TUESDAY
10 JUNE 2003
"Alleviating
poverty through literacy" |
India's strategies for poverty
alleviation have included strong policy and financial support
from the economic and education reforms and increased community
participation. The past experiments have brought home a point
that a successful HRD approach through education is the onlybasis
for alleviating poverty, writes Kiran Soni Gupta.
On the issue of development
most planners and governments get bogged down with dilemma in
placing the proper emphasis on different aspects of development
to sort out the problems like poverty, unemployment, high population
growth etc. which plague most of the countries. In other words,
in evolving a rightful strategy for economic development. The
rise and fall of great civilizations and history, is a sharp pointer
to the fact that it is man, not nature, who provides the primary
resource and that key factor of all economic development comes
out of the mind of man. This constructive activity of man, through
education and HRD has invaded all fields and maintains and strengthens
itself through various kinds of schools. Therefore, education
is most crucial of all resources.
Universalisation of elementary
education (UEE) is a constitutional provision and national commitment
in India. Elementary education is recognized as a fundamental
right of all citizens in India. The directive principles of State
policy envisages U.E.E. as one of the major goals to be achieved
and mandated in a timeframe of 10 years. Though the goals are
not fully accomplished, the achievements are significant as reflected
by the rising national and state literacy rates.
The Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in its judgment in "Unnikrishnan's
Case (1993)" has held that the citizens have a fundamental
right to education upto 14 years. The government of India has
introduced 83rd Constitutional Amendment Bill in the Parliament
in 1997 to make education a fundamental right of all children
upto the age of 6 - 14 years. The 73rd and 74th Constitutional
Amendments have provided a statutory base for decentralized education
planning.
In fact, the 20th century has witnessed
a global upsurge in U.E.E. widespread ignorance, illiteracy and
poverty often are stumbling blocks but still the mandate of alleviating
poverty through HRD has initiated a change that now characterizes
every process of growth and development.
Prior to independence, the system
of education had limited access and denied mass education. Greater
emphasis was laid on confirmism to the prevailing socio-political
and economic system. Macaulay's objective of education system
was to create a new breed of Indians similar to Europeans. However,
this approach was dismissed by the national movement leaders,
which expressed global sentiments of education for all. Gokhale's
Compulsory education bill reflected the spirit of India's freedom
movement.
The first major education policy
formulation was spelled out by the Kothari Commission Report (1964
- 66 ) in the year 1968. It led to re-structuring of school education
system in 10+2+3 pattern. A major attempt at transforming the
structure and content of education in the country was taken in
1986, with the announcement of National Policy on Education (NPE).
The intervening period between 1968 to 1986 was marked by considerable
education expansion in educational facilities, which has reached
more than 90% of the country's area and habitations having a learning
center within 1 Km. In 1988, National Literacy Mission was launched.
1990 was celebrated as the International Literacy Year reiterating
the message of education for all.
The Govt. of India has made efforts
to eradicate poverty in the country over the past decades. These
efforts have met with considerable success. India's past strategies
for poverty alleviation has included strong policy and financial
support from the Govt., economic and education reforms and increased
community participation. The past experiments have brought home
a point that a successful HRD approach through education is the
only basis for alleviating poverty. This has been the experience
of other developed nations and populous countries like China too.
Zimbabawe achieved universal primary education in three years
by taking measures to increase enrolments and cut down costs of
UPE. In Vietnam, poverty incidence in households headed by those
with no education is 68%. It decreases to 54% for those with primary
education and 41% for those with secondary education. In Niger,
the incidence of poverty is 70% in households headed by an adult
with no education, compared to 56% for those who have attended
primary school. In Bangladesh, the average salary of secondary
educated women is seven times that of a women with no primary
education. In India, one year increase in average number of years
of primary schooling of the workforce would raise outputs by 23%.
India has undoubtedly been successful
in evolving a national structure for elementary education in the
last fifty years. National Literacy rates have improved from 15%
in 1951 to 52% in 1991 and 63.38% in 2001. Rajasthan's literacy
levels increased from 38.55% in 1991 and 61.03% in 2001. While
doubling the female literacy rates, during this decade, the male
literacy rates touched 75.49% mark. The sprawling academic support
system has been built up at National and State level through NCERT,
NIEPA, NCTE, SCERT's, CIEMAT's, DIET's, BRCS and CRC's to provide
technical support and guidance to the elementary education system.
