Book Review by Sonal Shukla*

Discourse on Women & Empowerment Edited by Vibhuti Patel, The Woman Press, Delhi,
2009, pages: XIV + 248, Price: 595

It has long been accepted now that development strategies have not benefitted all sections of
society. Indeed some sections have actually been impacted adversely by development policies
and processes. Women are among the most adversely affected groups, wider spread of dowry
phenomenon, declining sex ratio for women and girls and housewifization of labour are among
the many issues that prove that people need to be empowered for development plans to meet
their objectives. It was not only due to deteriorating status of women that planners brought in or
attempted to bring in women’s perspective. It was also because women’s groups functioning at
academic and field levels as well as liberal development economists pointed out that
development plans failed because of the continued low status of women. Discourse on Women
and Empowerment edited by Dr. Vibhuti Patel is, therefore, a welcome publication since its
content ranges from theoretical issues of gender and development thinking to arguing a case for
women’s empowerment with illustrations from ground reality. I will refer to only a few of the
essays when actually each of at least half of the essays and papers presented here require an
independent debate. I congratulate the editor for selection of chapters and the authors for
maintaining a lucid style while discussing issues in a scholarly manner.

Even though Globalisation is not mentioned in the title it remains at the centre of all
presentations in some way or the other. It is not surprising since we are dealing with women’s
empowerment in today’s context. Here we must note that once inevitability of globalization was
accepted we found actual change in lexicon. If you read a 30 year old paper by a brilliant social
scientist you will wonder how meaning of terms like ‘liberal’ or ‘radical’ or ‘reform’ has
changed.. The terms that were associated with emancipation of the poor and were inclusive of
justice for women today mean free market economy where capital travels and labour is static. In
flow of new products and brands have created a culture of glamorous life style among middle
classes who can now access these products at lower prices as the production takes place within
India now. They can enter higher level and highly paying jobs in IT industry and business, media
and management. However, work available to poor women is increasingly home based,
exhausting and without any scope for job promotion. Even when they have jobs in export based
production units the salaries are only marginally higher. On the other hand the primary goods
they use such as fish, local fruit etc. cost much higher because they are exported out. As
consumers they lose whereas their jobs are in such ghettoed conditions that there is no scope for
them to emerge as strong well informed women. Young unmarried girls from vulnerable sections
are employed in export oriented production units and in Special Economic Zones. All they learn
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are specific production skills for that business and to spend money on clothes, beauty products,
cell phones and the like. There are no way these women and girls can become participants in
their own empowerment. The situation is not too different from BPOs where middle class girls
and boys work. Damyanti Bhattacharya in her paper on “The Material Impact of Economic
Globalisation on Women – Exploding a Few Myths” mentions that “Globalisation as a term is
seldom defined clearly. Rather, it is used in many different senses without clarifying the
boundaries of the debate in each case.’ According to her market –oriented approach to gender
equality relegates women to merely safety net entitlement and see their situation in isolation. She
argues for viewing impact of macro economic strategy on economy, culture and society with a
perspective that is sensitive to women’s reality. She insists that we must talk about Feminisation
of Poverty before we talk of feminization of labour and who can argue against this when she
brings in data on decline in food consumption and worsening health situation as government
withdraws from welfare areas? It is our own experience at Vacha Resource Centre for Women
and Girls that infromalisation of work resulting in home based production and family labour
system takes away girls’ time from study, play or any activity crucial for their overall
development. They must help mothers with the low piece wage work and they are not considered
wage earners. Nor do they come under the purview of child labour. I would not argue against
girls pitching in work that is crucial for family survival but it must be noted that boys are much
less involved in this production activity. This has consequences for acquiring crucial life skills
and developing one’s potential. A study of gender factor in primary education in Mumbai and
Ahmedabad by Vacha with Setu in Ahmedabad reveals that while boys in Hindi medium schools
had picked up Gujarati language in Ahmedabad girls from the same community were not well
versed in the language as they did not use common playgrounds or go out for family shopping.

