Sunday,
June 1, 2003
Inculcating gender consciousness in disaster management
Sriganganagar
district, the granary of Rajasthan, saw in me the first lady Collector
& District Magistrate in 55 years of Independence. Though expected
to pull the weight as equals to many of my worthy predecessors,
the challenges I faced were far greater than men. Women, I feel,
have to make more often an extra effort to make a mark and to gain
the same respect that seems to come more automatically to men. With
the bout of free-flowing skepticism in official corners and public,
one felt that "when you come in, you start with the negative
balance against you and you have to prove otherwise".
When I joined I thought it was going to be a breeze, but it was
a lot harder there encountering both natural and manmade disasters--breaches
in the canal, fire in ammunition depot, drought, floods, relief
works for earthquake victims, war-like situation at the border and
the worse law and order situation--
"When
you come in,
you start with the negative
balance against you and
you have to prove otherwise" |
following the murder of a labour leader and a young boy Amit Arora's
death in police custody.
In coping with the emergencies,
many issues are raised. The experience of managing the varied natural
and the man-made disasters in Sriganganagar district gave me a deep
insight into the male and female responses to disaster management.
The gender analysis of the study of disasters, strength and vulnerability
of women in disaster response raises a range of issues facing women
both as victims of disasters and as participants of disaster management.
Disasters work like the magnifying glass of society. They magnify
what is good and what needs sincere help. Disasters do not affect
everyone equally. What you are and what you do, determines your
fate. The problems before the disaster are the problems after the
disaster, just worse. When a disaster happens, both the strong and
the weak points in a society really stand out. This is true for
gender issues as much as in other issues.
Piperane village near
Suratgarh, which lies 85 km from Sriganganagar on the Sriganganagar-Bikaner
National Highway witnessed a fire in the Army Ammunition Depot on
May 25, 2001, which triggered horror, shock and sprinkling of ammunition
remains over an area of 20 km. On receiving the information from
the Army officials, soon the relief and the rescue works became
the top priority for the day. Instant instructions were issued to
cut off electricity, rail and transport services and to reduce the
flow of water in the canals and finally, to evacuate the seven villages
close to the depot to prevent human loss.
Summoning fire tenders from Abohar, Ferozepore and Muktsar in Punjab,
the adjacent districts of Hanumangarh and Bikaner, to supplement
the six tenders of the district, the response time was incredible.
The long trial of 26 fire tenders were lined up awaiting the signal
from the Army officials, who had cordoned off the area. The 'Babe
Ka Dhaba' became an improvised office.
It was all a male affair.
Women perceive disaster events more seriously because of their relative
lack of power and control in society. In the emergency response
behaviour, women were less involved. Women provided food while men
'managed' the provision of relief supplies.
Sriganganagar, sharing
210 km of the international border with Pakistan was in sharp focus,
when the Chief Secretary was on a visit. The widespread laying of
mines in the border villages threw a large chunk of population outside
their agricultural activities. Sporadic cases of women abuse and
misbehaviour also come to light. Social seclusion is another factor
of vulnerability. The avoidance relationship of 'Sasur-Bahu', 'Devar-Bhabhi'
forbids women to leave houses when their husbands are out at work
when disaster happens.
Women are most vulnerable in the post-disaster phase. Though the
evacuation plan of nearly 4 lakh people spread over 500 villages
lying in the range of 20 km from the border was well prepared, situational
fears had prompted people to leave their women, children and costly
possessions to thesafer areas. Because of the unequal distribution
of food in many families, women get 20 percent less calories than
men. Malnutrition and poor health add to the physical weakness of
women in general.
To understand how the
house holds responded to the war-like situation, we need to understand
the pattern of domestic labour and decision-making. Women as mothers,
partners, daughters, grand-mothers, sisters and aunts, tend to do
most of the household work. An unequal division of domestic responsibility
persisted. The bottom line was that while women play a crucial public
and private role, their voice have been unheard of in organisational
and community policymaking including decisions and disaster response
recovery.
I vividly remember the
morning of January 26,2001, when a killer earthquake hit Gujarat.
The relief work commenced immediately. The spontaneous outpourings
of the people of Sriganganagar to the tune of Rs. 1.5 crore was
impressive. After the earthquake, women in the disaster zone could
put all the skill and will into helping survivors and protecting
their families. Amongst evacuees, women showed exceptional strength,
firmness and grit. They survived by becoming active in their own
rehabilitation . They organized schooling for children and responded
to the community needs. Special search teams of women and girls
were at work to locate the displaced people.
