Group 6_B | SDG 5: Gender Equality

“Our biggest challenge in the modern world is to take an idea that seems abstract – sustainable development – and turn it into a reality for all the world’s people.”

- Kofi Annan

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as stated by the UN, are of utmost importance to the future of this world. One such initiative taken to create a sustainable society is “Achieving Gender Equality by 2030”. Gender equality has been an important issue ever since the beginning of the feminist movement in the 19th century, and while there has been significant improvement since then, gender equality is still a far-fetched concept in many areas of the world. As of now, only six countries give equal legal working rights to men and women, not only that, according to a recent Global Gender Gap Report by the World Economic Forum, achieving gender parity will take at least 108 years, if not more. Over 12 million girls get married even before achieving adulthood annually, meaning that a girl becomes a child bride every two seconds, indicating how little agency women have over their own lives. These problems accentuate further if we move specifically to the low-income parts of the world; only 39% of girls in rural areas attend secondary school, which is less than rural boys as well as urban boys and girls. At the same time, women in rural areas face domestic violence much more frequently with no resources to access the legal mechanisms to protect themselves. As the facts suggest, gender equality is not only important but is rather a necessity; when close to half the population experiences such lives, any debate on sustainability becomes moot. Major policy changes need to be adopted globally to provide more equitable lives to women and men, to provide equal access to public spaces as well as legal mechanisms that are in place for their protection. The world needs to learn from countries like Latvia, Luxembourg, Belgium, Denmark, France, and Sweden, who have scored full marks in the eight indicators provided by the world bank to measure gender discrimination.

Gender Equality in India

India currently ranks 112 among a total of 153 countries with a score of 0.668 out of 1, according to the Global Gender Gap Index Report published by the World Economic Forum in 2020. Gender discrimination in India is a deep-seated issue that needs to be addressed immediately, and reforms need to take place at all levels. According to the SDG index published by the NITI Aayog, none of the Indian states have been able to achieve the frontrunner position (score range from 65 to 99) on the index, indicating the country’s poor performance in reaching this goal. Given India’s position as a fast-growing developing economy, it becomes extremely important for the country to provide a better life to half its population as it would directly translate into a larger and better workforce. As of now, only 33 women per 100 men participate in the labor force as opposed to the target of 100. At the same time, men earn 33% higher wages than women do in rural and urban areas. The situation is way worse in states like Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab, among others. Given the deeply entrenched patriarchal practice in the country, serious reformation is required to change the outlook towards women and bring in more favorable policies that will not only help women but rather empower them to stand for their rights and have access to equal opportunities. The government has taken initiatives like Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao, Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, and Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, among others, to counter problems like female literacy, health support for women, and financial empowerment and improve the condition of women in India.

Business Implications and Responses

While there are positive signs in businesses due to such policies, total equality is still far from being achieved. National and Local Parliaments still have a 1:3 ratio of representation, which implies that there would still be instances where the voices of women might be getting suppressed. Also, the number women who hold managerial positions is still less than half of that of men. In a patriarchal society such as ours, the above disparity implies that companies need to take additional efforts to ensure that there are no capable employees being left behind due to gender discrimination. And we are seeing leading conglomerates doing the same:

1. Asian Paints:

Asian Paints has extensive policies to ensure that women constitute a major chunk of their workforce, including contact workforce. They have the following policies governing the same:

a. Zero discrimination in terms of pay and working conditions

b. Policies involving Child Care leave, Maternity Break, Adoption/Surrogacy leave, Sabbaticals and In-House Creche, etc. to support women and maintain a good work-life balance

2. Mahindra:

Mahindra Group has a long history of providing an equal footing to all their employees. This can be seen by the numerous awards that they have received for the same, notably the ‘HeForShe’ award at Bloomberg Equality Summit for inculcating an environment of inclusion and empowerment. This resulted in more than 26% of new hires in the firm being women and has recently also increased the number of women on the automotive assembly floor.

They have also started group and sector-level Diversity and Inclusion Councils to create an inclusive work environment. The main task on hand for these councils is to come up with ways to ensure every employee is treated with respect and dignity, irrespective of their gender, race, religion, ethnicity, or disabilities.

3. ITC

ITC has gone beyond the internal committees and equal opportunities to provide opportunities to economically disadvantaged women through multi-stakeholder partnerships, to help them develop into more able decision makers of their home. They provide micro credit/seed loans to help SHGs. They also provide opportunities to expand skills and know-how, with special emphasis on helping women in abject poverty. All this enables the women to generate more earnings and savings, thereby ensuring better education and nutrition for the future generations

4. Implication on Consultancy Firms:

Consultancy firms like Bain and Co., BCG, A&M, etc. have strict rules when it comes to compensation and appraisal equality, and their hiring is transparent in terms of the gender composition.

