Huge gender gap in the workforce is troubling
A recent country assessment by the World Bank states that with a 1.2 billion population and as the world's fourth largest economy, India's growth and development has been “one of the most significant achievements of our times.” It goes on to hail India as an “agricultural powerhouse” that can boast of increased life expectancy, higher literacy rates, and a robust middle class; an India with a growing voice in the international stage in keeping with its size and potential. While the study encourages hope that with its youngest workforce in the world India is an emergent economic powerhouse, what must make our policy makers pause and reflect upon are the shocking gender inequities that could well prevent India from achieving the heights many economic studies project. At 53 per cent, India has the dubious distinction of posting one of the worst gender gap statistics in the world, worse than other Asian countries like Indonesia.
As per World Bank estimates, if the participation rate of women were to match that of men, approximately 217 million women would join India's work force. According to International Monetary Fund chief Christine lagarde the participation of this 217 million strong work force could well boost India's economic output by a whopping 27 per cent. The question then is what explains this shocking lack of women's representation in India's growth storyIJ It is indeed a matter of shame that India ranks lower than traditionally patriarchal societies like Qatar and Saudi Arabia in the United Nations Gender Inequality Index.
Admittedly, there have been impressive pockets of revolutionary initiatives and breakthroughs in India's rural heartland that have resulted in financial empowerment, self-reliance and political voice for women at the grassroots level. These success stories are largely a factor of India's traditional agricultural structure that has had women work alongside men as close partners in the rural economic structure. Also, women have fared better in largely matriarchal societies like in India's North-East but these contribute only marginally to the statistics. Ironically, gender inequity is the worst in India's literate semi-urban and urban centres where women must contend with a chronic gender bias that education alone has not been able to neutralise.
Stories of gender crimes, sexist biases and sexual harassment emanate in a routine and alarming fashion from urban centres where literacy may have empowered and indeed fuelled women's desire to walk alongside men but where decadent social mindsets have prevented them from being accepted as legitimate and rightful partners in India's growth and development. To that end, it is not enough to pay lip service to gender participation in terms of numbers. For that participation to be complete, gender sensitisation must be taken up in earnest by employers at all levels to ensure that once employed women also enjoy a safe and healthy work environment. Failure to do so could well make gender inequity the biggest obstacle in India's race to economic success.