Women, interrupted

Occupations at the top end of the earnings spectrum large business, professionals are more or less confined to Hindu upper castes. The only other group that has some presence in the large business sector is the Hindu OBCs. Hindu upper castes also constitute the single largest component of small business and skilled labour. Within the skilled labour category, Hindu upper castes and Muslims had almost identical percentages. In sum, the bulk of Muslims are absent from the wealth-creating occupations. They are mostly self-employed in low-paying, often semi-skilled work.

Where are the girls in the classroom?

Close to 60 Muslim women self-report themselves to be illiterate, lower than the scheduled castes and tribes proportion, but higher than the OBCs. The proportion of Muslim women who are illiterate is substantially higher for the rural north than it for all India, more than 85 report themselves to be illiterate.

The school enrolment rate of Muslims is 40.66, higher than that of scheduled castes 30.28, but much below that of the upper castes 63.2. In other words, nearly 60 of the Muslim respondents never attended school.

Less than 17 Muslim women ever enrolled in schools completed eight years of schooling and less than 10 completed higher secondary, which is below the national average. There are noticeable zonal variations in the educational attainment of the north and south, even while in the north and the east the rural-urban difference is insignificant. Urban location, which has a generally positive association with female education, has no great impact on Muslim women8217;s educational attainment, pointing once again to the poverty of Muslim households as the foremost constraint on access to education, notwithstanding the noticeably greater educational opportunities in urban areas.

The educational status in the north is abysmal, resulting in substantially smaller numbers in middle school and higher secondary schooling 4.58 and 4.75 respectively as opposed to the national average 17.86 and 11.42.

As we move up the education ladder, there is a significant drop in the proportion of Muslim women in higher education 3.56 of Muslim women, even lower than that of the scheduled castes 4.25.

Women who completed their studies were asked whether they faced any problems, which they had overcome in order to continue their studies? 41 of Muslim women report themselves to have ever attended school of these 26 felt that they had to overcome obstacles in order to continue. On the whole, a slightly higher proportion of Muslim women than Hindu reported that they had faced obstacles.

Those who answered 8216;yes8217; to the above question were further asked what obstacles they overcame and were asked to choose one of the following financial, death of father/mother, parental opposition. For both religious communities, financial constraints seem to outweigh parental opposition as the chief obstacle. However, when they do continue studies for as long as they can, the chief obstacle they report is parental opposition. It is possible though not possible to verify that parental opposition is picking up some of the effects of financial constraint; that is that parents oppose schooling because of financial constraints.

A general devaluation of continuing education for girls is also linked to the desirability of early marriage for them, as indicated by the mean age at first marriage which is a low 15.6; in the rural north it dips even further, to 15 years. Early marriage or married off was cited as an important reason for dropout. All together the gender specific reasons add up to a significant gender bias in education, which works fundamentally against women.

The most serious issue affecting basic education of Muslims, other than the significant number who never enroll more than 60 of respondents in the MWS never enrolled, is the high level of dropouts. All those who dropped out of school were asked to specify the reasons for this.

How many women work? 14

The overwhelming majority of women self-report themselves to be not working. More importantly, the low work participation pattern holds for all regions. Among social groups, Muslims and upper caste women participate the least in comparison to the scheduled castes 30 and OBC 22. The average rates of participation for Muslim women is 14, which in itself is lower than for Hindus 18 and significantly lower than that of scheduled castes 37, and OBC 22.

Among Muslims who report work participation, the largest proportion is in the wage worker/employee category followed by the self-employed. For example, the work participation for urban Muslim women is 11.4, while it is 16 for Hindus and the rural work participation is only 20 for Muslims and 37 for Hindus. Like their male counterparts, the majority of urban Muslim women 60 are self-employed.

In general the differences between Muslim and Hindus are pronounced and most Muslim women are self-employed and very few in formal employment. Muslims appear to have a distinct employment profile, marked by the preponderance of self-employment, which is explained partly by the fact that Muslim women are least likely to be employed in the formal sector.

Welfare schemes? What8217;s that?

The respondents were asked what development programmes were being run by the government, whether they had benefited from any of those being implemented by the government for women8217;s development? The vast majority of women claim to be unaware of any programmes directed towards women, and the picture seems to be uniform across zones and irrespective of education level.

Most government schemes, which over the years have been made more specific to target women beneficiaries, have generally not accrued to them. From the responses to the direct question on whether the respondent had benefited from any women8217;s social development programmes, it appears that most women have not benefited from these schemes.

Lack of information is an important reason that most welfare provisions pass women by8212;most didn8217;t know of the existence of special loans and grants to widows for example, or of credit facilities: but how are they to come by this information? Less than 20 of respondents have access to any printed media, but more than 50 are illiterate so even if they did, they would be unable to read: a much larger percentage, however8212;428212;watch television and the more educated women do report watching issue and women-oriented programmes.

8212; Tomorrow: The question of 8216;choice8217; in decisions on political participation, marriage.

Zoya Hasan is professor, political science, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Ritu Menon is a publisher-writer