Women Vegetable Vendors
- Cumulative stupidity of policy and impoverishment of Manipur's economy -
Amar Yumnam *
The attention of Manipur has been caught by the recent tussle consequent upon the eviction of a group of roadside women vegetable vendors.
Well, the women involved are all our Imas and the vegetables destroyed are all products of the home economy. The issues involved are deep and wide. So we should not leave the issue as finished with the law and order forces chasing the women and kick-scattering of their vegetables.
The Issues: The issues involved have at least two important sides. First, the recent showdown is just a culmination of the cumulative stupidity of policy over the years. The second side relates to the impoverishment of the economy.
Policy Stupidity: We have been predicting such a continual showdown over the years and emphasizing the necessity of addressing the core issue of urbanization in the State alive to the contextual economic realities. But all along the State's policy has been to confuse Paona Bazar, Thangal Bazar and Bir Tikendrajit Road as "urban" of the State and confine all the developmental interventions in these three areas.
This has led to the continuation of these three areas as the only areas for marketing in the State's capital. In this context, we should not be surprised if any woman desires and endeavours to make a living by participating in the market process here. By the way, women have historically, culturally and economically been active participants all along in the marketisation process of the land.
Impoverishment of the Economy: A research scholar working under me has drawn my attention on the level of techno-economic reality of the market in the State's capital. The level of technology required for participation in the vegetable market in Imphal is low.
Secondly, there is ease of entry into this market. Thirdly, the skill required for participation is low. Besides we have the historical and cultural reality mentioned above.
The Result: The result of the interaction of the above two factors would, other things remaining the same, result in multiplication of women participants in the vegetable market of the land. Any responsible state alive to the contextual realities and thinking for the people would naturally plan for such consequences. But this definitely has not been so in our land.
My Worry: My worry is much more than this negligence of the administration and the mess we are in consequent upon the cumulative stupidity of policy. The implications of the multiplication of the women vendors and the collective courage they have shown speaks volumes of the nature of the economy today.
First, it implies that the State definitely is not moving towards a direction of greater technological intensification in its conduct of economic activities. Thus there has not been any expansion of employment and earning opportunities in sectors other than the vegetable market.
Secondly, this absence of emergence of a modern sector has affected both our men and women, but in a far worse way our womenfolk. Thirdly, in the absence of the alternatives, our womenfolk necessarily have to come out to participate in the vegetable market to somehow eke out a living. This is why we saw a kind of determination in the women roadside vendors this time.
Policy Response: The policy response to the crisis cannot be found in the continual use of the State's security forces against the women. The response should at least be a two-pronged one. First, we must realize that for at least the foreseeable future, and given the present economic realities, the number of women willing and ready to participate in the women vegetable market would continue to rise.
This implies the urgency of evolving an urban policy of the State alive to this reality and implementing this policy without further delay. Any delay in this would be deadly and dangerous; it would result in at least the multiplication of women joining the oldest profession.
Secondly, the administration should by now be fully awake to the urgency of fostering new activities involving higher technology and higher level of skills in this land of ours. Greater skill intensity and higher technological intensification are the only way out to take the economy further forward and get away from the current stumbling at low level issues.
We have to find ways of making new skills and new technology thrive in our land. But this cannot be evolved by the mindset of an administration which thinks of tourism as a potential industry for development while at the same time disallowing outsiders to enter the land.
It is already late for our administration to escape from its rusted mind-set.
* Amar Yumnam writes regularly for The Sangai Express. The writer can be contacted at yumnam1(at)yahoo(dot)co(dot)uk. This article was webcasted on January 11, 2009.
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