I S S U E B R I E F P O V E R T Y A N D S O C I A L E X C L U S I O N I N I N D I A Women Maitreyi Bordia Das and Soumya Kapoor Mehta1 and many are married by age 15 (Desai et al 2010). Cohabitation occurs fairly soon, and almost one- The last few decades have seen remarkable progress fourth of Indian women even in the 20–24 year age in the status of women and girls, yet the cultural cohort have had their first child by the time they are roots of gender inequality are still strong and affect a 18. Globally, this puts India on par with Guyana and range of outcomes. The high salaries and independent Senegal and at a level well below Vietnam, where lifestyles of women in urban India have captured only 4 percent of girls in the same age group have public imagination. Women’s visibility in the political had a child by age 18 (PRB 2008). Early marriage has space has improved with 33 percent reservation in many negative effects on the lives of women and their gram panchayats (local governments). Declines in children. A system of village exogamy that distances fertility have freed up women from the cycle of child married women socially and geographically from their bearing and child rearing and some Indian states natal families prevents young women from being resemble high income countries. Young women today able to voice their needs during periods of strain. are healthier and more educated than their mothers Combined with a system of patrilocality, which means were and there are indications that the infamous sex that married women live in the family homes of their ratio at birth may be correcting itself (John et al, 2008; husbands, young brides, especially in rural areas, Dasgupta, Chung and Shuzhuo, 2009). are often isolated in the families of their husbands. While a number of programs have targeted women in Yet progress has been very uneven and slower independent India, the focus on adolescent girls is a than would have been expected based on India’s development of the last decade or so. The 11th Five- levels of per capita income. Females still have an Year Plan for the first time placed policy emphasis overall survival deficit in childhood and during their on adolescent girls as a discrete group in need of reproductive years and are severely disadvantaged in special attention. A new program, the Rajiv Gandhi the labor market. The educational attainment of girls Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls, has lags behind that of boys. But as in other areas, in been launched to provide resources to strengthen life gender inequality too, India is highly heterogeneous. skills among adolescent girls who are at risk of early Outcomes for instance, tend to be much poorer among marriage and early childbearing (see Government of Adivasi (Scheduled Tribe), Dalit (Scheduled Caste), India 2008, 2010). and Muslim women than among others. There are also large regional variations. The World Bank’s report on Large numbers of women dying unnecessarily in Poverty and Social Exclusion in India captures some childbirth points to deep seated problems. Indian key areas of female exclusion. women face a 1 in 70 risk of dying in childbirth, which falls at the high end of the global spectrum—Chinese Marriage remains the key institution around which women face a 1 in 1400 risk of maternal death, while Indian women’s lives revolve and it has significant risk among Vietnamese women is 1 in 280 (PRB, cultural and welfare implications. About 60 percent 2008). The poorer Indian states account for a majority of Indian girls are married by the time they are 18, of maternal deaths. More worryingly, these states also show a very slow decline in maternal mortality over time. Less than half of Indian women receive complete 1 This brief is based on a chapter in the forthcoming volume, Poverty and Social Exclusion in India. It is not a formal publication of antenatal care and 60 percent of all childbirths take the World Bank. It is circulated to encourage thought and discussion, place at home. The outcomes are significantly worse and its use and citation should take this into account. Maitreyi for Adivasi women of whom nearly 80 percent Bordia Das is Lead Specialist in the Social Development Department of the Sustainable Development Network in Washington DC. Soumya give birth at home. Medical practitioners often cite Kapoor Mehta is an independent consultant in New Delhi. ignorance as the reason for poor outcomes among 2 Issue Brief: Poverty and Social Exclusion in India  |  Women women. It is true that among women interviewed for likely to have experienced violence. Their husband’s the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) in 2005–06 alcohol consumption on the other hand had the largest and who gave birth at home, 72 percent felt that to give effects on their experience of violence, but their own birth in a medical facility was not necessary. However, attitudes matter as well. Finally, studies (Panda and the low demand for health care may also be triggered Agarwal, 2005) show that women’s land ownership by gaps in supply, the inability to reach a health centre can protect them from violence in addition to having in the moment of need, and the lack of information on several positive spillover effects. whether the health centre would be open. The labor market is one of the most important Spousal violence against women is pervasive and sites of gender inequality. Women’s new visibility the India Poverty and Social Exclusion Report finds in India’s high-end urban labor market is far from that it has strong association with women’s access being representative of the country as a whole. NSS to maternal health and the health of their children. data suggest that the labor force participation of According to the NFHS 2005/6, nearly one-third of women aged 15–59 has virtually stagnated, from about Indian women have experienced spousal violence at 36 percent in 1983 and 33 percent in 1993 to 35 percent some point in their lives. Nearly 81 percent of women in 2005. The stagnation is driven mainly by rural areas. who have never experienced violence reported receiv- There is also considerable diversity by state and by ing ante-natal care in the NFHS 2005/6, in contrast to caste and tribal status. In the more rapidly growing only 67 percent among women who had experienced regions where the norms of female mobility are also violence. The multivariate analysis shows poorer more liberal, such as the south and states like Gujarat outcomes for women facing violence even after con- and Maharashtra, women are much more likely to trolling for a number of household and individual be employed than are women in the central Hindi- characteristics, including ability to reach a health speaking states. Similarly, Dalit and Adivasi women centre and whether distance to a health center is a participate more in the labor force out of necessity; the problem. Women who have experienced such violence latter mostly take up self-employment in agriculture, are also one and a half times more likely to have had a while former women undertake