Agro & social forestry have been traditionally practiced in India. Policy inclusion of agro & social forestry have not however brought in desired results. The article examines how agro & social forestry can be revisited and norms revised to make it more sustainable and meaningful.
Agroforestry –
Agroforestry is any sustainable land-use system that maintains or increases total yields by combining food crops (annuals) with tree crops (perennials) and/or livestock on the same unit of land, either alternately or at the same time, using management practices that suit the social and cultural characteristics of the local people and the economic and ecological conditions of the area.
Agroforestry is a collective name for land-use systems involving trees combined with crops and/or animals on the same unit of land. It combines:-
1) Production of multiple outputs with protection of the resource base;
2) Places emphasis on the use of multiple indigenous trees and shrubs;
3) Particularly suitable for low-input conditions and fragile environments;
4) It involves the interplay of socio-cultural values more than in most other land-use systems; and
5) It is structurally and functionally more complex than monoculture.
Its benefits include the diversification of agricultural income, cleaner environmental surroundings, provision of habitats, and maintenance of soil quality, food sources, carbon storage, increased agricultural incomes, and sustainability (National Agroforestry Centre, 2014).
Agroforestry, whether in small or large scale, is a characteristic feature of agriculture in India, although contemporary times have witnessed a lesser focus on traditional methods of agricultural practices. Estimations of area under agroforestry were initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture in 1977 is as per revenue records and satellite data. S.K. Dhyani (2014) in recent times has however, highlighted the need for proper area estimates of land in India under agroforestry.
BENEFITS OF AGROFORESTRY SYSTEM
A) Environmental benefits
ii More efficient recycling of nutrients by deep rooted trees on the site
iii) Better protection of ecological systems
iv) Reduction of surface run-off, nutrient leaching and soil erosion through impeding effect of tree roots and stems on these processes
v) Improvement of microclimate, such as lowering of soil surface temperature and reduction of evaporation of soil moisture through a combination of mulching and shading
vi) Increment in soil nutrients through addition and decomposition of litterfall.
vii) Improvement of soil structure through the constant addition of organic matter from decomposed litter.
B) Economic benefits
i) Increment in an outputs of food, fuel wood , fodder, fertiliser and timber;
ii) Reduction in incidence of total crop failure, which is common to single cropping or monoculture systems
iii) Increase in levels of farm income due to improved and sustained productivity
C) Social benefits
i) Improvement in rural living standards from sustained employment and higher income
ii) Improvement in nutrition and health due to increased quality and diversity of food outputs
iii) Stabilization and improvement of communities through elimination of the need to shift sites of farm activities.
Functional Basis of Agroforestry
All agroforestry systems have two functions.
A) Productive functions,
B) Protective functions
The Productive functions are:
I) Food
II) Fodder
III) Fuel wood
IV) Cloths
V) Shelter
VI) NTFPs
The Protective functions are:
i) Wind breaks
II) Shelterbelts
III) Soil conservation
IV) Soil improvement
TYPES OF AGROFORESTRY SYSTEMS
I) AGRISILVICULTURAL SYSTEMS
It involves the conscious and deliberate use of land for the concurrent production of agricultural crops including tree crops.
Based on the nature of the components this system can be grouped into various forms.
(i) Improved fallow species in shifting cultivation
(ii) The Taungya system
(iii) Multispecies tree gardens
(iv) Alley cropping (Hedgerow intercropping)
(v) Multipurpose trees and shrubs on farmlands
(vi) Crop combinations with plantation crops
(vii) Agroforestry fuelwood production
(viii) Shelterbelts
(ix) Windbreaks
(x) Soil Conservation hedges
Improved Fallow Species in Shifting Cultivation
Fallows are cropland left without crops for periods ranging from one season to several years. The objective of improved fallow species in shifting cultivation is to recover depleted soil nutrients. Once the soil has recovered, crops are reintroduced for one or more seasons.
This system is practised extensively in the north-eastern hill region comprising the states of Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura and the two Union territories of Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram and to some extent Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Karnataka states. It is called ‘jhum’ in the north-eastern hill region and ‘podu’ in AP and Orissa states and considered most destructive for forest areas.
