Despite skepticism regarding the tokenism around International Women’s Day, the importance of the event is in the way it reminds us of the promises we broke and the commitments we failed to make.

India has a few women icons of international standing, for good or for bad, and a vast mass of women living a life of oblivion, invisible, unheard. Women’s day provide a platform where they, albeit shortly, capture our mind-space, as we read and reflect about them in the newspapers and TV that very graciously provides space to the women activities and social workers to talk about less glamorous issues and women. Indeed, Womens’s day provides a statutory responsibility- to have ‘stories’ and ‘features’ about women, going beyond the valentine day content. For once, the issues also seem to go beyond the now stereotype contest over expressions of women’s empowerment through establishing rights to visit pubs and consume alcohol to talk about such rights as the right to be born, to live beyond infancy, to meet hunger, to go to school….

According to the gender budgeting statement analysis by Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA), the government’s per capita allocation for women-centric schemes is less than Rs 1,200 per woman per annum with a majority of allocations restricted to health and education, leaving areas like economic and political participation neglected with less than 1% of the resources. While sectoral allocation for political participation — including awareness programs — is 0.07%, economic participation in the form of skill development or creation of resources for women is 0.49%.

What is perhaps of greater concern is the challenge to translate outlays into outcomes. In doing that, one of the biggest barriers is our attitude and approach towards- ‘women’s’ issues. Despite efforts at gender budgeting, we are yet very far from understanding the gender-differentiated impacts of policies. This is also reflected in which media reacts to it- while there is a huge amount of news items on food rise, there is only a handful on the impact of food insecurity on women and the girl children under the present circumstances and the way it impacts the health of the nation. One would actually think these are separate issues while the reality is that food prices, far from being gender neutral, it is something the impacts women the most, especially in the context of malnourishment and anemia.

The gendered aspect of development and its challenges is something that needs attention and awareness. Media can play an important role in that. Women’s day provides the context and the space for such discussions. So rather than rejecting it as yet another act of tokenism, let us seize the opportunity to talk about the women and then, more importantly, walk the talk.

Does having a Women’s day change anything?

Gender-Responsive Budgeting (GRB) is a form of budgeting that contributes to the advancement of gender equality and the fulfillment of women’s rights. It entails identifying and reflecting needed interventions to address gender gaps in sector and local government policies, plans and budgets. GRB also aims to analyze the gender-differentiated impact of revenue-raising policies and the allocation of domestic resources and Official Development Assistance.

GRB initiatives seek to create enabling policy frameworks, build capacity and strengthen monitoring mechanisms to support accountability to women. As such, it is a process that entails incorporating a gender perspective at various stages—planning/ policy/ programmes formulation, assessment of needs of target groups, allocation of resources, implementation, impact assessment and if required, reprioritization of resources.

Given that the women represent 48 percent of the total population in the country and that owning to various factors, they face disparities in access to and control over services and resources, the government, in an important initiative has mandated setting up of Gender Budgeting Cells (GBCs) in all Ministries/Departments.

The move also stems from the recognition that the bulk of public expenditure and policy concerns are in so called “gender neutral” sectors– power, defence, petroleum, transport, etc, whereas, in actual terms, there is no sector which can be considered to be completely “gender neutral”.

What is important about gender budgeting in the realization that it is not an accounting exercise. Gender Responsive Budget and Gender mainstreaming are outcomes of Gender Budgeting. Given this, there was an allocation of Rs. 28,737 cr. for benefit of women estimated from 24 demand for grants in 18 Ministries and Departments. The process has been extended to all levels of governance—Centre, State, District, local governance and also to Public Sector units and Autonomous Bodies. Gender Auditing has also been made mandatory.

While it is too early to comment on the performance of the initiative, it is indeed a welcome step and if implemented well, it can address some of the important issues pertaining to women specifically with regard to access to resources. However, for that to happen, it is important to ensure that there are adequate structures and mechanisms to ensure that there is space for participation of women in budgetary exercise, be it from SHGs or other platforms. Without this, plans would continue to be made in isolation from the reality. For how long can we afford it?

How can gender budgeting be made effective?

