Chapter I1

Select %erature .

2. I INTRODUCTION

The economies of the Third World countries consist mainly of small

and tiny product~on organisations mostly run on an informal and

self-employed bas~s. In general, rural and agr~cultural act~vities are mostly

carried out on this basis Thrs sector has a very s~gn~ficant role in urban

and industrial sectors. The dualistic nature of the urban economy had

been recognised by the researchers in many of the Thlrd World countries

The rnforrnal sector contains the mass of the work~ng poor whose

productivity had been much lower than in the formal urban sector. The

individuals dependent on informal income opportunities are labeled as the

urban proletariat. The earnings received by such persons are below the

legal minimum wage and they are considered to be underemployed ' There are others who consider themselves to be not underemployed but

under-pard *. The earnings of the employees are not enough to meet their

minimum needs Therefore, they are not far away from poverty and

malnutrition.

The informal sector activities are primar~ly those of petty traders,

street hawkers, piece workers and other groups on the streets of the

towns and cities. Due to the rapid urbanisation employment in ?he

informal sector had been growlng faster than the formal sector despite

some obstacles and absence of government support or regulation. It thus

in effect, became the employer of the last resort. The employment,

earnings, entrepreneurship, organisational and legal aspects and working

and living conditions of the participants in the informal sector have a

s~gnificant role in the Third World metropolls. Gender discrirninat~on and

gender gap are w~dely prevalent in the urban informal labour market and

women are the v~ct~ms of exploltat~on and oppression 3.

Th~s chapter briefly revlew the l~terature on the condition of women

in the ~nformal sector in urban labour markets. The research studies and

other papers In lndia and other countries are dealt w~th separately under

different headings. Almost all the studies cons~der such aspects as the

concept of Informal sector, urban labour force In formal and informal

sectors, poverty, housing, migration, income and wages, and women

empowerment as the basis of their major focus. This review is based on

the literature that the researcher had opportunity to peruse. Though it may

not be comprehensive, it certainly indicates the vast amount of interest

which the subject had already evoked among the academicians and

policy-makers at different levels.

2.2 THE ORIGIN AND APPLlCATlON OF THE CONCEPT

1 The concept of informal sector was first used in a study in Ghana

and then taken up in the Report of the ILOlUNDP employment Mission to

Kenya ? Subsequently, it gained considerable currency in the literature.

Jan Breman examined the utility of the concept of informal sector in a

small town in Western lndia and considered aspects relating to the origin

of the concept, size of informal sector, fragmented labour market and

labour force. ~e thuraman,~ Joshi and Papola also sought to explain

the concept in detail. Of these, Sethuraman's work is pioneering.

2.3 URBAN LABOUR FORCE AND LABOUR MARKETS

~uzu rnda r , ' ~ Guy Standing " and Koji Ta~ra l2 examine the dual

labour markets in the less developed countries, pattern of uhan

employment and growth of internal labour markets These studies

emphas~se the conceptual and theoretical aspects of urban labour

markets. Moir l3 attempted to map oyt some of the dimensions of time

series relationships between labour force structure, urbanisation and

development and suggested that knowledge of the form and strength of

such time-series relationships were an essential step in allowing

governments to develop adequate urbanisation policies for incorporation

into development plannrng efforts. The relatlonshrps between urbanisation

levels and the structure of the labour force were also analysed by Mo~r l4

Hartman IS evolved a classification system using the publ~shed data on the

labour force participation patterns of various countries. Friedman and

Sullivan '' presented a heuristrc model of the urban labour market in

developing countries. H~l l l7 discussed the determinants of labour supply

in case of an individual member of a famlly in poverty. The urban labour

market and income distribution with reference to Malaysia was examined

by ~ u z u m d a r ' ~ and the economics of labour force participation was

reviewed by ~1eisher. l~ sinclai?' descrl bed the growth of cities,

populatron, migration, employment, emergence and shortcom~ngs of the

informal sector

Another study focussed on the Japanese experrence wrth labour

market segmentation in the period. Japan made her transitron from

backward agrarianism to full-blown industrial~sation.~' Teshome ~ u l a t ~ ~

explored the employment and wage levels in the Ethropian manufacturing

industry an nap pan*' examined the magnitude of the urban labour

market, urban employment practices and urban unemployment rn

Khartoum.

Theoretical aspects of modern and traditional urban labour markets

were explored by James G. ~coville". Henry ernp pel^' studied the

operation of urban labour markets in Kenya. Thomas 26 reviewed some

issues of manpower planning and workers self-management with

reference to Yugoslavia.

2.4. HUMAN DEVELOPMENT ASPECTS

A. HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT - 1993 27 deals with the

different facets of people-oriented development. People's participation is 1

becoming the central issue of our time. The democratic transition in many

developing countries, the collapse of many socialist regimes, and the

worldwide emergence of people's organ~sations - these are all part of a

historical change, not just isolated events. People today have an

impatient urge to participate in the events and processes that shape their

I ives.

The lmpl~cat~ons of w~despread participation are profound -

embracing every aspect of development. Markets need to be reformed to

offer everyone access to the benefrts they can bring. Governance needs

to be decentralrsed to allow greater access to dec~sion-making. And

community organisations need to be allowed to exert growing influence On

national and international Issues. This Report descr~bes specific policy

actions that can make markets more "people-friendly" and rescue

economlc growth from becom~ng "Jobless growth" Next, the Report

examines access to decls~on-mak~ng processes. And ~t traces the recent

explosive growth of NGOs and the role they are beginning to play In 1

influencrng national and international issues. It ranks all countries by the

human development index (HDI) and Invites readers and those who use

the HDI to comment on suggestions for its improvement An updated set

of human development indicators for 173 countries are presented in the

annexure. A major feature is the desegregation of the HDI by varlous

population groups. For instance, when HDI IS calculated separately for

black and white populations in the United States, whites rank flrst in the

world (ahead of Japan) and blacks rank number 31 (next to Trinidad and

Tobago).

It examines how-and how much-people partlc~pate In the events

and processes that shape the~r lives. It concludes that at least five new

pillars of a people - centered world order must be built.

1. New concepts of human security that stress the security of people.

not only of nations

2. New strateg~es of sustainable human development that weave

development around people, not people around development.

3. New partnerships between state and markets to combine market

efficiency wlth soclal compassion.

4. New patterns of nat~onal and global governance

5. New forms of international cooperat~on, to focus ald dlrectly on the

needs of the people rather than on the preferences of governments

B. HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT-1997's 28 most important

message is that poverty is no longer inevitable. The world has the mater~al

and natural resources, the know-how and the people to make a poverty-

free world a reality in less than a generation. This is not wooly idealism but

a practical and ach~evable goal. Over the past three decades a dozen or

more developing countries have shown that it IS possible to ellm~nate

absolute poverty. And most industrial countries have largely eradicated

absolute poverty by the 1970s, although some have sllpped in the past

1 decade Poverty is not to be suffered in silence by the poor, nor can ~t be

tolerated by those with the power to change it The challenge now IS to

mobllrse action - state by state, organlsation by organisation, individual by

individual.

Poverty has many faces. It is much more than low income. It also

reflects poor health and education, deprivation in knowledge and

communication, Inability to exercise human and political rights and the

absence of dlgnlty, confidence and self-respect. There is also

environmental ~mpoverishment and the impoverishment of entire nations,

where essentially everyone lives in poverty. Behind these faces of poverty,

lies the grim reallty of desperate lives without choice and, often.

governments that lack the capaclty to cope.

