Improving the lot of rural women
Sinha, A.K.
Yojana 32(9): 26-29
1988
ISSN/ISBN: 0044-0515 PMID: 12281795 Document Number: 359255
The 1st part of this essay uses a study of 113 households in Bihar state, India, to show that India's programs and policies have not had any significant impact on the majority of rural women; the 2nd part proposes a way to implement the policies of the 7th Five-Year Plan, committing India toward economic development of women. In Bihar 76% of the women are illiterate, and of those who attended school, fewer had advanced diplomas than did men. 24% of women, compared with 51% of men, work, but 89.5% of working women did unskilled labor. Most rural women remain uneducated, unskilled and neglected. The 7th Five-Year Plan applies employment, education, health, nutrition, science and technology to development, with a special commitment to women. A Women's Development Corporation and a Woman Development Planning and Monitoring Cell for evaluation are envisioned. The difficulty with all these schemes, as has happened to previous Plans, is that the programs are implemented well on paper, but are subject to the same bureaucracy for actual implementation. It is suggested that a direct Plan formulation and implementation machinery be developed, with power to act effectively. Incentives should be provided by the Rural Women Development Corporation. To improve women's development, the mass awakening needed should be implemented as a movement, rather than as a government administration.