Jun 5 2017

The moment we think about the future, and as far as 2050, imagery moves to automation, artificial intelligence, robotics, human race being super powerful, and every individual being empowered with choices. In this milieu, gender is often not considered the most exciting topic and is treated as a ‘women’s issue’. It is, however, critical that gender be brought to the forefront of public discourse, as something that impacts society as a whole.

Beyond gender roles, towards gender participation

In India, while we often hark back to mythology and culture to give evidence of the importance and dignity of women, it is a hard fact that India is failing its women today. India was ranked a lowly 108 on the WEF’s Global Gender Gap Report (2015); highlighting the need for specific and concerted efforts to achieve gender equality in the country. Women will have a major role in how the country is shaped – through public policy and business leadership.

The inclusion of women in the democratic process of shaping public policy is critical to ensure fairness and justice in the distribution of benefits and responsibilities between women and men. When more women are involved in public policy making, Governments become more open, democratic and responsive to citizens. Although India has had a woman prime minister, there continue to be grossly insufficient women in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies. The current Lok Sabha has just over 12% women members, against a global average of over 22%. Legislative assemblies of states in the country have, on an average, less than 10% women members. This indicates the need to encourage active participation of women in building the democratic capital of the country. A start has already been made in this direction. The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments mandate a reservation of 33% seats in Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in the country. As a consequence, today, close to 50% of elected representatives in PRIs are women. Numerically, that amounts to more elected women representatives than the rest of the world put together. It is only a matter of a couple of decades that India will have over 40% women members in Lok Sabha and state legislative agencies. This bodes well for the role of women in the future of Indian democracy, and indeed, for Indian democracy itself.