Dear All,
Thank you for registering and participating in the Open Essay Test. If you have not submitted yet, you can submit your essays as soon as you finish them.
Needless to say, we are very much delighted by seeing such a huge volume of essay submission. As we go through the essays, many essays are remarkable and well-written, many essays have excellent aesthetic appeal and many are great in content.
Nothing makes a us happy than to see the “efforts” among the aspirants. It gives us energy to break the barriers of performance. We are very much HAPPY to see the quality of essays that have reached us, but what makes us more happier is the fact that you are taking the initiative and putting in your effort to write the essays.
If you have hesitation or concern, our advise will be not to hesitate or be concerned. Remember Great things are built from small initiatives only. The great wall of China was started with a single piece of stone/brick. The Great Indian civilization that we are part of started with a small colony somewhere as part of Indus Valley civilization. So everything that we think or assume as great are built upon consistent but “smaller effort”. Everything that is great is nothing more than the summation of the small initiatives. So take the initiative and write, don’t be concerned on quality.
The most important part of Greatness is that it can be achieved. The Forest Man of India – Jadav Payeng built a forest of more than 1300 acres single handedly. If that is possible, scoring 150 and above in essays is possible. What requires is constant improvement.
No one can wake up tomorrow and out of the blue, write a great essay, it takes time, but it is doable.
People say essay writing is an art. But we say it is SCIENCE, what that means is, there are methods to write great essays. In fact, in one of our essay ( “Ability can take you to the top but character will keep you there”), we gave the strategy as a mathematical approach to the ethics essay.
So, if you have not written yet, get your pen and paper ready and let the romance of pen and paper unfold as you put your intangible thoughts in to the tangible paper.
Keep the submission of essays coming. It is inspiring.
Thank You
UPSCTREE
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[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.