The initiation of market mechanism in economic and adoption of
an integrated approach by the Government to poverty alleviation
has been some of the key reasons for growth. Though literacy has
enabled rural poor to acquaint themselves with technical skills
necessary for increasing their income and thus, reducing the incidence
of poverty.
Decentralised education planning,
improving the quality of basic education and adjusting the structure
of education system to local needs has had a positive impact on
poverty situation in country. Further, community participation
and mobilising the communities to take responsibility for ensuring
quality education for every child is the core strategy of new
initiatives like DPEP, LJP, SKP and BEB. Many of the State and
local Govt's have taken up elementary education programmes vigorously.
Kerala's success in alleviating absolute poverty has been well
recognized. Poverty and deprivation indication such as HDI when
taken in the national context, have been at par with most industrialised
countries of South East Asia and far higher than those at the
national levels. Which noting the substantial contribution of
the Kerala State Govt. in absorbing household consumption of the
poor, through direct subsidies and indirect income transfers,
a key explanation of the relatively low level of poverty has been
the popular demand for literacy and education in the State. Rajasthan
Govt. has launched recently in November, 2001, "Shiksha Aap
Ke Dwar" with the objective of bringing all the children
(10.65 Lakhs) of 32 districts in age group of 6 - 14 in the fold
of education and considerable success (70%) has been achieved
so far.
The plan allocations for elementary
education has increased steadily and Central Govt. increased its
allocations for elementary education after 1976 when education
became a concurrent subject. Plan expenditure on elementary education
has increased to nearly 50% of the Central expenditure on education.
The external assistance and internationally assisted projects
too have given priority to low literacy areas, girls and disadvantaged
sections, with a view for their capacity building in making them
productive and useful members of the society. Though many factors
have contributed in changing the country from "poor house
to power house", investment in education and more education
is probably the most important of all. The enhanced budget allocations
have resulted in an amazing picture of assess to learners at all
levels. The implict social and personal benefits to individuals
also should be reckoned with, as even the modest level of education
is most effective contraceptive and passport to better health
and a roadto empowerment
The future strategies for poverty alleviation need to take care
of practical skill training, reforms in education system, popularisation
of science and technology and its application in vocational and
technical education, gender awareness, women's needs and linked
issues, environmental education, enterpreneurship development,
NGO's and community participation and participatory approaches
on a continuous basis to combat and contain the tentacles of poverty.
Education and HRD alone is the key for India's becoming a super
power in this century.
WEDNESDAY 30 OCTOBER,2002
In India,
in particular in Rajasthan, preference for a male child is very
strong and has been one of the major obstacles for reducing the
fertility levels. In Rajasthan, despite the Ganganagar district
being high on the development indices the gender preferences are
very strong and abortion is very widespread, say Kiran Soni Gupta
& Madhukar Gupta.
The
issue of elimination of unwanted child has always raised concern
amongst all. In fact it was an incident of three female fetuses
being found in a gutter which prompted me to order an inquiry,
as district collector and magistrate, district Ganganagar in Rajasthan.
The district can boast of good medical infrastructure having highest
number of private hospitals in the state.
Arguments in support of preference
for a male child is not uncommon. And the practice is not restricted
among the uneducated only with preference for son popular among
the educated as well. So where does the problem lie ? It is a
general belief that the male child continues the lineage and is
a support in old age. It is this mindset that the government,
administrators and doctors need to work upon. In India, in particular
in Rajasthan, preference for a male child is very strong and has
been one of the major obstacles for reducing the fertility levels.
According to estimates, if people continue to bear children in
order to have a son, they would exceed the two-child family norm
advocated by the national family planning programme.
