Report of the Preliminary Findings of the Study of the Status of Rural Women in Karnataka
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Report of the Preliminary Findings of the
Study of the Status of Rural Women
in Karnataka - extracted text
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Report of the Preliminary Findings of the
Study of the Status of Rural Women
in Karnataka
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Draft for Private Circulation only
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August 1997
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The Women’s Policy Research and Advocacy Unit
National Institute of Advanced Studies
Indian Institute of Science Campus
Bangalore - 560 012
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STRUCTURE OF THE REPORT ON
THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN KARNATAKA
PART I:
Preliminary Report of the Primary Research Study on
the Status of Women in Karnataka
Title Page
Acknowledgements
Contents Page
Introduction
Genesis of the WOPRA project in NIAS, study objectives,
time frame, process, NGO participation, etc.
Chapter 1:
Conceptual framework for studying the status of women
Chapter 2
Methodology of the primary research study
Chapter 3
Demographic profile of surveyed respondents and
households
Chapter 4
Control over labour and income
Section 1
Section 2
Control over income
Occupational distribution
Chapter 5
Control over private resources
Section 1
Section 2
Access and control over assets
Access to food
Chapter 6
Access to public resources
Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
Section 4
Section 5
Access to education
Access to health
Access to survival needs
Access to credit
Access to other public resources
Chapter 7
Control over the body
Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
Marriage
Control over reproduction and sexuality
Control over security / safety
Chapter 8
Control over physical mobility
Chapter 9
Access to redressal (law and justice)
Chapter 10
Access to political spaces
Chapter 11
Perceptions of equality and gender justice
Chapter 12
Conclusions
Appendix i
Statistical Appendices
Appendix ii
Male and female interview schedules
Appendix iii
Names & addresses of NGO partners and other
collaborators
Part II :
Analysis of Secondary Data on
the Status of Women in Karnataka
Title page
Table of Contents
Introduction
Genesis of the study, methodology, secondary data sources,
etc.
Chapter 1
Demographic and Health Status of Women in Karnataka
Chapter 2
Education Status of Women in Karnataka
Chapter 3
Employment and Work Status of Women in Karnataka
Chapter 4
Status of Women’s Political Participation in Karnataka
Chapter 5
Violence Against Women in Karnataka
»
CHAPTER 2
Profile of Survey Respondents and Households
The SWK Study was conducted in six regionally representative districts of
Karnataka - Bijapur in North Karnataka, Raichur in Hyderabad Karnataka,
Chitradurga in Central Karnataka, Dakshina Kannada in the Konkan region,
Kolar in South Karnataka, and Kodagu in the Malnad region. Within these, a
total of 10 villages were covered, including one village where the survey had to
be abandoned after covering 40 households due to resistance from one section
of villagers. One of the villages includes an outlying hamlet. The distribution of
respondents and households by district is given in Table 1. Table 2 gives
village-wise details, and indicates those districts where the data collection was
done in collaboration with NGO partners; where no NGO is mentioned, data was
gathered by NIAS’s own research teams.
Table 1: District-wise Distribution of Households and Respondents
DISTRICT
Kolar_____
DK_______
Chitradurga
Raichur
Bijapur
Kodagu
TOTAL
HOUSEHOLDS
No.
%
11
100.0
RESPONDENTS
Male
Female
186
204
182
200
207
210
249
256
193
201
86
100
1103
1171
PERCENTAGE
Male
Female
16.9
17.4
16.5
17.1
18.5
17,9
22.7
21.9
17.3
17.2
7.8
8.5
100.0
100.0
Table 1 shows a more or less even distribution of households across five
districts, with roughly half as many having been covered in Kodagu, which is a
very small district. The number of female respondents is slightly greater than
males because it includes several women canvassed who were living without
any adult male partner or relative.
Table 2: Distribution of Respondents and Households by NGO Intervention
Area
NGO
Intervention
Area______
No________
Yes_______
Total
RESPONDENTS
PERCENTAGE
Male
Female
540
588
583
1171
563
1103
Total
1128
1146
2274
1
49.6
504
100.0
Table 2 shows that the study population is almost equally divided between those
having been exposed to NGO interventions, especially to women’s development
and awareness-building programmes, and those unreached by such efforts.
Detailed data analysis to assess the impact of this on key variables of women’s
status will be undertaken in the next stage of data analysis.
Table 3: District-, NGO-partner, & Village-wise Distribution of Respondents
and Households
District / NGO
partner / Village
BIJAPUR / Mahila
Samakhya
Malapura_______
RAICHUR / Mahila
Samakhya.
a) Talakeri
b) Yediyapura^
No. of Respondents
% Distribution
No. of
House
holds
%
Distri
bution
Men
Women
Total
Men
Women
Total
193
201
394
17.5
17.2
34.7
201
17.2
203
46
210
46
413
92
18.4
17.9
3.9
36.1
8.1
210
46
17.9
3.9
4.2
CHITRADURGA /
GRAMA:
Hosahalti + Talaku
DAKSHINA
KANNADA 1 NIAS:
Paduru +Moofuru
KOLAR / REACH
& Gram Vikasa:
a) Mangapura
b) Minejaena Haiti
c) Nagamangala
KODAGU / NIAS:
Rangasamudra
TOTAL
136
136
272
12.3
11.6
23.9
136
11.6
182
200
382
16.5
17.1
33.6
200
17.1
69
54
63
78
58
68
147
112
131
6.3
4.9
5.7
6.7
5.0
5.8
13.0
9.9
11.5
78
58
68
6.7
5.0
5.8
86
100
186
7.8
8.5
16.3
100
8.5
1103
1171
2274
100.0
100.0
100.0
1171
100.0
Fig.1: Survey Population by
Reliaion
Christian -1.89%
Others - 0.53%
Muslim -6.95%
Hindu -90.63%
Figure 1 shows the distribution of all the
surveyed respondents by religion. We
see that the sample mirrors the
distribution in the state, viz., over 90%
Hindus (including scheduled castes and
tribes), about 7% Muslim, just under 2%
Christian, and a smattering of other
persuasions. The caste figures will
show that some portion of the Muslims
and Christians also figure among dalits.
The survey had to be abandoned here due to strong resistance from sections of the village - however, the
data collected from households was included in the analysis
2
figure 2 gives the break up of
male and female respondents
98.8
by marital status. We see that
94.6
-----80 J
□ Men
while there are practically no
E3 Women
60 J
men falling into the “separated”
or
“divorced” category, about
40
2% of women are in these
20 .....
0.53-5
0.01-5
0.00.4
0.60.0
0.00.4
groups. Similarly, the
I
"lgaa—I---------- ——I-------------------- i----------------------1
0proportion of widowed women
Married
Widowed Separated Divorced Unmarried
far exceeds widowed men,
probably because the majority of these women are from female-headed
households where the corresponding male was unlikely to also be a widower,
but generally a younger male relative of the woman or her late husband - these
men are probably the majority of those in the “unmarried” category.
%
100
Fig.2: Marital status by gender
Table 4, below, gives the age-distribution of the study population. Since the
sampling of women was purposive - i.e., women in the reproductive age group of
18 to 40 years - the female age distribution reflects this. However, the ages of
the husbands / key males is far more widely scattered. The clustering of men
and women also shows a difference: while the majority of women fall into the 21
to 35 group (68%), the majority of men - about 65% - are in the 31 to 50 age
group. This indicates the cultural tendency to marry women to older men.
Table 4: Age Distribution of Respondents
Age Groups
Below 20
21-25
26-30
31-35
36-40
41-45
46-50
51-55
56-60
61-65
above65
Total
Male
___ 9
108
180
231
217
154
110
39
24
16
15
1103
Number
Female
129
289
298
209
246
1171
Total
138
397
478
440
463
154
110
__ 39
__ 24
__ 16
__ 15
2274
Male
0.82
9.79
16 32
20.94
19.67
13.96
9.97
3.54
2.18
1.45
1.36
100.00
Percentages
Female
11.02
24.67
2545
17.85
21 01
100.00
Total
6.07
17.46
21.02
19.35
20.36
6.77
4.84
1.71
1.06
0.70
0.66
100.00
Household size, depicted in fig. 1, shows the increasing nuclearization of rural
families. The average household size of our study household is 6.4, indicating
the predominance of nuclear and small joint families, with parents, their children,
and an adult relative or two residing together. In terms of cumulative
percentage, nearly 75% of households fall in the 3 to 7 member range; when this
is juxtaposed with the mean number of children per household (Table ) of 3, the
3
pattern becomes clearer Households containing 8 or more persons are a
relative minority of 25%
Figure 2, below, brings to light one of
the surprising findings of the study 250
............................................. —- -----------------r 20
I------ ihfe
the difference between adult and
18
200
16
-♦—%
child sex ratios. While the adult sex
14
150
12
ratio works out to parity, i.e.,
10
100
8
1001'1000 (females to males), the
6
SO
4
child
sex ratio shows a gender bias at
2
0 t—J i L- +-LJ
-P—
- 0
922:1000 (girls to boys). How the
<=3 4
5
6
7
8
9
10 11 >=16
adult
ratio is closer to normal when
to
the child ratio is so distorted is a
15
Household Size
matter for further enquiry However,
the sex ratio for the entire study population, at 969:1000, is almost identical to
the Karnataka state 1991 Census sex ratio of 960 (see Chapter 1, Part II).
Fig.3: Distribution of households by size
No
%
Fig.2: Survey population by Adult / Child and Sex
2500
Adult Sex Ratio -1001:1000
2000
fe
1500
E
z
3
1000
500
s*
P
ss
cm
0
Adult
Females
%
Child Sex Ratio - 922:1000
Total Sex Ratio - 969:1000
3 ■
5
to
r
Adult
~
Female
Children
■
Male
Children
Fig.3: Distribution of households by no. of
children
100 r
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20 ir^
. 10
0 -—
<= 1
a
■
o
eo
SB
Males
£
CumuJative %
2
3
8 to 10
4
Mo. of children
The survey
households
appear to
demonstrate the
gradual decline in
family size and
the growing
preference for
smaller number of
children. The
mean number of
children per
household is just
3, and the vast
majority of
households nearly 68% - have
three or less
children; the
standard
deviation from the
mean is also quite
low at 1 6 In
households
having four or
more children,
further data
analysis will be undertaken to explore whether these are the offspring of more
than one couple - in other words, the larger the household, the more likely it is to
be a joint family, with more couples and their offspring residing together.
4
The literacy profile of the adults in the study population closely resemble the
Karnataka state 1991 Census figures for rural female and male adult literacy viz., 34.76% and 60.30%1 (respectively). However, they are well below the 1991
Census female and male literacy rates if combined for the six districts of our
study sample - viz., 45 42% and 68.09%2 (respectively). It should be noted that
in terms of literacy rates, the six study districts include two of the most
educationally advanced districts of the state (Dakshina Kannada and Kodagu),
two intermediate districts (Chitradurga and Bijapur), and two of the lowest
literacy districts (Kolar and Raichur) - and hence are very representative of the
literacy profile of the state. This could be because the study villages were
located in fairly backward regions of the backward districts, where literacy is still
low, or because the study figures more closely resemble the ground reality than
Census rates In terms of secondary education levels, the gender bias is clearly
evident, and shows a greater bias when compared with the state Secondary
School Enrolment Ratio for girls of 30%3.
Figure 4: Adult Literacy and Education Levels of Study Population
60.00% i
J
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%-------
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
oo
co
co
04
cd
tn
£
<0
in
id
T—
£
Worn en
Men with
Adult
with
Literacy
Rate
Education
>=Std.B
Education
>=Std.8
---- —-——
---- ------- —
Adult
AdultMale
Com bined
Fem ale
Literacy
Rate
Literacy
Rate
■+
1 Sec Chapter 2 of Part II of this report. “Educational Status of Women in Karnataka”.
2 Calculated from figures given in Chapter 2. Part JI, P.3
3 Chapter 2, Part II, op.cit.
5
■i
Table 6 corroborates the
findings of many other
%
and schooling status
studies that the gender bias
80
in access to schooling
-------- ---------------- -- 74%---------------........... 69%
70----occurs in the secondary,
60----- ------------------------------------------------ qNot in school
rather than primary school
50----stage. The gender gap
| . j
B
[■In school
40----between percentage of boys
30___
and girls aged 6 to 14 years
20----attending school is quite
10----small - less than 5% in
0----favour of boys. However, it
Girls
Boys
Combined
would be important to
analyse whether those not
attending school are the older girls and boys, the former because of domestic
work and taboos against schooling after menarche, and the boys because of
joining the labour force. The absence of a sharp gender difference in these
figures is a cause for some optimism.
Fig.5: Eligible children (6-14 yrs) by sex
JEllzlJL
Before examining figure 6, it is important to clarify the definition of Productive
Work used in the SWK study. For our purposes, productive work includes both
waged and non-waged work performed for survival, and hence includes the socalled “domestic” and “subsistence” work without which daily life would become
unviable - viz., gathering firewood for cooking fuel, fetching water, grazing
animals, cooking, etc. The importance of this in any study of the status of
women cannot be overemphasised, since much of the work women and girls do
is unpaid family labour and domestic/subsistence work which has been
traditionally invisible in our data systems and economic analysis. In recognition
of this, even the Census of India today uses an “expanded” definition of work,
having incorporated subsistence tasks in the Census schedule (Code 93).
Fig. 6: Work Participation Rate by Adult I
Child & Sex
100 J
80 --
79%
60 —
45%
46%
46%
1
40 -
20 0 --
Adult
women
-I—------
Adult
men
I—mSi- +---- U----- ------ h
——j.
—|
Combi Female
Male
Com bined
children children
ned
Adults
children
6
Using this expanded and
more realistic definition of
work, fig. 6 shows that the
work participation rates of
adults and children in the
study population is
extremely high. The gap
between male and female
work participation rates is
also much smaller than in
official statistics. For
example, the proportion of
working rural men and
women in the state in the 1991 Census was only 56.26% and 36.6%4
respectively, compared with 90.69% of men and 79.42% of women in the study
population, using an expanded definition of work The gap between men and
women in the study population is only 11.27%, compared to 19.66% - almost
double - in the Census figures. Similarly, the data for children aged 0-14
shows very little gap in the labour contributions of girls and boys, and that
virtually every able-bodied child six years or older is engaged in some form of
productive, subsistence or domestic work.
Fig. 7: Contribution of Adults & Children to
domestic & subsistence work
Boys
Girls
12%
V8
Men
35%
•
■
>
-
.
Women
44%
The absence of much of a gender gap in
work participation will be further
explored in the Chapter on Labour and
Income; meanwhile, fig.7 and Table 8
gives us some idea of the gender
division of labour in domestic and
subsistence work, to examine whether
the high male work participation rates,
above, are because of higher
participation of men and boys in
domestic work.
The data in table 5 seem to corroborate that the high work participation rate for
men is probably due to their role in domestic and subsistence work.
Surprisingly, the proportion of men and boys contributing to this traditionally
female work domain is quite high in the study households, as Table 7 shows. It
is important to note that labour contributions in this area were reported by
women respondents, and are therefore probably less suspect than if they were
reported by the men, who might exaggerate their role in this respect. As much
as 75% of all men are doing domestic and subsistence work such as fuel
gathering, water-fetching, etc. Further data on this, as mentioned earlier, will be
analysed in Chapter . Among children, however, the gender bias in domestic
and subsistence work is a little more evident, with the proportion of girls involved
at over 40%, while only 29% of boys are helpers in this respect; but the gap is
not as sharp as one would expect.
Table 5: Adults and Children’s Contributions to Domestic and Subsistence
Work, by Sex
Total No.
Total Number in
% of Total
Adults / Children
Contributing
to
Study Sample
Contributing to
DomJSubs. work
Dom./Subs. work
2035
Women_________
2119
96.04
1591
2117
Men____________
75.15
_______ 533
Giris (upto 14 yrs )
1310
40.69
_______ 409
Boys (upto 14 yrs.)
1421
28.78
4568
Total
6967
65.57
4 Sec Chapter 3, Part TI, P.3
7
Conclusions:
The study population shows some similarities and some differences from the
state’s demographic profile. While the adult sex ratio is somewhat better than
the state figure, the child ratio shows a bias against the girl child. The literacy
levels of the adult population are signficantly below state averages. Non-school
going children of the eligible age group are fairly high in number.
The household size is slightly higher, as is the mean number of children per
household, but this is because the study has no urban households, which tend
to lower these figures for the state. The data also shows that the gender bias in
distribution of domestic work is not as sharp as expected, and that the inclusion
of subsistence work, so necessary for survival, dramatically raises the work
participation rates of both sexes compared to official figures.
In short, the survey population does not show any sharp or significant
differences from the state’s demographic profile, and could therefore be
considered representative.
---
:
8
■-v.7.-'-'■/■'-.v
.
Chapter 3
Profile of Asset Ownership
In this section of the study, our objective was to test three basic hypotheses, viz,:
a) That the majority of household assets (a key form of private resources) are
owned by men;
b) That women’s knowledge of household asset ownership tends to be less
accurate, by virtue of hypothesis (a), and the consequent lack of control over
the assets; and
c) That if hypothesis (a) is proved, then women would have little or no control
over the assets owned by the household.
While hypothesis (a) and (c) have been validated by the results, hypothesis (b)
has been disproved. We shall examine the gender disparities in asset
ownership and control by type of asset - i.e., land, house, animals, etc.
Land:
As Figure 1 shows, 71% of the surveyed households own land, and the
proportion of landless families is just under 29%. The total number of
households reporting ownership of land is 836 (including female headed
households). The relatively low proportion of landless households appears to
reflect of the land reforms carried out in the state in the Seventies.
Figure 1: Land Ownership
Landless
29%
Land
owning
71%
It must be stressed that since our study was not focussed on economic or
agricultural profilesjcerjse, we did not provide for detailed analysis of size of
holdings and type of land; therefore, we do not present totals for some of the
land data, since it would be misleading. Our focus was on gender disparities in
knowledge (using reporting as the proxy) of land and other asset ownership In
this context, it was found that there was no discrepancy between male and
female respondents’ reporting of land ownership, disproving our hypothesis that
women have less awareness of the household’s asset ownership However, the
discrepancy in reporting is slightly visible when we get into details of type of land
owned and size of holdings of each type, as Table 1 (overleaf) shows.
Figure 2: Distribution of Land Owned by Type
Planta
tion
11^-'
Barren
11% /
A
Rainfed
43%
Figure 2 shows the distribution of land by type, indicating that the largest
proportion of land owned is dependent on rainfed agriculture, and a full 11 % is
barren, uncultivable land. District-wise analysis will tell us more about where
these types of land tend to predominate. Only a little over a third of all land is
irrigated.
The differentials in male and female reporting of land, to the extent that it exists,
is first set out in Table 1. We see that male-female differentials are greatest in
reporting of smaller holdings (less than 2.5 acres) of irrigated and barren land
than in any other category.
2=
Figure 3: Land Ownership by Gender and Relationship of Owners
(as reported by 787 male respondents of landowning households)
45 0 X
40.0
>
35.0
j,
30.0
a
25.0
o
a> 20.0
a.
15.0
10.0
5.0
0.0 —
Self
(male
reap.)
Father
—I—
—i—
----- 1—
-------1-----
Other
male
relatives
Wife
Mother
Other
female
relatives
Joint
property
If we go by male reporting of land ownership, as in Figure 3 above, we/that over
81% of land of all types is owned by men, and that the male heads of household
- viz., the male respondent himself or his father - own over 44% and 25% of
family holdings, respectively. In contrast, less than 2% of the female
respondents (shown as "wife” in Figure 3) own land in their own names, and a
little over 6% is held in jointpfnames of husband and wife. In fact, if we take
female ownership together, as a category, only 12% of land is owned by women.
Clearly, ownership of a vital rural asset like land is firmly in the hands of men;
this indicates the need to address a second stage of land reforms that would
give women of these at least joint legal ownership, as a means to raising their
economic status. Formal ownership will not necessarily lead to functional
control over land, as Aggarwal has pointed out1, but it is an important and
necessary condition.
Figure 4, below, which contrasts female respondents’ reporting of land
ownership with that of males, brings out some interesting features of the
differences between male and female respondents’ accounts of who in the family
owns land.
1 Bina Aggarwal, 1996, A Field of One s Own, New Delhi,
3
Y'.
Table 1: Type of land by size of holding as reported by male respondents of 787 landowning households
SIZE OF HOLDING
Type of Land
Irrigated
Rainfed
Barren
Estate /
Plantation
2.5 acres
Norof
Difference
from
house
female
holds
reporting
f
259
248
75
104
-44
- 5
-30
- 6
2.6 - 5 acres
No. of
Difference
house
from
female
holds
reporting
75
151
25
15
+ 16
- 7
+ 8
+ 6
5.1 -10 acres
No. of
house
holds
Difference
from
female
reporting
26
59
4
1
- 6
+ 12
+ 2
- 2
> 10 acres
No. of
Difference
from
house
female
holds
reporting
17
52
2
5
0
+5
0
+2
Total
No. of
House
holds
377
510
106
125
% of all
landed
house
holds
owning
this type
of land
47.9
64.8
13.5
15.9
Note: Total land ownership for male and female respondents for all types of land cannot be computed since respondents owning
land under each category are not mutually exclusive.
: Male / female differentials in
40 -
Females
S 25o
o 20
JX
15 4-
10 5Self/
husband
Father/
Father-inlaw
Other male Self/Wife
Mother/
relatives
Mother-inlaw
Other
female
relatives
Relationship of Owner to Respondent
Joint
DonfKnow
property of
males &
females
•
Women report themselves as owning much more land (6%) than their
spouses report (1.8% owned by wife). This could either be because these
women have been given to understand they are the owners, or are in fact
owners but the husbands did not want to acknowledge this to the
investigators, lest they be thought to have a lower status.
•
While men reported as much as 6.3% of land being joint property of
husbands and wife, or of men and women of the family related in some other
way, not even 1 % of women corroborate this. In other words, it would
appear that in such cases, even if the land is jointly held, the women
concerned are not aware of this.
•
Nearly 2% of women from landowning households said they did not know in
whose name the land was, whereas no male respondent from such
households declared lack of this knowledge.
•
Interestingly, knowledge of ownership by husband or father-in-law by women
is fairly exact, matching male reporting. It is likely, therefore, that those
women who reported ignorance of ownership came from households where
.the primary males (spouse and father-in-law) were probably not the legal
owners; if they were, this fact would probably be well known to the woman.
Alternately, some of these women could have been recently married, not yet
fully familiar with the economic situation of their marital family.
4
Fig. 5: Gender-wise distribution
of landowning respondents
Fe m a le s
12%
(70)
In order to explore further the gender-based
differences in land ownership, we
disaggregated the data for type of land owned
by male and female landowning respondents.
Firstly, Figure 5 shows that only 12%, or 70 of
all respondents owning land are women. We
then tested the hypothesis that there would be
a greater preponderance of barren and
unproductive land in the hands of women
landowners than men landowners.
M ales
88%
(495)
Fig.6: Gender-wise distribution by types of land
owned by landowning respondents
90.0-1 '
88
80.0
70.0
Bl
60.0
ai
50.0
di
40.0
o
Q-
30.0
20.0
10.0
Males
0.0
Females
lrri*”ted
Rainfed
---------
Plantation
Figure 6, above, proves this hypothesis in so far as the ratio of women owners is
highest in the category of barren land - i.e., a full 27% of barren land belongs to
women. In constrast, only 10% of all irrigated land, 11% of rainfed land and
11% of plantation land is in women’s hands. Clearly, the proportion of barren
land held by women is more than double the proportion of any other type of land
they own. This would seem to point to the fact that even when women own land,
a larger share of them would hold less productive and uncultivable land, partly
neutralising the positive effect such ownership might have on their household
and community status.
In more in-depth analysis, it will be interesting to see how land ownership
impacts on other status parameters in those households where the women
respondents own land. A break up of these women by family size (joint v/s
nuclear) may also be used in deeper analysis.
■+
'
5
V.3
• 1
O''
Livestock:
After land, ownership of livestock is an important dimension of the economic
status of rural households. Ownership of livestock is also often essential to
cultivation of land and marketing of produce. Our attempt was to examine the
gender differentials in ownership of livestock as an important private asset.
Fig.7: Households owning
livestock
Once again, we found no major gender
differential in knowledge of
No
37%
livestock ownership, with almost identical
reporting by men and women. 62.6% of male
respondents reported that their households
owned livestock, while 63% of women reported
this. Even this marginal difference is due to the
presence of reporting by some of the 68 single
Yes
63%
women respondents (i.e., the female headed
households where there was no spouse or key
male cohort as male respondent), some of these women are owners of
livestock, making up the difference.
Fig.8: Proportion of households owning different types of livestock
70.0
<n
' <
60.0
2
o
50.0
1o £E
40.0 Z
2 O
«
o
20.0 Z
a
10.0 z
■
I_
ii
30.0 Jz
P.
0.0 4— —
I
I_
»-
i
3
CD
5
Is!
f
U)
rn
o
I
Note: these are not mutually exclusive categories of livestock ownership
Details of livestock ownership by category of animal as reported by male
respondents, are given in figure 8, below. Please note that these are not
mutually exclusive categories.
Legal ownership is more difficult to identify in the case of livestock, especially for
poultry, sheep and goats, etc. Therefore, the right to buy and sell was used as a
proxy to determine functional ownership in this section Figure 9, above, shows
6
that as in the case of land, the male respondents see themselves, their fathers,
and other male relatives seff themggives as the key controllers / owners of
livestock. Surprisingly, this is true even in the case of poultry, where we had
expected to see a far larger proportion of women owners.
However, when we examine male-female differences in reporting of functional
ownership, as in figure!0, there are significant discrepancies. This difference in
male and female perception of ownership is most striking In the case of poultry.
Men have consistently reported a lower proportion of women owners for each
type of livestock, when compared with women’s reporting of the same. This
could be because
more men perceive themselves as heads of households, and hence ultimate
owners of all household assets, even if women are technical or legal owners
- e g., women might have taken loans in their names to purchase the
animals, but their husbands do not see them as owners of these assets; or
•
women do more of the management of the animals (feeding, grazing, etc.)
and hence more often see this as functional ownership than do men.
Fig.9: Livestock Ownership / Control of Sales by Gender and Relationship
(as reported by male respondents of 690 livestock owning households)
80.0
—
70.0 -
□ Cows / Buffabes / Oxen
■ Sheep & Goats
60.0 -
□ Poultry
50.0 -
c
w
o 40.0 flj
Q.
30.0 -
20.0 10.0 0.0
—L-+
Self
JM----- L-j.
---- L—F
Father
Wife
Other
male
relatives
-a
Motiier
---- 1—+
Otfier
female
relatives
Jointly
owned
These differences also seem to reinforce the fact that while in the case of land,
male and female respondents reported more or less similarly about ownership,
in the case of livestock however, the question of ownership is less clear.
7
Fig.10: Male-female differentials in reporting of proportion of households
where women own / control sale of livestock
30 T
’>■ - Male reporting
c 25
$
O
•-----Female reporting
c
V
E 20 o
3
2!
0 15
x:
V)
2
o
s
10
©
0 -U
Sheep
Oxen
Buffalo
Cow
Goats
Poultry
Note: these percentages have been calculated as a proponion or uie nousenoius
reported separately by male and female respondents as owning each type of animal
House :
Fig.11 Ownership of present dwelling
(as reported by male respondents)
Don’t
Know
1%
Again, there was little gender difference in
reporting of whether the dwelling occupied by
the household was owned or rented - nearly
89% of men reported the dwelling as owned by
the family, whereas nearly 88% of women did
so. However, for the first time, some male and
female respondents stated lack of knowledge
on this question.
Rent
11%
Own
88%
!
“
The total number of households owning houses
was 1000 according to the 1103 male
respondents, and 1036 according to the 1171 female respondents.
8
Figure 12: Male - female differentials in reporting of house
60.0
Male reporting
50.0
Female reporting
03
■g
c
$
O
40.0 -
O
0>
20.0
Q.
10.0
«£
30.0 -
0.0
Self /
husband
Father /
father-inlaw
Other
Male
relatives
Wife/
husband
Mother
Other
female
relatives
Jointly
owned
Note: In many cases, the total in each cell may represent more man one nouse owneo oy
family; joint ownership by family could either mean joint ownership by male/female family
members or both husband and wife.
As Figure 12 illustrates, male respondents, their fathers, and other male
relatives are once again dominant in ownership of house. There is little or no
discrepancy between male and female respondents’ perception of house
ownership. Out of the 1101 houses whose ownership was reported by male
respondents, 51.23% were owned by the male respondents and 4.18% by their
wives; a slightly higher percentage of female respondents report themselves as
owners (6.73%), but this could be attributed to the female-headed households.
In all, an overwhelming 885, or 80.38% of the 1101 houses owned belonged to
men, and just 158, or14.35%, to women members of the family. The low
incidence of joint ownership - barely 5% - is a serious issue for women. Not
being owners of their dwellings in most cases, and not having joint claims in
more than a few cases, the women are very vulnerable to being evicted from the
house in case of disputes. The ouster of women (sometimes with their young
children), without any alternative shelter, is a common phenomenon.
Control over Assets:
As mentioned at the outset, the key objective of this section of the study was to
examine gender differentials not only in formal ownership of assets, but in actual
control. We used the question "Which assets could you sell or pawn without
asking anyone else, in the event of a crisis?” to determine the real nature of
control over assets. Figure 13, below, shows the interesting results of the
analysis of answers to this query.
9
Fig. 13: Male - female differentials in reporting of which
60
<y
so --
V)
<
£
o
2
ai
c
?
O
o
40
30 --
20
0)
O
10 4-
Q.
0 -I—
Land
Anim als
House
Equipm ent
Jewellery
Note: The figure shows male and female responses as a proportion of those actually reporting
ownership of the given asset. In the case of jewellery, it signifies own jewellery in the case of
women, and wife’s jewellery in the case of men.
First of all, it is clear that on the whole, only a minority of respondents - whether
male or female - feel they are in a position to sell or pledge household assets
without the permission of others. To this extent, a relatively small proportion of
men and women have much control of family assets. Of those who feel they do,
however, men clearly predominate. Interestingly, the highest degree of such
control in the case of men seems to be over livestock, while women predictably
feel most control of their jewellery. It is also worth noting that the proportion of
men and women claiming the right to liquidate jewellery is almost equal indicating that men feel the right to dispose of women’s jewellery without their
permission, although it does not technically belong to them. The order of
perceived autonomy to dispose the asset is probably correlated to the ease with
which the asset can be liquidated - which could be why a higher percentage of
both men and women report that they could dispose of jewellery and animals.
This pattern - of more male respondents believing they can independently take a
decision to sell or pledge family assets is clearly because patrilineal inheritance
rules make it more possible for them to dispose assets that may not be self
acquired. Women do not enjoy these rights, making them far more vulnerable in
crisis situations, and hence diminishing their status.
The male-female differentials in perception of control over assets are also
clearly related to ownership. Since so few women own assets like the family
house, land, or livestock, it is not surprising that very few believe they could
liquidate these without permission. However, despite the predominance of male
ownership, the patriarchal family structure seems to ensure that even men
10
cannot dispose of major assets without a consultative process of some kind, or
permission of the senior male members of the household
Conclusions:
Two of the three hypotheses set out at the beginning of this chapter have been
validated by the study findings. The majority of women in the surveyed
households do not own - either formally or functionally - the major assets of the
household, placing them in an economically weaker and more dependent
position. Lack of ownership also impacts in lack of control, so that few women
perceive themselves as able to independently liquidate the asset in times of
crisis. This dependency and lack of control over a major part of the household s
private resources weakens their status and places them in a subordinate
position.
/•
'■
-
K
Mu - 100
05645
11
Chapter 4
Occupational and Income Profile
Our earlier chapter elaborated on several issues related to the gender
differentials in degree of control over income exercised by the study
respondents; in this section, we set out the objective data on the occupational
distribution of respondents, and details of the income earned through various
production activities, and analyse the gender differentials inherent in these.
Occupational Profile:
Respondents were asked to report on all productive activities through which
income was earned in the previous one year.
As figure 1 shows, the mean number of
occupations per respondent is just over 2 per
head for both men and women, which
. ....... ----------------------indicates that the vast majority of the study
2.2 <
respondents are engaged in more than one
2.1 . . ‘i
2.16
income-earning activity / occupation. The
slightly
higher mean for women shows that
2
j 2.05 ■
the number of productive activities performed
1.9
by women for income is more than by men,
Women
Men
though this is not necessarily rewarded
through higher income, as we shall see. In other words, all the surveyed
households are dependent on more than one type of economic activity for
income, and women tend to be engaged in more activities than men Figure 2
(next page), shows the distribution of the male and female respondents across
various occupational categories. The gender differentials - or lack of them - in
different categories are as interesting as they are typical of the trends in the
secondary data and from other studies across the country.
Fig.1: Mean no. of
occupations by gender
Cultivation: This was the predominant occupation of over half of the study
respondents, and almost an equal number of women as men (55% and 56%
respectively) report themselves as having been engaged in cultivation in the
previous year. It must be noted that 'cultivation’ was defined in a way that would
ensure that women’s unpaid labour would be captured - i.e., a range of activities
including ploughing, sowing, transplanting, weeding, supervision of agricultural
labourers, working on own farm, processing grains for storage, etc The Census
and National Sample Survey definition of cultivators is those farming their own
land Since our data shows that the percentage of women who own land is
miniscule, most of the large number of women in this category are obviously
1
what the NSS terms as “family helpers”, working on land owned by their spouse /
conjugal family rather than themselves.
However, there is one significant departure in our data from the trends shown in
national statistics on cultivators - we found that the number of male and female
cultivators in both marginal (working less than 180 days in a year) and main
(working more than 180 days in a year) categories was almost identical (see
Statistical Appendices). This means that women’s participation in cultivation is
equal to men, a fact that the formal data systems (the census in particular)
unfortunately do not reflect because of their methodological and definitional
limitations1.
Figure 2: Occupational Distribution by Gender
%
60 n ^55
50
40 30
20 -
a
1
1° 1
□ Men
41
35™
I
43
33
31
□Worn en
i
i
21
13ffl
Culti
vation
Agricul- Salaried
employ
tural
Wage
ment
Labour
Dairy
Poultry
1212
MxB
l^l
-I EB , ..B t
0 -
13ra
Sheep/
Goat
rearing
J----- |
9 5
I----------------
Skilled
work/
artisans
Vending
/Busi
ness
4 4
I I
fcdrl '
Seri
culture
Agricultural Wage Labour: Although only 29% of the study households are
landless (see Chapter 5, Section 1), 35% of male and 41 % of female
respondents were engaged in agricultural wage labour in the previous year.
This reinforces the national trend of small and marginal farmers and subsistence
cultivators having to supplement their meagre income by hiring their labour to
other farmers.
It is significant that more women than men have reported working as agricultural
wage labourers. Further analysis of the other occupations that agricultural
labourers are involved in will be necessary to comment fully on the higher
participation of women in agricultural wage work. However, pending this, there
are some known factors that could further explain the differential: women from
small and marginal land-owning households often work as wage labourers in
others’ fields to supplement income; the agricultural tasks allotted to women
labourers are more labour-intensive (such as weeding); and women’s lower
occupational mobility and educational levels tend to inhibit their movement into
other occupations. It will be useful to look at what proportion of cultivators do
agricultural wage work and the gender difference that may emerge, in further
analysis.
1 See Chapter 3, Gender and Poverty in India, Washington D C, The World Bank, 1991.
2
Out of 390 men and 477 women who are agriculture labourers, there were 100
men and 66 women who reported that they worked as bonded agricultural
labourers. However, all agricultural labourers, both bonded and others, report
that they received at least some amount as wages. Bondage may therefore have
been perceived as indebtedness to the landlord/large farmer which the 'bonded'
respondents were trying to settle through their labour.
Dairy: Dairying is an extremely important occupation for the study respondents.
This can be attributed to the vigorous promotion of dairying through state over
the past twenty years through various agricultural extension programmes and
the National Dairy Development Board’s "Operation Flood’’ scheme A number
of rural credit schemes like the IRDP also provided milch cattle on a large scale
throughout the state. The setting up of dairying cooperatives and the Karnataka
Milk Federation has also helped create reasonably efficient marketing linkages
that have rendered dairying an important, viable and profitable economic
activity, especially where fodder is not a serious problem. Although value-added
processing like butter- and cheese-making for the urban market is still beyond
the reach of the rural poor, keeping milch cattle is still an attractive supplement
to agriculture.
Clearly, dairying is a more women-dominated activity (43% of women compared
to 31 % of men report being engaged in it) - figure 2 shows that it ranks second
in terms of the number of women engaged in it. The 'femalenes' of dairying is
not hard to explain: the day-to-day work of feeding and caring for the animals
and milking are an extension of women’s domestic work. Even if men report
dairying as an occupation, they are generally more involved in transporting and
marketing of dairy produce.
Salaried / Non-agricultural wage work: Male participation (33%) in salaried /
non-agricultural wage work is nearly twice as much as female participation
(18%). This gap is not unique, and has been highlighted by National Sample
Survey data over time2. It is a direct reflection of women’s low occupational
mobility and lower access to formal education, among other things.
Poultry and Sheep Rearing : As in dairying, the participation of women in
poultry and sheep and goat rearing is higher than that of men; this is again
because women perform most of the daily work of feeding, cleaning, etc. -an
extension or part of their regular domestic chores - while men are more involved
in marketing and grazing. These gender differences in division of work in any
given occupation will become clearer when the data is further coded and
analysed at a later stage.
Vending / business: Although vending and petty business engages only a
small proportion of the study respondents, it shows a trend similar to that of
2
See Sarvekshana, or citations of Sarvekshana data in World Bank, 1991, op.cit.
3
salaried / waged work: male participation is twice that of females. Gender
barriers on women’s physical mobility, restrictions on their free interaction with
unrelated men, and their lack of skills and equal access to credit (because of low
asset base) are all factors affecting women’s participation in business.
Skilled Work / Artisanal Occupation and Sericulture: In skilled work /
artisanal family occupations, and in sericulture, the gender difference in
participation is negligible. This could be because traditional family/artisanal
occupations (such as weaving or pottery) as well as sericulture, are not viable
unless the labour of the entire family is available for production. These are lowtechnology, labour-intensive occupations, involving a wide range of component
tasks, usually demarcated along gender lines. For instance, in weaving, women
and children prepare yarn and spin, men operate the loom; in pottery, women
and men collect and prepare the clay, men cast the pots on the wheel, women
enlarge the sides of the wet pot so that the base in stable, women collect the fuel
so that men can fire the pots; and in sericulture, men irrigate and prepare the
land for mulberry planting, both do planting, women weed the plot and pluck the
leaves, clean and mount the frames, harvest the cocoons, and men market theml
at the local silk exchange - in fact, there have been only three women involved in
marketing of cocoons in Karnataka!3 Thus, the entire household is likely to
participate in some capacity in these occupations, which would explain the
absence of gender gap in participation.
Income Profile:
Data on income from various occupations was computed in terms of money
received in one’s own hands from a given activity. The gender differentials in
income from different occupations are extremely revealing:
We begin with
agricultural wages,
%
where
from time
60 -r
■ 58
> Men
50
immemorial, women
■ Women
40
have been paid less
30
♦ 28
A 27
than men. Some 390
20 4 15
men and 477 women
10
♦«
* 6
1
4--- B-O—
0 - » o -F ----- F ------------ 1respondents reported
>
Rs 41
Rs .31
R5.11
Rs .21
< Rs.5
Rs.5doing agricultural
Rs .51
-50
-40
-30
-20
10
wage work. Of these,
figure 3 shows that
nearly 60% of the women agricultural labourers received wages below Rs. 10 a
day, while only 16% of the male labourers fell below this income level. The
majority of male agricultural labourers, though not as shockingly low-paid as
women, did not earn very much either - including the 16% of men in the belowRs.10 category, some 53%, or over half of the male labourers earn less than or
Fig.3: Gender differentials in agricultural wages
(per day)
I37
3
See Part II, Chapter 3, Employment and Work Status of Women in Karnataka.
4
up to Rs.20. When most men earn so little, retaining even a fourth of their
income for themselves - and we shall see in the later part of the chapter how
many do just this - has tremendous impacts on the household economy We
also see that barely 13% of the women labourers earn more than Rs.20 per day.
