ICT and employment promotion among poor women : how can we make it happen? some reflections on Kerala's experience

This paper deals with the integration of gender in policies relating to information and communication technology to empower socially excluded poor women as producers of this technology. In this context, this paper examines an interventionist ICT policy undertaken by Kudumbasree (an innovative women based participatory programme) to empower poor women .The central part of the investigation is a survey of Kudumbasree supported micro enterprises scattered across the state to understand the nature and characteristics of the enterprises, activity pattern and performance parameters. The analysis of the paper is divided into two parts. First part deals with the structure and performance of women led enterprises and the second deals with issues relating to women, work and welfare. From the evidence gathered, we can conclude that the ICT initiatives under the umbrella of Kudumbasree have vast potential for empowering the poor women. The study clearly establishes that given the basic literacy of the state, engendering ICT for poor women is feasible, provided the right organisational support is given. Poor women through this programme have entered the lowest of IT enabled jobs. If this good beginning has to be sustained and poor women have to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the IT revolution, they should be helped to move to higher levels of activities with more intense training and organisational support. There is a need for continuous upgradation of skills and capacity building particularly in the context of the fast changing technology associated with the IT sector. The point that needs to be stressed is that while the agency has concentrated on the supply side, the demand side aspects such as output demand, market research, customer service etc; have been largely ignored. For best results the supply and demand factors need to be tackled in an integrated manner. The current practice of digitization of government records through Kudumbasree has its limitations. Work is bound to peter out when the backlog of digitization work is completed. The solution to this lies in the expanded role of the agency. The units have to diversify the customer base with government acting as a facilitator. Maybe the government can set up a flexible independent apex body, or alternatively an alliance of units to strengthen their bargaining power. To conclude, although we cannot expect with the given levels of education, for the women to move to very high levels of work like software development it is possible to ensure continuous income and employment through work contracts of a different nature-work of a continuous nature and not programme specific like electronic publishing, customer call centres, records management etc. which will fall well within their educational capabilities. ICT is certainly a promising sector for the empowerment of poor women and for them to become partners in development. Key words: E24, J16, J23, L63 JEL Classification: Women, Employment, Kudumbasree, Poverty alleviation, self help group

Long term trends in the growth and structure of the net state domestic product in Kerala

Kerala has been a model to other states for her achievements in social development. But in terms of economic growth her performance has for long been very poor and a matter of deep concern. In this context the turnaround in growth that has occurred in Kerala in the nineties , in contrast to the earlier decades needs to be looked at in detail. This study is an attempt in that direction. It is an analysis of the long terms trends in the State Domestic Product of Kerala for the period 1970-2000. It is concerned with the growth of the different sectors of the economy, the changes in the sectoral composition of output and other related issues such as the sources of growth. What is observed is that in the eighties and more so in the nineties both in terms of rates of growth and share in net state domestic product the tertiary sector has dominated and this has been due to the growth of the producer’s services. Income responsiveness of producer services is also found to be the highest. However, it is observed that this has not resulted in any linkages with the production sector within the economy suggesting that the linkages may be with productive sectors of other states. Nevertheless there are some intersectoral linkages with the consumer services and intra sectorallinkages between banking and insurance and transport by other means. In conclusion the leading and lagging sectors of the economy and in the nineties the sectors propelling growth are identified. The sectors which have lost their position when compared to the previous decades are Registered Manufacturing, Construction and Public Administration. The emerging sectors in the economy are transport by other means, and trade , hotels and restaurants while banking and insurance is the leading sector. Analysis of structural transformation in the economy suggests that although structural change has been there, it was found to be very moderate and has not been strong enough to bring about a major change either in terms of the growth centres of the economy or the main contributors to the growth of the economy. In conclusion one feels that we continue to remain a consumer /trading state and not a producer state. Is this socially desirable and sustainable is a question that needs to be addressed. Key words: SDP growth rates, sectoral shares, service sector, producer services, consumer services, income and price elasticity, structural transformation JEL Classification: O11, O1

कृषि विज्ञान केंद्र नारककल

कृषि विज्ञान केंद्र नारकक

Awareness campaign for Fisherwomen

Women in fishing communities have decisioh-making role in community management. With the increasing commercialisation of fishing industry I women's access to post-harvest operations in fisheries has been declining: It is- estimated that only about 20 percent of women from traditional fishing households get opportunities for income generation from fishery related activities which are seasonal

Entrepreneur gains success in scientific prawn and crab culture

This enterpreneur makes lucrative earning from prawn seed collection too. A scientifically trained prawn-culture farmer may supply up to 0.1 million prawn seeds/day/seaso

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Sustainable farming is a critical issue in aquaculture development. The concept is well understood but the issue is that of methodology for implementing it. It is well recognized that fragmented holdings have been a major constraint in the implementation of farming practices by small-scale farmers. In India 80 per cent of the shrimp production comes from small and marginal holdings which follow different systems of production, including the traditional ‘pokkali’ farms of Kerala state, improved traditional farming, and scientific methods. Group farming, which was highly successful in paddy farming, was tested among small-scale shrimp farmers practicing paddy and shrimp farming in rotation in a cluster of ‘pokkali’ fields in Kerala. The model served as an effective extension intervention to educate farmers on sustainability while helping them to improve their farming practices. The farmers, including women, could be equipped with the technology for farming not only shrimp but also finfish, crab and aquaculture feed production by strengthening the farmer–extensionist–researcher–political–administrative linkages. The work was done during 1993–1996 at the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Cochin, India. The study formed a part of the action research project on empowerment of rural communities through extension

Action research for rural empowerment in Chellanam fishing village

The empowerment approach aims at equipping the rural people with ways and means of improving their living conditions. Extension education was found to be useful in producing the desired change in the target grou

Tribological property evaluation, optimization and performance of waste sunflower oil based green cutting fluid with silicon dioxide nanoparticles as additive

Mineral oil-based cutting fluids are hazardous and non-biodegradable, and their widespread usage has had a terrible effect on the environment and living things. The creation of a novel, ecologically sustainable cutting fluid technology is essential to avoid the above crisis. Commercial mineral oil alternatives are considered to possess identical lubricating properties as vegetable oils. Most vegetable oils are edible, so waste-cooking sunflower oil (WSO) is selected from this group to serve as the base stock for the green cutting fluid. The green cutting fluid is created using silicon dioxide nanoparticles as an additive and food-grade emulsifiers like Tween 80 and Span 80. According to the experimental findings, 0.05 weight percent silicon dioxide nanoparticles in the green cutting fluid performed better on a pin-on-disc tribometer

Note on the extension of prawn culture technology to women in a coastal village

Prawn farming is a potential area of income generation for women in fishing villages. Observations indicate that women in small scale prawn farming households do have involvement in the traditional system. They also play an important role in the management of other activities such as livestock rearing and vegetable cultivation in their farms. Given more information and training they can be usefully involved in the adoption of the technology and also management of the farms