Women and Development

Feminist Criticism of Development Indices and WID- WAD- GAD

Dr. Vibhuti Patel, DIRECTOR, P.G.S. R.
Professor and Head, Post Graduate Department of Economics,
SNDT Women’s University,
Smt. Nathibai Thakersey Road, Churchgate, Mumbai-400020
TelL91) (22) 22031879, Ext.243, Mobile-9321040048
E mail: vibhuti.np@gmail.com

(Presented at Refresher Course in Women's Studies from the 5th to the 29th of September
2007 organised by Centre for women’s Studies at Academic Staff College, University of
Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram.)

“Women constitute ½ of world’s population, do 2/3rd of world’s work,

Get 1/10th of world’s income and own 1/100th of world’s wealth.”
The United Nations, 2006.

Conventional indicators of development such as modernization, technological development,

Mechanization, automation, urbanization, industrialization are critiqued by women’s studies as
they have bypassed and marginalized women as the above mentioned data reveals. They have
provided three approaches to understand women’s role in the micro-meso and macro economy.
There has been a coexistence of three approaches for women's development.
WID- Women in Development model explains the reasons for women being treated as
beneficiaries of the crumbs thrown at them, in the margin of the economy, consumer and an
auxiliary labour force to be utilised in the crisis period and eased out the moment men are ready
for take over. The discourse revolved around the economic growth paradigm.
WAD- Women and Development model integrates women in the development work as active
change agents. Affirmative action by the state and pro-active approach by the civil society
through NGOs and women's groups are advocated by these models for empowerment of women
against the forces of patriarchal class society. NGOs-voluntary organisations implementing this
approach have become powerful force during 1990s.
GAD - Gender and Development model is based on an understanding of gender relations and
empowers the weak (he or she). Gender is socially constructed and gender relations are power
relations. Here power is an important analytical category. Explicit measures of gender
inequalities are sex-ratio, literacy rates, health and nutrition indicators, wage differentials,
ownership of land and property. "The implicit relations are those embedded in relations of power
and in hierarchies and are more difficult to measure. Located in the household, in custom,
religion, and culture, these intra-household inequalities result in unequal distribution of power,
control over resources and decision-making, dependence rather than self-reliance and unfair,
unequal distribution of work, drudgery and even food."(Asha Kapur Mehta) Super women who
are able to look after the interests of each and every stake group are survivors in this model. In

1
the Indian context, gender relations are determined by the complex interplay of power relations
based on class, caste, ethnicity and religion.
Visibility of women in statistics and data system- For effective execution of macro policies
such as National Perspective Plan for Women, State Women's Policy, we need an accurate sex
disaggregated data-base, area studies and time allocation studies, studies on energy expenditure
and food consumption patterns among women of different communities, public utility services
such as safe transport, public urinals, women's room in the office. Gender economists have done
pioneering work to understand demographic profile of women and sex-ratio. Formulation of
gender aware data system on literacy, education level, employment and earnings, health and
well-being helps proper planning and policy making for empowerment of women. Inter -district,
Inter-state and Cross country comparisons of women's empowerment are obtained from Gender
related Development Index(GDI). GDI owes its origin to its precursor, the HDI (Human
Development Index), three main components of which are per capita income, educational
attainment and life-expectancy which is a proxy for health attainment. .Gender disparities are
measured keeping these three indicators into consideration. "An additional measure, gender
empowerment measure(GEM) has been formulated to take into account aspects relating to
economic participation and decision-making by women. The indicators used in GEM are share in
income, share in parliamentary seats and an index that includes share in administrative and
managerial jobs and share in professional and technical posts." (K. Seeta Prabhu, P.C. Sarkar and
A. Radha. This exercise is done with a philosophical understanding that without engendering,
human development is endangered. (UNDP, 1995)

Neoclassical versus Institutional Approach

Neoclassical approach of consumer’s rationality (Maximisation of utility) and producers’
rationality (Maximisation of profit) has come under massive attack from the women’s studies
scholars as they find it ahistorical, simplistic and gender –neutral. Its philosophy of Laissez Faire
does not acknowledge the unequal power relations determined by colonialism, neo-colonialism
and segmentation in the labour, factor and product markets based on caste, class, ethnicity, race,
religion, age and gender. As against this; institutional approach is found more realistic and hence
appropriate as takes into consideration historical, socio-cultural, geographical and political
dynamics in economic analysis.

