Magazine 2017
International Peer-Reviewed Journal
RESEARCH HORIZONS, VOL. 7 SEPT. 2017
WOMEN’S LABOUR:AHIGHLIGHT OF POVERTYTOURISM
*Sangeeta Desai
ABSTRACT
Poverty is marketed in an undignified manner by the tour operators , big organisations and to some
extent also by the state development agendas. Women in particular become the face of this poverty.
The homes and everyday lives of the poor women do get dissected in the process of ‘understanding the
local lives’. The struggles and hardships faced by the poor become a source of consumption item for
the visitors. “We also did the slums” becomes a necessary catch phrase for the tourists visiting the
slums. The effects both positive and negative of slum tourism is necessary to understand. While poverty
tourism is not only relevant to urban slum but is experienced in rural areas too. It however gets camouflaged
under the name of development. Poor women who are part of the SHG movement are invariably the
targets of development tourism. Regular visitors to tribal belts wherein women have made an attempt to
change their lives through SHGs have become a common sight. While undoubtedly the SHG movement
brings in positive changes from an economic and social empowerment perspective what gets overlooked
is that in order to showcase the success of the programme the poor women and the families become
fascination object of policy makers.
Keywords: Tourism, Labour, Development agenda, empowerment, poverty, SHG
Introduction
Poverty and Slum Tourism is a new advent in the field of tourism. The Oscar award winning movie Slum dog
millionaire has been instrumental in bolstering a sudden increase in slum tourism in India. Dedicated slum tour
operators are making a business out of the need of foreigners to see the grim underbelly of Mumbai ie the
slums of Dharavi.The city of Mumbai houses Dharavi which is Asia’s second largest slum. Slums like Dharavi
have become a tourist destination and must see activity for many tourists . Taking a tour of the slums would
have sounded absurd some years back however this has become a essential tourist activity. The local slum
tour operators market the tours promising to show the real lives of people. Dingy rooms, poor sanitation, water
problems and the hardships and struggles of the poor become the highlight of these slum tours. Poverty
tourism though is a debatable topic as the pro poverty tourism advocates argument that it benefits the local
communities and brings in a better understanding of the lives of the locals. While the anti poverty tourism
brigade says it does not bring any material difference to the people living in the slums rather they rob them of
their dignity. Slum tourism and the ethics of tourism is not an issue faced only by India it is also faced by poor
and developing nations such as South Africa.
Tapping the financials in Slums:
Slum tourism is not just an initiative of the local slum tour operators. The business is thriving because there is
a huge market to experience the slums. Various small and big enterprises indirectly contribute to slum tourism.
Slums are suppliers of raw material required for various industries. Men and women living in these slums are
engaged in home based enterprises. Many of them are engaged in running small independent ventures from
their tiny homes. Their homes also become their place of work. These small business include embroidery work,
tailoring, drying and selling fish, vegetable vendor, supplying tiffin service, making papads, pickles, cleaning
and during coconut garlic or running beauty parlours. These poor self employed people require working
capital and to bridge these requirement various financial instituitions step in. The worling capital requirement is
filled in through micro loans. Organisations also want to prove how they contribute towards sustainable
development by engaging local communities. targeting women borrowers makes sense from a public policy
standpoint. The business case for focusing on female clients is substantial, as women clients register higher
repayment rates. They also contribute larger portions of their income to household consumption than their
male counterparts. There is thus a strong business and public policy case for targeting female borrowers
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Various Financial instituitions including leading banks and micro financial instuitions (MFIs) and Non government
organisations lend micro loans to poor people especially poor women living in the slums of Mumbai. Loans are
generally given to increase the income generating capacity of the poor women. The loans are closely monitored
and on successful completion of the loan cycle additional loan facility is provided to the women.
Questions surrounding the inspection tours:
It is a trend among the financial instituition (especially foreign banks and NGOs) that whenever the top officials
visit Mumbai they are taken a tour of the slums and introduced to the women borrowers. The focus of the tour
is to show how the borrowers have utilised the loan in their individual business/activities. In order to further
highlight the business plans the officials are taken to the homes of these women and shown their enterprises.
