GENDER MATTERS: Raising the Status of Women and Girls in India
International Women's Day – March 8, 2005

Classroom quality rises in Karnataka by broadcasting lessons
via interactive radio to underserved students.

Fast Facts

• Nearly half of women are illiterate
• Median number of years in school for girls is 1.8 compared to 5.5 for boys
• 40% of women experience domestic violence
• Sex ratio (age 0-6) is 1000 males to 927 females
• One in 75 women dies in childbirth

In spite of the progress, a wide gap remains between the country's goals and the status of women in India. Discrimination against women and girl children is still entrenched. Violence and abuse is widespread, and many females are kept from educational, health and workplace opportunities that would raise their standards of living. The majority of Indian women are marginalized, undernourished and struggle with reproductive health.

USAID India Responds

USAID India recognizes the challenges faced by women and girls living in developing communities and marginal living situations. In response USAID India invests in activities that have people-level impact for women and girls across its program portfolio – in economic growth, health, disaster management, environment and equity. USAID India's “Gender Plan of Action” outlines clear, applicable and relevant activities to integrate gender concerns of both women and men in all of its program interventions. In honor of International Women's Day (March 8, 2005) USAID India presents a brief overview of its work on behalf of women and girls.

In focused approaches, USAID India creates new opportunities for women and girls that increase access to justice, keep girls in school, raise teaching quality in underserved areas and boost family health. In other sectors, gender-specific considerations prepare the most vulnerable in disasters, prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, spin a wider safety net for women, and energize power and water utilities to meet the different needs of women and men. Regionally, USAID pursues equity for women and girls throughout South Asia.

Increasing Access to Justice for Women

USAID India, through its Women's Legal Rights Initiative, works to strengthen protections for women's rights and address violence against women. Specific concerns include domestic violence and dowry, marital concerns, property rights, and the growing problem of distorted sex ratios given society's strong preference for sons. The program supports the creation and expansion of legal aid and counseling services for women through networks of legal aid centers, paralegals and lawyers in Karnataka and Rajasthan. It encourages community-based dispute resolution mechanisms that can be accessed by women. Training programs for medical personnel and formal legal sector personnel are in preparation and will begin soon. USAID supported women's groups in the creation of a new organization, WomenPowerConnect, which can carry their concerns forward to Parliament and the executive branch. WomenPowerConnect had its kick off convention in February 2005 and is preparing action plans to support the passage of a domestic violence bill, gender-just budgeting, and the reservation of 33 percent of the seats in Parliament for women.

Educating Youth, Creating Opportunities for Girls

USAID investments in education create effective and sustained learning opportunities for vulnerable children, especially girls. Educational efforts reach out to the underserved, grapple with issues that deter girls from staying in school, and encourage communities to become more involved in managing and monitoring educational quality and services. Activities include:

• REACH, a $20 million initiative that targets out-of-school children to bring them back to formal education, and works to retain those most vulnerable to dropping out early;
• A UNICEF program – School Water and Sanitation through Health and Hygiene – that keeps girls (particularly adolescents) enrolled by improving sanitation facilities and introducing health education;
• The use of communications technology to better reach underserved students. Technology and Tools for Teaching and Training uses interactive radio in classrooms to bridge the curriculum gap in areas where teachers tend to be weak; and
• A new public-private alliance of educational non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and private corporations, called QUEST, which addresses the relevance of primary education to future success.

Boosting Family Health and Child Survival

USAID activities focus on family health care to improve child survival and nutrition. Partners CARE and Catholic Relief Services feed some of India's most needy people and train cadres of local women (called community “change agents”) across India to promote healthy practices – including childhood immunizations against disease, attended childbirths, neonatal and well baby care. The Innovations in Family Planning Services project – USAID's largest reproductive health care effort of its kind worldwide – works in northern India's most populous states to increase family planning choices for couples and ensure better reproductive health. The program promotes male participation and challenges the traditional view of “health being only a women's issue.”

Protecting the Most Vulnerable in Disasters

A five-year, $16 million collaboration between the U.S. and India, called the Disaster Management Support Project, is improving Indian systems to manage and respond to disasters. The effort focuses on sharing disaster management technologies and practices among American and Indian experts, and recognizes how gender and social relations within households and communities affect people's resilience and vulnerability to disasters. Based on “gender analyses,” the project ensures that it promotes gender equity through its entire range of activities. Community disaster preparedness takes into account where women and girls live and involves them in local drills and planning.

In a disaster response situation – such as the recent Indian Ocean tsunami on December 26, 2005 – USAID ensures that U.S. assistance reaches those most in need, many of whom are women and children. Post-tsunami, USAID India built temporary shelters for affected people in Tamil Nadu, ensures adequate water and sanitation in settlements, creates “cash-for-work” opportunities aimed at women and youth, and supports day care centers so mothers can re-build households or pursue jobs for income. (Click here to see a virtual slide show of tsunami progress.)

Battling the Spread of HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDS is at a critical stage in India. An estimated 5.1 million people are infected with the virus – second only to South Africa. Infection rates for women are growing faster than ever before. USAID India collaborates with the Indian government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to support HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care programs. A gender assessment of HIV/AIDS efforts is now underway to address the specialized needs of men and women, and boys and girls, as they struggle to face the difficult and private sexual issues raised by the disease. (Click here to read “Tackling AIDS in India: The Vulnerability of Women and Girls”)

Growing India

Strong financial systems that sustain economic growth will decrease poverty and widen prosperity. USAID activities open up capital markets to new investors, widen the microfinance marketplace and boost fiscal health in state governments – among other efforts. With USAID support:

• The health insurance sector – a new institutional investor in capital markets – considers services and products that appeal to women and meet their specialized needs;
• Enterprise development for small businesses draws in microfinance organizations to reach out to businesses and industries where women are active and significant players; and
• Public finance reforms and upgrades aim to reduce financial strains in state governments, freeing up resources for more investments in public health and education – services most often used by vulnerable people.

Energizing India

Indians need better access to clean energy and water. USAID India's efforts to develop commercially viable, reliable power and water services benefit women and girls by making domestic life less of a burden for them. USAID works with partners to discuss how energy needs and service priorities are different among genders and socio-economic groups.

Pursuing Equity in South Asia

USAID's South Asia Regional Initiative for Equity (SARI/Equity) builds regional NGO networks designed to combat violence against women, implement the rule of law, promote safe migration and livelihood options for women, eliminate cross-border trafficking of women and children, and oppose child labor through education. The regional effort – involving partners in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Pakistan – facilitates regional research and exchanges of information among the countries. It funds innovative pilot programs with the potential for regional impact.