The Loss We Made As Society
This is from a facebook post I made when Jacinda Ardern was reelected as Prime Minister of New Zealand
A few days back I heard about Jacinda Ardern getting reelected as New Zealand Prime Minister. I also heard her name in news regarding her effective administration in combating Covid-19 situation and the way her government handled Christchurch Mosque Shootings.
The social oppression of the women started receding in early 19th century in Europe and by the end of World War 1 almost all the countries which we call today as developed had equal voting rights for Women. But, more important was the social barriers lifted on them and creating a safe environment allowing them to participate in active labor force and contribute to the economy of the country.
When I was fifteen years old, one of my neighbour’s mother started a new job as a Teacher in a nearby school as their family was going through some financial crisis. At that time I thought that women are lazy and cannot be independent (like Children are) and hence they don’t go out for work and her family would appreciate it. But, her family detested it and their were frequent quarrels over this in her house. A few days later a guy (unemployed with Rajnigandha in his mouth and who was not even able to clear his class X examinations) was abusing her using the filthiest of the words just because she was working outside for 7–8 hours a day. This was the first time I learnt of the social position and exploitation that women suffer in this country.
Last year I was reading Bridgital Nation: Solving Technology’s People Problem by N. Chandrasekaran (TCS Chairman) and Roopa Purushothaman (a renowned Economist) which was about how to perpetuate technology in India so that even the poorest of the poor is uplifted. One of the point it mentioned that India should work on was to bring more women to active labor force by providing them a safe environment and educating people to give up their social constraints that decrees oppression of women.
I quit reading the book and pondered on the loss India have made by not allowing their women to participate in labor force. I worked out some data on how much percentage of women was unable to participate in women force since 1960s, their percentage growth in participation since then, the extra growth developed countries have seen when women started participating in the economic affairs.
India’s GDP growth since 1960 has been around 7.69% on average. From the data I concluded that India could have clocked an average GDP growth of 9.38% (~22% extra) if women had a free hand in labor market.
Considering this India would have the GDP of 6.71 Trillion USD by the end of 2018. But the nominal GDP of India stands at 2.72 Trillion USD in 2018. That’s a loss of $3.99 Trillion USD in potential GDP. India would have been third largest economy after US and China (currently it is behind Japan, Germany, UK and France). The per-capita income of India would have been $5069 (which actually in 2018 was $2055) and its ranking in world would have been 104 (which was 141 in 2017).
Obviously, this data would have many errors but they can be on both the positive and negative side (though I have been conservative in my analysis). But this Economic Times article mention that India’s GDP would have been 27% higher so you can consider that my research is not completely rubbish.
So I want to highlight few things here:
1. It is a certain that the government should encourage women to join labor force and encourage society to give up their draconian social orthodoxy which discourage women’s participation in active work force.
2. I have seen a number of households dwelling in poverty yet not allowing their women to work. The same conservative nature also affects the economy of a society and in return of the country. Orthodoxy, whether its basis is culture, gender, race or religion undermines economy for the large section of the society.
3. India will never be a successful nation if the exploitation of women does not stop. It is not only about rapes or crime against women; it is about a general outlook of society towards women.
But, our leaders still come up with statements like:
“RAPES WILL STOP IF PARENTS WOULD TEACH SANSKAR TO THEIR DAUGHTERS”
The size of the economy will grow but we will keep making loss because a huge majority of potential women workforce will not be able to get onboard either due to orthodoxy or due to rising crime against them.
To end I would mention a quote by Mahatma Gandhi :
“To call woman the weaker sex is a libel; it is man’s injustice to woman. If by strength is meant brute strength, then, indeed, is woman less brute than man. If by strength is meant moral power, then woman is immeasurably man’s superior. Has she not greater intuition, is she not more self-sacrificing, has she not greater powers of endurance, has she not greater courage? Without her, man could not be. If nonviolence is the law of our being, the future is with woman. Who can make a more effective appeal to the heart than woman?”
