Address The Silent Crisis Of India’s Gender Deficit

Context: Understanding widened gender deficit in India in light of recently released Gender Gap Report 2021.

India’s gender deficit crisis

• Pervades India’s socio-economic pyramid: For e.g. -
  • At the upper level, single women entrepreneurs finding it difficult to get bank loans.
  • At the lower rungs, there is a surge in women joining the Maoist insurgency in the poverty-ridden ‘red corridor’.
• A silent crisis: According to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report 2021, India has slipped 28 places to 140th position among 156 countries.
  • Widening gap: 5% short of an ideal situation of equality (33.2% last year).
  • While gains were made on the education and political empowerment of women, we slid sharply on health and economic parameters.
  • Glaring income disparity: Women earn only a fifth of men, which puts India among the world’s worst ten on this indicator.
  • Low health and survival: India is beaten to the last rank only by China in the rankings.
• Pandemic impact: The average gap has widened globally to now 32% short of the index’s ideal score and has wiped off the gains made over the last 15 years.

Causes for widening gender crisis in India

• Regression in field of political power: Proportion of women ministers more than halved to 9.1% of the total, though the count of female Parliamentarians did not budge from its long stagnancy.
• Continuing poor performance on women’s economic opportunities and participation:
  • Senior managerial positions have remained male-centric.
  • Reasons:
    • Sociocultural attitudes militate against women going out to work unless the family lacks sustenance.
    • Families prefer educated mothers to invest time in teaching their kids.

Conclusion: Need of the hour is new forms of social persuasion, which must go with credible assurances of gender equity in every sphere.