English Lesson Achieving Gender Equality in India and summary notes.

1. Achieving Gender
Equality in India

3. Smriti Sharma is a lecturer in economics at
Newcastle University Business School, UK.
Her fields of specialization are development
economics, labour economics, and behavioural
economics.
Her research focuses on two areas. The first is on
importance of behavioural traits and socioemotional
skills as both predictors and outcomes in the
of economic development, while the second is
research on caste and gender-based discrimination.

5. Discrimination against women and girls is a pervasive and
long-running phenomenon that characterizes Indian society at
every level.
India’s progress towards gender equality, measured by its
position on rankings such as the Gender Development
Index has been disappointing, despite fairly rapid rates
of economic growth.
In the past decade, while Indian GDP has grown by around
6%, there has been a large decline in female labor force
participation from 34% to 27%. The male-female wage gap has
been stagnant at 50% (a recent survey finds a 27% gender pay
gap in white-collar jobs).

6. Crimes against women show an upward trend, in
particular brutal crimes such as rapes, dowry deaths, and
honor killings. These trends are disturbing as a natural
prediction would be that with growth comes education and
prosperity, and a possible decline in adherence to
traditional institutions and socially prescribed gender roles
that hold women back.

7. A preference for sons
Cultural institutions in India, particularly those of
patrilineality (inheritance through male descendants) and
patrilocality (married couples living with or near the
husband’s parents), play a central role in perpetuating gender
inequality and ideas about gender-appropriate behavior.
A culturally ingrained parental preference for sons -
emanating from their importance as caregivers for parents in
old age - is linked to poorer consequences for daughters.

8. The dowry system, involving a cash or in-kind payment from
the bride’s family to the groom’s at the time of marriage, is
another institution that disempowers women. The incidence
of dowry payment, which is often a substantial part of a
household’s income, has been steadily rising over time across
all regions and socioeconomic classes.
This often results in dowry-related violence against women by
their husbands and in-laws if the dowry is considered
insufficient or as a way to demand more payments.

9. These practices create incentives for parents not to have
girl children or to invest less in girls’ health and
education. Such parental preferences are reflected in
increasingly masculine sex ratios in India. In 2011, there
were 919 girls under age six per 1000 boys, despite sex
determination being outlawed in India.
This reinforces the inferior status of Indian women and
puts them at risk of violence in their marital households.
According to the National Family and Health Survey of
2005-06, 37% of married women have been victims of
physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their spouse.

11. Affirmative action
There is clearly a need for policy initiatives to empower
women as gender disparities in India persist even against
the backdrop of economic growth.
Current literature provides pointers from policy changes
that have worked so far. One unique policy experiment in
village-level governance that mandated one-third
representation for women in positions of local leadership
has shown promising results.

12. Evaluations of this affirmative action policy have found that
in villages led by women, the preferences of female residents
are better represented, and women are more confident in
reporting crimes that earlier they may have considered too
stigmatizing to bring to attention.
Female leaders also serve as role models and raise
educational and career aspirations for adolescent girls and
their parents.
Behavioral studies find that while in the short run there is
backlash by men as traditional gender roles are being
challenged, the negative stereotype eventually disappears.
This underscores the importance of sustained affirmative
action as a way to reduce gender bias.

13. Another policy change aimed at equalizing land inheritance
rights between sons and daughters has been met with a
more mixed response. While on the one hand, it led to an
increase in educational attainment and age at marriage for
daughters, on the other hand, it increased spousal conflict
leading to more domestic violence.
Improvements in labor market prospects also have the
potential to empower women. An influential randomization
study found that job recruiter visits to villages to provide
information to young women led to positive effects on their
labor market participation and enrolment in professional
training.

14. This also led to an increase in age at marriage and
childbearing, a drop in desired number of children,
and an increase in school enrolment of younger girls
not exposed to the programmed.
Recent initiatives on training and recruiting young
women from rural areas for factory-based jobs in cities
provide economic independence and social autonomy
that they were unaccustomed to in their parental
homes.

15. Getting to parity
For India to maintain its position as a global growth leader,
more concerted efforts at local and national levels, and by the
private sector are needed to bring women to parity with men.
While increasing representation of women in the public spheres
is important and can potentially be attained through some form
of affirmative action, an attitudinal shift is essential for women
to be considered as equal within their homes and in broader
society.
Educating Indian children from an early age about the
importance of gender equality could be a meaningful start in
that direction.

16. Summary
Smriti Sharma was born on and brought up in India.
She completed her Ph.D. at Delhi school of Economics.
Now she is a lecturer in economics at Newcastle University
Business School, England. Her research interests are in
behavioural economics, development economics and
labour economics. She also works on the topics related to
caste and gender discrimination. The essay deals with
how we can achieve gender equality in India and what
works and what doesn’t works for it.