The Report argues that human poverty IS more than income poverty

- it is the denial of choices and opportunities for living a tolerable life New

global pressures are creating or threatehing for the increases In poverty. A

people - centered strategy for eradicating poverty should start by buildlng

the assets of the poor. A creative commitment to gender equality will

strengthen every area of action to reduce poverty. Many of the gains will

remain fragile unless bolstered by strong pro-poor growth. Countries must

invest liberally in human development, so that they are ready to face the

challenge of globalisation. The State must advance the Interests of poor

people and promote pro-poor markets. The time has come to create a

world that is more humane, more stable, more just Comblnlng growth w~th

a small but steady redlstrlbutlon towards poverty eradication should

ensure all the resources required.

2.5 WOMEN EMPOWERMENT ASPECTS

A. ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE FOR WOMEN^' IS the flrst volume

of the sage yearbooks in womens' policy studies Thls series is be~ng

edited by the centre for women policy studies and will consist of annual

volumes conta~n~ng research and analysis of major pollcy Issues related to

the status of women The volume presents the work of contributors who

are In the forefront of current efforts directed to the speclfic pollcy issue

addressed In the volume there IS a cross-section of recent thinking related

to the economic status of women

The centre for women policy studies was established in 1972 to

meet the need for research directed to the identificat~on of policy needs

and actions requlred to improve the economic and legal status of women

Although thls functlon is a basic aspect, women's studies have hlstorlcally

been in short supply. This contrasts sharply with the extensive stud~es

and resulting legislation on the problems of other population groups such

as racial minorities, the aged, and the poor. Prlvate inst~tutions have also

failed to address themselves to women policy Issues except such highly

specific matters as extension of the right to vote It IS remarkable that

even during postwar periods of conversion to peacet~me economy when

the status of women has received the most extreme and traumatic blows,

there have been few calls for spec~al policy, much less opposlt~on, from

any source.

The need for polic~es dlrected to the welfare and equality of women

was articulated in the writlngs of Abigail Adams and Mary Wollstonecraft In

the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and further nourished by the

manifestos of the Seneca Falls convention in 1848, the first convention on

womens' rights in the United States. The concept of special policies on

the status of women was sorely tested by the post suffrage indifference

which lasted from the 1920s into the 1960s. But the feminists of the late

1960s with their demands for concrete goals such as equal pay and other

job rights laid the preconditions for the development of systematic women

policy studies.

Research and analysls conducted by the centre for women policy

studles IS pragmatic in nature and is based on the need to initiate and

implement change This approach recognlses that pollcy which is not

accompanled by resources in the form of programs or other tangible

support to insure implementation is nothlng more than a statement of

intention or posrtlon. The sage yearbook provldes a forum for action

oriented research that is now being produced on the pollcy Issues most

central to the emerglng Independence of women

B. MODERNISATION OF WORKING WOMEN IN DEVELOPING

SOCIETIES 30 IS a doctoral dissertation based on an emplrlcal study of the

attitudes on the posltion of women In modernislng societies of lndla and

Turkey The purpose IS to observe the trends in the cognitive structure

that are expected from the modernising process in a particular section of

the women population. The major assumption is that urbanisation,

education, and employment of women are connected with the changes in

the attitudes of women in favour of equality, individuality, and

independence, and the changes in the differential status and role of

women are related to the changes towards modernisation of society.

The seven chapters of the book could be said to have been divided

into two sections. The first section is concerned with the definition of the

problem and the concepts used, devising a measure of modernity and

finding out the level of modernity of women and show~ng how attitudinal

modernity IS associated with soclo-demographic characteristics. Sectlon

two analysls the attitudes towards the position of women in the two

societies 1

Data for the study were collected over two drfferent points of time.

Since the author was granted a Turkish government research scholarship

during the year 1965-66, she conducted a fact-finding survey of the soclo-

economic conditions and the attitudes and beliefs of worklng women in

Ankara (the capital city of Turkey), keeping in view the modernisatlon of

the Turkish society, especially with regard to changes in the status of

women. On her return to India, the author decided to improve upon the

study for a Ph.D., degree and to make a comparat~ve study of India and

Turkey Consequently, she collected the lndlan data in the year 1968 In

Chandigarh, after reformulating the problem keep~ng In view the

comparatlve dlmenslon.

In the words of the author, "the design of research, formulated for

the study, falls into the category of descript~ve stud~es which are used for

depicting precisely the characteristics of specific situations, individuals and

groups. In the present case an effort is made to descr~be how the

changed attitudes of women are linked with the modernisation for

societies." Some Interesting findings are highlighted. The three socio-

demographic factors associated with a womens' attitudes and beliefs in

the direction of modernity are education, occupation, and income.

However, in the case of the Turkish sample the assocration between the

background var~ables and the degree of modernity are not found to be

statist~cally s~gnificant. So far as the posit~on on the attitudes towards the

position of women in the two samples is concerned, it could be said that

both the groups suggest the acceptance of modern values With regard to

some values, pronounced differences are observed between the two

groups. A large proportion of Indian respondents showed traditional

orientation with respect to such values as attitudes towards co-education,

attitude on the "natural superiority of man", attitude on the choice of a

partner by parents, and the opinion towards divorce. Considering these

attitudes and the orientation of the respondents towards modernity, the

author comes to the conclusion that there is a greater diffus~on of some of

the modern values on the position of women in the Turkish sample and

that there are glaring differences between the two groups on the above- 1

mentioned attitudes.

C. SPEAKING OUT: WOMENS' ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT IN

SOUTH ASIA '' is organised around a series of eight case studies of

different NGOs, from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. These

case studies yield rare insights into the pain taking efforts that these

organisations, which differ widely in both size and scope, have made a

deal with issues of womens' empowerment. The rapid growth in these

organisations are heartening to note as it indicates the success of

women's organisations are well as NGOs that deal with socio-economic

issues of the vulnerable sectlons of the society Whlle the struggles and

constrams faced by organisatlons included here are indicators enough of

some of the major underlying Issues, ~t would have been even more

interesting if some organlsatlons that did not succeed as all were tracked

down and interviewed along with these eight case studies, which are

clearly success stories. One only hopes that there are not that many of

these defunct or unsuccessful organisatlons, reflecting the fact that most

of the obstacles faced in empowering women can be overcome.

A notable feature of the case studies is the finding that though

material gain is not the ultimate goal of empowerment, it does go hand in

hand with increased empowerment. In fact, reading the case studles does

lead one to conclude that economic empowerment is a necessary, though

not a sufficient, condition for a broader empowerment of women, which wlll

include social, cultural and political empowerment of women. Thls and

related issues are discussed in the last section of the book, where the

editors summarise, the essential components that go In to des~gning an

effective empowerment strategy. They agree that while economlc

empowerment is the fundamental principle around whlch an effective

strategy should be designed, it has to be accompanied by changes on

other non-economic fronts. Reading the list of these changes, one cannot

help wondering why women have to struggle so hard to achieve a fraction

of what the other gender achieves with so much ease. This issue of why

the gender roles are such that so much time, energy and effort have to be

devoted ex post, to what seems common sensual at times ex ante, IS an

intriguing one, whlch is outside the scope of the book

D. GENDER AND POVERTY IN INDIA 32: Indian women's access to

goods and services, to productive assets, and to factor markets (including

the right to sell their own labour) is contingent in a way that men's is not.