Thus, not only do women earn less than men, but they vanish from the graph at
higher wage levels. This could also reflect women’s poor access to higher-paid
agricultural tasks that probably involve the use of higher technology Villageand district-wise analysis may throw more light on regional variation in
agricultural wages and the gender disparity that exists within regions.
When considering agricultural wages, we must also bear in mind the large
number of men and women who reported being bonded / indebted labourers we therefore don’t know if in these cases, most of the already low wages they
earn are going towards clearing their debts. Even where the respondents may
be getting some net wages in hand, this is likely to be so inadequate as to trap
them deeper in the debt spiral.
Exchange labour: The agricultural wage data does not reflect the practice of
“muyyalu” or exchange labour, which is common between farming households,
since it does not involve any monetary transaction. It is a social arrangement
based on goodwill in which small and medium farmers work on each other's
farms to avoid hiring and paying labour. Women’s labour is more often given in
muyyalu - in fact, as figure 4 shows, 266 women as opposed to 180 men
reported that they had participated in exchange work. Precisely for this reason,
perhaps, we find that the participation of women in agricultural labour is much
higher than for men.
Figure 4 shows that women are
Fig.4: Gender differentials in participation
more likely to be sent for
in exchange work ("muyyalu”)
exchange work for short periods
of time, e.g.,183 women (69%)
200
183
□ Men
tn
report that they participated in
□ Women
g 150
jn
exchange work upto 10 days,
£ 100
70 73
67
which is three times the number
35
° 50
of men in this category. Since
8 3
o
r—i 7
2
0
exchange work is almost
>60
31 -60
-30
<=10
exclusively practised by land
No. of days
owning households, particularly
small and marginal farmers,
women’s labour cannot be spared for long stretches, since it is required not only
for work on their own farms, but also for their daily domestic chores. It may also
reflect women-intensive tasks that have to be performed at a given stage of the
cultivation cycle, within a short, defined period.
Income vs. Work Participation:
It has long been established that women contribute more unpaid labour to
productive activities than men. This is particularly true in small and marginal
5
land-owning agricultural households, where the entire family works on the land,
but all marketing transactions are handled by men, so that women do not receive
any cash income in their hands Exploring this issue, our schedule was
designed to elicit information on the full range of productive activities engaged in
by the male and female respondents, with corresponding data on the income
received from these in the respondent’s own hands.
Firstly, as figure 5 shows, 96%
(1057) men respondents
reported receiving income in
96
%
□ Men
their own hands from their
76
100
S Women
various productive
occupations, compared to just
24
76% (895) women
50
4
respondents. This must be
juxtaposed against the data
0
presented in figure 1, which
Not earning income
Earning income
demonstrated that in fact,
women were engaged in more productive (i.e., income-related) activities than
men (2.16 productive activities per woman, and 2.05 productive activities per
man).
Fig.5: Proportion of male and female
respondentseaming income
Figure 6, below, further shows in the most graphic terms that the proportion of
unremunerated production work done by women is much greater than in the
case of men. Specifically, only 64% of all productive work done by women
accrues income in their
hands, compared to
Fig.6: Gender differentials in proportion of productive
86% of the productive
activities remunerated
work done by men that
□ Productive activities
yields income.
No.
□ Remunerated activities
3000 t
2500
2527
2272
1955
2000 j
1500
1605
(86%)
(64%)
1000
500
4
0
Men
•
Women
Table I (next page),
gives us an elaborate
picture of the gender
differentials in work
participation as
opposed to income
earned from in various
occupations. Several
points come to our
attention from the data
in Table 1:
Firstly, male earners outnumber female earners across almost all the
occupations except agriculture wage work; this is despite the fact that
women’s participation is higher than men’s in all occupations that are partially
6
or completely homestead-based (i.e., in all occupations except vending /
business and salaried / non-agricultural wage work).
Table 1: Gender differentials in work participation vs. income4
Nature of
Work/
Activity
Cultivation
Agricultural
labourers
Sericulture
Dairy_______
Poultry
Sheep and
Goat rearing
Skilled work /
artisans/famil
y occupation
Vending /
Business
Salary /
wages earned
Workers
Non-Earners
Earners
Total
% of total % of total % of total % of total
male
female
No. of
female
male
nonMale
nonearners
earners
earners
earners Workers
616
22.24
49.07
50.93
77.76
390
0.00
0.00
100.00
100.00
Total
No. of
Female
Workers
642
477
91.84
70.06
61.97
75.89
73.47
43.70
43.55
33.16
8.16
29.94
38.03
24.11
26.53
56.30
56.45
66.84
49
344
142
141
49
508
248
193
108.21
82.98
-8.21
17.02
134
141
104.21
89.29
-4.21
10.71
95
56
100.00
95.77
0.00
4.23
361
213
•
In 2 occupational categories - viz., skilled work / artisanal family occupation
and vending / business, there are a small number of men (11 in skilled work
and 4 in vending) report income although they do not report themselves as
working in these occupations.
•
While there is no gender difference in the percentage of those earning
income from agricultural wage work, we have already seen that women
agricultural labourers earn lower wages than men. Data in the latter part of
this chapter, in the section on Control over Income, also shows that fewer
women earners are able to retain any part of their income for personal use.
•
In dairying, poultry, and sheep / goat rearing, the low proportion of earners to
workers, both male and female, indicates the subsistence, rather than
commercial nature of these activities in many households - i.e., part of the
produce / output is being consumed domestically. However, it is in these
very occupations that there are more women workers than men, but fewer
women than men earners.
•
Conversely, there is a high correlation between workers and earners in
activities where production is almost exclusively for the market or the activity
itself is market-based (e.g., sericulture, vending / business, and skilled
/artisanal work), as well as those which directly yield cash income (e.g. salary
4 See Table 6, Statistical Appendices for expanded table with numbers and percentages.
7
/ non-agriculture waged work). However, even here, women earners are a
lower proportion of women workers, in comparison to the corresponding
figures for men
•
Although fewer women participate in business or salaried work, these
occupations hold a greater potential for women to transact money. This is an
important beginning, even if they lack much control over earnings from these
sources. Participation in these activities also promotes mobility and
exposure, and therefore policy interventions in the areas of credit for
business, and employment in non-agriculture work are imperative.
Fig.7: Gender differentials in proportion of non-earning
workers by occupation
%
67
70
□ Men
56
56
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
El Women
49
38
22(
27
30
24
W
'
1
Cultivation Sericulture
Dairy
17
f
;
■.
.■
+
■f—*—
Poultry
Sheep and
Goat
rearing
, 0l , °B , 0 4
Skilled
work/
artisans
Vending /
Business
Salaried
work
Figure 7 drives home the gender bias in work contributed as opposed to income
earned. We see that with the exception of agricultural wage labour, where
obviously every worker is remunerated in either cash, kind, or both, in all the
occupational categories a significant proportion of women are not paid for the
work they do. As pointed out earlier, the highest incidence of unpaid women
workers are in cultivation, dairying, poultry, sheep- and goat-rearing, and
sericulture, where women do a good deal of work, but do not have access to any
income - mainly because they do not participate in or control the marketing
transactions that produce income from these activities.
Even when women are
remunerated for their
Fig.8: Gender differentials in income earned
%
labour, how do their
67
70 -i
□ Men
earnings compare with that
!!
60
El Women
of their men? This is
50
another important aspect
40
31
28
&
30
of the comparative
19
13 A
20
14
analysis of women’s and
8 2
ri3
....
10
men’s income from
0
productive work. Figure 8
5,001 - 10,001 - 15,001 - 20,001 - > 25,000
Upto
shows
that the majority of
10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000
5,000
the 895 women
respondents who receive income in their hands earned less than Rs.5000 in the
s
8
previous 12 months, compared to just 31% of the 1057 men who earned direct
income. As in the case of agricultural wages, we see that the proportion of
women earners declines very sharply as annual income levels rise, though
naturally, the proportion of men in the higher income brackets - above Rs. 15,000
for instance - is also not very high.
Conclusions:
The data on occupational distribution and respondents’ income brings to light
several facts that have been well recorded in the women’s studies literature.
Women are engaged in not only an equal number of productive activities as
men, but even slightly more in terms of mean number of activities per capita:
however, only about two-thirds of this work is remunerated. Consequently,
although all our female respondents are engaged in productive work of some
kind, only three-fourths earn income from this in their own hands, while virtually
all the male respondents do so.
This gap is most likely occurring in small and marginal cultivator households,
and possibly from women's unpaid labour in activities like dairying, poultry,
sheep- and goat-rearing, where their exclusion from marketing deprives them of
cash income in their hands. Whatever the reason, women who receive no
income are in a weaker position to control household income or influence
decision-making on expenditures and investments. They also have less
opportunities to save or acquire assets of their own.
Finally, it appears that women’s participation is highest in those occupations that
are homestead-based, and which can be combined with their domestic
responsibilities. These are the activities that can be most easily performed by
women without changing the gender relations status quo; i.e., without increasing
their physical mobility, their unsupervised interactions with unrelated men, their
education or skills, and their access or control over family assets and resources.
Ironically, the data clearly shows that few, if any, of the study households could
survive without women’s labour and income. Yet, the mediation of women’s
labour and income through the family ensures that women do not challenge
existing gender arrangements by gaining more economic power. The current
scenario reinforces the economic dominance of the men of these households,
and thus upholds women’s - and men’s - belief that this justifies their subordinate
position.
9
Statistical Appendices:
Table 1: Occupational profile of study respondents:
Total Workers
%
of
1103 Female % of 1171
Male
Occupation / Work_________
642
54.82
616
55.85
Cultivation_________________
477
40.73
390
35.36
Agricultural Wage Labour
49
4.18
49
4.44
Sericulture_________________
508
43.38
31.19
344
Dairy_____________________
248
21.18
12.87
142
Poultry___________________ _
193
16.48
12.78
141
Sheep and Goat rearing______
141
12.04
12.15
134
Skilled work / artisans_______
56
4.78
8.61
95
Vending / Business__________
213
18.19
361
32.73
Salaried employment________
2527
2272
Total_____________________
Mean no.t of occupations per
2.16
2.05
respondent
Table 2: Mean number of main and marginal cultivators by gender
Mean number of cultivators
Total
Main
Marginal
(>15 days labour
(<=15 days labour
contributed per month)
contributed per month)
405.08
_______ 200.00______________ 205.08
Men
402.25
_______
196.17
_______
_______ 206.08_______
Women
807.33
401.25
406.08
Total
Table 3: Male and fema e participation in cultivation by month
No. of women
No. of men
Month
491______
391
January
445
296
February
425______
271
March __
366______
280
April_____
277______
367
May_____
249______
520
June_____
291_______
506
July
344______
478
August
453
498______
September
497
452
October
478______
424
November
466______
423
December
4827
4861
TOTAL
10
Table 4: Gender differentials in agricultural wages (per day)
Female_____
Male_______
% of 477
No.
%
of
390
No.
Wages per day
0.84
4
0
<5___
58.28
278
15.38
60
5- 10
19.92
95
9.23
36
11 - 15
7.13
34
28.21
110
16-20
4.40
21
12.31
48
21-25
2.10
10
62
15.90
26-30
_____
3.14
15
5
1.28
31 -35
3.56
17
8
2.05
36-40
0.42
2
2
0.51
41 -45
7.18
28
46-50
0.26
_
1
51 -55
1
5.13
20
56-60
0.77
3
61 -65
1.28
5
66-70
0.26
1
71 -75
0.26
1
76-80
Table 5: Gender differentials in participation in exchange work
(“muyyalu”) in previous one year_______ _________________ __
Female reporting
Male reporting
No. of days of
% of 266
No% of 180
No.
exchange work
68.79
ISS
37.22
67
Upto 10 days
27 45
38.89
73
70
11-30 days_____
263
19.44
__ 7
35
31 - 60 days_____
1 13
3
4.45
8
> 60 days
Table 6: Gender differentials in income earned in previous one year from all
occupations / productive activities
Female reporting
Male reporting
% of 895
No.
% of 1057
No67.15
31.04
601
328
Upto 5,000
19.21
172
28.01
296
5,001 - 10,000
637
57
13.43
142
10,001 - 15,000
2.24
8.14
20
86
15,001 -20,000
1.79
5.29
16
56
20,001 - 25,000
3.24
14.09
29
149
> 25,000
11
Table 7: Income earned vs. work participation by gender
Non-eamers
Earners
Total
Workers
Male Female
%of
total
wrkrs
Female
%of
total
wrkrs
22.24
0 00
315
0
49.07
0.00
616
390
642
477
479
390
%of
total
male
wrkrs
77.76
100.00
Female
327
477
% of Male
total
fem.
wrkrs
50.93
137
0
100.00
45
241
88
107
91.84
70.06
61.97
75.89
36
222
108
64
73.47
43.70
43.55
33.16
4
103
54
34
8.16
29.94
38.03
24.11
13
286
140
129
26.53
56.30
56.45
66.84
49
344
142
141
49
508
248
193
145
108.21
117
82.98
-11
-8.21
24
17.02
134
141
99
104.21
50
89.29
-4
-4.21
6
10.71
95
56
361
100.00
204
95.77
0
0.00
9
4.23
361
213
Nature of
Work/
Activity
Male
Cultivation
Agricultural
labourers
Sericulture
Dairy
Poultry
Sheep and
Goat rearing
Skilled work /
family
occupation
Vending /
Business
Salary / wages
earned
12
I
CHAPTER V
CONTROL OVER INCOME
This section of the study was based vyasr^asbd on a similar set of hypotheses as
those in control over assets, with one significant difference: we assumed that the
majority of rural women do earn / contribute income to the household through
their free labour in family occupations, but do not have a corresponding degree
of control over either their own or the household income. Further, we wanted to
test the hypothesis that women have less control over their labour demonstrated in lower ability (all else being equal) to change their occupation
without the sanction of husbands and family members. We also wanted to
determine whether earning women have a better status because their economic
contribution gives them greater say in household decision-making. It was our
belief that earning wages or income does not a priori give women a better status,
since existing patriarchal conditioning and controls tend to ensure that women
surrender their control over their income to their husbands or family elders.
Household Income:
Firstly, nearly half of the households surveyed report total incomes below
Rs. 10,000 in the previous one year, which means that the annual per capita
income of half the study population was below the current poverty line of .
Rs. 11,800. At least half of the households in the Rs. 10,000 - 15,000 category,
would also fall below the poverty. Moreover, around 25% of households report
Rs.5,000 or less as their annual income, which places them in acute poverty,
since this is less than half the poverty line figure. The proportion of “below
poverty line” households in the study population is therefore much greater than
the official national figure of 35%. Further data analysis will be done to reveal
whether the women-headed households are clustered in this income category.
We will also examine the income distribution of women whose husbands have
migrated for work, and single women who live as dependents.
Examining the gender differences in reporting of household income, we find
these are not particularly significant, although in each category (except the
lowest), fewer women report their households as belonging to that cluster as
compared to men’s reports. It is hot clear whether this points to lower
awareness of household income among women, because of less control, since
women generally do not directly participate in many of the exchange
transactions that accrue income (such as marketing of agricultural produce). It
could also indicate a tendency on the part of men to slightly exaggerate income
to boost their status in the investigators’ eyes. However, our hypothesis that
there would be a much wider disparity in reporting of income between men and
women because of the awareness factor does not find strong support from the
data; it only holds true to the extent that more women (7.43%) than men (1.45%)
reported that they did not know what was the household income.
i
Table 1: Male-Female differentials in reporting of annual household income
Female Reporting
Male Reporting
Income Range
in Rupees
Cumulative %
28.1
28.1
329
283
25.7
<= 5,000
49.9
21.8
255
23.4
258
5,000 to 10,000
14.8
173
64.7
15 5
171
10,000 tol 5,000
9.5
74.2
111
11.5
127
15,000 to 20,000
81.8
89
7.6
74
6.7
20,000 to 25,000
85.9
48
4.1
3.8
42
25,000 to 30,000
48
4.1
90.0
7.3
81
30,000 to 50,000
2.7
92.7
31
4.6
51
= > 50,000
7.3
100.0
87
1.5
16
Don’t Know
100.0
1171
100.0
1103
Total
Note: annual income was reported by each respondent for the previous year.
No.
%
Cumula
tive %
25.7
49.1
64.6
76.1
82.8
86.6
93.9
98.5
100.0
No.
%
Deviation of
female
reporting
from male*
(% points)
+ 2.4
- 1.6
- 0.7
-2.0
- 0.9
- 0.3
- 3.2
- 1.9
In fact, the maximum difference in male and female reporting was in the higher
income range of Rs 30,000 to 50,000 (a male to female difference of 3.2
percentage points), and in the lowest income range of below Rs.5,000 (a
difference of 2.4 percentage points) This could indicate two trends: women of
poorer households are less likely than men to over-report income as a status
booster; and women of richer households have less role in wage-earning and
management of the entire household income, and hence less knowledge of the
actual figure However, we must be cautious not to over-interpret what are at
best minimal differentials.
Our first important
finding is depicted in
figure 1. The proportion
95.8%
[jMen
12001
of non-earning men is
s
■7,4 74.6%
□ Women
miniscule, while nearly
1000 '
one-fourth of the women
800
a>
respondents are non
-Q
E3 600
earners. This does not
23.6%
z
mean they do not work,
400
4.2%J
as the work participation
200
IF'
^7
data in Chapter 2
0
showed - it only means
Not Earning
Earning
that less women than
men get access to waged work, a finding that is well supported by the secondary
data.
Fig.1: Gender-wise distribution of earners and non-eamers
fl
* Percentage points
2
Control over Personal and Household Income:
The income section of the study also elicited information on gender differentials
in control over individual and household income. It should be noted that this data
has been analysed only for the 1057 men and 895 women who reported
themselves as earning income.
We postulate that control over income is asserted or lost right from the point
after receiving one's wages / earnings in hand; if it is customary to hand over
one’s earnings as soon as one is paid, one has little control over one’s income
even if some portion or most is subsequently returned to our hands for our
expenses. In other words, a notional or symbolic control over one’s earnings - or
equal status - is demonstrated by the right to retain income in our own hands,
even if it is going to be largely spent on family / household needs.
%
Fig.2: Gender Differentials in to whom earnings are
handed over
80.0 -r
70.0
« Female
60.0
i
50.0
■ Male
40.0
30 J)
20.0
10.0
9
0.0 -
H--------------------------f
No one
To father/
To husband /
father-in-law
wife
To
mother/moth
er-in-law
H“----------- 1
To others
Figure 2 shows that by this measure, only 30% of the earning women in our
sample do not hand over their wages to anybody after receiving them, while an
overwhelming 80% of the male earners retain control of their earnings at this
point Nearly 60% of earning women hand over their income to their husbands,
while less than 7% of the men hand over to their wives. Of the .(^remaining 10%
of the women earners, about half (nearly 5%) hand over their wages to a female
relative, and the other half to male relatives and others. Clearly, women’s
earnings are considered the husband’s or family / household’s property, whereas
men’s incomes are not treated this way.
The role of purchasing household needs confers, de facto, some degree of
control over household income It also means a certain decision-making power
vested in the person doing the purchasing for the household, and to that extent,
that individual’s status in the household Fig. 3 represents the pattern of
responses to the question ‘ Who buys the provisions for the house.
3
Fig. 3: Gender Differentials in reporting of who purchases of daily needs
70.0 T
T 10.0
60.0
5.0
50.0
0.0
o 40.0
o
o 30.0 -
-5.0
Q.
—«—Female difference
from male reporting
20.0
- -10.0
10.0
-15.0
-20.0
0.0
Self /
husband
Self I
wife
Self &
spouse
Father /
Fatherin-law
Mother f
Motherin-law
Other
Male
Relative
Other
Female
Relative
Others
The data in fig. 3 firstly show a relative consonance between male and female
responses about who does the purchasing of household needs, as in the case of
asset and income reporting. The highest disparity, interestingly, is in reporting
of “self by the male, versus “husband” by the female respondents. While about
65% of men claim they are the main purchasers, only 47% of the wives support
this claim - the differential here is more significant than we have seen in most
other reporting. Notwithstanding this, men - and mainly husbands of female
respondents - are clearly in charge of household purchases, suggesting that few
women have the right to make purchasing decisions Of the total of 1246
responses given by men, 1032 (82.83%) indicate that men (self, father and other
male relative) are primarily responsible for buying household provisions. Even
older women in the household, such as mothers and mothers-in-law, have little
role in this activity.
Table 2: Gender Differentials in Proportion of Income Contributed to
Household and Retained for Personal Use
Proportion of
Income
All/Almost all
3/4th_______
1/2_________
1/4 or less
Nothing____
Total
Contributed to Household
Women
____ Men
No.
%
No%
74.64
663
61.96
655
16.20
145
28.29
299
3.80
6.81
34
72
32
3.57
2.56
27
16
1.79
0 38
4
895
100.00
100.00
1057
Retained for Personal Expenses
____ Men
Women
No.
No.
%
%
1.62
32
3.57
17
1.04
0.89
23
11
6.24
36
4 02
66
59.03
205
22.90
624
32.07
599
66.93
339
100.00
895
100.00
1057
Table 2, and Figures 4 & 5, further illustrate the gender differentials in control
over income. Firstly, we see that although the percentage of women reporting
that they contribute all or almost all their income to household expenses is
greater than that of men, the difference is not as significant as might have been only around 12 percentage points. Nearly 62% (655) earning men and 75%
4
1 (668) earning
women contribute all
Fig.4: Proportion of Income Contributed to
or nearly all of their
Household by Gender
%
earnings to
80 j
70 V
household
60
expenses. Even the
—♦— Wten
50 ---percentage of men
—■—Women
40-----reporting that they
30-----contribute half, one20-----fourth or less of their
10---income is only
0---------- F—
—rmarginally higher, at
Nothing
1/4th or
Hatf
3/4th
All /
9.37%,
than their
less
almost
female cohort at
all
7.37%. These
figures virtually
mirror reporting of
Fig.5 : Proportion of Income Retained for Personal
the proportion of
Use by Gender
income retained for
%
personal use.
70 1
However, this
60----—♦—Men
seeming
50-----—■—Women
egalitarianism must
40-----be placed in the
30-----20-----context of the data in
10-----figures 2 & 3; even if
—i------------- 1
0
—i—
=*=
most men are
Nothing
1/4th or
Half
3/4th
All /
contributing the bulk
less
almost
of their earnings to
all
the households, they
do so while retaining
greater notional control, for two reasons: (a) they do not “hand over their wages
to their spouses/relatives as the women do; and (b) they have greater control
over the household s purchasing activity.
Table 3, below, brings out further layers of gender differences. It is interesting to
see that at one end of the scale, tne discrepancy between what respondents
report as retaining for their own personal expenses, and what they report the
spouse as retaining increases. 101 women report that their husband / male
relative retains all or almost all of his earnings for personal expenses, but only
17 men report this about themselves. Similarly, 82 men report about their
wife/female relative in this category, while only 32 \JVomen have said they retain
all or almost all of their earnings for personal use. The discrepancy for men
however is much greater. The perception of the 101 women in Table 3 who
report that their men retain a major part if not the whole of their income, may
reflect the fact that they do not receive or handle male wages
5
Table 3: Gender differentials in reporting of proportion of income retained
for personal use by spouse
n
Proportion retained Male reporting on spouses / Female reporting on spouses /
co-respondent
co-respondent___________
for personal
%
No.
%
No.
expenses
8.23
87
5.81
52
All
1.32
_____ 14
3.35
30
Almost all
5.77
6?
1.34
12
about 3/4th
11.83
125
1.68
15
About half
25.26
267
8.16
73
About 1/4th
20.53
217
21.23
190
Less than 1/4th
21.38
226
57.65
516
Nothing
5.68
60
0.78
7
DK
100.00
1057
100.00
__________________
895_________________________
Total
Note: personal expenses was defined as money spent on alcohol, betel nut, betel leaves,
tobacco, bangles, small savings, etc.
In the case of women however, an identical analysis may be incorrect. The 82
men who report that their wife/female relative retains all or nearly all of her
income for personal expenses, may actually be implying that she does not hand
over any part of her earnings to him, or ignoring the fact that she may be directly
spending the bulk of her income on the household’s needs. The noteworthy
aspect about the “Nothing” category is that the high male reporting (58%) of
women in this category may signify the male/cultural expectation that women are
not supposed to retain their earnings for personal use. And the data in Table 2
seems to indicate that most women meet this expectation.
As a further highlight to Table 3, it is useful to know that while only 11 of the
1171 women respondents said they consume alcohol, 230 men of the 1103 male
respondents - or 21 % - reported that they drink regularly. This was also
corroborated by the responses in the female questionnaire on husband’s / male
relative’s alcohol habits. Exactly 21 % of the women reported that their men
drink. This is well below what was hypothesized, and may indicate consistent
underreporting by both men and women due to their perception of drinking as
something socially undesirable. Our own field experiences and that of most
other grassroots activists working with women, and revenues from rural toddy
sales makes it hard to imagine that regular alcohol consumption by rural men is
as low as this!
Figures 6 & 7 , above, show that the gender differences in the desire for greater
control over income - both personal and household - are surprisingly low. Given
this, it is predictable that more women than men feel a need for greater control,
given that they are in fact experiencing less control over both.
6
Fig.7: Desire for greater control
Fig.6: Desire tor greater control
%
0/o
over personal income
over household income
60
60 —
50
so
40 it
40
30 -
30 -
20 -
—•—IVten
20 -
—■—Women
0—
No
—i—
Yes
WDm&n
10 —
10 —
0 No
—Men
Don't
Know
—f—
Yes
Don’t
Know
What is more intriguing is that nearly half the male respondents say they want
greater control. Perhaps this is because even though nearly 80% of male
earners (Table 2) do not hand over their income to anyone, the majority also
retain less than one-fourth of their income for their own use, and would like to
retain more. They may also want to have a greater say in household income
management, where a senior male of the household is the key decision-maker in
this respect.
Control over Changing Occupation:
Occupational mobility is a dream for most of the rural poor; while it is severely
constrained by education, skills, actual economic opportunities, and many other
factors, we believe that perceptions of the possibility of change, rooted in selfesteem and self-confidence, also play a constraining role even if all other factors
are controlled. Our hypothesis was that fewer women see themselves as having
an independent right to explore alternatives. The gender biases that are deeply
embedded in cultural and social constraints to decision-making are often hidden
beneath these material conditions.
Figure 8, gives us a glimpse of the kind of these engrained gender biases. The
question asked was “Whose permission would you need if you wanted to change
your occupation or, if you are not earning, to start earning?” While more than
three-fourths of the men who said they would like to make a change in their
occupation or type of employment reported that they would not need anyone’s
permission to make such a change, just under 20% of women felt they were
similarly free. Moreover, the majority of women (70%) said the spouse would be
key person whose permission would have to be sought, while less than
7
Fig.8: Male-female differentials in whose
pemnisaon required to change occupation
%
80 y
70
60
<rvue
SO
■ Ferrale
40
30
i
20
10
0-----
hb one’s
i--------- “--------- f-
■f------------------------- f-
Spouse’s
Mother/
Father/
father-in- mother-in-
law’s
-------------- (
Others’
law’s
a tenth of that number
(7%) of men felt they
would need the
spouse’s permission.
In fact, very few men
reported the need for
even the father’s or
other relative’s
consent. Clearly,
these are areas of
mobility and decision
making where women
are firmly under male
control, or at least
perceive themselves
to be under such
control.
60 i
50
40
o
Male
B - - Female
30
a?
Q.
20 ir..
10
0 --------------------- <---------------------*--------------------- 1--------Don't have
Don't know
Family
Lack of
Can't leave
skills I
how membeis alternatives
family
education
will not
occupation
permit
Don't have
the money
Don't have
contacts/
influence
Other
reasons
Figure 9 (above) shows that for those women who wanted to start earning or
change their occupation, lack of knowledge of how to go about it, lack of skills /
education, and familial permission were more significant factors than they were
for men. Interestingly, the lack of alternative opportunities in their environment
was seen as a barrier by an equal number of male and female respondents, as
was an inability to leave the family occupation. Significantly, more men than
women gave lack of resources as a major obstacle to change - does this reflect
a perception that a change of occupation is equal to upward mobility, and hence
requires money power either for self-employment in a lucrative trade or obtaining
a salaried job?
There were also significant gender differences in the “Other reasons” category:
while men have reported health problems, lack of support / help and family
8
problems, women identified “lots of housework”, having very young children to
look after, and indebtedness to current employer in the “Others” category. This
data will be regressed with caste in further analysis to check whether caste plays
a key role in perceptions about occupational mobility.
Membership in Unions / Workers Organisations:
The capacity to organise and exert some negotiating power over one’s wages
and working conditions is also an important dimension of control over labour and
income. We therefore examined the gender differences in membership and
participation in unions and worker organisations (if any) at the workplace, and in
knowledge of the existence of such fora.
There was no gender differential - in percentage terms - between male and
female reporting of the existence of a union or workers’ organisation in the place
of work 177 men (16% of all male
respondents) and 198 women (nearly
Fig.10: Whether Unions exist in
17% of all female respondents) reported
workplace (male reporting)
that there is a union or organisation of
workers active in their place of work /
Yes
occupation. Figures 10 & 11 show that
16%
even of those having access to a union,
only about 49% were members.
Furthermore, there is a telling gender gap
between men and women in membership:
about 40% of the women were members,
84%
as opposed to nearly 60% of the men.
Obviously, the opportunity cost of
participating in unions if higher for women
than
men, given their responsibilities and
Women - 40%
gender barriers: for suggest gender
specific barriers for e g. 22 women
ascribed their non-membership to house
work and lack of time, 19 said that they
didn’t know how to join, 6 didn’t have
permission or were not allowed by elders /
Men -60%
husband, and as many as 38 women said
“I don’t want to join” (Manage Ishta Ilia) perhaps connoting participation in such
public activities as undesirable for women. Men, in contrast, have given very
different reasons for non-membership: 5 men say that they don’t have time, 5
say that they don’t see any need or it is of no use, 3 have said “I do not have the
money”, and 4 claimed they were not been given membership (though whether
they sought it or not is unclear). For further analysis, it may be useful to cross
the data on union participation with NGO intervention, caste, and occupation
■
9
(e g., how many agricultural labourers are in unions?) Examining regional
variation may also be useful.
Savings:
Finally, we examined savings patterns as a final dimension of control over
income, on the assumption that those who are able to save money are
exercising some degree of control over their personal - and household - income,
and have greater economic security than those who don’t. This section explored
male-female differentials in types of savings institutions, in whose names
savings were done, and who possessed life insurance, which is being
increasingly promoted in rural areas as form of saving and social security.
Fig.12: Respondents
having savings in own
name by gender
men
43%
Less than 200 male respondents and 200 female
respondents reported that they had savings in
some form barely one-fifth of the sample.
Savings were being done in their own names or
in their children's names. 194 women reported
having savings in their own names in women’s
groups, chit funds, etc., in comparison to just 144
men.
women
57%
Among the respondents reporting saving
regularly, more were doing so in their daughters’
names than sons. For instance, 50 women and 14 men had postal savings
accounts and 19 women and 18 men had bank savings accounts in the
daughters’ names In contrast, only 40 women and 7 men had postal accounts
and 9 women and 10 men had bank savings in their sons’ names. This
obviously reflects anticipation of heavy expenses for the marriage and dowry of
the daughters - a concern they would not have for their sons. Overall, however,
it is interesting that whether for sons or daughters, women are clearly more
concerned and motivated to save money for their children than men, despite
having far less control over their personal or household income.
There are also interesting gender differentials in the form of savings institution
preferred, as figure 13 (next page) shows Clearly, women have greater access
to or prefer informal savings institutions like the chit fund or women’s savings &
credit groups (usually run by local NGOs). Banks were more popular with men,
obviously because men have less constraints on their time and mobility, and do
not face gender discrimination in these institutions (though caste or class
discrimination may be present), making banks more accessible to men.
10
Fig. 13: Gender-wise distribution by form of savings
80 -i
□Women
70
□ Men
60
E
50
75
73
72
54
46
S ’’
at
o 40
J
a>
30
27
28
W
20
!£
^7
0
Bank
29
—-
^5^'7
10
25
. —
f
Post
Chit
Savings
Office
Fund
Group
Other
209 respondents (barely 10% of all
respondents) had life insurance in
their own name, with a marked male
180 -rfemale difference. Only 23%, or 48
160
• Female
of these were women.
140
■ Male
120
Unsurprisingly, given the trends we
& 100
E 80
have seen in knowledge of income
□
z 60
and assets, men had a more
40
accurate
knowledge of their spouses’
20
0 j------------------------------ 1
possessing life insurance policies
Spouse
Self
than women. Whereas 161 men
reported having insurance in their
names, women reported just 97 spouses in this category; on the other hand, 48
women reported possessing insurance in their names, and 44 men confirmed
this. A handful of households only had purchased life insurance for sons and
daughters - 58 and 59 households respectively.
Fig.14: Gender differentials in reporting
of life insurance
1
Conclusions:
The data in this section strongly supports our hypothesis that women have less
control over their income and labour than men. Although the majority of the
households were poor, and below the poverty line, more men than women retain
a larger share of their income for their personal expenses, though it is not
possible at this stage to say whether the nearly 30% of men who retain onefourth or more of their earnings for personal use come from affluent households.
Very few women feel that they can change their occupation or go out and start
earning without someone else’s sanction - particularly the husband’s.
n
We have also seen that a large number of women earn wages and participate in
income-earning activities, most of them either hand over their earnings to a male
relative or reliquish their control over their income Very few of them exercise
much control over the disposal of household income insofar as purchasing
household needs is predominantly done by men.
There are hardly any gender disparities in union membership, but a miniscule
number have access to these. The barriers to women's participation in these,
even where they exist, show the impact of the gender-based division of labour,
particularly in domestic work and child care. Finally, few people have the means
to save regularly. Of those that do, women typically seem to be taking greater
responsibility, probably from their own meagre income.
12
Chapter Appendices:
Table 4: Gender Differentials in whether earnings are handed over
Whether earnings
are handed over
to anybody_______
No______________
Yes, to husband
Yes, to Father-in-law
Yes to Mother-in-law
Other Male relative
Other Female
relative___________
To Others_________
Total
Female
530
25
35
18
13
%
30.13
59.26
2.79
3.91
2.01
1.45
4
895
0 45
100.00
No.
270
Whether earnings
are handed over
to anybody______
No_____________
Yes, to Wife_____
Yes, to Father
Yes to Mother
Other Male relative
Other Female
relative_________
To Others_______
Total
Male
No.
839
63
74
46
27
5
___ 3
1057
%
79.38
5.96
7.00
4.35
2.55
0.47
0.28
100.00
Table 5: Gender differentials in who purchases household needs
Persons
Purchasing:
________ Ma e
No. of
responses
%
_______Female
No. of
%
responses__
250
__ 19.3
64.0
797
Self________________
601
__ 46.3
9.4
117
Spouse_____________
160
__ 12.3
8.3
103
Self and spouse______
79
__ 6.1
4.5
56
Mother / Mother-in-law
63
__
4.9
6.4
80
Father / Father-in-law
5.3
69
__
4.2
52
Other Male Relative
33
__
2.5
2.2
27
Other Female Relative
42
__
3.2
14
1.1
Others______________
1297
100.0
1246
100.0
Total Responses_____________
Note: since there was more than one response allowed for this question, the totals do not
represent households or respondents, but the total of all responses
13
Chapter 6
Access to Credit
When we consider access to public resources, credit and institutions providing
credit are a key resource. Women's lack of access to credit, particularly from
formal institutional sources, has been well documented in India, and has been
connected to their lack of assets for collateral. In recognition of credit as an
important determinant of economic mobility and status, public sector banks,
funding agencies, and NGOs have all undertaken credit programmes targetted
at poor rural women, with the objective of enhancing women’s access to both
production and consumption loans and hence strengthening their economic
position.
Fig.1: Gender break-up of
borrowers
Women
33%
(249)
Men
67%
(517)
■■
In this section of the study, therefore, we
wanted to explore women’s access to credit
relative to men, and discover if there were
any gender-based differences in borrowing
patterns. The data elicited in this section is
highly complex and needs further processing
and analysis. Here we present only some of
the preliminary findings.
A total of 766 respondents reported having
taken loans in their names; 249 of these
were women, and 517 were men. This
means that 47% or nearly half of all male respondents had accessed credit from
different sources, while only 21% of all female respondents had done so. It
should be noted that this is not a picture of current indebtedness, but a record of
past and present borrowings.
1--'. • '.
Fig.2 illustrates interesting differences in patterns of male and female borrowing
by purpose. While agricultural purposes account for the largest number of loans
taken by men, self-employment has a slight edge in the case of women, although
women have also borrowed very often for agricultural operations. In fact, the
percentage of men and women who have taken loans for agriculture is nearly the
same (39.85% for men and 40.56% for women). In contrast, the number of loans
taken for self-employment by women are almost a third more than men’s
borrowing for this purpose: this could be because of the large number of loan
schemes operated especially by NGOs and targetted at rural women, as part of
their economic development programmes for women. The proportion of loans
taken for marriages is surprisingly low - possibly because the majority of the
surveyed respondents are younger parents, and few have as yet encountered
this need.
1
III
nn
i ii in' -
“■■iiTrii
lii' ' I I
'
I
III 1
i
r
Table 3: Male-female differentials in source of loans and range of
borrowings
Male
Source of Ioan
No. of
respondents
118
83
26
292
Range of
borrowings
100-55,000
200 - 40,000
100- 71,000
500->1 lakh
Large farmer
Landlord / employer
Moneylender
Bank / Financial
Institution___________
4,000 -25,000
24
Govt. Scheme(s)_____
1.000 - 43,000
28
NGO
400 - 25,000
6
Savings & credit group
200-7,000
7
Chit Fund___________
200 - 60,000
87
Friends / Relatives
100-50,000
33
Other Source/s_____________________
Female
No. of
Range of
respondents
borrowings
37
100- 50,000
26
300- 10,000
8
150- 15,000
84
800 - 40,000
9
94
20
4
66
7
300-15,000
700 - 80,000
50- 11,000
100-3,000
90 - 25,000
300 - 20,000
Note: We cannot cross-tabulate purpose of loan with source since the questionnaire didn’t provide for this.
5
Chapter 7
Access to Education
The hypotheses underlying this section of the study were fairly straightforward:
we expected to find major biases against women and girls in access to
schooling, continuing education opportunities, and literacy. The literature in this
area is extensive1, so we also attempted to explore less documented dimensions
of the problem, such as parents’ perception of the necessary level of education
for boys and girls, and inter-generational changes in attitudes to girls’ education,
if any.
Schooling history
Fig.1: Schooling history of respondents by
sex
. 63%
No.
*
Figure 1 shows that only
37% of all female
respondents reported
59°/
8OO-1
having gone to school in
their childhood,
600
compared to 59% of all
400
male respondents. This
No schooling
37O
4
means just under half
200
(47%) of all the
Schooled
respondents had ever
Men
attended school.
.
Women
Further, of all schooled/
respondents, only 40% were women. This compares unfavourably with the
state’s official gross enrolment ratios for the present generation of school age
boys and girls, which stands at over 100%. It is also well below the proportion of
school-age girls and boys from the surveyed households who are reported to be
attending school - viz., 69% and 74% respectively (Chapter 2) - an encouraging
sign of growing awareness and demand for education.
n
V
Z
Fig. 2 (next page) shows very little gender differential in the reasons cited by
unschooled men and women for their lack of schooling. Interestingly, the gender
gap is exactly the same - 9% - for the factors of parental poverty, attitudes, and
lack of access to a school, and even less for the other factors. But it must be
borne in mind that these data must read against the context presented in figure
1 -In other words, the factors mitigating against schooling have worked more
strongly against women than men, otherwise the number of unschooled men and
women would be roughly equal to begin with, which is not the case. It also
interesting to speculate as to why more women than men cited lack of desire to
go to school - is this in fact an expression of the internalised belief that school is
1 See Chapter 2 of Part II of this report, “Educational Status of Women in Karnataka".
1
unimportant for girls, or evidence of the insensitivity of school systems and
teachers to the girl child, so that school was viewed more unfavourably by
them2? Similarly, cultural constraints on the mobility of girls may also be
reflected in the larger
number of women who
Fig.2: Difference of female reporting from
have reported that there
male of reasons for lack of schooling
was no school in their
10 T
natal village, or that the
6.25
5school was too far.
