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Table of Contents
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Gender Checklist: resettlement
Resettlement and Rehabilitation
Consideration of gender issues is crucial in the implementation of resettlement
and rehabilitation programs. Special needs and requirements of women must be
considered and addressed in all program aspects—site selection, site and
housing design, provision of civic infrastructure, access to service, provision
of land and housing title, payment of compensation, and income restoration.
| Women’s
selection criteria played a key role in relocation site selection in the
Calcutta Environment Improvement Project. For women, the key considerations
were safety of the sites and proximity to present location. The latter
was important for several reasons: (i) continuity in employment, (ii)
ability to walk to work, (iii) ability to return home quickly in case
of an emergency related to the children, and (iv) access to basic social
services. |
Income restoration programs are an integral part of sustainable resettlement
and rehabilitation efforts. They should include both land-based and nonland-based
options depending on the pre-project income-generating activities of the affected
persons. Separate provision should be made to ensure income restoration for
women.
Site selection, location, design, and suitability of the physical area are
of key concern to women. This is due to familial responsibilities that entail
care of children and the elderly. Women also engage in considerable home-based
activities that contribute to household income. Design must be sensitive to
functional requirements of the home and domestic needs.
 Top
Site Selection
| TIP
Selection of site location of water tanks, stand pipes, toilets, or other
facilities should be negotiated with women because issues of safety, privacy,
and cultural norms tend to be of greater concern to women. |
Key Issues
- Reasons for selecting or rejecting a site can differ widely between women
and men. For women, distance from the workplace, physical safety, availability
of facilities, especially for children, and proximity of kin and other social
networks are some of the key considerations.
Key Questions
- Have affected women representing all socioeconomic groups been shown the
alternative sites?
- How many alternatives were the women shown?
- How far is the site from their existing homes?
- Have women approved the site?
- Are schools and health centers easily accessible?
- Is the site close to the women’s current places of employ-ment or
income generation?
Key Strategies
- Ensure that at least 50% of the representatives taken for site selection
and viewing are women.
- List women’s concerns regarding site options.
- Take women’s concerns into account before the site is approved and
finalized.
- Address the need for civic amenities like health care centers.
- Ensure that details about the sites—location, issues of safety, adequac,
and appropriateness—are shared with all affected women.
Top
Housing
| TIP
Encourage women’s participation in the design and layout of housing. |
Key Issues
- Women’s requirements should be integrated into housing design and
the provision of other facilities.
Key Questions
- Were women consulted on the structure and design of the housing? What are
the specific needs?
- What kind of assistance is required by women?
- Do women prefer to undertake the construction on their own with money or
materials from government or do they want the government to provide the housing?
- Are women willing to contribute toward housing finance?
- What measures are being taken to address women’s concerns regarding
housing?
- What are the women’s suggestions regarding settlement design?
- Do women prefer cluster housing, e.g., people of one community housed together?
Key Strategies
- Ensure provision of assistance to women for construction of houses in the
new site.
- Ask for and encourage women’s input in settlement planning and design,
housing structure and plans, and location of amenities and facilities.
Top
Habitability and Safety
Key Issues
- Habitability and safety of the site are important concerns for women; they
spend much of their time in the home and are responsible for the care and
safety of children.
Key Questions
- Have issues of habitability and safety been addressed?
- Are women more vulnerable to violence from outside forces in the new settlement?
- Are women concerned about safety?
- Does the new settlement restrict women’s mobility?
Key Strategies
- The site should not be in ecologically fragile areas, polluted areas, or
very far from the natural resource base, if the relocation is in the rural
area.
- Seek women’s opinion on safety and habitability.
|
Case Study
India: Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centres
Given an opportunity, women can design and build their own houses. SPARC
(Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centres) has organized the women
informal dwellers in Mumbai to resist demolition. The women’s own
organization, Mahila Milan, has after a decade begun construction for
500 families on municipal land near a pavement site. To keep costs down,
the women are manufacturing their own blocks and precast beams, and are
providing all unskilled labor for 50, six-unit, two-storey buildings.
