Caste, Kinship, and Life Course: Rethinking Women's Work and Agency in Rural South India

This paper reexamines the linkages between women's work, agency, and well-being based on a household survey and in-depth interviews conducted in rural Tamil Nadu in 2009 and questions the prioritization of workforce participation as a path to gender equality. It emphasizes the need to unpack the nature of work performed by and available to women and its social valuation, as well as women's agency, particularly its implications for decision making around financial and nonfinancial household resources in contexts of socioeconomic change. The effects of work participation on agency are mediated by factors like age and stage in the life cycle, reproductive success, and social location – especially of caste – from which women enter the workforce

Structural adjustment and human development : a study of two Indian states

Page 74 of v 1 missin

Social sectors during economic reforms: The Indian experience

A range of issues, concerned with both macro and micro dimensions, have been affecting social sectors in India since economic reforms began in mid-1991. Given the unsatisfactory performance with respect to social indicators, the relevant question to be considered is not what the situation would have been in the absence of reforms, but what it ought to be and whether the process of reform can enable such goals to be achieved. The impact of reforms depends on initial conditions, growth rates and political commitment of state governments towards education, health and nutrition. Initial conditions showed a wide variation in attainment, lack of correspondence between economic performance and social conditions, low government expenditure in low attainment states, a distorted pattern of expenditure skewed towards tertiary facilities in urban areas, and under-utilization of existing infrastructure. The increase in real per capita expenditure on social services between 1986-91 (pre-reform period) and 1991-96 (reform period) has been lower than that of real per capita total expenditure. There was generally a reduction in the share of revenue allocated to social sectors during the reform years. Case studies to assess the situation in five villages in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu pointed to the poor quality of services rendered in government delivery systems and to sharp differences in utilization of services across income groups as well as across villages. Perceptions of households indicated that quality was particularly poor in health and nutrition. A majority did not perceive any substantial improvement in quality during the period of reform.