Questioning Development

Questioning Development

Yogesh Snehi
The Tribune, Sunday, March 16, 2003
Chandigarh, India

It is easy to brush off any such arguments in absence of relevant statistics relating to work participation, income generation, spending habits of women and, above all, the ownership of resources. ESO statistics on wages paid to agricultural and skilled labourers in Haryana categorises only men, as if female labourers do not exist there, says Yogesh Snehi.

FOR the last one month I have been frequenting the offices of Haryana government in search of some gender statistics, which are the part of a project undertaken by National Commission for Women (NCW). When I last visited Delhi in December for the purpose of a research grant, Sudha Malaiya, member NCW, gave me the task of collecting the statistics on women entrepreneurs in Haryana. I had to report back after one week with the relevant information. I was also told that I would get this statistics from the Department of Industries of the state.

When I reached the Big Bay building in Sector-17, Chandigarh, which houses many important Haryana government offices, I did not know that I have landed myself in trouble. I started from the clerk level thinking that they would know the details about the data collection at the ground level. I was in the Department of Industries then. The very inquiry about 'women entrepreneurs' sounded strange there. The first thing that I was asked was which state did I belong to. When I told them that I was from Punjab, they responded by saying that such a thing (women entrepreneurs) may exist in Punjab but is unknown in Haryana.

When I contacted the Economic and Statistical Organisation (ESO), I had to wrestle with myself to explain the meaning of the term 'women entrepreneurs'. I translated it into kam dhanda karne wali mahilayen and could sense the air of suspicion around there. Actually, they thought that I had come to collect statistics on 'whores in Haryana'. Such is the level of ignorance and insensitivity about gender issues in the various government departments of Haryana. The scene is all the same in others states also. I thought that probably the labour department would be able to help me. There, I was told that they do not collect data on the basis of gender.

Out of desperation, I went to the Director, Department of Industries, where I was directed to his deputy. He told me that such a survey had never been undertaken in the history of Haryana and according to his oral knowledge there are hardly any women entrepreneurs in Haryana, who actually own and run business enterprises. Even if there are some, they are among rich and influential who, in order to save tax, float women as sleeping partners. This was not abnormal for me because poor condition of women is well documented in national and international reports.

The ESO was good enough to gift me a copy statistical abstracts of Haryana 2000-01. When I looked into it, I found that except for some selected social indicators like literacy rate, school enrolment ratio and sex ratio etc., the whole lot of information was in totals. Interestingly, the hue and cry which has recently been raised about the plight of women in Haryana is closely related to the question of power. It is easy to brush off any such arguments in absence of relevant statistics relating to work participation, income generation, spending habits of women and above all the ownership of resources. Interestingly, ESO statistics on wages paid to agricultural and skilled labourers in Haryana categorises only men, as if female labourers do not exist there!

The issue has gained significance since the evolution of Human Development Index (HDI). Human Development Report, which has been published yearly by UNDP since 1990 has drawn more attention towards social indicators to substantiate the indicators of development. This is significant because any strategy towards improving the standing of women would incline on the development indicators of that region. One would wonder at the level of development planning in the absence of these statistics in Haryana. I can visualise Amartya Sen's views on the 'missing women' in development.

Fortunately, independent agencies like UNFPA have dwelled upon the mortality rates of the state and found the incidence of female foeticide in Haryana. It shows that the state has the worst trends in the world. Census 2001 is doing a commendable job in this respect and has recently come out with statistics on female labour force. It has included women workers in the informal sector in it’s comprehensive surveys. State governments have to learn important lessons from Census 2001 and other international agencies to improve statistical documentation for effective planning of 'real development'.