Desperately Seeking Women-Power

June 27, 2023 ~ millennialmatriarchs ~ Leave a comment

The Global Gender Gap Report 2023 is out, and the news is not good for us in India. Well, if you are an untiring optimist who insists on seeing a glass with some drops of water in it as half-full, you will stop me and scold me. For after all, India’s ranking in the list of 146 countries which have been studied, has gone up 8 places, so that we stand at 127^th, up from 135^th last year.

But for me, as I go through the report, I don’t know see how we can take any comfort from this. Even if we are to view ourselves in a comparative light, we need to pause and consider that Nicaragua and Namibia rank at 7^th and 8^th, compared to our 127!

The report measures gender gap on four major dimensions: Economic Opportunities, Education, Health, and Political Leadership.

The first bucket, to quote the report ‘contains three concepts: the (labour) participation gap, the remuneration gap and the advancement gap’. The second bucket of Educational Attainment ‘captures the gap between women’s and men’s current access to education through the enrolment ratios of women to men in primary-, secondary- and tertiary-level education’. The Health and Survival sub-index provides an overview of the differences between women’s and men’s health by looking at sex ratio at birth, and the gap between women’s and men’s healthy life expectancy. The last bucket of Political Empowerment measures the gap between men and women at the highest level of political decision-making through the ratio of women to men in ministerial positions, and the ratio of women to men in parliamentary positions.

If we look at India in terms of these dimensions, less than 30 per cent of women participate in the labour market. Women make up 89 per cent of workers in informal sector, which means they are probably underpaid, do not have job security or any other benefits, and work in unsafe, unhealthy and unregulated conditions. Less than 2 per cent firms in India have female majority ownership, and less than 9 per cent have females in top management positions.

Close to 30 per cent women report having faced gender violence in their lives.

We rank 117^th in terms of percentage of women in Parliament and 132^nd in terms of women in ministerial positions.

That is underwhelming in terms of performance and overwhelming in terms of the task ahead. A practical way to start may be by looking at the factors that are measured to arrive at the rankings. This can probably help a government, an organization and a community and a family work out specific plans and targets.

To get into the details of the employment and economic opportunities segment, the factors include: labour-force participation (including unemployment and working conditions); workforce participation across industries; representation of women in senior leadership; gender gaps in labour markets of the future (including STEM and AI related occupations); gender gaps in skill of the future.

What might that mean for a government? Well, maybe setting targets or incentives/disincentives for public and private sector for employment of women? Importantly government must ensure workplaces, public spaces and transport safe, so that women are able to travel and work without fear. To a large extent, government does walk the talk on gender positions? Many of our Ministries and Departments are headed by women-bureaucrats; the largest public sector bank has been headed by a woman; we have women heading government research labs and scientific institutions, playing a part in our space and nuclear programmes, now full-fledged in the armed forces, etc. But doing this even more aggressively will set an example to the private sector.

What might that mean for a corporation? That they move forward from celebrating Women’s Day to taking a hard look at their policies, systems and culture to see how they can become truly inclusive employers.

What might it mean for educational and training institutions: That they don’t, by action or inaction, deny girls opportunities; that they counsel and encourage them to take up STEM courses and careers.

What does it mean for communities? That they examine their conscious and sub-conscious biases, and understand how these affect their actions; that they make the community safe for girls and women.

And most importantly, what does it mean for a family? That they don’t discriminate against girl-children; that they provide them opportunities; that they don’t belittle their aspirations and abilities; that they don’t deny them their rights; that they help them fight their battles and give them a winner’s mindset.

It’s a long, hard journey. If we aspire to be at least in the top half rather than the bottom half of the ranking,the journey has to begin with every individual—in our hearts, minds and actions, today.

–Meena

https://www.weforum.org/reports/global-gender-gap-report-2023

The Dot that Went for a Walk: Translating a Book on Role Models

December 17, 2019 ~ millennialmatriarchs ~ 1 Comment

My friend Bharathi Kode recounts her experience of translating a book that aims to inspire the younger generation with a new set of role models: Meena

The dot Everything starts with a dot. On a mid-summer day, I got a call from Reema Gupta, who is the co-lead of the Women’s Leadership and Excellence Initiative at Indian School of Business, asking if I could translate the book she had co-authored along with her two friends. The book “The Dot that Went for a Walk” was written in English by Reema and her two friends Sarada Akkineni and Lakshmi Nambiar who have made it a mission to create social change and empower young girls through inspirational stories. Inspired by the quote of artist Paul Klee “A line is a Dot that went for a walk”, the book was titled “The dot that went for a walk”. They wanted the book to be available in regional languages including Telugu.

She said they all were all first time writers and first time publishers. I said ‘And hence, you want a first time translator to do the translation?’ We laughed. And then I asked her how she how she had narrowed down to me as a potential translator. She said they had been searching for translators who are not only good at language but also somebody who shared their vision and would do the work with the same passion that they had. They approached a publishing house called Manchi Pustakam for suggestions, and the head of the publishing house had referred my name for this task. A dot connecting me to another dot J

The book features inspirational life stories of 51 Indian women. It starts with the story of Rani of Jhansi who fought the British, and ends with the story of Avani Chaturvedi, a MIG fighter pilot defending our country. Together they tell the story of the last 200 years of the country. The idea is that the young generation will connect with these role models, be inspired by them, think of career possibilities and fight harder against self-doubt.

