• < Previous Event
• Next Event >

Add a Comment

Comment by ABUBACKER SIDDICK on January 6, 2014 at 9:28

Mam, I come across a thoughtful review of an article (Gender issues for the Fourteenth Finance Commission) appeared in the ECONOMIC & POLITICAL WEEKLY by Dr.Mina Swaminathan, Chennai and wish to share with you and friends.

To,

The  Editor,

Economic  and Political Weekly                                                         January  4,2014

 

The article “Gender Issues  for the Fourteenth Finance  Commission”  in your issue of December 21, 2013, draws attention to some of the devastating social consequences  of the use  of the tax on liquor  as a means to generate large revenues  for the State. Thus, in Tamil Nadu, the widespread availability  of liquor  through the vast network of TASMAC shops(Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation) generates  huge revenues  through both excise duties  and sales  taxes. The author mentions   some of the negative impacts  of such liquor sales on women and families, such as violence, tension and marital quarrels, and sshortage of money in the family  leading to violence and extraction of money, and more—clearly liquor is a major threat to the quality of women’s lives.

But this is not all—a deeper look will point  to damaging consequences  both to men, and  to the economic and  social fabric as a whole.  For example, a study of the levels of male morbidity and mortality in Tamil Nadu in the last twenty years,( and it should not be difficult  for the Finance Commission  to obtain these figures )is likely to show high levels of both.  The social consequences,  during the years  of  morbidity ( in addition to what has already been pointed  out by the author) would include --irregular  and/or  loss of employment   leading to  lower earnings by  males in  the family on the one hand,  and  high costs  of hospitalization, medical expenses  and  care during the period of illness, sometimes as much as ten years, on the other. After the death of the male, the family becomes   a woman-headed  one, with a heavy debt burden as a result of the expenditures of nursing and of funeral costs;   with limited earning capacity  ( as women’s work always brings in less than that of men),and other social costs  such as risk of community ostracism  and sexual harassment by men  seeking unprotected  women.

It is encouraging to know  that appropriate fiscal measures by the Finance Commission, within the framework  of “ gender budgeting”,  can ameliorate  this situation  to some extent,  by reducing the State’s dependence on  liquor taxation for revenue. Perhaps the author, as both a  woman  and a bureaucrat, can make this suggestion to the 14^th Finance  Commission on behalf  of the  many women who cannot.

Mina Swaminathan

Comment by Aparna Kunte on January 4, 2014 at 10:33

Thanks Rituu! 

But due to some prior commitments. I can't be part of it.

Hope will hear from you about the details

Regards

Aparna