Indian Science Congress
Background :-PM’s inaugurates 103rd session of Indian Science Congress
Important Remarks:-
In a world of resource constraints and competing claims, we have to be smart in defining our priorities. And, it is especially important in India, where challenges are many and the scale is enormous – from health and hunger to energy and economy.
India to achieve our target of adding 175 GW of renewable generation by 2022.
We have to develop climate resilient agriculture. We must understand the impact of climate change on our weather, biodiversity, glaciers, and oceans; and, how to adjust to them. We must strengthen our ability to forecast natural disasters.
For the first time in human history, we are in an urban century. By the middle of this century, two-thirds of the world’s population will live in cities. A little less than 3.0 billion people will join the existing 3.5 billion urban dwellers. And, 90% of the increase will come from developing countries.
Many urban clusters in Asia will exceed the population of mid-sized countries elsewhere in the world.
More than 50% of India will be living in urban habitats by 2050. And, by 2025, India may already have more than 10% of the global urban population.
Studies suggest that nearly 40% of the global urban population lives in informal settlements, or slums, where they face a range of health and nutritional challenges.
Cities are the major engines of economic growth, employment opportunities and prosperity. But, cities account for more than two-thirds of global energy demand and result in up to 80% of global greenhouse gas emission.
Oceans occupy more than 70% of our planet; and, over 40% of humanity and 60% of the world’s largest cities are found within 100 kilometers of the coast.
Ocean is critical to India’s future, too, with over 1300 islands, a 7500 km coastline and 2.4 million square kilometers of Exclusive Economic Zone.
Five Es
Economy – when we find cost effective and efficient solutions
Environment – when our carbon footprint is the lightest and the impact on the ecology is the least possible
Energy – when our prosperity relies less on energy; and the energy we use keeps our skies blue and our earth green.
Empathy – when our efforts are in tune with our culture, circumstances and social challenges.
Equity – when science advances inclusive development and improves the welfare of the weakest.
Indian Science Congress Association:-
The Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) owes its origin to the foresight and initiative of two British Chemists, namely, Professor J. L. Simonsen and Professor P.S. MacMahon.
Indian Science through Ages-Comprehensive outlook
Prelude- This article is not meant to be remembered fully, however , if you go through it , it will help if any questions comes in this regard which we think is very likely .This gives a general perspective on how the Indian science has progressed.The dates are given to help you develop a map in mind and associate it chronologically without necessarily remembering the dates.
Ancient India:-
Astronomy:-
- Arya Bhatta’s Aryabhattiya is concise text containing 121 verses. Explained Sonar and Lunar eclipse.
- Varahamihira in Panch Siddhantika gives the summary of five schools of astronomy present in his time
Mathematics:-
- The town planning of Harappa shows that the people possessed a good knowledge of measurement and geometry. By third century AD mathematics developed as a separate stream of study. Indian mathematics is supposed to have originated from the Sulvasutras.
- Apastamba in second century BC, introduced practical geometry involving acute angle, obtuse angle and right angle. This knowledge helped in the construction of fire altars where the kings offered sacrifices
- The three main contributions in the field of mathematics were the notation system, the decimal system and the use of zero
- Brahmagupta’s Brahmasputa Siddhanta is the very first book that mentioned ‘zero’ as a number, hence, Brahmagupta is
considered as the man who found zero - Aryabhatta discovered algebra and also formulated the area of a triangle, which led to the origin of Trignometry.
- Brahmagupta the great 7th century mathematician has given a description of negative numbers as debts and positive numbers as fortunes, which shows that ancient Bharatiyas knew the utility of mathematics for practical trade.
Medicine:-
- Diseases, cure and medicines were mentioned for the first time in the Atharva Veda.
- Takshila and Varanasi emerged as centres of medicine and learning.
- The two important texts in this field are Charaksamhita by Charak and Sushrutsamhita by Sushruta.
- Sushruta was a pioneer of this surgery.The surgeons in ancient India were familiar with plastic surgery (repair of noses, ears and lips).
Metallurgy:-
- The glazed potteries and bronze and copper artefacts found in the Indus valley excavations point towards a highly developed metallurgy.
- The vedic people were aware of fermenting grain and fruits, tanning leather and the process of dyeing.
- The iron pillar in the Qutub Minar complex is indicative of the high quality of alloying that was being done.
- Textile dyeing was popular. The Ajanta frescoes reflect on the quality of colour. These paintings have survived till date.
