Look no further- This single and comprehensive editorial is all that you need to write a best answer as far as Energy Security is concerned.
Obtaining a secure and adequate supply of a traded commodity, be it food or fuel, is generally a problem prevalent amongst poor people, poor regions or poor nations. With the power to pay the price the rich often find willing suppliers for what they want. The World Energy Assessment (UNDP 1999) report defines energy security as: “the continuous availability of energy in varied forms in sufficient quantities at reasonable prices”. This definition needs to be modified to better reflect our situation in India.
- It is important that energy is supplied to all citizens. When the energy needs of only some citizens are met, it cannot be a sustainable situation.
- It is necessary to provide “lifeline” energy to all citizens irrespective of their paying capacity. Energy up to a certain level is a basic necessity and whether the state supplies it or not, people will procure it in any way possible. If the state does not provide such lifeline energy, environmental degradation can be expected. Lifeline energy consumption for those who cannot afford energy at market price has to be made good through subsidies that, preferably, target the intended beneficiaries directly. Energy security requires that the lifeline energy needs of the Nation are met in full.
- Effective demand, i.e. demand backed by the ability to pay at market determined prices, should be met fully. If it is not, the rich will get what they desire but the poorer classes won’t.
- If demand is not met at competitive prices the competitiveness of the Indian economy would be compromised.
- Safe and convenient energy is desirable as the use of traditional fuels such as wood or dung cakes causes indoor air pollution and leads to an adverse impact on health, particularly that of women and children.
- Energy is required in different forms to meet different needs. Energy in one form cannot be easily substituted by other forms. Often such substitution involves cost or loss in the quality of service. For example, kerosene can replace electricity for lighting but at a cost and a loss in quality of service. Fuel cells or batteries could replace IC engines using petrol or diesel but at a cost.
- Energy should be available at all times. Interruptions in energy availability can impose high costs on the economy and also on human well-being.
- To ensure energy security at all times, shocks and disruptions that can be reasonably expected must be anticipated. Ability to withstand such shocks and disruptions is essential for energy security. However, one cannot guard against all possible shocks at affordable costs. The surety of energy supply cannot be 100 percent. One can ensure supply only within a certain prescribed confidence level.
- The efficiency of extracting fossil fuels in India as well as other mining activities can easily be improved by some 10 per cent. For fossil fuels this would mean a lower level of energy spent per unit of energy extracted.
- Fuel efficiency of Coal Power Plants: The average fuel conversion efficiency of Indian power plants is just about 30.5 percent though the new 500 MW plants have efficiency of 36 per cent. State of the art super critical pulverised fuel fired boilers can reach an efficiency level of 46 per cent depending on plant location. Under Indian conditions an efficiency level of 38-40 per cent should be attainable. Considering our large dependence on coal-based power plants, obtaining this technology for all new power plants should be our first target.
- Another major option is provided by freight traffic. The railways’ goods traffic has increased to 1050 million tonnes in 2014. If the railway carried 70 per cent of the goods traffic today, it would carry 3000 million tonnes of additional traffic. Assuming that all of this goods traffic would have been carried by Railways using diesel, the diesel saved would have been around 5 Mt out of a total consumption of 40 Mt. If all of the goods traffic was carried by Railways using electric traction, the diesel saved would have been around 8 Mt. Thus a significant saving of diesel is possible if Railway operations can be upgraded to win back the haulage lost to road traffic.
- Energy efficiency and demand side management also have a large scope to reduce energy requirement. These include the use of energy efficient appliances and automobiles, hybrid cars, energy efficient buildings, efficient lighting, cogeneration, distributed generation with Combined Heat and Power (CHP) use, energy efficient and well-maintained irrigation pumps, smokeless improved woodstoves, etc.
- In the long-term, promotion of public transport in urban areas can significantly reduce energy consumption particularly the need for imported oil and gas. Some advance actions that can be taken now are as follows-Develop effective and attractive mass transport such as underground, elevated trains, light rail, monorail or dedicated bus lanes in existing metros; For medium size cities, make plans for efficient public transport corridors to serve future population and acquire the right of way. Public transport can then be further developed as the city develops. Development of city infrastructure can be financed by gradually increasing permissible built up area or Floor Space Index (FSI) and auctioning the right to build. Even existing land owners should be required to purchase the additional right to build, if they want to extend their buildings; and congestion charges and parking fees should be levied in city centres to discourage the use of private cars.
