‘Indian women hardly have any say in decision making’

NEW DELHI: Women empowerment may be the key slogan for every government since independence, but the findings of a government report show women still lag way behind men in having a say in decision making and in their participation in economic activity.
The Central Statistics Office (CSO)’s publication “Women and Men in India 2014” found that women occupied seven out of 45 ministerial positions in the Narendra Modi’s council of ministers, which is a little more than 15%, against around 10% in 2004.
In 2014 general election, only 62 females have been elected constituting more than 11% share in the 16th Lok Sabha.
Though female participation in elections went up from 56% in 15th Lok Sabha elections to 66% in the current one (16th Lok Sabha) in 2014, the male participation also improved from 60% to 67% during the same period.
Out of 62 women parliamentarians, 20 are in the age group 41-50. As far as qualifications and professions go, 34% of the women MPs are social & political workers and 44% post graduates. Among male members, the maximum (31%) are from an agricultural background, 42% are graduates & only 29% are postgraduates.

Women’s participation is much less than desirable in states, where women have only an 8% share in legislative assemblies and 4% in legislative councils as on August 2014.
In panchayati raj institutions, overall 46.7% women are present with maximum 58.6% in Jharkhand and minimum 32.3% in Goa as on 1st March, 2013. Observers felt that the better representation for women in local bodies is due to provision for 50% reservation.
In higher judiciary, there were only two women judges out of 30 in the Supreme Court. There were only 58 women judges out of 609 in different high courts with maximum 25% in Delhi high court and no women judge in six high courts as on April, 2014. There were only five women judges out of 88 judges in Allahabad high court while only two against 32 in Andhra Pradesh high court and one against 29 in Kerala high court.
Women are at the receiving end as far as their representation in All-India and Central Group A Services are concerned. Only 14% females were in Indian Administrative Service, 19% in Indian Foreign Services and 12% in Indian Trade Service

Women working at wing in a bike manufacturing plant near Samakhiali, Kutch, Gujarat.
in 2012. While data for Indian Police Services was not available, there were 30% females in Indian Economic Service and 28% in the Indian Forest Service.
The report found that women constitute a little less than the half of the economically active population, but their contribution to economic activity is far low. As per Census 2011, the workforce participation rate for females is 25.51% against 53.26% for males. Rural areas have a better female workforce participation rate of 30.02% compared with 53.03% for males. In urban sector, the participation rate of females trails at 15.44% against 53.76% for males.
The report quoting NSSO survey indicated that the worker population ratio for females in rural areas was 24.8% and 54.3% for males in 2011-12, while in urban areas the ratio is 14.7 for females and 54.6 for males.
The unemployment rate for women in rural area was 2.9% against 2.1% for men while it was 6.6% & 3.2% for women & men in urban areas during 2011-12.
It was revealed that female participation in labour force has remained lower than male participation as most of the women remain engaged in unpaid work, and in case women are employed in paid work, it is mostly in the informal sector.
Women also face a significant wage differential vis-à-vis their male counterparts.