Geography:-
- Lothal, a site in Gujarat has the remains of a dockyard proving that trade flourished in those days by sea.
- In the early medieval period with the development of the concept of tirtha and tirtha yatra, a vast mass of geographical information was accumulated.
- They were finally compiled as parts of Puranas. In many cases separate sthala purana was also compiled.
Medieval India:-
Biology:-
- Hamsadeva compiled Mrga-pasi-sastra in the thirteenth century which gives a general, though not always scientific account of some of the beasts and birds of hunting.
- Jahangir, in his Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, recorded his observations and experiments of weeding and hybridisation. He described about thirty-six species of animals.
- As a naturalist, Jahangir was interested in the study of plants and his court artists in their floral portraiture describe some fifty-seven plants.
Mathematics:-
- Ganitasara by Sridhara and Lilavati by Bhaskara
- Ganesh Daivajna produced Buddhivilasini, a commentary on Lilavati, containing a number of illustrations.
- Nilkantha Jyotirvid, a courtier of Akbar, compiled Tajik, introducing a large number of Persian technical terms
- Akbar ordered the introduction of mathematics as a subject of study, among others in the educational system.
Chemistry:-
Before the introduction of writing paper, ancient literature was preserved generally on palm leaves in South India and birch-bark (bhoj-patra) in Kashmir and other northern regions of the country.
During Tipu’s time, Mysore possessed a paper-making factory, producing a special type of paper that had a gold surface.
Tuzuk-i–Baburi gives an account of the casting of cannons.
Ain-i-Akbari speaks of the ‘Regulations of the Perfume Office of Akbar’. The attar of roses was a popular perfume,
the discovery of which is attributed to the mother of Nurjahan.
Medicine:-
The Sarangdhara Samhita recommends use of opium for medicines.
The rasachikitsa system, dealt principally with a host of mineral medicines including metallic preparations
The Tuhfat-ul-Muminin was a Persian treatise written by Muhammad Munin in seventeenth century which discusses
the opinions of physicians.
The Unani is an important system of medicine which flourished in India in the medieval period
Hakim Diya Muhammad compiled a book, Majinye Diyae, incorporating the Arabic, Persian and Ayurvedic medical knowledge.
The Tibbi Aurangzebi, dedicated to Aurangzeb, is based on Ayurvedic sources
Agriculture:-
Tobacco, chillies, potato, guava, custard apple, cashew and pineapple were the important new plants which made India their home in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Systematic mango grafting was introduced by the Jesuits of Goa in the middle of the sixteenth century
In the medieval period, agriculture was placed on a solid foundation by the State which brought about a system of land measurement and land classification, beneficial both to the rulers and to the tillers.
Modern India:-
Science can be defined as any systematic activity that seeks to gain knowledge about the physical world. Technology is that activity which seeks to put this knowledge to productive use.
In 1971, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) was set up to promote new areas of science and technology
Agriculture:-
ICAR(Indian Council for Agricultural Research ) has been playing a key role in the scientific education of the farmers as well as
others engaged in different sectors of agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries and forestry.
The challenges that lie ahead in agriculture are in the areas of increasing the yields of rice,pulses, oilseeds and many cash crops; initiating plantations and promoting social forestry; and shifting from agriculture based on chemical fertilizers to organic fertilizers.
M.S. Swaminathan’s contribution to green revolution is well known.
Industry:-
Two government organisations, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Defence Research and Development
Orgnisation (DRDO) cover between them a wide range of science and technology research for civil and defence purposes.
A large number of items have emerged from CSIR laboratories for industrial production, such as, indigenous agricultural machinery, chemicals, drugs and pesticides, products in the areas of food technology, furnished leather goods, glass and
ceramics, colour television, and receiver sets.
Nuclear Energy-
India’s aim is to utilise nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Since the establishment of the Atomic Energy Commission in 1948, India has made significant progress in the field of nuclear technology
In 1957, the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) was established at Trombay.
Nuclear power stations have already been established at Tarapur(Maharashtra), Kota (Rajasthan), Kalpakkam (Tamil Nadu), Narora (UP) and Kakrapar(Gujarat)
Space Technology:-
Launching of the first Indian space satellite Aryabhatta in 1975 and then Bhaskara I and Bhaskara II from the Soviet Union to recent Mars Orbiter Mission and Chandrayaan, Indian space capability has grown multi-fold.
