Mallika Dureja
India’s G20 presidency arrives at a crucial and advantageous moment. Countries are attempting to recover more effectively from the crises of the past three years. From Covid-19 to the climate crisis, it is widely acknowledged that the effects of crises are frequently gendered, with women and girls paying the highest price in terms of their safety, livelihoods, and health. The presidency places a significant emphasis on women’s roles and gender equality. Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi has emphasised the urgent need to address critical issues pertaining to women’s access to financial resources, entrepreneurship, and labour force participation.
On the domestic front, the Indian government has decided to place women’s empowerment at the centre of its Atmanirbhar Bharat development agenda, pledging to support their holistic development throughout all phases of life. Since 2014, the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao initiative has led to a 16-point improvement in the sex ratio at birth. Over 70% of microfinance recipients under the MUDRA programme are female. Over 12 million expectant and nursing mothers have benefited from Mission Poshan 2.0, an integrated nutrition support programme. Other measures, such as the establishment of working women’s hostels and the implementation of various skill-development programmes and initiatives to ensure their safety and freedom from violence, demonstrate India’s commitment to ensuring the suraksha, suvidha, and swabhimann of women.
Increasingly, the government acknowledges the significance of nari shakti in effecting significant societal transformation. Simply stated, there is a greater emphasis on the role of women as growth drivers and change agents, as opposed to merely as recipients of development. With India leading the G20 in 2023, the time has come to capitalise on the momentum generated thus far and advance this agenda of women-led development. We anticipate a renewed emphasis on gender equality throughout the G20 agenda and its engagement groups, given that gender is a cross-cutting theme that affects almost all other development prospects.
We look forward to advancing the following concrete actions. First, support digital and financial inclusion for women. Globally, 42% of women and girls do not participate in the formal financial system. Despite progress in rates of financial inclusion, the gender disparity has not shrunk and remains at 7%. Innovations in digital technology, particularly for information and communication, have the potential to accelerate the economic empowerment of women. Yet, a Digital Gender Divide persists, both in terms of access to digital technology and digital education. India has prioritised the digital financial inclusion of women via the Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile (JAM) platform. This has enabled significant social protection programmes to directly reach women and bolstered their economic empowerment. Through the G20, we must examine analogous concrete methods for enhancing the digital and financial inclusion of women.
Second, enhancing women’s capabilities to make them equal development stakeholders. This is essential to facilitate women’s entry into the economy and society and assure their continued participation. Even though education is universally acknowledged as the cornerstone of empowerment, only 49% of the world’s primary schools, 42% of lower secondary schools, and 24% of upper secondary schools have achieved gender parity.
Globally, approximately 1,1 billion women and girls remain unbanked, and many have limited access to digital technologies. Similarly, women perform substantially more unpaid care work in many countries. Therefore, it is imperative that the G20 collaborates and promotes consensus and action regarding the elimination of these long-term structural barriers that women face in their personal and professional lives.
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Thirdly, facilitating the leadership of women at all levels of decision-making. Today, India is served by more than 19 million women in administrative positions, more than 17,000 women elected to Panchayati Raj institutions, and more than 10,000 women in the military. Such an approach to women-led development will be crucial for assuring the inclusion of their unique perspectives, experiences, and leadership styles, which can lead to more inclusive and effective decision-making.
Lastly, it is essential to ensure the long-term viability of the outcomes achieved by multiple initiatives. Investing in the acquisition and sharing of gender-disaggregated data will be crucial for developing targeted interventions and monitoring progress towards gender equality, so gender-disaggregated data systems must be prioritised.
