How can we invest more in women?
This post was prompted by an article I read yesterday. From Eye On: Conditional Cash Transfers by Adrienne Villani, this brief excerpt (emphasis added):
What do we really know about what works and what doesn’t when fighting debilitating global poverty?
What about aid? Does it “workâ€? …what paths to development truly maximize results? Where should we concentrate our energies? Should we concentrate on the role of institutions, macroeconomic policies, growth strategies, and other country-level factors? Or should we take a more grassroots approach—concentrating on microeconomic interventions such as conditional cash transfers, bed nets, school lunches?
…macro interventions don’t seem to have a clear impact. Do microinterventions?
One micro intervention on its way to proving its worth is the concept of conditional cash transfer…To get payments for food, mothers must bring their children in for regular health checkups and attend informative talks at health centers. Mothers also get cash if their children attend school at least 85% of the time…Because checks go directly from the central government to mothers whose families meet the requirements, administrative costs and the chance of corruption are reduced.
Through rigorous evaluation, studies have shown that Oportunidades (in Mexico) decreases poverty and improves health and educational attainment in regions in which it has been deployed..And as a result, it has become a model for programs instituted in other countries.
Image courtesy: Joe Silver, Beyond Profit magazine
Building on this, a few years ago, Indian government officials saw the traditional mind-set of Indian women delivering their children in their homes as an obstacle to prosperity. In a country with one of the world’s worst maternal mortality rates—254 deaths per 100,000 live births—the government decided to lure village women to give birth in a cleaner and safer environment, the hospital. But, there was an important enticement here—a cash payment of US$30. And they saw results: in two of the poorest states in India, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the number of women giving birth in medical facilities soared from less than 20% in 2005 to nearly 50% in 2008, according to the most recent data available.*
And as you can guess, this isn’t the only positive news from the program...
But back to the good news. These conditional cash transfers are doing more than improving health outcomes. They are improving the monetary situation of the family. And perhaps most importantly, they represent a kind of paradigm shift: India is serious about investing in women.The World Bank calls investing in women “smart economics†because of research that shows the enormous multiplier effect of advancing women’s economic participation. The case for women’s economic empowerment has advanced so far as to become widespread and uncontroversial. Yet today, women only own 1% of the world’s wealth; have only a 10% share in global income; and occupy just 14% of leadership positions in the private and public sectors (according to CEDPA).
As many of you know, I am a strong believer in investing in women – more particularly the girl child – and empowering them…But I am sure we can do a lot more…This is the question I would like to pose to all of you: How can we invest more in women? Comments and thoughts welcome.
Related Post: Poll – What should be India’s top developmental priority?
Q: How can we invest more in women?
A: Invite Arundhati Roy to write a guest post on your blog.
/Just some Sunday levity 🙂
Women only own 1% of the world’s wealth; have only a 10% share in global income; and occupy just 14% of leadership positions
This is seriously depressing. World’s half the population owns only 1% wealth. Women are more suppressed than any other section or community in the world. We need to give it a dip thought.
Jai Bharat!
Interesting post. I would definitely like to see a breakdown by nation on the ownership percentage. But if true, it is indeed sad statistics.
i’ve joined rangde.org – you can choose to pick something similar that you trust, and provide micro-credit to impoverished entrepreneurs in India (many happen to be women). you can do it on-line and you have a good degree of control over whom to give and how. It can be as small as 100 Rs. Importantly, it’s not a donation or a handout, it’s an investment. If many of us invest small amounts, it limits the giver’s risk while also increasing the chances that these women actually get the required seed funds to break even or make a small profit, and in turn return your loan with interest. In many cases, i saw women who needed a loan of 5000Rs to set up their tailoring shop or vegetable shop, but only got like 800Rs so far. That’s neither here nor there.
Micro-credit is a great model because (assuming it works well), everybody has a self-interest, and it is not some NGO with some hidden agenda scamming. If this succeeds, a least some of these hard-working women don’t have to go to local moneylenders.
cricfan, there’s also Lijjat papad and its success story – done entirely by women (Shri Mahila Griha Udyog). It was started by semi-literate women in 1959 (yes, that’s correct – 1959) with a loan of Rs. 80. Check out their inspiring story on the internet.
While more needs to done, one can find many such examples in our own backyard, and without any help from western feminists or their crazy, perpetually conflict-ridden “theories.”
@ Kaffir (#1): That was FUNNY!
@Sandeep, DD: Yes, sad and depressing…would be interesting to see country breakdowns, I agree.
@Cricfan: Great point re micro-credit..A post on RangDe should be coming hopefully soon…I am meeting the Founders in Bengaluru on Thursday!
Good post. Absolutely agree. As the saying goes – “Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, but teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime’? Well, if you teach a woman to fish, she’ll feed the whole village.â€
During my college days, I had decided that I will somehow help in education of Women. When I got my first salary, I adopted a girl child via “NanhiKali.org” for her education. Currently doing it for two girls. What I like about nanhikali is they regularly send you the progress report of the girl child you have adopted along with a photo.Now you can also see the progress report Online via their website.