0 -
As would be expected in
such a population, the
major reason cited by
-9.03
9 03
.w^903
respondents who had
□stance /
Help with
Parents’
Parental
No
not gone to school
lack
of
work
poverty
attitude
desire
school
(Fig.3) was their parents’
poor economic status 73% of unschooled men and 64% of unschooled women gave this explanation.
The second major cause was parental lack of awareness and attitudes to
education, especially for girls - and for obvious reasons, more women (26%)
than men (19%) cited this. The need for their labour at home or on the farm was
the third major reason cited.
-3.15
-5 -
Apart from these five key factors, the other reasons cited by 47 women for not
going to school are illuminating: (a) absence or death of either or both parents;
(b) having to take care of younger siblings; and (c) the need to start earning an
income. Other
reasons cited by 53
Fig.3: Distribution of respondents by reasons for
men included death of
lack of schooling
parent/s and the need
80 -r . ....
to earn income; being
70 4 <
I ♦— Men
go
given in bonded
—■—Women
50
labour was also
40
mentioned by two
30
men.
20
10
0------Parents’
poverty
—I—
—i—
To explore the role of
gender in the
respondents'
educational history a
little further, we asked
men and women if any of their siblings had not attended school - i.e., if the men
had a sister who had not been sent to school, and
if the women had a
brother who had not been sent to school. While only 50 women respondents
Had to
help
with
work
Parents
apathy /
attitude
No
desire
Distance
I lack of
school
2 The recently introduced District Primary Education Project has placed a major emphasis on re
training of teachers to avoid gender-based abuses and biases against girl children, in recognition
of this reality.
2
said the had a brother in this category, an overwhelming 589 men said at least
one of their sisters had not been sent to school. The gender bias in access to
school among the surveyed respondents was thus a more generalised trend in
their natal families.
Figs. 4 & 5 help us make some interesting comparisons of the levels of
education attained by male and female respondents. Fig. 4, comparing levels for
all those respondents who did go to school, shows little gender gap. Almost an
equal proportion
of schooled men
Fig.4: Male-female differentials in level of education of
and women did
all schooled respondents
not
go past the
%
35 -r
4th standard; of
4 % of all schooled
30
males
(647)
those who did,
i
”
4 28
4 28
25
1" 26
■ %of all schooled
the gap between
females
(432)
17
men and women
20
V 17
at higher levels
15
8
is not only low,
10
|7
as
•68
but
the propor
5
t5
7
4
tion of women
------- h
--------- 1------------- 4---------------------r ------------------f.
0--4who attained
PUC/
Degree
Matricu
4th Std.
Sth to 7tti 8th to 9th
Less than
diploma
lation
higher schooling
Std.
Std.
4th
and completed
matriculation
Fig.5: Male-female differentials in level of education of
actually exceeds
schooled respondents as proportion off all respondents
men. This shows
%
18 y
clearly that
4 schooled
♦ 17
♦ 16
16
when
women
men as %of
14
all men
are permitted to
12
* 12
study beyond
■ schooled
* 10
10 i 10
women as %
primary school,
8
of all women
■6
their chances of
6T
completing
4T
2
school are very
0 -4-------------------- F ------------ 1------------------- 4--------------------- h -------- f. -------------F ------------ 1
high. However,
Degree
PUC/
Matricu
Sth to 7tii 8th to 9th
4th Std.
Less than
it is important to
diploma
lation
Std.
Std
4th
once again
emphasise that
the absolute numbers of schooled women is far below that of men.
i:
i:
This difference comes out more clearly in Fig.5, showing the levels of education
of schooled respondents as a proportion of all respondents. Here, we see that
the gender gaps are much more visible. Only half as many women as men got a
chance to complete lower primary school; only two-third as many did upper
primary and matriculation; and thereafter, the proportion of women in higher
education is only around half as much as men.
3
Fig. 6, showing the key reasons for dropping out of school for those who had not
completed their schooling, brings out further gender differentials.
%
80
70
60
50
40
30
Fig.6: Male-female differentials in reasons for dropping
out of school as proportion of all drop-outs
“Tsr
♦ 68
B 54
i 44
♦ %of female
drop-outs (312)
■ %of male drop
outs (458)
■ 45
■ 18
♦ 14
J 14 ♦ 11
*
♦ 9
10
------------- t------------- 1-------------- 1------------- 1-------------- »------------- »----- *------ f------------ v
0 Other
Parents Work at Parents Marriage Personal Coming School Had to
start
reasons
poverty home I attitude
dislike of age too far
earning
on farm
20
51,
Firstly, there are
two factors
unique to
women marriage and
coming of age,
which account
for 14% and
11 % of the
women who
dropped out of
school.
Similarly, factors like parental attitude (viz., that girls should not study too much)
and distance of the school have mitigated more strongly against women than
men, while poverty, the need to start earning wages, and providing labour at
home or on the farm have worked more against men However, male drop-outs
reported twice as many reasons as women, which appears to show that girls are
more likely to be taken out of school because of their gender, while a
combination of factors must come into play for boys to be similarly withdrawn.
When scanning Fig. 6, it is also worth noting that the proportion of male drop
outs to all men who attended school and female drop-outs to all women who
attended is almost equal - viz., 71% and 72% respectively.
Access to Adult Literacy:
In the past five years, the Total Literacy Campaign (TLC) has been implemented
with much fanfare in most educationally backward districts of Karnataka. TLC
gave the mobilization of illiterate
women
into literacy classes a
Fig. 7: Gender-wise proportion of
very high priority. However,
respondents who have attended
among the survey respondents,
adult literacy classes
the proportion of those who have
%
attended Adult Literacy classes
100.00
is dismal: just 8% of male and
80.00
female respondents - an equal
60.00
proportion - reported having
40.00
Female
attended literacy classes.
20.00
District-wise analysis will reveal
Male
0.001
whether even these are largely
No
Yes
concentrated in the the Mahila
Samakhya areas, where
vigorous motivation especially of women learners was undertaken by the MS
programme.
4
Perception of Desirable Level of Education for Boys and Girls:
Given their own schooling history and poor access to education, we explored
whether men and women respondents attitudes to the desirable level of
education for present-day boys and girls had changed, or would reflect their own
experience in any way. We consciously did not ask this question with reference
to their own
Fig.8: Male respondents' perception of desirable
sons and
education level for girlsand boys
daughters,
43
believing that
45
-|
36
40
their
responses
□ Girls
35
would then be
30
■ Boys
22
■
25
influenced by
20
factors like
15
ant!
6
10
4
3
1 2
affordability.
5
J3—
0
Our goal was to
Upto
Upto
Upto
Upto
As
As per
Till
Till
Others
Upto
get at their
PUC Degree much family coming marriPrimary Middle SSLC
normative
as they means of age
age
want
attitude, not the
reality, which
Fig.9: Female respondents' perception of desirable
had already
%
education level for girlsand boys
been estab
50
46
lished by the
45
43
□ Girls
40
data on the
35
■ Boys
proportion
of
30
25
25
20
peligible boys and
17
20
girls
from their
15
9
8
7
5
10
4 6
households who
3
4
!
1 2
0
nt
5
were
actually in
,n
"r1—r-1—** 4 1—"
0
i
school. This
As per
Till
Till
Others
Upto Upto Upto
As
Upto
Upto
Primary Middle SSLC
PUC Degree much family coming mani
was thus a
age
as they means of age
perception
want
question, testing
what they thought was desirable in an ideal world, if all else was equal. It is also
important to mention the way the questions were sequenced: the desirable level
of education for girls was asked first, so that respondents would address this
issue frankly, without being inhibited or aware of any inconsistency between
their answers for boys, which was asked next. Thus, if anything, their responses
for boys might have been influenced by what they said for girls, and not the
other way around. The results are presented in figures 8 and 9, above.
15
B 13l 16
nL ni, II, ^1,1,1,^
First of all, it is interesting to see that as far as basic schooling is concerned, the
largest percentage of men and women - and an equal percentage of both - agree
that girls must complete their matriculation. Almost three times as many hold
this view for girls compared to boys. This is partly because a significant
proportion of both men and women perceive a PUC or degree-level education as
5
necessary for boys; it is also because a large percentage of both genders
believe boys should have the choice of studying up to whatever level they wish a choice only half as many would give girls.
We also see that in the case of girls, there is a significant difference between the
views of the men and women in only one category, but a most telling one:
almost twice as many women (25%) as men (13%) think girls should study ‘'as
much as they want"; this could indicate the women’s resentment of the lack of
opportunity to study in their own childhood, as well as the impact of the growing
awareness of women’s equal right to education created by both government and
NGOs through mass campaigns like the TLC. For boys, more men (16%) seem
to feel the level of education should depend on the family’s economic ability than
women (8%); and fewer men (36%) than women (46%) believe that boys should
study "as much as they want”. Again, since much of the campaigning for literacy
and school enrolment has been targetted at women (especially in NGO areas),
this could reflect women’s perception that the family should make sacrifices to
ensure education for their children. There are no other significant gender
differences in perceptions of the desirable level of education for boys and girls.
Conclusions:
The well-established bias against women’s schooling and education has been
reiterated by the results of the study. Far more women respondents than men
did not get an opportunity to go to school in their youth. Controlling for this
factor, we did not find signficant gender differentials in the level of education
attained, or the reasons for dropping out. A disappointingly small proportion had
accessed adult literacy classes. On the other hand, most of the men and
women showed a positive attitude to the educational needs of present day boys
and girls, though a bias in favour of boys for higher education still operates.
6
Statistical Appendices
Table 1: Schooling history by gender
____ Males
%
No.
Schooling history
58.65
647
Went to school
41.35
456
Did not go to school
100.00
1103
Total
___ Females
No.
%
36.89
432
63 11
739
1171
100 00
Table 2: Reasons for not being sent to school by gender
Female
Male
% of 456
No.
% of 739
NoReason_________________________
473
64.00
333
73.03
Parents could not afford it__________
29.36
22.37
217
102
Parents were not wise______________
126
17.05
44
9.65
Parents did not believe in education/ in
girls studying_____________________
29
3.92
6
1.32
No school in the village_____________
48
6.50
2.85
13
School was too far________________
36.54
270
181
39.69
Too much work at home/ had to help
parents/mother___________________
15.02
111
______
40
8.77
I did not_______________________
want to go
Note: No totals are given since more than one reason could be cited by each respondent
Table 3: Level of education of those who attended school, by gender
Female
Male
%of
No.
%of
%of
%of
No.
Level of education
432
1171
1103
647
16.68
25.46
9.39
110
28.44
184
Less than 4th Std._____
6.94
2
56
4
44
30
7.57
Completed 4th Std.
49
31.48
11.61
16.32
136
27.82
180
Sth to 7th Std________
8.33
3.07
4.08
36
6.96
45
Sth to 9th Std.________
74
17.13
6.32
9.88
16.85
Completed Matriculation
1Q9
6.25
2.31
4 44
27
7.57
Completed PUC /
49
diploma_____________
3.47
1.28
4 64
2.72
15
Completed degree
__ 30
0.34
0.09
0.93
__
4
0.15
Other (s)____________
___ 1_
100.00 100.00
1171
100.00 100.00
1103
Total
7
Table 4: Reasons for dropping out of school by gender
"I
Female______________
No.
% of all female
No.
Reasons for
drop-outs
dropping out
(312)_______
Male________
% of all male
drop-outs
(458)
7991
6.11
67.63_______ 366
211
Parents not afford______
28
14.42
45
Family did not believe I
should / girls should study
too much_____________
17.90
82
13.78
43
Personal dislike________
2.62
9.30
12
29
School too far_________
247
53.93
44.23
138
Work at home_________
207
45 20
9.29
29
Had to start earning_____
7.86
36
2.88
9
Other reasons_________
11.22
35
Coming of age_________
14.42
45
Marriage_______________________
Note. No totals are given since more than one reason could be cited by each respondent
Table 5: Male and female respondents perception of level of education
desirable for girls
____ Female
Male
Desirable level of
No.
%
%
Noeducation_________
2.65
6.26
31
69
Upto Primary_______
8.54
8.70
96
100
Upto Middle________
42.53
498
43.34
478
Upto SSLC________
4.01
5 17
47
57
Upto PUC/DIP.
6.92
81
8.70
96
Upto Degree_______
24.68
289
12.96
144
As much as they wish
5.38
6.62
63
73
As per family means
3.50
4.08
41
45
Till she comes of age
0.85
2.72
__ 10
30
Till marriage_______
0.94
1.45
__ 11
16
Others____________
100.00
100.00
1171
1103
Total
Table 5: Male and female respondents perception of level of education
desirable for boys
____ Female
Male
Desirable level of
No.
%
No.
I
%
education_________
0.43
0.91
___ 5
10
Upto Primary_______
1.02
1.54
__
12
17
Upto Middle________
16.91
14.59
198
161
Upto SSLC________
5.64
7.62
66
84
Upto PUC/DIP.
19.90
22.03
233
243
Upto Degree_______
45.60
534
393
__ 35.63
As much as they wish
8.45
16 05
99
177
As per family means
2.05
1.63
__ 24
18
Others____________
100.00
100.00
1171
1103
Total
8
)
Chapter 8
Marriage
Marriage is one of the key social institutions where patriarchal ideology is deeply
embedded, and through which not only is women’s sexuality and reproduction
controlled, but their autonomy restricted, and familial assets like land are
retained and increased In the Indian context, cultural practices around marriage
testify to their patriarchal mission in both subtle and gross ways - from child
marriage to the social ostracism and marginalisation of widows; most of all, the
evil of dowry, that ultimate symbol of women’s low status in society, is spreading
perniciously even into regions and communities which only decades earlier had
practiced bride-price. In Karnataka, uncle-niece and cousin marriages are also
highly prevalent as a means of consolidating and protecting family assets. In
this section, therefore, we attempted to explore the differential status of men and
women in marriage through several hypotheses:
•
•
•
•
•
•
That the practice of early and post-puberty marriage of girls is still widely
prevalent in rural areas, though men marry at a later age;
That the age-gap between bride and groom is kept wide to ensure that wives
brides submit to the authority of older husbands;
That there is little awareness, much less observance, of the legal age of
marriage for women and men;
That there is a preference for women to marry maternal and paternal
relatives;
That neither women nor men have much say in choice of partner; and
That the practice of dowry has increased inter-generationally.
Age at Marriage:
A dishearteningly high proportion of women in the sample - totally 65% - were
married below the legal age of 18, compared to only around 33% of men who
were married before
Fig.1: Age at marriage of male and female
the legal male age of
%
respondents
21 (Fig.1). Worse,
45 q
Male
around 22% of the
40 Female
women were married
35
32
30
below 13 years of
26
25
age - which is the
20
18
average age of
15
15
menarche in rural
10
7
4,
areas; and 42.87%
"X 3
1
___ 4 4
5"
1
-- I---- 1----- 1--0J
----- ■ 0
were married
13 to 17 18 to 22 23 to 27 28 to 32 After 32
Before 8 8 to 12
between 13-17
1
years. This is in stark contrast to the men, nearly 76% of whom married
between the ages of 18 and 27 years; in fact 44% married between 18 and 22
The vast number of women who were married before menarche is further
illustrated in Fig.2. It will be interesting to further disaggregate the pattern of
pre-menarche marriages in
women by district, since the
Fig.2: Distribution of female
secondary data shows clearly
respondents by whether
that the trend toward early
marriage is highest in the north
married pre- or post-menarche
Karnataka districts of Bijapur and
Raichur, with districts like
y^pre-menarche
Kodagu and Dakshina Kannada
having achieved a female mean
. 34%^^^--—
age at marriage of 22 years1. It
will also be useful to regress this
data with caste and income.
.I
As Fig.3 shows, almost one-third
--------------------------------------------------------- of the women respondents got
married within 2 years of attaining puberty and nearly 60% of women
respondents got married within 4 years of attaining puberty - which, given the
average menarche age of around
13-14 years, means that most of
Fig.3: Women married postthe
women were married before
menarche by no. of years after
the legal age of 18. The
menarche at which they
encouraging sign, on the other
married
hand, is the significant proportion
>7 yrs
1 - 2 yrs
of women who married well after
23%
31%
puberty, and probably after the
legal age.
The anxiety to get daughters
married soon after they come of
5- 6 yrs
X 'A /
3-4 yrs
age is rooted in the ideology that
18%
28%
women’s sexuality cannot be
expressed outside marriage - i.e.t
outside the control of one man. The loss of “chastity” or pregnancy before
marriage, reduces a woman’s marriagability and she becomes a scourge on the
natal family. Early marriage is also meant to ensure that girls prove their fertility
very early - critical in a society where women’s role and social value, and hence
status, is largely centered on reproduction. We also see how this might have
affected women’s opportunity to continue or complete their schooling, or delay
the age of motherhood. This pattern of early marriage and childbirth is also a
leading cause of India’s high maternal mortality rate (one of the highest in the
1 See Chapter 1 of Part I of this report, “The Demographic and Health Status of Women in
Karnataka”.
2
world), since a very high percentage of first births occur in the high-risk age
group of below 18 years, when the body is not yet fully ready for childbirth.
Laws against child marriage
and early marriage have
been enacted precisely to
address this problem,
among others. However,
lack of awareness of these
statutes, compounded by
lack of enforcement, renders
them of little value. Table 1
shows that the level of
awareness of the legal age
of marriage for women is
relatively well known, but
the proportion of women
having this information (just
under 40%) is lower than
the corresponding proportion of men (just under 50%). Less than one-fourth of
the respondents said they did not know the legal age for either women or men.
Table 1: Male-female differentials in knowledge of
legal age of marriage for women and men______
Female reporting
Legal age
Male reporting
%
No.
No.
for women
%
39.54
463
49.50
546
18 years
13.49
158
126
11.42
< 18 years
22.37
262
191
17.32
>18 years
24.59
288
240
21.76
Don’t Know
1171
100.00
1103
100.00
Total
Female reporting
Legal age
Male reporting
%
No.
for men
No.
%
19.81
232
319
28.92
21 years
12.55
147
140
12.69
< 21 years
42.19
494
36.54
403
> 21 years
25.45
298
241
21.85
Don’t Know
100.00
1171
1103
100.00
Total
Interestingly, both male and female knowledge of the legal age of marriage for
women is higher than their awareness of the figure for men. For instance, as
many as 36.54% of male and 42.19% of female respondents believed that the
legal age of marriage for men is more than 21 years. On the plus side, only a
minority of respondents, with very little gender differential, gave the legal age for
either women or men as lower than it is - i.e., as less than 18 years for women
and less than 21 years for men. It is also intriguing that a higher percentage
(22%) of female respondents when compared to male respondents (17%) have
reported that the legal age of marriage for women is higher than 18 years - this
could be due to the generally lower awareness of the legal facts among women,
so that they could err both ways.
Having examined the respondents’ own age at marriage, as well as their
knowledge of the legal age limits, we explored whether these have any influence
on the age at which they would get their daughters married. This question was
constructed carefully: firstly, it was not asked of those who had unmarried
daughters of any age (even toddlers); secondly, the question was framed as a
hypothetical, viz.: “If you could decide at what age to get your daughter married,
without anyone else interfering in the decision, what age would you prefer?”
This was to ensure that the respondents’ answers were as unfettered as
possible by what they believed was acceptable to other family members or
society at large. The answers are presented in Fig.4, below, and present an
unedifying picture.
3
Firstly, even though nearly 52% of the female respondents had married before
the age of 16, only 23% felt this was what they would choose for their daughters;
in fact, a higher proportion of men (30%) chose this option for their daughters.
Although 33.7% of the women respondents were married before menarche, 97%
reported that they would
get their daughter
Fig.4: Gender differentials in at what age they would
get daughters married if they had a real choice
married after menarche if
%
56
60 -----left to themselves.
—,52“"..... .
50
Encouragingly, the
□ Male
40
majority
of respondents
O Fem ale
27
H
30
have expressed a
22
20 18
20
preference for getting
10
their daughters married
2 1
1 3-----i t^twesj
H—1=
•I—----0
+
after the legal age of 18 Other
After 18
Between
Before
Soon after
and
more women (56%)
responses
16&18
menarche
menarche
than men (52%) have
articulated this. On the other hand, around one-fourth of the respondents have
still opted for “soon after menarche” as their choice. District-wise analysis will
reveal whether the preference for early female marriage predominates in those
districts (such as Bijapur and Raichur) where the secondary data show this
trend2.
n
ft
B
Kinship of Spouses:
Consanguinous marriages, especially on the mother’s side, were considered the
first choice by many South Indian communities, particularly among poorer
families - ostensibly because the girl would be well-treated and looked after,
especially if her mother-in-law is also her grandmother. However, they were
also motivated by economic reasons - dowry and bride-price could be
minimised, or sometimes avoided altogether.
Our hypothesis that a large proportion of marriages are consanguinous has
— been proven, since
42% of women
Ftg.5: Women in consanguinous marriages by
reported that their
relationship of husband before marriage
%
husbands
were related
30
to them in some way
25
25
26
20
before marriage. Fig.
21
15
5 shows that of those
16
10
? women who have had
11
5
-------j-------------------- L_
sa---------+
<■ ■ consanguinous
' 0
Other
Paternal
Other
Mother's
Maternal
marriages, the largest
paternal
aunt's
maternal
uncle's
brother
proportion have
relative
son
relative
son
married relatives on
the maternal side - 58%. The maternal uncle and other maternal relatives are the
’
-
•
-----------------------------
....................................... ............... ....................................................... ;
'
<
2 See Part I, Chapter 1 of this report, “Demographic and Health Status of Women in Karnataka”.
4
prime candidates in this category. Paternal aunt's son or other paternal relative
account for another hefty chunk of consanguinous marriages. Again, it will be
useful to look at district-, caste- and income-wise variations in this context.
Choice of Partner.
In most of rural India, the custom of arranged marriage is still the norm, although
cases of marriage by choice - that too cutting across caste, class and community
lines - are growing in number. However, we have a long way to go before
personal choice marriages become the norm. Given this, we nevertheless
wanted to examine the relative degree of control exercised by the surveyed men
and women in their
Fig.6: Male-female differentials in whether
marriages, using the
they consented to the choice of partner
proxy of whether they
had been given the
„ . 89
69
right to approve or
1001
reject the partners
31
QNo
chosen by their
o/
50
/o
11
□ Yes
parents - i.e., whether
their consent had been
feSH ,
0
even nominally taken
Female
Male
before the marriage
was performed. As
figure 6 indicates, while the majority of both male and female respondents
reported that their consent had been taken, nearly thrice as many women (31 %)
as men (11%) reported that they had not been consulted at all about the partner
chosen for them to marry.
5/.
Dowry and Bride Price:
The penetration of the dowry custom even into groups which never knew this
practice traditionally is a very disturbing trend, as is the growing incidence of
violence against women in the context of dowry3. While dowry-related violence
has not been well-documented in rural areas in Karnataka, this tends to give a
false picture, as though such incidents are non-existent or rare. What is perhaps
more widely accepted is that the infiltration of dowry is a growing cause of rural
indebtedness and the declining status of rural women from a range of castes
and communities, especially those where bride-price was formerly customary.
For example, the Muslim community, which once practised bride-price in the
form of “meher-e-misl”, has begun giving and taking dowry.
In fact, reports from the field show that mental and physical violence and abuse
in the context of dowry does in fact occur even in villages4. While very few of
3 See Part I, Chapter 5 of this report, “Violence Against Women in Karnataka".
4 Personal experience of Srilatha Batliwala when State Programme Director of Mahila
Samakhya Karnataka; and personal communications of field activists from several rural NGOs.
5
our study respondents have reported experiencing dowry-related violence (only
9 cases), over 50% of the women and over 30% of the men cite dowry as a
major injustice against women, revealing that they are aware of the problem,
perhaps because of the spread of the dowry custom in their own communities.
Fig. 7 illustrates the
shocking spread of the
%
67
dowry custom between
70 -r
,64
three generations. The
—Male
60
increase in the dowry
«—Female
50
custom between the
40
31
respondents’ mothers’
30
marriage and their
17
20
unmarried daughters’
10 2^.
9
future
marriages is by
0
Given
for
Given
/
received
Will give for
about 65% - i.e., nearly
Given for
daughter's
for own
daughter’s
mother's
two-thirds of men and
marriage
marriage
marriage
marriage
women who report that to
their knowledge, no
dowry was paid for their mother’s marriage, say they will have to pay dowry
when they get their daughters married. Thirty percent say they have already
done so for daughters recently married. What is more, there is hardly any
genderr differential in the reporting on this subject, except in one telling case:
while only 9% of the males acknowledge having taken dowry for their own
marriage, nearly double the number of women say their families paid dowry to
their husbands. Of course, these need not be each other’s spouses, but the
difference is striking.
Fig.7: Inter-generational changes in
giving / taking of dowry
Apart from dowry, other gifts - particularly jewellery, watches and clothing - were
given by the women's families to their husbands at the time of marriage. Nearly
42% of the women said their families had given jewellery and watches, but only
19% of the men reported having received these; similarly, 15% of women
reported gifts of clothing, but only 8% of men acknowledge receiving these.
Finally, figure 8 shows that the
custom of bride-price - once highly
prevalent in rural Karnataka - is
fading. Only 18% of the men
reported that their families had given
bride-price to their wives’ families at
the time of their marriage. It will be
interesting to do a detailed analysis
of these households, to see how
many of these same men - and their
wives - now feel they will have to pay
dowry for their daughters’ weddings.
Fig.8: Proportion of men
reporting giving of bride-price
fortheir marriage
Yes
18%
. ............................ ..J..,I.
82%
6
Conclusions:
Early marriage - particularly soon after menarche - is clearly the dominant
pattern among the study population, and hence a major factor in lowering their
status. Early marriage obviously constrained the women’s opportunity to obtain
a proper education and the self-awareness or awareness of rights that might
occur through it Neither men nor women have much say in marriage in terms of
choice of partner, and consanguinous marriages continue to predominate.
There is some hopeful sign that people see a need for later marriages for their
yet-to-be-married daughters, though whether they will be able to act on this
when the time comes is a moot point
The data seems to reinforce the fact that knowledge of the law is not necessarily
the key constraint to raising the age at marriage for women; socio-cultural and
economic forces are apparently playing a much larger role in the continuing
trend of early female marriage.
The dowry custom is clearly and dramatically on the rise, to the detriment of
women, and represents a potential source of growing violence and increased
indebtedness.
7
Statistical Appendices
Table 1: Age at marriage of male and female respondents
Female
Male
Age at marriage
No.
%
%
in years______
No.
50
4.27
0.73
upto 8
8
210
17.93
1.47
16
W2
502
42.87
4.13
13-17
45
310
26.47
44.22
18-22
482
86
7.34
31.74
346
23-27
12
1.02
14.59
28-32
159
0.10
3.12
1
34
32 &>_______
1171
100.00
100.00
Total
1090
0
Unmarried
13
Table 3: No. of years after
menarche of female
respondents* marriage
_______ Years
%
30.57
I - 2years
28.46
3 -4 years
18.05
5-6 years
8.62
7-8 years
6.50
9-10 years
7.80
II & above
100.00
Table 2: Distribution of female
respondents by whether married preor post-menarche
When married
Post-menarche
Pre-menarche
Total
No.
776
395
1171
%
66.27
33.73
100.00
Table 5. Distribution of women’s marriages by kinship of husband
prior to marriage_______
% of all
% of all
No.
Whether husband was
consanguinous
women’s
related before marriage
marriages
husbands
57.73
676
No
Yes, mother’s brother_____
Yes, maternal uncles's son
Yes, mother’s relative_____
Total - related to mother
Yes, Paternal aunt's son
Yes, father's relative______
Total - related to father
Total who have had
consanguinous marriages
Grand Total
105
53
131
289
80
126
206
495
8.96
4.53
11.19
(24.68)
6.83
10.76
(17.59)
42.27
1171
100.00
8
21.21
10.70
26 46
(58.38)
16 16
25.45
(41.61)
100.00
Table 6: Male-female differentials in whether their consent was
obtained before marriage for partner chosen______________
__ Female
Whether consent
Ma e
No.
%
No.
%
obtained_______
359
30.66
10.64
116
No____________
812
69.34
89.36
974
Yes___________
1171
100.00
100.00
1090
Total
Table 7: Male and female respondents choice of age at marriage
for their daughters
__ Female
Male
No.
%
%
No.
Preferred age:______
34
3.05
0.85
Before menarche
___ 9
297
26.64
21.58
229
Soon after menarche
198
17.76
19 60
208
Between 16 & 18
576
51.66
56.08
595
After 18___________
_ 10
0.90
1.89
20
Other responses
1115
100.00
100.00
1061
Total Respondents
who have daughters
56
42
Not Applicable_____
1171
1103
Total Respondents
Note: Not applicable = unmarried men, and those who don't have daughters.
Table 8: Inter-generational changes in prevalence of dowry
Dowry paid
/ will have
to pay
Males:
Yes______
No_______
Bride-price
Doni know
Total_____
Females
Yes______
No_______
Bride-price
Doni know
Total
Mother’s
marriage
No.
%
__ 14
445
___ 1_
631
1103
1.29
40.73
0.09
57.89
100.00
No.
20
642
%
32
477
1171
1.72
54.82
2.73
40.73
100 00
Own marriage
No.
98
803
202
1103
No.
193
978
1171
%
8 88
72.80
18.31
100.00
%
16.48
83.52
100 00
9
Married
daughters
marriage
No.
%
69
32.24
67.76
145
Unmarried
daughters
marriage
No.
%
66.94
494
182
24.66
214
No.
67
147
8.40
100.00
31.31
68.69
62
738
No.
520
251
100.00
39
810
4.81
100.00
214
100.00
%
%
64.20
30.99
I
I
I
)
Chapter 9
Access to Survival Needs
The adequacy and accessibility of resources like water, cooking fuel, domestic
lighting and sanitation are critical issues for women. The literature shows that
when water and cooking fuel sources are far away, inadequate in quantity and
quality, the negative impact is far greater on women1,2, since the gender division
of labour places the responsibility for water and fuel collection mainly on women
and girls. Similarly, the lack of adequate water and toilets for personal hygiene
has a greater impact on women, particularly on their reproductive health3.
Absence of efficient and reliable domestic lighting shortens the working day, and
impacts on the educational advancement of both adults and children. In this
section of the study, the attempt was to assess the gender division of labour in
water and fuel collection in the survey households, and access to lighting and
toilets.
Access to Water:
Fetching water for the household’s needs on a daily basis is clearly a women’s
task in these households, though husbands, sons / male children and other men
do occasionally help. It is interesting that while 54% of men report that they
fetch water every day,
Fig.1: Gender differentials in daily water
only 2% of women say
%
fetching for household
their husbands do so!
90,
On the other hand, only
80 ‘ 87
—4— Male
18% of men say their
70
60
—■— Female
wives
perform this daily
54
50
chore, compared to 87%
40
of women reporting
30
20
‘
self. Considering the
-^♦41
6
10
4
data from several field
------- 1-------=f 3
—
0 2“
studies, including those
Other
Spouse
Female
Male
Self
relatives
in Karnataka4, and
children
children
common observation in
rural areas, it would appear that men have quite deliberately over-reported their
role and under-reported wives’ role.
1 S. Batliwala, 1995: “Energy as an Obstacle to Improved Living Standards”, in Energy as an Instrument
for Socio-Economic Development, New York, UNDP Publications.
2 Bina Aggarwal, 1986: Cold Hearths and Barren Slopes, London, Zed Books.
3 Rani Bang, et al, 1989: “High Prevalence of Gynaecological Diseases”, 'Hie Lancet, January 14, 1989.
4 ASTRA, 1982: “Rural Energy Consumption Patterns: A Field Study”, in Biomass, Vol.2, No.4,
September 1982.
1
Many more male respondents than female report that children fetch daily water
supply. Male reporting indicates that in nearly 25%(274) of households, children
take responsibility for collection of water, with girls being responsible in about
19%; this is in contrast to female reporting that children are fetching water on a
daily basis in only 7% of households, and girls in only 5%. Such a wide
discrepancy between male and female reporting was not expected for children,
and is intriguing. It is difficult to determine whether it is the result of men having
done more guessing, since they don’t play much of a role in even supervising
this activity, or of women having under-reported children’s contribution, since the
~
women are the main water-collectors in
Fig.2: Source of drinking
most rural households, and don’t
water
recognise children’s supplementary role.
Borewell
46%
Tap
32%
70% of the households have only a single
source of drinking water. It is encourag
ing to note from Fig.2 that nearly 46%
OSIW
have access to borewell water, which is a
relatively safe drinking water source;
Open
another 32% have access to piped tap
well
'ank / river
water from various government drinking
20%
2%
water schemes, though the quality of this
varies. Unfortunately, nearly one-fourth (22%) of households are still dependent
on the open wells, tanks and rivers for their drinking water, and are consequently
much more subject to water-borne diseases.
The vast majority of
households - 86% - report that
Fig.3: Location of water source
%
49
their drinking water source is in
50 -r
the village, and hence within
40 easy reach. A surprising 53%
30 have a water source either
17
16
20 within the house or just
4
6
10 outside. Nearly 87% also
I
—i
0 ---- F _I------ —J. j------- ------ f. ----reported that they draw water
Outside
Within
Just
Within
Within
for
other purposes from this
the
the
the
outside
the
village
village
colony
house
house
same source. Thus, only a tiny
fraction are forced to walk any
distance for their daily drinking and domestic water - this is an unusually happy
state of affairs for the women!
Since the water source is so close
by, it is not surprising that nearly
Fig.4: Approx, time spent per
%
83% of the respondents spend
day on collecting water
60 7 around one hour or less per day for
collecting water. Those who spend
40
20
0
40
14
1/2 hr.
more are clearly those who have to
go outside the village. It is the latter
category of women who face both
time and health impacts of the
43
1 hr.
2 hrs.
4
> 2 hrs.
2
distance of the water source.
Fig.5: Seasons when water becomes
scarce
%
70 1
60
50
40
30
20 10
0
—
25
j--------—
None
2
—-----—I—c=a
Summer
months
4_____ 1 _____ 8
1
LZZZ1—|
Summer Most of
& winter the year
—
j
L—I—|
During
droughts
Other
times
months
j
Fig. 5 shows that despite the
high access to water in most
households, seasonal
scarcity is a problem. 75% of
the female respondents
reported that they have
difficulty in accessing water,
the majority identifying the
summer months as the
scarcity period. A minority
are able to access adequate
water all through the year.
Control of water source:
Fig.6: Who controls water source
Access to a resource without
control can become a zero-sum
20%
Landlord
18%
game.
We have seen that most
8%
women, who are primarily
responsible for water collection,
have high access to water - but
this access can be quickly and
easily curtailed not only by
seasonal fluctuations in
Govt. / Gram Panchayat
54%
availability, but also if they do not
own or control the water source.
Fig.6 shows that only 18% of
households - probably the larger farmers and higher-income households - have
control over their water source. These are probably borewells and open wells.
The largest group is dependent on water sources controlled by the government
and gram panchayat, where maintenance (especially of handpumps) is a major
problem. A further 8% and 20% are dependent on sources controlled by large
farmers and other private owners, who can cut off access if they wish.
House
Others
hold
To test this, a separate question was asked about whether they experience any
difficulty from those who own / control the water source. An overwhelming 92%
of the women reported they had no such problems; however, 73 women (8%)
reported that did experience harassment, mostly in the form of verbal abuse
(“They scold us”). Of these, only 49 (67% of those having problems) said that
they had tried various strategies to solve the problem - these will have to be
separately analysed. Notwithstanding this generally cheerful scenario, the
possibility of it changing, especially for those relying on privately controlled
sources, is ever-present. We must therefore be aware that while the surveyed
women have good access to water, only a minority have much control. Lack of
such control is more likely to impact negatively on women than men.
3
Access to Fuel:
Path-breaking studies conducted in the Seventies and Eighties in several
developing countries showed that the type of fuel used for cooking had a direct
bearing on women’s health. The studies documented, for the first time, the fact
that women and girls in rural Indian households spent as much as 6 hours a day
cooking on traditional cookstoves which emit large volumes of smoke into the
household atmosphere. Furthermore, it was established that the emissions from
the traditional biomass cooking fuels used in rural households - such as
firewood, dung cakes and crop wastes - were hjgnly toxic and hazardous to the -—
health of those exposed to them5,6,7. The need to provide safer cooking fuels
^rfci more fuel-efficient and smokeless cookstoves was recognised as a priority
intervention for improving the health of rural women and girls.
The study data
shows that nearly
93% of households
use more than one
32
type of cooking fuel.
Fig. 7 further
10
reveals that 83% of
2
[—1
3
1
1
i c™- -f-L— i
- ■>-------------1-------------1
the survey house
i
holds continue to
Coal Kerosene LPG
Bio-gas Others
Firewood Dung /
rely on biomass
crop
waste
cooking fuels like
firewood, dung
cakes and crop wastes for their cooking. The “safe” fuels like kerosene, biogas
and LPG are accessible to only a tiny minority - again, probably the more
affluent households And since all but 10 households reported using firewood
for cooking, even the households having access to LPG, biogas, and kerosene
are also obviously using firewood, if not for cooking, at least for heating bath
water.
%
60 T«
50
40
30
20
10
0
Fig.7: Type of cooking fuel used
in the case of households using firewood, crop wastes, and cowdung cakes for
cooking / heating water, the gender division of labour for regular gathering or
preparing these fuels is presented in figure 8 (next page). Unlike in the case of
water collection, we see far less differentials in male and female reporting,
except in the category of spouse, where once again, men's reporting depresses
their wives’ contribution, and the women’s reporting for spouse is less than half
what men report for “self’. Again, research evidence and field observation
5 S. Batliwala, 1983, “Women and Cooking Energy ”, in Economic and Political Weekly,
Vol.XVIll, Nos.52 & 53, December 24 - 31, 1983.
6 K.R. Smith, 1991: Health Effects [of biomass cooking fueld] in Developing Countries”, in J.
Pasztorand L.A. Dristoferson (eds ), Bioenergy and the Environment, Boulder, Colorado,
Westview Press.
7 Indoor Air Pollution from Biomass Fuel, Report of a WHO Consultation, Geneva, WHO, 1992.
4
indicates this is predominantly women’s work, though men and boys do
contribute considerably. It is common for those who graze animals - men or
women, boys or girls - to also collect twigs, crop wastes, and shrub for cooking
fuel along the way.
Fig. 8 also shows far less
discrepancy in male and
Fig.8: Male-female differentials in
female reporting of the
%
reporting of who collects I prepares fuel
80 -----contribution of children <76
■ 68
• Female
both boys and girls - to fuel
60
.52
■ Male
gathering / preparation,
I 37
40
though as expected, the
• 21
20
a
17
>
20
proportion of reporting of
16
|
f ---------------- 1
1-----------------0
girls’ is slightly higher than
Male
Female
Spouse
Self
that for boys.
children
children
The main problem reported in connection with bio-mass fuels is scarcity and
inadequacy, followed by the distance that has to be walked to gather fuel.
Scarcity of fuel during the rainy season was the third largest problem reported.
Interestingly, a
significant
Fig.9: Probelms faced in gathering biomass cooking
%
number of
fuel
80
women
70
reported the
72
60
62
control of the
50
56
40
source or place
40
30
of gathering
20
20
20
10
fuel by private
------ -------- r . i—------- '
_j——
■1--------------------—
0
owners or
Source
Source
High
Cost
Seasonal
Distance
Scarcity I
government
controlled
controlled
scarcity
Inadequacy
authorities
by govt
privately
(obviously the
-— forest department and other bodies) as one of the problems they face. The
“high cost” factor is not only in the case of commercial fuels like LPG or
kerosene, but because of the increasing commercialization of firewood, which
more and more households have to purchase, as opposed to gathering at
& ■ A vF-'h y..
opportunity cost.
The problem of scarcity is compounded by the fact that only a tiny fraction of
households - 34 (2.9%) - reported that they had smokeless stoves ("Astra Ole”),
which cut fuel consumption by half. In other words, barring the 15% or so who
are using kerosene, LPG, and electric stoves, the vast majority of women are
cooking on traditional, smoky stoves, using hazardous biomass fuels. This not
___ only has extremely serious implications for the health of the women in these
households, who cook the household’s meals day after day, but reflects poorly
on the government’s failure to effectively disseminate the smokeless stove. It
also points to the need for NGOs and Gram Panchayats to take up awareness-
5
building on the efficiency and safety of smokeless stoves, and help ensure their
widespread dissemination and use.
