Women in Habitat Services
 

Think of rural India and you have the typical old Bollywood movie image, a romantic picture of a village with women with matkas (pots). This is not to say the image is not inspired by reality, but its just that, ‘inspired’. Village women do carry pots to fetch water, except they have to walk miles for it, they get pushed and shoved – all towards reaching a scarce water source. Fetching water is just one of the tedious tasks in her routined existence. All unpaid domestic labour is the domain of rural women across India.

The subjugation of women is ingrained in our society. Theorists and politicians alike, link it to tradition. But what use do we have for a tradition that marginalises half the population? Increasing levels of migration of men to cities or towns means a larger number of women-led households in rural areas. Regardless of the burden that rests on the women’s shoulders, skill enhancement even in customary livelihood sectors like agriculture is frowned upon. The women spend their entire lives raising families and to make ends meet they take to labour intensive work that involves carrying heavy loads. In fact, work is more likely to be labelled ‘unskilled’ when carried out by women (Phillips & Taylor, 1980).

The construction sector, after agriculture has the largest number of unorganized labourers in India. Of these labourers half are women casual workers, who are largely prevented from acquiring skills either by choice or by design, owing to prevailing mindsets. Casual work creates more opportunities for women, as it displaces the more protected worker (men), but it does so in worse conditions. (Jhabvala & Sinha, N.D). The belief is that women construction workers are unfit to be trained informally like men in the sector, despite having the necessary ability and desire to acquire a higher level of skills (Barnabas et al, 2009).

There are, however, scattered cases around the country, where institutions through sheer persistence have trained women in higher skills in the construction industry, leading to wider benefits for the community as a whole. The success of such interventions lies in their power to engage with the community and allowing them to own the process for greater sustainability.

Institutional engagement

In order to break tradition, one has to first embrace it. In Tilonia, the Rajput women, their faces hidden behind veils were prohibited by custom to step out of the four walls of their homes. The Barefoot College entered their lives through handicraft, initially providing raw materials and collecting the finished products from their doorsteps. Gradually benefits of the extra income enticed the women to break norms and emerge from their cocoons.

In Kerala, the Jeevapoorna Women’s Masons Society (JEEWOMS) taught women skills traditionally thought to be a male preserve. Women at first were trained in sanitation facilities by male masons to achieve greater social acceptability. Women visibly understood the need for sanitation facilities, especially while associating these facilities with the health of the family. While building these structures, the women incorporated the needs of the entire family, constructing baby and women friendly toilets. The silver lining was the acceptance by men. They did not see women workers as threats. The benefits thus achieved, were two- fold; the women got employment and the villages its sanitation facilities. The next natural step forward was empowerment and higher levels of confidence encouraging women to take up jobs outside their villages.

Institutions have also realised, that a key factor contributing to greater involvement of women is the provision of social support. Women, in most cases rarely get time for anything besides their domestic duties. Social support is essential in these cases to create free time for the woman. The Barefoot College empathetically addressed issues of water supply and electricity through rain water harvesting structures and solar lighting in Tilonia, thereby hugely reducing the drudgery of women. A welcome by-product was the additional household savings it brought about.

In building the skills of women presently working in the sector the provision of a stipend allows them to sustain their households by preventing a break in their income. The Karmika School of the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) set up to exclusively teach women skills in construction provided them with a stipend along with transport costs for the duration of the training. This provision, however, did also charm women not interested in construction work (Baruah, 2010). Critics, moreover, have argued against the assumption this feature makes regarding the limit of women’s time and energy. It is also felt that a stipend may not adequately meet women’s domestic finances (Beneria, 2003; Moser, 1993).

SEWA has also set up 25 day care centres at construction sites or near the homes of the workers. There is a provision of identity cards as well, entitling them to a maternity benefit (Baruah, 2010). The day care centres are especially favourable for enhanced productivity of the women, benefitting both the employers and the women. In the implementation of Vertical Shaft Brick Kiln (VSBK) in Nepal, the women’s productivity increased two fold, as they now worked without fearing for their children.
 