Apart from this the modern achievements in Science is countless and almost difficult to jot down every details.However it is important to note down few scientists and their achievement in Modern India.
SRINIVAS RAMANUJAN (1887-1920)
He found a book ‘Orders of Infinity’ written by G. H. Hardy. He wrote a letter to him in which he mentioned 120 theorems and formulae. Hardy was quick to recognise his genius and he responded by arranging for him a passage to London. Despite his lack of required qualification he was allowed to enroll at Trinity College from where he got his Bachelor of Science degree in less than two years.
He has published brilliant research papers on Bernoulli Numbers.
Trivia- A movie is being filmed on his life called – “The Man Who Knew Infinity” now
CHANDRASEKHARA V. RAMAN (1888-1970)
Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930.He was the first Asian to receive this award.
*Read Only in case you are interested :-
Raman Effect :- When a beam of monochromatic (having single colour) light passes through a transparent substance, it scatters. Raman studied the broken light. He found that there were two spectral lines of very low intensity (strength) parallel to the incident monochromatic light. This showed that broken light was not monochromatic, though the incident light was
monochromatic. Thus a great phenomenon hidden in nature was revealed to him. This phenomenon became famous as Raman Effect and spectral lines in the scattered light as Raman Lines. While scientists had been debating over the question whether light was like waves or like particles, the Raman Effect proved that light is made up of particles known as photons.
JAGDISH CHANDRA BOSE 1858-1937
Dr. Bose is famous all over the world as the inventor of Crescograph that can record even the millionth part of a millimeter of plant growth and movement.
Besides Crescograph and other Bose instruments, his wireless inventions too antedate those of Marconi. He was the first to invent a wireless coherer (radio signal detector) and an instrument for indicating the refraction of electric waves.
HOMI JEHANGIR BHABHA (1909-1966)
Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha was a great scientist. He led India into atomic age. He is called the father of Indian Nuclear Science
DR. VIKRAM AMBALAL SARABHAI (1919-1970)
Dr. Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai is another great genius of modem India. He was the main personality behind the launching of India’s first satellite Aryabhatta.
Dr. Sarabhai had a multifaceted personality. He was a great industrialist. Today, there are many industries founded by him such as Sarabhai Chemicals, Sarabhai Glass, Sarabhai Geigy Ltd., Sara Bhai Merck Ltd. and many others.
He also helped in saving crores of rupees for India by starting the mission of manufacturing military hardware and producing
antibiotics and penicillin in India which were being imported from abroad.
DR. A.P.J. ABDUL KALAM
Dr. Kalam served in Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) from 1963 to 1982. At Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, he developed the Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV 3), which put the satellite Rohini into orbit.
In 1982, as Director, Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO), he was given the responsibility of Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP). He developed five projects for defence services – Prithvi, Trishul, Akash,Nag and Agni.
The light weight carbon material designed for Agni has been used to make calipers for the polio-affected. The material has
reduced the weight of calipers to 400 grams from 4 kgs. It is a great blessing for human beings. The material has also been used for making spring like coils called stents, which are used in Balloon Angioplasty for treating heart patients.
C.N. Rao:-
Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao is one of the world’s foremost solid state and materials chemists.
*Read Only if you understand – Rao was one of the earliest to synthesize two-dimensional oxide materials such as La2CuO4. His work has led to a systematic study of compositionally controlled metal-insulator transitions. Such studies have had a profound impact in application fields such as colossal magneto resistance and high temperature superconductivity. Oxide semiconductors have unusual promise. He has made immense contributions to nanomaterials over the last two decades, besides his work on hybrid materials.
NATGRID
Background :- In the wake of recent terrorist attacks in Pathankot , Govt. is mulling to revive NATGRID.
About:-
According to the existing plan, NATGRID will become a secure centralised database to stream sensitive information from 21 sets of data sources such as banks, credit cards, visa, immigration and train and air travel details, as well as from various intelligence agencies. The database would be accessible to authorised persons from 11 agencies on a case-to-case basis, and only for professional investigations into suspected cases of terrorism
NATGRID was among the ambitious slew of intelligence reforms undertaken in the wake of the Mumbai attacks of November 2008. Like NATGRID, most of these proposed reforms in the security establishment have not fully materialised.
In a data-driven, digitised world, it would be foolhardy to ignore the power of big data and its potential to provide real time tip-offs and predictive intelligence to deal with the terrorist threat.
