Poverty alleviationof women in South Asia (Part II)
Globally there are 6 million poor women out of the
estimated 1 billion people who live below the poverty line.
By Amina mahfooz
Aug 27 - Sep 02, 2001
Based on 1987 estimates of population, linked with
household income and expenditure survey, the poorest group was 18.3%
representing 18.4 million people.
As household members, women contribute to the
labour resources of the family, but there has been little investment
to boost their productivity. This is because socio-cultural traditions
define a woman's role as a mother, daughter, wife and sister in
relation to a male. All services performed by women within the home,
the family farm and enterprise are unpaid, as these are subsumed under
the social role assigned to women by tradition. Women in Pakistan have
to face different prejudices. Social, cultural limitations,
illiteracy, lack of knowledge priority of male over female are some of
the major problems. Even then the women are taking active role in the
productive and household chores. Women have been discriminated against
in seeking access to labour and capital markets, and to such
government services as education. Beyond equity considerations, the
abilities of this major segment of the population are being vastly
underutilized. They are vital contributors to the economic survival of
poor households and the reliance of women's earnings increases with
the extent of poverty.
The economical role of women is also severely
affected by the limited extent to which financial institutions and
programmes service their credit needs. There is little statistical
data on women's access to credit, which is mostly due to the absence
of sex-desegregated information. Nevertheless, it can be construed
that women have negligible access to the services of formal financial
Concern for poverty alleviation and gender equity
resulted in attempts by the Government, NGOs and private sector don'ts
to tackle the "double burden" faced by women. Strategies for
the uplift of poor women took the form of income and employment
generation projects. The Government of Pakistan has formally endorsed
the Platform of Action emphasizing "Promote and support women's
self employment and the development of small enterprises, and
strengthen women's access to credit and capital on appropriate terms
equal to those of men." Targeted credit programmes were
implemented with most of those aimed at women being channeled through
NGOs founded by bilateral donors, except for one credit programme,
which was implemented through a financial institution, namely the
First Women Bank Limited.
The present government gives top priority to the
empowerment of women and to bring a positive change in their lives.
For this purpose, special efforts have been made for the protection of
women's rights. Many activities have been undertaken during 1999-2000
to make women fully productive and efficient member of the society.
The present government has announced a package of facilities for the
development/welfare of women to enable them to participate in the
policy and decision making process at various levels. The National
Commission on the Status of women is likely to be established shortly,
which would effectively deal with all matters relating to policy
formation, review and implementations of various laws, concerning
women's rights and struggle for the respectable status of women.
Various women projects both in public and private
sectors are being funded. The main purpose of these projects is to
provide various services to women, especially in the field of
education, training, mother and child health, micro credit and skill
Rural women have been made eligible to borrow for
all purposes for which the ADBP undertakes its general lending as well
as for the approved list of small-scale enterprises. The loan limit
for general lending is Rs.25,000 per borrower, while it is Rs. 60,000
for medium term loans for small-scale enterprises.
The most prominent and successful amongst the
social and economic development programmes in Pakistan is Aga Khan
Rural Support Programme.. Backed by the Aga Khan Foundation (Geneva)
and donors was started in December 1982 for the rural development and
social uplift in the Northern Areas of Pakistan. It opened the gateway
of independence for many women, enabling them to choose their own
skills and occupations for contributing to the social and economical
will be of their own households and those of their community.
The National Rural Support Programme was
established in 1992 with an initial grant of Rs. 500 million by the
Government of Pakistan to set up a countrywide programme of poverty
alleviation and improvement of living conditions in the rural areas.
A women's income generation project of the Business
and Profession Women's Club (BPWC), Lahore, it has the overall
objective of making women economically independent. BPWC, an NGO, was
set up primarily to protect and promote the professional interests of
its members. The club has been operating women's center providing
health and literacy services to local women. The project, funded by
UNICEF has already trained about 200 women in different skills. 45% of
the women trained are generating regular income.
The First Women Bank Limited, established in
December 1989, to provide rural as well as urban women. It provides
concessional credit at an interest rate of 12%, advanced against a
credit line. However, the Bank demands two personal guarantees or the
group guarantees. The loan amounting to Rs. 14.4 million has been
provided to 14,000 women. These loans are used for agriculture,
industrial, commercial and transport sectors and the loans are
advanced to those who want to be self-employed. Women Business Center,
a subsidy of FWBL, serves in designing training programs for
entrepreneurs and organizing workshops and seminars as well as
providing advisory services relating to planning, management,
marketing and quality assurance.
Orangi Pilot Project, established in 1980 through a
donation of BCC Foundation, provides small loans without any tangible
security after obtaining a promissory note signed by the loanee and
two personal guarantees considered acceptable. Up to the end of
December 1991, it had provided loans amounting to Rs. 13 million,
which were disbursed to 1,070 households. OPP is engaged in a variety
of community self help programmes, covering low cost housing, health
and family planning, education, women works centers etc.
Economic empowerment of women in Pakistan requires
improved access to, and control over productive resources, including
knowledge, credit and marketing channels. Formal credit and savings
programmes respond directly to the demands of the women and are an
important means of increasing their control over income and access to
resources. This reduces the incidence of informal credit.
UNDP fully recognizes the empowerment of women as
an integral part of the sustainable human development paradigm and has
adopted advancement of women as one of its foci. Micro-enterprise
development is seen as dynamic aspects of the economy for addressing
the problem of poverty and achieving human development.
In order to empower the women the government should
collaborate with private organizations. The following are the
recommendations for the availability of credit.
•The timely availability of credit is a crucial
requirement for a successful credit programme aimed at poverty
alleviation, and it should be available in amounts that are
commensurate with the capacity to repay and the needs of the poor.
•Successful enterprises of the poor require
successive increments of loan capital in order to improve their
financial stability and enable them to increase their activity. Access
to credit is crucial not only in the initial stages but also on a
continuing basis so that the poor can expand their enterprises to
higher level of income activity.
•Credit programmes should focus on the process,
which starts with group formation, awareness creation and establishing
the fundamental conditions for initiating sustainable economic and
•Institution building and social infrastructure
should be given prime importance in the early phase of credit
programmes. Production credit should be introduced as the process and
activities get underway.
•Detailed collaboration and exchange of
information is necessary between government organizations, banks,
academic institutions and the people's organizations.
•Activities need to be implemented at two level;
one by the NGO acting as an intermediary, and the other by the village
level organization of poor women.
•The village organizations should be made part of
the participatory process through which the credit is provided.
•Government should provide additional support to
NGOs and have flexible policies, which encourage participatory
activities and development.
•While NGOs/CBOs/Vos should have independent
status, each of these organizations should be transparent and
•Participatory monitoring should be set up at the
•Continuous dialogue should take place at all
levels with access to support services for problem solving, when
•Co-ordination is necessary between economic and
social activities. Savings, asset creation, income generation, health,
education, etc. are all part of a process and cannot be kept apart in
•NGOs should establish a baseline data for
participants and a comparable group of non-participants, prior to the
measure the impact of these programmes.
New policy initiative should be taken to link
commercial banks to NGOs.
•Credit programmes for women must be based on a
grass roots system to prepare poor borrowers for the credit
relationship and in order to have adequate provision for the credit
relationship and in order to have adequate provision for the
supervision and follow-up of borrowers once they have taken loans.
I reach the moon, the stars,
But this is not my final destination
Higher and higher ---- onwards and onwards
For if I stop, I die.