A guest post by Raakhee Suryaprakash, Founder, Sunshine Millennium.
Despite grandiose self-publicity and parochial pride
India remains a developing nation. It is not really shining. Its tarnished not
burnished! Millions live under the poverty line, farmer suicides abound,
infrastructure, notwithstanding major projects, seems to be a snarl up of
bottlenecks, while our economy with its inflation and slow GDP can be encapsulated
in the pricing of onions! India is a land of contrasts where abundance coexists
with scarcity. In India’s financial capital, Mumbai, millionaires and
billionaires abound around what was once Asia’s largest slum but no visible
change is observed in the life of Dharavi’s residents or in those of any other
urban Indian slum. Urban migration and overcrowding of metros are affecting the
quality of life and safety of women.
In the face of such contrasts the one theme that can
be observed across the board is the poor plight of women. Rich or poor,
educated or illiterate, in paternalistic ... almost misogynistic India the
fairer sex remains the exploited and violated sex. The multitudes of criminally
misogynistic incidents shock the national conscience but perhaps the sheer
numbers and “ordinariness” of them stall progress in the plight of women. Women
may graduate out of schools and colleges, lead companies, states and even the
country but a vast majority of them face appalling abuse even as they go about
their daily lives overcoming barriers. Breaking glass ceilings and cruising
past milestones may be viewed with pride by some Indians but others go out, get
drunk or get high and plot on how to keep the “weaker sex” in control.
Horrifyingly the ones who plot the downfall of Indian women are not just the
men who go out into society and harass, rape, beat, and murder women to keep
them in check but it is also those men and women who condone their action and
seek to find explanations in the actions of the female victim. It is engendered
in each demand for dowry and every wish and blessing for a male child. Misogyny
is woven into the fabric of Indian society irrespective of sex, caste, status, language,
and religion. It is etched onto the national psyche with each unpunished act of
female foeticide, female infanticide, dowry-related violence and death, rape,
harassment down to the unchecked and seemingly harmless acts of cherishing and
craving a male heir. The latter automatic practices contribute to the feminization
of poverty because even in the educated households of millionaires mindset
makes doormats out of women.
The rant behind me I will concentrate on the essence
of the article. “How to Enrich a Society” or more specifically how to enrich
Indian society? Extrapolating the saying “educate a girl child and you educate
a family” I say you enrich and empower women and you’ll automatically bring
prosperity and abundance into a community. Societies that value, cherish, and empower
their women will fast track their progress because quite simply the mindset of
women is to bring comfort and prosperity to her family. With each woman educated,
employed, and enriched you will find families and communities raised out of
poverty and illiteracy. Thus my answer to the quest for national abundance and
a shining India is a prescription to alleviate feminization of poverty and then
tackle the causes of poverty themselves.
My prescription to alleviate Feminization of Poverty
is an intensive course of Vitamin “E”: Education, Enabling Health, Employment
& Enterprise, Empowerment, and Electricity & E-connect. With the
emergence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes into the arena of
development, social work, and community development I think we have been given
the key to fast-tracking, replicating, proliferating, and corporatizing of the
development of women and India. In my
opinion public-private partnerships (PPPs) in development starting with CSR
programmes of various companies being tailored to suit specific target of
developmental initiatives from the government are the way forward.
EDUCATION
Institutions and initiatives such as Barefoot
College, Swaraj University, and Teach for India have made great strides in the
effective education. Their successes must be replicated and automatically you
will get “quality and the utility of our education, while ensuring equity and
affordability.” Some government primary schools are willing to pay
girls to attend school to incentivise improving their attendance for the family.
Other incentives such as freebies like bicycles, grinders, stipends, laptops
and tablets to female graduates and post graduates in truly disadvantaged and
poor communities are also some short-term fixes that can encourage communities
to educate their girls by sending them to school and college. A scholarship/bond programme for Bachelor of
Education (B. Ed.) students as well as underprivileged first-generation college
goers that takes care of college tuition in exchange for say a year’s service
at a government school – rural or urban – could help deal with the dearth of
government school teachers as well as providing students with motivated teachers
who could double as role models. The teaching service could also be
incentivised to any graduate by making it something the human resources
department of major companies look for in applicants.
ENABLE HEALTH
Anaemia indirectly kills and destroys the quality of
life of more women than most of the dangerous communicable diseases, such as
AIDS and TB, and lifestyle diseases, such as diabetes and cardiovascular
disorders, do directly. A famous Chennai gynaecologist told me a ridiculously
simple, cheap and effective way to ensure reduced maternal and infant mortality:
Ensuring that every
girl child has daily access to proteins and Iron (One handful of “Sundal” – any
boiled nut/pea/chickpea/gram and one Iron tablet) will automatically strengthen
future mothers thus reducing Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) and Infant Mortality
Rate (IMR).
IMR and MMR are internationally recognised
indicators of a nation’s health. India despite being a destination for health
tourism and producing some of the best doctors in the world routinely throws up
poor MMR and IMR statistics. In addition to the handful of sundal being added to noon-meal schemes to add protein to a girl
child’s diet I think CSR programmes of pharmaceutical companies are ideally
situated to supply iron and vitamin supplements to underprivileged girls along
with the noon meal. Access to even one nutritious meal added to timely
vaccinations and healthcare for underprivileged children can be the difference
between life and death and thus will curb IMR. Another major cause of infection and a causal factor
of poor growth in Indians (Indians are one of the shortest races in the world
but People of Indian Origin living away from the subcontinent grow as tall as
native populations, according to one documentary this poor growth in children
under five is linked to bacteria found in the human faeces) is the ubiquitous
practise of open defecation and lack of access to hygienic toilets. A recent
announcement that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme
(MGNREGS) and the Nirmal Bharat Abhigyan are coming together to construct clean
toilets in rural India at government expense while providing rural employment
is a step in the right direction. I hope the collaboration prospers and
programmes are implemented as soon as possible regardless of a possible change
in government. Sulabh International is also powering a silent revolution of
access to clean and cheap toilets as an alternative to open defecation even as it generates
employment and empowers women. Sulabh toilets and replicating the model will
help inculcate the habit of hygiene.
