Women still continue to get a raw deal in India
India's poor performance on the gender gap index, tabulated by the World Economic Forum, is yet another reminder of how the other half of this country is still treated unfairly and unequally. The Constitution may give men and women equal rights, but clearly the latter are not quite equal citizens, with gaping differences in access to economic opportunities, education and healthcare. Of course, none of this is news and some may even shrug off the report as yet another international rating in which India is scraping the bottom of the barrel. However, the fact that this country has actually dropped as many as 13 spots — from 101 to 114 out of 142 countries — on the WEF's gender gap index since last year, is a matter of grave concern. Of late, smug in the belief that India is on the path to social progress, there has been a tendency to just ignore such ratings.
The drop in the country's already low rankings shows that there is no place for complacency. Sure, in the six decades since independence, India has travelled a long distance and made admirable progress, but that does not change the fact that we still have a long way to go before we can call ourselves an equitable society. According to the WEF's ranking, India is one of the 20 worst-performing countries when it comes to sex ratio at birth, literacy rate, labour force participation and estimated earned income. In fact, in matters of health and survival, India is at the second-lowest rank, above Armenia. The labour force participation ratio is just as abysmal at 0.36, and only complemented by an equally shameful difference in estimated earned income. Women earn only $1,980 compared to the $8,087 made by their male counterparts; they make up for only a fraction of the labour force especially in the research and development sectors and owned a minuscule number of businesses. Compared to men, the women also spent more than 300 minutes each day on unpaid world. The education sub-index offered slightly better results but even then female to male literacy ratio was as low as 0.68. The only bright spot here is seen on the political empowerment sub-index wherein India ranks in the top 20. The study found that women leaders in India, including those at the village level, performed better than their male counterparts, despite usually being less educated and having limited experience. They were also able to secure more resources for their constituencies and deliver better governance.
Notably, India's gender gap has widened at a time when most other countries have improved their performance, and those near the top of the list — primarily the Nordic countries — are about to close the gap. Closer home, even Bangladesh, which has established an envious record of women's empowerment in recent years, has continued to make significant progress. Neighbouring Nepal too, despite its continued political instability, besides other limiting factors, has scored better than India.