Global political economy
Women need to worry
The deterioration in the condition of women shows that there is something wrong
with our development process
By Amal Ray
The woeful existence worldwide of women has further deteriorated with the advent
of world market economy to convert them into objects of compassion. In the new
dispensation they are being increasingly disabled to be subjects in their own
right. And, in the case of India the globalisation (plus the haunting shadow of
Mandalisation) has brought in acute fissures in the larger political community
to scuttle the feminist entitlements.
A knowledgeable author, Jill Steans, in a recent survey, notes that "as the
least unionised and poorest paid of all workers, women have been particularly
vulnerable to the market policies which have continued to characterise global
economic restructuring in the 1990s.” Although women at present form an
important segment of the remunerative workforce (more than 40 per cent in mature
economies and more than 30 per cent globally), their earning is 30-40 per cent
smaller than that of men in analogous jobs.
When one considers the aspect of distribution of the workload between sexes, one
finds the situation equally appalling. Notwithstanding the considerably unequal
family burden which women usually bear, they generally work longer hours than
men. It is estimated that for Asian men the weekly workload comprises not more
than 50 hours, while women have to put in more than 60 hours. Surprisingly
however, in Japan despite the existence of an anti-feminist historical legacy,
men work for more hours than women. The common refrain in cross-cultural studies
is that women have been clearly disfavoured in the structural adjustment
process.
What is more worrying is that there has occurred in the recent years a kind of
malignant growth of the belief of sex being treated as a priced commodity. In
the expanding world market economy the sex industry, like the hospitality
industry, has grown enormously in the company of tourism industry.
Reconstruction agenda
And, this has the patronage of the State. Umfreville's valuable study in this
regard shows that this is related to development strategy in several countries.
In the global economic reconstruction agenda, tourism, hospitality and
prostitution are considered by the ruling classes as precious inputs in growth,
specially in those territories where globalisation has made significant inroads.
In India the globalised political economy has had its impact upon gender issues:
there is widening chasm in feminist awakening and increasing violence against
women. Feminism is yet to take off and acquire the required 'perspective’ in
getting its priorities straight. Moreover, its disjointed networking as it is
plagued by sectional cleavages, impedes its organisation building and often
obscures its identity.
Feminism in India suffers from the constraints of late growth and operates in a
somewhat hostile environment. The increase in female literacy by about 15 per
cent during 1991-2001, or impressive economic growth, has had no effect in
mitigating the entrenched hindrances. The internal barriers, which lie in
women's imagined social typecasts and their acquiescence in the inheritance of
recipient status, persist in varying degrees and show no promise of any major
change.
The thrust of globalisation is not oriented towards modernising our attitudes or
actions; in fact, the atrocious social practices in sex relations have acquired
a new legitimacy as opulence and its connected ailments have seized the
psychology of the sprawling middle class who are indoctrinated into the
globalisation credo to take a myopic view of modernity. They are reluctant to
perceive modernisation within the indigenous cultural setting. For them
modernity “is like a super — market of foreign goods displayed on the shelves:
pay up and take up what you like". In fact, there is a craze for rootless
modernity.
In this environment, the essential values of feminism cannot thrive. Moreover,
the caste and community politics as it is structured now, has an inherent
tendency to thwart attempts at consolidation of women for a united struggle
against gender inequality and female oppression. And, with the exception of the
Left, no political formation has concern for feminism and feminist entitlements.
However, a powerful section of the Left leadership does not seem eager to
redesign the party organisation to provide for increased representation of women
in the leadership role.
In this political setting, the women's reservation bill deserved no better
treatment from the parliamentarians than what it got. Had the bill been passed,
the national legislature would have been at variance with the mainstream parties
in terms of internal gender ratio, thus creating a riddle in national politics.
There could, however, be some possibility of the ground situation for women
being eventually improved if the bill could muster the required support.
Post-reform period
In the recent years the situation has worsened to look perilous. In the post -
reform period all the known ills — female infanticide and dowry deaths, rape and
molestation, flesh trade and prostitution, female suicide and drug abuse — have
experienced a phenomenal rise. Neither high literacy in Kerala nor high growth
as in Punjab could stem this trend. Both the States in fact have excelled in
some of these evil practices. There must be something basically wrong with our
development process which needs to be probed in depth.
Consumerism and fancy education, which have accompanied globalisation, have
played havoc in breeding a disjunction between individual choice and social
ethic. The overall outcome is an extensive undermining of the social framework
for individual actions. The danger in particular relates to the wearing away of
middle class morals with its devastating effect upon the mechanisms of social
control. The resultant situation is hostile to the decency of sex relations,
increasingly blurring the vital distinction between human sex and animal sex.
Women, therefore, need to bestir themselves to agitate against growing sex
violence in some form or the other. However, no sustainable security for them
can be ensured unless support of the civil society can be mobilised to
resuscitate the value of human decency. This long-term perspective should be
kept in view, while pursuing immediate objectives by women's groups.
[Deccan Herald: Thursday, October 23, 2003]