PRICE INDIA PAYS FOR GENDER INEQUALITY

India is a vast country both in terms of natural resources and human resources. To make it a world power, the first step should be to strengthen the citizens in terms of knowledge and their ability to earn.

As a country, we pay a huge price for the inequalities that are still consistent in our society based on gender, religion, caste, and creed.

I would like to address the issue of the costs, India as a country pays for the gender inequality present. According to the World Economic Forum, India ranks 108 in Global Gender Gap index slipping down by 21 positions in 2017. Its rating is 10 notches down than in 2006 when the WEF first started calculating this index. Women are generally considered the weaker sex. There are both evident and hidden indicators of this inequality against women. Their low social status in quite evident in the rural parts of the country but it persists even in the urban area.

The equality is just not our birthright but it also has some economic and political cost attached to it. According to an article in “The Atlantic”, India is losing around 4% of annual growth over the past decade just because of the presence of this inequality. “It's not possible for India to become a global economic power if half of its population is ignored, and not given more economic opportunities,” says Shipra Dawar, founder of ePsyclinic, an online clinic for mental health. “Government and businesses have to join hands to make women a key in India’s growth story.”

According to World Bank data, Ratio of female to male labor force participation rate (%) has gone down to 35 in 2017 from 42 in 1990.

This low participation is due to many reasons starting from the birth of a female child. Foremost is the issue of female foeticide, where the girl child is killed in the womb. Although it is illegal in India to even check the gender of the fetus, due to improper implementation of the law and the patriarchal nature of our society, it still happens at a horrifying rate. Inappropriate parenthood persists even after birth, from inproper healthcare resulting in malnourishment, stunting and a number of health issues to lack of education opportunities. Not only does it affect their childhood but also their adulthood making them prone to numerous chronic diseases as they grow old, with an adverse impact on their working abilities.  

This picture is even worse in the rural area where the literacy rate is lower than the countries average of 75%. It was found in the rural areas; nearly 4.5 percent of males and 2.2 percent of females completed education level of graduation and above, while in urban areas 17 percent of males and 13 percent of females completed this level of education. The discrimination doesn’t end here. Even if women enter the labor market, there’s a huge gap in the pay of men and women for the same work profile.

In 2011, the average age of marriage of women in India was 19 years. Most of the women are underweight at the time of childbirth resulting in high infant mortality rates and maternal mortality rates.

The crimes against women are on the rise. In a society like India where women are worshipped as goddesses, it shows the hypocritical side. There’s not a single day when the newspapers or other media platforms aren’t showing at least one incident of heinous crimes like rape, honor killing, dowry-related deaths and acid attacks. It leads to the even lower preference of the female child.

If India as an economy wants to achieve the potential GDP target it needs to address this issue as a priority. A large number of researchers have pointed out a positive relationship between the gender equality and economic development. As per the Mckinsey global institute, India can increase its GDP between 16%-60% if the women of the country are enabled to work at par with men. India can achieve 90% of its potential GDP growth by bridging the gap.

It’s true that our constitution provides women equal rights and opportunities and there are several laws to ensure so, but reality shows a completely different picture.

We need to start from the root cause of this issue that is the mentality of considering women as subordinate and it’s just not the men who need to change. Women also need to stop accepting it as their fate and that it’s the law of nature. Gender is a social construct and to grow as a society we need to rise above it. Secondly, we need to improve the quality of education to inculcate a sense of equality in the mind of young children; both men and women. We need to provide better healthcare facilities and make the laws stricter for combating the issues like female foeticide and other heinous crimes against women. It’s high time to make the environment safer for women whether it’s the streets or the workplaces so that more women are able to enter the workforce and the restraints by the families for working are curtailed. The labor market also needs to improve in India, in order to be friendlier to its women participants. An attitudinal shift toward women is required to uplift their stature in the society as with their growth the country will grow.

–Chhavi Mittal, Year III