Financial inclusion: Indian women have something to bank on

For the first time, the majority of Indian women have been financially included. Fresh data show that the proportion of Indian women with individual accounts in formal financial institutions (primarily banks) reached 61% in 2015, a sharp increase from 48% in 2014, lagging men by only eight percentage points. A close look at these numbers reveals opportunities and challenges to build on this quiet, and important, victory.

The Intermedia India Financial Inclusion Insights (FII), an annual, nationally representative survey, confirms that both individuals and households show growth in bank registration, largely driven by the government’s Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) and its emphasis on individual accounts (rather than household). By capturing demand-side data from individual citizens, the FII survey found that overall individual bank account ownership in India increased from 52% in mid-2014 to 63% in mid-2015. While the survey shows growth in financial inclusion for all adults, the gains were the highest in rural areas and for individuals below the poverty line, and, most of all, women. These encouraging numbers suggest financial inclusion is widening to reach the most vulnerable adults in India. Additionally the gender gap has decreased, as Indian men experienced an increase of nine percentage points, from 60% to 69% in the same period. These data mirror other recent studies such as Anjini Kochar’s finding that business correspondents (BCs) have increased the savings of both landowning and landless households in India; with the savings of the landless increasing more than those of landowning households. She explains this difference in terms of the fact that access to a BC increased the wage income and hours of work of landless households, particularly those of women, a likely consequence of the tie-up between the financial system and the MGNREGA.

This remarkable achievement for women should now be extended to the remaining 39% of them. This will require commitment to implementation, quality of service, and a willingness to look beyond one-size-fits-all solutions in addressing the diversity of women’s financial needs. For women, some of the features valued most in formal accounts are trust, privacy, and security from theft and harassment. When providers do not treat their customers in a fair manner — particularly low-income customers and women — trust in financial services is eroded. Experience has shown that efforts such as the “no-frill accounts” were abandoned by clients when payments were not received in time, and customers lost confidence in their financial providers. In the FII data, PMJDY holders reported experiencing issues with transactions and account terms. Specifically, they were more likely to complain about banks deducting fees without informing them, and a decrease in available account funds due to mishandling or fraudulent activities. A commitment to customer protection in implementation, and thinking through women’s needs at all stages, are one way to ensure sustainable growth and outreach.

In addition, while technology and digital finance offer a promising solution to some of the traditional physical and other access barriers to extending financial inclusion to all of India’s women, women face a stark “digital divide”. To date only 44% of women — compared to 75% of men — own an individual mobile phone, and the simple difference between owning a phone and being able to “borrow one” plays a significant role in women’s technological skills development and privacy in financial transactions.

Ensuring that first-time users learn that banking is an experience of convenience and trust, and recognising the diversity of needs of Indian women in accessing financial services are the only ways to continue the remarkable trajectory of financial inclusion for women. We must build on this success to extend the gains to other important financial services such as insurance and credit. In this same FII survey, only 15% of women reported having a financial plan for unexpected events. Inability to deal with these events can be devastating for women and their families.

Bindu Ananth is Chair of the IFMR Finance Foundation and Amy Jensen Mowl is its Financial Inclusion Specialist

Source: Hindustan Times, 1-10-2016

India cannot become the third largest economy by bypassing women workers

In a 2012 document on gender diversity in India’s workforce, Catalyst, a non-profit with a mission to expand opportunities for women and business, predicted that there will be a shortage of 750,000 skilled workers over the next five years. “Because of the projected annual GDP growth of 7 percent and this projected talent gap, it is essential for companies to engage a key component of economic growth— the skills and talents of women,” the report suggested. The news is far from positive: A survey by ProEves, a gender diversity consulting firm, reveals that woman participation in India Inc is fixed at less than 20% for the past three years. Compared to the US, India is at half the women participation across all employee groups. India ranks 127th on the gender inequality index and 108th on the global gender gap index.The reasons for such low participation of women in the workforce are well known: Discrepancy in policies and implementation (the survey shows that 61% of the companies have a stated goal on diversity but only a third have a number target and have no target association on inclusion for leaders), lack of flexible policies and the larger issues of child care support system, commuting, infrastructure, safety concerns, education and training. Data also suggests that women in India are largely employed in the informal, semi- or unskilled sector such as domestic work, where incomes are low and there are limited benefits or job security. According to the ILO, in 2011-12, while 62.8% of women were employed in the agriculture sector, only 20% were employed in industry and 17% in the services sectors.

