REPORT

Involving Women in Governance

As mankind entered the year 2000, one hundred and seventy nations of the world adopted a millennium declaration called the Urban Millennium Declaration accepting that good governance is not possible without the active participation of women and an affirmative action for women is necessary if poverty is to be eradicated as 60% of the world's 1.6 billion poorest are women. The above countries have committed themselves to eradicate poverty by the year 2025.

The United Nations Development Programme had started a forum of World Alliance of Cities Against Poverty in 1999. Dr. Joshi had the privilege of attending all the three forums organised since then. Keeping in view that 23% of the world's people live in South Asia, the Huy Conference was very important because it focussed on Urban poverty and women. The purpose of the conference was to present various answers advocated by the international community for the improvement of women's life and employment conditions throughout the world. The debate centred in four main areas; employment, training, social protection and access to basic social services. Representing South Asia, Dr. Rita Joshi in her presentation recalled Mahatma Gandhi's words when he said that the progress of a state is showcased by the state of its poor and the crucial test is in what impact decisions, economic or political will have on a poor woman.

A great visionary, Rajiv Gandhi had an elaborate `Women's Perspective Plan' drafted in 1989 which outlines every aspect related to women's development. His efforts culminated into 33% reservation for women in local governments whereby over a million women have been empowered through the `Panchayati Raj' amendments in the Constitution of India. He had visualised an effective role for woman in the development of India.

Yet, today the South-Asian scene is dismal with illiteracy at nearly 2 ½ times and access to basic health services 1 ½ less than the rate in the rest of the world. The Human Development in South Asia Report shows that the region emerged as the world's most deprived regions in terms of poverty. The entire South Asia suffers with feminisation of poverty with over 85% working women employed in the informal sector, especially agriculture. Textile being the next major employer of women. With globalisation, women with low levels of education and limited technological skills, risk becoming marginalised and unable to benefit from new opportunities. Though the governments of South Asia have formulated National Action Plans to economically empower marginalised women yet their implementation process is not satisfactory requiring greater commitment at the governmental levels.

Focussing on the Indian scene, Dr. Joshi regretted that the Prime Minister's Integrated Urban Poverty Eradication Programme (PMIUPEP) shows very disappointing results in terms of implementation of Urban Self Employment Programme (UPSEP) and Urban Wage Employment Programme (PWEP) between 1997-2002. There is a lack of uniformity at the implementation level in different states. Kerala and Andhra Pradesh followed by Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka have shown best results. But, Uttar Pradesh, the biggest state in India, presents very discouraging figures. In a population of over 9 billion people between the years 1997 and 2002 (5 years) about 203 lakh women were found eligible to apply for loans to banks under the above schemes but only about 78 thousand woman succeded in securing loans. Statistics show that the micro-credit schemes benefit men more than women in India and other South Asian countries.

At Huy over 600 delegates from all over the world debated extensively on various issues and come up with several unanimous recommendations. It was accepted that :

Poverty is denial of human rights; rights of women are human rights; access to vote is not access to power - Political, Social and Economic - as such women's participation at all levels of power sharing is essential; the gap between commitment and implementation of programmes must be reduced; poverty reduction strategy programmes by national governments should be evaluated in terms of qualitative changes in society - education and health being primary areas therein; women should have a right to access basic social services without sex discrimination; an enablement environment for women to function is a primary requisite; micro-credit programme should be made women-friendly; information dissemination, vocational training and employment opportunities for women in organized sector is fundamental to women's economic empowerment; right to tenure/property to women be codified by law and conflicts aggravate poverty especially for women. Peace is fundamental to women's development.

Besides the above, several other recommendations were adopted at the meet. The conference concluded with a resolve to pursue the Beijing Declaration and the Millennium Declaration with our respective National Governments and engage the civil society in order to ensure the implementation of the commitment made by nations at International Forums.

(Dr. Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Vice President, All India Mahila Congress and a former Mayor, presented this report at the World Alliance of Cities Against Poverty organised by UNDP at Huy, Belgium between 10-12 April, 2002)