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Singh, Seema

I 'M D t A Wide disparities between men and women in politics: report ieema Singh iANGALORE: Though India is a signato-y to UN Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women CEDAW), a report on political participa-ion of women in India shows wide dispari-ies between men and women in the politi-al sphere. India ratified the international treaty in 994, albeit with some reservations, and vas supposed to submit the country report vithin one year but has not done it till date, lie draft report, prepared by the Intema-ional Women's Rights Action Watch IWR AW), is said to be lying with the ex-srnal affairs ministry Besides CEDAW, India is also a sign to-y to the Platform for Action, the outcome the fourth world co aference on women nd the Beijing Declaration Based primarily on secondary data, the report shows that from 1996 to 1998 parlia-mentary elections, the percentage of women's piirticipation h.»s gon up by just one per cent — from 7 to 8 pet cent. Based on statistics and over 45 case s tudies from all parts ot the country, the report says that there exists disparity by law and disadvan-tage by gender everywhere. National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) coordinator for the project Ashima Chopra says, "A good case is the Panchayati R*i elections in Karnataka. Most of the women stand as proxy for their male relatives. Further, the daily allowance of Rs 20, which women in gram panchayats get for attending meetings is far too less against the trouble they take in ravelling and managing domestic chores." "Our study has also highlighted that there has been no panchayati raj election in Bi tiar which is unconstitutional. We plan to go then: shortly and document the actu-Thefindings *De facta female inequality remains •Lack of.corrective approach to tack-ling female inequality •Caste, religion, cultural stereotype ob-stacles •Double burden •Poor investment in female education on political rights/access •No provision of child care facilities and other support structures •Reduced impact of 74th amendment on female political participation •Failure to pass 84th Constitutional amendment in current session •Failure to present CEDAW report due in 1995 •No mechanism for CEDAW reporting with NGO involvement al condition of women," Ms Chopra said. Since the IWRAW project aims at identi-fying country-specific issues, other coun-tries in the Asia Pacific region have taken one issue but India, because of its sheer size, has taken up three issues — political rights of women; women in armed conflict situation with focus on North-east, Tamil Nadu and Punjab: rights of women in mar-riage. A national workshop in March will fur-ther consolidate the report before it is sub-mitted to IWRAW. However, as a fallout of this, the Gender Studies Unit (GSU) at NIAS has undertaken a longitudinal study of women's political participation in the districts of Mysore, Bijapur and Dakshina Kannada. Aiming at finding what is impeding women's political involvement, Ms N. Shantha Mohan of GSU says, "Our previ-ous studies in rural Karnataka have shown that there is a need for redefinition of ef-fective political participation. Case studies have shown that often a woman seeks re-sources for education, sanitation or other 'softer' issues and a man for more visible is-sues like roads or electricity. The outcome in terms of visibility is more in the latter case. Does it mean that women are less ef-fective?" With the panchayat elections in Karnata-ka scheduled in March, the GSU study in-tends to explore both pre and post election scenario in the gram panchayats The baseline study facilitated by IWRAW, which will monitor the fulfilment of state obligations toward women's equal-ity under CEDAW, will also make recom-mendations -J CEDAW for effective par-ticipation of women in Indian politics. It also aims to mobilise women in their advo-cacy. 

Wide Disparities between Men and Women in Politics: Report

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National Aerospace Laboratories T h e I n f o r m a t i o n P a s t e b o a r d NAL signs MoU with Genser Aviation NAL and Genser Aviation signed, onWednesdayll November 1998, an enabling memorandum of understanding (MoU) which will allow Genser to be NAL's partner in a wide variety of aerospace technology marketing exercises. At the brief function to sign the MoU, Dr T S Prahlad, Director, spoke of the need for NAL to forge partnerships with professionals "who understand the name of the game" in marketing aerospace technologies, products and design services. Dr B R Somashekar, Director,NALTECHhopedthatthe alliance would lead to "successful contacts and contracts". Mr ArunakarMishra,Chief Executive, Genser, made a brief presentation on Genser’s initiative to "bring in opportunities and provide all-round support to Indian aviation". Among those who witnessed the MoU signing were Wg Cdr I M Chopra, Former Chairman, HAL, who has agreed to be an adviser to Genser. P K Panda's distinction Mr P K Panda, Scientist, Materials Science Division has been selected forthe YoungEngineer Award 1998 of the Indian National Academy of Engineering. Earlier this year Mr Panda was also the recipient of the 1997 NAL Young Scientist Award. The Information'Paste-boardreportsonNALactivity every week. (IP322/9-15 November 1998) Bangalore IT.com'98: Explaining the success of the Silicon Valley In 1979, as a graduate student at Berkeley and one of the first scholars to study Silicon Valley, AnnaLee Saxenlan, now Professor at University of California, confidently predicted that Silicon Valley “would stop growing because housing and labour were too expensive and the roads were too congested”. Nothing of the sort happened: in fact the largest wave of start-ups began soon after. Five years later. Business Week, “with even greaterauthority” announced that “Silicon Valley was going down the tubes” in the face of stiff Japanese competition. It didn’t; by the late 1980's, Silicon Valley was flourishing all over again. AnnaLee Saxenian’s lucid narrative on why Silicon Valley keeps growing, “when economic theory and even common sense” suggested that it had reached its limit was one of the highlights of the Global Village seminar. “Traditional business models”, Saxenian discovered, “cannot explain Silicon Valley’s success”, and after hundreds of interviews with technology executives, she concluded that “Silicon Valley had pioneered a new business model built around a network system”. In this decentralized industrial system, production is organised by networks of specialised firms "which compete intensely even while collaborating in formal and informal ways”. Relationships matter in this network system with the “rich social, technical and productive relationships fostering entre-preneurship, experimentation and collective learning”. For the most part, Saxenian’s lecture contrasted the performance of Silicon Valley (SV) with its leading domestic competitor: Boston’s Route 128 region “on which one would have been well-advised to place one’s bets even in the 1970’s”. Route 128 lost out because it was a “collection of independent firms ratherthan a regional network” (one liked Saxenian’s analogy com-paring Route 128 to a ‘plantation’ while Silicon Valley was like a ‘rainforest’ with “continually diversifying mix of species, flora and fauna that spontaneously and repeatedly cross-pollinate”). The four essential differences between the two models were: (a) labour market behaviour and attitudes toward risk taking (in SV the loyalty is to technologies and region: nottothecorporate ladder: and failures are seen as technological experiences, not social setbacks); (b) rich social and professional networks (gossip sessions in SV offer tremendous opportunities to share technical experiences and maintain relationships: Califor-nia’s outstanding universities are active collaborators): (c) decen-tralized industrial infrastructure (which promote specialisation, collaboration and quick respons-es to technology shifts) and (d) very different supplier infrastruc-tures (in SVsuppliesare externali-sed- e.g., from Taiwan - and not internalised within firms). (continued overleaf) 

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