Santosh Kumar Mohapatra
Equal rights for men and women is a fundamental principle in the United Nations Charter, and it was adopted in 1945 by world leaders. Women’s rights in particular include the right to live free from violence, slavery, discrimination and privileges to be educated, own property, vote and earn a fair and equal wage. Yet almost everywhere around the world, women and girls are still denied these, often simply because of their gender.
A global consensus has emerged that despite progress, real change has been excruciatingly slow for the majority of women and girls in the world. Today, not a single country can claim to have achieved gender equality. Numerous impediments remain unchanged in law and in culture.
Gender equality is achieved when women and men enjoy the same rights and opportunities across all sectors of society, including economic participation and decision-making, and when the different behaviours, aspirations and needs of women and men are equally valued and favoured.
But, women and girls continue to be undervalued; they work more and earn less and have fewer choices; and experience various forms of violence at home and in public spaces. Furthermore, there is a significant threat of rollback of hard-won feminist gains.
India ranked abysmally at 95 among 129 countries in latest global gender equality index that measures global gender equality under aspects such as poverty, health, education, literacy, political representation and equality at workplaces.
Gender gap or inequality is also measured by WEF’s Gender Gap Index across four key pillars — economic opportunity, political empowerment, educational attainment, and health and survival. According to Gender Gap Index 2019-20, world has to wait around 99.5 years to close the gender gap. In case of India, though, two-thirds of its overall gender gap has been closed and it will take another 100 years to achieve gender parity.
India has slipped from rank 108 to rank 112 among 153 economies. India ranked lower than many of its international peers, and neighbours such as China (106), Sri Lanka (102), Nepal (101), Brazil (92), Indonesia (85) and Bangladesh (50). In 2017, India slipped 21 places on the Gender Gap Index from 87 to 108 and held the position in 2018. The country is now ranked among the last five in terms of women’s health and survival, and economic participation. India is the only country in which economic gender gap is larger than political gender gap.
Women continue to be significantly underrepresented in the highest political positions. According to Inter-Parliamentary Union, as of January 1, 2020, political representation of women globally has doubled over the last 25 years. But, this only amounts to about one in four parliamentary (24.9 per cent) seats held by women. In India, women make up only 14.4 per cent of the parliament (122nd position among 153 countries) and 23 per cent of the cabinet (69th position).
Around the world, women find it tougher to find a job than men. Women tend to work in low-quality jobs in vulnerable conditions, and have little improvement forecast for the future. The current global labour force participation rate for women is about 49 per cent. For men, it is 75 per cent. India’s workforce is masculinising rapidly. Just nine world nations, including Syria and Iraq, now have fewer working women than India. Female labour force participation in India has fallen to 26 per cent in 2018 from 36.7 per cent in 2005, amid lack of access to quality education and underlying social and economic barriers limiting opportunities for women.
The latest Monster Salary Index survey shows that women in India earn 19 per cent less than men, reflecting the high gender pay gap in the country. The gap has narrowed by only 1 per cent in 2018 from 20 per cent a year back. Vulnerable employment is widespread for both women and men; women tend to be overrepresented in certain types of vulnerable jobs. Several people still believe woman having paid jobs outside homes is unacceptable. Many reported that their immediate family disapproved of their decisions to take up employment.
One in three women and girls worldwide experiences physical or sexual violence in her lifetime, most frequently by an intimate partner. In India, the situation is more precarious. According to data released by the NCRB for 2018, close to 3.78 lakh crimes against women were recorded in 2018, up from 3.59 lakh in 2017. Domestic violence against women is the top gender-related crime. In all, 89,097 crimes against women were registered across India in 2018 as against 86,001 cases in 2017. Despite campaigns such as ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’, the crime rate per lakh women increased to 58.8 in 2018 compared with 57.9 in 2017.
Of the total number of crimes under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) registered against women, the majority fell under “cruelty by husband or his relatives” at 31.9 per cent. This was followed by “assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty” at 27.6 per cent. Cases of “kidnapping and abduction of women” stood at 22.5 per cent and rape cases comprised 10.3 per cent of the overall crime figures. While such cases have risen over the years, the case disposal rate has remained poor and that of courts worsened in recent years. It is disquieting that 99 per cent of sexual violence cases
go unreported.
Strong preference for the male child has blighted the country’s gender ratio and squeezed resources available to the girl child. As pointed out in an economic survey, there are 21 million “unwanted women” in the country today.
Guaranteeing that women have access to this right is important in itself. Gender equality is essential for economies and communities to thrive. A gender equal world can be healthier, wealthier and more harmonious. Achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls by 2030 is a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of the United Nations.
International Women’s Day (March 8) will celebrate social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action to accelerate women’s equality. In her statement for International Women’s Day, UN Woman Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka highlighted 2020 as the year for gender equality and called upon everyone to tackle the persistent barriers against gender equality.
That is why, the theme for International Women’s Day 2020 is, ‘I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights’. The Generation Equality campaign is bringing together people of every gender, age, ethnicity, race, religion and country, to drive actions that will create the gender-equal world. Similarly, the campaign theme is #EachforEqual which means to build a gender equal world.
The writer is an Odisha-based economist. Views expressed are personal. e-Mail: skmohapatra67@gmail.com.