Analysis

The implications of such a goal setting on businesses and workplaces are visible, not just in the inclusivity of women in workplaces, but also in the way their contribution and their work is perceived in the industries. This has a trickle-down effect with not only more opportunities being created for women, but there is also an increasingly level playing field being created to get to the top of the ladder. Apart from all the above, there is an improvement in the overall awareness regarding the overall disparity in workspaces that is faced by women. This is a step in the right direction, implying a shift in the mentality at its core at the workplace

Yet, there is still a long way to go. During COVID, we saw the country reverting to its patriarchic self, with women spending 2.5 times the hours spent by men on domestic chores. Even if companies make it easier in the firm, at home, the story is still pretty much the same old.

Traditions and practices like inheritance through male members, couples preferring to stay with the husband’s parents after marriage, play a massive role in promoting and continuing the concept of gender inequality. A societal mindset and preference for sons - mostly from the view of acting as primary caregivers for parents in old age – leads to even worse situations for daughters.

Women working longer than men in corporates, the existence of dowry system in India, gender bias in distribution of education and health, inequality in freedom of expression creates a mindset in parents to not have a girl child or pay equal attention to their educational and health development. In 2011, even though sex determination is banned, India had 919 girls under age six compared to 1000 boys. This only reaffirms the inferior status of women. According to the National Family and Health Survey of 2005-06, 37% of married women have been victims of physical or sexual violence.

This clearly demands need for policy implementations and changes to empower women as gender disparity continues to be an issue during such technologically and economically advanced times.

Key Recommendations:

Some changes at National, state, district, and village level:

· Establishment of support services for women for basic needs like medical, legal aid, counselling services, victim protection programs.

· Frequent collaboration with key stakeholders like police, media, judiciary, healthcare professionals, Anganwadi workers to promote gender sensitization.

· Strict enforcement of laws and schemes must be ensured when it comes to VAW (violence against women), sexual harassment, sex determination, domestic abuse, dowry demands, child marriage etc.

· Public places should be made more gender friendly, and people must be educated at platforms like workplaces, various modes of public transport etc.

Violence Prevention Schemes:

· Promote more women friendly gram panchayats like in Kerela that helped women to stand against VAW.

· These prevention schemes and equality programs should be inculcated from a young age in schools itself. There must a clear monitoring and feedback mechanism employed so that students can challenge the long-held notions of patriarchal society and ask the right questions when needed.

· Sustained large scale programs in collaboration with multiple corporates, NGOs can be brought in place to educate people not only about the laws, schemes already in place but about the recent developments as well. This must be a two way communication so that responsible stakeholders can also provide a feedback on the betterment of these laws and schemes.

Women in the economy:

· Women’s unpaid work should be recognized, and efforts must be made to equally rewards and redistribute it, if needed.

· Population must be sensitized on the fact that the work not only in offices, corporates but in a domestic setup as well should be recognized equally. Mass campaigns should be done to promote equal sexual division of labor and care at home.

· The Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) brought in a guideline recommending companies to appoint at least one woman director on their boards. This guideline can be revised to a certain percentage to promote gender equality.

· As far as unorganized sector is concerned, all the women workers should have identity cards with them and must be registered under the Unorganized Social Security Act, 2008.

· Equal rights to property across all social and age groups of women must exist. Apart form just ensuring the private land ownership through inheritance, land purchase schemes must exist for women.

If India wants to become a leader and maintain it’s position as world growth leader, efforts such as mentioned above must be made at local and national level by ensuring public private partnerships. It is not only about just recognizing the need to increase the representation of women but bringing about an attitudinal shift in the mindset of population in general for women to be considered as equals at all the platforms.

References:

· https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2018.pdf

· https://inequality.org/facts/gender-inequality/

· https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/commission-on-the-status-of-women-2012/facts-and-figures

· https://unu.edu/publications/articles/achieving-gender-equality-in-india-what-works-and-what-doesnt.html

· https://in.one.un.org/page/sustainable-development-goals/gender-equality-sdg-5/

· https://www.niti.gov.in/writereaddata/files/SDG_3.0_Final_04.03.2021_Web_Spreads.pdf

· https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/03/surprising-stats-about-gender-inequality/

· https://www.itcportal.com/sustainability/womens-economic-empowerment-programme.aspx

· https://www.mahindra.com/news-room/press-release/tech-mahindra-included-in-2021-bloomberg-gender-equality-index-for-second-consecutive-year

· https://www.mahindra.com/enewsletter-echo/2019/oct24

· https://www.asianpaints.com/content/dam/annual-report/pdf/brr.pdf