Chapter 2 cover photo credits: Mark Henley / Panos Picture
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47 Stemming girls’ chronic poverty: Catalysing development change by building just social institutions poor households and/or social health insurance constitutes an important first step in minimising hurdles that daughters face in securing equal health care (e.g. Sen and Ostlin, 2010; Walsh and Jones, 2009). Moreover, given emerging evidence that women often bear the brunt of the burden of coping with health shocks in the household (e.g. through the distress sale of female-owned assets to cover catastrophic health costs) (e.g. Baulch and Quisumbing, 2009), promoting more equitable social health protection for the poor and vulnerable is especially important. Although it is often argued that such schemes are beyond the realm of the possible for low-income countries, the example of Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme, introduced five years ago and now covering around 60 percent of the population, highlights that, with strong political will, such a system is both affordable and feasible (Jones et al., 2009). Reducing girls’ time poverty In order to reduce time poverty, which is a key manifestation of bias against daughters in the intra-household distribution of labour, resources and power, efforts to reduce girls’ time outlays in housework and care work roles are critical. In terms of the former, a growing number of initiatives seek to minimise the time girls spend on water and fuelwood collection, one of the most time-consuming activities that millions of girls undertake on a daily basis (see Box 23). These typically seek to integrate the development of time-saving infrastructure into the objectives of broader poverty reduction programmes (see also Chapter 1 on Discriminatory Family Codes). They may include the promotion of technologies such as energy-saving stoves to reduce the daily task of firewood collection; promotion of donkeys, especially for women and children, to ease the burden of transporting drinking water and other goods; introduction of water harvesting techniques and agricultural practices that are less labour intensive, such as lighter and better-quality hand tools; management of soil cover in order to suppress weeds; or introducing crops that are less labour intensive (Hartl, 2006). Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP), for instance, includes infrastructure to help reduce women and girls’ time poverty (such as the construction of water and fuelwood collection points within the proximity of the community) in the definition of community © Mark Henley / Panos Pictures (2000) China, Guangxi province. Peasant girl carrying water for crops with her mother in Li River karst limestone landscape.
48 2 | Son bias assets undertaken through its public works component (Jones
Agricultural Development (IFAD)-supported project has acted as a catalyst for women’s and girls’ integration into development activities by providing community investments in potable water networks and electricity, which have reduced female workloads, particularly in water fetching and manual labour. Moreover, the project has raised awareness of the role they play, on an equal basis with men and boys, in household and community development (Hartl, 2006). The second critical approach to alleviating girls’ time poverty concerns child care services. Much of the literature on early child development and crèche services focuses on the importance of such facilities to support women’s involvement in paid work. There is surprisingly little attention paid to the potential role that these can have on reducing the time burden of sibling care. For example, as the 2007 Education For All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report notes: ‘When young children attend ECCE [early childhood care and education] programmes, their older sisters or other female kin are relieved of care responsibilities, a common barrier to girls’ enrolment in primary school’ (UNESCO, 2007). Moreover, early child care and education services can help tackle gender discriminatory attitudes that perpetuate son bias, by providing ‘an opportunity to reduce stereotypes about traditional gender roles and to foster gender equality at an age when young children are developing understandings of identity, empathy, tolerance and morality’ (ibid). A variety of promising approaches recognise the key linkages between girls’ education and the provision of early childhood care. India is the front runner in this regard: not only are its ECCE programmes both widespread and longstanding, dating to the 1975 creation of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme, but also, for more than two decades, national ECCE policy has specifically acknowledged the impact of ECCE on girls’ primary education. In 1986, the National Policy on Education acknowledged that the universalisation of primary education would require the provision of day care centres in order to free girls from their child care duties. The District Primary Education Programme works closely with ICDS to ensure that primary school locations and schedules closely match those of ECCE centres. India also pioneered the mobile crèche movement. Mumbai Mobile Crèche has worked for over 30 years to free children from the burden of looking after their younger siblings, enabling girls to stay in school. Another NGO that recognises the ties between girls and their younger siblings is Room to Read. Serving nearly 10,000 girls in Southeast Asia and Africa, Room to Read offers a variety of support to keep girls in school. In addition to supplying course fees and female teachers, the programme offers flexible classes that allow girls to bring their younger siblings with them and to return home at lunch to cook for their family (Room to Read, 2009). The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), also working in Africa, is following two paths for the provision of ECCE, both with the goal of relieving ‘school-age girls of the burden of caring for very young children’ (MCC, 2005). In Burkina Faso, the MCC is working to construct girl- friendly schools that jointly house day care centres; in Liberia, the grant will cover the construction of community-managed child care centres. 5. Lessons learnt and policy implications Overall, this chapter has highlighted the importance of understanding the underlying economic and social factors that underpin intra-household gender biases and the gendered patterning of the impacts of differential treatment of sons and daughters and resulting linkages to poverty dynamics. We recognise that son bias is not caused by poverty alone, although there is evidence that it is often intensified as a result of it. This is especially the case where income poverty intersects with low levels of education and literacy (among women as well as men) and in rural areas, where inheritance practices and agricultural labour demands play a particularly important role in shaping a preference for male offspring. The impacts of son bias on girls and young women do have strong links with girls’ experiences of poverty and vulnerability in childhood and adulthood, and often in intergenerational terms. Son bias often results in deficits in terms of girls’ health and nutrition status, educational opportunities and attainment, time use, self-esteem and protection from exploitative and/or abusive forms of labour. Perhaps not surprisingly, given the culturally specific patterning of social institutions, there are significant differences across regions. There is considerable evidence that son bias is especially severe and entrenched in parts of Asia and the Middle East and North Africa, as reflected in alarmingly high sex ratio imbalances. In this part of the world, son bias may entail female foeticide or significantly different investments in girls’ health and nutrition, as reflected in gender-unequal child mortality rates as well as a range of other human capital and psychosocial deficits. In sub-Saharan African and Latin America, although demographic trends do not reflect any significant son preference, there is nevertheless ample evidence that daughters in impoverished and marginalised communities in particular suffer from unequal investments in Son bias often results in deficits in terms of girls’ health and nutrition status, educational opportunities and attainment, time use, self-esteem and protection from exploitative and/or abusive forms of labour.