Since many of the problems related to fuel are beyond the control of the users /
consumers, there is little they can do to tackle them Nevertheless, a small
number of women - 34 or 2.9% - reported that they had attempted to solve fuelrelated problems. The steps they had taken included stock-piling fuel for the
rainy season, planting of trees, and dialogues with officials about their problems.
Access to Lighting:
The lack of adequate household illumination has several implications - it not only
cuts down the number of hours within which women have to complete their
domestic chores, but also has indirect effects. For instance, because there is no
proper light at home for study and homework, it can reduce motivation to
participate in adult literacy and continuing education programmes, and worsen
children’s academic performance. Adequate illumination within the home is thus
not a luxury but a basic survival need.
It is encouraging to note that the
Fig.10: Source of domestic lighting
government’s rural electrification
80
programme has had some impact,
insofar as nearly two-thirds of the
70
62
surveyed households have
% 40 K
electric lights. Unfortunately,
20
because of the unreliability of
1
&
10
rural power supply, this is not a
0
Others
Ker oser e Oil lamp Electric
lighting source that can be
lamp
lights
depended upon, which may
explain why kerosene lamps are
reported as a lighting source by nearly 70% of the households. A small fraction
of households - probably the poorest - use the dim illumination of traditional oil
lamps, though some of these may also have other types of lighting .
..■,e
I
Access to Sanitation:
Rural toilet programmes have generally failed in India. The motivation to use
closed toilets in the absence of adequate water and maintenance isvery low there is also a strongly embedded ;culturaT)
preference for open defecation, which rural ,
Fig. 11: Households with
people (perhaps rightly) believe is cleaner and
access to toilets
more pleasant than malodorous closed toilets.
Yes
However, the absence of toilets has a gendered
16%
impact in that women are constrained to perform
their ablutions at prescribed times (usually early
morning and after nightfall), and hence are more
prone to snake- and scorpion bites; this also
84%
means numerous problems when the woman is
6
ill. As fig. 11 shows, only 16% of the households reported having a toilet or
access to a toilet.
The data in fig. 12 is most
revealing: 73% of the
%
women respondents who
50 -r have no toilets reported
-43
38
40
that they would like to
30
30 rsz
have one in or near the
29
20
: <—Male
house, compared to only
10 |
■— Female
59% of men who showed
--------- 1--------0 4------this preference. Similarly,
-------- 1--------—
Dont know
Would like
Would like
Present
fewer women (32%) than
toilet
Near
toilet
in
the
situation is
men (38%) felt the present
the house
house
fine
situation was acceptable.
This gender difference though not dramatic - shows that women are more affected by the lack of a toilet
facility, and perceive the need more than men.
Fig.12: Male-female differentials in
preference for toilets
Conclusions:
The survey population shows a relatively high level of access to water as a
survival need, compared to safe cooking fuels, efficient domestic lighting or
toilets. Control over their access to these needs, however, is not as good The
gender division of labour for collecting water and fuel is not very sharp, but the
women of the household still clearly bear the major responsibility for these tasks.
Although they are better off than comparable rural women in other parts of the
country, there is still room for intervention, particularly in areas like smokeless
stoves, adequate and reliable lighting, and toilets.
7
Statistical Appendices
Table 1: Male-female differentials in responsibility for collecting
daily water needs
Female reporting
Male reporting
Person responsible
Self__________________
Female children_________
Male children___________
Spouse (wife/husband)
Other adult female relative
(S)___________________
Other adult male
relative(S)_____________
Other (S)______________
Total
19.22
5.62
17.59
1.45
No.
1017
59
28
21
29
%
86.85
5.04
2.39
1.79
2.48
4
0.36
6
0.51
_ 18
1103
1.63
100.00
_ 11
1171
0.94
100.00
No,
597
212
62
194
16
%
54.13
Table 2: Source of Drinking Water
No%
________ Female
695 45.66,
Handpump/borewell
1.5T
23
Tank/river/stream
309 20.30
Open well__________
492 WB2.33
Tap (govt. / panchayat
water scheme)______
__ 3 0.20
Other (s)___________
1522 100.00'
Total Responses
Note. Female respondents’ reporting only
Table 4: Time spent daily on water
collection_______
No.
%___
Approx, time spent
40.22
471,
About half an hour
5001
42.69
About one hour
13.59
159
About two hours
2.73
32
More than two hours
0.77
___
9
NA______________
1171 100.00
Total_____________
Note. Female respondents’ reporting only
Table 3: Distance of drinking water
source____________
No.
Location of Source
%___
__ 43.
3.67
Within the house
5701
48.68
Just outside the house
185
15.80
Within the colony
198
16.91
Within the village
__
67
5.72
Just outside the village
Far from the village
105,
8.97
3
1
0.25
Other (s)___________
1171 100.00
Total______________
Note: Female respondents’ reporting only
Table 5: Water scarcity periods
Scarcity periods______
None
___________
Summer months_______
Summer & winter months
Most of the year_______
During droughts_______
Other times___________
Total________________
No.
%
292 24.94
717 61.23
1.96
__23
__ 41
3.50
0.60
__ 7
7.77
__ 91
1171 100.00
Note: Female respondents’ reporting only
fo • 0 3 x 3’)
- f ’W
8
Table 6: Cooking fuel used
Table 8: Source of
Domestic Lighting
Source
No.
%___
Fuel:_________
51.39
1161
Firewood_____
13.19
298
Cowdung cakes
18.86
426
Crop wastes
1.95
__
44
Coal_________
10.18
230
Kerosene_____
2.97
__
67
IPG_________
0.75
___ 17
Bio-gas_______
___ 9 ___ 04
Electric Stove
0.31
___ 7
Other (s)______
2259 100.00
Total___________
Note: More than one form of cooking fuel is
used in 1088 (93%) households
69.77
Kerosene lamp
10.16
Oil lamp_____
61.57
Electric lights
0.60
Other(s)_____
Note: More than one source of
lighting per household
Table 7: Problems with cooking fuel
Problems faced
No.
%of
house
holds—
Scarcity / inadequacy
Distance_____________ _
Scarcity during rainy
season________________
High Cost_____________
Source privately controlled
Source controlled by Govt.
Note: female reporting only
845
729
651
72 16
62.25
55.59
473
233
232
40.39
19.90
19.81
Table 9: Male-female differentials in preference for toilets
Whether they would like a
toilet_______________ _
Already have a toilet_____
No, the present situation is
alright_________________
Would like a toilet in the
house________________ _
Would like a toilet in the
house near the house
Pon t know / can’t say
Total
Male
I
No.
%___
Female____
No.
%___
16.23
190
294
25.11
178
354
16.14
32.09
272
24.66
399
34.07
282
25.57
279
23.83
17
1.54
100.00
__ 9
1171
100.00
1103
%
9
0.77
Chapter 10
Access to Other Public Resources
Apart from basic survival needs like water, fuel, lighting and toilets, the study
examined women’s access to other public resources which might have a bearing
on their status: viz., public child care services, ration cards, and banks (for
purposes of saving).
Access to Child Care Services:
Since 1978, the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme has
been one of the government’s major social sector interventions for improving
child survival and the health of mothers. The scheme aims at providing a
package of services to pre-school children and their mothers, including
immunization, supplementary nutrition, pre-school education, and mothercraft.
Today, the scheme covers virtually every block in every district of the country.
Several other private and public bodies, including mahila mandals, the Social
Welfare Board, and NGOs, also provide child-care services to rural women.
Child care services have been repeatedly identified as an important enabling
condition for raising the status of women as well as improving child health and
survival and preparing young children for formal schooling. Access to child care
liberates women for some hours of the day from the double burden of caring for
children and doing productive work.
There were totally 585 female respondents
who had children below 6 years of age - i.e.,
with children eligible for child care services.
This constitutes exactly 50% of the total
No
27%
female respondents. Among these, as
Figure 1 shows, nearly three-fourth (430 or
73%) reported that their toddlers were
attending the local balwadi / anganwadi.
Yes
The remaining 155 (27%) were not sending
73%
their young children to the balwadi /
anganwadi. The main reasons given by the
latter group were that their children were above the apparent cut-off of 4 years of
age and hence not eligible, or because there was no facility in their village. This
seems to indicate that there is an unmet demand for child care, notwithstanding
availability of caretakers at home, or affluence; it might also constitute an
attitude change, where the importance of pre-school has been generally
recognised.
Fig.1: Eligible children in
balwadis/ anganwadis
i
Access to Ration Cards:
Although the public distribution system (PDS) may not be as critical to the food
security of the rural poor as it is to the urban poor, particularly since many rural
staples such as ragi and jowar are not available through the fair price shops.
Nevertheless, having a ration card has become important for many other
reasons. It has become a virtual identity card, required for accessing many
other resources (e.g., electoral rolls, bank
loans, being selected as a beneficiary for
Fig.2: Household with
several
welfare schemes for the poor, getting
ration cards
subsidised oil, kerosene and cloth, etc ).
No
24%
~
Yes
76%
Figure 2 shows that the majority of
households surveyed do possess ration
cards. Further data analysis will reveal
whether those without are predominantly
higher-income group households, who are not
in need of subsidised essentials.
Access to Bank Accounts:
Only 353 - or 30.15% - of the
households had bank accounts, as
reported by female respondents. Of
the remainder, 799 - or 68.23% women
reported that their families did
60
not have a bank account, while 19
40
30
women said they did not know. Of
20
2
those 353 households with bank
0 J
accounts, it is surprising to note that
Yes
Don’t Know
No
210 - or nearly 60% - are accounts
held in women’s own names, as opposed to just 131 in men’s names. This
information corroborates the data on savings in the section on control over .
labour and income, where only 120 men reported having bank savings accounts
in their own names. Therefore this is clearly not
Fig.4: Women
the result of biased reporting by the women.
respondents holding bank
Figure 4, however, shows that in overall terms,
accounts in own name
the
proportion of women with access to bank
Yes
accounts to all women is very low - just 18%.
18%
Nevertheless, the predomi-nance of women
account holders among households with bank
accounts is an encouraging finding. Further
No
analysis
will show whether these women are
82%
predominantly in NGO intervention areas.
Fig.3: Female reporting of
% households with bank accounts
80 n ----------- -—-------
J
2
Access to Media:
Exposure to new information, ideas, and ways of thinking can have a radical
impact on women’s status, especially by catalysing them to challenge traditional
norms, attitudes, and practices. It can also provide avenues for accessing
resources or seeking redress. Women’s exposure and access to both print and
electronic media were thus examined in the study.
Considering the very low literacy rate of our
female respondents - viz., 35%1 - it is not
surprising that barely 15% (or 177) of the
women reported that they regularly read
newspapers or magazines. It seems likely
that these are the same 15% of women
respondents who have completed at least
an Sth standard level of schooling - i.e., the
only women who are functionally literate
No
enough
to read the print media The other
85%
20% of women who reported themselves as
literate obviously do not have the time, adequate literacy skills, or means to have
regular access to newspapers and magazines.
Fig.6: Women respondents
by regular reading of
newspapers / magazines
Yes
15%
Fig.6: Access to radio
%
60 T—
46
50 --- 1
40----30-----
Yes
86
73
q Owner
60--d □ Viewer
—
40------
H Owner
□ Listener
10----- 1
0 -I---- 1
Fig.8: Access to television
45
i
20---- 1
%
100
20-----
14
J
04---- 1
Yes
No
No
Figures 7 & 8 show a contrasting picture of how ownership correlates to listening
/ viewing opportunities between radio and television. About 54% (634) of the
women respondents reported owning a radio; and slightly more - 55% (645) - of
all women respondents reported listing to the radio. Therefore, there appears to
be a positive correlation between ownership and regular listening in the case of
radio. With television, however, only a fraction of women (14% or 166) reported
that their families owned a TV, but almost double the number (316 or 27%)
reported that watch TV programmes at least occasionally, suggesting that
women have access to this medium without ownership.
Of those with access to TV, nearly 60% said they watch only occasionally (every
couple of months), while 21 % said they watch at least once every third day.
1
See section on demographic profile of respondents.
3
Although TV in particular was hailed as a means of mass education and
awareness building, it has largely been converted into an entertainment medium
- and that too of the worst kind of brain-numbing entertainment. As figure 9
shows, the large number of film-based programmes and soap operas are very
seductive, with far more women reporting watching this kind of pulp than those
viewing more informa-tive or educational programmes. Needless to add, this is
also an indictment of the poor quality of such educa-tional shows. While almost
all the women with access to TV watch films, and two-thirds watch serials, just
over one-half view news and educational programmes. If we place the
programme-wise distribution of viewers against the entire female survey
population, then the proportion of those viewing news shows and information
programmes is even more dismal - just about 15%. At this rate, ushering in
greater awareness or change of attitudes through the electronic media will be a
herculean task.
Conclusions:
In terms of access to other public resources, women have the highest access to
child care services and ration cards. Among the various mass media, women s
access to radio is highest. Access to resources like bank accounts is very poor,
though it is surprising that more women than men have bank accounts. Among
the other media, lack of adequate education is a major barrier to regular
readership of the print media. Few among the women respondents have access
to TV, but those that do tend to watch the more unenlightening but entertaining
programmes that are dished out in vast quantities by the various channels.
Statistical Appendix
Table 1: Distribution of female respondents by type of TV programmes
watched
Type of programme
No.
Cinema____________
Serials_____________
Informative Programmes
News
299
207
179
175
% of women
viewers
(316)
94.62
65.51
56.65
55.38
4
% of all
women
respondents
(1171)
25.5
17.7
15.3
14.9
Section 11
Access to Food
This is one of the critical sections of the study. We treated food as a key private
resource, and particularly one where deep-rooted gender biases result in
maldistribution, with severe consequences for women’s nutrition status.
Although there have been some pioneering studies documenting the fact that
women do not get adequate nutrition to support their activity levels1,2 - and
especially during pregnancy and lactation, when food needs are high - this is still
a largely unexplored area Nutritional survey data in the country has shown
clearly that inadequate food intake stunts the growth of girls3, and that even in
relatively affluent rural households, girls and women get a lower share of food
resources, no matter how much work they do4.
Moreover, data from the National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau shows that
Karnataka has always exhibited very high per capita calorie and protein intakes
when compared to most other states in India, even in low income households,
possibly because of the consumption of such high-protein staples like ragi and
jowar among the poor. Examining the gender dimensions of intra-household
food distribution was thus a critical dimension of our study.
The data in this section of
the study shows a
heartening absence of
bias against women in
1
80 82
80
terms
of access to food.
□ Male
There is also hardly any
60
@ Female
gender differential in
40
reporting of food
19 17
20
consumption information.
1 1
0 0
----- ----------------- (------ ---------- HSU
-----------As
Figure 1 shows, the
I
0
majority of men and
Four times
Twice
Thrice
Once
women report consuming
at three meals a day, even though half the households are below poverty line in
income terms. The small number of households reporting only two meals may
Fig.1: Male-female differentials in no. of meals
oyo
consumed per day
a
1 S'. Batliwala: “Rural Energy Scarcity and Nutrition: A New Perspective,” in Economic and
Political Weekly, Vol.XVIl, No.9, February 27,1982.
2 Amartya Sen and Sunil Sengupta: “Malnutrition of Rural Children and the Sex Bias,” in
Economic and Political Weekly, Vol.XVIII, Nos. 19-21, May 1983.
3 Veena Shatrughna, 1986: Women and Health, SNDT Current Information Series, Bombay,
SNDT University.
4 “Nutrition in Punjab”, New Delhi, CARE, 1974, quoted in Lynn Bennett, 1991: Gender and
Poverty in India, Washington D.C., World Bank, p.127.
1
well be the poorest, whose annual income was less than half the poverty-line
figure of Rs. 11,800 per annum.
In terms of types of food items consumed on a weekly basis, there is little gender
difference. Differences creep in, as Figure 2 shows, only in the consumption of
more expensive or luxury food items like fruit, eggs, meat, poultry and fish,
where more men report weekly consumption.
Fig.2: Male-female differentials in types of food items
consumed every week
%
99
98
100 y
.... e 99..... —
93
90
93.................... - 82
f 83
■ 82
80
♦ 76
i 75
81
70
♦ 67
f 65
♦ 61
i 60
60
■ 57
■ 56
50
< Male
40
■ 40
39
■ Female
30
20
10
i----------- i
0 - ----------- 1--------------- 1---------------1---------------1------------ H---------------1--------------- 1-------- - —h
Meat/
Eggs
Ragi
Jowar
Rice
Wheat Pulses VegeFruits
Milk/
poultry
tables
milk
/fish
product
It is extremely important to make a distinction between reporting of whether a
particular food item is consumed, and the relative share in terms of quantity.
Most studies have shown that due
Fig.3: Male and female
to sequential eating, where the
reporting of whether men eat
adult women of household eat last
%
73
firSt_____ 74.... _
and least, they often get a very
80
much smaller share of food, even
I--?:
1
60
if they are consuming the same
;
T7___ DNo
40
food
items as the men. Figure 3
27 i
26
■ Yes
20
shows that this pattern holds good
in our survey households, and is
0 +
Female
Male
acknowledged by the men as well.
Around three-fourth of the men
and women report that the men of the household eat first. Unfortunately, studies
of food consumption in terms of calorie intake per item are enormously difficult to
do, and was not included in our study. However, we could speculate that in view
of fnen eating first, it is likely that women consume a lower quantity of most food
items - and particularly “luxury” items such as fruit, non-vegetarian food, and so
forth - not only for “natural” reasons, but because of the social arrangement of
sequential eating.
□
■ '
One of the reasons why girls and women are undernourished (even in
households where there is no outright scarcity of food) is the deeply entrenched
2
belief that men do more work and hence need more food Thus, even in
situations where women’s calorie output in daily activities is higher, or when
there is a shortage of food for various reasons, both men and women believe
that it is the women who must do without.
Figure 4 shows that this belief is
held more firmly by women than
men, showing how strongly women
are conditioned to uphold male
54
□ Male
60
privilege. Only 54% of men believe
46
G Female
40
that men need more food than
women, compared to 71 % of the
20
I
women respondents. Interestingly,
I
0
+
a lot of men - 46% - reported that
Yes
No
this is not true, compared to just
29% of women. Further analysts
will tell us who the men and women are who said men don’t necessarily need
more food than women - for instance, whether they hail largely from NGO areas,
or from districts like Dakshina Kannada and Kodagu, where matrilineal traditions
are still strong enough to privilege women’s share of food because of the greater
recognition of their work.
Examining the reasons given
Fig.5: Male-female differentials in why
by those who believe men
men need more food
need more food, we see further
%
50
evidence of conditioning in
□ Male
40
patriarchal ideology, especially
42
□ Female
30
among women. Figure 5
15
20
shows that more women than
7 10
4 pg
10 1 0
men gave the unques-tioned
i i EH .+
|—,
0
response of "because they are
Other
It is the
Because
They
reasons
custom
work
they are
men” and "it is the custom”.
harder
men
The largest number of
respondents of both sexes,
though, believe that male food requirements are higher because their work load
is greater - a fact consistently disprpven by field studies5.
Fig.4: Male-female opinions about whether
%
men need more food
80 ____________ _ ______________ -------------
F
3
te
Figure 6 (next page), is perhaps the most telling of all in showing where the true
bias against women’s equal access to food lies hidden: i.e., in times of crisis,
when there is inadequate food supply or the household food security is
threatened. We see that compared to 79% of women who report that they would
be .the ones to go without when there is a shortage of food, only 12% of men
state that they would make a similar sacrifice. What is more curious is that while
49% of men state that they and their wives would jointly reduce their
consumption, only 5% of women agree with this view - women clearly have not
witnessed such sacrifices being made by their husbands, nor expect it. What is
5
S.Batliwala, 1982, op.cit.
3
more, since women are usually in charge of distributing food at mealtimes, the
veracity of their reporting is likely to be higher. It seems evident that the women
of the family - both girls and adults - are the ones expected to surrender their
shares to ensure that the men survive, regardless of how work loads may
continue to be distributed. And the men are completely honest about this, since
it is not only considered the norm, but the rightful duty of women.
To probe the
question of
%
gender biases
80 J '
70 \
in access to
—♦— Male
60
food a little
50
49
—fl— Female
further,
we
40
30
added some
8
20
,
7
8
check
8
5
—4 11
10 ’’ 12
5
-------- 1-------questions.
=# 2
0 ----- *—
Adult
All adults
Others
One of these
All females
Self
Self&
Wife&
women
spouse
daughter/s
was “Are there
times when
you find it hard to get two square meals a day?" The data in response to this
question is presented in Figure 7, and helps unearth subtle biases a little further.
Again, the majority of
Fig.7: Times when two square meals are
men and women (62%
67
difficult
to
ensure
and 67% respectively)
%
70 <62
reported that they did
60 ’ i
—♦—Male
50
not face such a problem
—■—Female
40
at any time It is curious
30
that
in fact, more women
20
11
9
10
_ 3
than men reported a
------- 1------1
0 high level of food
Other
When
Some
None
End of
security, with a lower
times
work not
months
month
available
in the
proportion of women
year
than men reporting
inadequacy of food at “end of the month” or “some months in the year.” Once
again, since women are the food managers in the household, we can place
greater reliance on the veracity of their responses - moreso because so few men
reported sacrificing their share of food during shortages or scarcities.
Fig.7: Male-female reporting of who sacrifices when
there is a shortage of food
"
■■
What is most interesting about figure 7, however, is that 24% (287) of the
women repondents reported difficulty in obtaining two square meals when they
did not have work - in other words, when their access to wage labour was
reduced - in contrast to just 15% of men who gave this response. These could
be households where the women’s income is the main resource for purchasing
the family’s food needs; thus, when their wage-earning is affected, the women
themselves obviously go without two meals a day, while probably ensuring that
their men are not as affected. It will also be worth examining whether the women
giving this response are largely from the women-headed households.
4
The final check question on
biases in access to food was
a
simple one. “Other than
%
60 y
<59----------days of fasting, do you ever
♦ Male
50
57
go to sleep feeling hungry?”
■ Female
40
The
answers to this query
30
(figure 8) endorse the pattern
20
i
15
of
relative food security and
6
A 10
10
14
---------------1
----------------4
0----low male-female differentials
----------------------- b
Often /
Never
Rarely
Sometimes
in most categories that have
daily
emerged earlier. However,
the gender gap is stark in the
response “sometimes”: far more women than men at least occasionally
experience a less than full stomach.
Fig.8: Male-female differentials in how
often they go to sleep hungry
r
T24
Conclusions:
Nearly three-fourth of the study population do not experience dire insecurity in
relation to food, despite the poverty of at least half of the surveyed households.
Given conditions of overall adequacy of household food supply, there does not
appear to be a strong bias against women’s access to food, even though women
believe even more firmly than men that men need more nutrition. However, the
study results indicate that women’s access to food is much lower than men’s in
situations of scarcity, and particularly when wage work is not available, thanks to
the internalised belief that they must sacrifice in times of difficulty.
5
Statistical Appendices
Table 1: Male-female differentials in no. of meals
consumed per day
Meals per day
One
Two
Three
Four
TOTAL
Female reporting
Male reporting
No.
%
No.
%____
___ 4
0.34
0.27
____ 3
194|
16.71!
18.68
206
956
82.34
80.33
886
0.60
0.73
_7
____ 8
1171 100.00
100.00
1103
Table 2: Male-female differentials in types of food consumed
on a weekly basis
Type of food
Ragi___________
Jowar_________
Rice___________
Wheat_________
Pulses_________
Vegetables_____
Fruits__________
Milk/milk products
Eggs__________
Meat/poultry/fish
Male reporting
%
No.
39.53
436
65.01
717
97.92
1080
82.59
911
93.38
1030
98.91
1091
76.25
841
81.60
900
61.29
676
67.45
744
Female reporting
No.
%
453
671
1154
878
1104
1141
962
946
659
697
Table 3: Male-female differentials in reporting of
whether men eat first
Whether men
eat first_____
No_________
Yes________
TOTAL
Male reporting
No.
%
27.02
298
72.98
795
100.00
1103
Female reporting
No.
%
305
26.05
852
73.95
1171
100.00
6
38.69
57.30
98.50
74.98
94.28
97.44
82.15
80.79
56.28
59.52
Table 4: Male-female differentials in reporting of whether
and why men need more food than women
Whether & why men
need more food________
No____________________
Yes, because they are men
Yes, because they work
harder than women______
Yes, it is the custom______
Yes, other reasons_______
TOTAL
Female reporting
No.
%___
%___
Male reporting
No.
504
____ 42
465
77.
__ 15
1103
45.69
3.81|
42.16
340
174
530
6.98.
1.36
122
100.00
29.04
14.86
45.26
10 42
0.42
5
1171 100.00
Table 5: Male-female differentials in reporting of who in the family
sacrifices when there is a shortage of food in the house
__________ Male reporting
Who sacrifices
No136
Self_____________
542
Self & wife_______
91
Wife & daughter/s
74
All female members
53
Adult females
83
All adults_________
124
Others__________
1103
Total
%
12.33
49.14
8.24
6.71
4.81
7.53
11.24
100.00
_________Female reporting
Who sacrifices
No.
Self_____________
921
Self & husband
53
Self & daughter/s
14
64
All female members
Adult females_____
90
All adults_________ __ 9
20
Others
1171
Table 6: Male-female differentials in
reporting of times in the year when
two square meals are difficult to ensure
Female
Male
reporting
reporting
Times of the
No.
%
year_______ No.
%
66.95
784
None_______ 683 61.92
2.90
103
34
9.34
End of the
month______
4.70
118 10.70
55
Some months
in the year
24.51
170 15.41 287
When work is
not available
0.94
2.63 __ 11
29
Other times
1103 100.00 1171 100.00
Total
7
%
78.65
4.53
1.20
5.46
7.68
0.77
1.71
100.00
Table 7: Male-female differentials in
reporting of how often they go to bed
hungry
Female
Male
How often
reporting
reporting
No.
%
No.
%
Never
628 56.94 694 59.26
267 24.21 122 10.42
Rarely
Sometimes
162 14.68 283 24,17
5.72
67
Often
46
4.17
0.43
__ 5
Daily_____
Total
1103 100.00 1171 100.00
Section 12
Access to Health
Poor health status has always been one of the critical indicators of women’s low
status in Indian society. Until the Nineties, virtually every gender-wise health
statistic for the country showed discrimination against women - e.g., higher
female infant mortality, high maternal mortality, higher general mortality and
morbidity rates in most age groups, and lower life expectancy at birth. The
situation has been aggravated by a low age at marriage and high fertility, further
depleting the health status of women. It is no wonder then that India projects a
far worse profile of women’s health than corresponding developing countries like
Sri Lanka, Philippines, Thailand or Indonesia1,2. This has been attributed to the
general devaluation of women, and the persistent privileging of the male through
better nutrition and medical care3. The impact of these combined factors is most
clearly manifest in the country’s sex ratio, one of the worst in the world.
It is unequal gender power relations that deprive women of the autonomy,
decision-making power and control over resources that are essential to
achieving a high standard of health. This point has been conceptualised by
Chatterjee4, who posits five gates or barriers that stand between women and
their access to health care services:
•
•
••
•
•
need (the existence of a health problem or need for a service);
perception of need (whether the need is recognized by the person
experiencing it);
permission (the social factors which determine whether women can seek
care beyond what is available at home);
ability (the economic factors which determine the opportunity cost of health
care outside the home); and
availability (of the service sought, including distance, timings, staffing, etc.)
For rural women, at least three of these gates are directly and indirectly
controlled by the family (perception of need, which is often an outcome of
socialization and health beliefs, permission, and ability), and are often denied
until the woman is in extremis or unable to perform her daily work5,6. One of the
gates, viz., availability, is controlled by the state and the market.
1 State of the World’s Population, 1996, New York, UNFPA.
2 Human Development Report, 1996, New York, UNDP.
3 Gender and Poverty in India, Washington D C., World Bank, 1991.
4.Meera Chatterjee, 1988: Access to Health. Manohar Publications, New Delhi.
5 World Bank, 1991, op.cit.
6 Chatterjee, 1988, op.cit.
i
Obviously, social class and caste are critical variables in determining access to
health; but women face the double jeopardy of their gender as well as their
class/caste. Thus, even if public and private medical services are available,
they reproduce not only existing class/caste biases, but also gender biases, and
hence tend to sustain inequality. For example, women seeking treatment for
aches and pains are often constructed by medical professionals as neurotic
malingerers, and are treated with general analgesics or placebos, while men
with similar complaints are more fully investigated and treated7, with the quality
of care varying with their class All these barriers to health care are in fact
manifestations of women’s low status and lack of rights. They also demonstrate
why women cannot achieve and sustain good health without a better status and
the recognition of their equal rights, the only ultimate means of realising optimal
health.
Although Karnataka is not a site of gross gender discrimination in most respects,
the study nevertheless attempted to examine the gender differentials in access
to health and health care, and particularly those health issues most likely to
affect women - such as differential morbidity and access to treatment, women’s
reproductive health, and gender biases in child mortality. This section of the
study was based on several hypotheses, including that:
a) women are more frequently ill than men;
b) women have lower access to modern medical facilities than men because of
the cost factor (i.e., more women are likely to use home remedies and
traditional healers);
c) expenditure on treatment of women’s illnesses is lower than on men; and
d) women face more reproductive health problems than men.
Morbidity:
Our first hypothesis stands proved, as figure 1 shows: far more women (76%)
than men (51%) reported having suffered any illness in the previous year. In
other words, at least half the men had
enjoyed relative good health during
Fig.1: Gender differentials in
this period, while only one-fourth of the
whether ill recently
—
%
□ Yes
80
women were as fortunate. It is also
■
No
51
76
49
important to note that the rate of
60
morbidity for women reporting illness in
40
24
the previous year was 2.25 - i.e., at
20
least two illnesses per woman • 0
+
compared
to 1.5 illnesses per man in
Female
Male
the previous year.
Enquiring into the kinds of illnesses suffered, (which were symptomatically
reported in most cases, except for well-known ailments like chicken pox,
7 O.P. Kapoor, 1978: "Kapoor’s Guide for General Practitioners", Bombay, O P.Kapoor.
2
measles, etc.) figure 2 (next page) shows a distinct gender difference in causes
of morbidity. Firstly, it is clear that if we exclude post-partum problems, women
have experienced greater morbidity in six out of the nine general categories of
ailments. The excess of women’s morbidity over men’s is most distinct for fevers
(28% more), reproductive system ailments8 (26% more), aches and pains (17%
more), anemia (12% more), and respiratory ailments (9% more). The data also
shows that our final hypothesis is valid - viz., far more women than men are
subject to reproductive health illness. In fact, only 5 men, compared to 310
women, reported in this category (See Table 1 of Statistical Appendices).
Fig.2: Male-female differentials in causes of morbidity
%
60 t _
50?
56
—♦—% of all males
—«—% of all females
40
30 £ 28
28
26
20
20
10
0 Fevers
0,
1
—,--------
Aches &
pains
Reproductive
system
ailments
19
^6 1----------1------tT"
_
----- 1--------------------------
Respi- Anaemia Digestive Infecratory
system
tious
ailments
ailments diseases
7
, 5
Others
*7
=^o
PostAcci
dents & partum
injuries ailments
This differential is not difficult to explain, and has been well documented by
research in social medicine, e.g.:
=> having generally lower resistance due to poorer nutrition, women are far
more subject to infections, of which fevers are the main symptom;
=> in the absence of adequate water for personal hygiene, carrying of heavy
loads, unhygienic deliveries, and the general taboos surrounding their
reproductive organs, women are highly susceptible to reproductive tract
infections (RTIs) and gynaecological diseases - one path-breaking study in
Maharashtra found that 92% of the women surveyed had RTIs of some kind9;
=> since much of poor women’s daily work involves load-carrying (hauling loads
of water and cooking fuel), in addition to manual labour in the fields, they are
more subject to aches and pains;
=> poor women are well known to be highly anaemic10, particularly since they
tend to consume less of the more nutritious iron-rich types of food
(vegetables, fruit, eggs, etc.); and
8 Most of the women reporting in this category actually had reproductive tract infections.
9 Rani Bang, et al, “High Prevalence of Gynaecological Diseases,” in The Lancet, January 14,
1989.
10 Kamala Jaya Rao, “Who is Malnourished, Mother or Woman?”, in Medico Friends Circle
Bulletin, February 1980, pp1-5.
3
due to prolonged exposure to the toxic emissions of bio-mass burning stoves
during cooking, rural women have been observed to be more prone to
respiratory ailments than men11.
The absence of a marked gender difference in morbidity from the other
causes is also a well observed pattern in the country12.
Figure 3, below, depicts gender differences in sources of treatment approached
when they were last ill, a question for which 496 men and 789 women reported
The gender gap is insignificant, including for private and public services, which
partially disproves our second hypothesis. However, more women (4%) than
men (1 %) report not having taken any treatment when they were ill. Curiously,
the largest gender gap is in the government clinic / hospital category, which
more men report using
than
women. This could
Fig.3: Male-female differentials in
possibly be because not
source of treatment for last illness
%
only do men have greater
100 - ---- ---,86 86
mobility, but also more
80
□ Male
55 47
“connections”, an
60
E3 Female
40
important criterion for
13 13
-<
4
5
20
1 4
getting proper treatment in
f + fl I I
I
I I
IW.W I
0 —
ill-equipped government
Govt.dinic Private Traditional
Home
No
health centres.
healers
I hospital
clinic I
remedy
ti eatm ent
Incidentally, government
hospital
taken
centres are not a proxy for
free treatment, since most of the government medical staff conduct private
practice from the government clinics, and the absence of adequate medicines
often means the patient has to purchase these from the market.
■
V
I
Finally, we see that private doctors, clinics and hospitals are the most popular
source of treatment, showing the penetration of marketised medicine into even
these remote areas. Figure 3 also disproves one of our main hypotheses, viz.,
that proportionately, more women than men use traditional and religious healers,
by showing that almost the same proportion of both sexes have used these
sources of treatment.
Gender Differentials in Expenditure on Medical Treatment:
Figures 4 to 7 (next page) bring out gender biases that are not so obvious in the
data presented in figure 3, by examining the expenditure incurred on medical
treatment at various levels - viz., on fees, medicines and tonics, transport to the
treatment centres, and on any special diet that might have been necessitated by
the treatment regimen. It should be noted that all data in figures 4 to 9 refers to
the last illness for which treatment was sought.
11 Indoor Air Pollution from Biomass Fuel, Report of a World Health Organisation Consultation,
Geneva, WHO, 1992.
12 See ICMR / ICSSR, 1980: Health for All: An Alternative Strategy, Report of the National Study
Group on Health and Medical Services, New Delhi, ICMR/ICSSR.
4
The data indicate that in general, there is a much lower proportion of women
than men at higher levels of expenditure on medical care, proving our third
hypothesis (c). This cannot be explained in terms of differential causes of
morbidity, for as we saw in figures 1 & 2, more women than men have reported
suffering from various categories of illness; even in the causes where the gender
differential is low, such as in digestive ailments, infectious diseases, and other
complaints, the probability that men had more serious problems, which would
involve greater expenditure on treatment, is low. The only category that could
explain the difference is accidents and injuries, where far more men have
reported. But even here, the numbers are so small (see Statistical Appendices
to this section), that they would not explain the general trend of higher
expenditure on male illnesses. The data in figure 4-7 therefore seem to
indicate a more simple rationale: families don’t invest as much on treating
women when they are ill, and women don’t get equal access to higher-cost care.
Rg.4: Gender differential in fees paid for
medical treatment
Figure 4 brings out this bias very
graphically. Of all women who reported
expenditure on consultation fees in
their last illness, the majority - 71% had spent less than Rs. 100 on this
head; and only 9% had spent more
than Rs.500. In contrast, only 45% of
all men reporting expenditure on
medical fees fall into the below-Rs.100
category, and over 21% spent more
than Rs. 500.
Male
60
45|
40
M
HFerTBle
21
fl
0 l—i Jh
20
<=
101 300
100
13 8
1° A
4
□11 c
I rZUi t [Zka-J,
300 500
5011000
>
1000
Rg.5: Gender differential in amount spent on
medicines
Figure 5 shows that more than half the
women who had spent money on
medicines for their last treatment had
spent less than Rs. 100, compared to
just 30% of men; on the other hand,
25% of men who purchased medicine
for their last ailment spent over Rs.500
on this head, compared to just 20% of
women who spent as much.
60 y “ 51----------Mate
50
E Female
40- 30
24
22
30
r—20
13
9
20^
11 10
10
j I___ ESflEa__ p
o 4-1—J +
>
<=
301501101 500
1000
1000
100
300
I
I
%
rn
Fig.6: Gender differential in amount spent
on travel for medical treatment
80
... 79________________ _______
60
53
Figure 6 continues the trend: the fact
that the majority of women who had
travelled to a treatment centre during
their last illness spent less than Rs. 100
on transportation would seem to
indicate that women have generally
availed of medical services near their
villages. Larger outlays on transport
are very male-dominated, and are
Male
O Female
40
25
*
20
4
11 4
■■
o 4-< = 100
101 300
301 500
501 1000
>1000
5
probably a proxy for those who sought hospital-based or specialist private or
government services in more distant towns and cities, which would obviously
involve higher expenditure on travel. In this context, it is extremely significant
that not a single woman is present in the above Rs. 1000 category for
expenditure on transport for medical care (see Statistical Appendices).
Figure 7 consolidates the trend of
higher expenditure on men’s illness
care. It shows that if heavy outlays
have been made on a special diet
during illness or convalescence, the
patients are more likely to be men than
women. What is curious here is that
the gap between men and women in
the below Rs. 100 category is very
much smaller than in figures 4 to 6,
where the difference was generally at
least 20% in favour of women.
Fig.7: Gender differential in amount spent on
<yo
special food dur ing illness
70 t
561
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
—-------- ------- ——----- r--------- —
Male
0 Female
____ —-----
1920
11
i , FUa i
+
<=
100
101300
.
5
301 500
9 7
6 1
, □—j
501 1000
>
1000
Fig.8: Gender gap in expenditure below Rs.100 on
various heads for medical treatment
NO.
450 -j------
400 1
350
300
—A— Male
428 \
------ Female
378
349
250
200
150
100
50
0
166
^1156
204
178
Fees
125
-------- 1---------
-------- 1---------
—I
Medicines
Transport
Diet
Figures 8 & 9 bring home
the point in no uncertain
terms, by depicting the
gender difference in
access to expenditure on
treating illness. Figure 8
shows that if Rs. 100 or
less has been spent on
fees, medicines, transport
or special diet during an
illness, nearly double the
number of women as men
fall into this category.
Hg.9: Gender gap in expenditure above Rs.500 on
In comparison, figure 9
shows that if more than
Male
147
Rs.500 has been spent
140
■- - - Female
on any component of
120
treatment, the number of
100
men will exceed the
80 84 ..
number of women,
60
40"49
though the differences, in
both percentage and
numeric terms, are not so
0 4—
dramatic as in figure 8 Transport
Fees
Medicines
probably because very
few of these families are affluent enough to afford extremely high expenditure for
either men or women.
No.
various heads for medical treatment
160 ------- --------------- -----------------------------------------------
6
Women's Reproductive Health.
The United Nations’ International Conference on Population and Development
(ICPD), held in Cairo in 1994, had a tremendous impact in shifting the
population debate away from demographic goals to a sharper focus on the
dismal state of women’s overall reproductive health. The ICPD Programme of
Action commands its signatories to address the full range of women’s
reproductive health needs, rather than obsessively targetting birth rates. In
preparation for the ICPD, women’s groups and researchers worldwide unleashed
a wealth of data showing the poor state of women’s reproductive health, and
particularly the high incidence of untreated reproductive tract infections,
particularly in countries like India Accordingly, the study attempted to elicit
some information on this question from the surveyed women, all of whom were in
the reproductive age group.
Figure 10 shows that only 24%
of the women with reproductive
health problems - most of which
70 i
were reproductive tract
60
68
50
infections - had not sought
40
46
treatment. Most had taken
30
treatment from either
20
24
8
2
10
16
government or private medical
1----- lH!■ fr=1—1
0
services. The data also shows
TradiOthers
Private
No treat- Home
Govt.
that nearly two-thirds of the
tional
doctor
ment
remedy clinic
affected women had taken
healers
treatment from more than one
source, since 310 women reported reproductive health problems, while there
were 508 responses for source of treatment. This is in encouraging contrast to
the Maharashtra study, where 80% of the sufferers had not been treated13.