Development Debate-Human Development Approach

Current development debate has resulted into generation of Meaningful Indicators of Women
and Development Comparative data of 130 countries regarding gender-related development
index (GDI) reveals that gender-equality does not depend entirely on the income level of society.
The human development approach which focuses on demographic, health, educational and
human rights profiles have revealed that there is an urgent need to reexamine this approach by
conducting participatory action research and rapid rural appraisal not by social scientists alone,
but in collaboration with other professionals such as scientists, doctors- occupational health and
safety experts, engineers and lawyers who believe that like them, citizens from subsistence sector
also have right to enjoy fruits of modern science and technology in terms of food security, safe
transport, clean environment, secure housing and healthy life. India ranks 103rd in GDI and 104th
in the HDI as, the Indian women enjoy nearly 1/5th of the total earned income, life expectancy of
60.4 years and 35.2 % adult literacy rate and combined primary, secondary and tertiary Gross
enrollment ratio (GER) of 45.8. While their male counterparts enjoy 4/5th of the earned income,

2
life expectancy of 60.3 years, 63.7 % adult literacy rate and combined primary, secondary and
tertiary GER of 63.8. HDI for India is 0. 398 and GDI for India is 0.401. There is a gender gap of
0.003. (Human Development Report, UNDP, OUP, Bombay, 1995, p.33.) As compared to their
male counterparts women in India have higher life expectancy because women from the middle
and upper classes live in a secure environment, produce one or two children and control food
(kitchen) of the household.

Economic Basis and Functioning of Patriarchy and Matrilineal societies, structures and
systems
Patriachy thrives on control of women’s sexuality, fertility and labour for male hegemony over
economic resources. Analytical tools provided by Gender Economics (GE) are extremely useful
to deal with the socio-economic and legal issues concerning marriage, divorce, custody of
children, guardianship rights, alimony, maintenance, property rights of mother, sister, daughter,
legally wedded wives and her child/ children, co-wives and their children, keeps and their
children and the issues concerning adoption. GE has a special significance in the subsistence
economy, which uses the kinship networks, institutions of polygamy and polyandry for
concentration and centralisation of wealth and capital by either the patriarchs or the matriarchs.
Domestic animals, women and children are the main assets in the subsistence sector where
collection of fuel, fodder, water are important components of daily life over and above agrarian
chores, live-stock rearing and kitchen gardening.
GE has drawn heavily from all mainstream disciplines and innumerable social movements of the
last three decades. GE provides insights to examine budgets of Government Organisations (GOs)
and Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) from the point of view of gender justice. Priority
areas being women's education, health and nutrition, skill development, accounts, financial and
commercial viability, legal standing, asset and corpus building. GE contextualises day to day
survival struggles of women in the family, in the households, in the community and in the micro,
meso and macro economy with the perspective of power relations which control women and girl
children's sexuality, fertility and labour.
To explain this concept, I would like to give some examples from popular culture:
Control of women's sexuality
A) Dress code which, restricts mobility of women and girls, does not allow her to do those
chores which require flexible body movements, reduces her efficiency and employability
in non-conventional occupations.
B) "Tool" as a phallic symbol, not being allowed to be used by menstruating women as it is
supposed to have contaminating influence. Hostility towards women who ride bicycles,
drive cars and scooters, operate machines and use ploughs for farming, wheels for
pottery, saw for carpentry.
C) Women being treated as repository of custom and tradition and cultural practices, dedicated
as devdasis, jogtis and forced to undergo series of masochistic fasting, scarification and
self infliction of pain which make them unemployable and perpetually dependant on the
patriarchs. They enjoy only subversive power of a comfort woman that too, is mediated
by men, as they don't have any legal rights. In the commercial context, the same happens

3
 to women beneficiary of Maitri-Karar (friendship contract) and Seva-karar (Service
contract).
D) Need for male escorts, bodyguards for dainty, sickly and weak women who see their
identity as anorexic women. Billion-dollar beauty business thrives by controlling young
women so that they are incapable of using their body for manual chores. Here, women's
insecurity about their looks is used by the cosmetic industry.
E) Women eating last, the least and the left over. Nourishing and balanced diet as a male
prerogative. Daughters and brides kept on starvation diet. Food secures middle-aged
women as honorary men.
Inference of A, B, C, D and E - Declining sex ratio – As per 2001 census (933 women per 1000
men), high mortality and morbidity rates.
Control of women's fertility:
A) Women being treated as male-child producing machine. Customary practices of female
infanticide and neglect and abandonment of girl child, scientific techniques of sex
determination tests used for female foeticide, pre-conception elimination of female
embryo with the help of sex-preselection techniques.
B) Population policies targeting women for unsafe contraceptives and harmful hormone based
contraceptive researches, which violate bodily integrity and dignity of married and
unmarried girls and women.
C) Laws on prostitution penalising and persecuting women victims of sexploitation running a
parallel economy of as much as 200 billion rupees.
D) Social boycott of unwed mothers. Illegitimate children being stigmatised by society and
deprived of economic, social and educational opportunities. They are further
marginalised in the economy, which is undergoing massive structural adjustments and
instability. Facilities like identity card, ration card and other legal documents which are a
must for citizenship rights are not provided to them.
Inference of A, B, C and D, can be named as brothel model of economic development which
thrives on unpaid and invisiblised labour of women. It perpetuates the vicious circle of Child
marriage, child prostitution and child labour (CP, CM and CL). Super-exploitation of female
headed household and domestic workers get sanctity in this model. Women have to shoulder this
added burden along with the burden of the vicious circle of poverty, over-population and
unemployment.
3 Control of women's labour:
A) Use of women in the economy for the occupations which, are extensions of housework, i.e.
3 Cs (cooking, cleaning and caring). Only 6 % of women are in the organised sector
which guarantees protection of labour legislation and ERA (Equal Remuneration Act).
94% of women are in the informal sector which does not guarantee job-security, regular
income and personal safety.
B) Demonisation of highly qualified, efficiency plus and career women. Witch hunting of
intellectually independent and verbally articulate women workers, employees, technicians
and decision-makers.