It is important to recognize,
however, that considerable regional variations are observed in
the degree of preference for male child within the country. The
northern states of India have been found to exhibit a stronger
preference for male child compared to the southern states. These
regional differences have been linked to the cultural differences
in terms of marriage practices, kinship structure, property inheritance
rights and the status of women. With regard to the status of women,
gender inequalities with respect to access to education, employment
and health care are fairly low in Rajasthan. Though the female
literacy rate has been steadily increasing over the last two decades,
it still remains markedly lower (44.34% in 2001) than the male
literacy rate (76.46%). It is, however, noteworthy that female
literacy in the state has improved from 20 percent in 1991 and
44 percent in 2001 which is lower than the national average of
54.16 percent. Even the marriage age for girls in the state is
lower than the age mentioned in the rules. The sex ratio of Rajasthan
has improved from 910 in 1991 to 922 in 2001 which is also much
lower than the national average of 933. The district of Ganganagar,
which has the distinction of having the highest human development
index, had a sex ratio of 865 in 1991 and 9873 in 2001, which
is much less than the average of the state. However, sex differentials
in child mortality are particularly striking where the mortality
rate of girls is 40 percent higher than boys. Many believe that
increase in educational attainment inevitably lead to changes
in social behaviour, increase in the use of family planning methods
and improvements in the status of women. Indeed, for people of
Ganganagar the voluntary limitation of fertility has accompanied
economic development. Yet there is much less evidence of substantial
improvements in the status of women.
Comparing fertility and mortality
behaviour the importance of the influence of cultural and gender
preferences in demographic behaviour has become more apparent
and calls into question the extent to which socio-economic development
or governmental policies automatically lead to demographic change.
The effects of sex preference on fertility are usually detected
by examining the sex ratio of newborns-the number of boys born
per 100 girls. If there is no interference, such as sex-selective
abortion, the sex ratio at birth falls within a narrow range of
104 to 107.
A substantial increase in
male ratio at birth has been observed in Ganganagar. In 1991,
the sex ratio at birth was 865 which increased only to 873 in
2001 despite recording the greatest economic development and literacy
levels being higher than the state's average. Such skewed sex
ratio are a result of the willful abortion of female fetuses and
under reporting of female births. There are no signs of decrease
in the desire for male child over the years. In fact, in developed
districts like Ganganagar male ratio at birth is high.
In 20th century, the sex ratio of India's population declined
from 972 females per 1000 males in 1901 to 927 in 1991. During
this period the declining trend was reversed only twice. However,
the sharp decline by seven points during the decade of 1981-1991
has generated anxiety among demographers. The concern was whether
the declining trend in the sex ratio would be reversed at least
in the new century or not. The results of the first census of
the millennium in 2001 gave some relief as the sex ratio improved
by six points in favour of females, which is now 933 per 1000
man in 2001. But still the sex ratio was lower than its level
in 1981 by one point. However, the encouraging trend in the sex
ratio during 1991-2001 was marred by the decline of the sex ratio
of children below age seven years by 18 points. The 2001 census
shows that there are 927 girls between the age 0 to 6 to 1000
boys of the same age group, lower than the ratio of 933 females
to 1000 total males in India. This is the first census where the
sex ratio of child population is lower than the sex ratio of overall
population. During the last 40 years the sex ratio of total population
has declined by eight points but that of child population has
declined by almost 50 points. In other words, the proportion of
girls has declined by five per cent.
The decline in the sex
ratio of population in due to sex differential in the enumeration
of the population, mortality and migration and the sex ratio at
birth. However, the factors operating in the recent past tend
to have limited impact on the level of the overall sex ratio of
the population. The overall sex ratio is largely the result of
the past legacy.
There is clearly a declining
trend during the past four decades in the sex ratios of child
population in almost all the major states. For Rajasthan, in 1961,
the sex ratio was 951. In 1971, the sex ratios were 932 far below
the country's rate of 964. There has been a steady decline in
Rajasthan in the subsequent years. It fell down to 916 in 1991
and 909 in 2001. Assuming that both number of male and female
children are correctly reported in the census or the undercount
in reporting the decline in sex ratio of child population is primarily
the result of sex ratio at birth and sex differential in the survival
through infancy and childhood period. Biologically, the sex ratio
at birth lies between the narrow range of 103 to 107 males per
100 female babies (935 to 971 female babies per 1000 male babies).
However, the sex differentials in the survival through infancy
and childhood are in favour of female children, as observed by
lower infant and child mortality of females than that of males.
Even the sex differentials in mortality of adult population are
in favour of females as observed by higher female life expectancy
compared to male life expectancy.
