Ritu Dewan

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Gender, Globalisation Trade

• Ritu Dewan
• Director
• Centre for Development Research Action
• China-India Feminist Economics Workshop
• Gender dimensions of paid and unpaid work in
  China and India
• Kunming, China 26-28 September 2014
• dewan.ritu_at_gmail.com

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Structure

1. Locating trade trade liberalisation
2. Gender trade inter-linkages
3. Sector Case Agriculture
4. Sector Case Textiles
5. Sector Case Marine
6. In Conclusion

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1 Locating Trade Trade
Liberalisation

• Formalisation of rules mechanisms
• Doha, etc claims reality. Egs Loss of special
  preferences Banana exports to EU cotton small
  farmers
• WTO GATS banking, insurance, health,
  transport, education, energy,
• telecom, tourism
• 2,500 bilateral regional trade investment
  agreements
• Neo-liberalism DC v/s UDC Mobile K Immobile
  Labour

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1 Locating Trade Trade
Liberalisation.

• Processes of trade liberalisation in developing
  countries, trade-related policies of other
  countries at national international levels,
  result in production employment-displacement
  effects.
• Under-capitalised entrepreneurs, lower skilled
  workers, women face difficulties in competing
  with larger well-resourced foreign enterprises
  that have added advantage of new technologies,
  sophisticated products, advanced sectors.
• Revenue losses as excuse for closure of social
  service schemes.

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2. Gender Trade Interlinkages

• Supply responses
• Women as producers are restricted at a certain
  production level in terms of technology used
  scale of production due to lack of access to
  various forms of capital.
• Resource allocation within economies
  households
• This directly impacts womens productive
  capacities also the rank at which they can
  participate in the labour force
• Low labour productivity
• Adversely impacts their skill-sets loss of
  competitive edge as economic agents.
• Basic is access to ownership, control
  distribution of productive resources of all forms

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2 Gender Trade Interlinkages

• Complex ambiguous contradictory
• Income / returns
• Employment
• Competitively priced consumer goods
• Fewer assets to withstand liberalisation
• Increasing informalisation
• Weak bargaining power
• Work wage differentials
• Export-led growth at expense of women.

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Women Workers Sectoral Pattern India
Sector 2004-05 2009-10
Primary 72.26 66.99
Mining Quarrying 0.28 0.3
Manufacturing 11.75 11.34
Utilities 0.03 0.08
Construction 1.89 5.11
Trade Hotels 4.14 4.55
Transport Communications 0.4 0.43
Financing, Real Estate, Insurance 0.63 1.05
Community, Social, Personal Service 8.61 10.16
100.00 100.00
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Indias Trade Pattern
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3 Sector Case Agriculture

• Share of Agriculture
• 1950-51
  2012-13
• To GDP 58 pc 13.7 pc
•  
• To Empl 88 pc 55 pc
•  
• GDP per capita of Agri Workers is one-fifth of
  Non-Agri Workers
• Marginalisation, Alienation, Displacement
• Declining State investment

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3 Sector Case Agriculture

• AAG Pre Reform
  Post Reform
• Food-grains 2.9 pc
  1.2 pc
•  
• Rice Yield 3.5 pc
  0.9 pc
•  
• Cotton Yield 4.1 pc
  0.7 pc
•  
•  

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3 Sector Case Agriculture

• Subsidies dumping
• Diluting import restrictions (30 in 1 yr)
• Free entry of seed pesticide MNCs
• Unregulated input output markets
• Poverty among Farmer HH 10 pc higher than
  non-farmers in rural India
• Farmers as net purchasers of food

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3 Sector Case Agriculture

• Assetlessness, Feminisation De-feminisation
• Hence, even if trade liberalisation does unlock
  export opportunities, it is unlikely that women
  farmers will have the capacity ability to take
  advantage
• Post-WTO, many farms have moved to
  export-oriented commercial cultivation, leading
  to consolidation of land holdings. As big farms
  are generally capital-intensive, consolidation of
  land reduces employment, displacing women first.

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...3 Sector Case Agriculture.

• A peasant suicide every 30 minutes
• 45 peasant suicides per day
• 16000 suicides per year
• 3,50,000 since 1997
• Levels of Indebtedness Growth
• Maharashtra 20

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4 Sector Case Textiles...

• Cotton Textiles
• Cancun 2010 Cotton included as explicit item in
  Agenda by Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad. BUT draft
  text merely pledged WTO review of textiles with
  no mention of eliminating subsidies or
  compensation.
• West African cotton farmers crushed by
  rich-country subsidies which reduced prices eg,
  USAs 3 billion pa subsidy to its 25,000 cotton
  farmers
• WTO suggested that West African countries be
  encouraged to diversify out of cotton altogether.

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4 Sector Case Textiles

• Brunt of adjustments shifted to manufacturers
  their employees, including low-skilled women
  producers.
• End of MFA led to reallocation of jobs shifting
  of markets from Maldives to China, India to
  Bangladesh.
• Shift to technologically advanced methods to
  increase productivity, affecting semi-skilled
  female labour force previously employed.
• In India, dramatic fall in womens employment in
  garment industry.

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4 Sector Case Textiles.

• Working conditions excessively long hours, lack
  of freedom of association, continuous inhaling of
  toxic substances, prohibition of rest breaks,
  etc.
• As competition is expected to intensify after
  final elimination of quotas, working conditions
  will deteriorate further because of more intense
  pressures to cut production costs.

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5 Sector Case Fishing EPZs

1. Over-exploitation of marine resources.
2. Super profits accruing to exporters.
3. Occupation of coast through legal illegal
   methods.
4. Drastic rise in sea-pollution decline in
   production.
5. Violation of CRZ environmental laws.
6. Displacement.

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5 Sector Case Fishing EPZs.

1. 90 percent are women employees no-marriage
   clause proof of non-pregnancy.
2. Strict gender-based division of labour.
3. Conditions of work wrt EU Quality Control.
4. Health Occupational safety.
5. 98 hour week overtime toilet coupons unpaid
   weekly off no leave whatsoever.
6. Majority migrants conditions of stay mobility.

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6 In Conclusion

• Gender-disaggregated data
• Categorisation of trade sectors sub-sectors
• Gendered value chain analyses (identification of
  employment trends primary support activities
  tracing profits losses etc)
• Employment conditions

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...6 In Conclusion...

1. Capacity Building Financial Strengthening
   Training, skill up-gradation, provision of
   subsidised services, financial support to
   enhance womens capacity to compete in business
   in labour market. Eg ICT Women entrepreneurs
   MSMEs.
2. Gendering programs IFIs, donors,
   inter-governmental organisations, etc.
3. Strategies strategic alliances Multi-faceted
   multi-level between gender equality advocates
   key stakeholders

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6 In Conclusion

1. Pre-project Rapid Gender Assessment Surveys
2. Formation of sector-wise multi-agency steering
   committees
3. Systematic institutionalised evaluation via
   appropriate gender budgeting tools per project
4. Barriers Non Tariff Barriers identification
   evaluation

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...6 In Conclusion.

• 12. Monitoring gendered impacts of trade policies
  agreements to hold govts accountable for their
  commitments to gender equality, via
• Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM)
• Sustainable Impact Assessments (SIA)
• Gender Trade Impact Assessment (GTIA)
• Poverty Social Impact Analysis (PSIA).

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• thank you