Fig.10: women with reproductive system
ailments by source of treatment
%
4------ ---------- L_
o/ Fig.12: Nature of menstrual problems
Fig. 11: Women with
menstrual problems
Yes
34%
I
•
Aj
70
60
•• <
50
40
30
20
62
61
23
10
0
| 12 |
4------ ---------- L-
Pain I
cramps
'66%
Excess
bleeding
4---------------- 1------ F
Irregular
periods
——{
Weak
ness
Menstrual problems were reported by one-third of the women respondents,
which is a fairly high prevalence. According to figure 11, 34% (398 out of 1171
13
Rani Bang, et al, 1992, op.cit.
7
the local dais who performed another 10% of the deliveries were also untrained
and used similarly unhygienic methods, then the proportion of women (and their
infants) who were exposed to puerperal and post-partum health risks is even
higher - 73%.
Worse, figure 14 shows the extremely poor reach and coverage of government
services - only 3% of the women were delivered by a government nurse, 1.6% by
a government doctor in their homes (see Table of the Statistical Appendices),
and 10% at a government health centre or hospital. Surprisingly, even private
care has not been accessed by many women - just 1 % had a private doctor
attending at home (see Table of the Statistical Appendices), and 6% delivered
at a private nursing home; this is probably due to the high cost of private
maternity services. This means that the high utilization of government and
private health services by women which we saw in figure 3 was not in the context
of childbirth.
Child Mortality:
An incredibly high proportion of women reported having lost at least one child
before they reached the age of five, as figure 15 shows. At 21 % (or 246 women)
------------------------------------------- this means that one in five women in our
sample suffered such a loss. High mortality
Fig. 15: Women who have
rates of under-5 children is known to be one
lost a child under 5
of the factors contributing to high birth rates.
Yes
21%
---------- —
79%
(925)
No.
120
100
Figures 16 & 17* present us with one of the
surprising findings of the study: more male
than female children died before the age of
five. This pattern is not surprising in and of
itself, given that the male child is biologically
weaker, and male attrition rates are
Fig.16: VYbmen who lost under-fives by sex and no. of
children who died
—..... ”1
405
74
00
Fig.17: Estimated child
deaths by sex
Females 41%
(137)
60
40
28
,0-1—1 boy
15
13
20
d----L—1-----1----- ------ >-
d—----- 1—i—J—h
2 boys
3 boys
11
1 girl
2 girls
3 girls
Males 59%
(200)
normally higher in infancy and early childhood in societies where there is no
active discrimination against either sex. In our study population, however, this
* Calculated on the basis of the data in Figure 16.
9
finding becomes most peculiar since we found the child sex ratio for the study
households was distorted in favour of boys (Chapter 3). There are only two
possible explanations for this anomaly:
1. A larger number of girl children have died after the age of five, contributing to
the low sex ratio for the 0 -14 age group; or
2. There has been under-reporting of girl child deaths - a distinct possibility
given that neo-natal mortality of female infants is often unreported and
unmarked in most of India14,15,16, whereas the death of an infant son is
publicly grieved and considered a great misfortune.
Although the culture of rural Karnataka is somewhat more benign towards
women, It is quite possible that a number of girls from these families died
between the ages of 6 and 14; but it is also not inconceivable that many more
young girls in the study households died before the age of five than have been
reported here.
Village-level Access to Health Workers:
The absence of timely medical care is one of the main reasons for the poor
health of women and children in rural India. In this section of the study,
therefore, we wanted to assess the type of health care services that are
available within the study villages, in the form of visiting health workers and
doctors. This would also help us advocate, if necessary, for more such services
at the village level.
It is encouraging to
note, from figure 18,
%
that the health worker
80
most available at the
□ Male
70
village level is the
60
EJ Female
50
37
ANM (Auxiliary Nurse
40
~|26
Midwife) of the
20
30
15
20
government health
2 2
10
services
- nearly 80%
I
r-tr
|
f-I
—
+
0 -Private
Private
Others
Nobody
of men and women
NGO
ANM
Other
Health
nurse
visits
Govt.
doctor
report that she visits
Health
Worker
the village (frequency
Worker
of visits was not
asked). Other government health workers - probably male Multi-Purpose
Workers - are the next most accessible at the village level. However, the gender
difference in reporting of other government health workers suggests that since
they are mainly men, women do not use their services, and may therefore not be
Fig.18: Gender differentials in reporting of which
health workers visit their village
, I,
6 ° rS
21
14 National Commission on Status of Women, 1974: Towards Equality, New Delhi, Govt, of India
15 World Bank, 1991, op.cit.
16 ADITI, 1994: Female Infanticide in Rural Bihar
10
as aware of their visits as men. The case with private doctors seen
similar - going by reporting, more men would appear to be using the
the village level. The other interesting gender difference is in the ce
“nobody visits”, where more women than men make this complaint,
women’s mobility is lower, they obviously feel the absence of a reliai
level health service to which they could have easy access.
It
Conclusions:
This section of the study has thrown up a rich fund of data, highlightir
differentials in access to health and health care, and insights on the reproduuL.
health status of the women respondents. We have seen that women report more
illnesses than men, but seem to have accessed treatment almost equally.
However, it is clear that women do not have the same access to higher
expenditure on their medical care, and must make do with low-cost services and
other inputs. There is marked evidence of an increasing use of private services,
similar to what has been found in the rural areas of other states. The majority of
the study population also has access to at least one type of public health worker
at the village level, though the frequency of their availability is yet to be
determined.
In the context of women’s reproductive health, we saw that almost a third of the
women respondents reported reproductive system ailments, especially problems
related to menstruation. The proportion of women delivering under unhygienic
conditions with untrained birth attendants was nearly two-thirds. About one in
five women had suffered the death of a young child. The data indicates a clear
need for improvement in the availability, accessibility and quality of reproductive
health services for women, especially at the village-level.
11
Statistical Appendices
Table 1: Male and female morbidity by cause (in previous year)
Male reporting
~
% of all
No.
males
539
48.87
28.11
310
124
11.24
0.45
5
Ailment / Causes of morbidity
NO ILLNESS______________________
Fevers (P.U.O)____________________
Aches & pains____________________
Reproductive system ailments
(including STDs, infertility & related
problems, Reproductive Tract Infections
(RTIs) & other gynaecological problems
Respiratory system ailments (including
coughs, colds, asthma, etc.)__________
Anaemia (“Rakta Heenate”)__________
Digestive system ailments (including
diarrhoea, jaundice, etc.)_____________
Infectious & communicable diseases
(including malaria, TB, measles, typoid,
mumps, chicken pox, filaria, etc.)______
Accidents & Injuries (including cuts,
burns, bites, etc.)
______________
Post-partum ailments______________
Other miscellaneous ailments_______
Total ailments reported_____________
Total persons reporting illness
Female reporting
% of all
No.
females
23.99
281
654
55.85
331
28.27
26.47
310
119
10.79
235
20.07
8
68
0.73
6.17
149
122
12.72
10.42
100
9.07
88
7.51
81
7.34
32
2.73
0
73
888
564
0
6.62
22
60
2003
890
1.88
5.12
51.13
76.00
Table 2: Gender differentials in source of treatment for last illness
Male reporting
Female reporting
Source of treatment
% of 496
No,
% of 789
No.
4.44
0.81
35
4
No treatment taken_____________
4.69
3.83
37
19
Home remedy_________________
2.62
26
3.30
13
Govt, health worker____________
12.04
16.13
95
80
Govt, clinic___________________
32.07
36.29
253
180
Govt, hospital_________________
59.88
48.67
384
297
Private doctor_________________
6.65
70
8.87
33
Private nursing home___________
28.64
19.35
226
96
Private hospital________________
3.02
5
0.63
15
Local male healer______________
3
0.38
0.00
Local female healer___________
3.63
24
3.04
18
Vaid________________________
5.85
8.87
70
29
Temple /mantravad / holy person
Note: Multiple response question
12
Table 3: Gender differentials in expenditure on fees, medicines, transport
and diet in last illness
Consultation
Fees (Rs.)
1 to 50
51 -100
101 -200
201 - 300
301 - 400
401 - 500
501 - 1000
1001 -2000
2001 - 5000
> 5000
Males___
%
25.81
10.08
10.69
5.65
2.02
7.86
8.06
5.24
2.42
1.21
No.
128
50
53
28
10
39
40
26
12
6
Females
No.
%
284 35.99
94 11.91
6.34
50
2.28
18
0.89
7
4.31
34
2.79
22
1.65
13
1.39
11
0.38
3
Medicines
(Rs.)
1 to 50
51 -100
101 -200
201 - 300
301 - 400
401 - 500
501 - 1000
1001 -2000
2001 - 5000
> 5000
Males___
%
25.20
12.20
8.06
2.21
7.05
11.10
8.47
4.44
1.81
2.02
No.
125
60
40
11
35
55
42
22
9
10
Females
No.
%
349 44.23
85 10.77
6.34
50
3.30
26
39
4.94
61
7.73
4.18
33
2.41
19
8
1.01
0.76
6
Females
Special Diet
Males___
Females
Transport
Males___
No.
No.
%
%
(Rs.)
No.
No.
%
(Rs.)
%
91
18.35
120
15.21
1
to
50
44.36
141
28.43
350
1 to 50
46
5.83
65
13.1
9.89 51 -100
63 12.70
78
51 -100
6.65
32
4.1
5.83 101 -200
33
46
63 12.70
101 -200
19
3.83
16
2.03
3.68 201 - 300
35
7.06
29
201 - 300
6.45
13
1.65
0.25 301 - 500
32
2.22
2
301 - 400
11
17
2.15
4.84
24
2.79 501 - 1000
30
6.05
22
401 - 500
2
0.25
17
3.43
2.66 > 1001
29
5.85
21
501 - 1000
15
3.02
> 1001
Note: All percentages are calculated for 496 men and 789 women who reported
this data for last illness.
Table 4: Source of treatment used by
women respondents reporting
reproductive health ailments
% of 310
No,
Source of treatment
23.55
73
No treatment taken
8.06
Home remedy______
25
3.55
11
Govt, health worker
14.84
46
Govt, clinic________
27.42
85
Govt, hospital______
44.19
137
Private doctor______
7.10
22
Private nursing home
17.10
53
Private hospital
0.64
2
Local male healer
0.32
Local female healer
1
1.94
6
Vaid______________
12.90
40
Religious healers
2.26
7
Other (s)__________
Note: 310 women reported in this category
13
Table 6: Prevalence of miscarriages
Table 5: Reporting of menstrual
problems
Nature of problem:
No.
No problems______
776
Yes, pain/cramps
239
Excess bleeding
__ 92
Irregular periods
__ 47
Weakness________
243
Note: all females = ‘ 171
% of all
females
66.27
20.41
7.86
4.01
20.75
No.
% of all
females
989
None___________
94
One____________
33
Two____________
15
Three or more
142
No. of women who
had miscarriages
Note: all females = 1171
84.45
8,03
2.82
1.28
12.12
Table 7: Abortions
Whether had abortion
No.
% of all
females
No abortion___________
No. women who reported
abortions
1117
54
95.39
4.61
No. of all
abortions
27
21
6
% of all
abortions
50.00
Source__________
Medical practitioners
Traditional methods
Others
38.89
1.11
Table 8: Location and who assisted at last delivery
Location / assistance____________________
Alone at home___________________________
At home with help of female relatives________
At home with help of friends/neighbours______
At home with help of local dai_______________
At home with help of govt, nurse____________
At home with help of govt, doctor____________
At home with help of private doctor__________
At the govt, clinic/hospital/nursing home______
At private nursing home/hospital____________
Other__________________________
Total No. of women reporting on last delivery
14
No.
%
39
588
37
113
30
19
12
115
74
__ 6_
1033
3.77
56.92
3.58
10.93
2.90
1.84
1.16
11.13
7.16
0.58
100.00
Table 9: Under-Five Mortality
Women who have lost an under-five
child___________________________
No_____________________________
Yes
Female reporting
%of
No.
No. & sex of under-fives who died
925
246
1171
78.99
21.11
No.
% of 246
105
42.68
One boy_________
11.38
28
Two boys________
5.28
13
Three boys or more
74
30.08
One girl_________
15
6.10
Two girls________
4.47
11
Three girls or more
Note: the second part of this table represents data from a
multiple response question
Table 10: Gender differentials in reporting of which health workers visit the
village
Health Worker________________ Male
ANM___________
/
860
Other Govt. Health Worker______ 413
Private nurse__________________ 24
Private doctor_________________ 132
NGO Health Worker____________ 17
Other________________________ _ 6
163
Nobody
Note: multiple response question
% of 1103
77.97
37.44
2.18
11.97
1.54
5.83
14.78
15
Female
933
303
14
82
24
1
238
% of 1171
79.68
25.88
1.20
7.00
2.05
0.09
20.24
Section 13
Control over Reproduction and Sexuality
In many ways, the degree of control women have over their reproduction and
sexuality is one of the core indicators of their status1, since it is one of the
fundamental sources of their subordination in patriarchal societies. The norms
of chastity and monogamy for women are enforced by denying them economic
independence (through the denial of equal rights over familial assets and
resources), by the restriction of their mobility, and by the biases inherent in the
laws that mediate their rights within marriage, the family, and inheritance. All of
these are designed to reinforce their lack of reproductive and sexual autonomy
and rights, for women who have independent means and income, freedom of
movement and association, and substantive legal equality are less likely to
meekly submit to male control of their sexual and reproductive lives.
This is not a position held only by feminists or women’s rights advocates; it has
been recognised and enshrined as a universal truth in several United Nations
rights declarations and programme documents. For instance, the United Nations
ICPD Programme of Action states that
“
reproductive rights embrace certain human rights that are already
recognized in national laws, international human rights documents and other
consensus documents. These rights rest on the recognition of the basic right of all
couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and
timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, and the right
to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health. It also includes their
right to make decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and
violence, as expressed in human rights documents
The promotion of the
responsible exercise of these rights for all people should be the fundamental basis
for government- and community-supported policies and programmes
As part
of their commitment, full attention should be given to the promotion of mutually
respectful and equitable gender relations ........ Reproductive health eludes many
of the world's people because of such factors as: inadequate levels of knowledge
about human sexuality and inappropriate or poor quality reproductive health
information and services; the prevalence of high-risk sexual behaviour;
discriminatory social practices; negative attitudes towards women and girls; and
the limited power many women and girls have over their sexual and
reproductive lives
1 Ruth Dixon-Mueller, 1993: Population Policy and Women’s Rights, London and Westport,
Conn., Praeger Publishers, p. 3 - 28
2 United Nations International Conference on-Population and Development, 1994, Programme of
Action, para 7.3.
•
The son preference syndrome also contributes immensely to high fertility
rates and the distorted sex ratio, quite apart from the problem of female
foeticide and infanticide;
•
Marriage and motherhood continue to be the sole destiny for millions of
women, contributing to the denial of equal opportunities for schooling and
higher education8, so that India is the repository of the largest number of the
world’s illiterate women;
•
Women unable to reproduce are stigmatised and ill-treated for failing to
perform their reproductive duty, even if it is the husband who is infertile9;
•
The vast majority of women have no rights or control over sexual relations
with their husbands; this powerlessness has profound implications for the
country at large. For instance, it means that women cannot negotiate
condom use with male partners, a critical factor in the spread of HIV/AIDS,
thanks to which monogamous wives have become one of the highest risk
groups for HIV infection10,11. The question of women having the right to
satisfying sex lives simply does not arise, at least within marriage12
•
The lack of rights and rigidly defined expectations in reproductive and sexual
matters are also associated with a lot of physical and mental violence against
women13, including rape and wife-beating; and
•
Because women are implicitly viewed as vehicles for reproduction, birth
control programmes have been obsessively targetted at them, even if the
methods promoted cause risks and damage to their health. For the past
twenty years, the entire family planning programme in India has ignored
men’s role in reproduction14.
8 Anita Dighe, 1994: “Situational Analysis of Women's Literacy in India," in.Women and
Literacy, Proceedings of the National Working Conference, Bangalore, National Institute of
Advanced Studies.
9 Shireen Jeejeebhoy, 1993: “Population, Health and Women in India: Agenda for a National
Strategy”, monograph prepared for the MacArthur Foundation, New Delhi.
10 Shireen Jeejeebhoy, 1993, ibid.
11 D. Woth, 1989: “Sexual Decision-Making and AIDS: Why Condom Promotion Among
Vulnerable Women in Likely to Fail”, in Studies in Family Planning, 20:297.
12 Radhika Chandiramani, “Listening to Men Talk About Sex’, in Psychological Foundation
Journal, December 1996.
13 Lore Heise, Jacqueline Pitanguy and Adrienne Germain, “Violence Against Women: The
Hidden Health Burden", World Bank Discussion Papers, Washington D C., The World Bank,
1994.
14 Saroj Pachauri, 1994: “Women’s Reproductive Health in India: Research Needs and
Priorities”, in J.Gittelsohn et al (Eds), Listening to Women Talk About their Health - Issues and
Evidence from India, New Delhi, The Ford Foundation and HarAnand Publications.
2.
The Platform of Action of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women
held in Beijing in 1995 declared that
“The human rights of women include their right to have control over and decide
freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and
reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence. Equal
relationships between women and men in matters of sexual relations and
reproduction, including full respect for the integrity of the person, require mutual
respect, consent and shared responsibility for sexual behaviour and its
consequences.”3
In the Indian context, controlling women’s sexuality and reproduction is at the core of
a plethora of cultural traditions and social norms, though these may vary by region,
class, caste, ethnicity, and religion. For instance, women’s limited freedom of
movement, patterns of socialisation of the girl child, menarche rites, the treatment of
widows, the rules governing women’s behaviour in both the private and public
sphere, and the “immurement” of women of higher economic and social strata4 all
reflect the deeper goal of restricting women’s sexual and reproductive freedom. The
ideals that are promoted in this dimension of her life are in essence very simple: a
good woman is an asexual being, who is the sexual property solely of her husband,
who is fertile and produces many sons, and who remains sexually subservient to her
husband throughout her life, fulfilling her destiny of preserving the family line, no
matter how she may be treated in the process.
The obsession with virginity and chastity, with fertility and male heirs, and the denial
of women’s sexual and reproductive rights, result in a whole range of social
problems for rural women:
•
•
The pattern of early marriage, leading to high fertility rates, and consequently
high maternal and infant mortality rates, is extremely resistant to change5,6,
and damages women’s health status, particularly in poor households;
The need to prove their fertility immediately after marriage, and to produce
sons, gives the majority of women little control over their reproduction, and
little decision-making power in the use of contraceptives or birth control and
, spacing methods7;
3 United Nations 1995, Platform of Action, Fourth World Conference on Women, para 96
4 M .N. Srinivas, Sanskritization and Other Essays,
5 UNFPA, 1997: The State of World Population, New York, United Nations.
6 Malini Karkal, 1989: “Can Family Planning Solve the Population Problem?”, Bombay, Stree
Uvach Publications.
7 Shireen Jeejeebhoy, 1991. “Women’s Status and Fertility: Successive Cross-Sectional
Evidence from Tamil Nadu, 1970-80", in Studies in Family Planning, 22(4), 217-230.
2 o
Given these harsh realities, this section of the study focussed on assessing the
degree of control women respondents had over their reproduction and sexuality,
particularly in the form of decision-making about the number of children they
had, contraception, and sexual relations. However, considering the Indian
culture of silence around subjects related to sex, only one question was asked
regarding sexual relations - and even this caused a good deal of consternation
among many respondents, and led to the abandoning of the study in one village,
as mentioned in Chapter 2.
Finally, it should be noted that not all the male and female respondents
answered all the questions in this section of the study. For one thing, about 13
of the 1103 male respondents were unmarried, while all the females were
married women, even if they were not currently living with their spouses. The
base totals for each graph / table are therefore mentioned in the Statistical
Appendices. On the whole, however, at least 90% of male and female
respondents provided responses, making the data quite reliable and
representative.
Control over reproductive decision-making:
The first issue to be explored in this section of the study was who influenced or
determined the number of children the respondent had Figure 1 represents the
responses of 959 men and 1001 women who answered this question, and
shows a distinct variance between men’s and women’s control over decision
making about the number of children they should have. Since this was a
multiple response question, we found that several respondents ascribed the
decision to more than one person. This reflects the reality that the number of
children a couple has is not, in most rural households, a private decision of the
individual or couple.
The very first category in
Fig.l: Gender differentials in who
figure 1, i.e., “self tells a tale:
%
decided on no. of children to have
only 22% of women reported
70 T ~
that they had made the
-0----- Male
6050 i 61
■- - - Female
decision, compared to 61 % of
40
32 ...41 39
men. Even the 22% of women
30
may not mean that they took
^29^
20fii
11
4
3
10
the
decision unilaterally, but
Ml 2
----- 1-----0-------rather that they had a major
Others
God/
Parents /
Self &
Self
Spouse
say in the matter. In contrast,
nature
In-laws /
spouse
32% of the women openly
Elders
state it was their husband’s
decision, while only 4% of the men say it was their wives’ decision. Joint
decision-making on this issue is an encouraging trend, though more women
(39%) than men (29%) report this.
3
Perhaps most significant is the gender gap in the category “Parents / In-laws /
Elders”, where a far larger proportion are women(11 %) compared to men (4%),
affirming the fact that women’s reproductive decision-making is still, in a
significant number of rural households, governed by family elders. Hardly any
respondents attributed the number of children they had to “God” or “Nature”, but
surprisingly more men than women reported in this category. It is tempting to
interpret this as an attempt by the men to prevaricate, and disguise their own
agency in the decision.
Awareness of the concept of family
planning is extensive, as figure 2 shows. A
slightly higher percentage of women than
men reported having heard of family
planning, possibly because women are
more consistently targetted by family
planning campaigns and health workers.
Fig.2: Gender differentials in
% whether heard of family planning
100
77 80
□ Men
E3Women
50
23 , 20
J
0
Yes
No
l
■
■:
~.
EZ
%
Before examining the data on knowledge of different family planning methods, it
is important to note that respondents were not given a list of methods to
determine awareness, but were asked to list the methods they knew. The data
therefore represents the knowledge volunteered by respondents, without any
bias or leading by the investigators.
Figure 3 gives a very
Fig.3: Gender differentials in awareness of
predictable picture of
%
family planning methods
the kinds of family
□ Men
100
- -------- -- E Women
planning methods that
80
65 65 ________
80
people are aware of. As
60
39 40
38
expected, the methods
26 29
40
21 23
most known to both men
20
fcwa
|
---faasst
—
j.
and women are male
0
and female sterilization,
Vasec- Condoms
Tubec
IUD
Injection
Pills
tomy
tomy
a permanent, and more
Female methods
Male methods
or less irreseversible.
In contrast, knowledge
of the existence of methods that are temporary, such as IUDs, oral pills, and
condoms, is very low, though these have a very important role in promoting
women’s reproductive health by helping couples to space births.
9
A surprisingly large percentage - about one-fifth of the respondents - have heard
of “Injections,” a proxy for the Norplant implant. This is a long-acting hormonal
contraceptive with high-risks for malnourished women living in areas with poor
health services and follow-up care, but is nevertheless being promoted in India.
The lower awareness of condoms among the women respondents has serious
implications, since HIV/AIDS is spreading rapidly in many of these areas, and
u
empowerment programme in the state which actively promoted literacy
classes for poor women, and helped mobilise women learners for the
government s Total Literacy Campaign, found it much more difficult to get
women from richer rural households to enrol in the programme3.
This part of the study was therefore based on several hypotheses, including that:
a) Women have less physical mobility than men, in terms of number of places
visited in the village and the district;
b) Women’s right to go alone to various destinations is far more limited than
men’s;
c) Women's freedom of movement is inversely related to the distance of the
destination;
d) Women’s mobility is greater to places they must go to perform their allotted
tasks in subsistence and production-related activities (e g., to the fields for
labour, to forest for gathering firewood or grazing animals, to tank / river /
well for water collection, etc ), but much less to places of leisure or where
public services can be accessed (government offices, panchayat office, etc.);
and
e) While both men and women face certain restrictions on their freedom of
movement by virtue of caste or community, women are confronted with
constraints that are particular to their gender.
The data in this section of the study was collected by asking respondents to list
the places or destinations they have visited, and to indicate whether they do so
alone, with members of their own sex, or with members of the opposite sex.
Mobility for Meeting Household^ Daily Needs:
Figures 1 to 3 represent the data gathered from male and female respondents
regarding whether they could go to work in the fields, gather fuel and graze
animals alone or with escort.
%
Fig.l: Gender-wise mobility for
going to fields for work
72 70
80
%
80 .
□ Men
60
60
Women
40
40
20
0
Fig.2: Gender wise mobility
for gathering fuel
70
□ Men
—I62
oWomen
14 ”
5
rs ,
Never
Been
i
Been
Alone
9
9
«... W
With own
sex
20
4
i
i
19 16
oi
16
7
5 TO
Never
Been
With
opposite
sex
I
Been
Alone
4—1 ™"
With own
sex
6
With
opposite
sex
4
3 Personal communication of Nirmala S Shiraguppi, District Programme Coordinator, Bijapur
District, Mahila Samakhya Karnataka.
3
Firstly, we see that there are no significant gender differentials in mobility for
performing these daily activities, critical to the household s economy and
survival. The vast majority of both men and women report that they can move
about on their own for these activities. Even most of those who report going with
same-sex or opposite sex escorts are probably referring to the normal practice
rather than any particular taboo. Those who say they have never performed
these tasks are clearly from well-to-do households where such work is either
done by hired help or whose needs are purchased from the market; in addition,
men and women from non-agricultural households (such as artisans) would also
fall into this category.
However, when we compare the
degree of male and female mobility
%
across the three activities, “to
48 51
60
fields for work” has the highest
□ Men
46 41
50
percentage of both men and
B Women
40
women travelling alone, followed
30
IB
20
by places where they go to collect
4 4
2 3
10
fire wood. The low proportions of
+ I .. MM d---0
+
those reporting going alone or with
With
Been
With own
Never
opposite
escort for grazing animals is simply
Alone
sex
Been
sex
_ ________________
because not all the respondents’
families own the kind of livestock that have to be grazed. Going by the data in
Chapter 5, only around 30% own sheep and goats, which have to be grazed
over large areas; the largest proportion of households owned cows (just over
60%) which are often stall-fed. Moreover, grazing is one activity usually
entrusted to children or old people, so fewer adult men and women would report
in this category.
Fig.3: Gender-wise mobility for
grazing animals
The fact that fewer female than male respondents report being escorted by
members of the opposite sex when performing these three survival activities is
significant: it seems to suggest that men generally perform these tasks
alongside women, whereas women often do them alone or with other women.
Gender Differential Mobility to Access Local Public Services:
The critical difference between women and men, and the factor that affects
women’s status, is not so much their relative right to go freely to places related
to their productive or subsistence work, but to those locations and services
which determine their access to various public resources. Figures 4 to 7 show
us exactly where women are losing out in this respect. They also bring out some
peculiar anomalies.
Firstly, the male-female differentials in mobility are far more significant in figures
4 & 5 (below) - i.e., those who have never been to these locations and those
who have been alone. Figures 6 & 7 also show that the likelihood of women
4
Fig.5: Gender differential in public
Fig.4: Gender differential in
public services never visited
%
72
80 n
60
68
78
l*-‘
E Fem ale
60
'■ft
40
40 -
'ft
J , I ■. [S
12 11
20
80 n
□ Male
31 I
40
15
If
School
Ration
shop
Weekly
market
13
IWj
10
5
11
0 4_1—I i1
Ration
shop
9
30
5
5
20
*
2
10
0
1
School
Weekly
market
a1
15
28
—118
25
+
School
WetWy
market
Panchayat
office
Hg.7: Gender differential in public services
%
40n
□ Male
S3 Female
H Female
Ration
shop
visited with own-sex escort
%
75
□ Male
61
0
Panchayat
office
Fig.6: Gender differential in public services
15 n
66
20
Ml
0
services visited alone
%
visited with opposite-sex escort
31
s
6I1 Wi
o
Ration
Panchayat
office
□ Male
C Female
1 2
4—= ™—f
School
shop
6
26
1
Weekly
market
1
—=
if
Panchayat
office
having visited these places only with escort of some kind, either of other women
or of men, is much greater than in the case of men. The data in these figures
clearly prove our hypotheses (b) and (d), viz., that women have less freedom to
travel alone, particular to “public” places that are the traditional male domain.
Specifically, the figures bring out several significant findings:
•
The most-visited location was the local fair-price shop (ration shop), which
about 90% of the respondents had visited. However, while 65% of the male
respondents had gone there alone, only 44% of women had done so. This
corroborates the findings in Chapter 4 that the daily needs of the household
are generally purchased by men in most households. This would also
explain why such a large percentage of female respondents (31%) report that
they need a male escort to go to the ration shop, since it is a location where
‘'other” men are likely to be present. These women may also belong to
higher-income households where women are not permitted to move about
alone very freely. Further analysis by caste and class will show whether this
is the case.
•
The panchayat office is the next most-visited place, even by women, 60% of
whom have been there alone or with escort. This is probably because the
panchayat office has become an important power point, and people have
become aware of the large number of beneficiary schemes being
implemented by this body. It is therefore a place not only where information,
5
but potential benefits in the form of material resources may be garnered;
more importantly, a number of schemes have specific beneficiary quotas for
women, particularly from below-poverty-line families, so that it is necessary
for women to visit to collect or fill in application forms and other formalities.
The likelihood of meeting important or influential people is also greatest at
the panchayat office - e.g., government officials and local elected
representatives. All these factors also explains why far more men - nearly
85% - report having visited the panchayat office than anywhere else.
•
It must also be noted that this is the one place where the majority of women
have been with male escort - almost half of the female respondents who
report having visited the panchayat office have done so accompanied by the
opposite sex. Interestingly, an equal number of female respondents report
that they been to the panchayat office alone - it is likely that these are women
from NGO-intervention areas, since this is a conscious strategy followed by
many NGOs working with women.
•
One of the big surprises is the the very large percentage of both male
(67.72%) and female (78.14%) respondents who say they have never been
to the local weekly market (“Santhe"). There could be several reasons for
this, but the most obvious is the penetration of the petty-shop trade into these
villages, so that the traditional village market - which is usually held in a large
village - is visited only for major purchases such as cattle. Daily and weekly
needs are probably served by the local petty shop, so that relatively few men
- and even fewer women - have gone to the local market village on market
days. Intriguingly, the majority of male and female respondents who have
been to the weekly market, have gone alone.
•
The most discouraging aspect of this data is the very high proportion of
respondents who have never visited the local school - almost a third of the
men say they have never been, and an overwhelming 70% of women! This is
undoubtedly because, unlike the panchayat office, parents do not have to
physically go to the school even to secure admission for their children. Due
to the low enrolment rates in rural areas, government directs the school
authorities to conduct enrolment without the parents1 participation. Thus,
while the panchayat office would demand that beneficiaries personally
appear to enrol in any scheme, the reverse happens in schools: teachers
have to visit the homes of children who are not enrolled or who have dropped
out.
•
It is particularly disheartening that 70% of the women, the majority of whom
have school-age or school-going children, have never visited the school even
once. Clearly, this is considered a male responsibility, perhaps because the
men are on the whole more educated than their wives. But the implications
of this general lack of interest is far reaching, especially for the retention of
girl children which might improve if parents (and particularly mothers')
interaction with the school was higher.
6
Differential Mobility to Places Beyond Village Limits:
Our hypothesis (c), that women's mobility is inversely related to distance, is
clearly validated by the data in this section of the study. Figures 8 to 11 show
the high gender differential between men and women who have visited some key
places outside the village limits - viz., the health centre (private or public), the
taluk headquarter town and the district headquarter town.
□ Male
D Female
Hg.8: Places outside village
□ Male
KI Female
never visited
80^
73
66
40
36
40
14
+
%
12
20
0
Health
centre
Taluk HQ
52
47
60
30
20
71
80 -1
52
60
Fig.9: Places outside village
visited alone
0 District HQ
8
6
I
—
Taluk HQ
Health
centre
%
----- UiS—,
District HQ
Figure 8 shows that the gap between men and women who have never visited
these places is very wide - the highest, in fact, being to the health centre,
corroborating our findings in Section 2 of Chapter 6 (Access to Health), where
we showed that when seeking treatment for illness, women had tended to utilise
health services that were located closer to their homes. Conversely, very few
women have visited any of these places by themselves, without an escort. The
few who have might well be older women and women mobilised by NGOs into
mahila sanghas4. It is not surprising that more men and women have visited the
district headquarters than taluk headquarters, since the more useful government
offices and other public institutions (like banks) are located in the district rather
Hg.10: Places outside village visited with
Fig.11: Places outside village visited with
own sex
opposite sex
20 i
15
14
16
13
14
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
9
10
5
0
%
□ Male
H Female
Health
centre
J-J
Taluk HQ
4
1—-----District HQ
%
27
-------------------□ Male
E Female
I,:.'
9
8 •iO
1
16
4
I
f----- 1-------
Health
Taluk HQ
District HQ
centre
than taluk headquarters town. It is also interesting to see (fig. 10) that fewer
women than men have visited any of these places with escorts of their own sex,
compared to those who visited with menfolk in attendance (fig. 11). Clearly, it is
4 The Mahila Samakhya programme, particularly, used a conscious strategy of giving women
the confidence to travel to various places outside the village without escort to access different
services.
7
not very acceptable for women to accompany women to such distant places,
which would generally involve travelling in public transport, or hitching a ride in a
passing lorry.
Gender Differentials in Visits to Places of Leisure:
The taboos against women frequenting places of leisure - such as the tea shop
or the cinema hall are very strong in the rural - and indeed, urban - culture.
Women who go to such places unescorted are considered to have low moral
character, and fair targets of sexual harassment. The tea shop and cinema hall or rather the “tent” cinema which is more common in villages - were used as
proxies for places of leisure.__________________________ ____
Fig.12: Places of leisure never visited
50
45
40
□ Men
H Women
48
80
60
30
20
11
10
%
• r;<S A
39
Tea Shop
I
["W
20
+
0
+
%
Cinema
□ Men
■ Women
42
40
10
0
Fig.13: Places of leisure
visited alone
80
78
Tea Shop
444;
Cinema
Accordingly, figures 12 and 13 show that a large proportion of women - 45% and
48% respectively - have either never visited the tea shop or cinema, in contrast
to barely 10% of the men. Similarly, there is a huge gap between the
percentage of women who report having visited these places alone (42% and
39% respectively) and the nearly 80% of men who report having gone alone.
But the latter figures for women who say they have visited the tea shop and
cinema on their own are intriguing, and bear exploration.
One possibility is that this part of the questionnaire was inappropriately worded,
and has yielded misleading data in the case of women. For instance, since the
tea shop in many villages also serves as the petty shop for daily needs (such as
matches, betel leaves / betel nuts, soap, tea leaves, spices, etc.), it is highly
probably that the women who report visiting this location on their own do so to
purchase something Common observation in villages makes it clear that
women simply do not go to a tea stall to sit down and have a cup of tea and a
gossip with other patrons!
Similarly, most “tent theatres” which screen films in villages have a separate
women’s section, and family members may have no objection to women going
alone to watch a film, given this arrangement. It is entirely possible therefore
that women who claim to have visited the cinema alone could be referring to
having sat alone in the women’s section to watch a film, even though husband or
other males may be seated in the men’s section. Alternately, at least some of
these women could be those who went on their own to watch a film on television
8
at the home of their landlord or employer, or at the panchayat office, though the
proportion of women reporting watching TV even occasionally was very low (see
Section 5 of Chapter 6).
The data in figure 14 refer to
Fig. 14: Mobility to participate in
mobility to participate in social
women's groups / men's groups
%
development fora like mahila
70
mandals or sanghas, youth clubs,
♦
—
Men
60
■- - Women
50 T 53
and other men’s sanghas, and
40
show
a relatively low gender
30
31
20
differential in mobility when
7
10
3
compared to other locations. But
0 4With
Never
Been
even then, over half the men and
own
Alone
been
women surveyed have never
sex
been to these fora, and village
wise analysis will tell us if this is because they are not present in certain villages
at all, or due to other factors. However, of those who do participate, it is clear
that almost all - especially women - can go to mandal / sangha meetings and
other activities alone, without escort, obviously because these activities are
inherently gender-segregated.
ilk
Visits to Natal Home:
For women, the right to visit the parents’ home after marriage is dear to their
hearts, especially where exogamous marriages are the norm. Even otherwise,
visits to the natal home are customarily permitted on certain ritually-defined
occasions -e.g., religious and cultural festivals, for the first childbirth, etc.
In this respect, the data in figure 15 seem
to reflect the impact of the large
proportion of consanguinous marriages
among the survey respondents. For
Never been
With opposite sex
instance, 41% of the female respondents
15%
37%
report that they have travelled alone to
their natal home alone, probably because
the natal home is in a nearby village, or
even in the same village. An almost
Been alone
With own sex
equal percentage (37%) report that they
41%
7%
visit the natal home with a male escort this is probably in cases where they must
travel some distance, and use public transport. The 15% of women who report
that they have not visited their mother’s house after marriage could either be
recently-married younger women who have not yet had a customary occasion to
do so. It could also comprise some women whose parents are no longer living,
making such visits pointless, especially where their brothers have inherited
family property and do not welcome the married sisters after the demise of the
parents.
Fig.15: Visits to natal home by
female respondents
9
Women-specific Constraints on Physical Mobility:
Traditionally, pollution-related taboos on women’s movement during
menstruation or after childbirth were widely practised by the upper castes, and
have often been adopted by lower castes in the process of sanskritization.
These controls on movement were practised even inside the house. Although
women often get relief from daily chores thanks to these taboos, they can also
result in their exclusion from various family activities even during enjoyable
occasions like festivals.
Figure 16 shows that only 43% of
Fig. 16: Restrictions on women’s mobility in
the
women reported not facing
house during menstruation
50
any such restriction inside the
40
47
house
- probably women from
43
30
poor households who cannot
20
afford to follow such customs. An
10
I 10 I
------------- ---------- j.
0
overwhelming majority - 67% of
+
Restricted to
Cannot
enter
No
women - are, however, subject to
%
allotted
kitchen /
restriction
some ritual restrictions. Some
space
prayer-area
10%, obviously from wealthy
households that can afford the space, report being confined to a prescribed area
during their monthly time.
Similarly, many women are
Fig. 17: Places outside the house women cannot
constrained from visiting places
visit during menstruation
outside the house during their
100i
periods. As expected, Figure 17
90
shows that the most taboo place
50 I
is the temple; but significant
59
proportions of women are not
36
'---114 IX
permitted to attend social
% o
Fields
Neighbour's
Social
Temple
functions
outside the house, or
for work
functions
house
even visit a neighbour (59% and
36% respectively) during this time. Again, only a small number of households
can afford to keep their women from doing wage labour in the fields when they
are menstruating - a relief most women would readily avail.
■)
I
I
I
i
Caste- and Community-based Restrictions on Physical Mobility:
In the Indian context, ritual taboos on free access to various places were not
only based on gender, but caste and community; these restrictions affected
men’s mobility as much as women’s. The data here attempt to explore this
dimension of the problem, particularly to identify where gender and other social
categories intersect, and to draw gender-based comparisons.
Since this question was open-ended, the details of places where restrictions on
the grounds of caste and community operate have not yet been statistically
analysed. However, a significant gender difference in response to this question
has emerged: while the majority of men have expressed the restrictions they
io
face in terms of not having the right to go to certain places (such as upper
caste colonies, temples, or households), women have articulated as a choice,
attitude, or rule. For instance, men have more often said, “We cannot go...” or
“There will be a fight if we go....”, women have tended to say “We should not
go
” or “It will cause problems.... ”
While the responses are yet to be coded by
place and other details, figures 18 and 19
show the differential in number of women and
men reporting experiencing restrictions on
grounds of caste or religion. Of all those who
32%
answered this question affirmatively, there are
twice as many women as men. This seems to
X.
