Page 1

AUTHORS : Janak Palta McGilligan, Director

James R. McGilligan, Manager

Baha'i Vocational Institute for Rural women

180 Bhamori New Dewas Road Indore 452008 M. P.

GENDER INEQUALITY

An NGO Experience of Training the Panchayats

To be Presented at

A Conference on Community Initiative and Panchayati Institutions

Organised By

Institute of Social Sciences New Delhi

On 11, 12 July 1997

At Bhopal

The

73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution of India were aimed at the grassroots level. All of us, whether we are working in central or state or non-governmental organisations have been concerned about the reality of the Panchayati Raj in action, especially the successful functioning of the Panchayats.

Though

Women have been elected in great numbers as Sarpanches and Panches and vice Sarpanches due to reservation. This is apparently a very big and one of the most important opportunities for the women to acquire and show their capability. There are examples of women's significant performance in panchayants such as Andhra, Karnataka and Maharastra where they have played a very affective role in working at Panchayats. Even the nature of decisions shows about the women's concern to give priority to issues like water supply, installation of pumps, construction of toilets, village roads and wells, appointment of teachers and closing of liquor shops. There are instances as in Vitner village in Jalgoan district (Maharastra) where women got the playgrounds built, land transferred to women from their husbands’ shares and toilets constructed in schedule castes areas.1

Conscious

of their increasing house work and the need to have some time and save energy, the women in Pidghara (M.P.) went for a 27 point action plan that took up the building of educational and other community based infrastructures. Similar has been the experience of the action agenda of the seven members of Panchayat of Braham Nagar of Pune district2. This shows that women have the ability and the will to make welfare decisions better than men, sometimes, and they do effectively implement them, provided they get an opportunity and the atmosphere to function. The challenge arises not only because of the high rate of illiteracy among women members of the panchayats and the lack of awareness, professional qualifications and in terms of caste and economic status particularly. One of the roles of panchayats is to give gender justice. How will the women Panchayat members contribute when they themselves are victims of gender discrimination especially in a state like Madhya Pradesh, where the following issues are clear in terms of gender discrimination:

1 The number of women in the state is 932 per 1,000 men

2The literacy rate for women is 28% and for the rural and tribal female, it is much lower, about 6%.

3The rate of female and infant mortality is very high.

4The number of girls going to school is very low.

5A high percentage of child marriages.

6A high percentage of violence against women.

7The fulfilment of posts on reserved seats for women in jobs is very low.

8The number of high positions in jobs through the UPSC and most professional jobs is very low.

9Not much results in rural areas in terms of women's programmes run by Government.

10All these above-mentioned factors are just symptoms. The root cause is the male-dominated society and the assumption that men are superior to women.

The

discrimination against women by men and the upper classes and upper castes is reflected in the petition in August 1994 by K.K. Kristnamurty and others by the Supreme Court saying that reservation in favour of women is "a retrograde step which destroys, at one stroke, the basic elements of the Constitution with equality, political justice, democracy and secularism" shows that the gender based reservation is still contested3. The petition that further opposed the posts of women as chairpersons of the panchayats is a mockery of democracy. The petitioners believed that women had no desire or aptitude for political power4. This shows the gender discrimination of the so-called elite of society.

We

would now like to share with you our field observations regarding the status of women at the Panchayat level based on our experiences in conducting four UNICEF-sponsored training programmes at Sondwa in M.P. of 216 Panches, Sarpanches and Gram Sachivs. The trainings included 49 women Panches and Sarpanches of Alirajpur Tehshil of Jhabua district. Despite the fact that the knowledge and understanding of the functionaries at the Panchayati Raj is the same for men and women, the largest majority of Panches and Sarpanches were men.

AIlliterate ( Both men and women).

BMost of them were unaware of the laws regarding female labour, wages, women’s benefits and facilities at work, gender equality, etc.

CMost of them could not tell the name of India's Prime Minister and the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh.

DMost of them did not know that the participation of men and women Panches and women of the village in the Gram Sabha is essential and important

EMost of them did not know about the Government programmes on social welfare and education, but everyone knew about the construction work schemes and the power of the Panchayat to implement them.

FThey did not have a clue about the importance of the people’s participation and their contribution in the process of community development.

GThey were all busy following instructions from Delhi, Bhopal, Jhabua and Alirajpur bureaucrats and had no feeling of empowerment or vision of their own.

H Committees on health, environment and education were not formed.

The

women were treated as less knowledgeable and less capable, as it was observed during our interview with them.

Some of our main observations were.

1Women are disempowered. For instance, when we were reimbursing the travelling expenses, either the Gram Sachiv (always a male) or the male member of that Panchayat would come forward come to receive the money on behalf of the women (we confirmed from them that this was the normal practice).

2The majority of these women office bearers did not get encouragement to attend the Panchayat meetings. On the other hand, they feared character assassination, gossip about themselves, "shedding their honour" and dignity.

