The assessment of the world by marginalised women and men in 6 slums in Chennai, India and the world they want is different from the assessment and recommendations of those who do evaluations of schemes of government which tend to be sectoral in nature. Marginalised women and men think inter-sectorally and inter-institutionally and believe change is needed in areas not covered by sectoral programmes - like working with men on substance us, safe transportation, linking young women's education to empowerment, access to spoken English, Care etc. They want changes in norms of marriage, family, communities, markets and state, and not just incremental reforms in one sector (which is the focus of evaluations). They see both potential (e.g more employment opportunities) and destruction (e.g displacement) in the neo liberal paradigm of development

1. Power, institutions and gender relations:
Can evaluations transform them?
Ranjani.K.Murthy, rk_km2000@yahoo.com
Advisory Team Member,
Engendering Policy Through Evaluation, Indian Social
Studies Trust
Presentation at CES, 24th May 2015, Montreal

2. Objectives of presentation
Definitions -Power
& institutions
Perceptions of on
what has changed
What evaluation
findings point to
Implications for
evaluations
Focus on low
income urban
women & men
in settlements
in Chennai

3. Power
Power
to
Power
with
Power
within
Rowlands, 1995

4. Definition
Marriage
Family
CommunityMarkets
State
Institutions are
identified with
a social purpose
transcending
individuals and
intentions by
mediating the rules
that govern living
behavior (Stanford
Encylopedia of
philosophy)
Types of institutions

5. What has changed and not changed in marriages?
Valli “Before we were seen as wives, now we are seen as humans”
Less dowry and wife
battering
More sharing of work
Increase in love marriages
Decrease in child
marriage?
WHY?
Female education
and employment
State promotion of
inter-caste marriages
Media
Costs
Women -police
Less changed: Suspicion, fights over work timings & incomes, and sexual conflicts

6. What has changed and not changed in families?
Selvan: “More women headed families now than before”
More
nuclear
Son
preference
less
Women
beginning to
claim natal
property
Less change: Women’s contraceptive responsibility, house ownership, and less say in
major decision making
Worsened: Adult male mortality linked to alcoholism and proportion of women headed
households
WHY?
Women’s
employment
Male Migration
Media
Dominant
Masculinities

7. What has changed and not changed in community institutions?
Divya “If I talk to a boy in vicinity, the ,news reaches my mother in 15
minutes”
Improved
33-50% own
houses– on men’s
names
Girls and boys
from gypsy
communities going
to school !
Harassment of
women and girls in
road , parks and
cinemas reduced
Not changed
Non acceptance of
friendships
amongst sexes
Harassment of
young women in
transport system
Deteriorated
Exploitation of
migrants, at times
sexual
% men who are
alcoholics
increased
Exercising choice?
Sex work for
buying goods
Why
CCTV/police
Govt. programs
Govt liqour shops
Masculinities
Consumerism/
Uneven development

8. What has changed and not changed in markets?
Karunakaran “Domestic workers and cooks earn more but yet to command
respect or security”
Women’s
enhanced
income
More women
in informal
sector
Land value
increasing
Bank loans -
asset-less
Female
Employment
delinked from
education
FLFPR
increasing in
LIG, but
unemp exists.
Less slavery to
emp. agency
Why?
Mlae as the
norm
Weak
women’s
unions
Limited
education/
career
counseling
Weakening of
urban land
ceiling act

9. What has changed and not changed vis a vis state?
Lakshmi: “Govt. gives doles in one hand, and amasses revenue from our men”
Water, electricity,
drainage, garbage
disposal
Rations, school
education and health
care are free; free
food processor
School-toilets with
water andtsanitary
napkins
Police booths- men
and women
personnel; CCTV in
settlements
Less corruption than
before- bank transfer
Service weak in non-
legal settlements or
for migrants
Dislocation of LIG to
periphery
Investment in spoken
English and computer
literacy weak
Economic programs
for women
Increase in state run
liqour shops
Power to- gender intensified and gender-specific, not transformative
Limited programs for power with and power within