4
C) Sexual harassment as an occupational hazard to crush the confidence of women and to keep
them in the state of perpetual terrorisation, humiliation and intimidation.
Inference of A, B and C, can be limited opportunities for women and ghettoisation of women in
non-challenging, routinised and low-status jobs known as "women prone industries" in the
official discourse. Most of the economic activities done by majority of women are non-marketed
and non-monetised and reward for labour does not reflect the value of their labour.. In such a
situation to gauge economic worth of their work Time Use studies are the most effective tools to
identify their opportunity costs.
Gender Based Division of labour has existed in all societies for thousands of years. In India, it
is based on the ideology of male dominance, caste and social norms of ‘purity and pollution’. It
is also based upon the notion that women are physically weaker than men and are not suited for
physically arduous tasks. Women’s biological tasks of monthly menstruation and pregnancy,
confined them to subsistence economy such as lowly paid agricultural work, handicrafts and also
household work.

Gender and the Process of Economic Development.

The incorporation of subsistence economies into ‘modern’ market economies has
brought into question the traditional gender-based division of labour as an organizing principle in
the rural and urban sector because of the basic injustice it perpetuates. Women end up doing the
least skilled work and are underpaid or are expected to contribute to survival needs of the family
without any corresponding benefits. Esther Boserup in her pioneering work brought to fore
African women’s crucial contribution towards food security and explained the political economy
of polygamy in Africa that allowed men to concentrate and centralize economic resources thro’
unpaid and backbreaking labour of women and children in the subsistence economy that did not
have much animal resources for cultivation of land.
Market, Mobility and Women
Globalisation induced mobility of women has posed new problems for women in the labour
market. Hence, efforts at empowerment of women by 550 feminist economists who are
functioning in 31 countries under the banner of International Association of Feminist Economics
to provide DAWN (Development Alternatives with Women) gain tremendous importance in the
contemporary context. According to them, the most pressing issues are as follows:
a. Economic Profile of special needs population- Female headed households (Divorced,
deserted, widowed, separated women), home based workers, women workers in the
family enterprise, self-employed women, and women entrepreneurs.
b. Analysis of nature of occupational diversification among women, industrial classification-
Implications of office automation, computerisation, flexi-time, job-sharing, tele working,
and part time work.
c. Effects of structural adjustment on Market segmentation- segmented factor market
affects self-employed women directly when they want to buy raw material and other
services. Segmented labour-market has direct bearing on the daily grind of women
workers in the informal sector. Segmented product market makes unorganised women
workers and women's collectives without networking insecure and vulnerable as sellers.

5
d. Economic basis of customary laws and the family laws: When the customary laws get
codified, we must be vigilant about the fact that women's interests are not sacrificed.
Women’s land rights and property rights need special mention at the time of codification
of personal laws. Except for Andhra Pradesh and the North Eastern states, women have
lost their customary land rights due to Land Reform Act.
e. In mega development projects, which displace the native population, care must be taken to
see to it that women get equal share in monetary compensation, land-rights and right to
shelter. The same applies to the social and natural disaster management programmes.
f. Political Economy of GET RICH QUICK formula in the name of dowry, sati (widow
burning), Bhootali (witch hunting) for land grab, house-grab or to deprive women of their
legitimate property rights should be examined with a consideration for avoiding violence
against women.
g. Women's Empowerment by Men Decision Makers-In a situation where women's agency
is virtually non-existent, the benevolent patriarch wedded to the cause of Women's
empowerment become project coordinators. Guidelines for Utilisation of Constituency
Development Funds of Members of Parliament and Members of Legislative Assembly and
Area Development Fund of corporators for women's education, employment, training,
capacity building are drawn by Gender economists.
Gender Bias in Theories of Value, Distribution and Population has been a major bone of
contention. Neoclassical analysis based on law of marginal utility in consumer analysis, marginal
cost in the product pricing and marginal productivity have come under severe scrutiny. In the
area of home economics, Nobel Laureate Gary Backer’s model of ‘competing interests’ in
distribution of resources in the households and higher ‘opprtunity cost’ of men as ‘bread-earner’
and women as ‘home-maker’ is criticized by women’s studies scholars as sexist and statusquo-
ist. Amartya Kumar Sen and Martha Nassbaum have put forward a concept of ‘cooperative
conflict’ in the theory of distribution. Feminist Reading of Economic Laws: Marginal
Productivity Theory and Laws of Maximisation form basic tenets of Gender Economics. The
feminists economists also believe in engendering micro and macro economics.

