Gender policy needs a major shake-up to bridge India's growing gap

In the last few years, India’s ranking in socio-economic and environmental indicators among world nations has dropped by several notches, the recent one being the Global Gender Gap Report, 2021, by the World Economic Forum.

India is ranked 140th out of 156 countries, and plummeted 28 spots as per the four key benchmark indicators used: Economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment, to study the gender gaps over time. The rankings of our neighbours -- Bangladesh (65), Nepal (106), China (107) and Sri Lanka (116) -- show an improved status of women in those countries.

The growing gender disparity in India is not shocking; the country has a chequered history of gender prejudice and its perpetuation. One more reason to blame for the growing disparity is the Covid-19. Of course, women are the hardest hit by the lockdown of the informal sector. But pointing the finger at the pandemic is mere escapism from the reality of historical injustice meted out to the women in India.

India’s polity and economy will never become equitable to achieve gender parity in politics and workforce. An improvement in social sectors like health and education among women is still a distant dream in rural India. The country lives in the ethos of ancient history of denying basic rights to women. Being a democracy with equality of opportunity in both politics and economy, India has so far closed 62.5% of its gender gap. Iceland leads the pack with 89.2%, whereas the global average gender parity is about 68%, and it requires 135.6 years to close the gender gap worldwide.

The highest gender gap is found in the political empowerment of women -- the world average of women representation in parliament and among ministers is 26.1% and 22.6%, respectively. Evidently, political empowerment of women or leadership role of women in politics is highly dismal in India. Their representation in Parliament is 14.4% and their share among ministers is 9.1%, which is depressingly below the world average.

The second-highest gender gap is witnessed in economic participation and opportunity. So far, 58% of the gap has been closed and it will take a considerable 267.6 years to bridge the entire gap. The rate of women’s labour force participation has fallen from 24.8% to 22.3% and their earned income is only one-fifth of men’s. The fall in India’s rankings is also due to the poor labour participation rate; India stands at 151 among the 156 countries in economic opportunity and participation. Research studies have also found that despite higher educational attainment of women in recent years, their labour force participation is low. Wage inequality is also high among men and women. India’s ranking in educational attainment indicator is 114. And in the case of health and survival indicators, shockingly, China is ranked 156 and India 155. This is due to the fact that one-third of women are illiterate (34.2%) compared to their male counterparts (17.6%).

Gender policy

The gender approach policy needs a drastic change to brush off the dust of obscurity in the economic contribution of women towards nation’s development. The fundamental problem lies in the failure of the government's approach in accounting for women's contribution. The Human Development Report, 1995, observes that "men received the lion’s share of income and recognition for their economic contribution while most women’s work remains unpaid, unrecognised and undervalued." The contribution of women to household production and economy is immense, besides market economy. The total economic value added to the GDP by household production is not appropriately accounted to recognise the contribution of women. The economic activities of women in household production in food security and family welfare -- in terms of hours spent grocery shopping, cooking, laundry, ironing, caring for kids and elders -- are equally labour force participation. In the poor households of rural India, women work more hours than men in fetching water and fuelwood, cattle-rearing and farm activities. Women, whether employed or not, continue to do household economic activities as visualised in the Malayalam movie 'The Great Indian Kitchen'.

This shows that women’s work in household and subsistence agriculture is not accounted for. The measurement of household economy -- women’s unpaid work, gender division of labour, and the care economy -- aptly recognises the contribution of women in economic development. The hours of work done outside the money economy is equivalent to 50% of the GDP of India and it is the driving force of the market economy.

Gender disparity and discrimination against women is highly prevalent in the Indian society. A majority of women in India do not enjoy equality in economic participation employment, access to land and financial resources. A gender policy approach is required for the economic empowerment of women, which is key to achieving gender equality. Economic empowerment of women helps in a fairer distribution of benefits of growth, especially the share of income, employment and economic resources. Reducing gender inequality requires a more accurate measurement of women's contribution in economic development in the System of National Accounts. Affirmative actions like early enactment of reservation in Parliament and state assemblies ensure political empowerment of women and in building human capabilities and realising gender equality. Both economic and political empowerment of women goes a long way in bridging the gender gap and improving India’s ranking.

(The writer is professor, Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bengaluru)