An image that has gone viral- A fish has been pictured swimming inside a jellyfish off Australia’s east coast in a remarkable and rare image, apparently the fish controls the direction of movement.
Back to Prelims-
This is a compilation of all environmental news published by Times of India newspaper for the past year. It has been compiled keeping in view of 2 important aspects of PRELIMS-
- No other website/institute that we are aware of are doing this (Most have done it from thehindu only)
- There were few questions asked by UPSC from TOI last year which was not covered by HINDU, hence the compilation.
We sincerely hope it helps in the exam.
‘India’s temperature rose by 0.60 degree over last 110 years’
- According to the Indian Meteorological Department(IMD), in line with rising temperatures across the globe, all India mean temperatures have risen nearly 0.60 degree Celsius over the last 110 years. Further IMD studies have highlighted that extreme events like heat waves have risen in the last 30 years.
- 5th Assessment Report (AR5) of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published in 2014, globally averaged combined land and ocean surface temperature has risen by 0.85 degree Celsius over the period 1880 to 2012.
National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC)
- Launched in June, 2008 to deal with climate change and related issues.
- NAPCC comprises of eight missions in specific areas of solar energy, enhanced energy efficiency, habitat, water, sustaining Himalayan ecosystems, forestry, agriculture and strategic knowledge for climate change.
- National Solar Mission
- National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency
- National Mission on Sustainable Habitat (Energy Conservation Building Code)
- National Water Mission (goal of a 20% improvement in water use efficiency)
- National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem
- Green India Mission( aims at afforestation of 6 million hectares of degraded forest lands and expanding forest cover from 23 to 33% of India’s territory.)
- National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (development of climate-resilient crops, expansion of weather insurance mechanisms etc)
- National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change ( envisions a new Climate Science Research Fund,improved climate modeling, and increased international collaboration. It also encourages private sector initiatives to develop adaptation and mitigation technologies through venture capital funds)
Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle – IGCC
An integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) is a technology that uses a high pressure gasifier to turn coal and other carbon based fuels into pressurized gas—synthesis gas (syngas). It can then remove impurities from the syngas prior to the power generation cycle.
The IGCC plant can achieve major CO2 reduction by effectively capturing the feedstock’s carbon inventory from the syngas, before it is combusted in the gas turbine. Captured CO2 can then be buried underground.
National Silt Policy
Seeking to handle threat of floods in many parts of the country during Monsoon, the Centre will soon come out with a national silt policy which will enlist measures to scientifically desilt rivers which have over the years lost the capacity to hold water due to deposition of excessive silt.
Corals and Islands:-
Lizard Island- Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
SOUTH ARI ATOLL – Maldives
- The world has lost roughly half its coral reefs in the last 30 years.
- Coral reefs support a quarter of all marine species, as well as half a billion people around the world
- Even if the world could halt global warming now, scientists still expect that more than 90 percent of corals will die by 2050
- Often described as underwater rainforests, they populate a tiny fraction of the ocean but provide habitats for one in four marine species
- Reefs also form crucial barriers protecting coastlines from the full force of storms.
- Corals are invertebrates, living mostly in tropical waters. They secrete calcium carbonate to build protective skeletons that grow and take on impressive colors, thanks to a symbiotic relationship with algae that live in their tissues and provide them with energy.
- A temperature change of just 1 to 2 degrees Celsius (1.8 to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) can force coral to expel the algae, leaving their white skeletons visible in a process known as “bleaching.”
- The first global bleaching event occurred in 1998, when 16 percent of corals died.
- The problem spiraled dramatically in 2015-2016 amid an extended El Nino natural weather phenomenon that warmed Pacific waters near the equator and triggered the most widespread bleaching ever documented.
- Coral Reef Watch Program – It is a program of NOAA .The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is an American scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce focused on the conditions of the oceans and the atmosphere.
- 50 reefs – Hoegh-Guldberg,is the inaugural Director of the Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland,helped launch an initiative called 50 Reefs, aiming to identify those reefs with the best chance of survival in warming oceans and raise public awareness. His project partner is Richard Vevers, who heads the XL Caitlin Seaview Survey, which has been documenting coral reefs worldwide.
India launches phase-out plan of the harmful refrigerant HCFC
Though the fresh plan is meant for the 2017-23 period, the final goal is to phase out consumption and manufacturing of this ozone-depleting refrigerant under an accelerated plan by 2030.
