Women in Rural India: A Fact Sheet You can tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru History of Indian women In ancient India, women occupied important position in the society. Vedic Ages Women were at par with the men. Medieval Ages The condition of women deteriorated during this period because of Islamic influence. Modern Era Still the condition of women in Indian society specially in rural India is not good. Women in India: a quick look • Total Population : 1027.02 mn • Male : 531.28 mn • Female : 495.74 mn • Total Rural Pop • Male • Female : 718.87 mn : 370.76 mn : 348.11 mn Sex Ratio : 933 Rural Women & Employment Female worker comprises of 11.98% of the working population of the country Distribution of Workers by sectors (Figures %) in 2001 Total Primary Secondary Tertiary 60.42 17.49 22.09 Rural 76.24 11.82 11.95 Urban 8.69 33.95 57.36 Source: NSSO,2001 Rural Women & Employment Women workers in Rural India-1999-2000 Sector Description No of women workers (%) Primary Sectors 85.3 Mining and quarrying Manufacturing 0.3 Construction 1.1 Others 5.7 7.6 Rural Women in Farm Sector one third of the agriculture labour force and nearly half of self employed farmers are women In overall farm production, women’s average contribution: 55-66% of total labour. In animal husbandry : 20 million women as compared to 1.5 million men Due to migration of male members of the family to off farm employment, one-third of the rural family for all purpose is headed by women. This can be seen as “feminization of agriculture” Health and Nutritional Status Sex Ratio in Rural India 0-4 years age grp. :975 per 1000 males 5-9 years age grp. :940 per 1000 males 10-14 years age grp.:816 per 1000 males Reason for this disorder :- • social discrimination • neglect of female in the matter of health 12 mn female children born every year…… about 1.5 million of them die before celebrating their first birthday one million before their fifth year 9 million will be alive at the age of 15 Health and Nutritional Status Maternal Mortality Maternal death is the death of the woman while pregnant of within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management but not from accidental or incidental cause. More maternal deaths occur in our country in one week than in all of Europe in one year. Maternal Mortality  MMR among scheduled tribes : 652 MMR among scheduled castes : 584  MMR among women of other castes : 516  MMR among illiterate women : 574 MMR among women who completed middle school :484 MMR in Less-developed villages : 646 MMR in moderately developed villages: 501. MMR in well-developed villages Source : Unicef, India : 488 Rural Women and Education Disparities of literacy rate among men & women Urban Male Urban Female 86.42% 79.46% Rural Male Rural Female 71.18% 46.58% Scheduled Caste Male Scheduled Caste Female 49.91% 23.76% Scheduled Tribe Male Scheduled Tribe Female 40.65% 18.19% Source: http://education.nic.in/ (HRD Ministry ) Rural Women and Education Female Literacy in India( %) : 1961-2001 Year Rural Urban Overall 1961 10.13 40.46 15.33 1971 15.52 48.84 21.97 1981 20.66 54.40 28.29 1991 30.62 64.05 44.69 2001 46.58 79.46 59.21 Source: http://education.nic.in/ (HRD Ministry) Rural Women and PRI (Panchayati Raj Institution) The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts, which guarantee that all local elected bodies reserve one-third of their seats for women Local women–the vast majority of the villages are illiterate and poor–have come to occupy as much as 43% of the seats in panchayats. The percentages of women in various levels of political activity have risen from 4-5% to 25-40% . Government Interventions for development of rural women Government Programmes : Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA)  Supply of Improved Toolkits to Rural Artisans (SITRA)  Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) was launched in April 1999 : This is a holistic programme covering all aspects of self-employment such as organization of the poor into Self-Help Groups (SHG’s), Training , Credit, Technology, Infrastructure and Marketing. Family Welfare Programme  National Nutritional Anemia Control Programme  TT immunization of pregnant mother  During the Eighth Plan maternal health programmes were integrated with other rogrammes and became part of the Child Survival and Safe Motherhood (CSSM) Programme  During the Ninth Plan all interventions under the CSSM Programme have become part of the Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) Programme. Future of Rural women A shift from development to empowerment. Women empowerment means, “The idea that giving women power over their economic, social and reproductive choices will raise their status promote development and reduce population growth”. Future of Rural women Steps to be taken:  Direct involvement of women in programming and management.  Effective collaboration with community organizations.  Organizing and strengthening of women SHGs. Sensitization and advocacy of equi-gender society.  Identifying women’s needs and priorities while generating employment.  Organizing women into different groups to undertake certain productive activities to earn their livelihood and develop rural community. Some successful Initiatives • Narsapur Lace Park (Alankriti) • Lijjat Papad • Grameen Bank Narsapur Lace Park Location: West Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh . Various villages like Sitarampiuram, Palkol, Venkatrayapalem, Antarvedi, Royapeta, Mogaltur Famous for: Lace work, Crochet Lace Brainchild of Sanjay Jaju Objective:to help the cluster in the field of marketing and network the forward linkages. Contd… • • • • • First of its kind in India in providing highest state of art of services to the rural artisans Excellent Research & Development wing with dedicated crafts persons of National fame. Established for the Economic Development of Rural Women to achieve their empowerment. 2,00,0000 women are involved in the craft. Rs.200 to 300 Millions currently being exported, domestic market consumes any thing between Rs.80 to Rs.100 Millions. •Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad selfemployment opportunities to women at all its 61 branches. •15th march 1959, women inhabitants of an old residential building in Girgaum started working on what they were best at: making papads! • Gandhian business strategy, late Chhaganlal Karamshi Parekh and Damodar Dattani. • Started of with a paltry sum of Rs.80 and has achieved sales of over Rs.300 crores with exports itself exceeding Rs. 10 crores. • Membership has also expanded from an initial number of 7 sisters from one building to over 40,000 sisters throughout India. • Vision: An exclusive women’s organisation run and managed by them,a quality product that these women had the expertise to make and a work environment which is not competition-driven and mechanised. • Expansion of Lijjat into a multiproduct company :Polypropylene, Sasa detergent & cake and printing divisions. • Sisters earn Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 every month for six hours of work everyday from home. • Against adoption of modern technology for mass production or use machines for packaging. • Born on the insistence by women oriented studies that highlighted the discrimination and struggle of women in having access to credit • Availability of timely and adequate credit is essential for them to undertake any economic activity rather than credit subsidy. • Various case studies show that there is a positive correlation between credit availability and women's empowerment. SEWA Movement • Founder: Ela Bhatt • Founded in 1971 at Ahmedabad and registered in 1972 as a trade union movement for women. • Established the SEWA bank as a co-operative to empower poor self-employed women by providing them with access to credit and financial services and to reduce their dependence on exploitative money-lenders. • Membership is open only to poor women on payment of Rs. 10 (32 cents)as share capital. • Help women become financially independent and start their own economic activity • Cut red-tape/procedures to help illiterate women get small loans without difficulty