”~
suggest that women are more vulnerable to
_____ J--------- ----Women
caste-based taboos on entry into certain
68%
places than men, or at least that women are
more often in situations where caste
restrictions are practised in addition
Fig.19: Experience of caste- or community
to gender-based ones. For instance,
based restrictions on movement
more women work inside the homes
92 ! 84
100
□ Men
of upper-caste households as
80
83 Women
helpers or servants. It is also
60
possible that after the mass
40
16
mobilization of dalits in Karnataka
8
'« -vX-r-.-i ‘
20
1-0,
into a relatively organised political
+
0
lobby in the 'Seventies5, the
No
Yes
%
incidence of open casteism against
men’s mobility has come down due to the potential for conflict. In fact, this is
something several men have stated in their response - viz., that it is hazardous
for upper-caste men to enter lower-caste dominated areas as well, indicating
that caste-based constraints on free movement are not operating in only one
direction.
Fig. 18: Gender differential in
reporting of caste- &
community-based restrictions
on mobility
1
Men
The most commonly mentioned locations where there are caste- or community
based restrictions on entry are temples, upper-caste colonies and houses,
certain areas within upper-caste houses (in the case of women working as
domestic help), and eating places like restaurants and tea shops. A significant
number of men have said they avoid certain places because their entry could
trigger conflicts and violence. Sadly, many respondents have given the reason
for the restriction in the simple but eloquent phrase “Because we are
untouchables.” (“Nawu dalitaru”); women echoed this in the words “We are low
caste people”. It is also noteworthy that many more upper caste women than
men answered this question, and spoke about the restrictions on their movement
5 In the early Seventies, the Dalit Sangharsh Samiti was formed in Karnataka to fight for the
rights of Dalits. Although the movement later split into two, unfortunately again on lines of caste
(i.e., the “right" hand and "left” hand castes), it did have a considerable impact on state politics
and has continued to be vigilant in protecting Dalits from caste violence and oppression.
11
lower-caste homes or areas. This highlights the fact that rules governing
caste purity (including taboos on miscegenation) are much more strongly
enforced on and internalised by women, than men.
Conclusions:
The investigation into physical mobility as a parameter of women’s status has
yielded rich and revealing data. All our hypotheses have been validated.
Women’s mobility is far more restricted than men’s, in general terms, and more
specifically restricted in relation to public places that involve intermingling with
unrelated men. The degree of mobility is also clearly related to distance and
activity - women are permitted to move around on their own to perform vital
economic or survival tasks for the household, but not for leisure or information.
The further the location of a public service, the less chances that women would
ever have visited it, much less availed it. In some cases, even if the service is
nearby (such as the school), very few women go there because of their
gendered roles and responsibilities. Nearly half the women experience
constraints on their movements even within the house during menstruation, and
double the number of women as men have encountered restrictions on their
movements due to their caste or community status.
12
STATISTICAL APPENDICES
Table 1: Gender-wise mobility by location, whether visited, and escort
Freedom of
movement for:
1. Performing
survival tasks
Fields for work
Gathering fuel
Grazing animals
2. Accessing
public services
in the village
Ration shop
School
Weekly market
Panchayat office
3. Accessing
public services
outside village
Health centre
Taluk HQ
District HQ
4. Leisure /
entertainment
Tea shop
Cinema
5. Participating
in social fora
Mahila sanghas /
meh’s sanghas
6. Visiting natal
home
Never been
Been alone
% of all
(Actual No.)
% of all
(Actual No.)
Been with
own sex
% of all
(Actual No.)
Been with
opposite sex
% of all
(Actual No.)
Women
Men
Women
Men
Women
Men
Women
Men
17.25
(202)
16.05
(188)
51.41
(602)
13 87
(153)
18 50
(204)
47.87
(528)
69.77
(817)
62.34
(730)
41.25
(483)
72.17
(796)
70.17
(774)
45.88
(506)
9.14
(107)
16.05
(188)
4.36
(51)
sTz
(57)
4.81
(53)
4.44
(49)
3.84
(45)
5.55
(65)
2.99
(35)
8.79
(97)
6.53
(72)
1.81
Women
Men
Women
Men
Women
Men
Women
Men
11.19
(131)
71.82
(841)
78.14
(915)
40.14
(470)
12.33
(136)
30.55
(337)
67.72
(747)
15.05
(166)
43.98
(515)
14.77
(173)
18.19
(213)
25.11
(294)
65.73
(725)
61.47
(678)
28.47
(314)
74.52
(822)
13.41
(157)
11.02
(129)
3.07
(36)
9.05
(106)
4.62
(51)
1.90
(21)
5.35
(59)
7.16
(79)
31.43
(368)
2.39
(28)
0.95
(7)
25.79
(301)
5.62
(62)
1.18
(13)
6.26
(69)
0.82
(9)
Women
Men
Women
Men
Women
Men
Women
Men
65.84
(771)
52.09
(610)
72.93
(854)
14.14
(156)
29.92
(330)
35.63
(393)
12.47
(146)
6.40
(75)
7.69
(90)
70.99
(783)
46.69
(515)
51.77
(571)
13.15
(154)
14.43
(169)
3.76
(44)
7.43
(82)
6.17
(68)
13.96
(154)
8.54
(100)
27.07
(317)
15.63
(183)
14.50
(160)
4.26
(47)
0.91
(10)
Women
Men
Women
Men
Women
Men
Women
Men
44.66
(523)
47.99
(562)
9.88
(109)
10.79
(119)
41.59
(487)
39.11
(458)
79.87
(881)
77.61
(856)
7.43
(87)
6.58
(77)
15.50
(171)
8.70
(96)
6.32
(74)
6.32
(74)
7.89
(87)
3.89
(43)
Women
Men
Women
Men
Women
Men
Women
Men
61.06
(715)
52.95
(584)
30.83
(361)
43.97
(485)
6.66
(78)
7.09
(83)
TTz
1.45
(17)
36.98
(433)
0?64
(7)
14.52
(170)
41.42
(485)
13
(35)
(20)
Table 2: Restrictions on mobility of female respondents within
the house during menstruation
%(of 1171)
No.
Nature of restriction______________
42.7
500
No restriction____________________
46.9
550
Cannot enter kitchen / prayer room
9.7
113
Cannot move beyond the allotted space
0.7
8
Any other
Table 3: Restrictions on movement of female respondents
to public places during menstruation
% (of 1171)
No.
Restricted Places
89.58
1049
Temple_______
58.68
687
Social functions
36.47
427
Neighbour house
13.66
160
Fields for work
14
;*
t»
I
Chapter 15
S ecu rity JS
Control over
Violence against women - or the threat of violence - is the ultimate weapon that
secures their acceptance of a subordinate status in the family and community.
The new wave of the women’s movement in India - launched in the Seventies thus placed a major focus on violence against women, and fought for reform in
the various laws dealing with such aggression1,2. The media was widely
mobilised to expose crimes like bride-burnings, dowry harassment, rape and
custodial rape. Legal reform took the shape not only of amendments to existing
legislation, such as the rape and anti-dowry laws, but also initiating legislation
for prosecuting acts of domestic violence such as wife-beating. There was a
growing recognition of the high incidence and prevalence of domestic violence,
and the lack of protection to women from violence occurring within the four walls
of the home, or within the sanctified institution of marriage3.
Although dowry-related violence/women was a rare phenomenon in rural areas,
particularly in the southern part of the country, the rise of dowry that we saw
earlier in this chapter is a worrying trend, with great potential for triggering
crimes against women. On the other hand, caste-, class- and communal
violence has always had a gender dimension. Since women’s chastity and
sexual exclusivity became a symbol of male status and family or community
honour in patriarchal societies, women became inevitable targets of sexual
violence in conflict situations4. Thus, sexual assault and abduction of the
women became an almost universal method of dishonouring and demoralising
the enemy, as well as one of the perquisites of the victor In India, caste
conflicts not only result in the burning of huts, but in raping or publicly stripping
women - such incidents are unfortunately occurring even today in some parts of
Karnataka.
International human rights agreements were slow to recognise the specific
nature of the violence faced by women in conflict, and even slower to
acknowledge the domestic violence women experience within marriage and
family. It was therefore a major struggle for women to enforce the recognition of
1 Flavia Agnes, 1994: “Violence Against Women - Review of Recent Enactments’, Paper
presented at the National Seminar on Women & Law, India International Centre, New Delhi,
December 3-4,1994.
2 Ranjana Kumari, 1989: Brides are not for Burning: Dowry Victims in India, New Delhi, Radiant
Publishers.
3 Action Aid India, 1994: Violent Homes - A Study of Shakti Shalinis Experiences with Women
Victims of Domestic Violence, Bangalore, Action Aid India.
4 Veena Das, 1996: “Sexual Violence, Discursive Formations and the State”, paper presented at
the International Conference on Gender Perspectives in Population, Health and Development in
India, organised by the National Counicl of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi, January 1214, 1997.
1
domestic and other forms of aggression they face as human rights violations and
only partial success was achieved in this respect in the United Nations Human
Rights Conference held in Vienna in 19935.
Violence against women is not always physical, but can take the form of
psychological abuse as well. This is a murky area in which few epidemiological
studies exist6. Whatever we do know, however, points to the fact that women
are more subject to neuroses than men, and that women who have a higher
status and decision-making power in their households enjoy better mental health
than their more subjugated sisters7
No matter what form they take, violations of women’s bodily integrity cannot be
accepted in any civilized society. And women cannot be deemed to have a high
status in terms of control over their bodies, if they are subject to violence or live
in fear of violence. In this section of the study, therefore, we explored the nature
of physical and mental violence faced by women, and attempted to understand
the gender differentials in the experience of violence by eliciting data from men
as well.
Gender Differentials in the Experience of Violence:
Firstly, reporting in the violence section of the interviews was very low. This
could be because of several factors: there is a natural and general reluctance to
report violence and harassment that has occurred in the “private” sphere - viz.,
between husband and wife, or within the family. We also realised that the
concept of violation / violence that we had implicitly articulated in the study were
somewhat alien to the respondents - many things which happen on a day-to-day
basis, especially non-physical harassment, are not really perceived as violations
at all. It was also clear that the survey method was too impersonal and
inappropriate to elicit information about experiences that could have been
deeply traumatic for the victims. The data
reported here is therefore somewhat patchy,
Fig.1: Gender distribution
of reported violations
and gives only a brief glimpse of the true
Men
picture.
39%
Women
61%
Figure 1 shows that far more women than men
reported experiences of violence or harassment
for various reasons. The total number of
incidents reported by women was 289, almost
double the number reported by men -181.
5 Charlotte Bunch and Roxanna Carrillo, 1991: Gender Violence - A Development and Human
Rights Issue, New Brunswick N.J., Center for Women s Global Leadership, University of Rutgers.
6 Pauline McConville, 1995: Review of Studies on Women’s Mental Health in India (monograph),
Bangalore, Women’s Policy Research and Advocacy Unit, National Institute of Advanced
Studies.
7 G.M. Carstairs & R.L. Kapur, 1976: The Great Universe of Kota - Stress, change and Mental
Disorder in an Indian Village, London, Hogarth Press.
2
Although this was a multiple response question, it seems evident that more
women have been targets or victims of harassment. This in itself is an important
finding,and the data given in Table 1 helps explain why this is the case.
Table 1: Gender differentials in causes of violence / harassment
______ Cause of Violence / Harassment_____
Fights over property / money_______________
Fights with husband / his family - wife / her family
Harassment at workplace__________________
Caste / communal violence_________________
Political quarrels ______________________
Dowry demands_________________________
For giving birth to daughter_________________
Suspicion of infidelity_____________________
Childlessness
______________________
Rape_________________________________
Harassment / assaults of single women________
Others_____________________
Total no. of violations
Women
129
72
12
10
7
9
10
4
7
1
13
15
289
Men
114
17
17
10
9
Total
179
89
29
20
16
__ 9_
10
___ 4_
__ 7_
__ 1_
13
14
181
470
Table 1 shows that there in some contexts, there is no significant gender
differential in reporting of violations, viz., property- or money-related quarrels
(129 women and 114 men reported these), workplace harassment, caste- or
communal violence and political quarrels. There is a huge gap, however, in the
category of fights with spouse or his/her family: in fact, the majority of women
reported that their property- and money-related quarrels were with the husband
and his family members. This explains why so many more women have
repeated their experience of violations in both these categories - viz., in property
/ money related fights, and in fights with spouse and his family. In contrast, most
men involved in property conflicts had fought with their own relatives. What is
most tragic is the number of categories of violations that are unique to women including harassment for giving birth to daughters, for being childless, or for
being single (unprotected) women. We did not expect a very high reporting of
rape (in fact, only one women reported having been raped by her employer), the
absence of reporting of eve-teasing is surprising - perhaps women are not used
to viewing these as violations of their bodily integrity or security.
When examining violence, we made a
distinction between physical and non
physical or psychological abuse - the
latter could include withholding of
money, forced seclusion, etc. Figure 2
shows that while the majority of the
abuse reported by men and women in
this section was non-physical (120 and
174 experiences respectively), women
Fig2: Gender differentials in
reporting of nature of abuse faced
200 t
150
100
174
□ Men
gg Women
------------- 1 99
50
47
0
No.
Physical
abuse
120
gfg
Non-physical /
psychological abuse
3
are in fact victims of physical violence more than men (99 incidents reported by
women as against only 47 by men). Many women reported physical abuse for
money, property and dowry. Clearly, the deterrents to committing physical
aggression on men are greater than in the case of women.
We next examined
who were the main
perpetrators of
160
M 157
__
violence. Figure 3
140
-♦----- Men
tn
brings out the
c 120
■- - - Women
startling
difference
TJ 100
C 80 < 81
between whom men
^60
50
report
as the main
38
28
d 40
21
-<22
perpetrators of the
z 20
232
violence they have
3
-------- 1---------0 t— —i—
experienced,
and
Others
Employer
Own
Other caste/
Spouse's
Spouse
relatives
community
relatives
whom the women
cite. It is clear that
for women, the overwhelming majority of incidents of violence and abuse have
been experienced right within the home, at the hands of their own spouse and
the spouse’s family members - 238 out of the total 289 incidents reported by
women fall into these two categories of perpetrators. Men’s experiences are
more evenly distributed, with very few men obviously reporting incidents
perpetrated by spouse or spouse’s family members. In fact, figure 3 brings out
an important gender dimension of relations within extended and joint families:
men are involved in or victims of violent conflicts with their own kin much more
than women with theirs (50 incidents reported by men in this category compared
to just 6 by women). Similarly, men seem to be more subject to abuse by their
employers than women, though reporting in this category was very low as a
whole. Caste and communal violence does not seem to have had much play in
the study villages. In fact, it is interesting that 4 women who reported caste /
communal violence cited their husbands as the perpetrators. These could be
inter-caste or inter-religious marriages where there is subsequent tension and
violence as a result of social and family pressure.
Fig. 3: Gender differentials in reporting of key
perpetrators of violence
Seeking Redress:
Rg4: Gender dfferentjal in action taken
0/
to redress violations
What have the victims of violations done
to seek redressal? Figure 4 reveals that a
45
much larger proportion of women have
55
100
not taken any steps to redress their
50|
grievances (55%) as compared to men
69
(31%). Conversely, men are the most
I 31 [
0 ±-.-.
likely to take some action, even through
Some action
Nd action
informal means, to bring their violations
out in the open and the perpetrators to some kind of justice
/o
150 r
igWbmen
□ Men
3
4
In figure 5 (next page), we see the gender differentials in the kinds of action
taken by men and women to redress abuse / violence committed against them.
Firstly, the data shows that women seek adjudication and redressal strictly within
the “private” sphere - within home and family, probably mirroring the fact that
they experience the most abuse within this very sphere. Thus, in 55% of the
cases where women did take action, they did so by seeking the intervention of
family members - probably family elders - while only 18% of the incidents
encountered by men were taken to this private forum. And even within this, we
see that many more women have sought the intervention of their own (natal)
family (36%) obviously because the husband and his family are the most
common perpetrators of abuse and violence against the women.
There is a
significant
40
4 Men ■ Women
difference
35 ’ I 36
30
between the
25
18
■ 23
♦20
number of men’s
20
■ 19
15
violations
taken to
lO^s
■ 8
■6
♦
9
■
11
5 customary adjudi
--------1
--------- 1---------------- 1--------0--------------- 1-------- ---------- 1---------cation bodies like
Legal action
Other
Police
Approached
Approached
Approached
(lawyer
f
the jati panchayat,
com
plaint
nyaya
/
jati
inform
af
spouse's
own family
court}
strategies
panchayat
family
and the number of
women’s
grievances. In fact, the data shows that these bodies have not been accessed
by women in cases of gender specific abuse such as dowry demands,
childlessness, etc. (See Statistical Appendices). Perhaps women see these
bodies as biased in their attitudes to women’s grievances, and so don’t approach
them as often as men. Interestingly, other informal strategies (such as
approaching the local women’s sangha, village leaders, etc.) for arbitration seem
to have been tried out by both men and women to an almost equal extent,
though the type of forum / individual approached varies sharply by gender.
Women approach the mahila sanghas rather than landlords or leaders, and men
vice-versa.
%
Fig.5: Gender differentials in action taken in cases of
abuse / violence
Finally, the police and formal legal system are clearly not seen as approachable
by women for justice and redressal, though even their utilization by men is not
very high. In women’s case, this is related both to the fact that they experience
the most violence within the marital family, and there is an intense social
sanction against women maligning the spouse’s family name by going to the
police or formal legal system, and to the fact that the formal system is relatively
inaccessible to women due to its high economic and opportunity cost, their low
physical mobility, etc.8 Cross-tabulations will give us more insight into the kind
8 See Annual Report 1996-97, of Hengasara Hakkina Sangha (HHS), an organisation using legal
awareness to empower rural women. HHS’s experience also shows that women are extremely
reluctant to use the formal legal system for these and many other reasons, including their
perceptions about formal law and whose interests it serves.
5
of violations for which women - and men - have sought formal legal intervention,
but the data suggests it is usually in the context of property disputes.
Wife-beating - Attitudes and Reality:
It has long been felt that wife-beating is
so persistent because women accept it
as their inevitable lot in marriage.
Figure 6 proves that this is yet another
area in which women are trained to be
100%n
30
more ardent upholders of male rights
56
50%
and
privileges than men themselves.
70
44
While 56% of our 1103 male
0%-L
respondents acknowledged that men
Men
Women
don’t have the right to beat their wives,
only 30% of the women respondents endorsed this view, the majority (70%) of
the women stating that this was a husband’s prerogative. This was often
expressed in very revealing ways in the interviews: “After all”, said many women,
"Has he not tied the 'thali’ (marriage chain) for me?” Further data analysis will
show whether the majority of women who have contested this traditional male
right are those in NGO areas, or where awareness of women’s rights have been
a conscious part of the NGO’s agenda.
The very low gender gap in
Fig.7: Gender differentials in
reporting the incidence and
%
reporting of wife-beating
frequency of wife-beating is
73
__
80
worth exploring further through
65
□ Men
60
EWomen
qualitative research. Figure 7
shows
that although the majority
40 22
of women sanctioned wife
16
20
11 7
4
I'
|
maiBM
beating, only a minority have
d
0
reported experiencing it
Occasionally
Often
Rarely
Never
themselves. In fact, 73% of
women respondents said they have never been beaten by their husbands,
compared to 65% who said they never beat their wives. Of the women who
admitted being beaten, however, a consistently lower proportion report “rarely’
or “00035(00311/’ as the frequency, as compared to men. And while 4% of
women say they are beaten fairly often or regularly, only 1 % of the men report
this to be the case. The clash of perceptions is very evident in this data.
Fig.6: Do men have the right to
beat their wives?
□ No
□ Yes
It is also important to note that low reporting of wife-beating does not make it a
non-issue, considering that the numbers involved are very significant. As the
Statistical Appendices show, 381 men acknowledge beating their wives at least
occasionally, and only 312 women corroborate. Going by male reporting, this
means around one in every three wives in our study sample is experiencing this
form of domestic violence. This is one of the contexts in which we can rely on
male reporting, since men are unlikely to acknowledge such a fact unless it is
true (and possibly just the tip of the iceberg), and women’s cultural conditioning
6
makes them far more likely to suppress the truth about their husband’s physical
violence.
Have women sought
help to stop wife
Fig.8: Victims of wife-beating by who
beating? Figure 8
No.
approached for assistance
250 T
indicates that the
200 ? 219
vast majority have
150 I
not - 219 (or 70%) of
100
the 312 women who
54
41
50
21
8
7
6
reported the problem
-------- 1-------—I—
0 say they have not
Others
Own
Commu- Panchayat Police /
No one Husband's
gone to anyone or
elders
relatives nity elders
Lawyer I
done
anything about
court
it. Of those who
have approached different individuals or bodies, we see again that the vast
majority have sought the assistance of either their husband’s family elders or
their own relatives and community elders. Barely a handful have taken the
problem to public redressal mechanisms like the village panchayat, the police, or
a lawyer. Among the others approached, only one woman reported asking the
mahila sangha’s help. Even after taking recourse to outside intervention, only
22 female respondents reported that the beatings either diminished in frequency
or stopped as a result.
Fig.8: What triggers wife-beating?
NO.
—- • - •
150 T •-
100
145
.
49
14
0 4 —---- L—+ —I----- —b •—------ ---- 1---- 1
Disrespect/
disobedient
to husband
Husband's
drinking
'i, \
a
80
50
,
61
- ---- 1---- 1---- -1---- b
4
Complaints Suspicion
Disrespect/ Other reasons
of husband's about fidelity disobedient
relatives
to in-laws/
elders
Of those women who are even occasional victims of wife-beating, the majority
cite any actions of theirs that the husband construes as disrespectful or
disobedient as the main trigger (figure 8). In fact, perceptions of disrespectful or
disobedient attitudes or behave by the woman are at the root of most beatings, if
we include the categories of complaints by the husband’s relatives, or the in
laws’ taking offence. The next largest cause reported is, predictably, the
husband’s drunkenness. Common wisdom has it that alcohol is the single
largest root cause of wife-beating in rural India - but our data in Chapter 5
showed very low reporting of alcohol consumption among the male respondents.
What figure 8 is also telling us is that wife-beating is used as a weapon to
punish challenges to a husband’s hierarchical position, authority, or the authority
or primacy of his family. This is further evidenced by some of the responses
7
women gave in the “other reasons” category, “when I do not cook the food in
time”, “when I serve less food”, “when I do not work properly”; 6 women said
their husbands beat them if they object to his liaison with another woman; and 7
women said they get beaten if they “answer back”!
Figure 9 shows
that
these
No.
percep-tions and
300 y
experiences of
250
260
200
women closely
199
150
179
converge with
100
45
123
male views on
20
50
[561
the subject. The
0
+—— 4R3------ 1—J—1—I—1------1—I—1------- 1 - -I
Inadequate
Husband
Any
other,
majority of male
If he is
Disrespect/ Disrespect Suspicion
dowry
always
has
specify
drunk
disobedient
to his
of infidelity
responses to the
right to
to husband parents /
question of what
beat wife
elders
situations would
make wife-beating justified reinforce the factors of wifely disrespect,
disobedience, and suspicion of infidelity. They also sanction a husband’s
violence when he is drunk, as though drunkenness is a justification in and of
itself. A handful of responses (20) seem to assert that husbands can beat their
wives whenever they wish, without much reason! Again, we are seeing the
ingrained belief that beating is just retribution when wives violate certain codes
of conduct. There is also an implicit assumption that a wife must be the
receptacle for her husband’s aggression in situations when he is out of control such as after consuming alcohol.
Fig.9: Male responses to what conditions legitimise wife
beating
Feelings of Insecurity:
Apart from actual violence and abuse, we wanted to explore whether people
have a sense of physical or mental insecurity or fear, and to what extent these
feelings are related to class, caste, and community identity as well as gender.
Figure 10 shows that the vast majority of men and women.
Fig.12: Reasons for vulnerability due to
caste / class / religious identity
Rg.10: Sense of viinerafcilrty due to caste, class or
religious identity
BCn
200-r
150
i.’AWy
80
q Women
60
□ Men
40-
20
ar
o
100
50
0 %
88
%
No
Yes
67
33
4
2
---- — i—=---- 1Religious
minority
Economic
weakness/
dependenc
Past caste/
communal
violence
1.....---------- 1
Any other,
denied feeling vulnerable to violence or abuse on any of these grounds, but
interestingly, more women (20%) than men (12%) respondents said they did
8
specify
have such fears. Examining the reasons cited by women and men, we found no
significant gender differences - the percentages were almost the same in each
category. Averaging male and female responses gives us the data in figure 11,
which shows that economic dependency and powerlessness is the major reason
cited by the 131 men and 233 women who reported feeling vulnerable due to
their caste or community. Belonging to a religious minority accounts for 33% of
the responses to this question - significantly, more women (75) than men (45)
gave this response. Past experiences of caste and communal violence account
for relatively few responses.
In this respect, gender is clearly a
greater source of insecurity,
Fig.13; Is it safe for women to move
particularly in constraining
about alone for their daily work?
80
women’s mobility. Figure 13
64
□ Men
60
shows that a lower proportion of
E3 Women
47
women (47%) compared to men
40
19
14
13
(64%) respondents gave an
20
r Fas
i
I
Eifl
,
unqualified “yes”
0
No
No
they
Ye*
Only after
question “Is it safe for women to
%
people
might be
a certain
move about alone to perform their
will talk
molested
age
daily work?” The question was
designed to capture the core, visceral feelings of safety or insecurity.
1
ri
This finding poses an interesting counter-point to the data in figures 1 & 2 in
Chapter 7 (Control over Physical Mobility), where we found that in fact have the
greatest freedom to move about alone to perform productive and subsistence
work for the household. The two sets of data, when juxtaposed, seem to indicate
that while women have the right or freedom to go alone to perform daily tasks,
they do not necessarily feel completely safe doing so.
Figure 13 also shows almost total convergence between men and women in the
category of “after a certain age”, specifying that women can move about alone
safely after marriage or after 35 years of age. This viewpoint is based on two
implicit assumptions: (a) that older women are not seen as sex objects, and
hence are not as vulnerable to sexual assault or harassment as younger women;
and (b) that married women, having become the sexual property of a man, are
also safe, since sexual aggression of any kind would attract retaliation and
social consequences.
On the other hand, there are significant gaps between the responses of men
and women in all the “No” categories: women clearly feel more insecure and
vulnerable than men perceive them to be. For instance, women have greater
anxieties about being sexually molested or assaulted, or having their reputations
sullied, than men have on their behalf. This needs to be further explored
through in-depth studies. It was very encouraging to find that a handful of men
and women (less than 10), expressed the view that if a woman is mature,
confident / courageous, and educated, she can move about by herself.
9
Conclusions:
The incidence of violence and abuse as reported by the study respondents is
quite low, though given the cultural constraints and the limitations of such a
quantitative method, there could have been a significant level of under-reporting.
Nevertheless, it is clear that women are more often victims or targets of both
mental and physical abuse than men. Women’s experiences of abuse are
located largely within the household, family, and marriage, with family members
and their own husbands being the key perpetrators. The triggers to abuse of
women, particularly wife-beating, are mainly centered around transgressions of
their gendered roles and rules of conduct, while men’s experiences are more
related to property and money disputes, with their own relatives or playing the
role of abusers.
More women than men have passively accepted aggression; those women who
sought redressal or arbitration have done so largely within the private sphere of
family and community elders, while men have sought justice through more public
mechanisms, both customary and formal. This could be because of women’s
conditioned belief that violence such as wife-beating is an inevitable male
prerogative, not a crime or act of violence. Women clearly have a very low
sense of their right to live free of violence, or their right to seek justice. It is not
surprising therefore that women feel more insecure and vulnerable to
harassment and abuse due to their gender, than either women or men feel due
to their caste, class or religious identity.
This section of the study shows an overwhelming need for rights-based
awareness building among women, and concerted efforts to bring crimes like
wife-beating and sexual harassment into the public sphere.
10
Statistical Appendices
Table 1: Male-female reporting of physical and non-physical abuse
experienced by nature of abuse
Physical
Nature of abuse:
No. reported
by women
23
17
35
Fights over property
Fights over money
Fights with spouse /
spouse’s family
5
Political quarrels
2
Harassment at
workplace________
2
Caste abuse /
violence__________
Communal abuse I
violence__________
7
Dowry demands
2
For giving birth to
girl child__________
2
Suspicion of
infidelity__________
2
Childlessness_____
2
Because of being
unmarried / divorced
/ widowed / deserted
Note: multiple response question
No. reported
by men
31
6
4
Non- Physical
______ / Psychological
No. reported
No. reported
by men
by women
62
63
15
26
37
13
2
4
2
10
13
2
9
6
1
7
2
8
2
5
11
* Not applicable
Table 2: Action taken by men against violence / abuse
Nature of problem:
Fights over property
Fights over money
With wife / her
family___________
Political quarrels
Harassment at work
place____________
Caste violence
Communal violence
No
action
24
6
8
Action taken / who approached
Police Lawyer/
Family Nyaya I
court
(wife’s/ Jati
Panchayat
own)
17
11
7
27
4
1
3
7
2
6
1
3
5
_3
6
4
11
Other Total
7
2
2
1
1
3
1
1
1
3
93
21
17
9
17
9^
1
Table 3: Action taken by women against violence / abuse
Nature of
problem:________
Fights over
property_________
Fights over money
Fights with
husband/ his family
Political quarrels
Harassment at
work place_______
Caste violence
Communal violence
Dowry demands
Giving birth to
daughter_________
Suspicion of
infidelity_________
Childlessness
Rape___________
Problems of single
women
No
action
Husb’s
family
38
8
22
41
2
7
Action taken / who approached
Police Law
Nyaya/
Own
yer/
Jati
Panfamily
court
chayat
5
17
3
11
7
16
2
9
3
£
4
4
1
2
3
Other Total
1
1
86
1^
43
72
3
7
1
1
4
1
12
4
6
9
10
1
1
3
7
5
3
1
4
5
1
6
9
2
2
1
2
1
Table 4: Male-female differentials in reporting of wife-beating
Male
Female
Have you ever beaten your wife /
No.
%
%
No.
Has your husband every beaten you
859
65.46
73.36
722
No____________________________ _
187
22.12
15.97
244
Yes, rarely_____ _________________
82
11.24
7.00
124
Yes, sometimes ________________
43
3.67
1 18
13
Yes, often______
1171
100.00
100.00
1103
Total
Table 5: Action taken against wife-beating (female respondents only)
% of 312
No.
Action taken / who approached___________
70.19
219
No action / no one approached____________
17.31
54
Yes, approached elders in husband’s family
13.14
41
Yes, approached my relatives_____________
21
6.73
Yes, approached community elders_________
1.28
4
Yes, approached jati panchayati___________
1.28
4
Yes, approached the village/nyaya panchayati
1.60
__
5
Yes, approached the police_______________
0.32
_ £
Yes, approached the lawyer/court__________
0.32
_ 1
Yes, approached the Mahila Sanghas_______
6
1.92
Others________________________________
Note: multiple response question
12
7
Table 6: What triggers wife-beating (female respondents who have been
beaten only) ____________________________
Female_____
No.
% of 312
What triggers beatings:
__________________
80
25.64
If husband is drunk
3 _______ 0.96
Harassment for dowry___________________________
15
__
4.81
Suspicion about my fidelity___________________
49
15.71
Complaints by other family members_______________
14 _______ 4 49
For being disrespectful/disobedient to my in-laws/elders
145
46.47
For being disrespectiful/disobedient to my husband
58
15.38
Any others_____________________________________
Note: multiple response question.
Table 7: Under what conditions can a husband beat his wife (male
respondents who beat their wives only)
___________________
Male
% of 381
No.
When wife-beating is justified:_______________
32.28
123
If husband is drunk
_________________
14.70
56
If wife did not bring proper dowry______________
46.98
179
If he doubts / suspects her fidelity_____________
52.23
199
If she is disrespectful / disobedient to his mother /
father / elders______________
68.24
260
If she is disrespectful / disobedient to her husband
5.25
20
Husband always has the right to beat the wife
11.81
45
Any others_______________
Note: multiple response question
Table 8: Feelings of insecurity / vulnerability due to caste, class or
religious identity
Male
Do you feel vulnerable due to
class, caste, or religion?
No972
131
1103
No.
No__________________
Yes_________________
Total
If yes, reasons:
45
%
88.12
11.88
100.00
%
(of 131)
23.56
53
33
27.75
17.28
93
65
37.05
25.90
3
1.57
6
2.39
3
1.57
12
4.78
______________
We are a minority community / less in
number__________________ ___________
We are economically weaker / less powerful
We are economically dependent on the
upper castes______________
There has been caste/communal violence in
the past_________________ ____________
Any other reasons_____________________
Note: multiple response question
13
Female
No.
%
938
80.10
233
19.90
1171
100.00
No.
%
(of 233)
75
29.88
Table 9: Is it safe for women / girls to walk about alone
for their daily work?
Male
No.
Whether it is safe:
705
150
140
165
76
Yes________________________
Yes, after a certain age___________
No, men may misbehave with them
No, they may be molested / attacked
No, people will talk______________
Note: multiple response question
14
%of
1103
63.91
13.60
12.70
14.51
6.89
__ Female
No.
%of
549
154
243
310
226
1171
46.88
13 15
20.75
26.47
19.30
political task, and cannot be truly achieved until women become a force to
contend with in a political sense. Perhaps in recognition of this, the visionary
leader from Karnataka, Abdul Nasir Sab, made history when he formulated the
Karnataka Panchayat Raj Act of 1985. Not only was this a genuine attempt at
decentralisation of power to the grassroots level, but a radical measure to bring
women representatives into local self-government institutions. The 1985 Act
made history by introducing the reservation of 25% of all panchayat seats for
women, and became a harbinger of the 73rd and 74th Constitutional
Amendments of 1992, which mandated a reservation of one-third for women.
The impact of the revised panchayat system in Karnataka has had tremendous
ripple effects on rural women in the state; it not only legitimised the entry of
women into these hitherto male-dominated roles, but gave them functional
decision-making powers, no matter how limited, over public resources.
Considering these historical factors, the degree of political participation of
women, and their comparative position vis-a-vis men, is an important dimension
of their status which the study explored. Our hypotheses here were that:
a) women’s participation in the electoral process, such as voting, would be high,
compared to other kinds of political activity;
b) the recent amendments in the panchayat raj system has not yet had spin-off
effects on the level of women’s participation in other political activities; and
c) when women are members of other political fora (such as unions, caste- or
ethnic federations, etc.) their roles would tend to reproduce the domestic
division of labour
Voter Participation:
Fig.1: Have you ever voted?
100 -]
80
60
40
20
0 -
%
93
□ Men
El Women
I
I
__ I
if
3
7
No
Yes
Fig.2: Voter participation in 1994
panchayat elections
%
100 t
□ Men
D Women
87
An overwhelming majority of the study
respondents have voted at least once, as
figure 1 shows, and the gender differential is
also negligible, with barely a 4% difference
between women and men. Figure 2, which
shows data for the panchayat elections held
in December 1994, shows an almost equally
high participation rate, though the gender
gap here is a little larger - only 87% of the
women, as opposed to 95% of the men, said
they voted in this election.
Figures 1 & 2 also demonstrate how deeply
the electoral process has penetrated into
0
rural areas, with almost equal gender
No
Yes
impact. Indians take their right to vote very
seriously, and the poorer the voters, the more likely they are to exercise their
franchise. Cynicism about elections is singularly absent here.
50 -
5
W
2
political task, and cannot be truly achieved until women become a force to
contend with in a political sense. Perhaps in recognition of this, the visionary
leader from Karnataka, Abdul Nasir Sab, made history when he formulated the
Karnataka Panchayat Raj Act of 1985. Not only was this a genuine attempt at
decentralisation of power to the grassroots level, but a radical measure to bring
women representatives into local self-government institutions. The 1985 Act
made history by introducing the reservation of 25% of all panchayat seats for
women, and became a harbinger of the 73rd and 74th Constitutional
Amendments of 1992, which mandated a reservation of one-third for women.
The impact of the revised panchayat system in Karnataka has had tremendous
ripple effects on rural women in the state; it not only legitimised the entry of
women into these hitherto male-dominated roles, but gave them functional
decision-making powers, no matter how limited, over public resources.
Considering these historical factors, the degree of political participation of
women, and their comparative position vis-a-vis men, is an important dimension
of their status which the study explored. Our hypotheses here were that:
a) women’s participation in the electoral process, such as voting, would be high,
compared to other kinds of political activity;
b) the recent amendments in the panchayat raj system has not yet had spin-off
effects on the level of women’s participation in other political activities; and
c) when women are members of other political fora (such as unions, caste- or
ethnic federations, etc.) their roles would tend to reproduce the domestic
division of labour
Voter Participation.
li al
Fig.1: Have you ever voted?
100 -|
80
60
40
20
0
%
97 . 93
□ Men
H Women
3
No
Yes
Fig.2: Voter participation in 1994
panchayat elections
%
95
□ Men
100
87
An overwhelming majority of the study
respondents have voted at least once, as
figure 1 shows, and the gender differential is
also negligible, with barely a 4% difference
between women and men. Figure 2, which
shows data for the panchayat elections held
in December 1994, shows an almost equally
high participation rate, though the gender
gap here is a little larger - only 87% of the
women, as opposed to 95% of the men, said
they voted in this election.
g Women
Figures 1 & 2 also demonstrate how deeply
the electoral process has penetrated into
0
rural areas, with almost equal gender
No
Yes
impact. Indians take their right to vote very
seriously, and the poorer the voters, the more likely they are to exercise their
franchise. Cynicism about elections is singularly absent here.
50
5
«
2
Fig.3: Decision-making in voting
ioo 7
J97
80
60
40
20
" 81
19
o
%
< Men
■ Women
+
My own
decision
Others'
Influence
When it comes to deciding who to vote for,
however, figure 3 shows that fewer women
claim to have made their own choice - at
least 19% of the women who gave valid
responses to this query stated that their
decision was influenced by someone else’s
suggestion or opinion, compared to just 3%
of men.
Notwithstanding this, we cannot conclude that the vast majority of men, and
especially women, independently decided whom to vote for. Decision-making
about voting is a complex process: voting patterns are increasingly being
determined by caste- and community-based political affiliations, not to mention
the diktat of the village elite / powerful. In practice we also know that the head of
the household often determines who all his family members will vote for, en bloc.
Independent decision-making on voting is a rare phenomenon in rural politics,
and qualitative research may throw more light on the true picture than the data
given above.
We get a glimpse of some of these dynamics when we analyse the responses of
those who say they were influenced. Many of the 33 men who reported that their
voting decision was influenced by others, point to the advice of village elders
and caste leaders. Significantly, half of the 215 women who said they were
influenced, had been advised by their husbands about who to vote for; in 7
cases, the women in fact reported that their husbands threatened them with dire
consequences if they failed to follow his instructions. 33 (15%) had been
advised by village leaders, 26 (12%) by the husband’s family and around 22
women (10%) reported that political party workers also influenced their decision
making - usually with promises of various benefits (employment, water, land,
etc.), if their candidate won.
Participation in Other Organisations:
Figure 4 shows that
in general, partici
180
Ji 168
pation in other kinds
160
-♦—Men
140
of
political organisa
■- - - Women
120
100
tions, which might
68
80
enable them to exert
54
60
30^.. '■35'K
more influence on
-------- 1----------- 0
political decisions
Caste i Women's
Political Comm. /
Trade
Farmers
Youth
indirectly, is very
tribal
org'n.
party
religious union
group
Sangha
poor. It also proves
group
org'n.
our hypothesis (b),
that women have still not entered these kinds of fora in significant numbers, but
are largely restricted to women’s organisations. However, it is heartening to
No.
Fig.4: Membership of organisations
3
note that in terms of sheer numbers, many more women than men are members
of a women’s group compared to male membership of the wide range of other
fora that exist in the study areas.
The data in figure 4 also suggest certain other characteristics of rural
participation in other kinds of quasi-political and civil society organisations:
Firstly, the miniscule numbers of both men and women who report membership
of such organisations shows quite clearly that the impact of the latter is quite
insignificant - possibly because they have become spent forces, or are not
playing a very dynamic role in community affairs. Secondly, the youth clubs /
yuvak sanghas show nearly as much membership for men as caste and ethnic
associations - this could be because youth clubs have increasingly become a
major site and mechanism for political mobilisation by all the major parties, and
are often influential in dispensing political patronage. Membership of these
therefore implies greater potential for power and sway.
