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Radha Singh
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While ICT can offer significant opportunities for all girls and women, including those in rural areas, their ability to take advantage of these opportunities is contingent upon many things says Radha Singh in an interview with Manish Kumar of OneWorld South Asia.
What comes to your mind whenever we talk about women and agricultural development?
Rural women form a very significant part of the productive work force in the agriculture sector in India and most of the developing countries. Women are central to the selection, cultivation, preparation and harvest of food crops. Women farmers also possess a unique knowledge of dairying, animal husbandry and fish farming and handle most of the work associated with it.
About 80 per cent of all economically active women in the country are engaged in the agriculture sector. Also, about 48 per cent of Indias self-employed farmers are women. There are 75 million women engaged in animal husbandry as compared to 1.5 million men.
A pilot Time Use Survey conducted by the Central Statistical Organisation indicates that 51 per cent of the work of women that should qualify for inclusion in GDP is not recognised as such and it remains unpaid.
How to ensure involvement of women in diversified farm and non-farm activities?
Women today are engaged in diverse farm and non-farm activities such as cultivating cereal crops, secondary crops, dairying, animal husbandry, fisheries, forestry, post-harvest technology, etc. However, policy and programmatic support is needed to improve efficiency of womens involvement in these diverse activities.
As mentioned earlier, the contribution of women is often not recognised in computation of the GDP. A large part of womens contribution in agriculture is unpaid. Enforcement is required to be stepped up to ensure that women workers receive equal wages. The lack of economic opportunities causes migration of both male and female workers.
What role can women play in natural resource management especially watershed management?
A specific thrust has been provided for promoting equity and strengthening socio-economic status of women in watershed development programmes being implemented by the government. It includes promotion of womens groups and preferential allocation of usufruct rights over produce from developed common lands. The watershed development team a group of technical persons to guide watershed development committee/ association-necessarily includes a woman member. Similarly, the watershed committee is to include two women members to facilitate active involvement of women in natural resources management.
What is your viewpoint about the role of ICTs in bridging the digital divide?
Trends of development in ICT indicate that it is following the usual paths towards inequality and exclusion, putting women and girls at a disadvantage with regard to securing better livelihoods and other rights. Few women are producers, programmers, designers, inventors, or fixers of computers. In addition, women are also conspicuously absent from the decision-making structures in information technology in developing countries. It is often argued that the concern for gender and ICTs in developing countries is not a compelling one, and should be secondary to meeting basic needs. This contention, however, doesnt quite hold, as it is not an either or situation, and both need to be addressed simultaneously.
Information technology is making a significant contribution in the empowerment of women. The women SHGs and their members are using ICT approaches in both farm and off-farm activities. The government institutions are also engaged in the development and popularisation of gender friendly tools and equipments.
While ICTs can offer significant opportunities for girls and women, including those in rural areas, their ability to take advantage of these opportunities is contingent upon many things. Extension of infrastructure, particularly wireless and satellite communications, to rural areas and semi-urban areas is vital to increasing womens access to information technology.
What measures are being taken at the policy level for mainstreaming gender into farm and non-farm sector development?
The Common Minimum Programme provides that the government should ensure that at least one third of all funds flowing into panchayats should be earmarked for programmes for the development of women and children. Village women and their associations should be encouraged to assume responsibility for all development schemes relating to drinking water, sanitation, primary education, health and nutrition. It also provides that complete legal equality for women in all spheres should be made a practical reality especially by removing discriminatory legislation and by enacting new legislation that gives women equal rights of ownership of assets like house and land.
The National Commission on Farmers set up by the government also has its terms of reference recommending measures for credit, knowledge, skill, technological and marketing empowerment of women, taking into consideration the increasing feminisation of agriculture and the proposed conferment of right to land ownership.
A National Gender Resource Centre in Agriculture (NGRCA) has been set up in the Ministry of Agriculture as a focal point for the convergence of all issues related to women in agriculture. The department has also taken up a programme to revamp agriculture extension in the country based on Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA) model. It provides for setting up a decentralised institutional set up for undertaking demand driven extension activities. Minimum 30 per cent resources of this scheme will have to be utilised for the benefit of women farmers.
Thus, a two-pronged strategy has been adopted for supporting womens role in agriculture. At the policy level the NGRCA will work towards a more favourable policy environment for the benefit of women farmers. At the programme level, the ATMA scheme will provide necessary resources for providing extension support to women farmers.
Radha Singh box
| ICT initiatives in
agriculture |
| Kisan (farmers) Call Centres (KCC)
The KCC scheme was launched on 21st January 2004. It aims to provide online
information to
farmers through Toll-Free number 1551. The entire country is covered
under
the scheme. The response to the queries of farmers is being given in 21
languages. Over 800,000 calls have been made till March 2005. With a
view to provide
correct, consistent and speedy response to queries of farmers, a
Knowledge
Management System is being developed.
AGRISNET
The Government of India has
launched a central sector scheme
titled, Strengthening / Promoting Agricultural Informatics and
Communications of which one component is AGRISNET. The objective of
AGRISNET is
to provide improved services to the farming community through use of
ICT. The
AGRISNET project will be implemented in a projectised mode i.e. funds
under
AGRISNET will be provided to the State/Union Territory governments on
the basis
of specific project proposals submitted by them.
e-Governance
The Department of Agriculture
and Cooperation (DAC) has already
developed four portals and 40 websites relating to its work, including
that of
its directorates. These portals are DACNET, INTRA-DAC, AGMARKNET and
DACs website.
AGMARKNET is an important
initiative of the DAC and aims to
provide online information on prices of 300 commodities on daily basis
from
about 27000 mandis in the country. About 900 mandis have already been
covered
under this initiative. The work is in progress. Intermediate milestones
have
been worked out.
All India Soil and Land Use
Survey, a subordinate office of the
DAC has conducted soil and land use survey of about 200 million
hectares of
land. Most of this data is in non-digital form. Its digitisation will
improve
its utility considerably. National Informatics Centre will be
implementing this
activity. Sixty per cent of the digitisation work will be completed by
March
2006. Entire work will be completed by 15th
August 2006.
The DAC is
also implementing several other e-Governance
initiatives:
- Agriculture Census portal is almost ready n
Agricultural news is being regularly uploaded on the INTRADAC portal
- e-Granthalaya-work has commenced and is
likely to be completed by 31st October 2005
- Vacant positions in the DAC-work likely to be
completed by 31st July 2005
- Web Based Subordinate Legislation Retrieval
System-System Requirement Study has commenced. The application is
expected to become operational by 31st December 2005.
The farmer/consumer oriented websites/portals would be converted
into regional languages as well as in phases. Initially, conversion of
Integrated Pest Management Packages of practices in regional languages
has been
taken up. The work has started and is likely to be completed by 30th November 2005. |
What is the action plan for empowering women?
Women, as an independent target group, account for 495.74 million and represent 48.3 per cent of countrys total population, as per the 2001 census. Empowering women as a process demands a life-cycle approach. The countrys concern in safeguarding the rights and privileges of women found its best expression in the constitution of India. To make the de-jure equality into a de-facto one, the state has enacted both women-specific and women-related legislations to safeguard the rights and interests of women, besides protecting against social discrimination, violence and atrocities and also to prevent social evils like child marriages, dowry, rape, practice of sati, etc.
The local elected bodies such as Panchayats and Municipalities provide for 30 per cent reservation for women. The organisation of women into groups and increasing their access to credit and other productive resources will significantly contribute to social and political empowerment of women.
While the impact of various developmental policies, plans and programmes implemented over the last few decades have brought forth a perceptible improvement in the socio-economic status of women, problems like illiteracy, ignorance, discrimination and violence continue to persist event today.
About Radha Singh: She is the Secretary (Agriculture and Cooperation), Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India.
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