Gender mainstreaming

Gender mainstreaming is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. The calls for increased
gender mainstreaming are not only for increased gender balance within the institutions but for
increased attention to gender perspectives and the goal of gender equality in their work. Gender
mainstreaming does not entail developing separate women’s projects within work programmes,
or even women’s components within existing activities in the work programmes. It requires that
attention is given to gender perspectives as an integral part of all activities across all
programmes. This involves making gender perspectives – what women and men do and the
resources and decision-making processes they have access to – more central to all policy
development, research, advocacy, development, implementation and monitoring of norms and
standards, and planning, implementation and monitoring of projects.

It is important to see the linkages between gender mainstreaming in the substantive work of the
state and social movements and the promotion of equal opportunities and gender balance.
Organizational culture and organizational values are important in terms of creating work

6
environments which are conducive to gender mainstreaming. Gender mainstreaming is easiest to
implement in organizational environments which support approaches such as multi-disciplinary
focuses, teamwork, creative thinking, flexibility and risk-taking.

Gender mainstreaming strategy does not mean that targeted activities to support women are no
longer necessary. Such activities specifically target women´s priorities and needs, through, for
example, legislation, policy development, research and projects/programmes on the ground.
Women-specific projects continue to play an important role in promoting gender equality. They
are still needed because gender equality has not yet been attained and gender mainstreaming
processes are not well developed. Targeted initiatives focusing specifically on women or the
promotion of gender equality are important for reducing existing disparities, serving as a catalyst
for promotion of gender equality and creating a constituency for changing the mainstream.
Women-specific initiatives can create an empowering space for women and act as an important
incubator for ideas and strategies than can be transferred to mainstream interventions. Initiatives
focused on men support promotion of gender equality by developing male allies. It is crucial to
understand that these two strategies - gender mainstreaming and women´s empowerment - are in
no way in competition with each other. The endorsement of gender mainstreaming within an
organization does not imply that targeted activities are no longer needed. The two strategies are
complementary in a very real sense as gender mainstreaming must be carried out in a manner
which is empowering for women.
Gender Analysis is the collection and analysis of sex-disaggregated information. Men and
women both perform different roles. This leads to women and men having different experience,
knowledge, talents and needs. Gender analysis explores these differences so policies,
programmes and projects can identify and meet the different needs of men and women. Gender
analysis also facilitates the strategic use of distinct knowledge and skills possessed by women
and men.

Origin of the gender mainstreaming strategy

In efforts to promote the advancement of women and gender equality over the past few decades
the approaches or strategies adopted have changed significantly. Initial efforts were focused on
separate targeted activities for women. While many of these efforts produced positive results,
particularly for the limited numbers of women who could benefit directly, this approach did not
tackle the structural constraints to gender equality. Efforts in the 1970s shifted instead to
integrating attention to women into all activities rather than keeping women on the sidelines of
development. However the gains made through the integration strategy were limited by the fact
that most efforts were undertaken too late in processes when all important decisions on goals,
strategies and resources had already been taken. Equally constraining was the fact that
integration was often taken to mean only increasing women’s participation in development
agendas already decided upon by others without taking their contributions, knowledge, priorities
and needs into consideration-add gender and stir. The potential for bringing about the types of
structural changes required for achieving gender equality was therefore reduced.

In the 1980s a new approach evolved, the mainstreaming strategy, which aimed to make the goal
of gender equality central to all development activities. The term mainstreaming came from the
objective to bring attention to gender equality into the mainstream of development activities. An

7
important element in the mainstreaming strategy is the ambition to give attention to gender
equality from initial stages of processes so that there is potential to influence goals, strategies and
resource allocations and thus bring about real changes in policies, programmes and other
activities and make a real difference to gender equality.

The ECOSOC Agreed Conclusions 1997/2 provided a clear definition of the mainstreaming
strategy as: “…the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned
action, including legislation, policies or programmes, in all areas and at all levels. It is a
strategy for making women’s as well as men’s concerns and experiences an integral dimension
of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all
political, economic and societal spheres so that women and men benefit equally and inequality is
not perpetuated. The ultimate goal is to achieve gender equality.”

