Women

• Women Empowerment is the process which confers power on individuals over their own lives, in their society, and in their communities, it is an exercise in enhancing their educational, economic, social, political, and health status
• National Crime Records Bureau 2017 data crimes against women- assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty comprised 21.7%, and rape 7%.
• phases of women’s movement in India 
• Before 20th century
• 1900 to 1950
• 1950 to 1970
• 1970 to 2000
• 2000 to - #Metoo 
• women’s organisations have throughout history played an essential role in women empowerment in ensuring equal rights. They have played not only legal, economic and social roles but also have a historic importance. 
• Health Empowerment
• Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY): maternity benefit programme provides cash transfer (conditional) for expecting and lactating women to compensate for wage loss. fosters care and utilization of institutional services during child birth
• Maternity Care Act: 2017, extending 12 week period to 26 weeks and revising the period of 6 weeks to 8
• Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan (PMSMA): to ensure provision of antenatal care to pregnant women in their 2nd or 3rd trimesters of pregnancy in an institutional set up.
• National Nutrition Mission: To improve the nutritional status of pregnant women, lactating women, adolescent girls and children of 0-6 years, to address the serious issue of stunting, malnutrition, anaemia and low birth weight amongst newborns.
• Mission Indradhanush: to ensure full immunization for women and children. Intensified Mission Indradhanush (lMl) 2017
• Social Security and Empowerment
• Swachh Vidyalaya Initiative: to provide access to toilet facilities separately for girls.
• Swachh Bharat Mission: household-owned and community-owned toilets constructed to stop open defecation.
• Ujjwala Yojana: to distribute 50 million LPG connections to women belonging to BPL families category.
• Pradhan Mantri Awas yojana (PMAY): to provide housing facilities to all by 2022. However, ownership of a house is mandated to be in the name of the woman of the family.
• Passport Rules: permits a woman to either use her father's or mother's name on the application form.
• Working Women Hostels: to ensure safety and convenience of working women.
• Financial Security and Empowerment
• Pradhan Mantri Mudra yojana (PMMY): loans up to Rs.10,00,00 to small entrepreneurs. Major beneficiaries (78 per cent) women entrepreneurs.
• Stand-Up India: to promote economic security and entrepreneurship. banks are mandated to include at least one Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled tribe (ST) borrower and at least one woman borrower per bank branch, for establishing a greenfield business.
• Sukanya Samridhi yojana: part of Beti Bachao Beti padhao campaign- small deposit scheme exclusively for the welfare of the girl child, incentivises parents to create funds to meet the educational need & take care of the marriage expenses of their daughter.
• Mahila E-Haat: bilingual portal provides web based marketing platform to leverage technology for the display of the products/services made/manufactured/ undertaken by the entrepreneurs who were women.
• Domestic Violence
• Every third women, since the age of 15, has faced domestic violence of various forms in the country, reported the National Family Health Survey (NHFS-4).

Sex Selective Abortion

Four States have an SRB equal to or below 840: And­hra Pradesh and Rajasthan (806), Bihar (837), Uttarak­hand (825) and Tamil Nadu (840). While infanticide may have come down, sex selec­itive abortion at scan centres continues as the preferred vehicle for parents (and grandparents) obsessed with son preference.

Preconception prenatal diagnostics technique act 1994 enacted and amended to arm the state to wage a war against sex selective abortion.

• ‘criminalises’ non-maintenance of medical records by obstetricians and gynaecologists and suspend their medical licenses indefinitely.
• enacted to stop female foeticides and arrest the declining sex ratio in India.
• amended in 2003, to improve the regulation of the technology used in sex selection
• basic requirements include the registration of clinics, written consent of the pregnant women, prohibition of communicating the sex of fetus, maintenance of records and creating awareness among the public at large by placing the board of prohibition on sex determination.

