Recent events provide an opportunity to renew our commitment to reduce the gender gap in human development and compel us to reflect on a strategy for women’s empowerment. A comprehensive gender policy has yielded visible improvements in schools, higher education enrolment and space in local governance. We can also clearly see multiple voices emerging on gender issue particularly since the early 1990s. These voices are closely linked to the uneven gains of progress recorded by various groups. “Women” in India are is a homogeneous category — it is marked with differences in attainment and poor performance particularly in the case of women belonging to certain categories such as scheduled caste (SC), scheduled tribe (ST) and Muslims. The visible variation in human development and causes thereof among the women of different social belonging have induced increased demand for group-specific gender policies. The emergence of articulated voices from Dalit, Adivasi and Muslim women is an indication of these demands.
Disaggregate analysis provides some insight into the nature of gender disparities across social groups. According to the 2001 Census, SCs, STs, other backward classes (OBCs) and Muslims account close to about three-fourths of our population. Half of them are women. Most SC/ST women lack access to income-earning assets and depend mainly on wage labour. In 2000, only 21 per cent of SC women were cultivators as compared to 45 per cent of non-SC/ST women — this indicated that access to agricultural land was not equal within the category of women. The result? About half of SC workers and 39 per cent of ST women worked as agricultural wage labour in rural areas as compared to 17 per cent for non-SC/ST. Further, a large number of SC women are engaged in so-called unclean and polluting occupations, such as scavenging.
Literacy rates also point to differences. In 2001, 41 per cent of SC women and 35 per cent of women in rural areas were literate as compared to 58 per cent for non-SC/ST women. Limited education reduces employability and, consequently, unemployment rates are higher. Unemployment based on current daily status in 2004-05 was 12.36 per cent for SC, compared with 9 per cent for OBC and other women.
This combination of high incidence of wage labour, low educational attainment and high unemployment results in a high degree of deprivation and poverty among SC/ST women. According to the 2005-06 National Family and Health Survey, about 68.5 per cent of ST and 58.3 per cent of SC women suffered from anaemia compared to 51.3 per cent of non-SC/ST women. Malnutrition of the mother impacts the health of children. About 21 per cent of SC and 26 per cent of ST children under the age of four suffered from malnutrition compared to 13.80 per cent of other’s children. Nearly 72 per cent of SC children suffer from anaemia, compared to 63.8 per cent those for others. High levels of malnutrition among the SC/ST result in higher morbidity and mortality. In 2005-06, the infant mortality rates for SC and ST were 66.4 and 62 per thousand live births, respectively. This is much higher than the 49 for other categories of women.
Data for Muslim women also reveals little access to quality employment and education and higher deprivations when compared to other religious groups. Nearly half of the employed Muslim women were self-employed, and their share was much less in regular salaried jobs. Given the constraints of the regular salaried market, self-employed business serves as last resort or a residual sector for Muslim women. The proportion of non-literate females was higher compared with other religions in rural and urban areas, and the gap is even more acute at higher levels of education. As a result, in 2000, the proportion of persons in the three lowest monthly per capita consumption classes (less than Rs 300) was highest for Muslim women in rural and urban areas.
This evidence indicates that there are similarities and differences in the problems faced by women belonging to SC, ST, Muslim and rest of the categories. These women suffer subordination resulting from patriarchy within the family, at places of work and in society. Like their poor counterparts in other female groups, they also suffer from lack of access to income earning assets, education and resultant high poverty. However, SC, ST and Muslim women differ form rest of the women in so far as their performance with regard to human development indicators is lower compared to other women. This heightened deprivation can be attributed to social exclusion. Social exclusion and discrimination of these groups results from their cultural identity, which the rest of women do not face. It is this exclusion-induced deprivation that differentiates excluded women from the rest. Lower caste women continue to face discrimination and many have also become the victim of social and religious practices such as the devdasi custom, resulting in sexual exploitation in the name of religion. While studies on Muslim women are limited, there is selective evidence of discrimination in some spheres. Tribals suffer from physical and social isolation and neglect.
Thus excluded women are not “just like” the rest of the women. They are also disadvantaged by who they are. They suffer from social exclusion which deprives them of choices and opportunities to escape from poverty and denies them a voice to claim their rights. There is a close interface between patriarchy and social exclusion which reinforce each other. The women from discriminated groups suffer from triple deprivation —– gender, poverty and social exclusion. Therefore, the problem requires a dual solution. First, the policies against gender discrimination and poverty for all women and second, complimentary policy measure against social exclusion and discrimination for women who belong to excluded groups.
This would indeed demand group-specific gender policies, in addition to the general policy of women’s empowerment, to address the voices of women from excluded groups.
Sukhadeo Thorat is the chairman, University Grants Commission and professor of economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Nidhi Sadana Sabharwal is the principal research fellow — gender and social exclusion, at the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies