Background

Gender equality is not an alien concept to India – it is a part of the Indian Constitutional promise and represents a Constitutional right. Article 14 of the Indian Constitution confers equal rights and opportunities to both men and women in the political, economic and social spheres. Article 15 prohibits discrimination against any citizen inter alia on the grounds of sex.  Article 15(3) provides affirmative discriminations in favor of women to correct discrimination.  Article 16 provides for equality of opportunities in matter of public appointments for all citizens.  Article 39 (a) related to state policies towards securing all citizens, men and women, equally, the right to means of livelihood.  Article 39(d) requires public institutions to ensure equal pay for equal work. Article 42 directs the State to make provision for ensuring just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief.  Finally, the Constitution imposes a fundamental duty on every citizen through Articles 51 (A) (e) to renounce the practices derogatory to the dignity of women.

There is also adequate evidence in development literature, which demonstrates that gender equality is about increased productivity, improved development outcomes for the next generation, and making institutions more representative (World Development Report 2012 (WDR) on Gender Equality). In simple terms, no nation or state can leave behind more than half the population and expect that the house will remain in order.  Development literature confirms linkages between improved poverty reduction and gender equality. For example, in India, giving power to women at the local level has led to increases in the provision of public goods, such as water and sanitation, which was of greater concern for women. The WDR calls for immediate action in four critical areas, namely reducing excess female mortality and closing education gaps where they remain; improving access to economic opportunities for women; increasing women’s voice and agency in the household and in society; and limiting the reproduction of gender inequality across generations.

Simple as the above prescription may seem, the WDR points out that constraints to gender equality exist at multiple levels.  They exist in markets in the form of barriers to entry and occupational segregation; in institutions in terms of failure to allow women’s voices to be heard, and within households through strongly-held beliefs and practices that undermine gender equality.  Consequently, seeking change in the area of gender is complex and challenging because gender outcomes are a result of the ways in which social norms interact with markets, institutions, and individual aspirations and beliefs, to shape opportunities and outcomes for women and men throughout their lives.

External forces can also help to catalyze gender change at all levels.  For example, with ten million men Americans fighting in World War II, the need for female labor at home was urgent especially in war-time industries that had emerged.  Markets and institutions (including the Federal Government) shaped and influenced household beliefs with incentives and cries of patriotism, coaxing married women out of their homes and into the labor markets.  Women’s participation in the US labor markets reportedly increased from about one quarter to one third during this period.   In India too, one specific point of great change was Mahatma Gandhi’s call to all men and women to participate in the Indian Independence movement.  He made it the responsibility of each man and woman to take up the charka and throw off the shackles of dependence.  This led to a Constitution that forbade discrimination on the grounds of sex among other things.

Without such external forces, initiating change is challenging, even when such change is known to be right and good for the community and for the country. It needs concerted effort at different levels – political, economic, and social, and even then such change can be slow.  Such actions broadly include improving access to justice for both men and women, gender-aware policies and programs emphasizing the economic role of women, enhancing public awareness of the importance of gender equality for economic growth, programs, enhancing demand for gender equality through interventions to incentivize families and communities to change mindsets about gender, and finally committed political leadership.

This review aims to provide participants with some background on the status of gender equality in Kerala, a state in the South of India.  Based primarily on a desk review, it is aimed to increase awareness among policy makers and NGOs on gender equality in Kerala and to facilitate better appreciation of the need to initiate a dialogue on gender equality. After this introductory section, the next section provides a 3-dimensional framework for discussing gender equality.  Sections 3-5 then discuss gender issues in Kerala around the 3 dimensions, before the final concluding section.

What does Gender Equality Mean?

Gender equality is a nebulous term, not often found in several languages including in Malayalam. It is a term used to describe socially-constructed relationships between women and men.  Gender differences are unlike ‘sex-based’ differences.  The Oxford English Dictionary defines sex as referring to “biological differences”, while gender refers to differences created by “cultural or social” grounds.  Sex-based differences are biologically determined, and do not change with time or space. Gender differences, on the other hand, are a social construct, a product of society, its values, and changes from locality to locality.  While biological differences cannot be changed by society, men and women can influence gender norms through actions they may decide to take or not take within their households and communities.  For example, through their actions, they can decide to replicate gender constructs and conform to socially and traditionally created expectations or instead decide to change them.

Gender equality is not about women alone.  It is about both men and women. It is not about equal numbers for men and women, although this may be important in some contexts.  It is also not about treating men and women equally because given the biological differences, sometimes they need to be treated differently.  It is about ensuring that both men and women have equal access to opportunities, that each can live fulfilling lives, and that each can contribute to the development of communities in which they live.

Figure 1:  The Indian Constitution and Gender Equality

For the purposes of this note, gender equality will be defined utilizing the framework from the Indian Constitution.  The Constitution gives importance to rights and opportunities in 3 dimensions: (i) equal rights and opportunities for both men and women in the social sphere; (ii) equal rights and opportunities for both men and women in the economic sphere; and (iii) equal rights and opportunities for both men and women in the political spheres.  The first dimension, the social sphere, covers equal access to health, education, training and skills development.  The economic sphere focuses on women’s rights to economic assets, resources, and opportunities and discussion in the political sphere will focus on the participation and voice of women in political and community matters.

Gender Equality in Kerala

Kerala presents a paradox when it comes to gender equality. With women constituting almost 52 per cent of Kerala’s total population of 333 lakhs, Kerala has achieved enviable social development indicators. Its achievements in the areas of universal primary education both for boys and girls, favorable female-male population ratios, high literacy rates for both men and women, and high life expectancy rates for both men and women are a pride not only to the state but also to the country. The high levels of social development indicators are laudable, and are a necessary condition for gender equality.  There is, however, significant concern that although they are necessary, they are not sufficient by itself. Women may be more literate (improved enrollments) and less pregnant (decreased fertility) than in other parts of the country, but they remain equally if not more powerless and poor.

Applying the 3-dimensional constitutional lens to gender equality, this becomes evident.  Kerala fares relatively well in the first dimension in terms of social development), but falls behind in the second (access to economic opportunities, resources, and assets) and third dimension (equal voice and participation in decision making in the state). Economic, political, and social factors interact leaving women disempowered and without equal rights, sometimes as much as their sisters in other states with lower human development indicators.

This is not a new finding.  The Kerala Human Development Result (2005) notes that gender discrimination poses perhaps one of two “most serious challenges to continued human development in Kerala, cutting across categories such as class, caste, religion and age.”  The Planning Commission’s Economic Review 2010 also warns that the hype around educated and healthy Keralite women may not be the whole story – the Review points out to the need to rethink the issue and to strategize on how to address some critical constraints to gender equality. The next few sections focus on the status of gender equality in Kerala in the three Constitutional spheres (social, economic, and political) and discuss to what extent women and men enjoy their constitutionally provided rights.

Strong Progress in Social Development in Terms of Education and Health

Literacy:  Kerala has the highest literacy rates in the country, and more than 90 per cent of its women are literate. Although the rates for men are slightly higher at 96 per cent (National Sample Survey Organization 63rd round (July 2006-June 2007), these rates and the extent of gender gap fare well when compared to national figures – 86 per cent for men and 66 per cent for women. At the national level, there is a higher level of disparity with a 20 per cent gender gap. (Table 1)[i]   The National Family Health Survey-3 (NHFS 2006) confirms this high level of literacy and low gender disparity. Literate persons were defined by the survey as those who have either completed at least standard six or ‘passed’ and a simple literacy test was conducted as part of the survey. The survey found that 93 per cent of women and 96 per cent of men age 15-49 are literate in Kerala. The 2011 Census estimate also indicates that 92 per cent of women and 96 per cent of men are literate.

Education:  At the primary level, enrollment is universal and gender parity has been achieved.  At the secondary level, coverage is not universal.  A recent paper published by CDS, based on the data of the 2006 NFHS-3 shows that during the period 1996-2006, only 45 per cent of the children made it to the higher secondary level or a related stage of education. However, even at this level, female children are ahead of male children in schooling except among Scheduled Tribes (at the primary and upper primary levels) and Muslims (at the higher secondary level). (Dilip, 2010)  Dropout rates are low for both boys and girls.

A larger proportion of women are enrolled at higher level educational institutions in Kerala (Table 2).  At the tertiary level, about 70 per cent of students registered in arts, commerce, and sciences colleges during 2009-2010 were women. Girls are ahead in all fields (arts, sciences, medicine) falling behind only in engineering, technology, architecture, and design.  Girls constitute 83 per cent of the science students, but only 43 per cent of those in the engineering cluster.  While the numbers suggest a significant bias in favor of girls (7 out of 10 girls in these tertiary institutions are girls), there is a need to better explore and understand what is happening to gender parity at the tertiary level.

The high levels of education of women indicated above do not however appear to translate into marketable skills.  Women’s entry into, and participation, in the labor market is highly constrained as discussed in the next section.  The lowering of evaluation standards at the higher secondary level, instead of improving the quality of teaching and curriculum, is perceived by some as a key issue that constrains entry into labor markets.  The skills supply by universities may also not be relevant to meet the demands of a globalizing market.  Significant skills training are reported as having been conducted for women. Most activities are, however, related to ‘very stereotypical occupations like making of soaps, umbrella, foot wear, food processing, farming (mushroom, flowers etc)’ and result in little actual conversion of skills into income generating projects. Even when there were earnings, income is meager at Rs.30-Rs.50/-day.  Managerial, financial management and marketing skills were not integrated in these training sessions. Women’s limited ownership over physical assets (such as land and space for activities), and their lack of mobility further constrained outcomes. Where other skills were attempted (computer training and auto driving), such training was not coordinated with the support of financial and technical support, and they did not generate any additional income (Sakhi, undated)

Health:  Both men and women in Kerala have high life expectancies, equivalent to some European countries.  Kerala is one of the few States in the country where the female-male ratio is over one (1084 women for every 1000 men while the national rate is 940 according to the provisional data for the 2011 census).  Life expectancy is at 71 years for men and at 74 for women. (http://www.kerala.gov.in)  A woman in Kerala is expected to have an average of 1.9 children in her lifetime.   Notably, fertility even in the rural areas of Kerala is below the replacement level of 2.1 children. The relatively high rates of maternal mortality are surprising given that all births in the state are attended by skilled attendants.  NHFS-3 found than almost all women who gave birth in the five years preceding the survey received antenatal care from a health professional, including 98 per cent from a doctor and one per cent from all other health personnel. Only one per cent of women received antenatal care from a traditional birth attendant or ICDS worker.  Interestingly, 90 per cent of fathers were present at least at one antenatal care visit.  Mortality rates are one of the best in India but remain relatively high when comparable to countries such as Sri Lanka – 95 per every 100,000 births[ii] compared to Sri Lanka’s 60. There is need to better understand the exact cause for even this level of mortality rates.

Inequalities in Access to Economic Assets, Resources, and Opportunities Remain Weak

For men and women in Kerala, there are three main ways of accessing economic assets and resources: (i) acquiring a share of the family property, (ii) participation in the labor markets, (iii) self-employment or establishment of small business enterprises or participation in the informal sectors.  In each area, women appear to be unequal partners in Kerala.  Access to economic services is also important because in societies where women are predominantly responsible for household chores, increased access to childcare services, water, electricity, and cooking gas helps women to balance their time between home and work.  These issues are discussed in this section.

Access to Family Assets

During a marriage, no spouse has rights over the property of the other spouse.[iii]  Any property held in individual names belongs to the legal owner, unless proved otherwise.  Upon divorce, each spouse is entitled to maintenance and any property in her name. The wife is also entitled to claim any stridhan she bought into the family, provided she can prove it to be so if it is not in her name.  Parents and either spouse can bequeath property registered in their individual names, thus depriving children or spouse of any share of the inheritance.  While there is no gender inequality, such equal laws were considered to have an unequal result when applied in contexts where property was mostly in the hands of male family members.  Thus in several countries, laws have been instituted which require household property (defined differently, but typically refers to property acquired after the marriage) to be divided equally between the two spouses, barring any reason specified at law such as infidelity by one party.  This is not the case in Kerala.

Despite a stringent law on the books that prohibits the taking or giving of a dowry, this criminal activity continues unabated. Further more the confusion between streedhana (the property of a woman) and a dowry (a consideration paid by a bride to the bridegroom for marriage) has exacerbated the situation.  A 2008 Planning Commission report notes that in the final quarter of the last century, dowry appears to be replacing inheritance as a mode of transfer of family property, although there is no guarantee that the assets stay in the wife’s name and under her control.[iv]  Dowry deaths are per se low in Kerala when compared to other states, but the number of dowry deaths have increased between 2007 and 2008 by almost 15 per cent, the highest levels of increase in the country.  Nevertheless, the practice is widely prevalent in Kerala, and consultation with relevant stakeholders suggests standard market prices for different categories of working men!

NFHS-3 findings appear to confirm women’s weak access to assets, particularly for married women in Kerala. Only 21 per cent of married women between the ages of 15-49 in the state have some money, which they control. This was less than half the national average of 44 per cent. Only slightly more than one-quarter of women (27 per cent) have a bank or savings account that they themselves use, although this is on the higher side than the national average (15 per cent) or that in other states, and could reflect the high availability of banking services in the state.[v]  As Table 3 indicates, patriarchal practices about women’s mobility are also strong in Kerala, and in many instances stronger that other Southern States.

Participation in the Labor Markets

Despite the high levels of educational achievement of women, participation of women in labor markets is low in Kerala, one of the lowest in India. The State HDR of 2005 points out that while over a quarter of the female population is recorded as economically active at the all-India level, the proportion is about 23 per cent in Kerala. This is despite the high levels of education attainment by Keralite women.  NFHS-3 indicates that only 29 per cent of married women aged 15-49 in Kerala were employed in the year prior to the survey, compared with 99 per cent of married men.  A 2009 paper sponsored by the Kerala State Planning Board finds similarly. It notes that the ‘the work participation rate of women in Kerala is lower than the national average as well as those of other Southern States.’ According to the 2001 Census, out of a labor force in Kerala of 10.3 million, 7.8 million are males and only 2.5 million are females.  Thisis lower than Sri Lanka and is similar to other more conservative countries such as UAE and Lebanon (see Figure 2 below).

There are no clear answers on the reasons for the low labor participation in a state where women are so highly educated.  However, there are several plausible explanations, which suggest that the issue stems from a number of complex factors.  A review by Mazumdar and Guruswamy (2006) finds inter alia conceptual problems in estimating women’s participation in the labor markets, increased migration and higher levels of household income, lower levels of female employment found in transitional and developing states in Asia and Latin America, weak links between labor demands and supply, proliferation of tertiary education and consequent changed expectations of ‘acceptable’ employment, decreased rice cultivation reducing the need for female labor, switch to cash crops and replacement of women’s labor by male immigrant labor, the stagnation of the household and small-scale industry, migration of industries to other states due to labor unions, and rigid gender roles.

While low participation rates do not necessarily reflect gender inequalities since women may elect to stay at home, unemployment rates are a clearer sign of gender inequality, given that the disparity is between men and women who are seeking employment.  According to the Economic Review 2010, women outnumber men seeking employment through employment exchanges in all the 14 districts of Kerala. Almost 60 per cent of total work seekers were women.  Educated unemployment has been also noted as a serious concern by the 2010 Economic Review.  While 18 per cent of educated men are unemployed, 71 per cent of educated women are unemployed.

The latest NSSO data provides an insight into where men and women work in Kerala (Table 4).  About 40 per cent of both men and women are self-employed.  While 21 per cent of men are salaried workers, the numbers are higher for women at 30 per cent.  About half the men work as causal labor, while less than one-third of the women do so. This provides quite a contrast from the comparator states, where women’s participation as salaried workers is much lower than that of men.

Table 4: Participation in Labor Markets

A larger proportion of women, however, work in lower paying jobs and in the informal sectors.  Only 31.78 per cent of women are employed by the Government in Kerala, which is a more secure and better remunerated employment, but hereto the majority of women work in the lower rungs of the employment hierarchy as teachers, nurses, paramedics, secretaries, and stenographers. Seventy-one per cent of the school teachers in the state are women, while they constitute only 36 per cent of university teachers.  In the service sector, they work largely as domestic labor, beauticians, maids, and so on.  In the private sector, women constitute half of those employed, but more than 3/4ths of the women working in the manufacturing sector are in the informal sector. Also, private sector work is in general less secure and does not typically carry other benefits (Economic Review 2010).  There is also some evidence in the report that women work in a narrower range of occupations than men, partly because of the spatial limitations that affect women. The latest NSSO data for 2009-2010 indicates that there are more female salaried workers, but it also indicates that the average salary is lower than that of men despite the equal, if not superior, educational attainments.

Occupational segregation, another sign of gender inequality, is relatively lower in Kerala when examined against comparator states, although it is a problem in some districts.  Women predominate in the professional and technicians/associates categories, which does not occur in any of the other Southern States.  There is only a 3  per cent gender disparity in the elementary occupations, which is much less than in other Southern states.

Women, however, do not have equal decision making powers in their occupations even when compared to other Southern States.  A 2008 study on the ICT sector indicated that women mostly predominate in unskilled work and in work that require technical training and problem solving.  (Source) In areas requiring specific expertise and managerial authority, men predominate.  The NSSO data provided below in Table 6 indicates that women constitute only one-fourth of the men in positions of authority in Kerala. The numbers are higher in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu.  It is also lower than the national average, which is surprising given that Kerala continues to lead the human development index in India.

Self-Employment and Microenterprises

A large number of women in Kerala are in the private sector, but the quality of participation is weak.   About 22 lakhs work in the service sector enterprises in Kerala, with about 12 lakhs being own account enterprises[vi] and 10 lakhs in other establishments[vii].  Forty-five per cent of these workers in the informal sectors in Kerala are women (highest after Orissa). About 51 per cent of all female workers work in financially weaker OAEs and about 37 per cent work in establishments. Women constitute 31 per cent of all permanent workers, while they are 82 per cent of all temporary workers.  Only 16 per cent of all worker owners are women, and it must be noted that this is the highest amongst the comparator states and higher than the Indian average (10 per cent).  However, this is much lower than in other countries and is equivalent to data in more conservative societies in the Middle East (World Bank), where also women have good human endowments but less than 20 per cent are enterprise owners.

 Gender neutral cumbersome regulations and procedures to start and maintain a business can be more cumbersome for women, because they have greater challenges in navigating in public places.  According to the World Bank’s Doing Business 2008, countries with more cumbersome business environments have smaller shares of women entrepreneurs, and simplifying business processes could create more first-time female business owners at a rate 33 per cent faster than that for their male. These are particularly tedious in Kerala when compared with other cities in India.  Among 17 cities in India, Kochi ranks as the 16^th in terms of the ease of doing business (Doing Business in Kochi, India 2009), just above Kolkatta.  Policy makers in Kerala may wish to keep this in view, given that such reform would benefit both men and women.

In Kerala, a large percentage of the women, who are principally housewives, are willing to work on their household premises – 43 per cent in rural areas and 33 per cent in urban areas.  They need either ‘initial finance on easy terms’ or ‘training’ or ‘working finance facilities’ to take up their desired work (NSSO data 2004-5). Seventy two per cent of these women preferred part-time work, while full-time work was acceptable to another 25 per cent.  Access to microfinance appears to be a constraint in Kerala.[viii]  Among women willing to start an economic activity on their homestead, 62 per cent cited the lack of initial finance on easy terms was cited as a reason.  Another 11 per cent cited training as a limitation.  NFHS-3 also indicates that access to microfinance may be an issue.  Although all women respondents had heard of microfinance, only eight per cent of women in Kerala have availed of the facility.

Domestic workers are another group of women who are highly vulnerable in Kerala.  They work without any contracts, no clear terms or conditions, and without any security of employment.  In 2010, the State Government had established minimum wages for Kerala, but there is little monitoring of its implementation.

Women continue to be predominantly responsible for household chores and child and/or elder care (Table 6). They are responsible for collecting water and fuel for domestic consumption, for ensuring that food is on the table, and for looking after the needs of the children, the husband, and extended family members.  For working women, typically, this is in addition to their other responsibilities in the workplace.  The NHFS-3 indicates that 69 per cent of households use an improved source of drinking water (77 per cent of urban households and 65 per cent of rural households), but only 13 per cent have water piped into their dwelling, yard, or plot and 12 per cent get drinking water from a public tap or standpipe.”  Access to LPG (cooking gas) is limited to only 22 per cent of the rural population and 59 per cent of the urban population. The rest depend on firewood and other sources of energy (NSSO data 2008).  In urban Kerala, dependence on firewood and chips for cooking is highest in India (41 per cent).   Such limited access to water and fuelwood is still a problem for a sizeable proportion of women in Kerala, although the situation appears to be better than in other states.  Few affordable childcare facilities and services to look after the elderly family members must also deter women from seeking jobs.

About a quarter of households in Kerala are female headed (NFHS-3 and Census of India 2003).  Discrimination against women could adversely affect these households, but there is inadequate information on their status.  In general, given the higher educational status of women, remittances from male members who are abroad, and a proliferation of government programs for women, they cannot automatically be considered to be at a disadvantage.

The Constitutional Promise in the Political Sphere Still Remains a Mirage

Educated they may be, good health they may have, but a meaningful role in decision making as well as equal participation in  community development appears to have slipped Keralite women. Three dimensions are reviewed here: inclusion in decision making at the political and household level, social cohesion in terms of violence, and accountability of political institutions.

Inclusion in Political Decision Making: Women are not a significant part of the decision making process in the state – governance continues to be male dominated in a state renowned for its matrilineal groups.   Despite the 30 per cent women’s representation in panchayats, a single lady minister in a cabinet of more than 20 and seven women legislators in a group of 144 is low by any standard.  Patriarchal practices of political parties and male defined ways of engagement (aggressive and adversarial) combined with social attitudes to women have brought only a few talented women into the political arena.  Public defamatory statements of women by respected leaders further add to the negative environment and women’s apprehension.  Even at the local levels, reserved seats are rotated every five years, and commentators note that as soon as a woman learns the rope of job, the rug is pulled out from under her feet.  Nevertheless, there is some emerging evidence that such reservations at the local level are leading to changed perceptions about women in positions of leadership, at least in some states (World Bank, WDR 2012).  But the progress is slow and insufficient for women to have meaningful participation in key decision making areas.

Judicial Power: Representation on the judiciary is weak, another male-dominated decision making body.  In India, on average, there are about seven per cent women in the judiciary. In Kerala, where 20 per cent of the advocates in the court system are women[ix], representation has not been much better in its apex body despite the fact that the first woman to be a Supreme Court judge in 1989 was Justice Fathima Beevi from Kerala.  At the time of writing this paper, 2 out of a total of 29 judges on the Kerala High Court are women. The implications of such an all male institution for high court decisions can only be imagined because it has not been studied in depth; it remains a concern that justice at the apex level is meted out through a dominantly patriarchal lens.  In the civil services as a whole, women constitute about eight per cent of the total workforce in 2010 in India.  In 2009, they constituted about 13 per cent of all Indian Administrative Officers.  There appears to be an effort to increase women’s representation and the average intake into the IAS was about 22 per cent between 2004-2009.[x]

Women’s ability to move outside the home is highly constrained.  NHFS-3 suggests that only half the women in Kerala are allowed to go by themselves to the market (52 per cent) or to a health facility (54 per cent) but less than half (41 per cent) have freedom to travel alone outside their own village or community.  Only 35 per cent are allowed to go alone to all three places.

Violence against women[xi], another highly disempowering factor, is prevalent in Kerala despite its superior levels of women’s educational attainments.  Statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) indicate that Kerala is among the top six states in terms of rates against women (crimes per 100000) (Kerala also has the third highest rate of incidence of violent crimes in 2010, next only to Jammu and Kashmir and Manipur). Although Kerala accounts only for 2.75 per cent of the total population, it accounts for 4 per cent of the crimes committed against women in 2009.  In terms of rate of cruelty by husbands and relatives, Kerala has a the 6^th highest  crime rate in the country, lower than Andhra Pradesh, but higher than Karnataka or Tamil Nadu according to crimes registered in 2010.  NFHS-3, however, finds that violence against wives by husband is lower than Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka or Tamil Nadu in the 2006 survey.  One way to reconcile these conflicting figures might be that a larger proportion of those suffering cruelty are registering crimes in Kerala.

While the extent of violence may be unclear, what is interesting is that sixty-six per cent of women surveyed in Kerala believe that spousal beating is justified if there is a sufficient cause such as disrespect for in-laws or neglect of household or children (NHFS-3).   Fifty-five per cent of the men are of a similar opinion.  This figure is consistent with views of men and women in other parts of South India, but different from a state such as Himachal Pradesh where much fewer men and women felt violence was acceptance even with reason.

*Rate of Crime against Women means number of crimes against women per one lakh population

Despite the protected afforded by the “Law on Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act” (2005), NHFS-3 found that about half of the women (46 per cent) have neither sought help nor told anyone about the violence.[xii]  Only 36 per cent of women who have ever experienced violence have sought help to end the violence through institutional remedies.  Abused women most often seek help from their own families. Thus state institutions and services do not have an opportunity to address the majority of the cases.  Moreover, women often do not have the economic independence to take recourse and prefer to silently bear the violence.

Kerala men may not be violent by nature even if more than half of them may justify beating their spouse with reason.  They appear to need the help of alcohol to be violent. The 2006 NFHS indicated that in Kerala 64 per cent of married women, whose husbands often get drunk, report experiencing violence, compared with 10 per cent of women whose husbands do not drink any alcohol.  (Kerala Human Development Report 2005).   Each year, Keralites consume 8.3 liters of liquor per person, three times the national rate, and the state has the ignominious distinction of having the highest levels of per capita liquor consumption. The Russian experience illustrates the dangers of alcoholism.  A study published in the Lancet finds that 52 per cent of all deaths of adults between the ages of 15 and 54 between 1990 and 2001 in three Siberian industrial towns were the result of alcohol abuse.  A U.N. National Human Development Report shows that Russian males born in 2006 had a life expectancy of just over 60 years, 17 fewer than western Europeans, while Russian females could expect to live thirteen years longer than their male counterparts. Mikhail Gorbachev’s efforts initiated in 1985 with a massive anti-alcohol campaign including severe penalties against public drunkenness and alcohol consumption, and restrictions on sales of liquor helped to reduce per capita alcohol consumption and improve the quality-of-life measures such as life expectancies and crime rates despite the fact that it was deeply unpopular among the population.  While the nexus between politics and alcohol may be unbreakable without electoral reforms, it may be important at minimum to raise awareness on the risks of alcoholism, at the community-level.

Kerala has the second highest suicide per capita rates among states, double the national rate.[xiii]  In 2010, about 25 people on average committed suicide every day (NCRB data). With a population of 2.75 per cent of the total population, Kerala accounts for 6.9 per cent of all suicides in the country (NCRB 2009).  Almost three-fourths of those who committed suicide in Kerala in 2010 were men and the higher one’s education, the lesser the chance of committing suicide – in Kerala 83.7 per cent had not passed the 10^th grade in 2009.  The higher numbers for men warrants investigation but part of it may perhaps be attributable to the stress on men to be the sole providers of the family needs – clearly a ‘male gender issue’.

So What Does All this Mean?

A prosperous Kerala needs its women and men to be equal partners, socially, economically, and politically.  Economic growth and the prosperity of Kerala in this globalizing world will depend on the availability of a sufficiently large workforce with a range of relevant skill levels and the ability to adapt to the changing needs of the labor market.

Kerala has already taken its first big step towards the constitutional promise of gender equality.  It has succeeded where many other states have failed – to educate its women and ensure access to basic services. But, while it has invested in the human development of women, it is not reaping the benefits of this investment.   At an economic level, women are still to find equal access to, and control over resources, be it through employment or access to household assets.  The higher proportion of women on the unemployment list is a testimony of the fact that even those women who seek jobs are unable to find them.   At a political level, women have started to speak at the panchayat level, but their voices have not found a place in key decision making arenas, which are almost completely male dominated.  Violence against women within the home appears to be increasing, although it is unclear to what extent this is because of higher levels of reporting.  Clearly, there are miles to go before the Constitutional promise can be said to have been achieved.

The context of gender in Kerala is, however, unique – women are educated and healthy, but apparently poor and powerless when assessed by typical indicators of women’s empowerment in the economic and political sphere.  Additionally, there is insufficient demand for gender equality, even among women.  In such a context, top-down policies and programs have not been sufficient. While it would be important for the Government to establish a considered strategy for women’s empowerment and to support gender mainstreaming in its work, three findings make it imperative that the demand-side for gender equality be also urgently addressed.  Key findings are:

• There is a need to develop a collective ownership of the gender equality or the women’s empowerment agenda and for more people to become aware that a gender equality agenda is not a feminist obsession, but is a Constitutional vision, one that will protect both men and women, and one that is necessary for Kerala to emerge as a prosperous and modern state. Awareness must be raised to ensure a demand at the grassroots level for gender equality, much as this is surprising in a state where matrilineal norms were prevalent.  While the Government has a key responsibility in this regard, equal responsibility lies with other development partners such as NGOs and civil society representatives.
• An approach to achieving gender equality should focus on both men and women.  Women’s empowerment is an essential first step before one can effectively implement gender equality and achieve the Constitutional promise in the State.  At the same time, it is important to recognize and better understand the decreasing enrolments of men in the primary and tertiary education levels and to examine the need to address this issue.
• Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it is important to bring men into this equation and garner their involvement in supporting women’s empowerment and gender equality.  In forging solutions to achieve the constitutional promise, it is important that the solutions help to preserve the family, and this can be achieved only if men are part of finding the solution.   If the social change is to be harmoniously wrought, then men need to become part of the solution and the gender equation.  As Mahatma Gandhi said: “the seers among men have recognised her equal status.”  It is time for Kerala men to rise to the occasion.

[i] Given the common historical and social background, states in the South were picked as comparator states with the addition of Himachal Pradesh, given its relative high levels of gender equality.

[ii] http://content.undp.org/go/newsroom/2010/september/achieving-mdgs-in-india.en

[iii] This paragraph is not meant to discuss in detail the gender issues of access to property in Kerala, given that this is complex and varies with each community.  This is only to reflect the main point that access to property for women is constrained.

[iv] Among the Hindus and the Christians, stridhana (property gifted to the daughter at the time of marriage) was the right of a women to ancestral property that was expected to remain under the bride’s control and for her economic security.  Among Muslims, a consideration was paid at the time of marriage (a consideration for the marriage contract) that was to be returned to the wife in case of divorce.

[v] Kerala has traditionally been a well-banked state.  In 2004, Kerala had a bank per 11,000 people compared to the all-India average of 16,000.  (Economic Review 2010)

[vi] An enterprise, which is run without any hired worker employed on a fairly regular basis, is termed as own account enterprise. The estimated annual gross value added per enterprise in Kerala is RS. 36000 for OAEs and Rs. 216000 for establishments.

[vii] Establishment: An enterprise which employs at least one hired worker on a fairly regular basis is termed as establishment. Paid or unpaid apprentices, paid household member/servant/resident worker in an enterprise are considered hired workers.

[viii] Studies in India suggest that microfinance helps to socially empower women.  A NABARD study of microfinance in 2008-2009 showed that 92 per cent of households reported that the social empowerment of women had increased after joining membership in SHGs over a period of time.  The findings also showed that 22.5 per cent of women SHG members in the households had taken decisions in the post-SHG period as compared to 9.1 per cent in the pre-SHG period with respect to children’s education.

[ix] http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-03-30/thiruvananthapuram/28134915_1_dress-code-bar-council-lawyers

[x] www.thehindu.com/education/article75295.ece, Education: Dispelling Myths about Civil Service Examinations

[xi] The Declaration on Elimination of Violence Against Women adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1993, defines Violence Against Women as “any act of gender based violence against women that results in or is likely to result in physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivations of liberty, whether occurring in public or private spaces”

[xii] This may change as women become more aware of the legal provisions.

[xiii] http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/ADSI2010-full-report.pdf