‘Atma Nirbhar Naari’?

The pandemic and the ensuing economic crisis are subjects of grave concern to individuals, enterprises and the government. While we await the decline in the number of Covid-19 cases and the gradual revival of the economy, it is necessary to work on the long-term strategies to strengthen our economy and ensure its sustained growth.

The government initiative ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’, to boost the domestic manufacturing, thereby reducing the reliance on imports, is one step in this direction. One of the areas that can be looked at is, development of human resources. Currently, certain sections of society are grossly under represented. The enterprises are already seeking to create a diverse, collaborative and creative workforce, in order to successfully cater to their diverse customer base. D&I (Diversity and Inclusion) is no longer just a HR program, but a strategy to create a super productive workforce comprising of talented individuals belonging to different races, religion, genders and abilities. The topic of D&I has a much wider scope, but let us focus here on the fair inclusion of women in the formal sector.

Most of the working women are a part of the unorganized sector. Despite women accounting for a nearly half of our population, almost every industry in India employs more men than women. On an average, 73% of our total workforce comprises of men, as compared to the global average of 58%. The primary reasons for this skewed employment ratio, are social and cultural. Typically, women are expected to handle the household duties and family responsibilities, alongside managing their professional work. This results in women dropping out at various stages of life such as after marriage, child birth, relocation or a family contingency. Thus, despite having a higher representation at the entry level, the number of women employees start to dwindle at the middle management level, with an abysmal 8.5% representation in the senior management.

Inherent biases prevent businesses from hiring women, giving them challenging roles and evaluating them on merit. Surprisingly, not only the men, but women carry biases about themselves too. Due to the social conditioning, women consider themselves to be less competent than men and tend to be self-critical. It is ironical, because studies have shown that the women are good at problem solving, multi-tasking, thinking beyond the boundaries, good at handling pressure and tend to be more empathetic. Men and women have different abilities, which can be leveraged to increase the productivity of businesses and uplift the economy, on the whole. Today, organisations are providing products and services to a wide range of customers that comprises of a large number of women. It is critical to include women in order to understand the customer needs and introducing customized and creative products and services.

According to a study that was presented by the IMF Chief, Christine Lagarde, at the World Economic Forum 2018, the Indian economy could add 27% to its real GDP, if it can raise the participation of women to the existing level of men. The Government and the enterprises can join forces to include more women in the workforce, across all the industries. Needless to say, the support should start at the grassroot level, beginning with the family members. Sharing of the household responsibilities among all the family members, can be an excellent starting point. At the corporate level, the leaders can help nurture their talents and skills by offering more challenging roles and having a fair evaluation mechanism for all the employees. The government can incentivise businesses for the hiring and development of women employees. Last, but not the least, women should exhibit more confidence and start making important decisions, whether in the board room or about their own finances.

The walk towards an equal representation and inclusion, is a long one. It is well worth to remember that the road leads to prosperous households, productive and profitable businesses and the economic development of our nation.