10. Pointers to inter-institutional change
“Proper roads and lights, makes it possible for me to claim
community spaces and chat with my girl friends”-Sweta, 18
“With access to education, employment and movies, ‘love’ marriages
with less or no dowry is increasing”- Valli 40
“Government has displaced women’s livelihoods by promoting
subsidised canteens and vegetable shops” – - Parvati, 50 yrs
running a food stall
“There is nobody to ask my employer why she is not giving me
one day leave a week or treating me without dignity”- Malar, 30
yrs

11. But, what do government evaluations suggest?

12. Health Mission-Urban Health Clinics
Maternal and child
health
Immunization Female Sterilization
Treatment of
communicable diseases
and basic NCDs
Evaluations do not
cover:
-Access
Male nurse
- De-addiction
- Men -RH
- VAW and health
-Safe abortion
-Anti sex selection
- Watsan
Evaluations of
UHCs
- Staffing
- Infrastructure
- No. of
patients/facilit
y
- MCH/FP
coverage
- Morbidity- sex

13. School education schemes
Free
Text books
Uniforms
Pads
Bus pass
Cycles
Disability
integrated/
Mid day
meals
Scholarship
SC/ST/MBC
Girls
Evaluation
No comprehensive
evaluation
First to provide pads,
cycles etc
Enrollment high but
ability to read and write
lower
Boys’ toilets
Strategy to address
sexual harassment not
there
RTE impact
Educational/career
counseling not covered

14. Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission
Constraints observed
People do not want to move! Cost escalation. Limited devolution
Reviews
How many projects, capacities, % completed, budget, % released, % utilised
Components
Drainage, solid waste mgmt, water mgmt , basic services for urban poor, working
women’s hostel, women’s participation in planning
Not examined: Issues raised by resettlement for women and access of migrants to
services, safety of transport services, child/elderly care infrastructure etc

15. Swarna Jayanthi Shahari Rozgar Yojana
(urban employment scheme)
Objectives
• Creating self or wage employment to the urban unemployed or
underemployed
• Targeting of poor, SCs, STs, women and women heading
households
Evaluation
• Whether survey of beneficiaries conducted,
• Does an action plan for implementation exist and implemented
• Whether fund flow and spending is as planned
• Finding: surveys of beneficiaries not conducted, action plan not
prepared, approved NGOs not used for training, and funds
diverted
Relevance, outcomes and impacts not assessed- gender differentiated
No placement services or care services, non traditional skill generation, access of financial services and
value chains for women

16. CONCLUSION 1
What changes women and men want is different from
recommendations of sectoral evaluations!
Fewer TASMAC
shops, open lesser
days and hours,
warning on TV
Strengthening de-
addiction services
In situ housing on
women’s names
Free tertiary
education- spoken
English
Gender
sensitisation of
boys/youth
Social security
Financial services
Without collateral
Placement /career
counseling/skill
development
Safe transport
Child care services
(govt and private)
Gender sensitive
health services-
Negotiation in
arranged marriages
that they be
allowed to work

17. Conclusion 2: Govt. evaluations in India of the present kind as
yet do not transform power, institutions and gender relations
• Focus on one sector; rarely with a spelt out TOC
• Inadequately focus on outcomes & impact- gender,
social relations
• Focus on individuals not social institutions
• Rarely assess changes in ‘power with‘ and ‘power
within’
• Rarely assess whether gender and social relations are
altering within implementing agency
• Push burden of development on women; few focus
on issues of masculinities

18. Possible strategies internationally if evaluations are to
contribute to changes in power relations and institutions
In addition to sectoral evaluations
• Evolve indicators of changes in gender relations at
marriage, household, markets and community level as
relevant to country and the context of marginalised groups
(Beyond SIGI data base)
• Carry out an assessment of changes in gender relations at
marriage, household, market, community and state level as
relevant to low income/marginalised groups and capture
their recommendations every five years
• Evolve legislation and policies- sectoral and beyond- based
on findings and recommendations.
• Evolve social relations and institutional based theory of
change for learning, planning, monitoring and evaluation