A similar group was recently allocated land where women helped build two-storey
apartments with the help of the Mumbai group.
ACHR 1998, Bapat 1999, Tinker and Summerfield 1999.
|
Top
Civic Infrastructure
Key Issues
- Women’s needs in civic infrastructure are governed by cultural and
safety considerations or what they see as important for their children, especially
girls. They are also governed by the need to provide water, fuel, and fodder.
- Maintenance of civic infrastructure often goes unattended, adding to the
problems.
| In
the Pasig River Environmental and Rehabilitation Management Sector Development
Project (Philippines) savings in loan funds were used by the Government
to construct social infrastructure at the resettlement sites, including
schools, day care centers, health centers, multipurpose halls, and recreation
facilities. |
Key Questions
- What infrastructure needs have women identified?
- What services might be required by women and children in relation to civic
infrastructure?
- How will the site and services be maintained?
Key Strategies
- Ensure the establishment of community systems for maintenance of sites
and services, especially all garbage disposal systems; and maintenance of
sanitation facilities, especially common toilets, bathing or washing areas,
and drinking-water facilities.
- Explore the need for a children’s playground, community center, place
for waste disposal, electricity, and health center.
Top
The following
sections deal with some of the basic needs.
Sanitation
Key Issues
- Lack of appropriate and adequate toilet and sanitation facilities affect
women the most. Their inputs on such facilities must be obtained and incorporated
in the resettlement plan.
Key Questions
- Is there a requirement for separate bathing places/toilet facilities/washing
slabs for women?
- What is the best design and location for these facilities?
- Where are the community toilets located? How many families are there per
toilet?
- It is important that the community takes responsibility for maintaining
its toilets. What will be the role of the women?
- Should lighting of public spaces and areas around toilet facilities be
included to ensure safety of women?
- What are the mechanisms for waste disposal and sewage disposal and what
is the role of the community?
- Will there be bathing areas within the houses or common bathing spaces?
How many families will use each common facility? What are the mechanisms for
maintaining these?
Key Strategies
- Plan and design toilet and bathing facilities in consultation with women.
- Ensure women’s views are obtained on location of facilities.
- Obtain men’s and women’s commitment on maintenance of all facilities
beyond the project period and establish mechanisms for it.
- Ensure that responsiblity for garbage and sewerage management and disposal
is shared between the community and government, and between men and women.
- Training or orientation in garbage management and disposal should include
women.
Top
Education
| TIP
Check the physical and social accessibility of schools. |
Key Issues
- In situations of involuntary dislocation, provision of free and compulsory
education should be one of the first amenities to be developed, along with
housing and sanitation.
Key Questions
- How many school children are there?
- How far do children currently travel to attend school?
- Are there existing facilities in the relocation site, such as elementary
or a high school?
- Is it physically accessible to the new settlers?
- Can existing facilities accommodate the children of the new settlers?
- If not, what are the requirements to meet their schooling needs?
Key Strategies
- Assess the schooling needs and level of education required.
- Ensure that educational infrastructure is provided. Note: the cost of construction
should be borne by the project proponents while regular running of the schools
should be the responsibility of the government.
Top
Health
Key Issues
- Involuntary dislocation and displacement can increase morbidity. It can
affect people both physically and psychologically. Loss of land or livelihood
can result in loss of self-esteem in men, which in turn sometimes leads to
violence against women and children.
- Environmental impact of projects can also affect the displaced persons
if it is not managed from the outset. Dam projects are known to generate fluorosis
and schistosomiasis while thermal power plants may increase the incidence
of tuberculosis or bronchial tract infections.
- Medical facilities, both preventive and curative, need to be carefully
planned.
- Decrease or loss of food resources may result in severe nutritional impact
on women and children.
Key Questions
- What are the common diseases of women in the area?
- Are they related to existing living conditions?
- What is the current state of medical facilities?