The HCFC is currently used in various sectors including refrigeration, air-conditioning and foam manufacturing.
Over 190 countries had in 1987 reached an agreement under Montreal Protocol to phase out the ODS in a time-bound manner. Under the Protocol, India has already successfully phased out the earlier generation of refrigerants, Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and Halon. The country is currently phasing out the HCFC in a gradual manner.
In a first, Centre launches survey to ascertain Gangetic dolphin numbers
The Centre has launched the first ever across-the-river survey in Ganga to determine the population of aquatic life, including that of the endangered Gangetic doplhin.
The authority is conducting the survey through Wildlife Institute of India (WII), an autonomous institution of Environment and Forest Ministry, under Namami Gange programme.
Why pandas became black and white
A study suggests that this dual colouration stems from its poor diet of bamboo and inability to digest a broader variety of plants. This means it can never store enough fat to go dormant during the winter, as do some bears. Panda is a mammal.
World’s last wild frankincense forests are under threat
The fight to save Earth’s smallest rhino in Sumatra’s jungles
- Andatu, is a Sumatranrhino, one of the rarest large mammals on Earth
- He is part of a special breeding programme for Sumatran rhino at Way Kambas National Park in Indonesia
- Sumatra is the sole place where wild rhinos, orangutans, tigers and elephants roam together.
In 2015, the species was declared extinct in the wild in Malaysia, leaving just tiny herds of two to five rhinos scattered across Sumatra and Indonesian Borneo.
Migratory birds arrive in Bhitarkanika- Odisha
India’s first tiger cell to be set up in Dehradun
Climate change can make fish swim towards predators
Jia Jia, world’s oldest-ever panda in captivity, dies at 38
In a first in the country, female monkeys to be given oral ‘contraceptive’ in Uttarakhand
Rice crops that can help farmers cut costs and reduce pollution
It is found that key microbial reactions that lead to an inefficiency in nitrogen capture can be significantly reduced in certain varieties of rice plants through the action of those specific chemicals released from root cells.
One of the main reasons crops waste so much fertiliser is that they were bred that way. In the past fertilisers were relatively inexpensive to produce because fossil fuels were abundant and cheap.
A prime tiger habitat, but no reserve tag
Byculla zoo gets Humboldt penguins as new members
Most deforested island in Philippines has most unique mammals in world
Murthy’s jumbo journey: From rogue killer to refined kumki
In the 1990s Murthy was a terror. He killed at least 20 people in Kerala’s Wayanad and was a nightmare for residents of the nearby areas. But soon after the Kerala government declared him a ‘killer’, he migrated to the Gudalur forest division in the Nilgiris. Well, the Murthy in question is not another forest brigand, but a Makhna (male elephant without tusks).
Murthy was captured by the forest department in July 1998 and sent to the Mudumalai elephant camp for rehabilitation. Today, Murthy is an obedient and veterinarian-friendly elephant in the state.
Rare ‘Cutest Falcon’ spotted in Bastar
Assam floods: Pobitora sanctuary, habitat of one-horn rhinoceros, under water
Turtle village to become biodiversity heritage site
Extinct at Keoladeo Park, but good number of otters spotted in Chamabla river, Kota
Drought stalled Amazon forest’s carbon absorption
Tamil Nadu yet to take stock of its natural resources in forests
Ashwagandha is a medicinal herbs that grow in abundance in Tamil Nadu.
Kerala might be a smaller state compared to Tamil Nadu, but unlike the latter several thousand villagers in Kerala earn a decent living by collecting and distributing naturally grown shrubs, herbs and seeds, which in turn are bought by companies. The credit goes to the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), which introduced the access benefit sharing system, in its bid to eliminate middlemen and help the local community get better profit from the collection of natural resources
The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) has broadly classified natural resources into five categories agri biodiversity, domesticated biodiversity, wild biodiversity, marine biodiversity and urban biodiversity. The NBA has also included the market source for domesticated biodiversity.
2017 is the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development
Global body concerned over massive destruction in Uttarakhand
International Road Federation (IRF), a Geneva based global body consisting of 90 countries working for better and safer roads worldwide which also has deparment of Road Tranport and Highways, CPWD and NHAI as members, has expressed deep concern at repeated loss of life, landslides, areas being cut off and chaos in the road network and infrastructure in the hill state of Uttarakhand for last several years during rains, and has stressed the need of adopting time tested sustainable solutions including floodplain mapping and taking flood proofing measures.