This is part of the social construction of gender in India. It is embedded in

the interlocking religious, economic and kinship structures which define

the social domains of females and males. These domains can be

characterised in terms of an ins~deloutside dichotomy, women's

association w~th reproduction and the family puts them In the private

"inside" sphere; men Interact wlth the markets, governments and courts In

the publlc "outside" sphere. Women's links with the outside are mediated \

by male relatives. The extent to which households are able to limlt contact

between their female members and the commercial and political spheres -

- most explicitly through female seclusion --- IS traditionally one of the most

important criteria for establishing social rank.

The strength of the insideloutside dichotomy varies considerably by

region and household socio-economic status On the whole, the barriers

to women's access to resources and markets are greater In the North than

in the South. They are stronger among caste Hindus than among

scheduled tr~bes and castes and stronger among landowning cultivators

than among landless labourers or marginal farm families. For women, a

kind of "hierarchy of labour" assigns the highest prest~ge to conventional

domestic work for the family, less prestige to work in the family's fields.

and the lowest to manual wage work which takes women to the publ~c

sphere and involves them in market transactions.

Governmental intervention in the private domain where gender

relations are rooted is problematic. The most effective - and perhaps the

only legitimate - means by which public policy can affect household

processes and reduce women's dependency is to alter the economlc

environment. In a sense, this means that market forces should be allowed

to influence the boundarres of culturally acceptable women's activ~ty.

i The changes in economic environment that can best aid women are

those that facilitate their unmediated access. Women need better access

to human capital - education, skill training, extension advice; to factor

markets-credit and land ownership; to technology and raw materials, and

to social organisation - membersh~p in cooperatrves, users' groups and

village government. The most powerful governmental ~nterventrons would

be policies to alter the incentives and disincentives to families permitting

women to sell their labour or take up opportunrties for self-employment

The study considers in more detalls Women's current place In

Indian agriculture, forestry, urban work, education, health and famll y care.

It examines the record of government and non-government organisations

(NGOs) in aid~ng women. It suggests specific means by which women

can gain wider access to the help, skills and tools they lack. One

promising strategy for new initiatives is the organisation of women into

"demand groups."

Mak~ng women more product~ve - hence, more effective Income

earners - - will reduce their dependency and enhance the~r status

E. WOMEN IN PAKISTAN : AN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL

STRATEGY~~ : In Pakistan women are accorded esteem and importance;

but on most counts, the status of women rn Pakistan is among the lowest

in the world, lncludrng the rest of South Asla Uslng standard Socio-

economic indicators, this Report documents on women's status and shows

that the gap between Pak~stan and other developing countries In t h~s

respect has Increased over time. It examines the interact~ons between

human resource development, women's welfare and productivity and

economic development. It presents a three-part strategy to address these

complex social and economic Interactions and offers recommendations to

improve opportunities for women that are tailored to Pakistan's fiscal and

administratwe constraints.

The Report recommends several approaches to Improve women's

access to extension, credit, new technology, inputs, markets and formal

sector employment, This would enable women to raise their product~vlty, I

and hence their contribution to economic development and family welfare,

in several ways. First, the more women are seen to be economically

productive, the more families will invest in female education and health

care, and the more women in the future will be able to increase their

productivity Second, women's income is especially important for poor

families. Third. contrary to conventional notions and most official

statistics, women already contri bute considerably to the rural and urban

economies Nonetheless, their productivity is depressed well below

potential levels, because they lack access to productive inputs and

services Because of therr "inv~srb~l~ty", women are still often excluded from

development programmes that could improve their productivity in

agriculture or small-scale enterprises. Moreover, their participation in the

formal labour force IS also very constrained.

The Report makes several other suggestions to open up

opportunities for women. It recommends removing the overt legal and

regulatory discrimination against them that now reinforces a limited view of

their potential. It notes that women's organisations can serve as useful

channels for service delivery and sources of group support. Finally, it

emphasises that political leadership and the mass media can play a vital

role in improving women's opportunitres and hence their contr~bution to

development.

F. SITES OF CHANGE : THE STRUCTURAL CONTEXT FOR

EMPOWERING WOMEN IN INDIA 34 looks at the process of

empowerment of women not merely as a means of bringing about

improvement in the physical and social condit~ons of women, but also as

one which ensure equal participation in the decision-making process,

control over resources. as well as, developing mechanisms for sustaining

these gains. We are told that by emflowering women one attempts to

change those social and economlc institutions which embody the basic

and unequal power structure in a society and that 'Organisation and

effective political participat~on are key strategies to brlng a bout structural

changes in markets, states and c~vil society in terms of thelr

responsiveness to women's needs and ~nterest's. The tltle of the book,

"Sites of Change", refers to these organ~sational struggles for the

empowerment of women.

The book IS a collection of papers presented at a workshop (along

with the proceed~ngs) jointly organised by the Friedrlch Ebert Stiftung and

the UNDP during December 1995 at Neemrana Fort, Rajasthan The

workshop had aimed at linking the rn~cro-level reallties and grassroot

experiences wlth economic and political process at the mlcro-level. The

book begins w~th a paper by Devakl Jam on some post-Be~jlng thoughts

The first section consists of papers on indices of Human Development,

highlighting crltical issues in HDR 1995 and its relevance to Indra. Jayat~

Ghosh brings out the major flaw in the analys~s of HDR 1995, namely that

the gender issues have to be worked out within the stabilisation-cum

adjustment packages of macro-economic policies. According to her, the

cut in public expenditure directly affects women in their role as producers,

mothers, household managers and community organisers. This section

also includes papers by Seetha Prabhu and Abusaleh Shariff, and Ratna

Sudarshan.

The Second section on "Employment and Livelihoods" consists of

papers by Nirmala Banerjee. Asha Kapur Mehta, lllina Sen, Rohinl

Hensman and Bina Aggarwal. Nirmala Banerjee in her paper on "SAP

and Women's Economrc Empowerment" concludes that "markets by

themselves are neither pro nor anti-women" It is the concrete initial

distribution of power, author~ty and resources within the economy that help

to make market-based operations inequitable. In the case of women,

patriarchal institutions further control their needs. Asha Kapur Mehta, in

her paper on "Liberalisation and Empowerment of Women" examines

some recent government initiatives affecting the competitiveness of

workers in the informal sector. She stresses the importance of identifying

emerging opportunities in sectors that are expected to benefit from the

l~beralisation process and observes that in the liberalisation of global trade

in agricultural goods, gains could accrue to producers of value-added

agro-processed goods, text~les and clothlng In order to tap the growlng

market opportunities, poor women in urban and rural informal sectors can i

be empowered through interventions aimed at bulldrng entrepreneurial

skills while simultaneously providing access to credit, design, markets,

information and training.

The third section devoted to "structural adjustment and the social

sector" looks at the impact of liberallsation on education and social

security Amita Rampal shows how education can be 'enabling' by

narrating the story of how science education helped a few girls in exposing

superstit~on whlch had griped thew village. They could challenge the

prevalent community belief by presenting rational arguments due to the

education they have received. Vlmala Ramachandran, In her paper on

"Redefin~ng Safety Net" explores some Ideas that were thrown up dur~ng

field vislts to places where she took the opportunrty of rnitiatrng

development programmes both In the Government and Non-government

sectors. According to her, in order to make the safety net effect~ve, there

is a need for social mobilisation to enhance human capabilities and for

creating inst~tutional structures that are within the reach of the poor.

