1) NGT says no to age-old practice of straw burning :-
- Stubble burning is the deliberate setting fire of the straw stubble that remains after wheat and other grains have been harvested.
- The burning of stubble, contrasted with alternatives such as ploughing the stubble back into the ground has a number of consequences and effects on the environment Stubble burning:
- Quickly clears the field and is cheap.
- Kills weeds, including those resistant to herbicide.
- Kills slugs and other pests.
- Can reduce nitrogen tie-up
However, it has a number of harmful effects on the environment:
- Loss of nutrients.
- Pollution from smoke.
- Damage to electrical and electronic equipment from floating threads of conducting waste.
- Risk of fires spreading out of control
Note:-There is a perception that stubble burning contributes to atmospheric CO2. However carbon dioxide releases are only slightly greater than those from natural decomposition.
- The practice is followed by farmers not only to save time under the rice-wheat crop rotation cycle to clear the land of residue of one harvest and sow the next, it is also believed that it makes the land more fertile and kill pests.
- A Bench headed by the NGT chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar directed the Delhi government and the four northern States of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh to check the bi-annual menace, which the farmers engage in to save time between sowing of wheat and rice. The tribunal also announced a fine of Rs. 2,500 to Rs. 15,000 on farmers found indulging in straw burning.
Analysis:-
- It is easy to penalize the farmer and put a check on straw burning, however what the NGT has failed to mention is that , it has not suggested any alternative to crop management or asked any government authority to look at the issue in holistic manner.
- India’s farmers are marginal farmers and it is easy for them to light a fire than to afford a machine .Hence due consideration for alternative is necessity and promotion of the alternative through various propaganda means is essential.Consensus building can yield a better and sustaining prospect than imposing a law.
- Finding a policy or legal solution to environmental problems is easy , and due to this very reason the officials who will monitor the stubble burning may engage in corruption practices. The reason is simple, if there is no viable alternative , the farmers will do what they did before, and now after the declaration of penal provisions by NGT , they will be subjected to coercion and leaving space for corruption.
- Possible Alternative:-
- At harvest, it is best to chop the straw as fine as possible and spread both the straw and chaff across as wide an area as possible. A chaff spreader can be added on to a combine at reasonable cost. Chopping straw does not influence its rate of breakdown but it does facilitate harrowing or cultivation which places the straw in closer contact with soil which does hasten decomposition.
- Bio-ethanol Refinery :-
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Can play an important role in solving the chronic problem of straw burning of leftover agro-based produce especially from wheat and rice feedstocks.
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Benefit farmers economically, as they would be paid for their agro-based produce to extract bio-ethanol
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- The issue of straw burning can only be resolved if ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research ) provides a viable alternative which is affordable for the poor farmers.The Government should engage in awareness campaign to sensitize the farmers and farmers themselves should be convinced to do away with the age-old practice.
2)SAFAR :-System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research
- SAFAR envisages a research based management system where strategies of air pollution mitigation go hand in hand with nation’s economic development to target a win-win scenario.
- Air Quality indicators are monitored at about 3 m height from the ground with online sophisticated instruments. These instruments are operated round the clock and data is recorded and stored at every 5 minute interval for quality check and further analysis.
- Pollutants monitored: PM1, PM2.5, PM10, Ozone, CO, NOx (NO, NO2), SO2, BC, Methane (CH4), Non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHC), VOC’s, Benzene, MercuryMonitored Meteorological Parameters: UV Radiation, Rainfall, Temperature, Humidity, Wind speed, Wind direction, solar radiation
3)Swachh Bharat Cess at the rate of 0.5% :-
- Swachh Bharat Cess is not another tax but a step towards involving each and every citizen in making contribution to Swachh Bharat. In this direction, the Government has decided to impose, with effect from 15th November 2015, a Swachh Brarat Cess at the rate of 0.5% on all services, which are presently liable to service tax. This will translate into a tax of 50 paisa only on every one hundred rupees worth of taxable services. The proceeds from this cess will be exclusively used for Swachh Bharat initiatives.
- Cleanliness also has huge impact on public health. Dirty surroundings also cause many diseases, like, malaria, dengue, diarrohea, jaundice, cholera etc., with associated high public health expenditure. According to the Government of India estimates, expenditure on health adds up to Rs.6,700 crore annually (approximately Rs.60 per capita). Increased allocation for Swachh Bharat Abhiyan can prevent many of these diseases with consequential benefit to one and all.