The study of various disasters
has shown that women's views and contributions are rarely given
full recognition. For example, in the post-impact period, most women
are left to perform the traditional and undervalued task such as
child care, food preparation and domestic work, while men are more
likely to leave the women to participate in more visible and highly
publicised relief efforts. Women are seen as a vulnerable group,
less unlikely to participate in planning, in preparation and unable
to cope in the wake of the disaster. Gender inequality embedded
in the social and cultural fabric is the root cause of social vulnerability.
The traditional view of women as victims, leaves men to make decisions
about their roles and needs and overlooks the vital work and unique
perspective that women can bring to disaster management.
The changing nature of family also affects the emergency responsibilities.
The disappearance of joint and extended families, urban migration,
separation of working couples and the growing number of single parents
raise new issues in disaster management.
Women should be seen as
part of solutions. A paradigm shift is required to inculcate gender
consciousness and view all disasters as social events that have
roots in the social systems and structures. There is need for a
disaster paradigm to move from relief to mitigation of disaster.
The writer, a senior I.A.S.
officer, is Commissioner, Command Area Development & Colonisation,
Government of Rajasthan, Bikaner.
Wednesday,
September 4, 2002
Importance
of vocational studies |
Secondary
education is perhaps the weakest link in the Indian education chain.
It has neither a specific character nor does it mark the end of
formal education. It is stepping stone to higher education drawing
one and all into the universities It is not complete in itself.
There is a lack of clear perspective and coordinated thinking. Higher
secondary schools ought to be more comprehensive and multipurpose
covering a variety of courses with an occupational bias. To rectify
the defects in the present educational structure vocational education
has been given increased emphasis with every review of the system.
Every committee set up to evaluate it has reiterated the need to
establish effective linkages between the world of school and the
world of work. The aim of transforming education to empower people
for work is not to be construed as merely creating marketable skills.
There is need to inculcate respect for socially useful work and
productive labour in the entire process of education. This will
facilitate the development of not merely a more relevant knowledge
base but also creative institutions on which one can keep building
throughout one's life.
The crucial role of
education is to equip students with the capacity for creative
work. There are strong indications that attempts will be made
to strengthen vocational education in the next few years and to
correlate education and work. The decision of the Government of
India in May, 1990, to review the National Policy on Education-1986
by a high powered committee under the chairmanship of Acharya
Ramamurthi (report submitted in December, 1990) reminds us once
again of the gaps in the present education policy and system.
Vocational education
is intended to equip people for industrial and commercial occupations.
It can be imparted either formally in trade schools, technical
secondary or on the job training programmes or more informally
by picking up the necessary skills on the job without actual supervision.
Vocational education in schools is a relatively modern development,
Until the 19th centuary such education, except for the professionals,
was provided only by apprenticeship. It was associated with low
social status as opposed to classical curriculum considered necessary
for a gentleman".
With the growth of industry
during the 19th century, several European countries, notably Germany
introduced vocational education in elementary education in elementary
and secondary schools. In Great Britain, however, opposition to
vocation education persisted into the 20th centuary although a
few trade and junior technical schools were established by the
local authorities before World War-I. By the late 19th centuary,
public and common school education in the USA included manual
training and practical arts. These programmes were gradually expanded
until 1917 when federal and was provided to public schools for
courses to cater to trade, industry agriculture and home-making.
After the World War-II,
the demand for trained para-professionals in the relatively new
fields of computer science, electronics and medical services led
to an increased interest in short-term, post secondary, specialised
training programmes in these areas as an alternative to traditional
education.
In India, the need for
vocational education was stressed in the Gandhian philosophy of
basic education which propounded the principal that education
should be work centred. This emphasis was reiterated by the University
Education Commission (1949) chaired by Dr.S.Radhakrishnan, the
All India Secondary Education Commission under the chairmanship
of Dr.A.L.Mudaliar (1953) and the Kothari Commission which advocated
work experience. The need to establish operational linkages between
the world of school and the world of work was mentioned in the
National Policy on Education (1969). Subsequently, vocationalisation
of education was propagated by the Central Advisory Board of Education
Committee on Education Structure in 1972. It also found a significant
place in the review of the education system done by the Janata
Party in 1977 and the Dr, Easwar Bhai Patel Committee which suggested
socially useful productive work (SUPW) and the State Education
Ministers' conference in 1981. The repeated announcements of the
protagonists of the scheme seem to have strengthened the idea
of vocaional education.