The pattern of sex differentials
in mortality in India is in contrast to the universally observed
one. In India as a result of preference for male child, girls
are discriminated in the provision of nutrition, preventive and
curative health care. Such discrimination has led to higher mortality
of female children, especially after infancy. Girls may simply
be abandoned, or more indirectly they may be fed less and received
less medical care, leading to increase in the infant death rate.
More recently, new reproductive
technologies have been developed that enable people to give birth
to a preferred sex. There is concern in India at the moment that
the high cost of marrying off a daughter, with her mandatory dowry,
is resulting in antenatal sex diagnosis by ultrasound, for those
who can afford it, with consequent selective abortion of female
fetuses. A similar pattern is observed in most of the states.
Even until early 20th century female children experienced higher
mortality after the period of infancy.
The sex ratio of births decreases
with order of birth. As a result, improved maternal health and
lowering of the fertility are correlated with higher sex ratios
at birth. Improved maternal health maybe associated with lower
rate of fetal mortality, particularly for males. Decreased fetal
mortality for males contribute to higher sex ratios. In low fertility
populations there is higher proportion of lower order births.
However, the effect of reduction in late fetal mortality or reduced
fertility on the sex ratio of births is only of smaller magnitude.
The extent of deviation of the sex ratios at births from its biological
level, which is observed in Rajasthan is very difficult to explain
by either increase in lower order births or reduction in late
fetal mortality. Only large scale female foeticide or infanticide
as a result of gender preference accounts for this. With the spread
of new technologies such as amniocentesis and ultra sonography
for the detection of sex of the foetus and the practice of sex
selective abortions which are of a disadvantage to girl child.
The ban on the use of technology
is a partial solution to the problem. Improved maternal health
and lowering of the fertility are correlated with higher sex ratios
at birth. It is clearly seen from the trends in Ganganagar that
greater economic development, affluence, education and knowledge
do not necessarily make a difference to the preference for a male
child or reduce the use of sex-selective abortion.
Despite the district being
high on the development indices the gender preferences are very
strong and abortion is very widespread. Thus economic development
is not the solution to reduce the decline in sex ratio. Rather,
changes in cultural norms are required. Parents prefer sons primarily
not for economic reasons but for emotional (prestige, family harmony)
and traditional (family lineage) reasons.
Theoretically, in a society
where each couple wants one son at least, and if each couple were
willing to use prenatal sex detection and sex selective abortion
of female fetuses, then the effect of son preference on the sex
ratio at birth would be grater at low fertility than high fertility.
Thursday
November, 29, 1990
Need
for artistic education |
None
of us can refute that the foremost association of the word "education"
is with the written word focusing on the academic aspect of education.
The progress of mankind does not consist merely in man's mastery
and understanding of the mysteries of nature. The ultimate aim
of all education is the making of integrated personalities to
avert the catastrophe towards which our civilisation is heading.
T.S.
Eliot has rightly stated that :
Between the idea
and the reality
Between the motion
and the act
Falls the shadow. |
All the education must, therefore,
necessarily direct us to fill the gaps in our living.
Liberal education is an education
for thought and for aesthetic appreciation. Both geometry and
poetry are essential as turning lathes in our lives.
The study of art and aesthetics
should not be considered as an aristocratic education implying
leisure. The absence of aesthetic education in our educational
curriculum is now felt by all scholars, educationists, administrators
and policy makers.
Every man is an artist in
his own way, giving concrete shape and form to ideas and dreams
in his own unique way. The specific nature of human freedom manifest
itself more in creative education and aesthetics. It is discerned
more in the creative activity of all art forms and in the acts
of the doers and the connoisseurs.
This human freedom is important
but quite different from the liberty which man obtains by taming
the powerful forces of nature through science and technology and
mastering the vagaries of nature.
Man and machines represent
human power and it is the guarantee of man liberated from the
pressures of the physical world. It does not relate men as a material
and exterior instrument of their power but identifies them by
projecting their inner life to which raw materials have become
docile - wood and marble, canvas and paints: sound and words,
etc. - and also the destiny which creates situations, events and
the psychological experiences of man.
The expression of human spirit
is not confined to the world of texts. There are the arts and
there are the sciences. Education must pass beyond the passive
reception of the ideas of others.
An education which strives
to divorce intellectual or aesthetic life from the fundamental
facts carries with it the decadence of human culture and civilisation.
