Women worse off in India than in Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka

India ranks lower than its poorer South Asian neighbours Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka on gender development because of lower life expectancy among women and a wide gap between the incomes of men and women, according to the UN’s annual human development report released on Thursday.

Pakistan is the only country in the region that scored lower than India on the Gender Development Index (GDI) introduced for the first time in the flagship Human Development Report (HDR), which is carefully watched by governments and policy-makers across the world.

The index ranked India 132 out of 148 countries on the gender development index based on average years schooling, life expectancy at birth and gross per capita national income, even lower than poor African countries such as Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The numbers suggest that higher economic growth does not lead to social empowerment of all.

“The indicators show that south Asia lags behind even sub-Saharan Africa ... the countries need to institutionalise mechanisms to ensure that even women get their due,” the report said. 

The report found that the per capita income of men in India is about four times higher than that of women while Bangladeshi men earn twice as much as women and men in Nepal are paid about 80% more.

India also scores lower on gender development because of lower education levels of women. Only about one-fourth of women reach high school while more than half of the country’s men make it to the same level. The report found political participation of women in India is also lower than some South Asian countries, with just 10% of parliamentary seats held by women compared with one-fifth in Nepal and Bangladesh.

India’s overall ranking in the index remained unchanged at 135 out of 187 countries.

73% of Rajasthan women are jobless: Census

State government may have been advocating economic empowerment for women, but 73% of total women in the age group of 15-59 years are non-workers, says 2011 census data released by home minister Rajnath Singh on July 17. Of 1.90 crore women in this age group, only 52 lakh are employed in Rajasthan. The of male workforce, which comes to 67%, is also less impressive when compared to neighboring states.

This figure also indicates that in the most productive age group of 20-39 years, only 30% of women are earning bread for their families. This group has 1.03 crore women with 30 lakh working as main workers, who are those working full time round the year and contributing to the family income. Another striking feature of the report says that 11 lakh women in the state are seeking jobs but either they are not finding jobs or societal patterns are not allowing them to work.

While deciphering the phenomena, Vijayvir Singh, an economics professor in Rajasthan University and visiting faculty at International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, said, "Our studies also say that unemployment among women is also due to societal taboo on sending women away for jobs outside state or even intra-state migration for that matter."

This explains that higher percent of urban unemployment exists among women here as compared to other states. Here, in urban centres, 54% women are working as main workers with quite a higher percent of access to higher education and opportunities.

Ragini Sharma, who completed her engineering in 2013 from a reputed college in Jaipur, is now a homemaker and dependent on her husband. "I was encouraged to pursue engineering to have a good career but to get a good suitor for marriage, such technical degree plays a decisive role," said Sharma.

Sudhir Varma, former IAS officer and director of Shivcharan Mathur School of Social Policy, said, "I am not surprised by the figures. This has been the fate of women in most of the states. It also speaks volumes about the non-friendly working environment for women in the state. Neither do they have special protection in labour laws nor do we have any representation of women in the labour unions." Also, most of the women in rural areas are engaged in different phases of agriculture fields which is purely an unorganized sector.

Employment status

Working population in divisional headquarters

Male Female

Jaipur4,60,85864,338

Ajmer2,06,47527,911

Udaipur 1,77,33091,454

Bharatpur1,50,03760,421

Jodhpur2,30,05152,878

Bikaner1,79,34326,642

Kota1,00,93426,414

* These are main workers and not marginal or non-workers

2. Women breadwinners

Main workersWorked for less than 90 days Worked for less than 180 days

Rural 46,22,6918,56,00039,11,847

Urban6,57,8144,64,633 2,52,534

3. Unemployed population in Rajasthan

Male 1,72,53,921

Female2,14,08,261

Total3,86,62,182

Jaipur stands last in working women data

State's biggest urban centre Jaipur also presents a sorry picture with just 64,338 women being employed as main workers or working in the organized sector out of 19.20 lakh in the age group of 15-59 years, says 2011 census data, released by home minister Rajnath Singh recently. This means that only 3% women in the state capital are employed in organized sector, which is the lowest in all seven divisional headquarters.

