Eleventh Five Year Plan

Towards Women’s Agency and Child Rights 191TABLE 6.4Women’s Political Participation: Global PictureCountry Women in Gender Seats in Female Female RatioGovernment/ Empower- parliament legislator Professional estimatedMinisterial ment measure held by workers Female/maleLevel(2005) women earned incomeIndia 3.4 – 9.2 – – 0.31Nepal 7.4 – 6.7 – – 0.50Pakistan 5.6 0.377 2.04 2 26 0.29Bangladesh 8.3 0.374 14.8 23 12 0.46Sri Lanka 10.3 0.372 4.9 21 46 0.42Malaysia 9.1 0.500 13.1 23 40 0.36UnitedStates 14.3 0.808 15.0 42 55 0.62Mexico 9.4 0.597 25 25 42 0.39Source: Human Development Report 2006, UNDP.agrarian crisis has ravaged families. Women’s vulnerabilitiesresulting from farmer suicides due to crop failureand inability to pay loans will be addressed.LAND6.32 Land rights not only empower women economicallybut strengthen their ability to challenge socialand political inequities. The Eleventh Plan will carryout a range of initiatives to enhance women’s landaccess. It will ensure direct transfers to them throughland reforms, anti-poverty programmes, and resettlementschemes. It will include individual or grouptitles to women in all government land transfers,credit support to poor women to purchase or leaseland, records and legal support for women’s inheritancerights, incentives and subsidies on women ownedland. The group approach to women’s ownership ofland and productive assets will be explored andappropriate linkages will be made with the SHGmovement. In case of displacement, a gender sensitiverehabilitation policy that includes equitable allocationof land to women will be devised. The EleventhPlan will also ensure the rights of poor, landless, andtribal women over forest land, commons, and otherresources.IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION AND ELEVENTH PLANSTRATEGY6.33 Liberalization has led to a paradigm shift inthe country’s economy. While this has provided manyincrease in opportunities, it has also posed challenges.We have moved towards technology dominated sectors.Many traditional livelihoods that have highemployment potential like handlooms and other homebased non-agro enterprises that are women-dominatedhave become unviable. Wage differentials, job vulnerability,and unpaid work burden for women has increased,while their social safety nets have been eroded.Unequal access for women to schooling, land, creditfacilities, alternate employment, skill training, andtechnology has led to the crowding of women in thelowly paid jobs of most sectors. The Eleventh Planwill examine the impact of globalization on women,especially poor women including gender differentialsin wage rates, exploitation of women in the unorganizedsector, lack of skill training, technology, andmarketing support, etc. While seeking to providerelief to deprived and women-dominated sectors,such as agriculture and small enterprises, the Planwill also work towards mainstreaming women innew and emerging areas of the economy throughnecessary skill training, vocational training, andtechnology education. It will work towards a socialsecurity policy that mitigates the negative impact ofglobalization on women.WOMEN IN THE SERVICES SECTOR6.34 The challenge in the Eleventh Plan is to promotewomen’s participation, especially in areas where thereis a poor gender ratio. This will entail special taxincentives for women headed enterprises, womenemployees, firms employing more women, and womenentrepreneurial ventures. The Plan will encouragepublic–private partnerships and corporate socialresponsibility programmes for women’s training,capacity building and empowerment.