| |
Dated : Friday, September 28, 2012 |
| |
Turning scrap into strength in a fight for rights
|
 |
Domestic work is closely connected with migration of women, which brings into focus the menace of trafficking. Hundreds migrate from their native places in search of greener pastures. Many fall prey to rogue placement agencies that lure women and young girls from poor families on the pretext of ensuring well-paid jobs
Abha Sharma
It is said, ‘where there is a will, there is a way’. Those who want to achieve something always look for ways to move ahead, overcome challenges and find solutions to their problems. Domestic workers are one such group of women who have taken the innovative route to becoming mistresses of their destinies.
How else can an organization, of, for and by poor, illiterate women generate money to fulfill its agenda? The Kashtkari Gharkamgar Sanghatna (KGS), in Thane, Maharashtra, has been funding its advocacy and initiatives, aimed at the welfare of low-paid domestic workers, by selling bhangar or household scrap. Realizing that it would be difficult to introduce even a meagre membership fee, the core group at KGS came up with the idea of asking the women to bring in bhangar instead. Anything from paper, plastic bottle and tins to broken slippers and discarded vessels could be contributed to help them raise funds.
Initially, though, this move did not take off with the ease that KGS’s president, Madhutai Birmole, had anticipated. “Members had to be reminded constantly and it took nearly two years before this system of selling household waste could be put into place,” she recalls.
The KGS, which was set up in 2007, has around 35,000 members across the western state of Maharashtra. Of these, almost 10,000 are from the Mumbai and Thane area. There are 500 group leaders and 150 of them make up the core team. Different committees look into various issues that the group tackles. There’s an aarthik, or economic committee, that is the fund raiser, the niyojan committee does the planning, the arogya committee looks after the health issues, while the takrar (clash) committee tackles disputes. There are at least 10 women members in these committees from each locality or suburb.
“Today, the members are conscientious and make it a point to bring along scrap when they come to attend the monthly meetings. The group chief of the locality or suburb sells this scrap to raise funds,” reveals Birmole. The leader also has the authority to keep half the amount with her to aid her in discharging her responsibilities or for use when she is visiting other places for the organization’s work. The remaining half of the money collected is put into the organization fund, which is used to help members out in times of crises.
Birmole shared KGS’s innovative fund raising idea at a recent consultation in Jaipur of domestic workers and the organizations that support them. It was hosted by Jagori, a Delhi-based resource centre which works on advocacy of women’s issues, training, and documentation.
Like KGS, there are several other collectives across the country fighting for the rights of domestic workers and evolving ways to keep themselves going. Collectively they are all struggling for a national policy on domestic work so that domestic workers can be recognized as legitimate workers, or kamgars.
Parichiti has taken the rights-based approach to advocating change. They have been mobilizing domestic workers, who commute to and from Kolkata by train. It conducts meetings at the Dhakuria and Bagha railway stations every Tuesday and Thursday and has also been running a drop-in centre, or Bishram Ghar, since 2007 where women workers can relax and rest between jobs. In addition, right from its inception, this Kolkata-based organization has been intervening in cases of workplace violence against domestic help.
Moumita Chakraborty, who works with Parichiti, reveals that her organisation is a member of Maitree, a women’s rights network in West Bengal. “Through collaboration with different institutions and organisations, we are working hard to provide the much-needed financial support for working women,” she adds.
Sangini in Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Astitiva in Dehradun (Uttarakhand), Mehanatkash Kalyan Evam Sandarbh Kendra (Rajasthan) and other such unions in different states are also taking exemplary steps to protect domestic workers’ rights. Some state governments have even been prodded into taking relevant policy measures.
For instance, in 2001, West Bengal introduced a provision for Provident Fund. Since very few people were aware of it, social organizations like Parichiti have been making efforts to ensure that more workers can avail of this benefit. Similarly, in Andhra Pradesh, minimum wages have been fixed, with provision for leave and other welfare measures.
