Download Understanding Gender

Ritu Dewan
Department of Economics
University of Mumbai
[email protected]
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State, Globalisation, Privatisation.
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Revenue & Fiscal deficits: conditionalities, direct
taxes, subsidies, budgeting, SEZs, PPP, etc.
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Inclusive Growth v/s Inclusive Development &
Justice.
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Structural contradictions: excess capacity in
industry; ‘starved’ agriculture; distorted
services.
Goods & Services for high income.
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Patriarchy is a Macroeconomic Construct
Inequalities at micro & meso levels have
macro implications
That no structure or policy is gender
neutral
Trade, Foreign Investment, Fiscal,
Monetary, & Infrastructure systems
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1.
Formalisation of rules & mechanisms
2.
Deregulation of foreign investment
3.
4.
5.
Doha, etc: claims & reality. Egs Loss of special
preferences; Banana exports to EU; impact on small
farmers; Cotton.
WTO & GATS: 12 areas; 161 sub-sectors: (banking,
insurance, health, transport, education, energy,
telecommunications, tourism)
2,500 bilateral & regional trade & investment
agreements
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Women as producers are restricted at production level
in terms of technology used & scale of production due
to lack of access to various forms of capital.
Resource allocation within economies & households
directly impacts women’s productive capacities & also
the rank at which they can participate in labour force.
Low labour productivity adversely impacts their skillsets & loss of competitive edge as economic agents.
Basic is access to ownership, distribution, & control of
productive resources of all forms
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Subsidies & dumping
Diluting import restrictions
Free entry of seed & pesticide MNCs
Unregulated input & output markets
Falling production, productivity, food availability
Food ‘security’: USA: 2012: $100 bln for 67 mln popn
India: $20 bln for 850 mln persons
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India…
12% of GDP; 47% of working men; 73% of women
Assetlessness & Feminisation
Hence, even if trade liberalisation does unlock
export opportunities, women farmers do not have
the capacity & ability to take advantage of such
opportunities.
Post-WTO, many farms have moved to exportoriented commercial cultivation, leading to
consolidation of land holdings. As big farms are
generally capital-intensive, consolidation of land
reduces employment, displacing women first.
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1.
Monopoly & Cartelisation
2.
Displacement of micro domestic retailers
3.
4.
Increasing economic vulnerability of smaller
producers
Rise in unemployment
(producers; supply chain intermediaries; small
retailers (kiranas & hawkers); organised retail
workers).
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India…
Highest retail density in world
Second largest employer after agriculture
Heavily unorganised at 97 percent (USA=20 pc;
Thailand=60 pc; China=80 pc)
Dominance of food processing (99 pc of all food &
grocery sales): front & back-end jobs
‘SECTOR OF FIRST & LAST RESORT’
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Motive force for production: profit v/s subsistence
Traditional supplementary activity
Low capital – Low skill
Work & labour patterns: earning, augmenting,
saving
Feminisation of retail sector? (Female business
ownership rates in unorganised sector)
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Closures, retrenchments, reduced earnings
Open AND disguised unemployment
Micro-accumulators to micro-subsistence seekers
Migration & retail: Rural, Peri-urban, Urban
Paradox of increased participation & devisibilisation in ‘productive’ activity
Reinforcement of ‘secondary status’; of patriarchyproduction interdependency.
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1. Financial v/s Physical Targets
The introduction of an equilibrium between the
two is especially important in the context of the
fact that women generally take small loans;
thus, while physical targets may be filled, the
financial disbursements constitute an
insignificant amount.
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2. Policies on Medical Insurance
Insurance is not regulated by a uniform policy, different
companies & even different branches imposing their
own rules such as not permitting single women &
men to include parents in family schemes; the fact
that single households pay the same rates as those
applicable to entire families; etc.
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3. Pensions & Post-retirement Benefits
Policies relating to pensions are severely biased
against single-headed households, whether
male or female. These benefits cannot be willed
or transferred upon death to a non-spouse, not
even to dependent parents.
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Joint v/s Individual Income Tax
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Gift Tax: “….Gifts received on certain occasions such as
marriage will continue to be totally exempt”.
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Property Tax: Gender Differentiated
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Increase in PIT for FHHHs, & those with dependents other
than children
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Tax exemptions for SHGs, Women’s Cooperatives,
Producer groups
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Taxes on wealth, capital gains & financial transactions
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Indirect Taxation: VAT
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Success where Tax:GDP ratio is high, &
dependence on international trade is low
Inflationary
Anti Labour-intensive industries, as ratio of
selling price is higher compared to capitalintensive; surplus labour economies
Impact on informal economy
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Commodity taxes alter the relative prices of
taxed & untaxed goods, & hence transform
individual & household decisions about
consumption, as well as production and
investment decisions.
VAT in particular has a greater anti-women and
anti-poor impact, given the fact that these
sections typically spend a larger proportion of
their income on basic consumption goods than
richer households do; low earners therefore pay
a higher average tax rate.
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Gender biases in all consumption taxes manifest in
1. choice of commodities & services covered
2. consumption & maintenance patterns of men &
women.
Egs:
a.
VAT on processed wheat directly impacts
women, the bias thus not being ‘implicit’.
Women, as ‘carers’, now buy grains, and
increase time spent on ‘unproductive’ activity.
b.
Reduced subsidies on cooking gas & kerosene
directly affects health & time use patterns;
women pay ‘hidden’ tax as a direct result of
changes in macroeconomic policies.
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Infrastructure ‘fetishism’:
Commodity-specific or people-centric
‘Closing the infrastructure gap’: to
accelerate growth; to reduce poverty; to
reduce inequalities
Physical & hence societal mobility
differential infrastructure constraints exist
on men‘s productive roles, and women's
economic, domestic & community
management roles; also, time poverty.
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Gender Differences:
1.
Intensity of transport usage
2.
Trip purpose
3.
Trip / travel patterns
4.
Distance of travel
5.
Frequency of travel
6.
Mode of transport
7.
Mobility constraints.
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Women-Specific:
1.
Head-load
2.
Local markets
3.
Inter- & intra-village roads/paths
4.
NMT
5.
Walking
6.
Security.
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…….Thank you……
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