Social media and other platforms have become recruitment sites and propaganda machines for terrorist groups, and formal banking channels are used as much as informal ones to transact terror funding.
In those same oceans of information are trends and information that could avert terrorist strikes. However, appreciation of the power of digital databases to tackle terror must be accompanied by deep concern about their possible misuse.
Possible issues of Right to Privacy:-
When so much sensitive information about individuals is available on a single source, the potential for its misuse would dramatically go up.
The real issue lies in finding the real balance between the necessity of surveillance and right to privacy.India has seen both, tyranny of unelected and elected , and the length to which an individual can go to hold on to his/her powers.Hence , this calls for a greater caution .
The Aadhaar card is already under the scanner of the supreme court , which has kept it as a non-mandatory document.Moreover NETRA (NEtwork TRaffic Analysis) developed by DRDO is a monitoring system.
On the contrary, as much as we love our right to privacy it is undeniable that internet is used as a vehicle of terrorist propaganda ,coordination and recruitment.
Hence , to safe-guard the people, it almost became necessary on parts of the GOVT. to deploy mass surveillance system.
The most probable and best course of action would be to have an independent body/commission headed by a Supreme Court judge who should overlook the usage of data and how it is used and the commission’s recommendation and approval should be the only way for the security agency to use the data to carry out operation and persecution.
There also can be better alternative and in order to stop data abuse , independent authority seems a must.
Recent Posts
Steve Ovett, the famous British middle-distance athlete, won the 800-metres gold medal at the Moscow Olympics of 1980. Just a few days later, he was about to win a 5,000-metres race at London’s Crystal Palace. Known for his burst of acceleration on the home stretch, he had supreme confidence in his ability to out-sprint rivals. With the final 100 metres remaining,
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]Ovett waved to the crowd and raised a hand in triumph. But he had celebrated a bit too early. At the finishing line, Ireland’s John Treacy edged past Ovett. For those few moments, Ovett had lost his sense of reality and ignored the possibility of a negative event.
This analogy works well for the India story and our policy failures , including during the ongoing covid pandemic. While we have never been as well prepared or had significant successes in terms of growth stability as Ovett did in his illustrious running career, we tend to celebrate too early. Indeed, we have done so many times before.
It is as if we’re convinced that India is destined for greater heights, come what may, and so we never run through the finish line. Do we and our policymakers suffer from a collective optimism bias, which, as the Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman once wrote, “may well be the most significant of the cognitive biases”? The optimism bias arises from mistaken beliefs which form expectations that are better than the reality. It makes us underestimate chances of a negative outcome and ignore warnings repeatedly.
The Indian economy had a dream run for five years from 2003-04 to 2007-08, with an average annual growth rate of around 9%. Many believed that India was on its way to clocking consistent double-digit growth and comparisons with China were rife. It was conveniently overlooked that this output expansion had come mainly came from a few sectors: automobiles, telecom and business services.
Indians were made to believe that we could sprint without high-quality education, healthcare, infrastructure or banking sectors, which form the backbone of any stable economy. The plan was to build them as we went along, but then in the euphoria of short-term success, it got lost.
India’s exports of goods grew from $20 billion in 1990-91 to over $310 billion in 2019-20. Looking at these absolute figures it would seem as if India has arrived on the world stage. However, India’s share of global trade has moved up only marginally. Even now, the country accounts for less than 2% of the world’s goods exports.
More importantly, hidden behind this performance was the role played by one sector that should have never made it to India’s list of exports—refined petroleum. The share of refined petroleum exports in India’s goods exports increased from 1.4% in 1996-97 to over 18% in 2011-12.
An import-intensive sector with low labour intensity, exports of refined petroleum zoomed because of the then policy regime of a retail price ceiling on petroleum products in the domestic market. While we have done well in the export of services, our share is still less than 4% of world exports.
India seemed to emerge from the 2008 global financial crisis relatively unscathed. But, a temporary demand push had played a role in the revival—the incomes of many households, both rural and urban, had shot up. Fiscal stimulus to the rural economy and implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission scales had led to the salaries of around 20% of organized-sector employees jumping up. We celebrated, but once again, neither did we resolve the crisis brewing elsewhere in India’s banking sector, nor did we improve our capacity for healthcare or quality education.
Employment saw little economy-wide growth in our boom years. Manufacturing jobs, if anything, shrank. But we continued to celebrate. Youth flocked to low-productivity service-sector jobs, such as those in hotels and restaurants, security and other services. The dependence on such jobs on one hand and high-skilled services on the other was bound to make Indian society more unequal.