• Estimation of underemployment levels reveals that unemployment growth rates are much higher for the females, than for the males

• A significant percentage of females out of labour force have high educational qualifications. As high as 68% graduate females are not in labour force, while the corresponding figures for male is only 13%. At the post-graduate level, percentage of females not in labour force is around 53% while it is only around 10% for males

• A huge proportion of females remain out of labour force due to domestic duties. Even in the working age-group of 25-59, the figure stands at around 60%. The figures are similar for both urban and rural females

• State-wise distribution of persons who are not in labour force does not show much variation. The percentage figures are similar for males across states. However, there are significant variations among females not in labour force. The highest percentage of females not in labour force is in the Northern states of Delhi (92.10%) and Chattisgarh (89.50%), and the lowest is in the state of Himachal Pradesh (51.70%)

• In majority of the firms (2/3rd), the percentage share of women employed in the total workforce is between 11-30. Very few firms (0.7%) have equal gender representation in their workforce composition

India Labour Market Survey, 2009

The above points reflect and highlight the unfavorable condition faced by the women in the Indian labour market. One of the main reasons for low work participation that have been pointed out are lower wage rates in many occupations and women are denied of many occupations though they are capable of doing the work as well as men (Planning Commission, 2008). Also, while in the rural areas it is easier to find jobs in the farm and in the household industries and there are such advantages as proximity to homes making it possible to balance household responsibilities well, most of these jobs are casual that render them insecure. Women in agriculture are seldom recognized as farmers but rather as helpers to their male family members. In the cities, women in unorganized sector work under exploitative circumstances. Educated women have issues managing work-life balance.

Unless our attitude towards working women changes, we will continue to underutilize the potential of half of our population. There is a need for greater recognition that economic aspirations, zeal for self-actualization are as important as domestic responsibilities. With the recognition should come the society’s own arrangement for taking care of the young, the infirm and the elderly. Without these corresponding arrangements- the entire thing about women’s liberation would be nothing more than empty rhetoric.

What should be done to make the labour market favourable to women?

• Unemployment rate is seen to increase, with an increase in educational attainment and is particularly high after the secondary level of education. Unemployment rate among educated females, in both urban and rural areas, is the highest.

• Unemployment rates are higher for urban persons as compared to rural persons. Urban females have the highest unemployment rates at 9.22% and rural females have the lowest rates at 7.31%.

• A state wise analysis for unemployment trends reveals that comparatively developed states such as Goa and Kerala have the highest unemployment rates of 11.39% and 9.13% respectively. Whereas lowest unemployment rates of 0.48% and 0.77% are found in less developed states such as Uttaranchal and Chattisgarh.

• Unemployment is highest for the age categories of 10 to 24 corroborating the view that youth unemployment is on the rise in India.

India Labour Market Report, 2008

Since independence, the Indian labour market has seen significant changes with changing paradigm of economic growth and the way it should be managed. From emphasis on public sector and later nationalization to changing trends with opening up of the economy has been accompanied by turbulence. However, across all these periods, the issue of unemployment has persisted- jobless growth, regional widening inequality and a mismatch between the skill set required and available has been a problems that planner sand policy makers have not been able to adequately address. As the India Labour Market Report, prepared by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences observes, ‘The paradoxical feature of a positive Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate along with unfavorable employment trends have been one of the most pressing contemporary concerns’.

Employment data in India has provided paradoxical results. The 61st round of NSS survey (2004-05) showed that while jobs are growing at a faster rate than the population, unemployment is also growing, since previously unemployed persons from the categories of women and elderly, are looking for job opportunities now. The second aspect of the paradox is that while the government is not able to provide jobs for the people, the growing sectors are unable to find suitable manpower- indicating a skill-set mismatch between education and industries. Thus the issue is double edged- 1) there is a lack of employment opportunities and resultant underemployment of educated masses and 2) industry is not finding ‘employable work force’.

The recent talks about changes in the demand side of the labour market alone (such as moving away from capital intensive methods to more labour intensive one) for the purpose of inclusive growth are not only regressive but could be counter-productive as it would generate greater mismatches in the labour market.

