Not many of the participants at the recently organised National Conference on Gender Issues were able to initially grasp just what Madhur Bajaj was trying to communicate. The vice-chairman of Bajaj Auto said he has two daughters and he is proud of them. His problem is how to pass on his wealth to his daughters since his wealth is locked up in equity shares which help him control his companies. If the shares are bequeathed to his daughters, the shares move out of the Bajaj family when the daughter marries, and that cannot be allowed. This piquant situation is what many business families are facing, according to him.
Then one female voice piped up from the audience and asked if a daughter ceases to be a Bajaj if she marries? How can giving shares to a married daughter mean that they are going “out” of the family? Semantics aside, this is one example of discrimination on the basis of gender. There are many more.
The number of women per 100 men in India is 93 — the same level as that in Afghanistan, according to United Nations statistics. This adverse ratio is obviously not due to natural causes. Pakistan is better than us (94). Bangladesh is better than us (96). And Sri Lanka has 103 females for every 100 males. Even Zambia and Zimbabwe, with 101 women for every 100 men, are better than us, as are the developed countries like US and UK.
Look at the percentage of women in India’s adult labour force — just 28 per cent against almost 50 per cent for countries like China, Norway, Canada, Germany and Sweden. Of course, we are better than Pakistan’s 19 per cent but less than Sri Lanka’s 37 per cent. Bangladesh too is ahead of us with 37 per cent of its adult labour force made up of women.
In education, while the share of girls in primary school enrolment in India is almost 47 per cent (in 2006), it dips to 43.2 per cent in secondary enrolment and lowers further to below 40 per cent in the case of tertiary enrolment. The comparable numbers for China are 46.8 per cent at the primary level, 47.7 per cent at the secondary level and again, 47.1 per cent at the tertiary level. In the case of Sweden, girls share in primary school enrolment is 48.7 per cent, which dips marginally to 48.5 per cent share in secondary enrolment and then jumps to 59.6 per cent at the tertiary level.
One can look at a host of indicators from infant mortality rates to maternal mortality rates to see what a long path India has to traverse to ensure that women and children — who make up almost three-fourths of the population of the country — are well taken care of. It is of course a social imperative but, as every development planner would know, also an economic one. No country can develop and progress by leaving half its population behind. The adverse status of women in a society can be as much a drag on growth as the lack of basic infrastructure. It should not be surprising therefore that some of the most advanced countries are also the most women-friendly (think Scandinavia).
There have been attempts by the government to address the problem, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating. If at the end of all the programmes and even a separate ministry of women and child development (set up in 2006), all we have are more stark statistics, then something drastic needs to be done. Yes we have gender budgeting statistics for over 50 ministries, but does it help? “We need gender auditing now,” says the chairperson of the National Commission for Women, Dr Girija Vyas.
We need to become impatient about progress on gender issues instead of listening to long litanies on why we have not advanced significantly. We need an affirmative action programme on a scale which has not been seen before. Women leaders like Sonia Gandhi, Mayawati, Mamta Bannerjee and J Jayalalitha will be in a position to swing political fortunes in the coming elections. They should also have an aggressive agenda for women empowerment and development. As should the chief ministers of various states who happen to be women.
Almost half of the parliamentary seats in Sweden, one of the more women-friendly countries, are occupied by women. Countries like India, which have some prominent women leaders — and even a woman President — should be more women-friendly and see its impact reflected in various social and economic indicators.
There are of course some who argue for gender-neutrality. Yes, there is a case for it but only once there is some parity established between the genders through affirmative action!