Rationale for the stringent provisions in the Act

• Key to prevent female foeticide– non-maintenance of record by sonography and diagnostic centre is a springboard for the commission of the offence of female foeticide
• Relegate the right of life- of the girl child under Article 21 of the Constitution,
• Leads to a cycle of violence against women- A skewed sex- ratio
• Responsibilities of a doctor & medical ethics

Successes

• Increase in registrations of PCPNDT Clinics- from 600 in 2000 to more than 55,000 today.
• Check on advertisements for sex selection- from print media, television and from walls around the country.
• Increase in sex ratio in some states- e.g. Rajasthan from 888 in 2011 census to 950 in 2017-18. Haryana 
• Increased ambit of the law- amendment of 2003 brought ultrasound and other stringent provisions to improve the effectiveness of the act.  

Failures

• Poor reporting under the law
• Poor conviction rate
• Presence of unqualified options- such as quacks, nurses, where people continue to get abortions done
• Overall drop in child sex ratio- for the age group of 0-6 years has declined to 918 girls in 2011 against 927 per thousand boys in 2001.

Way Forward

• local bodies should take a lead in effective implementation
• Help of Anganwadi and ASHA workers to report any suspicious activity
• Doctors and other professional staff at such clinics need to be further senstitised
• schemes such as Beti Bachao Beti Padhao have yielded appreciable results in states like Haryana.
• Awareness among people needs to increase using more such measures so that demand for feticide is itself eliminated.  

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Scheme

• Beti Padhao (BBBP) launched in 2015 at Panipat, Haryana, as one of the flagship programmes to address the declining Child Sex Ratio and related issues of empowerment of women on a life- cycle continuum.
• It is a tri-ministerial convergent effort of Ministries of Women and Child Development, Health & Family Welfare and Education.

Objectives of the Scheme

• Prevent gender biased sex selective elimination
• Ensure survival & protection of the girl child
• Ensuring education and participation of the girl child.

Major components

• Advocacy and Media Communication Campaign
• Multi-Sectoral interventions in selected 405 districts

          

 Achievements of BBBP Scheme

• Improvement in Sex Ratio at Birth, Health and Education
• Attitudinal change: engaged with Community to defy the age old biases against the girl child and introduce innovative practices to celebrate the girl child, such as-
• Use of BBBP logo in popular Indian festivals i.e. Lohri, KalashYatra, Rakhi, Ganesh Chaturdashipandal, festival of flowers etc.
• Collaborating at the level of community for observing the son centric rituals while celebrating the birth of girl child i.e. Kuwapoojan, Thalibajana etc.
• Felicitation of mothers and girl child at community level and in hospitals by Administration to establish the relevance of the girl child.
• Celebration of Beti Janmotsav in each district.

Issues that still remain

• Underutilization of funds: States utilised just 45 per cent of the funds allocated in the last five years (2015-16 to 2019-20). Fourteen States, including Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, have not utilised even half of the total allocation during this period.
• Reduction in budget allocation: Women Child Development Ministry by over 18 per cent in present compared to the last fiscal. Also, there is no allocation earmarked for the BBBP scheme.
• Lack of proper monitoring: incidences of non-compliance with the issued guidelines,
• High dropout rates: average dropout rate of girls was 17.3% at the secondary education level and 4.74% at the elementary level in 2018-19. Also caste based discrimination thrives to push Dalit and Adivasi children, especially girls, out of school.
• Challenges of the post-COVID world: impacted female literacy rates due to issues such as gender-based digital divide, prioritization of education of male child, increased burden of household chores on girls etc.
• Unbalanced expenditure patterns: majority of the expenditure, i.e. about 43% on average for media campaigns at the national level, with another 4% for campaigns at district level. However, only a small proportion, i.e. about 5% each, is allocated for education and health-related interventions.

Way Forward

• Increase planned expenditure allocation for education and health related interventions
• Greater use of mobile technology for monitoring and documentation
• Government must ensure stricter enforcement of the policy guidelines, improve the monitoring mechanisms and incentivize state governments to utilize funds effectively.
• Private sector entities, such as local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) should be on-boarded as long- term partners for the execution of community outreach activities.

