IIMA report on women's empowerment points to challenges posed by unpaid domestic labor in India

By A Representative

The Gender Centre at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) has released a pivotal report shedding light on the state of women’s empowerment across India. This study focuses on the subnational (district) level in alignment with Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5), which aims to promote gender equality.

The report, titled “Women’s Empowerment at the Subnational Level: Towards Achieving Gender Equality (SDG 5),” was launched by Professor Satish Deodhar, Dean (Faculty), and Professor Vidya Vemireddy, Chairperson of the Gender Centre and a co-author of the study. It introduces the Women Empowerment Index, which provides an in-depth analysis of women's empowerment across various districts in India, offering new data and insights to further gender equality initiatives.

Utilizing a comprehensive database from trusted sources, the report evaluates women’s empowerment across four key areas essential for achieving SDG 5:

1) Decision-making autonomy and physical mobility,

2) Control over financial resources and economic empowerment,

3) Educational and informational empowerment, and

4) Work-life balance.

These domains reflect the diverse facets of women's empowerment, including decision-making capabilities, financial independence, and the balance between professional and domestic responsibilities. By examining district-specific data rather than broader state-wide trends, the report highlights the distinct challenges women face in various regions. These challenges range from limited access to education and economic stability to difficulties in achieving a sustainable work-life balance.

The analysis draws on data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) and NFHS-5 for women aged 15 to 49 across 705 districts, revealing a complex and varied landscape of women's empowerment.

Key findings from the report include:

In 67.5% of the districts, women reported progress in decision-making and mobility. There has been a notable rise in women's roles in decisions related to healthcare, household expenses, and the management of husbands' income, with increased percentages of women making decisions independently or jointly.
The ownership rights of women over assets such as land or housing rose from 29.09% in NFHS-4 to 35.00% in NFHS-5.
Despite improvements in literacy rates, only 46.1% of districts noted educational empowerment, and just 32.25% of women felt they achieved work-life balance, pointing to ongoing challenges posed by unpaid domestic labor.
The proportion of women completing higher education increased from 11.43 per 100 women in NFHS-4 to 14.42 per 100 women in NFHS-5, while primary and secondary education statistics showed modest improvements.
Engagement with mass media saw a rise, increasing from 69.12% in NFHS-4 to 76.24% in NFHS-5, indicating greater exposure among women to various media platforms.

During the report's launch, Professor Satish Deodhar emphasized the importance of men's involvement in household responsibilities to facilitate work-life balance for both genders. He noted, “Of the four parameters studied, work-life balance shows the least progress. Only about 32% of women reported they managed work-life balance effectively. Women's participation in the workforce is closely tied to men sharing household duties. The lack of equal household responsibility hinders women's engagement in the labor force. This report serves both as a measure of progress and a guide for future interventions aimed at enhancing women's empowerment.”

Professor Vidya Vemireddy highlighted the initiative's significance, stating, “At the Gender Centre, our goal is to provide a replicable methodology that allows various stakeholders to generate localized insights. This data-driven approach is crucial for tracking progress in women's empowerment and gender equality at local levels in adherence to SDG 5.”

The launch was complemented by a panel discussion on 'Women’s Workforce Participation,' featuring experts including Meha Patel from Zydus Foundation, Dr. Ranjitha Puskur from the International Rice Research Institute, Amrita Kumar from Dayal Group, and Rumjhum Chatterjee from the CII Centre for Women Leadership.

Additionally, a stakeholder dialogue titled “Realising Women’s Potential in Agri-food Systems” was held, addressing the specific challenges faced by rural women in agriculture and exploring transformative solutions to empower them across different regions of India.

Comments

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Women's rights leaders told to negotiate with Muslimness, as India's donor agencies shun the word Muslim

By A Representative Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has sharply criticized donor agencies engaged in nongovernmental development work, saying that they seek to "help out" marginalizes communities with their funds, but shy away from naming Muslims as the target group, something, he insisted, needs to change. Speaking at a book release function in Delhi, he said, since large sections of Muslims are poor, they need political as also social outreach.

Sardar Patel was on Nathuram Godse's hit list: Noted Marathi writer Sadanand More

Sadanand More (right) By A Representative In a surprise revelation, well-known Gujarati journalist Hari Desai has claimed that Nathuram Godse did not just kill Mahatma Gandhi, but also intended to kill Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Citing a voluminous book authored by Sadanand More, “Lokmanya to Mahatma”, Volume II, translated from Marathi into English last year, Desai says, nowadays, there is a lot of talk about conspiracy to kill Gandhi, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, but little is known about how the Sardar was also targeted.

Weaponizing faith? 'I Love Muhammad' and the politics of manufactured riots

By Syed Ali Mujtaba* A disturbing new pattern of communal violence has emerged in several north Indian cities: attacks on Muslims during the “I Love Muhammad” processions held to mark Milad-un-Nabi, the birthday of Prophet Muhammad. This adds to the grim catalogue of Modi-era violence against Muslims, alongside cow vigilantism, so-called “love jihad” campaigns, attacks for not chanting “Jai Shri Ram,” and assaults during religious festivals.

Counterview

Search This Blog