Recent research by such agencies as TISS is increasingly pointing towards employability as a planning strategy to address the concern. Generating employability by creating flexible learning institutions/systems with no entry barrier with cooperative initiatives by state and market can be an inclusive strategy in this direction. Given that barring a few islands of excellence the Indian education system has not been able to adequately create employable skill, it is important to focus on approaches and institutions to generate employability. Is our planning process receptive?

How do we enhance the work preparedness of our youth?

After six decades of independence, India acknowledged the right to education as a fundamental right of its children. Several gaps exist in order to translate this right into a reality for the children of the country. However, a recent announcement by Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has given a good reason to cheer. The board has reminded its schools that admission cannot be denied on the grounds that students were differently abled. In doing this, it has taken a long due bur at the same a huge step towards offering equal opportunity to all children seeking an education, including those with “special needs”.

A recent Board circular says, “It is being reiterated that any school which fails to provide attention to a child with special needs or makes a pretext of denying admission to any category of differently abled children will be liable to stringent action even to the extent of disaffiliation.” The circular makes it mandatory for schools to have a special educator and to create an “individual evaluation program” for special children based on their abilities and skill sets.

Since special children may not be able to focus on the teacher during classroom interactions, and their pace of learning may be at variance with the rest of the class, schools have been told to allow a parent or aide to sit with the child in class and motivate him to “move along with the rest of the class”.

What is most significant is that the board has not stopped at the rhetoric of ‘inclusive education’ but actually spoken of necessary interventions to translate this vision into a set of concrete actions that the schools have to take. Honestly, these are not very difficult actions. Indeed when schools can have all kinds of programs like teaching foreign languages and such activities as horse riding, that they do not have special educators/teachers only reflect a lack of will. This holds true not just for the elite schools but across all schools- just as schools have a Maths teachers or a language teacher- the schools must have a special teacher.

This also shows that the government is at last moving away from the approach of having specialized schools and talking in terms of integrated schools. Indeed, internationally integrated systems have worked well - in addition to boosting the self esteem of the special children and their caregivers, it also makes other children sensitive to the special needs of others- again not with sympathetic eyes- but with an understanding of diversity of human form.

What is going to be a challenge is to find so many special educators. ‘Special Education’ has not been considered a lucrative career option and hence there are neither many institutes nor many teachers. However, with the recent governmental thrust and the resultant demand it is likely to generate, it might attract more students.

Whatever it is, this is certainly a laudable change and CBSE deserves all applauses for the step.

What are the greatest challenges to integrated schools in India?

The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs’ (UNDESA) data estimates that the number of India’s poor was 33.6 million higher in 2009 than would have been the case if the growth rates of the years from 2004 to 2007 had been maintained. In 2009 alone, an estimated 13.6 million more people in India became poor or remained in poverty than would have been the case at 2008 growth rates. The 2.1% decline in India’s GDP growth rate has effectively translated into a 2.8% increase in the incidence of poverty.
(Times of India )

This points towards high human consequences for India’s poor who did not have any social security cover. Recession ensured that more people remained poor and many more became poor. The causes are a combination of reduced household incomes, rising unemployment and pressure on public services. Job losses in India were primarily in export-oriented industries like textiles while employment levels in Indian firms catering to the domestic market were largely unaffected, the report says.

A point to note is that the construction industry was not covered under the report. Given that real estate was one of the most badly hit sectors, it is likely that there were many job losses, especially for the daily wage earners in the sector that would make the projection of poverty even higher.

While presence of programs like National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGA) provided some relief to the poor, given that its implementation is not uniform across India and that many are still outside its aegis, this is indeed inadequate measure given the scale and magnitude of the problem.

Added to this is the sky rocketing price of the essential commodities that have pushed the poor to the margins. There seems to be no control over the rise. At the same time, there are reports of truck loads of vegetables rotting in some parts of the country like Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh because of overproduction.

What is most disturbing is the lack of any control that people have over these. It is an impossible situation where there are no forums where people can get their grievances addressed. If this is no impact, wonder what is?

Do you agree that India is insulated from the impacts of global economic meltdown?

Climate change is the latest media scoop. It is almost fashionable in the media to ‘expose’ one ‘flaw’ after another of the findings of the International panel of Climate Change (IPCC). For many it is a vested group supported malign campaign. At the same time, it is also irresponsible media reporting that totally obscures the wider and real picture.