Art exists so that we may
know the deliverance's of our sense as good. It heightens our
sense world. As education through art extends beyond the narrow
traditional limits of aesthetic education, it should include the
training of the whole man, in the type of attitudes and the psychological
experiences which art inducts into the world of human species.
The three main streams which
are required in any national system of education is literary curriculum,
scientific curriculum and technical curriculum. Every form of
education should impart to the pupil a technique, a science and
assortment of general ideas and aesthetic appreciation.
Each side should be illuminated
by the others. Inventive genius requires pleasurable mental activity
as a condition for its vigorous exercise. The most direct aesthetic
training falls in the technical curriculum when the training is
needed for some art and artistic craft.
Moreover, it is equally relevant
in both literary and scientific education. In order to become
a servant and minister of nature, something more is required than
literary or academic aptitude. Technical education, in one way,
is a training in the art of utilising knowledge for the manufacturing
processes.
This training focuses on manual
skill and coordinated action of limbs and judgment in the control
of the process of construction.
Therefore, technical education
is not necessarily allied exclusively to science on its mental
side. It can be education for an artist and apprentices to craft
work.
In the teaching of science,
the art of thought can also be taught. Therefore, aesthetic appreciation
is not alien to the traditional streams and education.
The real problem of education
is to retain the dominant emphasis, whether literary, scientific
or technical, and without the loss of coordination, to infuse
into each way of education something of the other two.
True education should elevate
itself to the realm of freedom where people feel and experience
the unity of humanity and integration of social structure.
The popularisation of the
knowledge of the art forms and cultivation of aesthetic taste
will educate men in a way that art will become a daily necessity
and proximity with it will affect their whole personality and
shape intellectual and spiritual experiences.
In the education for the future,
aesthetic education should be expanded and depend and special
attention needs to be given to manifold forces which give birth
to art forms.
Then education through art
will not be a realm of cultural luxury, a world of illusions and
diversions divorced from realities of life but an educational
working area connected with all the others, where an educated
man will be moulded, a working area in which man's experiences
will take shape even at the risk of operation within the limits
of the "unreal" world of art.
All these considerations bring
home the importance of the role played by art in man's life and
the need to incorporate aesthetic education in the formal system
of learning.
The real man emerges only
through contact with the "unreal" world of art and this
is precisely the cardinal principal of education through art.
Thursday
December 13, 1990
Realignment
of education, employment. |
|
The
policy of human resources has already become a centre of all decisions
with deep rooted implications. The hydra-headed monster of teeming
unemployed millions has put our planners, policy-makers and administrators
into a dilemma. The contradiction between the increased education
and literacy level and increased unemployment is thus explicit.
Education
and health in Kerala have always been in the priority sector.
In the early phases of planning, it was thought that the investment
in human resources would go a long way in accelerating and stabilising
the process of development. The analysis of expenditure on education
and health in Kerala demonstrates that the pendulum of investment
has swayed between 37 per cent and 47 per cent of the total revenue
expenditure during the last 33 years. The per capita expenditure
on education in Kerala has registered an increase from 10.7 in
1961-62 to 192.02 in 1988-89.
It is followed by the
States of Maharashtra and Punjab. Kerala has a unique record of
universalisation of elementary education and infrastructure of
school education It enjoys enviable literacy rates. The difference
in female literacy is even more sharper comparable to other States.
However, in spite of
the huge investment and high literacy rate, the problem of unemployment
has intensified from year to year. Kerala has only 3.6 per cent
of the total population, but accounts for 10 per cent of the job
seekers in the country. The number of job seekers have risen from
2.94 lac to 19 lac in the time span of 11 years from 1970. The
increase in number of educated job seekers has risen to 9.25 lac
in 1981 from 1.77 lac in 1970.
A staggering increase
is also discernible in the professional and technical work seekers.
The number of registrants in the live register of Employment Exchanges
indicate the magnitude and the structure of unemployment, especially
among the educated job seekers. The total number of registered
job seekers has increased from 1.51 lac in 1960 to 2.94 lac in
1970 and 15.79 lac in 1980. Now, the figure touches 30 lac.
To raise employment
and diminish inequility is the major objective against which the
success and failure of any educational system is measured. Fitting
people for employment is the basic responsibility of the education
system not only to get foothold in life but because it is the
most important consumer expectation which can no further be ignored.