Taungya System
A form of agroforestry system in which short term crops are grown in the early years of the plantation of a woody perennials species in order to utilize the land, control weeds, reduce establishment costs, generate early income and stimulate the development of the woody perennials species.
The taungya (taung = hill, ya = cultivation) is a Burmese word coined in Burma in 1850s. The taungya system was introduced into India by Brandis in 1890 and the first taungya plantations were raised in 1896 in North Bengal. It is practised in the states of Kerala, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh and to a lesser extent in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Karnataka and the north- eastern hill region. In southern India, the system is called ‘kumri‘. It is practised in areas with an assured annual rainfall of over 1200-1500 mm.
This is a modified form of shifting cultivation in which the labour is permitted to raise crops in an area but only side by side with the forest species planted by it. This labour is responsible for the upkeep of a plantation. The practice consists of land preparation, tree planting, growing agricultural crops for 1-3 years, until shade becomes too dense, and then moving on to repeat the cycle in a different area. In some cases crops may be grown one year before the trees are planted. A large variety of crops and trees, depending on the soil and climatic conditions.
Taungya systems are of three types:
(a) Departmental Taungya : Under this, agricultural crops and plantation are raised by the forest department by employing a number of labourers on daily wages. The main aim of raising crops along with the plantation is to keep down weed growth.
(b) Leased Taungya: The plantation land is given on lease to the person who offers the highest money for raising crops for a specified number of years and ensures care of tree plantation.
(c) Village Taungya: This is the most successful of the three taungya systems. In this, crops are raised by the people who have settled down in a village inside the forest for this purpose. Usually each family has about 0.8 to 1.7 ha of land to raise trees and cultivate crops for 3 to 4 years.
Advantages offered by the taungya system are:
(i) Artificial regeneration of the forest is obtained cheaply
(ii) Problems of unemployment are solved
(iii) Helps towards maximum utilisation of the site
(iv) Low cost method of forest plantation establishment
(v) In every case highly remunerative to the forest departments
(vi) Provision of food crops from forest land
(vii) Weed, climber growth etc. is eliminated.
Disadvantages of the taungya system
(i) Loss of soil fertility and exposure of soil
(ii) Danger of epidemics
(iii) Legal problems created
(iv) Susceptibility of land to accelerated erosion increases
(v) It is a form of exploitation of human labour
Multispecies Tree Gardens
In this system of agroforestry, various kinds of tree species are grown mixed. The major function of this system is production of food, fodder and wood products for home consumption and sale for cash.
Alley Cropping (Hedgerow Intercropping)
Alley cropping, also known as hedgerow intercropping, involves managing rows of closely planted (within row) woody plants with annual crops planted in alleys in between hedges.The woody plants are cut regularly and leaves and twigs are used as mulch on the cropped alleys in order to reduce evaporation from the soil surface, suppress weeds and/or add nutrients and organic matter to the top soil. Where nitrogen is required for crop production, nitrogen-fixing plants are the main components of the hedgerows.
The primary purpose of alley cropping is to maintain or increase crop yields by improvement of the soi, microclimate and weed control. Farmers may also obtain tree products from the hedgerows, including fuelwood, building poles, food, medicine and fodder andon sloping land, the hedgerows and prunings may help to control erosion. Alley cropping usually works best in places where people feel a need to intensify crop production but face soil fertility problems.
Ideally, trees and shrubs used for alley cropping should fix nitrogen and should also produce wood, food, fodder, medicine or other products used by farmers or other local community.
Shelter-belt:
These are belts/blocks consisting of several rows of trees established at right angles to
the prevailing wind. The purposes are:
a) to deflect air currents,
b) to reduce the velocity of prevailing winds,
c) to provide general protection to the leeward areas against the effects of wind erosion,
d) to protect the leeward areas from the desiccating effects of hot wind,
e) to provide food, fodder, timber etc.
Wind-break:
Wind-breaks are strips of trees and/or shrubs planted to protect fields, homes, canals or
other areas from wind and blowing soil or sand.