And then, there is agriculture, an elephant in the room. If and when farm-sector reforms get implemented, celebrations would once again be premature. The vast majority of India’s farmers have small plots of land, and though these farms are at least as productive as larger ones, net absolute incomes from small plots can only be meagre.
A further rise in farm productivity and consequent increase in supply, if not matched by a demand rise, especially with access to export markets, would result in downward pressure on market prices for farm produce and a further decline in the net incomes of small farmers.
We should learn from what John Treacy did right. He didn’t give up, and pushed for the finish line like it was his only chance at winning. Treacy had years of long-distance practice. The same goes for our economy. A long grind is required to build up its base before we can win and celebrate. And Ovett did not blame anyone for his loss. We play the blame game. Everyone else, right from China and the US to ‘greedy corporates’, seems to be responsible for our failures.
We have lowered absolute poverty levels and had technology-based successes like Aadhaar and digital access to public services. But there are no short cuts to good quality and adequate healthcare and education services. We must remain optimistic but stay firmly away from the optimism bias.
In the end, it is not about how we start, but how we finish. The disastrous second wave of covid and our inability to manage it is a ghastly reminder of this fact.
On March 31, the World Economic Forum (WEF) released its annual Gender Gap Report 2021. The Global Gender Gap report is an annual report released by the WEF. The gender gap is the difference between women and men as reflected in social, political, intellectual, cultural, or economic attainments or attitudes. The gap between men and women across health, education, politics, and economics widened for the first time since records began in 2006.
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]No need to remember all the data, only pick out few important ones to use in your answers.
The Global gender gap index aims to measure this gap in four key areas : health, education, economics, and politics. It surveys economies to measure gender disparity by collating and analyzing data that fall under four indices : economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.
The 2021 Global Gender Gap Index benchmarks 156 countries on their progress towards gender parity. The index aims to serve as a compass to track progress on relative gaps between women and men in health, education, economy, and politics.
Although no country has achieved full gender parity, the top two countries (Iceland and Finland) have closed at least 85% of their gap, and the remaining seven countries (Lithuania, Namibia, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Rwanda, and Ireland) have closed at least 80% of their gap. Geographically, the global top 10 continues to be dominated by Nordic countries, with —Iceland, Norway, Finland, and Sweden—in the top five.
The top 10 is completed by one country from Asia Pacific (New Zealand 4th), two Sub-Saharan countries (Namibia, 6th and Rwanda, 7th, one country from Eastern Europe (the new entrant to the top 10, Lithuania, 8th), and another two Western European countries (Ireland, 9th, and Switzerland, 10th, another country in the top-10 for the first time).There is a relatively equitable distribution of available income, resources, and opportunities for men and women in these countries. The tremendous gender gaps are identified primarily in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia.
Here, we can discuss the overall global gender gap scores across the index’s four main components : Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment.
The indicators of the four main components are
(1) Economic Participation and Opportunity:
o Labour force participation rate,
o wage equality for similar work,
o estimated earned income,
o Legislators, senior officials, and managers,
o Professional and technical workers.
(2) Educational Attainment:
o Literacy rate (%)
o Enrollment in primary education (%)
o Enrollment in secondary education (%)
o Enrollment in tertiary education (%).
(3) Health and Survival:
o Sex ratio at birth (%)
o Healthy life expectancy (years).
(4) Political Empowerment:
o Women in Parliament (%)
o Women in Ministerial positions (%)
o Years with a female head of State (last 50 years)
o The share of tenure years.
The objective is to shed light on which factors are driving the overall average decline in the global gender gap score. The analysis results show that this year’s decline is mainly caused by a reversal in performance on the Political Empowerment gap.
Global Trends and Outcomes:
– Globally, this year, i.e., 2021, the average distance completed to gender parity gap is 68% (This means that the remaining gender gap to close stands at 32%) a step back compared to 2020 (-0.6 percentage points). These figures are mainly driven by a decline in the performance of large countries. On its current trajectory, it will now take 135.6 years to close the gender gap worldwide.