In Maharashtra, the Gharelu Parivar Kalyan Mandal gives social security to unorganised workers in case of death, accidents or health problems. Moreover, a welfare board is expected to come up in each district that will address issues like uniform wages and leave, while putting into place measures to handle cases of sexual harassment. In a victory of sorts, domestic workers in the state have also been able to convince the authorities that an FIR should not be lodged against a domestic worker – a very common occurrence – without first verifying the prima facie evidence, in case she is accused of theft by her employer.
But, despite the gains, the challenges before this vast workforce are many and there are no quick fix solutions. Lack of uniform wages, leave, bonus, maternity benefits, pension and health insurance continue to be major sources of grief for them.
Protection from sexual harassment and violence at the workplace as well as alleged trafficking by placement agencies are the other vulnerabilities that need immediate attention. Domestic work is closely connected with migration of women, which brings into focus the menace of trafficking. Hundreds migrate from their native places in search of greener pastures, pushed by reasons that range from crushing poverty to floods or the lack of employment opportunities. Many fall prey to rogue placement agencies that lure women and young girls from poor families on the pretext of ensuring well-paid jobs. While some lucky ones do get gainful employment, others end up trapped in the sex trade. According to Surabhi Tandon Mehrotra, an independent researcher on women’s issues who is also associated with Jagori, “There are reportedly placement agencies with the dubious distinction of catering to the need of girls from particular states to work as sex workers.”
A possible solution lies in the enactment of the national policy on domestic work, which is on the anvil. This will entitle domestic workers to derive benefits from at least eight laws, including the Workmen’s Compensation Act, Trade Union Act, Payment of Wages Act, and the Maternity Benefits and Contractual Labour Act. Meanwhile, these indomitable women battle on, drawing strength from their numbers and innovating as they go along.
(Women’s Feature Service) |
| |
|
Intuition 'key to being more cooperative'
|
 |
The more people rely on their intuitions, the more cooperative they become, a new study suggests.
It’s an age old question: Why do we do good? What makes people sometimes willing to put “We” ahead of “Me?”
Perhaps, our first impulse is to be selfish, and cooperation is all about reining in greed. Or maybe cooperation happens spontaneously, and too much thinking gets in the way.
Harvard scientists are getting closer to an answer, showing that people’s first response is to cooperate and that stopping to think encourages selfishness.
David Rand, a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Psychology, Joshua Greene, the John and Ruth Hazel Associate Professor of the Social Sciences in the Department of Psychology, and Martin Nowak, Professor of Mathematics and of Biology, and Director of the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, teamed up for the research.
They recruited thousands of participants to play a “public goods game” in which it’s “Me” vs. “Us.”
Subjects were put into small groups and faced with a choice: Keep the money you’ve been given, or contribute it into a common pool that grows and benefits the whole group. Hold onto the money and you come out ahead, but the group does best when everyone contributes.
The researchers wanted to know whether people’s first impulse is cooperative or selfish.
To find out, they started by looking at how quickly different people made their choices, and found that faster deciders were more likely to contribute to the common good.
Next they forced people to go fast or to stop and think, and found the same thing: Faster deciders tended to be more cooperative, and the people who had to stop and think gave less.
Finally, the researchers tested their hypothesis by manipulating people’s mindsets. They asked some people to think about the benefits of intuition before choosing how much to contribute. Others were asked to think about the virtues of careful reasoning.
Once again, intuition promoted cooperation, and deliberation did the opposite.
“In daily life, it’s generally in your interest to be cooperative,” Rand said.
“So we internalize cooperation as the right way to behave. Then when we come into unusual environments, where incentives like reputation and sanctions are removed, our first response is to keep behaving the way we do in normal life. When we think about it, however, we realize that this is one of those rare situations where we can be selfish and get away with it,” he added. (Agencies) |
| |
|
Gender training with cricket coaching in Mumbai
|
 |
Are coaches only for improving the sporting abilities of the men and boys they train? Not really, if you are to go by an interesting intervention anchored by the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). In fact, these maestros of sporting action can play a significant role in sensitising their wards on issues of gender equality, according to a pioneering programme that ICRW conducted jointly with Futures Without Violence.