- Electrification of railways can replace diesel trains. Of course this calls for investment in electrification of tracks, electric locomotives and electricity generation.
- Wood plantations with a potential of yielding up to 20 tonnes of wood per hectare per year in a sustainable way could significantly expand the domestic energy resource base. Wood can be burned directly or gasified for power generation. This would reduce the need for future gas/coal imports.
- Bio-diesel and Ethanol can substitute diesel and petrol. Bio-diesel becomes particularly attractive when it is derived from inedible oilseeds from trees that need little water and fertiliser and can thus grow without care on wasteland. Ethanol can be obtained from molasses, which may have other economically more paying uses. Ethanol can also be obtained from other starchy crops and from cellulosic plant matter. The competition for using limited land resources and availability of water pose the main challenges to increasing the production of ethanol.
- Use of hybrid vehicles and/or of electric vehicles, cars, scooters and motorbikes can significantly reduce requirements of petrol. This requires development of low weight, high density batteries. An advantage of such vehicles is that individuals can adopt this technology without the development of a supporting fuel supply network as would be required by hydrogen or fuel cell based vehicles.
- If hydrogen can be produced as a byproduct of industry or with locally available energy sources, hydrogen based vehicles could provide an option to reduce dependence on oil imports.
- Coal can be converted into oil as is done in South Africa. The technology is well-developed and in use for years. Sasol is routinely available at filling stations along with petro and diesel in South Africa.
- Enhanced Recovery: Enhanced oil, gas and coal recovery from existing fields is an obvious option. India’s recovery of in-place reserves can improve easily by 5-10 percentage points. Better mine design and the use of technologically advanced mining techniques are valid options. Recovery of oil and gas from abandoned and/or marginal fields may also be taken up. However, the cost of such recovery should be balanced against the total amount of oil or gas that may be recovered from the field.
- In-situ Coal Gasification: Similarly for coalfields, in-situ gasification may permit much higher recovery of coal than can be economically mined by conventional techniques. Technology development for in-situ gasification should be vigorously pursued and entry barriers for gasification removed.
- Coal Bed Methane: Methane is absorbed in coal seams. This Coal Bed Methane (CBM) usually escapes into the atmosphere when coal is mined. Tapping and utilising the CBM as a source of commercial energy has been in vogue in the US and Australia for several years. The estimated potential of CBM in India is in the range of 1400-2600 billion cu. metres (BCM).
- Exploration: Efforts can be stepped up to find new reserves. Recent success by private as well as public sector companies such as Reliance and Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Ltd. in finding gas shows the need to attract more players in exploration in the country. Exploration for all energy resources – coal, oil, gas and Uranium – should be stepped up. Offshore wind energy potential should also be mapped.
- Coal to Oil: Rising oil prices in the world market makes conversion of coal to oil economically attractive. Sasol claims that its technology for converting South African coal to liquids is viable if crude oil stays above US$65 per barrel. India should establish the viability of Sasol technology with domestic coal and establish the breakeven price at which coal to liquids would make sense for Indian coal.
- New Domestic Sources: The domestic resource base can also be expanded through developing hitherto poorly developed or new sources of energy. Some of these resources may require R&D to make them economical. Among these are:
- Nuclear Power: With meagre availability of uranium in the country and vast resources of thorium, any long-term nuclear strategy has to be based on thorium. The three stage strategy of development of nuclear power from pressurised heavy water based reactors to fast breeder reactors to Thorium based reactors requires a sustained R&D effort. Success in these efforts could deliver some 2,50,000 MW of nuclear power by 2050 and much more thereafter. Given the limited resources of oil, gas and uranium, solar energy and thorium based nuclear option are the only two sizeable sources (apart from fusion) of energy for the country. Thus, the thorium option must be pursued.