The mainstreaming strategy is utilized in areas where the principal objective is not promotion of
gender equality but promotion of other goals, such as, poverty elimination, environmentally
sustainable development, health development, peace support operations or economic
development. Mainstreaming involves taking up gender equality perspectives as relevant in
analysis, data collection, and other activities, to ensure that all processes take into account the
contributions, priorities and needs of the entire stakeholder group, women as well as men.
Attention to the goal of gender equality needs to be mainstreamed into research, analysis, policy
development as well as operational activities.

The Platform for Action (Beijing Conference, 1995) made it very clear that gender analysis is
the first essential step in the mainstreaming strategy. Before any decisions are taken in any area
of societal development an analysis should be made of the current responsibilities and
contributions of both women and men and the potential impact of planned processes and
activities on women and men respectively.

Mainstreaming does not replace the need for targeted, women-specific policies and programmes,
and positive legislation. Mainstreaming and empowerment of women are complementary
strategies. The mainstreaming strategy should always be implemented in a manner which
facilitates empowerment of women.

The mandate for gender mainstreaming

The mandate on the mainstreaming strategy comes from the Platform for Action (Beijing, 1995)
where mainstreaming was established as the main global strategy for promoting gender equality,
required in all the critical areas of concern. The ECOSOC Agreed Conclusions 1997/2 also
established some basic overall principles of mainstreaming. Initial definitions of issues/problems
across all areas of activity should be done in such a manner that gender differences and
disparities can be diagnosed. Assumptions that issues/problems are neutral from a gender
perspective should never be made; gender analysis should always be carried out. Efforts should
be made to broaden women’s equitable participation at all levels of decision-making and in all
areas of societal development.
Agency for gender mainstreaming

8
Overall responsibility for implementing the mainstreaming strategy should rest at the highest
levels within Governments and other organizations, including in the United Nations
system. Management levels should develop adequate accountability mechanisms for
monitoring progress with mainstreaming. One means of ensuring accountability is to
establish clear indicators of progress which can be monitored over time by management.

Although the mainstreaming strategy requires a shift of responsibility for promoting gender
equality from specialists to all personnel, especially management levels, this does not imply that
gender specialists are no longer required. The need for specialist support can be increased with
the implementation of the mainstreaming strategy, particularly during initial periods. Gender
specialists should, however, have new roles – catalysing, advising and supporting the efforts of
others rather than doing mainstreaming themselves. Effective roles for gender specialists requires
adequate allocation of resources, clear mandates and strategic location within organizations.
Specialists require the strong support of, and direct access to, senior management levels.

Process of Gender Mainstreaming

The first step required is an assessment of the linkages between gender equality and the issue or
sector being worked on, that is, to identify the gender implications of working on, for example,
environment, poverty elimination, health development, and all other areas of development. This
involves understanding why promotion of gender equality is important for securing human rights
/ social justice for both women and men, as well as for achievement of development goals.
Secondly the opportunities for introducing gender perspectives need to be identified in the work
tasks undertaken. These opportunities or entry-points can be found in research and analysis,
policy development, use of statistics, training events and workshops/conferences, as well as in
planning and implementing projects and programmes. Thirdly an approach or methodology has
to be identified for successfully incorporating gender perspectives into these work tasks in a
manner which facilitates influencing goals, strategies, resource allocation and outcomes. This
could include, for example, giving attention to gender perspectives and the goal of gender
equality in terms or reference and job descriptions. Institutional development, in terms of
developing guidelines, utilizing gender specialists, providing competence development for all
personnel, etc., is also required to support gender mainstreaming.

When we do gender mainstreaming, we do not see women as beneficiaries of the crumbs thrown
at them by the system but we perceive women as active participants in the development process
and as citizens. For healthy governance,
“We need a vision of mankind not as patients whose interests have to be looked after, but
as agents who can do effective things- both individually and jointly. We also have to go
beyond the role of human beings specifically as ‘consumers’ or as ‘people with need’,
and consider, more broadly, their general role as agents of change who can- given
opportunity- think, assess, evaluate, resolve, inspire, agitate, and through these means,
reshape the world.”1

1
Sen, Amartya Kumar (2000) Key note Address on ‘Transition to Sustainability in the 21st Century’ at the Inter-
Academy Panel called Sustainability and Freedom on International Issues, Tokyo, Mat, 15.