- Do they need upgrading for persons who do not need relocation?
- What facilities are available at the new site?
- Will they be sufficient for new settlers?
- Is there any potential for introduction of new diseases in the relocation
site?
- Are health facilities accessible to women and children?
Key Strategies
- Assess current health problems and interventions needed to address them.
- Link up with the government health system.
- Plan for reproductive health needs of women.
- Build monitoring mechanisms to track introduction of new diseases.
- Ensure proximity and availability of health care centers.
- Ensure adequate budget and resource allocation to maintain new health infrastructure.
| Internally
displaced women are particularly vulnerable to gender- specific violence
as the protection afforded to them by their homes and communities disappears
and the stress of displacement becomes manifest in the family unit. Such
abuses include physical and sexual attacks, rape, domestic violence and
sexual harassment, increased spousal battering and marital rape…Displaced
persons, in particular women, are frequently coerced into providing sexual
favours in return for essential food, shelter, security, documentation,
or other forms of assistance.” (Francis Deng. United Nations Special
Representative on Internally Displaced Persons) |
Top
Daycare Centers
| TIP
Providing day care facilities serves multiple purposes:
• Cares for the crucial 0–6 age group.
• Allows mothers to go out to work.
• Provides potential self-employment to women in the community. |
Key Issues
- Often, girls are unable to go to school because they have to look after
younger siblings. Hence, the need to explore establishing child care centers
that would have the added benefit of enabling women to take up paid employment.
Setting up crèches could also provide a source of livelihood for some
women.
Key Questions
- How many children are there in the 0–6 age group?
- What are the current child care arrangements?
- Will they be affected by displacement? How?
- Are people willing to look for alternatives?
- Are women willing to place their children in day care?
- Are women in the community willing to establish or manage day care centers?
- Are women willing to pay for day care?
Key Strategies
- Assess the need for day care centers.
- Assess women’s willingness to contribute and take responsibility
for day care centers.
- Look into existing government programs and schemes.
Top
Transition Issues
Key Issues
- Some women may need special assistance for transportation and transit.
- For relocation to the new site, the transition period between dismantling
of one home and resettling in the new is crucial.
- Temporary arrangements often do not provide for basic needs of women and
children, such as sanitation, drinking-water facilities, and schools.
Key Questions
- Have women been consulted on transportation and transit issues?
- Is transportation provided? Are women aware of the transportation arrangements?
- Have women and other vulnerable groups, who may need special assistance
with transportation, been identified?
- Is ample time provided for dismantling and resettlement, especially for
female-headed households and the elderly?
- What arrangements have been made for ensuring access to basic facilities
and access to schools for children in the transit phase?
Key Strategies
- Adequate provision should be made for transportation assistance for women,
especially single, pregnant, and elderly women, and female-headed households.
- To facilitate smooth and painless transition, ensure that shelters and temporary
housing are easily accessible to basic amenities.
- Ensure that families move out together.
Top
Compensation
| TIP
Ensure transparent public distribution of compensation in the name of
both spouses. |
Key Issues
- Experience indicates that some affected persons spend cash compensation
quickly and become impoverished.
- Often the needs of women and children are not met if cash compensation
is paid to the male head of the household.
- Some affected persons may need compensation to be paid into a bank account.
Key Questions
- What is the opinion of women with regard to the payment of compensation—cash,
bank account, or check?
- Has the payment of compensation in joint names been considered?
- Do the women have bank or postal accounts in their name to receive compensation?
- Are there provisions to ensure that women have an account?
- Have men been consulted on payment of compensation in joint names?
- Is there any possibility of separate cash compensation payment for women?
- What is the likely risk to women of paying compensation and other cash assistance
in joint names or wholly to women? Can the risks be minimized?
| TIP
Compensation should not be in cash, if possible. |
Top
Key Strategies
- Ensure that the process of compensation disbursement is transparent and
that compensation is in the name of both spouses.
