Women welfare-A priority

By N.C. Joshi

The status of women in India has been subject to great many changes over the past few millennia. Women in India now participate in all activities such as education, politics, media, art and culture, service sector, science and technology, etc. Our Constitution guarantees equal rights for men and women. The Constitution is firmly grounded in the principles of liberty, fraternity, equality and justice. It contains a number of provisions for the empowerment of women. Women’s right to equality and non/discrimination are defined as justiciable fundamental rights. The Constitution explicitly clarifies that affirmative action programmes for women are not incompatible with the principle of non-discrimination on the grounds of sex. The Government of India has always attached great importance to the protection and promotion of the human rights of women and is committed to achieving it. National plans and policies have consistently reflected a vision of progress that is not narrowly confined to expanding incomes, but gives a central place to the achievement of human rights, freedoms and well-being for all.

Women Welfare In Planning Process

The planning process has evolved over the years from purely ‘welfare’ oriented approach where women were regarded as objects of charity to the development programmes and currently to their ‘empowerment’. The Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-2007) called for the three-pronged strategy of social empowerment, economic empowerment and providing gender justice to create an enabling environment of positive economic and social policies for women and eliminating all forms of discrimination against them and thus advance gender equality goals. The Approach Paper to the XI Plan has also laid great emphasis on removing gender disparities. XI Plan will seek to reduce disparities across regions and communities by ensuring access to basic physical infrastructure as well as health and education services to all. It will recognize gender as a crosscutting theme across all sectors and commit to respect and promote the rights of the common person.

Acts For Empowerment Of Women

New Acts have been passed and some existing acts amended during the X Plan period. The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 is first of its kind in the country and gets into the private sphere of a household. For the first time the term ‘domestic violence’ has been widened in meaning and scope from the culture specific restriction of ‘dowry deaths’ and penal provisions to positive civil rights of protection and injunction. The Hindu Succession Act has been amended to give daughters equal rights as sons in ancestral property. Property here includes agricultural land as well. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act seeks to provide for the enhancement of livelihood security of the households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. Specifically, the Act seeks the ‘creation of durable assets and strengthening the livelihood resource base of the rural poor’. Priority is being given to women by reserving at least one-third of the jobs for women who have registered and requested for work under this Act. The Immoral Traffic Prevention Act is being amended to strengthen its provisions, enforce more stringent punishment for traffickers and prevent revictimisation of victims. States are being requested to set up anti human trafficking units.

Improvement In Women Status

The impact of the various developmental policies, plans and programmes implemented by the government over the last years has brought forth a perceptible improvement in the socio-economic status of women. Expectation of life at birth has increased over the years. While it is 62.79 years for males, it is slightly higher for females at 65 years. Sex ratio has registered a marginal improvement from 927 in the year 1991 to 933 in 2001. There has been a decline in the infant and maternal mortality rates. Infant Mortality Rate has declined from 80 in 1990 to 64 in 2002 and further to 58 in 2005. The corresponding rate for women has decreased from 81 to 65 and further to 61 during the same period. The Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) has declined from 407 per 100,000 live births in 1998 to 301 in 2001-03. The work force participation rate for women has increased from 14.2 in 1991 to 25.7 in 2001.

New Initiatives

The Ministry of Women and Child Development has been implementing a number of schemes, which strive towards both economic and social empowerment. Swayamsiddha is the flagship scheme of the Ministry for women. It aims at holistic economic empowerment. The schemes for economic empowerment also include the Support for Training and Employment Programme (STEP), which aims to raise the incomes of rural women by updating their skills in the traditional sectors. The Ministry has also set up support systems like Working women hostels and crèches to help women in their struggle towards economic empowerment. Swadhar and short stay homes have been set up to provide shelter and care services for women in distress. The Ministry also implements laws and legislations for women including Sati Prevention Act, Dowry Prohibition Act, Protection from Domestic Violence Act, ITPA etc.

Rashtriya Mahila Kosh provides micro-credit in a quasi-informal manner, whereby it lends to intermediate micro-credit organizations (IMO’s) such as NGO’s and Violuntary Organisations women development corporations, women co-operative societies, suitable Govt./local bodies etc. RMK has 36 nodal agencies.

In the XI Plan, the Ministry proposes to take up the second phase of Swayamsiddha. This phase would be a countrywide programme with larger coverage in States lagging behind on women development indices. The lessons learnt in Swayamsiddha, Phase-I and Swa-Shakti would be incorporated in the next phase giving an integrated set of training inputs relating to social and economic empowerment, including skill development and training in traditional and non-traditional sectors. The scheme for construction of working women’s hostel is being revamped. Considering the increasing need of shelter homes, it is proposed to set up one Swadhar home per district. A new scheme for rehabilitation of rape victims has been launched.