The next two sections deal wlth Organisation Responses and

Media, Law and Culture, respectively. In an rnteresting presentation

Gabriel D~etr~ch observes that 'Peoples' Empowerment through the NGO

sector has In fact a d~sabl~ng consequence as far as the oppressed people

are concerned as rt sh~fts the focus from polrtics of struggle to NGO i

activity. Similarly, the last section consists of important papers on "Med~a,

Law and Culture1' by Akhila Sivadas, Nivedita Menon and Vasudha

Dhagamvar.

G. GENDER, POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT 35 IS an important

step towards locating the discourse on development and population wrthln

the gender paradigm. In doing so two distinct sets of conditrons, r.e.,

individual endowments and structural constraints - a framework within

which gender relations are placed - have been suggested. The book

consists of 15 chapters divided into four sections. The first section

provides an overview of gender, population and development. It is argued

that individual endowments do not necessarily alter or question existing

structural constraints. Thus, 'schooling' for girls is not aimed at expanding

career choices or broadening the mind per se, but adds to a girl's chances

in the marriage market in the same veln whereby employment is sought

for women because worklng women produce fewer children! Uslng several

empirical studies, Ma~threye Krishnaraj offers a critlc of economic theories

of populat~on where~n household are often seen as a site where the

interests of all household members converge. Women are considered as

specific category only in the context of population control The tendency

to posit the household as a utrlrty maxrmlslng un~t In rsolatron from other

familial unrts too comes under attack. Sonalde desar, whlle arguing for

engenderrng populat~on pol~cy, IS of the oplnlon that w~thin the polrcy

dictates, however, it may be difficult to resolve the conflict between

external consideration of population regulation and the interests of

women's agency.

The next set of six papers uses empirical data to show on the one

hand the dubious relationship that may exist between development,

population and gender on the one hand, and some of the positive

consequences of developmental inputs therern, on the other. Thus,

whereas child mortality was down with fertil~ty decl~ne, the sex ratlo

becomes unfavourable for girl children, the mother's education and her

hold on household resources can make a difference to the well-being of

1 children includes girls. Gender as a category cuts across caste and class.

Just when we start getting evidences to show that gender discrimination is

most prevalent at the lower rung of society, we get fresh data that shows

even amongst scientific personnel wage differential can only be accounted

for by discrrmination based on gender

The third section deals w~th the new economlc polrcy and its

consequences on women. Though Economic reforms have generated

more opportunities for women, in the wake of state's withdrawal from

social sector, the net gains to women become suspect unless the state is

prepared to play a much more pro-active role In safeguarding the~r

interests. Ironically, given the women's famrlial roles at home that refuse

to respond to increasing work burden in public doma~n, women who are

seen as in flexible labour, have no flexibll~ty.

The last sect~on is devoted to health within the current reproductive

and child domain. lmrana Qadeer traces the history of maternal health in

the colonial reason and maintains that the prevailing the b~as towards

western medicine is a legacy of the British. The current concern for

maternal health care is overshadowed by famrly planning Issues Among

the other issues that have evoked concern are the qualrty of care,

inadequacy of health services that do not reach to women and steps that

can be taken to overcome the same.

I

In general, the book brings out the point that gender relations are

not independent of the social, cultural and political context and need to be

recast in a more encompassing 'referential universe'. This is essentially

because a continuum exists between or can be termed as lndividualised

private doma~n and the collect~vised public domain. This proposition

questions the traditionally assumed dichotomy between private and public

domains where the private domarn remains insulated and the state and

other 'outside' agencies are absolved frbm the responsibilities to intervene

in 'family matters'. By reallocating the burden of responsibilities between

individuals and institutional structures (social and political), the concept of

public and private domain is being deconstructed to posit a model of work

and reproductive behaviour that needs to be socially contextualised.

2.6 URBAN INFORMAL SECTOR

A. INFORMAL SECTOR : A STUDY OF SELECTED TOWNS a

systematic study of informal sector in six small and medium towns In the

population group of 35,000 - 1,50,000 The towns are Deorra In U.P ,

Karnal in Haryana, Katni in Jabalpur distrrct of Madhya Pradesh, Sldhpur

in Mewara district of Gujarat, Tunkur in Karnataka and Borsad in Gujarat

Most of the studies in rnformal sector, till now, have been conducted in the

context of large cities, mostly metropolitan cities In large towns and

metropolitan citles circumstantial economrc forces play an important role in

guiding the development of informal sector whereas in smalllrnedium

towns they are not significant Large clt~es have better infrastructural

facilities leading to an increase in employment opportunrttes and also

higher urban incomes. So to evolve a meaningful employment strategy in

urban informal sector it is important to do a detailed study of different sizes

of population of urban places Realislng that the informal sector is neither

uniform nor universal, the present studyihas classified the towns according

to the size of population and has divided the employment into three

distinct groups: (1) establlshrnent based activities - comprising of

employers and employees, with specific location and dlstlnct economlc

activity, (2) home based employment, having a specif~c location but not

easily identiflcable establishment and (3) footloose establishment w~ th no

specifrc locat~on. In the establlshrnent based activltles ~t has been found

that there is ample scope for promotion of self employment. An important

finding has been that informal sector establishments are neither operating

from slums nor on public property through Illegal occupat~on an has been

hypothes~sed in the literature. Informal sector establishments are found to

be distinct permanent economic unlts. It also has a tremendous scope for

absorbing rural migrants.

Footloose workers are drawn from farn~lies subject to severe

demograph~c and economic pressures. Majorlty of them are engaged in

hotels, retail trade and restaurants where flxed and working cap~tal

requirements are low. M~grants have usually been found in mobile foot

loose activities as entry is fairly easy. After gaining some experience in

footloose activities workers prefer to shift to establlshrnent - based

activities and then as wage earners in the formal sector. 53 per cent of

footloose workers surveyed in the study expressed a desire to shift to

informal sector establishments. The policies of urban planners towards

footloose activ~tles have been 'laissez faire', supportive or restrictive often

depending on political compuls~ons.

Home-based activ~ties are In a way establishment based activities -

they are performed under one room Usually it is dominated by female

workers. Skill to do work and dexterity of hands at work has been the only

requirement to be eligible to be engaged In home-based activities.

lnformalrty In operations and mixing up of domestlc chores wlth economlc

activities make it difficult to gauge the economics of activltles performed

They mainly rely on family workers.

B. URBANISATION, SLUMS, INFQRMAL SECTOR EMPLOYMENT

AND POVERTY : AN EXPLORATORY STUDY.^^ suggests that India has

over-urbanised, and Indian cities have grown too fast due to rural-urban

migration. Refuting this view the author argues that the cause of urban

problems cannot be traced merely in terms of population growth (rural-

urban migration). Drawing attention to the demand side factors he holds

that the employment structure in clties IS dominated by low productivity

activities In the absence of rapid industrialisation of work force. And

residual absorption of labour in the informal sector and concomitant

poverty in the urban areas cannot be explained merely In terms rural spill-

over effect. Sluggish employment growth in the hlgh productlvlty sector In

the face of a high natural growth of population In the urban areas has

aggravated the 'employment problem' The mushrooming growth of slums

with poor sanitation and sewerage is due partly to low productivity

employment, meagre employment, meagre earnings and workers betng 1

unable to afford a decent standard of living. On the whole, the volume

argues against the over-urbanisation vlew and suggests that urban

problems cannot be solved merely in terms of implementation of rural

employment programmes. It reinforces the importance of productive

employment generation in the urban areas.