casual labor. terminated pregnancy or still birth. Their children were 1.14 times more likely to be stunted than the children Education lowers the likelihood of women’s of mothers who had not been abused (figure 1). participation in the labor force. Two arguments have been articulated to explain this conundrum. The first What can help protect women from violence? In is a supply-side argument according to which the our analysis of women who had experienced violence supply of secure well-paid jobs for educated women in the 12 months prior to NFHS 2005/6, we find that is low. Hence, educated women, who also belong to women who were educated beyond secondary level the higher socioeconomic strata, prefer to opt out of and came from higher wealth quintiles, were least the labor force rather than accept low-status (manual) jobs. The second is a demand-side argument that Figure 1: The Experience of Violence Is Associated with Worse rests on the cultural mores and values of status and Outcomes among Women and Their Children seclusion in the region; this may prevent higher-status households from allowing women to work or demand Child had diarrhea jobs (Chen 1995; Das and Desai, 2003). Eventually the relation between women’s education and labor force Child stunted (last birth) participation takes the form of a “U”, with high labor Woman ever had miscarriage/abortion/ still birth force participation by uneducated women, the lowest labor force participation among women who have Given iron supplements in pregnancy completed primary education, and rising participation Woman had tetanus injection before birth among women with post-primary education (Das One or more antenatal visits 2006). (last pregnancy) 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 Inequalities in wages are a disincentive for women Odds ratios from logistic regression models controlling for individual to work, but they clearly want work! While wages and socioeconomic characteristics have risen in the aggregate for all over the last 10 years Source: NFHS 2005–06; figure 1.7 in report or so, lower wages among women compared with Issue Brief: Poverty and Social Exclusion in India  |  Women 3 Figure 2. Women Are Paid Less Than Men across the Wage Voice and visibility can change outcomes among Distribution women. Data from NFHS 2005/6 indicate that women do not have much voice in major household decisions. For instance, they are least likely to participate in decisions about major household purchases and more likely to participate in decisions regarding their own health care or visits to their own families. Self- Help Groups of women have been among the most successful programs geared at empowering women. Similarly, mandatory legal provisions reserving seats in legislatures for women have enabled women’s participation in public spaces. However, the evidence on whether this has helped improve outcomes among a majority of women is mixed. One of the factors that Source: Staff calculations based on NSS 2004–05; figure 4.7 in report hinder women’s visibility and voice is the threat of physical harm and lack of security outside the home. Threats to women’s security also influence the ability men are probably discouraging women from working of women to access markets and services and claim outside the home. Women’s nominal weekly wages spaces for themselves. This is an area in which policy are, on average, 71 percent of men’s wages in regular can have a huge effect. Making public spaces safe for salaried work and 56 percent of men’s wages in casual women is a major step forward in enhancing women’s work (Das, 2006 based on NSS 2004–05; figure 2). access to these spaces. While low and unequal wages and their concentration in agricultural labor and in “female” occupations are added deterrents for women, they clearly want market work. In the National Sample Survey 2004–05 (NSS), References over 89 percent of the women doing only household chores said they were obliged to do so and one-third Chen, M. 1995. “A Matter of Survival: Women’s Right to said they would accept paid work, in addition to their Employment in India and Bangladesh.”. In Women, household duties. Among the latter, a majority wanted Culture and Development: A Study of Human Capabilities, part-time but regular jobs in sectors such as dairying eds. M. C. Nussbaum and J. Glover, 37–58. Oxford: or tailoring. For most, lack of credit was the most Clarendon Press. important constraint. Das, M. B. 2006. “Do Traditional Axes of Exclusion Affect Labor Market Outcomes in India?” South Asia Social The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Development Discussion Paper 3, World Bank, Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) is an example of a Washington, DC. program that explicitly seeks to provide paid work Das, M. B., and S. Desai. 2003. “Why Are Educated Women to poor women. The scheme mandates that at least Less Likely to Be Employed in India? Testing Competing one-third of workers should be women and makes Hypotheses.” Social Protection Discussion Paper 0313, several provisions to enhance the participation of World Bank, Washington, DC. women (for example, the provision of crèches at Das Gupta, M., W. Chung, and L. Shuzhuo. 2009. “Is There worksites for working mothers and a guarantee of an Incipient Turnaround in Asia’s ‘Missing Girls’ equal wages among men and women). The numbers Phenomenon?” Policy Research Working Paper 4846, on participation, however, are uneven across Indian World Bank, Washington, DC. states. Based on fieldwork in six northern states, Khera Desai, S., A. Dubey, B. Joshi, M. Sen, A. Shariff, and and Nayak (2009) find barriers that still constrain R. Vanneman. 2010. Human Development in India: women’s participation. These include, but are not Challenges for a Society in Transition. New Delhi: Oxford limited to social norms concerning working women, University Press. the lack of adequate childcare facilities, and exacting Government of India. 2008. Eleventh Five Year Plan productivity norms in some states that require harsh (2007–2012). New Delhi: Oxford University Press labor practices if women are to earn the minimum ———. 2010. Economic Survey 2009–10. New Delhi: Oxford daily wage. University Press. 4 Issue Brief: Poverty and Social Exclusion in India  |  Women John, M. E., R. Kaur, R. Palriwala, S. Raju, and A. Sagar. Act.” Economic and Political Weekly, 44 Vol. XLIV, No. 2008. Planning Families, Planning Gender: The Adverse (43), October 24: 49–57. Child Sex Ratio in Selected Districts of Madhya Pradesh, Panda, P., and B. Agarwal. 2005. “Marital Violence, Human Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, and Punjab. Development and Women’s Property Status in India.”, New Delhi: ActionAid and International Development World Development, 33 (5): 823–50. Research Centre. PRB (Population Reference Bureau). 2008. “2008 World Khera, R., and N. Nayak. 2009. “Women Workers and Population Data Sheet.” PRB, Washington, DC. http:// Perceptions of the National Rural Employment Guarantee www.prb.org/pdf08/08WPDS_Eng.pdf. 1117369