It is in the background of this stark reality that Barbara Kalima’s piece on Debt to Women
Concept has to be viewed. The author is well known for her work on debt cancellation and her
essay with the subtitle Reflections on a Just and Caring Economy, Alternatives to Globalisation
is just that, namely, powerful but caring vision that combines her policy analysis skills with
brave emotional appeal, brave because it is not easy to retain one’s status as a serious academic
or even administrator and yet refuse to be dry and unemotional. She refers to the slogan that
Globalisation is a Man. For women, she makes it clear, the issue is governance. She asks, “Will
women have a democratic voice in deciding what rules are in the best interest of society? Or will
a small elite meeting far from public view be allowed to set the rules that shape the human
future?” This question is significant in the light of some of the most questionable developments
in past few decades. To name just one of them, how many people were aware in 1960s and ‘70s
that millions of dollars were being spent on developing injectables and various other invasive
contraceptives products and methods? Investments are made to develop product and top govts.
and international agencies are lobbied already when an injectible or some reproductive
technology is introduced, rather sold aggressively as the only answer to women’s woes and a
boon to the mankind. When were women ever made part of these processes? By the time
women’s groups become wise to the devious strategies the product has been approved by their
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govts and popularized through various channels even if it can be detrimental to women’s health
and sexuality. The same applies to planning of big dams where tribals and other villagers are not
even made aware of how the dams will affect quality of their life. Displacement caused under
these plans causes worse problems for tribal and rural women. What displacement can mean to
the urban poor is already brought out lucidly in a short article by Neha Madhiwala, which is
experience based and analytical. It refers to urban planning that does not take into consideration
things like poor women’s work patterns and forms of social interaction and what that means in
terms of their being active members of a community. The detailed paper titled Women’s Right to
Land and Housing by Vibhuti Patel takes up the very basic issue of land rights, land that women
have almost never been allowed to own. In Gujarati there is a phrase to connote easily grabbed
commodity. It is called bodi bamaninu khetar. It refers to agricultural land owned by a Brahmin
widow who would have be a bodi i.e. with a shaven head. This is from the time when Brahmin
women were not out in productive labour and were handicapped by purdah and ban on
remarriage. In short they were vulnerable women. The saying refers to an easy grab that is as
easy as taking away land of a Brahmin widow, Today it applies to all women from vulnerable
sections of society. Here point by point the reader learns about the struggle in Bodhgaya where
only a fraction of land released from the local math was finally registered in women’s name or
how adivasi women in Bihar and Maharashtra have challenged customary laws that deprive them
of right to inherit land. One appreciates that witch hunting of old women is mentioned here as a
land grab tactic. Feminist urban architect Neera Adarkar shares her perceptions in this paper
about planning housing that also reflects women’s needs and concerns.

In context of reproductive rights of women it is not just the matter of dubious contraceptives but
the diabolic schemes of sex selection that have been seductively persuasive and have
successfully prevented the very birth of a female child. Combining traditional son preference
with modern technology and making misuse of liberal abortion laws takes away the guilt that a
family may feel in actually killing a daughter after she is born, a practice that has been prevalent
in a limited number of communities. Sex pre-selection helps them not even having to go through
an abortion to kill a female foetus. Starting in 1970s these practices have reduced female ratios to
dangerous levels when girls from poor communities are being purchased for bridegrooms and
new polyandrous practices are coming into existence. Kamayani Bali Mahabal traces history of
this practice and enumerates arguments used in support of sex selection, categorizes them and
then exposes their poor rationale. There are no norms –social, ethical, traditional or religious –
that are not violated to commit female foeticide. While rich agrarian communities of Punjab and
Haryana are at the forefront in female foeticide the predominantly vegetarian Gujarat is not far
behind. The urban areas are leading in this form of violence with major trade and industry centre
Surat in Gujarat heading the national list. The sex ratio per thousand declined by 94 in Surat in
2001 when compared to 1991 census Other two major centres of decline in sex ratio are Kanpur
with 84 less women and Ahmedbad with 72 as quoted by Mahabal.

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Though Self Help Groups have come under much criticism of late and Vibhuti Patel does refer to
this when she talks of disturbing trends, her paper on Women’s Leadership in Micro Finance
highlights great good that SHGs have done when women in need of small financing were ending
in blind alleys in market. One of the instances documented by her is about the collective strength
of an SHG group that drove away a mobile Ultra Sound unit after discussing female foeticide
issue in their meetings. It is a small but significant example of the way in which empowering
processes are intertwined and act in a holistic way. Women’s testimonies in this paper reveal
how they learn to shed conventional shyness and learn to speak out. The paper mentions how
women in Purandar district took up school improvement once organized under a saving group.
There are case studies of successful SHG groups and details of what role banks, NGOs and
various other agencies must play. And since NGOs, Govt. as well as now Corporate Sector with
its Social Responsibility agenda operates through social workers it is extremely important to see
if social workers themselves are gender sensitive and equipped to deal with local situations with
a gender perspective. Nandini Mondal’s essay “Social Work Education in Ushering Social
Change in India” makes essential reading in this regard.

One must note use of songs and poetry in Vibhuti Patel’s paper. One has seen this in some of her
earlier work also. These songs and poems play a very important role in processes of women’s
empowerment. They carry feelings and messages. Women express their life experiences, their
dreams and desires through them. They have an emotional impact and everybody knows that
emotions have a cognitive element; they move people to do things. Yet they are seldom given
their due by academia. At best they might be rendered at the start or end of a seminar or
conference but seldom mentioned or documented as a valuable resource or collective testimony
of women. Vibhuti Patel needs to be complimented for giving them an authentic place in
academic locale. Women’s Studies is an interdisciplinary area and cultural output cannot be out
of it.

*Sonal Shukla is Director, Vacha Women’s Resource Centre, Mumbai