India’s Gender Conundrum: We’ve Slipped 21 Spots, What’s Next?

The Gender Gap Report does not paint a pretty picture for India which has slipped 21 slots to 108 in the rankings.

The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report that benchmarks 144 countries on their progress towards gender parity was released earlier this month. The Report does not paint a pretty picture for India which has slipped 21 slots to the 108th position in the rankings.

There is no disputing the fact that gender inequity has been one of the most intractable challenges facing the country. But India is not alone. The global scenario is rather grim too, with the Report estimating that it could take nearly 100 years for the overall gender gap to be bridged.

So, what can we do to change this situation?

First and foremost, amidst all the depressing news, it is important to note that India has made considerable progress in a number of areas pertaining to the status of women in the country.

How is India Placed in Terms of Gender Equity?

The National Family Health Survey-4 revealed that the population of females aged 6 years and above who had ever attended school increased to 68.8% in 2015-16 from 47.4% in 2005-06. During the same period, the percentage of women between the ages of 20-24 who were married before the age of 18 years declined from 47.4% to 26.8%. This, perhaps, was also an important contributing factor to the reduction in the Total Fertility Rate from 2.7 in 2005-06 to 2.2 in 2015-16.

There has been some notable progress with respect to women’s health as well. The percentage of institutional deliveries increased significantly from 38.7% in 2005-06 to 78.9% in 2015-16. Women who had a Body Mass Index below normal reduced to 22.9% in 2015-16 from 35.5% in 2005-06.

Overall, a number of indicators that reflect the position of women in Indian society also seem to have moved in the right direction. For instance, 84% of currently married women usually participated in household decisions in 2015-16 – an increase from 76.5% in 2005-06. Nearly 53% of women had a bank or savings account that they used themselves, compared to merely 15.1% in 2005-06. Further, the number of ever-married women who had experienced spousal violence declined from 37.2% in 2005-06 to 28.8% in 2015-16.

Of course, given the size and complexity of India, there are considerable inter-state and rural-urban disparities as far as these indicators are concerned. In this context, efforts such as the development of the Gender Vulnerability Index by the NGO, Plan India, are noteworthy. The findings of the Index which ranks states on four crucial parameters – health, education, poverty and protection from violence – were released earlier this month.

The NITI Aayog in its 3-year Action Agenda has also emphasised the need for generating gender-disaggregated data and developing a Women’s Well-being Index.

The government is implementing several initiatives that have the potential to accelerate the rate of progress towards achieving gender equity. Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao, a flagship programme of the government is not only aiming to enhance the efficiency of welfare services meant for girls but also catalysing a mindset change. The latter, of course, is not easy to accomplish in a short span of time and necessitates efforts on the part of each and every citizen of the country.

A study on Gender and Livelihood Impacts of Clean Cook Stoves in South Asia estimated that nearly 374 hours are spent by Indian women every year on collecting firewood.

To enable women to devote more time to education or productive work, the government launched the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana which provides clean cooking fuel in the form of Liquefied Petroleum Gas connections. Similarly, the absence of toilets at home affects women disproportionately. In this context, the laudable progress made under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan assumes particular significance.

The Need to Develop Public-Private-Personal Partnerships

As far as nutrition is concerned, a comprehensive set of measures – including those that will specifically address the challenges of anaemia and other forms of malnutrition in women, is proposed in the National Nutrition Strategy launched by the NITI Aayog in September. A maternity benefit programme, the Pradhan Mantri Matritva Vandana Yojana, has also been formally launched and will be implemented in all the districts of the country. The progress of the scheme will be monitored closely by the NITI Aayog.

Some other developments, while often dismissed by critics as inadequate, are also worthy of being mentioned on account of their signalling value. For instance, the ‘Selfie with Daughters’ Campaign which began in a small village in Haryana and was subsequently promoted by India’s Prime Minister. Similarly noteworthy is the Cabinet Committee on Security which – for the first time in the history of India – includes two women.

Having said this, do we need to accelerate the rate of progress towards becoming a gender equal society? Should we be intolerant of every single instance of gender related injustice? Should gender equity be at the centre stage of India’s development agenda? The answer to these questions is an unequivocal YES.

However, in order to accomplish this, government action alone will not suffice. The public, private and personal sectors, all need to pull together. For instance, the private sector has a crucial role to play in tackling the problem of India’s declining female labour force participation. Currently, women are grossly under-represented in top-level leadership roles in the private sector. Less than 4% of companies on the BSE 500 have women CEOs.

There is no magic bullet for bridging the gender gap – especially because the challenges keep evolving.

For the longest time, reducing maternal mortality was a key goal in women’s health in India. While it remains so even today, we now have a rising incidence of cervical cancer to also contend with.

While we are achieving some success in addressing the problem of below normal Body Mass Index among women, the numbers of those who are overweight or obese are increasing.

The only way to move the gender equity agenda forward in such a complex scenario is through Public-Private-Personal partnerships, acknowledging successes alongside highlighting the challenges and replicating good practices from within the country, as well as globally.

Disclaimer: The views and analysis expressed in the article are personally those of the author. They do not reflect the views of NITI Aayog. NITI Aayog does not guarantee the accuracy of data included in the publication nor does it accept any responsibility for the consequences of its use.

(The writer is a public health specialist who is working with the office of the vice chairman at NITI Aayog. She is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper.)