Kakatiya University- UG English - Semester-III
UNIT1: GENDER EQUALITY
Achieving gender equality in India: what works, andwhat doesn’t Smriti Sharma, United Nations University
Prose text(Lesson)
Discrimination against women and girls
is a pervasive and long-running phenomenon that characterises Indian society at
every level.
India’s progress towards gender
equality, measured by its position on rankings such as the Gender Development Index has been disappointing, despite
fairly rapid rates of economic growth.
In the past decade, while Indian GDP has
grown by around 6%, there has been a large decline in female labour force
participation from
34% to 27%. The male-female wage gap has been stagnant
at 50% (a recent
survey finds a 27% gender pay gap in white-collar jobs).
Crimes against women show an upward trend, in particular brutal crimes such as
rapes, dowry deaths, and honour killings. These trends are disturbing as a
natural prediction would be that with growth comes education and prosperity,
and a possible decline in adherence to traditional institutions and socially
prescribed gender roles that hold women back.
A preference for sons
Cultural institutions in India,
particularly those of patrilineality (inheritance through male descendants) and
patrilocality (married couples living with or near the husband’s parents), play
a central role in perpetuating gender inequality and ideas about
gender-appropriate behaviour.
A culturally ingrained parental
preference for sons - emanating from their importance as caregivers for parents
in old age - is linked to poorer consequences for daughters.
The dowry system, involving a cash or
in-kind payment from the bride’s family to the groom’s at the time of marriage,
is another institution that disempowers women. The incidence of dowry payment,
which is often a substantial part of a household’s income, has been steadily rising over time across all regions and
socioeconomic classes.
This often results in dowry-related violence against women by their husbands
and in-laws if the dowry is considered insufficient or as a way to demand more
payments.
These practices create incentives for
parents not to have girl children or to invest less in girls’ health and
education. Such parental preferences are reflected in increasingly
masculine sex ratios in India. In 2011, there were 919 girls under
age six per 1000 boys, despite sex determination being outlawed in India.
This reinforces the inferior status of
Indian women and puts them at risk of violence in their marital households.
According to the National Family and Health Survey of
2005-06, 37% of married
women have been victims of physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their
spouse.
Affirmative action
There is clearly a need for policy
initiatives to empower women as gender disparities in India persist even
against the backdrop of economic growth.
Current literature provides pointers
from policy changes that have worked so far. One unique policy experiment in
village-level governance that mandated one-third representation for women in
positions of local leadership has shown promising results.
Evaluations of this affirmative action
policy have found that in villages led by women, the preferences of female
residents are better represented, and women are more confident in reporting
crimes that
earlier they may have considered too stigmatising to bring to attention.
Female leaders also serve as role models
and raise educational and career aspirations
for adolescent girls and their parents.
Behavioural studies find that while in the short run there is backlash by men
as traditional gender roles are being challenged, the negative stereotype eventually disappears. This underscores the importance of
sustained affirmative action as a way to reduce gender bias.
Another policy change aimed at
equalising land inheritance rights between sons and daughters has been met with
a more mixed response. While on the one hand, it led to an
increase in educational attainment and age at marriage for daughters, on the
other hand, it increased spousal conflict leading to more domestic violence.
Improvements in labour market prospects
also have the potential to empower women. An influential randomisation study found that job recruiter visits to
villages to provide information to young women led to positive effects on their
labour market participation and enrolment in professional training.
This also led to an increase in age at
marriage and childbearing, a drop in desired number of children, and an
increase in school enrolment of younger girls not exposed to the programme.
Recent initiatives on training and recruiting young
women from rural areas for factory-based jobs in cities provide economic
independence and social autonomy that they were unaccustomed to in their
parental homes.
Getting to parity
For India to maintain its position as a
global growth leader, more concerted efforts at local and national levels, and
by the private sector are needed to bring women to parity with men.
While increasing representation of women
in the public spheres is important and can potentially be attained through some
form of affirmative action, an attitudinal shift is essential for women to be
considered as equal within their homes and in broader society.
Educating Indian children from an early
age about the importance of gender equality could be a meaningful start in that
direction.
This
is the first of a series of articles in partnership with UNU-WIDER and Econ Films
on responding to crises worldwide.
Click here : https://youtu.be/fiwriDBvsBY
Summary:
About the author: Smriti Sharma is a
lecturer in Economics at a famous college in UK. Her research focusses on Economics
and Caste, Gender-based discriminations. In this essay she highlights the
causes of Gender inequality and provides with some suggestions for achieving Gender
Equality in the society.
What is Gender Equality? Gender equality means that women and men, and
girls and boys, enjoy the same rights, resources, opportunities and
protections. But Gender inequality or the discrimination
against women and girls in Indian Society is at every level. It is a known fact
that, India’s GDP is increasing, but the Gender Development Index (GDI) is
disappointing. Crimes against women is increasing day by day such as rape,
dowry deaths, honour killings, women trafficking etc. The male- female wage gap
is stagnant at 50%, and even in white collar jobs it is 27%. Socially
prescribed gender roles such as Domestic works at home are unpaid. These
domestic works are making them as “Rabbits in the Kitchen”, and hindering their
opportunities.
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Preference for Sons: Smriti talks about several reasons which are
causing this Gender inequality. In India, Patrilineality (inheritance is
considered only through the sons) and Patrilocality (married couple
should live with the husband’s parents) is the central role in increasing Gender
Inequality. Culturally, the sons are being considered as caregivers of their
aged parents. The dowry system, the dowry related violence, sex selective
abortions, infanticides are growing day by day. In India, according to 2011
census, there were 919 girls per 1000 boys. These practices are changing the
mindsets of parents not to invest more towards the birth, health and education
of girl children.
Affirmative
Action: Smriti talks about a strong action which has to be taken for the
empowerment of Women in society. She points out that the policy changes at the
village level Governance which mandated one-third representation by women as
local leaders. It has led to many changes like, women became confident
enough in reporting the issues against them. It also encouraged the parents and
adolescent girls to get educated and be in good positions. Another policy
change of land inheritance which gives equal rights to both the sons and
daughters lead change in the education and the age of the marriage of girl
children. Job opportunities to women on par with men has raised the
economic independence and better social status for women.
Getting to Parity: Smriti
concludes her essay that all children should be educated from an early age
about the importance of gender equality. Increasing the representations of
women in the politics, job opportunities in public and private domains will
bring parity women to parity with men. Programs like Beti Bachavo- Beti
Padavo, Sukanya Samruddi Yojana, SHE-Teams, Nirbaya Act, The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO-2012), Shadi Mubarak
& Kalyan Laxmi, WE-Hub (T-Hub for women) will lead to
Gender Equality in the society at local and national levels.
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