The city may be fast expanding as a Metro by means of infrastructure development but when it comes to social indicators it is the worst in the state. The city gives 4.60 lakh jobs to its men in the government and private sector (organized) but when it comes to women it only gives 64,338 jobs. That means there is a difference of 4 lakh jobs between the two genders that too when sex ratio is 910 and literacy levels is 64.3%.

Another 4.4 lakh women in the state capital are engaged in marginal jobs, which are not permanent and last till 180 days in a year. Of this figure, 2.9 lakh women work for less than 3 months of 90 days and 1.54 lakh for 180 days, reveals 2011 census data. Even if opportunities are available for women, it is the deep-rooted patriarchal society acting as a deterrent for them.

Ankita Sharma, a native of Ajmer, who completed her mass communication in 2012 from IIS University, has switched five jobs in 2 years due to her marriage, distance problems, late working hours and better opportunity. Her average is 5 months of working in a year. It explains that even after attaining a technical degree our traditional conventions in the state don't allow girls to give priority to career.

"Even if the family is cooperative, the mindset in most of the companies is such that they find women unfit to work barring fields like teaching. Another reason which puts us on the backfoot of taking up jobs in the outskirts is the sense of no security," said Sharma, who is looking for a job in the heart of the city to have an access to public transport. City has 2.38 lakh people in the age group of 15-59 years seeking jobs including 1.2 lakh women as main and marginal workers but were unemployed, said survey.

Similar is the situation in other cities in the state. Next to Jaipur is Ajmer with 2.06 lakh working male population. The city recorded difference of 1.80 lakh between male and female working members. Overall working population is 48.3% of the total 3.94 crore populations in the same age group. Government of India has defined 15-59 years age group as those who can work as skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers.

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Why We are so weak?

Why only male child?

According to census 2011 which pegged population of India at 1.21 billion, up 17.4% from 2001, the over sex ratio has improved from 932.91 females per 1000 male in 2001 to 940.27 in 2011, the highest recorded sex ratio since the 1971 census.
This can be explained by the greater natural longevity of women and improvements in health care over the years. But the deeply disturbing part of thestatistics is that 914.23 girls were born for every 1,000 boys in the age group 0-6, compared with 927.31 for every 1,000 boys in the 2001 census.
This is the worst child sex ratio in the history of the country since independence. This steep decrease in the child sex ratio has rung alarm bell across the country. Thistrend and scale of decline in rising India is shocking.
It can only be explained by the deadly application of the ‘son preference' on a growing scale — through the instrumentality of sex-selective abortion, or female foeticide. Female infanticide is also to blame for this decline.
In parts of India, sons are traditionally viewed as the main breadwinners who willtake care of the family, continue the familyname, and perform the last rites of the parents - an important ritual in many faiths.
But daughters are often seen as a burden - not just because of the worry of having to pay a substantial dowry to get them married off, but also due to the need to protect their virginity, which often brings disrepute to the family if lost before marriage.
Attempts to tackle female foeticide through bans on sex-determination tests imposed by the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act have been largely ineffective, with the number of cases registered nationwide reaching just 123 in 2009 according to the National Crime Records Bureau

'Ban Bossy' creator brings her special brand of feminism to India

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer and the force behind the “Ban Bossy” campaign, is now educating women in Indiahow to be leaders.

Naturally, her first suggestion is to not be bossy.

The World Bank estimates that as of 2012 (the latest year data is available), just 29 percent of women in India over the age of 15 are working, but thankfully they now have Sandberg to tell them how to increase that percentage. By comparison, 57 percent of women in the U.S. over the age of 15 are working.

You’re not working because you’re bossy at work, or something. Sandberg told the women that men get to where they are based on their skills but with women, they are perceived as only succeeding because “either she worked hard or got lucky.”1. Don’t be bossy

Yes, that’s how every business everywhere looks at women. And what’s wrong with thinking someone worked hard? We certainly all think Sandberg achieved her success not because of luck but because of hard work and talent (is talent sexist? I don’t know).

Sandberg said not to view a woman’s success as being bossy, but as her having “executive leadership skills.”

That’s right, only male bosses can be jerks. Female bosses are just executively leading you. Hashtag equality.

2. Safety first

Sandberg is correct to note that safety in the workplace is necessary for women to succeed, and noted that India’s “zero tolerance” policy on violence is a step in the right direction.