- Gas Hydrates: Very large reserves exist in Indian waters and have the potential to provide vast amount of gas. Technology to exploit these economically in ecologically safe ways is yet to be developed. However, the potential size of the resource makes it critical to vigorously pursue R&D.
- Wind: The potential for onshore wind power has been assessed to be 45,000 MW. The Wind Energy Society of India claims it to be as high as 65,000 MW. However, given that the average capacity factor realised by India’s wind farms is only about 17 per cent, the total contribution to energy from these plants would be relatively small. Thus while wind power may be pursued for environmental and economic reasons, its contribution to energy security will remain very limited. Off-shore wind power potential has not yet been assessed. As mentioned above such assessments should be taken up immediately.
- Solar: Solar energy, if it can be economically exploited constitutes a major energy resource for the country. Solar electricity generated through either the thermal route or using photovoltaic cells provides comparable amounts of electricity per unit of collector area. Both methods currently provide about 15 percent conversion efficiency. While it is clear that the ratio of capital cost to the efficiency of energy conversion needs to be brought down significantly, solar thermal and solar photovoltaic routes to electricity generation remain attractive alternatives to enhance India’s energy security. Nanotechnology holds the hope for making a major breakthrough in solar photovoltaic technology. It is stressed here that solar water heating is cost effective for India even today and can reduce India’s demand for oil, gas and coal if pursued to meet the hot water demand in industry and households.
- Energy Plantations: Growing fuel wood for running power plants either directly or after gasification can save the coal or gas used for generating power. Since the country’s energy needs are growing, imports of coal and LNG are also likely to grow. Fuel wood plantations can help improve energy security. The scope for such plantations is substantial. For example, if 10 million hectares of wasteland can be converted to fuel wood plantations with a sustained yield of 200 Mt of wood per year, it would obviate the need for some 200 Mt of domestic coal. Moreover since wood is a renewable fuel, no net carbon emission takes place. Thus all compensatory afforestation should be made in the form of energy plantations to improve India’s energy security.
Policies and Initiatives for Energy Security
- A legal claim to energy resources abroad can marginally enhance India’s energy security to the extent that such a claim increases the diversity of supply sources. Equity oil and gas abroad are being currently pursued. The NITI Aayog, recognising the looming coal import requirements, has been, emphasising equity coal for the past three years in order to further increase the diversity of supply of fuels. Nonetheless, these acquisitions should be primarily assessed as commercial investments.
- Another mitigating policy could be to diversify imported fuels as well as the sources of such imports. Today, almost 100 per cent of our energy import is in the form of crude oil with 67 per cent being sourced from the Middle East. A strategy to import larger quantities of Gas, LNG, coal, ore emulsion, ethanol etc, as additional energy sources should be considered. Further, imports from other countries can be enhanced for strategic diversification of supply sources.
- Power plants at coastal locations should be set up with captive jetties to run on imported coal.
- If and when the gas pipeline from Iran materialises, we may have a sudden increase in supply of natural gas of nearly 30 Mtoe a year. After meeting the feedstock requirement for fertilizer and chemical plants, the temptation will be to use this increased supply for power generation. Advance planning should be done to use this gas in more appropriate ways such as in distributed generation and CHP applications where we can get an efficiency of 80 per cent or more.
- India currently has stocks equal to about 85 days of requirement excluding line-pack and the strategic stocks for the defence department that are maintained by Indian oil. However, these stocks are more in the nature of raw material and finished good inventories (for which facilities had been built during the comfortable cost plus regime) and not in the nature of strategic reserves.
- Internationally, a 90 day strategic reserve is considered adequate for providing security against short-term supply disruption and/or extreme price spikes. India could earmark part of the available storage capacity with oil companies as strategic reserve controlled by the Government. Japan follows this practice and requires its oil companies to carry and maintain a strategic reserve. Additional strategic storage may also be built to supplement such mandated strategic reserves. Regional cooperation in South Asia in this respect can be fruitful. For a country like India, given the uncertainty about benefits, it may be more economical to hold the minimum reserves required to tide over very short-term supply disruptions.
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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.