Although some of these issues have been analysed by earher

studies it is the first comprehensive volume on studles in Indian urban

development that integrates various ~mportant issues luc~dly and uses

various quantitative techniques to test the hypotheses both at the City and

the State levels

2.7. LABOUR CONDITlONS OF WOMEN LABOUR

A. WOMEN AND POVERTY RESOURCES 38 covers poor women in

both rural and urban areas. It is based on a study for UNICEF (withln the

frame work of IFADlUNlCEF collabourat~on) on credit for poor women

The study was primarily intended to reinforce the implementation strategy

for UNICEF's policy on women in development. It was to contaln a

summary of the lessons drawn from the experiences from selected south

Asian cases and their relevance for women's programmes in Africa and

Latin America. Upon completion of the study, it way found that the case

profiles as also the concepts and the methodology of participatory

development that emerged were of wider interest to all those concerned

with the issues of gender and equity.

The perspective of this book has grown from the search for

development alternatives initiated as early as the 1970s by the UN Asian

Institutes trilogy of stud~es- 'Towards a Theory at Rural Development',

'Micro-level Development: Design and Evolution of Rural Development

Projects', and 'Bhoomi sena - struggle for people's power', by G.V.S.

Desilva, Wahidul Haque, Niranjan Mehta, An~sur Rahman. and Ponna

Wignaraja The Dag Hammarskjold foundation in what now; the ILO world

Employment Conference Report on 'A Basic Needs Strategy', and more

recently, wrltlngs of persons like Robert Chambers (Rural Development.

putting the last First); Manfred Max Neef ('The Human Scale'); Bernard

lecomte (Project AID : Limitat~ons and Alternatives), Keith Griffin

('Alternat~ve Strateg~es for Economic Development') and many other

contributions in the Third World confirm the need for an alternative to

conventional thinking. The search for development alternatives is steadily

expanding with greater clarity regarding the concepts and methodologies

to be followed.

From this perspective, several committed Third World scholars and

development activists, through in-depth experimentation, have also

evolved in an interaction with the poor, the methodology of 'Participatory

Action Research'. This action research methodology and the peoples'

praxis permits the poor, as subjects in the process to bring about a change

in their economic and social conditions, using primarily their own creative, 1

energies, local resources, and local knowledge. Where there is a

sensitive support system involving a Government Agency, an NGO and I

or a donor, these experiments have grown in scale and become

sustalnable This IS very different from sltuatlons where various groups of

poor are merely treated as the objects, of a process wh~ch, in the main.

delivers Inputs to them from the outside, whether as charity or paternalism

Both the concept and the methodology of participatory action are further

reinforced by the cases studled here which respond to the total concerns

of poor women There is, thus, no longer any need for a prior1 theorising

Given the trme lim~tation for the or~ginal study, rt was possible to

survey only a selected experiences In detail The groups studled were

able to assist poor women to move out of poverty Into sustalnable

development in Bangladesh, Nepal, lndra and Paklstan We also

examined selected process whlch were beginning to emerge In Afrlca and

Latin America. In most of the cases analysed, sens~tlve donors had

related to or actlvely supported the ~nvitation. expansion. or multrplication

of these innovative approaches whlch enabled poor women to move out of

their poverty As the study proceeded, more generallsed guldellnes

emerged for other donors attempting to deslgn progranimes In support of

poor women.

From the selective survey in South Asia, it was evident that the

innovative approaches for poverty alleviation adopted by poor women

appeared to have gone beyond experimentation. It was possible to

identify the essential elements in the total process of going beyond credit.

which contribute to sustainable economic and social development In this

sense this book, though on gender and equity, is equally about poverty

alleviation. If the problems of poor women who constitute more than half

the poor can be solved, ~t would mean winning more than half the war on

poverty.

These elements provlde an alternative approach (to the I

conventional 'delivery of Inputs' approaches) for rural and urban poverty

alleviation involving poor women, and a methodology which can be used

with appropriate adaptation for in~tiating, expanding or multiplying similar

processes in Africa and Latin America and under different socio-polit~cal

conditions It is now clear that the process can be multipl~ed. It is not,

however, a quest~on of simple repllcabll~ty The process must start wlth

the poor women themselves artlculatlng their needs wlth a collective

consciousness and organisation, and hav~ng a support system from

governments, NGOs and donors.

B. WOMEN AND WORK IN INDIAN SOCIETY 39 The present volume.

which is also the outcome of the growing interest in the subject, represents

a departure from the exlsting trends In women's stud~es and addresses

itself to the reassessment of women's contrlbut~on In the product~on

process in the contemporary lndlan society, Identification of the problems

and influences associated wlth their work and labour and working out

implications thereof for the development policy. This has become all the

more necessary In view of the controversial nature of existing empirical

data relating to women's productivity and labour participation.

discrimination against women with respect to the work and consequent

reward, and assumed dichotomy of women's role between wage and self

employment, household and out of home work and Income generat~ng and

non-income generat~ng work In which one 1s labeled as product~ve and the

other non product~ve

The volume does not provlde a comprehens~ve view of all the

productive actlvltles performed by women In all parts of the country nor the

contribut~ons ~ncluded in it present an uniform picture of women's state or

the means to improve ~t Nevertheless, most contributors seem to agree

that women in Indian society have always played and contlnue to play

both product~ve and social roles, that the recent developments in lnd~an

society and economy have further burdened them wlth product~ve and

social responsibilit~es and that the socio-cultural and normative framework,

which placed in the past a high premium on abstention from manual and

productive work, IS gradually losing its valldity under the impact of

economlc pressures, modernising forces and rnater~allstlc values.

The volume contains 19 papers which are arbitrarily grouped Into

four parts Having identified the nature of the problems and issues

concerning female work participation in Indian Society and the trends and

directions of women's studies on the subject In part I, an assessment of

women's economic contribution and work participation has been

undertaken in part II. Part Ill 1s devoted to the analysls of familial role, its

implications for women's work and the problems encountered by working

women. The Influence exercised by soclo-economic, technological and

b~ological forces on women's work and contrlbution has been investigated

in part IV.

C. QUALITY OF WORKING LIFE OF WOMEN WORKERS IN

CONSTRUCTION 40 analysls in detail different assessments and has gone

deep into the existing work motivation theories to assess "conditions" and

"feelings" (postulates of herzberg's theory of motivation) of the women

construction workers. The theory of Maslow (I 954) has been evaluated In

the context and ~t has been observed that most of the women workers in

construction Industry strlve for satisfaction of basic needs. The htgher

order needs such as esteem needs and self actualrsat~on never appear in

their life. For the last 40 to 50 years of the authors conscious observation

of the women workers, the state of affairs has hardly changed Women rn

thrs Industry have been working for unskrlled occupations for ages and

have never been exposed to any opportunity of moving up in the ladder to

obtain satisfactton of higher order needs.

