Making Women Literate and Economically Empowered:
READ India Initiatives
T
he informal sector of the economy is a larger source of employment for women rather than for men in the developing world. Other than in North Africa where only 43 per cent of women workers are engaged in the informal employment; 60 per cent or more of women workers in the developing world are in informal employment. Limited data available from India points to the importance of women in home-based work and street vending.Globalisation has further
contributed to an increasing number of women being pushed into the informal
sector of the economy. Absolute poverty has decreased due to increasing
employment opportunities for people at the lower income scales. New types of
work and new markets have emerged for women. Many women who had no work or
whose work was extremely marginal in terms of security and employment have
gained new ways of employment. However, most of such categories of
employment are usually low skilled, intermittent and do not lead to any
future opportunities.
Research on income distribution across India shows that the inequality measured by the coefficient of variation in per capita state domestic product has nearly doubled since 1970-71. A large number of women with greater access to skills and to markets, apart from having more resources or with better links internationally, have been able to reap the benefits. However, the majority of the women, especially from the informal sector, do not have access to the same degree of advantage. Women in many small-scale industries have lost their employment as cheaper imports have undermined their markets and mechanisation in agriculture has led to less employment opportunities in their native places; forcing them to migrate to the urban areas.
The women in the informal economy are lagging behind in productivity, apart from facing inequity in wages and social security. The women in the informal sector face increased vulnerabilities and insecurities in the new market regime. These unskilled women workers have experienced a decrease in their bargaining power as a result of the greater mobility of capital and skilled labour.
There have been many examples of empowering grassroots women in self-employment and owning small-scale businesses. The Self Help Group movement has provided opportunities to women to come out of their houses, learn innovations and carry out small-scale businesses in order to earn a better livelihood and contribute to the home economy.
These changes have resulted in not only raising the standard of living of the family, but also sending the children to school, having access to better health facilities and providing an opportunity to women in decision making in the family. Of late, men have also stared realising the importance of women in bringing about an economic advantage in their family income.
Taboungkhok, West Imphal
Some examples have come up from the initiatives taken by READ (Rural Education and Development) India while studying the communities by setting up community libraries and resource centres and encouraging women to take part in the income-generating programmes along with these community libraries. Tubileima Rural Community Library and Resource Centre has been set up in west Imphal in a village called Taboungkhok, where the Meitie women in the community are born entrepreneurs: Given the right opportunities, they spend most of their time focusing on improving the earnings for the family.
Programme interventions in 2008-2012 resulted in the following findings:
• Meitie women work with commitment and concern. They weave for the family needs and also for getting some financial support from the products. They are receptive of all the initiatives of alternative development. However, most of them are not willing to pursue any of the income-generation activities in the form of full-time work because they have to look after their family as also agricultural land. Cultural barriers and responsibilities also come in the way of progress.
• Meitie women, therefore, earn from the part-time activities for their petty requirements: pocket money for their children, mainly for the girl child, for providing hospitality to the visitors and relatives, for ritual oblations, for garments, for cosmetics and other essential items. Such part-time incomes give them respect and decision-making capacity in the family and society.
• Most of Meitie women take their surplus products such as vegetables, grains, art and craft objects, etc., to the Imma Market or Mother Markets designed mainly for the women in various localities in the state, where they sell their wares. Recently, the Government of Manipur has built two special huge markets for women to provide them with better space for better earnings.
• Several women are working in the schemes of NREGA and earning money to support their families.
Jan Jagriti Gyan Kendra, Bhanwargarh
The Jan Jagriti Gyan Kendra is managed by the Saharia community in Bhanwargarh village of Kishanganj block, Baran district, Rajasthan. The Jan Jagriti Mahila Samiti has partnered with READ India to set up a community library and a resource centre. The women work on gooseberry (Amla) processing as a sustainable programme for the Centre. The women here produce gooseberry products and sell them not only in Baran but also at the Kota market.
The tribal women provide gooseberry candies during the mid-day meals in nearby schools to address the prevailing anaemia in the school children. Studies have shown a marked improvement in the anemia level in the malnourished children in the selected Anganwadis and primary schools of the block.
Geejgarh Gyan Kendra, Dousa
Research conducted in Geejgarh Gyan Kendra, district Dousa in Rajasthan revealed that the local adolescent girls and women are keen to learn computers, stitching and attain library skills to manage the community library and resource centre and would like to promote the apparel centre in their village for better marketing skills and linking them with the export houses in Rajasthan.
TARA Akshar
The TARA Akshar+ programme of Development Alternatives, recognised by the Government of India under the Sarv Siksha Abhiyaan, has demonstrated the importance of education among illiterate women in Geejgarh village, where READ India, in partnership with Development Alternatives had launched a pilot literacy programme. Women from far away villages come to learn to read and write in Hindi. The confidence and courage in these women, who had never before been exposed to school education, has brought a tremendous change in their lives. Each woman has committed to send her daughters to the school and promised higher education for them.
The project interventions have enabled the women to understand the importance of Information Technology tools and how these tools can help them not only for their own empowerment but the empowerment of the community as a whole. Some of the recommendations that emerged were as follows:
READ India is making all the centres ICT enabled in the future and women are the focus to manage these centres and become active users of the technology tools.
The women in these centres are aware of the challenges such as:
• Power (lack of reliable supply of electricity)
• Maintenance of equipments and infrastructure
• Availability of operating software
• Integration of new technology with the existing ones
• Appropriate training/orientation
• Lack of bandwidth and other technical support functions across states
• Institutionalising the process of capacity building with open schools/universities
READ India is focusing its interventions on increasing the use of ICTs in the near future for Literacy, Education and Development. READ India believes that innovative technologies can contribute to mobilising the informal sector and educating of women workers, enabling them to develop linkages to Indian and global markets, bringing about efficient communication for micro enterprises, opportunities for skill-building and employment and opportunities for self-employment.
Rural Education and Development (READ) India is a non-profit organisation with a vision to create a world in which rural communities have access to the knowledge, skills and economic opportunities needed for sustainable growth and development. READ brings together Education, Enterprise and Community Development to create lasting social change in rural communities. q
Geeta Malhotra
Country Director
(Rural Education and Development) READ-India