4)South Asian Regional Intelligence and Coordination Centre on Transnational Organized Crime (SARICC-TOC):-
- During the recently held International Conference ‘Networking the Networks’ in national capital, delegates from India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Myanmar discussed threadbare the modalities for creation of a regional platform to be called ‘South Asian Regional Intelligence and Coordination Centre on Transnational Organized Crime’ (SARICC-TOC), for information/intelligence sharing to enable all Member States to respond Transnational organized crimes.
- The SARICC meeting concluded with representatives of the proposed SARICC-TOC, namely, India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Myanmar and finalized the draft structure and Terms of reference of SARICC-TOC.
- This is all the more relevant since the South Asia region lacks such regional coordination mechanism on the lines of Central Asian Regional Information and Coordination Centre (CARICC) or Asia-Pacific Information & Coordination Center for Combating Drug Crimes (APICC) to facilitate criminal intelligence sharing and operational coordination related to organized crime, including illicit drug trafficking and related activities such as precursor trafficking and money laundering
5)RGI releases Census 2011 data on literacy, workers and educational levels :-
- The Registrar General & Census Commissioner of India released data of Census 2011 on Highest Educational Level Attained among population attending educational institution by age and sex.
- Data :- Below Primary occupies the major share of 32.6% followed by Primary (25.2%), Middle (15.7%), Matric (11.1%), Higher Secondary (8.6%) and Graduate & above (4.5%).
- Observation:- During the decade 2001-11, improvement is observed at Middle and above educational levels and decline in percentage share at lower levels (below-Primary and Primary). The improvements at higher educational levels are indication of educational advancement in the country during the decade 2001-11.
6) Prime Minister’s 15-point programme for socio-economic-educational development and empowerment of minorities :-
Theme – Enhancing opportunities for Education
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Equitable availability of ICDS( Integrated Child Development Services )
- Improving access to school education
- Greater resources for school education
- Modernizing Madarsa Education
- Scholarship
- Improving educational infrastructure through the Maulana Azad Education Foundation
Theme-Equitable Share in Economic Activities and Employment
7.Self-Employment and Wage Employment for the poor -Swarnajayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY),Swarnajayanti Sahari Swarojgar Yojana (SJSRY),National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS)
8.Upgradation of skills through technical training
9.Enhanced credit support for economic activities
10.Recruitment to State and Central Service
Theme-Improving the conditions of living of minorities
11.Equitable share in rural housing scheme
12.Improvement in condition of slums inhabited by minority communities
7) iLEDtheway Microsite:-
- Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy launched the microsite www.iledtheway.in
- In today’s era of Digital India, the microsite will attempt to reach out to all citizens in the country and spread awareness about the nation-wide movement of #iLEDtheway. Through this microsite, consumers can take a pledge of switching to LED bulbs, which are safer, brighter and consume less energy.
- The Microsite visitors can join the movement by simply clicking “Take a Pledge” tab which is prominently displayed on the homepage. Consumers who do not have access to the LED bulb distribution under the DELP scheme in their city/state, can pre-register for the scheme by sharing their contact details. It will also give exciting information on the reduction in CO2 emissions, energy saved, avoided peak demand and is filled with pictures, videos, distribution centre details in each state and more.
- DELP :-Domestic Efficient Lighting Programme (DELP)
- The government aims to replace 77 crore conventional bulbs and CFLs with the LEDs under DELP and 3.5 crore street lights over 3-year period, making it the largest LED based lighting programme in the world.Initiatives of distributing LED bulbs save upto 85 lakh KWh every day and have helped in reduction of close to 15,000 tonnes of CO2 per day.
8) SATYAM :-
- A new programme called SATYAM-“Science and Technology of Yoga and Meditation” has been launched to strengthen research in the areas of yoga and meditation.
- An objective of SATYAM is to harness knowledge obtained in academic institutions and other related agencies for finding Science & Technology -led solutions that would enable us to cope with stress and strain associated with fast changing social, economic, environmental and professional circumstances
9) IMPRINT India :-
- IMPRINT is the first of its kind MHRD supported Pan-IIT + IISc joint initiative to address the major science and engineering challenges that India must address and champion to enable, empower and embolden the nation for inclusive growth and self-reliance. This novel initiative with twofold mandate is aimed at:
- (a) Developing new engineering education policy
(b) Creating a road map to pursue engineering challenges , IMPRINT provides the overarching vision that guides research into areas that are predominantly socially relevant.
