Gender and Post Colonial Nation Building in India - Essay Example

Gender And Post Colonial Nation Building In India The commentators investigating women's position in Asia in general, and India, in particular, speakabout the shift that occurred to approaches used for estimating and measuring the rights provided for the women in the country and their social position. There were some approaches that can be defined as the stages in the process of positive changes taking place in the society since 1950. Welfare approach is reported by the specialists as the dominant approach since the date indicated until the start of so-called Decade of Women. With the start of this new period the process of development of woman empowerment has been characterized with equity, approaches based on rights and more power provided for women in the society. Focus shifted to the problems of social position of women and to the satisfying of their needs and demands. The main issue of the welfare approach was that Indian women were the object of the programmes designed for their development and they acted the roles of consumers, rather than participants in various agencies. This approach was then recognized as unfortunate due to the narrow range of issues defined as essential for women. These main issues were education, health and domestic violence. Besides, this approach defined that the women should be responsible for the housekeeping only, assigning to them the following roles: housewives, mothers and wives. (Banerjee) The period of the Decade of Women started in 1975 and lasted till 1985. At the beginning of this period the scientists started to speak about separating practical and strategic needs, or interests, of women. Among other authors, Molyneux in 1985 determines these needs and Moser in 1989 described them in detail. Here is the example: "finding food or fuel for the family is a practical gender need; women's issues addressing practical gender needs, which if fulfilled, could lead to an improvement in the condition of women". (qtd in Mohanty) But as the experience shows, to provide constant and progressive development of women's condition in the society, measures to prevent violence, reforms in the sphere of education and health care are not enough. Profound changes of the society in general are needed. Of course, it is necessary to remove gaps between gender roles in education in medicine, but providing such changes only won't significantly change women's position in the society. The specialists speak about the changes that are to be provided at first on the level of morals. It is necessary to make the notion of gender equity be recognized in the society, and ideological changes are to be provided to reshape social patterns in the state. (Buch) Conception of "strategic gender needs" appeared during the period of Decade of Women, and the process of gender planning started. The purposes of gender planning were elimination of gender discrimination and accepting gender mainstreaming. The concept of gender mainstreaming "meant that the 'Ladies Compartment' approach of having one Gender Unit or a single Ministry for Women be abandoned, because land reforms, fisheries development, trade, school curricula, road construction, taxation, conflict resolution, etc., were all as much the concerns of women as of men". (Mohanty, p.6) All these issues were recognized as those that have different influence on men and women, and, accordingly, demanding different strategies and approaches. Thus, the activists of the movement required that each programme worked out by the government, should include gender analysis, based upon key interests and demands of genders. It was also necessary to create an institution to control this process and to offer the direction of the changes to be made. It was planned that this institution would be provided with high power and would be financed good, and would focus on the women's interests, needs and demands. The authors describe this condition the following way: "Strategic gender needs were identified as ones that challenged the existing division of labour and catalyzed change in the position of women by ending the domination of women by men. To illustrate - to transform the position of women, it may be necessary to undertake changes in property rights and also alter the extent of time fathers devote to child rearing." One of the authors noted that "to change women's position, we must address the way gender determines power, status and control over resources". (qtd in Purushothaman) As it has been mentioned above, the welfare approach focused only on narrow objectives, like family, health etc. Taking account the previous experience and women's condition in the society, this initiative was precious, but the time changed, and the reality made evident that more profound changes are necessary to improve women's condition significantly. The period of the Decade for Woman shifted the focus from just improving women's conditions to strengthening their positions, and the conception of Women in Development was worked out. (Rajan) There were some approaches inherent to social discourse of mentioned period. One of them was equity approach. As it is described by the commentators, it "valued equality and recognized that women sought equality in their three primary roles in society - i.e., as reproductive, productive and community workers. It sought State intervention to ensure that the strategic needs of women were met in all these roles." (Rajan, p.32) It resulted in negative reaction in the name of customs, caused by the pointing out strategic needs as the purpose to be achieved, and the purpose of reaching equity supported by the government was exchanged for the purposes of efficiency and anti-poverty. This was regarded as the step back, from the approach described above; however, this retreat was compensated by invention of so-called empowerment approach. This approach had three key issues. The first of them was that the focus of the approach was given to strategic needs and interests of the woman, but practical women's needs were taken into account as well. The second was the reflection on the point that was neglected before. It stated that the necessary improvements shouldn't have been regarded as the end in themselves, but should serve as the origin for further profound changes in the society in general. The third point was focus on the bottom-to-top development of women's condition, rather than the method based upon the predominant role of the