“No country will reach its potential till all women reach their potential,” Sandberg said.

So odd then that Sandberg’s campaign revolves around making women fear a particular word.

3. Women work harder than men

“Most women in India work almost 10 times more than their husbands,” Sandberg said.

Sandberg spoke about the difficulties that women in India have trying to balance home and work lives. That sounds just like America.

Sandberg also didn't provide any evidence of that statement, so it's difficult to check, but given Sandberg's history of using questionable data to support her claims of gender bias, I have my doubts.

4. Helping husbands

“If you want to be nice to your wife, don’t buy her flowers, but do the laundry,” Sandberg said.

Go ahead and crash the floral industry, I’m sure they’ll make it somehow.

5. Don't think about your baby until you give birth

Are you about to have a kid? Cool, but you don't need to think about it until you're in the delivery room. Until then, stay focused on your job, your baby can wait.

Then, just leave it home and go right back to work, no reason to disrupt your life to take care of it.

Lovely advice, Sandberg.

PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi: No, Women Can't Have It All

In an unusually frank interview, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi said she doesn't think that women can "have it all," adding that a career requires women to sacrifice some aspects of motherhood.

"I don't think women can have it all. I just don't think so," she told David Bradley, owner of the Atlantic Media Company, at the Aspen Ideas Festival earlier this week. "We pretend we have it all. We pretend we can have it all," Nooyi, who has been married 34 years and has two daughters, said.

And every day you have to make a decision about whether you are going to be a wife or a mother; in fact, many times during the day you have to make those decisions. And you have to co-opt a lot of people to help you. We co-opted our families to help us. We plan our lives meticulously so we can be decent parents. But if you ask our daughters, I'm not sure they will say that I've been a good mom. I'm not sure. And I try all kinds of coping mechanisms.

As an example, Nooyi explained she had to usually skip a Wednesday morning class coffee with other mothers at her daughter's Catholic school.

My daughter would come home and she would list off all the mothers that were there and say, "You were not there, mom."

The first few times, I would die with guilt. But I developed coping mechanisms. I called the school and I said, "Give me a list of mothers that are not there." So when she came home in the evening she said, "You were not there, you were not there."

And I said, "Ah ha, Mrs. Redd wasn't there, Mrs. So-and-so wasn't there. So I'm not the only bad mother."

PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi addresses the audience at PepsiCo's Annual Shareholders' Meeting in Plano, Texas, in 2010.

IMAGE: PRNEWSFOTO/PEPSICO

Despite such coping mechanisms, Nooyi says there's no way to square a high-pressure career with raising kids.

"My observation, David, is that the biological clock and the career clock are in total conflict with each other. Total, complete conflict. When you have to have kids, you have to build your career. Just as you're rising to middle management, your kids need you because they're teenagers, they need you for the teenage years," she said.

One of Nooyi's solutions was to enlist her employees for help. When her daughter was young and wanted to play Nintendo, for instance, she would call Nooyi's office. A receptionist would run her through a list of questions, including, "Have you finished your homework?" If her daughter said yes, the receptionist would give her permission to play Nintendo for 30 minutes.

In addition to discussing parenting, Nooyi also relayed an anecdote about her own mother. When Nooyi found out she would be named president of PepsiCo in, she says she headed home early — at 10 p.m., instead of midnight — to share the news.

I got home about 10, got into the garage, and my mother was waiting at the top of the stairs. And I said, "Mom, I've got great news for you." She said, "Let the news wait. Can you go out and get some milk?"

I looked in the garage and it looked like my husband was home. I said, "What time did he get home?" She said, "8:00." I said, "Why didn't you ask him to buy the milk?" "He's tired." [...] She said, just get the milk. We need it for the morning. So like a dutiful daughter, I went out and got the milk and came back.

I banged it on the counter and I said, "I had great news for you. I've just been told that I'm going to be president on the Board of Directors. And all that you want me to do is go out and get the milk, what kind of a mom are you?"

And she said to me, "Let me explain something to you. You might be president of PepsiCo. You might be on the Board of Directors. But when you enter this house, you're the wife, you're the daughter, you're the daughter-in-law, you're the mother. You're all of that. Nobody else can take that place. So leave that damned crown in the garage. And don't bring it into the house. You know I've never seen that crown."