A recent McKinsey report shows why it is important to bridge this gender gap: The country stands to gain as much as $2.9 trillion of additional annual GDP in 2050. Along with education, bringing more women into the workforce also has a critical spin-off benefit: It will address the problems of patriarchy, gender discrimination and violence.

If the country is to become the world’s third largest economy in 2030, it can’t afford to bypass its women from equal opportunity in the workforce. Here’s what can ensure this diversity: More effective measures such as greater investments in secondary and tertiary education, vocational and skills training, and developing and strengthening laws and policies to support working women.

Source: Hindustan Times, 2-10-2016

For Mother Divine

KIRAN DHAR





Dusk is falling, lamps are lit, the autumn air is cool and still.The bells are calling from afar.Join in Mother's adoration hour. I enter slowly, my heartbeat overtakes me. Will I see Her face to face? How shall I greet.... Dare I touch Her holy feet? The air is filled with incense smoke, the priest prostrates in reverent pose. The Mother in regal splendour stands enrobed in silks of red and gold. Glittering jewels and golden crown, from head to feet do Her adorn.Hibiscus, roses, marigold -in garlands fragrant, Her form enfold. Compassion fills Her lustrous eyes. Her coral lips are half-asmile. One hand is raised to grant us boons, the other dispels our deepest fears. Her beauty is beyond compare, with radiance of a thousand moons.The drums are beating rhythmic time, the cymbals sound a resonant chime. The bells are ringing loud and clear, conch shells sounding everywhere, scent of incense fills the air, devotees' voices raised in prayer, glory to the Mother evermore.Besides the Mother's shining form, a lovely maiden stands alone, gently turning with her hands a silken fan of rainbow hues. The priest begins the evening prayer, with sonorous chanting loud and clear. Then he takes the incense urn and all around the Mother turns.
O holy incense, fragrant smoke, your perfume does the Mother cloak. Next he takes the golden lamp, ablaze with myriad dancing flames, waves in circles round Her form, Around, around and all around, joy in every heart abounds. O holy lamp of brilliant light, blest you to be in Mother's sight.

Tackling sexual harassment at the workplace

In over a hundred towns across the seven states that we work, we run teacher learning centres (TLC). These are run-in rooms stocked neatly with books, educational kits and other material that is relevant for teachers. The rooms are clean and well-lit places, nice for groups of teachers to sit and chat. TLCS are run by our teams, in collaboration with local teachers, and that is what makes them work.

Locating a site for a TLC is not easy. Since TLC is often used after work hours, in the evening and on Sundays, its ease of access to the teachers (for example, being near the vegetable market) is an important factor. The room needs to be about 500 sq. ft, which is hard to find in small towns. There are other considerations for choosing a site. One of them is the treatment of women in such public spaces, including their safety.

This is not about the danger of possible assault, which also has to be always guarded against, but the pernicious lingering looks and presences, like a constant background threat of sexual harassment. Seemingly impossible to call out, but all too real to the woman. And always a slip away from overt sexual harassment. The streets and malls of Bengaluru and Delhi are no different in this regard.

With over 25% of our more than 1,200 employees being women, as are a large proportion of the teachers who come to TLCS, this is the most important consideration in the choice and operation of TLCS. Our attempt is to minimize the risk of this by the choice of location, for example, TLC must be in a busy area or a populated residential area, and it must not be away from the main street. Some operating methods also help, for example, a TLC team should have one man along with a woman. And if the woman is alone on any particular evening, she should lock up before dark.

Since a woman is known to be permanently located at TLC, it is a sort of focal point for this threat, needing extra care. However, women face these risks in our society everywhere. And so an attempt to minimize these risks influoften ences all our operating considerations, for example, how to travel, when to travel, where to travel, where to stay.

Unlike the background threat, it is quite clear how overt sexual harassment can be tackled. It has to be confronted head on, and the law enables this. Such overt sexual harassment within the organization can be dealt with swiftly and decisively, so long as there is genuine intent for, and not mere lip service to, the safety of women.

The same law enables actions in cases of sexual harassment across organizations. We have faced such situations a few times, and most of the time the other organization has responded. To the surprise of many of us, the swiftest response has often come from governments, when the perpetrator has been their employee.