The new National Policy
on Education (1986) envisages diverting 10 percent of students
at the plus two level to the vocational stream of education by
the end of the Seventh Five Year Plan and 25 percent to the vocational
stream at the end of Eighth Five Year Plan, with substantial assistance
from the Central Government. In accordance with the priority accorded
to vocatioal education in the National Policy on Education, a
centrally sponsored scheme of vocationalisation of Secondary Education
was launched in February, 1988. The main objective of the scheme
was to enhance individual employability, reduce the mismatch between
the demand and supply of skilled manpower and to provide an alternative
for these pursuing higher education.
The 54th round of NSSO
in comparison with the 47th round conducted at the beginning of
the reforms era in 1991 shows the overall employment scenario
in the country has remained more or less unchanged since then.
Under the Ninth Plan the government has envisaged an increase
in the labour force upto 450 million. It also plans to provide
employment to 443.6 million work-force during during the same
period. One of the daunting challenges facing the Ninth Plan to
accelerate the growth of employment opportunities to absorb the
increase in the labour force. The emerging structure of employment
is marked by a high level of underemployment, increasing casualisation,
emergence of low productivity jobs and underutilisation of educated
persons.
The objective of vocational
education is to prepare students for vocations and enable them
to enter the world of work with the necessary skills. For this
reason, after completing 10 years of general education, the student
sets about acquiring new practical knowledge of technical processes,
regulating manual operations and also certain knacks and tricks
of the traded. Last, but not least the student must develop civic
attitudes.
Vocational training,
like all education, facilitates the all round harmonlous development
of the human personality. It is to help all to develop their inlents
and capacities for the benefit of society as well as for their
own selves.
In our country, education
is still a privilege. The path each student takes differs depending
on the stage of dropping out and individual circumstances. However,
most school leaves should learn a vocation which would open the
door to a technical college from which they can go on to institutions
of higher education. Others can proceed from 10 years of schooling
to two years of supplementary schooling after which they too are
qualified to embark on a course of higher education. And should
anyone's studies fail to proceed smoothly, his fate should not
be sealed. He should be given an opportunity for making up for
the lost time in vocational training institutes of adult education
classes. He too should be able to attain the level of education
of which he is capable. Partially skill jobs like the domestic
helpers, dry cleaners, gardeners, scamstresses store clerks, assistance
cooks, printing workers and skilled jobslike fitters, grinders,
electricians, building painters, garage mechanics, post office
workers, etc, are among the possibilities. They ensure everyone
the chance of a career even when individual circumstances are
unfavourable.
The planned development
of the national and state economy requires an exact calculation
of the demand for skilled workers with various specialisations
and for technologists and engineers of various kind. There is,
therefore, an enhanced need for career guidance centres to provide
information on various careers available and their importance
to the community. There is also need to to introduce polytechnical
instruction (regular visits to factories) to help in the preparation
for a career by giving the pupils an opportunity to become acquainted
with individual specialisations.
Theoretical and practical
aspects of vocational training are inseparably bound up with each
other. There is no contradiction between the two, though it is
a well-known fact that with the rapid development of science in
recent times, the impact on the theory of vocational training
has increased considerably. Today, theoretical subjects account
for the greater part of the teaching time. For many young people,
this is not easy to accept. They have already spent 10 years in
the classrom and perhaps long for the time when they will be able
to show what they can do in practice. But a skilled worker who
want sot master new techniques, who would like even to try something
new for himself and develop it, needs a sound theoretical grounding.
To strengthen vocational
education, it is suggested that the core curriculum should include
important components. Fragmentation of secondary education into
academic and vocational streams should be avoided. Secondly, schools
should offer vocational courses in varying combinations with academic
subjects. Thirdly, provision should be made for further education
in vocational subjects for students taking up vocational curses
at the secondary stage, leading to direct job placement or self
employment. Fourthly, vocational courses should be reorganised
to make them relevant to the number of vocations in both organised
and unorganised sectors, particularly in rural areas.
Vocational courses should
be designed to promote transferable skills in order to optimise
vertical and horizontal mobility and to cope with the demands
of changing technologies. Finally vocational training and direct
experience to students within the production units - working situations
- should be encouraged to strengthen operational linkages. Course
development and training in skills should be matched with the
requirements of user agencies which can be significantly involved
in the dessign of courses and training modules.
