India’s gender gap is best bridged by improving ease of doing business for women and increasing their political empowerment.
What does the report say?
According to the McKinsey Global Institute, India’s economy could earn an additional $700 billion to $2.9 trillion by 2025 by enabling its women to participate in the economy on par with men.
But India’s ranking in the recently released World Economic Forum’s 2018 Gender Gap Index remained stuck on 108th position for the second year in a row.
Also, we ranked lower than last year on the ‘Economic Participation of women in the economy’ and ‘Political Empowerment’ parameters within the index.
However, there are a bunch of opportunities that the government can leverage to improve India’s rankings and bridge some part of the 33% gender gap.
This will require raising the political commitment on the issue significantly, building a strong public-private partnership and initiating government actions on a war-footing.
What should be done?
Increase women’s representation in Parliament – At present in India, the proportion of women in Parliament is 12% and women in ministerial positions is 19%.
Women legislators are needed because they are likely to advocate changes that promote women.
Also, according to UN University, they have also proven to improve the economic performance of their constituencies 1.8% more than male legislatures.
Hence, the Women’s Reservation Bill should be immediately passed by the Lok Sabha.
Also, the parties can voluntarily reserve quotas for women when drawing up their list of candidates.
According to the World Atlas of Gender Quotas, such voluntary quotas have proved to be the single most effective tool for ‘fast-tracking’ women’s representation in elected bodies of government.
Implement pending policy actions - Implementing the proposed national programme for crèche and day-care facilities will make subsidised day-care options available to working mothers.
Evidence shows that a 50% reduction in the cost of childcare increases the labour supply of young mothers by 6.5-10% (IMF).
Also, paid paternity leave can be mandated by either passing the proposed Paternity Bill or amending the Maternity Act to split the existing 26-week paid maternity leave into maternity and paternity or family leave.
This will ensure that women are not the sole “cost-burden” on employers.
The government could also bring in further policy reforms by taking inspiration from recent policy initiatives by other countries.
For example, Malaysia’s tax-incentive given for women re-joining the workforce after a break, France’s fine on companies that underpay women, or Tunisia’s domestic violence law that protects women from abuse and bans harassment in public could be emulated.
Improvements in Ease of Doing Business - An engendered approach to improve the ease of doing business should be made by addressing specific problems of women entrepreneurs.
For instance, since several female-run businesses are in the informal sector and lack access to information.
Hence, the government will need to run strategic media campaigns to educate business women about information sources and answer frequently-asked questions.
Also, dedicated women’s help desks at the relevant government departments can help in addressing complaints.
Additionally, the mindset barriers that women face should be addressed by conducting gender sensitivity training programmes for government and banking officials.