It is employment (including
self-employment) alone which assigns an individual a specific
place in the economy and enables him to contribute effectively.
The optimum utilisation of human resources through appropriate
employment should be a matter of deep concern for one and all.
Education has had a
very beneficial impact in moderating the growth in population.
It has also led to increased awareness in the common man. Although
education often tends to raise aspirations, it is argued that
job expectations have by and large remained realistic in Kerala.
Education has had a deleterious effect on the employment situation,
but its exact extent has not been ascertained.
Education in Kerala
has led to the tendency to inculcate preferences for white-collar
jobs. The centuries old taboos associated with manual labour are
persisting throughout the country. It is social 'infra-dig' for
an educated individual to take to any kind of manual tasks like
a mechanic or a skilled technician in various fields of today.
Manual labour has become associated with social stigma and, therefore,
the resultant aversion to certain jobs propels the increasing
educated masses to particular sectors of economy.
Secondly, education
accounts for the high level migration both inter-country and intra-country.
It has also added to urban labour force by encouraging the migration
from rural areas to the town. This tendency is more marked in
the educated masses and has repercussions on standards of living,
provision of education, medical and welfare services.
Therefore, it is highly
imperative that differences in education and economic structure
which can alter the balance of advantages and dis-advantages of
domestic developments with repercussions on national economy,
should be narrowed down. The first step should be to relate our
present day educational system to the employment situation.
It is a well understood
fact that there is highly important correlation between education
and employment and their relation is doubtlessly more complex
than the simple casual relation. The growth of national economy
depends on the number of productive workers and the increase in
labour productivity, which in turn is dependent on variables like
level of technology and education and qualification of the workers.
The specific responsibility of education towards the employment
situation is three fold - employment preparation, employment adaptation
and employment creation to a limited extent.
The effectiveness of
education requires a deep study of questions related to planning,
the role of specialists in the national economy and the training
of specialists as well as their actual employment in the economy
which determines the effectiveness of education. Secondly, the
present developments in science and technology make it necessary
to prepare long-term plans for development of all types of education
(secondary, general, technical, professional).
The social development
prospects for the next decade require us to define the quantitative
and qualitative problems which beginning right now should be solved
in the area of education in order to prepare the young and the
active population for the future. Thirdly, there is a need for
greater emphasis on technical and vocational aspects of education
in place of the present accent on general education, which pushes
the educated from rural areas to migrate to the cities.
Fourthly, there is a
need to move away from thinking of education as an autonomous
sector and locating it in the larger agenda of social transformation.
Good education cannot be mono-sectoral. It has to focus on knowledge,
attitudes and skills, conscentise and instill pride in self and
cultural heritage, prepare and motivate people for self-generated
change.
The habit of thinking
education only in terms of financial allocations and quantitative
expansion should be given up. What matters most is the quality
and relevance rather than the quantitative targets. Education,
in fact, is a game of inter-play of mind intellect and vision
where the educated ones are expected to respond to the 'inner
calls' of the over-demanding, enterprising spirit of their own.
Fifthly, the question
of making general education universal and compulsory should keep
in view the expansion of secondary and advanced education in relation
to absorption of the graduates into the job market.
The question shoots
back whether in the short run unfortunate effects have been or
will be offset by long-term gain through education's contribution
to the process of economic development and growth. Experience
has shown that the contribution of education to aggregate growth
may help to illuminate one corner but only one corner of the wider
fuller picture.
A feeling is now there
that though education is in a priority sector which ought to be
stimulated, yet cannot be expanded indefinitely as it already
faces the risk of unemployment of educated individuals who meeting
with frustration, create pools of dissatisfaction apart from its
implications in terms of investments lying or being under utilised.
A good education system is not enough to compensate for the inadequacies
and impossibilities in the job market. The first step must not
be confused with the journey's end, and the first aid should not
be confused with proper medical aid.
The State of Kerala
holds a good promise to create a balance between education and
employment. The past and the present bear evidence that wherever
people of Kerala have set their foot, they have built empires.
But the absence of this phenomenon in their own homeland is quite
baffling.
