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Women, Science, Technology, Environment

Dr. Vibhuti Patel, DIRECTOR, PGSRProfessor & Head, Department of Economics,

SNDT Women’s University, Churchgate, Mumbai-400020.E-mail- vibhuti.np@gmail.com

Phone-91-022-22052970 (O), 26770227 ®, mobile-9321040048

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Impact of Technological Development and Modernisation on Women’s Work Participation

• Technological Development and modernization have by and large resulted into retrenchment of women as women are not offered skill training to cope with new technologies.

• Only in the information technology, women are getting entry as computer operators, call centre employees and tele-workers.

• Globalisation has brought fast changes in technologies and environment.

• The important role played by women in electronics, information technology and food processing and agro industry and textiles has been crucial to the development of these sectors.

• Women should be given comprehensive support in terms of labour legislation, social security and other support services to participate in various industrial sectors.

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Industrial Technologies and Women• Women have been weeded out of traditional manufacturing sector that

constitute textile, jute, small scale industries due to introduction of semi-automated and automated machines.

• Industrial Training Institutes of the Government give women training only in tailoring and screen printing.

• The Southern states have started recruiting women to handle new industrial technologies because of shortage male labour as a result of male migration to the gulf countries.

• All industrial technologies are designed keeping into consideration an average height and body of men.

• Shramshakti report had demanded that women workers must be given technical training to handle new machineries so that they can get gainful employment in all industrial categories.

• Reservation of seats for girls and women in engineering college is a welcome move in this direction.

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Industrial disasters

• such as Bhopal gas tragedy, pollution of air, water bodies and land generated by hazardous industries such as plastic, synthetic fiber, chemicals, and fertilizers have invited attention to environmental safety and occupational issues.

• Uses of nuclear technology, impact of radiation on women’s reproductive abilities, carcinogenic and mutagenic impact of mercury poisoning are the major controversial issues of the contemporary reality.

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Agriculture and Allied Economic Activities

• Mechanisation, • High Yielding Varieties-• Green Revolution• Pesticide• Intensive cultivation• Horticulture and Floriculture• Animal Husbandry and Dairy Development • Poultry Development

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Women in Sericulture• During last 20 years, rural women in most of the Indian states are getting

roped in sericulture-cultivation of mulberry, handling silk-warm eggs, monitoring day and night different stages of growth of silk-warms, silk-processing, weaving.

• Women in sericulture need training in scientific methods of silk and acquaintance modern technologies.

• Women have to cultivate silk-warms in their own living space. They should be given separate space/workshops for sericulture. Women’s cooperative ventures in sericulture must be provided government support so that they have not to depend on agents.

• Market for silk products has expanded as variety of pure and synthetic-mix silk is in circulation.

• The fashion industry has also given boost to silk production. But women workers in sericulture have hardly benefited from the same.

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Women in Fishries• Women in fisheries have had major set back during last three decades.

• Concentration and centralization of economic resources in the hands of men in fisheries have rendered women fish vendors paupers in these sectors.

• Giant multinationals control rights for fish harvesting. They have trawlers, modern technologies for catching fish, fish preservation and processing and transporting fish to local as well as global markets.

• Young unmarried girls are recruited to join the army of migrant labour force that is employed in the free trade zones for prone and fish processing.

• They are made to work for 12 hours for paltry wages.

• Women participation in the fisher-folks union has declined and their spokespersons have been silenced.

• Lack of technological know-how, limited credit facilities and absence of social security have gone against women fisher folks.

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Female Activities and Ecological and Environmental Concerns

• The Two Way Relationships

• Displacement in the Name of Development

• Natural as well as man-made disasters

• Gender audits of mega developmental schemes and programmes

• Energy and Environment policy

• Water Policy

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New Reproductive Technologies (NRTs) and Women

• NRTs perform 4 types of functions.

• In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) and subsequent embryo transfer, GIFT (Gamete Intra Fallopian Transfer), ZIFT and cloning assist reproduction Contraceptive Technologies prevent conception and birth.

• Amniocentesis, chorion villai Biopsy, niddling, ultrasound and imaging are used for prenatal diagnosis.Foetal cells are collected by the technique of amniocentesis and CVB.

• Gene technologies play crucial role through genetic manipulation of animal and plant kingdoms Genomics is “the science of improving the human population through controlled breeding encompasses the elimination of disease, disorder, or undesirable traits, on the one hand, and genetic enhancement on the other. It is pursued by nations through state policies and programmes”.

• • It is important to examine scientific, social, juridical, ethical, economic and

health consequences of the NRTs. NRTs have made women’s bodies site for scientific experimentations.

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Role of New Technology for Helping Women

• New technologies in terms of kitchen and household appliances have reduced middle and upper class women’s drudgery, drastically reduced time for cooking, cleaning and caring.

• Introduction of computers, office automation has reduced manual administrative chores. Internet has eased communication.

• Many internet savvy women get assignments without running from pillar to post.

• Mobile revolution has made women more secure as they can coordinate their work and home lives more efficiently and also with a sense of security.

• New range of easily manageable automobiles- two wheelers and four wheelers have encouraged women with purchasing power to own vehicles so that they can remain mobile even during late night and early morning.

• Women entrepreneurs are reaping best harvests from new technologies of video-conferencing, tele-conferencing, e-commerce, ATM and credit cards.

• Self Help Groups of Women and Rural Women Banks are using smart cards for financial transactions.

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Provision of Information and Training for

Simple Harvesting of Economic Services

• There is a need to start information kiosk for women in rural and urban centers. Industrial training centers must provide opportunities to women to deal with all traditional and modern technologies.

• Department of Science and Technology must target school and college girls for advanced scientific training in core and applied sector.

• Women entrepreneurs must be given orientation to new technologies by the government as well as entrepreneurship development associations.

• Information, Education and Communication (IEC) policy in the area of modern technologies and scientific development must have strong gender component in its design and implementation.

• Global, national, regional and local level information about job opportunities, career advancement and training opportunities must be announced in print and electronic media.

• Training women in modern technology should be looked at as an investment rather than as expenditure.

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Thank you