While it’s never easy or simple to tackle, these situations of overt harassment are certainly clearer. And if the organization acts consistently, it helps with a more basic matter: It empowers and enables women to speak up.

Even in an organization like ours, where, by the very nature of the work, the women who join are gutsy and confident, it has taken sustained effort to develop a culture of speaking up, and we have to keep at it. Tolerance and silent suffering of sexual predation of all kinds is so deeply ingrained through our culture across the country, that women don’t even imagine that they can speak up; many of them are astonished when asked to do so. The culture of silence is pervasive.

In the worst cases, organizations are complicit in these culturally ingrained silences. But even organizations which have zero tolerance for such predatory behaviour fall short, unless they emphatically and actively support women to speak up.

So how can the background threat of sexual harassment be tackled? Let me just share what we have learnt from our experience and that of others, without suggesting that this is some kind of a formula. First, it is about best efforts to minimize the risk of this happening. Second, is to support women in recognizing it as something that must not be tolerated, and then to enable them to speak about it. Third, is to confront it head on if it happens.

This is much like what one would do in cases of overt sexual harassment. How to confront it head on is never clear, but it’s clear that it must be confronted. This approach may seem like overzealous paternalism to some, but the extent and perversity of this background threat is such that most women find it empowering and comforting.

The majority of men are not sexual predators, but a corrosive, significant minority are. While it is not the complete solution, they have to be confronted everywhere. And organizations have a central role to play.

Even organizations such as ours, which are driven by a social cause, are no different. We are not naturally cleansed of this malady within, nor does it make our external environment different. But some of us tend to live with an illusion of difference.

Anurag Behar is chief executive officer of the Azim Premji Foundation and leads sustainability initiatives for Wipro Ltd. He writes every fortnight on issues of ecology and education.

Source: Mintepaper, 29-09-2016

To revive an old friendship

The Russia-Pakistan joint exercises raise many questions. New Delhi has to rebuild ties on its strengths and common concerns with Moscow.

The Russian Embassy announced that their first-ever joint military exercises with Pakistan, that were initially to be held in the sensitive Gilgit-Baltistan area this week, would be shifted with due respect to Indian sensitivities. Why is India’s time-tested strategic partner engaging with Pakistan at this juncture? Is there a shift in Russian geostrategy and linkage with China that is impacting Moscow’s relations with India? Have India’s own foreign policy shifts and new relations set off a reaction in Russia? The Russia-Pakistan joint exercises raise many questions.

A Russia on the move

Under President Vladimir Putin, Russia has shown assertiveness in international affairs. It has taken a clear position on opposing Western intervention and militarist regime-change policies in Iraq and Libya and now in Syria. Russia has used counter-force in the fight against the Islamic State in backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. It retook the province of Crimea that it had gifted Ukraine in 1954 due to (Soviet) historical reasons. This invited unilateral sanctions on Russia from the U.S. and the European Union. Demonised by the West, Russia has become a strategic partner of China and they have significant convergence of interests.

India as an emerging power has developed a strategic partnership with the U.S. There are real and perceived shifts in Indian armament policies where Russia dominated for years. India has opened up to the U.S., France, Israel, all of whom are gradually edging out the Russians in some sectors. Russia-India trade has not grown to great heights despite the encouragement of both states. Yet India has been supportive of Russian positions and has a careful and calibrated response to all Russian actions — in Chechnya, Syria, Ukraine and elsewhere, India has supported Russia.

The Russians, on their part, have dutifully backed the Indian position on Kashmir; they share Indian concerns on terrorism; they continue with deep collaborations, providing sensitive technologies, military equipment, nuclear power engines and much more to India. They have a partnership in energy. Yet a Russia dependent on arms and energy exports is constantly looking for new markets and Pakistan is a potential one. The planned exercises were an extension of this search.

Moscow’s Chinese concerns

The reality is that the world situation is one of multipolarity and consequent interdependency, contradictions, compromises and pressures. Countries across the spectrum are building multiple alliances. There is scope for both linkages and dependency. So China, who we think the U.S. is trying to ‘contain’ (and India could get a role in this), has got its yuan accepted as world currency by the International Monetary Fund and the New York branch of Bank of China has been designated as the clearing house for the Chinese official currency, the renminbi. China is leveraging its economy and relationships to build a hegemony (G-2) with the U.S. where both can share international financial domination.