state, reflected in equity approach. (Rajan) These two approaches, i.e. equity approach and empowerment approached united in the limits of one concept, defined as the gender and development concept. Some time later the activists of the movement for women's rights turned to rights-based approach, which was then completed and renamed as the normative/capability approach. Nussbaum states that "the normative approach not only includes women's entry into governance in the broader sense - namely administrative, managerial, professional and technical positions - but also conditions that influence women's internal development, as well as conditions of the material and social environment which influence their ability to turn ideas into action." (qtd in Robinson) In 1995 famous feminists, for instance, Madhu Kishwar, saw that the leaders of the communities in countryside decided to field the women as the candidates for election in panchayat. This resulted in formation of panchayat, that consisted only of women in Maharashtra. She stated that this event became possible due to men's positive attitude to the changes that were taking place in the state at that time. (Shail) The experts commented this event the following way:" It can be pointed out that women do not take a confrontational strategy to work more efficiently. Of course, there is the chance of ulterior motives by the community leaders 'to pull the string from behind'. But several micro-studies show that it never worked that way. The women who got elected in the Maharashtra panchayat became real leaders at a later stage."(Shail, p. 76) Commentators also noted that the election company of women was quite different from the companies carried out by the men. For instance, women demonstrated their interest to public and personal needs of the population, visiting the houses of their electorate, talking to them, paying attention to their needs. According to the data provided by the Institute Social Sciences in 1997-2001, some woman candidates received the invitations for football matches or other public events. It was also noted that the official of the state departments visited them and discussed essential problems with them while visiting local areas. These facts added much to the political identities of these women. (Mohanty) The sense of self-worth was not the only advantage women obtained due to the changes. In general, the women as the part of the state population became more important on the state level. This happened due to various economic and health care programmes. The specialists defined it as the process of social mobilization, completed with representation on political level. All these signs of the changes demonstrate potential that should reconstruct the society in India and change its patriarchal order for better. (Mohanty) Despite of the positive character of the changes that take place in the society and the potential of fighting the patriarchy, it is necessary to take into consideration some challenges that appeared in the process of changing women's position in the society: 1. At first, there is a difference in the social attitude to women and girls. Social attitude to women is shaped by various factors: beliefs, traditions, rituals, family environment, media and common meaning of the local area in which a particular woman lives. All these factors are to be reconsidered and reconstructed. This will help in changing subordinate role of women in their family. 2. The second is connected to the obstacles of the institutional character, as "panchayats as well as the nagarpalikas have become implementing agencies, instead of decentralized decision- makers, with limited financial resources". (Mohanty, p.17) Besides, these institutions are controlled by state politics, represented mainly by men, executing control by financial means. The women have started to participate in the process, and they are not competent for applying their power on the same level with the men. 3. The final challenge is that the resistance to the reservation of parliament seats for woman was just a little part of what can be done by the patriarchy to prevent from providing women with civil rights and powers. (Mohanty) Thus, during the period of last fifty years, the state government has been intending to pay much attention to the gender problems with the help of various social, economical and political programs and policies. Some people argue that the most important issue was the reservation of 33% of seats for women in municipalities and panchayats, passed with the help of 73rd and 74th amendments. Accepting these amendments became a source of the process if establishing the early stages of democratic regime. This process also made new elite be distinguished within the society, dealing with the control of the process, and responsible for the health care programmes, educational and employment reforms, and strategies to fight with the poverty. Those women who were elected as the representatives are now symbolize the source of the democratic changes, and these representatives are supported and promoted by groups focused on women's needs and agencies specialized on social issues. Regardless of constant political and cultural resistance within the society, the processes that now take place in all aspects of social and political life of the country evidently show that women in the contemporary society are emotionally and morally prepared to challenge the relations of power distribution in the public sector of society. References Banerjee, Nirmala. 'Whatever Happened to the Dreams of Modernity The Nehruvian Era and Women's Position', Economic and Political Weekly, April 25, 1998 Buch, Nirmala.'State Welfare Policy and Women, 1950-1975', Economic and Political Weekly, April 25, 1998 Mohanty, Bidyut. Mahajan, Vandana. Women's Empowerment in the Context of Seventy-third and Seventy-fourth Constitutional Amendment Acts: An Assessment. Institute of Social Sciences. 2003, New Delhi. Purushothaman, Sangeetha. The Empowerment of Women in India: grassroots women's networks and the State, London: Sage, 1997 Shail Mayaram. 'The Politics of Women's Reservation: Women Panchayat Representatives in Rajasthan, Performance, problems and potential'. Working paper No.074, IDS, Jaipur., 1996 Rajan, Rajeswari Sunder. Real and Imagined Women: Gender, culture and postcolonialism, London: Routledge, 1993 Robinson, Catherine A. Tradition and Liberation: The Hindu Tradition in the Indian Women's Movement, Richmond: Curzon Press, 1999 Read More