This volume presents a number of eye opening facts, apart from the

most revealtng find~ngs which need attention of the educational planners

to devise a system of education and training which would be useful.

specially for developing construction skllls among women apart from

I acquiring functional literacy. The work would also be useful for law

makers who of course, framed laws for prov~dlng equality to women in this

sector but thelr enforcement IS almost negligible and now need a new set

of effect~ve laws

D. PROBLEMS OF WOMEN WORKERS IN uNORGANISED

SECTORS 41 IS limited to a sample of women workers in selected br~ck

kilns and quarries-mines of Bihar and West Bengal. In case of brick kilns

160 women workers in Bihar and 225 In West Bengal have been covered.

In case of quarries-mlnes the figures are 260 in Bihar and 210 in West

Bengal.

The study IS presented rn SIX chapters In the frrst chapter, as IS

customary, the details of aims and methodology of the study are given. In 1

the next three chapters details of socio-economic life, employment and

working cond~tions and wages are explained The last chapter presents

the conclusions and offers some valuable recommendations. At the end

24 typical case studies are presented as appendices. A selected

bibliography is also added at the end.

The find~ngs reveal, not unexpectedly, the 'pltlable and sorrowful'

conditions of work~ng women in the brick kllns and quarries-mines. The

cases of women workers in brick kilns and quarr~es-mines are treated

separately but there appears to be hardly difference rn the condrtrons of

women rn these sectors.

The authors point out that legislative provrsrons, applicable to

women workers. of important Acts like the Contract Labour (Regulation

and Abolrtion) Act, 1970, the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act. 1979: the

Mines Act. 1952. the Mrnrmum Wages Act, 1948; the Payment of Wages

Act, 1936, the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965; the Workmen Compensatron

Act, 1923, the Equal Remunerat~on Act, 1976, and the Maternity Benefrts

Act, 1961 are observed more in breach. The result 1s the subhuman,

unhygienrc and demoralrsrng worklng condltlon for the women workers,

most of whom are condemned to live as bonded labourers

E. IN THE NAME OF THE URBAN POOR : ACCESS TO BASIC

AMENITIES 42 generally, the poverty studies in India are classifiable in

three groups - those that estlmate the extent of poverty, the second group

concerned with the socio-economic processes that generate or perpetuate

poverty, and the third groups of studies analysing the relevance or impact

of various poverty-alleviation programmes run by the government. Withln

this framework, the book under review IS basrcally an apprec~able attempt

under the third group, wrth some attention bang pald to the questlon of

poverty estimation too. Towards an evaluation of poverty eradrcation 1

measures, the study has restricted ~tself to governmental efforts In

providing five basic amenities - shelter, water supply, sewerage and

sanitation, health care and public distribution system.

Of the five basic urban amenities studied, government programmes

for housing probably demands the widest changes. In view of the high

income elasticity of demand for housing, the programme was bound to

face some distortions and the study confirms this expected pattern by

showlng that the housing subsidies have reached mostly the middle and

even upper Income sectlon 'The government should, therefore, gradually

curtail its involvement in these programmes and concentrate only on those

benefiting the urban poor directly' In order of dlstributlonal distortions,

the publrc drstributron system (PDS) probably comes second, although for \

a different reason - a large section of the urban poor, erther because of

their illiteracy or because of non-permanent nature of their resrdences or

both, are not able to avail the benefits of PDS However, there IS one

common feature between these two basic amenrtres programme whlch

also partly explains their being insensitive to the needs of the poor Both

these programmes, although subsidised, operate wrth substantial part of

the cost of the amenities being shared by the beneficiar~es Three of the

other programmes on basic amenities (water supply, sewerage and

sanitation, and health care) provlde those amenities either free or almost

free of cost

F. WOMEN IN THE UNORGANISED SECTOR 43 exarnlnes the soc~o-

economlc characteristics and employment conditions of home-based

women workers, both in their household settlng and as workers In the

readymade garment industry in the four major cities of Kanpur, Lucknow.

Varanasi, and Delhi. It investigates the nature and extent of exploitation.

especially by intermediaries. It assesses the role of protect~ve measures

for women-based workers like legislation, welfare measures, and

organisation of women workers. In conclusion, the author goes on to

make a number of pol~cy recommendations on improving the conditions of

home-based women workers and emancipating them from the poverty tVap

and underemployment.

Usha ~ u r n a n i ~ ~ identlf~es certain common economic factors which

compel the poor women to take up Jobs. Low and uncertain Income of the

farnlly IS one of the baslc reasons for seeklng employment. Another

economic factor which turns a housewife into a working women IS lack of

adequate assets.

In the informal sector self-employed women do not have much to

fall back upon. They earn their livelihood entlrely by their own efforts

Most of them are poor and illiterate The development programmes, the

schemes for assistance, the rules, and procedures, ail require the poor,

self-employed women to be proficient in written transactions. Belng

illiterate they depend upon middle men to avail themselves of the benefits

of government schemes and programmes.

The problems of self-employed women In unorganlsed sector and

their socral status are related to the discrrmrnatlon and d~fferent~als In

prices. These are, in turn, related to lack of marketing links especially in

rural areas, lack of capital and non-availablllty of raw materials

Mechanisation and modern industries have replaced the jobs

conventionally performed by women. For instance, the mills and

powerlooms are replacing handloom, and screen printing is replacing

block printing Low earnings in the informal sector are due to (a) low

productivity which is in turn due to lack of skills and proper tools, and (b)

exploitation by middlemen

Usha Jumani has also suggested some interventions to improve the

position of self-employed women Her main trust of interventions centres

around the economic actrvlt~es She suggests for instance, that the

income of self-employed women may be ~ncreased through the exrstlng

actrvities, through new act~vit~es or through a comblnat~on of both In

consonance w~ th the trme ava~lable with them, their role rn the famrly and

with their awareness levels They also need assistance in terms of health

care, maternal protect~~n, chlld care facil~tres, cornmun~catron facilitres,

legal aid, houslng, water and other rnfrastructural inputs In addition to the

package of training, skrlls, raw materrals, cred~t space and markets for

economrc activ~ties.

The study made by Nrrmala ~ a n e r j e e ~ ~ reveals that self-

employment adds to the r~sks and respons~bilities of the work without

guaranteeing an adequate compensation. The self-employed women are

more willing to work in certain occupations even when the rates of return

are lower than the rates prevail~ng elsewhere.

A number of studies have been conducted on the socio-economic

conditions of the women wage-earners in the unorganised sector. These

studies highlight the terms and conditiyns on which the women workers

work in the unorganised sector. But there is rarely any comprehensive

study on the problem of self-employed women entrepreneurs who work

independently However, wr~ters like she have dealt w~th the problems of

these women In the rural sector

She polnts out that the enterpr~ses managed by them are not

economically v~able The selling price of the~r goods IS not enough even to

absorb the cost of product~on There IS a cont~nuous displacement of

women from trades which are belng rendered unv~able owlng to the strong

competition of sim~lar trades undergoing mechanisat~on. When new

production processes are introduced In a particular trade men get the

opportunity to learn the new methods but the women got pushed out of

work completely. Women in most trades do not have representative

organ~sations to help them project their ~nterests. The forces of

mechan~sation and ~ndustrialisation are slowly changlng the system of

traditional self-employment The schemes and programmes which are

started in the name of modern~sat~on only help to shlft the trend from self

employment to underemployment and unemployment

G. WOMEN AND SEASONAL LABOUR MIGRATION 4%onstititutes a

serious attempt to put forward a gender-sensitive perspective on women

and seasonal labour migration In India. As the editor of the volume States,

such a perspective is important for several reasons First, women play a

distinct economic role, both at home and as migrants which has to be

understood in the context of the sexual division of labour which IS also

undergoing constant transformation. Second, the causes of female

rn~gration require a separate analysis, since women's existence 1s

circumscribed by patriarchy within the households whlch constra~ns their

mobility and requires a different framework of decision analys~s Third, the

consequences of mlgration for women, both migrants and non-m~grants

are also quite d~stlnct. Fourth. mlgration has an impact on family relations.

wh~ch can be best understood withln a gender-sensitive perspective.