The important reasons for which wind-breaks are planted include:
to protect livestock from cold winds
to protect crops and pastures from hot, drying winds
to reduce/prevent soil erosion
to provide habitat for wildlife
to reduce evaporation from farmlands
to improve the microclimate for growing crops and to shelter people and livestock,
to retard grass fire
for fencing and boundry demarcation
Gaps are required for gates and tracks, but because of the funneling effect through gaps, wind velocity in these areas can be substantially increased. In multi row wind breaks this can be eliminated by angling the gap at about 45 degrees to the prevailing wind direction. Alternatively, a few plant, trees or shrubs can be used on either side of the gate or track to broaden the gap and reduce the funneling effect. Other solutions are to plant five or six trees at an angle to the main belt as a wing or to plant a second short row to cover the gaps.
Soil Conservation Hedges
Trees can be planted on physical soil conservation works (grass strips, bunds, risers and terraces) wherein they play two roles: ie., to stabilise the structure and to make productive use of the land they occupy.
Stabilisation is through the root system. In some
of sloping landscapes of the country, the risers or terraces are densely planted with trees, with multiple use being made of them for fruit, fodder and fuel wood . In this system the major groups of components are: multipurpose and trees and common agricultural species. The primary role of multipurpose trees and agricultural species is soil conservation and provision of various tree products.
Criteria of Good Agroforestry Design
A good agroforestry design should fulfill the following criteria:
i) Productivity: There are many different ways to improve productivity with agroforestry viz., increased output of tree products, improved yields of associated crops, reduction of cropping system inputs, increased labour efficiency, diversification of production, satisfaction of basic needs and other measures of economic efficiency or achievement of biological potential.
ii) Sustainability: By seeking improvements in the sustainability of production systems, agroforestry can achieve its conservation goals while appealing directly to the motivation of low income farmers , who may not always be interested in conservation for its own sake
iii) Adoptability: No matter how technically elegant or environmentally sound an agroforestry design may be, nothing practical is achieved unless it is adopted by its intended users. This means that the technology has to fit the social as well as environmental characteristics of the land-use system for which it is designed.
II) SILVOPASTORAL SYSTEMS
The production of woody plants combined with pasture is referred to Silvipasture system. The trees and shrubs may be used primarily to produce fodder for livestock or they may be grown for timber, fuelwood, fruit or to improve the soil.
This system is classified in to three categories
|
a) Protein bank
b) Livefence of fodder trees and hedges
c) Trees and shrubs on pasture |
a) Protein bank:
In this Silvipastoral system, various multipurpose trees (protein rich trees) are planted in or around farmlands and range lands for cut and carry fodder production to meet the feed requirement of livestock during the fodder deficit period in winter.
b) Livefence of fodder trees and hedges:
In this system, various fodder trees and hedges are planted as live fence to protect the property from stray animals or other biotic influences.
c) Trees and shrubs on pasture:
In this system, various tree and shrub species are scattered irregularly or arranged according to some systemic pattern to supplement forage production.
III) AGROSILVOPASTORAL SYSTEMS
The production of woody perennials combined with annuals and pastures is referred Agrisilvopastural system.
This system is grouped into two categories.
a) Home gardens
b) Woody hedgerows for browse, mulch, green manure and soil conservation
a) Home gardens
This system is found extensively in high rainfall areas in tropical South and South east Asia. This practice finds expression in the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu with humid tropical climates where coconut is the main crop. Many species of trees, bushes , vegetables and other herbaceous plants are grown in dense and in random or spatial and temporal arrangements. Most home gardens also support a variety of animals. Fodder grass and legumes are also grown to meet the fodder requirement of cattle. In India, every homestead has around 0.20 to 0.50 ha land for personal production.
Home gardens represent land use systems involving deliberate management of multipurpose trees and shrubs in intimate association with annual and perennial agricultural crops and livestock within the compounds of individual houses. The whole tree- crop- animal units are being intensively managed by family labour. Home gardens can also be called as Multitier system or Multitier cropping.
Home gardens are highly productive, sustainable and very practicable. Food production is primary function of most home gardens.
b) Woody Hedgerows:
In this system various woody hedges, especially fast growing and coppicing fodder shrubs and trees are planted for the purpose of browse, mulch, green manure, soil conservation etc.