- Project authorities must ensure that the affected persons have bank accounts.
If not, assist them to open bank accounts.
Security of Tenure
| TIP
Include the name of both spouses in any grants or land titles at the resettlment
site. |
Key Issues
- Security of tenure is an important issue. It can even be more important
for displaced women because they could become disenfranchised. Single women,
widows, and women-headed households could potentially be divested of land
and property by family members.
| In
the urban context, vulnerability of informal dwellers is tied to lack
of tenurial status. Men and women are equally vulnerable. Efforts should
be made to ensure formal tenurial rights upon relocation. |
Key Questions
- Is the resettlement land allocated as ownership title or lease?
- Have women been informed about the nature of title to the new land and
housing?
- What provisions are made for women who do not have ownership rights over
land/property taken over by the project?
Key Strategies
- Joint ownership or lease of land and housing by both spouses is crucial.
- Ensure that for women-headed households and for widows with adult sons who
live with them (in case they are not treated as separate family), the ownership
or lease should be in the name of the woman.
- Ensure that the transfer of rights is gender sensitive.
Top
Income Restoration
| TIP
Recognition of women’s contribution to household income is the first
step to designing income- restoration programs for them. |
Key Issues
- The needs and problems of women are likely to be different from those of
men, particularly in terms of social support, services, employment, and means
of subsistence for survival. For example, relocated women might face greater
difficulty than relocated men in reestablishing markets for home industry
produce or small trade items if they are constrained by lack of mobility or
by illiteracy.
- Income-restoration programs should address gender issues adequately.
| "The
complex role a woman performs as a food collector, collector of fuel and
water, as a mother of children and partner in agricultural activities
gets a more than proportionate blow (vis-à-vis) men in the process
of displacement. She has to be placed back in her original place, if not
at a position of advantage – after relocation….I am convinced
that women played a much larger role in re-establishing families and picking
up economic links while men passively adjusted to changes and shocks.”
(Anita Agnihotri, former Director, Resettlement and Rehabilitation Directorate,
Government of Orissa) |
Key Questions
- Do women contribute to household income?
- What are women’s income levels prior to displacement?
- What are the activities from which women earn incomes?
- Will these income sources be affected?
- How many women will lose their livelihood sources?
- Are the women being thrust into a cash economy from a rural subsistence
economy?
- Does it mean loss of subsistence?
- What are the ways in which livelihood will be affected? Will there be total
loss of livelihood source or a decrease in income only?
- Does the new site provide the same or alternative opportunities for earning
incomes?
- What are the existing levels of women’s skills/training?
- Is there a need to upgrade women’s skills and are the facilities available?
Key Strategies
- Efforts must be made to protect women’s existing livelihood sources
and opportunities for income generation. Ideally, opportunities for augmenting
existing income should be explored.
- Loss of livelihood sources and income opportunities will need restorative
action.
- Assess women’s requirements for skills training to facilitate income
restoration.
- Consider including women among the group to receive any employment opportunities
generated through the project.
- Include women in any retraining schemes included in the resettlement plan.
- Explore opportunities to link women to self-help groups and microfinance
programs.
- Make provision for linking women to any other existing employment–generation
schemes of the government.
|
Case Study
Sri Lanka Mahaweli Irrigation Scheme
In Sri Lanka, the lands allocated to Sinhalese couples in the Mahaweli
irrigation scheme were registered in the names of the husbands, who were
assumed to be the household heads. The new arrangement also allowed the
household to nominate one heir, who was invariably a son, if the family
had one. This undermined the bilateral rules of inheritance prevalent
in the area, which allowed women the independent right to own and control
land. In the Mahaweli scheme, on divorce women were deprived of any means
of subsistence from land, underlining their dependent and subordinate
positions. About 86% of the land allocations in the irrigation scheme
were made to men. Of the 16 women who were granted land, only two (a widow
and a separated woman) lived in the project area and managed their own
farms. (Schrijvers, in Agarwal 1994, p.290).
|
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