– The gender gap in Political Empowerment remains the largest of the four gaps tracked, with only 22% closed to date, having further widened since the 2020 edition of the report by 2.4 percentage points. Across the 156 countries covered by the index, women represent only 26.1% of some 35,500 Parliament seats and 22.6% of over 3,400 Ministers worldwide. In 81 countries, there has never been a woman head of State as of January 15, 2021. At the current rate of progress, the World Economic Forum estimates that it will take 145.5 years to attain gender parity in politics.
– The gender gap in Economic Participation and Opportunity remains the second-largest of the four key gaps tracked by the index. According to this year’s index results, 58% of this gap has been closed so far. The gap has seen marginal improvement since the 2020 edition of the report, and as a result, we estimate that it will take another 267.6 years to close.
– Gender gaps in Educational Attainment and Health and Survival are nearly closed. In Educational Attainment, 95% of this gender gap has been closed globally, with 37 countries already attaining gender parity. However, the ‘last mile’ of progress is proceeding slowly. The index estimates that it will take another 14.2 years to close this gap on its current trajectory completely.
In Health and Survival, 96% of this gender gap has been closed, registering a marginal decline since last year (not due to COVID-19), and the time to close this gap remains undefined. For both education and health, while progress is higher than economy and politics in the global data, there are important future implications of disruptions due to the pandemic and continued variations in quality across income, geography, race, and ethnicity.
India-Specific Findings:
India had slipped 28 spots to rank 140 out of the 156 countries covered. The pandemic causing a disproportionate impact on women jeopardizes rolling back the little progress made in the last decades-forcing more women to drop off the workforce and leaving them vulnerable to domestic violence.
India’s poor performance on the Global Gender Gap report card hints at a serious wake-up call and learning lessons from the Nordic region for the Government and policy makers.
Within the 156 countries covered, women hold only 26 percent of Parliamentary seats and 22 percent of Ministerial positions. India, in some ways, reflects this widening gap, where the number of Ministers declined from 23.1 percent in 2019 to 9.1 percent in 2021. The number of women in Parliament stands low at 14.4 percent. In India, the gender gap has widened to 62.5 %, down from 66.8% the previous year.
It is mainly due to women’s inadequate representation in politics, technical and leadership roles, a decrease in women’s labor force participation rate, poor healthcare, lagging female to male literacy ratio, and income inequality.
The gap is the widest on the political empowerment dimension, with economic participation and opportunity being next in line. However, the gap on educational attainment and health and survival has been practically bridged.
India is the third-worst performer among South Asian countries, with Pakistan and Afghanistan trailing and Bangladesh being at the top. The report states that the country fared the worst in political empowerment, regressing from 23.9% to 9.1%.
Its ranking on the health and survival dimension is among the five worst performers. The economic participation and opportunity gap saw a decline of 3% compared to 2020, while India’s educational attainment front is in the 114th position.
India has deteriorated to 51st place from 18th place in 2020 on political empowerment. Still, it has slipped to 155th position from 150th position in 2020 on health and survival, 151st place in economic participation and opportunity from 149th place, and 114th place for educational attainment from 112th.
In 2020 reports, among the 153 countries studied, India is the only country where the economic gender gap of 64.6% is larger than the political gender gap of 58.9%. In 2021 report, among the 156 countries, the economic gender gap of India is 67.4%, 3.8% gender gap in education, 6.3% gap in health and survival, and 72.4% gender gap in political empowerment. In health and survival, the gender gap of the sex ratio at birth is above 9.1%, and healthy life expectancy is almost the same.
Discrimination against women has also been reflected in Health and Survival subindex statistics. With 93.7% of this gap closed to date, India ranks among the bottom five countries in this subindex. The wide sex ratio at birth gaps is due to the high incidence of gender-based sex-selective practices. Besides, more than one in four women has faced intimate violence in her lifetime.The gender gap in the literacy rate is above 20.1%.
Yet, gender gaps persist in literacy : one-third of women are illiterate (34.2%) than 17.6% of men. In political empowerment, globally, women in Parliament is at 128th position and gender gap of 83.2%, and 90% gap in a Ministerial position. The gap in wages equality for similar work is above 51.8%. On health and survival, four large countries Pakistan, India, Vietnam, and China, fare poorly, with millions of women there not getting the same access to health as men.
The pandemic has only slowed down in its tracks the progress India was making towards achieving gender parity. The country urgently needs to focus on “health and survival,” which points towards a skewed sex ratio because of the high incidence of gender-based sex-selective practices and women’s economic participation. Women’s labour force participation rate and the share of women in technical roles declined in 2020, reducing the estimated earned income of women, one-fifth of men.