9
Prerequisite for gender mainstreaming is gender audit. Gender audits as an input to engender
governance must be made an integral part of all development efforts by the state and civil society
initiatives. In this section, the effort is made to give an overview of the policies and programmes
that have deconstructed and reconstructed gender relations in our country in the post-
independence period.
Gender audit of macro policies, to show how international economics impacts the local
processes of empowerment of women, has been a major concern of feminist economists. Gender
audits of economic reforms, globalisation and structural adjustment programmes, the Five Year
Plans have been done by women’s studies scholars to identify conceptual and operational biases
in the approach, design and implications.
Gender audits of mega developmental schemes and programmes have been extremely useful
to seal the leakages that dis-empower women and bring to the fore women’s component in terms
of employment, educational opportunities, skill development, entitlement and assets ownership.
Gender audits of statistics and indicators visiblise women’s contributions & stakes and
provide a realistic picture for allocation of resources for women specific projects and gender-
neutral projects.
Gender audits of documents of state and central governments such as Towards Equality
(1974), Shram Shakti Report (1988), National Perspective Plan for Women (1988-2000), State
Policies for Women, Women Empowerment Policy, 2001, Amendments in the Panchayati Raj
Institutions act to grant 33% reservation of seats for women, II National Commission of Labour
(2002) and human Development Reports have sensitised the administrators, politicians and social
movements to women’s needs, aspirations and demands.
Gender audits of housing policy, water policy, energy and environment policy, population
policy, National Health policy, Mental Health Policy, disaster management policy, policy for
financial assistance and foreign policy have helped to evolve safety nets for women’s survival
and subsistence.
Gender audit of budgets provides policy framework, methodology and set of tools to assist
governments to integrate a gender perspective into the budget as the main national plan of public
expenditure. It also aims to facilitate attention to gender analysis in review of macroeconomic
performance, ministerial budget preparations, parliamentary debate, and mainstream media
coverage.
8.2 Gender Planning Techniques

Identification of Strategic and practical gender needs is very important for successful gender
planning.

Strategic gender needs Strategic Gender Needs are different in different economic contexts and
are determined by statutory provisions, affirmative action by the state, pro-active role of the
employers to enhance women’s position in the economy and social movements.
Practical gender needs Practical Gender Needs are identified keeping into consideration, gender
based division of labour or women’s subordinate position in the economy. They are a response to
immediate perceived necessity, identified within a specific context. They are practical in nature

10
and often are concerned with inadequacies in living conditions such as provision of fuel, water,
healthcare and employment.
Techniques of rapid appraisal of the situation thro’ gender lens, participatory action research,
focus group discussions and pilot studies, surveys can be useful techniques for gender planning.

Gender Audit of the Five Year Plans of the GoI has been done by women’s studies scholars to
identify conceptual and operational biases in the approach, design and implications.
It is important to understand historical evolution of gender-concerns in the planning process in
the independent India.

The First Five Year Plan (1951-1956) set up Central Social Welfare Board in 1953 to promote
welfare work through voluntary organisations, charitable trusts and philanthropic agencies. India
was the first country to introduce family planning programmes during the first five-year plan.
Jawaharlal Nehru, the then prime minister of India who had only one daughter was a role model
and men were encouraged to take lead in birth control practices.

The Second Five Year Plan (1956-1960) supported development of Mahila mandals for grass
roots work among women. It also introduced barrier methods of contraception for both women
and men.

The Third, Fourth and Interim Plans (1961-74) made provision for women’s education, pre-
natal and child health services, supplementary feeding for children, nursing and expectant
mothers. In this plan, women’s health needs were merged with their children’s needs. Invasive
methods of contraception and reversible (IUDs) and irreversible (sterilization for men and
women) methods were promoted.

The Fifth Plan (1974-1978) marked a major shift in the approach towards women, from welfare
to development. It acknowledged the fact of marginalisation of women from the economy and
also accepted the need for special employment generation programmes for women in the poverty
groups. In terms of population policy, this period proved to be disastrous because forcible
vasectomy of men during emergency rule of 18 months generated permanent erosion of faith in
the top down and bureaucratically managed population policy.

The Sixth Plan (1980-85) accepted women’s development as a separate economic agenda. It
allotted a separate chapter to focus on women’s concerns in the economic development. The
Multidisciplinary approach with three- pronged thrust on health, education and employment. It
introduced family welfare policy that targeted women for birth control. Promotion of male
methods of contraception was found politically harmful by the ruling party. It also netted unpaid
family work of women that augmented family resources due to women’s efforts of collection of
fuel, fodder, water, kitchen gardening, live stock rearing and work in the household enterprise.

The Seventh Plan (1985-1990) declared as its OBJECTIVE TO BRING WOMEN INTO THE
MAINSTREAM OF NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. On the front of population control, clinical
trials of long acting and hormone based oral and injectable contraceptives were targeted to
women from the marginalized communities.

11
The Eighth Plan (1992-1997) projected paradigm shift, from development to empowerment and
promised to ensure flow of benefits to women in the core sectors of education, health and
employment. Outlay for women rose from 4 crores in the 1st Plan to Rs. 2000 crores in the 8th
Plan. Anti-pregnancy vaccines, E-P combinations, Depo-provera, Net-O-en were introduced with
blessing of USAID and WHO in the form of ‘Cafeteria Approach’ o birth control.

The Ninth Plan (1997-2002) stated that Empowerment of women was its strategic objective.
It accepted the concept of Women’s Component Plan to assure at least 30% of funds/benefits
from all development sectors flow to women. It suggested four times of schemes and
programmes that impacted women directly (1 & 2) and indirectly (3 & 4).