Russia is well aware of this, and has its own concerns about the Chinese dominating Russian markets, exploiting Russian resources, and not backing Russian security concerns. China is enticing countries, including Russia, with its One Belt, One Road plan that will develop huge new linkages and develop trade routes. Pakistan is a satellite state for China. Russia has concerns about Central Asia vis-à-vis China and Pakistan.

In these circumstances, India has to rebuild on its strengths and common concerns with the Russians. They have to revitalise their earlier agreement on sharing intelligence for a joint strategy on terrorism. If India is concerned with state-sponsored terrorism from Pakistan, Russia is concerned with the backing that states are directly or indirectly giving to terror groups in West Asia and Central Asia. India will have to be more forthright in condemning states that on the pretext of regime change or local geopolitics are allowing the growth of terror groups in West Asia.

Balancing new and old allies

Russia and India have common positions and concerns in Afghanistan. Last week the Afghans, in a peace deal backed and welcomed by the U.S. and Pakistan, rehabilitated the mujahideen “butcher of Kabul” and India hater Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. This snubs the Indian and Russian policy of isolating all terrorists and instead has accommodated and compromised with who they wish to label ‘good Taliban’. This policy is an extension of using terrorists for strategic use. Indian and Russian anxieties on terrorism need to converge and bring about some positive outcome.

India has its own military exercises with the U.S. and has signed logistics agreements which can eventually give the U.S. access to Indian naval bases. Is India willing to do the same with Russia? Given the growing U.S.-Russia hostility, has India reassured Russia that this access will not jeopardise Russian interests? If not, it should do so.

India needs to deepen its scientific and technological relations with Russia since a base for this already exists. Often agreements are signed amidst bilateral rhetoric and are not sufficiently followed up. The Russia-India investments in the oil and gas sector and exports to third countries need to be energised. Joint manufacturing needs to be planned. A continuous engagement and follow-up plan need to be made.

India and Russia are engaged in several multilateral efforts that are greatly favoured by Russia such as the BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. The BRICS meeting in a few weeks will give a great opportunity for the leaders of these countries to further deepen their engagements. Russia had proposed a Russia-India-China (RIC) forum. India is hesitant about this because of the unresolved issues with China. This has not moved ahead like the BRICS has. Our argument should be, if China can have compromises and contradictions with the U.S., then why not with India? India can use some creative means to build an RIC alliance.

India should use the interdependency and pressure-compromise strategies to leverage its interest to isolate Pakistan. A former U.S. Secretary of State had called Pakistan an international migraine, but then moved on to use it as the U.S. front line in Afghanistan and West Asia. No matter what India gives the U.S., this equation will not change. The U.S. will always have a dual approach to India and Pakistan, because it needs both. Russia, on the other hand, will not. But India has to actively ensure that and not take this strategic partnership for granted.

Leveraging multilateralism

India needs to move on in the international system. In some ways it has, but in other ways it is moving backwards. Its foreign policy is only an extension of its domestic politics. India has to fix its domestic issues to further social cohesion and make special efforts to build bridges between communities. India’s domestic politics has to move towards inclusive democracy, non-militarism, rights and the rule of law. This will give it an edge in the international system. Any dilution would damage it deeply. Indian foreign policy should focus on its strengths of working with the global South, opposing militarist interventions, building norms and depending on multilateralism. India cannot be in denial of its history even as it moves forward.

As far as Russia is concerned, it might appear that there is some strategic shift. But Russia has been pushed into that position. In reality, it knows that India is still its most reliable ally. It has no conflict of interest or anxiety about India as it does about others. India was instrumental in the construction of a multipolar international system. This system has benefitted India and Russia, not to speak of others like China. To retain this, India and Russia need to be active strategic and economic allies. But both will have to make an effort for this.

Anuradha M. Chenoy is a Professor at the Centre for Russian and Central Asian Studies, School of International Studies, JNU.

Keywords: India-Russia bilateral relations, Gilgit-Baltistan area, joint military exercise, Pakistan-Russia joint military exercise

Source_ The Hindu, 29-09-2016

It is time for a uniform asylum law

The debate surrounding Brahamdagh Bugti’s request for asylum in India has largely focussed on the foreign policy implications. Numerous legal issues deserve consideration.

