Despite being a signatory of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which seek to tackle Gender Equality and Women Empowerment, India ranks 108th from 149 countries on Global Gender Gap 2018.
This depicts the negligence of women in the national discourse on development and the inadequate gender-mainstreaming in Indian policy-making. This article traces the integration of women’s issues in the two most widely accepted models of development in India; Gujarat and Kerala.
The Kerala model is predominantly a state-led developmental model oriented towards welfare measures, while the Gujarat model is seen as an engine of profound economic growth with a dominating role of private enterprise. These variants also initiated the famous Sen-Bhagwati debate over which one should be the appropriate model of development for India. Sen believed that investment in social infrastructure was indispensable to achieve sustained economic growth, Bhagwati, on the other hand, held that economic infrastructure was a prerequisite to achieve growth in social infrastructure.
Gujarat has performed well on most key macroeconomic indicators and even recorded the highest growth in Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP); Kerala, on the other hand, is globally renowned for its high human development index and excellence at social indicators.
Table 1 compares Gujarat and Kerala’s performance on women’s’ status and well-being:
|
INDICATORS |
GUJARAT |
KERALA |
INDIA |
|
Sex Ratio (females per thousand males) |
950 |
1049 |
991 |
|
Women who are literate (%) (15-49) |
72.9% |
97.9% |
68.4% |
|
Women with 10 or more years of schooling (%) |
33.0% |
72.2% |
35.7% |
|
Women age 20-24 years married before age 18 years (%) |
24.9% |
7.6% |
26.8% |
|
Infant mortality rate (IMR) |
34 |
6 |
41 |
|
Mothers who had full antenatal care8 (%)8 Full antenatal care is at least four antenatal visits, at least one tetanus toxoid (TT) injection and iron folic acid tablets or syrup taken for 100 or more days. |
30.7% |
61.2% |
21.0% |
|
Institutional births (%) |
88.5% |
99.8% |
78.9% |
|
Women whose Body Mass Index (BMI) is below normal (BMI < 18.5 kg/m2 ) 14 (%) |
27.2% |
9.7% |
22.9% |
|
All women age 15-49 years who are anaemic (%) |
54.9% |
34.3% |
53.1% |
|
Currently married women who usually participate in household decisions (%) |
85.4% |
92.1% |
84.0% |
|
Ever-married women who have ever experienced spousal violence (%) |
20.1% |
14.3% |
31.1% |
|
Women owning a house and/or land (alone or jointly with others) (%) |
27.2% |
34.9% |
38.4% |
|
Women having a bank or savings account that they themselves use (%) |
48.6% |
70.6% |
53.0% |
|
Women having a mobile phone that they themselves use (%) |
47.9% |
81.2% |
45.9% |
|
Women who worked in the last 12 months who were paid in cash (%) |
30.2% |
20.4% |
24.6% |
|
Women age 15-24 years who use hygienic methods of protection during their menstrual period18 (%) (Locally prepared napkins, sanitary napkins and tampons are considered as hygienic methods of protection.) |
60.3% |
90.0% |
57.6% |
Source - National Family Health Survey (NFHS) IV - 2015-2016
The above table shows that the Kerala model appears to be ‘women inclusive’ as it performed better than both Gujarat and the national average. The state has also initiated gender budgeting, and produces gender-disaggregated data to facilitate the formation of gender-sensitive institutions and policies. The Kudumbshree movement in the state has been applauded worldwide for its decentralized decision-making system with the dominant role of women, which has resulted in better social indicators and development index in terms of women’s equality.
But, Kerala also poses a paradox. On the one hand, it has high human development indicators with regards to sex ratio, maternal mortality, literacy etc.; but on the other hand, it has performed worse than the national average in terms of political and economic participation. Moreover, according to the NCRB data report, women in Kerala are more subjected to violence and crime compared to women in Gujarat. The statistics are as follows:
Crime Against Women
|
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
2017 |
|
|
Gujarat |
10854 |
7777 |
8532 |
8133 |
|
Kerala |
11451 |
9767 |
10034 |
11057 |
Source - National Crime Records Bureau
Moreover, despite high crime rates, the budgetary allocation for police and women’s safety remains abysmally low in Kerala. Women’s safety is one of the prime causes of the existing gender gap in the economic sphere. The studies reveal that women in Kerala have a higher unemployment rate, face greater wage discrimination, and do not have equal access to economic resources and political participation.
In addition, while Kerala has a higher female literacy rate than Gujarat, Gujarat has a higher Female Labor Force Participation Rate (FLFPR). That being said, while has experienced high economic growth, it performs poorly in terms of women’s economic empowerment.
Furthermore, upon taking a closer look at the female labour force participation rates, urban Kerala has a higher FLFPR (22.2) than urban Gujarat (13.5). Women in Kerala receive higher average wage salaries and are more engaged in regular/salaried wage work, which highlights the increasing casualisation of the female workforce in Gujarat, where many women are working jobs that they are forced to do due to societal expectations, rather than choosing their profession. Furthermore, Gujarat has severe regional disparities in terms of female literacy, maternal health and nutritional status of women.
In terms of political development, both states present a mixed picture. Gujarat has a higher percentage of female participation in the Lok Sabha. On the other hand, Kerala has 52% women as elected representatives in Panchayats.
Thus, despite high female employment, women empowerment and gender equality remain largely absent from the Gujarat model of development. Economic growth is not been synonymous with development and policy-makers cannot remain under the assumption that the trickle-down effect of economic growth will eventually boost the social growth of the state. While more women in Gujarat are employed, they earn less money than their counterparts in Kerala and work lesser-skilled, casual jobs which perpetuate gender stereotypes.
Conversely, Kerala performs well across multiple social indicators, in large part due to the prevalence and legacy of the matrilineal system in the state. This has resulted in higher female literacy rates which enables them to break gender stereotypes by working in skilled, salaried positions. That being said, while the Kerala model of development performs better than Gujarat, Kerala too faces a serious challenge in addressing economic and political equality, which has constrained the full potential of female empowerment in the state. Since the social development of women has not resulted in their economic and political empowerment; state investment is an imperative prerequisite to addressing the existing challenges to achieving holistic development of women.
Gender bias is deeply embedded in the cultural and social fabric of the country. To combat this, states must act as agents of change by identifying the institutional underpinnings of gender inequality and integrate gender concerns in their development policies. Gender parity is essential for the sustainable development of any nation. It is a multi-dimensional process, and a state's role is imperative in ensuring the inclusion of women in development initiatives.