1.Women specific schemes where 100 % of the allocation is required to be spent on women.
2.Pro-women schemes where at least 30% of allocation and benefits flow to women.
3.Gender-neutral schemes meant for the benefit of community as a whole where both men and
women avail these benefits.
4.The residual state specific programmes having profound effect on women’s position/
condition.
Gender audit of the budget during the 9th Plan period has revealed that the budgetary allocation
for women specific schemes has increased only in the area of family planning. The family
planning schemes got additional 700 crores in the budget. 2

The Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-2009) has suggested specific Strategies, policies and
programmes for Empowerment of women. They are as follows:

• Measurement of development has to go beyond achievement of GDP growth to indicators

of distributive justice and their monitoring.
• Women headed households have to be specifically targeted, identifying added
disadvantages in the rural and urban locations with reference to different parameters of
deprivation.
• Formulation of Gender Development Indicators to measure Human Development and
their use as a tool for monitoring development needs to be hastened.
• The Component Plan approach, which did not address compartmentalisation of
government functioning should be replaced with a mandated approach of convergence of
services at all levels of governance, through inter-sectoral committees of all
Ministries/Departments at the Centre and the States with specific responsibility given to
the Panchayats and Municipalities to administer at the grassroots level.”

The United Nations India had suggested that, “To protect the gains of the past and ensure steady
progress on indicators of social development and gender equality, and in order to give a fresh
impetus to the process of women's empowerment, the Tenth Plan needs to take some bold policy
initiatives.

2
See Chapter 5 “Budgetary Policies- A Gender Analysis” in Vibhuti Patel Women’s Challenges
in the New Millennium, Gyan Publications, New Delhi, 2002. Also, Vibhuti Patel “ Gender
Budget- A Case study of India”, Centre for Advanced Study in Economics, University of
Mumbai, Working Paper UDE (CAS) 7(7)/2003.

12
 • Earmarking of funds for women under all major poverty alleviation programmes and
maintenance of gender disaggregated records of implementation of all poverty alleviation
programmes.
• Mandatory registration of all assets provided under government programmes (land,
house, animals, production units) in the joint names of husband and wife.
• Intensified focus on rights education and capacity-building interventions for women in all
strategic sectors, including health and reproductive health, agriculture, natural resource
management, technology (including information technology) and legal awareness.
• Revision of regulatory framework to allow women's collectives to access institutional
credit, obtain medium-term leases for cultivation on wastelands and common lands, bid
for contracts for collection and sale of minor forest produce and other collective activities
that will ensure household food security while regenerating the natural resource base.”

Women’s groups have demanded allocations for women-specific programmes of strategic nature
to arrive at the desired goals in a shorter time span. They should target women of different age
groups in terms of strategic interventions to take specific notice of adolescent girls, older women
and women in difficult circumstances. Strategic gender tools like gender audits, gender impact
assessments, gender analysis and gender budgeting to monitor implementation and impacts must
be developed. Gender audit of plans, policies and programmes of various Ministries with pro-
women allocations has to be a part and parcel of the monitoring process.

There is a need for provisions in the composite programmes under education, health and rural
development sectors to target them specifically at girls/women as the principal beneficiaries and
disaggregated within the total allocation. It may also be necessary to place restrictions on their
re-appropriation for other purposes.

To effectively attain population stabilisation policies and plans need to empower women,
promote their reproductive rights and involve men in reproductive decision-making and
household responsibilities. Particular attention should be given to improve women’s access to
quality reproductive health services, including adolescent girls to counseling on reproductive
health and sexuality issues.

The strategy of organising women in self-help groups in the Ninth Plan period has paid good
dividends for expanding micro-credit. This should be extended not only for reaching larger
numbers of women but also for increasing awareness of and access to social development, apart
from encouraging a process of convergence in the delivery of services in a decentralised set up.

It is important to empower women's organisations and citizens groups to monitor enforcement of

equal and minimum wages legislation by State governments, and the adherence to norms in
poverty alleviation programmes.

Professional Organisations including Universities should be included for undertaking

monitoring, evaluation and research studies for identifying issues requiring special attention.