Malav~ka Karlekar 47 provides an overview to the gender dimens~on

of migration. She points out that conventional migration studies do not

capture the magnitude and the nature of women's migration patterns.

Androcentric biases and women's self perception lead to their

undervaluation as workers. Though there are no reliable estimates of

seasonal migrants, Karlekar suggests that they form an important, and

growing component of the seasonally mlgrant workforce Further, desp~te

segregation norms and constraints on mobility, single women migrants are

also large in number. Since migration IS socially structured and such

structures vary across India, it is not surprising that the nature and

magnitude of female mlgration varies between reglons In some States

such as Punjab, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the number of unmarried female

migrants are almost equal to those of female m~grants who are married

and recent movers to urban areas. Women from the southern region

appear to face fewer restrictions on mobility and employment. karlekar

examines the nature and pattern of female migration in existing studies

Though she does not subscribe to any single theoretical explanation she IS

not sympathetic towards neoclassical explanations whlch emphasise the

purely voluntar~st~c and equilibriating nature of such phenomenon.

Karlekar then goes on to discuss the causes and consequences of

migration, d~stlnguish~ng in the latter cases between female migration and

the impact of male migration on women

Karlekar's overview IS followed by three case studies' that by

Geeta Menon on the impact of migration on the work and status of tribal

women in Orissa, by K. Sardamoni on the flshing ~ndustry and women's

migration in Kerala; and by Rensje Teerink on the impact of migration to

Southern Gujarat cane fields on Khandeshi women. The participation of

women in the migration streams varies in the case studies. In the case of

Orissa, Soaran tribal migration to the North-east is predominantly male

whereas Munda and Santhal Migration to NALCO was both male and

female. Sardamoni's study focusses on female out migration whereas

Teerink's study again looks at male and female migrat~on

In all the case studies, therefore. female migration is seen as

essentially survival migration rooted . ~n historical and contemporary

capitalist transformat~on processes and sourcing of cheap and easy-to-

control labour. In most cases, migration has implied a mutat~on but not a

diminution in the disadvantages faced by women In all the case studies,

when asked, women said that they would prefer to ltve and work at home if

local employment opportun~ties were available. In her note on Hopeful

Alternatives to Forced Migration, Shenk-Sandbergen discusses the case

of SEWA to show that schemes to facilitate the empowerment of women

and for providrng vrable methods of livelihood in their home areas are

likely to reduce the prospects of survival migratron.

2.8. MIGRANT LABOUR

A. OF PEASANTS, MIGRANTS AND PAUPERS 48 deals wrth

massive numbers that travel long distances in a country of continental

size. Already agriculture and small rndustry in the Punjab is dependent on

labour from Brhar and Uttar Pradesh All our cltles are festering with slums

because of rapld influx of lmmrgrant workers Construction and industrial

projects everywhere are run by workers from drstant parts of the country

Jan Breman has studied this phenomenon in rural Gujarat. To do

this he spent several months each year from 1977 to 1982 in villages near

Bardoli in Surat district One must admlre h ~ s persistence and hard work

under harsh and unfamiliar livrng condrtlons But as we shall see, h ~ s keen

observations are highly illuminating and they must glve h ~ m and h ~ s

readers a sense of deep satisfaction.

He finds not just mlgrat~on but a virtual whrrlpool of labour

movement. Durrng Brltrsh colonlal rule trrbals lrvrng In marglnal areas were

deprived of thelr land by lntrudlng banyas and Patldars Now in more

remote areas Adivasis are belng displaced by lnundat~on of their villages

by dams, or destruction of the forest by contractors. Half-hearted

resettlement efforts and madequate compensatron leave these people

homeless and lost. Small and marginal farmers are being driven off their

land by rlslng costs of inputs and unfavourable market Mill~ons of rural

craftsmen are becomlng unemployed as large industr~es using enormous

financial powers control product~on of ordinary consumer goods. Even

villagers now hanker after urban gadgets and shoddy factory products.

All these displaced workers go out in search of work, of which there

is precious little ava~lable some new demand for labour IS created in the

canal irrigated areas, and in sugar and cotton g~nnlng factories. But there

is not enough. To make matters worse, labourers come from neighbouring

Maharashtra and from Saurashtra, even from more distant places, There

is a glut of labour In a severely limited market, and the employers exploit

the situat~on. Workers are disunited due to numbers and areal and ethn~c

divers~ty. M~n~mum wage and other laws for the protection of the workers

are disobeyed with impunity In this process people are uprooted,

dispossessed of property and valuable cultural traditions, depr~ved of

invaluable skills, and pauperised. All this is done In the name of

"modernisation" and "development".

2.9. WOMEN PARTlClPATiON, EDUCA TlON AND DEVELOPMENT

A. EDUCATION WORK AND WOMEN 49 attempts to measure the

gender disparities that exist today in various fields. It spec~ally focuses on

representations of women in education and employment sectors at global,

national, village and individual levels Earnest attempts are made to

marshal data and information from different sources Along with the

secondary sources, they have conducted the study to generate data on

gender d~fferenttation at grassroots level. The purpose was to measure

the gender-based gaps at various levels to furn~sh a comprehensive and

at the same t~me, a precise picture of differentiation

Thls book cons~sts of SIX chapters chapter one discusses gender

related issues and subordinatton of women in the historical perspectrve It

also outlines the concerns of the lnternatlonai and national bodies for

women's development. This chapter also prov~des a global picture of

women's representation In educat~on and employment In various reglous

countries Chapter two describes the positton of women in the education

sector at ~ t s various levels It also shows the ~ntragender disparities

exlstlng in the~r representahon Chapter three examlnes the employment

scenario and women's educat~on specific employment status Chapter

four describes perceptions of an individual woman about her situation,

while chapter flve examines situation of gender differentiat~on In education

and employment at grassroots level. Chapter SIX discusses gender Issues

from a theoretical perspective, provides some ideas as pol~cy direction and

identifies some future research areas

B. INDIAN WOMEN EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT 50 deals with

the problem of women development w~th special reference to lndla It

emphas~ses the need for wealth, awareness and health for development

Empowerment, enrichment and enlightenment of women is impossible

without proper education. Different wrlters have successfully tried to show

haw education in different disciplines l~ke music, home science, teacher

educat~on, adult l~teracy, community education, Itbrary, media and law are

essentially needed for the fullest development of the potentialit~es in lnd~an

women. A drrect relatlonsh~p has been established between women,

educat~on and development

C. WOMEN PARTICIPATION AND DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES '' Governmental and non-governmental organlsat~ons are fully convinced

about the urgency of women partlclpat~on In therr development

programmes, not only to ensure better results but to promote gender

equality as well. The book is exhaustively coverlng theoretical,

methodological and emprrical drmensions of women partrcipation In

development. It is the outcome of personal experience and painstaking

studies in the f~eld of development organisations. Recent theories of

organisational resources, role of women in development, mod~fied

methodology to measure people's participation, elabovate case studles

etc., are give to suit the needs of wide readersh~p Development

practitioners and women actlv~sts w~l l get immense rnslght Into the factors

promoting and preventing women participatron in the development

programmes of a developing society. In order to satisfy the needs of

academicians and research scholars, innumerable case studres are

reviewed, theories are given and methodology to measure participation IS

developed. Since the comparative performance of governmental and non-

governmental organisations are studied in deta~l, planners and

policymakers may also feel the utility of the book in designing appropriate

policy packages.