Domestic Violence

Reasons/Issues Involved:

• Changing socio- economic relations in urban areas: such as more income of a working woman than her partner, abusing and neglecting in-laws, dowry demands etc.
• Violence against young widows especially in rural areas
• cases of molestation and rape attempts by other family members in joint families.
• Orthodox & Patriarchal mindset- male domination and control over women, male privilege and women’s subordinate status, infertility or desire for male child.
• more likely to experience intimate partner violence if they have low education, exposure to mothers being abused by a partner, abuse during childhood, and attitudes accepting violence, male privilege and women’s subordinate status.

Government Steps taken to prevent domestic violence

• Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005: expanded the definition of domestic violence to include not just physical, but also verbal, emotional, sexual and economic violence.
• domestic relationship" includes married women, mothers, daughters and sisters
• not only protects women who are married but also protects women in live-in relationships, as well as family members including mothers, grandmothers, etc.
• protection against domestic violence, financial compensation
• Right to Secure Housing i.e. right to reside in the matrimonial or shared household, whether or not she has any title or rights in the household.
• magistrate protection order to ensure the abuser doesn't contact or get close to the survivor
• breach of protection order or interim protection order by the respondent as a cognisable and non-bailable offence punishable with imprisonment or fine
• appointment of protection officers and NGOs to provide assistance to the woman for medical examination, legal aid and safe Shelter.
• enshrines principles of the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which India ratified in 1993.
• Dowry Prohibition Act: punishes the taking and giving of dowry- if someone takes, gives or even demands dowry, they can be imprisoned for six months or they can be fined up to Rs 5,000.
• Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code: applies to husbands or relatives of husbands who are cruel to women.

Issues with Domestic violence Act

• Gender biased and not gender neutral: increasing number of false cases. domestic violence against men in India is not recognised by the law.
• Excludes abuses pertaining to martial rape.
• Lack of awareness specially in rural areas where there is more need of such Acts.
• Judicial system resorting to mediation and counselling even in cases of extreme abuse.Insensitivity by male police officers, judicial magistrates during hearings, etc.
• Absence of economic, psychological and support system for victim women.
• Insufficient budgetary allocation to States- the States could not assign ‘Protection Officers’ because of the already overburdened department
• innumerable cases of violence against women go unreported in India's distant villages.

Way forward 

• create a fund available with magistrates and judges passing maintenance orders.
• judicial reforms and increasing the strength of magistrate’s courts
• broader level successive rounds of NFHS surveys create space for deeper understanding of various aspects of domestic violence and for evidence-based policy recommendations.
• NGOs relating to women empowerment should be encouraged to protect women
• Women should be financially empowered
• More sensitivity training to be given to officers concerned at every stage.

Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace 

• Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Home Minister Amit Shah, strengthen the legal framework to prevent sexual harassment at the workplace after #Metoo. Present scenario: Harassment of Women and Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act in 2013, MoWCD which was applicable to government offices, the private sector, NGOs and the unorganised sector.

Need for stricter provisions:

• 2013 Act powers of a civil court to the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) without specifying if the members need to have a legal background.
• only imposed a fine of ₹50,000 on employers for non-compliance with constitution of the ICC.
• Vishaka Guidelines by the Supreme Court in 1997, on which the 2013 Act was based.
• It made employer responsible to prevent or deter acts of sexual harassment at the workplace.

Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition And Redressal) Act, 2013

• defines sexual harassment as “unwelcome acts or behaviour”committed directly or by implication: Physical contact and advances, Sexually coloured remarks, Showing pornography, A demand or request for sexual favours, Any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature.

Provisions 

• lays down the procedures for a complaint and inquiry and the action to be taken.
• mandates every employer constitute an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) at each office or branch with 10 or more employees.
• lays down the procedures and defines various aspects of sexual harassment
• woman can be of any age, whether employed or not, who “alleges to have been subjected to any act of sexual harassment”, that means the rights of all the women working or visiting any workplace, in any capacity, are protected under the Act.