Kukrail’s a biodiversity heritage site, Lucknow
Himachal Pradesh to begin breeding snow leopards in captivity
The Darjeeling zoo is internationally recognized for its 33-year-old conservation breeding programme for the snow leopard, with 56 births till date.
No more windmills in bustard-inhabited areas in Rajasthan
Kendrapara sheep gets rare status
What is DNA barcoding?
DNA barcoding is a new system to identify and discover species. This is done by using a small section of DNA from a standardized region of the genome. The DNA sequence is useful in identify different species. An analogy can be drawn with the scanners in supermarkets that identify the barcodes written in black stripes of every product.
Nature Forever Society’s ‘I love sparrows’ enters Limca Book of Records
Gangetic river dolphin declared as city animal of Guwahati
Assam’s Guwahati became the first city in the country to have its own city animal with the district administration declaring the Gangetic river dolphin as the mascot
Army shows eco-friendly way to fight mosquitoe
Army’s GAJRAJ Corps in Assam’s Tezpur observed World Environment Day and launched “Go Green” initiative by releasing large number of mosquito larvae eating fish (Gambasia affinis) in various water bodies in the Military camp area.
This is an eco-friendly way of avoiding harmful chemicals for killing the mosquitoes and control mosquito borne diseases.
WHAT IS PARTICULATE MATTER
* Particulate matter is smallest variety of finely divided solids or liquids that emanate from combustion processes, industrial activities or natural sources and remain suspended in the air.
* They are so small that they are not even pulled down by gravitational force thus obtaining a ‘repairable’ character.
* Measured in terms of their size in micron, which is about 1000th of a millimetre, all kinds of PM are a threat to pulmonary health.
* PM 1 are fine particulate matter (PM) particles of diameter less than 1 micron. Smallest particles which can be seen with naked eye are around 40-50 micron.
* PM 10, PM 2.5 and PM 1 particles make up the total suspended particulate matter. If a human being was the size of PM 1, PM2.5 would be as big as an elephant and pm10 is equivalent of a whale (which is about 20 meters long).
HOW DOES IT HARM HEALTH?
* Researches have shown that the finer the particles, the more difficult they are to disperse and the deeper they can penetrate into the blood stream, causing more harm.
* PM 10 enter the respiratory tract and have been associated with risks like bronchitis, asthma, and upper respiratory tract infections. It can also aggravate symptoms of existing diseases more than triggering new conditions.
* PM 2.5 are considerably finer, penetrate into the lower respiratory tract or deeper in the respiratory tract, and the blood stream, causing cardiovascular problems. The spike in these particles over the last two years has prompted doctors to advise patients to leave Delhi temporarily.
* PM 1 can penetrate deeper into the cardiovascular stream and can predispose heart diseases. Western studies suggest that PM1 can lead to premature births and affect foetal development.
Six tigers to be relocated in Buxa Tiger Reserve
Buxa TR is in West Bengal.
El Salvador becomes the first country in the world to ban mining of metals for environmental protection
World’s first sanctuary for white tigers opens in MP
Isotopes indicate the source of groundwater. Significant variation in isotopic composition of groundwater indicated that the water in different parts of the state was recharged through different geo-hydrological processes. Groundwater recharged by water undergoing considerable evaporation during infiltration and percolation had more isotopic value than the one recharged by sources below ground.
Ranthambore ‘man-eater’ sentenced to life in zoo- Extending the principle of crime and punishment to the animal world, the Supreme Court said Ranthambore tiger T-24 aka ‘Ustad’ deserved no leniency and had been rightly ‘jailed’ in a zoo after experts opined it was a man-eater.
Agasthiarmalai Reserve gets Unesco honour
Jaikawadi Bird Sanctuary – Maharastra
Sri Lankamalleswara Wildlife Sanctuary-Andhra Pradesh( home to some of the best quality red sanders)
Abohar sanctuary gets buffer zone
South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network
Saving Mahseer
Other Important articles for PRELIMS-
- Environment For PRELIMS – Biodiversity Report Summary !!!
- Ten largest National Parks in India and its endangered species !!!
- Fascinating list of India’s 18 Biosphere Reserves !!!
- RAMSAR sites in India
- Coral Story
- Protected Area Network of India
- India and INDC
- Disaster management in India !!!
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.