29/10/2020 - Indian Economy

KEY POINTS

·       The viral outbreak has exacted a heavy toll and thwarted our chance of achieving that ambitious target is undeniable. But what is less talked about is the opportunity cost we bear from having too low a proportion of women at work.

·       According to World Bank data, that rate hovered above 30% after India’s economy opened up in 1991, and then peaked at 31.8% in 2005, before slipping to 20.3% this year—among the lowest in the world.

·       Though there has been the odd report of a trend reversal in recent years and months, attributable to a broad crunch in job availability since 2017 and worsened by our covid crisis, there is no getting away from the need to intervene in favour of raising female participation in the economy.

·       As our government weighs a proposal to raise the age after which women can legally marry from 18 to 21, it is tempting to view such a move as a spur for greater female work participation through extended education and an associated delay in child-bearing. Yet, even the current age law is weakly followed.

·       According to Unicef, with over 100 million females who got married before turning 15, India has more children in wedlock than any other nation. So, while longer educational exposure afforded by an upward age revision could help the cause, we also need an effective social campaign that directly addresses hold-backs.

·       Without a shift in India’s observable preference for male offspring, for example, raising women’s minimum age of marriage might perversely also raise the perceived “burden" of a girl child among some families, pushing them to either opt for pre-natal sex selection or flout India’s marital age bar. Social reforms and better law enforcement have far bigger roles to play.

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