I was excited and immediately said ‘yes’ without a second thought. In my area of work, I do interact with children and youth and I know how important it is to expose children to positive role models, especially in this digital age where children are exposed to lot of negative influences. I was not sure how much time and effort it would take for me to translate a book of about 150 pages. But still I committed, as I could see the influence that this book can have on the future of young children.

As a first time translator, it was quite exciting for me. I found translation as difficult as writing a book. At times I wanted to go beyond the ideas, thoughts and imagination of the author. But that was obviously not on. I found it also a great learning exercise. It improved my language skills in both English and Telugu. It helped me to get to know about some inspirational women whom I didn’t know about earlier. It took a lot of time, I had to put in so much effort. But it has been quite a satisfying journey.

The Telugu version was launched in November 2019 by the Missile Women of India Ms. Tessy Thomas, in Hyderabad.

The authors are going way beyond the printed word to get the message across effectively. They are organizing essay competitions, discussions around the book in the schools around Hyderabad to begin with. A content platform called ‘Dot Express’ is also being initiated where young generation can voice their opinions and interact with experts.

Even before it got published, sponsors came forward to distribute the book to 12000 children in govt. schools in Telangana. The journey of the dot has just begun. We have to see what patterns, masterpieces it will create in future.

Great job, Reema, Sarada, Lakshmi and Bharathi! We need many more books like this one!

Making India Safe for Women

October 23, 2018October 23, 2018 ~ millennialmatriarchs ~ Leave a comment

Big names tumbling out of the closet and into disgrace and shame. Every morning and every evening, additions to MeToo.

But workplace sexual harassment is only one part of what women in India have to face. The fundamental issue is ‘Is India safe for women?’

And the answer sadly is ‘No’. It is highly unsafe and becoming increasingly so. What we euphemistically used to call ‘eve teasing’ has been with us for ages. My friends from Kerala recall with horror their college days and how afraid they were to walk alone, to even raise their eyes from the ground or stay late in college. In Delhi of course, it gets more physical with groping hands and lewd gestures.

But now, there are horror stories which one has never heard before. For instance, how many incidents of acid throwing are reported every month? And in most cases, it is because the girl has rejected the boy’s advances.

Mind-shattering reports of abuse of children. Why just children, even infants! Of incest and abuse by fathers and uncles and brothers. Were these always there or is something sick in us growing out of control?

Cell phone camera photos and video clips of girls taken with or without their knowledge or consent are another potent tool in the hands of miscreants. In an example of how technology can be misused, these are passed on through MMS or put up on the website. There are instances of young innocent schoolgirls who have been driven to the edge of insanity and suicide, thanks to some boys in their class taking photos and threatening to circulate them, and blackmailing them into all kinds of activities.

And of course, the classic Pre-natal Determination of Sex—scanning to ascertain the sex of a child, and killing the unwanted girl child. Do we need a better example of how India at once lives in several centuries—the atavistic boy child preference aided by high-tech? So what if such scanning is illegal?

The solution then is not to make an example of one rapist, to go after one high profile editor/film-maker/what have you who has tried to take advantage of girls working for him, or to bring in the moral police. Each incident looks like one deviant exception, but taken together, they form a frightening picture of a society where something is seriously wrong. Why is this happening? Where do we begin to set it right? Whose responsibility is it—the education system, the media, parents, the law makers, the law enforcers….? It is time to introspect and face unpleasant truths.

And then go on to act on the truths we discover.

Otherwise India will be unsafe for one half of its people.

–Meena

Women Who Inspire

September 22, 2018 ~ millennialmatriarchs ~ 1 Comment

‘It is necessary that no matter what section of society she belongs to, every woman has to know three things: one, she has to know her body, how it works, so that nobody can use it or tamper with it against her will. Two, every woman has to have a skill that can generate income for her. This is very important so that she is not dependent on anyone for her survival. And three, every woman should be broadly aware how the democratic structures and institutions of our country work—be it the gram panchayat, the state assembly, the national parliament, or our unions, cooperatives, federations and associations, so that she knows she belongs to them and can someday participate in them.’

mushroom farming

So says Ms. Ela Bhat, in her Introduction to Sudha Menon’s ‘Leading Ladies. Women Who Inspire India’. And when it comes from the wisdom, the gravitas and the experience of Ms. Bhat, we better take it seriously!

‘Leading Ladies’ is a compilation of the life stories of 15 eminent women-achievers. As the author herself says, many of them have been written about quite often—Amrita Patel, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Vinita Bali, etc. But every author and piece does throw some new light, does surface some new angle. And there are some lesser-written about heroines too. I was particularly taken with the stories of Lila Poonawala, Mallika Srinivasan and PT Usha. While the criteria of selection are not spelt out, I don’t think it is much of a point to quibble about–the women featured come from a variety of backgrounds—business, to non-profit work, to sports.

The author has been lucky enough to spend considerable time with each of the featured women, and hence, there is both detail and affection in the writing of the pieces.

Positive stories and stories of achievers are inspirational and important. Especially important are stories of women who fight the odds, break stereotypes, venture into new territories, and come out winners. The book is an easy read, in a story-telling kind of style.

Good weekend or in-flight reading. Read it yourself and gift it to young women you know. And especially, I wish colleges and educational institutions would buy this for their libraries.

–Meena

Leading Ladies. Women Who Inspire India. Sudha Menon. Fortytwo Bookz Galaxy. 2010.