What is the issue?
- The country and society focus more on educating girls.
- Little has been done on helping them become financially independent and productive members of the country’s workforce.
What are the recent findings?
- The National Sample Survey 2014-15 found that for every 100 men enrolled in higher education (college and above) there were only 85 women.
- National Family Health Survey 2015-16 shows that the proportion of working women, who were paid for their work, has fallen four percentage points over the past decade.
- Another research reported that over 60 per cent of households in India had only one wage earner each.
- The numbers have highlighted the idea of "overqualified Indian housewives"
What are the prevailing attitudes in Indian society?
- Fatherly duties to a daughter don’t go beyond educating her.
- Women's careers depend on the requirements of the families they marry into.
- Once she becomes a mother, she will have to give up working.
- The onus of taking care of a child entirely lies on the mother.
What is the way forward?
- Government’s schemes like the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (Save girl child, educate girl child) should be implemented taking into consideration the societal attitudes.
- Paternity leaves should be provided on par with maternity leaves to enable and ensure that both the sexes participate in child care.
- The society has come a long way from confining women at homes to educating them.
- However, there's still a long way to go beyond education and embrace women's choices, goals, careers, aspirations, independence, etc.
- Limiting them with familial and child birth responsibilities should be changed with growth of the society.
Source: Business Standard