10)Ground Zero Summit 2015 :-
- The Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh recently inaugurated the Asia’s foremost Information Security Conference: Ground Zero Summit 2015
- Theme: The theme for the Summit is Digital India – ‘Securing Digital India’.
- Aim of the summit: The summit is being organized to deliberate upon various issues related to cyber security challenges emerging due to the latest technological developments
- Summary of Summit:-
- Cyber security is a big challenge these days and ‘cyber barriers’ need to be created to tackle it
- Cyber world is the fifth dimension of security along with the earlier dimensions of security i.e. land, air, water and space. The crimes related to cyber world can be multi-layered, multi-location, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-legal, that’s why it is difficult to investigate and reach to the criminal
- Government has started making efforts to set up the “Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre” (I-4C). This will help in monitoring and capacity building of the cyber crimes and will also help the Law Enforcement Agencies in curtailing these crimes.
- The summit is being organized by the Indian Infosec Consortium (ICC), a not-for-profit organization formed by leading cyber security professionals of the country. With the events like Ground Zero Summit and formation of National Cyber Registry, ICC wants to consolidate the cyber security resources in the country and protect its cyberspace. The summit is the collaborative platform in Asia for cyber security experts and researchers to address emerging cyber security challenges and demonstrate cutting-edge technologies.
11) Three Gold related Scheme Launched:-
*Note:- The schemes of this nature has magnitude of data , most of them are irrelevant from UPSC exam perspective.Hence you may go through the literature of these schemes but remember as necessary.The analysis is important.
- Gold Monetisation Scheme (GMS):-
- The GMS will replace the existing Gold Deposit Scheme, 1999
- The gold will be accepted at the Collection and Purity Testing Centres (CPTC) certified by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). The deposit certificates will be issued by banks in equivalent of 995 fineness of gold.
- The designated banks will accept gold deposits under the Short Term (1-3 years) Bank Deposit (STBD) as well as Medium (5-7 years) and Long (12-15 years) Term Government Deposit Schemes (MLTGD). While the former will be accepted by banks on their own account, the latter will be on behalf of the Government of India. There will be provision for premature withdrawal subject to a minimum lock-in period and penalty to be determined by individual banks for the STBD.
- The interest rate in the STBD will be determined by the banks. The interest rate in the medium term bonds has been fixed at 2.25% and for the long-term bonds is 2.5% for the bonds issued in 2015-16.
- Gold sovereign bond scheme:–
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will issue these bonds on behalf of the central government.
- The gold bonds will be denominated in multiples of gram(s) of gold with a basic unit of one gram while the minimum investment limit is two grams.
- The maximum subscription is 500 grams per person per fiscal (April-March) and for joint holders, the limit will be applied on the first holder.
- As per the scheme, the gold bonds will be sold only to resident Indian entities including individuals, Hindu undivided families, trusts, universities, and charitable institutions.The bond tenure will be eight years with exit option beginning the fifth year onwards. They will also be tradable in the bourses.Bonds can also be used as collateral for loans.
- India gold coin and bullion scheme:-
- The gold coin and gold bullion schemes are part of the gold monetization programme.
- The coin will be the first ever national gold coin and will bear Ashok Chakra.
- Initially, the coins will be available in denominations of 5 and 10 grams. A 20 gram bullion bar will also be launched.
- As many as 15,000 coins of 5 gm, 20,000 coins of 10 gm and 3,750 bullion bars will be made available through Metals and Minerals Trading Corporations (MMTC) outlets.
Reasoning behind these Schemes:-
- Indian have a greater affinity to gold, it is the most dearly held precious metal by Indian families.It has a paramount cultural significance . Over the centuries Indians have accumulated enormous amount of gold which is locked away in their safety boxes, sitting idle , earning no return.
- On the same vein, the demand of gold has grown multi-fold in the past few years. India being a young nation(demographically) the gold demand is only going to increase and this metal plays a critical role in marriages and other ceremonies related to life.More the youth, more the marriage and more the demand for gold.
- The scheme has envisaged to unlock the potential of idle gold and put it to use. It has one major significance:-
- India is not a great producer of gold, our gold mines have never been able to meet the demand , hence we import gold in large quantities, which puts burden on Balance of Payment (Govt has to pay in dollars to get these gold , thus reducing the forex reserve too )
- With this scheme the balance of payment issue can be resolved.It also allows the depositor to earn on the idle gold.Hence it is a win-win situation for both Government and Depositor.
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.