Public Expenditure and Investment on Women: Outcomes in Bihar?

Nandini Azad,  
March 21, 2007

Globalization implies the play of market forces and commerce and is characterized by the withdrawal of the State from being a major player in the economy to that of a facilitator, allowing market forces to operate.   The phenomenon can be viewed both as an opportunity for  poor women as well as one having adverse impact (inflation, kerosene, credit rate, energy, VAT, PDS etc.), depending on the framework conditions and social safety nets available. 

The effect of globalization on poor women is termed by NGO activists in the following manner– “with little other possibilities, the only way to trigger poverty reduction efforts is to enhance women’s rights to entitlements through community based efforts. SHGs seem the mechanism to share these responsibilities in this context (withdrawal of subsidies etc.)  utilizing “self help” as the catch word.  SHGs (Self Help Groups) are really often units of privatization at the grassroots delivering credit / health / education / social security services, etc.  Current studies indicate that without targeted “empowerment inputs” i.e. gender based awareness raising, SHGs can at best function merely as credit/savings groups.

Pre-entry capital discrimination is a severe and continuous phenomenon leading to gender based segmentation of the labour markets in India.  Poor women seem to have little possibilities for mobility into the formal sector.  Given lack of targeted investment on women and specified outcomes, the informal sector is thus where they are moving into   large numbers – working as marginal workers (indicating an increasing incidence of feminized poverty).   Any possible increases into the formal sector seem well nigh impossible without targeted skill formation or packages to enhance upward the ‘magic’ figure of 12% women in the formal sector (for several decades now).  Without breaking this impasse, increased growth may well marginalize poor women’s employment, if appropriate security nets are not in place.

The long flogged feminization of poverty in India does not seem to transform itself into “gender inclusive growth”.   The 11th Plan’s call for “gender balancing” needs to be viewed in the context of the steady decline of sex ratio in the so-called developed States, calling for immediate review of macro policies.  Gender needs not only to be balanced but “invested” on.  This seems inadequately attended to in the specific sectoral chapters of the above plan, indicating that the 8% growth may indeed bypass women or women will fail to benefit from it  (as before) or it may even affect them (and the poor) adversely in several spheres. Illustrations of lack of social safety nets leading to conflict and violence during SAP are available in Bihar, with the BPL and APL protesting.  “The poor in Bihar are protesting against their names being struck off the BPL list (Begusarai district), depriving them of benefits under a host of poverty-alleviation schemes.  Among the Above Poverty Line families (APL) the anger against the new PDS system of coupons is equally palpable (Patna district).  It cuts by half their access to what’s among the most precious commodities in a perennially power-starved State: cheap kerosene”. (Indian Express dated March 20, 2007).

BIHAR
In the case of Bihar as per the national consultation title – it would be useful to examine the macro picture before deciding whether “globalization or women’s empowerment” in the current scenario, can be real possibilities. 
I submit few macro level indicators on Bihar before you:

Though statistics all seem to challenge the development of Bihar, it is clear that there is a historical perspective to the poor agrarian development, including

Gender wise Literacy and Enrolment rates in Bihar merit a serious consideration. 

Consider the following:
6-11 yrs           -           35% girls are missing from school!
11-14 yrs         -           80% girls are missing from school!
North Bihar has the higher amount of illiterates – total of 76.2% illiterate women in Bihar (India’s average is 58.2%).  Patna district has the highest female literacy (52%) and Kishanganj has the lowest (18.5%).  Districts with Muslim/SC population tend to see a drop in literacy.

Sex ratio in Bihar has interesting evidence that indicates that the girl child is indeed born resilient - 923 per 1000 is Bihar’s female-male ratio (India is 933).  But in the 0-6 years, Bihar has a better sex ratio than the country average at 938 to 927 respectively. However the poor social attitudes and conditions are manifest in the fact that life expectancy is 64.8 in Bihar to 65.9 years for India. Though gains in sex ratio do not seem to have been significantly capitalized, IMR in Bihar is also about the Indian average and not very different. Interestingly, all over Bihar in the last decade (2001 census), sex ratio has improved.  Lower percentage of development and growth seem to suggest better sex ratio??  This needs detailed probing in comparison to sex ratio decline, for e.g. in Punjab/Haryana (the economically better developed States).