INDIAN WOMEN - ASPIRATIONS IGNORED
On April 14th 2023 the Indian population is expected to rise 1.4 billion the milestone is symbolic, providing the nation with a unique opportunity to boost the economy. Amid Global Economic Crisis India got an opportunity with a high proportion of working age citizens to dependents bringing India in a bright spot. The population expansion has been reflected in the growth of India’s economy recently displacing the UK as the world’s fifth biggest largest economy. The State Bank of India predicts that India will be the world’s third largest economy in 2029 propelled by a huge working age population. The factors that paly in India’s economic growth including shifting manufacturing patterns as firms turn away from China and invest more in secondary destinations, including the world’s largest democratic state. Data suggest that India could have a golden period between 2020 to 2040 if the demographic dividend is harnessed properly, this is the period during which the working age ratio will peak. “Harnessing” is the key word here. India needs a healthy, educated, skilled and willing economically active population. Some of the initiatives the state has been pushing ahead to enhance employability and reduce imports are structural in nature that is land and labor reforms take time to bear results on the other scale Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme rolled out to attract companies in key sectors including IT hardware and Automotive production.
The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) expects the Indian retail industry to grow at 9-10 percent each year over the course of the next decade and will be worth a staggering US$2 trillion by 2032. Strong domestic consumption will likely be the main driving force behind economic growth in 2023 this will also mitigate the impact of slowing global demand. As the domestic economy is also driving formalization and is enhancing trends like e-commerce adoption. India has the potential to create 287 gigatons of carbon space for the world, a figure that amounts to half of the global carbon budget requited to limit warming to 1.5 degree Celsius. According to the reports India may attract investments worth US$10 billion in the low-carbon energy segment this year. India aims to be carbon neutral by 2070 National carbon market will likely be launched within the year. Iron steel, cement, refineries and fertilizers products are among sectors that will be assigned emission quotas. Energy infrastructure investments will also contribute to the growth of the construction sector in India. The industry is expected to grow at an annual average growth of 6.2 percent from 2023 to 2026.
SHRINKING WORKFORCE OF WOMEN
Despite outgrowing of population, the participation of women in workforce or representation of India’s formal and informal workforce in 2022 is down comparatively 27% in 2005. Data shows less than third of Indian women are working or actively seeking work are falling. There are numerous reasons for the shortfall from marriage to child care, domestic worker to skills and educational gaps, higher household incomes, safety concerns and lack of jobs. Improving access to quality education, training programs and skills development is vital to boosting employment opportunities for women and girls are the major issue the state face challenges. 20% of women of working age are indeed working, reflecting concerns around the implementable skills within their education. Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked states to use systems such as flexible working hours to retain women in the labor force saying the country could achieve its economic goals faster it is made use of “women power”. Most Indian women are in low skilled work such as farm and factory labor and domestic help sectors hard hit by covid. The study founds public programs like the government skills development scheme which trained more than 300,000 women in 2021-2022 as promising initiatives but they say more needs to be done especially for women still feeling the economic impacts of the covid 19 pandemic.
CONTEMPORARY WOMEN & THEIR NEEDS
As of 2023 in a scale of 100% at least 50% of the women are educated and capable of participating in the workforce. Despite progress in education, improved health women are actively seeking work but majority of the economic survey shows participation rate of female labor force is unreported. The absence of women from the labor market reduces productivity and leads to income inequality. Gender Discrimination, Patriarchy, Marriage Child birth and most important of all is taking care of house hold falls under the burden of women. Even today many Indian women are facing this issues and the major reasons for the fall of women labor force is the sole participation in the house hold chores. None of the Ministries of Indian Government spoken about the issue of women handling both outside and inside. Be it congress or the BJP, even the national parties have not reported the importance of dual household responsibilities. Women has to handle everything both home and work there is no exception for them and majority of the women who are educated are forced to work as a part time worker because of this. Its high time to teach men the importance of sharing workload inside the home.
“Freedom, Work, Friends, Colleagues, expressing skills, Having own Money are the dreams of many Indian women” – All these can be achieved only if we share the work both inside and out.