What does the data Say
48% of India’s population is women. Unfortunately, we call women as part of the minority community. This, despite the huge talent gap in our workforce, which continues to plague the growth of our economy.
India ranks 87 out of 144 in the WEF Gender Gap report 2016, a definite improvement from its 108 positions in 2015. Amongst the four pillars of the economy, education, health and political representation based on which gender gap is measured, female participation in primary and secondary education has significantly improved. India still ranks a dismal 136 on economic participation and opportunity out of 144 countries, coming in at 135th for labor force participation and 137th for estimated earned income.
It’s a cause for concern, women participation in the labor force has dropped from 42.7 percent in 2004-05 to 31.2 in 2011-12.
We may hence conclude, India has progressed in getting an education for the girls but hasn’t been able to remove the barriers to their participation in the labor force. This is true both for urban as well as the rural population
Does India stand to gain by pursuing gender equality
Achieving gender equality will add $12 trillion could be added to the world GDP by 2015. India stands to gain the most with larger economic impact there than in any other region in the world—$700 billion of added GDP in 2025
The economic and social reasons are clear. Even on the moral grounds, economic empowerment for women means fewer female foeticide, better education for women, fewer dowry deaths, reduced mortality amongst children below 5 years of age.
References
- http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—asia/—ro-bangkok/—sro-new_delhi/documents/publication/wcms_496510.pdf
- https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-global-gender-gap-report-2016
- http://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/employment-and-growth/how-advancing-womens-equality-can-add-12-trillion-to-global-growth