The proposed Bachelor of Rural Medicine is also a
positive development which must be implemented and improved. Availability of a
trained midwife in all villages will also be a check to IMR and MMR. Incentives
not compulsion must be provided to all medical graduates to spend three to
twelve months in a rural setting. The mandatory rural service requirement to a
medical degree should be made as attractive as possible. Its a win-win
proposition as it will improve the young doctors’ knowledge and experience
while gaining villagers access to the good healthcare. Just as newly-minted
district collectors fresh off training seem to have more visible prestige
(thanks to the government bungalow, chauffeured car and multitude of
assistants) than the battle-worn pen-pushers of the North and South Block and
other state capitals, I think rural practitioners fresh off their House Surgeoncy
should be pampered in rural service with similar incentives paid for and built
by CSR and MGNREGS programmes as well as PPPs monitored by local panchayats
with the villagers and rural community as shareholders. In addition to
employment and income generation in the short term the infrastructure of a
proper rural health centre and quarters could enhance the attractions of rural
practise.
The MGNREGS involvement in pond, tank and water-body
reclamation as well as programmes to set up rain water harvesting in poorer communities
will ensure access to clean water which in turn will have a positive effect on
its health.
EMPLOYMENT & ENTERPRISE
Employment opportunities, enterprise development,
and incubation cells with women at the heart of all such programmes will have a
transformational effect on any society. Encouraging local handicrafts made by
women and connecting them with national and international buyers will bring
much needed revenue to women without them having to become farm and daily-wage
labourers involved in back-breaking work. Marketing and providing innovations
such as the water wheel to women will make daily chores such as collecting
water easier. Matching innovations that will help in daily life to employment
schemes such as the successful marketing programme of D.light solar lamps
across rural communities in North India will not only generate income for the
women trained in that aspect of business but will also incentivise companies
helping communities that are readymade markets. By introducing “green” technologies
such as composting, rain-water harvesting, solar energy devices, recycling,
solid-waste management to enterprise development cells for women communities
could benefit from both hitching their wagon to the “green” trend as well as
having a source of income. Socially Useful and Productive Work (SUPW) and National
Service Scheme (NSS) cells of colleges and management institutions as well as
CSR departments of companies should tie-up with such women’s enterprise cell. Thus
people/women from different backgrounds could interact and positively influence
each other.
EMPOWERMENT
This aspect is more abstract than others. While
education, health and wealth are concrete concepts empowerment as an
achievement is difficult to quantify. It involves a degree of “unlearning” that
societies are reluctant to do. Changing the patterns of behaviour, habits,
automatic assumptions and prejudices takes time and effort but will have an
exponential effect on development. It’s an oft-repeated cliché “Empowerment of
women must come from within as well as without.” Something easier said than
done! Gender sensitisation and re-educating the society to value the girl-child
and cherish its women is essential to empower women. Political empowerment and
creating a network of women to support and nourish the progress of underprivileged
women are but limited solutions to an issue woven into the fabric of society. Support to breakthrough glass ceilings should come
from parents, spouses, siblings, community and society to ensure that women in
power are the norm rather than exceptions.
ELECTRICITY & E-CONNECT
At the heart of anything is energy. One needs energy
to fuel change. To enrich a society or provide women with opportunities for
success, whether urban or rural, you need some basic infrastructure. Uninterrupted
electricity supply, internet connectivity, access to internet centres and
peripherals such personal computers, laptops, tablets, and smart phones can
connect women and communities to a larger, “richer” community that can sustain
and assist in their development. Setting up of internet centres equipped by
peripherals sourced from people who have moved on to newer technology can make
a virtue out of blatant consumerism. Solar panels, bio-gas, and other
unconventional off-grid solutions should bring electricity and light to
underprivileged sections of society be they rural villages or urban slums.
Sourcing, trading, servicing and recycling such peripherals can become a
lucrative enterprise in itself. We are the “facebook/smart phone generation”
and our peers are constantly connected. There are advantages and disadvantages
to this online lifestyle. The opportunities are endless and there is a great
possibility that the “street smart” underprivileged could harness the internet
to yield better benefits than we’ve ever dreamt off. The technology and
innovations available are endless they just need to be directed to where there
is a need and dearth. By taking a multipronged approach that focuses on
providing access to education, health, employment, enterprise, empowerment,
electricity, and e-connect the quality of the female life is enhanced and
poverty alleviated. India’s tarnished glory can thus be restored.
Raakhee Suryaprakash
has a Master’s degree in International Studies and a Bachelor’s degree in
Chemistry but her passion remains writing and researching things that change
the world for the better. Her work has been widely published both in print and
online media. Raakhee Suryaprakash is in the process of launching a social
enterprise SUNSHINE MILLENNIUM that aims to help India's off-grid rural areas achieve
the Millennium Development Goals by setting up of solar-powered millennium
development centres maintained by local stakeholders and funded by corporate
social responsibility programmes and government schemes.
