State of Her Mind

As his reputation as an administrator grew, students and grassroots activists sought time to meet Narendra Modi when he was chief minister of Gujarat. Modi readily met them and the interactions led to his visitors offering to carry out field studies. The ‘assignments’ Modi chose for them often included the study of female literacy, attendance at state schools and participation in the rural economy. The inputs served to reinforce Modi’s own understanding of issues affecting women’s abilities to realise their potential and provided feedback from the fresh eyes of enthusiastic management and social science students.

As he reviewed the state’s standing on social and economic parameters in comparison to other states, Modi grasped the challenges in bridging gaps in female education. A state with a large population, including significant tribal communities, deficits had accumulated over decades. There was an entrenched mindset that discounted the need to educate girls, a social bias that led to the illegal practice of female foeticide since they were seen as a burden. Gender disparities in school enrolment and high dropout rates were crippling the future of girls. Policies were not delivering requisite results and there was an urgent need to generate social awareness.

Not long after he became chief minister, Modi issued an emotional appeal in 2005 “begging” people to send their daughters to school in the larger interest of society as well for the sake of their families. It was only when the contributions of educated women in stabilising family incomes and their key role in child rearing were recognised could the utility of female education become apparent. Taking matters in hand, Modi travelled across the state in summer months calling for girls to be enrolled in schools and leading to district administrators paying attention to resolving the problem. In short bursts of a few days, the chief minister and the state machinery camped in villages and went door-to-door, persuading parents to send their daughters to school.

The chief minister launched Shala Praveshotsav to improve school enrolment and Kanya Kelavani to reduce dropouts by offering financial aid. The implementation of these programmes convinced Modi of the importance of separate toilets for girls—an obvious necessity not given due attention—in reducing barriers to female education. The Swachh Bharat Mission Prime Minister Modi took up on a national scale has its roots in lessons learnt in Gujarat and during his wide travels as a political organiser for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In order to make a statement and set an example, he donated his chief minster’s salary and the proceeds of auctions of gifts he received to funding the campaigns. He added a sum of `21 lakh from his personal savings and his advocacy helped generate a sense of shared community responsibilities with regard to ensuring that girls attended schools. Years later, while launching the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (Save the girl child, educate her) programme in Panipat in Haryana in 2015, Modi repeated his appeal, begging his audience to consider the merits of the initiative. He called on people to carry the message to every family, village and state.

The need to provide girls with educational opportunities is central to ensuring their productivity, economic independence and social standing. Even in more traditional families and definitely in the case of low-skilled labour, the utilities of two incomes are evident. Studies as well as anecdotal evidence suggest women’s bank accounts can be controlled by male relatives. It is not uncommon to come across men in rural areas displaying their mobile phones to show deposits from government schemes in their wives’ accounts. Yet, since the women are earning or receiving state benefits, they have an added agency in running their families. Their voice counts even as the male head of the family may be seen to be controlling decisions. Rajesh Shukla, co-founder of People Research on India’s Consumer Economy (PRICE), says more than half of all women are non-earning homemakers and nearly 40 per cent respondents in a survey of females above 18 said they were given money at fixed intervals by family or husbands. It is clear that education and employment, whether on one’s own farm or in formal jobs, are necessary to empower women. In the case of women engaged in own or family work, there may be no direct remuneration but initiatives such as rearing sheep and cattle and options like bee-keeping can provide direct incomes. With education comes the ambition and skills to organise livelihoods. The Budget proposal for term loans up to `2 crore to five lakh first-time Scheduled Caste (SC) and tribal women entrepreneurs is recognition of this aspirational desire and the need to provide paths to empowerment.

A 2019 study of home-based businesses conducted by PRICE showed that 32 per cent of women in India in non-farm work are home-based workers while the proportion of men is 11 per cent. Some take the ‘entrepreneurial risk’ and are self-employed with no employees. There is sub-contracted work but own account work is the main form of employment. “This segment of single-person operated home businesses aspires to grow: in our sample, 73 percent want to grow their businesses, yet they require supportive ecosystems to help achieve upward income mobility,” the study said. This report found lack of awareness as the most common reason for not adopting digital technologies although this might have changed with the wider use of such platforms. But while the use of smartphones and digital payments is certain to have improved, they require financial products that address liquidity and credit needs. “Business incomes could improve if alternative credit lenders were able to reach out and provide HBBs with working capital. Though the HBB segment has a desire to save, reaching a threshold amount that warrants a time-consuming trip to the bank to make a deposit is difficult,” the study noted. Only 18 per cent of the group reports monthly bank use. Before this group can shift to digital practices, short duration liquid saving opportunities would be well suited to ensure there is adequate access to cash and greater interaction with digital financial services, the study says. Use of digital payments and aggregator platforms can deliver better returns and supporting HBBs is a quick path to boosting family incomes. The convergence of education, skills and policies can improve the participation of women in the economy and their financial independence.

Modi’s observation of rural societies led him, said an aide, to understand the “natural leadership” roles women play as the fulcrum of their families, steering the education of children, saving for a rainy day, and being receptive to new ideas of income generation. The success of self-help groups (SHGs) is a good example of the capacity to organise and be productive. He would counsel BJP functionaries not to be swayed by educational qualifications alone when assessing women leaders. He added that access to education would only make a natural instinct for leadership more evident and effective. In almost any social situation women step up to help and take charge and identifying such individuals and giving them a role in the party organisation had been a priority for the prime minister in his long stint as a central BJP functionary in charge of state units. He was strongly supportive of reservations for women in legislatures when many in BJP were lukewarm to the idea and his re-election in 2019 provided the opportunity to act on the long-pending legislation. The diminished presence of ‘Mandal’ parties in Lok Sabha was also facilitator in passing the Bill that has seen serious disruptions in Parliament.

Soon after becoming chief minister in 2001, Modi formed a committee whose recommendations led to the Nari Gaurav Niti (Women’s Pride Policy) intended to make female socio-economic, educational and developmental needs a part of government thinking and policymaking in a systemic way. Going by the Modi government’s initiatives to promote use of cooking gas, direct cash transfers, housing registered in the name of women, a saturation approach to immunisation, construction of toilets, electricity and water connections for households, the learnings in Gujarat found reflection and continuity after Modi became prime minister and moved to Delhi in 2014. The investment has paid lasting dividends with women voters backing BJP and Modi in many state elections, responding to policy initiatives and the political articulation.

In 2006, the Gujarat government introduced the Nari Gaurav Niti to promote gender equality and sensitise departments about the importance of women’s welfare and the multiplier effect this has on social welfare and economic growth. The passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament was an example of how Modi turned the first piece of legislation in the new Parliament building into an event of special import that hit a political bull’s eye. Passed with near total consensus, the legislation will remain an indelible part of Modi’s record in office.

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