IV) OTHER SYSTEMS
a) Apiculture with trees: In this system various honey (nector) producing trees frequently visited by honeybees are planted on the boundary of the agricultural fields
b) Aquaforestry: In this system various trees and shrubs preferred by fish are planted on the boundary and around fish ponds. Tree leaves are used as feed for fish. The main role of this system is fish production and bund stabilization around fish ponds
c) Mixed wood lots: In this system, special location specific MultiPurpose Trees ( MPTs) are grown mixed or separately planted for various purposes such as wood, fodder, soil conservation , soil reclamation etc.
Constraints in agroforestry
The following are the major constraints in agroforestry
1. Depression in crop yields due to interference effects caused by the tree
2. Delayed liquidation of planting investments due to long gestation period
3. Increased damage to crops due to birds which the trees attract
4. Increased damage to crops due to pests for which the tree serve as alternate hosts
5. Allelopathy – UPSC Question
Interference effects
In an agroforestry system, trees being the dominant partners,will compete with the herbaceous substratum for resource pools of light, water and nutrients. When the immediate supply of a single necessary factor falls below the combined demands of the plant, then the competition begins.The competition is also referred as Allelospoly.
The nature and quantum of these adverse effects depend upon I) the age and size of the trees, ii) nature of the tree species iii) nature of the agricultural crops ,iv) availability of water, nutrients , light, etc. The impact of the adverse effects is greatest in the close vicinity of the trees and diminishes as the distances increases Such effects were observed in different crops with a combination of different tree species.
Allelopathy
Muller(1969) emphasized that allelopathy, the direct or indirect effect of one plant upon another through the production of chemical inhibitors that are released in to the environment , should also be recognized as another factor in analyzing mechanisms of plant interactions. The species interaction due to chemical influences is also designated as Allelochemistry, Phytochemical ecology or Ecological biochemistry and Allelobiology.
Most of the chemical substances involved in allelopathic reactions are secondary compounds. Though the toxic metabolites are distributed in other plant parts also, leaves are the potent source of allelochemicals. Summer materials are more toxic than those of rainy and winter season. Toxins released from plant litter are the primary causes of allelopathy.
ROLE OF TREES IN SOIL FERTILITY
Tree root pattern-
It is generally assumed that trees have deep and spreading roots and hence are capable of exploiting more soil volume and taking up nutrients and water from deeper layer not usually contacted by herbaceous crops. This process of taking up nutrients from deeper soil profiles and eventually depositing at least some portion of them on the surface layers through litter-fall and other mechanisms is referred to as ‘nutrient pumping’ by trees. It is well known that the development of plants depends on site characters and environmental factors. Many woody species have the largest number of roots and the majority of the fine roots are located in the uppermost fertile portion of the soil profile. Some tree species are shallow rooted. Prosopis chilensis has a shallow and spreading root system whereas P. juliflora, is known to have a very deep root system.
Role of trees in soil fertility
1)Organic matter and nutrient addition to the soil -litter fall
2)Dinitrogen fixation by trees – Mimosoideae and Fabaceae are well known to fix nitrogen.
3)Nutrient cycling
Policy on Agroforestry
B. Chavan, n his paper ‘National Agroforestry Policy in India: a low hanging fruit’ (2015) talks about agroforestry being a traditional form of land use in India. He argues that although it is beneficial to both the environment and farmer’s income, and enjoys support in certain regions of India from industry, wide adoption of agroforestry remains a bulwark due to a lack of policy initiatives and the strictness of trade regulations.
The authors cite that a lack of a clear-cut mechanism to moderate the agroforestry sector makes it difficult for it to be a success. Their paper mostly talks about the ‘National Agroforestry Policy, 2014’ that addressed certain aspects of agroforestry without providing an archetype for clear-cut management of the sector.
The National Agroforestry Policy (NAP) was born out of consultations in the World Congress on Agroforestry held in New Delhi in 2014. In the presence of delegates from 80 countries worldwide, the President of India Pranab Mukherjee launched the Policy – the first of its kind globally.
However, there are many hurdles in implementing the NAP in a proper manner. First, there is incoherency in the regulation regime as regards the species utilized by agroforestry. The multifarious restrictions over the harvesting, transit and marketing of various species in the absence of uniform systems lead to farmers adopting crops that are sometimes outside their natural habitats.