One of our hypotheses (c) was that even when women are members of social or
other organisations, they are more likely to play traditional domestic roles within
these. Figure 5 partially confirms this, in that far more men (56) than women
(26) report holding formal leadership positions in their organisations, or being
responsible for organising special functions On the other hand, many more
women than men are responsible for providing food and refreshments at
meetings, (90 compared to 31 men), or for cleaning and maintaining the
organisation’s meeting place or centre (108 compared to just 38 men) - this
proves our
Fig.5: Gender differentials in organisational roles &
hypothesis (c),
No.
responsibilities
that
even when
120
—♦—Men
120 -r
118
women are
,108
---- -- Women
90
100
members of
65
80
organisations,
56
60
38
?6 *
---.r’44
they tend to
31
40 18
...<26
reproduce
20 If 14
—i— ----------1---------- ------- 1------domestic roles.
------- 1--------------- 1
------- 1-------0Z
Keep
accounts /
records
Leader
(President,
Secretary,
etc.)
Provide food
I refresh
ments
Clean /
maintain
prem ises
Convene/
conduct
meetings
Organise
functions
Represent
ing org'n in
other fora
On the other
hand, the data
shows that
almost an equal number of women as men are also playing the roles of keeping
organisational accounts and minutes, convening / conducting meeting, and
representing their organisations at other fora - it is fairly certain that the women
reporting in these categories are those who are members of the women’s
sanghas and collectives initiated by local NGOs, rather than women members of
other local organisations. The point to be stressed here is that the gender gap
in performance of traditionally “female" tasks is greater than in other roles. In
other words, women may be breaking through into non-traditional roles in public
organisations, but the gender division of roles and responsibilities is still alive
and well in many ways.
4
Contesting Elections.
With the introduction of the reservation for women in Panchayat Raj Institutions,
the phenomenon of women contesting elections has come to be widely accepted
in rural areas in Karnataka. However, figures 6 and 7 show that at least among
the study respondents, this has not yet spilled-over into women’s contesting for
the right to be elected representatives in other bodies. Even in the panchayats,
women have contested only in Gram Panchayat elections (Figure 6), while
several men report contesting not only these, but Taluk Panchayat, Zilla
Panchayat, Cooperative Society, and other elections.
Fig.6: Gender differentials in
elections contested
No.
30
□ Men
30 n
10
15
15
a
0
3
----- t-
I
Gram
Ranch.
10
5-
10
iW
Taluk
Ranch.
-2.—JU—,
Zilla
Ranch.
□ Men
H Women
20 -i 17
S Women
20
Rg.7: Gender differentials in
elections won
No.
0
”112
9
8 1 —f. ----------- F
Gram
Ranch.
CoopVe Others
3
_. ...li i
Taluk
Ranch.
Zilla
Ranch.
Coop’ve Others
Figure 7 shows, however, that more women candidates were successful in
winning the posts they stood for: 12 out of the 15 women who stood for Gram
Panchayat seats won. This is clearly because they contested for seats reserved
for women, and because men still face stiffer competition since there are far
more candidates contesting a male seat For instance, of the 12 women who
won Gram Panchayat seats, 9 were elected from seats reserved for women; this
includes 4 from seats reserved for SC/ST women, 1 from a seat reserved for a
Backward Caste woman, and 4 from general seats reserved for women. Among
men, only 8 were elected from a reserved seat - 5 from seats reserved for SCs /
STs and 3 from seats reserved for Backward Castes. The Others1 category
includes 3 men who had stood for elections to the erstwhile Mandal Panchayats
that were in operation till 1992.
Conclusions:
Women’s political participation is very low if we exclude mere voting in elections;
but then, men’s participation is not much higher. It is obvious that only a
miniscule proportion of the study respondents are members of quasi-political or
civil society organisations, which are an important mechanism for articulating
their needs and priorities in the public realm, and for increasing their access to
public decision-making and resources. This makes them - both women and men
- almost totally dependent on the formal political institutions and political parties
to address their needs, making them more vulnerable to manipulation in the
absence of alternative fora. It is remarkable, for instance, that although the
majority of the respondents’ households own land, barely 13 men and two
5
women have reported membership of a farmers organisation, though a body like
the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha claims to be the largest farmers lobby in the
state, representing the interests of small farmers. A synergistic process seems
to be at work - many of these organisations themselves are not very active or
effective in community affairs in at least the study areas, and hence interest in
participation is generally low.
An encouraging trend is the significant number of women who belong to a local
mahila sangha or women’s group - this is clearly the impact of local NGO
mobilisation of women. But they still have a long way to go in terms of holding
leadership positions in non-women organisations and fora.
6
Table 1: Distribution of respondents by whether they have
ever voted
Whether
ever voted
No______
Yes______
Total
Male reporting
No.
%
38
3.4
96.6
100.0
1065
1103
Female reporting
No.
%
82
1089
1171
7.0
93.0
100.0
Table 2: Whether voted in last Gram Panchayat elections
Response:
iNo
Yes
Total
Male reporting
No.
%
4.7
__ 52
95.3
1051
1103
100.0
Female reporting
No.
%
12.9
151
87.1
1020
100.0
1171
Table 3: Who influenced voting decision
Who influenced
My own decision
Influenced by others
Invalid
Female reporting
Male reporting
%
No.
1047
33
24
94.9
3
2.1
No.
%
915
215
41
78.1
18.4
3.5
Table 4: Membership of organisations
Male reporting
Female reporting
Organisation
Farmers Sangha_______________
Yuvak Sangha_______________
Ambedkar Sangha___________ __
Mahila Mandal / Mahila Sangha
Political Party______________
Trade union / workers association
Caste / ethnic organisation______
Religious / communcal organisation
Tribal federation _________ _
Total no. of members___________
Note: Multiple response question
No.
13
54
6
26
177
56
38
6
7
%
No.
2
_1
1
168
3
198
32
5
2
%
Table 5: Gender differentials in roles and responsibilities of
organisation members
Roles / responsibilities:
Maintaining accounts/records______________
Leader (president, vice-resident, secretary,
treasurer, etc.)
________________________
Providing food and refreshments/playing host
Cleaning and maintaining the premises
Conducting meetings_____________________
Organising events________________________
Representing organisation / participating in
functions of other organisations____________
Note: Multiple response question.
Male
reporting
18
56
Female
reporting
14
26
31
38
65
65
118
90
108
56
44
120
Table 6: Gender differentials in whether contested any
elections and whether won
Position contested
Gram Panchayat seat
Taluk Panchayat seat
Zilla Panchayat seat
Cooperative________
Other (s)__________
Total
Female reporting
No.
No.
Won
contested
12
15
15
12
8
Male reporting
No.
No.
Won
contested
17
30
1
3
1
10
9
3
47
3
30
Chapter 17
Access to Law and Justice
Law is often defined as the encoding of social rules and norms. Consequently, it
reflects the prevailing ideology of a given society, or at least the ideology of the
dominant social groups. However, the law is also viewed by many as an
instrument for social reform, or even social transformation - something that is not
a mere reflection of social reality, but an embodiment of lofty ideals and
aspirations - an image, in fact, of how society should be, of how human beings
should relate to each other, and how the state should treat its citizens1.
Where the status of women is concerned, legal reform has been extensively
used to empower women at least in a formal sense2. The Constitution of India,
for instance, gave women formal equality at a time when even advanced
countries of the North had several anti-women statutes in full operation3.
However, patriarchal ideology is so pervasive, deep-rooted and yet invisible, that
law tends to reinforce biases against women in both subtle and overt ways4.
This is particularly true in the private sphere of marriage and family, where the
law has been very reluctant to question gender power relations or intervene in
favour of women, as compared to the public domain, where legal reform for
gender equality has been much easier to achieve5,6.
As Kapur points out, however, the gender bias in law must be examined at both
conceptual and operational levels: i.e., within the formulation of the law itself,
and in the way it is applied and practised. There is an extensive body of critical
work by Indian feminist lawyers, particularly analyses of case law and
judgements, that demonstrates how the law works against women more often
than it works for them7.
1 N.R. Madhava Menon, 1991: “Law and Ethics”, Seventh B V N R Memorial Lecture,
Bangalore, BVNR Memorial Trust.
2 Flavia Agnes, 1994: Gender and Law, ROWS Gender Series (Series Editor: Meera Kosambi),
Bombay, Research Centre for Women s Studies, SNDT University.
3 Switzerland did not grant women the vote until 1974; the United States House of
Representatives has not passed the Equal Rights Amendment to date.
4 S.P. Sathe, 1993: Towards Gender Justice, RCWS Gender Series (Series Editor: Meera
Kosambi), Bombay, Research Centre for Women’s Studies, SNDT University.
5 M. Schuler & S. Kadirgamar-Rajasingham, 1992: Legal Literacy - A Tool for Women's
Empowerment, New York, UNIFEM / WIDBOOKS.
6 Ratna Kapur & Brenda Cossman, “On Women, Equality and the Constitution: Through the
Looking Glass of Feminism”, in National Law School Journal, Special Issue, 1993, Bangalore,
National Law School of India University.
7 See Dhagamwar, Parasher, Kapur, Agnes, Jaisingh, etc.
i
For women at the grassroots level - indeed for the majority of Indian women and
men, the law is a distant, inaccessible, and unaffordable means to justice. As
one practitioner of legal awareness for rural women put it, "Women see the law
as something formulated by an amorphous ’they’, used by an amorphous ’they’,
and benefitting an equally amorphous ’them’. "8
In today’s world, this dilemma goes beyond the realm of formal law to
encompass the wide range of human rights that have been formulated over the
past five decades, but are not necessarily justiciable. These are more in the
nature of social goals which signatory states have agreed to promote and
protect, but have not, in many cases, been transformed into legislation or
incorporated in existing statutes. The International covenants on Civil and
Political Rights, Social, Economic and Cultural Rights, the Rights of the Child,
and the Convention on Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women
are examples of such global rights agreements, all of which have been ratified
by the Indian Government.
To take recourse to formal law not only necessitates a certain kind of economic
means and physical mobility, but an awareness of one’s rights, and the ability to
conceptualise the violations of these rights as injustice. A fatalistic acceptance
of rights violations as the inevitable lot of women is a serious barrier to gender
justice and equality. For most Indian women, particularly the poor and
powerless, the conundrum is this: they are socialised from earliest childhood to
learn and practise a range of duties and obligations, rather than be aware of
their rights. They are conditioned to uphold the sanctity of the institutions of
family and marriage. But as we have seen in Chapter 8 (Section 3), the majority
of rights violations experienced by women are within the home and family, with
spouses and family members being the main perpetrators of injustice. Women
are thus not only more reluctant to seek redressal in the public sphere, by taking
familial issues to the more public adjudicatory authorities like the panchayats,
police or courts, but also have relatively less means, mobility, and decision
making autonomy to do so.
Obviously, litigation is not the best or ideal means of transforming the status of
women in any society; but when women’s rights and bodily integrity are violated,
every civilized society has an obligation to ensure that such women have access
to justice and redressal, including to the body of laws and rights that have been
created for their protection This is not possible, however, unless women - and
men - are aware of their rights and the laws which protect these rights. The
assertion of rights presupposes knowledge of rights.
8 Sandhya Rao, Director of Hengasara Hakkina Sangha, a legal awareness programme for rural
women in Karnataka, quoted in A. Batliwala,1997: “Hengasara Hakkina Sangha - Case Study of
a Feminist Organisation”, Bombay, Sophia College for Women.
1
In this section of the study, following on the heels of the section on violence and
abuse, we examined women’s access to law and justice as a key parameter of
their status. Our hypotheses here were that:
a) women have a lower awareness of injustice, as compared to men; and
b) women have less access to both customary and formal law and justice
mechanisms.
Gender and Injustice:
We began by trying to understand people’s perceptions of the forms of injustice
faced by women, both in the home and family and in society at large. In order to
avoid biasing or leading respondents in any way, we asked them to identify the
injustices they think women encounter, rather than respond to a list of our own.
The results presented in Figures 1 and 2 (next page) are both enlightening and
ironic in several ways. Firstly, there was a significant difference between the
number of responses to this question received from women and men: there were
a total of 3838 female responses, and only 2408 male responses. In other
words, each woman respondent on an average could name at least four
injustices, while their male counterparts each identified just over two! This
seems to disprove our first hypothesis - women do have a considerable
awareness of the injustices meted out to them, and their awareness is in fact
greater than that of their men.
%
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Fig.1: Gender differentials in awareness of injustices faced
by women in the home I family
50
52
47
40
35 E 18
26
15
Wife-beating
,.S7l
13
4...... .......
Harassment
by in-laws
31
Bigamy by
husband
□ Men
@ Women
18
'-'i
9
_J------ +
—I--------- —f—i------------------- —
Dowry
harassment
Harrassment Harassment of
widows/
for not
deserted/
bearing son f
divorced
childlessness
The data in figure 1 is both encouraging and ironic in that it shows that while
women have a far greater awareness of the injustices they face within the home
than men, the '“action taken” data in the violence section and this one indicates
that they also see the family as the main source of protection and adjudication.
If we juxtapose the data in figure 1 with the women’s responses in figure 2, we
also find that women’s awareness of rights violations within the family and home
is far more alive and extensive than of the systemic social deprivations they
3
face. This should not surprise us: home-based injustices, more violent by very
nature, are obviously more visible and real because they are the daily, lived
experience of women, while social injustices are often invisible precisely
because they are cloaked in the garb of the “natural” order of gender power
relations. Incidentally, we should be alarmed by the fact that 20% of male
respondents (221 men) and 10% of female respondents (117 women) answered
“Don’t Know” to the question of social injustices against women.
How do we explain the difference between women’s reporting of injustices faced
by women in the home and the reporting of actual abuse and violence in Chapter
8? Women respondents may have extrapolated from their knowledge of the
problems faced by other women - kin, neighbours, etc. It is also possible that
even these rural women have been exposed to the media blitz on women's
issues like dowry deaths. Further, the women living in NGO intervention areas
may have been exposed to dicussions of these questions in NGO-initiated
awareness programmes.
The percentage difference between male and female reporting is over 10 points
under all categories in the domestic sphere of injustices, except for ‘ harassment
for not giving birth to a son”, and “harassment of widows / deserted women /
divorced women”, where women’s reporting is also not very high. Obviously,
men are on the whole either more oblivious to or more complacent about
women's unequal position within the home.
The difference
between male
%
and
female
4° 37 36
□ Men
reporting of social
30gWomen
injustices (fig.2)
21
20
171
also bears further
I A
I .
exploration. Male
10
2 4
3 2
3 Jt,
f-'
I
,
1
----,
I
---------------teaRis
,
t
[
0 -U
+
awareness of
+
Overwork/
Lack
of
equal
Lack
of
Rape/sexual
Unequal
Eve-teasing
some of these
harassment lack of rest/ opportunities education
wages
may be higher
leisure
because of their
greater literacy and education levels, physical and social mobility, and
consequent exposure to gender issues in the print and electronic media.
Moreover, since men are the perpetrators of most domestic injustices, but see
these as “natural” adjuncts to male privilege and authority, they may actually
view “injustices against women" as those structural deprivations occuring outside
the household. Women, on the other hand, would have not had much
opportunity to conceptualise issues like unequal wages or lack of equal
education or other opportunities as rights violations or injustices unless they are
active in radical fora or NGO programmes of some kind.
Fig.2: Gender differentials in awareness of social
injustices against women
4
Finally, it is significant that there were less than 100 male and female responses
for the categories “lack of rest”, “lack of education” and “lack of opportunities”.
Clearly, both men and women regard injustices as acts of commission (violence)
rather than acts of omission (neglect and denial).
The “any other1’ category included some very illuminating responses. For men, it
included the response’In our village/in our caste, women do not have any
problems”. Apart from this kind of defensive response, there were others like
“absence of equal property rights”, “lack of consent in marriage”, “lack of
employment opportunities”, “snatching away of earnings by the husband”, “street
harassment”, “difficulty in getting girls married”, and “lack of freedom to move
around freely”. Women respondents also gave interesting responses in the “any
other” category, such as - “higher positions in office are given only to men”,
“husbands take away the wife’s
RgB: Gender differential in whether
earnings”, “women are even sold off’,
experienced injustices
“the purdah system among the Muslims”,
□ Men
90 88
100n
“lack of freedom”, “marriage without
HWbmen
80
consent", and “exclusion from decision
making”.
%“
Er
40
20
■
I■
10
12
We now come to injustices actually
faced. Figure 3 shows that only a
No
Yes
miniscule proportion of the respondents,
either male orfemale, reported actually
experiencing any of the forms of injustice they had identified in the earlier
question. As usual, the number of women reporting encountering injustice was
higher than the number of men - (145 and 111 respectively). The actual number
of injustices reported by women and men here (285 and 139 respectively) is
encouragingly close to the number of incidents of physical and psychological
abuse reported in Chapter 8 (viz., 289 and 181 respectively).
0
______Table 1: Gender differentials in number of injustices faced
Women Nature of Injustice______ Men
Nature of Injustice
Men
Harassment by in-laws /
Theft 1 encroachment of
39
relatives_______________
17
land / property________
25
Suspicion
of
infidelity,
10
17
Harassment by employer
0
infidelity/bigamy by spouse
Wife-beating
___________
18
Wage discrimination_____
15
Harassment of widowed /
Discrimination in access to
0
divorced
/ deserted women
6
employment___________
8
Harassment
for
childless15
14
Caste / communal
ness / bearing daughters
2
discrimination__________
7
Any
other
2
Political harassment
5
Women
89
55
41
15
2
4
Table 1 gives us a glimpse of the kinds of injustices listed by those who reported
personal experiences. The gender bias is once again obvious - women have
recounted many more experiences than men, including several that are unique
5
to their gender. We also hear echoes of the kinds of violent or abusive acts that
were reported by women in Chapter 8. In the case of men, we are witnessing
not only land and property-related problems, but reports of discrimination - on
grounds of caste or community, or in access to wages or jobs, as a category of
injustice. Quite a few men report harassment by relatives and in-laws, but not
nearly as much as reports from women, who once again indicate that the
majority of injustices they face are in the realm of family and household relations.
What action was taken to
No.
redress these violations?
140
131
This question was asked of
□ Men
120
lool
□
Women
the
111 men and 145
90
100
80
women who reported direct
61
60
45
experiences of injustice.
40
24
'19
20
Figure 4 shows that
4--- ----0
+
+
arbitration within the family
Mahila
Police
Court
Nyay/ jati/
Family/
or, in the case of men, by
Sangha/
community
gram
NGO
panchayat
elders
village elders / leaders, was
the first choice In fact, the
majority of the women respondents in this case had actually approached only
family elders, while about 60% of the men had actually gone to village /
community elders.
Hg?4: Who was approached for redressal
n
2 HI , I I
The term “elders” needs to be explained: the Kannada equivalent used by
respondents in the study is “doddavaru”, which also means “big people”,
signifying not just the older and wiser, but also economically and socially
powerful individuals. In contrast, “elders” in the context of the household/family
implies older members of the family (father-in-law, mother-in-law, etc.).
The data also shows that a surprisingly large number of women report having
approached the local panchayat with their grievances, though this is
contradicted by the opinions expressed in figure 5, as we shall see. A
considerable number also went to the police or the courts, though here they are
clearly outnumbered by men. The women reporting seeking the support of the
Mahila Sangha are clearly from villages where NGOs like Mahila Samakhya
have been active, and where these have become informal arbitration fora,
especially for women’s problems.
The data in figure 5 (next page), on the question of whom women should
approach for redressal, both corroborates and contradicts the reality in figure 4.
Figure 5 represents the opinions of all the study respondents, not just those who
personally experienced injustices, and clearly upholds the norm that women
should seek redressal for their grievances within the family, and not approach
outside authorities (at least in the first instance). People obviously do not see
6
any paradox in suggesting that the very institution which most consistently
violates women’s rights is the best guardian or mediator of those rights!
On the other hand,
far fewer men and
78
80
□ Men
women think that
70
56
El Women
60
the local panchayat,
50
NGOs, women’s
40
28
24
30
sanghas, etc.,
r—118
20
8 7
11
should be
5 2
10
j I
1^:1
CZhran—|
0
approached by
Others
Family Community Jati /nyaya Women’s Hie police Lawyer/
women, and going
court
elders
leaders/
/gram
org'n. /
to the police or
elders
panchayat
NGO
courts seems to be
anathema to the majority of our respondents, both men and women! This is in
contrast to figure 4, where in fact a significant number of women with grievances
had actually approached not only local panchayats9, but the police and the
courts in search of redress.
%
Fig.5: Whom should women approach for justice?
I
4-^ I il
We also see that more men than women seem to feel that women could
approach external authorities with their grievances - whether this is because
they are responding hypothetically, with no threat to their own family name or
selves is a moot point. Regardless of this, women respondents seem to have
faith in the innate justness of ‘family elders’, whereas men seem to prefer local
systems such as the nyaya panchayats for women’s problems. It should be
noted that since it is usually the landed elite who preside over the local nyayc^
panchayats, community “elders” and leaders and the jati / nyaya panchayat may
functionally imply the same adjudicating authority.
The small proportion of women (11 %) who regard the mahila sangha / NGO as a
forum for redress, are obviously members of collectives formed by these
organisations, and have actually witnessed or played such a role in some
context. The corresponding 3.8% men who identify women’s organisations as
an option could well be spouses of such women.
Some of the other options for women mentioned by men included: “women can
approach neighbours and friends”, “they can go to the village head”, “they
should get together and solve their problems collectively” Some were more
cynical, saying “there are no options, suicide is the only way out”, and “getting
justice is impossible without money.” Some of the 24 women respondents from
the. “others” category also mentioned “village head”, “husband”, and “M L.A”.
Some women said “I won’t tell anybody”, while others said “we will unite”.
9 Throughout this section, “nyaya panchayats” refer to customary community arbitration bodies,
and not the legally constituted nyay panchayats of the Panchayat Raj Act.
7
In figure 6, we
see the consoli
%
faced an injustice?
dation of the
77
80,
trend, when
□ Men
70
0 Women
60
asked whom they
50
43
would approach if
40
they experienced
30
24
injustice, the
20
13
3 3
1 2
10
0
0 4
difference
0
+
+
between men’s
Police
Eden in the
Vfhege
Nyaya/jati/
Mahila
Others Don't Know
choices for
family
gram
dderei
sanghaf
J No
panchayat
response
leadere
NGO
themselves and
for women
becomes clear,
while women’s choices for themselves and for other women merely get
reinforced. For themselves, few men see family elders as suitable adjudicators;
they prefer village leaders / elders and the panchayat, and as mentioned above,
these are often functionally virtually the same. Far more men are also willing to
file police complaints. Women, on the other hand, continue to uphold the family
elders as the main source of justice for themselves, with only a minority - 20% saying they would opt for the panchayat, police, mahila sangha or other public
fora for support or assistance.
Fig.6: Whom would you approach if you
■
=
, I ■ , r~u,
Access to and Perceptions of Customary Redressal Systems:
If raising women’s status means their gaining access to non-familial redressal
systems, these mechanisms must be available and accessible to them. We
therefore explored not only the existence of such fora as traditional panchayats
and police at the village level, but also people’s perceptions of these bodies.
Figure 7 shows a gender gap in awareness of the existence of a nyaya
panchayat in the study villages. 20% of women, compared to just 5% of the men
respondents said that they did not know if a nyaya panchayat existed in their
village. This is not only a reflection
of women’s relative exclusion from
Fig.7: Is there a nyaya panchayat
in
your
village?
public affairs, but also of their lack of
%
60 -r
□
Men
physical
and social mobility. The
52
50 44
------ 1 44
■Women
significant proportion of respondents
40
who have said “No” is difficult to
30 20
interpret - it could be that several
20
10
5
villages share a common panchayat,
0 but it does not sit in the given study
No
Yes
Don't Know
village; on the other hand, it could
also mean that these customary fora
have ceased to function, for all practical purposes, in these specific villages.
Hra
I
■
H
8
Fig.8: Are there SC/ST members in the
nyaya panchayat?
c
100 n
87 87
80
60 -|
40
20 0-
%
80 -]
□ Men
K3 Women
12
1
Yes
|
No
9
1
4------
Fig.9: Are there women members in the
nyaya panchayat?
4
IW
39
40
---- 1 27
20
si
0 -
Don’t
Know
71
61
60
o/
/o
Yes
I
No
□ Men
□ Women
0
3
Don’t
Know
Where they do exist, the gender and caste composition of nyaya panchayats,
will obviously influence their utilisation by women and oppressed groups. Figure
8 and 9 present the reporting of the 517 women and 571 men who said there
was a nyaya panchayat in their village, on the caste- and gender-make up of
these bodies. If this reporting is reasonably accurate, it would seem that
representation of Dalits is vastly better than representation of women in these
customary bodies - which is not surprising. Barring some specific tribes, women
have traditionally had no place in community panchayats. Whatever the true
picture, it is clear that respondents perceive nyaya panchayats as more
balanced in caste than gender terms. Women particularly do not seem to
believe that there are women in enough panchayats to give them confidence in
their ability to arbitrate their grievances fairly.
In terms of issues, the respondents perception was clearly that the panchayat
can adjudicate on virtually any and every dispute or injustice they face - the list
of issues it can mediate included property / money disputes, marital conflicts,
thefts, wife-beating, caste- and communal conflicts, adultery, bigamy, and sexual
harassment (see Statistical Appendices). In other words, both men and women
see the arbitration powers of the nyaya panchayats as virtually limitless; the
assumption seems to be that as a customary adjudicatory institution, it will deal
with all matters that occur within its physical and social jurisdiction.
This does not, of course, reflect on how just or fair nyaya panchayats are
perceived to be, particularly by women. In case of property or land disputes,
unhappiness with the panchayat s verdict may lead men to litigate through the
formal legal machinery; but for most women, the gendered barriers that constrain
them - "family prestige”, little or no control over income or assets, low physical
mobility, etc. - may result in mute acceptance of the panchayats verdict, and the
family may not permit her to pursue further avenues of justice. For instance, one
woman respondent told the investigator that the panchayat had levied a fine of
Rs. 500/ on the man who had raped her - hardly “justice” by human rights
standards!! This could happen to women even in cases where the crime or
violation is not related to her gender.
A
Access and Attitudes to the Police:
A merel 04 men and 61 women
have approached the police at least
once, constituting around 9% and
%
5% of all male and female
91 _95
□ Men
respondents (figure 10). This may
100
E Women
not be a particularly low proportion,
since we do not know what the
50
9
general population statistics are in
5
this context. It could well be that
0
only around 10% of the population
YES
NO
ever goes to the police, with
perhaps slightly higher figures in urban areas. It is more important to examine
these numbers in relation to the number of women and men who reported
personal experiences of injustices in this chapter, and experiences of physical
and psychological abuse in Chapter 8. These more revealing ratios are
presented in figure 11 (next page).
Fig. 10: Have you ever gone to the police
for help/with a complaint?
We see the very clear gender barrier in access to the police - the ratio of women
approaching the police is only 42% of the experiences of injustices reported by
women, and just 21 % of
Fig.11: Persons who approached police as proportion of
the incidents of physical
those who reported injustice and violence/abuse
and psychological abuse
94
they reported. Without
□ Men
100n
■Women
further data analysis, we
57
80
cannot assert with
42
%60
confidence
that all the
21
40
women who approached
20
the police are from among
0
those who reported
% of those report! ng % of those reporting
injustices or abuse, but the
injustices
violence / abuse
probability is very high, as
the statistical appendices of the concerned chapters show. Nevertheless, it is
clear that men have greater access and confidence to approach the police than
women, and fewer cultural barriers.
Moreover, we have seen that the nature of the problems faced by men create
fewer barriers to seeking official assistance than those faced by women, which
are rooted in familial violations of their rights and person. For example, 58 men
and 22 women made property-related complaints to the police. Similarly,
harassment by landlord / employer is another problem for which the police have
been approached by 22 men and 15 women. Barely a handful of family-based
io
issues have been taken to the police by women, and even these could well be
where local NGOs have supported them to do so.
80
70
60
50 -f
40 -J
30
20
10
0 4
%
fx
Fig.12: Would you approach the police if you were
in trouble?
to
□ Men
El Women
25
4 7
1 3
4 I—45^1 | . wrap
+
Yes
Afraid of
the police
Corrupt I
demand
bribes
Support
the rich/
harass the
poor
1
>
J
CastisV
commu
nal
4 5
4 2
1
Misbehave
with
women
Other
reasons
No because
A large percentage of the respondents - though more men than women reported that they would approach the police if the need arose. Among the
various “no” categories, fear of the police was the key factor for both men and
women, though double the number of women as men fell into this group. A more
open-ended attitude question about the police in general might have elicited
more accurate data on people’s actual perceptions of the police. The skew in
this representation is that those who said they would approach the police may
also hold a number of negative views about them - i.e., people may approach
the police when they have to, even if they do not have great confidence in their
integrity or impartiality.
Responses in the “others” category were very telling: most of the 43 male
responses in this group were to the effect that they “may go” or that they “cannot
say”. Some said they would rather “approach the village elders”, or that they
would have to “consult village elders” before approaching the police. Of the 59
women who were coded under “others”, most said they would not go to the
police because their or their family’s “prestige" ('maryada’) would be affected.
There were some women who said it was
Fig.13: Male views on whether
best to solve problems “within the village”,
women should go to the police
some said they would ask the village elders
Don’t
to
decide whether or not to approach the
know
Yes
4%
police. For women, therefore, approaching
49%
the police was a major issue, and a
decision that would have to be made or at
least mediated, by someone other than
no
___~ n
themselves.
47%
Figure 13 corroborates this from the male perspective. When male respondents
were asked their views on whether women should approach the police for
f l
violations and injustices they encounter, they were almost evenly divided. 49%
said yes, 47% said no, and 4% were uncertain. Of the 556 men who said no,
the reasons given are represented in figure 14. The poor image of the police
vis-a-vis their treatment of women is a key concern - 39% of the men saying
women should not go to the police are apprehensive about this issue. A wellfounded fear, given the widespread experiences of sexual harassment and
custodial rapes committed by the police especially with poor women. But the
main concern, in men’s minds, is clearly the reputation of the woman and the
family “name” - in
other words, women
Fig. 14: Male views on why women should not
should
not wash
approach police for their problems
their dirty linen in
public, and shame
60
j
their families /
40
spouses by going to
49 &
■ 39 Bs
I
the police with their
35
20
complaints. This is
ft
further
reinforced, in
0
a sense, by the
They do not She/her family Husband/family others
willget
getaa
treat women
will
can solve
belief that the
well
bad name
the problem
woman should
approach her
husband or family for a solution, a position held by 35% of the respondents
disapproving of women going to the police. The latter group clearly does not
visualise the possibility that the problem could be abuse by the husband or
family itself - or at least, prefer to ignore this possibility.
The other reasons category included responses such as “when men / the
husband is there, there is no necessity”, “women don’t have enough knowledge”,
“if they are well informed they can go", “our religion (Islam) does not allow it”,
“women should approach a women’s organisation and go together to the police”,
“women’s problems should be solved within the home / village”, “going to the
police will bring disrepute to the men of the family”, which reflect the running
theme of this section - that injustice done to women should not come under
public scrutiny.
Access and Attitudes to the Formal Legal System:
The study also explored how many women and men had taken recourse to the
formal law in prosecuting their wrongs. Since it well known that the formal
judicial mechanism in this country is almost paralysed by the huge quantity of
litigation, slow rate of case disposal, high cost, and increasing corruption, it is an
option out of reach for most of the rural poor. Despite many experiments like
“lok adalats”, the belief that the law is beyond their reach and not meant for them
is deeply ingrained, particularly in women.
10-
Fig.15: Have you ever gone to a lawyer
or had a court case?
100
88
50
97
□ Men
□ Women
12
3
0
--y
No
Yes
It is not surprising.therefore, that
only a small proportion of the
study respondents -12% of men
and 3% of women - have used
this avenue of grievance
redressal, as figure 15 shows.
The gender gap is obviously
linked to the same factors that
have been described in the
earlier part of this chapter, and do
not bear repetition.
The kinds of issues litigated are presented in fig. 16. We once again observe the
gendered trend: the majority of cases filed by men are related to land and
money, with practically none in the area of family law (viz., divorce, mainte
nance, child custody, etc.) On the other hand, figure 16 once again illustrates
that of all the cases
litigated by women, a
Fig. 16: Nature of litigation
No.
relatively low
proportion are related
80
71
□ Men
70
to familial disputes:
60
@ Women
compared to 25 cases
50
filed by women for
40
30
19
property disputes,
15
12
11
20
9
5
caste/communal
3
“I 4
10
1
-------1ML_
+
0+
conflicts and problems
Others
Cases
Family law
Property/
Caste/
with landlords /
cases
against
money
communal
employers, just 11
landlord/
disputes
disputes/
relate to family law.
em ployer
thefts
Finally, figure 17 shows
that far more respondents
see the formal legal system
as out of their purview than
65
□ Men
80
they did the police Not
H Women
1W 49
47
60
surprisingly, women exhibit
29
more
ambi-valence here
% 40
'Sb
than elsewhere - the 'ayes’
6
4
20
and 'nays’ are about evenly
divided. This may be
0
Don't know
Yes
No
because they are less
apprehensive about their
treatment at the hands of the formal law than with the police, but see all the
other gendered barriers that functionally reduce their access. The majority of
Fig. 17: Would you go to a lawyer or court to
seek justice?
13
the male respondents, on the other hand, are quite confident that they would use
legal machinery if the need arose. It was interesting, though, that most of the
women and men who said "yes” added that they would do so "to get justice’’,
which seemed to imply that the formal court is seen as the final means for
access to justice.
Further analysis will reveal to what extent these responses were influenced by
factors like income and caste - it is well known that poor people, and people
belonging to oppressed social groups, see the formal law as both unaffordable
and inherently biased. For instance, among men who said “no”, were many who
said that they didn’t have the money to use the legal machinery, or that “people
like us will not get justice”. Most of those who said ’no’ also categorically stated
that they would sort out problems within the village.But the men who said yes,
made it clear that they would use the courts if they did not get justice from the
local panchayat, especially in property-related matters.
Women who said ‘no’ gave the predictable reasons: “we will decide the matter
within our village", “my family / elders / the head-man / my husband will look after
everything”, “I do not know anything about the court”, “I do not have the
courage”, “we have no money”. Those who said yes, gave responses such as,
"if there are disputes about land or property, we will go”, “if we cannot get justice
in the village, we will go”.
Conclusions:
This section of the study is demonstrating the extent to which women’s access to
justice is socially mediated, and particularly by the family. While women’s
awareness of injustice within the family is high, their ability to perceive systemic
social deprivation as injustice is much lower than men’s. Conversely, men are
either intentionally or genuinely oblivious to the violations of women’s rights
within the home and family. The majority of women who experienced injustices
in one form or another had sought redressal, but they are caught in a vicious
circle:
There is little social sanction for redressing family-based oppression outside the
family itself, creating a paradox. Women’s lack of assets and restricted mobility
also negates and counteracts the possibility of their pursuing justice through
mechanisms that involve money and travel without family support. While men
have freer access to other adjudicatory fora, women’s reach is restricted by the
belief that "women’s problems” should not be exposed to the public gaze or
prosecuted in public institutions, customary or formal.
Men’s problems, by their very nature, are less governed by the dictates of family
honour and propriety. Disputes even with their own relatives, since they are
inevitably linked to assets and resources, can be legitimately resolved publicly.
1M
Although informal arbitration at the village level or through local panchayats is
more accessible even for men, if these fail to satisfy the contestant, they can
litigate their claims through the formal courts if they have the means to do so.
The message of this chapter is thus very unambiguous: for men, economic and
social circumstances, rather than cultural norms, are the key factors governing
their access to justice, particularly in the public sphere; but for women, their
gender is the major barrier in seeking redress outside the family system.
15
Table 1: Injustices faced by women in the home and in society
Male reporting Female reporting [Difference
Problems Within the Home
No
No.
%
%
%
50.13
32.09
587
199
18.04
Harassment by in-laws_________
47.31
12.31
554
386
35.00
Wife-beating_______________ __
26.47
11.78
14.69
310
162
Bigamy by husband___________
51.75
20.56
606
31.19
344
Dowry harassment____________
10.93
7.30
128
3.63
40
Harassment for not giving birth to
son_________________________
29.21
19.51
342
9.70
107
Harassment for childlessness
17.59
8.34
206
9.25
102
Harassment of
widows/deserted/divorced women
Male reporting Female reporting Difference
Larger Social Problems that
Women have
%
No.
%
No
%
35.78
-0.85
419
404
36.63
Eve teasing_____________
20.75
4.16
243
16.59
183
Unequal wages__________
23.91
-4.83
280
28.74
317
Rape/sexual harassment
4.10
1.65
48
27
2.45
Overwork/lack of rest/leisure
2.39
-0.51
28
2.90
32
Lack of opportunities______
5.72
2.55
67
35
3.17
Lack of education
Table 2: Personal experiences of such injustices or violations of rights
Female
Male reporting
reporting
Have you experienced injustices? If yes, describe:
No.
No.
1026
992
No_____________________
16
61
Harassment by in-laws______________________
23
28
Harassment by other relatives________________
15
18
Unequal wages_____________
3
2
Communal discrimination___________________
9
32
Infidelity by wife / husband __________________
13
11
Caste discrimination / harassment_____________
2
5
Political harassment_________________________
17
10
Harassment by employer / landlord____________
6
8
Discrimination in employment / job opportunities
25
17
Encroachment/theft of property / land___________
10
Suspicion of infidelity_______
4
Harassment for childlessness_________________
5
Harassment for not giving birth to a son_________
13
Bigamy by husband_______________________
2
Eve-teasing_____________
41
Wife-beating_______________________________
2
Rape______________________ ______________
15
Harassment of widows/deserted / divorced women
4
7
Any others
16
Table 3: Whom did you approach for justice?
Female reporting
Male reporting
% of 145
No.
% of 111
No.
Whom approached:_____
90.34
131
36.94
41
Elders in the family______
35.86
__ 52
33.33
37
Nyaya Panchayat_______
20.69
__
30
28.83
32
Gram Panchayat________
5.52
8
11.71
13
JatHPanchayat__________
53.15
59
Village elders_________ _
11.72
17
Mahila sangha__________ _
4.83
7
1.80
Social Service organisation
28.28
41
54.95
Police_________________
61
13 10
19
40.54
_____________________
45
Court
Note: one person may leave approached more than one source.
Note: The women’s questionnaire did not give village elders’ as an option.
Table 4: Whom should women approach for justice?
Female reporting
Male reporting
Whom women should
No.
%
%
No.
approach:______________
78.05
914
56.39
622
Elders in the family________
327
27.92
19.04
210
Elders from the community
17.93
210
24
30
268
Jati/nyaya/gram panchayat
11.27
132
3.81
42
Women's organisation/NGO
19.73
231
23.75
262
The police_______________
7,09
___ 83
7.62
84
A lawyer / the court________
2.05
24
4.71
52
Others__________________
Note: multiple response question
Table 5: Whom would you approach for justice if the need arose?
Female reporting
Male reporting
% of 1171
No.
% of 1103
No.
Adjudicatory body.______ __
Elders in the family
_
Nyaya Panchayat__________
Gram Panchayat__________
Jati Panchayat_________ __
Villageelders_____________
Mahila sangha_________ __
Social Service organisation
Police_______________ ___
Court___________________
Any other (s)______________
Don’t Know / No response
Note: multiple response question
270
92
51
31
472
4
138
13
20
12
24.49
8.34
4.62
2.81
42.79
0.36
12.51
1.18
1.81
1.09
903
68
46
7
77.11
5.80
3.93
0.60
43
5
38
5
30
26
3.67
0.43
3.25
0.43
2.56
2.22
Table 6: Is there a Nyaya Panchayat in your village?
No
Yes
DK
Female reporting
No.
%
35.44
415
44.15
517
20.41
239
_____ Male reporting
No.
%
43.61
481
51.77
571
4.62
51
Table 7: Are there SC/ST and women members in the Nyaya Panchayat?
________ Women Members
________SC/ST Members
Female reporting
Male reporting
Female reporting
Male reporting
No.