While one may argue that this is a due diligence on part of the organisation to safeguard their business interests
and ensure that the money so lent is used for the purpose it is meant to be, but it is also a fact that poor
women’s hardships, struggles and her survival strategies have become commodities which the powerful
organisations are using for their business interests. It is common sight to see officials of these organisations
taking a tour of the slums where their borrowers reside. While women’s empowerment is considered as one of
the main strategy of the MFI , this very aim of empowerment can go loggerheads when poor women’s personal
lives are dissected or interfered with by the organisations. NGO’s working in the slums also indirectly contribute
to slum tourism by organising ‘work tour’ for their donor agencies.
Development Agendas and tourism factor :
Poverty Tourism is not restricted to urban areas. The need to experience the poor rural life is also of great
interest to the new age traveller. However the development agendas of the state and the efficiency of the
development programmes also raise interest among researchers, social scientists, economists, academecians,
donor agencies and bureaucrats. The categories mentioned above directly or indirectly become the ‘watchful
tourist’ of these development programmes.
To bring into an example of a development programme that was run by Mahila Arthik Vikas Mahamandal
(
MAVIM). The focus of the program is on social mobilization through formation of Self Help Group (SHGs) as
the basic instrument of empowerment of women. These SHGs assist women to access basic financial services
like thrift, credit and insurance, take advantage of new or improved livelihood opportunities and provide a
forum for delivery of other services. The program promotes awareness campaigns in terms of legal, policy and
programmatic provisions which assist women in organizing and networking for advocacy purposes.IFAD is the
prime donor agency and the Self Help Group programme is run in all the 35 districts of Maharashtra.
Yavatmal is one of the districts of Maharashtra where this programme was first implemented in the year 1994.
The SHG women have benefitted from the programme and have started their own enterprises including processing
of dals, making papads and pickles. These SHG women were also given adequate training for the same. What
is interesting to note is that the district office of Yavatmal has a dedicated team which takes care of the visitors
coming to the office and takes to Lohar village which is near the city center . The women are busy at their
homes making the products, they are ready to answer the questions asked and more than happy to display
their fruits of labour. They have a line of orders to process on a single day. They appear industrious and
confident. Infact they are eager to have a conversation and their confidence shows that they are used to answer
questions regularly. The women tell us that various sections of people visit them to understand their work and
the progress made by them. They are frequently asked questions as to how was their life before joining the
development programme and how is the financial progress made by them. These questions are directed to the
women folk as they are the beneficiaries of the development programme. As these programmes are closely
monitored by the bilateral agencies there is a steady stream of visitors from these agencies to overlook the
programme outcome. These visitors include both local, national and international.
One of the positive aspects of developmental tourism is that the exposure of these women increase, the ability
to exchange ideas and views increase. In some of the development programmes, women who have long been
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the object of the observer also get a chance to visit a foreign country where they are invited to speak and share
their experiences in the development programme.
Conclusion
Be it a private MFI loan or be it state development agenda, in both cases women’s labour is examined in great
detail. Both the agencies try hard to prove how empowered their women borrowers are. However in the
process the aspect of privacy is completely neglected. The powerful ‘watchful tourists ‘ adorn the cap of a
controller and such control can be oppressive at times. Some of the unanswered questions are Do Slum
tourism and Development tourism border in making mockery of poverty. Why is women’s labour inspected in
such great details? How can one bring in power and dignity to the one who is observed . Is slum tourism and
development tourism a passing fad..
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Sharath (2004). Micro Credit in India: Panacea for Poverty? Chartered Financial Analyst, May
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Towards Equality Report (1974) Government of India
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14616688.2012.633216 accessed on 06March2017
*
Ph D Scholar Research Center for Women’s Studies , SNDT Womens University.
Email-sangeetaashish[email protected]
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