These are women returning after a day’s work offered through the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. About 50 percent of those who seek employment through this scheme are women.
One woman who finds about three or four days of work in a week through this scheme, mentioned to me that this has empowered woman. Many woman are from broken homes, widows or subject to harassment by their spouses.This income helps them to get medical attention on time and to have access to food. Not that they would go hungry without this income, but it has given them dignity and independence.
Most of those accessing the benefits of this scheme are elderly woman for whom a regular work in the farm or as domestic helpers can be demanding.
A society that has incorporated a welfare scheme for its women folks is to be complemented for its enlightenment. It is not charity that they seek for but an entitlement to live comfortably when they are less able.
This is one example of a 'trickling down' effect of liberalization of the economy, where we create more financial resources from which we can apportion larger amounts for welfare measures. There are lot of deficiencies in our delivery of distributive justice, but there are signs of hope.
M.C.Mathew (text and photo)
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