There is large reserve
of unexploited natural resources like rubber, cashew, spices,
coconuts, coir etc. It has large effective demand, satisfied through
imports, but capable of being met indigenously, largely through
the development of know-how and there is potential demand progressively
becoming effective with the economic growth. The present situation
presents many opportunities and challenges which call for initiative,
drive, resourcefulness and an inquiring mind; and adventurous
spirit; a co-operative attitude and leadership qualities which
can be developed only through appropriate educational methodologies.
April
16, 1998
The
denudation of forests, environmental pollution and environmental
destruction has adversely affected the women in rural areas more
than any other class of people. Each day, in the life of a rural
woman, begins with a long march in search of water, fuel and fodder.
Irrespective of age or physical ability of a woman the crucial
needs of every household have to be met each day. This is becoming
more and more arduous with the depletion of natural resources.
Thus women are caught in the intricate web of poverty and environmental
degradation.
The daily survival needs
of predominant rural households are dependent on biomass - food,
water, fodder, fuel, manure and fertiliser for agricultural purposes,
building material like timber and thatch and herbs as remedies
for various diseases. Availability of water, which is directly
related to the biomass in the country where monsoons are not only
uncertain but brief, is the most crucial resource affecting the
lives of rural women. With the disappearance of biomass in the
surroundings and environment sources of water like ponds and streams
dry up soon after the monsoons. The surrounding environment also
serves as provider of fuel, fodder, building materials and even
food to some extent. Production and processing of biomass like
agriculture forestry and village crafts based on biomass as raw
material are still the main sources of rural employment.
Unfortunately the increasing
industrialisation, urbanisation and deforestation have shattered
the biomass base of the country. This change has led to far-reaching
effects on the life of rural people, especially in the biomass
based subsistence economy. The maximum threat of environmental
degradation is encountered by the women of marginal cultures like
tribals and nomads and of rural areas.
There are large number of complex problems which women face- work
burden, lack of property, unequal distribution of food and other
resources within the family, duality of roles, poor health delivery
system coupled with inferior social status bestowed on them and
their total lack of control over cash and productive resources.
All these problems are acute in their own way and the environmental
degradation only accentuates and heightens the existing problems.
The traditional division
of labour prescribes the household needs like fuel, fodder and
water, to be in the exclusive domain of women. As these are becoming
increasingly difficult to obtain, women are forced to spend inordinately
long hours in search for them in addition to the multifarious
domestic duties. The natural topography in hills and deserts,
dry, arid and semi-arid areas poses a greater problem to women
living in these areas. As agricultural production in these areas
is extremely limited and alternatives to fuelwood like cowdung
and cow waste are minimum, it is the poor landless woman who faces
the brunt as considerable amount of time is spent for foraging
fuel and fodder. Even in areas where animal husbandry and agriculture
have improved the availability of crop residues and dung, it is
not necessary that the landless woman should benefit. This shortage
of cooking energy affects the food intake of a woman and other
members of her family. Thus, scarcity of cooking fuel forces many
a rural woman to reduce her energy for cooking. This implies nutrient
losses and greater risk of infection and illness from eating stale
food.
The study of rural water supply
scheme in Andhra Pradesh has revealed that the irrigation schemes
have adversely affected the drinking water supply and thus woman
too as primary carriers of water. Women in particular are more
exposed to hazards of polluted water than men as they are primary
carriers of water and secondly they do the washing of clothes
and utensils and finally since child care is mainly their responsibility.
Another major activity of rural women is care of cattle and collection
of fodder. Government has paid little attention to the protection
of fodder. Various social forestry schemes have not resulted in
benefits commensurate with investment. Promotion of fodder on
farm lands helps only those who own land while all others are
left to fend for themselves depending on the immediate environment.
Efforts aimed at rehabilitation
of ecologically sensitive areas should necessarily take into account
the burden of work of rural women, especially the women in hilly
areas where the ecological destruction is at its worst and the
work burden is the highest. Efforts at the government level like
promotion of new technology, like bio-gas plants, fuelwood plantations,
fuel conservation through use of smokeless Chullas, hand pumps
etc. will lead considerably to reduce the rigours of rural living.
However, what is most important is to envisage the role of women
in the implementation of various schemes and ultimately their
impact on them. It is often not ignorance but literally the distrust
of women's abilities to cope with new technology that leads to
their neglect in official programmes.