India stands poised to make one of the most critical decisions with respect to its refugee policy, but without a domestic asylum law and without having signed the UN Refugee Convention of 1951. This has left India without a structured and institutionalised framework for addressing refugee inflows. At the same time, however, the country is known to have a broadly humanitarian approach to asylum, and is bound by both its own constitutional principles and customary international law. As the Home Ministry examines Baloch leader Brahamdagh Bugti’s asylum claim, the debate has so far largely centred on the foreign policy implications. There remain, however, numerous legal issues which demand serious consideration.

Unanswered questions

First, the manner in which the current asylum claim has been made raises the question of whether a person can apply for asylum in India from outside the country. International refugee law only states that a person needs to be outside his/her own country to seek asylum; it is silent on whether the person needs to be physically present in the territory of the country where s/he hopes to receive asylum or whether s/he can make such an application from a third country. This is a much debated issue in international law and countries have adopted varying policies in this regard. Having allowed Mr. Bugti to seek asylum from Switzerland, it is unclear whether India has made an exception in this case or is now open to asylum applications without physical presence within its national borders. This question needs to be settled.

Second, Mr. Bugti claimed in a recent interview that his asylum application to Switzerland was turned down on account of his party being put on a terror watch list by Pakistan. While this could be a politically motivated act by Pakistan, as per international refugee law, this does trigger the need for a prospective asylum country to examine whether Mr. Bugti has committed or been involved in activities referred to as crimes against humanity, war crimes, serious non-political crimes, and so on. A fundamental principle of international refugee law is to not grant asylum to such persons, as doing so would go against the humanitarian spirit of refugee protection. The civilian character of a refugee populace is paramount, and active combatants are excluded from the same. Therefore, Mr. Bugti’s activities as a Baloch leader need to be thoroughly examined.

Third, India’s approach towards the larger Baloch refugee community in the future is yet to be addressed. Does India intend to grant asylum to Mr. Bugti alone, or to other Baloch asylum-seekers as well, or on a case-by-case basis? Irrespective of the modality it chooses, the Indian state will have to invest in setting up both a policy mechanism as well as the physical infrastructure for management of this group.

Legal rights

Finally, if Mr. Bugti is granted asylum in India, what will his legal rights be? Since Indian law does not even mention the term ‘refugee’, there are no clearly defined rights and duties for refugees. In practice, there are multiple approaches towards the different refugee communities, so much so that there isn’t even a common form of documentation that is issued to them. The outcome of this is that they have widely disparate access to basic rights. For example, while Sri Lankans and Tibetans have government-issued IDs, the vast majority of Afghan and Burmese refugees have only the documentation given to them by the UN, which is not widely recognised. There is still no clarity in this regard, and the Baloch would be yet another group of refugees for whom a separate policy would have to be created.

The most pragmatic way to address these legal issues would be for India to adopt a uniform asylum law for all refugee communities. It would allow for the codification of India’s best practices with respect to asylum, which would, at the very least, eliminate the need to revisit its historical policies each time it faces a new question of refugee protection. A national asylum law would also reduce the need for parallel mechanisms, and put in place a structured system for asylum management in the future.

Roshni Shanker and Vasudha Reddy run the Ara Trust, a centre for refugee law and forced migration studies, based in New Delhi.

Keywords: uniform asylum law, refugee policy, Brahamdagh Bugti’s asylum claim

Source: The Hindu, 29-09-2016

God and Devotion

SADHGURU JAGGI VASUDEV





Nobody is `gifted'. You have to earn everything. Either you earn joyfully, or you earn miserably. That is all the choice there is. There are a variety of practices through which one earns. But the simplest way, the easiest way and also the most self-destructive way, is devotion.What is Grace, first of all? If you look at yourself as a machine -you have brains, body, everything. But what you call as `Grace' is the lubrication. Without lubrication you have a great engine but you get stuck at every point.Devotion would be the easiest way to become receptive to this Grace so that the process of life becomes graceful. The cunning mind, however, is unable to devote itself to anybody or anything. You can sing songs of devotion, but you have your own calculation: What has God done for me? Calculating minds cannot be devout.Trying to be devout will be just a waste of time, and life.
A devotee is not somebody's devotee. Devotion is a quality. Devotion means a certain single-pointedness -you are constantly focused towards one thing. To such a person, Grace will happen naturally and he becomes receptive. What or whom you are devoted to is not the issue. What you need to know is, God does not exist. But where there is a devotee, God exists.
So the power of devotion is such that it can create the Creator.