India wants be a developed nation by 2047. It has to tackle gender inequality first, economic experts say

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India wants be a developed nation by 2047. It has to tackle gender inequality first, economic experts say

There are over 468 million females of working age in India, but only 38.2 million women are employed.

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When 41-year-old Nisha Kotwal was a resident ******** doctor in India’s Maharashtra state 14 years ago, her parents would call her before every shift to ask if she had reached the hospital safely.

“Telling my parents that I have reached the hospital is how they knew I was safe. The thought that the hospital was not a safe place never traversed my mind, it was like home,” the obstetrician and gynecologist said.

Over a decade later, entrenched sexism still persists in India and the country will need to tackle the obstacle to achieve its economic goals, economic experts say.

The ***** and ******* of a 31-year-old ******** doctor in a medical college in Kolkata earlier this month left parents and women fearing for their safety, and compelled the nation’s Supreme Court to establish a national taskforce of doctors to make suggestions on how to better ensure safety for women in the workplace.

There’s roughly

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of working age in India, according to data maintained by the World Bank. Among them, 33% of women participate in the workforce

In 2023, the labor force participation rate

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in India, up from 27% a decade prior. While that figure has been trending up incrementally, the country is

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the U.S., 56.5%, China, 60.5% Japan, 54.9%, and Germany, 56.5, the four economies India is trailing behind.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ambitious aims to make India a $5 trillion economy by the end of the decade, and a developed nation by 2047. Economists, however, say he’ll have trouble reaching his goals if the country doesn’t work to boost the number of women in the workforce.

“Women literacy has increased, fertility rates have gone down, urbanization is improving and the economy is growing. But these factors have [done little to increase] women’s participation in the workforce,” said Sunaina Kumar, senior fellow at Delhi-based think tank Observer Research Foundation.

Concerns over safety

Kumar believes general concerns over safety for women in public spaces has contributed to their low numbers in the workforce.

Some women are not allowed to travel far from home to attend school or training programs, proving that the ***** and uncertainty of being ********* assaulted ******** a big barrier, she said. “Many young women are allowed to visit nearby markets or facilities, but can’t travel from their homes because of the risk of ******* harassment.”

Some women are not allowed to travel far from home to attend school or training programs, Kumar add. ***** and uncertainty of being ********* assaulted ******** a big barrier to entry when it comes to boosting women participation in the workforce.

Kumar’s remarks were echoed in a 2021

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by World Bank Economist Girija Borker, who reported on how female students in Delhi to attend “lower quality colleges” in order to avoid ******* harassments when traveling to and from the campus. This either meant choosing colleges near their home, or a safer route or mode of transportation.

Such limitations could prevent women from clinching better careers.

“Highly skilled youth are meant to be the engine of growth over the coming years,” Eliana La Ferrara, professor of public policy at Harvard Kennedy School told CNBC. “But parents who have read about about the recent ***** and ******* incident with a highly educated woman will think ‘what good is it to invest all we have in educating our daughter if something like this will happen?'”

The ******** doctor was found ***** on Aug. 9 after allegedly being brutally ****** and ******* by a police volunteer that had access to the seminar room she was resting in.

The incident caused a national uproar, resulting in mass protests by doctors and activists breaking out across India. The Indian Medical Association

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 for 24 hours last week.

There were more than 

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. Although this was a slight decline from the prior year, it is still higher than 2010 to 2013, when reported cases ranged from around 22,000 to 24,000. Data past 2022 has not been made publicly available. The rise could could be the result of more avenues being available for women to make a report.

Data past 2022 has not yet been made publicly available.

A senior student teaching junior students at Netaji Subhas Vidyaniketan, higher secondary school in India’s state of Tripura. 

Majority World | Universal Images Group | Getty Images

Reversing gender norms

Social and systemic gender inequality continues to be an obstacle India needs to overcome if it wants to achieve its economic goals, according to Jayati Ghosh, economics professor at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University.

“There is a deep patriarchy and misogyny within India’s society. That needs to be fixed before the country gets more developed,” Ghosh said .”The image of India becoming more developed is very false [when it comes to gender].”

According to the World Economic Forum’s 2024

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, India ranks 129 out of the 146 for gender parity, behind larger economies like the U.S., 43, China, 106, Japan, 118, and Germany, 7.

“Women’s employment has two roles: To help economies develop through production, and to ensure power and negotiation within the household ******** more equal,” Harvard’s La Ferrara said, elaborating that young women cannot be “kept indoors, but conditions outdoors need to change for them to circulate and function.”

Some economists are skeptical about Modi’s aim to evolve India into developed nation by 2047. But encouraging women to enter the workforce by imposing better safeguards and solutions can move the needle, gynecologist Kotwal said, and it starts with educating boys from a young age.

“India’s whole system and culture sees females as second class citizens, and this will take decades of work to change,” Kotwal said. “We need to work on improving the psychology of boys, not men. That is the tender age when they are exposed to more things that will help structure their brain.”

Ghosh argued that the government also needs to increase spending and enhance policies to support women to enter the workforce.

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#India #developed #nation #tackle #gender #inequality #economic #experts

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