There is no denying that there was a mistake, particularly on its predictions about the future of the Himalayan glaciers. It’s a crucial mistake considering IPCC’s came into existence in order to facilitate scientific assessment, bring together robust evidence and undertake scientific studies on global warming and climate change. However, while all institutions should be open to questions, discrediting the entire climate debate based on this is stretching it too far.

The IPCC mistakenly published a figure that was not drawn from peer-reviewed literature, disregarding its stringent review processes. IT has subsequently issued a formal apology and has promised a stricter review process for the upcoming Fifth Assessment Report, which will summarize the current state of climate change science. Climate science plays a complex and important role in shaping vital policy decisions. Any misstep in the IPCC process is therefore of concern, and must be remedied.

However, the important thing is to, again, keep looking at the broader picture. The mistake, however serious, does not challenge the basis of climate change science, or evidence of global warming that is already visible across the globe. After many years of concerted international effort, to a great extent led by IPCC, our understanding of climate change has improved dramatically. There is no doubt that greenhouse gas emissions are leading to higher temperatures and sea levels, greater stresses on water supplies, and changes in ecosystems. They are also a leading factor in the retreat of most of the world’s glaciers.

Yes, the glaciers will not be gone by 2035, but the water they store will diminish throughout the region. This means additional stress on the region’s already limited freshwater supply. In recent years, groundwater level in northern India has been dropping one metre every three years. Meanwhile, demand for water in India is projected to double in the next 20 years. These additional stresses combined with regional warming pose a major challenge to the availability of adequate water supplies for the region in future. (Source: TimesofIndia) Can we discount all these concerns? Should we not develop a plan to deal with the situation? If not, who will be accountable?

It is important to be alert of the media scoops and fads. It will move from one sensational issue to the other, often without realizing the damage it might have caused. Also, it is convenient to be a climate skeptic in this climate of denial. However, it makes more sense to accept the ‘inconvenient truth’ about climate change and take steps to ensure that our children have a safer future.

Is the IPCC goof up eroding people’s faith in the climate change debate?

Suddenly everybody is talking glaciers?

What do we know about the glaciers, by the way? We dealt with them in our Class V (or VII) geography lessons: “A huge mass of ice slowly flowing over a land mass, formed from compacted snow in an area where snow accumulation exceeds melting and sublimation.”

 In recent times, building on concerns regarding climate change, there is a bit of an addition to the definition: “The retreat of glaciers affects the availability of fresh water for irrigation and domestic use, mountain recreation, animals and plants that depend on glacier-melt, and in the longer term, the level of the oceans. Studied by glaciologists, the temporal coincidence of glacier retreat with the measured increase of atmospheric greenhouse gases is often cited as an evidentiary underpinning of global warming”.

Glaciers are natural reservoirs, storing valuable freshwater on remote mountains for much of the population on our planet. For communities downstream of mountain glaciers, most of the energy, agriculture and infrastructures are developed in the context of an annual cycle of gradual melt-water runoff during the dry season. Naturally, the disappearance of the glaciers would have enormous socioeconomic impact around the world and with global warming that process is already underway- it might take more than what the IPCC had mistakenly predicted for the Himalayan Glaciers, but the process is on.

Peru and Bolivia have more than 90 per cent of the world’s tropical glaciers within their territories, and are also two of the poorest countries in Latin America (with 49 per cent and 63 per cent respectively of their populations living below the national poverty line). From the early 1970s to 2006, the surface area of glaciers in Peru and Bolivia decreased by 30 per cent. A long-term decline in water availability during the dry season would have very significant consequences for millions of poor people in both countries. (Human Development Report, 2007-2008).

 Studies predict there will be a dramatic decline, in the long-term, in water availability in the dry season in areas fed by glaciers. The accelerated melting of the tropical Andean glaciers is an undisputed fact. Dozens of articles in scientific journals have charted the demise of the ‘water towers of the world’ as a result mainly of rising air temperatures. Different modeling methods predict small increases in overall water availability in many areas fed by glaciers over the next 25-50 years due to increased glacial melt.(Human Development Report, 2007-2008).

