Q&A
MONIQUE VILLA
CEO, THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION
‘Imagine the Potential of India if Women were Given Equal Rights’
A survey of experts said last week that India, a country that has long been receiving ink for its economic feats in the global press, is the worst place to be a woman among the world’s biggest economies. The survey of 370 gender experts by TrustLaw, a legal news service of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, held another surprise in that India was behind even Saudi Arabia, where women are still not allowed to drive and earned the right to vote only in 2011. Monique Villa, CEO, Thomson Reuters Foundation, tells Binoy Prabhakar that a combination of infanticide, child marriage and a feudal mindset pushed India to the bottom of the ranking. Excerpts:
What does the poll really say about India? Do you see women being abused only in pockets untouched by the benefits of India’s economic progress or is it pervasive?
India’s economic boom over the last two decades has helped certainly empower women and change mindsets of how men see women. Increased job creation and opportunities have allowed the poor to pull themselves out of poverty to join a growing middle class, where more women are going out to work — making them appear as an asset to their families rather than the traditional perceived belief of a “burden”. This has given them not only financial resources, but mobility and respect. But discrimination and abuse against women is not caused by poverty. Poverty just exacerbates the situation for women – the root causes lie in the patriarchal mindsets which see women as inferior, as objects to be exploited and used for domestic/s*xual/financial gain. Age-old feudal views see women as inferior, objects to be confined to homes and/or exploited for s*xual and domestic servitude. For example, foeticide is because people want a boy and also don’t want the burden of dowry and having to look after a girl in case she elopes and falls in love with the wrong kind of man and/or is raped, which will bring shame on the family. As a result of this, 12 million girls have been aborted over the last three decades, according to a 2011 study by T h e L a n c e t. The curse of dowry continues even after marriage. One bride was murdered every hour over dowry demands in 2010, says the National Crime Records Bureau. Another custom is child marriage. According to the International Center for Research on Women, almost 45% of girls in India are married below 18 years old. The practice is one of the worst as it cuts across every part of woman's development —creating a vicious cycle of malnutrition, poor health and illiteracy. A child bride is more likely to drop out of school and have serious complications during pregnancy and childbirth. Her children are also more likely to be underweight and lucky to survive beyond the age of five. Poverty exacerbates the situation for women, but is not the cause. The root is that girls are often seen as second-class citizens, not that they don’t have money. There are many examples in India — as in many other countries and notably, Saudi Arabia — that wealth does not necessarily equate with equal rights and respect for women. Some of the highest rates of female foeticide are amongst wealthy Indian middle class families due to their desire for a son. These are educated, wealthy families living in posh colonies of New Delhi. In fact, some of the wealthiest states, such as Haryana and Punjab, have the highest prevalence rates of female foeticide. Also, in well-known areas of economic growth, such as Gurgaon and Noida, rape reports are common. As a result, Delhi and its environs have been given the unsavoury reputation as the “rape capital” of India. So, of course, women are still disrespected, abused and violated in rich regions as well as poor.
If growth alone won't suffice to improve the lot of women in India, what can?
Three things can improve the lives of women in India: Education, Empowerment and Enforcement. Firstly, educating by creating awareness. Have discussions on gender equality with young boys at school, adolescents and married men. Tell them the benefits for all of treating women as equals. I know that many civil society organisations in India are running modules in schools and colleges talking about these points while others are working with village leaders on giving more voice to women. Secondly, boost the efforts that aim at empowering women through giving them access to resources and opportunities so that they can reach their full potential. For instance, the government of Bihar is providing bicycles to girls at the age of 13 so that they can travel safely to secondary school. Or India’s NREGA scheme which guarantees 100 days employment to the rural poor – this has helped women bring in family income. There are so many civil society projects giving women access to finance such as microcredit schemes. Also, public-private partnerships that connect industries seeking workers with rural areas are turning village girls into breadwinners and delaying their age of marriage. This will show others that women are just as able as men and that daughters are real assets who can look after their parents, just like sons can. At the national level, women represent roughly 10% of political voice, this should change, as it does –slowly- in many other countries. Thirdly, it is about enforcing laws. India has robust gender laws, but they are hardly enforced. For example, the inheritance law was reformed in 2005, bringing women's legal equality in agricultural land, and yet less than 10 % women own some kind of land, even though 84 % of rural women are engaged in agricultural production, according to land rights group, Landesa.
But can a poll among experts be counted as an indicator of the condition about women? Have all the experts whom you have polled travelled extensively in India to assess the condition of women? And who are these experts?
An expert poll provides a very important indicator because no one statistic, such as the number of women in parliament, or a set of statistics, like the Gender Inequality Index, provides a general view of women’s welfare in a country. In part, this is because many important dimensions are difficult or impossible to get data for, such as discrimination, harassment, gender-based violence and the extra burdens of care labour. To get at this question, we asked gender experts, widely read and travelled, to determine an overall ranking of the condition of women in the G20. There is no way to know where the experts have travelled extensively, but we do know that over 10% of the experts polled were from India and over 70% of respondents were from G20 countries. The experts are 370 aid professionals, academics, health workers, policymakers, journalists and development specialists, chosen and rigorously checked for their expertise in gender issues. Many of these experts come from notable organisations, such as the London School of Economics, Oxfam India, USAID, UN Women, Hong Kong University and the World Bank.
Again, considering the sample size is small, how will their opinion alone be enough to state the condition of women?
While not huge, in part because the qualifications to be polled were so rigorous, the sample is geographically diverse and of high quality. It is a ranking based on the opinions of top gender experts in their respective fields, and is clearly positioned as an expert perception poll without any pretense of being otherwise based.
Were you surprised to see India at the bottom of the ranking?
I must say I was surprised that India was perceived as worse than Saudi Arabia for women. But obviously, there are many reasons for this. In India, the basic right to life is denied to millions of girls even before they are born. In fact, the UN World Population Fund says about 60% of Indian women have no access to family planning services. This gives them little control over their bodies and slows efforts to boost human development indicators, such as health, education and living standards. One in five women dies in India due to pregnancy-related complications. Even when women have rights over land and inheritance, they cannot always assert it. In some cases, widows are branded witches and killed or ostracised so that families can keep hold of the land. Yes, there are gender violations in many other countries, but the level they reach in India is unparalleled. But the big difference with other countries is that the issues are in full light and in the public domain: the Indian media is vibrant and helps promote awareness and this help education.
How significant is the poll to India?
I hope India will take this poll seriously and I have already seen a lot of comments and discussions in the Indian media since its publication. Someone sent a tweet: “This is worse than an S&P downgrade”. I hope it is a wake-up call to India, Asia’s third largest economy and growing fast. Can you imagine the potential of this immense country if women were given equal rights and opportunities as men?
binoy.prabhakar@timesgroup.com
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