Entitled ‘Engaging Coaches and Athletes in Fostering Gender Equity: Findings from the Parivartan Program in Mumbai, India’ – modelled on an innovative US-based Futures Without Violence programme, ‘Coaching Boys into Men’ – got cricket coaches and community mentors to convey key messages to young school boys and community athletes in the 10-16 age group, on the core principle of treating women with respect.
Twenty-six coaches and their teams from 26 schools associated with the Mumbai School Sports Association (MSSA) participated in the programme. While Breakthrough, an organization that focuses on violence against women played a supporting role, Apnalaya – an organisation working with slum communities in Mumbai’s Shivaji Nagar – got local players to build their own cricket team of 15-20 boys each. In all 16 community mentors, or 16 teams, from the Shivaji Nagar area were selected.
Before the coaches could begin their mentoring, they themselves needed to be trained. So the first stage of the programme involved intensive orientation sessions with coaches through workshops, discussions, games and films. Once the coaches were brought on board, they in turn began to conduct weekly sessions with the young sportspersons on subjects as diverse as ethics, respect, gender norms and gender-based violence. Learning aids, such as interactive cards, posters, brochures, pamphlets and postcards were extensively used during this sensitisation process. In a similar way, community mentors were also brought in to conduct sessions with those participating in the community teams.
These sessions apparently did make a difference, especially in terms of the young sportspersons’ perception of masculinity and women’s role in society. For instance, a baseline survey conducted before the Parivartan programme began had revealed that the dominant view was that “real” men were tough, unemotional and unfaithful. Gender stereotypes also marked the responses. Participants felt that girls cannot do well in maths and science; that if a girl says “no”, she really means “yes”; that it is a wife’s duty to “obey” her husband. Most also felt that a girl deserves to be beaten if she stays out late, if she doesn’t help with the household chores, or if she doesn’t listen to her elders. Among the other attitudes that were probed was how participants would intervene in a hypothetical scenario where girls were being abused.
Many of these attitudes underwent a sea change after three years of the programme, although there was a decided difference between the change observed among the school participants and community participants. For instance, there was a marked shift among school and community programme participants in terms of how they would intervene in a hypothetical scenario where girls were being abused. For instance, if they saw a girl being harassed whether they would directly intervene or take support from someone who they think will help them in putting an end to the harassment.
Advait Avalaskar, who is now a graduate student at Mithibai College, Mumbai, is a clear votary of the programme in which he had participated while at school, along with some other students. “We used to have discussions on topics like ‘eve teasing’, domestic harassment, molestation of women in public places like parks, or in offices. It deepened our understanding of the world and also helped us realise how difficult life could be for women,” he says.
Coaches, too, found the programme an eye-opener. Nagesh Thakur has been a cricket coach for the last 40 years. As a Mumbai coach for the under-14 age group, he had coached ace cricketers like Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane. He has also shaped the lives of youngsters like Avalaskar.
Thakur believes the Parivartan programme had wrought a great change in his own coaching style. “Until that point, I was only a cricket coach. After joining the Parivartan programme, I became convinced that the knowledge of cricketing techniques was not the only input my boys needed to become champions,” he elaborates.
According to Thakur, using cards – advocating messages of discipline, using the right language, respect, understanding relationships, fighting violence – was an extremely useful way to bring about behavioural change. “Earlier, these boys had no real understanding of the word ‘gender’. Through these cards, and the general training, they began to understand the importance of respecting women, whether it was their mothers or faculty members. Parents, in fact, reported that they perceived a difference in their sons’ behaviour at home. Boys who were abusive toward their sisters, for instance, changed their tone and attitude. In the process, they also learned the meaning of discipline.”