49 Stemming girls’ chronic poverty: Catalysing development change by building just social institutions their education, higher levels of time poverty and heightened vulnerability to abusive forms of work. All of these can in turn contribute to negative psychosocial impacts in childhood, adolescence and beyond. In order to address these discriminatory norms and practices, a multipronged approach supported by partners across a range of organisations at the international, national and sub-national levels is required, buttressed by strong political will. This should include: • Harmonising legal provisions with international conventions and commitments and, most importantly, enforcing them, including through legal sensitisation and community outreach initiatives; • Investing in public education efforts, including through curriculum reforms and innovative use of multimedia approaches, to mobilise support for investing in daughters; • Incentivising and supporting families through a range of social protection interventions for education and health, including cash transfers, school feeding programmes, scholarship programmes for girls and social health insurance; • Promoting empowerment programmes for marginalised adolescent girls, especially those that rely on role models and peer mentors, which can also have powerful multiplier effects; • Investing in alternative energy sources and infrastructure at the community level so as to tackle girls’ disproportionate time poverty; • Ensuring the provision of affordable and accessible child care facilities to relieve girls of sibling care responsibilities; and • In the longer term, enhancing girls’ and women’s use, ownership and control of assets and income will greatly strengthen their perceived value in the household and community and will contribute to reducing the preference for sons over daughters. The recommendations in Chapter 3 are thus especially relevant. Notes
1 This is calculated based on the number of males in the population divided by the number of females. 2 In some cases, poverty actually may protect some girls, especially in settings where they participate in subsistence agriculture and therefore are valued as producers (Pande and Astone, 2007). Wealth, on the other hand, poses a significant risk: imbalances in sex ratios are most acute among the higher classes in India. In the Punjab region, one of India’s more economically advanced states, approximately one in five female foetuses is thought to be aborted following sex identification testing (IRIN, 2005). 3 Infanticide of either sex, whether for economic, social or other reasons, has been prevalent across cultures throughout history. Even in the 1990s, infants under one year of age in the UK were ‘four times as likely to be victims of homicide as any other age group – almost all killed by their parents’ (Marks and Kumar, 1993). 4 In the case of China in particular, sex ratio disparities may also be reflected in international adoption of girl babies, as well as the high number of ‘orphaned girls’ assigned to state institutions (IRIN, 2005). 5 Chen and Summerfield (2007) also note that, in 2004, the Chinese government initiated an old-age security project for those who complied with the birth control policy in selected rural areas in order to help address the sex ratio imbalance. In 2005, the Liaoning provincial government launched a pilot version whereby families who had either one child or two daughters were entitled to receive 600 yuan per year per person after they reached age 60. 6 El-Gilany and Shady (2007); Nasir and Kalla (2006); Kiriti and Tisdell (2005); Yueh (2006). 7 Although overt gender discrimination reduced in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Chinese women’s rights have become less secure, particularly because, with the end of land reallocations, marriage has become a source of landlessness for women. In 1998, contracts were extended to 30 years, and redistributions could be made only when two-thirds of the villagers voted in their favour (Chen and Summerfield, 2007). These changes have particular implications for women in the lowest income group, who are typically heavily dependent on agriculture as their income source (Hare
8 Almond et al. (2009) considered 2001 and 2006 census data in Canada to analyse sex ratios among Asian immigrants. Higher sex ratios were found among first generation immigrants and stronger preferences for sons when all other children were girls. The authors found that Sikh families were more likely to use sex-selective abortion whereas Christian and Muslim families were more likely to keep having children until they had a son. Argnani et al. (2004) considered a group of Chinese immigrant women in Italy and found no particular sex ratio imbalance, but a preference for sons was expressed by survey participants owing to a desire to carry on the family name. However, abnormal variations in sex ratios were seen after the birth of the first child. Dubuc and Coleman (2007) considered sex ratios among Indian-born mothers in the UK. There has been a four- point increase in sex ratio among Indian-born mothers, which they argued is consistent with changes seen in India. Higher sex ratios are particularly evident later in the birth order and significant only above the third child. 9 Ebenstein and Leung (2010)’s conclusion that, although there is support for son preference in Islamic scriptures, there is a lower degree of daughter aversion, is also supported by quantitative analysis. 10 Plan International (2007) identifies Algeria, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Egypt, India, Jordan, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, Senegal, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey as countries with a strong son bias, as well as Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay in Latin America. 