Women-centric vision
CAVERY BOPAIAH
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Argues for putting women squarely at the centre of the development process
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FEMINIST FUTURES - Reimagining Women, Culture and Development: Kum-Kum Bhavani, John Foran and Priya Kurian — Editors; Zubaan, an imprint of Kali for Women, K-92, I Floor, Hauz Kaus, New Delhi-110016. Rs. 495.
Women are often firmly tethered to their homes, children, environment and their place, and this rootedness influences the outcome of development programmes. Hence, the editors of this book suggest that, putting women squarely at the centre of the development process can rectify `maldevelopment'. The phenomenal success of women-centred programmes such as the Grameen Bank and the Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA), attests to this. In addition, communities united on the basis of gender identity, can more easily overcome differences based on religion, caste and class, thus eliminating many of the frictions in our society, and hence legitimise the editors' case for a Women, Culture and Development (WCD) approach to improving lives.
This book, while emphatically feminist, goes beyond the old complaints regarding equal pay, glass ceilings, or the objectification of females, towards an empowering vision for women in the Third World that includes greater autonomy and decision-making. (I use the word `empower' despite Jan Pietrese calling it the totem word in development populism.)
Incorporation of culture
The WCD approach is compatible with Amartya Sen's capability approach (which focusses on building capabilities of persons so as to increase their areas of functioning) in that it rejects any one measure of success such as income. Instead the economic, welfare and cultural dimensions of a situation are evaluated in a context specific manner. Thus small cumulative advances in a woman's ability to act and make decisions for the family would be considered progress, partially because of the larger long term benefits of enlarging her few freedoms.
The authors make a strong case for the incorporation of culture in the development process. Culture, because it encompasses people's ideas, norms, values and their environment becomes an important aspect of the change process. It is possible that recognising the culture of a people allows for a self-definition by the people involved and ensures their real (rather than ritual) participation in the projects that are meant to benefit them. In looking at `culture' the articles in this compilation critique science fiction films and their neglect of women, discuss how computer concepts are available to the non-literate, rehash some critical feminist studies, and condemn globalisation as re-colonisation.
Not afraid to challenge current conceptions of feminism, Ifi Amadiume explores the relationship between women's solidarity and their power and suggests, "European invented modernity in comparison to pre-colonial gender structures can be seen as sexist, conservative tradition that is driven by a rigid patriarchal ideology of power." Further, she suggests that because Nigerian girls had traditionally become members of women's groups, they were protected and may have been better off than the isolated modern girl working in the city. But, as Amy Lind and Jessica Share warn, community organisations also work as disciplining mechanisms. You cannot join if you are queer, single or unacceptable for some other reason. This suggests that, misgivings about Self Help Groups (SHG's) and their role as instruments of genuine democratic development are sometimes justified.
Politics of privatisation
On politics Anna Tsing critiques the cultural politics of privatisation because it promotes only individual benefits. Inside the privatised world, it is difficult to cross boundaries of class, ethnicity and even marital status to identify with others. "Ideals of equality and access give way to negotiations of individual privilege." The market is certainly a more enticing form of cooptation, than Gandhian or cooperative structures, yet it is possible that culture can somehow reduce the pull of privatisation and monetarism.
As for the Indian dilemma on how much modernity is right for us, Banu Subramaniam asks how inherited traditions can be reconciled with modernisation projects. In her scathing criticism of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which she says has defined "secularism as tolerance and democracy as majoritarianism", she dubs their vision as `archaic modernity' and their creed as `development nationalism'. She also attacks their attitude towards women, and their selective references to history and tradition, as cynical and hypocritical.
Marginalisation
Despite its empathy for Third World causes, the book has not spared even the popular and heroic indigenous movement in the Chiapas. Of the situation in Chiapas, Wendy Harcourt questions women's marginalisation within communities and asks why this is "not considered an element of the interconnectedness of oppressions and of the ... asymmetries of power?" This also applies to women of many communities in India whose woes get subsumed in the larger sense of grievance of their communities.
It speaks of the sincerity of purpose of the editors that this thought-provoking collection of essays does not get stuck in any ideological groove. To me reading the book has also been an introduction to some very smart writers, among them the editors, Anna Tsing, Yvonne U. Sem, Ifi Amadiume, Jan Pieterse, and others who take us through San Salvador, Nicaragua, and Mexico to Senegal, Iran, India, Thailand, Taiwan and all the way to Papua New Guinea. Its combative assertions force us out of the protective armour of rigour and inertia into the exposure of uncertainty, cultural plurality and accommodation. We are left with hope even though as Abu Gassim Goor enigmatically declared: "In Africa, nothing works, but everything is possible." With women at the helm, everything is possible and will work.
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