Learning from the Nordic region, noteworthy participation of women in politics, institutions, and public life is the catalyst for transformational change. Women need to be equal participants in the labour force to pioneer the societal changes the world needs in this integral period of transition.
Every effort must be directed towards achieving gender parallelism by facilitating women in leadership and decision-making positions. Social protection programmes should be gender-responsive and account for the differential needs of women and girls. Research and scientific literature also provide unequivocal evidence that countries led by women are dealing with the pandemic more effectively than many others.
Gendered inequality, thereby, is a global concern. India should focus on targeted policies and earmarked public and private investments in care and equalized access. Women are not ready to wait for another century for equality. It’s time India accelerates its efforts and fight for an inclusive, equal, global recovery.
India will not fully develop unless both women and men are equally supported to reach their full potential. There are risks, violations, and vulnerabilities women face just because they are women. Most of these risks are directly linked to women’s economic, political, social, and cultural disadvantages in their daily lives. It becomes acute during crises and disasters.
With the prevalence of gender discrimination, and social norms and practices, women become exposed to the possibility of child marriage, teenage pregnancy, child domestic work, poor education and health, sexual abuse, exploitation, and violence. Many of these manifestations will not change unless women are valued more.
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]2021 WEF Global Gender Gap report, which confirmed its 2016 finding of a decline in worldwide progress towards gender parity.
Over 2.8 billion women are legally restricted from having the same choice of jobs as men. As many as 104 countries still have laws preventing women from working in specific jobs, 59 countries have no laws on sexual harassment in the workplace, and it is astonishing that a handful of countries still allow husbands to legally stop their wives from working.
Globally, women’s participation in the labour force is estimated at 63% (as against 94% of men who participate), but India’s is at a dismal 25% or so currently. Most women are in informal and vulnerable employment—domestic help, agriculture, etc—and are always paid less than men.
Recent reports from Assam suggest that women workers in plantations are paid much less than men and never promoted to supervisory roles. The gender wage gap is about 24% globally, and women have lost far more jobs than men during lockdowns.
The problem of gender disparity is compounded by hurdles put up by governments, society and businesses: unequal access to social security schemes, banking services, education, digital services and so on, even as a glass ceiling has kept leadership roles out of women’s reach.
Yes, many governments and businesses had been working on parity before the pandemic struck. But the global gender gap, defined by differences reflected in the social, political, intellectual, cultural and economic attainments or attitudes of men and women, will not narrow in the near future without all major stakeholders working together on a clear agenda—that of economic growth by inclusion.
The WEF report estimates 135 years to close the gap at our current rate of progress based on four pillars: educational attainment, health, economic participation and political empowerment.
India has slipped from rank 112 to 140 in a single year, confirming how hard women were hit by the pandemic. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two Asian countries that fared worse.
Here are a few things we must do:
One, frame policies for equal-opportunity employment. Use technology and artificial intelligence to eliminate biases of gender, caste, etc, and select candidates at all levels on merit. Numerous surveys indicate that women in general have a better chance of landing jobs if their gender is not known to recruiters.
Two, foster a culture of gender sensitivity. Take a review of current policies and move from gender-neutral to gender-sensitive. Encourage and insist on diversity and inclusion at all levels, and promote more women internally to leadership roles. Demolish silos to let women grab potential opportunities in hitherto male-dominant roles. Work-from-home has taught us how efficiently women can manage flex-timings and productivity.
Three, deploy corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds for the education and skilling of women and girls at the bottom of the pyramid. CSR allocations to toilet building, the PM-Cares fund and firms’ own trusts could be re-channelled for this.
Four, get more women into research and development (R&D) roles. A study of over 4,000 companies found that more women in R&D jobs resulted in radical innovation. It appears women score far higher than men in championing change. If you seek growth from affordable products and services for low-income groups, women often have the best ideas.
Five, break barriers to allow progress. Cultural and structural issues must be fixed. Unconscious biases and discrimination are rampant even in highly-esteemed organizations. Establish fair and transparent human resource policies.
Six, get involved in local communities to engage them. As Michael Porter said, it is not possible for businesses to sustain long-term shareholder value without ensuring the welfare of the communities they exist in. It is in the best interest of enterprises to engage with local communities to understand and work towards lowering cultural and other barriers in society. It will also help connect with potential customers, employees and special interest groups driving the gender-equity agenda and achieve better diversity.