%of 517
% of 571
No.
% of 517
No.
% of 571
No.
26.89
38.88
139
222
86.85
449
86.69
495
Yes______
365
70.60
61.12
349
8.70
45
11,91
68
No_______
13
2.51
4.45
1.40
23
8
Don’t Know
Table 8: What kind of issues does the Nyaya Panchayat mediate?
Female reporting
Male reporting
Yes
No
DK
DK
No
Issues mediated: ___________________ Yes
80
394
43
14
37
520
Property/money disputes within the family
325
81
111
16
79
476
Property/money disputes outside the
family___________
Marital conflict
_____________________
Theft_________________________________
Caste conflict__________________________
Religious conflict ____________________
Wife-beating
_____________________
Harassment of woman by husband/in-laws
Alcoholism____________________________
Adultery by men/women________________
Bigamy by men/women_________________
Dowry Harassment____________________
Rape_____________
Molestation____________________________
Custody of children_____________________
Note: multiple response question
I 8
272
453
265
209
409
337
415
265
313
290
302
292
184
268
102
280
328
143
205
139
278
226
247
236
245
330
31
16
26
34
19
29
17
28
32
34
33
34
57
212
308
152
86
275
193
259
126
193
142
145
156
92
149
65
171
211
116
166
89
189
144
179
167
166
205
156
144
194
220
126
158
169
202
180
196
205
195
220
Table 9: Have you, at any time, approached the police for any complaint?
Male reporting
Female reporting
No.
No.
%
Whether approached police .________________
%
90.57
999
1110
94.79
No______________________________________
9.43
61
104
521
Yes_____________________________________
No,
No.
% of 104
% of 61
If yes, reasons:___________________________
21.15
15
Harassment of landlord/employer_____________
22
2.46
481
_ 5
__1
4.92
Harassment by upper caste people___________
14.42
15
___ 4
Caste conflict_____________________________
6.56
9.62
5
8.20
10
Communal conflict_________________________
5.77
6
Because of theft___________________________
36.54
Conflict with relatives over property/land/money
38
16
26,23
19.23
Conflict with others over property/land/money
20
6
9.84
2.88
3
1
1.64
Sexual harassment /rape (self or woman relative)
3.85
4
8
13.11
Harassment by husband____________________
4
6.56
Harassment by husband and in-laws__________
Note: multiple response question
Table 10: Would you approach the police if necessity arises?
Male reporting
Female reporting
No.
No.
%
Whether would approach police:______
%
748
63.88
855
77.52
Yes_______________________________
423
248
22 48
36.12
No________________________________
% of 423
No.
% of 248
If no, reasons:______________________
290
130
52 42
68.56
I am afraid of the police_____________ _
80
18.91
40
16.13
The police are corrupt / take bribes______
31
14
5.65
7.33
They support the rich/harass the poor
9
6
242
2.13
They do not support people of our
caste/community____________________
17
4.02
They misbehave with women*__________
7
1.65
They misbehave with women of my caste*
59
43
13.95
17.39
Others_____________________________
* only in women’s questionnaire
Table 11: Should women approach the police if injustice is done to them?
(male respondents only)______________________
No.
Whether women should approach police:___________
%
537
48.68
Yes__________________________________________
523
47.42
No__________________________________________
43
3.90
Pon t know____________________________________
No.
% of 523
If no, reasons: ______ _______________________
205
39.20
Police do not treat women well____________________
257
49.14
The woman/her family will get a bad name__________
181
34.61
Woman’s husband / relatives should solve her problem
68
No, other reason (s)
13.00
19
Table 12: Have you ever gone to a lawyer or court for any problem?
Female reporting
Male reporting
No.
No.
Whether approached lawyer or court
968
1139
No_________________________________
135
32
Yes________________________________
If yes, nature of case:________________
_9
19
Harassment by landlord/employer ________
3
1
Harassment by upper caste people_______
9
1
Because of caste conflict_______________
5
Because of communal conflict___________
8
Because of theft______________________
40
10
Conflict with relatives over property /money
2
23
Conflict with others over property / money
3
1
Sexual harassment/rape (self/relative)
1
1
To seek divorce______________________
1
For the custody of the child/children______
4
Harassment by husband_______________
1
Harassment by husband / in-laws________
4
Other reasons________________________
* only in women’s questionnaire
Table 13: Would you go to a lawyer or court for justice?
Female reporting
Male reporting
No%
No.
%
551
47.1
28.6
315
No_____________
577
49.3
65.1
718
Yes____________
43
3.7
6.4
70
DK / no responses
2-0
Chapter 18
Perceptions of status, equality and rights
Gender equality cannot, in the ultimate analysis, be achieved unless attitudes
are changed. The patriarchal mind-set, born of an ideology that subordinates
women from birth and through their entire life cycle, is firmly inculcated in both
women and men from earliest childhood through socialisation processes and
then reinforced through the cultural, social, economic and political arrangements
in society.
Most importantly, women have been converted into the primary agents of their
own oppression, and have to be sensitised to liberate themselves from the
psychology of subordination1. But given social structures and institutions,
particularly marriage and family, men have to be sensitised too, and mobilised to
join in this task, if a truly gender-equal society is to become a reality. This they
will do, as field experiences show, when they realise that the liberation of women
will also liberate them, even if they lose some privileges in the process. In other
words, men must recognise that gender justice is not a zero-sum game, but one
that will bring them many gains, and enrich the whole of human society.
If attitudes are to be changed, we must begin by understanding what are
people’s current perceptions of women’s status and gender relations. Such an
exercise enables us to find spaces for change in existing attitudess, and enlarge
them. This was the primary objective of this final section of our study. In many
ways, it was the most revealing and critical part of the study - it tells us a great
deal about the mind-set of the study respondents not only in what they said, but
what they did not say, or could not comprehend.
For instance, both male and female respondents, found it hard to offer an
opinion or articulate their position with repect to several questions in this section.
This was clearly because until this investigation, many had never given
conscious or rational thought to issues like gender equality or women’s status.
Thus, the subtle differences between questions that were so obvious to us as
researchers, evoked more or less identical answers from the respondents, who
must have wondered why we asked the same question in so many different
ways!
Finally, this was the only section of the entire study that had several open-ended
questions, for which the respondents’ actual words had to be recorded, rather
than the response being located within a given set of codes. This was done to
1
Gerde Lerner, 1986: The Creation of Patriarchy. New York and London, Oxford University Press.
1
caoture the richness and nuances of oeoole’s oerceotions. and it was very
successful in this resoect.
Perceptions of Gender Differentials in Status:
The perception section of the study began with two key question: “Should men
be treated with more respect than, and if so. why?” This question and its
successors were formulated after our pre-tests showed that “respect” was the
best proxy for status in village respondents’ frame of reference.
The response to this Question (figure 1). and. for that matter, several other
questions in this section, mirror the two overarching themes that we find running
throughout the study with respect to gender relations, viz.:
1. Women more firmly uphold the priciple of of male superiority’, and
conversely, are less convinced about their right to equality, than men: and
2. There is an unquestioning acceptance of the existing social arrangement with
resoect to aender and aender relations.
r
Notwithstanding those two
fundamental positions, figure i
shows that 30% (329) of male
%
□ Men
|
85
respondents and 13% (153) of
1001
in Women I
female respondents stated that men
L_________ I
and women should be treated with
30
50 -j
equal respect. A small number of
13
5 2
male respondents 55 (4.99%) and
i gw r-ia—
MF.
oki_ HFzl_
22 (1.88%) female respondents
DON’T KNOW
YES
NO
reported that they didn’t know
L
whether men neeaea to be treated
--------------------- j with greater
%
respect than
Fsg.2: Reasons why man deserve more respect
| on
SO |
women.
| □Men
j
| g Women |
Of the 65% (719)
60 -j
38
male
respondents
: ■■S
31
25 24
I and 85% (996)
“ 1 23 ■■
9
20 4 I----I
Xfii
6
respon
I female
! ssa
I j M
dents who upheld
Other
Men are more, Women's states
Mor. are
male superiority,
knowfedgable/
depends on
the bread
figure 22 shows
wise / aware
men's respect
wfrmere
that nearly 60% of
the- men and 72% of the women attributed this to tradition and custom (paddati),
rather than ascribing any particular rationale to it. This underscores the role of
unquestioned acceptance of gendered roles and power in the subordination of
women.
Fig.1: Should men be treated with
mnrp respect than women?
rws
2
This was a multiple response question so the percentages will not add up to 100
2
Nearlv twice the oercentaoe of female resoondents (30.92%) when comoared to
male respondents (16.55%) reported that they believe that men are more
intelligent and well informed: this is the most deeoly-internalised oerception
among the women, who offer it as the stock response to any question about
differential capabilities, status, or decision-making power. As we shall see.
women believe that this is the basis for female inferiority and male dominance.
It is important to note that only a minority of respondents saw men’s economic
role as the source of their higher status, though as usual. 15% more female
respondents than male respondents offered this view. This offers us a critical
insight: in a rural, largely agriculture-dependent population like this, women’s
role in the economic well-beino and survival of households is not onlv immense.
hut nfton rrinro yits! thsp msrfs0 But sincB much of wornsn’s Isbour is
and they are never paid as much as men even for the same work, or even for an
equal amount of work, men’s greater earnings provide the functional bulwark for
maintaining the gender hierarchy. This ensures that male, and more importantly,
female perceptions of one of the root causes of men’s higher status - their
legitimate right to greater “respect” - remains undisturbed. The fact that
women’s vital role in household survival has not altered perceptions of status
shows the clever dichotomy created by ideology between cultural values and
lived experience.
”3
■
-
The same phenomenon is witnessed in the significant number of men and
women who believe that the status of women is derivative of the respect given to
their men. It is interesting, though, that more men than women offered this
opinion, perhaps reflecting the latent fear, particularly of poor or lower-caste
men, that they will lose social status altogether if their women derive their status
independently. After all, for most men at the bottom of the social ladder, the
women of their households are often their only source of respect and selfesteem.
The role of age hierarchy as an intersect with gender emerged in the responses
of several men who attributed their greater right to respect to their being older again, “doddavaru”. This reinforces our earlier finding of the age difference
between the women respondents and their spouses, and the role this place in
sustaining the hierarchy of authority between husbands and wives.
It is this perceived cause-effect linkage - i.e., between men’s economic and
familial role and their status, and between men’s status and that of their women
kin - that further complicates our task of reconstructing social status along the
standards of equity, rights and justice.
3 A fact confirmRd not only by ths data in this study (see sections on income and labour) but in
a myriad others.
3
Table 1: Who are the women who do not oet resoect in vour communitv?
Male reporting I
(Response:::_________________________
jDuii’l know /' Can’i Say________________________
[Women wno are not respected:
(Those who are of bad character / immoral in their
| behaviour_____________________________
(Those who do not obey / behave properly with
]husband /JnJaws
Those who talk too much/speak boldlyf bajari'
iThose who are divorced/ separated/ unmarried/
I widowed______________________________ _
Irhn^p who arp childless
jlbcse who have been sexually mclested/rapcd
j
wiiu hcivg nut given uiiUi iu aunb
[Piners
- | %j
M
a
I
»
Ferna Ip repnrtinn
Ma
» vw ■
17.GS j
A
I iTU
NO.
] “A OT
]
NO.
769
j
84.69
|
805
676
|
74.45
|
546
296 I
172 1
32.59
18 94
|
I
249
223
I 6.06
—J|
55 |
214
121
66
52
70
59
49
j
7
71
771
(
6.45
6.49
5.39
I| 13.21
"'-I
| Vo Ot 94t> |
| 85.09 |
I 57 72 I
I “2632||
I 23 57 I
22 62
12.79
9.99 j
5.49 |
Table 1. above, presents the answer to the question “What kind of women would
not be respected in your community (gaurava sigadantaha mahileyaru)?’3 A
considerable percentage of women respondents (225 or 19.21%) and men
respondents (195 or 17.68%) were either unable or unwilling to respond to this
question - and said that they were not aware of the kind of women who would not
be respected in their community. 908 men and 946 women, understood the
spirit of the question - that we were exploring the sort of behaviour or character
traits that result in loss of respect for women. By ranking the attributes or
infringements that would disgrace women - in terms of number of men and
women who identified each - we get an interesting profile not only of the qualities
that are discouraged and despised in women, but of those that are respected
and valued. These present a most revealing picture of the hierarchy of traits that
a “good” woman should possess.
We see once again the critical role of sexual chastity and obedience as the most
prized attributes for women. As much as 85% of men and women were in
agreement that the worst sin a woman can commit, the transgression that would
result in loss of all respect, was to be perceived as having a “loose” or “bad”
character (“ketta nadavalike ullavaru”). The point is that the range of behaviours
that could lead to this label are as wide as they are vague4, so the fear of such
an allegation is itself an effective weapon in ensuring that women keep the
status quo.
The second most important infringement that leads to loss of respect is
disobedience to the husband and / or his parents. Another side of this - being
aggressive, loud. bold, talking too much (bajari) or talking in the presence of
’’other” men - occupies the third rank in list of unwanted traits. However, it is
interesting to note a growing divergence of opinion between men and women
4 Field experience (inlcucling of the study researchers) shows that attacks on the moral character
of women have been used to prevent them attending literacy classes, joining the local women’s
collective, or standing for panchayat elections.
4
I
from these points onwards - obviously, fewer women than men consider
disobedience / improper behaviour with husbands and in-laws a serious offence
since many would have experienced at first-hand the oppressive and unjust way
this norm is applied to subjugate women. There is also a tragic resonance
between some of the attributes listed here, particularly by significantly more
women than men. and the recounting of injustices and abuse given in our earlier
chapters. Childlessness and failure to give birth to sons (in the case of married
women), being the victim of molestation or rape, being divorced, deserted,
unmarried or widowed - all these, which are not acts of commission by women,
are cited as reasons for loss of respect in the community.
In fact, it is striking that three times the number of female respondents as male
identified childlessness as reason for being disrespected. Similarly, twice the
number of women as men identified women who have not given birth to sons as
those who are usually not respected. Once again, it is lived or observed
experience of oppression that is coming through here in the gender difference in
reporting. A few female and male respondents also identified, ‘devadasi
women,” “women who run away,” and “women who marry men of other castes."
sex workers, and women having extra-marital relationships, as unworthy of
respect. Encouragingly, a handful of men and women, mainly from Dakshina
Kannada district (perhaps out of pride in their matrilineal heritage), reported that
all women are respected in their community
Caste, Community and Womens Status.
Once aaain using the proxy of respect, we explored people’s perceptions of how
the caste or community factor affects the treatment of women. Figure 3 presents
an edifying picture of caste
| Fig.3: whether wornen of own caste/community are
2nd commun.2! hsrmony 2t
I
% respected by other castes i communities
■'■■■
90 SS
I o Men
I 100li
50J
I
ol
s=
I EWomen
i
i
o\j lot
6
10
5
5
wo
Don't know
oo u 10 ilcauiiuik
of women of a given caste or
community by people of other
social groups. The
v Cri vvt i'Cftt i tit
MBf
Yes
juqoi
<^1
i espondenis (392) and femaie
respondents (1003) had no
problem in affirming that
frrim ♦'hoir nac’fa /
j comniunity were treated with
respect by other communities. Perhaps what is significant in this data, though, is
that nearly double the number of women (10%) as men (6%) reported that
women from their community were not treated with respect by other social
groups. Whether these are women respondents who have personally
experienced alienation or discrimination because of their caste or religious
identity, or because they fall into some other vulnerable category (e.q. being
widowed, divorced, deserted), and have therefore extrapolated this
discrimination to all women from their caste/community. needs to be explored.
5
Gender Differentials in Decision-makina Power
!t has been rightly said that “the family is the last frontier of patriarchy”5.
Exploring this dimension, we found that 31 % of male and 40% of female
I
! responses indicated
Hg.4: snouid women nave more aecision-maKing
] that in their families,
power in the tamily?
Ij women already
-] E]Men
11
4U
I “I
j swomen j | enjoyed equal or even
1
r* I greater decision30
3i m
I [ making power than the
I I men. One must be
I
| cautious in drawing
I
I
| too summary a
Women should be
Women already have
Men should
I
conclusion from this
given more power
equal or more
have greater power
|
data
assuming, for
power in our tamily
- instance, that there is
gender eouality in decision-making in these families It could as well mean that
in these households, women are perceived as already exercising sway in those
domains that have been allotted to them as part of their gendered familial roles:
e g., management and allocation of household work, selection of suitable
matches for their children, oraanisina reliaious functions at home. etc.
The other
significant
Fjg.5: Why women shoeid or should not have more
decision-msking power in the family
chunk of
| —*—men
j
|
- women [
responses I
—<<20
.-a.20
^<20
38% male
<4
I 15 4*
and 39%
12
it
10 I
'■.y
7
i
8
that men
1 5t
-^i 0
------ 1------ -------- 1--------- ------ 1------ -------- 1-------- -------- 1------------------ 1------should have
i 0-1Women
Family is
Other
Men are Men are the
Other
Women are
| Men should
greater say in
manage the women's
reasons
better at
reasons
also
(
have
main
family
house
responsi
earning
| greater
decision
earners
decisioris.
bility
making
| authority
Ito
Tnese
voices
I
were clearly
upholding the current gender contract, based on limiting women’s decision
making in the family, and giving the final say to men of the household - figure 5,
with expanded categories of both the "Yes” and "No” responses shows this quite
clearly. A few of the women respondents who refuted the need for more
decision-making power added other dimensions to their responses, such as
"there are 'elders’ in the house”, “I have been married only 3 months”, “my
husband will look after the house”, “when men are there, why do we need more
power?” and “I am the daughter-in-law”. All these convey not only complete
I%
I" I
!”l
r
11
I
Bag
1
r
i fu/fw
5 Vasant Kannabiran, quoted in S Batliwala; 1996 l/Vomen’s Empowerment in South Asia Concepts and Practices, New Delhi, Asian South Pacific Bureau of Adult Education (ASPBAE).
6
acceptance of a passive role, but the link between decision-making powers and
their relational positions within the household - viz., daughter-in-law. younger
woman, and wife. Some of the men who felt women did not need more decision
making power endorsed these views, stating that given the presence of men.
and women’s lack of worldly knowledge, women need not be given any
additional powers. What is being voiced here is fear of upsetting the status quo
in gender power relations.
But equally imoortant. from our study’s point of view, are the minority voices - the
30% of male and 21 % of female responses that argue for increasing women’s
role in familial decision-making. It is these voices that will have to be amplified if
women are to gain greater household status through more decision-making
power in family affairs.
Examining the gender differentials in the “no” and “yes” responses also yields
interesting insights: more women than men believe male privilege in this context
is linked to their authority and earning power, rather than because they are
innately better decision-makers, though more men think they are! Similarly,
more women than men are articulating the reality of women’s economic
contribution and greater responsibility for the family as the rationale for having
more say in family decisions, which fewer of the men acknowledge. Several of
the women in fact voiced opinions which showed both resistance and
resentment of the current situation: “everytime, why should we wait for men’s
decision?”, “why should we listen to a single person?”, “we will develop greater
confidence”, “the family will improve,” and “women maintain the family, so we
need more power”
In fact, men who think women’s decision-making power should be enhanced are
not necessarily endorsing an equality principle: rather, they seem to believe this
is needed mainly because women are the key home-managers, not because of
the allocation of resoonsibilities or income contributions. For example, some of
the men who espoused the progressive position for women, said things like “it
will facilitate smooth running of the house” (samsara channagi nadi bekadare).
Some men who endorsed equal rights did so in a paternalistic way: “let women
learn to be more responsible” (avaru kaliyali).
Ftg.G; Siiouad wonieit have more uevtsiunmakrng power in the community?
59
%
j tjiwen
47
60n
| sWomen
40
I
i m
20
O
No
Yes
1
The dynamic of current gender
relations in these rural house
holds becomes even clearer wnen
we consider the responses to the
question “Should women have
mors decision-making power in the
community than they nave now?''
Z
Figure 6 shows that there is much
more uninhibited support, from
both sexes, for expanding women’s
role and sway in community affairs
Don't know
7
than in the home Clearly, people don’t find it as disturbing to the status quo to
enhance women’s roles outside the family, as long as household gender
hierarchies are untouched and unquestioned.
Responses under the ‘no’ category to this question, though, are revealing: they
covered the entire gamut from complete resignation to deeply-internalised
beliefs in the inherent superiority of males, e.g.:
• “The existing power is enough”.
• “Why do we need more power?”.
• “Men take the right decisions”.
• “In our village it is men who take up all resoonsibilities”.
• “Men are intelligent”, and
• “Men earn, so they must have more power”.
Women also kept referring to men as “doddavarif. i.e men are "bigger” - a
conceot that shows the ingrained belief in men’s higher status by virtue of their
greater knowledge, their earning power, and therefore their innate superiority.
Conversely, there were also a set of responses from women that symbolised
their low self-image, viz..
• "Women don’t have much knowledge and information”,
• “Women don’t have experience in such matters”.
• “Women cannot go outside or go around like men”.
• “Women cannot talk properly”.
• “Women do not have courage”,
• “We are too young / small ('ch/kkavaru’) to take decisions”.
Some women also gave responses that indicate social disapproval of women's
participation in the public arena - “people will start taunting us", “nobody will
resoect women” - meaning that women will not command as much respect as
men. or that women will lose their “dignity” if they start voicing their views in
community matters Few responses like “even women have equal power at
present and do not need more”, convey an unquestioning acceptance of
traditional role differentiation based on gender lines that defines distinctly,
female and male spheres of operation.
Encouragingly, the largest number of “yes” responses highlighted a perception
of women’s equal capability and need for equal opportunities in matters outside
the home They also reflected a greater faith in women’s sensitivity and
justness. These included:
• “Women also provide good ideas, if they are consulted”.
• “Women should get equal opportunities: only then will they develop the
courage to come forward”,
• “We should have more power, only then can we increase our knowledge”,
“women will be respected more / can talk about their problems, only if they
get into community affairs”,
• “Women can solve women’s problems”,
8
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
“Women will be just”.
“Women do work with greater earnestness / a greater sense of
responsibility”.
“Only if women get more power can we stop the injustices that are caused to
women”.
“Women will save money, men spend unnecessarily”,
“Only if women are involved will the village improve”,
“We can then prevent our men from drinking”,
“Women understand things better”.
Another set of responses from women were in the language of rights, showing a
areater awareness of the notion of equality - “women should be equal to men /
they should have equal power”, “we have the right to equality”: a few responses
also linked decision-making power in the community with women’s desire for
financial independence - “only if women go out. can they earn their own living”.
Among those who did not hold a clear position on this question, there were two
sets of responses that are noteworthy: one set genuinely showed the absence of
an opinion; the other, however, conveyed a general pessimism about the
possibility of changing existing gender relations For instance, some women
said. “Yes. women need more power, but men will not give us the opportunity,
they will not allow us to share power”.
Amona the men who felt women should not not have anv additional power in
community affairs, most cited women s lack of knowledge and experience in the
field of community affairs, and some were of the opinion that men are the main
players in the the public sphere and that women’s role must be restricted to the
private domain. The fear that men may lose status if women start participating in
community affairs was also present in some responses. Others felt that the
present situation is alright, since the reservation policy (in Panchayat Raj
Institutions) had already given considerable power to women Some of the male
responses which conveyed these positions were:
• “Women’s decisions have no value” (Bele ilia)
• “If women are given power, what’s the use of our living / our existence?”
• “They don’t have as much knowledge” (Thiluvalike ilia)
• “Women are fit for housework - why are they needed for community work?”
Opinions voiced by the more progressive and liberal men were also interesting and showed that many men are alive to the unfairness of women’s exclusion
from public affairs, and their inherent power to do good. Some of the typical
responses were:
• “It will be helpful for women”
• “Women take correct decisions”
• “Women should also be given an opportunity”
• “They will work honestly”
• “The one who rocks the cradle - why can’t she also rock the world?”
9
Reservations for Women in the Public Realm:
The next part of the schedule examined people’s perceptions of the impact of
affirmative action - such as through reservations - on women. We began by
asking how all women would benefit if some women were to hold positions of
formal power in bodies like the Gram Panchayat or Zilla Panchayat.
%
91
M
lj me«8
1001
j
i r-H B
50 j I usm
II
I J MH
2»■
| @women
res
12
7
The response to this was
overwhelmingly positive. 300
(81.60% ) maie respondenis and
1065 (90.95%) female respondents
of
Fig.7. Will womefa hoadirig
power help oiner women?
|
opined that other women would
A
aanay _L
Don't know
NO
i
benefit if women are in positions of
power. The predominant reasons
cited to justify this view are given in
figure 8, and the gender gap is
W
ciriLinnli/ In**/
t i\ii 1
J
n
|
I
I
I
I
I
I
|
|
wi i v
w*
identified. The
I
I
I %
i
moot of fha fonfnro
Fig.8: Reasons why women holding positions of power
will help other women
80^.80
32 fee''
40 4-
—«---- men
- -S- - - Wcrmeii
;b.55
19
------ t--------------
Better
understand
women's
problems
More easily Women are Women are
approach* not corrupt
more
able------------------- conscien
tious
« w ■
aj
ib
via’w is that
women under
stand womens
problems better
/OQOZ
1-5
“T
0 -I---
moc+ \A/iHah/_holrl
• ■ • ** ** ••
9
/W IHUIV Ul tXA
6
fg—
Enhance
women's
access to
resources
No sexual
harassment
Ottier
reasons
50% female
respondents),
followed by
Hrnnfar onnrnn
1 chability. it is
also most revealing that a significant number of men as well as women believe
that women representatives in official bodies are not corrupt, and are more
conscientious in the execution of their duties, though twice as many women as
men hold the former opinion Similarly, nearly twice the number of female
respondents as male believe that women’s access to resources in general will
improve if some women are in position of power.
These responses both resonate and contradict several themes that have
emeraed so far in this and other sections of the studv. On the one hand, it is
believed that if women hold positions of public power, other women can access
them without a significant change in their limited physical mobility, and without
fear of sexual harassment or loss of reputation - in other words, keeping intact
the rules of gendered social interaction. On the other despite the belief that
women have less knowledge, experience and capability to participate in public
affairs, they signify that women are more conscientious and honest when given
public responsibility.
10
This is in interesting contrast to a survey done by the DSERT with employees of
the Education Department of Karnataka state, on attitudes to women in authority.
This survey found that over 95% women and men believed that women cannot
handle authority* and that women in positions
of power were “in a state of
a
rnnfiicinn” pnH “unahlo +n take Horicinne”
Some of the positive responses under the '‘other reasons” category included
views like “it will give us a voice”, and “we can then teach men a lesson”. The
negative responses in “other reasons” included worn-out stereotypes such as
“women are against women”, "if women come to power, there will be no rights for
men”, “women do not have a thinking mind", “women cannot take decisions”, “let
women be of assistance to the husband - why help the village”.
Moving on from opinions about women's representation in positions of public
power to a more general probe, respondents were asked the question: “Do you
think there should be reservation for women as a category in various fields?
Give reasons for your answer.” Investigators were instructed to guide the
respondents with appropriate examples such as IRDP loans, job reservations,
seats in panchayats. seats in buses, etc., and to draw a parallel with reservation
policy for Dalits in academic institutions, jobs, and so forth.
I
Figure 3 shows that the vast majority of
respondents, men and women, beiieve
that there should be reservation for
women in access to various types of
resources and positions of power. This
is not surprising given the fact trial iiie
majority of our study households are
poor or just above the poverty line, and
any measure that would help them
1
iricre^se or &nhianice thieir resource
and/or asset base is welcome. This reinforces the trend that has been analysed
elsewhere: that as long as household gender hierarchies are not shaken, men particularly from poor households - have no objection to women being the
chosen beneficiaries of any scheme that brings more resources to the
household7. However, we observe once again that more women were opposed
to reservation for their gender than men!
1 Rg.9: Should there be reservation for
women in various fields?
I
1 %
, 84. 75
lumen
(
| 100 I
| s viomen
I
I
I
I i
16 J?
I “i
I
z
I JA
I
No
Yes
Giving examples with the question was a calculated risk, and some respondents
were inevitably influenced by the parallels given to explain the concept of
reservation. Nevertheless, among the positive responses given by women were
many categories that elicited well-thought-out opinions, e.g.:
6 Personal communication of Gayatri Devi Dutt Deputy Director Directorate of State Education,
Research & Training, Bangalore.
' S. Batliwala, 1996: Education for Women’s Empowerment in the Asia-Pacific - A Regional
Study, New Delhi, Asian South Pacific Bureau of Adult Education (ASPBAE).
11
•
•
•
•
“In a just society, there should be reservation for women in everything”.
“We can be independent, only if there are reservations”.
“It (reservation) will help women stand on their own legs”, and
“Women need not then go begging to men”.
Several women also gave personalised responses such as “it will help women
like us”, “it will help us illiterate women”. “We need fifty percent of the
opportunities". There was a broad consensus among women who said “yes” that
reservation will be “useful”, “helpful”, “encourage us”, and “help women
progress”. A few women also identified the areas in which women needed
reservation - “in banks", “separate loans”, “loans to buy sites”, “separate toilets”,
are examples of such responses. A few responses conveyed skepticism and
pessimism - “such policies are never implemented, they are only talked about”.
Men who favoured reservations did so for broadly the same set of reasons, viz.,
that through reservations, women could get access to new opportunities,
develop themselves, and help other women The need for reservation for
women across caste lines was also reported. Among those 16% of men who
opposed reservations for women were many who gave paradoxical justifications
for their viewpoint: they felt women are weak, less knowledgeable and confident,
and so cannot handle power and opportunities as well as men. Quite a number
of men expressed the fear that women will stop respecting men if they gain
equal status and power through reservation. Many men have expressed the
view that reservation is required for both men and women and not for women
exclusively. There are quite a few men who opposed reservations for women
but were unable to give any rationale for their stand Some men felt that if
reservations are given to women, it would cause conflict in the family.
Gender and Equal Rights:
The final query in this concluding section of the interview schedule was an over
arching one. and comoletely open-ended: “Do you think men and women should
have equal rights? Give reasons for your answer.” We did not find it necessary
to expand or illustrate the question in any way. since the term “Hakku-Adhikara”
is quite colloquial and well within the frame of reference of this rural population.
I
Onr'P ansnn thp
***“ •
Fig.9: Should men and women
have equal rights?
%
I □Men
I
52 _ 78
I nWomen I
100 g
Li
OU-j
r
I
J
Lt Yes
16 J2
No
***
I copjl
•f
*■* • **
w
• a if 9
I**
mpinrity nf
‘
i'
•
*
• *j
•
x
HO; VVIU t JUOl Q T
differential between men and
women, affirmed the need for both
genders to have equal rights In
analysing this dimension of the
study respondents’ perceptions, it is
more illuminating to dwell on the
rationale given by those who said
1 “no”:
12
4
*
Women who responded negatively were echoing once again the now familiar
chant of male superiority - this belief was too firmly entrenched in them to allow
any talk of equal rights for women They stated this in several ways: “men are
more intelligent”, “men work harder”, “men take all the responsibilities”, “the
family is maintained by men”, “men have the strength to face,any situation”.
Some responses like “men should have more power”, “men should be respected
more”, do not indicate a rational basis for such an opinion, as we saw at the
beginning of this chapter, but these women’s unquestioned acceptance of their
customary subordinate position. Some women respondents also questioned the
fundamental legitimacy of equal rights for women, and reflected both low self
image and contempt for their own social roles: “women are fit only for the
kitchen”, “women are inferior”, and “we cannot be equal to men”. There were a
few women whose responses were based on the traditional rules governing
gender relations within marriage - “my husband has tied the mangalsutra for me,
so I must listen to him.”
Most men who opposed equal rights also cited the by now familiar reasons of
women’s inexperienced in public affairs, low levels of knowledge and
confidence, and fitness only for managing the home front. They also felt that
men’s higher social status warrants and justifies greater rights. These men
clearly believe that women would not respect them if they were not under their
control, and so fear women gaining equal power and rights. And again, the
refrain from some men was that they opposed equal rights for women, but could
not specify the reason.
It is most significant that the women advocates of equal rights almost never
articulated this position in terms of individual or personal benefit - they saw it as
something that had a larger positive social impact - “we need equal rights if our
village is to prosper” Another set of positive female responses symbolised a
philosophical stance that stressed the interdependence of the genders: “Women
and men are like 2 wheels of a bullock cart”. The message behind this vivid
analogy could be that a cart cannot move very efficiently if one wheel is smaller
than the other; alternately, it could also mean an acceptance or endorsement of
a gender-based division of roles and responsibilities. As Srinivas says, "There
is an intricate but we 11-understood division of labour between sexes, and either
sex by itself is incomplete and knows it.”8
Similarly, most of the men who supported equal rights for women gave the
smooth functioning of the family, and hence of society, as their main rationale.
They believed that since women also work and contribute to the economy of the
family, they should enjoy equal rights. It must be noted that many men and
women who expressed support for equal rights could not give any specific
reason for their answer - obviously, many of them see it as an ideal, but cannot
connect it to their own lives in any real way. This brings us to question whether
8 M N.Srinivas, 1989: The Cohesive Role of Sanskritization and Other Essays, Delhi, Oxford
University Press, P.6-7.
13
the notion of equal rights has been interpreted by respondents in a culture
specific way, to mean those rights that facilitate the playing of gendered roles, or
something more revolutionary. Only further qualitative studies will help us
answer this question.
Fortunately, there were several radical responses from women that showed no
ambivalence, and a demand for unqualified and substantive equality:
»
“Equal wages should be paid",
“Equal pay for equal work”,
“Both work equally, so they should have equal rights”,
“If women have equal rights, then men will not look down on women”,
“We should have an equal share even in property”,
“Women should be equally respected",
“We can then take decisions in the absence of men",
“To be independent we need equal rights”,
“We can then question men”,
“If men have more rights, they will see women as subservient”.
“There is no difference between men and women",
“We are also human beings”, and
“Our equality is guaranteed by law".
Conclusions:
This concluding chapter of our study could well have been entitled “The Heart of
the Matter”. After looking at reams of data on every imaginable dimension of
women's status, we have looked into the psychological core of women’s
subordination. The picture that emerges is a patchwork quilt of conservative
patriarchal attitudes, subtle resistance, and nascent struggle towards change.
We have seen the cultural definitions and expectations of “good” (meaning
respectable) women: those who concede to their husband’s control, meet the
role requirement of the submissive daughter-in-law, and are sexually chaste.
Having an independent voice, “talking in public”, is not merely disallowed, it is
seen as an unfeminine act, one that challenges male authority. Women see
their respect/status in the family and society as being derived from the status of
their husbands - and therefore, loss of the husband’s or his family’s respect, or
not having a husband, is perceived as a cause for diminished respect/status. In
other words, women are respected and have status only if they follow the ageold rules governing their mobility, chastity, authority and autonomy.
The opinions of women and men on decision-making in the family and
community mirror the ambivalence inherent in male images of women: which
women in turn imbibe: a mixture of inexperience, incompetence and lack of
worldly wisdom and confidence, yet with greater integrity and conscientiousness.
There is an implicit acknowledgement of the unjustness of women’s
14
subordination, the denial of equal opportunities, combined with fears of upsetting
existing arrangements of gender power. This is most strongly reflected in the
desire to give women a larger role in community affairs, and a greater share of
power and resources through reservations, while maintaining the status quo
within the family and household. Men’s most oft-articulated fear is loss of
respect in women’s eyes once women gain equal status. This reflects men’s
core insecurity that they are not inherently worthy of women’s respect, but are
respected only as long as they wield control and authority over women.
The low self-image of most women is a repeated leit-motif, as is their fear of
greater power and autonomy, communicating an underlying sub-text that the
character of authority is necessarily male. Most men endorse this with the
opinion that women do not require independent authority so long as men exist.
However, this chapter has also shown us a bright silver lining: the spirited,
articulate voices of a small but significant number of women and men who
believe in women’s capacity to share power in both private and public spheres,
and who sense that the time has come for changing the terms of the gender
contract. They offer a ray of hope, and show us what is possible when
committed change-agents like NGOs expose people to alternate ways of thinking
and being
Finally, this section on people’s perceptions of women’s status and gender
relations has provided vital grounding for both theoretical constructions of status
and for grassroots projects that aim at empowering women. This chapter forces
us to come to grips with the huge gap between conceptual definitions and
frameworks of women’s status, and the ground reality of how women’s status is
perceived and experienced by communities.
15
S toit'St icctb
A ppencU ces
Table 1: Should men be treated with more respect than women?
Malo ror»nr4-ir»ri
Female reporting 1
HI —
No.
%
%
Responses.
•I
13.07 -I
153
29.83
329
No______
996
85.05 I
65.18
J719
Yes__
1.88
22
4.99
55
Pon t Know
1171
100.00
100.00
1103
Total
Table 2: Reasons why men should be treated with greater respect than
women:
Male reporting
Female reporting
%
of
719
No.
% of 996
No.
Reasons:__________________
22.95
374
37.55
165
h/ien are the breao winners
59.67
713
71.59
429
It is our custom / tradition______
16.55
308
30.92
119
Men are more intelligent / wise /
knowiedgabie / aware________
27.96
244
24.49
201
Women’s status depends on the
respect their men get_________
9.04
55
5.52
65
Yes, others
Table 3: Are the women of your caste / community treated with respect by
by other castes / communities in the village?
~~
~
Male reporting
Female reporting
Ng.
%
N
g
.
%
Responses:______
115
9.82
61
5.53
No____________
1003
85.65
89.94
992
Yes
53
4 53
4.53
50
Pon t Know / Can t say
1171
100.00
100.00
1103
Total
Table 4. Do you feel women should have more decision-making power in
community affairs than they have now?
Female reporting
Mate reporting
Responses:
No.
%
No.
%
520
47.14
39.79
466
No_____
554
50.23
58.92
690
Yes __
29
2.63
1.29
15
Pon t Know
1103
100.00
100.00
1171
Total
Table 5: Should women have more decision-making power in your family
than they have now:
Female reporting
Male reporting
No.
%
No.
%
Summary of responses:
Women already nave
31.37
526
38.56
448
equal or more power
514
37.68
38.17
No__________________
545
23.76
30.46
324
435
Yes_________________
100.00
1364
100.00
1428
Total Responses
16
Table 6: Reasons why women should / should not have more decisionmaking power in the family than they have now_______________
Responses:
Male reporting
Female reporting
"No?
%of
1103
No.
% of 1171
135
16.77
169
14.43
193
17.50
102
8.71
80
87
7.25
156
7.89
87
13.32
7.43
Reasons for not giving more power:
Men should have greater authority within the
family_________ ______________________
Men are better at decision making / women
are not good at decision-making__________
Men are the main earners_______________
No, any other reason(s)_________________
Reasons for giving more power:________
Women are also earning________________
Women have to manage the house_______
Women are responsible for the family_____
Yes, any other reason(s)________________
Note: multiple response question
44
3.99
96
129
192
11.70
17.41
107
67
70
6.35
8.20
9.14
5.72
Table 7: If women are in positions of power, will it help other women?
(e.g. Gram Panchayat/Zilla Panchayat member)
Male reporting
Positive Responses:___________________
Women can easily approach other women for
help__________ _______________________
Women understand women's problems better
Women are not corrupt__________________
There will be no sexual harassment________
Because women in general will gain better
access to resources_____________________
Women are more conscientious___________
Other reason(s)________________________
Negative responses - various reasons_____
Don’t know / can’t say
Female reporting
No.
% of 1171
642
54.82
No.
494
% of 1103
44.79
746
59
45
67.63
9.52
5.35
4.08
158
19
73
14.32
1.72
6.62
181
19
34
15.46
1.62
2.90
130
11.79
72
6.15
105
934
217
74
104
79.76
18.53
6.32
8.88
Table 8. Do you think there should be reservation for women as a category
in various areas / fields? (E g.: jobs, seats in buses, panchayats, loans, etc.)
Summary Responses:
No__________________
Yes_________________
Total
Male reporting
No.
%
184
15.71
987
84.29
100.00
1171
Female reporting
No.
%
21.58
238
865
78.42
1103
100.00
Table 9: Should men and women have equal rights?
Summary Responses:
No__________________
Yes_________________
Total
Male reporting
No.
%
215
956
1171
18.36
81.64
100.00
17
Female reporting
No.
%
21.58
238
865
78.42
1103
100.00
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