13
The five Year Plans in the pre-1975 treated women as supplementary earners, while in the post
1975 period women have been treated as active economic agents.
Gender Audit of Macro Policies as the macro-economic policies impact women’s living
standards and their prospects for economic empowerment.
In 1991, at the behest of World Bank and International Monitory Fund, India adopted NEP that
has intensified the processes pursued in the last decade and a half (mainly in the post-emergency
period), as a result of a new international division of labour between the advanced capitalist
economies and the post-colonial economies of Asia, Africa and Latin America. In the late 1970s,
transnational and multinational corporations in the USA and Europe realized that the best way to
reduce the wage-bill and to enhance the rates of profit, was to move industrial plants to poorer
countries like India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, etc. The cheap labour of 'docile', 'nimble fingered'
and 'flexible' Asian women was found to be most attractive step to enhance profit margins. This
policy was given the appealing title of 'Integration of Women in Development.' In 1993,
systematic critique of this policy was made by IAWS and women economists prevailed upon the
architect of NEP, Prof. Man Mohan Singh to make a provision of safety net for women and
children.3
Gender Audit of Budgets
Budgets garner resources through the taxation policies and allocate resources to different
sections of the economy. The Budget is an important tool in the hands of state for affirmative
action for improvement of gender relations through reduction of gender gap in the development
process. It can help to reduce economic inequalities, between men and women as well as
between the rich and the poor (NCAS, 2003). Hence, the budgetary policies need to keep into
considerations the gender dynamics operating in the economy and in the civil society. There is a
need to highlight participatory approaches to pro-poor budgeting, bottom up budget, child
budget, SC budget, ST budget, green budgeting, local and global implications of pro-poor and
pro-women budgeting, alternative macro scenarios emerging out of alternative budgets and inter-
linkages between gender-sensitive budgeting and women’s empowerment. Serious examining of
budgets calls for greater transparency at the level of international economics to local processes of
empowerment. There is a need to provide training and capacity building workshops for decision-
makers in the government structures, gram sabhas, parliamentarians and audio-visual media.
Due to consistent lobbying by the gender economists and women’s groups, for the first time, in
2005, the Ministry of Finance gave a mandate to all ministries to establish a Gender Budgeting
Cell by January, 2005 and 18 ministries and departments were asked to submit annual reports
and performance budgets highlighting budgetary allocations for women. These budgets were
expected to be placed before the parliament along with detailed demand for grants for 2005-06.
(The Indian Express, Mumbai, 12-1-2005). The first Gender Budgeting Statement (GBS) in the
Union Budget 2005-06 included 10 demands of grants. In 2006-07, the GBS got expanded to 24
demands for grants under 18 ministries/ departments of the Union government and 5 Union
Territories. At present, 56 ministries and departments have set up gender budget cells. (Budget
Speech of the Finance Minister, GoI, Economic Times, 28-2-07). During the current financial

3
See papers by Maithreyi Krishnaraj, Devaki Jain, Nirmala Bnerjee, etc. presented at the XI National Conference
(1993 in Mysore) of Indian Association of Women’s Studies on Effects of Structural Adjustment Programmes and
New Economic Policy on Women’s Work, employment and food security.

14
year, 2007-08, the GBS covers 33 demands of for grants under 27 ministries/ departments and 5
Union Territories. (Http://wcd.noc.in/ub2007.htm)
Women’s groups have demanded
• Separate listing of women specific items in the budget
• No diversion of women’s component funds (30% of the total) in different ministries and
departments
• Transparency about allocation and utilisation of funding
• Right to information
• Inclusion of gender economists in pre-budget workshops that should be held around
October so that their suggestions can be included.

We must always remember that gender can be ‘mainstreamed’ only when the budgetary
allocations are made for women’s projects, programmes and schemes.
Gender Audits of Statistics and Indicators visibalise women’s contributions, stakes and
provide a realistic picture for allocation of resources for women specific projects and gender-
neutral projects.
Gender audits of documents of state and central governments such as Towards Equality
(1974), Shram Shakti Report (1988), National Perspective Plan for Women (1988-2000), State
Policies for Women, Women Empowerment Policy, 2001, Amendments in the Panchayati Raj
Institutions act to grant 33% reservation of seats for women, II National Commission of Labour
(2002) and human Development Reports have sensitised the administrators, politicians and social
movements to women’s needs, aspirations and demands.
Gender Audits of Housing Policy
Housing Rights have been major concern of the women’s movement in India for over two
decades. When women’s groups started providing support to women in distress, it was relatively
easier to find jobs and school-admission for children. The most difficult task was to get an
accommodation for women victims of violence, desertion, rejection from natal or matrimonial
family and cheating by their relatives.

Conclusion

Development of women is directly linked with economic, political, educational, legal and
financial empowerment of women. Increasingly a realisation has come about that without
engendering, development is endangered. Gender audits of decentralisation of political
governance has revealed that while elected women in PRI, legislative bodies and Parliament
have played a positive role in addressing or attempting to address a range of practical gender
needs (inadequacies in living conditions such as provision of fuel, water, health care and
employment), their impact on strategic gender needs (affirmative action by the state, proactive
role of employers to enhance women’s position in the economy, and social movements) is not
remarkable (UNDP 2001). Key indicators to address women’s strategic gender needs are gender
balanced in decision making bodies, finance committees, in business and financial support share
of expenditure devoted to women specific units, cells, departments and projects, share of women
in education employment health, housing political participation and agenda setting power-blocks.

15
16