India lags in gender equality race

Jalees Andrabi, Foreign Correspondent

• Last Updated: November 23. 2009 9:55PM UAE / November 23. 2009 5:55PM GMT

NEW DELHI // India might have reason to boast about its booming economy, but it is lagging far behind its neighbours when it comes to gender equality, according to the annual report of the World Economic Forum (WEF), which has ranked India 114 out of 134 countries and raises serious questions about its impact on economic growth.

The report assesses countries on indexes that measure how well resources and life opportunities are distributed between men and women.

The sub-indexes the report used for assessing the gender gap are access to education, economic participation, health and political empowerment.

Although political participation of women has increased considerably in India, the other major indicators reveal little progress, which has kept the country behind China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal in terms of gender equality.

In 2008 India was ranked 113th in global gender equality, suggesting that conditions for women have worsened rather than improved over the past year despite the fact that the economy grew at the rate of around 8 per cent.

“Women, as half of the human capital of India, will need to be more efficiently integrated into the economy in order to boost India’s long-term competitive potential,” said Saadia Zahidi, the co-author of the WEF’s 2009 report and the head of its Women Leaders and Gender Parity Programme.

According to the report, India has failed most glaringly to close the gender gap in health and life expectancy.

The report states that 300 women die every day during childbirth or of pregnancy-related complications.

Female infanticide is rampant in India, which has global implications.

The country has skewed the world’s sex ratio and the UN estimates 48 million girls have gone “missing” in India. Female foetuses are either aborted or murdered immediately after birth. “Female foeticide is so rampant in the country that we seldom think of their economic or educational rights.

“The gender gap in health delivery systems is also abyssal. Women have to walk miles on foot to get maternity care in rural areas,” said Malini Bhasin, a Delhi-based women’s rights activist.

Violence against women has also increased significantly. According to official figures in 2007, 185,312 cases of violence against women were reported, which include dowry deaths, suicides related to dowry, cruelty by in-laws, rape and molestation.

But female activists contest the figures, claiming they represent only 20 per cent of the actual cases.

“The rate of crimes against women reflects the condition of women in India. The situation can be gauged by the fact that in 2007, 524 women were raped in the national capital New Delhi alone.

“If that’s the urban India, what about the rural India where media and administration don’t exist?” Ms Bhasin said. Reported rapes are thought to represent only a fraction of the total number.

Gender discrimination in education has a greater prevalence in India than its neighbours.

The WEF report ranked India 121st in terms of the education gap between genders.

Deep-rooted prejudices against female children, low enrolment of girls in school, child labour, high dropout rates for girls and poor infrastructure were said to be the main factors.

According to the last official census in 2001, the male literacy rate was 75 per cent, compared to 53 per cent for females. Close to 245 million women lack the basic capability to read and write according to the WEF report.

Perhaps most troubling for Indian economists and politicians is that the country was ranked even closer to the bottom in economic participation and opportunity for women, at 127th. Only 36 per cent of women, compared to 85 per cent of men, were in the workforce. Women made up only 3 per cent of senior officers and managerial positions.

Experts say gender inequality is harming the prospect of continued rapid economic growth.

Chanda Kochchar, the managing director of ICICI Bank, said the labour potential of women could greatly add to the economic strength of India.

“If the ratio of working women goes up to 50 per cent in next 20 years, we will be adding 0.5 per cent to our GDP every year,” he said.

Even India’s growing corporate sector has not been able to overcome gender inequality.

Women constituted only 40 per cent of the corporate workforce in the private companies surveyed by the WEF, with the majority of them working at entry and mid-level positions.

The survey found a major difference between the average salaries offered to men and women in corporate India.

While the estimated average annual income for women was US$1,885 (Dh6,900), for men it was $3,698.

“We surveyed some of the biggest companies in India and there is a need for integration of both the genders. Indian companies will need to set targets, improve policies to close salary gaps and promote work-life balance,” said Ms Zahidi.

However, India has shown greater participation of women in its political affairs. India ranks 24th, remarkably high in the political empowerment index, a result of a record number of female politicians having been elected to the current parliament and mandatory reservations for female representatives in village councils.

Activists for women’s rights say that people’s cultural dogmas have to be altered before the genders can become more equal.

“We have been shaped and moulded by centuries-old patriarchal beliefs and a family system where the man is the equivalent of God.

“ The feeling of inferiority has been embedded in the psyche of women,” says Ruchika Sareen, the director of the Women’s Initiative, a Delhi-based women advocacy group.


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