Increase Agriculture productivity

By Satyendra Pratap Singh

Frail humans tend to take credit for good luck. The Bharatiya Janata Party put on the halo of Shining India. Unluckily for it, the voter did not agree; he gave a fractured verdict which the Congress took as a vote for itself. It inherited the booming economy that fate had separated the BJP from, and had no qualms about claiming credit for it. A fortnight ago, the Finance Minister declared that for its shining growth story, India had the Congress, in incarnations past and present, to thank. But the moot question is if the growth model pursued has benefited 380 million poor in the countryside? Industrial growth does not provide food articles, which are scarcely available.

Per capita foodgrains production in India fell at the rate of 0.7 per cent during 1990-2007, reversing the self-sufficiency we had achieved on account of a per capita growth rate of 0.4 per cent during 1950-51 through 2005-06. In fact, during the years stretching from 1976-77 till 2005-06, there was little evidence of foodgrain imports. However, we had to revert back to foodgrains import in 2007. With large foreign exchange reserves, the fact of grain imports should not have caused much worry, had the world prices of cereals not doubled during 2000 through 2008. The high prices of imported grains give us a clue to the rising price of the food basket in Indian markets. However, the picture is incomplete unless we can figure out why, in the first place, world prices of foodgrains have been on the rise.

The solution to this puzzle is complicated, to say the least, and related to another component of the food basket, edible oils. Nutrition experts recommend a per capita consumption of 16 kilograms of edible oils, though the average prevailing in India appears to be only 12 kgs. Moreover, this figure too does not reflect the reality on account of severe inequalities in income distribution. The poor are known to be able to afford at best a maximum of 5 kg per capita. Skyrocketing edible oil prices, quite apart from foodgrain prices, should be taken into account in explaining the rise in the food basket price as a whole. However, as we shall argue, the rising prices of edible oils are major explanatory variables not only for food price inflation in general, but for the rise in foodgrains prices also.

To begin with, we need to note that India has hardly ever been self-sufficient in edible oil production. It imports as much as 40 per cent of its total edible oil requirement. Its import bill in 2007-08 was approximately Rs. 12,000 crore, and this figure, with the rise in prices, is likely to increase beyond Rs. 20,000 crore in 2008-09. The upsurge will largely result from the rise in the price of soyabean in Argentina by around 60 per cent, of rapeseed oil in Hamburg by 50 per cent, of crude palm oil in Indonesia by 80 per cent and that of sunflower oil by 130 per cent elsewhere in the world. These are not the only sources of vegetable oil, needless to say. But every other variety has shown gradual increases in world markets over the last few years and taken a quantum leap in recent months.

Interestingly enough, the rise in world prices of vegetables oil occurred in tandem with the rise of crude petroleum prices. To explain this joint movement, one needs to go back more than a hundred years to the late 19th century, when the German engineer, Rudolf Diesel, invented an internal combustion engine, which was able to run on peanut oil. Amongst the many advantages he claimed for the machine, the most attractive one consisted of the fact that farmers could produce their own oil to run pumpsets. However, in today's environmentally conscious world, the supreme merit of Diesel's invention lies in the fact that bio-diesel enjoys an advantage with regard to pollution, both over petroleum as well as standard diesel oil. Also, edible-oil-based fuel is reproducible, whereas world petroleum stocks will last at best for another fifty years or so.

Unfortunately for developing economies, the high price of petroleum, along with a concern for global warming, is finally generating a shift in richer nations away from conventional petroleum towards engine fuels based on soyabean oil, palm oil and other vegetable oils. (Besides, sugarcane too has found its use as a petroleum substitute, mainly in Brazil.) Thus, the world supply of edible oils is falling owing to a rise in petroleum prices as well as other reasons. On the other hand, the world demand for edible oils has not fallen. As a result, the international prices of crude vegetable oils have gone up along with petroleum prices. Even though all sources of vegetable oil are not equally usable as machine fuel, the aggregate fall in the supply of vegetable oils has caused the prices of all types of edible oils to rise.

Coming back to India now, its dependence on massive imports of edible oils has placed it in a particularly vulnerable position, given that the import price has been steadily rising. To add to the misery of India and other nations in its position, farmers in richer countries who can afford the move have changed into bio-fuels producers, giving up the production of cereals, pulses or other traditional products. This has aggravated the price rise of cereals and other farm products in world markets on account of a supply crunch. In other words, as indicated earlier, a rise in edible oil prices has itself contributed to a rise in foodgrains prices, while edible oil prices have risen largely on account of petroleum price rises.

Quite apart from foodgrains and edible oil, vegetables too have registered a massive price increase. The rise in vegetable prices is shrouded in greater mystery. One is led here to conjectures at best. We are aware that foodgrains output has been outstripped by population growth. This could have happened in the case of vegetables also. Yet another explanation could lie in the possibility that with the prices of other items in the food basket rising, there has been some tendency for the demand for vegetables to rise, and this, given a fixed harvest size, could have caused a price rise too.

Rapid industrialization calls for adequate agricultural surplus. The food price scenario, however, dampens the euphoria surrounding India's magnificent growth story. Our only hope lies in raising the productivity of the agricultural sector, an objective unlikely to be served by loan waivers alone. The state of affairs looks grim to say the least. INAV

Political Tsunami in Malaysia

By S.K. Pillai

Malaysia had a surprise election result, the Barison Nasional dropped down from its overwhelming control of Parliament to a simple majority. Additionally, the alliance was voted out in five important states. The results have brought into the open the strong discontent among the ethnic minorities - the Chinese and Indians as well a loss of support among the Malays.