Second, given that forests are located usually at the fringes of populated areas, and some farmers might be cultivating in such regions, only 10 per cent of quality planting material reaches the remote regions.
Third, given that farmers involved in agroforestry are sometimes poor and remotely located, there is a lack of insurance and credit from organized finance (S.B. Chavan, et. al. 2015). The traditional methods of agroforestry tend to preserve the biomes in localities and thus aid ecosystem services. A lack of policy sensitive to the widespread traditional technique of planting trees by farmlands or as farming could disrupt entire ecosystems.
The Bansal Committee, instituted in 2011 by the Ministry of Environment, Government of India to carry out studies on regulations for tree-species on non-forest private lands, recommended that the permissions for the felling of tree-species required by farmers be relaxed. The plan is not included in the policy yet, but is intended to encourage the large-scale cultivation of crop tree-species.
However, the NAP in 2014 identified 20 tree-species most utilized by farmers to be free from such restrictions. The supply of quality planting material to remote regions is also a bottleneck to large-scale cultivation, which can involve the application of biotechnology in forest land.
Throughout the conditions for the implementation of the NAP, forest certification acts as a hurdle rather than facilitator, preventing the large-scale planting and cultivation of crop tree-species. Forest certification is often tapped through international accreditation agencies like the Forest Stewardship Council and the International Timber Trade Organization. There is a possibility though to include agroforestry under organic farming as forests tend to be self-sustained systems of production that require less external inputs, and bring their products under organic farming certification.
Social Forestry
Social forestry slightly differs from agroforestry in that while social forestry involves human intervention in managed forests, here though, management is not private, and engages involvement from the people in managing forests, i.e. social management (AgriInfo.in, 2015). There can be a wide range of social and economic goals to social forestry, and the objectives are based on the useful benefits of growing trees, placing a focus on social efforts towards afforestation. Social forestry involves more than just social co-operation in planting trees. Social forestry engages social collectivities in the activity of large or small scale planting of trees and vegetation outside traditional forest areas with the objective of achieving balanced and symbiotic land use that can have environmental, social or economic goals. The term can be used in conjunction with any programme involving social activation in afforestation.
Policy on Social Forestry
Social forestry is especially important for marginalized and poor rural people and communities as a source of social and economic security. The form of land use is important for social forestry as it utilizes community lands, land under public ownership, and replenishes degraded lands and puts them to ecologically beneficial social and economic uses. This form of cultivation is suitable even for remote areas as governmental intervention is not an important determinant for its ends, and finance is usually arranged through the Panchayat.
In such a scenario, the National Commission on Agriculture (NAC) suggested certain guidelines in 1976 to encourage the widespread adoption of social forestry. These guidelines were intended with a view to protect rural communities against the spread of production forestry. However, most forest renovation efforts of degraded forests are taken up by forest departments, while on the ground the majority of intended participants were poor, marginalized rural folk usually living in remote areas who fall outside the policy radar. The onus instead falls on certain NGOs and local collectivities that are too sparse to make a total impact across the country.
The guidelines include pastoral requirements; household, cottage and small-scale requirements for raw materials; employment for rural poor through social forestry activities; rejuvenation of degraded forest lands; supplementing the NAP; providing recreation or tourism; and improvement of the aesthetic value of landscapes.
Conclusion
The problem in both agro & social forestry is a lack of policy outreach, and is borne from the transition from traditional ways of living in rural communities to modern forms of agriculture and livelihood. There is thus a lack of participation from local communities with respect to policy, that has not yet assimilated the traditional methods and ethos of agro & social forestry.
While social forestry is invaluable to conservation efforts towards forests and ecosystems, agro forestry opens up certain tree-species to production processes. Traditional methods of agriculture involve the maintenance of a balance and co-existence with the native ecology, which is disturbed by artificial and extraneous constraints placed on farmers by income expediency and the market.
Agro forestry can work in tandem with forest certification if it can maintain this healthy co-existence, especially when it can be a significant practice in remote locations. Activating this traditional ethos can be a step forward towards social forestry as well. Agro & social forestry thus needs active research and best practice norms to mark its efficacy.
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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.