Sunday, May, 11 2003
Role
of women in conflict resolution and peace building
|
VIOLENCE on women has
been on the rise. Sriganganagar district in Rajasthan, which shares
21 km. of international border with Pakistan has been facing mounting
tension and insecurity. This has led to migration of people from
the border villages. Armed conflict, passive wars and tension in
the border areas is of central concern of those working on issues
of poverty and injustice. It is in this context that the relationship
between gender, development and conflict becomes relevant.
Conflict affects men
and women differently. In the absence of men, women bear the burden
of maintaining their families under situations of physical insecurity.
The general breakdown of law and order which occurs during conflict
and displacement leads to an increase in all forms of violence.
Women also experience specific trauma resulting from sexual violence.
Few women have demonstrated
courage, resilience and coping skills to fulfill their daily and
assumed roles. Most women acquire skills and become income earners
and decision-makers, often the preserve of men. This empowerment
changes are positive indicators for women's development.
Conflicts pose a major
challenge for relief and development agencies working in the affected
areas. The use of military and army personnel in relief and peacekeeping
operations has been linked to a growth in violence against women.
At the grassroots level, women can build on the new skills acquired
and on new social organisations formed during conflict. We have
the examples of women refugees in Gautemala and the widows group
formations in Punjab and Rawanda. Such initiatives need to be
sensitive to ethnic and other social divisions.
The polarisation of
gender role in conflict enhances the vulnerability of single women,
children of foster care, old women and those with physical and
mental disabilities. Around 70 per cent of the adult population
in post-conflict are women and many widows face the risk of losing
their land or are unable to return because of their limited property
rights. Widowhood changes the economic and social roles of women
and even alters the structure of the family.
As the Sriganganagar
economy has been predominantly agricultural, their alienation
was clearly seen in the distribution of Rs. 50 crore (Rs. 13 crore
in the first phase). In one project, agreements were drawn up
between the widow, the local authority and the former husband's
family to ensure that the property is legally owned by the widow
and that the family will not reclaim it after rehabilitation.
Such initiatives could strengthen women's property rights in other
areas. If agricultural rehabilitation is to succeed in post-conflict
situation, the access of women farmers to land and other resources
must be addressed, raising the question of women's, especially
widows' land rights. The health implications of prolonged conflict
are tremendous. Besides the physical and psychological consequences
of violence, the impact on the social health of women is negative
and widespread.
Despite the enormous
impact of conflict on women, they do not play a decisive role
in conflict resolution and post-conflict reconstruction. Women
are either perceived as victims or as healers, but never taken
as decision-makers in the process. Increased representation of
women in conflict resolution and peace negotiations is important,
although it should not be assumed that all women are non-partisan.
This must be combined with efforts to address gender issues in
peace agreements. While full attention must be given to the victim-survivors
of conflict, the method of reconstruction and rehabilitation must
necessarily be within the empowerment and equality framework.
This concept of peace begins from one's immediate family and goes
on to cover the state and finally the international sphere.
The extremely low participation
of women in decision-making bodies - be it traditional bodies
or modern democratic institutions like legislative assemblies
- has also largely contributed to the impasse in the conflict
resolution process. The lack of political will among our MPs to
pass the Women's Reservation Bill speaks volumes for their concern
for women's empowerment.
Though it would be easy
to assume congruence between building peace and facilitating women's
empowerment, experience shows that these two processes do not
always go together. Working towards gender equality can raise
conflicts especially when social institutions and communities
have just experienced enormous strain and disruption. Conflict
is on balance more likely to disempower women, as it attacks their
physical and mental health, places obstacles in their path of
economic self-sufficiency, and enhances the social attitudes which
maintain their subordination resulting in greater maginalisation
and vulnerability. Thus, the argument is not just that women and
men have different conflict experiences, but that the mobilisation
of gender identities influences the resolution of the conflict.
Though there are questions
about the relationships between the construction of gender identities,
the gender divisions of labour and what happens during the pre-conflict
to post-conflict reconstruction, there are insights that can contribute
to a better understanding of the entire gamut of human security.
The key questions are; will the emerging political system recognise
and protect women's rights and interests enabling them to influence
and participate in the political process ? Will the emerging economic
environment be conductive to women's empowerment or will it reinforce
economic marginalisation and increase women's vulnerability ?
Will the social sector suitably address women's particular needs
and concerns ? Will women's capacities and sills be recognised
and incorporated into the provision of social services ? Will
social reconstruction generate socio-economic relationships advantageous
to women ? This means involving women at all levels of the peace
process, especially in decision-making and ensuring that all peace
building and reconstruction activities fully integrate a gender
perspective.