Thus, institutional engagement in the sector is largely towards building capacities of women either already working, or those who could benefit from work in the sector. To achieve the best results, the institutions have not only strategically aligned their work to the culture and tradition of the target population, but have also ensured support mechanisms which reduce women’s drudgery. Although an effective control system needs to be put into practice, to ensure the skill enhancement of those women who have a genuine interest to earn a livelihood through the sector.

Community participation

A disaster or a dire community need calls for institutional intervention; in fact communities are more receptive when their need is great. After the Gujarat earthquake, SEWA decided to set up the Nayaghar committees comprising seven women and four men. There was some resistance at first, but due to the failure of government housing schemes, they realised that this was their only chance for sustainable housing. In the case of ANANDI, another grassroots NGO in Gujarat, the experience was comparable. However, here the women in their need for housing faced all opposition head on. In fact any disruption to the proceeding work was put down by them effectively.

It has been seen that when women are placed at the centre of the rehabilitation process, they enhance the efficiency with which the information, resources and services are delivered to disaster hit communities (Balbina & Acker, 2004). The successful vision in both cases was a community driven reconstruction effort. The locals and the people targeted for the housing owned the entire process from acquiring material to construction. The women came to the forefront; they were given training, and their needs were incorporated in the design of the houses. This in turn meant addressing the needs of the entire household. For instance, in the Nayaghar design a 10 X 10 room was modified into a 10 X 12 one, as the original specifications was felt to be too small by the women.

ANANDI took the example of the Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP) in implementing their reconstruction programme. The community-driven rehabilitation strategy focused on key elements of building local capacities and skills instead of adopting a brick-and-mortar approach to reconstruction. However, in the case of SSP’s intervention, their role is limited to strengthening women Self Help Groups (SHG’s) to enable them to lead the process of community involvement.

Self Help Groups are especially helpful in creating an encouraging environment for women involvement. The women feel safer with the support of others like them, and in cases this aids in upgrading traditional practices. For instance, in the Udyamita Suvidha Kendra(an incubation centre of Development Alternatives), the members of Bhakti SHG have learned the techniques of making bricks on both hand moulds and machine moulds. These women come from traditional brick making families, and chose this technology to enhance skills and income generating opportunities.

Building social equity

In training women, it has been felt that the incorporation of functional literacy and life skills into the technical training module, and the practical training and certification leads to higher levels of confidence(Baruah, 2010), instilling the necessary bargaining skills to overcome gender wage differentials.

Despite the talk around income generating benefits, communities still have to be sensitised over gender concerns. This on most occasions means constant engagement to create awareness. For instance, in Tamil Nadu, the Manpower Vocational Training Centres (MVTC) engaged with the families of the MVTC trainees, to sensitize them with regard to women rights. Counselling services are offered for the women to overcome trauma due to domestic violence, loss due to disasters such as the tsunami, sexual and reproductive issues, including Family Planning to balance their social and economic productivity.

A key component in the JEEWOMS training is social guidance. It included team building, interpersonal relationships, and gender sensitization. Trainees are being equipped to analyze the socio-economic realities through classes, lectures and games. A participatory training method is used in these sessions (Mathew, 1998). It makes the women work along with male masons to instill necessary confidence through teamwork (Menon, 2002). The male masons accompany the women for on-the-job training to ensure social acceptance. For this, masons had to be gender sensitive. However, a major contributory factor leading to greater social acceptability was the backing of the Panchayat. The organization took great pains to engage and sensitize the members to the benefits behind the greater involvement of women in masonry.

In general, as and when the women gain empowerment (although it’s a slow and steady process) they are more willing to break out of the barriers of tradition, and in fact seeing the economic benefits the men tend to wake up to this new reality. Earning women in the end have measurable positive effects on the welfare of the entire household.

