formula for this ongoing dilemma. Based on your current role and future aspirations, identify your goal, and take the journey backed by strategic learning and development.

Source: Telegraph India, 9/03/23