2.10. CHILD LABOUR

A. REHABILITATION OF CHILD LABOURS IN INDIA," A national

seminar was organised in Bhuvaneshwar, by the Society for International

Development in collabouration with the Counc~l for Tr~bal and Rural

Development in 1990. The present book. IS the outcome of the same

seminar.

The book IS. In fact, a compilation of a good number of research

articles and papers presented In the said seminar It IS divided Into four

parts. While part one comprises 7 art~cles on ethical Issues relating to

'Rehabilitation of Chlld Labour', part two cons~sts 27 articles on the subject

pertaining to the task of identifying the major Issues for rehabllltatlon of

child labourers In part three there are three lnterestlng artlcles on the

strategres for rehabilrtatlon and needs for development prograinme for

vocational rehabllltatlon of ch~ld workers In part four also three useful

papers have been included whlch focus the involvement of NGOs In

rehabilltation programme of child labour

The authors of various articles have done a splendid job in brlnging

the various aspects of rehabilitation tolight. They have critically v~ewed the

possibilities of rehabilitat~on of child workers in India and have stressed the

need for integrating and intensifying employment and Income generation

scheme for the parents of child workers through action programmes

implemented by the voluntary organisations. The authors, however,

missed an important aspect of rehabilitat~on. None of them could properly

emphasise the need for educational rehabilitation of these chlldren and the

role the voluntary organ~sations can play In this area

6. CHILD LABOUR AND WOMEN WORKERS 53 The subject of the

study has been dealt with critically in order to have a fresh look from

analytical polnt of vlew on the leg~slatlons dealing wlth chlld labour and

women workers in order to point out deficiencies and lacunae lnvolved

therein and to make concrete suggestions for accompllshlng the task of

mitigating the sufferings of the child labour and the women workers by

enabling them to enjoy proper working conditions and to get adequate

wages on par with male workers as well as to enable them to get at least

basic necessities of the life. Oflate it has been increasrngly realrsed that

serious imbalances have been created In the social order of the soclety

due to the partisan approach adopted by the employers against the child

labour and women workers having least regard to the reality that the chrld

labour is the future of the country and women workers contr~bute

substantially for its prosper~ty and if they continue to be neglected the

outcome is bound to be quite harmful creating adverse impact on the

growth and development of the country as well as on the whole structure

of the international society. Th~s realisation at last has motivated all the

concerned quarters to evolve joint strategies in order to accord top most

priority to the problem of child labour and the women workers both at

global as well as national level. It is well said that the evrl should be

nipped at the budding stage otherwise explosive situation could probably

arise. On account of all these factors the problem of child labour and the

women workers has attracted the attention of the researchers, social

reformers and the International organisat~ons at the national as well as

international level. It could be said with certainty that much work has

already been done on the subject and st111 more is in the pipe line in order

to combat the problem of child labour and women workers at global level.

In this context efforts are belng consistently made to evolve a suitable

strategy In lndla also to prevent exploitation of the child labour and

promote parity between all workers lrrespectlve of their sex In thls work

an effort has been made to highlight new areas of research so as to

motivate the young researchers to explore the much needed possib~lities

of improving the lot of child labour and women workers

C. 1996 THE STATE OF THE WORLD'S CHILDREN 54 IS about

children In war - thelr lives and thelr deaths In today s wars. mrllions of

children are caught in the crossfire of armed conflicts UNICEF, founded

in 1946, in the aftermath of World War II, takes this opportun~ty to call

special attention to their pllght, as armed factions in more than 50

countries overrun cities, towns and villages and besiege hospitals and

schools. Snipers shoot children at play. Women and girls are raped.

Children, as soldiers, are exposed to daily terrors, in which barbaric acts

scar entire lives.

In this Report. UNICEF proposes an Antl-war Agenda - a call for

global action to protect children from the worst of the ravages of war and

to commit energy and resources to preventing future conflicts

International protect~ons exlst, includ~ng the Convention on the Rights of

the child What IS needed IS collect~ve will to prevent war ensure that

children under the age of 18 are not recruited as soldrers, ban the

manufacture of land-mlnes and to take other crucial steps to end the

suffering of chlldren

This 5oth anniversary Report also presents the progress made on

behalf of children. Slnce 1946, UNICEF has worked to end the silent

emergencies of poverty and disease. The toll has dropped - from 25

million young lives lost annually 50 years ago to 12 5 million. The

challenge remains to ensure that all children are spared suffering and

death that can be easily prevented

D. 1997 THE PROGRESS OF NATIONS 55 tells both good and bad

news, and as well as both. For example, mortality rates among children

under 5 have declined lmpresslvely over the past 15 years - but HIV I

AIDS is undermining that success in about 30 countrres. A code is in

place to protect breast-feeding from unethical infant formula marketing

practices - but enforcement of the code is spotty Safe water supplies

have expanded dramatically In recent years - but access to sanitation is

falling.

This edition takes a broad view, assessing not only baslc social

conditions but also progress and dlsparlty in areas that are more difficult to

measure. Many of these have a profound impact on children's life. No

statistic can capture the impact of violence that a directed against girls

and women simply because they are female, yet that violence thwarts their

development as well as that of thelr nations.

And as for children who come Into confllct wlth the law, few nations

keep track of how many young people are in custody, for how long and

why. Though some countries both in developing and the lndustrialised

worlds are reforming their juvenile justice systems. too many young people

still suffer harsh treatment and enjoy fewer legal protections than do

adults.

Recognition of the importance of such toplcs has grown as the

concept of chlld rights has taken hold in the world community. With all but

three nations having ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the

idea is gain~ng ground that bettering children's lives is not a matter of

government largesse but a fundamental legal requirement

This year's Progress of Nations, the fifth, this Report presents

another indicator of development: improved statistics. When they

conceived the publication, they hoped that the report In Itself would lnsplre

governments to sharpen their statistical'self-knowledge That has proved

correct. The Progress of Nations 1997 is filled with evidence of

improvements in both the quality and the quant~ty of the data, revealing

both the advances and the declines in children's well-being

Summing - up

The foregoing select revlew of literature points out the changing

role of women In the urban informal labour market In the developed and

developing economies and In the context of some of the metropolrtlon

centres. The coverage of rnlcro-level stud~es In different c~ties and urban

settings focuses on the persistrng problems of women on the domestic

and occupat~onal front and the factors leadlng the discrrmination and

disparity in employment and earnings. Despite the burgeoning literature at

metropolition level there IS a case to explore the condrtlons of work and

living conditions of women workers in medium towns Ilke Kaval~. Hence,

the Justification for our empir~cal Investigation

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