Four years ago, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had obtained a record mandate in 2004, winning 91 per cent of the seats in Parliament with 64 per cent of total votes polled. Badawi's was the clean new face; he was seen as a progressive who had promised to clean up the administration of crony capitalism and corruption that had crept in during the 22-year long reign of Mahathir Mohammad. Adding insult to injury, Mahathir Mohamad, who chose Badawi as his successor, is among the Malaysian leaders who have called for Badawi's resignation.

Prime Minister Badawi's United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) is the main constituent of the 14-member Barison Nasional, which has been in power ever since the country gained independence five decades ago. UNMO had tied up a coalition of the main ethnic groups and interests. It brought stability and harmony to the society. Of late, that linkage has broken down. The ethnic minorities have begun feeling that the harmony has been brought at their expense. In addition to the racial issues, such factors as inflation also seem to have contributed to the ruling Front's defeat. However, Badawi, who announced multi-billion dollar projects to tackle rural poverty when he took over the reins of power five years ago, has refused to step down.

The most surprising was the defeat of Works Minister, Samy Vellu, head of the Malaysia Indian Congress, who was perceived as the leader of the Indian community. Samy Vellu lost the seat that he had held for almost three decades. The Indian dissatisfaction with the Government erupted last year during the protests organized by Hindu Rights Action Front (Hindraf), when the government rattled by a large opposition rally two weeks earlier used strong police action against the demonstrators.

Hindraf was not a registered party and its three candidates including its leader M Manoharan, who has been in jail for four months, contested on the ticket of other opposition parties. They have won the elections by handsome margins.

The opposition had a total of just 19 seats in the outgoing parliament. This time around, the People's Justice Party, the Chinese dominated Democratic Action party and conservative Muslim Malay party, PAS, entered the fray as an alliance promising racial equality and a clean and transparent government. They reaped rich dividends. People's Justice Party found strong support among the urban middle class and won 31 seats. Many ethnic Chinese and Indians voted for the opposition.

Ethnic minorities form more than 30 per cent of the population but have never been seen as critical factor in any election because of the grand alliance under the Barison Nasional. Aside from the vote of the minorities UNMO had lost the support of ethnic Malays as shown by the defeat in the provinces and the embarrassing defeat of two Malay members of the cabinet.

The minorities have chaffed at the Government's affirmative action policies that reserves the major part of Government jobs, education opportunities, housing and even credit for business enterprises to the Malays - the bhumiputras (sons of the soil). At the time of independence, the Malays were a backward community and required assistance to bring them at par with the economically dominant Chinese community. Malay rights form the basic tenet of Malaysian ethos since independence. However, the long years of the affirmative policies had brought the Malays into a dominant position and the Indians had been feeling deprived of government support. As a part of official policy, Government resources were directed at the Malays and the Indians felt that even funds for education for Indians were limited, resulting in poor educational facilities.

Malaysia's economy has been booming, but there is high income disparity and high inflation rates have been hurting the poorer sections. With Malays as the dominant section, the Chinese economically powerful, the ethnic Indians feel disadvantaged and marginalized. The low, simmering discontent was intensified in the recent times with conflicts revolving around religion. The Hindraf had taken up the issue of destruction of Hindu temples in the name of development. Scores of small temples were demolished for road widening and other developmental activities in the recent years.

At the same time, the Islamic resurgence in the country has worried the other religious groups, especially with the tendency of Shariah law being imposed in matters relating to the non-Muslims. The incident about the funeral rites for noted sportsman, M Moorthy had disturbed the Hindus who form the majority of the Indian community. Muslim groups claimed that Moorthy had converted to Islam before his death, and despite protests of his widow who denied that Moorthy had converted, his funeral took place as per Islamic practices.

The Christians have been disturbed by the recent Government decree that the word "Allah" could only be used by Muslims. In the Malay language, "Allah" has been used to mean any God and the Christians say that they have used the word in their churches for centuries. The two incidents have brought the main non-Muslim groups, the Hindus and Christians together in their belief that there religious rights are being curtailed. The religious minorities see a disquieting trend of dominance by the Muslim clergy that has tended to erode the constitutional guarantee of equal treatment in Malaysia.

The international reaction to the repressive measures adopted to disperse the Hindraf demonstrators severely embarrassed the Government though some ministers took umbrage to statements by political leaders in India. It was shortly thereafter that the Malaysian Government announced that it would not give any more work visas to Indians.

Indian expatriates form a large worker population in Malaysia, doing hi-tech professional work as well as menial jobs. The government action was against Indian nationals but it was seen as a retaliatory move by the Malaysian Indians, further alienating them from the ruling party. Voting in the elections has shown the extent of alienation of the minorities, and the new Malaysian Government will need to take effective steps to stem that feeling of marginalization among the minorities. (Syndicate Features)