This briefing was created by the CSO FfD Mechanism for activists and advocates who are interested in getting involved in or learning more about how global economic governance relates to different sectoral and/or local and national struggles in Asia – including feminist movements, food sovereignty and land rights movements, climate justice activists, youth and student movements, human rights advocates, and more.
What difference can wealth taxes make for gender justice in Asia?
This briefing explains how wealth taxes can be used as a tool to fight inequalities and achieve gender justice aims and highlights the potential impact such measures would have by pointing to examples in India and Indonesia among other Asian countries.
Two years after a global pandemic, the measures of austerity have profoundly exacerbated inequalities. The dominant characteristics of austerity, which include inadequate and failed public services in education, health, social protection; income inequality driven in part by regressive taxes; and a skeletal role of the state built by privatization schemes. All this has led to a systematic erosion of the resilience of public systems, as well as of a social contract that safeguards the redistribution of wealth, resources and public goods towards equity and compliance with human rights.
This paper published by CDES examines the dynamics and implications of gender austerity in Ecuador in the context of its 27-month IMF loan program for USD 6,500 million, started in 2019 and redefined at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 (IMF 2021). The fiscal consolidation program attached to the loan includes a wide range of measures. For example: extensive cuts in public spending focused on the health sector, relief measures labor deregulation, elimination of fuel subsidies, restrictions on ability of the central bank to finance liquidity problems in the pandemic crisis and privatization of state companies and public services, among many others.
The Dalit and Adivasi Budget Analysis (DABA) provides a thorough analysis of the Union Budget and examines the budget allocation for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. In 2023, the findings were particularly concerning and newsworthy, as numerous government schemes intended to support these groups have had reduced allocations, while many general schemes are counted as part of the budget for these groups, although they are not directly targeted to them.
Contrary to the commitment to end manual scavenging, no funds were allocated for the rehabilitation of manual scavengers under the self-employment scheme, the scholarship programme for children of people engaged in manual scavenging has been dropped, and the National Safai Karmachari Finance and Development Corporation received a negligible allocation.
“[The] budget fails to take notice of hundreds of deaths taking place in sewers or septic tanks, all these years, whereas we at Safai Karamchari Andolan have been demonstrating on the streets daily for the last 264 days in various parts of the country, demanding to put a complete halt on deaths taking place in sewers and septic tanks. Ironically, since we started this #StopKillingUs campaign on May 11, 2022, there have been more than 50 deaths of Indian citizens inside sewers and septic tanks. But, governments are mum on that.”
Safai Karamcharis Andolan responded to the Union Budget for 2023-2024 with a press release and a video. The organisation raised the issue of the SRMS (rehabilitation scheme) being removed from the budget and merging with the ‘NAMASTE’ scheme which only allocates budget for producing sewage cleaning machines, but not for the people.
The question was raised of why the human element has been lost and how the people themselves will be supported to step out of this work.
Farmer women and Batak women are the victims who suffer the most in tenure conflicts in North Sumatra due to plantation projects. However, the women continued to struggle to defend their ancestral lands.
Full movie available soon.
This study published by Tax Justice Network Africa sought to assess the implications of Kenya’s debt management on the advancement of human rights, and the 2030 Agenda. This necessitated the assessment of Kenya’s debt management frameworks, analysis of the implications of public debt on citizens, and assessment of the level of adoption of the 2030 Agenda in different facets of Kenya’s public finance space. The study was guided by research themes developed from the research questions.
The research themes included:
• Debt servicing and expenditure on sectors of the economy (including pro-poor sectors)
• Integration of human rights and the 2030 Agenda in Kenya’s planning and budgeting frameworks
• Kenya’s Debt data transparency
• Kenya’s Debt sustainability
• Kenya’s involvement in the multilateral agenda on debt
This report, by the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights provides insight into the lived realities and stories of women and girl sanitation workers in two states in India (Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra). Their voices often go unheard and their lives made invisible due to the stigma attached to their work. Based on a combination of a literature review and focus group discussions with women and girl , the report helps the reader to understand the issues and challenges of daily life from their lens, and the hurdles they face in accessing their rights and entitlements. The report also provides an analysis of existing schemes and budget allocation for sanitation workers and the gaps that must be addressed by the government and society at large.
For the Dayak people, the forest is a symbol of women’s dignity. However, the indigenous people on the island of Borneo have to face land grabbing which has an impact on their lives.
This documentary by Aksi! for gender, social and ecological justice and New Age Cinema is the result of collaboration with the Mamut Menteng Women’s Solidarity. The full movie will be available soon.