3Women do not feel secure and comfortable as it is not a tradition that women speak in front of men due to the village hierarchy.

4There is a great deal of exploitation of these women by the men Panches and other influential men including their husbands (past sarpanches). The men use this opportunity (of reserved seats for women) as " women are dummies in using their powers”.

The

bureaucrats normally perceive women as lacking in information, understanding and capacity to manage human resources and funds.

All

the above-mentioned problems are founded on one fundamental barrier: the attitude of discrimination against women and their devaluation on the basis of gender. Women have been discriminated by women themselves as well as by men on the assumption of superiority of men over women. A change in attitude towards women as equal members of human society is essential for bringing other necessary changes to overcome problems in order to have sustainable development.

We

have learnt in the last 11 years of working with tribal and rural women for their empowerment through education and training at the Baha'i Vocational Institute for Rural Women at Indore that these women, once empowered, are more effective in social change and community development than are men. These previous illiterate tribal and rural young women who become transformed are evidence that women have often to face challenges and struggles and to overcome them. They explain that they get discriminated in their own communities by the men in terms of expressing themselves, asserting their rights, and their needs of making decisions. At the same time women have shown increased confidence, firm commitment, and determination to learn of that they are conscious and proud of themselves.

The

reconstruction of India is only possible if women achieve equality of status in development. Then and only then will we have peace. The old belief that woman is always behind the success of man needs to be rewritten because the success of every woman must have the support of man. This Institute is run on the basis of Baha'i philosophy, laid down by Baha’u’allah, the Prophet founder of the Baha'i Faith, who proclaimed that women and men have been and always will be equal in the sight of God.

Taking

into account the need for changing this attitude towards women, the Baha'i writings have cautioned humanity by clearly stating that "the assumption of superiority by man will continue to be depressing to the ambition of women, as if her attainment to equality was creationally impossible, women's aspiration towards advancement will be checked by it, and she will gradually become hopeless". On the contrary we must declare that her capacity is equal, even greater than man's. This will inspire her with hope and ambition, and her susceptibilities for advancement will continually increase. She must not be told and taught that she is weaker and inferior in capacity and qualifications. If a pupil is told that his intelligence is less than his fellow pupils, it is a very great drawback and handicap to his progress. He must be encouraged to advance by the statement "you are capable and if you endeavour, you will attain to the highest degree".

At

the same time women have been urged to come forward because “According to the sprit of this age, women must advance and fulfil their mission in all departments of life, becoming equal to men". And they must make every effort "to attain greater perfection, to be man's equal in every respect, to make progress in all in which she has been backward, so that men will be compelled to acknowledge her equality and attainment".

Baha’u’allah

, did not leave this pronouncement of equality of sexes as an ideal or pious hope but wove it, as a basic factor, into the fabric of his social order.

1) He supported it by laws requiring the same standard of education for women as for men, and equality of rights in society.

2) Without the qualities and talents and skills of both men and women, full economic and social development of the planet becomes impossible.

3)He has promulgated, "the cause of universal education, which has already enlisted in its service an army of dedicated people from every faith and nation, deserves the utmost support that the governments of the world can lend it. For ignorance is indisputable the principle reason for the decline and fall of people and the perpetuation of prejudice. No nation can achieve success unless education is accorded to all it citizens. Lack of resources limits the ability of many nations to fulfil this necessity, imposing a certain ordering of priorities. The decision making agencies involved would do well to consider giving first priority to the education of women and girls, since it is through educated mothers that the benefits of knowledge can be most effectively and rapidly diffused throughout the society".

To

sum up, it is important to treat the symptoms of the disease, but it is more important to dig root causes and remove them from society. This needs a conscious effort to empower women with equal rights of education, training and opportunities of being decision makers at all levels in form and in spirit by changing the attitude of all those men and women who deny this spiritual and social justice to women.

While

concluding I would like to share with you that according to the Baha'i perspective, the Faith must be expressed in social action through followers of the Baha'i faith all over the world who are trying to promote awareness and understanding among themselves in particular and the masses in general about the spiritual and moral principles laid down by the Founder of the Faith who said:

“The

world of humanity is possessed of two wings, the male and the female.

So long as these two wings are not equivalent in strength the bird will not fly.

Until womankind reaches the same degree as man,

Until she enjoys the same arena of activity,

An extraordinary attainment for humanity will not be realised,

Humanity cannot wing its way to heights of real attainment ”.

1Manjeet Singh, " We want to out do the males " 12 Feb. 1989. Reproduced in Aalochana, Woman and Electoral Politics 1990-1994, Newspaper clipping.

2Ibid. Vol. 2: Suba Gandhari, "The role of the second sex" in Indian Express (Bombay), 6th December 1994.

3 Susheela Kaushik, "Panchayati Raj in action" Eberl Stiftung, New Delhi - 1995. P6.

4Ibid.

1