Problems and challenges

•  Nearly half of sexual offences cases not investigated in time as per Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offences(part of CCTNS)
•  Fast track courts to handle rape cases also handling other cases
•  Low conviction rate
•  Poor awareness about intensity of law against crime

Gender Gap In Workforce

Factors responsible for fall in working rates of women

• Maternity: Many women who join the workforce are unable to re-join after having a child.
• Maternity Benefit Act, 2017, which entitles a woman to 26 weeks of paid maternity leave, is becoming a big hurdle as start-ups and SMEs have become reluctant to hire them.
• The increased cost for companies and this may discourage them from hiring women.
• Technology: share of women workers in the agriculture sector dropped from 42% in 2004 -05 to 35.5% in 2011-12 attributed to increased adoption of technology. NSSO, urban males accounted for 16% of India’s population, but held 77% of all jobs in computer-related activities in 2011-12, gender has become a discriminatory factor for certain white-collared jobs.
• gender pay gap - women get 34 per cent less compared to men for performing the same job with same qualifications.
• Concerns about safety and Harassment at work site, both explicit and implicit.
• Higher Education levels of women also allow them to pursue leisure and other non-work activities, all of which reduce female labour force participation.
• Insufficient availability of the type of jobs that provide steady income and allow women to reconcile household duties with work.
• Marriage is a career stopper for majority and is a cultural abhorrence towards women working 
• Social norms about household work are against women’s mobility and participation in paid work, Childbirth and taking care of elderly parents or in-laws
• cultural baggage about women working outside the home 
• increase in family incomes are there, due to the cultural factors, women leave the work to take care of the family and avoid the stigma of working outside.

Way forward

• Non-farm job creation for women: generate education-based jobs in rural areas in the industrial and services sectors
• state governments policies for the participation of rural women in permanent salaried jobs.
• generate awareness to espouse a positive attitude towards women among the public
• Local bodies, with aid from state governments, should open more crèches in towns and cities
• Supply side reforms to improve infrastructure and address other constraints to job creation
• Higher social spending, including in education, can lead to higher female labour force participation by boosting female stocks of human capital.
• Skilling the women:
• Initiatives such as Skill India, Make in India, and new gender-based quotas from corporate boards to the police force can spur a positive change. But we need to invest in skill training and job support.
• private sector For example: Unilever’s Shakti program, which has trained more than 70,000 rural women in India as micro-entrepreneurs
• Equal pay: equal remuneration for work of equal value that is protected by Indian law must be put to actual practice. Improved wage-transparency and gender neutral job evaluation is required
• Assuring safe access to work: improve existing transport and communication networks and provide safe accommodation for women who travel to or has migrated for work.
• income tax benefits to women bold and effective step to increasing India’s female workforce participation.
• political empowerment representation in Parliament and in decision making roles
• Gig Economy provides women flexible work options to pursue their career while not missing important milestones in their family lives

Niti aayog strategy for women @75

Way Forward

• Craft legislations for women engaged in the unorganized sector to ensure at least a minimum set of gender-sensitive provisions
• Reward villages/districts with an equal child sex ratio through information, education, and communication (IEC) campaigns.
• Generate gender-disaggregated data and rank states on key indicators.
• Create policies and guidelines, on priority, to enhance access to credit by women entrepreneurs
• Prioritize groups of women farmers seeking to lease land, water bodies, etc., at the village panchayat level.
• Specially focus on skill development among women, particularly for activities such as soil conservation, social forestry, dairy development etc.
• Extending the Post Graduate Indira Gandhi Scholarship for Single Girl Child scheme to families with two girl children.
• Promote skill development among women in non-traditional work such as electronic technicians, electricians, plumbers, taxi drivers etc.
• Ensure mobility, security and safety for all women.

With more than 75% women not contributing to the economy, the nation is not only losing on the economic part but also the development of 50% of our population. It is thus high time to talk of the gender dividend along with the demographic dividend.