 We do not know nearly enough about glacier behaviour, or about how the different drivers of water supply interact. Finally, more scientific research, subject to careful peer review is critical to build a body of knowledge about glaciers. However, even if we were armed with better data, climate change is riddled with variability and surprises for which we should be prepared.

In the context of geographical variability and unpredictability, what should be done to strengthen the knowledge base on climate change? Is there a need for greater decentralization?

In a recent news announcement, the HRD ministry has decided to de-recognize as many as 44 “deemed universities”.  The HRD ministry’s review committee found following glaring omissions in case of 44 deemed universities:

* Undesirable management structure where families rather than professional academics controlled the functioning
* Several institutions had violated the principles and guidelines prescribing excellence in teaching and research and were engaged in introduction of thoughtless programmes
* Little evidence of noticeable efforts in case of emerging areas of knowledge
* Little evidence of commitment towards research
* Institutions increased their intake capacity disproportionately
* Undergraduate and post-graduate courses were fragmented with concocted nomenclatures
* Higher fee structure than prescribed

(Source: Review Committee of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, reported by Times of India online)

 The state of Tamil Nadu has the highest numbers of derecognized deemed universities, 15 of them private and one government-sponsored. Karnataka has six derecognized deemed universities; Uttar Pradesh four; Haryana, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Maharashtra three each; Gujarat, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar, one each. There are also three government-run institutions to be de-recognized.

The HRD ministry said the review committee found only 38 institutes fit to have the deemed university status. Another 44 were found “deficient” in some aspects which need to be rectified over the next three years. The ministry’s decision is an admission of irregularities in conferring the “deemed” tag to these institutions.  It also reflects that the tags were given without proper verification of quality of these institutions vis a vis some of the most critical aspects of higher education such as infra structure, research and learning initiatives etc. 

At the same times it also reflects the corrosion of educational institutions in India that appear to be driven only by commercial considerations. Also, given insatiable lust of the middle class for ‘engineering and medical degrees’, to a large extent, a result of lack of employment that other fields offer, there is little space to consider such aspects as aptitude of the students or quality of the institutions. Unless there is a complete overhaul of the education system, we have to live with the situation where any degree is possible to obtain (from the students perspective) or give (from an institutional perspective) with money.

What steps should be taken to monitor and regulate the quality of institutions of higher learning?

A couple of years back, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a benchmark report that was claimed to incorporate the latest and most detailed research into the impact of global warming. One of the important claims was that the world’s glaciers were melting at a rapid pace and that those in the Himalayas could melt by 2035. This was a very serious concern as it could have had long term and disastrous impact with both flooding and water scarcity predicted as possible happenings.

However, in the past few days, the scientists behind the warning have admitted that it was based on a news story in the New Scientist, a popular science journal, published eight years before the IPCC’s 2007 report. Also, the New Scientist report was itself based on a short telephone interview with a scientist who has since admitted that the claim was “speculation” and not supported by any formal research (Source: TimesofIndia).

While it is definitely a good news, it reflects one of the most serious failures in climate research. It also puts the Nobel prize winning institution, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in an embarrassing position as it was set up to lead and put together scientific evidence and advice on climate change. The IPCC report did not trace back the source of the claim. The WWF study that it referred to had borrowed the figure from the interview that was not based on any rigorous scientific evidence.

Glaciologists from the Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun based on their study of 10 years shows 15-20 metres recession which is not considered alarming. The research also pointed out that many were receding at a much slower rate of 5-7 metres per year and some weren’t receding at all.

Contraction and expansion of glaciers is also a part of natural geological process. Also, the Himalayan glaciers are hundreds of feet thick and could not melt fast enough to disappear by 2035 unless there was a huge global temperature rise.

However, it is a reality that the glaciers are melting. What is being debated that they are not wasting away at the rate suggested by the IPCC. What is most disturbing is the fact that in the context of an increasingly skeptic world, to an extent facilitated by strong industry lobby- automobiles, etc and to an extent by those resisting lifestyle changes, this gives another reason to continue with a business as usual approach. This is really worrisome as there is so much more to climate change that just melting of glaciers.

Do you think that the recent controversy about melting of the Himalayan glaciers, undermine the general risk perception about climate change?