Policy impact
Policies addressing women development do not include women in their formulation, and are thus far from holistic. Despite this, the work done in the sector, and the measurable results created, can have an immense influence on policy, at the local and state level. This is especially in view of the initiatives or steps taken by institutions to break into male dominated work areas protected by traditional norms. In fact it has already worked in Kerala, although critics tend to associate the success to high literacy levels in the state. Regardless, the awareness created around the work of women masons has encouraged Kerala’s district governments to train women in masonry as the main plank of their women empowerment initiatives. The government today has an explicit commitment to gender equality. Public housing and infrastructure projects in Kerala are preferentially awarded to women’s organizations provided they have the technical expertise and administrative ability to implement them. Such policies can have a tremendous impact on empowering women organizations seeking to enter non-traditional arenas (Baruah, 2010).

The Barefoot College has made attempts to improve economic resources by implementing the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). The SSP has also been fairly successful in influencing policy. Their work in advocacy skill building teaches women how to formally petition authorities and translate government literature into local languages and thus, communities start to interact with the local governments.

Other institutions like SEWA are making efforts to change the current political scenario in the sector. Their lobbying initiatives have enabled a few legislative changes to support women such as the issuing of identity cards. The organisation is also involved in attempts to revive the construction workers protection and welfare act of 1996 (Baruah, 2010). These interventions, however, are largely scattered. What is needed is a national level forum where learning can be consolidated and replicated across the nation.

The women advantage

Women are better workers than men. A statement that would surely raise eyebrows. But, institutions working towards building skills of women regularly come to this conclusion. In fact the Barefoot College believes men to be un-trainable being characteristically restless, impatient, ambitious and compulsively mobile. Women on the other hand, may be slow learners, but are patient and determined. With their solid base of a home and family, they usually are not interested in migrating, thus providing higher benefits to the community.

In production and manufacturing, women can harness their natural dexterity to perform finer tasks especially is areas involving balance. In fact both JEEWOMS and Barefoot College started their work with the intention of harnessing women’s natural tensile strength and gentle approach, to work in areas that are considered ‘difficult’ and ‘technical’ for women.

Moreover, experiences of SSP have shown that women collectives mobilised as part of post disaster reconstruction have reduced corrupt practices of middlemen (who profit from the lack of information that the community has) and built capacities to address ongoing development priorities such as water, sanitation, electricity, health services and schools (Balbina & Acker, 2004).

Women who are able to develop adequate skills, are thus able to increase their working days, helping them get involved in new types of work, increasing efficiency and strengthening livelihoods. Once women acquire skills they are able to perform technically challenging work and they pass on their knowledge for larger societal advantages. The fact is women have always been an integral part of society, and their marginalisation is what the World Bank calls bad economics. To view a society as a whole, the different parts cannot be looked at in isolation. Boundaries have to be transcended, not sealed. As the systems mantra goes- the sum of parts is greater than the whole.  q

Vrinda Chopra
vchopra@devalt.org

References
Balbina, J. and Acker, S (2004) Surviving disasters: Investing in capacities of women and poor communities to build resilience. Case Study for Workshop and Networking Event: ‘Building Bridges with Grassroots: scaling up through Knowledge sharing’, World Urban Forum, Barcelona
References and further reading may be available for this article. To view references and further reading you must purchase this article.
Baruah, B (2010) Women and globalization: challenges and opportunities facing construction workers in contemporary India. Development in Practice, 20 (1)
Beneria, L. (2003) Gender, Development and Globalisation: Economics As If All People Mattered, Routledge: New York and London
Jhabvala, R. and Sinha,S. (N.D.) Liberalization and women worker. SEWA
Mathew, T. (1998) New Skills, New Lives: Kerala’s Women Masons. Waterlines, 17(1) pp. 22-24
Menon, L (2002) Building walls of confidence. The Hindu Business Line
Moser, C. (1993) Gender planning and Development Theory, Practice and Training, Routledge: New York and London
Phillips, A. and Taylor, B. (1980) Sex and skill: Notes towards a feminist economics, Feminist Review, 6.
(Footnotes)
DA Annual Report, 2006-07

Back to Contents