17. Natural prediction is different from statistics. It
depends on the simple word of mouth and the other
depends on existing reality. Natural prediction is, women
and men in the modern times have almost become equal in
every field. Even government gives more priority to girls in
educational institutions, jobs and legislative institutions. As
a result, the number of girls in schools and colleges and the
number of working women are increasing. But the statistics
disapproved these natural predictions. The Gender
Development Index shows that gender equality is facing
many hurdles. In the past decade Indian GDP grew by
around 6%, but there has been decline in female labour
force participation from 34% to 27%. The male-female wage
gap was stagnant at 50% and a recent survey says that the
pay gap is 27% in white collar jobs.

18. In rural India, a female child is treated as loss and
male child is treated as beneficial. It means there is no
change in the attitudes of parents in our country. Our
society is still patriarchal. It means we are still in male
dominated society. Parents think that they would be
looked after them in their old age only by their male
children. So they look down their daughters. They hesitate
to spend more money on girls health and education.
Dowry system is another factor. After the marriage, the
girls has to go to the boy’s house and this almost detaches
her from her parents. This is why parents prefer male
children than female children in Indian society.

19. We should not be satisfied with the GDP growth; there
should not be gender inequality. Half of the population in
our country is women. If they are not given equal
opportunities along with men, the development will be half.
So there should be policy initiatives to empower women in
both rural and urban areas. Some affirmative activities like
local bodies especially villages are headed by women and the
village level governance is meritorious in the hands of
women. Another policy is like establishing land inheritance
rights between sons and daughters. Some factories and
companies are visiting villages to offer women training and
job opportunities. Such affirmative action gives women
economic independence and social autonomy.

20. India is neither completely traditional nor totally
modern. Besides, it is a large country. When the government
made a rule that both boys and girls can inherit their
parent’s properties, there were catcalls from the people who
were treading the traditional path. Recently the Supreme
Court of India declared the same in a judgement, people
were silent. Now they are prepared to divide their property
between their children equally. Still traditional families are
unwilling to send women to go out and work, but their
economic constraints are convincing them to respond
positively. Thus we can say that these can promote gender
equality.

21. Gender equality enables women to organize themselves to
increase their self-confidence and it provides greater autonomy or at
least equivalent with men. I think Telangana has become the first
state to introduce compulsory gender education at the graduate level.
The government introduced a new book. The editors of the book didn’t
repeat gender stereotypes in their bilingual textbook and title of the
book is “Towards a World of Equals.” The book acknowledges women
writers and women’s contributions to society, economics and politics.
Any change through education is one of the strongest ways to social
change. So the government took this step. The Telangana government
felt that women are the soft targets for troublesome men. To check
the crimes against women, the government introduced ‘SHE teams’.
Women police would be working to nab the eve-teasers and stickers
in crowded areas and gives women security.

22. There are many hindrances to achieve gender equality
in India. In rural India, a female child is treated as loss and
male child is treated as gain. It means there is no change in
the attitudes of parents in our country. Our society is still
patriarchal and we are still in male dominated society.
Gender inequality in India is a multifaceted issue. Though
the constitution of India grants men and women equal
rights, gender disparities still remain. There are parents who
are unwilling to divide their properties equally among their
girl child and boy child. Thy want their boy child to inherit
their property. Attitudinal change is the biggest contribution
in this matter.

23. The efforts to achieve gender equality in Indian should
start from home. First of all listen to the girls and women
who are at home, and take their opinions, feelings and
thoughts. Don’t exclude them. Many men feel that an
advice of a woman is not worthy. Stop child marriages as it
can spoil their health, education and social awareness.
Empower mothers as usually mothers don’t like to hamper
the growth og their girl children. Empowering mothers on
the community level, there should be enhancement in girl’s
education, health and independence. If once all the
mothers are educated, you can see changes in gender
equality.

24. Gender equality is very much necessary. Half of the
population is women. If there is gender inequality, only
men would study and work. If women don’t get education
and they are not in work force, they will have to confine
themselves to their homes. Consequently only half of the
world develops, economy falls, production comes down
and there will be shortage of working hands. Thus for
comprehensive development, gender equality is necessary.
When we empower women as leaders, decision makers,
law makers and entrepreneurs, there will be community
and economic development.

25. A survey says that gender stereotypes affect
children’s sense and self from the very young age. It also
changes behaviour, study choices, ambitions and
attitudes about relationships. It is said that boys receive
eight percent more attention in the classroom than girls.
At their homes, girls receive eleven percent less pocket
money than boys. This may look odd, but is true. Gender
inequality promotes discrimination, violence against
women at home and outside. The society becomes a
better society when there is gender equality, otherwise,
we have to remember the quotation of George Orwell, “All
animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than
others.”