These positive changes even translated into gains on the playing field, according to Thakur. His team from the VPM Vidya Mandir, Dahisar, went on to win an award for being the most disciplined team and it also claimed the Inter School Giles Shield Cricket Tournament title.
Thakur also reports a personal change, “Frankly, I found myself changing my behaviour, not just towards the team but to my family members. I began to lend a helping hand to my wife and daughter, something I had never done before.” In fact, many wives of coaches reported being happily surprised by their husbands’ responses at home.
Zaheed Khan, an informal cricket coach or mentor, lives in a sprawling shanty town in Shivaji Nagar. Until he joined the Parivartan programme, he would regularly skip school, enjoy using foul language and never hesitated to participate in an occasional session of “eve teasing” – a euphemism for sexual harassment. Two years into the Parivartan programme and there was a dramatic turnaround in his behaviour. “My mindset changed totally. I learned the basics of being respectful towards women, and encouraged my friends also to be more gender sensitive,” says Khan, who now goes to night college and works for the non-profit, Community of Resource Organisations. He also makes time to undertake cricket coaching.
Not everything about the programme, however, went according to plan. School athletes, in comparison to community athletes, showed some resistance to change. One explanation for this that was cited in the report was that the mentors in the community were able to make more of a difference because they shared the same socio-economic backgrounds as their wards and were closer in age to them.
But despite the lags, ICRW insiders are pleased with the outcome of the Parivartan programme. Observes Madhumita Das, senior technical specialist of ICRW, “The coaches we spoke to believe that the programme has to be of a longer duration if it is to impact behavioural change in the long term. But there can be no doubting that the concept of working on gender sensitivity issues with coaches has proved to be successful.”
( Women’s Feature Service)
Kavita Charanji |
| |
|
Want to stay slim? Start reading food labels
|
 |
People, especially women, who read labels on food products are thinner, according to a study.
The study by an international team of scientists found that female consumers who consult food labels weigh nearly 4 kilograms less.
Along with the Universities of Tennessee, Arkansas (USA) and the Norwegian Institute for Agricultural Finance Research, the University of Santiago de Compostela has participated in the study on the relationship between reading the food label and obesity.
The results indicated that the body mass index of those consumers who read that label is 1.49 points lower than those who never consider such information when doing their food shopping. This translates as a reduction of 3.91 kg for an American woman measuring 1.62 cm and weighing 74 kg.
The data was taken from the annual National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) performed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Some 25,640 observations were collected on health and eating and shopping habits. These included various questions on whether participants read the nutritional information in supermarkets and how often.
“First we analysed which was the profile of those who read the nutritional label when purchasing foods, and then we moved on to the relationship with their weight,” Maria Loureiro, lead author of the study, explained to SINC.
The team found very significant differences between consumers that read labels and those that do not. On the one hand, the study showed that the smoking population pays much less attention to this information.
According to the researcher, “their lifestyle involves less healthy habits and as a consequence, it could be the case that they are not so worried about the nutritional content of the food they eat, according to our results.”
Furthermore, the city-dwelling population takes nutritional information into account the most. This is also the case for those with high school education and universities studies.
According to sex, 58 per cent of men either habitually or always read the information contained within nutritional labels. However, this figure stands at 74 per cent for women.
“In general, the associated impact is higher amongst women than men,” added the researcher.
On average, women who read the nutritional information have a body mass index of 1.48 points lower, whereas this difference is just 0.12 points in men.
The study also touches on significant ethnic differences. In this sense, the white female consumers see the greatest reduction in the body mass of around 1.76 points.
“We know that this information can be used as a mechanism to prevent obesity. We have seen that those who read food labels are those who live in urban areas, those with high school and high education. As we would hope therefore, campaigns and public policy can be designed to promote the use of nutritional labelling on menus at restaurants and other public establishments for the benefit of those who usually eat out,” concluded Loureiro. (Agencies) |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|
|