11 Trends over the same period highlight important regional differences, with sharp reductions in sex discrimination mortality in North Africa and South Asia. However, overall numbers have remained constant globally owing to a dramatic rise in mortality in China (Klasen and Wink, 2003). 12 Recent research shows that boys are 60 percent more likely to be born prematurely and have problems breathing, and face higher risks of birth injury, because of their larger body and head size. But although girls benefit from their physiology at birth, this inherent resilience quickly gets overshadowed by gender discrimination – and in many countries girls swiftly become much more vulnerable than boys (World Bank, 2004, in Plan International, 2009). 13 Examples of gender-differentiated treatment are as follows: among children under age five with symptoms of acute respiratory infection (ARI), treatment was sought from a health facility or provider for 72 percent of the boys but 66 percent of the girls. Among under fives with fever, treatment was sought from a health facility or provider for 73 percent of boys but 68 percent of girls. Boys are also (7 percent) more likely than girls to be taken to a health facility for treatment in case of diarrhoea. Among last-born children, boys are 11 percent more exclusively breastfed than girls (IIPS, 2007). 14 Patra (2008) notes that Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh have the highest gender biases. 15 This has been shown to account for 11 percent of the mortality gender gap between babies aged 12 to 36 months, and could account for 14 percent of girl mortality between one and five (Jayachandran and Kuziemko, 2010). 16 Hazarika (2000) notes that, among young children in South Asia, sons have greater access to health care but are not better fed than daughters. This suggests that, rather than parental preference for boys (which would result in greater consumption among sons than daughters, which is not borne out by survey evidence), intra-household gender discrimination has its primary origins in higher returns to parents from investment in sons. 17 A robust body of evidence emphasises that girls’ education promotes gender equality by minimising time use differences between boys and girls, and is positively associated with lower fertility, increased spacing between births, smaller likelihood of child marriage, improved productivity and lower levels of intergenerational transfer of poverty (e.g. Lloyd et al., 2009). 18 In Afghanistan, there are 63 girls in school for every 100 boys (UNESCO, 2010). 19 In many households, men are still seen as the main breadwinners, so families perceive less value in investing in girls’ education (Jusidman, 2004); some families prioritise boys’ education, particularly when there are insufficient resources to finance education of both girls and boys; and some girls are not interested in continuing in school because they fail to see employment opportunities for themselves despite greater levels of education (Pereznieto and Campos, 2010). 20 This substitute effect is further borne out by the fact that the presence of additional adult females in the household may alleviate the housework burden of children. Ilahi (2001) found that, for Peru, the presence of adult females in the household lowered the housework time of both boys and girls but had no effect on child economic activity. It also significantly affected the educational attainment of girls, with no effect on the attainment of boys (Guarcello et al., 2006). 21 Research from Brazil (Deutsch, 1998) and Romania (Fong and Lokshin, 1999) found that presence of children aged 6 to 15 who can serve as substitute care providers had a negative effect on the decision to use outside child care (in Ilahi, 2001). In Kenya, a 10 percent increase in child care costs reduced older girls’ school enrolment rate by 3 percent, while the effect was not significant for boys (Glinskaya et al., 2000, in Ilahi, 2001). 22 Grootaert and Patrinos (1999); Guarcello et al. (2006); Ilahi (2001); Skoufias (1993). 23 Ilahi (2001) notes an opposing income effect – as a mother’s income increases her demand for child schooling increases – and substitution effect – children have to step in for a mother’s forgone housework – at play here. The substitution effect dominates at least up to a certain income threshold in developing countries. 24 www.unfpa.org/hiv/women/report/endnotes.htm#c4h16. 25 In South Korea, legislation providing for the revoking of medical practitioners’ licenses has helped reduce the country’s sex ratio, which fell from 116.9 in 1990 to 110 in 2004 (Hesketh and Zhu, 2006). 26 http://infochangeindia.org/2006031077/Women/Analysis/Challenges-in-implementing-the-ban-on-sex-selection.html. 27 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4173597.stm. 28 Note that Paragraph 83 of the Beijing Platform for Action calls for governments and education authorities to promote shared responsibilities between girls and boys vis-à-vis domestic work and family responsibilities. 29 www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing15/regional_review.html. 30 Introduced in 2007, the New Rural Social Pension Insurance Programme provides pensions to people over 60 years on the condition that family members aged 18+ have subscribed and paid for the insurance. The aim is to reduce dependency on children for financial support in old age and the risk of conflict between family members because of the need to provide financial support. In 2007, coverage had already reached 61.3 percent of those eligible (Wenjuan and Dan, 2008). Yüklə 4,33 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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